Spes Magna Games

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and all that. Things’re going to slow down a bit here until after December 27, but that doesn’t mean nothing’s happening.

Quid Novi?, Issue 2, is ready to go, and it is sitting in the automailer’s queue. While I’m out of town this weekend with family, the Internet will work it’s magic and deliver the newsletter to subscriber in-boxes on-schedule. Which reminds me: If you’re not a Quid Novi? subscriber, you should be. Subscribers get the newsletter, bonus material, and (once we go live with our sales) they’ll get a subscriber discount as well.

Fencing & Firearms is just about done. It should be available for subscriber download early January 2010.

Spes Magna Games is hitting the convention circuit (as long as it doesn’t involve leaving town). There will be Spes Magna events at Con-Jour in late January and at OwlCon in early February. If you’re in Houston, stop by and say, “Salve!”

Fencing & Firearms aims to give characters more options in combat without imposing a skill tax or feat tax. F&F effectively makes certain feats available to everyone. Here’s one section from the rules that explains what this post is talking about:

Expanding BAB
Every character has a Base Attack Bonus, or BAB. F&F expands the uses for BAB two ways. First, BAB is added to your Armor Class as a dodge bonus. BAB reflects a character’s general skill in combat This includes not only the ability to land a blow, but also the ability parry and dodge attacks. Furthermore, a character’s BAB affords a certain amount of flexibility in combat from round-to-round as well.

Each round on his turn, a character can “shift” his up to his BAB to provide a bonus to a specific facet of combat. The same value is applied as a penalty to another facet. This bonus/penalty combinations lasts until the beginning of the character’s next turn. A character can apply up to his BAB as a bonus to attack rolls, to damage rolls (for attacks that require an attack roll), or to AC (as a dodge bonus). He must apply the same value as a penalty to one of the two other facets.

For example, Horace Berkeley has a +1 BAB. He’s facing three goblins in melee combat. Being outnumbered, he decides to fight cautiously. Horace adds +1 to his AC and applies a -1 penalty to his attack rolls. These modifiers remain in play until the beginning of his next, at which time Horace can keep them or change them as desired. A few rounds later, Horace has defeated two of the goblins. He goes on the offensive, applying a +1 bonus to his attack rolls and a -1 penalty to his AC.

This variable use of BAB in combat replaces the Combat Expertise and Power Attack as feats. These two feats are simply removed from play. Feats for which they are prerequisites are treated as if they have one fewer prerequisites. Thus, a character qualifies for Improved Bull Rush as long as he has at least a 13 Strength.

Universal Feats
Universal feats are feats that all characters gain. These feats give characters a greater range of options in combat. Two universal feats have a prerequisite. Characters gain these universal feats automatically once the prerequisite is met.

Aid Attack [Universal]
You may assist another character’s attack on his turn.
Benefit: If you’re in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can aid your friend as an immediate action. Before your friend makes his attack, announce your intention to use Aid Attack. Your friend gains a +2 bonus on his attack roll. Multiple characters can aid the same friend, and the bonuses stack.

Aid Defense [Universal]
You may assist another character’s defense.
Benefit: If you’re in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat, you can aid your friend as an immediate action. On the opponent’s turn, before he makes his melee attack roll against your friend, announce your intention to use Aid Defense. Your friend gains a +2 bonus to his AC against that attack. Multiple characters can aid the same friend, and the bonuses stack.

Cleaving Strike [Universal]
You lash out again after dropping a foe.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: If you deal a creature enough damage to make it drop (typically by dropping it to below 0 hit points or killing it), you get an immediate, extra melee attack against another creature within reach. You cannot take a 5-foot step before making this extra attack. The extra attack is with the same weapon and at the same bonus as the attack that dropped the previous creature. You can use this ability once per round. This universal feat replaces Cleave. It counts as Cleave for purposes of meeting prerequisites of other feats.

Fight with Anything [Universal]
You are skilled in wielding any weapon.
Prerequisite: Base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: Reduce the attack roll penalty you face for nonproficiency by your base attack bonus. This applies to all weapons, including exotic weapons and improvised weapons. This feat never confers a bonus to attack roll penalty. For example, if your BAB is +5, you do not suffer an attack roll penalty with any weapon due to nonproficiency, but you do not also get a +1 attack roll bonus.
Special: Once you have a +4 BAB, you are considered proficient with all weapons for the purposes of acquiring other feats. Improvised weapons (melee) and improvised weapons (ranged) count as separate weapons for this purpose.

One widely perceived problem with 3.5E combat is the drag on play created by PCs with iterative attacks. This comes beyond just the extra die rolls to determine attack success. Iterative attacks also had variable attack bonuses. I’ve seen more than one player with a mid- to high-level character have to break out a matrix to figure out his PC’s various attack bonuses. Fencing & Firearms uses OGC from Trailblazer by Bad Axe Games to help solve this problem. Here’s how it works:

If you get more than one attack per round because your base attack bonus is high enough, because you fight with two weapons or a double weapon or for some special reason you must use a full-round action to get your additional attacks.

Base Attack Bonus
If your base attack bonus is +6 or higher, you can make two attacks per round with a full attack:

* When your BAB equals +6, you get a second attack, but both attacks suffer a -2 penalty instead of 0/-5).
* When your BAB equals +11, the penalty drops to -1/-1 (instead of 0/-5/-10).
* When your BAB equals +16, the penalty drops to -0/-0 (instead of 0/-5/-10/-20).

Another perceived weakness is that saving throw DCs don’t scale well, especially at mid- to high-level play. In other words, it gets increasingly easier to make saving throws against higher-level spells. F&F gives spellcasters something like a full-attack option when casting. Let’s take a look:

Cast a Spell
If your caster level is 6th or higher, you can use a full-round action to cast any spell that has a normal casting time of one standard action. Doing so increases either the spell’s save DC or to your caster level check to overcome spell resistance (your choice when casting the spell).

* If you caster level is 6th or higher, you gain either a +1 bonus to the save DC or your caster level to overcome spell resistance.
* If you caster level is 11th or higher, you gain either a +2 bonus to the save DC or your caster level to overcome spell resistance.
* If you caster level is 16th or higher, you gain either a +3 bonus to the save DC or your caster level to overcome spell resistance.

So, what do you think?

Over the next several days, we’re previewing features of our next PDF, Fencing & Firearms, which takes aim at 3.5E combat’s clunkier aspects. First up, a brief look at two of the most significant changes. After you read this post, leave us a comment or two.

The Big Change #1: No Attacks of Opportunity
Probably no feature of v 3.5 combat causes more confusion, delays, and metagaming than attacks of opportunity. Players and DMs alike forget what provokes and doesn’t provoke them. Attempting to avoid them leads to additional dice rolls from tumblers and spellcasters. The latter characters effectively get one fewer skill points per level since high ranks in Concentration are widely seen as necessary for survival. Battle-scarred fighters count squares to avoid reach rather than charging once more into the breach, and everyone’s movement on the battlemat looks too much like checkers trying not to get jumped.

F&F gets rid of attacks of opportunity. Nothing provokes them because they just don’t exist.

The Big Change #2: The Players Roll Their Own Fate
In many combats, players often have little control over the outcome of events when it isn’t their turn. This can lead to boredom if a player’s attention drifts between his turns, threatening to distance him from the outcome of events. Big Change #2 takes a lot of the work out of the DM’s hands by having the players make the monsters’ attack rolls, saving throws, or caster level checks to overcome spell resistance. That frees up the DM’s attention for more important things, such as NPC tactics, special spell effects, terrain, and the like.

Conversely, it requires the players to become much more active and aware of what’s going on. No longer can players snooze through all the turns but their own: They’ll be rolling more dice than ever before – which (among other benefits) gives them the feeling of having greater control over their successes and failures.

One of the key features of Rewarding Roleplaying is the meta, which is a goal important to a PC that is not identical with the main adventure’s goal. A player works with the DM to define his character’s current meta, and the DM works that meta into the game so that it can be resolved one way or another. A PC earns an Action Point for attempting to achieve his meta.

I’m currently working on The Mad Monk’s Revenge, a one-session adventure designed to introduce players to the world of Spes Magna Games. TMMR comes complete with six pre-generated PCs, and each PC has a meta. Whether the PC meets his meta is up in the air, but win or lose, the PC still gets an Action Point. TMMR is still a work in progress, but here’s what I’ve outlined for each PC’s meta:

* The rogue has been falsely accused of a crime and wants to clear his name.
* The wizard has a fear of heights and wants to prove that he’s better than his phobia.
* The fighter wants to win the hand of one of the princess’s ladies-in-waiting.
* The cleric knows there is a traitor in his church and wants to discover his identity.
* The bard suffered a humiliating defeat in a pun contest and wants to best the wit who beat him.
* The ranger wants to dance with the princess at her birthday banquet.

Sound like something you want to learn more about how to implement in your game? If so, subscribe to Quid Novi? today. Every subscriber gets the Rewarding Roleplaying PDF for the low cost of an e-mail address.

Speaking of Quid Novi?, Issue I went out without a hitch. (Or, if there were any hitches, we’ve yet to hear about them.) Issue II lands in subscriber in-boxes Sunday, December 27, 2009. About a week or so after that, the playtest version Fencing & Firearms, our retooling of 3.5E combat for faster and more cinematic fights, will be made available for download by Quid Novi? subscribers.