Fortnight of Chaos, Part I: Marauders & Chieftains

I declare the next two weeks to be the Fortnight of Chaos here on the Borderlands blog!

Long-time readers may recall that I'm a big fan of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and the original edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. So, in honor of all things chaotic, I've dusted off the old archives, and over a fortnight I'll post updated and revised Labyrinth Lord conversions from the Hordes of Chaos (2002) and Beasts of Chaos (2003) Warhammer army books, as well as the Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness book (1988).

First off, some mood music. Check out Hordes of Chaos by Kreator. If you don't like old-school thrashy heavy metal, please ignore. :-)

Today we have Chaos Marauders and Chieftains.

CHAOS MARAUDERS & CHIEFTAINS
These marauding northmen pillage civilized lands with reckless abandon. They are the first wave of the chaos horde, rampaging ahead of powerful chaos warriors and champions. Mounted marauders sometimes scout in advance of the horde, espying resistance strength and wealth potential of southern settlements.

Combat: Chaos marauders wear scant hides (consider as leather armor) and wield wicked maces or axes. Strong warriors, they gain +1 to hit and damage with melee weapons. Chieftains also gain +1 to hit and damage with melee weapons, but prefer wielding two-handed battle axes or heavy flails. Chieftains wear thicker scraps of hide providing equivalent protection to studded leather armor.

Encounters & Treasure: When encountered singly or in warbands, marauders use individual hoard class (HC) II and chieftains use HC IV. A warband consists of 8 to 18 marauders (6 + 2d6) and one chieftain. There is a 50% chance that the chieftain rides a wild horse and a 25% chance that a warband has 1 to 6 (1d6) of its marauders mounted on wild horses.

Chaos Marauder: AC 8; HD 1+1; hp 6; MV 120’ (40’); #AT 1 axe (or mace) or short bow; DAM 1d6+1 or 1d6; SV F1; ML 9; AL CE; XP 15.

Marauder Chieftain: AC 7; HD 2+1; hp 10; MV 120’ (40’); #AT 1 battle axe (or heavy flail) or short bow; DAM 1d8+1 or 1d6; SV F2; ML 9; AL CE; XP 35.

Wild Horse: AC 7; HD 2; hp 9; MV 240' (80'); #AT 2 hooves; DAM 1d4/1d4; SV F1; ML 8; AL N; XP 20. Note: These wild northern horses are not as battle-trained as war horses (no charge attack possible), but they do not panic in combat as easily as typical riding horses (morale of 8).


Edit: Products for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay game are now published by Fantasy Flight Games. Here is a link for all the Warhammery goodness available for the newest edition of the grim and perilous roleplaying game.

The D&D Next Playtest Flight 666, Part II: The Trooper

So when you're waiting for the next attack, you'd better stand, there's no turning back 

Only chickenshits run away in D&D Next. That's not old-school.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, it certainly makes for one rip-roaring time if you like to play Balls to the Wall style games. He he he.

But the chickenshit line also concisely expresses a trend many have seen in RPGs, and D&D in particular, over the last fifteen years: The numbers all go to eleven.

We all know what the influence of video games has done to tabletop RPGs. It's just like the loudness war in modern music. Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap loved it in his day. And so do the designers of the world's most popular roleplaying game these days, it seems.

When everything is TURNED ALL THE WAY UP ALL THE TIME IT GETS FUCKING ANNOYING VERY QUICKLY...

Sorry about that.

I don't like loud all the time in an RPG. Sure, it's absolutely great to see players have a walloping kick-ass time slaughtering monster after monster, their eyes ablaze with bloodlust. But at some point, the DM has to have his moment. Preferably moments ... plural.

Mine didn't come until the very end of the last playtest session. The adventuring party had finally defeated the Big Bad Guy they had been tracking down since the game started. Jubilant and exhausted -- nearly spent of spells, hit points and resources -- the characters heaved a sigh of self-confident satisfaction. The players were rather pleased with themselves too. We finally did it! All was well.

That's when the dragon turned visible and made the heroes his bitches.

Basically, I shoehorned the playtest rules by giving the dragon spells and using an obviously overpowered creature for a bunch of 6th-level characters. Just to get my mwah-ha-ha moment. Not that I mind a bit of shoehorning. That is certainly accepted amongst the old-school crowd. Give a little and take a little. Soldier on like a good trooper.

However, almost all of the appropriately-scaled-and-difficulty-ranged monsters and baddies the characters fought got mulched. To say that monsters are seriously nerfed in the playtest is an understatement. I even maxed out hit points on the leader-types. But a lot of people have hacked that topic to death elsewhere, so I won't get further into it here.

Now maybe I'm being a little bit harsh on D&D Next. It was playtesting after all.

The annoying loudness factor was way higher in 4th edition and, to some extent, 3rd edition. So far, with D&D Next, it's a softer, gentler loudness, but it's still there. The character classes -- although the designers have implemented some interesting and unique flavors -- still have video gamey power-up options geared to combat-role definitions. I'm not sure how they can put that genie back in the bottle. Or even if they want to.

I certainly hope the playtest taught the designers something. But as it stands now, I think D&D Next has a bit too much of too many things designed to please too many people.

And that is definitely not old-school.

The D&D Next Playtest Flight 666, Part I: Hallowed Be Thy Name

I arrived late for the D&D Next playtest flight 666.

It was April 2013 and I was relaxing on the beach in Varadero, Cuba, sipping on a rum and lemonade and listening to Iron Maiden's Hallowed Be Thy Name when I finished reading my well-thumbed copy of Moldvay's D&D Basic Rules. I reached into my beach bag and grabbed the file folder held fast with a thick binder clip. The folder contained a few chapters of the D&D Next playtest rules I had printed and stowed away before my wife and I went on vacation. I had planned to read through them the first day on the beach while away from the chill of Canada, but the lure of old-school RPG material was somehow stronger.

Or was it the sun and rum buzz and Maiden putting me in the old-school mood?  

What the hell, I thought, let's give this latest ruleset a looksee. Seems like all kinds of gamers on the interwebs are clamoring about it.

Fast forward a week and to the Juan Gualberto Gómez Airport. My wife and I are waiting at the gate for our return flight to Toronto (unfortunately not on Ed Force One!) and I exclaim to her out of the blue, "Hey, babe, you know this D&D Next stuff ain't half-bad. I'm digging the advantage and disadvantage mechanic. And they're doing some interesting stuff with classes, equipment proficiencies and twists to the old Vancian magic system. Very different from that 4th edition skirmish game. What a freaking gallows nightmare that turned into. I think I'm going to run a game for the guys."

She looked up from a book and smiled. "Yes, of course, dear." I think a lot of married gamer guys know that look. I kept the remainder of my geek gibberish thoughts to myself, but I had decided I was running D&D Next.

Can I make this work old-school style?

Post to follow soon ... The D&D Next Playtest Flight 666, Part II: The Trooper