Session Report 2/21/2020: The Tower of Florymonde

Oolong, a Troglodyte, the Tower, a charred corpse, a tiger beetle, the butler.

Persons mentioned in the text:

• KYLE, a level 4 Halfling
• GRACE, a level 3 Dwarf
• ARMAND, a level 5 Cleric
• GREGG, a level 4 Fighter
• KENNETH, a level 4 Thief
• TIMON, a level 1 Fighter
• SELENE, a level 2 Elf
• ZORION, a level 1 Elf
• PERSEPHONE, a level 1 Elf

The time:
    The month of AMETHYST, second month of the year 1120 Anno Daedalus


The place:
    FENNBURGH, a swamp town in the GREYMARSH, on the continent of KATHON, on the planet YRTH.
    FLORYMONDE'S TOWER, the crumbling tower of a long-dead sorceress, situated beside the RIVER GREY and near the town of FLUME.


    After the Battle at Fennburgh, Our Heroes celebrated with the town and spent much silver carousing with the villagers. Sieur Gregg the Hero decided to retire in Fennburgh, serving as a master-of-arms for the Frog-Giggers’ Guild. Grace the Dwarven Swordmistress also retired. Two new elves joined the party, Persephone and Zorion. Well-rested and fresh-faced, they turned their attention to the rumors of a Rot Giant stomping around the south-western swamps. They rode out, but got lost in the fens and ended up outside the Tower of Florymonde once again. Camping outside the tower were six ogres, which Our Heroes ambushed and slew.


    After a brief rest and heal-up, Kenneth the thief decided to scale the tower. As far as they could tell from the outside, there were three floors and a bit of spire sticking up. The eastern side of the third floor had crumbled away and been exposed to the elements. As Kenneth poked around the outside of the third floor, he found a tea room with its eastern wall ripped away. A talking teapot surprised him. The teapot introduced himself as Oolong, and after Kenneth determined that Oolong was charmed and could not leave the confines of the tea room (attempting to bring him past the boundaries of the room would cause Oolong to halt in the air as if he hit a wall), he tied a rope around Oolong and used him as an anchor for his friends to climb up as well.


    Our Heroes spent a few minutes talking to Oolong, sitting on the edge of the tearoom and swinging their legs as the sun rose. Oolong seemed to have no concept of time and believed that Florymonde, the mistress of the tower, was due to return any second. No-one had the heart to tell him that Florymonde died over a century ago. They questioned Oolong about his knowledge of the tower, but his understanding was limited to the making of tea, although he did warn them about a stern butler, who was “blue.” Our Heroes used Oolong to brew some tea, then thanked him for his help and explored the second floor of the tower.


    In one room, they found a crystal ball next to a charred and reeking corpse. Kenneth let off an arrow at it, and it disintegrated in a blue flash upon striking the ball. Our Heroes decided to leave the ball alone, but apparently the noise had disturbed some creatures in the next room, because when they went to leave, a troupe of Troglodytes blocked their path! The stench nauseated much of the party. Persephone and Zorion helped one another escape through a hole in the ceiling as the rest of the party fought bravely. Selene and Zorion cast a magical sleep spell on the Troglodytes, and the rest of the party made short work of them. The last survivor tried to run away, but Kenneth wounded him with an arrow, and Our Heroes followed his blood trail into the next room, where they found him dying and clutching a heavy sack full of electrum pieces.


    In this room, there was a door to the south with a chair wedged under it. Armand knocked on the door, and a hollow-sounding voice asked to be freed from the room. The voice introduced itself as the butler. Our Heroes unblocked the door and found that the butler was an animated suit of cobalt-colored armor. Although more intelligent and less friendly than Oolong, and with greater freedom of the tower, the butler also seemed to be under the impression that Florymonde was away on business. He attempted to clean the Troglodyte blood with a rag that was so old and rotted it was barely more than a thin scrap of cloth.


    Our Heroes left the butler to his business, and explored some more of the tower. On the third floor, they found a staircase up to the very top of the tower, but it was guarded by six tiger beetles. In the ensuing melee, Zorion the elf was cut in twain by the strong mandibles of the tiger beetles. Our Heroes gained the upper hand and chased the beetles down a hallway that ended in open air, and the beetles scrambled down the outside of the tower. Exhausted, they agreed to camp there, wedging the door shut and letting the cool breeze soothe them as they watched the skies darken.

Hall of Fame: Retired Characters

And this our life exempt from public haunt,

 finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

 sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

I would not change it.

-Duke Senior, As You Like It II.i

HAPPILY EVER AFTER: CHARACTERS RETIRED

• Sieur GREGG, HERO of the Battle of Fennburgh, ret. Amethyst 1120
• Instructing arms at Fennburgh
• Lady GRACE, DWARVEN SWORDMISTRESS of the Battle of Fennburgh, ret. Amethyst 1120
• Residing at Fennburgh

Comparing HD-based cleave mechanics to d20 combat

While not having a session, I've been tinkering with python and excel to crunch some numbers on a cleave mechanic. The proposed mechanic is:

When fighting opponents whose HDs are 1 or less, roll your HD in d6s. Any 5s or 6s rolled will destroy one creature.

I wrote a python script to simulate fighting a goblin (AC 6, HD 1-1) after inputting your THAC0. You can also adjust the damage you do, by default you do 1-6 damage. I found the average number of rounds it takes you to slay a goblin over 100,000 trials at each THAC0 breakpoint, up to HD 9 (THAC0 14). I call this number "GPR" or "Goblins Per Round," e.g. at a THAC0 of 19 it takes you an average of about 4 rounds to slay a goblin, so your GPR is .25 (you slay 1/4th of a goblin every round). I call this d20 combat or ACS (for Alternative Combat System as per LBB)

 Your GPR with the D6 system will be 1/3 of your HD, since you roll a 5 or 6 (a goblin slain) 1/3 of the time (i.e. on a 5 or 6). I call this cleave.

To find out how much more effective cleave is than d20, I divide cleave's GPR by d20's GPR. So if you slay 3 goblins per round using cleave at HD 9, and only slay an average of about one goblin every 2 rounds, cleave is 3/.41 = 7.32 times more effective. This makes sense: at level 9, with a normal sword dealing d6 damage (an average of 3.5 damage every hit), you're killing a goblin in an average of 2.44 hits (sometimes you miss, sometimes you hit but don't quite kill it in one hit), whereas chucking 9 dice per round, you can expect about 3 of each to be either a 5 or a 6, thereby killing 3 goblins every round!

Remember, under normal (btb) combat rules, even if you had 100% chance to hit and did 1,000,000 damage every hit, you'd still max out at one goblin per round, since you can only make one attack per round.

But how do magic weapons change the calculations? I fiddled with excel and got the following:

 (click to enlarge)

As you can see, the more enchanted your weapon is, the smaller the gap between the efficacy of slogging through goblin-by-goblin under normal d20 combat and cutting swathes through the bastards using the cleave mechanic. This stands to reason: a magic weapon won't give you more HD, but it will help you hit harder and hit more often.

As it stands, I'm comfortable using it in this stage. Cleave speeds up combat versus hordes of small enemies.

But what about the odd case where a level 1 fighter with no magic weapon is better off "cleaving" versus a single opponent using his (i.e. the fighter's) one hit die, re-rolling every round and trying to hit that 5 or 6? Remember, using d20, the fighter can only slay a goblin about every 4 rounds, while using his HD, he can slay it in about 3. Isn't it odd to encourage this ostensibly mass-combat system in one-on-one combat?

Fantastically, there's something of a built-in solution: cleave-based combat is binary: either the goblin is dead or it is unharmed. In a party, the fighter will want to help his team by doing damage to the goblin, hoping that this makes it easier for another player to finish it off. (Tangentially related but kind of funny: if you're level 1 and you have a +2 weapon or better, you're always worse off trying to "cleave" a single opponent!)

I'll have to further test how this works when you are mounted (in my system, this gives you a +2 to-hit) or using a longsword (d8 damage instead of d6), but as it stands I'm confident to introduce it to my games. Perhaps being mounted will extend the range that counts as a hit, or will allow you to add 1 to any one die rolled? Maybe every +3 to your damage roll adds 1 to any one die rolled? There are many angles to consider this from, but I will have to sleep on it.

The Graveyard

The evil that men do lives after them.

The good is oft interred with their bones.

-Mark Antony, Julius Caesar  III.ii

BEING AN ACCOVNTYNGE OF MYGHTYE HEROES SLAYNE IN SERVISE MOSTE COVRAGEOVS

• Beautiful Persephone, a level 1 Elf, d. Amethyst 1120
• Drowned in freezing water attempting to appropriate a large sack of coin
• Bussy, a level 1 Cleric, d. Amethyst 1120
• Eaten by zombies
• Skulking Kenneth, a veteran of the Battle of Fennburgh, a level 4 Theif, d. Amethyst 1120
• Turned to stone by a Cockatrice
• Sapphic Zorion, level 1 Elf, d. 13 Amethyst 1120
• Cleft in twain by a tiger beetle's mandibles
• The fool Job, level 1 Fighter, d. Garnet 1120
• Mauled by a Bog Body on the banks of the River Grey
• Pure-hearted Dickon, level 1 Cleric, d. Garnet 1120
• Drowned in maille attempting to pull a babe from the River Grey
• The foul knave Fondue, d. 9 Opal 1119
• Garrotted about the neck by until dead as befits his low status
• Executed lawfully for the foul murther of an itenerant
• Johnson, level 1 Cleric, d. 1 Opal 1119
• Exsanguinated by a giant leech
•  Wilson, level 2 Thief, d. 21 Sapphire 1119
• Died during amputation to prevent necrotic rot from the arm
• Forke, level 3 Thief, d. 21 Sapphire 1119
• Slain by a Huecuva
• Mydge, level 2 Dwarf, d. 23 Sapphire 1119 
• Died of a necrotic rot

B/X Barbarian

Click to enlarge

 

Took a crack at hacking together a class for my home games. This is for when players visit Thundermoor, my weird central-Asian steppes / Norse mashup. SUZERAINS OF THUNDERMOOR is the campaign name. Catchy, right?

The concept is for a Conan-style beefcake who trades defensive ability for offensive ability. I know Conan wore armor, but this is "gamey" enough to allow the Barb to fit a particular niche - a high risk / high reward fighter, the inverse of dwarves and halflings who trade the damage output of humans for better saves.

Design justifications (skipping obvious ones, like STR being prime req):

• Saves
• Didn't want to encroach on Dwarf/Halfling's good saves.
• Low AC and middling saves mean that muscledude barbarians are still scared of snakes. I like that!

• To-Hit is to keep the "high damage, slightly lower accuracy" feel and to keep from eclipsing fighters

• Hit Die
• Big HP for big guys
• Since I don't use variable HD in my home games, this really means a d6+2 for me, but since most people do, I kept it B/X compatible in the image meant for sharing.
• Restrictions:
• The reasons Barbs can wear leather is to keep the door open for wearing hides, furs, maybe dragon scales, all of which may be magical and may have special properties if the referee is so inclined to bestow such properties on armor (your barb can wear the Shadow Dragon Scales that allow him to turn to smoke, e.g.)
• XP:
• Keeps it from being just "fighter, but better" along with slower to-hit bonus
• Unarmored AC:
• Keeps barb viable at higher levels but still makes them riskier to play, balancing out their meatier bodies.

• Damage bonus:
• Instead of bothering with "rages" I just went with a static dmg bonus. Simpler. 

• Spell resistance:
• Barbarians and Wizards are natural enemies, like cats and dogs or Scotsmen and other Scotsmen. Trog roars with delight!
• Since my games use a -1 to +1 distro rather than -3 to +3, I just call this a flat +2.

Level titles:

1. Thrall
2. Warrior
3. Thegn
4. Hero
5. Berserker
6. Ealdorman
7. Emir
8. Superhero
9. Suzerain

- What’s a suzerain?

- A keeper. A keeper or overlord.

- Why not say keeper then?

- Because he is a special kind of keeper. A suzerain rules even where there are other rulers. His authority countermands local judgements.

Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian

How I Play My Games - GFC's House Rules

Major differences from B/X

This is my set of house rules for running my home game. I've nicknamed it HAUBERK.

Justifications in order presented in the image:

4d6 drop lowest, swap two instead of 3d6 down line + modifying stats:

• Player psychology: higher numbers are better than lower numbers. Since I've retooled the bonus range, it doesn't result in much more power.
• Swapping two scores is faster than having players modify stats and takes less space to explain. Since I run open table and sometimes introduce new players to the game, it's helpful to give them a sheet to explain chargen, and the less complex the better.
• This also allows players to "roll up a cleric" & c. while still retaining the "go with what you've got" feel

-1 to +1 instead of -3 to +3

• Since I use 4d6 drop lowest, stats are higher, but bonuses are rarer
• This is similar to how Gygax houseruled his convention games
• The rarer bonuses are, the more special they are. A +3 to to-hit and damage should IMO be because of a powerful magic weapon, not because of a lucky roll at chargen.

(Prime reqs work much the same way as B/X, but I've lowered the +10% threshold to 15)

No thieves

• Simply put, no one wanted to play thieves in my games because they sucked.
• I have misgivings about how traps are usually handled, and thieves feeling obligated to search everything for traps wore on me.
• The way I run games, traps are found through interaction, not search rolls, which further eliminated their design space.
• Every character can do stuff a thief can do, but halflings are better at stealth and dwarves are better with mechanical matters.

Level caps rarely actually matter. Whenever I design things for my games (e.g. Barbarian class), I only balance them up to 9th level anyhow.

HD rework

• Distro (M/Us only getting 1 every other level, no cleric HD on lv. 2 or 5) brings it closer to OD&D HP, less "bloaty"
• No cleric HD on lv. 2 cuts down on odd phenomenon where assuming same XP across party, cleric and not fighter or dwarf will have highest HP in party.
• Re-rolling all HD cuts down on extremely unlucky rolls
• HD matters because I frequently use mass-combat rules, and HD figures in to those calcs rather than class and level. This is why e.g. a level 4 M/U has 2 HD rather than 4.

Weapon restrictions:
HAUBERK weapon list:

•  Weapon restrictions + this weapon list creates a "capped" damage die per class.
• Elves and Fighters can do d8 with a one-hander or d10 with 2h
• Clerics, dwarves, and Halflings can do d6 1h or d8 2h
• M/Us can do d4 1h or d6 2h

Cleave:

• I'm refining my mass-combat rules and looking to make something sort of like "squad combat," where it's not quite worth it to bust out wargaming rules, but have been using ACKS's rules in the meantime.

Player critical hits only (enumerated in the weapons image):

• Makes 2h weapons slightly more valuable (to help them compete with magic shields)
• Doesn't make players too terribly powerful (only adds at most +4.5 dmg 5% of the time, more usually +2.5 5% of the time) so combat isn't super in their favor.
• I don't let monsters crit because players take so many more hits over the course of a campaign.
• "Max damage" keeps combat math extremely speedy. On their equipment  sheet they write e.g. "+1 mace (dmg. 2-7)" so if they crit they don't have to calculate at all, they know they hit for 7 damage.