New 52 Pages Download and To Do List

Well, now that the 52 Pages system is a fully playable document I'm making the new pdf available for download, on the right. Still, the pdf is not complete. Here is my "to do" list for changes:

* There are 4 pages still to create, dedicated to adventure examples and GM/player advice.
* I want to rework the Prophet class so they operate by spells like the others (more on that soon)
* Do something different with starting equipment so a whole page of equipment cards is not required. Most likely, a starting party will get a standard shopping basket of equipment, and new members will get a pick or random roll of X pieces from the list.
* Reduce the character sheet to one vertical page. Perhaps include it at the back, outside the 52 page count, and add a character creation walkthrough of the kind that got me props back in the day.
* Other player aids: spell lists, GM's log
* Air out the combat section, make it less dense, with an extra page.
* There have been some problems interpreting the feats of strength and magic items sections, so rework that.
* Generally proofread, standardize terms, get graphic elements lined up and clearer.

I'm not sure if the pages of rules need more detailed text annotations - I would rather make them stand clearly on their own, with maybe a little bit of RPG experience desirable to grasp the concepts.

And then it's on to the 52 pages "expert" edition for adventures at levels 4-6, including:

* New class powers and spells.
* Hybrid class options for more variety.
* Basic world creation for the GM.
* Wilderness and sea adventure rules.
* Lots more monsters.
* Building reputation in settlements toward the next party goal - gaining official status as agents of a realm.

But before that, the next project will be to clean up my wilderness encounter tables and present them together with a detailed world, weather and outdoor adventure system for any game.

One Page Magic Items

No room here for pages and pages of listings. Instead, as with monsters and treasures I enlist the Game Master's own discretion and imagination - framing the possibilities, not exhausting them. Just like spell failures in my system can involve the wrong other spell, so magic items are mostly spells in a box, removing the need for separate descriptions.

And most of the need for enhanced items at low levels can be supplied by the "special" non-magical items instead. The starred ones can even be bought in a large enough settlement. This will help overcome "blah, another +1 dagger" blues, and ensure that the really enchanted stuff shines out someway.

More powerful weapons/armor than +1 are rare (you pretty much need to roll high on a second roll to get them, or get lucky with "roll twice" results.) Again, this will help arrest the climb of the combat game to silly power levels. But every once in a while you will get a weapon that reaches artifact-level powers. Further rules for higher levels will give more possibilities.

Well, now ... this means that except for the play examples, and a few changes I want to make in previous pages (the prophet class and some other things), the 52 Pages is now a complete "basic" system for character levels 1-3! I'll have a viable download of the rules so far up for you tomorrow.

...Considered as a Matrix of Semi-Precious Stones

Found this cool "table" on a Chinese gem seller's site while figuring out what kind of semi-precious stones (entry <5>, [1] on my treasure table)  to put in a treasure hoard. Numbers added, anachronisms (synthetic stones) removed and replaced with glowing stuff. Enjoy your petrified wood necklaces!

Click to read it.

More Sufficiently Advanced Chemistry

Following this earlier post, but going back to an earlier Cracked article,  here are some more inspirations for adventure-game wonders based on real chemistry.

Ferrofluids: Suspensions of iron particles in a liquid that form shapes when magnetic fields are applied.

• An iron door that is solid only through the grace of magnetism; turning off the field collapses it.
• Over here is a jug of some black oily material. Over there is a statue holding a detachable hilt that exudes an invisible magnetic field (going near, you feel the pull on your iron weapons and armor). Pour the jug on the hilt for a real Liquid Sword.
• Flicking the switch means that the slimy liquid at the bottom of the pit rises up and forms nasty spikes.

Aerogel: Translucent, super-strong material that's mostly air.

• Cloudy glassteel pane: you can kind of see through it to all that treasure on display, but not break it.
• Or you can break it - but there's an angry air elemental inside.

Perfluorocarbons: Breathable fluids imbued with oxygen.

• It's a pool with ... a manticore at the bottom?
• I stashed my treasure under water at the end of this long tunnel. Suicide to try and swim, but only I know the water is breathable.
• Potion of water breathing - but you have summon up the guts to inhale it right into your lungs.

Elastic conductor: Material that expands and becomes rigid when current is applied.

• Wizard's bridge over a chasm. You need to cast a lightning bolt to extend it all the way, but hurry - it only stays that way for a round.
• Curtains that part for anyone except the electric shock monster being held captive.
• Gloves that enhance a shocking grasp spell with a floppy ribbon that turns into a blade, adding stabby injury to shocking injury.

Non-Newtonian fluid: "A liquid that turns solid when sufficient stress is applied."

• "It's only a ten-foot drop, I'll just dive into this ... AAAGHHH"
• You find a strange leather suit, that seems to be made of two layers with a little valve. Elsewhere you find a bottle of the fluid. It gives full mobility, works as plate mail against blows of all kinds, and can only be pierced by small soft scratches.
• The giant can walk on this water, but you little guys just fall through.
• Lair feature of a Great Old One wishing to outdo Cthulhu's non-Euclidean geometry.

Transparent alumina: See-through (if slightly cloudy) metal.

• See above under glassteel doors and windows.
• Metal bikinis and codpieces just got more interesting.

Carbon nanotubes: Nano-scale fibers made of carbon: incredibly strong, electrically conductive, and yeah, the Cracked writer gets overwhelmed by the Cracked style guide at this point and just gets stuck on "bur bur bur awesome mind-blowing bur bur bur" so here's the website of a company that makes them, and the wiki article.

• +3 armor that looks like just a shirt and pants. Nanotubes.
• The beast with nanotube fur ... equivalent to plate mail.
• A sword with an invisible blade. It's just one nanotube.
• The wizard installed some looong nanotube wiring in her castle to deliver fire and lightning damage to those below.

Very Quick Carousing Rules

Having reconciled myself a little more to the fact that the 52 One Page Rules are not going to allow for all the baroque splendor of my carousing procedure, or anyone else's, here's an attempt at a very short one that fills the corner of the "settlements" page:

I'm actually not unhappy with it; it offloads some of the decisions onto the GM, of course, but looks like it can produce effects similar to what my main party has experienced so far in campaign play, with the notorious cheese roll being a "contest."

Meaningful and Unpredictable: Results by Random Match

It's desirable, when setting forth a world, to show both the predictable occurrences that give it meaning and the unpredictable ones that give it surprise. I don't have much of an interest in running a world where everything is unique and surprising, because I suspect that people would quickly bore of it. You need to get an idea of business as usual, in order to really appreciate business as unusual.

Typically, a random table will handle this by including greater- and lesser-probability outcomes. But there's another way to get this effect.

To illustrate, roll a d6 five times, then another five times. You'll get two lists of numbers like:

5, 1, 5, 4, 2

1, 6, 4, 2, 3

If we try to match the numbers as closely as possible that gives 3 exact matches - 1,4, 2 - and two that are off by 1 or 2 points - 5 to 6 and 5 to 3. More rare are sets in which the matches are way off - in which a 2 is forced to go with a 6, for example. So this seems like a good procedure for generating, not expected or unexpected lone elements, but expected or unexpected match-ups.

The point of the classic treasure types is that monsters have different kinds of treasures - orcs have coins and looted objects, sphinxes have scrolls and magic items, dragons have, well, everything. Rather than make a cut-and dried list, though, why not group encounters into units of five or so, and try to create the best matching possible within each unit? This will give a mix of expected and unexpected treasures.

So as an example, the treasures I generated with my new table were:

A well-crafted large stone statue worth 6000$
100$ of drugs and 2 gold pieces
2000 cp (what, no rats?)
Two high quality, decorated swords each worth 1000$
A Grand Hoard of 4000$ in silver, 5000$ in exotic hides and a 1000$ gem.

And the monsters of approximately appropriate level:

2 owlbears
An NPC, level 6 (fighter)
Winter wolf
4 gibbering mouthers
A juvenile ankheg

Some of these matches are easy. The NPC is the one with the gold and drugs (a 3 round dose of powdered haste). The ankheg is the weakest encounter, and has turfed a sack of crappy coppers into its burrow. The gibbering mouthers are the strongest challenge, so they guard the grand hoard.

Then some are less obvious. You could decide in the end that the swords belong to the NPC and the winter wolf is her pet. This leaves the statue with the owlbears, and it's just coincidence that it's in their lair. The statue is the second best treasure, but also a complete white elephant to move, and may not even be recognized as treasure.

I find that five units is about the right size to get a mix between completely appropriate monster-treasure "stories" and surprising or strange stories. It also occurs that this might be a good way to get other matches done - monsters and lairs, for example, or tricks and their effects.

The Man-E-Faces Trick

I've been playing the browser game Four Scepters. Like Grow RPG, it's a puzzle game disguised as a fantasy adventure, but with an unusual twist. Instead of sending in the four party members together, they must go in the dungeon one after another, one stepping in when the other one dies.

This neat scenario had me thinking how to make the premise work as a tabletop trick to spring on the players - making them send in the fighter for some monsters, the wizard for others, the thief to spring traps, and so forth. Of course, some contrived gauntlet of one-person teleporters, amulets, and so forth could simulate the exact play of the game. But what about ... this solution?

Bonus if the statue actually changes faces.

A granite statue of a human-sized helmeted figure, of ambiguous gender and race, stands on a carnelian pedestal. When anyone touches the pedestal, the statue emits a blinding radiance, and all persons in the room are amalgamated into the statue, which then comes alive. Any equipment or items are left in the room.

The composite statue has the combined hit points of all its inhabitants. In order for it to act, all must agree to let one personality dominate as the "caller" - at which point the statue takes on the caller's abilities. The statue has a natural armor class as partial plate mail, and can use held items and weapons appropriate to the caller's class.

How can the players get back in their bodies? Well, that might be a matter of reaching a goal buried deeper in the dungeon - of one of the players reaching a new experience level (experience points are divided up as normal) - or most deviously, by letting the statue die.