More on Tombs of Hulkursag and setting

Before I get to the Tombs stuff, I wanted to say this - tomorrow, I'm running a Swords & Wizardry demo at Unique Gifts & Games in Grayslake, IL. It'll be from noon to 3. I have no idea how many will be out there, but I'll have my miniatures, my terrain and my quick start plus some old school stuff to show people. If you'd like to come play the Quick Start adventure, please come on out!

Now, for Tombs related stuff. Monday or Tuesday next week, I'll be sneak-peeking some art that the incomparable Mark Allen has done for the back cover illo. I'm up to 3 of the 4 pieces from this man and his work is amazing! I'm very lucky to have his services.

I am still working out the magic stuff in my head, on how to explain the differences of how clerics will be the "main guys" and magic users are going to be more demon-centric than anything else. So I thought I would talk about how demi-humans will fit into the picture.

In Sumerian mythology, the god Enki and goddess Ninmah, at the urging of the primeval sea goddess Nammu, created man to serve the gods and toil for them. Ninmah created six imperfect beings, which Enki decreed "fates" for. In an attempt of one-upmanship, Enki created up to two beings were also flawed.

In the Land of Two Rivers, 6 beings that Ninmah created form the basis of the major races: human, elf, dwarf, goblin, kobold, orc. The two races that Enki created are the basis of giants and nagas.

The humans, elves and dwarves are the favored races to serve the gods. Dwarves live in the hills and mountains while elves are a sea-faring race, found near the Persian Gulf, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea as well as on the legendary Isle of Dilmun.

The orcs are also a sea-faring predator race - fighting the elves for control of the seas and rivers. The goblins oppose the dwarfs in their caves deep in the mountains. The kobolds are like hyenas - they are pests and vermin to man, living in small burrows and constantly raiding the cities and villages.

The giants are found all over, but they are not very numerous. What they do have is a whole lot of power, strength and fearsome abilities. The nagas are sorcerous and cunning, using the various races against each other to further their own aims. Like the giants, they are not numerous.

Previews of illustrations from Tomb of Hulkursag module

Mark Allen of Marjasall Productions is producing the larger pieces of art for my Tombs of Hulkursag module. The winner of the Fight On!/Otherworld Miniatures/Erol Otus contest, he did the cover for the Quick Start (you can buy the color prints of the artwork here, for extremely reasonable prices!)[1] and he's done a lot of work for Troll Lord Games.

He's given me permission to leak a portion of the pencil of the back cover illo. In the distance, the Black Ziggurat of Hulkursag beckons to those brave enough to enter...


The inked version is going to be awesome!

And for another sneak peek, here's a tiny bit of the dungeon overview illo... I don't want to reveal too much and spoil the surprise of what Mark did...

The full view is amazingly cool - Mark did an awesome job!

The Land of Two Rivers - General Concepts

More musings for me, but I'll put them here for general comment. These are basic concepts I'll be plugging into my Tombs of Hulkursag, to introduce my Mesopotamian-based setting. This is Swords & Wizardry we're talking about (Core/Whitebox - if values or something differs, I'll mark Core rules prefixed by C: and Whitebox prefixed by WB:)

Classes -

Cleric and Fighting Man are the primary classes. Magic Users are seen as in league with the demons or the dark waters under the world. Elves are a type of human, albiet with strange attitudes and powers. Dwarfs are similar, but from the hills and mountains.

Equipment / Weapons / Armor

Economy is "based" on grain and silver. A silver "talent" is a measure of silver - everything is expressed in "s". The "currency" is silver nuggets, rings, "pieces" (think like nuggets but shaped), spheres. The silver is measured. Grains, items are traded either by their weight or their worth in silver. Copper is a less valuable metal, but is also used.

Metal items are rare and expensive. Most items are stone, clay or wood.

Armor available: Leather -2[+2], Cloth/Padded, -1[+1], Wood shield -1[+1], Leather cap

Armor less available or very expensive: Copper Ring -3[+3], Metal helmet, Metal "plated" armor -4[+4], Breast plate (adds +1 to Leather or Cloth, or is just -1[+1])

Weapons readily available: Club, Hammer (stone head C:1d4 WB:1d6-1), Hand axe (stone head 1d6-1), Light Mace (stone head C:1d4, WB:1d6-1), Spear (stone head), Staff, Short Bow/arrows, Javelin, Sling

Idea is that the stone items don't do as much damage.

Metal Weapons, less readily available, but no reduced damage: Hand axe with copper head, Penetrating Axe with copper head (use Battleaxe stats) Maces with copper head, copper dagger, copper short sword, copper sickle sword (1d6+1 Core, 1d6 W/B)

Bronze swords are considered +1 weapons. These are extremely rare.

Cleric spells/Magic User spells - more to come on this, as the cleric is going to be the "magic heavy".

microMechwarrior Character Sheet

If you have a ruleset, then the unwritten rule is you have to have a character record sheet. So here you go: [mmwcrs.pdf]

It's pretty simple - like the rules. I got look at pics of a lot of cool military body armor while creating it, though. That was neat.

microMechwarrior

This post will serve as the permanent "link" location to the microMechwarrior rules. You can download the rules by clicking on this link: [microMechwarrior PDF].

What is microMechwarrior? It is an adaptation several rulesets: 1st edition Mechwarrior™ RPG, microlite20 and microlite20 modern. In 8 pages, it covers chargen, task resolution, combat, healing, equipment, advancement and conversions to use your characters within the Battletech™ boardgame.

From the designer notes:

These rules are best used for quickly adding an RPG “rules-light” component to a Battletech game, for playing a convention game that combines RPG and the Battletech boardgame, or if you simply wish to have a quick alternative to the current Mechwarrior role-playing games. The idea is that these rules are simple and that the Game Referee will usually say “Yes” or “Roll dice” to most situations. Not all situations are covered by these rules; a certain amount of flexibility and Game Referee creativity needs to be employed.

To have the best “rules light” RPG/board game experience, my recommendation that you combine these “micro” rules with the Classic Battletech Introductory Rulebook and the Vehicle and Infantry Combat rules from the Classic Battletech Quick Start. No attempt has been made to include any of the other vehicle types, such as conventional aircraft, Aerotech or Starships. The GM should employ their best judgement and houserule as they see fit to make the characters work within the boardgame in a straightforward fashion. I’ve also left out a lot of things that are going to be campaign dependent, such as creating a unit, figuring out Battlemech assignments, dealing with salvage and a 101 more things – but these are all things that you as a GM would want to figure out either on your own or from existing source materials.

These rules have had some playtesting and I'll be using them in my upcoming WinterWar convention game as well as any Battletech/Mechwarrior campaigns I might start. Your feedback and input are always welcome to help make the rules better. I'll leave this blog post up as the permanent home to the rules, as well as record any discussion on the rules in the comments.

A character record sheet is available here.

Further legalese - Battletech and Mechwarrior are trademarks and copyrighted IP of Whizkids, FASA and Microsoft. This is a fan-derived set of houserules that I'm sharing for the general interest of others and to bring value to the Battletech game universe. In other words, I ain't makin' a dime on this and please don't sue the crap out of me.

Announcing microMW

microMechWarrior is an adaptation of 1st edition Mechwarrior™ RPG, microlite20 and microlite20 modern. In 6 pages, it covers chargen, task resolution, combat, healing, equipment, advancement and conversions to use your characters within the Battletech™ boardgame. You can get the digest/booklet sized mMW.pdf here. (Update as of 10/9 - this link has changed as the file has been updated. Errata and skill/task resolution mechanic changes)

From the designer notes:

These rules are best used for quickly adding an RPG “rules-light” component to a Battletech game, for playing a convention game that combines RPG and the Battletech boardgame, or if you simply wish to have a quick alternative to the current Mechwarrior role-playing games. The idea is that these rules are simple and that the Game Referee will usually say “Yes” or “Roll dice” to most situations. Not all situations are covered by these rules; a certain amount of flexibility and Game Referee creativity needs to be employed.

To have the best “rules light” RPG/board game experience, my recommendation that you combine these “micro” rules with the Classic Battletech Introductory Rulebook and the Vehicle and Infantry Combat rules from the Classic Battletech Quick Start. No attempt has been made to include any of the other vehicle types, such as conventional aircraft, Aerotech or Starships. The GM should employ their best judgement and houserule as they see fit to make the characters work within the boardgame in a straightforward fashion. I’ve also left out a lot of things that are going to be campaign dependent, such as creating a unit, figuring out Battlemech assignments, dealing with salvage and a 101 more things – but these are all things that you as a GM would want to figure out either on your own or from existing source materials.

Now, having said all that, let me say that these rules ARE NOT FULLY PLAYTESTED! I've rolled up a few characters and run a couple of simulated combats, but I will be shaking these out over the next couple of months to prep for WinterWar. Your comments, suggestion and feedback will be immensely helpful and earn you some credits in the book. After looking at the size explosion of Mechwarrior RPG rulebooks, I wanted to go back to something simple and microlite-ish. So here you go. 6 pages of rules, 1 page of blah blah and one page with a paragraph of legalese.

Further legalese - Battletech and Mechwarrior are trademarks and copyrighted IP of Whizkids, FASA and Microsoft. This is a fan-derived set of houserules that I'm sharing for the general interest of others and to bring value to the Battletech game universe. In other words, I ain't makin' a dime on this and please don't sue the crap out of me.

micro Mechwarrior RPG

My latest distraction - distilling down Mechwarrior to a microlite20-esque size. The actual rules for Mechwarrior 1st Edition are roughly 67 pages (not counting the fluff and setting info). The rules for the Classic Battletech RPG (the redo of 3rd edition) are maybe 150 out of 210 pages. The Time of War RPG (beta) clocks in at 402 pages! I have no idea what portion of ToW is rules vs. fluff - I still need to read through it and after doing what I just did... I'm not sure I want to.

Anyway, my version of Mechwarrior - 4 pages. The fifth page has some sample NPCs and designer notes - my fluff. Mechanics for attributes/stats, skills, combat, hazards, healing, equipment and conversion to the Battletech boardgame - check. All there. This is the set of houserules I'm going to use to run my WinterWar combo-fest, if they approve it. I need to playtest it - the skills and such are different from "stock" Mechwarrior - I use GM assigned Target Numbers (think DCs) versus the old MW 1e mechanic of the TN being an aspect of the stat. Anyway... some differences, but the basic thrust and 2d6 + modifiers mechanic is there.

Aside from scenario/campaign info that a GM would whip up themselves, what else do you need? Salvage rules? If you're doing that type of campaign, you probably have some source materials already to give you some ideas. Unit creation stuff? See aforementioned source materials. Actual Battletech boardgame rules? There are the free Quick Start and Introductory Rules downloads to get you going.

I'm so stoked about this. I need to get to work tomorrow so I can avail myself of the Adobe PDF creator and get this document uploaded and I'll throw it out there on the Intertubes. I just hope Catalyst Games and/or Whizkids don't DFA me - this is a free interpretation/houserules document meant for the same type of GMs that would like microlite20 or OD&D-esque games. If they're out there... after reading the Battletech forums - I'm not so sure? Some of the discussions remind me of 3E and 4E D&D mix/max discussions.

I mean... 402 pages for an RPG? Man, I started to go thru that thing and all I could think was we had Star Fleet Battles as an RPG now. At my calculations, my rules are roughly 1.2% the size of that big boy. Holy freakin' cow! Maybe there is no audience for microMW and I'm just weird.

(Although if anyone from Catalyst wants to hire me to create a really cool rules light version of ToW for umm... pay? Yea, I'd do that. :> )

(picture gakked from an abandoned Geocities website...)

Solo Gaming with the wife

Today's main post is about solo gaming and meeting expectations - co-written by my lovely @thePrincessWife (she of the "tie goblins up and parade them about town" gaming).

What started this post was something that Archmage writes in his blog:

We have different priorities when it comes to gaming. We both want to have fun, but our ideas of fun are light years apart. ... The mistakes I'm making when I try to run D&D with her include:
I over-prep
I say no when i should say yes
I get impatient that she isn't interested in the aspects of D&D that I'm interested in
I become upset and feel guilty that I'm not running a fun game for her

I don't know how to break out of this. Could it just be that I can't DM D&D for her? Should I try a different game? Am I just so out of practice, and so stuck in a certain style of gaming that I'm ruining gaming for her?

Trollsmyth, over at his blog, gives some great advice:

- As much as you can, outline what you want from the game ahead of time.
- Prepare to compromise, and to stand fast where it's necessary. And then honestly adhere to this social contract.
- Demolish all the boundaries you've created in your minds about what the game “must” be about.
- Obviously, you both love the fantastical, so there's some strong overlap there. Find those points of interests in the movies and shows and books you both enjoy and mine them for ideas.

So I sat down (virtually, over GTalk) with @theprincesswife (tPw) and we talked about it - this is a condensed version of our discussion.

Me: So you've had a chance to read those posts, what do you think?

tPw: I think no two people "imagine" in their heads alike. To me, the entire game is in my head. Since I don't really know (care) about the rules, it's more about the story in my head.

Me: It sounds like these two have come to the table and they have two different games they want to play.

tPw: No, I see it as the same game, two different ways to play. Imagination creates your style

Me: Right... so if they both imagine in different ways, then it becomes difficult. Do you think we did/do that?

tPw: I am sure we do. For us, yours (way of playing) does not really rub mine the wrong way. Mine pretty much just flows in my head. I think you and I are very different in how we play, maybe ?

Me: How so? [Ed. Note: I was REALLY surprised...]

tPw: I see you pouring over the books and writing them and all the rules and stuff and it just doesn't interest me. Instead, my head is always wondering, what am i gonna do when i get back to the dragon... whats next ...

Me: If I'm more into the "game" than you are, why does it work well for us at the table?

tPw: You're not more into it, just into it in a different way. I am busy picking out the pieces that interest me. It doesn't bother me - the other stuff that you are into. I'm always busy with the "story" in my head. If you were trying to push the story, we would rub.

Me: So the way we play, my interests and your interests don't collide so much. And the fact that I'm letting you tell the story helps?

tPw: It's (the story) everything to me in our game, the part I enjoy the most. You set the stages.

Me: So your expectation is to tell your story, and my expectation is to set the stage by which your story is told.

tPw: Yes. If the DM cant help the expectation of the player, quite frankly and honestly the player is not gonna have fun. They wont want to play.

Me: Right... can you think of anytime where we did rub?

tPw: Ahhh, I can only think of one time i didnt have so much fun. The whole puzzle of the doors with the statue. Frustrated the crap out of me. [Ed. Note: The turning statue in the Tower of Zenopus from the Holmes Basic book.]
Me: Right - you were pretty stumped there. What ended up helping?

tPw: My imagination was "stuck!" LOL. Your patience helped and you gave some big hints. When you're solo, you dont have anyone to bounce ideas back and forth. Sometimes the NPC has to be a player. You think it's railroading ?

Me: We've talked about that, how I worry about that fine line between you being in control and me being in control.

tPw: DM's don't want to be players? You have to, or I might as well play by myself.

Me: I do want to play.. but it's a different play. The problem I've always worried about is Tironell "taking charge" too much so that you're playing in my story, rather than me presenting, the stage for you to play your story. We've done pretty good so far though.

Me: What would you tell this couple with the game issue?

tPw: I don't know. It is kind of like giving marital advice to a couple you don't know. They are locked in their own expectations, maybe? Why should they care what the expectations are, can't they both have what they want ?

Me: What advice would you give her and him?

tPw: For her: Play it how she see's it (in her head). For him: Give a game to her how she wants it, but if he can't - he can't.

Me: True. Archmage talks about wanting to do a lot of stuff he likes. I was thinking in our game, I have alot of stuff going on that I like... but your story overlays it. I have a sandbox, but your focus is your story, so I go with that.

tPw: I get what I want, the fun imagination story, so when you put the other stuff in there it doesnt really rub me?

Me: I get what I want -- dungeons, hard tough monsters, a world that continues to revolve with or without you... some old school things like hirelings and the real threat of death.

tPw: Thats all cool to me to though.

So in retrospect, I guess what has worked for us is that I have a game where we both are getting the elements of what we want. I have a setting that I'm able to put into motion and have elements of the game that are important to me, but in reality, it's the story she's following and concentrating on (finding the murderer of her family) that sets the tone and pace. It's a sandbox with a plot that she drives.

Thank you, @thePrincessWife!