Continued from Part 1
So the idea of an episodic sandbox is predicated on episodic adventures that can stand alone and be enjoyed by players in attendance, and those that can't make it that week won't feel like they are missing a big part of the story. The setting and sandbox the players interact in SHOULD be familiar though. When you are adventuring, certain elements should be familiar. The town the players live in is the one that is attacked. The same lonely mountain that the player's delved into for treasure may have a hidden bandit fortress somewhere on the other side.
Though the adventures are episodic, I want player agency to remain important like any other sandbox campaign. If the players are unable to finally hunt down and kill that manticore, they may find a few friendly NPCs have gone missing at the start of the following game session. If the bandit leader escapes death and flees his fortress, he may come after the players with assassins to get revenge. Choices during the episodic adventures still matter. The consequences of the player's actions will spawn new adventures down the road. If the players discover and take over control of a borderlands fort, their adventures may include defending the supply lines to the fort, defend it from attackers, etc. If the player's start acting more evil, they may have to contend not only with other villainous creatures, but also the forces of "good".
The next question is, how do player's get hooked into these adventures? When we accept this type of campaign, we must give up notions of some save-the-world story. Things are more local, gritty, and since we'll be playing swords & wizardry, deadly. The player's will operate out of some sort of base. To start, this will probably be the cliche'd tavern in town. We can accept cliches because it facilitates the campaign style needed. In typical fashion, the players will begin their adventures here but also end them. At the end of each episodic session, they will return to the tavern to rest up, count treasure, etc. When the characters in drinking ale, they will become privy to adventure hooks. There may be a bulletin board with rumors, ads for 'heroes needed', etc. May also include the occasional bursting in of a troubled NPC with an immediate problem. This will be summarized to players by me describing what's new or current on the bulletin board, what they have heard around town, etc. Either at the end of the session or via email between sessions, the players will vote on which lead interests them most. This will allow me to make sure I have time to properly prepare. The player's can then prioritize what they want to do. Dave really wants to hunt down that hydra but can't make it next week. The others decide to leave that trail alone for now and instead look to take down the slavers' operations down the river. That hydra can wait for Dave, though it may ravage a few farms in the mean time.
I will be looking to craft a sandbox out of the steps shown in the ACKS rulebook, but I will allow for "Schrodinger's Dungeon". That is, a particular adventure site may or may not exist until I need it. Sure the player's have been to hex 1016 before, but the wizard's tower wasn't really "there" until I had an adventure set there. Perhaps it was illusion'd. No, the player's did not notice the cave in hex 2034 until they had the treasure map leading to it. The large amount of square mileage available to me means the players will never truly explore every nook and cranny. I can fill the sandbox as much as I want. Goblin hordes move in from the north and set up new villages, earthquakes unveil new cave structures, etc.
So far I have explained facilitating adventures and making the sandboxes feel alive. In the next post, I'll discuss how player flexibility will keep things interesting and allow for progression of the campaign over time.
Friday, April 25, 2014
GAGP's Solution: The Episodic Sandbox Part 1
In today's previous post I talked about the Great Adult Gaming Problem. It is not a new problem by any means, but I think I have a solution that will work for my future campaigns and maybe it can help yours too.
First and foremost, I must give credit to Beyond the Black Gate, as most of the underlying concepts are taken from the blog author's series on episodic play. You can read them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
The essential bits to be taken from that post series, is that episodic play relies on bite-sized adventures that can be done in 3-4 hours and are relatively compartmentalized from each other. Al, the author of Beyond the Black Gate, gives a short list of adventure types: Relics & Ruins, Tiny Dungeons, Monster Hunting, Megadungeons, and Random Generator Travel. For my purposes, I ideally want to narrow this down to basically three types of adventures: Small dungeon delving, monster set pieces, and multi-terrain objective.
Small dungeon delving is essentially Al's Relics & Ruins and Tiny Dungeons categories combined. These would be micro-dungeons with 5-10 rooms, able to be explored within a session. They would probably include typical dungeon denizens inside, typical treasure, but the reason for being there is clear. There is an artifact to be found, a bounty to be collected, a hostage to retrieve. These areas need not be underground, but it is the idea of a multi-roomed structure to explore, possibly clear, with a goal in mind.
Monster Set Pieces are much like Al's monster hunting. I don't like to use the word hunt because the situation could be that the players are reacting to monster attacks, not specifically hunting them. The monsters serve as set pieces, wherever they are encountered. An entire adventure is dedicated to a specific monster. This monster is probably much stronger than the players, and thus each encounter will be dramatic. For example, the town and country-side is being ravaged by a roaming manticore. The player's must find a way to eliminate the threat. This will include tracking the creature, fending off the creature when it attacks the town, and possibly going after it's lair to neutralize it. I've been looking at numerous monster books, thinking about which ones make great singular monsters for these types of adventures. They should be monstrous, iconic, and be something that requires proper preparation by the PCs. I fortunately have many monster books to use and select unique monsters from, especially ones the players have never encountered before (standard trolls are too easy!). For old school rules (including Swords and Wizardry and OSRIC/1E) see: Monstrosities, Tome of Horrors Complete, Tome of Horrors 4, the Teratic Tome, and Monsters of Myth(free!). Since OSRIC is so close to Swords & wizardry Complete, I will be able to use any of those monsters pretty easily in my S&W games.
Multi-terrain Objective adventures are the catch-all for anything else I can think of. Perhaps it's an urban investigation, diplomatic role-playing story, hexcrawl of discovery, etc. The idea here is that the player's should have a clear goal to accomplish, but it is neither a dungeon crawl or pure monster slaying. Perhaps the characters must race to find the location of a lost city or temple. This in turn might lead to further adventure possibilities.
Al does some great write-ups about these general ideas, so again I recommend reading his posts as well to get a deeper understanding of how to prepare these adventure types. Supplements like the Tome of Adventure Design and the D30 Sandbox Companion provide tables and ideas for creating the episodic adventures.
Now, so far this has all been based Al's work, but here our my personal plans. These individual episodic adventures are more like episodes of the X-Files rather than Game of Thrones. There will be the one-offs, but also some possibilities of several of these episodic adventures be connected. Like the X-Files' overall plot about government conspiracies, certain things will be recurring elements because they are parts of the sandbox world that exists around the characters. More on this in the next blog post.
First and foremost, I must give credit to Beyond the Black Gate, as most of the underlying concepts are taken from the blog author's series on episodic play. You can read them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
The essential bits to be taken from that post series, is that episodic play relies on bite-sized adventures that can be done in 3-4 hours and are relatively compartmentalized from each other. Al, the author of Beyond the Black Gate, gives a short list of adventure types: Relics & Ruins, Tiny Dungeons, Monster Hunting, Megadungeons, and Random Generator Travel. For my purposes, I ideally want to narrow this down to basically three types of adventures: Small dungeon delving, monster set pieces, and multi-terrain objective.
Small dungeon delving is essentially Al's Relics & Ruins and Tiny Dungeons categories combined. These would be micro-dungeons with 5-10 rooms, able to be explored within a session. They would probably include typical dungeon denizens inside, typical treasure, but the reason for being there is clear. There is an artifact to be found, a bounty to be collected, a hostage to retrieve. These areas need not be underground, but it is the idea of a multi-roomed structure to explore, possibly clear, with a goal in mind.
Monster Set Pieces are much like Al's monster hunting. I don't like to use the word hunt because the situation could be that the players are reacting to monster attacks, not specifically hunting them. The monsters serve as set pieces, wherever they are encountered. An entire adventure is dedicated to a specific monster. This monster is probably much stronger than the players, and thus each encounter will be dramatic. For example, the town and country-side is being ravaged by a roaming manticore. The player's must find a way to eliminate the threat. This will include tracking the creature, fending off the creature when it attacks the town, and possibly going after it's lair to neutralize it. I've been looking at numerous monster books, thinking about which ones make great singular monsters for these types of adventures. They should be monstrous, iconic, and be something that requires proper preparation by the PCs. I fortunately have many monster books to use and select unique monsters from, especially ones the players have never encountered before (standard trolls are too easy!). For old school rules (including Swords and Wizardry and OSRIC/1E) see: Monstrosities, Tome of Horrors Complete, Tome of Horrors 4, the Teratic Tome, and Monsters of Myth(free!). Since OSRIC is so close to Swords & wizardry Complete, I will be able to use any of those monsters pretty easily in my S&W games.
Multi-terrain Objective adventures are the catch-all for anything else I can think of. Perhaps it's an urban investigation, diplomatic role-playing story, hexcrawl of discovery, etc. The idea here is that the player's should have a clear goal to accomplish, but it is neither a dungeon crawl or pure monster slaying. Perhaps the characters must race to find the location of a lost city or temple. This in turn might lead to further adventure possibilities.
Al does some great write-ups about these general ideas, so again I recommend reading his posts as well to get a deeper understanding of how to prepare these adventure types. Supplements like the Tome of Adventure Design and the D30 Sandbox Companion provide tables and ideas for creating the episodic adventures.
Now, so far this has all been based Al's work, but here our my personal plans. These individual episodic adventures are more like episodes of the X-Files rather than Game of Thrones. There will be the one-offs, but also some possibilities of several of these episodic adventures be connected. Like the X-Files' overall plot about government conspiracies, certain things will be recurring elements because they are parts of the sandbox world that exists around the characters. More on this in the next blog post.
The Great Adult Gaming Problem
Look another blog post! Unfortunately I don't have the Part 2 of the Slumbering Tsar Saga conversion done yet. I have made some progress on it though. Today I wanted to talk briefly about something many gamers are familiar with, what I call the Great Adult Gaming Problem (GAGP). I think most gamers have encountered this in one form or the other, I'm just giving it a name so I can talk about it more easily. This problem, and how I am going to try to tackle it, will be covered in the next few blog posts. I will break them up so they are easier to consume.
The root of the problem is one that I'm sure the founders of the hobby encountered many times. As opposed to when you are a teenager or kid, when you are an adult you don't have the luxury of summer breaks, free weekends, etc. Work, spouses, errands, and all those other things we adults worry about keep us from having a consistent schedule for gaming. I may have weekends off and can make time, but maybe some of my players have to work weekends. That sort of thing. You can't guarantee everyone is going to be at every session. You sometimes see players bring friends for a one-off occasion, which may not mesh with what is going on in the campaign.
In addition, longer adventures (including modules, megadungeons, and many story arcs) can't be completed in a single session. It seems these days, 8 hour long marathon sessions just aren't possible. I'm typically able to have 3-4 hour sessions or the sometimes 5-6 hour session. If a dungeon, module, or what-have-you takes longer than a single session, people begin to forget what is happening when we get back to playing. My last SWN game ended this way. We are in the middle of a dungeon area. If we sat down to play again we'd spend half the session trying to figure out why they were there, what had they done so far, and what room they were currently in. Even with my notes. If schedules get out of whack, it could be weeks or months until the game could be picked up again. Long stories with numerous variables is too much paperwork to keep if attendance is so variable. Dave can't make it to the session, guess his assassin is in drone-auto-pilot through the rest of the dungeon.
Relying on adventure path modules won't work, they are too "on-rails" to maintain unless you have a super consistent group
So how do you insulate your campaign from these problems? How do you make every session enjoyable, no matter what the attendance is, or how often you meet? How do you continue to make the players have agency and let the world feel alive? I believe the key is in a particular form of sandbox gameplay.
I've spent sometime reading other blogs and pondering solutions to the problem. I think I may have some solutions. They aren't novel ones, I must admit I will be using the ideas of others. I'll post links to those sources as I explain it. I hope that the solution I use, plus some liberal house-ruling, will allow for an interesting campaign that will be hard to derail.
Links to Solution Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
For readers, how do you address GAGP in your groups? Leave your comments below.
The root of the problem is one that I'm sure the founders of the hobby encountered many times. As opposed to when you are a teenager or kid, when you are an adult you don't have the luxury of summer breaks, free weekends, etc. Work, spouses, errands, and all those other things we adults worry about keep us from having a consistent schedule for gaming. I may have weekends off and can make time, but maybe some of my players have to work weekends. That sort of thing. You can't guarantee everyone is going to be at every session. You sometimes see players bring friends for a one-off occasion, which may not mesh with what is going on in the campaign.
In addition, longer adventures (including modules, megadungeons, and many story arcs) can't be completed in a single session. It seems these days, 8 hour long marathon sessions just aren't possible. I'm typically able to have 3-4 hour sessions or the sometimes 5-6 hour session. If a dungeon, module, or what-have-you takes longer than a single session, people begin to forget what is happening when we get back to playing. My last SWN game ended this way. We are in the middle of a dungeon area. If we sat down to play again we'd spend half the session trying to figure out why they were there, what had they done so far, and what room they were currently in. Even with my notes. If schedules get out of whack, it could be weeks or months until the game could be picked up again. Long stories with numerous variables is too much paperwork to keep if attendance is so variable. Dave can't make it to the session, guess his assassin is in drone-auto-pilot through the rest of the dungeon.
Relying on adventure path modules won't work, they are too "on-rails" to maintain unless you have a super consistent group
So how do you insulate your campaign from these problems? How do you make every session enjoyable, no matter what the attendance is, or how often you meet? How do you continue to make the players have agency and let the world feel alive? I believe the key is in a particular form of sandbox gameplay.
I've spent sometime reading other blogs and pondering solutions to the problem. I think I may have some solutions. They aren't novel ones, I must admit I will be using the ideas of others. I'll post links to those sources as I explain it. I hope that the solution I use, plus some liberal house-ruling, will allow for an interesting campaign that will be hard to derail.
Links to Solution Series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
For readers, how do you address GAGP in your groups? Leave your comments below.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Back? Maybe.
Hello readers. If there are any of you out there. I know my last blog post got some traffic due to my Slumbering Tsar conversion project. And YES, it's been a year since I last posted. I hate being one of those folks that writes plenty for a month or two and then dies off, but alas I am/was.
So what have I been up to? Well I found a wonderful lady to be my girlfriend, moved to a new place, dealt with some career stuff (good stuff), and tried to keep a regular RPG group going (to little success).
The Slumbering Tsar project ground to a halt. However I've been noticing some interest on the Google+ communities and the FGG forums for the conversion. I may try to give it another go, complete what I started. I had a hard drive corruption awhile back and lost a lot of my notes and work from before. I still fortunately had part 1 saved to google docs. We will see what happens in the coming weeks.
Gaming wise, I ran a group for awhile. We did Swords & Wizardry for bit, ran +Matt Finch's Grimmsgate for a bit, but due to player attendance problems things sort of fell apart. I was able to run a great session of White Plume Mountain and I have to say I really enjoyed it. May need to make separate post about that day.
And even more recently I had revived my group to play +Kevin Crawford's awesome Stars Without Number game using his Hydra Sector as the setting. We played two sessions, and my move caused the gaming to halt and now I'm in a gridlock. I am pretty burned out on DMing. Even though I haven't actually done much of it over the past year, I miss being a player. I've been the DM for so long I have forgotten what it is like to play. Whenever I really want to play RPGs, it's always up to me to get the group together. I have discussed with a consistent player of mine the possibility of him DMing a game, and I offered to trade off DM duties from week to week. He is still thinking about it. Lately I've been very interested in playing or running Adventurer Conqueror King and I have the books for it. I imagine my friend would run Swords & Wizardry though, unless convinced otherwise. In order to prepare for those games I may be spending some time creating a new sandbox compatible with ACKS's systems. Would need to balance that against the Slumbering Tsar conversion.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's to hoping I get off my ass and starting working on stuff again. Would be good to see the Frog God Games folks at PaizoCon and let them know I got a reason for more people to buy Slumbering Tsar.
So what have I been up to? Well I found a wonderful lady to be my girlfriend, moved to a new place, dealt with some career stuff (good stuff), and tried to keep a regular RPG group going (to little success).
The Slumbering Tsar project ground to a halt. However I've been noticing some interest on the Google+ communities and the FGG forums for the conversion. I may try to give it another go, complete what I started. I had a hard drive corruption awhile back and lost a lot of my notes and work from before. I still fortunately had part 1 saved to google docs. We will see what happens in the coming weeks.
Gaming wise, I ran a group for awhile. We did Swords & Wizardry for bit, ran +Matt Finch's Grimmsgate for a bit, but due to player attendance problems things sort of fell apart. I was able to run a great session of White Plume Mountain and I have to say I really enjoyed it. May need to make separate post about that day.
And even more recently I had revived my group to play +Kevin Crawford's awesome Stars Without Number game using his Hydra Sector as the setting. We played two sessions, and my move caused the gaming to halt and now I'm in a gridlock. I am pretty burned out on DMing. Even though I haven't actually done much of it over the past year, I miss being a player. I've been the DM for so long I have forgotten what it is like to play. Whenever I really want to play RPGs, it's always up to me to get the group together. I have discussed with a consistent player of mine the possibility of him DMing a game, and I offered to trade off DM duties from week to week. He is still thinking about it. Lately I've been very interested in playing or running Adventurer Conqueror King and I have the books for it. I imagine my friend would run Swords & Wizardry though, unless convinced otherwise. In order to prepare for those games I may be spending some time creating a new sandbox compatible with ACKS's systems. Would need to balance that against the Slumbering Tsar conversion.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Here's to hoping I get off my ass and starting working on stuff again. Would be good to see the Frog God Games folks at PaizoCon and let them know I got a reason for more people to buy Slumbering Tsar.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
New Project: Slumbering Tsar Saga S&W Conversion! Part 1 Complete!
So I've decided to start a little side-project for myself. I'm working on converting the epic adventure written by Greg Vaughan, The Slumber Tsar Saga, in the Swords & Wizardry ruleset! Once upon a time I had great fun running this adventure for friends, in the Pathfinder rules. It was a great time, until a player quit the group and we had to go on hiatus. Someday I'd like to revisit that campaign, since it was so awesome, but in the mean time I figured it'd be fun to let other S&W fans enjoy the awesomeness that is this adventure.
There are about 14 parts to Slumbering Tsar Saga, though they were eventually compiled into a large hardback. I've decided the best way to approach my conversion project is to do each of the 14 parts in turn. This will help me focus on getting certain parts done. When I GM'd the adventure, we only got as far as finishing the Desolation encounters. The player's were nearing the time to enter the city of Tsar itself. Those parts may be harder for me to convert, having never run them even in PF. We will see how the project turns out.
If you haven't bothered to check out Slumbering Tsar, I demand that you do! The best part is, the very first part is available for free on Frog God Games' website HERE. So go check out that PDF, download, give a look over, and then head over to my dropbox link where my MS Word file is! The formatting will look off until you download it and open it in Word. More details and instructions will be contained within.
Enjoy!
EDIT: A year later and I have updated the link to the free first part of Slumbering Tsar.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Class Careers: The Magic-User
So today, while musing about RPGs, it came to me that taking a look at the career of an adventurer from their lowly beginnings to the top tiers of their class's power. Unfortunately, a lot of the classes don't have too much going for them (namely the fighting-man/fighter) but there is one class that I simply must write about.
Whether you call it them Magic-Users, Wizards, Sorcerers, or anything else, the magic using classes are always the one with the most progressive power increases over their career. The term 'linear fighter and quadratic wizard' come to mind. It's true though. As a fighter gets higher in level he gets better at... fighting. And not much else, depending on your game system. He might build a castle and become a baron or start a mercenary company, but the abilities of a 15th level Fighter versus a 1st level one are not all that different. Magic-users, on the other hand, experience the starkest changes in power. They start as pin cushions that will surely die if hit by nearly anything, but eventually can grow to being able to slay gods (in Raistlin Majere's case).
Below, using the terminology of Dungeon Crawl Classics, Adventurer Conqueror King System, and Swords & Wizardry Complete, we'll watch the path of a lowly peasant as he becomes a demigod. I'll be using male pronouns for ease of use as I'm imagining myself in this role, of course. :)
---
Birth through level 0: With a meager amount of hit points and armed with a garden hoe, the pre-mage toils away in the fields as a peasant farmer. His biggest worries on catching a good harvest before winter and not coming down with some common disease. Should he fall down a flight of stairs he might just die. He probably has never left his own village or town and his exposure to magical things are in legends and perhaps meeting a traveling alchemist.
Level 1: Whether by fate or design, the peasant goes on an adventure with a number of other normal individuals. Many die but learning from this experience, our proto-mage becomes level 1. Perhaps on this adventure he meets a mage who offers to take him as an apprentice, or a chance encounter with a magical artifact and/or spellbook sets him on his path to power.
At this level of power, the mage is still barely different from his former peasant self. He has enough mental energy to cast one spell per day. His more brutish adventuring companions may snicker at his weakness, but when that spell goes off, it is miraculous. The mage may turn an enemy into a fast friend before the others eyes. Or illuminate a dark room with pure magic. He may shoot magic energies at his foes or even put a whole group of malicious foes into a slumber, ripe for throat slitting. The magic-user does not often show his power, but when he does the others are mystified. This is sharp power increase from level 0. The individual has forever stepped beyond their normal existence into one of power pursuit.
Level 2: The mage's power does not increase heavily here. He is a little more resilient, and is capable of unleashing more of his cantrip-like power in a day. He is still weak physically, and must be protected by the more physically inclined party members, but they value the arcane secrets the mage brings to the party's power base. The mage is still mostly an apprentice though, and is finding more spells either through discovery of scrolls or tutelage by a master.
Level 3: Once again, the mage now has gained enough experience to reach a new level of power. Along with being more resilient and casting more spells of the lower end of power spectrum, he gets his first taste of true power over reality. The mage will be able to create magical darkness, detect magical or invisible objects and beings, confer invisibility to himself or others, unlock doors magically, levitate objects, bolster the strength of his allies, conjure magical webbing, and more. Where the 1st level of spells were little more than a magician's farce and slight advantages, 2nd level spells can change reality on levels that would completely blow the minds of normal folks. At this level, a magic-user could easily scare a small village into worshiping him. Unfortunately our magic-user is still in an apprentice role. Fortune either smiles or frowns upon him as he delves dungeons looking for arcane lore and scrolls/spellbooks. His master may still be helping him, but his avenues of gaining more power are limited.
Level 4: Another 'dead level'. More resilience and more spell casting capacity, but no true secrets of the arcane are uncovered. It should be noted that the magic-user can survive a few hits from orcs and the like now, if he is lucky. However, if the level 4 magic-user could meet his level 0 self, the poor peasant might bow in fear of the strange powers he now possesses.
Level 5: Now here is where things get interesting. Perhaps leaving his master's wing, or setting up a small library/workshop in some hovel, the magic-user has enough arcane know-how to being researching things on his own. He is able to brew potions, scribe his own scrolls, and possibly uncover arcane secrets of his own. Further more, he can now cast spells of serious magnitude. On a whim the mage can choose to fly, send FIREBALLS exploding on his enemies, summon monsters to do his bidding, and even breath water. Obviously there are more 3rd level spells but these are examples of just how crazy the magic-user has become.
Level 6: Dead level. More hit points and more spells per day. It's important to note we are coming up on mid-career now, or near enough. Even at this point, the magic-user could pose as a god to a village of dumb peasant-folk and any challengers would quickly be burnt to a crisp.
Level 7: More fun! Another spike in power as the magic-user has access to level 4 spells. Tales could be told of the mage who tamed a monster, drew doors to other places, mastered the elements and caused an ice storm, or crafted walls of ice and fire. And at least we have the iconic power of reality of turning something into something it is not. Fighter giving you a hard time? Turn him into a rabbit. Though foes can be turned, it's possible they could resist but when you turn a dragon into a salamander, no one is going to mess with you. The mage's powers of reality are truly fearsome at this stage. The mage is lucky to have gotten this far into his career without dying. His tales are surely being told already, legends to be sure.
Level 8: Dead level. You know the drill. It should be noted that the mage can now cast a total of TEN spells per day. His 'work day' is much longer than when he first started out. He can waste lower level castings on more mundane tasks and save the big guns for dire situations.
Level 9: Alrighty. What a long road it has been! Chances are the magic-user decides he needs a place for all his library books of arcane lore he's been finding and builds some sort of Sanctum. He may be approached by apprentice mages, much like himself at levels 1-3. He also begins to dabble in the creation of magical items. Maybe does his Fighter-buddy a solid and crafts a burning longsword for him (or curses it for fun). To get the materials for such ventures he may begin creating his own dungeon to hold monsters he is raising or has charmed into living there. He is 'that strange wizard who lives in the tower on the hill'. Children tell scary stories about him. He may be playing a larger role in the politics of a region, perhaps playing an advisory role to his fighter-buddy who built a fort in the wilderness.
He has access tot he fifth level of spell casting, meaning he can create terrible undead to do his bidding, conjure walls of stone or iron out of thin air, appear magically in places in an instant, and more. He is a force to be reckoned with, even on his own. We begin brushing the heights of power reserved for mythic beings.
Level 10: Yeah yeah, keep it coming. If the wizard hasn't retired yet he will now start getting into heavier stuff...
Level 11: If before he only had a sanctum (ACKS) he now goes full-bore for a big ol' Wizard's Tower (S&W:C). He may start researching great rituals of ultimate arcane power. More servants, apprentices, mercenaries, and creatures folk to him. His power reaches beyond even just spell casting. He controls the fates of many others. His dungeon might be getting quite large, with adventurer's plundering their deeps for treasure. He might spend his free time creating magical constructs to do his will or be his servants. The blasphemous cross-breeding of different monsters from his dungeon may be occurring. In a sense, the mage is playing 'god'. Creating new life forms and breathing new life into inanimate objects. On the other side of the coin, he could be creating undead, or even working on turning himself into an undead lich so as to prolong his existence and continue uncovering more powers over reality. Oddly at this level no new spell levels are opened up.
Level 12: More of the same, except level six spells are unlocked. He can control weather itself, magically force others into completing quests, turning people to stone, moving mountains, summoning great beasts, or even simply commanding creatures to die on the spot. To say there are magical forces beyond this to be learned is insane, but the wizard will pursue this power. He is nearly a demi-god already.
Level 13: Dead level. Keep going.
Level 14/15: From here the Wizard's power increase again. He is charming plants to his bidding, conjuring demons from the abyss, reversing the force of gravity, creating duplicates of himself, and manipulating reality to an even greater extent. All this as long as he has uncovered the knowledge necessary. If the secrets cannot be researched by himself, he will use his vast array of tools and minions to help him. He could be the great villain of a nation, as power corrupts.
Level 16/17: The power spike here is not as noticeable, as the Wizard has already risen to heights of power rarely known on the face of the earth. He can create clones of himself, pull large numbers of people into his thrall, make temporary magical effects now permanent, and more. At this point these powers are merely a bonus to the incredible power he already wields. Only one last step to go...
Level 18/19 and beyond: The last rung of magical power is now attainable. The wizard can use astral projection to be places unseen and still cast his powerful spells, he can open portals to other planes of existence (even the Abyss itself), stop the flow of time, rain down meteors to the earth, and reach the ultimate level of reality manipulation (wish). The Wizard is a godling. The vast array of power wielding by this being is immense.
From his lowly beginning as a peasant-farmer, our 'hero' has climbed the mountain of power and is capable of truly incredible feats of magic. Whether he uses it to challenge gods, keep the peace, or rule the world, he will leave his mark in history. The equivalent level fighter might be a great emperor and fearless warrior, but even he cannot stand against a 'wish' to remove him and any memory of him from the universe.
---
As you can see, the journey and career of a magic-user is fraught with danger, especially at low levels. However, eventually the magic-user becomes as powerful as a mortal being can be. An interesting journey to be sure, not counting the great epic tales the magic-user had as part of that career.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. Whenever my players complain about having to be the squishy mage with a handful of hit points, I'll point them here so they can appreciate the power that could await them! :)
Below, using the terminology of Dungeon Crawl Classics, Adventurer Conqueror King System, and Swords & Wizardry Complete, we'll watch the path of a lowly peasant as he becomes a demigod. I'll be using male pronouns for ease of use as I'm imagining myself in this role, of course. :)
---
Birth through level 0: With a meager amount of hit points and armed with a garden hoe, the pre-mage toils away in the fields as a peasant farmer. His biggest worries on catching a good harvest before winter and not coming down with some common disease. Should he fall down a flight of stairs he might just die. He probably has never left his own village or town and his exposure to magical things are in legends and perhaps meeting a traveling alchemist.
Level 1: Whether by fate or design, the peasant goes on an adventure with a number of other normal individuals. Many die but learning from this experience, our proto-mage becomes level 1. Perhaps on this adventure he meets a mage who offers to take him as an apprentice, or a chance encounter with a magical artifact and/or spellbook sets him on his path to power.
At this level of power, the mage is still barely different from his former peasant self. He has enough mental energy to cast one spell per day. His more brutish adventuring companions may snicker at his weakness, but when that spell goes off, it is miraculous. The mage may turn an enemy into a fast friend before the others eyes. Or illuminate a dark room with pure magic. He may shoot magic energies at his foes or even put a whole group of malicious foes into a slumber, ripe for throat slitting. The magic-user does not often show his power, but when he does the others are mystified. This is sharp power increase from level 0. The individual has forever stepped beyond their normal existence into one of power pursuit.
Level 2: The mage's power does not increase heavily here. He is a little more resilient, and is capable of unleashing more of his cantrip-like power in a day. He is still weak physically, and must be protected by the more physically inclined party members, but they value the arcane secrets the mage brings to the party's power base. The mage is still mostly an apprentice though, and is finding more spells either through discovery of scrolls or tutelage by a master.
Level 3: Once again, the mage now has gained enough experience to reach a new level of power. Along with being more resilient and casting more spells of the lower end of power spectrum, he gets his first taste of true power over reality. The mage will be able to create magical darkness, detect magical or invisible objects and beings, confer invisibility to himself or others, unlock doors magically, levitate objects, bolster the strength of his allies, conjure magical webbing, and more. Where the 1st level of spells were little more than a magician's farce and slight advantages, 2nd level spells can change reality on levels that would completely blow the minds of normal folks. At this level, a magic-user could easily scare a small village into worshiping him. Unfortunately our magic-user is still in an apprentice role. Fortune either smiles or frowns upon him as he delves dungeons looking for arcane lore and scrolls/spellbooks. His master may still be helping him, but his avenues of gaining more power are limited.
Level 4: Another 'dead level'. More resilience and more spell casting capacity, but no true secrets of the arcane are uncovered. It should be noted that the magic-user can survive a few hits from orcs and the like now, if he is lucky. However, if the level 4 magic-user could meet his level 0 self, the poor peasant might bow in fear of the strange powers he now possesses.
Level 5: Now here is where things get interesting. Perhaps leaving his master's wing, or setting up a small library/workshop in some hovel, the magic-user has enough arcane know-how to being researching things on his own. He is able to brew potions, scribe his own scrolls, and possibly uncover arcane secrets of his own. Further more, he can now cast spells of serious magnitude. On a whim the mage can choose to fly, send FIREBALLS exploding on his enemies, summon monsters to do his bidding, and even breath water. Obviously there are more 3rd level spells but these are examples of just how crazy the magic-user has become.
Level 6: Dead level. More hit points and more spells per day. It's important to note we are coming up on mid-career now, or near enough. Even at this point, the magic-user could pose as a god to a village of dumb peasant-folk and any challengers would quickly be burnt to a crisp.
Level 7: More fun! Another spike in power as the magic-user has access to level 4 spells. Tales could be told of the mage who tamed a monster, drew doors to other places, mastered the elements and caused an ice storm, or crafted walls of ice and fire. And at least we have the iconic power of reality of turning something into something it is not. Fighter giving you a hard time? Turn him into a rabbit. Though foes can be turned, it's possible they could resist but when you turn a dragon into a salamander, no one is going to mess with you. The mage's powers of reality are truly fearsome at this stage. The mage is lucky to have gotten this far into his career without dying. His tales are surely being told already, legends to be sure.
Level 8: Dead level. You know the drill. It should be noted that the mage can now cast a total of TEN spells per day. His 'work day' is much longer than when he first started out. He can waste lower level castings on more mundane tasks and save the big guns for dire situations.
Level 9: Alrighty. What a long road it has been! Chances are the magic-user decides he needs a place for all his library books of arcane lore he's been finding and builds some sort of Sanctum. He may be approached by apprentice mages, much like himself at levels 1-3. He also begins to dabble in the creation of magical items. Maybe does his Fighter-buddy a solid and crafts a burning longsword for him (or curses it for fun). To get the materials for such ventures he may begin creating his own dungeon to hold monsters he is raising or has charmed into living there. He is 'that strange wizard who lives in the tower on the hill'. Children tell scary stories about him. He may be playing a larger role in the politics of a region, perhaps playing an advisory role to his fighter-buddy who built a fort in the wilderness.
He has access tot he fifth level of spell casting, meaning he can create terrible undead to do his bidding, conjure walls of stone or iron out of thin air, appear magically in places in an instant, and more. He is a force to be reckoned with, even on his own. We begin brushing the heights of power reserved for mythic beings.
Level 10: Yeah yeah, keep it coming. If the wizard hasn't retired yet he will now start getting into heavier stuff...
Level 11: If before he only had a sanctum (ACKS) he now goes full-bore for a big ol' Wizard's Tower (S&W:C). He may start researching great rituals of ultimate arcane power. More servants, apprentices, mercenaries, and creatures folk to him. His power reaches beyond even just spell casting. He controls the fates of many others. His dungeon might be getting quite large, with adventurer's plundering their deeps for treasure. He might spend his free time creating magical constructs to do his will or be his servants. The blasphemous cross-breeding of different monsters from his dungeon may be occurring. In a sense, the mage is playing 'god'. Creating new life forms and breathing new life into inanimate objects. On the other side of the coin, he could be creating undead, or even working on turning himself into an undead lich so as to prolong his existence and continue uncovering more powers over reality. Oddly at this level no new spell levels are opened up.
Level 12: More of the same, except level six spells are unlocked. He can control weather itself, magically force others into completing quests, turning people to stone, moving mountains, summoning great beasts, or even simply commanding creatures to die on the spot. To say there are magical forces beyond this to be learned is insane, but the wizard will pursue this power. He is nearly a demi-god already.
Level 13: Dead level. Keep going.
Level 14/15: From here the Wizard's power increase again. He is charming plants to his bidding, conjuring demons from the abyss, reversing the force of gravity, creating duplicates of himself, and manipulating reality to an even greater extent. All this as long as he has uncovered the knowledge necessary. If the secrets cannot be researched by himself, he will use his vast array of tools and minions to help him. He could be the great villain of a nation, as power corrupts.
Level 16/17: The power spike here is not as noticeable, as the Wizard has already risen to heights of power rarely known on the face of the earth. He can create clones of himself, pull large numbers of people into his thrall, make temporary magical effects now permanent, and more. At this point these powers are merely a bonus to the incredible power he already wields. Only one last step to go...
Level 18/19 and beyond: The last rung of magical power is now attainable. The wizard can use astral projection to be places unseen and still cast his powerful spells, he can open portals to other planes of existence (even the Abyss itself), stop the flow of time, rain down meteors to the earth, and reach the ultimate level of reality manipulation (wish). The Wizard is a godling. The vast array of power wielding by this being is immense.
From his lowly beginning as a peasant-farmer, our 'hero' has climbed the mountain of power and is capable of truly incredible feats of magic. Whether he uses it to challenge gods, keep the peace, or rule the world, he will leave his mark in history. The equivalent level fighter might be a great emperor and fearless warrior, but even he cannot stand against a 'wish' to remove him and any memory of him from the universe.
---
As you can see, the journey and career of a magic-user is fraught with danger, especially at low levels. However, eventually the magic-user becomes as powerful as a mortal being can be. An interesting journey to be sure, not counting the great epic tales the magic-user had as part of that career.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. Whenever my players complain about having to be the squishy mage with a handful of hit points, I'll point them here so they can appreciate the power that could await them! :)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Post #2: Why play Swords & Wizardry?
In any case, a lot of the bloggers today have been writing reviews of sorts of S&W. Each discussing what is great about the game and why you should give it a shot. I must say, though there is no need for yet another, I'm going to throw my two cents in the hat.
If the question is "Why play Swords & Wizardry?" you can imagine many different answers. Not only because of different view points, but the fact that S&W is REALLY 3 games. Or more, really. More on that in a minute. So I'm going to try to answer the question for the 3 major versions:
S&W Whitebox: The Whitebox edition of the game is supposed to reflect the original 3 little books that were OD&D. Now, some people get a little bent out of shape because of some liberties taken with the rules. I've actually seen someone say Delving Deeper was closer in hit point progression so they preferred that (note: this isn't completely accurate from what I've seen). Some decry the (optional) ascending AC and single saving throw, but all that aside, even the Whitebox edition of S&W can stand on it's own feet as a great game. Call me a fan of the optional rules.
You want rules-light? Boom. You got it. Want just the fighting-man, magic-user, and cleric? You got it. Who needs thieves? You only need some d6's and a d20 to play this game. The print edition is pretty small, perfect for traveling light when you are out and about. I've often thought about having it with my on an airplane with some graph paper.
The best thing about the Whitebox is that is is the easiest to hack and manipulate. I've seen Balrog player classes created using Whitebox rules. You can really create whatever you want pretty easily because there are no major rule systems to break. You can see examples of the customization with products like Crypts & Things, Hideouts & Hoodlums, Ruins & Ronin, and so many others. Whether it's generic fantasy, or something weirder, Whitbox can handle it. Oh, and it's free. The PDF anyways.
S&W Core Rules: I kind of hate to say it, but the Core rules are kind of the middle kid that doesn't get as much attention. It's more robust than it's Whitebox brother, but this is the fellow that started S&W. Like the Whitebox it's got the OD&D feel, with the addition of the rules and fun from the Greyhawk supplement. That means you get your thief class if you want it, and variable damage dice for weapons, etc. It's close enough to S&W Complete to be almost indistinguishable during real play. The PDF is free, with the print edition being about the size (length and width) as many other RPG books. It's pretty slim and light though. It won't break your back on the way to a friend's house.
Some of the writing is different between the Core Rule and Complete in some spots, as is the art. But in the end what will make you choose this over Complete is that it lacks all the other "advanced" classes. If you don't want druids or monks in your game, go with this. If someone can help me with more differences between the two, I'd love to know. I haven't done a full page to page comparison yet. ;)
S&W Complete: This is it. This is the game I play. It's the Core Rules plus things from the other supplements of OD&D. The big difference as far as I can tell are the extra classes. Assassin, Druid, Monk, Paladin, and Ranger. You also get the Frog God Games art and fonts, which I'm a big fan of. This game ends up playing as sort of a AD&D-lite game. To me this is a great strength. It balances the two worlds. In fact, I was able to run White Plume Mountain, a famous 1E module with S&W Complete with no problem. The game is flexible enough to cover gaming materials for Basic D&D too.
Though Labyrinth Lord is known as another Rosetta stone of sorts for the OSR, I'd choose S&W Complete because of the support for it! Rappan Athuk, Monstrosities, Tome of Horrors, Razor Coast, and a host of other FGG products are available for S&W Complete. Though they could be run with other systems, S&W carries a banner for products that is hard to beat. I say play Swords & Wizardry Complete because you have a versatile set of rules that is easy to run, easy to find great products for, easy to hack in order to include other games' mechanics (like zero-level play), and as you might be able to tell with this event going on, a huge and awesome community.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)