Rolemaster Beta Playtest - Resources: Character Quick Reference

Although not a full Character Sheet, this is a solid reference.

Play Report and Important Points on Designing Low-Level Encounters

  I met my lovely wife in August of 1990 just before I left for the Gulf War. The very first thing we did for fun was play the old WEG Star Wars RPG. I thought she was a long-time veteran of RPGs. it was actually her first RPG session, she had just memorized everything about the Star Wars universe.
  A match made in heaven.
  In the 24+ years since she was played all sorts of games, cutting her teeth and learning how to play from some of the best GMs on the planet. Over the years she's made some truly memorable characters, like:
  - The Mysterious Amazon, a barbarian mistress of the spear who was one of the deadliest fighters in Lew Pulsipher's campaign world.
  - Lady the Abbess Gabrielle, a paladin who dual-classed into cleric and went on to name-level.
  - Stardust, the very best thief in my Blackstone campaign.

  She has a strong preference for fantasy RPGs with AD&D 2e S&P being her flat-out, must have a campaign running, favorite. She prefers to play front-line fighters with cleric/paladin a close second and loathes playing mages.
  And she has never, ever, not once, ever dungeon mastered a single game.

  Until yesterday!

  After a few weeks of prep (it is the Christmas season, so she's busy) she ran a simple encounter to get her feet set.

  To prep the Wife used the 1st level dungeon random encounter tables and followed the random rolls to arm, equip, etc. the villains. She stated very clearly that this was a 'practice round' [i.e., no permanent death, no treasure, no experience].

  She asked that we play only the Big Four (fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief) with no specialization, custom classes, multiclasses, etc.

  The Players and characters:
  Me: Thrain Ironhand, 1st level dwarven fighter with an 18/91 strength and 13 hit points. Bardiche, heavy crossbow, splint mail for protection.
  Ja., the oldest son: Justinian the Great, 1st level human magic-user with Charm Person. A dagger and happy thoughts for protection.
  A., the second oldest son: Legas, 1st level half-elven thief with really good pick pockets. Short sword and a bajillion daggers with leather armor.
  S., the third son: Otto, a 1st level halfling thief who is as silent and stealthy as a shadow. Dagger, club, and leather armor.
  N., the fourth son: Bill, 1st level human cleric with a fiery faith. Heavy mace, warhammer, chain and shield.

  The setup was simple; we are old friends on our way to visit a remote abbey when we learn that a small hamlet had been raided and all the chickens had been stolen. We followed a trail of heavy bootprints and feathers to a small, remote cabin. The thieves crept up to see what was going on as all else hid nearby. The cabin had a single door in front, two heavily shuttered windows in back and two open windows in front. The thieves heard indistinct noises and smelled fried chicken. Otto decided to check the back windows, where he heard Ominous Chanting. Legas decided to look in one of the open windows in front-
  and looked right into the eyes of one of the three hobgoblins eating friend chicken around a table.
  No one was surprised so Legas dove into the room through the window, trying to keep the hobgoblins from blocking the door. Thrain, seeing, this, charged up and smashed open the door.
  Battle began.
  In the first round the hobgoblins (with broad sword, spear, and long sword) all missed Legas and Thrain missed. Justinian held his fire, watching the door to to back of the cabin. Otto tried to stealthily open a back window and failed. Bill stood by to step into melee as soon as Thrain could press in.

  In the second round Thrain slew the broad sword wielder in a single blow and stepped up to engage the spearman. Legas missed and was cut down by the long sword wielder, alive but bleeding out with -1 H.P. Bill rushed in and engaged the long sword user. Otto failed to stealthily open the other shutter.

  In third round Otto smashed open a shutter and saw a human cleric sacrificing a chicken at an altar to Maglubiyet as a hobgoblin with a spear rushed him. Otto threw his club at the cleric, hitting for minimum damage but disrupting the ritual. Otto promptly fled for the front.
  Thrain wounded the spearman, the longsword user wounded Bill, and Bill missed. Justinian threw his dagger at the long sword user and missed.

  Fourth round! Thrain missed. The spearman grazed Thrain. Bill missed. Otto arrived. The longsword wielder hit Bill.
  Bill goes down, slumping over the body of Legas.
  At this point Legas is at   -3 H.P. and Bill is at -2 H.P., also bleeding out.
  Otto steps up to fight the long sword user as Justinian scrambles to retrieve his only dagger from the corner.

  Fifth round. The long sword wielder cuts down Otto, who falls next to Bill and Legas at -2 H.P.
  Its looking like a TPK at this point.
  Justinian flees out the front door as Thrain cuts down the spearman.

  Sixth round. Thrain misses. The long sword wielder hits, bringing Thrain down to 5 H.P.
  Legas is bleeding out at -5 H.P., Bill is bleeding out at -4 H.P., Otto is bleeding out at -3 H.P. The magic-user is ready to sprint away, the long sword wielder is fresh as a daisy, and there are reserves behind the door.

  Seventh round. Thrain hits and kills the long sword wielder. The jerk. Justinian prepares his spell.

  Eighth round. Thrain smashes open the door to the back room where the cleric has just finished strapping on his plate mail. Justinian hits the cleric with Charm Person and the foe blows his save. The last hobgoblin, seeing the devastation and that his master has gone all wobbly-headed, dives out a back window and flees.

  The Wife rules that the charmed cleric saves the lives of the downed members of the party and we wrap up.

  All in all it was a great first session. Varied enemies with different H.P., different weapons, etc. We all loved playing the session even when it was grimmest.

  Notes from the DM on her first session

  1) The storytelling was easy and fun for her, but the mechanics was more involved than she expected.
  2) She realized how important reacting to the actions of the players is and that too much prep might result in trying to force the players down the "right" path.
  3) It is shockingly easy to wipe out a party.

  Notes on Making Low-Level Encounters

  In the post-game discussion I went over my own insights and the things I have been taught by other GMs about low-level encounters:
  1) The thing most likely to kill a low level party is the armor class of the enemy. Hobgoblins are A.C. 5 so the mage needed a 17 to hit them - that's one hit out of 5 attempts. Even Thrain, a dwarf with a  total of +3 to hit (strength and racial bonus) needed a 12, hitting only 45% of the time. Even though 2 of the hobgoblins in the main combat only had 2 H.P. and the 'tough' one only had 6 they were so tough for 1st level n00bs to hit they almost wiped out the party.
  2) The thing second most likely to kill a low level party is the number of attacks facing the party each round. Low level parties have the terrible combination of poor armor classes and low hit points. Each extra attack per round increases the odds that a character goes down that round.
  3) Low Hit Die Monsters are, one-on-one, tougher than low-level characters. A hobgoblin has 1+1 HD for an average of 5.5 H.P. Only as tough as a first level fighter, right?
  Wrong. His to hit roll is the same as a 3rd level fighter. A hobgoblin is, in effect, a 2nd level fighter.
  4) The number of characters in the party != the number of combatants in the party. Yes, we all like to have something to do in battle. But this little skirmish was a perfect illustration of my oft-repeated maxims
    A- Fighters are physical offense.
    B- Magic-users are magical offense.
    C- Clerics are magical and physical defense.
    D- Thieves are scouting  and intelligence.
  These are all very, very true at low levels where players haven't had a chance to 'buffer' their roles with magic to add some flexibility. When the thieves got into front-line battle they died. While the cleric did his best to hold the line, he died. When preparing an encounter for low-level parties calculate 1 melee foe per fighter +1 melee foe per cleric +1 melee foe for everyone else.

  Example: With the party above I would have calculated 1 hobgoblin for Thrain, one for Bill, and Justinian, Otto, and Legas would be just a single additional foe, for a total of 3 hobgoblins.

  Trust me, this will be enough.
  For a tough challenge add a spell foe for each mage and a spell defender for each cleric.

  Same Example: Tossing in a witchdoctor adds spell offense and spell defense.

  These are really rough guidelines and YMMV.

  Have fun!

Dungeon Master Tips: Better Narration

  As much as we may dislike it at time, the fact is one of the most critical tasks/skills of the GM is narration.

nar·ra·tion nəˈrāSH(ə)n/ noun
noun: narration; plural noun: narrations
  the action or process of narrating a story.
      "the style of narration in the novel"   a commentary delivered to accompany a movie, broadcast, etc.
      "Moore's narration is often sarcastic"

  Narration sets up not just the parameters for things like combat and to assist the map maker, it sets the tone of the game. For example:

"The ten foot wide corridor goes 90' to another door. What do you do?"

  versus

"The passage here seems to be carved from the living rock of the mountain. Three of you can stand abreast and Jerczy's spear can only touch the arched ceiling with effort. There is a damp chill in the air, accompanied with the smells of wet stone and meat that rotted to slime years ago. You hear your own breathing, the faint drip of water into water from someplace... distant, and the occasional click or scrape as someone in the party shifts their weight.
  "Your torches struggle to light the passage, ultimately failing ahead of you. There is a faint gleam from beyond the torchlight, perhaps of more wet granite."

  Juuuuuust a little different.
  Now, just like sometimes its more fun to say 'you arrive at the dungeon' rather than role play 6 weeks of travel horseback, sometime when the mood is high on its own description #1 is the way to go. Heck, when the party is fleeing from a hoary terror unleashed from its ancient slumber description #1, delivered breathlessly, my be the best choice!
  But especially early one description #2 is 'better' and a great tool for creating an emotional tenor inside the party.
  "Gee, Rick,: I hear you say, "Tell us something we don't know! Its not like you're the first guy to bring this up!"
  Bear with me!

  Years ago when I was in my early teens my Dad got a present from one of my aunts - several of the old radio serials of The Shadow on cassette. My dad (who is older and a WWII vet) had loved those shows when he was a kid and they were new and pretty soon the whole family was listening to them after dinner every Sunday night. My Seaward campaign was already 6 years old and soon my players were mentioning that my descriptions were better.
  I realized - of course!
  The old radio shows relied solely upon narrative description to set the scene and some of the best writers in the world were working to make these descriptions clear, powerful, evocative - and brief! The thrillers and supernatural shows are essentially training courses in better DM narration.

  I listen to Old Time Radio on Sirius/XM satellite radio 5+ days a week. Many of these shows can be found on the Internet Archive, too. Here are a few:

  Some episodes of The Shadow

  The science fiction show X Minus One

  The horror/thriller/sometime supernatural show Suspense

  And don't think this is just for the DM! I think players can learn a great deal from
  Sherlock Holmes
  If you want a real treat you can find an episode of Sherlock Holmes where Holmes is portrayed by Sir John Gielgud, Watson by Sir Ralph Richardson, and Moriarty by Orson Welles here!

  I hope you enjoy!

Economics of Having Levels

  This week I have been discussing NPCs with levels and army sizes. While fairly specific to a 1e campaign these ideas can fit anything from Chivalry & Sorcery to Traveller or novels if you squint hard enough. That said, my first love is fantasy RPGs so this is my focus here, too.
  So by running with a few assumptions made by looking at the DMG we see some interesting results in the details of NPCs with levels (linked above). For example, in a fantasy kingdom of three-quarters of a million people the highest level NPC wizard who isn't specifically placed by the DM should be no higher than about, oh, 7th level, 8th on the outside. That may seem low to many and it certainly is low, especially compared with, oh, Forgotten Realms!
  On the other hand the total number of magic-users and illusionists in that same kingdom is about 150! Sure, half of them are 1st level, but that is still a lot of spell casters. If you look at the numbers I crunched on armies (also linked above) it means that you might very well have more arcane spellcasters than you do heavy cavalry.
  We should assume that these arcane spellcasters are overwhelmingly in larger urban centers; the need for an education, access to esoteric ingredients, proximity to everything from libraries to bookbinders, and the fact that their training doesn't lend itself to tilling the soil may start the impetus, but the fact that most wealthy clients are also in cities and large towns probably cements the deal. I would personally assume that about 80% of all arcane spellcasters are in urban centers. The rest will be retainers to nobles or researchers, eccentrics, and villains off on their own.
  But what do they do? Less than 10 of these arcane spellcasters will be capable of casting a spell of 3rd level or above, so we can probably rule out 'wizards as weapons of war' as an income stream - it simply isn't an option for most of them. We read in the DMG that it is certainly possible to pay spellcasters to cast spells (but not in combat!) so that is probably what they do. So while a player character might be desperate to get a starting spell such as Magic Missile or Burning Hands an NPC is probably just as eager for Comprehend Languages or Magic Aura because the latter spells are money makers. Among those NPC arcane casters capable of 2nd level spells Illusionary Trap and Wizard's Lock are probably much better for building a non-adventuring career than Ray of Enfeeblement. After all, there are probably plenty of wealthy merchants willing to pay for the former and substantially fewer interested in paying for the latter.
  Magic-users are educated and literate; they may also earn a living as relatively prestigious scribes, tutors, and copyists. Roles as translators, researchers and even just (because of a relatively high intelligence) advisor may also be seen. These low level mages will almost certainly never be rich (which is probably what separates PCs from NPCs: ambition vs. risk avoidance ratios) but they have a good shot at a comfortable life as (essentially) a skilled artisan.

  If you noticed the level maximums assumed, above, none of these NPCs will be high enough level to craft permanent magic items and only a very few for them (1 to 4) will be able to make potions or scrolls. This means that unless you have a large number of existing magic items changing hands there is no place for a shop that buys and sells just magic items in such a kingdom - the volume of trade would simply be far too low to support such a business.
  On the other hand, the idea of merchants that cater to arcane spellcasters might very well make sense, especially in larger urban areas. This could range from a bookbinder who makes sure to have such things as blank codexes usable as spell books and rare inks on hand all the way up to a 'magical supply shop' that stocks blank standard and travelling spell books, arcane inks, rare feather quills, the most common spell components for low level spells, specialized equipment (such as portable writing desks and black candles), and even trinkets for familiars.

  On the other hand, the concentration of clerics in urban areas, while existing, will be much less extreme mainly because the role of the cleric is to be spiritual leaders of all people. Thus while the large basilicas and cathedrals of larger urban centers will have more clerics the majority will be in villages. Druids will probably be 100% rural! In the same fantasy kingdom mentioned throughout there will almost certainly be an 8th level cleric and their may be one as high as 10th level. There will be somewhere between 135 and 140 clerics (or about 1 cleric per 5,800 people). About a dozen of these clerics will be able to cast Cure Disease or Remove Curse and there may be one who can cast Raise Dead.
  Clerics have much less of a need for valuable components, inks, etc. than a magic-user and their other needs (ritual clothing, even a place to live) might be provided by their church, so their impact on the economy will not be as consumers. Instead, clerics will use their skills (literacy, influence) and charity to help the poor and downtrodden. While not as money-direct as arcane casters spending hundreds of gold pennies on ink or charging similar prices to cast Illusionary Trap on a rich merchant's payroll chest a dynamic cleric can reduce crime (via charity, leadership, and such) and invigorate the economy in the poorest quarters of a city by helping others focus on positive growth (those higher wisdom scores in action!) thus increasing tax revenue, decreasing expenses (less need for town watch and jails, etc.) and even reducing the need for those Illusionary Trap spells.

  [note: this might cause unscrupulous mages to oppose clerical charity].

  In this same vein, let's look at fighters, rangers, and paladins largely as a group. In the same fantasy kingdom there will be about 340 total leveled righters, paladins, and rangers (with over 80% being fighters), which is a pretty serious number. Why? Because if we accept the numbers for a standing army (from that article linked to waaaaay above) then the number of NPC fighter classes with levels is equal to about 1/2 the standing armies of the kingdom. So if there is a major war and there is a full levy at least a large fraction of these leveled NPCs will be available as combat troops.
  Look at it this way - assume that the standard formula for orcish forces is, oh,

  'for every 30 orcs there are 4 tougher orcs (meaner, tougher, etc.) and for every 120 orcs there is a leader of 2 HD' etc.'

  If were were to write up the army of this kingdom the same way it would read something like this,

'For every 14 members of the levy there is a veteran soldier (better trained, equipped, etc.) and for every 60 there is a 1st level fighter, ranger, or paladin. Additionally, there is an a fighter, paladin, or ranger of 2nd level or higher for every 120 levy troops. These are in addition to a core leadership of 8 5th to 7th level fighters.'   

  Huh. When you look at it that way the leader ratios, combat abilities, etc. of human armies are actually not too bad, are they?
 
  But all of these professional soldiers/adventurers aren't sitting around farming or doing calligraphy [note: no jokes about knees and arrows, please]. We should assume that they are earning their living fighting, guarding, patrolling, and exploring.
  Suddenly we know where at least some of those high-level patrol leaders come from!
  These soldiers are going to be spending money on armor, weapons, and horses. Heck, that many leveled NPC fighter types could keep 8 or 9 armorers employed full time! Toss in the standing army and noble troops and you realize soldiers alone could support about 30 armorers, 10 blacksmiths, 12 weapon smiths, 8 bowyer-fletchers, and 6 tailors full time. Add adventurers, distance between groups, DM allocated NPCs, and the desire to make a buck and there are probably no less than 100 skilled artisans employed in the creation and maintenance of the armor and weapons of the various soldiers in the kingdom. This will cascade into the need to provide these artisans themselves with everything from processed iron ingots to bird feathers.
  Paladins are a quiet bunch who aren't big consumers of luxury goods. Rangers are typically rural and also focus on their mission. Fighters, though, will be spending their pay. Leveled fighters are going to be paid more than the standing army.
  Since Gary tells us that 90% of these 'excess NPCs' are happy with their existing position. While these jobs probably range from being mercenary officers to bodyguards for the rich to caravan security and private watchmen let's assume that they are making roughly what they would make as a mercenary. That is about 124 sergeants, 92 lieutenants, and 9 captains [interestingly enough, there is no place in a band of mercenaries for a 4th level fighter. Are they all trapped in Decks of Many Things?]. Now, I know that PCs are expected to pay mercenaries in hard coin but these NPCs are almost certainly getting the majority of their pay in kind - room, board, clothing, maintenance, etc. This will probably be up to 90% of their compensation with just 10% of the value in actual pay.
  This means all of these NPC fighters will be spending "only" 2,000 g.p. a month on ale, gambling, ale, trinkets for pretty girls, ale, lucky charms, and ale.
  Hey, I was in the army myself. I know how pay is spent.
  So as we can see the NPC warriors are going to have a huge impact on the kingdom's economy being directly responsible for the livelihoods of hundreds of artisans, publicans, servants, and such. They are also a key security element for private individuals and the kingdom as a whole.

  There are about 100 thieves among the 'excess' NPCs' (I count these in addition to any thief followers or guild members, remember) with one of them 7th level and maybe one as high as 10th. While many of the 1st  and second level thieves are going to be 'freelance' (i.e., not in a guild) pickpockets, petty thieves, and such I personally assume a fair number are in those areas of thievery we don't see often performed by PCs - forgery, smuggling, con games, money laundering, and fencing stolen goods. Money launderers, forgers, and fences in particular can operate with a thieves guild without a) being in the guild or b) angering the guild. Smuggling happens 'in-between' where guilds control and con games are too varied to be more than a nuisance to organized crime/the guilds.
  These thieves are going to have an outsize impact on any economy; smugglers often make people happy (cheaper goods) and governments angry (lower tax revenues); forgers make documents suspect; money laundering really upsets governments; fences really upset merchants. The collective impact of all this non-violent crime (more patrols, more private guards, experts to check the veracity of documents, etc.) is going to add just a bit to the costs of everything - taxes are a hair higher to cover smuggling, etc. At least some of the ale I mentioned earlier will be bought by soldiers hired to deal with crime, etc.
  There are also about 20 assassins 'freelancing' in the kingdom. With their unique combination of skills they can be anywhere we see thieves or fighters and even some places we see magic-users; bodyguards, smugglers, mercenary lieutenants, even scribes and translators. With at least one 5th level assassin and a possibility of one as high as 10th level there is a surprisingly large amount of professional hit men lurking about. Their economic impact is going to mainly be from their 'day job' although the fees associated with assassination and spying will probably make them quietly rich (at least the successful ones).
  The needs of thieves and assassins is going to drive a gray market in things like special equipment (small boats for smugglers, jeweler's tools for forgers, fenced goods, etc.) and a black market (thief tools, poison, stolen goods, blackmail evidence, etc.). There will also be an entire community and communications system hidden within the world of these rogues that may be able to learn things about or get message to people and places no one else can - for a fee.

  As you can see, these NPCs 'floating around' in any campaign world are going to have a profound impact on the size and shape of the economy, as well as a host of other things.

  I look forward to you comments.

Just How Big is your Army?

 As modern people we have trouble thinking like medieval people. Whether it is about family size, how far is 'far', or other things, we think differently.

  Of course.

  Another thing we often get wrong is army size. We think of the vast, often conscripted armies of the Napoleonic era forward and assume 'army' = 'huge numbers'. Hollywood doesn't help! But how big was a medieval army? And why do RPG players care?

  Well, we care because it gives us an idea of what we can make our campaigns look like.

  

 Before we talk about armies we have to decide - what kind of army are we talking about?

  See, every nation tends to have two armies; a standing army and a war time army. The standing army is what is always there, the wartime is the maximum force you can bring to bear in an all-out war. Since you might not have your campaign in constant all-out war, let's start with a standing army.
  

  I can't remember which historian said it, but one said that in the early medieval period the 'standing army' and the 'government' were largely the same people; knights, barons, etc. ruled and fought or, more to the point, ruled because they fought. Indeed, the medieval three types of people were those who worked, those who prayed, and those who fought. These men and their retainers are the main force of any medieval kingdom.
  Historically the cornerstone of the feudal system was the fee (root of the term 'fief') defined as, roughly, 'the amount of land, peasants, etc. required to support themselves and provide at least enough excess to feed, equip, and support a knight and his personal retainers'. The most historically accurate way to figure out how large a standing army would probably be to figure out how much of the kingdom's area is settled land, divide it by the average size of a knight's fee, figure out a rough percentage of the which is already enfeoffed, and do the math.
  The trouble is historians have effectively thrown up their hands and declared no one will ever know the average size of a fee because there wasn't one. The variables are too high and the documentation too scattered and partial.
  Besides, its just a game, right?
  So, instead, let's look at the DMG and PHB.
  The average area of the holding of a high-level fighter is between 3,500 and 4,000 square miles (yes, really) or, well, Lebanon. Or 5 times the size of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. I am assuming that the vast size of a 9th level fighter's holding is based on one simple fact - it is a wilderness holding and the character is much higher in rank than mere 'knight'. If the fiefdom was well inside a settled area we would need to assume it was much smaller.

  [note: the smallest fighter fiefdom, 314 sq. mi., is as big as Kiribati and the largest, 7,850 sq. mi., is as big as Israel. At this point my sons point out 'Well, sure; King David was at least 9th level'].

  So here are a ton of assumptions - a 9th level fighter has huge tracts of land but few citizens at first. He is beholden to another lord but has the space to give fiefdoms to several knights (and barons!), eventually - that makes him a duke. Thus, the followers of a fighter are about the same as the followers for a duke. Dukes each have their own vassals that have, aggregate, about the same number of troops as the duke. The king is, really, another duke so he gets more of the same. A Lord or Free City would be, oh, half that.
  Therefore, to determine the size of the standing army in a campaign kingdom do this:

  [(N+1)x2]+H = X

  where N = the number of duchies (or equivalents) in the kingdom, H is the number of lesser nobles, and X is the number of times you roll for followers and leaders in the DMG.
  If we do this for my campaign it looks like this:
  There are 2 duchies/equivalents, 2 lordships/equivalents, and the king, so the formula would be:

[(2+1)x2]+2= X, or 8 rolls for followers and leaders.

  Throwing some dice gives me a total of about 680 troops, 400 of which are heavy infantry, 4 5th level leaders, 3 6th level leaders, 1 7th level leader, and a 3rd level lieutenant.

  "OK, Rick, even if I accept all your wild guesses who are these troops and what do they do?"

  These are garrison troops, the guys who man the castles, towers, custom stations, border forts, etc. The king's guards, maybe even the marines on royal warships could come from these troops as well. Some of them are going to be mercenaries who are paid via the taxes collected, the rest will be professional soldiers paid via the same manner. So we can estimate that Seaward's standing army is 650 to 700 troops.
  These aren't city guards, though, because city guards don't typically leave the city while armies do! Besides, troops and guards would have very different armor, weapons, and training. These forces also don't come from the NPCs that are otherwise also part of the population.

  Now, in time of war the standing army is joined by levies. These troops are drawn from free men (peasants, yeomen, townmen, etc.) and are usually of lower quality in training and equipment than standing forces, but not always. In Real Life some area, especially Free Cities, had top-quality militias so their levies were solid, well-trained and excellently equipped troops!
  Rather than do a ton of math myself I want to point to this work by John Savage because he does the math for me.
  Bottom line - your levies will never be more than 7% of total population unless you want starvation for the next 1-3 years and even then that assumes near 100% turnout. Further, only about 1.5% - 2% of the population can be massed into an effective fighting unit at a given time and place. Applied to Seaward, this means in a 'real war' the kingdom could probably field about 10,000 levied troops BUT other levies would also free up the standing army so that they, too, could take to the field of battle. 700 is relatively small compared to 10,000 but the presence of professional soldiers with better gear and higher morale as well as the tough, experienced, and leveled leaders would make the levy troops much more effective in combat.

  We also need to talk about nobles. I forget who the writer was, but someone once said,

   'The "leaders of the army" and the "government" were the same people. Indeed, the government was in charge because they led the armies'.

  Remember the formula, above? Dukes, lords, even the king, are all either themselves skilled (probably leveled) fighters and such or such men exist as knights to fight for them. Traditionally each noble had 4-9 other cavalry with them in battle to fight in groups called 'conrois'; while a particular conroi might be all noblemen it wasn't uncommon to have common-born men who were well-trained cavalry accompany knights as personal assistants and to add to a conroi's strength. These commoners who were heavy cavalry had a fair amount of authority over non-noble troops and were often in charge of them.
   They were called 'sergeants'.
  Conrois also typically included a few squires and servants and their own focused supply train.
  Remember the formula I posted above? X also equals the number of conrois that can be called up to fight. In the case of Seaward, that is a total of 50 top-notch heavy cavalry with its own support and logistics. Again, 50 isn't much compared to 10,000 but the morale boost of leadership is large and the damage even a small number of noble cavalry can do to enemy formations should never be underestimated.

  There it is, a ton of assumptions which you can feel free to tinker with, blow off, etc. But it is also a set of guidelines to help you figure out how big your campaign army can be.

Misunderstood and Improperly Played - The Thief

  Not too long ago I ran into a discussion online about how lame and nerfed the thief is.
  'A terrible fighter with no real chance of doing anything at all. If you play him by the book he's dead. I am not sure why anyone would ever play a thief.'
  As you can guess from the title in this most recent entry in my series of rants, I disagree.
  I always like to start with my own admissions of not being a real purist. The thief is no different. I emulated all-around gaming legend and my mentor, Lew Pulsipher, in giving thieves a danger sense -  a percentile chance (that is based on levels) to sense when things are going south that sometimes gets them an opportunity to avoid otherwise certain death. Part of that is to emulate the literature where many a rogue from the Gray Mouser to Nift the Lean picked up the tiny clues that others miss, part of it is because they are often in highly dangerous positions alone. So I obviously tinker with thieves myself.
  Let's look at the thief and start with a 'vanilla' thief - human, single class, 11 Dex. His thief skills are:
  Pick Pockets 30%
  Open Locks: 25%
  Find/Remove Traps: 20%
  Move Silently: 15%
  Hide in Shadows: 10%
  Hear Noise: 10%
  Climb Walls: 85%

  So he isn't too bad and pinching small objects but is fairly weak at the rest.
  Let's look at the rest;

  Average hit points (I always round sup): 4
  Average A.C.: 8
  Roll needed to hit A.C. 6 (i.e, an orc): 15 (or 30%)
  Average damage: 4 (assuming short sword)

  Not so good. Or is it? Let's look at a 1st level fighter;

  Average H.P.: 6
  Average A.C: 4
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 14 (or 35%)
  Average Damage: 5 (assuming longsword rounded up or broadsword)

  And a cleric;
  Average H.P.: 5
  Average A.C.: 4
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 14
  Average Damage: 5 (assuming footman's mace rounded up)
  That is very similar to the fighter.

  And a magic-user;
  Average H.P.: 3
  Average A.C.: 10
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 15
  Average damage: 3 (assuming dagger rounded up)

  So the thief is right in there between cleric and magic-user in combat ability.
  But hold it! A few things are on my mind but one that leaps out is - if we are focusing on combat, why would anyone play a fighter?! No, really - the cleric has the same shot at hitting, the same average damage, the same armor class, and only 1 less hit point on average. But for that one hit point difference the cleric gets spells! I mean, if we look at just 'combat effectiveness at 1st level' everyone should play a cleric, right?
  [This is something I should have mentioned in my article about the cleric!]
  I know, I know - you are all saying the same thing; 'but fighters soon outpace clerics in combat as they advance in levels'.
  Yeah, I know. We'll to that with thieves in a minute.

  First, let's look at the combat numbers again while counting backstab;
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 11 (50%)
  Average damage: 7
  This is a huge improvement, of course! When the thief can get the drop on a foe the odds of the thief prevailing go way up. This doesn't happen too often, but it does and this means we can argue that a first level thief can, once or twice per adventure, be the most effective combatant in the party.

  The first way we are going to tweak this a little is to 'de-vanilla' the thief a touch. We could make him a dwarven fighter/thief, or a gnome illusionist thief, but let's go for that old standby, the halfling straight thief. We will assume that this thief still has only an 11 Dex and a 10 Con, but! this changes a few other things! His thieving abilities are;
 Pick Pockets 35%
  Open Locks: 30%
  Find/Remove Traps: 25%
  Move Silently: 25%
  Hide in Shadows: 25%
  Hear Noise: 15%
  Climb Walls: 70%

  OK, that is a noticeable change, isn't it? But there are a few other things going on, too; this thief has a +2 on his saves versus poison and magic. He is also twice as likely to surprise foes when off on his own, meaning his opportunities to backstab go up, making him more combat effective.

  Now that we've looked at the thief at first level and seen he isn't quite the wimp some might think he is, let's look at both the vanilla and non-vanilla thieves at higher level.
  The first thing we must discuss is a core element of 1e: level advancement speeds. When the thieves (either) are juuuuust 5th level (10,001 x.p. in the 1e books) the fighter, cleric, and mage are all 4th level. Bluntly, the thief gets better at what he does faster than the rest.
  Let's look at the vanilla thief's skills at 5th level;
 Pick Pockets 50%
  Open Locks: 42%
  Find/Remove Traps: 40%
  Move Silently: 40%
  Hide in Shadows: 31%
  Hear Noise: 20%
  Climb Walls: 90%
  Read Languages: 25%

  And the halfling thief''s skills;
  Pick Pockets 55%
  Open Locks: 47%
  Find/Remove Traps: 45%
  Move Silently: 50%
  Hide in Shadows: 46%
  Hear Noise: 25%
  Climb Walls: 75%
  Read Languages: 20%

  'But Rick,' I hear you say, 'those aren't great shakes!'.
  Well, let's talk about these numbers again from a different perspective. Instead of thinking 'the thief will fail to find the trap 55%+ of the time' think 'the party will be aware of and have a chance to avoid the trap 40%+ of the time'.
  No, seriously - this is a subtle difference. Don't think of find/remove as 'half the time the thief gets it' but rather as 'half the time the thief saves the whole party from damage, death, or worse'. And let's look at those combat numbers again, shall we?
  Mages (4th);
  Average H.P.: 10
  Average A.C.: 8 (assuming +2 worth of items)
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 15
  Average Damage: 3

  That is - pretty horrible. If the mage is lucky he is doing somewhere between, oh, 4 h.p. damage (Burning Hands), 7 h.p. damage (average for Magic Missile), and 9 h.p. damage (average for Shocking Grasp - which requires a roll to hit!) once or twice a day. A Web or a Stinking Cloud might prevent others from attacking or make them vulnerable, but the direct combat ability of a mage has dropped well below that of the rest of the party even with spells.

  Clerics (4th)
  Average H.P.: 18
  Average A.C.: 1 (assuming plate & shield with a +1 somewhere in there)
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 12 (45%)
  Average Damage: 6 (assuming a +1 footman's mace, averaged out)

  Better than the mage, the cleric is doing pretty well. No real damaging spells, though, while Hold Person does allow capture, avoidance, etc.

  Fighter (4th);
  Average H.P.: 22
  Average A.C.: 0 (plate and shield with +2 in there somewhere)
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 12 (45%) or 11 (50%) if you do level-by-level for fighters
  Average Damage:  7 (+2 from weapons, etc.)

  While the vanilla fighter is certainly the toughest in terms of hit points and armor class he still just isn't that far from the vanilla cleric in any area, is he?

  Thief (5th);
  Average H.P.: 18
  Average A.C.: 6 (+2 from somewhere)
  Roll needed to hit an orc: 13 (40%)
  Average Damage: 5 (assuming a +1 short sword)

  Notice how the thief has the same hit points as a cleric with the same number of experience points right now? While the fighter and cleric are marginally better at hitting and have a superior armor class the thief is very close in combat and is far better than the mage.

  Let's look at backstab numbers for a 5th level thief;

  Roll needed to hit an orc: 9 (60%)
  Average Damage: 12 (assuming +1 short sword)

   That is pretty good and still substantially better than the vanilla fighter of the same experience points. With increased thieving skills this combines to mean that thieves will be getting more backstabs for more damage, making them more combat effective.

  To be blunt we should all already know that fighters don't really pull away in combat until 7th level+ when the get multiple attacks or if you use specialization rules at about 3rd-4th level. Until that happens the cleric has near-parity and the thief is close behind both of them with backstabs probably making him as effective as either in the big scheme of things.
  Notice that I did add magical bonuses to armor class and average damage but I didn't add them for 'to hit' rolls? That was on purpose because we need to talk about magic items.  During play thieves tend to be the ones getting Rings of Invisibility, Boots of Elvenkind, etc., to make them even more likely to do everything from find the trap to get that backstab.

  'But Rick!,' I hear, 'that is part of the point of thief haters! You don't need thieves because you can get magic items like Chimes of Opening that do the very same things!'

  My reply?
  A cleric with a +4 mace can easily replace a fighter of the same level; a fighter with a pouch of Potions of Extra-Healing and Elixirs of Health can replace a cleric; a party with a Helm of Brilliance and similar magic items doesn't need a magic-user.
  A large part of what magic-items do is enhance or replace the functions of any and all of the classes. Yes, this includes the thief. But just because a cleric can wear a Ring of Invisibility doesn't mean the thief is useless anymore than a magic-user with a +5 dagger and a Terrible Transformation spell means the fighter obsolete.
  That's why the fighter gets the +4 longsword, the magic-user gets the Wand of Fireballs, and the thief gets the Cloak and Boots - to make them even better at their specific role within the party.
  Yeah, I am going to talk about that again.

  Since we now know that thieves are, yes, fairly good in combat overall let's talk about their role.
  I've talked about roles before; fighters are physical offense; magic-users are magical offense; clerics are physical and magical defense; the role of the thief is scouting and intelligence.
  Scouting is about finding strategic locations, dangers, traps, tricks, choke points, and such features of terrain as well as locating the enemy. Intelligence is about gathering information about the types, number, strengths, and weaknesses of any potential foes or allies. Just like military reconnaissance and intelligence, the job of the thief is to make the party proactive rather than reactive; when done well the thief role makes it more likely that the party decides when, where, and who it fights. This is the primary goal of the thief.
  The secondary goal is to identify and, if possible, eliminate obstacles to the party such as traps, locked doors, and even lone guards (thus, backstab).
  Look again at the descriptions of scouting and intelligence; they don't include 'attacking' or 'destroying' the enemy. Yes, thieves can fight but it isn't their primary or secondary goal. Thieves typically only enter combat in support of their primary or secondary roles: eliminating a lone sentry; killing a straggler to search him and to spread confusion; eliminating opposing scouts.

  Let's look at that last item again; eliminating opposing scouts. The other side of the scouting and intelligence coin is denying those same things to your foes. The converse of eliminating obstacles for your party is creating obstacles of the party's enemies. The primary target for thieves is almost always other thieves!
  Think about it; the party thief is far enough in advance of the party to get the heightened surprise chance; the enemy thief is doing the same. Pretty soon you have two professionals, both highly skilled in stealth and ambush, stalking each other in a no man's land between parties. That can make for some thrilling adventuring!
  I also mentioned 'spreading confusion'; thieves also can demoralize foes by appearing where no one could be, eliminating isolated targets, etc. This confusion and fear could very well impact monster morale checks and make life much easier for the entire party.

  To sum up, the thief isn't a commando, he is a scout. His job is to get the party over that pit, through that gate, and past that ambush without taking much, if any, damage. So don't have the thief right behind the Cleric, have him out beyond the torchlight, roaming about. He should be finding potential dangers long before the fighter sees it over the rim of his shield.

Play Report - Three First-Time Players

  As I mentioned earlier yesterday evening I hosted a family of friends. The dad, D., had played 1e in high school and college but had no group when he moved for his first job 20 years ago. He came over with thee of his kids: son M. (14), daughter T., 12, and daughter C., 9. My sons J., A., S., and N. all assisted in setup and character creations.
  We started by just talking about RPGs in general over snacks and lemonade. The kids were eager, having heard tales from the table from their father all week. M. is a Full Metal Alchemist fan and had some general ideas about character motivation; T. is an artist and had character concept sketches; C. was just ready to have fun.
  We moved on and J. rolled up a character as a demo; he rolled Str 17 Int 11 Wis 9 Dex 11 Con 14 Cha 9 - a classic 3d6 in order fighter. We took our time and explained hit points, armor class, weapon proficiencies, etc. as we went. Total time to roll up, equip, and discuss creation was about 25 minutes. Then J., A., S., and N. helped all four of the visitors make characters. We ended up with:
  C. - human magic-user with 1 h.p. and A.C. 10
  T. - elven fighter/magic-user with 5 h.p. and A.C. 10
  M. - human thief with h.p. 2 and A.C. 5/8
  D. - human illusionist with h.p. 4 and A.C. 8/10
         Yup, a 3d6 in order illusionist.
  and J. with his new fighter, u.p. 8, A.C. 5

  With the heavy skew towards casters I was really glad J. had done a straight fighter.
  I then took them aside in ones and twos and explained how some of them knew each other ["J., you and T. have the same swordmaster trainer; C., you and T. have the same wizard mentor; T., and C. you have met D. who is mentored by your mentor's husband; J., you and M. have done some 'little jobs' for the town guard captain every now and then", etc.]
  Once that little web of acquaintance was established the town guard captain dropped a story on J. about how a small village had a reward for people willing to figure out some missing people. In a few moments the web of acquaintances had resulted in a team on its way tot he village of Stowanger.

  Note: Normally I give each character a sheet of things they know, rumors they have heard, secrets they are keeping, and people they know at the end of character creation, but I also usually spend a fair amount of time with each person over each character. Since this was a 'training session' I abbreviated this a lot! Still, I made sure they didn't 'all just meet in an inn'. I also slipped the human magic-user a tube of salve from her grandmother.

  Note: My son, J., wrote a list of 'basic adventuring equipment for 10 g.p.' and 'basic riding horse package for 45 g.p.' and we printed this out - a great help for newbies!

  Off they went on the River Road, eventually stopping in the (soon to be) famous Sad Wolf Tavern in Ham-on-Wye. After spending the night they set out south to the sleepy village of Stowanger and its only public building, the Church of St. Aledhel of the Elves.  They asked good questions, spoke to the locals, and eventually figured out that the people going missing had all recently come into money. They asked if anyone had recently come into money and were soon camped in the Brownside family barn, watching their house.

  The next day it rained all day and night. At the end of first night watch the fighter/magic-user spotted movement in the rain-soaked night. Like many first-time players she almost didn't think to wake anyone else up before going out, alone, to investigate. She remembered, though, and the group soon identified the shapes as kobolds trying to pry open a shutter of the house. The party developed a fairly interesting plan of the magic-user casting Dancing Lights as a ghostly figure appearing amidst the main group of kobolds and then the party attempting to capture one of the isolated kobolds on lookout.

  The sudden appearance of the spell effect startled the kobolds enough that the main group fled (pretty badly failed morale check) and the party did try to capture a kobold, ending up with a dead one and one at -3 but stable.
  No cleric, so no way to get the wounded kobold to interrogation ready in decent time.
  The party then quizzed Farmer Brownside about where the kobolds might be; he eventually mentioned the 'haunted mill'. The party set off for this building after using the salve to heal a hit point or two and getting some sleep.

  Note: I was using Syrinscape with a bluetooth speaker set in the middle of the table- the players, new and experienced alike, loved the weather and battle noises; they said it added a lot and kept the in-game conditions in their mind.

  The old mill is a 30' deep, 40' wide 2 storey structure with no windows on the first floor (but a broken old door hangs from from the only entrance, on the ground floor. There are windows all around the second floor.
  The thief decided to climb up to a second floor window and scout - one failed climb walls check later and the entire party is creeping up to the front door and another use of the salve is gone.
  The ground floor of the mill has the broken machinery of the milling process and a number of areas for stacking grain sacks - 10' x 10' stalls with 2' high walls. The floor is covered in dried leaves, rotted old burlap bags (empty), and such debirs and their is a staircase to the second floor in the corner.
  The thief decides to scout ahead and promptly steps into a bear trap hidden under the debris. The noise prompts 6 kobolds to rise from hiding in the stalls and unleash a storm of javelins! My dice hate me and they all missed.

  Note: The three bear traps are in very specific places on the map - don't walk there, no trap. This is the 11th time I have run the old mill for new players. The thief was the first to go in every time; the thief failed to search for traps every time; the thief hit one of the three hidden bear traps every time.

  The prepared illusionist immediately cast Darkness, covering half the first floor and shielding the party from 1/2 the ambushers. J., and T. immediately close with the other kobolds. In the next three rounds of combat the party deals with 4 of the 6 kobolds they had seen and one kobold escaped up the stairs. They also (finally) got the thief free, but he was down to 0.5 hit points (yes, I keep track of 1/2 hit points) and unable to fight.

  Note: In the past I have typically explained 1e combat starting with rounds and then breaking that down into segments. This time, after thinking about HackMaster Advanced, I explained combat starting with segments and then moving on to rounds. One group isn't "data" but they seemed to grasp the basics of combat a lot faster this way.

  Then a secret door opened and a lot more kobolds started coming in. Then more started coming down the stairs. J., ordered everyone out while he held them off, but they insisted he go and actually held off the hordes long enough for him to get away with just a little javelin hit.

  Note: When running the old mill I prefer to have one of the experienced players do a 'heroic last stand' and die. Why? Well, to show that it is just a game and characters die. And to show that an awesome, courageous death in a game can be pretty cool. Also, I coach the player a little bit - when the death happens they talk a bit about how that was pretty cool, then pull out another character and let me know they are ready if I need to introduce  the new guy. This, again, stresses that this is a game, that characters die, etc. it also sets them up for jazz band adventuring where each player has a stable of characters that they mix and match.
  Since I often am teaching younger players (under 10 fairly often, like this time) this, in my own experience, gives them the emotional distance they need; people that age naturally and properly become emotionally attached to characters and don't like Bad Things to happen to their family and friends. The staged 'heroic death' helps teach them that, once more, it is just a game. If they seem really upset? The party retrieves the body, they visit the bishop and they all learn about Raise Dead, too!
  This time, though, the party's actions had set up a viable escape plan - J. didn't want to act totally irrational and I didn't want to 'punish' the party by just dumping new critters on them until their foresight and planning didn't matter so - he lived.

The party rushed back to the village and sent word to the local baron - before sunset troops arrived, the remaining kobolds were cleared out, and the party had its reward money.



  This was obviously a short, sweet adventure designed to quickly introduce new players to ideas ranging from searching for traps to cover to roleplaying asking locals questions. It went well, they all had fun, and they all want to play again.

  Mission accomplished!

This Weekend - Tools for Teaching New Players

  This weekend will be the first of three over the next 2 months when I will be teaching people to play. This set is a dad (who played D&D in college) and his 3 teenagers. The next set are 4 teenage friends of my sons. The third will be three teenage brothers, also friends of my sons.

  I've been teaching new people how to play for about 37 years and I have slowly but surely built up some tools and ideas. Yes, I used to just throw them in the pool, but I am not 14 anymore.

  Since my main campaign and my main experience are with 1e I will be teaching them 1e. In my own opinion, it is one of the easiest systems to teach people - the stats are easy to explain, you can point to Tolkien about the races, classes are simple, etc. 2e adds skills which can really slow down character creation; 3e adds feats, too. I stick with 1e. Feel free to disagree.

  The first thing I do is send the people a copy of OSRIC and of my house rules. I also tell them I don't expect them to read them all (OSRIC is what? 404 pages? And my complete house rules are 64). But there is almost always a 13-15 year old kid who reads and understands a lot, which is nice and helps the others realize it isn't that hard.

  I also print out N+2 character sheets (N is the number of players making new characters) so that errors are OK. I usually make a custom sheet for each of my characters but for new players I love these free sheets from Dragonsfoot. Jon Woodland, thanks for making my life easier.

  I then press-gang 1 to 4 of my sons to help. When things are humming I have one of my kids helping each of the new players roll dice, select race and class, write things down, etc. while I supervise and answer questions.

  For new players I hand out some of these from my custom Massive Bag O' Dice handmade by my lovely wife. She made me a dice bag large enough for two pounds-o-dice and, by Heaven, I plan to fill it!

  I am trying something new this time. One of the most time consuming things for experienced players and most frustrating for new players goes a little something like this,

  DM: 'Roll 'to hit'"
  Newbie: "Which one is that?"
  DM: "The d20"
  Newbie: "Um, which one is that?"
  Experienced player: "That one"
  Newbie: "This one?"
  Experienced Player: "No, that's a d12, this one"
  Newbie: "Oh, OK"
  Wait 5 minutes. Repeat with same newbie.

 I call this new tool a 'dice sorter'. It looks like this;

  I will print our a copy for each new player and then place the appropriate die or dice on each image over the test and the newbie can just pick them up, roll them, and put them back until they know which die is which.

  I found out a long time ago that many (not all) new players are helped by things like lighting and music; the setting and ambiance can go a long way in helping them feel the immersion in the game. So this last week I picked up this to go with Syrinscape. Syrinscape is my gaming music app of choice and my review of it can be found here.

  I will use my 'standard method' for character generation, which all my players use: 3d6 in order, roll three full sets and take the set you prefer. Any set with 3 or more sixes or 2 or more five or less scores may be discarded.

  The first group is a bit on the younger side so they will face a scenario I call The Old Mill starring Clarence and His Kobolds. It will be three new player kids, their dad, and my oldest son. My oldest has been through the Old Mill 5-6 times like this, but he is very good at encouraging the others to lead and learn.

  The second and third groups are older so they will each have a unique encounter, probably with goblins and bandits, respectively. These other groups will also have my oldest son and probably second oldest to help them play.

  All three scenarios will involve tricks, traps, and combat and have 'plug ins' as needed (a place where tracking is valuable if they have a ranger but changes nothing if taken out; NPCs that react well to paladins or nobles; etc.).

  Anyone else have tips, tricks, or tools for teaching new players?