<plum icon>: entry/exit of hyperspace to the CANDIED FRUIT system. The sun is cheery and warm. The sole planet is orbited by the hyperspace gate station and a single moon-sized sugar plum. The "beanstalk" takes the form of a massive gingerbread tree. The entire planet is forested with gingerbread trees growing a variety of sugared and candied fruits. The inhabitants are short, stocky, green-furred people. Some of the fruits may grant a limited form of immortality, but only while within the system.
<peppermint icon>: entry/exit of hyperspace to the PEPPERMINT STICK system. The sun is a cold, small, white dwarf. The sole large planet is orbited by the hyperspace gate station and a cluster of peppermint shards, the remains of the shattered moon. The "beanstalk" is a miles tall pillar of peppermint candy. The planet is icy cold and covered with huge pillars of fractally growing mint candies. The primary inhabitants are giant semi-mechanical constructs of peppermint. The grown peppermint can be used as a superlatively strong construction material, suitable for large buildings and ships. Whole groves act like pipe organs when the strong icy winds blow through them.
<gumdrop icon>: entry/exit of hyperspace to the GUMDROP system. The sun is a multicolored mass that appears to be several suns mashed together. The system is a belt of asteroid-sized gumdrops and sugar crystals. Around the sole dwarf planet orbits the hyperspace gate structure. There is no "beanstalk." The inhabitants are a variety of gargantuan beasts, trolls, and giants composed of gums and gelatin.
<peanut icon>: entry/exit of hyperspace to the NUT BRITTLE system.
23 September 2019
19 September 2019
Working Draft Explanation for the Map of High Fructose Hyperspace.
High Fructose Hyper Space
AKA
Candy Space
Or
Saccharine/Saccharide Space
This sub-net of the ancient Hyper Space Transit Network is modeled by the included map.
The entry point is the red space with the stone arch in the lower left corner.
The exit is the central pink space with the stone arch.
It starts out as a unidirectional and very linear pointcrawl.
Pink spaces signify the systems in this sub-net and their hyper space gates.
<PLACEHOLDER> signify a hyperspace hazard.
Travel through the sub-net is determined by drawing from a deck of colored cards.
Each draw of the deck represents one day of travel. When the sub-net is stabilized each space represents one day of travel downstream and two upstream. <OR 10 DOWN/20 UP??>
This represents the instability of this sub-net.
The ship will travel to the next space on the map that matches the drawn card.
Exceptions this rule are:
Any pink card will move the ship the matching pink space, and subsequently exiting through the gate.
The ship MUST stop in hazard spaces. Reaming there until a matching card is drawn.
Passing by a pink space with a broken gate allows for a disadvantaged Astrology test to notice a hyper space exit, and a disadvantaged Pilot test to exit hyper space. If a map or any other kind of foreknowledge is possessed that there is an exit there allows for a standard Astrology test to notice. Thereafter, it only requires a Pilot test exit.
Once (or if) the party repairs a gate within the sub-net it become bidirectional between it and the adjacent gates and will no longer require a card to be drawn. Travel with the flow is automatic, as travel upstream to another repaired gate. Otherwise, travel upstream requires a disadvantaged Pilot test (failure results in a draw from the deck and subsequent travel downstream).
There are two pairs of "short cuts" signified by a rainbow between two clouds, and a stone gate. Entering the upstream end of a shortcut is automatic if moving to the space, and if passing by requires disadvantaged Astrology and Pilot tests to first notice and then enter. Travel along the shortcuts is always unidirectional.
Additionally either Astrology and/or Pilot can be tested with disadvantage to draw an additional card, choosing one. <FUMBLE RESULTS?>
Hyperspace Hazards
These are ideas for either the cause of the Hazard or an encounter at the Hazard, or as random encounters.
<CURRENTLY> 1d6
1 Hyperspace Snarl
2 Licorice incursion
3 Spacehulk leaking exotic particles
4 Hyperspace Pallet-swapped Elfs
5 Goblin Exploration Team
6 Temporary Engine Failure
↓→↑←: direction of travel on the map of hyperspace.
<shield with rainbow/clouds>: Shortcut in hyperspace. Follow the ARROWS, or for simplicity sake, travel from the ORANGE space to the PURPLE space.
<megalith arch>: shortcut in hyperspace. Follow the ARROWS, or travel from the NORTH to the SOUTH-WEST space.
13 September 2019
Hit Points in Dungeons & Dragons, Or Please Read the Rules of the Game Before Theorizing
AKA
If you want to change how D&D and derivatives do combat (armor and weapons etc), that's fine, but please stop basing your arguments on hp in D&D being meat points. That is to say, granting unarmored AC bonuses to martial characters when they aren't wearing armor so they aren't mechanically disadvantaged because their skills or whatever. Or that <armor as armor class is fine dot arguement>.
I'm gonna dive into D&D first. Oe through 5e.
Oe: 'Constitution is a combination of health and endurance. It will influence such things as the number of hits which can be take...' 'Hit Dice: This indicates the number of dice rolled in order to determine how many hit points a character can take.'
Oe: 'Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character is left to the discretion of the referee.' Conclusion: HP are meat and wind, but there also a lot of discretion for the ref. But how much does Oe influence the popular culture around D&D?
Holmes Basic: '[hit points] represents the amount of damage the character can take' Without basically quote the entirity of that paragrah, Holmes in congruent with Oe.
AD&D: PHB pg34 'Hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount...represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained.'
PHB: '[A] significant portion at higher levels stand for skill, luck, and/or magical factors.' '[T]he majoriity of hit points are symbolic of combat skills, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces.'
The AD&D DMG is similar but also uses an extended explanation via Rasputin on pg82.
I'm doing this in a basically chronological order. Moldvay/Cook/Marsh AKA B/X: 'Hit points represent the number of "points" of damage a character or monster can take during a battle before dying.' pg b6
Pretty basic. no Gygaxian prose telling you what. But how many people under the age of 30 grew up with this game?
AD&D 2e: 'Constitution (Con) score encompasses his physique, fitness, health, and physical resistance to hardship, injury, and disease.'
'To allow characters to be heroic (and for ease of play), damage is handled abstractly in the AD&D game. All characters and monsters have a number of hit points. The more hit points a creature has, the harder it is to defeat.'
'The AD&D combat system does not call for specific wounds--scars, broken bones, missing limbs, and the like. And in most cases they shouldn't be applied." I think this particular bit is important.
While constitution is always about physical health, & 2e doesn't go on like 1e on hp, & by spelling out what AD&D doesn't do w/ hp implying that hp is in part physical, by saying it's not recommended to do inflict injuries from hp loss. Also saying hp isn't wholly meat.
Menzter BECMI is pretty much same as B/X. And I hate reading the Menzter Basic books.
Rules Cyclopedia: 'Your character's hit point score represents his ability to survive injury. The higher his hit point score, the more damage he can sustain before dying. Characters who survive long enough to gain a good deal of experience typically gain more and more hit points'
'therefore, an experienced character lasts longer in a fight or other dangerous situations than does an inexperienced character.' That's extent to which the RC addresses hp. But just surviving an injury isn't merely physical toughness.
And you can't experience yourself to withstand multple stab wounds.
3e pg 128 and 3.5 pg 145: 'What hit points represent: Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one.
For some characters, hit points may represent divine favor or inner power.' And example of a paladin surviving a fireball as a demonstration of divine favor.
Damnit. Those are the PHB. Not going to dig out the DMG
4e: 'Hit points measure your ability to stand up to punishment, turn deadly strikes into glancing blows, and stay on your feet throughout a battle. Hit points represent more than physical endurance. They represent your character’s skill, luck, and resolve...'
DnD: the Tacticaling still has hp as luck and skill in addition to meatiness.
5e: 'Your character's hit points define how tough your character is in combat and other dangerous situations.' 'Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck.'
If you want to change how D&D and derivatives do combat (armor and weapons etc), that's fine, but please stop basing your arguments on hp in D&D being meat points. That is to say, granting unarmored AC bonuses to martial characters when they aren't wearing armor so they aren't mechanically disadvantaged because their skills or whatever. Or that <armor as armor class is fine dot arguement>.
I'm gonna dive into D&D first. Oe through 5e.
Oe: 'Constitution is a combination of health and endurance. It will influence such things as the number of hits which can be take...' 'Hit Dice: This indicates the number of dice rolled in order to determine how many hit points a character can take.'
Oe: 'Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character is left to the discretion of the referee.' Conclusion: HP are meat and wind, but there also a lot of discretion for the ref. But how much does Oe influence the popular culture around D&D?
Holmes Basic: '[hit points] represents the amount of damage the character can take' Without basically quote the entirity of that paragrah, Holmes in congruent with Oe.
AD&D: PHB pg34 'Hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount...represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained.'
PHB: '[A] significant portion at higher levels stand for skill, luck, and/or magical factors.' '[T]he majoriity of hit points are symbolic of combat skills, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces.'
The AD&D DMG is similar but also uses an extended explanation via Rasputin on pg82.
I'm doing this in a basically chronological order. Moldvay/Cook/Marsh AKA B/X: 'Hit points represent the number of "points" of damage a character or monster can take during a battle before dying.' pg b6
Pretty basic. no Gygaxian prose telling you what. But how many people under the age of 30 grew up with this game?
AD&D 2e: 'Constitution (Con) score encompasses his physique, fitness, health, and physical resistance to hardship, injury, and disease.'
'To allow characters to be heroic (and for ease of play), damage is handled abstractly in the AD&D game. All characters and monsters have a number of hit points. The more hit points a creature has, the harder it is to defeat.'
'The AD&D combat system does not call for specific wounds--scars, broken bones, missing limbs, and the like. And in most cases they shouldn't be applied." I think this particular bit is important.
While constitution is always about physical health, & 2e doesn't go on like 1e on hp, & by spelling out what AD&D doesn't do w/ hp implying that hp is in part physical, by saying it's not recommended to do inflict injuries from hp loss. Also saying hp isn't wholly meat.
Menzter BECMI is pretty much same as B/X. And I hate reading the Menzter Basic books.
Rules Cyclopedia: 'Your character's hit point score represents his ability to survive injury. The higher his hit point score, the more damage he can sustain before dying. Characters who survive long enough to gain a good deal of experience typically gain more and more hit points'
'therefore, an experienced character lasts longer in a fight or other dangerous situations than does an inexperienced character.' That's extent to which the RC addresses hp. But just surviving an injury isn't merely physical toughness.
And you can't experience yourself to withstand multple stab wounds.
3e pg 128 and 3.5 pg 145: 'What hit points represent: Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one.
For some characters, hit points may represent divine favor or inner power.' And example of a paladin surviving a fireball as a demonstration of divine favor.
Damnit. Those are the PHB. Not going to dig out the DMG
4e: 'Hit points measure your ability to stand up to punishment, turn deadly strikes into glancing blows, and stay on your feet throughout a battle. Hit points represent more than physical endurance. They represent your character’s skill, luck, and resolve...'
DnD: the Tacticaling still has hp as luck and skill in addition to meatiness.
5e: 'Your character's hit points define how tough your character is in combat and other dangerous situations.' 'Hit points represent a combination of physical and mental durability, the will to live, and luck.'
10 September 2019
(Possibly Bad) Ideas for Troika!
Apply the concept of "just use goblins/bears reskinned" from D&D to create new and interesting monsters.
But there is no bear, so a bear is TWO goblins. And a dire bear is FOUR goblins.
Bear
Skill 10
Stamina 12
Initiative 2
Armor 2
Damage as Large Beast
DIRE BEAR
Skill 20
Stamina 24
Initiative 4
Armor 4
Damage as Gigantic Beast
Could you do better and more inline with the core monsters by using knights of road, manticores, cyclops, and dragons? Probably.
Pull mundane and magical arms from other games without converting their damage dice to a d6 while using the closest damage table to the weapon. When using a weapon with multiple damage dice, use only the highest, unless you want have murder murder MURDER.
Example:
d20 Laser Rifle does 3d8, so roll on the fusil chart taking the best d8 roll of the three. Alternately, use 3d6 to stick with Troika's d6 based everything.
d20 Beam Sword does 2d8, so use the sword or longsword chart in the same manner as above.
Is this balanced? Probably not at all.
But there is no bear, so a bear is TWO goblins. And a dire bear is FOUR goblins.
Bear
Skill 10
Stamina 12
Initiative 2
Armor 2
Damage as Large Beast
DIRE BEAR
Skill 20
Stamina 24
Initiative 4
Armor 4
Damage as Gigantic Beast
Could you do better and more inline with the core monsters by using knights of road, manticores, cyclops, and dragons? Probably.
Pull mundane and magical arms from other games without converting their damage dice to a d6 while using the closest damage table to the weapon. When using a weapon with multiple damage dice, use only the highest, unless you want have murder murder MURDER.
Example:
d20 Laser Rifle does 3d8, so roll on the fusil chart taking the best d8 roll of the three. Alternately, use 3d6 to stick with Troika's d6 based everything.
d20 Beam Sword does 2d8, so use the sword or longsword chart in the same manner as above.
Is this balanced? Probably not at all.
08 September 2019
A tweet thread that almost but is instead a blog post about inspiration for game content.
Last night I quipped about how I felt like a genius for looking to board games for inspiration, but no, it's only genius in that aside from CHESS and occasionally poker, do folks look outside of the increasingly recursive RPG hobby for inspiration.
All the best posts are started at 4am— Daniel "King of Games" Sell (@Ignus1) September 8, 2019
Hey @infinite_mao i used one of your wordshttps://t.co/qibkgN4jXR
Sure, the much vaunted AD&D Appendix N is a source of inspiration and so is classic literature, but mass market board games, possibly especially children ones, are great examples of rules & occasionally setting design/use.
Uncle Wiggly is based on a series of children's books, and was the most popular best selling children's game from 1916 until Candy Land appeared 1949. Both of which are variants of the Game of the Goose, a 16th century game played in pubs that has been constantly reskined for centuries. These games aren't complex at all being wholly subject to the whim of the dice and therefore having no strategy, but even (especially?) with games like these, the simplicity has a lot of room for expansion in the context of RPGs, particularly if you ascribe to RPGs as collections of minigames, or "D&D is not a game. It's games."
The entire hobby is an outgrowth of wargaming, and a lot of games, like Risk, are outgrowths of the same thing. Look at board games. Ask yourself, "what if we just did this thing orthogonal to the game's play?"
With respect to the Appendix N in particular in the context of a lot of OSR writing and design and what have you, like fuck Lovecraft, and fuck Tolkien, and fuck Vance (but only little), or even fuck Moorcock (although I wish more mainstream RPGs derived directly from D&D went to his writing and dumpstered Lovecraft and Tolkien). This isn't just about the racism in Lovecraft and Tolkien. They are just so over fucking done. How many folks are looking to the shit that inspired them, never mind directly trying to emulate fiction based on D&D in some inbred ourobor0s of auto-voring. Like old ass wealthy aristocrat Lord Dunsany, who inspired both Lovecraft and Tolkien could be seen as GENIUS REVOLUTIONARY simply because he's different. Like, look to the weird ass children's books from the 19th century. L. Frank Baum Oz series is full weird ass shit that frequently is weirder than the gonzo shit I see pop up in the OSR. Like, who else other than Sorcerer's Skull's Lands of Azurth?
06 September 2019
Compendium Vol II: Science-Fantasy Potpourri Backgrounds for
I got my order from Mixam Wednesday or something. Now that I have them I can do a comparison between them and the two primary Print On Demand services, Drive Thru Rpg and Lulu. These are with nearly identical files, and none of the images were color corrected in anyway and were set in RGB not CYMK.
Color wise I have a hard time distinguishing between Lulu and Mixam; however, Lulu's saddle stitching is cocked and the trimming isn't as nice with either of the two Lulu proofs. And while there is a marked and quite horrible difference in color, DTRPG's saddle stitching and trimming is nice.
Mixam is also massively more flexible with the weight and finish of the paper. What I ordered is comparable to Lulu's Premium Full Color. And DTRPG paper has roughly the same finish across the three proofs.
Pricewise, Lulu has 2-3 times the base cost of either Mixam or DTRPG.
Ease of use for a total novice, Lulu is the easiest with DTRPG being the biggest pain in the ass barring some wonkiness I had to correct with this Mixam run.
The biggest down side to Mixam is that you have to buy multiples and do your own distro, so you have stock sitting around, unlike with POD.
The biggest upside to Mixam is that past the base price, which is very very likely to be below that of DTRPG is that you don't have to give anyone a cut, unlike the 30-35% cut that DTRPG takes.
So if you like what you see, you can go here to order a physical copy for US side people.
Melsonian Arts Council will be where you will be able to get it if you are in the rest of the world.
And if it needs saying, boilerplate "Obligatory please don't hunt me down and feed me to the ghoul-bears text: Axes &
Orcs Compendium: Volume Two: Science-Fantasy Potpourri Backgrounds is an independent production by Ian Woolley and is not affiliated with Melsonian Arts Council."
From Left to Right Top Row: Mixam and two Lulu Covers Bottom Row: 3 DTRPG Covers |
From Left to Right Top Row: Mixam Color and Lulu Premium Full Color Bottom Row: DTRPG |
From Left to Right Mixam Color, Lulu Premium Full Color, Lulu BW, DTRPG Premium Full Color, DTRPG Standard Full Color Softbound, DTRPG Standard Full Color Hardcover |
Mixam is also massively more flexible with the weight and finish of the paper. What I ordered is comparable to Lulu's Premium Full Color. And DTRPG paper has roughly the same finish across the three proofs.
Pricewise, Lulu has 2-3 times the base cost of either Mixam or DTRPG.
Ease of use for a total novice, Lulu is the easiest with DTRPG being the biggest pain in the ass barring some wonkiness I had to correct with this Mixam run.
The biggest down side to Mixam is that you have to buy multiples and do your own distro, so you have stock sitting around, unlike with POD.
The biggest upside to Mixam is that past the base price, which is very very likely to be below that of DTRPG is that you don't have to give anyone a cut, unlike the 30-35% cut that DTRPG takes.
So if you like what you see, you can go here to order a physical copy for US side people.
Melsonian Arts Council will be where you will be able to get it if you are in the rest of the world.
And if it needs saying, boilerplate "Obligatory please don't hunt me down and feed me to the ghoul-bears text: Axes &
Orcs Compendium: Volume Two: Science-Fantasy Potpourri Backgrounds is an independent production by Ian Woolley and is not affiliated with Melsonian Arts Council."
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