Category Archives: RPG

Fulgrim’s Backpack

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What is in your backpack?

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival is titled “What’s in your backpack?” asking for what folks have in their real life backpack or their character’s backpack. I found the topic interesting and was initially going to talk about the art of selecting items for a character’s backpack or what a standard load for the backpack should consist of.

But then I started thinking. That is all fine in theory, but what happens as a character progresses? What really happens to the items they carry in their backpack? So I decided to let one of my characters empty out their backpack and see what they have accumulated over the early levels.

Fulgrim Ironforge

With that, meet Fulgrim Ironforge, a 4th level Barbarian from the Pathfinder RPG System. Let’s see what he has to say.

“Backpack? Ye want ta’ see in me backpack?” the dwarf with a shaved head and long, thick brownish beard says looking up his chair. “I ‘spose I got time fer that.”

The dwarf slides a worn leather backpack from one side of the chair. Several straps hang from the pack with similarly worn brass buckles, scratches scoring the surface of the metal. A battered tankard clanks against one of the buckles as the dwarf finishes sliding the backpack in front of him.

The dwarf reaches to one of the side pockets of the backpack and begins to draw things forth, placing them on the table. From a side pocket he pulls out a ball of twine, several pieces of chalk, and a whetstone. “Can mark ye way wit da chalk if needed. Dat twine, never know when it might be handy.” Fulgrim states as he moves to another side pocket.

From that pocket he pulls out a dingy cord about three feet in length, stained with dark red and rust colored spots and places it on the table, followed by a vial of thick, silvery liquid. “De cord is a good way ta’ keep yer weapon on ye if somethin’ try to take it from ye. Dat silvery stuff can ‘elp against stuff resistant ta normal weapons.”

Fulgrim moves on to the next side pocket and slides out a much used deck of cards. The edges are worn and marred with dirt. He shrugs as he places them on the table “Somethin’ ta play in de evenings.”

Finally the dwarf opens the top flap of the backpack and begins removing items from the pack. Several vials, a flask or two are placed on the table. A silken rope is placed next to the vials as Fulgrim rummages around in the backpack more. “Flask ‘o de finest dwarven liquor fer de cold nights.” Fulgrim says, still rifling through the pack.

Fulgrim pulls a blanket out that seems unusually bulky, even for a blanket. He smiles as he places it on the table and slowly unfolds it revealing several caltrops, a hammer and a water skin. “De blanket keeps de spikes from pokin’ a hole in de pack. Helps muffle de sound too, keeps ’em from clankin’ in when ye don’t need ’em ta be.” Fulgrim adds.

Reaching further in the dwarf pulls out several more items, several small pouches of powder, trail rations, flint and steel and another waterskin. “Dat looks ta be it.” Fulgrim says.

Fulgrim gazes at the items on the table for a moment, “Guess it don’t hurt ta be prepared!”

Meta

Here is a list of what was actually in Fulgrim Ironforge’s pack:

  • Alchemist’s Fire Flask
  • Antitoxin
  • Blanket
  • Caltrops
  • Chalk (x3)
  • Flask
  • Flint and Steel
  • Hammer
  • Marked Cards
  • Tankard
  • Oil (x3)
  • Powder (x3)
  • Rations, 1 week
  • Rope, Silk (50′)
  • Twine (50′)
  • Waterskin (x2)
  • Weapon Blanch, Silver
  • Weapon Cord
  • Whetstone x3

I tend to load my dwarven characters up with more supplies than I do other races.

Summary

I think it is interesting to see what characters tend to keep in their backpack. I tend to vary mine from character to character. Some are pack rats and fill their pack full of miscellaneous items and others only pick up the bare essentials. Fulgrim is just one glance at one character to see what is carried

DCC RPG: The Wizard

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This article is another in the weekly series in which I have been looking at each of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG character classes. I have looked at the Warrior, the Thief, the Dwarf, the Cleric, and the Halfling in previous weeks.

As we came down to the end of the series I posted a poll to see which classes people wanted to see next. The Halfing just managed to win that poll with the Wizard coming in a close second. This week I will be taking a look at the DCC RPG Wizard.

The Class

Being a Wizard in Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG is dangerous. Wizards draw their power from demons or gods, ancient black magics from long forgotten tomes or through deals with the devils or other unearthly beings. While great power and magic can come from these exchanges, it is not without risk.

The wizard in DCC RPG starts with a d4 hit die at first level. They are able to use a handful of weapons, including long or short swords. While they are able to wear armor it does cause a penalty to spellcasting.

Wizards can choose their alignment with black magic tending to be practiced by chaotic wizards and neutral and lawful wizards practicing more with the elements of the world. Enchantments can be used by any of the three alignments.

Magic is an interesting area in DCC RPG as it includes a large amount of randomness. The randomness factor helps reinforce the idea that magic is not always controllable or predictable. The use of magic is not to be taken lightly. A beginning wizard beings with four spells, these spells are chosen randomly at first level.

When a wizard casts a spell, they must make a spellcheck – a d20 roll plus some modifiers that includes the wizard’s caster level. The result of this roll is looked up on a table for the specific spell being cast. The roll will determine whether the casting was successful, whether the spell is retained for use later, and how great (or little) the effect of the spell is.

As noted above, a wizard can draw their sources of magic from many different places, including supernatural patrons. A wizard can bind themselves to a patron and from that point use a spell called invoke patron to seek special aide in times of critical need. A patron may or may not respond to this request and may or may not barter an exchange to grant the aide requested. While this is quite powerful, it is not without its risks. Most of these risks are left to the liberty of the judge to determine.

A wizard can summon a familiar if they so choose by using a spell to do so.  A wizard’s luck modifier applies to rolls of corruption and mercurial magic.

Mercurial magic. This just one way that spells are different and unique depending on the wizard that is casting it. When a new spell is learned by a wizard, they roll on the mercurial effect table to determine how that spell will behave when cast by this specific wizard. There is a table with 100 different effects on the table. These effects can be positive or negative in nature and affect how that spell works each time it is cast.

Image by Steve A Roberts, http://fantasyartdesign.com/

There are some other mechanics in DCC RPG that affect wizards and the way they cast magic. As mentioned earlier, a wizard makes a spell check roll when they cast a spell to determine if the spell is successful or not. If a wizard rolls poorly they might suffer a misfire, corruption, or patron taint. The table with each spell will help determine the result of the roll and whether a misfire, corruption, patron taint, or possibly all three apply.

Misfires are specific to the spell and tend to include unexpected effects of the spell, frequently detrimental to himself or his allies.

Corruption has a rather significant effect on the wizard. There are three tables for corruption that cover minor, major, and greater. Corruption tends to be things that damage the wizard, leads to an altering of their appearance or other such effects. A wonderful graphic in the book illustrates the progression of a wizard over time. The first frame showing a young, handsome man and by the final image a grotesque hunched over monstrosity.

Finally there is the spellburn mechanic. Spellburn allows a wizard to call upon outside sources such as demons, devils, the darkness between the stars and so on to burn ability score points in a one for one exchange in bonus to a spellcheck roll. A wizard can burn points from their Strength, Agility or Stamina ability scores.

My Impression

The wizard class can seem pretty complex at initial look. With pages and pages of spells with tables and charts, mercurial magic, spellburn, corruption, and misfires. As you start to read more about the class and actually play though you learn that you only need to be concerned with the spells your wizard actually knows and a handful of tables which can easily be brought to the table.

Once over the initial hurdle of familiarizing yourself with the basics of a wizard, I think the mechanics do a very good job of reproducing that “Appendix N” feel for the wizard. Magic is random. Magic is not something to be taken lightly. Magic has its price.

One of my favorite lines from the DCC RPG in the Magic section is “Use a torch, fool; it is much safer!” This line helps set the readers expectation as to how magic works in this world. It isn’t used to light your way in dungeons or to light street lamps or for any trivial task. Magic is not to be trifled with.

In d20 games there is always the debate of Vancian magic systems versus some other magic system and how wizards can over power the rest of the party at higher levels. I think the magic system and wizards in DCC RPG have found an interesting way to balance the wizards power, the frequency they can cast spells with the random nature of making magic dangerous as an elegant solution to the wizard’s power. Sure the wizards can obliterate some foe – but at what possible risk to them or to their party?

I am quite satisfied with how a wizard functions in Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. It gives me the old-school feel of the wizard from the strength perspective, the power that we all think of when it comes to a wizard with the randomness of something bad happening when casting to temper that power a bit.

Next Week

Next week I will be bringing the character class series to a close with a look at the Elf. The Elf is the last character class on the list! Be sure to check back next Friday for the final article in this series.

D&D Next: Playtest 2

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I have not talked much about D&D Next at The Iron Tavern, but I have been keeping an eye on it along the way. I liked the direction the first playtest was headed, save for a couple of small things that could easily be fixed – either through modifying the core rule or a “module”. I was eager to download the second playtest packet earlier this week when it was released.

Before I get into this post too far, let me advise that my comments here are based solely on a read through and not an actual playtest.  I am also aware that the playtest docs are trying to get the tester to play the game with these rules. In the future these rules could easily be a module and possibly not even a core assumption of the game.  While I may not like some of the rules in this second playtest packet, that could be remedied by the final product by seeing the core rules simplified and other portions being moved to modules.

This post is looking at certain rules from the playtest that grabbed my attention and is not intended to be a thorough review of each rule or the playtest.

Character Creation

We have character creation rules this time! It is broken down into a fairly simple process. Ability scores are generated by random dice rolls. The totals are assigned later in the character creation process. For those that do not like such randomness a standard array of numbers to assign is also included. Point buy is obviously lacking, but I suspect this will make its way into a final release of the rules and the provided mechanisms of ability score generation are more to keep things constrained for playtesting.

Character race and class are chosen next with nothing too outside of standard choices for the playtest. Two optional rules at this point allow a player to choose a background and a specialty for their character. Background helps give you a default set of skills and a specialty provides feats and helps provide some focus for the character class you chose.

The rest of the process is calculating your various modifiers for attack, initiative, saves, etc. This portion is clear as well. The player moves on to choosing equipment, describing your character and choosing alignment. The traditional 9 alignments players of the D&D genre are included as well as an unaligned category for creatures that it simply does not make sense to have an alignment, think something like a plant.

Character creation is laid out cleanly in the playtest. It is easy to follow and walks you through the whole process in an orderly manner. As noted the playtest rules do lack a point-buy option that many players and groups like. I strongly suspect it will have an appearance in the final rules though, so I am not too worried about the lack of that option being spelled out.

I am not a big fan of Backgrounds or Specialties, but I will go over that in a section dedicated to those options. It is worth noting even in the playtest both of those selections are noted as optional.

Backgrounds and Specialties

Backgrounds and specialties appear to act as packages for skills, traits and feats. Backgrounds are where your character came from prior to their adventuring life and Specialties are further refining the character’s class. Backgrounds bring a bundle of skills to the table, Specialties bring a bundle of feats to the table.

While there are several of these packages to choose from, I grow hesitant with a defined template of skills or feats to choose from. Admittedly it might make a new person’s entry to the game a little easier, it strikes me as stifling creativity by needing to fit into one of these templates. New backgrounds and specialties could be created, either as officially released material or by DMs in their home campaigns, but there is still something about them that I do not like.

Backgrounds are essentially introducing a full skill list again instead of relying as much on lesser defined ability checks. Specialties are similar appearing to be adding feats again as well. By having these introduced one could likely choose skills and feats a la carte to better emulate a character truly customizing their character background or class specialty.

Classes

The major classes are represented in this playtest.

The cleric has rather weak magic and weapon attack progression and does have access to several domains that come with suggested equipment lists, grants additional weapon and armor proficiencies in some cases and other domain features.

I fear the cleric is being delegated back to a healing only type class. Perhaps some the classes spells can make up for it, but at this moment I am not seeing anything that makes me really want to play a cleric.

The fighter comes with the combat superiority feature. I like how this one starts. You get a die, a d6 at first level. This die can be used for combat maneuvers which can be gained by spending the die, i.e. trading it for a maneuver, or rolled as part of maneuver to add damage or some other effect.

I liked the premise when I first read about this from the Wizard’s site. Unfortunately I think they will make this mechanic overly complex and I can see the beginnings of this already in this playtest packet. The framework being attached to this mechanic of only being able to use combat maneuvers you have unlocked and trading dice versus just rolling the dice. I think the overhead is too great and is going to hurt what could potentially be a really fun mechanic.

In comparison I present Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Mighty Deed of Arms mechanic. Here too we get an extra die to roll during the attack. This die grows in size as our character levels. The results of this die get added to attack and damage and if you exceed a 3 on the damage die you can be creative as a player and perform a special move or call it a combat maneuver. The big difference is that the player can be creative! We aren’t restricted to a set of combat maneuvers that are well-defined or that the character might not have access to yet.

The rogue’s sneak attack escalates pretty quickly in the playtest packet. Some think too quickly. I have not looked at it long enough to make a call one way or the other. There is also some attempts to make the rogue truly skillful through Skill Mastery. I am one that thinks rogues should be very good at skills, it is their bread and butter. I think the rogue is one I would need to get some play time in to make better comments on.

The Wizard class is fairly typical. Certainly more Vancian magic oriented which I like to see. A nice low hit die which I am sure will make some upset. In my initial glance I do not see too much that I dislike about the wizard, though I withhold comments about spell power at this point in time.

Opportunity Attacks

I am glad to see these back in. I found the game played funny when there were not opportunity attacks. Even just bringing them in for moving out of a threatened square is a move in the right direction for me.

Long Rests

They have added a couple of variants to the amount of healing one gets for a long rest, but I am still not entirely happy with that offering either. First, the core assumption being all hit dice and hit points back after a long rest seems to be at the high end of the scale. I would rather it become an option, but maintain an assumption for more a middle ground.

The variants still seem to miss what I would consider the sweet spot for me. I would like to see a long rest for the core assumption to mean you get to roll all your hit dice and regain those as hit points and get all of your hit dice back. For example, if I have 5d8 hit dice, after a long rest I roll 5d8 and add that back to my hit point total and start the day with 5 hit dice to roll during the course of the day if I wish.

Wrap Up

I have only looked at some of the highlights from this most recent playtest packet. Frankly I need to take a closer look at the spells and bestiary before commenting on any of those. At the moment I prefer the first playtest packet to this second as some of these additions are not for the better. I will provide more in-depth commentary on the packet as a whole once I have reviewed the spells and bestiary and spent some more time looking at, and hopefully playing, with the rules as they are in this set.

Interview: Jon Marr of Purple Sorcerer Games

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The Iron Tavern recently had the privilege to interview Jon Marr of Purple Sorcerer Games. Purple Sorcerer Games is a third-party publisher for Goodman Games Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

Jon and Purple Sorcerer Games have been busy publishing new adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics such as Perils of the Sunken City, The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk and the soon to be released A Gathering of the Marked.

In addition to adventures being published Purple Sorcerer Games, Jon has been putting out some wonderful electronic tools for Dungeon Crawl Classics as well. These tools include a 0-level character creator, an upper level character creator and the Crawler’s Companion that is being released for tablets of Android and iOS flavors due to their successful Kickstarter.

And with that, let the interview begin!
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Tell us a little about Purple Sorcerer Games?

Purple Sorcerer Games grew out of a free utility I created for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG beta. I knew the totally random nature of creating 0-level characters cried out for a character generator, so I built one over the first weekend after I downloaded the beta. As I began creating an adventure to test the characters I was spitting out, I got the idea to create a location that would make it easy to introduce lots of new parties and adventures. When I showed Perils of the Sunken City to Joseph Goodman from Goodman games, he suggested I become a third party publisher, and here we are.

How did you get your start in gaming?

I’m one of the herd of old-timers that got started in middle school in the late 70’s. I can still remember my first exposure: overhearing a friend in the library describing a magic item. Something electric went through me and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Which gaming system did you first start with in the late ’70’s when your gaming interest began?

The first time I played D&D was with a friend who had the white box, though my clearest memory is having my Mom drive me to a neighboring town to purchase the blue box from an awesome used book store that sold games. I remember waiting for the first DMG to arrive.

We quickly branched out to most the early systems: Traveler, Runequest, Chivalry & Sorcerery, The Fantasy Trip, Gamma World, etc. I also spent many Saturdays at the local ‘wargaming society’ playing Squad Leader, Panzerblitz, Ogre, etc. Fun times!

Purple Sorcerer Games develops and designs adventures and software tools for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games. What attracts you to the DCC RPG?

I think the chief thing was just accessibility: the DCC RPG beta gave me a good chance to kick the tires and find out what I liked. I really am of the opinion that the group, and especially the GM, is far more important than the system, but the DCC RPG checks a number of the boxes that are important to me. I liked 3E, but it got a big unwieldy for me at anything past 8th level. 4E was fun, but lacked a certain magic. The DCC RPG is wild, unpredictable and focused on adventure. In other words, built for fun.

Purple Sorcerer largely appears to be a one man effort. Do you have other members on your team? How do you find time to write the online tools, orchestrate a Kickstarter campaign, and release adventure modules for the game? What does a typical day look like?

The last few months have been crazy. I’ll likely be adding some additional contributors in the future, but for now it’s me and my son. (Who helps out with creating the paper miniatures we release with our adventures.) Like most RPG developers, I have a full time job, though I work from home with a very flexible schedule which helps. Most of my adventure/ online tools development happens between midnight and 3 am. It’s been a steady stream of 12-14 hour days during the last stretch, but I’m working out how to spread things out so I don’t get burned out.

Which do you prefer – writing adventures or developing the tools for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG that Purple Sorcerer offers?

I think they’re very complimentary activities, and it’s one of the reasons I love doing this. I’m a graphic designer/web developer by trade, and was a history major and writer in college, so the things I do for Purple Sorcerer covers all the bases. If I keep rotating between the various aspects that use different parts of the brain I never get bored.

You recently released The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, the second in the Sunken City set of adventures. Can you tell us a little more about the Sunken City and this most recent release?

The Sunken City is the remains of a great city that has now been largely overtaken by swamp over the course of hundreds of years. Players travel back and forth into the city using demon-powered sending stones. The grand idea for the Sunken City adventures was to create three 0-level adventures: a dungeon crawl, a wilderness/town adventure, and a haunted house. The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk is the wilderness/town adventure, and I had a tremendous time stuffing it full of strange swamp monsters and stranger villagers.

Perils of the Sunken City used black and white for the content inside the adventure, whereas The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk switched to a color interior. Why the switch?

I love the black and white look of the Goodman Games adventures and Doug Kovacs’ fantastic maps and art. The maps in Perils of the Sunken City were something of an homage to that look. But the first piece of art I created for The Ooze Pits was the Slither’s End town map, and it looked so nice in color I decided to make a switch. Also, I’ll be combining all the Sunken City adventures into a full color hardcover book when they’re complete, so it made sense to make the change now.

From the adventures I have read so far, you seem to hit the “Appendix N” feel of Dungeon Crawl Classics very well. Were you well versed in “Appendix N” literature prior to the launch of Purple Sorcerer games?

I’d read most the classics that others had: LOTR, The Complete Enchanter, Dying Earth, etc, but I’d guess the biggest Appendix N influence for my adventures would be the Lankhmar novels. I love the blend of humor, terror and gonzo imagination.

With your the Lankhmar influence, it begs the question – Fafhrd or Gray Mouser?

The Mouser’s pathos is fun, but I have to say Fafhrd’s, well ‘innocence’ isn’t the right word, but his straightforward world view appeals to me. I’ve been re-reading much of the Lankhmar stuff recently and I’m impressed once again by the sophistication of Fritz Leiber’s writing. I also love that he’s willing to ‘bend genres’ whenever it fits the story. That’s very DCC.

A Gathering of the Marked is the next adventure in the Sunken City series and then your will be moving on to the M series of adventures. Will these be based out of the Sunken City area as well? What level range do you have in mind for the M-series of adventures?

The M-series will chart it’s own course, though there will be links for how to transition from the Sunken City. There will be five adventures, one each for the first five character levels.

You have developed several useful tools on the Purple Sorcerer site, including a 0-level character generator. I know I have used this tool several times. At last count how many 0-level characters have been generated from the tool?

I believe we’re approaching 200,000 eager peasants created. (And the upper level character generator has been used about 10,000 times.)

You recently had a Kickstarter Campaign wrap up for the Crawler’s Companion, an effort to bring Purple Sorcerer tools to tablets of all kinds. What challenges has this project presented you with?

The major challenge is time: working on the program while also turning out the adventures! It’s been interesting dipping a toe in the Mac/iOS side of things, but I’ve learned a lot and things are going well. The backers have been so fabulous, and I try to keep them apprised of what’s going on. We’re still just polishing up the beta, and I have over 40 backers testing the Crawler’s Companion. I’m excited to get working on the extra features, as I really enjoy that aspect of development.

I can imagine finding time has been challenging! With all of the development time for adventures and electronic aids have you had the time to run or play in your own DCC RPG campaign beyond playtesting?

I’ve been following all the Google+ online gaming sessions with great jealousy! Yeah, I haven’t had time for anything outside of playtesting, but I’m looking forward to getting involved once things calm down a bit. I’m likely going to playtest the next Sunken City Adventure online, since I’ve recently moved away from half my regular group! Online GM’ing will be an entirely new experience for me, but I think much of our hobby’s future lies in that direction.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about Purple Sorcerer Games?

Just that I’m so appreciative of everyone’s support, and I’m having a blast creating these things. If you like our free utilities, check out our adventures at RPGNow. They’re fun, they’re a good value, and the sales help support the creation and refinement of all the free stuff we offer online!
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The Iron Tavern wants to thank Jon for taking the time to answer my questions. It was a pleasure interviewing him. Be sure to check out the website for Purple Sorcerer Games and see what adventures and tools they have lined up for us!

DCC RPG: The Halfling

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We are in the home stretch now for my weekly series of looking at each of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG character classes a little closer. The Iron Tavern is down to just the Halfing, the Wizard and the Elf left for further review. In previous weeks we have looked at the Warrior, the Thief, the Dwarf and the Cleric.

This week I put up a poll and let the readers decide which character class to look at this week. It was a close race between the Halfling and the Wizard for most of the polling period. In fact, I had planned to close the poll at 5pm on Wednesday but the two classes were tied! I ended up extending the poll another four hours for last minute voting. The Halfling pulled it off, bringing in 48.15% of the vote!

The Class

The Halfling is a creature of comfort in Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Typically found in country environments and preferring peace and quiet. Halflings generally seek to avoid interacting with the “tall folk” unless some need drives the need for interaction. They prefer a life of simple crafts – gardening, farming, trinket making and such.

The adventuring Halfling is frequently one that is a trader, necessitating the need for contact with the “tall folk” or a Halfling that has fallen out of graces with his Halfling community. Even then the intrinsic desire for community and family tend to keep their alignments in the Lawful side of things, with the rare case a Neutral alignment. Chaotic Halflings are quite rare, though not necessarily unheard of.

Halflings are of small size ranging in size between two feet and four feet with a smallish hit die of a d6. This small size do get Halflings a bonus on stealth checks allowing them to add a bonus that progresses as their character level increases. Halflings do get infravision, though not to the range a dwarf character has. The movement for a Halfling is at a 20′ rate as well.

One of the class features a Halfling receives in DCC RPG is the ability to wield two weapons effectively regardless of the character’s Agility score. A Halfling is always able to wield two weapons and only suffers a -1 die penalty (i.e. they roll d16 on both attacks instead of a d20). A Halfling is able to fight with two equal-sized weapons, so you can play a dual short sword wielding Halfling if you wish. Another fun perk is that the Halfling only fumbles if both rolls come up 1.

Courtesy deathbstrd at DeviantArt

The Halfling also has an ability known as the ‘Good luck charm’.  Halflings are able to make use of luck in several more ways than a typical DCC RPG character. First, a Halfling receives a bonus of 2 for every point of luck spent as opposed to a one-to-one ratio. Halfling’s also have the ability to recover luck, similar to a Thief. Each night a Halfling can recover luck equal to the Halfling’s level.

And finally, because Halflings are so lucky they can spend luck to aid other party members. The only requirement is that the person the Halfling wishes to aid must be visible and nearby. Only one Halfling per party can act as the luck charm of the party.

My Impression

The interesting portions of the Halfling to me rest mainly in the ability to use two-weapon fighting easily and their ‘good luck charm’ mechanic.

Two-weapon fighting granted as a class ability is quite fun. Granted you have to roll d16’s when attacking with two weapons, but that is not a horrible penalty. For some reason a Halfling fighting with a pair of daggers or short swords just feels right to me. It also gives a small statured Halfling some form of being capable in combat.

The luck mechanic for the Halfling is also a great boon for the class or even any adventuring party that includes a Halfling. One thing to remember is that the decision to expend luck can be made after the initial roll has been made. With a Halfling that can recover luck on a nightly basis, that is fairly significant and greatly improves the Halfling’s odds of survival given their slight stature.

Couple this with their ability to not only spend luck at a 2 for 1 ratio, they can also aid other party members as needed. A Halfling in the party could really affect the survivability of certain encounters if the Halfling party member can spend luck to help boost some of their rolls.

The Halfling in DCC RPG might be underestimated as a character class. I think DCC RPG has done a good job of making the Halfling a viable character race. Between two-weapon fighting and the incredible luck mechanics the Halfling can really help turn the outcome of an encounter in this game.

I think the one thing that could make the Halfling a little better in DCC RPG is to allow them to pick up some basic Thief skills. I do not know why, but when I think Halfling I always tend to think of a small, agile thief type character.

So… How does the Halfling work in actual play? I judged a game with a Halfling and the player seemed to have a great time with the character. The most memorable moment of a game with a Halfling in it was the “rolling ball of Halfling death”. With two-weapons the Halfling chose to roll out past a shield wall and amidst the middle of some attacking rats. While luck did not really come to play that round, it certainly could have and exemplified the possibilities for this character class.

Once again, despite sounding like a broken record, I think Dungeon Crawl Classics has hit the essence of a character class quite well with the Halfling character class. While I do think some thieving type skills might put it a little more on the mark, the class is still fun to play and is certainly in the ballpark as to how I think playing a Halfling should feel.

Addendum

Next week is Gen Con week. While The Iron Tavern’s Gen Con plans are up in the air, I will likely skip next week in my look at DCC RPG character classes since I suspect a lot of my readers will be at Gen Con. I will continue my look at character classes on Friday, August 24th with a look at the Wizard!

AetherCon August Update

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AetherCon has been hard at work preparing for their Online Convention this Fall. Here are the latest updates for their event from the past three weeks:

Press Release

We’d like to welcome Ethan Parker and Jon Gibbons to the AetherCon staff. Mr Parker, the organizer for KantCon, has signed on to take the position of GM Coordinator. Mr. Gibbons (AEG, PEG) has been named to the Art Directors post.

The following games have been added to our schedule:

  • William T. Thrasher – Call of Cthulhu Tournament – “The Wounded Sky“
  • Julian Constantino – Pathfinder – “Justice For All“

William has also been recently tapped by Paizo to do some writing on an upcoming project.

The following games and GMs have recently been confirmed:

  • Greg McClendon – Dark Heresy
  • Roger French Jr – Macho Women with Guns
  • Sherman Sheftall – Runequest 6th Ed

The following game publishers have been added to our supporters by either contributing prize support, guests for the Fest Hall, or taking a booth in our Vendors Hall:

  • 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming
  • Chapter 13 Press
  • Crafty Games
  • d Infinity
  • Silver Gryphon Games
  • Thistle Games
  • White Haired Man

You can see the growing list of companies adding to our prize list by going ‘To The Victors’.

We would also like to thank DriveThru RPG for stepping up and facilitating the prize bundles for our event.

At this time we can also confirm that Ennie nominated Chapter 13 Press, Skirmisher Publishing, and The Design Mechanism will be among those featured in our inaugural convention program.

Among the latest artist news Bradley K. McDevitt has been commissioned by Goodman Games for illustration on an upcoming release.

Our latest wallpaper Grendorey Hu Maggrath by Canadian Will O’Brien has just been released.

Coming Soon:

  • Izael ‘Deeds’ McBride by Patrick McAvoy
  • Billoby Windwarble by Fiona Meng
  • Kruultok Azgratugaar by Eric Lofgren

You can find all of our free downloadable wallpapers here.

The following RPG blogs have joined the Bell & Scroll:

The following Conventions have joined the

Current games confirmed for AetherCon include:

  • All Flesh Must Be Eaten
  • A Thousand and One Nights
  • Atomic Highway
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • Castles & Crusades
  • Dark Heresy
  • Dresden Files
  • Eclipse Phase
  • Fantasy Craft
  • Labyrinth Lord
  • Legends of the Five Rings
  • Leverage
  • Macho Women with Guns
  • Mouse Guard
  • Mutants and Masterminds
  • Palladium RIFTs
  • Paranoia
  • Pathfinder
  • Pathfinder Society
  • Runequest 6th Ed
  • Savage Worlds
  • Shadowrun
  • Star Wars (D6 WEG)
  • Swords and Wizardry
  • Time Lord

Top five cities in North America for unique visitors to our main site to date: Chicago, Ill; San Francisco, Cal; New York, NY; Houston, Tex; Austin, Tex.

Top five cities in Europe for unique visitors to our main site to date: London, U.K.; Nuremberg, Ger; Helsinki, Fin; Moscow, Rus; Hamburg, Ger.

Top five cities in ports abroad for unique visitors to our main site to date: Wellington, N.Z.; Brisbane, Aus; Sydney, Aus; Melbourne, Aus; Florianopolis, Bra.

We are currently looking for GMs to run the following games:

  • Pathfinder
  • Savage Worlds
  • Shadowrun
  • Call of Cthuhlu

As well as these cult favorites:

  • Barbarians of Lemuria
  • Cyberpunk2020
  • Gamma World (Pre-D20)
  • GURPS
  • Halcyon
  • Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
  • Spycraft
  • Star Frontiers
  • Traveler
  • All Flesh Must Be Eaten
  • Atomic Highway
  • Dresden Files
  • Eclipse Phase
  • Fantasy Craft
  • Legends of the Five Rings
  • Macho Women with Guns
  • Mutants and Masterminds
  • Palladium
  • Paranoia
  • Runequest 6th Ed
  • Dark Heresy
  • Serenity
  • Star Wars (D6 WEG)

If you have a cult favorite you’d like to see or run, let us know!

All of our Game Tables and Booths are now linked to Roll20 making it easier than ever for you to try out the engine of AetherCon.

Stephen J. Holodinsky
Event Manager – AetherCon

Updated Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play

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Late yesterday afternoon Paizo released version 4.2 of the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Pathfinder Society (PFS) Organized Play is Paizo’s form of organized play for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The Guide is the “rulebook” for participating in PFS. The Guide sees updates throughout the year with the larger one typically coming shortly before Gen Con. This year has proven no different with the release of this version 4.2.

There were several major changes made with this release of the guide along with general clarification of rules in the guide. The major changes were listed on the Paizo Blog and a complete change log was posted to the Pathfinder Society Forums. I encourage you to check those locations for the complete details of the changes as I only intend to mention the larger changes and a couple of the smaller changes.

The larger changes that Paizo calls out on their blog are as follows:

  • Added three new races to character creation for all players to choose from: aasimar, tengu, and tiefling.
  • Scenarios and sanctioned module now have one unified set of rules for applying Chronicle sheets to pregenerated characters.
  • Added all hardcover rulebooks to the Core Assumption for GMs and advised that GMs can refer to the Pathfinder Reference Document for rules from any books they don’t own.
  • Updated text so GMs are now allowed to take boons when they are offered on a Chronicle sheet.

I am glad to see the scenarios and sanctioned modules having a unified set of rules for applying chronicle sheets to pregens. That just helps simplify things and make things a little easier to understand and handle correctly. I also think it is great that GMs can now take boons when they are offered on a Chronicle sheet. GMs work hard and it is good to see a GM able to get rewards to apply to their own character.

I am certainly not thrilled about the addition of the three races. I know a lot of people do like that change, but I have never really grown use to what I still consider “fringe” races. I am not a fan of GMing those races and even less of a fan of playing a character next to one of those races. My dislike of this rule is of course a personal bias. I suspect Mike Brock and Mark Moreland have heard frequent requests for these races and are just listening to the community.

While adding all hardcover books to the core assumption is likely a good thing, it does really increase the hurdle for a new GM to PFS. It is nice that Paizo says the PRD is a valid source for the rules removing the monetary hurdle of needing to own all of them, it still is a lot of rules for a new GM to PFS to be expected to know.

With this release of the PFS Guide several archetypes were cut from allowed for play:

  • Gravewalker Witch
  • Master Summoner
  • Synthesist Summoner
  • Undead Lord Cleric
  • Vivisectionist Alchemist

These archetypes are being removed either for not fitting with Golarion thematically or for power imbalance within organized play. I can respect that and think it is good that the campaign takes steps to correct some of these imbalances. I know I have heard numerous complaints about the Synthesist Summoner and it being ripe for abuse.

Let’s take a look at some of the changes from the change log that stand out to me.

First up:

“The leadership of this campaign assumes that you will use common sense in your interpretation of the rules. This includes being courteous and encouraging a mutual interest in playing, not engaging in endless rules discussions. While you are enjoying the game, be considerate of the others at the table and don’t let your actions keep them from having a good time too. In short, don’t be a jerk.”

I love this addition! So many times rule discussions can turn into something that sounds like two lawyers tearing apart the language used to make their case. Really, at the end of the day, Paizo just wants us to have fun playing this game. While the English language can be torn down to a finite point, use some common sense and try to realize we are here to play the game and have fun. The rules should facilitate that. Great addition!

Another added section is in regards to the Pathfinder Society Community:

You may not simply ignore rules clarifications made by the campaign leadership, including the campaign coordinator and campaign developer, on the paizo.com messageboards. GMs are not required to read every post on the messageboards, but GMs familiar with rules clarifications made by the campaign leadership (which have not been superseded by the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play or FAQ) must abide by these clarifications or rulings. If it is a significant clarification, it will be updated in the FAQ, and later in the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play if necessary.

I think this is a good move at trying to determine how the rulings on the message board are to work. Pretty much if you know something has been clarified on the message boards, but hasn’t made it to the FAQ yet, still follow it. Every effort will be made to add significant items to the FAQ which all GMs are responsible for knowing and following.

First Level retraining is noted in the change log. This is a pretty big deal and a good move for those getting their feet we with Pathfinder or Pathfinder Society in general. This allows a character to change anything they want with their character between adventures and before they hit 2n level as long as the PFS number remains the same. Exceptions to this rebuild will be listed in the PFS FAQ.

A couple of allowed to carry-over spells were added:

A character may have one each of the following spells that carries overs from scenario to scenario: continual flame, masterwork transformation, secret chest, and secret page.

Another good change in my opinion. The continual flame question seems to arise a lot on the message boards. In following with the common sense reading of rules above it only makes sense that continue flame be allowed to last from session to session.

There are numerous other small changes listed in the change log that I am not mentioning here. I have covered what I consider to be the highlights along with some of my commentary on them.

The look and feel of the guide has really improved over the years as well. The layout and feel continue to more closely emulate one of Paizo’s normally released books. Very crisp and clean. The additional attention to the look and feel is important I think as people new to Paizo’s organized play system will have this guide as their first contact with the system.

While I am not a fan of the new races, there are a lot of good changes in the Guide this time around. Whether I agree with the new races or not it does show the Paizo staff is listening to feedback and not afraid to make changes. I do believe they have the best interests of PFS in mind when they make these changes.

Review: Toys for the Sandbox – The Old Pier

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Author:  Quinn Conklin
Art: Teo Commons; Rodney Ruppert
Publisher:  Occult Moon Games
Price:  $1.99
Pages:   12

Occult Moon Games is already up to Issue #30 with their Toys for the Sandbox line. I admit, I’ve been following these Occult Moon guys on various social media networks and heard the name Toys for the Sandbox, but never really looked very closely. Recently though a couple of review copies from this line came my way.  It seems I have been missing out.

The Toys for the Sandbox line is described by Occult Moon as a framework for a GM to work from.  The product is system-less and provides the GM with a snack-sized chunk of a location that can be dropped into nearly any fantasy campaign world. Each issue contains a location with a map and flavor text, four NPCs with some background information, six plot hooks with twists to change them up a bit, and typically a table that includes rumors or encounters.

I was able to take a look at two different issues of the Toys for the Sandbox line, #23 The Pirate Island and #30 The Old Pier. As noted above, each contains a location with map, description, NPCs, and plot hooks. Both have enough story to get a GM up and running quickly for an evening’s diversion, without being tied too much to a particular setting. With that said, The Old Pier is written to fit in on the island described in The Pirate Island issue, but it could be transplanted to another city with minimal effort.

Each product described the location with enough detail for a GM to have an excellent starting point to drop the location into their own campaign. The NPCs included in each also had enough detail that a GM could read them with minimal prep and be ready to run them. The plot hooks, along with three twists per plot hook, were also wonderful time savers for a GM that needs to come up with something on the spur of the moment.

The maps in both products I reviewed were drawn by Teo Commons. Both were very well done, but the map in The Pirate Island was stunning. The map very clearly depicted the island as described and the color with aged effect was excellent.

Issue #30 has seen a page count increase and an improved layout. This issue contains a bookmarked table of contents. I find the bookmarks in the PDF valuable and a good improvement over Issue #23. One minor quibble was the font used for the text. The font looked nice, but I found it difficult to read.

Overall these are great resources when a GM needs to come up with something quickly for an evening of play. A GM that is planning ahead and simply wants a drop-in location with a lot of the heavy lifting already done can also use them. Being system-less is an added bonus. I will certainly be keeping a closer eye on this line from Occult Moon.

Angels, Daemons, and Beings Between: A Patron Sourcebook for DCC RPG

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Patrons are an interesting aspect of Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Wizards work their magic by drawing from supernatural places and beings. In times of great need or desperation a Wizard can seek to call upon the powers of a patron directly. Doing so can be risky, but can have immense payoffs.

In DCC RPG each patron comes with a realm of influence or responsibility and have several tables that pertain to the Invoke Patron check, Patron Taint, Patron Spells, and spellburn options.

While the patrons included in the DCC RPG core rules are well detailed and set the example, many people have asked for more patrons to choose from. The rules encourage a judge to create their own patrons, but many gamers struggle to find time to prep adventures, much less design more patrons for their game.

For the judges that are looking for more patrons, you need to take a look at the Angels, Daemons, and Beings Between project over at indiegogo. The project has already met its initial funding goal with a little more than a week left to hit some of the stretch goals.

The project will be published by Dragon’s Hoard Publishing. The book will be 32 pages long and be available in PDF and Print depending on which level you join at. For each of the stretch goals that are reached an additional 16 pages will be added to the book.

If you are a DCC RPG judge that feels like they do not have time to tackle creating your own patrons, swing by indiegogo and take a look at this project. There is still a little over a week and a half to get in on this one.

DCC RPG: The Cleric

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We have reached the fourth installment of my weekly series taking a closer look at the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG character classes. So far I have looked at the Warrior, the Thief, and the Dwarf. This week I opened up voting to readers of the blog, the Google+ community and Twitter as to which character class I would be looking at. I suspected the Wizard would win, but it seems folks want to read about the Cleric! So this week we take a closer look at the Cleric character class.

The Class

The Dungeon Crawl Classics cleric draws his or her power from their god as a reward for their service to their deity. In DCC RPG The Old Ones established Law and Chaos which the gods fall under. The cleric follows his god, seeking to find relics and do battle with enemies of the faith or the beliefs of law or chaos.

A cleric gets a d8 for their hit dice. Their weapon training varies depending on which deity they worship, a chart is included that shows which weapons the followers of a specific deity use. A cleric can wear any type of armor.

The cleric’s deity is chosen at first level. The alignment of the cleric must match that of the deity they select. With three alignments in DCC RPG the cleric can choose to follow the path of Law, Chaos or Neutral. The cleric following the neutral path seeks a path of balance.

Clerics call upon their god for their magic. If the cleric is in good standing with their god and their god hears their request for divine aide and they approve of the request the cleric can cast their spell. Mechanically this is handled through a spell check. Roll a d20, add a couple of modifiers and check the chart that goes with the spell you are casting. A successful spell check means the spell is successful and your god grants you the aide through the spell.

There are some additional rules for cleric magic. A natural 1 on your spell check roll results in disapproval. This results in the spell being cast failing and a roll on a disapproval table. The disapproval table contains various results. These results typically are penalties or penalties until atonement has been achieved.

If a cleric fails their spell check roll, this increases the chance for a disapproval. For example, if a spell check is failed the cleric character now will need to roll on the disapproval table if they roll a 1 or a 2 on the d20 spell check. If they fail another spell check later in the same day then the disapproval chance increases to a 1, 2, or 3 on the d20 and so on and so on. A night’s rest will reset the disapproval chance back to a natural 1 on a d20.

A cleric can offset an increasing disapproval rating through a sacrifice to their deity. A cleric could also see a more rapid increase in their disapproval number if their deity perceived them doing something sinful or against the god’s beliefs.

A cleric also has a Turn unholy ability which is essentially another spell check to turn unholy creatures. There is a rather extensive chart to help adjudicate this check. A cleric can fail this check and increase their disapproval as well.

The cleric also has the ability to lay on hands to provide healing to other party members. The lay on hands mechanic is a bit complex with several variables to it. It requires a spell check to determine how many possible hit dice the cleric can roll to heal. This value is affected by whether you are healing someone of like alignment. If the cleric tries to heal someone to an adjacent alignment then the penalty is not as great. To heal someone of opposed alignment reduces the number of dice rolled further and generates sin for the cleric. Lay on hands also can allow a cleric to heal conditions instead of hit points.

Clerics also have an ability to seek out divine aide. This is aide above and beyond what they can already tap into through their spells and lay on hands ability. This check is made against a DC and imposes a significant penalty on the disapproval rating for future spell checks. Seeking divine aide is not to be taken lightly.

My Impression

As is readily evident by just the length the class description above, there is a lot going on with the DCC RPG cleric. Spells, lay on hands, the importance of alignment and how that affects various things can be a lot to grasp. Most of the class works around a series of spell checks for the various abilities which does help keep things straight. It is just a matter of getting used to what the cleric can do and how alignment may or may not affect certain abilities and keeping the disapproval mechanic in the back of your mind.

I like how alignment matters and has a mechanical aspect. A lawful cleric has an actual penalty for healing a chaotic party member in that the healing is less effective and they will be committing a sin in their god’s eyes. I suspect this will either lead to great roleplaying or we will see a lot of neutral clerics in play.

Another possibly overlooked item that I like about the cleric is in the caster level section. There it states caster level is generally the cleric level. But it leaves the door wide open for quests for the cleric to find items or other means to increase their caster level. I think this is great and just a rather pointed example that if you or your players don’t like how something work in the DCC RPG game, develop a quest for that character to break some barrier you see the rules putting forth.

In actual game sessions I have run one where a cleric was present and another where a cleric was not. The party with the cleric certainly had an easier time, still tough, but at least there was some means of adventuring on. The party that did not have a cleric was pretty beat up by the end of the adventure. DCC RPG certainly seems to be a game where having a cleric along is of great benefit, though not necessarily required.

The cleric in DCC RPG once again does a great job representing what a cleric “should” feel like to me. Alignment matters, they have the ability to heal multiple times per day and can have a slightly different feel based on the deity they choose to follow.

Next Week

This week’s character in-depth look was decided by the readers of this blog via feedback from comments here, Twitter and Google+.  Once again I am leaving it up to readers of The Iron Tavern to vote for which class they would like to see me look at next. I have covered the Warrior, Thief, Dwarf and now the Cleric.

Which character class should I look at next? Post a comment here, on Google+ or Twitter!