Unexpected GM Duty

Our Thursday GM had to bail on us with very little notice, so I took the reigns so we'd have something to play. I ended up running Realm of the Technomancer for the second time.

Well, sort of. I kind of forgot the module at home. Luckily, I was able to use the tools at Wizardawn to give me a couple maps and keys to cobble together. (Especially since Wizardawn has tools that specifically let you merge Labyrinth Lord stuff with Mutant Future.)

This time,  I ran it from the fantasy end again (using basic red D&D), but I added a couple of displaced Mutant Future characters using the conversion section from the back of the book to scale them to D&D levels of power. The usual fantasy party had an amnesiac synthetic soldier and an opportunistic mutant heading into the dungeon with them.

I ran the basic concept of the module from memory, but I changed a lot and I also had to remove some things because I only had a three hour time slot. We had fun and only one character died-  and that was because his player forgot that clerics can wear armor. (He doesn't play old D&D very much) We still had fun and I have some ideas for next time I run this module.

I also hinted that the outsider characters might come from Tarraxian as a little Easter Egg to Josh, who played in that Gamma World/AD&D game I ran a couple of years ago.

I really enjoyed the evening, plus it's good to know I can still run a half-decent game on the fly if I have to.

On Damage

I have pipe dreams of running some Swords & Wizardry this summer. Although I have a copy of S&W complete, I've been thinking about "White Box" style damage, but with some caveats.

Some of the common rules I've seen and liked have included:

-Two handed weapons roll 2d6 and take the best, with the exception of the quarterstaff.

-Dual wielding characters receive +1 to hit.

-Damage based on class, allowing any character to use any weapon. 

Some other things I'm considering as well:

-Fighters (and fighters only, no sub-classes) receive a damage bonus based on level. (+1 per so many levels, maybe every three?)

-Everything does 1d6 damage, but fighters get to roll twice and take the best. (In this case, two-handed weapons would probably just do +1 damage instead of best of two... rolling three and taking the best of two has a certain clunkiness to it that I don't like) 

-Weapons have conditional bonuses and penalties based on things they are good at/things they are not so good at. For instance, daggers are good at fighting in close quarters such as an alley, pole-arms are good for fighting in an open space. In favorable circumstances, a weapon receives +2 to hit, and -2 in unfavorable circumstances. This requires a lot of on-the-fly rulings or else bookkeeping for what weapons is good for what and not-so-good for what. Eew. I can see the appeal, but I suspect keeping track of it will be unwieldy, plus I'll have players constantly trying to bullshit me. :)  ("A troll's leg is kind of like a tree, and axes are good at cutting trees down, so I think I get the +2!") 
I stole this idea from a post by Vincent Baker around ten years ago, although he was talking about firearms in games.

-Give every weapon one special ability.... so maybe flails ignore shields, crossbows treat armor as one category lighter, etc. Again, this is slightly book-keepy, but not as bad as the previous idea.

Given that I'm all about the simplicity lately, I'll probably go with either fighters roll damage twice or one of the options from the first bunch. Historical simulation is at most a tertiary goal of mine when I run D&D, after all.  

BTS, Dinosaur Swamp, and Unadulterated Joy

Tonight our Thursday game at last resumed our Beyond the Supernatural campaign. We were a little unfocused, but given that the GM just finished his degree and tomorrow is the last day of school in my district (I'm a teacher), our minds were not firmly lodged in horror. Still, it was a fun session and I love the characters and the way the group plays. We just found out that one of our players had to drop out, which is too bad, but we'll soldier on with three PCs for the time being. I finally made it to level 5. (Level isn't really that big of a deal in Palladium, though)

Although we just started up after a hiatus, the GM is actually planning on finishing off this investigation and then shelving the game for the summer. He doesn't like to run horror games in the summer, so he's planning on running a June/July campaign of RIFTS set in Dinosaur Swamp.

Fuck yessssssssssss. 

This campaign is going to be metal. I need to start thinking about what character class to play. I'm thinking maybe a Juicer or Mega-Juicer, but I know that our GM loves RIFTS magic-users and would like to see a magic-user in the party. I have a few weeks to decide, but in the meantime I'll be combing through Dinosaur Swamp, RUE, and gods-know-what else to find a suitably metal character to play.

I figure that, what with me starting my Master's this summer, I'll probably want something as cerebral as shooting dinosaurs with laser guns in my downtime.

My Scandalous Confessions

-I think ascending AC is a good idea and makes more sense than descending.*

-Ditto with Fort/Ref/Wil as saving throw categories or just S&W's one save with conditional modifiers.*

-I think level limits for nonhumans are contrived and dumb.

-I really hate gaming sessions that consist mostly of logistical stuff like buying gear and hiring new henchmen. Get it over and let's get back to adventuring, please.

-I don't really like Rush all that much. They have a couple of okay songs, but I really don't see what the big deal is.

-I vastly prefer Larry Elmore's artwork to Erol Otus' artwork.

-I like White Wolf's World of Darkness games.

-I haven't read most of the authors in Appendix N.

-I can only name a couple of Led Zeppelin songs.

-I have a limit to how much gonzo I can have in a game.

-Sometimes I just can't "say yes or roll the dice." Sometimes the answer is no.

-I'm probably shaving my beard in the next week or two.

...but don't worry, I'm not a totally lost cause. I'm not sharing narrative control with my players.

*Just because they make more sense doesn't mean I use them.

Death Frost (Pulp) Doom: 4th Run

So, the Thursday game gets canceled three hours before it's supposed to run. I stepped up and ran Death Frost Doom, since it's one of the only things I can run with almost zero notice. 

This time, I tried something a little different. I ran it as a pulp 30's style adventure. I used B/X as the basic rules, gave every character a couple of X-in-6 skills. I made one character a "mystic" will simplified spells operating on a spell point system and one character a doctor who could heal a certain number of dice of hp per day. All weapons did a d6 damage, single Saving Throw number, etc. I used the "hit 20" system and encumbrance from Stars Without Number. I guess you could say it was an unholy mishmash of Lamentations, B/X, and SWN. 

It was a TPK, but not for the reasons that usually results in TPKs when I run Death Frost Doom. I don't want to spoil it for those who aren't familiar with the module. The PCs basically took a hit for the good of the world. 

That might be the last time I run DFD. Next time I have to step in for the Thursday group, I will either run Realm of the Technomancer (letting them choose which side of the module they are on) or I'll run the introductory adventure from Xplorers. (With my usual modifications) 

Oh, and Purple Lotus Powder. Dang. 

NWoD Rework: Hunters Revamped (no pun intended)

So, I've talked to a couple gamer pals (and am waiting to hear back on another) about my WoD chronicle framework, and one of them brought up a legit concern:

The Expert, Magician, and Monster type characters are all customizable. The Hunter type, on the other hand, is not... you get the Conviction advantage and that's that. I thought perhaps creating a few subcategories of Hunter might give the interested player some options and not leave Hunter types being fairly cookie-cutter in terms of special ability. Here's my initial breakdown-

*Conviction- As written. These are Hunters who rely on themselves or are driven by something internal: revenge, hatred of the unknown, the desire to protect normal people/Amurrrica/whatever.

*True Faith- Yes, the old school ability from early White Wolf days. This would be Hunters who believe in something greater than themselves and draw on that for strength. It could be God, Allah, maybe even Unbending Science.

*Access to gear merits. These are Hunters who are either weapons geniuses or have enough pull within the PCs organization to request a little something extra. I'm probably ripping off the ideas from the gear merits included in HtV.

I'm not entirely certain what else I could offer Hunters. Magicians have more archetypes to choose from and monsters are pretty much whatever the player and I can agree to. Still, it's a start.

SWN Cryo-Stasis Engaged

I just wanted to mention that my SWN game, which has been running in some form or another since July, is now in cryo-stasis. My two players have a lot going on in their lives, and come fall I won't be able to do Tuesday nights on account of my Master's classes. The campaign was a lot of fun, and I have all the material stowed safely in a folder, so in my mind we're simply in cryo-stasis, ready to be thawed out when our schedules align.

In the meantime, I'll be working on my newWoD game, plus I have a lot of fantasy gaming goodness due on my doorstep in the near future. (S&W Complete Hardback, Monstrosities, and my boatload of miniatures from the Reaper Kickstarter last year) I've also taken on the idea of doing one-shots and things for the Thursday group for when we can't play or normal BTS campaign. (Which seems to be a lot lately, but what can you do?)

The tale of the Hydrin Clans isn't over yet. We'll see what happens to our intrepid space explorers some other day.