Workshop is back open

Last 6 months or so, my spare time has been eaten up with creating my new Dark Ages course for work, but I've finally finished it.  So, I've got the time for other stuff once again.

I assembled and painted the 12 plastic 15th century knights (Perry Brothers, I believe) that I bought at Fall-In last year.

Twenty Years

It was a really great moment to be able to celebrate twenty years of the Lords of Hack. Thanks to everyone who came out to play!

Game Postponed

My mother-in-law passed away this morning, so I think it's best to postpone our game a week.   Next game will be Sunday, March 17.

Characters on WIki

I've got the basic information about each of your characters listed on the Thranconia Hack wiki.   If you wanted to, you could either send the rest of your important character info (Ability Scores, Hp, Xp, gold, important gear, and the like) to me and I could keep it all there, in case you forgot your character sheet.   Or, you could take a picture or scan of your character sheet and keep it uploaded on your character's page (email Andrew for clearances and/or instructions).   I suppose you could even email me you character sheet picture or scan and I could upload it.

Post Game Thoughts

I was well pleased about how the Fate Chips worked in play on Sunday.   We had used them before in the Wilderlands campaign, but I was re-convinced about their usefulness.   It gives everybody some more options (healing, re-rolls of saves which everyone did, and re-rolls of hits and max damage which nobody did this time) but imposes a price for the option.   You gain more XP for relying on natural results from which you learn, not on the powers of Fate, which teaches you nothing.

Without the Death Save and the Fate Chips, we probably would have gone through 6 sets of characters each.   I'm old school, but not that old school.

The chips also speed the XP progression along.   If we were using monster XP, it would take forever. to get to level 2.   2-3 sessions is good pace,  1 is too short, 5 is far too long.

   I do like it to be numerically based, however.   Advancement by numbers and the different speeds of the various classes and multi-classes are important choices to make, and having to choose whether to use Fate chips and to lunge for more treasure adds more player decisions, which is always desirable.

I'm also waffling about Encumbrance.   It is always a huge pain in the ass.   I don't really want to have people count pounds etc.   On the other hand, there has to be some limit to carrying stuff.   You really can't be hauling an anvil, a cask of wine, and 27 handaxes.   I don't know what the solution is.
Maybe the 1 item per STR point, a backpack with 6 things counts as 1 item, and clothes, pouches, and things that weigh less than a pound don't count, like we used in 5e might be okay.  I guess we could use that as a default in case something happens to the wheelbarrow guy you're planning to hire.

I'm going to be interested to see how some stuff plays out.  You are going to have to start balancing times vs. money.   Bob is going to want to make scrolls soon,  Dave probably healing potions and perhaps scrolls too.   But, they take time, which causes the Maintenance fees to come due.   Choices and decisions.

You also should pay more attention to your beer supply and consumption.   You didn't drink at all during the first expedition.

The Magic Sword Question

In alignment with Original D&D (1974) and Holmes' Basic (1977), Blueholme gives magic swords bonuses "to hit" but usually no bonus to damage, unless it's against a special enemy,  Other magic weapons DO get damage bonus.
Examples:

+2 sword:   +2 to hit, that's it.

+2 axe:  +2 to hit and damage

+1/+2 vs trolls sword:  +1 to hit against everyone, +2 to hit and damage vs. trolls.

I keep going back and forth as to whether just to give swords a regular damage bonus like later versions of D&D and like other weapons.  It's not like there are a bunch of other damage bonuses floating around out there.

Campaign Documents

At the Thranconia Hack wiki the House Rules and Gear Book documents have been available.  I've just uploaded the Character Sheet,  Henchmen Sheet and a Real Estate Record sheet (see Bob's Townhouse pictured above).