Rogue Games Tabbloid -- April 21, 2009 Edition

21 April, 2009

Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

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own tastes aren’t normative — thank goodness!

REVIEW: Delving Deeper: Skill Systems

It’s with this in mind that I picked up Brave Halfling‘s 5-page PDF entitled Delving Deeper: Skill Systems. Retailing for only 75 cents, I find it hard to imagine that even the most diehard skill hater would’t find it useful as food for thought. That’s because author Luke Fleeman openly acknowledges the problems inherent in attaching a skill system to a class-based game. He then stresses that, despite that, skills can work with the class system rather than against it, provided one takes care to avoid some common mistakes. Speaking as a skill skeptic, I found

APR 21, 2009 05:01A.M.

Fleeman’s approach refreshing, because it encourages both advocates and naysayers alike to re-examine their stances in a constructive way. Delving Deeper: Skill Systems first provides a list of 11 skills, ranging from Open, used for forcing open doors and gates, to Persuade, used when trying to convince NPCs of something. Each of these skills is associated with an ability, a feature that becomes important later. The list of skills is a bit odd, since it specifically avoids anything that might overlap with the thief class, as well as “mundane skills like crafting and smithing.” I can certainly see the justification for the elimination of craft skills, since I’m not certain the game needs mechanical sub-systems to deal with forging a sword or weaving a basket (though I am open to being convinced otherwise). The thief question, though, is less clear. One of the main objections to the thief is that it promotes exceptionalism, which is to say, the aforementioned “if you don’t explicitly have the skill, you can’t do it” mentality. If moving silently or hiding can’t be treated as skills lest the role of the thief class be undermined, then is not a skill like Arcana, which simulates the occult knowledge a magic-user might rightly possess, similarly out of bounds? If not, why is the thief’s skill so privileged? It’s here, I think, where Skills Systems falters a bit, even if I fully understand the dilemma the author found himself in.

The utility and admissibility of skill systems are at the center of a great debate in the old school community, with many grognards being firmly of the opinion that they run counter to the logic behind character classes. What else is a character class but a particular archetype, including that archetype’s unique talents and abilities. Make skills independent of classes and you run the risk of blurring the distinctions between classes. Beyond that, skill systems bring with them additional risks. The presence of a standard mechanic for adjudicating non-combat actions makes it an attractive alternative for players who don’t wish to describe their characters’ actions and would rather trust in the dice than in the good judgment of the referee. Furthermore, taken to an extreme, skills can be interpreted in such a way that they imply that characters without a given skill cannot attempt such actions, an interpretation that elevates skills into a cornerstone of gameplay rather than as an aid to it.

The product offers three different options for how to handle skills, two of which draw on existing mechanics in the game and universalize them, while the third uses a very common house rule to do the same. Option 1 uses a simple D6 roll to determine success or failure, mimicking searches for secret doors. Option 3 uses percentage-based skills similar to a thief’s abilities. Option 2 is an ability check that relies on the ability scores associated with a given skill and a D20 roll. All three options provide rules for the initial selection of skills, as well as improvment as the characters gain new levels. Each option also includes a brief discussion of its advantages and disadvantages, a feature I appreciated.

While I’m personally in the camp that sees little point in having a skill system in a game like Dungeons & Dragons, I’ve nevetheless come round to believe that, in the right hands, they can prove useful. That a game mechanic can be abused is insufficient basis for condemning it, which is why I’ve softened my stance on thieves, for example. They’re not something I’d probably allow in my own campaign, but, fortunately, my

Delving Deeper: Skill Systems is not a ground-breaking product nor will it, I think, put an end to the philosophical debates on forums and blogs between old schoolers about the merits of skill systems. It’s a modest little product that provides food for thought, along with plenty of options, some of which can be easily retooled for other purposes, such as

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

21 April, 2009

building new class-based abilities. With its low price, I felt I more than got my money’s worth, but it’s definitely a niche product that won’t appeal to everyone. Presentation: 7 out of 10 Creativity: 5 out of 10 Utility: 5 out of 10 Buy This If: You’re looking for some alternate approaches to skills in old school games Don’t Buy This If: You have no interest in skill systems or already have a skill system you’re happy with.

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Lower Temple Completed APR 21, 2009 12:08A.M. The Lower Temple is now completed. In addition, there is a new monster, new rumors, and some alternate maps for the Lower Catacombs and Upper Catacombs.

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I realize this could be construed as a “religious” post, but, in my defense, I’ll point out that, rather than St. Peter, it’s a non-denominational angel who waits at the Pearly Gates. Of course, the comic does imply the existence of both the supernatural and the afterlife, so perhaps I’ve not covered myself as well as I ought to.

Somehow, This Seemed Appropriate APR 20, 2009 08:42P.M.

Ah well, I just thought it was apropos.

ROGUE FEED

Dwimmermount, Session 10 APR 20, 2009 05:54P.M. Yesterday’s Dwimmermount session was dominated primarily with investigation rather than combat. The players had become convinced that what they believed to be Level 2 of the dungeon was in fact a small sub-level that they’d thoroughly explored. The only means of further progression was downward, either through a hole in the floor of one room or by means of an odd, magical elevator. Both methods led them downward into a cavernous level at least some of whose chambers were filled with the silvery-black oil they’d encountered elsewhere. Since they weren’t keen on this route — at least not until they’d identified the oil with some certainty — they decided to return to Level 1 and find a

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR [email protected]

21 April, 2009

different set of stairs downward to see where they led.

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Pulp Fantasy Library: The Jewel in the Skull

Doing so they descended obviously deeper than the sub-level they’d recently explored. Whether this means they’re on a level roughly parallel to the sub-level or even further down is still unclear. Not long after doing so they had to contend with some giant spiders, a seemingly common menace in Dwimmermount. Having defeated them, they then set out to map as much of this new level as they could, to get a sense of its size and relative relationship to the levels above. In short order, they discovered that the level seemed quite extensive, with lots of chambers and twisting corridors that went in every direction.

APR 20, 2009 01:05P.M.

They came across several statues, images, and bas-reliefs that showed a similar image — a bearded human man — that they took to be representations of Turms Termax, the mysterious god of magic worshipped by the ancient Thulians and whose cult survived the fall of the Thulian empire into the present day. Other oddities they encountered were: • A topographical map of what they assumed to be the entire world, with Dwimmermount at its center. • An obelisk with strange glyphs written on it • A collection of metallic “scrolls” that used the same strange glyphs • A pumping machine that seemed to be processing the black oil into silvery “coins” that were then dropped down a chute to a lower level of the dungeon. • A symbol of a three-lobed, burning eye The party came across a group of human warriors dressed in armor of an unknown style fashioned from a weird silvery-black metal and wielding large two-handed swords of the same metal. Dordagdonar took one of the swords into his possession. He intends to take it, along with the oil he’d previously collected, to an alchemist in Adamas to see if he can learn something about its nature and origin. He is increasingly convinced that this substance, whatever it is, holds the key to understanding what is going on in Dwimmermount, as well as to determining how the party ought best to proceed.

I have a love-hate relationship with Michael Moorcock. I’m frequently attracted to his ideas but only occasionally to his writing, which I find is often sloppy and loose. Likewise, his characters are in equal parts despicable and pathetic, making it hard for me to form the attachments necessary to make my way through his stories. The primary exception to this is Dorian Hawkmoon, who makes his appearance in the 1967 novel, The Jewel in the Skull, the first part of the four-part “History of the Runestaff” series. I not only like Hawkmoon as a character, I also find the series in which he appears a fair bit more coherent than, say, the adventures of Elric. Gary Gygax noted the influence of the Hawkmoon novels over D&D, although, intriguingly, he added “esp. the first three books.” When I have more time, it might be worth trying to figure out why he said this.

This was one of those sessions where a great deal actually happened, but its events are hard to relate in an intelligible fashion to anyone who wasn’t there at the game table. Indeed, I suspect that the significance of this session will only become apparent later, after the characters have correctly identified the silvery-black oil. That’s the focus of the next session, which I expect will be much more heavily focused on events in the city-state of Adamas ...

The Jewel in the Skull takes place in “the Tragic Millennium,” a postapocalyptic future in which super-science and magic exist side by side and the world is threatened by the Dark Empire of Granbretan. This places it within a sub-set of swords-and-sorcery novels epitomized by works like The Dying Earth, where the future of our world is portrayed as a fantasy setting. Its protagonist is the aforementioned Dorian

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21 April, 2009

Hawkmoon, Duke of Köln, who, while leading a rebellion against the Dark Empire, is captured and offered a chance to escape death: aid Granbretan by acting as its agent in the Kamarg. Hawkmoon accepts this offer, along with a magical black jewel that’s placed inside his head, which prevents him from betraying his evil masters. Fortunately for Hawkmoon, the Kamarg’s ruler, Count Brass, finds a means to nullify the black jewel temporarily, setting into motion a plan by which he and Hawkmoon can foil Granbretan’s nefarious schemes. Like most Moorcock novels, The Jewel in the Skull is full of great ideas, breezily delivered. Most of the flaws evident in his other novels are here too, but I found myself quite able to overlook them, because I enjoyed the world and inhabitants Moorcock described. The Tragic Millennium is one of those settings that, while far from ground-breaking, neveretheless achieves a certain power because of the way it appropriates familiar places and names to play with — and against — our expectations of them. The result is a world that’s at once recognizable and alien, which, to my mind, is exactly the right approach when dealing with swords-andsorcery tales. Hawkmoon himself is a fairly attractive figure, neither reprehensible nor overwrought, which makes him stand out in a genre that contains too many examples of each for my liking. All in all, this is a fun book that kicks off a fun series. Even if you normally don’t like Moorcock, I recommend giving it a try.

This issue contains posts from between Apr 20, 2009 07:09a.m. and Apr 21, 2009 03:08a.m.. Visit the Rogues on the web: http://www.rogue-games.net

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