It is finally decided. Next Friday will see our return to Dungeon World. But there will be a change of players. Basically, two players will continue and one to three new players will join. Now, the interesting question will be: do I continue the story of the two remaining players and simply add in the new players, or do we start over with a new first session? Both options have their appeal and I will probably prepare for both.
Option 1: Returning characters.
The characters of the returning players conveniently are Grimdrig the dwarven fighter and Durgar the dwarven cleric. Durgar is possessed by the spirit of an ancient (Derro) dwarven queen. So I have a hook right there. Probably I will prepare a front and some information about the town the dwarves are travelling to. Today, I already found a name for the town: Svarturvigi, the Black Fortress. I imagine this to be an ancient dwarven port town.
Option 1 will be viable, if nobody else wants to be the fighter or the cleric.
Option 2: New first session.
This would be a good solution to give everyone a fresh start. Unfortunately, it will also mean that I am never going to find out about the fate of Durgar. For a fresh start I am going to prepare some impressions and questions up front. Currently, I am in the mood for some sort of "gateway to the desert". Maybe I've just spend too much time in Act II of Diablo 3 in the city of Caldeum... Let's see what I'll come up with.
Option 2 will be a completely new game, but I have some ideas for an interesting setting in mind.
In the next days I am going to post more about my preparations.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Experience for Old School RPGs
As I've posted earlier, I don't really like how Lotfp is dependent on gaining treasure for getting experience points. Also, I would like to emphasize gaining experience for defeating monster. Yet, I also don't want to clutter my game with monster encounters. I've so far suggested to hand out more experience for monsters, but that didn't seem right either.
Now, I've read Dungeon Crawl Classics, and really like its approach to handing out XP. But DCC revamps the whole XP system. I want something more compatible with all Old School and Old School+ games. That's what I came up with:
Experience depends entirely on the subjective difficulty level of the encounter. The GM hands out experience depending on the amount of resources expended and the damage incurred by the characters. Each surviving character gets the listed award.
500 XP - The group face overwhelming danger, one or several characters died, and in the end the survivors had to flee. The survivors gain a lot of experience from their defeat.
250 XP - The group faced considerable danger, possibly one of them died, but in the end, the characters were victorious.
125 XP - The group faced difficult danger, they had to expend considerable resources, but defeated their enemies in the end.
60 XP - The group faced danger, but handily defeated them, suffering some injuries.
0 XP - The group defeated the enemies easily and barely got a scratch.
Additionally, the GM may award the following experience bonuses:
150 XP - For each trap dealt with successfully. Each character gets the listed award.
100 XP - For each trap encountered and set-off. Each surviving character gets the listed award.
100 XP - The character was role-played well and entertainingly.
100 XP - For each hex travelled.
100 XP - For each small dungeon or dungeon level explored.
Now, I've read Dungeon Crawl Classics, and really like its approach to handing out XP. But DCC revamps the whole XP system. I want something more compatible with all Old School and Old School+ games. That's what I came up with:
Experience depends entirely on the subjective difficulty level of the encounter. The GM hands out experience depending on the amount of resources expended and the damage incurred by the characters. Each surviving character gets the listed award.
500 XP - The group face overwhelming danger, one or several characters died, and in the end the survivors had to flee. The survivors gain a lot of experience from their defeat.
250 XP - The group faced considerable danger, possibly one of them died, but in the end, the characters were victorious.
125 XP - The group faced difficult danger, they had to expend considerable resources, but defeated their enemies in the end.
60 XP - The group faced danger, but handily defeated them, suffering some injuries.
0 XP - The group defeated the enemies easily and barely got a scratch.
Additionally, the GM may award the following experience bonuses:
150 XP - For each trap dealt with successfully. Each character gets the listed award.
100 XP - For each trap encountered and set-off. Each surviving character gets the listed award.
100 XP - The character was role-played well and entertainingly.
100 XP - For each hex travelled.
100 XP - For each small dungeon or dungeon level explored.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Moveable parts and fiddly bits: customization in Lotfp
Something that has gone around in my head for sometime: players like to customize, they like to play with options. In Lotfp, this is a bit lacking. Sure, clerics and wizards have options regarding their spell choice and how to expand that choice. Specialists get to distribute points on common activities. Elves are spell-casters and share in the wizard's game of spell choices. But what about fighters, dwarves and halflings? They notably lack any way to customize their characters beyond chosing armor and weapons. Those are fairly standardized in Lotfp.
That is the issue I have most with Lotfp. Fighters, dwarves and halflings lack moveable parts and fiddly bits. I feel the need to address that further than with profession. Everyone is getting those.
Stay tuned.
That is the issue I have most with Lotfp. Fighters, dwarves and halflings lack moveable parts and fiddly bits. I feel the need to address that further than with profession. Everyone is getting those.
Stay tuned.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Map of the Skogurhörmulegur
I've drawn a small map of the area explored in the Dungeon World actual play "The Barrow of the Dwarven Queen." For simplicities sake, the scale equals 1 ration per hex. As of yet, the town the heroes were travelling does not have a name. It's a port town nothing else is known.
The stats for Solacebury (a slightly renamed Solaceburg) in Dungeon World would be:
Solacebury
Prosperity: moderate
Population: growing
Defenses: watch
Other: lawless, trade (the namless port town, and one other)
Problem: Solacebury is a popular meeting place.
The stats for Solacebury (a slightly renamed Solaceburg) in Dungeon World would be:
Solacebury
Prosperity: moderate
Population: growing
Defenses: watch
Other: lawless, trade (the namless port town, and one other)
Problem: Solacebury is a popular meeting place.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Burning down the house... ah... lodge
This post continues the WFRP3 actual play reports. The last time, we left our heroes as Finubaryel had broken the illusion keeping them trapped. The characters found themselves on the rooftop of the Grunwald Lodge, facing a fire demon that was slowly materializing and the cultist summoning it.
Athelas, elven war dancer took the hammer she had found in the shrine of Sigmar and attacked the demon. The warhammer broke apart bathing the rooftop briefly in white light. The weapons of the heroes were charged and able to hurt the demon. Finubaryel attacked the demon together with Athelas. Volcifar used an illusion spell to subtly change the summoning spell that the traitorous cultist Gregor Pierceson was reading. While Lutz attacked the cultist and rammed a bottle of sleeping potion into the mouth that had replaced an eye of the cultist. The demon stuttered and his connection to the world weakened. Volcifar rammed his staff into the remaining eye of the cultist and send him sprawling to the roof. Then he methodically smashed the skull of the cultist. The fire demon was banished from the world.
The group noticed that the house beneath their feet was on fire. Athelas used a tree to escape to the ground. Lutz, Finubaryel and Volcifar went down into the third floor. Finubaryel and Volcifar in order to save their belongings, Lutz in order to save the injured people in the hospital. But the floor was already burning and the entrances to the rooms blocked. Out of the smoke came Doctor Sieger, who was a former wizard of the Bright Order. He controlled the flames and allowed Finubaryel and Volcifar to save their belongings. Volcifar discovered to his horror that the chaos tome about the beastmen was gone. Then everyone was fleeing to safety.
Outside the lodge, the survivors gathered in the woods. Not everyone had made it. But Lord Aschaffenberg was save. The heroes rested and recuperated.
The next day, the four of them went back to search the ruins of Grunwald Lodge. In the smoking ruins of the Sigmar shrine they found a secret door beneath the altar leading down into the depth of the earth. The group explored a big tunnel apparently used by Skavens. When they found the entrance to some sort of lair, they decided to turn back. The entrance was hidden behind a moving rock wall. Inside was a deep and utterly dark tunnel. Athelas became afraid of entering. Volcifar went inside to look for a mechanism to seal the entrance again. Well, he sort of found it. He stepped on a tile in the floor and the door began to close. He tried to dive out of the tunnel, but wasn't fast enough. The tunnel entrance closed and he was left in the dark with the guttering flame of his mage light.
While he was waiting for the others to free him, he found a mechanism that could operate the tunnel entrance. But it was built around a warpstone, so he didn't dare to touch it. Luckily, the others found a way to open the tunnel again. Here, Volcifar turned out to be foolish again by shouting into the tunnel: "Somebody there?" Indeed, someone was. The group heard things moving toward them. Finubaryel shot an arrow into the dark. The arrow hit something soft. In a daring move, she fired another arrow at the tile that closed the entrance. She hit it hard enough to close the door.
Then, our four heroes fled back the way they had come. Back on the surface, Finubaryel convinced Lord Aschaffenberg to travel to Bogenhaven. The group travelled by coach and arrive in the evening at the Green Glade Inn. They were greeted by a halfling innkeeper and spent a quite and restful evening at the inn. Volcifar insisted on getting his own private room, because he had some murky intentions.
After he had killed the cult leader at the Grunwald Lodge, he had taken the tome "De Naturis Daemone". This night he dared to open the tome and read a few passages in its corrupted pages. But first he was greeted by a vision of Tzeentch offering him to be the general of his armies attacking Middenheim. He gave him two months to decide on the offer. Volcifar was a bit worried, but nevertheless delved into the forbidden knowledge of the tome. He discovered a ritual for summoning a great demon that used profane artifacts of all four chaos gods. Due to earlier adventures, there is the strong possibility that the ritual had already been completed.
Then a shaken Volcifar went to bed. Later that night, he woke up when a cloaked and hooded stranger opened the shutters. Though he hurt his head, he cast a blade in the dark at the assailant. With a squeak and in a puff of green smoke the Skaven disappeared.
Athelas, elven war dancer took the hammer she had found in the shrine of Sigmar and attacked the demon. The warhammer broke apart bathing the rooftop briefly in white light. The weapons of the heroes were charged and able to hurt the demon. Finubaryel attacked the demon together with Athelas. Volcifar used an illusion spell to subtly change the summoning spell that the traitorous cultist Gregor Pierceson was reading. While Lutz attacked the cultist and rammed a bottle of sleeping potion into the mouth that had replaced an eye of the cultist. The demon stuttered and his connection to the world weakened. Volcifar rammed his staff into the remaining eye of the cultist and send him sprawling to the roof. Then he methodically smashed the skull of the cultist. The fire demon was banished from the world.
The group noticed that the house beneath their feet was on fire. Athelas used a tree to escape to the ground. Lutz, Finubaryel and Volcifar went down into the third floor. Finubaryel and Volcifar in order to save their belongings, Lutz in order to save the injured people in the hospital. But the floor was already burning and the entrances to the rooms blocked. Out of the smoke came Doctor Sieger, who was a former wizard of the Bright Order. He controlled the flames and allowed Finubaryel and Volcifar to save their belongings. Volcifar discovered to his horror that the chaos tome about the beastmen was gone. Then everyone was fleeing to safety.
Outside the lodge, the survivors gathered in the woods. Not everyone had made it. But Lord Aschaffenberg was save. The heroes rested and recuperated.
The next day, the four of them went back to search the ruins of Grunwald Lodge. In the smoking ruins of the Sigmar shrine they found a secret door beneath the altar leading down into the depth of the earth. The group explored a big tunnel apparently used by Skavens. When they found the entrance to some sort of lair, they decided to turn back. The entrance was hidden behind a moving rock wall. Inside was a deep and utterly dark tunnel. Athelas became afraid of entering. Volcifar went inside to look for a mechanism to seal the entrance again. Well, he sort of found it. He stepped on a tile in the floor and the door began to close. He tried to dive out of the tunnel, but wasn't fast enough. The tunnel entrance closed and he was left in the dark with the guttering flame of his mage light.
While he was waiting for the others to free him, he found a mechanism that could operate the tunnel entrance. But it was built around a warpstone, so he didn't dare to touch it. Luckily, the others found a way to open the tunnel again. Here, Volcifar turned out to be foolish again by shouting into the tunnel: "Somebody there?" Indeed, someone was. The group heard things moving toward them. Finubaryel shot an arrow into the dark. The arrow hit something soft. In a daring move, she fired another arrow at the tile that closed the entrance. She hit it hard enough to close the door.
Then, our four heroes fled back the way they had come. Back on the surface, Finubaryel convinced Lord Aschaffenberg to travel to Bogenhaven. The group travelled by coach and arrive in the evening at the Green Glade Inn. They were greeted by a halfling innkeeper and spent a quite and restful evening at the inn. Volcifar insisted on getting his own private room, because he had some murky intentions.
After he had killed the cult leader at the Grunwald Lodge, he had taken the tome "De Naturis Daemone". This night he dared to open the tome and read a few passages in its corrupted pages. But first he was greeted by a vision of Tzeentch offering him to be the general of his armies attacking Middenheim. He gave him two months to decide on the offer. Volcifar was a bit worried, but nevertheless delved into the forbidden knowledge of the tome. He discovered a ritual for summoning a great demon that used profane artifacts of all four chaos gods. Due to earlier adventures, there is the strong possibility that the ritual had already been completed.
Then a shaken Volcifar went to bed. Later that night, he woke up when a cloaked and hooded stranger opened the shutters. Though he hurt his head, he cast a blade in the dark at the assailant. With a squeak and in a puff of green smoke the Skaven disappeared.