happenings in the campaign world

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9th_century_AD

The Earl speaks

I enclose herein, dear reader, a letter from the most excsellente Earle of Stafforde. It seems as though the Gawab of Jamcot had invited him as the official observer of the Queen, to observe the conflict between the embattled Gobs of Jamcot and the loathesome aggressors, the rat men.

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On the Sqigsday (Goblin date), forces of the Gawab of Jamcot, led by Stumpy Gzat were ambushed and destroyed by a force of Ratmen in the Forest of Jamcot.

Ordered by the Gawab of Jamcot to investigate the alleged destruction of a small village in the Forest of Jamcot, Stumpy Gzat led a small force into the forest. Finding the rumors true, Stumpy was making his way back when he found himself ambushed by a contingent of Ratmen. Stumpy's force consisted of eight bow-goblins, guided by a forest scout, deployed in skirmish order, twenty spear-gobs and two goblins mounted on squigs, a curious and unreliable mount, moving a distance determined by the roll of two dice each turn. Stumpy found himself in a small glade, suddenly ambushed by Ratmen on all sides. Three groups of skirmishing "Night-Runners," a Jezzail hand-canonne, and a small group of eight armoured Clanrats, the bodyguard of a Vyle Ratman preist.

Battle was joined as the Ratmen, taking advantage of the ambush moved in towards the surrounded goblins, and fired upon them, to no effect with the Jezzail. Stumpy realized that he needed to escape to the north, he being some twenty inches from a safe point of escape. Stumpy ordered his Squigs to attack the cannonne to his left,the west, while the bow-gobs, of their own accord, moved to engage the approaching Clanrats to the northeast. Stumpy advanced northward with his own spear-gobs, continuing to take fire from the jezzail, still to no effect. To his left, the squig-cavalry was engaged by two groups of Nightrunners, eight in all, who killed one of the riders and mounts, forcing the other to flee, though only after his squig exacted revenge on the Ratmen, though he fled into the forest, gone from the battle Stumpy's bowmen proved to be quite effective and killed three of the Clanrats, causing them to flee in a rout. Before they were completely dispersed.from the field, they rallied and turned back towards the Goblins.

Stumpy's left flank having collapsed, he halted his movement as a group of Nightrunners charged the bow-gobs directly, and routed them. In terror, Stumpy's spear gobs fled, though he rallied them and formed up once again for the fight. Now, however, he was even further south, further from escape and he had just seen his routed bowmen cut down completely by Nightrunners. Now alone, Stumpy attempted to head south and then up to the east, keeping a grove between him and the Ratmen. Despite his inspired maneuvers however, the Ratmen boxed him in with their greater speed, eventually surrounding the goblins. The cunning Ratmen stayed just far enough distant that Stumpy's goblins could neither attack them, nor move closer for fear of being attacked themselves.

Finally the Ratmen struck, to Stumpy's front and rear, killing six of his men, while they bravely dispatched four ratmen. The confusion of the attack from the rear, coupled with the death of much of the unit caused the goblins to attempt to flee, despite Stumpy's heroic attempts to rally them, but their attackers cut them down completely as they ran.

Now the alarm is sounding the Village of Gar-yuk Rooil, the next likely site of attack, as the Gawab of Jamkot attempts to marshal his forces...

(The game was heavily influenced by the low Leadership of all troops involved. Stumpy and the Ratman leader only had Ld 6 so any morale checks were potentially disastrous. In fact, in the last rally check, Stumpy miraculously rolled a 3, but did nor pass due to the +4 mod to his roll from the Ratmen's advantages)

Hope you enjoyed this and that it makes sense. There will be others.

~Stafford

some old thoughts, re-submitted

I sent the email below to the early 2011 Enkopja campaign. I'd like to revisit and rework a great deal of this material in posts to follow. (Note: the numbers here are from our 3e homebrew).

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Creature Feature

Gang,

I - for one - would like our dungeons and dragons game to be fairly strategic, with the players confronting problems which require clever plans. Now, we all know that if you don’t have any information you must, by default, just take shots in the dark. So far in this campaign, there has been a pattern of players mostly taking shots in the dark, taking wild chances, and I do think the cause is lack of information.

Two kinds of information are lacking: (1) predictable results of actions and (2) the abilities and statistics of monsters. In order to make the consequences of character actions more predictable, we did an experiment with dice: instead of rolling 1d20, we rolled 3d6 for checks. This meant we were far more likely to have middle numbers (8-13) than high or low numbers (3-7; 14-18). The numbers which were meant to be outliers, meant to be lucky or unlucky, are now actually less probable than mediocre results. Given this information, you are more able to make informed decisions, rather than gambles. (I'm exaggerating toward the truth)

http://www.thedarkfortress.co.uk/tech_reports/3_dice_rolls.htm

However, the dice change provides some but not enough new information. The Cleric with +6 to hit with his mace now knows he is most likely to roll between 14 and 19, but if he has no experience of enemy ACs to draw on when using this “predictive science,” the knowledge of his likely die rolls isn’t all that useful.

To give you a sense of enemy AC’s, and also to supply you the “prior combat experience” you might have had if we’d played against opponents for levels 1-3, I’ll bring two things to the table.

1. A list of Armor Classes for monsters you would have fought or could guess at easily

2. Creature Feature: I’ll give the low down of a creature and some relevant commentary. In your character’s back story, he or she may have encountered these creatures. In any case there might be substantial lore or “cultural memory/knowledge” passed down to your character about these creatures.*

* Of course, I won’t give you knowledge of creatures you’ve never encountered before, so there will be some surprises left in life....and DEATH (sorry)

Table 1: Armor Class and Hp for Familiar, Humanoid Melee Combatants

Monster	AC	Hp
Orc tribesman from the Hordelands	13	5
Hobgoblin marine from the isles near Napaj http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/images/155252/Krand.jpg	15	6
Elven patrolman from the edges of Darkenwood	15	4
Sahuagin infantry raiding coastal towns of the Great Ocean http://images.wikia.com/polaqu/images/b/bc/Sahuagin.jpg	16	11
Human-size skeleton in a necromancer’s lair	15	6
Lizardfolk spearman from the isle of Catatan (jk) http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG169.jpg	15	11

Let’s see how melee combat ought to run with a character of middling melee ability.

Creature Feature: Feanor vs. an Orc Tribesman from the Hordelands

Were Feanor the Fire Mage in the Hordelands and attacked by an orc tribesman, he would have to defend himself using his melee combat skills, instead of just grilling the punk at range.

Feanor has +2 to attack with his scimitar. Rolling 3d6, Ian is likely to roll between 8 and 13, meaning that when he rolls for his total attack, he will consistently roll 10-15.

The Orc tribesman, being agile and wearing some light armor for an AC of 13, is in danger from Feanor. Feanor is pretty likely to hit him (though he’ll no doubt miss a bunch too!).

Given that Feanor deals 2-12 damage with every hit, the orc might be felled in 1 blow, or it might take 3 blows. Feanor can kill this orc in melee combat. But - can he kill the orc before the orc kills him?

Feanor has 31 hp when he is in perfect health, but he has an AC of 14. Because the Orc rolls between 12 and 17, it is pretty likely to hit Feanor when it attacks, and because its damage is between 6 and 12, Feanor could be killed in 3 to 5 hits.

Though its close, Feanor can - with luck and tenacity - defeat an orc tribesman. It will be a hard and risky fight, so he probably shouldn’t engage in melee, against even this most mediocre of melee combatants. SO: If Feanor is a character motivated by survival and victory, his strategy will not revolve around melee combat. But that is of course up to the player and depends on what he finds fun.

Luckily, Feanor also shoots lasers. Against the Orc at range, Feanor attacks with +4 (between 12 and 17 total) against the Orc AC 11 (his armor doesn't count against laser fire!).

Feanor can expect to hit the orc when he rolls, and when (not if) he hits, the orc takes 4d6+4 damage (between 8 and 30 damage). Given the Orc’s 6 hp, the orc eats it like Porkins in IV. Feanor may appropriately begin cackling like Bobby Flay at this point.

Strategically, Feanor should not be engaging in melee combat unless he can’t help it. Una and Kajit shouldn’t either, unless Kajit is sneak attacking.*

For Motonari, Sigurd, Chase, and Benedict, the appropriate response to an orc tribesman attacking in melee is “bitch, please!” And other such dismissive cuss phrases. This is because their ACs are high, their melee attack bonuses are high, and their melee damage is high - all much higher than the orc’s.

Second Note: Thinking about Ranged Combat

The average humanoid can move 30ft/round, and so can charge 60ft (charge= double movement). A bow or crossbow has range ~100ft and at the very least >60ft.

So, when you can see an enemy at a distance, you can shoot them at least once from close range before they get to you. Even before that, you might hit them at long distance.

Ranged combat is your friend. It is not honorable according to the Iliad, but they weren’t self-interested treasure hunters, or practical servants of the people. Given that bows and crossbows deal 1d6 or 1d8 or 1d10, they can provide a one shot kill against the humanoids listed above, or at the very least the 1 or two damage of even the worst shots will make sure the next hit on the orc will drop it.

More to come -- Hill Giant and Sneak Attack options

Time, for E.G.G.

"TIME

TIME IN THE CAMPAIGN

Game time is of utmost importance. Failure to keep careful track of time expenditure by player characters will result in many anomalies in the game. The stricture of time is what makes recovery of hit points meaningful. likewise, the time spent adventuring in wilderness areas remove concerned characters from their bases of operation - be they rented chambers or battlemented strongholds. Certainly the most important time stricture pertains to the manufacture of magic items, for during the period of such activity no adventuring can be done. Time is also considered in gaining levels and learning new languages and more. All of these

demands upon game time force choices upon player characters, and likewise number their days of game life. One of the things stressed in the original game of D&D was the importance of recording game time with respect to each and every player character in a campaign. In ad&d it is emphasized even more: YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT."

from E.G.G.

"As an active Dungeon Master I kept a careful watch for things which would tend to complicate matters without improving them, systems devised seemingly to make the game drag for players, rules which lessened the fantastic and unexpected in favor of the mundane and ordinary."