Spes Magna Games

Today’s musings about OSRIC, venture into strange territory. Let’s set up the first steps into this new land with some background.

Back in the day, Basic D&D and AD&D had rules that covered quite a lot of the in-game activity that characters might attempt. These rules covered topics as diverse as hiring mercenaries, exploring wilderness regions, building strongholds, and researching new spells. Some rules applied to specific characters. Can a thief move silently? Well, maybe, but there’s a defined percentage chance for that.

Can non-thieves move silently? Well, maybe, and here the rules get a little loosey-goosey. Elves and halflings can some of the time. What about fighter? Can he move silently? His choice of armor probably answers that question. Is he wearing plate mail? Then, nope, he’s not moving silently, but what does that mean? How noisy is he? One answer might be, “Not so noisy that he still can’t surprise most creatures on a 1 or a 2.” That’s a third of time, which is better than any 1st-level thief’s chance to move silently, and that doesn’t seem right, which shows that the answer doesn’t quite work.

1E AD&D has a secondary skills table in the Dungeon Masters Guide. Lord Korbok, my dwarf fighter/thief, was a teamster/freighter. What does that mean? If he’s loading or unloading a wagon, is there a die roll involved? Can he demand union wages for his labor? It would seem so because later the Dungeon Masters Guide shows that a teamster earns 5 silver pieces a day for his work, but what if the teamster is also a 9th-level fighter and a 12th-level thief? (Okay, that question is probably a bit silly.)

Questions such as these (and many others) didn’t have defined answers. These answers boiled down this: Whatever the DM says is the rule. Players could make suggestions, but the DM had the final say. Often when I’ve DMed, I deferred anywhere from in part to in whole to the players for these sorts of answers. In the process, the players help define the minutiae of the campaign world. I know other DMs have done the same sort of thing.

In short, no rule set can possibly account for every variable or answer every question.

Which brings me to the brilliant Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game (MHRG) published by Margaret Weis Productions. MHRG is about as different as 1E AD&D as a game can get. There are no secret dice rolls in MHRG. Everything occurs out in the open as part of a shared story, and both players and the GM can use their dice rolls to modify the game in some interesting ways. Two of those ways are the creation of assets and complications, which are kind of the opposite of each other.

An asset is created when a dice pool generates a total that succeeds against the target number. In 1E AD&D terms, this is like an attack roll. The successful action has an effect die (analogous to 1E AD&D’s damage roll). This effect die, however, may not represent damage. It may represent an asset or complication. Put most simply, an asset increases the odds of success for another action, and a complication decreases the odds of success for another action.

Let’s say I’m playing Captain America leading a team of heroes past a group of A.I.M. guards. Stealth is of the essence. As Captain America, I could rely on my Covert Expert specialty, but that doesn’t really help the other heroes, some of whom may not be particularly sneaky. So, I explain to the GM that I’m going study the guards’ patterns, analyzing their fields of vision and habits to find the best way to slip past their post without being noticed. I roll my dice pool and succeed. Let’s say my chosen effect die is a d8. This becomes an asset called Best Route d8, which can then be used to aid another hero’s attempt to be sneaky. (Nota Bene: If I spend a Plot Point, that asset becomes persistent, able to be used by more than one hero.)

A complication is an asset in reverse. Imagine that I’m playing Henry Pym as Ant-Man instead of Cap, and that the situation involves a fight with a giant, nigh-invulnerable robot. As Ant-Man, none of my attacks stand much of chance of damaging the robot. So, instead of fighting, I use a combination of shrinking and scientific expertise to get inside part of the robot. After criss-crossing a few wires and dislodging a transistor or two (represented by a successful dice pool roll), I create a Systems Malfunction complication (which would have an effect die attached to it).

All of this leads up to to the topic for my next blogpost: What if OSRIC had a simple but meaningful system to simulate this sort of narrative control?

Tags: 1E AD&D, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, OSRIC

Before heading once more unto the OSRIC, let’s detour a bit through 5E D&D. I’ve been DMing a 5E D&D game every other Sunday for several sessions. We started out with AD&D’s Slave Pits of the Undercity. I tweaked things a bit to fit our shared-DM world and to inject the horrid followers of Wastri the Hopping Prophet into the mix. I converted the AD&D module more or less on-the-fly. It proved to be a challenging scenario made lethal by a single foolish decision by one of the players.

As is my way, I turned the total-party-kill into a choice: your character can survive (but with consequences) or you can make up a new character (but with consequences). Three players kept their characters; the other two brought in new ones. The consequences? Starting out naked and equipmentless on a small lake island that served as the sacrificial place for a froghemoth. The heroes escaped the froghemoth after discovering a hidden stairwell leading deep into the island and the lake bed itself.

At this point, the heroes found themselves in Descent into the Depths of the Earth. Out of the frying pan, and all that. They faced drows, bugbears, gargoyles, a purple worm, a giant slug, and trolls. They befriended a group of flumphs. The heroes explored carefully, finding their way into what turned out to be the prison of a demon, which one of the heroes freed in exchange for its “blessing”. From the demon prison, the heroes discovered a path back to the surface.

Thus ended the most recent arc in a 5E D&D campaign that started with Against the Cult of the Reptile God run by Terry, our other DM. In short, we’ve been using AD&D material with 5E D&D for many months, and it’s worked like a charm. We’re probably switching DMs again for the next session, which will likely see us reverting to the the first group of heroes, those who saved Orlane and defeated the Reptile God’s cult.

And now a clumsy segue from 5E D&D into OSRIC territory.

Character advancement in 5E D&D moves quickly from 1st to 2nd to 3rd level. All 5E D&D classes use the same XP chart, and it takes 300 XP to reach 2nd level, 900 XP to reach 3rd level, and 2700 XP to reach 4th level. Put another way, a 5E D&D character reaches 2nd level after earning 1/9 of 4th-level XP and reaches 3rd level after earning 1/3 of 4th-level XP.

As both a player and DM, I prefer lower to mid levels, but I’m not a huge fan of 1st and 2nd levels. For me, the sweet spot in the game kicks in around 3rd level and lasts until about 9th, although I have enjoyed greatly both lower and higher level play. I like the way 5E D&D treats 1st-3rd levels as a sort of apprenticeship of sorts, moving the PCs along quickly before slowing the march toward 4th level.

So, what might this look like for OSRIC? Let’s compare the four main classes via the table below.

Using these modified numbers, PCs progress to 3rd level more quickly than normal, but the distinction between classes stays in place. The magic-user still needs more XP to gain a level than the thief does. After 3rd level, the old-school differentiation between each class’s level advancement would kick back in.

Tags: 5E D&D, OSRIC

In my most recent explorations of OSRIC, my thoughts turn toward house rules. There might be a game out there somewhere to which I’d not add house rules, but I’ve yet to read it. I at least tweak every RPG I play. Obviously, based on my previous OSRIC posts, I’ve already started thinking about ways to tweak OSRIC to make it more like the game I’d want to play. Here’re some more thoughts about ability scores and character classes.

Strength

Bonus to Hit & Damage: The “to hit” bonus also applies to thrown weapons. Furthermore, the “to hit” bonus modifies initiative in combat when using a thrown weapon. One-half the damage bonus from Strength applies to thrown weapons.

Percentile Strength: I’m fond of house rules that further differentiate fighters from paladins and rangers. I think the fighter should be the best fighter class when it comes to fighting. Paladins and rangers get other things. A paladin or ranger with an 18 Strength gets percentile Strength, but the d% roll is halved.

Dexterity

Missile Bonus to Hit: This applies to non-thrown missile weapons. One-half the “to hit” bonus applies to damage.

Constitution

Hit Point Bonus per Die: Hearkening back to my thoughts about fighters versus paladins and rangers, the exceptional HP bonus for a 17 or higher Constitution applies only to fighters. Paladins and rangers are limited to a +2 HP bonus per hit die.

Cleric

Weapons Permitted: A cleric whose deity has a favored weapon may gain proficiency with that weapon.

Spell Casting: A cleric never has to memorize a cure spell. Such spells may be cast without memorization, but these “spontaneous” spells do count against the number of spells a cleric can cast per day.

Druid

Spell Casting: A druid never has to memorize an animal spell. Such spells may be cast without memorization, but these “spontaneous” spells do count against the number of spells a druid can cast per day.

Fighter

Weapon Specialization: A fighter can choose to specialize in a weapon at any point during his career in which he has a weapon proficiency available to “spend” on this ability. A fighter’s weapon specialization is not limited to selection during character generation, and a fighter can specialize in more than one weapon. The same applies to double specialization, which is available only to fighters.

Illusionist & Magic-User

Spell Casting: When an illusionist or magic-user gains the ability to cast a new level of spells, he chooses one spell of a lower level that he already knows. He can cast that spell once per day without needing to memorize it. For example, an illusionist rises from 2nd level to 3rd level, thus gaining the ability to cast 2nd-level illusionist spells. He knows change self (a 1st-level spell) and chooses that it as the spell he can now cast once per day without having to memorize.

Paladin & Ranger

Weapon Specialization: Paladins and rangers may choose weapon specialization during character generation as per the normal rules. Neither class can double specialize with a weapon.

Thief

Thief Skills: At every level starting with 1st, roll 1d6. The result is the number of additional “percents” the thief has available to divvy up between his thief skills. Once the points have been assigned, they cannot be re-assigned. For example, Mike makes up a new thief character. He rolls 1d6 and gets a 5. Mike can add up to 5% to his character’s thief skills, dividing the amount as he sees fit. Mike decides to add all 5% to Find Traps.

Tags: OSRIC

While I am growing quite fond of OSRIC, and I remain quite fond of 1E AD&D, no game is perfect, even if the room for improvement amounts to little more than a preference for This rather than That. I didn’t start RPGs with AD&D. I started with the Basic D&D blue box, the rule book cover being depicted to the right.

In that version of D&D, humans were the only race that had a class. Humans could be cleric, fighters, magic-users, or thieves. On top of that, I could choose instead to be a dwarf, elf, or halfling. Dwarves, elves, and halflings didn’t have classes per se. Instead every dwarf and every halfling was very much like a fighter, and every elf was both a fighter and a magic-user. That was more choices in a slim book than the number of both UHF and VHF channel choices on the TV. What luxury!

I remain enamored of the race-as-class concept. My first D&D character was a dwarf. When we switched from Basic to Advanced, my dwarf came along for the ride. Since in Basic he’d been violent and larcenous, in Advanced he became a fighter/thief, but he firstly he was a dwarf. Fighting and stealing were means by which he expressed his dwarven-ness.

While reading OSRIC, jumping from section to section rather than progressing page by page in numerical order, the novelty of race-as-class returned. Could such a thing work in OSRIC? If so, how so? Well, I’ve already explained how I think ability score generation should go. Let’s now focus on dwarves, elves, and halflings, treating each race as a class. The other demihuman races could be treated in a similar manner.

When creating an OSRIC character, I might choose a race other than human. For the three that I’m focusing on, each class would be treated as a class/race combination but without me needing to worry about meeting the class ability score prerequisites. Instead, all I need do is meet the race minimums and maximums. Let’s review those:

Dwarf: STR 8/18, DEX 3/17, CON 12/19, INT and WIS 3/18, CHA 3/16

Elf: STR 3/18, DEX 7/19, CON 8/17, INT 8/18, WIS 3/18, CHA 8/18

Halfling: STR 6/17, DEX 8/19, CON 10/18, INT 6/18, WIS 3/17, CHA 3/18

Each race defaults to a specific class (or classes, in the case of an elf):

Dwarf & Halfling: Fighter.

Elf: Fighter/Magic-User.

(Nota Bene: Either an elf with an 8 Intelligence would be just a fighter since a minimum of a 9 Intelligence is needed for a magic-user to learn spells, or the DM could just treat an 8 Intelligence as a 9 Intelligence and keep the elf as a fighter/magic-user. I think I favor the latter option.)

For added variety, a demihuman might still multi-class. For example, a dwarf might be a dwarf/thief. In this case, the minimum prerequisites of the additional class would be in play. An elf would effectively add a third class, becoming, for example, an elf/cleric. Otherwise, each race would be treated as a either a single-classed fighter (dwarf or halfling) or a multi-classed fighter/magic-user (elf) in matters related to armor, weapons, level advancement, et cetera.

One campaign-level consequence of this idea is that the worst of human fighters would still be somewhat better than the worst dwarf. Due to my preferred ability score generation method, the lowest STR, DEX, WIS, and CHA scores a human fighter would have are 9, 6, 6, and 6, respectively. The dwarf would win out in Constitution, since the lowest Constitution a dwarf would have is 12 versus 7 for the human fighter. The same sort of thing happens when comparing the human fighter to the halfling.

A human magic-user compared to an elf lags behind in the minimums except for Intelligence, but the human magic-user is single-classed, whereas the elf technically has two classes and therefore must divide XP between fighter and magic-user. So, in many respects, the elf is the better magic-user, except for speed of advancement. When the human magic-user reaches 2nd level with 2400 XP, the elf is still 1st level with 1200 XP in fighter and 1200 XP in magic-user. By the time the elf hits 2nd level in both fighter and magic-user, the human magic-user has reached 3rd level.

And the lag would be even greater when comparing a human thief to dwarf/thief, halfling/thief, or elf/thief, especially in the last instance, since the elf would be dividing XP between three classes.

Tags: 1E AD&D, OSRIC

OSRIC starts the process of creating a character with ability scores. Some talk of methods for generating ability scores ensues. One can be “truly brutal” and roll 3d6 in order for the six scores. One can be less brutal, allowing scores to be arranged to suit player taste or allowing 4d6 (drop the lowest die result) instead of 3d6. Players familiar with AD&D likely recall the many different methods suggested in the rules.

As for me, I like players getting to play want they want to play. Once I joined a 2E AD&D group while stationed in Hawaii, and I really wanted to play a bard. I’d never played a 2E bard, and it looked interesting. So, I rolled the dice, and quickly realized that bard was not an option because I’d failed to generate a high enough Charisma. Bummer. So, I played a thief who wanted to be a bard, and spent his nonweapon proficiency slots accordingly. It was still fun, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for.

Should I decide to run OSRIC, this is the ability score method I’m leaning toward:

1. Pick a race and class. Note the minimum and maximum ability scores for both.
2. Roll 3d6 in order, assigning the results to the six ability scores.
3. Look at the race and class ability score notes. Anything that isn’t high enough, raise it to the minimum. Anything that is too high, lower it to the maximum.

So, what might this look like?

Well, let’s say I want to play a gnome illusionist, the illusionist part being a class notoriously hard to qualify for due to its high Dexterity and Intelligence minimums. I make note of the relevant mins and maxes:

Gnome Minimums/Maximums: STR 6/18, DEX 3/18, CON 8/18, INT 7/18, WIS 3/18, CHA 3/18
Illusionist Minimums: STR 6, DEX 16, INT 15, WIS 6, CHA 6

Next I roll 3d6 six times. These are the results:

Unadjusted Ability Scores: STR 12, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 8, WIS 7, CHA 8

I compare these results to the race and class requirements, changing them as indicated, to get these ability scores. I bold-faced the changes for ease of reference.

Adjusted Ability Scores: STR 12, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 15, WIS 7, CHA 8

Tada! I now have a gnome illusionist who, due to his Dexterity and Intelligence both being under 17, is currently limited to 5th level. Perhaps making him an illusionist/thief would be a good idea?

Tags: 1E AD&D, OSRIC