Monthly Archives: September 2019

RPGs

Newfound Appreciation of The 2d6 Table

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On September 12, 2019, I started a new Thursday night Roll20 campaign using Delving Deeper, called Delver’s Deep. Delving Deeper is a re-organization of OD&D(Original Dungeons & Dragons), AKA the 3 LBBs (Little Brown Books) in the first box set. My last post talked about campaign prep and linked to my podcast where I discussed it. [UPDATE: Here’s the companion podcast.]

I reviewed OD&D [Affiliate Link] , Holmes Blue Box Basic, Moldvay [Affiliate Link] , and Cook [Affiliate Link] . and Rules Cyclopedia [Affiliate Link] looking for the classic 2d6 morale and reaction tables. First, I was surprised to see that OD&D Book I, Men & Magic [Affiliate Link] only has the 3d6 loyalty table on page 13. It mentions checking morale, but I didn’t find an explanation of that mechanic via a PDF search.

[UPDATE: A comment posted that the reaction table is on page 12 of book 3, but it is labelled: Random Actions by Monsters. It has three tiers with instructions to modify based on various factors.]

The classic 2d6 table is in Holmes for the Hostile/Friendly Reaction Table. Since it didn’t use the normal language I had to flip though my book to find it. Moldvay has the 2d6 Retainer Reaction on page 21 and Cook has no table but uses text to describe the 2d6 Morale Check. Ouch, that’s hard to read at a glance. The Rules Cyclopedia [Affiliate Link] has the 2d6 table on page 93. I looked at Blueholme [Affiliate Link] and it has a 2d6 reactions table. all with the classic. five options tending towards neutral in the middle with degrees of positive or negative on the upper and lower end.

I had the realization the other day that a 2d6 additive table, where the results of 2d6 are added together has 11 possible options. 11 goes into 100 nine times with a remainder of 1. As I thought about 11 options and there being 9% if the table was evenly distributed, I recalled my EMT training and a past article on the Rule of Nines. This gives a 2d6 table a possibility of representing the chance of a hit being a particular location – at least by the number of available options. One slot for each arm, one for the head, two for each leg, and four slots for the torso.

I was driven by thoughts of a hit location table for a possible Western RPG. I keep going back and forth between doing my own Western RPG or a generic Western campaign building supplement. I looked to AnyDice to get the percentages in perspective, and was quickly reminded that two or more dice added together have a bias towards the middle. This article on AnyDice explains the details.

My hopes were slightly dashed for making a balanced table that gives a balanced chance to a certain area of the body. It is close enough, that it might be OK in practice. I’m no math guru. I know just enough about statistics to have a general feel for them, but the nuts and bolts of the analysis is beyond me.

Here are the mentioned tables for reference:

AnyDice 2d6 breakdown.

Breakdown of the odds for 2d6 added together.

The 2d6 Reaction Table from Delving Deeper with the total of the chance of results based on the sum of the values from AnyDice.

This shows just how strongly weighted the neutral result is.

I liked the number of options, five, on the 2d6 Reaction and Morale tables, so I used the same values to create a table for the god of luck in my new campaign. The name, Losefka, comes from the religion and deity generator tables from Table Fables II by Madeline Hale. I decided that if you were a devotee or cleric of the god of luck and fate, you would have a hold coin for binary decisions and roll the holy bones each morning to determine your luck or fate for the day in the following table, screenshot from my Roll20 macro.

I didn’t come up with special verbiage for the slightly negative and positive results. (I’m open to suggestions for cool way to phrase it.)

So far, there is a cleric of Losefka who has used the above table each day. There is a potential bonus/penalty for persistence in checking each day or failing to do so.

2d6 Appreciation

I have a new appreciation for the simple 2d6 additive table. The most common number of options for 2d6 tables in Delving Deeper are five options on the Morale and Reaction Tables. Seven options on the Wilderness Weather Table. Eight options on the Random Dungeon Location Table used for dungeon creation/stocking. If you want a number of results with even distribution, it is easier to use a single die of the right size for single digits or even divisible by 2, 3, or 4.

I have read lots of articles about 2d6 tables with the classic five tiers as in the Reaction and Morale Tables. When I searched for the tables from my recollection, I realized I had conflated re-use of the reaction/morale table and dungeon restocking. Various blog posts about both below: (It’s easy for all the blog posts I’ve read over 11 or 12 years of following the OSR to blend together. Some of these I read when they were new, and some from 2017 and later are new to me.)

In addition to the results one gets from adding 2d6 one can use 2d6 to generate simultaneous options for a single roll to get two independent d6 results, like for dungeon restocking. There are also d66 tables where one can get 36 different options using one die for the tens digit and the other for the ones digit. This is seen in Maze Rats [Affiliate Links] and Knave [Affiliate Links].

Conclusion

I don’t think I (and perhaps we) need to reinvent the wheel for tables. I am growing to like the simplicity of OD&D/Basic as expressed in Delving Deeper. Variations on existing tables can be used to get a good spread of options for all kinds of things from moral and reactions, to re-stocking, to wondering monsters, and checking one’s luck/fortune each day. While I think the d10/20 made a more balanced to hit chance for combat, we don’t necessarily need to use dice in all the Platonic solids.

I think it is more that we don’t need to invent tables and mechanics to allow us to use all the different die types. Some die types lend themselves to a more balanced approach. A prime example is the 2d6 hit location table that started this whole thing. There is a d12 with body parts on it that gives an even chance for any body part. The one I have is not balanced, so making a table and using a balanced die would give more far results.

If you need 2 results of equal probability just roll any die and go high/low. If you need 3 balanced results roll a d6 and divide by 2, etc. I think using the die type that best fits the spread of what you are seeking, whether a weighted value or equal odds for any result makes the most sense.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my dice, or magic math rocks, as some call them. I love the challenge of making a useful table for each die type. However, I have a growing love of simplicity and minimalism in prep and at the table.

For my Delver’s Deep campaign I am trying to use all the different resources I have besides Delving Deeper. AD&D [Affiliate Links] , Table Fables & Table Fables II [AMAZON Affiliate Link], d30 DM Companion [Affiliate Links] , d30 Sandbox Companion [Affiliate Links] , story cubes, various card decks, etc. I’m trying to avoid making everything too similar to everything others have done, and also creating more variety in the setting and dungeon so it has both unique and interesting results. Crafting a story to make it all fit together is half the fun!

RPGs

Delvers Deep Campaign

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I’ve been working on a new Delving Deeper [Rules Links, Hypertext, Lulu] campaign that will use Roll20. It’s first session will be Thursday, September 12, 2019.

I discussed it in my last podcast episode, Episode 152 – Thursday Thoughts – Arneson, Feedback, & New Campaign.

Background

I’ve liked Delving Deeper ever since I encountered it on G+ in 2015 or so. It makes for a good system for convention games for quick at the table character generation. I like it so much that when there is free shipping at Lulu, I buy 5 or 6 copies at once to take to conventions to sell at cost. Every con game I use Delving Deeper, every player eagerly grabs a copy.

Adam Muszkiewicz of Dispatches From Kickassistan and I gushed about it when we met at Marmalade Dog in 2015. Here’s my write up of that con.

The Campaign

My desire to run a sandbox hexcrawl & dungeon crawl with procedural generation for prep and at the table has finally borne fruit. I’m pulling out all the stops and using all the tables from RPG books (DMG, Dungeon Alphabet, d30 Sandbox & GM Companions, my own PDFs, Table Fables & Table Fables II, etc.) [Affiliate Links] and PDFs for as many ideas as possible. I have several card decks for wilderness generation, dungeon generation, Game Masters Apprentice, and many more. I’ll use my Inkwell Ideas Dungeon Dice and Village Dice, and Rory’s Story Cubes, etc. Plus I’ll toss in all the cool ideas I’ve always wanted to put in a game. Nothing is held back. It only remains for the characters to find them. Any new idea I have will be put closer to the starting point.

It is also a drop-in/drop out game so while many can only commit to bi-weekly, I have a weekly schedule for the first few sessions.

Danger abounds. Combat is deadly and encounters are not leveled. Awesome magic and powerful beings may be encountered at low level. Mucking about in the ruins of an ancient civilization can lead to discovering powerful items that are dangerous to all concerned.

Preparation

To prepare for the game I am focusing on building an organized framework to help me find information and various tables for ad hoc generation. I’ve put in 50 or so hours, mostly populating GM tools in Roll20, typing up ideas, and organizing various PDFs. (My PDFs are organized, but I made new shortcuts for the PDFs I most want to reference and put in a new folder on my desktop.)

I’m using a simple character sheet in Roll20. I made handouts with links to Delving Deeper information, and my YouTube series, Roll20 for the Absolute Beginner. Other handouts allow the players to keep notes about people and places, party loot, etc. I have created folders for any eventual maps, books, documents, or other things they might acquire.

For the GM I copied all the most relevant tables from Delving Deeper with a page number reference. I used a spreadsheet someone made. I lost the reference to who, but here’s the link. I much prefer copy & paste to typing something that exists in electronic form. In addition, all the player tables that are needed in play I put in the player section of handouts. I didn’t include all the ability related tables, as one doesn’t usually need them after character creation is finished.

I created a Campaign wiki at https://campaignwiki.org/. I offered players 100 XP per page of useful information they add.

I also made a spreadsheet to help calculate encumbrance and remaining gold from starting gold. I built it when I played in Cody Mazza’s Barromaze [Affiliate Link] game that uses Delving Deeper.

For campaign scheduling I made a Google Calendar with all of the dates the initial players indicated would work.

The first level of the dungeon starts with an interesting idea I had while working on the campaign. I used the Delorfano Protocols to generate some of the early rooms which had a fortuitous room generation that guided the bulk of the level. The 1e DMG random dungeon generation tables added some cool stuff too. Plus I let my imagination loose. I then used Delving Deeper to populate rooms/areas.

Currently I’m working on a carousing table and avoiding all the sexual innuendo and blatant sexual topics of so many tables I have found online. A discussion on the Audio Dungeon Discord, home to many RPG/OSR Anchor Podcasters, suggested downtime activities instead. That is, activities adventurers can pursue when they are in town instead of in the wilderness or dungeon. The general consensus was spending gp on a one for one basis for XP. I will keep the carousing table and add tables for warriors, wizards, and priests to do their non-carousing activities. I’m working out boons and detriments, I guess banes and boons is more alliterative, for the downtime tables.

I like the idea from Cody Mazza’s Barromaze [Affiliate Link] game where you don’t roll on the table if you save vs. poison. Fail your save and risk something on the table. Ray Otus’s elf got cursed and turned into a goblin. He is stuck until the curse is removed.

Elevator Pitch

Delvers’ Deep is a large complex of dungeons, tombs, ruins, pits, caverns, shafts, tunnels, and more.

Most just call it The Deep. It gets it’s name from the many deep natural and manufactured pits and shafts. 

Some are claimed to be bottomless, or to go to the end of the world.

The Deep lies several days west the town of Crossway. Crossway lies at the crossroads of The King’s Way and the ancient Dwarf Road. Both Crossway and Delvington are an eclectic mix of races as it is near a crossroads leading to a hilly and mountainous region that borders The Deep. There is a forested area nearby where lumber for the “mining” and other work of Delvers intent on finding the riches of The Deep. Lumberton is the lumber camp/town.

Near a relatively safe entrance to the dungeon is a small village with the feel of a boom town called Delvington.

East Gate Tavern is the last safe building inside the walls on the Eastern edge of Delvington. East Gate Tavern is a hangout for adventurers, commonly called Delvers. Delvington has walls, towers, gates, and guards. 

To the west are hills and mountains. The deep lies largely in the hills between Delvington and the mountains of the Dwarven Kingdom. The ancient Dwarf Road comes from the North Pass of the mountains and through The Deep. 

To the south is the great forest. The King’s Way passes through the forest, home of the elves, Verdant Vale, and it crosses the mountains at South Pass.

Glory and riches at the risk of life and limb await.

Conclusion

I’m so pumped about running a regular game, I haven’t run or played in a regular game in nearly a year. Life and work stuff derailed it. I can’t make my Wednesday night group for the foreseeable future.

I will do my best to document and share things.

I want to share many things about the campaign, but I don’t want to spoil anything for the players. I’ll share things as they encounter them. I’ll either talk about it on Saturday episodes of the podcast, or blog about it. One thing’s for sure, I’ll have to either record Thursday’s podcast episode the day before, or rapidly between the end of work and start of the game.