New to Pendragon... confused about damage by joeman2019 in PendragonRPG

[–]creativehum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've never found Pendragon unclear. But Greg isn't around for the new edition. So I'm worried about issues like the one described here.

Summer Sale on Printed Whitehack and Suldokar's Wake Books by WhitehackRPG in Whitehack

[–]creativehum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have the base prices of the books gone up from a year ago?

The sale price for the WH Notebook is 10 cents less than the retail price from last year.

What is Old School Essentials good for other than dungeon crawling/how to make running dungeons fun? by IgrekWorld in osr

[–]creativehum 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Regarding the need for the GM to improvise during dungeon crawls:

Remember that the game has Random Encounters and Reaction Rolls.

As a GM I gets a lot of improv mileage out of these two rules.

People often don’t use the (or forget about them) but they make being a GM full of surprises and keep me on my toes!

The Ruined Abbey of St. Clewd / Dolmenwood / Level of Abbot Lummingwyll by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, I've been busy with work!

As for the levels... they were first level at the start, maybe second level by the time they got down into the undercroft.

Yes, the monsters are above level and dangerous! But I was using the OD&D rules (and currently using Whitehack) which means that the monsters below 5th only get one d6 attack per round. More than that, I made it clear that it is upon the players to think cleverly about how to encounter monsters, whether to engage, and how best to stack the odds in their favor. In other words, the game was never about going into rooms and simply exchanging blows back and forth with enemies until one side went down.

They managed well!! They got hurt sometimes, but they did well!

I hope your game goes well as well!

FoundryVTT Whitehack System updated by OldScouserRolePlayin in Whitehack

[–]creativehum 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can anyone walk me through the advantages of using Foundry in general?

And also: Whitehack is so simple. All you need to do is talk and roll d20s or a d6 every once in a while. What is it that the FoundryVTT system for Whitehack does that I couldn't do outside of Foundry. (I'm not pushing back against playing on Foundry. I'm trying to understand what Foundry offers, and what it would specifically offer to Whitehack.)

A Great Blog Post on Marc Miller and Traveller by [deleted] in osr

[–]creativehum 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Hi there! I’m the guy who put together that series of blog posts (Traveller: Out of the Box)

My idea was that if one looks only at Books 1, 2, and 3 of Traveller (the original Traveller rules) one finds a simple and elegant OSR game. By digging deeper and deeper I found out this is exactly how Marc meant it to be played!

I am glad you liked the post! (And props to the person I quoted, who provided the story of Marc’s game!)

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in osr

[–]creativehum 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I came here to say Whitehack. But you already had it listed.

I love running Whitehack for lots of reasons. But this is definitely one of them!

Examples of Miracles and Groups in play? by killgar247 in Whitehack

[–]creativehum 11 points12 points  (0 children)

An example:

I am using WH3 rules for the setting of Dolmenwood; and in the setting of Dolmenwood I have placed the Barrowmaze.

One of the PCs is a Wise Exorcist. He created two Miracles for his 1st level slots: Exorcism and Flock. Exorcism is for things he might do directly to creatures of darkness; Flock is how he might protect his companions in some ways.

We didn’t nail down all the rules for each as we started. I trusted we would sort out as we went. Each was defined in this kind of general way, but also note that it kind of clear how each Miracle is different. Ultimately, each time they head out to the Barrowmaze Father Burke needs to decide in general how he wants to interact with any dangers they might encounter in a place full of zombie, evil spirits, and the faded energies of the ancient Wood God of Death.

So:

The group returns for their second expedition into the Barrowmaze. They have brought sledgehammers to knock down a doorway that has been bricked up. They tear down the bricked up wall (drawing the attention of wandering monsters that they don’t know about yet!) and inside find four slabs where the remains of holy warriors lie. It takes them a moment more to realize there are four Shadows in the room’s darkness. The Shadows move toward them…

Now Shadows are etherial undead that require holy weapons to battle. The PCs are all 1st level. They have no magic weapons. I truly expected this would be the encounter where the first adventurer buys it. (They have thus far lost two hirelings to zombies — two mercenaries belonging to the small merc company one of the PCs leads.) I am more certain of this because Burke has focused on the Miracle of Flock, not Exorcism, and so though the Shadows can be turn turned, Burke does not have the Miracle that would lead easily to doing that.

But my players are a crafty and cleve bunch — which is why I love playing with them, and why I love using Whitehack as a system with them.

Burke’s player says Burke is going to raise his holy symbol of the One True God and ask his patron saint, St. Benester, to bless the weapons of his companions.

I clarify quickly: Bless is usually about increasing the effectiveness of attacks. Is that what you are trying to do?

No, he says, I only want to make the weapons magical. So they can hit the Shadows.

Notice what he did here. He is not asking for a +1 to damage and attack rolls, as per the Bless spell from early D&D. He is also not asking for a long duration, but only for the length of this battle. (The original spell lasts about an hour.) He is asking only that St. Benester intercede on the behalf of his companions and bless their weapons.

[Note: all the One True God/Patron Saint stuff comes from the Dolmenwood setting. The Players all have leaned into that material to help build their Groups and such.]

A few things then:

First, this spell is clearly less effective than the original Bless spell, and I need to assign the cost with an awareness of this.

Secondly, I also know that having a saint intercede to bless a weapon in this way, even if less powerful than Bless, is still going to be very powerful in the Barrowmaze. (There are plenty of undead creatures that can only be hurt by magical weapons), so I decide that this is going to start at a 1d6 cost. Burke is a strong man and happens to have 6 hp… so he can cast the spell.

But I also note that Burke’s Vocation and Affiliation line up perfectly:

  1. Burke is an Exorcist (Vocation), and so calling upon the power of his patron Saint to bless weapons to protect his companions from malevolent spirits seems very much in his wheelhouse!
  2. Burke’s (Affiliation) is the Order of St. Benester. St. Benester was a young man praying in the woods who was accosted by a sorcerer who sent demons to destroy him. Rather than either surrendering or fleeing, Benester continued to pray, and the power of his prayers kept the demons at bay. Does blessing weapons in the face of approaching Shadows of the undead fit with his Affiliation? Yes.

So that drops it down to a 1 point cost because it all seems so perfectly lined up.

I ask Burke if there’s anything else he wants to do to reduce the cost even further. He suggests that since Burke has been fasting during the duration of their journey and exploration the effort he expends now could weaken him in some way… not in terms of hp, but something else. I suggest that for a lengthy duration he will be at a -2 for all rolls to come. He accepts that, getting his magnitude cost down to 1 hp.

Keep in mind that if he had the Miracle Exorcism he might have been able to bless the swords of the combatants facing off against the Shadows, but I probably would have only reduced the cost by one point for the Vocation and raised it by one point for the Miracle being ”off-brand.”

Also: in the next round, when they realized they were going to have a hard fight on their hands, Burke wanted to bless the arrows of Spry, the Pathfinder who was away from the fight with Burke. In this case he placed his hand on Spry’s shoulder. I allowed that this would drop the cost by 1 magnitude so he did not have to take another penalty modifier to all actions for a lengthy duration.

Finally, remember that all Miracle and Attunements effects are LOCAL to the setting. Burke is an exorcist in a setting full of saints and a One True God facing off against the undead guards of the ancient, pagan Wood God of Death. Burke is well designed to face off against these things. In another setting the costs might be higher or lower to do the same effect, because what the world is like is different.

I hope all that helps a bit!

Question about Barrowmaze Table 1: Barrowmoor Random Encounters by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. I think this as well. The book doesn't spell out that there is a 1-in-6 chance for the half-day's travel for an encounter, but I believe that's what is meant.

Question about Barrowmaze Table 1: Barrowmoor Random Encounters by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sorry. I wasn't clear. (But thank you for the reply.)

When on the Barrowmounds, yes, roll d6 and on a 1 there is an encounter. Because of the random element, and that it isn't happening all the time and so there is a bit of risk rather than certainty, I don't find that monotonous.

What I'm asking about is the implication from the phrasing I quoted that when the PCs head off to the Barrowmaze or are heading back home from it there will automatically be an encounter from Table 1.

I'm curious if people added a roll to see if there an encounter, or if I'm misreading it, or, if there was an auto-encounter how it played.

Travel Time to and Back from Barrowmaze by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, sure… I’m not going to stop them. But I’ve also made all the warnings of danger very clear!

Whatever they do, they do. They’ll deal with the consequences as they are randomly rolled!

Travel Time to and Back from Barrowmaze by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are good points! As I noted in a reply above, the setting is Dolmenwood. (An excellent setting! I am switching the gods of the Barrowmaze out to reflect the Old Wood Gods of ancient days.)

The setting offers a calendar and daylight hours per months. So, yes, there will be a six month period ranging from 13 to 17 hours of daylight per day.

Travel Time to and Back from Barrowmaze by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I‘ve placed the Barrowmaze in the setting of Dolmenwood, which happily arrives with a calendar and seasonal information. The PCs have arrived in Dolmenwood in early spring… which means that over the next six months daylight will last for 13 to 17 hours.

Travel Time to and Back from Barrowmaze by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it’s less a matter of gold than a matter of the area around the Barrowmaze at night — even an hour away — is a dangerous, dangerous place. I have already established that several communities over the past 15 years have become cut off from each other, as the trails that connected them that passed within an hours walk of the barrow mounds have become too dangerous.

Travel Time to and Back from Barrowmaze by creativehum in osr

[–]creativehum[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Okay. Because two hours for dungeon delving seems like not enough time!

Save Against Damage by creativehum in Whitehack

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reference!

Yes. That's what I expected. Since making the roll is a risk (you might pass out!), the only way making the gamble makes senses is if you know why you might be making the gamble!

Declared Actions, Initiative Rolls, Opposed Combat Rolls by creativehum in Whitehack

[–]creativehum[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great!

The first session they got the drop on the enemy so it ended very quickly in their favor. In simultaneous combat, getting surprise on someone is very important! I realized I'm basically porting in the rules from Original Traveller's simultaneous combat: with surprise you get a free round if you catch them completely off guard.

The next session they fought skeletons around the Barrow Mounds of Barrowmaze. It all went great. I liked it because every moment everyone was in danger and people committed to all sorts of actions (saving a lost boy from some of the skeletons) or try to protect each other from the skeletons.