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B40 Normal Human

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Revisitation: a series of posts that each feature a quote from a classic source along with a short discussion. Quotes that make me question some previous assumption I had about the game or that seem to lead to otherwise unexpected consequences will be preferred.

This entry comes from the Normal Human monster entry in Moldvay Basic (page B40):

A normal human is a human who does not seek dangerous adventure. A normal human does not have a class. … As soon as a human gets experience points through an adventure, that person must choose a character class.

So this is how humans in Moldvay D&D become adventurers: not by training, not by having exceptional ability scores, but rather by sheer audacity.

Retainers (at least the kind recruited in a tavern) should probably have the statistics of normal humans. Once they survive their first excursion into the underworld or wilderness, perhaps the player of their employer should be allowed to select the retainer’s class? That would help give the player a stake in the fate of the retainer, and maybe also be a good time to introduce the traditional idea of the retainer as a PC-in-waiting. I’ve liked that idea ever since I read about it, but I have never seen it used in play.

Finding a retainer with a class (like some of the NPCs in Bone Hill) could be a special occurrence, almost form of treasure or reward, rather than a disposable grunt. Especially if that means that dying means that you go back to level N (where N is the level of your highest retainer) rather than level 1. That, however, is probably anathema to many new school players, who suffer from “my precious character” syndrome just as much as many referees suffer from “my precious encounter” syndrome. Many people are only happy with wish-fulfillment characters, which also undergirds much of the drive for being able to control every aspect of character creation.

When discussing normal humans, it is also perhaps worthwhile to note that many monsters in the bestiary are in fact thinly disguised versions of other monsters with minor cosmetic changes and trivial rules differences. There are four alternate type of troll, for example, in the Fiend Folio (giant troll, giant two-headed troll, ice troll, and spirit troll, in case you were curious). I would argue that most of the humanoid races as presented in D&D are pretty much just this. Much like the aliens of Star Trek, they are just humans in makeup.

James Raggi said it better than I could. In the LotFP Grindhouse Edition Referee Book, he wrote (page 51):

Humanoids are basically man-like creatures who have a gimmick and are present merely to give PCs intelligent, organized opponents which can be slaughtered wholesale with little reflection, remorse, or consequence.
…
Whenever you think to introduce a humanoid, just ask yourself, “Why would these not work as humans?” Much of the time it is of the desire to not portray humans of a barbaric bent as savages.

This also allows the referee to keep the truly monstrous humanoids waiting in the wings for portrayals such as Beedo’s Orcs of Gothic Greyhawk or my own Goblins as Corruption. And to make more use of the monster entry on page B40: the normal human.

Starting Equipment

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Here is a method for randomly determining starting equipment by class. This is intended for B/X type D&D (or similar games) and the tables have been engineered so that they work no matter the class.

Cowards may, of course, choose rather than roll.

dH = hit die (e.g., fighter dH = d8, magic-user dH = d4)

Weapons
Roll 2dH twice for beginning weapons; re-roll duplicates if desired.

  1. Hand axe (can be thrown)
  2. Club, cudgel, or truncheon
  3. Sling (ranged)
  4. Dagger (can be thrown)
  5. Quarterstaff
  6. Crossbow (ranged)
  7. Short sword
  8. Long sword
  9. Short bow (ranged)
  10. Mace
  11. Battle axe
  12. Spear (bulky, can be thrown)
  13. Long bow (bulky, ranged)
  14. Halberd or other pole arm (bulky)
  15. Two-handed sword (bulky)

Armor
Roll dH for beginning armor.

  1. No armor
  2. Shield
  3. Leather
  4. Leather & shield
  5. Chain
  6. Chain & shield
  7. Plate
  8. Plate & shield

Equipment
Roll d20 four times; re-roll duplicates if desired.

  1. Holy water
  2. Wolvesbane
  3. Belladonna
  4. Garlic
  5. Small mirror
  6. Mallet & stakes (6)
  7. Small hammer & Iron spikes (12)
  8. Grappling hook & rope (50 feet)
  9. Tinder box & Torches (6)
  10. Lantern & flasks of oil (3)
  11. Ten foot pole
  12. Rations
  13. Tent & bedroll
  14. Fishing gear
  15. Lockpicks
  16. Book, pen, ink
  17. Riding horse, tack, saddlebags
  18. Mule, tack, saddlebags
  19. Canoe & paddle
  20. Ancient super science battery
Batteries will have a limited number of charges. The referee should track charges secretly.

Design Notes

Each PC begins play with:

  • Two sets of travelling clothes
  • Backback
  • Belt pouch
  • Water skin
  • 3 empty sacks (for loot, of course)
  • 2d10 gp
Additional equipment is rolled on the equipment table above (4d20, as specified).
Any class can use any weapon or armor (though armor decreases movement through encumbrance and penalizes actions requiring fine motor control); characters do dH damage.

Using 2dH to select weapons creates a probability curve.

The most common weapons by dH:

  • d4: dagger, followed by slings and quarterstaffs
  • d6: crossbow, followed by quarterstaff and short sword
  • d8: long sword, followed by short sword and short bow

It is only possible for classes with dH = d8 to begin with the heaviest military weapons, or to begin with any bulky weapons.

Armor possibilities by dH:

  • d4: no armor through leather & shield
  • d6: no armor through chain & shield
  • d8: no armor through plate & shield

Also note that in many systems, 10 minus (armor dH roll) = AC. Though not important, this is a pleasant symmetry.

Any character may try to pick locks using a set of lock picks. Non-thieves have a flat 1 in 6 chance, adjusted by dexterity. That is, a character with extraordinary dexterity (13 or higher) has a 2 in 6 chance.

Quick Weapon Observation

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I should have included this in my weapon damage by hit die post, but I didn’t think of it then. Check out this simple table of correspondences:

  • Fighter hit die: d8
    Iconic weapon: long sword (d8 damage)
  • Cleric hit die: d6
    Iconic weapon: mace (d6 damage)
  • Magic-user hit die: d4
    Iconic weapon: dagger (d4 damage)

That is, characters playing to type in B/X D&D naturally do hit die damage. The relationship breaks down slightly when ranged weapons are considered. Long bows inflict d8 damage and slings inflict d4 damage, fitting the pattern, but what ranged weapons do clerics use? If it’s a crossbow with a wooden stake, we are in business. In any case, the point here is not that this is an iron-clad rule, merely that it is a tendency.

The thief/rogue actually fits this pattern relatively well too, with dagger/short sword, and d4/d6, respectively. This also reflects the change from the thief (sneaky, bad at combat) to the rogue (stealthy, striker).

The main benefit of damage by hit die is to reduce a rather complicated table reference (the weapon damage chart) to an easily memorable rule. This is similar to what Talysman is trying to do (*) with his Liber Zero clone project. Note that this is not a core mechanic, which may have only one kind of resolution mechanism, but may also have a huge number of very specific rules for modifying the target number based on circumstances. Easily memorable elements may use several different resolution mechanisms, but they must not rely on a large corpus of external rules to function.

(*) – In his own words:

one of my personal goals with Liber Zero (quickly becoming the central goal of LZ) is to strip the game down to easily-memorizable elements so that the game can be played without reference to books

See here for more details.

Type V Thoughts

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At first I thought that I would have nothing to add to the deluge of reactions to the fifth edition announcement. On reflection, I do have a few things to say.

  1. Consider this my signature on the Jeff Rients Type V petition (following the lead of Grognardling).
  2. Also, this one. I would be first in line to buy a high-quality collectable coffee table compilation book of old modules and adventures. I bet many people would, even those don’t actively play.
  3. Obviously, I would like to see legal PDF sales return (hopefully with higher production values this time around). Personally, I would be even more excited about a print on demand option, which might even be more acceptable to the company, as they might see it contributing less to piracy. However, if old content becomes available, I predict it will be something like a digital-only “D&D Archive” which will require a continuous D&D Insider (or whatever they choose to call it) subscription. That would pull in Grognard dollars without exactly competing with other offerings.
  4. Say a record company owned the rights to the back catalog of The Beatles, Elvis, and The Rolling Stones. Why would they be so stupid as to not market that back catalog? Rights to the old D&D products have the same status within the tabletop RPG community. And the content is already created; only minimal production work would need to be done. Would any record exec seriously argue that some teenager would be less likely to buy the new Gaga album because Johnny Cash material was available? What am I missing here?
  5. I haven’t been following the recent Wizards game design posts that closely, but I have read a few of them. It sounds to me like they want to seriously modularize the rules. That is a good thing, especially if they really emphasize that fiddly subsystems (e.g., skills, feats, psionics) are truly separate. I think there is a chance they might go this way with feats, but I seriously doubt they will remove skills from the core. Based on a realistic appraisal of the overall community of tabletop RPG players, I think the skills doubters (I belong to this group) are a tiny minority.
  6. If I were WotC, I would want the casual, Walmart market. This group, by lucky coincidence, might have the same requirements as those of us that prefer light rules.

Carcosa-Inspired Psion Class

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Here is a super-simple class inspired by the Carcosa psionics system.

  • Hit die: d6
  • Level advancement: as cleric
  • Base attack bonus: as thief
  • Power uses per day: level / 2 (round up)
  • May also pay 1d6 HP to use a power
  • Only surprised by sentient beings on a 1 in 6
  • Weapons: any
  • May not use psionic powers if wearing a helmet

Each level, roll for (or select, you cheater) a new psionic talent (re-roll dups):

  1. Clairaudience
  2. Clairvoyance
  3. ESP
  4. Mental Blast
  5. Mind Control
  6. Precognition
  7. Telekinesis
  8. Telepathy
Consult the Carcosa book for power descriptions (or use appropriate magic-user spells).

More thoughts on the entirety of the new Carcosa book coming soon.

Dragon Draft

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HD 3-18+, AC as plate, 3 attacks or breath, move 90′, fly 240′, morale 9, # 1

A dragon’s age and power are reflected by hit dice. To determine dragon hit dice randomly, roll 3d6. If the result is all sixes, roll another d6, adding the result to the previous total. Continue this procedure as long as sixes are rolled.

Hit dice also determines the damage inflicted by a dragon’s fiery breath. For example, a 12 hit die dragon will do 12 dice of damage to all in the area of effect (half damage if a save is made). Once a dragon has breathed fire, they must wait 1-3 rounds before they can breath again. Breath weapon damage dice, like standard hit dice, are always d8s. The breath weapon range is equal to the number of hit dice multiplied by 10 feet, and it spreads out like a cone (the dragon has approximate control over the cone width).

Dragons may either breath fire or make up to three physical attacks (these could be bites, claws, tail slams, or any other kind of attack that makes sense in the situation at hand). Each physical attack does one die of damage. The die used should be that closest to the total number of hit dice the dragon possesses. For example, an 8 hit die dragon does d8 damage per hit. A 9 hit die dragon would do either d8 or d10 damage per hit (decide beforehand, determine randomly, or alternate).

Dragons are huge, scaled, lizard-like, fire-breathing monsters of great cunning, greed, and intelligence. Their intelligence, however, is of an alien sort. Being almost entirely self-sufficient, they have little use for society or technology, and are unable to relate (other than superficially) with lesser beings regarding these matters. They seek only treasure, ever growing domain, and occasionally worship. Unlike most creatures, age only adds to a dragon’s power. Surviving wyrmlings become ever more dangerous.

The youngest dragons are pony-sized, and generally grow until they reach the size of an elephant in body (though their length from nose to tail and wing span will be much greater). Though there seems to be no absolute limit on dragon size, the rate of their growth does slow significantly once they have reached that size. In color, their scales are inky black, earthy brown, mouldy green, rocky gray, or bloody crimson (or some combination thereof). Dragons enjoy eating any kind of meat, particularly living meat, though they do not require it for sustenance. A dragon deprived of meat for too long, however, will become surly.

Dragon reproduction is mysterious. They are thought to hatch from eggs, but have never been found in mated pairs and will rarely cooperate. They are by nature agents of chaos, and logic suggests that they would burn themselves out over time. However, this has not happened.

A dragon can be subdued by nonlethal damage. A subdued dragon will turn on their master if they perceive weakness, but will otherwise continue to serve as long as they are fed well and rewarded with treasure (a good rule of thumb would be about half of treasure accumulated). Dragons will also generally challenge their master when they have grown into another hit die, but this will sometimes take longer than their master’s lifespan. Such dragon lords often become petty tyrants, though their rule rarely lasts long due to the inherent instability of the relationship.

Source: Ljubljana Dragon
Design Notes

I think that in later versions of D&D, dragons have come to be somewhat deified. I don’t like this. I think that dragons should be fearsome and terrifying, but I don’t think you should need to be a demigod to challenge one. A young dragon should be something that could be run down by a fourth level fighter with a lance (given some luck), or even found on the first level of a dungeon.

In terms of style, there is a tension between the monstrous dragon and the sleek panther-like dragon. The sleek dragon has come to dominate fantasy art. The monstrous dragon tends to look more like it came from a fairy tale, and is often (though not always) fat. For examples, see the Holmes basic set dragon, the Rankin/Bass Smaug, the animated Flight of Dragons movie, or almost any painting of St. George and the dragon. For examples of the sleek dragon, see current D&D dragons and the work of Jeff Easley. I am interested in portraying a more mythic dragon, though still influenced by Tolkien’s Smaug. None of the gimmicky multicolored D&D chromatic dragons. My dragons all breath fire.

Regarding behavior, I want to emphasize that dragons do not live by the same rules as mortal races. I picture dragons as intelligent, but alien and prone to underestimating others.

Incidentally, I didn’t stick that bit in their about dragons not needing food for sustenance with any particular goal in mind; it just felt right given their embodiment of ever-growing power and danger. This, in concert with the growth of dragons due to increasing hit dice, might however explain why dragons sometimes get stuck underground. I’m not going to look that gift horse in the mouth. Maybe they even originate in the underworld and must reach the surface before they grow too big. Or maybe, like adventurers, they go underground in search of treasure, but sometimes outgrow their entrance.

In OD&D, total hit dice varied by dragon type, but age (and hit points per die) were determined by one d6 roll (1 being very young, 6 being very old). A similar procedure is used by the original Monster Manual, though a d8 is used instead. This is interesting, but odd. It means that given a 10 hit die dragon, there only exist dragons with hit point totals in a multiple of 10. I like the identification of age with hit dice, but rather than vary the HP per hit die (is that done with any other monster?), why not vary the number of hit dice for age? This also scales the attack bonus, which makes sense to me.

Traditionally, in both OD&D and B/X, breath weapon damage is non-random. It does automatic damage equal to the dragon’s remaining HP. I changed this because I like uncertainty, I like to roll dice, and I don’t like to expose monster health meters.

The rules for dragons take up an inordinate amount of space in pretty much all the editions I have looked at. Despite that, I still feel like my draft is a bit too wordy. Three paragraphs of rules and four of flavor. Any tips or suggestions are welcome (as always).

Traveller Rising

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I’m more of a fantasy person than a sci-fi person, and I didn’t even know about Traveller until some time in 2011. But references to it kept popping up on the blogs and forums I frequent, so I knew I needed to check it out at some point. At first I was going to pick up a set of the original Traveller 3 LBBs (little black books) from the old boxed set; unlike OD&D, the price for an original set is not that high. Then I found that classic traveller was recently reprinted as a collection, Books 0-8, at a very reasonable price. As you can see from the picture, the book is printed in landscape rather than portrait (I think it might be a literal reprinting of the digest originals).

I got interested in Traveller because it seems to embody its own little niche in RPG system design. From where I’m sitting, there are three three main paradigms in tabletop RPGs:

  1. Class and level based (D&D)
  2. Skill based (World of Darkness)
  3. Life-path with little mechanical advancement (Traveller)

GURPS is also skill based, no? GURPS is older than WoD, so I should probably list that as the exemplar of skill based RPGs, but I’ve not played it myself. Maybe new-fangled story games are a fourth  paradigm (games that have mechanics built around narrative control), but I’m really not familiar enough with them to say. Am I missing anything important? Would anybody draw the category lines differently?

The influence of the life-path leg seems to be rising in the OSR. Just days after ordering Books 0-8, I came across the announcement of a development forum for Shot & Sorcery, a LotFP take on historical weird fantasy heavily inspired by Traveller. And James Maliszewski released Thousand Suns in December (it has some relation to Traveller, right?). Joseph Browning (of Sorcery & Super Science) is working on Worlds Apart: A Fantasy Role-Playing Game of Exploration and Trade (which is perhaps nearing release).

Some other relevant, though older, links:

I have this lingering idea of equivalency between levels 1 through 14 in D&D (the range in B/X) and the character generation procedure in Traveller. That would give a new meaning to the idea that “character background is what happens during play”. And the main body of a Traveller game would be roughly equivalent to domain and stronghold play in D&D.

It seems like level 15+ D&D could go in one of two directions: this kind of domain play or demigods/immortals (see this post from Zak and skip to the paragraph about Thor).

2011 Fiction Readings

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Following my post on RPG material, here is some fiction that I read in 2011 which has some relation to gaming. I read a lot of other stuff, mostly economic history & literature, but most of that is not really on topic. This list is incomplete and in no particular order. Maybe I’ll keep a better list in 2012. Also, I didn’t read much fantasy (or fiction generally) prior to the summer, because that is when I started to get back into D&D. I find that I enjoy fantasy literature much more when I am gaming, because it becomes less of a pure aesthetic experience and more of an idea mine (I have found the same thing to be true of television and movies).

Rothfuss – The Name of the Wind
When I was in high school, I loved Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. When I started reading The Wheel of Time, five books were out. When book six game out, I reread the first five. Ditto when book seven came out. Then I resolved that I would not start any new big-volume fantasy series until it was at least nominally complete. I have mostly stuck with that resolution (it has also kept me from reading A Song of Ice and Fire past the second book), but I suppose I broke it for The Name of the Wind. I enjoyed this book. Kvothe is an excellent example of a bard (a class I usually loathe). He manages to conform to most of the bard tropes (even supports himself in wizard’s school with his lute playing) while not seeming like a cliché (though there is quite a bit of Elric/antihero influence too). Kvothe is something of a wish fulfillment character, which lends a slightly adolescent feeling to the whole thing. The magic based on naming reminds me pleasantly of Earthsea, the faerie realm feels mythic rather than mundane, and I’m interested in seeing where he goes with the Chandrian (though I’m not convinced he has a plan; I think he might be making it up volume by volume). I think it is suggestive that Rothfuss names The Last Unicorn as the best book he has ever read.
Rothfuss – The Wise Man’s Fear
The sequel to The Name of the Wind. This one, however, I found much less successful. It was a 300 page (if that) story in a 1000 page package. It carried forth several of the good points from The Name of the Wind, but did not develop enough for me. It also contains a pseudo-asian culture which seems to exist for the sole purpose of justifying mercenaries skilled in martial arts (who of course end up training the main character).
Lovecraft – The Whisperer in Darkness
Needs no introduction.
Beagle – The Last Unicorn
Surprisingly close to the cartoon movie (which I greatly enjoyed when I was much younger; despite the fact that it was clearly intended for kids, it was quite melancholic). It is in places more whimsical than the movie, but there are some timeless scenes, like Mommy Fortuna’s carnival.
Smith – The Return of the Sorcerer (collected stories)
I am relatively new to Smith, despite the fact that I lived about 45 minutes away from Auburn (in California) all through my teens (Smith was known as “The Bard of Auburn” because he lived there through most of his writing). Many of his stories do seem to capture the atmosphere of the Sierra Nevada foothills while also being otherworldly.
Howard – The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (Del Rey collection)
I originally avoided Conan due to how campy he seemed (I blame all the pop culture spin-offs). The original Howard stories are excellent. My favorite aspect of the setting is how it seems to reflect the real world but avoid the “these are the fantasy vikings, these are the fantasy chinese” problem that seems to infect many fantasy settings.
Anderson – The Broken Sword
Absolutely gorgeous writing. I have a half-written post about this, so I’ll just say it masterfully blends Norse myth and other fantastic elements. The elf, dwarf, and troll lands are models for what I would love to see in a D&D setting. And there are no pointless heroics here. I would probably place this in any top 5 “Appendix N” list.
Leiber – Swords and Deviltry
The first of the Lankhmar books. Enjoyable, and clearly one of the early influences for classic D&D. Not a novel, but a collection of short stories. I am coming to appreciate short stories more now. I used to avoid them in favor of novels. At least one Leiber probably deserves to be in a top 5 “Appendix N” list also.
Leiber – Swords Against Death
As above.
Vance – The Dying Earth
I contend that it is impossible to really understand the implied setting aspects of classic D&D without reading The Dying Earth stories. And it’s not just the magic. The setting (true points of light in the darkness) and the characters (pragmatic and completely amoral) are just as important.
Vance – The Eyes of the Overworld
This novel gives us one of the inspirations for the thief class in Cugel the Clever (the other main influence being The Gray Mouser, as far as I know). His selfishness and the absurdity of his actions are epic. Kafka is one of my favorite authors, and I felt his influence strongly here. 
Vance – Cugel’s Saga
As the other Vance works. I didn’t like this one quite as much as The Eyes of the Overworld, but it is still a classic. These three selections were all contained in the Orb omnibus edition Tales of the Dying Earth (I still have Rhialto the Marvellous to read).
Cook – The Black Company
Loved it. Posted about it recently.