Post-Apocalyptic Armor 2: The Road Warrior

Played a session with the new armor rules. I went in with each piece having weapon die modifiers, fumble modifiers, armor check penalty modifiers, fractional modifiers. It was overkill and stupid. Here are the streamlined Wasteland Armor rules, and a list of wasteland armor.

1. Armor does not (generally) modify Armor Class. Instead it soaks damage.
2. Armor Class is modified by Reflex Saving Throw Modifier.
3. Armor die is determined by moving up the Die Chain for each Armor Die Step.
4. After a hit, the defender rolls its Armor Die. The result reduces the attack's damage by the number rolled. 
5. On a roll of 1 on the armor die, one piece of armor of the defender's choice is damaged, reducing it's effectiveness by one step. If reduced to zero, it is destroyed.
6. Some pieces of armor do not provide armor die steps, they are there for when ones are rolled to keep the good stuff from breaking.
7. Fumble Die is equal to the total armor die, unless additionally modified by an armor piece's SPECIAL NOTES.
8. These rules only apply to player characters of at least first level and special bad guys. Otherwise shit would slow down too much.
9. Shields work normally, granting a bonus to AC.

Helmets

Armor Piece	Armor Die Steps	Armor Check Penalty	Special
Hockey Mask	1	-1
Catcher’s Mask	1		Pointy attacks ignore.
Football Helmet	2	-1	Increases fumble die one step.
Motorcycle Helmet	2	-2
Riot Helmet	2
Welder’s Mask	1

Body

Armor Piece	Armor Die Steps	Armor Check Penalty	Special
Shoulder Pads	1	-1
Spiked Shoulder Pads	1	-2	Grants +1 to AC. Increases fumble die one step.
Catcher’s Chest Protector	1
Leather Apron	2	-1
Tire Tread Chest Piece	3	-2	Increases fumble die one step.
Hubcap Breastplate	2	-3	Increases fumble die one step.
Metal cuirass	*	-3	Grants a d4 Armor Die in addition to Armor Die provided by other Armor Pieces.
Leather Jacket	2
Riot Gear Torso	3	-2
Flak Jacket	*		Grants a d6 Armor Die in addition to Armor Die provided by other Armor Pieces.
Leather Chaps or Pants	2

Additional Pieces

The following do not provide armor dice, but may be worn as additional protection to be sacrificed when armor is damaged. There is an Armor Check Penalty of one for every two pieces worn (round up).

• Elbow Pads
• Forearm Guards
• Spiked Elbow Pads (Provide +1 AC, but incur additional -1 Armor check Penalty and increase fumble die by one.
• Razor Bracers
• Shin Guards
• Knee Pads
• Goggles

I made this equipment character sheet to simplify tracking the armor. Each piec will go on a little post it that is stuck in the roughly corresponding position. I also made a spot for usage dice (Stolen from +David Black's Black Hack), and the items thing is for a LotFP meets Black Hack, style encumbrance rule set. I also got some ideas for this from Last Gasp, namely having "Ready Items." 

PDF of the Equipment Character Sheet.

DCC RPG: Post Apocalypse Armor

So far in the two sessions we've played, there hasn't been much armor floating around. In the first session some slaughtered boat people had their fancy high tech body armor taken, and that's all anyone has gotten.
It was just sort generic, I only threw it in so that they'd get the idea that the boat people were operating at a more advanced tech level than their village. By the end of the last session, they were battling The Shunned, a gang of cut-throats in a city ruins. These are the kind of guys that would have Naked Raygun, Mad Max, New Barbarians type shit.

Now I could just describe the armor, all shoulder pads and codpieces and give it an armor class, but it's such an essential component of what makes road warrior apocalypse shit so rad, I think it needs to be special. As homework I started with what Adam at Kickassistan posted last summer about Armor-less AC and what Claytonian posted over at the G+ DCC group recently.

What I'm stealing from Adam is that a character's reflex save is their armor class bonus and armor reduces damage. From Claytonian I'm pulling the variable damage soak.

What I'm adding to the mix is that any 1s rolled on a soak die breaks the armor one step down the die chain, and that multiple pieces combine to step up the die chain. Some special things will give extra dice. I have to work out the specifics, but here's a quick maybe examples:

Shoulder pad armor: one step up

Spiked shoulder pads: one step up and +1 to AC (those spikes get in the way of wallops)

Motorcycle helmet: two steps up

Leather duster: One Step up

Armored Breastplate: Additional d4 armor die

So let's say Eggfart has gotten herself Shoulder pads, a helmet, a leather duster and an armored breastplate. 

Crack! Vicious clubbing for 6 points of damage. All together she rolls a d4 for the breastplate and a d6 for everything else. And she gets a 1 and a 5. Cool, that soaks up all the damage, but oh no, that 1 means the breastplate is damaged and now is only worth a 1d3. Better kill these Shunned and take their chainmail crochet dress.

Will try and get something more codified before the next time we play, and figure out how exactly the fumble die will work.

Collaborative Village Creation Guide for Sandbox Kickoff

In the last post that recapped the campaign kickoff (we have already decided on two days that for sure wouldn't work for the next game, but at least it's progress) I referenced the collaborative village creation. Here I'll give a rundown of how we did it, how I tied it in to DCC character creation. In a future post I'll go through how I'm pulling the seemingly set aside bits we came up with as return hooks in the sandbox we'll be playing in.

Before getting together, I put the following questions onto notecards, so I could have notes on the answers to specific questions in one place, and for bookkeeping reasons as the campaign continues. Before we started I gave the group a blank piece of paper to for them to draw a map of the village and the surrounding area. As we went through the questions they drew stuff on the map, and just doodled things. Some answers inspired follow up questions that I wrote down on additional cards. After we got through all of the questions, we had a pretty clear idea of what the town was all about.

We took smoke break screw around break for a few minutes, and during that time I wrote down all of the characters who were specifically named, or professions that were mentioned onto a numbered list. This became the Occupation list for the 0 levels. Weapon and trade good I just sort of winged after they rolled. I then rounded it out to 60 with entries from the Crawling Under a Broken Moon Occupation List.
So there's had specific people, like Beckett the most irritating guy in town, Texas, the oil bum, and honey badger cultists. For the specifically named characters I gave a bonus to the relevant stat, smartest guy in town, Einstein the scientist, got a +2 to Intelligence, Hercules Berkeles got a +2 to Strength.

The map they made.

Village Creation Question List:

• What is special about the village?
• Describe the village's terrain
• Give a detail about the terrain
• Each player name a resource
• What does the village produce (commodity, trade goods, etc)?
• What Else
• Why has it been safe so far?
• Who does it trade with?
• What is the religion, ethos or guiding philosophy of the village?
• What is the competing, underground or forbidden movement?
• How is the village governed?
• Are the people satisfied with this arrangement?
• If opposition exists, who is involved with it?
• What or who is the greatest threat to the village?
• If there is any other threats, what are they?
• Who is the most irritating person in the village? Explain.
• What is the community's open secret?
• Who is the oldest person in the village?
• Who is the town gossip?
• Who is the youngest?
• Who is the ugliest?
• Who is the most beautiful?
• Who is the smartest?
• Who is the most trusted?
• Who is the strongest?
• Who is the dumbest?
• What is the worst thing to have happened to the village in the last five years?
• What was the best?
• What is the village's favorite pastime?
• What will make the village prosper?
• What is a typical meal?
• What is the most common chore
• What job is the most honored?
• What is the least desired job?
• Who should have been exiled?
• Why weren't they?

Part of the occupation list.

Filled out Note cards 

Running a Savage Funnel: Porting DCC 0-Level Funnels to Savage Worlds

Two things I like in games are starting as a schlep and having characters die the first session. The DCC-RPG does both of things fantastically well with its funnel mechanic.
I also like Savage Worlds. Rolling different kinds of dice is neat. I think it might go back to the wonder factor of when I first learned D&D from the older kid who lived across the street, "This pyramid one is a magic-user's dice. It only goes up to four, but they are still cool because they always hit with their magic missile and can also do weird stuff. The double pyramid is the Fighter's die. They are tough. This one has 12 sides, you don't use it too much." I guess this was sorta inaccurate, but the idea that certain dice are for certain things still feels cool to me.
The dice chain in DCC-RPG is also floating somewhere in this space of changing the kind of die based on circumstances and ability, but I really like its centrality to Savage Worlds.
The absence of classes in Savage Worlds is also a selling point for me. I like the loosey goosey anything goes aspect and it seems like it's easier to wing stuff. That may or may not be true, but call me Peter Kropotkin, I'm gonna stick with the abolition of the class system.
So here is my attempt at shoehorning the 0-level funnel into Savage Worlds.

Each player has four characters.
These are Extras, not Wild Cards (don't get the extra d6 and get killed after Shaken). After the end of their first adventure, they will become Wild Cards and get the Wild Die and ability to suffer wounds.

Since Savage Worlds is normally a point-buy, we need to change that. Over in the SW Forums there was this thread about random character generation. It uses a D&D style 3d6 to consult a table to see what the attribute score would be. I can hear groans from my buddies having to look up each roll for four guys each, so I came up with this idea instead. It might be a bit nuttier on the edges, but I'll find out when I run it.

For each character roll ten tensiders to determine attributes.

Evens are going to be good and odds will be bad.
Attributes:
1&2 Agility
3&4 Smarts
5&6 Strength
7&8 Spirit
9&10 Vigor

Evens increase a stat by one step, odds decrease stats by one step. If a stat would go below d4, each step is a -1.

Skills :
Choose a few skills that every character will have. One should be a broad Job/Occupation Skill. Anything that relates to their prior occupation falls under this. Start this skill at a d8. It can't ever be increased and does not have an associated attribute. The rest of the skills should start at d4s. Throughout the funnel adventure, the player may increase one skill per character at anytime (this includes starting new ones off at d4). Additionally, whenever a character is killed, that player gets another skill increase to use immediately.
Here's the starting skills for the Ganymede mining disaster game I'll be running at BashCon.

Job (starts at d8)
(Rest start at d4)
Fighting
Shooting
Social
Computer Use

Occupation. This ties into their Job skill, either make a random table or find one like 100 Mining Jobs for a Stultifying Corporate Future

Edges: No One gets a starting Edge, though they will at the end of the funnel, preferable one that relates to what they did during the adventure.

Hindrances: Each character gets a random hindrance that the character can cash in for edges when they get to the end of the funnel and hit Novice and become a Wild Card. Here is a random hindrance generator. You could also roll and count off in the book. The best bet would be to make a table specific to what you'll be running. I think I'll put together an OUTER SPACE table that I'll post shortly.

Depending on the game type you may also want to give some starting items. I think in the Mining disaster game everyone will have a Future Phone.

Now its time to get to thinning the herd and figuring out who has got what it takes to survive a Mining Disaster, or zombie outbreak, or dhole infestation, wizard strike...

Misery Index: Misery Loves Company and it Only Gets Worse

I’ve been thinking about some sort of mental anguish rule for a while now. It seems to me that adventuring types both imagined and real are often looking to escape or move beyond emotional pains.

My mom was decapitated by Thulsa Doom, then I had to turn a wheel for fucking ever until I murdered for the entertainment of some assholes. So I escaped to have sex with a demon witch lady before continuing my quest for vengeance. Wouldn't you know it, my Red Sonja-y girlfriend gets shot by a snake arrow. Back to killing.

I feel alienated from peer group and girls don’t really like me that’s why I hate myself, maybe it’s the way I look or maybe it’s something else. So I escape to shows where the place gets trashed and the cops get called and we run away and maybe talk some shit to a football player marine future cop who can kick my ass but again I’ll run away before I’m too badly beaten and try to get drunk and find some drugs and maybe a bit of enlightenment on a tab of LSD.

So adventurers want treasure and carousing, but why do they want treasure and carousing? Because they are miserable! So let’s make misery sorta like hit points, but different.

The next campaign I’m going to be running is a post-apocalypse game. One of the cores of this will be the suffering and misery of the characters. I’m also going to be running a convention one shot at Bash Con next month that is a funnel type thing about a mining disaster on a moon of Jupiter. So my goals for this initial pass at the MISERY INDEX is for it to work in campaign play as well as a one off.

At its most basic Misery Index can function somewhat like a sanity mechanic. The James Raggi insanity dismissal is fairly sound until one considers his description as unipolar. It is true that D&D characters act like maniacs all on their own, but what about the crippling depression when the campfire embers are low and the only company one has staring into the dark abyss is the memory of the twisted visages of slaughtered wee-goblins from the morning? That terrible wicked shit might get to even the most hardened mercenary killers.

Those are not heroic acts of self sacrifice saving the rest of the party. No it is suicide by dragon.

These rules should be usable in just about any system, though as of now the numbers are wholly untested and may need serious reworking. This is more of a starting point.

Misery Index: The Rules

Misery Index is the numerical representation of the terrible shit a character has felt, has seen and has done. It is a score that tracks the late night hauntings and the time in the mornings needed to adjust to remembering they are in fact who they are and that dreams were only a temporary reprieve.

After any rest or encampment and whenever Misery Index increases, characters must make a saving throw (Will, Magic, Wisdom Check). Failure requires a roll on the following EFFECTS Table, modified by their current Misery Index score. This roll can be skipped if it gets old or tiresome. 

EFFECTS 

Roll % + Misery Index

1-15 Under the weather

The character just sort of feels shitty, but no mechanical effect.

16-25 Feeling Down Blues

The character is down enough where social tests (persuasion, charisma checks, interactions with retainers) is at a -1 penalty

26-35 Inaction

Fuck It! is the thought of the day. The character would rather be doing nothing. Any roll made while not wearing pajamas is at a -1 penalty.

36-40 Generalized Anger

You know what, not fuck it, Fuck This! The character is pissed. On the plus side all acts of violence are given a +1 bonus. Even damage.

41-49 Misplaced Rage

No not fuck this. You know what FUCK YOU! The character is extra quick to violence today. They still get the anger +1, but they are at a -2 penalty to all social checks and have a 1 in 6 chance of attacking nearby allies in combat (This should be an extra attack, rather than a replacement. If you are using tactical minis or Roll20 grids only make the check when they are adjacent, but then maybe make it automatic, to keep the system from being gamed)

50-59 Dissolving of Bonds

Really I’ve had enough of your shit. If there are Dungeon World or 5th Edition bonds in play, cross one off. Helpful spell effects don’t help. Bardic songs are just pissing you off and inspiring jack shit.

60-68 Foolhardy Self Destruction

One time when I was having a really shitty week, like disintegration of cohabitation cuckolded shitty, I got robbed at gunpoint. I did not give up my wallet initially and got into a fistfight after being pistol whipped. I am a weakling and a coward, so D&D guys should be doing waaaaay stupider shit than this even. 

69-73 Crippling Self Loathing

Everything is -5

74 Catatonia

Don’t need a penalty because nothing is being done.

75-83 Roll Two More Times Ignoring Repeats

84-89 Roll Two More Times Rerolling Repeats

90-93 Roll Two More Times Compounding Repeats

94-97 Roll Three More Times Ignoring Repeats

98-99 Roll Three More Times Rerolling Repeats

100+ Roll Three More Times Compounding Repeats

Earning Misery Index Points

First Kill 5 points

Next 10 kills 2 points each

After that, saving throws when appropriate, success, no effect, failure the victim reminded the character of something stirring up emotions that seemed buried. 3 points

Death of a companion 4 points

Death of a loved NPC 3 points

Death of a parent sibling or mentor 5 points

Death of offspring 10 Points

Death penalties are doubled if the character has any possibility of blaming themselves for the death. 

Getting Rid of Misery Index

Only time can decrease the misery. For every month of game time, 1 point is removed.

Mitigating Misery Index

The Effects of Misery may be waived if the character engages in drug and alcohol abuse (though saves must be made or misery is incurred the following day) carousing, sex, revenge, killing and violence (should the character embrace bloodlust), dedication to a project or quest.

Awards for Role Playing the misery:

DCC = luck

5th Edition = advantage

Savage Worlds = Bennies

XP if you do that sort of thing

After I get some play in with this I’ll return to the subject. I’d love to get some feedback on this, I think with the right tweaking it could be a cool plot driver and resource to be watched by the players.

Feeding Me Lines - Talking RPG Talking, Not Blow

Last year on our way to Con on the Cob, my friend Marty and I began saying things like:
"Wait where is the hotel?"
"Ahh, it lay past yond eldritch tower."
"Yes, just through the twisted bramble."
It cracked us up. So we decided every time we said one of these phrases, we'd get a point. While being teenagers plagued by Krampus traipsing through a dark wood in an event run by the great folks of Rogue Cthulhu we were sure to point out the blood was dripping from yond eldritch tower and that the only route for escape was through the twisted bramble. And we'd mark hashes on our sheets, and add up the points in the Marty-Beckett extra fun time game.

This gave me an idea to apply to games I run, give the players lines for their characters to say and give them an equivalent of a Marty-Beckett extra fun time game point when they do. It helps to build theme and atmosphere through player engagement and interaction.

The Dying Earth RPG has a similar mechanic, the Tagline. At the beginning of each session of The Dying Earth, the GM assigns each player two taglines, and each player selects one. They reflect a particular Vancian locution to conjure that convoluted whimsy of the end of Earth's days. Taglines also give experience points.

Artwork by John G for the forthcoming Crawlspace scenario Gimme Shelter

The first scenario I used this mechanic is in Gimme Shelter, an event I ran at Gen Con and am running again in a couple of weeks at this year's Con on the Cob. It uses the Crawlspace ruleset, a rules light horror game that uses ordinary playing cards for the resolution mechanic. It is fast and fun and I recommend checking it out. Gimme Shelter should be published by Peryton sometime in the near future.

The scenario follows a group of marginalized people that may or maynot have secret information about demons or aliens. Kind of a Save the Green Planet! but on the street and in shelters. Before we start playing, I give everyone a card with a phrase, and once they work it in, they get a "fame card" (allows a second attempt on actions) and another phrase. I run it as player driven as possible, and the cards go a long way in setting the tone without me having to do much talking.

Here is part of Gimme Shelter's "script":

• Oh, do we have something on our face?
• Who do I look like? Ratso Rizzo on the bus man?
• Those boys are following me on a speaker phone.
• Oh, you don’t understand. That isn’t me, he’s our husband.
• Is your soul not poverty and pollution and wretched self-complacency?
• We’re just actors in a dream. It’s all an illusion.
• Plate. Or Shrimp. Or plate of shrimp.
• The puppet show of sight and sense.
• Well of course they couldn’t have let me stay there, I’d have just crapped on the floor again.
• She’s not a crackhead. I met her before she smokes crack.

I think using a tagline type mechanic can work in all sorts of games, and can really help to establish a tone. Before the next session of DCC R&PL I will create a list to use for that. I think one XP is about the right scale for DCC.