I am trying to finish the posts about The Tunnel. It is a fantastic location that relies on Spelljammer mechanics. Essentially, it is Spelljammer’s version of a wormhole, but the two endpoints exist on two different planets. Despite the Spelljammer mechanics, the universe is based more on Pythagoras instead of Ptolemy. That means that the Sun is “The Central Fire” and that all planets have a twin that revolves at exactly the same velocity, but on the other side of the Central Fire.

However, there may be delays in posting. There is some extended illness in the family for the missus and I. We don’t have the same condition, but I won’t speak to her illness. For me, it is a combination of arthritis (knee) and extended flu-like symptoms (sans fever). The result feels very much like walking pneumonia wherein I have some energy at the start of the day, but I am completely exhausted by 7pm.

I barely posted a walk-through of grappling rules I posted on G+ but I don’t have the energy to follow-through beyond that. I’m not sure I’ll be able to teach my class tomorrow, either. Ugh.

So I hope things will change soon. Nothing definitive from the doctor yet, but I promise I won’t fill the blog with constant medical updates. Just wanted to say that I’m still here and I hope to finish.

Last side note: 5e has very similar goals to what I wanted for Andras. That encourages me for some reason.

At some point soon, I’m going to start doing a round-up of all the links I send to Twitter.After all, since I’ve become a curator of sorts, I can at least summarize.

For now, though, I’ve been keeping the following links up because I don’t want to lose them.

A Word List of Shapes

Over at the phontistery, you can find all kinds of wonderful word lists. This list of shape words is my favorite. Many of the names just ooze Old School Odd.

Open Game Content from Mutants & Masterminds

The D20 Hero SRD has the goal of providing all the OGC from the third edition of M&M. Of interest to me is the Measurements Table. I keep thinking I can use it in Andras somehow…

Secret Maps of the 1930s

I found the link from another blog, but I’ve had a heck of a time finding out who pointed me here. My apologies. Anyway, this link features a tale of a man that claims to have mapped a secret underground world. Map is included in the article. Woot!

Irregular Magazine

Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure. What a great magazine – and it is free!

Project Gutenburg Is Great

Noisms publishes a list of great source material for gaming from Project Gutenburg. I have greatly enjoyed reading the books by Baron Dunsany.

Speaking of great source material, I have begun reading Almuric. The English Major in me reels at the thought. It’s like mental bubblegum. The twelve year old in me, though, just relishes the story. For the record, this is a poignard.

Rethinking the Core Races

Sword and Board provides a 5e take on core races. Very cool. Speaking of cool core races, here is the reskinned Halfling as rat-people. Very, very cool.

The Fantasy Trip Resources and Clones

This kind of speaks for itself.

I have been feeling awful for quite a while. I’m hoping to be back to writing soon. I have revised The Needle post so many times, I fear I won’t just push the Publish button and move on.

If you don’t know, the RaspberryPi is an ARM-based computer about the size of a credit card with SD Card, USB and HDMI out. Cost? $35.

I look forward to the Open Playtest. I can’t wait to see the rules as presented. I read somewhere (can’t find the link again) that an early playtester reported that it plays a lot like older editions. Considering that playing like *any* edition of D&D is the stated goal, being able to play that way is an important step.

Go what do I think is important? Since WOTC wants my thoughts, here they are:

1. It’s gotta play like the old-school.

Seriously. This isn’t just because of my current preferences. This also comes from my experiences in introducing the game to others. I’ve seen new players bogged down in 2nd Edition when all the optional rules were used and strictly enforced. (Aargh! Weapon versus AC + Individual Initiative + Weapon Speed + Battlemats) I’ve also seen newer players enjoy 4th edition until a combat spanned *three* sessions. When I mentioned Savage Worlds and demonstrated how it worked, the interest was palpable. (Hey, Dragonsfoot has a Savage Worlds section!)

At the very least, it needs to be able to play like the Pathfinder Beginner’s Box. Looking around the net, there’s more than one person that is trying to make a Pathfinder “Expert” Box covering levels 6 – 10. Ideally, it will be able to play like the Swords and Wizardry Whitebox Rules. SW has arguably been to most like clone of OD&D to date (though I really like Microlite74, too.) The originals were rife with little-known rules throughout the document, but the clones have streamlined those rules into a simple to follow format. The Fifth Edition has to be simple to follow and quick to play.

But, it also has to be able to play like edition 3.5 and 4. Trust me, when the first playtest rules come out, there will be an outcry from two different camps saying the the new rules break D&D. One camp will be the 4e folks. The other camp will be the OSR folks. How can WOTC make it feel like all versions of D&D?

2. It’s gotta be modular.

I love me some subsystems. Andras was born out of my attempt to make my own modular subsystems fit into something like 2nd Edition D&D. I want a Skill subsystem to incorporate Thieves’ Skills, Bard Skills, Non-Weapon Proficiencies and other class powers. I want a class building system to be able to make custom player choices. I wanted a spell building system to come up with relatively balanced spells. Then there’s the monster building system, item creation system, dungeon crafting system, world-building system, etc. I know that some of these of player-oriented subsystems and others are GM only. Still, I want these. I also want them to be able to work with each other, not in opposition to each other.

Second edition did more to include optional rules and subsystems than any other edition. If you play 2e without using the optional rules, it feels a lot like B/X or BECMI D&D. If you add a few subsystems in, you have a game that feels like AD&D. Heaven help you if you use them all, but if you do, you have a game that feels like forever. I would say newer editions of D&D, but that’s not a fair comparison.

So now there’s rules for playing *my* edition of D&D, but how do I use all the stuff that I have already purchased? I bought this stuff and I would really like to use it. What do I do?

3. Make a conversion manual from older versions to 5e and vice versa.

The third edition Conversion Manual was really good. Step by step, it explained all the changes from 2e to 3e. In what I thought was an easy to follow layout, I found all the changes and how to convert a character to 3e. Although it wasn’t too hard to do, I could use the Conversion Manual to go the other way, but I would really like a document that walks through the conversion.

If WOTC plans on supporting every version, there should be a free Conversion Manual for each. Sound outrageous? Not really. It would prove the claim that 5e can be used as a way to play *your* version of D&D. More than that, though, I think it would spur ideas for customizing the game. I could imagine an unofficial, fan-created conversion book that goes back and forth between Pathfinder and 5e. You could even have LL to 5e and OSRIC to 5e guides. Yes, these would be fan-created.

Fan-created stuff? How will that work with the reality of the current GSL?

4. 5e must have something like the OGL.

Not only that, they’re going to have to eventually open up 4e stuff. More on that in a minute.

Without an OGL, there will be no reason for players of older editions to buy 5e. There are more than one OD&D clones. There is a 1e clone, a 2e clone and a BECMI clone. There’s even a B/X Clone with its own separate Companion volume. In fact, with Basic Fantasy, you already have something that is a version of 3e that plays like B/X D&D. In some ways, Chris’s labor of love could be a window into what *your* version of D&D, a version that isn’t purely 1e,2e,0e or Alphabet Soup, would look like. The point is, that without an OGL, not only will OSR folks like me have no need to buy 5e, any interest in 5e will stop with the playtests. I say OSR folks, but this would include Pathfinder folks, too.

So what about the 4e thing I said earlier? Well, if there is a new OGL, but nothing for 4e, then 4e folks have no reason to invest in 5e. All 4e users will have been orphaned with no ability to create fan-created material. Fourthcore could have been something great, but the lawyers found a way to mess it all up. For some folks, Fourthcore *is* their version of D&D. If 4e is not opened up, the opportunity to created a Fourthcore-like system will be lost.

More than that, opening 4e material brings in fans to stuff that is otherwise unavailable. How will they retroactively make some of the 4e stuff OGL?

5. WOTC has to sell the entire D&D product line again.

If you’re going to let me play *my* version of D&D, I have to have access to all the stuff created for it. I want *my* version of Spelljammer, release the PDFs. I want *my* version of Mystara, release the PDFs. Someone out there wants *their* version of the Amazing Engine, release the PDFs. Take advantage of the Long Tail. Really. Add the OGL to *some* of the core products from earlier editions so that they can be used to make *my* version of D&D.

With many clones already in existence, it can be argued that a gamer doesn’t really need 5e at all. I certainly wouldn’t need it at all to play. However, even if folks like me don’t get the 5e PHB, DM Guide and MM, I would get the old PDFs if I could. The reason is that the only two ways I can get the old books is eBay and Demonoid.

WOTC doesn’t like PDFs? Fine, make an app. But if you make an app, the old stuff has got to be free or 99 cents. Make sure you make an Android app and an HTML5 app for the folks like me that don’t have a tablet device. Whatever you do, please don’t keep the DDI. Nothing will drive away non-4e players more than forcing a subscription model on us. The unscrupulous will simply continue to pirate the PDFs. All the pirating goes away, if *my* version of D&D has rules that are easy to access for me.

Will this all happen?

Probably not, but I really hope so. Good luck Mike and Monte.

One of the things that can be tricky with psionics is the dreaded table in the 1e PHB that determined one-off psionic talents. I keep thinking that there should be one-off talents available that are not listed as powers for a psion. I also think that there should be a similar table for the freak ability to be able to cast a cantrip or 1st level spell (not Magic Missile).

One of the psionic abilities included in the one-off talent table is Vikayra. Vikayra represents the ability to morph one object into another. The rules governing this ability are pretty straight-forward:

• The target cannot have flesh.
• The target object cannot be worn by a living or undead creature.
• This ability cannot be used to create something that the wielder has never seen.
• This ability cannot be used to create a construct (though it can be used to destroy one)
• This ability cannot be used to create a living thing, except for non-magical plants.
• This ability cannot be used to create complex objects like armor, weapons or machinery.

Basically, the wielder could use this power to turn lead into gold, a sword into bread or an unworn set of armor into a small stand of trees.

What prevents the wielder from becoming their own private factory or personal mint is that the transformation requires some value to be lost. When using Vikayra, the resulting object is always of less value than the original object.

In game terms this means that an object worth 100gp can be transformed into another object with a value of less than 100gp. At the first level of ability, the new object would be 5gp value max. At higher levels, the value climbs to a peak of about 95 gp.

Another limiting factor of Vikayra is the range of effect. When the power first manifests, the wielder can only affect an object that he or she can touch. As the wielder grows in their ability, he or she can affect objects at some distance away. To affect object at a distance, though, the wielder must be looking at the object he or she is attempting to transform.

Lastly, while practitioners of the transformative art grow in their craft, they can train to reduce the amount of value lost *or* train to affect objects at a distance.

Any other ideas are totally welcome. I’m hoping to hammer this out into something more detailed and useful.

The student replied that he saw a pyramid. All the triangles of the pyramid were the same size and each face had a different color.

“Very good,” she said. Walking around the student to stand behind him, she leaned in close and asked again, “What do you see?”

Puzzled, the student repeated his earlier description placing emphasis on the individual colors of the pyramid faces.

After a brief pause, she asked, “Can you see the green side as it sits before you?”

“No,” the student replied, “I cannot see it because the pyarmid is resting on its green side. I can see the yellow and blue faces,” he added, “with the red face on the back.”

“Can you  see those three faces at the same time?”

“No, teacher, I cannot.”

“You will.”

Time passed. The student felt a bead of sweat crawl its way down the outer edge of his face. It lingered on his chin for an eternity of silence before dropping to the floor.

“Look again,” the teacher intoned, “you can see the yellow and blue and red pyramid faces because you know that they are there.”

For a long time, the student stared at the pyramid. The sweat that first began to appear as random dots began to form a small stream. Tears began to well in the students’ eyes. They also joined the river hurtling toward the floor. At his chin, the drops fell faster and faster.

“I see them!” the student shouted. “I see all four faces of the pyramid!”

The sweat streaming from his chin disappeared into nothingness before hitting the floor. A dot of blood appeared just above his hairline and stretched into a ribbon of red as it moved toward the river of sweat and tears.

The teacher was pleased that the student had progressed much farther than her expectations. She asked herself if he had really said that he saw four faces instead of three. She dared herself to push his talents and submitted another challenge.

“What is inside the pyramid?”

Three more dots of blood appeared on the students’ head. The red ribbon was more distinct now. His face betrayed no sense of strain, only a look of contemplation and a half-smile on his lips.

“I see a box,” said the student.

The teacher’s smile grew broader. She was quite impressed with her apprentice. He has progressed farther that she had at this point in her training. She began to entertain ridiculous thoughts about the power her student possessed.  She wondered if she was the teacher prophesied to give birth to the Master of the World Beside.

Dispelling her foolish notions, she refocused on the purpose of her training. She had brought him here to teach about their common heritage. This temple was the place where the ancients meditated. In this place, the ancients pulled knowledge from the Word Beside. This knowledge brought enlightenment to the world and saved their kind from destruction and ruin for hundreds of generations.

“You have the Prapatra and Chayda,” she told her son. “You can see things as they really are.”

The boy betrayed a bit of excitement at his mother’s words. Pursing his lips, he reached toward the pyramid.

“Let me take the box,” he said.

The mother had turned her back on him while she was lost in thought. Turning back at his words, she cried out to stop him from making a grim mistake. He had not learned enough to find his way back.

“NO!”

His hand disappeared into the blue face of the pyramid and grabbed the box that sat inside. Finding it too heavy for one hand, he reached the other toward the box. His other arm sunk up to the elbow into the yellow face of the pyramid. With a great pull, the edge of the box emerged from the red face of the pyramid.

His mother was not using the Prapatra and Chayda, so she did not see the box emerge on the opposite side of the pyramid. She stood helpless, hoping that her son would find his way back. She knew that breaking his concentration now would kill him for certain.

“One more pull,” he said and the entire box emerged on the opposite side of the pyramid. His arms and hands reappeared out of the left and right faces of the pyramid. His entire body appeared whole again.

Closing his eyes, he broke his concentration. Before he could open them, his mother’s hands covered them.

“Do not open your eyes until all the colors pass.” she said, “Your life depends on it!”

As the rich colors of the rainbow cascaded in his perceived sight, he felt a slight pressure on his entire body, inside and outside. There were voices in his mind. Some were whispering, others were talking in a language he did not understand. What began as a great noise soon faded into a single whisper.

“Beware,” said the voice before it disappeared.

As the colors faded into the dull light of his eyelids, the pressure disappeared. When his mother removed her hands from his eyes, he opened them to see her sweat-rimmed face.

Forgetting his place, he asked, “How did you get in front of me when you were covering my eyes from behind?”

Relieved, she only said, “You will learn this and many more things in your future training.”

She handed him a cloth to clean his face and chin. The ribbon of blood on the cloth reminded her of the dangerous journey her son had just taken.

“Now, my son, let’s go see what’s in the box.” Ω

(d20 + d10) + level + modifiers ? 26

This system assumes the use of descending armor class per older editions of D&D when it comes to combat. So, let’s take the case of a 6th level fighter attempting to hit a creature with an Armor Class 5. With this system it would be

(d20 + d10) + 6 + 5 ? 26

Or, you have to roll a 15 or better to hit. The chances of that are 57.5 percent.

In 2e, a similar scenario 6th level Fighter has a THAC0 of 15 requiring an 11 or better with a d20 to hit AC 4. The chance of success is 50 percent.

Not too bad really – I don’t mind being a little more generous with combat. But how about lower levels? Let’s see:

This scenario is a 2nd level fighter attempting to hit AC2, a tough challenge.

(d20 + d10) + 2 + 2 ? 26

In other words, roll a 22 or better, a 22.5 percent chance of success.

The same scenario in 2e means that the 2nd level fighter has a THAC0 of 19 meaning that he needs a 17 or better to hit. Chance of success is 20 percent.

Saving Throws

When doing saving throws, the basic formula is still the same:

(d20 + d10) + level + modifiers ? 26

This time, though, the modifiers are standard based on the type of Saving Throw: +0 for Spells, +1 for Breath Weapon, +2 for Petrification, +3 for Paralysis and +4 for Death. (At least, this works for Fighters and Clerics)

So, a 6th level Fighter needs to make a Saving Throw against a young dragon’s Breath Weapon:

(d20 + d10) + 6 + 1 ? 26

In other words, he has to roll a 19 or better. This provides a 37.5 percent chance of success.

A 6th Level fighter making the same save in 2e has to roll a 13 or greater, a 40 percent chance of success.

Saves in my system are more lethal for higher level characters, but only by a slight margin.

Now because the modifiers are different by class, I would simply put the saves on the character sheet so that a player only needs that reference to roll anything.

Rogue Skills

Doing this take a change in how Rogue skills are handled. Instead of using percentages, skills would have a number that looks an awful lot like a skill rank used in 3e. In other words, Climb Walls wouldn’t be listed as 80%, but as +15. Since 2e allows you to start with a base and add points where the player wishes, I’d have to recalculate all new starting points. Climb Walls would start at +11, others would start somewhere between 1 and 5. I haven’t worked that out yet.

Anyway, if you have a first level thief with an 80% chance of climbing walls vs a 1st level Thief in Andras with a +15 Climb Walls score…

(d20 + d10) + 1 + 15 ? 26

In other words, he/she would have to roll a 10 or better, an 82 percent chance of success.

More Work to be Done

Still more to be done, obviously. Just a weird idea. Yes, it would be easier to stick to Dan’s original idea. His is more tidy in some ways and the formulas don’t have this weird 26 all over the place.

Yet, the flat curve works for me. It does some funky things at higher levels that I like. Combat is still not automatic at higher levels, neither are Saving Throws. Maybe it will turn out to be a silly idea after all. As always, we’ll see.

I wrote a short story called Two Friends in an attempt to kickstart my brain into writing more for the Shayakand setting. At the time, my goal was to generate generic PDFs for Southeastern Asian flavor that a Savage World GM could drop into their game. The idea was that after writing six of these smaller PDFs, the entirety of them could come together for a Shayakand Sourcebook.

The races were created with no big issue, but I was unable to finish the others. So, in March I started writing back here. Work began again on a 2e clone.

Most of this year has been the evolution of this game, now called Andras. Along the way, it has evolved from a clone to a 2e inspired game. Since my early groups all played an amalgam of B/X,BECMI,AD&D and 2E, that only makes sense. I never played D&D with just one player’s handbook. Heck, I didn’t play Marvel with just one, either.

Outside of that, I have discovered a lot of fans of the football game called Statis-Pro Football. This Avalon Hill game was one of my favorites back in the 80s. I loved playing it and I still do. I have all the cards I can find that were created by Lee Harris. I also have the formulas used in the 6th edition of the game.

This year I have two writing goals:

• Finish Andras.
• Make Statis-Pro Football Cards

When it comes to Andras, the finished project will be like the Introductory Box post. In other words, it will have a separate guides to help people to just sit down and play. Considering that another goal is a multitude of options for the player, that could be a very tall order.

When it comes to Statis-Pro Football, I plan on making 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 cards. I also plan on making a separate set of cards that are modified in a way to eliminate the dreaded rest rules. If I get a chance, I’ll try to make some historic teams, UFL teams and others.

I only have one gaming goal this year. I want to have a regular Google+ game.

I wish everyone a happy 2012. I hope you have a great time gaming!

I came upon this link today about Target20. One page handles all the mechanical stuff you need to know. The rest of the text of a Target20 based game can be fluff and GM advice. How cool is that?

Seeing as I am currently fixated on d20+d10, if I had a game like this to make, I’d use the following formula:

(d20 + d10) + level + modifiers >=26

Why 26 instead of 30? Because of the bell curve in the D20+D10 dice. If I thought I could make the spell creation system work in a similar fashion, I’d be tempted to redo all of Andras this way. Heck, I may do that anyway. It wouldn’t be the first time I did a reboot.

For what it is worth, I tried coming up with something that uses only regular six-sided dice, but the bell-curve seems too steep for my tastes. Basically, once past 9th or 10th level, you master anything you attempt. (though using 5d6 isn’t *too* bad). If I have time, I may recalculate for d6s and see what I get.

What follows may not be the ultimate answer to an issue raised so many times, that it would take a week to link to ten percent of the conversations about it.  It’s more of an idea presented in an interrogative mood.

Keith commented on my post with this:

So, in D&D 3.x terms you might implement different character archetypes (‘knight’, ‘archer’, ‘healer’, ‘holy warrior’, ‘fire wizard’). I’m thinking about four pages each, for as many levels as can fit (including feat selections and descriptions, and possibly even spells — so it might be only 3-5 levels). Enough to get them started, then point them at the core book for more. Include selection criteria and build suggestions (the knight probably wants a fair bit of Strength, for example, so “description of archetype” and “what it takes to be good at this” should probably be near the top)

Let me expand this a little with the contents of a ‘perfect’ newbie DM kit assembled at The Yaqqothl Grimoire:

• Small dice, pencil and eraser;
• Swords & Wizardry White Box (First Print, Gorgonmilk’s awesome cover);
• (Possibly) Rob Conely’s Blackmarsh setting;
• James Raggi’s Tower Of The Stargazer introductory adventure;
• Matthew Finch’s Quick Primer For Old School Gaming;
• A4 sheet of (numbered) hex paper.

So let’s breakdown all of this preface. Here’s a generalization of both comments:

• A core rulebook – (for example the players information in the S&W Whitebox and Matthew Finch’s Quick Primer for Old School Gaming)
• A GM rulebook – (for example the GM information in the S&W Whitebox)
• Player Kits – (Four page documents with information about class as well as ‘how to play’ information. Provide some material to make the character customizable.)
• An Introductory Adventure – (for example, Tower of the Stargazer)
• An Introductory Campaign – (For example, Rob Conley’s Blackmarsh)
• All the tools needed to play – (Graph Paper, Hex Paper, Pencils and Dice.)

Why use S&W Whitebox as an example? In part because the Pathfinder beginner box has a 64 page rulebook. Mostly, though, it’s because I think the Intro Box should contain the entire game.

Blasphemy? Not really. Outside of an RPG, who else buys a game that is incomplete from the beginning? M:TW? No, you don’t need the expansion packs to play. Axis and Allies? UNO? Trivial Pursuit? Settlers of Catan? It seems to be typical in the RPG world that the only way to get a complete set of the rules is the buy every book made for the previous edition. Otherwise, you are sold something that is already incomplete and experienced gamers know it.

Don’t get me wrong, a good RPG should be expandable. Most of it should come from people actually playing the game. What better way to engage customers than to help them with their customizations?

Sorry, off-topic. Different rant, different day.

Back to the idea of an intro box, the addition of something like Blackmarsh is a useful tool to new GMs. Providing Blackmarsh not only provides part of a world to play in, it also provides an example of how to make your own worlds. The mini-setting is the perfect counterpoint to an example introductory adventure. The adventure is focused on the microlevel, how to structure enough material for one or more sessions of fun with friends. The mini-setting provides the tools to help tell a continuing story, or at least a place to expand beyond the introductory adventure.

I know, I know. RPG publishers are out to make money. The Pathfinder Beginner’s Box is doing really, really well and it doesn’t follow my formula. However, the Beginner Box site offers some of these things for free. Despite not being able to go past level 5, there’s lots of support for this game so far. In fact, more than one person has talked about making a PF “Expert” set that covers options for characters above level 5. I believe that they could make something like PF Lite and really make a good amount of money.

Before closing out this post, I’ve been trying to think about how other RPG publishers outside of Paizo and WOTC could make a box like I’m describing. Could there ever be a Warhammer 40K intro box?

Enough of me, though. What do you think?