Combat in Crowfield

When I think of the ideal D&D combat, I think of the iconic sword fight between Inigo Montoya and the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride. (In a close second place is the street brawl between Nada and Frank in John Carpenter’s They Live, but that’s another story for another day.)

Just in case you want a refresher:

This is what I think we should be trying to emulate.

Administrative Note: Comment Moderation

Remember that time that Paul Revere rode through the village, shouting “The spammers are coming! The spammers are coming!”?

They’re here.

Twice in the last 3 days a bot has posted spam comments on posts that were a couple weeks old. The posts were for a soccer betting site. Oddly enough, they were written in Thai (thank you Google translate!). Who knew that the Vagabond GM was so popular there?

I’ve deleted the posts, so you won’t see them. But if you were subscribed by email, they may have gotten through.

Casting Spells in Crowfield

Why change the way spell casting works?

Because Vancian Magic sucks.

Clearly that’s just my opinion, but I know it’s shared by more than a few. Ever since the beginning of the hobby, players have been replacing the “memorize, fire, forget” system with different systems, most involving spell points of some sort.

This is not a spell point system. I think those add another level of book-keeping that I’d rather avoid.

I guess I should say why I don’t like Vancian magic. I’ve never read Jack Vance’s work, so his magic system doesn’t match my (pre-D&D) mental image of a magic user. If you were to ask young me to think of a magic user, there are four names that would have sprang to mind:

• Merlin
• Gandalf
• Samanatha Stevens
• Jeanie

I can’t think of a single scene with any of these “classic” magicians that fits the “memorize, fire, forget” paradigm. Instead they have powers that they can do, and when they need to do them, they do them…

…And sometimes it doesn’t work.

…And sometimes it goes horribly wrong.

…And sometimes they temporarily lose their powers.

That’s what I want to recreate.

While I’m at it, I want to align spell levels with character levels.

Monsters Never Miss

I had this idea a few years ago. I told it to James, and he didn’t like it. Maybe I didn’t explain it well, or maybe he just doesn’t like it. Maybe it’s a bad idea.

Let me know what you think! About the idea in general and about options I put forth in the “What I need to roll …?” question.