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Sunday, January 31, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 31 - Tiny Dungeons / The Hatchling Edition

 


   And finally, I get to the end of the challenge and will be creating a character for an introductory RPG.  Tiny Dungeons is a very simple system, the Hatchling Edition is pitched at introducing kids to role playing games.  I can say that my oldest granddaughter enjoys it, the younger one is still at the stage of trying to eat the dice rather than roll them.

    Character creation is quite simple, no die rolling involved.

1. Select a heritage.  Usually know as race.  Choices are Human, Fey (Elf), Dwarf, Goblin, Hatchling (Dragon), Salimar (Salamander folk, pyro or cryo), Treefolk (Ents), Karhu (Bears) or Lizardfolk.  Each heritage determines your hit point and has a trait associated with it - except humans who get to pick an extra Trait.

2. Select three traits from the Trait list.  Traits replace said fixed classes, but are skills, feats and proficiencies like Alchemist.  Cleave, and Blind fight.

3. Select a weapon group proficiency.  Weapons are grouped by Light melee, Heavy melee and Ranged.  You select a group and then select one weapon type from within that group as a weapon you have Mastered.

4.  Select a Family Trade (background).  Any trade you want, this is to jump start backdtory creation.

5.  Select a Belief.  This is a guiding principle that helps the player define what's important to the character and then determine how the character will act.  The authors seem to have an appreciation that players often think 'Chaotic Me' is an acceptable alignment.


I'm going to jump back two days and stat up my Suarian Hch'ait Lord as a Lizardfolk.

Second Right Claw of the Nest                    Lizardfolk

HP 6+2 = 8.       Cold blooded - attempts to influence through emotions suffer from Disadvantage.

Traits:  Cleave - gain an extra attack when I drop an adversary to 0 HP

Strong - Gain Advantage when doing a Test involving brute force, like kicking a door in.

Tough - Gain two extra HP.

Weapon Group: Heavy Melee - Pole Arm (Glaive)

Family Trade:  Defending the nest from dinosaurs.

Belief.  When force isn't enough, use MORE force.

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The system is really stripped down.  Everything becomes a Test.

Standard Test - roll 2d6 if either comes up 5 or 6 you succeed

Advantage Test - roll 3d6 if any come up 5 or 6 you succeed

Disadvantage Test - roll 1d6 if you roll a 5 or 6 you succeed

Save Test - standard test that brings the character back to 1 HP

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All weapons do 1 point of Damage

Armor is what ever you want it wear - it doesn't count unless the DM makes it count.

Monsters are rated by threat level:  Fodder 1HP, Low 2 HP, Medium 3-5 HP, High 6-8 HP, Heroic 9-14 HP and Solo 15+ HP. Although Red Dragons are rated as Epic in the beastiary with 20HP.  

These mechanics make it trivial to run an adventure from another system while converting everything on the fly.






Saturday, January 30, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 30 - Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition

     The penultimate entry in this series takes me back to a version I only played in a single campaign.  I was pretty much out of gaming while the Navy moved me around from Virginia Beach to Newport RI to San Diego to New York City to Jacksonville and finally to Chicago where my career changed.  In December 1999 we moved back to Minnesota and I got back in touch with one of my gaming friends from college and Virginia Beach.  He invited me to join his 2nd Edition group and I've been back in gaming fairly steadily for the last twenty years.  As soon as 3rd Edition came out we picked it up and went on from there, so all I ever bought was a used Player's Handbook and maybe a source book.  I made a single character - a bard, who the party accused of being a thief.  (I did name his horse 'Back Pay')  In honor of that character, I've rolled up another one.

I used Method 2, rolling twelve d6 and taking the top six. (7, 15, 12,13,12, 11,9, 14, 17, 18, 13, 4).  After due consideration of Prime Requisites and survivability of different stat arrangement I decided on this

ST  14

DX 18    Reaction + 2 Missile +2  Defense -4

CN  17   Hit Points +2

IQ  13   Languages 3 Max Spell Level 6

WS  13

CH  15   Henchmen 7  Loyalty +3  Reaction +3

The problem with Bards mechanically (at least in 2e) is the highest Prime Requisite value they need is Charisma - but NONE of their abilities are really tied to it.  Influencing others is a Save vs Paralyzation with negatives based on the Bard's level.  Inspiring allies, just happens, range increases by level but nothing else.  So while I couldn't make Charisma a dump stat, there was no reason to max it out.  

Intelligence is the second highest required Prime Requisite and the Bard is a Spellcaster.  But they have to find all of their spells after 2nd Level, getting the scraps the Wizard leaves for them.  While a Bard can cast Fireball (and would be cool to so) having a high intelligence doesn't really help them acquire it or cast it for more damage.  I will say that it helps them learn the spells, but I recently had a 1e Wizard with 18 intelligence roll a 98 to learn fireball - so he can't - and it shows nothing is guaranteed.

Dexterity in a lightly armored character is always a good thing, so max it out.

That left me with a 17 to place in Strength, Constitution or Wisdom.  Wisdom was ruled out immediately, no advantage there.  I almost went with a 17 Strength for the additional hit and damage.  But too many years on both sides of the screen have demonstrated how much of a game changer having more hit points is in the game.

Stats having been distributed, looking at Bard abilities had me looking back at the Thief tables for Pick Pocket, etc.  The racial bonuses pushed me to select half-elf as a race. I checked, in 2e humans don't get an extra proficiency, otherwise I would have gone with that.  That gives base percentages of Pickpocket 35%, Detect Noise 15%, Read Languages 0% Climb Walls 60%.  Distributed the twenty extra points 5 to Detect Noise and 15 to Read Languages.

Last thing to do was Non-Weapon Proficiencies.  A section, I had completely forgotten about.  As a Bard I felt obligated to burn one to learn a musical instrument, then reread the Bard entry and found I didn't need to.  So Appraise and Blind-fight (which takes two proficiency slots).

For a name, well, I was reading Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave series at the time and used something based on a minor character's name.  So I'll go with a Celtic name with a Latin ending again.

Celynus                               Chaotic Neutral  Half Elf   Bard 1

ST  14

DX 18    Reaction + 2 Missile +2  Defense -4

CN  17   Hit Points +2

IQ  13   Languages 3 Max Spell Level 6

WS  13

CH  15   Henchmen 7  Loyalty +3  Reaction +3

HP 8    AC 2 (Rear 6)  Hide Armor    GP 19

Bastard Sword (2H)               THAC0   20  Damage  2d4/2d8
Composite Short Bow            THAC0  18   Damage  1d8/1d8 (Sheaf arrows)  ROF 2/1  Range 40/80/170

Abilities:  Climb Walls 60%, Detect Noise 20%  Pick Pockets 35%, Read Languages 15%, Influence Reactions (Save vs Paralyzation) , Inspire (Chose +1 Attack, +1 Save, +2 Morale) 10' radius, Counter Spell (Save vs Spell), Identify Item 5%, 30% Resistance to Sleep & Charm, 60' infravision, Detect secret doors (Passive: 1 in 6, Active: 2 in 6, Concealed 3 in 6).


Proficiencies:  Appraise, Blind-fight (-2 to Attacks)


    A fixture in the cheaper taverns of the City State, Celynus claims to be Viridian and related (admittedly distantly) to the World Emperor.   His dark skin and red hair, indicate that the relationship must be VERY distant and he probably has closer relations with the pirates of the Sea of Seven Winds.





Friday, January 29, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 29 - Chivalry & Sorcery / Saurians

       

A Hss'Taathi lord considers peeling you
out of your metal shell for dinner

      Still in Chivalry & Sorcery, but moved to the Saurians expansion.  I've met to do a review of this book for a number of months, but haven't gotten to it yet.  It's a bit of an odd book, the first half is a beastiary of dinosaurs and Ice Age creatures, with a few giant insects thrown in, the second half details the culture of the Hss'Taathi a race and culture  mysteriously translated out of the dawn to the medieval world of Arden.  Complete with their dinosaurs, domesticated and wild.

      While the characteristics and calculations are the same, the tables and values are different, so I didn't even try to tweak the spreadsheet.   Let's roll some dice and do some math!




The first step is to determine the 'Ooscope'.  Rather like a horoscope, but with more cultural and religious weight behind it.  It's done by observation of the way the saurian hatches from it's egg and has two outcomes.  First is the Caste of the saurian, much like human social class but very adventuring oriented.  

03 gives me a Hch'ait Lord.  The saurian equivalent of a Knight.  

Second is the Omens which may provide an experience bonus.

08 Highly Propitious! +25% experience if he stays in his Caste. (Caste changing is possible, but penalized)

Caste effects almost all the subsequent rolls.  And at this point C&S has abandoned most of the straight 1-20 rolls of the red book.

Height - still a 1-20 roll, but two new categories 'Very Tall' and 'Giant'.  All Hch'ait lords are very tall, no reason to roll.

Frame - still 1-20, but two new categories 'Very Heavy' and 'Massive'.  

09 - Heavy increase weight by 1 Level.

Size d20 roll is 12 which on the Very Tall table gives me 6'9" 425

Dexterity - Hch'ait roll 1d10 + 8 - 7 gives 15 DEX

Strength - Hch'ait roll 2d6 + 8 and are the only ones who can have Superhuman strength.  I rolled a 8 so 16 ST

Constitution - two step procedure.  First roll 2d6 if the result is less than 4 the character is a runt.  I rolled a 4 and avoided that so Hhc'ait roll 2d6+9.  A 7 gives a 16 CON

Personal Appearance - is calculated for Saurians.  (CON + ST)+2 for Very Tall +3 for caste = 21 PA

Bardic Voice - Hch'ait roll 3d6+8 for voice, a 12 give me BV 20

Intelligence - Hch'ait roll 3d6+2.  I roll 17 for IQ 19

Wisdom - Hch'ait roll 3d6+2.  I roll 12 for WS 14

Charisma has a different calculation.  (PA+BV+IQ+WS)/4 = CH 18.5

Alignment stays d20.  A roll of 10.

Body is based on Body Bonus values from the Size, Strength and Constitution tables  25+5+2 = 34

Fatigue is 1d6, same as all the 1st levels. I rolled a 5

Carrying Capacity is (Strength Factor + Constitution Factor)*Weight = (3.0+0.6)*425 = CarCap 1530

Military Ability is (IQ+WS+PA+BV+CH)/10 = 9.25 rounded down to  MA 9. (No bonuses for Silurians with high characteristic scores)

Command Level is MA/2 so CL 4.5

Personal Combat Factor is CarCap/100 + MA/2 +DX/10 +Class Factor.  15.30+4.5+1.5+2 = PCF 23.4

PCF 23-24.9

Light Weapons

Blows     Damage     %Hit      %Parry

+3            4xWDF    +25%       -20%

Heavy Weapons

Blows     Damage     %Hit      %Parry     Shield Parry       %Dodge

+2            5xWDF   +18%        -12%             -22%                -35%


Hss'Taathi language is generally considered unpronounceable by humans, so he goes by a translation of his title as a newly matured Hch'ait lord (essentially a squire)

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Second Right Claw of the Nest                               Hch'ait Lord 1

6'9"  425lbs

DX 15  - Dexterous   ST  16 - Mighty   CN  16 - Hardy

PA  21 - Handsome/Beautiful    BV  20 - Orphic     IQ  19 - Genius 

WS  14 - Discerning     CH 18 - Dominant     AL 10 - Worldly

Car Cap 1530     Mil Ab 9    Command Level 10

Body 34   Fatigue 5   PCF   23.4

Armor Banded Mail AC 4 + Natural AC 4 (Need to roll TWO hits to penetrate)

Open Helm AC 4   Shield: Class 5 Polearm  Parry -27%

Glaive (as 2 Handed Battle Axe)

Type     Blows    Damage   Hit /Crit Unarmored

H             4             17                53%/45%

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Thursday, January 28, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 28 - Chivalry & Sorcery / Swords & Sorcerers | Steppe Nomad

     


Reading through this section of Swords and Sorcerers, I'm of the impression that the main reason for including Steppe Nomads was to discuss army troop composition for the miniature rules which are at the heart of C&S.  I've noted in the past that C&S places rules for miniatures and large scale combat resolution BEFORE the Individual Combat section, Thieves, Clergy and 'Magick' sections, i.e. all the role playing rules.  It took me until I started reading OSR blogs to realize that that is a direct tie to D&D's reliance on Chainmail.  Large scale combat was always intended to be part of the hobby, with Individual characters being a sort of 'drill down' to greater detail.  Little did they expect the characters to over take the large scale action.

    Again tweaking my generation spreadsheet makes character generation quick, the biggest time sink is adding the weapons to my combat value lookup tables that are needed to calculate number of blows and damage, as I only build those out as needed.


Kashi                                                           Steppe Nomad Warrior


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Kashi, son of Jahka Gambu - a Beki Jegun of the Oirat clan, is a young warrior riding as a scout for the horde.
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   The only changes from the basic character generation are: the height/frame distribution skews to building smaller characters and they put on a max height of 5'10"; but allow the Body value to be whatever you rolled up so there's no mechanical penalty in figuring hit points.  The Social Class changes to reflect the society as  we've seen in the Nordic and Celtic posts.   Oh and the big one female characters are absolutely PROHIBITED - as the society would not allow it.  This was not uncommon, nor did it raise an eyebrow among gamers at that time as we usually were trying to recreate something semi-historical.  C&S of course being firmly grounded in the medieval to the extant that the creators had tables to determine which real lord in France was your lord. See also AD&D's gender & race Strength caps.  

Beki Jegun is a low level leader of 5 households - about 100 warriors.

    This wraps up Swords & Sorcerers tomorrow it's on the the Saurians supplement for C&S

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Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

Day 4 - Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

Day 5 - Traveller

Day 6 - Runequest

Day 7 - Gamma World

Day 8 - The Morrow Project

Day 9 - There was no Day 9.  Bumping the schedule back a day.

Day 10 - Warhammer FRP.

Day 17 - The Dark Eye

Day 18 - Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Day 19 - Labyrinth Lord 

Day 20 - Carcosa

Day 21 - Swords and Wizardry

Day 22 - Adventurer Conqueror King

Day 23 - Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Day 24 - Castles and Crusades

Day 25 - Warriors of Mars










Wednesday, January 27, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 27 - Chivalry & Sorcery / Swords & Sorcerers |Celt


    Doncan, son of Orry, is an exile from his tribe, now serving a rival cheiftain in the Dearthwood Forest east of the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  While his father is a member of his King's Guard, his mother was captured in a raid against a caravan of travelling Amazons.  From her, Doncan inherited not only an unusually dark skin tone for the Duneal tribes, but somewhat scaly skin and partially webbed toes and feet.  He's part merman and can hold his breath twice as long as a normal human as well as swim at the same speed he walks.



I'm stayed with Swords & Sorcerers today to generate a Celtic tribesman.  The only changes from the original C&S character generation system is determining Social Status - and that appears not to have been well edited, with one table ending at 61 out a hundred and not covering generating Royal characters, although there are tables for Royal characters.  This time I remembered to add the weapon and armor to the stat spreadsheet.  As is my wont I rolled his description on the tables I developed for the Wilderlands, where I decided that the Duneal Forester would be Irish-ish.


Doncan Bredan                                                            Celtic Warrior


  Armor Weapons and truncated to hit by AC chart


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Another easy day in generation, remembered I'd built a look up table for weapons too, so a bit of cut and pasting made my life easy.




Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

Day 4 - Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

Day 5 - Traveller

Day 6 - Runequest

Day 7 - Gamma World

Day 8 - The Morrow Project

Day 9 - There was no Day 9.  Bumping the schedule back a day.

Day 10 - Warhammer FRP.

Day 17 - The Dark Eye

Day 18 - Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Day 19 - Labyrinth Lord 

Day 20 - Carcosa

Day 21 - Swords and Wizardry

Day 22 - Adventurer Conqueror King

Day 23 - Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Day 24 - Castles and Crusades

Day 25 - Warriors of Mars

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

2021 Character Creation Challenge: Day 26 - Chivalry & Sorcery / Swords & Sorcerers | Viking

     Swords & Sorcerers is a Chivalry & Sorcery expansion featuring rules for generating "Vikings, Steppe


Nomads, Gaels and Picts.  Today I'm generating a Viking, more to point a Valkyrie.  The expansion uses the basic C&S character generation rules, but changes the Height/Weight distributions, making taller and heavier characters, which increases hit points - and adding +1 to their Constitution, which can add hit points. Nordic women also get a +1 Personal Appearance, as they were considered exceptionally comely in their era.  The big change is of course, they do not follow the Chivalric social pattern, rather they are almost all Warriors.





Ashild Snorridottir                                           Warrior I (Valkyrie)

Click to embiggen the stats

Ashild is the daughter and only child of Snorri Iorundsson, a Viking War Chieftain.  Her father recently fell in battle, and while she is not considered for leadership of the clan, her size (6'2") and lack of brothers has enabled her to claim an oar in his war boat.  She's a better fighter than most men her age and has never been sick a day in her life.  She favors a battle axe and copper decorated shield with her chain byrnie and helm.

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Spent more time playing with a local copy of my C&S character generator than I did in rolling her up.

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Monday, January 25, 2021

Character Creation Challenge: Day 25 - Warriors of Mars

     A VERY unofficial supplement to 0e D&D by "DOC", this provides rules for creating characters and fighting the monsters of Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom.  It's free to download, because nothing in here is licensed.  Of course, the first few ERB Warlord of Mars books are out of copyright in the US and more I understand have fallen out of copyright in Australia; but D&D is certainly still under copyright as is Frank Frazetta's illustration on the cover - and I suspect a number of the internal drawings.

   I rolled a pretty good Pathan (mercenary fighter); but then I saw I could play a Green Martian, so I built that instead so I could play with adding arms to a figure in Hero Forge.


ST 20    (16 + 4 for Green Martian)


IQ 7      (9 -2 for Green Martian)

WS 5     (7 -2 for Green Martian)

CN 12

DX 16

CH 12 (14 -2 for Green Martian)

One nice thing is between 0e and the Barsoom stories, there's not much to worry about for equipment, I'll rule that the harness provides the equivalent of AC 8 (Shield only).  have to dive into Supplement I: Greyhawk to find the bonuses for Strength & Dexterity.  Strength is off the chart.  Dexterity is +1 AC & for missile fire per point above 14.  The first place I come across ST 20 is in the DMG, Girdle of Giant Strength list ST 20 +3 Hit, +8 Damage.


Dojat                                                    Green Martian  Berserker 2

Strength   20   +3   +8  Open Doors 7 in  8(3)    

Intelligence  7     Wisdom 5     Constitution 12

Dexterity  16 +2 AC +2 Missile Fire    Charisma 12

Hit Points  20   Armor Class  6

Long Sword  THAC0  16    1d8+8/1d12+8    THAC0 14  Damage +10 when berserk

Short Sword  THAC0  16     1d6+8/1d6+8     THAC0 14  Damage +10 when berserk

Dagger           THAC0  16    1d4+8/1d4+8      THAC0 14  Damage +10 when berserk

Radium Pistol    THAC0  16    2d6 (night)/ 3d6 (day).  Can not fire when berserk

    Dojat is a member of the Warhoon Horde, deadly enemies of the Tharks and their allies Jelium and especially John Carter.  His great strength has given him the nickname "The Apt of Warhoon.'


Warriors of Mars starts all characters at second level.

I used the Long Sword and Dagger damage from Supplement 1: Greyhawk and the standard 'Sword' damage from Men and Monsters for the short sword.

The Radium Pistol does more damage during the daytime, as when it hits the target the coating on the bullet shatters, allowing sunlight to reach the pellet of radium in the bullet and causing an explosion.  After night battles, the dawn is punctuated by the explosions of bullets fired in the dark.  Note: Do not do autopsies on victims recovered from such battle fields.

Hero Forge: Turtle head with Alien Tubes for ears, Lizard torso and feet




Character Creation Challenge Posts:

2021 Character Creation Challenge

Day 1 - D&D 0e

Day 2 - Empire of the Petal Throne

Day 3 - Metamorphosis Alpha

Day 4 - Chivalry & Sorcery 1e

Day 5 - Traveller

Day 6 - Runequest

Day 7 - Gamma World

Day 8 - The Morrow Project

Day 9 - There was no Day 9.  Bumping the schedule back a day.

Day 10 - Warhammer FRP.

Day 17 - The Dark Eye

Day 18 - Lamentations of the Flame Princess

Day 19 - Labyrinth Lord 

Day 20 - Carcosa

Day 21 - Swords and Wizardry

Day 22 - Adventurer Conqueror King

Day 23 - Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Day 24 - Castles and Crusades