NTRPG 2012 is Over

Survived another four day long North Texas RPG Convention!

Have 3-4 posts worth of stuff which I'll post over next couple weeks.  This is just short summary of what you missed by not going ;)

Each year (I've gone three times now) NTRPG Convention has grown both in size and goodness.  About 2-300 people this year I guess.  Smaller con, with a tremendous guest list who not only show up but run and play games.  This year I played with Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, James Ward, Tim Kask, Steve Winter, Frank Mentzer.  That's a significant portion of the graduating class of old school.

In addition to games and rubbing elbows with early progenitors.  There's artist and designer panels, bunch of raffles, interesting vendor tables, art displays, auction, Three Castles Award, collectors, and a bunch of current "OSR" game authors, publishers, artists and enthusiasts.

Thursday

After leisurely drive up from Austin, checked in, and browsed the vendor tables.  Sadly DM for Urutsk Worlds of Mystery was unable to attend.  But, I got in on Jimm Johnson's Skull Mountain game.  

Friday

Tavis Allison ran Adventurer Conqueror King System which I've been wanting to check out.  Sadly, I made mistake of registering for first session (Adventurer) and not a latter Conqueror or King session.  Which may have been for the better as I sort of got charmed and helped the dragon to capture the party and totally derail the "plot". ;)

Artist Panel Diesel LaForce, Jennell Jaquays, Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Jason Braun.  While fielding questions from audience each artist drew a different monster from those submitted to the "get your monster drawn by artist" contest.

That evening I survived Tim Kask's OD&D game.

Saturday

Star Frontiers was the 2nd RPG I owned as a wee teenager.  I finally got to play it, a Vrusk technician under Steve Winter's gamemastering. But, that's not only game I played, convention organizers had a surprise.  More later.

Raffle in which I won Dragon Magazine #1 and #2.

Stars Without Number by Kevin Crawford won the Three Castles Award.

DCC RPG DM'ed by Michael Curtis.  Review forthcoming.

Sunday 

Continued Father John's adventuring in Mythrus Tower.  (This campaign runs every con, every session).  John got some gold and some xp, but importantly survived unlike several adventures who were permanently lost on the 5th level.

One Week Till Free RPG Day

Free RPG Day, yay!  Saturday June 16th.


Free RPG Events at Dragon's Lair, one of several Austin area FLGS.

NTRPG Live Streaming

Old School style don't mean not using new-fangled technologicals.
Cross posted [slight editing of links and formatting]

David Rhea will be doing all video for the con this year. This includes video streaming. Assuming we have fast enough internet we will be streaming events this year. Please check out the NTRPGCON channel at www.ustream.tv/channel/ntrpgcon Here is the current schedule. We may stream random games as well but these are the main "events" so to speak.

Thursday

2PM - 5PM : Charity Game
5PM - ??? : Chainmail Game

Friday

8AM - 11AM: Circvs Maximvs
1PM - 5PM : Q&A Panels
7PM - ??? : Mythus Tower(Tournament)

Saturday

9AM - 10AM: Expect the Unexpected
10AM - 2PM: Circvs Maximvs - CHAMPIONSHIP
2PM - 3PM : Expect the Unexpected
3PM - 4PM : Artist Panel
4PM - 5PM : Raffle/Auction

Game Mechanics Have Little Worth

[Edit,


Want to make clear I'm saying this from perspective of me and my blog / posts.  Not in broader context of everyone else.  Specifically did not intend and apologize if it's taken as an "insult" or "bitch" to/over/about anyone else or their ideas/posting/games/etc. 


I wavered publishing this post, as it is very introspective.  Probably should have stuck with original title "A Confession".]

DCC RPG has got me thinking about game mechanics and house rules again.  Which, in the grand scheme, is very pointless*.

I've claimed that I can run a RPG with nothing more than a source of randomness (a die) and method of persistance (pen and paper)**.  It's a bit of a fib as "nothing" includes 30 or so years of playing all sorts of games, studying history/psychology/game theory/story structure/etc/etc.  Still, it's not a boast.  Anyone could do it.  It mostly requires accepting that rules are a largely ignorable detail.

Content is what matters.  In RPG terms content is a bunch of stuff.; story, pacing, challenge, surprise, DM skill.  In short and bit non-answerish; The ability to make playing a game fun.

RPG mechanics.  Some will have advantages for playing agnsty, interpersonal relationships of vampires.  Others for hacking one's way through a mythic dungeon.  Others for simulating life in medieval England.

But, poor content is probably gonna make a poor game no matter the mechanics.

I should be posting about content like many of great authors in blog roll to the right.  

But, I can't stop houseruling. It's what I am. Professionally (software dev) and personal (game hobbies, my philosophy/religion), are all about analyzing a tangle of requirements / constraints and working out optimal method(s) of achieving the desired end result(s).  And, writing out ideas in blog posts is excellent rubber ducking.  I also have gamer ADD.

* It's not pointless in that I derive much enjoyment endlessly twiddling things in endless and unachievable quest for the "perfect" mechanic.  It is pointless in that it's endless and unachievable and already done to death.

** That sounds like a cool convention event.  RPG Improv!

Recovering from Injury

I've been using the following hit point recovery rules in my afterwork Gold and Glory campaign.  It is abstract and makes no claims to realism.  It is amalgamation of and inspired by EPT, Carcosa, OD&D and many blog posts.

First, Death and Dismemberment.  There are two types of damage; hitpoints and injuries (from DD table, broken bones, missing limbs, and the like).

Injuries include a largish penalty to Constitution (Con < 3 means coma).  They take a longish time (days, weeks) to heal.  [End of every day character rolls to recover point of Con. All healed up when original Con is reached.] Constitution modifies rolls on DD table.  So, adventuring while injured increases risk of death or (more) serious bodily injury.

At the start of each session all characters roll their hit dice (adjusted by current Constitution).  This total replaces their current hitpoints only if it is greater.   Represents recovery of stamina, luck, healing of minor scrapes, etc.  And is the character's max hitpoints until they reroll hit dice (at start of next session).  Healing, magical or otherwise, can not recover more hitpoints than this total.

There are non-magical ways to recover hitpoints during session. E.g. swigs of whiskey, post combat recovery.  Magic is mostly used to prevent bleeding to death or healing "real" injuries from DD table.  Healing is always based on hit dice of healee.  E.g. swig of whiskey heals 2 dice.  That would be 2d10 warrior and 2d4 for wizard.

Resting heals injuries (and linked Constitution penalty), not hitpoints.


The sessions I've used this are short, two hours.  It might not be as keen with longer sessions.  Maybe need to have a midpoint where hit dice are rolled again.

Blogroll Additions

Blogger fixed the "I can't fracking add to my blog roll" issue.  So, I've been busy...


Link and why

http://exonauts.blogspot.com/  Need more spacey awesomness in my life.

http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/  Duh, dinosaurs.

http://www.awesomedice.com/blog/ History of Dice and Balthazar but mostly the S.I. (unexpected).

http://unto-the-breach.blogspot.com/ Have a weakness for alphabets.

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com/  Recommended by Henchman Abuse with promises of random tables.

http://apolitical.info/teleleli/ Short posts, full of awesome.

http://monstermanualsewnfrompants.blogspot.com/ Pants.

http://www.rolang.com/ Tables.

http://worldofalshain.blogspot.com/ Despite the horrid to read yellow on red, pics of monsters who want to eat me.

http://theyaqqothlgrimoire.blogspot.com/  This quote "I'm not saying new-wave rpgs are shit: I'm saying any new-waved mod of D&D would be shit. Remember 2e? That was shit. A shitload of fucking shit."

http://dangerousbrian.blogspot.com/ Awesome English civil war fantasy setting.

364 days

A year, I could waste a lot of zombies in a year.

One Week Till NTRPGCON!

Four days of awesomness.

Gonna try to sneak in some DCC RPG pickup game. Registered for Star Frontiers, OD&Dx2, Urutsk (finally), and of course some S&W Mythrus Tower!  Seeing friends old and new. Spending way too much money.  It's gonna be a blast!

DCC RPG Opinions Part 3 (Holy Edition)

Clerics

The cleric and patron systems (including wizard bits) are probably my favorite parts of DCC RPG.  The appreciation is no doubt enhanced by my "not completely satisfied with" attempts at creating divine magic / class that is stylistically and mechanically different than arcane magic, is thematically driven by faith / granted divine power, doesn't pigeon hole clerics as walking med kits, and is not dramatically "alien" to D&D. DCC RPG Clerics are very close to this ideal.

First, from the Law / Neut / Chaos alignment system much excellence flows.

Second, DCC RPG Clerics are squarely in the militant servants of Gee-Oh-Dee camp.

"you will persuade, convert, or destroy ... You adventure to find gold or holy relics, destroy abominations and enemies, and convert heathens to the truth. ... wields the weapons of his faith: physical, spiritual, and magical."

I always wondered wtf Paladin?  Clerics are clearly holy warriors, don't need none other, jump back on your fancypants warhorse and go be chivalrous elsewhere.  Paladins led to the wussification of Clerics into "priests".  Priests are the pansy boys and girls blathering sermons in the temple, burning incense and similar namby-pambyness. Clerics bring the holy whoop-ass unto non-believers.  Who, conveniently, may be found clustered together in dungeons.

Decent to-hit progression, crit tables.  Any armor, unclear if this includes shield but I say, yes.  Clerics use the weapons of their god.  Standard stuff.  Blunty things for Law. Sword (others, but everyone will use sword cause it does most damage) and sling for Neutral.  Axes, bows, dart (feeling some poison up in here), and flail.  Deity specific weapon choice is obvious and easy house rule.

Thanks for visiting the Temple of Set, here's a complementary black widow.

Divine Magic

Limited number of spells known... I can find no mention of how these are determined.  I assume randomly same as Wizard's spells.

At it's core DCC RPG Cleric magic is a "fatigue" system.  There's no hard limit (spell slots) to what you can cast.  Rather, the more you cast the harder and/or riskier it becomes.  Systems, like this, that let you "push your luck" lead to the awesome moments people talk about forever.

Spell check; d20 + Stat mod + Cleric level, look roll up on spell chart.  Each spell has it's own chart.  A spell check > (10 + 2x spell level) results in increasing levels of effectiveness, otherwise fail (god too busy to be bothered by your prayers).  Natural '1' is divine disapproval.   Each failure increases range of disapproval by one.  Disapproval means roll on table (of course). The more you fail by the greater the divine discontent.  Sacrifices may be made to reduce disapproval range.  It resets to one each morning.

Dig that very damn much.  Clerics don't generally lose spells when cast.  Way more spells per day than I'm use to, I'm fine with that.  And, as you will see everything "divine" cleric does is keyed off this same disapproval increase for failure, keep pushing your luck mechanic.

It's not explicitly mentioned (that I could find) that Clerics can use Ritualized Magic, multiple casters increasing power (spell check modifier), but they damn well should.

Turn Unholy

Each alignment turns different types of creatures, they way turning should work and how I house rule it.  Turning checks work off same disapproval system as spells.  Turn all you want pious punk, only risking perturbing your patron.

My god will bitch slap you into next week unholy abomination!

Lay on Hands

Healing is not a spell. [this is huge]  Healing works off same disapproval system as spells. Number of "dice" healed based on success of check.  The dice used are same size as target's hit dice, i.e. fighters are shafted for being meat buckets (I house rule this way already).  All other healing effects (disease, poison, broken limbs, etc) are worked in as needed a minimum number of dice to heal.

Flippin elegant. 

One reason Clerics suck to play is that unless all your spells are cure this or that your party bitches.  And spells is what makes Clerics more than just "weak fighters".  Healing not a spell wipes that away.  Now you can be a walking med-kit and wielder of holy vengeance. 

Divine Aid

Is like a scaled wish, that you have to pay back.  Cleric can ask for anything via direct intervention of their deity.  DM ad hocs a DC.  Deity requests a favor in return, table provided. Go raid my rival's temple. Sacrifice me some loot.  That sort of thing.  It is to be used rarely, imparting a +10 to disapproval range.

Sinful use of Divine Power

It's clearly stated and reinforced by flavor and mechanics that the magic a Cleric wields is not his own.  Clerics are conduits for their god's will. The magic granted to them is a privilege, that will be revoked if used without thought to it's grantor's desires.

We all know this is how divine magic should work, it's rarely enforced.  DCC RPG provides a nice, scaled "punishment matches transgression" hammer for DM to beat players with.  And, interestingly it seems, would allow players to make calculated, tactical abuse of divine gifts.  Count me as a HUGE fan of player choice.  Really, a RPG session is nothing more than a series of player choices.  And with choice there can be failure and only with chance of failure does success taste so sweet.

DCC RPG Opinions part 2 (Hater Edition)

I do like many things in DCC RPG.  But, this post isn't about them.

No Index

Really?  Am I missing it?  The back of the book is filled with stuff (full page art, advertisements, appx, two! sample adventures.  No index blows.

Equipment

Trade goods, awesome idea.  Not listing trade goods in equipment section, annoying, but understandable given their link to occupation and character creation.  Not listing some equivalent unit of value for trade goods, fail.  Does every DM really have to make judgement on how many trowels a sack of nightsoil is worth?  And in general (although it's hard to be sure without a flippin index) the trade goods / we're all medieval peasants is talked about various places.  But, little support is provided, e.g. one, just one treasure table of trade goods.  I suppose the excuse is that's been handled elsewhere.  Still, it seems a fundamental block of "a style of play" / appx N that book is pushing.  And 90% of DMs will just fall back to coinage cause book didn't make trade goods as easy.  Which is a shame.

No one will ever use a flail.  Cause it does 1d6. This is sad, cause flails are awesome. DCC RPG does better than most systems with varying damage. In that most 2-hand do d10 and most 1-hand do d8.  So close, why not just go all the way?  Also, not convinced +1pt of damage is worth not using shield.  either d6 1hand, or d12 2hand, or both.

Bows and Crossbows do pathetically low d6.  Missile weapons should be deadly.  Unless, you're wanting to discourage their use and encourage mixing it up face to face. Which, I rather like. Whoops this was suppose to be whining only post.

Failing to include "chicken" under mounts is fail.

Spell Duels

Holy crap these are complicated.  I mean they seem simple. The rules / explanation are complicated. I'm not sure I understand them after 2nd read through.  Bad.  Other sections (character creation) have really nice, concise listing of steps.  Actual steps are intermingled with commentary (untoward things can occur).   Then there is another list of 9 steps for actually counter spelling (which is part of and how duels start).  

Roll checks, increment momentum, cross reference spell checks on table 4-5, roll die, compare to table 4-6, modified by difference between momentum trackers, there's an exception and OMFG, seriously?  Yeah, I can figure this out.  And, yeah, doing it a few times will make it easier. But, do I want to do this, is it fun?  Is it worth stopping the game to look all this up, roll all these dice, spend all this time with one player while everyone else is confused as to what's going on?  Will have to see.

Pro-tip: using dice, esp rolly d20, as counters doesn't work with table full of books, papers, snacks, thrown notes, shared dice, and players (1/3 in my experience) who can't roll a die without it flying across table knocking into everyone's stuff along the way.

Tables

Really, really should of either;  1) made the spells fit on one or two pages each.  Yeah, wasted space, broken layout, even larger page count.  All of those are worth not having to constantly look up spell charts in this giant, heavy doesn't sit open / flat tome.  2) release a PDF with spells fitting on one or two pages each.  It could have been bad-ass, wizards's actually collecting and creating a real life book of magic spells.

Luck

Hmmmmmmmm.

Not so Bad

I thought I'd find more to dislike.  Play it some, maybe tweak a few things, and it'll be fine.