tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18250379669699140402024-03-18T18:45:34.003-10:00Sludge PitA partial-suspension of fine and diverse RPG sedimentUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-65016681108104558112012-02-16T11:50:00.001-10:002012-02-16T11:51:08.203-10:00Keeping it WarmAnother busy semester is in progress. I did get a recent jonesing for pen-and-paper D&D, though. Specifically, I started sketching out an interesting half-orc wizard concept, but I had no way to squeeze him into my schedule. Then I thought of trying some play-by-post--you know, just a few minutes a day as a player--and thus found <a href="http://www.thetangledweb.net/" class="outbound">The Tangled Web</a>. <br />
<br />
I've been lurking here for a while, particularly watching this <a href="http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?1583-Out-of-character" class="outbound">Arval Prison game</a>. But, though I started a digital character sheet, I haven't gotten the time to actually finish it. If I can't even do that, there's no sense joining a game.<br />
<br />
But, this brief foray back to D&D also brought me back to Zilch. I've actually been poking at that on and off for the last couple weeks, tidying things up here and there. It's still rather quirky in spots, but I like it, even after a long break. So I'm keeping that warm and we'll see what happens.<br />
<br />
I've got a few programming, TA, and course projects building up, though, so it looks like I'll need to put the RPGing back down again for a while. Damn, there's just not enough time in the day anymore!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-58943497889546082182012-01-16T21:22:00.000-10:002014-07-07T17:55:13.281-10:00cRPG: Running Diablo 1 on Windows 7<p>There's a fair amount of scattered, occasionally-conflicting information about running Diablo 1 (the first Diablo game) under Windows 7. (If you found this post, you've probably already seen some of this info.) Here are my experiences.<br />
<p><i>Out of the Box:</i><br />
Diablo 1 will install and run under Windows 7. However, the original unpatched version of the game stores multiplayer character files in the WINDOWS directory. This means you have to run the game as Administrator. (Running the game from the CD automatically prompts you to do this.) If you don't, you won't be able to create a new multiplayer character or see any of the multiplayer characters you created during previous sessions. (I haven't messed with single player.)<br />
<p>Connecting to Battle.net results in a long pause with the message "Searching for the fastest Battle.net server...", which eventually times out after about 1 minute with a "Could not connect" error message.<br />
<p>It is also not possible to play multiplayer across a LAN using IPX because Windows 7 no longer supports IPX. I installed <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">Windows XP Mode with Virtual PC</a>. While this allows for IPX, it is not a solution because DirectX will not work under XP Mode. This means the game won't even start under virtual XP.<br />
<p><i>IPXWrapper:</i><br />
Instead, I went back to Windows 7 and used <a href="http://www.solemnwarning.net/ipxwrapper/">IPXWrapper</a>. You just need to copy the 3 provided .dll files into your Diablo directory to do this. (This code seems safe. I skimmed the source, which is well-formatted, and I didn't notice anything obviously strange. I haven't had any strange new processes or network connections made since running it, either.)<br />
<p>I was trying to play Diablo between a Windows 7 and a Windows XP machine. Note that IPXWrapper is tunneling IPX over UDP, so you can't play using IPXWrapper with a machine that is natively running IPX. All the machines involved need to be using IPXWrapper. But using IPXWrapper is actually easier than installing and configuring IPX on Windows XP anyway, so this is not a hardship once you know about it.<br />
<p><i>Patching:</i><br />
Having to run Diablo as Administrator annoyed me somewhat. I was also curious if I could get Battle.net to work. (It is no longer listed even on the <a href="http://us.battle.net/en/games/classic">Battle.net Classic</a> site).<br />
<p>Installing <a href="http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=20832">the latest patch</a> to 1.09 means Diablo will now save multiplayer characters in the diablo/ game directory. Thus, running as Administrator is no longer required. Also, I could now connect to a Battle.net server. (I did not bother actually creating an account and logging on, though.)<br />
<p><i>Bad/Broken Colors:</i><br />
Patching breaks the color palette, though. This is obvious in the opening Blizzard animation and in the game itself (though the pre-game menus look fine). Some have reported luck with the Compatibility settings, but none of the combos I tried worked for me. (For example, setting the mode to Win98 or earlier meant the game couldn't find the CD-ROM anymore.) <br />
<p>The weird trick some have reported of opening the Windows Screen Resolution settings window and leaving it open in the background also did not fix this for me.<br />
<p>(<i>2014-06 Update: The explorer-based fix below no longer works on my system. However, see Mary's comment on this post about a simple registry fix from Blizzard that solves this problem.)</i>
<p>What did work was: start Diablo, Alt-Tab and open the system Task Manager, and kill explorer.exe. Then Alt-Tab back to a correctly-colored Diablo. (Weird, I know.) When you're done with the game, you can return to the task manager and File -> New Task (Run...) -> explorer.exe again to bring back your task bar, etc. <br />
<p>As reported elsewhere, you can automate all this with a simple batch file. Save the following into a file named diablo.bat in your Diablo game directory:<br />
<pre>taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
diablo.exe
pause
start explorer.exe
</pre><p>You can now change your start menu shortcut to point to diablo.bat instead of diable.exe. You just have to hit any key in the console window after you quit Diablo bring back explorer. (Annoying side-effect: this closes any open Windows Explorer windows too.)<br />
<p>All told, unless you are running into some of the game bugs fixed by the patch or want Battle.net access, it's probably easier to just set the original unpatched version to run with Administrator priviledges. Also, if you do patch, all games must be patched to the same level to play over IPX.<br />
<p><br><br />
On a related sidenote, Diablo 2 runs fine for me out of the box under Windows 7.<br />
</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-24708721390275263652012-01-16T21:16:00.000-10:002012-01-16T21:16:06.614-10:00cRPGs: The best solo play solution?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><p>It's been a long time. I spent the summer finishing up my dissertation, and then I started another degree in the fall. The combination of teaching, taking classes, and trying to do research consumed me. I haven't had any time for gaming in months--and that sucks.<br />
<p>The last project I worked on during the summer was a playing-card-based dungeon-generation system. The idea is to quickly generate rooms, encounters, features, etc. I've been browsing a few other card-based approaches, and even found a Sudoku-based approach. <br />
<p>My idea here is that a gaming/generation system that allows for solo-play would also allow for GM-less group-play. But the trick here is balancing random generation with pre-stacking the deck and interpreting the results. Too much randomness sucks, producing a stale or discordant dungeon experience without a decent story behind it. Too much interpretation requires the player(s) to be rather schizophrenic, switching between omniscient DM and world-ignorant character. <br />
<p>So what's the best blend here for solo play?<br />
<p><i>Random generation:</i> Dungeon-generation tables have been around for decades, and now numerous online apps will do all the tedious rolls and lookups for you. However, I find the results to be exactly that: random, discordant dungeons that you have to grind through. They usually lack structure--both narratively in terms of the quest/story and logically in terms of architecture and monster assortment. Simply replacing a dungeon generation die-roll table with cards won't improve this random flavor at all. There needs to be some way to tweak or interpret the cards--either beforehand or during the game--to produce a coherent emergent structure.<br />
<p><i>Solitaire systems:</i> This is includes Choose Your Own Adventure books, gamebooks, solitaire adventure scenarios, etc. These have a pre-authored plot, and so the quality is better than random generation. But your options tend to be rather limited here to a couple options at a time. More than this and you need to start DMing in order to keep the story moving along its designed path. But DMing requires knowledge of the story, which brings us back to the schizophrenic scenario of solo DM/player.<br />
<p><i>Balance:</i> So, again, how to balance author-provided quality with user choices and the openness of random generation?<br />
<p>For a little more money, there's a lot of board-game-like dungeon games out there which shoot for this. They provide a quest structure and then board-game rules for playing out the encounters along the way. Indeed, these were the original inspiration for my home-brewed zilch/card-generation system.<br />
<p>But there's another genre out there that does this even better: computer games! Aren't these the perfect solo RPG experience? Rich immersive multimedia experience, randomly generated content for maximum replay value, all with an authored storyline laid over it. Why not just play cRPGs then?<br />
<p>I've already started this exploration. I'm looking at NetHack, Diablo, DiabloII, and NWN. I already know that there's something different about a solitaire table-top RPG vs a cRPG experience, but I'd like to try to nail down just what that is.<br />
<p>I'll let you know what I find out...<br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-16704571163274988312011-08-15T09:14:00.003-10:002011-08-15T09:23:58.783-10:00DRYH: Car Ride Session [backlog]In July 2010, three of us played a little <i>Don't Rest Your Head</i> on a long car ride. Mechanically, this worked very well, as there's not much overhead. I used a cup to hold and roll the <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2008/04/making-cheap-dice.html">mini-dice I created previously</a>. I GMed from the back seat. I didn't have a preset story and just planned to improvise.
<br />
<br />My two players created some very interesting characters.
<br />
<br /><i>Brett</i>: John Hannigan
<br /><i>Surface</i>: Homeless war vet: scraggly, scars, limpy, quiet. 15 years since the war. Has a shopping cart. Carries a book from/by sister Laura (about 28 years old) which he also uses as a sort of journal. It has old letters stuck in among the pages.
<br /><i>Beneath</i>: Memory is slipping away. Feels vague guilt over the death of his brother Tom (fled?). Laura's letters stopped coming recently.
<br /><i>Insomnia</i>: Nightmares about Tom's face. Sees bright/flashing lights while awake. Recently saw a "nice lady" too.
<br /><i>Path/Goal</i>: Find Laura and explain (to her?) about Tom.
<br /><i>Just Happened</i>: A bright light while crossing the street, now shopping cart is gone. Only book remains.
<br /><i>Exhaustion talent</i>: Heightened Senses
<br /><i>Madness talent</i>: Draw something in his book and it becomes real
<br /><i>Respones</i>: 1 fight, 2 flight.
<br />
<br /><i>Becky</i>: Eli Fox
<br /><i>Surface</i>: Upper-middle class white architect. Attractive in his business suit. Early 40s. Drives into city for the week. Works long hours. Married for 8 years. (Wife?) married young.
<br /><i>Beneath</i>: Distrusts wife. Has been drinking a lot and has a coke habit. Wants to kill wife and lover. Bought a gun recently.
<br /><i>Insomnia</i>: Walked in on wife and another man (a stranger).
<br /><i>Path/Goal</i>: Revenge and closure on infidelity
<br /><i>Just happened</i>: Hit someone with his car, and ran, taking his gun with him.
<br /><i>Exhaustion talent</i>: Persuasive/smooth-talking
<br /><i>Madness talent</i>: Endurance/resistance/strength
<br /><i>Responses</i>: 2 fight, 1 flight
<br />
<br />I was impressed by these characters, but I found it hard to bring them together. They started separately, after Eli crashed through John's shopping cart. John followed a wandering PaperBoy into an old gas-lit subway entrance. Eli got picked up one of Tock's clockwork patrolmen.
<br />
<br />Improvising as I went, I had a very hard time bringing these two characters back together. Even after a long roadside break and some pondering, the story never really picked up again. I had some ideas that Eli would get involved with the Ladies-in-Hating--probably through one that looked like his wife--and possibly dealing with Mother When. Mother When would also work for John's story of loss--possibly reached through lost Mad City children and the Finishing School. I also had some interesting custom nightmare thoughts for John: a War Monger and a number of Leaf Tenants (play on the word Lieutenants, in light of the British pronunciation, "leaving", and tenements.) that burn in horrible conflagrations. This would somehow tie into John's war experience.
<br />
<br />But these ideas never really picked up steam. I eventually got Eli and John together using a previously conceived nightmare/local of my own design: Benjamin "Button" Bridges, who runs a small warehouse of buttons, each imbued with a different memory or dream experience. As I recall [it's been over a year now], Tock's men came knocking on the warehouse door and John and Eli fled. I think things ended there, because I hadn't yet managed to give them a solid hook to tie them together and drive them into a story.
<br />
<br />The main reason I'm blogging all of this now is as a reminder to myself of the agony of improvised GMing. I still think I had some rich characters, willing players, and some decent general ideas here. But I just couldn't pull it all together in time on the fly. Any GM-improvising system/tool should help with this sort of problem: not just generating ideas, but pulling them together too.
<br />
<br />Another lesson is a variation on that old chestnut: "Never split the party." In this case, I think starting with the party together and firm goal would have helped a lot. Bouncing narration back and forth between two storylines sucks.
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-10898141858165976042011-08-15T09:11:00.004-10:002011-08-15T09:43:03.056-10:00Resurrection (again)I've been busy this past year finishing up my PhD work. There were few gaming thoughts to report during that time. That work is all behind me now, though, so hopefully I'll get back into things here.
<br />
<br />In the past year, I've been working on zilch some more. It has split into two components now: a very lite simple nearly-boardgame core and then a number of cleanly modular optional rules to turn it into more of a lite RPG system. The core portion is pretty much done, though it hasn't been tested much yet. The RPG portion is fairly well sketched out but still largely in pieces.
<br />
<br />Last month, B. and I sat down one night after a couple beers and whipped up a quick session. We only made it through a couple combats, but things went fairly smoothly there. I was also trying a card-based dungeon generation idea I had (which is also still largely in pieces). An hour or so wasn't enough to tell whether either zilch or the generation system are any good, but at least they didn't seem obvious broken. (We did have to fix the default zilch character generation rules a bit, though.)
<br />
<br />B. and I have also been playing D&D by email. I've found this works out quite well. It takes about 1 hour per round/email. I always group his characters together in the initiative order (which is fine, as they only differ by +1 anyway). Once B. decides what Lacane and Gwulf are doing, the rest of the round is in my hands. The only thing I need to do is actually sit down and do this more often!
<br />
<br />I have a couple stray backlog details I've been meaning to report, which I'll post soon. Then I'll report on some of my more recent endeavors.
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-56334516271458804272010-06-09T16:39:00.005-10:002010-06-09T17:03:43.974-10:00Zilch's first alpha testJust finished the first <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/systems/zilch/">Zilch</a> play-test. Played with B. online using OpenRPG, so it doesn't quite capture the full experience, but it probably tested the mechanics well enough.<br /><br />B. created a character named Max, a human cleric (Death) / fighter: 11♦ 9♥ 10♣ 6♠. Max knows 1 rune (since we were focusing on the combat system): E.<br /><br />To provide a little backdrop, I used my rough-draft/in-progress fantasy-western setting, Columbia. Max is trying to break into the underground bloodsport competitions in New York City. He approaches a tavern keeper at the Frog and Bean to sponsor him in the local tavern fights, which Max has heard is the first step into the illegal bloodsports. <br /><br />As an audition, Max spars with the Frog and Bean's bouncer, Anders. This was a basic trading of blows, with Max's magic saving the day, bringing Anders to his knees.<br /><br />The first fight of the actual competition didn't go quite so well, though it was very close. Max managed to blind his opponent with some kicked sand, though Max was caught in a flailing grapple in the same move. Although Max escaped the eventual pin, he lost consciousness before he could deal the last 2HPs of damage to his opponent.<br /><br /><br />The fights were a bit tedious... but then such turn-based trading of blows usually is. Overall, things were pretty balanced--Max held his own and dodged well enough, considering his paltry 6♠ was up against some 10 and 11 ♣. The Threatened mechanic worked pretty nicely, I think (as an alternative to numeric penalties).<br /><br />B had some good minor suggestions, such as call stance and draw a domino, but don't actually reveal all the dominoes until everyone has called their stance. Also considered some sort of cleave/extra attack option for the fighter.<br /><br />As GM, I often found myself waiting for B. to roll... when no roll was required! The dominoes were already on the table. With practice, the mental math will probably go a little faster.<br /><br />While it probably went about 2x as fast as an equivalent D&D combat, it still had the same tedious turn-based feel. I guess that can be a good thing or bad, depending on your game preferences. I think my part of my DMing angst comes from a need to generally work on my DMing skills, rather than the underlying gaming system.<br /><br />We'll see where Zilch goes from here...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-13696197036977405022010-05-12T19:43:00.006-10:002010-05-12T20:55:35.038-10:00z20 ReviewedFor nearly three years now, I have had a love-hate codependent relationship with D&D. In short, I can't live with it, but I can't seem to live without it, either. When I come back to it after a break, I feel rejuvinated and excited by this old comfortable friend I know so well. But after a couple weeks, all the old irritants come back, and I'm driven away to some other gaming system thread... until I eventually come crawling back again.<br /><br />I have come to think of "z20" as describing the <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/10/history-of-z20-and-zludge.html">history</a> of this abusive relationship, including all my attempts to change d20 (rather than love it the way it is). It includes Drudge, mini20, d20house, etc.<br /><br />Hyperbole aside, it is time to review z20 (<a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-what-game-is-this-again.html">again</a>) to see what I'm trying to get out of it. What is my goal here? Is z20 meant to be a simple tweak of d20? A conversion of d20? Or a whole new system simply inspired by d20? I'm hoping that, if I can decide what I want out of it, I can then move past the <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/08/mini20-tensions-in-rpg-design.html%20">tensions</a> it's causing in my design work.<br /><br /><br />z20 is not meant be a whole new system--though it often seems to drift in that direction. There are other existing systems I could use if that was my goal. But instead I want to retain all my existing d20 content. Basically, I'm too invested, with hours and years of learning and a number of existing storylines and worlds defined in terms of D&D. I can't easily let it all go. (I would say zilch has been strongly inspired by d20, but compatiblity was never a concern there, and so zilch is largely separate from z20... except that now it is starting to feed ideas back to into z20.)<br /><br />But z20 is not a simple tweak, either. It has gone too far for that. I've tried to throttle things to back to this level as d20house--which approximates a relatively normal level of house rules or the degree of changes made by Pathfinder.<br /><br />So, if z20 is more than just a tweak, but not a completely separate and independent system, that means it's a conversion. It is a kind of bastardization: no longer the old d20 system, but not a new truly system with a life of its own either.<br /><br /><br />Other such hybrid/conversion systems already exist--such as True20 fantasy or Microlite20 (both of which have served as inspiration). So why not just play these then?<br /><br />Mainly, because I don't feel the conversion goes far enough to capture all the content. Microlite20 actually caused the <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/08/mini20-tensions-in-rpg-design.html">revival of z20</a> and serves as its core. But, while it simplifies characters--attributes, skills, feats, etc--it doesn't simplify the rest: conditions, special abilities, spells, magic items, monsters. This is frequently a problem: a d20 conversion system essential streamlines the first half the Player's Handbook, but neglects to do the same for the second half (the spells) or the other two core books.<br /><br />And, I've come to realize, it's not really the character sheet that's my problem. Yes, it takes a long time to develop a character. But 1) this is usually fun in and of itself and 2) this is relatively minor investment in terms of a campaign that will take months or even years to play all the way through. Simpler characters really only help for one-off games or similar quick start situations with new players.<br /><br />Instead, my problem is with the modifiers, the numbers to track, all the little details that are going on <i>during</i> play: basically, the reason it so often takes 3 hours to play through two minutes of combat. And this is not easy to simplify because of how entangled all these rules are. Monsters rely on all the special ability rules and spell-like abilities; spells rely on the possible character conditions; the combat rules inform spells and conditions and feats. Simply touching one of these systems ripples through all the others.<br /><br /><br />Another insight I've had is that a "conversion" is a temporary state, not a finished system. If the conversion is not completed, then it is simply an elaborate tweak--which is worse than the original system in terms of quick use. Even if the conversion ultimately simplifies the rules, it must still be applied on the fly. Each rule lookup now requires the DM do the lookup in d20... and then apply the conversion (hopefully without also having to look up the conversion rule). This is why I prefer finished system documents where all lookups need to be directed to only a single resource.<br /><br />But, if I apply the necessary conversions throughout the system, I end up with a new system! Any additional d20 material must undergo the same conversion to be used. Furthermore, this is a massive undertaking. I'd have to touch every monster and the over 600 spells in the core rulebooks. While I've thought that some of this could be <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/10/xml-spell-list.html">automated</a>, it is really just not worth the effort. This much effort could instead be spent loosely converting existing material into a completely new/alternate system.<br /><br />In short, keeping z20 compatible with d20 is only useful if the content can all still be used without conversion. But, since all the rules are form an interdependent system, more than a few tweaks breaks the system or makes it a new, incompatible game.<br /><br /><br />I've now slept on this, and I think the conclusion is clear. z20 is essentially a new game system, but it does not offer enough new or exciting differences from d20 to make it worth a lone-man translation of all the core content. I can think of z20 as Zludge for d20: an assortment of modular rules, sort of like Unearthed Arcana on steriods. As such, much of the work I've done could rollover into any future work I do on a new fantasy or generic rules-heavy RPG.<br /><br />But I think my time and effort would be better served by searching for (or even developing) a new system unfettered by vague d20 "compatibility" or "equivalence" constraints. I could then translate only the necessary content of my world--a handful of characters--rather than all the d20 core content.<br /><br />Therefore, my current plan is to shelve z20 indefinitely. I may be able to use the work for later Zludge Prime efforts. In the mean time, I'll play my existing d20 lines through to their ends (or at least to a good conversion point) as d20. I'll probably still poke at zilch, since that has a neat boardgame aspect to it. But, between d20 and zilch, I don't see a real need for a third fantasy RPG in my life. My game system design efforts would be better spent elsewhere.<br /><br /><br />For the curious: This is <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/systems/z20/">where z20 stands now</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-66332206181991718112010-05-11T16:56:00.004-10:002010-05-11T17:06:05.605-10:00Recent ThreadsThe spring semester is drawing to a close. It's been a busy one, with me actually focusing on my dissertation/implementation for a change. Sadly, this has meant less time for gaming. I hope to continue implementing into the summer, so there probably won't be <i>too</i> much of a gaming resurgence for a while. But, despite a grading backlog to still get through this week, the coming summer has stirred me to look through my various gaming threads once more:<br /><br />• <i>d20</i>: I've been brushing off d20house and my Tellurian Tales characters and trying to get back into d20 again. The two players I actually have await me in two other D&D storylines. So I'd really like to get out of my current d20 doldrums.<br /><br />In brushing off my characters, I'm reminded once more of the huge "character creation" side of D&D. As I was explaining to S., it has some of the same draw as <i>Magic: The Gathering</i>: There is a collection of different abilities that can be combined to form awesome combos. And, thanks to WotC's prolific publishing schedule, the library of possible components constantly expands. So there's this draw to familiarize myself with all the possible components and then flesh-out the "perfect" combos in accordance with some initial character (or deck) concept.<br /><br />While this is still fun, sometimes of late I find it a bit tedious. Specifically, prestige classes annoy me. Many are close to what I want but none are "just right". So I've been designing a couple custom classes--but, since there's no real mechanic for this, it tends to take me hours of thought.<br /><br />• <i>Caligo</i>: I poke at this occasionally and I'm quite happy with how it's coming along. So far it's staying pretty simple, which is good. I have a few different one-off story ideas I want to try... someday.<br /><br />• <i>Dark Heresy</i>: A break-thru here in that this week I decided to drop my Zludge translation of this. While I'm sure the work already done on this will inform eventual Zludge Prime work, I decided to just leave Dark Hersey as it is.... because it's actually quite a nice system, especially now that I've come to appreciate some of the advantages of a roll-under die mechanic. I have lots of story ideas here, and I'd like to move into some serious campaigns with this once my d20 lines end. So I'm trying to shelve it again until then (and focus back on my d20 threads!).<br /><br />• <i>zilch</i>: I was thinking about this yesterday and this morning. I was refocusing on it's mission: a boardgame-like dungeon-crawling RPG. Some elements of it--such as the spell system--I think could be used elsewhere (like in z20). But I really need to get back to a boardgame sort of focus. This morning, I started sketching out stuff on that: particularly, how I might generate a story/dungeon on the fly so no pre-game GM planning is required--only some (potentially collaborative) refereeing. We'll see where this goes...<br /><br />• <i>z20</i>: Now I'm turning my eye to z20 once again... that old sore tooth that I can't stop poking.<br /><br /><br />[I apologize to my readers that my blog is so often a review of threads or a whining reiteration of the same points over and over again, but this blog is really sort of my gaming journal. This is where I come when I need to record (or, frequently, reaffirm once again) some gaming insight or goal.]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-59407820827966594882010-03-28T18:25:00.003-10:002010-03-28T19:06:18.480-10:00Too Many Systems, Too Many SettingsI'm back today to re-read my <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-years-resolutions.html">New Year's resolutions</a>. It seems I've strayed from the path.<br /><br />The big two projects of the past couple months (aside from working on my dissertation implementation more than in the past) has been zilch and Caligo. <br /><br /><i>zilch</i> (which deserves a better name, but stands for "Zach's Implementation Lies Cold & Hoary") is what the <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2010/01/domino-based-combat-mechanic.html">domino die mechanic idea</a> turned into. It's a sort of board-game-style dungeon crawling RPG. It's actually pretty sweet. You represent characters with 4 playing cards (one of each suit), roll d6s for skills, use dominoes for an exchange/stance-based combat, track details with poker chips, and use Scrabble tiles to track and cast magic spells. <br /><br />Yes, I finally have a decent <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2008/04/not-scrabble-based-magic-system.html">Scrabble-based magic system</a>! This time I started with the ~600 D&D spells and distilled them down to 26 schools/tiles, rather than starting with the noun/verb approach of most rune-based system. Tiles are often still combined to produce the more powerful spells, though.<br /><br />Anyway, the intention of zilch is to have a lite, "paperless" play style for one-off dungeon crawls or short campaigns.<br /><br /><i>Caligo</i> (the Latin word for misty darkness) started a week or so ago when I got a free PDF version of World of Darkness from a DriveThruRPG sale. While overall I found WoD to be yet another standard, solid, reliable table-top RPG system, there were a few little rule nuggets that intrigued me. I started putting together ideas from DRYH, QAGS, etc, pulling together a very lite, narrative-focused system for descents into darkness.<br /><br />As you can see, I've drifted from my goal of "no new threads."<br /><br /><br />In other news, today I bought a Warhammer Fantasy Grotek and Felix omnibus. These stories are good fun! As I've mentioned before, I often get overwhelmed in the bookstore: so many great stories, so many worlds! How do I play them all? How do I build something better myself?<br /><br />Upon waking from my nap, I realized I don't have to. As GM, we often rely on pre-packaged adventure scenarios. Why don't I allow myself to expand the use of such aids to include other creative works? There's all these great adventure short stories out there--recently <i">Conan, <i>Elric</i>, and <i>Grotek & Felix</i> for me. What's wrong with "borrowing" those? Or maybe blending a couple together? Roleplaying is not a public presentation; it's a private, intimate sharing of tales. If my player's haven't read the stories themselves, the ideas are new to them. <br /><br />I know this is certainly not a new insight. In fact, I'm sure I've read it a number of times in DM advice chapters: take ideas from your favorite shows or books! But I guess today I was ready for it, open to the idea that I am really only obligated to provide a fun afternoon for myself and my player(s), not produce a whole new creative vision for the world.<br /><br />And this insight spills over into the rule design too. I'm getting overwhelmed here too. There are so many systems out there when you look past the handful of large publishers. And each one has some novel, intriguing aspect to offer. Yet there is no way to combine all these little gems, because each works because of it's home system. Lately I've been coming to appreciate even the advantages of different die mechanics. So many cool things are possible with only certain die mechanics; yet, each also has its drawbacks. But, in the end, you have to pick only one of them and play it.<br /><br />It seems we all want, to some varying extent, to produce our own system: to tweak, to touch, to make the rules we play by our own. But, taken to excess (as I am always wont to do), this becomes divisive, producing a babel of systems so that players cannot move from game to game because each requires its own system. Obviously, there is a balance here. There must always be a bazaar of ideas and system options available; but it can be hard to decide to work towards system harmony and synthesis, rather than just throwing out one more discordant voice.<br /><br />So, once more, I come here to put in writing: I need to focus my efforts on what I already have going!</i">Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-37093536643454015362010-01-20T21:12:00.001-10:002010-01-20T21:15:55.841-10:00Domino-based Combat MechanicI currently own two sets of dominoes. Every time I reach over them to get to some of my other gaming supplies, I think, "Surely I could use these for some RPG-related purpose!" Well, today I woke up from a nap with just such an idea: using dominoes as combat rolls.<br /><br />This mechanic would work best for a simple exchange-based combat system. Each player draws a domino, orients it horizontally, and then flips it face-up. Just like a Magic: The Gathering creature card, the value on the left side is the offensive attack modifier (power) and the value on the right is the defensive or armor modifier (toughness). <br /><br />As a further option, each player can declare an offensive or defensive stance before flipping the domino over. If offensive, they rotate the domino so the higher of the two values is on the left/attack side. Similarly, for a defensive stance the larger value should be moved to the right. (Actually, this should perhaps be the standard procedure so as to avoid any questions about some players' flipping technique, since the pips on a domino can sometimes be felt while the domino is still face down.)<br /><br />Of course, each domino end gives a +0 to +6 modifier. Or, at the expense of a little -3 math, a linear progression from -3 to +3 (including 0). Doubles could perhaps allow for some special effect--such as the option to use a certain feat or combat stunt.<br /><br />I'm not quite sure where I want to use this mechanic yet, but I quite like it--especially for an exchange-based combat system where each character is supposed to "roll" only once per round/exchange. For melee combat, this works pretty well using a single die roll--the higher roll between two combatants deals damage to the lower. However, things can get a bit fuzzier with ranged combat, multiple combatants, or when you'd like the option of two combatants injuring each other in the same round. This domino approach still means only one "roll", but you conveniently get two values. Very slick! Can't wait to try it somewhere...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-60217724973424915532010-01-14T14:29:00.003-10:002010-01-14T14:38:05.037-10:00Die Mechanic FlavorsYesterday on the bus I started mentally comparing Dark Heresy's roll-under d100 die mechanic to that of Zludge's 2dF. In particular, I was curious how much such a conversion would affect the percentage likelihood of success in different situations. But I came to realize that this is too low-level of a comparison. Instead, it's more important to consider the assumptions behind a mechanic and the resulting "flavor" that it imparts. <br /><br />Here's what I mean in terms of 4 different die mechanics I've been working with lately:<br /><br /><b>d20: linear skill variation.</b> Here, the die roll just provides a random bonus to the skill. The average d20 roll is about 10 (10.5, actually), so against a DC of 10+skill, there's about a 50% chance of success or failure. If using critical success (natural 20) or critical failure (natural 1) rules, there's a 5% chance (for each one) each roll, regardless of the character's skill level. Because the roll distribution is linear, you are just as likely to roll at the extremes of the range (+10 or -10) as you are at the character's actual skill (+0). <br /><br /><b>Zludge: curved skill variation.</b> As for d20, this just provides a bit of randomness centered on the character's skill level. However, a curved roll distribution is weighted towards the skill level: there's a 33% chance of rolling +0 on 2dF, but only an 11% chance of rolling +2. If +0 is sufficient to succeed, this gives a 66% success rate.<br /><br />I feel this curve limits some of the "gambling" flavor of d20, especially since the range of possible roll values is so small. It's almost like playing diceless--it's unlikely you'll get very "lucky" with a roll. But this goes the other way too: it's more unlikely you'll fail miserably just due to a bad roll. Instead, you have to intelligently play based on your character's skill level.<br /><br /><b>Dark Heresy: linear roll-under.</b> Here, you roll d100 and roll under your skill value. The degree of success is determined by just how far under you roll. Thus, as your skill level increases, so does both the likelihood of success and the possible degree of success.<br /><br />In Dark Heresy, the average skill starts at about 30, so this gives only a 30% success rate (though this can be modified based on the circumstances; it seems DH's default curve center-point is for a pretty challenging task). Since the distribution is linear, each skill improvement gives the same return: +5 skill increases your chance of success by 5%, regardless of whether you purchase the increase at a low or high skill level. <br /><br />Assuming few characters ever achieve the max skill level of 100, there is always a chance of failure on a roll. It feels that your fate is controlled much more by chance with this mechanic: your skill only sways the likelihood of success, but there are no guarantees here. Every roll is a gamble. (I actually like QAGS's "the Price is Right" spin on the linear roll-under mechanic a little better, but it produces the same results.)<br /><br /><b>GURPS: curved roll-under.</b> As a roll-under system, this too seems to have a bit more of a gambling feels. For example, you're just as likely to roll an 18 on 3d6 when you have a skill of 8 as you do with a skill of 16. However, since the distribution is curved, at least most rolls will be centered around 10.5. The chance of rolling an 18 is only 1/216. Skill increases at higher levels provide increasingly limited returns.<br /><br /><br />After considering these differences, I think I am correct in going with the Zludge die mechanic, since that is the flavor I want in my games. As applied to Dark Heresy, this may reduce the "grittiness" a bit. However, I do still plan to try QAGS a bit, to see if my expectations for a linear roll-under system really do bear true.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-65656930300547693072010-01-10T22:31:00.003-10:002010-01-10T22:42:30.954-10:00New Year's resolutionsThe past few months have been rather slow with the gaming as I've been busy with my PhD work. Now the pressure is really on to finish that up this Spring semester. So it looks like the RPGing will be scanty for the next 6 months or so. However, since it's my addiction, it's unlikely to be completely non-existent...<br /><br />And on a related note, I was in the bookstore a couple days ago, flipping through RPG books and settings. Though I was intrigued by a few setting images, I realized that I really could fit some of these into my existing worlds. For example, there's the whole "jungle filled with vine-covered temple ruins where savage lizardmen worship dark gods yet lost laser guns can still be found" milieu. I realized such a planet could easily be placed in a Warhammer 40k universe (along with a separate Shadowrun-like hive city planet, etc.). Similarly, such a jungle (sans laser guns, perhaps; though with Magic Missile wands available) already exists in the extreme south of Tellure. So I don't need to build a whole new campaign to run an adventure or two in these worlds.<br /><br />So, with these two insights in mind, I'm figuring out which of my many threads are important enough to keep open, and which should be shelved for now.<br /><br /><h4>Rule systems [OPEN]</h4>• <i>z20/d20house</i><br />These two are merging somewhat, as z20 becomes complex enough to support d20 PCs. In short, I can run z20 rules as DM while players are still working in d20. The core of z20 is pretty close to done, though. That's good! And I'd like the combat system--particularly possible actions in combat, etc--to (mostly) mirror Zludge Prime. It's already close, so that should reduce duplicated work between these two threads.<br /><br />• <i>Dark Heresy/Zludge Prime</i><br />I'm converting DH a bit, and using it as the basis of what I want Zludge Prime to be. I need to decide if I want to play it with its own d% mechanic for a while, or some QAGS-like variant, or straight Zludge 2dF. But this should eventually become my heavy-weight simulation-gaming system.<br /><br />• <i>QAGS</i><br />I just downloaded the QAGS quick-start last month and it seems pretty cool. I'd like to play around with it a bit (as is only; no tweaks for now!) with a few one-offs adventures.<br /><br />• <i>Mythic/Dynamo</i><br />Along with one-off games, I'd like to explore this way of generating stories on the fly.<br /><br /><h4>Rule systems [CLOSED]</h4>• <i>Huffy</i><br />This primarily means finishing the narrative-based combat system I've started. But I also need to figure out how exactly Huffy varies from Fluffy.<br /><br />• <i>Fluffy</i><br />This too needs to be clarified.<br /><br />• <i>Zludge</i><br />Zludge Prime, Fluffy, Huffy, (and even z20 to some extent), distilled into modular rules and a collection of GM tools. Is this still worth doing?<br /><br />• <i>System reading backlog</i><br />I have a number of free and quick-start PDFs downloaded, nearly all gaming/simulationist in nature. Most of these boil down to essentially the same thing: a collection of attributes/skills/feats to define PCs, a die mechanic, and a list of combat moves. In the process of clarifying Zludge (above), it'd be good to skim through these for more comparisons and ideas to filch. <br /><br /><h4>Campaigns [OPEN]</h4>• <i>Omri</i><br />S.'s line. Decent testing ground for z20.<br /><br />• <i>Dragonwars</i><br />B.'s line. The place for d20house (though it may become more z20 behind the screen).<br /><br />• <i>Tellurian Tales</i><br />My original, primary line. I'd like to get back to some solo play on this again. It's been way too long... Should perhaps be a d20 PC test-bed for z20, with a focus on story. (Now that I've got the d20 rules down, I'm finding solo combat to be rather tedious...)<br /><br />• <i>(Warhammer 40k)</i><br />This is my own tweak/compilation of <i>Dark Heresy</i> and <i>Rogue Trader</i>. The story has only be slightly sketched so far, so more notes, sketches, or even testing solo one-offs would be good. (However, real play should not start until after the dissertation or one of the other campaign threads closes!)<br /><br />• <i>(One-offs)</i><br />If they truly are one-session games... (but see below).<br /><br /><h4>Campaigns [CLOSED]</h4>• <i>Interludes</i> & <i>Ailithorn</i> & <i>(solo Planescape)</i><br />Shelve these solo Tellurian strains for now. The Planescape Gith monk thing is meant to be preparation for Dragonwars after the end of RHoD, but that'll be months yet, so don't worry about it now.<br /><br />• <i>Columbia: Fantasy in the New World</i><br />This started as a "D&D western" idea, but has expanded to include Carribean pirates, lost Atlanteans, and dark jungle ruins in the jungles of South America. But, as mentioned, versions of these things could captured in my other settings (at least for now).<br /><br />• <i>Squirrel Attack!</i> & <i>Mouse Guard</i><br />I'd like a little anthropomorphic animal action, but I should leave this be for now. The official Mouse Guard RPG looks really good (and a little more narrativist than I'm used to), and so I wouldn't mind reading/owning it at some point though.<br /><br />• <i>DRYH</i><br />I enjoy this system, and have a few ideas on more insomniac stories, as well as other forms of madness (including something along the line of JAGS's Wonderland). But these will keep until after I finish my dissertation...<br /><br />• <i>God's Dogs</i><br />Except for the one adventure I already have prepared for B., this is too similiar to Dark Heresy to have a separate campaign (especially right now).<br /><br />• <i>Heavy Metal Atomic Wasteland</i><br />Nothing planned in this at the moment anyway.<br /><br />• <i>Tor-Lomlin</i><br />I think B. needs to take the lead on this one before it'll move ahead.<br /><br />• <i>(As-yet-unforeseen world ideas)</i><br />My one-offs rarely stay that way, but tend to become full campaign worlds instead. Beware those! Jot the ideas down, but don't spend more than one writing session on them.<br /><br /><br />Well, with all that in black-and-white, it seems pretty clear: focus on playing my main/oldest 3 D&D lines. To that end, tweak z20 as necessary. In preparation for the future, play around with Zludge Prime and Warhammer 40k. For lighter gaming, try QAGS and Mythic in some one-offs. Other ideas--whether rules or worlds--should be jotted down for future exploration and expansion, but no new lines should be started for now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-21060495250363235622009-11-02T01:09:00.004-10:002009-11-02T01:18:46.316-10:00PyratsI saw this animated short over a year ago, but something reminded me of it again tonight and so I had to track it down:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDquzEPLsw" class="out">Pyrats</a> (on YouTube)<br /><br />I love the animation, the music, and the ending. But, regarding RPGing, I love the party class mechanics. This is how RPG combat should feel!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-83301538147632373972009-10-28T22:13:00.005-10:002009-10-28T22:32:45.733-10:00An XML spell listToday, I got to thinking about XML. Last night I was poking a bit more at the z20 spell list, slowly importing/converting things from d20, and realized what a hassle it was. I'm doing way too much formatting and linking by hand in HTML. Instead, I should probably be making a separate XML document, which I could then format differently for different needs. I'm comfortable with the theory behind XML documents, but I've never created and reformatted one of my very own. So I got to wondering if anyone's come up with a standard DTD or schema for d20 spell lists. Some searching ensued, with the following results:<br /><br />• <a href="http://www.andargor.com/" class="out">http://www.andargor.com/</a><br />The biggest name/site I found in regards to still-active d20 XML. In the latest version (zipped XML+SQL bundle), the XML includes markup of spell details, but also a fulltext section including a table-based HTML view as well. <br /><br />I was more interested in his "obsolete" version (2004) of only spells and monsters, which includes only XML markup of the spells. The OGL licence suggests this came through the <a href="http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/" class="out">PCGen</a> Character Generator project somehow.<br /><br />The oldest version of all (2003) includes an XSLT as well, for decent formatting. This is what I have in mind for z20--a nicely marked up XML backend with different formatting options through XSLT (or similar tools). The content isn't itself quite a clean as the previous option though.<br /><br />The site also has an XML markup of the whole SRD, though this XML simply marks tables, rows, cells, and paragraphs.<br /><br />• <a href="http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/srd/spells/index.html" class="out">http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/srd/spells/index.html</a><br />From John Kim's more general <a href="http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/srd/" class="out">SRD page</a>, this page includes a zipped XML file of the spell details. This is from the 3.0 version of the SRD though. Sadly, the online CGI options to search through it don't seem to work.<br /><br />• <a href="http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/d20-xml/" class="out">http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/d20-xml/</a><br />A Yahoo! Group that ran from 2000 to about 2006 working towards a complete d20 XML schema for character creation and possibly even gameplay. I did not read more than a few of the first posts and the last posts. Different people were working on their own projects, and no consensus or central DTD was apparently formed.<br /><br />• <a href="http://xmld20.crwth.org:8080/" class="out">http://xmld20.crwth.org:8080/</a><br />A personal d20 XML project--spinning off from the d20-xml group--to get an XSchema for all the d20 content. The focus is on having the XML usable by software tools, so machine-readable is preferred over human-readable. (I agree with that approach, since you should be using XSTL if you want truly human-readable output.) However, the project focused more on characters and monsters and the rules logic than simply data storage. The project ended in 2008 (or, rather, rolled into a different approach using Lua).<br /><br /><br />Conclusion: There is no readily available XML schema for d20 content because everyone has different needs. PCGen and OpenRPG are doing some XML stuff backend, but that doesn't really fit what I'm going to do. So I'm on my own... which is probably just as well.<br /><br />My current thought is that it'd be fun to play around with the different d20 XML versions I downloaded, and to try generating a HTML snapshot page of each spell pulled from different versions of the SRD. Then I could build a z20 spell list, and pull those into the same snapshot pages for comparison. I've been meaning to learn more about XML, XSchemas, XPath, XSLT, etc. for some time. But I <i>really</i> don't need a new project right now! So we'll see what happens.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-43576853065144466872009-10-21T02:15:00.005-10:002009-10-23T12:15:33.687-10:00History of z20 and ZludgeAs the last couple posts have hinted, my z20 project has been quietly resurrected, despite earlier posts suggesting this is a doomed endeavor. I started wondering at this--where did z20 come from? How did I get here, and where do I think I'm going?<br /><br />However, in digging for the answer, I found that z20 is intricately tied to the history of Zludge. Pouring through my archive of Sent email messages to S. and B., I was able to reconstruct the following chronology:<br /><br /><i>Jun 2007:</i> I become intrigued by <a href="http://www.panix.com/~sos/fudge.html" class="out">Fudge</a> and <a href="http://faterpg.com/" class="out">Fate</a> 2.0 (effectively a specific flavor of Fudge). Fudge in particular is filled with good ideas, but in a very "...and here's another good idea" style, leaving the GM to roll these ideas into his own perfect system. I start my own Fudge derivative named <i>Zludge</i>: a mixture of Fudge, Fate, d20, and GURPS ideas.<br /><br /><i>Jul 2007:</i> I finish an early version of Zludge largely shaped for a sci-fi campaign (including psi rules, for example), though still intending to be a largely universal system.<br /><br /><i>Dec 2007:</i> After repeatedly being frustrated by the slow rate of D&D combat--particularly the modifier tracking and rule details--I consider a possible simplification project. Zludge comes to mind as a base, and so I begin a document to blend Zludge and d20.<br /><br /><i>Feb 2008:</i> The Zludge-d20 project grows beyond a simple hack document and becomes its own system: Drudge. <br /><br /><i>Mar 2008:</i> After playing around with Animal Ball's Instant Game, one day S. and I just sit down and play a rules-lite system I come up with in an hour based on bare-bones Zludge. <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2008/04/fluff.html">Originally named Fluff</a>, this soon becomes Fluffy.<br /><br />There are now three flavors of Zludge going: the lite Fluffy, the original Zludge (which I start calling Zludge Prime), and the relatively rules-heavy Drudge. The idea comes to make Zludge a roll-your-own system. However, instead of just being a jumble of ideas, it would be a system of clearly-defined, compatible modules. GMs could define a "zenome" document for their particular instance of Zludge that would specify which rule modules they are using. Thus, the rules could be lite or heavy depending on GM preference or the particular campaign. Furthermore, when I found a good mechanic idea in another system, I could port that single idea into the framework of Zludge, thus being able to experiment with small pieces here and there while still keeping the bulk of my gaming system constant.<br /><br />I begin surfing more and more RPG test drive rules and indie RPG system for neat ideas.<br /><br /><i>Apr 2008:</i> I start this blog, whose name is even inspired by Zludge.<br /><br /><i>Jul 2008:</i> Fluffy (and its basically synonymous incarnation Huffy) sees some action on a long car trip with B. in a Heavy Metal Atomic Wasteland campaign setting. (Sadly, this never got documented properly here on SludgePit.)<br /><br /><i>May 2009:</i> After 18 months of work (not 15), I <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/05/end-of-drudge.html"> call an end to Drudge</a>. Essentially, Drudge had wandered too far from d20 to be at all useful. It would have been easier and faster to just completely reimagine the d20 content in a Zludge system. Intrigued by True20, I instead consider a d20-True20 blending named z20.<br /><br /><i>Jun 2009:</i> I essentially realize the differences between True20 and d20 are too minor to be bothering with a synthesis. In short, I'm simply <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-what-game-is-this-again.html">bastardizing d20 without significant advantage</a>. I decide to <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-is-now-d20house.html">end z20 in favor of d20house</a>, which is just a handful of house rules for d20 and an digital DM's screen to speed play.<br /><br /><i>Aug 2009:</i> I discover <a href="http://microlite20.net/" class="out">Microlite20</a>. This is d20 streamlined! I think my own strength is streamlining--making simpler rules that are still effectively equivalent to the source. But I suck at actually trimming and drastically cutting away the fat (and even some of the meat, if necessary). Microlite provides the core I've been looking for.<br /><br />However, there are a number of things I don't like. For instance, the core rules are so lite and streamlined, but the equipment lists are so long and detailed, spells are still straight from d20 (and so too detail-oriented), translated monsters have no special abilities at all--essentially just attack bonuses, AC, and hit points. In short, it feels like a hodge-podge.<br /><br />I start pulling Microlite20 into a single document and tweaking what I don't like. Of course, I find myself adding a lot of old Drudge ideas, etc. It grows beyond the Microlite core, so I <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/08/mini20-tensions-in-rpg-design.html">call it mini20</a>.<br /><br /><i>Sept 2009:</i> mini20 has stopped being even "mini". But it seems to also be close to my original goal way back with Drudge: a lite version of d20. In short, its the d20 that I always wanted to play. I resurrect the name z20.<br /><br /><br />So that's how I got here. As to where I'm going... maybe in another post soon I'll talk about some of the things I proud of in z20, and see if I can ever answer that still-haunting question: "Why convert or change d20 in the first place? Why not just play d20 as is, or else start a new system from scratch?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-51822430919228318932009-10-19T00:51:00.003-10:002009-10-19T01:04:58.429-10:00z20/Omri: ShroomGot in some more of <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/tellure/omri/index.html" class="out">The Amazing Escapades of Omri Buckle & Co.</a> this evening. Omri had a bit of a mishap (no GM karma point expenditure required after all: S. missed the Reflex save DC by 1 point), met Shroom the goblin, and made it back to her party again.<br /><br />In related news, I've been poking at <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/z20/" class="out">z20</a> combat actions this weekend. I was flipping through my True20 books (<span style="font-style:italic;">Blue Rose</span> and <span style="font-style:italic;">Mutants & Masterminds</span>) and started thinking how all these different systems really have the same set of actions you can perform in combat: grapple, disarm, charge, etc. Even my work a couple months ago on a Zludge version of <span style="font-style:italic;">Dark Heresy</span> has most of the same actions. So I decided I should compile my own list with simple, standardized rules to use across all these systems. This list is currently in z20, though I think the same list will end up in Zludge Prime eventually.<br /><br />S. and I also went looking for some colored pipe-cleaners this weekend, but no luck at Office Depot. I have a little condition-tracking idea, but I'll share that another time...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-24318646622248432962009-10-15T01:58:00.003-10:002009-10-15T02:05:21.947-10:00Korgoth of BarbariaThis is mostly just a ping to show I'm still alive! Too busy for much gaming the last couple weeks. <br /><br />I ran into this months ago, but remembered it again this evening after a week or so of reading Conan short stories:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_t605Th-QI" class="out">Korgoth of Barbaria</a> on YouTube<br />(first part of 3; others parts available at the end of the clip)<br /><br />It's an awesome show originally made for Adult Swim. Very sadly, this was the only episode made. Still, possibly good inspiration for a beer-and-pretzels sort of game.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-22490474220804079392009-09-20T21:43:00.004-10:002009-09-20T22:15:52.521-10:00z20/Omri: Death of MyrksogAfter a <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/omri-myrksog.html">3 month break</a>, S. and I got in another Omri session today. Omri and party managed to find and slay Myrksog the bugbear; details appended to the "Myrksog" section of <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/tellure/omri/index.html" class="out">The Amazing Escapades of Omri Buckle & Co</a>.<br /><br /><br />We played using z20, which is what I quietly renamed mini20 to earlier this week (thus effectively reviving that <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-what-game-is-this-again.html">old obsession</a>). I had drawn up some crude character sheets a couple weeks ago. They worked well, though I need more room for gear and maybe less room for tracking spell effects. I still haven't found the best way to track spell effects--how much the GM should track and how much the player should be responsible for, and how to note it in either case.<br /><br />We played a little more than 2 hours, which is quite a bit longer than our normal goal of 1 hour, but it seemed to move along pretty well. <br /><br />As usual, I forgot a few details here and there--such as the miss chance for shadowy light, especially when characters without lowlight vision moved away from the torch-lit area. But that's pretty minor.<br /><br />I used poker chips to track hit points and spell points and that worked nicely.<br /><br />z20 grapple rules worked well--there was a significant amount of grappling happening, all without GM pain! S. also used the "Heroic Exertion" rule that I came up with just a day or two ago in order to turn a failure into a success on the last blow against Myrksog. This made for a much better story (rather than trying to chase Myrksog down into some tunnel, and maybe even seeing him get away). The exertion also left me with a karma point, which I already have plans for. (Bwahhahahaha! <--Evil GM laugh.)<br /><br />A couple z20 alpha test notes for myself: While I really like being able to choose from the whole spell list, it does means spellcasters can do almost anything. I think more specialist spells would be a good way to encourage focus/customization. Imposing limits on spell selection would mean more rules (so I'd rather not do it), but I may still give it some thought. The number of spells cast felt about right though.<br /><br />There were some other d20 features lost in the adaptation. For instance, without feats, Jimmy doesn't have Rapid Reload anymore and now takes a turn to reload his crossbow. Also, Solomon Jack isn't very "bardy" in terms of game mechanics. Again, not sure what I want to do about that.<br /><br />Not having to track squares and attacks-of-opportunity was nice. Overall, z20 flows pretty well, though it still takes a pretty hefty amount of time just adding up various modifiers. (Admittedly, there were 9 combatants involved.) I don't think I'll make any changes on any of those until after a few more game sessions.<br /><br />Overall, a great evening--fun story and good feelings for the z20 game system. Maybe soon I'll be able to successfully end this 2 year obsession with streamlining d20!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-9024066654228038112009-09-14T15:15:00.003-10:002009-09-14T15:20:48.746-10:00Fallen Clerics in a Morally-Objective WorldWaiting for the bus today, I began to puzzle over the idea of the corrupted D&D cleric and, by extension, the fallen paladin and the innocent church-goer deceived into cult worship. These things make good story hooks, but how could they ever happen? In D&D, deities grant spells directly, so how could a cleric ever unknowingly stray from the path of light? Surely the sudden lack of spells would be a wake-up call! Here's my take on it.<br /><br />First of all, clerics can be one degree of alignment different than their deity. So a LG cleric of Heironeous could drift to LN without losing his spells. And a cleric doesn't have to be evil to disagree with the PCs and get in their way. Indeed, this can be an even thornier issue when the cleric is <i>not</i> evil and so cannot simply be dispatched.<br /><br />However, the idea of a cleric actually turning to dark magic while still believing he serves the light is pretty thrilling. I think it could happen in D&D as follows: Most deities have many appellations beyond their normal (true) name. For example, Moradin of the dwarves is also called Soul Forger, Dwarffather, All-Father, and Creator. A cleric would likely develop their own personal appellation for their deity--even something as simple as "my Lord" or "my Light". Driven to distraction by sorrow, hate, greed, or a quest for revenge, they may rely on this personal appellation more and more as they slip from their true faith. Eventually, when they finally cross the alignment line and their deity refuses them spells, they would likely have a conflict of faith. Perhaps this would lead them to a period of fasting, flagellation, and praying, calling to their deity by their personal appellation. Eventually, their call is answered again. In their relief and rush to return to their work, they don't fully investigate the presence now granting their spells. (Indeed, there's probably a lot of self-deception going on by this point.) Unbeknownst to them, a new deceptive deity is now granting them spells and receiving their worship and appellation.<br /><br />Now, when the PCs catch up with this cleric, they can still point out certain objective facts: the evil cleric channels negative energy, has an evil aura, and receives no reply if he calls upon his old deity by its true name. Faced with such facts, the cleric may be redeemable: he may atone and eventually return to the light. Or he may embrace, knowingly and whole-heartedly, his new patron deity and be forever corrupted to evil.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-69843293918910952892009-09-14T12:59:00.003-10:002009-09-14T13:07:27.143-10:00Adventurers: Embracing the ClicheI started working on <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/mini20/" class="outbound">mini20</a> again this weekend. I also went to my local gaming store to browse around for a bit, as I've been feeling a bit dry when it comes to good story ideas. I looked through the bargain bins of old 3.0 and 3.5 OGL adventures and the like, but didn't find anything very exciting. For most of them, I thought: "Hmm... same old, same old--adventures come to town, find trouble, and so need to clear out a dungeon."<br /><br />But I realized later that I'm being snobbish: adventurers clearing out dungeons for wealth and glory is the very <i>essence</i> of D&D! I've realized the same thing when reading pulp stories by the likes of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, and H.P. Lovecraft: yeah, this stuff may not seem particularly original today (especially after it's been rehashed and imitated in fiction and film for decades), but the stories are still damn exciting! And a sort of lite, fast, almost beer-and-pretzels dungeon-crawling campaign is exactly what mini20 is supposed to be good for. That's what's so great about using genre and cliche: you know what you're getting into, you know what the background assumptions are, and you can just jump straight into the action.<br /><br />During this morning's shower, I considered this further and realized that the concept of the "adventurer" is key. Indeed, the adventurer concept is at least as important to the fantasy roleplay genre as magic and exotic beasts.<br /><br />What I mean by the adventurer concept is that the fantasy world has areas of darkness and danger. These could be great tracts of wildness or simply the creepy-crawliness of the city sewers. These places are dangerous because of the foul beasts that dwell there, but are frequently well-stocked with gold and treasure accumulated by said beasts. The common citizen fears these dark places, but is willing to hire independent contractors to deal with them when the irregular need arises. Thus, in the fantasy setting, there is actually a well-established career of "adventurer". That is, the citizen of a fantasy setting should think "I need to hire an adventurer for this" as readily as they might consider hiring a plumber or a blacksmith. Sure, adventurers might not be thick on the ground--particularly since the fresh, eager, inexperienced novices are the most likely to be picked off--but their rag-tag bands are easily recognized in the fantasy world when they do show up. In such settings, there's nothing strange at all about a local striding up to such a band in the inn, tossing a pouch of gold coins on their table, and offering to hire them for an odd job.<br /><br />Thus, the adventurer is an independent problem-solver for hire: mercenary, detective, explorer, spelunker, and exterminator all in one. Starting out, of course, they serve as simple caravan guards, mercenaries, and message-carriers. Some may fall from the path, becoming little more than highwaymen, brigands, freebooters, and grave-robbers (and thus giving other adventurers a bit of a bad name, though also employment to deal with their fallen colleagues). But those that do make it, and that strive for noble altruistic ideals as much as for buried wealth, become heroes, revered throughout the land: part war-hero and part rockstar.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-55840796745710923662009-08-17T14:53:00.005-10:002009-08-17T15:00:53.848-10:00Idea: Zombie Sim GameI guess this is a good a place as anywhere to jot this idea down: <br /><br />This summer, B. and I were chatting that it'd be fun to roll ourselves up as ordinary level characters in a high-simulation system like GURPS and then run an end-of-the-world zombie game/simulation. It would be cool to set this up in a specific city location, so the DM could have a real map of the area, thereby determining how long it'd take to get places, where certain supplies would likely be, zombie concentrations, etc. It'd be fun to see how long we'd last with all our now-useless skills, like computer programming and psychoanalysis. :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-34339197752899085042009-08-17T14:42:00.003-10:002009-08-17T14:50:21.657-10:00mini20: Tensions in RPG design.Last week, I stumbled across <a href="http://microlite20.net/" class="outbound">Microlite20</a>, which is a very pared-down incarnation of d20. I find that, while I'm ever seeking simplicity, I have a difficult time actually hacking large swatches of a game system away. I make only little snips here and there, always minding backwards-compatibility (or at least equivalency) with the source material. In contrast, Microlite20 reminds me of pruning in the tropics: you can cut all the branches off, leaving only the stump behind. And instead of this killing the tree, it grows back as lush and beautiful as ever in 6 months.<br /><br />That said, there were a few little quibbles I didn't like, so I set about tweaking it a bit. This did turn into putting a few things back in (in reduced form). The result is <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/mini20/" class="outbound">mini20</a>.<br /><br />Like I said, a large portion of my week went into this (despite having other more pressing projects!). I even drew up some hand-drawn character sheets and converted S.'s Omri line to mini20. However, we didn't get a chance to play this weekend; instead, we got drunk on pizza, beer, white wine, and 70s TV <i>Wonder Woman</i>. I woke up a few hour later, a little hungover, and started thinking about the project.<br /><br />As this blog demonstrates, I seem to be constantly hacking on various game systems, yet never seem to reach a satisfied conclusion. These are some of the tensions I've identified in the past 24 hours:<br /><br /><i>DMing vs Design.</i> DMing is a live, dynamic, social activity. While the game is underway, quick decisions are called for and the game moves ever forward. Design, on the other hand, is a largely solitary activity, where the resulting document can be reiteratively edited until perfect. <br /><br />I'm coming to realize that DMing actually scares me. I think that's why I keep falling back to design, in this vague belief that the perfect RPG system will make for flawless, perfect DMing.<br /><br /><i>Rules vs Rulings.</i> On the heels of the previous point, some systems provide tomes of specific rules. The advantage here is consistency and a crutch for the DM; the down-side is that then the DM has to recall or look up the specific rules at game-time. The alternative is to provide a simple system for the DM to make rulings on: to apply a modifier or make a call at game-time, and then move on. There are no lookups involved here. The downside is that the DM needs to manage making fair, consistent rulings, along with all the other game details going on at the same time. <br /><br />Desiring a lite system, I want rulings; but being a little fearful of screwing up as a DM suggests more established rules. In short, rules compile all the possible rulings into rules before the game starts. But of course it can never be perfect: some situation can always arise not covered perfectly by the rules, requiring adjudication (ie, a ruling).<br /><br /><i>Game vs Story.</i> On the one hand, an RPG is a game: characters are bought, described, and balanced in terms of points. There's a simulated world with clearly defined possible actions (skills, powers, etc.) On the other hand, especially these days, all of this is supposed to serve only as the underlying foundation for a story. (I would argue that, in the past, dungeon-crawling was more of a simulation/game than a story.) <br /><br /><i>Character detail vs simplicity</i>. So, in terms of the game/simulation, we need character modeling. The more detail and customization possible in terms of the rules, the more stats, rules, and preparation time needed. Otherwise, character details are left superficial to the rules--which often does already happen with roleplaying details. Also, if too simple, there's no way to differentiate different characters and abilities--like different fighting styles, a smooth-talking con man vs an earnest likable diplomat, etc--in terms of the game world itself.<br /><br />But in terms of story, it is frequently not the numbers and die rolls that determine the ultimate course of the story, but in-character decisions made by players based on the "superficial" personality traits of their character. This suggests that if story is the goal, simplicity and letting the game aspects take a backseat should work just fine.<br /><br /><i>Complete System vs Hack Document.</i> This is my personal preference: when hacking on a system, I tend to want a single finished document that describes the resulting game, rather than simply producing a hack/errata-like document that lists the changes to make to the underlying system. I should really try to get over this, since it takes a lot more time to do it this way.<br /><br /><br />So, in conclusion, I'm not sure if mini20 is a good idea or not. It could just be more mental flailing around on my part, largely due to my failure to resolve the above tensions and decide exactly what the hell I want from my gaming system.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-86715953315351947562009-07-31T02:32:00.004-10:002009-07-31T02:58:12.113-10:00GOLD: An RPG web seriesThis is where a couple hours of my yesterday afternoon went:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.goblinsandgold.com/csp/gold/">GOLD: The web series that does double damage.</a><br /><br />The site sums up the series this way:<br /><blockquote><br />The World Goblins & Gold Role Playing Game Championship is only a few short weeks away. The perennial second-place American team has undergone an upheaval: their longtime team leader, Jonathan Drake, has suffered a tragic gaming-related accident. Maverick player and loose cannon Richard Wright takes the reigns and tries to wrestle his new team into shape before the competition, while despondent Jonathan battles his personal demons. Meanwhile, the World Champion British team, led by the crafty Oliver Crane and sultry Martha Thistlethwait, prepare for the Championship by enlisting a gaming legend as their new coach...<br /></blockquote><br />The series is fun and certainly tongue-in-check, but it also has moments of memorable depth and emotion. It's also fun to see some free independent film made possible by online distribution. Check it out!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-11061848978983013712009-06-14T22:19:00.004-10:002009-06-14T22:51:45.718-10:00Omri: MyrksogIn the spirit of <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-is-now-d20house.html">getting back into the game</a>, S. and I played a bit of my new d20house form of D&D today. It had been 1 week short of a year since our last session!<br /><br />For session details, check out the "Myrksog" section of <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/tellure/omri/index.html" class="outbound">The Amazing Escapades of Omri Buckle & Co.</a><br /><br /><br />It went well mechanically. The new damage mechanic (the most obvious d20house change) was pretty smooth. My new DM screen worked well, especially when combined with more intelligent use of the SRD's spell index and monster index pages. Chess pieces still make great cheap miniatures.<br /><br />Story-wise, there were a couple minor snags--mainly, how to balance the power of social manipulation with combat? For example, Jack <i>charmed</i> the lead hobgoblin and told a good story about having an important prisoner... but I couldn't decide whether this should be enough to let the party pass the whole encounter. (Of course, this still may have worked out interestingly since they would have had to come back this way later.) But, if I wasn't going to let them bypass all the guards with it, it seemed something useful still should come of it so that there's at least some value to trying tact before steel. <br /><br />First, I rolled a contest between the charmed hobgoblin and the orc to see if the orc could talk some sense into his companion: that this rabble shouldn't be allowed into the inner sanctum without Myrksog's express approval. Turns out the orc won. But even in this case, there was some benefit to the <i>charm</i>: it got rid of the hobgoblin. Sadly, this backfired slightly, since this logically left the party locked outside without any lock-picking skills! Turns out the standard DC of 25 to break down a barred door was just barely in range (with a bit of magical aid), so it all worked out decently enough.<br /><br />So, in retrospect, I think I played it pretty well. And, as a personal note for the future, a spell and a successful skill check should be enough to bypass an encounter, especially if those creatures are still available to serve later as monster re-enforcements (and now behind the party besides!).Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1825037966969914040.post-69615649294553425232009-06-14T22:05:00.004-10:002014-03-09T17:46:46.056-10:00z20 is now d20houseA couple weeks ago, <a href="http://sludgepit.blogspot.com/2009/06/z20-what-game-is-this-again.html">Drudge became z20</a>. As I mentioned then, it was still shrinking in scope as I realized more and more that I shouldn't be changing d20 as much as I was. To reflect this, I've changed the name of the project (again!) to d20house. <br /><br />As the latest name implies, this is simply my collection of house rules to d20. While still pretty heavily tweaked, it is actually d20-compatible. I've been putting my time into consolidating what small changes I still do want to make (because I just can't help myself!), as well as making a personal digital DM Screen that links into the SRD. I think this will serve to speed play--which was really the whole point of the initial project.<br /><br />While still not complete, the project is taking shape here: <a href="http://snarkdreams.com/personal/systems/d20house/" class="out">http://snarkdreams.com/d20house/</a><br /><br />I hope to convert (nearly) all of my D&D campaigns to d20house (since most are currently weird hybrids with different options from 3.0 through 3.5), and then get back into playing again!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0