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RPGs

Dungeon Grappling – Book Review

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I was right in yesterday’s post when I said I squeaked my review of the PDF of Dungeon Grappling in under the wire before the arrival of the book today!

It is an 8.5 x 11 inch AKA U.S. letter sized volume in softcover. It has a wraparound cover image that Doug sprang for when the Kickstarter was only $180 short of the goal.

The art is more gorgeous on the printed page. I mentioned in my review of the PDF that the background image did not obscure the text. The same is true of the physical book. There is a bit of a shine at some angles, but that does not stop it from being legible like some slick-paper books with a background image I have, like the 5e rulebooks.

I’m old and remember rule books with perforated sheets in the back. While this book has 3 reference sheets in the back, they are not perforated. That’s OK with me, since I wouldn’t mar a book anyway. Also the PDF has the same sheets and it is trivial to print those three sheets if you need them.

If you prefer physical books for your rules, or you just like cool art, this book is for you. The PDF, two formats of eBook, and this volume were at the $18 level, plus shipping. I sprang for the bundle of the 8 issues of The Manor. Plus, the physical book with an initial goal of shipping in April has arrived in January!

Doug Cole has taken to heart the advice of +Erik Tenkar over at Tenkar’s Tavern and many others. Doug is planning another Kickstarter, and from this experience, if he does anything else that I find useful at the table, I will back that Kickstarter!

This part is worth repeating:

Doug took one reviewer to heart about the art and has published a book of just the art. The cut is for the artists to get a bonus, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, and towards a bit of the overhead. You can buy Dungeon Grappling On DriveThruRPG and on Doug’s website, Gaming Ballistic.

RPGs

Mini Review – Automata Run Amok by John Carlson

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As I have mentioned multiple times here on the blog, I am in a weekly Wednesday night AD&D [Aff] campaign, Graveyard of Empires, on Roll20. We hit session 132 on November 23rd. John Carlson, our DM, has published an adventure on DriveThruRPG [Aff] & RPGNow [Aff] based on our first few sessions in the game. Being one of two players still running the same characters from session 1, I can say that this look behind the scenes is interesting.

You can read the release announcement on his blog Dwarven Automata, which is the name of his publishing venture.

Here is the marketing blurb:

Out-of-Control automata have driven a wizard from his shop. He would like the PCs to solve the problem (without damaging his creations) while his rival will pay for evidence of the wizard’s dabbling in forbidden knowledge.

This is an adventure suitable for four to five low-level characters written to be compatible with OSRIC and early editions of the world’s most popular RPG.  In addition to full details on a tinkerer-wizard’s tower overrun by rampaging automata, this module includes:

* Random tables to generate elements of a bustling port city situated in the tropics and titles for books on both magic and techno-magic

* Twenty unique magical items of variable usefulness and danger with which to tempt players

* Several unique NPCs and monsters, from a clock maker revolutionary to a brain floating in a machine animated by the spirit of a long-dead racist dwarf

* Eight illustrations by the wondefully talented Luka Rejec

This twenty-page adventure should provide between four and eight hours of Old School fun. Enjoy!

I will say up front that I admit my bias. I think John is an excellent DM who has detailed his world and it is a living campaign where player actions influence the flow of events. Looking back on this from what we have learned over more than 100 sessions shows just how much planning went into this adventure. Even though it is PWYW, and I have  the pre-release, I am buying it.

This 23 page booklet has it all, art by Luka Rejec, maps, new creatures. tables with rumors, random encounters, new magic items, and an introduction for a setting with promises of more cool stuff to come. Luka Rejec is also credited as the editor.

The premise is that a mage has been driven from his tower by ancient automata he has activated but drove him from his tower. The party has multiple ways to get involved with working for the mage, and can even end up working for a rival. Politics and rivalries within the city of Midmark are outlined, and there are suggestions for the GM in different contingencies the players may take to accomplish their mission(s). It is suitable for 4-5 players of 1st or 2nd level.

Luka Rejec’s art is awesome! I love the front cover. Having lived through this adventure in the campaign, my mental images are totally different than the characters and creatures depicted in this booklet. However, that is a personal thing and in no way is a slight to the pictures within.

Of course, John left out things that we haven’t learned yet in the campaign, or that might influence us. What he put in place is a well thought out adventure with various options for how to handle the players depending on what kinds of things they might do in an effort to wrangle the automata.

Our group had opportunity to see the PDF before the art and make suggestions. Finally, we had a look before the PDF was released for final comments and typo spotting.

What I liked:

  • The art and layout is sharp.
  • There is vocabulary to learn.
  • The table of contents is hyperlinked.
  • There is a one page isometric map of the tower showing how each level fits, and each section on each level has the level map.
    • On the following page it completes a DM Quick Reference Sheet with a timeline tracker, options in case of party retreat, and lose ends and future opportunities.
  • New monsters are stated out with a checklist for the DM to keep track of them.
  • There are suggestions for how to deal with the various puzzles/challenges present in each level.
  • There is a table to generate random book titles that is useful beyond this module.
  • Bestiary for new monsters.
  • Table of minor/interesting magic items the players might find searching different locales in the wizard’s tower.
    • These are some very creative items that many will easily find a use for in their game.

What I’d Like To See:

  • In all honesty, there’s not much else I’d like to see, other than the actual DM notes….
  • Seriously, I can’t think of what I’d add. As I mentioned at the start, I am biased and impressed with the scope and breadth of John’s campaign.
  • In the author’s note, I don’t think the bit about ascertaining his talent is needed. A quick glance will show John’s talent.

In John’s blog, Dwarven Automata,  he writes about his campaign and reviews session write ups by the players from his perspective.

I look forward to more modules in the future.

I interviewed John about our weekly game hitting 100 sessions here.

NOTE: Links followed by [Aff] are affiliate links where a portion of your purchase price supports this blog and helps buy products for use and review.

RPGs

Mini Review – Apes Victorious

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There’s a new RPG in town, Apes Victorious. It’s built on the standard RPG engine of so many other games based on the original RPG. The focus is on a world like that in the Planet of the Apes movies and TV show. Release on Monday, it is now the top seller on RPGNow.

It takes the “standard” RPG rules and comes up with a game that is its own setting. It is faithful to the cinematic world, and lays out the different types of apes, with the addition of bonobos. Humans can be time travelling astronauts, humanoids (regressed non-speaking humans), and underdwellers. It postulates a 1970’s era technology far in advance of what it was, but using the films as a starting point for what happened.

The nuclear apocalypse and subsequent ice age to wipe away most of past humanity’s efforts sets the stage for the rise of apes. The movies’ world setting is well presented, and suits many other apocalyptic settings.

One could argue that you can just use Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, or other science fiction/apocalyptic RPG. However, the authors have anticipated this argument and made a case for multiple ways to make this a stand alone campaign of more than just one-shot adventures or convention play.

They also present a sample map and scenarios and creatures to encounter in the wilderness.

As someone who loved the original movies back when they finally made it to TV, and acted out scenarios with brothers and friends before we found RPG’s, it feels like the movies.

There is a free no art version available and two variation on the character sheet here. You can get the complete PDF at RPGNow for $4.97. Print options are forthcoming.

I tried to think of what is lacking in this game. The main reservation I had, of making it a campaign worthy game, were addressed by the authors. A niche game in a niche hobby, it is good to see the developers acknowledge what some will see as shortcomings.

I am curious about the art, so I may give in and get the art version.

There is a G+ Community that started back in the spring when they first announced the summer release of Apes Victorious.

This article uses affiliate links. A small portion of your purchases on RPGNow and DriveThruRPG help support this site.

RPGs

Crit Success Rings – A Review

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Back in March, 2016 at GaryCon 8, +Satine Phoenix gave a bunch of us these d20 rings, that you can wear and roll a d20. Very cool.

They are CritSuccess rings.

They take a bit of working the grit out, dish soap & warm water work well. Once you have them spinning freely, they seem to generate random numbers.

It is a cool trinket for those of us who collect dice and other game memorabilia.

I can see using them for a DM roll of a d20, if it needed to be secret.

They also have rings for other single dice and multi-dice combinations like 3d6. If you really like a ring or two on every finger, this might be for you.

RPGs

Grimtooth’s Traps Finally Arrives

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My Grimtooth’s Traps hardbound 460 page book finally arrived. I pledged $50 for the basic hardback.

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July, 2015 was the original estimated delivery date. I received mine on March 28, 2016. It was good to finally mark that off as received. I have two other Kickstarters older than the rest I am waiting on. Only one of which, the City State re-print by Judges Guild, do I expect to eventually get the promised items. The other is in legal limbo the D&D Documentary #2.

It came well packaged to not bounce around in the box. A big plus compared to a couple of other orders from the Goodman Games website. There is some cool art on the box (not pictured), but the mailing label went smack in the middle of the big graphic, so it’s ruined. I am curious what it looked like pre-label.

It is the same height as my AD&D Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide combined. The Grimtooth cover is slightly wider, maybe 1/8″.

Three Core Books for AD&D vs. Grimtooth's Traps
Three Core Books for AD&D vs. Grimtooth’s Traps

My DCC 3rd printing is also 460 pages, but Grimtooth’s is slightly thicker, whether due to heavier paper or a thicker cover, I’m not sure.

The DCC cover is the same size.
The DCC cover is the same size.

DCC is almost as thick as Grimtooth's Traps.
DCC is almost as thick as Grimtooth’s Traps.

It appears to be well constructed, and of good quality.

I’m sure there are a lot of interesting bits in here. However, I’m not going to be reading through it just yet, as I have a bit of a backlog. I never had the original books. I only jumped in as I thought it was an interesting bit of nostalgia to have. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have pledged.  I really need to be more selective in my purchases.

I may do a review in the future when I have a smaller backlog of things on my plate.

RPGs

The Front – A Review

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Here’s another new publication by +Mark Hunt, The FRONT, currently available via Lulu as print on demand (POD), and soon DriveThruRPG and RPGNow with PDF and POD. This is one of the many projects Mark worked on during nine months of chemo. In the interests of full disclosure, I am credited as a proof reader, and also put together the table of contents.

The FRONT is a bare bones RPG with a kernel based on the original roleplaying game. It has six 3d6 stats with a variation on the name so that Awareness is used instead of Wisdom. It is abbreviated AC, think of Awareness Check. It was easy for me to miss that. All other abilities are the standard. HP has different options for the GM to consider. It is a game with high lethality for characters. There are challenge rolls for combat, and d20 roll under rolls instead of saving throws.

Character generation is a quick 3d6 in order and swapping any two stats. There is a d20 table for pre-war career, which then leads to a page each for class.

There are four initial classes with various roles within the military, mainly geared towards the front lines. They are Combat, Intelligence, Leadership, and Reconnaissance. Each class has a section on what it has for combat training, abilities, special features, and starting equipment. Since this represents soldiers at war, there is no buying of equipment. On gaining a level, each class has a roll to requisition from the quartermaster.

Encumbrance is simple, a character can carry one piece of gear per point of strength.

Each piece of equipment has a usage die. If an item is used in a given turn, one rolls a usage die. If a 1 or 2 is rolled, one moves to the next smaller sized die. For example, a usage die might be a d12, each time a 1 or 2 is rolled the usage die is reduced, first to a d10, then a d8, d6, and finally, when a 1 or 2 is rolled on a d4, that item is used up. This is a simplified way to keep track of gasoline in the jeep, ammunition for a given weapon, etc. It reduces the amount of paper needed to track supplies. There is a usage die graphic on the included character sheet. As an item is used up, move the marker or usage die to the appropriate location.

Movement and distance is abstracted to close, nearby,  far away, and distant. For 0-5 feet, 6-60 feet, and 60-120 feet. This is part of the simplicity of the game.

Weapons are presented with a generic description, such as pistol instead of Colt .45 or 9 mm Luger. Each weapon is listed with its usage die and the number of dice for damage on hits. Weapons are further explained in the text following the table. There are hand thrown grenades and rifle grenades with different ranges, but the same damage. Machine guns come in light, medium, and heavy, with different crew size parameters, and bonuses and penalties for attacks.

Combat is also simplified with challenge rolls. It is roll low, so a 1 is great and a 20 is bad. A 1 on an attack deals double damage, and a 20 while avoiding an attack receives double damage. NPCs only roll to attack. PCs only roll to avoid attacks. Roll under STR for a melee attack, and under DEX for a ranged attack. Roll below STR or DEX to avoid taking damage from melee or ranged attacks. Advantage and Disadvantage comes into play when something is ruled to be particularly easy or difficult.

Saving throws are eliminated so that rolls are against abilities of STR for things that cause physical harm, such as gases. DEX is used for dodging things like a trap, or avoiding the blast of a flamethrower.  AC (Awareness) checks are used to avoid mental effects. I missed that AC was the short notation for Awareness on page 5. Being a long time gamer, I see AC and immediately think “Armor Class”.

Hit points can be figured in different ways depending on the style of campaign desired. Use the CON score as the number of HP and roll a d6 for each level, or for really gritty, roll a d6 each level. If a character is reduced to 0 HP one rolls after the fight is over, if the character’s party wins, to see what happened. Anything from MIA, POW, or death, to merely knocked unconscious.

Healing is slow. Certain things, like med kits help, but it still takes time.

Experience is low 5 points to get to second level, and 100 needed for 10th level. XP is earned for surviving one mission, major encounter, etc.

The section on campaigns offers up ideas for the major focus, such as partisans, resistance, elite (special forces), soldiers pressed into service from far off places, etc.

There are no frills, just a bare bones system for getting to play quickly. The classes and gear are focused on the GI, but one could easily port it to the forces of other nations. Gear is generalized, so that one can extrapolate any weapon desired. There is a suggested system for the GM to generate the toughness of enemy soldiers faced. A quick presentation of a possible weird war scenario is given with fantasy type creatures.

Big fail on the TOC, I didn’t get the pages numbers lined up very well. I was fighting Google Docs changing the formatting and messing up nearly all the pages. We ended up having me edit the Word Document, then send it back to Mark. I will have another article on my thoughts about collaborating on self published products.

What I liked:

You can be ready to play a session in a few minutes. The rules are a framework designed to work with most OSR type clones. Creatures and spells could easily be used unmodified. The difference in combat is minor. If you want a WWII scenario, you have a framework here to handle it.

One could easily port these rules to WWI, Korea, Vietnam, or even a more modern setting. These rules are even abstract enough to go even further back to muskets.

This is about as rules light as you can get in 48 pages. It is only 24 pages when taking away pictures, TOC, OGL, and other pages that are not rules.

What I didn’t like:

Using Awareness instead of Wisdom with AC for the abbreviation, was harder for me to make the connection. The direct connection is most clear where it is spelled out on page 5, and listed on the character sheet. It is slightly less clear when an AC check is used for avoiding mental effects. This is a minor niggle, and not of much concern, once it is clear what it is. A simple restatement of what AC is for on the part about attribute checks instead of saving throws on page 30 would avoid this.

[NOTE: Mark made an edit to change the abbreviation for Awareness to AW. He will use AC for the armor of vehicles in a new book.]

What I’d like to see:

Since consumables have a usage die, I would like to see a page of usage dice printed, with multiple rows of usage dice. For example, there is a row of usage dice at the bottom of the character sheet for ammunition. Filling a page in the rules with that might be helpful to some. One can use placeholders, such as dice, paper clips, coins, etc. to mark what usage die applies to which piece of equipment. This would be easy enough to do oneself with an index card and paperclips to track the usage die for different types of equipment.

[NOTE: Mark made a full page of the usage die chain available in the PDF.]

Conclusion

When dealing with rules light systems, one should not assume that familiar abbreviations mean the same thing until verified that they do. Terseness is the focus for rules light systems. If you need everything spelled out for you and lots of table and options to fill in all the details, this game is not for you.

This game is light enough that it should work well for story gamers that need fewer rules, and will work well for those who like more roleplaying. Obviously, it is great for those who just want to generate a character and start playing.

I just got word that the first supplement for the OSS/SOE is in the works.

[UPDATE: There is now a G+ Community for the game.]

RPGs

Review – Day Trippers Game Masters Guide

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This is a follow up post to my review of the Day Tripper’s Core Rules.

I was invited to review the entire system after my review of the Planet Generator guide. There are two other generators for Locations and Lifeforms from the GM Guide that are available on DTRPG/RPGNow. If you have the GM Guide, you don’t need to purchase these stand alone generators. My review of the GM Guide will be much shorter than the review of the Core Rules. I’m sure many will appreciate that.

Setting The Tone:

The GM Guide begins with a discussions of surreal and surrealism, and then goes into a discussion of it in science fiction and then RPGs. This might be eye glazing fodder for some. While a good presentation of the subject, I am not entirely sure it is warranted. We know that dreams and the chao are possible slip types, so many may find it a long winded way to say “weird”.

“Appendix N” Material:

There is a long list of resources for inspiration. The selection deals with “alternate realities, multiple dimensions, subjective worlds, bizarre lifeforms, surreal space adventures, and time travel.

This list is limited to one page and helps give flavor. There are things I’ve never read, some I have heard of. Thanks for making my read/watch list longer. There aren’t enough hours in the day to read all that I want to read, or watch all that I want to watch. (I’m the only with that problem, right?)

Other movies/TV shows I thought of are “The Fly” (original or remake), “Incredible Shrinking Man/Woman”, “InnerSpace”, adn TV shows: “Seven Days”, “Land of the Giants”, “Lost In Space”, and many others. As with other RPGs, almost anything can be an inspiration, even your weird dreams.

Details:

As expected, the GM Guide fleshes out things from the Core Rules. For example, NPCs get a whole page here instead of a paragraph in the Core Rules.

There are examples of how play proceeds, and 16 pages at the end that walk through generating your own adventure using the generators and forms provided.

Generators:

56 of the 120 pages are dedicated to 12 generators: Missions, Stars, Planets, Locations, Lifeforms, Societies, Drama, Character, Alternate Earth, Dream World, Multiversal Chao, and Time Travel.

Most, if not all of these generators can be used in other RPGs of any genre. As with all generators used in prepping to play, they are suggestive, and are a means to help you think of things to mix it up so each adventure is different.

You already know what I think about the planet generator.

The cool thing about these generators is how flexible they are. Many of them require two rolls, one using 1 to 3 d6’s to determine the general nature of the particular table, and another d6 for the sub-item in that category on the chart.

The parallel earth generator walks you figuring out what is different and when it happened, and how likely the characters are to figure it out, or how they might figure it out.

Page 88 has a cool flow chart to determine when to use a given generator in the course of developing a mission.

Questions:

From my review of the Core Rules, there are two questions for which I was looking for answers in the GM Guide:

  1. What happens to players that fail to return in 24 hours?
    Here’s a link to a G+ thread where my review is highlighted by the game developer. He mentions that the results of exceeding 24 hours is meant to be determined by each GM. In his game it creates an alternate reality, and they are “gone” from the original. What happens if a player isn’t there that session? The party would be split up.
    Rescue missions are discussed and they involve time travel to go to where the lost people are and insert them into the time stream in this reality a moment before the rescue ship leaves. It also mentions changed time lines/new alternate universes created, etc.
  2. Are the action/combat charts in one handy section of the GM Guide
    The charts are not in one location in the GM guide. I did find on the DayTrippers website that they have a GM screen.

Free PDFs – Follow Up:

All the forms that are available for free on DTRPG/RPGNow that I mentioned in my Core Rules review are in the GM Guide. However, the players hand out is not. I would recommend it be in the PDF so that the GM has everything in one place. The Traveller conversion PDF is not in there either, but that is not critical in my mind, since it is a special case for a single game.

In addition to including the free PDFs there is an Adventure Sketch Sheet to hold the bare facts about an adventure.

What I Like:

All the awesome generators! These generators do a great job of giving ideas, and would be helpful for developing one’s own generators, perhaps with more options.

There are 6 sample missions, examples of NPCs, a walk through of building a mission, all designed to help the GM prepare for game play, or figure it out on the fly.

The sandbox style of play is promoted by suggesting preparing outlines of missions, since the idea is that characters and other NPC’s are in the business of doing missions. Also developing NPC’s ahead of time for use as needed. The nice thing about he majority of NPC’s is that they have stats of 1, so you don’t need to write down all their stats, just the ones that are not one.

In addition to the generators, there are drama templates that guide the GM in preparing the mission/adventure. These templates include what kind of locations, gear, and NPC’s are needed to help you cover all the bases. This would be a handy tool for those new to running games. My only caution is to avoid a railroad, just as these rules do.

The advice in the GM Guide is if the players don’t notice your clues or pick up on them, it is a sign that you are doing it wrong. That is, you need to describe them better, give them an idea of why they should notice them, etc.

What I’d Like to See:

The only thing I can think to add, is that all RPG’s should have a section to clarify what types of dice they require. In the Core Rules 1 or more d6’s are mentioned. However, on page 35 of the GM Guide for node type determination, it mentions the possibility of using 2d4. I am OK with that, but this is the only place in both manuals that I am aware of that mentions anything besides using d6’s. As with most players of RPG’s I have dice to cover almost any situation, and even dice for which I don’t have the particular RPG they go with, but have them anyway. Since it is only in the GM Guide, it won’t impact players, but a heads up before then for this one-time suggestion for a scenario to use d4’s would be helpful.

Conclusion:

I’d buy this just for the generators. $12 for 12 generators is a good price if you are looking for that sort of thing.

I could run this game. I would want to play a game as a player first, or watch it played (see YouTube Video below). I’ll watch these videos later.

The mechanics are interesting and simple. There’s no guess work or fumbling with the manuals to see if you hit/succeeded. Until you get the hang of it, you might want the suggested results when something more than straight up success or failure happens. You’ll need the Core Rules handy for that.

The GM Guide is$12 on DTRGP/RPGNow.

There is also a GM Bundle that includes the GM Guide and the Core Rules for $25.98 (save $5 from purchasing individually) at DTRPG/RPGNow.

So far, there are two modules for DayTrippers available on DTRPG/RPGNow. I have not read them, so don’t know specifics. One of them is refenced in the GM Guide to illustrate the use of the Runsheet.

DayTrippers has its own website with other PDFs and forums.

I found two YouTube videos on topic. One is an interview with Tod Foley at Legends of Tabletop, and the other is actual play GMed by Tod Foley. I plan to watch them later.

 

 

RPGs

Review – Day Trippers Core Rules

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I did a review of the Day Trippers Planet Generator back in May. The author contacted me to review the Core Rules and Game Masters Guide.

I was interested to see what Day Trippers was, and why the name. Before I could get the time to read what I had downloaded, I saw that others had posted their own reviews of Day Trippers, so I made sure to avoid reading them until I had a chance to see it for myself. I read and reviewed the Core Rules before this review. This should help me understand how the players see the game, verses the “inside information” in the GM Guide.

I was concerned about how long it would take me to get through the books, but the Core Rules is only 44 pages. I got through half of it in one sitting. The other half I finished in another sitting.

I went in-depth in this review, far different from how I would review a movie. This should give you an understanding/feel of the game and creating characters and resolving actions.

The layout is clean and it is easy to read on my tablet. It has good art, and no typos or grammar errors that I noticed. The Table of Contents is hyperlinked. The index is not hyperlinked. This is not an issue, I am not aware of any index that is hyperlinked. The Table of Contents does not include the character sheet and ship sheet on the last two pages of the PDF. The rules are Creative Commons 3.0 UNPORTED LICENSE (CC BY 3.0). THEY ARE OWNED BY EVERYONE AND NO ONE. HTTP://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/3.0/

It starts with a story to set the history and tone. It’s the campaign world setting. It was interesting and let me in on the origin of this concept in the mind of the game creator. As with any “default” campaign setting, it is up to the user to use it or not. In short, crazy super genius invents method to travel between dimensions. Once he proves it, other individuals, corporations, and governments get involved. There are locations that others find and keep a secret to use to their own advantage, in addition to well-know places, and places as yet undiscovered.

The premise behind the game is slipping between dimensions, different realities, planets, etc. It reminds me of the times older episodes of Dr. Who (AKA Tom Baker) moved sideways to other realities in the TARDIS rather than through normal time and space. I also was reminded of the TV show Sliders, although I think I only ever caught one episode of that show. It also reminds me a bit of the TV show 7 Days where they could only travel back in time seven days.

What I find hilarious in the backstory for how such travel was discovered, the acronym for the first device in my mind is TRAP, although it is referred to as TRA Pod in the text.  I then imagined Admiral Akbar, “It’s a TRAP!” I often come up with weird acronyms others didn’t intend.

There are terms used in the rules, Slip Space for the space/stuff traversed between starting point and destination, and Slip Pods for the devices that carry people through Slip Space.

There are five variations on slip travel, called Slips: Cartesian, Temporal, Para Terran, Subjective, Compound

  • Travel across the universe in this home reality. That is travel to other planets. (Cartesian)
  • Alternate Earths/Parallel Universes (Para Terran)
  • Time Travel, but limited to the time line of Earth 1. (Temporal)
  • Dream Worlds (Subjective)
  • The Multiversal Chao (Compound Slips – Which is a combination of two or more other kinds of slips.)

One Slips into one of 6 Nodes: Known Planets, Unknown Planets, Time Travels, Alternate Earths, Dream Worlds, and The Multiversal Chao. Dreams reminds me of the movie Inception, or places where stories are real. There is more than one story I am aware of about the characters and places in fiction are real. With all of these possibilities, there is no shortage of potential adventures. One can do any genre with these rules: science fiction, steam punk, western, spy, gangsters, fantasy, suspense, horror, sword & planet, etc.

The origin of the title of the game, Day Trippers, is that one is limited to 24 hours for the maximum length of time one can stay in their destination. If one does not return in that time, they cease to exist in the originating point. My question is, if they stay in this dimension/universe/timeline, that would mean they cease to exist, but does that mean they are trapped in different dimensions/realities if they fail to return? This is not clear to me in the Core Rules. As I read it, I would rule they are trapped in that other dimension. I will look to see if this is clarified in the GM Guide.

Character generation is a point buy. Each character begins with 100 CP (Character Points) to spend building characters. An interesting concept is that these CP can be saved and used during play for Progressive Character Building. CP are used to generate the stats for players, buy skill levels, and purchase equipment, just like using money.

There are ten classes: Amateur Explorer, Gonzo Writer, Grad Student, Politican/Nobility, Special Forces, Celebrity/Entertainer, Government Agent, Scientist, Soldier, Tourist.

There are six stats (ability) scores: Brains, Charm, Grace, Health, Might, Psyche.

The interesting thing about ability scores is that they all start with one and then CP can be used to bump them up to a maximum of six. The number one through six represents the number of d6’s to roll for each challenge/impediment one faces in the game. To bump a score from 1 to 2 only costs 5 CP, but adding more increases the cost. To bump the score of a starting stat to 5 costs 100 CP and 6 costs 200 CP.

CP is equal to one unit of currency, called a Mega, which equals one million dollars. One can go into debt to build and equip a starting character. The debt has to be paid at one mega a month. Experience Points, XP, can be used to improve one’s character or pay off debt. The equivalence of each CP/Mega/XP makes it easy to figure out and track.

The Total Character Value (TCV) is the sum of CP and XP spent to develop your character. This would be analogous to level in other games. Similarly, Potential is the sum of unspent CP and XP.

There is a list of skills that have a note of one or two stats that apply to their use. Some skills assume the presence of a kit, for example a doctor has a bag, a technician has a tool kit, etc. New skills can be added with GM agreement, and must specify one or two applicable stats for their use. Skills also go from 1-6.

Classes can also be used to boost stats and skills before adventuring begins. Stats and skills get boosted by one and debt is increased.

Crew is the name for NPCs, they have 1 in all stats and cost one Mega or CP for a year of service. Additional stats, skills, and gear can be purchased for them as with characters. “[T]hey are assumed to have an unglamorous but serviceable place to live.” This same assumption is made for characters.

Rank applies to those from military, political, or secret careers, also from 1-6. My only issue with the rank, is for military, it used army/air force/marine ranks for levels 1-5, and level 6 is admiral, a navy rank. An admiral of the same number of stars is equivalent rank to a general of the same number of stars, so I would change level 5 to colonel and make level 6 general. If you want navy ranks list them. Keep in mind that a navy captain is equal to an army colonel.

Retired rank translates to last rank-1 for resolving actions.

Fame is a stat that indicates how well known a character is and there are benefits from the level of fame from 1-6. One has to make an effort to maintain their level of fame, either by spending megas or doing something to stay in the public eye. It boosts charm rolls.

Debts can be to legitimate sources like banks, or loan sharks. The difference is in how they handle late payments. Such as, legal action vs. broken legs. Not paying debts on time can lower one’s fame.

Life Shaping is done via events that shape the life of a character. These events can be presented before or during play, or even between sessions. LifeShapers can be used to deal with problems, with a reasonable explanation. There are twelve slots available for LifeShapers, so one can only add so many.

Gear ranges from 0-6, with 0 being standard items that add no bonus to actions. Gear with levels 1-6 are increasingly more expensive and add plusses to rolls.

There is a list of sample characters provided that can be used to get players started, or be used for one shot adventures, etc.

Action resolution begins with difficulty levels from 1-10, 1 being a no-brainer to a 10 being insane. Any difficulty of 7 or higher is impossible without leveled skills and/or gear, since the max stat is 6. You roll the number of dice equal to the appropriate skill and keep the highest. This just improves your odds of rolling a 6.

After the roll is determined, the appropriate/applicable skill, gear, rank, and fame are added.

Actions can be unopposed or opposed. Unopposed is more direct. With an opposed action the “defender” also rolls.

There are five possibilities for all results:

  • Miss by more than 1       No, AND (something negative happens)
  • Miss by 1                               NO, BUT (something positive happens)
  • Hit Exactly                            YES, BUT (something negative happens)
  • Exceed by 1                          YES (Nailed it precisely)
  • Exceed by more than 1  YES, AND (something positive happens)

This makes it easy to determine the “flavor” of successes and failures. For example, taking out the guard in one strike, but he makes a noise that alerts other guard(s).

Combat works similarly to actions, but level of armor and weapons play into it.

Other players can help the character performing an action, such as opening doors. The helper makes a roll, but helping could be not helping. How many movies, TV shows, or real life situations have you seen where someone says, “Please stop helping!”?

Damage reduces stats by one, and since they are in alphabetical order, you work your way down the list. If there is multiple damage in one action, take one from the first stat, one from the next and so on. When a stat hits 0 you are stunned, when 3 stats hit 0, you are dead.

There are no luck points to burn to avoid a bad situation. It is all up to the player(s) using their wits to make their current mix of stats, skills, and gear work to their advantage. Being able to come up with a plausible reason why a certain stat or skill applies in a given situation is key.

Healing is likewise simple, if only one stat is down a single point, three days of rest. More than that takes longer rest, involves hospitals, doctors, spending Megas, and possible devices found in one’s travels. Healing heals one point in each stat in alphabetical order.

An exception to healing is damage to the Psyche, which requires therapy and/or medication and can take months or years. It requires a level 5 difficulty roll to heal psyche after each month of rest. This is an interesting idea for the horror/Cthulhu type genre where one can regain sanity.

Vehicle actions are resolved similarly to other actions and combat. The appropriate stat,  skill and their levels, plus the level of the vehicle are added to the roll.

The vehicle combat table has the same five levels as other actions, but the results are specific to vehicles, like one hit on a vehicle and a critical strike, or vehicle escapes.

Vector Slipping is the action of using a Slip Ship to Slip into one of the 6 nodes. The action roll for this again has 5 possible outcomes. One knows by the result of the roll how well it succeeded or failed, and possible complications, but the details require looking at the chart. (I hope to find pages of all these charts in one place in the GM guide.)

The stuff between here and there is deadly, not only does it require a Slip Ship, but it also requires a Survival Suit. Both must remain intact to protect the user from the catastrophic and get you back to your origination point.

There is a discussion of the use and consequences of damage to the survival suit.

There is an explanation of the construction of a slip ship, from carrying capacity in crew, to core ship components, to amenities and even weapons. Each piece has a level, higher being more expensive. There is a list of sample ships and their cost to give you an idea. Ships can be owned by a player, in massive debt, a group, or a benefactor/sponsor.

There are six types of missions, seven if a mission mixes two or more types: Exploration, Emergency/Rescue, Sightseeing, Surveying/Fact-Finding, Acquisition/Trade, Politics/Diplomacy.

There is an explanation of how to build a mission and quantify it.

The rules end with a brief discussion and charts for conversion to and from four other systems: PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) – [I had to google for that acronym.), d20, 1-20, and 1-100. This makes it easy to port other systems, such as clones like White Box, or specifically White Star to use this game.

After the credits and a one page index, is a one page character sheet, and a one page ship sheet.

This gives players and GM the bare bones to play this game.

I have left out that this is a story style game. I don’t have experience running or playing story style games, so I can’t comment on that other than this impression. It reminds me of what I have read about Fate, and observed in people playing Fate. I can see the appeal of the collaborative effort of building a story together. To me this type of game play being fun would depend on the right mix of people and how narrowly or broadly they adhered to the role playing aspect of it. If the point is to get together and have fun with the rules as a guiding framework, I could have fun. If the point is to adhere to strict interpretations of the rules and strictly stay in character during game play, I might not have fun. I think this is true of any RPG.

In short, with the right mix of people, I might enjoy story style games.

Speaking specifically about Day Trippers, I see many interesting things, like the point buy character generation. One could have a super genius that isn’t much good for the charm or physical, a tough brute short on brains, a beauty/charmer, or an average person. By eliminating rolls for stats, one has flexibility to play the kind of character they want. I think this would appeal to those who feel that scores are more important than how one plays and has fun with it.

One does not have to play the game as a strict story game. I’m all for use the rules you want.

I think there are some interesting ideas here. Personally, I don’t think I’ll find a group that will play this game, but I definitely see some interesting ideas, that like many games, I can use for my own creations in the various genres of RPG that I play and run.

The rules are $5 at DriveThru/RPGNow, so it is inexpensive if you want to have a look for yourself. There are also free PDFs of things that are not in the Core Rules, in addition to the character sheet and ship sheet at the back of the Core Rules.

  • DayTrippers Mission RunSheet – A one page PDF for developing a mission or adventure. Not form fillable.
  • DayTrippers Player Handout – This is a very helpful one page summary to explain to the player how the game works. It is not part of the Core Rules.
  • DayTrippers Lifeform Sheet – This one page PDF has fields to describe various life forms and they use the same six stats as characters. The life form could be anything from a “monster”, or animal, to a sentient being. Not form fillable.
  • DayTrippers Planet Sheet – This one page PDF holds the information on a planet and two locations, and has a world map on the bottom of the page. It is not form fillabe.
  • DayTrippers PC Tracking Sheet – This one page PDF allows a GM to track 4 characters. It is not form fillable.
  • Converting from Traveller – This one page PDF goes into depth about converting characters to DayTrippers from Traveller. This is more involved than the bit in the Core Rules.
RPGs

The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor – Reprint

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I received a review copy of The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor, a softcover reprint of the Judges Guild module, including printings 1-4 and some new material. This is a portion of the Judge’s Guild Deluxe Colector’s Edition. The deluxe edition will be a hardcover over sized book, but the various parts can be purchased separately in softcover. You can get a PDF of the original here.

This reprint uses the same cover as the first printing, and a sample of the cover for each printing is on the inside back cover.

I must confess that back in the day, my brother and I judge the products from Judges Guild unfavorably, and for not good reasons. We judged the books by their covers, and not the quality of their information. Thus, until the internet showed me what helpful information and tables Judges Guild had, I was ignorant of many of their good ideas.

One major example is Ready Ref Sheets. It has many helpful tables for assisting a DM with various aspects of game prep.

Fortress Badabaskor is a town, fortress, and four level dungeon. It has a backstory, intrigue and can easily fit into an existing campaign. This town could prove to be a base of operations for adventurers even after they had delved the depths beneath Badabakor. In the 40 pages of this mini setting/module are 8 maps showing the surrounding area, the town, and the dungeon levels with a side-view of the elevation.

Judges Guild uses a stat block that I could figure out easily, except for one thing. CLASS, ALIGN, LVL, HTK, AC, SL, S, I, W, CON, DEX, CHAR, WPN. On my first skim through, HTK had me scratching my head until I started over and read it. An earlier NPC spelled out Hits To Kill, which is used instead of Hit Points/HP. Why, I am not sure. I am sure there are those out there who can comment and enlighten the rest of us. Thus remains the bit I don’t understand, SL. I managed to find this link via a google search, and SL is Social Level. It is an interaction mechanic for encounters. That is something that would be good to define in a re-print that can stand alone. If not for the internet, I would have to find someone with the answer to what this is. Now how does this mechanic work? Which book explains that?

[EDIT: Thanks to +Guy Fullerton for pointing out that a list of these abbreviations and their definitions are at the bottom of the table of contents page.]

Before the room descriptions for level one, is this note, and thus a key to what Old School was/is. “Note that each dungeon chamber has a recommended description and some alternate descriptions have been provided to assist the designing judge. Please alter these to suit you campaign!” [emphasis added]

The “designing judge”. That is a helpful turn of phrase. To me, it implies that this setting/module is just an outline for an idea that the GM can modify in whole or in part to suit the campaign. Too many people get on the path of “this is he way it must be”, and lose site of the ability to improvise and shape it to meet the situation.

I really like the alternate descriptions that one can choose to use in place of the ones already there. In some ways, one can mix and match the descriptions in a lot of old school dungeons and not impact much how they play.

Between the town description and the dungeon levels is a table for generating random traps. Like a lot of similar tables from Judge’s Guild, like Ready Ref Sheets, there is a percentile roll to determine the type and then a series of 1d6 tables to further define that trap. There are lots of sub-categories used to flesh out various aspects of traps that get one to think about the depth of such tables, and not just a large number of one line traps. This is a concept akin to story dice that give you words and phrases that you can use to build a description of a trap.

The final eleven pages are a supplement added by Goodman Games, by Michael Curtis. It goes into more detail about some things on level three, and presents some factions for level 4.

Since this is designed with D&D in mind, it is generic enough within that mold to work with little or no modification for various clones. It could even be used for ideas for use with different genres.

The last four pages are re-prints of the ads for various Judges Guild products and sending in S.A.S.E.’s and your money to have it mailed right back to you. That brings up memories and gives a taste to the younger generations how things were before about 15 or 20 years ago.

One thing I soon noticed, on an earlier page halflings are mentioned, and later it mentions hobbits. Seems like the Tolkien estate may not have gone after Judges Guild as stridently as it did TSR over the use of hobbit.

This volume is of much heavier stock than the original such, as I remember them. The pages and cover and slick and shiny. The shininess makes certain angles in some light wash out the test, but otherwise it is very legible.

This is $19.99 from Goodman Games, a PDF of the third printing is on DriveThruRPG/RPGNow for $3.99, which does not have the new material. If $20.00 plus shipping is too much for you, and you can use the PDF, you have options. There are also periodic sales and so forth that can make it easier to dive in.

I have some ideas for how I might use this. Mashed potatoes and aliens anyone?

RPGs

Metamorphosis Alpha GM Screen

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I picked up a GM screen for Metamorphosis Alpha from +Roy Snyder at MichiCon.

While I like the art from the original cover, and all the tables are just what you need to run a game, the card stock is very light. It is not what I am used to from the first DM screen I ever had for AD&D.

I need to run a game to make sure that all the most used tables are included, but the content and layout appears to be spot on. I just wish the card stock used was a bit heavier. The only benefit to being this thin is that it takes up less space.

I suspect that it would get knocked over easily because it is so light. Due to its light weight, I might use it more as a quick reference. However, I tested it, and while it might get nudged and moved more easily than my AD&D screens, it seems fairly resistant to getting knocked over.

It seems like it would be a challenge to keep this screen from getting bent up. The original AD&D DM screens could double as a clipboard and could take a lot of punishment.

I guess that’s what makes us Grognards. We remember when things were done right. However, I know that not every original product from the beginning was of the most resilient manufacture. Some items were of the thinnest newsprint and did not bear up well. So it is relative. However, my first experience with a DM screen set the bar for what I want.

For $10 I want something sturdier than the material used for a free GM screen, like the one for DCC and FreeRPG Day 2015. My druthers for such light card stock would be to have them as inserts for one of the models that can take inserts, such as those from OBS. I ordered the portrait screen for something else. It should arrive next week or so. I will have a review once it arrives.

OneBookShelf GM Screens: