15 December 2022

Stupid PC Tricks

 Just by way of random silliness for the week, rather than one of the serious posts I’m halfway through writing, I bring you ... STUPID PC TRICKS.

No, this isn’t a list of idiotic things I’ve seen characters do.  (The majority of these were perpetrated by just one player, and I may post that one day.)  It’s a list of idiotic gaming shibboleths that just keep rolling along, decade after decade, without a lick of sense behind them.

* 10' foot poles: Seriously?  Alright, I have an experiment for you.  Just for the sake of argument, folks, go grab a 10' length of PVC tubing from your local hardware store.  Try walking around with it for an hour.  Now try walking with it indoors.  Now get a group of a half-dozen people to do the same.  Now hope that someone has a video camera handy, because you'd score a hundred thousand YouTube hits in a day with that comedy gold.  Whether it was Gygax or Arneson who was the one to think up the notion that one could carry one of these things underground I have no idea, but you have to wonder if either of them had ever held a 10' long piece of hardwood in their lives, never mind in confined quarters.

THAT is a 10' pole.  Go ahead.  Strap it to your back in a dungeon.  I dare you.

* Speaking of dungeons ... dungeon mapping.  Yeah, right.  So ... who’s going hands-free in the dungeon and balancing a writing desk, inkwell and quill, scribbling and blotching on a piece of skittering parchment in indifferent lighting conditions, where you can't readily erase or correct your mistakes.  How long does it take to set that stuff down and get out your weapons in a tussle, and how likely is it that nothing disturbs the desk?  Speaking of likely, I’ve another exercise for you.  Go outside to the nearest intersection.  Now draw that intersection on paper.  Now go back inside and compare your drawing to (say) Google Maps.  You were only off the mark by 5 degrees, say?  That’s pretty good!  Want to guess how many five-degree errors it will take to make your dungeon map completely screwed up?  Not very many.

* Giant packloads.  Third experiment of the day: take a backpack.  Stuff it as full of books as it will fit.  Hoist that on your back.  Do some exercises, jog some, move around.  Pretty heavy and unwieldy, isn’t it?  That packload you’re toting is only 25 lbs, about.  Seriously.  I agree that the military trains with 50 lb loads, but while that’s feasible for thirty soldiers going into a battle with a few minutes to prepare -- and oh, by the way, how they're fighting is NOT leaping about and swinging swords -- it just is not feasible for a small party that gets ambushed and needs to react in *seconds*.  (Never mind that low-tech camping gear is a good deal heavier than similar stuff is today.  Nylon vs canvas, plastic vs hardwood, titanium vs iron, rayon vs hemp, synthetics vs wool, concentrate vs ...)

08 December 2022

Tidbits: Three Tips

Challenged on a forum to come up with our top three tips to newbies and grognards alike, this was my response:

 

My first rule is common to both groups:  We should all be in this to have fun.  This isn't a job, it isn't a chore, it isn't a war, and no one should be forcing you to do it.  If you're not having fun, something is wrong, and you need to address that.  If worst comes to worst, a popular catchphrase is "No gaming is better than bad gaming."

For newbies:

2)  Try new styles out.  There are so many systems, styles, milieus and genres out there.  Don't fall into the common trap of thinking that the Only Way You Can Play The Game is exactly like your first group does it; that's like sitting down at a poker game and getting mad that the rules aren't exactly like blackjack.

3)  Be someone interested in learning the rules of the system you play.  A lot of players don't, and they not only place a lot of burden on the GM, but they slow down play for their fellow players in constantly having to be prodded and reminded of things.  As with any other field of human endeavor, you get out of something what you put into it.

For experienced players:

2) Be true to (and aware of) yourself.  Play the games you like, not the ones you don't because you've been browbeaten into it.  Recognize the styles and milieus you can handle, how frequently you can play, how long you like sessions to be, how much digression and socializing you want.  Not knowing your own limitations ends in trouble.

3)  This is a cooperative exercise; tabletop, for the most part, is a consensus-driven game.  A player who designs a character wildly at odds with the others, a player who wants to freelance all the time, a player who doesn’t want to get on board with the milieu or the setting, these are pains in the ass for all around them.  There are RPGs out there for rugged individualists who don’t want to act in lockstep with others: we call them MMORPGs and LARPs.

01 December 2022

Something Weird!

“Something weird heah!  Get yer weird things!”  I raised an eyebrow.  Street vendors rolled by the Woflo Inn about five hundred damn times a day, screeching like strangled gulls.  I've never cared for cities, and the ones in these human lands are really dire, and I got sick of the racket by the second day.  But it was midsummer, and closing the shutters would’ve choked us with the heat.  This was a new call on me, anyway.

Chav was on her feet and grabbing for her belt pouch like a shot.  “Where are YOU going?” I drawled.

“You GOTTA come see this, Eve!  This guy is great!” And with that, she was right out the door and pelting down the stairs.

“Something weird heah!  Get yer weird things riiiight heah!” 


No one knows his name ... he’s never said.  No one knows anything about him ... he won’t talk.  But every rare once in a while, once or twice a year, he’s pushing his cart down the cobblestones, barking out his sales pitch.

The man’s of average height, dusky complexion, raggedly cut dark brown hair.  His garb is dusty, worn, nondescript homespun, with a faded indigo wool vest.  He always seems to need a shave.  He bears no weapon.

But the tale’s not about him.  It’s about his cart.

It’s a simple pushcart, two handles, two wobbly wheels.  On it is a baffling array of packages, all wrapped up in faded, threadbare canvas and tied with coarse twine.  They are of all shapes, and of many sizes; no two are alike.  For just five silver pennies, you can have one item.

But only one.  On any given trip, he will never sell more than one item to one person.  He’ll hand you your item, and move on, sounding out his call once more.

And then it’s your turn: to figure out just what in the hell you’ve got.

✵   ✵   ✵   ✵   ✵   ✵   ✵   ✵   ✵

What the cart vends is offbeat items.  My own list runs several hundred deep, and are almost all modern-tech items, usually quite mundane.  Examples I’ve given out over the years include rolls of Scotch tape, a modern Alpine backpack, a car antenna, a Bic lighter, a box of plastic army men, a Brillo pad, a tube of Preparation H, a box of tampons, a TV tray, a space blanket, a penlight, a Slinky, an aluminum baseball bat, and a parking meter.

The trick is to identify it without any handles that would quickly reveal it: “You’ve got an odd wooden pole.  It’s about four feet long and an inch square.  It has strange runes on it, unrecognizable to you, painted on the shaft.  At one end is a flat paddle, about a foot long, and breaking off at a 45 degree angle.  The end of the pole is tipped with an odd black substance that’s sticky to the touch and slightly flexible; the paddle is wrapped in the middle with a thin layer of what appears to be the same substance.”  That’s an actual example, and it took the party that had it over a half-hour to figure it out.  (Feel free to put your own guesses in the comments.)

The vendor won’t sell you more than one, and no matter what it is it costs no more than five silver pennies.  He won’t give you any clue what anything is, and is blandly incurious.  He’s also laconic about damn near everything else too: “I get these from friends.” “Eh, selling them is a living.”  Ask too many questions, he’ll frown and move on.

If you try to follow him, he’ll disappear around the next corner and just plain vanish.  No one’s ever accosted or attacked him, and no one’s been insane enough to try to rob him.  (My parties, who are uniformly charmed when the fellow shows up, exert peer pressure on anyone who’s tried to so much as give him a hard time.)  I leave it up to GMs what happens if anyone tries, but I recommend lightning from the sky and the earth opening up to swallow offenders.

It is, of course, up to the players to decide what good the items are for, if anything.  Some, like a 20th century cowboy hat, are obvious.  Some, like a lava lamp or a toaster oven, sure as heck aren’t.




19 September 2022

Sign Me Up, Sarge!

 So ... I’m going outside my old player base for new players for the first time in a good while.  And it strikes me that here’s the best spot to go into my style and philosophy as a GM, to give those interested a handle on what they can expect ...

* I run 4th edition GURPS, but with a significant “but!”  Effectively I run GURPS Lite; I’m not going to slow up play fishing for book modifiers each and every time someone uses a skill.  You’re climbing up that brick wall in dry weather using a knotted rope, lightly encumbered?  Alright, just give me a Climbing roll at -1.  You’re doing that with an 80-lb pack, without a rope, on a cliff face, in an ice storm?  Damn, it’s your neck, but if you’re really feeling suicidal, give me three.  (Code for roll 3d6.  The book mods for those, for what it’s worth, are -2 and -8, respectively.)  There are rules from earlier editions I use – the big ones are in missile rules and in the cost of attributes – and I’ve a handout of itemized houserules.

* I have a dense, gritty setting.  It’s a Renaissance tech fantasy world, very loosely based on Kenneth Bulmer’s Dray Prescot/Scorpio series.  It is now getting into the Gunpowder Age.  Realism is a hallmark of Celduin, and you won’t see magical streetlights, orcs carrying hundreds of gold pieces or flying cities.  “High” fantasy this is not; more Leiber than JRRT.  You can dive as deeply or as shallowly into my setting materials as you like, but someone who understands -- eventually -- what a “paktun” or an “amak” is, or the gravity of calling the clerical type in the red and grey robes a coward, will get a lot more out of my game.  (Don’t worry too much about it: two of my players are veterans and are happy to help you along.)

* We have a collegial, laid-back atmosphere with a bit of socialization and digression – someone expecting wall-to-wall Action!!! will be disappointed.  (Then again, someone who can’t hack two hours of rip-roaring combat will be disappointed too.)  I run a character-driven game more than a plot-driven game; of course there’s plot, but I want the players to tell me what they’re going to do far more than I push the plot into telling the players what to do.  ‘Tis a sandbox.

* I find resource management fun and fascinating, myself.  In any event it’s important in my game.  Equipment lists matter, encumbrance matters, and not having the right tools to hand means needing to improvise or doing without.

* I’m as much about the journey as the goal.  I don’t handwave the two week trip to get into the mountains to reach the ruins to find the dingus (nor, with a nod to the above, the need of the players to make adequate preparations for that trip).

* I strongly recommend broad-based characters.  Someone wholly maximized for melee combat will be bored for long stretches in my runs.  Someone with no combat skills will be twiddling thumbs in any prolonged battle.  An outdoorswoman who can’t stand being within town walls and a city slicker whose idea of “roughing it” is spending ten silver a night on the inn suite will have big problems.  We'll get together on Discord to discuss creation, so that I can answer questions and give guidance.

* Wizardry: first off, playing a wizard or a priest involves a lot of moving parts; I encourage players to become more familiar with my campaign before diving in.  (With that, a casual mage -- M/1 with a handful of spells, say -- is fine.)  While the mechanics of spellcasting remain essentially the same from Basic Set and GURPS Magic, the spells and Colleges have been heavily revamped and reorganized.  I've added hundreds of new spells and over a dozen new Colleges.  There are also templates and writeups for the various wizardly Orders and clergy.

* The genre is cooperative, and it is neither my job nor those of existing players to come up with schemes to motivate your character to become part of the team.  I also despise player-vs-player with all my heart, and backstabbing within the party is an unforgivable offense.  A handful of players have had problems with these in the past (which is why I’m mentioning it).

* Something that surprises some folks (GURPS, after all, being a relatively deadly game system) is that my campaign has a pretty low mortality rate.  A good bit of this is my belief in what I call the Tasha Yar Rule: I’m very disinclined to kill off a PC because a schmuck orc archer in a throw-away encounter rolled a 3.  The great majority of PC deaths over the years have come from heroic last stands, charges of the battlements ... or extreme stupidity after a couple of warnings. 

* [April 2023]  Last bit, which is an unfortunate recent add-on: this is not a casual, drop-in campaign where one shows up as long as there's nothing better to do of a Saturday afternoon.  Life happens, people get sick, there's the sibling's wedding, sure.  But I do expect regular attendance, and some warning if something's come up.  I do not again want to have designed a plot arc around a particular character's Enemy, only to have that player fail to show up (without warning) for four straight sessions.  If you're looking for a game where you can show up -- or not -- as you please, this isn't it!

* Some blogposts here that give more indepth insights into my style and thinking; look them over if you feel like it!

https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2013/09/ggf-2.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2013/09/ggf-3.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2013/09/top-12-gming-rules.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-to-fix-religion-in-your-game.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2013/10/basic-expectations.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2021/07/player-agency.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2021/06/x-cards.html
https://ravenswing59.blogspot.com/2021/10/what-would-be-my-favorite-setting.html

27 March 2022

30 Naval Officers

1) The Hornblower: Coming from a relatively plebeian background in a navy that favors aristocrats, coming very late to the sea, unlucky when it comes to money, unwilling to play the political game, the Hornblower has numerous strikes against him. Yet his brilliant mind took to mathematics early, and his hard work, diligence and native talent led him to become a very successful captain in single-ship actions.  (When it comes to it, it doesn’t hurt that he’s a skilled, scientific fencer, but he's not one of those swashbuckling leads-every-boarding-action types.) Anything but hidebound, he questions many of his navy’s shibboleths and sees further than most. But his background has led him to chronic self-doubt and introspection – he’s sure that if he’s ever anything less than perfectly successful at sea, he’ll be beached, and he’s intensely troubled by questions of honor that others shrug off with a bemused smirk.  The Hornblower overcompensates by striving to be the epitome of wooden stoicism and pushing would-be friends away.

2) The Lewrie: In many ways the polar opposite of the Hornblower, the Lewrie was a town clown – and happy to be so! – interested in little beyond partying, wenching and drinking. Shipped off to the navy in a virtual shanghaiing in order to steal his inheritance, he took an interest in gunnery out of boredom, and eventually became an efficient and effective naval officer almost despite himself. He hasn’t changed all that much: his inability to keep his trousers buttoned around women has threatened his career, as does his relative egalitarianism – he has a few too many freed slaves in his crew for the liking of some – and an occasional tendency to shoot off his mouth to the wrong people. But he’s a lucky captain who’s popular with his crews, and the rumors are rife that the god of the sea is his personal patron.

3) The Seafort: He is a skilled naval officer, yes, and the survivor of more than one disaster; his honor and personal probity are unsurpassed and rarely questioned. But he has two traits seen by some to be virtues and by others to be flaws. In the first place, he has a deep religious faith bordering on fanaticism; in the second, he holds to the service regulations with an intensity that leaves your average fanatic gasping. The Regs are the Law and the Godhead rolled into one, and he will enforce their letter to the utmost, even if he is sickened by the result, no matter how much blood he needs to spill: even if it costs him family, friends or everything else.

4) The Aubrey: He’s almost close to a split personality, the Aubrey ashore and the Aubrey afloat. Ashore, he’s a beefy, jovial scion of the minor gentry, a bit on the shallow side, more than a little gullible, open-handed, fond of horses, gambling and living beyond his means ... with no pretensions to intellect beyond that he’s a notable amateur astronomer and musician. Afloat, he is a master seaman, tactically brilliant, mechanically sound, with a natural aura of command, a renowned gift of sea-luck, and a bright love of battle: while he’s more a good hand-to-hand fighter than a great one, the Aubrey has a touch of the berserker about him. He spent time as a common sailor, and knows the lower deck intimately – what they will put up with, what they won’t. It doesn’t hurt his career that he’s a (largely absentee) member of his nation’s legislature.

5) The Prescot:
A renowned knight of his nation’s most revered fighting order, the Prescot is a good tactician, a veteran sailor, and possesses an almost mystical charisma for leadership. He has the common touch, and thrills his men by recognizing even those who he hasn’t seen in years. But what truly leads him to success is less his skills as a ship’s captain – good, but not superlative – than his unparalleled mastery with his greatsword.  The Prescot leads all boarding actions, none can stand before him, and the bottom of the sea is carpeted by the bodies of his slain. He fights his nation’s enemies as if it were a holy war – which, in truth, it is – and in battle his normally affable expression turns into a veritable demon’s mask. Indeed, he’s been accused of being one.

6) The Leary: The Leary and the Aubrey would likely get along; they share many a similarity. The Leary’s own path to the top is smoothed by that his father is the retired ruler (and eminence grise) of the nation, and that the admiral-in-chief is his patron, but his own naval skills are great. He is a navigator of almost supernatural skill, the finest of his day, and he has an impressive record of battle success against huge odds. What sustains him above all else is his cheerful love of life, the loyalty of his crew – many of whom have followed him from ship to ship (to the point that the “Sissies,” nicknamed after the Leary’s first command, are a large cadre recognized by that name alone) – and his unwavering belief in the superiority of his nation’s naval personnel: that they are the best anywhere, and that they will always succeed. One peculiarity is that he’s a devoted amateur naturalist, and often travels with guidebooks.

7) The Bolitho: Like the Leary and the Prescot, the Bolitho has his loyal cadre of followers, to the point that they call themselves “We Happy Few,” and inspires many a lifelong friendship. He is a skilled seaman and tactician, and beyond that skilled at strategy as well: admiral’s rank rests as easily on his shoulders as a captain’s rank did.  Moreover, he's an excellent teacher, counting numerous captains and junior admirals among his former pupils. The only fly in his ointment is a string of personal tragedies that often leave him brooding and depressed, but he seldom lets these moods affect his duty to ship, crew and country. A paragon of decency in an indecent time, he has a disregard for both social conventions and political expediency.  The axes of his superiors seem always sharpened for him if he falters, something his lieutenants grasp better than he does.

8) The Cochrane: On the one hand, the “Sea Wolf” is a renowned and lucky captain, having racked up some of the most impressive single-ship actions in history, against insanely long odds. He is also a skilled coastal raider, a technological innovator and a meticulous planner with a eye towards keeping casualties to a minimum. On the other hand, well. With a large chip on his shoulder (the Cochrane is the son of a great – but impoverished – lord), he is innately incapable of getting along with his superiors, his subordinates, the press, the aristocracy, the government ... pretty much anyone who doesn’t agree with him in all things. With a record of publicly criticizing the admiralty and the government, and superiors who'd rather be damned than offer him an appointment, he’s been reduced to being a mercenary admiral for foreign nations.

9) The Ramius: His country’s been long at (formal) peace, but he is a very well-regarded captain, technically highly competent, a sound tactician. His commands are tacitly teaching ones, and the admiralty looks on the “Schoolmaster” with favor for the large number of talented captains and officers that were juniors in his commands. But there is a canker in his heart. His wife recently died at the hands of an incompetent physician who was too well politically connected to be punished, and the Ramius himself is the rare officer in his nation’s navy from a downtrodden frontier minority. His tolerance for the failings of his nation exhausted, he plans to defect to the enemy: with the fleet’s newest and deadliest warship.

10) The Farragut:
Adopted as a child by a celebrated naval captain, the Farragut joined the navy as a midshipman himself at age nine; he was a successful prizemaster at twelve, wounded in action at fourteen. He has been in the navy ever since, even now that he’s becoming an old man. He’s fought in many a war and many an action, and held many a command – largely in anti-piracy patrols. Now his nation is in a civil war, and even though he is from the secessionist province, he is staunchly loyal to the colors he has worn for nearly fifty years. His nation’s leading admiral through seniority, some worry that he’s too old for the task (and a few mutter about his loyalties, if never ever ever in his hearing), but his innate aggressiveness, daring and knowledge of artillery may well see him through. 

11) The Porter: His grandfather was a renowned navy captain. His father was a renowned navy captain. (Indeed, his children are all navy officers.) The Porter is his nation’s second admiral in history, and adding to the family tree, the Farragut is his much older adopted brother. Like the Farragut, he joined the navy very young, and like the Farragut, he has served his entire life. He grew up overseas and speaks several languages well, and despite friction with his superiors – the Porter tends to be cocky and challenges his superiors’ skill and knowledge – was selected to found the national maritime academy, and with his characteristic energy, added honor, discipline and knowledge to the service. He’s much more of a thinker than his brawler of an elder brother, which so far has served him well in the nation’s civil war. The Porter is experienced in handling flotillas of small craft and river boats, as well as in combined operations with army forces, one of the few sea captains who is.

12) The Hull: Bred to the sea in merchantmen – his father was a civilian captain – he joined his newly independent nation’s nascent navy at age 25. In something of a makeshift squadron, his captain’s time was taken up with its command, leaving the Hull as tacit “captain” of the warship. He received his first independent command just two years later, fighting pirates – whom the Hull hates with a bitter passion – and while the new navy is small and operating on a shoestring, the Hull hasn’t lacked for the best commands available since. He’s proven to be an efficient and reliable leader, and has made his name in single-ship actions, being perhaps the fleet’s best shiphandler. Unfortunately, his popularity among his crews is suspect; difficulties in manning the fleet has led him to put newly recruited sailors in irons, lest they immediately desert with their hiring bonuses. With his country in a new war against the world’s leading maritime power, it is up to the Hull and his fellow captains to stave off their fleets.

13) The Pigot:
Young for his post, advanced up the ranks with indecent speed, he’s made captain through good connections and patronage (his father’s an admiral). Unfortunately, the Pigot’s no seaman and even less of a shiphandler; his ships have rammed two merchantmen so far. What is worse, he seized the master and officers of the second merchantmen, blamed them for the incident, and had them flogged, creating a diplomatic incident and nearly leading him to be cashiered. His new command may be his last chance for glory. However, he now has a reputation for extreme brutality, and scarcely a man in his crew has escaped flogging or worse. Whether he gains the distinction he seeks or dies at the hands of his crew is the toss of a coin.

14) The Doria: A scion of the minor nobility, he was orphaned at an early age, and became a mercenary to support himself before joining the navy. Even after becoming a renowned leader in the service of his native navy, the mercenary has never really left the Doria’s soul: he’s touchy when it comes to being paid per contract and on time, and has switched sides in consequence more than once. Still, his heart is with his homeland, and he is seldom out of its colors for long. His fellow citizens don’t seem to mind, and he’s been called upon as an honest broker more than once to help sort out his nation’s occasionally dysfunctional government. Age has not lessened his vigor, and deep into his eighties, his land has called on him again – for perhaps the final time – to lead their navy against the enemy.

15) The Semmes: When the rebellion began, the Farragut stayed with the colors. But his comrade the Semmes – as with the Farragut, a naval officer for many decades – could not turn his back on his home province. The secessionist navy is weak and consists of raiders and privateers, and its captains have proven to be masters at this style of warfare. Though it is seen as ignoble, the Semmes rationalizes this as the only real chance he has of using his skills in his new nation’s cause. Still, the dishonor stings somewhat, and so the Semmes will risk his command in “honorable” single-ship actions with the enemy navy. Handsome and deceptively young looking, he is also a student of philosophy, and read for the law as a lieutenant.

16) The de Clisson: The war was long and savage, but punctuated by occasional truces. The de Clisson’s husband was treacherously seized during one of them, and cruelly executed for treason in what was widely seen to be a judicial murder. Escaping just ahead of the law, the de Clisson swore red vengeance. She took what portable fortune she could, outfitted a squadron of warships painted black and with sails dyed red, and with her vassals as crews, offered her services to the other side. The “Lioness” and her Black Fleet are greatly feared, having preyed relentlessly on her old nation ever since: she scorns quarter and offers none, being famous for leaving only one survivor of any of her attacks on ship or coastal town, so that the survivor can tell others who was responsible. Her two surviving teenage sons sail with her, and are as redhanded as their mother. Gruesomely, her husband’s severed head is the figurehead of her flagship Revenge.

17) The Amra: His homeland is in the barbaric north, and while he’s lived in civilized lands since he was a teenager and possesses a crude honor and sense of chivalry, he’s been tarred with the barbarian brush ever after. While he’s a decent enough seaman and shiphandler, he’s neither an expert navigator nor much of a tactician: his plan is usually to sail straight up to the enemy, board them and take them without undue fuss. While his tactics often result in heavy losses among his crews, he possesses a formidable charisma ... and he is the best fighter in the world, all-but unconquerable. The Amra has spent years as a pirate, and is greatly respected by corsairs and the coastal tribesmen, whom he has led on more than one occasion. Between this and his barbaric upbringing, he has no patience with politics, and has foundered more than once on his insistence on straight talk and plain speech, and his bemused contempt for laws he finds foolish.

18) The Wallis: He wasn’t really at sea when he was five years old; that was an illegal dodge used by many a parent to get their children naval seniority young.  He didn’t actually go to sea until he was 13, and hasn’t had all that distinguished a career: been in the right places, had decent enough luck, never was wounded, never screwed up, had the usual number of commands, was an admiral at fifty.  But.  His nation really takes seniority seriously, and up the ladder the Wallis continued to climb, refusing to retire ... and he can’t be compelled to do so, nor can he be superseded.  He’s nearly a hundred years old now, technically on “active” duty for over ninety years, and Admiral of the Fleet for the better part of twenty years.  The ruler’s begging him to retire, threatening him with a seagoing command if he doesn’t.  The response of the Wallis is that he’s ready to accept one!

19) The l’Olonnois:
But as to that, nations can do worse than the Wallis.  There’s the l’Olonnois.  The enemy ambushed him and his crew, slaughtering almost everyone – he himself survived by covering himself with blood and playing dead.  After that, he swore he would never give quarter to the enemy, and he hasn’t.  He will loot and torture, rape and murder, commit any atrocity and break any law to defeat them, and no naval officer has a worse reputation for cruelty or implacable ferocity.  Nor is he any more civilized with prisoners of war: one of his most gruesome deeds was to tear out the heart of one surrendered captain and eat it raw in front of the surrendered crew.  With an immense price on his head, the enemy has sworn to serve the l’Olonnois out as he has done to others.  If they can catch him.

20) The O’Malley: Her nation is the restive and unwilling conquest of a larger, and as a noble, she commands the rebel fleet.  Whether the O’Malley is a freedom fighter or a pirate depends on one’s point of view, but in any event she’s a fearless swashbuckler, less by way of a tactician than in ambushes and direct strikes.  It helps that her lands are in a region where the sway of the oppressors is weak and sympathy for her is strong, and she keeps the loyalty of the common folk with her coarse manners and coarser language ... and through her many victories.

21) The Lamb: He has a profound hatred for physical labor and for rising early in the morning (having grown up on a hardscrabble farm), and so avoids both at all costs.  However, the notion of sitting down – and being paid to read books! – is of great delight to the Lamb, and so he arranged, very efficiently, to pass through the naval academy with the least amount of effort.  (This involved becoming an expert smallsword fencer, so that he could avoid playing a rougher sport, and avoid harsh discipline that might threaten his chances to win matches for the dear old Navy!)  He has a very well trained and disciplined memory, so he has all the answers to hand for senior officers.  This makes them look good, and therefore happy, so the Lamb is a highly valued staff officer ... he's never had a command and would decline one if offered.  A natural efficiency expert (less work that way!), every job he holds is simplified, and his successor always has less work to do than his predecessor.

22) The Ghormley: With a long and uneventful career in the peacetime navy, moving up through the usual ladder of posts and commands, he became friends with the nation’s ruler.  And so, when the nation went to war, the Ghormley was placed in command of its expeditionary fleet, over the heads of others the naval authorities preferred in the role.  Unfortunately, the Peter Principle is very much at work.  Technological advances have him in command of ships far different than he remembers how to handle, he’s never before held fleet command, the details of admiralty are beyond him, he’s indecisive, and he often skips planning meetings.  His indecisive defeatism is starting to infect his command.

23) The Togo: His once-isolationist nation had no experience at sea ... until the day a foreign navy raided them.  The teenage Togo fought the invaders, but to no avail, and a humiliating defeat was the end result.  Shortly thereafter, the nation founded its first navy, and the Togo enlisted.  He knew that his best path to naval knowledge was in the very nation that attacked them, and he lived and studied there for several years ... insulted, derided – but successful.  He rose quickly up the ranks upon returning home, despite bouts of ill health, and now he is the fleet commander.  He now leads that fleet in a new war against a major power, and he is the only commander on his side with actual combat experience at sea.  Certainly the honor of his nation and his race are at stake.

24) The Mundy: Like the Lamb, she’s a career staff officer.  Naval punctilio means nothing to her, not even her best friend would call her a people person, and the only way she really knows how to act in certain situations is to observe others and do likewise.  (She’s only in the navy at all out of the noblesse oblige of her aristocratic culture, and as a substitute family for the one she lost in an insurrection.) But in staff work she’s unsurpassed, especially in communications and intelligence gathering and analysis, and is immensely respected on the ships she’s on ... not least due to the Mundy’s expertise as a duelist and as a deadly shot.  While she’s never served in the line and has no feel for navigation or shiphandling, the Mundy has a basic grasp of tactics, and has done well in situations where she’s been forced to command a vessel ... or a squadron.

25) The Tyacke: Very successful early on as a commander of small warships, his luck ran out in a battle that badly disfigured him.  The injury cost him his command and his repulsed fiancee, but he stuck with the service with his bitterness fueling his natural intense energy.  The “Devil With Half A Face” became a greatly feared captain in anti-slavery patrols – a much-derided arm of the navy which was the only way the interest-lacking Tyacke could get a command – fighting slavers with both his vast natural talent and a distinct lack of quarter.  He’s capable of great loyalty to an admiral who’d take a chance on him, but contemptuously rejects pity, and sometimes lashes out savagely at the hint of it.

26) The Bonden: Coming from the lower classes and the lower deck, he’ll never have a command; as to that, uneducated and only becoming literate later in life, he’s barely an officer.  But the Bonden is a consummate natural seaman, skilled at all aspects of his trade, and his captains often trust him as a prize master or as the “advisor” for less competent, higher status officers on independent commands.  Able to deal courteously with his superiors, just as able to speak the coarse lower deck idiom, he’s often the backbone of his ships.  It doesn’t hurt his reputation that he’s a renowned boxer and wrestler, often the champion in fleet-wide competitions.

27) The Pascoe:
On the one hand, the Pascoe’s got it made: he’s the nephew of the Bolitho, one of the great admiral’s many successful proteges, a natural frigate captain, young, successful, handsome, gaining renown in his own right, far less prone to make enemies than his uncle.  But on the other, there are shadows ... quite aside from that the Bolitho is a tough act to follow.  The Pascoe is in fact a bastard whom his uncle took in out of pity; his mother was a penniless prostitute, and his father (the Bolitho’s older brother) was a despised traitor to his nation, gaining a reputation the Pascoe has had to live down.  He’s also unlucky in love, involved in more than one romance doomed from the start – notably on one occasion, with his admiral’s wife.

28) The Blood: Apolitical, a member of a disparaged and oppressed minority, while the Blood was an experienced soldier and sailor in his youth, he never would’ve entered a naval career except through the hazards of misfortune.  Settling down to the practice of medicine, he humanely treated wounded rebels, was swept up in reprisals by the scared government, condemned, sold as a slave.  Popular among his fellow slaves due to his skills as a physician, he gathered together a cadre of sailors, escaped, and now commands a successful squadron of privateers ... as much out of a lack of anything better to do as for any other reason.  Curiously solicitous of his home nation (which causes some friction among his lieutenants), the Blood preys with verve upon its enemies: perhaps hoping for a pardon and reinstatement.

29) The Harrington: It’s not that her nation’s navy frowns on female commanders; it’s relatively egalitarian, with many women in high command.  Nor is it that the Harrington is a poor captain – quite the opposite, she’s highly successful both with single-ship and squadron command, with a talent for overcoming obstacles and for winning the respect of her enemies, and the Bolitho is her only peer on this list for their proteges achieving command in their own right.  Perhaps it’s just that the navy in which she serves is factionalized, politicized and more than a little corrupt, that she’s too honest and forthright to play such games ... and she's delivered too much testimony and too many reports laying well-deserved blame for screwups at the feet of highly placed admirals.  As such, all too often she winds up on the wrong side of factional battles, and her career’s suffered for it.

30) The Adama: He was on the brink of retirement, the weary, aging, bypassed last commander of an obsolete warship about to be mothballed.  Then a disaster struck his nation, the navy was gutted, and it’s not so much that the Adama is their best captain available as that he’s damn near the only one left.  Nonetheless, he plays a losing hand as well as anyone can hope for, managing the retreat with grim determination and skill.  His focus is intense and almost unwavering, his love of his ship almost symbiotic, and he will do what it takes to get the surviv
ors through to safety.

10 March 2022

Revised Alchemy rules for GURPS

So ... following a forum conversation on the relative inadequacy of the GURPS alchemical rules, I figured I should throw my own set up, based partly on the book rules, partly on Pyramid articles, and partly on my own notions about which holes needed to be filled.  This doesn't include the actual list of elixirs, which really would only be of use to GURPS players.  Enjoy!

"Can't brew Aqua Vitae to save my life, you said?"

The following rules supersede the ones in GURPS Magic.

General: An Alchemist knows, at startup, a number of elixirs equal to (Alchemy skill x 1.5); therefore, a character with Alchemy-12 knows 18 preparations to start.  At least half of these must be in one category of Elixir: Poisons, Combat, Common Preparations, Magical, Medical, Mental, Physical and Protective.  This is the Alchemist’s Primary category.  Outside of this, an Alchemist may learn any formula from any category for which he or she meets the prerequisites.  However, any formula with a penalty of -4 or more is treated as “restricted” and only available to Alchemists for whom that is a Primary category.

A starting character cannot know Alchemical Metals, nor any formula with a penalty of -5 or more.

Brewing:  To create an elixir, an Alchemist must expend a certain amount of money and time as listed in the elixir lists.  (If not otherwise stated, the default time to make an elixir is one week.)  The elixir will be brewing 24 hours a day during that time, and must be attended by an alchemist for at least eight hours daily.  This need not be the same alchemist throughout the process, but if more than one alchemist works on an elixir, the lowest-skill alchemist is responsible for making the final Skill roll.  If the elixir is in the Alchemist’s Primary category, it takes 10% less time to brew and requires one hour per day less time to oversee – thus, seven hours vs eight.  Elixirs can be made as:

Grenade: To be thrown at a target, requiring a nagateppo.  Only those elixirs specifically flagged with a (G) can be made into this form;
Ointment: To be rubbed on bare skin (or another target); can be stored in a jar, tube or any waterproof container;
Pastille: A thumb-sized pill that needs to be lit, and affects all who inhale its smoke.  Must be kept in a fire- and water-resistant container;
Potion: Drinkable liquid, stored in any waterproof container;
Powder: Can be blown at the target or put into food or drink to be consumed; kept in a small bag or jar.

The basic field setup for brewing is listed in the price lists at two sovereigns and 25 lbs (exclusive of ingredient costs), and gives a -2 penalty to skill.  In an emergency, a fire source, scoured jars and clean field expedient tools are possible, but at a -3 penalty to skill or worse.  Brewing outdoors – where wind, dust and other detritus can interfere – likewise is not a great idea.
               
Being a magical process, alchemy is affected by background mana.  Add +1 to effective Skill for brewing in a high mana area, and subtract -3 for brewing in a low mana area.  Brewing in a very high mana area is hideously dangerous, and a number of alchemists are trying to figure out what effects brewing on a Dragon Line † cause.  Consuming an elixir is unaffected by mana level, but elixirs do not work in no mana zones.

Modifiers: Since alchemy is an art, not a science, applications of the following are up to the GM’s whim of the moment, especially on what elixirs can be affected by these and by how much.

* An alchemist can only oversee one elixir at once, but can brew multiple doses of the same elixir, at -1 to the final Skill roll for each additional dose.  For each -1 additional penalty to the Skill roll and 10% increase in both production time and ingredient cost, the duration of the elixir is increased by 100%; for instance, taking a -3 Skill and +30% time and cost results in an elixir with quadruple duration.  Similar actions may (repeat, may) have a similar effect on the elixir’s effects other than duration.

* By taking extra brewing time, the odds of success are improved: for each additional +50% in brewing time and +5% of cost (keeping those fires and reagents coming, y’know), add +1 to effective Skill roll.

* One way to create an elixir in a short span of time is to make a less powerful version.  For every 10% by which either the brewing time or the required ingredients costs are reduced (up to a maximum of 80%), the value, duration and all effects of the elixir are reduced by 10% as well.  For instance, one could brew a dose of Phoenix’s Blood in just four days, changing the result from recovering 1d HT to recovering 1d-2 HT instead.

Learning New Formulae: The formularies to brew an elixir are esoteric, obscure knowledge costing at least a sovereign a pop, and much more for an entire Category.  An Alchemist should spend as many days studying a new formula as it takes to brew that elixir; until that time is taken, the Alchemist can brew out of the book, but it takes half again as long for the preparation.  

Improving Skill: The effective Skill of all preparations is increased if the player increases Alchemy skill.  Alternately, individual elixirs can be learned (and improved) as Hard Techniques.

Mastery: An Alchemist is said to have “mastered” a category of elixirs when he has learned a certain number in each.  Mastery reduces the time required to oversee a brewing by a hour (which stacks with the hour reduction for Primary elixirs), and is a prerequisite both for learning certain formulae and for learning Alchemical Metals.  The requirements for mastering a category are:

    Poisons: Thirteen preparations.
    Combat: All ten preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., all but Mighty Bull and Starcrystal)
    Common Preparations: Ten preparations.
    Magical: Twelve preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., leaving out Alkahest, Radiant Dawn, Ratri’s Balm, Rudra’s Cloak and Water of Hematite).
    Medical: Twelve preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., leaving out Aqua Vitae, Ratri’s Balm, Stimulant/Gold and Water of Tourmaline).
    Mental: Twelve preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., leaving out San Pirian’s Elixir and Water of Diamond).
    Physical: Twelve preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., leaving out Aqua Verti).
    Protective: All nine preparations below -4 in difficulty (e.g., all but Mighty Bull and Water of Pearl).

    Elixirs belonging to more than one category (such as Mighty Bull or Ratri’s Balm) count for both.   

Mage-Alchemists: The use of certain spells can aid with alchemy.  The Skill penalty for the formula is applied to the spell’s effective Skill.  In every such case, failure on the spell cast ruins the batch.  The following spells can assist Alchemy:

* Essential Spell: The use of spells like Essential Water, Essential Fire, Essential Wood and the like – if such high-grade reagents are reasonably necessary to the process – reduces the time to brew and the cost by 15%.

* Food spells: Distill reduces the time to brew by 10%; Mature reduces it by 5%.  Cook reduces the cost by 10%.

* Temporal spells: The use of time-manipulation spells reduces brewing time, but must be continually maintained for the subjective duration of the brewing, and where applicable, the Alchemist must remain inside the affected area for the requisite eight hours a day (however subjective).  The entirety of the alchemical lab must be inside the area; a Fine lab, for instance, takes up a minimum of two Areas.

* Mimicking spells: If the effects of a given elixir mimic a specific spell, successfully casting that spell once per day on the brewing setup results in a reduction of 10% on both time and cost.  For instance, casting Bravery aids in the creation of Conqueror’s Wine.  Spells that reasonably affect the equipment itself will not end well: casting Levitation on a batch of Levitational Salts, for instance.

Regardless of how many spells might apply, the grand total reduction in time or cost may never go below 80%.

Alchemical Miscellany:

* Not being a “killer GM” by inclination (I’m talking to you, AD&D Miscibility chart), there is no baleful consequences to drinking multiple elixirs of different types at once, above and beyond their base effects.  (Guzzling San Caellan’s Brew and Water of Tourmaline at the same time, for example, is more than somewhat counterproductive.)

* If they’re stored in reasonably secure containers and in reasonably stable environments, alchemicals last indefinitely.  An elixir in an uncorked vial can be recorked, likely with no adverse effects, if it wasn’t abused in the meantime.  There are no guarantees about what happens to alchemicals that are stored in the open – say, powders in a potpourri dish, or elixirs sitting on the hearth.

* Alchemists can analyze elixirs and magic items as per GURPS Magic, p. 212.

* Techniques: Batching (Hard, default Elixir+0, buys off penalty for multiple doses of the same elixir), Identify Elixir (Hard, default Alchemy+0), Identify Magical Item (Hard, default Alchemy-2)

† - "Dragon Lines" are ley lines.  The places where such lines intersect are High Mana zones, at least.  They've only appeared on my gameworld in the last two years.

03 March 2022

Character Creation handout, Celduin campaign, 8th revision, August 2021

(Disclaimer: the following contains some houserules.)

Step 1:  You have 135 points (exclusive of points from Disadvantages) to create your character. Before anything else, think about what you want your character to do.  Go into as much detail as it pleases you to do, and tell me about it; I’ll be happy to help pick out abilities and numbers that best fit your conception.  (Truth be told, I strongly prefer characters be created with me in the room.)  A number of templates are available as “starter kits” for various archetypes, if you think you need them.  I will be happy to go over the various races with you, each of which is its own template.  Wizardly orders and clerical options are as well.

Step 2 - Attributes: 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.

It costs double to improve an Attribute as it does to purchase it at character creation.  It’s best for long-term planning, therefore, to place your Attributes as high as you dare, then squeeze your skills further and see if you can raise DX or IQ that crucial extra point.

Think long and hard before having Attributes lower than 10.  GURPS doesn’t have a “dump stat” – low Attributes will absolutely impair your character.  The inevitable result the times someone’s ignored my advice and gone with “Oh, I’m playing a wizard, I can afford DX & HT of 8" has been a grumpy tradeout a couple sessions later.

Step 3 - Disadvantages:  You may have up to 40 points of Disadvantages or Attributes lower than normal, combined (this includes any you get from Templates), and up to five points worth of Quirks.  Check with me; many are either not suitable for PCs or for this particular campaign, or combine poorly with existing PCs.  You may keep a couple “quirk slots” free for a couple of sessions.  A Disadvantage at the -15 level or higher involves some significant drawbacks to your character; I don’t recommend them.

Step 4 - Advantages:  A number of Advantages are on a “restricted” list, requiring either special circumstances or Unusual Background as a prerequisite.  It costs double to learn (or improve) most Advantages after character creation, and most Advantages can’t be purchased with earned experience; get all the Advantages you have to have up front.  

        The Minimum Package: The closest to a must-have Advantage is Luck.  It’s not cheap, and it doesn’t affect magic in my campaign, but there’s nothing like having a mulligan once a session for a blown roll.


Step 5 - Skills:  A number are on a “restricted” list, requiring either special circumstances or Unusual Background as a prerequisite. 

In general, a skill level below 11 is unreliable, 11-12 is fair – in the “it’s good to have someone in the party who knows something about literature” camp – Skill-13 good, 14-15 quality (and is about where you want the make or break ability upon which your character relies), and 18+ is expert.  Certain skills (Rapier, Shield, magical spells) have efficiency break points for which it’s useful to consult me.

It is almost always the case that if you have thirty or more points invested in either DX- or IQ-based skills, it saves points (and gives other benefits!) to halve the amount put in those skills and raise the governing Attribute instead.  It is also considerably easier to already know a skill and improve it later, even if your skill level is mediocre to start, than to learn the skill from scratch down the road.

Save some points for utility skills.  Moreover, feel free to take skills that might not seem to have direct applications to adventuring.  It’s an axiom that a clever player can make a Glassblowing, Musical Instrument or Architecture skill work in surprising ways.

        The Minimum Package: Above and beyond any templates or options, strongly consider dropping a point each into the following skills no matter the type of character you’re seeking to play:

        Carousing, Fast-Talk, and/or Savoir-Faire: Sooner or later, everyone needs to talk to someone.
        Hiking, Stealth: The party’s often only as good in these as their slowest/clumsiest member.
        First Aid: Even when there’s a healer (not always the case), everyone gets banged up sometimes.  Just put a point into it, no matter what kind of character you're running.
        Observation: Noticing interesting things takes training.
        Streetwise, Survival: I run a lot of urban adventures.  I run a lot of outdoor travel adventures.  Being incompetent in both environments isn’t a great idea.
        Brawling or Judo: Even the party scholar gets jumped, sometimes.  A point into any weapon skill is easy.  Parrying an attack without one is formidably hard.


Step 6 - Appearance:  Outstanding good or bad looks are an Advantage or a Disadvantage.  Otherwise, whatever you prefer.

Step 7 - Numbers:  Speed is (HT + DX)/4.  Move equals Speed (round down) minus encumbrance penalty.

Defenses:  Dodge = Move + 3  Block = ½ Shield Skill, round down, + 3.  Parry = ½ Weapon skill, round down, + 3.  Damage Resistance (DR) = total DR from armor, advantages.

Encumbrance:  if the weight you are carrying is up to twice your ST in pounds, no penalty; if up to 4 x ST (“Light”), penalty of 1; if up to 6 x ST (“Medium”), penalty of 2; if up to 12 x ST (“Heavy”), penalty of 3; if up to 20 x ST (“Extra-Heavy”), penalty of 4.

Your weapon inflicts damage based on your “basic weapon damage” depending on what you do with it.  Most weapons do differing damage depending on whether you swing or thrust with them.

Step 8 - Equipment:  Barring a wealth option, characters start with 500 silver sinvers and one suit of clothes appropriate to their social station.  If players prefer not to choose Wealth, they can get extra silver by spending one initial character point for a month’s pay at their profession.  For more than a few points’ worth, this is not cost-effective; take Comfortable Wealth instead.

Capital equipment is expensive; day-to-day living is not.  Those 500 silver sinvers would last a frugal character for about a year’s worth of modest inns.  It will also buy a broadsword, a buckler and a quilted cloth jerkin, and a couple extra luxuries, about.  Characters, especially beginning ones, often make out foraging the swords of the fallen than rifling pockets in the hope of finding a pouch brimming with gold.

Wrapping Up: 
I strongly recommend broad-based characters.  Someone wholly maximized for melee combat will be bored for long stretches in my runs.  Someone with no combat skills will be twiddling thumbs in any prolonged battle.  An outdoorswoman who can’t stand being within town walls and a city slicker whose idea of “roughing it” is spending ten silver a night on the inn suite will have big problems.

Party compatibility is a must.  A necromancer in a party of fanatical Upuaut worshippers, a thalassophobe in a nautically-oriented campaign or a compulsively lawful gentleman in a group of thieving lowlifes generally won’t work.  In similar fashion, few groups need (say) three dedicated physicians.

Note: the genre is cooperative, and it is neither my job nor those of existing players to come up with schemes to motivate your character to become part of the team.  It’s yours.  A handful of players have had problems with this in the past (which is why I’m mentioning it), and I anticipate that all players will be proactive in fitting in with the party and in buying into the adventures presented.