My LL Referee Screen

Since I've been so busy with other non-game-related stuff lately, I haven't had a chance to show off my AWESOME Labyrinth Lord Referee Screen, which came (pre-ordered) in the mail several weeks ago. Here it is:

The Labyrinth Lord Referee Screen!

Kudos to Dan Proctor of Goblinoid Games for making this project happen.  I have been using my screen for the past couple sessions I've refereed, and it is just terrific. It's very well-organized (my beloved reaction roll tables are front and center!) and check out the great art by Steve Zieser.  I am particularly fond of the left-hand panel depicting (what I take to be) the thief and his torch-bearing associate:

The Referee Screen interior -- reaction roll tables in the middle!

Kudos to Goblinoid Games for a job well done and a fine, very useful product!

Even Roscoe the cat is interested in the LL Referee Screen!

The Tower of Death Lives!

Sometimes working on an exciting project gets me enthused about other, related projects as well.  I suppose a kind of synergy develops; the thrill of the first project spills over a bit and fuels my productivity toward the second.

Spawn of Endra and I have been making great headway lately on the Lands of Ara Compendium 2011, due out as a free pdf in a couple of weeks.  The compiling, revising, and copy editing of the material for the Compendium has gotten me re-jazzed about The Tower of Death, my OSRCon-inspired adventure module project.  This past week or so I have taken three key steps toward developing that module for eventual release:

1.  I emailed Spawn to see if he would be interested in doing the module's cartography.  He said yes!

2.  I emailed Johnathan Bingham some ideas about the module's cover illustration, and he agreed to take the job, which will likely evolve as another full-color collaboration sketched by Johnathan and colored by his wife Daisey. Hurrah!

A glimpse of my OSRCon notes for The Tower of Death, plus some new ideas on the right-hand sheet.

3.  With these great talents onboard, I felt morally obligated (and genuinely inspired) to dig out all my handwritten notes and drawings and scribbles and half-formed ideas from OSRCon, and to begin typing them up.  I got on a roll: over the course of this week, the text for The Tower of Death has gone from a scattering of mostly handwritten notes scrawled on maps and a few bullet-pointish descriptions to nearly eight pages of typewritten material broadly organized as a module.  I have even made some expansions and revisions along the way, streamlining certain parts of the module and elaborating certain other areas that were only very vaguely sketched for OSRCon play. 

Compendium first, I know!  Nevertheless, it has been fun to let another Lands of Ara Enterprises project take me over this week, especially since I couldn't pester Spawn too much over Compendium matters as he is completing final revisions on his doctoral dissertation.

More to come!

Compendium Progress Report and Art Teaser

I am happy to announce that as of today, Spawn of Endra and I are well dug into the task of compiling, selecting, and copy editing the material for the forthcoming Lands of Ara Compendium 2011. Barring any unforeseen hiccups, we anticipate releasing the Compendium as a free pdf by the end of February or thereabouts.

Artwork-wise, Johnathan Bingham and colorist Daisey Bingham have completed a full-color cover illustration, of which a tantalizing snippet appears above. And Kelvin Green has provided us with the interior creature illustrations, my favorite of which you can also see in partial form below. Obviously, these folks' artwork is top-notch, so I only hope our gaming content will stand up to it!

"Rawr!  Out of my way!  I have to get down off this mountain and into town to download the Lands of Ara Compendium 2011!"

I Play A Cleric

So says the Spawn of Endra:

I play a cleric in Carter's Lands of Ara campaign, and Cleric is a class that back in the olden days always seemed fairly lame. Not really a super Fighter, not really a great Magic-user. Maybe with the passage of years I've figured out the mechanics that make a B/X/LL Cleric pretty awesome. Maybe I've figured out that in real life I generally act like a Cleric without meaning to. That's just how I behave. But what is it that I'm trying to do for rest of the team?

A few years back during my dissertation work in archaeology in Belize, I was talking to a newer project member who was trying to figure out how to get her project going. She had hundreds of questions about how she was going to understand the (seemingly infinitely complex) interactions between subsistence farming decisions and practices of the local Maya farmers in the village we were working with. One evening as we talked she had multiplied the questions and the possible confounding factors to the point of an intellectual deadlock. If there are hundreds of variables each varying along hundreds of confounding axes, you've instantly got tens or hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of variations to account for. And there is no way to conceive of a dissertation project that will account for them all.

I went through the ideas she had and laid it out, pragmatically. Here's what we (I) know about maize farming here. Given your interests and the questions you're posing, here's what I think you should focus on in this field season. I think you can advance these 2 or 3 ideas out of a million very productively in the next 4 to 6 weeks. You can make these the core of your proposed dissertation, and then you can elaborate on them as you learn more.

And she nodded her head and said "Okay, that sounds right. I'll focus on that."

After a little while she said to me "You're going to be a really good professor. You're really good at keeping people from freaking the fuck out."

As it turns out this is one of my talents as a teacher, in the lab or in the field. I hate intellectual panic. I hate fear of the unknown. I hate the idea that there are areas of knowledge that are only appropriate for some people and not others. I argue and act for the democratization of science, and the inherently democratizing nature of scientific practice when done well.

Coming to play a cleric after all these years of disdain for them I now see that what I describe above (i.e., my behavior) is inherently code-driven. If one doesn't want to attribute an over-arching moral code to it they don't have to. I don't have to, explicitly, when I play D&D. But I do play such a pragmatic and righteous cleric -- one who is willing to smash in heads of prisoners, fly headlong into battle, probe the inner workings of local politics on the off-days in town, to beat back panic, fear, ignorance, group-think, and superstition. Ostensibly in the furtherance of democracy. I suppose this is the Enlightenment ideal applied to D&D. (Or an Enlightenment ideal applied to D&D, anyway.)

And consider the role of Keeping People from Freaking the Fuck Out:
You Turn Undead, cast Bless, Prayer, Holy Chant, CLW, etc. You Detect Evil and Magic. Later Dispel Magic, Raise Dead, etc. Those spells cap the freak-out "Game over, Man!" levels for many encounters. And the cleric also bashes some heads in to boot. In these situations the cleric has to be the most tactically aware player to be effective -- for the party to be effective. Argues I.

So if I find myself acting like the Cleric in real life (in the field context anyway), this brings up the age-old question: "Why play yourself in a fantasy RPG when you could be anything else that you can't be in real life?"

Good point. I guess that consciously playing yourself well is a difficult first step in RPGs, and then playing someone you're not well is much more difficult. That's where I'm at.

The Assassination Solution?

I have posted before about my concerns over the Advanced Edition Companion Assassin class, and I have even made a "Decree" in an attempt to severely limit the in-game application of the class's "Assassination" ability.  Yet in explaining the Assassination Decree to Vivuli's player at a recent session, I could tell that he wasn't real happy to be losing what is probably the most potent ability the class is given in the AEC.  I empathize with him and I don't want to hamstring Vivuli, but I also do not like it when an Assassin can instantly kill a balrog or a demi-god with a single percentile roll.

Carl to the rescue!  My good friend Carl has proposed an extremely elegant solution to this problem to me via email, and I want to simply reproduce his idea here:

Here is a quick suggestion to mull over regarding "assassinations". How would you feel about replacing the percent chance to kill mechanic with an attack that does normal weapon damage +1d6 per level of the assassin? All the normal restrictions would apply as specified (the assassin would have to completely sneak up on and surprise the victim, and then actually hit with an attack). The "sneak attack" style of assassination that you dislike is pretty much the whole reason Vivuli's player selected that class, based (I am pretty sure) on a lot of experience playing sneak attack thiefs in the Final Fantasy video game series :) This removes the "magic" element of killing a creature outright and makes it explicitly about just being really skilled at doing damage to an unsuspecting target.

Replacing the chance to just kill outright with a modest damage increase would insure that powerful creatures like the demon/dragon/elemental/lava bird/thing* couldn't be killed in a single shot. As an example, Vivuli's dagger attack does 1d4 damage, +5d6 for a successful assassination at 5th level would do a max of 34 damage.

This does also keep the ability useful when used against less powerful creatures, guards and the like that would be easily dispatched by someone skilled in the art of stealth who snuck up on them and slit their throat. Against creatures of same HD, it is close to the same percentage chance of killing the creature, but at least your roll as DM when generating the creature's HP gets to go against the damage roll of an attack, instead of an instant death scenario.

One thing to keep in mind is that the Assassin class as converted for Labyrinth Lord is really weak. It is really weak in the original 1e as well. It has the same HD as a wizard, but a wizard has so many more cool powers. The assassin does thief skills like a thief two levels lower. And has worse HD. Really, the whole schtick of the assassin class is the ability to jump out and do a lot of damage in a single surprise attack. It is a limited ability - if it fails, the assassin is standing there with all the d4 HPs dangling in the breeze in front of your big bad monster. My feeling was that converting the ability to a damage increase and abandoning the percentile chance of death might make the entire class easier to stomach for you. It is a sort of specialized combat class that excels in sneaking around and being ninja-y and jumping out and surprising shit with a big attack. I don't think it has to stretch any kind of understanding of what is a magic ability and what isn't.

It doesn't change the relative power that much of the class one way or the other, but it does avoid the percent chance of instant death. It also gives you a very easy way to make sure that a creature does not get instantly killed - just give it a few extra HP!

One other nice thing is it eliminates the d30 wonkiness when interacting with a percentile chart.

Agreed, and so thanks Carl for coming up with this lovely solution.

Any thoughts anybody?

--
* The "thing" Carl refers to here is a being the Arandish Campaign group encountered in a recent session (#51).

Swamped!

Apologies for the recent lapse in posting.  This past week was the first week of a new teaching semester for me, and with two brand-new course preps, I have been positively swamped!

In quasi-related news, Spawn of Endra is away on the West Coast, preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation early next week.  As you might imagine, he has been immersed in preparations for some weeks now.

So things are busy, and in such a way as to keep us both tied up away from the blog.

But never fear, dear readers, we shall return!  I may even get another session report or two banged out this weekend -- maybe -- and I know that Spawn and I plan to hit the ground running on the Lands of Ara Compendium 2011 as soon as he successfully defends and returns to the East Coast.  The Compendium, collecting gaming content from this blog from its inception in 2009 to the end of 2011, will be released as an  exciting, art-filled, free pdf sometime in February.

Thanks for your patience in the interim.

Roscoe and Charlie command your obeisance.

Session 48: Let's Buy A Mine!

This session took place Thursday 12/8/11 and starred PCs Innominus (Clr-6), Yor (Dwf-6), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard-5), and Hazel (Ftr-4 / MU-4).* NPC Gorgo (Dwf-4, Innominus' follower) was also onboard this time.

The group began the session by assessing their long-term options and raising once again the subject of purchasing the Frigglestone Brothers' Mine outside Farn Junction. Innominus noted that moving operations to the Frigglestone Mine would put the party closer to Prince Arkus, who was currently attempting to cure the Dark Plague infesting Farn Junction, Minoch's largest city. And Yor astutely noted that the price of the mine might be extremely negotiable given the occurrence of the Farn Junction Plague.

So on the morning of Day 166 of their Arandish adventures, the party departed Arkus' Country Manor (leaving Grand Vizier Krock in charge) and headed into Fortinbras. It snowed lightly, as it would do steadily for the next three days. After making a few minor purchases in town,** the PCs set off along the northbound road toward Farn Junction, three days' journey. The trip was uneventful, and the party veered off west cross-country three miles short of the city walls. [Their route took them from Fortinbras, in hex 2116, northwest through hexes 2015 to 1916 to 1815.]

Some road chatter:

YOR: We could be walking into death.

INNOMINUS: We're always walking into death! So what?

YOR: Exactly.

They marched another half day uphill into the mountains, due west, reaching the Frigglestone Brothers Mine on the afternoon of Day 169 of their Arandish adventures.

The place was a bit run-down generally, there were signs of scuffle (even dried blood) around the front gates, and no one was in sight around the main gate nor around the two-story log-cabin style main office. Yor called out:

"Hey!"

To which there were two responses:

(1) Uphill and to the north, several hundred yards away, in what appeared to be a mine entrance a dwarfish-looking figure emerged out of the dark entrance and waved down at the party, and

(2) The main office door opened and a friendly, burly, middle-aged dwarf came out and greeted the party, introducing himself as Frake Frigglestone.

The party introduced themselves to Frake, and Yor identified himself as the dwarf interested in buying the mine. Frake reiterated that the mine had been closed down for several weeks, and that he and his remaining staff had been unsuccessful in solving the mystery of the three missing miners. Yor asked Frake some questions:

YOR: What would happen to you if this mine were to fail completely?

FRAKE: I would go to work for the Rockstone Mining Company, a day's travel further west -- I've had offers to work for them before.

YOR: Well, my friends and I could help you by taking this failing investment off your hands . . .

FRAKE:  Hmm. . . .

INNOMINUS: Frake, what actually caused those disappearances?  Was any strange, arcane, or out-of-the-ordinary stuff found near where the miners disappeared?

FRAKE: Now that you mention it . . . [yelling through office door] Warren!

WARREN: [a deep, grizzled voice from inside the office] Yes?

FRAKE: Who was the supervisor in the North Tunnel Operation the week of the disappearances?

WARREN: That would be Taggart. I heard he moved back in with some relations of his in Farn Junction after the mine closed.

This exchange concluded with Frake promising to track down the supervisor who had been around the day of the disappearances, and then suggesting that the party descend into the mine forthwith to meet up with Darvey, who was onsite at Yor's behest.

The PCs ascended the steep, rocky slope to the mine entrance, where they were greeted by a crusty, grey-bearded old dwarf named Hakler. Hakler, after complaining about how the Mining company would no longer let him go down into the mines with the work crews, led the party back to a mule-powered elevator and urged them onto it. They climbed aboard, Hakler whipped the mules, pulleys creaked, and the elevator descended.

They went down just over 200' to the bottom-most level of the mine. There they were greeted by Darvey and three other miners named Ron, Tolak, and Zarb.  Innominus asked if Darvey smelled right (i.e., dwarven, alive, etc.) to Beastarr the Bobcat -- he did.

Darvey and Co. led the party back hundreds of feet northwest down the tunnel, then due north down a 600' passage into what the miners called the "Satellite Chamber," now just a disused storeroom.  The missing miners had vanished near here.

The various party members searched the Satellite Chamber, in time finding a small etching of three pips like this:

Calling upon Endra to help him detect magic and evil, Innominus learned that the triple etching was not magic in any way, but did radiate evil.  Uncle Junkal was able to call upon his folkloric knowledge to identify the triple pips as the symbol of The Ghost Tribunal, a trio of malign spirits believed to roam the mountains of central Minoch.***  Local superstition had it that the Ghost Tribunal were, in life, powerful adventurers who died horribly at an evil wizard's tower, and now haunt the mountains, feeding on mortal people's souls.

Inspecting the north-south tunnel connecting the Satellite Chamber to the main area of the Frigglestone Mine, Innominus found, at a spot about 200' north of the main tunnel, traces of residual magical energy encircling the whole passage.  This was the very spot where some of the missing miners' clothing was found.  Innominus and Dak speculated that something had gated into the mine tunnel at this point, abducted the dwarven miners, and re-gated away.

Satisfied with these preliminary investigations, the party, plus Darvey and co., ascended the mule-elevator and exited the mine.  Yor went immediately to Frake and offered him 3,000 gp for the Frigglestone Mine.  With some help from the ever-persuasive Uncle Junkal, Yor was able to get him to accept the offer.  The party thereby obtained the rights to the Frigglestone Silver Mine.

At about this point, Hazel's player arrived, and, spurred by Hazel's thirst for action, the group became eager for some blood and violence.  So they headed north into the treacherous, snowy, monster-infested mountains of Minoch hoping some dangerous creature would attack them.

Within a couple of hours, they had their fight: four large, six-legged, reptilian creatures with long, barbed tails and tiger-like faces stalked out of the woods and swiftly attacked the party.  Innominus cast prayer, the group all leaped into the fray, and shortly all the phase tigers lay butchered in the snow.

And that is where the session ended.
--
* Due to real-world obligations, Hazel's player joined us somewhat late in the session.
** Gorgo bought +1 Plate Mail from local Enchanters, and Uncle Junkal upgraded to +2 studded leather armor.
*** Semantics Note: Innominus' player mentioned during play that it seemed strange that the Ghost Tribunal was called a "tribunal" and not a "triumvirate" or the like.  I assured him that the name is deliberate.