Reading and Fumbling Magic

Jeff Rients posted some comments about rules from Empire of the Petal Throne on his blog. EPT, among other things, doesn't have a Read Magic spell, because all spells are written in an ancient language which usually only scholars know; it also has spell fumble rules, although the chance of failure starts out very high.

I'm ambivalent about Read Magic. I do believe that it's too punishing to lose spell casting ability because you lost your spellbook and can't pay a colleague for a new spellbook because you won't be able to read it, anyways. But I have no problem with the concept of Read Magic as a quick way to decipher magical texts. I'd let magic-users and (potentially others) decipher magical texts with weeks of study; Read Magic lets you figure out magical inscriptions right now, so that you can use a new-found scroll without risk or figure out a magical trap.

As for spell fumbles: I think maybe it's better to roll for spell fumbles under extraordinary circumstances, like being interrupted during casting or reading a scroll for a spell level that's higher than what you could normally use. In fact, if a non-spell caster had a background of "studied magic, but gave it up" or "learned the ancient sorcerer's tongue, I'd let them have a chance to use magic scrolls with a risk of a fumble: player rolls 2d6 and uses one for speed, the other for effectiveness; if effectiveness is higher than spell level, the spell works, but if doubles are rolled regardless of success or failure, an unfortunate side effect occurs.

If I'm using thieves, I'd let them add one third of their level (or hit dice) to their effectiveness, round down, to reflect their cleverness.

Critical Injuries Redux

I don't have any major posts ready at the moment, so I figure it's time to go back and simplify the simplified critical injury system I've posted about, mainly by getting rid of many of the fiddly numbers.

• a player can opt to take an injury to a body part, or an attacker can opt to aim a blow, instead of doing damage to hit points (second injury makes the wound "badly injured", third causes permanent loss;)
• for aimed attacks, roll damage anyways and triple it, then add the armor type rating (from 3 to 0) and bonus for edges and other intrinsic qualities: if greater than Constitution, defender loses body part permanently;
• injured body parts count as a disadvantage when used, a double disadvantage if badly injured;
• permanently injured characters lose complete use of an arm, leg, eye, etc., or die if head, neck, or vital organ is lost;
• when healing magically, roll a d6 for the injury (2d6 for "badly injured"): if hit points healed are not higher than this roll, injury hasn't healed;
• for every week of complete rest, roll a d6 (2d6 for "badly injured") and triple the result: if not greater than Constitution, one injury heals (doubles on 2d6 means "badly injured" becomes "crippled" permanently, which counts as a single disadvantage.)

This looks easier to handle than the previous version, leaves room for the d6-only weapon effects, and gives attackers an option to actually try severing heads or limbs with one strike, regardless of hit points remaining. In addition, I want to start re-rolling hit dice after every adventure, erasing hit point damage but not injuries; this should mesh well.

MegaDungeon: FING-1

Here's the next installment of the MegaLex MegaDungeon project: FING-1, The New Iron Mines. To spice this section up, I gave it a sublevel of four rooms where presumably the smugglers had started to dig support facilities for this expansion of the mines. The monsters are also a little weirder in this region, but the treasure is richer.

I also updated the overview for level 1 to include a "wandering chamber" list and master monster index. Neither are alphabetical, because the lists are meant to be added to, one to three entries at a time, as the level expands, so everything's in order of appearance. The wandering chambers haven't been used yet.

Wandering Dice

In the one-page dungeon maps I've posted for the MegaLex project, I've used this procedure for wandering monsters: roll 2d6, lowest die is the monster, highest die is the base number encountered, doubles are read from a subtable instead. This set-up is pretty quick and simple, but there's a couple quirks to this. The lowest die result, if doubles aren't rolled, will be in the range of 1 to 5 (6 is only possible for doubles.) The lower numbers will be more likely than the higher numbers. I knew this, and planned accordingly, placing the monsters I wanted to appear more frequently in the 1 or 2 slot.

But I forgot that the converse is also true: the base number appearing can't be 1, and higher numbers are more likely than lower numbers. Monster number 5 on the table will always have a base number appearing of 6. Not really what I want.

A better approach would be to use the approach I've mentioned elsewhere: read the two dice from left to right, with the first die as base number appearing and the second as which monster appears. This adds one more slot to the wandering monster table and makes a couple other tricks possible:

• If I want a monster to appear less frequently, I can pair it with another infrequent monster and using the base number appearing roll to select which of the two I want. This increases the potential variety of monsters.
• If the dice line up, I have the option of reading each die two ways, which means two different monsters wander by. This also gives the potential for different readings of the result: are the monsters allies, enemies, master and slave?

From now on, I'll use this technique in the region maps.

RPG Design as Setting Design

On Ken Hite's LiveJournal blog, he argues that the game designer's primary responsibility is setting. I'd agree, since I've said before that I prefer RPG rules that make fictional stuff happen, as opposed to rules meant to create a balanced challenge or to give players theme control. He gives some examples of mechanics to get players involved in the setting, then he addresses how designers should assist GMs in creating involved settings:

Gary Gygax gave us the answer. And then he immediately hid it from us. The answer is the Random Encounter Table, or Wandering Monster Table, or Random Dungeon Generator, and all those other wondrous time-killers in the back of the DMG. By stocking those tables, paying some attention to the probabilities, and adding modifiers here and there, you create an immediate, accessible method for GMs to understand your setting in the most visceral way possible: by co-creating it with you. They only have to read the setting bits they've generated, and they have a story and an adventure. This is an almost insanely powerful technology for setting design and presentation, and we've unaccountably left it back in its rudimentary Bronze Age form, like the Antikythera Mechanism.

I wanted to highlight that bit because it's exactly what I'm interested in, why I'm hacking away at this dice map approach to random monster, magic, dungeon, kingdom, and detail generation, why I produce lists of randomly-created content like the chaotic enchantments and wandering monsters I post to my blog. I want an updated, flexible approach to create interesting seed ideas that the GM expands on and players flesh out through play.

MegaDungeon Level 1 Overview

Just to show where I'm heading, here's the overview map for the entire first level, so far. This document is not a PDF, because it's going to be changed as the project continues. It's a "crude megalevel map" as described in Part V of the megadungeon training series. What to note right now is the way some regions are butting up against each other, but others are connected by lines representing tunnels. The tunnels leave room for expansion; the party could later find a map showing a secret door in the rail tunnel connecting the forge to the mines, for example, or the tunnel leading from the new mines can have simple codes indicating a reusable geomorph.

Next up are the new mines (FING-1); the map is done, just need to start stocking and preparing the key.

MegaDungeon: WOOD-1

Another addition to the example dungeon using principles from the megadungeon training series. This one is called the slave mines. As a reminder: the label "WOOD-1" does not mean that the region has anything to do with things made of wood, it's the leximorph used to provide structure for the region. I placed the treasures in areas 3 and 15 first; area 3's treasure is kind of open-ended, although I'd probably give a 1 in 6 chance of running out of gems; a couple hours of hard labor might restore the gem stream. This, plus the fact that I rolled really well for treasure placement and upped the base value for this region, means that WOOD-1 is more lucrative than LEXI-1.

The unique monsters and magic item were improvised using the simplified system in this post with a lot of leeway for interpretation. I like the sage spider; it's not really dangerous, but adds a lot of color. A non-vocal spider crawls towards you, bows, and gestures that it likes your magic scroll? The magic medallion, although seemingly boring, is probably the best find; adventurers might not care for it, but it's probably worth hundreds of gold pieces to the right person.