Look What I Found! A Cantrip List

This was written up in more or less this format for a website a bunch of years ago.  Some of these spells are ones I created for GURPS in an article over thirty years ago.  Having stumbled across it, I decided to spruce it up and post it anew.  Now if anyone wants the actual GURPS stats as written up for my campaign, feel free to ask!

Chisandra’s Magic Tool: Summons one of the following tools: chisel, axe, crowbar, plane, adze, handaxe, pick, shovel, handsaw, crosscut saw, file, or awl. It is made of steel, and holds a perpetual edge. It will be sized for the caster, and cannot be made larger or smaller. For some reason, the craftsmen who revile the wizard Chisandra for inventing the “Strike Breaker” spell (see below) – as well as others who would use it – have no problem with this spell.  Local blacksmiths, however, have different opinions ...

Chisandra’s Strike Breaker: Named for a enchanter noblewoman whose new mansion was held up by a work stoppage, this causes a standard tool with no moving parts to work independently at the caster’s bidding.  It will only perform actions for which it is designed (for example, however much it’s technically possible, the spell won’t cause a hatchet to work as a screwdriver), as if it were wielded by a human of average strength, with approximately the skill at its task of a trained apprentice of the appropriate craft. To this day, the spell is resented by local craftsmen, and wizards known to employ it are prone to having their windows broken by thrown bricks, their front stoops smeared with excrement, and so on.

Coins of Change: A coin of the caster's choice (and held in his hand) disappears, to be replaced by the monetary equivalent in the next lower denomination. However, one coin of the lower denomination is missing (as a magical "tip," if you will); for instance, a dollar coin would be replaced by three quarters.  If the coin is not easily divisible into the next lower denomination (quarters into dimes, for instance), it is rendered in the denomination below that. The new coins will be of the proper bullion, weight and minting, indistinguishable from other such coins were it not for the newness and lack of wear.  If the spell is cast on a coin of the lowest common denomination, it disappears ... to be replaced by something peculiar and/or worthless.

Denys’ Menacing Orbs: Creates a fistful of “standard” fiberglass marbles that appear in the caster’s hand ... whether or not fiberglass is a substance that exists in the gameworld.

Elaina’s Excellent Teapot: A silvery-violet teapot will appear (and float) in midair. The caster may put any kind of tea and sweetener inside the pot; it requires no water or strainer. The pot will brew away, producing 1 quart, appropriately sweetened. If no tea is placed into the pot, it will brew a basic pekoe. The pot will pour itself, at the caster's command, and vanish either at the caster’s command or when there is no tea left in the pot. Variants exist for cocoa and other hot drinks.

Elaina’s Ball of Fun: Created by the ice wizard Elaina Waflo more as a means to have a handy fistful of snow whenever she wanted one, this places a normal, if large and well packed, snowball in the caster’s hand. The snow itself is permanent, but will melt normally.

Flower Power: Any sort of flowers with which the caster is familiar can be created in a full bouquet. They will be in full bloom. Any part of the bouquet that is disassembled – for instance, processing for herbal or alchemical use – vanishes at once.  The bouquet will last for as long as a mundane cut bunch of fresh flowers would.

Hero Pointer: The most powerful character – in terms of levels, character points, etc. – in the caster’s line of sight is outlined with a visible ruddy glow. The caster can exclude certain people or types of people from the spell’s calculation, and/or make the effect visible to him or her only.

Iamedon’s Keener Edged Armament: Sharpens an edged weapon, tool or implement to have as fine an edge as the object can normally hold; the edge lasts as long as normal use provides.

Kinto’s Beneficial Breathing: The subject's nostrils, ears and mouth become impermeable to water. Normal air breathing is not impeded, but no oxygen is extracted from "breathing" in water – the spell will only keep the subject from drowning.

Lengchi’s Bane: This spell combines ingredients into a blended whole. The ingredients must be normally able to be mixed by hand and be placed in a container, which will be filled by the resulting mixture. The combination takes place in one second. Lengchi was an infamous alchemical researcher working through the periodic table, and who discovered – a bit too late – that alchemically refining a large quantity of pure sodium and combining it with water (to “see what happened”) was not all that sensible an idea.

“Limpy’s” Third Conjuration: Causes an inanimate object to bend in the middle. Regardless of its natural qualities - brittleness, for example - it will bend and not break. If the object makes its appropriate resistance roll, it is slightly warped in some way. Created by the pompous Master Limsenien of the Viridistani College of Mages, it acquired its byname from the put-upon professional apprentice corps of the city – who claimed, inaccurately, that the wizard used this to blight the manhoods of his enemies – and “Limpy” was what the wizard was called behind his back thereafter, so much so that he dropped plans to publish his Fourth and Fifth Conjurations.

Malabar’s Miraculous Assay: The caster can determine the material components of any liquid or solid compound by chemical name, along with the proportion of the components in the compound, within the limits of general chemical knowledge of the caster’s tech level.  However, the caster does not necessarily know the individual properties of the components, nor will he learn what the compound does, absent scholarly knowledge of chemistry or alchemy.

Mirith’s Restful Soak: Creates a magical hot tub, which will materialize on the ground if the terrain is even and there are no intervening objects. It will comfortably seat two people. The temperature may be set between 95 and 120 degrees F, with any desired degree of turbulence. The spell was researched and invented at the request of the then-Emperor of Vinaria, a frequent adventurer who in his later years suffered from arthritis.

Morgil’s Clouded Gaze: The eyes of the subject adjust to any light brighter than normally comfortable, overtoning everything he sees in sepia tones. The spell will not function against light-based magical attacks. Prince Morgil Ravenswing of Gwenethlin was a renowned campaigner, but overly light sensitive, and richly rewarded the (unknown) wizard who invented this spell.

Phoenix’s Fountain of Glory: A fizzing jet flies straight up from the caster’s finger. When it reaches an altitude of 400', it bursts into a brilliant flare of colored light and descends at a rate of 10'/second thereafter. While the flare’s illumination is dim at best, it is visible for miles at night. The spell does no damage, may not be targeted, and will not fire in any direction but straight up. “Phoenix” was the errantry-name of the starlight wizard Sairin Wenairin, who is said to have invented it in the time he campaigned with the Kalínalumbë Regiment.

Puff of Breath: The target feels a light puff of breath; it will blow out candles, and be noticeable, but not much else.

Ratri’s Blessed Shield: Cast on a female, this prevents fertilization of eggs. If cast on a female pregnant within the last week, induces spontaneous abortion. If cast on a male his sperm becomes non-viable. Taught by the priestesses of Ratri, although its use is canonically discouraged.

“Show Business”: Creates any minor special effect that the caster can imagine, suitable for use as a prop for a stage show. Among the possible effects are minor sound effects, flashing lights, mini-fireworks, loud spectral applause, background Muzak, small puffs of smoke or thin fog ... but in any event, it will turn out on the cheesy side. The special effects created with this spell are not powerful enough to distract or fool a determined foe. Several wizards have been accused of inventing the spell in the 33 years it has been known; all hotly deny doing so.

Spider’s Veil: A fine rain of gossamer web floats down. While it is easily visible, it neither impedes vision nor movement.

Verella’s Toy: A small item becomes a recording device, recording any sound generated (or permeating) within 30' of its location. The sound pickup and quality is equivalent to that of a modern-day boom mike and tape player. To activate the Toy, the caster must speak a command word chosen at the time of casting. A second command word stops the recording. A third command word allows the Toy to play back any sounds it has captured. The object will only provide between six and twelve playbacks. Created for Princess Verella Waflo of Vinaria, who as a small child loved the music of the nomadic Waertagi tribe and wanted to hear it still in her quiet home, hundreds of miles from the Waertagi steppe country.

GURPS Apocrypha (part II) - Magic

(Following my prior post.  This does NOT include the reordering of colleges I've done, the vast number of new spells, or me tearing down the prerequisite chains and rebuilding them more along the lines of "Cadence requires 6 Body Control spells instead of Grace+Haste.")

p. 6    Learning Magic, generally:

* Mages may not start with a higher level than Magery/3.  They may improve Magery at double cost.  My approval is required for Magery 5, and players should not expect to improve past Magery 6.

* Each wizardly order has “consonant” spell colleges.  This affects both access and time required to learn spells.  An Average Consonant spell requires a minimum of one week to learn (given proper materials, sources, and practice time), a Hard spell a minimum of two weeks, and a Very Hard spell four to six weeks.  Non-Consonant spells require half again normal time.  (These numbers are reduced, as per RAW, by 10% per the learner’s level of Magery.)  Mages must learn no fewer than 50% of their spells in Consonant colleges.  Defense, Knowledge and Enchantment spells count as “consonant” for purposes of learning time, but do not count as consonant for the 50% learning rule.

* Spells are further divided into three categories within their respective colleges: Unrestricted, Restricted and Secret.  The only Restricted spells mages can learn are Consonant.  Secret spells are mostly unknown to the wizarding population, and are often cult secrets of wizardly orders.  Beyond that, many orders have proprietary secret spells unknown even to other orders using the same colleges of magic.  Some colleges do not have Restricted spells: Defense, Knowledge, Enchantment, and (several of) the interdisciplinary elemental colleges.

* Learning new spells requires either finding a teacher (using appropriate Hireling rolls) or doing substantial research in a well-stocked magical library (requiring a Research roll and access to said library).  Both approaches can be hit or miss.

* As a loose rule, I allow improving existing spells by a level per experience award, provided the spell was used in the preceding sessions.  Please note that a skill level of 21 is rated expert, one of the best in all the land, and skill levels that reach -21 – never mind surpass it – must be justified by strong arguments and approved by me, which will not be easy.  Skill-25 denotes, in my mind, around the best in the world, and I’ve allowed only two spellcasting PCs to reach that level (with a single spell each) in four decades.

* Magery/1 is a prerequisite to use most spells.  Characters with Magery/0 can cast Average spells.

p. 6    Mana: Clarification: only mages can cast spells, period, regardless of the ambient mana level.  There is no point to someone without Magery learning a spell, although I won't forbid it.

p. 7    Casting Spells:  I require that players tell me what spells are being prepared and the target/s if any, without me having to prompt them.  Failure to provide this information in full, at the time a Concentrate maneuver is taken, will mean that no spell is cast.

p. 7    Critical Success:  Regardless of skill level, rolls of 3-4 is a critical success, a roll of 5 is an automatic success, a roll of 16 is an automatic failure, and rolls of 17-18 critical failures.  In addition to there never being an energy cost for a Critically Successful spell, such spells do not have a maintenance cost, and can effectively be maintained for as long as the caster is awake to consciously continue the spell (at his or her discretion).  The caster only needs to do so at the regular time of maintenance, so can keep spells with long-term durations going for quite some time.  Such maintained spells do not count for -1 against ongoing spells.

There are special Critical Success charts for Missile Spells.  Critical successes for the following types of spells have no Critical Success chart, but have the following effects:   

Regular/Resisted/Special: Resistance rolls, if any, automatically fail.  On a roll of 3, the caster may turn the spell into an area spell covering the entire megahex, if he or she wishes.
    
Blocking: A magical backlash stuns the aggressor until a roll at IQ (IQ-3 for a roll of 3) is made.

Area: The spell’s area may be increased by half again (double with a roll of 3) at the caster’s discretion with no extra fatigue cost; he or she may hold the area at any point short of the increased zone, and can have non-inclusive shapes.  Resistance rolls, if any, automatically fail.
    
Enchantment: The item gains 1 point of Power for free.  If it is already self-powering or does not need mana to make it work, then it gains an extra level of effect or loses a magical Quirk, at the caster’s discretion, as well as a special effect that does not improve the material quality of the item, per se, but is flashy, flamboyant or impressive.  This special effect can be suppressed by a Concentration maneuver on the part of the wielder.  On a roll of 3, the item gains the previous effects and abilities, as well as a random secondary enchantment (GM’s discretion) of a creation cost no greater than ¼th that of the base enchantment OR immunity from any future Quirks for subsequent enchantments.

Information: The caster gains significantly more information than the result would indicate.

p. 7    Critical Spell Failure Table: replaced with my own.

p. 8    Energy Cost: The Recover Strength spell does not exist.

Mages can draw mana from outside of Consensual Reality (i.e., other than from personal fatigue, HT or Powerstones) to cast their spells.  When doing so, if mages exceed their “Threshold Rating” — normally zero, but see below — they must roll on the Magical Calamity Table, adding +1 for every full 5 points of “extra” fatigue drawn to power the spell.  The following two new advantages are used for this system:

Increased Threshold         5/level
For each level of Increased Threshold that you have, add 6 to the Threshold Rating.

Safer Excess             5/level
Your Calamity rolls for overstrength magic use are at +1 for every 10 points of excess, instead of +1 per 5. Every additional level doubles this effect (+1 per 20, +1 per 40).

p. 8    Magic Rituals: The implication is that for skill 10-14, you can’t move 1 hex on a Concentrate maneuver.  I allow a hex of movement nonetheless.

p. 8    Magic Ingredients: I don’t require them.

p. 9    Alternate Magic Rituals: I don’t allow mages to omit required words or actions at a penalty.  I do allow the +1 to skill for a double-time, very loud and showy incantation; this can be combined with a Ceremonial casting (see below).

p. 10    Changing Maintained Spells: I don’t allow this.

p. 10    Canceling Spells: While it doesn’t specify, I’ve always allowed this as a free-time action.

p. 11    Regular Spells: The penalty for distance is -1/three hexes.

p. 11    Area Spells:

*  The base area starts at a megahex, not a hex. 

*  A caster can not create an area with “holes” in it.  He can only reduce the area inclusively, so that a straight line can’t be drawn between two points in the area to a point outside the area, except that a Wall spell may be in a curved line.  This means that a caster is subject to his own spell if he’s within the area at the time of casting, unless explicitly stated otherwise in the spell description.

p. 12    Ceremonial Magic: Assistants can also contribute by the Lend Energy spell, in an alternative to the other procedures.  Energy thus provided needs to be discharged within a minute, or it vanishes.

p. 14    Long-Distance Modifiers: Touching the subject – unless the spell requires it – adds +4 to skill level, as per BSII.

p. 15    Player-Created Spells: I don’t use this system.  Speak to me if you’re interested.

p. 15    Designing Wizard Characters: The -10% “Usable only for spellcasting” limitation on Fatigue Points can not be bought.

p. 17    Power of a Magic Item: I don’t use this, and items generally work just fine in a low-mana zone.

p. 18    Slow and Sure Enchantment: Reduce the number of mage-days to make an item four-fold.  A great many item costs throughout the book have been changed; take no listed enchantment cost for gospel.

p. 19    Using Magic Items: Substitute the enchanter’s effective skill level for Power.  Beyond that, every magic item has 1 free FP of energy, as if it were enchanted with Power-1.

p. 19    Multiply Enchanted Items: I use the old Fantasy Trip Rule of 5: a person may only have up to five:

* ... active spells on him at any one time.  Casting another spell on him will shut down the oldest friendly spell, in my exclusive judgment.  Hostile spells cannot be canceled, and any further attempt to cast spells on a subject already affected by five hostile spells will not work.  However, this cannot be used to “dispel” spells on a hostile target through casting petty spells on him.

* ... or magical items on his person at any one time.  If the limit is exceeded, none will work.  The “not working” might last a while after the number is reduced back down to five.  It could last quite a long while.  Powerstones count against this limit.  A Powerstone can, however, be embedded into an item that has five spells, and if it is designated an Exclusive Powerstone, it and the item are treated as a unitary item and the embedded Powerstone does not count against the Rule of Five.

* A magical item may only be enchanted with up to five spells (but see above). An attempt to place any further enchantments on it will simply fail.  The only exception is an item with the Staff or Wizard’s Staff enchantments, or an Exclusive Powerstone as cited above, none of which count against the limit.

p. F71 - Magical Legality Classes:  GURPS Fantasy sets this list out:

    MLC 4: Spells of healing, perception, knowledge, communication, crop fertility, food production.

    MLC 3: Spells of movement, protection, illusion, concealment; temporary incapacitation spells; spells that shape materials or control natural forces or living creatures; spells that inflict injury or break material objects.

     MLC 2: Spells of mind control, flight, necromancy; permanent incapacitation spells; spells of elemental summoning and control.

    MLC 1: Curses; spells for teleportation, Gate creation, invisibility and perception through physical barriers.

    MLC 0: Large-scale destructive spells, large-scale mind-control spells, large-scale curses.

    For the most part, Celduin polities are at least MLC 3.  MLC 2 is usually restricted to licensed College members, and almost always tightly controlled. Individual Orders may (if under the table) teach at MLC 1, but the practice of these spells is usually illegal, and at level best strictly controlled.

GURPS Apocrypha -- Basic Set changes

(Provoked by a discussion on the Reddit GURPS board, this goes page-by-page through the Characters book)

p.10    The point cost for creating new characters is 135 pts.

p.11    The disadvantage limit is -50 pts.  

p.14+    ST/HT cost ten points per level for the first three levels; DX/IQ cost 15 points per level for the first three levels.  They cost 15 and 20 points, respectively, for the next two levels.  Scores lower than 10 have a negative cost: -10 pts per level for ST or HT, -15 per level for DX or IQ.  I will not let a character have an attribute lower than 8, and an attribute that low will seriously impair a character; I discourage it.

p.16    Characters all have +5 bonus Hit Points, at no charge.  (This doesn’t apply to NPCs.)  I do not base HP on ST, but on HT.  I do not base Fatigue Points on HT, but on ST.  I do work with the ±30% limitation, but am slightly more generous when it comes to spellcasters.

p.17    Light Encumbrance reduces Move by 1.  Medium Encumbrance reduces Move by 2.   Heavy Encumbrance reduces Move by 3.  Extra-Heavy Encumbrance reduces Move by 4. 

p.29    Rank costs 3 pts/level.

p.32    Advantages: A separate list summarizes the changes to point cost, and those Advantages that are restricted or unavailable to PCs.  New Advantages include:

Combat Calm (5 pts): You think and react much faster in a crisis situation than others.  You add +1 to Fright Checks.  Furthermore, you may take your time thinking of a proper course of action, even during round time.  Effectively, while other players may be required to make immediate, time-restricted decisions, you get an extra minute or more to decide.

Fast Reflexes (5 pts/level):  You have unusually quick and reactive hand-eye coordination.  You add +1/level to any DX roll to catch an airborne object.  You also add +1/3 levels (round down) to all weapon parries.  You may learn the Parry Missile Weapons skill, and add 1/3 the level (round down) to any such skill roll.

Fixed Property (10 pts):  You have up to ten times your regular starting Wealth tied up various properties or other capital investments.  Possessions that can be directly used for adventuring, as well as those that can easily be converted to cash, should be purchased with normal starting Wealth.  There are two main drawbacks connected with the property: they are not easily convertible to hard cash, and they are subject to calamities such as natural elements, theft or war.  The property can be beneficial in the way that it provides income, which should be purchased as Independent Income or earned through work.

Spatial Perception (1 pt/lvl):  You have a keen eye for judging distance and size, and roll IQ +2/level for judging the distance to or the size of any subject in LOS.  One-fourth your level (round down) is added to any Navigation roll.

p.119    Disadvantages: A separate list summarizes the changes to point cost, and those Disadvantages that are restricted or unavailable to PCs.  New Disadvantages include:

Battle Addiction (-10 pts):  You are addicted to combat, and must make a Will roll to avoid an obvious combat situation.  You are not necessarily vicious towards your enemies (as with Bloodlust) and do not have to enjoy hurting others -- you are simply addicted to the thrill of violence.  It is quite possible that you don t enjoy your addiction at all!  No character with this disadvantage can take any Pacifism disadvantage.  You do not necessarily run around bashing heads and attacking everyone you meet.  You can try to avoid potentially violent situations ... but when the opportunity presents itself, you can t resist joining into a fight! 

Chronicler (-10 pts):  You are an inveterate diarist.  This takes the form of an in-character writeup of each gaming session, from the viewpoint of the character, of at least 750 words (about two single spaced typed pages), which is due to be submitted to the GM by the start of the next game session.  Skilled artists may substitute an 81/2" x 11" sketch pertaining to the game session.  You receive no experience points as long as any writeup is outstanding.  After ten such writeups, you are no longer required to submit any, but you receive one bonus XP for each further writeup you do submit.

Compulsive Behavior/Wanderlust (-5 pts):  You have a difficult time staying in anyone place for a long time; the need to explore is too great.  After six months of living in one place, you must make a Will roll each week or travel again for at least a month.  You may have a permanent dwelling and even a family, but can never totally give up your wanderings ... see something new, go somewhere you have never been, wander until you have experienced something new and exciting.  Another version is specific to sailors – the desire to return to the sea.  You must never leave the close proximity of the ocean or you must start making Will rolls after one week away from salt water.

Dandy (-5/-10 pts):  You are the height of fashion and good taste.  Everything you own must cost at least 10% more than normal.  Your clothing must at all times be very proper and formal, even when it would be restricting or absurd (a dandy would go dungeon diving in a frock coat and silk breeches). You take several extra minutes to prepare to do anything, as it takes time to ensure your hair and clothing are in proper order and that all your jewelry is polished.  You must also bathe and change clothes at least daily if possible.  At the 10 pt level, your tastes often go beyond tasteful fashion into the gaudy and impractical, even at the expense of safety and good judgment.  In general, you must make a Will roll to undertake any activity that will get you dirty, or risk your  good looks.  Aesthetics are the principal motivator for your decisions, often to an absurd degree. This counts as an Odious Personal Habit with a -2 reaction to anyone but other Fops.

Minor Medical Ailment (-5 pts): You have a minor and intermittent medical problem, such as a bad joint or arthritis, that occasionally handicaps you.  Make a HT roll per game session (or game day, whichever occurs more frequently).  Failure to make the roll inflicts certain penalties for 1d6 hours.  These can also be triggered by stress: heavy lifting can throw out a bad joint, eating a lot of rich food aggravates gout, camping in cold, wet weather can set off rheumatic joints or a bronchial condition.  The GM should impose extra HT rolls, at penalties if the situation calls for them, whenever needful.  Some possible MMAs are as follows:

        -1 ST, -1 DX: Bad shoulder, arm; arthritic or rheumatic hands; hernia
        -1 DX, -1 Move: Bad leg or foot; arthritic or rheumatic knees or ankles; gout
        -1 IQ, -2 Fatigue: Fibromyalgia; headaches; cancer; diabetes
        -1 DX, -2 Fatigue: Various dystrophies; malaria; dietary deficiencies
        -1 HT, -2 Fatigue: Bronchitis; cancer; fibrillosis; diabetes
        -2 Perception, -2 Fatigue: Lupus; diabetes

These are relatively minor cases; full-blown versions of most of the listed syndromes are considerably more debilitating, and should be reflected through lower stats and/or disadvantages such as Unfit, Wounded or Chronic Pain.

p.170    I do not use the game-time-for-points method; all skills must be improved through earned experience.

p.171    A roll of 5 is an automatic success, and a roll of 16 an automatic failure, regardless of skill level.  I don’t bother with the “Relative Skill Level” system.

p.174    A separate list summarizes the skills available in the Celduin campaign.  Generally speaking, I don’t strictly adhere to the modifiers set forth in skill descriptions; I’m more wont to ballpark them.

p.254    Psionics are generally unavailable (barring a whopping Unusual Background cost).

p.259    A separate list summarizes the available orders (especially wizardly Orders) and their templates.

p.260    A separate list summarizes the available races and their templates.

p.275    I don’t use the rules for missile weapons, and use the rules from the 2nd edition, which has a Point Blank (PB) modifier of +4, a “snap-shot” penalty of -4 (firing without a round of Aiming), and an Increment (Inc) penalty of -1 per Increment in hexes to the target.

p.286    I don’t use the Reaction Penalty rule, or think it takes only 3 seconds to don armor.

p.290    I award character points after every three sessions.  Improving attributes (including raising secondary ones independently) costs double the normal amount of character points.

p.292    As mentioned before, I do not use the Improvement Through Study method of improving skills.

Tidbits III: Convert-sations

This may just be me, but I've never considered converting supplements to the system I use from a system I don’t the horrible, barely-possible chore a lot of gamers think it needs to be.

I'm not a RPG rookie, and I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick up a game, thumb through the rules, and figure out quickly enough what means what.  "Might 80" means you're a strong dude, "6th Circle" means you can kick the ass of anyone not named Conan, "Evocation of Violet Tumescence" appears to be the system's list of temporal spells, and "21 XYW" means you're an outstanding fireballing pitcher with control issues ...

(Oh, wait, I just lapsed into APBA baseball speak.  Anyway ...)

Converting this isn't tough.  I know, in GURPS, what a strong dude looks like: he's got ST of 13-15.  I know what someone who can kick the ass of anyone not named Conan looks like; we're talking maybe 350-400 pts.  I know how to make up a wizard with a good command of temporal spells; that'd be a dozen Gate spells, say.

(Alright, I might need to take some time to replicate a 21 XYW pitcher.  Hrm.  The guy led the league in ERA that season by a giant whopping margin, as well as strikeouts/inning, but he also led the league in wild pitches by nearly twice as many as the 2nd worst.  In short, you're screwed if he hits you with a thrown missile, but he's not the most accurate guy in the world.)

I refuse, and always have refused, to worry about whether I get the equivalencies "exactly" right.  The guy who wrote the original supplement isn't running the adventure, I am.  If the original NPC could beat down three starting characters in that system 75% of the time (not that anyone's particularly run the numbers), and the eventual NPC in my system could do it 50% of the time, who's to know, and who's to care?

Tidbits: The Old Geezer OD&D Challenge

Eh, I've written enough huge rants lately.  Herewith some shorter musings:

There's a longtime forums poster who's gone by the names of "Old Geezer" and "Gronan of Simmerya."  As it happens, as a teenager he was one of Gary Gygax's earliest players, active in D&D before its publication, and furthermore he was one of M.A.R. Barker's early players, active in Empire of the Petal Throne before its publication.  He's been an invaluable fellow in discussions of gaming history and How It All Began. 

In one thread, Old Geezer opined that his biggest regret about OD&D was the lack of morale rules.  This led me to contemplate what my biggest regret was, and what -- had I been standing over Gary Gygax's shoulder and murmuring, "Dude, you really need to write this in" -- I'd have wanted to see in those rules.  

Caveat: we're talking first gen RPG, 1974; we're leaving Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, GD&H etc out.  The same publishing constraints apply, so I might be able to talk them into bumping the first or third books up a single sheet of paper (= 4 pages), and that's it.  Also, no massive rules rewrite; I'd love to have said "skill system," and that could've fit, but that'd mean having to redo most of the first book.  So ... for what might I have asked EGG?  And this is what I responded:

* * * * * * * * *

For my own part, while I would've wanted a complete overhaul in tone, the fact is that whatever we made of the game, it was written as a wargame for wargamers.  It's not that Gygax screwed up: it's that neither he nor anyone else knew any different then.  Yet.  I could think of a lot better use for a number of those pages than exacting rules for building and manning castles, but in 1973, they hadn't.

As I said, I'd have loved for there to have been a skill system rather than class/level, but that would've been a completely different set of rules.  So given my caveats, my choices would boil down to:

1) Forget alignment.  Completely.  Absolutely.  If there was one rule that had a poisonous, pernicious, lasting and idiotic sway over the hobby, this was it.  Alignment could without a drop of angst have been left out of D&D from the start, and at any time thereafter.  (The enduring irony of the protagonist of the books contributing most to the 70s Law/Chaos zeitgeist being a worshiper of Chaos invariably working for Law, something a lot of DMs would never permit, hasn't escaped me.)  That sucks up a whole page: we can use it writing a Rogue class.

2) The bigger single rule change, though, would be surprisingly simple: fixed hit points.  Something easy, say, HP = CON + 2 or 3/level?  IMHO, the most serious bar to roleplaying (vs wargaming) is that low-level OD&D characters had the survivability of chum in the water.  Make them likely to last past the first session, and there's incentive to invest in them.  Likewise, ditch random chargen.  Use some manner of fixed system.

3) We can do SOMEthing about the tone, though.  "Warriors," not "fighting-men."  "Wizards" or "sorcerers," not "magic-users."  Take the language out of the paradigm that presumes all adventurers are male, and the only women out there are "witches" or seductresses set in opposition to the pure Galahads.  (See p. 27, pfft.)  Ditch the notion of a "Caller" in the example of play and use real character names, with different people having turns.

[2022 edit: At the time of my original post, I hadn't seen the set of OSR rules called Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  It had a "Specialist" class (what they called thief/rogue, basically), listing nine skills -- Architecture, Bushcraft, Climb, Languages, Search, Sleight of Hand, Sneak Attack, Stealth and Tinker -- and conferring 4 points at startup and +2/level to allocate among them as the player saw fit.  The result was that (say) as a 1st level Specialist, you could choose to have 2 pts in Stealth and 2 pts in Search, and you'd succeed on a roll of 1-2 on a d6 in either.  Rotten percentage chance, but it's a terribly clean and workable mechanic.  That would've worked just as well in OD&D.  Call this (4).]

R-E-A-L-I-S-M: The Hated Word

"Realism" is one of the dirtiest words in RPG Internet discussions.  Has been for years.  D&D fanboys are especially touchy where it's concerned (understandably so, given D&D), as well as the various pedants huffily proclaiming that "fantasy" CAN'T be "realistic," and that we ought to be using "verisimilitude" or "emulation" instead.

(Whatever.  "Realism" is the word in common use.  When I addressed a condolence card to a friend who lives in the state southeast of mine, I didn't address it to "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."  I mailed it to Rhode Island.  If you can't work with terms in popular circulation, the heck with it.)

So by this point I have a sticky response to the issue, which originates from a RPGnet discussion several years ago.  To wit:

Forum D00D: I think the real question here is, "why do you consider the mechanics nonsense"? We're talking an imaginary dwarf, with 100 imaginary hit points, falling off an imaginary cliff, taking damage that is, also, imaginary. If the designer finds it desirable that a character could fall off a cliff and survive, it will be so. If not, for whatever reason, it will not be. (The first mention of "but it's not REALISTIC!" gets you kicked. This is all *imaginary*, remember?)

If I had a dime for every time I've heard this over the last couple decades, I could pay all the bills this month.

Well, yes, it's all imaginary.  So why use cliffs, or indeed any recognizable terrain at all?  Why not adventure in big fluffy masses of amorphia?  Or just teleport to anywhere we want to go, and imagine it to be anything convenient to us?

Why should we use perfectly recognizable medieval weaponry?  It's imaginary, isn't it?  Don't limit yourself, hit the enemy with your kerfluffmezoz or your wheezimithuzit!

And since it doesn't have to make sense, we don't need to have these pesky movement rules, besides which we all want to be Matrixy and John Woo-esque, don't we?  Tell your DM that you're running through the air and phasing right through every intervening tree and foe to hit the Big Bad with your wheezimithuzit, and better yet you're doing it before he cut down your friend, because since it's all imaginary we don't have to use linear time either.

No, I don't care that I rolled a "miss."  Skill progression is one of those boring "realism" things, and I don't believe in it.  Let's just imagine that I hit the Big Bad whenever I need to, and for twenty-five hundred d8 of damage, too.  Encumbrance is boringly realistic too, so I’m ignoring it, and I’d rather imagine that my snazzy quilted vest protected me like the glacis armor on a T-72, please.

Alright, show of hands.  Why don’t we play our RPGs that way?

It’s called suspension of disbelief. We put our games into recognizable settings that mimic real life.  We use swords in fantasy games because we have the expectation that such milieus use swords, and those swords do the relative damage of a sword instead of the damage of a 155mm mortar shell because that is our expectation too.  Our fantasy characters wear tunics and cloaks, live in walled cities or sacred groves, and scale ramparts where the force of gravity pulls us downward, not pushes us up.  We have an expectation of how fast we can walk, how far we can ride, and how long we can sail.  All these expectations are founded in -- wait for it -- reality.

To the degree we ignore these things, just because, we lose touch with suspension of disbelief.  If the ten-foot-tall Big Bad hits a peon with his greatsword, we expect the peon to be in a world of hurt; we don’t expect the sword to bounce off.  If the party wizard shoots a fireball at the orcs’ wooden stockade, we expect that it might catch fire; we don’t expect the wall to grow flowers instead. 

And if an armored dwarf takes a gainer off of a hundred foot sheer drop, we expect to find a soggy mass at the base of the cliff.  We sure as hell don't expect a dwarf boinging around like a rubber ball, happily warbling, "Bumbles bounce!"

That there are a great many gamers who want their rule systems to reflect reality, rather than ignore it -- so that we find ourselves constantly sidetracked as to issues of WHY suchandsuch doesn't make sense, or because the GM has to explain how come the dwarf isn't a soggy mass -- ought be a surprise to no one.

Why is it such a surprise to you?

GGF #2: We Have To Have One Of Everything

No, we really don’t.  The concept of “niche protection” is one of the more bizarre tropes the wargaming roots of our hobby’s stuck us with.  Let's see if I have this straight: we decree that a questing team needs an artificial balance of certain archetypes (archetypes that, I might add, are not necessarily found in all of the fictional stories which are the underpinnings of the hobby). The players are compelled to make the expected selections, often ensuring that one or more run a character he or she does not wish to play. We then design pre-packaged, commercial "modules" so that a party lacking the proper percentage of these archetypes is punished for their failure to make the "right" choices in rollup.

What are my problems with it, I’ve been asked?

*  It's not only entirely artificial, the roles are arbitrarily chosen. The Tank / Blaster / Healer / Rogue paradigm presupposes -- farcically -- that these are not only the only roles conceivable, but that they're the only ones desirable. 

*  It's a self-justifying paradigm; we need to “protect niches” because some game systems are designed so that you can't succeed without them. 

*  Decades of RPGs with freeform or skill-based systems have proven we don't need them ... and never really did.  Heck, this isn’t universally the case across genres.  I’ve heard some of the most rabid defenders of niche protection concede that they don’t feel it’s necessary for SF or supers games.  Why not?  Is there some reason why “niches” for fantasy is essential, but not for other genres?  Is it that SF novels or comic books lack identifiable archetypes?  (Pretty tough, when the comic book superhero genre is so archetype-ridden as to be the provenance of the terms 'Tank' and 'Blaster')  Or is this more of a case that the first really big RPGs for SF (Traveller) and supers (Champions) were classless systems lacking easily definable and exclusive niches, so people weren’t conditioned to think they had to have them for those genres?

*  It’s quite easy -- truly it is -- to write scenarios that don’t require (say) a thief or a priest to succeed.  Heck, I’ve had all-warrior and all-magician groups, and I’ve had campaigns go for years without characters who were any good at disarming traps or could call upon divine healing.

* It retards creative thinking. I remember quite well a niche protection debate where a poster flung the gauntlet at me: what if a locked door is key to the scenario and you didn't make the party bring a locksmith along? Huh? Huh? Well, says I, the party could bash the door down. Or the wizard could witch their way through somehow. Or they could pull the pins on the hinges. Or they could look for another way into the room. Or they could find out who had the keys and filch/bribe/seduce them from the owner somehow. Or the GM could devote a scrap of brainpower to developing scenarios that didn't have a skill he knew the group lacked as a point-failure source. (This, of course, would require that (a) the GM didn't play out of "modules," or (b) exercised his privilege to change them if he did.)

* What’s wrong with redundancy?  Characters die.  The player with the key skill can't make the session. There are countless circumstances where multiple characters with the same skill make the task go much faster or much more safely ... never mind that combat redundancy is only ever, well, “redundant” if you never fight more than a single opponent at a time.  (I view the "But I have to be The Best in the party at something!" as the province of whiners channeling stereotypical 1950s Hollywood women who go into hissy fits if another woman shows up to the party wearing the same dress.)

* It reflects fictional sources but poorly. Especially before the late 1970s and the advent of gaming fiction, duplication of skills was rampant. Did JRRT worry that Aragorn and Boromir had much the same skill set? Did Fritz Leiber worry that his dynamic duo were both thieves? For every movie with Only One Of Everything, there was a Seven Samurai.

Beyond that, niche protection is one of the more angst-ridden subjects in gaming.  People get pissed off when they feel their "thunder" is being stolen.  People get pissed off because they think it was their turn to run the mage.  People get pissed off because they're being forced to play the cleric, again.  People get pissed off because it seems THAT guy always gets to play what he wants.  People get pissed off because one niche is (or is perceived to be) poorly balanced against another.  People gets pissed off when playing Niche A because someone in Niche B is doing a perceived aspect of Niche A better.  People get pissed off because the only face time they get is when someone wants a lock picked or a wound healed, and the rest of the time they’re relegated to being REMFs.

Much of what drives the ongoing controversy about railroading GMs is related; with the widespread practice of running nothing but commercially-produced “modules” straight out of the shrinkwrap, paired with a deep unwillingness to change a jot of them to suit their groups, GMs and groups require that the niches be filled because the modules (allegedly) demand it of them.

My wife, for example, played in a campaign in high school with her cronies. Around a bunch of testosterone-soaked boys, she was stuck with being the party healer. The concept didn't bug her, per se, and sure, she got to roll dice a couple times a session and do her healing spells. The "niche," however, didn't guarantee her a say in tactical planning or decision making, and in fact she didn't have one. What the rest of the group valued was the ability to put hit points of damage on the enemy, and that she lacked.  She was stuck, however, with the character she had and wasn't allowed to trade out for an archetype which would be better respected ... because they “had to have one of everything.”

Even the alleged virtues of the system, as articulated by its defenders, are weak:

* It's good to play characters who aren't good at everything?  Terrific, then design one ... who’s stopping you? 

* It's good for weak characters to be useful?  Shouldn't this be enforced with group dynamics and by the GM instead?  (Or, well ... in a skill-based system, a character doesn’t have to be “weak” just because he’s a performer or a scholar.  Better not jeer at Tanri the busker, because she works out at Saragam’s dojo and she’ll whap you upside your head.)

* Characters in class systems have different "flavors?" What makes restricting the number of available roles more varied and interesting than taking what you want?  (Beyond that, my flavor is oreo, thanks.  If you can’t hack any ice cream other than vanilla-chocolate-strawberry, whatever; you stick to those.)

* Characters ought to have defined functions?  Why do I need to have one-word labels for all my characters, and what makes this a virtue? 

* "Enforcing the genre expectations?" Please. If the GM can't manage to run the anticipated genre and the players aren't interested in running the anticipated genre, no character class written will compel them to do so. You can never legislate the munchkins out of existence. You can say, bizarrely enough, "Nice try, but no."

* It’s too hard to design characters outside of pre-defined niches?  Quite aside from that there are countless gamers out there who don’t need training wheels, many a game has optional “templates” based around popular roles, without requiring that players choose one or the other.

Alright, so some game companies would have to do a lot more work to write adventures which could be solved in more ways without niche protection.  (Other game companies, the ones who work with classless systems, seem to manage just fine, of course.)  But how many of us don’t work with commercial “modules?”  What’s our benefit in buying into this fallacy?