Spell Components Revisited

By my unscientific survey, most DMs think spell components are a neat idea in theory, but a pain in the ass in execution. Players like them less. They get house ruled ("spell component packs"), hand-waved, or ignored all together.

For a time in high school I ran a campaign using the Best of Dragon IV Article, "It's a material world: Scrounging up spell components", which gave guidelines on the cost, source and availability of spell components. We were using AD&D second edition, so we didn't have to worry about swallowing live goldfish or keeping crickets alive, but it still made from an experience full of resource-tracking chaos. It was part of the fun, but we spent a lot of time shopping and searching, time in-session that me and my current players don't have in our adult lives.

My current methodology is to old worry about spell components unless they are expensive (more than 10GP) or particularly rare or cumbersome (black dragon's blood, canine statues). The key one for us has been the 100gp value pearl for identify. The necessity of the Identify spells has created an interesting economy, where players inquire if gems found are pearls, whether moneychanges have any 100gp pearls, and the use of the pearls as a shared party resource.

I've wondered how to create that similar economy and interest for the players for other spells, without the issue becoming a shopping headache. Conceivably we could use small red gems of fire spells instead of bat guano (rubies being inappropriately expensive for fireball), but I fear creating a logical system that overrides the beautiful Vancian incongruency. I do something simular for my ritual system to handle the economics and search procedure, but the form of the component remains to be determined.

Next up for me is a random chart of items, cross-referenced by spell level and school. It will contain a selection of items that seem plausible for regular play - a live cricket would be interesting for a rare ritual, but nothing a character could reasonably expect to use "in the field".

What should be on the list?

A worthy quote

Since I'm busy with life:

Once you look closely, you come to understand that with all the bells and whistles intact, AD&D1e is a game of remarkable cohesion and subtlety. You can encounter some crazy things, but encounter reactions determine whether you’ll step right in to a fight. Charisma is an extraordinarily powerful ability score because it influences henchman and hireling numbers and loyalty. Weapon vs. AC adjustments justify the large weapon table. So do the special abilities of certain weapons. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s not just a bunch of crazy shit hacked together in the way even supporters claim. It sure seemed that way to me when I was a teenager, but I played it in an impatient, edited form. It looks to me that this half-game is the AD&D OSRIC emulates.

Source.

Hireling Ideas Induced by Allergy Drugs

Initial Hirelings:

The character will start out with a number of hirelings already in their employee equal to his Charisma bonus, with their first month of wages paid. Equipment must still be provided, but these hirelings are considered generally loyal and happy in their position. Future wages will be paid as normal. Characters with a negative Charisma modifier must pay d10 times their modifier in monthly wages as a signing bonus before any hireling will agree to serve such an odious employer.
Example: a hireling with a monthly wage of 3GP, must be paid a signing bonus of 6GP to be employed by a character with a Charisma of 5 (meaning a -2 modifier).

The Start of a new Sandbox: The City of Yrem

I'm starting a new sandbox game, using a draft form of the Tactical Situation Rules. The setting I'm making up as we go along. Rather than a megadungeon, the tent-pole is a ruined city, cribbed from many sources:

The city of Yrem sits on the border of the Great Northern Empire's Stillmarsh province, upon a rocky ridge amongst the swampy forest that dominates the region. Generic fantasy history, blah blah blah.

Long a favorite of scholars for it's isolation and quiet, it gradually grew as a hub for experimentation and research by the Imperial Guild of Magicians. Unbeknownst to most of the guild, a faction under the control of Xagnus the Animated had begun capturing demons in ritual vaults beneath the city. During a heated argument with his assistant Ambrosia, one of the demons was freed, who in turned freed the rest. Chaos and slaughter ensued.

As his final act at the cost of his life, Xagnus funneled his power and soul into a magical stasis field containing the demons and city within.

Last winter - 500 years after it's creation - the stasis field fell. With the spring thaw, imps and winged beasts harassed nearby villages and towns. Factions from across the provinces (and beyond) began exploration of the city's edge.

The Paladin Rules

I like to keep Paladins rare, but they're virtually impossible to qualify for using any sort of "roll in order" attribute generation, which is my preferred method. In order to mitigate the problems of qualifying, I've added these two "Paladin Rules" to make it possible, but still interesting:

In order to mitigate the problems of qualifying for Paladinhood when rolling attributes "in order", the following options are available:

1. Poverty is Next to Godliness

The character spends years in a isolated monastery. Swap any attribute with CHA. Sacrifice 10% of your starting money as a tithe.

2. Judged and Found Lacking

Flaggelation, fasting and other allows the character an opportunity increase their Charisma, but the scars may persist. Roll 4d6. Take the 3 highest dice as your Charisma if it will allow you to qualify as a Paladin. If not, take the three lowest dice as your Charisma score.

As a bonus, here's a summary of the Paladin rules:

Paladin

• Required Attributes: Strength 12, Wisdom 12, Charisma 15
• Allowed Armor: Any
• Allowed Weapons: Any
• Melee Attack Bonus: Current Level
• Ranged Attack Bonus: 1/2 Level
• Defenses:+2 Spirit Defense
• Initial Hit Point Roll: d10
• Initial Combat Proficiencies: 3
• Initial Class Skills: Diplomacy, Religion, plus an additional bonus skill
  
• Hit Points Gained Levels 2-10: d10
• Hit Points Gained Levels 11+: 3
• Combat Proficiencies Gained: Levels 3,6,9,12,15,18
• Attacks: L1-6 1/round, L6-12 2/round, L13 & up 3/round
  
• Class Abilities: Detect Evil, Aura of Protection, Lay on Hands, Rituals, Spell Casting, Stronghold Creation: Temple

Reading 'The Secret Fire' and Some Sunday Links

I'm currently doing a read and review of The Secret Fire rpg on rpg.net

Here are some links showing what's bubbling in my mind:

You Too Can Run Empire of the Petal Throne

Rythlandor: an 80 page campaign chronicle from 1975-77

Verdammelt's Compiled Sandbox Bookmarks

Keys to Good Dungeon Design

Megadungeon Design

(Old Rules for) Rituals

Rituals

Almost any known spell can be performed in ritual form. This negates the needs for the normal method of memorization or preparation. A ritual requires three elements: time, space, and materials.

1. Time: A ritual will take 10 minutes (one turn) per level of the spell, or 6 times the normal casting length, whichever is longer. During this time the magic-user or cleric can take no other actions, just like normal spell casting.

2. Space: A ritual may require the celebrant to move in circles, make gestures, light candles, or face certain directions. 5 square feet of space per level of spell must be available and clear of obstacles or anyone not involved in the rituals. Other magic-users or clerics that know the spell may participate, but no bonus effects are granted.

3. Materials: Special materials, expended in the performance of the ritual are required. The cost of these materials is Spell Level squared x 100gp (thus 2nd level materials would cost 400 gp), and their encumbrance is equal to their cost. Ritual material have limited compatibility: they are specific to the school of magic, but can be used for rituals of a lower level. Thus a set of 3rd level Evocation ritual materials could also be used to perform 1st or 2nd level Evocation rituals, but not Necromantic rituals.

Table A1	Cost Multiplier	Available?	Amount Found	Test Frequency	Time to Find
Village	90%	40% - 10%/level	1d4	Monthly	One hour
Town	Normal	55% - 5%/level	1d6	Weekly	One hour/level
City	Normal	100% - 5%/level	2d6	Weekly	One hour/level
Guild	125%	100% - 2%/level	3d6	Weekly	One hour
Wilderness	10%	25% - 2%/level	1	Weekly	One Week

Availability of materials: Tests for the availability of materials are made on a school by school basis. You may find 2 sets of Alteration ritual materials one week, but no sets of Conjuration ritual materials. Time spent finding materials is NOT cumulative. Example: In three hours, a magic-user can make a test to find ritual materials for 3rd level spells and lower of any number of schools of magic. Acquiring materials at a Magic-User's guild requires membership in good standing. Acquiring materials in the wilderness requires an active search of a week's time.

Quick and Dirty Skills

The OSR crowd generally frowns on skill systems, with the exception of LotFP. I understand the concerns about player immersion and seek ways preserve that. Likewise, I have friends that cringe at the absence of something under the hood.

Some people will cry out "D20!", but think of these guidelines like armor classes. Filthy ascending armor classes. If your adventurous, make a chart with a repeating 20 like the AD&D attack matrices so the system scales more gracefully.

What to roll:

• Regular Tasks: D20 + Skill bonus vs 10 (like an unarmored guy of AC10)
• Challenging Tasks: D20 + Skill bonus vs 15
• Hard Tasks: D20 + Skill bonus vs 20 (like hitting someone with platemail and a magic shield)
• Impossible Tasks: D20 + Skill bonus vs 25

How do I get a skill bonus:

• Class skills: Equal to your level. You class provides one of more class skills. You never spend points on these. The skill bonus is always equal to your level.
• Secondary skills: Start at 3, requires a skill point to increase. These are minor skills from your past or upbringing. Roll on the DMG table, choose Education or a Tradecraft. You can only increase them by spending skill points.
• Other skills: Start at 0, requires a skill point to increase. Everything is an "other" skill. You spend a skill point to gain a increase their bonus. The skill bonus can not be higher than your level.

You get one skill point at first level and each time you gain a level.

Here's a draft skill list:

Animal Handling - Riding, training, controller animals

Arcane Lore

Athletics - Running, swimming, jumping

Climbing

Construction

Coordination - Dodge, balance, acrobatics, juggling, dance, knots, ropework

Diplomacy - Leadership, Negotation

Education- history, geography, reason, philosophy

Find Traps

Folk Lore - creature lore, regional lore, geography, superstitions, local customs

First aid

Insight - includes detect lies, estimate sums, evaluation, gauge opponent

Intimidate

Locks

Searching

Stealth

Streetwise

Survival - encompasses hunting, fishing, foraging, nature lore

Theology

Tradecraft (specify type) - smithing, carpentry, jewellery making, brewing, engineering, performance

The Purpose of Mapping...

The purpose of mapping is to allow the possibility of the characters getting lost. Anything else is pixel-bitching.

Random Thoughts and Links

Random Thought #1: Players of newer editions complain that the AD&D charts and THAC0 aren't intuitive. How is 3rd and 4th edition AC starting 10 intuitive? Why isn't "no armor" AC 0? I'll leave the lack of a universal mechanic in these editions for another post :)

Random Thought #2: I saw a thread somewhere worried about the impact of Border's Books closing on D&D. Sadder than that is the fretting over the "death" of the local gaming store is some mixture of stupidity and nostalgia. Gaming stores are selling you the same products you can buy online, with a higher price and less selection. If you're lucky, you'll get better service, though I suspect that's the exception rather than the norm. The only true benefit they provide is impulse buys, assuming they have the impulse item in stock.

There are some smart gaming shop owners and a lot of not-so-business-smart shop owners. In a niche market, you need to be smart. What are they selling us? The same products we can get elsewhere for a better price or something else? You've lost the player-finding, game-advertising community bulliten board to forums, blogs, and craigslist. You're offering a place to play games and hangout? Run a business designed to make money off of this, not guilt/loyalty to buy product at higher prices. Rent your tables - you're already paying by the square foot of space to your landlord. A number of places offer drinks and snacks. Take it a step further: I want a gaming bar. Give me some Irish/English pub indoor, big enough tables to play, baskets of snacks, burgers, and pizza, and pitchers of ale.

Some Links:

Tao of D&D's charts are awesome: Equipment.

A Swords & Sorcery version of Traveler.

A different sort of end game