Stalwart Playtest Document Up for Review

I've decided to name the game "Stalwart", since I love the name, and I love confusing people (wait - so is this the Stalwart Age, then? Set in the same world. Different rules). I'm consisent at least.

You can review it here.

It's not done - several of the gifts (superpowers) are either incomplete or not started yet, but this gives a good idea of where this is going. I am open to any and all feedback, and I encourage you to roll up some characters and see what happens...

I'll just keep updating the document as I make progress, and based on any feedback I receive.

Last Post For the Night...

This is really the last post.

I've become a fan of the idea that the fundamental game mechanics create meaningful choices, and that a simple mechanic can provide variety. Here's a great example of this. I don't think my brain had shifted to this level of ubiquity when I was writing Stalwart Age...

Gameplay

Every round (6 seconds), you may attempt a number of actions equal to your SV. However, each action imposes a cumulative -1 die shift to all other rolls that round; attempting three actions imposes a -2 die shift to every roll that round. My character could run his movement of 100’ (1 action), pick up a found weapon (at -2 shift to the might die) and attack (at -2 shift to the attack die). You can also just distribute your attacks. With D12 attack and D10 damage, I can attack once at D12 (D10 damage), twice at D10 (D8 damage), three times at D8 (D6 damage), or four times at D6 (D4 damage). Tasks that do not rely on a dice check (flying), are not affected. I must decide how I am distributing my dice at the beginning of the round. While it might make sense to distribute attacks against a group of bank robbers, it is probably wiser to minimize your attacks against the heavily armored foe who leads them to increase your chances of hitting and dealing damage.

Already Tinkering

I use the blog to 'think out loud', so as soon as I posted the previous post, I started thinking about the basic mechanics again... I like scaling numbers back whenever possible (which can be a challenge in a supers game), but I think pulling back one step would have some benefits. If we make D4 'normal human', this pulls all of the numbers down a little bit... Here's a revised chart for consideration:

Tier	SV (½)	Die	Descriptor
Normal	2 (1)	D4	Average
Expert	3 (1)	D6	Excellent
Paragon	4 (2)	D8	Remarkable
Super	5 (2)	D10	Amazing
Legendary	6 (3)	D12	Unearthly
Cosmic	10 (5)	D20	Beyond

I already like this a little bit better. It's cleaner and simpler, and I think the subtle changes to language make the tiers clearer. In Marvel terms, Hawkeye is an expert, Daredevil is a paragon, Spiderman is super, and Thor is legendary.

As for my world, this pulls all of Doc's stats back one tier, and scales his numbers back slightly. It also makes for a significant jump from legendary to cosmic. Cosmic is reserved primarily for NPCs and big bads - Ro the Ravager type stuff. I would think a character like the 'green goliath' could achieve cosmic-level might by raging, but that would be quite exceptional. This gets rid of the D16 (which is an awkward 'die' that requires several dice to achieve). This separates worldly heroes from true cosmic threats. Here's a revised proposed Stat Block for Doc:

Doc Stalwart - Legendary Hero (D12); Hits 12; Move 30'

• Might D12 (6); Mind D12 (6); Power D6 (3); Reflex D8 (4)
• Armor (6); Flight (60'); Gadgeteer
• Brawling (+1 to hit melee); Profession (Scientist +2); Grit (+2 Resolve); Charisma (+1 Popularity)

Comparative Stat Blocks

I have no idea what the new system would be called, but I have a pretty good idea of how it works. First, here's the stat block for Doc Stalwart in Stalwart Age...

Now, here's the initial proposed stat block for him in the new game:

Doc Stalwart - Legendary Hero (D16); Hits 16; Move 30'

• Might D16 (8); Mind D16 (8); Power D8 (4); Reflex D10 (5)
• Armor (8); Flight (60'); Gadgeteer
• Brawling (+2 to hit); Profession (Scientist +2); Grit (+2 Resolve); Charisma (+2 Popularity)

A lot of things are packed into each ability. For example, he attacks with D16 (his tier die for being legendary) and deals D16 melee damage. He's also got D16 for popularity (for being legendary). He has 8 points to use to buy tags. He has static defenses of 5 vs. physical attacks (from reflex D10) and 8 from mental attacks (from his mind D16). However, he soaks the first 8 points from physical attacks (so bullets that deal D8 bounce right off of him - a machine gun D10 might scratch him if it rolls well). His hits seem really low, but the game has a mechanism that I first used in my wrestling RPG where you get knocked down but get back up again several times. You are not defeated at 0 hits - you just tag out of the fight for a round or two. This better emulates superhero action (since heroes are constantly getting knocked down, being out of the fight, and then leaping back in). Hits are the DV of your might + the DV of your tier (so 8+8 for Doc). This would mean a character like Twilight Archer (D10 tier and D6 Might) has 8 hits (and no armor - eek). He gets knocked down by Doc 50% of the time.

You can take multiple actions by taking a -1 die shift with each additional action; Doc can throw one punch rolling 1d16, 2 punches rolling 1d12 each, 3 punches rolling 1d10 each, 4 punches rolling 1d8 each... if he's fighting a bunch of mooks (evade of 2), he might try punching 4 per round, since he only misses on a 1. Against a foe with evade 5, he's probably not giving up too many dice... but if he has to run and pick something up, he's taking the -2 dice shift on his attack (each action uses a die rating).

By the way, a speedster mechanically works similar to Stalwart Age - Messenger (Power D20) gets 10 bonus actions each round; he can attack 11 times without taking a penalty, or use 10 actions to travel 1,000' each, meaning he can run up to 10,000' in 6 seconds. Unfortunately, his Might of 8 means that he only averages 4 points per punch, but he can quickly take out a room of mooks; against a foe with body armor 5, he's going to deal death by a thousand papercuts.  

I need an intervention - Supers Edition

It's the end of May, so my brain automatically shifts to game design mode. Just to be clear, I no longer design games to make money or get sales or get views or go viral. I write games because I cannot help it, and because my brain just keeps wanting to write them.

In many ways, I consider Stalwart Age about as strong as an entry as I could come up with for a low/medium crunch superhero system. In the same vein, I think Tales of the Splintered Realm is as strong of an adaptation of B/X as I could ever muster.

But then Hack'D & Slash'D caught me in its web of minimalistic game design. It can do everything that TSR can do, but in a much smaller space. It's faster. It's cleaner. It's simpler. I genuinely love it.

For years, I've toyed with ways to use various dice to represent characters in a supers RPG, and how this would scale. Somehow, this morning, the core of the system appeared in my head pretty much fully-formed, and after some quick brainstorming, I've framed up the bones of a ruleset. It is a supers system with a different mechanic through the lens of the minimalistic approach I have taken with Hack'D. I won't be suprirsed if the entire rulebook fits in 8 pages. 

Here's the elevator pitch...

Your character is built on four traits: Might, Mind, Power, Reflex. Your character belongs to a tier, which is structured the same way as the tiers for traits. 

Everything is rated on the same scale.

This scale includes a static value (SV), a die (giving a random result),

and a descriptor (indicating relative power of that value).

Sometimes, you use half your SV (rounded down).

Body Armor? It's the SV of your might.

Flight? Based on the SV of your Power.

Energy projection? Attack with your level die, do damage with your power die.

Lifting a ton? You need to roll 10 or better (so you need at least remarkable might);

lifting 100 tons has a target of 16, so you need to have at least D16 might to try.

You have hero points, a small pool of points to add to rolls.

Tier SV (1/2) Die Descriptor Scale

A 2 (1) D4 Poor Child

B 3 (1) D6 Average         Normal Human

C 4 (2) D8 Excellent         Street Level

D 5 (2) D10 Remarkable City Level

E 6 (3) D12 Incredible National Level

F 8 (4) D16 Monstrous Global Level

G 10 (5) D20 Supreme         Cosmic Level

I'll probably share my working draft sooner than later.

Splay - a 200 word RPG

I just discovered 200-word RPGs, and had to try one. Here's my kitchen-sink game, Splay (exactly 200 words). GURPS needed 200 books, but I only need 200 words. So THERE.

I like this a lot, because the game automatically scales to all power levels. If your game is cosmic superheroes doing cosmic-superhero things, then the challenges are relative to you. If you are military insects, then you're facing the kinds of challenges military insects would face. 

I presume you will be facing comparable challenges and traveling among comparable allies. There is an internal balance that comes from the scenarios, and nothing needs to be balanced against a larger background. The game doesn't have to balance Superman with Robin, because they just aren't in the same league at all. There's no point in trying.

If you are a wizard who wants to cast a spell to open a locked door, this is probably moderate. If you are trying to disintegrate a bridge, this is probably difficult (unless you are an apprentice, then you cannot try yet). I would think that players and GMs will quickly agree on what is the relative power of the setting and their characters, and make decisions from there.

Random Gameplay Thoughts and Strength in Numbers

I kept thinking this weekend that Hack'D & Slash'D doesn't really play the way I remember D+D playing... it plays the way I remember wanting D+D to play. That doesn't suggest for a second I think it is a better game... just that it's better from the perspective of 11-year-old me (my target audience).

I realized, in the midst of these realizations, that I don't actually know how D+D plays anymore. I have not actually, you know, played D+D since 3rd edition, about 20 years ago. Sure, I have fiddled a little with 5E, and I think I've been through an hour of gaming with it here or there, but I really couldn't tell you what the gameplay experience is like now.

I presume that one of the discoveries I made this weekend holds true for modern D+D as well: numbers are better. My team generally didn't struggle too hard with more powerful foes who were on their own, but when they were outnumbered (even by weaker foes), they suddenly had trouble. The more dice I am rolling each round, the more likely things are to go bad. While that seems reasonable, I would think that a battle with a level 3 spider would still be harder than a battle with 6 shadelings. The reality is that the shadelings have to be defeated one at a time, and they are getting a total of 12 attacks per round. When I roll a few 12s (which I did), those are suddenly dealing 3 hits a swipe, and the damage can pile on quickly. If the spider misses with its bite attack in round 2, it's going to have to withstand an onslaught from the whole fellowship before it gets to go again... if it lives that long.

The other 'benefit' of having larger numbers is that it changes the strategy. Twice, there were powerful spiders with a number of minion allies; Galavar (the caster) would start with sleep; he would neutralize as many of the minor threats as he could so that they couldn't start issuing death by a thousand paper cuts. It was an important strategic choice, and it was a meaningful choice he had to make in the moment; he could hit the boss with a big spell, or he could knock out a bunch of minions at once. 

And while I've always known that actual play matters more than theory, I have to say that ACTUAL PLAY MATTERS MORE THAN THEORY. I am finding all sorts of cool little nuances to the game that I didn't necessarily plan, but which are baked in anyway. I'm finding opportunities for new tags because things come up where I go 'it would be cool if right now I could do x'. 

When Unearthed Arcana came out, I could feel in the pages that Gary had actually played a lot of this at his table. It was an organic expansion of the core rules, even if it was a little esoteric in places. I mean, how often are you really engaging in mounted combat during the dungeon crawl? For me, the Hack'D & Slash'D companion is giving me the same vibes. I like that I'm in no hurry to get anything done... I can let the book grow organically, so that when it's done, it's all genuinely useful additions to the game, not filler I created to get to a page count.

And that, by the way, is one of the other thoughts I had. Hack'D is not really marketable, because it is designed to be exceedingly economical in terms of space. I really cannot justify expanding it to the 256 page full-color hardcover, because a spell takes two sentences and I can fit eight monster stat blocks on a 6x9 page. At standard book size, even with plentiful illustrations, I would be hard-pressed to get more than 48 pages of monsters... that would be several hundred monsters. 

But, selfishly, that is probably why I keep working on it. In the past, I sit down to expand a game I've worked on, and I find myself flipping through the book for fifteen minutes trying to make sure I've made all the numbers line up. With Hack'D, I can create a monster stat block in a minute or two, and I'm confident it is playable. It allows me to continue to make a minimal investment of time to get a significant return on that investment.

A Meditation: Encounter Designing

I am going through and fleshing out Moridis' Halls, building it one encounter at a time. However, what's happening is that it is logically and organically growing upwards and outwards as I go. Here's a snapshot of the process so far...

The initial entry area was a small temple complex that abuts to some natural caves. The temple was easy... and a straight line. Entry > preparation room > temple proper. The temple was populated by zombies worshipping an altar, the altar had a small magical thingy to it, and the entrance was being overrun by natural flora and fauna that were creeping in. Easy so far.

Then I decided on the middle cave - it is inhabited by some goblins. Fine. The next step was the game changer - how do they interact with the temple? Hmmm. Well, I decided this is a source of tension. The rank-and-file goblins worship there and want to give offerings, but their boss, who is a bit smarter and a bit cynical, resents having his money go sit in a bowl for zombies. Hmm. Then I asked that question for the next encounter after... how does he interact with the passage to the right? (A natural pool below a cliff facing). Again, similar answer - the goblins also worship what is there (a ghouled giant snake), and keep throwing his money over the side to appease this 'servant' of their god. Adventurers become an ideal way to maybe solve all of his problems. Now, he's more motivated to parlay with the fellowship rather than kill them, and just like that I have a complex dungeon crawl going. 

The final piece was to give him a long-term goal. He wants a magical amulet that is for sale in a strange place. This then lead to the creation of the Bazaar of Untold Lands (which is modeled on the flea market in Buffalo we used to visit on weekends when I was a teenager). This is set inside a tessaract, and it interacts with dozens of worlds, meaning that it truly is a Bazaar of strange and wondrous stuff. This can now be the centerpiece of the campaign, and the centerpiece of the dungeon. This is where you go to make deals, interact with powerful NPCs, and even meet Moridis herself. Everyone (except Moridis) is bound by a 'no violence, no magic, and no thievery' clause that results in instantaneous banishment. Now a 'beholder like' monster can be there, just chilling, and the heroes can encounter it at level 1. They can think about how to maybe lure it out of the bazaar some day to kill it, and maybe to invade its native realm by some other means, but for now, it's just there hanging out and they can talk to it. Moridis herself can stroll about. I can float out magical items that the heroes want, and set weird prices for it: Oh, you want the sword of the third army? Fine. It will cost you ten dragon eggs. Now... back to the dungeons to find some dragon eggs. The bazaar itself serves the same function as an inn (in many ways), but it's supernaturally transposed right into the dungeon. If somehow the heroes could get magic that allows access to the other realms it connects to, they become multiversal globetrotters with a specific entry and exit point being the Bazaar itself. 

I love it. And these few things then opened the door to the rest of the dungeon. Because Moridis sometimes travels about, she might also interact with the fellowship, even at level 1. Then I realized the purpose of level 1 - it is where she has cast off her 'failed' progeny. Three young dragons are here, all dealing with rejection by their mom in different ways. They are spread about the dungeon. Moridis is fine if the fellowship kills these dragons - she actually would like these 'weak' children of hers to be tested. Maybe they can prove worthy... or receive the death they probably deserve. No skin off her nose. The three dragons (and their lairs) become the centerpoints of the rest of the dungeon. So, I went to the map and popped in a rough outline of those three encounter areas. Now, I can organically build the dungeon around those areas in the same way. I've got some of the big-picture stuff worked out, and can add nuance and detail as I go.

You can follow the development of the dungeon in this living document, which I update as I adventure through the dungeon. I fugre that once it's done, I might publish the book as a supplement for the game.

In the same way, as I create monsters, magic, and rules in exploring the dungeon, I'm updated the Hack'D & Slash'D Companion, which would also see publication once it hits 48 pages or so.

Both projects have a ways to go, but it's fun working on them the way I am. 

Parenthetically, the iconic encounter from the inside of the BX rules will be happening in area 63. I'm really looking forward to that encounter :)

Old School Army Ants Thinking

As I mentioned yesterday, James V. West reached out recently, and he ended up with a copy of the first edition of my Army Ants RPG (my first 'published' RPG work - from 1996). He was kind in his appraisal of it, and I decided to pull out a copy and look it over. 

Wow, that thing is a mess.

I mean, there is a lot of ambition, and some good fundamental ideas there, but the execution is all over the place. It's very, very messy in parts. It has some extremely detailed rules for some things, but hand waves other things. It knows the game it wants to be, but is struggling to find its way. It would be a fantasy heartbreaker if it was a fantasy game. So, my brain started working on ways to help it.

I have mentioned that I like game design challenges. I've disovered it's not about making the 'best' RPG, but in setting a design challenge, and making a game that accomplishes that specific goal. So, what if I was to create the Army Ants RPG I had in mind in 1996, but done correctly?

Three hours later, I had a working draft going. Here are some thoughts about the thing...

It relies on three core traits: Body, Mind, and Reflex (I have learned that I like Reflex better than 'Speed', even though Reflex doesn't 'sound' like it fits as well with the other two. I don't hate 'spirit', but I'm really looking for eye-hand coordination, and reflex is the closest I'm like to get). These are the foundational pieces of your character, and everything builds from there. 

In the original rules, there was a secondary set of attributes (an 'active' and 'resistant' attribute) that built on the primary one. This is overly complex, doesn't add much to the game, and so doesn't make my draft. Buh Bye.

As a 'class-based' system, you have a specialty, which sets up a few things about your character. I like this. I'm keeping, streamlining, and clarifying the specialties. I'm linking these directly to your three traits: All infantry specialists have Body 2, Mind 2, Reflex 2. As an infantryman, you are a generalist by nature. Since all characters have six trait points, and traits cap at 3 for ants (with 1 required), there are only 7 possible combinations of traits (222, 321, 312, 231, 213, 123, 132). Hence, there will only be seven specialties using these combinations. The original game had 9, with some redundancies. I think I can clean that up without losing anything.

The 96 game used a dice pool system, where you total results and compare that to a random difficulty target, which the GM determined by rolling a separate pool. If this wall is 5D to climb, the GM roll 5d6 and added it up to get the difficulty. You would then roll your Body dice (2D for instance) and add the companion trait and skill level, to see if you beat that target. It was a lot of number crunching on each roll, and the random targets make little sense in retrospect. Why is this wall difficulty 7, while the wall right next to it is difficulty 26? 

The game relies on D6 dice pools, so I'm keeping that. However, I'm simplifying it to your trait + your skill, giving you from 1 (a trait of 1 and no skill) to 6 (a trait of 3 + mastery of a skill at +3) in your dice pool. A botch happens if you roll all 1s (so a single 1 doesn't hurt you, unless you only roll 1d6), success is 4-5, and 2 successes at 6. A roll of 1/4/6 is 3 successes, then. The Mission Master then sets difficulties that range from 1 (simple) to 5 (nigh impossible). 2 is challenging, 3 is difficult, 4 is very difficult. I think that MMs can get the hang of setting difficulties, realizing that 3 is going to be the 'default' for many tasks, and then modifying from there (is it a bit easier than 3? It's 2 then. Is it quite a bit harder than 3? Let's go with 4 then). 

Combat is pretty simple (which it tried to be in the core rules from '96, but failed). As a for instance, to attack with an AM-16, you roll your Reflex (we'll say 2 because you are in the infantry) +1 (from being trained in small arms) for 3D. If your foe has Reflex 2, you need 2 successes to hit; a result of 1 success, no successes, or a botch misses. Things get complicated if you have 1D in Reflex, no skill, and are fighting a foe with Reflex 3... you cannot possibly hit then. I'm going to port over the one-roll concepts I've recently been refining; your weapon has a set damage rating from 1 to 5. You deal the number of successes beyond the DT + the weapon's damage rating. An AM-16 is damage 3; so if you roll 3 successes against a target of 2, you deal 4 hits with your AM-16. Your foe reduces damage by their Body, so with Body 2, that foe suffers 2 hits. High Reflex foes are hard to hit, and high Body foes are hard to kill. Everyone has a least a 2 in one of those, so nobody gets 1-shotted by 1 point of damage. Your hits are relatively low (Body + Level), so a starting character with low Body might only have 2 hits, but their reflex of at least 2 is going to mitigate that to some degree.  I'm interested to see how that actually play tests, since there are several concepts here I've never tried out with live dice.

One thing to consider is using a result of 6 as a 'wild' die that explodes; you get the +1 from a success, but you also roll another die, and this can continue infinitely. This accounts for the inevitable 'you only get to roll 1D but the situation is DT 3' that will come up. Your 1D could explode, but you need a 6, followed by a 6, followed by a 4+ in order to succeed on your 1D. Furthermore, I'm thinking that ants get some grit or moxy (because I have used that sort of idea in every version of the Army Ants games I've written since '96) that grants bonus dice to apply as needed. It's easy to just say you have your level in bonus dice (levels range from 1-10 I think - still working on that). The problem I see is that once you start rolling lots of dice, the explosions can get a little crazy; you rolled 4d6, getting 4/6/6/6. This is 4 successes, with 3 explosions; you roll again, getting 4/5/6. This is 3 more successes, with one more explosion. You roll 6 again. 1 more successes, one more explosion. You roll 4. 1 more success. That is a total of 9 successes (CRAZY) and four rounds of dice rolling. It's a bit much. I think going with the 6 representing two successes and giving some discretionary dice to use as needed can largely mitigate things. Plus, if you get to level 3 and never at least picked up 1 die in a skill so you can attack with a light rifle, that's kind of on you at that point. 

One possibility is that 6s work like 1s do; that makes a lot of sense. 6s are 2 successes, but if you roll ALL 6s, your entire pool explodes and you roll again. This means that 1D has a 1 in 6 chance of exploding (so that poor 1D dude still gets a decent result 1 in 6 times), but the odds of explosion go down dramatically once you have a lot of dice in your pool (2D explodes 1 in 36 times, 3D only explodes 1 in 216 times). This reflects the difference between low skill (you rely on luck a lot) and high skill (you are precise, so luck factors into the equation less and less over time - high skill brings with it high consistency). I think this solves all of my problems intuitively and cleanly, and parallels the way that 1s work! That's nifty. 

I also had a complex system of hits and damage and such. I like the idea that your character gets wounded and therefore less effective. I'm thinking I can pull this back (but keep the core concept alive) - you are 'wounded' (suffering -1 success with all rolls) once you are at below half of your hits; you are  

'critical' at 0 hits (suffering -2 successes with all rolls). You are then unconscious at -1 hits, and dead at -3. Any bug that starts with only 1 hit never goes to wounded; they go directly to critical when they sustain 1 hit. I keep the complexity I wanted with the various conditions of injury, but do this in a cleaner and more intuitive way. My modern game design sensibilities don't really want this in there at all, but the original game invested pretty heavily into putting this in, so it's something that the spirit of the game requires. It's in.

The original 96 rules were in 32 pages, but with 3 full-page illustrations. I want to get this entire game into 16 pages and put it up for sale as a pay-what-you-want release. Let's see how I do :)

Hitting the Sweet Spot

There is a really, really nice synergy happening in the new edition of Cupcake Scouts where the art and the writing and the mechanics and the setting are coming together in a really cohesive and - dare I say lovely? - way. It all has this really whimsical quality, but it's rooted in a very, very playable and engaging game system. I'm really lucky to have stumbled upon this. Here's a draft of a page from the monster section. 

 

Of Foolish Consistencies and Hobgoblins - Actual Play #1 for Cupcake Scouts 2E

As Emerson warned, "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds". Now, I think I have a medium-sized mind (at least), and I don't really like hobgoblins all that much, so I decided to take his words to heart. That said, I have given 2d6 another shot. And I like it.

For Cupcake Scouts 2E, I found that by scaling the numbers to cap at no better than +5 (usually +4), and by swapping out some of the things I had given as modifiers to be edges instead, I've kept the numbers very reasonable (to my mind). 

So, I have a draft going and the first half of the book is roughed out already. I have learned to work very, very quickly at this point. It's at about 6,000 words (18 pages) at present, and about half of that is language I cut and pasted over and then edited the heck out of, and half of it is new language based on things I've learned and problems I've solved in the last four years or so.  The previous edition was 48 pages, but the pages were pretty breezy, and there was a lot of white space. I'm getting almost twice as much information on a page at this point, so getting the whole package to 32 pages looks likely. I'd prefer 48, but I'm not sure if the game needs that much content. I want it to be light and airy, but you can always use more monsters, I suppose...

I thought I'd give you a taste of how it looks with the snapshot of the rules for character generation. This is my first play test character, and I'll have her fight some zombies and see how it goes...

***

Character Building Snapshot
1.       Select a troop. Looking at the options, I decide that my character is going to be a stalwart scout, so she can be good at fighting monsters.
2.       Select one tag. For my stalwart scout, I pick fighter so she gets a bonus to attack.  
3.       Gather your gear. I review the gear section. I will keep those blessed stakes at the ready!
4.       Write down your weapon damage and hits. My dagger deals 4 hits (2 base +1 from being level 1, +1 from being a stalwart scout). I have 6 hits (what every scout has at level 1).
Name your scout and think of one adjective to describe her (other than the word for her troop). I go with Chase as her name, and ‘serious’ as her adjective.

***

Okay, so Chase is going to try to throw down with some zombies. I guess I have to stat up a zombie...

Zombie Wanderer - Mindless Fiend 1 [Hits 4; Move 40'; claw (2)]. These mindless undead wander through tombs and graveyards. They attack twice on their action, raking with two claws.

We'll say that Chase goes to the graveyard near sundown because zombie sightings are increasing, and the Scoutmaster wants her to slay ten of these to earn her first hunter badge. She has thirty minutes before sunset to hunt down 10 zombies. Each minute, she can check skill to find a zombie. It's a BIG graveyard. Before she goes, she tries to bake some cookies. She fails her knowledge check - and gets 8. she overbakes them a little bit, but they are still edible. None of them are magical, however. 

Minute 1. She enters the graveyard and looks around. She doesn't see any zombies, and starts down the path. Minute 2 is more walking.

In minute 3 she finds her first zombie, just having emerged from its grave. She runs at it and attacks. The zombie wins initiative, and rakes with its claw. It misses. She misses. It hits with its claw for 2, and she is down to 4 hits remaining. She misses again. It wiffs in round 3, and so does she. It misses in round 4, but she hits for 3 damage, leaving it at 1. It misses again, and she hits again for 3 more, defeating it. That's one zombie down.

In minute 8 she finds her second zombie. She tries to sneak up on it (it's gnawing on a bone), but she fails. She wins initiative, and hits it for 3. It misses. She misses, and it does as well. She hits with a natural 12 for 5 damage, and destroys it. That's two zombies down.

She finds her third zombie in minute 14. It's unlikely she will slay ten tonight... She fails to sneak again, but wins initiative. She hits for 4, killing it right away.

She finds a fourth zombie in minute 16. She makes her sneak check! She hits with an 11, dealing 4 hits and killing it in one shot. Nice.

She finds a fifth zombie in minute 18. This time she fails her sneak check and loses initiative; the zombie misses, but she hits with an 11, slaying the zombie. She has 11 minutes to find and kill 5 zombies... not loving her chances here.

In minute 21 she comes across zombie six. She is able to sneak up on it and hit it for 3. It hits her for 2, and she is down to 2. Hm. May be time to hit the road...she hits it with a natural 12 for 5, and destroys it. 9 minutes and 4 zombies to go... and she is at 2 hits remaining. She is going home and try again tomorrow. It is possible (1-3 on 1d6) that she encounters another zombie on the way out (it will be 2 zombies on a 1). No zombies. She gets back to the library and reports what she has done. The Scoutmaster lets her make S'mores to celebrate, and then she does a coloring sheet to wind down before bed. 

The next day,  she tries to bake something and is successful! She makes a treat. I'm going to just rule that it's a peanut-butter cookie that heals her 3 points. She tucks that away in case she needs it. She returns to the graveyard, pries open the gate, and slips inside near nightfall. Zombies are starting to roam...

In minute 1, she sets off down a different path from yesterday. She wanders for three minutes.

In minute 4, she finds a zombie roaming, and manages to hide and jump it as it passes. She hits it for 3 damage. It misses. She hits for another 3, and destroys it. She has destroyed 7 zombies.

She wanders around until minute 12, looking for more zombies and failing to find them. She must have taken care of the problem more than she realized! She sneaks up on this one, too, which is trying to help another zombie out of its grave. The other zombie still needs 4 rounds to get free, and actions area t +1 edge against it until that time has passed. She moves up from behind a tombstone and jumps out,  but misses. Zombie 8 misses, and zombie 9 starts digging harder to get out. She whiffs, and zombie 8 smacks her with a claw. She is at 4 hits. Zombie 9 keeps diggin'. Lots of misses and digging in round 3. Same in round 4 - and now she is fighting two zombies. In round 5, everyone misses. In round 6, zombie 8 hits for 2, and she is at 2 hits. She uses a task in round 7 to scarf her cookie, and is at 5 hits when she swings again, hitting and killing zombie 8. Zombie 9 hits for 3, and she is down to 2 again. Good thing she ate that cookie! I need to swap out her dice - she misses again. Ugh. So does the zombie. I swap dice, but she still misses, and so does the zombie. She rolls a natural 2 (despite the +1 edge), meaning that I hit the 1 in 216 chance of rolling three 1s. That's impressive in the worst possible way. The zombie also misses. Both miss again. And again. And she FINALLY (in round 14!) hits it for 3 damage. she finishes it in round 15, with 2 hits remaining.

She is going to push her luck. It's a bad idea, but I'm going to do it anyway. She only needs one zombie! She finds that tenth zombie in minute 16 (it was three minutes, but the previous encounter went two minutes)... She is able to sneak up on it, and hits it for 4! Yes. She looks around quick and makes for the exit... which she gets to just fine, pulling the gate shut and throwing the bar across it before heading back to the library. She arrives to find that the Scoutmaster has just baked some fresh muffins, has a juice box ready for her, and has already sewn her first badge, beginner zombie hunter, to her new sash. She beams with pride. 

Analysis:

There's a lot of whiffing, which I knew would happen when the zombie has a 27% chance of hitting and she has a 42% chance of hitting. Still, it wasn't bad, and things go fast.    

In this game, zombies are the meat-and-potatoes monster. I think that zombies are just all over the place, and the most common threat you face. Since the game has no things like armor class and the like, a zombie can still hit a higher-level character 27% of the time, and can deal 2-4 points of damage... so a room full of zombies is always going to present some challenge. You never grow out of monsters being a threat, which is a good thing. 

I'm very interested to play test at higher levels (3-4). I think that those characters will cut through zombies and similar foes quickly, but I don't know how quickly or what that exactly looks like. I can find out soon enough.

I love how badges are the economy of character advancement rather than experience points. Eventually, it doesn't matter how many zombies you kill; once you have your expert zombie hunter badge, you gain nothing from killing more of them. They are just mooks in the way of the things you want. I'm fine with that. Earning badges becomes the motivating factor to seek out new enemies; both for the level advancement, and for the little 'attaboy' of knowing you've killed so many monsters. I think that it would be cool to have a coloring page for your character that has all of the badges you could earn, along with tallies for getting them - and then you get to color them when you earn them! That would be so cool as a character sheet. I'm totally and completely doing that!

I also think that there should be things you have to unlock to advance. For example, 1E had rules for grody monsters (which zombies would be, but I didn't include that in the play test here...). Maybe you have to 'get over' getting grossed out by undead creatures before you can earn level 2. Sure, you've earned all of your badges, but you still turn green and say "uhrumgurd, it's sooo gross" when you see a zombie, so you're not ready to become a true scout yet. Sorry, champ. 

  

Of Cupcakes and Dice

In thinking about Cupcake Scouts 2E, here are some things I'm mulling over:

Full disclosure: I had written a REALLY long and complicated analysis of moving from 1d12 to 2d6, only to discover at the end that there are lots of good reasons I don't like 2d6. While there are some cool wrinkles (I like the idea that edges give a pool of dice, and you pick the most favorable or unfavorable 2 depending on whether it's positive or negative), the 1d12 is just better all around. And, it's such a cool and under-appreciated die.

All hail the dodecahedron. 

That said, here are some considerations for Cupcake Scouts mechanically vs. Hack'D...

I don't think you have armor per se. That's not a thing. I would lean a bit more into the three traits as soaking damage; I'd use might instead of armor (since might sets the maximum rating for armor, it sort of ends up being the default anyway). If I have might 4, I'm doing everything I can to be able to purchase armor 4. Cupcake Scouts doesn't have the same sort of scaling of economics and gear. You aren't constantly trying to upgrade your gear; you collect relics that can increase your power, and potions that give power ups, but you are not getting a +1 dagger, and a +1 shield, and boots of speed, and gauntlets of might... you could end up carrying the dagger of shattered dreams, but that's a pretty special item and you want to keep it very safe. There are no generic magical items. You don't collect gold and spend it to get gear. The game needs an economy for sure, but that economy has to be something different than the economy in a traditional fantasy setting. This means that all supernatural abilities target either mind or reflex to make those important for all characters; you resist indirect magic (charms, control, etc) with mind, but you resist physical supernatural damage and all areas of effect with reflex. To summarize:

- If it deals physical damage to you directly, check might to resist (poisons are still here, as are all physical attacks from weapons and natural abilities such as claws and bites).

- If it deals mental damage, or affects your five senses, check mind to resist (petrification, charms).

- If it deals magical damage or affects you indirectly, check reflex to resist (most spells like bolts and bursts, breath weapons, elemental damage like from fire).

Streamlining My Megadungeon Design

I like to have things simple and precise. A megadungeon would seem to defy that, but I'm going to try anyway. Here are some things I'm thinking as I pound out a draft of the place.

I'm not going to describe each door. For most doors, I'm going to leave it to the GM to determine the nature of the door. I'm thinking that the beginning of the book could have 6 or 12 options for doors you could encounter. For example:

(1-2) Door is wide open. It looks like someone else secured the door with stakes to keep it from shutting; (3-5) The door is shut, but is otherwise unremarkable; (6-7) the door is shut and swollen, requiring a might check to open; (8-9) the door is shut and locked, requiring a might or thievery check to open; (10-11) the door is locked and trapped; (12) the door is magically sealed.

Any time you encounter a door, either roll or pick one. Or, use likelihoods starting from the beginning of the list and moving down. If it indicates that it is trapped, then roll for the type of trap present (and this could be a magical trap); if it is magically sealed, the GM can decide whether it needs a key, a password, or a dispel to open it. It could be a key that he's already given the party (they started with a magic key that opens several special doors) or it could be a whole side quest the GM adds. I want there to be flexibility for GMs to personalize the dungeon without asking them to do much prep work. It should be a zero-prep experience - you can improvise how and why it works using imagination, the rules for likelihoods, and your own personal goals for the dungeon experience.

This still leaves open the possibility of special doors throughout. I could decide that a door is a monster in disguise, works using a series of intricate mathematical locking mechanisms, or can only be opened when the statue on the other side of the room has been turned to look away from it. The presence of the random options doesn't prohibit other inventive doors, but it keeps me from having to write descriptive text for every relatively common type of door one might encounter. The same is true for traps, pools, statues... there can be statues that do common things, and special statues once in a while that do special things.

In terms of encounter areas, I like the number ten (although maybe twelve works better because of the game...). If each area has a fixed number of encounters, I leave room for open spaces and for the GM to be creative. In looking around, I found a thread with this advice by Gary Gygax from the Dungeon Geomorphs:

Roughly one third of the rooms should remain empty. One-third should contain monsters with or without treasure (possibly selected randomly using the Dungeons & Dragons Monster & Treasure Assortment), one-sixth traps and/or tricks, and the remaining one-sixth should be specially designed areas with monsters and treasures selected by the DM (rather than randomly  determined). Slides, teleport areas, and sloping passages should be added sparingly.

This seems to align pretty well with my basic idea, which is to create maps that have 12-15 or so areas, stock ten of them, and have two or three of those be 'special' in some way, providing unique challenges or unusual encounters. I will try to make it more than 'you open the door and find five goblins', but sometimes five goblins are in a room eating, sleeping, playing cards, or on guard duty. However, not every room can have five goblins in the middle of trying to solve a trap with moving floor panels as a statue overhead casts disintegrate on those who fail to move a floor tile appropriately. The mundane encounters are needed to help keep the special encounters special, and a few 'empty' rooms give places for the GM to add to the dungeon, or to give characters places to rest. 

A megadungeon has to be a little bit of a grind to feel like a megadungeon. If you get through a level in ten minutes, it's not a megadungeon. You should have to spend a good deal of time exploring, fighting, and thinking your way through it.