Spes Magna Games

(Which I wrote for Game Geek 13)

I remember when the 3.0 version of the d20 System hit the streets. I had been RPGing since the late 70s, and had only reluctantly moved from 1E to 2E circa 1990. Even then, I only made the change because the group of gamers that took me in when I was transferred to Hawaii was already playing 2E. For me, a good group of gamers was more important than the system. After leaving the military, I returned to Houston and picked up gaming with old friends who’d not left town. By this time, they’d all moved to 2E as well, so that’s what we kept playing.

I kept up with the Internet buzz about 3E. Not much of what I read seemed to merit investing time and money in the new system. For example, one of the supposed major improvements was replacing THAC0 with BAB. This really isn’t an improvement, however; it’s more like clever sleight of hand. BAB is just THAC0 with the math changed from subtraction to addition. I’d been using THAC0 as BAB since the mid 80s while playing 1E at Fort Bragg. More importantly, no one in my gaming group seemed interested in 3E, so why bother? The group, after all, is the thing; the game is secondary.

Then Fred decided to check out 3E. He bought the PH and fell in love. We were close to finishing up a 2E campaign, and Fred announced he wanted to run 3E. He insisted we’d all love it as much as he did. So, we made up PCs and went adventuring in a certain sunless citadel. We had fun, not really because 3E represented such a major improvement in game design, but rather because we were still that same group of friends gaming together just like we’d been doing since the late 70s.

That original gaming group is gone. In fact, I’m the only one left. Fred passed away. Others moved. The fundamental rule for me, however, hasn’t changed: The group is what’s important. I’d rather play a bad game system with people I like than a great game system with people I don’t care for.

I still try to keep up with gaming news. My reaction to 4E mirrors my initial reaction to 3E: Why bother? No one in my current group plays 4E, nor do they express any desire to. 3E’s flaws aren’t what persuaded me to eventually make the move to Pathfinder. It stands to reason those same flaws aren’t going to push me toward 4E either. After all, a game system’s flaws tend to be overwhelmingly matters of taste rather than matters of fact.

One of Pathfinder‘s widely maligned flaws is that the system did nothing to get rid of the dreaded Christmas Tree Effect. The gist of the CTE is that as PCs advance in level their equipment becomes more important than the PCs’ respective character classes. CTE critics often make three related claims:

(1) Without “level appropriate” equipment, encounters become too difficult. Attack bonuses, armor classes, saving throws, et cetera, can’t compete with more powerful creatures and effects.

(2) Without “level appropriate” equipment, the game skews even more heavily in favor of spellcasters, especially whichever one the objector feels is already the most powerful.

(3) Because of these first two claims, one cannot run a low-magic game with Pathfinder (or 3.0E or 3.5E) without a major rewrite of the rules.

Whenever I read these sorts of claims, I feel as if I’ve been stuck in some strange alternate universe where the games I play in aren’t what the game is really like. I’ve run low-magic without major rules rewrites. So have, I surmise, others. In the interest of helping gamers who might want to give low-magic gaming a try, here’re my helpful suggestions.

Replace Gear with Action Points

According to the “no low-magic” crowd, the Big Six magic items are hard-wired into the game system. Take them out, and the system falls apart, PCs die like mayflies, dogs and cats cohabitat, et cetera. The Big Six magic items are weapons, armors/shields, rings of protection, cloaks of resistance, amulets of natural armor, and ability-score boosters

The effects of these items can be replaced by Action Points. I use an Action Point system for my current low-magic campaign, and it works like a charm. (This system is described in my Rewarding Roleplaying PDF available at DriveThruRPG and at Paizo.com.) Here’s a quick and free system.

Each PC gets six Action Points per game session. A single Action Point can be spent as an immediate action even when flat-footed to gain one of the following for the duration of an encounter:

* A +1 enhancement bonus to weapon attack and damage rolls for every four character levels. This enhancement bonus counts as magic for purposes of overcoming DR.
* A +1 enhancement bonus to AC for every four character levels.
* A +1 deflection bonus to AC for every four character levels.
* A +1 resistance bonus to saving throws for every four character levels.
* A +2 enhancement bonus to one ability score for every five character levels.

The minimum bonus is +1, except for ability score bonuses, in which case the minimum bonus is +2. Using this down-and-dirty system, a PC can gain some pretty nice bonuses from round-to-round, gradually increasing in power in desired ways during the course of an encounter.

Also Do What I Do

Remember at the beginning of this article? How it seemed like I was just blathering about why I changed from one system to another? Well, there was a point to that blather, namely this: The group — not the game system — is what’s important.

So many problems with gaming groups could be avoided if people would remember that the highest purpose of any game is to have fun with friends. Everyone in a gaming group should play the game in such a way as to maximize everyone else’s fun. What that fun looks like will vary from group to group, and that’s okay.

How does this relate to low-magic gaming? Simple. If everyone agrees that abandoning most or all of the Big Six, for example, will be fun, and that the group will work together to make the game work, what more is needed? This is true no matter what the game system or style of play.

Tags: Game Geek, low-magic

(First published in Game Geek 10)

Let’s eavesdrop on a depressingly common Internet conversation:

First DM: My player’s PC has such-and-such class feature that is broken. What should I do?
Second DM: Just design your scenarios so that he can’t use the class feature. Problem solved.

Sound familiar? If so, and you’re a player, pass this article to the offending DM. If you are the offending DM, then pay careful attention, because the advice below might just keep your players from killing you and taking your stuff.

Favored Enemy, or How to Avoid Encountering Certain Creatures Ever Again

Let’s focus on one specific class feature: the ranger’s favored enemy. This class feature is frequently maligned because its bonuses are situational. Either you’re facing your ranger’s favored enemy and get the bonuses, or else you aren’t and you don’t. The DM gets to decide when your ranger gets to benefit from one of his defining class features.

Too often, a ranger’s favored enemies are much more like a list of creatures that the party won’t ever encounter. Take favored enemy (undead) at 1st-level, and you’ll never encounter an undead monster. Instead, orcs regularly mob the adventurers. Your ranger reaches 5th level and takes favored enemy (orc). From that point on, orcs are scarcer than hen’s teeth. Et cetera, ad nauseum.

“Well,” says the DM, “orcs and undead just aren’t challenging because you get so many bonuses against them. My job as DM is make sure the adventures are challenging.”

The best initial response to this is a sneer. As William Paley asked, “Who can refute a sneer?” After that, you can point out a few uncomfortable truths, starting with the one immediately below.

Class Features Aren’t Broken; You’re DMing Skills Are

This applies almost no matter what the class features. There is almost always no good reason to nix characters’ abilities. If you’re running a murder investigation, it’s bad form to rule that divination spells don’t work. Yes, that single speak with dead could very well bring the investigation to a quick end. So be it. In a similar vein, when the party tracks down the evil murderer, it’d be equally bad form for the paladin’s smite evil power to not work against him.

Characters’ abilities, feats, class features, et cetera, are the tools the players get to use to overcome the challenges the DM presents. Your players chose to play the characters they’re playing because they want to use those tools. That means that you’re not allowed to take those tools away without a very good and rare reason.

Most of the time, your players should count on getting to use those tools. Back to our ranger whose favored enemies are orcs and the undead. If that ranger isn’t encountering orcs and/or undead at least 50% of the time, then you need to stop and examine the adventures your running. Your ranger’s player deserves the opportunity to roleplay his ranger’s orc/undead-hate and to enjoy the bonuses the character gets against orcs and undead.

Letting the Characters Shine

Next time you’re prepping for your game, take stock of your players’ characters. What are those characters’ strengths in terms of feats, class features, skills, and so forth? Jot down at least one strength per character. Then, include some way for each character to revel in their respective strengths during the adventure. Pretend you’ve done what I just advised you to do, and this is what you came up with:

The Ranger: Favored enemy (undead).
The Wizard: Maxed out ranks in Linguistics.
The Cleric: Maxed out ranks in Knowledge (religion).
The Rogue: Just acquired slippers of spider climbing.

Here’re some sample challenges:

The Ranger: The BBEG is protected by a platoon of plague zombies.
The Wizard: The BBEG and its minions communicate via an ancient dialect of the Dark Tongue.
The Cleric: The BBEG and its minions are engaged in a complicated demon-summoning ritual.
The Rogue: The BBEG occupies a floating dais closer to the ceiling than the floor.

During the final battle against the BBEG, the ranger gets to have a field day mowing through the plague zombies. The wizard gets to make Linguistic checks to accurately understand the BBEG’s orders to its minions. The cleric not only gets to channel positive energy, but her keen insights provide the best way to disrupt the demon-summoning ritual. The rogue can most easily get to the floating dais. Everyone gets to use a character feature to contribute to the BBEG’s demise.

But Shouldn’t I Negate Characters’ Abilities at Least Some Time?

Yes, especially when dealing with intelligent enemies who’re expecting the sort of trouble the characters provide. The trick is to make the negation both reasonable and a challenge in itself.

For example, an undead BBEG who knows it’s being hunted by an undead-slaying ranger might recruit non-undead minions. If it’s sufficiently powerful, it might also be worried about enemies who can scry and teleport. There are reasonable defenses against both of these capabilities as well.

What is bad form, however, is to design adventures that negate character abilities in such a way as to railroad the players. Negating character abilities should paradoxically lead to greater variety in player tactics as those players seek ways to overcome the challenges presented by not being able to rely on their full arsenal.

Consider the undead BBEG again. It knows that it’s likely to face adventurers capable of teleporting. Not wanting enemies to show up at will in its lair, it employs an 11th-level cleric to ward key areas with forbiddance. Discovering the area is warded isn’t too difficult. Adventurers just need to try (and fail) to teleport into the lair. After this discovery, what choices do the characters have?

Well, they can just lump it and fight their way in the hard way. Or, better yet, they can discover that the BBEG’s cleric spends time away from the lair. This gives the characters the chance to nab the cleric and discover the password that permits them to enter the warded area without damage. Also, the characters might coerce the cleric into revealing that there is an area not warded against teleport within the lair proper. The BBEG uses this secret area for its own movement via planar means. Thus, after a side adventure, the characters have not only earned more experience, they’ve defeated one of the BBEG’s key minions and discovered a possible means of taking the BBEG by surprise.

Best of all, the ranger still gets to unleash his undead-slaying prowess.

Tags: adventure design, Game Geek

Mystery obscures Lumusi’s origins. Through some ancient ritual, an entire rat swarm became awakened. This in itself wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, but Lumusi possesses an evil disposition and a desire to inflict loss on others. It lurks in the hidden places of urban areas and farming communities. From its lair, it stealths out under cover of night to wreak havoc. It uses its spells to charm animals and vermin (thanks to its Vermin Heart feat), damage crops and property, and cause sickness and death.

Lumusi the Crawling Horde
Awakened rat swarm blight druid 9
CR 10; XP 9,600
NE Tiny magical beast (augmented animal, swarm)
Init +9; Senses low-light vision, scent; Perception +20
Aura forgetfulness (30-ft. radius, Will DC 19, 9 rounds/day)

DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 12 (+3 Dex, +2 size)
hp 94 (14d8+28)
Fort +12, Ref +10, Will +12
Defensive Abilities swarm traits (as a swarm of tiny creatures, a rat swarm takes only half damage from piercing and slashing attacks); Immune disease, nauseated condition, sickened condition

OFFENSE
Speed 15 ft., climb 15 ft., swim 15 ft.
Melee swarm (1d6 plus disease)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks disease (Fort DC 16), distraction (Fort DC 16), miasma (Fort DC 19)
Druid Spells Prepared (CL 9th):
5th (2+1)- cure critical wounds, enervation*, flame strike (Elemental Spell, Heighten Spell) (Ref DC 20)
4th (3+1)- cure serious wounds, dispel magic, hurricane blast (Heighten Spell) (Ref DC 20), shadow conjuration*
3rd (4+1)- burning gaze (Elemental Spell, Heighten Spell) (Fort DC 18), cure moderate wounds, deeper darkness*, protection from energy, sleet storm
2nd (5+1)- barkskin, blindness/deafness* (Fort DC 17) (blindness only), elemental speech, glide, pox pustules (Fort DC 17), wood shape
1st (6+1)- charm animal (Will DC 16), cure light wounds (x2), entangle (Ref DC 16), longstrider, obscuring mist*, touch of the sea
0 (4)- create water, detect magic, read magic, resistance
*Domain Spells
Nature Bond Subdomain Loss

STATISTICS
Str 2, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 9
Base Atk +9; CMB –; CMD —
Feats Ability Focus (disease, distraction), Aspect of the Beast (wild instinct), Blind-Fight (B), Elemental Spell (cold), Heighten Spell, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Skill Focus (Perception), Vermin Heart
Skills Acrobatics +7, Climb +24, Knowledge (nature) +5, Perception +20, Stealth +15, Survival +21, Swim +16 (+24 to perform a special action or avoid a hazard); Racial Modifiers +8 Climb, +8 on Swim checks to perform a special action or avoid a hazard, uses Dex to modify Climb and Swim
Languages Common, Druidic
SQ nature sense, vermin empathy +8, wild shape 3/day, woodland stride

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Forgetfulness (Su): Lumusi can emit a 30-foot aura of forgetfulness for 9 rounds per day. These rounds do not need to be consecutive. Creatures you target in this area must make a DC 19 Will save or have no memory of any time spent inside the area. In addition, spellcasters in the area lose one prepared spell or available spell slot per round spent in the area, starting with 1st-level spells and going up through higher-level spells. Spellcasters are allowed a save each round to negate this loss (this save is separate from the memory loss save).

Disease (Ex): Filth fever; injury; save Fort DC 16; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Distraction (Ex): Lumusi can nauseate the creatures that it damages. Any living creature that takes damage from a creature with the distraction ability is nauseated for 1 round; a Fortitude save negates the effect.

Miasma (Ex): If Lumusi is adjacent to a creature at the beginning of its turn, the creature must succeed at a DC 19 Fortitude save become sickened for 1 round. A creature of the animal, fey, or plant type that fails its save is nauseated for 1 round and sickened for 1 minute thereafter. If the creature makes its save, it is immune to this effect for 24 hours, as are creatures immune to disease.

Touch of Darkness (Sp): As a melee touch attack, Lumusi can cause a creature’s vision to be fraught with shadows and darkness. The creature touched treats all other creatures as if they had concealment, suffering a 20% miss chance on all attack rolls. This effect lasts for 5 rounds. Lumusi can use this ability 8 times per day equal.

Vermin Empathy (Su): Lumusi can improve the attitude of vermin as a normal druid can with animals. Vermin have a starting attitude of unfriendly. Lumusi can also improve the attitude of animals and mindless undead creatures that were formerly animals, but it takes a -4 penalty on the check unless the animal or undead has a disease special attack.

Wild Shape (Su): Lumusi has the ability to turn itself into any Diminutive, Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, or Huge animal and back again. This ability functions like the beast shape III spell, except as noted here. Lumusi can also assume the form of a Small or Medium elemental as if using elemental body II. Furthermore, it can take the form of a Small or Medium plant creature as if using plant shape I.

Lumusi loses its ability to speak while in animal form because it is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but it can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as its new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.) The effect lasts for 9 hours, or until Lumusi changes back. Changing form is a standard action and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity.

NOTE
Due to Lumusi’s unusual nature, it has no equipment. As a result, its CR is 1 lower than expected.

Tags: Pathfinder monsters, rat swarm

Since A Medieval Holiday is done and selling well at Paizo.com and at DriveThruRPG, I’ve been working my next PDF: Masters of Disguise. This new PDF’s main feature is the masque, a base class focused on deceit and disguise with four levels of spells. I’ve sent version 2 to my playtesters and received even more insightful feedback. I’m certain the masque is going to be an excellent base class once all the fine-tuning is completed.

But the masque isn’t all there will be. Masters of Disguise will also include useful crunch such as:

* Expanded uses for Diplomacy, Disguise, Linguistics, and Use Magic Device.
* More feats.
* More rogue talents.
* Equipment, both mundane and magic.
* A shapechanger bloodline for sorcerers.
* A disguise subdomain for clerics.
* And more!

Here’s an excerpt of the expanded rules for Diplomacy:

Diplomacy
Diplomacy serves many functions. A diplomatic character can help disarm conflicts and schmooze his way through potentially tricky situations. He can also keep abreast of the what’s going, using his gift of gab to gather useful information. But what if the character wants to put out bogus intelligence in order to mislead others?

Check: If you want to mislead those who trying to gather information about you, your Diplomacy check is opposed by your foe’s Diplomacy check. If you succeed, you misdirect your foe’s inquiries. This is typically an ongoing process with new opposed checks required each day.

You can also use Diplomacy for rumor-mongering in order to spread false information. This can make it more difficult for someone to interact favorably with other NPCs, applying penalties to their Charisma checks or other social skills. In order to rumor-monger, make a Diplomacy check opposed by the NPC’s Sense Motive check. If you succeed, the target of your rumor-mongering suffers a -2 penalty on interaction checks with that NPC for the next week.

Action: Using Diplomacy to mislead an information gatherer requires 1d4 hours of work, sowing bogus intelligence to informers. Rumor-mongering requires 1 minute of continuous interaction.

Try Again: You can retry Diplomacy checks made to spread false information and rumor-monger.

Special: Feats, spells, et cetera that modify Diplomacy apply to misleading and rumor-mongering attempts.

Masters of Disguise should be available in January 2011.

A column I wrote for Game Geek 9:

Have you watched TV lately? If so, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that in media res is all the rage. For example, check out any episode of The Good Guys on Hulu. The beginning of each episode isn’t necessarily the beginning of the story. It’s usually nearer the end of the plot, and most of the episode takes you back to the events as they unfolded leading up to the opening scene.

In media res hooks the viewer right away. It sets up an exciting situation to generate interest in what led up to that point in time. I am compelled to watch the entire episode of The Good Guys because I want to find out how Jack and Dan are going to survive the exploding dynamite while pinned down by enemy gunfire inside the storage container.

Just as in media res hooks the viewer, it can also hook the player when used in an adventure. Care must be exercised, however. The type of in media res used in many television shows, for example, often won’t work in an RPG scenario. This is because most of the episode is an extended flashback, and flashbacks in an adventure can be railroad tracks that rob players of meaningful choices.

For an example of in media res that would work in an adventure, consider the classic Thundarr the Barbarian episode “The Prophecy of Peril”. At the beginning of this episode, Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla engage in a pitched battle against the wizard Vashtar’s hench-robots. Our heroes have stolen a magical gem from Vashtar and are trying to escape his citadel. Thanks to some timely exposition from Vashtar, we learn that the gem holds the secret to defeating him, and that this is why Thundarr and company have taken the gem. Thundarr, Ariel, and Ookla escape Vashtar, and then the trio spend the rest of the episode acting on the plot hook the gem represents.

This is a type of in media res that can work in an RPG scenario. Let’s break the idea down into some necessary components.

The Ultimate Goal

Every adventure has some sort of terminal objective. The PCs have a goal they wish to reach. They want to reveal the prince as a traitor. They seek the fabled tome of knowledge. The stars are ready to align and unleash the Old Ones unless the Elder Sign is affixed to some dread portal. When designing an in media res adventure, determine the ultimate goal and at least one step crucial to meeting it that can be combined with an action scene. Here’re some examples expanding on the previous three sample ultimate goals.

Reveal the Traitor: The PCs start the adventure in shackles in the rolling brig of a galley bound for an infamous slave port. Fortunately, one PC has a handy means of escape, such as a hidden lockpick. The PCs must free themselves, overcome the villains on the galley, and return to civilization.

Find the Tome of Knowledge: The PCs have just recovered a piece of an ancient map leading to the lost ruins in which the tome lies hidden. Unfortunately, their exit has just been detected by the feral man-apes that guard the map’s location.

Stop the Old Ones: The PCs sit in a stately study about to meet a famed scholar who can help them learn the location of the Elder Sign. The scholar enters the study when deranged cultists burst in through the skylights.

Exposition

After the initial conflict is resolved, it’s time to fill in the players. The exposition portion is the PC background material that happened “off-camera” and led up to the opening conflict. It should include all of the information the PCs would have reasonably had that led them to the precarious position in which they just found themselves. For example:

Reveal the Traitor: The PCs had been on their way to meet a lady-in-waiting believed to have evidence of the prince’s perfidy. When the PCs arrived at the rendezvous in the upstairs private room of an inn, they found not the lady, but an ambush by a press gang. The PCs were overpowered and woke up in the hold of a slave galley. The PCs must act quickly. The lady said she had evidence that the prince planned to imprison his recently deceased brother’s heirs as the first step to seizing the throne.

Find the Tome of Knowledge: The PCs were hired by the Golden Key Scholars to retrieve the tome of knowledge. A fell plague sweeps the land, caused by some evil sorcery. The tome of knowledge holds the secrets to stopping the plague. The PCs were given one piece of an ancient map that led them to a ruined library deep in feral man-ape territory. Now with the second map piece, the PCs have learned the last known resting place of the tome.

Stop the Old Ones: The PCs recently rescued a maiden from the clutches of sinister cultists. Evidence on site revealed that the cultists were part of a larger group seeking to unleash an unspeakable evil. One of the PCs knew the famed scholar by reputation, and the heroes sought his advice. Once the PCs defeat the attackers, the meeting with the famed scholar can go on as planned, assuming the scholar lives.

Conflict & Resolution

Here’s where you run the bulk of the adventure just like you normally would. The PCs already have their plot hook and adventure background. Build on the events, villains, and hints contained in the opening scene and the exposition.

This sort of in media res technique works with nearly any type of campaign. Whether you’re running an epic adventure path, a one-shot module, or the ultimate sandbox, you can adjust your scenarios so that they start with an action scene.

Tags: adventure design, Game Geek