The Fall and Rise of Tweedle

 Armed with the map to pirate treasure, Tweedle makes his way to the coast. He finds a cave mouth and enters. The old salt told Tweedle that the pirate captain who buried the treasure had a penchant for riddles. So it is no surprise that he found riddles scrawled upon the cave walls. He solves a few and misses a few (with his intelligence he probably could solve them all but he is too impatient). He finds a magical book that gives him a new spell. When he finds the mirror he expects more good luck. Alas, the image in the mirror strikes him in the face with its staff! Tweedle is out cold.

No combat, one shot from a cursed mirror, and Tweedle is dead. Well, the nice thing about being your own GM is that you can fudge!

A while later Tweedle awakens with a swollen eye and a bruised ego. He finds himself outside the cave mouth. He enters again, but he comes to a dead end! There are no passageways or riddles or anything! Stumped, he begins to trudge home.

The intro adventure appears to be mostly riddles and traps (I didn't read it all so I cannot say for certain). I wanted to test out combat so I decided to create my own introductory dungeon.

As Tweedle is heading back to the nearby fishing village, he happens upon a distraught young.

"Oh, help me sir!" she calls to him.

"What's the matter?" he replies.

"Goblins! From the sea! They stole my baby!" 

She points to another cave along the craggy coast. Tweedle is reluctant at first. His initial foray as an adventurer did not turn out too well. But when he sees the lady's tears, he decides to risk it.

He enters the cave and comes across an empty cavern (1). 

There is a winding cave (2) that leads out of the cavern. Tweedle follows the cave. As he rounds a corner, he runs smack into a sea goblin! 

Instinctively, Tweedle lashes out with his staff. There is a satisfying crunch as he flattens the goblin. Critical hit, yay!

Tweedle continues along the corridor until he comes to another corner (4). This time he encounters two fish-men. The first slashes him with a fishbone sword. 

Fear grows in Tweedle's mind. He could die! He decides to cast a spell - Mirror Image. Suddenly, five other Tweedles appear! This so startles the fish-men that one runs. The other attacks, but only manages to dispel an illusory Tweedle. Then with a single blow, Tweedle kills his enemy.

Tweedle follows the retreating foe to a cavern (5). Two sea goblins are on the far side; the fish-man has disappeared. Tweedle launches a stone with his sling, wounding a goblin. The two charge. Tweedle smacks the wounded goblin with his staff. It collapses. Tweedle manages to dodge the other's blows while landing occasional shots. Finally, the second falls.

Our hero then passes through an empty cavern (6) then comes to the lair of the enemy (7). Here, a sea devil has the baby on a bloody altar. 

It appears to be readying some demonic ritual. Tweedle lets loose with his sling. The rock wounds the sea devil. It charges and attacks, but its trident passes harmlessly through one of the mirror images. Tweedle winds up with his staff and swings. It smacks the sea devil in the head; the monster falls dead! I was expecting a more epic battle but Tweedle scored a max damage critical!

Tweedle picks up the baby and rushes from the caves. The lady is thrilled; she invites him to stay at her village. The villagers fete him as a legendary hero! Tweedle thinks "I could get used to this adventuring life."

What does the future hold in store for Tweedle? And will he discover his real name? Stay tuned to find out!

And what do I think of Swords & Six-Siders? I'll make a post later this week to discuss my impressions.

Tweedle's Tale

Beginning a Swords & Six-Siders Campaign

I previously mentioned that I wanted to try out Swords & Six-Siders. In this post, I will walk through the character creation process.

1. Choose a Race

The introductory adventure in the Expanded Edition of S&SS starts your character out as a farmer, so I figured that Human would be appropriate. Besides, humans get bonuses to their abilities.

2. Determine Ability Scores

Roll 3 D6s - I get 1, 3, and 6. I then get the complement, the score on the opposite side of the die, for each of my rolls. That gives me 6, 4, and 1. Two 1s - ugh.

Because my character is human, I can add 2 points to my scores. I'll raise the 1s to 2s so that I don't have any penalties.

I plan for my character to be a Myrmidon, a battle mage. I envision him as bright and dexterous, but not hulking. So I assign the stats as so:

ST 3, IN 6, DX 6, WI 2, CO 4, CH 2

He gets a +1 bonus for the 6s.

So bright and dexterous, but middling size. His wisdom is low; I interpret that as meaning he lacks a little common sense and tends to rash decisions. That fits with the adventure intro, as you will see below. With a charisma of 2, I also envision him as being the target of bullies. He'll show them!

3. Choose a Class

As I mentioned, I plan for him to be a Myrmidon. He can use up to medium armor and shields, and can use spells, starting with 1 spell at 1st level.

4. Choose an Alignment

He's basically good at heart, so I chose Lawful.

5. Determine Hit Points

I roll a 1. At first level, I can bump this up to 3.

6. Select Equipment

You don't have to buy equipment, just assign what is reasonable. He's a country bumpkin so I don't expect him to have much. He'll start with padded armor (light armor), a staff, sling, and dagger, plus a pack of miscellaneous gear. He'll top it off with a cook pot for a helmet.

7. Choose Spells

Myrmidons get 1 spell at first level. I decided to give him a bonus spell for variety. I rolled Grease and Magic Eyebeam. I decide to replace Magic Eyebeam (where would he learn that?) with Mirror Image.

8. Calculate Stats

He starts with an AC of 5 due to the "helmet" and a Damage Resistance of 1 due to the padded armor. He has a +1 ranged Attack because of his Dexterity).

9. Name Your Character

The rules encourage you to name your character "something cool." But my character is not cool (yet); he's a bumpkin. Tweedle seems bumpkin-y.

Backstory

I had already read the adventure intro so I had a sense of where my character would begin. As I developed him, his backstory began to take shape in my mind. So I present you with Tweedle's story.

He did not know his True Name, but everyone called him Tweedle. When he asked his Pa about his True Name, the old man would simply reply, "You will learn it in the proper time."

Tweedle lived in the sleepy village of Shepford. It's most prominent feature was, aptly enough, a ford used by shepherds. Tweedle's family, like most inhabitants of the village, were farmers. But when he was 8, the town physician approached his Pa and said that Tweedle would be his apprentice. So with that, Tweedle found a new occupation. Alas, this, and his sarcastic wit, led him to run afoul of some of the larger boys.

Like everyone else in Shepford, Tweedle called his master "Doc." Technically, he wasn't a doctor. He was a hedge mage of indifferent skill. Somehow he found a simple living by providing some basic services to the villagers. He even learned a little medicine along the way. Tweedle began to learn what little Doc knew.

It may have been a comfortable enough living for Doc, but Tweedle was bored. He wanted a life of adventure where he traversed the wide world. After nearly 10 years as an apprentice, he got his opportunity. By chance, he met a squinty-eyed sailor at the village tavern. The old salt claimed to have a map to hidden pirate treasure. For a few coppers, Tweedle was able to acquire it. Doc called him a fool and his Ma begged him to stay, but Tweedle was determined to go.

So now Tweedle is ready! Stay tuned for his first adventure!

Swords & Six-Siders

When it comes to rules, I am an inveterate tinkerer. Rarely do I find a set of rules, whether miniatures or RPG, that I want to run as is. Swords & Six-Siders, however, is one of that rare breed.

I've been researching rules light system and came across a reference to Swords & Six-Siders (hereafter S&SS) in a thread in Reddit. I was skeptical at first; the system only uses a single D6. How could that possibly work?! But I picked it up from DriveThruRPG (the basic edition is free). And when I read it over, I was impressed. It seemed very similar to what I am trying to achieve with a D12 system.

What do I like about it?

• Character creation is straightforward and very old school. Roll abilities (e.g. Strength, Dexterity, etc.), Choose a class (and spells if applicable), pick your equipment, and roll hit points. That's it.

• While the game tracks treasure, it does not nickel and dime you to death. You don't have to purchase starting equipment; just pick what's reasonable. You also don't have to buy mundane items during play. So when you are at the tavern, you don't have to keep track of your drinks. Treasure is used to train for the next level or to buy magic items, such as healing.

• Body armor does not affect the chance to hit. Instead, armor reduces damage. Shields, however, help prevent getting hit in the first place. I've been experimenting with the same concept for my homebrew rules.

• Monster stats are very simple. The game just lists level. From this, it gives simple guidelines for determining attack bonus, AC (score to hit), damage resistance, and hit points. No huge stat blocks.

Any reservations? A few, but less than I thought:

• At first, I did not think that a single D6 would give enough granularity in combat. However, the system seems like it can handle this. You just have to accept that it 

• Class levels max out at 6. This seems a bit low for a long-term campaign. Nevertheless, I think it could work - think of it as advancing from novice to trained, experienced, veteran, master, and legend (or something like that).

I'm not going to go into more detail on the rules right now. The Expanded Edition has a solo adventure, which I plan to play soon. Then I'll write about my experience and how the rules handle the adventure

RPG Design - Which Dice?

Over the years I've been experimenting with home-brew roleplaying rules (such as Kevin's Krawl). Recently these experiments have taken the form of adventures on my Paladin's Quest blog.

One of the questions I've been trying to address was what type(s) of dice to use. I am not fond of the ubiquitous D20; it just rolls too much. Over the years, my preference for all games (including my home-brew wargames) has been for the classic D6. So much so that my initial attempts at RPG rules have featured a 2D6 system.

Earlier this year I switched to a D10. I made this change for 2 reasons:

• In order to speed up the game, I wanted to be able to make multiple attacks with one roll. I suppose I could have done it by using pairs of D6s of different colors, but that would require visually matching up the sets, which would slow down the game.
• To mitigate against the first issue, I tried a single D6 system. However, it did not seem to have enough granularity, given that I modify the roll by the character's fighting ability and the enemy's difficulty. A D6 rather limits the range of modifiers (e.g. a modifier of +5 would practically guarantee a hit).

I felt that a D10 satisfactorily addressed these two issues.

But now I am considering another change:

Not that there was anything particularly wrong with a D10 in terms of game play. However it has drawbacks when it comes to designing random rolls or tables. A D12 is more versatile because I can use it as a D2, D3, D4, D6, or D12.

I'll be experimenting with the D12 to see how it works.

Quest RPG

Recently my wife has returned to Darkest Dungeon, a rather grim dungeon crawl video game.

Whenever she starts playing it, I get a hankering for a tabletop dungeon crawl. Then I begin dabbling with rules light systems, perhaps something my wife might enjoy.

My latest meanderings have led me to this - Quest.

It is a very rules light system that has a lot of interesting concepts. Instead of prattling on about it, I recommend this video review.

While there is so much to love about this system, there are 2 areas that are niggling me.

First, when you roll a 6 - 10 (on a D20), you face a tough choice. You succeed in your action but have to choose one of two setbacks. As the Guide (GM), I then have to think up possible setbacks. What if I can't think of something?

I could get over that, but what is really bothering me is that armor seems to serve no function in the mechanics. So a robe-wearing wizard is just as likely to get wounded as a plate-armored paladin. I get that Quest is trying to focus on story over mechanics. Furthermore, there is a magic item card for resplendent plate that provides defense. But what about good-old-fashioned iron armor? I mean, I like a stripped down game, but that is bothering me.

So now I am considering ways to pillage Quest for ideas to apply to my own rules.

Siege of Falconhoof

Falconhoof Campaign - Part 1

In the kingdom of Freidonia, the ambitious Duke Kullen has revolted against the monarch. Within the duchy, Castle Falconhoof has remained loyal to the crown. Kullen besieges the defenders of the castle.

Notes
I've been itching to try my latest version of MicroBattle for the ancient/medieval era. I also have been holding onto a copy of Wargames Illustrated # 374, which includes a neat little mini-campaign for Lion Rampant. Because I have a long holiday weekend, I thought it would be a perfect time to test out both.

The First Encounter
Lord Lucas, master of Falconhoof, sends out a party to gather supplies for the garrison. Kullen tries to deny supplies to the defenders.
The campaign involves playing 5 random scenarios from Lion Rampant, each representing a small-scale action occurring as part of the siege. The first scenario turned out to be I - A Taxing Afternoon. Except, instead of taxes, the two sides are fighting over supplies.

The opposing forces line up across the fields outside of the castle. Supplies (pennies) are scattered throughout the fields.

There is a mad scramble for supplies. Lord Lucas's mounted sergeants are overwhelmed by a combined attack from enemy crossbowmen and cavalry.

The Duke's horse fights a unit of foot sergeants for control of supplies.

The horse win and ride off with the supplies. The Duke's men are more successful (8 points of supplies vs. 3)

The Second Encounter
Low on supplies, Lord Lucas realizes that he must get aid if the castle is to hold out. He sends a substantial force to escort a messenger to the king.
This scenario is H - The Messenger from Lion Rampant.

With mounted sergeants in the van, the messenger (arrow - one of the horsemen bears a standard) rides for freedom.

The Duke's forces converge

And engage (upper right). Meanwhile, Lord Lucas's forces break some of the enemy's cavalry (lower right).

But the messenger slips by and leaves his pursuers in the dust.

As Lord Lucas watches the fray from his tallest tower, he breathes a sigh of relief. The king shall get notice of his plight and, God willing, shall send help soon.

This evens the campaign at 1 victory apiece. The campaign laurels will go to the side with the most victories. With 3 more encounters to go, it's anyone's ball game. Stay tuned for more reports!

Back to Artemesia.

After victory in Zirconia, the Federation has re-assigned Tex's Tigers to Artemesia. Ever since the rebel victory there, the Federation has blockaded the planet. Now, a new invasion to reclaim Artemesia has begun, and as typical Tex's Tigers are on the forefront.

The Tigers, with light AFVs in support, advance on a rebel-held town.

Rebel forces sortie. "Those are Imperial tanks!"

The Tigers hold off the attack

But then rebel heavy tanks enter the fray!

The Tigers take damage.

But manage to seize the town.

And hold on while Tiger 3 counters and destroys the enemy armor.

The rebels are routed and the Tigers hold the town.

Notes
I wanted to try out my MicroBattle rules using armored forces. I decided to start up a new sci-fi campaign featuring Tex's Tigers. This time, they're on Artemesia, the setting for a campaign I started years ago but never finished.

The scenario was #4 - Knock Knock, from Hell Hath No Fury. The game took nearly an hour. I think this was because (1) tanks in my MicroBattle rules are (appropriately) harder to kill than most units in my rules, and (2) the HHNF scenarios tend to feature more enemy forces than most scenarios I use. I need to consider changing force structures around to add more infantry and perhaps reduce the number of units on the field.

Nevertheless, MicroBattle worked fine. I made a few changes to streamline play (specifically regarding advantages and disadvantages). They seemed fine so I'll continue to experiment. I have a long weekend holiday in a few days so I'll have time for a couple of scenarios. I'm thinking of running some shock-era battles (probably fantasy).