Is it Terrible of Me?

The question is twofold. One, is the way I capitalized the title terrible? I really need to take the time to research exactly how the title should be capitalized for things like it and of.

Two, is it horrible of me to want to play a DnD game that is upcoming amongst some friends? This sounds innocent at first, but it has some things that make it more questionable. Firstly, the game will be some pre-fab adventures. Secondly, it's in a pre-fab setting (Dark Sun). Thirdly and most grievously it's fourth edition.

But, I'm still excited by the potential of the game. For a handful of reasons. One, it's with some roleplayers I played with previously and I know to be an awesome group. Two, it's going to be a foray into online transmitted game using skype, and a maptool. Three, I honestly am somewhat excited to play in the Dark Sun setting. It's the most distinct and interesting setting I've ever read in novels, and played on the compy and will be the first time ever on paper I've touched it.

It wont by any means be 'upping my game,' but I see it as an opportunity to hopefully have some fun playing with some friends while I work on other projects. And hopefully after I settle into my new position at work, I'll be able to post some real content here.

Overpowered

So I believe I made an excessively powered character in a a game on saturday. I am unsure where to proceed with the situation. In my usual fashion I come up with a character in a somewhat systematic fashion.

A: Get a concept or theme. This usually involves some idea I've been meaning to get to, or a burning desire to create a pirate or fire mage or three headed monkey.

B: Compile everything I might want to get. In more complicated creation methods (point buy and skill based and classless systems) this is a useful stage.

C: Narrow down to only the stuff along the theme.

D: Expand again if room remains.

Apparently this led to an almost bulletproof character. And mostly stab proof. Now this is a cinematic campaign, sort of a GI Joe thing, so I'm wondering if this is a bad thing, I'm also wondering if I should work with the GM about solving it. I'm considering consulting with him on the matter. Because, while I'm bulletproof theoretically, I also have other issues, with things like fire, and drowning, and am not too hot on climbing... Anyhow, I think I need to talk with the GM. But we'll see what comes out of it.

An Adventure Table!

It has been brought up recently on a blog I frequent that encounter tables are not enough. They are contrived and feel out of place. They lack the ability to give a believable and predictable experience. Therefore the question arises to me, aside from some other shenanigans that I feel sidetrack from my true interest, how to make it believable and predictable.

This makes me think that there should be adventure tables. For the lazy GM, or just to pick out of periodically. Shall we expand on the original article's content of a ship voyage? I think I shall in my usual stream of consciousness with minor editing methodology.

A: The party wants to go on a voyage! The adventure is chosen already. To take a sea trip.

TablesA PREPARATIONS!

TableA1 - Ships in Harbor
roll d20 + modifier for city wealth - bad season modifier

1-5 = no ships in harbor for a season roll next season
6-10 = 1 ship in harbor
10-15 = 1d4 ships in harbor
16-20 = 1d6 ships in harbor
20-25 = 2d4 ships in harbor
26-30 = 2d6 ships in harbor
30+ = 2d8 ships in harbor

TableA2a - Destinations!
roll d20 + modifier for destination city wealth for each ship
1-15 = Ship not going there
15-20 = Can charter entire ship paying full cost
21-25 = Can buy overpriced passage
26-30 = Can buy reasonable passage cost
31+ = Can get free passage

TableA2b - Capability
roll d20 - weather modifier for every ship considered
1 or lower = Incapable crew roll 1d6 encounters on trip
2-4 = Poor crew roll 1d4 encounters on trip
5-8 = Mediocre crew 1d4 -2 encounters on trip
9-15 = Decent crew 1d10 -8 encounters on trip
16-20 = Strong crew 1d20 - 18 encounters on trip
21+ = Excellent crew, no encounters

Table B - Encounters!
roll 1d20 for every encounter encountered, roll for number of encounters every month, if trip is less divide the result by the amount of time less and if the result is less than one there are no encounters.

1-8 = Nothing happens
9-12 = impending poor weather roll 1d20 for the next few days, weather gets worse on 10+ and better on 9 and below, after three worsenings ship is in danger, two the ship must travel slower
13-16 = Crew unrest. Roll 1d20 for the next few days, unrest gets worse on 10+ and better on 9 and below, modifier of -X with assistance of good food, or entertainment, a natural 20 results in a particularly nasty passenger/crew member, see Oh Shit a Problem Crewmember table. Three failures results in mutiny, robbery, marooning, infighting and so on, also see Oh Shit the Crew is Unhappy
17-20 = Sea monster. Roll 1d20 for the next few days, on a 10+ situation grows more dire, on 9 or below signs of monster fade. On three failures an attack occurs, on two you cannot escape, on one or before you can turn around to avoid it. For monster table, write your own damn table for your own damn system, I don't know what books you have.

Tables C all that other shit
TableC1 Oh Shit a Problem Crewmember!
roll 1d20 if you have one (a problem crewmember that is)
1 = assassin on board trying to kill the party, good luck writing that into your plot hope this isn't the first adventure
2-7 = passenger brings disease on board, and it's spreading!
8-13 = Wanted criminal on board, was disguised as (1-13 a woman, 14-19 a barrel, 20 a party member)
14-18 = A crewmember has started complaining excessively and nobody can get any rest, roll vs insanity or try and kill the bastard.
19-20 = Monster on board, probably a doppleganger or critters in the supplies.

TableC2 Oh Shit a The Crew is Unhappy!
1-5 = Crew and leadership divided, passengers caught in the middle, hope you haven't made too many friends with either. A fight ensues
6-10 = One crew member has stood out as being a troublemaker, most of the crew want him out, but some of his friends and him are tougher than normal sailors.
11-16 = The crew is actually stealing the ship to become pirates, party gets to figure out what to do here.
17-20 = They were just letting the party on to mug them, good luck.

There you go, enjoy your sea travels mateys! Ah nothing like an 11pm stream of consciousness tablespam.

Designer's Block

I'm at one of the many stages I get, where I'm hesitant to start poking my system towards a definitive and decisive direction. I'm forced to ask myself if I should continue, organically creating abilities and bonus' for each character by their roleplaying 'theme' in a form of evolutionary shotgun technique or if I should intelligently design based on establishing a system and statistical theme for each class.

A number of questions arise, such as the variations between damage. With the introduction of morale, health and energy as the most malleable statistics, and arguably the main or at least secondary targets of combat, it gives me many options. However, should casters be themed to only do morale, or physical? Should I carefully balance buffs, debuffs, damaging and healing abilities by class? Should I balance it so every class has at least one? Should I focus classes towards Area of Effect and single target?

I have ideas, but this is my stumbling block. I need to gather my energy to bull rush this one out of the way. But, I'm not there yet.

On the Vehicle Combat

The meat of the work for setting up my Savage Worlds campaign is going to be in the technology, and a majority of that will hopefully be space ships. And there are three areas I'm focusing on; content, activities and speed. I think each of these areas are very important for a successful combat system.

Content means to me that there is loot, there are settings, there are enemies and there are allies, and there are many different varieties. The player ship will be broken down into a hull and several systems. Depending on the hull class and subtype it will have differing numbers and potential qualities of systems. The NPCs will appear very different (easy fluff) and have a variance of hull type, role and faction bonus' (this partly plays into the speed category) When I'm done, hopefully I can create the ships with a series of dropdowns in an excel sheet rather quickly. There should be at least 6 hulls, 4 roles and 10 factions, for a reasonable 240 possible ships. There should also be a variance in the skill of the crew, however that will be a tad more complicated. As for settings, it's space, it's beautiful, full of nebulae and asteroid fields and unknown phenomena.

Activities is VERY important, especially for the style of space game I am pursuing. Each person in the ship will need to take on a role, and each role will need to be interesting. The main roles I'm considering in the ship right now are; Gunner, Science, Navigation and Engineering.

Gunners shoot things, they do it well and they do it with skill. This will be more than just the shoot skill, it will also require knowledge (gunnery) This skill refers to the ability to do advanced actions with weapons, route extra power, advanced aiming, utilizing the computer systems for more than stock optimizations, lock on with missiles/torpedos and so on. It's a fairly straightforwards role, in combat they will be busy, outside, they may assist with grapples and other likely unrelated skill checks.

Science is software. While the Engineer will be dealing with cables and patching holes, the science specialist's job will be both defending against and jamming enemy communications and scanning, they will also help with any other software tools, including hacking and stabilizing systems. This is a harder role for me to narrow down the purpose for in combat, but I think with enough development this is the right direction. Outside of combat (or rarely inside combat) they should also be responsible for watching the scanners (notice checks) and advanced scans for activities like salvaging and investigating anything other than visual analysis.

Navigation is moving the ship. This is another interesting one, while it seems like it would be a rather key role, in space it tends to be just open... well space. Most of the summary of combat would be, get closer to them, get further from them, stay at X range from them. Therefore I'm going to look into creating a system of maneuvers including evasive and offensive. Choosing an offensive maneuver against target A grants a bonus based on how well you do to attack A, choosing an evasive causes an bonus to defense. Other maneuvers if the players ever work with other ships, would be things like formations. Outside of combat, they will function making rolls during asteroid fields, knowing destinations and locations and performing FTL calculations.

Finally Engineering, the hardware of the ship. Engineers perform upgrades, repairs and manual stripping of other ships. They manage routing power and emergency repairs during combat. Emergency repairs could be reducing the effects on damage to systems and emergency hull patches to prevent breaches. Power routing sends power to various systems that either automatically get converted by the computer for certain uses, or used for other things based on the operator of the system. (Extend the range or power of guns, improve the signal of scanners, boost the maneuvering engines and so on...) Out of combat, they perform complete repairs, convert spare parts to ammo, repairs, or new systems, salvage hardware, or whatever else hardware might be required.

Now these four roles are separated only in concept, theoretically everyone could have a little of each, as to take on a role requires only two or three skills. This would work, especially if each player instead of taking a destroyer between the four of them, went with fighters. Of coarse this means their travel will be pretty restricted, and their average skill rather low, that and ideally a few supporting skills will aid every role. During creation for the first game, I'm going to ask all the characters to choose a role and explain them just to get things going in the right direction.

Finally, speed is a concern. I want the combats to not take FOREVER as I resolve four NPC ships and one player ship. In the beginning when the enemy will be fighters (one to two man craft) this should be easy, but later I'm considering treating them using averages for skill with the exception of boss ships. But as is, each player should be performing one or two actions, and referring to no more than three skills with a very consistent effect. Outside of combat, skills should be almost exactly like adventuring with a few modifiers based on equipment.

I am a bit concerned about balancing bonuses. Right now there is a high potential for granting bonuses to the gunners. Science, Engineering AND Navigation each able to grant a bonus. It makes me wonder if with all these bonuses if I should counterbalance the ability to miss and heavier weight armor to make hits less devastating. This area I think will work itself out with tweaking and playtesting. Right now I'm considering maximum power tolerances and possibly making bonuses only apply to different traits. (navigation removes penalties, science increases accuracy and engineering increases damage or something.)

So I have a few questions to anyone who may actually read this. Assuming you had any interest in a space campaign, do any roles interest you? Do you find the idea of customizing your own ship intriguing? Do you see any areas that could heavily slow down play?

Second Introductions

So I've been silent for a while. I have been debating what to post on. At one point I considered doing another musing on the definition of fetishize, but decided that A: It might not even be a real word and B: it wasn't too relevant. Then came the debate whether or not to introduce the other project I have been working on.

While I am frustrated at not finding a system that can do everything I want, I do enjoy playing other systems. They all have their purposes, each person created their system in frustration over what was not available. I currently have a short term project using the Savage Worlds system. Short term as in, when we finish our current campaign I am going to suggest I host one. Of coarse, I cannot leave the system unmolested. It's really not in my blood. I want to run a space campaign, with a focus on the entire party in one space ship, cooperating in combat and their epic travels through space to various exotic locales.

I am not satisfied with the vehicle combat system as I have been exposed, especially if all the party members are going to be in the same vehicle. Therefore, I am going to rewrite vehicle combat for space. I also have had a little bit of fun so far setting up a stage for the whole thing to take place in. Mostly human dominated, leaving room for one or two random races for a particular player who doesn't like playing humans (I'm giving like that, but he's going to have some serious disadvantages.) And a bunch of politics already planned out.

This has been consuming what inbred second cousin of attention and focus I have lately, and I think I'm going to post on it further until I have some greater advancement in my full system progress.

No Upper Limit

An interesting component of a game I’ve been playing in a system called Savage Worlds is exploding dice. The only DnD equivalent being the critical hit system. The basics of exploding dice is this, If I roll the maximum number on a die, then I get to roll it again and add the result together with the original roll, indefinitely.

This system brings an interesting mechanic into play, the idea of no upper limit. Strictly speaking we may be playing the game somewhat inappropriately as some of the veterans are rusty, but as we’re playing it a huge amount of diversity is added to the game. Potentially an unskilled person could seemingly succeed on an extremely difficult task, and not only that, do it very well.

Thus the title, No Upper Limit. Theoretically the player could roll an infinite number, and while the system does not necessarily have no upper limit to the degrees of success (defeating the target number by 4 in most cases being the limit) it allows a crippled, inexperienced person in extremely unkind environment manage to do something amazingly well.

Most systems place a limit, sometimes a high one, but still a limit to the reach of the player’s success. For instance 3^rd edition and 4^th edition DnD offer a d20 + X to a roll. 1-20 doesn’t matter for a skill check, so your upper limit is 20+X, some DMs offering explosions, but officially none. In combat, a critical officially has a single explosion limit. GURPS 3^rd and 4^th editions also offer only rolling 3d6 and comparing to a stat offering only success or failure. Apparently the World of Darkness d10 system recently officially added exploding dice as well allowing a “10 again” system.

An interesting note on both systems that use this explosion method and the systems that don’t. Relatively speaking from my mediocre experience with different systems, and with exception to the recent 4^th edition DnD, the more complicated systems with less generalized abilities have upper limits. The systems that generalize things such as shooting skills and athletics don’t. Does this lead to more powerful generally able players? I think definitely, is this desirable? Perhaps not for my system, but I do think it allows for a great deal of tension, allowing everything to hinge on one player’s unskilled attempt at something VERY difficult. Our party was saved last night from imprisonment and torture due to unskilled attempts.

The blind warrior used an unskilled lockpicking attempt on his cell door while I distracted the guard with an unskilled taunt. This followed with an unskilled stealth check as the warrior approached the guard followed by my barely skilled attempt to help subdue the guard with my strangling them with shackles… And so on… Without weapons, companions, and my case even my spells, the night was a long series of unskilled checks we could all have a chance to succeed at, and in many cases did so. Of coarse, when our true power was unleashed, we finally became competent and powerful, the encounters cleverly scaling up. Maybe the GM was just realizing our characters were perhaps too powerful and throwing everything he could at us.

No upper limit, or perhaps, always a chance to succeed. Something to think about.