Magic-Users, Ditching the Robes

At its core D&D is really about combat. The most exciting part of the game really, is fighting monsters. You load up with armor and weapons go off and kill something and take its stuff. Sell it. By better armor and weapons and go off and kill something else and take its stuff. That's the core of it let's not fool ourselves. Okay, there's that role-playing stuff and character interaction and development etc. etc.. But I'm not concerned about that right now. Instead I'm focusing on combat. Characters are defined in terms of combat. Hit points are how long you can last an combat. Attack Dice (level) is how well you can hit your opponent in combat. If these things increase as you gain experience then how come you gain experience from anything not combat related? Gold for experience points, I don't think so. Experience points for just showing up to play? Not a chance. Okay getting back to the characters.

The fighter, kind of self-explanatory so no further exposition is needed here. The cleric, well that's easy combat support right? A little bit of fighting a little bit of healing. It's easy to see why both of them are here. But the magic user, a scholarly Wizard in robes with a dagger? Why is he here? I have an idea. Let's ditch the robes. Let's stop pretending that he's a scholarly Wizard. What he is actually a combat specialist. The cleric is really just another fighter that can do some other stuff. The magic user is a magic using fighter. Yes he is a fighter. He has hit points (combat). And he has attack dice(combat). Now we have an explanation for the term magic user, a title not many prefer. The stereotypical bearded be-robed mage surrounded by books would never venture out on his tower. Why have combat stats for him? Am I making sense yet? Let's sum up.

The three original character classes in the game are all just fighters. You have the basic fighter. And two support fighters with special abilities. Try to imagine a magic user looking more like a thief and now you can see perhaps something different.

In my world I picture of school for magic users. In which they learn to use magic in combat. Wizards who don't study combat are not magic users.Magic users gain experience from defeating enemies in combat just like fighters because that's what they train for.

A New Era?

Okay it's been a while. I'm trying something new. I'm dictating this on the Dragon Naturally Speaking program. I don't know about you but I find typing almost as difficult as writing by hand. As a child I was diagnosed with dysgraphia which is a condition that makes it difficult to write. I was given a typewriter to try in alleviate this problem but I soon realized I was as equally useless on a typewriter as I was with a pencil or pen. By high school I'd given up on cursive script and went back to printing. I took a keyboarding class as a result of the new computer curriculum in school space but the teaching style clashed with my style of learning, I don't think I remember passing the class. I only became proficient on a keyboard after getting my own computer and using the chat program. The pressure of trying to respond quickly forced me to finally learn to be a better typist. But composing on a keyboard still difficult for me. That's why my entries in this blog have a tendency to be short and sweet and to the point. Also I figured like myself I tend to not want to read reams and reams of script. My eyes tend to glaze over when I see long-winded blog entries going on for hundreds of words. Many times during the process of crafting a blog entry it has taken days days to get through the editing process of whittling down what I want to say into what I would want to type. Sometimes the process would be to difficult and I would avoid it altogether. Leading to long gaps between blog entries. Like you've might've noticed. So now armed with this brand spanking new technology needed perhaps I could crank out a few more blog entries than ever before. It might take me a while to figure out this program. But I will try to post more often, definitely. So here is to a new era for this blog, hopefully.

Please stand by.

Calling Grognardia, Are you There?

 That's odd, I thought. No posts from Grognardia. No posts in a while. Five weeks now.
Ok That's not right. Yeah so many bloggers don't post very often, myself included. But however its weird for James Malizewiski not post. That guy is a machine, a blogging machine.
In 2009 he posted 675 times
In 2010 he posted 759 times
In 2011 he posted 629 times
He slowed down in 2012 only posting 345 times.
But lately He only posted once in December and it is been 5 weeks since that.
So why do I care? Well he was the primary inspiration for this blog.
And I value his opinions about gaming and I always look forward to reading his blog.
On a more personal level he is kind of a mentor in absentia.
The massive number of entries he maintains is something to aspire to.
And he is part of this community of gamers.
So I am worried a bit. I hope he's alright and its nothing.
So if you are reading this and you are a friend of his,
 (meaning its OK for you to contact him) give him a call or e-mail or whatever.
See if he is alright and let him know that I was thinking of him.
And looking forward to his next post.
 

Supporting A Meme

 First off , I know two months without a post. That is the longest I think I have ever gone without posting. I don't plan to do it again. So don't worry, I haven't quit this blog.

And to support another meme going around the blogophere. The RPG bookshelf pics. They showed me theirs. Now I show mine. As the gaming room is mostly finished and organized. I can show off what I got. This represents about 25 years of collecting.

My Traveller and D&D collections.

My Sci-fi section (not Traveller).

My reference material historical. 

My reference material fantastic .

Some of my war games collection.

Some more of my war games.

This doesn't include my board games or miniatures. That would take several more pictures.

The Land Of Pluses

 Another thing that bothers me about the D&D rules is the proliferation of bonuses. Many little plus ones that make each less meaningful but yet have players scrambling to get as many as they can. Strength bonus, level bonus, magic weapons, magic spells and weapon vs armour bonuses. Stacking as many as they can players seem only to live or die for them. And yet I have seen a player toss away a magic sword because it was "only +1 and not worth the encumbrance" as he said. And how many times have you seen a Fighter with only average Strength? Or a Magic-user with average Intelligence? Or a average Wisdom Cleric? This is not the way I want to play.
 I have a plan to make each +1 more important.  I am going take them away. Well not all of them, but most of them. Only the level bonus and and magic will be used. And magic weapons will be limited +1. Maybe now players will not toss a magic weapon away because its only +1.

Of Heroism and Hit Points part 2

 There are a few things about the D&D rules that bother me. Like the more levels you have the more damage you can take but the tougher you are to heal. Or no matter how good at hitting things you are you never get better at defending yourself. There are more but I don't need to go on. My purpose has been to take another look at the rules with a mind to change my perceptions about them. My goal is to play the game as written with minimal house-ruling. Here is how I intend to do that. By treating Hit Points as morale and defense ability.

 When you wear armor your opponent can't just swing wildly at you. They have to aim for weak spots. Hence your AC is their target number. If they are on target (a successful roll) they roll for "damage". The damage they cause is you dodging, ducking, or blocking with a weapon or shield. Because no one is perfect this number is subtracted from your hit point total. This represents a general wearing down of your skill and luck. When you reach zero or go beyond, you have made a critical mistake and your enemy kills you. There I think I just explained how D&D combat works as written without changing anything. Except for magic, traps,  falling and poison.

 The following only applies to my game and does not apply to D&D in general.  Because armour doesn't protect from those things there are no rules for them. I will house rule that they do wounds directly to the character. Wounds would be based on the Constitution stat and damage taken off of it until death at zero. Magic, falling and poison will do stated damage to Con. Weapon damage rolls will 1, 2 or 3 D6 based on type. Healing spells will restore Con damage as will rest as stated in the rules. Hit points can be recovered fully after one nights rest as they do not represent actual damage at all.

There are most likely things I have missed but there it is. Keep this model of combat in mind and the rules make more sense. They are far from perfect but workable.

Lifestyles of the Parental and Gameless

 I haven't posted much lately. I can't seem to get past the lazies. Maybe its because I am not playing or running anything right now. My new-found parental responsibilities got in the way of my previous gaming. I have also missed out on OSR Con. The second one ran last weekend in nearby Toronto. I missed last year too because of financial difficulties. This year it was the time I could not spare. Ah well hopefully I will make it next year.
 I feel guilty for  just writing about role playing and not actually doing it. I should start a game of something. I know enough people who would play. And its possible to work it into my schedule. My biggest problem is so far making decisions about the game I will run. I can't seem to make up my mind. And not just rules but setting and background. To help with this I bought a new note book to write stuff down. Its a composition book with pages that are hard to tear out. I am optimistic that a bunch of random scribbling and no page tearing-out will eventually work. Oh and I will write in pen. Something I almost never do. Maybe this will get me out of my rut caused by too much responsibility. So if you know me, and play RPGs I just might ask you to join my game.