Moana: A Campaign Idea

I talked before about my desire for game world settlements to be few and far between in order to force the player characters to travel through "untamed wilderness" between towns.  In that same post I talked about a part of my game world called "Okeanos." 

Okeanos is an archipelago. Players would travel from island to island in ships. The idea is based on Homer's Odyssey. As such the ships, weapon, armor, and cultures are all based on bronze age Greek mythology.

I also talked before about my desire to run a campaign set in the Stone Age.

Today I'm in Hawai'i, and the though occurred to me to marry those two desires. My working title is Moana (Moe-AH-nah), the Hawaiian word for "Ocean." 

The technology, ships, and cultural lifestyle would be a very fictionalized and fantastic version of what we know of pre-European contact Polynesia, just like most RPGs are very fictionalized and fantastic versions of medieval Europe. I would develop a new theology from scratch to avoid trivializing anyone's real life beliefs. 

A quick search has already shown me a good article that talks about the weapons of Ancient Hawai'i.

What do you think of the idea?

Lucky 7: Crits & Fumbles

Every time you roll the dice in an RPG, you are determining the answer to a question:

• Did I hit the monster with my sword?
• Did I climb the castle wall?
• Was I able to sneak past the guard?
• Was I able to avoid the dragon’s flame?
• How much damage did I take from the dragon’s flame?

Other than the last one, notice how all of these are “yes/no” type questions.

Expanding the Yes/No Paradigm

It wasn’t long after the hobby started that people started expanding the rules. Even though it was never an official rule, a common house rule was that rolling a natural 20 indicated a “super success.” In combat, not only did you hit the opponent, but you hit this in a critical organ for bonus damage. From this the term “critical hit” (or “crit”) was born. A crit is kind of like answering the question with “Yes, and more!”

Of course, that was followed almost instantly with the thought that if a natural 20 was a critical success, then a natural 1 must be a “critical failure” or a “fumble.” A fumble is the yes/no equivalent of “Not only no, but…”

(On a side note.. the “6” roll in Lucky 7 is the “Yes, but…” answer.)

Fumbles in L7

Lucky 7 will not have fumbles.

The main reason for that is because it would be very unfair to the players. Because L7 is a “only the players roll” game, there’s no change that a monster or NPC would ever fumble. Giving the players a one-sided risk seems unfair.

Crits in L7

Lucky 7 will have crits.

This is still one sided, but it’s one sided in favor of the players. When the rest of the world is out to get them, giving them this advantage is the least we can do.

There are people that think a 1:20 chance is too high for a crit, and I agree with them. It’s even worse for L7, because we use a d12. So (sadly) crits in L7 will (possibly) require a second roll.

If you’re rolling one die, and you roll a 12 you may roll a second die. We’ll call this the “crit die.” If the crit die is also a 12, then your result is a critical success. That’s a 1:144 (or 0.7%) chance. If you (as a GM) think that’s too rare, feel free to change the what is needed on the second die. This chart is provided for your benefit:

Crit range	Odds	% Chance	Notes
12	1:144	0.7%
11 & 12	1:72	1.4 %	Probably what I will use at my table.
10 — 12	1:48	2.1%
9 — 12	1:36	2.8%
8 — 12	5:144	3.5%
7 — 12	1:24	4.2%
6 — 12	7:144	4.9%	About the same as a simple crit d20.

If you’re making a bonus roll, you’re already rolling two dice. In that case, if both dice are “12” (or, if using a different crit range, if the high die is a “12” and the second die in in the crit range)), then you got a crit.

If you’re making a penalty roll, then both dice have to be a 12—there’s no way around it. This is because in a penalty roll, the lower die is the one that counts. So in order for the roll to be a “Natural 12,” the lower die has to be a 12 and that can only happen if both dice are 12’s.

If you’re using a different crit range, this means that crits will be more common if you’re rolling with bonus, and less common if rolling with penalty. This seems fair to me.

Epilogue

Posts might be scarce for the next month or so. I usually write my posts during the weekend, and I’ll be away on vacation for the next two weekends, and working my second job the weekend after that. I will try to post something but no promises.

Chases in Lucky 7

I listen to a podcast called The Grognard Files. They reviewed Savage Worlds in their most recent and very windy episode. One of the things that they mentioned was that they liked the way that Savage Worlds handled chases.

That gave me pause and made me ask myself, “How would I handle chases in Lucky 7?”

“I wouldn’t,” I answered. “I better make some rules for that.”

Chases in Other Games

Chase scenes are a stable of action and adventure entertainment. Despite this, few games that I can think of provide guidance on how to run a chase.

Every James Bond movie features a car chase, so it’s probably no surprise that 1983’s James Bond 007 role-playing_game was recognized for having great chase rules. Maybe they just don’t age well, but I don’t really like them that much. Pretty much it’s just a bidding war between the player and the GM over the higher penalty to the roll. Both sides use the “winning” penalty, but whoever bids the highest penalty gets to decide which side goes first. Maybe you’ll bid high, hoping they’ll flub their roll. But if you’re wrong, they get an attack on you before your turn.

The Savage Worlds system relies on cards, which makes me hate it from the start. Beyond that it assumes that the chase is only over when you kill the chasers. You can never simply outrun, evade, or hide from your pursuers. You must kill them. That’s not what I’m looking for.

My Solution

My solution is combat.

I hear your complaint. “But didn’t you just say…?” Bear with me. It’s not that kind of combat.

The combat isn’t between the pursuer and the escapee. It’s between the abstract embodiment of both the pursuit itself and the escape.

This is going to be hard to explain. But let me try.

The easiest way is with an example.

Jalice has broken into the Temple of K'hala, and stolen K'Hala’s Eye a giant ruby in the scorpion demon’s statue. Unfortunately for Jalice, the High Priest of K'Hala spots her as she leaves the temple, and calls on the Temple Guard to apprehend her. Jalice runs off into the city, and the guards chase after her.

Because Jalice is the one trying to get away, she is the escapee. The action she is trying to accomplish is the escape.

The guards are the ones trying to catch her, so they’re the pursuers. They’re engaged in the pursuit.

The first thing the GM has to do is decide how difficult it will be for Jalice to escape. he does this by assigning a a number of lives (or hit points) to both the escape and the pursuit. The more lives that the escape has, the easier it will be for Jalice to escape. The more lives the pursuit has, the easier it will be for the guards to catch her. The more lives they have combined, the longer the escape will take to play out–probably to the point of tedium. I suggest 2 lives for the less probable event (escaping or getting caught), and base the stronger side on the desired ratio.

In this case, the GM wants to give Jalice a fairly good chance of getting away, so he gives the pursuit 2 lives, and the escape he gives 4.

The player said she was running before the GM said the guards were chasing, so she gets the first action. The player says that Jalice is running down a busy side street and discarding her temple robes to try to fool the guards. The GM rules that would be a Streetwise skill vs the guards' observation skill. If the Jalice makes the roll, the pursuit loses one life; if she fails it doesn’t. It’s that simple. Let’s say she makes it. The pursuit now has one life left; the escape still has four.

The GM narrates that half of the guards run the wrong way, but a few are still following her. One of them picks up a metal bowl from a vendor’s stand and throws it at her to slow her down. Remember, in Lucky 7 the NPCs never roll—only the player does. So the GM has the player roll Jalice’s Fighting Defense skill vs the NPC’s Aiming skill. If the Jalice makes the roll, nothing changes; if she fails the roll, the the escape loses 1 life. In essence, she’s making a savings throw (on behalf of the escape) to avoid the escape losing a life. Let’s say she fails the roll. The pursuit still has one life left, but the escape only has three lives left.

That’s the basic idea. Maybe next turn Jalice would try climbing to the roofs (Athletics skill), hiding in a dark doorway (Stealth skill), or convincing a merchant to hide her (Persuasion skill). No matter what she tries, if it succeeds it will bring the Pursuit down to 0 lives, and she will have escaped. If she fails, the chase goes at least another turn.

If the dice turn against her, and somehow the Escape goes down to 0 lives before the Pursuit does, then she will be caught. Even though the Escape is down to 0 lives, Jalice is still at full health.

Epilogue

That’s it.

Sorry for no post last week, it was very very busy between the two jobs.

I feel I need to rewrite this whole chase thing in a clearer way, but I’m late getting this post out.

Psychic Magic for USS Crowfield

James will tell you that I’m not a fan of mixing magic and tech, and he’s right. There’s no limit to my hatred of sticking magic into a modern or futuristic world. Yes, that means I’m not a Harry Potter fan. I flat out refuse to read, watch, or play The Dresden Files.

You know what works well in a modern or futuristic setting, though? Psychic or psionic powers! They particularly show up a lot in Star Trek. Off the top of my head:

• The Talosians in “The Cage” (the first pilot episode).
• Gary Mitchell in “Where No Man has Gone Before” (the second pilot episode).
• The eponymous character in “Charlie X”
• Oh yeah, Spock and all Vulcans have low-level telepathy.
• The aliens in “Plato’s Stepchildren”
• Deana Troi (like all Betazoids) is a telepath.

So what if we had an ancient world where certain people had psionic powers? Wouldn’t they just be the wizards of that world? Wouldn’t their powers be considered magical?

I think this would work well for the U.S.S. Crowfield world. Maybe there’s something in the local fruit that gives certain people powers (like in “Plato’s Stepchildren”)? The locals might call them wizards, shamans, or whatever, but they’re really psionics.

That means I have to replace the spells with spells based on psychics powers, but I think it will work.

Maybe I don’t even tell the player’s that’s why I’m doing… just have the “spellbook” and see if they can figure it out.

What do you think?

Maybe next week I’ll have a working list of spells.

Lucky 7 Hit Points

This completely replaces my earlier post called Unlucky 13 Hit Points.

First of all, because Unlucky 13 is now just an expansion of the 1974 D&D rules, hit points in U13 work the same as hit points in D&D.

Because Lucky 7 is not a D&D derivative, I’m free to do things differently. Very differently. That previous post was too different, though. And it was completely unusable on Roll 20.

Some Background

When (the game that would later become) Dungeons & Dragons first started, there wasn’t a “to hit roll” followed by a “damage roll.” There was one roll. If you rolled the right value, you killed the monster; otherwise you didn’t. Likewise, if the DM rolled a certain number, your character was dead. There was no warning. There was no “I’m almost dead.” You just went from alive to dead in a single roll.

Players found that unsatisfying, so Dave Arneson invented hit points.

My Solution: Lives

So here’s my solution. It’s based on “lives” from things like Pac-Man.

Most characters start with three lives/hit points, but this is modified by the Spiritual attribute. (Why Spiritual instead of Physical might be the topic of a future post.)

When you take a hit, you make a roll using the Spiritual attribute. If you succeed, you shrug off the hit without serious injury. If you fail, you lose exactly one life/hit point. When you lose your last life/hit point, you’re out of action. “Out of action” might mean you’re dead, but it probably means the you’re knocked-out or you’ve been captured or you’ve just given up.

What about weapon and armor types?

Armor doesn’t make you less likely to get hit, but it does make it less likely that you will get hurt.

A sword isn’t any more likely to kill an unarmored man than a knife, but a sword is more likely to penetrate armor than a knife.

Every weapon has a weapon value and every armor has an armor value. If the weapon’s value is greater than armor’s, then the Armor roll is made with a penalty. If the armor is greater than weapon, the Armor roll is made with a bonus. If they'e equal, than it’s a simple roll with neither penalty nor bonus.

How many lives do monsters have?

A zombie or an orc will have one life. A dragon might have 12. If looking at a D&D monster, use the number of hit dice as the number of lives.

How about a troll with 6 + 3 hit dice?

You might want to just call that seven lives, but I would call it six and give the troll a +3 to his armor roll.

But I don’t want to die! (optional rule)

This is an option rule for GM’s to use in their campaign, or not.

If you lose your last life, instead of being put out of action you instead gain an injury instead. That injury counts as a disadvantage, and can be used as such.

Normally, the injury heals after the fight is over (or the scene is over if you’re not in combat when the injury occurs). However, if you’re already injured and you lose another life you can chose to extend the duration of the injury:

Injury	Duration of effect
Initial	This combat/scene
1st extension	Next day
2nd extension	Next week
3rd extension	Next month
4th extension	Next season
5th extension	Next year

Epilogue

That’s it. That’s my new idea for hit points.

One question I have: Should I call them “hit points” or “lives?”

I lean towards “hit points” because that’s the universal RPG term, and I’m trying not to make up new terms.

On the other hand, I lean toward “lives” because they act more like video game lives than traditional hit points.

What do you think?

General Update on my RPG Projects

This is a general update on a few different subjects.

Dekahedron (the podcast)

I didn't post the episode yet. There's two reasons for this: 

1. I sent a rough cut to James for his feedback, and he hasn't listened to it yet. Still. Five days later.
2. I want to have a few episodes of backlog before we start to post. This will cover us for when we can' record (like when I have to work a weekend, or one of us has vacation, etc.)

We also didn't get to record an episode this morning. I had an unexpected family event pop up, and James had computer issues. I hope we can find some time this week.

On the other hand, I got some other stuff done for the podcast:

1. I got a "feedback line" where listeners can call in voice feedback. I like phone numbers that spell something, I almost got (XXX)-OLD-TREK, (XXX)-POD-CAST, and (XXX)-FIGHTER, but in the end I picked (XXX)-RPG-CAST. (Note: XXX is not the actual area code.  The area code was different for each number).
2. I switched the dekahedron.com's email provider away from Google. This let me set up a "feedback@" email address for listeners to email us.

Dekahedron (the RPG)

Before it was a podcast, Dekahedron was a a public domain RPG that I created decades ago. It never gained any traction, so I'm finally pulling the plug. I'll be archiving the rules off of the website, and switching the site to support the podcast.

Clout RPG

Speaking of pulling plugs, I'm also killing off my Clout RPG. This one was never finished, and most of the ideas have been incorporated into Lucky 7.  The domain name expires in a few months, so I'm just going to let it disappear.

Lucky 7 RPG Engine

Lucky 7 is now a stand-alone RPG ruleset. Work continues on the draft.

Unlucky 13 House Rules

Unlucky 13 is an expansion of (or a set of house rules for) OSR style games. it is pretty much Lucky 7 for B/X. Work continues.

Crowfield/U.S.S. Crowfield Settings

These are just campaign settings for my own use to run games in. I'm not killing them off.

Commonwealth of Man Setting

Commonwealth of Man is my space-opera (the genre, not the ill-named RPG) campaign that replaced the Astral Web. Technically speaking, the U.S.S. Crowfield setting takes place on a planet in the Commonwealth of Man. I'll be updating this campaign and making some posts about it. 

This Blog

I still plan on making weekly posts here!

That's all for this week!

Podcast Update: Episode #1 recorded

 James and I met online yesterday morning and recorded the first episode of the podcast. The topic was "Fixed vs Variable Weapon Damage."

I think it went well. I was fully prepared for this to be a practice run and for us to have to re-record it next week. But I think it's good enough for me to push out after I finish editing it.

James is a natural co-host. He and I differ enough to approach a topic from different angles, yet we're such good friends that it's still pleasant.

I'm very self conscious of my voice. I had hearing loss as a child, which lead to years of speech therapy. When I hear my recorded voice I just hear a guy with some kind of speech disorder. I don't know of other people hear that when I talk to them. I'm a little worried about mean comments.

Anyway... the episode is done, but I have work to do with edit/post-production. If it goes up this week I'll let you know.