Change of Pace, Shadowrun, Wholesome CoC, Return to Castle Redvald

Audio Version

Hey Wiz Liz, Long Time No See, What Gives?!

Been busy with life! Little time for elfgames!

I'm not super into writing session reports anymore and as time went on I realized that if I want to keep blogging, which I'd rather do since it keeps me thinking about elfgames, I should probably revisit my article format. Sorry to anyone who liked them, but I think I won't do many detailed reports anymore. Instead, for now I'll be focusing on writing my thoughts about games I've run, games I've played, and games I read. I know I don't have a huge reader base and I think this has always been a bit of an exercize in vanity as I mainly write for myself, so I will see where this leads. I haven't been very active lately but recently got back into the GMing saddle running for a small dedicated group of friends, which is why the open table project is still on hold. I just don't have that much energy for gaming, though now I can actually get some going and it is really nice to play with friends, especially given that we share of ideas, both at the gaming table and outside of it. I'm going to try to write some ideas regularly, maybe even (one hopes) daily, so my posts might get shorter and more stream of consciousness (than they already were). Today I have a few things I want to talk about so I might skip details and just give you the basic rundown.

So I ran Shadowrun with 24XX the other day, using an unholy patchwork of bits and pieces from Inner System Blues, Codebreakers (for adept powers), Legends (for spells, though we ended up using Wendi Yu's magic system from Here, There, Be Monsters! which is bonkers and awesome go read it). It worked well enough - we had a lot of fun, although Food Fight lasted about 1h30, then we did 30 minutes of NPC interactions and OOC legwork. At the end of the session I was really missing diceless-ish FKR anti-rules so I will probably be using something simpler next time. Prismatic Wasteland's post got me thinking so I might vibe within the same design space - just know that it came from them and I am only a dirty thief, if anything good comes out of it. Where was I?

Little Shadow, All Pink Mohawk

The game was goofy. Big troll in a tiny pastel painted citroën, crammed against the other runners. A magical dwarf in a drug haze channeling The Dude accidentally shooting his buddy with an Uzi. Lots of Matrix, lots of magical whackiness thanks to a freeform spell casting system and the dice being terrible to my players (they rolled so many 1s, which are Disasters in 24XX, prompting me to go with whatever the worst outcome could be, though being fairly soft, it stayed somewhat light-hearted). I am not a very serious GM, I tend to goof up a lot, so having a party that played their characters fairly straight while we were all laughing OOC at the over-the-top situations felt very different from my edgy and dark cyberpunk 2020 games from the before times. Shadowrun has a lot of p r o b l e m a t i c baggage though and I find it a bit uncomfortable to run at this point, so another thing on my backburner is to think up of an (easy) way to get my Cyberpunk Fantasy fix. It will most likely involve OD&D in some manner, as most of my tRPG stuff tends to.

Wholesome Call of Cthulhu (hey Cosmic skip this one!)

I played in a duet text game over a few weeks (turns out one on one I can keep my focus, ish, he had to remind me to post a few times) and not only was it a very fun and atmospheric adventure (apparently called Paper Chase) but I played well enough, and mostly got lucky enough I believe, to avoid anything really nasty. It basically ended with my character helping a ghoul live their best life by covering for them with their remaining relative and getting to learn what had happened through exchanging a few letters while staying safe. Apparently there was an outcome where I was just going to get brutally cannibalized by underground dwellers, but instead I got to support a weirdo's transition into an otherworldly immortal being who just wants to read books and be left alone, so that was really nice.

 

Return to Castle Redvald

I want to run some 3LBB again, and I like the name Castle Redvald. I have an idea for where I can get good maps that will do what I need, I'm going to take the best bits from my old Redvald game (mostly traps, puzzles and atmospheric stuff) and just slightly re-skin every monster in the 3LBB + Greyhawk + Blackmoor (the last two won't be on encounter tables so I can just put these in thematic areas). I can't for the life of me stick to RAW, so I already know I'm going Fighters only, no demihumans, no attribute modifiers (including prime modifiers). Found spells will most likely follow Wonders & Wickedness (aka Orbit I) and Marvels & Mallisons because these are oozing with flavour. For combat, I might go with Chainmail, specifically working from the mass combat system, simply having combattants roll their HD worth of d6, distributing them between up to four 1 HD foes (stronger foes need your full attention).

EDIT : Oops I got carried away and wrote a whole hack again.

D6    Result
1 --> Wound Unarmored
2 --> Kill Unarmored, Wound Light Foot
3 --> Kill Light Foot, Wound Heavy Armor
4 --> Kill Heavy Foot, Wound Armored Foot
5 --> Kill Armored Foot, Wound Magic Armored Foot
6 --> Kill All

Armor Value
Unarmored = No Shield or Leather (equivalent to AC 9-8)
Light Foot = Shield or Leather or Both (equivalent to AC 7-6)
Heavy Foot = Mail, with or without Shield (equivalent to AC 5-4)
Armored Foot = Plate, with or without Shield (equivalent to AC 3-2)
Magic Armored Foot = Wearing Magic Armor (equivalent to AC 1 or better)

What About Shields?
Yes the lack of granularity means shields are less important. Good thing the Shields Shall Be Splintered rule exists right? Destroy your shield, that's a free Hit, problem solved.

Death & Dying
When you run out of Hits in mortal kombat, you're dead. Heroes (4 HD, which is level 4 and the cap I'm going with to keep the game gritty) get a Death Save.

Alternative Saving Throws
Because I don't need to use the Attack Matrix, I also don't want to bother with the Saving Throw Matrix. Plus with a cap at fourth level, there would only be two values. So instead we're using this: when making a saving throw, roll under or equal to your level to succeed. So that's a 1-in-6 chance at first level, and at best a 50/50 shot for Heroes.

In Summary
Roll 3d6 in order for Strength, Intelligence, Willpower, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma.
You are a Fighter, and thus can arm yourself with any equipment you wish. Pick d6 things from the list.
You have ten inventory slots. 1000 coins take one slot. Bulky stuff you find in an adventure takes one slot.

Note that different tools have different situational benefits, in addition to any rulestuff mentioned here.
A dagger is better in a cramped and intimate close quarters combat, a big fucking sword is better in a field.

- Melee Weapon (Sword, Axe, Mace, etc.)
- Heavy Weapon (Zweihander, Halberd, Warhammer, etc.) - allows Normals* to hurt Large Creatures**
- Missile Weapon (Bows, Crossbows, Pistols, Muskets, plus ammunition for about a week)
- A Shield (Light Foot, can be sacrificed to avoid a hit, takes one hand)
- Light Armor (Light Foot - leather/gambeson/patchwork/furs/pelts etc. plus a helmet)
- Medium Armor (Heavy Foot, counts as two items - chainmail/breastplate etc. plus a helmet)
- Heavy Armor (Armored Foot, counts as three items - field plate and the likes plus a helmet)
- Climbing Equipment (incl. ropes, grappling hook, crampons, spikes, etc.)
- Camping Equipment (incl. bedroll, cooking pots, thread & needle, olive oil, sharpening stone, etc.)
- A Week's Food & Water (enough for yourself or two adults if rationing, plus cutlery, tankard, etc.)
- Pesticides (incl. belladona and wolvesbane bunch, garlic necklace, holy symbol, holy water, etc.)
- Burglar's Delight (incl. lockpicks, caltrops, marbles, hand mirror and other sneaky bastard tools)
- Essential Tools (incl. lantern or torches, flasks of oil, ten foot pole, crowbar, shovel, etc.)
- A Lantern or Torchbearer (for one delve or a week in the wilderness)
- A Porter (same)
- A Sellsword (same, and they get a share like anybody else - Light Foot, Melee Weapon)
- A Crossbowman (same but they have a Crossbow!)
- A Mule or Pack Goat (they go into dungeon and are loyal)
- A Horse (valid to eat fingers, sucks in dungeons, covers great distance in the wilderness)

Save by rolling under or equal to your level on 1d6. Roll your HD on the table above to do murder.
In a chaotic melee, resolution is simultaneous-ish (in practice, we roll to see the outcome of the fight, not the moment-to-moment, a round is a minute long, so it makes sense, trust me). Superior tactics might grant initiative, which means you get to resolve your turn before the enemy does so which is incredibly important when combat is this deadly. Initiative also lasts until it is lost, much like Classic Traveller surprise.

Converting Monsters

Armor Class                                                Hit Dice                        That's It
AC 9-8 is Unarmored                                 Unchanged
AC 7-6 is Light Foot
AC 5-4 is Heavy Foot
AC 3-2 is Armored Foot
AC 1 or less is Magical Armored Foot

Experience
0 XP for level 1 (Man-at-Arms), 2,500 XP for level 2 (Veteran), 5,000 XP for level 3 (Elite)
10,000 XP for level 4 (Hero). 1 SP is 1 XP.

Adjustments
Because I'm moving to the Silver Standard, all prices in Men & Magic are in SP, and all treasure values are divided by 10. People can carry as many coins as before because I don't care that much ok?