Preachin'

An interesting comment showed up on the Tao of D&D blog about non-spell cleric powers which immediately brought me to mind of the clerical rituals I want to draft up for my game setting (if not for Beacon proper).  Rituals would be magical effects that would take hours or days instead of one round as a spell would.  They would be used to flesh out the magic system without buggering up combat so much.  I had already thought that one of the rituals should deal with consecration or sanctification - that would be a second or third level ritual.  There should be a ritual for messing with souls (possibly resurrection) and a ritual for imbuing items with magic (hence certain magic items...).  I'd like to find one for each magic level and make them part of church training but very hard to attain (questy).   After reading that discussion, I figured out where to start. The first ritual should be preaching.

Saying a sermon or a mass, and being able to influence players and NPCs should be the first divine 'ritual'.  It's the way the religion is spread and the primary contact between the church and the population at large so it would be taught early.  Anyone can give a speech but for a real fire and brimstone footstomper you would need a invested cleric.  Game-wise, it would be something that the character could do, it would be something the locals would seek out - a service.  It would be something they would do when the townsfolk are bracing for an attack, or for solders before the battle, or for a good harvest, or a wedding, or even before a ship leaves port.  Mechanically it would be some sort of morale boost - I can see it used by NPC priests to whip their minions into a frenzy.  It could also sway opinion towards the players and increase the possibility of henchmen and retainers being retained by a party - and it could influence these retainers during the dungeon crawl.  I can see this as working in conjunction with the cleric's bonus to the communication skill in Beacon to make them the leaders that motivate and muster the troops.  So it would be a low level mass charm - in effect making the audience slightly more disposed towards the cleric and increasing their morale for a short time.  Since it would take an hour or more to perform and be a loud affair I'm not too worried that it would devalue the Enchanter's charm spell.

I probably won't call it preachin' however.

Character sheet update

So during the play test sessions I got into a little trouble over the character sheet because of some 'wasted space'.  Apparently leaving a blank spot for character portraits or doodles wasn't enough, that space had to be clearly defined.  Go figure.  So I've added a box for this - just needed to move some stuff around a bit and voila - portrait spot.  I also thought about adding in some lines for things like damage bonus so I added in three new boxes, one for base attack bonus, one for base damage bonus and one for # of attacks you get (in the rules you get an additional attack for each +5 attack bonus.  Anyway here it is:

Beacon character sheet v4

Download the PDF.

Any feedback I get on this I'll consider for the v5 draft out this fall.

So this happened

This Friday Night session report is brought to you by Butterbridge Vinters, makers of such fine wines as Ol' Purple, Only a Penny, and Retch.   Looking to forget your troubles?  Need a mild laxative?  Try a Butterbridge Wine!

After a pleasant week spent in Foxhollow, the party decided that they should move on.  Tim (cleric) was eager to make his mark on the world and prove himself to his new companions, especially the acerbic Henril.  Packing up their horses and carts, they left town heading towards Milham to the west.  The first day was peaceful and pleasant although they did meet an unusual number of travelers on the road heading west.  Conversations with the travelers revealed that they were leaving Milham because they were afraid of the sickness that had been spreading around the town.  Now the players knew of this sickness, it had been spreading since the first adventure and the times that the players had convalesced in the Milham Abbey in order to recover lost STR points they had seen the sick from outlying manses being tended to.  Apparently things were getting worse.  They camped that night beside a bridge along with a number of families what were fleeing Milham.  Chatting with the people they heard various theories about the cause of the plague, that it was spread by the bandits, that it was punishment for prideful behavior, that it was linked to the old shrine deep in the swamp, or even it was caused by a group of adventurers who had recently come to Milham and stirred up evils from the dwarven ruins (who could that be?).

Encounter with the sticky bears as depicted by Henril

The following day they ran into a small gang of bandits who were enjoying the extra business opportunities along the road.  They picked the wrong caravan to attack and this was made clear to them when Thedric charmed one and another was dispatched in a single blow.  The rest of the bandits fled and the party curiously decided not to pursue them.  Up tho this point I don't think I've seen them show any restraint on chasing down and killing foes on the run.  I suppose they didn't see any percentage in a few bandits.  Anyway they took the two heads in order to identify the fellows later on in Milham.  A few hours later as they approached the further outskirts of Milham, they came across another clump of emigrants leaving town.  As they exchanged greetings, a small dog came running up barking.  The dog had purple goo on it's fur.  As they investigated, they also heard some cries for help far off in the forest.  So leaving Thedric with their carts, they raced off to investigate.  What they found was a young man trying to rescue his wife from some purplish coloured bears.  She seemed to be unable to move and so they rushed in to drag her out of harms way and to smite the creatures.  They soon discovered that the purple goo was toxic and caused paralysis. What they didn't discover until much later was that it was also very flammable.

So a long running battle ensued where the party would bash the monsters and then someone would become paralyzed and the 'bear' would grab them and start walking into the forest.  They were not smart foes, but they were tough and persistent.  When they finally dispatched one of the beasts it came apart more like a plant than an animal, falling to the ground with a large cracking sound and throwing out roots.  It would have been a tougher battle except I had forgot to roll d4 for the effects of the poison and gave the players a 'save' against the paralysis each turn.  My gaff was balanced out as the party weren't using fire on the monsters.  Even so, the party was badly wounded by the time they dispatched 6 of the creatures and they had traveled quite far into the forest towards the 'mother'.  The mother was a huge smelly tree with long tentacles which would grab nearby animals and toss them into it's gaping maw.  It also had a number of suspicious purple 'fruit' hanging from it's branches.  One look at that and they finally ran back to the wagon to get some oil and torches.  They quickly decided that they would send Ann (the halfling) in with the oil to throw at the tree and they would follow (at a safe distance) with torches to light it.  With a few choice curses, she agreed and they carried out the plan.  She snuck into the clearing and got as close as she dared and then threw the oil.  The tree dropped some 'fruit' with a splat and out of the fruit came more of the 'gummy bears', these ones smaller than the previous.  The rest of the party came up and threw torches at the tree and began fighting the little wortlings (for this is pretty much what they were - my take on an orcwort and wortlings).  The tree burned and billows of acrid smoke flew into the air.  They fought on the edge of the clearing trying to prevent the wortlings from dragging anyone into reach of those terrible tentacles.  Colin KO'd himself rolling nice and high on the critical fumble table, something that remains a neverending source of enjoyment to everyone.  Finally a flaming tentacle struck the last wortling and it burst into flame as the tree gave a mighty shudder and died.

That evening they finally arrived in Milham.  Thedric seems to have become the party accountant and the next day he liquidated and divided out much of the remaining loot, including four of the horses and two of the carts.  Luckily for them goods were scarce and prices were high in Milham due to the ongoing banditry and the 'plague', otherwise they might have thought to have someone with a higher charisma deal with the merchants. It also helped that he started a rumour that eating from silver utensils was a remedy for plague.  Henril was eager to find out if he had any marriage prospects to review, and indeed upon meeting with the wine crier, he found he had three.  Convincing Ann to be his 'agent' he arranged to visit all his prospects.  The first was too hot (a bigoted shrew of a mother looking to cash in on her rather robust daughter and who took a shine to Father Tim), the second was too cold (a family of rail thin and nervous folk looking for a well to do business man for their bookish daughter), and the last seemed just right (a hard working bar maid looking for a decent man).  He resolved to meet her at the Seven Stones tavern later on that evening.

And that's where we wrapped up for the night.  I had hoped to get through more in this last session but in a sandbox you take what you can get and if the players are happy and laughing then it's all good.  However, due to some scheduling issues, there will be one more play test session after all.  This pleases me.  The party was deciding if they should go south into the hills again or check out the shrine in the swamp.  Possibly they will come up with an entirely different notion - but I'm sure that will be fun too.

one year later

Ayup. I been posting on this here blog for one year today.  A year ago I decided that I should take the notes and charts I'd been tooling with and post it up for everyone to read.  I figured I liked it, so maybe someone else would like it too.  According to blogger stats I've had some 5800 page views this year but I suspect that's broken since there are weird spikes and the numbers don't really add up - also since it's views and not visits it's not very useful.  According to google analytics, since June 8th I've had 566 visits averaging 47% new folks and 1200 page views.  I  hope some of these folks have benefited from my little hobby.

It's game night tonight and I'm running the last beacon v4 play test session.  I have no idea what these players are going to pull so I've stocked my sleeves with all manner of booglins and boglings and am hoping to mess them up some.  Once I'm done I'm going to be asking them for some feedback on both the game and how I ran things and then I'll look over the rules and see what needs to be changed for the v5 draft.  What's next?   I'm going to be playing some Trail of Cthulhu which is based on the Gumshoe system and I'm very interested in that.  I am also possibly going to be playing in a fantasy campaign based in Harnworld and using the Reign rules based on the O.R.E (One Roll Engine) system.  It will be fun to play again and I imagine this will spark lots of ideas for new rules or how to run things, some of which might end up here on the blog.

I also want to remind anyone who's downloaded the Beacon rules and used them to run a game, or anyone who's played in a Beacon game to let me know how it was.  I'm interested to see what people thing of the mechanics, what worked for them and what didn't.  I probably won't change things just because some people don't like the mechanic (like using HP to cast magic) but I sure will change things that aren't working or that are unintentionally confusing.

So thanks and I'll see you all around for round 2.

Weapon types

I was reading this blog post and I realized what a great idea this is.  Have different weapon types do something different in combat.  Ya, this post is from back in June and I remember reading the post on B/X Blackrazor that he references back then too, but I wasn't in the same frame of mind as I am now.  I like the simple weapon damage we're using now in Beacon (actually Blackrazor pushed me in that direction as well).  Maybe I glossed over it because I didn't want to mess with the mechanics I had for tho handed damage bonuses and duel wielding.  Anyway I like non-variable weapon damage in Beacon - mainly because it leaves little to memorize and players can grab up any old thing and start whacking away.  It lends itself to narrative weapon choices over optimization.  No more maxing out the statistics and figuring on which is the best weapon to use, more just figuring out what would be cool.  As mentioned in these fine posts, where it falls down is when players are buying weapons - why buy a nicely worked sword when a rusty crowbar will do the same damage?  Well prestige I suppose.  However, if each type of weapon had a special benefit or applicability then it would be a good reason for players to have different weapons, even carry and use different weapons at different times.  I already have pole-arms doing attack at range - I just need to figure out what the other weapons bring to the table.
Off the top of my head I can think of the following 'perks' for each type of weapon.

• Only swords can be used to block as per the blocking rules.
• Axes/hammers/clubs add full STR bonus as damage like two handed weapons do.
• Pole-arms get the distance thing and first strike against rushes.

Very simple and they don't add any new mechanics to the rules, just spread the wealth a bit - both pluses in my book.  Strong guys are going to want to use the bashing weapons to get that strength bonus but might possibly carry around a sword to use in case they are fighting skilled opponents so they can increase their defense.

Rounding out the group

Back in May I posted some back stories for the characters rolled up for this play test.  I wrote the back stories in order to give flavour to the setting without doing the long exposition you might feel the need for to introduce players to your game setting.  I feel you really do need to give them something to work with - even if it's going to be a simple beat-em-up-get-the-treasure campaign.
Here are the backstories from the two new characters

Anistania (halfling rogue)
When the New Men came from across the sea, Travellers came with them.  Small but quick, they worked in the rigging and down in the holds and they were also quite welcome to be cooks for they have skill with a pot and a knife.  Barely a sackful they were then, but since the landing they have done well, and now more than one Traveller camp makes their lazy way between towns in the Soundlands.  They have been called by lots of names by the bigger folks, such as the little people, halfling, tinker, or even gnome (perhaps to an old fellow but never to a lady!) but to themselves they are called the Travellers and they love the road.
Born near Marshmill you grew up with the family Caravan as it made the yearly rounds through Hayfork and Hyntmor, idling and working as tinkers and cooks and entertainers as it suited their mood and the weather.  It was a good life full of songs and schemes and good food, but you wanted to journey further.  Perhaps the caravan was growing too large or perhaps you and your two cousins were born under brighter stars, or perhaps your reputations were growing too large, but you all decided to journey to the west and see the mountains.  Unfortunately you were waylaid by goblins on the south road, and now you find yourself with no possessions, your cousins lost, and in the company of strangers.

Colin (human fighter)
As a young boy walking the streets of Oldchurch you learned very quickly to respect, obey and even fear the priests and clerks. Life in Oldchurch revolves around the ancient Cathedral whose bells ring out announcing when to wake, to eat, to pray, and most of all announcing this massive building is all that remains from before the Fall, so many long years ago.  Early on you were singled out for your size and strength and groomed to serve in the Blue Order, the prestigious cathedral guards.  However you were too jovial and too good natured and some small part of you could not submit to the single minded discipline required of this position.  You refused an order collect tithes from a poor merchant and fell out of favour with important people. You were dismissed. Unable to find work and to spare your family, you left town to seek your fortune in the south.

Aside from Drothgar the Dwarven Cleric, there was one other PC who didn't die, but dropped out of the game.

Aurorila(elven druid)
A thousand years is not a long time for the elves.  When the human and dwarven kingdoms fell your elders watched and did nothing as the servants of chaos ran rampant.  This was not the first time.  Many many thousands of years ago the elves left their great cities and took up a life of wandering and since that time they do not involve themselves in the affairs of others.  Only the very oldest might remember the reasons for this, but since then no records are kept and no interest is taken in the workings of the world.  For reasons of your own you have left the forest and now come to human lands where you are viewed with wonder by the men from across the sea and ignorance or hostility from the dwarves and men who found no aid from your people when chaos ravaged their cities.

Objects in mirror

48!?  Who's been touching my lucky dice?

Well it's been almost a year since I started this design blog for Beacon and I just noticed I just posted my 100th post on September 1st.  Last September I was busily working away on my own little fantasy heartbreaker and I had just gone from reading blogs about role playing and playing Microlite with the kids to starting this blog and signing up with a local game group, getting ready to play some real grownup RPG.  Since then I've been introduced to Savage Worlds, Atomic Highway, and Hero system.  I've also had the chance to run a good play test of my Beacon d20 rules.  Ya 100 posts in a year isn't a lot really but then again I tried to keep this about Beacon and not so much about all the other things I like.  Maybe if I could come up with a good name I'd start an alternate blog and post about books and video games and other things.  Maybe that would be too much work.

Next Friday will be the first anniversary of the Beacon site and serendipitously it will also be the last in this series of Beacon play tests.  Now we're going to play some other games and even though I have really enjoyed the DMs chair again, I'm excited to get back into the player seat for a bit.  We will have played 7 sessions and all the characters will have made level 3 or be near enough that it makes no matter.  I am hopeful that we will return to Beacon again later on to continue the fun testing, either with the existing characters or new ones starting out at level 3 - or some mix of the two.  I also hope to release the 5th draft of Beacon this fall and incorporate the lessons learned from this play test.  A lot of the work I have been putting in this summer has been in the setting of this play test and even though much of it is sandbox, I've grown fond of it.  I believe I am going to try to put together something in the vein of a sandbox guide to the world appropriate for use with Beacon and hopefully easily adaptable for any low level d&d based campaign.  I don't expect it will be a hefty grimoire in the vein of THE WORLD OF BEACON! but it might be a nice PDF.  I really enjoy the sandbox full of plot nuggets campaign approach (for some reason I'm thinking of a catbox now...ugg) but I'm not partial to the pure hexcrawl.  I find that unless I have a general knowledge of the area the players are running about in, it's hard for me to run a decent game.  Maybe putting together some short world overviews and a couple maps will appeal to those of a similar bent.