Throwing People

Long ago, when the internet was relatively new, I ran across a list called, "The Greatest Things About D&D."

Only one item on the list stuck in my head to this day: "Having to calculate the trajectory of a thrown goblin."

I've never actually had anyone try to throw another creature since about year 2000, when I was still in 2e. It's never come up, so I've never considered the d20 rules for such an attempt...until now.

I've got a player in one of my games who just made a character who could very well have the ability (and motivation) to throw people. He bugged me for rules on how this would work, so I had to oblige.

Here is a new house rule for throwing creatures.

"Creatures are considered two handed improvised melee weapons for the purposes of throwing them. This means you must use two hands as a full round action to throw them. Tiny and Diminuitive creatures have a range increment of 10ft. Small and medium creatures have a range increment of 5ft.

If targeting a specific floor square, treat the creature as a splash weapon for determining the result of the throw. The AC is typically 5 for a segment of floor, and the directional rules for a miss also apply. If targeting another creature with the throw, a ranged touch attack is required.

Damage from being thrown - A thrown creature is dealt falling damage when thrown. The distance thrown equals distance fallen for the purposes of determining damage taken. Add 1.5x the throwing creature's strength modifier to damage dealt.

Damaging other creatures - Tiny and Diminuitive creatures do no damage if they hit another being. Small creatures do 1d6 damage per 10ft traveled if they hit another creature, and Medium creatures do 2d6 damager per 10ft traveled.

Thrown creatures that hit another being also perform a bull rush (use the thrower's strength modifier and the thrown creature's size modifier to determine the outcome of the bull rush). The thrown creature must continue with the opponent as it moves."

Here's an illustration: Clayton's got a pipsqueak of a goblin berating him, and it's hard as heck to hit with his hammer. Finally, though, he gives up conventional means of slaughter and is able to grapple it. Now, holding onto it, he wants to make it really pay for all the nasty things it just said to him. He stands 10ft from a cliff and decides it should plummet to its doom. He rolls d20 + his ranged attack bonus - 4 (improvised weapon) - 2 (range increment). The AC in this case is HUGE (wide open spaces). Chances are, he successfully flings the thing to it's doom. It takes the appropriate falling damage and likely dies.

Here's another illustration: That goblin's worg comes after him, and he's got no time to dance with it, for he sees that his friend Amrielle is currently surrounded by a group of goblins by the same cliff. He grapples the puppy normally, then decides to fling it at a goblin in an attempt to knock it off. Clayton is 15 feet from the goblin, who happens to be 10ft from the cliff. He throws the worg, rolling a d20 + his ranged attack bonus - 4 (improvised weapon) - 6 (range increment). If he hits the goblin's touch AC with the attack, the worg deals damage to the goblin, receives damage, and initiates a bull rush versus the goblin.

Clayton get's to represent the worg in the bull rush (it is his attack, after all). He rolls d20 + his strength bonus + 0 (worg size) vs. the goblin's roll. Let's say the worg successfully bull rushes the goblin. If the worg win's by 5 or more, it must choose to follow the goblin and move it further, successfully pushing them both off the cliff.

Thoughts?

1kXP-12 RMT Session 1

It's time for another doomed to fail initiative...Remedial Munchkin Training (RMT), courtesy of A Thousand XP to Midnight (1kXP-12).

Munchkin (n): a player who plays what is intended to be a non-competitive game (usually a role-playing game) in an aggressively competitive manner.

In the military, RMT (Remedial Military Training) is used for whiny misfits and arrogant problem children. The intent is to reteach them the basic tenets of their profession, to take them back to basics. At 1kXP-12, RMT is akin to that. We intend to give GMs/DMs and players the tools to whip munchkins back into shape.

Session 1 is a simple exercise. Strip them down, just like in basic training, so you can build them up the right way.

As I developed this, I drew inspiration from MMOs such as Everquest and World of Warcraft. Years back, a friend of mine recanted a tale of a drizzly day when his EQ guild's server went offline. Yearning to play SOMETHING, the group found a new server, created barbarians, stripped them to their leopard skin thongs, and raced across the map on foot. They trudged through zones too powerful for their unclad newbies, and dropped like flies. This naked barbarian footrace has become his most memorable moment of his EQ days.

I then came across a similar event in WoW. A group of 40 embarked on an odd quest: raid the 10th level NPC "Hogger" with 40 Gnomes at level one. A silly video of this not-quite-epic hunt is here. All I can say about it is, "Tread with caution through this poppyfield."

Now on to my exercise, which isn't necessarily for munchkins alone. Have your players create low level commoners with little to no special powers or abilities (D&D players, level 1 human commoners work great!). Then have them try to navigate a world or adventure made for heroes. I can guarantee three things:

1. Hilarity will ensue,

2. The players will dig deeper than ever to succeed, and

3. Nearly everyone involved will look at the game in a new light.

Frank, Natalya, and Jervesh have no idea that Gnolls are lurking in the grass...

The intent in this is to teach that player (and everyone knows that player) a thing or two about the game. This is for the character who isn't content playing a 'basic' hero. You know, the hero made from the basic rules? "That's not interesting (or challenging, or powerful) enough." Have them try to defend their hovel against a squad of orcs with nothing but a pitchfork and pot of stew, and see how much they appreciate the "weak" abilities a fighter holds.

This kind of game works even if you're not trying to teach a lesson. On many a boring day I find myself with gamer friends not sure how to fill a couple hours. There's not enough time (or we're missing key players) to run a serious game, but we feel the need to game.

Loss of Fear

I've been screaming this for forever...

"D&D has grown further away from its roots with every edition." Eventually I had to take a stand and stick to 3.5. While it has lost much of what made me fall in love with the game when I first played AD&D, I feel it has a good enough balance of new fantasy and old atmosphere.

What I feel is most lost is the feeling of fear. The fear of traps, the fear of the monsters, and the fear that your character could die tonight. I believe this article sums it up best.

http://www.dungeonmastering.com/tools-resources/where-has-all-the-mean-stuff-gone

I Got a Fever!

And the only cure, is some Cyberpunk!

In the beginning, there was Cyberpunk, and it was good.

Then the dying locomotive industry, in an attempt to revitalize itself, worked with the entertainment industry to create Wild Wild West starring Will Smith, and Steampunk was born. But that's another blog, for another day.

I believe Cyberpunk may be the only frontier of gaming settings. That's a bold statement, I know, but I rack my brain in attempts to prove myself wrong, coming up ever fruitless. Let's face it, everything's a rehash of something that's been done before.

D&D is still the most popular game, but medieval fantasy gaming is difficult, as it's been done, and done again. Don't get me wrong, I don't think I'll ever stop playing D&D. But it's all been done in novels, films, or video games. Evil wizards. Orc armies. Magical swords. Dragons with thorns in their paws and all you've got to do is remove it and he's your friend. Oh wait...

And Star Wars is notoriously a hard game to play, because unless you're running it in the pre-film period, the story is laid out for you. Unless your Gamemaster is enough of a goon to allow you to kill Boba Fett and Vader, the best you can hope for in the film eras is to secretly help the heroes achieve the victories you know they're going to achieve.

This holds true for running a game in even the Forgotten Realms, which I try nobly to do. One has to be careful not to allow the characters to do something that will upset the flow of the novels, unless you decide that everything published after your sessions doesn't actually happen.

Sure, you can run a home-brew world, but you'll still run into originality problems. I've had campaign and adventure ideas I thought were genious only to watch a movie three weeks later that had the same plot. Ugh. Curse you, Bigtop Peewee. :D

At the end of the day, one of the few solid frontiers of RPG settings is the cyberpunk realm. That is simply because not enough mainstream media has been produced on the subject to seal off all the exits and pin in the imagination. You can still go places in a cyberpunk world that haven't been reached, in reality and in fiction.

I want to play some more Shadowrun. I've only scratched the surface of that game. It is arguably the most comprehensive character systems, but I think that's where it lost people. Most folks wanna roll up a d20 fighter and hack up the baddies. But not me; I want to get into the crazy world run by corporations, where magic exists alongside machine guns and nukes. Ah, how I wish to bathe walk the sprawl, watching out for a street samurai who will undoubtedly lay down the smack on the baddies in such a unique fashion.

And I want to play in a world where entering the Matrix is a voluntary act, only for the talented.

One day, I will live that dream.

Wednesday....

...is Random Character Day!

This was a good one. Gotta love randomness. In case you missed roud one, check out my first 100% random character. The rolls have it!

Ighvhet, Female Human Barbarian 1
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Languages: Common, Gnomish
Hp 8
AC 13 (+1 Dex, +1 armor, +1 buckler)
Attack: Flail +2, d8
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 11, Int 12, Wis 4, Cha 6
Feats: Weapon Focus: Flail, Combat Reflexes
Skills: Search +3, Concentration +2, Decipher Script -1, Gather Info +0, Use Magic Device +0
Possessions: Flail, Padded armor, buckler, clay Jar, vial of Ink, Pony, saddlebags
Special Abilities: Fast Movement, Rage

Inghvhet's curiosity regarding culture and inability to hold her tongue got her expelled from the Clan of the White Oak. She has gathered a particularly peculiar assortment of items from trips to old ruins, and is hoping to find a learned person to teach her all the things she wishes to know about cities, culture, and magic.

Her only encounter with civilized people has been with a family of gnomes who were on a pilgrimage and offered her the chance to join them and learn their language. They have since parted ways and she carries with her a strong sense of indebtedness to the littler folk.

It appears that--even with ridiculous outcomes--a random character can find a place in the world.

Another Sleepless Night

Sometimes a critical dilemma keeps me up at night. There are those unresolved issues that--if left unanswered--could spell doom and uncertainty to mankind. In those instances, I strive to find an answer to the unanswerable.

This is probably a question you have asked yourself in the past, so please bear with me (not Bare With Me.) while I try to work it out for myself.

In 2165, when Canada and Mexico finally roll over and official incorporate into the US...
When space is finally an area of operations for the military...
When the wars we face are for our own planetary freedom...

...Which branch of the military will own the space?!

There are basically two possibilities at present: The Navy and the Air Force.

Virtually every work of science fiction hands this privelege to the Navy. In Star Wars, Star Trek, Homeworld and StarCraft, fleets of ships roam the galaxies, using naval rank structure and terminology. Let's face it though, the Navy would need a lot of work to join us all in the present. Their processes, doctrine, and uniforms are so archaic, putting them in space would constitute copyright infringement on the folks that made Spelljammer. The Air Force is at least looking to the future. In a ridiculous move scoffed by most everyone, the AF has changed its mission statement to include battling the enemy in cyberspace. Seriously, read this article. I can see it now...Shadowrun comes to the real world. Of course, with all that money spent on R&D on deckers hacking into the Matrix, the flyboys won't have time to keep up with the space race. Maybe the Navy will--in fact--have their way.

Well, it appears as though sci-fi has it, so this is what the earth military will look like in the future: The Navy can have space. The Air Force can chase its pipe dream of computer wars. And the Coast Guard can patrol the stratosphere, chasing down Martian drug runners.

Have I Been Roleplaying?

Sure, I've rolled up characters and thrown dice for something like 9 years, and I've played a variety of dudes.

As time's gone on, I've taken on the role of DM, and my experiences as playing a character vice running the game have become minimal. In those infrequent times I've settled into a comfortable spot: the entertainer and facilitator. I've found that the most comfortable role for me to play is the bard, because nothing falls on my shoulders. That is, unless we run low on gold and the nobles are itchin' for an unplugged version of Free Bird on the lute.
Otherwise, it seems, I take over and steal the fun from my fellow PCs. Krog the half-orc monk really gets depressed when it's my fascinate ability--not his stunning fist--that lulls the enemy into pascifism. I've noticed, though, that his 'stunning' fist is rarely applied with enough finesse to prevent a crushed sternum and a heaping bowl of heart sauce.

So I'm always a chaotic good half elven bard, right? I just enjoy roleplaying that mixture. Or do I? Do I play this role simply because it is the easiest for me to be? To find the answer, I went to QuizFarm.com, and took a couple quizzes: Which DnD Character are you? What's your alignment? and What fantasy race are you? Oh at the heartbreaking results...

You scored as Bard! A BARD, a good travelling player who is a seducer of people with fine songs and words. You are a smooth talker and can talk anything out of anybody.

You scored as chaotic good,

You scored as Elf, You are an Elf! Tall, slim and with pointy ears! Great minds, extremely longlived, untouched by disease. Elf 61% Man 56% Hobbit 50% Dwarf 44% Orc 28%

Take a look at that! Elf and Human are neck and neck! And last time I checked, when those two races are neckin', a half elven bastard child is nine months away! I'm that bastard child! Woe is me! Never to be accepted by any society...Wait, what was the title of this blog? Oh...

Looks like I've been roleplaying as much as Tom Cruise has been acting. That's it, I'm going to play something DIFFERENT next time...maybe Rand, the confused Elven wizard who thinks bats and clubs are cool.