AD&D Light

I pictured this scene at the upcoming Birthday Party in the Caves of Chaos:

DM (me): "OK, now you roll a d10."
Seven Players at the Table: "Roll a what?!"
DM: "Oh, yes, sorry. I mean the non-Platonic Solid."
Five Players at the Table: "Non-Platonic WHAT?!"

So far the use of variable weapon damage proves to be problematic. I really love polyhedral dice, and I think they are definitely a very important part of the experience, but I really want to reduce the difficulty as much as I can. I want them to arrive at the end of the session and say "What a crazy awesome game!" rather than "What disturbing mind-twisting fucking unplayable shit!". One of the things I like the most about Labyrinth Lord is its modularity. I think it is possible to allow some people playing race as class and other playing with race and class at your table. So I think I will buy an Advanced Edition Companion Hardcover (I bought the pdf when it came out, but I don't want to bring my macbook to the game table anymore), hoping it will be delivered on time. At worst, I will be using my lovely Player's Handbook. I think I'm done with this topic, so in the next few posts I will be discussing the adventure and the setting.

No Checks for Secret Doors, Sucker!

While I was reading the Arandish Campaign House Rules 2011, I noted the bit about Secret Doors. I was a little surprised reading that, and suddenly realized that I've never used a roll for secret doors. Nothing. Nada. Niente. I think this is because of my Second Edition Heritage, since, as far as I know, there are no rules in there to automatically find a secret door! Except, of course, for the elven/dwarven special ability. So, how have I dealt with secret doors for all of that time? The answer is simple: accurate description. Something like "pushing a brick in the wall makes the door open", or "rotating the right hand of the statue clock-wise makes the door open", etc. A roll is somehow dull to me, and I much prefer my players acting as if they are in one of my favorite movies...

PS: Re-reading this post I began to suspect that my words can be misunderstood. I honestly don't think that people who use die-rolls for secret doors are suckers, dullards or anything else. I just wanted to explain how I handle it, and trying to be funny. And I especially like The Lands of Ara very much (so much that I actually check it daily).

Some Rules for Laser Weapons and Rifles

The best thing about weapons in the OD&D of the 3LBBs is that you can treat Laser Weapons as normal weapons, dealing 1-6 damage. Not only does this make absolute sense, but is also very simple to handle. However, I fiddled around a bit with the Hit Point system in D&D and came up with the following "universal" rules.

Laser Weapons and Firearms: Hit Points in D&D increase with the character's level to simulate the fact that the character, from combat to combat, becomes much more able to avoid mortal damage. This is, however, justified only in hand to hand combat, in which the characters are trained. You can be pretty skilled, but if someone shot you in the face, you're probably dead. Thus, characters can withstand a quantity of damage from Laser Weapons or Firearms equal to their Constitution score. The damage is still subtracted from the hit point total (not from Constitution), meaning that a character can die even before reaching their Constitution total. This is pretty mechanical, but I think it should work out just fine with more complex systems like AD&D.

Rifles: Rifles are considered as Firearms, but they can fire a large number of bullets every round. You can use a rifle basically two ways:

• Called Shot: If you decide to shoot at only one target, roll a d20 (to hit) and a d10 (to see how many bullets you fire). The first bullet hits with no bonus or penalties, the second at -1, the third at -2 and so on, using the same to hit roll. For example, say you hit AC 3: the second bullet hits AC 4, the third AC 5, the fourth AC 6 and so on.
• Blanket Fire: This is good for making some noise. You don't roll to hit but instead use the rules for missile "Misses" in the DMG (page 64, basically, roll a dice for every bullet to see what direction it takes). If someone is in the line of fire, allow a save vs. death to avoid damage. It is likely that most enemies will throw themselves to the ground or run away.

Armor: Normal armor doesn't grant any protection against Laser Weapons and Firearms. Only bulletproof vests and combat suits do (being AC 5 and 3, respectively). However, these do not grant much protection against normal weapons (AC 7 and 6, respectively). Concealed characters receive the normal bonuses.

Morale: First shot with a gun requires opponents to check morale, also if they wear proper armor. This rule is optional, since in my campaigns opponents also check morale when the first spell is cast.

The Freaky Mind

I honestly don't know where psionics are going to come from, but I know how they were handled in past editions:

• Eldritch Wizardry: Psionics are able to use their mind to fight as well as doing freaky stuff, such as telekinesis, teleport, molecular adjustment and so on. Anyone with enough Intelligence can have psionic capability, but having such powers causes the character to be a little less strong than the other members of his class.
• Player's Handbook: About the same as Eldritch Wizardry, only a little more complete.
• The Complete Psionics Handbook: Psionics are members of a class – sort of mystical mind warriors who train themselves in the use of special mind powers. They have requisites in Intelligence, Wisdom and Constitution, but Intelligence is not a key characteristic: Psionics become tougher by hard training, so discipline and resistance are the prime requisites. Among the real Psionics are the so called Wild Talents, members of other classes who have limited access to psionic powers.

That said, here's how I see the problem. As a matter of fact, humans use only a small percentage of their brain capacity: this is mostly because our body is not able to feed the brain enough and avoid health risks, but this explanation is not much fun to play with, is it? So, suppose that having the ability of using a larger percentage of the brain can give a person the ability to access psionic capabilities.

In Lin Carter's Tower at the Edge of Time, the protagonist, Thane, discovers his psionic abilities while being ESP'ed by a "mind warrior". It's the stress that leads his superior mental powers to show themselves. Interestingly enough, Thane is able to use every possible psionic power right from the start – he uses a sort of Mind Blast and then Telekinesis straight afterward. Later in the story Thane uses molecular re-arrangement to turn the bars of his cell into crystal, and then Telekinesis again to fly out of the prison and save the slave he is in love with. But using these powers consumes his energy leaving him faint for hours after a couple of minutes of use. Thane is said to be an über-tough barbarian, who can kill four opponents without even sweating, so I'd say his Constitution is at least 15 or 16.

The simpler alternative to having Psionic Strength as a point system, which is pretty much too mechanical for me, is having them as daily powers, just like MUs and Cs spells. The trouble is, I don't like daily powers at all. In OD&D the quantum of time for powers is the Adventure, which one person considers to be the complete exploration of a dungeon or site and someone else considers it to merely be a game session. I prefer the second one. In Carcosa the number of times per day psionics may be used is determined by the character's level only. In my system, the number of times per Adventure psionics may be used is determined by both Constitution and the level of experience, while Intelligence only determines the probability of having psionic abilities.

Psionics

«The tea was just right, thank you Sir.»

Today I found the time to write about psionics in my upcoming Yaqqothl supplement. The system runs to about 400 words, including tables and explanation of psionic powers. I like it very much – it's easier and a less random than the one included in Carcosa, although not as over-simplified as the one proposed by ChicagoWiz (I like his system, except only four powers are a little too few for me).

On Skills and Perception

This evening I was working on a very seminal list of skills for Yaqqothl. I came up with six skills:

• Appraise
• Athletic
• Diplomacy
• Perception
• Underground Mastery
• Wilderness Survival

Then, while I was having a shower, I realized that all these skills are already covered in the 3LBBs or simply ignorable. It was kind of a shock to me. One by one:

• Appraise: You need an NPC to do that, and this is fine because characters are not merchants: they are adventurers.
• Athletic: There are rules to climb, jump and even swim in the 3LBBs, and this is all the athleticism I personally need.
• Diplomacy: Use the reaction table!
• Underground Mastery: If you can already find secret doors, traps, slanting passages and so on just by rolling a die, what use is an exploration skill?
• Wilderness Survival: Anyone can set up a camp. If the characters have to hunt, you have stats for animals (check the supplements, the Monster Manual or whatever you want).

And finally, the most shocking one. I always wondered why there weren't rules to handle Perception in any pre-WotC edition of D&D . But now I realize they were always there: the Surprise roll is Perception. For example, say Grog the Rogue is moving silently to assassinate a guard. This is OD&D, so it is enough for the player to say "Grog moves silently", and he can do it easily if not wearing heavy armor. The DM knows that the guard is surprised on 1-2 in 6, and decides that since Grog is moving silently the probability that the guard is surprised increases to 1-3 in 6. Then he secretly rolls the die to check how the situation evolves...

I feel like I'm really getting into OD&D.