Real Life vs. Fantasy Life....

Real life always wins.

It looks like our campaign sessions may be on hold for the moment. We may get one more game in before the year's end. If not, we'll be rolling into next year and that's fine. We've been rolling the dice pretty well considering everyone's eternally tight schedules, but with the holidays coming in and other celebratory events, this time of year tends to get a bit hectic for all. I'll keep posting other tasty gaming bits in the meantime. And for those who have been following the exploits of our intrepid souls, sit tight, as their suspended adventures will continue in a brief while.

This all brings me to a finer point of gaming, and that is whether to end a session in mid-game or get the players back to a town.

I've always been of a mindset to let the game just be. If the session happens to end while the characters are deep below the surface of the earth, the game is suspended with the characters and events frozen in time until the next session begins. No resources are used up, no hit points gained for rest, it would be just like putting down a novel and picking it back up again and continuing reading where you left off. I like that concept. It adds a continuity to the developments of the campaign. That also may have worked when my players and I were all 12 years old, but as adults and with all the complexities that brings, it may not be the most practical method at this juncture.

In the situation mentioned above, if a player(s) can't make a session, then what to do? It is ashame to continue on without a player being there controlling his/her character. I enjoy having all my players at the table. They all have a good chemistry together and each one brings something unique to the game.

The GM can run that person's character, but the GM already has too much to keep track of.

So maybe it is best to begin and end a session in a 'safe zone'. Once in that 'safe zone', life goes on in the game, resources used up, wounds healed as one day of real time passes as game time. If the next session begins with a player missing, that player's character can stay in town or guard camp, etc. It does open up some more flexibility when players indeed do have to miss a session. It may be a little bit more contrived getting the characters in and out of an adventure than I would like, but perhaps in today's busy adult world, that may be a pretty good option.

I'll have to give it some thought and maybe bounce it to my players as well.

Why Play A Retro Clone?

This question has come up recently for me. It is, indeed, a valid question and has been in the back of my mind for a while now. Why play a retro-clone over the original game of Dungeons & Dragons when you still own the original OOP rules or can purchase them online?

For me, the Retro Clones brought back an excitement and gaming philosophy that lead me into the game in the first place. The revisions, presentations and community of these 'new' rules pulled me in.

It would be a tough argument to say that the original OD&D rules were written in a clear, concise manner. There was a lot of ambiguity and contradiction in those original rules. I'm not saying that that was a terrible thing but instead of just clarifying those original rules, they were rewritten into the 1ed Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide, which in my opinion, was a complication of the game and lead us down the path to the rules-intense versions of the game that are out today. Holmes did a pretty good job of editing the OD&D game into something that was an presentation improvement in his 'basic' version of the game.

Now, I felt that Moldvay's basic rules improved upon the layout and explication of the Holmes rules but I always felt the writing was geared more towards children. Even though I was young at the time, I still read from the Holmes rules, more because of the way it was written than anything else. I didn't need the writing to be 'dumbed' down, I needed the rules to be clarified.

The retro-clones do just that. They are well written 'revisions' of the original rules keeping the original philosophies and concepts of the original intentions of the game alive. Things are left open enough for the GM and players to adapt the game to their vision and style.

Sure I can still play using my original rules and you can play those rules how you like, but I also feel that Retro Clones are a good way to step out of the weight of what D&D was and had became without having to get into any arguments or issues. My players have all played different versions of the games from Holmes basic all the way up through 4ed, but now we're all just playing S&W. No arguing, no expectations just good gaming fun.

Many version of the Clones can be obtained as free PDF downloads. You and your players don't have to spend a lot of money buying volume upon volume of rules just to sit down and play a game. That, alone, can bring new players into classic RPGs. And with WOTC pulling their pdf files of the OOP material, obtaining copies of those publications can be difficult and expensive.

I feel the game was meant to be fun, quick-paced and concise and these various rules do just that. It's really all just that same game but the clones have gotten me back into playing the game once more. And we've got 6 players now and more want to play. Anything that brings new players in or old players back is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Level 1 Gamer Gains A Level!

Corey Bishop, a regular player in my campaign, has a blog called Level 1 Gamer. It covers his new introduction to the RPG hobby so he has a pretty interesting and fresh perspective on gaming. His current post is about his experience with our Swords & Wizardry Campaign. It's a good read and his analysis is spot on. Check it out.

And Speaking of Wizards....

Okay, this is a shameless plug for some of the gaming material that put out under IndieOnly and The Warlock's Home Brew. These are useful gaming aids to add to your gaming table and great for players and GameMasters alike to flip through.

Book of Wizardry
Give your players this hands on Spell Book for their Spell-casting characters. Compiled from the existing spell descriptions in the classic-style fantasy RPG Swords & Wizardry Core Rules by Matt Finch.

Book of the Divine
But why stop with wizards? You don't want your players casting spells of divine intervention to be left out? This book of divine spells are for Cleric or Druid characters. Also compiled from the existing spell descriptions in the fantasy RPG Swords & Wizardry Core Rules and Supplemental Lore by Skathros.

Both books are available as a free pdf download from Lulu.com or as Lulu's print on demand booklet from The Warlock's Home Brew Lulu store.

Magic User House Rules...so far

(Reader's Note: Sorry about the revisions to this post. I was trying to get the table to work properly. I'm still figuring out this google blog thingy.)

The concept of 'game balance' these days is a bit foreign to me. I have always pictured campaigns as being open ended, a bit deadly and characters of all skill levels running around. A low level character stumbling into an encounter too challenging for them just made the game more 'realistic' for me.

When I was younger (like around 10 years old) and first introduced to the game, Magic-Users were always a bit tricky to figure out. They tended to play a very, very minor roll in my childhood games. Now days, I'm a bit more fascinated by them and their powerful magic.

Wizards, who start out incredibly weak at first, evolve into the mighty arcane casters we are familiar with. So in working magic-users into my campaign I wanted to keep that characteristic in place also, I've always liked the spell book for wizards; thick old tomes filled with mystic runes and characters, so that was, for sure, staying.

My house-rule magic-users are nothing ground-breaking, but I kinda like the general sketch of them. I may evolve things over time but this is where I'm at now. I've added some of the Holmes' elements to it as well.

The Magic-user begins his trade as a graduated apprentice and a number of spells that he has knowledge of from his studies. Additional spells can be studied or discovered through adventure. A Magic-user's spells are recorded in a large heavy tome . Any new spell that a magic-user wants to know has a chance of being knowable or unknowable. Any spell that is unknowable cannot be added to the Magic-users spell book.

Intelligence of MU	% Chance to know any given spell	Minimum number of initial spells known	Maximum spells known per level.
3-4	20%	2	3
5-7	30%	2	4
8-9	40%	3	5
10-12	50%	4	6
13-14	65%	5	8
15-16	75%	6	10
17	85%	7	All
18	95%	8	All

The apprentice magic-user 'graduates' with his minimum number of spells as per the rule, with one having to be Read Magic. The player can choose what those spells he/she wants (or random roll) from the first level spell list to complete the minimum. Thus, a higher intelligence apprentice graduates his education with with a larger repertoire. Of course, the apprentice can still only can memorize but a single spell per day. After he graduates, he is on his own. Only adventure and self-study will gain him additional spells.

These rules place some limitation on the magic-user's power, but there are ways to partially overcome them. One way is to have the spell written on on a magic scroll. Magic-users may make a scroll of a spell they already 'know' (have in their spellbook) at a cost of 100 gp and 1 week's work for each spell level.

The gold spent in this process counts towards experience (I'll be talking more about experience a future post).

Copying other spells from another spellbook or scroll into your spellbook: First you must cast Read Magic to be able to decipher the magical writing. Then you must spend a day studying the spell. Then at the end of the day you must make your know spell percentage roll. If you succeed, then you understand the spell and can copy it into your spellbook. The process leaves a spellbook that was copied from unharmed, but a spell successfully copied from a magic scroll disappears from the parchment.

If the check fails, the wizard cannot understand or copy the spell. He/she cannot attempt to learn or copy that spell again until another level is gained. A spell that was being copied from a scroll does not vanish from the scroll.

It is recommended that a Magic-user not bring his spellbook with him on his adventures. The book is quite heavy and very costly to replace. but it is up to the MU to decide if he would risk it being stolen or ruined. Now, if he wants to make a copy of his book that he can carry with him, he can, but it will cost him in terms of gold and time. 1000gp and 1 weeks work for each spell/level. If the spellbook is lost or destroyed the magic-user can try to recreate his original spells as per the creation spell rule below but has an additional 5% chance of success per character level.

My other addition would be that if a MU never runs across a spell he would like to have, he can research or create a new spell. The first attempt would cost the 2000gp per spell level and 1 week. After that week, we see if he can know the spell, if so, he has a 20% chance of success. If not, time and money lost. If he can know the spell but failed his success, he can try again with an additional cumulative 10% on each attempt.

I may evolve this a bit as time goes on but this is the foundation that I'm working from. I saw a really good article in Knockspell #2 by Brendan Falconer called Spell Complexity which gives the MU character odds of keeping the spell in his mind after casting. I like that as well but haven't applied it to the game yet.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Remember when saturday morning cartoons kicked ass? Well, here's a real treat for you so go grab your bowl of cereal and kick-back!


Korgoth of Barbaria - Pilot

June|Bug | MySpace Video

Fantasy Friday

For Fantasy Friday today we have a very special treat. Over at Ninja Mountain Scrolls there is a great podcast featuring an extended interview with TSR artists Erol Otus and Jeff Easley. Also at the virtual table is artist Stefan Poag and Goodman Games.

It's a great listen as they chat about creating the illustrations for classic D&D material and talk a bit about gaming, TSR, the old school movement and Swords & Wizardry.