Illusions, DD12 Styled

  One thing that always bothered me is that D&D Illusions are so limited.

How do DD12 Illusions Work

Humans have, as far as we can tell five senses. As examples, Elves are listed as having six, and dwarves have a different focus on their five, as often they travel through caves in the dark and need to rely less on sight and more on feel and sound. The other races have their own variants on things.

So when a Human casts an Illusion, their focus is on Sight. They cast a sight based spell which creates a clever illusion of something, that lasts some time.

In Game terms, they create a 'stealth' score, derived from the casters sense score, wisdom bonus, spell bonus and spells base stealth ability. Opponents need to 'pass' with their perception + sense. The GM makes a stealth check, and informs them if they do or do not think something is an illusion.

If the score to pass is above 20, no roll is needed, the player is informed its as real as real, the GM doesn't even roll dice. The player, seeing that the GM has not rolled dice, knows its either real, or their player has no way to determine if its real or not, and would be wasting their time even trying.

See that? We meta the player, No roll = must be real. Game continues.

The GM can roll for fun, maybe there is something unrelated that the player has spotted. The player stares at the wall, and the GM rolls. He informs them, they have discovered a rare moss, if they can manage to store it in a wet cloth they might gain some gropsits for their trouble.

Don't roll if nothing is there, the roll must redirect to something, else the players will waste time trying to find a hidden illusion, where there is none, or will find the illusion, even though they should not have.

Note, I said HUMAN illusions.

When a dwarf comes across an Illusion of a wall, they instead might add touch + perception. The stealth score of the spell might be stealth 12, +3 all, +12 sight Illusion, expecting the players to have only 2 perception & +2 sight bonus, leaving a score of 23. But the dwarf with a +2 touch bonus ends up with a score of 13 or less. almost 50%.

The Illusion and Image spells from many games are typically for moving, and non moving Illusions. But once discovered to be Illusions, are dispelled, or become transparent, and obviously an Illusion.

This does not compute.

If a spell is dispelled by someone 'disbelieving' in them, surely some kind of psychic link between the Illusion and the watcher is established, surely the spell would remain and just be believed to be not real.

Is an Illusion just a trick of the mind instead?

Is an Image of a wall, a pre-cast spell which affects anyone who comes into the area, to believe there is a wall, and once they disbelieve, the spell is cancelled and the victim can now see the truth? 

In some game systems, this is true enough, where an Illusion is rolled on each character, and those who do not believe, cannot see.

Priestly Illusions in DD12 are like this. The God has placed a belief of the Illusion in their mind, and each person sees or does not see the Illusion. Atheists have auto protection from such Illusions.

Why

I've done it like this, so GMs and Players have more choices. 

Illusions and Images can exist in multiple senses. Images of walls only need sight and touch for the simple versions, maybe sound to counter simple echo checks, but who'll taste a wall or smell a wall?

Illusions certainly need Sound and Sight as they wall and talk, yet maybe touch is less required for the simple wall guards or flames.

Elves almost always sense Illusions as they have no depth to them, no soul. Dwarves have often intrinsic knowledge of the weight of stone or doors, and their skills usually mean they will not fall prey to Illusionary walls, traps or the like.

So DD12 Illusions can be cast between 1st level (simple sounds) to 16th level (fully alive holograms that exist, think, feel and sense on their own akin to the Star Trek Voyager Doctor)

This (in my experience) with a creative players and illusionist, can be a very powerful character. confusing enemies with incorrect character positions, so they always miss attacks, and are so confused they are always hit. enhancing the charisma to get information, using background noises, taste effects on real poisons, fake floors over pits, fake smells over deadly plants, razor blade feeling like soft cushions, and other varieties of illusions to deal with enemies. 

something that's not clearly defined in other games. 

Wall Storming #82 - The Heroes on a Mission

 Way back in #26, some crazy kids decided to make a run for it, this is the continuation of that story.

The Runners

My notes are sketchy and my memory hazy, but here's the basics, Instead of treating the session like a mission, go out, gather info, gather goods, return, the Team thought they could escape. They travelled fast, they hooked and killed a zombie that got in their way, but the kept going at pace, they really gave it a good go, after a full 3 hours walk, they got to the outskirts of the city, nary a zombie in sight, or so they thought.

As the Sun rose in the sky, the nearby zombies warmed up, and sensed movement, so they rose up, crawled out of places, and worse yet, the entire 'field' nearby, was a moss covered swamp. it "looked" like a grassy field. 

Over 100 zombies started to crawl out of the swamp, as the characters sat in a nearby house and ate their provisions.. they exited the house to see a field of movement. 

The players were in shock, the characters too. Should they run for it? but if this is what's here, how many more are out there? what if its worse, what if its better? eventually, the crash of a nearby building, alerted the players to a 2nd mob of zombies coming from behind, and much closer. This cemented their choice to run home.

sadly, they didn't get very far when a 3rd mob emerged from side streets, they were almost surrounded. two of them were scratched, they ran for the gate, banged on the door, and were let in.. they told their story, and were sadly executed before the disease would take them.

The Story was the trigger point.

A leaf.

A green leaf.

They'd seen a green leaf on their travels, maybe a bush, maybe a branch of them, but they swore it was there. some kind of nearby wooden fort, had a tree in it, with some green growing.

This was pondered by the Adventurers guild.

Wallstormers #50

A group of trained warriors were sent out to see the location of the leaf, by correlating the maps, the adventurers guild figured they knew the location. They sent out their best. 

None returned. Yet, the guild had seen an approximate path of where they had travelled. Wall guards tracking them as seen between buildings or along known paths, timed, smoke rising in a position, maybe an indicator as to the fortress. 

Screams of something horrific, moans for days, none returned. 

WallStormers #82

Now we come to the Adventurers guilds next attempt. Rumours amongst the clergy and the noble houses, they insisted on sending their greatest heroes. A priest of the house of klarg, known for his true affiliation, the house of rokboi, God of Retribution and Fire. The high Ranger of the noble guild of Rangers, and the greatest warrior in the last several years, Lion Wrangler himself HRUN. 

They were sent out, together with a local guard (to ensure they can re-enter the walls) via a special gate, known only to a few, to investigate.

As expected, they returned. They found the tree, they watered it, blessed it, and sprinkled holy water on the roots of the tree, claimed it had held back the horde but they too were surrounded, waves of zombies, ones who held weapons, were armoured, fortress of protection, with traps, spiked pits, and a tsunami of baby zombies (accounts may have been exaggerated ) they returned as heroes.

People are ecstatic, life has returned to the outside, joyously, the people have renewed vigour.

Wallstorming #81+

 #81

Gate Exit, team goes out into the street, 'peers' into a few buildings, manages to grab some cool items, but spends too much time outside and the zombies gather, they run, things get dropped, the get to the main gate.

#82

Players sneak out in the early hours, (lost ones) descend down a rope (bed sheets) to the roof of a 3 storey building, south wall section 3?/4? into the house, which was well searched. that said, someone had died in the floor below, sitting on his stash. the team raided the dead, returned to the city, using the raid goods (door hinges) to buy membership into the build of adventurers, and a banded club and gloves

But on return to the wall for a 2nd exit, the guards of the wall wanted THEIR cut of the raid, 

The 'blood' from previous times was crawling up the walls, so they used silver forks to create a 'barrier' after raiding a house, finding some silverware and a candelabra, upon exiting, the guards waited, they complied, handing over a jewelry box and some silverware. returning to the adventurer guild, they upgraded their gear, boots being the primary (so they don't step in blood)

The 3rd exit, they came across a fabulous haul in the ceiling space of a building, someone had stashed their boxes of goods, and cast magical protection on the boxes inner panels. Under normal circumstances, breaking the seals might have simply ceased the spell, but our intrepid adventurer knew how to percieve the veil of magic, and re-read the casting runes.. incorrectly. 

There is now a very faint shimmer in the air around the building. no-one knows what happened. 

Wall Storming #80

 Key Points:

#79

Entered 'trades entrance" checked out the stores, then upstairs, zombie in bed, killed it, pushed bed out onto street. 

#80 Left Via Sewers (same as 79) navigated down some streets, took side alley, found interesting building, Wheat Silo plus attached buildings as part of structure.

Entered office building, blew dooer off hingeds, spotted zombie, found and killed it, but was difficult fight, players all thought this was A LOT harder, zombies done die from brain death or loss of head. 

Entered nearby building next to the main tower, was office like, some shovels and tools. Weird round door. tried to use wax or zombie guts to open it. something on othr side

climbed tower, opened lid (small 2m sized lid) and saw shadows of giant rat, 2 heads 6 arms.

dust? no flour.

flour + flame = boom.

ok.. sheild up.. boom, hero is slamed into ground, others take damage, creature is screaming. 

Bottom door is blown off, arm of creature attempts to skewer player.

They decide enough is enough,. sneak back, 

but army of zombies & smart zombie are on their way, they choose back alley and discover pancake man, they roll him up and take him & the magic pancake stone to the city. 

Survival! group can level up

[game idea] Dwarven Tunnels

 The Concept: Players plan out tunnels to dig up materials, the problem? lack of food.

This idea came to me a while ago, I'd love to make it, but time.. as usual. 

Here's my notes from way back, somewhere between 1994 and 1999.

-- start:

In the beginning, players need to find 'shroom halls' to provide food for your dwarves, next you connect to other players to trade.

Next goblins discover your halls and come in, taking away food sources, other creatures get introduced.

At a critical moment in the game, 'shroom halls' get infected, undead darkness takes over some areas and the Dwarves have to defend themselves, this is when they begin to gain new metal advances to forge weapons to push them back.

* Uses the Kingdom Underground system

* seperate resources into metal / farming.

* Farming resources required for population and technology improvements.

* metal resources required for buildings, armour, weapons, tools, forges.

* tech tree needed for stuff. 

--- that's it, that's the notes.

Now, being interested in deck builders, I'm wondering if it would be possible to create it in such a way.

Start the game with some shroom hall cards, a wood pickaxe, a wood shovel. the wood shovel you can draw a card from the soft soil cards, the pickaxe from the soft rock cards. Are these a deck of shuffled items, or are they sets of cards to be chosen.

To include goblins, you'd need to shuffle them into the decks, somehow spacing them under other cards, to make it interesting, when you draw a goblin, you play it on someone who has the least number of goblins & or monsters.

I'd want tunnels, that when drawn are placed on the table, slowly building up a network, maybe trade would change the whole game, so unsure about it.

You gather food tunnels to support your cards? maybe its your hand limit? or your draw or both, maybe the forges are draw cards, and your food is your hand limit, some food types might give you extra draw/hand limit, when you get a goblin, its place over your food location which limits your hand limit.

Goblin defeat cards are in the stone age cards, but they'd trigger larger monsters, Maybe defeating a monster give you an insta boost, but if you get stuck, other players can defeat your monster.

Seems to be a trend here, wood->stone->bronze->iron->steel->mithril? 

Each deck of age cards gets shuffled, the top card (cards?) revealed, wood is a smaller deck

Tool cards need to be a choice, maybe they're limited, you don't want too many else your deck will get clogged up. 

It might be a bit boring to just have each deck, each deck having some 'problem' that blocks a tunnel with some effect, and once you finish the last deck the game is won? no, I think it needs to be some kind of changer, I think it'd be interesting, plot wise, to say, the dwarves needed to descend quickly, so they don't get 2nd wood items, players are quickly introduced to upgrading, maybe its worth getting several stone picks quickly replacing your wood one, or maybe even, the wood one 'snaps' when you upgrade it? 

maybe you can place 1 tunnel per turn for free, extra tunnels require discarding pickaxe cards, from here I'd need to test the game idea. more ideas will emerge about when to have things upgrade, how to thin the deck, aka deck building, The obvious one is taking build cards from your hand and placing them in your grid, which is why I think restricting it to 1 per turn, or maybe you always draw 1 and play 1 to make your deck size stay the same,

That's the basics.  

Variant World Building - Playing with AI to see what's outside my box

 I'm a creative person, as such I've never really felt the need for creative help like chatGPT, but I'm not so vain to think I can create anything, so I'm often curious.. what would chatGPT do? 

Playing with AI to see what's outside my box

As you may (or may not) know, my world building, back when I was a teenager, was to assign each of the classic fantasy races to a roll of a die, when making maps. Its an old concept, I'm sure I didn't invent. You grab a bucket of dice, and roll them on a blank sheet of paper, the dice colour, type, and number represent what is 'there' under that die. 

As an example, a blue die is water, d4s are for large cities, 1s are abandoned, 2 and 3 is a decent, but less important city, nothing special, and a 4 is a special. for me, I'd assign the 4 on blue, as an underwater city, or a floating city, a 2 or three as an island city with ports and ships, and a 1 is maybe a sunken city, or the ruins of a city on the island.. this might be decided based on nearby other rolls.. d10s are transports, so if lots of nearby d10s were in the generic range 2-9, then maybe its a still used ruin, but any 1s or 10s nearby, and maybe its a well visited dungeon, or an underwater lair of a boss monster.

As time went by, I'd write down the rules for these dice, and assign races to certain dice, and eventually that became a code or sorts, which then lead to my 'creation myth' that each race was born on a dice shaped world. as an Example, the Elves come from the d8 world. This also ties into their 8 lifestyles and philosophies, as Examples: war, wisdom, peace, change, nature, magic, commerce, and love. Elves would only seek out the adventure life, if they were in the right stage of their life, seeking wisdom, war, or commerce were the 3 main reasons.

Eventually I came up with some pretty wild ideas as to how each of the monsters had evolved from those worlds, as counterparts, how some worlds had become corrupted and shattered the core race into many lesser races, i.e. the fae, or the magics had warped races from other worlds, creating half-breeds or half-half races, such as Mermaids, Centaurs, or Beastmen, Tieflings etc. There were some sub-rules that if two dice were touching you had to mix the results for something unique, that lead to this.

That creation lore sat in a folder somewhere, and I added to it over the years, even wrote a blog how Dwarves, from the d6 world, being so 'strict' on creating new technology, and not using magic, eventually turned their entire world into a space craft, and started 'assimilating' tech from other races, which got corrupted, and they started assimilating races too, ending up becoming the Borg.

But that was then, and 20 years have passed (hmm, maybe closer to 30) so I'm going over my.. lets say, less mature concepts, and started considering more deeper explanations, and it just occurred to me to ask AI. "how would you do this"

As usual, its very literal, you need to give it very explicit instructions to get in the direction you want, but it did give me this concept which I thought humorous enough to share.

In case you don't quite get it.. the AI seems to be saying the races, cities and even culture is also shaped like the world.. which I guess.. maybe? so the d6 world has a bunch of cube people.. 

SO here it is, maybe you might be inspired:

This is such a cool idea! You're essentially turning the different polyhedral dice into "worlds" and tying each one to a race and a corrupted form, which gives each world a unique flavor. Here's a breakdown of fantasy races, the dice-worlds they come from, why they match their world, and how they corrupt into monsters:

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1. Coin (d2) - Race: The Coinborn

• Origin: The Coinworld

• Race Theme: The Coinborn are beings of pure chance, living in a world where every decision, action, and event is governed by the flip of a coin. Their existence is about balance—heads or tails, win or lose. They are eternal gamblers, their lives constantly teetering on the edge of fortune.

• Why It Matches: The Coinworld is a realm of duality. Everything in it is based on the binary outcome of a coin flip: two sides, two choices. The Coinborn embody this randomness and uncertainty.

• Corrupted Version: The Luckless – A fallen race, cursed by a great imbalance in fate. The Luckless are twisted versions of the Coinborn, unable to ever experience fortune, always suffering the "losing" side. They are hunched, cursed creatures, with eyes that bleed from never seeing any chance of good fortune. Their corruption manifests as monsters that steal luck from others, bringing misfortune and ruin in their wake.

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2. D4 (d4) - Race: The Forthkind

• Origin: The Pyramidal World

• Race Theme: The Forthkind are a race of precision and sharpness. Their world is made of angular, pyramid-shaped mountains that form a geometric perfection. They are highly disciplined, strategic, and thrive on organization. The number 4 is sacred to them, and they build their society on the concept of stability through strict control and order.

• Why It Matches: The d4's sharp points and perfect symmetry reflect the world the Forthkind inhabit. They value structure and the balance between the four cardinal directions, the four seasons, and the four stages of life.

• Corrupted Version: The Razorclaw – These beings were once like the Forthkind, but after a devastating war, they became consumed by anger and disorder. Their bodies are jagged, like broken pyramids, with sharp, pointed limbs and erratic movements. They are relentless in their quest for destruction, and their forms have become monstrous, twisted with rage. Their ability to create perfect strategies now manifests as violent, chaotic outbursts.

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3. D6 (d6) - Race: The Hexari

• Origin: The Sixfold World

• Race Theme: The Hexari are a hardworking, community-oriented race that thrives in a world of six interconnected regions, each governed by a different principle of life: labor, knowledge, growth, artistry, spirituality, and trade. They build their society around these six fundamental pillars, and each region is shaped like a cube, with every face representing a different value.

• Why It Matches: The d6 has six sides, reflecting the Sixfold World’s equilibrium of values. The Hexari are practical, dependable, and cooperative, seeking balance and harmony across all their domains.

• Corrupted Version: The Crumblers – A group of Hexari who rejected balance in favor of unchecked ambition and greed. They seek to control and dominate each of the six principles, twisting them into a singular vision of power. Their bodies, once solid and grounded, now fracture and disintegrate, becoming more like piles of debris or shifting sand. They sow chaos and destruction, using their knowledge of all six principles for corrupt purposes.

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4. D8 (d8) - Race: The Octaliths

• Origin: The Octagonal World

• Race Theme: The Octaliths are an ancient race that lives in a world with eight distinct regions, each a mirror of different aspects of life: war, wisdom, peace, change, nature, magic, commerce, and love. Each region is ruled by its own philosophy, and the Octaliths have mastered the art of balancing and navigating between these complexities.

• Why It Matches: The d8 is a symbol of balance and complexity, and the Octaliths, with their mastery of eight facets of life, mirror the polyhedral world perfectly. Their lives are about mastering all aspects of existence.

• Corrupted Version: The Nihiliths – Once balanced in their understanding of the world, the Nihiliths fell into despair after trying to unite the eight aspects into one singular truth. The effort left them broken, their forms now composed of shadowy voids that corrupt and consume everything around them. Their monster-like forms lack clear shape and appear to flicker in and out of existence.

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5. D10 (d10) - Race: The Decadons

• Origin: The Tenfold World

• Race Theme: The Decadons are a race of perfectionists, obsessed with mastering every detail of existence. Their world is divided into ten zones, each representing a different area of expertise—art, science, technology, philosophy, etc. They view the world as a complex system of interwoven parts that must all function perfectly together.

• Why It Matches: The d10 represents the totality of these interconnected systems, where every number matters. The Decadons are deeply analytical and highly skilled in each of their chosen fields.

• Corrupted Version: The Dissectants – The Dissectants are the Decadons who became obsessed with dissecting reality itself, reducing everything to numbers and formulas. Their bodies are no longer whole, instead made up of fragmented parts that constantly shift and separate. They have become terrifying creatures that manipulate the laws of reality and break the boundaries of existence, tearing apart the fabric of the universe itself.

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6. D12 (d12) - Race: The Twelvians

• Origin: The Dodecahedral World

• Race Theme: The Twelvians are a philosophical race, deeply connected to the cycle of time and seasons. Their world is structured like a dodecahedron, with twelve faces, each representing a different stage of life or era in their history. They live in harmony with the eternal flow of time, respecting both the old and the new.

• Why It Matches: The d12 is a symbol of cyclical perfection. The Twelvians see time as a never-ending circle, each phase flowing into the next with order and purpose.

• Corrupted Version: The Timelocks – These are Twelvians who sought to master and control time itself. In doing so, they broke the natural flow, freezing themselves in a single moment of existence. Their bodies are now like statues, trapped in time, and they attack those who try to disrupt the balance of time, becoming monstrous, frozen in unyielding poses of violence.

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7. D20 (d20) - Race: The Vigeants

• Origin: The Dodecahedronal Sphere (D20 World)

• Race Theme: The Vigeants are beings of choice and chance, living in a world where every decision is an opportunity for greatness. Their world is a vast, interconnected web of infinite outcomes, with 20 different potential futures that constantly change and intertwine. The Vigeants believe in the power of action and free will, always seeking to influence the future with their choices.

• Why It Matches: The d20 is a perfect representation of their world—every decision, every action, and every choice could lead to a different outcome. The Vigeants live in a world where possibility is endless, and their lives revolve around this concept of infinite outcomes.

• Corrupted Version: The Fateweavers – The Fateweavers are Vigeants who became obsessed with controlling the outcome of every choice. Instead of leaving the future to chance, they try to weave the threads of fate themselves, forcing their will upon the world. Their bodies are now twisted, their faces hidden behind masks, as they manipulate others’ destinies. They have become horrific beings that cast curses and influence reality to suit their desires.

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8. The Sphere (Earth) - Race: The Earthenborn

• Origin: The Earthworld

• Race Theme: The Earthenborn are a deep, ancient race that exists in harmony with the natural world. Their world is a perfect sphere, full of lush forests, towering mountains, and endless oceans. They are tied to the cycles of nature, and their culture revolves around balance with the environment.

• Why It Matches: The spherical shape of their world represents wholeness and unity, and the Earthenborn are the guardians of this balance.

• Corrupted Version: The Earthshapers – Once protectors of nature, the Earthshapers became consumed by their power. They tried to reshape the earth itself to fit their vision, and in doing so, they corrupted the land, turning it into a barren wasteland. Their bodies are made of cracked stone and shifting soil, and they are now monstrous figures of destruction, trying to impose their will on the world.

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     As you can likely tell, very much NOT like anything I have, except maybe the concept of sides relating to life cycles or stages of development, which I think is the fascinating core of my game too.

Blades, Steel, Upkeep and Players

 An aspect of my game I've always wanted but couldn't quite keep, was upkeep. Its needed in roleplay to create a kind of 'constant cost' to dungeoneering. You need certain tools, weapons, equipment to continue your life as an adventurer, but most games don't include it.. why? and how did I solve it?

Upkeep your Weapons,  

I guess the first half of my life, I didn't understand the psychology of play, I have a feeling I knew what I wanted, but an inability to understand how to make it. 

Over time, I've discovered some key factors.

Fear of missing out, loss is more powerful than gain, tedious tasks are only interesting the first few times.

But lets first identify the problem.

If you are a 1st level character, with your wooden sword (minecraft) and you go out into the world, you're fighting low level goblins and slimes, and eventually you earn enough to afford a stone sword.. no, lets be more serious, you probably started with your grandfathers shortsword as he was a guard in some military, then you saved up to buy a nice sword, then later a longsword or broadsword, maybe eventually a magical sword so it can hurt the fae and spirits, then you quested for a specialty sharpened blade, at some point your blade was stolen, you tracked it down, gained it back, before finding out about an even more magical blade. 

That's over 15lvls 6 swords. 5 upgrades. a tad boring. 

Sure you have other things to acquire, talismans of luck, and sheilds of defence, armour of strength, so maybe your GM and you have sorted it out, you get 1 nice upgrade per lvl. 

Well, if your new to roleplay, great, thats a good solid beginning, well done, come back when you've gotten bored of 'easy' mode.

But how can hard mode exist? Reality is one way, usually the best way, but its Oh so boring (for some of us) to have to make spreadsheets of life, to ensure you get it all in there.

Tedious tasks are only interesting the first few times.

Having to upkeep your lantern oil, your torches, your food stocks, that's bad enough.. but sharpening your sword? and why?

Well, to start with your character might not actually have any training, so you should do it a few times to get proficient. So, if you don't have upkeep, then that's your starting point. After you reach level 20, you don't have to 'use' it anymore, you're proficient.

Proficiency means you don't have to actively choose to do something, you can claim your character is ALWAYS doing it.

Why bother? well, an unkempt sword is likely to lose its edge. Let players know, when they roll a 12, have them make upkeep checks. if they fail, the edge of the blade was so poor, it gets a -2 to the damage. players who have upkeep at 20+ can negate that disadvantage.

Players don't NEED to be doing the task, and GMs get a nice boost if they don't. It adds to the story, but doesn;t interrupt the downtime with tedium.

Fear of Missing Out

Once players have crossed the threshold, their upkeep is "known" why progress further? Well, level 2 upkeep allows players to 'sharpen' their blade. They may take the bonus "+1 to this combat, for a -d6 endurance". 

All combats reduce all weapons endurance by 1 (normally), so players already know they're going to eventually need to replace the weapon, so, whats a extra d6 of endurance for the +1 to that combat.

Players need to cross into lvl 2 upkeep to gain this skill, and will likely have to roll to check if it works. But they don't have to miss out. If they roll poorly, let them choose, the blade didn't get sharpened in time, but still took the endurance cost, or they can minus a further d6 to guarentee the +1.

Now, a weapons endurance score means something, thinner rapier weapons with their increase peirce scores, but lower endurance values means something.

Further more, we can understand why, in real life, carbon ratings of steel is important, holding its edge, and alloys of certain materials improve the shelf-life of a blade.

Finding an Iridium-Elementium-Steel alloy blade, with x200% endurance, and halving the sharpen cost isn't shrugged at. Weapons like this will last a character years.

Fear of Loss is more powerful than Desire of gain.

As a motivator, a quest for a slightly better sword is a good excuse to go defeat a hoard of bad-guys, but a means to empower your existing sword, or your skill at care for the sword will outrank it everytime.

Eventually players might balk at using their prized blade for the simplest of fights, and insist of saving it for the bigger quests. (giving them an opportunity to try out other weapon proficiencies).

Lvl 3 of the Upkeep, allows players the ability to improve on their sharpening techniques, and reducing the cost to do so. the application of a max-cap, halving the roll, or a direct -1 to the value, (or eventually all three) can result in a player maintaining a decent blade for 1000s of fights. given the standard sword starts at 160, with an average roll of 3, plus 1 per fight, the average sword will survive 40 fights before breaking.

Caveats

Now, I fully understand, this is highly unrealistic, real blades used in real history lasted years, yet, this is a game, and we're trying to represent plausible values to make the game interesting for plot.

Giving players and gamesmaster tool to be able to tell a good story, is what we're talking about. rather than Handwavium saying the blade broke 'because'. Under the hood of the simplified numbers, there are plausible means to explain it. a basic sword in the hands of a novice, will get bend, smashed, scraped and damaged several times before it gets close to 'breaking' yet, eventually it will OR the novice will learn to treat the blade better.

a standard sword, of 160HP, if 'used' by a character, for 160 fights, never cleaned, cared for, or sharpened will be at its 50/50 breaking point at 160 damage, and may break anywhere between 161 and 200 damage (rare but possible). So ~180 fights.

The same sword, cared for, cleaned after every fight, statistically will reach 120 damage after 240 fights. Then re-honing the blade at a blacksmiths forge, can bring the 'remaining' 40pts back so the blade has a 2n life, with a new 120HP max, repeated again when down to 30 remaining pts, back to 80, down to 20 for the next 40, and those fights, totals 520 fights closer to the realism we're trying to achieve, but less fun. 

Sharpen the blade, get the +1, use it for 40 fights, and go buy a new sword with all the new loot!

Oh Steel!

Pig Iron Swords, 12, d8+1, 60

Iron Swords, 11, d8, 80

Cast Iron Swords, 11, d8+1, 120

Steel Swords, 10, d8+1, 160

Folded Steel Swords, 9, d8+2, 180 (Mastery gives a +1 to each value, Endurance is measured in 20s)

Dull Modifier (0, -1, 0)

Unbalanced (+2, 0, 0)

Poor Quality ( +1 / -1 / -20)

High Quality (-1 / +1 / +20) 

Housing in Australia - current solution

 I'm not going to go on about Housing in Australia as per all the problems and issues, Lets just say if you google it, you'll find SO many reasons why politicians have failed the people, lined their pockets and go to parties run by their rich friends, so they can get richer at our expense. Builders cutting corners to make themselves richer? these days its just so they can survive (albiet most of them have bloated lifestyles..)

No, This is my current Solution. The probable only actual solutions (and it sux)

Back to Basics

Pre WW1 people got together in their family and built houses for the family, Sure, those were the days of 14 kids, 10 of which survived to be adults, 8 got married and 5 had enough stability to help each other, but the concept stands true.

What to do:

3 Mates, Finishing Highschool, maybe 1 gets a job and 2 are on Austudy at Uni. Come to terms with the current Australian Problem, and decide they will not make it on their own. With their parents support, they need to find a run down old house, the worst on the street, in the worst neighbourhood, the price will be far below average, so all the neighbours will be happy to have their property prices increase because of the reno.

They pool their resources, parents are guarantors, get a loan and start.

The Main earner puts in the bulk for the first few years for the loan, and contractually (for safety) they record all expenses & payments on the house, so if it all goes wrong, they sell and everyone gets their fair share back.

Every weekend, the 3 mates (male/female/mix) renovate the house, improving its worth. Gardening, Plumbing, They do it all themselves to save on costs. The only Issue is, because they don't have any certificates they won't be able to sell it. That's ok.  You never make money on a house anyway (see this link to my blog about that)

It takes an average of 3 people part-time 2 years to renovate a house, and $50k average, depending on the worth of the house and the reno required. But, because the uni students are studying we'll add a 3rd year. Austudy assumes $250-$350 a week rent, and the earner devotes $500-$750 a week, so they can pay their likely $800 mortgage and put $500 a week into the house, and if parents help by $5k per family for some larger jobs.

By this time, the Uni students are finishing their certificates and ready to get jobs.

<insert, plausibly, high schoolers are as unlikely to find out or care about this, so we can also assume the process begins now>

Now, with the equity in this cheap house, they can likely get the next loan a lot easier.

House by House, the 3 mates buy a house, move in, renovate it as they go, rent out the pre-renovated houses to help support the cash flow required, especially for the loans.

After 6-8 years, they have 3-4 houses, the first house would have risen in equity 20% at least & have 20% of the loan repaid (by the renter) then 2nd, 3rd and 4th would be in partial paid off.

They are ready to settle back, take the time to have an accountant and lawyer draw up the paperwork to work out each persons equity in the total project, sign over the 3 houses to the 3 mates, keeping the first house as income in their 3-way business. 

Here's some key points. None of them want to own the first house, its where most mistakes would have been made as they were learning what to do.

Its probably best, to throw all 3 incomes into the pot, to pay down the houses faster. With account keeping, they'll all know how much they've spend on their own personal lifestyles and knowing their own budgets, what they 'can' spend (probably best they have an offset, and each a credit card with a $1k limit each. Fortnightly the offset pays off the CC, knowing that the accounting ensures each person still owns the equity of what they didn't spend.

Risk: It needs to be understood, until the 4th house has been renovated, no-one owns any specific house, if the whole project comes to an end from personal reasons, the accountant/lawyer takes over, and works out ownership %, to be paid out AFTER all houses are paid off (rental incomes) in 20+ years. 

If Done right. 3 30yr olds, each in their own house, with 20% of their own loan being paid from the 1st houses income, they only need to make 80% payments for maybe 16-18 more years.

New houses are built like cardboard, and are as likely to fall over by 2040, the builders long gone, people are going to be in uproar. So doing your own house, and making sure you do it right because you're likely to be living there, you're going to put in 20% more effort and cost to get it right, AND no labour costs (which is 75% of most building costs)

No kid right now is going to be able to put down a 20% deposit these days, it takes 3 incomes to do it, and the prices rise faster than they can save (even 2 incomes don't save fast enough to catch it)

But once you're IN the market and have equity, its easier.

While I am being simplistic, and a little comedic, I want to take the time to recognize that this isn't a joke and Australians are 'battling' a whole new form of harsh Australian climate, the economic climate.

I used to work in Loans and Mortgage finance, and have a math background, so I've got the spreadsheets worked out for the above, which is how I came to my conclusions, but I recognise that the markets change enough that what I've done & written may very well be out of date tomorrow.

Good luck in your endevours.   

CastleVania 2024: The Mappers and the Trappers

 Its been 5 years since we had a Concentric here in Adelaide, so as soon as I saw tickets on sale, I grabbed mine, signed up for the Roleplay GMing and .. sat on my hands until the very last moment. 

Worst luck, I put out my back 3 weeks before, and was for 2, unable to really move. Luckily with some help from my Chiropractor (not the back clicky type, the physio type), I was mobile in time to run my game.

Luckily, the bag with all the CV gear was the same as it was, stashed in the carport, a quick dusting and I was ready.

CastleVania: The Epic Legacy Game.

Incase you're reading this for the first time:

Based on the Computer games, The Castle of Castlevania, Players represent the 'next' generation of the Beaumont family, arriving at the castle in the next 'phase' of the moon and magic leylines, that affords the more successful possible time to enter the castle. 1 day after a full moon, 7 years on. Dracula is asleep, the Werewolves are devolving down, but their is enough light from the moon to make things visible enough at night. The Players arrive 2-3 hours before sunset (after a 9hr journey) at the castle gates.

If you follow the map of the game, this shows that you've skipped past a whole section, from the town, the forest, the main bridge to the mountains, and that's correct, because other players have already completed and cleared those regions, and set up rangers camps to keep them clear.

And that's the rub:  This is a legacy game, players have made decisions to make it easier for the 'next' group to be able to progress further. 

So our next group, The Monk, The Ranger, The Priest and the Knight, entered with a mission. MAP everything.

In the last play of 2019, the group spent some of their family fortune investing in a papyrus/parchment craftsman's house and imported the goods. It breaks even, but mainly it gives the family parchment. So now the players get 2x sheets of parchment and  some charcoal to draw out their findings.

They progressed. slowly, then at a decent rate, avoiding all pitfalls and combat, and finding what was needed. The front gate was burnt down, but the towers appeared accessible, So they took to the stairs and climbed. A few broken stairs and swearing, but they reached the top. A Spectral Crossbowman guarded the opposite tower, so the Monk lept across the parapet and ran at it, while the Ranger with arrows blessed by the Priest, took shots. Sadly the monk was injured, but they managed to take down the Spectre, but not before his blazing fists set fire to the roof eventually destroying the innards of the tower.

Yet from here, they spotted some creatures in the castle and with a perfectly aimed shot, the Ranger managed to penetrate the skull via eye socket of one of the creatures inside the castle. 

Now, exploring the roads leading to the sides, they encountered spectral demon horses, so terrifying they turned hair white. Something their grandfather had warned them of, but they had forgotten in the moment.

Returning to the castle proper, they entered the main front hall. Covered in dirt and debris from years of neglect, yet strangely a set of saw horses, a box of tools and several trees worth of wooden beams sat here. They noticed one of the front doord had been heavily repaired from the back half.

The creatures had fled through the doors. 

The room was empty, stripped of anything of worth years before by previous adventurers, they had nothing to do.

The room that followed was a great hall, intricately carved archway held a roof 30ft above, while the room itself was easily 200 feet wide, a giant crack across the floor allowed them to see down to the servants quarters below, but they too were torn asunder and their floors let down to further rooms, and below them water was heard to gurgle its way through unseen caverns.

The shortest distance across was 7ft, fairly easily jumped by someone with help, but the creatures from before were huddled against the far wall, and once a torch was lit, they retreated to a place beyond this.

The heroes searched out the corridors to the right and left of this great hall. One led down to the chasm but also to a large opening spilling into the stables.. the eerie light reminded them of the spectral horses, so they quickly retreated.

The opposite corridor let to stairs up, to a small 10m alcove leading out to a giant ballroom. immaculate in comparison to the rest of the castle, and guarded by two stone statues of armoured warriors that did not hold weapons. A clue, that weapons should not be held beyond this point.

Regardless characters approached with weapons drawn, and the statues turned in place towards the closest weapons, as if to beckon them. the ranger, slowly with no weapon drawn moved into the room, and it sprang to life. The 10 candelabras and chandeliers lit up with a ghostly blue flame and 12 dancers faded into view, dancing to some unheard music, they moved gracefully around as long as they remained undisturbed, but once a weapons was drawn, scimitars materialized at their sides and they struck at the armed opponent.

The ranger, as dangerous as it would seem, braved sliding along the very edge of the room, focused on the spectres, so failed to noticed anything else, made his way to the opposite side, but the doors here were locked from the other side. Upon return, noticed that if he approached the candles with his holy-blessed arrows the candle flames would flicker and he ghosts flicked in kind.

The knight suggested he put an arrow into a flame.. so the Ranger did, which snuffed out a ghost like a flame, but instantly the remaining 11 ghosts turned red with anger and rushed to kill him.   

The Knight was caught off guard and slashed at, but beat a hasty retreat so the spectres could not get to them, as they were bound to the ballroom. The team realizing they had missed the opportunity to use the blessed arrow to snuff at least half of the flames & ghosts in one go, decided to retreat.

Night had truely fallen, and some new ghosts were beginning to emerge from the castle, they would be surrounded. The retreated as quickly as possible, but the Priest was injured while attempting to draw on the map while retreating, and taking an attack from something, the map torn in half. one piece fluttered to the floor, and the other bloodied, shoved hastily in his pocket.

The Group decided that they'd reached their limit, with 2/5ths of their party injured, night fallen, they packed what they could, returned to the carriage and set to driving home.

Only a few huge bats and a wolf were encountered on the return, so they arrived home safe and sound. Map adventure complete. they contributed their findings to the family knowledge store, the Map, vital to future endeavors, they were safe and alive, unlike many of their family before.

Seven Years Later

The Younger siblings of the group above, armed with some of this knowledge and a copy of the map, arrived at the castle for their turn. The castle was cleared, surely its just the Vampire himself, past the dancing spectres.

The Group, A Mage, Barbarian, Ranger, Monk and Rogue.

They entered the castle, skipped past the overgrown carnivorous plants, after taking a sample, entered the first hall, and while taking note of what was around, taking a giant leather pelt, went through quickly to the next room. The family of knolls were no where to be seen, the corridor to the stables, quickly skipped when the Monks hair turned white from a mere glimpse, they too went to the ballroom, but instead of approaching the statues with weapons, realized that the weaponless statues was a clue. They 'gave' over their daggers to the statues, which 'ignited' the ballroom, but this time faint music could be heard. The Cleric and the Ranger, tapping their feet, realized, the dance being done was about a bakers dozen, 14 step song, but only had 12 dancers, there was a gap. They began the dance, yet clumsily, they fell out of step only part way and rushed to the walls edge before the dancers were angered. Here they found too, the doors locked, so attempt number 2, they somehow managed to dance in time back to their group, angering only one ghost for a brief moment.

They returned to the carriage, took turns to watch

Disheartened but also relieved (that they didn't need to figure out the dance), they returned to the ground floor to try the huge darkened doors at the end of the great hall. It opened to a balcony over looking a great chasm. 50m distance. But curiously the doors opening this side, also opened the doors on the other. in sync. They looked up, further balconies. Surely this was where the ballroom opened to above.

Their Rogue climbed above tied all their ropes together, and using some pitons, the Ranger shot an arrowed tied to the rope through the lower doors and had the barbarian shut the connecting doors at the same time, securing the rope as a zipline to get across. with some more pitons and some clever shenanigan's, flipped the rope around, because, their is nothing worse than needing to flee and not having preset the ropes to flee upon.

The room in the opposite side was, for the most part pristine, but for some small hornet nests and hornet bodies on the floor.. some an inch long, some a foot long.. but the worse part was when they glanced into the corner, a nest the size of a house.. the entrance a circle the size of a dog.

The Monk.. some inner desire for bugs to die.. set their fists afire with their psy powers and punched the nest, igniting it. Two gigantic hornets emerged, but the Ranger dispatched them quickly.

Meantime, the Barbarian wanted to inspect the room. there was a strange circular blue pattern with tiles on the floor. The Mage had repeatedly attempted to detect magic, and time after time had just not been able to concentrate, exacerbated by her cousin the Rogue who could constantly 'do' the required mental agility, but had no clue what he was looking at. She got agitated time and again at this.. but at least identified that the magic was purple and therefore necromancy in nature. 

All too late, one of the Hornets  landed inside the circle and something started to happen. 

The Mage, maybe in a panic, threw a fireball into the nest, somewhat to dislodge the Hornet from the circle and knock it outside, the Ranger quickly knocked out the other, as two more emerge and were dispatched, also falling into the circle, but dislodged. 

What could have been a disaster was averted, the Ranger made the required 'zombeez joke', but they'd been damaged in the fight, so they said they'd stand guard and make sure the escape was not blocked. (players had to leave for another event) and they proceed to climb the nearby stairs.

The room above was a great hall, where an upper floor balcony looked down.. up there what appeared to be ghosts were very faintly seen, but maybe due to the sunlight, were barely visible and did not appear to react to the heroes (maybe at night)   

There were alcoves with large statues, but these statues had obvious cracks where joints might be, the Barbarian approached sword drawn and as soon as he did the statue fought back. It was a formidable statue in combat style, so the barbarian had to apply all his skills and stances to keep pace.

Meanwhile the Rogue and Mage approached the centre of the room, staying back from the other statues, but not entering the centre, they cautiously approached. yet  it did them no good. some ghostly manifestation appeared to rise from the last of 7 large purple flagstones. it then proceeded to float over the flagstones in a zig zag pattern, slowly forming into some head shape, a head shape with lots of strange braids, until those braids formed into snakes. too late the rogue was turned to stone. The mage realising what had happened, turned aside and ran. The Barbarian not listening to the words, turned to see what had happened  and too turned to stone.

The Mage running back to her companions.. they climbed the pitons, slid back across the chasm, raced to the carriage and set off as quickly as they could.

Upon returning to their family castle, they relayed what had happened and wrote down notes to teach their siblings and cousins. They Vowed to return and save their cousins from this stone curse. The Mage put their time into dispel magic.

What happens next? in 2025 at Concentric, I'll continue the Castlevania quest for the next group of Beaumont siblings, and we'll see if they can figure out the dancing ghosts, the stables, the werewolves, the kobolds, the Zombeez and the Medusa heads in time to face off against the 2nd major boss.        

Detection Magic

While designing an adventure, I needed my players to have an excuse to cast 'detect Poison' on several items. Knowing that the spell is a little expensive, I felt that plausibly something could be done, sure, I could make it more obvious, by giving them a scroll or two, or have someone teach the spell to a mage in the party, but even then it needs to be used more often.

And I asked myself.. What is Detect Poison? What is Detect Magic?

What is detection magic:

Consider first, how does it work. Is the magic sending out sound waves, when it hits the target object, it detects 'waves' of magic, and sends back to the caster some feedback his/her brain interprets as an Aura, and lets them know, YES this is magical?

Is it then, that they take that skill, and further it, identifying the particular waves to determine what KIND of magic it is? 

What about the other direction, if they reduced its ability, and lessened the cost. could the spell merely detect 'something'?

Side Note: Would Detect Magic, detect Radiation? would a caster assume its 'magic' but of unknown variant, and take it home, expecting to find out from a more powerful mage, and slowly become sick?

Would it make more sense, that the early mage, in learning the spell, would have gone through the weaker version? 'detect something'?

In which case, would it make far more sense that a "detect" Spell be learnt far earlier? and that spell likely improved on also.

I'd like to think, given that magical items are rare, that its far more cost effective for a mage to learn to cast 'detect' far in advance of 'detect magic/poison/undead/evil'

I give you the Detection Spells:

Detect

Base Cost: 5mp
Possible components: glass prism/lens/obj smaller than 4cm  - consumed 50% reduction.
Range: Touch
Initiative: 1 Round.

Caster concentrates and absorbs the sense of the object, If the Object is imbued with any effect, or is of pure metal, it will give a positive feeling to the casters hand.

Detect- Enhanced

Base Cost: 5mp [-10%mp*]
Possible components: glass prism/lens/obj smaller than 4cm  - consumed 50% reduction. [+10%]
Additional components: 5% gestures, +5% somantic CR
Range: Touch [+1/2m]
Effect: [directional focus: 180o 120o 90o 75o, etc]
Multiple senses: [+1]
Initiative: [Half Round, Action, Half Action, Free Action]

As Above, the Enhanced spell can be improved to detect objects at a distance, using the component to search in a direction or a whole room. A Caster could in effect search a room for 'any' effected item, and sense the direction of the items.

Example: Search Room, lvl 4
Base Cost: 17mp. & 20% imperfection. Final Cost 2mp.
Components: glass lens [-8mp], 4 small candles[-3mp], small rug[-1mp] and humming the incantus majori[-3mp]. 
Range: 5 x 5m room

Caster seated on the small rug, a lit candle in each cardinal direction, peering with one eye through the monocle, and humming the incantus majori, concentrates for 3 rounds and absorbs the sense of the room. If any item of importance exists in the room, the candle nearest will glow, giving the caster (and anyone watching) the direction of the most powerful object in the room.

Quick Detect lvl 1
Base Cost: 2mp,  & 3% imperfection. Final Cost 1mp.
Components: glass/crystal object [-1mp]. 
Range: Touch

With a small quarts crystal in hand, The caster quickly detects the item in the same hand, is effected of some force. Most magi would take their detect spell to this level with only 3 restudies.

But if they want to take it further:

Free and Easy Detect: lvl 6.

Base Cost: 0mp,  & 30% imperfection.
Range: 1.5m, no line of sight

As a Free Action, The Mage is able to hold their hand within a metre and a half of an object and detect if it may have an effect. This is a more likely end point to such a spell, taking it further to search rooms comes at such cost to negate the effectiveness without serious levels of study. 

Conclusion of Detect Magic 

As you can see, having some improved level of magic detection, which is inexpensive, is far more effective than attempting to cast 'detect magic' on every single item. The cost of studying 'free and easy detect' might seem worth it, yet, given a mage has limited study time between adventures, the player has to determine if indeed this is worthwhile, and is maybe influenced by how often you include small to mundane magical items in your campaigns.

So What of detect Poison? Undead? Evil? or just plain 'pure' metal?

In theory, they should have some kind of similarity, yet we have a few modifiers.

Undead and or Evil, might have tell tale signs before the mage/priest/monk even attempts the ability to detect, and the detection merely confirms what they suspect. Where for example a mage might look at a glowing stone, and assume its magical, so the exertion to determine is quickly ascertained as a yes, should mean some kind of feedback cost reduction. 

i.e. if the meta-physics is that mid expenditure of power, you confirm what you already expect, you can cancel the spell before it comes to completion. So then we need to add to the above spells, casting on already obviously magical items can have a -1 cost to cast. This allows GMs some good story telling arcs and plot paths, where maybe the item is glowing from paint, small bugs or some other bioluminescence, and the players just assume its magical. The Mage casts 'detect' and gets nothing, either assuming he failed the roll, or that the item has counter magic on it, to prevent detection. So they need to track down a better mage to properly counter the magic. Along the way they can meet other people for other plot paths.