Veil of Shadows

Seems I'm returning to the seat of Referee shortly, and this time it is with a copy of Star Wars D20 system (not the one using 4th Ed's system). It plays a lot like 3rd / 3.5 Ed. with Force powers.

Crewed by a motley group of part-time smugglers and mercenaries, the Solar Serpent should be leaving dry-dock next weekend. Attendant, her Captain, Mal, the pilot Jaquet, an estranged Wookie scoundrel, rogue Jedi knight, one astromech, and a forward scouting / fray protocol droid, secondhand.

The play environment is set somewhere after Knights of the Old Republic, with the perspective (for future events and looks) coming from as if only the original Star Wars movie trilogy was made, along with any clues or suggestions to the Jedi presented there.

What terrors lurk beyond the veil of shadows, in the Old Republic?

MY APPENDIX N

 If such a thing were to exist for me, I'd believe those stated items below would consist of it. On the topic of the original, despite an interest in multiple authors, I have seen just about none of the specific works mentioned there, which is unfortunate, given my interest in what influences guide the hands of designers, but that is so.


FICTION: SCI-FI & FANTASY
Anderson, Poul - The Earth Book of Stormgate, The Broken Sword
Anthony, Piers - A Spell for Chameleon
Asimov, Isaac - Foundation, Robot Series
Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451, Here There Be Tygers, The Martian Chronicles, The Veldt
Burroughs, Edgar Rice - The Mars Trilogy, Tarzan
Crichton, Michael - Eaters of the Dead, Jurassic Park, The Lost World
Cussler, Clive - Dragon, Sahara
Eddison, E.R. - The Worm Ouroborous
Harrison, Harry - Planet of No Return, Stainless Steel Rat
Heinlein, Robert A. - Job: A Comedy of Justice, Orphans of the Sky, Stranger in a Strange Land
Herbert, Brian & Anderson, Kevin J. - The Butlerian Jihad
Herbert, Frank - Dune, Man of Two Worlds, The Dosadi Experiment, The Dragon in the Sea, The Jesus Incident, The Santaroga Barrier
Howard, Robert E. - Conan
King, Stephen - The Stand
Lewis, C.S. - From Out of the Silent Planet, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Longyear, Barry B. - Manifest Destiny
Lovecraft, Howard Philips - Shadow over Innsmouth, The Mountains of Madness,  The Nameless City
McCaffrey, Anne - Dinosaur Planet
Moorcock, Michael - Gloriana
Nivel, Larry - Ringworld
Norton, Andre - Postmarked the Stars
Stoker, Bram - Dracula
Strugatsky, Arkady & Boris - Roadside Picnic
Tolkien, J.R.R - The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings
Wells, H.G. - The War of the Worlds

TABLETOP GAMES
Arneson, David - First Fantasy Campaign
Barker, M.A.R. - Empire of the Petal Throne
TSR - Alpha Dawn Basic & Expanded
Ward, James M. - Metamorphosis Alpha
Ward, James M. & Jaquet, Gary - Gamma World

VIDEO GAMES
Bioware - Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect
Black Isle - Fallout
Interplay - Wasteland
Irvin, Peter & Smith, Jeremy - Exile
Looking Glass Studios - System Shock 1 & 2, Thief 1 & 2
Stone Soup Team - Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

VISUAL MEDIA
Anderson, Michael - Logan's Run
Bakshi, Ralph - The Lord of the Rings, Wizards
Blomkamp, Neill - District Nine
Cameron, James - Aliens
Carpenter, John - The Thing
Jacobs, Arthur P. - Planet of the Apes Series
Jones, L.Q. - A Boy and His Dog
Miller, George - The Road Warrior
Miyazaki, Gorō - Tales from Earthsea
Miyazaki, Hayao - Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
Scott, Ridley - Alien, Bladerunner, Prometheus, The Duelists
Twohy, David - Pitch Black
Ward, Pendleton - Adventure Time

I believe a few people have compiled their own 'N's over the years. If any of this humble readership has, please send me a link to them. There's most certainly more interesting reads and bits of inspiration out there.

From Barbarian Prince and Other

While formally considered moreso a boardgame than an role-playing game, and solitaire at that, both the setting and game play of Barbarian Prince follows through with fodder for fantasy RPG goers.

After a thorough read of the game's manual, and a good look-over of its map, I was left almost too inspired to borrow from it. Maybe even lift some of its design. Given its solitaire nature, the player is immediately aware of much meta-information; he has to. And it's a good play of honesty to keep on trudging even when he rolls up something nasty, such as a killer curse or the loss of all his party members, and many other things.

Meta-gaming information was never much of a secret I've murdered to keep off the table. It could be things such as knowing how to kill zombies or vampires. A certain genre savvy nature is often expected and enjoyed by all, whether it's the motives of robotic clowns or the party's non-player. So how does this relate; look no further than the concept of the role-playing game. I wouldn't for the life of me spill a monster's stats and abilities, but things such the powers of a sword are preferably given (to the possessor).

The magic items of Barbarian Prince, by design, follow this. But not only did they know what the item could do, but also what it was worth to certain NPCs. In a way we can begin to see the assumed lore behind objects in a setting, without going through a heap of exposition from the Referee.

Video games from the NES on to early 3-D platforms had it 'all there in the manual'. They needed too, because the game couldn't actively describe or detail items in-game, but still wanted, or needed, to explain an object's purpose in its world. Maybe the influence of these older games comes off too readily for me, but good consideration for why it is sometimes beneficial to let at least a little on for the players.

Meta-game information varies between groups, and often how little or much is allowed can also set the mood of a game, but sometimes even a little will benefit everyone. Especially if they can avoid taking too much advantage of it. Scare them with new stimuli and subvert the old to keep it fresh, if you need to.

Returning to the magical items of the game in question. A mechanic that excited me, and one often excluded in fantasy artifacts (ignoring wand charges), is the chance of burning out. Instead of an arbitrary number assigned, we find each use garnering either a 1 in 6 or 1 in 12 chance of running out of juice (or being destroyed). And just about all magic items use this mechanic (except swords); and can reduce the likelihood of defaulting on the item to snatch success time and again.

By no means an 'item', but certainly an item; the True Love that can be scored by the prince is both an invaluable asset to his adventure, and an under-used, seldom-seen trope of fantasy adventure. Given the NPC-ish nature of the prince's party, this is the one person he can rely upon, even if her activities are randomly determined. Not only this, but a love triangle can form that muddies up the affair, losing the benefits while it persists. She provides a bonus to Wits & Wiles, (woman's good senses, no doubt). Other NPCs offer similar benefits (such as negating the penalties of Reactions with elves, or worsening them with a dwarf). And in all it really expanded the horizon for what Non-players can bring to the party for me, especially if the players available are fewer than wanted. The idea that they aren't just extra hands/swords, but can improve conversations as advisers, among other things. I don't mean as in the Referee talking as them, but as more passive improvements to the players' activities.

The Events booklet provides a great swath of ideas for adventures, encounters and even what sort of event forks could open up between them. The map too is an easy grab.

Hopefully my bestial writing hasn't hidden the values I've intended to place in this document. All the same: Barbarian Prince is interesting mechanically and setting-wise; items and the meta-game; NPCs and the unspoken, but ever present benefits they provide.

For those parties interested: Barbarian Prince is available for free download.

The Place of Shields

Traditionally, the lowly shield garners a basic bonus to Armour Class, as needn't be explained here. The problem many outcry is simply how little an impact one of the most useful tools of war has, in foot melee in the realm of Fantasy Role-play.

The shield is cried to uselessness, after all, it's guaranteed the higher-level monsters will beat non-modern AC practically every round of combat. Some are fine with the small bonus of a shield, given that getting hit is so inevitable, but that the bonus is still useful against the more common and mundane foes expected to combat in the original game.

How can we fix or circumnavigate this issue? Simple; a new mechanic, and one that is very simple. But is it really necessary, especially when combat is supposed to remain abstracted by game design? What would a chance of blocking individual blows mean for this concept? especially when it would apply equally to the already disputed nature of arrows and bolts in the abstract combat (should we exacerbate the problem further?).

For some time now, how I've run shields is a bit different from the norm, so I shall make them known. Shields provide a bonus of +1, as the norm, though wooden, hide, and wicker faces do not benefit plate armour, instead requiring a metal shield (preferably kite). Without other armour worn, shields count as AC7, and tower shields as AC6 (normally complementing armour by +2 AC). Archers' shields and other small types counted as normal shields, except without bonus against missiles. Shields could be worn across the back for their bonuses against rear attacks.

This original effort varied their place somewhat, but it still was mostly aesthetic. There wasn't a strong effort to make shields too good in the game, considering the other options available to Fighting Men; two-handed weapons rolled two dice, taking the better with +1 in Hits; and using a second one-handed weapon to deke for a +1 To Hit. So I couldn't lean too much favour. This changed somewhat with the design of offensive shields (tweaked from the tail sweeping mechanic I gave dragons).Shield-barers (excluding bucklers) could opt out their shield bonus to bash with the shield, and any time a '6' turned up, the roughly-man-sized and smaller foe was flattened and stunned for one round. Tower shields did so 1/3 of the time.

Now, this finally brings me to my point and suggestion for shields. Keeping them with their +1 bonus (or dropping it), any hit against a shield-barer is reduced to minimum damage (1 if 1-6, 2 if 2-7, etc.) 1/3 of the time (rolling a 2 in 6 chance). Tower shields could do so 1/2 the time. It's simple, elegant, and best of all, continues finding more uses for those sexy six-siders. The reason it doesn't outright negate an attack's damage is to reflect the savagery the guy behind the shield is feeling regardless. A missed roll to reduce could be seen as not bracing his shield arm well and getting battered around, even if the shield is being hit.

I'd like to thank that Paladin in Citadel for inspiring this post.

For those interested in that dragon attack; the tail swipe was randomly determined (and depended on how the party was fighting it), and dealt one die of damage per age category (!), chopping all in a certain radius (distance in inch spaces by category). Every time a '6' turned up for each person hit, was how many rounds he was stunned and flat. I wanted very dangerous dragons, and the older ones could batter down wooden walls and swaths of forest with ease, so be wary.