Since YARPS isn't going to be ready for a true play-test for a few months, I'm going to be using Labyrinth Lord with a number of house rules for my soon-to-start online campaign. One of my gripes with B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord (and, in fact, all editions of D&D) is that combat isn't deadly enough, particularly at higher levels. Several factors contribute to this problem, but the one that I dislike the most (and the easiest to address) is the high number of hit points characters have. So, here is my first experiment at a house rule to remedy the high number of hit points.
Fewer Hit Points
A House Rule for B/X D&D and Labyrinth Lord
All characters start with the maximum possible hit points at first level. Instead of rolling for additional hit points at each level, characters gain a fixed amount of hit points, according to their class' hit die, upon attaining even levels:
Hit Points per Even Level Attained by Hit Die
D4: 1
D6: 2
D8: 3
D10: 4
If a character has a CON bonus to hit points, it is only applied at first level and upon attaining even levels.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Halflings' Luck in YARPS
During my lunch break today, I did some work on the Halfling class design. I want to share a nugget, one of the 1st-level Halfling class abilities:
Lucky die
A halfling's player may add an additional "lucky" die of a different color to their dice pool. Once per adventure, after rolling and seeing the results, the player may replace a normal die from the pool with the the lucky die. Once the lucky die is so used, it may not be included in the dice pool until the next adventure.Halflings will get an additional lucky die at levels 4 and 8, for a total of three. I'm not sure if this approach to luck is unique (I've seen similar systems, but not quite the same), but I sure do like it. And it hints at my earlier statement about having an "interesting dice pool system" around the 2D6 dice pool.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
YARPS Success Tests
I haven't made nearly as much progress on YARPS as I would like (with being so close to shipping a major product release at work), but I have managed to spend a few nights crunching numbers and settling a few key design decisions. It's already clear that what will finally be YARPS will be quite different from my original thoughts, but that's okay; I really like the shape that it's taking. I've nearly finished designing the fighter class, and I'm happy to report that it's a fighter class I'd enjoy playing (which is saying something, as I don't generally like playing pure fighters). Hopefully I can post a preview later this week.
One of the decisions I made last week was to use 2D6 as the dice roll for competency and success tests. As you surely know (unless you've never role-played, in which case I have to ask, "Why are you here!?"), D&D and many other games use a D20 for the "core mechanic." I like 2D6 better because there are 36 possible outcomes instead of 20, with almost half as many possible end results (11). This, in turn, means two things: min and max rolls are less likely (nearly half as likely), and a +1 modifier applied to the end result is more significant (because there are nearly half the end results).
(There's also an interesting dice pool system that can be applied with 2D6, but that's the subject of a future 'blog post).
To illustrate the difference, imagine you're playing D&D and you need to roll a 20 to hit. Your character has a +1 modifier to hit. This means you have a 1 in 10 (10%) chance to hit. Adding another +1, for a total of +2, increases your odds to 3 in 20 (15% ). Each additional +1 will increase your chances by another 5%. That's helpful, but it means you need to start stacking bonuses before it's really meaningful, especially at high levels. Anyone who's played older editions of D&D for any length of time has experienced this.
Now let's pretend you're playing YARPS, and you need to hit an opponent with a DEF (defense) of 12 (the equivalent of D&D's 20). If you have a +1 to hit, your chances improve from 1 in 36 (3%) to 3 in 36 (8%). Add another +1, for +2 total, and your chances improve to 6 in 36 (17%). Each additional plus increases your chances along a normal curve. Whereas your chance only improves to 25% with +4 in D&D, your chance improves to 42% in YARPS.
And, because YARPS works against a normal curve, the effects of modifiers are even more striking for usual (that is, level-appropriate) rolls. Rolling a 10 in D&D with +1 gives you a 5% boost, from 50% to 55%. Rolling a 7 in YARPS (the nearest equivalent) with +1 gives you a 14% boost, from 58% to 72%.
What does all this mean, applied? It means that in YARPS, you'll really appreciate those +1 bonuses. It means that if you have the highest score for a given attribute, you will really stand out among your race. It means that a level 1 orc has only a prayer of defeating your level 10 PC, and your level 6 PC isn't going to fare well against that level 12 dragon. And It means that I don't have to inflate or stack bonuses (or have huge hit point pools) to achieve the sort of level disparity and character growth curve that I'm looking for.
One of the decisions I made last week was to use 2D6 as the dice roll for competency and success tests. As you surely know (unless you've never role-played, in which case I have to ask, "Why are you here!?"), D&D and many other games use a D20 for the "core mechanic." I like 2D6 better because there are 36 possible outcomes instead of 20, with almost half as many possible end results (11). This, in turn, means two things: min and max rolls are less likely (nearly half as likely), and a +1 modifier applied to the end result is more significant (because there are nearly half the end results).
(There's also an interesting dice pool system that can be applied with 2D6, but that's the subject of a future 'blog post).
To illustrate the difference, imagine you're playing D&D and you need to roll a 20 to hit. Your character has a +1 modifier to hit. This means you have a 1 in 10 (10%) chance to hit. Adding another +1, for a total of +2, increases your odds to 3 in 20 (15% ). Each additional +1 will increase your chances by another 5%. That's helpful, but it means you need to start stacking bonuses before it's really meaningful, especially at high levels. Anyone who's played older editions of D&D for any length of time has experienced this.
Now let's pretend you're playing YARPS, and you need to hit an opponent with a DEF (defense) of 12 (the equivalent of D&D's 20). If you have a +1 to hit, your chances improve from 1 in 36 (3%) to 3 in 36 (8%). Add another +1, for +2 total, and your chances improve to 6 in 36 (17%). Each additional plus increases your chances along a normal curve. Whereas your chance only improves to 25% with +4 in D&D, your chance improves to 42% in YARPS.
And, because YARPS works against a normal curve, the effects of modifiers are even more striking for usual (that is, level-appropriate) rolls. Rolling a 10 in D&D with +1 gives you a 5% boost, from 50% to 55%. Rolling a 7 in YARPS (the nearest equivalent) with +1 gives you a 14% boost, from 58% to 72%.
What does all this mean, applied? It means that in YARPS, you'll really appreciate those +1 bonuses. It means that if you have the highest score for a given attribute, you will really stand out among your race. It means that a level 1 orc has only a prayer of defeating your level 10 PC, and your level 6 PC isn't going to fare well against that level 12 dragon. And It means that I don't have to inflate or stack bonuses (or have huge hit point pools) to achieve the sort of level disparity and character growth curve that I'm looking for.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
One Page Dungeon Play-test
The One Page Dungeon Contest 2010 submission deadline is less than a month away, and I’d like to get a group together to play-test my entry, the evening of Thursday, February 18th. I'm hoping a few of my MVP friends will be able to join, as they'll be up this way for the MVP Summit. For the rest of you, email me at ego at anglicangeek if you want to join.
The dungeon is designed for “old school” D&D, Labyrinth Lord specifically. The rules are very simple, so even if you've never played Labyrinth Lord, or even D&D, you’ll be just fine. The adventure is targeting a party of five to six 5th-level characters. It’s a “classic” dungeon crawl, with tactical encounters, traps, and maybe a puzzle or two set in a (hopefully) interesting atmosphere.
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