I was watching a documentary on the Roman Legions. I do that. This one is of a fairly high quality - entertaining and doesn’t look like it was filmed in some professor’s backyard. But there is one thing I just cannot stand watching and it has me off watching the series past episode 2. Every time they show a battle scene, the legionnaires immediately charge forward and get into a scrum with the barbarians. In several cases they throw off their helmets and throw down their shields in order to get into some Errol Flynn style sword/fencing match with the Gauls. This is the dumbest thing I have ever seen on TV! OK, probably not, but ...
You know those huge tower shields the legions used? They had value! There was a point to them! The point was not to mix it up with a barbarian horde and let the enemy spearmen get behind you where you can’t see them when they are stabbing you. If this was actually the way that Caesar fought battles, he would have been dead in Lesbos.
But I have a new group of folks playing Legend Quest, and guess what? Yep, they do it too! You might remember the first mission of the Holy War. The Cavalcade of Champions rides out to gather up the materials that their god sent them. On the way, they run into some centaur bandits who are looting farm houses. They are 300 yards away (maybe 300’, it doesn’t matter). Seeing the centaurs, having the advantage of time and distance, having party members who are of all different skills and archetypes, what do they do? Everyone immediately looks down at their character sheets to see how far they can run in a turn.
Not one of them thought, “Gee, maybe we could form a defensive formation to keep the centaurs off our squishy healer.” No one thought, “I bet I could hit them with my bow as they charge towards us and still have time to get my melee weapon out.” No, “I could dodge their first bow attack and be ready to meet their charge with my planted spear.” One of them is a flame paladin who’s main attack is to cast flame blade on his weapon and then enter into the fight. Did he stop to cast flame blade? No!
Now, they’re new to LQ, so I need to blame something. I blame that original game with five or more versions. Why? Because defense was useless in that game. One of the driving forces behind the way we wrote Legend Quest was trying to make “Captain America” under those other rules. A shield was +1 to armor. A 5% less chance of getting hit. That’s nothing! Sure, it could have been a magic shield yadda yadda, but Cap’s shield skills are what make him so good.
I don’t remember the partial cover rules in that other game, but I recall taking cover once and thinking, that’s all I get? There is some truth to a good offense leading to less of a need for a good defense, but that adage assumes that there is a defense. If the game rules make it so you cannot defend yourself, then what is the ever loving point?
I get that I’m ranting - That’s OK. It’s a blog post, this happens. What you need to take away as a GM is: If your game makes trying to defend yourself all but useless, no one will do it. At that point, the only “strategy” becomes how much damage can I do? If you’re a player, lure them into your trap. If you don’t have a trap, figure one out! The vast majority of bad guys fought in FRPGs are relatively mindless and should be expected to charge at you. You don’t have to be that mindless! Whether it is a magical spell that aids your party’s defense, or a trap you can place in front of you to damage them before they get to you (like a bear trap or some glyph or ward, not digging a pit) or is it is simply dodging their attacks until they get right where you want them where you can surround them - either mindlessly charging forward or mindlessly watching them charge you is not role-playing. People in real life aren’t that stupid.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Does fashion matter?
I’m just jumping right in this time!
Yes, it can. Take for example where your pants are worn and where your belt is. We think of belts being around the waist, but what if you wear lederhosen? OK, any “overalls” or pants held up by suspenders? You don’t have a belt. Sure, you can add a belt, but is it practical? OK, going off to war, you are not going to wear lederhosen, so where your sword swings from probably doesn’t matter. But ...
What if your belt is around your middle (your tummy), and not your waist? At different periods of time / fashion, the belts were worn much higher than they are today. This was actually a thing as to where pistol holsters are worn - right or left. If your belt is higher, you must cross draw your weapons; you can’t effectively draw them from a same side sheathe. Does this matter? Sure. Is a cross draw as fast as a same side draw? Arguable, but I don’t think so. I base that on some study of Wild West shooters and the means they went to in hopes of being faster draws. So if all you care about is combat and not fashion, it would be important to know if fashion slowed down your combat initiatives.
I’m sure you think this is very silly and has no aspect in your fantasy game, but you’re wrong. This is one tiny example. Boots vs. sandals vs. moccasins. Pants vs. breeches. Socks vs. nothing. Weapon belt vs. bandoleer, especially when you are considering firing a bow. These things are actually important. Let’s go farther: cotton vs. wool - imagine how much faster a travelling army gets overheated when there is no cotton gin and they are all wearing wool uniforms in the heat. Other ideas abound: wool is warm, even when wet, but it is also godawful heavy when wet. Cotton is cool in the heat and breathes, but is ineffective against the cold when wet. Leather can be stiflingly hot. I have always assumed that the steel used in fantasy games can rust - is steel the fashion or is bronze? Are there any issues with wearing brass buttons when being attacked by lightning bolts, as opposed to possibly wearing wood toggles? In the Central Plains, the well-dressed man does not use buttons at all, but instead steel or silver cufflinks and studs. That just might draw a lightning bolt right into his chest.
Sometimes there are valid things that work well in some cases and poor in others. A low ranking officer may have an extra high plume or ridge on his helmet (think of the centurions). This is great for identifying where the officer is, but does it put him at a disadvantage in combat - if someone grabs it. Here fashion probably dictates that that fancy thing break off very easily or else put these guys at a disadvantage. Do you know that police officers always wear clip on ties? Yeah, for this exact reason - no need to give a criminal an easy noose by which to attack the officer.
Let’s get back into some of the silly: Despite watching Scarlet Johansson do incredible fights in stiletto heels, I have to assume that female adventurers don’t go for that kind of thing, but would they be wearing them at a nightclub if they were caught off guard? Are the men wearing those goofy looking long toed shoes that could severely affect their fighting abilities if caught off guard. Now sure, the gold farmers say, my character doesn’t wear those things even if they are fashionable. Fine - then everyone in the bar is making jokes about the fact that you’ve got no “length”. Yep, they are calling you “small penis” because you made a fashion faux pas. You sure you’re OK with that?
Look, I’m less interested in coming up with goofy encounters where it might actually make a difference, and more interested in making things make sense and sometimes be important. If you show up in Rhum wearing a great coat of indigo dyed wool, they know you’re from Scaret, or at least they assume you are. If you show up in Scaret wearing a coat of beaver, they are going to guess you’re from Rhum. If you are from Scaret, chances are your coin purse is hanging from the middle of your belt or around your neck. If you’re from Rhum there is a good chance you have a pocket on the front of your lederhosen. From Garnock? belt pouch on the right side. Does it matter? It does if the GM wants someone to try and pick your pocket!
Fashion does matter, more often to differentiate people, but sometimes in battle conditions. Knowing things like this can make it vastly easier on GMs. If the GM says, you look down and your coin purse is gone - does the player immediately start arguing saying, he can’t get my coin purse - I keep it in my underwear? OK, maybe I went too far there, but in any case, the GM can say - dude - you’re wearing a kilt, so you have no underwear. Your coin purse was that fur thing hanging in the front. If the GM actually knows, it solves the argument.
For when the player still wants to argue, the GM needs to say, “All those times you walked into the bar and paid for drinks - Did you really stick your hands down your pants and into your underwear, because I wasn’t reducing you carousing chances with a -150% as I should have. Again, a little harsh, but you can say - you agreed that you did not stick out, which means you followed normal fashion rules, which means you had the central hanging purse. At least I hope that works for you. Sometimes it works because it should, and sometimes it works because BSing with authority works.
Running your players through something like our Forsbury After Hours encounters is the perfect time to force fashion on them. Adventurers wind up in bars and bar patrons often wind up flirting with other bar patrons or the bar staff. Just like in the real world, if you are walking around the bar dressed either for a night of camping in the snow or for a military encounter, you are going to be pointed at and probably mocked. Does that matter? Maybe not. Maybe all of these player characters are truly humble people who simply cannot be bothered with how their peers and hopeful romantic encounters perceive them. Yeah -That’s a lie.
Reminding your players how ridiculous their characters look sitting in a bar in full plate armor should be easy. “Hey Lancelot - worried about getting poked with a toothpick?” “Armor? In a tavern? How chicken $#!+ are you?” “Is that your sword or are compensating for other short items around your belt?” Chances are, your players just might start to think through what is socially allowable and what is just plain silly.
Yes, it can. Take for example where your pants are worn and where your belt is. We think of belts being around the waist, but what if you wear lederhosen? OK, any “overalls” or pants held up by suspenders? You don’t have a belt. Sure, you can add a belt, but is it practical? OK, going off to war, you are not going to wear lederhosen, so where your sword swings from probably doesn’t matter. But ...
What if your belt is around your middle (your tummy), and not your waist? At different periods of time / fashion, the belts were worn much higher than they are today. This was actually a thing as to where pistol holsters are worn - right or left. If your belt is higher, you must cross draw your weapons; you can’t effectively draw them from a same side sheathe. Does this matter? Sure. Is a cross draw as fast as a same side draw? Arguable, but I don’t think so. I base that on some study of Wild West shooters and the means they went to in hopes of being faster draws. So if all you care about is combat and not fashion, it would be important to know if fashion slowed down your combat initiatives.
I’m sure you think this is very silly and has no aspect in your fantasy game, but you’re wrong. This is one tiny example. Boots vs. sandals vs. moccasins. Pants vs. breeches. Socks vs. nothing. Weapon belt vs. bandoleer, especially when you are considering firing a bow. These things are actually important. Let’s go farther: cotton vs. wool - imagine how much faster a travelling army gets overheated when there is no cotton gin and they are all wearing wool uniforms in the heat. Other ideas abound: wool is warm, even when wet, but it is also godawful heavy when wet. Cotton is cool in the heat and breathes, but is ineffective against the cold when wet. Leather can be stiflingly hot. I have always assumed that the steel used in fantasy games can rust - is steel the fashion or is bronze? Are there any issues with wearing brass buttons when being attacked by lightning bolts, as opposed to possibly wearing wood toggles? In the Central Plains, the well-dressed man does not use buttons at all, but instead steel or silver cufflinks and studs. That just might draw a lightning bolt right into his chest.
Sometimes there are valid things that work well in some cases and poor in others. A low ranking officer may have an extra high plume or ridge on his helmet (think of the centurions). This is great for identifying where the officer is, but does it put him at a disadvantage in combat - if someone grabs it. Here fashion probably dictates that that fancy thing break off very easily or else put these guys at a disadvantage. Do you know that police officers always wear clip on ties? Yeah, for this exact reason - no need to give a criminal an easy noose by which to attack the officer.
Let’s get back into some of the silly: Despite watching Scarlet Johansson do incredible fights in stiletto heels, I have to assume that female adventurers don’t go for that kind of thing, but would they be wearing them at a nightclub if they were caught off guard? Are the men wearing those goofy looking long toed shoes that could severely affect their fighting abilities if caught off guard. Now sure, the gold farmers say, my character doesn’t wear those things even if they are fashionable. Fine - then everyone in the bar is making jokes about the fact that you’ve got no “length”. Yep, they are calling you “small penis” because you made a fashion faux pas. You sure you’re OK with that?
Look, I’m less interested in coming up with goofy encounters where it might actually make a difference, and more interested in making things make sense and sometimes be important. If you show up in Rhum wearing a great coat of indigo dyed wool, they know you’re from Scaret, or at least they assume you are. If you show up in Scaret wearing a coat of beaver, they are going to guess you’re from Rhum. If you are from Scaret, chances are your coin purse is hanging from the middle of your belt or around your neck. If you’re from Rhum there is a good chance you have a pocket on the front of your lederhosen. From Garnock? belt pouch on the right side. Does it matter? It does if the GM wants someone to try and pick your pocket!
Fashion does matter, more often to differentiate people, but sometimes in battle conditions. Knowing things like this can make it vastly easier on GMs. If the GM says, you look down and your coin purse is gone - does the player immediately start arguing saying, he can’t get my coin purse - I keep it in my underwear? OK, maybe I went too far there, but in any case, the GM can say - dude - you’re wearing a kilt, so you have no underwear. Your coin purse was that fur thing hanging in the front. If the GM actually knows, it solves the argument.
For when the player still wants to argue, the GM needs to say, “All those times you walked into the bar and paid for drinks - Did you really stick your hands down your pants and into your underwear, because I wasn’t reducing you carousing chances with a -150% as I should have. Again, a little harsh, but you can say - you agreed that you did not stick out, which means you followed normal fashion rules, which means you had the central hanging purse. At least I hope that works for you. Sometimes it works because it should, and sometimes it works because BSing with authority works.
Running your players through something like our Forsbury After Hours encounters is the perfect time to force fashion on them. Adventurers wind up in bars and bar patrons often wind up flirting with other bar patrons or the bar staff. Just like in the real world, if you are walking around the bar dressed either for a night of camping in the snow or for a military encounter, you are going to be pointed at and probably mocked. Does that matter? Maybe not. Maybe all of these player characters are truly humble people who simply cannot be bothered with how their peers and hopeful romantic encounters perceive them. Yeah -That’s a lie.
Reminding your players how ridiculous their characters look sitting in a bar in full plate armor should be easy. “Hey Lancelot - worried about getting poked with a toothpick?” “Armor? In a tavern? How chicken $#!+ are you?” “Is that your sword or are compensating for other short items around your belt?” Chances are, your players just might start to think through what is socially allowable and what is just plain silly.
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Traveling - Around the World
My favorite novel of all times is Around the World in 80 Days or The Tour of the World in 80 Days as my first edition shows. Yep - no kidding, that’s a first edition - I have the coolest wife!
Most of you know the story - Set in 1872, Phileas Fogg bets that he can get all the way around the world in 80 days. His “friends” are mocking him, because in order to do that he would have to catch every train on time, every ship, etc. without missing one “appointment”. But that’s what Phileas Fogg is - punctual. He’s a planner. He knows he can do this.
I think this is the point that we forget about “the olden days”. Ships and trains didn’t run on time. If it took a ship three weeks to cross the Atlantic, the ship might come in after 18-27 days depending on the weather. They didn’t have watches and didn’t need them, because no one was expected to be that “on time”. (OK, they had them in 1872, but not the olden days.)
Now to be fair, a lot of them were better at telling time than we are. The farmers could look at the sky and know whether it was roughly 10:30 or roughly 1:30. I’ve spent my life as a Boy Scout and probably couldn’t do that. They also had other ways of telling the time - like church bells, or instead chimes from the “public” clock. But the point is - they didn’t make plans to meet each other at 4:15. They didn’t make plans to leave on a sailing ship at 10:55 in order to avoid clustering in the port.
So what did they do? Well, ships typically sailed on the morning or evening tides. I’ve never quite figured out how tides work in the real world, and Fletnern has three moons, so for me this gets really complicated! But it is not unreasonable to assume that people who live in a port town and either expect to be on ships or meet ships, would have an understanding of what the right times would be.
But, I think this gives us one more insight into jobs in the fantasy world that we don’t consider. If it matters to a merchant when his cargo ship comes in - He’s going to pay some kid to sit at the dock all day and when the ship with the green striped sails and the orange flag is coming into port, the kid is going to run and tell the merchant. It’s probably less of a “kid - sit here and wait” and more of a “the first kid who tells me about the ship gets three silvers”. But in any case - this now adds kids to the docks.
Why? Why do you care? Well, who’s at the dock when ships come in? Do your PCs just take a ship to the new city they’ve never seen and you tell them, “OK, so you’re there”. OK - That is one way of setting the scene, and admittedly, I have absolutely done that before. But what happens if you were planning to have the port authority accuse the PCs of being pirates as soon as they landed? There is probably going to be a fight, hopefully not to the death, but a fight. Who’s in the way? Is your port a bustling place with porters, stevedores, spotter kids, beggars, sailors looking for work, the harbor master and his guys, the city guards, piles of crates and pyramids of barrels? Or is it a flat wooden structure perfectly clear if someone were to cast a fireball? See, you gold farmers out there thought it didn’t matter, but even if these people and supplies are simply cover or potential hostages, knowing who they are and why they are there is important.
The real point of this is that business in a fantasy era cannot move at the pace that ours does, no matter what magical technology you use. Even simply meeting someone for lunch at 11:30 has to give both parties a ±20 minutes. While this doesn’t affect combat, it does affect how the bars and restaurants treat their patrons, because they have to be ready to entertain lone diners for some time while they wait for their friend(s). So while we still today have taverns attached to restaurants, this “lounge” area just became a whole lot more important.
While trying to figure out how it affects After Hours is important right now, it also affects normal life. You are summoned to see the king. At what time? Well, now! You get to the palace, and what? Well, the king has people in front of you in “line”. They probably want to stash you somewhere, but where? Palaces, mansions, and now business offices have sitting rooms and other forms of lounges where they can stash people for short periods while they wait. Without precise time keeping, this is a requirement. Plus, the host probably does not want various guests speaking with each other. “Why are you here?” “Oh, I believe the king is hiring me to go and kill some ambassador who is in town.” “Gulp!” says the ambassador.
This is just a different way of thinking about your world and the people in it! Fantasy life is different from modern life, and utilizing some of these mechanisms may be a good way to stimulate some role-playing amongst your players.
Most of you know the story - Set in 1872, Phileas Fogg bets that he can get all the way around the world in 80 days. His “friends” are mocking him, because in order to do that he would have to catch every train on time, every ship, etc. without missing one “appointment”. But that’s what Phileas Fogg is - punctual. He’s a planner. He knows he can do this.
I think this is the point that we forget about “the olden days”. Ships and trains didn’t run on time. If it took a ship three weeks to cross the Atlantic, the ship might come in after 18-27 days depending on the weather. They didn’t have watches and didn’t need them, because no one was expected to be that “on time”. (OK, they had them in 1872, but not the olden days.)
Now to be fair, a lot of them were better at telling time than we are. The farmers could look at the sky and know whether it was roughly 10:30 or roughly 1:30. I’ve spent my life as a Boy Scout and probably couldn’t do that. They also had other ways of telling the time - like church bells, or instead chimes from the “public” clock. But the point is - they didn’t make plans to meet each other at 4:15. They didn’t make plans to leave on a sailing ship at 10:55 in order to avoid clustering in the port.
So what did they do? Well, ships typically sailed on the morning or evening tides. I’ve never quite figured out how tides work in the real world, and Fletnern has three moons, so for me this gets really complicated! But it is not unreasonable to assume that people who live in a port town and either expect to be on ships or meet ships, would have an understanding of what the right times would be.
But, I think this gives us one more insight into jobs in the fantasy world that we don’t consider. If it matters to a merchant when his cargo ship comes in - He’s going to pay some kid to sit at the dock all day and when the ship with the green striped sails and the orange flag is coming into port, the kid is going to run and tell the merchant. It’s probably less of a “kid - sit here and wait” and more of a “the first kid who tells me about the ship gets three silvers”. But in any case - this now adds kids to the docks.
Why? Why do you care? Well, who’s at the dock when ships come in? Do your PCs just take a ship to the new city they’ve never seen and you tell them, “OK, so you’re there”. OK - That is one way of setting the scene, and admittedly, I have absolutely done that before. But what happens if you were planning to have the port authority accuse the PCs of being pirates as soon as they landed? There is probably going to be a fight, hopefully not to the death, but a fight. Who’s in the way? Is your port a bustling place with porters, stevedores, spotter kids, beggars, sailors looking for work, the harbor master and his guys, the city guards, piles of crates and pyramids of barrels? Or is it a flat wooden structure perfectly clear if someone were to cast a fireball? See, you gold farmers out there thought it didn’t matter, but even if these people and supplies are simply cover or potential hostages, knowing who they are and why they are there is important.
The real point of this is that business in a fantasy era cannot move at the pace that ours does, no matter what magical technology you use. Even simply meeting someone for lunch at 11:30 has to give both parties a ±20 minutes. While this doesn’t affect combat, it does affect how the bars and restaurants treat their patrons, because they have to be ready to entertain lone diners for some time while they wait for their friend(s). So while we still today have taverns attached to restaurants, this “lounge” area just became a whole lot more important.
While trying to figure out how it affects After Hours is important right now, it also affects normal life. You are summoned to see the king. At what time? Well, now! You get to the palace, and what? Well, the king has people in front of you in “line”. They probably want to stash you somewhere, but where? Palaces, mansions, and now business offices have sitting rooms and other forms of lounges where they can stash people for short periods while they wait. Without precise time keeping, this is a requirement. Plus, the host probably does not want various guests speaking with each other. “Why are you here?” “Oh, I believe the king is hiring me to go and kill some ambassador who is in town.” “Gulp!” says the ambassador.
This is just a different way of thinking about your world and the people in it! Fantasy life is different from modern life, and utilizing some of these mechanisms may be a good way to stimulate some role-playing amongst your players.
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