Learning to Crawl

I've done some dungeon crawl experiments recently.

Sort of Order of Eventide

I created an extremely stripped down dungeon format for my OoE characters. Here is the dungeon sheet I created.

I also revamped the character classes a bit, using a mix of Four Against Darkness with OoE. The game worked, but I do have concerns about its long-term viability, specifically how how higher levels will work.

The Surge and Blunder concept for OoE is really growing on me. I like how it tailors the results to the class or monster, providing different effects that feel natural.

Loner

I then tried Loner.

I created a character based on my example from my first impressions post. Brok, a burly barbarian that is skilled with a sword and has a good sense of direction but has persistent nightmares, ventures into a goblin lair.

Note that good sense of direction and persistent nightmares came from some of the Loner: Dungeoneer random tables. I'm not sure how relevant they'll be, especially the nightmares, in my type of dungeon crawls.

I initially tried to use the tables in Dungeoneer to create the dungeon but I quickly gave up. There were a lot of tables that gave more info than I wanted and the encounter results did not give enough combat. I ended up scrapping them all, jotting down some encounters, and then went at it.

I recorded the dungeon with pencil and paper. Brok did not explore the shaded rooms. I generated them after the fact to see how the whole dungeon looked.

I was pleased with how easily and effectively the Loner task resolution system worked. Statting the monsters was easy - I just decided if Brok had an advantage or disadvantage, or was evenly matched.

I had to tweak the Luck rules. In his first combat, I treated the rats as a collective, with 6 Luck total. They quickly whittled Brok down to 3 Luck. I then evoked the 4AD morale roll when the rats were halfway down. They fled. I gave Brok a healing potion, which brought his Luck back up. After that, I started most monsters with less than 6 Luck. Brok was able to make it through the rest of the dungeon without issue.

I did struggle a little with defining And and But results, but ultimately I came to decision (I was not using the damage system suggested in the book as it seemed too deadly). Ands were critical hits that allowed victor to make an extra, free attack. Buts allowed the loser to make an counterattack.

What Next?

Ironically, I like Loner, but not for solo play. Why? Because,

• I prefer to run multiple characters, not just one.
• Rolling multiple dice per character slows down the game. It's quicker to roll 1 die per character.

I liked how streamlined Loner was when handling a single character. I would totally run it with multiple players each controlling a single character, but that's not what Loner is for. In fact, the author recommends using Freeform Universal for multiple characters.

Where does this leave me? I find myself drawn back to my Micro Dungeon rules. I think the solution to my scaling problem is to reduce hit points. Either do not increase them with levels, or make it difficult to increase them. I'll have to experiment some more with it.

Some New Directions

Some changes underway.

New Boxes

When I last discussed boxes, I moved my games into a bunch of jewelry boxes. But they've been getting a little difficult to manage. I wanted something more organized.

Recently, Michael's had a sale on a photo organizer. Only $11.99!

I decided to re-organize my games into these boxes.

This will require some adjustment. Some of my battle boards won't fit into the smaller 4 by 6 inch boxes. I may have to cut them down. I also cannot fit as many of the tiny boxes I use to hold my armies. Still, I should be able to spread everything out across multiple little boxes.

As I pressed ahead, I created new labels for the boxes. Here is my big battle box label.

Skirmish Project

Previously, I mentioned an interest in Revolutionary War skirmishing. I have made some progress on that front.

I decided to base in squads rather than individually. I created some counters.

I kept them generic so they can work from ancient times (well, maybe not the cannon) through the 19th century. Each counter will be 1/2 inch square.

I plan to run a recurring campaign set on the Georgia-Florida border. It's going to be a-historical so I will be changing names of some of the major players.

Bellicosus Takes On Italy

I begin my Twelve Foes of Rome campaign that I mentioned last week. First up are the Samnites, but I decided to take on two foes instead of one. We get the start of the Roman conquest of Italy. How will it go?

I decided to add a little character to the battles. The Roman generals will come from the fictional Bellicosus family. Will they earn glory or will they go down in defeat?

The Etruscan War

War breaks out between Rome and the Etruscans to the north. Bellicosus is given command.

Bellicosus (red) commands cavalry, 2 legions (armored, denoted by silver markers), javelins (count as spears), and allied Latin spears. The Etruscans have 3 spears (one armored), archers, and cavalry.

The Roman cavalry charges and routs some spears (left). On the other flank, the Etruscan armored spears chase away the javelins.

The Roman cavalry continue their winning ways. On the right, Bellicosus rallies a repulsed legion.

A legion advances in the center but gets cut down by the archers on the hill.

The other legion breaks the Etruscan right.

It then flanks the archers.

Defeated, the Etruscans sue for peace.

The Samnite War

With the Etruscans pacified, Rome turns its attentions on the pesky Samnites. The Senate sends Bellicosus to deal with them.

Bellicosus leads cavalry, 2 legions (armored), javelins (count as spears), and some Latin allies. The Samnites have 2 fierce spears (one in the woods), cavalry, and 2 spears in reserve.

The two sides make contact in the center and left. Bellicosus's forces sweep away the Samnites.

Then his javelins take out the fierce spears in the woods.

But the javelins get lost in the woods and cannot make a flanking attack. They rolled a 1 so I interpreted that as getting lost.

Meanwhile, the cavalry gets repulsed by the Samnite spears, but Bellicosus rallies them.

The Roman cavalry charges again and rides over the spears.

Bellicosus conquers the Samnites.

GAME NOTES

Bellicosus is off to an auspicious start as he eliminates two rivals in Italy.

Next up, Pyrrhus! 

Loner Impressions

After I posted about Order of Eventide, Mark Cordone recommended another solo RPG, Loner.

Quick synopsis of rules

• Characters are built on tags rather than stats. Instead of a level 1 fighter with strength 18 but charisma 7, your character could be a novice warrior who is burly but socially awkward.
• Everything is a character! Enemies and objects are defined like characters, with tags.
• There is a random mission generator. I like random generators for solo games; they help spark the imagination.
• You resolve actions using the Oracle – basically rolling dice.
• You roll a Chance Die and a Risk Die. If Chance is equal or higher your character succeeds. Lower equals failure.
• Depending on the dice rolls, there could be modifiers.
• But – means that it is not a total success or failure
• And – means that something else happens good (for success) or bad (for failure)
• Tags could provide advantages or disadvantages.
• For example, my burly but socially awkward fighter would have an advantage trying to move a heavy object and a disadvantage when bargaining with a merchant.
• For an advantage, roll 2 Chance dice and choose the higher. For a disadvantage, roll 2 Risk dice and choose the higher.
• The game is played in a series of scenes, using the Oracle as needed to determine the result.
• Twists potentially occur when rolling doubles. Twists can shake up the story. There is a random generator to help determine the twist.
• There are a number of random generators to help develop adventures.
• The game is geared towards a single character. The author suggests using Freeform Universal for games with multiple players and characters.
• There are additional setting books for Loner. These provide more details and tailored random generators.

My Thoughts

This is a very freeform, light RPG. I’ve tried other freeform games, like Mythic and Freeform Universal.

I love the  freeform concept.

• Character creation is a breeze.
• Task resolution is quick.
• There are not a lot of rules, so you can internalize them quickly. You don’t really need to check the rulebook very often.

But in my previous experiments, they have not worked for me. Some of my quibbles:

• I’m not fond of the And or But options. In my experience, I get bogged down trying to figure out what that means.
• In freeform systems, characters generally acquire more skills as they gain experience. But they don’t necessarily become more skilled, For example, if my burly fighter has the swordsmanship skill, he doesn't level up that skill. It’s essentially binary – he has it or he doesn’t. I prefer skills that advance with experience. The character goes from novice to experienced and eventually to master. That’s why I prefer systems with levels.
• Often, these systems lack a bestiary. I’d really like to have more guidance on formatting monsters.

Next Steps

As I said, I like the concept of freeform RPGs. Therefore, I will give Loner a try.

As I mentioned, there are setting books. I picked up the Dungeoneer book. It has a bestiary (yay!) and a lot of random tables. I think these will help greatly.

I am going to make a character and run through an adventure. If it works OK, I’ll try to expand it to allow multiple characters.

House Ruling OoE

I started dabbling with some house rules for Order of Eventide (OoE). To playtest them, I rebooted my 4 characters and ran them through a dungeon.

Initiative

I switched to old school D&D party imitative rather than switch back and forth. This allows me to roll all characters at once. 

Character Sheet

I created a new character sheet that allows me to put all 4 characters on a single page of paper. Rather than track items by character, I'm just going to have a communal area for items (aside from carried weapons and worn armor).

Themed Dungeon

I did not like the randomness of the random dungeon. Like my efforts with Four Against Darkness, I decided to create themed dungeons.

I noticed that there are 3 different bosses (behemoths) in the starting area. I decided I'd create a different themed dungeon for each boss.

Here is the dungeon encounters for the bandit leader.

I created this sheet in Excel and set it up to print on half a sheet of paper.

Dungeon Tiles

I also used Excel to create some dungeon tiles. I planned to print them, cut them out, and then draw randomly to create the dungeon.

Test

My goal with many of the above changes is to play OoE with physical components instead of on my computer. But before I print anything up, I decided to do a test.

Here is the dungeon I created before I stopped.

The main issue I had with this setup was redundancy. I fought 2 batches of banditos and 2 of bloated corpses. When I ran into more banditos, I had enough.

For tabletop dungeon crawlers, I get bored fighting the same opponents again and again. I'm thinking of going back to the Micro Dungeon structure discussed in this earlier post.

Looks like I'll be rebooting OoE again.

Order of Eventide Playthrough

Previously, I discussed my first impressions of Order of Eventide (OoE), a solo/co-op dungeon crawl game. The game has a campaign structure that piqued my interest. I decided to start a one.

Character Creation

I created the requisite 4 characters. I decided to go with one of each class - fighter, hunter, mage, and adventurer. The hunter is an elf while the others are human. No bunny-men for me.

Here they are (thanks to Chat GPT) - Aldric, Corvin, Rook, and Lethariel.

Character creation was not difficult, but a little confusing. Different rules are in different sections of the book, which requires a lot of flipping around. I was using a Kindle, which makes flipping especially challenging.

There is a mention of armor in the resources section, but I didn't find rules for armor. I guess it's built into the defensive abilities. Shields and some racial traits will give defense bonuses.

There are not a lot of stats, which I like. Each character has an Attack Bonus and a Defense Bonus. Use these when rolling in combat. Here are their bonuses:

• Attack - Aldric +2 in melee, Lethariel +3 ranged, Corvin +1 arcane, Rook - no bonus, but he dual wields
• Defense - Aldric is +1 for a shield and Lethariel is +1 as an elf.

Characters get starting weapons for free. They also have a small amount of gold, er glowstones, to buy additional items. I got a healing potion for each character.

Corvin is a mage but I don't see magic rules. Oh well, hope he can find an arcane weapon.

Into the Dungeon

My heroes decide to adventure in Sundessa. Using the random tables in the book, the dungeon is called the Martyr's Crypt.

OoE has blank dungeon sheets that are 25 by 25 squares. Instead of printing a sheet, I used Excel. here it the dungeon explored by the heroes so far.

The entrance is pre-mapped. From there, our heroes choose to go north.

• Rm 1. They encounter 5 spark sprites (will o' wisps?). Spark sprites are level 3, so the heroes need to roll 3 or better to hit and to defend themselves. They manage to wipe out the sprites with only one minor wound. They gain 1 Essence (experience) and roll for treasure. They find a two-handed sword.
• Rm 2. 5 blackpaw cultists (orcs?) - Another victory. This time they find glowstones.
• Rm 3. An event that give them a token to reroll any altar rolls. Characters use altars to summon the region's main boss.
• Rm 4. Another event. This time they lose half their treasure to a pirate.
• Rm 3. Backtracking, they run into wandering monsters, 16 skeletons.
• Rm 5. Another event. They purchase a scroll.
• Rm 6. A boss! They defeat a bandit leader. More wounds,
• Rm 7. 3 blackpaw cultists.
• Rm 8. 6 orc blademasters.

As you can see, this part of the dungeon dead-ended. There are 3 more doors leading from the entrance that the heroes can explore. I stopped for the time being.

Right now, Lethariel has lost 1 of 4 health. The others have lost 2 of 5. So some damage but they can still press on a bit.

My Thoughts

Now that I played it some, what do I think of OoE? Note that I have some peculiar tastes when it comes to dungeon crawl games. I an really in it for the combat. I generally don't like searching for treasure or dealing with inventory. I also prefer short dungeons.

• Combat was simple and quick (aside from Surges and Blunders).
• Combat alternates between heroes an enemies. For example, Aldrich attacks, then an enemy, them Lethariel, then an enemy, and so on. I prefer to roll all the hero attacks at once, then the enemies. I may house rule this.
• Combat seemed too easy for 1st level. With their attack bonuses, Aldric and Lethariel often could not miss (and a natural 1 is not automatic failure). I wonder how things will work at higher levels.
• 8 rooms and still maybe 75% of the dungeon to go. Longer than I like.
• Checking for treasure dragged, especially because I had to flip pages on my Kindle. 
• Surges and Blunders required more reference than I like. Perhaps it would be easier using printed pages. I may just need to get used to it.
• The enemies felt a little too random, a common issue with randomly generated dungeons. I thought that the OoE campaign structure would alleviate that, but it still is a minor problem.
• Nevertheless, I still find the campaign structure appealing.

OoE still scratched the dungeon crawl itch. I like the campaign and am interested in seeing where it goes.

What Next?

I think I may play it some more, looking for ways to streamline.

WWMFL Season 1 Wrap Up

Season 1 is now complete.

Here are the final standings (teams in alphabetical order).

Note: Green shading indicates best offenses or defenses while red are the worst.

Some exciting games from the second half of the season.

• Week 7 - Dallas comes back from a 21-7 deficit to beat Miami 31-24. The Stallions score the game-winning TD mid-4th quarter then hold the Miami offense.
• Week 8 - Washington ties NY in the 4th quarter but then gives up a TD in OT to lose 24-17.
• Week 9 - Dallas and Seattle play for the division lead. Dallas is up 10-0 but then Seattle scores 2 TDs to go up 14-10. Dallas dominates the second half, scoring 2 TDs en route to a 24-14 victory and the division title.
• Week 9 - Down 14-7 late in the 4th, Denver scores a TD to tie it up. The Dragons then get a TD in overtime to win 21-14.

And stories of interest.

• Denver starts the season 4-1 but then goes 1-4 in the second half to finish at .500.
• Seattle surges into second with a 4-1 second half.
• New York runs away with the East title while Dallas needs a victory in week 9 to secure the West.

The WWM Bowl

Division champions New York Imperials (East) take on the Dallas Stallions (West).

• 1st quarter - both teams get a field goal. 3-3
• 2nd quarter - NY gets a TD but Dallas responds. 10-10 at half.
• 3rd quarter - NY gets another TD early and its defense clamps down. 17-10
• 4th quarter - NY moves the ball but cannot punch it in the end zone. The Imperials get 2 field goals. 23-10. Dallas gets the ball and drives, but they turn the ball over on downs.

Final: NY wins 23-10

That's a wrap for season 1. I think I will put WWMFL on hold until next football season.