A walk through Harnmaster - Skills

Skills

This is a 24 page article.

In a nutshell skills are checked with a d100 rolled low. If you roll equal to or less than your skill level +/- modifiers then you succeeded. If you roll a 0 or 5 on the last die it is a critical result. Most resolution tables list four entries: Critical Failure, Failure, Success, and Critical Success.

Skill Base

What your skill level starts out at is based on your Skill Base. The Skill Base is an average of three attributes. This is one of the more fiddly bits of Harnmaster but like much of the other fiddly bits it is frontloaded when you create the character.

Once you calculate your skill base you add in a modifier for your sunsign.

For example the skill base for Stealth is an average of Agility, Hearing, and Will. So a character with an Agility of 12, Hearing of 15, and a Will of 9 will have a skill base of 12 (12+15+9 = 36 /3 = 12). If the character had the Hirin (Eagle), Tareal (Pentacle), or Tai (Lantern Bearer) sunsign they would get a +2 bonus for a SB of 14. Note that fractions are rounded to the nearest whole number. So a total of 35 would round to 12 (11.6667) but a total of 34 would round to 11 (11.3333).

Rob's Comment
I recommend using a printout made form a spreadsheet of triple values. A list of totals and their calculated skill base. Like the one I made for my campaign that your can download from here.

Using Skill Base

When you open a skill there is a opening mastery level modifiers under the Opening Mastery Level or OML column. So when the character starts out with stealth their initial skill level is SB x3. So using my example with a SB of 12 the character would have a Mastery Level (skill level or ML) of 36%.

When you go through character generation, the skills you get often have a higher OML. Using the Hunter Trapper from the previous post. We see the Hunter/Trapper opens stealth at SB x4 not SB x3. The above character with a SB of 12 would start out with a ML of 48%, 56% if the character had one of the three sunsigns that influences Stealth due to the SB of 14.

Note that any skill in all caps are default skills. 

The other role Skill Base plays is that it determines your max skill level (100 + SB), and higher SB makes improving skills easier.

Mastery Level (ML)

Harnmaster calls skill level, Mastery Level. Unfortunately they opt for a bit of jargon.

• OML: Opening Mastery Level, The multiplier used to determine the initial Mastery Level when the character obtains a skill.
• EML: Effective Mastery Level, Your mastery level plus or minus any modifiers. This is what you roll against.

Your minimum EML is always 5%, your maximum EML is always 95%

Skill Index (SI)

This is your Mastery Level divided by 10 (rounded down). This is used in several mechanics where you are able to do more with a higher SI. They don't give a spot for it on your character sheet as it is always the first number of your Mastery Level.

Specialties

An optional rule to allow for more fine grained skills. Some skills you can have specialties and improve them separately. You can start taking specialties at ML 40+. The advantage is that you can improve a specialty twice as fast as the broad skill. An example is Musician and different instrument. Or Swords and the different sword types. I recommend using this rule. And for @TristramEvans the specialties for Lovecraft are specifically noted at the GM's discretion.

Skill Table

I showed you a slice of the skill table above. It is divided into Physical, Communication, Religion, Combat, and Craft & Lore. The Craft & Lore is the longest list.

Each skill has its Name, the Skill Base attributes, Sunsign modifiers, OML, and suggested specialities.

Skill Testing

Here the rules talk about how to have player test their character skills. A marginal success is rolling equal to or less than your Effective Mastery Level. Otherwise it is a marginal failure. Any roll ending in a 0 or 5 is a critical result.

Opposed Skill Checks

Harnmaster looks at relative success, Marginal Success versus Critical Failure for example. The higher success level wins with Critical Success being the highest. If both character roll the same success level then it is either a tie, or who ever rolls the lowest wins if a tie is not relevant. In practice using this is straight forward and fast with no math involved.

The Universal Penalty

Character get injured, or get tired, Harnmaster folds these conditions into the Universal Penalty.

The Universal Penalty that is a number from 0 to X. It applies in one of two ways.

You add the number to any save you have to roll with d6s versus one of your attributes

You multiply 5 and it reduces your EML that you roll against.

For example a Universal Penalty of 5 means that your skill levels are reduced by -25%, and your add +5 to any xd6 rolls versus your attributes.

The Universal Penalty is made up of the following.

Injury Penalty

Every injury that the character suffer is rated from 1 to 5. Adding together all your injuries gives you your character's injury penalty.

Fatigue Penalty

If your character exerted themselves strenuously for 5 minutes or more then they add one Fatigue level. Casting spells or using Psionics also adds Fatigue level.

Your Universal Penalty is the sum of your Injury Penalty and Fatigue Penalty.

Physical Penalty

For physical activities like combat, climbing, or stealth. You also have to add in your Encumbrance Penalty. This total is the Physical Penalty.

The Enumberance Penalty is calculated by adding up the weight of everything you are carrying and dividing it by the character's endurance. So if the character carrying 60 lbs and their endurance is 15 then their EP is 4.

Rob's Comment

Encumbrance is generally considered fiddly in most systems and this no different. However it easier than most as it is handled by dividing the weight carried by encumbrance. It fits with the gritty medieval theme of Harnmaster. Finally it why the high combat skills of characters with military skills is important. The high mastery levels represents in part the training they got with having gear on.

If you don't want to account for every item in encumbrance then just total up the weapons and armor/clothing worn and tack on 10 or 20 lbs for gear.

Skill Development

When a character gets a development roll you roll 1d100 + Skill Base. If it exceeds your Mastery Level then the ML goes up by one. Up by 2 if it is a specialty.

Skill Development Rolls

Characters get Skill Development rolls for

• Study/Practice, HM assume that throughout a month Character practice and study their skills. There is an optional to increase this if the character has high Will
• Employment and Instruction, bonuses are given for job related skills and for being taught by somebody with a higher ML.
• Stressful/Bonus Experience, the referee can award bonus development rolls after adventures that test the character's skills. The author encourage to give these out for failures as well as successes.

All of this part of a subsystem using Skill Maintenance Points. It sounds fiddly but it only one page and what it amounts to is that character get three development rolls a month, one roll for 40 hours of work, or 10 hours of instruction. There is an optional rule where you have to use SMPs to maintain skills you HAVEN'T used. But I never used that option.

Rob's Comment

I like this a lot. GURPS has some of this but Harnmaster's take is far cleaner and easier to use provided you don't use Skill Maintenance. I have a house rule that you double your gain if you roll a critical on your development roll. (2 for broad skills, 4 for specialties). I like that you automatically get 3 rolls a month which helps greatly with players feeling free to poke and muddle around. Otherwise they feel like they need to get into scrapes in order to advance all the time.

The Skills

Pages 8 to 19 are the descriptions of the skills and their mechanics. A lot of stuff in these pages so I will highlight a couple.

Jumping

Jumping is an example of a skill using the Critical Failure to Critical Success scale. The numbers present the percentage of the character's height that they are able to jump.

Stealth

Example of a description only skill.

Stealth is tested when a character attempts to move without being detected. It can only be applied in situations where an observer would not automatically see the sneaker. The attempt presumes reasonable cover and/or poor light. EML is modified for distance to the target, available cover, etc. Rolling any failure indicates detection, although with MF it may be reasonable to test Awareness of potential observers.

Languages and Scripts

The description for both are several paragraphs. When we get to treasure you will see that not only knowing a language matters but the script in which it written matters as well. Luckily since this focuses on Harn there isn't an overwhelming number of choices although the author does touches briefly on the rest of the world.

Craft/Lore Skills

Most of these skills can only opened after a period of training with a teacher following the instruction rules in skill development. In some way this section along with combat are the heart and soul of a Harn character. There is a fair amount of terse detail packed in here.

Combat Skills

Combat skills are easy to get, you can open them after just one combat with a relevant weapon. However after ML 70 you can only improve them through bonus development rolls gained in actual combat.

Initiative

This skill can only be improved through bonus development rolls gained as a result of combat. This skill typically not roll but used to determine the order of initiative.

Analysis/Appraisal
Value Enhancement
Product Quality

These three section give general mechanics for using the Craft/Lore skills focusing on items and good that you can make with these skills. It one page.

Attribute Testing

This section get into the different ways you can use your attributes. It is two pages and covers the basic in the usual detailed but terse Harn style.

Example Lifting

Normal, healthy characters can lift Strength × 10 pounds, at least briefly, with little or no difficulty. When attempting to lift heavier loads, the table (below) is consulted. The table assumes loads can be conveniently gripped with both hands/arms. Awkward loads are more difficult. Lifting tests are subject to Physical Penalty

It is possible to successfully lift a weight and then find it too heavy to hold. Once a load is lifted, an immediate Carrying Test is required.

Mental Conflict

I haven't used this section much. However in two pages it give a system to resolves things like psionic attacks, possession, ethereal conflicts, and control of a magical artifact. It simplified compared to Harn combat with a single table resolving attack and defense. While different things can happen the immediate result of mental conflict is gaining fatigue levels and perhaps passing out.

That it for skills, next is the big one COMBAT!

Previous post is Characters, Next Post is Combat Part 1

Follow Ups

Starting Wealth

Charles ask a question about starting wealth. On Character 17 there is this table

But there no mechanics associated with the table. Instead the section is a series of guidelines outlining things like Family Weath, Clothling & Possessions, Weapon & Armour, etc. 

The oversight here is that the original release of Harn had three things: the map, Harnview book, and the Harndex book. In Harnview there was a section called the Pre-game. It has some of the family and social class tables and information found in the first section of character but it also goes onto explain that the referee should run a mini-sessions to flesh out the character's background with the player. This was in the 1st edition of Harnmaster but the specifics was spread out among the product line in later editions and printings. 

The table above along with the income values for various occupations work with that idea. If the character was realtively successful in the Pre-game then a value from the Rich column would be warranted. If the character pre-game was neither good or bad, then use the Average column. If the pre-game didn't go so good then Poor column should be used. 

For a more specific method, Harnmaster 1st edition recommed 1d3 month of wages from the character's occupation plus some clothing, tools, weapons, etc based on their estrangment, social class, and occupation. 

For example in a recent Harn campaign I ran, two of the players were part of the Aleath City Guard. So they had quilt gambeson, spears, and daggers from their service. As well as some coins that the players used in part ot augment their equipment.

Previous post is Characters, Next post is Combat Part 1

D&D Next - Skills and Abilities

The final D&D Next seminar at D&D Experience was about how they are handling skills and abilities (i.e. characteristics).

I find this interesting

Bruce: Looking at the playtest characters here, you might have noticed that a class or a theme might have given you a bonus to skill, but you didn't have a skill list. Normally if you were to call for a check, you would just call for the ability score - like a dexterity check for sneaking up. But if you have a class or character feature that gives you a bonus to sneak, you would add that in. There are a lot of different expressions for skills. Trained, sneaking at full speed (stealth twice). Lots of options.

Sounds a lot like I did with my Majestic Wilderlands Abilities. Based on discussion at Knight & Knaves, the RPG Site, and other forums I am wondering if they are better off renaming some of these mechanics. Feats, skills, etc bring up preconceived ideas in people's head.

Of course the stuff on saving throws tied to abilities will bring up comparisons with Castles & Crusades but it sounds like with 5e skills it will be a different implementation of the idea.

It would be interesting if they flat out say that any character can do any action just some are better at certain things.

I find this exchange interesting as well

Rob: It's been a difficult problem for a while. In 3E and 4E skills were sort of the doorway to interaction with the world.

Monte: In previous editions, ability scores played into skills. We want skills to play into ability scores. Maybe more open-ended.

Bruce: If skills are not the portals to ability scores, but rather the tweaks to them, we can add interesting tiny skills. More flavor. Because the ability scores are the core, we can make any little skills we want.

Monte: It means that if you're a DM and you don't even want to deal with skills, you can totally do that.

To me what important here is the attitude. Even you think D&;D Next's mechanics are stupid compared to AD&D, B/X, etc, we will wind up having a larger pool of gamers understanding how older editions are played. It sounds like it will be a less of a leap from D&D Next to AD&D, or OD&D than it was with D&D 4e or even 3.X.

Certainly the Do it yourself spirit, is compatible with how gamers in the OSR actually run their campaigns, a mishmash of their favorite D&D rules.

Hopefully this means a larger pool of gamers for the editions we love.

Old School Skills in Action The Rogue

The primary reason I created a skills system is for itself. The myriad discussions about thieves among the Old School community caused me to think about the role of that class.

There are adventuring activities other than fighting and casting spell that people want characters to be good at. Whatever I came up with that the need it has to fulfill. For example trade, or being a courtier. Things that allow players to make character that are better at "something else" other than dungeon crawls.

It not a criticism of dungeon crawls. But a recognition that this is not the 1970's and we realize now all things we can do with the funny dice. Just as importantly there are people who want to this with D&D, not GURPS, Basic Roleplaying, or a myriad other systems that out there.

So what I came up are the Rogue Classes.
Note these are designed to work with Swords & Wizardry but should be easily adaptable to the system of choice.

Rogues
The Rogues are those who choose to sacrifice fighting or magic aptitude in favor of special abilities or excelling at certain Tasks.

So far I have Burglar, Thug, Mountebank, The Claws of Kali (assassin), and Merchant Adventurer.

Merchant Adventurer
Rogues may choose to start as Merchant Adventurers. Merchant Adventurers deal with illegal or dangerous trade. They are somewhat adept at fighting and know several skills useful to commerce. Merchant Adventurers are found as smugglers, black marketers, caravan masters, pirate lords, treasure hunters and ship captains. They often organize expeditions into unknown lands. Merchant Adventurers can be of any alignment, and must possess a Charisma of 10+.

• Prime Attribute: Charisma 13+, +15% experience.
• Gains 1d6-1 HP/level
• Fights using the Cleric combat table.
• Can use leather armor and shield
• Can use the following weapons: hand axe, club, dagger, light mace, staff, short sword, light crossbow, dart, sling, and short bow.
• At first level a Merchant Adventurer gains the following skills at skill level 1: Accounting, Geography (2 regions), (Law or History), Locution, Professional (one type), and Survival(one region).
• At first level a Merchant Adventurer may distribute a total of ten levels to the above skills. Nor more than five levels may be placed on a single skill. The remaining levels need to be split between different skills.
• For every 4 levels the Merchant gains 1 skill level in all his skills. In addition he gains 2 additional levels that he may add to one or two skills.
• Instead of adding a skill level to an existing skill, a Merchant Adventurer may choose to add a new sub skill from the following list: Geography(region), History(region), Professional(type), or Survival (region).
• At 9th level a Merchant Adventurer may opt to form his own Company and attract investors and loyal followers.
---------------------------------------------------
Note that in the trade system I am working on Accounting modified rolls dealing with bulks goods and Locution deals with one on one small volume trading. The difference is because in large trade knowledge of rules and procedures outweigh your personal charisma and vice versa for small trades.

The Burglar is the traditional thief using my skill system.
The Thug operates using feats of strength and personal charisma. High level Thugs are leaders of large gangs.
The Mountebank is a hybrid magic-skill class. They specialize in deception, and anti-divination magic to support the work of Thugs and Burglars.
Of course Merchant Adventurer have the skills to deal with smuggling although they can be considered the most legitimate of the four Rogue classes.

Again the idea is not to make D&D into another game but rather give the GM and player an option to specialize at something other than fighting, casting, or praying.

One thing that I did tho is make sure that all the Rogue classes were adventuring classes. Thanks to an idea by Jeff Rients I developed a nifty way of handling the rest of the in-game world.

A Walk through Harnmaster - Characters

Characters

This is a 30 page article detailing how to generate characters

Generating Characters

The steps for making a Harnmaster Character are

1. GM tells the players which optional rules are in play for this game.
2. Generate Birth, Appearance, Physical, and Personality attributes.
3. Determine Parent Occupation. You may accept this occupation for your own or seek a new career.
4. Determine Automatic, Occupational, Family, and Optional skills.
5. Determine Equipment & Funds.
6. Determine Contacts.
7. Veterans (optional). The last step is to allow the players or referee to make experienced characters otherwise they are starting out around age 18 to 22.

Character Profiles

A short section explaining the Harnmaster character sheet (called a profile) and how to minimize the need to copy the information to a new sheet.

Birth Attributes

Details the circumstances the characters are born into. You either pick them or roll them randomly. They include in order

• Species: Human, Sindarin (elf), Khuzdal (dwarf), Other (GM Discretion)
• Sex
• Birthdate and Sunsign (Harnic Zodiac)
• Birthplace, either pick or use the charts in Harnworld.
• Culture: Imperial (Tharda), Feudal, Viking (Orbaalese), Tribal, Sindarin, or Khuzan.
• Social Class: Slave, Serf, Unguilded, Guilded, or Noble

So a fiddly bit of Harnmaster is the sunsign. Your character will have one of 24 possibilities. Either a single sunsign or a be born on a cusp and benefit from two sunsigns. The sunsign modify the starting level of certain skills. Once character gen is done it rarely comes up. I always used it something unique to Harnmaster, add flavor, and because it is only dealt with during Character Gen or getting a new skill.

Now the biggie Social Class. Most character will be from a Feudal culture and that means they will likely start off as Serfs if random rolls are used. Luckily this section is either choice or 1d100. The first few times with Harnmaster it will be fun to come up with various explanation of why your character is adventuring despite being born a serf. But it gets repetitive.

Family Development

This section develops the character's immediate family. Which could be important, just flavor or not a factor at all. It mostly focuses on the character relationship and is not a family/clan generator.

You roll for

• Sibling Rank: Eldest to 6th Child.
• Parental Relationship: Offspring, Fostered, Adopted, Bastard, Orphan
• Estrangement: A 1d100 roll to see how good your relationship is with the clan or extended family.
• Clanhead: How closely you are related to the head of the family/clan.
• Appearance Attributes:
• Here you generate by species some of the physical attributes of the character.
• Height
• Frame
• Weight: Calculated
• Comeliness: 3d6 roll

As an option you can roll Complexion, Hair Color, and Eye Color

Physical Attributes

Harn uses 3d6 for attributes. It has more attributes but only some of are what is called a key attribute. These are attribute used most often in the rest of the system.

Rob's Comment

What I have done is a straight 3d6 roll for non key attributes. But because of the importance of keyed attributes I have players roll 4d6 drop the lowest die. Do this seven times and arrange among the keyed attributes.

The physical attributes are

• Strength: Key
• Stamina: Key
• Dexterity: Key
• Agility: Key
• Eyesight
• Hearing
• Smell
• Voice

Medical

Here you can roll 1d100 to see what medical condition the players can have. A sample of the table is below. The rules are vague whether the roll is optional or not. There is a 30% change (71+) that the character will have no medical traits, and a 5% they will have multiple traits (66-70)

Rob's Comment

I strongly recommend making this roll optional and using the optional rule in the sidebar that gives the players a reward a two points to be place in a attribute if they risk a roll on this table. The feel of gambling with the character's fate adds to the char gen process.

Personality Attributes

• Intelligence: Key
• Aura: Key
• Will: Key
• Morality: Diabolical to Exemplary
• Aura is the character connection to the supernatural.

Pysche

Like Medical this these are mental disorder the character can have.

Like Medical I recommend using the optional rule that rewards the player with attributes points if they opt to make rolls on this table. This has other optional rules to pick from as well. Again there is a 30% change of no disorders, and 5% chance of multiple disorders.

Diety

A short list and explanation of the Harnic Deities and their suggested Morality ranges.

Also explains Piety Points which rolled using 5d6. Piety points measure a character standing with their deity. All players can use them to pray for divine intervention, and they are important to priests if using Harn Religion.

Occupation

This section serves two purposes, for character generation and for making NPCs. It list a set of different occupations and the skills associated with them. It comprehensive for a medieval setting and also includes monthly and yearly wage information.

For character generation the point of the section is generate the character's parent occupation. Then the player can roll (or pick) the occupation they apprentice in. Listed for the occupation is the number of years of service before the character gets all the skill listed for that occupation. For example a Hunter/Trapper requires 5 years. Character start training at age 14. The parent roll also determine if the character was born into an urban environment.

Assignment of Skills

Starting Harn Character get skills from the following.

• Automatic Skills: Everybody has these
• Occupational Skills: The skill listed under the occupation that the character trained for.
• Family Skills: The character gets to add the first skill in the parent's occupation and one other skill in their occupation list. They don't start as high as the occupation skills
• Optional Skills: The player gets 5 picks, they can be put all one new skill or spread among 5 new skills.
• Psionic Talent: As an option the character can be born with a psionic talent. The referee is also has the option of rolling secret latent talents for the player.

I will get into how skill works in the next post.

Equipment and Funds

Next we get into Equipment and Funds. Basically listing how much wealth the character start out with. Unless the character is a noble it is pretty small. A lot of Harn characters in my campaigns started with little more than a clothes, a leather vest, spear, dagger, and a helmet.

Friends and Enemies

This section is about generating contacts among families and allies. As well as how to call on them for favors. This is often vital for characters trying to get themselves established and looking for adventure.

Veterans

This section explains how to continue character generation to produce an experienced character. Basically each year after the character finishes training give option points which can be used to improve or add skills.

Aging

This section explains about aging if the campaigns progresses along far enough.

Character Design

This section explains the point based method of character creation. All Key attributes are set to 8 and you spend 30 character point to make them whatever you want.

As an option you can add 20 more cp and include the other elements of character generation.

Clerics

This contains the rules for creating clerics of various Harnic Religions. However keep in mind the rules for divine magic is found in Harn Religion. This section also explains Ritual Invocations which are divine abilities usable by the clerics.

Shek-P'var

This section explains how to create a mage in the service of the Shek Pvar. There are six convocations of magic corresponding to the Harnic elements of Air, Fire, Metal, Earth, Water, Mind. Along with the seventh neutral convocation. Sun sign is a factor in how good a mage is with a convocation. Like clerics you need Harnmaster Magic for the explanation of the magic system.

Military Careers

This covers the various military occupations as well as provide a fair amount detail on military life. It is a great option for adventurers. Where clerics and mages get two pages each, this section get four pages full of military detail and char gen info.

Previous post was Introduction. Next Post is Skills.

Majestic Wilderlands Fudge Skills

 been asked what the skills I am using for the Majestic Wilderlands RPG.

The basic list comes from my Majestic Wilderlands supplement for Swords and Wizardry. There they are called abilities. I been running Swords and Wizardry with my supplement since 2009 so I am pretty comfortable with that set.

In the MW Supplement I have a catch all ability called Professional Skill. For Fudge I expanded that into something more concrete. Plus I had to add weapon skills which are covered by proficiencies in SnW.

Each skill has an associated attribute and a default level of -3 to +0.   Added to this your skill level. Skill levels cost are as follows.

For example Sword, One Handed is associated with Dexterity and defaults to -2. If you have a Dex of +1 and put 4 points into the skill your final levels is -2 + 1 + 3 = +2 Swords, One Handed.

This is one of the options found in the Fudge SRD and is obviously inspired by GURPS. Which make sense given how fudge is developed.

I have to stress that I haven't subjected any of this to a proper campaign so this is very much alpha level of quality. However given my experience with the list in Swords and Wizardry I have high hopes that it is diverse enough to make for interesting characters but not so huge that one gets lost in figure out what is needed for a given character.

The adventuring skills are pretty much ported over from my Majestic Wilderlands supplement.
The professional skills are from the guild categories found in my price list.

Adventuring Skills
Skill(Attribute) Default
Acrobatic(Dex) -2
Athletics(Str) -1
Climbing (Min(Str, Dex)) -2
Combat Dodge (Dodge) +0
Eavesdrop(Per ) -1
Interrogate(Will) -1
Legerdemain(Dex) -2
Locution(Int) -2
Perceive(Per) +0
Physician(Int) -3
Riding(Dex) -2
Stealth(Dex) -2
Strategy(Int) -2
Survival(Con) -2

Arcane Skills
Alchemy(Int) -3
Divine Ritual(Int) -3
Herblore(Int) -2
Research(Int) -2
Thaumatology(Int) -3

Melee Weapons
Axe/Mace/Hammer(Dex) -2
Axe/Hammer, Throwing(Dex) -3
Knife(Dex) -1
Knife, Throwing(Dex) -2
Polearm(Dex) -2
Shield(Dex) -1
Spear(Dex) -1
Spear, Throwing(Dex) -2
Staff(Dex) -1
Sword, One handed(Dex) -2
Sword, Two handed(Dex) -2

Missile Weapons
Blowpipe(Dex) -2
Bow(Dex) -2
Crossbow(Dex) -1
Sling(Dex) -2

Professional Skills
Accounting(Int) -2
Animal Handling (type)(Int) -2
Artist (type)(Int) -3
Brewing(Int) -2
Carpenter (Int) -2
Cooking(Int) -1
Farming(Int) -2
Finesmith(Dex) -2
Glassblowing(Int) -2
Hideworking(Int) -2
Knowledge (type)(Int) -1 to -3
Knowledge (Heraldry)(Int) -3
Knowledge (Legal) (Int) -3
Knowledge (Ritual) (Int) -3
Knowledge (Social)(Int) -2
Knowledge (Area, local)(Int) -1
Knowledge (Area, region)(Int) -2
Knowledge (Area, cont.)(Int) -3
Lexigraphy(Int) -2
Mathematics(Int) -2
Masonry(Int) -2
Mechanics(Int) -2
Metalsmith(Int)-2
Mining(Int) -2
Natural Philosophy(Int)-3
Performance(type)(Dex) -3
Pottery(Int) -2
Tailoring(Dex) -2
Timbering(Int) -1

More on GURPS

GURPS Skills are fairly straight forward. You start by paying 1 point which gets a skill level of your Attribute minus something. If it is an easy skill then it is minus 0, a Average skill is -1, Hard is -2, and Very Hard -3. For example Knife skill is DX/Easy, A boardsword is DX/Average, Karate is DX/Hard, and Blind Fighting is Per/Very Hard.

Subsquent skill levels have an increasing cost. You pay a total of 2 points for +1, 4 points for +2, a total of 8 points for +3 and +4 points for each +1 skill afterwards. The scale works out so that at normal points levels you can have a bunch of skills at average level and be specialized in a few.

The reasoning behind difficulty levels is spelled out in a short section of skill chapter. It basically boils down to challenging skills like Biology, Alchemy, etc being rated Very High and ordinary everyday skills like Knife, Area Knowledge, and Bicycling Easy.

This brings up another point about GURPS. It's adherence to realism. In the absence of a specific genre reason the designer GURPS justify their rule decision in terms of gamable realism. The skills difficulty is based on real world consideration not internal game balance. Alchemy is difficult to learn because it requires a lot of time and study. They don't have any thing complicated just a single chart with each level of difficulty as a column. You can see this in GURPS Lite.

Skills also have defaults. So if you never learned Broadsword as a wizard and decide to pick one up in the middle of a fight then you either default to DX-4 or if you have another weapons skill then you get a better default like Shortsword -2.

The Skill list is extensive but not excessively so. Few skills overlap and for Fantasy or Modren it is obvious which ones to pick out. It get more complicated with Sci-Fi but the genre books like GURPS Space and GURPS Traveller give you template that help greatly.

Template are a great innovation in late 3rd Edition and are implemented Fully in 4th edition. They don't give you any benefits but organize skills, advantages, disadvantages, perks and quirks in a coherent way. For example in GURPS Traveller the Starship Engineer Template give you clear choices to make up that type of characters.

Campaigns with detailed background can use them to allow players to make characters that are part of specific Organizations. You can see an example here. It is a template I use for making characters that are Myrmidons of Set. It predates the one in the Majestic Wilderlands supplement by several years so it differs a little.

Applying some Runequest to GURPS

The usual method of advancement in GURPS is the award of several points at the end of a session. Usually between 2 to 4. It is somewhat bland and depending on the campaign it unrealistically causes a character to zoom up in points in relation to came time. This stands in contrast to the realistic nature of many GURPS rules.

Runequest in contrast does things more naturally. When a character succeeds on using a skill they put a tic mark next to it. When they can spend a week of rest time they can make a roll to see if they learned from their experience. If they exceed their current skill level (higher skills makes this less likely) then they earn +5% to their skills. High intelligence can modify this roll favorably.

In addition to learning through experience, a character can pay to learn new skills and train existing one. However training only works to bring up a skill to 75% after which they can only uses experience to learn higher skill levels.

This system has a lot of flavor, and feels more realistic. Plus it directly relates to game time.

GURPS has a section starting at page 290 of the Character Core Book about Improvement through study. Basically it takes 200 hours of learning to earn one character point.

You can learn on the job at a rate of 4 hours of job work = 1 hour of learning. You can try to teach yourself if it makes sense. This works out to 2 hours of self-teaching to 1 hour of learning. You can goto a school. This works out to a 1 hour of school = 1 hour of learning. A full college courseload for a semester of 21 weeks will earn 5 points in 5 different skills.

You can pay for intensive instruction in which you get 2 hours of learning for every one hour of intensive instruction.

The cost for these options depends on the campaign setting. For a TL 3 fantasy setting I would say teaching is a comfortable job so hiring an instructor for intensive training would set you back about $6,000 per month. In the Majestic Wilderland that would be about 1,500d (sp) or 3 gold crowns. But at 8 hours a day for 28 days you get about 448 hours worth of learning or 2 character points. 1 point every two weeks.

GURPS allows recommends that you allow time spent adventuring to count for certain skills. And that it should be considered at least intensive training. For example two weeks through a jungle may easily net you a 1 point in Survival (Jungle)

As for learning through experience. I thing the following addition would work out nicely.

When you succeed on using a skill you put a tick mark next to the skill. When you have a week to rest and reflect on your experiences you roll 3d6.

If you roll a 3 or 4 you don't learn anything.
If you roll under your skill you learn 1d2 points in that skill.
If you roll equal to or over your skill you learn 1d3 points in that skill.
If you critically succeed by rolling a 17 or 18 then you learn 1d6 points in that skill.

If your skill is 17 or higher then a 17 always succeeds but you only get 1d3 skill points. An 18 still always gets you 1d6 skill points.

This is not per session. If you adventure, rest a week, adventure again and rest again in the same session you get to roll to twice for any skills you succeed in.

While adventuring characters can spend at least 2 hours on self taught learning in addition to whatever they are getting.

The effect of this is that it ties the awarding of experience more heavily to the passage of game time. Existing skills will tend to improve faster especially in situations where characters have to use many of them.

I am a Thief, A Thieves' Guild Review, Part II

So what in Thieves Guild #1? It is basically in two sections, Rules of Play and Scenarios. Richard Meyer and Kerry Lloyd are the authors. Physically the first version of the rulebook is loose leaf punched for a three ring binder. Like Harnmaster and initial ADnD 2nd edition Monster Manual the system is modular with later supplement having new sections to insert among older sections.

This was also was probably one of the first roleplaying games to laid out and the final copy printed out from a computer. It is laid out using a dense typewriter font that is hard to read. There is a second printing that is laid out more traditionally and a little easier to read. Finally the 2nd Edition Thieves Guild reorganizes the rules and is pretty much as good as any middle tier RPG of the eighties.

The art is distinctive with humor and seriousness intermixed. I found myself laughing at some of the humorous illustrations.

Rules of Play

This is a DnDish system that focuses on creating Thieves and in less detail many of the people they deal with like fighters and common folks. It is actually party of a larger game called The Fantasy System. Your attributes are Strength, Coordination, Reflexes, Stamina, Discretion, Intelligence, Talent, Magic Resistance, Magnetism, Appearance. These are all generated using 3d6 straight down the line. If you roll an 18 you have a chance at a very high stat of 19+

There are a diverse number of races available to play; Human, Dwarf, Hobbit, Elf (sylvan), Elf (sindar), Elf (noldor), Half-elf, Centaur, Pixie, Orc, Uruk-hai, Half-orc, Kobold, and Goblin. For some reason the Kobolds get illustrated a lot and look like ugly hobbits with really big ears. Orcs are pig nosed btw. The rules distinguish between male and female with bonuses and minuses.

Hit points are based on Strength + Stamina /2 + the character's hit dice. The hit dice is NOT based on class but rather looked up on a table that is indexed by the total of the character's stamina + strength. For example a character with a 13 strength, and a 10 stamina has a total of 23 which gives him a d8 for his hit dice.

Next is your family background which is rolled using a d1000. The different races have restrictions on which background categories they can take. For example Kobolds can not gain a noble or guild background..

After the family background is determined the character rolls his starting purse (i.e. money). This is influenced a lot by the family background. Also his family background determines the choices he can pick for the weapons and skills he starts with.

Thieves guild looks mostly like a skill based system. Gaining levels through accumulating experience is how you advance your skills or choose new ones.  The other "classes", Fighters and Wizards, look like they would use the same system as thieves but have different costs and different choices of skills. Not only thieves are ever presented in any type of detail in the Thieves Guild series. Although later supplement flesh out things a bit and Second edition was going be the first in a series of book for the The Fantasy System.

Weapons have minimum attribute requirements. For example your basic Broadsword requires at least a 7 Strength and a Coordination. The boardsword does a 1d10 damage and later if the character pays for expertise it can do 2d6 damage. Finally it has a interesting stat called HAC0 or Basic Hit Probability.

Thieves Guild uses an Ascending Armor Class system!  However there no to hit bonus based on level as there in the D20 system. Instead if you are proficient in a weapon you gain it's HAC0 as your skill. For example the Broadsword has a HAC0 of 8. This means to hit an unarmored man (AC 0) you need a 8 or better on a d20. However if that opponent was wearing Scale Armor he would have AC 8. And the character would add that to his HAC0 of 8 which tell him he need to roll a 16 or better on a d20 to hit.

What interesting this works very similarily to DnD Next weapons from the closed playtest.

For skills, the players rolls for Training opportunities for his character and add the result to the number of training points for their social class. From that they can purchase various skills.  There are are a total of 44. As "The Fantasy Game: still has class and level, the thieves skills are found on a level chart similar to the one in AD&D. There are race and stat bonuses also similar to those found in AD&D.

TThe next sub-section is about the rules of play. There movement including outdoor movement. At lot of Thieves Guild, especially in the later supplement, involves activities in the rural landscape as well as the city. Next is combat which takes place in 15 minute combat round on a 5 foot grid. Thieves Guild is loaded with what is now called battle maps. There is no initiative, all fighting is considered simultaneous  after movement. If you roll 10 or better than your chance to hit you score a critical hit. Misses that are 10 or less than the chance to hit are critical fumbles. Criticals are rolled on a chart giving a variety of results. Special Combat tactics for thieves are backstabbing, coshing (whacking somebody on the back of the head with sand filled bag), poisoned weapons, and striking from concealment.

Other topics covered are
the Role of Magic (sketchy),
Ransoming Prisoners,
Revenge by ransomed prisoners (I kinda of like this)
Disguises (a page and a half of rules),
Fencing Goods,
how to create Traders and Fences,
The Thieves Guild,
what happens when you get busted, including individual magistrates.

The next subsection is a fairly extensive equipment list including

Weapons
Weapons Accessories
Armor and Accessories
Mount
Mount Equipment and Training
General Equipment
Clothing
Foodstuff

The last sub section is experience. You gain xp similarly to DnD with some additional wrinkles

Combat
Through the sale of loot from thieving
Through successful Agility rolls
Resolving encounters with NPCs.

Much of the rest of the chapter gives specific awards for each of these categories. For 1/4 of the GP value of loot fenced. Last is the XP table itself including the advancement in thief skills. First level is 1,500 xp, 2nd is 3,000 xp and roughly doubles every level afterwards until 8th. Afterwards advances by 100,000 per level.

Next is Part III the Scenarios!

More Old School Skills; the Claws of Kalis

A few of the classes that I will be including in my project are heavily tied to the Majestic Wilderlands. One of them is the Claws of Kalis. In real history the assassin wasn't a general profession like a thief but rather a specific organization located in the Middle East. It existed around the time of the Crusade and was led by the Old Man of the Mountain. Greatly feared by the crusader their name entered our language as THE term for anybody involving in trying to murder for political or ideological reasons. It even became a verb.

While I can see assassins existing in a D&D world I never liked the Assassin Guild. Too generic for my taste. In my games the "Assassin Guild" became a cult of the goddess Kalis.

Kalis
Kalis is the goddess of murder, hatred, and revenge. Her goals directly conflict with those of the goddess Dannu. She revels in death and destruction. She is also known as the Blood Goddess and the Night Hag. The Claws of Kalis are among the most feared killers in the Majestic Wilderlands. Kalis is also served by her Blood Children, the Vampires and Werewolves. She has a special relationship with the god Hamakhis. Unique among the gods, she has no organized religions in the Wilderlands. She primarily worshiped by secretive cults, most of them lead by one of her Blood Children.

The Claws of Kalis.
Rogues may choose to start as members of the Claws of Kalis. The Claws are a cult of the blood goddess Kalis and dedicated to the eradication of Chaos by any means. Their favored method involves the insertion of spies into a suspect organization and then assassinating the guilty. Claws of Kalis may not be chaotic in alignment. They must possess a Dexterity of 12+. Their cult is illegal in nearly every culture, its members subject to the death penalty.

• Prime Attribute: Dexterity 15+, +15% experience.
• Gains 1d6 HP/level
• Fights using the Cleric combat table.
• Can use leather armor and shield
• Can use the following weapons: hand axe, club, dagger, light mace, staff, short sword, light crossbow, dart, sling, and short bow.
• At first level a Claw gains the following skills at skill level 1: Athletics, Climbing, Eavesdrop, Intimidate, Legerdemain, Perceive, and Stealth.
• At first level a Claw may distribute a total of twelve levels to the above skills. No more than five levels may be placed on a single skill. The remaining levels need to be split between different skills.
• At first level a Claw may add +1D6 to any hit made while attacking a surprised opponent.
• For every 4 levels the Claws gains 1 skill level in all his skills. In addition he gains 1 additional level that he may add to one skill.
• For every 3 levels a Claw may add an additional +1D6 to his surprise strike.
• At 9th level a Claw may opt to form his own cult and attract loyal followers.

The Claws have no formal hierarchy. One's standing in the Claws is based on training and experience. The Claws follow those who produce results.

In most cases a Claw has been a member since birth. New members are gained by Claws venturing out and kidnapping babies and young children. They will then bring them up as their own. Throughout childhood and youth, they are taught to obey Kalis without question. Both female and male children receive the same instruction and given the same opportunities.

From adulthood on the Claw’s life is taken up with living a cover identity, training, and undertaking missions. Typically a mission is done by a single member of the Claw. Group operations are extremely rare. Most of the Claw's killings come from paid assassinations.

It is known that in certain taverns that dropping a hint on a possible mission will bring a Claw member visiting. He will state the terms for the killing. No haggling or bargaining is allowed. If the person doesn’t accept the Claws terms, the person will marked to be used for a sacrifice to Kalis. It is common knowledge that it is not wise to call upon the Claws of Kalis unless you are prepared to pay their terms.

Climbing (Higher DEX or STR)
This skill is useful for difficult climbing tasks.

A successful roll will allow a character to climb with a rope or a steep incline.
A successful roll at a -4 modifier will allow a character to climb a sheer face.
If the character is encumbered then he is at -2 to his task roll.

Climbing with a rope is at 12 feet per round
Climbing a steep incline is at 8 feet per round
Climbing a sheer face is at 6 feet per round.

Intimidation (CHA)
This represents influencing a person through hostile action.

A successful roll will cause the target to fear the character and become cooperative.

In group situations the character may force a morale check by a successful roll. The character is -1 for every 3 people in the group he is trying to intimidate. Multiple characters with intimidation can work together to reduce this modifier. Divide the group equally between each character and calculate the modifier accordingly.

A successful roll will allow a character to force the answer to one question after an interrogation. However subtract the prisoner’s wisdom from the roll.

=======================

Note that the Intimidation skill could be abused to allow roll-play but the intent that the player roleplays his speech, interrogation, etc and then make the roll as the moment of truth.

I also tried to write the skill chapter so that it useful to DM who don't use skills. They offer guidelines to handle various situations. Rather than just posulate a universal mechanic like Castles & Crusades or other system do I try to get into specifics whenever I can.

Also note that the Climbing rule is adapted from Judges Guild's Dungeon Tac Cards. There is a series of action cards that have various rules that work well with the spirit of OD&D.

Old School Skills

At times I hear the dislike of skills and less commonly the Thieves, a skill based class, among the Old School community. A recent example is a post at Grognardia here.

I understand the sentiment. I played in games where a players looked down a corridor and the exchange went something like this.

John Doe: I look down the corridor
GM: It 40 fee long and othewise empty except for a door at the end
John Doe: I check for traps.
GM: What your find trap skill
John Doe: 40%
GM: You see an outline of a pit trap 20' down the corridor.
John Doe: I walk and and disarm it.
GM: OK you roll this on.
John Doe: I have a 45% chance here. 15!
GM: You wedged the pit trap so it doesn't open.

This exchange is not the style advocated by many Old School fans.

But it is a fallacy that skills are incompatible with the Old School Approach. Even with the Old School approach there come a moment of truth. The moment when you have done all you can and you just have to take a chance. Where a slip of a finger means you die in agony rather than sleep in the lap of luxury.

Most D&D games I been in a DEX roll or other suitable attribute would be called for. With my GURPS Group, we have to describe what we do in detail. Then only at the moment of truth do we get to make that roll. Instead of a saving throw or characteristic roll we roll vs a skill.

The main reason for skills among my group is that we want to fine tune our characters. That we trade off some things to be very good at other things. More than what the coarse numbers of our characteristics and/or level allow. Skills allows us to do that.

In the project I been working on I struggled with this issue. To create some of the classes I wanted to use a skill system. As much as I like GURPS the skill system does increase the time needed to make a character. This lesson was reinforcing during my playing around with Hackmaster Basic (a review will be coming) which has a Skill based system. If I went overboard then I lose the ability of D&D to quickly make a character.

I decided that like Traveller I would rate skill in levels. 0,1,2,3,4,5 and so on. This has the added advantage of being readily used in a idea I have for applying Traveller careers to D&D.

Basic System
In order to succeed on a task you have to roll 3D6. You add your attribute, plus your skill level and any modifiers. If you roll equal to or higher than a 24 you succeed. If you wish to use critical successes and failures then use the following. If you roll a 34 or higher you critically succeed, if you roll a 14 or lower you critically fail.

This system is designed so that an attribute of 10 with a skill level of 4 will succeed 50% of the time on a difficult task.

Using Tasks.
In general the character describes what he wishes to do and the referee decides which tasks roll are needed if any. Task rolls are not meant to replace the player’s description but rather represent the random element. Given enough time a skilled character will succeed at a task. However the heat of combat or potential combat may cause the character to attempt the task as fast as possible. Under pressure attributes and skill have a directly bearing on whether a character succeeds or not.

Legerdemain (DEX)
This aids in performing tasks involving manual dexterity including manipulation of small mechanical objects.

A successful roll will allow a character to pickpocket a mark that is in the midst of a crowd.
A successful roll will allow a character to perform a sleight of hand trick or concealment when you are 5’ feet or more away from an audience
A successful roll at a -4 modifier will allow a character to pickpocket a mark that is alone.
A successful roll at a -4 modifier will allow a character to perform a sleight of hand trick or concealment when you are closer than 5’ feet to an audience.

A successful roll will allow a character to disable a known trap mechanism.
A successful roll will allow a character to pick a lock open with thieves picks.
A successful roll at a -4 modifier will allow a character to pick open a trapped lock or a trapped chest with a lock without triggering the trap mechanism.
A successful roll at a -2 modifier will allow a character to pick a lock open with inadequate tools.
Note: These rolls should only be made after the players adequately describe how he disabling a trap mechanism. The referee should add or subtract modifiers.

Locution (CHA)

A successful roll at a -4 modifier will allow a character to rally a broken unit in mass combat

In the initial round of a combat a character may engage in a repartee with the enemy. The roll is successful will halt everybody in earshot for 1 round that understands the speaker’s language. The enemy may counter with a repartee of their own. It is stressed that character should role-play this before making the roll. A repartee may not be done in if the character is surprised.

In the initial round of combat, a character may attempt a Witticism on a single individual that understand his language. This has a -4 modifier and if successful the character will gain the initiative due the target laughing or being angered. It is stressed that character should role-play this before making the roll. A witticism may not be done in if the character is surprised.

A character may use his Locution skills to haggle a better deal for an individual item based on the Trade Deal Table under accounting.

A successful roll will allow a character to please a crowd with a performance. Use the selling price column of the Trade Deal table to see how much the character earned in tip. Multiply the resulting selling modifier by 1 silver piece time the number of people in his audience. In addition to performance this task can be used by barmaids to solicit tips and beggars.

Fudge Playtest Report, Part 2 (Characters)

Monday I ran another playtest of the roleplaying game I am working on that is based on Fudge and Fate.

I talked about the adventure I ran in yesterday's post.

Now onto the game itself.

First off I do not use the adjectives of either Fudge or the Fate Ladder.  I will provide a chart at the beginning of the rule but everything is expressed in numbers. In general if you roll a +1 or better you succeed at whatever you are doing.

Attributes

The primary Attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Constitution. The secondary attributes are Endurance, Reflex, Will, Perception, Fortitude, Move, and Initiative.  Endurance is based off of strength. Reflex off of dexterity. Will and Perception off of Intelligence. Fortitude is based off of Constitution. Initiative is equal to Constitution + Dexterity. And Move is your Initiative +4 and is the number of yards per action you can move.

Scale represents the size and mass of the person/creature. Each point of scale is 1.5 greater size and/or mass. If a normal human averages 6 feet and is at Scale +0. A +1 Scale creature is around 9 1/2 feet tall. A -1 scale creatures is around 4 feet tall. Note that Halflings are at scale -1 while Dwarfs are at Scale +0. The dwarves are short than human but have a similar mass. Scales factor into strength, and damage rolls. As well as damage resistance.  It is a simple but elegant method that Fudges uses to handle character of radically different sizes.


You buy your Attributes in accordance to this chart.

Skills

I have about 63 skills defined. Divided into Adventuring (Climbing, Stealth, etc), Arcane (Thaumatology, Alchemy, etc), Melee (Sword 1H, etc), Missile (Bow, etc), and Professional (Animal Handling, Mining, etc).

Each skill defaults to +0 (Brawling), -1 (Sword 1 handed), or -2 (Thaumatology). You buy skills in accordance to the following chart.

Aspects
For a campaign, I recommend picking five aspects. A high concept, a trouble/complication, and three background aspects.

My take on aspects probably will be the most controversial thing about this game.  In a nutshell they replace what GURPS and Hero System uses for Advantages and Disadvantages. They can be purely roleplaying or they include additional powers and mechanics for the character. For example taking the High Concept of "A priest of Delaquain, goddess of justice." Will confer the ability of turning undead on the character. Taking one of the mage high concepts will allow the character to use Thamautology to cast spells.

YOU DON"T PAY CHARACTER POINTS. Nada, zip, zilch. You just right it down on your character sheet. So what the catch? The catch is that your referee will define the available aspects for his setting. In addition these aspects will come with consequences as defined by the referee. For example a Paladin of Delaquain will have superior abilities over that of an ordinary fighter. But a consequence is a requirement to follow the Five Fold path. And a big consequence is the undivided attention of the goddess Delaquain as you are now one of her champions in the mortal world.

So what to stop a group from having aspect like God of Thunder on their sheets. Nothing, if that how you want to play your campaign go for it. I know for me having uber power quickly becomes boring and soon I am seeking other challenges. I suspect most of you are like that as well.

You see GURPS, Hero System, Fudge and all the other point buy systems with their advantages, disadvantages, gifts, faults, talents, etc, etc are a rat race in my opinion. What does a point mean, how much work is enough to balance everything out according to cost? I been playing some of these systems so long that some are on their third or fourth cycle of rethinking costs.

What works consistently is making the mechanics reflect your setting. If a character is required to do X, Y, and Z to achieve the maximums fitness package, then that what the character needs to do during the campaign. Not trying to scrimp together X points to buy it. To fair what GURPS and other games do is recommend both. You have to do the roleplaying in-game AND have the point on hand to get whatever. However my group (+Tim Shorts +Dwayne Gillingham) we wind up ignore the points stuff after the campaign starts. Dwayne as William Enderil becomes the wealthiest man in the City-State. Does he have to buy Very Wealthy, nope it just the consquence of how the campaign played out. His points went into improving things like accounting, and his weapons skills. Maybe buying the Fit Advantage. The same for Tim's character Dracolindus who manages to become a Duke. Does he need to buy social status, nope.

This will codify what I been doing across multiple systems for the last 15 years. That many issues with mechanics cease being important if the focus on making the mechanics reflect the reality of the chosen setting.

Now right now in this playtest I don't have a lot of these aspects defined. I plan to draft a "ready to run" set of aspect to allow a bog standard fantasy campaign to be run. For those of you who have my Majestic Wilderlands Supplement can see some of these ideas in a more polished form. Particularly in my comments about how the classes and races are not "balanced" but rather reflect how the Majestic Wilderlands works.

Tomorrow we will look at combat and then in the concluding post the magic system.

OD&D Tasks/Abilities/Skills the Final Chapter

Well it really about midway starting on page 57. If you followed this blog I went around and around about this.

D&D Task Resolution
More on Tasks
More Old School Skills; the Claws of Kalis
OD&D Tasks/Abilities/Skills Revisited (again)


Jeff Rients said in his blog post that it was "..the least offensive skill system I've seen in D&D." but he still doesn't quite like this system. Which is understandable, and many of you who play older editions feel this way. I am not going to tell that I made a better D&D because I added abilities to the Majestic Wilderlands. Even you don't like parts of what did; I think you find the process of how I wrote it useful.

Basically this was an area I felt I had to get right. I knew just throwing in a skill system like a zillion other RPGs wasn't going to cut it. But I wouldn't let it go either because classes that were good at stuff other than combat and spells were an important part of the Majestic Wilderlands.

The first step that was in from the start was the idea that any character could do anything. Most games interpret skills as what limiting what you can't do as well as what you can do. As many pointed out this is not how the oldest campaigns of D&D were run and was eloquently pointed out in the Old School Primer by Matt Finch.

What I did was make a long list of stuff D&D character commonly do in my campaign. And because I had the good fortune of a license deal with Judges Guild, I threw in a bunch of stuff I found in the Dungeon Tac Cards, City-State, and other products. I then categorized everything and named the categories so I can assign bonuses in the Rogue classes. I called the categories abilities.

For resolving abilities I needed some guidelines. When I combing the Judges Guild much of it was using a d100 roll low. Probably the first universal task resolution system. But I didn't like roll low and I don't like using d100.

For while I was going with a 3d6 + attribute roll high system. Basically beat a target and succeed. I liked because it emulated the feel of GURPS. Several issues sunk it. While it well at the cons I used it nobody understood it. All they knew that there was some number they had to beat and they added their attribute to the roll. Everytime I explained it people looked at me like I had three heads. In computer programming we call this the smell test and the 3d6 system was starting to smell like three day old gym socks. More serious that it was the fact I was using Swords & Wizardry. Attributes don't count for much in OD&D or S&W and attributes dominated my 3d6 system.

So finally I just went with a 1d20 roll high you need to roll a 15 or higher. There are modifiers based on what you are trying to do for example -5 for climbing a shear wall. Classes got bonuses with certain abilities. A burglar has a +2 to climbing at 1st level. Every ability had an attribute associated with it that you could use to give a small bonus. If the attribute was 13+ you get +1, 8- you got a -1.


Because you can this process for your campaign and get something better for how you run your setting then what I did for the Majestic Wilderlands

What I recommend is that

1. Take all the rulings you can think of and make a list of them. Swinging on chandeliers, leaping over a lava pit, making a move on a barmaid all go on the list.
2. Note the dice you use to resolve them.
   
3. Categorize them however you like.
   
4. Look for related rulings that differ by the degree of success. For example if you make your roll by 5 you get to leap 20 feet but by 10 you get to go 30 feet.
5. See if you can use the same roll system for everything in the same category. For example all climbing is resolved by a d100 roll but hiring and firing hireling uses a d20.
   
6. Type it up and print it out and keep it in your notes.

With this list you can do some interesting thing. Even you don't have Rogue or thief classes you can use to make a magic that give a +10% bonus to climbing. A helm that confers a +2 to hiring hirelings and so on. As your campaign develops you may find that, like me, you want classes that do things better other than combat or spells. In which case your list of rulings can help in creating these classes.

P.S. Jeff I am not trying to pick on you. You just gave me an opening for a good post.

A 911 call from the Attic

My favorite RPG of all times is Harnmaster. For me Harnmaster has a perfect blend of playability and realism. I rarely have the chance to GM the game as the group I play with prefers GURPS. This isn't a big problem as it is my second favorite RPG. It is been nearly 20 years since I last GMed Harn.

A little background on Harnmaster. It is a RPG originally written by N Robin Crossby and the Columbia Games Crew. In the late 90s Columbia and NRC split causing Harnmaster to split into two editions Harnmaster 2nd edition and Harnmaster Gold. Finally Columbia Games put out a 3rd edition that collected errata and added esstential element for a medieval RPG the most important of which was mounted combat! All four versions of Harnmaster are compatible and GMs have freely intermixed rules between them.

Columbia Games
Kelestia

Harnmaster is geared towards playing in a low magic low fantasy medieval world like... Harn. However aside from the dieties it has few Harn centric details and can be used for any medieval fantasy RPG.

Harnmaster has some similarity to Runequest in how characters are presented. Skills are percentile and attributes are on a nominal 3 to 18 scale. Where Harnmaster really excels in its brutally realistic combat system. Harnmaster rules front load all the calculations before you play. Actual play is quick as it involves some rolls and chart lookup. You can see the combat cards here

Skills involves rolling low on percentile dice. Any roll ending in a zero or five is a critical. Whether is it is a success or failure depends on if you roll under your skill.


The combat basic procedure is

1) Side A rolls attack
2) Side B roll defense
3) Cross index the level of success (Critical Success, Marginal Success, Marginal Failure, Critical Failure) on the combat chart and apply the result.
4) If you hit you will get to roll a number of D6. Add the impact of the weapon aspect to the roll. Aspects can be point, edge or blunt. Typically range from 0 to 11. This givesthe total impact of the blow.
5) Roll hit location. You can aim high low or middle.
6) Subtract the Armor in that location
7) If the remaining impact is great than zero look up what type of injury you take for that hit location.

You can take a minor, serious, or grievous injury. You record each injury separately. The nominal effect is rated in injury levels. A S2 result means you have a serious injury with 2 levels of damage. Each level subtracts one from any roll with d6s against your attributes or -5 per level for skill rolls. Aside from the injury levels many wounds have special saves. Shock, fumble, stumble, amputation, and the dreaded kill roll. The type of save and the injury you substained determine how many d6s you roll against the attribute to save.

For example if you took a M1 hit to the hand requires a fumble roll if you were holding something in that hand. Normally it is a 1d6. Unless you have a crap dexterity you can't fail. However in a fight where you took a S2 wound to the chest, a pair of M1 wounds to the thigh, and a S3 gash to the upper arm you are looking at rolling that 1d6 at a +7 modifier. The more injuries you take the worse these saves get even the minor ones.

Healing well, it has a detailed resolution as well. Let's say a severely injured character isn't going to be getting up for the next couple of weeks.

I admit writing it down like this makes it seems very complicated and detailed obsessed. However in actual play it flows very fast without a lot of headaches. This is because of the design of the combat card combined with the fact that the situational modifiers are very few and well thought out.


Two weeks ago I get a call from my friend Josh who lives in Pittsburgh. He wants to try Harnmaster after reading Cow in the Attic. Between family, work, the National Guard, and college he wanted to play an RPG that was utterly brutal and Harnmaster seems to fit the bill.

I readily agreed and went down to Pittsburgh the following weekend. The two of us managed to convince another friend of mine Scott to play as well. He not a big fan of RPGs that have you roll your character but was willing to try.

Lucky for me Columbia Games released an excellent little intro adventure called Field of Daisies for Harnmaster. So I decided to use that. When I got there I offered them to use the pre-gen character in Field of Daises or roll up their own.

So we sat down and rolled up a pair of Harnmaster characters. I decided that Slot #1 was going to be a Shek-Pvar, a Harnic Mage, Slot #2 would be the mage's bodyguard, and if a third player showed up Slot #3 a cleric of one of the good dieties. Now Harnmaster Magic is useful but not overwhelming. The mage + bodyguard combo should be able to deal with Field of Daisies.

Rolling up a Harnmaster Characters involves a lot of calculation and table lookup. Part of this is due to the fact they front load everything to make actual play run smooth.

Here is where 20 years of not actively using Harnmaster hurt. I should have photocopied the tables so that the both players could have used them at the various steps. Another thing about Harnmaster is that attribute dont' gimp your characters. A lot of skills involves averaging three attribute together so low stats are not an issue. Even so there are seven key attributes for these I am generous and have the players roll 4d6 reroll ones drop the lowest and do this 8 times. This is similar to how I did it for AD&D. Josh wants to be the magic user so has a 17 Aura the prime state for mages. Scott puts some great stats into his physical abilities which he his lowest in agility. Agility represent body dexterity, while dexterity represents manual dexterity.

In Harnmaster who your parents are is important for part of the initial batch of skills you get. Odds are you will be a child of a serf. In the 80s when I ran a succession of Harn campaign there were a lot of runaway serfs in the group. Josh parents turns out to be indeed serfs. Scott however rolls a 03 what happens to be a... slave. Scott gets a sour expression on his face at that. I explain that slavery existed in the middle age however it was not prevalent. Serfdom was the order of the day. I told he will still be the bodyguard but he enslaved to the Mage's Guild assigned to protect Josh's Mage.

Character generation proceeds until when we get to the Medical Table. For every roll on the medical table you get 2 points to raise your attributes. There is a 30% that roll will come to nothing. Most results are bad but a few are benefits like left handed which gives you 1 to 2 points of dexterity. Decks of many things anybody.

Josh decides to take three rolls gets no medical traits twice and an allergy to shell fish. Now that may sound silly until you are stuck in a seaside village and all there is to eat is clams.

Scott... poor Scott. He also takes three rolls. First roll he is allergic to fowl. Considering 90% of the population of Harn lives in rural villages this is going to be an issue. Then 2nd roll, ....

Lame

His left leg was chopped off when he was young leaving him with a pegleg. Scott throws up his hands and says "I am literally a gimp character." As this was a one shot we decide to go with this. The third roll was No Medical Trait with Scott giving a sigh of relief.

Being Lame meant his final Agility was 3. His normal combat move being a 1 hex and running 3 hexes. An average character would have a combat move of 10 hexes and running of 20 hexes. He not moving fast.

Then they came to the psyche table. Which is just like the Medical Table except it is psychological disorder. You have the option of one roll for +3 to any attribute except will. Josh elects to roll and comes with a No Pysche Trait result. Scott elects to pass.

When the character are finished up Josh has a Pelahn Shek-Pvar (Pelahn= Fire) with some nice offensive spells. A interesting thing about his character was that he was a bastard of a freeman born to a serf mother. Josh's high Aura attracted a travelling mage who decided to buy out his labor with his lord and have Josh trained as a mage. An interesting part of Josh's character was he was able to max out his dodge to above 100%. (Harnmaster allows skills greater than 100%)

Scott had a lame bodyguard. However he has an outstanding calculated Endurance of 19 (on a 3 to 18 scale). In Harnmaster a lot of saving throws are made against endurance. Most initial injuries he won't be effected by as it is impossible for him to fail. And he can last a lot longer in most fights. Scott's lost his leg while young and the same mage who found Josh took pity on him and bought him to serve as a servant. Due to Scott's great strength and endurance he was given weapon training as a bodyguard.

So I thought. Understand I GMed Harn 1st Edition and for this I was using 3rd Edition for the first time. There was an important change to the combat roll that made this not as useful.

For new games I run a combat encounter before starting play so that players can tweak their character before start of play. They found a couple of bandits and it went well. One of the bandits had a sling and inflicted a nasty bruise to Josh's hip. Because Sling bullets are considered fast missile (compared to a thrown axe or javelin) you can't dodge. But you can use a shield to block them. So Josh rearranged his skill buys to boost up his shield and bought a door errr tower shield.

The back story was that Josh was just made a journeyman of the Shek-Pvar and let loose for a year and a day to bring back three interesting magic items and three pieces of lore so that he could become a master. He decided to journey north to his home village of Falkith to visit his father who was a yeoman beadle.

When they got there they first encountered the woodward (the guy who manages the local forest so that people don't strip it bare for firewood and herbs). The woodward had been illegally poaching rabbits from the woods and was cooking one up in the back. When the characters came up the road he doused the fire, rushed out front and started to act belligerent. However the character didn't really take notice and were able to get directions to the manor.

Entering the village they found most of the men of the village and the manor lord (a knight) had gathered on the green and were discussing the disappearance of two serf boys. It been two days and they haven't found any sign of them in the surrounding country side. The lord was in the middle of ordering the yeoman to go to the hundred moot (the village where local court was held) and post notice that the two were runaway serfs.

At this point everybody notices the PCs and started questioning them as to their business. Josh explained about his father and the tension immediately broke. They explained that his father passed away and the current yeoman was his cousin. Note that due to Josh's clothing and the fact he had a armed bodyguard signaled to everyone that he had done very well since leaving the village. The yeoman invited Josh to stay at his cottage. And the Lord congratulated Josh on his success. In honor of Josh's return he ordered that a hog's head and some pork hocks be sent to the yeoman so they could have a little family feast. The lord also invited Josh and Scott over for breakfast in the morning. Note that despite Josh's serf background he represented a source of outside news. So the lord had ulterior motives other than being hospitable.

The villagers concluded the meeting and Josh, his yeoman cousin, and Scott when off to the cottage. There they found a large three room hut where one room was used as the living area, the second as a bedroom, and next to the bedroom was where they kept the family livestock, including chickens to Scott discomfort. After the feast there was talk about what happened to Josh's father. At this point they learned about a local cave that was supposely haunted.

While they were turning in for bed. The eldest son offered his blanket to Josh and Scott. To my surprise the players looked embrassed at this. Apparently I was doing a good job describing the surrounding and they knew that despite being a yeoman Josh's cousin didn't have much. Looking on their character sheets the two realized that they had their own blankets and so graciously refused.

At dawn they awoke. Josh and Scott decided to check out the cave instead of escorting his cousin to the hundred moot. They walked down to the lord's manor to eat breakfast. The manor looks somewhat like a wild west stockade with only one wooden tower. Only the manor house itself was made of stone. When they walked in they saw the alewife (the female servant in charge of maintaining the lord stock of ales, and other liquors). She showed to the great hall of the manor. There they saw the cook preparing breakfast over a smoky hearth along with the lord's old uncle sitting at the table and complaining about everything.

After several minutes the lord came down and breakfast was served. The conversation revolved around news from the outside which Josh and Scott did a great job in making stuff up despite their lack of knowledge of Harn along with the two of them asking about the cave. Every so often the Uncle piped in with his bombastic comments.

Note that I do voices. I am not a professional by any means but I can do it well enough to give each of my NPCs a distinct voice. I don't try to do a true falsetto for my female NPCs I do raise my voice a pitch or two.

They learned that the local cave was considered haunted and nobody ever goes in there. So after breakfast they thanked the lord and decided to go exploring.

Now when a Harn adventure has a cave they have a cave. The floors are uneven they show sudden drops and climbs, tight spots, and passageways going every which way. Field of Daisies was no different.

The front part of the cave was relatively innocuous more of a puzzle challenge than anything truly dangerous. The only part that could serious hurt them was a patch of M'nogi or the Harnic Green Slime. Unlike D&D's slime, the M'nogi was a mushroom with a acid filled interior. If you pick one it is very easy to squirt the acid out randomly often severely burning the character. And if you fall into a patch it was a bad day for everyone.

Apparently the whole "realism" thing that I was doing in my description was really getting to the players in a good way by raising the tension. Much in the way a good GM of Call of Cthulu will do while investigators explore that creepy old house they shouldn't.

Also remember that despite Scott's one leg he has tremendous upper body strength so his climbing and other physical skill were slightly above average.

The climax of this exploration came when they reached a bottleneck. The cave narrowed to a single passageway which dipped down and up again much like a drain pipe under a sink. The effect was that nothing bulky or over 5' in length could be taken. This meant Scott's spear and Josh's tower shield. Luckily Scott had a round shield that could be taken.

So they climbed down and out again where the cave broadened again. Here it opened into a large chamber. The creepiness started to peg too high on the meter as the both of them began to think this whole cave business was a bad bad idea.

It was...

The rear of the cave system was inhabited by two Vlasta or Eaters of Eyes. They are about as big as a chicken with no feathers with claws and a wicked beak. They liked to leap high and get at the face of their target trying to peck at anything especially the eyes.

While setting up the module, I rolled the dice roll to see what type of setup the vlasta would be in. As it turned out there was only one near the PCs.

One proved to be enough.

While the players were debating I started scratching the underside of the table. They didn't seem to notice consciously that I was doing this but the conversation started to take a "Get the hell out of here turn". I then threw some dice and announced that they heard some stone clattering.

They immediately began to retreat back to the bottleneck. It was then I had the Vlasta attack.

After rolling who it will target the thing leaped onto Scott. Scott failed his dodge while I got a marginal success on the hit. I had it aim high and rolled for hit location ...

the face.

We all groaned as the Vlasta had a 70% chance of ripping Scott's eye out on a face shot. Luckily I rolled a 93 so it was a serious stab wound (S2) to the face.

Josh cast a Orb of Zetara which creates a ball of ethereal fire. Normally it is used for lighting but if you hit somebody with it using a touch attack it will burn them.

Scott stabbed at the Vlasta with his dagger. Now understand that Harnmaster has 10 second combat rounds. So it isn't like you are stabbing at your face with a dagger. Rather you have this thing trashing around pecking at you and you try to get a good blow in.

For a defense I choose a counter attack figuring the Vlasta is going all out. Well Scott missed and the Vlasta got a critical success. This time the hit location was in the neck. Scott got a serious stab wound to the neck (S3).

Here where new edition of Harnmaster got me. Harnmaster had shock rolls after every injury. If you failed to roll beneath your endurance you passed out. In 1st edition the roll was whatever injury level you took for that blow along with +1 for every two levels of injury you already had. This was perhaps too generous as it left a lot of fights where both sides unable to do anything because they were so injured.

The new rule for 2nd and 3rd edition. Is that number of d6 you roll is the TOTAL of all your injuries. So when the Vlasta nailed Scott he had to roll 5d6 (S2 in the face + a S3 in the neck) under a 19. And Scott blew the shock roll and passed out.

In the first harnmaster combat ever for these guys one of them gets laid out in two rounds. Understand this took about 2 minutes of real time. Most of that me looking up what the Orb of Zetara did. So it was BAM! and BAM! Scott is down.

Josh punches the Vlasta with the Orb and burns it. The Vlasta then turns around aims high and leaps at Josh. Josh's 100+ dodge saves him. Josh then punches the Vlasta again. The Vlasta counterattack fails and Josh succeeds and again burns the Vlasta. Now the Vlasta has only a 8 endurance so the two minor burns combined to a 2d6 shock roll which the Vlasta fails.

Stunned at this turn of events. Josh begins first aiding Scott, poorly. Then uses a healing salve that allows the wounds to be healing quicker once they get out of the cave. Scott wakes up and succeeds on his final shock roll. If he had failed he would be no condition to fight.

The two of them decide to leave. Then I started scratching the underside of the table which this time they noticed. They listen and heard clattering of more stones. The second Vlasta had heard the fight and was coming to investigate.

The players didn't know there was only one more so decided to get out. However Josh didn't want it following them. So he casted another spell called lake of fire. It doesn't do much damage but it engulf a rather large area in flames. Josh figures whatever out there would be scared off.

He successfully casted the spell and the whole rear section of the cave was brief engulfed in a fireball. They hear the scream of the Vlasta as it runs away to its lair. But they also hear two human screams.

Unbeknownst to the two the cave connects to an abandoned Khuzan (Dwarven) Mine. Off of the main mine shaft the dwarves carved out a series of rooms as a small living quarter and storeroom. In the back of one of the room was a secret room that connected the rooms to the cave. If something would happened in the mine this would be an alternate route out.

A couple of days ago a peddler was fishing in a pond with his feet in the water. While fishing his feet hit something solid in the musk. He pulled it out and turned out to be a dagger of a dark god named Morgath. It primary power was to instill a compulsion to kill in the bearer to the point where he had to take a sentient life every 13 days. The peddler was greatly disturbed by this, not being an evil man. So he fled into this cave eventually discovering the secret door. He has spent the last two weeks in here trying to resist the compulsion.

However two serf boys from the villages dared each other to go into the cave two days ago. They managed to get all the way into the rear of the cave when they were attacked by the Vlasta. One of them was killed and the other fled further in. The peddler heard this and rescued him. They wound up back in the secret chamber.

However there was enough of the dagger's compulsion on him that the peddler decided tie the body up until he decided what to do. With food running out and the dagger's hold increasing the peddler is on the verge of murdering the child. When Josh casted the Lake of Fire I ruled that the secret door wasn't a barrier and thus the body and the peddler were effected.

Attracted by the shouts, Josh and Scott began searching the chamber. They found the secret door. When they opened they heard the peddler smacking the body around telling him to shut up. The boy is crying that he wants to go home.

The two decided to rush the chamber. They charged in and announced that on the authority of the Mage's Guild the peddler is under arrest. The peddler panics and thinks they are here for him and the magical dagger. He lunges at the box where he is keeping the dagger and is able to retrieve it. Scott steps up and misses while the peddler dodges. Josh creates another Orb of Zetara. The next round the peddlers lunges at Scott.

After the fight with the first Vlasta, Josh takes Scott's shield and never gives it back. So Scott is stuck using his dagger parry or his dodge both of which sucks. He blows his dodge and the Peddler plunges the dagger into Scott's already injured neck getting a Kill result (K4). Now K4 isn't instant death you still get a save. 4d6 roll lower than Scott endurance of 19 not affected by injury. Scott saves so the K4 is converted to a grievous wound (G4). However this wound plus the other neck stab and the face stab combine into a 9d6 shock roll versus a 19 endurance. Scott fails and passes out.

Josh then punches the Peddler with the Orb and succeeds. Josh dodges the next thrust of the dagger and punches again with the orb, succeeding. The Peddler has ordinary stats and winds up failing the 2d6 shock roll (two minor burns M1 each). The Peddler passes out.

Josh then reaches down and picks up the dagger. The compulsion to kill takes hold of him after failing the will roll and Josh plunges the Dagger into the peddler.

Josh did a nice bit of role-playing while he sat in the room considering whether he would kill Scott and the boy as well. The dagger's compulsion was satisfied for 13 days so it was Josh's choice. In the end he sheathed the dagger and wraps it up.

Scott wakes up and doesn't make his final shock roll so he in a dazed condition for at least four hours. Josh goes into the dwarven mine and finds the exit to be blocked by stones. He is able to clear enough to allow the boy to escape. Then returns to the cave and hunts down the remaining Vlasta. I do mean he hunts down. Josh is determined to make the Vlasta his prey. He succeeds in killing the last Vlasta.

When Josh returns to the secret chambers he finds the villagers had cleared enough stone to allow both Josh and Scott to exit by the old mine entrance. Josh and Scott are hailed as heroes while Scott is given a room at the manor to recuperate. Josh decides that he has one of his three items and carefully bundles the dagger. Scott recovers in five weeks with no infections however suffers a loss in Stamina due to the multiple neck wounds and Comeliness due to the facial scars.

Overall the game was a success and the players had a lot of fun.

The Pluses

I had forgotten how much I really enjoyed GMing Harnmaster.

Once again the brutality and playability of combat system pulled the players into the game rather than driving them out of it. When I DMed harnmaster in the late 80s it's graphic nature never failed to make players go "Combat is serious."

I was in a groove GMing wise and managed to build tension. This is my weakest aspect as a GM and I am glad to have pulled this off as Field of Daisies depends on it.

The Minuses

Need to photocopy a lot more charts than I did for character creation. I forgotten I did this for 1st edition.

I also need to create a table of triple values so players can quickly compute the average. For example a total of 42 means the average of three values is 14 the same for 43, 44. For 45 the average becomes 15.

I am not sure about this new shock roll system. I see what they were trying to fix with 1st edition. But this is like way to brutal for even my taste. I may go with a d6 roll based on whatever injury they took that round plus +1 to the roll for each prior injury. So in the first fight Scott would have been faced with a 3d6+2 shock roll instead of 5d6. 4d6+5 for the second fight's shock roll.

Probably use my Majestic Wilderlands instead of Harn for the next game. For two reasons, first my demographics and social structure borrows a lot from Harn already. Second my Harn stuff is not organized for actual play but rather for easy reading. I just don't want to spend the time doing the reorganization when the Majestic Wilderlands is right there in my head and organized in my notebook.

I should have given Scott better Armor and equipment. Despite having one leg, if he was properly armored up he could have shined in the combat situations rather than being overshadowed by Josh. Looks like in Harnmaster proper equipment is essential as it is in real life.

Josh and Scott said that the whole village sequence really drew them in especially the bit about the hog's head and hocks along with the offering of the blanket. Character generation was a bit of
chore. Scott swore if he made another harnmaster character he would never roll on the medical or pysche table again. Both agreed that combat seemed complex but played very fast.

Provided I can avoid things like Cow in the Attic and One legged dwarves err characters I can continue to make Harnmaster a fun experience.