Got email…phew
Submitted name and password and look forward to seeing you guys tonight.
Okay. I’ve gone through Phnord’s site. Help me see if I understand.
Character attributes all start at 50 points each, out of a possible 100; modified by race. Each player then gets to take points from various categories and add them to others so that the total remains the same. So for example, if I want to be a wizard, I can take thirty points from my strength and twenty points from my constitution, adding both those to intelligence. This will give me a character with intelligence of 100, but who is überweak and dangerously sickly. This may not be a wise choice, but it is my choice.
With each attribute is associated a set of skills. Examples are: Dexterity is associated with ranged weapons (e.g. bow); constitution is associated with climbing; strength is associated with ranged combat; intelligence is associated with first aid.
For these items one may be unskilled, level 0, or skilled, levels 1 and up. An unskilled character who attempts a skill item will have the appropriate attribute halved for the purposes of the die roll. If an unskilled character attempts first aid, the intelligence will be halved, and if it is a simple injury, no penalties are taken and the person adds the die roll to that number. If the person is skilled, you take the intelligence plus the skill level and add the die roll to that number. Various modifiers will be involved.
I’m unclear on the following:
[ul][li]What am I trying to roll over?[/li][li]Shooting a bow is a ranged weapon and ranged combat. Therefore, for the attribute I will average strength and dexterity to get my base attribute.[/li][li]There are two ways to go up in a skill level: First is buying a skill level with experience points, this can be done at any time; the second is getting training, this is done by arranging for a more skilled individual to teach me between game play sessions.[/ul][/li]
There are character classes—career paths so to speak. With each class is associated a set of basic skills. Advancement in the character class adds to these skills categorically, so that one doesn’t have to work at them individually. So a fighter could add to all his basic attributes by moving up a level. However, a fighter can add to his marathon skills on the side by purchasing them with experience points or securing training.
Things I still don’t get
- When rolling for a skill, what am I rolling against? Going by this, my chances are summed up as:
Base Attribute
+Skill Level
+Other Bonuses
+Die Roll
-Difficulty Modifier
=Result
But when the fighter attempts a lightining bolt, it works out as:
17.5 (Intelligence attribute, halved)
+0 (NO training)
+0 (NO bonuses)
-30 (Three Levels Beyond Training)
=-12.5% probability of success!
And he must, in effect, roll under -12.5. (The 5% chance of guaranteed success notwithstanding.)
In the first a die roll is added between “other bonuses” and “difficulty modifier”, and in the second it isn’t. I don’t understand.
- How does combat work? Is this correct:
Bob wants to stab me with his dagger. His strength is 80 and his skill level is 2, no modifiers, so he has 82% chance of success. But I am wearing field plate, which has a defensive value of 28, so his chances drop to 54% and he must roll under that to get me. More accurately, he must roll under 100-54=46 to get me (based on wizard’s failure from above linked page).
Does my dexterity modify his chances? Is it only if I apply my dodging skill, and dodging is the only thing I can do in that round? (So an unarmored magic user is best off getting good at dodging since he can’t fight anyway. He shoots his magic wad, and spends the rest of the melee trying to not get hit. A fighter takes his chances getting hit, thus doesn’t dodge, but he also gets to hit back. Right?)
- How does encumberance and movement work? Suppose I want field plate armor. How do I determine the extent to which it encumbers me?
Things I want to ask
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Do we start out at level zero in our class and completely unskilled in every way?
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How much money do we start with?
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What else am I going to want to know before making character decisions, so that I don’t end up saying, “God! Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Assume that I am familiar w/ the original AD&D.
Since I shot my wad vis-à-vis the sort of character I’d like to play, and since the race & (perhaps) secondary class don’t exist, I’d thought I’d float my argument for how to create them.
First: Half-orcs. I like 'em. They’re tough underground types, genetically speaking, and this would be reflected. While Dwarves are tough because they mine all day, orcs are tougher because not only do they mine all day, but relatively weak are weeded out by a society based on violence and intimidation. Hence, they gain +10 points in strenght and constitution. Since orc children survive not only by beating up their cohorts, but also dodging, hiding from, and sneaking around the adults, they enjoy a 5 point bonus in dexterity.
Of course, it is plain to everybody that cooperation would be a little helpful. Minus ten for wisdom. They’re also butt-ugly and, due to being treated as the half-orcish step-child, not so hot in the charisma department. Minus ten for that as well.
This nets a +5 overall modification bonus enjoyed by the other non-human races. For the upper limits, I’d say 85 in strenght and constituion, and 80 in dexterity. Wisdom and charisma would be low, say 65 & 65.
I’d also give them the same infrared vision enjoyed by half-elves.
Second: Assassins. I like 'em. The original AD&D had them portrayed as the thief’s dark reflection. I think this is an error. Let me discuss.
The assassin isn’t one to sneak in the dark and move like a shadow. Nor is he one to deliver a pin-point death blow with surgical precision. An assassin, first and foremost, must stalk his target. This is different from sneaking. Ever wonder how large cats can get so close to their prey before springing, or how an aligator can get within a few feet of a drinking buffalo before striking? Stalking is approaching the prey in plain sight, without the prey realizing that it is in danger.
Then the assassin must strike. This is done by the application of massive violence with complete suprise. Not shooting a blow dart from a shadow. The assassin must approach the mayor on a public street in daylight and, when say ten or so feet away, lunge and strike, completely suprising both the mayor and his body guard. It may be with a cleverly hidden dagger, or it may be a fast draw of a long sword that removes the mayor’s head at the end of the sword’s arc.
The assassin needs to be able to move in cities, towns, and army encampments with ease and to mix in a crowd without drawing suspicion. After striking, he needs to be able to disappear into the crowd or fight his way out. He has to be able to go bezerk and cut his way through a team of enraged body guards to effect his escape.
I think that the assassin is the ranger’s dark reflection. With three modifications. A ranger can pick his fights; but, the assassin picks his targets and so he should be tougher in a fight. The assassin may need to gain entry and observe, so I think that observation, lock pick, and remove traps should be the same as for the theif. Since he might have to strike at the public bath or other places where one goes unarmed, he should have, for lack of a better word, ninjitsu. That is, he might attempt ninjitsu and if the roll is successful, then he rolls for damage. The table might be:
1-30 = strained major joint/slightly stunning blow/take down—victim is encumbered by 20%
31-55 = broken minor joint, e.g. finger, wrist, jaw/stunning blow/throw—victim is encumbered by 40%
56-75 = broken major joint, e.g. elbow/severly stunning blow/heavy throw—encumberance of 70%
76-87 = broken knee/strike to eyes or throat/head slammed on ground—encumberance of 90%
88-96 = victim unconcious or in shock—100% encumberance
97-100 = lethal blow
The table would be modified by skill level. It may seem heavy handed, but even if the assassin rolls a 96 and knocks out the victim, if the assassin only gets one shot, then the victim lives.
Basic skills combat:
Unarmed.
Bow or crossbow. (Choose 1)
One other weapon.
Ninjitsu.
Basic skills non-combat:
Blend into crowd.
Navigate populated area.
Stalk prey.
Observation.
Urban tracking. (Urban being defined loosely.)
Urban scavaging. (Ditto.)
First aid.
Sprint or marathon.
Climbing.
Wrestle.
Special skills:
Assassin’s strike at level 2. (That’s the part where he pounces with suprise from plain sight.)
Door lock pick and detect/remove man traps at thief level. He can’t open a safe or avoid a poison needle in a locked chest. But he can open doors and avoid pitfalls.
Ingested poisons at level 5.
Injected poisons at level 7.
Contact poisons at level 10.
Hit points are the same as for a fighter.
I hope this fair. He is pretty constrained in terms of weapons, and he lacks a lot of survival skills that would be handy out side of populated settings. He can be useful for going into a village and coming out with some food and flint & tinder (urban scavaging). He has good hit points, but that seems a fair trade for lack of weapons, lack of dodging, lack of hunting, lack of languages, etc.
The ninjitsu would probably be the most controversial. He can’t dodge and he can’t cast spells that may protect him. And terrible unarmed violence seems to be a BFOQ for any assassin.
What’ja think?
pouts I would love to join, if I could count on high speed internet. But with the times, I’ll be at home on a ridiculously slow modem (or some job where I can’t goof off). I wish something better was availiable at home. 
If it’s okay with Phnord, I’ll take a shot at answering some of js_africanus’s mechanics questions, based on the way we’ve been playing, so that the DM doesn’t have to.
Racial stat maximums are on the race page, so they vary, but so far none of them reach 100.
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For a roll to count as a success, the total outcome has to be greater or equal to 100 (barring the instant success of a really high roll or the instant failure of a really low roll). The fighter casting spells in the example must roll a 112.5 or above, which is why it’s so surprising when he rolls a natural 98 and does it anyway.
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For your example with Bob, Bob has a 54% chance to hit you. That means he needs to roll 46 or above on the hundred-sider for the strike to succeed.
So far we haven’t been using dodging skills, so I’m not sure how it would work. I’ll leave that up to Phnord because it looks like you’d have to use your dodge during your turn instead of another action if you wanted any extra modifiers applied against enemy attacks.
Exp is calculated as (successful total - 100). If Bob rolled a 65, his total would be 119 and he’d gain 19 points for that action. If your total is exactly 100, you succeed but don’t get any experience.
You start out at level 1, with all your associated skills at level 1.
Money is based off a die roll during character creation, before purchasing equipment. Try asking for “my character just won the lottery and wants to tour the world with his newfound riches” and let me know how that works. 
You’re not trying to get me negative brownie points, are you? 
Wow, js, you’ve certainly given this a lot of thought! I can tell you’ve studied my ‘rules’ quite closely, too… even picked up on the +5 bonus for non-human characters! Good work!
Awright… let’s go thru your post here and take a look.
You’re more or less right about the initial attributes starting at fifty thing, there are limits (can’t get 100s) but otherwise correct.
Perhaps a typo, I suspect you meant to say that strength is associated with Melee (non-ranged) combat… otherwise, yep, that’s correct too.
Hmm… skip the rolling thing for a moment here…
Re: training, both of those are the same thing. Finding someone to train you, and then spending experience points (and probably money) to actually earn that training.
Your character starts with 10,000 exp to spend however (s)he likes. Usually this has gone to purchase the first few levels in the character’s class, with the remainder either saved or used on individual skills.
Those few magic-weilding characters also get a ‘first spell’ if applicable.
And yes, individual skills can be improved, while raising your class-level increases multiple skills at once.
So, with that, your character will start out ‘weak but not TOO weak’, giving lots of room for advancement and at least some skills to earn EXP with.
You also start with between $10 and $1000, determined by dieroll, so you can buy some armor and a weapon and the like.
Encumbrance is something of a touchy issue right now, can’t seem to get it quite the way I want it, but the idea is just to institute a weight limit. Last game had characters walking around with freakin’ grandfather clocks in their bags!
Movement is the first thing ya do, before taking an action each turn, and it’s measured in ‘squares’. A square is however big the map makes it, and is just a standard distance that really doesn’t matter. You can move your character ((str+con+dex)/30) squares per turn, more if you run or something.
Now, as to the dieroll thing: Your target is a sum of 100. Good things add to your total, bad things subtract from it. The die is considered a good thing.
So, for your figther lightning bolt thing:
+17.5 (half INT)
+0 (no training)
+0 (no bonuses)
-30 (three levels beyond)
-0 (wizard’s AC)
Total: -12.5
Then, the dieroll. Assuming they don’t Fumble or AutomaticSuccess, this is then simply ADDED, being a good thing.
Let’s say they rolled a 70.
Then: 17.5 -30 +70 = 57.5.
The goal is 100; an end sum of 100 or more means success.
The fighter can’t possibly succeed without an AutomaticSuccess, ie Natural 100 on the die. Otherwise, he would need an endroll of 112.5 or higher, which is impossible on a d100.
However, for simple swordplay, this works out much better for him:
+60 (Strength stat)
+12 (Sword skill)
-2 (Wizard’s Armor class)
+5 (powerful magic sword)
60 +12 -2 +5 = 75.
Add the dieroll of 1d100 to that, and only a 25 is needed to hit… 75% chance, you might say.
Well, I just got distracted by a phone call, and folks are showin’ up in the Monkey, so I gotta cut this short and run.
See ya there!
Since I did my last post just before a testgame, I figured I’d do this one immediately after one!
Welcome, new players! As of today, we have a total of TEN characters (I think?), and the possibility of one or two more being created this SUNDAY, MARCH 28, 2004! At 5pm!
That’s right folks, it’s your very last chance!
If you’re on the invite list, but haven’t made your characters yet, now’s the time!
If you’re not, now’s your last chance to make the list… let’s hear your character ideas!
IF, and that’s a big if, see, both letters capitalized, IF the first few games of going “Live” show that it’s possible, there will be room for a total of 12 players. IF the remaining few invitees fail to create their characters in time, this means that a few slots will open up in the next week or two. I don’t expect any, and at any rate it would only be two or so… but there’s the possibility.
Extra-big thanks to those of you who’ve returned time and again to the test-games, the Monkey’s humming along like a breeze now and it’s all thanks to y’all!
As an added incentive to get people to show up for the FINAL TEST-GAME, which is SUNDAY Ow! Hey, ok, I’ll stop yelling, didn’t have to hit me! The final Test-Game, sunday…
…all characters who have earned experience during the test-games will receive some sort of bonus or something, based on their amount of presence and success during the test-games. Nothing special, I’m not even sure what yet, but something to say “Thanks”.
And with that, I fear this may be the last posting for a while… Definitely no more invitation threads after this for a while.
Keep your eyes open, the future is a LONG time!
I’d like to throw in my bid.
I just got a cable modem (this is why I hadn’t answered before)
I started playing D & D 23 or 24 years ago and have played off and on ever since.
For a character, I would like to play a dwarven fighter or possibly fighter/cleric if that would work in this system. I havn’t played a kick-ass character in a while.
Name: Grom, son of Grolin
Brief history:
Growing up a fairly normal dwarf, Grom had spent a number of years away from home training. On his return home, he found his land in ruins. An evil wizard had enslaved his people and forced them to run the mines for him. The dwarves had rebelled and managed to run off the wizard, but not before heavy casualties and damage to the land and mines.
Arriving at his home, he learns that his father was on his deathbed. He had led the revolt and managed to hurt the wizard but was then caught in a massive spell. With his dying words he challenges Grom to avenge his people. Also, he gives him his battleaxe, the very one that had cut into the wizard.
The event had several effects on Grom. First, it turned him very religious (whether or not he works as a multi-class. If possible, I would want him to worship Thor). Also, he has a basic mistrust of mages. Although he doesn’t beleive them to be inherintly evil, he does feel that power corrupts. True power should come from the blessings of the gods.
He has a quiet nobility and respects those whom he feels has this same nobility. Honor, dependability and honesty are his watchwords.
email at asgardking@aol.com