Happy Birthday Kev! (Today, not the 18th.)
Next game is Sunday the 18th, same 2pm start as normal. Remember that we leveled to 10; I think everyone rolled HP, so some stats and skills monkeying and we’re ready to go.
Anything people want to figure out before we play again?
Right now, the next game we have planned is for September 11th. Kev, your Birthday’s the next day (right?)– are you free to game?
This weekend is certainly a weekend off; happy Labor Day everyone! Zack will be in town (on Monday the 5th, probably), so we’ll probably schedule something with him a night or three. If you have suggestions, they’re good for this thread too.
Until we dice again…
A few nights ago I mulled about a solution to “0 HP = unconscious, -10 HP = death” thing. Around 2 am I woke up and had most of a solution. I’ll take a stab at writing it down here. [Note: This is inspired in part by Blue Rose / True20. Iron Heroes, a new release, is supposed to mimic it in part.]
Low Death (but grittier) gaming–
The idea starts from a core: Death is dramatic… but it’s best when it’s dramatic. As it is, the space between “perfectly fine” (1 HP) and dead (-10 HP) is small. 11 hit points is normal damage from many of the critters our characters are fighting.
One advantage of this revision is that criticals have a greater impact (immediate wounding), but don’t take a character out immediately.
When a creature is hit and drops below zero hit points, or when a creature is hit for a confirmed critical, the character doesn’t necessarily fall unconscious (nor just loose hit points). Instead, the player rolls to resist the wound, to keep the character on its feet. This introduces an opportunity to introduce tradeoffs; creating wounds that don’t put a character out, but do impair fighting ability.
Whenever a character is struck and drops below 0 HP, or whenever a critical is dealt, you make a Fortitude saving throw with a DC equal to the damage your character was dealt. Compare the save and damage to the chart below. (We’ll call this “wound saves” for clarity.)
| Beat the DC by 10 or more | A scratch or bruise; no fight penalty, -1 to wound saves. (Cure minor to alleviate penalty). |
| Beat the DC | A minor wound; a cut over the eye, a bruised rib, a gash along the forearm, etc. -1 to all rolls until healed (including wound saves). Cure Light to eliminate. |
| Failed by less than 10 | A significant wound; bones break, muscles pull, artery pierced, finger severed, etc. -2 to all rolls until healed. Cure Moderate to alleviate the penalty, Cure Critical to eliminate the condition. |
| Failed by 11-20 | Maiming wound; foot removed, eye gashed, skull cracked, massive blood loss. -5 to all rolls until healed. Cure Serious to alleviate the penalty, Regenerate or Heal to eliminate the condition. |
| Failed by 21+ | Deadly wound. (Usually traded up to maiming + unconscious, unless the player decides it’s time for a dramatic death.) |
In all cases, the player can choose for the character to take a wound one step less severe as long as the character is also knocked unconscious by the blow. (This is not necessarily a blow to the head; blood loss, shock and the like are other acceptable ways to “trade up” the damage and remove a character from the fight.)
Right now it looks like we’re on schedule for a game next Sunday, though Jennifer will miss part of the game for a seminar. On to the Dragon Coast!
(We’ll try to get the loot list typed up during the week.)
A little link roundup…
[From The Game Mechanics] Red Dragons, broken out by age: (pdf) and the website. Inititive Cards in general.
Crafting items A WOTC variant; interesting, but it doesn’t solve the core issue (experience as a cost). On the same subject, a message board discussion about crafting items from the Pizao boards.
20 Page Arms & Armor Preview For inspiration only; it has a few names and item properties, but few full definitions.
The Year’s Best d20 is a collection of open gaming content from many manufacturers, culled and evaluated. Looks worthwhile (especially as a pdf). Also: the Table of Contents.
Dungeon Crafter Game world design advice (from old Dragon articles). Also, Dark Heritage, a world created by applying the previous articles.
Right now, the plan’s for the normal game at the normal time. Everybody ready?
Last week’s adventure was the return to the capital and much item upgrading. At the end, we had a solid lead– a bookseller on the Dragon Coast might have information about the void woundings. We’ve made arrangements to lead a group of ships through the blockage… and to report in by spell every three days. Prepare for sail!
Tricia may be celebrating her birthday Sunday, so we’ll listen to Kev as to whether the game is this weekend or next.
We hit eighth level last week, so everyone has skill and stat points to distribute. Let us know if you’ll have trouble making it.
Jennifer and I will go through and try to total up sale bait and sort through the stuff we’ve gathered, so we can distribute everything out where it’ll be useful.
Martin at Treasure Tables asked:
A simple question to which the answer will, I suspect, vary pretty widely: how did you learn to GM?