My buddy who plays guitar and recently became really interested in composing surprised me one day by asking if I would collaborate on a D&D song with him. I hesitated. I am not a song writer and the only songs I know of about D&D are mocking it and the people that play it. I told him I would try, but that I would try to make it a serious song, one D&D characters might sing. I love murder ballads and old blues and country songs so I thought I would try to give it a hardscrabble, melancholy feel if I could. Anyway, as my 998th post here's what I came up with:
Born in the mud to a crooked-eared sow
She'd cough up a pearl if she saw me now
covered in blood from my sword to my crown
I pulled myself up by travelling down.
Down, down, till we find us a dragon
we'll pry off it's scales and haul its loot home in wagons
Down, down, under the earth
we'll take what we find till we get what we're worth.
We scoured the ruins looking for thrones
and looted old tombs to find nothing but bones
The bastards I run with are all discontent
but I'll never stop searching till my breath is spent.
Down, down, till we find us a dragon
we'll pry off it's scales and haul its loot home in wagons
Down, down, under the earth
we'll take what we find till we get what we're worth.
Now, the sheriff is after me and my men
cause for each of his coins we've found us ten
but I stand here before you with this firm belief:
to take what's forgotten doesn't make you a thief.
Down, down, till we find us a dragon
we'll pry off it's scales and haul its loot home in wagons
Down, down, under the earth
we'll take what we find till we get what we're worth.
___________________________________________
I'd love for people to add more verses or do something with it.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Do Not Use?
The problem is Krenkel died in 1983. You can't ask permission to use this and you can't give him any money. Maybe his kids have set up some kind of foundation to license art. Maybe a silhouette is considered transformative and thus a new work you could use without permission. But I wouldn't bet on it.
Looking here, if 1961 was the first publication of this image (let's assume yes) then it would enter the public domain after 28 years, or 1989. But, if the copyright was renewed it won't be in the public domain until 2056.
I'm willing to wager I'll be dead by then. Someone could have been born on the day of Krenkel's death and die of old age before they could use his art for anything. Insane.
Anyway, I'll let you decide if you feel safe using this or not and gamble that my using it to illustrate the absurdity of American copyright length falls under Fair Use (probably doesn't).
New Player Handouts
I had a session on Saturday with two returning players and two players I'd never met. My buddy told me that when one of these new folks heard he knew of a DM he got really excited and wanted to set up a game asap.
In prepping for that game I looked back through my handouts, some of which haven't changed in years, and re-organized if not revised them. I thought I would share them with you.
First, there is no perfect character sheet. Or, the perfect character sheet is probably just an index card players can record info on. Well, as long as there are a small enough number of players that a DM can tell them what they need to record and what it all means. But, because you never know how loud it will be or how many questions players might have, you try to design a sheet to convey some information. I have a fancy character sheet but for new players I figured it would make more sense to use my older, simpler sheet:
You can tell by the size of things that the two most important datapoints for my game are your Life (hp) and your Armor (ac). You'll also not there isn't even a place to write down xp or money. This sheet is saying "umm, let's see if you survive this one shot before you get too attached." Probably the most complicated part is the back:
I've found the single biggest consumer of time in character creation is shopping for gear, so I just wave my mighty DM hand and say you have all this gear already. I do look longingly at some of the more random quick kit style systems that give each player different things they can work with, but the coolness of players having different toys hasn't outweighed for me the complexity it adds and the extra prep work (I'd need to print, cut out, and keep straight all those different kits).
Here is a pdf of these in case you want to try them out.
To allow for a little choice I then give them this sheet:
Ideally, this would be in a booklet I would hand to players. I had one years ago (this page is actually formatted with big margins because it was in a digest sized booklet), but the last few years I've been spending more time with the same players who have survived the brutal early game and so i need character creation documents less often.
Because leather armor and a shield is a choice, everyone but magic-users pick them. There is usually some group banter about what their third choice will be; who will get rope and who will get spikes etc.
Here's a pdf.
It does say choose a weapon and so I show them this sheet:
This is something I've revised several times. I am really drawn not just to simplify by reducing the number of weapons available, but to make the ones available unique. In other words if all weapons just do damage, then why not select the one that does the most? Using the "shields shall be splintered" rule really gives single-handed weapons an attraction over more damaging two-handers. I'm also still using the "godly people can't use sharp weapons" weird original rule so that gives blunts a reason to exist. I have some notions for further differentiation.
I understand the impulse of the DM that says "hey if you want to have a bardiche, so be it, whatever you want," I just think that if the kind of weapon they have matters so little mechanically in the game you are actually depriving them of more than you are giving them by letting them play the warrior they imagine in their head. I also understand the allure of "all weapons do d6 damage," but that is just a bit too abstract for me. I think limiting things to, at most, 4 damage categories is simple enough for most new players. Anyway, it's definitely still a work in progress.
You may notice my starting equipment sheet has a place to roll for money yet nothing to buy, but after character creation I let folks have a chance to hire hirelings. I still use the system from this post. It needs to be revised seeing as it has armor and weapons available to hirelings that are more 1e equivalents than my own system (no ringmail, for instance). And we always roll up traits using this chart. Here is the sheet I give them to record their hireling info:
And the back doesn't have gear but just space to record what they will carry for you:
Here is a pdf.
Finally, clerics in my games use a different system of asking for miracles. Here is the latest handout I use to help them track that:
Players get three glass beads to place where they want, the circles tell them what domino they need to draw from a pool to be successful.
I also have a page of spells for magic users that I haven't changed and a small booklet of possible miracles clerics can ask for which I can never find so I'm linking it here.
What else? I decided not to let players roll for mental powers this time to keep things streamlined, but that is something I let folks do when they are more experienced with my game.
And Ihave a chart of player relationships that I edited down from one of B/X Blackrazors. It's okay, I would like to revise that eventually too, though. Anyway, that is all the documents I use in creating new characters in my games.
And that pretty much sums up what I need for character creation in my game.
In prepping for that game I looked back through my handouts, some of which haven't changed in years, and re-organized if not revised them. I thought I would share them with you.
First, there is no perfect character sheet. Or, the perfect character sheet is probably just an index card players can record info on. Well, as long as there are a small enough number of players that a DM can tell them what they need to record and what it all means. But, because you never know how loud it will be or how many questions players might have, you try to design a sheet to convey some information. I have a fancy character sheet but for new players I figured it would make more sense to use my older, simpler sheet:
Here is a pdf of these in case you want to try them out.
To allow for a little choice I then give them this sheet:
Because leather armor and a shield is a choice, everyone but magic-users pick them. There is usually some group banter about what their third choice will be; who will get rope and who will get spikes etc.
Here's a pdf.
It does say choose a weapon and so I show them this sheet:
This is something I've revised several times. I am really drawn not just to simplify by reducing the number of weapons available, but to make the ones available unique. In other words if all weapons just do damage, then why not select the one that does the most? Using the "shields shall be splintered" rule really gives single-handed weapons an attraction over more damaging two-handers. I'm also still using the "godly people can't use sharp weapons" weird original rule so that gives blunts a reason to exist. I have some notions for further differentiation.
I understand the impulse of the DM that says "hey if you want to have a bardiche, so be it, whatever you want," I just think that if the kind of weapon they have matters so little mechanically in the game you are actually depriving them of more than you are giving them by letting them play the warrior they imagine in their head. I also understand the allure of "all weapons do d6 damage," but that is just a bit too abstract for me. I think limiting things to, at most, 4 damage categories is simple enough for most new players. Anyway, it's definitely still a work in progress.
You may notice my starting equipment sheet has a place to roll for money yet nothing to buy, but after character creation I let folks have a chance to hire hirelings. I still use the system from this post. It needs to be revised seeing as it has armor and weapons available to hirelings that are more 1e equivalents than my own system (no ringmail, for instance). And we always roll up traits using this chart. Here is the sheet I give them to record their hireling info:
Finally, clerics in my games use a different system of asking for miracles. Here is the latest handout I use to help them track that:
I also have a page of spells for magic users that I haven't changed and a small booklet of possible miracles clerics can ask for which I can never find so I'm linking it here.
What else? I decided not to let players roll for mental powers this time to keep things streamlined, but that is something I let folks do when they are more experienced with my game.
And Ihave a chart of player relationships that I edited down from one of B/X Blackrazors. It's okay, I would like to revise that eventually too, though. Anyway, that is all the documents I use in creating new characters in my games.
And that pretty much sums up what I need for character creation in my game.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Silhouettes LVII - More Map Symbols
Here are some more icons for use on your campaign maps. These are mostly taken from very famous buildings, which makes sense if you want something iconic. These silhouettes are all in the public domain, you are free to use them as you wish.
A few could be mosques or temples:
Some cathedrals:
A tower and castle or keep:
a possible village house and a german forest house:
some pyramids and ruins:
a graveyard:
And a wagon drawn by mules:
That's probably a bit too modern for my games but it might pass for a trade icon on a pseudo-medieval map.
These have all been added as vector graphics to the zip file linked in my sidebar to the right.
A few could be mosques or temples:
And a wagon drawn by mules:
These have all been added as vector graphics to the zip file linked in my sidebar to the right.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Procedural Lockpicking Revisited
A few years back I offered an idea of a way to make lockpicking more engaging and interesting for players. You can go back and read that post here. The problem was some of the things I say in the post (like traps at certain points in the flow chart) make it so locks would have to be designed individually, like mini-dungeons. Way too much work for it to be used by me. Zak posted a simpler method of guessing using dice and Arkhein did something as well using cards.
Both are sharp mini-game solutions to the problem of needing to make locks. Unfortunately they don't allow for something else I'd like in a solution, a way that players can get to know locks and feel like they are gaining expertise, not just their characters through abstract level bonuses. Today I offer another attempt at it.
First, if we limit the number of actions involved to 3 (I'll use Bump, Probe, and Rake) and limit the "tumblers" of each lock to 3, and even further, say that no action is ever used in a row, then we can whittle down the possibilities to something more manageable and discoverable. If I'm not mistaken the possibilities for these constraints with actions ABC should be:
The procedure to pick a lock is pretty simple, you try an action and if you get it wrong the lock gets stiff, letting you know that. If your second attempt is correct you get to go on to the next tumbler. If your second guess is also wrong the lock jams and will have to be smashed off. Here is a handout you can use to record the lock solutions for your world and give to players to record their guesses:
As you can see, I've decided that each lock type will have certain number of hit points representing durability; how much damage you have to do to just break them off. I left the action names blank so you can put in what you want (I suppose I should have done the same for the lock types).
The challenge here is to balance the complexity a player will have to encounter in trying to pick a lock and the diversity of locks available in the world. This depends a lot on how many locks you have in your dungeons and how lucky players get. They might figure out Tin locks the first time they encounter them and know them ever after. But they might not. I think I'll have to just playtest this and see how it works.
I should probably leave it at that until I try it out but I have a few more ideas.
Modifiers could increase lock diversity without increasing the complexity of solutions too much. Here's what I was thinking:
Lock Modifiers
Because there are 12 possibile solutions on our chart you could also add 6 more types of locks of just duplicate the default 6 but call them Goblin locks (goblin tin, goblin brass, etc) or Dwarvish locks or whatever.
Character Level
This system doesn't take into account levels at all, you might assign levels to locks by rolling a d10. So, for instance, giving you a 7th level iron lock. You might assigning penalties and bonuses from the modifiers chart like, locks above the picker's level act as if they are corroded or locks below your level act as if they are worn. But that might get a bit fiddly.
I like Zak's suggestion that every level you get one get out of a jam free card, but only one. That might be simpler. Again I'll have to try this out and see how fast the lock types get solved. If half the types are still a mystery at 5th level then level might not even be much of an issue-- actual player knowledge standing in for the assumed character's skill increases.
Both are sharp mini-game solutions to the problem of needing to make locks. Unfortunately they don't allow for something else I'd like in a solution, a way that players can get to know locks and feel like they are gaining expertise, not just their characters through abstract level bonuses. Today I offer another attempt at it.
First, if we limit the number of actions involved to 3 (I'll use Bump, Probe, and Rake) and limit the "tumblers" of each lock to 3, and even further, say that no action is ever used in a row, then we can whittle down the possibilities to something more manageable and discoverable. If I'm not mistaken the possibilities for these constraints with actions ABC should be:
- ABA
- ABC
- ACA
- ACB
- BAB
- BAC
- BCA
- BCB
- CAB
- CAC
- CBA
- CBC
- Tin CAC
- Copper ABA
- Brass BAB
- Iron CBC
- Steel CAB
- Strange ACB
The procedure to pick a lock is pretty simple, you try an action and if you get it wrong the lock gets stiff, letting you know that. If your second attempt is correct you get to go on to the next tumbler. If your second guess is also wrong the lock jams and will have to be smashed off. Here is a handout you can use to record the lock solutions for your world and give to players to record their guesses:
As you can see, I've decided that each lock type will have certain number of hit points representing durability; how much damage you have to do to just break them off. I left the action names blank so you can put in what you want (I suppose I should have done the same for the lock types).
The challenge here is to balance the complexity a player will have to encounter in trying to pick a lock and the diversity of locks available in the world. This depends a lot on how many locks you have in your dungeons and how lucky players get. They might figure out Tin locks the first time they encounter them and know them ever after. But they might not. I think I'll have to just playtest this and see how it works.
I should probably leave it at that until I try it out but I have a few more ideas.
Modifiers could increase lock diversity without increasing the complexity of solutions too much. Here's what I was thinking:
Lock Modifiers
- Cracked – more forgiving, first step, any action works
- Worn – more forgiving, first jam doesn't happen
- Normal
- Banded – Twice as many hit points required to smash it off
- Corroded – less forgiving, wrong action goes straight to Jam
- Spiked – less forgiving, each wrong action results in 1hp damage to the lock picker
Because there are 12 possibile solutions on our chart you could also add 6 more types of locks of just duplicate the default 6 but call them Goblin locks (goblin tin, goblin brass, etc) or Dwarvish locks or whatever.
Character Level
This system doesn't take into account levels at all, you might assign levels to locks by rolling a d10. So, for instance, giving you a 7th level iron lock. You might assigning penalties and bonuses from the modifiers chart like, locks above the picker's level act as if they are corroded or locks below your level act as if they are worn. But that might get a bit fiddly.
I like Zak's suggestion that every level you get one get out of a jam free card, but only one. That might be simpler. Again I'll have to try this out and see how fast the lock types get solved. If half the types are still a mystery at 5th level then level might not even be much of an issue-- actual player knowledge standing in for the assumed character's skill increases.
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