CLASS AS RACE II: Rangers, Druids and Clerics

 Part of a series on worldbuilding making whole races inspired directly by a class, each one having their own tactics to survive in a harsh world. In this entry we cover tribes which live a step further into the wilds.

3. RANGERS

When you play an elf, you get the ranger class, be it the ones from 5E, the playbook from Dungeon World, your homebrew or any else: adapt to it. These kind of elves are plant-based, and take elements from greek dryads and japanese kodama: just as Adventure Time huntress wizard, they have leaves for hair and their skin can be green and smooth like a stem or barky like a trunk when elves are older (or have leveled up enough).

Elves are greatly autosufficient in their forests and do not need for much outside them: they have a marked biorrhythm in which they are born, they form a family and they teach their kids to protect their sacred groves. Then they slowly become treants and then, one day they "die" and become sacred trees themselves. Normal trees are fond to grow around them, and this way the forest expands. As talk with trees is sometimes a ranger spell (when rangers are allowed spells), this means that elves can usually speak with their deceased elders providing they are still "awake" (When they cannot, they make use of druids: see below). Then the younglings protect their elder's slumber until their spirit finds some eternal rest or who knows when, and the cycle goes on.

from Stevesketches (twitter)

Until that moment, elves live according to their natural principles which consist in hunting and studying the Tao. All the things that Taoism and meditation suggest you are true for elves: they meditate, cultivate their spirits and try to flow with the path as much as they can. If you ever heard the thing about zen arrows, this is the secret of why they are so good shooters and fighters in general. They are contempt to live this way and to assume their place in the food chain. Sometimes young elves hire themselves as bodyguards or even assasins, which suits them perfectly.

4. DRUIDS

When forest people is in need of some religious or magical services, they recur to the Nymphs (Nixes, undines, sirens, etc). These aquatic ladies have magical powers and level up as druids (so depending in the rules you use, probably have a second shape and a good gang of animals to scout for them). They speak with trees when elves need to communicate with their elders; but they charge prices for that.

Nymphs are extremelly covetous and hoard treasure in their aquatic lairs. This treasure might be from gold to the most weird things: Corpses, weapons, mundane tools... etc. As people that don't like to abandon their rivers, lakes and shores, all signs of civilization hold some capacity of wonder. However, for the sake of making them playable, they can spend time outside of water providing they take baths in fresh water from time to time (its their equivalent of a long rest). 

It is mandatory for a good setting with Nymphs to have them play music, and if allowed by your version of class spells, they will try to charm listeners in order to find lovers or slaves. If Rangers and Druids are too similar in the rules you are using, you can always make Nymphs the Illusionist instead.

Level 1 nymphs are usually the males, which have not much magic and, because of that, are more prone to physical combat (AKA their role is cannon fodder for combat encounters). 

Level 6+ nymphs are renowned priestesses that offer spiritual services to all forest dwellers and are greatly respected. Which in that aspect makes them very similar, but not the same as our next guest class.

5. CLERICS

If you want to play a cleric, that is OK, but you have to be this:

That is a kirin, or quilin, a sort of chinese unicorn with divine power. They are not common, but really rare, as Gandalf's kin in LOTR. And as the istari, once they have leveled up a little they are gamechangers to any faction they decide to help. Luckily for you, you can assume human form! It would be hard to roleplay otherwise. In fact, you might have lost the ability to become a horse as part of the natural clerical training and might have to grind a little until you recover it.

Other races might have clerics in the sense that they have their priests and priestesses who carry their ritual endeavors, banish evil and maybe healing some diseases; but kirins are the only ones that progress beyond level 1. In fact, if another cleric does, it will be revealed that he has kirin blood or something, or be granted kirinhood. This manifests by assuming the shape in dreams first. It is the sign to continue developing your devotion (towards level 2 and beyond my friend).

I'm sure that a place in which all Kirins have a "village" of their own exists, which is probably designed for horses more than for people, but maybe its set in a mystic valley so otherwordly that it is in fact other plane of existance. Who knows. Its probably very extense as they love to run from one place to the other. But I do guess that is probably safe from monsters due to high level clerical spells: Blessing the perimeter regularly, a river used as a moat which they cross using Water Walk, or a forest filled with sticks that can turn to snakes if orc invaders set their foot on it.

This bitch is supposed to appear in naruto? I dont remember. I just googled "kirin human form"

Kirin that decide to develop their natural powers are blessed after a long career with powerful magics as reincarnation, raise dead, etc. Whatever your cleric rules allow to. But please no more stupid medieval monks with superpowers.

Part 3 soon. 

Class As Race part I: Fighters and Thieves.

There are some different approaches that one can take about fantasy races in settings or in games. They work great in books and movies where they play NPCs, incarnating all the mythic archetypes the hero has to meet across its tale. But in the way of making them playable, it is easy to end up turning them into humans of a slightly different size, color or accent. 

In many works of fiction, non-humans have classically assigned a "kingdom" on the map, and they build civilizations with their equivalent of towns, pyramids, inns or schools (Sometimes, like in Warcraft 2, the settlements are mirrored 1:1). This can be cool, but to contrast, all the folk tales commonly use dwarves, goblins, elves, etc as inhabitors of the mythical forest, representing the uncivilized peoples that lurk beyond the rational, civilized domains of man.

You got to find a middle point if you want to use them as playable races in a game, though. You want ideally to feel "different", but you cannot use something entirelly alien because, you know, somebody human actually has to interpret that guy.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about a setting without humans, but by trying to add to every race a different facet of mankind and keeping them as much as possible into that niche. I've had fun imagining how does each of the races organize themselves and which place they hold in the world. Also, each class is meant to advance mechanically as though if all their members had the same specific class, making them, as the title says, class as race. Let's start!

1. FIGHTERS

Trow are the feudal, warrior race. They live into mountain halls and stone fortresses to protect themselves from the terrible surface monsters, and in there they form monarchies who rule over a certain land. They replace dwarves in that aspect, but instead of hairy midgets they are a little taller and elegant as if they were drawn by Leiji Matsumoto. 

When you play a Trow, you level up as a fighter (doesn't matter which rules you use, if your game uses classes, pick the fighter sheet). The king in your fortress is also probably a high level fighter.

Following the inspiring entry about backloading complexity at Necropraxis, all PCs start as young Trow Knights, and further PCs will be taken from the hireling pool, so, to play a new race you must get them as a hireling first.

Trow Castles have a retinue of knights that are in charge of dealing with important tasks: They are a mix of arthurian knights, samurais, the MI6 and Final Fantasy 8 seeds (meaning that I can go there for inspiration on how to run them). They go into dungeons and wildernesses in the search of treasures, gold and all kind of weirdnesses. Who knows what can be traded to those gnome alchemists for their potions!

Noble houses store some potions as part of their patrimony. That potions are basically one-use spells and is the only access to magic for new characters, so if you get one as starting equipment, cherish it like if it was Q giving James Bond a gadget. In-game, the ingredient and potion economy might be also vital to the fortress itself.

I imagine them behaving and looking a lot like Korean nobles of the Joseon era, with that studded armors and wide brim hats (I've just watched the show Kingdom, is very very good)

They represent the way humans have organized themselves in complex hierarchies, and also the "honorable knight" facet that is many times exclusive of humans in many rpgs (humans are white in magic the gathering). 

2. THIEVES 

When you play a Hobbit, you level up as a Thief. They have a knack for hiding after all: because they are level 1 thieves. Those low level hobbits are not regarded as thieves by other people, of course. That is just some meta-knowledge. On the other hand, there is probably a legendary rogue out there that has lots of incredible adventurers and has performed legendary heists; and that is just a high level hobbit.

They are weak fighters, so, to protect themselves from orcs and other menaces, they normally live in a relationship of vassalage with trow lords. They live on villages and tend the lord's fields in exchange of protection, or maybe perform as squires or assistans: They are the first hirelings that will be available to PCs, be it as servants, or as freelance hobbits searching themselves for treasure. 

I imagine this little fuckers being good navigators and swimmers, riding oxen for transport in the summer, celebrating their holidays around the harvest seasons and staying comfy at home in winter nights. They are the rural peoples in oposition to the court peoples, and neither trow or hobbits cross their respective lines on a meaningful manner.

Even though most hobbits OK with their symbiotic relationship, they are potentially tough and adventurous people and they are who posess the mankind's ability to expand and conquer all biomes. No matter the terrain or the distance, it is always possible to find a hobbit cabin or outpost somewhere. They have that unique drive to expand and go further. Their key concept is adaptation. They develop symbiosis with trow, but maybe they could adapt to other lords, situations or dangers.

For their role of domestic helpers, I'm tempted to call them Kobolds instead.

And now, a note on goblins: They also fit the same thieve role as hobbits. In fact I cannot think of another fitting class for them. So I've thought that, though you can use them if you want, it makes more sense that, whenever an adventure calls for goblins, you substitute them for evil hobbits: bandits who turn their natural skill to find profit, and that may even form clandestine Thief Guilds. 

this episode is a good place to get inspiration for one

It makes much more sense that a single race is capable of both law and chaos; than to have an "always good" race and an "always evil" race. The best is that Tolkien also thought about that by showing us that Gollum, in the end, was just a hobbit turned evil; and his goblins are in the end just another name for orcs (which will be covered later as Barbarians)

These two are the starting point, the most human-like maybe, in the sense that they both belong to the most "civilized" states of the world. Beyond here, peoples get more wild, gregarious, strange and crazy. 

Stay tuned for part 2

Building a machine from unused parts

I was reading something about the "forgotten rules of rpgs today", the ones that are usually handwaved or something. It listed three: item weight, crafting rules and XP. I'm not going to tell if this is true or not, but it made me wonder "could a ruleset be made using ONLY those, as the mechanical parts?" 

Here is an attempt for the skeleton. There is no setting or context, only rules; but maybe the latter might suggest the former.

You can carry (4+level) weight, or +2 weight and be encumbered; with items having set weights in a list. Characters fill one weight slot from their inventory when they suffer a wound. Leveling makes your character either stronger (and thus being able to carry and withstand more) or experienced with packing stuff so they are easier to transport. For now it remains abstract.

Certain actions cannot be taken while encumbered, as climbing a rope. Certain monsters are fast enough to catch you encumbered, but not when you're not. 

Certain items can be crafted from mixing 2-3 other items during downtime (as always, the full list of items and permutations is the heavy part of the game, but yeah it can be done). Certain mixtures are trickier than others and might require a roll with a probability fixed on the formula (X in 6 is sufficient). Mixtures can also have level requirements as part of their recipe.

You also have a chance to get mixtures "done" during an adventure, by rolling 1/2 your level on a d6. If you achieve it, it represents that your character had the intuition to prepare the item during the last downtime (so, every level represents your character getting more and more wise and foreseer)

Your party gets 1 XP whenever you recover 1 treasure, but you can only split it between party members if you have enough XP for everyone to receive equal share. (If you have 5 XP in the pool, and you're three party members, during downtime you can give 1 XP to every member and leave 2 XP in the pool)

level 1: 0 XP - level 2: 1 XP- level 3: 2 XP - level 4: 4 XP - level 5: 8 XP, etc

Combat having no rules at all means that fights have predetermined outcomes: they are either automatically won if the players fight (though it might have unwanted effects, like atracting more enemies, etc) or automatically lost if engaged, unless certain items are used (like flaming oil vs a troll, silver vs a vampire or using a smoke bomb for the party to flee). Now I think about it, it sort of feels like a LucasArts graphic adventure resolution: find the right combination and maybe it works; but with added level advancement. 

Even as I feel that this could work (It even makes the game diceless if we push it) I also think that it requires much work from the GM to decide ad-hoc (or for me, the author to decide preventivelly) if a single item is either worthless in a determined situation or, for the contrary, if its as powerful to obliterate the encounter. In the end, it can be interesting if you have a "dungeon" in which you can control many of the possibilities the players might try (like, for example, in a LucasArts game), but harder to implement in a larger environment with lots of different types of encounters and items.

So there is another approach, starting from the simplest combat system I could devise: When two people get into a fight, they both roll 1d6 and the highest roller deals 1 wound to the opponent. Based on that, there are some sub-rules:

- Certain items can deal more damage, add a bonus to the roll or bypass combat entirelly. That's the only way to get some kind of combat bonuses, and that's what they're for; all the focus on inventory has to pay somehow.

- Certain items can be used when there is a tie: they can from offset the tie, to win the combat straight (like, maybe, a tie in combat can represent the perfect moment to show a mirror to the medusa)

- Certain monsters can also have abilities that trigger on a tie. Unless the monster ability says so, if the PC has a tie-triggered item, the item's ability is the one that triggers instead.

- Even if there are many monsters, they count as one. Monsters only roll once per turn, but get a bonus on their roll (+0 to +5) depending on their strenght, size or numbers. This also influences the wounds that the enemy can take. Certain monsters deal more than one wound. Armor (if exists) absorbs 1 - 3 wounds.

- If many PCs confront the same enemy, only one of their rolls is taken into account, they choose which one (the highest one normally, or maybe a roll that ties to use an effect). When a monster deals damage, the party can divide it amongst them as they decide. A character that is downed is still alive, but must be tended to walk by their partners, and counts as 3 weight.

What kind of setting and adventures does this inspire? no attributes, no classes, no characters being stronger than others... Sort of a situation where all the PCs are mostly equal in capacities but with a crafting ("skill"?). If I think of items as magical compounds, I picture the titular Alchemists of this blog name. If I think of items as common items, I can see it being a game of gang kids getting in any kind of trouble armed with whatever they find available. Treasure can be anything that is relevant to the genre: from different pieces of Jewelry to the control of a neighbourhood block. And you, when you read them, what kind of game did you see in this rules? 

Dagger (a review)

I like to skim through obscure manuals a lot, and I though on making some reviews in order to remember what I like of each thing, and because it might help this people to visibilize their work. This is a review for Dagger, allegedly an OSR game for kids, and I was curious on how it was adapted from common retroclones. And I found a game with the nice simplicity I love in gaming rulesets (Curiously, I feel that kids are conversely capable of learning any kind of complex rules when they want to, if its by their own initiative. It is us, grown ups, who love simple things because we lack the patience and the sense of endless time we had as kids, but what the hell, this is not an entry for deep thoughts!) 

The game is free at drivethru, and the link gives you the revised and the original version. 

The game has no attributes, but uses just classes. Fighters get 2 attacks: that's their combat advantage (all characters start with the 15 hp, which seems like A LOT even for a kid-aimed game. I would stick to class based hp myself) and it makes them get double advantage for +1 swords (which add to damage instead of to hit)

All rolls are done with 2d6, magic and combat, and something I love is that all spells are resumed into four: 

Blast (choose the way it deals damage), 

Heal (all forms of healing, curses, etc) 

Protection (armor, but probably could work to protect against evil, etc) 

and Charm (charm, sleep and somehow manages to include Web).

I find very curious that 1 of the 6 pages is dedicated to combat fumbles, magic fumbles and fumbles in general (It tells a lot about the author's objective with the game XD) 

The most stealable thing I found was the nice way it handles monster Treasure Type: d6+monster HD VS this table:

1-3 no treasure

4-5 coin purse

6-7 sack of treasure

8-9 treasure chest

10+ treasure horde

With each treasure having a specific GP, Gems, Magic Items, etc. honestly I find this system much more attractive at first sight than the classic B/X one.

The monster list is very concise (one line description) and one thing that is inspiring is that surprise is never rolled: it happens if the GM sees it fit. And by this rules, bugbears ALWAYS surprise unless you do something about it.

Advancement increases HP only, all the rest happens diegetically (through items found, etc)

Saving Throws are fixed at 8 but dwarves, elves, etc have bonuses for certain situations. Interestingly enough every monster has their own saving throw rate listed, not based on anything. It is very simple but I like its adjusted with love by the author, not just calculated by their HD size.

This is all about the revised version, but, as the download also gives you the original version, I also read it, and found something cool too: the spell list.

The book states that it is a sample list and that you can use the TSR original, but I like to imagine that this was the "official, complete list" (which ties nicely into the game being that the top level is five). Four spells for level, and having Charm and Hold Monster and no Charm of Hold Person, which means that you have to be really high level to use that game-breaking charm spell. I would try to tie protection from evil into Cure Light Wounds and bless into an optional variation for Light.

This early game version uses d20, evolutionary Saving Throws and Monster to hit matrixes (which I think that were wisely removed in the final cut)

Finally, as a catch all, attempting uncovered risky situations as sneaking, jumping, etc is covered by 1d6 vs a TN fixed in the moment (hell yeah!) fast and fair, and very appropiate seeing that there are no attributes to use for that. That puts the weight on using inventory or alternate approaches to avoid doing that risky roll, or to increase the chances somehow.

It is a little odd, but what I find most lacking in this game is a reaction table (which is trivial to add, anyways), and double being a game for kids wich would benefit a lot in my opinion from monsters being talkative or neutral.

average damage comparison, on the way to single roll combat

 I leave this here for me to consult thereafter

They are tables that compare the average damage of a strike VS ascending ACs, assuming d6 damage, d6+1 or d8 damage and d6+2 or d10 damage. 

Below is the same table if we assume a 2d6 to hit roll, with the roll excess over AC being the damage done. This rends that the most accurate ACs to convert would be base 5 to plate 8; or using instead 2 types of armor (light and heavy) and make it base 6, light armor 7, heavy armor 8. Shields would either be straight up better than in d20 or can be used as "shields shall be splintered" only (though I really dislike that approach)

Same table, but using ACs from 0 to 6, with attack rolls being made with d6, d8, d10 and d4. Again, excess over AC is the damage dealt. 

I'm uncertain on this one. The most obvious port would be to use d6 as common weapon damage, then 1 as base ac, light armor as 2 and heavy as 3, with 4 being the additional shield. Then using increments in damage die size as the equivalent of character bonuses-to-hit on level ups. According to this sophisticated charts, just using a d8 would increment as much average damage as a +6 to hit in d20 (which is a level 10 fighter in S&W). D10 and d12 would be reserved for monsters.

There is also option 2, to use d8 as the common martial weapon damage, and then make it so Base AC is 2, +1 leather. +2 plate, +1 shield. 

This method, however, only deals with averages, but the theory says that this will make combats have less "miss" results, but hits will normally deal less damage than with separate rolls for hit and damage (even if in the end the monster takes the same amount of turns to drop). 

Minimalistic D&D part V: Hirelings and Morale without Charisma

First and foremost, I've retooled the 2d6 morale roll to a 1d6 roll (roll equal or lower to stay in the fight). The real reason is that all the other mechanics I'm writing use 1d6 too, so it makes the rules prettier overall, but its hard to admit this vain part of me. The reason I tell myself is that it allows me to change the 2-12 range of morale in monsters to one with less granularity and that makes it easier for me to adscribe a rating to a monster based on their description.

morale 11-12 becomes 6 (mindless undead, never flees) 

morale 9-10 become 5 (really brave or mad warriors, dire animals, uruk hai or dragons)

morale 8 becomes 4 (monsters with martial training, annoyed predators, etc)

morale 7 becomes 3 (annoyed peoples, common predators when not overhungry, 50% chance to flee)

morale 5-6 becomes 2 (if a monster is sort of coward-ish, herbivore animals, etc)

morale 4 becomes 1 (mostly not combatants, rust monsters, etc)

Then we get to the next part: This rules I'm writing in this rule series have no attribute scores for characters, so I don't have charisma to determine number or loyalty for hirelings. 

For the number, I don't yet know what to do. Maybe base the cap on gold alone: if you can pay them, you can buy them. There is something I like about independizing charisma from hirelings, which is that I can treat hirelings as belonging/following to the whole party instead of a single PC individual, which makes more sense to me. This and reaction rolls I feel that could work better if adressed by the group as a whole.

The downside is that being "communal" and independent from charisma, PCs might lose some agency over the behavior of their henchmen. The upside is that when you die and must roll a new character, you can pick any of your common hirelings instead of your personal ones. Is like a common pool for second characeters.

For the loyalty: Whenever you find a tavern/inn/town in which 1dX hirelings are available, you roll for their morales secretly: 3d6 keep lowest. Sum the other 2 dice: that's the price he reclaims per month/adventure/whatever. The idea is that it gives you an idea of his morale without really telling you.

Morale 1 or 2 for torchbearers or sages, 3 and 4 for bandits or men at arms. Morale 5 is for this mysterious strangers smoking on the dark table by the bottom room. Maybe I could make a table of hirelings or something, with one special trait for each, like "+2 morale when tainted with jewels" "will steal from you" "morale drops to 1 in presence of spiders" etc.

When confronted with danger, they roll morale, not loyalty or anything. Their morale increases overtime somehow, with 5 being the maximum. 

When you give them an order that is not obviously dangerous they probably accept, mostly if it falls within their expected job. 

Loyalty takes two shapes: +1 to any morale roll derived from your orders if they have survived an adventure with you and +1 if you have some relevant special feat that allows you to be more charismatic than common people.

This rules can apply to Searchers of the Unknown or Here is some Fucking D&D, which I tried to scourge for hireling rules being both of them attribute-less. Just to find they hadn't any.

Alternativelly, there is another approach: to ditch all this post entirelly and to have monsters roll for reaction again at 50% hp left.

On the next chapter I'll probably steal something to abstract distances and get rid of counting feet altogether for this game.

High on grid // "allweaponsdod6damage but..."

 I'm running a game for friends who want to play D&D because they saw it on Stranger Things. They are in for the minis and they want to play with them because they use them on the show, no negociations. At first I tried to tell them that miniatures are optional, that I never used them. But they passed it on me in the end: I thought "what the fuck why not" and now I'm searching for cheap second hand warhammer Rohan warriors. 

Though I started playing rpgs with grids by drawing little combats in a squared notebook, I've trained myself to use abstract combat afterwards. But now that I'm bound to use it, I'm trying to devise ways in which to use it to its greater potential. I don't want to change things that are not broken (not re-defining combat or anything). But there are nebulous things that could be improved.

As in Basic D&D all weapons do d6 damage, the distinction between weapons could be how do they behave on a grid (ranged weapons already work that way with the "short-medium-long" ranges)

Spears, for example, could use their long shaft to strike in all directions, including diagonals (red and yellow arrows) while shortswords can only strike in the cardinal directions (yellow arrows). This makes swords and spears equally functional on 1 square wide corridors (which makes a lot of sense). You can make spears so they can also attack things 1 square away in the cardinal directions. Maybe is too unrealistic but if it follows game logic its OK for me.

Two handed swords and greataxes can affect all guys on an L shaped area around the wielder (because an L looks to me shaped like a slash), like in this picture, highlighted in green. This can work with systems with variable weapon damage by having the sword doing d8 damage to one target OR d6 to all in that area. Or maybe straight d8 in area.

Certain magic swords can also strike on cone or square area (a sword capable of summoning whirlwinds or sending flame waves, maybe) and certain magic items could improve your movement rate by some squares per turn (all the humanoid monsters/pcs have similar movement rates: 2 or 4 feet in combat, though I abstract it in 2 or 4 squares because I'm european and I dont want to learn what a feet or a yard are). Having a +1 square per turn is the edge to outrun that monster that moves just at your same rate.

Every other problem that arises with the game, I'll try to solve it or balance it by making up shit with the grid. Let's see what happens.