Encumbrance

This is a topic I have touched on once or twice in the past but it must be a year or more since last time. It was also something that Intothatdarkness mentioned in a comment yesterday.

I do not use the Encumbrance rules as written. Initially I just junked them and left it at that. Then when I was reading the players character sheets in preparation for a gaming weekend I realised that a couple of the characters would barely be able to walk and the both the warrior mage and the sorcerer probably could not cast a single spell with the amount of metal they were hauling around.

I needed a way of reining it in but without slapping the players with the full encumbrance rules out of nowhere.

I did this in three stages. Firstly I got the players to note the location of each piece of equipment on their equipment lists. When they got to the third sword they started to see the problem. Suddenly their horses were carrying a lot of spare equipment.

Secondly, I tallied up the amount of metal I thought the spell casters were carrying and just started to mention that they had a penalty on their BAR rolls. I did it casually once or twice as if I had always applied this.

What had actually prompted this in the first place as a habit one of my players has. He detests the book keeping element of RPGs and seeing as he is Dyslexic I completely understand his not wanting to write much. When it comes to the party loot his aversion to bookkeeping had him suggest that the party just keep a common list of what the party had found rather than constantly updating their character sheets with things that they were going to sell or dump as soon as they had had time to appraise them. The other players all thought this was a good idea so I had no objections at that time.

Two or three sessions on I had a thief NPC who wanted to steal a particular item from the party. This item was on the common treasure list as no one had claimed it as their own. Not all the party were together when the item was stolen so I just randomly rolled which character had the item and my roll said it was with the characters that were being targeted. Well the theft went unnoticed at the time and the item taken. Immediately afterwards when they were all together again and they got to someone who could appraise the item they couldn’t find it. I described that they found a pouch that had been obviously cut open on a seam and the item was gone. At that point the players all protested and claimed that the item was always safely with the character who had remained behind and could not have been stolen.

I just said that if it was with a specific person then they should have it on their equipment list.

That made me question the common loot list and a glance told me that there was a further 200lbs of kit that was unaccounted for on that sheet. I made a simple sheet up that was divided into sections for each character and that now serves as the common loot list. It saves them constantly having to change their personal equipment lists. Whenever there is a short break in play I look at the loot list if it has changed and jot down a quick guestimate of the weight of each persons share.

Now this hodge podge solution works for us but I freely admit it is not ideal and would never suggest it as an alternative for other GMs. My group only gets together a couple of times a year and as such there is a lot of pressure to spend as little time as possible on character maintenance and book keeping as possible.

The only encumbrance rules I apply are those from table 10.4 Static Actions and the encumbrance penalties there. I don’t do all the body weight calculations. That of course is just what works for my game and group.

So does encumbrance play a big part in your games?

Blog Intro Death and Dismemberment

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned Dyson’s Dodecahedron as a great source of maps. Today I thought I would mention Lloyd Neill’s occasional Death and Dismemberment blog (http://deathanddismemberment.blogspot.co.uk/).

Neill is an OSR/D&D and Rolemaster enthusiast and house rule fan which is kind of a prerequisite for Rolemaster GMs I guess.

This is relevant particularly given this weeks discussion on OSR. Last year there were some interesting discussions on House Rules. I am not a fan of OSR roleplay as it, in my opinion, just a thief tax but each to their own.

Misc Whiskey Thoughts & Challenging RPG paradigms.

  1. First, we are really close to the end of the month and we’ve almost had 1 blog per day! Thanks for everyone’s efforts.
  2. This is going to sound close to criticism…but it isn’t. Obviously all of us that participate here as either bloggers or commentators have specific viewpoints and solutions and we tend to gravitate towards our own rule models when challenged or when rules are discussed. I try very hard to think outside the box, question my own pre-conceptions and challenge established tropes–my own personal Socratic Method. Many times when I blog I’m not taking a partisan stance–I’m trying to create a dialogue to test our views and solutions. To be honest, I can and do generate new Professions all the time. What I have found is that the only real distinction is in “Base” spell lists–otherwise skill costs are washed out by level 10. Nonetheless it is interesting to create and model cultural or pop-cultural profession models with class distinct skill costs. But doing that, I am led back to a more flexible system of “free market” approach that utilizes a cost/benefit system that actually reinforces the very tropes and archetypes that people enjoy.
  3. RR’s, Saving Throws & Innate Stat abilities. So what came first? Spells or spell defense? Does that seem a stupid question? Spell Law was conceived with the concept of Magical Saving Throw already accepted–a PC can “resist” magical influence. As we discussed in an earlier blog, RM took a step forward in at least acknowledging the difference between a physical manifestation of magic and meta-physical one. WTF does that mean? I’ve been working on this…and came up with a few frameworks. Now, I think Dan and his work with RMU Spell Law has improved upon classifying spells by “Force”, “Elemental”, “Informational” etc… Even in it’s earliest editions, Rolemaster had already identified various spell manifestations: physical bolts should be treated as a missile attack, elemental ball attacks were similar but used the targets DB, and most other spells called for “Resistance Rolls”. Not bad–but can we do better? Maybe the solution isn’t conveniently classifying spells by certain types to define avoidance/resistance ramifications but through the spell itself. That might mean that spells are treated more individually like original DnD than the commoditized Rolemaster system. I’m doing major work on BASiL combining it with various stat driven mitigation rules. For example “Levitation” is found on my version of WIND LAW, GRAVITY LAW and (not yet published Mentalism spells). So Levitation/Wind Law uses a cushion of air which can be countered by “Still Wind” while Leviation/Gravity Law would not be affected by “Still Wind”. Should an unwilling target be allowed to “resist” against either one one of these? Can we resist an air cushion or a manipulation of gravity!?
  4. BTW: Matt is over in Europe for a while longer. Peter, I’m heading to Iceland in June to reinforce my love of the Iron Wind!
  5. Only 3 people for our 50 adventures in 50 days? Sad.

Alright…time for bed but I have more to say about all this (in a more comprehensive manner!)

Random Musings: OSR, Retro-Clones, Open Source Rolemaster?

I want to start by quoting two sources that really struck home:

“I still love RM but the customer base is just too small to make a living from unless you are Terry.”

“Going hand and hand with that is the fact that for better or for worse the OSR is a thing. For the past decade and a half there been a group of hobbyists actively publishing, promoting, and playing classic editions of Dungeons and Dragon and similar RPGs. This is result of everybody taking advantage of the freedom granted by the open content found in the d20 SRD to expand the quantity and variety of material that supports classic D&D.” SOURCE.

I don’t know if Nicholas or Terry read this blog regularly, but I consider myself first and foremost an RM and SW supporter. At my age, I don’t have time or energy for other systems. But I’m feeling frustrated—less for me than the opportunities I.C.E. might be missing by not opening up their IP. There is a renaissance occurring in old school game rules and RM is not riding that wave. I want to publish RM material and I want to publish SW material no matter the size of the market—I’m much less concerned about monetizing my work or earning a living, but being paid or compensated IS affirmative feedback on your efforts.

Ironically, it seems that the bulk of Rolemaster system products are the result of collating house rules in various Companions or relying on third party authors rather than any centralized approached to core product development. In other words, Rolemaster has always been a polished form of crowdsourced content. Maybe RMU pulls these previous efforts back into a cohesive thread, but…will there be corresponding game and support material and modules to carry the new rule set? If not, that’s a big problem in today’s gaming environment.

Here at RolemasterBlog we are going to put out 50 small adventure/encounter/NPC/layout “squirts” in 50 days. Would these be more appealing, sell more, or pull more attention if they could be labelled as supporting “Rolemaster”? Terry and SW are slightly different—previous attempts at third party authors resulted in some good modules but not necessarily Shadow World modules. Terry wants to control content and protect his IP. I get that.

But just imagine the alternative. I apologize for sounding a bit morbid, but none of us are getting younger. Check out the ages for the active members of RM Forums. Most of us are late 30’s, 40’s or 50’s. Where is Rolemaster in 10 years if the fan base continues to slowly decline and new product output continues at the same current level. It’s called a death spiral–see the chart at the top. This is the Business/Industry Lifecycle curve: I use it extensively in my work as a mental model for analyzing businesses.  Of note is the inflection point that occurs after business/industry maturity. You either reinvent, reinvest or re-imagine or you become irrelevant or non-competitive. Certainly the whole RPG industry is tackling this with varying degrees of success.  I believe that that the answer is not in traditional strategies: marketing, research or new product development. It’s embracing the free flow of information, open sourcing, crowd funding new content, organic development and creative development seeding.

How can you develop new young writing and creative talent without a growing or stable fan base? In my mind, open sourcing Rolemaster, leveraging online creative communities and allowing new media channels to incubate and screen quality content is the only mid to long term strategy for Rolemaster to prosper.

First Level Shouldn’t Suck!

If we’re soapboxing, I’ll jump  on one of mine: First Level shouldn’t suck! The whole premise behind first level should be giving a player a character who’s gone through her formative years and experiences and is ready to set out on her own, not some abstraction of early adolescence who can’t survive being stung by a bee, let alone a minor encounter with a wild dog. The old joke about D&D magic users having to hide behind fighters until they were about fifth level has a sad basis in fact, and Rolemaster (in my opinion) seems intent on turning first level into a collection of those magic users. Continue reading “First Level Shouldn’t Suck!”

Monumental Sculptures. Fantasy & Reality.

I found this shot, from the TV show Lost to be evocative. Perhaps more so because it’s just a remnant of a much larger construct. The mind fills in the blanks–envisioning the size and appearance of the “original” construct. There is something awe inspiring in monumental architecture and sculpture and it’s often featured in fantasy illustrations and images.  I’m reminded of this powerful shot from Jackson’s Fellowship of the Rings.

But massive statues are not just found in the realm of fantasy.  Our own world is scattered with ancient and contemporary works of similar magnitude. A few of my favorites:

Like the foot from LOST, this is The Hand of Hercules, the remnant of what is believed to be a massive statue. The only other part found is from the elbow, but based on the size of these parts the statue would have been 13m in height (43′)–making it one of the largest known marble sculptures.

One of the great wonders of the ancient world was the Colossus of Rhodes. Few believe that the statue actually straddled the entrance to the harbor, but it was huge and real–the pieces of the statue were recorded by later travelers.

Other famous statues are the Colossi of Memmon. Each is almost 18m (60′).

Did you know that many of the maoi statues on Easter Island only have their heads exposed? The bulk of these statures are buried under ground. (an interesting note is that they have the “hand/navel” found found on other ancient statues throughout the world and cultures)

For modern sculptures few can beat the towering “Motherland Calls“.  At 285′ it’s almost twice the height of the statue of liberty.

How about Genghis Khan in Mongolia!

Finally, one of my favorite. Unfortunately, this one was apparently destroyed by rebels and might have been a contemporary construction. But still cool.

Megalthic architecture, massive statues and awe inspiring structures can add flavor to your RPG game–but you don’t have delve into a fantasy realm to find them!

Rules or Setting?

My somewhat recent post about time in campaigns got me thinking about another of my favorite topics (aside from modern gaming): the relationship of a rules system to its setting. In my view, the best rules systems are always strongly tied to a specific setting. This isn’t so much about stats or combat mechanics, but rather classes/professions, races, and cultures.

Continue reading “Rules or Setting?”

I’m curious. Magic item ubiquity in your Rolemaster or Shadow World game.

 

I’ve followed several forum threads on the “commonness” of magic and magic items and thought I would ask people what they would consider as an average magic item kit for various professions at 5th lvl.

In general, in your game, what would the following have for magic or bonus items (but be specific on item and bonus, power or ability):

5th lvl Fighter

5th lvl Magician

I’m on the rarity end of the spectrum, plus I use a lot of single use magic items and roll for breakage on items. If I were starting players at 5th lvl I would do something like this:

Fighter. +10 non magic superior armor. +15 weapon. 2-5 single charge items (a mixture of protection or healing). maybe a Daily II item (offensive spell) if the group is small or it needs some skill diversity.

Magician: x2 PP multiplier. 2-4 Daily I-IV items (around 5th level spells for protection and attack). 2 Charged Items. 50 pp’s in storage (essence crystal)

My spell users have far fewer spells than traditional RM, so I add basic capabilities through daily items and charges. I generally provide a good level of PP’s, but I use unpredictable Essaence effects  (in our encounter tables) so casters face gain/loss of PP’s or increase in casting failure.

Drinking rant. RM Gaming Content: What’s the deal?

There is a paradoxical story about the chicken and the egg. Oh, you’ve heard it? Despite your familiarity with that age old story, gather round, young ones about content, IP and game rules.

First, let’s be clear: Terry Amthor is a creative genius and perhaps one of the most under appreciated forefathers of “golden/silver age” authors. I think part of that is due to his modest nature–did you know he wrote/designed other early rpg products under other names? Did you know he authored the sole AD&D adventure module “Thief Challenge? Read blogs. Peruse Grognardia for OSR recollections. The Golden Age of ME products–they were amazing!!! I know, I collected/bought out failing game store inventory (shrinkwrapped!!!) for their inventory at $.10 on the dollar and resold or 50x that once Jackson LOTR was announced. (email me for that story!!)

Ok, this is a drinking rant! Allow me to confuse this blog further and vaguely connect to my opening paragraph. What comes first; rules or settings/adventures? Are they simultaneous?  Why do I have the “Longstreet” SW novel as my top graphic? No idea. None whatsoever-this is a drunken rant.

I have a boatload of SW adventure content–all of it falls within the various RM Forum uploads and my own non-canon material..but…I am ever cognizant of SW flavor, theme and timeline, Everything I write is based on whether it fits SW or Terry will approve. Of course I’m not the writer or creator that Terry is, but I want to add to the milieu.  So my choices now are to publish setting agnostic material here or wait for Terry to catch up to accepted, submitted material.

While yes I crave Terry’s imprimatur, I am also closing in on 50 years old and would like 4-10 products published within the next 10. Should I create a agnostic product using my own version of skill focused, no-profession ruleset?

In the end, I’m and RM loyalist, a SW supplicant, but a frustrated author. I’ve posted over 200 file uploads in the last year + on the RM forums. The bulk of them are Spell Law files but a significant number are SW files. I have a 300 page+ modified SW Master Atlas, a 100 page plus MA creatures, a 97 page module on Ulya Shek for levels 5-25, 77 pages on Nontataku, 7 pages of outline on the Raven Queen and Chycalla War Machines and now a solid outline on the Pillar City! I’m working on my final SWARM doc (Shadow World Alteranate RoleMaster), and am close to uploading an expanded version of the Pales including environmental conditions, game play and expanded creature encounters.

I’m happy to upload any or all of this free of charge. I’m not looking for a payday–I’m guessing RPG publishing isn’t lucrative in any event. My formatting and layouts are poor (not for gameplay use for certainly for publishing). I’m thinking of putting this all up on the Forums or here on the RMBlog. OTOH, even getting one SW product published with the official “stamp of approval” is worth it. Thoughts?

And to finish the drinking rant, tonight’s was provided by Corsair Distillery (an apropos MERP /RM reference)

I will now go read a story from my favorite anthology: Dragon Tales.

Using technology. Texting during gameplay.

A post over at Gnomestew got me thinking more about this issue. It’s pretty hard now not to have players looking at their phones during gameplay. Maybe they are bored or the story isn’t focused on their character; maybe they are just conditioned to continually check their devices. For younger players, multi-tasking with a smart phone is almost reflexive, but it can be distracting to gameplay, slow things down or work against the immersive experience of gaming.

We’ve always used post it notes during play: players send me spells they are casting, players talk to each other without the group knowing, I send players privileged info etc. Would text messaging facilitate these communications or does it take players out of the game? I’m thinking of trying it but feel that once I let that genie out of the bottle I won’t be able to put it back.

Interested in others thoughts and/or experiences with this.