Campaign Space Ship: NECI Sigrun

This here is the spaceship that my players have been using for their game of M-Space. While it's mostly just been a plot device to get to the planet from the Ark, this time around, it'll get put through its paces in actual space combat. For those more knowledgeable of M-Space, you'll notice that the speed, engine power, and armor is low. This is to represent a lower tech ship on the cusp of achieving fusion drive, somewhere between Traveller and Orbital 2100. Many of the added stats like tonnage were mathematical formulas I used to convert Traveller stuff to M-Space.

I plan on working with either Blender or Unity to combine the 3D models of the ships and planets to make cool landscapes with them. It's something my players certainly will like. 

NECI Sigrun (created using the Galactic Civilization III Ship Builder)

New Earth Colonial Initiative's Sigrun

Pathfinder-Class

Size: 58 (290 Tons, 52 meters/170' 7" long)

Armor: 2 AP
Speed: 5 (Delta V: 80 km/s)
Handling: 3
Distance per Month Traveled: 200 Mkm
Fuel per Month Traveled: 3 tons
Fuel Capacity: 10 tons

Name	d% chance	HP
Cockpit	1-4	2
Engines, Thrusters	5-13	5
Engines, Maneuver	14-22	5
Sickbay	23-30	4
Crew Quarters	31-40	9
Cargo Hold	41-45	5
Railgun	46-47	1
Railgun	48-49	1
Engineering Lab	50-51	1
Crew Common Area	52-66	8
Hanger, Rover	67-74	4
Hanger, Shuttle	75-92	10
Sensors	93-100	3

The NECI Sigrun is the premier spaceship for the Initiative Scouts. It is outfitted with two railguns for defense, a standard nuclear thermal rocket, and a life support system to last a crew for six months. The Sigrun has a connection to the ark AI, Noah, for information and orders from the higher echelons of the NECI. Able to traverse 1.3 AU in a single month and scan for all kinds of minerals and chemicals to locate important resources for the survival of humanity. The Sigrun can fit a standard crew of 9, including pilots, surveyors, and an engineer, all of which crossed trained to be survivalists, scientists, and security for the planetside away team.

Musing on Solo Supers

Firstly, a big thank you to +MoonSylver for their huge repository of superhero sandbox links. It's been pretty awesome to sift through this treasure trove of good ideas to get things set up on my end. So, many thanks to Moon.

With that in mind, I have a simplified patrol table for ease of use in the middle of a game. I'm going to be using Alien Shores's table, but paired down to just using a d10. I thought about having different odds of certain crimes depending on the area (industrial vs commercial, slums vs ritzy) but from reading tons and tons of comics, crime of any type can really happen anywhere. And plus, this is more going to be for fast use in the middle of a game, whether it's a solo game or with a group of friends. I am considering a drop-down dice table, but we'll see what time permits. Working at a restaurant next to a movie theater in the summertime means my time is very very limited.

That all said, I haven't quite decided on what to use as a system. I'm going between ICONS, Guardians, and now Supers!, which I hear is really good. ICONS seems good but I just don't like FATE all that much. Guardians is OSR and more familiar to me but seems more limited. Supers! I don't have, and looks really unfamiliar to me, so it'll take time to learn it. I'm down for trying anything new though.

Stocking a Solar System's Sum of Stunts and Stories

My current game is a science fiction exploration game, where the players are scouts surveying their new home and getting it ready for colonization. One of the things I've done is that right from the get go, the players have a spaceship that can take them anywhere in the new solar system. Here, there are seven celestial bodies that the players can blast off to. Many of those are either jovian or ice giants with tons of moons to look at. Add in all kinds of asteroids, comets, and other stuff floating out there, and you have a great deal of sites for adventures and discovery.

Of course the difficult part for this is how do we stock all of these for adventure? Much like a standard hexcrawl, you have all kinds of adventure, ruins, and obstacles that are keyed up and ready for the players to stumble upon. However, things get a bit more difficult because now we are dealing with the planetary scale. Planets, moons, hell, even asteroids are much bigger than your standard hexcrawl map. Stocking an entire planet of adventure like that simply isn't viable, let alone an entire solar system. Luckily, I have my way of taking care of that.

First thing I like to do is end a session asking what the players want to do next. It doesn't always happen, as sometimes I like to through stuff at them to react to next session as a cliffhanger, but it's nice to know where your players are going to next. That way you can simply prep for where they are going. So if my space scouts want to travel to Chicken Island next session, then I know that I can prep stuff specific to that area and I won't be wasting any time when I do it. Pretty basic stuff. Still, it's nice to have some stuff ready to roll when things happen in the middle of a session, so we turn to my rule of threes.

For each celestial body, I have three landmarks and three possible adventures, made from three words (a verb, adjective, and noun). We can usually describe planets with 2-3 landmarks or interesting things easily, especially if they aren't Earth like worlds. For example, Mars has red sand, Olympus Mons, and several canals across it. Jupiter has the Great Red Spot, intense radiation, and a great deal of gravity to contend with. I generally write these as tags like you'd see in FATE or DW. All of these can be the source of adventure, or simply add complications to another adventure on the same planet. Imagine trying to rescue a hydrogen freighter in Jupiter, but you have to save them without getting caught in the gravity well yourself. And the good thing about being in a sci fi genre is that thanks to future tech, players can scan for a lot of the potential sites of adventure from their CIC in orbit. So these landmarks can be made readily apparent and easy to spot. It does tend to simplify each planet a bit, but luckily, that's where the 'three words' come in.

So for me, three words are just me generating a verb, adjective, and noun. So for example, I simply will have 'Destroy Large Generator' as an adventure seed. From there, I flesh it out as I see fit. Get creative with how you interpret the seed. For example, your generator could be the fusion power plant on a space ship, a solar generator on an asteroid base, or even the wide leaves of an alien plant that feeds and powers a hive of plant-bugs. It's sci fi so go crazy with it! What I like to use are these verb, adjective, and noun generators for free. But sometimes that gets you some weird combinations that are hard to work with (Quoit Micrococcal Tracheitis?). One thing I use a lot of for developing adventures on the fly are Ennead Games's Adventure Generator Sci Fi and the GM's Apprentice Sci Fi deck. But, as great as those are, you can still keep it free. And you don't even have to use three words. Images are a great way to get some vague icons and interpret them how you wish. I know I've seen a lot of good stuff about Rory's Story Cubes, but if you don't have the scratch, I like using Tangent Zero's Dice for that. I like to roll three or four and have that as my main adventure. Hell, I'll even use a set of tarot cards I have to give me a good set of twists. The important part is, you have a good improv generator that will give you just enough structure and inspiration to craft a good adventure, but vague enough to allow for your creativity to kick in.

Putting this all into use, in my game, I have an extremely hot planet close to the sun. For its three landmark tags, I have "Large basins and mares", "Huge chains of volcanoes", and "One massive crater at the equator". The first landmark is almost like a safe zone for players to land at, but can also house future adventures (things hidden under the basalt flats? a colony appears there and stuff happens?). The second adds the danger, but can have a high reward. There's lava and high temperature everywhere, but there's also a hidden ancient alien facility in the volcano with secrets and mysteries inside. The third is a definite adventure site. What caused the crater? Was it an impact or an explosion? A landmark that makes the players ask questions about it will hook them line and sinker.

From there, I have three 3-word sentences that I generated. "Survey Massive Graveyard", "Destroy Alien Facility", and "Aid Strange Rival". For the first one, I decided to have an orbital graveyard filled with the corpses of large, spaceborn aliens. The second one has that alien facility in the volcanoes. The third one was a bit vague, so I added more using Tangent Zero's dice and created an adventure where the players and a rival scout group go through an old space hulk looking for stuff before the others do. But, things go wrong and it becomes a fight for survival as something vicious lurks in the hulk. Or, thanks to a little Kessler Syndrome, the players and rivals are separated from their shuttle and now have to try and escape the space hulk as it careens into the planet. I like to keep it flexible for this one, as either can be fun. 

There we go. That planet has a decent amount of adventure for a good while, and if they ever want to go back, I can always add more to it. As for the rest of the solar system, it can still be a bit daunting. I generally prep a cache of landmarks and sentences for each body, and then detail it at a later date. Luckily, limits in space travel in my game make it to where the players will generally eyeball the closer planets rather than the far off ones. But with PCs, you never know what they'll do! I also really add specific tags to important bodies. So planets, some moons, and asteroids that are big enough to be interesting (like your Juno and Vesta). But it's good to have some generic sentences and landmarks in case they land on some random Trojan asteroid in Jupiter's orbit.

There's a bit more I do inspired by ACKS, but I think I'll save that for another time. For those that run any sci-fi space-faring sandboxes, how do you set up your adventures for your players? 

GMing Challenge: Non-Sapient Wilderness Encounters

The last couple of months has seen me running a really fun sci fi game where the players are part of an expeditionary force going planetside to explore and colonize a lush but dangerous garden world. This is to ensure the survival of a dying human race, suffering from a shattered moon that has made the Earth unlivable for humanity. It's inspired by media such as Interstellar, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and Alpha Centauri/Civ: Beyond Earth. 

So this has been my sci-fi, planet-focuses hex crawl that I have been running. The maps are bigger because the players have an all-terrain, and there are lasers and such, but essentially, it's a good little excursion into surviving a deadly and alien wilderness. Because this is a brand new world that is mostly untouched by civilization (more on that another time), one of the biggest challenges I imposed on myself was to have wilderness encounters that didn't involve ancient ruins, forts, or dungeons. Essentially, nothing built by a sapient species, except for certain things that fit the metaplot of the game (for example, crashed resources pods launched ahead of their expedition). I wanted to make all of the encounters based on the xenowildlife on the planet and showcase a world virtually untouched by advanced civilization.

This proved to be incredibly difficult.

Wilderness encounters were much more limited to either finding evidence of an animal, encountering it, then fight or flight. While there has been some variation here and there, many of the encounters have felt the same sadly. And without intelligent, sapient aliens, there isn't too much in the way of role-playing opportunities. To my players' credit, they have spent a lot of time taming the animals in the wild rather than killing them. But I can really only get so much mileage out of throwing an animal-of-the-week at them and exploration of forests and caves before things get boring.

One solution I did was to take advantage of the fact that it's an alien planet, so I can get away with crazy, gonzo things for the players to explore. I found that I could write up a dungeon as a ruined keep, but then reflavor it as something natural. For example, the players found a massive mound-like structure with several tunnels throughout it, similar to a termite mound. It was essentially one big dungeon, but it was easy to explain as part of the alien wildlife. Same with having trees that grow rooms, or massive vines that excrete a sap that slows the players, or natural burrows of some trap-door predators. I've gotten pretty adept at making these encounters for the game, though I do have a hankering for adding some kind of alien ruins in the future. 

I'm curious how everyone else would do a game of just wildlife and wilderness adventures, with no dungeons, no ruins, and no sapient creatures and structures.

Solo Gaming Using Mythras Part 3: The Blood Money of Yahina

Here it is, the actual solo adventure where I teach myself how to play Mythras and how to do a solo game. It'll be complete with story, mechanics in italics, and my thoughts on how I did, what I liked, and what I'd change. If you want to know the set up, here are the first two parts here and here that detail the setup.

The Cast

Mucario: The main solo character, a Sulano fisherman with some fighting and casting skill
Ana: One of the pregen characters, she's a tan Okulek warrior trained in the spear and shield
Kara: Another pregen, she is the sister of Ana and a priestess of Amuzencab, goddess of medicine and community
Kju: The last pregen, he is a nomadic brave from the plains of the northern continent looking to make his fortune
Captain Abraham Spalding: The captain of the ship Kayaben, looking to break the Curse of 65 Coins

Act 1: Revelations and Superstitions

Day 13 of Alexan of Her Holiness's Course

We begin aboard the Kayaben, a large carrack cutting through the clear blue sea, sailing towards the island of Yahina. The island has a cursed past, where the village on it was raised to the ground years ago during the Great Island War. Most of the natives and colonists believe that the spirits of those murdered years ago haunt the land, hunting and devouring any that land on the shores. Most boats avoid the island at all costs, wishing not to anger the ghosts or be reminded of the terrible war.

I rolled a Locale on this and got a critical. Mucario has heard of the stories behind Yahina and is rightfully nervous, yet excited, about going to the island.

While Mucario and his compatriots were told of the destination by Captain Spalding, the rest of the crew were kept in the dark about it. Spalding finally reveals the destination of the Kayaben about three days out, and the crew are none too pleased. Whispers of cannibalism and angry spirits fill the decks until three sailors decide they have had enough and try to stage a mutiny.

The bodyguards are near Abraham when three sailors approach him with clubs. "We are turning this boat around, whether you like it or not cap'n," one of the wind beaten shiphands says.

Mucario tries his best to reason with the mutineers, but the older and exhausted sailors brush past the naive boy and attack the captain.

Mucario tried to roll Influence to dissuade the mutineers from fighting, but with only an 18%, he fails it spectacularly and is ignored for not knowing what he's talking about.

The first two sailors try to beat down on the captain, but only one is able to land a solid hit on Spalding's right arm. Mucario, frustrated with being ignored, loses his temper and strikes at one of the soldiers. His spear lands true and slices the shiphands's ear clean off. The pain is unyielding and the blood gushes from the wound as the sailor cries out.

"Back away from Abraham, or it'll be your other ear next!" Mucario shouts, hoping the sailor finally takes him seriously. The man balls up, clutching his severed ear, and yields to the adolescent.

Mucario got a lucky critical against a failed parry. Mucario went for Scar Foe and Compel Surrender, and did enough damage against the head to bring it to a Serious Wound. The sailor can't attack for 3 rounds and further more, he failed his Willpower Roll and now capitulates against the teen warrior.

Kju joins in the fight, firing an arrow at another sailor, but his bolt flies passed the man's shoulder and into the mast. 

"Dammit!", the proud brave mutters under his breath. He can't let the younger fisherman outshine him.

The remaining two sailors become furious at the maiming of their friend, and realizing the youth meant business. turn their attention to Mucario, They try to get past the range of the spear and within reach of Mucario, but are unable to keep up with Mucario.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to hit me!" Mucario taunts the men

The two sailors flat out fail their Close Range action and Mucario doesn't spend an Action Point to press the advantage.

Ana moves up to one of the sailors and prepares to strike. Mucario finds a great energy from the adrenaline rush and presses his luck, attacking the next sailor. His spear lands on the chest of the second sailor, but the blow was softened enough that it only bruised the hardened sailor.

"You don't know what you are doing, kid!" The sailor shouts at the fisherboy. "This island will kill us all if we land there! No amount of money is worth that!"

Mucario landed another spear blow, but this time the sailor was able to succeed in blocking it. He parries it for half damage, then his armor brings the damage down from 4 to 1.

With the melee slowing becoming a bloodbath, Captain Spalding tries to talk some sense into his crew.

"You may or may not lose your lives on the island lads, but you will surely lose it here if you keep fighting. Lay your arms down and you will be spared a mutineer's death!"

Seeing no other course of action, the sailors drop their clubs and capitulate, not wanting to be keelhauled.

"Old man, you know nothing of the old ways," one of the sailors shouts as he is being shackled by Ana and Mucario. "Your greed will be the death of us all, mark my words!"

"I know of the cruelty and terror of your old ways... more than you'll ever know," Abraham's mind wanders for a brief moment before he shouts at the rest of the crew. "Take these traitors down below and keep them there until we leave Yahina. Anyone else that has a problem with this can join them in the brig!"

After dealing with the three traitors, Captain Spalding turns to Mucario.

"I'm grateful I didn't make a poor decision in hiring you," the captain chuckles a bit. "You're not half bad with the spear, though I hope to see it done to the ghosts on Yahina next time..."

"I hope we don't end up running into any of the dark spirits there," Mucario says with a nervous laugh. "Why are we going to Yahina? There hasn't been anything there in decades."

Captain Spalding's demeanor becomes more serious, "It is not the shield's place to ask why, but to protect. I am grateful for your service, but you need to remember your place in this world, boy." Abraham storms off, leaving behind a bewildered Mucario.

End of Act 1

My thoughts

This was my first combat in Mythras, despite running M Space. A bit more complicated since I am using melee weapons with Size and Reach, rather than ranged weapons that don't really need to worry about such things. It took me a bit to get through this first combat, though I'm happy to say that it gets faster as the adventure continues. At least until I get to magic.

Writing these are turning out to be another hard task all together. Between my inability to focus and people interrupting me at every chance, it definitely took me longer to get this written up than I had hoped. Ended up having to break it up into different acts, so I'll be sure to post more of this in the coming weekend.

Solo Gaming Using Mythras Part 1: The Adventure and Setting

So for awhile now, I've been doing practice games with solo gaming to help grok it better. It's been an unusual experience, especially with my inability to sit down for more than an hour to do anything. But, I feel like I've finally got the hang of pulling double duty as PC/GM while also using a good oracle. I've been using Tiny Solitary Soldier's simple oracle, with the caveat that for good/bad chances of a question, I change the probability of Yes or No. So if there is a good chance of something happening, then rolling a 1d6 will yield a Yes on 1-4, while the reverse is true for a bad chance of something happening. Adds a bit more nuance and variety to rolls I feel.

The System

After playing all kinds of game systems out there from FATE and Dungeon World to Savage Worlds and D&D/Pathfinder, I've come to settle down on Mythras. While it is certainly a more complex ruleset than much of the OSR games I've been reading in the last year or so, I've found the rules to be fairly intuitive and easy to understand, as well as fairly deep. And truthfully, I've always leaned to skill-based classless systems the likes of HERO and GURPS. I'd probably still be playing HERO if they hadn't locked me out of the pdfs I bought years ago.

So I will be using Mythras in my campaign setting of Anacaona, one that has seen at least three rules shifts since I started it years ago with Pathfinder, then Savage Worlds, then ACKS, and now Mythras. 

The Setting

I'm not sure I've ever gone over my home setting, but here it is in a nutshell. The setting takes place in a high fantasy world much like the Americas. Folklore and traditions from the different tribes and civilizations of the New World (both Pre and Post Columbian) as well as stories I grew up with as a child are used as inspiration with my own ideas and twists. There are two continents, Thivola to the south and Kivira to the north. In between is a giant chain of islands like Indonesia called Anacaona. This place has a lot of themes from Caribbean natives, as well as inspiration from things like Pirates of the Caribbean, Treasure Island, Age of Sail Caribbean tales, and even some modern day Caribbean folklore and trends.

The islands host a variety of peoples. There are the native civilizations of several island-states that are in a constant cold war among themselves and the new groups of colonists, who themselves fight among each other. The setting begins five years after a terrible series of endemic wars between the natives and colonists that ended with a terrible plague wiping out a great deal of everyone on both sides. Now people have to live in a tense peace, all the while magical zones of arcane energies are popping up.

It is a highly magical place, but not in the sense of something like Warcraft where everyone seems to have world shattering magic. Rather, magic is a part of the world. There are spirits everywhere and demons that roam the islands looking for souls to harvest. Entering a cave can lead you into the underworld, another plane of existence, or even to a completely different time. Besides the magic, you also have to deal with the people. Distrusting natives, paranoid colonists, slave trade, piracy, disease, famine, and the remnants of the great war, and you have a setting rife with conflict.

The Adventure

With all that, I will be running a modified version of Sariniya's Curse, available at the website of The Design Mechanism for free. Only setting stuff is changed, but the main adventure conceit remains.

"Venture-Captain Abraham Spalding is an aging merchant that has spent the last forty years of his life creating a prosperous trade company in the Anacaona Sea. He is a rich man whose name is known throughout the wharves of the islands, and he is able to ply coin from the normally insular native Sulano and Okulek peoples. However, his family houses a dark secret. His father was a Devian soldier and a terrible man, looking to make his fortune in the tropical paradise of Anacaona. Searching for the famed Cities of the Gods, he instead found a smaller village of Sulano with a chest of 65 precious gold coins. Seeing opportunity, the man razed the village, killed the village spirit leader, and took all of the coins and women for himself. In the shaman's dying breath, however, he cursed the man and his kin to die a terrible and gruesome death at the age of 65, one year for each coin stolen. Abraham himself took no heed of this curse, until his father was dismembered by sharks. And then his uncle died painfully from chikungunya. And his mother was found partially eaten alive from a band of ghouls. With his 65th birthday approaching in mere months, Abraham has spent years collecting all 65 coins and has hired the PCs to protect him while he goes to the island of his father's sin to make things right. But what awaits the PCs there may be more than they bargained for..."

That's the basic gist of it. I will be playing with three of the pregenerated characters as well as one that I have made myself. I'll post that for tomorrow. Until then!

Sci Fi Game Starting Sunday

So for the last couple of months, I've been building a sci fi game that I have been wanting to run eventually. I was waffling around with different gaming systems and have finally settled on what I want to use. I recently picked up M-Space, which looks to be a really cool system for doing some science fiction gaming. So this Sunday, I will be running my first M-Space game with my girlfriend and some mutual friends. Should be interesting.

The Game

So for this, the game is going to start fairly simply. The players are all crew members aboard a bulk freighter that runs cargo between Earth and its colonies on Mars, Luna, Venus, Ceres & Vesta, and the various orbital habitats. There is a cold war brewing that is pushing everything to the brink. The Earth is still a fragmented group of nations that all are trying desperately to hold onto their colonial outposts, while the colonies are trying to wring free from their distant masters. Things are getting heated and the players will get drawn into a terrible and dangerous conspiracy.

The Players

So far, I have my girlfriend playing a fist fighting space engineer, one friend playing the pilot, and a third friend who hasn't quite decided yet. I made a character just to get a good feel for the system. He's an ex Army combat medic that now is the crew's doctor/body guard. 

M-Space looks like a lot of fun. Took a little reading to grok it, but I think it's a fairly intuitive system so far. We're doing the simplified combat for now, though I'm sure once we are used to the system, we can graduate to the more advanced stuff.

I'm curious to see what other's opinions and experiences with M-Space and Mythras have been. Especially when it comes to designing encounters for players, since this will be my first ever d100 GMing experience.

Ability Score Generation: Part 2 in a Series About Dominoes

Using dominoes for ability score generation works a lot like the previous rules. For this, since you are emulating 3d6, you can either use two sets of double 9s or just one set. If you use one set of double 9s, a friendly warning. It does have a different probability spread than classic 3d6. The probability percentages are below, using the value of 55 dominoes for a set of double 9s.

Value	Probability Fraction	Prob. %
0	1/55	1.8%
1	1/55	1.8%
2	2/55	3.6%
3	2/55	3.6%
4	3/55	5.4%
5	3/55	5.4%
6	4/55	7.2%
7	4/55	7.2%
8	5/55	9.0%
9	5/55	9.0%
10	5/55	9.0%
11	4/55	7.2%
12	4/55	7.2%
13	3/55	5.4%
14	3/55	5.4%
15	2/55	3.6%
16	2/55	3.6%
17	1/55	1.8%
18	1/55	1.8%

As you see, the average runs to about 8-10, or 9. This could mean that values will end up a bit lower than what you would find on simply rolling 3d6. With this method, the bell curve is shallower. So while the average stat dropped will be 1.5 lower than on 3d6, you have nearly 4x the chance of rolling an 18 (and conversely, a 1) than you do rolling 3d6. So keep this in mind. This method will produce average scores with a higher deviation to the extremes when using a single set of double 9s. Now remember that we'll have to remove the 0, 1, and 2 values to make the values right, so many of these percentages will increase. That means that in reality, we will be drawing from a boneyard of 51 dominoes. So drawing a 3 will actually be a 5.8% chance, compared to .46% on 3d6. That's a bit rough. So how do we balance out these probability issues?

Usage #2: Generating Ability Scores With 1 Set of Double 9s

For this method, put your double 9 set into a bag, removing the 0, 1, and 2 values. Mix everything up, then draw seven bones. Add the two numbers on each bone to reveal your stat. Write them down. 

Now, try and match up dominoes with like numbers. So if you draw a 4-3 and a 3-9, you can connect then via the 3. A bone can only connect to two other tiles (one for each number), unless it's a spinner, in which it can connect to four. Count how many tiles are connected. This is the value you can add to any of your stats. You can even split them between stats. If you can connect two groups of dominoes, then total the tiles and add them. Once you assign your number to your stats, drop the lowest and assign them how you desire.

Example: Mariah is making a Psychic for her Stars Without Number game. She draws seven bones, getting [4-3, 3-6, 5-7, 8-3, 4-2, 7-1, & 4-0], for values of [7, 9, 12, 11, 6, 8, 4]. Some rough scores. Mariah begins connecting the dominoes, able to connect the 2-4, 4-3, and 3-8 together as well as the 5-7 and 7-1 in a separate group. This gives a total of 5 tiles that are connected. Now she can split the 5 to any of her stats, or simply add it all to one. Mariah decides to add 4 to the 12 and 1 to the 11, then drops the 4. Her new stats are 7, 9, 16, 12, 6, and 8. A little better.

At the GM's option, a player can trade out a stat and draw a new one from the boneyard. Play can choose whichever one they want. This can help alleviate the more wonkiness of the stat distribution of double 9s.

So that's ability score generation for dominoes. While it's a bit more complicated than just rolling 3d6, there is a sort of fun moving around the dominoes and connecting them together. If you find fun in tactile stuff, this is definitely great. I find it takes the same amount of time as rolling 3d6. And, you can simply lay out all the values and write them down in one go, rather than rolling 3d6 six times and writing the values after each roll. Let me know what you think below. 

Using Dominoes in D&D: Part 1

I had this idea almost a year ago, but it went on the back burner because a) I couldn't think of anything and b) I couldn't find my set of dominoes. While unpacking more stuff from the move, I found my long lost set of double 9's. Seeing this, I got some idea on how to use it in RPGs.

Quick Terminology

Bones - Slang for dominoes

Boneyard - The area of dominoes you can draw from. Always face down

Spinner - slang for doubles. Dominoes with the same two numbers on them (i.e. 6-6, 3-3, 0-0)

Pip - The black dots on your dominoes, like on a set of casino d6s.

Double 6/9/12 - This categorizes the type of dominoes the set is, by its highest number. Double 6s has 6 as its highest suit, while double 9s has 9 has its highest number

Blank - the number zero. No pips on this side

Why Use Dominoes?

So right off the bat, we have to ask ourselves, why use dominoes? Now personally, I do like using alternate knick knacks in games. Playing cards are a big thing for me, which was one reason I loved Savage Worlds. It's something that is fun and a bit different from rolling some multisided dice. Of course, not everyone has a set of dominoes. This really wasn't a problem in South Florida, since a lot of the people I played D&D with also played dominoes on the side. But in other places, you'll have to go out of your way to get them. Luckily, you can get them at any Wal-Mart or Target, and most FLGS carry a simple set.

Since we are using dominoes, we need to play to their strengths. Big strength is positioning. In a game of dominoes, you set down dominoes with same numbers facing each other. Using that in a RPG can add an element of strategy and critical thinking that you don't see with using dice. So, here goes nothing.

Usage 1: Alternate Conflict Resolution Mechanic

Using a set of dominoes can replace die rolling if using a system that rolls 2d6s or even 3d6s. Doing 2d6s requires two sets of double 6's, the standard dominoes. Simple remove all of the dominoes with blanks as well as duplicates of doubles, then combine the two sets into a bag. This replicates the results of 2d6. Crit failures and hits would still be the same value. You can do the same thing with double 9s for 3d6. This ends up being the same cost as everyone buying their own set of polyhedral dice, but the cost is unfortunately front-loaded to one person. So it may not be the best usage of dominoes cost-wise. However, you'll never have to worry about dice rolling off the table again with dominoes.

Visual of dominoes for 2d6 - Courtesy of Geek & Sundry

Playing to the strengths of dominoes, let's add something for positioning and stacking dominoes on each other. Let's say that a player draws a bone and drops it down for their 'die roll' of 6-3. We can leave that out on the field. So if another player draws a bone and gets a 2-3, they can attach it to the previous bone dropped since both have 3's. A player that does this gets a Synergy Bonus to that roll. This means that they add the highest number from the connecting bone to their result. So in this case, since a 6-3 was dropped, they can add a 6 to their 2-3, getting a total value of 11, plus your stat bonus. Bones can only have two bones attached to them, one for each common number. The exception are spinners, which can have four bones attached to them. Dropping a spinner is a wild card, meaning any bone can attach to it and gain the synergy bonus, even if they don't match. Dropping a 1-1 bone is always a failure, and dropping a 6-6 is always a critical if the system you use has criticals in them.

If you really want to make this a bit more 'gamist', have the players draw four bones at the start of each session. Those are their die rolls they can use. They can then coordinate with each other, helping out poor rolls with good domino placement. A player can still draw from the pile once per roll if they aren't happy with their hand. This does run the risk of slowing down the game, and in addition, it can get a little 'metagamey' for some GM's tastes. But, I think it can also increase teamwork in an interesting and simple way. 

You can also have the dominoes Cascade as a limit for stacking Synergy. The more dominoes you have out connected with like numbers, the greater the chance a GM can use them against you. A GM can remove any number of adjacent bones out on the field to activate a complication to the scenario. Removing one adds a minor complication, 2 a moderate, 3 a major, and 4 a severe. I haven't decided what is considered for each complication. 

The GM could instead have an upper limit of dominoes that can be placed before the stakes are raised. Or, the GM could instead choose to use any of the bones placed down by the players as a die result for their monster. They shatter the chain of bones, use the result, and place that bone back in the boneyard. If doing leaves some bones orphaned from each other, place the greater amount of bones back in the boneyard. For example, if the GM uses a 6-5 bone and separates the chain into two groups, one with 2 bones and one with 3, put the group of 3 back into the boneyard. If the GM uses an end bone, then just take that and one adjacent bone and put it back into the boneyard. This can help recycle old results back through.

I like the idea of having events or actions that happen when certain bone results are revealed. Especially for spinners, since that is easy to keep track of. Again, this does make the game a little metagamey for some GMs, but I think it could add some cool fun and strategy for the game. I imagine the same process here can be used with a set of double 9s for d20 rolls, especially with the usage of Synergy Bonuses to make up for the lack of an actual '20' on them. I'd probably have natural 17 and 18 as the critical roll, and a natural 0 or 1 as a failure.

This is the first usage I have. I have some more, but I want to work on them a little longer before I post them. I think dominoes can really add a cool strategic element to the game when used. I'd love to give it a try one day.

Running a Game Finally

So for the first time since the move in early October, I'm going to be running a game for some friends online. While I did want my first game to be face to face, it's still nice to get to GM again. And there is still time open to run a game in real life.

So the game of choice is 5e. While I'd prefer to try and run ACKS, the players are more familiar with 5e. And right now, given their revolving door of GMs and failed games, I think they could use some familiarity to ease their fears that my game will tank after a couple weeks.

So the question now is... what to run?

I have a setting I've been using for a couple of years now. It's based on a fantasy styled Caribbean, inspired by much of the folklore and cultures therein. While I like it and will continue to run games there, I've decided to expand the setting more. Inspired by South America's cultures, folklore, and terrain, I want to do something set there. 

The terrain is a big thing for me, because I love exploration. And South America has a great amount of varied, extreme terrain. Huge mountains, large deserts with the largest salt flat, massive rainforests... it's really exciting.

I've also been reading a lot about the different folklores and peoples there, which has been really fun. Great inspiration. It's helped me decide what I want to do for the campaign.

Here are the two ideas I have for it:

1. War has ended, but the continent is in turmoil. Ka Macha, new leader of the great Rational Quencha Empire, has won the civil war and now owns the empire. However, he now has to succeed in holding and repairing the land that is shattered by famine, violence, and hate. The players are currently paid body guards for a nobleman who is being sent to a fort hamlet as an act of reclaiming and repairing it for the Quencha Empire. 

This sets the players on a set goal at the beginning, but then opens it up to the sandbox a little later. I prefer easing players into the sandbox because I find that those that aren't used to it do freeze up a bit. After the initial adventure, they can leave the noble's service and do their own thing. Since this is also on the frontier, there is plenty of open wilderness to explore, take over, and own for the players. But for those that aren't interested in wilderness, there is the town and its people that they can interact with. 

2. The great Quencha Empire has consolidated its holdings and now seeks to add other tribes and city states into their control. The players are scattered tribes and bands, each driven from their lands into the great and terrible rainforests. In this, the players unite the squabbling tribes into one great kingdom to oppose the mighty empire.

This is a sandbox game with a sort of goal oriented metaplot. While it is a bit more buy in, I feel it's open enough where the players can still do what they want if they decide to take a break from being rulers. Plus, from a personal perspective, it turns the Law = Good Guys Chaos = Bad Guys around some as now, the players are the barbarians and beastmen dealing with adventurers and would-be conquerors driving them from their livelihood.

I'm leaning more towards the first one, though I do like the second one a lot. Tell me what you guys think. Also, for anyone that knows more about South American history, culture, and folklore, I'd love to know more about it for more inspiration. 

First Map in Years

It's been a good couple of years since I've done any kind of D&D mapping on the computer. With the move into a bigger home, I am able to carve out my own little space for work on art, D&D, and writing. With that, here is my first map in three years. I present The Ruined Keep. The concept and layout was done with my random dungeon dice generator, then I simply embellished and drew it out.

A link to the full sized version is here. Looking for any and all critiques from viewers. I hope to get back into drawing again.

Exploring and the Untamed Wilderness

Wilderness exploration is very popular in OSR games. I absolutely love it. It allows for different, unrestricted adventures that you sometimes can't do in more urban adventures thanks to that pesky law enforcement and social customs. There is also a great feeling when you discover something hidden away that no one else has found. Exploration is great fun, but we can definitely improve on it. 

Yosemite Valley

A Populated Wilderness

I briefly touched upon this in my alignment blog post, but I think it bears repeating here. I'm not really a fan of always evil creatures. I think it limits options that players can take when encountering these creatures. I like the idea of players parleying with goblins and trolls, but many times, that option gets tossed aside in favor of razing and looting because they are evil. It's why I ditched the classical alignment and I ditched XP for only combat.

Serengeti

In addition, I think sometimes as GMs, we may focus more on dangers too much. Everything wants to kill, exploit, or betray the PCs and destroy what they've accomplished, so there's really no reason to stay attached to one area or trust NPCs. A lot of times it's because conflict brings adventure, and it adds to the gritty atmosphere of a dangerous world. But we often forget that even in dark times, there are still good people that wish to help out those in need. And when things are rough, you can see people come together and heroism shine through. I think that's why it's important to have allies and friendly NPCs to contrast the bleakness of the setting.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park

How does this tie into exploration? Well, in the real world, the untamed wilderness wasn't as untamed as we like to think. In North America, for example, there was hamlets scattered across the wilds and signs of a human touch everywhere. When Lewis and Clark made their rounds to explore the newly acquired land, they encountered many of these bands of travelers and villagers that would help them in their quest. Across the pond, we can look at Germany during the Roman era on, which had several tribes and homesteads amidst the wide expanse of forest. So no matter where you go, there will eventually be a group of people you can encounter.

Cenote in Valladolid

So, what does this mean? Well, one negative to exploration games in the wilderness is the lack of NPCs that you can encounter. Generally, you find some cool landmarks, survive the elements, and kill some monsters. And if you find a sentient creature, it's generally an orc or goblin lair that gets razed and looted. So, having an encounter of a homestead or a small camp would open up the chance for the social scenarios that you would expect in a more urban campaign. Maybe you befriend a tribe of drow with gifts, or take a test of manhood with a clan of orc raiders. They can help guide you around the land, telling of rumors and landmarks in the area.

Mongolian Steppe

And speaking of landmarks, special areas of interest can be great encounters for players exploring the wilderness. Discovering a large cenote with hidden treasure in it, or an ancient monument with hidden power, or anything else can be a great break from the combat slog as long as it is interesting. A beautiful cliffside could house a magic item, or some treasure, or it could be a cool spot for a player wanting to make a castle. I like to look up landscapes of places on Earth to get some creative ideas of what the players can get to. Getting some focus on the awe inspiring parts of nature can be a great contrast to the constant threat of surviving Mother Nature.

Mount Cook, NZ

Beyond meeting mortals and landmarks, there is also magic and spirits that the players can encounter. Spirits of nature can be a bane or boon to the player, depending how they act. Elder animals that have lived for decades and become spirit creatures can provide great scenarios for adventurers. Faeries, elementals, talking animals that have long been extinct, dinosaurs... it's a magic world, so go crazy with it! It's why I have my Wild Primeval mechanic in my hex games for. Inject some crazy into the world and see how the players like it.

The Matterhorn

Basically, there's more to exploring than just a hex map with a wandering monster table. Don't get me wrong, killing monsters is always fun, and as a player, I love overcoming tough challenges out in the world of D&D. But I think as GMs, we can get creative and think about more than what can we can throw to kill our players. Sometimes a cool adventure is as simple as discovering what's in the next hex. Also, enjoy some more pictures of landscapes and landmarks.

The Painted Desert

Great Blue Hole, Belize

Old Man of the Mountain, 2003

Stealth

Stealth is weird. Sneaking around has always been an odd point of contention at the tables I've played at. Perhaps it's my experience, but many of the GMs I've played with seem to not enjoy the idea of players sneaking through their entire enemy base and stealth killing the prepared final boss. Now, I do love me the epic final boss fight as much as the next guy. But, it is pretty lame when you and your fellow players go through all the planning, actually execute the stealth procedure, and as you get to the final boss, the GM simply squashes the stealth in a metagamey way. It removes the idea of choice and consequences if all of options have the same outcome.

Once thing about stealth that I don't like is the binary nature of success and failure people seem to have with it. If you (or chances are, your heavy armored fighter) fail your stealth, then that's it. Suddenly, everyone in the area is alerted to your presence and it's time to draw swords. When failure is that binary, there is a tendency to simply skip it and just go in swords blazing. Especially when the players probably have the damage and spells to just bust in and slaughter everyone.

Finally, even if players properly execute the stealth mission, if it's not run the right way, stealth can be super boring with an unsatisfying end to it. Stealth kills are great and all, but admittedly, it can be a bit anticlimactic to slit the level 10 Warlord's throat in one go without the fanfare and hooplah of a final fight. And stealth kills are also a bit hard to wrap one's head around, especially with the game concept of hit points. Should a level 1 fighter be able to one hit kill a level 10 fighter if the latter is completely unaware? Is that a problem, or is that fine?

How I Approach This

So, before I get into the rules, I want to get into the mindset of stealth and espionage. I feel that with sneaking, the journey is more important than the destination. So if you have a precious boss fight you want to throw at your players, just get rid of any attachment to it, because they will die. Really, it's a good idea not to be so attached to your NPCs in the first place, stealth or not. So let them slit the wizard's throat if they succeed and never get caught. And if they fuck up hard, then you have a great climactic battle ahead of you. 

Instead, focus a bit more on the stealth aspect. Have a lot of close calls and snags that the players run into. That makes the sneaking action much more interesting than just dodging guards effortlessly. Have them balance over some bandits eating their meal, or their disguise being put to the test by a crowd of soldiers. The tension and near misses are the most interesting parts. You wouldn't have a dungeon with nothing in the rooms. That'd be boring. Get creative.

Also, we should take a page out of different movies and video games and not have stealth be so binary. If a person fails their sneaking roll by a slim margin, I say have the guard hear something suspicious and walk towards the source of the nose. It opens up some more options that the player can try and attempt to use to diffuse the situation. Does the player kill the guard, or move to a different spot, or stand perfectly still? Makes things a bit more interesting and it helps to extend out the stealth sequence and make it a worthwhile method to the players. I also find that in more lethal and visceral games like LotFP and ACKS, players are more incentived to go quiet for fear of dying.

Speaking of lethal, how do we handle stealth kills in a game with ever increasing HP? For me, I think I'm okay with the players being able to do take downs, but there are things to consider when killing a guard. First is the sound a dead person makes, whether it's the scream or the body hitting the floor. Someone may hear that if the killer doesn't act quietly while he murders someone. Second is what to do with the dead body? If you don't dispose of it, then you run the risk of someone discovering the dead body and alerting their friends. So as a player, you have to decide if killing the guard is worth the trouble.

Of course, if the players get discovered, then the stealth plan may go out the window. Realistically, it doesn't have to. Consider the Metal Gear Solid games. It starts with Infiltration Mode, where you are sneaking around and not getting caught. When you are caught by a guard, you get into Alert Mode. As long as they can see you, they will attack you. Once you stay out of line of sight for a time, they get into Evasive Mode. They still know you are around and are actively search for you in the more obvious spots. After some time, the game will go into Caution Mode. They have lost sight of you and everything is like Infiltration Mode, except now they are much more active and aware. They will act smarter, keep a keen eye out, and travel in pairs or groups. So, when I was making these rules, I decided to use that for my game. I believe that it can be used to great effect to give stealth different layers of failure and success, and it helps the players find an alternate way of sneaking to continue or escape.

I do have a set of rules I've used a couple of times to good effect for sneaking around. It seemed to make things better while still remaining simple. Once I'm able to post them up, I'll get them in. I can probably do it tomorrow, or even tonight. How have you all run stealth situations and what has helped you in running them?

Lunar Cycles and Tides

The moon and the tides have helped to shape human civilization for millenia. From maritime activities to the simple wonder of the bright celestial body in the night sky, we owe a lot to these natural phenomena. So, I want to write up some simple ideas for using them in a campaign. Let's begin with the moon. Mind you, this only really works if you have one moon, but I imagine you can use the concepts presented here for multiple moons (or ditch them entirely).

Moon Cycles

The moon of Earth is a tidally locked satellite that orbits our planet every 27.8 days. We'll simplify this to just 28 days because I hate decimals. Because it is tidally locked, we always see the same face of the moon most nights. For game terms, we'll have only the important four lunar cycles; new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter. Every seven days you'll have a different section of the lunar cycle in the night sky and they will loop back into each other endlessly every 28 days. You'll also notice the in-between sections for crescent and gibbous moons. An easy way to remember gibbous is that it's inverted, like a black crescent moon. When the moon is becoming full, then it is waxing, and when it is becoming new, it is waning.

Source: Wikipedia

Tides

As we now know, the tides are controlled by the moon. Depending on the location of the moon will decide whether we have high or low tide. In game terms, the tides come in and out twice a day. So you'll have two high tides and two low tides. We can have these happen at 6 hour intervals of your choosing. For a bit more realistic tides, you can have the next day's tide times happen about 40 minutes later than the previous day's, but it's not necessary. 

When the tide is coming in, we call that the flow tide. When it reaches it's maximum, that is high tide. You'll see a lot of flooded beaches during this. When the water begins to recede, that is the ebbing tide. When this reaches its lowest point, that is low tide. You will see a lot more of the sand and ocean floor revealed to you. When the tides cease to move, usually at the peak of high and low tide, or when the flow and ebb has stopped, that is slack tide. The different between low and high tide can be one of a couple of feet in depth and several feet in distance from the coast to the ocean.

Tides in the UK on the same day

But that's not all. The phase of the moon can make tides weaker or stronger than normal. The stronger tide is called the spring tide and the weaker tide is called the neap tide. The diagram below shows when this happens. Like the lunar phases, it happens every seven days and alternates between spring tide and neap tide. Generally, it'll lag a little behind the phase of the moon by one or two days. For this exercise, we'll say one day. 

Now What?

So now that we know all this, how do we use this? The tides and their link to the lunar phases have been known as far back as ancient Greece. And they have had a great impact on coastal civilizations for centuries. So some ideas for applying it to game terms.

• Great for nautical games that highly depend on the wind and tides to leave and enter bays.
• Low tide can uncover a secret burial area by the coast.
• High tide hides a secret cavern that leads to treasure. When it's low tide, you can enter it, but traversing it is difficult. High tide, you can easily swim to the different chambers, but it'll be hard to bring stuff out. Not to mention what creatures the tide brings in.
• Low tide reveals a land bridge that leads to a set of ruins, or even an island city that is accessible by bridges.
• High tide can empower water and healing magic, while low tide might stymie it, or instead it empowers earth magic.
• Divination using the tides and what they reveal can be used by scryers and seers.
• Different lunar phases can illuminate the night sky, if only up to dim.
• The different phases can empower different types of magic. Full moon could empower healing and holy magic while the new moon powers summoning and divination magic.
• Lycanthropy is the obvious pointer. You can even say that a ritual during the new moon can help to cure it. Or a ritual under the full moon can make the shift controllable.
• Different deities and protectors of the tides and phases can exist and praying to them at that time can elicit boons.
• Different phases of the moon shining on a dungeon can open different portals that lead to other areas.
• Connections between our world and the spirit world are strongest under a full moon, while the new moon brings in demons and monsters into our world.
• Full moons seem to bring out the worst in people as well as animals. Monsters and creatures become more wild and some people can suffer from lunacy.
• A blue moon (the rare fourth moon in a season) can be the perfect time for a terrible ritual to summon demonic creatures or gather great power. You could even get a wish granted.
• Or the moon could hide a terrible moon presence (spoilers for Bloodborne).

Grand Be during low tide at St. Malo, France

These are what I could come up with. I'd love to see what other ideas people have for using the tides and the lunar phases in their games. Truthfully, before I became a chef, I was into meteorology and I've always had a love of the cycles of nature. So admittedly this is a bit of a self indulgence of that for me, but hopefully this will be useful for those that run great nature campaigns.