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Thoughts on The Black Hack

June 30, 2016 /

In place of the post about the Summoner class, I offer thoughts on the progress of converting my 30+ years of campaign notes into TBH form.

In editing the Summoner for the Black Hack, I discovered a major flaw. It wasn't in the system, that part is really simple. The issue was with the expanded bestiary. The new creatures range in HD from 1 to 20, but I realized that my choices for 20 became more complicated to explain that I wanted. The special abilities for the high end monsters were bordering on requiring more subsystems. That isn't worth it. This issue also crops up from time to time in my campaign conversion.

Rulings, Rules, and the Rest

Most of my issues revolve around changing my fiddly rulings into something more Hack-ish. Don't get me wrong, I am about rulings not rules at the table, but I write down those rulings so that I can be consistent. I moved away from writing down my rulings during the early stage of a White Star game I ran. The result was player confusion and hearing that my rulings keep changing. So while I won't waster time at the table with searching for the rules some huge tome of obscure options, I now review my rulings outside of game time. After some review, I write down a rule and then communicate it to the players. No one has really has an issue with it. Most of my questions now are about creating items to use in game, not rules to gain an advantage. It's a great situation when the players are not staring at a Basic Moves sheet, but are looking at me while describing what their character is doing.

In my mind, I forsee my tried and true gaming notebook transformed into a cohesive Tome of Everpresent Knowledge. Practically, I am converting things only during game prep, a span of time that is one hour maximum. I may never reach the ideal I see in my mind. I still am in the process of translating this same notebook into Swords & Wizardry format. As a result, I have some in the original MyD&D, much of it in Swords & Wizardry, a handful of things in Dungeon World, and the rest in The Black Hack stats. At this point, I should probably create a new follow-up post to I Made My Own Version entitled I Made My Own Flailsnails. We'll see.

Growing Pains

Conversion to TBH is only a problem when I decide to stay within the spirit of the rules in favor of adding yet another subsystem. In my heyday, I simply bolted on huge chunks other games into the rules. Yes, I had a FASERIP subsystem for my D&D game. (Thankfully, I lost it.) I saw abstracting anything as a taking too much effort and time. Nowadays, I want the entire system to make sense, at least nominally. I don't want to devote 75% of my brain to game rules anymore, I want to do a quick prep, use a 3 panel screen to detail how to adjudicate most things that can arise in a game, and enjoy stringing a series of random events together.

Again, my issues come back to trying to make things feel like TBH that in many ways are decidedly not TBH. Various type of dragon breath were one of the first issues I encountered. In my notebook I have them broken up into types (fire, acid, small rocks, feeblemind) and shapes (lines, cones, walls, random spots, etc). The TBH way of dealing with a dragon's fire breath was 1d4+2 Nearby creatures are affected. I figured that any breath weapon with a  cone shape would have the same effect. I then made a ruling that Line shapes of breath weapons would strike a single target, the first member of the party to fail the defensive combat test. The random spots type of breath weapon represents things like a shower of caustic liquid, a rain of super heated sparks, or swarms of semi-intelligent things that injected various nasty things. After attempting to convert my homebrewed subsystem, I realized that the regular combat resolution system would handle these situations just fine. I just needed to determine how to describe how such attacks missed the characters. Once I determined how to deal with the Conjure Elemental spell, I decided that the walls would be treated as a separate monster with the same number of hp as the dragon. The wall can only do damage if it is made out of fire., (The Wall of Fire spell already shows how to take care of that.)

The types of breath weapon only mattered for anything that didn't deal direct damage, like feeblemind, charm, sleep, etc. That was simple enough, use TBH's equivalent of the saving throw. When it came to breath weapons that affect etheral or astral travellers, I began working on yet another subsystem feeling like I had to then re-visit the astral and ethereal travel sections of my notes. I got discouraged thinking about the effort involved in creating Astral Travel and Etherealness spells and paring down the descriptions. After re-reading my notes on the silver cord and golden bowl (house rule about out of body travelling), I realized that all I really needed was a saving throw. I chose a WIS test and added a sentence about the consequences.

You Have a Dragon that Can Sever the Silver Cord with a Breath Weapon?

I am an unabashed completist. There are astral dragons that do not suffer cowards too afraid to enter bodily into the Shining Sea. There is a ghost dragon, The Lady of the Distant Shore, that is the only dragon born with a soul. Most dragons are so enamored of their hoard that they employ out-of-body travel (thus the golden bowl thing) all the time. My D&D Silver dragons can take elven form at will, but employ magic to take human shape. My S&W dragons are ranked by their own religion instead of color or alignment; they even have the equivalent of a paladin class. Dragon Magic operates under an entirely different casting system for those humans that choose to worship dragon gods instead of human ones.

I could go on.

And Now the Rest...

The biggest challenge has been magic items. Sure, you can have magic armor with lots of armor points, but would a warrior really allow a magic shield to be shattered? Wands and rings are easy enough, but do they have usage die? What about artifacts? Shouldn't magic weapons just give you Advantage instead of modifiers? What about speed potions? I'm still working on all of that.

All of that to say that despite the pains and my own inefficiency, I am enjoying the conversion process. The Star Knight variant classes I struggled to finish in S&W are easier now. My alien creation system makes sense. I know, I know, I'm talking about sci-fi instead of fantasy. My notebooks make few distinctions for genre so it runs together for me. 🙂

ue.

 

More Thoughts about TBH Mass Combat

June 27, 2016 /

When I posted Mass Combat for The Black Hack Saturday, I got some great ideas and feedback from Joel Priddy and Bob Bersch on G+. I tried to link to the discussion on G+, but WordPress or Google have some issue with that. Go figure.

Feedback and Combat Options

Joel thought that the Combat Factor should be more like the TBH distance rules. A great idea! From his comments:

Opposing force is:

Much Smaller (x6) "Piece of cake!"
Smaller (x2) "We've got this!"
Equal (—) "Stay sharp!"
Larger (x1/2) "This calls for great valor!"
Much Larger (x1/6) "We're screwed!"

You could add more steps of scale if you wanted, of course.

This feels more TBH than my hack. You will find it faster, giving the GM more time to describe the action.

Combat Factor: Quick Calculation

Combat Factor can be calculated using this quick chart below:

If the opposing force is...

CF Description
Much Smaller x6 Piece of cake!
Somewhat Smaller x4 What a glorious battle!
Smaller x2 We've got this!
Equal x0 Stay sharp!
Larger X1/2 This calls for great valor!
Somewhat Larger X1/4 Steady men! Steady!
Much Larger X1/6 We're screwed!

Another point Joel brought up is that the leader doesn't take damage. He asked about a way for the leader to take damage. In small group battles, as he pointed out, groups can lose their leader and re-group under a different one.

Combat Option: Skin in the Game

When the group takes damage, the leader takes the same hit point damage personally. For example, if a Warrior led group takes 2hp damage, the Warrior takes 2 hp from his/her character sheet.

Bob helped me correct the math in my example, so I will correct my example in the PDF. He also provided an example of his own. He said it took about 10 minutes to run the combat. Bob also added a rule for shields, which is great. From his comment:

A small border town is about to be attacked by a small group of Tomb Guardians, awoken by some adventurers that have since gone on their way.

Side A: The town militia, 25 able bodied men with spears and shields. Armor 2, Hit Points 4, 1d8 damage, CSx5. They are lead by the village wise man/mayor, WIS 13, CHA 13.

Side B: 5 Elemental driven skeletal Tomb Guardians, which are 3 HD monsters. They get an average HP roll of 13, so Armor 2, HP 13, Damage 2d4, CSx2.

Side A gets a CF of 3 (so they could win.. maybe).

(If this was in a actual game I would have the defenders man their wall, which would give them advantage on defense rolls till they started taking damage (the wall is breached!!) but since this is an example no wall).

Round 1: the mayor fails the WIS test with a 16, the Tomb Guardians charge and attack. Another fail of WIS on defense with a 18. The damage rolled is 5, divided by the CF of 3 is 1 2/3, rounding to nearest is 2 points of damage, destroying the militia's shields. Their attack back fails with a 14 vs a CHA of 13.

Round 2: The militia is rocked again, rolling an 18 vs WIS. The TGs do 3 points of damage, divided by 3 is 1 point of HP on the militia. This seems to rally them and they attack back hitting with a 10. And rolling 2 points of damage.. but 2x3 for the CF is 6, minus 2 for armor is 4 on the Tomb Guardians, taking them to 9.

So lets see what changes. One fourth of the militia is down, knocking them down to 19 men and changing their CS to 4. The TGs are down to 9/13*5 or 3.4 (rounded to nearest) or 3 TGs. CS is still 2. But the CF has dropped to 2.

Round 3: The mayor continues the rally, helping the militia avoid the reeling Tomb Guardians, rolling a 7 vs WIS. And then rolling a 7 was CHA for the attack! Hitting them for 5 damage. Times 2 for CF and the TGs are glowing rubble at the militia's feet. Well done lads!

The shields were a nice touch. It's also gratifying to get outside confirmation of how a system works. So, here is another combat option for you.

Combat Option: Shields Will Be Splintered

When the group takes damage, the entire group may sacrifice their shields in place of taking damage.

There was also discussion about pooling resources and having other party members contribute to the conflict as individuals. I assumed that they would be treated as a separate faction, but I never stated that in the rules. So, thanks to Joel, here's the last Combat Option.

Combat Option: I Am Not Chopped Liver

If a member of the characters' party is not leading a group, they can join the fray as a separate faction. As a separate faction, their Combat Scale is always 1.

The GM will adjudicate how damage is shared by the group led by one character and the second character fighting as their own faction. For example, the Conjurer in the party decides to join the fray on his own. There is a Warrior led group of hirelings fighting against a band of skeletons. The Conjurer is always Combat Scale 1. The GM quickly computes that the skeletons and hirelings are both CSx3. This gives the Conjurer a Combat Factor of 1/2. (Yikes!) In the batter, the skeleton strike for 4 hit points of damage. Since the skeletons are fighting two different factions (the hirelings and the Conjurer), the damage is shared, 2 points of damage to the hirelings and 2 points to the Conjurer. The Conjurer has a Combat Factor of 1/2, so dividing 2 by 1/2 yields 4 points of damage. Raining down a fireball on the skeletons, it is calculated to do 20 points of damage. With a CF 1/2, 10 points of damage are done to the group of skeletons. They have been burned to ashes!

Bob suggested another change, namely that certain situation provide advantage or disadvantage. For example, if the character's group is defending a keep from the walls or other well-defended position, they roll advantage to avoid damage. I tweaked the suggestion that taking advantage on one roll forces you to take disadvantage on the other roll.

Combat Option: Advantage and Disadvantage

In play, the player describes how the character is directing the group to gain an advantage to attack or avoid damage. If the GM accepts it, advantage is granted. However, the other roll will be rolled at a disadvantage while the advantage exists. For example, the character directed his hirelings to make a full running charge at a group of skeletons. The GM rules that this provides advantage to the hirelings' attack roll for one roll only. This means that the hirelings will roll disadvantage to avoid damage once.

Thanks to Joel and Bob! I hope these options

Mass Combat for The Black Hack

June 25, 2016 /

The Mass Combat Hack

Mass combat is handled by treating combatants as a single creature, calculating a combat scale, and applying a combat factor. The group led by a character will use the character's stats for tests and damage. The character's CHA stat is used for attacks. The INT or WIS stat (character's choice) is used for avoiding damage. A group can be led by only one character, but that character can be of any class.

Calculate Combat Scale

Combat Scale is determined by the size of the group. Use the chart below to determine the combat scale of each group.

COMBAT SCALE CHART

Number in Unit 2 - 5 6 - 10 11 - 20 21 - 40 41 - 80 81 - 160 161 - 320 321 - 640 641 - 1280
Combat Scale x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7 x8 x9 x10

For example, a marauding band of 20 Goblin warriors is attacking a group of villagers. Consulting the chart, they have a combat scale of 4 or CSx4. The villagers have amassed a group of 30 to fend off the attack. The 30 villagers have a combat scale of 5 or CSx5.

Determine Stats

Goblins have 1 HD, so according to the monster damage chart, they do d4 damage. Per the monster entry, they roll 1d6 for hit points instead of 1d8. After rolling for hit points, the goblins have the following stats: HD:1, Hit Points: 4, Damage: d4, CSx4.

The villagers are led by a 2nd level Warrior with the relevant stats; INT 11, WIS 12, CHA 14. The GM rules that they are treated as 1HD for determining hit points and have no armor. Rolling for hit points, the result is a 5. The Villagers' stats are: CHA: 14, WIS:12, Armor Points: 0, 5 Hit Points, d8 damage, CSx5. CHA is used for attacks representing the Warrior's ability to get the villagers to obey his directions. WIS is higher than the Warrior's INT, so it was chosen for avoiding damage. The villagers do d8 damage per the Warrior's damage.

Determine the Combat Factor

The Combat Factor represents how the size of the two groups affect the outcome of the battle. If the character's group is larger than the opponent's group, they can do more damage and absorb more punishment. If the opponent's group is larger, the character's group will do less damage and suffer greater casulaties.

To determine the Combat Factor, subtract the opponent's Combat Scale from the character's combat scale and consult the chart below. The Combat Factor is multiplied to the damage done by the character's group and divides the damage done by the opponent's group. Any fractional damage is dropped. If the two groups have the same Combat Scale, damage is determined as normal combat without multiplying or dividing damage.

COMBAT FACTOR CHART

Diff CS -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Combat Factor   1/16 1/12 1/8 1/6 1/4 1/3 1/2 2/3 * 3/2 2 3 4 6 8 12 16 24

The villager's final stats are: CHA: 14, WIS:12, Armor Points: 0, 5 Hit Points, d8 damage, CF: 3/2

Running Combat

Combat progresses per the normal rules with two exceptions:
- Different Stats are used for attack and defense
- The Powerful Foes rule is not used.

Recalculating Combat Scale and Combat Factor

After each round, reduce the size of the Combat Scale for both groups as Hit Points as lost. This may also change the Combat Factor.

Continuing with the villagers and goblins in our example, the goblins do 2 hp damage to the villagers. The villagers now have 3 out of their original 5 hit points. This means they have 3/5 the number of villagers. 3/5 * 30 = 18. As there are now 18 villagers, their new Combat Scale is 4.

Comparing the Combat Scale of both groups, they are the same. Consulting the Combat Factor chart, the villagers have a CF of 0.

Mass Combat Example: Villagers vs Goblins

20 Goblins -- HD:1, Armor Points: 0, Hit Points: 4, Damage: d4
30 Villagers -- CHA: 14, WIS:12, Armor Points: 0, 5 Hit Points, d8 damage, CF: 3/2

The character directs the villagers to set up formations to attack the goblins with rocks and pitchforks. Making a WIS test for initiative, the goblins go first. On the WIS test to avoid damage, the player rolls a 12. Argh! Rolling a d4, the result is 4. The villagers have a CF of 1. Dividing 4 (rolled damage) by the factor is 2 1/3. This rounds down to 2 points of damage. On a CHA test, the villagers miss doing no damage. Calculating casualties, 3 hit points remain out of 5 hp the villagers began with. 3/5 * 30 villagers means that there are 18 villagers left. Consulting the table, they are down to Combat Scale 4. Since this is the same as the goblins, the villagers have CF of 0. The goblins are unchanged.

Rolling a WIS test, the villagers avoid the swords of the goblins. With a CHA test, they strike home raining down stones from the rooftops as the second line advances to engage the goblins. Rolling a d8, a 3 is rolled. With no Combat Factor, the damage is not modified. Calculating casualties, the goblins have 1 hit point remaing out of their initial 4 hit points. 1/4 * 20 (the original number of goblins) = 5. Their Combat Scale is now 2.

The villagers are still at Combat Scale of 4. The difference between the Combat Scales is 2. Consulting the Combat Factor chart, the villagers now have a Combat Factor of 2.

The goblins regroup and dive into the group of villagers on the ground to avoid damage from the rocks above. A WIS tests fails and the goblins roll 4 points of damage. 4 divided by the combat factor of 2 yields 2 points of damage. The villagers press on, and succeed on a CHA test. The Warrior's quick thinking directed the rooftop villagers to attack from above. Rolling d8 for damage produces 3. When multiplying the Combat factor of 2, the final damage done is 6. The goblins have been vanquished! The 12 villagers that sacrificed their lives are honored with songs and feasting! The Warrior is hailed as a hero for saving the village!

Mass Combat Example: Knights vs Dragon

This system also works for armies against a very powerful foe.

The 100-strong Knights of the Crown stand ready against a Dragon. The GM rules that the knights are treated as 2 HD Warriors all with chain mail and large shields. They are CSx7. The dragon has CSx1 since he is alone. Calculating the difference between Combat Scales is 6. This give the knights a Combat Factor of 8.

100 Knights led by 5th level Cleric, WIS:17 CHA:15 -- CHA: 15, WIS:17, Armor Points: 10, Hit Points: 10, d6 damage, CF: 8
Dragon: HD:11, Armor Points: 10, Hit Points: 66, Armor Points: 10, Damage: 2 Claws (1d8), Bite (1d10), Breath Weapon 3d8, Spells: Shield, Charm, Web

The Knights win initiative and charge the dragon with their swords. The roll success! Rolling d6 for damage, they roll 5. With CF:8, that is 40 points of damage. This is reduced by the dragon's 10 armor points to 30. The Dragon is struck hard, and boils into a rage. The Dragon flies high above and breathes flames across their formation. Making a WIS test, the knights avoid the rain of fire.

With no loss of knights and the Dragon's CSx1, the Combat Factor is unchanged.

The knights charge again, but fail to penetrate the dragon's scaly hide! (Failed CHA test.) The dragon slashes the knights, raking their ranks with a vicious bite and sharp claws, (WIS test fails). The claw damage is 9 points and the bite adds another 8 for a total of 17. With the Knights 10 Armor Points, this is reduced to 7. Dividing 7 by a Combat Factor of 8, yields 1 point of damage (any remainder more than .5 is rounded up).  Calculating casualties, the knights are down to 9 / 10 of their original force, now numbering 90. Their Combat Scale remains unchanged.

The fallen knights will be commended for their valor, yet the stuggle continues...

The Last One Standing

At the GM's option, if the forces under the character's command fall, they make engage the enemy single-handedly.

Link to Sections 1 to 14 of the OGL

Section 15 of the OGL:

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
The Black Hack © 2016 by David Black
Additional Things © 2016 by David Black
M20 Mass Combat © 2016 Robin V. Stacey
Mass Combat for The Black Hack © 2016 by John Payne

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