As far as gaming goes, I tend to be behind. I just discovered that Paizo is licensing a MMO game.

This is hardly news to anyone. Personally, I wish Paizo well. I hope folks really like it.

Seeing that this happens from time to time, I keep hoping that someone will license Labyrinth Lord or Swords and Wizardry into a MUD. I wish it would be as simple as downloading Pennmush and creating rooms. I imagine it would take a bit of programming to get the standard classes.

Still, it’s a frontier untouched by the OSR so far…

I still remember the unofficial MUD list circulated in college. Once I got XWindows running on my Amiga in my dorm room, I could rely on a bit of good gaming, especially during finals when the brain was fried.

I know that the OSR is more than just nostalgia. It’s just that the idea of an LL MUD MUSH would be the ultimate in retro.

Then again, maybe putting all the rules in an HTML Help file is the ultimate retro.

I promise to have something more useful next time.

I couldn’t figure it out until I realized my mistake.

I played D&D with 10 second rounds. I wrote Andras for 1 minute rounds. When I started using the spell building system, values for minutes were an order of magnitude higher than values for rounds.

I tried to rewrite the table as I hadn’t changed much from d6 Fantasy at that time. Yet, the more I tried, the less it worked. I say that, but I think I got close only to realize that I had accidentally built something a little too close to EABA’s master table of values.

One minute rounds just don’t work for the spell system. The cost is pretty high for a spell that lasts more than a couple one-minute rounds. So, I decided to abstract the whole thing.

In one round, you can move half your move rate and attack. Kick over a table, jump on top of it and swing off the chandelier? Ok, you can do that in one round. Cast a spell? sure. Cast two spells with a casting time of 1? No. Move ten feet and cast a spell with a 6 casting time? Ok. Negotiate with the gelatinous cube? Unless you have a Speak with Goop spell already in effect, it won’t do you much good, but sure, you can talk at it.

(I’ve actually had someone try to reason with a gelatinous cube. It didn’t end well for neither negotiator nor cube.)

Point is, if you look at the spell building table, you find a round is 10 seconds. However, in the player’s guide, that won’t be mentioned.

If I can rebuild the table I will, but until then, this is what I got.

Hopefully, I’ll be back with more content on the weekend. I also hope to have some news about the OSR Co-op

So, now that work insanity has calmed down, I can get back to work on Andras.

I mentioned it on Google+, but I’ll mention it here. Next game will either be a much smaller game or the completion of my football simulation game.

For Andras, there are so many spells to go through, but it will be worth it in the end. Because I’m adapting the D6 Magic rules, I’m running the SRD through the spell creation system. With the components and everything, I want to make sure the levels come out close enough. I’ll only modify egregious errors. For spells that go up in level effects (1d6 per level, etc) I will calculate the spell at the lowest level at which it can be cast.

The rationale is that the advantage of a Mage over an Arcanist is that the Mage gets per level bonuses without doing extra research.

More later.

Yes, there will be spreadsheets.

Here is the Rough Outline

Wizard archetype description
Wizard Classes

• Mage Class (traditional wizard)
• Arcanist Class (Skill-based wizard)

Wizard Schools of Magic

• Abjuration
• Time
• Conjuration/Summoning
• Enchantment/Charm
• Illusion
• Alteration
• Greater Divination
• Invocation/Evocation
• Necromancy

Specialist Mages
Alien Schools of Magic

• White/Grey/Black (for settings without clerics)
• Thaumaturge (“White” Wizard)
• Draíochta (“Grey” Wizard)
• Kataraturge (“Black” Wizard)

• Elemental Schools (For the Ptolemists)
• Air, Earth, Water, Fire, Void

• Change/Move/Summon/Augury

Wizard Skills
Wizard Spells
Arcanist Spells
Learning Spells

For the GM
Initial Wizard Spells

• Mage vs Arcanist

Acquiring New Spells
Spellbooks
Spell Research

• Mage vs Arcanist
• Research “Effect Only” changes in Arcanist spells

Appendix 1 – A different classifier magic idea
Appendix 2 – Mages and Arcanists for S&W
Appendix 3 – Mages and Arcanists for LLAEC
Appendix 4 – Justifications and Design Notes

So now the work begins to create a book of magic options for friendly neighborhood old school game.

I hope that providing data files will also help to create other applications to help with G+ Games, Maptools or any other online system. I prefer in person games, so I will probably work on things that make good use of a netbook or laptop.

Again, I believe that if anything of Andras is used, it may be certain interesting subsystems like the d20+d10 non-weapon proficiencies and background skills that add a non-game altering, minor boon. An example of the minor boon would be a character that rolls the background of chicken-butcher. The minor boon is the ability to use a meat cleaver as a weapon without penalty. The cleaver does 1d4 bludgeoning damage per hit.

If a character with this background becomes a mage, they have a weapon proficiency that doesn’t seriously throw off balance. They still only have 1d4 hit points, they can still only do 1d4 damage, they still have a crummy THAC0. A creative player, however, can use this as a centerpoint to the mage’s descent into madness or make it a humorous skill at camp time.

Chicken again?

So, I have gained a weapon against my nerd projectitis – I’ve been cut off from Google Reader for most of my day, now. I have no access to Twitter to speak of and my G+ usage is on the way down. This means I will be focused on creating content, the slogging part of the content.

This is where I make the monster descriptions, spell descriptions, classes, kits, random tables and the like. The combat rules need a good walk-through. Weapons need to be assigned speed factors. The OpenD6 spells need to be converted and examples of spell creation worked out. I need to write a better description of the five archetypes (Warrior, Priest, Mage, Rogue and Psionicists) and the classes that fall under them. The psionic combat system needs a simplification. Heck, the psionic power list need to be finalized. On top of that, I need to finalize the XP awards for exploration.

Lots to do, for sure. All of these items have been started, but now it’s time to finish.

If I can post half as much as +Tom King, I think I’ll be doing well.

I’ll still post about the primordials, because they replace golems and elementals in the Creature book. I hope to write about the Anabe, a myconoid’s distant cousin and their main adversary, an anti-fungal creature that uses it strange magnetic powers for locomotion. I also hope to develop the cyberorcs for a Blackmoorish encounter in the Southern sub-continent. Bwahaha.

Oddly enough, there has been criticism in the past where Labyrinth Lord called itself the Rosetta Stone of Old School Fantasy. Truth be told, it is the platform that created Original Edition and Advanced Edition. It also spawned Mutant Future and Humanspace Empires. All that’s left is Alternity and Boot Hill and we got the whole shooting match. (Maybe if you’re a completist, you’ll want the Amazing Engine, too.)

But Swords&Wizardry has generated its own progeny as well. There’s Ruins & Ronins, Ultima, and Battlemech (can’t find the link). This isn’t even mentioning the number of versions of the core rules and Brave Halfling’s new rules in development.

Are there more clones that operate like platforms? Looking at other old school games, S&W and LL appear to be the two largest platforms. Microlite20 is a strong third, there are so many add-ons for it, that compiling them all generates a 600+ page document. Openquest is a great rules system, but no one that I know of is working on a space-based game with OQ as the foundation. The D6 game spawned all sorts of games in West End Games’ hey day, but only one publisher is actively building on it. Both of these systems could be great for making all sorts of games. That’s why I use part of the spell building system in D6 Fantasy and a variation of the OQ skill system in Andras.

So, what does this prove except the fact that I can add a boatload of links to a post? There a platform out there for whatever game you want to make and it is broader than the legacy of TSR.

Did you know that the STRength scale in the Action! System is setup so that the STR of a horse will scale to units of horsepower?  Give a STR value to a vehicle and you have the power rating for its engine. It also scales in powers of 10 so that you don’t have to have a space craft with a STR 4200.

But I digress.

I don’t believe that Andras will become *the* platform for gamers everywhere. What I do know is that I like a game that can help me define just about anything I want. Mechs? Sure. Interdimensional Self-Replicating Bismuth Golems? You betcha. Greyhawk? Not a problem. A Spelljammer version of Tekumel? Yes, but the rest of the internet will hate you for it.

I hope that with the fair number of systems presented, folks can find something to use for their game. Skill-based wizard? Roll d20+d10 under the INT score for a rules-lite game and a roll under Spell skill for a more nuanced approach. Spell Creation System? Here’s a short version and a detailed version complete with an expandable table assigning effects to point values. Vancian Spell Name Generator? How about Hastra’s Delicate Surfeit. Monster Builder? Here’s some tables and an XP Chart.

More than that, I also want to provide spreadsheets. If someone wants to make their own spreadsheet based generators, lots of useful data will already exist in spreadsheet format. Better yet, convert the files into csv and build database apps. Go for it. I am intentionally building the various spell lists in a spreadsheet for this reason. Monsters will exist in a spreadsheet as well as the class builder. It’s one thing to provide a text version of the rules, it’s another to provide a dataset for folks to build with.

The ideal system for me would be 48 pages of rules and another408 of magic item tables, classes, spell lists, price lists, etc. The GM’s guide would have a bunch of tools to make just about anything from a monster to a class to a demi-plane and everything in-between. A person could basically ditch everything after page 48 and use the GM guide to recreate anything needed.

Work continues very slowly in October – with birthdays, anniversaries and non-profit events, it’s a very busy time. But I have the XP tables for monsters ready as well as the SRD versions of spells in the 2e PHB in a spreadsheet. This winter, I hope to get quite a bit of work done and have a playtest document before March.

Thanks for the six people that indulged me a bit of commentary.

For example, this is what the stat block for Dweneyarda would look like:

Dweneyarda

Rules: A mix of 2nd edition D&D and B/X. There are house rules for determining non-weapon proficiencies and background skills. Other changes include original classes featuring a non-spellcasting bard, heavily modified paladin and a skill-based mage. Combat is designed to be quick and relatively miniature-free.
Setting: A homebrew fantasy world featuring many traditional staples of fantasy settings (elves, dwarves, halflings) and strange artifacts from an ancient time, similar to Blackmoor.
Rating: Generally PG and possibly R for violence. Adult themes are handled in a “off-stage” manner. This means that events pertaining to adult themes are told, not played.
Emphasis: A mix of combat and role-playing. Dice are used for some randomness, but a well played situation can trump dice via GM fiat. XP is awarded for defeating, not necessarily killing. XP is also awarded for good characterization and elements that add to the setting. The setting is intended to be heroic.
Psionics: Psionics exist. Psionics are not a different form of magic, meaning that there is no Psionic/Magic equivalency. Otherwise, psionicists are mechanically similar to skill-based spellcasters.
Firearms: Firearms are mostly primitive. Wheel-lock technology exists in some places.
Starting Level: Characters start at level 1 with at least 3hp minimum.
Starting Characters: The rules have systems designed to handle settings similar to Spelljammer, Planescape, Dragonlance, Greyhawk, Blackmoor, and the Petal Throne. Most homebrew settings are also valid provided that they can be translated into the rule system.
Game Night: Weekly for a max of 3.5 hours on Friday evenings.

The Men of Iron and Stone (Menois) stand roughly five and half feet tall to six feet tall. They appear as hairless humanoids with webbed hands and no outer ears. They are primarily carnivores that prefer the taste of red meat. Any kind of farming is done solely for the benefit of livestock. They are very sensitive to water and will not come in contact with it for any length of time. Water doesn’t cause any damage, but produces an uncomfortable feeling akin to nausea. For this reason, all Menois carry a coin made of zinc. If an individual Menois needs to have contact with water for any length of time, the Menois will place the coin in their mouth for the duration of their contact.

Their name comes from the fact that their bodies appear to be composed of stone with areas of metal floating on top covering a small area. Despite the appearance of stone, their flesh is similar to soft leather. Each Menois is distinctive as the amount and location of the metal covering an individual’s body is unique to that individual. Most Menois have twenty to fifty percent of their body covered in half-inch think metal. The metal has flexibility, but remains as tough as steel. Commonly, the metal usually covers an entire hand or limb with a small amount forming an type of birth mark on their abdomen. The metal will also shift to cover an area of the body perceived to be in the most danger. During battle, the iron will cover the entire chest, the face and head before covering other areas.

The Menois breathe through their skin covering the “stone” part of their bodies. As a result, they wear very light clothing or none at all. The unique nature of their bodies does not permit wearing any kind of armor or using shields. Except in battle, the abdomen is always exposed to allow individual Menois to identify each other by their birthmarks. Due to their webbed hands, they also do not wear rings. Outside of light clothing, they also paint on the stone and metal parts of their bodies. These temporary tattoos are popular and fairly common.

Culturally, the Menois refer to the dual nature of their bodies as Yerkat (the iron) and Kav (soft stone or clay). The metal part of their bodies represent strength, focus, heat, aggression, fire, sky, and light. The stone part of their bodies represents the opposite qualities: softness, diffuse, cold, passivity, water, earth, femininity and darkness. In game terms, this makes them neutral in regards to law and chaos as the Menois believe that both work together.

Those Menois that study magic research spells and craft magical items for a unique kind of magic that affects the metal part of their bodies. The most common spells and items  increase the size of metal covering their bodies. They have already discovered magic that allows for covering the entire body; the difficulty in their research pertains to breathing once the entire body is covered. No more than ninety percent of the body can be covered in metal or the Menois will die. Despite records from their ancients describing Y’Mard Odayin (The Breathing Man), no magic has yet been discovered that will allow a Menois to breathe while covered completely.

Other spells and magic items manipulate the metal of their bodies into weapons and shields. The unique nature of their bodies allows them to use only magic items that are one-handed weapons, staves or potions. The Menois craft special magic items designed to fit as a thin plate inside their mouths as the inside of the mouth is one of the few parts of the body that does not change as the metal sheath moves around their body.

The Menois’ home plane is characterized by a complete lack of rain. It never rains and fog of any kind is extremely rare. Despite the presence of two large oceans and an abundance of lakes, it does not rain. Menois legends speak of the time of the ancients when large bodies of water did not exist in their home plane. The ancients devised a plan to create the two great seas by crafting gates that connect their world with plane(s) that were mostly water. In fact, first contact was made with humans when the ancients attempted to build a gate on the humans’ home world.

The presence of these gates leads to constant enmity between the Menois and the Water Primordials. Water Primordials will generally attack Menois on sight if circumstances allow: the Menois are seen by them as ancient aggressors and thieves. Outside of Water Primordials, the Menois have no major enemies.

The earth and air primordials share an ability to become incorporeal. The earth primordial uses this ability to move through solid earth. The air primordial lives as an incorporeal creature taking solid form only when feeding.

Incorporeal beings should not need to eat solid food. The Earth Primordial eats magic, specifically sucking the +3 off a sword +3.  They are also magic resistant, a successful roll indicates that they consumed the spell hurled at them gaining a number of hit points or Constitution from it. Regardless of spell level or effect, an earth primordial receives 1d4 hit points from each magic item drained. There is no upper limit of hit points, after doubling its beginning hit dice, it will simply grow larger.

For GMs that stat monsters, they gain Constitution when feeding and lose it at the rate of one point a week. All spells provide a single point increase to their CON score. In the same way, regardless of plus, an earth primordial gains a single CON point by completely removing the magical effects from a magical weapon.

Yes, it would be an epic encounter if/when an earth primordial gains an artifact. The earth primordial would never drain an artifact, but will be provided an endless supply of food and a super-high CON score/hit points.

The land where Earth Primordials dwell features large landmasses broken up by small oceans. Much of the land resembles the Russian taiga complete with a rich diversity of wildlife and sentient races.

In their home plane, the Earth Primordials are scavengers constantly hunting for magic, usually left behind by unsuspecting travelers. Earth Primordials prefer the rich magicks available on the Prime Material Plane, but are seldom summoned. To get by on their home plane, many of compelled to travel to higher elevations. It seems that trees and other plant life are able to draw magic from the plane itself. It takes several fruit/acorns/pints from these plants to sustain an Earth Primordial, but there is just enough to keep the population alive.

Air primordials can feed from any corporeal creature draining a point of CON to sustain themselves. They enjoy a pastoral culture preferring to keep livestock to sustain themselves. Unless starving, an air primordial prefers to take one or two CON points at a feeding waiting for the CON damage to heal before feeding again. Since they require the equivalent of 4 points of Constitution a day, the herds of livestock normally number from 12 to 20 animals of various types.

Air Primordials practice a form of magic that promotes healing, divination and indirect attacks. (For GMs, consider them Clerics using the Priest’s spell list.) They can also sacrifice a point of their own Constitution to heal other creatures once per day.

The plane of Air Primordials is filled will countless floating islands swirling in a multi-colored sky. The clarity of the atmosphere varying according to the season as well as the color of the sky. Air Primordials keep their herds these floating islands.

Culturally, the Air Primordials are not concerned with possessions as they have no real need for material things. They do not build houses or other structures. They lead an aesthetic life filled with contemplation. They have no enemies on the Primordial Plane of Air as they only the only sentient species there. There are other forms of the Air Primordials that are encountered, but all share the same characteristics. Humans on the Prime Material Plane call these other forms Fog Primordial and Smoke Primordial. Aside from a slight change in color in corporeal form, there is no statistical difference.

So, there’s Earth and Air. Next time, I hope to really do something that is not Ptolemaic or Wu Xing.

Aside from that, I am now faced with bringing together all my stuff together into something cohesive and understandable. See, I explained that I play a hodgepodge of rulesets combined together to resemble 1.5 D&D. Both guys were excited about it.

As a result, I now have the impetus to put Andras together. At least, I’ve have to create the player’s book and the creature collection books.

Will it be as beautiful as Greg Christopher’s creations? Not at all. I can’t even do the art of an xkcd.com comic. It will probably feature text walls and tables.

So I have the entire 3.0 SRD in rtf. I’ll start from there and edit until Andras emerges like a sculpture from a block of granite. Why the 3.0 SRD? For one, it has the psionic attack/defense modes featured in the older versions of D&D. For another, it is closer to 2e than the 3.5 SRD. Sure, I’ll have to cut out feats and the classes, but whatever I put back in will be attributed to the correct folks. Some things will come from Labyrinth Lord, LLAEC and Basic Fantasy, other things will come from other OGL postings around the web and the Grand OGL Wiki. I’ll have my own stuff as well, like the d20+d10 mechanic, but I plan on being more specific in my section 15 of the OGL. For example, I plan on including the Phrenic Scourge from Lion’s Den Press and will say as much.

Will I finish? Well, yes, but I hope the answer has changed from someday to sometime in the next three or four months. As things progress, the pdf and odf files will become available in my downloads section.