Spes Magna Games

Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition has launched into its first full-blown adventure involving elements cobbled together from Keep on the Borderlands and West End Games’s The Destiny Map. As mentioned last Savage Wednesday, what I thought would’ve been a modestly challenging encounter with a doppelganger assassin ended up being pretty much a cake walk for the heroes. During the fight against Devris Poyer, I expected that either the characters would win or Poyer would escape. The heroes beat him pretty easily.

Interesting.

Now, I expected the heroes to win. I almost always do. I also had a probability warping run of low die rolls when attacking and inflicting damage. The heroes subdued what I thought was a pretty tough customer, all without any real damage suffered and not a whole lot of effort expended, especially once the grappling started.

During the down time between sessions, I’ve read more carefully the section on Balance and Combat Ratings. I think I grok them pretty well. (Some of what follows is a repeat of a social media post; if you’ve already seen it: Mea culpa.) So, I grabbed my son Christopher’s elven warrior character and studied him with combat rating in mind:

Haldir of Elveim
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +1
Total Combat Rating: +9

There are three other heroes in the group. I don’t have their characters at hand, but it’s safe to assume they are approximately the same Combat Rating as Haldir. That means the group’s total Combat Rating is about 36. During the last session, the group tracked down and subdued Devris Poyer, a doppelganger assassin:

Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +2
Total Combat Rating: +10

If the guidelines in SWDEE are accurate (and I have no reason to doubt them), this means Haldir alone versus Devris alone should be a moderately difficult encounter. Devris alone against all four heroes? No challenge for the heroes.

I next looked at a orc and a chieftan orc:

Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +8
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +3
Total Combat Rating: +13 ÷ 2 for not being a Wild Card = +7

Chieftan Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +10
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +3
Toughness over 5: +6
Total Combat Rating: +19

For a moderate encounter involving these orcs, I should pit the heroes against two orcs and one chieftan orc, for example. That’d be Heroes 36 versus Orcs 33. For a tough fight, add a couple of more orcs.

But back to Devris. I adapted his role from The Destiny Map. In that adventure, the assassin was from the Cyberpapacy. He had some pretty hefty stats, including cyberlegs and a really big gun. I remember running The Destiny Map while stationed in Hawaii. We had about a half dozen players in the group I gamed with most often. Those 5-6 heroes did not fare well against the cyber-assassin once he’d been cornered. If I recall correctly, he seriously injured one or two heroes, and then escaped, handily evading pursuit.

For doppelganger Devris to do the same, I guesstimate his combat rating would need to be close to doubled. That means adding 2 to 3 “adds” for each of the three categories, assuming things were spread out more or less evenly. This rougher, tougher Devris might look like this:

Devris Poyer, a Doppelganger Wild Card
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d10, Persuasion d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d8
Charisma: +0
Pace: 8
Parry: 7
Toughness: 7 (2)
Gear: studded leather vest (+2), studded leather vambraces (+1), shuriken (STR, 3RB, range 1/2/3)

Special Abilities:

Change Shape: Devris can change his appearance to another humanoid ranging in size from -1 to +1. If Devris mimics a specific person, someone familiar with that person can see through the disguise with Notice -2.

Improved Extraction: Make an Agility roll when withdrawing from combat. If successful, one opponent doesn’t get a free attack. With a raise, all opponents currently in melee lose their free attack.

Improved Martial Artist: Devris is never considered unarmed. STR+d6 damage unarmed.

Improved Sweep: Make a single Fighting attack against all currently adjacent targets. Resolve each damage separately.

Mind Reading: Devris can read another’s thoughts by opposing his Smarts against his target’s Smarts. If Devris gets a raise, the target is unaware of the intrusion.

This new Devris would be about an 18 Combat Rating:

Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +7
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +7
Toughness over 5: +4
Total Combat Rating: +18

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

Today’s picture is “Hish” by that uncanny illustrator of the weird Sidney Sime. Sime lived from 1865 to 1941, and he is best known for his iconic illustrations of Lord Dunsany’s tales and poems.

The hish are mysterious creatures, part shadow, part silence, or so it seems. They are seldom seen or heard, even by their victims, for the hish practice assassination as a form of religious devotion to their strange deities.

Hish
Medium fey, any evil

Armor Class 16 (studded leather)
Hit Points 90 (12d8+36)
Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR 13 (+1), DEX 18 (+4), CON 16 (+3), INT 15 (+2), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 12 (+1)

Saving Throws DEX +8, INT +6
Skills Acrobatics +8, Deception +5, Perception +5, Stealth +8
Damage Resistances necrotic, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with silvered weapons
Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 15
Languages Common, Sylvan, plus any two languages
Challenge 9 (5,000 XP)

Assassinate. During its first turn, the hish has advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn. Any hit the hish scores against a surprised creature is a critical hit.

Hish Senses. Magical darkness does not impede the hish’s darkvision. Magical silence does not impeded the hish’s hearing. The hish cannot be blinded or deafened.

Innate Spellcasting. The hish’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material or verbal components:

At will: disguise self, invisibility (self only)
2/day each: darkness, silence
1/day each: pass without trace (self only), vampiric touch

Sneak Attack. Once per turn, the hish deals an extra 14 (4d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the hish that isn’t incapacitated and the assassin doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.

Spider Climb. The hish can climb difficult surfaces including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Actions

Multiattack. The hish makes two shortsword attacks.

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8+4) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 16 Constitution saving throw, taking 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Reactions

Misty Step. The hish surrounds itself with silvery mist and teleports up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space that it can see.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, Tuesday Terror

In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your belt on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulders the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. (Isaiah 22:20-23)

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (The Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:18-19)

Key of Eliakim: This heavy iron key weighs 1 pound and is worn about the neck, suspended from a heavy leathern cord. The key of Eliakim functions once per round upon command. When found, it has 41-50 charges. For each week that none of the devices powers are used, the key regains 1-4 charges. This is the only known means of recharging the key. The device has these functions:

1. Knock: This ability functions as the spell of the same name cast by a 5th-level magic-user. This drains 1 charge.
2. Wizard Lock: This ability also function as the spell of the same name cast by a 5th-level magic-user. This too drains 1 charge.
3. Hold Monster: For 2 charges, the user duplicates the spell of the same name as if cast by an 11th-level magic-user. This costs 2 charges.
4. Dispel Evil: This ability functions as the spell of the same cast cast by an 11th-level cleric. This costs 2 charges.
5. Plane Shift: For 3 charges, the user duplicates the spell of the same name as if cast by an 11th-level cleric, but this power can only shift creatures to one of the Upper Planes or back to the Material Plane. This ability costs 3 charges.

The key of Eliakim only works for a good-aligned creature who is dedicated to one of the good deities of the Upper Planes. A neutral creature cannot get the key to function. An evil creature who attempts to use the key will lose 2,000-8,000 experience points and make a saving throw versus spells or suffer 5-30 hit points of damage that cannot be healed by magical means.

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Nota Bene: In other news, all Spes Magna OGL OSR products are currently on sale. You can peruse the catalog by clicking here.

Tags: AD&D, Catholic, magic items

Today I fight back against a nagging headache that I caught in time before it went migraine on me while offering for your consideration another AD&D conversion of a Gamma World mutant. (Nota Bene: The Gamma World link is an affiliate link. If you click it and buy the book, I get a bit of money.) I’ve already done this with fens, arks, and badders.

Today I bring to you the reclusive, peace-loving grens. To quote their entry in Gamma World: “Grens appear to be completely normal Pure Strain Humans…except for their deep green skin! They are intelligent and live secluded lives in harmony with nature. They inhabit only deep forests, where they cannot be seen or sensed by any creature until they reveal themselves.”

Translating grens to AD&D requires a bit of poetic license. Grens have 20 Hit Dice in Gamma World, which corresponds to a Constitution of 20 in terms of ability scores. Since I don’t want secluded forests full of 20-HD, green-skinned humanoids, I decided on the following:

Gren
Frequency: Very rare
No. Appearing: 15-150
Armor Class: 9 (or better for leader types)
Move: 12″
Hit Dice: 1+2
% in Lair: 40%
Treasure Type: Individuals K; A in lair
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon type
Special Attacks: Nil
Special Defenses: See below
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Mean: very to highly
Alignment: Neutral good
Size: M
Psionic Ability: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/28 + 2/hp

In their forest homes, grens are invisible and inaudible unless a gren chooses otherwise or attacks. For every 30 grens encountered, there will be an additional 2nd-level ranger. For every 40 grens, there will be a 3rd-level ranger, and for every 50 grens there will be a 4th-level ranger. Grens will be led by a druid of 5th, 6th, or 7th level — 5th if under 60 in the party, 6th if under 125, or 7th if more than 125. The leader will have 2 assistant druids of 2nd, 3rd, or 4th level as a personal bodyguard. All these characters are in addition to the number of grens indicated by the dice.

For every 50 grens encountered, there is a 15% chance that there will be an illusionist of 5th or 6th level, accompanied by two assistants of 1st or 2nd level in addition to the other members of the group. If more than 100 grens are encountered, the illusionist will be of the higher possible level.

Grens are semi-nomadic, and they build simple villages from native materials. In their lair, there will be females equal to 200% of the males and children equal to 100% of their number. Females are equal to males, but have 1 Hit Die. Children are noncombatants. For every 50 females, there is a 15% chance there will be a female fighter of 3rd to 5th level who is imbued with great determination and skill. She adds 1 to her hit probability and damage dice, and she never checks morale. These warrior women command great respect within gren communities.

Grens shun combat. Most grens use simple weapons and shields for defense. Leader types will be better armed and armored. Grens speak their own language, a strange mixture of Common and the elvish tongue.

Tags: AD&D, Gamma World, monsters, ThursdAD&D

Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition launched into its first full-blown adventure this past Saturday. I’m cobbling together material from Keep on the Borderlands and West End Games’s The Destiny Map for the scenario. Overall, it went pretty well, but there were some rough spots:

I’m not familiar enough with the rules yet. Parts of the session were the metaphorical equivalent of riding through town in a vehicle with a standard transmission and a driver who’s not quite savvy on how to change gears.

The concept of “encounter balance” completely eludes me. What I thought would be a moderately challenging conflict turned out to be nothing of the sort.

The players, some moreso than others, were a bit lost about what their characters can and cannot do, to include the implications of certain Hindrances.

That said, I do think things went reasonably well. One player is more familiar with the rules than I am, and he was a big help. The players seemed to enjoy the game. Our next session is in about two weeks. Before then, here’s my list of things to do:

Re-read and grokk the guidelines for encounter balance and combat ratings.

Adjust the upcoming conflicts accordingly.

Combine the two different sets of notes about the campaign into a single document.

Prior to the last session, I spent most of my prep time (such as it was) going back over the guidelines for powers. My first skim of the rules didn’t make much of an impression, but a deeper reading has resulted in an appreciation for the system. It’s simple and flexible. I think I’m most fond of the Trappings and their suggested related effects. Right now, we have one character — bounty hunter Dark Halo — with an Arcane Background. I need to insist that Dark Halo’s player be a bit more narrative with the effects of his character’s magic.

Which brings me to the fantasy world of Aysle in which the kids have found themselves transformed into fantasy heroes. One of the aforesaid documents details the races of Aysle. I’ll get around to posting the Google document link eventually. For this post, I want to look at a few of Aysle’s deities and muse about treating those deities as Trappings for Arcane Background. Aysle’s deities are divided into three groups: the Gods of Honor, the Gods Between, and the God of Corruption. Here’s one of each.

Dunad
Major God of Honor

Dunad was once human. He freed his people from slavery at the hands of the giants. In the process, he brought magic to Aysle after he ventured beyond the Limit and returned with Aurel, a powerful magical sword. After defeating the giants, Dunad shattered Aural in the Valley of the Sword, unleashing magic into the world.

Trappings: The most appropriate Trappings for Dunad are Fire/Heat and Light. Dunad also represents Life.

Courage: All natural, living creatures have a level of Arcane Resistance versus the power, but unnatural creatures (including the Undead) must make Fear checks when hit with it.

Infuse with Life: A raise on the roll provides a -1 to be hit by Undead as they are less able to bring their strengths to bear against the subject.

Soul Sparks: Ranged attacks give off sparks of soul force that do +1 damage versus armored targets but -1 damage versus unarmored targets.

Minthod
Major God of Balance

Minthod appears as a huge minotaur, and he is a the deity most favored by the Half-Folk of Aysle. Minthod’s domain is the Land Between, and his followers seek balance between Honor and Corruption. Minthod is patient and reserved.

Trappings: Minthod prefers to be unnoticed. Darkness is an appropriate trapping. He is also associated with Rock.

Rocky Hide: Subjects affected with a raise by a beneficial power gain patches of protective rocks that provide AP +1. An attack that gains a raise ignores this additional protection.

Steadfast: Beneficial powers root the target more firmly on its feet at a cost a +1 Power Point. This reduces Pace by -2 but grants a +2 to resist being grappled.

Tremors: Harmful powers cause the ground to shake and buckle. The target has to make an Agility roll or be at a -2 Parry until his next action.

Arthuk
Major God of Corruption

Arthuk, a warlord giant, led the giants who enslaved Upper Aysle during the time of Dunad. In a fearsome battle, Dunad slayed Arthuk, but the giant triumphed over death to become the principal god of corruption. Arthuk seeks to bring Corruption to all, especially to those who live with Honor.

Trappings: Cold/Ice and Necromantic are Arthuk’s most appropriate Trappings. He is also a god of War.

Bleed: A harmful power that causes damage reduces its die type by one. On the next caster’s next action, unless counteracted by healing of some sort, the target suffers one less die of damage from bleeding. For example, a bolt does 2d6 damage normally. With the Bleed effect, it would do 2d4 damage, and the target would suffer 1d4 damage on the caster’s next turn.

Fury: Beneficial powers imbue the target with bloodlust. The power costs +1 Power Point to cast, but on a success add +1 Fighting for the duration of the power. On a raise, increase Fighting one die type for the duration of power instead.

War Cry: A raise with the power results in a Fear check at a cost of +1 Power Point.

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game