Out Of Character

[waysoftheearth]

Highbough the Elf is sloooooowly dying of old age!

Nah, Highbough has achieved a state of timelessness.
I can never forget the moment he blinked away from double certain death by being swallowed whole by two purple worms simultaneously

[waysoftheearth]

Just cause this social worker is easily confused, this is the correct list of folks, yes?
Thanis sully
Garamon rredmond
Stern Kozos
Flin zygarti
Wraislin Tonneau
Tass Purrfoot mgtremaine
Goldwen ehiker
Witherun acodispo

Yes sir, that is correct!

[waysoftheearth]

Is this mostly OD&D, DD, or your new system?

I'm running this game with DD5, which emulates 1974 OD&D (or "Chainmail D&D", as opposed to 1975 "Greyhawk D&D" which most folks probably find more familiar).
Plus a few local house rules that facilitate the PBP format.

I’m thinking you are going to recap the HPs, pretty sure I have 8 left, but let me know if we should be tracking that in some way

Yes, I will explain resting, hp recovery, and hp totals in my next in game post.

Stern is strong, what is the mechanical impact of that in combat?

A good question.
The "power words" are a short-cut that reduces a full set of ability scores to the one "big shot" ability per PC. (This isn't from OD&D or DD5; it's a well worn house rule that works well in the PBP format, and is a good fit here where we already have some well-defined PC concepts to work with).
That said, I did struggle a tad to find each player's power word during the combat resolution; please forgive me if I screwed up there. (It would be handy if someone could round them all up for me )

These high ability scores should, in principle, affect a die throw somewhere. "Strong" would add 1 to damage per round in melee combat, for example (assuming a hit). "Accurate" would add 1 hit with missiles. "Fit" or "Tough" would add 1 hp per HD. "Wise" would add 1 to saving throws. And so on. The combat-centric mods will certainly apply in fantastic combat (combat vs heroic/superheroic tier monsters), but it's less clear whether they apply to normal combat (combat vs normal men/troops). In normal combat, everything is arguably reduced to a number of vanilla, normal attacks per round with no mods whatever because, in CM, there were no mods. However, in the context of OD&D, it makes sense (to me) to apply some mods if only for consistency.

You may have noticed in the preceding combat vs the lizardmen, I used normal combat and yet I still applied a few adds to damage. E.g.;

Stern (2h-sword +1) vs L5 (AC 5): 5d20=4,14,16,15,17 -> 4 hits -> 4d6=2,4,4,2+1 -> 13 hp, L5 slain.

I don't recall exactly how DD4 handles magic weapons (LOL), but they work differently in 1974 CM-OD&D to how you might expect. All part of the DD5 experience!
In fantastic combat a +1 sword adds +1 "to hit" (but not to damage), whereas, in normal combat a +1 sword adds one attack instead. So, in the above example of normal combat, Stern has the fighting capability of 4 men, so he would get 4 attacks. However, his magic sword added an extra attack so he ended up dicing 5d20 rather than 4d20. He then scored 4 hits, each dealing 1d6 damage. The +1 added to his overall damage was applied due to Stern being "strong".

[waysoftheearth]

Just cause this social worker is easily confused, this is the correct list of folks, yes?
Thanis sully
Garamon rredmond
Stern Kozos
Flin zygarti
Wraislin Tonneau
Tass Purrfoot mgtremaine
Goldwen ehiker
Witherun acodispo

Yes sir, that is correct!

Ehiker, could you please re-post the above list, adding each PC's "power word" for me?
That would be ace

[waysoftheearth]

re: Post Combat Recovery

Combat is always followed by a compulsory rest, which generally occupies any remainder of the current exploration turn.

Underground, a dungeon exploration turn is only 10 minutes long, but outdoors a wilderness exploration turn is one day long. UWA says the post combat/pursuit rest should be half a turn (half a day) in the wilderness, which is essentially saying: whatever remains of the current wilderness exploration turn (day).

For the purpose of play testing this scenario, I'm going to handwave that and have the rest take up whatever remains of the hour... (so that we can get on to the first keyed encounter location without another wandering monster).

---

Resting up after a fight is a benefit to heroes and, by implication, all fighters.

DD5 has «A hero... is unaffected by fewer than four normal hits in a combat encounter». This advantage is straight from CM, which has: CM2 p27 (CM3 p30) (Heroes): «four simultaneous kills must be scored against Heroes (or Anti-heroes) to eliminate them. Otherwise, there in no effect on them».

This neglected detail can go a long way toward sustaining fighter hit points on adventure. It implies that Heroes can ignore/recover from normal hits that don't kill them in a combat encounter. This phenomena is apparent in fantasy fiction where heroes enjoy a tendency to bounce back after combat encounters. Moreover, it implies that clerics need not function as “heal bots” for fighters, that their healing magic can be reserved for non-trivial (i.e., fantastic combat) injuries, and that the fighter’s XP requirements are that much more justified.

In DD5 BTB heroes are unaffected by three normal hits.
However, to generalise and simplify this for our gameplay here, it means: All fighters will recover all normal hits that didn't kill them during the post combat rest. Lizardmen are normal types, and only deal normal (non-fantastic) hits, so all their hits are recoverable by fighters only (Wraislin is not a fighter and doesn't have this benefit). Fantastic hits are not recovered this way.

[zygarti]

Where can I read the DD5 rules about armor class? I am looking back at the lizardman fight and am slightly confused on how some of the hits are calculated

[waysoftheearth]

Where can I read the DD5 rules about armor class? I am looking back at the lizardman fight and am slightly confused on how some of the hits are calculated

The main things to know are:
1. DD uses descending AC, so a lower AC is better protection (AC 9 is unarmored, and AC 2 is plate armor and shield).
2. In normal combat, all attacks are THAC2 17 (which means: To Hit AC 2 an attacker needs to throw a 17 or better on a d20).
3. Each pip of AC below AC 2 requires 1 pip less on the d20 throw to hit (so AC 5 has THAC5 of 14, and so on).

In fantastic combat, heroes (and above) can have better THAC2s, but we'll get to that in forthcoming encounters...

[Kozos]

Stern is strong, what is the mechanical impact of that in combat?

A good question.
The "power words" are a short-cut that reduces a full set of ability scores to the one "big shot" ability per PC. (This isn't from OD&D or DD5; it's a well worn house rule that works well in the PBP format, and is a good fit here where we already have some well-defined PC concepts to work with).
That said, I did struggle a tad to find each player's power word during the combat resolution; please forgive me if I screwed up there. (It would be handy if someone could round them all up for me )

These high ability scores should, in principle, affect a die throw somewhere. "Strong" would add 1 to damage per round in melee combat, for example (assuming a hit). "Accurate" would add 1 hit with missiles. "Fit" or "Tough" would add 1 hp per HD. "Wise" would add 1 to saving throws. And so on. The combat-centric mods will certainly apply in fantastic combat (combat vs heroic/superheroic tier monsters), but it's less clear whether they apply to normal combat (combat vs normal men/troops). In normal combat, everything is arguably reduced to a number of vanilla, normal attacks per round with no mods whatever because, in CM, there were no mods. However, in the context of OD&D, it makes sense (to me) to apply some mods if only for consistency.

You may have noticed in the preceding combat vs the lizardmen, I used normal combat and yet I still applied a few adds to damage. E.g.;

Stern (2h-sword +1) vs L5 (AC 5): 5d20=4,14,16,15,17 -> 4 hits -> 4d6=2,4,4,2+1 -> 13 hp, L5 slain.

I don't recall exactly how DD4 handles magic weapons (LOL), but they work differently in 1974 CM-OD&D to how you might expect. All part of the DD5 experience!
In fantastic combat a +1 sword adds +1 "to hit" (but not to damage), whereas, in normal combat a +1 sword adds one attack instead. So, in the above example of normal combat, Stern has the fighting capability of 4 men, so he would get 4 attacks. However, his magic sword added an extra attack so he ended up dicing 5d20 rather than 4d20. He then scored 4 hits, each dealing 1d6 damage. The +1 added to his overall damage was applied due to Stern being "strong".

Thanks for the input. While I understood that the 5th attack was coming from the magic sword I was surprised by the +1 to damage. The reason being, I had assumed that Strong should be +1 to damage of all attacks, similarly how Tough is +1hp per HD and not flatly +1 HD.

Nevertheless I am extremely fond of the descriptors instead of attribute modifiers. It is far more interesting and consistent and also gives a cue as to the characters personality in a way that is not often facilitated by mere numbers.
By the way are you familiar with 27th edition platemail? It was an OSR game that was based on Chainmail 0D&D with lots of interesting ideas, descriptors instead of attributes being one of them. (it was actually the reason I got fascinated with Chainmail combat). You can find it here.

https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/6916 ... -platemail

[waysoftheearth]

I was surprised by the +1 to damage. The reason being, I had assumed that Strong should be +1 to damage of all attacks, similarly how Tough is +1hp per HD and not flatly +1 HD.

Normal combat in OD&D is basically a hangover from mass combat in Chainmail, in which a single figure represents 20 men and the differing qualities of individual men are essentially ignored. Arguably, one benefit of all "normal attacks" being exactly vanilla is that they can then be aggregated into a single pool of attacks "per side". E.g., side A throws 15 attacks versus side B throws 20 attacks; it doesn't matter where they came from because they're all the same.

Over in D&D-land, we care more about the differing qualities of individual men. M&T (p5) says: <<Attack/defense capabilities versus normal men are simply a matter of allowing one roll as a man-type for every hit die, with any bonuses being given to only one of the attacks.>> So, if an individual figure has multiple normal attacks, any bonuses they may have for high ability scores, magic weapons, backstabs, or anything else, apply only to their first attack; the remainder are resolved as vanilla normal attacks.

Any adjustments applied to an individual figure's subsequent attacks in OD&D normal combat are effectively house rules, that (further!) break the all-normal-attacks-are-equal paradigm of normal combat, and start to look more like the individual's attacks in fantastic combat. This is often about consistency between adjustments in fantastic combat and normal combat. Consistency may seem like a good idea--it's certainly easier-- but it also blurs the distinction between two otherwise different combat systems.

The main issue I see with a +1 damage bonus applying to every hit in normal combat is that it's way too big of a deal. A +1 to a 1-6 range is a 4.5/3.5 (29%) advantage which is a big deal already, but then it also gets applied dozens or scores of times in a game. Whereas a +1 hp per HD advantage for high constitution is applied exactly four times (for a 4 HD hero). Another option (for strength) is a +1 to hit advantage (on a d20) in melee combat. This yields a 11.5/10.5 (9.5%) advantage, albeit it would apply more frequently than a damage adjustment. I recall calculating previously that overall, a +1 to hit advantage on a d20 is close to half as advantageous as a +1 to damage on a d6. So, if anything were to be applied to melee attacks, I'd go with to hit before damage. It would also align nicely to the +1 to hit adjustment due to dex for missiles.

That said, I'm usually happy to mess around with these things, particularly in a play test environment to see how they go

By the way are you familiar with 27th edition platemail? It was an OSR game that was based on Chainmail 0D&D with lots of interesting ideas, descriptors instead of attributes being one of them. (it was actually the reason I got fascinated with Chainmail combat). You can find it here.

https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/6916 ... -platemail

Yes; you may notice I posted in that topic in 2012

[ehiker133]

Sure thing, WOTE! I tried to post the information in the PC Reincarnations thread, but then realized I was only an assistant DM in the last game and not an admin on the forum like I am on USS, so I couldn't edit a closed post.

Here it is, instead. Well, most of it...

Thanis: Stealthy
Garamon: Hardy
Stern: Strong
Flin: Strong
Wraislin: Intellectual
Tass Purrfoot: Agile
Goldwen: Sagacious
Witherun: ??

I can't find a posting from Acodispo indicating his character's primary trait. Acodispo, can you please indicate Witherun's main trait?