Schedule Changes

Upcoming Schedule Changes:

All games start at 4:30

October 9th, 2022 will be an online version of Space Bastards

Look for details soon about Thranconia changes.

Savage Space Bastards

I'm interested in a campaign set in a far future where a crew of explorers, thieves, bounty hunters, con-artists, mercenaries, spies, junkies, and deadbeats work together to man a starbase hideout and plan daring scores on the fringes of a human starfaring empire. It will feel like Traveller with a less “hard science” and a more “Star Wars” or “Warhammer 40K” technology vibe. Each episode in the campaign will follow a loose formula starting with planning and executing an initial job. This first encounter will lean on flashback scenes and cut directly to the most interesting moments of the action. That could be anytime that the plan goes sideways such as an ambush, bluffing their way through security, or dealing with complications of their success. Once the opening job is complete, a period of downtime will be followed by player-directed free play that will follow our traditional “sandbox” format.

Player characters are expected to work together for the collective benefit of the crew of rogues, but there is no reason why tempers may flare in the face of incompetence or selfishness. Any crew member who actively betrays the party would probably leave the game and become an NPC. I expect the crew to stand together in most cases - particularly when threatened collectively.

We'll use Savage Worlds as a basis for rules. I've created custom rules for gear, as well as a brand new supplement for ship-to-ship combat rules that make starships more like characters in the story themselves. Ships can “level up” and provide opportunities for PCs to each participate meaningfully in a space battle - even if they are all on one ship.

Upcoming Schedule Lords of Hack

 

LOH upcoming schedule

August 22 — online Thranconia

August 29 - game night Finale of Eldritch Earth

September 5—online Thranconia

September 11 — live Session 0 of new campaign

New Adventuring Skill for Thranconia II

I've added one more adventuring skill to the list to choose from for Thranconia:  BIBILIOPHILE

BIBLIOPHILE: a skill roll allows the detection of book worms in “wormy” books. A skill roll allows the character to appraise the fair resale value of non-magic books found on adventure. Unskilled mages and clerics can attempt these tasks, but it is a 1d100 INT check. The herb vermifuge is the only treatment for book worms.

If you bring a wormy book into your possession, it will destroy all carried scrolls, books and maps within 1 hour.

This skill is of major interest to Magic-Users, of course, but also to Clerics who use spell books in this version of the game (and even Thieves can acquire and use scrolls which are subject to book worm attacks.).  The search of wormy books described in the first version of "Random Dungeon Maker" is now replaced with these rules.

Thranconia Rules Revisions: Omnibus Update

THRANCONIA RULES UPDATE

I’ve been busy doing some sweeping rules revisions for Thranconia (most of it will be rather invisible in most of play, and they should all make things go faster and more smoothly.).   Here is a complete catalogue with links.   

I’d suggest that everyone read the initiative rules and saving throw revisions, and if your characters does a lot of melee, read the weapons and combat maneuvers too.  

I’d suggest everyone who uses weapons, herbs and alchemical products to read through the revised Gear Book.

 

#1—Initiative Refigured

            Doing away with the blocky Blueholme set-up, it was necessary to reconfigure the initiative rules, the weapon details and the combat maneuvers:  see these links:

            Revised Initiative

            Revised Weapon Rules

            Revised Combat Manuevers

 

#2—Maintenance/Living Expenses

            I decided that I liked the Living Expenses/Maintenance we’ve been using for Eldritch Earth better than any we’ve ever used, so I took this opportunity to make Thranconia like that.

            Living Expenses

#3—Buildings (no link) 

            Since we aren’t really using the tabletop models for Thranconia, and I see it being a remote/virtual thing for quite some time, I don’t need to make the buildings match my models.  Instead I made them match with the Blueholme/OD&D set up.  Included in the new gear books

#4—Saving Throws

            My new Saving Throw Calculus is posted here:

            Revised Saving Throws

#5—Business

            The quick and dirty business rules can be found here:

            Business

 

#6—Gear Book Revision

            Since the weapons had to be re-configured, I took the opportunity to re-edit the Gear Book.   A lot of things had gotten muddy in the cutting and pasting from Thranconia to Eldritch Earth and back to Thranconia.   I’ve cleared up with weaponry, alchemy, herbals, and incorporated the building revisions.   The Gear Book and the Revised Combat Cheat Sheet (which I really should have been using more in play, it’s a lot of stuff that is good to know in combat), are both posted as PDFs at this link:

            Thranconia Reference Documents

I'm Doing It, Pulling off the Band-Aid

For Thranconia,   I've been grappling with the Initiative/Turn Sequence for a long time.   I really wanted to give the SR-Rating for weapons a go, I thought it was great in the mass-battle we did before Thranconia I 2 years ago.   But, I found I don't like the blocky nature of the Holmes initiative sequence that I hung the system on.

I instead want to switch to the traditional 1d6 group initiative from AD&D 1e and Basic D&D (and Adventurer Conqueror King for that matter).   

I think it will make dungeon battles go more smoothly and faster.

I've tried to make the weapons charts more interesting and incorporate the RESULTS of the SR system without the numerical framework.   These things will mostly be important to Fighters who want to get interesting benefits from weapons choices, but everyone will likely notice 1-2 small details to their advantage.  

I'll be updating the Gear Book and the Wiki on combat rules in the near future, but the actual changes to game play will be very easy to see and will make things smoother and faster.   For example, the long weapons will often get an Extra Attack at first contact, instead of having to have a melee phase match up, and Charges, Picking things off the ground and Fighting Withdraws will be easier to manage.

Schedule: April 17-18

Looks like no D&D games at all this weekend.   Go outside and play.