I'm Surrounded By Idiots

Dammit! I told him to hold!

This is a wargaming idea I've been musing on for a couple of years that crystallized in my head during a shower today.  It would likely work for a variety of scales and periods but my intention is for horse and musket games in Ruritania-style imagi-nations where the characters of the generals, colonels, and units are considered important for flavor reasons. The goal is to simulate the vagaries of command and control situations in countries where generalship is based on hereditary position. It draws from the game fantasy warriors and is hopefully a sort of spiritual cousin to Fleet Captain.

Units in the game are grouped under brigadiers and those units may only perform moves and actions based on their brigadier's current orders. There are three potential orders:

1. Assault - units must make moves that move them closer to an enemy, fire upon that enemy (in close range if possible), and charge that enemy. If the enemy appears as though it is not likely to stand, a charge is always required.
2. Oppose - units may make moves that take them closer to an enemy and fire upon that enemy, but may not move within close range and must fall back if the enemy comes within close range.
3. Hold - units may not take any move but may fire at enemies that come within range. Units will only move if forced to retreat.

Brigadiers have a rating between 1 and 5, 5 being the best. They also have one of the characteristics described below:

• Brash - wants to Assault.
• Unsure - wants to Oppose.
• Cautious - wants to Hold.
• Cowardly - wants to retreat a full move and Hold; however, may instead desire to save his reputation and Assault.

In the course of a battle, the CinC (which stands in for the player and has neither a rating nor a characteristic) will want to issue new orders to brigadiers in accordance with the shape of the battle. If the CinC does not have troops they command directly, they may move into base to base contact with a brigadier and change their orders. No roll is required if orders are changed in this way as the presence of the CinC makes sure these orders are carried out.

If the CinC cannot make base to base contact, or if they have personal troops who they cannot leave, they must send a runner who arrives at the brigadier in the same number of turns it would've taken the CinC to reach base to base contact in the turn they were sent out.  A CinC may send out any number of runners but only one runner may be sent per brigadier.

When a runner arrives with new orders, a die is rolled. If the result is less than the brigadier's rating, the brigadier adopts the new orders and acts accordingly. If the result is greater than the brigadier's rating, the brigadier is willful and adopts new orders in accordance with his characteristic.  If the scenario should impose modifiers to this roll, a 1 is always a success and a 6 is always a failure. A cowardly commander may never have a rating above 4 and a will always Assault on a result of 6.

If this is the first scenario using a brigadier in question, they must be named and their character and rating established. To determine their rating, roll a die.  A result of 1 OR 6 means the brigadier's rating is 1, with all other results being equal to the brigadier's rating. A separate die is then rolled for character, with the result determined per the table below.

1. Cowardly
2. Cautious
3. Cautious
4. Unsure
5. Unsure
6. Brash

If the brigadier has appeared in a scenario before, or it is part of a longer campaign, the character and rating from that scenario are generally kept.  However, if at the end of a scenario the brigadier has disobeyed orders AND his units were routed, a die is rolled.  If the die is equal to or less than his rating, the general's rating improves by one (never higher than 5). As an optional rule, if a Brash brigadier disobeyed orders and routed the units of the enemy, a roll may be made as above.  If the roll is GREATER THAN his rating, his rating decreases by 1.

Another optional rule is for elite units which are determined to have ratings greater than their commanders, such as grenadiers or horse guards. These are given a rating by the scenario (usually a 3,4, or 5) and if the brigadier disobeys orders then a separate roll is made for the unit.  If the die is less than or equal to the unit's rating, they perform the intended order of the CinC and not the brigadier.

Drink to the Dead

The following rules were created by Cole for his Swords of the Inner Sea campaign but are apparently derived from work done by Chris and Robert. They work well for Old School D&D games and I wanted to preserve them.

Normally the successor of a fallen adventurer may inherit 25% of the XP of the dead character.

However, 50% will be inherited if the body can be recovered and given a heroic funeral, with a value of at least 100 GP per level spent on of the deceased sacrifices, grave goods, professional mourners, orators, venal holy men, impressive incence, free food and drinks for hangers-on, et. al.

Donors will receive half the GP value contributed in XP, up to twice the minimum value.

Partial remains are considered by a case-by-case basis; burying the half of the body undevoured by the monster is acceptable, but there has to be at least enough to mock up a body with creative funeral garbing. The adventurer who unsentimentally severs the head of a corpse, prizing encumbrance slots over reverence will find no satisfaction in the rites.

Needless to say, attempting to recover donated goods after the funeral is likely to incur a terrible curse.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Huth has written a version for 5e based on my criteria and I plan to use it in my Wilderlands game.  It is reproduced below:
Normally the successor of a fallen adventurer may inherit only one-quarter of the XP of the dead character. However, the successor will inherit half of the predecessor’s XP if the body can be recovered and given a heroic funeral.
To provide such a funeral, contributors must contribute gp (or the gp value of appropriate goods) towards the funeral. This gold is put toward funerary monuments, beautifying the final resting place, preparing the body, sacrifices, grave goods, professional mourners, orators, venal holy men, impressive incense, food, drinks, and drugs for hangers-on, et cetera.
If the total gp spent on the funeral matches or exceeds the heroic funeral threshold, then the deceased character’s successor gains 50% of the deceased character’s XP (instead of the standard 25%). This threshold is equal to 100 gp x (dead character’s level).
If the threshold is met, then each contributor may spend a a downtime action on the funeral rites (to plan and assemble the above funeral goods and services and perform the rites). Every contributor who does so gains bonus XP based on the amount of their individual contribution. This bonus XP is equal to an amount based on the contributor’s current level (see chart below), per every (5 gp x (dead character’s level)) share contributed, to a maximum of 20 shares. (GP in excess of this may be provided to the funeral total, but will provide no XP bonus to the contributor.)
Example: Anne (level 2) is contributing to Bob’s (level 4) funeral. For every 20gp Anne pays into the funeral, she receives 6 XP. Anne pays a total of 240gp into the fund, netting her 72 XP. (((240/(5x4))x6)=72)

XP per Share by Contributor Level			GP of Share by Deceased’s Level			GP Threshold of Heroic Funeral by Deceased’s Level
Level	XP		Level	GP		Level	GP
1	3		1	5		1	100
2	6		2	10		2	200
3	18		3	15		3	300
4	38		4	20		4	400
5	75		5	25		5	500
6	90		6	30		6	600
7	110		7	35		7	700
8	140		8	40		8	800
9	160		9	45		9	900
10	210		10	50		10	1000

Nightwick Abbey Player Doc

A looking for players poster made by longtime online player Cole

Here is a player doc I did for the 5e version of Nightwick.

Let me know what y'all think.

Into the Wild... erlands

This is the system I'm using for hex crawling in the Wilderlands.  It is primarily based on this Unearthed Arcana article, but it also draws inspiration from Adventures in Middle Earth and the Pathfinder Kingmaker CRPG.

A party venturing through the wilderness will have characters serving in the following roles:

Guide (survival):* Makes a survival check to direct the party to their destination.  Failure indicates the party becomes lost, travelling in a random direction (1d6 roll for hex side) for their full day of movement.  Success means they are on the proper course.  A natural 20 means a shortcut is found and they are able to move an additional days worth of hexes.  Rangers may automatically succeed on this roll in their home terrain, but must take this role in order to do so.

Scout (investigation and stealth): Uses investigation to see what's ahead of the group.  If a random encounter has been rolled or a ruin, relic, or lair, is within the hex then a successful investigation roll reveals the encounter and the Scout may make a stealth roll to continue investigating.  If they don't want to stealth, they may return to the party and inform them of what's ahead for proper planning.

Forager (survival): Uses a survival roll to gather food for up to 4 people.  Additional characters must either have another forager or use rations.  A failure on this roll provides no food.  A natural 20 automatically feeds the whole party.

Guard (perception):  Uses perception to avoid being ambushed by encountered creatures.  If the Scout has failed their investigation roll, then the Guard must make a perception check.  If that check is successful then the encounter is spotted while it is between the Scout in the party.  If it is a failure the encounter is able to gain an attack on the party where everyone has the surprise condition.

*Guide is the only role that is required.

The order of operations is as follows: at the beginning of the day the guide makes a roll to see if the party is on course.  For each hex they pass through, the DM determines if there is a thing in the hex or if a random encounter occurs.  If there is an encounter of some sort, the DM asks the Scout to make an investigation check.  If the Scout succeeds the DM describes the encounter.  If the Scout fails the Guard must make a perception check.  If the Guard succeeds the monsters are spotted between the Scout and the party.  If the Guard fails then the monsters attack with surprise (assuming they're hostile).

Camping requires a survival roll to make camp (any role can do this) and the decision of whether or not to have a fire.  Failing this roll adds a level of exhaustion to all characters.  During colder months, no fire means that the characters accrue another level of exhaustion.  The night is divided into three watches.  Only those who take the first or last watch gain the benefit of a full long rest.  If a fire is set there are three chances for an encounter (one for each watch) and if there is no fire then there is only one chance of an encounter (the watch it occurs during being randomly determined).

Nightwick Abbey 5e Houserules

With the Death of G+ I'm going to need to keep these somewhere new, so...

Nightwick 5e House Rules
Races Allowed: Human, Dwarf, Fair Changeling (Half-Elf), Foul Changeling (Half-Orc), Frogling

Classes: All but Monk and Sorcerer. Barbarian and Druid are pagan only. Cleric get domains from either Saints (Good) or Demons (Evil). Warlocks can't choose Great Old Ones. Paladin Oath of Ancients is allowed for Order of the Elk characters.

Domains and Saints: Knowledge - Saint Simon the Wise, Life - The Lady, Light - Richard the Prior, Nature - Saint Simian, Tempest - Saint Santa Claus, Trickery - Ralph the Liar, War - Saint Gax

Half XP from monsters. XP for gp value of treasure.

Variants from the DMG
Healer's Kit Dependency (Can't spend a hit die without someone spending a use of a healer's kit to bandage you)

Renaissance Firearms [with added random mishap table since TDC handgonnes are shittier]

Hitting Cover (if you would've hit a creature, but the bonus from cover meant that you didn't, the missile hits the cover instead. This can include your buddy)

Lingering Injuries (roll on table when reduced to 0 hp)

Morale

G+ Nightwick Abbey Polls

I've added two polls so that my readers can help me decide how to run a ConstantCon game I'm planning.  My model is entirely stolen from Jeff's Wessex game.  Mine will take the players into the dungeons of Nightwick Abbey.

The first question I had was which rules y'all would most like me to use.  I'm quite partial to LotFP, though I'll be adding a customized bestiary in order to more easily facilitate megadungeon exploration.  Still, Jeff's game uses B/X and I imagine that there will be some crossover in players.  As such, I thought I'd open up Labyrinth Lord and B/X as options in order to assure maximum compatibility.  Select the one you would prefer.

The second one is to help me decide when I should run the game.  I've noted times that are particularly good for me (this semester).  Select any of the ones you could potentially make.  I'll pick the one that gets the most votes.  This time might be subject to change next semester depending on how my work hours shake out, but I tried to pick times that wouldn't bee in too much jeopardy.

You have one week to vote.  Post comments here if you have any.

FLAILSNAILS Conventions for Nightwick Abbey

As a signatory of the FLAILSNAILS Conventions I have decided to put up a very rough and somewhat preliminary conversion guide for the current incarnation of the rules used in the Nightwick Campaign.  For now I'm assuming one is coming over from a version of TSR D&D, but I'm open to other options.

• Character Abilities: PCs will use ability score adjustments from Labyrinth Lord.  These bonuses do not cover any activities not covered in the core book.
• Races: the Nightwick Campaign currently uses a Race as Class system.  Your character becomes the racial class available in the Dark Country that is closest to your character's race.  Elves and Half Elven characters always become Changelings, while Halflings and Hobbits grow beards, develop an intense desire to make shoes, and generally become Gnomes.  Others shall be decided on a case by case basis.
• Classes: The following classes are available in the Nightwick Campaign: Assassins, Clerics, Druids, Fighters, Magic-Users, Paladins, Rangers, and Thieves.  All classes operate as explained in the Advanced Edition Compendium for Labyrinth Lord.  Fighters are the exception and gain Multiple Attacks as per Swords & Wizardry.  Racial classes include Changelings, Dwarves, Froglings, and Gnomes, but see races (above) for handling non-human characters.  In the event that you're converting an Illusionist you may pick whether your character is a Magic-User or a Changeling.
• Rules Cyclopedia Special Case: Lawful Fighters being brought in from the Rules Cyclopedia may choose to be Paladins for the duration of the game.  Neutral Clerics from the RC may enter play as Druids.
• Hit Dice:  All characters roll all of their hit die as if they were making a new character at whatever level their character currently is.  Use the Advanced HD option from the AEC.   Do not reroll 1s.
• Secondary Skills: Each Character begins with 1 secondary skill from the AEC.  This is rolled randomly.
• Alignment:  Each character is either Lawful, Neutral, or Chaotic.  The vast majority of imported characters will be Neutral (meaning they are polytheists and not dicks).  Chaotic characters will only be those who actively worship the various Demons that exist in the Nightwick Campaign.  Lawful characters must worship the God of Law, and it is suggested that in previous games the character worshiped a Lawful or Lawful Good deity such as Heironeous or St. Cuthbert.
• Character Languages:  Languages operate as they do in LotFP:WFRP.  Treat the character as if they have never encountered a language other than Common or their racial language before.
• Age:  Character age as though the character is brand new in the Nightwick Campaign as per the AEC. However, if the character suffered any aging affects in previous games, these still apply.
• Multi-Classing: For simplicity's sake, multi-classed characters entering the Nightwick Campaign must pick which class they really are.
• Equipment:  The character begins with any equipment they had in the previous adventure (or its closest AEC equivalent).  However, they lose all of their gold coins upon entering the Nightwick Campaign (Dark Country taxes are rough).  The character may begin with 3d8 gp in order to buy some equipment they think they may need for the adventure, but that option is for sissies.
• Spells:  Spells function as they do in the AEC.  Incoming Magic-Users begin play with a number of spells in their spellbook equal to the number of spells they can cast per day unless they are level 1.  If they are level 1 they begin with two first level spells and one second level spell.  In addition they also begin play with Read Magic.  They cannot cast anymore than they could under standard LL rules.  These spells are rolled for randomly by the judge (if  he has enough time) or the player (if he doesn't).  Changelings use the illusionist spell list.

That should just about cover it.  It'd be unlikely that these rules would be used at the actual table, since my group meets at one of my players' homes; however, they would definitely be in effect if I ever offered to run Nightwick Abbey for Constantcon.

It is possible that I might make an online version of the Abbey use a different rules set (either straight up OD&D + Houserules or S&W) in which case I'll post a different set of conversion rules.

Dark Country Rules

This is a vague summary of the rules systems I currently plan on using when I restart the Nightwick Abbey campaing.  All of these use Labyrinth Lord as a base.

The original iteration of Nightwick Abbey that I ran before moving to Knoxville use the Swords & Wizardry: White Box along with a completely homebrewed monster list.  This represents the current state of the campaign.

Some really astute readers will note some inconsistencies with earlier characters, such as Ffraid the Cleric who used the RC rules that level 10 Clerics become Druids.  Since she died in the TPK I've decided to make Druids a base class.

Men & Magic

-          Availible Character Types

o   Humans

§  Clerics

§  Druids

§  Fighters

§  Magicians

§  Paladins

§  Rangers

§  Specialists – as LotFP:WFRP

o   Demi-humans

§  Changelings – as Elves in LL, but roll on trait table and use Illusionist spell list

§  Dwarfs – as per AEC

§  Froglings – See separate handout

§  Gnomes – as Halflings in LL

-          General Skills – as LotFP:WFRP

-          Secondary Skills

-          Alignment – Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic

-          Languages – as LotFP:WFRP

-          Age

-          Multiclassing (Humans and Dwarfs only)

-          Character Inheritance

-          Equipment – as per AEC except for Ascending AC

-          Spells – as per AEC

Monsters & Treasure

-          Use MM, FF, and MM2, converting alignments to the three point alignment system where appropriate

-          Some monsters have considerably different ecologies than the ones provided in the various AD&D books.  Dark Country descriptions always trump AD&D descriptions.

-          Use XP system from the DMG

-          Magic items and treasure from AD&D

Underworld & Wilderness Adventures

-          Use Evasion Table from the RC

-          Use encounter table system from MM2

More on Retainers

I've posted some quotes relating to retainers from the Mentzer Red Box and Keep on the Borderlands in the comments of James M's post.  I thought I'd deal with some from the AD&D PHB here.  I'm most interested in hirelings since thats what the majority of my players have used.

"At any time a character may attempt to hire various different sorts of workers, servants, or guards."  Well that pretty explicitly does not place any restrictions on the recruitment of hirelings.  "Note that the number of hirelings is in no way limited by charisma...."  That provides even less of a barrier than B/X and BECMI's undifferentiated "retainers."

The most interesting part, to me, comes from the Successful Adventures section.  "Once an objective has been established, consider how well the party playing will suit the needs which it has engendered....  Will it be necessary to find mercenary non-player characters or hire men-at-arms in order to give the party the necessary muscle?"  This quote makes it sound like the use of hirelings is at best a conditional state.  If the party has a particularly tough monster it wants to go after in the dungeon, then you bring some mooks along.  Otherwise you might have a linkboy or two, but if you're not specifically going into no man's land you're not going to be bringing a small warband with you.

Not sure what all this means to the greater conversation yet, but it's something to chew on.

General Skills

One of the more intriguing parts of the Rules Cyclopedia, to me anyway, is the Other Character Abilities chapter.  To get this out of the way: Weapon Mastery sucks.  Hell, if I had remembered to add it to my house rules my current Nightwick Campaign would use the LotFP small/medium/large weapon system.

However, I really like the idea of General Skills.  A few players in my old group often complained about the lack of character customization in OSD&D (I mainly ran S&W at the time but they also played LL).  I think General Skills add a modicum of that without the cumbersome nature of 3.x's skill system.  It would help to differentiate say a Northern born barbarian from a knight without the need for separate classes.

It also provides a method of healing that doesn't require someone in the party to be a Cleric.  Now, I like Clerics and would never remove them from the Nightwick Campaign as they fit so well in that context.  However, the idea of a Cleric as a designated healing class bothers the shit out of me.  The healing skill is a nice way to mitigate some of that, but it's limited healing potential still keeps the spotlight on the Cleric.

I would introduce them to my game, but I'm not sure if I want to muddy the LotFP Common Tasks system I already use.  How does one add an Ability roll based stealth skill to a game where any character has a 1 in 6 chance to sneak?  I'm not sure yet.

I will say that I'm very tempted to adapt them into the Underworld setting.  Since I'm thinking of using the S&W White Box as the rules for that setting, I don't have a dedicated way to handle opening doors, climbing, sneaking, and a myriad of other tasks.  Also, since I don't have to accommodate Thief characters, introducing General Skills is that much easier.