Risus: Vampire the Masquerade

I'm a big fan of White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade.  I should say, though, that I'm more a fan of the setting than the system.  At first glance the system looks pretty lightweight and fun, but a little digging reveals a plethora of crunchy rules covering all sorts of situations.  Which - as anyone who has listened to the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast actual play series "The Mote of Sin" can attest - is not my forte.  So I spend a lot of my free time picturing Vampire: the Masquerade in different systems.  Yesterday, it was Risus: the Anything RPG's turn at bat.

Risus: the Anything RPG (hereinafter just plain Risus) is a great little freeware RPG written by S. John Ross, a name that should be familiar to anyone who's been around RPGs for a while.  It's quick, it's fun, it's easy, and it's long been one of my favorite games (I am proud member #C-5 in the International Order of Risus, and last I checked, my name appeared on the first page of the Risus Companion, an amazing tome of gaming goodness).  If you aren't familiar with Risus, go here and check it out.  Right now.  Srsly, I'll wait.

Now that you're up to speed on Risus, let's talk V:tM.  One could easily say that each clan is a cliché, which is a great approach in Risus, but a tad bit boring.  Clichés should have some inherent element of description or characterization, allowing anyone to see that Lord Reginald Cobblebottom isn't just a Ventrue (3), he's a Snooty Ventrue Looking To Improve His Station At All Costs (3).  So let's take a look at Skully Wallace, my character in the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast presentation of "The Mote of Sin", a V:tM actual play series. Originally Scott Wallace, a popular college football/baseball player who caught the attention of a local Toreador vixen and wound up falling prey to the Toreador's rival, a twisted Nosferatu.  Skully's embrace contorted his body and good looks, causing the Toreador to spurn him and leave him at the mercy of his spiteful sire.  Skully's only method of dealing with his fate was to embrace (no pun intended) the absurdity of it all; he left his sire as soon as he was released from the accounting and landed on Caravel Island where he fell in with a local comedy club and started doing stand-up gigs.  Skully is a recent turning, having been embraced within the last 20 years or so.

Skully would undoubtedly be a Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4).  That tells a good deal about him, and sums him up pretty decently.  Since his embrace he's been an outcast, having to get what he needs through less than savory means, so he's also a Sneaky Cat Burglar (3).  We could also say that he's a Former All-Star College Jock (2) and just to round him out a bit, how about a Library Research Assistant (1).  That pretty much covers everything he's done in the game so far, and gives him some future potential what with the Former All-Star College Jock and Library Research Assistant clichés.  It's also a good example of how you can easily Risus-ize a V:tM character.

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of different rules subsystems in V:tM.  Disciplines, for example, or blood pool.  Disciplines are easy, if you're willing to apply a liberal amount of handwavium.  Everyone knows that the Nosferatu clan disciplines are Obfuscate, Potence, and Animalism; they're part of being a Nosferatu, part of that... wait for it... cliché.  Should a Nosferatu (4) be able to mask his hideous appearance?  Yeah, totally.  Should that same Nossie throw down with feats of super-strength?  Call out to animals?  Yeah, totally.  Just roll the cliché dice against a difficulty set by the GM based on the character and the character's actions.  A Nosferatu masking their appearance to appear like anything but a horrible monstrosity might have a difficulty of 5, but one attempting a massive feat of Potence when the character has been focused on building a cadre of animal ghouls would have a much higher difficulty.  Could that Nosferatu attempt to sway the opinions of the people around him a la Presence or Dominate?  Nope, totally out of scope.

I came up with a rather cool Risus mechanic for blood pool, if I do say so myself.  At the start of a game, roll a d4.  This is the amount of Blood Dice a character starts the game with.  Any time a vampire undertakes a physical action, one Blood Die can be added to their cliché dice.  A Blood Die can be sacrificed to return a die to a cliché lost to a conflict (i.e. heal themselves a die lost in combat).  Feeding returns a Blood Die to the character's total Blood Dice, but at no point can a character have more Blood Dice than the value of their highest cliché (so, Skully could not have more than 4 Blood Dice).  Should a vampire lose all their Blood Dice, they frenzy and attack the nearest whatever to feed and gain at least 1 Blood Die.

Here's an example: Skully - the Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian (4) with 3 Blood Dice - is going to attack Albert using a super-vampire-strength punch.  He's going to pump some blood to make it more potent, so he's going to use 1 of his Blood Dice.  He'll actually roll 5 dice - 4 for the cliché and 1 for the Blood Die - and after the roll is made he'll only have 2 Blood Dice.  When Albert responds and pummels Skully back, causing Skully to lose a die in Stunted And Bitter Nosferatu Stand-Up Comedian, Skull can sacrifice a Blood Die to "heal" that cliché.  So after he takes Albert's punch, and sacrifices a Blood Die, he'll still be at 4 dice in the cliché but have only 1 precious Blood Die left.

I think I might put together a one-shot of this.  Just to see how well it actually plays out.

Fudge: Powered by the Apocalypse

A while ago, I got to play in my first Powered by the Apocalypse game at a convention. It was fun, and I was really enthused about taking what I'd learned from that game and applying it to Fudge. I was using Spirit of '77 as my guide, and pulled in stuff not just from Fudge, but from Fate and d20 Modern as well.

Well, nothing really came of it and I don't really have the time to devote to writing it up. So I'm posting what little I did write here so that if anyone wants to pick up the ball and run with it, they're more than welcome to do so. Enjoy.

The remainder of this post is designated Open Game Content as outlined in section 1(d) of the Open Game License.

Approaches

Characters have six Approaches which are used to describe how the character is going to do something.

Careful: A Careful action is when you pay close attention to detail and take your time to do the job right.

Clever: A Clever action requires that you think fast, solve problems, or account for complex variables.

Flashy: A Flashy action draws attention to you; it’s full of style and panache.
Forceful: A Forceful action isn’t subtle—it’s brute strength.
Quick: A Quick action requires that you move quickly and with dexterity.
Sneaky: A Sneaky action is done with an emphasis on misdirection, stealth, or deceit.

Approaches are rated on the following scale, from best to worst:

Superb
Great
Good
Fair
Mediocre
Poor
Terrible

Each character starts the game with one Approach rated at Great, one Approach rated at Good, three Approaches rated at Fair, and one Approach rated at Mediocre.
Stunts

There are two different types of stunts: basic stunts and role stunts. All characters have access to basic stunts.

Attack (Deliver a Beatdown/Hack and Slash/Smoke His Ass/Volley)
Defend (Take a Hit or Get Outta The Way/Defend)
Focus (Keep Your Cool/Defy Danger)
Manipulate (Get In Their Face/Getting What You Want/Parley)
Investigate (Scope out a Scene/Discern Realities)
Aid (Help a Brother or Sister Out/Aid or Interfere)

Roles

Each character selects a role. The roles are as follows, and each role has role-specific stunt trees associated with it.

Strong (Powerful and good at combat, the Strong character typically relies on a Forceful approach)
Fast (Quick and nimble, the Fast character typically relies on Quick or Sneaky approaches)
Tough (Able to shrug off the most damage, the Tough character typically relies on a Forceful approach)
Smart (Brilliant and skillful, the Smart character typically relies on Clever or Careful approaches)
Dedicated (Strong willed and alert, the Dedicated character typically relies on a Careful approach)

Charismatic (As charming smooth talkers, Charismatic characters typically rely on Flashy approaches)

Rolling the Dice

To do something, describe what the character intends to do using an Approach and a Stunt, then roll 4dF. Move up the scale starting at the Approach level once for each “+” shown, and down the scale once for each “-” shown. Where you end up is the result.

If you don’t have Fudge dice, regular d6s can be used. In that case, move up the scale once for each 5 or 6 shown, and down the scale once for each 1 or 2 shown.

Rolls which result at levels higher than Superb are Superb; rolls which result at levels lower than Terrible are Terrible.

If the result is Superb or Great, you have achieved a full success and your character does exactly what you described.

If the result is Good or Fair, you have achieved a partial success and your character does some of what you described, or does it all but with a cost.

If the result is Mediocre, Poor, or Terrible, you have failed and the GM can take an action against your character.

Sometimes you might be told to roll with Advantage or Disadvantage. When you roll with Advantage, you ignore one “-” result (or a 1-2 result on regular d6s). When you roll with Disadvantage, you ignore one “+” result (or a 5-6 result on regular d6s).

Fudge: Expanding Scale

Reason 1838461 that I love Fudge: it really gets my creative, eh, juices, you know... flowing.

Anyway.  The one thing which I absolutely do not like about Fudge is the scale mechanic.  The math is just... awkward, while the rest of the system is, well, not.  So, let's nuke the current scale mechanic - kablam - and replace it with a standard Fudge adjective latter.

So now you'd have Fair scale.  Or Great scale.  Or even Poor scale.  Standard people would be Fair scale, right in the middle.

Scale usually affects strength and mass, both which are usually described also with the standard Fudge adjective ladder.  So each level of scale is then further broken down into normal levels, resulting in something like Great Strength, Fair Scale.  Here's where it gets easier than the regular scale rules:  Superb Strength, Fair Scale is only one level below Terrible Strength, Good Scale.  If a character with Superb Strength, Fair Scale were arm wrasslin' with a character having Terrible Strength, Good Scale, the Fair Scale character would win with a roll of +1 or better, if the Terrible Strength, Good Scale character rolls -1 or worse.  It would lay out like this:

Scale	Level
Good	Superb Great Good Fair Mediocre Poor Terrible
Fair	Superb Great Good Fair Mediocre Poor Terrible
Mediocre	Superb Great Good Fair Mediocre Terrible

Of course, the "new" scale would use all seven adjective levels, I just didn't want to code the full table.  You can easily extrapolate up from Good Scale and down from Mediocre Scale.

But note how, as mentioned, Superb on the Fair scale level is right underneath Terrible on the Good scale level, just like Good is normally right under Great; I guess you could say that the relative degree of difference between Fair/Superb and Good/Terrible is one step.  This begs the question: what happens if a Mediocre scale Superb strength character wants to arm wrassle a Great scale Terrible strength character?  There's NO WAY that a roll of 4dF on behalf of the Mediocre scale Superb strength character is going to get anywhere near the Great scale Terrible strength character.  My response would be, "yeah, the Mediocre scale Strength guy loses".

Which is, I think, how it should be.  Ever try to arm wrassle the Hulk?  No matter how well you do, you ain't gonna win.  :)

Of course, a roll of +4 on behalf of the Mediocre scale strength guy might buy him a round or so, and maybe the expenditure of a Fudge point might actually give him a momentary leg up, but that's all dependent upon the GM.

Also, of course, the scale mechanic disappears when scale is not a concern.  If two normal guys are arm wrasslin, one with Great strength and one with Good strength, it would just be resolved as normal.  No need to involve scale at that point, as saying "wow, I rolled Poor, but on Good scale!" would be awkward.

Hmm.  Yeah, I think this has legs.  :)

This post is designated Open Game Content as outlined in section 1(d) of the Open Game License.

Fudge: Advantage and Disadvantage

One of the things I absolutely adore about Fudge is its inherent "rules tinkerer" mindset.  As such, I tend to come up with various and sundry house rules and subsystems for it.

One of them has finally been given a name: Advantage and Disadvantage, thanks to the latest release of Dungeons & Dragons.  My first published use of this rule was in the Fudge Dungeon Crawl article I wrote for the now defunct Fudge Factor e-zine, having been published there on May 2, 2005 (check under the Treasure heading to see it in its infancy), but I'd talked about it numerous times on the old Fudge e-mail list prior to that.

Basically, it works out like this: if you have Advantage on a roll, you ignore a minus result ("-" on Fudge dice; 1 or 2 on d6s).  Conversely, if you have Disadvantage on a roll, you ignore a plus result ("+" on Fudge dice; 5 or 6 on d6s).  Unlike my house rule's namesake, you can have multiple levels of Advantage or Disadvantage (a character with Advantage 2 on a roll would ignore two minus results, for instance) although that should be rare.

Disadvantage will cancel Advantage and vice-versa.  In the rare case that a character has multiple levels of one or t'other, whichever remains after the maximum equal amount is canceled from both is what is applied; so if a character had two levels of Disadvantage and one of Advantage, his next roll would be made with Disadvantage (one level of Advantage cancels one level of Disadvantage, leaving one level of Disadvantage remaining).

The reason for this house rule is that a +/-1 modifier in Fudge is a huge jump; it's 14% of the entire spread.  That would be like getting a +3 modifier in d20, or a +2 modifier in GURPS.  With these Advantage and Disadvantage rules you can give a character a boost (or penalty) without it being so impactful.

I think you could just as easily use Advantage and Disadvantage in Fate, as well.

Easy Roller Dice: Review

I am... particular about my gaming dice.  I don't just buy or use any old dice.  My main set is a collection of Chessex sparkled dice, themed after the elements (fire, earth, air, and water) and a set of Q-Workshop dwarven runed Fudge Dice, from their first production run.  I don't like other people using my dice, and I keep them in a custom embroidered Crown Royal bag which says, "TIM'S DICE, HANDS OFF."  I have a whole separate bag of dice that I use as loaners and to store the dice I've acquired which don't make it into my main dice bag.

I say "particular", others might say "insane".  I'm OK with that.

I was first exposed to Easy Roller Dice through their frequent sponsorship of Happy Jacks RPG Podcast, on which I am a part-time host.   Being something of a dice snob and perfectly happy with the amount and quality of dice I owned, I honestly didn't pay them too much attention.  But then they started showing up at my gaming table as most of the people I game with are also Happy Jacks related, and I couldn't help but notice them.  I decided that should the opportunity present itself, I would get myself some Easy Roller dice.

Well, the opportunity presented itself, and I am now the proud owner of a set of pristine black smoke Easy Roller dice and a matching dice bag.  Yes, they're the ones shown in the picture up above.
First off, the bag.  This is a nice little dice bag!  It's made of a thick, faux velvet, lined on the inside with a red, satin-esque material.  The drawstrings are thick, and there's an Easy Roller Dice Co tag sewn into the side.  This dice bag is going to hold up for a long while.

Now on to the dice themselves.  They're really nice.  The numbers are thickly and uniformly inked, and the white coloring makes for a nice contrast against the black smoke.  They feel solid, but not overly heavy.  They roll well, and by that I don't mean they provide the results I'm looking for.  I mean that when you roll them, they roll exactly as much as they should.  They don't stop short after a heavy "thunk", nor do they skitter all the way across the table.  Universally they seem to be just a hair smaller than my Chessex dice, but that's only noticeable under close scrutiny.

All in all, I really like these dice, and I'm looking forward to using them in a game.  They're certainly going to become a part of my main set, but they've given me a conundrum: I don't want to just throw the dice in my Crown Royal bag, but I don't want to shove another bag into it.  So now I have to figure a way to integrate my Easy Roller dice into my main set.  Like I said, I'm particular about my dice, heh.

And hey!  Easy Roller Dice is once again offering a discount for Happy Jacks listeners.  Simply enter the promo code "HAPPY" (minus the quotation marks) during checkout and receive a 20% discount on your entire order.  You can snag a single set of dice, a bag of 6 complete sets of dice (42 individual dice), or one of their brand new gaming mats.  Check them out at: http://www.easyrollerdice.com.

Labyrinth Lord: A Petty God

In support of the upcoming release of Expanded Petty Gods, and my own exceedingly minor contribution therein, I'm going to pen a brand new Petty God...

...I should state that Labyrinth Lord is not my old-school game of choice, so apologies if some of the stats seem wonky. This should also work in B/X D&D.




The remainder of this post is designated Open Game Content as outlined in section 1(d) of the Open Game License.

When it is late at night and you find yourself still on the road, when the inn you had hoped to reach by sunset must be just over that next hill, when the waning moon's light is so weak as to render your map nigh unreadable, that is when the darkened traveler has you in his clutches. 

The Darkened Traveler
Name: Cobryn (men), Nondil (elves), Hoibur (dwarves), Bidgish (orcs)
Symbol: a swath of black with a meandering brown path from side to side
Alignment: Chaotic
Move: 180' (60')
Armor Class: 0
Hit Points (Hit Dice): 72 HP (12 HD)
Attacks: Special
Damage: Special
Save: T12
Morale:10
Hoard Class: XII
XP:2400

Cobryn, the darkened traveler, is the petty god of those who have become lost while traversing a road, searching for an inn or way-station late at night.  In his normal form, when he's actually seen in his normal form, he appears as a dark-skinned and dark-haired gnome frolicking amongst the trees and bushes along the road.

While in his domain, Cobryn is a master of mimicry and illusions.  Should he encounter those who fall under his purview (and he always seems to be around when that happens) he will silently watch, unseen, to get a feel for the party.  Should he react favorably towards them, he will mimic the sounds of a full tavern just up ahead and lead the party to their destination.

Should he react unfavorably towards them, Cobryn will summon into existence an illusory inn and lead the party into it.   Only a saving throw vs. spells with a -10 penalty will reveal the inn's true nature.  Once inside, the party will enjoy illusory drinks, eat illusory food, stay in illusory rooms, and wake up after a few hours sleep on the ground along the road, with 10% of their coinage gone.

Cobryn is not a combatant.  Should one of the party make their saving throw, reveal Cobryn for what he is, and initiate combat, he will use illusions to make good his escape.  However, with the party no longer under his purview, he can only use the Hallucinatory Terrain, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force, Project Image, and Ventriloquism spells as written, each which he can use up to three times per day.  Should Cobryn be bested in combat, he will not die (after all, he is a god) but he will yield and offer up his collected coinage in exchange for his release.

Cobryn is exceedingly fond of food and drink, especially ales, meats, and cheeses. Should an offering be made to him as soon as the party realizes their situation, anywhere from a +2 (for a basic spread) to a +4 (for a full selection of meats, breads, and cheeses with ale, mead, or wine) bonus can be applied to the reaction roll (which means you'd subtract it from the die roll, making the reaction more favorable).

Reaction Table (2d6)

Roll	Reaction
2	Friendly: Cobryn uses mimicry to lead the party to the closest inn.
3-5	Indifferent: Cobryn uses mimicry to lead the party to the closest inn, but not directly.
6-8	Neutral: Cobryn watches the party but takes no action for or against them.
9-11	Unfriendly: Cobyrn "captures" the party in an illusory inn.
12	Hostile: Cobryn "captures" the party in an illusory inn and takes 20% of their coinage.

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls: Exploring, Part Two

Originally released in 1975, Tunnels & Trolls was the second fantasy role-playing game ever, having hit the market just one year after Dungeons & Dragons and three years before RuneQuest.  This year, Flying Buffalo, Inc. released Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls (dT&T), stating that "it's back, and better than ever!"

In this series of articles, I'm going give dT&T a thorough work-through, starting with character creation.  The article continues below.

In part one of this series, I began generating Penhaligon, the half-elf rogue.  Welcome to part two, where we finish him off.

As a rogue, Penhaligon has some specific skills on which I'd like to touch, even if only momentarily.  The first is "magical attunement"; Penhaligon has the capacity to learn magic, although he has no formal training.  He will start the game with one spell for which he meets the IQ and DEX requirement.  The second is that he is "talented"; he immediately gets one extra talent and upon achieving each even-numbered level he will get an additional "rogue-like" talent for free.  The third is that when he reaches 7th level, he'll be able to become a full fledged warrior, a full fledged wizard, or keep going as a rogue.  Both magic and talents will be discussed later.

But first... let's get Penhaligon some gear.

Much like other fantasy role-playing games, the economy of dT&T is based around the gold piece (GP), silver piece (SP), and copper piece (CP), with an exchange rate of 1GP = 10 SP = 100 CP.  There are a number of ways in which the rule book advises equipping your character: everything from the basic "roll 3d6 x 10 for GP, spend as desired" to "lets just assume you have everything you need."  For this exploration, I'm going to fall back on the tried-and-true 3d6 method.
Penhaligon has... 130 GP.  Not bad.

For what it's worth, I am exceedingly impressed with the attention to detail given to weapons and armor in dT&T.  In a game like dT&T - ostensibly a rules light old school game - one might expect a more old-school D&D approach to weapons and armor, what with just a short sword and long sword as the options.  That is just not the case.  There are fifteen different swords, each with different damages, STR requirements, DEX requirements, costs and weights.  There are seven daggers, two of which are double daggers.  There are hafted weapons, shafted weapons, unclassified weapons, polearms, projectile weapons, thrown weapons, gunnes, and the list goes on.  The same is true of weapons and shields.  And, on top of that, dT&T includes a fairly comprehensive system to modify the standard weapons and armor, changing their manufacture, materials, design, enhancements, and size.  So while dT&T combat might be a study in abstraction, what your PC wears and uses going into combat is definitely not.

I think that Penhaligon is going to be a sabre guy.  He's going to use a small sabre which costs 55 GP, has a requirement of STR and DEX equal to 8, and does 3d6 damage plus his adds.  Due to money concerns, he's not going to modify his weapon at all.  That leaves him with 75 GP.  Not a whole lot left; he certainly can't afford a nice suit of armor, so let's set him up with quilted fabric "armor".  It costs 50 GP, has a STR requirement of 6, and takes 4 hits (I'll get into that when I cover combat, later.)  So now he has a whopping 25 GP left.

The rule book follows weapons and armor with a substantial dissertation on poisons, but I don't think Penhaligon is a poisoner.

The generic equipment lists in dT&T are nice.  They're not as comprehensive as the weapon and armor tables, but pretty much everything you need as an adventurer is in there.  Penhaligon needs a basic delver's package (which includes a backpack, a tuckerbag, a waterskin, some matches, some torches, some twine, and some chalk) and goes for 5 GP.  He also needs a shirt (lightweight, 2 GP), trousers (lightweight, 4 GP), a belt (2 GP) and sandals (4 GP).  He's now down to 8 GP and is carrying 248 "weight units", or about 25 pounds of stuff.

I was hoping to have gotten to talents and magic, but this is getting a bit long today.  So!  Here is Penhaligon as he sits now:

Name: Penhaligon
Type: Rogue
Level: 1
Gender: Male
Kindred: Half-Elf
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 175
Hair: brown
STR: 15
CON: 15
DEX: 13
SPD: 13
IQ: 9
WIZ: 10
LK: 11
CHR: 10
Adds: 5
WT Poss: 1500
WT Carried: 248
Gold: 8
Equipment
Weapons: short sabre (3d6+5 damage)
Armor: quilted fabric (4 hits)
Other Property: lightweight shirt, lightweight trousers, belt, sandals, basic delver's package