Degree of success as damage

Fighter Level	Damage Versus AC 9	Damage Versus AC 2
1	3.3 (1.925)	0.5 (0.7)
4	4.55 (2.275)	1.05 (1.05)
7	6.8 (2.8)	3.3 (1.925)
10	8.55 (3.15)	4.55 (2.275)

Landmark remix settings

Creating an entire, unique setting from whole cloth can be enjoyable, and also yields a setting which is guaranteed to be at least somewhat surprising, due to lack of familiarity. Doing such is also a lot of work, however, and does have several downsides. Namely, players either needing to absorb significant setting information before sitting down to play (at the very least, everything relevant to character creation) or players being radically unaware of setting elements (which can be fun, but can also feel somewhat contrived; sometimes it’s reasonable for PCs to know something about the world around them). Using an existing setting can moderate some of these issues, but comes with its own set of problems, such as referee research requirements (you have to actually read and absorb the thing), reward of player setting mastery outside of engagement with actual play, and potential misunderstandings regarding accepted canon.

It seems to me like there is space for an approach between the two extremes. Rather than writing encyclopaedic gazetteers or creating raw tables that must be entirely experienced though their effects on play, instead consider a list of slightly more detailed setting elements that are not yet fully integrated into a comprehensive setting. A full example of this is beyond the scope of this post, but one might think of Middle Earth being expressed as something like: Shire, Mordor, Mirkwood, Saruman, Moria, Rivendell, etc. Each of these elements is a landmark, something that everyone involved can use to become oriented.

How these elements fit together in your particular instantiation of Middle Earth (or whatever), both politically and geographically, would be unique, but players would have a bit more to go on than the standard home-brew setting, and with less work required on their part. Players could have access to a basic version of the list as well (hopefully not longer than a page or two) outlining the major features and obvious factions. That, plus some campaign seed event, would be enough to get started. This is somewhat like how the Final Fantasy franchise reuses common tropes in different games. Players go into these games looking for chocobos, Cid, airships, and so forth. Discovering the various elements is part of the fun.

This is the approach that I plan on taking with the default setting of Gravity Sinister. There will be a number of landmarks presented, but exactly how they all fit together, and where they show up geographically, is expected to be unique to every campaign. This not exactly the same thing as an implied setting, as the list of core elements will be presented directly, and referee guidance provided for how to place the landmarks and generate relationships between them. Torchbearer takes a somewhat similar approach, by referring to archetypal fantasy locations without detailing them (TB directs the game master to create a starter map by placing locations such as elfland, dwarven halls, a religious bastion, a wizard’s tower, and so forth). I’m thinking about something similar, though not quite so generic.

This method could also be used with existing RPG settings, as suggested by the Middle Earth example above. Scan through your favorite campaign book and come up with a list of 20 or so elements that make up what you consider to be the essence of the setting. Thus, your own personal Forgotten Realms could be distilled into a list such as: Shadowdale, Waterdeep, Evermeet, Calimport, Harpers, Red Wizards, Drow, the fall of Myth Drannor, and so forth. (I’m not really very knowledgeable about the Realms outside of the first few Drizzt trilogies and the Avatar novels, so forgive me if that seems like a poor starter list.) Keep the list somewhat limited so that preparation time is minimized. Just let your players know that you will be basing the setting on a (possibly randomized) custom jumble of those elements, and to expect new and surprising juxtapositions. The benefits of a shared aesthetic and shared world knowledge are maintained while the hazards of such are minimized.

False Rumors are Hazards

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Rumors are stealth infodump delivery tools. They use concision and diegesis (that is, presence in the fiction of the game world) to disguise their load-bearing capacity. They are a wonderful way to present setting detail and hooks without overburdening either the referee or the players. I don’t use them nearly enough. However, as traditionally presented, they also have a potential problem: false or incomplete rumors are hazards, and like any game hazard, should come with clues to support fair play. Personally, I prefer incomplete rumors to false rumors. Incomplete rumors preserve the sense of a living world while maintaining player trust.

Here are some methods to build false or incomplete rumors that add to the play experience.

Provide contradictory rumors together. As all of them can’t be true, this signals to observant players that more investigation is required to actually ascertain risk. This has the added benefit of promoting further information gathering.
Make it clear to the player that the rumor is false, but make that falsity interesting (why is the NPC lying, is she being manipulated by some other creature or force?). This is much like making a trap obvious, but still dangerous.
Have the false rumor contradict some previously established setting detail. This is a more subtle form of option 1. Be careful with this approach though, as it is likely to be missed by all but the most engaged players (and consider the three clue rule).
Provide a rumor about concrete conditions but don’t include motivations (or the inverse, provide a rumor about motivations but don’t include any concrete conditions). Example: a wizard is trying to find a cure for a wasting disease, and is abducting villagers to experiment on. Rumor one is info about the wasting disease, rumor two is info about lost villagers returning as ghouls.

This post was prompted by Wayne’s recent Bree-Yark Factor article. Additionally, I would suggest taking a look at FrDave’s concerns about false rumors (with which I mostly agree), and Telecanter’s post about rumors.

D20 turn undead variant

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Appearance of Banquo (source)

Quick: 1d20 + cleric level + CHR vs. 10 + HD. Succeed by 5 or more banishes or destroys. Nat 20 always succeeds, nat 1 results in a complication.

To turn away unholy creatures, such as demons or the walking dead, present an object of faith. Roll 1d20, add cleric level, and add charisma modifier. If the roll is equal to or greater than 10 + creature HD, the creature shrinks back or flees. If the roll exceeds the target number by 5 or more, the creature is destroyed or banished. Roll no more than once per encounter, and compare this single roll to all potentially affected monsters. Lower HD creatures are affected first. On a natural 1, your faith has failed you (or your god has deserted you), and your hubris only angers the monsters, giving them some form of bonus for the remainder of the encounter (perhaps +1 to everything, or a burning desire to slay and feast on the cleric specifically). Most of the time, you can assume that all undead in the encounter are potentially affected, but if there is a true horde, the max HD of affected creatures could be the modified turning roll (so a 6th level cleric with CHR of +2 that rolls a 10 affects up to 18 HD).

Advantages of this method:

Easier to remember than reaction roll ranges or (shudder) the whole turning table.
Less certainty makes every attempt interesting.
Gives lower level clerics more potential and higher level clerics more risk (relatively).
The turning roll always has 4 potential degrees of success.

Potential variations:

Require the use of a vial of holy water to add resource management restriction.
Allow anyone to turn, but widen the “fumble” zone to 1 + monster HD for non clerics.
Games without charisma modifiers would obviously just use + level.
Works as influence undead, of course, for necromancers or anti-clerics as well.

Somewhat reminiscent of Delta’s house rules, though his approach is framed as target 20 (and he has done away with clerics). Also similar to the 3E/Pathfinder method, though player-facing rather than referee-facing. In PF, the undead make a will save with DC 10 + half cleric level + cleric CHR. By the book, the PF method probably requires much more dice rolling, as each creature should get its own save, though I suppose you could roll one save per creature type to save time. In general, for PC abilities, I tend to prefer player-facing rolls, as they are more engaging (this is one thing that 4E definitely got right).

Free resources, annotated

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I have this folder in my Dropbox account: RPG/Tablet. It contains copies of all the PDFs that I keep synced to my tablet, using the GoodReader app (which is mandatory for reading PDFs if you have an ipad). Here are the ones that can be downloaded free of charge. (Note that “free of charge” does not imply unencumbered by copyright.)

AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide Appendix A Random Dungeon Generation. Gygax’s original random spur for generating dungeons. This free sample was made available as a promotion for the recent AD&D premium reprint.
Akratic Wizardry. Swords & Sorcery house rules, including damage by class, wisdom-based sanity, and a colors of magic system that collapses the magic-user and cleric into the magician class. HTML index of rules here.
Better Than Any Man. An extensive historically based early modern sandbox setting with time based events, numerous lairs, and lots of new content (spells, monsters, etc). This was the LotFP offering for Free RPG Day 2013, and is now available pay what you want.
Campbell – DM1 Treasure. Help generating memorable treasure. Leave Courtney a word of thanks for this great resource here.
Campbell – DM2 Tricks, Empty Rooms, & Basic Trap Design. Some tables to help you populate rooms without monsters. Leave Courtney a word of thanks for this great resource here.
Castles & Crusades Quick Start. A low-level intro to Castles & Crusades, one of the first OGL “clone” games, incorporating many Third Edition innovations (such as ascending AC) into a tight game somewhat reminiscent of AD&D. C&C was integral to the formation of the OSR, and the C&C PHB may be the best selling OSR product so far.
Challenge of the Frog Idol. This module is a swamp-crawl by Dyson Logos and features a raft made of zombies. What else do you need to know? Overview page.
Chandler – EGG Teratic Tome. Even though I’ve included this in the free resources list, technically it is pay what you want, and as one of the best RPG bestiaries released so far in any form, it’s probably worth throwing some cash in Rafael’s direction.
Conley – Blackmarsh. A free setting with keyed hex map and starting town. Also includes some custom rules connected to the setting, such as “viz” (solidified magic). Release post here.
Crawford – Stars Without Number. An sci-fi game with extensive support for setting generation and a rules-lite approach to character classes.
DCC RPG Quick Start Guide. Includes random birth augur, equipment, and occupation tables.
Delta House Rules. An elegant core mechanic approach to classic D&D. Includes a simple fighter feat system for added customization.
Dyson’s Delve Deluxe. A vertical mega-dungeon consisting of individually small levels, fully keyed and quite usable. Summary page here.
Labyrinth Lord. OGL clone of Basic/Expert D&D (incorporates several d20 SRD-isms). Has become the lingua franca of flailsnails. The pay version has an extremely tight aesthetic due to the art of Steve Zeiser. Overview page here.
Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion. An AD&D approach to Labyrinth Lord, with added classes, races, spells, and so forth.
LotFP – Rules and Magic 2013. Highlights include the tweaked magic (see the summon spell) and a recently added appendix with firearms rules.
Metamorphica. An entire book dedicated to tables for mutations. The softcover version available from Lulu is also quite attractive. A necessity for any devotee of chaos magic.
Monsters of Myth. A free, illustrated bestiary for OSRIC.
Mutant Future. Inspired by the original Gamma World and mostly compatible with Labyrinth Lord (and thus many other OSR clones). Wacky HP rules, but useful for mutation tables and apocalyptica. Summary page.
Philotomy’s Musings on OD&D. The best introduction to and discussion of the original Dungeons & Dragons game. Some excellent house rules suggestions as well. Conveniently transcribed into HTML by Ramanan S.
Quick Primer for Old School Gaming. Rulings, not rules. Player skill, not character abilities. Heroic, not superheroic. Forget game balance. Read this to get a sense what many people are talking about when they mention “old school” D&D.
Rients – Miscellaneum of Cinder. Quoting from the author’s description: “an ill-conceived collection of random dice charts vaguely compatible with games involving dungeons, labyrinths, swords, spellcraft, wizardry, lords, dragons and etcetera.”
Rients – Under Xylarthen’s Tower. A wonderful little archetypal intro dungeon of four levels.
Rients – What Went Wrong. Best random character creator ever? Very likely. Yes, the link is to a Google Doc. But! File -> Download as -> PDF.
Shear – TOTGAD. The gothic career system is the highlight of this collection for me, though there are many other useful tools, a gothic “Appendix N” (Jack is a professor of Gothic literature), and 13 variations on gothic settings. Also requires you to do the download as PDF thing. Release page here.
Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox third printing. Full LBB-inspired rules chassis. Particularly well suited for use as the basis for custom systems incorporating house rules. Free version includes all the art, and the cover of the print version by Mullen is one of my favorite pictures to come out of the OSR. Also a good intro to the “imagine the hell out of it” ethos. Overview page.
Telecanter – Magic Item Spur. Inspiration for creating unique magic items. This is one of my most used random tables. Summary post.
Theorems and Thaumaturgy. A Labyrinth Lord OSR equivalent to the Tome of Magic. Contains new classes (elementalist, necromancer, vivimancer, fey elf, expanded illusionist) with full custom spell lists and numerous custom tomes (such as the The Chronomancer’s Workbook). All text is OGL and thus reusable in your own OGL works.
Traveller Starter Edition Core Rules. Everything you need to play Traveller, one of the original 2d6 systems. Features a capable life path system as well.
Varlets and Vermin. A collection of low level monsters to add variety to a campaign by Roger from the Roles, Rules and Rolls blog. Google Docs link, so do the download as PDF thing. Release post.
World of Dungeons 1979. The fake progenitor of Dungeon World. Very short (only several pages) simplified version of DW. Check out the excellent magic system. Also features a page of S&S themed names.

That’s a lot of pretty amazing free resources. You could play for the rest of your life, probably, with nothing else.

I’m sure there are many other free resources, too! This list is not intended to be comprehensive. It is what I actually keep synced to my tablet all the time.

Prydain

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The Black Cauldron (source)

I recently got the urge to read the Prydain young adult fantasy novels. I don’t know if I ever read them when I was younger, though I have fond childhood memories of the Disney animated movie (and a coloring book based on it). Looking at books like these as an adult can be hit or miss, as I found a while back when I attempted to reread the Narnia books (they didn’t hold up well at all for me). As a whole,

My favorite parts of the entire series are the descriptions of the Horned King and the cauldron-born in The Book of Three (which is volume 1 in the series). On the Horned King:

Astride the foam-spattered animal rode a monstrous figure. A crimson cloak flamed from his naked shoulders. Crimson stained his gigantic arms. Horror-stricken, Taran saw not the head of a man but the antlered head of a stag. The Horned King! Taran flung himself against an oak to escape the flying hoofs and the heaving, glistening flanks. Horse and rider swept by. The mask was a human skull; from it, the great antlers rose in cruel curves. The Horned King’s eyes blazed behind the gaping sockets of whitened bone.

On the Cauldron-Born:

“There are others to whom a sword means nothing,” Gwydion said. “Among them, the Cauldron-Born, who serve Arawn as warriors.” “Are they not men?” Taran asked. “They were, once,” replied Gwydion. “They are the dead whose bodies Arawn steals from their resting places in the long barrows. It is said he steeps them in a cauldron to give them life again—if it can be called life. Like death, they are forever silent; and their only thought is to bring others to the same bondage. “Arawn keeps them as his guards in Annuvin, for their power wanes the longer and farther they be from their master. Yet from time to time Arawn sends certain of them outside Annuvin to perform his most ruthless tasks. “These Cauldron-Born are utterly without mercy or pity,” Gwydion continued, “for Arawn has worked still greater evil upon them. He has destroyed their remembrance of themselves as living men. They have no memory of tears or laughter, of sorrow or loving kindness. Among all Arawn’s deeds, this is one of the cruelest.”

In addition to these passages, there are some enjoyable “dungeon” scenes in The Castle of Llyr (volume 3) involving an insane transmogrified alchemist stuck underground after enlarging himself with a potion (yes, that part is pretty much as good as it sounds, and reads like the transcription of a D&D adventure).

The setting and atmosphere are far more interesting than the characters or the plot. The characters can, in fact, be downright annoying. For example, the continuous exaggerations followed by broken harp strings from Fflewddur, the Jar Jar Binks antics of Gurgi, and the somewhat artificial girl-versus-boy interactions between Taran and Princess Eilonwy. It is perhaps unfair to criticize the characters of a children’s book for being childish, but, well, there it is. This is definitely not a flaw shared by many other books that arguably belong to the same genre, such as Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea stories.

The fifth book shows the progression from adventurer (in Taran Wanderer, volume 4) to domain level play (in The High King, volume 5) in a way that would be interesting to see in a tabletop campaign:

While the men readied their mounts and Hevydd set his forge to blazing, Taran led the companions to the neighboring Commots. His task became quickly known and each day brought its throng of herdsmen and farmers who needed no urging to march in the growing host following the banner of the White Pig. For Taran, days and nights merged into one another. In the marshaling camps astride unflagging Melynlas he rode among the gatherings of peaceful men turned warriors, seeing to their provisions and equipment, and bv the embers of watch fires held council with the new-formed war bands.

Rather than building a stronghold and watching the soldiers arrive, have PCs rally followers against some enemy or looming threat. (Quote above is from The High King, page 109.)

The most surprising aspect of Prydain for me during this reading was the depiction of the fair folk, which I had no memory of. They are mostly magical bearded small folk that live underground, and have powers such as turning invisible. They draw far more from the legends of little people than they do from the Norse Eddas. Like mainstream fantasy dwarves, they do concern themselves with mining and the crafting of beautiful objects. Unlike the mainstream, they are quite small (this passage is from The High King, page 178):

Hevydd the Smith marveled at their axes and short swords, pronouncing them sharper and better tempered than any he could make. For their own part, the Fair Folk seemed not the least uneasy; the tallest of Eiddileg’s warriors stood barely higher than Llassar’s knee, but the Fair Folk soldiers looked on their human comrades with the friendly indulgence they might show to overgrown children.

Perhaps the true test of stories like these, the Prydain novels have made me interested in the myths that inspired them, which include the Mabinogion and Welsh Triads. Prydain, it turns out, is the old Welsh name for Britain. In the process of investigating those primary sources, I also came across Celtic Wonder Tales, By Ella Young, the full text of which is available for free on archive.org.

The books in the series are all individually very short, around 200 pages, and quick reads. There is enough mythological atmosphere to make them still worthwhile to an adult RPG player, I think, though as noted above there are aspects which may be somewhat simplistic. If you have kids, these novels would certainly make good “read aloud” candidates that you might also be able to get something from yourself.

Five Ancient Kingdoms impressions

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Five Ancient Kingdoms, print edition

Five Ancient Kingdoms is an Arabian Nights flavored game with the scope and presentation style of OD&D. Mechanically, it uses a Chainmail-inspired 2d6 resolution system. It manages to pack a tremendous amount of content into a very small word count. Five Ancient Kingdoms is probably on my short list of good intro RPGs (along with the Pathfinder Beginner Box and Lamentations of the Flame Princess).

My reaction has been almost entirely positive, but there are a few aspects that I am critical of, so let’s get them out of the way first. Yes, I suspect that “Dragon Master” was used because JB wanted to write DM, but do we really need another term for game master? “Opposite sex” language is used in the romance rules, and that is unnecessarily limiting. There are no indexes, and no “appendix N” or recommended reading section (something that a pseudo-historical setting like Barica could greatly benefit from). There are a few places where rules were hard for me to find (for example, how damage against PCs works is in the Hit Dice section rather than the Damage section). The numerous passages with “as explained in book X” would benefit from page numbers.

On to the good stuff. The entire game is approximately 150 digest sized pages in three saddle-stapled booklets. This is bigger than the OD&D three little brown books, but not by much. I find the rules as written to be very similar to how I have come to house-rule my own OD&D game. Some examples. Death is handled with save or die at zero HP (though 5AK also leaves survivors of the death save with a major wound). HP are rolled anew each session. Encumbrance is not quite as simple as my one item per point of strength, but it’s not too bad (it uses a simple list of penalties based on commonly carried or equipped items).

The core is built around four classes that you will probably recognize: hero, magician, saint, and thief, though the abilities are balanced between them slightly differently than in the traditional game (mostly for the better, I think), and all without resorting to weapon and armor restrictions. The best martial weapons (sword and bow) require training to attack without a penalty, and this is handled mostly at the class level, which is a decent way of distinguishing the hero class.

As mentioned above, the resolution systems are based on Chainmail, and use 2d6. In fact, the entire game only uses six sided dice (though results of 1 are always treated as zero, to simulate something like the d20’s natural 1). There is no AC as such; instead, attack target numbers are 6 + HD + armor (which is +1 for light armor and +2 for heavy armor). The attack roll is 2d6 + melee bonus, which is class based (+ HD for heroes and + half HD for all other classes). There is no initiative, and attacks are handled in order of attack roll (highest first). This seems extremely elegant. I have been leaning towards something similar in my own systems recently, with HD as attack bonus (and, potentially, as AC too).

Monsters don’t have HP, and instead take “hits” (which are the equivalent of what would be a hit die worth of HP in trad D&D, just without the randomization). PCs do have HP (and monsters use the familiar 1d6 damage per hit against them). This sounds somewhat complicated, but it is clear in the booklets, and I imagine the streamlining works well in practice (though it also means that monster danger is a bit less variable). Armor also has a limited per-session ability to negate several hits. In terms of system, the only significant lack I see is an absence of something like an ability check to resolve arbitrary actions (something like roll under an ability score with 3d6 would work).

In addition to expected mechanical features, PCs also have a motivation, which is rather freeform (but many examples are provided), and motivation interacts with a number of subsystems, including XP (for example, achieving a milestone appropriate to motivation can vault PCs instantly to the next level). Characters have the option to push actions based on their class and motivation, which allows relevant actions to be attempted with three dice, take two best, but with a greater chance of catastrophe. It reminds me of this stunt system I proposed a while back, though JB’s version is only usable for class- or motivation-relevant tasks. The XP system is rather overcomplicated for my tastes, but then I am sort of a radical minimalist in this area (I really don’t want to bother tracking things like +1000 XP for the first time an artifact is used properly). The romance rules look promising, though they require players to disclaim some amount of PC control (there are chances to become smitten with an NPC, for example). This would add an interesting twist to standard D&D adventures, and romance is certainly integral to the original Arabian Nights tales.

In only six digest-sized pages, JB has managed to craft elegant subclass and feat systems (though his feats are called advantages, which is actually a much better name; I’ve always disliked the use of the word feat for granular abilities in third edition and after). There are 8 subclasses provided, and they work by swapping out base class abilities. For example, the mountebank is a thief subclass with minor magical abilities. The trade-off is fewer thief skill points in exchange for having the basic spell casting abilities of a first level magician, though the mountebank’s skill with magic does not improve. Advantages include things like smart pet, ogre-kin, and tracker. There are 36 advantages (a D66 table, actually), and they are each described using no more than a few sentences. The text suggests gaining an advantage at levels 1, 4, and 8. Both of these systems could probably be easily hacked into your clone of choice.

Magic is also handled somewhat untraditionally. Magicians use a spell casting roll, which is 2d6 + level (+1 for exceptional intelligence), versus a target number of 2 * spell magnitude (which is what would be called spell level in many other games). Saints call “miracles” using a per-adventure slot system, which is more or less Vancian, though miracles do not need to be chosen beforehand. The spells themselves are mostly recognizable variations on traditional spells (charm, illumination, beast speech, and so forth), though there are a few notable additions (such as the second magnitude gale), and some of the spells have had their power adjusted (for example, sleep only works against “passive/non-hostile targets”). This is somewhat important, because the roll-to-cast system target numbers make casting spells very easy (if you do the math, the only way to fail casting a first magnitude spell, even as a first level magician, is to “zero out,” which has a 1 in 36 chance). It seems like even casting high level spells would rarely fail; consider an 8th level magician casting the 5th magnitude cloud of death: 2d6 + 8 >= 14, which is approximately 72% chance of success (and spells are not exhausted when cast). I would seriously consider increasing the spell target numbers, perhaps to 7 + magnitude rather than 2 * magnitude, though I would like to see the original system in play first.

The setting itself is pretty generic, and mostly consists of Hyboria-style renaming of historical cultures and features (Salama rather than Islam, Rhyma rather than Rome, Bagdabha rather than Baghdad, and so forth). There are no maps, but the monster cosmology has been carefully crafted to reflect the source myths. Equipment is almost identical to the three LBBs, though, which is perhaps a wasted opportunity for introducing more Arabian aesthetic (why not janbiya rather than dagger, for example?). All illustrations are by Henry J. Ford, from Andrew Lang’s version of the Arabian Nights.

The discipline required to fit the entire game into this structure has resulted in a very streamlined, concise game. The organization could perhaps be slightly improved (I found myself hunting around for various rules clarifications while writing this overview), but the system itself is well written and simple enough that I don’t think this would be a problem in practice after running a few actual situations. You can buy Five Ancient Kingdoms in print at B/X Blackrazor (Paypal link in the upper right). All booklets are also available in PDF from RPGNow (Men & Mettle, Magic & Monsters, Dragon Master Secrets, intro adventure: Sorcerer Island).

Edit: added links to the other PDFs after they went live.

Gravity Sinister Gameplay

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First order of business: I have a real name now for the JRPG Basic game, Gravity Sinister. The blog tag will be shortly updated to reflect this, though I’m not going to bother changing previous post names. Hope that’s not too confusing.

This part of the rules took a surprisingly long time to write, despite the simplicity of the underlying idea, and I suspect it will still require more polishing (though I don’t expect to modify the approach in any substantial way). The structure formalizes the idea of a referee turn, which has a slightly different manifestation in each turn type, but should hopefully be easy to understand, and make the time cost of actions (at all time scales) salient.

In addition to having an easy to remember, generalized approach to gameplay at all levels of detail, the method described below has some interesting corollaries, such as automatically and mechanically increasing danger by taking a separate referee turn per group if the party splits.

Gameplay

Gameplay consists of turns. A turn can represent a very short time, such as an exchange of blows during combat, or a longer time, such as a week of recuperation in town between excursions. There are four such levels of detail: haven, travel, dungeon/exploration, and combat/tactical. The game moves between these kinds of turns as appropriate, moderated by the referee.

The basic turn structure is similar at all four levels of detail. Everyone playing the game gets a turn (including the referee), and then the whole process repeats, perhaps at a different level of detail depending on the fictional events. Sometimes (for example, during combat) turn order matters, but often it’s enough to just make sure that everyone gets a “go” before the next round starts. The rules for the different turn types explain when order matters and how to handle it.

The referee takes a turn during every round, just like other players. Referee turns work a bit differently than player turns, as the referee has to manage the entire fictional world. In combat, the referee’s turn is to act as the foes (attacking, running away, pleading for mercy from the PCs, and so forth). During exploration and travel rounds, the referee’s turn includes making random encounter checks. During haven turns, the referee updates the state of the world at large.

It is suggested that all dice (even random encounter checks) be rolled in the open and transparently with regard to underlying mechanics. There is no reason to hide the fact that an area is dangerous from the players, and rolling dice in the open will increase the sense of impartiality, which is important for a fair and challenging game.

Random Encounter Checks

Many referee turns require rolling for a random encounter, and the process is handled the same way irrespective of the turn type. The referee rolls a die (by default, 1d6), and a random encounter happens on a roll of 1. Other die sizes may be used to reflect differing levels of danger (thus, 1d4 or 1d3 might be used for a very dangerous place, as the chance of rolling a 1 using those dice is higher than with 1d6). If party members separate, the referee will need to alternate between the various player groups, and will take a separate turn for each (thus increasing the danger).

Combat Turns

Combat turns are used for handling fighting, pursuit, and other situations where minute to minute or even second to second actions are important. Turn order in encounters is managed using initiative, and acting prior to enemies in a given round offers several benefits.

Characters not yet in melee may make a ranged attack or engage in melee. Retreat from melee is more involved, and is covered in combat positioning. In addition to attacks, any conceivable action may be attempted; success or failure is adjudicated by the referee, and may require various attribute checks as appropriate.

The referee may take multiple combat turns, to represent different groups of NPCs acting at different times, but will usually only take one turn for ease of play. During this turn, the referee takes actions for all NPCs involved in the combat.

Exploration Turns

Exploring dangerous, unknown areas is handled using exploration turns. If an area is well known, or safe, don’t use exploration turns. Instead, jump to the next fictional situation where one of the turn types applies.

Each player takes an action for every exploration turn. In many cases, the entire party will take the same action (such as move to the next area), but this is not required (some characters might stand guard while others try to force a door, for example). Character actions during exploration turns are expected to be careful and deliberate; it is thus appropriate for players to ask as many questions as desired about the environment and situation before deciding on an action. All players should declare their actions before the referee’s turn.

The referee’s exploration turn is used for making a random encounter check, which represents the dangerous environment reacting to PC incursion. Random encounters usually take the form of encounters with the locations’s denizens (for example, a patrol). Random encounters may also be used to represent countdown timers for events like slowly-flooding tunnels. Referees must either prepare beforehand for potential random encounters or improvise as necessary.

Some exploration actions include:

Searching an area carefully (with the search skill)
Forcing a door or breaking open a locked box (with the force skill)
Picking a lock (with the open locks skill)
Moving cautiously to an adjacent area

Many of these actions correspond to basic skills, but player options are not limited to those covered by the skills available. Other actions should be adjudicated as necessary by the referee, perhaps using ability checks.

Examining a specific feature in an area is often not a full turn action. For example, opening a cabinet might not require a full turn (unless it is locked and needs to be forced). The exact length of an exploration turn is not important. Turns are just an abstraction to encapsulate the chance of complications arising.

Travel Turns

Overland exploration is handled with travel turns. Generally, there is one turn per day and one turn per night, though rough or dangerous areas may require more turns per day or night. Resolve travel turns much like exploration turns. The referee should first present various movement options, including any landmarks, and then all players declare an action. Players may either travel to a new area, or search the current area for hidden features. The referee makes a random encounter check on her turn, just like with exploration turns.

In the common case, the travel round following a day is a night. If PCs do not rest every other travel turn, they become exhausted. Players may choose to travel during the day and rest at night, or vice versa. Different kinds of encounters may occur during the night. Night encounters are often more dangerous, though this depends on the specific area, and they may also offer different kinds of reward.

Players may decide to explore any feature discovered during travel in more detail, and it may be appropriate to switch to exploration turns in such cases, as determined by the referee. Just as with exploration turns, if the party separates, the referee should take a turn for each group, increasing the relative danger.

Haven Turns

Haven turns represent time spent away from adventure, usually in a refuge like a town or stronghold, where PCs can recover, gather information, recruit retainers, and perform other such actions. Like other turn types, exact durations are usually not important, but a haven turn most often represents several days or a week of in-game time. Haven turns may only be taken when PCs are in relatively safe, protected areas. In addition to a standard haven action, PCs may re-roll their HP, to represent rest and recovery, taking the new roll if it is higher than the previous total. Specific classes may have special options for haven turn actions, such as crafting items.

Taking a haven turn is not without cost, as, like with all other turn types, the referee takes a turn during every haven round as well. During the referee’s haven turn, the state of the game world is advanced. Active situations are processed and dungeons are restocked. Doing this thoroughly can often take time, and thus is best handled between game sessions. This will give the referee a chance to think about the repercussions of PC action on the wider world, and generate more adventure locations if necessary.

Death Frost Tower

Games With Others

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Image from here and here

Pearce’s blog, Games With Others, has become one of my favorites. It blends streamlined mechanics with evocative psychedelia. Here are some highlights:

Simple character sheet that has guided character creation and rules crib sheet.
How to approach OD&D (and why incompleteness can be a virtue).
From Random Minor Deities: “The local game has a few major deities. Worshiping them is generally what the bad guys do.”
Using Apocalypse World countdown clocks as tools for sandbox games.
Psionics for older D&D following the attack roll paradigm.
Dungeon Genesis: “Abandoned buildings left unused for too long grow grow weedy, dusty, strange. The angles twist and the geometry buckles under the barometric pressure of anti-life. Among the dust and cobwebs, traps blossom. … Sewers have to be regularly patrolled, newly-budded secret doors smashed and burned. … Dungeons swallow adventurers and belch out orcs.”
Rules for kluges.
Ghostland: “If a ghost is a ghost of pleasure it may desire nothing more than to fill its cavities with dirt and may try to do the same to you, not because it wants to hurt you, but because it needs every open place within you to be packed with dirt because that just feels so good.”
Ghostland is Coming to End You: “At a tavern back in town, you hear talk of a second moon approaching the town. That night, the moon draws close enough that you can see a face on the moon and the mouth splits wide to swallow the church spire. The next morning, no one but you remembers anything. The church spire is gone and all the clergy have weird mismatched eyes (one tiny, one enormous and rolling) and their heads are on at weird angles. Pointing that out is extremely impolite and if you keep asking about the church, someone is going to get so offended they come at you with a cleaver.”

Highly recommended.

Edit: I have been informed that the image is Backbaird (バックベアード) from Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe no Kitaro.

Necropraxis

Classic fantasy roleplaying games and loosely associated thoughts