Fantasy Medieval Glamping

We allow for a roll of each character's Hit Dice to recover/heal every morning.  The way we've been doing it you get advantage or disadvantage dice for good or bad sleeping conditions. The idea is you get penalty or disadvantage dice if your roughing it and bonus or advantage dice when you stay at a cozy inn. Normally, when the PCs have been in town and resting up for a week or two in between adventures we just say their at full health rather than roll all those dice.  The thing I've noticed is that rolling Hit Dice tends toward the average so unless their really hurt they don't roll.  Also the bonus/penalty for accommodations seems minimal.  And Jeezy Creezy, my Players do not like to pay to stay in inns. They would feel perfectly Ok about camping right outside an inn.

So, I'm going to change how camping works juuuust slightly.  Instead of replacing your current total these Hit die are going to add or subtract from your current total, and instead of getting an extra die and dropping the highest or lowest like with advantage or disadvantage you actually loose or gain Hit Dice or Hit Points.

You gotta remember that in my book Hit Points are not physical damage. Whether it’s in a knife fight or a bad night’s sleep, your loss of HP represents getting tired, sore, and stressed out. Real physical injury is something that you are only at risk of when at 0 HP.

Here are the new camping rules:

For each of the Penalty conditions that are present, it's -2 HP in the morning.

For each of the Normal conditions that are present it's +1 HP in the morning.

For each of the Bonus conditions that are present, +1 HD in the morning.

You can't exceed your maximum and you can't go below 1 HP no matter how good or bad the accommodations.

HIT POINT RECOVERY
FULL NIGHT'S REST	Penalty   (-2 HP)	Normal   (+1 HP)	Bonus   (+1 HD)
Bed	Sleeping on the ground	Bedroll or Inn common room	Real bed
Weather	Camping outside in hot or cold, rain or snow, Camping in Dungeon	Camping with or without fire in warm weather, Camping with fire in cold weather, or with tent in extreme weather, Camping in a cave	Inside
Food	Spoiled standard rations	Iron rations	Home cookin
Recreation or Activity	If sleep is interrupted more than momentarily	Evening Recreation: Music performance, poetry reading, religious ritual, storytelling, etc. *Must make noise and only one per night (+1 HP)
DAYTIME REST
Resting in fair conditions		10 Minute Short rest, max. 1 per day (+1 HP) 2 hour long rest, max 1 per day (+1 HP) Full day of rest (+1 HP, cumulative w/ recreation)
Recreation		Daytime Recreation: swimming, napping, sport, gaming, good conversation, meditation, etc. *2 hours min. each activity. Up to two per day (+1 HP each, +2 HP Max.)
Recovery		Special: for Wounded characters, a full night and day of rest counts as 2 days toward their recovery time.

Examples:

Camping in a bedroll with a fire in cold weather, eating iron rations, but sleep is interrupted:

+1 HP

Sleeping on the ground, in the rain, eating standard rations (not spoiled):

-4 HP

Sleeping on a real bed, inside, with good food and some guy reciting sonnets:

+3 HD +1 HP

A full day of rest with swimming and napping: +5 HP

This got sort of baroque, I'd like to see if I can simplify it. It does make Inns great especially for higher level characters and the recreation bit encouraged common room and maybe even camp site shenanigans.  Low level characters with just one or two Hit Dice aren't so fancy and they can get by just fine camping with some good food and a bit of music. Roughing it can whittle you down, even higher level characters over time. And everybody likes to recreate but for the low level folks it's especially beneficial!  Also, tents are handy! Also, poetry gets you bonus HP, seriously? Sure -  I'm already planning on introducing a poet who's so bad you actually loose HP, Ha!

A Tale of Two Encounters

Or, overturned DM expectations and what to do about it.

This session I tried to run a scary encounter. I set the scene by having NPCs in town describe the place the PCs were going as deadly. The locale was a half sunken derelict ship and I happened to roll bad on the weather chart so they boarded the ship under dark clouds in rain.  All was going well and at first it worked. The monster creeped out of the dark, the players made the quick decision to run, everyone was engaged. But then a regular combat broke out. The players got some good rolls and they made their saving throws against what I thought would be its devastating attack. The monster, injured and inept, slunk back into the darkness and the PCs when on with their looting. (you know, like they do)

Later I thought about the previous session when a random monster encounter at night (a throw away encounter really) turned into a tense and deadly fight ending with the Magic-User casting her most powerful spell. The PCs were aboard ship and at anchor at night, when sea scorpions crawled onto the deck. Those scorpions got a string of amazing rolls.  There were five of them and they rolled 4 or 5 natural 20s in two rounds. 20s are criticals in our game for both the PCs and the monsters.

In light of the two above contrasting examples, I've got some advice for myself and anyone else who has had similar experiences.


How to make putz monsters entertaining but not necessarily deadly:

Monster Maneuvers:
I've made inconsistent efforts to give monster "maneuvers" to spice up combat.  Maybe for putz monster encounters a natural 20 is a good opportunity to exercise this. Since my Players are used to monsters getting the same critical damage they get, I don't think they'll complain too much when something besides them loosing extra HP happens. In the example above, the scorpions could have grabbed the characters and started to drag them off the deck. That would have made the fight more gripping (ahem) and less deadly at the same time.

Monsters are Dumb:
The really scary villains are the smart ones. If some monsters aren't supposed to be all that scary by all means make them dumb. For example, when the sea scorpions rolled the first 20 against the hireling, sure that drops him but then they all move in to eat him and/or fight over the food! That makes it easier for the PCs to take them out with out putting on kid gloves, because mechanically it may be less deadly (in terms of the number of attack rolls made against the PCs) but it's still grisly.


How to make the Big Bads truly Big and Bad:

Area Attacks:
Multiple lower powered monsters can be more deadly than a single Big Bad because of the sheer number of attack rolls. One way to address this would be to give the Big Bad an area attack.  Outside of a dragon's breath weapon this is 4e style thinking that I'm going to try out in my B/X game. Sacrilege!

Dead if you don't Save, half dead if you do:
If a monster is really fearsome and it's attack causes a saving throw to be rolled, something bad happens even if you make your saving throw.  The first PC who makes a successful save may be incredulous, but if you tell them something worse would happen if they hadn't made the saving throw, then they'll be scared. And there's precedent in old school D&D, half damage from a successful save vs. dragon breath.


How to make things scary:

Do it like the movies:
Scary things are half seen in the dark before they attack.  Give them the chance to run, struggle with the door, all the horror movie stuff, and when they attack they're deadly fierce every single time. See above.

Warn them:
When all of the villagers tell the PCs how terrible and nasty the thing they're heading of to face is they'll listen.  Even if they don't, they'll remember what the villagers (or whoever) said when things go south.

This is a DM's diary kind-of post. I realize none of this is a major revelation but after having both of these encounters go the exact opposite of the way that I intended or thought they would I wanted to collect my thoughts. Of course it's not the DM's job to be set on encounters going a certain way but I think if I can implement the above I'll be able to make encounters more consistently exciting and interesting without tweaking die rolls or sacrificing player agency.

BX Dungeon Generation - Improved!

I'm a big fan of generating Dungeons in the manner described in the Moldvay Basic book pages 51-52. I use it to get the DM juices flowing. After  drawing the map and rolling for each room I'll work it over, moving and changing things, adding details. It's really quick, and because the room table is simple enough I can do it without referencing the book. There's one problem though: the process screeches to a halt with Treasure generation. All of a sudden it goes from a quick and easy roll to a bunch of percentile rolls just to figure out what other rolls I need to make.  I've started experimenting instead with this system that uses just one roll of a D20 and one or two D6 rolls.

I use a Silver standard, so if your using the old gold standard multiply by 10.  In the table below D6X or D20 X means the dice is exploding, on a roll of 6 or 20 re-roll and add the result.

D20 : GP
D6:
1:	x10 GP
2-5: -
6:	Magic/Map/Gems (re-roll D6)
D6
1-2:	Magic	MAGIC ITEMS
3-4:	Map	TREASURE MAPS
5-6:	Gems	D6X Gems worth D20X x10GP

The way I use this is to roll once per level of the dungeon for all monsters and unguarded treasure. The results are swingy enough that not differentiating between one monster or the other or between guarded and unguarded treasure doesn't bother me at all. Your mileage may vary of course. Also, as I add detail the nature of the treasure is defined. Sometimes a bag of gold is just a bag of gold, but as often as not it's actually furnishings or other objects the the PCs may miss as treasure. This along with moving things around as necessary once the basics are generated makes for what feels to me like a realistic Dungeon, but with variation that I might not arrive at if I was just making things up without the random rolls.


Usually after the rooms are keyed I go back and add doors as I feel necessary, but I think door placement could also benefit from a simple random system. I'm going to try this:

Between each room roll 1D6:
1: open
2: shut
3: stuck
4: locked
5: blocked
6: secret

This, like the room table is simple enough I can remember it without the book. The results will be varied and details can be filled in making each door as unique as necessary. Generally speaking here is how I would define the results:
Open: either an open doorway, an arch, or a door that has been left ajar.
Shut: a door that is shut but not locked. Could also be a curtain or screen.
Stuck: a door that must be forced open, usually a 2/6 will do the trick.
Locked: only a trained thief will have much of a chance at opening these without force.
Blocked: there used to be a door here but it has been bricked over or the tunnel has collapsed.. It would take quite a bit of work to make this passable again.
Secret: good old secret doors. There needs to be some kind of tell to give the PCs a clue that the door is here. In some locations they may have to declare that they are carefully examining the area just to find the Tell, in others it may be out in the open.

Trapped isn't on here. When a trap is rolled for a room it may actually be on a door into the room. I have some ideas for traps tables but as far as I'm concerned the best simplest way to randomly determine traps is the Dismal Depths Traps Table.

5e: settling for the geek ghetto when they should be owning the airwaves

Al recently posted this really fascinating list of mods to B/X D&D that Mike Mearls made to his home game in the genesis of the 5e rule set.  This got me thinking about what makes me frustrated with 5e.

Rant follows with otherwise unforgivable use of caps but I have FEELINGS:

WotC's whole marketing strategy seems to be to sell three $50 books to people who already play funny elf games.  There's no real effort to sell D&D to people who don't already have some experience with the game.  The Starter Set and the Basic Rules pdf marketed in game stores and on the internet where intended to poach players from Pathfinder, retroclones, and to pick up lapsed Gamers. You didn't get anything but a sample adventure to try out the rules and the pdf only of char gen was weird and inconvenient.  They were hoping that the geek in the game store would see the Starter set and think, "D&D, cool, I remember that.  Well I've gotten my kids into Settlers of Cataan, I bet they're old enough for this now"

And that's all great.  Invite the Pathfinder folks back into the fold.  make the OSR true believers again.  Sell to Geek Dad.  Great.  but that's not really a whole lot of folks, the roll out seemed clumsy, and what about EVERYONE else?

Oh Mearls, why didn't you throw your mods into a rewrite of Moldvay and take that 32-64 page pamphlet that has truly everything you need to play and sell it in every freaking store in America? 

If ten people buy that pamphlet for $15 that's the same as one geek who buys three books for $150.  And you know what?  go ahead and make the three $50 books.  Us geeks will buy them.  Anytime humanity is presented with a social phenomena with an inner and an outer circle there will be folks who feel they must be in the inner circle.  That's why there are hipsters.

And I mean every store in America, not just game stores and Barnes and Nobles.  Comic book stores. The magazine rack in grocery stores.  Freaking 7-11s and Circle K, heck sell to truckers at the flying J! Maybe a cardboard stand in the lobby of movie theaters.  I mean, when every movie Peter Jackson has made for the last 15 years is basically a giant ad for D&D and they've made millions and millions of dollars and Game of Thrones is as big as it is I can't help but feel like the folks at D&D headquarters are letting this cultural moment pass them by when THIS SHOULD BE THERE MOMENT.

And where are the ancilaries?  It looks like the VTT is up now, that's good.  And there is a Neverwinter MMORPG apparently to compete with WoW.  I don't know or care as much about the video game market as I do the tabletop, but it seems to me that D&D is the thing that WotC has that competes with WoW, and they might be better off making ancilary products that support it more.

 How about a web series or multiple web series? (Multiple would be great actually, to show how the game is different with different groups.  That would highlight the huge difference/advantage that tabletop has over computer games) Apparently I hit it with my Axe isn't going to be on the Escapist anymore, why not grab that up and make it official DnD?  Dead Gentlemen has made great work that is already essentially an ad for D&D.  Hire or license those guys.

Heck go all out and make a web series with Peter Dinklage, Mandy Morbid and Vin Diesel.  Put them on the cardboard stand with the Basic books in the multiplex lobby.  They'll sell like hot cakes.



Oh well, maybe for 6th edition?

Animals Remixed

Here's a little thing in my Monsters Remixed series.  This one is takes otherwise mundane animals and makes them a bit weird.

The idea here is that these animals are not necessarily a thing to fight, they're more a tool to figure out how to use.  They're the fauna version of the Telecanter's (geographical) Wonders.

Here's the pdf.

Libraries and Laboratories

Libraries and laboratories are important places for Wizards, and I have been thinking that they should figure mechanically In to the spell research system, but if the spell research system has been replaced with spell research = adventures then what do we do with the 'ol Lib and Lab? 

Library = Adventure  Hooks

and 

Laboratory = Dream Quest = How Magic Items are Made = a different kind of adventure

If a Magic-User character has access to a library then at the beginning of each session they can roll to find some juicy rumors or clues to locations of ancient treasures.  Each Library has a level. Pretend like the library itself is a Magic-User according to your favorite Adventure Fantasy Game rules. The amount of gold that the books are worth is the equivalent level of the library. The M-U can roll for a chance to find a clue to a treasure of the equivalent level by rolling under his INT on a d20, or they could try for clues to multiple smaller treasures that add up to that level.

For example, if your library is worth 2500 gp, then it's second level. The M-U can roll once to try and find a clue to a Lvl 2 treasure, or she can roll twice to try find two Lvl 1 treasures. 

There is a catch to looking for clues in shared libraries. Like if your M-U doesn't have their own library and they have to use their mentor's or the library at the Wizard Guild or whatever, then for each clue they have to also roll a d6. On a 1 or 2 there will be someone else who is also looking for that treasure.  The DM will need to roll up a NPC wizard and his or her accomplices and load this other adventuring party into the encounter tables.

Now for laboratories. These are the places where magic items are made. But I'm not satisfied with the pseudoscientific images of beakers bubbling and alembics smoking or whatever alembics do. And really it comes down to just spending GP and a few weeks.  I want making magic items to be a whole kind of adventure. Bear with me now, this thought is half formed, but I want it to be a bit like this:

"As he took his father's sword the young man thought of the witch.

It was scarcely dark in the valley when he left the Castle of Erl, and went so swiftly up the witch's hill that a dim light lingered yet on its highest heaths when he came near the cottage of the one that he sought, and found her burning bones at a fire in the open. To her he said that the day of his need was come. And she bade him gather thunderbolts in her garden, in the soft earth under her cabbages.

And there with eyes that saw every minute more dimly, and fingers that grew accustomed to the thunderbolts' curious surfaces, he found before darkness came down on him seventeen: and these he heaped into a silken kerchief and carried back to the witch."

-The King of Elfland's Daughter

I think maybe making a magic item starts just the same way that scribing a spell does, by finding some bit of lore or weird item that clues the M-U to the potential existence of the item. Just like with spells, this initial piece gives the Wizard a 1/6 chance to make the item. Finding more bits will increase his chances. Aha! Maybe the adventure hook system for libraries above could also have clues about items or bits of lore the wizard has found.

Example: In his travels a Wizard finds a few worms in a jar that appear to fade into and out of reality. But what are they about? The next session the wizard rolls for clues in his library and finds mention of phase worms, which can be used to fashion cloaks of invisibility. Now with just the worms the wizard could roll to make such a cloak, but with only a 1/6 chance of success. He instead decides to try and find more bits of lore and weird items. 

That's a wise choice, because a failed attempt to make a magic item results in a cursed or flawed item.

Alright, that's enough for now, here's more Dunsany:

"Nobody can tell you about that sword all that there is to be told of it; for those that know of those paths of Space on which its metals once floated, till Earth caught them one by one as she sailed past on her orbit, have little time to waste on such things as magic, and so cannot tell you how the sword was made, and those who know whence poetry is, and the need that man has for song, or know any one of the fifty branches of magic, have little time to waste on such things as science, and so cannot tell you whence its ingredients came. Enough that it was once beyond our Earth and was now here amongst our mundane stones; that it was once but as those stones, and now had something in it such as soft music has; let those that can define it."

What's in the spell book of the evil wizard or sorceress?

These are spells for the bad guys in pulp-inspired fantasy adventure games. These'll work best if the PCs see the evil wizard cast one on some poor schmuck, then later the PCs find themselves in the same situation.

Desiccate

M-U Lvl 2 

Range: touch

Duration: instant

The Magic-User must place his hand on the victim and hold it there for a full round. The victim may take an action during this round if they are able. At the beginning of the round immediately following the victim's body is drained of moisture and they lose 1d6 HP per level of the caster.

Optional: after casting this spell the Magic-User becomes bloated and corpulent for d6 turns after which he vomits copiously. Roll 1d6:

1-2: it's a random potion

3-4: it's poison

5-6: it's just gross

Viper Kiss

Cleric Lvl 4

Range: touch

Duration: instant

Any person kissed by the caster must immediately Save or Die as if poisoned. Their skin will turn pale and their veins will turn dark green.

Gift of the Viper Goddess

Cleric lvl 5

Range: 30'

Duration: permanent 

This spell will reincarnate one corpse into a monstrous snake-man who will do the bidding of the caster. (HD: as caster -1, AC: as chain, MV: as man x1.5) the cause of death of the corpse must have been poison or a poison-like effect.

Slime Ray

M-U Lvl 4

Range: 100'

Duration: instant

A glowing ray shoots from the caster's finger and any target struck must Save vs. Death Ray or transform into a random slime, mold or jelly.  If the victim is carrying a shield it may be sacrificed to automatically succeed at the Saving Throw.