Levels Beyond Basic version 8 is up!

In fact, BOTH sections of Volume I are up; Section 1 - Characters and Combat, and Section 2 - Magic.

ODT is a wonderful medium to work in, but just not Libre Office 3. Before the upgrade to Ubuntu 12.04.whatever, the default ODT MSWord clone worked just fine. There were no hang-ups when I created odts that had 50 or more pages, with or without pictures, columns, footers & headers, and whenever I converted the odt into pdf - the finished product would not hiccup and bounce the inserted pics to the next empty page and otherwise screw up my page settings.

So, due to my own lack of time and patience to sit down & figure out why these things are happening, I just split LBB into 2 parts. There is nearly 30 pages of other stuff that wound up on the editing floor, and did not make it into this version. Most of it is a section on Variant spellcaster classes that needs a lot more work to make it presentable to my players as a set of house rules. This section may wind up in Volume III, the Referee's Guide.

Another biggie that got the ax is the "Spell Index" sorted by schools. This was cut due to the expected size of the index when finished (I only have the MU, Cleric and Druid spells listed so far - and I have yet to finish the Illusionist & Witch spells!), and b sorting spells by school, the rules would shift ever so blatantly towards the Advanced game, even if classifying all spells according to AD&D schools is primarily a tool to help players & refs design new spells.

Cutting the index led in turn to the cutting of the Vancian Spell section. There are only a handful of finished spells for this section and several hundred Vancian spell names with only another hundred or so with the barest descriptions of what the spell can do.

Of the final thing to get cut is the Warlock Variant and the Tiefling race. These are pet projects of mine, and may eventually find their way into a house rules supplement. For now, I am primarily designing a Tiefling Warlock class for a new player who likes these sort of things. For that matter, I rather like Tieflings, and I think that the Warlock class is a drop-dead fit for that race. Unfortunately, it may not blend so well with the implied setting of Holmes and Portown. Time will tell, and thankfully so, as I will have to spend quite a bit of it to perfect this race & class for LBB rules.

WHEW! Now that Volume I of "Levels Beyond Basic" is finished, its a load off my mind, and now I can start serious development on the second volume tentatively titled: "Holmes' Hordes & Hoards". I originally wanted to reprint all the monsters and treasures from 0e, Holmes & the Supplements, only put together  - exactly like the Monster Manual, and the treasure section of the DMG...

However, that idea never really settled well with me, since, if I want HH&H to look just like the MM & DMG, why not just use the MM & DMG instead of reinventing the wheel yet again? So, taking a cue from the ingenious "Dungeon Alphabet" for S&W or Labyrinth Lord (or any OSR game for that matter), I will attempt to present monsters and treasures in a slightly different way. In fact, it may turn out to look a lot like the Monster & Treasure Assortment supplements, but there are a lot of little extras that I will throw in too.

Things like: a "Why is This Monster Here?" table; a Holmesian monster name generator; the Portown Wandering Monster Encounter Table (geared towards my own version of Portown), an Ancient & Rare Coins table, and other variations on random magic items, and some other things I thought of whilst driving at work last night and promptly forgot about...

I continue to change Volume III's name, which may be a fortunate thing. At this moment, it is tentatively titled "The Holmes' Referee's Portown Guide", or the HRPG. I expect that Volume III will most likely undergo several more name changes until it is finally finished.

I am continually finding a lot of things to cram into the Ref's Portown Guide, and I am afraid that it may be easier to rename all of my optional rules and slap a "HRPG Supplement" tag on the cover of each and be done with it!

I have so many things ready to go, but have never released (due to art & copyright stuff), that without further editing, could take up 100 or more pages already. Just thinking about it exhausts me. :P

Anyhoo, most of this is purely speculative until its actually finished. LBB vol. I is not really finished, because I'll always toy with the writing and go in and find typos and contradictions in the rules I added, but mainly, it'll never be finished until I find or make my own original art for it.

Also, I do not intend to start a kickstarter, crowdfund, or patronize for any sort of campaign of other people's money to put this into print. It'll always be free, as long as it stays up, and not declared to be an illegal document.

Any modules I create for 0e, Holmes, Basic, Advanced, or otherwise OSRIC, or OSR in general is another story. I could rationalize selling modules or adventures (campaigns) on Drivethru or RPGNow for a few bucks or cents, whichever comes first. :D

Delayed Actions in Combat

   The work on the Reference Sheets has been a long time in coming, and I've finally found that window of motivation to throw myself into. The major changes so far have centered on removing the Spell Casting in Combat table, as it is no longer relevant, and revising the Combat Round Sequence, and subsequently, the Order of Events section in LBB.

   But lest I forget, the biggest change in the LBB was to split it into two sections - the Characters and Combat Section and the Magic Section. Both sections weigh in at around 47 to 50 pages now, and my OS seems to be handling them a lot smoother. I will post them at some point after this series of revisions; hopefully I will find a bit of temporary art to put at the head of the Magic Section. I am still working on a few penciled pieces, but they are nowhere near what I want for the book(s). 

   One detail that struck me while I edited the Combat Round Sequence was the usefulness of Delayed Actions. Basically, the initiative winner of the Surprise, First & all Subsequent rounds has the option of delaying a specific action until later in the round, and it occurred to me that I want to expand on the idea to make it more palatable to players and point out the usefulness of a delayed action.

   Combat in LBB is primarily Dex based, as Holmes Basic combat is; the character, NPC or monster with the highest Dexterity goes first, however, I have put in the option of rolling a 1d6 for each side or individual, as each group will have their own preferences.

   However, a Delayed Action is specifically designed to be very advantageous for those characters with high Dexterity, it is a common sense thing to see it codified in LBB. I don't even recall where I picked up the Delayed Action rule, but I thought it would open up combat in unexpected ways if players know about it, and could possibly use it when the Initiative is theirs. (Of course, the Referee should use it too when the Opposing Side has the Initiative!)

   To clarify who can delay an action in combat, in the case of 1d6 per side style initiative, the Initiative Winning side combatants each may delay their actions; Individual 1d6 winners and Dexterity based Initiative, anyone may declare a delayed action IF that action is used against an opponent with a lower Dexterity.

   The first useful thing I thought of in using a Delayed Action is to delay one's attack until a specific action by an opponent happens. Examples include triggering a trap set by the party (pull rope "A" to trigger deadfall of rocks and lumber at "B"), firing a nocked arrow at an opponent if they reach for the Gold Maguffin, or running to block a melee opponent attempting to charge the party's spell-caster who is attempting to cast a spell.

   Are these adequate examples of player strategy for your groups? Besides really flumphing the attack roll, is there any drawback to declaring a Delayed Action in combat? Is there anyway to encourage 'thinking outside the box' by offering more concrete examples of Delayed Actions?

   This topic has the possibility of being another useful Sidebar topic in the LBB. :)

Technical Difficulties

Its been a few weeks since I posted anything here, and I do have a reply/download issue with the blog, so I am addressing both problems right now.

First of all, if you cannot reply to the blog, I really must apologize. I am sure I set this sucker up to allow everyone to reply, but like facebook, it appears I must continuously twiddle with the controls to keep it on the straight & narrow.

Disclaimer: I'll say this about myself right now: I am not an expert with computers, html, or web design in general. I drive for a living, so I don't have the opportunity to do anything - apart from drive when I'm at work. Bless the geeks who can while they work!  I use a Linux OS because its user-friendly up to a point, and then (like every Windows or Mac user) you actually have to stretch yourself and learn something new.

For those of you who are experiencing a lot of problems with downloading the current version of Levels Beyond Basic and the Reference Sheets, email me at -- rgweber67 (at) gmail (dot) com. I'll send it to you that way.

Version 7 will be uploaded for your downloading pleasure within minutes or hours after I post this. More minor cosmetic changes, but now there is a clear division of sections: Additions & Corrections, Character Classes, Demi-Human Races, Equipment & Encumbrance, The Combat Encounter, and Magic. I'm not sure if its my laptop that's feeling a bit wonky lately, or if its another issue with Libre 3 - the Linux installed odt writer, which is part of the LibreOffice package that mimics Microsoft's Office Word related programs.

The thing is, once any odt gets to around 100 pages in any other format but single column, its easy to throw it out of whack, although I admit that having over 100 tables may have something to do with it. Adding pictures will immediately crash it, and in one instance, I could not re-open the document. I lost everything I had written, but a friend had a copy of my work so far, and sent me a text version of it, allowing me to start over from scratch. 

At this point, it may be easier for me to whack off the Magic section and cut the document nearly in half. The Magic section will be its own separate book, but still part of the LBB.

IF you know of another office 'suite' of programs that is directly compatible with Linux/Ubuntu, mimics Microsoft's Office suite, and does not have the problems that LibreOffice does, please tell me where to find it, and how to install it. The original office suite that came with my first Ubuntu OS install was vastly superior, but the kind programmers who do work for all free Linux products dropped support for it, and I can't find it anywhere. (That's not completely true; the last time I searched for it was a couple years ago, and a new search right now may uncover it!)

What the hell was it called?

My run on my neighbor's wifi router will soon come to a close, and I'll be back to making guerrilla posts from the coffee shop across the street. Not that I was particularly productive on my blog since getting internet connection here in my apartment, as it was always too easy to get sucked into facebook, or the entire Red Dwarf collection on youtube. 

There is no excuse really, and just think of all the online job apps I could've filled out while sitting here at home! (Ever try to apply for a job somewhere else - and even though you brought an accordion folder full of vital info, you still forgot something at home! This is why its so hard for me to fill out apps online when I'm NOT at home, but thats a different story. 

Oh! Look at the time! /rant

Dragonsfoot Link

I must apologize for my clumsy blog skills. Apparently I have to do something with the link, rather than cut&paste, so I will try to get a working link up here:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69952&p=1625288#p1625288

Edit: No dice. I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties. Please adjust my XP to reflect this encounter. :(

Either Blogger sucks at making permalinks, my Linux/Ubuntu OS is having problems interfacing with Firefox, or I have connectivity issues. Maybe all of the above...

Re-Rolling All Hit Dice Every Level

From a 1st Edition AD&D Dragonsfoot thread: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=69952&p=1625288#p1625288

It was noted by some members that the wording in 0e's "Men & Magic" concerning the accumulated hits of PCs might require players to re-roll their hit dice every time they gain a level. Apparently, this is a standing rule in Empire of the Petal Throne, but I have never read those rules, so I can only take it on faith that a lot of someone's aren't pulling my chain.

There are two ways to look at this interpretation of the rule, if used this way:
1 - The re-rolled hits stand, and PCs may wind up with fewer hits at their current level than when they rolled their hits on previous levels.
2 - The group may decide that no PC can lose hits when re-rolling, either standing pat at their current hits (even after re-rolling) or the PC is entitled to gain at least 1 hit if the re-rolled total is less than the previous level's re-roll for hits.
 

I've experimented with this house ruling, and the players I had at the time (5 or 6 years ago) hated it. Well, all but one adventurous player hated it. The player who actually liked the idea suggested the second caveat above.
 

Now, I think about the bell curve and the general law of averages when rolling dice, and I don't have any scientific evidence to back me up, but I think it is more likely to roll higher numbers when rolling a handful of dice every level than it is to roll a single die and adding it to the accumulated total.

I am looking to adding this variant to my house rules, so any feedback on the subject, pro or con is welcome!

Levels Beyond Basic assumes 4 related rules when considering hit points:
1 - Characters use the Hit Dice based on class from Greyhawk and Holmes.
2 - Monsters use Hit Dice from Greyhawk and Holmes.
3 - Weapons cause damage according to type from Greyhawk
4 - Monsters cause damage according to type from Greyhawk and Holmes

If the hit point determination method above is offered as a variant rule in Levels Beyond Basic, how would it affect the game with the 4 related rules? Would it offer players a chance to get better hits over time, or would it add an unnecessary level of danger to PCs with low hits?

Counter Spell Revised

Counterspells are part of my house rules that I've started to collect in a document that I call "Levels Beyond Basic", or "LBB". Each class has a few other abilities that I'll eventually post here. The first one I'm detailing is Counterspells, posted earlier last night right before I went to bed.

This version is a bit tighter, and now only available to Magic-Users. It still isn't as perfect as I think it can be, but as I'm ready to go to work, I'll post it now and let you guys take a crack at it. :)

Only Magic-Users can counterspell. A magic-user of higher level than his or her opponent can successfully counter a spell on a roll of 8 or better on 2d6. A magic-user of equal level as his or her opponent successfully counters a spell on a roll of 9 or better on 2d6. A magic-user of lower level than his or her opponent casting a spell must roll 10 or better on 2d6.

The countering magic-user must sacrifice an uncast spell to counterspell, but the magic-user suffers a -1 to Dex for initiative, as does any magic-user casting a spell gets a -1 to Dex equal to the spell level. A lower level spell sacrificed may counter a cast spell of higher level on a roll of 10 or better on 2d6.

Devices using charges; i.e., wands, staves, rods, that cast spells (spell-storing items such as necklaces or amulets included) may be used to counter a spell, but the device using Magic-User is not penalized against his or her Dexterity for determining initiative, but the device must be in hand. Using a device to counter a spell uses one charge, and counters a spell on a roll of 9 or better on 2d6.

Magic-users may only counter one spell per combat round if there is combat, or one spell every turn if there is no combat taking place. The countering magic-user may not cast any spells in the round or turn that a counter spell is performed. Spells cast from memory, scrolls, or spell books may be countered. Clerical spells may not be countered by magic-users. Spell-like effects that are activated by a device or weapon may not be countered unless a counterspell effect like the Rod of Cancellation is used.

Countering spells is not a magical effect or spell, rather it is anti-magical in nature, and consists of the Magic-User performing somatic gestures, uttering words and applying substances that cancel magical effects. A Dispell Magic spell or activated item with dispelling effects cancels the effects of a counter spell action.

Old School Skills, Feats & Counterspells

One reason why I moved back to Holmes, 0e, AD&D & BX is the simplicity of the system, especially when it concerns character abilities and skills.  Holmes, 0e, and BX never had a skill system that we would recognize as official, but it was AD&D that first led us down the skill path by offering "Secondary Skills", and eventually "Proficiencies". The BECMI sets called them "General Skills" and "Weapon Mastery".

I don't want to get into the mechanics of each system, aside from stating that 0e, Holmes, early AD&D and BX had all the skill system it needed with the Bend Bars/Lift Gates, Listen and Detect Secret Door checks. I also won't touch on the Thief Skills, as these are clearly a class ability, just as casting spells for Magic-Users and Turning Undead for Clerics, but I will say that this leaves the wide choice of weapons and armor and Hit Dice as the Fighter's class ability.

Now the problem lies with enticing "modern" D&D players that a D&D system is just as complete without Skills or Feats. The problem is, according to one old school gamer, is that skills and feats should be clearly defined as to what characters can and cannot do in the game, because players will take advantage of any loophole found in an incomplete system and gain an unfair advantage over the referee and disrupt the scenario, or, as some like to call it: "Game Balance".

Game Balance is a slippery slope topic of its very own, and I won't go into that here either. What I want to call attention to is how a D&D game without skills is still just as complete as a game with every skill and feat system that is clearly defined in the rules, if not more so.

As a player in our old group's semi-weekly AD&D 2e game, I was often stymied by "Captain Shirk" (our DM) when I would declare an action for my PC, only to have him ask me if I had any relevant proficiencies. I would scan my sheet and invariably answer in the negative - and he would usually tell me that I had slim to no chance of successfully performing the declared action. After several sessions of this, I became thoughtful of the skill/feat/proficiency system, and came to two conclusions:
1) If your character doesn't have a particular skill/feat/proficiency, the majority of players and DMs believe that certain actions will nearly always fail when attempted, and the only sure-fire way of being successful, or even having a slim chance at success is to have that particular skill/feat/proficiency.
2) This particular interpretation of the rules was never intended to limit players or their characters, it was intended to enhance their choices when it comes to role-playing.

So far as my experience with D&D goes, I've always felt that my characters that never had one single skill/feat/proficiency written down on the character sheet had a lot more freedom to act according to the situation than a character that was 'limited' by having a short list of the things he was allowed to do.

Anything the character wanted to attempt could be decided solely on referee decision, and a simple die roll, usually on a d6, d20 or d%. In many groups, an Ability Check is considered the standard practice for determining success or failure to performing any undefined action not covered in the rules, and I prefer it that way.

Of course, I have a mental list of what each character can succeed at more readily than others based on race or class. Fighters know how to fight with anything they pick up, even if its a radical design of a known weapon. Thieves know who to contact in town to fence loot. Dwarves never lose direction underground, even after regaining consciousness. Elves talk to trees. Most times, the trees don't have the capability to talk back, but if the party is going through a forest with an elf, a reaction bonus from an Ent is sure handy. Hobbits can cook, and can even take the skimpiest ingredients to make a stew that is somewhat passable. At least the other characters won't get food poisoning or starve. Clerics can Turn Undead, and once they reach 2nd level can cast any Divinely given spells allowable at their level without having to memorize it. Magic-Users can use magic items that other classes aren't allowed to, and can activate the abilities of weapons and items they aren't allowed to use as weapons, and they can counter spells.

Based on Chainmail's Counterspell rules, a magic-user of higher level than his or her opponent can successfully counter a spell on a roll of 6 or better on 2d6. A magic-user of equal level as his or her opponent successfully counters a spell on a roll of 7 or better on 2d6. A magic-user of lower level than his or her opponent casting a spell must roll 8 or better on 2d6. The countering magic-user can add a bonus to the die roll by sacrificing any uncast spells, adding 1 to the roll for every level of spell sacrificed this way.

Magic-users may only counter one spell per combat round if there is combat, or one spell every turn if there is no combat taking place. The countering magic-user may not cast any spells in the round or turn that a counter spell is performed. Spells cast from memory, scrolls, or spell books may be countered. Clerical spells may not be countered by magic-users, or vice versa. Spell-like effects that are activated by a device or weapon may not be countered unless a counterspell effect like the Rod of Cancellation is used.

Clerics may counter clerical spells as defined above.

Countering spells is not a magical effect or spell, rather it is a magic canceling set of gestures, actions, movement, or words used in conjunction with each other. A Dispell Magic spell or activated item with dispelling effects beats, or cancels the effects of a counter spell action.