Gates & Glamours Recent Posts
Fantastic Adventures: First Draft of The Fighter Class
A few days ago I listed the six major classes I am thinking of for Fantastic Adventures in a post (Fantastic Adventures: Initial Thoughts on Classes). I have the non-caster classes written up now — at least as early drafts. Here’s the Fighter. The Hunter and the Scout should follow later in the week.
The Fighter is the best warrior in the game. A Fighter starts with a +3 Combat Bonus and advances at +1 per level until his Combat Bonus is +15. This is double the rate of advancement for fighters in Microlite74. Like Fighters in LotFP, Fighters in Fantastic Adventures are very good at what they do — even at first level. While they can use any weapon, if they use a weapon they have mastered, they have a better chance of critical hits and add their Combat Bonus to their damage.
One surprise is that fighters can use magical scrolls (or rather they can try to use them), provided they can read the language the scroll is written in. I’m trying something different here. All classes will have a chance to use magic scrolls, but only the two classes (the Magician and the Wizard) will be able to successfully use them automatically. I’m not sure how this will work out in practice, but my players all like the idea.
The material that follows is Open Game Content under the OGL. Note that this is a very early draft and will likely change (perhaps completely if it does not work out in playtest). It has not been proofread and as usual Blogger converted the table from its Word source in an odd-looking way but the info in the table is accurate.
Comments are welcome, of course.
The Fighter
Fighters are warriors, trained in battle and in the use of armor and weapons. Perhaps you are a ferocious Viking raider, a roaming samurai, a dashing swashbuckler, a deadly swordswoman, or a chivalrous knight. Whatever type of Fighter you choose to play, you will probably end up on the front lines of your adventuring party—going toe-to-toe with dragons, goblins, and evil cultists, hacking your way through them and taking the brunt of their attacks. The Fighter character is best-equipped of all the character classes to dish out damage and absorb it, too. You are going to serve as the party’s sword and shield, protecting the weaker party members and taking down the enemies before you. Perhaps one day they will tell legends of your battle prowess, and followers will flock to your castle stronghold where you revel in your fame, riches, and newly earned nobility. But it’s a dangerous world out there.
Fighter Advancement Table
|
Level
|
Exp. Points
|
Hit Dice
|
Combat Bonus
|
Use Magic
|
Saving Throw
|
|
1
|
0
|
1d8
|
+3
|
18+
|
14
|
|
2
|
2,000
|
2d8
|
+4
|
18+
|
13
|
|
3
|
4,000
|
3d8
|
+5
|
17+
|
12
|
|
4
|
8,000
|
4d8
|
+6
|
17+
|
11
|
|
5
|
16,000
|
5d8
|
+7
|
16+
|
10
|
|
6
|
32,000
|
6d8
|
+8
|
16+
|
9
|
|
7
|
64,000
|
7d8
|
+9
|
15+
|
8
|
|
8
|
128,000
|
8d8
|
+10
|
15+
|
7
|
|
9
|
256,000
|
9d8
|
+11
|
14+
|
6
|
|
10
|
512,000
|
9d8+3
|
+12
|
14+
|
5
|
|
11
|
1,024,000
|
9d8+6
|
+13
|
13+
|
5
|
|
12
|
1,536,000
|
9d8+9
|
+14
|
13+
|
5
|
|
13
|
2,048,000
|
9d8+12
|
+15
|
12+
|
4
|
|
14
|
2,560,000
|
9d8+15
|
+15
|
12+
|
4
|
Fighter Class Abilities
Fantastic Adventures: Initial Thoughts on Classes
Last month, I mentioned that my current group wanted to play something more like Swords & Wizardry rather than Microlite74. It turns out this wasn’t quite what was meant. They want something written more like Swords & Wizardry, that is more completely detailed than Microlite74, but they don’t necessarily want “exactly” S&W. After a month of talking while playing, we’ve come up with a starting basis for Fantastic Adventures.
It will have the following six major classes (with a brief outline of their currently planned abilities):
Fighter — Combat Bonus starts at +3 and goes up by +1 per level to max (max not yet decided: either +12 or +15). Combat Bonus also applies to damage for favored weapons. Cleave ability. Leadership and Morale Bonuses for hirelings they lead. Forces morale checks at 4th and 8th level (like heroes and superheroes in Chainmail rules). Stronghold.
Monster Hunter — Combat Bonus starts at +1 and goes up by +1 every 2 levels to max. Ability to turn undead/demons/devils/supernaturals/things man was not mean to know (similar to D&D cleric but requires different means for each monster). Knowledge of monsters. Smite Evil (extra damage to known monsters). Info gathering. Stronghold.
Scout — Combat bonus starts at +1 and goes up by +1 every 2 levels to max. Wilderness Survival, Tracking, and trailing. Alertness. Move Silently. Hide in Shadows. Remove Traps. Climb Sheer Surfaces. Open Locks. Sneak Attack/Ambush. Herbalism. Stronghold.
Magician — like Magic-User but uses a spell list made up of some of the cleric spells and some illusionist spells. Combat Bonus starts at +1 and goes up by +1 every 5 levels to max. Magic Research. Tower.
Wizard — Like standard Magic-User. Combat Bonus starts at +1 and goes up by +1 every 5 levels to max. Magic Research. Tower.
Sorcerer — Ritual Magic (only, no spells). Summon/Bind Elementals and Demons. Combat Bonus starts at +1 and goes up by +1 every 5 levels to max. Research. Tower.
You’ll note that there is no cleric-type class. That’s because religions will be handled by cults (something like in Runequest). Cults serve gods, demons, things mankind was not meant to know, etc. Each cult has lay members, initiates, acolytes, priests, and high priests. Priests and High Priests are full time non-adventuring jobs at a shrine or temple and cannot be PCs.
* Lay Membership costs 1% of income per month. Provides basic benefits (e.g. right to attend services, ability to receive benefits from cult such as use cult items). Can be lay member of many cults (so long as all are allied, friendly, or neutral to each other).
* Initiate Membership costs 10% of income per month. Provides lay member benefits plus the ability to call for minor miracles. An initiate of one cult is automatically a lay member (at no additional cost) of all allied cults. Can be initiate of multiple cults so long as all are allied cults.
* Acolyte Membership costs 25% of income per month. Provides lay member and initiate benefits plus the ability to call for major miracles. One can only be an acolyte of one cult.
Note: money paid to membership costs does not provide XP so cult membership reduces advancement rate.
Just about anyone can be a lay member of most cults as requirements are few (if any). Initiate and Acolyte memberships will have additional requirements to be accepted in most cults. These requirements might be easy or hard to meet, depending on the cult. Miracles are limited by the power level of the cult deity and that deities areas of power. For example, one deity of love probably isn’t going to answer a “slay this person” miracle request.
Fantastic Adventures will be an old school game based on 0e/1e/BX but looks like it will definitely be its own thing. This is good because part of me really wants to do something less clone-like than Microlite74, Microlite78, and Microlite81.
Why D&D 5e is Not for Me
I received an email asking me why I was continuing to run TSR editions and retroclones instead of just using 5e. Since the D&D 5e Player’s Handbook was released last summer, I’ve had the occasional request to review 5e. Although I have the three core books and have read them, I’ve refrained from doing so because I just don’t care enough about 5e one way or the other to write a good review. I’ve discovered over the years that if I don’t really love something or really hate something, any review I might write of the game is going to be boring and not all that useful.
Telling people that something is “okay” or “downright average” really doesn’t help anyone decide whether or not to buy it and there have been so many reviews of 5e that I really don’t think anything I could say would be worth reading. However J. wasn’t asking for a review, he was asking a much more interesting question — or at least more interesting to me — why don’t I use 5e to run my games?
While I think D&D 5e is an okay game that I would be happy to play a character for in a campaign with the right group (a first for WOTC editions of D&D), it’s simply not a game I want to DM. There are several reasons:
First, I run campaign settings designed for TSR editions of D&D. Changes to D&D that others might consider positive can be huge negatives for me. For example, a Sleep spell that lasts only one minute (instead of the hour or two it would usually last in TSR D&D) or a Charm person that lasts only an 1 hour (instead of the days it would last on the average person in earlier editions) simply makes some of the history and background of my settings impossible. I have no desire to rework the background of my settings or tricks and traps in dungeons to handle 5e’s nerfed spells (and other seemingly minor changes) would cause.
Second: the Advantage/Disadvantage system. I know many people just love this system, but I’m not one of them. It seems to be overkill to solve the 3e/4e problem of people spending lots of time hunting for one more modifier. As I don’t have min-maxers or rules lawyers in my games, this is simply a problem I’ve never had so I don’t see much reason to replace modifiers with a system where only one modifier can apply and no matter how many positive advantages an action has, one disadvantage trumps them. This just seems to be too blunt of an instrument for the “modifier hunt” problem. In spite of my dislike for the advantage/disadvantage system, as a player I can live with it. As a DM, I can’t. Many times I’m dealing with ten, twenty, thirty or more orcs, goblins, or whatever in a combat. With a modifier based system, I can roll 5 or 10 dice at time (handling the attacks of 5 or 10 monsters), eyeball the modifiers, discard the misses and roll the damage for the successes. With the advantage/disadvantage system, however, the minute the monsters have advantage or disadvantage, I have to roll two dice for each monster separately which greatly slows things down. I discovered this back in the 1980s when I tried a version of this system. Sure, I could redo all the encounters in my dungeons and wilderness areas replacing masses of low level creatures with two or three higher level ones but that would be a lot of needless work and would not even make sense in world in most cases.
Third, character creation takes too long for my games, has too many options, and requires more time and effort than I want to have to devote to it, especially with the new and/or casual players that my games attract. I realize that all the options make many players and GMs happy. I’m just not one of them. I also do not like the advancement system which blows through levels (especially lower levels) far too fast for my campaigns and has attributes inflating rapidly with levels — especially if you opt not to use feats. Attributes are more important in 5e than I like in general.
There are a good number of other nitpicks that keep me from using D&D 5e to run my games, but the above three are the major ones. Sure, all of these issues could be worked around or I could toss out all my work and design settings specifically for D&D 5e. However, given that TSR D&D rules still exist (and with all the retroclones aren’t going away) and still work just fine with all the setting material I developed in the 1970s and 1980s and still use today, there’s really no rational reason for me to do so. 5e wouldn’t bring anything to my table that would be worth all of the extra effort. Of course, this does not mean 5e is a bad game, it just means that 5e is not the best choice for running my campaigns.
Fantastic Adventures: Early Cleric Draft
The only cleric in the party died in last week’s Sunday Game session and the player decided to roll up a new character rather than have the party go into debt (or accept a quest from an NPC who really does not like one of the characters in the party) to get him raised. With a wisdom of 8, his new character isn’t a cleric.
This is good in a way as it gives me a chance to try a new idea for clerics with an NPC. I’ve had a problem with clerics for some time. They seem more like a fighter/magic-user with a smaller selection of spells than a priest for a relatively low XP cost — less than fighters. I’ve tried a number of options for clerics over the years, including eliminating them and folding their spells into the magic-user class as I did in Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery. However, that really will not work for any of my standard campaign worlds as clerics play important roles in my version of the Judges Guild Wilderlands, the Hidden Valley, and Arn. Therefore eliminating the Cleric is no more an option for my games than reducing the duration of the Sleep spell to 1 minute is an option.
After thinking about this for some time, I decided to try the following modified Cleric class. It’s sort of a combination of the Friar from Fantastic Heroes & Witchery and some ideas I had for a cleric class with free-form divine miracles back in the 1980s. This version has the advantage of having a list of basic prayers so that everything does not have to be free-form while retaining the free-form prayers for more powerful effects.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this class is “Piety”. Piety is earned by spending days in a temple serving the needs of the God and/or his worshipers. This not only makes the cleric seem more like a religious figure, but it gives yet another reason for downtime between adventurers. If I end up going with this class more or less as is, Magic-Users will probably end up with some Piety-like number than they recharge by spending days studying musty old books, although I do not yet have any great ideas as to how to work that into the class.
The other immediately noticeable change with this draft version of the Cleric class is the XP (at 2500) is between that of the fighter (XP 2000) and the Magic-User (XP 3000).
The material in the following quoted section is Open Game Content under the OGL.Note that this is a very early draft and will likely change (perhaps completely if it does not work out in playtest). It has not been proofread and the blogger converted the table from its Word source in an odd-looking way that I’m too lazy to try to fix given the info in the table is accurate.
Comments on this early draft are welcome. Heck, other ideas are welcome as I’m certainly not married to this idea (at least not yet).
The Cleric
Clerics are armored priests who serve a particular alignment, religion, or patron deity. Players may make up the details if the Referee doesn’t use a particular mythology for the campaign. Mythologies and other details of a campaign world often come later if the Referee is just starting.Regardless of the details, the Cleric is a champion of his faith and/or moral alignment. The character might be a sinister witch-hunter, an exorcist of demons, a shining knight of the faith, or a secret agent of some temple hierarchy. Since many of the Cleric’s abilities are oriented toward healing and protecting, they tend to play a support role during combat. However, they are able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the party’s Fighters if need be—at least for a while. Clerics must be either Lawful (good) or Chaotic (evil). There are no Neutral Clerics unless the Referee decides otherwise. Chaos, Law, and Neutrality are described further on.Cleric Advancement Table
Level
Cleric Class Abilities
Weapon and Armor Restrictions: Because Clerics are forbidden the shedding of blood, they may only use blunt weapons (club, flail, mace, etc.) and the only missile weapon they are allowed is oil. Clerics have no armor restrictions.Prayers: Clerics may pray to gain divine help. This is considered a full round action, the player must roll 1d6 + Wis modifier. Any roll over a 1 succeeds, but each subsequent prayer during the same day, adds a cumulative +1 penalty to the DC. For example, if a Cleric is praying for the third time that day, the player must roll over a 3 in order to continue receiving aid. A failure indicates that the prayer is unanswered, that no more aid will be granted for 1d6 hours (GM rolls in secret), and reduces the Cleric’s Piety by 1. At GM’s discretion, praying for unjust causes or creatures will incur a penalty to the roll (maximum: –4), but praying for a just and urgent cause may grant a bonus to the roll (maximum: +4). If a Cleric’s Piety is negative, the Cleric’s Piety also reduces the roll. Other than that, prayer rolls use a d6 at 1st and 2nd level, then a d8 at 3rd and 4th level, a d12 at 5th and 6th level, 2d8 at 7th and 8th level, 2d12 at 9th level and above. The various prayers at the Clerics’ disposal (chosen as they need them) are:Blessing: Beneficiary is granted a +4 bonus for a single particular task (one die roll), or the next saving throw against a particular threat or creature, within one day.Counter Prayer: Cancels sound-associated magical effects (e.g. harpy songs) within 30 feet, so long as the Cleric loudly prays.Dispel Charm: Dispels a mind-affecting spell or effect if the Cleric rolls 1d20 + level vs. 10 + caster’s level (or creature’s HD).Encouragement: All allies within 30 feet get a +1 bonus to attack rolls and saving throws vs. fear for a duration of 1 round per Cleric level. At 9th level, the bonus increases to +2.Exorcism: Expels a malignant spirit from an unwilling host (use a Turn Undead roll, but after 30 minutes of loud prayers).Guidance: Answers a question with a short vision, a few words, a coincidental sign, etc.Healing Touch: Cures 1 BP/2 levels (round up), or grants a new save (+ Cleric’s level) to cure a disease or neutralize poison.Sanctuary: No creature can attack the Cleric so long as he prays silently during that combat. Common creatures get no save, but supernatural foes get a Charisma save.Turn Undead: Repels or even utterly destroys undead and sometimes demonic creatures (see Turn Undead ability p.95).The above prayers are standard. The GM is free to alter them for specific religions in the campaign.Minor Divine Aid: Clerics can call upon their deity to bring them opportunities and second chances in times of need (and generally in hopeless situations). This help may not kill or even injure a foe, nor involve directly magical or impossible things. It does no more than even the odds or aid in bypassing an obstacle; it does not make the Clerics more powerful, but help them face foes at full strength. For example, if the Cleric is lost in the wilderness and grievously wounded, he may find a benevolent hermit willing to help him; or if the Cleric is pursued by a troll, he could stumble onto a narrow cavern in which to take refuge, and so on. Each request for minor divine aid costs the character 1 point of Piety if answered by the deity. Roll 3 or higher on 1d6 for the deity to grant divine aid. Subtract 1 from the roll for every request for minor divine aid (whether answered or not) the Cleric has previously made that day. At GM’s discretion, praying for unjust causes or creatures will incur a penalty to the roll (maximum: –4), but praying for a just and urgent cause may grant a bonus to the roll (maximum: +4). Before rolling, Clerics may spend additional Piety to increase the chance that their deity will grant aid; each point of Piety so spend adds +2 to the roll. A cleric must have at least 1 point of Piety to request Minor Divine Aid.Divine Intervention: Clerics can call their deity for direct intervention. This intervention could take many forms as supplicated by the Cleric depending on the circumstances. For example, the Cleric could request someone being entirely cured of all ailments and damage instantaneously, or even being brought back to life; implore that a celestial warrior is sent to assist in a desperate battle against the forces of darkness; etc. In any case, the Cleric is not assured to get any help, which entirely depends on the deity’s willingness as determined by a die roll. The Cleric must roll (21-level) or over on a D20 for success. At GM’s discretion, praying for unjust causes or creatures will incur a penalty to the roll (maximum: –4), but praying for a just and urgent cause may grant a bonus to the roll (maximum: +4). Clerics may spend additional Piety to increase the chance that their deity will grant aid; each point of Piety so spend adds +2 to the roll. A cleric must have at least 1 point of Piety to request Minor Divine Aid. If Divine Intervention is successful, the Cleric loses an additional 2d4 points of Piety.Saving Throw: Clerics receive a +2 bonus on saving throws vs. poison and paralysis (unless the alternative “Saving Throw Matrix” is used).Establish Temple: At tenth level, a Cleric who chooses to build and dedicate a temple to a deity may attract a body of loyal followers who swear fealty to the character. If the Cleric changes alignment after establishing a Temple, the character will lose any followers (and probably face a mutiny).Experience Bonus for Wisdom: Wisdom is the Prime Attribute for Clerics. Clerics with Wisdom of 15 or higher receive a 10% to experience, 5% as normal, and 5% because it is the Prime Attribute for the class.Piety: Clerics earn Piety by spending time performing clerical duties (usually in a temple to the deity). If a cleric’s current Piety is zero or greater, each full day devoted totally to performing these duties earns one point of Piety. If a cleric’s current Piety is less than zero, it takes 1d6+1 days devoted totally to performing these duties to earn one point of Piety. The maximum Piety a Cleric can have is equal to five plus the sum of his levels (e.g. a 4th level cleric could have no more than 15 Piety (5 + [1+2+3+4]) while a 10th level cleric could have 60 Piety stored up (5 + [1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10]), etc.). Gods tend to remember things done for them longer the higher the level of the cleric.
Changing Wilderlands Campaign To One Based On Swords & Wizardry Whitebox
As many readers may have figured out from my few posts last year, I’ve moved to Garland, TX and have gathered a new group of old school players. Unfortunately, instead of the large group of players I’ve had for the past five years, I’m limited to four players due to space-to-play limitations. We’ve been having a good time with a campaign set in the area around the City-State of the Invincible Overlord. My original idea was to set the campaign in a different part of the Wilderlands, the Valley of the Ancients. However, my players really wanted to be based in the City-State, so that’s where the campaign is set.
Everyone seems to be having a great time, but it turns out they believe they would prefer the “Fantastic Adventures” rules we are developing and using to be based more on Swords & Wizardry than on Microlite74. This is just the opposite of the way my old group went. The old group started using OD&D rules via The Grey Book but decided after trying Microlite74 that they liked it better. This always confuses me because OD&D, Swords & Wizardry, Microlite74 and to a lesser extent B/X, Labyrinth Lord, and Microlite81 seem like almost the same game to me when I’m running them. I played in house-ruled OD&D games in the 1970s that had larger differences than these games do.
This means, of course, that changing between them is no problem for me. So next week, my campaign will be running under Swords & Wizardry Whitebox rules which will be modified as needed to match what we’ve been doing with Fantastic Adventures.
This also means that the Fantastic Adventures rules y’all will be seeing will be something different: they will not be Microlite20-based as as Microlite74, Microlite78, and Microlite81 have been. Perhaps this is a good thing as the later games in this series have not been “microlite” in page count, they have only been “microlite” in that they were based on “Microlite20 DNA”.
Another Skill System For Swords and Wizardry Whitebox
Someone asked for a simple skill system that would work with Swords and Wizardry Whitebox on one of the forums I read. I know there are a lot of this out there, but I’m sure there is room for one more. Here is a slightly edited version what I came up with (including my reasoning).
Premises:
1) I hate skills as they are normally handled in D&D-type games as they tend to lock characters who don’t have the skill out of using it even though most skills in a “medieval-era” world should be things anyone would have at least some chance of success at, even with no training. Any skill system I would use would give even the unskilled a reasonable chance of success on all but the few skills that really can’t even be attempted (with a chance of success) by the untrained.
2) I dislike skills because too many players think all they should have to do is say “I use my X skill” instead of actually describing what they are doing — especially when it comes to interacting with others. Any rules for skills I would use must do their best to prevent this misuse (IMHO) of skills.
3) Pre-Greyhawk (that is, before thieves) 0e already has a limited skill system. For example, characters had a 1 in 6 chance of finding secret doors but certain races had a better (2 in 6) chance.
4) Most people prefer high rolls to be successful and such rolls make it easier to work with modifiers.
Rough Draft Skill System for S&W Whitebox:
Roll a six-sided die for skill success with the following rolls needed for success:
6+…….Untrained (no special racial/other affinity)
5+…….Untrained (with special racial/other affinity)
4+…….Skilled-Apprentice Level
3+…….Skilled-Journeyman Level
2+…….Skilled-Master Level
When a character can choose a skill, he can either select a new skill at Apprentice Level or raise a skill he currently has by one level (from Apprentice to Journeyman or from Journeyman to Master). I’d probably let characters select a couple of skills at first level and one at each level thereafter.
All skills (except those designated by the GM) may be attempted untrained.
The GM may give circumstantial modifiers to the roll (usually totaling from -3 to +3) where needed.
The player must describe what his character is doing in order to attempt the skill with any chance of success, this is especially true of “interaction with others” skills. Players who just say something like “I use my fast-talk skill to convince the guard to let me go” should fail automatically. The player should at least say something like “I’ll try to fast talk the guard into believing I have an important message for and that the guard should let me in to avoid get his ass chewed out for delaying the message.” Conversely, if what the player describes sounds like it should work, the GM should just say it works without requiring a skill roll. Rolling should not replace roleplaying, especially when it comes to interaction with others.
Skill List:
This is up to the GM. In my opinion, however, a small number of broad skills work better than a large number of narrow skills in a S&W Whitebox game.
An ACKS Style Skill System?
I’m attempting to convert my standard skill system from Microlite74 and Microlite81 to work as Adventurer Conqueror King System “throws” instead of the D20-style rolls plus bonuses because the people who want to play in my upcoming Garland campaign want to use ACKS style attack rolls, etc. I’ve come up with the following draft “Skill” rule and I’m looking for comments on it from a wider pool of people than the four people who will be playing in my new campaign. So please read and comment. 🙂
Skills
There are no skills in Microlite Old School 2014. Instead players are expected to think like adventurers, tell the GM what they are doing and the GM decides if it will succeed in the situation, taking into account the characters’ classes. If the GM decides a random success chance is truly needed he may resolve the situation with a throw or roll of his choice or he may call for one of the following throws from the table below:
Primary Class Throw: if the character is attempting something directly related to their class.
Secondary Class Throw: if the character is attempting something only loosely related to their class.
Primary Background Throw: if the character is attempting something that is not related to their class but is directly related to their background.
Secondary Background Throw: if the character is attempting something that is not related to their class but is at least loosely related to their background.
Unrelated Skill Throw: if the character is attempting something that anyone should be able to try with at least a small chance of success but is not really related to their class or background.
When the GM calls for a skill throw, he will declare the type of skill throw, which stat the skill throw falls under (add Stat bonus to throw), and any situational modifiers and the player will make a skill throw. The GM should make the throw in secret if seeing the result would give the player more information than his character should have.
Unless the GM rules otherwise, a natural roll of 20 always succeeds for a Primary Class, Secondary Class, or Primary Background Roll. The following situational modifiers are suggested for task difficulty: Easy: +1, Normal: 0, Difficult: -1, Hard: -2, Very Hard: -4, Legendary: -6, Unbelievable: -8.
If the skill throw is a success, the character’s attempt to perform the task succeeds. Otherwise, the character’s attempt to perform the task fails, meaning the character makes no progress toward the task’s objective (or — if the GM wishes — makes progress but suffers a setback determined by the GM).
Skill Throw Table
| Level | Primary Class | Secondary Class | Primary Background | Secondary Background | Unrelated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
10+
|
12+
|
14+
|
16+
|
20+
|
| 2 |
9+
|
11+
|
13+
|
15+
|
19+
|
| 3 |
9+
|
11+
|
13+
|
15+
|
19+
|
| 4 |
8+
|
10+
|
12+
|
14+
|
18+
|
| 5 |
7+
|
9+
|
11+
|
13+
|
18+
|
| 6 |
7+
|
9+
|
11+
|
13+
|
17+
|
| 7 |
6+
|
8+
|
10+
|
12+
|
17+
|
| 8 |
5+
|
7+
|
9+
|
11+
|
16+
|
| 9 |
5+
|
7+
|
9+
|
11+
|
16+
|
| 10 |
4+
|
6+
|
8+
|
10+
|
15+
|
| 11 |
3+
|
5+
|
7+
|
9+
|
15+
|
| 12 |
3+
|
5+
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14+
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| 13 |
2+
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8+
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14+
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| 14 |
1+
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5+
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7+
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13+
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Questions for Consideration:
1) Should the a Stat Bonus really be added to all skill throws? I add them to skill rolls in Microlite74 and Microlite81 so I’ve kept the system here, but I really am not sure it is a good fit.
2) Are the suggested task difficulty situational modifiers reasonable?
Made my Saving Roll. I’m Not Dead Yet!
No, I did not die with my mother-in-law back in April. However, my life has undergone some huge upheavals. We spend six weeks in a remodel of my late mother-in-law’s house so it could be sold to decide we’d rather live here and sell the house in Waco. So we spent a month packing up and moving from Waco. The house there has just come on the market and we are back in Garland slowly unpacking and trying to fit two houses worth of stuff in one house. Needless to say, a lot of stuff has already been sold (generally for peanuts) or donated to charity groups for their “garage sales”. As you might expect, I haven’t got much else done, but life is slowly returning to normal. Here is a progress report on my various gaming projects and activities.
Wilderlands Campaign: I’m happy to say that the Wilderlands campaign I ran in Waco for about four years is still going strong. It is now two campaigns, however, as none of the players in the campaign willing to GM could handle 8 players. There are now two smaller groups, one using Microlite74 and the other using Microlite81, playing in the same world. They are even taking steps to keep the time line coordinated so events in one group can affect the other. Everyone seems to be having a good time and I even got to play in one session while I was in Waco. The first time I’ve ever played in one of my own settings. It was fun — but felt very weird at the same time.
DFW Campaign: While it will still be a couple of months before I have time for a regular campaign, one is in the works. Due to physical space limitations, it will be limited to 4 players — and it is already full. One of the regular readers of this blog got in touch with me in early June wanting to know if i had time to run any pickup old school games while I was in the Dallas area. I didn’t, but I got to talking with him and his friends. Once my wife and I decided to move up here, they started lobbying for me to run a campaign up here. It looks like I’ll be writing a special set of variant Microlite81 rules for it with only three classes (Fighter, Sorcerer [a fighter/mu combo], and Wizard) with everything else including race handled by backgrounds and with some of the stuff from Microlite74 Swords and Sorcery (like the White/Grey/Black magic system). I hope to start playing sometime in October (or late September if we’re lucky).
Microlite81, Microlite78, and Other Design Projects: I have not made much progress on these. As you might expect I have not had a lot of computer time the last few months and most of what time I did have on the computer had to be devoted to doing work for my clients. I’m gradually getting more time and hope to be able to resume actually typing up rules soon. The goal for Microlite78 was not reached — not surprising when I disappeared from the Net for over three months. However, a lot of the work for a draft is done, so I will likely go ahead and do it anyway, especially given that a lot of people really want to see it.
5e: I’ve been asked (a lot) about my opinion of the upcoming 5e. Until I actually see the 5e PH, MM, and DMG, I can’t really say much. However, from what I’ve seen there are so many changes from TSR D&D (a “sleep” spell that only lasts a couple of minutes, for example) that I would have to heavily rewrite my campaign settings to make them work with 5e. I see no reason to do so since the rules they were designed for still work just fine. Unlike 3.x and 4e, however, 5e looks like a system I could enjoy playing given an old school style GM and group of players, so while I will probably not ever GM a campaign using the 5e rules, I could seeing myself as a player in an appropriate 5e campaign.
With luck, it will not be another three months before my next post. 🙂
Post Funeral Update: Sunday Game, Microlite78, and New Microlite74 ebooks
Things have been moving since I last posted. I’m still in Garland and, except for some quick trips back to Waco, I will be for the forseeable future. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on the house my wife’s mom lived it before it could be sold. A lot of fondation work had to be done a few years ago. Unfortunately, her mom put off things like replacing flooring, painting, and other repairs to things that were damaged either because of the foundation problems or during the repairs (installing some 20 piers). All of this will have to be done before the house could go on the market. Also, going through her things will take weeks by itself. I expect one or both of us will be here 3-4 days out of every week for the next 3-4 months.
This means the end of my Sunday Game — at least as it is running now. One of the players has volunteered to copy my materials and try to continue it until my schedule is able to take it back. This is a good thing. I’ll be back in Waco this week and will get the needed material to him. With luck, they’ll be able to resume the campaign next weekend.
I had hoped to get a lot of work on Microlite81 and Microlite78 done over the last week — as I had little to do for hours at a stretch. Unfortunately, I left the DVD with all my files backed up on my computer desk back in Waco, so there wasn’t much I could do other than think about things. Donations for Microlite78 project really dropped off when my wife’s mom died and I quit posting to this blog, message boards, etc. The deadline will be extended, of course, and once I bring up our computers this week, I’ll have all my files. Work will then resume. Any chance of getting Microlite81 Complete to release candidate stage this month are likely gone, however. The new edition of the Microlite20 Collection will also be delayed to sometime in May.
Speaking of donations, it looks like we hit the $300 mark yesterday. I’ll do a drawing and mail out items to lucky winners sometime this week (see Microlite78 Sponsorship/RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Drive Giveaway Items for more info or to donate). I can’t say when as I don’t yet know which days I will be in Waco. Thanks to everyone who has donated so far.
There is some really good news on the Microlite74 front. Shortly after all this happened, I received an email from Andy Lannan. He sent me a copies of Microlite74 Extended in epub and mobi ebook formats. I just discovered this email this morning, so I haven’t had a chance to look at them, but it sounds like Andy did a great job — even converting tables to jpgs so they would display correctly. Thank you, Andy, for what had to be a complex bit of work. I’ll try to get these files uploaded soon. They will be free-to-all to download just like all the other Microlite74 materials.
Finally, I’ll like to thank everyone who posted, emailed or called me with their condolences. I appreciated them and my wife was somewhat surprised that so many people she did not really know reached out to her. Thank you one and all.
My Wife’s Mother Passed Away
We get got a call from the rehab center she was transferred to yesterday. Donna’s mother passed away last night. Needless to say, I will probably not be blogging much for a week or two and will be slower than normal at answering emails, including replying to donations. My apologies.
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About This Site
RetroRoleplaying.com started out as a site devoted to out-of-print, unsupported, and/or out-of-style tabletop roleplaying games (and modern “retro-clones” of those games). While we have over one hundred pages devoted to this, as of 2010 we are probably better known as the publisher of free Microlite20 variant games designed to reproduce the feel and style of “old school” editions of the “worlds most popular tabletop RPG” including the popular (and free) games Microlite74, Microlite78, and Microlite81.
While it may surprise many people, the earlier editions of classic RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons sold many more copies than the newer D20, 4e, and 5e versions. These once very popular games are available in hardcopy via Amazon or eBay (and many are available in PDF)– and are still being played today. Retroclones are much less expensive, however (often free in PDF form).
Many people prefer older tabletable roleplaying games because of their less complex, easier to modify rules and their “feel.” While many 3.x and 4e games feel more like playing a computer game around a table with much emphasis on optimal character building and detailed tactical combat, pre-D20 games feel more being in a movie or novel — the emphasis is what the characters do in the campaign world as opposed to what skills and feats are on their character sheet.