tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72395775125980380092024-03-13T06:09:03.393-07:00The Nine and Thirty KingdomsRPG plans, designs and ideasTalysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.comBlogger2135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-77980359281969221852023-07-06T12:40:00.004-07:002023-07-06T12:40:20.467-07:00A Short Update<p>Nothing new to share in terms of D&D stuff, but I have to say I've been a little more productive on another project now that all social media sites are unusable garbage.</p><p>OK, I guess I could share this video from a YouTube channel called Extra Credits. It's a short history of D&D's corporate behavior. But really, it's a study of how the owners of D&D have repeatedly made the same mistakes, damaged their brand, and failed to learn from those mistakes. There are a couple points I'd probably quibble with, but it seems accurate. But I'd like to hear other opinions on its accuracy.</p><p><br /></p>
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/paEGFYSBZTE" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-39747170686561432462023-06-17T14:03:00.005-07:002023-06-17T14:03:44.485-07:00Long Time No Post<p> Haven't been blogging in a very long time, probably not coming back right away, but I've definitely been mulling over RPG stuff for the duration. I stopped posting partly because I didn't have anything I felt needed to be said, but also because I have another project I've been working on that's taken all my time. I'd floated the idea before about posting about that here, too, but the blunt response was that they didn't want to hear about that.</p><p>I have several projects related to Last-Minute GM and/or Liber Zero still in the works. Some of them were announced here, some I kept under wraps, all went on the back burners when I shifted my focus to non-RPG matters. But I've had an urge or two recently to get back to work on those. We'll see what happens.</p>Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-28649063663460179402021-12-11T04:30:00.001-08:002021-12-11T04:30:00.217-08:00Drop Wolves Art<p>A quick post about an old monster of mine. Remember <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2019/05/wandering-monsters-drop-wolves.html">drop wolves</a>? Well, here’s what they look like.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTxBNRBReEkwgPPMR1aUeqlnh-lFc-PbRbNmHPvDYitootwOMMAyQue272-lyX8v8kwTTE_sXgj5AT36RcRg32pYzWL99QpuXPeAIbmT-eyjlmIZmv5M109_jVkf45lZuN3khDk7nTLVav-DF-1YB6kHOWkuPOXDcAXOaKLfLGnP_K2-IPGlwj3PSuww=s576" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="576" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiTxBNRBReEkwgPPMR1aUeqlnh-lFc-PbRbNmHPvDYitootwOMMAyQue272-lyX8v8kwTTE_sXgj5AT36RcRg32pYzWL99QpuXPeAIbmT-eyjlmIZmv5M109_jVkf45lZuN3khDk7nTLVav-DF-1YB6kHOWkuPOXDcAXOaKLfLGnP_K2-IPGlwj3PSuww=w400-h223" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drop Wolves</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>(Or, at least, what a <a href="https://pixray.gob.io/text2image/">text to image AI</a> thinks they would look like. Although maybe this pic is better for <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2019/05/wandering-monster-droplet-wolves.html">droplet wolves</a>?)</p>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-23097056611888594642021-11-23T04:30:00.004-08:002021-11-23T04:30:00.212-08:00Gems: A Short Series<p>I’ve been meaning to do another movie review for a while, so obviously it’s time to start a series of posts discussing dungeon treasure stocking instead. Specifically, how to handle gems. It’s inspired by <a href="https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/15120/history-gem-tables">this OD&D forum post</a> that’s been going on for that last month or so.</p>
<p>How do you assign gems to treasure? More specifically, how much information do you include, or should you include? Full description of each gem and quantity, minimum information necessary, or something in between?</p>
<p>I lean towards the minimum, with a few extra details. But before I get into that, I need break down the steps to assigning gem details. Loosely based on the “official” process, the steps are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Check if there are gems in a treasure cache or trove.</li>
<li>Check the number of gems.</li>
<li>Assign base gem value.</li>
<li>Check how many gems are of higher or lower value.</li>
</ol>
<p>If randomly assigning treasure, Steps 1 and 2 are handled as part of the treasure table in either <strong>Volume II: Monsters & Treasure</strong> (page 22) or <strong>Volume III: Underworld & Wilderness Adventures</strong> (page 7) depending on whether it’s a wilderness treasure or dungeon treasure. Step 3 involves a roll on the Gem Base Value table on page 40 of <strong>Monsters & Treasure</strong>, followed by a d6 roll for each gem or group of 5 to 10 gems as Step 4.</p>
<p>In the official process, you could argue that there is a fifth step, “Record the info, along with extra details like gem type or color”. But the books do not actually say that all four steps must be done at the same time, before the dungeon key is completed.</p>
<p>I would argue that it’s easier to do Steps 1 through 3, record the info as Step 3.5, and put off the final roll for Step 4 when each gem is appraised.</p>
<p>So here is my suggested gem generation process for GMs stocking treasures:</p>
<p><strong>Step Zero: Pick a Dungeon Theme</strong></p>
<p>Picking a theme is of course is part of the dungeon creation process, rather than the gem generation process, but what kind of dungeon you are creating and where it is should, logically, affect what kind of gems might be available. One trivial example is pearls, usually treated as if they were gems. Underwater treasures or coastal treasures might reasonably include more pearls than someplace far from an ocean. Other gem types could be more or less common depending on the region: if jade is more common in one area, dungeons in that area or connected in some way to that area might have more jade in their treasure troves than other gems.</p>
<p><strong>Step One: Pick Your Gem Types</strong></p>
<p>It’s arguably not immersive to describe gems to players this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You find 30 gems of 100 gp value.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s more immersive to describe them this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You find 20 sapphires and 10 diamonds.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But it’s crazy to roll for each gem to see what its type is, especially since the average PC probably won’t know the exact type, just the general appearance. The easier method is to assign three gem types to the dungeon as a whole, for example opaque red, murky green, and clear yellow. All gems in that dungeon will be one of those types, simplifying the next step.</p>
<p><strong>Step Two: Check the Number of Gems</strong></p>
<p>As you stock each treasure trove in a dungeon, you make three rolls:</p>
<ul>
<li>How many gems are Gem Type 1?</li>
<li>How many gems are Gem Type 2?</li>
<li>How many gems are Gem Type 3?</li>
</ul>
<p>You defined each gem type in Step One, so all you need to roll is a number. Gem Type 1 will be different for each dungeon. There is no table lookup for this step.</p>
<p>Since we can subtract a number from the roll and discard any result of 0 or less, we can fold “Check for Gems” into this step as well.</p>
<p><strong>Step Three: Revealing Details to Players</strong></p>
<p>For reasons I’ll explain more in a future post, each of our gem types has a predefined base value. We actually don’t need to roll any more as part of dungeon key creation. We just need to tell the players “You find 10 gems that look like this, 8 that look like <em>this</em>, and 2 that look like <em><strong>this</strong></em>.” And there’s only three "this"es per dungeon, so players can just keep a running total of each gem type found.</p>
<p>If there’s a dwarf in the party, or someone with gem appraisal skills, they can find out more details, including the exact value. Or they can have the gem appraised, or just sell it blindly without knowing the details.</p>
<p>I plan on detailing each of these modified steps in a separate post, with appropriate tables. I won’t be posting before next week, however.</p>
<p><strong>Series Index</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Gems Intro (this post)</li>
<li>Gems I : Types</li>
<li>Gems II: Quantities</li>
<li>Gems III: Assessments</li>
</ul><div>(Will edit to add links as the posts are published.)</div>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-8821818838441343722021-11-09T04:30:00.001-08:002021-11-09T04:30:00.202-08:00Marvel Reviews: Eternals<p>I made my first trip to a movie theater after two years of staying home to watch the new Eternals movie, so I thought I’d give a quick review.</p>
<p><strong>Eternals</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rating: <strong>C-</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Eternals movie seems like a good opportunity to mention a modification I may need to make my movie ranking system. (Full explanation of my ranking system is <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2020/09/my-review-guidelines.html">here</a>.) See, I know a lot of people freak out when I rank a movie as C (Average,) because common opinion is that “average” means “bad”. Or if I rank something as C, it means I didn’t like it.</p>
<p>But actually I kind of like <strong>Eternals</strong>. I will probably watch it again when it hits the streaming services. I just recognize that it’s not really an <em>important</em> film. It’s competently made. Well, mostly competent. I did have to give it a minus for a couple flaws. But there’s really no reason to either recommend or recommend against seeing it. It’s just a movie.</p>
<p>The flaws are that the film drags in places and lacks enthusiasm in others. Plus, one actor issue I’ll mention later. The film really needs to be short or at least move along quicker.</p>
<p>Further thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Too many new main characters for one film, so we really don’t get a feel for any of them.</li>
<li>Rather than cut some of the characters, I think this really should have been two movies.
<ul>
<li>First movie focuses on the apparent threat from the Deviants and only involves Ajak, Sersi, Ikaris, Sprite, Gilgamesh, and Thena. It ends with Sersi contacting Arishem.</li>
<li>Second movie adds Kingo, Druig, Phastos, and Makkari, and explores more about Kro while also switching to the Emergence plotline.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Splitting it into two movies allows us to explore more about Sersi, who seems to be our POV character in the film, but we really don’t get to know her well enough. All of the characters are treated pretty superficially, and only Sprite, Kingo, Phastos and Thena really stand out.</li>
<li>Most reviewers, even if they give the movie a thumbs down, say the entire cast does a great job. I have to rewatch the film because I had a very different feeling: I kept thinking the Druig character was a pretty poor performance. Maybe I missed something.</li>
</ul>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-16016029188471860972021-09-23T04:30:00.003-07:002021-09-23T04:30:00.195-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons: Map Glyphs<p>I’m looking at the <strong>Last-Minute d6 Dungeons</strong> series (links below) and wanting to simplify it some more… but also, wanting to make it more readable.</p>
<p>Here’s what I mean: I plan on creating customizable dungeon maps that use these techniques. It would help people a <em>lot</em> if I could put an instruction right on the map, so that the GM using it wouldn’t need to turn back to an instructions page. Instead, the introduction would give a couple simple icons and how to interpret them.</p>
<p><strong>Example A: Side Passages</strong></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBQ90FOfcuU/YUvDsYhtLlI/AAAAAAAAIUQ/CvxCBADHZO4yOUAnnaofJKxAZU6zZ422gCLcBGAsYHQ/s740/d6rdg-glyph1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="740" data-original-width="530" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cBQ90FOfcuU/YUvDsYhtLlI/AAAAAAAAIUQ/CvxCBADHZO4yOUAnnaofJKxAZU6zZ422gCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/d6rdg-glyph1.png" width="229" /></a></div><p>The glyph for this shows three boxes, each representing a d6. The position of each door or doorway along the main corridor is the position of each d6, in order.</p>
<p>Look for the lowest d6 roll first.</p>
<ul>
<li>If it is <strong>Odd</strong>, the exits start on the North or West side of the corridor.</li>
<li>If it is <strong>Even</strong>, the exits start on the South or East side of the corridor.</li>
</ul>
<p>If the second or third exits exist, it will be on the same side as the first exit if the d6 that represents it is odd, or the opposite side if the d6 is even.</p>
<p>(There would, of course, be another glyph for tunnels that run vertical on the map instead of horizontal, but I didn’t make one yet. It would look like the above glyph, but rotated 90 degrees.)</p>
<p><strong>Example B: Tunnel Junctions</strong></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p4IQa7Vjf8c/YUvD3ILvhuI/AAAAAAAAIUY/G6KqQYa5O1YhbKosYAzPhdIsCEcp9uiYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1385/d6rdg-glyph2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="1160" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p4IQa7Vjf8c/YUvD3ILvhuI/AAAAAAAAIUY/G6KqQYa5O1YhbKosYAzPhdIsCEcp9uiYwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/d6rdg-glyph2.png" width="268" /></a></div><p>Same 3d6 roll as for Side Passages, but the position of each d6 is the order of branches or exits clockwise around the compass. (This is what the curved “triangle” represents.)</p>
<ul>
<li>If <strong>two</strong> of the dice match, the d6 that doesn’t match tells you which direction to skip (left, middle, right.) Branches or exits will be in the other two directions, in clockwise order.</li>
<li>If <strong>all</strong> the dice match, roll another d6 and check the result: 1-2 = turn left, 3-4 = middle or straight, 5-6 = turn right.</li>
</ul>
<p>In either <strong>Example A</strong> or <strong>Example B</strong>, the number of matches tells which table to use to look up the d6 result (loose, doubles, or triples,) as per the <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-drop-dice.html">Drop Dice Exits</a> post.</p>
<p>Links to <strong>Last-Minute d6 Dungeons</strong> series:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons.html">Tunnels</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons-update.html">Tunnels update</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-exit.html">Exits</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-drop-dice.html">Drop Dice Exits</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-side-exits-from.html">Side Exits Update</a></li>
</ol>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-89703077393270581322021-09-20T04:30:00.001-07:002021-09-20T04:30:00.187-07:00Ethereal Components<p>The way I run magic in D&D, M-Us use common, easy-to-get “material components” as spell ingredients during their spell prep (not during spell casting.) This helps explain why there is even a need for spell prep and why it is usually done between adventures rather than during them.</p>
<p>But one particular idea I’ve had about this spell prep is: some spell prep involves using a material object to make a temporary ethereal duplicate of that object that the spell caster “carries” with them, as if it were equipment. Examples of this for 1st level spells:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Hold Portal</strong> <em>(object: iron spike)</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Casting the spell wedges an invisible spike under the door, preventing the door from moving for a short period of time.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Shield</strong> <em>(object: wooden shield)</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Summons an invisible shield between the caster and opponents the caster is facing at the time of casting.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Magic Missile</strong> <em>(object: arrow)</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Summons an invisible arrow or large dart into the caster’s hand that can be thrown immediately at an opponent.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Light</strong> <em>(object: lit candle)</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>When prepped, the light from the candle is “stored” ethereally, attached to whatever is holding the lit candle (M-U’s hand, end of a staff, etc.) When cast, the light becomes visible above the attachment point and moves with it. Max duration = max burn time for a candle.</p>
<p>1st level spells would only be able to bring back one quality of the object used (like the light of a candle, or the obstruction ability of an iron spike.) The object itself would not appear (not a conjuration, in other words,) so you couldn’t use <strong>Hold Portal</strong> to summon spikes to use as climbing gear, for example. The effect is short-lived.</p>
<p>3rd level spells would allow actual items or material to be stored ethereally and conjured when needed.</p>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-91015788336257053552021-09-17T11:45:00.005-07:002021-09-17T11:47:14.310-07:00Portable Holes in a One-Plane Universe<p>There’s a question about portable holes on the OD&D forums: do you treat it as a Bag of Holding, or just a temporary hole? The question assumes in both cases that there’s an extra-dimensional space involved, as mentioned in the <strong>Greyhawk</strong> supplement.</p>
<p>But I thought: What if there isn’t?</p>
<p>I’ve written before about how I prefer a <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/04/re-thinking-cosmology.html">one-plane cosmology</a> with a material world that has additional states of matter beyond solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. To maintain that, there couldn’t be any extra-dimensional spaces under my cosmology. So where does the hole part of a portable hole come from? Where do things inside the hole go when it is removed?</p>
<p>How I interpret Portable Holes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Turns a ten-foot long cylinder of connected solid material into <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/05/mystical-states-ethereal-realm.html">ethereal</a> matter.</li>
<li>The effect stops when it hits liquid, gas, or any other non-solid material and does not continue, even if solid matter resumes before the ten-foot range is reached.</li>
<li>Objects or living beings that enter the hole at this point aren’t transformed. They are just normal objects occupying space previously filled with solid matter.</li>
<li>When the hole is removed, any ethereal matter tries to return to its solid state. If something is already in the same space and can’t be pushed out, it remains ethereal until that space is no longer occupied.</li>
</ul>
<p>This means that if someone is crawling through a Portable Hole through a stone wall when the hole is removed, they become embedded in stone. They will suffocate, if they need air to breathe. Meanwhile, there’s an ethereal stone duplicate of them occupying the same position. When they are removed from that position, the stone reappears. If the surrounding stone is no longer there, you wind up with a statue of a crawling person.</p>
<p>There are some other weird situations that could happen, but the general principle is that two solid objects or two ethereal objects can’t occupy the same space at the same time, but a solid object and an ethereal object <em>can</em> occupy the same space.</p>
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Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-19143189290916793472021-09-10T12:01:00.002-07:002021-09-10T12:02:14.147-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons: Side Exits from Tunnels<p>Readers may have noticed that the Wednesday installment of the Last-Minute d6 Dungeons (links at end of post) reduced everything down to one (semi-) drop dice method to determining exits, but there was something missing. When rolling for side exits from tunnels, the drop dice method only tells you how far along the tunnel section each exit is, but doesn’t tell you which side of the tunnel it is.</p>
<p>I was aware of this, but left it out for a reason: I wasn’t happy with the methods I came up with. There’s basically four obvious methods of dealing with it.</p>
<ol>
<li>Roll 1d6 or flip a coin for each exit to determine which side.</li>
<li>Don’t roll again. Just pick the side that makes the most sense (no connecting back to already-mapped areas, for example.)</li>
<li>Make the exit roll do double duty. If d6 result is odd, exit is on North or West side of tunnel, whichever makes sense. If d6 is even, exit is on South or East.</li>
<li>Same as #3, but only for first exit in tunnel section. Second exit will be on the side alternate, and third exit will be on the same side as first exit.</li>
</ol>
<p>Method #1 adds extra dice rolls, right after we trimmed some out, so it’s no good.</p>
<p>Method #2 is fine as a general principal to modify random results where needed, but the whole point is to make a random generator.</p>
<p>Method #3 is a bit predictable. For example, a loose (no match) d6 result of 1 is a side tunnel, but under this rule, all side tunnels would be on the same side of a tunnel. Method #4 fixes this a little, but still could be more random.</p>
<p>But since we are also rolling dice of different colors (two light-colored, one dark-colored,) we could make use of that to modify Method #4.</p>
<ol start="5">
<li>If the dark d6 result is odd, the first exit is on the North or West side of the tunnel. If the dark d6 is even, the first exit is on the South or East. Second exit will be on the opposite side, and third exit will be on the same side as the first. Modify any result that would lead back into already-mapped areas.</li>
</ol>
<p>If we really feel the need for more randomness, flip the second or third exit to the alternate side if the d6 result is the “opposite” of the dark d6. In other words, if the dark d6 is even but the d6 for the 2nd exit is odd, that exit is on the same side of the tunnel as the first exit.</p>
<p>Links to <strong>Last-Minute d6 Dungeons</strong> series:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons.html">Tunnels</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons-update.html">Tunnels update</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-exit.html">Exits</a></li>
<li><a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-drop-dice.html">Drop Dice Exits</a></li>
</ol>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-73070554578764811232021-09-08T04:30:00.002-07:002021-09-09T11:41:53.383-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons: Drop Dice Version<p>I did some testing for the Last-Minute d6 Dungeons series (<a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons.html">d6 Dungeons 1</a>, <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons-update.html">d6 Dungeons 2</a>, and <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/09/last-minute-d6-dungeons-exit.html">d6 Dungeons 3</a>,) and decided the ratio of rooms to tunnels was too low (Oops! All tunnels!) The problem is the Side Exits roll, which works fine in its original iteration for the semi-random dungeons pamphlets, but that is because that version only has a 42% chance of at least one tunnel, instead of a 97% chance.</p>
<p>One solution would be to replace the Side Exits roll with the Exit Destination roll, but treat it as a freeform drop-dice roll.</p>
<ol>
<li>Roll 3d6 for each tunnel.</li>
<li>The position of each d6 is the position of each door or doorway (read left to right as West to East for horizontal tunnels, North to South for vertical tunnels.)</li>
<li>For dice that match, only use the position of the first d6.</li>
<li>Read the d6 result from the appropriate Exits subtable below, depending on whether its a triple, a double, or a loose d6 with no match.</li>
</ol>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>d6</th>
<th>Loose d6 Result</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Simple Corridor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Minor Debris</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Missing Ceiling/Floor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Well or Fountain</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Staircase or Ladder</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Statue/Monument</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>d6</th>
<th>Doubles Result</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Animal Pens</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Storage (roll 1d6 again)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Jail Cell(s)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Food Prep</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Living Area</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Guard Station</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>d6</th>
<th>Triples Result</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>Armory (Weapons/Armor)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Execution Chamber</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Temple or Shrine</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Forge</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Library</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Magical Lab</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>In some cases, the GM could improvise a second roll to specify the variants. The only example specifically referenced on the table is “Storage”, where another d6 is rolled and the same table read again as a clue to what is stored in that room. Similarly, a well or a fountain could be dry or full of fresh, stagnant or poisoned water, or acid (2d6 reaction roll, with Dry as the middle result.)</p>
<p>This same Exits roll could replace the Tunnel Turns roll, but using two light-colored dice and one dark.</p>
<ul>
<li>If no dice match, each position represents one of the three direction (left, right, straight ahead.)</li>
<li>If only two dice match, read the dark d6 first to find out which direction is <b>blocked</b>.
<ul>
<li><em>First Position:</em> No door or passage North in a horizontal West/East tunnel, No door or passage West in a vertical North/South tunnel.</li>
<li><em>Second Position:</em> No door or passage straight ahead.</li>
<li><em>Third Position:</em> No door or passage South in a horizontal West/East tunnel, No door or passage East in a vertical North/South tunnel.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>If all three dice match, read the dark d6 as the direction to <strong>use</strong> (First Position = North or West, etc.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Inside rooms, roll 3d6 for exits in the same way.</p>
<p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
International</a><br />
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-42303670826744078762021-09-06T04:30:00.001-07:002021-09-06T04:30:00.187-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons: Exit Destinations<p>I may be making changes to the <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons.html">Last-Minute d6 Dungeons</a> and its <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/08/last-minute-d6-dungeons-update.html">update</a>, but before I did so, I thought I would address the missing portion: what’s behind that door?</p>
<p>Usually, a room, although in rare cases, it would be another tunnel. The GM would roll on a table, but there would in fact be several tables, for different dungeon themes and styles, and there may even be multiple tables for one theme/style.</p>
<p>But here’s a generic approach: roll 2d6 on the table below. If the roll is doubles, use the information in the <em>(If Doubles)</em> column.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>2d6</th>
<th>Room Type</th>
<th></th>
<th><em>(If Doubles)</em></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>–></td>
<td></td>
<td>No Floor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Jail cell(s)</td>
<td></td>
<td>–</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>Food</td>
<td></td>
<td>Farm/Pens</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Lair/Living</td>
<td></td>
<td>–</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Storage</td>
<td></td>
<td>Special</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7</td>
<td>Monument</td>
<td></td>
<td>–</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>8</td>
<td>Kill Chamber</td>
<td></td>
<td>Flooded pit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9</td>
<td>Guard/Defense</td>
<td></td>
<td>–</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>10</td>
<td>Crafting</td>
<td></td>
<td>Tunnel</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11</td>
<td>Debris/Ruin</td>
<td></td>
<td>–</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12</td>
<td>–></td>
<td></td>
<td>Tunnel</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Doubles generally means a special version of the general room type: A <strong>4</strong> result means food prep (kitchen, fire pit) or food storage, but double <strong>2</strong> means a food source: a farm or animal pen.</p>
<p>Since a result of <strong>2</strong> is always double <strong>1</strong>, it is always one specific result, On this table, it’s a room without a floor. Double <strong>5</strong> or <strong>6</strong> is a tunnel.</p>
<p>The “Special” doubles result next to “Storage” means it’s special storage, like an armory or library.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-69255231233985890612021-09-02T04:30:00.001-07:002021-09-02T04:30:00.185-07:00Avatars and Airbenders (Review)<p>I of course have been bingewatching a lot of television lately, but most of it is a rewatch. But I recently binged an older series I never watched on its first run: <strong>Avatar: The Last Airbender</strong>. And then I watched the movie adaptation. Reviews of both below.</p>
<p>Full explanation of my ranking system is <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2020/09/my-review-guidelines.html">here</a>. Summary: C is average, A/B is recommended, D is badly made, F is something to avoid.</p>
<p><strong>Avatar: The Last Airbender (TV series)</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rating: <strong>B</strong> to <strong>B+</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not only did I miss this on its first run, but I don’t think I was even aware of it. I was an adult with no kids, so I didn’t really keep track of what Nickolodeon was up to. Years later, I occasionally heard the name, but no real details. Then, about a year ago, I heard some good things about the series, but put off watching it until a few weeks ago.</p>
<p>Honestly, it’s pretty damned good. Even for something aimed at kids. It’s about war and morality and trauma, but not heavy-handed at all, and manages to mix in humor without spoiling any of that. In general, it’s a solid <strong>B</strong>, but there’s a few better episodes in the 2nd and 3rd seasons.</p>
<p><strong>The Last Airbender (movie)</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rating: <strong>C-</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>And then M. Night Shyamalan came along.</p>
<p>I think it was the release of Shyamalan’s movie that first alerted me to the existence of the TV series. I know it was savaged by the fans, but decided notto judge the film on omissions and inaccuracies, other than “big picture” errors. And of course critics were as harsh on this film as they are on most of Shyamalan’s films, but I’ve already seen some really bad Shyamalan films, and about three decent ones. I can give him some leeway.</p>
<p><strong>The Last Airbender</strong> finally helped me clarify Shyamalan’s flaws as a director.</p>
<p>First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Yes, a lot is missing from the movie. It’s a condensed version of the show’s first season, so of course a lot of details had to be cut.</p>
<p>And yes, there were some odd casting choices, but you gotta figure at least some of that was due to studio pressure. Iroh doesn’t feel like Iroh at all.</p>
<p>And also, yes, Shyamalan decided he had to <em>write</em> it himself, with his stilted way of writing dialogue, a preference for “tell, don’t show”, and some weird hobby horses he likes to ride around in every movie. A bad move when adapting someone else’s material.</p>
<p>For example, he likes to do “spiritual” themes, so he decided to ditch the idea of the Avatar preparing for a final battle. The Fire Nation aren’t imperialists! No! They hate the spirits! For some reason! And Aang isn’t destined to fight a final battle! No! He’s got to teach everyone to be spiritual!</p>
<p>Granted, there <em>is</em> an element of spiritual rebirth in the series, and Aang does wish he could find a peaceful solution … but for some reason, Shyamalan thinks <em>Aang</em> is the one who has to learn to be more spiritual and more peaceful, when in the series, it’s the opposite: he learns some things, but he’s more peaceful and spiritual at the beginning than the people who’ve had to live with a hundred years of war.</p>
<p>But we could ignore all that and call the movie a different interpretation of the same story seed, if the movie were good. And… well, it looks pretty good, except in a couple places. And it’s no worse in terms of plot than many other fantasy knock-offs.</p>
<p>But the directing…</p>
<p>Most of the characters feel kinda dull and devoid of personality, especially when compared to the TV show. And it can’t be the acting, because a lot of these actors have done good work elsewhere. It’s got to be the directing, and to a lesser extent the writing. Watching <strong>The Last Airbender</strong> made me realize this is a recurring feature of M. Night Shyamalan movies that I somehow was always aware of, but couldn’t put into words until now. He <em>likes</em> drab, emotionless characters. Where that makes sense because the character is damaged or despirited in some way – <strong>Signs</strong>, <strong>Unbreakable</strong>, and <strong>The Sixth Sense</strong> – his writing and directing style are actually a plus, and he makes a good movie. Where it doesn’t makes sense, like in <strong>The Village</strong>, it makes for a kind of blah movie. Where he actually wants a different tone, especially a comedic tone as in <strong>The Lady in the Water</strong>, the movie feels like a failure.</p>
<p>The Avatar TV series is a potentially dark theme that’s lightened up with a lot of humor and personality. That makes the darkness easier to handle. It’s easy to watch the series and just enjoy it, then think about it later and realize there’s a lot more going on than jokes. The movie, though, has maybe one half of a joke, somewhere? The rest is just dull plodding through a storyline that Shyamalan doesn’t seem to understand except in the most superficial ways.</p>
<p>It’s not a <em>terrible</em> movie. If you’re just watching random garbage on TV anyways, you can probably make it through this one. But just remember: you have to think of it as a cheapo martial arts or direct-to-video fantasy movie, just with a bigger budget and better production values.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
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(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-68376281806379564772021-08-31T04:30:00.002-07:002021-08-31T04:30:00.225-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons: Update<p>I decided to make some changes to the graphics from yesterday's post.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0GVTK61gLq0/YS1ExPcogxI/AAAAAAAAITU/fgMBO18qSRowsBkeMi2OguIAA_PZznzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s958/lmgm-dungeon-2.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="958" height="299" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0GVTK61gLq0/YS1ExPcogxI/AAAAAAAAITU/fgMBO18qSRowsBkeMi2OguIAA_PZznzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h299/lmgm-dungeon-2.png" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div>What's Different: <div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Switched the dice results so that they are numbered left to right, top to bottom, which might be easier to remember.</li><li>Switched to absolute orientation (horizontal or vertical, using compass directions) instead of relative orientation (left or right,) since not everyone can handle imagining themselves rotating in space.</li><li>Labels for the d6 results printed on the diagram.</li><li>Made it clearer that dice can be rolled at either end of a tunnel section to see if the tunnel continues, branches, or turns.</li><li>Added doorways and room shapes to make it clearer where these would be drawn on the map.</li><li>Summary of instructions in lower left.</li></ul><div>Technically, it would have been better to center the hypothetical rooms relative to their doorways. But I use Alex Schroeder's <a href="https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Gridmapper">Gridmapper</a> for quick one-off diagrams like this, and there are limitations to what it can do. If I do a more refined version of this as a PDF, I can do fancier illustrations in Inkscape.</div><p><br /></p></div>Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-77922156859716240662021-08-30T04:30:00.003-07:002021-08-30T04:30:00.175-07:00Last-Minute d6 Dungeons<p>I want to revisit the <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2019/10/d6-only-random-maps.html">semi-random dungeon</a> generation technique. I originally developed this for my <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/search/label/expander">dungeon expander</a> pamphlet series, the idea being that a GM who suddenly needs a dungeon or needs to expand an existing dungeon can just grab a random pamphlet and create a random one with a minimum of rolling. But I’ve had some ideas on how to update this for a while.</p>
<p>The original system involved a pseudo-map of a corridor with six potential exits and six possible kinds of exits. What I’m proposing now is a more universal framework.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhmN2Tz8uq0/YSqsMNNfZ3I/AAAAAAAAISs/zMlD4yvu4ZUhyuc-L5QxawH_uqpeWOzUACLcBGAsYHQ/s884/lmgm-dungeon-1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="884" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZhmN2Tz8uq0/YSqsMNNfZ3I/AAAAAAAAISs/zMlD4yvu4ZUhyuc-L5QxawH_uqpeWOzUACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/lmgm-dungeon-1.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>d6</th>
<th>Exit Location</th>
<th>Tunnel Direction</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><em><strong>Right Side</strong></em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>First Third</td>
<td>Turn Right</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Middle Third</td>
<td>Turn Right</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3</td>
<td>Last Third</td>
<td>Straight Ahead</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><em><strong>Left Side</strong></em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4</td>
<td>First Third</td>
<td>Turn Left</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5</td>
<td>Middle Third</td>
<td>Turn Left</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6</td>
<td>Last Third</td>
<td>Straight Ahead</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><ol><li>Start with a <strong>Basic Tunnel Segment</strong> (<em>24 paces, or 60 feet long</em>) heading in any direction.</li>
<li>Make a <strong>Side Exits Roll</strong> (<em>3d6</em>) to determine where each side exit is (See <em>Exit Location</em> column on table above.) On doubles, the exit is a <strong>Portal</strong> (<em>standard door</em>.) On triples, the exit is a <strong>Special Portal</strong> (<em>heavy door</em>.) Otherwise, it’s an <strong>Exit</strong> (<em>open archway</em>.)</li>
<li>Make a <strong>Tunnel Roll</strong> (<em>3d6</em>) to determine the basic tunnel shape. On triples, the tunnel dead-ends in a <strong>Portal</strong> (<em>standard door</em>) straight ahead. Otherwise, each d6 result represents a tunnel direction, which means the tunnel may turn, branch to one side, end in a T-junction, or become a four-way intersection (See <em>Tunnel Direction</em> column on table above.)</li>
<li>For every <strong>Portal</strong> or <strong>Special Portal</strong>, make a <strong>Chamber Roll</strong> to see what’s behind the portal. (More on this later.)</li>
<li>After making one or more rolls for a room’s contents, end with a <strong>Room Exits Roll</strong> (Probably <em>4d6</em>.) Each d6 represents one exit’s direction (1-4 = one wall of room, numbered clockwise starting at the top; 5-6 = up or down.)</li>
</ol>
<p>You may notice the pattern of <strong>bold name</strong> followed by (<em>italic parenthetical information</em>.) Extracting that, we get this summary:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Basic Tunnel Segment</strong> (<em>24 paces</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Side Exits Roll</strong> (<em>3d6</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Tunnel Roll</strong> (<em>3d6</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Chamber Roll</strong> (<em>1d6 or more</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Room Exits Roll</strong> (<em>4d6</em>)</li>
<li>Extras:
<ul>
<li><strong>Exit</strong> (<em>open archway</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Portal</strong> (<em>standard door</em>)</li>
<li><strong>Special Portal</strong> (<em>heavy door</em>)</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>The bold names are the underlying framework of the system, but the italicized information can be changed for custom dungeon types. For example, changing <strong>Basic Tunnel Segment</strong> to a shorter length like <em>12 paces or 30 feet</em> makes tighter, twisty-er dungeon designs, while changing the <strong>Side Exits Roll</strong> to <em>4d6</em> packs more tunnels and rooms into the space. Changing <strong>Exit</strong> from <em>open archway</em> to <em>curtains</em> changes the feel of the place, perhaps making it more like a temple or palace. Swapping <strong>Exit</strong> and <strong>Portal</strong> (so that exits only appear on doubles) makes doors more common than archways. Changing <strong>Special Portal</strong> to <em>portcullis</em> might make more sense in a true castle dungeon or prison.</p>
<p><strong>Chamber Rolls</strong> are left vague for now, but the basic idea is that there is a table of room types, possibly two separate tables, one each for portals and special portals. But there could be different tables for different dungeon themes. This is something I’m still working on, but would most likely be a 1d6 or 2d6 table, perhaps with extra numeric entries reachable only when there is a bonus to the role (for example, a +1 for every 2 full levels of depth, so that some room types only show up on deeper levels.</p>
<p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
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<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
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(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-31214680013824060042021-08-02T04:30:00.004-07:002021-08-02T04:30:00.182-07:00Even Simpler Treasure Codes<p>I wanted to take a break from endless <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/search/label/treasure">treasure codes</a> posts, but they keep reeling me back in…</p>
<p>I started a thread on the OD&D forums to get more feedback, and got some that caused me to think of alternatives to making the system even simpler. Two of the main goals of coming up with a new treasure system are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Keeping the codes short but readable, and</li>
<li>Reducing the amount of die-rolling.</li>
</ol>
<p>Switching to roman numerals for base values and reducing the main treasure codes to three is good, but as <em><a href="https://odd74.proboards.com/post/244750">waysoftheearth</a></em> pointed out in the thread, having two capital letters with two completely different domains of interpretation right next to each other can cause confusion. But if we replace the codes <strong>B</strong>, <strong>E</strong>, and <strong>A</strong> with actual words like “coins”, “gems”, and “magic”, or even use the standard coin abbreviations in place of “coins”, we still have a fairly short descriptive phrase while making things easier to understand.</p>
<p>We could also eliminate the need for a “chance of treasure” index by making the target number for a d20 roll = HD +/- hp modifier. So, a 1+2 HD creature has treasure on 3 or less on d20 (because 1+2 = 3.)</p>
<p>This still leaves the roll for “how much treasure”. One thing I considered early on, but couldn’t figure out how to do, was making the chance roll the same as the quantity roll. But we could use the chance roll result to set the quantity as well.</p>
<p>So let’s try this treasure code format:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>5+1 HD monster, gp D, gem C x10, magic</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>How to use this code:</p>
<ol>
<li>Roll 1d20 for coins. If <= 6 (HD + hp adds,) there are coins.</li>
<li>Multiply the result by 4 for number of containers. The code <strong>gp</strong> tells us these are gold coins. The roman numeral <strong>D</strong> tells us there are 500 gps per container.</li>
<li>Roll 1d6 per HD (in this case, 5d6.) Count the number of 1s and 6s you get, tracking them separately. Multiply each by the d20 result for the number of containers of coins of lower value and higher value.</li>
<li>Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for gems. In this case, if there are gems, also multiply the result by x10. This is the total number of gems of base value <strong>C</strong> (100 coins in value.) You can skip figuring out higher/lower value gems until a PC tries to appraise them.</li>
<li>By default, the roll for jewelry is the same as the roll for gems, even if not listed. However, some codes may say “no jewelry” or give a different value/multiplier.</li>
<li>Roll 1d20 for magic or other items. If <= HD/2, round up (in this case, 3,) there are items in the treasure. The result is the number of special items, but the target number (HD/2) is the total number of items, so there may be “duds”.</li>
<li>Roll 1d6 per special item. On a 5+, it’s a treasure map. Otherwise, it’s magic.</li>
</ol>
<p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
International</a><br />
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-79574445831279530172021-07-23T04:30:00.001-07:002021-07-23T04:30:00.178-07:00Simpler Treasure Codes<p>So, I did all that stuff about mnemonic treasure codes, and then I decided there was a way to make the mnemonics much easier to read and more compact: (1) <strong>Fewer primary treasure prefixes</strong>, and (2) <strong>Ditching table lookups for base values</strong>.</p>
<p><strong>Explaining the New Codes</strong></p>
<p>First, the prefixes. We only need three:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>A</strong> = Arcane Artifact or Magic Item</li>
<li><strong>B</strong> = Bulk Treasure (coins of various types)</li>
<li><strong>E</strong> = Extra (or Expensive) Treasure, for gems and jewelry</li>
</ul>
<p>The suffixes remain the same, but come immediately after this prefix, and only when necessary: <strong>Bc</strong> specifies copper as the default instead of silver. <strong>Eg</strong> specifies gems only, if jewelry is absent or less/more abundant.</p>
<p>Artifacts (<strong>A</strong>) only need a numerical prefix and optionally a suffix: <strong>3 A</strong> means <strong>30% chance for three items</strong> and <strong>4 A+s</strong> means <strong>40% chance for any four items + one scroll</strong>. For Bulk treasure and Extra treasure, though, use a roman numeral, which is easier to use than the vowel system I came up with earlier.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>V</strong> = 5 coins value</li>
<li><strong>X</strong> = 10 coins value</li>
<li><strong>L</strong> = 50 coins value</li>
<li><strong>C</strong> = 100 coins value</li>
<li><strong>D</strong> = 500 coins value</li>
<li><strong>M</strong> = 1000 coins value</li>
</ul>
<p>To shorten things a bit, though, we can mix in arabic numerals instead of using more than one roman numeral (so, <strong>B3X</strong> instead of <strong>BXXX</strong>.)</p>
<p>Most of the time, coins will be in small bags (<strong>BL</strong>,) large sacks (<strong>B3C</strong>,) or chests (<strong>BM</strong>.) <strong>5 BgM</strong> means <strong>50% chance of 5d6 chests with 1,000 gold coins each</strong>. For gems and jewelry, that roman numeral refers to the base value of each gem or piece of jewelry, not the quantity. The most common value will be <strong>EC</strong> (base value of 100 coins.) In general, all gems and jewelry can fit into a single container.</p>
<p><strong>How to Check for Treasure</strong></p>
<p>For arcane artifacts, only one roll is necessary: a <strong>Chance Roll</strong> to see if there are any magic items at all. There may be additional rolls to decide which items are present, but this is optional; you could just pick whatever you want, any way you want.</p>
<p>For coins, you can handle all treasure checks with three rolls.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Chance Roll</strong> (d10 roll under prefixed number, or whatever you prefer) to see if any coins are present at all.</li>
<li><strong>Default Coin Amount Roll</strong> (prefixed number = number of d6s to roll.) Total this, then set aside <em>highest d6 rolled</em>; call this the <em>secondary coin amount</em>.</li>
<li><strong>Secondary Coin Amount Roll</strong> (secondary coin amount = number of d6s to roll as a dice pool.) Every 1 rolled is an extra container of lower-value treasure and every 6 rolled is an extra container of higher-value treasure.</li>
</ol>
<p>So, if the code is <strong>5 BsM</strong>:</p>
<ol>
<li>Roll d10. If result <= 5 (50% chance,) there are coins in the treasure trove.</li>
<li>Roll 5d6, get {1, 3, 3, 4, 4}. Total is 16 chests of silver, 1,000 coins each.</li>
<li>Since highest d6 in Step 2 was “4”, roll 4d6 and get {1, 1, 2, 6}. Result is two chests of copper and one chest of gold, 1,000 coins in each chest.</li>
</ol>
<p>If a prefix has two suffixes (<strong>Bsg</strong>,) roll Step 2 twice, but only set aside one d6 as the secondary coin amount for Step 3. The lower-value treasure is below the lowest value listed as a suffix, while the higher-value treasure is above the highest value listed. In the case of <strong>Bsg</strong>, this means there would be copper and platinum.</p>
<p>For gems and jewelry, either roll the same as you would for coins, using the third roll for gems or jewelry of higher and lower value mixed in with the rest, or just roll for chance and quantity, then follow the procedure in <strong>Monsters & Treasure</strong>, p. 40.</p>
<p><strong>Using Treasure Codes for New Monsters</strong></p>
<p>When designing new monsters, you would want to follow a more rational pattern than the original treasure types:</p>
<ul>
<li>Don’t worry about minimum quantities, only max quantities.</li>
<li>Don’t use the plus or minus modifiers.</li>
<li>Don’t split probability and quantity. Just use one number. If you want the treasure amount to be higher or lower than the probability would indicate, adjust the roman numeral instead (poor monsters might have small bags instead of chests, for example.)</li>
<li>Only record the most common type of coin, letting the rules above handle other types.</li>
<li>To make treasures fit better with each monster, focus on exclusions and bonuses. <strong>4 A+2s no w</strong> as a magic-using monster’s artifact treasure is a much better customization than randomly raising and lowering coin amounts. <strong>3 BgM no s</strong> might make sense for custom lycanthrope treasure.</li>
</ul>
<p>Instead of assigning numbers to treasure probability and amount at random, work out a formula tying this to monster level. I think this is a good start:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">Hit Dice</th>
<th align="left">Quantity X</th>
<th align="left">Base Value</th>
<th align="left">G/J</th>
<th align="left">Magic</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center">up to 1+2</td>
<td align="left">max hp/2</td>
<td align="left"><strong>X BL</strong></td>
<td align="left">x1</td>
<td align="left"><strong>1 A</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">2 to 10+</td>
<td align="left">HD/2</td>
<td align="left"><strong>X BM</strong></td>
<td align="left">x1</td>
<td align="left"><strong>X/2 A</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">11+</td>
<td align="left">HD/4+1</td>
<td align="left"><strong>X B2M</strong></td>
<td align="left">x10</td>
<td align="left"><strong>X+1 A</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Replace the <strong>X</strong> in columns 3 and 5 with the value from column 2 (round up) to get the coin and magic treasure codes for a monster. For gems and jewelry, use <strong>X EC</strong>, replacing <strong>X</strong> with the value from column 2, then add the multiplier from column 4 as necessary. So, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li>For a 1+1 HD hobgoblin lair: <strong>4 BL 4 EC 1 A</strong>.</li>
<li>For a 6 HD troll lair: <strong>3 BM 3 EC 2 A</strong></li>
<li>For a 10 HD hydra: <strong>5 BM 5 EC 3 A</strong>.</li>
<li>For a 12 HD dragon: <strong>3 B2M 3 ECx10 4 A</strong>.</li>
</ul>
<p>This starter code could then be customized, shifting some low-HD monsters to copper instead of silver, for example, or adding a x10 multiplier to gems for a gnome lair, or adding bonus magic items to mid-level monsters that have more powers than usual.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-65301165792968511502021-07-21T04:30:00.048-07:002021-07-21T04:30:00.186-07:00Treasure Codes and the Treasure Table<p>I wrote a lot of posts over the past couple weeks about a new mnemonic way to mark treasure in monster descriptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Part One: <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a></li>
<li>Part Two: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-coins-work.html">coins</a></li>
<li>Part Three: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-gems-and-jewelry-work.html">gems and jewelry</a></li>
<li>Part Four: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-items-work.html">maps and magic items</a></li>
<li>Part Five: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-thoughts-on-quantity-and.html">dice and probabilities</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I promised translations for the existing treasure types, although I will warn you right now that they look pretty ugly. This is mainly due to the treasure types not being very well thought out. Aside from scattered patterns I've already mentioned (higher treasure amounts for hoards and active treasure collectors, for example,) there's no real rhyme or reason behind assigning probabilities and quantities. This means you have to record lots of info for each type and can't compress it down to something simple.</p><p>And I confess: after I finished writing up the conversion table, I decided I wanted to improve the mnemonic system even more, and maybe do a complete overhaul of the treasure types, which really are quite bad. But for now, here's the conversion table.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">Type</th>
<th align="left">... Converts to This Code</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center"> A1 </td>
<td align="left">2:1 Coyc 3:1 Coys, 3:2 Coyg, 5:6 Gee/Jee, 4:3 Xu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> A2 </td>
<td align="left">2:1 Coyc/s-1, 2:1 Coyg, 5:1 Gee/Jee-1 x10, 6:3 Xu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> A3 </td>
<td align="left">6:5 Coyg (no cs), 6:1 Gee/Jee x10, 5:1 Mu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> B </td>
<td align="left">5:1 Coyc+1, 2:1 Coys, 2:1 Cyog-3, 2:1 Gee/Jee, 1 Xuw</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> C </td>
<td align="left">2 Coyc, 3:1 Coys-1 (no g), 2:1 Gee/Jee-1, 1:1 Xu</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> D </td>
<td align="left">1 Coyc+1, 2 Coys, 6:1 Coyg, 3:1 Gee/Jee+1, 2 Xu+p</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> E </td>
<td align="left">(1/2):2 Coyc-2, 3:2 Coys, 2:1 Coyg+1,1:2 Gee/Jee-2, 3 Xu+s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> F </td>
<td align="left">1:4 Coys-4, 4:2 Coyg, 2:4 Gee/Jee, 3 Xu+ps (no w)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> G </td>
<td align="left">7:1 Coyg-1, 3 Gee, 3:2 Jee-2, 4 Xu+s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> H </td>
<td align="left">3:4 Coyc, 5:2 Coys-2 x10, 7:1 Coyg x10, 5:2 Gee-2 x10, 5:1 Jee-1 x10, 2:4 Xu+ps</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"> I </td>
<td align="left">5:2 Gee+2, 5:2 Jee+2, 2:1 Xu</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
International</a><br />
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-5134700524205000162021-07-19T04:30:00.018-07:002021-07-19T04:30:00.180-07:00Treasure Codes: Thoughts on Quantity and Probability<p>This is Part Five in an ongoing series re-examining treasure types in OD&D and discussing a possible mnemonic replacement.</p>
<ul>
<li>Part One: <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a></li>
<li>Part Two: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-coins-work.html">coins</a></li>
<li>Part Three: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-gems-and-jewelry-work.html">gems and jewelry</a></li>
<li>Part Four: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-items-work.html">maps and magic items</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Today’s topic: Dice ranges for treasure amounts and the probability of finding each variety of treasure.</p>
<p>I mentioned one way of sorting the treasure types in Part Three based on quantity. But we could also sort based on likelihood of finding maps or magic. Mixing the two methods and splitting off Type I as an outlier gives us six categories:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="left">Types</th>
<th align="left">Category Name</th>
<th align="left">Examples</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="left">A1/A2</td>
<td align="left">Active Treasure Collectors</td>
<td align="left"><em>bandits</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">A3</td>
<td align="left">Active Waterborne Collectors</td>
<td align="left"><em>pirates</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">B-F</td>
<td align="left">Standard Treasure Troves</td>
<td align="left"><em>orcs, ogres</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">G</td>
<td align="left">Dwarven Hoard</td>
<td align="left"><em>dwarves</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">H</td>
<td align="left">Treasure Hoard</td>
<td align="left"><em>dragons</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">I</td>
<td align="left">Individual Items</td>
<td align="left"><em>rocs</em></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p><strong>Active</strong> treasure troves have generous quantities of gems and jewelry and high chances of magic items, although pirate treasures (A3) have no magic, only a map, which is why it’s separate.</p>
<p><strong>Standard</strong> treasures have smaller quantities of all monetary treasure varieties and lower the chance of copper coins in a trove as you progress through the alphabet: 50% for Type B down to 0% for Type F. Oddly, the chance of a magic item being in a standard treasure trove <em>increases</em> as the number of items increases. It’s roughly a 10% chance for each item, excluding bonus items like potions and scrolls.</p>
<p><strong>Dwarven Hoards</strong> have generous quantities of gold coin, gems, and jewelry, no other coin varieties, and follow the same pattern for magic items as <strong>Standard</strong> treasure troves.</p>
<p><strong>Dragon Hoards</strong> have generous quantities of just about everything, but half the expected chance of finding magic items.</p>
<p><strong>Individual Items</strong> have no coins and low quantities of everything, although the chances for gems, jewelry and a magic item are high.</p>
<p>Treasure types with generous quantities of coin, gems, and jewelry have at least 50% chance for each, while almost all types with standard quantities of a category have a chance less than 50%.</p>
<p>Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any pattern linking quantity (dice) to chance of finding (probability.) But we can ignore that and create a link, just to make the mnemonics easier. I’ve already assumed all quantities are rolled with d6s only. Modifiers to the roll can be placed after the mnemonic code. This gives us:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>3 Coyg</em></strong> = 3d6 chests of 1,000 gold coins each</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>Jee-1</em></strong> = 1d6-1 (or 1 to 5) pieces of jewelry, base value 100 coins each</li>
<li><strong><em>4 Gee x10</em></strong> = 10 to 60 gems, base value 100 coins each</li>
<li><strong><em>2 Xu +p</em></strong> = any 2 magic items, plus one potion</li>
</ul>
<p>The base probability for any of these is 10% per die rolled for quantity. So: 30% chance for the 3d6 chests of gold, 10% chance for the jewelry, 40% chance for the 10 to 60 gems, or 20% for 2 magic + 1 potion. No need to use percentile dice: roll a d10 instead, any result less than or equal to the number shown means that treasure is present. If the probability doesn't match the number of dice, use a target number prefix followed by a colon and the dice number:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><em>6:3 Coyg</em></strong> 60% chance of 3d6 chests of gold</li>
<li><strong><em>4:2 Xu +p</em></strong> 40% chance of 2 magic items + potion</li>
</ul>
<p>Some options:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>d20 instead of d10</strong>: double target number</li>
<li><strong>2d6 Drop 6s</strong>: Treat each 6 on a die as a zero, for number from 0 to 10. Target number is the same, but probability is no longer linear.</li>
</ul>
<p>Next up: I finish this long series by translating the existing treasure types into mnemonic codes to create a new treasure type table.</p>
<p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
International</a><br />
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-6858992285114084722021-07-16T04:30:00.001-07:002021-07-16T04:30:00.180-07:00Treasure Codes: How Items Work<p>This is Part Four of in a series re-examining treasure types in OD&D and discussing a possible mnemonic replacement.</p>
<ul>
<li>Part One: <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a></li>
<li>Part Two: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-coins-work.html">coins</a></li>
<li>Part Three: <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-gems-and-jewelry-work.html">gems and jewelry</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Today’s topic: maps and magic items.</p>
<p>Unlike other treasure items, the monetary value of maps and magic items is <em>not</em> used in the treasure types at all. One obvious reason for this: the random treasure tables include cursed items mixed in with useful items. That’s kind of what you <em>want</em>, if you are aiming for an old-school experience: players never know if an item is useful or cursed based solely on superficial examination.</p>
<p>Instead, items are sorted by their general form and function, which is why I originally chose to assign one letter to each form:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>M</strong> for Maps</li>
<li><strong>P</strong> for Potions</li>
<li><strong>S</strong> for Scrolls</li>
<li><strong>W</strong> for Weapons or Armor</li>
<li><strong>X</strong> for Any Magic Item</li>
</ul>
<p>But in way, this doesn’t make sense. Because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Any time a treasure type specifically includes a Map, Potion, Scroll, or Weapon, it’s one added item of that type, <strong>over and above</strong> any other maps, potions, scrolls, or weapons that are rolled by accident.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, “Any 4 + 1 Potion and 1 Scroll” may mean:</p>
<ul>
<li>5 potions and a scroll,</li>
<li>1 potion and 5 scrolls,</li>
<li>1 potion, 1 scroll and 4 items that aren’t potion,</li>
<li>Some other mix of 6 items that includes at least one potion and one scroll.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Since the only vowel code that makes sense for items is “<strong>unique</strong>” (<strong>u</strong>), it makes more sense to cluster all magic items together in one “word”.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>So: <strong>4 Xu+ps</strong> would be a better way to write “Any 4 + 1 Potion and 1 Scroll” than “<strong>4 Xu Pu Su</strong>”, because it’s more compact. Besides, the repeated “<strong>u</strong>” codes makes the code look repetitive.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>There’s only one roll to see if a treasure trove includes maps and/or magic items, not one roll per potential item.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Again, the “<strong>4 Xu Pu Su</strong>” code would be misleading, because it looks like there are four rolls: one for four magic items of any type, one for a potion, and one for a scroll. It should actually be a single all-or-none roll.</p>
<p>You <em>can</em> still use <strong>M</strong>/<strong>P</strong>/<strong>S</strong>/<strong>W</strong> <em>if there is only one item type</em>. One example: pirates do not have magic items, but do have a chance for a single treasure map. This would be the code <strong>Mu</strong>.</p>
<p>Next week: dice and probabilities.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-43795219865780990392021-07-14T04:30:00.001-07:002021-07-14T04:30:00.185-07:00Treasure Codes: How Gems and Jewelry Work<p>Topic Two in a series of explainer follow-ups for the <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a> post is gems and jewelry. The original treasure table specified that gems and jewelry are rolled separately, but in all but two cases, the chances of finding each and the quantities found are the same for any given treasure type. They are just combined into one column to save space.</p>
<p>There are two broad categories of treasure in relation to quantities of gems or jewelry in the trove: <strong>standard quantities</strong> (in the 1 to 3 dice range) vs. <strong>generous quantities</strong> (either 6d6, 1d100, or 1 die x10.) Gems/jewelry collected by bandits and other large bands of humans are generous, as are dragon hoards. All others are in standard quantities.</p>
<p>[There’s a similar distinction for gold possessed by pirates, dwarves, or dragons (generous) vs. all other treasures (standard,) which when combined with gems and jewelry gives us four categories: standard, generous gold, generous gems, and doubly generous.]</p>
<p>Vowels in gem and jewelry codes should be used to represent base values of each item, rather than the multipliers we use for <a href="https://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-codes-how-coins-work.html">coins</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>i</strong> for <strong>inferior gems</strong> (10 coins base value)<br>
<strong>a</strong> for <strong>average gems</strong> (20 coins)<br>
<strong>e</strong> for <strong>excellent gems</strong> (50 coins)<br>
<strong>ee</strong> = 100 coins<br>
<strong>o</strong> = 500 coins<br>
<strong>y</strong> = 5,000 coins<br>
<strong>u</strong> = 50,000 coins</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the standard gem values are represented here, with a few extra. If the base type is <strong>y</strong> or <strong>u</strong>, don’t roll a d6 for the number of gems, but instead assume it’s a single gem (or, for example, 5 gems if the code is <strong>5 gy</strong>, etc.) Jewelry will normally just be <strong>joo</strong>, but the value can go up or down for either gems or jewelry.</p>
<p>Each piece of jewelry, gem, or group of 5 or 10 gems of the same value, gets a d6 roll on the value adjustment table:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">d6 roll</th>
<th>Gem Value</th>
<th>Jewelry Value</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>half normal</td>
<td>3d6/10 x base</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">2-5</td>
<td>normal</td>
<td>1d6 x base</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td>doubled</td>
<td>2d6 x base</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>This is a simplification of the way gems and jewelry are handled in <strong>Monsters && Treasure</strong>.</p>
<p>As for suffixes, most of the time there won’t be one. If you really want to specify different kinds of gems, you could use codes like <strong>r</strong>(ed), <strong>g</strong>(reen), <strong>b</strong>(lue), and <strong>y</strong>(ellow), or <strong>p</strong> for pearls. But probably the most useful suffixes would be those indicating size.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>gyl</strong> is a large gem (10x normal size, about the size of someone’s fist)<br>
<strong>gyh</strong> is a huge gem (100x normal, about the size of someone’s head)<br>
<strong>gyt</strong> is a titanic gem (1000x normal, about the size of someone’s torso)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The size multiplier doesn’t affect the base value, but it affects the space it takes up in a bag, sack or pack. You can’t fit a titanic gem into a large sack, but 1 to 3 huge gems could fit. These size codes would be especially useful if we added another code, <strong>F</strong>, for fancy items like vases, urns, paintings and other decorations.</p>
<p>Next up: maps and magic items.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-33124245921970262462021-07-12T15:00:00.001-07:002021-07-12T15:00:00.182-07:00Treasure Codes: How Coins Work<p>At some point, I plan to do a conversion table for OD&D treasure types to the <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a> I wrote about last week. But that’s going to take a while to assemble, so in the short term, I’ll try to explain some of the thinking behind the codes, with an eye towards things I might change in the future.</p>
<p>First topic: coins in treasure troves.</p>
<p>The original treasure tables had separate rolls for three kinds of coins: copper, silver, and gold. Later official versions of the treasure table often include new columns for electrum and/or platinum. I decided it makes more sense to use <em>relative coin values</em>. This has a couple advantages:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>It keeps the number of rolls low.</strong><br>
The full AD&D treasure table would require five rolls just for coins. This way, there’s only three rolls in most cases.</li>
<li><strong>It allows adjustments for GMs who use the silver standard.</strong><br>
This is a pretty common house rule that interprets equipment prices in silver pieces instead of gold pieces. There are rarer variant house rules for a copper standard or other alternatives.</li>
<li><strong>It allows temporary shifts for unusual treasure troves.</strong><br>
Even if using the silver standard, a GM could change the common coin type for a dwarven hoard to “gold” to make it much more valuable.</li>
</ul>
<p>In the previous write-up, I used the codes</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>C</strong> (common coin, in bags of 300 coins each)<br>
<strong>Cl</strong> (low-value coin, bags of 300 coins each)<br>
<strong>Cr</strong> (rare coin, bags of 300 coins each) and<br>
<strong>L</strong> (loose coin, in smaller quantities)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Plus optional suffixes to specify other types. Re-thinking this, I’ve decided that it’s easier to just use <strong>C</strong> + vowel + suffix. Suffixes are up to individual GMs – they <em>are</em> mnemonics, after all – but my own suggestions, based on stuff I’ve seen, are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>c</strong> for <strong>copper</strong><br>
<strong>s</strong> for <strong>silver</strong><br>
<strong>l</strong> for <strong>electrum</strong><br>
<strong>g</strong> for <strong>gold</strong><br>
<strong>p</strong> for <strong>platinum</strong><br>
<strong>m</strong> for <strong>mithril</strong><br>
<strong>j</strong> for <strong>junk</strong> (any coin less valuable than copper, frex iron)<br>
double or triple letters for larger coins, small bars, etc.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The missing element to these mnemonic codes, of course, is the vowels, which I defined as quantities. My original approach was to pick some of the most common quantities and assign them to vowels, but now I’m thinking that, if the die-type is constant (1d6) and we use numeric prefixes to indicate how many dice to roll (<strong>3 cig</strong> = 3d6 gold coins,) all we really need to use the vowel for is the multiplier (base number of coins.) So here’s a rewrite:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>a</strong> for <strong>average</strong> (x20)<br>
<strong>e</strong> for <strong>extra</strong> (x50)<br>
<strong>o</strong> for <strong>overflowing</strong> (x300)<br>
<strong>i</strong> for <strong>individual</strong> (x1)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These multipliers are based on container sizes in <strong>Men & Magic</strong>: 20 coins in a pouch, 50 coins in a small bag, 300 coins in a large sack. Which means that the first three vowels can be read as those container types. So:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>2 cag</strong> = 2d6 pouches of gold pieces, or 40 to 240 gp<br>
<strong>5 cog</strong> = 5d6 sacks of 300 gold each, or 1,500 to 9,000 gp</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Double vowels, or vowel combinations, add the multiples together before multiplying: <strong>coog</strong> is twice as many sacks of coins as <strong>cog</strong>.</p>
<p>The missing vowels, <strong>y</strong> and <strong>u</strong>, can be redefined as needed, but by default. <strong>u</strong> is “unique” (no die roll, just a single item) and <strong>y</strong> is an abbreviation for “two sacks and two bags”, a x700 multiplier. This makes it easy to get the original quantities of coins in the treasure table with the <strong>oy</strong> combo (x1000).</p>
<p>Next up: gems and jewelry.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-37456819311249826442021-07-06T09:37:00.002-07:002021-07-12T19:02:00.720-07:00Treasure Type Links<p>One thing I may not have made clear in the <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2021/07/treasure-types-or-treasure-codes.html">treasure codes</a> article is that I’ve thought a lot about treasure types and written about them in the past. Lots of analysis, most of which we can probably ignore. But for the curious, these specific posts might be useful.</p>
<ul>
<li>Probably the most useful thing I’ve done with the treasure types is to create a list of <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2010/09/monsters-sorted-by-treasure-type.html">monsters sorted by treasure type</a>.</li>
<li>I rewrote and tweaked the treasure types many times for my clone project, including these <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2010/09/clone-project-treasure-table-ii.html">thoughts about treasure types</a>.</li>
<li>At least a tiny bit of that work resurfaced when I wrote about <a href="http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2013/06/restocking-dungeons.html">restocking dungeons</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Delta’s D&D Hotspot has some relevant articles as well, at least one of which was around the same time as I was writing about it. These are much more math-intensive than anything I ever did.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2010/09/expected-treasure-value.html">Expected Treasure</a></li>
<li><a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-expected-treasure-and-xp.html">Expected Treasure and XP</a></li>
<li><a href="http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2014/02/dungeon-treasure-revisited.html">Dungeon Treasure Revisited</a></li>
</ul>
<p><img src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons license"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br>
International</a><br>
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-27768205607687301362021-07-05T10:19:00.006-07:002021-07-12T19:01:34.076-07:00Treasure Types, or Treasure Codes?<p>The treasure types table in OD&D’s <strong>Monsters & Treasure</strong> booklet has slightly obscure design goals, which carry over into B/X, BECM, and AD&D. As a result, it gets tweaked or completely replaced in most retroclones and many house rules. It’s tricky to figure out which type to assign to completely new monsters, or which old monsters can have their types swapped, since it’s not entirely clearly what the differences between most of the types really are.</p>
<p>But there <em>are</em> a couple distinctions worth noting:</p>
<ul>
<li>Most treasure types have all three coin varieties, but a few have no copper or silver, and one has no coins at all.</li>
<li>The max number of gems is the same as the max number of jewelry items in all but two cases.</li>
<li>Most types can have any kind of magic item or map, but three of them limit this to one variety, while some other have 2 to 4 items of any type plus one potion or scroll (or both,) guaranteed.</li>
</ul>
<p>Having coins, gems, jewelry, magic items, and maps all specified for any given treasure type confuses the design and reduces usefulness. What we could do instead is use <strong>treasure codes</strong> made from more than one letter. Something like:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">Code</th>
<th>Treasure Type</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center">B</td>
<td>Basic Treasure</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">C</td>
<td>Common Coins (sack)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Cr</td>
<td>Rare Coins (sack)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Cl</td>
<td>Low Value Coins (sack)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">G</td>
<td>Gems</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">J</td>
<td>Jewelry</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">L</td>
<td>Loose Coins</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">M</td>
<td>Maps</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">P</td>
<td>Potions</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">S</td>
<td>Scrolls</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">W</td>
<td>Weapons and Armor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">X</td>
<td>Other Magic Items</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Coins are separated into <em>Common</em>, <em>Rare</em>, and <em>Low Value</em>, corresponding to your standard coin used for prices in your campaign, a rarer coin, and a “junk” coin that’s less convenient to haul out of the dungeon. By default, these are in the proportion 1 rare : 10 common : 100 low-value, but you can change this to fit your campaign. The way you’d most likely use these codes in a monster description is to assume every treasure type is potentially present in standard quantities at standard chances, then specify anything that’s different. (That’s what <em>Basic Treasure</em> is for: a catch-all for any treasure type not otherwise specified, so that you can note a monster has ten times normal gold, no silver, and everything else is standard.)</p>
<p>Quantities for coins are assumed to be measured in “sacks” (300 coins each.) Other items like Gems and Jewelry are counted individually. This base number is multiplied by a dice roll, which we could choose to link to vowel codes like this:</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th align="center">Code</th>
<th>Size Modifier</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="center">a</td>
<td>Abundant (5d6x10)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">e</td>
<td>Extra (3d6x10)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">o</td>
<td>Ordinary (2d6x5)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">i</td>
<td>Individual (1d6)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">u</td>
<td>Undefined</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>So that we can specify treasure types like:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>CaBo no S</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Which would mean “this monster has abundant common coins like gold, ordinary quantities of other treasure types, but no scrolls.”</p>
<p>Undefined by default means “unique” (only one of this item,) but can also be redefined each time it is used.</p>
<p>Additional notes:</p>
<ul>
<li>Coins are broken down the way they are because you might want to set standard chances for each type, like “25% chance for common coins, 10% chance each for low-value and rare coins”.</li>
<li>Magic items are broken down the way they are partly because that’s the way they are broken down in the original treasure type table, but mostly because those types have special restrictions: armor and weapons probably won’t be in an evil wizard’s lair, potions and scrolls won’t be underwater.</li>
<li>If you want to specify absolute coin type instead of relative coin type, for example because you don’t want lycanthropes to have silver coins, you can follow the vowel with a lowercase letter (<em><strong>Cos</strong></em> = silver coins, <em><strong>Cog</strong></em> = gold coins.) This is especially useful for the “loose coins” type.</li>
<li>You can do the same for other treasure types, like magic items (<em><strong>Wis</strong></em> = magic shields, <em><strong>Sic</strong></em> = cursed scrolls.) Some of these might wind up pretty cryptic, though, so adding an actual word after the code (<b><i>Si (cursed)</i></b>) might be a better choice.</li>
<li>You can also use the “rare”/“low-value” modifier to breakdown gems into different values, for example, or to show that a magic item is fancier than normal or appears like a cheap common tool or weapon. (<em><strong>Gri</strong></em> = rare gems, <em><strong>Wlow</strong></em> = wooden magic weapon.)</li>
</ul>
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<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
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(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-82284013488683460192021-07-01T04:30:00.001-07:002021-07-01T04:30:00.188-07:00Divine Moods and Personalities<p>Someone brought up <strong>Gods, Demigods, and Heroes</strong> on the OD&D forums, wanting to talk about who has actually used it and how. For myself, I like the monsters, hero, and artifact entries. But the gods?</p>
<p>Let’s start with the kind of gods I want in my game:</p>
<ol>
<li>Ambiguous desires, plans, and even existence.</li>
<li>Ambiguous source of “divine” displays of power.</li>
<li>Enigmatic miracles and manifestations.</li>
<li>Both player and GM-created religions.</li>
</ol>
<p>These guidelines are based on two principles:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Create as much as possible through play rather than before play.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Keep the players front in center, not NPCs (including gods, the ultimate NPCs.)</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>So what kind of “god mechanics” would work for me?</p>
<p><strong>No monster stats for gods.</strong> They may or may not be real. Any monster may be a divine incarnation, sending, minion, or hoax.</p>
<p><strong>Start with a zone of divine control</strong>, what some versions of the game might call a Sphere. If using a god from mythology, this is the common interpretation of what that god is the “god” of (war, sky, death, life.)</p>
<p><strong>Add a second unrelated zone of control</strong>, possibly a narrower one.</p>
<p><strong>Add a profession or social role, if one isn’t obvious.</strong> Less likely professions or roles will be more evocative.</p>
<p><strong>Add at least one object or behavior associated with the god.</strong> This can be turned into a myth about the god (summarize a story in one or two sentences.)</p>
<p><em><strong>Examples</strong></em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Tut-Tut</strong>, the Warrior-Smith of the Coast, cries as he creates turtle-shell armor and shields in a sea-cave forge on the western shores. (Summary: War, Coastal Areas, Smithing, Turtles, Tears)</li>
<li><strong>Lyraine</strong>, the Huntress of the Celestial Choir, leads her chorus in battle-songs as she rides a parrot across the night sky. (Summary: Hunting, Stars, Music, Parrot.)</li>
</ul>
<p>The first time during an adventure where the PCs do anything on grounds sacred to a god, or in the presence of a priest of that god, or involving one of the keywords that “define” the god, make a reaction roll for the god. <em>Only do this once per adventure.</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Shift Results Down</strong> one step (Bad becomes Very Bad) if PCs harm a priest, defile a temple, or otherwise unwittingly “offend” the god.</li>
<li><strong>Shift Results Up</strong> one step (Good becomes Very Good) if performing rituals or otherwise serving the god.</li>
</ul>
<p>On a Very Bad result (2 on 2d6) or a Very Good result (12 on 2d6), it seems as if the god is “paying attention”. This might mean the god is real, it might mean someone who worships the god noticed and is acting on the god’s behalf, or it might be the PC’s unconscious guilt or confidence. If the first result roll indicates no divine interest, this will not change for the rest of the adventure.</p>
<p>For the rest of the adventure, track the PCs on the <strong>Divine Mood</strong> table below, starting at (Dis)favor unless the adjusted roll is 1 or 13, in which case jump to Bad/Good Omen.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Bad /</th>
<th>Good Mood</th>
<th>Effects</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><em>(Dis)</em></td>
<td><em>Favor</em></td>
<td>Flip near miss or hit</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Cursed /</em></td>
<td><em>Blessed</em></td>
<td>+/-2 on rolls</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Doomed /</em></td>
<td><em>Chosen</em></td>
<td>Next result becomes critical or fumble. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Enemy /</em></td>
<td><em>Ally</em></td>
<td>Extra wandering monster roll, seeks vengeance on/alliance with PCs. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>(Bad)</em></td>
<td><em>Omen</em></td>
<td>Minor spell (half dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>(Evil)</em></td>
<td><em>Sending</em></td>
<td>Wandering monster magically appears to attack/serve PCs. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Judgment /</em></td>
<td><em>Miracle</em></td>
<td>Major spell (twice dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>(Wrathful)</em></td>
<td><em>Avatar</em></td>
<td>Monster representing the god magically appears to attack/serve PCs. <strong>Reset</strong>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Favors, Blessings, Disfavor, and Curses stay in effect for the rest of the adventure or until the next time the PCs “interact” with the god in some way (break a taboo, perform a ritual, help or harm a divine servant, trigger one of the other key words.) Everything else happens once.</p>
<p>In either case, roll 2d6 and consult the <strong>Divine Mood Reset Table</strong>. If the result is anything below Cursed/Blessed, delay the new effect until the next interaction with the god.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>2d6</th>
<th>Divine Mood Reset Effect</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td>Flip Mood (bad to good or vice versa)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3-5</td>
<td>Mood Wanes (shift up one line)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>6-8</td>
<td>Reset to (Dis)Favor</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9-11</td>
<td>Mood Strengthens (shift down one line)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>12</td>
<td>Extreme Shift (down two lines)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13+</td>
<td>Flip Bad Mood to Good, otherwise shift down two lines)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p><img alt="Creative Commons license" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png" /></p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br />
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0<br />
International</a><br />
(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
</blockquote>
Talysmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02162328521343832412noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7239577512598038009.post-18183626376202877032021-06-07T04:30:00.001-07:002021-06-07T04:30:00.186-07:00How Many Miracles Will Your God Grant?<p>Here’s an expansion of <strong>Clerics Without Spells</strong>. my rules for using reaction rolls for clerics casting spells on the fly. These days, I assume spells prepared beforehand (“memorized”) can be cast without risk of spell failure. But there’s a couple situations where a cleric prays for spells:</p>
<ul>
<li>When preparing/memorizing those spells,</li>
<li>When casting a spell that hasn’t been memorized,</li>
<li>When praying for a miracle (higher spell level than they can memorize.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Religious characters who aren’t clerics can also pray for miracles.</p>
<p>So what if you don’t want to use a crude “all spells granted/no spells granted” approach?</p>
<p>This table should take care of it.</p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>2d6 Roll</th>
<th>Reaction</th>
<th>Detailed Explanation</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>2</td>
<td><strong>Fall from Grace</strong></td>
<td>No spells granted until character atones at a shrine or temple.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>3-4</td>
<td><strong>Divine Wrath</strong></td>
<td>If any spells are granted, they are at least two levels below max level.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5-6</td>
<td><strong>Divine Impatience</strong></td>
<td>Some spells may be granted, but not those at max level or those one level lower.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>7-8</td>
<td><strong>Divine Disfavor</strong></td>
<td>Most spells granted, but not those at max level.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>9-10</td>
<td><strong>Divine Favor</strong></td>
<td>All spells up to max level are approved.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>11-12</td>
<td><strong>A Miracle Is Granted</strong></td>
<td>Spell one level higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>13+</td>
<td><strong>A Great Miracle Is Granted</strong></td>
<td>Spell two levels higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p><em>Max Level</em> refers to the maximum spell level a cleric can prepare beforehand. For example, a 2nd level cleric’s max level is 1, a 4th level cleric’s max level is 2. Max level is half cleric level, rounded down. (officially, OD&D diverges from that after 5th level, and other D&D versions tinker with it, but this is the quick and dirty replacement I use.)</p>
<p><em>Miracles</em> here are spells that the cleric or worshipper doesn’t cast themselves, but ask to be cast. Any spell above max level is a miracle.</p>
<p>The table is basically the standard reaction roll with the <code>2 x (cleric level - spell level)</code> formula built into the results already, so no calculation is necessary.</p>
<p>Despite the wording (Favor, Disfavor, Impatience, Wrath,) spells and miracles granted are not considered absolute proof that the cleric or worshipper’s belief in their god is justified. It’s all a matter of faith, not objective truth.</p>
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<blockquote>
<p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en_US">Creative Commons<br>
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(CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.</p>
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