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Top Games Played at NTRPGCon

stan-shinn-citystateFor those who don’t know, North Texas RPG Con is an old-school RPG gaming convention which has grown in popularity each year (this year they had well over 300 attendees which maxed out their gaming space; next year they will have bigger facilities and more attendees I believe).

What games are folks running at NTRPGCon? Here’s a rundown of the 2016 games based on games listed on their 2016 calendar.

Early D&D (OD&D, B/X, BECM, AD&D, 2e, retroclones): 55 Games

This breaks down into:

  • 8 OD&D games
  • 11 B/X games
  • 2 BECM games
  • 9 Swords & Wizardry Games
  • 23 AD&D games (1e & 2e combined)
  • 2 Labyrinth Lord games

DCC games: 19 Games

DCC is a new-ish game but with a very old-school vibe.

D&D 5th Edition: 18 games

The rise in popularity of 5e is notable given the old-school focus of the con. By contrast, I’ve never seen a Pathfinder or 4e game run at NTRPGCon (somebody correct me if I’m wrong on that).

Traveller: 8 games

This is the Classic Traveller edition (the little black books). We didn’t have any of these games for years, then last year Mike Kelly and I ran a total of 3 Classic Traveller games. Now this year, we had 8. Great to see this games surge in popularity at this con!

Misc. Games

There was also a smattering of other games (each run 1 to 3 sessions):

  • Gamma World 1e
  • Villians & Vigilantes
  • Ghostbusters RPG
  • Paranoia
  • Metamorphosis Alpha
  • Call of Cthulhu
  • Boot Hill
  • Barbarians of Lemuria
  • Astonishing Sorcerers and Swordsmen of Hyperboria (AS&SH)

In my next post I’ll talk about ‘Top Games Wanted at NTRPGCon.’

‘Star Trek: Vanguard’ and Other Cool Books

I’ve started to hear about other books folks in our Dicehaven group have recently read (or read way back in the day). Thought it might be cool to have folks who are interested jot a note or two on the blog on what books they like (or don’t like). If you want to blog about such stuff and don’t have an account, drop me an email.

Some book series might get enough synergy to evolve into a roleplaying campaign at some point in the future. Dresden Files, Ringworld, and The Lord of the Rings are example candidates, but there are many others.

I also moved my ‘Stan’s Reading Lists’ page from swshinn.com; not you can find it at https://dicehaven.com/stans-reading-lists/.

Anyway, here’s a dump on several books I’ve got cracked open at the moment.

Books I Recently Read

vanguardI recently read ‘Star Trek: Vanguard #1: Harbinger’ (Star Trek TOS) by David Mack.

Review: Was great fun to read since I loved seeing new characters set in the Original Series universe, set at the time Kirk first took command of the Enterprise. Had just the right old-school flavor, including women complaining about (or using to their advantage) the newly issued Federation mini-skirt uniforms.

One issue is that book ended with no plot lines resolved. Turns out you have to read it as part of a 7 novel series. Folks have raved about the series, and I did enjoy the first book. I will resume the series hopefully sometime, but at the moment I’m more interested in reading some books that ‘end’ without committing to 7 novels straight. I’m too reading dyslexic at the moment to commit to that many books in a row. 🙂

Books I’m Now Reading

Novels:

  1. ‘Elric of Melniboné’ by Michael Moorcock

Short Story Collections:

  1. ‘Neutron Star’ by Larry Niven (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Imperium or Ringworld campaigns).
  2. ‘The Complete Hammer’s Slammers: Volume’ 1 by David Drake (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).
  3. ‘Berserker (Saberhagen’s Beserker Series Book 1)’ by Fred Saberhagen (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).
  4. ‘The Man-Kzin Wars (Man-Kzin Wars Series Book 1)’ by Larry Niven et al. (Short story collection; reading intermittently; inspiration for Blood & Steel campaign).

The Gathering

The Party continued their struggle against the mighty Hill Giant stedding, fighting both giant and fire.  The Rogue, having appeared to have fled the battle, instead came around to the front of the stedding, He first scaled the tower, and then lit it on fire. It went up like an Aradene candle, and turned night into day for miles around.  Assisting in the inferno were several casks of Hill Giant Ale. The party continued to fight their way into the fort, soon coming face to face with King Snaggi Irontooth of the Hill Giant Jarl. The battle ebbed and flowed, with several characters being struck down temporarily, until finally Snaggi was gutted, large giant entrails spilling unto the hot log floor, making a sizzling sound and reminding the party they hadn’t had breakfast.

In searching the main floor of the hold, the party discovered the two ever flowing Fonts of Mymirdion.  The water’s origin unknown, the water ever flowing, the party had discovered the Giant’s true wealth.  The two fonts gave the ancient healing aqua blue waters to whoever possessed the fonts.  One catch, the glass flasks that could hold the Healing waters of Mymidion had to contain human bone.  This gruesome catch gave the body pause.  But not enough to stop them from filling all twenty of the available flasks and distributing them throughout the party.

Soon the party made it through the rest of the first floor of the hold, and went downstairs into the dungeons of the stedding.  They quickly found the cells which held several prisoners, including Randolph FireOak.  Reunited with his loyal son Derrick, the two then joined the rest of the party in fighting off four elementals, summoned by the eveil white wizard, paired with the traitorous Harren Fire Oak.  Having occupied the party, Harren and the white wizard fled, leaving the party to battle the elementals.

The party emerged victorious from the partially destroyed stedding.  The cleric began to make plans to gather his brothers to occupy the powerful site, now partially burned.  In the meantime, the party crossed the small plains to the Town of Fire Oak, to find not only that the Fire Acorn had dropped, but that almost all of the Oak Clans had gathered, having seen the Stedding fire of the Hill Giants as  a beacon.  Randolph Fire Oak and  Justin IronOak found a table, and rolled out the ancient Oak Scrolls.  On the top, the two quickly read the Prophesy of the Oaks.

 

When Acorns drop and clans depart, all the Oaks will leave their home.

Abandon hearth, abandon glades, all of the clans will start to roam.

Through foaming waves, to distant shores, the twelve bound Oaks will sail the seas.

In search of Oak land, the promised land, away from hardship, rise from their knees.

Iron, Silver, Fire and Blood. Live, Ice, Water, and Black. Post, Pin, Heart and Golds

Abandon all their hard won holds.

To join so strong to leave the fall, to build anew, with gathered all.

 

And so, absent the Blood Oaks, 27,000 Oaks all stood ready for one last march through Westmarch, to relieve Silverthorne.  The party, led by Justin and Neara BloodOak, requested the party journey to Blood Oak, as a message had arrived that the Blood Oak had dropped, but been taken by a band of Frost Giants and a Black Dragon. IMG_0091[1]

Thoughts Using D&D 5e for Middle-earth Games

I’ve been playing D&D 5e since the weekend the beta first went live in May 2012. It’s my favorite version of D&D ever, and I’ve played them all (for the record, I did not care for 3e and 4e).

I’ve also run a few TOR games converted to 5e using the house rules from http://www.zerohitpoints.com/Middle-Earth-for-DnD-5/ to generate our characters.

Orc miniatures from Games Workshop

Orc miniatures from Games Workshop

Here is a blog post on my more recent game where I ran ‘Of Leaves & Stewed Hobbit’ — http://swshinn.com/game-design/combat-speed-part-1.

I did an analysis of combat in that game. In the combat were 31 combatants (including the six PCs). The battle took five rounds of combat and lasted a total of 50 minutes and left 22 dead and many others close to death. In my version of this set piece battle we had 6 PCs, 3 NPCs, 11 goblin archers, 8 goblin swordsmen, 2 Orc chiefs and 1 troll. Some of the players had never played D&D 5e before so some of that time were rules explanations.

I’m pointing this out since a big, complicated set-piece battle like this would have taken probably 90 minutes in a game like Savage Worlds, and probably over 2 hours in a game like Pathfinder.

Skill checks, wilderness travel, fatigue, combat — all of these 5e rules felt like a great fit for the Middle-earth setting.

My custom GM Screen using Brothers Hildebrandt Art

My custom GM Screen using Brothers Hildebrandt Art

D&D 5e is the most heavily playtested game in history. It flows fast, is well supported, and has quickly become the most played RPG on the planet. Moreover, there is a resurgence in RPG playing that is partly due to 5e’s popularity. The biggest demographic of players is the under-35 crowd, so WOTC is bringing new players into the hobby by droves.

All of which is to say I personally am AMAZINGLY excited that Cubicle 7 is bringing Middle-earth to D&D 5e! I will buy the books and play it a lot, evangelizing the game in conventions and on my blog. Other than probably house-ruling in some of the herb rules from MERP into the game, I imagine 5e + Cubicle 7 Middle-Earth products to be a near perfect combination for what I want out of a Lord of the Rings game.

Big Set Piece Battle from the First Time I Ran 'Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit' in my Home Game

Big Set Piece Battle from the First Time I Ran ‘Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit’ in my Home Game

Combat Speed Part 3: Mechanics that Slow RPG Combat

Over the past few months I’ve taken notes in several games I’ve run or played using different systems: D&D 5e, Classic Traveller, Savage Worlds, Call of Cthulhu, and Stormbringer RPG. I’ve also consulted notes I have from play in systems like Pathfinder. I’ve noticed that combat can take significantly longer depending on your rule system.

A recent Boot Hill game with old-school, fast combat

A recent Boot Hill game with old-school, fast combat

There are a variety of ways you can speed up combat that essentially makes the players efficient or makes them hurry up:

  • Have the players not talk amongst themselves to strategize
  • Have the players hold (or skip) their turn if they are not ready
  • Have a timer or countdown to force the players to act quickly
  • Have the players have a buddy to help them with math or rules questions
  • etc.

But just looking at normal games like most GMs run them, allowing players to take turns and actions as they normally do, it seems to me the far bigger factor in having fast (or slow) combat is one thing—

—The Rules

The last time I played in a Savage Worlds game, we had 9 players with 0 XP. We had around 45 total combatants. The combat took two hours (with two sixty minute rounds!!!) and we still only defeated half the enemy (the rest ran away since we ran out of time). And this is the game that is ‘Fast, Furious, and Fun’.

By contrast, a D&D 5e game I ran with 6 players at 3rd level had 31 total combatants took 50 minutes (with five ten minute rounds) with the PCs completely killing all enemy combatants.

To put it another way, Savage Worlds had 50% more player and combatants, but combat rounds took 600% longer while killing about the same number of enemies.

Regardless of how long the total combat runs, one big factor of enjoyment is ‘how long till I get to do something?’

10 minutes is about right. 30-45 minutes between actions is just way too long for my tastes.

Can you speed up a slower game? Sure. But the number one thing (I think) to speed up the game is choose a system that plays fast. Second best thing to speed up combat is to add some speed house rules on top of an otherwise slower game.

Which Rules Speed (or Slow) Combat?

Here’s my thoughts (based on qualitative analysis) on what makes the difference between slow combat or fast combats in RPG games.

Rules that Speed Combat

The fastest games had these two rules:

Fixed Initiative

There were many ways these games did fixed initiative that still resulted in fast combat rounds:

  • Stan’s D&D 5e house rule (character with highest Dex roll goes first, then Round Robin thereafter).
  • BRP — Character go in order of highest to lowest Dex score (no roll needed).
  • Classic Traveller — Traditional rule — characters have group turn order and essentially play in round-robin order.
  • Classic Traveller — Stan’s house rule — Characters go in order of Marching order based on minis (first mini in line goes first, etc.).

The key to speed is to not spend time recording everyone’s roll from scratch each combat, and to not change the combat order each round.

Non-Inflated Hit Points

All the fastest games used hit points. Almost all roleplayers have used hit points before; tracking is fast and intuitive. There is a logistics advantage in large set-piece combats to using a Savage Worlds style wound system, but this comes at the expense of speed.

The other element of hit points making for fast combat is that in the fastest games they weren’t inflated. Most characters and opponents had 10-20 hit points. D&D 4e, Pathfinder, and other games where you inflate hit points to 100 HP or more generally run much slower. This being said, D&D 5e got away from hit point inflation by what they call ‘bounded accuracy’ — basically making sure the HP progression is very slow, and increasing your damage output a bit so that orcs are still a threat at higher levels and you don’t have excessive HP grinds in battle at upper levels.

Its worth noting that BRP and Classic Traveller for the most part don’t every increase your hit points. Your skills improve, but not your HP.

Rules that Slow Combat

Here are rules which I see slowing down the flow of the game.

Variable Initiative

Having players recalculate initiative each round slows things down. For example, in Savage Worlds you deal and collect cards each round which taking time at the beginning and end of each round. Moreover, I’ve notice a few seconds lost here and there as the GM or players look around trying to see whose turn it is.

Soaking Damage / Unshaking

Savage Worlds has a cool mechanic that makes tracking wounds very simple — you use miniatures and have Extras be up/down/off-the-table. Wild Cards (boss creatures) have a soak and wound tracking mechanic just like player characters. It is amazingly elegant at enabling large set-piece battles. However, taking time to soak wounds (spend a benny, roll Vigor, fail, spend another benny, roll again,…) takes time. It also takes time to deal out shaken / wound tokens. Less of an issue in small combats, but in larger combat or with multiple Wild Cards you’ll start feeling the delay.

Variable Dice

A small thing maybe, but games with Polyhedral dice take longer than games like Traveller which uses all-d6’s. In games with variable dice types, it takes a few seconds to pick out what dice to use for damage. If a game uses Polyhedral dice, but at least standardizes the key dice rolls (d20 for all checks and attacks in D&D, d100 for all checks and attacks in BRP), it will be faster.

Savage Worlds by contrast potentially uses different dice for each check (if you have a d8 in Vigor but a d4 in Agility you’re selecting different dice as the GM calls for different checks).

Exploding Dice & Raises

I’m a big fan of the energy that exploding dice (also called ‘Acing’) which Savage Worlds uses. However, it does take time to tally up the rolls and do the extra math of division to calculate raises.

Extra Rolls

In Savage Worlds there are lots of extra dice rolls (running means another die roll, damage dice exploding means more dice rolled, a wild dice in addition to Trait die needs a separate roll to evaluate with a separate explosion). I like rolling dice, but with more die rolls comes more time spent.

Rules Debates / Complex rules

The more rules that are in a game, the more confusion and debate will result. Pathfinder is likely the biggest rules-lawyering-debate system I’ve played. Even Savage Worlds isn’t immune to rules discussions. The simpler the game, the fewer rules debates, the faster it plays.

Other Factors

There are some other techniques which I’ve considered which effect game play but lesser so combat time.

Theater of the Mind and Miniatures

Running abstract (or narrative) combat without minis is something I love. It takes time to draw maps. But once the map is on the table, I don’t find having minis and counting squares to be too much of a time sink. Pathfinder is a bit of an exception, with the math you have to do for diagonal movement. That being said, counting squares does take a little time. 13th Age solves for this to some extent with its Engaged/Near/Far mechanics that is akin to Fate zones which still allow minis but dumps the counting of squares.

Minion & Mob Rules

Some games have minion (1 hit and they’re out) and mob (pooled hit points) rules. I’ve found this help logistics so that the gamemaster has less bookkeeping, but they don’t actually make combat go faster or slower. Some ways that people track Hit Points, like adding a die counter next to a miniature to track hit points lost, can slow things down a tad.

Conclusion

I would like to see a more quantitative analysis done of combat speed between different popular rules systems so that people can understand what systems are truly fast or slow, and what can be done to speed up combat.

I would say that many modern games like Fate and Savage Worlds are not actually faster than many hit point based traditional systems. Slow combat speed is not necessarily a drawback — some would say a long Fate RPG combat is cool and desirable. It all depends on what you want in a game.

But if your players are stacking dice during combat due to 30 minutes or more elapsing between their turns, you might want to revisit your rules system. There are fast games that are still cinematic. Perhaps the best story-game is one where you breeze past combat and keep the narrative flowing!

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