Spes Magna Games

In Stars Without Number, the combat roll has a target number of 20+ on 1d20, subject to the following modifiers:

+ target’s Armor Class
+ attacker’s Combat skill
+ attacker’s attribute modifier
+ attacker’s Attack Bonus

That’s pretty simple, but I like for the players to make defense checks when their PCs are attacked. If I’m going to do this with SWN, I need to modify the combat roll.

A PC has a Defense Value equal to Armor Class (including Dexterity modifier). Thus, an unarmored PC with no Dexterity modifier has a +9 Defense Value. Armor adds to Defense Value an amount equal to 9 – the Armor Class provided by the armor. For example, a combat field uniform is Armor Class 4. It adds +5 to Defense Value.

Every enemy has an Attack Value equal to 19 plus (Combat skill + attribute modifier + and attack bonus). To make a defense check, the player rolls 1d20 + Defense Value. If the total equals or exceeds the enemy’s Attack Value, the PC’s defense succeeds. A natural 20 always succeeds, and a natural 1 always fails.

Consider the magovore invader versus a normal, unarmored human. This monster has a +6 attack bonus, which means it would have an Attack Value of 25. Using SWN core rules, the invader would need a 5 or better on 1d20 to hit the human (5 + 6 attack bonus + 9 Armor Class = 20 total combat roll). Using the defense roll, the human’s player needs a 16 or better on 1d20 (16 + 9 Defense Value = 25) to save his PC from the invader’s serrated beak.

Let’s consider a more complicated example. A PC with a 16 Dexterity is wearing combat field uniform (Armor Class 3) is fighting a level 3 warrior with a 14 Dexterity who is skill level 2 with Combat/Projectile Weapons. The PC’s Defense Value equals +15 (9 + 1 Dexterity + 4 armor). The enemy warrior’s Attack Value equals 23 (19 + 1 attack bonus + 1 Dexterity modifier + 2 Combat skill).

Using the normal combat roll, the enemy warrior would need a 13 or better to hit the PC (13 + 1 attack bonus + 3 Armor Class + 1 Dexterity modifier + 2 Combat skill = 20 total combat roll). Using the defense roll, the PC’s player needs an 8 or better on 1d20 (8 + 15 Defense Value = 23) to not get shot.

You might by this time be wondering, “Why do this?”

Good question, and I have what I think is a good answer. For a while now, I’ve wanted a way to introduce more narrative control into the standard RPGs. Narrative control shifts responsibility for describing game action from the GM to the players. I’ve experimented with a couple of ways to do this before, but they didn’t really seem to work (perhaps because I didn’t stick with them long enough).

I’m convinced that placing the burden for all attack rolls (and saving throws, but that’s another topic) on the players’ shoulders is key to giving the players more narrative control over the game. My recent readings here and there about Dungeon World (published by Sage Kobold Productions) have only further strengthened this conviction (but that too is a topic for another post).

Tags: Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

I’ve been writing/thinking about magic in Tiamat’s Throne. I want the setting to be science-fiction/fantasy, in that order. Magic is real, but science is realer. Magic is a comparatively new addition to the our universe, having arrived, so to speak, when the barrier between our universe and the universe of the dragons was sundered. Our universe can be affected by magic, but it resists such effects.

Here’s some of the fluff text I’ve written about magic:

“What can be perceived is real. What can be perceived via our normal senses is the natural world. What cannot be perceived via our normal senses is the supernatural world. Magic starts by observing the supernatural world. From observation, the wizard moves to imposing his will upon the supernatural world. Magic always requires an act of the will without which no magical effect is possible.

“The supernatural world affects the natural world through wizard’s act of will, which directs and transforms eldritch forces. Such effects, however, have vanish over time as eldritch energies revert to their original form and the enforced connection between the supernatural and natural worlds breaks.”

One of the consequences of this way of looking at magic is that no magical effect can have a permanent duration. Some clarification is perhaps in order. A fireball burns down a house. The magical effect, the fireball, goes away. The natural effects of the fireball, the destroyed house, remain. That only makes sense. The damage inflicted by magic shouldn’t go away when the magic does.

But since magical effects cannot be permanent, that does mean that, among other things, there aren’t going to be many magic items (if any at all). The process of placing a permanent enchantment to create, say, a +1 sword cannot be accomplished in our universe. A wizard might be able to temporarily enchant a weapon, but that enchantment cannot be made a permanent feature of the weapon.

This limitation on magic requires me to alter some spells as well. For example, wizard lock has a duration of permanent until dispelled (according to the old-school open content source I’m using for spells). In Tiamat’s Throne, however, no spell can have a permanent duration. I’ve not made up my mind yet about what I’ll change permanent durations to. These changed durations are likely still going to be lengthy, and they’ll almost certainly vary depending on the spell. My version of wizard lock will probably have a duration measured in days.

Even though magic is a potent force and wizards enjoy a greater variety of choices than psychics, neither magic nor wizards can replace high-technology. A feinos wizard isn’t going to wade into battle, lobbing spells from his magic staff while protected by magic rings and robes. For protection, he’ll likely need armor, perhaps augmented by a shield spell. Sure, he can throw some magic missiles or tear through enemy ranks with a lightning bolt.

But when he’s used up his mana, there aren’t any magic items to fall back on. Not even scrolls. He’ll eventually end up pulling that sidearm and blazing away like a warrior, but without the benefits of the warrior’s better attack bonus and training.

Tags: Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

On Elanor, the Eugenics Commissars needed a durable race that could survive underground for long period of times. Gengineering resulted in the malgrandegulos, a stoic race famous for their love of both money and combat. Instability in the malgrandegulos genome has resulted in the speciation of a new race, the koboldo.*

Appearance and Biology: This race tends to be squat, broad, and heavy. Males are seldom taller than 5 feet and weigh on average 150 pounds. Females are somewhat shorter and lighter. A malgrandegulo’s arms reach to just past his knees, and they are usually well-muscled with powerful shoulders. Malgrandegulos tend to have short, bowed legs that cause them to move with a rolling gait. This race tends to be hirsute; facial hair is ubiquitous among males and common among females. Earth tones dominate malgrandegulo eye and hair color, but many malgrandegulos watch their hair go gray to white by middle-age. Skin color ranges from ruddy to bronze.

Psychology: The malgrandegulos share strong common psychological traits that often make them difficult to tolerate. Status among malgrandegulos is almost universally measured by the successful accumulation of wealth and by demonstrated martial prowess. While it might seem as if these traits would lead to widespread double-dealing and violence, the malgrandegulos have learned to hide their true intentions behind facades of bland, patient gentility. A malgrandegulos seldom says what he means. Instead, he remains vague, noncommital. At the same time, he takes stock of what he sees and hears, making careful mental notes about the possible true intentions of others. These elaborate charades of respect and civility between malgrandegulo individuals and groups can go on for months, even years. Then, when the time judged right, the machinations are revealed, and to the victors go the spoils.

While malgrandegulos plot revenge for offenses real or imagined, outright blood feuds are rare. Since status is gained by financial and military success against rivals, malgrandegulo social norms strongly reinforce a stoic attitude about defeat. When one is bested, the sensible thing to do is acknowledge the winner’s superior cunning and strength. Of course, any self-respecting malgrandegulo will also plot ways to get even…eventually.

Flavor: A malgrandegulo is an honorable schemer, and many who manage to leave Elanor for the wider sector find themselves in diplomatic service or public relations. Everyone knows that a malgrandegulo can’t be trusted farther than he can be thrown in normal gravity. At the same time, malgrandegulos tend to excel at saying no more than what needs to be said, if that much.

A malgrandegulo’s love of wealth and martial prowess may also lead him into more aggressive occupations. Companies of malgrandegulo mercenaries tend to be both well payed and feared, and quite a few wealthy people employ malgrandegulo bodyguards. Some companies, especially those involved in the mining industry, recruit and employ malgrandegulos as both workers and security personnel.

Racial Traits: Malgrandegulos move up 45 feet per round (rather than 60 feet). Although slow, a malgrandegulo is built for portage. He can have up to four additional items can be carried ready or eight additional ones stowed at the cost of becoming Lightly Encumbered, and having his base movement slowed from 45 feet per round to 30 feet per round. A further two items can be carried ready or four stowed at the cost of becoming Heavily Encumbered, with base movement then reduced to 15 feet per round.

Malgrandegulos are good at spotting traps, unsafe cave formations, slanting passages, and new construction while underground. Malgrandegulos gain a +1 bonus to Perception skill checks to detect such things. Malgrandegulos use neither magic nor psionics. They are, however, resistant to magic and psionics, gaining a +4 bonus to saves against such effects.

A malgrandegulo’s natural vision is equivalent to low-light goggles. Consequently, malgrandegulos have difficulty with normal levels of illumination. Without protective lenses in such conditions, malgrandegulos suffer a -1 penalty to sight-based Perception skill checks and a -2 penalty to saves against attacks that blind or disorient via bright light.

A malgrandegulo character must have at least a 13 Strength and 13 Constitution, and he cannot have higher than a 14 Charisma. They cannot be wizards or psychics.

* Most koboldo newborns are destroyed at birth, but a substantial number of malgrandegulos have refused to cooperate with imperial racial sanitation codes. As a result, many of Elanor’s deeper subterranean places are infested by koboldos.

Tags: planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

Of the available race choices, the feinos are the only true aliens, having entered our universe at the same time as the dragons. Feino populations suddenly found themselves shunted from their native realm into ours. Hundreds of thousands feinos perished as they appeared in environments incapable of supporting life, such as in the void of space or in Bellatrix’s argon-rich atmosphere.

On those worlds where the feinos could survive, they quickly found themselves embroiled in terrifying war. Viewed as invaders by native populations and viewed as insignificant by rampaging dragons, the feinos who didn’t quickly organize for war were hit hard. Today, few worlds have sizeable feino populations (the notable exception being Duke Níðhöggr’s throneworld, Ylli).

Appearance and Biology: A feino appears human only with the most casual of glances. This race tends to be tall, averaging an inch or two more than homo sapiens, with long, thin arms and legs. The torso is broad across the shoulders and chest, but isn’t thick and tapers to narrow hips, giving most feinos a somewhat emaciated appearance. The feino cranium grows long from chin to brow with pronounced cheek bones and a narrow, downward turning mouth, which sports about two-thirds as many teeth as found in a healthy human mouth. Feinos do not have canine teeth. Their ears are pointed. Hair color ranges from pure white to light blue to gold. A feino’s eyes appear to swirl with liquid color because the fluids which lubricate the eyes are pigmented. Hormones related to emotional states alter the fluid’s colors.

Feinos cannot easily metabolize proteins found in animal tissue. As a result, most feinos are vegetarians, and those that aren’t still consume only small portions of meat. The equivalent of the liver in a feinos is hyperefficient at metabolizing alcohol. Consequently, a feinos can consume enormous quantities of libations without adverse effects.

Psychology: The feinos are almost insatiably curious. They constantly pry into the affairs of others. While a feinos may seek privacy for certain activities, he is also likely to assume that these activities will end up being observed eventually. Feinos love to explore new places, to experience new sensations, and to observe new creatures. Feinos societies tend to operate in a profoundly transparent manner. Many feinos view the keeping of secrets as an automatic indication of malicious intent.

As a consequence of a feino’s intense curiosity, he is also likely a rapacious consumer. This is especially true of food, drink, and artistic experiences. Most feinos will do almost anything to increase access to these resources, and more than a few can be deeply indifferent to the needs of others to the same resources. Extreme consumption is viewed as a source of honor and glory for the feinos. The greatest and most respected feinos tend to be those who have the greatest stockpiles of resources to consume and/or share with their followers.

The pigmented fluids in a feino’s eyes interfere with his ability to accurately perceive colors. Feinos are not color-blind, but instead perpetually view the world through a tinted medium. This species’s native tongue has an ornate vocabulary related to color as the definitions for such words must account not only for hue but also for emotional state. For example, feinos have one word for “red” when perceived in a happy state of mind and another word for the same color perceived when angry.

Flavor: The feinos can be difficult to understand. Their extreme psychological traits, extradimensional origin, and alien view of the universe often conspire to make a feino unwelcome anywhere except among his own kind. Consequently, most feinos tend to be insular, even xenophobic. Feinos encountered away from their native society are often exiles, usually criminals whose behaviors were unwelcome by other feinos. Such feinos tend to live short, violent lives in the Empire.

A minority of feinos, however, embrace the realities of living in a new universe. They learn to moderate their more extreme psychological traits in order to live among humans. Derisively referred to as Passers by both human and feino purists, these feinos can be intensely loyal to those who accept them as friends.

Racial Traits: A feino character must have at least a 14 in Dexterity, and cannot have higher than a 13 Constitution.

Feinos have a knack for finding hidden doors. They gain a +1 bonus to Perception skill checks to notice such portals. Feinos cannot be psychics, but they can be wizards. In fact, they excel at the arts of wizardry. By spending one extra mana point when casting a spell, a feino wizard imposes a -1 penalty to the save against that spell. This extra mana point does not count against the mana point limit imposed when using Kouranism to modify spells.

A feino cannot become intoxicated by consuming alcohol. He also enjoys a +1 bonus on saving throws against organic toxins.

Tags: Tiamat's Throne

In preparation for Tiamat’s Throne, I’ve been doing research into science fiction. Most recently, this has meant watching Space: 1999 on YouTube. While I am old enough to have been alive, walking, and talking when this show first aired in the mid-70s of the last century, I seldom watched it. Back then, Mom determined what we watched during prime time, and that didn’t include this British-import sci-fi series.

For those of you not in the know, the first episode, “Breakaway”, recounts events leading up to a massive explosion in a lunar nuclear waste storage facility that knocks the Moon out of orbit and sends it hurtling through space toward adventure. Space: 1999 is wildly improbable if not downright silly, but it is played out with such gravitas by good actors such as Martin Landau (as Commander John Koenig) that there is something compelling about the show, no matter how absurd some of the plots are.

At the end of “Breakaway”, Koenig orders that Moonbase Alpha’s computer process how to execute Operation Exodus given the new parameters of the Moon no longer being held in the Earth’s orbit. The computer explains that new parameters exceed its ability to determine whether it is possible to abandon the Moon and return to Earth. Ominously, it declares that a “human decision” is required. Koenig provides that decision, commanding that no escape attempt will be made from the Moon, thus setting up the whole careening-through-space premise of the series.

Something struck me while watching “Breakaway”. One of the common complaints about certain RPGs is that the player characters end up being little more than the sum of their equipment. Solutions to scenario problems become less about the characters and more about having the right gizmo. I’ve seen this play out many times, and the results are often less than satisfying. I’ve also seen situations where the players deliberately try to hinge their success on elements external to their characters.

For example, I once ran a short-lived Mutants & Masterminds campaign. The first plot arc the heroes confronted involved a serial killer preying on adults who victimized children. What I had planned on being a sort of mystery/police procedural quickly turned into the tech hero sitting in front of a keyboard and using a combination of search engines and hacking to gather information. While this certainly fit the hero’s schtick, it didn’t make for exciting roleplaying. I didn’t GM the situation well, and for an unnecessarily large hunk of play time, most of the other players had little to do but feed the tech hero’s player suggestions about the next thing to type into Google.

Which leads me back to Moonbase Alpha’s computer. When we start playing Tiamat’s Throne circa February 2013, I want to avoid the problems associated with over-reliance on tech. At the same time, I don’t want to hamstring character options. If a player makes up a tech-skill heavy character, that player deserves to use those skills in meaningful ways. This must mean that adventures be crafted so that player decisions are required. No just feeding a bunch of data into a computer and then letting the machine make the decisions. Technology should assist, not replace, player character actions to the greatest extent possible.

As my players (well, one of them) have expressed interest in a Firefly-esque campaign, concerns about over-reliance on technology seem even more relevant. It is appropriate that tech assist the player characters in their various heists and capers, but the tech shouldn’t remove the dramatic tension.

Consider a common plot element in heist stories: stealing vital data from a computer. What I don’t want is for a single Computer skill check to accomplish this task. That’s not how it works in the genre. Instead, the heisters have to get into the facility somehow, evading security, slipping past checkpoints, entering secure areas, et cetera, in order to get to the computer system, at which time the Computer skill check comes into play, preferably with a complication, such as the head of security showing up for a surprise inspection or a mishap in another area triggering lockdown protocols.

Tags: adventure design, Tiamat's Throne