Monday, May 31, 2010

Lycanthropy or werewolf? There wolf!

I was reading the thoughts on weretypes as characters in T&T at the Lone Delver and this caused my to think about it for my self.



I have had one player opt to play a werebear in a long ago campaign and have played a werewolf myself. These characters were both simple shapechangers and so did not require much thought about rules. I have also used traditional weres as villains.

In thinking about were-types one thing to decide early on is what do they change into. It could be a normal animal, a man with animal features (like the Wolfman), or a giant man-animal hybrid. In White Wolf's World of Darkness werewolves pass through no fewer than 5 stages beween amn and giant wolf.

Having decided that, give some thought to vulnerabilities. Are they hurt by normal weapons? Silver, magic, wolvesbane? Does it depend what form they are in?

Do they retain memory and conciousness when they switch forms? In some versions the two forms do not share any memories or knowledge.

How is the change effected? Is it a curse, a disease, as spell, or a Kindred type ability? In some versions of folklore the change is effected by litterally changing skins.

Are these "rules" the same for all were-types? Are there other types of shape-changer in the world?

One of my were-wolf villains was ripped straight from Stephen King's "Cycle of the Werewolf". Luckilly my players had not read it. He was a deranged priest who changed when the moon was full. He shifted into a giant man-wolf hybrid. He could only be hurt by silver or magic when in werewolf form. His index finger was the same length as his middle finger, hair grew on his palms and his eyebrows met in the middle. In his home was a complete abscence of anything made of silver. (I gave lots of clues).

I have also had fun with Selkies who shed their seal skins to walk on land as humans. Anyone finding them could put the skins on and dive in to the ocean as a seal.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Making Dragons Fly

Of all the iconic creatures of High Fantasy the Dragon is probably the least likely.

A fearsome flying, fire-breathing, often speaking, some times spell casting, giant lizard with near unpiercable hide and a seemingly insatiable appetite for princesses.

Such a creature is so unlikely that it has become my standard response to players who insist on questioning the "realism" of a fantasy world. "You have no trouble with flying, fire-breathing dragons but you have a problem with X?"

What's wrong with dragons? Well let's start with what's right. Size, we know from dinosaurs etc that reptiles can grow to enormous size. Sleeping for years after eating, again reptiles eat infrequently and many species undergo periods of prolonged hybernation. Intelligence, well...if you have a brain as large as a dragon's, why not? Armoured hide, the Romans made armour of crocodile hide, and scales and bony plates can be quite an effective defense. Fangs and claws, just look at nature red in tooth and claw. Even the bed of gold has its parallels in jackdaws and packrats stashing away interesting and shiny trinkets. And spell casting is no problem, after all this is Fantasy and magic is de riguer.

So what about the rest?

First, flight. How do dragon's fly? Most illustrations of drgons have wings that are too small for flight, and some have wings of almost impossible anatomy. Then there is the weight of the creature. Dragons are going to be very heavy... If we give them hollow bones and internal airsacs like birds to reduce weight they can fly (maybe) but become extremely fragile. Look at the Pterosaurs that grew to enormous size, they were spindly creatures.

Second, firey breath. How on earth do you make this one work? Do dragons have respiratory tracts lined with asbestos? Terminal GERD? The most sensible explanation I have seen is highly inflamable venom that the dragon spits or sprays. Belching hydrogen gas or similar might also work. Belching hydrogen would also help with flight as those airsacs I mentioned above could be filled with it.

I do however have an answer to all the issues with dragons. It is admitedly a bit of a cop out, but... MAGIC. Dragons fly because they are magic. Same reason they breathe fire, elves have pointed ears, wizards cast spells, orcs are ugly, etc. Magic. Also known as the Walter Cronkite rationale "And that's the way it is."

I do find suspension of disbelief easier if things are kept semi-plausable, but in a fantasy world you have freedom to break the rules occasionally.

A world with realistic dragons would be a less magical place.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Solitaire

I am in the midst of writing a solo adventure as part of my "Sailing the Wine Dark Sea" T&T sourcebook. I wanted to share some of my experiences with solo adventures.

Let me start by saying it is hard work. A lot harder than writing a GM adventure. In writing a solo you must include everything needed to run the adventure. This includes all the GM rulings as to what is anis not possible when the player wants to try something creative. It you don't write it in to the solo, it simply is not there. In a GM adventure if a player asks to dive for cover behind some rocks, the GM can quickly decide if there are suitible rocks at hand and how easy or difficult it is to dive behind them. In a solo if you do not write in a "duck behind the rocks" option it simply isn't possible. There is no fall back on the give and take of roleplaying. This give ant take allows a GM in face to face play to seemlessly work suggestions and ideas from the players into the adventure. As if it wasn't enough to have to think of every possible action and write up results, you also need to write a story that is interesting and entertaining enough to keep the player reading. The adventure also must be balanced to be neither too difficult nor too easy.

Unless it is being written as part of a series you do have the advantage that a solo does not need to maintain any external continuity. This can be a great venue for epic quests with the fate of the world at stake. It is rather daunting to introduce a quest like the Lord of the Rings, destroy this powerful artefact or the world is doomed, into a long running campaign world. If the quest fails you need to start over from scratch. In a solo if the quest fails just flip back to the beging and try again or pick up a different solo.

One popular gimmick in solo adventures that I feel is best used extremely sparingly is the "Sudden Death" paragraph. This a paragraph that without warning kills your character in the middle of the adventure. The set up may be something like this "If you want to search the desk go to Paragraph AA," followed by paragraph AA which reads "You beging riffling through the papers on the desk, saddly the desk is home to a colony of fire ants who devour you alive. The End" Not much fun is that? Better to give at least some clue that the desk might house a danger. This could include giving an option to examine the desk before searching it, thus revealing tiny holes all over the surface of the desk; a description of mouse skeletons on the floor beneath the desk; or a warning given at some other point in the adventure. The player then feels less railroaded. "I didn't recognize the signs" is a lot easier to swallow than "There were no signs." I do have several death pargraphs, but each comes after at least one chance to avoid this fate.

Special bonuses and penalties that apply during the adventure can be fun. Some may apply for the entire adventure: There is a terrible storm raging so missile fire of any kind is impossible. Others may only apply to part of the adventure: After you eat the Red Mushroom you are immune to the first 5 attacks from flame dragons. A unique magical item can make a nice reward for completing a solo. If the character is going to be able to take it with them be sure to limmit it in some way. A "Sword of Victory" which allows the character to always win every combat is not a good reward for a solo. In a long running campaign such an item could easily be stolen, but going from one solo to the next this is not so readilly available an option. An advenure that ends with the character stripped of all their gear will likely prove unpopular, although this can make an effective begining.

Other difficulties of writing a solo include balancing combat encounters, T&T's MR rating can give you an idea of how tough the opposition is. Non-combat encounters based either on the player's thinking and puzzlesolving abilities or SRs on the character's attributes can make a solo more enjoyable for cerebral type characters.

For Sailing the Wind Dark Sea I have several encounters with very tough opposition for single characters, however most of these encounters provide an option to opt out of fighting. A character who doesn't fight will not recieve the rewards of victory, but they will not die either.

As it is quite possible that character's entering the adventure will have a range of equipment (or lack there of) I have provided several oportunities for equipment. In some cases this is specific to a sub-adventure, in other cases it is access to a general market.

In writing this solo I have written each sub-adventure in fairly linear order, and have numbered the esections A, B, C etc with A1, A2 being sub paragraphs of strand A. This makes it easier to keep track of how paragraphs relate to one another. Only after the adventure is complete and thoroughly playtest will I scramble the oder of the paragraphs. I have already found several sections that lack a connection at either the begining or the end, these would be much harder to trace in scrambled paragraphs.

Give some thought to the overall story and what you want to accomplish in the solo. I may yet decide to cut out some of the options have created and use them in other solos. I have a hunt that currently includes 6 different quarry animals plus two additional sub-encounters. This is a huge number of paragraphs, it does however allow for a good replay value. My purpose in writing the solo for Wind Dark Sea is to showcase a number of possible encounters, adventure seeds, bits of the setting, etc for Mythic Greece. Subsequent solos in this same setting will likely be more linear in story.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Arms make the man

A brief description of the common classes of warrior and their arms and equipment.

The ruler of the battlefield in the Classical Age was the Hoplite in full panoply. These men were armoured nearly head to foot, a linen arming coat covered by a back and breast plate, vambraces, greaves, an armoured skirt and an open face helm. In addition they bore the mighty hoplon shield from which they took their name. They were armed with two throwing javelins, a long thrusting spear, a short sword and a dagger.

Peltasts were medium weight infantry fighting in looser order than teh dense phalanx of hoplites. They carried a half-moon shaped shield, often with a leather drape to protect the legs. Greaves and vambraces might be worn, as could helmets or skull caps. Most wore only a linen arming doublet rather than a breast plate. They were armed with javelins and short swords.

Psiloi were light skirmishers. Often they were unarmoured, sometimes even naked. They fought with bow and arrow, javelin, rocks, or other light missile weapons.

The knights of the day were the chariot warriors who wore full suits of plate and bore large shields and long lances.

One common type of helmet was constructed of slices of boar's teeth. It could take the tusks of as amany as 32 boars to craft a single helmet.

Shields ranged from small bucklers used by psiloi, through the peltast's shield, the hoplon and the great figure-of-eight and tower shields that could shelter a man from crown to ankle.

Warriors often fought in light armour to prove their valour and avoid the heat and cumbersomeness of armour. Arms and armour of a fallen foe were highly sought after trophies.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Something for Nothing

One of the best features of T&T is how easy it is to creat new stuff. Here are a handful of magic items and a new take on a classic character type. Inspirations run the gamut on these, the Wizard of Oz, Vampire Hunter D, a long ago PC of mine, and REH Conan stories.

Time Still Candle: Time stops for all but the lighter while the candle flame burns.

Sun Candle: The light this candle gives is the same as full, direct sunlight. It has the same area of illumination as a regular candle however.

Midnight Candle: Instead of light, this candle gives off darkness.

Lotus Blossom Incense: Brings deep sleep to all who breathe its smoke. While the smoke lasts they cannot be wakened by any means. When not inhaling the smoke the sleep becomes a normal deep sleep.

The Ruby Slippers: The weare need only clap their heels together three times saying "There's no place like ___________" to be instantly transported to that place.

Tattooed Mages: These Rogue Wizards carry their spells recored in magical magical tattoos on their bodies. To activate a spell they tap the appropriate tattoo. In all respects they are treated as per Rogues in the rulebook. Memebers of their order can read each other's tattoos to know what spells each carries. They do not teach this to outsiders.

For the candles and insence above the GM may want to use actual candles and insence to determine the duration of effect. When it burns out the magic is finished. These items can be extinguished and relit as many times as desired.

I leave it as an exercise for those like extra crunch to work out which spells etc opperate these items. I have always liked magical items that were "magical" and just functioned the way they did... If a justification is needed for this, the item was crafted by a very high level NPC wizard. The Magical Item creation rules in the Monsters&Magic book are great for PCs who wish to craft similar items.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Hocus Pocus Focus!

Well, it has been pointed out to me that the "Hocus Focus" spell is for creating a makeshift staff or focus.

With that in mind I am revsing my spell.

Wittle Wand [Cosmic]
Level:0
WIZ Cost:1
Range:Touch
Duration:Permanent (but see below)
Power Up: No

Description: Enchants a stick of wood to serve as a temporary magic wand. The first time the wand is used to cast a spell the Wizard needs to make a Level 1 SR on WIZ to see if the wand is able to withstand the flow of magic. If the SR fails, the wand explodes. If the makeshift wand does not explode, the Wizard can cast spells through it with a total WIZ cost of up to the mage's INT. The final WIZ cost paid by the mage to cast the spell is what is counted, not the base cost of the spells. The wand provides a cost reduction of 1 point as well as doubling the cost reduction for casting spells at lower level.
When the total number of WIZ points has been cast through it the makeshift wand burns out and may no longer be used as a casting focus.

This is an apprentice spell. Thus the spell level of zero. The standard SR for spell casting is still needed, but the spell only fails if a 3 is rolled on the SR.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Makeshift Staff

One item from 5th edition that did not make the transition to 7th is the "makeshift staff". This handy little item allowed a Wizard to enchant any old piece of wood into a temporary magic staff.

Earthsea fans will doubtless remember the scene where Sparrowhawk grows a new staff from a blade of grass. I am not sure that the original intent was to allow quite this dramatic an effect, but I see no reason why it should not.

Not seeing any reason why 7th edition Wizards should miss out on the fun I have decided to write up a "Makeshift Staff" spell.

Makeshift Staff [Cosmic]
Level:1 WIZ Cost:1 Range:Touch
Duration:Permanent (but see below)

Description: Enchants any appropriate common object to serve as a temporary magic staff. For the duration of the spell the makeshift staff functions as a Staff Ordinaire.
The first time the obect is used to cast a spell the Wizard needs to make a Level 1 SR on WIZ to see if the object is able to withstand the flow of magic. If the SR fails, the object explodes. If the makeshift staff does not explode, the Wizard can cast spells with a total WIZ cost of up to twice the mage's INT. The final WIZ cost paid by the mage to cast the spell is what is counted, not the base cost of the spells. When the total number of WIZ points has been cast through it the makeshift staff burns out and may no longer be used as a casting focus.

In looking over the 7e magic rules I also becamemore aware of the subtle differences between a "Staff" and a "Wand". A staff provides a reduction in spell cost equal to the Wizard's level. A wand provides a reduction of 1 point as well as doubling the cost reduction for casting spells at lower level.

It is not specifically stated in the rules but I assume that either enchantment could be placed on an alternative focus object. Thus an enchanted brooch might be found that functioned as a Staff Ordinaire, or a rune inscribed ring might function as a Magic Wand.

T&T is your game now, fell free to adjust the "special effects" to suit your own taste.