The Lifespans of Elves

One of the more disagreed upon rules that crop up in a lot of old-school OSR/TSR games is based around demihuman level limits. Some of these arguments are from a game balance perspective (which is its own can of worms), but I find the more odious justification is based around the lifespan of the demihumans in question.

The argument goes something like this:

"Elves and dwarves live so much longer than humans that they would have to gain XP slower and hit a cap. If they advanced at the same rate as humans, then the setting will be dominated by elves and dwarves of god-like power. After all, if humans can hit level 14 in their meager lifetimes, what could an elf do with a couple hundred years to blow adventuring?"

It's one of those arguments that makes a good deal of sense at first blush, but for a number of reasons I've never put much stock in it.

The first is that NPCs are not PCs. Older versions of the game don't bother to treat NPCs with the same kind of care and logistics that we treat PCs with in the first place. OD&D claims that for every 50 elves encounered in a group, one of these will have "above normal" capabilities. Normal being "something other than a 1HD creature." It then asks you to roll some dice to determine its magic and fighting levels. According to the AD&D monster manual "For every 20 elves in a band, there will be one with above average fighting ability (2nd, or 3rd level). For every 40 elves encountered, there will be one with this fighting ability plus a 1st or 2nd level magic-user ability." The important takeaway here is that the majority of elves you bump into aren't adventurers in the same way that the majority of humans you bump into aren't adventurers. PCs are level 1 characters in a level 0 world.

The second is that prior to AD&D2e, the main source of experience for characters was gold. This has some very important implications. The first and most obvious being that you don't get XP just for living a very long time. Even elves have to go out there and schlep their dainty arses through the same mud and blood and bog that the rest of us adventuring folk have to and put themselves in just as much danger for every experience point earned.

The second and more profound implication is that assumption that the reason for adventuring is to get rich. You are out there to acquire treasure. The game is explicitly about going out into the unknown in search of gold. A funny thing happens over time, however. The richer you are, the harder it is to justify schleping your ass into some gods-forsaken cave where something is certainly bound to try to eat you. You already have more gold than you could possibly spend. This is actually built into the endgame of D&D as well. There is an assumption in early editions that you'd eventually start to settle down in a region, build a stronghold, acquire followers, and begin to play on a more regional level rather than a personal one. Your actions play out on a broader stage. At this point, it takes a lot more gold to convince you that it's worth putting your life in danger and hoards of that size are few and far between. You reach a natural equilibrium at a certain point and eventually retire from adventuring to manage other things.

The TL;DR of this is that it's easy to ignore the "elven lifespan" problem simply by arguing that even with their longer lifespan there is no reason to assume that their adventuring careers would be any longer than any other races. After all, what is the likelihood of Bill Gates coming out of retirement to work a hotdog stand any time soon? 

Lateral Advancement for Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Other Old School Fantasy Games

One of the strengths of OSR games is how simple the advancement scheme tends to be. No worrying about builds or feats or whatever. You just gain your xp, roll your Hit Dice, and go. The B/x style class scheme tends to help this quite a bit. They are nice and broad, defining your character by your skill set rather than forcing specific fluff to make its way into your character. Your Fighter could be a wandering mercenary, an archer, a tribal barbarian, or a chivalrous knight depending on how you want to picture them.

The big four (Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, and Thief) do an excellent job both of providing broad umbrellas to build characters under and providing some niche protection. As I've written before, though, there are certain character concepts that just don't fit comfortably under any of the above. How do you handle a Ranger who can actually fight? How would you build Conan under such a system? Or Elric?

This brings me to my idea for Lateral Advancement for LotFP. OSR already works with the understanding that not everyone advances at the same rate. More powerful classes already cost more XP to advance, and in AD&D multi-classing was literally just "take both classes, divide XP between them." The premise "choose to advance slower in exchange for more power" is baked in from the start. I think there was a kernel of something useful in there, and I've expanded it here.

Lateral Advancement

Any time a character would gain a level they can choose instead to purchase a lateral advancement, burning the XP they would have used to gain said level in exchange for one of the following non-standard benefits.

• Increase an Ability Score: the character may increase any one ability score by 1 point if they can explain how their character improved it. No score can ever be improved in this fashion by more than 2 (read: a character who rolled 15 strength can only purchase two increases bringing it to 17), but may be purchased separately for each of the character's ability scores as desired. 
• Increase a Skill: the character may add a single pip to any one skill if they can explain how they learned it. Obviously, this is useless for Specialists. 
• Increase Attack Bonus: the character may increase their base attack bonus by 1. Obviously, this is useless for Fighters.
• Improve a Save: the character may improve any one category of saving throw by 1. This may be purchased up to twice for any single save, but may be purchased separately for each save as desired. Obviously, less useful for demi-humans.
• Learn a new class ability: In my home campaigns, I often design rituals and other special abilities that can be gained through play but not necessarily earned automatically as a class ability. If the Fighter got inducted into a berzerkergang cult, this would be his way to buy the ability.   

Characters who purchase a lateral advancement are immediately set back to the minimum amount of XP required to have reached their previous level.

 In LotFP, a Fighter gains level 4 at 8,000xp and 5 at 16,000xp. Upon gaining 16,000xp the Fighter could choose to take a lateral advancement and would then be back at 8,000xp again having burnt the remaining as the cost of advancement. 

I rather like the above as a setup. It allows characters to dip their toes into different fields without being in any danger of overshadowing anyone else's niche as well as giving the DM a way to let characters earn special abilities they want without just handing them out willy-nilly. You want your Fighter to be a Paladin? Do good deeds for the church  and in the course of it, I'll give you the ability to learn some paladiny abilities. Now I can do that without being unfair to the other fighter who is perfectly happy just smacking things with a sword. It's also perfect for when you have a character who just wants a skill to fit a concept (survival comes up a lot with fighters who want to be barbarians or rangers) without having to do some kind of multi-classing setup or hacking together an entirely new concept. Want to be a Witch-Hunting Specialist? Increase your Save vs. Magic a couple times to keep an edge on your prey.

If you're wondering why there's no "purchase magic" to go along with the options for skills and attack bonuses, it's because I'm already using Ten Foot Polemic's Arcana Skill.

Would you use it? Tell me what you think.

Random Starting Equipment for B/x (or Other Old School Fantasy Games)

Unnecessary Background (Feel free to skip to the good stuff)

I'm going to be doing a weekly OSR actual play series on youtube/twitch through roll20. Roll20 has some great features for automating certain things, and we wound up throwing together character generation macros so you can roll up 3 sets of stats at once and pick your poison. In that spirit, I decided to make a random starting gear table for it as well, so players can dive right in without going shopping if they like. The following works on our current (ever so slightly tweaked) B/x rules. You can also download it as a handy reference pdf.

Random Starting Gear for..

Clerics (3d6)

3	club, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, d6 GP
4	club, shield, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, wooden holy symbol, d6 GP
5	mace, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, 5 GP
6	quarter-staff, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 12 iron spikes, wooden holy symbol, 3 stakes & mallet, steel mirror, 2d6 GP
7	chain armor, war hammer, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, 2 small sacks, 2d6 GP
8	chain armor, shield, mace, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, wooden holy symbol, 2 small sacks, 2d6 GP
9	chain armor, shield, war hammer, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, 2 small sacks, 3 stakes & mallet, steel mirror, 2d6 GP
10	plate armor, shield, mace, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, wooden holy symbol, 2d6 GP
11	plate armor, shield, war hammer, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, small sack, d6 GP
12	plate armor, quarter-staff, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, silver holy symbol, d6 GP
13	club, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wolfsbane, holy water, wooden holy symbol, scroll, 2d6 GP
14	plate armor, shield, mace, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, silver holy symbol, 2d6 GP
15	leather armor, mace, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, random divine scroll, 2 flasks oil, 1 GP
16	plate armor, shield, war hammer, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, silver holy symbol, 3 stakes & mallet, steel mirror, 12 GP
17	chain armor, war hammer, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, wooden holy symbol, divine scroll, 10 GP
18	plate armor, shield, mace, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, silver holy symbol, vial holy water, 12 iron spikes, 3 stakes & mallet, small sack, healing potion, 10 GP

Fighters

3	polearm, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
4	club, dagger, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
5	leather armor, mace, shield, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
6	leather armor, battle axe, hand axe, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
7	chain armor, spear, shield, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
8	chain armor, shield, sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
9	chain armor, sword, light crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
10	plate armor, shield, sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
11	plate armor, two-handed sword, 3 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 flasks oil, 2d6 GP
12	plate armor, shield, sword, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
13	plate armor, warhammer, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, small sack, 2d6 GP
14	plate armor, shield, sword, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
15	plate armor, polearm, shield, short sword, dagger, light crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 5 flasks oil, 3d6 GP
16	plate armor, two-handed sword, short sword, dagger, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, 3d6 GP
17	plate armor, polearm, dagger, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 2 silver tipped arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
18	plate armor, shield, sword, 2 daggers, light crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 4 silver tipped quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP

Magic Users (3d6)

3	dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
4	staff, 2 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 2 flasks oil, 50' rope, 2d6 GP
5	dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
6	staff, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, vial of holy water, 2d6 GP
7	2 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole 5 flasks of oil, silver mirror, belladona, 2d6 GP
8	staff, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 vials holy water, d6 GP
9	3 daggers, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, vial of holy water, 5d6 GP
10	dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 vials holy water, 6d6 GP
11	dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6*10 GP
12	staff, dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2d6*10 GP
13	dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 10' pole, 4 GP
14	2 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 50' rope, 2d6 GP
15	dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 10' pole, d6 GP
16	staff, dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 50' rope, 4d6 GP
17	silver dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 10' pole, 5d6 GP
18	staff, silver dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, arcane scroll, 50' rope, 2d6*10 GP

Thieves(3d6)

3	club, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
4	club, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, d6 GP
5	club, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2d6 GP
6	sword, dagger, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
7	cudgel, light crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 small sacks, 2d6 GP
8	sword, light crossbow, case of 30 quarrels, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 1 bag caltrops, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
9	sword, 2 daggers, 35 short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
10	sword, dagger, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 bag caltrops, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, d6*10 GP
11	sword, crossbow, case of 30 quarrels, 2 silver tipped quarrels, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2d6 GP
12	sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 6d6 GP
13	sword, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 bag caltrops, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2d6*10 GP
14	sword, dagger, crossbow, case of 30 quarrels, 6 silver tipped quarrels, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 4d6 GP
15	sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 silver tipped arrows, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 1 bag caltrops, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 6d6 GP
16	sword, 4 daggers, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, 2d6*10 GP
17	sword, 3 daggers, crossbow, case of 30 quarrels, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 1 bag caltrops, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, small sack 2d6*10 GP
18	sword, 1 silver dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 8 silver tipped arrows, leather armor, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 2 small sacks, 10' pole, 6d6 GP

Dwarves (3d6)

3	leather armor, battleaxe, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
4	leather armor, handaxe, shield, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
5	chain armor, warhammer, shield, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
6	chain armor, battle axe, hand axe, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
7	chain armor, hand axe, shield, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
8	chain armor, battleaxe, shield, hand axe, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
9	plate armor, polearm, hand axe, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
10	plate armor, shield, handaxe, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
11	plate armor, battleaxe, warhammer, shield, 3 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 flasks oil, 2d6 GP
12	plate armor, shield, handaxe, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
13	plate armor, battleaxe, dagger, 35 crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, small sack, 2d6 GP
14	plate armor, shield, warhammer, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
15	plate armor, helmet, 2 battle axes, dagger, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 5 flasks oil, 3d6 GP
16	plate armor, two-handed sword, dagger, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, 3d6 GP
17	plate armor, polearm, handaxe, dagger, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 2 silver tipped quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
18	plate armor, shield, warhammer, 2 daggers, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 4 silver tipped quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP

Elves (3d6)

3	leather armor, sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
4	leather armor, spear, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
5	leather armor, spear, shield, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
6	leather armor, shield, short sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
7	chain armor, spear, shield, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
8	chain armor, shield, sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
9	chain armor, spear, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
10	plate armor, shield, sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
11	plate armor, two-handed sword, short sword, 3 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 flasks oil, 2d6 GP
12	plate armor, shield, sword, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
13	plate armor, sword, dagger, 35 short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, small sack, 2d6 GP
14	plate armor, shield, sword, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, dagger, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
15	plate armor, shield, sword, dagger, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 5 flasks oil, 3d6 GP
16	plate armor, two-handed sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, arcane scroll, 3d6 GP
17	plate armor, spear, dagger, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 2 silver tipped arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
18	plate armor, shield, sword, 2 daggers, long bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 4 silver tipped quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, arcane scroll, 2d6 GP

Halfings (3d6)

3	club, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
4	club, leather armor, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
5	leather armor, mace, shield, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, d6 GP
6	leather armor, hand axe, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP
7	chain armor, short sword, shield, dagger, sling, pouch with 20 sling bullets, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
8	chain armor, shield, short sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
9	chain armor, short sword, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
10	chain armor, shield, short sword, dagger, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
11	chain armor, short sword, 3 daggers, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 2 flasks oil, 2d6 GP
12	plate armor, shield, short sword, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
13	plate armor, short sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, small sack, 2d6 GP
14	plate armor, shield, short sword, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 bag caltrops,1 week iron rations, 10' pole, d6 GP
15	plate armor, shield, short sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 6 torches, backpack, waterskin, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 5 flasks oil, 3d6 GP
16	plate armor, short sword, dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 bag caltrops,1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2 small sacks, 3d6 GP
17	plate armor, shield, short sword, silver dagger, short bow, quiver of 20 arrows, 2 silver tipped arrows, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 50' rope, 3d6 GP
18	plate armor, shield, short sword, 2 daggers, crossbow, case with 30 quarrels, 4 silver tipped quarrels, backpack, waterskin, lantern, 4 flasks oil, 1 week iron rations, 10' pole, 2d6 GP

Credit for the original idea goes to Brendan S. I've since seeded some extra nonsense in my version across the board, both making it a better fit for B/x and flavoring it a little (dwarves tend to have more dwarfy weapons, elves have more elfy weapons). I have no doubt that my results will not be as mathematically elegant, but they will serve my purposes.

Statistics in the OSR market

My OSR house rules have slowly evolved into a game of their own, and I've been kicking around the idea of publishing them after 'Bastards is all grown up and finding its own way in the world. To this end, I've done some amateur market research by way of straw polls. I'm sure none of these are statistically significant by way of sample size, but here they are.

Screencaps are here from the time at writing, but if you want to weigh in, I'll leave links to each below the poll itself.

http://strawpoll.me/7025086/

This poll had the most results, and it confirms to what I predicted. The most popular edition chosen was Moldvay Basic, but nearly twice as many people weighed in and said that they didn't care one way or another about the specific edition. What did surprise me was that OD&D beat out BECMI/RC and AD&D by a decent margin. I can't be sure if this is because OD&D is more popular than I thought, or because more people thought it was underrepresented than the other editions.

Since the leading result didn't care what edition it was, that leads to the next question: how much do we care about faithfulness to the core material?

http://strawpoll.me/7044557/

The results here are more definitive than the first question, but we have an even smaller sample size. That said, it completely conforms to my expectations. Because OSR stuff is so broadly compatible, the overwhelming majority seem more interested in seeing innovation than faithfulness to the old rules.

http://strawpoll.me/7139460/

This last one I've been kicking around for a while. Book formatting is something I've written about before and it's an interesting topic for OSR. Depending on the edition and game, we've seen it done a number of ways. The results here surprised me.

I've never gotten to experience LBB OD&D, but I've always loved the physical presentation of it. The amateurish doodles give it a naive charm, and the nostalgia factor is high. The actual booklets themselves have a kind of versatility that you lose in single-volume sets, as they allow you to have multiple people looking different things up simultaneously. If you can acquire them separately, it also means you can have multiple copies of the character creation section if you need it to speed up the process. I think it may also be less intimidating to initiate a new player into the game with a half-sized 30-page booklet than handing them the 300-page player's guide from certain other editions of the game.

For the first day or so that I monitored this poll, all four options were at a dead heat, with at most a vote or two between them. I assumed that the single volume 8.5x11 would ultimately win out, as it is the most common form RPG books take. I was pleasantly surprised that the 6x9 took the lead. I've written about how much I love this format ever since I picked up the Burning Wheel Gold book.

Even if the above changes significantly after the time of posting, I think I will stick with the 6x9 as the target size for a new book. This is not just because I genuinely enjoy the form factor for it, but because it creates a secondary possibility as well. It's easy to lay out the book at 5.5x8.5 (half-page LBB size) first and create the game in such a way as it can stand as multiple booklets and then just slightly upscale the same layout to fit a single-volume 6x9 without changing page numbers. Print on demand being what it is, it would be easy to offer both for people to pick at their preference. I can easily see someone using the single-volume hardback and a couple extra character-creation booklets at the table.

Sacred Cows in DnD

Yesterday I talked a bit about Iterative design and the inherent problem of The Ship of Theseus. That got me thinking about my own current projects. Specifically, my AD&D/Lamentations mash-up, and the nature of D&D itself.

The wonderful thing about the OSR movement is that it's a bit like Linux. The core mechanics of D&D are extremely versatile and can be made to do a ton of different things. Everyone in the OSR movement is basically working off the same Kernel, but everyone has customized their own distro to suit their preferences.

In layman's terms: we're all basically using the same engine to power the game, but every variant uses that engine in slightly different ways. And that's awesome. Not just because it allows for ridiculous flexibility, but because the end results are largely compatible. It doesn't matter if the module I'm running was written for AD&D, AD&D2e, Moldvay Basic, White Box, BECMI, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lords, or Swords & Wizardry, it takes very little effort to use it in the framework of Lamentations of the Flame Princess or my own home-brew.

This does raise some interesting questions though. It would be easy to define D&D as the above system, but we also have to take into account 3.x, 4th edition (controversial, I know), and even 5th or D&D next. Each system is as alien to each other as it is the TSR era game. Clearly, changing the way skills work, classes work, special abilities work, spells, etc.. can all be heavily modified without worry.

At what point does the game stop being "D&D?"

The easiest argument would be "If it has the name, it's D&D," but this is intellectually dishonest. First, it precludes Pathfinder, which is effectively a direct iteration of 3.5, and it ignores the fact that the name only has meaning because people associate a certain kind of experience with it. Yes, we could take a 78 Chevette and call it a Mustang, but that doesn't mean people will accept it as a Mustang.

My immediate thought is that D&D requires the following design conceits in order to be "D&D."

• Iconic Six Stats - you could certainly switch this around, but it's such a trademark by now.
• Character creation based on classes - I just can't see a point-based character creation system being accepted as "D&D."
• Earning of experience points - The moment it switched to something like Spiritual Attributes or BW style "beliefs" I imagine people would disqualify it.
• Level-based advancement - This is a constant throughout every incarnation of the game, and something that separated D&D from other fantasy games early on. 
• Saving Throws - this is such an odd and counter-intuitive abstraction that it's practically unique to D&D style games.
• Attack roll - math directly tied to class advancement, rather than being an independent skill

That's my immediate thoughts. I can also imagine some questions coming up if you changed, say, the d20 to 3d6 or something but I'm not necessarily sure either of those would "disqualify" the game from being a D&D game.

What do you think? In your opinion, what are the constants required for a game to feel like a D&D game? 

D&D: Customization vs Complexity

The problem with rules-light games is that after a while, characters can begin to feel mechanically samey. The fewer the options you have to individualize them, the more likely Fighter dude A is going to look like Fighter dude B. The reverse issue is that the more options you have to differentiate Fighter dude A from B, the more rules you need to add to the game, the more reading that has to be done, and the more things that have to be remembered.

Let's say for the sake of argument that I have a specific idea I want to play with. I want to pattern my character after Logen Ninefingers, The Bloody Nine of Joe Abercrombie's First Law books. What are my options?

Specificity by Fluff: Core Archetypes Only
In OD&D, BECMI, Moldvay Basic and games that mimic these (Lamentations of the Flame Princess, for instance), Logen is just a fighter. My character customization options are: roll up stats, choose fighter class. This is simple, effective, and relatively fun. It's how people played for years, and stands up pretty well I think. The only problem is, if I want to play Logen as he is written, I'm either just role-playing his berzerker-rage, or the DM has to make something up for me (usually a rule stolen from another version of D&D). This is perfectly servicable, but you can't take house-rules into account for a discussion on game design.

Specificity by Diverse, Narrow Classes
In AD&D1e variants, the core classes give way to "sub classes," which become more specific. I can now play him as a berzerker class if I wanted, and that does give me more specificity and preserves the ease of learning / ease of play, but it still constrains my customization options to being stats+class (though AD&D generally gives me the option of race as well). Some people play this level with weapon proficiencies as well, which can be nice. The real rub here is that now his berzerkergang thing is the defining feature of his character, which can be a bit confusing when faced with the question of "why can't he do the things normal soldiers can do?" (after all, he has to lose something in order to avoid simply being better than the fighter.) What I gain in specificity, I lose in flexibility.

Specificity by Layering rules: Kits, Skills, and Powers
AD&D2e seems to have made an honest attempt to address all of this by introducing the much loathed Skills & Powers book, as well as making Non Weapon Proficiencies part of the core book. If that wasn't enough they also have the Complete Guides around for me to choose class kits, in addition to my pre-existing ability to choose sub-classes. Honestly, this all sounds pretty good in theory: I can now roll stats, choose class (or subclass) and race, choose weapon and non weapon proficiencies, fiddle with Skills and Powers, and tinker with all of the above via the class kits. In practice though, this can become a tangled mess. The various sub-systems don't interact well with each other, the implementation of kits is clumsy and notoriously unbalanced. On the bright side, it does address my original problem: Logen can now be a fighter with the berzerker kit and not feel like he's pidgeon-holed himself. On the down-side, it is an absolute crapshoot to deal with. The redeeming factor here however may be that all this clutter is optional. The new player sitting down for the first time can more or less roll up a dude without having to learn much of anythign about the system up front, just like in B/x.

Specificity by Integrated Abilities
D20 takes all of the above and integrates it into a unified system. For a lot of people, this was awesome. All of the customization options of 2e, but inherently meant to work together (and thus theoretically balanced). I'll not get into how well that succeeds. I never was much of a fan of the setup, but it does allow me an incredible amount of control over exactly what kind of character I want to build. The rub here is that for me to have all of those choices as a standard, non-optional part of the game as written, I need to read all of that and understand all of that. The first time player needs to read all of their class skills, all of their class abilities, all of their available feats and what those feats require as prerequisits and coordinate all of this so they can make sure they can get what they want down the line. Gone is the "roll up a character and go," but you do have more direct input over your character.

Specificity by Classless Point Buy
This doesn't apply to D&D, but it's the obvious other extreme counter-point to b/x. Abandon classes entirely, and make all skills and special abilities available on a customizable point-buy. It is the ultimate amount of customization, but also the most complicated player buy-in.

What we're seeing here is that you can't really have your cake and eat it too. The more you are allowed to tweak your character, the more complicated the system becomes. AD&D2e might have been the closest attempt to a compromise, but suffered from poor implementation. At the outset, it seems like 3e attempted simply to codify and integrate all of the ideas of 2e but in so doing it made them all mandatory, losing the flexibility and ease of play. 

The ideal system (for me, at least) would be one that featured some kind of escalating complexity. First level characters can start somewhat broad, but as they develop and earn experience points, they have some way of becoming more specified if they so choose. In a game like this, I want players to be able to get started as easily as possible. The less player buy-in required, the more likely you are to make things get going. Once everyone is moving forward, they can dip into the more advanced rules at their own leisure.

I'm kicking around some ideas on how to best make this happen, but I'm not willing to commit them to paper just yet.

Until then,

Revisiting Moldvay Basic

As our ongoing AD&D/Lamentations of the Flame Princess mash-up continues, I've been increasingly interested in digging back into the roots of the hobby and picking up a couple games of it the way it was originally played.

From the perspective of someone interested in game design, it's interesting to see how the early mechanics formed, changed and adapted over time. With so much of how people played OSR style games being a mish-mash of house rules and home-brews, going back and studying the original books is an extremely handy tool to help unlearn the assumptions we've gathered over the years.

I've read through the white box pamphlets, and while oozing with flavor and a certain charming niavete, they aren't exactly complete rules as written, so I moved forward. I seem to remember Moldvay Basic being the preferred setup for a lot of people growing up, so I thought it would be the best place to start for me.

I'll have a more in-depth review later, but I have to admit: I find the game absolutely charming. The rules are fairly simple, the information is clearly presented and the entire book seems written in a tone that is suggestive rather than declarative, which is something I really miss in modern books. The entire thing is an invitation to do something awesome.

The world needs more awesome. 

Advanced Lamentations of the Flame Princess (Project: Meatgrinder)

We're now two sessions into our OSR/AD&D/2e/B/x/LotFP campaign that we've dubbed Project: Meatgrinder. In true old school style, I honestly couldn't tell you what rule we've taken from where. It's been a hodge-podge of influences, house-rules and ideas that are being thrown into something of a living rules set as we go along.

For the most part, the game's core is Lamentations of the Flame Princess as written, including the magic system wholesale. We did decide to toss out the Vancian "spell per level per day" setup in favor of a mana-pool based system, however.


The biggest departure is rewriting the classes and races in a fashion that mimics AD&D, with the races breaking down to: dwarf, elf, half-elf, half-orc, human, and wildling - the lattermost being a custom race that takes the place of halflings and gnomes both. Current classes include:

Warriors: Barbarian, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger
Magic-Users: Cleric, Mage, Shaman
Rogues: Assassin, Bard, Brawler, and Thief.

Clerics and Mages are fluffed in a somewhat sword-and-sorcery fashion that neither confirms nor denies the existence of gods, with clerics gaining their powers through gnostic mystic shenanigans. All classes advance in AB and we use ascending AC. Certain classes have been buffed from their common AD&D setup, and the Shaman and Brawler classes have been created whole-cloth (replacing Druids and Monks, respectively). Weapons and armor have been slightly rebalanced as well.

The most obvious LotFP import is taking advantage of the d6 system that Lamentations uses for "common activities," and certain classes have been mechanically written to either gain advances in specific tasks, or gain points in the same fashion that Specialists do in LotFP that they may spend on specific tasks.

Digital Edition Meatgrinder Character Sheet

So far, it's working extremely well. The system is very easy to run and adjudicate, and as I invest more time and energy into the campaign (run very West Marches style), I'm adding more random tables and other fun nonsense so that my job is 90% rolling with their punches and interpreting results. The players seem to be having a blast as well. It's been a very refreshing experience.

Majestic Mummers & Malcontents: The Marvelous Mountebank

I remember having a few old copies of Dragon magazine back in the day and reading an article Gygax in which Gygax wrote about his thoughts on a second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, particularly classes he would like to see included and class options he would like to see expanded. Gygax was, of course, pushed out of TSR long before the actual second edition came out. Whatever would have been, we have only his notes. Some of these ideas actually came to pass - barbarian and thief acrobat made their way into Unearthed Arcana - but the one that always really stuck out in my imagination

THIEF — Mountebank: This sub-class of thief specializes in deception, sleight of hand, persuasion, and a bit of illusion. These factors, together with speed, are what the mountebank relies upon. However, disguise and theatrics also provide valuable tools of the trade to this class, so that one might never know one has been had by this class.

- Character Classes to Consider, by Gary Gygax. Dragon Magazine no. 65

Professional charlatan and huckster, snake-oil salesman, and confidence man extraordinaire. What's not to love?

So if we were going to home-brew this class, how would we do it? I've seen various ideas floated over the years, but honestly they have all rubbed me the wrong way. The common thread of contention is that these classes all seem to be based on making the Mountebank an illusionist wizard, who happens to have picked up a thief skill or two. They aren't wrong. The article seems like Gygax may have had that in mind. I'm just not a fan.

I had this problem in 3.5 as well, with the Assassin PrC. In my mind, an assassin is an extremely  disturbingly skilled stealth operative who has made murder into an art-form. What I actually got was instead a rogue whose major advantage was that he began to learn stealth-oriented spells.

It's a matter of personal taste, but I like my mundanes mundane. I would rather believe that my assassin was just that good that he could pull off mind-boggling feats of precision and stealth than "He used Greater Invisibility and then cast True Strike." It subjectively feels less impressive, and the more people you have who can cast spells, the less special magic-users are. Besides, If I want to go that route, I could have just played a wizard in the first place.

If I am going to have a Mountebank that fits my tastes, I don't want him to be a discount Illusionist. Besides, that goes against type. If anything, a Mountebank would be a stage magician using prestidigitation to pretend to be an actual wizard. That sounds awesome.

So what can he do? Clearly sneaking around is a thing, so Hide and Move Silently, sure. The Disguise ability from the AD&D1e assassin would fit nicely. Picking Pockets and Sleight of Hand are a must. But how do we deal with the core of the class?

I actually argued in one of my John Wick articles that the problem with social mechanics is that if you don't include them as a thing that you can invest your character in (read: some kind of skills or traits) then you essentially preclude players from making archetypes based on that character. A character who would have, in another system, focused exclusively on social-skills is without them mechanically just mediocre. Such is the problem we have with the mountebank.

 One of the best and worst features of OSR games, and particularly B/x, is the free form way that it handles role-playing and social situations through the Reaction Roll. Essentially, when encountering random, intelligent monsters or NPCs, the DM can either decide the other party's attitude in accordance with the situation, or he can roll 2d6 on a chart to find out, ranging from immediately attacking to hostility, uncertainty, or even friendliness. Some editions of the game give you a Charisma modifier that can be applied, making high-CHA characters more likely to start with better reactions than low-CHA characters. After this is determined though, there's no more rolling, no skill checks, nothing. You just role-play. If the PCs can talk their way out of the situation, or maneuver it to their favor, awesome. Otherwise, events play out in time with the narrative.

The problem this creates for the Mountebank is that they are essentially a class built around a social archetype. One could give them the same ability AD&D2e gave the bard (essentially giving them a chance to adjust that reaction roll up or down by one category if they succeed), but that alone is a poor basis for Mountebank as a stand-alone class.

Other options I've seen floated around included various "they can talk someone into something and it counts as a Charm Person spell" kind of solutions - which is better, but not perfect, or my favorite - Snake Oil Salesman: they can make fake potions and pass them off as real, with randomized effects. So you could make a Heal potion that actually may heal your party member, but also has a small chance of poisoning them. This is also very, very cool and flavorful, but then we've gone from Poor Man's Illusionist to Poor Man's Alchemist, and without some major effect, we remain Poor Man's Bard.

At it's heart, the dilemma is simple: I want to make a class that is essentially all about social prowess and fast-talk, but simultaneously don't want to give them a "roll to win RP" ability as that means the class most based on social encounters mechanically relies on RP the least.

I fear as though my goals are at cross-purposes. I will have to think more on the subject for now.

Until then,