Crawl Fanzine Coolness!

A pleasant little surprise awaited me in the mailbox Thursday -- the first issue of Crawl fanzine for the DCC RPG by Dak Ultimak (aka Reverend Dak) over at Straycouches Press. Visit here for the Crawl blog and for info on how to subscribe to the 'zine.

You can see from the list on the cover what the contents basically are: rules variations, some conversion notes, and a new patron.

This is the epitome of cool. I love the old-school style 'zines and Dak has done a great job with the first issue. I am just so jazzed about this, especially the black-on-black cover. Great stuff!

DCC RPG it is!

Well, I'm making the switch. My next session in the Borderlands will be played using the DCC RPG system.

The more I read the DCC RPG, the more I'm geeking on Joe Goodman's vision of old-school D&D that's not a retro-clone. I think this is a game that's been waiting to be made for a long time -- certainly longer than the OSR has been around -- and someone with the gusto and industry cred finally pulled the trigger on it.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not blindly lavishing praise here. There are some things I'm not enamored with in this game -- tables for individual spells being one that jumps right out at me -- but I'm more than willing to give this a serious shot and be convinced. And what I don't like, I'll hack anyway. ;-)

I like race as class, for one. Three alignments, for two. They're comfortable. Even if "archaic" and not as customizable to most players mindsets. But they help me feel warm and fuzzy about the system. Almost like I'm trying out Moldvay Basic for the very first time again. And there are so many other good things I've always hacked into my versions of D&D anyway -- crit/fumble tables a la Hargrave (or Fenlon/Charlton from my gaming roots time) being an obvious one.

Perhaps there is a bit of nostalgia-factor at work here, but mostly I'm liking what I've read of the DCC RPG because it seems like a kick-ass-take-names-infused-with-eerie-mess-you-up-magic goodness RPG.

And that Pete Mullen art (amongst many others in the book) just fucking rocks!

Borderlands: DCC RPG?

Sorry for the lack of posts this past month!

I have been rather absorbed with work, a cute girl (woot!), and in reading something new that arrived in the mail last week. See picture.

I am digesting the massive and wonderful tome that is the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, and pondering a game system change for my Borderlands campaign.

We shall see!

Stare into my Robes of Classiness!

I've modified some of the class abilities for the Borderlands campaign, both to add some "flavor" that I like as well as try to balance out a few issues since I've also modified racial abilities and classes and levels allowed for races (no racial class restrictions or level limits), as well as experience point totals (see last post).

"New" abilities and changes to the classes from the 2e AD&D rulebooks are described below.

BARD
Charm Resistance: You gain a +1 bonus to saving throws against charm-like spells and effects.

CLERIC
Healing Strike: Your martial zeal bolsters your healing powers. Once per combat when you damage a foe with a melee or ranged weapon, you or one of your allies within 30 feet heal 1d8 hit points.

DRUID
Disease Resistance: You gain a +1 bonus per level to saving throws to resist natural diseases. At 7th level, you are immune to all natural diseases.

FIGHTER
Mighty Strike: Once per combat you can make two damage rolls for a successful attack and choose the better of the two results. Declare the use of this ability before you roll damage.
Challenge Enemy: On your turn in the combat round you can declare you are “challenging” an enemy you are engaged in melee combat with. So long as you are engaged with it, if that enemy attacks anyone else but you, it suffers a -2 penalty to its attacks. You can only have one challenge active at a time.

RANGER
Find/Remove Wilderness Traps: You can find and remove traps in the wilderness. Your chance to do both is equal to your move silently ability.

THIEF
Opportunist: Any combatants who have not yet acted in combat are considered off-balance to you. You gain a +2 bonus to attack them.
Sneak Attack: Your backstab ability is removed, you now have a sneak attack. You deal extra damage whenever you flank or surprise an opponent. If you have multiple attacks, the extra damage applies only to the first attack.

Level     Sneak Attack Damage 
1-4         +1d6
5-8         +2d6
9-12       +3d6
13+        +4d6

WIZARD
Read/Detect Magic: You can use read magic or detect magic once per day for every two levels you have in the wizard class. This ability is in addition to any read magic or detect magic spells you prepare for the day.
Read Languages: You have the ability to read languages you do not know at 1st level. This ability functions as the thief and bard ability. Your base chance to read languages starts at 10%, and rises by 5% per level until level 17 when it is 95%; at level 18 it is 96%, at level 19 it is 97%, and at level 20 it is 98%.
Saving Throw Bonuses: If you are a gnome or halfling wizard, you lose your racial saving throw bonus against magic.

Experience Points & Accelerated Levels

My two favorite AD&D character records.

OK, I'm going to be honest here. I've basically hacked apart the AD&D character creation system, applied a generous amount personal preference and superglue, then stuck it all back together again. In a way you might call it a MacGyvered version of character creation. And probably not a heck of a lot different from what most of us have done at some point in time.

The main parts I modified were experience points, racial level limits, and class and race abilities. I also added in background options a la Rolemaster.

Today I'll deal with experience points.

I hate how long it takes for characters to reach "name" level, so I adjusted the experience point scale. Advancement is slightly slowed for the first couple levels for some classes compared to "by the book" experience, but accelerates rapidly after that. We all had a lot more free time as teenagers to play marathon gaming sessions multiple times a week, but these days as forty-somethings my players and I are lucky if we can get together once every three weeks, so leveling got accelerated. Significantly. Here is the table I use:

EXPERIENCE LEVELS FOR ALL CLASSES

		Hit Dice for …
Level	XP Needed	Priest	Wizard	Rogue	Warrior
1	0	1	1	1	1
2	2,000	2	2	2	2
3	5,000	3	3	3	3
4	9,000	4	4	4	4
5	10,000	5	5	5	5
6	16,000	6	6	6	6
7	23,000	7	7	7	7
8	31,000	8	8	8	8
9	40,000	9	9	9	9
10	50,000	9+2	10	10	9+3
11	61,000	9+4	10+1	10+2	9+6
12	73,000	9+6	10+2	10+4	9+9
13	86,000	9+8	10+3	10+6	9+12
14	100,000	9+10	10+4	10+8	9+15
15	115,000	9+12	10+5	10+10	9+18
16	131,000	9+14	10+6	10+12	9+21
17	148,000	9+16	10+7	10+14	9+24
18	166,000	9+18	10+8	10+16	9+27
19	175,000	9+20	10+9	10+18	9+30
20	195,000	9+22	10+10	10+20	9+33

In addition to the standard amount of experience points earned for defeating monsters, I also award "bonus experience" for goals accomplished (personal and party goals), role-playing par excellence, and innovative ideas. These bonuses aren't really defined or measured on a scale in advance, I tend to make them up on the fly as suits the situation.

Caves of Chaos Mutations Table

B2 cover page Owlbear by Jim Roslof

I love the fact that the dungeon in the Keep on the Borderlands is called the Caves of Chaos, and that it features an evil chaos temple and priests. This allows me to combine my love of old-school D&D modules with the uber-cool chaos mutations from the world of Warhammer.

So to inject some of that Warhammer flavor into my Borderlands campaign, I came up with a quick-and-dirty table to apply physical mutations to the chaos-aligned monsters inhabiting the caves. I use this to add some flavor and minor stat adjustments to the monsters -- and, of course, inspire some wacky role-playing on my part.

My arms from the elbow down usually seem to become eyestalks sprouting out of my head and flailing about so wildly that the poor creature could not possibly focus its sight ... but who gives a shit, it's fun!

[Steve's Note: In my campaign the majority of the monsters of the caves are allied with the chaos temple and the rest are aligned with a group known as the Claws of the Black Dragon. A couple of individual monsters (like the minotaur) do remain neutral.]

CAVES OF CHAOS MUTATIONS TABLE
Roll 1d10
Mutation (and effect)
1: Eyestalks (creature’s eyes are on foot-long tendrils)
2: Extra limb (extra attack each round; damage either as 1d4+1 claw attack or by weapon)
3: Exceptionally strong (add +1 to melee attack and damage rolls)
4: Exceptionally agile (+1 to all missile attacks)
5: Animal-like legs (can move more adeptly; add 10’ to combat movement, 30’ to normal movement)
6: Naturally tough skin (-1 AC bonus)
7: Battle-bred spawn (creature gains +1 hit die, +1 to hit and damage, and +1 on all saving throws)
8: Blood rage (creature flies into a violent rage at the start of combat. The rage lasts for 2d6 rounds; if there are no enemies left to fight, the creature must make a saving throw vs. Wands or attack an ally. The rage confers a +2 bonus to all attack and damage rolls and the creature never fails morale checks.)
9: Chaos magic-infused (creature can cast 1d3 magic-user or cleric spell of third level or lower once per day—treat caster level as equal to hit dice of creature.)
10: Two heads (creature has two heads, both on shoulders or one in chest and one on shoulders. Creature is prone to erratic behaviour because of conflicting personalities of the heads. Roll reaction checks each round to determine creature’s stance.)

Combat House Rules: Crits, Missiles, Initiative, and Multiple Attacks

B2 The Keep on the Borderlands cover art by Jim Roslof

The other day I mentioned that I don't use many house rules for 2e AD&D combat. Well, here are the rest of them. I told you there weren't many!

CRITICAL HITS
When you roll a natural “20” on an attack roll, you score a critical hit. Roll the appropriate damage dice twice for the attack, but only count damage modifiers for Strength, magic, and so forth, once.

CRITICAL MISSES
When you roll a natural "1" on an attack roll, you may score a critical miss. Roll 1d6 and consult the following table.

Critical Miss Table
1d6    Result
1    You break your weapon. Magic weapons are entitled to a saving throw. You stumble awkwardly and must recover your balance. You lose any other attacks and movement you have this round, and your opponents gain a +2 bonus to hit you until you act next round.
2    You drop your weapon (it lands d6 feet away from you in a random direction) and you are slightly off-balance. You lose any other attacks and movement you have this round.
3 to 6    You slip up a bit, but nothing bad happens.

FIRING INTO A MELEE
If you fire a missile weapon at a foe engaged in melee with an ally (or multiple allies), you suffer a -4 penalty to your attack roll.

You suffer a -2 penalty to your attack roll if your ally is engaged with a foe one size larger than him. Basically, you can target a bigger creature and avoid your ally more easily than you could if they were roughly the same size. If your target is two size categories larger than your ally, you don’t suffer a penalty at all.

A missed attack may accidentally hit your ally. If you miss your attack, roll 1d6; if the roll turns up a 1 or 2, your ally takes a shot in the back. Roll randomly to see who you accidentally hit if you have multiple allies engaged with the target. If you roll 3 to 6 on the second roll, your shot misfires harmlessly.

INITIATIVE
Side initiative rules are used for most combat encounters. One side attacks and then the other, with the “first striking” side established at the start of combat and simply repeating thereafter. Determine initiative results using the standard modifiers in the PHB. When you are alone, individual initiative rolls will be used at the DM’s discretion.

MULTIPLE ATTACKS AND INITIATIVE
If you have multiple attacks, you make them all at the same time—they are not staggered even if your attacks are with the same weapon.

Combat House Rule: Flanking

A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity cover by Jeff Dee

I don't use a heck of a lot of house rules for combat in 2e AD&D, but I do use one which (for my gaming table) simplifies the positioning and facing of melee combatants. It's called the Flanking Rule. And it's basically insta-portable into just about any other old edition of D&D or retro RPG.

The Flanking Rule goes like this:

When you find yourself engaged in melee combat with two or more opponents (you are outnumbered), you are considered flanked—regardless of whether your opponents are in front of you, on opposing sides of you, partly in front and partly behind you, or whatever. The same works for you and any allies who are engaged in melee combat with a single opponent—you all flank him.

It is easier to attack flanked combatants, so you gain +2 to your attack roll. In addition, some special abilities allow you to deal extra damage against a flanked opponent. Flanked opponents do not lose their Dexterity bonus to AC (only surprised, held, or otherwise immobilized opponents do) and the DM ignores the rear positioning and attack roll modification rules in the DMG.

It takes a minimum of two combatants working in tandem to flank; you cannot flank someone by yourself. Up to six attackers can gain the flanking attack bonus against a single creature of their size. You must have at least four attackers to gain a flanking bonus against a creature that is one size larger than you or eight attackers for a creature two sizes larger than you. You cannot flank a creature larger than this. Creatures of unusual shape or body type may only be flanked at the discretion of the DM.

Flanking Rule Exception: You cannot be flanked so long as you have an ally beside you. The two of you naturally position yourselves to best deal with your foes.

----------

This has led to a couple of other tweaks, most notably the removal of rear positioning attack modifiers and the adaptation of the thief's backstabbing ability to one more resembling 3rd and 4th edition's sneak attack [Steve's Note: More on this in a future post]. However, the main goal of this rule is to eliminate any tabletop miniature shifting/facing/positioning arguments, as well as the "no I was behind him!" bullshit that players (especially thieves) always seem to come up with.

Overall, my players and I like this simple change as it allows you to "gang up" on a foe and get a bit of a bonus. It also allows you to go "back-to-back" for safety when confronted with foes outnumbering you. Both are results which feel very old-school to me when in play.

My Sick Love for the DM Screen ...

... has ended.


For most of my gaming life I have passionately loved DM screens. Passionately. Like in a sick I so love you and you frakking scare the crap out of me but I can't get enough of you Amy Winehouse kind of way. Like most of the women I date. But I digress ...

I loved them for the artwork (both awesome and terrible), the charts, the time saved flipping through books. Screens have also been My Great Wall of Authority that protected my session notes and die rolls and scribbles and minis-waiting-to-pounce from the prying eyes of sniveling greedy players. Little in gaming could compare to the dire bloodlust and manic glee I felt while attaching tall wooden skewers to the screen folds and hanging sawed-off miniature heads from them as I mwah-ha-ha'ed my way through TPK after TPK ...What? Oh like I'm the only one who did that! Pfft, wussies.

Anyway, DM screens have been a part of my tabletop experience since ... well since I can remember playing RPGs.

But something happened numerous years ago. I stopped using a screen when I ran games. I'm not quite sure when or why I decided to run games "naked and exposed" but I did. All my rolls were visible. There was nothing hidden from the players, except the occasional "secret" die roll I made by simply covering it with my hand. My typed and handwritten notes were right there in the open (I did keep dungeon maps covered with a book or my home-made "DM Screen". See below).

And I found the experience exhilarating. So much so that I can't imagine ever going back to using a DM screen.

How about you folks? Do you still use screens? Shun them? Dress them up and make kinky videos with them? Have you changed your preference for using screens (like me) over the years?

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These days I use a two-page sheet printed (double-sided on cardstock and laminated) with all the tables and charts I commonly reference while running games. I like it because it allows me to look up stuff quickly and serves double-duty as a map "cover upper". I offer it up here in 2nd edition AD&D format.

Chaos Spider & B2 Campaign Session #1

Yesterday was the first session of the "new" Borderlands campaign. It went really smoothly considering neither the players nor myself have played a game using the 2e AD&D rules since MC Hammer first impressed upon us the need for good fashion sense with his phat pants. Or at least it seemed like that long since we played. :-)

I decided to kick-off the campaign using the Keep on the Borderlands module. Big surprise! So, of course, there had to be a bit of "deliberate forgetting" of some details since the players have played the module before. I also tweaked a few things to keep it fresh and trick the player's memories. Overall a sizable portion of the wilderness around the Keep was explored and several of the caves were spelunked and their foul evil inhabitants killed. And a maiden was rescued from the hobgoblin caves -- one of my tweaks to trick the player's memories!

We had a blast and are getting together again in a few weeks for the second session.

Since I try to present something game useful with my posts, today I offer up the Chaos Spider. This was a random encounter creature that attacked the party one night they spent under the boughs of West Warpwood (as the forest north of the Keep is known in my campaign).

CHAOS SPIDER
#APP 1-4; AC 4; MV 6 (Wb 15); HD 4+4; hp 22; THAC0 17; #AT 2 claws + acid; DAM 1d6/1d6 + acid; SA see below; SD nil; SV Ftr 4; ML 13 (elite); SZ M; AL CE; XP 420 each.

Climate/Terrain: Any non-arctic land, Frequency: Rare, Organization: Solitary, Activity Cycle: Any, Diet: Carnivore, Intelligence: Low (5-7), Treasure: Nil, Alignment: Chaotic evil.

A chaos spider has pale green faceted eyes, a brownish yellow fang-filled maw that drips sizzling acid, a greenish black chitin carapace with unwholesome growths covering its thorax and upper abdomen, and small patches of yellow bristle-like hair on its knobby legs. The bloated underside of its abdomen is a pale greenish white hue gradually fading to the darker green-black of its carapace.

Combat: In combat it attacks with its two sharp forward claws. If both of these attacks hit, the victim is grabbed and automatically bitten for 1d8 damage and injected with acid. The victim must save vs. Poison each round thereafter while the acid courses through his body or suffer 1d4 damage. The acid’s toxic effect persists for 1d6+1 rounds before wearing off.

Anyone touching the webs of a chaos spider must save vs Poison or suffer 1d4 damage per round of contact from the acidic secretions. Make item saving throws versus acid for armor and other items in contact with the webs as appropriate. In addition, the victim is stuck to the webs and must succeed at a Strength check to extricate himself.