Spes Magna Games

Just a quick update today!

Issue 3 of Quid Novi? is in the final editing stage. It will go out as scheduled in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, January 10. Issue 3 includes:

* Making History: Lost in the Wilderness – Read all about Rene Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle. Marvel at his semi-competence that ultimately leads to his murder at the hands of his own men in East Texas. Enterprising DMs can take the broad strokes of La Salle’s misadventures to create their own games of exploration, intrigue, and dysentery.

* Recommended Reading: Shameless Self-Promotion – It’s all about me as a I briefly highlight three places on the Internet where you can find literally hundreds of creatures and NPCs lovingly crafted for three systems: 3.5, Mutants & Masterminds, and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

* Fencing & Firearms Debut – Quid Novi? subscribers will receive a link from which they can download a zipped copy of Fencing & Firearms.

In other news, I’ve spoken with Ron Sterlekar, Director of Development for Mission of Yahweh. It’s official! Mission of Yawheh will receive 50% of sales from The Mad Monk’s Revenge, a convention-style module highlighting the Spes Magna way of gaming that goes on sale in March 2010.

It’s looking like everything is on-track for the release of our first for-sale product, a one-shot adventure entitled The Mad Monk’s Revenge. It’s too early to say for sure what the cost will be, but Quid Novi? subscribers will be able to purchase TMMR with at least a 25% discount.

I’m also trying to coordinate with Mission of Yahweh, a Houston-area shelter that specializes in helping homeless women and children. In these less-than-robust economic times, Mission of Yahweh is seeing an increase in people seeking their help without a corresponding increase in resources. We here at Spes Magna Games want to help out by donating at least 50% of TMMR sales toward renovating one of the mission’s buildings that is currently not up to code and consequently unusable as a dormitory.

Issue III of Quid Novi? is taking shape. We’re also working on the most recent round of Fencing & Firearms edits. F&F is scheduled for release to Quid Novi? subscribers this coming Sunday. There’s a lot to get done before Friday since I’m going to be out of the loop at a men’s retreat Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. This ought not be a problem for Quid Novi? subscribers, however. As long as everything’s typed and in the queue, the automailer will handle delivery while I’m enjoying some much needed peace and quiet.

Finally, it’s time for another reminder that Quid Novi? accepts subscriber submissions for any of the newsletter’s regular features. We can’t pay you for your submissions, but we’re more than happy to give credit where credit is due.

It’s something every candidate promises to do, but most of them are lying. Just about everything costs more because of taxes. Is it too much to ask that game systems not include taxes as well?

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking. “What on Oerth are you talking about?”

I’m talking about skill and feat taxes built into the 3.5 system. These taxes require you the player to purchase certain skills or have certain feats to do neat things. To a certain extent, this is unavoidable (much like real taxes). After all, the 3.5 system isn’t free-form. It provides mechanics to quantify and resolve character actions for a variety of tasks. On the other hand, the system itself seems to spawn new taxes. Let’s look at one example.

Improved Feint lets your PC feint in combat as a move action for the cost of two feats (including the prerequisite). Unless your character is human or a fighter, this feat is unavailable at 1st-level. Is the ability to feint as a move action really something that ought to cost two feats (and, for many characters, require your PC to be at least 3rd level)?

I don’t think so. I think characters should be able to do more for less. This is part of the reason why I’ve written Fencing & Firearms to include universal feats and to give you more bang for your BAB. It’s also why I’m borrowing some OGL from True20 and implementing these modifications to the way skills work.

Calculated Risk
You can take a calculated risk on one check to make a follow-up check easier. You accept a -5 penalty (or +5 DC bonus) to the first check in exchange for a +5 bonus (or -5 DC penalty) to the second check. The two checks must be related and the first, penalized check cannot be a check on which you take 20.

For example, a character faces a difficult climb. He uses Search to look for handholds along the climb route, taking a -5 penalty against the DC set by the DM. If successful, he finds a suitable route and gets a +5 bonus on a Climb check.

Or, another example: The party is split up by a chasm and are fighting orcs on both sides. The wizard has been cornered on the other side of the chasm from the rogue. The fighter accepts a -5 penalty on his Acrobatics check to move through one orc’s space in order to get a +5 bonus on the check to leap across the chasm to help the wizard.

Calculated risks require some narrative imagination and common sense adjudication by the DM.

Fast Task
You reduce the time needed to complete the check by accepting a -5 penalty to check or a +5 bonus to the check’s DC. If the check is normally a full-round action, it becomes a standard action. An standard action becomes a move action, while a move action becomes a free action. For checks requiring time in rounds, minutes, or longer, reduce the time needed by 25 percent per -5/+5 modifier, to a maximum 75% reduction.

For example, using Bluff to feint in combat is usually a standard action. A character could accept a -5 penalty to his check in order to feint as a move action.

Or, another example: Opening a lock is normally a full-round action. If the rogue is in a hurry, he can use fast task to use Disable Device to pick the lock as a standard action. Of course, he first wants to search for traps, normally a move action. Using fast task, he can use Perception to look for traps as a free action.

Simultaneous Tasks
You can accept a challenge in order to perform two checks simultaneously. To attempt simultaneous checks, make the challenge check, followed by a second check using the same or a different trait. Your secondary check suffers a –10 penalty or a +10 increase in Difficulty. The combined task requires the same time as the longest normal task, so if both tasks require a standard action, you accomplish the simultaneous use in a single standard action rather than two.

For example, a character being grappled by ogre can use simultaneous tasks to use Escape Artist to get out of the grapple and then use Bluff to create a distraction. Both actions take a single standard action to accomplish.

These sorts of changes to the game accomplish two goals important to Spes Magna Games. First, these changes maintain compatibility. We’re not completely re-inventing the wheel. Fencing & Firearms can be used with 3.5 and Pathfinder. Second, these changes give players more options without imposing a tax on skill points and feats.

Well, I wasn’t quite sure what direction we wanted to go, but I’ve decided that Spes Magna Games will produce Pathfinder-compatible products. We don’t have anything for sale…yet. Instead, our first product, Rewarding Roleplaying, is provided as a bonus to everyone who subscribes to our Quid Novi? newsletter. Our second product, Fencing & Firearms, should be available for download by Quid Novi? subscribers on January 10, 2010.

Here’s the stat block for a standard 3.5 orc:

Orc, 1st–level warrior: CR 1/2; LA +0; Medium humanoid; HD 1d8+1; hp 5; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 13 (+3 armor), touch 10, flat-footed 13; Base Atk +1; Grp +4; Atk Falchion +4 melee (2d4+4/18–20) or javelin +1 ranged (1d6+3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity; AL CE; SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will –2; Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 7, Cha 6.
Languages: The language an orc speaks varies slightly from tribe to tribe, but any orc is understandable by someone else who speaks Orc. Some orcs know Goblin or Giant as well.
Skills and Feats: Listen +1, Spot +1; Alertness.
Possessions: Falchion, studded leather, javelin.

When converting our orc to Fencing & Firearms, these are the areas that need to be addressed:

* AC: Armor works differently in F&F. It has a lower armor bonus, but converts lethal to nonlethal damage. Also, BAB adds to AC.
* Grp: F&F uses a combat maneuver system. The orc gets two new stats as a result.
* Atk: The attack bonus is changed to a DC.
* Fort, Ref, Will: These are changed to DCs.

Here’s the adjusted orc (the changes are in bold):

Orc, 1st–level warrior: CR 1/2; LA +0; Medium humanoid; HD 1d8+1; hp 5; Init +0; Spd 30 ft.; AC 13 (+1 BAB, +2 armor), touch 11, flat-footed 12; L2N 3 points; Base Atk +1; CMS 15, CMAC 14; Atk Falchion 15 melee (2d4+4/18–20) or javelin 11 ranged (1d6+3); Full Atk (same); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft.; SA —; SQ darkvision 60 ft., light sensitivity; AL CE; SV Fort 14, Ref 11, Will 9; Str 17, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 7, Cha 6.
Languages: The language an orc speaks varies slightly from tribe to tribe, but any orc is understandable by someone else who speaks Orc. Some orcs know Goblin or Giant as well.
Skills and Feats: Listen +1, Spot +1; Alertness.
Possessions: Falchion, studded leather, javelin.

Let’s examine these changes:

* AC: The orc’s BAB is added. This counts as a dodge bonus. In F&F, studded leather provides a +2 armor bonus.
* L2N: Studded leather also converts 3 points of lethal damage to nonlethal damage. This might seem like extra bookkeeping for the DM, but it isn’t. When running F&F fights, I don’t track nonlethal damage for most foes. Instead, I adjudicate on-the-fly whether the foe is dead, dying, or just unconscious once its hit points are gone.
* CMS: This is the orc’s combat maneuver score. If the orc attempts a combat maneuver against a PC (such as a bull rush), the orc’s CMS is the DC the player must equal or beat using his PC’s combat maneuver defense bonus to resist the maneuver.
* CMAC: This is the orc’s combat maneuver AC. It is the DC a player must equal or beat to affect the orc with a combat maneuver used by the player’s PC.
* Atk: Each attack has an attack score. When the orc attacks a PC, the player makes a defense check. If he equals or exceeds the orc’s attack score, the attack fails.
* SV: Each saving throw is a DC. When using a spell that permits a saving throw against the orc, the player must make a magic check against the appropriate saving throw score. If the player equals or exceeds the score, the spell takes affect.

So, you ask, how long did it take to convert the standard orc to an F&F orc? Well, it took me about two minutes including the time to add the bold-face formatting codes. For my face-to-face group, I converted all of the monsters on the first level of The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho in about 15 minutes, including the time it took to type up a quick reference table that summarized the changes on one easy-to-use page.

 Any questions?