Feel free to explore, make copies and so on. If there are any problems, please let me know. Most of the workings should be pretty obvious and I did not use any advanced spreadsheet magic. The sheet for probabilities in case of draws does contain one ugly formula, because it was easier to calculate it and write it as a formula than it was to figure out whether Google sheets manages sum notation (the one with capital sigma that sums over indices).
Given the size of the document, there is bound to be a bug or two lurking somewhere. Trust the results at your own responsibility.
I am led to expect a post at Adept play that compares these probabilities with the resistance table. Another interesting comparison would be between this method and the humble d100 plus skill.
https://vertshuset.podbean.com/e/episode-34-alver/ by Michael Stensen Sollien and Nicolai Krogsrud-Strøm. After a long discussion about elves there is also some talk about theory; flow and bleed are mentioned, but maybe a word they should also consider using is immersion?
https://rolltop-indigo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-invisible-rulebooks.html by S. John Ross. He frames gamer expectations as invisible rulebooks, and mentions how some people might want to minimize or maximize their role in play. He does not get to the idea of trying to build or harmonize them through play.
I include some numbers that give an idea for the power level of the character.
Shahu, a human merchant (or maybe a yuan-ti sorcerer) working for the glory of his trade company (or maybe nest). Currently active in Scorching wastes, in Mernua. Level 1, xp 120, average attribute 11.
Guinevere, the current queen in England. Highest attribute B5, skill G5 (others black and no higher).
athes, a cruel pseudo-mongol mounted archer. From Barren lands in Greyhawk, and now in Wilderlands of high fantasy. Level 1, experience 145, average attribute 11.
Gotfried, a very unfortunate pickpocket who was caught and pressed into service as a dungeon guide in Great kingdom, in the world of Greyhawk. Currently imprisoned by dwarves of Graymere. Level 1, experience 367, average attribute 9.
Ælfstan, a psionic monk who lives in poverty. In Greyhawk, Yggsburg. Level 3, experience 355, average stat 13.
Fridswid, a young witch travelling with elves in the world of Greyhawk. Level 2, experience 2517, average attribute 12.
Senja, a leather-clad mercenaress who would rather not kill. Adventuring in Mistmarshes in Greyhawk. Level 3, experience 1435, average attribute 12.
Garkromm, an entertaining desert nomad, out to see places and tell stories of them. Adventuring in Selintan valley, in Greyhawk. Level 1, experience 80, average attribute 11.
https://rollespil.blog/2007/03/06/indie-fort%c3%a6llinger/ by Morten Greis Petersen. An old (from 2007) analysis of what ”story now” and ”story games” and ”indie games” seem to mean. I would personally the first as a creative agenda, the second as a cultural movement and the third via being creator-owned or as a cultural movement; the blog post goes a different way. The comments also have discussion about the lack of excitement curve in Forge games and what shape it usually takes in games.
https://jannekemppi.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/thinking-about-game-design-part-2-game/ by Janne Kemppi. A look at GM-led adventure roleplaying game theory from the perspective of wider gaming theory. Illustrative of how theoretical work can express personal preferences, rather than aim for the generality of applying to all games everywhere.
https://youtu.be/ouuRZBC1mrk – a video about how to be a good roleplayer. There is much generic advice (be present, know the rules) that amounts to general social skills and politeness, and then one bit about PvP, which makes all kinds of assumption about what roleplaying is for. This is typical of generic advice: if it does not make explicit assumptions about what kind of roleplaying it applies to, then it makes implicit ones.
https://roolipeliloki.com/2021/04/06/nopista-v5/ by Ville Takanen. Some rules of thumb for using dice when designing a roleplaying game and a short note on why most roleplaying game writing is not design in certain sense of the word. Some of the rules of thumb do not apply always, as one expects: interpreting dice rolls can be fast and in that case having lots of them is fine and having them do nothing is fine, too.
http://adeptplay.com/actual-play/right-here-and-long-ago by Ron Edwards and Simon Pettersson. Cold soldier and games like it, immersion, games that forge a personal connection. Comments on emotionally intense roleplay and games guaranteeing a good story.
https://vertshuset.podbean.com/e/episode-33-vold/ by Michael Stensen Sollien and Nicolai Krogsrud-Strøm. The characterization of D&D 4 combats as charaterization opportunities is refreshing and in accord with my understanding.
https://retiredadventurer.blogspot.com/2021/04/six-cultures-of-play.html – a nice description of various cultural traditions of play within roleplaying, mostly in terms of their associated styles of play but also with a historical perspective. The description of Nordic larp is not very good; larp means live action roleplaying and there are distinct traditions of art larp and more mainstream larps, some of which have adventure, some plot focus, some chilling around a campfire. Significant contact with the story games scene (not really the Forge scene) was a late thing, leading to the so-called structured freeform games.
https://lumpley.games/2021/04/07/powered-by-the-apocalypse-part-6/ by Vincent Baker. About how a Powered by the apocalypse game need not be about conflict; an interesting subject, I would say, given how so many roleplaying games focus squarely on conflict and ignore the less forceful, even if more important, parts of being a human.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqIZytzzFKU&t=2s by Matthew Colville. About player agency and railroading in the context of modern D&D. There is a lot of emphasis on the players not believing they have agency, and sometimes the dungeon master not giving them agency. This entire dance can be avoided by being very clear about the agency the players have and emphasizing it all the time; OSR has lots of advice for how to go about this, for example. But as long as a game master maintains the veil of mystery about agency, or keeps the power to give or not give agency, the problem remains.
I include some numbers that give an idea for the power level of the character.
Shahu, a human merchant (or maybe a yuan-ti sorcerer) working for the glory of his trade company (or maybe nest). Currently active in Scorching wastes, in Mernua. Level 1, xp 120, average stat 11.
Guinevere, the current queen in England. Highest stat B5, skill G5 (others black and no higher).
athes, a cruel pseudo-mongol mounted archer. From Barren lands in Greyhawk, and now in Wilderlands of high fantasy. Level 1, experience 145, average stat 11.
Gotfried, a very unfortunate pickpocket who was caught and pressed into service as a dungeon guide in Great kingdom, in the world of Greyhawk. Currently imprisoned by dwarves of Graymere. Level 1, experience 367, average attribute 9.
Ælfstan, a psionic monk who lives in poverty. In Greyhawk, Yggsburg. Level 3, experience 355, average stat 13.
Fridswid, a young witch travelling with elves in the world of Greyhawk. Level 2, experience 2517, average attribute 12.
Senja, a leather-clad mercenaress who would rather not kill. Adventuring in Mistmarshes in Greyhawk. Level 3, experience 1267, average attribute 12.
Some thirty kilometers from the village of Caermor, on a mountain on the edge of the Dragon (or Serpent) mountain, there is a dungeon. People have went in and some of them have came back, telling stories of mutants, goblins, items of power, and deep chasms. In particular, you know that the adventure is likely to include climbing (bring ropes and maybe other relevant stuff).
Caermor itself had a problem with a devil-worshipping cult, which was recently eradicated. Now they are missing some key figures of the village. Below, I’ll first give a few rumours about what is going on in Caermor (probably irrelevant for this adventure, but who knows), and thereafter add former player notes and handouts concerning this adventure location. These represent rumours and other information the characters have managed to get their hands on.
Rumours in Caermor:
MacHeath, the pubkeeper, was just profiting off the hard work and farming of others. He was always a lazy bastard, and see where that took him – diabolism. That’s what you get for not doing hard work.
Don’t talk about gods in Caermor. They don’t like to hear it. They have some obscure storm god their worship. Or maybe an earth god.
Mother Gloam was a wise woman and one of the best people here. I wonder what went wrong and where she is now.
Rumours in the format of notes of previous groups.
Possible motivations for dungeon delving:
The helmet of stargazing of the wizard that used to live there. It is supposed to be an item of power.
Money and magical treasures in general.
A local went in there with some adventurers but never came back! Go and rescue them. 100 xp (and 3d6 gold coins from locals) if you do.
Practicals
We’ll try to create characters before play. Use an established Holmes D&D character, create a new one, convert one, or let me give you a charactert.
We’ll discuss if the characters are strangers or from around here. Being a local, in the wider sense of the word, will give extra information to start with.
Once start playing, you can decide to either pay for food for four days of travel there (and maybe save three days of food for the trip back) and just start at the dungeon entrance, or we can play through the travel, with all the possible complications that implies. If you want to gather extra info or get hirelings or other stuff in the village, we’ll handle it quickly and abstractly. But I am fine with it. Might even be a good idea.
I include some numbers that give an idea for the power level of the character.
Shahu, a human merchant (or maybe a yuan-ti sorcerer) working for the glory of his trade company (or maybe nest). Currently active in Scorching wastes, in Mernua. Level 1, xp 120, average stat 11.
Senja, a leather-clad mercenaress who would rather not kill. Adventuring in Hot springs island, in Al-Qadim. Level 3, experience 1228, average attribute 12.
Guinevere, the current queen in England. Highest stat B5, skill G5 (others black and no higher).
athes, a cruel pseudo-mongol mounted archer. From Barren lands in Greyhawk, and now in Wilderlands of high fantasy. Level 1, experience 145, average stat 11.
Gotfried, a very unfortunate pickpocket who was caught and pressed into service as a dungeon guide in Great kingdom, in the world of Greyhawk. Currently imprisoned by dwarves of Graymere. Level 1, experience 367, average attribute 9.
Ælfstan, a psionic monk who lives in poverty. In Greyhawk, Yggsburg. Level 3, experience 355, average stat 13.
Fridswid, a young witch in Yggsburg in the world of Greyhawk. Level 2, experience 2137, average attribute 12.
I include some numbers that give an idea for the power level of the character.
Shahu, a human merchant (or maybe a yuan-ti sorcerer) working for the glory of his trade company (or maybe nest). Currently active in Scorching wastes, in Mernua. Level 1, xp 120, average stat 11.
Senja, a leather-clad mercenaress who would rather not kill. Adventuring in Hot springs island, in Al-Qadim. Level 3, experience 1228, average attribute 12.
Guinevere, the current queen in England. Highest stat B5, skill G5 (others black and no higher).
athes, a cruel pseudo-mongol mounted archer. From Barren lands in Greyhawk, and now in Wilderlands of high fantasy. Level 1, experience 145, average stat 11.
Gotfried, a very unfortunate pickpocket who was caught and pressed into service as a dungeon guide in Great kingdom, in the world of Greyhawk. Currently imprisoned by dwarves of Graymere. Level 1, experience 367, average attribute 9.
Ælfstan, a psionic monk who lives in poverty. In Greyhawk, Yggsburg. Level 3, experience 355, average stat 13.
Fridswid, a young witch in Yggsburg in the world of Greyhawk. Level 2, experience 2012, average attribute 12.
Fixed schedule: weekends, some reasonable time for Europeans (with family), once every two weeks. Zeroth session up to negotiation, but maybe on 27th or 28th February?
Let us aim for a short game of five to ten actual sessions, plus session zero and some reflection after we are done. If we want to continue after that, sure; the reflection can also be the next session zero.
Discord or similar for voice, Roll20 for character sheets etc. Preferably video during the zeroth session so that we become more of people to each other.
Ambitions
I would like to get at least one, but preferably two, of these in play:
A historical setting or some other game world with an interesting social environment taken seriously in play. Besides a historical time and place (maybe with period-appropriate supernatural), some options might be World of Near, my D&D soup world Mernua, or if someone is an expert, Glorantha or Tekumél.
Serious use of range and cover, mounts or sorcery.
Play takes places within a community of fairly modest size, like a village, mages’ covenant, monastery or a pirate ship.
Seeds
These are just examples; other stuff is very possible.
Setting up a mages’ covenant: at least one sorcerer, maybe more, are trying to do exactly that. How does it work? We’ll see at least one, but probably more, of the following: politics, logistics and economy, dungeoneering if we go with a D&D world. Plus any interpersonal issues.
The village game: we’ll take a village, or a pirate ship, or some other close-knit community and follow the dramatic parts of their life. Maybe a moment of crisis, maybe some teenager growth stories or local adventures, certainly relationship drama.
Range and cover: whatever session and situation where martial conflict from afar is likely to play a major role. Musketeer-era France, maybe, since I have been reading up a bit on that? Or just the dungeon commando stuff via Burning thac0. But I want ranged combats in an open field, in a forest, in twisting streets or dungeon corridors, etc. Put R&C through its paces.
Fairy tale fantasy: We’ll take some fairy tales, choose characters from those and mix them together into a situation. Then we play to see the characters fight for what they believe in.
Or maybe someone has a character they would really like to play, preferably one they have played before but their story is not finished yet? Why not build the game around them.
I include some numbers that give an idea for the power level of the character.
Shahu, a human merchant (or maybe a yuan-ti sorcerer) working for the glory of his trade company (or maybe nest). Currently active in Scorching wastes, in Mernua. Level 1, xp 120, average stat 11.
Ælfstan, a near-heretical monk who lives in poverty. In Adventure guild’s world. Level 3, experience 1406, average stat 15.
Senja, a leather-clad mercenaress who would rather not kill. Adventuring in Hot springs island, in Al-Qadim. Level 3, experience 1228, average attribute 12.
Guinevere, the current queen in England. Highest stat B5, skill G5 (others black and no higher).
athes, a cruel pseudo-mongol mounted archer. From Barren lands in Greyhawk, and now in Wilderlands of high fantasy. Level 1, experience 145, average stat 11.
Fridswid, a young witch in Yggsburg in the world of Greyhawk. Level 2, experience 2012, average attribute 12.
Gotfried, a very unfortunate pickpocket who was caught and pressed into service as a dungeon guide in Great kingdom, in the world of Greyhawk. Currently imprisoned by dwarves of Graymere. Level 1, experience 367, average attribute 9.
