Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 I just finished watching the new, and final, Indiana Jones film. I won't spoil it, but I'll give a few thoughts. 

And for parents wondering about curse words in the film, rest assured, this is as family friendly as Indy has always been. 

I, like many people my age, grew up with the original Indiana Jones trilogy, and love those movies. And while they're set in the modern age, they've got a lot that can be emulated in D&D. The movies are, after all, about a treasure hunter. But also like most of us, I felt that the 4th film, which came out 15 years ago, was terrible. It had some of the style of the old movies, but not enough. It relied overly much on CGI (which wasn't always that good), and had a clunky script. 

But this latest and final movie learned from those mistakes. And it's not surprising, as it's directed by James Mangold, who knows how to make a great movie. 

This iteration of Indiana Jones is of course much older, but we do get some time at the beginning with a digitally de-aged Indy during WWII, and it looked really good. It felt a lot like Spielberg's original trilogy. The whole movie, really. Even once it transitions to the "present" of 1969, they quickly move the action to the Mediterranean Sea, where things are a bit older and less modern than 60's New York City. 

The movie has all the plot points you'd expect from an Indy film. Lots of chases, reversals, switching possession of the McGuffin, clever escapes from dangerous situations, bad guys who just won't stop, and tension between Indy and his allies. One down-side is that the movie is nearly 3 hours long. That's a bit much, but the movie does keep things moving so it wasn't boring. And Harrison Ford was still able to pull off that Indiana Jones charm one more time. 

In addition to all the swashbuckling, derring-do, and such, Indiana Jones is given an emotional character arc in the movie, but that part was a little weak. It's set up and worked into his character choices in the film, but in the end it gets resolved a little too quickly, and not by a choice made by Jones. But we really come to these movies for the chases, the crawls through old ruins and tombs, and the excitement. So it doesn't bother me too much. Indy didn't really have much character growth in the first two films, either. 

There are only a few references to the older movies (and that includes Crystal Skull), but there were some nice cameos from some of our favorite characters. One was noticeably missing, though. Too bad. 

Now that Ford is retiring the character, I'd love to see a reboot of the series, but not a rehash of the old films. I'd rather they do what they do with James Bond. Cast a new young actor. Make more Indiana Jones films set in the 1930s. Hell, they don't need to stick to any sort of timeline. Just give us some good early 20th century cliffhanger serial style adventure films, and every few years recast Indy with a new, younger actor. Why not? Disney has the property now, you know they're going to try and milk it for all it's worth. Might as well dive feet first into what really works. 

Oh, and an interesting side note. Neither of my boys were interested in seeing it, so I went by myself. There were maybe around six or seven fellow geezers (yeah, I'm not quite that old, but...) in the theater. When I arrived, there were around 100 6th graders hanging around the lobby. I thought they were probably going to see Across the Spiderverse as a school trip (my younger son's school is right now on a science museum field trip, must be field trip day in Busan). But no, they were here to see this movie. And there were more than 100. The theater was packed with them, and I think there were 180 seats. While they were somewhat noisy and disruptive, they were having fun. And when the movie finished, a lot of them started to applaud.

TS&R Jade Bestiary & Treasury now available!

Hey hey, I've gone through the Bestiary & Treasury book I'm using for my current campaign, and fixed a lot of small errors, and added some additional explanations where I thought they might help others. Added more art, as well (all public domain). And now it's available on DriveThruRPG.

As with the TS&R Players Rules, this is available pay-what-you-want, so you can download it for free if you like, or throw me a few dollars if you can spare them and think it's worth it. 

The book has around 370 monsters, plus full treasure tables and magic item lists, and some handy reference material like sample dungeon, wilderness, and planar random encounter tables.

Plus Carousing -- Reinforcing XP for Treasure

I really shouldn't be doing this, but I made a hex map for an East Marches exploration game for TSR-East. I'm still not done with the rules (although getting close, since it's pretty much just BX/BECMI stuff beyond the classes/spells, and monsters).

In my current West Marches game, using my TSR rules, there's XP for monsters, XP for exploration, and XP for treasure earned.

In Chanbara, there's XP for gold donated to your liege. The idea, if you haven't checked out Chanbara (and you should, it's pretty cool!), is to reinforce the idea of duty to your lord/organization, which is something that I think makes Asian themed gaming a bit different than the wild-west style of normal D&D.

And I just had this epiphany. Give XP as I do in my normal West Marches game. Explore new hexes? XP. Find interesting locations? XP. Fight monsters and defeat them? XP. Bring back treasure? XP. But also, when the players spend that treasure in the home base on potions and scrolls, enchanting weapons or armor, hirelings and henchmen, magical research, or just blow it on carousing, they ALSO get XP. So getting the loot and spending it gets double of just hoarding it.

Benefit? For the players, they level up faster if they choose to do so. For me as DM, it's easier to tempt them with hints of treasures, and things like bandits/thieves/ninja that steal loot, or rust monsters that destroy treasure, become bigger worries.

Drawbacks? None that I can see. Characters who are hoarding their wealth are likely going to spend it eventually.

Money and Treasure in Chanbara

Historical Japanese coinage was a mess. There were different classes of bronze, silver and gold coins, not to mention imported Chinese coins, coins minted by the shogun, coins minted in provinces by individual daimyo... They had lots of types of coins. And the conversions between them were not set, so it was like a foreign currency exchange market in some ways. Add to that the fact that samurai salaries were paid in RICE, and it all becomes a big old non-game-able mess.

photo credit: my personal photo

So for Chanbara, after flirting with the idea of including lots of historical coin types (which can lead to more interesting treasure troves), I've gone back to a simple system of zeni (bronze nickles)*, mon (silver dollars)*, and ryo (gold $50 bills)* plus the occasional kan/oban trade bar (silver/gold $1000 bill)*, because these last ones are used a lot in Japanese period TV shows like Abarenbo Shogun or Mito Komon.

With player-side economics sorted out, I came up with a brilliant idea two nights ago for how to do the treasure tables for monster treasure hoards. Before I share the brilliance, though, I'll explain a bit about the process that led me to it.

Originally, I had devised a system of "treasure by HD" sort of like how 3E does it. If the creature has X hit dice, it will roll for treasure on this table. But that wasn't satisfying because some creatures of X hit dice might not be treasure keeping types. So I then broke it down into columns of incidental treasure/personal treasure/group treasure or something like that, with greater value for creatures of X hit dice that would be likely to keep treasure for their tribe, and a few left-overs of whatever last got eaten for those that don't keep treasure.

Then, I scrapped all of the above, and tried to make a treasure table like the ones in D&D. You know, the big chart of various treasure types, and percentages that each type of coin would be there, and value ranges if it's present. Let me tell you, trying to make one of those is either going to be a bunch of random, or else you need to really over-analyze it (Gygax was an insurance underwriter, wasn't he? I'm guessing he over-analyzed). For copyright reasons, I didn't want to just copy what Gygax had done, or use Labyrinth Lord's rejiggering of it. I wanted my own. But I was stuck, because I wanted it to be useful and not unbalanced, so I didn't want it to be a big old pile of random numbers.

Anyway, the idea hit me the other night, like I mentioned above. Instead of one big old chart, I needed two charts.

The first chart is one that shows ranges of treasure value (in mon, it's the standard coin for the system), and each creature in the book has a treasure type to roll on on this chart. There's only one number, because this just determines the value of the treasure. A lazy GM might just leave it at that.

Treasure Table
Type	Monetary Value	Magic/Unusual
A	1d10 x10 mon	5% 1
B	1d6 x100 mon	10% 1d2
C	1d4 x500 mon	25% 1d3
D	1d6 x1000 mon	15% 1d4
E	1d12 x1000 mon	20% 1d6
F	1d20 x1000 mon	25% 1d6
G	1d4 x10,000 mon	30% 1d8
H	1d6 x10,000 mon	40% 1d10
I	1d10 x10,000 mon	50% 1d12
J	nil	1d4
K	nil	2d6

But the second chart then has some random breakdowns by coin type, listing percentages of the total value that are of this type. With this, it's possible you might roll up a dragon's hoard worth tens of thousands of mon, yet all the coins are zeni. Or it could be all rolled up in a diamond-encrusted royal scepter. Or a mix. Of course, GMs can ignore the second chart and break down treasure as they like, but I think it can add a bit of fun to have a random roll like this. Sometimes, the oddball result can be the most fun.

Treasure Breakdown
d%	Zeni	Mon	Ryo	Other
1-10	100%	–	–	–
11-20	–	100%	–	–
21-30	–	–	100%	–
31-45	50%	50%	–	–
46-50	25%	60%		15%
51-70	10%	50%	30%	10%
71-85	–	20%	50%	30%
86-90	–	10%	40%	50%
91-95	–	–	50%	50%
96-00	–	–	–	100%

*vague impressions by yours truly as to how the coins in the game would be thought of as modern U.S. currency.

Of Coins and Coinage

Medieval Japanese currency has been on my mind lately.  For Flying Swordsmen, with its emphasis on crazy kung fu action over adventuring for treasure, the simple system of Dragon Fist, tael (gold) and fen (copper) was good enough.  So far, in Chanbara I've just switched the names to ryo and zeni.

But looking at one of my history books on Tokugawa Japan, there's a convoluted system that's full of flavor but would likely be a bookkeeping nightmare in play.

Early on, the Japanese just imported coinage from China (and possibly Korea).  Later, the shogunate began to mint coins.  But local daimyo were also able to mint their own coins for their provinces.  And there ended up being three separate currencies.

Gold coins were the ryo (mentioned above), the bu (1/4 a ryo), and the shu (1/4 a bu or 1/16 a ryo).  One ryo was enough to buy one koku of rice, about 5 bushels/180 liters, considered enough rice to feed one person for a year.  Samurai salaries were calculated in koku of rice.

Silver coins were the monme and the kan (1000 monme).  The official exchange rate with the ryo was 50 monme to the ryo, later raised to 60 monme to the ryo.

Bronze/Copper coins (zeni) were the mon and kan (1000 mon).  The official exchange rate with the ryo was 4000 mon.

--the above taken from Nakane, Chie and Oishi, Shinzaburo, Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic Antecedents of Modern Japan (1990), English translation edited by Conrad Totman.

Now, part of me thinks it would be fun to have all of these different coins floating around in Chanbara, but just getting the names straight might be tough enough for many players, let alone trying to remember all of the conversions.

So I think I'm going to just use some of the names as analogous to D&D coinage. 

*Platinum piece = oban (a large gold disk used for savings rather than as currency), only the oban will be worth about 20 ryo as with a silver kan, rather than the standard 5gp to 1pp.
Gold piece = ryo
Electrum piece = bu?  Not sure if I'll include this one
Silver piece = monme
Copper piece = zeni

That should make things easier.

Now to figure out how I want to do treasure tables, and revise prices on the equipment lists...

Mentzer Basic Cover to Cover: How to Prepare

The next several sections fall under the heading of "Playing in a Group" and give advice for finally going beyond the solo play tutorials at the beginning of the book.  This first part is on general advice for play, especially things to do and think about before the game starts.

The first bit is for beginners only.  Make sure everyone has read this book, and that whoever will be the DM has read the Dungeon Master's Rulebook.  Frank suggests sticking to the starter adventure instead of using a purchased module for the first few game sessions.  I did just that back in the day, and it's not a bad little dungeon (I've used it again and again in the intervening years).  But I know that Holmes Basic came with either B1 or B2 and Moldvay Basic came with B2, and I assume many DMs started out running one of them, or the caves under Zenopus' Tower (Holmes) or the Haunted Keep (Moldvay).  YMMV on this one, I guess.

Setting Up: make sure everyone has pencils, erasers, paper, dice, character sheets, snacks, etc.  Players are given permission to access the Player's Manual whenever they need it, but forbidden from looking at the Dungeon Master's Rulebook during play. 

Mapper and Caller: Mapping, for me at least, has always been fun.  It's advised that everyone learn how to do it, but over the years we've realized that certain types of adventures don't rely on careful mapping.  That's not an indictment, and it's good to have more than one player able to map some adventure site in case it does become necessary.  Recently, with our online games and Twiddla.com whiteboard, the DM just draws the map to save time. 

Caller is something I don't think I've ever used extensively.  When we were kids, there usually weren't enough of us to bother.  If we'd had groups of seven to twelve players, callers might be necessary.  Also, Frank tells us that the caller is just a reporter, giving the final decision to the DM - NOT the final judge who makes the decision.  Whenever I've heard of people using a caller, it's usually listed as the caller's role to make the final decision.  If you can trust the caller, I suppose it's more efficient that way, but that wasn't the original intention.  The caller is there as the safety filter to keep players from doing stupid things like wandering off on their own or pressing the obviously dangerous button just by calling it out to the DM.  Unless the caller says you will do it, it doesn't happen.  So I guess it's a good idea to keep that player who wants to randomly screw up everything from being the caller.

First Steps to Take: Again, I am happy to see how succinct Frank can be at explaining game concepts.  My long, rambling Tackling the Megadungeon post series was designed to get players to consider some of these things, which Frank lays out quite nicely.  I'll just copy/paste this here (and hope the OCR of the PDF doesn't lead to any weirdness):

When all the players are together, with characters ready, each player should take a moment to think about the adventure to come. Some of these things apply to players, and some apply to the characters.

• Who is your character, and who are the other characters? Have you adventured with them before, or not? Are any of them friends - or enemies? Should you keep an eye on any one character? Who can you trust completely?
• Why are you going? Are the characters just out to explore, or is someone looking for a specific item? Are you out to rescue a prisoner, destroy a famous monster, or some other goal? Games are usually more fun if a specific goal is kept in mind; if nobody is sure just what they want to do, you can waste a lot of time doing nothing.
• Where are you going? Nearby caves, or a castle, or some other dungeon? Have you bought the equipment you need to explore?
• When are you going? Do you plan to explore a dungeon at night, when more dangerous creatures could be around? Players: decide when the game will end; it’s very easy to play longer than you intended. Set a time for quitting, and stick to it! Remember to leave some time for dividing the treasure found.
• What are you going to do? Look for big monsters or small ones? Will you run from danger, or face it? What can your party do, considering the abilities and special items available amongst the characters? (Player's Manual p. 53)

Treasure: decide on how to divide up the loot before the adventure starts, a suggested method is provided below.

Marching Order: general common sense advice - keep Fighter-types up front, with a rear guard as well, and Thieves and Magic-users in the middle where they are protected.  Dwarves and Halflings should take the front rank so others may fire missiles or spells over them.

Tactics of Play: Some general play advice - let the combat types handle the combats, stick to marching order when moving, specialists should move forward to deal with special problems then get back in position, let the high Charisma PCs negotiate, and always have someone keeping watch for monsters when others are searching for traps, treasure or secret doors. 

Ending the Adventure: Some good advice given subtly here.  Of course as players you should stick to your ending time for the session even if things are going well, but also be prepared to retreat and end the session when prudent (Fighters are wounded, spellcasters are out or nearly out of spells, etc.).  Be sure to leave some time at the end for calculating XP and divvying up treasure, and resupply NOW (assuming the party heads back to a town) so you don't forget something important next session.  I know I've fallen into that trap often enough, especially with late night finishes.

Dividing Treasure: I don't think I've ever played in a group where this system was actually used.  In my experience, magic items are divided as need/want dictates, with random rolls for contested items, even if it's not "fair."  Then all the money is just divided evenly among the PCs.

The system listed here is as follows: if everyone gets a permanent magic item, divide money evenly between all characters regardless of other magic items acquired. 

If some get permanent items while others get temporary items, those with permanent items get a 1/2 share.

If some get permanent items, some get temporary items and some get nothing, then those with permanent items get no treasure, those with temporary items get 1/2 share, and those with no magic items get a full share.

It would be interesting to try some time.  Of course, I've always wondered - should a powerful wand or staff count as a temporary item due to its charges?  If so, you could walk away with a Staff of Wizardry and a full share of treasure while your companion gets a dagger +1 and a half share.  Obviously, common sense should come into play along with the general system presented here.

Fortune and glory, kid (March Madness Day 15)

15 What pseudo or alternate history RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

Can't remember ever playing one. I love Indiana Jones/Alan Quatermain style treasure hunter adventure stories and movies. There are several games that scratch that itch like the Indiana Jones RPG, Hollow Earth Expeditions, etc., I've just never had the good fortune to play one.  Do those count as alternate history? 

A time travel RPG like a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure RPG, if one were to exist, could also be fun.

That's the best I've got for this question.  More actual meaty posts to follow the next couple days!

o-bake, yokai, kaibutsu, yurei

Working on the monster chapter of Chanbara right now, and the treasure table.  At the moment, I've taken the "human" monsters out to save space, but since my new page count goal is 96 pages, I think I might throw them back in.  That way, there will be "official" (I really detest the plea to "official"ness in RPGs) stats for yakuza, yojinbo and oniwabanshu bodyguards, ashigaru, daimyo, peasant/artisan/merchant/eta, wandering duelist ronin, and the like.

I need to work up hirelings/specialists/mercenaries pay charts like in the Expert Set now that I think about it. 

For the treasure table, I went a bit less abstract than D&D's alphabetical system.  Sorta similar to 3E/4E (please don't shudder yet), I've divided treasure categories by hit dice.  However, I've subdivided each hit die band into four: incidental, low, average, high.  And monsters don't have a listed treasure subdivision in their stat block.  When placing monsters, GMs will need to decide monster by monster if they should have treasure or not, and how much.

In other news, I reduced the number of special abilities all classes receive.  Before, every class had three or five unique (or nearly so) class abilities, plus access to Maneuvers, Tricks and/or Spells.  By 10th level, human classes had 21 Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells plus 5 class abilities, and Yokai had 22 Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells and 3 class abilities.

Class abilities are unchanged, but total Maneuvers/Tricks/Spells has been reduced to 15/16 at 10th level.  Revised Flying Swordsmen will follow suit.

The Dragon Sandbox: Plotting

Damn, now I've thrown my mind out of samurai/ninja gear, and into my "dragon sandbox" idea.

Plotted out what I think I'd need to do to get it off the ground.

1. Use my old Maritime Campaign maps.  Here's the Maritime Campaign that barely got off the ground a few years back.

2. Name those islands and peninsulas!  At least name ones where lairs will be placed, and ports will be located.

3. Place dragon, giant, and other large monster lairs.  At least a dozen to start, maybe more.  Maps of lairs (some caves, some ruined castles or cities, some in the wilderness, etc.), denizens (the big monster & it's treasure, plus any guardian creatures/traps, and lesser beasts that dwell in conjunction with or in the shadow of the big attraction).

4. Have a list of what sorts of information/help could be found at ports, with some info specific to each port location (sages, libraries, wizards, navigators, heroes retired and active, etc.)

5. Have at least 5 "treasure maps" of varying levels of accuracy for the players to discover (and they should likely start with at least one already).

6. Make sure each lair's treasure hoard contains some Keystone Treasures (famous named items, whether gems/jewelry like Hope Diamonds, or famous magic items like in my Unique Magic Items downloads over there on the sidebar).  For hoards that are only coins, have a history of how they got there (lost pirate treasure, cultists sacrificing to the beast, ransoms paid, or whatever).

7. Make a big ol' list of rumors of all of the above.  Make sure the players start with a bunch of rumors, not just one or two (one of the problems last time was that I still hadn't developed much, so I didn't have many rumors for the players).

8. Have a few stock ruined cities, mysterious temples, etc. that could be thrown onto unstocked islands, which would provide some clues to other lairs/important locations if they are explored.

Blending Alignment and Treasure Hunting

Building off of my last post, and Jaap de Goede's comment on it, I started thinking back to my earlier breakdown of Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic as the conflict between civilization and the forces that would destroy it.

Hunting for treasure is not in and of itself anti-heroic. 

XP for treasure is a simple way to include "story" awards in D&D.  Too much treasure kicking around the campaign can be a problem for certain styles of game.

Alignment can be problematic, but the simpler version of Classic D&D works for me.

Taking all of the above together, let's combine my ideas on alignment with the Dave Arneson houserule that you only gain XP for 'frittering away treasure on hookers and blow.'

• Lawful characters, being concerned with advancing Civilization, only gain XP for donating their treasure to some agent of Order and Civilization.  This could be their liege lord, the Thieves' Guild, a temple or church, the Tower of Magery, a museum, local charities, and the like.
• Neutral characters, being concerned with their own interests first, only gain XP for wasting their treasure on some hobby, or their own pleasure (the standard Arneson rule, in other words).
• Chaotic characters, being concerned with halting and reversing Civilization, only gain XP for destroying or hiding treasure in some way.  And it has to be gone in a way that it's not likely to come back soon.  Sinking a treasure ship before raiding the hold, dumping coins down bottomless pits, crushing gems to powder, melting down jewelry, using alchemy to turn gold into lead, or feeding it to a powerful dragon all count.  Simply burying it in the woods pirate style to dig up later doesn't.

Heroes Need Not Apply? I don't think so

So I'm reading through my blog list this morning and of course there's a lot of reaction to the Dungeon Crawl Classics beta that's been released for free.  I still haven't taken a look at it.  I've been too busy this week.  Today's our anniversary, so I know I won't get around to it tonight.

Just wanted to throw up a quick reaction to some of the blogs discussing the non-heroic focus of DCC (and LotFP:WFR). 

Making treasure the standard of progress (gold for XP being much greater than monster XP, and no 'story' or 'skill' rewards until 2E) doesn't invalidate heroic play.  It's fairly easy to incorporate the treasure hunt motif with a heroic vein.  That's the whole point of one of the most popular movie series ever (yeah, the 4th one sucked, we'll ignore that for now).

Why Use a Gold Standard?

There have been a few posts lately where people talk about using silver standards in their games rather than the default gold standard for coinage/prices.  I'm too lazy to look them up right now (too many other links below).  They're not rare, hard to find things, though, so I'm sure most of my readers have at least come across one or two before in the past.

Now, first off, there's nothing wrong with doing this in my opinion.  You just switch a few notations, and decide which items on the equipment list will still be priced as-is in gold (usually armor, mounts, ships, castle construction costs), and everything else gets the same number but read as silver, rather than gold. 

It's more 'historical' because most historical coinage was silver, not gold (although most historical transactions were barter/trade/credit affairs, from what I understand--this is all beside the point, however). 

So what are some reasons to stick with the game's default assumption of a gold standard currency?

I've been thinking about this from two lenses.  One is the recent posts by ckutalik and Trollsmyth about here and here.  They discuss the inherent anachronism of the 'standard D&D setting.'  The game is set up to purposely distort the historical influences, as it seems.

Second is the old idea of trying to figure out interesting setting details from oddities or curiosities found within the game text, inspired by this old post on The Forge by Rich Forest (Superhero Necromancer) and Ben Lehman, which I've blogged about before. 

So, what does the way D&D is written, with gold coins being the default currency, tell us?  What other game assumptions influence this?

First off, the basic premise of the game is that there are monsters living in the wilderness or in dungeons, and those monsters have amassed treasure.  This is an influence that comes from old Norse myths and legends, where kings would be buried with treasure hoards*, and then legends would spring up of monsters protecting these hoards.  See the dragon episode of Beowulf, or the Volsung Saga/Nibelungenlied for two classic examples of this.  Tolkien popularized this in The Hobbit (not so much in Lord of the Rings).

How the monsters get the treasure in D&D is not explained, though.

Next, adventurers go out to take that treasure from the monsters.  This is an influence of the Pulps, primarily.  Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser adventure because it's in their blood to do so, but their objectives are usually treasure.  Again, The Hobbit also gives us a good reference for this aspect of the game.

Now, the final assumption of the rules is that because monsters have all this gold, and adventurers are out there killing monsters and taking that gold, that gold is the standard coin of most realms.  Gold flows into civilized areas not from mining operations, but from adventurers looting it from the monsters (who aren't given any source for the gold, leaving it for each group to make up as they like).

And so we have a gold standard in D&D.  And while it isn't realistic in a historical Earth sense, it does make sense within the premise of the game.

So what insights can be drawn from this? 

First, gold is probably much more common in a D&D world than it is in the real world.  There's more gold out there, so it's not as much of a stretch to see gold as the default coin metal.  Or if it's not more common of a metal geologically, it's at least easier to get at, because of all the subterranean races carving out dungeons and lairs and cities beneath the surface of the world.

Second, do rulers bother to mint their own coins?  With the massive influx of old specie coming up from the dungeons, why bother with making their own?  I'd guess that yes, they do still have mints, where they melt down old coins and re-stamp them.  This would be done for the same reasons it's done in the real world--to assure people using the coins that they are of the value the government says they are, and to prevent counterfeiting.  There's likely a lot less gold mining going on, though.  Why take all the effort to mine or pan for gold 49er style, when you could just send a team of experts to kill a basilisk instead?

Third, could gold have once been plentiful in the world, but is now disappearing?  Creatures like the rarely used aurumvorax, portable hole+bag of holding disasters, wizards building planar strongholds...there are likely a lot of ways that coins and gems and stuff are disappearing from the world.  Could that make gold more valuable again?  If you want a good verisimilitudinous fantasy reason for a silver standard, why not consider something like this?  Adventurers go for the gold because everyone else is running out? 

In conclusion, I'd argue that there's nothing wrong with using the game's assumed gold standard in your game.  If you want to switch to a silver standard, that's fine, but historical precedent is not necessarily relevant to some of the game's base assumptions, while the gold standard it presents does seem to have a logical basis within the game world.

* Other cultures have buried kings or other important people with grave goods/treasure, but I've come across few legends of monsters then coming to claim that loot as their own, and heroes then coming to slay the monsters in other mythologies.

Magic Items in Flying Sworsmen RPG

So I've had Flying Swordsmen RPG on the mind again lately.  Something in my subconscious is dreading going through my screenplay to tighten up the descriptions and dialogue one more time, I think.  I'm looking for other things to keep my mind occupied.

Anyway, what I considered is that magic basically breaks down into two main groups in a D&D type game: consumables and permanents.  D&D divides things by function and form more than by use, but since I won't be including massive random tables or long lists of items, I'll focus more on the big division.

Consumables will be broken into two sub-groups.  True consumables (things that must be ingested to activate) will include the standard potions/elixirs, but also magical fruits (lots of these in Chinese mythology), wines, and powders and pills based on traditional Oriental medicine.

Second are use activated one-shot items, often in some written form.  Scrolls, sutras, clay tablets, joss sticks, incense, drawings/paintings, oils.  When used, they become non-magical or disappear.

The permanent group again gets two sub-groups.  Weapons/Armor will be pretty much what we know and love from D&D.  Basic magic arms get a +# to hit/damage or AC (up to +3).  Some special ones get extra abilities x times per day.  No intelligent weapons.  This part would have the only random chart in the section, so a GM could randomly roll how powerful one of these items is on a d12:
1-4: +1
5-7: +1, ability
8-10: +2
11: +2, ability
12: +3

And then there's everything else.  These could be magical jewelry/gems, household/craftsman/student/artist tools, music instruments, clothing, containers, furniture, animal parts, game pieces, vehicles, flags/banners, etc.  These items may work all the time, once per Turn (encounter powers to use the new-fangled term), or x times per day, but they're never exhausted.

What's been left out?  Well, I'm basically not including wands/staves/rods as they primarily exist in D&D.  If a GM were to create them, they'd follow the 'miscellaneous' magic item group's rules, and instead of having expendable charges, would be x per day or once per Turn items. 

I'll follow the original Dragon Fist's lead in just giving an overview of the types listed above, some examples and suggestions for creating new ones, and done.

They should have called it the "Dwarven Cloak"

I've been reading Otto Jiricek's Northern Hero Legends and found something interesting.

Tolkien took the idea of the Eldar's cloaks making the wearer invisible (or nearly so) from Germanic legends.  But in the original German legends, it's only Dwarves who wear them. 

Of course, for the Norse and Germans, there was not much distinction between a dwarf and an elf, but anyway, originally those magical invisibility cloaks belonged to dwarves.

I went ahead and did it.

So, I'm about to start keying some locations on the second level of the Megadungeon.  As with the first level, I'll mostly be starting with some special locations, and the locations of the 'keystone treasures.'  Then I'll fill out the rest of the rooms with a short bit of room description, plus any monsters, traps, other specials, or treasure.

Anyway, you know how there are those who put down the whole idea of the Megadungeon as 'orc and pie' silliness?

Well, I had to do it.  There's a 10'x10' room on the first level, which contains an orc.  And it's got a pie.* 

I had a disagreement with a fellow about a gooseberry pie.

Why?  Well, as old Jack Burton always says, "What the Hell."

Now, for a JOESKY:

Magical Pie
These pies are always hot and delicious when first discovered.  Each pie mimics the effects of a certain type of potion if eaten while still hot (pies cool within 2d4 Turns of being discovered).  One pie may be sliced into at most 8 pieces.  Eating multiple pieces of pie will not have extra effects, except in the case of a healing pie.

Different pies should have their effects keyed to their flavor (for example, if a lemon meringue pie is a Pie of Strength, all future lemon meringue pies should also be Pies of Strength).

*My Megadungeon orc's pie is a gooseberry pie, but it's non-magical.

Mutants, gadgets, and dreams

In my dream last night, I was re-writing D&D magic item tables to be Gamma World technology items. 

I was also wondering why in Gamma World 4th edition (the original from TSR), the four character classes were: Enforcer, Scout, Esper and Examiner.  If they'd used Explorer instead of Scout, it would have been better.

Anyway, I was thinking it's time to finally download Mutant Future and give it a look.  Don't know why I haven't yet...

Too much treasure?

I was thinking yesterday about the spread of treasure in my megadungeon.

What I've been doing is just rolling on the Moldvay/Mentzer random dungeon room contents (roll d6 twice, first is room contents 1-2 empty, 3 trap, 4-5 monster, 6 special; the second is treasure in the room or not).  I'd then switch some things around for certain rooms or areas I know I want to have a monster, trap, or special, or occasionally adjusting for density (if, for example, there are too many specials in a cluster).

Anyway, what I've been doing, if the room has a monster and treasure, is to roll on the creature's lair treasure type.  This results in an awful lot of treasure.  Just on the upper works (level 0, as it were), a lucky and clever party of 4-5 1st level characters could reach 3rd level before they even venture down into the dungeon proper.

I like that, as it allows for PC attrition.  Some characters will die early, and get not treasure.  Others will survive a session or two, gain some XP, then die.  The high amount of treasure allows for this.  It also allows for a party to not feel the need to "clear" the dungeon level like you would in a video game like Diablo.  You can leave some white space on the map if you choose.

But one house rule I've taken to using recently is that XP totals are earned by the PLAYER, and carry over to their next PC.  With my very infrequent gaming schedule, it would take forever to have characters level up otherwise.

So I was wondering if I've been doing the tables wrong.

Obviously, the empty and trap rooms just get treasure from the 'Unguarded Treasure' table.  But should rooms with monsters and treasure listed from the random roll also use this (usually) lower value treasure?  Should the 'Lair' Treasure Types only be for purposely placed monster lairs within the dungeon?

It would really lower the amount of gold there is available on each level.

I'm not going to change the way I've been doing it, but it's food for thought.  Just wondering though, how do the rest of you use the second roll on that table for treasure in a room?

Have your cake and eat it too?

Just a quick thought.  Lots of old school folks (and maybe some new schoolers too?) like the idea of GP=XP, as it spurs exploration and treasure hunting.  Lots of old school folks dislike the idea that adventurers end up with literally tons and tons of gold by the time they hit name level (in my experience, the new schoolers have long since converted all that cash to magic items as they go).

So why not keep the standard XP for treasure brought successfully out of the dungeon, AND use the Arneson carousing rules, where you get XP for any monies wasted in drinking and wenching, or donated to a worthy cause, etc.? 

It provides the players a bit more control over how fast they level up, gets rid of excess gold from the game, and speeds up advancement for groups that only meet every so often, as many of us on adult schedules do.

Tackling the Megadungeon: Acquisition

Continued from here.

Lord Gusorio proceeded to show off some of his personal treasures to his small audience of would-be adventurers.  A large ruby ring, emerald-studded bracelet, an ebony locket on a silver chain, and of course his intricately carved wooden leg - made of rare teak, it was set with a line of pearls down the front and the etchings on it showed scenes from the baron's life as an adventurer.
"Of course you know the basics of what to do when you secure a treasure hoard.  Take the gems and jewelry, plus anything that might be magical first.  Then fill up with coins from most valuable down to least.  You need to make sure that you don't get overloaded, though.  All that treasure is heavy, and slows you down.
"Once, we managed to wipe out a nest of minotaurs on the fifth level, and they had two huge chests of treasure.  We had hired several men-at-arms, but even with their help one chest was too large to move.  So we had to get creative..."

The point of a dungeon exploration is getting the treasure.  That's where most of your experience points come from, assuming you're playing OD&D, Classic D&D, or 1E AD&D, or keeping the 1gp=1XP rule in some other edition.  By the book, coins are given an unnatural encumbrance value of 1 coin being equal to 1/10 of a pound.  Very few real world coins were ever so large.  But that's part of the logistical/resource management challenge of a megadungeon game.  It's not supposed to be easy to get all that loot to the surface.

So what is a smart party to do?  Carry out what you can the first time you defeat a monster or trap that guards some treasure, of course.  But if you can, you'll want to come back for the rest as soon as possible.  If you don't, wandering monsters, other NPCs, or just the general other-worldliness of the megadungeon will mean it all disappears.

That's why it's important, especially for low level parties, to equip hirelings and retainers with backpacks and bags.  The more people in the party, the more treasure that can be recovered.  Some groups also may elect to have one or two characters and some men-at-arms remain in the dungeon to guard the treasure while the rest of the party carries out what they can.  It's risky to split a party, and to leave some of the members below for an extended time (not to mention bad for retainer morale), but if the hoard is extremely large, then there are times when a group may decide it's worth it.

As groups gain more power, magic of course will come to the rescue.  Spells like Floating Disk increase carrying capacity.  Invisibility and illusion spells can hide a treasure in plain sight.  Bags of holding allow for large amounts of loot to be carried out easily.  Teleport can allow for quick exit and return (if the area of the treasure is studied enough beforehand to minimize the risk of error...). 

Of course, other ways to remove treasure can be to get creative.  Bring mules or carts/wheelbarrows into the dungeon, if possible.  Charm a big strong monster and get it to carry stuff for you.  Secure a small section of the dungeon and leapfrog the treasure from room to room with a 'bucket brigade' of hirelings, sealing it off with a Wizard Locked door when the party needs to return to the surface so it will still be there when you return, and it will be that much closer to the exit.

The key thing to remember on such expeditions into the dungeon is that speed is necessary to get to the treasure (assuming it's one that's already been secured through combat or disabling of a trap and you're returning for more), but the return will be slow.  It's usually best to have all the manpower possible, both to carry out more, and to better guard it until you get it home.

Continued here.

Endless Quest #16: The Dragon's Ransom

"You have been honored by being chosen treasure seeker to raise the ransom that must be paid to the Golden Dragon who stands guard over the Land of Oon.  But first you must face danger from fierce orcs, trolls, hobgoblins, and...what else?"  --from the back cover

The Dragon's Ransom, by Laura French, is not one of the best Endless Quest books, but it's close to the top.  Something about it really appeals to me, so much so that I've used the basic premise of the book in my own Silverwood Campaign.  A dragon guards the land, and while it protects the people, it demands tribute every month.  So the local authorities sanction adventuring parties to bring back loot to give to the dragon.

In this book, your character is a 13 year old Cleric named Leondal.  You're on your first adventure.  You can cast Detect Evil, Command, Remove Fear, and Cure Light Wounds.  Of course, as a kid, reading this before I'd seen the AD&D rules where Clerics get spells at first level and bonus spells for high wisdom, I thought young Leondal must have been at least 4th level--but how could this be his first adventure?  Anyway, don't worry too much about translating the game mechanics to the story.  They don't really follow so well.  Both spellcasters can pretty much use any spells at will in the book, but it doesn't hurt the narrative at all.

As Leondal, the very first choice you're given is to set out on your own, or to take along three companions who equal you in age: Drawg the Fighter, Pantel the Thief, and Kyrel the Magic-User.  Drawg is big and strong, but dumb.  Kyrel is small and weak, but can use Burning Hands and Comprehend Languages at will.  Pantel is a skilled Thief, but is reckless and thrill-seeking.  The first test of your wisdom--do you need an adventuring party or not?

Well, let's just say that if you don't, you get a surprise from a nasty beastie, or else you go back and take them along after all.  The big down-side to the book, might as well get it out of the way now, is that there are lots of choices that are non-choices in this book.  You make a choice, and it sends you back to make the other one, or both paths then end with a choice that is identical.  This happens quite a lot in this book.  Where some EQ books manage to make the adventure feel sandboxy by allowing you to explore and go back, The Dragon's Ransom feels much more railroady, at least for the first half.

On the plus side, though, this is one of the few EQ books I've encountered where you have a proper adventuring party, with all four of the iconic character classes.  And while you're just a 13 year old kid and so are your sidekicks, all of you are also competent adventurers.  Another plus is that while the first half of the book is quite linear, there are a lot of interesting encounters, including a side-trek to an orc lair where you can either complete your mission, die trying, or decide to give up and continue on to the hobgoblin lair that is your goal.

And the hobgoblin lair (the second half of the book) is pretty interesting.  They're busy mining the hillside with their carnivorous ape pets, and the Pech slaves they captured when they took over the mine.  This means they've got a lot of treasure, and there are quite a few interesting ways to get that treasure once you're in the lair.  There are also some times you bug out with little to no treasure, and a few where you meet your end. 

All in all, I really like this book because of the fact that you've got a full adventuring party, your goal is treasure hunting (rather than taking down some BBEG or acquiring some macguffin item), and there are a lot of various D&D monsters to encounter.  All in all, it's a very D&D kind of book, even if the spellcasters don't follow the Vancian memorize and forget system of the game.

The art work is good.  You've got a decent cover by Clyde Caldwell (although it depicts a scene that isn't in the book).  The interior art, by Doug Chaffee, is nicely done.  It's detailed, evocative, and really shows the personalities of the four adventurers and their opponents.

Overall, this isn't one of the 'rock stars' of the EQ series, but it's a good solid entry and I really enjoyed it as a kid, and still found it interesting re-reading it as an adult.

Protagonist:  A competent but untested young Cleric on his first mission.
Sidekicks:  A dumb but strong Fighter, timid but powerful Magic-User, and a reckless but skilled Thief
Endings: A mixed bag.  Lots of good endings with little fanfare, quite a few neutral endings, and in the first half especially plenty of bad endings.
Art: Good.  Decent, if not quite relevant Caldwell cover, nice interiors by Chaffee.
Overall: Very Good