Spes Magna Games

Musical Interlude

Yesterday, I explained hit points. An earlier post talked about action resolution, which includes combat. It now seems like a good time to talk about damage. For an extended action, such as a fist fight or playing the dozens, a successful attack inflicts 1 point of damage to Kung-Fu, Brains, or Cool, depending on the nature of the attack, plus 1 more point of damage for every full 4 points by which the attacker won the challenge.

A hero might also take damage from failing an unopposed or simple action. Attempting to leap from one rooftop to the next, which would be an unopposed action, could result in an injury. So could attempting to catch that knife lobbed at you by that seven-foot-tall Chinese sorcerer, a feat that could be resolved as a simple action. In these cases, treat the opposing number, be it a Difficulty Number (DN) or dice total, as the attacker. Then, figure damage as normal.

As mentioned above, damage doesn’t always mean actual damage. A Trash Talking Gang Leader can beat a hero down with his fists, which will result in bruises and broken bones (a loss of Kung-Fu hit points), or he can beat a hero down with threats and insults while his gang stands around laughing, which will result in a bruised ego and a broken will (a loss of Cool hit points). In the former case, a trip the ER is in order; in the latter, a hug and a pep talk might suffice.

In addition to having three sets of hit points (Kung-Fu, Brains, and Cool), each ability score has four wound levels: Hurt, Wounded, Messed Up, and Out of It. The following table shows the wound levels and number of hit points each wound level encompasses. The first three wound levels impose a penalty to any action. The penalty is shown in parentheses in the table. When a hero is Out of It, he can take no further actions until healed to at least Messed Up.

Speaking of healing, The Boogie Knights of the Round Table has no standard rule for recovering hit points. How much a hero heals in any given amount of time is a subjective decision made by the GM based on the source of the damage and, more importantly, what makes the story more entertaining.

Tags: A to Z 2015, Boogie Knights

Musical Interlude

The Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT) has two types of points: experience and hit. Earn enough of the former, and a player’s character improves. Lose enough of the latter and a player’s character ceases to improve, probably forever.

At the end of a successful adventure, a hero typically earns 1-3 experience points (XP). These XP are spent to increase the die ratings of ability scores and qualities, as well as to acquire new qualities. The XP cost to rise to the next highest die rating equals one-half the current rating’s maximum value. So, it would cost Gary’s Beau Mandy 2 XP to increase Rodeo Clown d4 to Rodeo Clown d6. It would cost 4 XP to increase Beau’s Cool from d8 to d10. A new quality costs 4 XP, and it starts with a d4 die rating. After this, the quality can be improved as normal. When an ability score or a quality reaches d12, it can still be improved, but it’s expensive. For 8 XP, a d12 ability score or quality increases to d12+4, or 6 XP for the d12 and 2 XP for the d4. After this, the additional d4 can be increased as normal.

A hero has three sets of hit points, one for each ability score. A hero’s hit points for each score are equal to the maximum possible for the ability score’s die. Let’s go back to Beau, whose ability scores are Kung-Fu d6, Brains d8, and Cool d8. Consequently, Beau’s hit points are Kung-Fu 6, Brains 8, and Cool 8. Different types of combat inflict different types of damage. In the last post, Beau engaged in social combat against his contact to convince him to reveal needed information. During this conflict, Beau would most likely suffer damage to his Brains and/or Cool.

Tags: A to Z 2015, Boogie Knights

Musical Interlude

The Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT) uses a simple dice mechanic to resolve all actions. Before this post goes on to discuss the specifics, it’s important to understand two Super-Important Rules.

Super-Important Rule #1: In all cases, before dice are rolled, the action to be attempted should be described. What is the actor doing? How is he doing it? Then and only then are the applicable dice rolled.

Super-Important Rule #2: Whoever succeeds in an action gets to narrate the results of the action. This includes deciding the fate of the loser when applicable.

All actions are resolved by rolling the dice associated with the most appropriate ability score and most appropriate quality, based on the action’s description. BKotRT has three categories of actions: unopposed, simple, and extended. Let’s take a moment to recall Gary’s character from a previous post. We’ll use Beau in examples for each category of action.

Beau Mandy
Kung-Fu d6, Brains d8, Cool d8
Ex-Con Banjo Player d6, Rodeo Clown d4, Full of Homespun Wisdom d6

While on his way to Hillbilly’s, Beau gets a flat tire. He’s in a hurry. Beau’s contact won’t wait in the honky tonk for long if Beau is late. Mumbling about cheap tires, Beau slides from his pick-up’s cab and starts fishing tools from his tool box. Changing a flat is normally an unopposed action. The tire isn’t actively resisting Beau’s efforts. The GM decides that changing the flat in a timely manner is an easy action and assigns a difficulty number (DN) of 6. Gary describes how Beau’s had to change lots of flats over the years, what with all his time on the road as a Rodeo Clown. Because of these years of experience, Beau isn’t likely to get flustered by the inconvenient delay. The GM thinks this is reasonable, and so Gary rolls Cool plus Rodeo Clown, or d8+d4. If he gets at least a 6 total, Beau fixes the flat in plenty of time to reach Hillbilly’s before his contact spooks.

A few minutes later, Beau pulls into Hillbilly’s parking lot. He mosies up to the front door, but is stopped by the burly, towering doorman. The doorman glares down at Beau and growls, “I bet there’s rich folks eatin’ in a fancy dining car.”

Beau wasn’t expecting this challenge. Apparently Hillbilly’s management changed the password. This is another unopposed action with a 6 DN. Beau is an Ex-Con Banjo Player. This is child’s play for him. Gary rolls Brains plus Ex-Con Banjo Player, or d6+d8, and succeeds, and Beau drawls, “They’re probably drinkin’ coffee and smokin’ big cigars.”

Beau pays the cover charge and mosies inside. A few steps through the door, he’s confronted by a drunk cowgirl looking for a good time. Beau doesn’t have time for this. He’s a man with a mission, but the cowgirl is insistent, clinging to Beau and demanding he dance with her. Beau wants to let her down easy as well as not attract attention. This is a simple action. The cowgirl’s drunken insistence opposes Beau’s purposeful but gentle rejection. Gary describes how he turns on the charm and whispers some countrified sweet words. He then rolls Cool plus Full of Homespun Wisdom, or d8+d6. Gary’s total is compared to the cowgirl’s total. He wins the simple action. The cowgirl giggles and staggers off to paw another man.

Beau slides into the booth across from his contact. He orders an ice cold Lone Star. His contact his nervous and says he’s changed his mind, that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the upcoming pirate radio broadcast. Beau must convince him otherwise. This is an extended action, one in which Beau must eventually wear down or otherwise defeat his opposition. In other words, Beau must engage in a form of social combat. A combination of Brains and Cool combined with Full of Homespun Wisdom is matched in round-by-round action against the contact’s dice totals. Pretty soon, Beau has calmed the contact down, and the contact hands over the frequency modulator’s location.

So, that’s the gist of using dice pools to resolve actions in BKotRT. There are a few other details, such as the range of DNs from easy to hardest, and how damage is figured, but we can leave those details for later.

Tags: A to Z 2015, Boogie Knights

Musical Interlude

The Man’s running dogs come in all shapes and sizes, and from nearly all walks of life. Consequently, those who oppose the Man must tread carefully. Even that well-attired foxy lady who knows all the right moves could be an informer. The Boogie Knights of the Round Table and their allies need safe places to meet, to sing, and to get down; therefore, clubs.

We’ve already glimpsed the interior of the Avalon. Dozens of other clubs can be visited, even if some of them are hard to find. The Lady du Lac operates the Avalon in the public eye because she has the intelligence and wealth to stay at least one step ahead of the Man’s agents. (It’s a dangerous game, to be sure, but it does help deflect scrutiny from smaller, less secure venues.)

Keep in mind, the clubs aren’t always night clubs. A club is not a building; it’s the people. Some clubs boast hundreds of members whereas others could fit at a table for six in a dimly-lit, smoky cafe hosting an underground poetry slam. Clubs meet in private residences, cafeterias, church basements, and secluded cabins.

There is, however, one place clubs don’t meet, and that’s on the Internet. In the world The Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT), the Internet doesn’t exist for the general public. The Man early on feared that the Internet would grow too large, too chaotic to control, and the Man is about control. From our perspective, technology has frozen in BKotRT‘s world at level roughly comparable to the early 1980s. That’s the way the Man likes it, and so far tech-rebels haven’t made significant in-roads against the Man’s stifling will.

In the game, clubs provide information, fun, and safety, assuming, of course, the club hasn’t been infiltrated by the Man. Larger, more influential clubs also act much like government agencies, negotiating and coordinating resistance activities with other clubs. These joint efforts are some of the most dangerous times for clubs. Arthur and Lance, for example, faced several assassination attempts as they traveled from city to city, challenging other club leaders to battles of poetry, song, and dance in order to eventually forge the Peace of Genres.

So, should the heroes attend that upcoming Battle of the Bands? Certainly, and maybe they’ll even emerge victorious, but the heroes shouldn’t let down their guard. The Man’s agents will be in the audience, cheering and taking notes.

Tags: A to Z 2015, Boogie Knights

Musical Interlude

In Boogie Knights of the Round Table (BKotRT), the heroes live in world yoinked from a hodge podge of cliches ripped from musical movies, especially those of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. (You know? Back when maybe music wasn’t good, but it was better than today’s music. Now get off my lawn!) People live under the thumb of the Man, but no matter how hard that thumb presses down, the Man can’t crush the spirit of dance and song.

BKotRT is based on my non-award-winning, free RPG, The Accordian Files (TAF). If you’ve not experienced this game, you owe it to yourself and to posterity to download it and give it a spin. Seriously. You’re great-grandchildren will be thankful. Eventually.

BKotRT takes the “you can play almost anything” wonderfulness of TAF and hammers it into a vaguely specific genre. This hammering first beats the ability scores into three new shapes. Instead of Body, Mind, and Spirit, all heroes have Kung-Fu, Brains, and Cool. Kung-Fu represents a hero’s physical prowess, including strength, agility, manual dexterity, health, and martial arts skill. Brains stands for a hero’s smarts, whether those are book-smarts or street-smarts, as well as mental toughness, perceptiveness, and problem-solving ability. The last ability score, Cool, tells us about a hero’s force of personality, sangfroid, fashion sense, and courage.

Each ability score defaults to a d6. The player gets 2 points to increase ability scores. It costs 1 point to raise a score’s rating to the next highest die type. The player can lower one ability score to a d4 rating in order to get a bonus point to spend on ability scores or qualities. The dice used in BKotRT are, in order from lowest to highest, d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12.

For example, Gary is making up a BKotRT hero, whose starting ability scores are Kung-Fu d6, Brains d6, and Cool d6. Gary opts to not decrease an ability score. He spends 1 point each on Brains and Cool. His hero’s ability scores become Kung-Fu d6, Brains d8, and Cool d8.

The player also gets 5 points to purchase qualities for his hero (or 6 points if he opted to reduce an ability score to d4 and then chooses to spend the bonus point on qualities). A quality is a short, descriptive statement about a hero. Each quality is like a suitcase full of knowledge and skills. A player should aim for two or three qualities to help define his hero, but at least quality should have something to do with music or dancing. The best qualities focus on some combination of a hero’s culture, personality, job, philosophy or beliefs, looks, goals, life story, and problems. It costs 1 point to get a quality rated as a d4. Each additional point spent on a quality raises its rating to the next die.

Back to Gary. His hero is a Ex-Con Banjo Player. He worked for a time as a Rodeo Clown. Finally, he is Full of Homespun Wisdom. It costs 3 points to get each of these rated at a d4. Gary spends 1 point each on the first and third qualities. When all is said and done, here’s Gary’s starting BKotRT hero:

Beau Mandy
Kung-Fu d6, Brains d8, Cool d8
Ex-Con Banjo Player d6, Rodeo Clown d4, Full of Homespun Wisdom d6

Tags: A to Z 2015, Boogie Knights