Alignments: Hot New Take for a New Year

As part of a selfmade superstition rooted in an observation of an arbitrary holiday, I feel compelled to post an article to at least one of my blogs before the end of the first day of the New Year (2019), and to facilitate this imaginary obligation, I am writing it whilst somewhat inebriated. Without further ado, I bring you another irreverant scribbling on a subject I do not take seriously: alignments in role-playing games, or rather, alignments in Dungeons & Dragons and the few other role-playing games that bother with it.

In the future, I forsee only two alignments. (I have decided to approach this in the manner of a fortune teller, which is all the authority it deserves.) The two alignments are:

• Team Player, and
  
• Loner
  

Team Player: Those of this alignment are willing to work with others to varying degrees in order to achieve a goal. It matters not if those ends are for good or evil. What matters is that one is willing and able to be part of a group. One can certainly have idiosyncracies and eccentricities, but when push comes to shove, differences are put aside. Game on.

Loner: Those of this alignment are determined to work alone and pursue their own personal quests. Worse than dividing the party, they abandon the party, yet expect an inordinate amount of the DM's attention. They are interested only in themselves and contribute nothing to the group. Those of this alignment may leave. I suggest Fighting Fantasy, Choose Your Own Adventure, or Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventures as logical alternatives.

N.B. These are obviously player alignments, which are the only alignments that truly matter at the gaming table.

Have a happy, healthy, prosperous New Year with far more gaming than the last.

Peace.

Eat, Drink, and Avoid Penalties

This is a simple method for penalizing player characters who neglect a basic survival necessity, and rewarding those who make the effort to do more than the minimum. It's compatible with nearly any iteration of old school Dungeons & Dragons, its retro-clones, its OSR relatives, and maybe more.

Characters must eat to survive, and they must eat regularly to function normally. For each day that a character fails to eat at least one substantial meal, the character suffers a −1 cumulative penalty to all actions and saving throws, i.e. −1 on the first day, −2 on the second day, −3 on the third day. The DM will determine, based on the character's Constitution and species, how many days the character may survive until starvation ends the character's life. Penalties commence each day as soon as the characters become active until they have their first meal.

If a character manages to have three meals in a single day and the third meal is consumed whilst resting, he or she recovers 1d3 hit points upon finishing it.

Water, or an acceptable liquid substitute, is also a necessity, and failure to drink also results in a −1 cumulative penalty to all actions and saving throws for each day of deprivation as above. The DM will determine how many days the character may survive until death by thirst occurs. Penalties commence each day as soon as the characters become active until they have their first drink.

Characters who fail to consume both food and water will suffer the penalties for both.

Starting on the fourth day of deprivation of either, characters will begin to lose 1dx hit points per day, where x equals the hit die type of the character's class.

Alignment Mania

[This article was an accidental duplication of an earlier article.]

Free RPG Day 2018

So, Free RPG Day 2018 involved several firsts for me. It was my first Free RPG Day, it was my first time as a player (instead of a judge) of Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG, it was my first time as a player (instead of a judge) at the Dragon's Roost, and it was my first time receiving swag at a DCC RPG Road Crew event.

BEHOLD

As you can see above, I was given the DCC RPG bookmark/character sheet of my choice, a copy of the Sanctum Sanctorum Free RPG Day 2018 Third Party Companion, and Issue #1 of Crepuscular, the very fine DCC RPG 'zine by Joshua Burnett, who also happened to be our judge.

The adventure we played was "Sisters of the Moon Furnace" by Marc Bishop. When I say "we" I mean all two of us, because there were two players, but we were given eight 0-level characters each to compensate. Towards the end, as our party had been whittled down to toothpicks, we were each given two extra characters for the final encounter. In the end, all of my original eight were slain, but one (or maybe both) of my reinforcements made it to safety. Alas, poor Greb the Gravedigger, who never flinched from danger and was mere cubits from safety, perished in the last moments of the adventure. Rest in Peace also Flope the Ropemaker, Squire Rendar, Herkimer the Hunter, Iggy the Noble, Grandalf the Guild Beggar, Hooloo the Herbalist, and Spudric the Potato Farmer.

Mr. Burnett has posted the official session report on his blog, the beautifully named Bernie the Flumph! If you get a chance to play DCC RPG with him, I suggest you take it. And thank you, Mr. Burnett, for a glorious if blood-spattered Free RPG Day!

All the Dice

I was pleased to support the latest Kickstarter project by Impact Miniatures (being that it fulfills my dream of having all the dice: d3, d4, d5, d6, d7, d8, d9, d10/d%, d11, d12, d13, d14, d15, d16, d17, d18, d19, d20, d22, d24, d26, d28, d30, a.k.a. the "One of Everything" reward level), but there is one catch to this wealth of randomizers: keeping them properly sorted. Keeping six different dice sorted can be challenging to a novice, 14 Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG dice can get confusing even to an experienced player, but 24 dice can vex anyone. A dice organizer for this many dice would be time-consuming to make, take up too much table space, and require fastidious attention to ensure that each die was in its proper place. Instead, I opted to make them easier to sort by re-inking the highest number on each die. I used a red Micron pen, which works well enough, but I think I will try using a sable brush and some paint to do a more thorough job.

Does it work? Yes it does and quite nicely, too.

NB: I chose not to ink the d3 and d10/d% dice because a.) both of the d3 dice are obvious and b.) the high numbers on d10/d% dice can vary depending on how they are used.

RPGaDAY 2017: Day 31

31. What do you anticipate most for gaming in 2018?

Finding the means to attend some gaming conventions, and doing much more gaming with my own groups. Oh, and finishing some of my projects.

[For more information on #RPGaDAY (or #RPGaDAY2017 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDAY 2017: Day 30

30. What is an RPG genre-mashup you would most like to see?

Supernatural or cosmic horror meets the War of 1812 or the French and Indian War.

[For more information on #RPGaDAY (or #RPGaDAY2017 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDAY 2017: Day 29

29. What has been the best-run RPG Kickstarter you have backed?

I can't really say, as different projects vary in scope and difficulty, and I lack firsthand experience in running a Kickstarter project. Pass.

[For more information on #RPGaDAY (or #RPGaDAY2017 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDAY 2017: Day 28

28. What film or series is the most-frequent source of quotes in your group?

I've been lucky to have groups that don't indulge in excessive film or television quotations, but when they do quote something, it's usually from a wide variety of sources.

[For more information on #RPGaDAY (or #RPGaDAY2017 specifically), read this.]

RPGaDAY 2017: Day 27

27. What are your essential tools for good gaming?

Index cards, maps, dice, dice tray, writing utensils, GM screen (preferably landscape format), notebook, table, chairs, beverage. Often a rulebook and an adventure. Sometimes poker chips. Sometimes handouts.

In my earlier gaming days, I also tended to burn incense, and sometimes used miniatures and a battlemat. Cheese and crackers were often present, too.

[For more information on #RPGaDAY (or #RPGaDAY2017 specifically), read this.]