Spes Magna Games

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I’ve got the whole week off from work. I’m pushing hard to have all of my school work done this week so that I don’t have to take anything home with me over the holiday. No grading, no lesson planning, nothing. I’ve been wanting to spend some time not working so that, in part, I can get some writing done, but what to write?

I think I’ve made up my made. My all-time best seller is Making Craft Work. Back when I frequented the Paizo boards, I regularly came across people recommending MCW for other people’s games. It still sells a few units just about every month, and I released it way back in 2010.

So, here’s my idea: I want to add a system for on-the-fly magic item crafting to the rules. Just like I retooled the rules for the Craft skill so that it becomes something that might actually be useful during an adventure (instead of between adventures when characters are in a sort of Limbo-like state), I want to retool the item creation feats. I’ve got a few ideas about how this will work without having to change anything other than expanding how the item creations feats work. Just like the changes to the Craft skill, the changes to the item creation feats could be added to just about any existing Pathfinder campaign without having to change a single word on anyone’s character sheets.

I’m thinking this will about double the page count of MCW, which is a good thing, because next week I also want to figure out how DriveThruRPG’s print-on-demand function works. I’ve been wanting to move Spes Magna toward print-on-demand for at least a few products, but I have no real idea how to do this. I’m a hands-on kind of guy, and reading how-to guides makes my head hurt. I figure starting with something small and relatively simple is a good way to start.

With a little perseverance, I hope to have the new draft of MCW written and formatted for print-on-demand before I go back to work on 27 November.

Wish me luck.

Tags: Making Craft Work, Pathfinder RPG

The weekend of 27-29 October, my son Christopher and I journeyed to the Dallas-Fort Worth area to attend the first ever Lone Star Game Expo. We had fun gaming all day Saturday, playing 5E D&D with our brand new characters in two different adventures and capping the day off with Savage Worlds Deadlands adventure. Good times.

During the day Saturday, I had a chance to talk for a bit with Stan Shinn of Rogue Comet. I like Stan. He’s a nice guy. He gave me a book. That’s me and the book in the picture. Aren’t we handsome?

But I digress.

I am interested in Rogue Comet’s Dungeonesque line of products, so much so that I plan on buying the little brown boxed set and running a demo of it at OwlCon here in Houston in early 2018. Stan gave me a copy of The Chronicles RPG Kit: Malloy’s Almanac, Volume I.

According to the sales text at the aforelinked site, Malloy’s Almanac lets me “Run fantasy roleplaying games on the fly!” This is because the book “is a system-neutral, old-school 5.5×8.5” booklet with tools to help you run well organized, dynamic RPG games”. If I’m interested in a detailed, accurate calendar for my fantasy game (I’m not, but let’s pretend), then Malloy’s Almanac “features a fantasy calendar with information on sunrise and sunsets, moon phases, tides, and weather”. The “real core of the book is its 20 random encounter tools.” These tables “have separate dice roll methods which let you choose encounters for either low-magic or high-magic settings” (more on this later). What’s more, the “final section is composed of tables of characters by race (Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Orcs), with checkboxes next to each name to note when you’ve used them”.

Let’s take a closer look at that core of twenty random encounter tables. Each table covers a different topic, such as Travelers or Landmarks or Taverns. These topics are numbered one to 20, and are unevenly divided into Traveling, In Town, Loot, Verse (meaning Riddles), and Random NPCs categories.

On the tables themselves, “the first 12 entries are low-magic events” suitable for pretty much any fantasy campaign since a high-magic game would presumably also include low-magic. “The next 8 entries are specifically for high-magic settings”, and so when I use any random encounter table, I can roll either 1d12 or 1d20, the former for low-magic, the latter for high-magic. I suppose I could also roll 1d8+12 for nothing but high-magic encounters.

Now, let’s roll some dice and see what happens. First, I roll 5d20 to see what tables I’m going to use. I get 10, 8, 12, 14, and 9. The table of contents tells me I need to look at the Dreadlands, Campsites, Omens, Shops, and Relics tables.

For Dreadlands and Campsites, I’ll roll 1d12 for nothing but low-magic. For Towns and Shops, I’ll roll 1d20 for the possibility of high-magic. For Relics, I’ll roll 1d8+12 for high-magic only. When I do so, I get these results (which I’m retyping word-for-word to include editing errors, et cetera):

* Dreadlands Encounter 7: “At the top of perilous cliff, you spot a single cairn, its headstone engraved with the words, I couldn’t save her. Several corpses are strewn across the crags below, battered from the deadly fall. Standing next to the cairn, you feel compelled to leap to your doom as well.”

* Campsites Encounter 8: “A stone hut with a moss-covered roof is built into the side of a hill. An axe is buried deep in the wooden doorframe. Signs inside indicate a struggle. There is a locked cage in the corner with the skeletal remains of a large dog with a fine leather collar bearing the name ‘Brutus’.”

* Omens Encounter 16: “A boy mumbling of revenge prowls about a desecrated graveyard. He promise hidden gold if you avenge the desecration of his ancestors’ burial grounds.”

* Shops Encounter 5: “The Bosun’s Blessing. A small storefront where a former naval officer keeps his tools and accepts contracts. After retiring from his service as a seafaring soldier, the owner decided to put his experience to use by taking up the craft of repairing damaged vessels and assessing their seaworthiness.”

* Relics Encounter 16: “A crystal-clear, perfectly spherical glass orb. In its center, a vortex of whipping wind is constantly rotating, shooting out twister-shaped flares in every direction. The flares scrape the orb’s inner surface, begging to be unleashed.”

Those are some interesting encounters. Any of them could serve as a hook into a side quest or a main adventure with a bit of thought. At first glance, the $14.95 US price tag for Malloy’s Almanac seems a tad high. To be honest, if Stan hadn’t given the book to me, I doubt I’d have bought it. I think that would have been a shame. Twenty tables with 20 encounters each is a lot of content to cram into a 47-page book.

The interior layout isn’t anything fancy, and that’s fine with me. It’s mostly two-columns throughout with minimal black-and-white artwork. As can be seen from the Dreadlands and Omens entries reproduced above, there are some minor textual errors that escaped the editing process, but that’s hardly unusual even for much larger publishers than Rogue Comet.

All in all, Malloy’s Almanac is a welcome addition my collection of gaming resources.

Thanks, Stan!

Tags: Dungeonesque, reviews, Rogue Comet

About two months ago, Max Traver e-mailed me and asked some great questions about The Four Color Hack. Then, life happened, and I never got around to answering any of those questions. So, here goes.

I may have asked this before, but the instructions for rolling a D16 seem off to me. As it stands, if the D6 comes up 4, 5, or 6, we are to add 4 to the result of the D8. However, if I roll an 8, then a 6, add 4 to the 8, wouldn’t the result be 18? Shouldn’t we add 2 to the D8, not 4?

Somehow somewhere something crucial got lost in translation. Rolling a d8 and a d6 to simulate a d16 is Official Old School. It hearkens way back to when I first started gaming and d20s weren’t numbered 1 through 20, but were numbered 0 through 9 twice. So, in order to generate 1 to 20, the d6 determined whether you added 10. The d8-and-d6 trick follows the same concept. I roll both. If the d6 equals 4-6, then I add 8 to the d8. For example:

* Roll 1: d8 = 4; d6 = 2. Result = 4.
* Roll 2: d8 = 4; d6 = 5. Result = 12, because I added 8 to the 4.
* Roll 3: d8 = 8; d6 = 1. Result = 8.
* Roll 4: d8 = 8; d6 = 6. Result = 16, because I added 8 to the 8.

Vigor is described as “working like hit points,” but then Vigor is also described as allowing a Hero to “ignore this much damage from an attack.” It is also mentioned that Vigor “recovers faster than hit points.” Overall, I’ve come away just a bit confused about how Vigor works in general.

This is just sloppy writing on my part. Vigor represents a number of bonus hit points that heroes recover much quickly than normal hit points. I need to clean up the verbiage in the rules. Mea culpa maxima.

“Body” is still used in place of “Hit Points” on pages 15 and 23.

More sloppiness, but this time with the editing. Mea culpa maxima.

How does this game handle Powers as the acting/resisting ability? Say, using Wind Control against Telekinesis to keep a car from being pushed off a bridge?

The short answer is that the hero makes a Stat check as normal. This might be modified by the Wind Controller’s level. Other factors may indicate that the hero rolls with Advantage or Disadvantage. If the hero succeeds, the car doesn’t get pushed off. If the hero fails, the car goes flying, and then hero gets a chance to catch it before it hits the icy river below.

How are binding powers (like Spidey’s webs, Wonder Woman’s lasso, etc) handled?

A binding power is used to create a lasting effect. Let’s say Wonder Woman has Golden Lasso d12. She can split that into Golden Lasso d10/d10. She could then bind Ares with one d10, and still have Golden Lasso d10 available for other purposes.

Are there rules for stunning effects?

A stunning effect could be simulated using the same lasting effect rules briefly described above.

Using Elements as Villains: other than “giving the Element a Level,” how does that work?

Assign the Element whatever abilities seem most appropriate, and then slot the Element into the initiative order. In short, the Element itself gets treated like a villain or a minion.

Do Villains ever downgrade their Power Dice, the way Heroes have to downgrade their Hero Dice?

This is one area that I neglected. Not sure how. In short, Villains can use their Power Dice for automatic successes, et cetera, just like a Hero can. In those instances, the Power Dice would downgrade. Villains can also split their Power Dice to create lasting effects, et cetera.

And finally: How Brutacles D10 for his Powers broken down? Specifically, how did his Ball and Chain end up with a 2D6 + 1D8 rating?

I broke Brutacles’s d10 into 2d8, and then broke 1d8 into 2d6, giving him 1d8 and 2d6. A d6 got used for Ball-and-Chain, and another d6 got used for Brutal Armor. The d8 went for Mutagenic Steroids. Brutacles’s Ball-and-Chain damage is d6 (base damage), d6 Power Die, and d8 Mutagenic Steroids due to his enhanced strength and aggression. When facing Brutacles, it behooves Heroes to disarm him and/or put him into situations where his Mutagenic Steroids enhancements cannot be brought to bear.

Tags: TFCH

Newly docked in the ebay:

Rare, complete boxed set of Bunnies & Burrows designer B. Dennis Sustare’s Heroes of Olympus, the combination ancient Greek wargame and mythic heroes roleplaying game. All original components are in the box: the maps, the rulebook, and the counters (most of them unpunched). The maps have seldom been unfolded. The rulebook has grayed a bit, and it does have a few pencil marks and the pen mark showed in the pic. The bottom right of the front cover has some slight but noticeable tattering. It almost looks like maybe a rodent nibbled at it (I once owned hamsters). The box lid has been neatly taped on two corners, and there is a white file label affixed to the top to cover an obscenity scrawled on the box by a jerk I used to game with. The box bottom has cracked some on an edge. I’ve also thrown in a tourist map of Athens circa 1973.

Path of Legend for Fantasy Flight’s Dawnforge campaign setting. I wrote this adventure shortly after contributing a chapter to the campaign setting itself. Path of Legend introduces players and their new heroes to the Dawnforge world with an epic quest that combines location and event-based encounters that include roleplaying, puzzle-solving, and, of course, combat. The book is most gently used. It is one of the complimentary copies I received for writing the adventure. It’s never been used for play, and it’s almost like new.

GURPS Imperial Rome, published 1992, by Steve Jackson Games. Signed by Steve Jackson, Jeff Koke (editor), and Ruth Thompson (illustrator). Some what used. Noticeable scratch on cover. Some wear on corners. Some yellowing of pages. No interior marks.

That said, here’s more on the theme of (belated) October spookiness.

From an article on the always interesting Public Domain Review about Jacques Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire infernal.

A few pages later there is Amon, a horrific hell beast with globular pitch-black eyes, a “great and powerful marquis of the infernal empire” who appears as a “wolf, with a serpent’s tail . . . [whose] head resembles that of an owl, and its beak shows very sharp canine teeth.” As if le Breton’s rendition of the beast wasn’t terrifying enough, Collin de Plancy reminds us that this nightmare creature “knows the past and the future”.

The illustration to the right comes from the 1863 edition.

Amon is demonic nobility. His domain is a blighted expanse of treacherous hills and canyons across which howl burning winds that often roar together, forming tornadoes of fire and ash. Amon sees things as they actually are. Amon sees through normal and magical darkness, notices things or creatures hidden by magic, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. He knows the past and the future, but the full extent of his knowledge is not known. Amon cannot be easily lied to, tricked, or surprised. He uses the following spells at will, one at a time, once per round, as if he were a 12th-level Magic-User: Charm Monster, Levitate, Pyrotechnics, Read Languages, and Suggestion. Once per day at will, one at a time, once per round, Amon may cast Fireball, Fly, Polymorph Self, and Teleport.

Amon: HD 20; AC -3 [22]; Atk 2 claws (1d6) and 1 bite (2d6); MV 9; SV 3; AL C; CL/XP 30/7,400; Special +1 or better weapons to hit, immunity to fire and poison, magic resistance (80%), spells, telepathy 100 ft., truesight

Tags: horror, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

I have more exciting ebay news:

1. Chivalry and Sorcery: The second edition of Fantasy Games Unlimited’s Chivalry and Sorcery in its original box. The box has seen its better days, but it is more than 20 years old. Wear on top and bottom. Two corners are split, but there is no tape. Top cover bent in a bit near the top, probably from having something stacked on top of it during a move when I was in the Army. All three books are in pretty good shape. Covers are a bit smudged and yellowed. Binding is still pretty solid. Few to no pencil marks on the interiors. No ink marks or highlighting at all.

2. GURPS Imperial Rome: This copy of GURPS Imperial Rome, published 1992 by Steve Jackson Games, is autographed by by Steve Jackson, Jeff Koke (editor), and Ruth Thompson (illustrator). Some what used. Noticeable scratch on cover. Some wear on corners. Some yellowing of pages. No interior marks.

And, now, more for October. Ooh. Spooky.

Jump Scares

Let’s face it. It can be hard to run a horror-based game that is evocative enough with players who are immersed enough in the experience that the adventure unfolding really approaches anything close to the level of scary. So, with that in mind, do what schlock horror movie writers have done for ages. That’s right. Use jump scares. Get a large six-sided die. Display it prominently. Then, when something that’s supposed to be scary is about to happen, scream and roll the die. Before the players recover from your ear-piercing shriek, consult Table: Jump Scares and apply the results accordingly.

On a 1-2, the characters are somewhat more likely than normal to be surprised by the loud noise or by whatever suddenly appears. Of course, the something in this case isn’t dangerous, so there’s not likely any immediate effect, although that loud noise might alert nearby monsters, guards, et cetera.

On a 3, the characters are not only somewhat more likely to be surprised, but since the something is also dangerous, they are greater risk of harm.

The chance to be surprised increases on a 4 or 5 since a loud noise accompanies the sudden appearance of the something. Worst of all, on a 6, so many sudden things happen more or less at once that surprise is very hard to avoid.

Tags: horror