And it only took me two months to get this far.

Okay, so I'm now ready to share what I've been working on.

I've already shared this first one, so there's nothing new here.

 Page two is new. I've borrowed heavily for all portions from LotFP, but with my own twists.

 If the skill selections weren't already an indication, then this page should make it pretty clear that I'm planning a nautical campaign.

And finally, the crew manifest. These people will eventually become the pool from which the players can draw new PCs if they die.

 I think these sheets look progressively worse when ordered chronologically like this. Maybe I just got lazier as I went. Or maybe I just tried working on them later and later at night. I sleep now. More details about the actual game (which is actually coming soon), as well as a special side project are coming soon.

Is that . . . A Character Sheet?

More to come soon.

My thoughts on LotFP multiclassing: Retraining

One of my favorite things about LotFP is the clear-cut delineation between the classes. The fighter hit things; other characters can try to hit things, but they kinda suck at it. The specialist does adventuring things; other characters can try their hand at skill checks, but they'll likely fail, plus only the specialist is able to perform sneak attacks. The magic-user gets to use magic, and that's pretty much all they do. However, a lot of my players are coming from 3.5 or 5e, and they enjoy the freedom of multiclassing. Who am I to stand in the way of them making meaningful decisions about their characters? So I'm going to start allowing class-switching (with some restrictions) as a house rule and see where it takes me.

Note: for the purposes of this post, I'm going to ignore clerics because Raggi is banishing them to the appendix, but everything I talk about applies to them as well. I'm also ignoring the demihumans for the same reason, and because they don't even slightly fit in to these rules.

LotFP Retraining Variant Rule:

So you want to change your class?

The first thing to understand about these rules is that they are not 3.5-style multiclassing. This is Retraining: unlearning unhelpful/bad habits and learning how to do the things your new class does. It is an involved process and is necessarily restrictive. One doesn't just magically become proficient at, well, magic. It takes time and resources to learn an entirely new approach to adventuring, and there are many steps along the way.

1. Before Retraining can occur, the adventurer must find a person who is both willing and able to instruct them in his/her newly chosen profession. We will first deal with ability. 
• Fighters are easy to come by, generally the people able to train an adventurer are captains in a town/city guard, a gladiator or other fighting performer, a skilled veteran, etc. They can be found almost anywhere, but are easier to come by in cities. There is a 3 in 6 chance of finding an able instructor in a town, and a 4 in 6 chance per day of searching of finding one in a city (limited by the population of the city, 1 attempt per every 1,000 people).
• Specialists are a rarer breed. People with these skills are often adventurers themselves, and those able to train another are usually successful at that. There is a 1 in 6 chance of locating one in a town, and a 1 in 6 chance per day of searching of finding one in a city (limited to one attempt per 1,000 people living there).
• Magic-Users are a reclusive bunch, what with the more "civilized" populace constantly trying to burn them at the stake for witchcraft. Locating a magic-user trainer can be an adventure in and of itself. There is no chance whatsoever of locating one in a city or town, because even if one was actually present, s/he would likely be concealing his/her profession. Even so, their presences far outside of civilized lands are often known, and getting this information is much like any other adventure hook. The referee should determine if any suitable magic-users are in the area when a player decides s/he wants to Retrain to this class. A magic-user must have at least as many levels as the person being retrained does of their initial class. So a 10th-level fighter would need to locate a 10th-level magic-user to retrain.
2. Once a suitable trainer is located, they must be convinced to train the character. Often, this is as easy as a rather sizable payment (for reasons that will soon become clear). Other times, it may require the character to perform a service for the trainer. These services can be almost anything the referee deems appropriate. A trainer who requests a service is unlikely to be swayed by an offer of money, unless that offer is unusually generous. Magic-user trainers often request services and reject any payment, but this is not universal. When accepted, payment is usually on the order of 200 sp per month of training. Additionally, any equipment that the trainee requires (weapons and armor, spellbook, tools, etc.) must be purchased separately.
3. After the trainer has been found and convinced to train the character, training can actually begin. Retraining takes two months, plus one month for each level that the character had in his/her previous class. Retraining to become a magic-user takes twice as much time. During this period, the character learns to do all the ways their new class does the things they do, and unlearns all of the unhelpful things that their old class did. For example, a fighter-to-specialist might learn how to pick locks with a delicate touch, unlearning the forceful nature of his/her previous class. The result of all this "unlearning" is that the character's old skills atrophy somewhat for lack of use.
• A fighter who undergoes Retraining at level 2 or higher loses one point of attack bonus that was gained for being a fighter (it doesn't affect the strength modifier). A 1st level fighter who Retrains retains the +2 attack bonus, but instead becomes worse at the Press and Defensive Fighting actions. These now only provide +1 to-hit, -4 AC, and +1 AC, -4 to-hit respectively (full AC bonus is retained on Defensive.Fighting if wearing a shield).
• A specialist who retrains at 1st level loses one point in any skill (player's choice) and one additional point in any skill for every two levels attained at time of Retraining. For example, a 3rd or 4th level specialist loses two points from any skill/s, but a 5th level specialist loses three points. Additionally, the maximum value any skill may have is reduced to 5 in 6. Any skill that has a 6 in 6 loses a point automatically, before the skill points lost from Retraining are assigned.
• A magic-user who retrains loses one spell slot of each spell level that has more than one spell slot. For example, a 7th level magic-user normally has three 1st level slots, three at 2nd level, two at 3rd and one at 4th. This character would then lose one slot each from 1st, 2nd and 3rd level, but not from 4th, because there's only one slot at that level. Additionally, whenever the Retrained magic-user casts a spell where the effect depends on the level of the magic-user, s/he counts as one level lower. So a 7th level magic-user only shoots six missiles with Magic Missile and Invisibility would only last six turns.
4. Upon completion of the Retraining period, the character immediately gains one level of the chosen class, and is considered 1st level for all abilities that class has.
• A character who Retrains to fighter gains a +2 attack bonus, and access to the Press and Defensive Fighting actions.
• A character who Retrains to specialist gains 4 skill points to be allocated as the player sees fit.
• A character who Retrains to Magic-User gains a single 1st level spell slot, and the spellbook s/he bought gains the Read Magic spell, along with three other randomly determined spells.
5. A character who advances this way gains hit points as normal for his/her new class.
6. If any of the saving throws for 1st level in the new class are better than any of the character's saving throws before retraining, then that saving throw is replaced with the better value. For example, a 2nd level fighter has a Save vs. Poison of 12, and a Save vs. Magic of 16, if s/he retrains as a magic-user, s/he would replace the Save vs. Magic with the 1st level magic-user value of 14, but retain the original value of 12 for the Poison Save, because it's better than the 13 that magic-users start with. This same process is performed whenever the character advances in his/her new class, only taking the new class's saving throws if they are better than his/her old class's.
7. Once a character completes Retraining, s/he advances exclusively as his/her new class. A specialist who retrains to fighter no longer gains skill points when s/he attains a new level. For the purposes of determining any effect that uses the level or hit dice of the target, such as Cloudkill, the Retrained character's level is considered to be the sum of both of his/her class levels. As such, a specialist 2/magic-user 2 (a 2nd level specialist who has Retrained as a magic-user and since attained another level) is unaffected by the spell.
8. A retrained character gains levels in the new class when s/he gain enough XP to advance as though s/he had class levels equal to his/her total levels. For example, a 3rd level magic-user has 4,500 XP and decides to Retrain as a fighter. After the Retraining period, s/he is now a magic-user 3/fighter 1 still with 4,500 XP. Since his/her total level is 4, in order to advance to magic-user 3/fighter 2, s/he will need enough XP to reach 5th level as a fighter, which is 16,000.
9. A character is still affected by any limitations that his/her original class suffered from. A magic-user who Retrains as a fighter does not gain the ability to cast spells while wearing encumbering armor, etc.
10. Finally, a character who has already Retrained, but wishes to resume advancing as his/her original class may undergo Retraining a second time, at full price, but the time is based only on levels gained in the new class since retraining. If you retrain this way, you regain anything lost to atrophy, but your second class atrophies as normal. A character may also Retrain a second time if s/he wishes to have levels of all three classes, but this uses the full character level to determine the time it takes to Retrain. If a character Retrains in this way, both classes experience atrophy as normal.

If you use clerics in your campaign, then they should not be allowed to Retrain as magic-users, and magic-users should not be allowed to Retrain as clerics. If your campaign includes demihumans, they should not be allowed to retrain like this, though that's up to you. Either way, a human character should not be permitted under any circumstances to retrain as a demihuman (mostly because it makes no sense).

Game Updates

Some sad news on the current status of my games. The LotFP game imploded due to interpersonal drama. It turns out one of the players had a history that the other players and I were not aware of and it made some of the group uncomfortable. Additionally, one player was not all that keen on traditional fantasy RPGs. So that game won't be continuing in its current form.

On the 5th Edition front, the streamed game will be continuing after a one week hiatus due to me having a bit of flu. That game, barring unforeseen events, will be live on twitch.tv/luponthemailman at around 8:20 eastern time today, Monday March 23.

I've got to run off to class, so I haven't got time for a full post right now. However, I plan to start updating this blog more frequently in the coming weeks. Hopefully I'll also have some news to share soon regarding a possible panel I may be involved with at a convention I attend each year.

EDIT: D&D stream is rescheduled to Wednesday

Updates on Ongoing Games

Last time I talked about my experience running my very first LotFP game, and mentioned that I would be starting a livestreamed 5e game. Now it's time for updates.

In the LotFP game, I got two more players, and they now have cleared the Tower of the Stargazer. They raided its treasure vault using the power granted to one of the players through use of one of the magic mirrors in the workshop. Then they went back to town and bought some property and managed their new spells. They now plan to return to the tower and make it their home base, which should be interesting. I think they're also planning on stealing the Star Crystal back from the noble they sold it to so they can try to use the telescope. In all, I'm not sure I'm gonna need to buy or write another adventure for some time. They're entertaining themselves with things they've already found. That said, I already have a full adventure planned for them (more on that later).

The D&D 5e game went swimmingly. If anyone is interested in watching, we play on Monday evenings (8:20 EST/7:20 CST) and can be watched on my Twitch.tv channel (as a note, I mostly stream non-D&D content, so if that's all you're interested in, make a note of those times). Our first session was last night, using characters generated last week. The dungeon is written by me and we're using my hand-drawn map that I've scanned in and uploaded. Much fun was had as one of the players attempted to ram a crossbow up a bandit's rear as her friend lay bleeding on the ground.

A note about the dungeon I'm using in the 5e game: I plan on running this dungeon in the LotFP game and a Dungeon World game I'm running later in the month for a friend and his son. After that, I will be typing up a full revised version and publishing it here for anyone to use. The key will be game-neutral and I hope people will enjoy it. I'm putting a lot of work into this dungeon, so I want at least one person to give it a go.

Something New: Wherein I review my first experience with Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

I recently had the opportunity to run the first in what I hope to be a long running game of Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing (LotFP). My stated hopes to continue the game should be taken as the briefest possible review of the system. To make a short story long, here are my thoughts on the game in no particular order.

(Note: I fully realize that many of these thoughts apply to older editions of D&D, but I got started on 3rd edition with friends in high school and never had an old-school DM to show me these things. I'm coming into OSR-style content from the perspective of a 3.5/D20 player so this is the first game I've run in this style.)

I absolutely love the classes. They match up to the old first edition D&D classes, but that's not what I enjoy. I enjoy that the human classes pick a focus and pretty much just do that thing. The Clerics cast cleric spells and make holy water. That's it. Done. Next class. Fighters hit things. That's a three word class description. They can do some other stuff in combat (Press and Defensive Fighting, +2 To-Hit, -4 AC and the reverse respectively), but they're just other ways to hit things. Magic-Users do wizard things. They cast spells, research spells, write scrolls and brew potions. All are pretty much exactly what you'd expect something called a Magic-User to do. I have heard some complaints about calling them Magic-Users rather than mages or wizards, but I think it's perfect for this game. First, it's a callback to older versions of D&D, from which this game takes most of its inspiration. Second, to me the term Magic-User evokes the image of someone wielding something beyond their ability to fully control, rather than someone who has mastered sorcery like the other terms do. I think it fits way better with the magic rules . Finally (for the human classes), the Specialist is the one who does all of the mundane things. I like the Specialist for two reasons. First, having all the skills on once class makes character creation and level up way more simple than in the later editions of D&D that I'm used to playing. Second, the simple change from Thief/Rogue to Specialist, offloading his secondary combat role unless you spend points on Sneak Attack, firmly sets him as the "do everything else" guy in a well-rounded party.

As for the demi-humans, they're pretty much split-focus classes. The Dwarf and Elf can kinda fight with the extra attack options, but they're not very good at it. The Dwarf gets more hit points than other characters (by a hell of a lot) and can carry stuff and are good at looking at buildings. Elves get to cast spells, though they start with none in their spellbooks. The ability to cast with one hand is interesting. The bonus to search and surprise are nicely flavorful. Halflings being super dodgy and kinda sneaky in the wilderness is cool too. In all, though, I don't think I'd play a demi-human in a game. First because I don't think they fit in quite as well with the Early Modern Age/Weird Fantasy theme that LotFP is going for (very well, I might add). Second because their focus is just too split for them to be particularly good at anything.

Moving on, I love that the book is less than 200 pages. I've spent a lot of time playing and running crunchy, rules-heavy games, and I've got to say that it's refreshing to be able to hold the full text of the rules in one hand. I've also been enjoying the fact that the rules seem to be more of a starting point than an in-depth, "gotta cover everything," multi-book affair. If I don't know a rule off hand, it's not because it's buried on page 345 of the third core rulebook, but because it's meant for you to come up with at the table. Common actions are covered, and uncommon actions can be extrapolated using existing rules. I love that the entry for artillery (no distinction is made between different kinds because that would take pages and pages) notes that structures taking damage take it as ship hit points (SHP). Why do I like this? Because the rules for maritime adventures are already in the book, and ships are enough like buildings and the rules are abstract enough that they might as well be the same.

This post has already taken long enough and it's late so I'll close with what I think is the crown jewel of this game: the theme implied by the mechanics. Now, just flipping through the book, you see a lot of interesting (and often grotesque) artwork. The theme is pretty obvious. But I understood what these rules were going for when I had just the free art-less version. The mechanics imply a world that is not dissimilar from the fantasy RPGs with which most players are familiar, but is far more oppressive and more than a little dark. Take the rules for laboratory use. In 3.5, you didn't need a lab to make potions. In LotFP, not only do you need a lab (which requires owning significant property), they're expensive. And without the ability to purchase healing potions and the incredibly brutal rules for mundane recovery, you'll want one before long. Even once you have the lab, there's still a 5% chance every time you use it that it explodes, destroying all your progress and many of your supplies. It could even kill your Magic-User in the process. The world of LotFP is harsh and unforgiving, and that's before you even get into the "things" that can show up as monsters.

I'll probably have more thoughts once my second game rolls around (some time this weekend, I hope).

In other news, I have a 5e D&D game coming up that I should be streaming on Twitch.tv. More information on that as it becomes available.

Another Monster: Wherein I got bored earlier and made a thing

I got bored earlier today. When I get bored, sometimes I make things. This is one of those times.

Meet the Divolgo.

I apologize again for my non-existent art skills.

The Divolgo is a giant scorpion, who's body (not including claws and tail) grows up to eight feet long. The claws can cut a man in half. Giant bugs are scary and all, but even a cursory glance at that image will show you what makes the Divolgo interesting. Instead of a stinger, the creature has a woman's head at the end of it's tail. Curiously, it is always a woman's head at the end of the tail. Sages have wondered for ages if this is because all Divolgo are female (and if so, what the males look like) or if they were all created as female by some forgotten mage long ago. What is known about the Divolgo is that they are old. Very old. There are ancient tales from far away lands that talk of encounters with Divolgo. They're so old and have seen so much that they know terrible secrets about the world. Some say they know everything, but that's not the case.

Divolgo are intelligent and solitary creatures. They prefer to avoid the company of other intelligent creatures and even other Divolgo. While they are technically capable of speech (and indeed use that ability to defend themselves, see below) they generally don't communicate with other creatures. Divolgo speak using the head at the end of their tail. It seems to be capable of speaking any language (no one has ever encountered one that couldn't speak their tongue),

When attacked, a Divolgo will try to grapple the nearest attacker, then use its tail to whisper in the ear of it's target. The whispers are dark secrets that poison the mind. Victims often lose the will to fight. Which is fine with the Divolgo, who are generally docile provided no one approach them too close or attack first.

Divolgo are drawn to places where powerful magics were once at work, but are no longer in effect. This often means that abandoned wizard towers, ruined cultic templed or deserted druidic groves are homes to Divolgo. In the (all too common) event that someone visit these places, the Divolgo will attempt to hide by flattening its body to the ground; a task at it which it is very skilled.