The Mark, a contagion mechanic for your vampires

 I can't remember what came first: Vampire Hunting Weekly, or the idea for a defensive mechanism that turned vampire hunters into, well, vampires themselves. If you're not familiar with VHW, well, it's a small OSR/NSR game I've been working on, and while I originally planned to release it on Halloween, the odds of that happening are not in my favor. I did manage to finish most of its mechanics, though, and you can read my favorite one below!

THE MARK

Vampires are unquestionably the planet's most adaptable apex predators, as evidenced by the diversity of their Strains. It is no surprise, then, that they developed an insidious defensive mechanism when humanity started fighting back.

Those that survive a confrontation with a vampire, whether they emerge victorious or not, run the risk of being Marked by their quarry. Said Marks manifest as the most undesirable aspects of vampirism, and the stronger a vampire is, the more likely they are to inflict a Mark. Likewise, the more Marks a hunter has, the closer they are to becoming what they hate. 

The odds of being Marked are always X-in-6, with X being determined by the enemy's Hit Dice — after killing a 3HD Feral, you'd have a 3-in-6 chance of receiving a new Mark. On the other hand, if you survived a violent encounter with a 6HD Broodmother, you would automatically receive a Mark.

When a hunter receives their First Mark, they roll once on the blights table and reroll an Ability Score of their choice. If the new result is higher than their current score, keep it. If it's lower, ignore it.

After receiving their Second Mark, a hunter rolls twice on the blights table and rerolls their Hit Protection with a d20. If the result is higher than their current maximum HP, they get to keep it.

By the time a hunter receives the third and Final Mark, they're dangerously close to permanently losing their humanity. They roll three times on the blights table, doubling their maximum Hit Protection, rolling a d6 for each Ability Score and adding the results to their respective scores. The next time they're Marked, there will be no turning back.

BLOODLINGS

After receiving a fourth active Mark, a hunter ceases to be a playable character and turns into a Bloodling — a wretched, subservient creature somewhere between a mortal being and an immortal predator.

Bloodlings are inherently drawn to True Vampires, for they are the only ones who can complete their transformation into a creature of the night. When claimed by a vampire, Bloodlings become their loyal servants until released, killed or turned.

COMPATIBILITY

This mechanic should be compatible with most OSR/NSR games, as VHunt is built upon the foundations laid by Into the Odd and Cairn. It will add an element of horror to any campaign it's used on, however, so make sure you and your players are on board with that before hand!

The Wyvern Journals: The Six Masteries

I've been teasing a big post on expanded casting rules for well over a month now, and while I was finally getting ready to write it, the strangest thing happened. I remembered an old magic system I was tinkering with years ago. After re-reading it, I mean, oof. It was rough. There were some pretty cool ideas in there, but overall, I didn't love the execution, which relied on using six different dice to represent six different aspects of magic. Messy as it was, though, I started thinking that maybe, just maybe, it could be compatible with The Wyvern Hack; all it needed was some love and a much needed cleanup. 

I was right. It fit like a glove. Thing is, now I have two different, completely incompatible magic systems, so one of them has to go. 

I vented on Twitter about these first world problems of mine (oh, the irony), and the majority of my moots supported me going with this weird new thing I'm working on, rather than the Vancian-inspired magic system with a tweeeest I was planning on building.

I'm not pulling the trigger on either of them yet, but blogging about the former can't hurt, right? If it sucks, I'll just sweep it under the rug and blog about the latter, too. There's always the possibility that both of them will end up sucking, so I'm not gonna stress about it too much!

CORE ELEMENTS

The Six Masteries, as I've taken to calling this, are centered on two core concepts: a Magic Die, and the aforementioned masteries, named Forces, Divine, Aberrant, Essence, Chaos and Primordial, each corresponding to a different aspect of reality. 

When casting a spell, the magic user declares what they want to achieve with it and how they're going to achieve that, picking an appropriate mastery for their spell. Then, they roll a d6 on said mastery's table, which will determine whether that spell is a failure, a weaker version of itself, a success, a strong success, or if something weirder happens. Each mastery has different, thematically appropriate permutations.

If the spell was a success (regardless of degree), that's where the Magic Die comes in, as it is rolled to determine a spell's duration, damage, area and healing. For utility spells, you assign the results to duration (1/turn), area (2/square or 1,5m) and/or targets (3/extra target). For damage and healing spells, the roll's result determines how much damage you deal or heal, and it can be split between multiple targets. You can use Luck to boost this (I promise we'll talk about Luck Dice soon!).

SPELLCASTING CLASSES

Each spellcasting class handles magic quite differently, both fictionally and mechanically. Mages weave their spells through Arcane knowledge and means, Clerics rely on their Faith to bend reality to their will, while Spellswords use the Craft to shape the world around them. But we're here to talk about mechanics, so...

• Mages use a d12 as their Magic Die. They start the game with two masteries of their choice. They gain one more mastery on level 3, another on level 5, and a final one on level 10.

• Clerics use a d10 as their Magic Die. They start the game with mastery over Essence and the Divine.

• Spellswords use a d8 as their Magic Die. They start the game with one mastery of their choice, gaining another on level 5 and a final one on level 10.

DEPLETION

Rolling a 6 or a 1 on some masteries can deplete your Magic Die. When that happens, you knock it down a tier, and if it is depleted as a d4, then you're deprived. When deprived, you can't cast spells until you take a long rest, after which your magic is completely recovered. Depleted Magic Die are increased by a single step when you take a short rest, up to their original form.

INGREDIENTS AND ARTIFACTS

Ingredients are things like a dragon's petrified gallbladder, graveyard fruits, a nobleman's fingernails or the bottled whimper of a dying man, and they can be spent to adjust a mastery check by 1/each. If an ingredient has a high synergy with the spell you're casting, it can adjust the mastery check by 2.

Magical artifacts can be drained to raise a Magic Die by a step, up to d20. More powerful artifacts can raise them multiple times in a single use. They all have different recharge triggers (blood, sunrise, death, storms, etc). Mages use talismans as artifacts, while Clerics prefer relics and Spellswords are innately acquainted with instruments.

THE SIX MASTERIES

Fucking finally, eh? I won't include all of the mastery tables here, but two should be enough to help y'all visualize how they work, yeah? Read on, fellow wonder weavers.

Forces Mastery

Fireballs, magic missiles, thunderstorms, psychic blasts

1. Your insecurities and fear take hold of you, and you fail to fully exert your mastery over magic. Your spell works, but it is weaker than it should have been. [Roll your Magic Die as if it was one step lower.]
2-3. Everything works exactly as you willed it!
4-5. Some might call it arrogance, but your confidence allows you to surpass your limits, casting an even more potent version of the spell. [Roll your Magic Die as if it was one step higher.]
6. Such greatness is exhausting even for the most revered masters of magic. Your spell has a colossal effect, but you have to knock your Magic Die down a step, lest you lose control of the Forces you're playing with. [If you lower your Magic Die by a step, its resulting roll is tripled. If you don't, the Referee rolls on the disaster table.]

Mastery over Forces deals with pure, raw power, molding magic without a hint of subtlety. No other mastery captures the destructive potential of magic as profoundly as Forces does.

Primordial Mastery

Turning light into darkness, rewinding time itself, teleportation, true resurrection

1. Disaster! Reality refuses to surrender to you, and this spell can never be invoked again.
2-3. You are not yet powerful enough to achieve the desired effect, but your confidence is admirable. Use another mastery to successfully simulate a weaker version of that spell, or give up and temporarily raise your Magic Die by one step.
4-5. The elements are transmuted, gravity is lifted, day turns to night — whatever you intend, it comes true. For now.
6. You reach into the very fabric of reality, and it fights back. Choose between carving your spell into perpetuity and permanently lowering your Magic Die by two steps, fully recovering your Magic Die and failing, or paying a price of the Referee's choosing and achieving temporary success.

In the metaphysical hierarchy of the universe, some elements belong to the surface, while others form the very foundation of reality. Formidable and imperious, Primordial mastery allows its users to shape the essence of all that is, with all the consequences that brings.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

I have no idea if this is balanced or fun, but I'm 100% sure some of y'all would (will?) find ways to abuse and break it, much to your Referee's chagrin. That's fine! I wanted to give casters a lot of utility, and I feel like I achieved that goal. Their damage potential, on the other hand, can't compare to a Fighter's, which is completely intentional. I'm bored of combat casters. I'll take reality warpers any day of the week, because I want my magic to feel alive, weird and expansive. 

This feels like a step in that direction.

The Wyvern Journals: Dissecting the Character Class Model

The Wyvern Journals is the title of what is (hopefully) going to be a series in which we dissect several aspects of my OSR fantasy heartbreaker, The Wyvern Hack, while discussing the decisions behind them. Theoretically, this is already part 2, since the "announcement" post already introduced TWH's core combat rules, but I'm sure we'll revisit those later on. This post, though, will focus on the character class model. I have already posted a couple of class spreads on Twitter, but rather than diving in the specifics of those classes, this is a more general take on how every class in The Wyvern Hack is structured.

CORE ELEMENTS

When push comes to shove, dividing the character class model into its core elements is a lot more efficient than discussing it as a whole, so that's where we'll start. Afterwards, we'll do an individual dive into each element.

1. The Intro Blurb
2. Class Icons
3. Traits
  3.1. Starting Hit Points
  3.2. Trait: Key Attributes
  3.3. Trait: Starting Dice
  3.4. Trait: Typical Backgrounds
  3.5. Trait: Starting Bonuses
  3.6. Trait: Experience Triggers
4. Starting Weapon
5. Special Abilities
6. Personal Table
7. Background Table
8. Starter Kits
9. Progression Table

If you're like me and love visual references, you can find the numbered elements above on an example spread right here.

1. THE INTRO BLURB

Apocalypse World did it best, but I've always been a fan of intro blurbs for classes, playbooks and even clans (or tribes, traditions, kiths and all the rest of WoD's not-classes). They're often essential in helping my AuDHD-ass pick something to play, breaking that damn decision paralysis. Adding these to TWH was a no-brainer! 

The goal here was to give the reader a quick look into the class' flavour, while also setting the tone for everything that comes after, even for myself. If you liked the intro blurb of a class, odds are you're gonna like its Traits, Special Abilities, starter kits and progression. This is usually the part I write first, and aside from everything else, it's supposed to build some hype. For the reader, that is. I'm definitely not hyping myself up with these. Scout's honor.*

2. CLASS ICONS

Much like the intro blurb, this serves the purpose of letting the reader know the kinds of characters they could reasonably play with any given class, while also potentially giving them something to get excited for. Spotting a reference to one of my favorite characters in an RPG tends to instantly get me in the mood to play a similar character, and I'm hoping this applies to some readers, too.

3. TRAITS

This is a meatier section than the previous ones, and although it carries a lot more weight when it comes to gameplay, I personally find it a lot easier to write. Starting Hit Points, for example, are just a matter of either combining two Attributes, using the class' starting Hit Dice's highest possible result, or comparing that with an Attribute (usually Constitution) and picking the highest/lowest, depending on the class.

Key Attributes are a little trickier, and they represent the two Attributes that always have a chance of being improved when a character levels up — the player rolls a d20 for each, and if the result is higher than the Attribute's current value, they increase it by 1. Players can also roll a third Attribute of their choice, but we're getting sidetracked! Levelling up and progression deserve their own blog post, and this ain't it.

Starting Dice are already outlined in the progression tables (the very first thing I did for every class, back when I first started fiddling with TWH's combat). Want to kick some ass in melee/ranged combat? A higher Attack Die will go a long way towards that. Want to recover from an ass-kicking in a timely fashion? Well, that's what your Hit Dice are for. Luck will get its own blog post in the future, but suffice to say that Luck Dice are pretty versatile; the higher, the better.

Typical Backgrounds are pretty much just flavor. So far, I don't have any plans to meaningfully implement these backgrounds as a mechanic in The Wyvern Hack, and I'm not sure I see the need to. As is, they can give the players some ideas for character concepts, and that's good enough for me.

Starting Bonuses are part of the "ctrl+c + ctrl+v" family, in that they're already available in the progression tables. Still, these can be useful for knowing straight up how much damage you can count on dealing/resisting right out of the gate.

Experience Triggers are the hardest Trait to get right, and they're also something I love doing! Again, I won't get too deep into levelling up and progression here, but you can expect an experience track similar to PbtA and FitD games, which will be filled by hitting your class' triggers once a session. While I'm generally wary of any mechanic that incentivizes players to take certain actions just for the sake of gaining experience (or any other in-game reward), my aim with these was to stay close to what someone playing a certain class will want to do anyway. Fighters, for example, will get experience when they get new scars (something that's more likely for characters on the frontline) and when they win a battle. Limiting trigger activation to once per session also helps prevent intentional experience farming.

4. STARTING WEAPONS

Some players will hate that, while others will love it, but I personally really enjoy randomly generated equipment. The Wyvern Hack doesn't randomly generate every piece of equipment, though (see: starting kits), since this can slow character creation down to a crawl, depending on the amount of items you're generating and the number of tables you're consulting, but a random starting weapon can be a lot of fun, and it might surprise you! Getting a high roll on a starting weapon's damage is a nice treat, after all. If you really hate what you rolled, though, no biggie. All classes have starter kits with extra weapons and/or some coin for you to spend on equipment in-game.

5. SPECIAL ABILITIES

This is where you'll find the very soul of each and every character class. Sure, classes have plenty of differences besides these, but Special Abilities are the things that make them truly unique, presenting the players with the tools through which they'll interact with the world. All of the Fighters' Special Abilities are related to combat, for example, while the Dungeoneer is exclusively focused on utility, exploration and, well, dungeon crawling. These not only communicate what the class will excel at, but also let the players know which class will be better suited to their preferred playstyle.

6. PERSONAL TABLE

My absolute favorite part, right there. These are a combination of a personal question and a d6 table, which will always award the character with something, while also fleshing them out a bit. Giving mechanical weight to these tables is loads of fun, too!

7. BACKGROUND TABLE

While not nearly as involved as the previous step, this is just as fun. The key part here, though, was to give every character a cool hook, while still being open enough to avoid getting boring if you're frequently rolling up characters of the same class. Challenging, sure, but I'd like to think I'm doing okay so far.

8. STARTER KITS

I have a love/hate relationship with these damn kits. They're mostly made to fit typical/iconic character archetypes, but coming up with the archetypes themselves is a pain in the ass. Once I have a clear idea of what I want out of each kit and what they're meant to represent, though, the process becomes surprisingly enjoyable!

9. PROGRESSION TABLE

Back when I was still trying to figure out what The Wyvern Hack's combat was gonna be like, before I even knew this was gonna be a thing at all, the first thing I did for fun was a bunch of progression tables for the more famous classes (Fighter, Spellcaster, Rogue and Cleric). These have changed a little since then, and I've cleaned up some of the math (huge thanks to @BourassaSam for spotting a massive issue with the modifiers), but the work itself is already over and done with.

Design-wise, these aren't a big mystery, right? They were inspired by classic OSR progression tables, and while the contents are different, the purpose remains the same. The most challenging part of making these was preventing character progression from feeling "samey" across the classes. Special Abilities are a big help, of course, but if a Rogue had the same basic progression as a Fighter, then they'd both lose a bit of what makes them special. Luck played a key role in this!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I'm on the fence on whether this raised more questions than it answered or not, but I hope this helped shed some light on the process behind creating The Wyvern Hack's classes, and on the purpose of each of the aspects we dissected above. The next few parts of this series will probably focus on specific classes (or maybe even heritages/ancestries, who knows), and I'm looking forward to discussing those!

* I've never been a member of the scouts.

I started writing my own fantasy heartbreaker, and it's all Prismatic Wasteland's fault!

The title says it all, really. Have you ever been so inspired by a blogpost that you immediately started writing a brand new elfgame? Because folks, that's where I'm at right now. Prismatic Wasteland's rehabilitation of the To-Hit roll touched on an aspect of TTRPG combat that never quite worked for me. Automatic hits are cool, don't get me wrong, but they often still produce low/no damage hits, depending on the system, and that's almost as unsatisfying as missing. 

The ambiguity of Hit Points only makes things worse, in my experience. Some people see them as a character's health and damage as wounds (which is unfeasible in the long run), but personally, I like them better as Hit Protection, as exemplified by Cairn. This abstraction of how long a character can safely avoid a truly serious hit is much more satisfying to me than actually treating each and every lost point of HP as an injury.

And with that in mind, I started tinkering just like Tony Stark in that damn cave, but instead of scrap, I had pure gold to tinker with. Thanks, Warren.

ATTACK CHECKS

To make an attack check, roll your character's Attack Die. If the result is higher than the opponent's Defense, they lose an amount of HP equal to your base damage. If the roll’s result is lower than their Defense, you only deal half your Base Damage to their HP, rounded down.


Enemy attack checks are made with their Attack Die against the PC’s Base Defense. Rolling above it deals their full Base Damage to the character’s HP, while rolling below it does only half their Base Damage, rounded down.

Sometimes, it will be impossible to overcome the opponent's Defense with your attack die (e.g. d4 against 6 Defense). In this case, just apply half your damage to their HP normally, without rolling dice. The same goes for enemies.

Quite simple, yeah? What I tried to achieve with the rules in the excerpt above was a compromise between to-hit and auto-hit, while removing those pesky whiffs. You're always gonna deal some damage to the enemy's Hit Protection, you're always gonna soften them up a little. Defense, then, isn't a way of negating hits, but an abstraction of how good someone is at delaying the inevitable, and how much their armor can help them with that.

For clarity's sake, Base Damage is determined by adding the character's Attack Bonus (tied to class-based progression) to their weapon's damage. Base Defense works much the same way, adding the character's Defense Bonus to their armor's defense. That, of course, brings us to weapons and armor rules.

WEAPONS, ARMOR AND DURABILITY

To determine a weapon’s damage or a piece of armor’s defense, simply roll its damage/defense die once after purchasing, forging or finding it. The result is not permanent and can be increased by blacksmiths or decreased by excessive use.


At the end of a combat, if you rolled a 1 on any attack check, roll your weapon's Usage Die. If you suffered damage during combat, also roll the Usage Die for your armor and/or shield. Results of 1 to 2 reduce the damage or defense of the equipment corresponding to the die. 


The base price to recover defense points lost by a damaged weapon or armor is equal to ⅓ of its total value, rounded down. The price for improving the damage or defense of a weapon or armor by 1 point is equal to ½ of its total value. Blacksmith skill and special circumstances may increase or decrease both the price and the efficiency of the service.





Have I mentioned how much Prismatic Wasteland's blog influenced this? The coolest part of these rules was lifted straight from his blogpost! I just added durability and some tables. Speaking of which...

Fresh off the layout test!

Now, what use would those rules be without a list of weapons, armor and shield?

Kindly ignore the gibberish placeholder prices, please. I'm postponing those for as long as I can, lmao.

While writing this post, I realized I have yet to translate my armor and shield tables to English. Oops. I might update this later with them. Or not! My memory is rubbish.

INITIATIVE, DYING AND TACTICAL DEPTH

If you're curious about how I'd handle Initiative with these rules, then look no further than my previous blogpost! I'm still not 100% set on how I want to handle death, though, but one thing's for sure: lingering wounds after 0 HP are gonna be a thing, with "negative" HP being added to a roll on a lingering wounds table.

As for tactical depth, well, those of you who follow me on Twitter may be aware of my plans for a big two-parter post on expanded combat maneuvers and magic rules. Those are still happening, rest assured, and they're gonna play a big part in whatever comes out of this lapse in judgement (which has a tentative name already).

THE WYVERN HACK? REALLY?

I swear to god this came to me in a dream or something. It's (probably) not final. It's not original at all. I'm not even sure if it's good! 

So, what is The Wyvern Hack? Above all else, it's a marriage between my two favourite playstyles. NSR sensibilities with a PbtA bent. It's also a collection of procedures and random tables I made throughout the years, and an opportunity to put my own spin on some classic elfgame classes (check out the Dungeoneer!). And it's yet another fantasy heartbreaker with a generic name.

Still. A name is a powerful thing. It gives things purpose. Drives them forward. It inspires. If this project has any chance in hell of taking flight, that's what I'll need to be: driven and inspired.

And you know what? I always thought wyverns were much cooler than dragons anyway.

Momentum Initiative: because combat can be strategic *and* fast!

The Initiative discourse is doing the rounds on Twitter again, but rather than chime in with a thread, I opted for something a little more permanent. Still, this will be a quick one!

Let's get the obvious out of the way: individual initiative feels like what @SprintingOwl aptly named dice clog. Side-based initiative, meanwhile, tends to sacrifice some tactical depth for speed. Popcorn initiative, while cool, can be easily abused. All of this has been discussed to death, but what about solutions?

Personally, I'm fond of what I've taken to calling Momentum Initiative. It's pretty simple:

• At the start of each round, roll a d6 to determine which side gets to act first (1-3, it's the PCs, 4-6, it's the enemies).
• If the player characters got the first round, they get to pick which PC will act first. If not, the Referee picks an enemy to act first.
• Whoever got to act first will then pick who goes next, regardless of side — a PC could pass the torch to another PC or to an enemy, and vice-versa.

"Wait a sec, V.V.", you might be thinking, "that's just a mix of popcorn and side-based initiative!". And hell, you'd be right... that is, if it wasn't for The Twist™ below!

• All enemies start the combat with a number of Momentum charges equal to their HD.
• Momentum charges can be spent to 1. act immediately, 2. inflict Disadvantage to an attack roll, 3. activate powerful abilities*, or 4. take an extra action at the end of the round.
• Enemies regain charges when 1. they get a critical, 2. they kill a character, 3. they succeed in a morale check, and 4. when they are attacked by multiple PCs in succession. Only a single charge can be recovered each round, no matter how many times this is triggered. Enemies can never have a higher number of charges than their HD.

The addition of Momentum is meant to prevent the players from abusing popcorn initiative and turning it into just another version of side-based initiative. In my experience, this actually gives them an incentive to avoid ganging up on a single enemy, lest they fill them with Momentum charges. 

Now, one might argue that these Momentum charges are yet another thing for the Referee to track, and while that is indeed true, the tactical depth they add to combat can be worth the extra bookkeeping. Besides, if you're already tracking HP, this shouldn't be such an increase in cognitive load, anyway.

* I'm very fond of making a d6 list of possible actions an enemy might take in combat, which usually includes lower odds for activating specific abilities than for attacking or doing some weird, enemy-specific shit. Momentum allows enemies to spend charges to trigger these abilities whenever they want, though, bypassing the bad odds. If you're not using anything even remotely similar to this, please ignore that option!

Better Rules for Maritime Adventures

To be brutally honest, I don't think I've ever read any OSR/NSR rules for naval combat and seafaring turns that didn't feel like a) they belonged in an ancient wargame or b) the designer's heart just wasn't in it, and they just wanted to get over and done with that part of the game as soon as possible. And as a fan of vikings and pirates, I always felt like this was such a disservice to something that could be just as fun as regular overland travel or dungeon exploration, both of which have been done superbly in several OSR/NSR games. 

The great thing about the OSR and the NSR alike (I'm still trying to figure out whether there really is a need for such a distinction, but I digress), though, is that when something hasn't been made yet, there's this strong encouragement to go ahead and do it yourself. So I went and did exactly that. Now, the title is presumptuous as hell, I know, but I really do believe these rules are pretty cool. They were heavily inspired by classic dungeon crawling procedures (such as OSE's) and by Apocalypse World 2e's vehicle rules and moves — a weird combination, for sure, but then again, most of my stuff is a mix of classic OSR and PbtA anyway. 

Time to dive in, mateys.

BUILDING YOUR SHIP

All seafaring vessels are described through the following attributes: Size, Speed, Handling and Hull. By default, every vessel has a score of 0 in these attributes. A ship’s Size category also affords it with a number of Armaments and Improvements, as seen below.

Size 0: Boats or rafts, for example. 1 Improvement, no Armaments.
Size 1: Small longships or sailing ships. 2 Improvements, 1 Armament.
Size 2: Transport ships or small galleys. 3 Improvements, 1 Armament.
Size 3: Large longships or sailing ships. 4 Improvements, 2 Armaments.
Size 4: Large warships or large galleys. 4 Improvements, 3 Armaments.
Size 5: Heavy warships or longships. 5 Improvements, 3 Armaments.

Any ship larger than Size 5 gets +1 Armaments for each number above that. Armaments can always be traded for further Improvements, and vice-versa.

Improvements are used to increase the ship’s attributes (except Size). Aside from its use in naval actions, Speed is also factored as an abstraction of how many hexes (or how many increments of 6mi) a vessel can cross in a day. Much the same way, Hull can be used as an abstraction for the ship’s maximum number of passengers and its cargo limit, with each point of Hull counting as 10 to 50 passengers (crew included) and 20 to 100 tons at most.

For the purposes of naval combat, Size counts as Hit Dice and should be rolled to determine the ship’s Hit Protection. Armaments start at d6 damage, but one can spend an Improvement point to increase that damage by a step. Speed is used to determine combat Initiative, and ships with the same Speed rating act simultaneously. Speed can also be used to determine the amount of squares a ship can cross in a combat grid per turn, if one is being used.

NAVAL ACTIONS

There are a number of actions a ship’s crew can take during their turns at sea. These actions can be undertaken by any member of the crew, but it is a good idea to assign functions among the party, such as captain, boarding leader, navigator, engineer and quartermaster.

• Undertake a journey: For each six miles of travel, the crew should make the following checks: Dexterity, to deftly keeping their ship on the right path, Wisdom, to properly determine what path that is, and Charisma, to keep all spirits high.

Failing any of these checks results in a 2 in 6 chance of triggering an encounter (DEX or WIS) or an event (CHA). In addition, failing the Dexterity check also halves the distance traveled, while failing the Wisdom check has a 2 in 6 risk of leading the ship the wrong way (roll a d6 to determine direction: 1. north, 2. northeast, 3. southeast, 4. south, 5. southwest, 6. northwest). 

Encounters should be rolled on an appropriate maritime encounters table, while events function much like a normal encounter, but with a table of situations pertaining only to the ship’s crew and their circumstances.
 

• Navigate perilous seas: In order to safely navigate troubled waters or obstacles, a crew member must roll under either their Dexterity or Wisdom, whichever is higher. They subtract the ship’s Handling from the result.
 

• Attack: When naval combat is initiated, the crew can make one attack for each of their Armaments. Crew members operating ballistic weapons must succeed at a Dexterity check, while ramming requires a Constitution check from the navigator in order to prevent their own ship from suffering any damage. Unconventional weapons such as Greek fire should trigger Wisdom checks. 

Although the brunt of the damage is always suffered by the ship itself, the enemy vessel’s crew always has a 2 in 6 chance of individually suffering half of the total damage dealt to their ship.
 

• Defensive maneuvers: When trying to avoid or minimize the effects of an enemy ship’s attacks, the navigator can check Dexterity to outmaneuver the attacks, or Constitution to bear the brunt of it. Succeeding at a Dexterity check ignores the damage entirely, while succeeding at a Constitution check halves it and eliminates the possibility of damage spillover to the crew (2 in 6 chance of individually suffering half of the total damage received by the ship, as above).  

Defensive maneuvers can also be used to avoid boarding. To do this, the navigator must pass a Dexterity check.

• Board: All it takes to board a ship is being close enough to it and passing a Dexterity check (done by the navigator). Once a ship is boarded by a crew, maritime adventure rules cease to be the focus, being replaced by regular combat procedures in the case of a fight or by a diplomacy challenge.

• Emergency repairs: When plugging holes, tying ropes or putting out fires, a crew member can check Intelligence to devise a workaround for the ship’s current maladies. Succeeding at that check restores d8 HP to the ship.

• Overtake & outdistance: When trying to overtake or outdistance a ship or sea creature outside naval combat, the navigator checks Dexterity if relying on their vessel’s Speed, or Wisdom if betting on its Handling. They subtract either Speed or Handling from the result.

SAMPLE SHIPS

Below are some examples of ships built with these rules.

• Skeid longship

Size: 3
Speed: 2
Handling: 1
Hull: 2 (45 passengers, 80 tons at most)
Hit Protection: 17 (3 HD)
Armaments: Archers (d6), spearmen (d6), ram (d6)

• Man-o'-war

Size: 5
Speed: 1
Handling: 2
Hull: 3 (200 passengers, 300 tons at most)
Hit Protection: 28 (5 HD)
Armaments: Heavy ballista (d8), light ballista (d6), ram (d6)

• Trading cog

Size: 2
Speed: 2
Handling: 1
Hull: 2 (60 passengers, 240 tons at most)
Hit Protection: 10 (2 HD)
Armaments: Archers (d6)

ON ABSTRACTIONS

There are a lot of abstractions here, and that's intended. Personally, I feel like trying to simulate the exact speed with which a ship travels in a good or bad day is a losing battle. There are just too many variables, and rather than making the game feel grounded, this just grinds it to a halt. At the end of the day, those "exact" measurements are still abstractions. They're just crunchier and less intuitive than they need to be, oftentimes for the sake of appearing realistic.

And with that said, I'll leave y'all with an epiphany I had while writing this post: these rules can be just as easily used for airships, with little to no adjustments.

Fair winds and following seas to all!

Design Exorcism: DIG!, a dwarf-centric TTRPG

As the title (coined by the great @SandroMayCry) may imply, this isn't the announcement of a new project, but rather an attempt at flushing some game concepts and ideas from my head. I'm probably never gonna seriously work on DIG!, but if you'd still like to learn more about what a dwarf-centric game made by yours truly would look like, read on. 

THE PITCH

Nothing is more important to dwarvenkind than the Great Work, the sacred duty of restoring and reclaiming their long-lost Underkingdoms. Not family, not love, not wealth. Nothing. Without the Great Work, they have no future. No place to call home.

The Great Work is everything, and it is an honour to be a part of it. You shall face many a hardship during your Watch, and you may even forfeit your life while fighting for your people's future, but you will live on in each and every tunnel your company recovers, digs or improves. There is no greater legacy.

Evil hides down below, infesting and corrupting your ancestral homelands. The cruel, opportunistic and genocidal Drow seek to take every last inch of the Underkingdoms from your people, armed with weapons bought with stolen gold from the people Above who feign neutrality, and with destructive spells supplied by their High Elven brethen. Opportunistic dragons have made their lairs where your forges once burned, hoarding the wealth your ancestors left behind. Hell-spawned goblins and orcs raid your cities, dragging your young and your weak to their infernal pits.

The Dwarven Companies of the Watch are outnumbered a hundred to one, but you don't have the privilege of giving up. Your enemies will never broker a long-lasting peace, not while you're still Below. But no matter what the people Above say, yours is not a lost cause. You are living proof of that.

And so you fight. For your young. For yourself. For the chance, however small, of living to see some better days.

MECHANICS (OR LACK THEREOF)

Now, the real reason why I won't turn this into a proper project isn't the overly dramatic, clichéd and politically clumsy drivel above, but rather an unwillingness to settle on a playstyle/framework. I can't decide whether I'd want DIG! to be a more traditional thing (like a mix of Cairn and Electric Bastionland), or if I'd rather go with something akin to Forged in the Dark games. And I have a good reason for that, too.

The central procedure for DIG! involves the PC Company's Shifts — that is, the time they spend away from base, renovating tunnels, digging deeper, liberating long-forgotten outposts or simply patrolling. Each successful Shift would allow the characters to either fill a portion of a progress clock (there's that damned FitD influence again), or wipe off a portion of a threat clock. Progress clocks would be assigned to constructive Shift actions, while threat clocks would be a way to measure the rising threats to the Company's progress — which is why Shift actions like patrolling the tunnels, reinforcing an outpost's defenses and charging into enemy territory would alleviate those threats. 

At each and every Shift, the Company would have to roll a Threat die (d6, a glorified Overloaded Encounter Die). On a 1, the Foreman (aka the GM) would roll an event in the relevant table — that is, each type of Shift action would get a table for this. The Company could choose to push themselves to accomplish more during a Shift, be it by extending its duration or by working extra hard, filling/erasing another portion on the clock. Each time they did so, though, would warrant another roll of the Threat die, adding 1 to the odds of an event and increasing its severity.

PC Companies would also get to choose a directive, like War, Engineering and Relief, and each of these would double Shift effects on certain actions, while halving them on others. Company creation would also involve choosing a Righteous Pursuit, which is a fancy way of calling a big, memorable goal, the kind of thing that only a few dwarves ever manage to achieve. Examples of Righteous Pursuits would include brokering an alliance with emissaries from Above, destroying an infernal pit, founding a new city or liberating a sacred forge. I really enjoy this aspect of DIG!, as it's a great way of letting the players signal what they're particularly interesting in doing during the campaign.

The thing about the whole spiel above is, there's nothing stopping me from merging both playstyles — that is, keeping the clocks while still following the more involved, lethal, turn-to-turn gameplay offered by OSR games like Cairn and Electric Bastionland, but I'm worried about losing what makes those different approaches tick by combining them. So, as it is, this remains just an exercise in design exorcism.

ARCHETYPES

The final bit of DIG! I need to exorcise are the archetypes, which would be structurally similar to Electric Bastionland's failed careers. I have no idea how many I'd include, but I did manage to note a few down while I was still processing this whole thing. They'd each have two questions leading to a d6 table (which is where Electric Bastionland's influence comes in), but the examples below only have the questions, as I didn't quite get to the part of this folly where I start writing tables, thankfully.

• The Noble (what is your family's claim to glory, and what privilege do you have?)
• The Miner (what are you looking for in the tunnels, and what's the strangest thing you've found down here?)
• The Outlander (where did you come from, and what made the dwarves accept you?)
• The Exile (why were you exiled, and what secret keeps you alive?)
• The Reverend (what is your faith, and what symbol do you carry?)
• The Fallen (what got you discharged, and what did they arm you with?)
• The True Believer (why do you believe in the Great Work, and what did you buy in preparation for your Watch?)
• The Canary (what are your songs about, and what instrument do you play?) 
• The Bastard (what did your noble-blooded parent promise you, and what family heirloom did you take?)
  

ALL DUG OUT

And that's all I came up for this fever dream of a game concept. Is DIG! ever going to be a thing? Probably not. But the idea of dwarves fighting to reclaim their homelands and protect their people against all odds still speaks to me. Tales of camaraderie, self-sacrifice and the hopeless struggle for a better future... that's proper V.V. bait, right there. 

Alas, this could probably be done well enough as a campaign in a variety of different games, so at this time, there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

But who knows.