Electrum standard

Both Bat in the Attic and The Society Of Torch, Pole and Rope have posted about it reciently. The silver standard. Replacing the gold prices in the equipment lists with silver. I don't want to do that. I admit that the prices are steep and tend to devalue gold quite a bit. My goal from the onset has been to change as little as possible and to make it work for me by changing the way I look at it.

Traditionally gold has traded with silver at a ratio ranging from 20:1 to 50:1. The Roman Aureus was valued at 25 silver Denarii. So one gold piece is equal to ten silver isn't right. But it would be if the gold piece wasn't pure gold. Enter Electrum, a gold and silver alloy used in coins from ancient Egypt and Greece. So make the gold pieces electrum and presto , simple easy coinage that reflects the real world. Of course I have posted on this before;

Historical proof of Gold to Silver exchange standard

Different Roles Different Goals part two

Anonymous has posted a commnet on my last post. You can it read below. He does make a valid argument for the gold for xp scheme. But gold for xp just feels to gamey for me. To much like online computer games with their kill-the-monster-and-take-its-stuff style of play. I'm actually trying to reduce the emphasis of leveling up as a major factor in playing the game. It is perhaps a bold step and might not be popular with some players. I want to treat the party as a group of individuals not some fantasy based commando strike force engineered for success. I have seen too many partys who strip mine dungeons of every last copper coin. They then hunch over calculators like some dimented accountants, to divide every last coin to perfectly balance the party's levels. A sense of adventure should be the prime requisite for characters not greed.

Different Roles Different Goals

For a while now I have been taking a look at OD&D with a mind to "Make sense of it." rather than just catalog its faults. Rather than change the rules I want to change the way I look at them. So far I have looked at hit points and armour class as well as the character classes. Now experience gets a look. The original system presented was the now classic but not often used gold for xp.This rewards the players for exploration and survial (perhaps avoiding combat) and can be easily divided between party members. This does fit in with the general simplistic nature of the game but doesn't make sense to me. Why do you get better at fighting or casitng spells (or both) just because you're rich? Is because you can afford reaserch/training? Is it because you are more confident? Seems odd to me. Players want to level up their characters because they get better at what they are used for. The fighter gets better at fighting, the magic-user can cast more spells and the cleric can better turn undead. Each character class has its own role in the game so why not make each class have its own goal for expereince? Fighters get XP for mosters killed or subdued in combat. Magic-users get XP for casting spells. Clerics for turning undead and casting spells. All of this has to be approved by the DM. Spell casters can't level up just by tossing spells around for no reason. And maybe Clerics must have some other goal like getting more followers to their diety.

Yeah this could work.

Medieval Maps and Old School Cartography

One thing can't be said of Medieval maps, realism. They look kind of like a flat pop-up book. Objects stand out in profile, in a larger scale than the surrounding terrain. Medieval maps, like the art of the period were about conveying the importance of an object rather than its precise location. But they had style. Dragons and sea monsters roaming the edges and lots of other little touches.

When designing a game world one of the first steps is mapping it. There are a few choices; freehand, square grid and of course hex grid. True to my seat-of-the-pants-don't-sweat-the-small-stuff style of play I decided to ditch the traditional approach to mapping. If the game is set in a world without accurate maps then why should the players' be. Tony Dowler's blog year of the dungeon has some great maps already done. Here is a sample;

Compare that to a medieval town map;

Similar yes? And finally another from Tony's blog showing the city of Salutet and its surrounding area.

Simple easy maps that have all the info you need. A very minimalist approach. Very old school. And because they are not a lot of details on the map, there can be a lot more in your imagination. Very old school indeed.

P.S. Check out year of the dungeon for Tony's one page dungeons.

Star Wars Swashbuckling

A thanks to James over at Grognardia for reminding me of the different paths that Star Wars could have travelled. The image above comes from the Art of Star Wars. Some of the pre-concept art shows a slightly different visual path that the movie could have taken. I don't doubt the final version of the film is better for having a more realistic look to it. The dirty used look of the spacships and the blaster props built on real guns made it look more realistic and appeal to a larger audience.

But what if it hadn't gone that way. What if the look was more say Swashbuklely*? Harness and spandex clad heroes wielding lightsabers in swordfights with shield carrying stormtroopers. How cool would that be? Then an evil thought entered my brain. What about roleplaying it? Use a fantasy roleplaying game for a no-blasters-everyone-gets-lightsabers style of action.
-insert evil laugh-
* the author makes no claims as to the validity of the word or its spelling

Ignorance Of History

I was looking at some pictures of the recient Fan Expo posted on a facebook page. And I came across this picture. The caption read "French artillery officer. (Battlefield: 1412 I think?) ". WHAT? Battlefield:1412? Does she seriously think its from a game? Really? And 1412? 1412 would be knights in plate armour. Try 1812. What are they teaching kids now? You know the War of 1812? Google it. Or Wikipedia or read a book, geez. And to be specific he is a British artillery private. Its a historical military uniform not a costume. Did it not occur to this girl to ask the guy wearing it? That level of ignorance of history just really bothers me.

New Picture

At the recient Fan Expo in Toronto I got a sketch of me done by Lar Desouza, artist of the webcomic Least I could Do. I thought I would post it as my new personal picture in my bio. I originally wanted a sketch by Lar of me as if I was a character from the comic. But when asked what I wanted I blanked out and and couldn't remember so I settled for me as a cleric. Although looking at it now I notice that the figure isn't wearing arour and looks more like a mage. I am still happy with it and it depicts me with my longer hair (not many pics of me are new enough).