611 views and Stuff of Legends progress report

I did not expect this. Somehow, since the last time I checked my statistics, this blog had a sudden influx of views. Allegedly, a third of my total of 611 views are from January, but a full sixth is from the last month. I am pleasantly shocked.

So I have some news to report, particularly on the Stuff of Legends front:

First Playtest

I ran a first playtest for a friend, solo session, last week. He rolled up two character and the process proved to be several things:

• Quick. In under 20 minutes, one player rolled up both characters. Random attribute generation works well (roll 3d6, take middle) and the skills are clear enough as to make putting points into them a simple task.
• Clear. During that time, I needed to explain fairly little, as the mechanical bits were clear and self-explanatory. Those mechanical bits grew a little in size since, but more on that in a moment.
• Missing things. Mainly those I've yet to write. You can create complete characters, but there's nothing particularly definite about the entire thing.

The player had some experience with RPGs, so that contributed to the overall speed, so something to consider that, if not for the following entry...

 Not-Really-A-Playtest (Second Playtest)

I had gone to visit a friend of mine who's in the hospital for a little while. I had suggested that maybe I could run a solo session for her and she was psyched. Two birds with one stone! Her prior experience was a single session of Warrior, Rogue & Mage (by +Michael Wolf , aka Stargazer) with a pregenerated character and then a session of BareBones Fantasy (by +DwD Studios / DWD Studios) with a character she made herself, although inexpertly. In short, this playtest didn't test the system's finer points as much as how friendly it was to newbies.

The findings:

• Viscerally fun. The game now relies on rolling a dice pool that can reach 9 to 10 dice easily for starting characters. Despite what might turn out to be a bit heavy, she found the mechanic fun and satisfying. Also, adequately suspenseful when her thief was getting attacked by guards.
• Needs a rule reference. I kept slipping up some rules that are somewhat important. I need a rules reference printed out for the next playtests.
• Clear character creation. The volume of skills had increased ever so slightly between one playtest and the next, from 12 to 16, and their dynamic shifted a bit. Despite the fact, I had to explain very little and a character was created quickly and easily even by someone with less experience. Due respect for this questionnaire for providing a viscerally fun time in figuring out what kind of character she should make.

A fun time was had by both of us and the lessons from the first playtest remained while other were added, as can be seen.

I must say that I'm pleased with the game I have now. It's interesting, fun, viscerally satisfying (rolling many d6s always is) and most of all - simple and intuitive. I have other playtests with other players lined up, although lacking dates, and a distinct want to test out group play before Aethercon III and the session I'm planning on running (Rite of the Black Keep, there).

An Open Invitation

My schedule is clearing up soon and with all this free time I will need some way to occupy myself.

So I would like for you, the reader, to do one of two things:

1. Find me on Google+, or contact by Hangouts if you already know me, and ask about playtesting via Hangouts.
2. Spread the word about the first thing, so might be that you are not interested, but another person may be.

Either of these being done would be greatly appreciated, as I really want to run this game some more and work out the kinks.

One shots, TPKs and hardcore Fate Dice

So, after buying a pair of hardcore Fate dice at my FLGS (see bottom of post), I decided to break a habit and join the local Thursday one shot. What followed was a lot of fun for me and a TPK for our party of 6. I may have been the reason for the TPK. I regret nothing.

We were sent by the king, as a squad of elite sorcerer-commandos (in, for some reason, leather armors and wielding short swords), to retrieve his kidnapped son. Apparently, a sorcerer more often attributed to myth than reality is actually real. Banished from the kingdom about 10 kings prior, with a slow turnover of kings, he... I think he vowed the destruction of the kingdom? Allegedly immortal but incapable of raising a mortal army, he has decided to summon demons with a ritual that requires royal blood. Enter us, as the ceremony can only be stopped right as it happens by the heroes.

It stands to reason to mention that the game had been billed as Classic D&D to me, sans actual D&D. As far as I'm concerned, that's codeword for "if one of you survives this, consider it a group win". I acted accordingly. This will factor in later.

So we raided the king's pantry and rode out several hours, leaving in the morning and arriving during twilight to the tower of Burtos the Black (or Burtos the Saint, the king got confused). This is a surprisingly short distance, but who am I to argue with the scenario?

The tower is surrounded by half a kilometer of a medium density forest. Sizable. The forest contained a camp of 40 trolls and the tower with an entrance guarded by 5 additional trolls. I suppose trolls of this amount don't count as an army?

My character was the only one to actually scout ahead, as the others bickered, leading to the discovery of the trolls and entrance. What followed was 45 minutes of additional bickering on what plan to implement in order to gain entry. To say the group was united would be wrong.

We gained entry with some clever illusions and found that the tower, inside, was barren of any and all lighting, furniture or decoration. Odd choice for The Tower of the BBEG. We climbed a nearly endless staircase leading to a ladder. The ladder had no landing (that is, below it was nothing leading to the lower iteration of the staircase) and led to a trap door with no one on the other side. We ascended, nearly lost one of our own, and were presented with another room, this time having no real proportions.

The room had a bunch of supermassive tiles and a stupid riddle about where you can and cannot step. The riddle we very easily grasped and as we moved forward on the tiles, we discovered a very large gap between one good tile and the next. This kind of threw a switch for me, since I dislike bad base construction.

At this point, things started to go wrong. One of the players decided to test what happens when you step on a bad tile and was rewarded with a massive stone crushing his leg into paste. He barely made the first jump across a gap. We later had a second gap and this is where things went worse. We lost one man to the first gap, since apparently a very healthy man cannot jump a 3m gap, much less one made smaller by the stone that scraped my ankle and broke it. I dislike  how this GM chose to interpret the die roll results.

The one we lost to the first gap had his knee crushed and he had become immobilized. I egged the party on to use him as a bridge, corpse or alive. We killed him but were unable to stop bickering long enough to remove his crushed leg above the knee and drag the corpse away. The one with the crushed leg was about to make the jump, after another player, who could cast Telekinesis, made the jump. As the prior was about to roll, I announced that I push him into the bad tile, to get crushed. My reasoning that he would make a fantastic bridge. Saved by telekinesis and having caused 2 stones to drop perfectly into a bridge, I thought everything was dandy.

And then the telekinesis caster decided to sneak up on me with an arbitrary die roll (which I could not resist because the GM decided) and kill me. I responded in the only logical way when a character I have no attachment to is killed by a character I have no attachment to. I used my Lightning spell to take her out with me. Death count went to 3.5. The player with telekinesis was oddly more mad than I thought she would be.

The remaining were two very healthy players with Wall of Flames and Force Fists spells. And a cripple.

They passed through the next to last door into an encounter with 4 goblins. I suspect that this sorcerer did not take a course in how to defend your base properly.

The encounter saw the cripple dead and the remaining characters to go down to 10% (wall of flames) and 50% (force fists) health. The goblins were played by myself and the telekinesis user and we tried to kill the others dead.

So the two remaining characters enter what turns out to be the final room, past the goblins, and see the sorcerer just about to stab the prince. Force fists are go and the dagger is knocked from the sorcerer's hands. He looks up and says (paraphrased): "You may have foiled my plans today, but this will be your downfall!" and promptly leaps out the window, the only one in the tower, and disappears, as force fists discovers when looking out. I had no idea it was that easy to disrupt a ceremony with no prerequisite conditions.

For some reason, after very little PC-NPC discussion with the prince, force fists throws the kid out the window, knocks out wall of flames and throw him out the window as well and then every corpse he could get his hands on follows suit. And then he jumps, getting himself killed.

And that's the tale of how I believe to have caused a TPK.

I think we all had fun, myself having most of it. The GM was pretty bad and the scenario kind of ridiculous and mundane, but it was fun. I doubt any of them would be willing to play with me again, though.

The aforementioned hardcore Fate dice. Note the lack of blank sides and the inclusion of a double Plus side and double Minus side.

Valoria d20-like - Character Creation, Classes and Advancement

So I said I'd post some thing about Valoria d20-like, so here comes some of it.

After I thought about what to retain from d20 games and what to ditch, I believe I have something solid now.

Character Creation

Among the things I've chosen to retain are the 6 attributes. They are not good, in my opinion, but they serve and they are familiar enough to get things moving quickly. Also retaining levels, HD and a relatively rigid class structure.

When creating characters, you first need attributes which range from -3 to 3 for humans. This is done in one of several ways:

• Rolling 3dF is the best method, as it tends towards the center and provides a very easy way to generate a simple -3 to 3. Simulating 3dF with d6s is passable but not as good.
• Rolling 3d6 for a point pool to assign from. Start from 0 and change as wanted, until all points are spent. Negative attributes give back 1 point per negative point (0 to -1 is 1 points, -1 to -2 is another point and -2 to -3 is a third point). Positive attributes require as many points as the score you're going into (1 requires 1 point, 2 requires 2 points and 3 requires 3 points).
• A 12 point pool to assign from. Static and fine.
• A standard spread, very likely 2, 1, 1, 0, 0, -1.

Notably, the low numbers on attributes have a very meaningful impact on rolling - much more than the 3 to 18 scale of standard d20 - but that I will cover in a later post.

After you have your attributes, apply any modifiers from racial choice, roll your HD based on race, choose your first class level and add anything the class gives you, like an HP bonus and advancement.

Classes

In Valoria d20-like, the choice of class is relatively definite and final. The class you choose at character creation defines the character very heavily and deviations become slight.

Unlike many other d20 games, classes in Valoria d20-like have a specific structure and interaction. The essential structure looks like a hexagon with a central vertex connected to all outside vertices. This structure defines who is neighbors with who and what type of multi-classing that class can do. In the center is the Jack (or Jane). The other six vertices act like a color wheel: primary colors are pure classes - warrior, spellcaster and rogue - while secondary colors are the complementary mixed classes to the pure ones - warrior-spellcaster, warrior-rogue and spellcaster-rogue.

The Jack is a unique class that has no attribute requirements. It's unlikely to ever become the core class of a character, but it is possible. Jacks advance in the smallest increments but do so much more quickly than the other classes.

The other classes require either double or triple the EXP than the Jack does, advance in larger increments and have attribute requirements.

Outside the structure there is a final type of class, tied to the "color" classes: specializations. Pure classes can specialize in only their own specializations and taking these specialty classes increases EXP requirements. Mixed classes may pick from their own special selection or from either of their pure neighbors. Jacks are unable to specialize, but may take more multi-class levels.

Advancement

Advancement in Valoria d20-like is very simple: as you gain EXP, you invest it into a valid class (core class, multi-class or specialization). That EXP is taken from you and the cost of all valid classes goes up by 1 increment (2^[next level]*[base cost]).

Character receive their first advancement with their first level, so right off the bat. Each advancement provides Advancement Points, which may be spent on Primary Features, Secondary Features or Special Features. Primary and secondary cost 1 point each and special features cost 2 points, with the exception of the Jack.

Jacks receive 2 points, pure classes 3 points and mixed classes 4 points. Every specialization taken gives another point per level after it had been taken. Specialization levels don't provide points but rather give their special feature at the basest level.

There is no limit on how much of which features you take each level, except that you can't take the same feature twice in a level.

On the matter of multi-classing, you simply gain that level normally for that class, with all perks associated. The restriction is that you may not take more than a single multi-class level in any neighbor. Jacks may take 3 multi-class levels total while the other classes may only take 2. Humans receive another multi-class level to take.

I don't think I have anything else meaningful to share for now, so any comments and critique on what I have thus far will be very appreciated. Feel free to message me on Hangouts with any questions about the game.

Valoria RPG - d20-like

So I've decided to take a break from Stuff of Legends (whether it stays diceless or again returns to dice, or both) and find a less confusing RPG creation sanctuary. I tend to go a bit crazy when I don't have a project to think about on demand, and Stuff of Legends has become a bit of a minefield.

So the new project is just Valoria. Despite the mechanical baggage in Stuff of Legends, I still really like the intended setting and plan on using it for this side-project too.

I've chosen to tread familiar lands and concepts and take on creating a d20-like RPG. I say "-like" since I have no intention of every touching any die aside from a d6 here. I don't like other polyhedral dice nearly enough to use them.

There are already things I'm fairly sure I'll be doing: limited amount of levels, magic points instead of daily spell slots, somewhat customizable advancement and a different class paradigm. Nothing particularly distant, but definitely away from d20-based games.

I'll keep posting about it, as things shape up.

Stuff of Legends - More About Dice Mechanics

Apparently I still have a lot to say about dice mechanics that I didn't cover in the last post.

Effects and the Effect Ladder

How I failed to mention this, I do not know.

The effect in a roll is wide concept - it is damage, it is the amount of targets, it is a type of margin of success and essentially ties into most rolls. Below, there will also be a redux on contests, now that I remembered to mention effects.

The effect of a roll is always determined by an effect die, with one special case of the effect simply being 1 - 1 damage, 1 target, a margin of 1. This is where the ladder comes in, since there are ways to affect your effect. The effect ladder has two special notations - high die, or HD, and low die, or LD:

1 > LD > HD > HD+2

After you reach HD+2, each additional increment simply adds another +2. This does mean that you can go into an infinitely large result, but it is unlikely. There are also some special cases where you might regard several effects for the same roll. In that case, you never count the same die twice. If you have 2HD, you count to highest and then second highest.

An effect might also move backwards on the ladder. If an effect goes backwards from 1, it is Shut Down and does not go into effect, normally defeating the purpose of a roll. No effect may move backwards from being Shut Down.

Criticals, Boosts and Drops

Like in many RPGs, Stuff of Legends also has a notion of a critical success or failure.

Criticals happen when you roll the same result on several of your dice, the more of them meaning the greater the critical. A critical success (under the threshold) produces Boosts. A critical failure (above the threshold) produces Drops.

When a critical occurs, the player tallies the amount of identical dice as Boosts or Drops. If he has more than one identical set, he tallies that set separately. Each set may only be applied to one effect in the roll. If there is only 1 effect, only the set with the most tallies applies. For some titles, and in some specific cases, boosts and drops become "free" and may be applied freely. If multiple criticals are rolled for one effect and they are "free", all apply.

A boost moves the effect forwards by 1 step per boost. A drop does the opposite, moving the effect backwards. By the nature of getting criticals, a critical would always produce at least 2 boosts or 2 drops, causing any critical to be at least spectacular.

Contests, revised
I made contests needlessly complex in the last post. At least in hindsight.
New rules!
A contest happens any time two characters are certain goals, normally as opposing parties for the same one. Races, holding a door closed and other activities apply.
A contest has a length, measured in the amount of victories that are needed by one of the parties to succeed over the other. The more victories needed, the harder the goal should be to attain - a race from one end of the room to another is not a 5 victory affair, while a race across the city is unlikely to require just the 1 victory.
Each round in a contest assures a single victor for that round. Every round each participant, normally only 2 of them, rolls the respective skill. The victor is whoever rolled higher under his threshold. In ties, whoever has a higher effect wins. Effect is determined in advance, starting from LD. Certain traits may change the effect for certain skills. In the unlikely case that both roll and effect are tied, all tied score a victory. In the contest had a length of 1 victory, this will usually lead to another contest.

Now I'm fairly certain I've left nothing out.

Stuff of Legends - Magic Part 1

This post could be considered out of order in a way, given that I had said I would have a post dedicated to magic and I think this is a bit early for it. Won't be letting that stop me, though.

From the start, Stuff of Legends was designed with a specific setting in mind. While the rules have a toolbox nature, they are meant for use with the one setting. With that in mind, I looked at justifying some mechanical logic fluff wise. Most of the post below is fluff, with some pointers at mechanical implications.

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The most basic thing to establish about magic in the setting is that it is very much a science. Mana, the fuel for magic, is an environmental resource that is used by way of spells and enchantments. Much in the same way the tools that humanity developed as it evolved, the tools the science of magic provides are coherent and predictable. In the same way language can be read and be understood, so can magic.

Magic was first introduced to the mortal races by the immortal First Wizard, shortly after the Dragon Empire had come to an end and with it humanity's subjugation. The First Wizard sent out his disciples and they taught magic to any who would listen. That said, other prominent cultures, notably to the south of the Empire, had already developed their own magics, although those magics saw infrequent use due to the rarity of those who practiced them.

The magic that the First Wizard gave unto the mortals is called Scripted Magic, in that it uses magical script as spells and enchantments. Spells are inscribed onto magically charged vessels, most normally the bodies of wizards, and then tapped into using mana in order to create predesignated effects. Spells inscribed so can be removed, but remain for as long as they are not disrupted. However, that is not to say there aren't limits: there is only so much space to inscribe on and mortals have a certain, inner tolerance to magic - any more strain than they can take, both magically and mentally, is dangerous.

Mechanical Pointer: spells inscribed are limited by 2 things - how much physical space is on the wizard's body, which is their race's size, and how tolerant they are, a number achieved by multiplying ESS with INT. The resulting tolerance is the upper limit of total spell weight that isn't dangerous. Spell weight is the amount of strain a spell has on the wizard.

The method of inscription was the first thing introduced by the First Wizard to his disciples and it has two methods - the first is a "spell-free" spell, it is the simpler of the two, but requires to have mana to spare in advance; the second is physical inscribing with magical reagents, which create a temporary tattoo. In either case, something that does look like a temporary tattoo appears on the skin of the wizard and glows when that spell is cast. Wizards are known to inscribe their arms, as that's the place easiest to reach and look at, and cover their arms well so that others may not know too quickly what spells they cast. The glow from a spell will always be a dead giveaway, since it can shine through clothing.

Mechanical Pointer: in the same way it's described, there are two ways for wizards to "prepare" spells in Stuff of Legends - they either cast a spell or use the Inscription skill. Those competent in either method act quicker and do a better job. High quality inscriptions have advantages, like making casting easier or less costly.

To ease the introduction of magic to the general populace, in particular to those aspiring to be wizards themselves, the First Wizard established what is now known as the Wizardly Academium. The largest school is at the place where the First Wizard resides, and many additional schools that belong to the Academium have been built since. The fast track to becoming a wizard is by studying, for a small fee, at the Academium. Beside the Academium, there are other, smaller schools that teach Scripted Magic of their own designs. The Academium itself has 6 avenues of studies: Fire Magery, Water Magery, Wind Magery, Earth Magery, Force Magery and Practical Magery. Each avenue has dedicated parts of each school.

Mechanical Pointer: nearly every single character that starts with a magic title is bound to belong to one of the Academium's avenues of magic. The graduate will receive a title that derives from that avenue - Fire Mage, Water Mage, Wind Mage, Earth Mage, Force Mage or Practical Mage. The first five focus on those specific magics, which are the most prevalent, while the last one focuses on casting a mix of the previous five in a way that relates to practical use. Practical Mages have an easy time finding jobs.

With the prevalence of magic, and its ease of acquiry, it has supplanted technology in many places and fast-forwarded advancement. Houses are warmed with special enchantments, decorations created with magic simple enough to be used by commoners and other such basic human needs made simple. The mages of the Academium sell their services as enchanters and inscribers and the general population benefits in many ways. Commerce, travel and everyday life have all been affected. The single most outstanding effect magic has had on everyday life is that nearly every commoners carries around at least a spell or two with them at all time, normally one to soothe pain and another that fits the season. The spells used by commoners expire after a time, by design, giving the profession of inscription a place in the economy. Learning to cast a spell is easier than to learn how to inscribe it, both of which wizards normally learn. Commoners find it adequate to not bother to learn how inscribe, even it means a regular money sink.

Mechanical Pointer: nearly every single character the players will play will have at least a spell or two, likely inscribed permanently (that is to say that they do not expire).

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I don't recall what else I had to say about magic, so this ends part 1. Part 2 is likely to be a lot more about mechanics.

C&C welcome, as always.

Stuff of Legends - Dice Rolling Mechanics

I've probably should've started with this post, on some level. The dice rolling mechanics are usually one of the first things mentioned about any RPG in its back, from my experience.

Well, better late than never.

I'll start off with what I hear relatively frequently - rolling dice is meant for interesting actions. To define an interesting action: any action in which failure will produce a result with consequences for the characters. For the matter, let us take a door. Many things can be done with a door, but only certain things warrant a roll. If it is locked and between the characters and something they want, a roll would make sense. If there's nothing that the characters would actively want on the other side, no roll and probably no lock are needed. In another instance, the door is unlocked but there someone on the other side who wants to open it and it swings to his direction. If the characters wish to avoid allowing him to open the door, they're gonna want to grab that door handle and quick. This would definitely warrant a roll, since the order of who gets to the handle first is important.

Short and simple, as I opened with: if failure has consequences, a roll would make sense.

The second thing to address is additional attempts after a failure. The characters are assumed ambitious yet competent, and with that competence comes a certain awareness of when you fail and why. With that assumption in mind, a character that has failed a roll has no reason to believe that any additional attempts at his current skill level will yield different results. So, a failed roll cannot be reattempted by that same character until he has gained a rank in the relevant skill.

The Dice

In Stuff of Legends, the only dice that are used are six-sided ones, henceforth d6(s).  It is recommended that you have an amount of d6s in the double digits at the table, and at least 4 per player, including the judge. It is recommended that you have 3-4 green dice and 3-4 red dice, as they serve as advantage and disadvantage dice.

The advantage dice are added to the ones the player would normally roll and after the roll the player removes dice until he is left with the amount he would have rolled with the advantage dice. This allows a greater freedom in results and increases chances for doubles or more by a large percentage.

The disadvantage dice are similar to advantage dice, but are different in one way: instead of removing any dice they choose, the player instead removes the lowest dice until he is left with his normal amount. This doesn't guarantee an increased failure chance, but it takes a lot of freedom from the player.

There are 3 types of rolls in Stuff of Legends, corresponding to different situations: skill rolls, reaction rolls and contests.

Skill Rolls

The basic type of roll the players will make is a skill roll. They take their own skill rank and match it against the skill opposition. If their own rank is above the opposition, they have some flexibility in the amount of dice they roll. If their own rank is under the opposition, they must roll as many dice as the opposition.

Example: an archer aims her bow at a monster. The archer's Ranged skill is at rank 3 and the monster's Reflexes and Acrobatics are both at rank 2. The archer may choose to roll as few as 2 dice or as many as 3. In another case, a different monster has Reflexes and Acrobatics at rank 4, forcing the archer to roll 4 dice, despite only having a rank 3 Ranged Skill.

Reaction Rolls

In many cases, after an opposing party has made a skill roll, a reaction roll may be done. Reaction rolls are used when defending, for instance. After a skill roll was successful, the judge will usually ask if the target of the skill roll is interested in reacting. When reacting, the skill roll result acts as a type of minimum threshold: the reacting party tries to roll under their own threshold, but above the opposing skill roll result.

If the skill roll result is above the reacting party's threshold, no reaction can be made.

Example: the archer from before has hit her target with the rank 2 skills. The monster, attempting to avoid the arrow, reacts with its Acrobatics. The archer's Ranged result was 12 and the monster's Threshold is 15. If the monster hopes to avoid the arrow, it can't roll less than 13 or more than 15. Had the archer hit with a result of 16, the monster would have had no hope of avoiding the attack.

Contests

Contests are relatively short rolling contests between two parties, each aiming for a certain goal before the other. Normally, the goal is the same, like racing to the end of the street, climbing the cliff face first or reaching for a certain door handle before someone else.

In contests, the rolls are made differently than in skill and reaction rolls. First and foremost, contests have a predefined length, measured in victories, and predefined round ending conditions, measured in margin of loss. Both are predefined in advance of each contest by the judge.

The length, or victories, is how many times one party needs to win against the other. Winning can be achieved in two ways - either your succeed in a contest round and the other party does not or the other party's margin of loss is too big. A length of 1 or 2 is common, while 3 or more are exceptional.

The margin of loss is how many success ties can be had. If both parties succeed, the one with the lower result takes a disadvantage on their next roll. The margin of loss is how many disadvantages may be taken before the round is over. If the round is over by having too many disadvantages, the other party wins. A margin of loss of 1 is very common, 2 relatively common and 3 or more extremely rare.

A contest with a length of 1 and a margin of loss of 1 is called a quick contest. All other contests are simply contests.

I believe that these 3 mechanics cover every type of action that might come up - active, reactive and opposing.

As normal, critiques and comments are welcomed.