Vikings don't cast cantrips

We resumed The Saga of Godlauggr last session using the new D&D rules. I converted the Old School Hack Characters to D&D 5th edition. Using the following guidelines:

D&D Ability Score	Old School Hack Ability Score
STR	Brawn
DEX	Daring + Cunning / 2
CON	Brawn + Commitment / 2
INT	Cunning + Awareness / 2
WIS	Commitment
CHA	Charm

Experience: 1 OSH level = 2 D&D 5th edition levels.

In general I tried to build the 5th edition characters to incorporate as close as possible the powers they had in OSH.

In the end, I think the characters came out pretty good. They constitute a formidable 8th level party.

I feel like I need to play more 5th edition before I pass a final judgment or decide to adopt it on a long term basis. One game does not do a system justice. However, after reading and rereading the books and running a long session I will elaborate my initial impressions:

Pros:

1. I appreciate the unified mechanic of almost all rolls being 1d20+ability score mod+ proficiency (if applicable).  

2. I love the advantage / disadvantage mechanic rather than having to rule situational +/- to to rolls.

3. The combat system of action, bonus action, and reaction is nice way to define what can be done in a round. (My players were a bit confused on this, but it was probably because I didn’t explain it well enough.)

4. The ability based saving throw mechanic is good. It is similar to what we already do (from Swords & Wizardry) and the having formulas for the DC of saves is a welcome change from rolling against mysterious numbers.

5. Character backgrounds are neat, and seem easy to modify. The skill and proficiency system is not too burdensome.

6. The PHB and especially the DMG have lots of random charts. I love random charts.

Cons:

1. Number bloat.  I like d4, d6, d8 for HD. (Actually I really prefer everyone gets a d6) I can’t figure out why the hit dice are bigger than older D&D, when the weapon damage dice, spell damage etc are all correspondingly bigger as well. It just seems like unnecessary bloat leading to longer and more complicated encounters.

2. Why not use Hit Dice as a measure of power scale? What’s with the CR formula? It seems overly complicated and makes my work as a DM much harder. I don’t really care about balanced encounters per se, but I do want to be able to make up monster/npc stats on the fly. This is easy in old school D&D, monsters advance a step on the attack matrix by HD, npc’s by class. In 5th edition, ability score modifiers + misc. class skills + proficiency bonus etc. are required to stat an encounter. I can’t imagine I will ever memorize all the various class abilities and such. The brass tax is 5th edition just seems like more work!

3. There is WAAY to much magic. D&D has always had some sort of implied setting (by spell list, monsters, equipment, alignment, and classes) but the integration of the implied setting (a highly magical fantasy world) into the mechanics of 5th edition seems like it will be hard to separate if you want to play in a world with less (or no) magic. Cantrips in particular are troublesome. The idea that a wizard can produce offensive magic every six seconds is …odd. This is like comic book level power and I don’t like it. I think that this was an effort to “balance” the power level of classes which allows the use of a single XP chart for everyone. I understand the idea, but I actually prefer that some classes peak in power at different levels.

4. There is too much definition of abilities. The classes all have various “powers”. These powers each have associated mechanics. This complicates the game. I would argue that it also limits imagination and “role-playing”. Rather than inhabiting the imaginary space of the game and acting in novel and entertaining ways, players will peruse the list of things they can do on a record sheet and select the most appropriate action. This might make the game easier in a sense, since players do not have to actually be creative and DM’s don’t have to make rulings on impromptu actions, but it is antithetical to my preferred style of play. Rulings not Rules!

5. The game is very forgiving, almost to the point of what I would call “carebear”. Healing is easy, and it literally takes three failed saving throws to die. (With the exception of massive damage, but even then players start with max HP.) To me without the very real possibility of death, combat is dull and a character's actions are somewhat less than truly heroic. It also removes the sense of accomplishment a player has when their 1st level nobody with 3 hit points survives to become a Lordly Fighting-Man, or Omnipotent Wizard.

6. The books, while well written are irritatingly labeled by “part” rather than chapter at the bottom of the page. This annoyance is compounded by the text being a light brown on a beige background. Not very user friendly. The books also seem to be of poor physical quality, my DMG has “wavy” pages and the binding of all three seems dubious. I can deal with poor layout in a short book (I use the 3LBB for example) but these books are tomes with 300+ pages. Also, give me some .PDFs! I play online, and juggling the books and Roll20 is a pain. WOTC needs to release PDFs soon or I (and I’m sure others) will go get them in less than legal ways.

Perhaps some of these complaints will seem frivolous after more play. More likely, I need to approach the game from a different paradigm. This is not old school D&D. 5th edition is more like playing a board or video game about a medieval superhero on easy mode rather than the freewheeling and deadly improv of OD&D. I can dig a casual game; the problem is this game is complicated. Number bloat, lots of mechanically defined skills, difficult encounter creation. Perhaps experience will mitigate some of these complaints.

As it stands, I don’t think 5th edition is appropriate for The Saga of Godlauggr. The campaign is supposed to a dark and gritty exploration of 9th century Norse life. There are some fantastical elements, but not Clerics raining Divine Fire on their enemies ten times a minute. If I were more familiar with 5th edition, I would just hack it to accommodate my desired campaigns as I do with old school D&D. I get the impression however that the game is not as easily modified as say b/x without “breaking” it.

I still want to explore the new D&D if no other reason than to figure out what to steal for my old school games. I’m just not sure what an appropriate campaign is. I don’t really care to DM traditional D&D high fantasy with super powered Tieflings and such flinging magic willy-nilly. Perhaps I can convince someone else in my group to run by the book 5th edition…

Behold the Space Lich!

Intelligence from the negative energy plane, Xylithians appeared in the universe when ancient Imperial Mech-Wizards attempted to harness the event horizon of a black hole to destroy an Elder God. A rent in the fabric of reality was opened and the entropic forces of the negative energy plane flowed freely into the prime material. Eventually the higher intelligences of the negative energy plane followed the current of entropy and began to feast on the life of the universe. That was thousands of years ago. Now the Xylithians have devoured most of the life at the center of the galaxy and spread outwards in a spasm of oblivion. The Xylithians will inevitabley be the end of life in the universe. Fortunately, true Xylithians are few, and they operate on a scale outside of most sapience concept of time. They will spend thousands of years feasting on the life of a world before moving to the next.

A Xylithian Hierophant is a true native of the negative energy plane. It is speculated that there are only twelve in the Galaxy. The first known Hierophant (the oldest in records of survivors) is named Xylith, and the species takes their name from this creature. The Hierophant is a mass of writhing flesh and shadow, its form impossible to distinguish.  They vary in size from subatomic to larger than a star. The Hierophants negative will animates Star-Liches who command the legions of Puppets that harvest life for their masters.

A Star-Lich is the animated body of a sorcerer or other scion of power from a decimated world. They are invested with a fraction of the power of the Hierophant that claimed them. The Star-Lich uses this power to fill the shells of living things consumed by the Hierophants with negative energy and send these Puppets out to harvest life for their masters. They command the Puppets and the flesh ships.  Star-Liches roam the Galaxy fulfilling the will of their masters.

Puppets are the lowest form of Xylithian. They may be found in twelve grades of varying power and ability. Twelfth degree Puppets are weak thralls, barely capable of action, while first degree Puppets are fearsome agents of doom. The Puppets are made from living things whose essence has been consumed by the Hierophant. They are hollow inside, with empty eyes and mouth , a shell of skin that is animated by negative energy. Each grade of puppet can be controlled over vast distances by the next higher grade.

The Flesh Ships are capital class starships commanded by a Star-Lich. They are horrific constructs made by melding together the life of an entire planet and using the energy contained therein for space flight. The flesh ships change shape and spawn smaller vessels of writhing animated flesh as needed.

The arrival of a Flesh Ship in a sector is almost certainly a harbinger of the end of all life in the region. However, several times in the history of the Galaxy, the often quarreling species in an afflicted sector have allied to destroy a Star-Lich and buy themselves more time before inevitable doom. There is a pan-galactic organization known as the Star-Knights who devote themselves to combating the Xylithian threat wherever it manifest in the universe.

Thoughts on class design in Lasers & Loincloths.

Lasers & Loincloths is a mutant of a D&D game. Its core is an amalgam of the 3LBB, b/x and Swords & Wizardry Complete. It uses the single saving throw and spell list of SW, the XP charts, ability score modifiers and race as class of b/x, and the non-variable weapon damage 100 XP per hit dice monster experience reward, and ethos of the 3LBB. Various other sources have influenced the design; Labyrinth Lord, Planet Eris, Warriors of the Red Planet, 5th edition D&D, Carcosa, White Star, Lamentations of the Flame Princess and more.

When designing the classes, I used b/x as a base. The main differences between b/x and Lasers and Loincloths are to hit progression, and spells per level. The cleric has an odd spell progression in b/x, gaining both 3rd and 4th level spells at the same time and 5th level spells at 7th level.. In Lasers & Loincloths 5th level spells are the upper limits for most game play, with 9th level being the soft cap of experience level progression. 5th level magic is thus the reward for reaching the max level and I felt it should not be gained before then. (I am certainly not the first person to fiddle with Cleric spells, and ended up adopting Labyrinth Lords spell progression.)

To hit progression in b/x is the same as the alternate combat system of Men & Magic. The fighter progresses every three levels, the cleric every four, and the magic user every five. Monsters progress on the attack matrix with every hit dice. I have deviated from this in Lasers & Loincloths. The fighter progresses every level, the cleric every three and the magic user / thief every four. Monsters retain the +1 to hit per hit dice.  I changed the hit progress because I want combat to be quick and brutal. The increased ability score modifier range of b/x (-3 to +3 curve) and an increased to hit bonus for all classes achieves this. In addition, I feel the fighter should be the equal of a monster in hit progression. As a bonus, increasing the modifier by one at every level (or fraction thereof) is easy to remember when I need to create stats for an NPC.

I have kept other class abilities to a minimum and mostly in line with b/x. Generally each class has two abilities and gains another at fourth level with 9th level allowing strongholds/armies. This isn't always the case, and “balance” between the class abilities was not a concern.  Old school D&D balanced classes by XP progression and level caps, and I have retained these aspects of the game.

Classes outside the “core” of Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User all use the same HD, to hit bonus, and save of one of the core classes, sometimes an amalgam of classes. The Sea Blood which I took from Labyrinth Lords Realms of Crawling Chaos is a Fighter/Cleric and uses fighter to hit progression with Cleric save and hit dice. The Rogue is a Fighter, the Thief uses the Magic User hit dice and to hit progression just like Supplement I and b/x. Demihumans are as per b/x, with the Blarka being essentially a re-skinned Halfling.  

Thus far, nothing has seemed broken. This is one of the beautiful things about old school D&D, it is very easy to house rule and very hard to break. With the game moving into space, I will add classes from the White Star RPG, and allow the characters to multi-class. With this addition, Lasers & Loincloths is nearing a final form although I am sure it will continue to be refined as I am exposed to new ideas and interpretations of old rulings. I am extremely grateful to my players for being patient with the meddling. Not all of them benefited when we went from OD&D -1 to +1 ability curve to the b/x modifiers! Perhaps some reward is in order…

Demihumans in The Interzone

I don’t really like demihumans in D&D. It’s hard to beat Tolkien on the lore, and D&D is not Middle Earth so in a game they just strike me as fictionally weak. In my D&D settings I favor a more sword and sorcery style, where anything not human probably wants to eat you. (And some of the humans probably want to eat you too.)  In my “main game” Lasers & Loincloths the demihuman races exist (except nasty halflings *shudder*) but the players for the most part must play humans.

In OD&D , demihumans constitute three additional classes. I am trying to run the game by the book so players are welcome to play the Dwarf Fighting-Man, Hobbit Fighting-Man, or Elf Fighting-Man/Magic User.

Technically the OD&D game takes place in the same setting as Lasers & Loincloths, I've created fiction for the elves and dwarves, so I had to come up with something for nasty hobbitses.

Demihumans in The Interzone

Elfs and Dwarfs were manufactured in the bio-pools of the Primordial Ones.

Elfs were intended to be house slaves and dwarfs were used for hard labor.

Halflings are a result of spontaneous evolution from the waste run off of the bio-pools. The Primordial Ones exterminated them as pest but after the fall of the first men the pools leaked freely and halflings bred unchecked in the wilds.  Over millennia of violent evolution they eventually become the weasel Blarka.

Physical Characteristics

All demihumans share the following physical characteristics:

Cat like pupils that allow them to see in the dark

They are monotremes , laying a clutch of 1-6 eggs at a time.

Elfs were manufactured to be aesthetically pleasing servants and pleasure slaves. They have beautiful feminine features, and little to no body hair. They stand four to five feet tall, and weigh between 50 and 90 pounds. Elfs are hermaphroditic, capable of generating whatever sexual organ is required. An elf will live for up to a thousand years before their genetic material becomes degraded and they transform into ghouls.

Dwarfs were manufactured to perform hard labor, specifically to mine resources on other planets. They stand four feet tall and are thick and fat with square heads and no body hair other than beards.  Dwarfs have no sexual organs and are all clones. They carry 3d6 eggs inside of their lower abdominal paunches. These must be extracted surgically to germinate. Dwarfs can live for up to a thousand years before they explode and drop their eggs.

Halflings are the mutant spawn of the genetic run-off of the vats that produced Dwarfs and Elfs. They stand two to three feet tall and their physical characteristics vary wildly. They have 1d3 eyes, and 1d4+3 limbs. Any limb over four has a 1 in 6 chance of being functional; otherwise it is a misshapen fleshy lump.  Halflings may be hairless or hirsute, male or female. Halflings have volatile and unstable genetic structure and only live for 20-30 years.  

Rolling like it's 1974

I’m excitedly running an OD&D dungeon crawl, a game that takes place almost entirely within the confines (both fictional and mechanical) of the underworld as defined in The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

This game is intended to be easy to pick up and put down supplement to my “main” campaigns. Guided by the charts for monsters encountered by dungeon level, the random dungeon room content guidelines, and a simple setting, this underworld is created as needed. A reality generated by random numbers, ready to be explored at a moment’s notice.

The fiction is that the player’s characters are prisoners of the God-emperor Adia, and are tossed into a magical underworld as sacrifice to Adia’s patron, Nyarlathotep. The underworld is called The Interzone by those deranged inhabitants who have survived. The characters wake up with no memories and no equipment. They chose a class and roll initiative.

Not having a back story will encourage the players to define characters through play, as influenced by the dice.  The stories will be made collaboratively at the table.  Absent or dead characters are magically teleported away by the keepers of The Interzone, and new characters are dropped into play immediately.  

The characters each have a sigil on their foreheads reflecting their experience level. These sigils are the key to lower dungeon levels, and will eventually be the key to escaping the dungeon at 9th level when lands may be claimed and wilderness play begins.

Adia uses the The Gharban as keepers of The Interzone. The secret wizards observe the actions of the characters and expect the characters to deliver treasure to them for which they award XP. They also absorb the XP and possessions of those who die in The Interzone, awarding a fraction of the XP for a new character and for use in other campaigns.

This is a very different sort of D&D. It is much more of a “game” than the free form action / reaction role playing of our other campaigns. This is D&D in the “Fantastic Medieval Wargame” sense. I’ve even considered encouraging competition between the players, but I suspect their ethos of teamwork will be hard to overcome. I’m afraid it will be difficult for some of the players to adapt to the game, but damn if I’m not having a blast! Hopefully the spirit of the endeavor will sink in, and the players will create truly heroic personas in play.  With skill and some luck from the dice they may face the impossible and either die, or become gods!