In which we mess around with time.

 I've occasionally lamented that most campaigns are not sweeping enough or long enough or enough enough for the "aging" rules to come in to play.  I've considered throwing a Pendragon homebrew into my mix but am kinda afraid of player revolt so it always get put on my back burner.

And then my weekend reading flipped a switch.  I found this!  I read the whole thing.  I read it AGAIN.  I read the links.  I took notes.  And I pulled up my trusty Chatgpt.  And my next campaign began to take shape.

Here's the pitch.  First 5 levels are sandbox.  Following plot hooks.  Killing things.  Helping people.  Finding stuff.  Then in tier two the flow changes.  Characters follow a hook  to another plane.  Fey?  Shadow?  Who knows.  And when they come back they've all moved into the next age category.  From young adult to mature.  STR and WIS improve.  20-25 years have passed.  I can use ChatGPT to figure out some of the big picture changes.  That village they were from?  Grown to a town.  The local noble house they were serving.  Maybe now they're the ruling family in the realm.  Or vanished.  We play a level or so and then they're summoned by a higher power to another planer adventure.  Perhaps the four elemental planes?  Gets us to tier III.  And when they come back they're middle aged.  Maybe 50 years have passed this time.  The world is different.  They spend a level figuring things out.  And then called away again.  To another plane or three.  

Upon return the players are now old.  Death lurks around corners.  Maybe one or two have died.  Another level on the material plane and then the final summoning.  Upon this return they are venerable (if they survive the travel.)  And they play out their old age on the material plane.  

If a player dies they are replaced by descendant, a fan, a family member. To hold the thread.  

Think it'll work?  

In which we earn XP

 

Haven't rambled about this in a LONG while (if ever) and I feel bad there's been nothing here for a while AND I've seen a few discussions on the topic on the webs so I thought I'd ramble.  CavegirlPoems started me thinking over on Tumblr.  They do a nice job breaking down how a handful of games award XP and what that means for the game.  Early D&D was simple.  1 GP of treasure = 1 XP.  Delve.  Carry it out.  Improve.  Repeat.  Simple, but nailed it.  Encumbrance mattered, as did depth of penetration.  YOU THERE IN THE BACK!  STOP GIGGLING!  Vampire The Masquerade rewards you for being the kind of player the game wanted. AS CgP observes "It was the 90s, they were still working out how to be a narrative-driven game, but you can see where they were going with it."  Monsterhearts.  XP for engaging with a mechanic.  I need more study.  And finally they look at 5e.  There are two systems at play here.  First is combat.  Violence gets you XP.  Hence: Murder hobos.  Second is milestone.  You level up when the GM feels like it.  And the game becomes James Wood finding Peter's candy.  You're "rewarded for following the railroad and reaching pre-planned plot moments in a pre-scripted story. You either have no agency in the matter, or are rewarded for subsuming your agency to the will of the GM. (This pattern continues with inspiration rewards, which are given 'when the GM is entertained by you'.)"

Neither of those is satisfactory which is why we don't use them.  We use the now seven year old Unearthed Arcana Three Pillar Rule.  Pillar I:  Exploration.  1 XP for every new 20 mile hex you travel through on a road or trail.  5 XP through the wilderness.  And additional XP (10 - 40) for exploring important locations, whether tied to the "storyline" or not and for finding "big ticket" magic items.  Pillar II: Combat.  Based on CR of the opponent and level of the character.  Awarded for killing, defeating and occasionally bypassing a creature or group of creatures, or a trap or problematic encounter.  Pillar III: Social interactions.  Awarded for positive interaction with influential NPCs.  The Mayor of that small village that you schmoozed when you were 9th level?  5 XP.  Positively influencing an NPC with cosmic reach?  20 XP or more.  

So does this produce the game I want?  After every session I send an email detailing the XP's earned.  The party KNOWS that traveling from A to B along a trade rout for the first time will be worth 6 XP but nothing after that as they run back and forth.  Cut a new 4-hex path through the wilderness?  20 XP.  Decide to check out that haunted cemetery on the way to the Wizards Tower?  Maybe 10 XP.  Maybe nothing.  Maybe it's a training ground for the BBG Evil Necromancer's mooks which might have a major impact on the storyline in coming months and worth 20 XP or more.  And they've learned to talk to people.  Find out who's in charge (or at least authoritative) and chat them up.  

And that's kinda the game I want.  Look under the rocks.  Smell the flowers.  Slay the evil beasties.  Thoughts?

In which we wake "It" up.

 The following isn't session notes per se.  It's the Thought process that followed a specific action during a session, written out for two reasons.  First, so that I can follow it, add to it, and keep the world moving.  Second so the players can read about what REALLY happened when the campaign is over.  

I'm using Fronts from Dungeon World, with a little Night's Black Agents thrown in.  Players initially just wanted to be treasure/monster hunters but after about five levels of that they decided a little BBG action would help, so long as it wasn't too railroad-y.  So I set to work designing it.  And plopping it down in the world.  Realizing that nothing exists until the players brush up against it.  Which means I can add, delete, alter and amend to my heart's content until they're actually in media res.  Which is what I've done.  One over-arching BBG.  Four (was six) factions struggling for dominance.  I gave the PC's an artifact and some clues to figure out it's workings.  While they searched for that I brushed up the factions. LAST session they FINALLY figured it out and that sets the ball rolling.

The Five Great Prophecies.  Each foretells the rise and triumph on one of the factions.  

June 21.  A generic bard was contracted to journey with the party as the revisited an old battle field.  Our ranger had been hired to do away with some marauding bears, which he did.  Leaving the rotting carcasses of the large carnivores behind. Which attracted a LARGER carnivore.  A green dragon.  The dragon was soon dispatched.  The bard had his song.  AND knowledge of the artifact.  Five days journey found him back in the capitol city.  There he reached out to the House of Pellissi, patrons of entertainers known to pay for information.  A quick visit to the School of Illusion netted him a bit of a disguise to protect him from feared retribution.

House Pellissi ALWAYS seeks favor from House Lupine, and with the election only six months ago it was important to keep ties intact.  The School of Illusion took longer to pass on the news - always on the lookout for false news dontcha know. Eventually word filtered up to the Archmage.  It was going to be an interesting summer.

The Arcane Eye moved first.  Valen the Enchanter reached out to their contacts in the "knowledge" world: libraries, scholars, sages and artificers.  They were to be on the lookout for anyone seeking information regarding The Compass.  (Game-wise: this started the countdown clock to their first Grim Portent.  Time now became a growing issue for the party ,although they didn't know it yet.)

House Lupine sent word to Lady Elara who then presented it to the Counsel of Sovereigns.  The CoS is far reaching and slow moving.  Already mid-July and they have not yet reached a consensus on what action to take.  By the end of the month they will have opted to merely consolidate their holdings and grow:  More caravans.  More thieves.  Guildmaster Thaddeus and "The Whisperer" will have a busy summer.

The Circle of the Silver Moon has already made an unauthorized direct attack, sending an Invisible Stalker after Dakora the Enchantress of Fire & Ice.  And acid.  They need to SERIOUSLY re-evaluate.  

The Cult of the Shadow Moon is more circumspect, taking a "wait and see" attitude.

The party sits at July 13 just off the Southern Road, a few days from Crossroad #1.  Completely oblivious of ANY of this. 

Next Session:

gets us to July 15.  I've stripped out one of the factions.  No more Shadow Moon.  The Shadowmaster (an outlaw gang) has knowledge they'll pass on to The Whisperer.  And a stray half-elf ranger will pass word on to The Purple Rider.  Arcane Eye is seeking someone to obtain the prophesied grimoire.  Dawn's Nexus? They parties foil?  Circle of the Silver Moon changes their focus to Brethemney and the blight.  The Counsel begin placing new faces in ever higher places.

another few sessions have passed.  Today is June 19th, and it's July 25th in the game world.  Was NOT happy with the way things were flowing (and neither were the players.)  Prohecy's learned weren't sparking interest.  The "other stuff" was happening but PCs weren't learning about it since they've opted for a long (productive) trip in the wilderness.  So I've fallen back to another old source: "Creating Epic Campaigns" by Guy Sclanders.  Have stripped out another faction.  Currently have four: the BIG BBG and three "secondary" factions, two of which are functioning under/beside the BIG BBG and another which MAY turn out to be allies of the PC.  I've redesigned all of the factions to fit the CEC format.  Only one of the prophesies has been "learned" so I'm rewriting the rest to fit the CEC model.  Should be MUCH more actionable.  It's also helped to design the countdown clocks that will "run" the factions.  And taking a page from Gnome Stew to provide a war room for the party.  Need to design a polar area chart so the PCs can SEE the progress (at least graphically) and rework the countdown clock.  Every iteration makes things a bit clearer.  

 

In which we peek behind the screen

Recently had a lengthy after-action discussion at our table about how initiative and combat timing works.  You can read the basics of our procedure here.  In response I wrote the following and figured since I WROTE it I may as well post it.

Khari kneels before an unopened chest, hoping to find something useful therein. Behind her about 15' back in an arc are Kirkas, Dakora, Castellan and Serynah. Turn's out the chest is a mimic. Mimic takes a grab at Khari, fails, and I call for initiative.

I then go around the table asking for your result. Kirkas 17, Dakora 11, Serynah 12, Khari 12 and Castellan 9. I enter these in the appropriate field on the combat sheet. The monster's initiative is already there. The dice roller and modifier were input when I “built” the encounter. The sheet is formatted to indicate who goes first, second and third. In THIS case Kirkas is first, Serynah is second and Khari is third.

Kirkas tell's me he going to attack with his bow. He rolls 2d20 to determine if he hits, then rolls to determine damage done. I update the mimics HP according AND note that Kirkas has spent 1 AP AND note that the thing Kirkas did (fire his bow) takes 8 tics. Since he STARTED on 17 the spreadsheet then indicates that Kirkas will go again at 9.

Next up is Serynah. She opts for a 3^rd level sleep spell. She rolls a d20 to see if she successfully casts the spell. She'll need to roll 10 or better (10+spell level-charisma modifier.) She's successful but a Mimic has an average of 58 HP. Even if she rolled all 8's she'd only score a 56 and be unable to Sleep the Mimic, so no joy. I note that she has spent TWO AP (to cast a leveled spell) and that it took 3 tics (one per level.) Since she started on 12 she will next go on 9.

Khari is up next at 12, followed now by Dakora (11), Kirkas (9), Sareynah (9), and Castellan (9.) Khari opts to use her wild shape. This uses all three AP and takes the rest of this turn so she's done.

Dakora opts for Witch Bolt. She successfully casts the spell and the arc of energy connects to the mimic. Since she cast it at 4^th level she'll do 4d12 damage this turn and 1d12 for every turn hereafter so long as she concentrates and takes no further actions. Casting the spell costs her 2 AP and 4 tics. She'll be up again at 7.

Kirkas decides his archery isn't strong enough so he swaps out his bow for Swiftstrike. That's an action and takes a tic. He has 1 AP left and will be back up at 8.

Serynah is up next and has only one AP left. Move? Probably not. Fire bolt. No need to check success as cantrips are always successful. She DOES need to hit on a ranged attack. BOOM! She hits. And now that she's 5^th level it does 2d10 damage. But her AP are spent so she's done.

Castellan finally gets to step up. So to speak.. He summons Selune's Strike which takes one tick but costs no AP, but he has to wait for the next tic. As the cantrip takes effect Kirkas gets to go again.

But wait! Oh no! The mimic is ALSO in at 9. That wicked tongue lashes out at the now-wildshaped Khari. It hits, does 7 points of damage. Khari gets to try to avoid the grapple with STR vs DC 13. Let's say she doesn't. The mimic only has one attack so IT'S done but it'll be biting down NEXT turn.

Kirkas and Castellan go again at 8. Kirkas casts Hunters Mark (0 AP) for 1 tic, moving to 7. Castellan realizes he probably should have cast Moonbeam so he does it NOW … spending 2 AP. He succeeds at casting it, the mimic fails it's ST at disadvantage and begins to morph back into its gloppy shape. It takes radiant damage from the beam. Kirkas now has to move to get close enough to swing, using his final AP.

Dakora maintains her concentration hoping to finish the beast next round. And unless I've missed something above thus endeth the round. Six seconds. Roll again? Doubtful. I'd likely allow Dakora's Bolt and Castellan's Beam to finish the beast without playing it out.

The initial guideline for the whole shebang was Greyhawk Initiative. And I've used Tao for guidance. And a handful of other content creators. I keep tinkering with this table to make it better. Latest iteration (NOT used above – will use next session.)

Most stuff: 1

Move, per 10': 1

Spell: 1 per level

Grapple, Potion, poison: 5

Find something: 1d8+2

But the problem is weapons. How long should it take to use them? OLD system was 2 for light/finesse. 4 for versatile, 6 for heavy, 8 for bows and 10 for crossbows.

So I'm gonna try this next time: Light/finesse 1. Heavy/2-handed 3. And I'm still trying to come up with SOMETHING that makes sense for archery. Optimum real world rate of speed I've found was 12 arrows per minute which implies only 1.2 per melee round. By "rule" Kirkas could fire up to six. I need to do more research and do NOT wanna penalize Kirkas.

And after sleeping on this the long term solution becomes clear: ranged weapon attacks require 2 AP.  Suggestions welcome.

In which we get reacquainted

 My table's on its third campaign dating back to the Before Times.  SO hasn't played since previous campaign so while she knows the players her PC doesn't know THESE PCs.  And she's decided she'd like to take her place at the table again.  Good so far.

Party is in the middle of a dungeon.  We ended prior session having found a secret door.  What might be behind it?  Last night we began by opening the door.  A 15' diameter circular room.  In the center is a large opalescent bubble.  Visible inside is what appears to be the stature of a female spell caster, mid-spell.  After taking 2-3 minutes to THOROUGHLY examine the room the party notices that the statues hair is wafting VERY slightly, as a small bead of perspiration makes its way from her scalp down the side of her face.

Upon discovering this the party exit the room and use Mage Hand to manipulate the bubble into bursting.  The "statue" spring to life shouting "I'm here to help.  Have you found both keys?"  Kim was in the next room and I cued her to come in and sit down and away we went.  Turns out she was "rescued" at the conclusion of the prior campaign and placed here in temporal stasis to help the party.  

"New" character introduced mid-adventure.  A few story elements/hook planted with her.  Instantly accepted as helpful based on the info she exposited. 

In which we are no longer playing D&D

 I MAY have discussed this a year or so ago.  When does D&D stop being D&D?  The example used in this video is that of the conundrum of the Ship of Theseus.  I discussed this with some local DM's a while back and the general theory was "if you can still use your 5e character sheet you're still playing D&D."  And Mike Shea aka Sly Flourish also addressed this earlier this month.  Shea argues that the 5.1 System Reference Document changed what 5e "is."  He argues "the term "5e" no longer means "the 5th edition of D&D" but now acts as a stand-alone term defining compatibility between thousands of 5e RPG products."  Edit to add: Just found THIS too, the major takeaway of which seems to be that everything is now about combat.  Encumbrance, water, rations, and ammunition are afterthoughts.  Bags of Holding and Leomund's Hut are mainstays.  And the DM is no longer a rules arbiter.  They're a  story teller. 

Further, an "online friend DM" recently had his long time game fall apart due to, among other things, a 5e dispute.  He's NOT running 5e.  He's NEVER run 5e.  Everybody at his table KNOWS he's not running 5e.  If anything he's running AD&D with some sweet, sweet homebrew set in an early 17th Century planet earth.  But he had a 5e player tell HIM how a spell worked.  He's modified a lot of spells (or is still using the AD&D version) and the players KNOW how they work.  But 5e with its "rule of cool." "yes, and" philosophy and storytelling not game playing ideology doesn't fit with that.  So there was an eruption and what had been built over almost a decade was gone in an instant.  

Because he wasn't playing 5e (?)  He wasn't even sailing a ship of Theseus.  Which doesn't matter.  But it does.  HAD he been playing 5e RAW this problem STILL would have arisen because the player STILL thought she could tell the DM how the spell worked.

I'm wandering a bit but IMHO it all ties together.  

I have three VERY different players at my table and the challenge is to offer the game I wanna offer, AND the one EACH of them wants to play.  D played AD&D but kinda missed the intervening versions.  Her PC's are detailed, innovative and push the systems in place.  J played some of those other editions and still bears some of the scars.  For him it's a board game with more options.  The difference between characters is the difference between the battleship and the race car.  He wants puzzles and mysteries to be resolved asap and if they aren't he loses interest.  And then there's C.  Never played before so no preconceptions.  Very analytical.  Every combat encounter is a problem to be solved.  Every social encounter is an opportunity to be milked for information.  Every hex/point crawl is an opportunity to peek behind the curtain.  

Me?  I'm a systems guy.  I HATE running published setting because IMHO I just CAN'T know enough about them to do them right.  And there's so many things that 5e either does poorly or doesn't do at all that my approach has been "Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of D&D... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of TTRPG.  I've messed with spell components, insanity, initiative, the action economy, and encumbrance.  And that's just the player facing stuff!  

But is it D&D?  There was recently a discussion about me running a game the the MS where I teach.  The plan fell through but it's what got me thinking.  IF one of my young players had played 5e they were gonna be flummoxed by a lot of my homebrew.  IF one of my young players went to another game they were gonna be flummoxed!  But would the character sheet still be "transferable?"  Probably.  But just because the sheet can be dropped into a game doesn't mean it's the same game.  Which is why I prefer players who play their character, NOT the sheet.  D above is such a player.  J plays the sheet.  And C is a combination of the two.  

So I'm playing Velveeta.  A processed cheese food product.  It's a lot like cheddar.  Or American flat cheese.  But it's better.  Because it makes what we're cooking better.  So when we add more players we'll be open with them and tell them we're playing a 5e D&D-like product.

In which we un-randomize random encounters

 at least during "travel."

Here's how we've BEEN playing it:  drawing from Uncharted Journeys and a few other sources all cobbled together I have the players roll a d20 and a d6.  The d20 determines the encounter and the d6 determines when it happens.  

There are roughly a dozen TYPES of RE during travel.  Rest related.  Food related.  Bumps in the road.  Caravans.  Travelers in trouble.  Bandits.  Monsters.  A few others.  And what I've BEEN doing is ...winging it.  But you can only have so many muddy sink holes, last adventurers and greedy bandits.  

UJ uses a very mechanic heavy approach.  Party members assume "rolls" on the trip.  Depending on the type of encounter a given roll makes a skill check that then determines how the party rolls to respond to the encounter.  Party rolls.  Results applied.  Move on down the road.  Game-able n stuff but not terribly "satisfying" during the session.   I've tried prepping a 4e style skill challenge but those are difficult to spin out spur of the moment.  So I need to come up with something "different."  After 50 years of a game there just ISN'T much different.

One of my players suggested "give us two minutes to come up with a solution and THEN adjudicate it."  Which is nice for player buy-in and participation.  So here's what I'm going to do this week.  As part of my prep I'm going to design THREE RE's for each general type (thus putting a dagger in the heart of the "random" part.)  I'll incorporate the UJ method and layer in some 4e skill challenge stuff.  It'll be more detailed and granular than it needs to be BUT - it's what my table has asked for and once the initial chart is designed I'll only need to replace those that are used.  Some weeks there will be NONE!  

More lonely fun.