Dragon Horde Zine #2 Coming Along Nicely

So these are the articles I'm looking at as the "anchor" pieces
for what is to be a Nordic-themed issue...

Monster Roster: Linnorms. I know this is a creature that has been dealt with in a few places (e.g., 2e's AD&D Monstrous Compendium Annual 1, John Turcotte's Stormcrows Gather. I felt like 2e's linnorms were too strong, and Turcotte's linnorm really only came in one variety. I wanted the variety of 2e, but executed with more of a BX vibe (even though Oe/1e stats will be included).

The Völva: A New NPC Character Class. Honestly, the way I've done this one up, there's no reason it doesn't work as a PC character class. I've seen other people mention they'd like to see this as a class for a Nordic/viking-themed RPG, but haven't found anyone working it up (especially for old-school D&D editions and clones).

Vifillmein. This is the issue's adventure designed for beginning level (1st=3rd) characters. I'm feeling pretty good about the concept, and the presentation (even though I do have a lot of work left to flesh out the bones).

A Futhark Rune Adventure Seed Generator. It's based on the actual meaning of the runes, and the various methods used to draw them from the bag. I'm really trying to make this substantially different than the adventure generator from the d30 Sandbox Companion, and keep with the spirit of the runes used as predictions (things for the DM to aspire to, rather than design around, as the adventure goes on). I'm feeling pretty good about it so far, and the "bones" of the system are in place. Mostly, I've just got to get runes broken out to match the dice rolling (trying to keep it completely d6-based).

There will be some other, smaller articles (about a half-dozen or so). But, like I said, these are the main anchors of the issue.

"Shreds of Fabric" Adventure Design Technique

This is a sketch for the adventure I've got in the works for Dragon Horde Zine #2... for which I shared the illustration recently.

There's actually a lot of story going on here that's not obvious from that illustration or this sketch (which really does nothing more than lay out the major encounter areas, and note how they're related). The story does, however, drives the whole thing.

In some ways, the way I'm approaching adventure design as-of-late is based on a technique I'm calling the "shreds of fabric" technique. Hah! I just made that up. Look, if Hemingway could use an "iceberg" approach to storytelling, why can't I use a "shreds of fabric approach." Okay, I'll admit, "shreds of fabric" is just my way of saying that little clues are planted here and there, and as more shreds of fabric and placed to together, the clearer the picture becomes of what really happened. I know that's not really a new technique (and those writing professors out there will probably chime in with a more appropriate term for the technique), but it does help me think about how I want the story to be woven as the characters progress through the encounters, regardless of the order of those encounters.

Part of what I'm resolving in this map-sketch (which actually deals with both encounters AND story), is when and how to reveal the story's big plot twist. (I'm avoiding the tendency to want to railroad this kind of reveal. As such, I'll be reworking those "blocked passages" in the middle of the map.)

I'm reminded of the movie The Sixth Sense. Somebody had warned me not to read too much about it before I saw it, because of the big plot twist at the end. Because I knew there was a twist, when I saw the movie for the first time, I started looking for it. Halfway through the movie, I figured it out. Watching the rest of the movie just reinforced my hypothesis. So when the twist was finally revealed at the end, I thought to myself, "Yep. I figured it out." But it didn't necessarily reduce my enjoyment of the story. I'm hoping this adventure is the same. That even if the characters discover the "plot twist" (i.e., get the "whole picture") halfway through the adventure, that it doesn't keep them from enjoying the other little shreds of fabric as they discover them.

New Google+ Community: Classic Microgames

I've just started a new Google+ community dedicated to classic microgames (think small boxes and zip bags) popular from the late 70s through late 80s, as well as to the support and development of new games in the same vein. Membership is open. Please join if this interests you!

Valley of the Five Fires Wargame Test/Update Beta Version 98% Ready

Welbo and I actually finished our most recent playtest of the Valley of the Five Fires wargame on Sunday night. Long story short, it was a rousing success! Huzzah! (Which is to say, "I won!")

THE BIG CHANGES...

Combat
The original mechanic was based on a number of d6s rolled equal to the chit's Attack Rating (from 1d6-4d6), both sides rolled, and the difference was subtracted from the lower roller's Wound Points as damage. This was repeated until one of the two combatants was dead. While it seemed good in theory, in practice it was... well... it just wasn't fun. Weaker opponents died pretty much 100% of the time, regardless of whether the advantage was 4d6 to 3d6 or 2d6 to 1d6. The reworked mechanic was based on a 2d6 roll on an odds table (like the ones on this post, but with 2d6 instead of 3d6), and a separate damage roll (based on the result of the 2d6 roll). At first glance, it would seem that 2 rolls per "round" would be more confusing and take longer than 1 roll per "round," but not so. It was smoother, much more balanced, and makes even the 1d6-Attack-Rating Skeletons potentially deadly (but mostly "potentially").

Encounter Wound Points
Given the deadliness of even minor encounters under the new combat paradigm (yes, I used the word "paradigm," what of it?), the Wound Points (i.e., "hit points") for all the animals, monsters, and warriors (player and NPC warriors alike) had to be re-thought. In most cases, their Attack Ratings stayed the same, and only the Wound Points were adjusted (usually down by about 1/2) so that combat resolution didn't take forever.

Added Victory Condition
Originally, winning the game required only acquiring all four of the Luuzhin coins. The updated victory condition requires the player make it back to their base camp to return the acquired coins to their Khan (the player parties are searching on behalf of their respective khans). This creates a bit of a gauntlet during the last moments of play, and creates some extra tension.

TO ANSWER THE PLAYING TIME QUESTION...

Somebody asked the playing time. I think given the most recent experience, whether you're playing with 2, 3, or 4 players, I'm thinking about 2 hours. Ironically, having more players potentially shortens the game time, while fewer players means it could take longer. With a certain number of spaces on the board that have to be investigated, more players means investigating them goes more quickly. And fewer players means investigating them goes much slower (duh).

WHAT'S LEFT...

At this point, I just need to retype the rules to accommodate all the little tweaks we've made along the way, as well as the re-figured combat rules. I'm not quite ready for volunteers yet, but give me a week or so, and keep your eye on this blog. Most likely, the next post I make about the game will be the call for beta playtesters, and I'll tell you what/who we're looking for, and how we'll choose. Welbo and I will probably run a few sessions via Roll20 (with 2 recruits per session), but we'll also likely be sending out some "prototype" versions to a few others (for blind play, without our assistance with the rules).

Another illustration from the upcoming Dragon Horde zine #2....

This is the image for the title page of the adventure for the issue.
The adventure is tentatively titled Vifillmein ("beetle plague").

BTW, I'm not sure why I love putting halfings in my illustrations. I just do.

New Illustration: Völva (Before & After)

No... "völva"... with an umlautted "o" (not a "u") - a Norse shaman/seeress. It's an NPC character class I'm working on for issue #2 of The Dragon Horde zine. I was really looking for an old public domain illustration from the lat 1800s or early 1900s that would fit the bill, but to no avail. In lieu of that option, I decided to do my own. My first stab (bottom) was really an attempt to start using my brush pen again. While I like the line quality, it just didn't have the visual punch I wanted (and felt a little to "new school" for what I wanted visually, especially the punkish haircut). So I took another stab, attempting to give it that woodcut inspired look with which I've had some success (see my Bartleby illustration for reference). The new illustration makes her look older, but that's intentional. The further I got into the development of the class, I realized making her a tad older made more sense (and was more in line with the traditional image of a völva).

AFTER...


BEFORE...

More thoughts toward a BX version of psionics...

Triarchy (2005) by Jeroen van Valkenburg

About 1-1/2 years ago, I made a post mentioning that I wanted to try to find a BX psionics solution. Let's face it, OD&D and AD&D psionics is unwieldy, cumbersome, and downright confusing. More importantly, there is nothing about the psionic system in those systems that feels anything at all like normal combat in D&D. But I can't blame Steve Marsh (who is co-credited with Brian Blume for psionics' as it appears in Eldritch Wizardry). In a 2009 interview with Grognardia, Steve lamented, "a character class I designed was taken apart and turned into the psionic powers... I wanted a character class, but the editor decided that the abilities belonged available to everyone, except for elves."

IMO, psionics (for PCs) were most successful in older editions when treated as part of a character class. The Psionicist character class was introduced in Dragon Magazine #7 (in an article by Arthur Collins), and re-worked/re-introduced by Steve Winter in AD&D2's The Complete Psionics Handbook. But regardless of how successful these may or may not have been, they did not address an underlying issue... the system of psionics inherited from AD&D by way of OD&D is simply "unlike" what players expect in D&D — especially BX D&D.

So I've been putting some thoughts against this for the last week, and was thinking, "How do I make this as familiar as possible for BX players who avoid adapting AD&D psionics like the plague because it's so... so... whatever it is." So here's where I've landed (for now)...

Psionics is a class-based ability (like magic), with psionicists getting more abilities with each level gained. Psionicists are human (the same way that in the BX-context MUs and clerics are only human) who use d4s to determine hit points, can't wear any armor or carry a shield, and may use only a dagger (and make their physical attack rolls using the MU attack tables). Most importantly, in keeping with the BX spirit, the minimum WIS and INT scores are 9 (though bonus XPs are rewarded for high Wisdom AND Intelligence scores). WAIT! What's that you say? Psionic characters with Wisdom and Intelligence scores of 9? Yes. That's what I said, and here's why...

The number of Wisdom points a character has directly affects the number of Psionic Energy Points the character gains at each level — e.g., characters with a WIS of 16-17 get twice as many PEPs per level as characters with a WIS of 9-12, and high levels that gives wiser characters a deathly advantage; choosing to be a psionicist with that low of a Wisdom score would just be a VERY poor decision.

The number of Intelligence points a character has directly affects their ability to defend against psionic attacks expressed as Mental Class (or MC). "What's Mental Class?" you ask? Well, it's sort of like Armor Class for the mind (based on the character's INT, with bonuses for psionic users based on level/HD). Which brings us to the major innovation in simplifying this system...

All mental attacks (vs. psionic or non-psionic characters) are made using a single Mental Attack Table (which looks like any other D&D attack table)!!! The various combinations of psionic attack and defense modes simply become modifiers "to hit" on the attack table. Non-psionic characters get a saving throw based on their INT (like OD&D) and psionic characters lose PEPs based on the type of attack/defense and the level of two psionic parties involved.

That's all I've got so far, but I feel good about where it's going.