Posts
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Lich van Winkle: A Rather Interesting Blog
Lich van Winkle’s Return to Gaming is a rather interesting blog I found through Dungeon Fantastic. Its author started role-playing with D&D basic back in 1981, stopped around the mid-90’s, and is now coming back to the hobby after a 25-year hiatus.
I found some of the post titles there interesting enough, and the blog itself is new enough, that I’m reading it from the beginning. The first post proves that it’s going to be an interesting ride, because this is someone who played back when the old school was new and who says that “there is a lot of myth-making in the OSR”. Me, I started playing shortly before Mr. van Winkle here stopped, but I think I’ll find plenty to agree with.
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The Great Irony At the Heart of Shadowrun
For a very long time Shadowrun was my favorite game system and setting. These days I still like the setting, but my annoyance at a host of small details in it is stronger than my wish to play in it as written. Still, it’s useful to think and talk about these details. It allows me to figure out what I want to do better in my eventual home-brewed rewrite.
One of these details isn’t small at all, however. In fact, I’d go as far as calling it the great irony at the heart of the game, as the title of this post implied. It was developed from some forum posts I made on RPG.net.
But First, The Good Parts
I don’t want to be unfairly critical of Shadowrun1. I know a few people who write for it, and the last thing I want is to give the impression that I’m attacking them. I’m not. This entire article is my personal opinion and in no way meant to disparage any of the fine people who are passionate enough about Shadowrun to write for it professionally. So let’s begin by talking about something that this game does right.
One of the best things about the setting design of Shadowrun is that it presents players with a very clear mission-based structure. The infamous question of “But what do we do in this world?” is answered very early and very clearly. This is a game about completing dangerous missions for money, just like D&D is about killing monsters and looting dungeons. Someone asks you to play Shadowrun, 99 times out of 100 you know the rough overall shape that campaign is going to take. You see a heist movie and you start thinking about it in the context of Shadowrun in your head, even if it doesn’t have all the same style elements, because the premise is strong.
Shadowrun nailed the answer to this important question so well that it kinda spilled over to other similar games. It became the default playstile for Cyberpunk 2020 against the wishes of its own authors, and it often gets adopted as the answer to “what do we do” in Transhuman Space2, which is so adamant about offering none in its pages.
Like a lot of Shadowrun setting elements, though, this structure has an excellent premise but its implementation gives rise to a lot of unintentional oddness. Or, in this case, to a Great Irony.
This irony, I think, emerges when the strong premise above gets combined with AD&D-style adversarial GMing, which was very popular when Shadowrun was first written. I believe it to be entirely unintentional, since as far as I can tell Shadowrun’s design methodology was mostly based on the Rule of Cool with a dash of “everyone else does this”. If it’s intentional, though, it’s among the greatest acts of trolling in all of gaming.
Isn’t it Ironic?
Okay, so the Sixth World is ruled by megacorporations who control every aspect of people’s lives. Most of these people live hand-to-mouth and work themselves to death in order to prop up the decadent lifestyles of a few billionaire executives. “Wage slave” is pretty much a synonym for “low-level megacorporate employee” in this setting.
But as the flavor text tells us, player characters are supposed to have managed to escape this cycle of misery. They live in the shadows cast by those giant corporate towers, and they have the skills to oppose the megacorps and make their independent way in the world.
Or do they?
I’ll admit I don’t know how things are structured in the most recent editions3, but I remember that the Shadowrun Companion for Second Edition contained detailed advice on how much money your PCs should be paid for those risky missions. I call it the “rent plus change” model.
According to the book, GMs should pay PCs enough for them to cover their lifestyle payments (i.e, rent and food) for the next month, with a little bit left over for resupplying consumables and eventually upgrading a piece of gear after a while. This was per month, not per run. If you had only one big run that month, it would pay this amount. If you had several, they would pay proportionally less so you’d receive the same “rent plus change” amount.
This was perfectly in-keeping with the AD&D school of GMing and design, which demanded PCs “earn” their power and had cool gear that cost money as a significant part of that power. If they earn “too much” money, they would get “too powerful”, and no one wants that! If your players look like they do, it’s because they’re cheating cheaters who cheat and should be punished for it.
Almost all published adventures started with a scene where the party met with Mr. Johnson to discuss the job. In the vast majority of these adventures, Mr. Johnson is a shady corporate exec working for one of the megas. And the GM text for this scene always included the oh-so-funny “If the players refuse the job, announce that the adventure ended, pack up your things and go home.” This is a joke about how the PCs don’t have any choice but to take the job as presented. In fact, the flavor text for the same scene almost always assumes they’re hurting for cash just before they get that call from their contact setting up the meeting.
So yeah, those fiercely independent PC shadowrunners? They’re all wage slaves too. And the game advises the GM to keep them that way.
Were the original writers oblivious to these implications, or are they still laughing today about how no one seems to have noticed? I don’t think I have seen any official discussion about this contradiction in any of the books I’ve read. It’s just taken as a given, and never questioned.
This central irony gets funnier when you add in two sets of rules that were published in the same edition.
Orichalcum
An early SR2 sourcebook called The Grimoire contained rules for making magic items. It required a lot of skill tests and time, and the materials were still super-expensive, but the final monetary cost was cheaper than buying the item.
“Do you buy or make your items?” would have been mostly a question of personal preference… if the book didn’t also have rules for making those materials from raw natural resources. You could use them for enchanting or sell them for half list price. You could even make orichalcum, the magical metal used in the creation of the most powerful magic items.
Orichalcum was so expensive that a single 10-gram “unit” cost the same as a sports car or as almost nine months of High Lifestyle. The process for making it was time consuming and laborious, but not really dangerous or illegal. And a skilled character could end up with multiple units of orichalcum at the end of that process. Selling even a single unit would more than pay the cost of the necessary equipment, which was reusable.
With these rules, a team of PCs that includes at least one magician has no financial reason to run the shadows. They can just set up an orichalcum-making operation instead, and live like kings.
Stolen Cars
The Shadowrun Companion sourcebook includes rules for stealing cars and selling them on the black market, which theoretically were meant to be used in a campaign where the characters were gangers instead of Shadowrunners. You could sell an entire stolen car for a fraction of its market value, or break it down for parts and sell those over several days and get money equal to the car’s full list price.
Stealing cars is of course illegal and dangerous, but it was trivial for the typical PC party in this game. After all they have the skills to routinely break into top-secret research labs full of intricate and deadly security measures.
The cheapest four-wheeled vehicle in the book was the Ford Americar, your typical “generic crummy sedan” that filled every street. Stealing and dismantling one of those every week would pay roughly five times the amount recommended in the “rent plus change” advice in the very same book. Or perhaps you could steal one limousine or fancy sports car per quarter. In either case, it was again much safer and more profitable than running the shadows.
Shadowrun + Irony = Awesome
When these two “oopsies” were first discovered, I remember seeing a lot of GMs go absolutely ballistic over them. The accusations of “munchkinism” flew thick and fast, but in true those GMs were mad that the PCs were doing something that wasn’t in the script. They reveled in describing the disproportionate response law enforcement or competitors would visit upon the PCs, which was just an excuse to punish the players for veering off the rails.
Personally, I think these two altertane activities are fraggin’ awesome, precisely because they allow the party to truly break free from the grind. If your players decide to retire from shadowrunning and make orichalcum or boost cars for a living, I fully believe that the right response is to play along and make the campaign be about that! All of those things mentioned as hard blocks by curmudgeonly controlling GMs are actually excellent adventure hooks. And I’m pretty sure any decent player group is going to keep finding non-monetary reasons to return to the shadows. There’s still people to help and megacorps to destroy, after all.
So I say that the first thing a team of shadowrunners needs to do is to find a way to leave classic shadowrunning behind for good. It’s a sucker’s game. Stay independent, take care of your community, tear down the system, make the Sixth World better.
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Which already makes me nicer than most of the people who proclaim themselves its true fans. ↩
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Though THS PCs tend to be working for government agencies or corporations rather than being freelance criminals. This is, after all, a cyberpunk setting as viewed by the bad guys. ↩
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I stopped at the end of Fourth. ↩
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Manticore
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.
Manticores are based on Persian myth, and have been in D&D at least since the days of BECMI. Here they are present in both the Monster Manual and the Vault.
The Lore
Manticores are monsters with the body of a very large lion, bat-like wings, and a vaguely humanlike face. Their tails are long, whip-like, and tipped with iron spikes.
These creatures are sapient, but deeply stupid and even more deeply mean, living up to their Chaotic Evil alignment. They claim large hunting territories around their lairs and are known to extend them even further on a whim. Like, say, when they discover a tasty village just on the other side of the current borders. They specifically seek out sapient prey if at all possible. Their favorites are humans and dwarves.
Tough technically capable of parley, manticores rarely bother listening. Those who manage to get through to a manticore can sometimes appease them with bribes of food, a tactic also used by smarter villains who want to hire some manticore muscle. There’s absolutely no guarantee the manticore will show up for the job, or stay appeased. Even manticores trained since they were cubs have a tendency to turn on their handlers. Should the beast actually hold its end of the bargain, it might end up serving as a mount for the villain commanding it.
Manticores have three rows of teeth that work a bit like a shark’s, often falling off and being replaced by new ones. Loose teeth and spikes, often stuck in mangled corpses, are a sure sign that you’re in manticore country. Despite having all those teeth, they prefer to use their claws in combat.
Heraldry has them as symbols of unpredictable danger, viciousness and cruelty. Manticore iconography is used in danger signs such as those meant to keep people away from an unstable abandoned mine or the like. They’re also adopted as symbols by groups such as evil mercenaries or bandits who want to seem all edgy and badass.
The Numbers
The Monster Manual only has one manticore stat block, but the Vault has four, each with a different role. That’s enough for you to make an all-manticore encounter. They’re Large Natural Magical Beasts.
Manticores run at speed 6 and fly at speed 8. Their keen senses give them trained Perception, and all of them can shoot those spikes from their tails. They don’t run out of ammunition either. Perhaps the spikes magically grow as soon as they’re fired, or perhaps there are so many to begin with they have Enough(TM) for any given fight.
Manticore (MM)
The classic model is a Level 10 Elite Skirmisher with 210 HP and the Mount keyword.
Its basic attack is a claw, and it can launch spikes out to Range 10. The spike attack allows them to shift 3 squares either before or after firing. Manticore Fury is a standard action that allows the beast to make both a claw and a spike attack in any order. Every so often (recharge 3-6) the manticore can whip its tail really hard and fire a Spike Volley (Area Burst 1 within 10).
Its mount ability is Guided Sniper, representing the fact that it allows its rider to act as a spotter. This gives both the basic spike throw and Spike Volley a +2 bonus to hit.
I’m tempted to plop a cheeky goblin atop a manticore, but realistically the rider would be someone more badass - otherwise they’d just get eaten instead.
Manticore Striker (MV)
Essentially a regular version of the MM elite manticore, this one is a Level 10 Skirmisher with 106 HP. None of the MV manticores have the Mount keyword or abilities.
The striker can shift 2 squares either before or after its claw and tail spike attacks, and lacks the ability to make both in the same round. If someone hits it, though, it can make a spike counterattack as a reaction, shooting a tail spike at the attacker without provoking opportunity attacks.
Manticoer Impaler (MV)
This Level 11 Brute has 138 HP. Its claw and tail spike attacks do Brute-level damage, and it also has a Tail Lance (melee 2 vs. AC) that can grab a target by impaling it.
The escape DC on the grab is 19, and while grabbed the target takes ongoing physical damage. While it has a creature impaled, the manticore’s flight gains an altitude limit of 6 squares.
While it’s grabbing someone, the manticore can also use Prepare to Drop, a move action that allows it to fly its speed and pull the target along. This includes pulling them straight up! It’s not stated in the stat block, but I think the manticore can choose to release someone it’s grabbing on its turn. Damage from the drop uses standard falling rules (1d10 per 2 squares/10ft, IIRC).
Manticore Spike Hurler (MV)
As you might have guessed from the name, this is the Artillery manticore. It’s Level 13 with 100 HP.
It has the usual claw and tail spike attacks, with the spike being more accurate and doing more damage. It can also launch a spike volley (area burst 1 within 10) at will.
Manticore Sky Hunter
This one is a Level 13 Soldier (Leader) with 130 HP, and it’s remarkable for being a manticore that cares about its allies. It has a Shielding Wings aura 1 that grants allies inside a +2 bonus to AC and Reflexes.
Its basic attacks are the usual claw and tail spike, with the claws also marking for a turn on a hit. As a minor action it can also let out a Threatening Roar that automatically marks everyone in a Close Burst 1 for a turn.
If any marked enemy within 5 squares makes an attack that doesn’t include the sky hunter, it can use a tail spike attack on them as a reaction (Defender’s Spike).
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
The MM has two encounters featuring its elite manticore:
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Level 11: 1 manticore, 1 galeb duhr rockcaller, 4 ogre savages.
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Level 13: 2 manticores, 2 hill giants, 4 ogre thugs (minions).
In the first one I think the manticore is serving as the galeb duhr’s mount, having finally come across someone it can’t eat. While it’s funny to imagine the hill giants trying to hide the manticores in the second encounter, I don’t think that would work out very well for them.
I like manticores, they’re fun to run and fun to fight. The four MV stat blocks give us a bit more variety in tactics while staying true to the core MM concept. Perhaps you could take a pair of those and make them into Huge Elites so that those giants can finally make their dreams of flying come true.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Magma Beast
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This is part of a series! Go here to see the other entries.
Magma beasts are probably the conceptial descendants of the Magmen of AD&D 1st Edition, which later turned into Magmin during 3.x. There are likely a few other monsters that ended up in this entry as well. They appear only on the Monster Manual.
The Lore
Magma Beasts are elementals of earth and fire, obviously native to the Elemental Chaos. They seem to be a little more physical than the creatures that were listed under the Elemental entry, in that they actually have metabolisms and thus have goals other than to exuberantly rage for all eternity.
These creatures live in the most fiery patches of the Elemental Chaos, the ones that contain rivers of flowing magma, active volcanoes, or at least large amounts of ambient geothermal energy. They can be found in the world or the shallow Underdark in similarly hot places.
They sustain their mineral bodies by eating various ores and clays found in these environments, but they’re also quite capable of digesting lesser elemental creatures and even organic beings! Organics do have a lot of calcium and iron in their composition, after all.
Some magma beasts prefer an organic diet, having acquired a taste for the flavor or burned meat. That doesn’t necessarily make them people-eaters, though I guess the stupider varieties aren’t going to stop and ask their next prospective meal if it can talk. The lair of a people-eating magma beast will not be littered with the valuables of its victims - it eats those too.
Sapient magma beasts (magma brutes and magma hurlers) can be reasoned with and bribed with offers of food, so that’s one way you can find them working alongside others. They’re also able to bully their dumber relatives into obeying them.
The Numbers
Magma beasts tend to be lower level than the creatures in the Elemental entry, so they might be a good way to introduce your Heroic Tier PCs to monsters from the Elemental Chaos.
The “stupid” kinds of magma beast are Elemental Magical Beasts with Int 2, while the “smarter” kinds are Elemental Humanoids with Int 5. The lore makes me think the stupid ones should be Beasts, since they seem to behave more like animals.
All magma beasts are immune to petrification, have 10/tier fire resistance, and are slowed for a turn when they take cold damage. They have the Earth and Fire keywords.
Magma Claw
This Medium beast looks like a stinger-less scorpion. It’s a Level 4 Brute with 64 HP and training in both Endurance and Stealth. It uses the latter to disguise itself as a rock outcropping until a potential victim wanders into charge range. It moves at speed 4, but charges at speed 8.
Its basic attack is a claw that does a mix of physical and fire damage, and it can also Spew Lava at-will (vs. Reflex). A hit with this does ongoing 5 fire damage and immobilizes (save ends). I imagine the lava comes out of where the stinger would be.
Magma Hurler
This Medium humanoid is Level 4 Artillery with 41 HP. It moves at Speed 4.
Magma hurlers fight in melee with slams, and they can also form and hurl balls of magma. These have a range of 15, target Reflex, and do fire damage; a miss causes all creatures adjacent to the target to take a bit of automatic fire damage. Don’t cluster up!
Hurlers are one of the two “smart” magma beasts. If you know Primordial, you might be able to talk to them.
Magma Strider
These Large beasts look like those long-legged water strider bugs. They hunt through the same endurance-based method ancient humans used, pursuing their intended prey for hours until it becomes exhausted. They’re Level 10 Skirmishers with 105 HP who move and climb at Speed 6, so they can keep up with most terrestrial creatures.
Their basic attack is a Reach 2 bite that does both immediate and ongoing fire damage (save ends). They can often Burn Across the Battlefield (recharge 3-6), which allows then to immediately charge another target after hitting someone with a basic bite. Their Burning Mobility also causes 5 fire damage to anyone who hits them with an opportunity attack.
Magma Brute
This Large humanoid is the other “smart” magma beast. Left alone, they behave as nomadic scavengers. However, as Level 13 Brutes, they’re right at the point where they begin to bump into “proper” elementals and other more powerful denizens of the Chaos, so they often end up bullied into servitude.
Magma Brutes have 156 HP, walk at speed 4, and have a fire resistance of 20 as Paragon-tier creatures. Their single attack is a Reach 2 Slam that does physical damage plus ongoing fire damage (save ends) and is in dire need of a damage fix.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
We have two:
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Level 5: 2 magma claws, 2 magma hurlers, and 2 fire bats. Perfect for an early fire dungeon, and likely to make your tieflings and fire sorcerers feel powerful.
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Level 13: 3 magma brutes and 1 beholder eye of flame. Oh, so that’s who likes to bully the brutes.
I’m not terribly enthusiastic about magma beasts. However, I think it’s refreshing to see an entry about what is basically dangerous fantasy wildlife after so many instances of “kill this thing on sight” courtesy of the Monster Vault.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Lycanthrope
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast Lycanthropes have always been a part of D&D, which apparently took inspiration from a mix of Holywood horror movies and a bit of traditional folklore. They are present in both the Monster Manual and the Vault.
The Lore
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast Lycanthropes are creatures who can change their shape to that of a humanoid, an animal, or a bipedal, animal-headed hybrid. There are different species, each associated with a specific animal. Contrary to popular myth, lycanthropy cannot be spread via bites, nor are lycanthropes forced to transform in the full moon.
If I understand it correctly, a lycanthrope is more like an animal who happens to be able to change into a human than the reverse. Many don’t feel comfortable living for an extended time in human society, and fear discovery of their true nature. They can reproduce normally with each other or with their related animal, unions which always result in new lycanthropes. They can also reproduce with humans, though in these cases their offspring is more likely to consist of “shifters” who can’t transform completely (and were introduced as a playable race in Eberron).
Villainous lycanthropes are the type that treats sapients as prey and who use their shapeshifting to infiltrate polite society and gnaw at it from within. The Monster Vault once again tells us all lycanthropes are like that. Guess it was ghostwritten by that bigot Volo.
The myths about the bite do have a shred of truth to them, as the bite of some lycanthropes can infect humanoid victims with diseases that might make them behave in an erratic or “bestial” way.
The Numbers
Both books give us stats for the two types of lycanthrope most likely to fight adventurers: wererats and werewolves.
In all cases their signature lycanthrope trait is the ability to change shape! They can use a minor action to switch between their human, animal or hybrid forms. As humans, they can use weapons. As animals, they can bite (and possibly spread disease). As hybrids, they can do both!
Lycanthropes also have Regeneration 5, which is disabled for a turn when they take damage from silver weapons. Due to the way regeneration works in 4e, you can kill them without silver, it’s just harder.
Wererat (MM)
Wererats are likely to be the first lycanthrope your PCs encounter, and also the ones most comfortable with living in civilization. Wererat thieves’ guilds are a classic staple of D&D.
Here they’re Medium Natural Humanoids with the Shapechanger keyword, and Level 3 Skirmishers with 48 HP. They also have the common traits listed above. They run at speed 6 and can climb at speed 4 in their non-human forms.
Wererats fight with short swords and bites. The bites do a little less damage but also do ongoing damage (save ends) and spread filth fever.
Wererats gain bonus “sneak attack” damage if they attack with combat advantage.
Filth Fever is a level 3 disease. Stage 1 makes you lose a healing surge, Stage 2 also inflicts -2 to all your defenses, and Stage 3 keeps the penalty and takes away all your healing surges and your ability to regain hit points. 4e disease rules have you make periodic Endurance checks to see if you worsen, improve or stay stable. Also I think you cannot recover on your own when you reach Stage 3.
Scurrying Wererat (MV)
This is much like the MM version, though its attacks are different.
This wererat’s weapon is a dagger, which does extra damage with combat advantage. Their bite deals ongoing damage with combat advantage (save ends).
The Vault also specifies someone bitten by a wererat must roll at save at the end of the fight to see if they contracted filth fever or not. The disease’s effects are the same.
As a move action while in rat form, this wererat can use Rat Scurry to shift its speed.
Frenzied Werewolf (MV)
Werewolves are the most classic lycanthropes and likely the first to be statted up for D&D.
This one is a Level 6 Brute with 78 HP and all common lycanthrope traits. It runs at speed 6, or 8 while in wolf form. Its weapon is a club, and both it and its claws do extra damage against bloodied targets. They can also bite, and bitten victims contract Moon Frenzy if they fail a save at the end of the fight.
In hybrid form, the werewolf can use Lycanthrope Fury to make both a claw and a bite attack as a standard action, dealing 5 damage to itself in the process.
Moon Frenzy is a level 6 disease. It doesn’t turn you into a werewolf, but it penalizes your Will (Stage 1) and forces you to attack a nearby ally when you become bloodied (Stage 2) and later on whenever you’re hit by an attack (Stage 3).
Werewolf (MM)
This one is quite similar to its Monster Vault counterpart, but is level 8 with 108 HP, lacks claws and Lycanthrope Fury and transmits a level 8 version of Moon Frenzy.
It’s worth noting that disease DCs are 3-4 points higher in the Monster Manual versions. I guess they must have been lowered by the time the Vault was published when the authors realized very few PCs ever trained Endurance.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
We get two in the Manual:
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Level 4: 2 wererats, 4 dire rats, 6 human rabble. Your typical wererat thief gang.
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Level 9: 4 werewolves, 4 dire wolves. A pack with extra punch.
The gothic/Holywood werewolf afflicted by a curse that turns then into ravenous murderers on the full moon is a classic… but that’s not what we get here at all. These lycanthropes are just another sapient species, and while there’s nothing preventing some individuals from turning to evil, there’s nothing compelling them to do so anyway (despite all the stat blocks we’re given being Evil).
This makes the Monster Vault’s more aggressive stance feel like vile bigotry to me. If you take it at face value you can say the Church of the Silver Flame was right to genocide lycanthropes and shifters in Eberron, which to me is a clue to not take it at face value.
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