Meditating on OSR Innovation

Another bandwagon I am compelled to hop onto is this meme about innovation in the OSR: rules or settings? First, let me get this out of the way: when hasn’t the OSR been innovative? Seriously. I will grant that we can look like a bunch of reactionary grey bearded curmudgeons, but from the get go we have been pushing rules written at various times in the 70s and 80s in all kinds of interesting directions. Why are people looking for the next Tékumel or Blackmoor when there are literally as many astounding worlds as there are bloggers?

For example: part of the “complaint” about innovation is getting beyond 2000 cp in a dusty room…a reference to all the whinging about the Dwimmermount experience. How wasn’t Dwimmermount innovative? I said this before and I will say it again — James Maliszewski pushed us all to deal with, understand and chew on the concept of the megadungeon. Regardless of what you think about how his Kickstarter was handled or whether or not you care for the final product, the whole experience has made the hobby better.

For myself, I was never much influenced by Tékumel or Blackmoor. I hold no special place in my heart for either of these products, nor do I have any real interest in investing much time on either product. The same can be said of most setting products. Those who read this blog know that I have never played a single game in either Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. The guys I play with have always been DIY when it comes to world building.

On the other hand, new systems don’t really float my boat either. Look at me, my favorite system was written back in 1981 and, when push comes to shove, I’d be happy playing nothing but B/X for the rest of my life.

What do I really want in a product? I want to be able to use it at the table. This either means that I can easily plug and play with an adventure or have a product that gives me awesome ideas that are easily applied to my games. This is the best way to be innovative, because there are so many products out there that are not very easy to use. Let me give you a couple or three examples of what I believe are innovative products:

Demonspore by Matt Finch
This is one of the best adventure modules ever produced by the OSR simply because it is designed to be plugged into an existing dungeon. It doesn’t have to be, but it can and I did and it was brilliantly easy to do.

Realms of Crawling Chaos and Starships & Spacemen 2e both by Goblinoid Games
Both of these products are plug and play tool kits for Labyrinth Lord (though S&S 2e can function as a stand-alone game). Frankly, anything in the Labyrinth Lord line is designed to be modular so that if I want to do a Star Trek/Flash Gordon/Horror/Mutant Apocalypse mash-up without house ruling everything, I can. Indeed, I have yet to fully take advantage of all of the modular goodness provided in RCC and S&S 2e.

This whole discussion began with JB of B/X Blackrazor and his problems with the game White Star by James Spahn. Personally, I really appreciated JB’s perspective. I was pining over the game because of the excitement generated around this section of the internet, but my gaming budget is still Free. JB let me realize that I would have had buyers remorse if I’d scraped together the cash to buy it.

Like JB, I worked on my own version of a Flash Gordon-esque version of BX/0e but abounded it because it wasn’t a game I really ever wanted to play. Now, before I get accused to being bitter about Spahn’s success in the same way JB did, I have already shared what fruits came out of that whole experiment.

Way back when, I did a series of posts stripping the 0e spell list of special effects in order to create a system to build new spells based on 0e assumptions. I shared it as Ye Auld Skool Spell Creator. What may not be obvious is that this whole project began as an attempt to create a tool kit for creating Jedi-like powers for a sci-fi version of BX/0e so that my version of a Star Knight (or whatever else you want to call it) wouldn’t have to have Bless or Purify Food and Drink on their spell list.

Speaking for myself, this is not the best thing I’ve ever shared with this community; however, I do believe that it is the closest thing that I have ever produced that demonstrates what I want in terms of the Rules vs. Setting discussion. It is innovative in the way I want my OSR products to be innovative: I can use it at my table to create my vision of a sci-fi campaign or add cool new spells to my 0e-inspired games.

In other words, I don't need publishers to give the new Tékumel or Blackmoor, I want them to give me cool tools to help me make it myself.

Arriving at a LL Thief Class with ACKS and Starships and Spacemen 2e

What follows is the version of the Thief that I would want to play, and therefore is the one I offer as a PC class in my LL games. It was made using a combination of concepts from Starships and Spacemen 2e by Goblinoid Games and the custom character creation system from the ACKS Players Companion.

If Fighter 1 from the ACKS PC is collapsed (as suggested by Harvicus) so that both Broad and Narrow weapon selection = d6 class damage die, this version of the thief gains two extra slots by reducing armor from Unrestricted to Narrow (Leather only). They then have the fighting styles of two weapons and TH weapons (weapon + shield is the one unavailable). It would be possible to gain one more slot (and thus one more Thief ability) by sacrificing the ability to use TH weapons.

Thief

Requirements: none
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1d6
Damage Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 14

Thieves represent those Jack-of-all-trades characters that have a range of unique abilities that make them very handy companions in adventures. Upon creation, a player chooses seven of the following abilities:

• Arcane Dabbling: The character may attempt to use wands, staffs, and other magic items only useable by magic users. A successful throw is necessary. Failure (at the discretion of the Referee) may result in unexpected results.
• Climb Walls: This is an ability to climb sheer surfaces and the like which could otherwise only be scaled with proper equipment.
• Find Traps: This allows the Thief to detect a trap. This ability roll is in addition to any other roll that might be applicable (if a normal character can spot a trap with a 1-2 on a d6, the Thief gets that roll in addition to the Find Traps ability).
• Hear Noise: This allows the Thief to hear noises not otherwise detectable. It also allows the Thief an additional opportunity to hear a noise normally detectable by other classes.
• Hide in Shadows: This allows the Thief an additional opportunity to achieve surprise in situations where hiding could achieve such an effect. At the discretion of the Referee, it may also afford opportunities at surprise when not possible by other classes.
• Move Silently: This allows the Thief an additional opportunity to achieve surprise in situations where moving quietly could achieve such an effect. At the discretion of the Referee, it may also afford opportunities at surprise when not possible by other classes.
• Open Locks: This allows the Thief an opportunity to open a door without alerting those on the other side of the door. It also represents an ability to unlock a variety of items (like a chest) without bringing harm to that item.
• Read Languages: This ability allows the Thief an ability to understand a piece of writing in any language. Once a Thief fails, he cannot try again on the same writing (unless he finds relevant information that would merit another try).
• Sleight of Hand: This is the ability to do a practical effect with the hands that is akin to magic tricks. In other words, these are things that normally would not seem possible, but are made possible through deft hands.

In lieu of one of the seven, a player may substitute Backstab, which is a special attack when the Thief achieves surprise (either normally or through Hide in Shadows or Move Silently). When backstabbing, the thief receives an attack bonus of +4. At 1st through 4th levels a successful attack does double the normal damage, at 5th-8th levels triple the normal damage, at 9th-12th levels quadruple the normal damage, and at 13th level or higher quintuple the normal damage.

The player then picks a primary specialization and a secondary specialization. See the table below for the different chances of success for primary and secondary specialization in comparison to other abilities.

Due to the need to move freely to use their abilities, Thieves may only wear leather armor or lighter and may not use shields. They may; however, fight with a weapon in each hand or with TH weapons.

Reaching 9th Level: At level 9, a Thief can establish a hideout, and 2d6 thief apprentices of 1st level will come to work with the character. A successful character may use these followers to start a Thieves’ Guild.

XP        Lvl   Primary   Secondary   Other   Backstab
0           1          60             45          30         x2
1400      2          65             50          35         x2
2800      3          70             55          40         x2
5600      4          75             60          45         x2
11200    5          80             65          50         x3
22400    6          85             70          55         x3
45000    7          90             75          65         x3
90000    8          95             80          70         x3
190000  9          95             85          75         x4
290000  10        95             90          80         x4
390000  11        95             95          85         x4
490000  12        95             95          90         x4
590000  13        95             95          95         x5
690000  14        95             95          95         x5

A Note to Tavis, Andrew & Dan and about ACKS Players Companion

I would just like to take a moment to thank both Tavis and Andrew for dropping by and commenting on some of my meditations on ACKS, especially Andrew’s suggestions for improving my Burglar Class. This is what I love about this little corner of the internet and what I love about the philosophy about many of the publishers who target the OSR community — they actively support and encourage folks to actually use their products in ways that the end-user wants to. To that end, I should mention that Dan of Goblinoid Games has also dropped by and endorsed my use of S&S 2e to fiddle with the LL Thief, which is really cool.

I’d also like to mention that having fiddled now with the Custom Classes section of the ACKS Players Companion, that this is probably one of the best things that has come out of the OSR. As I have mentioned before, ACKS is a great system if you want a character build opportunity with your B/X. Not being one of those guys, ACKS would not be my personal first choice of rulesets. That being said, however, the Custom Class section is easily portable to B/X or LL and allows players to add all kinds of flavor-filled classes to their campaign worlds to make them come alive. It also scratches that character build itch quite excellently. Therefore, I highly recommend getting yourself a copy, even if ACKS doesn’t seem to be your cup of tea.

Do We Still Need Labyrinth Lord?

Now that both Moldvay’s Basic Edition and Cook’s Expert Edition are available as .pdfs from WotC, one can legitimately ask the question: Do we still need Labyrinth Lord?

I would answer that question with an unequivocal YES for two very important reasons:

1. LL is an established brand with a license that hobbyists like myself and small publishers can easily and legally publish under with full knowledge that whatever we produce can be used by those who want to do the B/X thing with virtually no conversion at all.
2. More importantly to me, LL has a library of compatible games that are specifically designed to be modular. Original Edition Characters, Advanced Edition Companion, Mutant Future, Realms of Crawling Chaos and Starships and Spacemen 2e are all specifically designed to be able to be integrated together to create all kinds of cool homebrew campaign worlds without having to house rule. In addition, Dan Proctor has provided several free .txt documents for us hobbyists to do exactly that.

Despite the fact that I gleefully grabbed up the .pdfs of B/X (and was very pleased to see how well they are bookmarked) I still plan to use LL as my default ruleset precisely because of the versatility it provides me as a hobbyist. There are still many things within the LL library that await to be exploited to go places where B/X on its own can’t go without a lot of work that has already been covered by the LL library.

Thus, while I am very happy about what WotC is doing for the hobby and they deserve my gratitude and thanks, Dan Proctor also needs to be thanked because his work has greatly expanded the awesomeness of B/X and taken it to places it never went on its own.

Reconsidering Thieves with Starships & Spacemen

When 2e D&D came out, it didn’t really affect the way in which my group played our version of AD&D (which was really something in-between AD&D and Moldvay’s Basic — much like LL+AEC). We largely ignored most of the rules, with the exception of the new rules surrounding magic-users and thieves.

Whereas my friends were enamored with the new schools of magic and what that meant not only for their characters, but the world they inhabited, I was thoroughly impressed not only with the way thieves finally had a decent chance to succeed at some of their skills at lower levels, but how a player could customize which skills their character was good at. Pick pocketing, for example, has never much been a part of any of the campaigns I have ever been involved in; however, lock picking and reading languages has. Being able to play a thief that was more of a tinkerer and collector of esoteric knowledge rather than a pick pocket really appealed to me.

Without having to track down a copy of the 2e PH (which I got rid of years ago), I now have an option for making Thieves more akin to that 2e version which appealed to me so much more than the standard thief found in older rules of the game. The unlikely source is Starships & Spacemen 2e (S&S) by Goblinoid Games.

As I stated in my review, the way that the inevitable skills found in modern and sci-fi RPGs is handled rather nicely in S&S and invites the system to be used in a number of different applications. One such application is to the classic Thief class.

Thieves in LL/BX have seven skills:

• Open Locks
• (Find &) Remove Traps
• Pick Pockets
• Move Silently
• Climb Sheer Surfaces
• Hide in Shadows
• Hear Noise

The progression of these skills start somewhere between 10-33% (with the exception of Climb which begins at 87%) at first level to 70-95% (including Climb) at 9th level. In S&S there are three types of skills: Primary, Secondary and Other. At first level they are at 60, 45 and 30% respectively. At 9th level they are at 100, 85 and 70% respectively. Thus, they have a much higher chance of success at lower levels and progress more smoothly (+5% per level) to the same range of success at higher levels.

In order to implement this for the LL/BX Thief, the player chooses one skill as Primary, one as Secondary and the rest are Other. This allows not only for higher success at lower levels, but for the kind of customization I loved about the 2e Thief.

For those interested in using the Thief Skills as a kind of Saving Throw for when the player doesn’t come up with a legitimate way to deal with a situation and thus automatically succeed (e.g. disarming a trap), here are the numbers needed to make a save at first level:

• Primary = 9
• Secondary = 12
• Other = 15

These saves are reduced by one at every level. These saves and skills can be adjusted with bonuses and penalties according to the situation, difficulty of the task at hand, players coming close to a legitimate solution, etc. Since they are "saves" or skills with a higher chance of success, these kinds of ad hoc adjustments by the Referee will be less onerous than for the poor 1st level thief who only has a 10% chance of removing a trap.

Thus, not only does this use of the S&S skill system offer more freedom to the player, it also offers more freedom to the Referee.

Review: Starships & Spacemen 2e

First of all, I would like to congratulate Dan Proctor for getting Starships & Spacemen 2e (S&S) out in a timely fashion. Of all the various Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects I have had the disposable cash to contribute to, Dan’s is the first to actually show up at my door.

S&S is a loving RPG tribute to Star Trek and all of the sci-fi imitators it spawned. If one has been a regular reader of my blog over the years, you might be surprised that I would spend money on something related to Star Trek. Admittedly, I do not much care for the franchise, especially in its most recent incarnation. As I have grown older and wiser, I have found the foundational principles of the Star Trek Universe to be dangerous, I have found myself deeply offended by episodes of TNG and I never really bothered with either DS9 or Voyager because of the lazy way they went about telling their own stories.

I did, however, grow up around Trekkies and remember with great fondness watching original episodes, the short-lived animated series and the first movies with those Trekkies. Though I never shared their enthusiasm, I did learn to appreciate why they had that enthusiasm. Thus, the idea of divorcing Star Trek from its foundational utopian illusions while capturing the enthusiasm that I grew to appreciate so much really appeals to me — especially when one considers that S&S is part of the Labyrinth Lord line of products with the built-in potential for a mash-up of Star Trek, Mutant Future and a D&D retro-clone.

My initial reaction when I did my first perusal of the rules was mixed. I laughed out loud with glee when I found out that there are rules for playing Red Shirts. That in and of itself makes the purchase of the game worth every penny and I truly hope that I get the opportunity to take full advantage of those rules some day.

However, Dan’s claim that S&S is “fully compatible” with LL is a bit of a stretch. For example, combat uses a mechanic where the goal is to roll below the target number. I assume that this is an homage to S&S’s Fantasy Games Unlimited roots (Villains and Vigilantes uses the same mechanic), but it does necessitate a bit of conversion if that Star Trek/Mutant Future/D&D retro-clone mash-up is to happen anytime soon. I will grant that the conversion is relatively simple, because the percentages of each system is basically the same; however, since every monster in the monster section assumes the roll-low mechanic, such a conversion will take some time upfront in order to reproduce the Armor Class of all those cool new monsters.

Here are some of my thoughts after a more thorough reading of the game:

Characters

Character creation will be very familiar to those who have ever played D&D; however Wisdom has been replaced by Psionic Potential. There is a very cool universal table of bonuses that has four columns. Each column is used in different contexts as detailed with each ability.

When determining a class, characters choose from one of three branches — Military, Scientific, or Technical. Each of these branches has sub-classes (for example, Military has Command, Security and Fire Control subclasses). These sub-classes will offer a secondary skill (more on that later) or other mechanical bonuses. If one eschews a sub-class, the character receives an experience point bonus. One can also choose between being a CO or an NCO. The CO track requires more experience points to advance and has more mechanical bonuses while the NCO track requires less experience for advancement and allows players the joy of being a Red Shirt.

Over-all I think this is a rather clever way of dealing with classes and is a loving homage to Star Trek and its ilk. The one draw-back is that one player in every group has to take the Commander sub-class. The upside is that every party gets to command its own ship regardless of level.

Races

There are eight different races available: Adromedans, Daelans, Dreipeds, Gorrans, Humans, Hykhot, Rigel and Taurans. There are plenty of homages to Star Trek races plus a few extra with built-in racial and political baggage with each in addition to all the various mechanical bonuses one receives. One of the nicest touches is that each race has one of three Metabolisms which determine body chemistry and therefore susceptibility to various diseases etc.

Equipment

Since this is based on Star Trek, which laughably got rid of a money-based economic system, equipment is not based upon how much money a character has, but rather by their branch and rank. In addition, there is an optional rule where a party can have a stash of extra equipment that can be traded out depending upon the needs of a mission.

While I don’t think the origin of this system is very realistic, I do like its elegance and could see it easily justified within the context of a military organization regardless of genre. This is certainly one of the modular rules that I would like to experiment with in other frameworks.

Skill System

As seems inescapable with modern or sci-fi RPGs there is a nascent skill system. It is broken down into three types: Primary, Secondary and Other. Depending on the level of the character each skill type has a target number. Primary starts out at 60%, Secondary at 45% and Other at 30%. If one considers that Combat is one of these skills, that means that Military Branch characters are twice as effective in combat than other Branches. In comparison to LL classes, Military Branch characters are slightly more effective in combat than Fighters overall, but every fantasy class is going to be a better combatant than either a Technical or Science Branch character.

Despite my normal reticence about skill systems, there are two things that I like about this one. Firstly, it is wide-open enough that one could easily see both of the following scenarios play out in the same game session:

Player: Since an object in motion wants to stay in motion, if we apply that to our current situation we should get the outcome we want. Star Master (the S&S version of a GM): Sure. Done.

Player: Captain, if we redirect the shield capacitor to reverse the current in the thrust of the nacelle unit, we should be able to force the door open! Star Master: Okay. Roll versus your science skill (with a bonus if said phrase of technical jargon was performed in a passable Scottish accent).

Secondly, this has potential further applications in other contexts. For example, if one wanted to create a non-Vancian magic system for a fantasy world, this is a potential model for how to proceed. Various classes would combine different skills-groups including combat, divine magic, arcane magic and other non-combat skills. The success or failure of a particular spell would be based upon these skill tables and could be modified by the difficulty of the spell, the number of people trying to cast the spell, the place where the spell is being cast, etc. This is another modular section of this game that I will want to experiment with.

Starship Combat

One of the most frustrating aspects of any sci-fi RPG for me is spaceship combat. There is inevitably one class that is significantly better at it than anyone else, which makes things frustrating for anyone who is not a member of that class. If the party is on one ship (as in S&S) there inevitably won’t be much for everyone to do, since the unit of combat is not the individual character, but the ship. There is also the real possibility of a TPK if said ship is destroyed. This can be made much worse when there is the possibility that there will be players who had no way to control or influence the outcome.

S&S tries to mitigate these failings in two ways. Firstly, all ship actions require Energy Units (EUs). EUs also determine when a ship is destroyed. Thus, combat requires that each ship decide how and when EUs are allocated. This gives an opportunity for every member of a party to have a say in the outcome of a battle. Secondly, starship commanders are required by military doctrine to flee combat when their EU count reaches 25%, and there is a mechanic that allows for this retreat. Thus, the chances of the TPK due to the destruction of the party’s ship is minimized (though not eliminated).

Overall, I must say I like this section of the game. It has a nice tip of the hat to Starfleet Battles without all the complication. It also has all the elegance needed to be a potentially fast and exciting part of the game.

World Creation

This is perhaps the weakest part of the whole book. Dan understandably (and correctly) assumes that most sci-fi games actually suffer from having a pre-generated setting. It often consumes the game and makes the task of the GM too daunting to even try (later versions of Traveller are an excellent example of this). Unfortunately, the reverse is also true. Creating an entire sector of space from scratch is also a daunting task — much more so than a small wilderness map on which is a town and a dungeon.

Although Dan provides an example sector map and a sample adventure there is little else in terms of guidance with which to create your own maps and adventures. Thus, S&S does little to inspire confidence in overcoming such a daunting task.

Perhaps S&S suffers from a comparison with Stars Without Number (SWN) which has an absolutely fantastic system for creating not only entire sectors of space with awesome descriptors which inspire adventure after adventure, but has rules for factions that might exist within that sector of space. Fortunately, SWN has a free version, so it is very possible to simply use SWN’s sector creation system for use in an S&S campaign.

Final Thoughts

I am not 100% satisfied with S&S. As a stand-alone product it does a very good job of emulating a Star Trek-type sci-fi game. While the lack of a world generator is annoying it is far from crippling. I am not a big fan of the roll low mechanic (it is one of the few things that I don’t like about V&V). I don’t know why, but the aesthetics of rolling high just appeal to me more.

The strength of S&S, however, is not as a stand-alone product. Rather, it is another set of modular options within the Labyrinth Lord line of products. The reason that LL remains my favorite of all the various retro-clones out there is that it is designed to be modular. We are free to pick and choose various sections of rules from each of these products to make our own unique home brew without having to house rule. Want a 0e-style elf? You got it. Want mutant plant PCs? You got it. Want an extensive AD&D-like spell list? You got it. Now, with the addition of S&S you have the option of space combat, alien PCs, a robust system for running a military-type campaign and some intriguing possibilities for a simple skill system and a non-Vancian magic system.

Ultimately, it is this modularity that makes S&S such a good product and one that I am very happy to have in my library.