Granades, a way to determine if you're running OSR, Blended or Narrative

 It came to me, when writing the script for my stand-up comedy, about how I'm married to a Russian spy, because she learnt to throw grenades in school.

Grenade Damage, and your game.

Older Grenades had a sleek shell, but, being manufactured in older mills, under time pressure, the often had flaws. the thin wall on one side would result in the shell breaking too fast in one direction, sending out a spray of shrapnel in very specific directions.

The Blast would, according to some fascinating videos on YouTube, blow out mostly in two directions, starting from the thin side, and breaking left and right of that. The thicker side would be propelled away from the thin side.

In Gaming terms, this would be a d4. 

a 1 would result in minimal damage, ringing in the ears, possibly knocked unconscious and possibly a small shrapnel striking the target for minimal d4 damage. (In D&D and other leveled health system, this is d4 per level of the target, to simulate full impact, then minus AC & level from the total to account for dodge)

a 2 would be the bulk, striking the victim with full force, but large enough to smash against armour, and or skin, causing a massive wound, broken bones, and small gashes, possibly killing, but little enough to still be survived. likely 2d6 damage (in DD12 single damage)

a 3 and a 4, would be the worst of it, the spread of shrapnel, being flung at such high speeds and in small enough particles, would rip though the victim, in multiple places, likely severing arteries along the way. likely 5d6 damage (in DD12, separated damage) , plus all 6s causing a critical. instant death is likely.

Game Styles effect

The thing is, if you think about this, the d4 is nominating if you live or die, 1 = most likely living, 2 = decent chance of living, small chance of death, 3 & 4, small chance of living, impaired, but high chance of death.

In certain game styles (mostly narrative), they mitigate damage, they add extra health potions, or the damage is always small increments or as part of the greater whole, is valueless (d4 damage to a 10th level barbarian in D&D? just a scratch) which takes away the believability of the game, and turns it into a cartoon. (the Whiley coyote, can swallow a grenade and merely burp our some smoke (d4 damage) Its done to allow the plot to continue, because the people there are not playing a game that has a plot, they are telling a story with some rules.

Narrative:

So, How would this grenade work in such narrative games? Well, you could have a blast temple, 4 angles. If the character to be hit is a player character or someone vital to the narrative, have the 'thin' side point in their direction. 

Like in the movies, the blast goes off, but they are merely temporarily blinded or deafened, while nearby in the other 4 directions, the other NPCs or opponents would take the damage and be killed or incapacitated.

This can allow GMs and Players of Narrative games the opportunities to do realistic damage, yet maintain the plot. 

Of course, if two or more players are in the blast zone, maybe someone takes one for the team, so the 'real' hero can live on. 

Old School

Old school, of course you just roll d4 and see which side hit the player, the template approach can add some more interest, as once you've ascertained the players damage direction, you can see where other damage may have occurred.

Blended

My own approach has been OSR based, but I do like a good exposition, knowing that the grenade has '4' directions of damage, I'll roll at first to see what the 'initial damage directions' were going to be, but I might have the 'safe' side hit the boss or a specific minion, and have the most dangerous blast take out some of the less important minions. If on the other hand a PC is in the radius, I'll roll the die, then let the players make a 'dive' to the safe side, if they fail and their in the main blast, well, sorry folks, death claims another soul. technically I gave the players an out, letting them see in advance the blasts direction, so they make a choice to dive for the safe direction, its less OSR, but allows the story to proceed 75% more often. 

Conclusion

What's your take on it? is there another approach that I've not thought of? Let me know in the comments below.

Character Retirement, computer games and roleplay games and mine

 One of the interesting disconnects in C.RPGs is the 'new' character. When a player dies/retires their existing character, and brings in a new 1st level, how the system treats them.

Character "Retirement"

At some point, a character retires, or is forced to retire, or is physically forced to retire (death & no phoenix down). In more classic roleplay games, the player rolls up a new one, comes up with a plausible reason the heroes have taken on this new recruit, and goes on their way.

"Oh, all this time, I've been training this young apprentice, he'll inherit all my worldly worth, and my gear"

Yet in earlier computer games, fueled by 20c coins or quarters, Death was a means by which the owner earned money. So often games were a tad bit harder as the game progressed, players had to improve their concentration skills, memory skills or their wallets if they wanted to keep playing. But it taught us a valuable lesson, skills = reduced cost.

When Computer games dealt with death, they too had ways for the gear to be passed down. Diablo had the gear fall to the ground, to be picked up by the resurrected hero, but rather than having the player start again at 1st level, because there was no incentive for the start-over mechanic of coin-op games, and they were often competing with other games on the market, they needed to have players only temporarily lose equipment, to be pick up at a later point to continue.

Was this new character the resurrected one from before, or just another hero of an almost identical skill set, arriving in town, penniless and desperate to gain wealth.

The Psychological Aftermath

As a result, we have three styles of players in roleplay, one end of the spectrum, typically called rogue-like, mimic the coin-op games style of death = death, start a new character from scratch. This style of retirement based far more on realism, typically has toned down monsters, events and such, where is any given event can kill a player, there should be, or should have been some way out, if only the player was skilled enough.

The other end, more narrative play, has a auto-ressurection like style, when a players character dies, they roll up another, of equal level, gather up their fallen gear and get on with the adventure. The lives of the heroes are quasi-irrelevant, the plot is far more important. As a result, game styles can be far more extreme, more gonzo, more deadly since death is not the end

Then at some middle ground, we have the OSR styled games, death happens, and if you don't have the cash to buy a spell or magical trinket, you start again, new character, or as I started in the first paragraph, players sometimes have squires or apprentices, whom take on their masters role, trying to fit their shoes, so to speak. The concern here is that players sometimes feel trapped in the character or role, as their apprentice can only be a few steps of difference, else the loss in training or gear matching results almost in a whole new character anyway, as per the permadeath option

I have an issue with all three, from the first, we've taken everything away from the player, completely, if the player retires the character at the end of a mission, its as bad as dying, so might as well go out in a blaze of glory which also bleeds into the OSR style. Yet in both narrative and OSR styled games, players wanting to change characters will often suicide them to trigger the new character coming in, with part or all of the levels and gear of the former.

Karma, or How I deal with this

So, what I learned, from my many years of killing off players, so they could try other classes, and players walking away from the table, because their favorite character died when they attempted to fly off a cliff into a dragons mouth, was to award players for playing the character to their fullest.

When a player dies (or retires, see below), I multiply their level by the number of attended sessions, and they receive that much karma.. as a player. The player can use the karma to begin their next character at either a higher level, or with some added bonuses from the backgrounds system, or some physical wealth from their family fortune, or any other number of ways to 'start again, but with more'

A further advantage is, as a GM, having built my world, I can choose to rarify races, setting a karma cost to play something outside the ordinary. If players want something exotic, they need to play first as a standard classic race of the region, then retire them at a village and earn bonus +2 sessions +2 levels for karma purposes, more bonuses for some modifiers. Then they can use the karma to buy in for an exotic race / class / background, and since the GM has chosen these 'prices' they've already factored in the affect this will have on their world and priced accordingly.

Some players, take some disadvantages to their first characters, in order to increase their karma ratings, banking them over several campaigns, so that in some later campaign they can play as some extremely powerful and rare race combo.

I don't see players throwing away characters, they earn more for each session they survive and more for retiring, so its in their best interests to go for as long as they can, and bring their character home safe.

Death is still very real, the loss of the bonus retirement karma is enough to dissuade, and furthermore the gods will halve your karma if you suicide a character. (or commit evil acts too)

GMs can nudge games in ways, by pre-setting karma costs and benefits, without outright denying a player.

Furthermore, if a player plays well enough in one GMs campaign, and another GM has trust in the first GM, their karma can be 'transferred' allowing a GM a break.

Also, some GMs wanting a more powerful campaign can start their group with campaign karma, (non transferrable) to 'buy' a boosted character that will still be balanced, so the group can either learn with training wheels, or being powerful heroes for harder storylines.

This is one of the less tested parts of my game, as it happens so infrequently. So I will probably make some tweaks at some future point. 

 

Co Gamesmastering

 There is a trend, I've noticed, in splitting up the role of the gamemaster, so that less mentally prepared gamemasters can still run the game, without having to do 10x as much work as the players. At first I was like, NO! (as a backlash to GM-less games) but then I understood, I've always done this. 

Ways to Co-Gamesmaster.

The Gamesmaster runs many roles, For me the underlying plot points, major NPC actions behind the scenes and how they affect the other NPCs that interact with the players. Economic flows of goods, services and information based on NPC actions and player actions, often less dominant for shorter 3 month campaigns, but are almost vital to immersive roleplay with longer campaigns, often done by the GM between campaigns.

Then the more nitty gritty, crunchy subsets of individual NPC motivations, how to roleplay those NPCs and this includes BBEGs as much as the minions, townsfolk and random encounters.

Yet some GMs I find, are so bogged down in other aspects of the game, they don't have time for the above; instead combat, maps, dungeons, gear tracking take up their time. None of these need be done by the GM. Lets look at ways to break down the components of the game for players to be more equal in the games tasks.

Combat

Often there are players who are one-trick wonders, spell casters, healers and some rogues, just are not built for ongoing battles. These players are left wanting at the table, causing games to even change their rules to be more inclusive, breaking the basic world rules, in an attempt to give all players something to do each round. (most DnD spells, in a town setting, can be used to advance economies, so why risk life and limb, when you can be employed locally to work your magic)

Get these players to be in charge of the monsters, they'll pull punches, and let the heroes win, but the GM can play as the boss monster to balance it all out. Everyone is involved.

Maps

Vice Versa, when combat is done, and the barbarian is just walking along with the group, unable to swing their sword, maybe the player can sketch out the map, drawing out the GMs descriptions of corridors and rooms, and if they get it a little wrong, well more realism, more immersion. (all players can contribute, to avoid, if need be)

Rules Lawyers

As often as not, players don't have the time to be looking up spells, components, prayers and effects, players not engaged with the rooms traps or secrets, might glance through the rulebook, looking up how they'll level up, or what spells they'll need for the next room. In real life, when someone is taking charge and looking around a room, others saunter in the corridor, or stand by the door, ready to leap out when a trap triggers, while they stare off into space, have the player pre-prepare some skill calculations.

Dungeons

As often as not, a dungeon can be created with random tables, maybe the player would like to be the dungeon designer this session. DD12 has a clear and fairly simple set of rules on how to develop a dungeon, without going overboard in monsters or treasure. Often a side lair is a good little random encounter on the path from town to the main quest. Players might pick up some extra treasure, and a scratch or two. Let your players learn the ropes, by making one of these lairs.

Bards Tales

Some players like to track the details of an adventure, jotting down the notes of each step along the way, helps in many little ways. The following week, when trying to remember the events for experience, a quick handy list helps remind everyone of where they are in the plot, what's coming up, what not to skip/miss and gets the group into the game a little faster.

Logistics

Have a player track all goods the party has, but also, approx. how much it was purchased for. In real life, we often remember these little bits of information, because we remember the whole path, picking out the goods, seeing the price, going to the shop keeper, maybe a discussion, then handing over the coin, taking the goods home, glancing at the receipt maybe, opening the goods. The whole process is flushed away in roleplay, and just the object is written on the character sheet, and the coin deleted. Having this info written in the log acts as the players memory of those events.

NPCs

When an NPC is not vital to the plot, and a PC's character has retired for the night, or is incapacitated, or in another scene entirely, don't have them bored waiting for their turn, hand them an NPC card, with some motivations, ideas, and possible skills, and get them to do the interaction. Shopkeepers, Urchins, Salesmen, Gate Guards and more, are all fairly common NPC tropes, let the players roleplay together, while you watch as the assassin from the rooftops.

Conclusion

So yes, the GMs role is huge, if you want to do it well, so why not split out many little tasks for your players.