Help with some philosophical rules questions for the Old School Adventure Guide

This question is of relevance to all who wish to collaborate on the Old School Adventure Guide

Question 1: "Should character level lead to an increase in ability in certain actions or should species and ability scores determine ability in a certain action, independent of level?"

As an example, I'm thinking particularly about such things as breath holding time, and broad jumping distance here. The rules I have outlined previously suggest that level matters.

Breath holding time in rounds = Constitution + level

Broad Jumping distance = Level + Strength bonus + Dexterity Bonus + 2d6

One could easily design rules that might be independent of level:

Breath holding time in rounds (minutes) = Constitution / 3 (rounded up) as the Dungeoneer's survival guide does.

or

Broad Jumping distance = 4 (dwarf) + Strength bonus + Dexterity Bonus + 2d6
Broad Jumping distance = 6 (human) + Strength bonus + Dexterity Bonus + 2d6


This is important as well for rules design because, once level is added, the tendency by necessity is that a level 1 character often has ability in that action less than a modern human, but at high level they are likely to exceed a modern human.


To answer question 1, I think we must first answer Question 2.

Question 2: Are we creating rules for heroic fantasy or rules for the simulation of a world that obeys Earth laws as close as possible, within an imagined fantasy setting?

I was watching SG-U episode 3 (it's ok, nothing as good as BSG), and the characters venture onto a desert planet. 6 hours later they are dying of dehydration and exhaustion. 6 hours? (Reminds me of the South Park episode where they all go cannibal after only 1 hour without food and eat someone who wonder if they are diabetic.)

Good drama demanded in SG-U, they start suffering on the desert planet soon, within hours, not days later as might be more realistic.

So when creating travel rules, and weather systems, for the Adventure Guide, I know some would feel that the chance of a tornado or blizzard can't be for example, 01 on d%. Since that would mean there is a tornado every 100 days and that is not realistic.

Or Cook expert: sailing rules 2d6 on a 12: Gale, 80% chance of galley sinking. That's 2.2% chance of gale and sinking every journey: the Roman navy would be sunk in a year!

If your players head out into a heavy storm what's their chance of being struck by lightning?
Real 1: 250000
Or are you going to just say double 1 on 2d6?

It is my belief that I am playing a game not a simulation. One still needs laws and rules in a game, that allows player choice and the player's ability to weigh risk, but if my odds of encountering adventure are as close to my normal life chances of encountering some adventure, I don't see myself or my players being very entertained.

In my world, ships sink, frequently and lightning strikes twice, often.

Question 3: What about in your world, what about the the Old School Adventure Guide?

Wilderness Travel System

 Anthony and Alexis keep getting better and better on this topic.


I want to record a few ideas, more for my benefit than theirs. Or yours.


Alexis is right that one shouldn't be penalised twice for topography (slow travel) since that is already accounted for in movement rate. 
Additionally roads and trails provide the benefit of improved movement rate so, why should they have an additional effect.


Yet clearly some terrains are riskier than others as are some weather types.


What I am working on is:


Wildernerness Travel Risk

Terrain Risk		Weather Risk
Minimal Risk	0	Minimal Risk	0
Moderate Risk	1	Moderate Risk	1
High Risk	2	High Risk	2
Lethal	3	Lethal	3

The numbers are a guide rather than part of a formula at present.


I envisage some random tables for each that are modified by the topography (desert) or season (winter) but would allow for warm easy walking in the middle of winter, and a day of more open forest in a hex that just says forest.


Additionally players must be able to choose different daily routes through the terrain and have real choice. Perhaps a few options need to be determined for the player to choose their direction.


DM: You could head north toward your destination but that is through dense and dark forest (moderate risk) or you could head north east where it is less overgrown (minimal risk)"


Alternatively the system could have a set damage per day of forest travel but what is determined each day is the distance travelled that day. Today was hard you only got half as far as you wished.

Plains	0
Forest	1
Swamp	3
Mountain, high	3
Mountain, low	2
Hill	1
Desert	3

Randomly determine
Desert Table (2d6)
2        Frequent falls and scorching sun, travel 1/3 predicted
3-4       Hot damn hot, travel 1/2 predicted
5-6       It's hot, travel 2/3 predicted
7           No obstruction to travel
8-9       Hilly sand dunes - 25% travelled
10-11   A cooler day, the god be praised, 
12       Clear firm route than predicted, travel extra 50%


Or 1d30 with bonuses / penalties depending on season and reputation (Sahara vs some smaller desert)


Damage would be modified by

Knowledge (choose all that apply)
Familiar risk	-2
Guide	-2

Effort
Half speed	-1
Forced March	2
Mounted	-2

Equipment
No water	4
No food	2
Half Rations	1
Sufficient	0
Excellent gear	-1
Suitable gear	0
Poor gear	1

Night Shelter
Structure	-2
Natural	0
Camp	1
None	2

Launching a New Project: The Old School Adventure Guide

The inspiration came during my A to Z: Digging for Gems in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide.
The idea was met with some enthusism from:
NetherWerks
retrorpg
Carter Soles
JB


Click HERE to go straight to the Guide.








What is the Old School Adventure Guide?
This guide is the collaborative effort of old school fans to create a set of coherent and play tested house rules for adventure settings outside the dungeon setting.
Its inspiration is the Expert set by Cook and as revised by Mentzer; and the Survival Guides of AD&D. Yet to be a resource in keeping with old school gaming requirements: short, sharp and house rulable. With great OSR art.
The aim is to publish a free PDF of this work, the dream is to create an at cost, physical book for the old school community.
Welcome to the Old School Adventure Guide, feel free to join us.
Collaborators: The Jovial Priest 
Arkhein at Rather Gamey who has generously donated his logo to the Guide (you may well remember the logo as runner up in the Links to Wisdom logo competition. The logo was too good not to try and find a home for it) 
Alex Schroeder

So far I have added two very short additions from my A is for Air Supply Post.

Hopefully this will give you some idea of the style I am suggesting, for the wiki guide at least, not necessarily the pdf/book.

Spelunking Adventures

Underwater Adventures

I hope to add my broad jumping and belaying rules into spelunking soon and the Wilderness Travel System being fleshed out by Anthony and Alexis is surely worthy of inclusion but if you read my comments in Anthony's posts, you will see I have my own strong ideas.

As stated above, the idea is not to create links to posts or many house rules for each possible adventure rule, but create a coherent set of rules that we the contributors, believe work, are simple and yet cool.

So unlike The Links to Wisdom wiki, we need to settle on one rule for each and every possible rule, and that will require editorial decision making ie collaboration and agreement.

My advice, if you want to join this project and have a good rule idea:

Publish your idea on your blog and reflect on any comments.

Then publish to the wiki Guide.

Add yourself to the list of collaborators.

Enter any discussion that arises regarding your rule suggestion.

If you see a good idea in someone else's blog, then it would be only polite to seek their permission for inclusion in the Guide.

Will we get there? Who knows, but hopefully it will be fun trying.

Over 450 links: Highlighting the Links to Wisdom OSR House Rules Wiki

The Links to Wisdom is about 6 weeks old now and it has over 450 links when I counted it today.

I hope you agree with me that it has become an amazing resource. Please add to it and help it grow. So in a months time you don't say, "Who wrote that excellent post on X?" I wish I kept the link.

Just look at the volume of excellent links:


Introduction 12
Player Character a whopping 109 links added
Spells 39
The Adventure 40
The Encounter 40
Monsters 77
Non Player Characters 12
Treasure 29
DM Information 76
Inspirational Sources 24

I personally feel the use of a recognised contents structure based on the older editions is helping keep 450 links manageable and useful for us all.

Over the coming weeks I plan on sporadically highlighting a link I regard as particularly cool (I am discovering them myself every time I head back to the wiki).

Comments and suggestions always welcomed.

Today I added an excellent wilderness travel system by of Pedantry based on hit point loss for terrain types. Check the link out in The Adventure, Wilderness. Go on, find the link in the wiki yourself. It's that easy.

Such a system might feature well in a planned collaboration to build an Old School Adventure Guide, which I suggested at the conclusion of my A to Z exploration of the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide.

From modern classic to classic classic - look what arrived in the mail today

Guess what arrived in the mail today.

What I never expected was that Vornheim is a small hardcover book.

I have had the pdf for a few weeks now - I haven't read it.

This just begs to be read.

I love physical books. Oh I know - get with the times, you can't use Find on a physical book. That is why a 'free' pdf with every physical book is a must.

The last time I was this excited was my 10 year wedding anniversary weekend away and I...

read Death Frost Doom and Hammers of the God. Both physical books.

Nearly as exciting as....

receiving B/X Companion.

Raggi and Zak S, please take a bow.

Index of April 2011 AtoZ posts: Digging for Gems in the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide

Well the A to X is complete. My month long foray into the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide is over. I thought it worthwhile to create an index page of my posts and the gems I discovered.


A is for Air Supply
Gems
1. Every 10x10x10 foot space provides enough air for one man size person's 24 hours survival.

2. Any small fire consumes 24 hours of oxygen in 2 hours, and every round of flaming oil is 1 turn (10 minutes).
3. Breath Holding Rules (see post)

B is for Belays

Gems

1. Non thief characters have a base chance of climbing success of 40%, which can be modified by race and climbing surface if desired. A complicated table can be used to give movement rates for climbing (if desired). 
2. If ropes are involved they can be of belaying (not tied) or roped together variety.
3. If a character is falling with a rope held by characters on either side of him or her, BOTH supporting characters must succeed to arrest the fall.
3. For every additional character falling -10% is deducted from the chance of success for a Climbing Check.
4. For belays, failure means the character's fall is not halted, but the belayer is not affected (well not physically, perhaps emotionally...) Success means the fall is arrested, unless the belaying character is on dangerous or narrow ground, in which case a 2nd Climbing Check must be made, failure means the belaying character has fallen as well.
5. For parties roped together, no 2nd Climbing Check is required. Success means the fall is arrested, failure means the character has fallen as well.
6. Climbing checks continue until each character on either side of a falling character succeeds, the entire party falls or if only one end of the rope line/belay has fallen, a single character can arrest the fall.
7. Spikes can arrest the fall of an entire party, but have a chance of pulling loose at 10% per character the spike is trying to support.

C is for Caves and Caverns

Gem

1. Though the golden age had passed and the silver age was passing, the tone of TSR publications remained mature and educational. Not what one would expect to find in a fantasy game rule book, but one aspect of the hobby that captured a younger me and I am sure, many of you.

D is for Deepearth

Gem

1. Deepearth (the campaign world created by Douglas Niles)

E is for Easley

Gem

1. Jeff Easley illustrations


F is for Fungus
Gem
1. Fungi are fun


G is for Gems
Gems
1. Gemstones themselves, there are many different types and if you discover a mine of them, the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide will tell the DM all one needs to know.
2. And a table I made on gem values


H is for hook (grappling)
Gems

A character can throw a grappling hook upward a distance to 1/3 of his Strength score (rounded up) times 10.

2. The horizontal distance that a grappling hook can be thrown equals the vertical distance, unless the character has enough room to swing the hook in a circle several times before the cast. In this case, if a character has a radius of 10 feet from his body cleared of obstacles, he can throw the hook twice as far horizontally as he could otherwise.

I is for Isomorphs

Gem

1. Isomorphic mapping advice (now supplanted by computers)

J is for Jumping

Gem

1. Broad Jumping Rules

K is for Kraken

Gem

1. Deepearth can be a very cool setting, especially with a Kraken that has somehow adapted itself to live in fresh water.

L is for Loosing a Lick and Losing the Lost Lodestone

Gems

1. Lichs are not lovely

2. Lost is both a state and a description of the plot to a popular TV series of the same name.

3. Lodestones pull their weight

M is for Mining

Gem

1. If you need some mining rules - here be good ore

N is for Niles
Gem
1. The most coherent advice for the intermediate experienced DM ever published in the Gold and Silver
age of TSR.


O is for Odor and Explosive Gas
Gems
1. Rules for Odor Detection

2. Rules for Gas - Poisonous, Noxious and Explosive

P is for Proficiencies

Gem

1. The further development of non-weapon proficiencies - not really a gem.

Q is for Question

Gem

1. The mysterious © artist is Doug Chaffee 

R is for Roslof

Gem

1. In memory of

S is for Spelunking

Gems

1. Spelunking rules

2. An encouragement to make the physical world a challenge in itself

T is for Theories

Gem

1. The world is not solid, it is hollow, well that's one theory anyway

U is for Underdark

Gem

1. Underdark, as first termed in the DSG

V is for Volcanoes

Gem

1. Lava is hot!

W is for Water

Gem

1. Rules for hypothermia, water flow, damming a river, underground water travel and many more

X is for Xeno

Gem

1. Sure we have D1-3, but the DSG does give you ideas for a whole subterranean world - it just doesn't do dungeons. Perhaps, Deepearth Survival Guide, or The Underdark Gazette - hey that would make a nice blog title...

Y is for Year

Gem

1. The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, mid-silver age according to Grognardia 1984-1989.

Z is for ZAT'S IT

Gems I took after this month long challenge

1. Without the discipline and motivation of the AtoZ challenge my copy of the DSG would have sat in a darkened loft space, for another decade unread. Like my copy of the Wilderness Survival Guide. Or Greyhawk, Dragonlance and many, many modules I have purchased in the last decade from eBay. So I thank the AtoZ organisers for the inspiration.
2. I never purchased the Dungeoneer's Survival Guide, in my day. I was still playing, but it was expensive, and I would have bought the Wilderness Survival Guide instead (all those weather systems). After exploring it for a month, I can't say I have learned to love the DSG. In the end, it's too verbose, rules for the sake of rules, too campaign setting (alluding to TSR's future publication obsessions - Forgotten Realms, campaign world after campaign world); but still their are moments when the DSG lifts one's imagination. The art certainly helps. And for that I am glad to have spent the last month with it.
3. We have yet to escape the fact that RPG companies be they LotFP or WOTC, must continue to make new products to make money. This is because in my opinion, they must sell, more to the converted. Because new sells, and old dies on shelves. The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide was part of that mentality. Publish or perish. What if we merely expanded the numbers playing, using the same old but trusted books. The world becomes your oyster, and we almost become a club trying to get new members, their membership fee, the classic books. The business model - support your current fans, encouraging them to find new fans.