Savage Old School - Release Version

Touch me to get something.

UPDATE: Fixed the link on this pic.

UPDATE 2: Added my name as the writer. Duh.

UPDATE 3: Adding my name blew the layout up. Fixed that now. Serves me right for doing it in a word processor instead of a real layout application like InDesign.

I recently talked about my love of old school gaming- the adventures, the feel, the campaigns- but not the rules. Savage Worlds is perfect for Old School gaming under a modern game that is built for fast play and not letting the rules dominate a session. Of course, it needs a bit of a tweek to make it really old school and thatis what I have tried here with  my take on making Savage Worlds party like it's 1979. It even has options to add in some of the crazy rules and lack of balance that was part of the day. I am going to run one shots using these ideas at conventions.

It is just a bunch of ideas for you to download FREE, peruse and possible use. Most important, I hope you enjoy it.

Savage Old School - Example Actual Play

I have already had some feedback on the Savage Old School and will be fixing and laying out this week. I had a chance to playtest it with four friends for a couple of sessions. In order to give a little look at how it plays I recorded it and made a transcript to give you a feel of how I run it.

The gang:

Billy as Scarlett
Sandie as Blackleaf
Vinny as Khonan
Jasmine as Elfstar

and Eric as the GM.

When: Friday night nine o'clock.
Where: The living room. Or front room. Or Arizona room. Or whatever people call it.

GM: Okay, so… were return to the dungeon. After the loss of your cleric to the pack of hell hounds…

KHONAN: Language, please.

GM: Sorry, I mean “heck hounds” claimed the life of your cleric on the first level, Khonan the fighter, Elfstar the wizard, and Blackleaf the Rogue…

BLACKLEAF: Don't call me that. I am the thief and proud of it!

GM: …. and Blackleaf the "thief" descend the stairs to dungeon level 2.

KHONAN: I really need healing. Bring the new cleric in before the next fight, please.

GM: Well, right on cue, you see a chain mail clad, mace wielding, holy symbol holding cleric.

SCARLETT: Thank goodness you found me. I was lost and wandered into this ancient hidden dungeon. You look hurt. Let me cure you.

BLACKLEAF: What is your name, cleric?

SCARLETT: I am Scarlett of Johansson.

GM: Billy, not again. Pick another name.

SCARLETT: I like this one.

ELFSTAR: What is with the name? Can you ever be serious? Come up with a name that fits the milieu.

SCARLETT: Like you, Elfstar, the non-elf, stupidly named Halfling.

ELFSTAR: I fireball him… her… whatever.

GM: Change it.

SCARLETT: Please. I like it. Plus you killed off my last character totally unfair like.

GM: Because you refused to change her name. Vanessa of Hudgens. And before I killed that one I killed off Emma of Stone…

SCARLETT: I'm keeping it.

GM: Well, have another character ready to go.

SCARLETT: Megan of Fox on deck.

BLACKLEAF: And can you make a better character drawing than a stick figure with two large circles for boobs? There are two girls playing here and it is not cool.

ELFSTAR: Tell it like it is, sister.

GM: Let's get to playing. So Scarlett casts cure serious wounds and Khonan is healed. Mark off the power points. Now, before you is a twenty by thirty square foot room, a wooden door on the far wall. A chest sits in the middle of the room, a brassiere next to it is burning. Why are you laughing?

ELFSTAR: Not brassiere. That's a bra. You mean brazier.

BLACKLEAF: Burning brassieres? I think we stepped through a portal to the 1960s!

GM: What is your toughness?

BLACKLEAF: 10.

GM: Damn. 

KHONAN: Language.

GM: I rolled a nine for wandering damage.

BLACKLEAF: Whatever. Go on wound me. We have a cleric.

GM: For now.

SCARLETT: Hey…

BLACKLEAF: I will search for traps. I got a raise.

GM: You don't find any.

ELFSTAR: I'll be back. I need to take a piss.

KHONAN: Language. Jesus Christ people. You know I am religious. God has struck down people for less.

GM: Wait, the bathroom is that way.

BLACKLEAF: She's calling Steve again.

SCARLETT: I hate that guy. She's been all goo-goo since they met. Joined at the hip. Joined at the… whatever.

KHONAN: Language.

SCARLETT: I didn't say any bad words.

KHONAN: It was implied. In your heart you sinned.

SCARLETT: In my fart, you mean.

KHONAN: Language!

GM: Okay, so that chest is there. Vinny, sit down.

KHONAN: I need some Red Bull.

GM: I'm trying to set the mood here. Give it a minute.

KHONAN: If my caffeine drops the blood is on your hands.

GM: Okay. So the chest is there, it is lit by the brai… fire thing. What do you do.

BLACKLEAF: That was the mood?

GM: Dim light is a mood. So, what do you do?

ELFSTAR: I'm back.

GM: No more phone calls.

ELFSTAR: Don't worry. I am not talking to him anymore. Ever. Again.

BLACKLEAF: Trouble in paradise.

ELFSTAR: Screw him.

KHONAN: Language.

ELFSTAR: Stuff it, Vinny. Let's just play.

KHONAN: Blackleaf, open the chest.

ELFSTAR: I try to open it.

GM: As you do it a mouth appears with teeth, a tongue…

KHONAN: Mimic! I love me some mimic!

GM: Blackleaf. Strength roll. What did roll?

BLACKLEAF: Six.

GM: Your hands are stuck to it. Notice rolls everyone. Looking for a success.

BLACKLEAF: uh uh.

ELFSTAR: Nope.

KHONAN: Me neither.

SCARLETT: Failed.

GM: The way I like it. So the good guy goes. Mimic attacks the cleric.

SCARLETT: Wow. No surprise there. F**k!

KHONAN: Language.

GM: He rolls a 14 which hits, right?

SCARLETT: Yeah. Stop looking so happy.

GM: So, it does 2d6 damage. Okay, another… there. Two sixes. and two more sixes, and another six… and another… and another… and another… you are dead. 

SCARLETT: You didn't roll that.

GM: It was so big I rule you are automatically, irrevocably dead. No rolls to survive..

SCARLETT: I couldn't see the roll behind that GM screen. You faked it.

GM: And a benny goes into my pile for arguing.You have another character ready? 

KHONAN: Godammit! Would you stop being a total assh**e and getting the rest of us f**ked!

ELFSTAR: Vinny! Language!

BLACKLEAF: Wow. Hypocrite much?

GM: What's that rumbling?

ELFSTAR: It's becoming black outside. The roof… it is ripping open…

SCARLETT: Is that a hand? It's huge. It's pointing at...  it's pointing at Vinny

KHONAN: The hand of God!!!!

(a crack of thunder!)

SCARLETT: It… it killed him.

GM: That's why I am an atheist. If you don't believe in something it can't hurt you.

BLACKLEAF: Wow. Not much left. Ashes. A brown streak on the chair.

ELFSTAR: No, that was already there.

BLACKLEAF: Gross.

GM: My mom is so going to kill me.

ELFSTAR: Dude, you are fifty years old.

BLACKLEAF: Can I have dibs on his can of Red Bull?

If you can even capture the slightest magic we had playing that nightyou will truly be in the cult of the old school.

OSR: Old School "Renaissance" or "Regurgitation?"

They do make them like this anymore.

The Old School Renaissance (OSR), (or revival, or re-tread) movement is still in full swing with games with rules based on early RPGs (mainly original, Basic, and Advanced D&D) being released all the time. The point of OSR is to bring back the good old days when rules were simple, you players could try anything, and there was a lot of winging it as a major part of the experience. You could easily imagine an old school enthusiast saying things like “things were better back then. Armor didn't reduce damage, just made you harder to hit. And it was better that way,” or “you kids stay off my tabletop with yer newfangled battle mat!” Was it really better back then, or is it a case of wearing Goggles of Rose Colored Seeing +2?

Was It Better?

Forty years have passed since the birth of the role-playing hobby. It has been evolving every since. Many innovations have come. D&D did not have skills, (though Basic/Expert and AD&D did gain them later on). Early games also made characters archetypes, their features set by the “class” chosen and your character's abilities advancing in pre-determined ways. There was no room for customization. Random generation was the way of life, with dice determining your attributes and those rolls limiting what class you can take. These days most games let players design the character they want usually through point buys, and choosing new features as they adventure.

The evolution of RPGs took many different roads, but many OSR adherents tend to think they have gotten too rules heavy and a burden in playing a character. This is actually not true, with games like FATE and Dungeon World as prime examples of rules that are very light and encourage role playing. My current go to game, Savage Worlds, rings all the bells of what people want old school to be. In fact these games are far less complex than real old school D&D which, especially in its AD&D form, had tons of rules which tend not to work like other rules for similar circumstances, many exceptions for this or that, or designed just for a real esoteric concept. AD&D is the epitome of this.

Doing it all again.

The problem I have with most OSR rules is that they are pretty much copies of the old rules. OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord are basically the same game, maybe with a few select differences but manly adhering to the old rules. How many versions of a single rule set do we need? One? Two? A dozen? I encourage these writers to take that energy and go their own way, integrating rules changes or creating a whole new game that captures the feel they want but gets rid of the cruft. They can even make it compatible in most ways while integrating new ideas into it. Sadly this is rare.

Some ideas are held on to even though they do not pass a basic realism test. Armor Class (AC) is the prime suspect, so ingrained that the newest edition of D&D holds onto it like a sacred cow. With AC armor does not block damage, it made you harder to hit. Even early on other games discarded that idea, letting armor reduce or even block damage. In D&D even if you are in the heaviest plate mail if you are hit you will take as much damage as an unarmored peasant. Another is the “kill and take” mentality which makes cleaning the pockets of the dead a major part of the game (even for paladins). What is more conducive to role playing, spending time solving problems, or searching nooks and crannies for gold and magic and keeping long lists of the spoils? Heck, most of these retro-clones eschew the “evil” of skills. How about making magic-users fun to play at low levels. I played in a first level one shot for the anniversary of D&D at my FLGS. I cast my one spell, ans pretty much did nothing for the rest of the game.

This is not to say that there is not some really good things about OSR. There are tons of adventures to run, some really good settings as well, which I convert to a different system to run.

Lastly, are they even needed. One of the main reasons for retro-clones is that the old rules are out of print. Not actually. They are all available in PDF these days. You want to play first edition AD&D? DriveThruRPG has the whole kit and caboodle.

I am not trying to insult anyone, just to question if looking back is full of cloudy memories.

RPG.net: Home of the no-fun-forums.

I do not like to use this blog to complain, but what the hell. Let's do it!

I used to go to RPG.net a lot, but have really stopped except to occasionally read a review (they have an extensive collection and it is being added to all the time). I used to read the columns but have stopped because it is not a place I like to go. Why? Because of the No Fun Forums.

The forums at RPG.net are the most populated in the role-play games community. There are tons of members. So shy do I hate it? The moderation has become out-of-control. The moderators are very inconsistent. Many are okay, but some are very heavy handed. There is no real guidelines for what gets you a ban or time out. It is basically anything a moderator dislikes. What is okay for most, another will come down way heavy handed. There is no appealing to them, PM'ing them is an automatic time out for several days. There is an appeals process that takes a long time and as I have read usually ends up being in favor of the moderator unless they do something really egregious extraordinary.

Humor, often used to make a point, is a no-no because many moderators, if they do not get it, mead out punishment. RPG gaming is not that serious, but these mods seem to think they are working for the UN or something.

I have seen it all, and complained about someone who got suspended in a way I thought was unfair and capricious, and I got suspended.

I am not saying that moderation is bad. There is unacceptable posts: haters, trollers, racists or sexist comments, and so on. None should be allowed. However, the personal whim of the moderator should not be so heavy handed. If they get complaints do something; if you do not agree or get a point do not pull the trigger.

Like I said, there are some very good mods there. The few spoil it for everyone (you mod by the name of "Emprint") as the fun has been sucked away as if a fun-vampire (funpire?) came in the night. This was not always this way, but has evolved over the years into a mess.

The problem is there are other forums that are a lot more fun, but the traffic at RPG.net is so high other cannot compete with it.

Best systems for a convention

Running a game at a convention has the problem of time, usually a four hour block. You want to get to the adventure but some (or all) of the players may not know the system, you have to teach them, but you do not want to take an hour to teach it and the players want to play, not be lectured.

To help this I have selected a few systems that I find easy to teach and run.

1: Savage Worlds

Shane Hensley's very playable system is easy to teach the basics in about ten minutes. It also has the advantage of running fast and having a quick combat system with little paperwork. Players also love the card initiative system and the way the dice work, GM's love the way it can play a wide variety of genres, and both love the cinematic feel of it. It also has a lot of support and settings from the publisher (Pinnacle) and third party developers.

2:  WARP

Once upon a time there was an awesome, Philip K. Dick meets William S. Burroughs game called Over the Edge, set in a surreal island where multiple dimensions interact, strangers migrate from all over the world, and intrigue, violence, and weirdness meet. The game engine was ahead of its time, being a very rules light game all the way back 1992, years before such games became a popular thing, emphasizing story over mechanics. Recently, Atlas released the rules under the open gaming license and have it for download FREE! It's called WARP (Wanton Role-Playing System) and it's only 28 pages including fringe powers. Also, there are WARP adventures available for sale. It won't handle everything, but what it does handle (conspiracy, thrills, fear, and weirdness) it does well.

3: Rolemaster

No, just kidding. Not Rolemaster. Not ever.

4: Tales of Blades and Heroes

This game is simple to learn and play. It captures sword and sorcery gaming perfectly. It also has one of the smallest character sheets around, and the magical system, which is improvisational, lets a creative player have a really good time.

Here is a typical character from the book:

Alika the Mighty (50 pts)
Q 4+
C 2
Hero Points: 1
Special rules: Bow 3, Fearless, Knife 2, Magic Resistance,
Strong 2, Two-handed Sword 4, Vengeful, Lethal versus
Kobolds, Light Armor
Equipment: bearskin armor, bow, quiver with 20 arrows,
greatsword, dagger, rope, 24 silver pieces

It fits on a business card!

5: BASIC/EXPERT D&D

If you want old school D&D without the complexity, basic/expert is the way to go. It has the feel of OSR (because it is) without the weird complexity of AD&D based games. You do not have to go to ebay for an old copy (though scoring a copy of the Rules Cyclopedia is always nice) as there are a few OSR retro-clones of basic/expert rules to choose from that present the rules cleanly and include some modernization to improve play including Dark Dungeons (sharing the name of a famous anti-D&D Chick tract), and the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, which adds a few changes like ascending AC and separating races and class making it more modern but easy. Both are free to download and have print on demand options, and both work with adventures for basic/expert D&D.

IMHO, do not run low level adventures because the person playing the magic-user will not have fun. Also, the stats are meant to be rolled 3d6 down the line, and are anything from 3-18, with 10 in the center, so do not give stats all above 10 the way you do in modern D&D. It will throw off the encounters in the adventures. Players of newer games will think it low, but assure them it is not.

6: N/A

Who is number six?

LUCKY #7: FATE ACCELERATED

I hesitated to include this because some people have a real hard time grokking the system of tagging (because it is unlike most other games out there), but the play is so good, fast, and interactive it has to be here. FATE Accelerated is a simplified version of FATE Core, and is a strong narrative game that gives players a lot of say in the adventure, and the character sheets are small and easy to understand. Price is right: pay what you want for the PDF (give them at least $2.50 please), or you can get the printed book and PDF for a mere five bucks.

There you go. Check out these games and whatever you run at a convention, thank you for making fun for players. Without you there would be no RPG cons.

MaricopaCon 2016

You know you want to go.

Here is a shout out to my Arizona peeps! MaricopaCon 2016 has its Kickstarter up and running. Its the only way to get tickets. Its a fun, local con run by Jason Youngdale who has done an excellent job the past few years. Lots of role play and board games to keep you having a blast! It is located in Mesa, AZ.

I'll be running two RPG session's. One will be set in the dystopic/ultraviolent supers setting of Undergound (the Mayfair Games' title from 1993) under Savage Worlds. I will also be playtesing a secret project!

Get off your lard butt and support this Kickstarter!

Traveller needs a reboot

The new logo, stolen from Red Dwarf.

Traveller, the sci-fi RPG created by Mark Miller, has been around a long time. It is a classic, bringing a cool universe full of adventure with its original rule set being really progressive and helping shape the future of roleplaying (the skill system was really amazing in a world of D&D and its imitators). It has been through many versions (original Traveller, MegaTraveller, Traveller: The New Era, Traveller 4, GURPS Traveller, Traveller T20, Mongoose Traveller, Traveller Hero, and the dead on arrival Traveller 5. Also the excellent fan made Spirit of the Far Future for FATE).

Some of the editions used far different rules, but the background was one continuous story of the Imperium and its intrigues in different eras (and even in an alternate timeline where Traveller split into Megatraveller and GURPS Traveller). What never really changed was the technology. Not only has tech plateaued where it has not changed much over millenia, it also has not kept up with real science as it changed over the last forty years. It is missing the future of gene manipulation, transhumanism, nanotechnology and so much more. Traveller has become quaint instead of imaginative.

There is a second edition of Mongoose Traveller coming out, but it is more of the same (in fact, it looks like it is only a minor upgrade to the rules, yet costs an arm and a leg).  The more Traveller changes, the more it stays the same.

What Traveller needs is a reboot, similar to how Battlestar Galactica was rebooted on television. It was at the same time familar and yet so different and modern. This might make some Traveller diehards cringe, but the truth hurts. Cutting edge games like Eclipse Phase are an extension of today's science and are relevant to today's vision of a possible future.

A rebooted Traveller would be similar, with the Imperium, feudalism, jump technology, politicl intrigue, and so on. The history would change but be similar, incorporating the effects of what science might be in the view of today's knowledge. It would be at the same time familiar yet new, and would appeal to newer players as well as making new types of adventures playable.

However, the chance of this happening now are smaller than the distance between gluons inside baryons. As sci-fi has shown us, the future is always in flux, so maybe it could happen.