Minimalistic D&D-like, part 3: Saves

Part of a series building a game without levels, hit dice, ability scores or classes. The main resolution is 1d6 for everything.

As a quick recap, numerically and chemically speaking, characters have:

#Hit Points, and some power ups derivated from their amount (+ac and +attacks per round)

#Spell Points per day, and some power ups derivated from their amount (+magic resistance and power) and a list of spells known

#Specials (like being strong, an animal companion, or whatever that is a significative trait but is not a spell)

So, without any level-related characteristic to increment the saving throws, how can we deal with such things when they arise? I'll run over the most common "Save Or" states to see what can be done. 

"Partake of the fruit!!"

Poison: 

* "You drank poison... you died". This can actually work if the poison was telegraphed well enough. I think its even on an actual Raggi's module. Still, you can give the poison 2d6 turns to take effect, in which healing actions can be attempted. Sucking out the venom in the case of snakes, or applying an antidote, for example.  Shifting more agency to the equipment is another of my goals, so, in that line, buying antidotes for different venoms can be something interesting for adventurers to invest in. 

* The person who poisoned you might know or even carry the antidote.

* If it's deadly over time, roll 1d6 and keep that number. For every night or every strenous action you take, decrease the number by 1. Getting rests or treatment lets you re-roll, and maybe heal on a 6. 

* For creatures that can poison you, make it so they need to hit you. Maybe even apply a certain amount of damage (for example, if they score exactly 1 damage) and skip the save altogether. In the end the randomization is the same. If it seems unfair, its because the monster makes the roll, not the victim. But in the end it's the same.

* Poison doesn't have to be deadly: it can be paralizating or narcotic. For example, make it so the effect lasts (1d6-1) turns/hours/whatever.

* Let's not forget the magical solutions: Neutralize Poison is a cleric spell. 

Dragon breath: 

* This is just a dragon attacking, it just covers a big area, but its the same nonetheless. Just take the damage from the hit points, which are already a measure of how likely you are to survive an attack. I happen to have had a good idea for dragon breath and I leave it here for posterity (keep in mind that damage is scaled to an hypotetic game):

"Everyone in range of attack gets 1d6 damage, rolled separately. Then the smallest dice rolled deals damage again to ALL victims"

This way, the more people is attacked, the smallest the extra die will be. Using the same attack, the dragon will do statistically more damage to a single target (average 7, good chance of 12 hp) than to a group of targets (average drops towards 4'5, chances of more than 7+ hp decrease drastically with every new target). This models nicely the concentration of fire of the dragon and can be played around using decoys or even hirelings. But you will never do that, would you?

* The use of shields or any other blockage can shelter you from a little damage versus dragon breath. Of course, magical shields vs dragonbreath are even better, and should be one of the most ubiquitous magic items on any fantasy game that behaves realistically.

Petrification: 

* If players are savvy enough, they will activelly look away from the gaze of the basilisk. If they accept the (-1) penalty to attack rolls, they wont be turned into stone. Unless, you know, they roll a 1 or under. I'm against botch rolls in games, but they can be used in special situations like that. If they botch a roll attacking or running from the basilisk, they are turned to stone.

* You can make it less deadly: you don't turn into rock in a snap: instead you are paralyzed and you have 1d6-1 turns until you become solid rock. Anyone breaking line of sight between the basilisk and you will have you released in 1 turn (be it by covering you with a blanket, shooting an arrow into the basilisk eye, turning off the light, etc). Same for gorgons.

* On the "inventory" side, you can find:

- amulets against petrification (they break when you would otherwise be petrified)

- antidotes against petrification (like a "soft" from FFVII). You can make them cheap (and only works on those that are half-petrified), expensive af (can undo a recent petrification) or mythic (will turn any stone statue to flesh)

- a flash grenade that impedes vision. Same with a darkness spell or provoking a great smoke into the room,

- buying or asking an artificer for sunglasses made of mirrors. 

- installing mirrors at the medusa's halls, then making her follow you so she run into herself at the turn of a corner

* Make it so the gaze must be sustained for a turn (so it will only work on immobilized or tricked PCs)

* Hit points are abstracted enough so they can represent avoiding harms different from physical damage. You can make it so the basilisk gaze deals 1d6 doom damage that ignores armor. Once you are at 0 hp, you are turned into stone.

* The Stone to flesh spell is a thing. There is no reason that you can even make up more spells that ward against more ailings if in need.

* If nothing convinces you, just deal with a death save (see below)

Spells: 

* Make the spells require a mistake from the players to be committed in order to take effect. For example, eating strange fruits from weird silent ladies in the middle of a dungeon. Or make them require intimacy, or touch range. If you approach a weeping, encroached figure in a ghastly place, you can first weigh your chances and then take an action.

* As in poison, giving the spell a chance to work instead of working automatically accomplishes the same stastical function, though shifting the roll from the affected to the caster.

* Polymorph spells are not totally unfair if the target retains the agency in its new shape. Maybe you can play as a frog for a while, maybe even retain your hp and abilities. If you do polymorph, consider giving the players shapes that can still be played. 

* Again, certain inventory can be found or bought to protect from spells. This, paired with giving the spells a time to act (1d6 turns or 1d6 days) will also give players the chance to revert or minimize the damage. If you feel you've been hit by a sleep spell, you can try to eat coffee grains. If you are hearing a charming song, you can try to cover your ears (this makes you unable to hold or use weapons). Put on a walkman if you have one. Invent your share of magical antidotes, but also allow creative approaches. If some vines are coming out of the earth to grab you, dont bother with paralyzation rolls: you can try to cut them in time: give them an AC and start slashing. You can even try to scare or attack the wizard away in that 1d6 time. Who knows! 

* Spells that do damage, work as damage. Or even as dragon breath. Spells would otherwise paralyze can just hinder you slightly (penalties to rolls: you're feeling too cold to properly move, -1 to anything that requires finesse) or hard (penalties that are cumulative each turn: each turn, roll 1d6: on a 1, the chill gets worse: additional -1 and you will freeze completely when you get -3)

Death:

* When you suffer a grievous death, roll 1d6. On a 6, you get better. Fate favours you, something happens, whatever, but you are still OK. This roll can be modified by special things in game, such as having received the blessing of a princess before you had parted to your last quest (roll a second die, keep highest!) or by a healing spell by one of your comrades. EDIT: This also pairs nicely with another rule I made for monks and mummies: Get 1 free success for answering a question.

* Depending on the tone you want for your game, you can make it so this roll is only enabled after that certain things have happened, instead of being enhanced. Anyways, GM will describe something as absurd as the Naruto's resurrections if he must, but you won't die. 

polymorphed, no save.

Drudgeons and Dagons

This is something I have lying around for some time. Is not that I plan to really do anything with this for now, but man, this practically writes itself.

Though I really like Lovecraft, I've always felt that Chtulhu games are very limited in scope. As a player, you're there to find out about a mystery, but the usefulness of Agatha Christie style deductions is always confronted by the genre knowledge that there is a whole lot of supernatural causes and effects in motion; but that your character is supposed to be oblivious to. This causes some bad sync between PC and Player (unless the players do not know about the genre, which is also kind of cool)

But given that this blog is for now a collection of D&D rewrites, I ask myself: what if the PCs we're already initiated into the mythos and the players just have to worry about leveling up? 

All characters start as new members of a "good" cult, settled maybe in 1930's Miskatonic. The cult is dedicated to the preservation of the mythos knowledge, to prevent that it falls in the wrong hands and to combat those who might be using it for evil. Some kind of special agency against eldritch crime with minor rapport with the government. 

The only class is Drudgeon, 1d6 per HD. You get a skill to represent your background profession (Roll under INT to perform it, maybe) and you get spells as a cleric, from level 2 onwards. This represents the hidden knowledge your cult grants you, once you get more and more involved on the work for them. You might never get to advance combat, as in this world its mainly done through guns. Instead, you get buffs to HP and better Saves.

Instead of dungeons depleting your resources, you delve in towns, neighbourhoods, societies, etc which are suspected of mythos misuse activity, and the main resource you lose is time. 

When its a matter of hours, days are divided into six parts: Morning, noon, afternoon, evening, midnight and pre-dawn. When a mission is a matter of months or requires significant travel between two points, you only get morning, afternoon, evening. 

Attempting one action (interrogating a store owner, cracking into an abandoned house, going shopping, investigating a crime scene, etc) takes 1 day part, and might require a check: If the roll fails, no progress is done but you can try again. 

Losing enough time triggers events like:

1. Your enemies getting stronger: city gangster is to busy studying the practical uses for the Vermis Misteriis and has called some armed allies to patrol the streets searching for the missing idol.

2. Somebody attacks you or your team to sabotage your investigation

3. Valuable resources leave the area (a book, an idol) which would have granted you XP

4. Possible clues wither or witnesses leave the area, or are eaten by a stellar vampire. 

5. Eldritch spawns attack the area, ghoul awakening. Chances are that the happening makes mythos a public affair (it will be on the papers for some weeks until it starts to sound like somebody made it up)

6. The stars are right / Enemy Cult forces confrontation, so you must stand with anything you've got

This is what this game "wandering monster checks" look like. Of course, sometimes a wandering monster is just a monster: there is a bestiary, in which mostly anything is too tough to be shot down nicely (ghouls, cultists, fishmen... maybe. Byakhees? Non-Euclideans? hardly). Once we get to that, the only thing to defeat them is to use magic or ancient technology (The first game I ever ran was Pokethulu, and I love the concept of catching shoggots into shining dodecahedrons)

inspiration: The Last Door

I guess that the main thematic antagonistic forces of the time would be: evil cults, criminal gangs, private collectors, lone madmen, communist factions or maybe even nazis. The main reason for which I would probably never write this is because I'm not very learned on North America, much less early XXs century North America. But its the kind of game that would be cool to mix with actual events that happened around that era. I picture the mythos themselves being treated by the populace much like UFOs were later: most anybody has heard about them vaguely, but few really have dedicated time or resources to really investigate them. But of course there are independent individuals who are fascinated by it, and keep a scrapbook with all the weird reports they read on the printed press.

I want to resist to give this project a plain XP for mission. Following the milestone approach I made on there, I'd try to make it so there is always incentives for players to go forward on their own whims, if they see that the reward is good enough. Basically you level up once you cross out one of this:

[_] [_] Recovered an ancient book or relic

[_] [_] Sealed or repelled a powerful entity

[_] [_] Thwarted the plans of an mythos misuser without it trascending to public knowledge

[_] [_] Reported back information about a rival group (your GM will tell you when you have gathered enough information to earn this, but by then the problem is probably getting out of there alive)

[_] Deal with something pending from your past, that somehow is involved on an investigation (is your call to say how the current situation has to do with that, let your GM work the details)

2d6 under ability score: A system sketch

Expanding from the last entry, and opposed to all the other previous entries, in this one I devise a system without levels, classes, hit dice, etc. But the weight falls over the ability scores, and uses 2d6 for resolutions. But there are no +mods involved, only the scores themselves.

A good curve seems to be to roll 2d4 at the start to generate the scores. 6s are meant to be greater than average; and anything over 7 carries implicit superheroic feats. Saves are rolled with 2d6 under relevant stats, with only super-heroic characters able to stastically save more often than not.

The basic combat rules are that you roll 2d6 to attack, everything that exceeds the monster's AC is damage dealt. Longer weapons attack first. Over this premise, I explain some uses of each attribute:

STRENGHT: 

-When you attack with a heavy weapon, and roll your strenght or less, you can re-roll the smaller die.

-When you have strenght 7 or higher, you get a save vs death when at 0 hp

-The score is also the amount of big things you can carry

DEXTERITY

-Spend a turn aiming with a bow and roll 2d6: If under this score, you add +2 when shooting after.

-If you use a light weapon and roll less than your dexterity, you can diss your roll but get +1 AC this turn.

-You roll a save to catch or flee from a monster with higher dexterity. It doesn't have to roll anything, only the one with lowest score does.

-Over 7 you can perform acrobacy feats.

WISDOM (the magical stat)

-At 6, roll under it to use magical tools, detect magic and other minor magical skills 

-At 7 you can cast level 1 spells, at 8 you can cast level 2 and so on.

INTELLIGENCE (the mundane knowledge)

-At 6, you can use one set of specialist tools (Specialized kits detailed in the inventory: doctor bag, thief's tools, artificer, etc) or know an extra language.

-At 7 you can attempt to produce something you've been working on (state what it is at the moment) related to the tools you carry (poison, chemicals, a small gadget), and maybe more times per day at 8+

CONSTITUTION (which really just says how well a fighter you are, or a measure of you will to live): 

-The score is your HP. Armor adds to your AC, but some armors also add some HP.

-At 6 you always act before your opponent in combat providing there are no other substantial differences in leverage.

-At 7 you get +1 attack per round with any favored weapon

-At 8 you get +1 AC for free

-At 9 you get an extra attack regardless of weapon

CHARISMA

-I like to conceive it as a save vs manipulation, fear or some measurement of "self-integrity"

-Also the classic hireling numbers and their morale checks.

-If you use animal companions, you also use this for complex rapport with them.

-On monsters (because with this system, numeric values from monsters are also rolled like this as there is no other math) this can represent how many allies they have in an area. For example an undine with 7+ charisma might use this to command friendly animals or entangling vines in the encounter area. This is the score that a Disney Princess would max out.

Advancement rules: 

When you level up using whatever method you prefer (as there is no need for numeric levels, I'd try to avoid using them for advancement and probably use sandbox milestones) you roll 1d6 against one ability score you want to increase.

If you roll less than it, raise it by 1, to a maximum of 9 or maybe 10

If you roll equal or over than it, raise it by 1 and raise any other stat by 1 

In this way, people who rolls bad stats at creation can increase them slightly faster than the others, and there is some risk/reward between raising "dump stats" and maybe not getting what you wanted, or raising your main ability score straight.

No class, no saves, no problem: All in the Attribute Scores

An opposite approach from what I did in here is to ditch classes, level and skills and choose the other abstraction to build the system around: The ability scores.
Wisdom decides how well a cleric you are. Dexterity does that for thieves. Strenght doesn't really work for fighters, however, as there are other factors that might decide in how good a fighter you are than your bulk body power, so I'm using CON instead
The most obvious advantage on using ability scores is that it keeps the thrill of rolling a character (instead of just rolling the HP), and also allows checks by rolling under the given ability score. For a game with both clerics and wizards WIS and INT can be separated. I prefer to merge both concepts into an attribute called MAG.

When you create a character, roll 2d8 in order (yeah, that will produce below average guys) Mods, however, can't go below -1. Positive mods ALLOW you to perform certain tasks,  and you still roll under score to see how well you perform (having +2 STR is better to force doors than just +1 even if you can attempt it with just +1)

STR: Mods adds to melee damage. +1 allows for force doors, +2 allows to bend bars
DEX: Adds to missile. +1 allows for easy thieving skills like pickpockets, +2 allows for advanced thief skills like climb sheer walls. Used as a reflex save.
CHA: Your common hireling/reaction mods. Also used to save VS any soul or mind controlling effect (willpower save).

CON: This amount is literally your Hit Points, and also says how well you are as a fighter. At +1 you get an extra attack with your favored weapon, or maybe some armor. At +2 or +3 you get extra attacks regardless of weapons. Read the last articles to know more about my stubborness of claiming that Fighting Prowess is indisoluble from Having more HP. Can be used as a Fortitude save but I'd rather make that kind of things just drain HP
MAG: How much magical shit you know. Roll under this to detect magic or to get a glimpse of the otherwordly side of your surroundings.
At +1 you get a 1st level spell
At +2 you get a 2nd level spell and two 1st level spells
At +3 you get a 3rd level spell, two 2nd level spells and three 1st level spells.
Rearrange spells to fit in three level categories OR allow higher level spells to be cast using magical trinkets, magical places or other aids.



Provisional score to mod conversion:

2-8: -1
9-12: 0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18:+3


Evidently, in a game deprived of levels or other mechanical parts, when you "level up" you raise your ability scores (thats why I had them start low at 2d8). Maybe raising 2 points at will per level, always capped at 18.
And that is how you become a better figher/wizard/thief, not by picking it as a class.


Rolling certain distributions at the start might give you the chance of playing an ELF, DWARF or any other, like a class requirement. Then you get the darkvision or knowledge about caves; thats the only way to pick them.

Minimalistic D&D-like part 2

At character creation, you roll 1 or 2 d6 (to be decided later). Then you get hp as per this table:

Roll of 1-3: Add that amount of HP and get a special (strenght, parry, unarmed fighing, etc) or a spell.

Roll of 4-6: You get either 4 HP OR 2 SP (Spell Points) and a known spell.

From this rolls, the divergence between martials having lots of HP and Wizards having little HP is created.

Each SP allows you to cast 1 spell from the list you know.

At 6 hp you become a Warrior (+1 AC, you deal d6 damage regardless of weapon until you reach this rank) at 10 hp a Champion (+1 Attack/round) and at 14 hp a Hero (+ 1 Attack/round).

Converselly, if you want to climb the Wizard's ladder, it is measured in the SP amount:

2 SP: Initiate, you roll a d4 for casting magics.

4 SP: Enchanter or Priest. You get your mandatory staff that lets you roll d6 for magic and can cast the Light spell. +1 Magic Resistance

6 SP: Wizard or High Priest/ess, you roll d8 for magic. +2 Magic Resistance

Magic Resistance is substracted from psychical or magical attacks and can be increased by wearing certain amulets and magic related gear. Some other crystals or robes might grant extra SP per day, but do not count for rank purposes.

These are the available starting spells. Others will appear during the game (so I can make up things on the way). You roll your magic die to cast them: it serves as the amount of damage/heal they do if they do any.

1. Heal: Heal allies or damage undead by the same amount. Can also dispel one curse or mind altering spell.

2. Cold: Cold based damage. Enemy movement = Slow by the same amount of turns

3. Scry: Ask a question, you get a 1-word answer. The answer is notated in your sheet until you have words = to your Magic Die maximized. From then, the spell will only answer choosing the most appropiate of those words (You develop a limited divination language). Use runes or cards to ask 2 questions instead.

4. Wink: Prevent your die in damage suffered this turn, you also dissapear from melee and can appear on ranged distance or go hidden.

5. Bird: Crow, swan, owl, falcon... every wizard school has its own bird they use as alter-egos. Choose yours. You can fly or flee at 1d10 speed; your maximum hp is 6.

6. Tame: Roll over 2 + Magic Resistance to get the next best result on the reaction roll; friendly monsters act to your suggestions. Giant monsters have +1 Magic Resistance

COMBAT

1. All combat rolls are 1d6 vs Armor as Damage Reduction, with the difference being dealt in damage. Armor goes up to +3 in PCs as going further would make them almost damage-proof

2. Armor is part what you wear and part what you are. This is done because it feels good to me that an expert barbarian warrior gets the equivalent in armor as a man using a shield, and almost the same as a man in full plate.

You get +1 armor for achieving the warrior rank

You get +1 armor for carrying a shield. 

Light armor grants you +2 hp but no AC bonus

Heavy armor is +2 Hp, +1 AC, but slows movement

When it comes to the point in which armor is higher than that, it just gives extra HP or counts as wearing a shield.

Certain situations can bring you to higher AC, like riding a horse against an unmounted opponent or just being giant in size. Shields that provide resistance to fire might add an extra +1 vs fire, or just be able to work against fire while others won't. Both approaches are valid.

3. As all weapons deal d6 damage, the differences are more tactical than about firepower:

Swinging a dagger vs a guy with a sword allows the sword guy to attack you first. Same with a sword vs a spear. Combatants with the rank of Warrior count as having higher range when fighting non-warriors.

Heavy weapons can re-roll damage if you get results below a certain Strenght value.

Light weapons can parry if you learn the right feat (counts as shield for 1 turn) by changing your attack roll to a 1 (useful if you didnt score damage anyways). You strike at +1 in the next turn

Improvised weapons attack at -1, unarmed at -2

You can deal more damage per turn by getting extra attacks (which is tied to your Max HP totals instead of levels, see previous entries)

El Páramo de la Cobra

This is the map I gave the players on my last session. The game never went past the first session but I wanted to share it here. The whole zone west of the bridge is an old battlefield filled with restless dead. The rumors talk about a bandit lair hidden on one of the buttes, which's leader has a bounty over his head, payable on the town at 3B (the shit at 2A is a factory). The southern road is practicable (only 1/20 encounter rate, thats where the caravans come through) but any square north of it has it at 1/2.

The old battle destroyed the town at 1E and there are rumors of a temple dedicated to a snake god (door at 1G) which is actually guarded by giant snakes.

The treasure at H3 is actually already stolen by the bandit to whom this map belonged, and taken to his lair.

The random encounter is arranged so the first time you roll a number you get the first thing listed, and all the other times you get the second thing.

1 - Ghost fire, will guide you to another encounter if followed / Wraith (will posess and turn you into a zombie if he defeats you, with lots of HP)

2 - Recent corpse with bite marks, you find this map on him / possessed giant wolf (zombiefied by wights, very tough, covered in arrows). Going over the stairs north will automatically lead you to him.

3 - Foreign thieves looting corpses / Possessed thief with ancient sword, bathed on the other thief's blood

4 - Local thieves performing ritual burials of the ancient dead to appease their wraiths / Local thieves heading to their lairs

5 - Local goth kids. They want to record evidence of wraiths in a cassette tape recorder. / 1d4 zombies

6 - Creepy musical mutterings. If investigated, will attract the pcs to a small radio receptor playing this music, in the roots of a tree (the bandit king is actually broadcasting the session live, as he does every night). The device it's covered with poisonous snakes as the music seems to attract them (It works on giant snakes too) / Old corpse with treasure, a wraith lurks nearby.

Minimalistic D&D-like (how many abstractions are too many?)

Inspired by this blog entry, This is a full disclosure of what I have in mind these days. D&D is full of abstractions, and I (think I) understand the idea behind all of them, but I think that some of them are redundant with some others:

- Levels provide both a sense of goal and progression, and a way to size up characters and monsters for spell/effect purposes
- Fighters get extra attacks with levels, or sometimes better chance to hit.
- Classes give you niche protection and diversity, with attributes giving you a better picture of your character.
- HP are a mixture of toughness, luck and kung fu
- Spells are given to the wizards in exchange of having poor HP and other pointless restrictions
- Skills are an add-on to make thieves have something of their own

I've devised a way to simplify this by making all things dependant straight into the Hit Points / Mana Points: Let me explain.

You get 2d4 HP at the start, or 1d4 HP and 1d4 MP (the average person has 1-4 Hit Points, so if you get more you can consider yourself a kind of experienced fighter in-world)

Classes/Attributes/Spells/Skills are all subsumed into something called Specials (because sounds better than feats). Some of them provide passive bonuses and some are active and require MP. There is a maximum of 4 which can be learned (taking this straight from the pokemon moves), though 1 or 2 more can be stored in magic items.

In the beggining, you must choose/roll one in a table of basic specials. The rest of them must be unlocked through play (once you've come in contact with the special through a source of inspiration/book/master you can pick them at level ups).

1. Monk (1d6 damage with fists or small melee weapons, +2 hp)
2. Strong (You can attempt feats of strenght; and can carry 2 extra items. Re-roll all 1s in melee damage. +2 Hp)
3. Agility (+1 AC when unencumbered, you can attempt agility feats )
4. Marksman (spend a turn aiming to add 1d4 damage to the next bow/sling attack)
5. Fend (with staves and swords, you can ditch a failed/low damage attack for a +1 AC bonus, just as if you wore a shield)
6. Healer (1 MP. Heal 1d6 hp; spend 3 MP instead to roll 2d6, one for HP and other for # of targets)
7. Divination: ( MP: 2 per Y/N question; requires quiet time)
8. Charm: 1 MP per d6 rolled. On every 6, improve by 1 the reaction roll.

(this list is veeeeeery provisional, but the idea is to have each Special embody a "type" of character)

Once all this is set, your starting character should be something like: 3 HP, 2 MP, Healer, 1d6 staff + Inventory + Name. You should not have to worry about more until you level up a bit.

You start as an Adventurer. Having HP 6 qualifies you as a Warrior, which may entail certain weapon uses. At 10 (Champion/Warlord) and 14 HP (Hero/Heroine), you get +1 extra attack or action per round

Having any MP at all makes you an Initiate. At 4 MP (Seer/Priest), at 8 (Enchanter/Enchantress) and 12 MP (Wizard), you get +1 Magic Rank (Adds to magical attacks AND magical AC against psychic damage; you can get some by buying amulets though. At Seer/Priest level, this power up is symbolized by a magical staff or symbol)

It will be all OK because the booklet will be written in this font: