Looping the Hen Games

If y'all get bored, do some Google searches (or even look up Iron Heroes at Amazon and read the reviews) on Monte Cook's Iron Heroes. It is a subset of 3.5 rules, but with a much broader focus on gritty settings such as Conan, Fafnir and the like instead of the high magic standards. Magic is ultra-rare, and focus is put on a character and his skills over twinking of items.

Although I don't intend that low of a magic setting, I do like the character focus and some of the tweaks he has made. One of the changes I am going to try is to offer an armor variant that takes into account what armor really does: prevent physical damage. Although generally armor will have a lower AC rating (because wandering around in 70 pounds of metal makes one relatively easy to hit), it will have a certain Damage Resistance. Thus, chain mail may have an AC bonus of 2, but a DR of 8/slashing (meaning it is good against piercing and bludgeoning but not so good against slashing).

I haven't decided how to deal with armor degradation, but for those who don't mind book-keeping, a standard suit of armor might offer 100 points of total protection before it degrades to DR 7 or loses an AC bonus.

I think this puts armor into it's traditional light, as well as forcing it to be reckoned with as there will probably be a bonus against hand-to-hand combatants in a world where hth is very common.

Also, I have decided to do away with all of the area-effect combat spells, e.g. fireball, lightning bolt, cone of cold, etc. Although these might potentially be found in some ancient and arcane text, they are definitely not the flavor I am looking for in combat. Some of the dragon races may have area-effect type breath weapons and the like that folks fear, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

Also, for my current folks, I've had a couple of bites for extra players through the various places I've been posting, with hope we may see one next session!

Posted by at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I never even got to mention winning the Unhallowed Prerelase last month! (The final was decided by a 3 out of 5 d20 playoff; I was behind 2-1 and came back for the win!) Photos here, two with yours truly.

My warband:

High Inquisitor - 49 (least active commander ever; the Dragon and Wolf and surprisingly the Canoloth carried the band)
Vampire Dire Wolf - 45
Large Black Dragon - 44
Canoloth - 24
Wild Elf Warsinger x 2- 18
Changeling Rogue - 6
Fire Mephit - 13

199 points - 8 activations

It was fun, though I drove a different way this time and almost missed the event, showing up after everyone else had built their bands. I lost one match, to the player who I ended up beating in the finals via the roll-off. Second turn decided that game, as his Beholder Lich rolled a Turn Undead 20 on my Vampire Dire Wolf and routed it off the board before it ever got close to the fight.

Posted by at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have been thinking about the new campaign a bit more. I've also been watching some of what Tammy and I have taken to calling 'Asian Bonnet Movies', such as Crouching Tiger, Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower. As I am going for some of the high action feel of those movies many places in the campaign, it got me to thinking what it was that I enjoy so much about the environs, people and settings of these movies.

One thing I noticed is you can go from a quiet scene around a dinner table when suddenly ninjas attack. There is a burst of action, and then the heroes finish their dinner, barely noticing the dead thugs around them.

I particularly dislike the D&D combat sequence; at early levels it is easy for someone to die. At high levels combats can last forever, taking near two hours for a decent-sized battle, and even then sometimes I don't feel like it is truly 'epic' combat. If I can manage, I'd love to come up with some easy rules to allow the insertion of some cool 'minor' battles, and save the full ruleset for the big guys.

For example, in Curse of the Yellow Flower, I watched last night, it is awesome when one hero cuts through a dozen bad guys like they were grass. At the same time, it is not because the bad guy is bad, because against any 'normal' person, they would be considered a deadly assassin. It is because the hero is truly heroic! Running the same battle in D&D as it stands would take an hour or two.

So I am just brainstorming here, anyone else with ideas please toss them out. Say one of the PC's is a Dragon Samurai, who while going to the stable to fetch something, is assaulted out of the shadows by a half-dozen low-power ninjas hired by the local magistrate in a fit of pique because he was offended by the PC's in some small way. Each round, the ninjas roll 6 dice as normal to see how many hit the PC. The Samurai, in return, tosses off 3 attacks. Instead of tracking hp, anything that hits a bad guy's AC is a wound, and 2 wounds auto-kills low-level dudes. Anything more than 6 over the bad guy's AC is an autokill (or disabling strike). If the player playing the Samurai gets detailed and comes up with a cool way to use the environment to defeat his opponents, he might even get an additional attack or two or a modifier of +2/+4 or +6 to all of his standard attacks for 'coolness'.

Thoughts anyone? I think something like this allows it to strike home how cool the PC's really are. There will still be risk to the PC's, but if they do die, it will be in a blaze of glory in the center of a pile of black-hearted ninjas!

Posted by at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

No game again this weekend, sorry y'all. Mom is in town for Easter, and we're going to go do the Frist, Parthenon, Melting Pot, among others!

April 21 next scheduled game if everyone can make it!

Thanks!

Posted by at 9:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)