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(5), don (5), start (5), them (5), could (5), way (5), post (5), often (5), before (5), because (5), games (5), lot (5), roll (5), want (5), our (5), space (5), sessions (5), session (5), group (5), here (5), hard (5), tools (5), his (5), sheet (5), thief (5), errant (5), lydia (5), partial (5), been (4), makes (4), good (4), get (4), fantasy (4), fun (4), default (4), still (4), many (4), ideas (4), above (4), now (4), her (4), through (4), mausritter (4), failure (4), rule (4), procedural (4), example (4), correct (4), steps (4), actions (4), incorrect (4), wrong (4), critical (4), full (4), article (3), point (3), least (3), making (3), let (3), work (3), speak (3), where (3), information (3), avoid (3), what (3), thieves (3), take (3), gaming (3), see (3), most (3), other (3), differences (3), nice (3), these (3), trade (3), after (3), then (3), unrealistic (3), might (3), use (3), well (3), couple (3), years (3), second (3), set (3), even (3), should (3), difference (3), call (3), 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Text of the page (random words):
ing the basic structure of the game unchanged basic procedural lockpicking a lock takes three steps to open at each step the correct action is tap twist or turn and the same action is never used consecutively wrong actions errors cause the lock to become stiff and eventually jam you can t start over but you can give up without jamming the lock and try again later if you gain useful information versions by chance of success vers odds special rule a 1 in 12 8 no errors allowed b 1 in 8 13 no errors allowed one option ruled out in first step c 1 in 6 17 one error allowed but only in the first step d 1 in 4 25 no errors allowed but dm tells you first step e 1 in 3 33 one error allowed f 1 in 2 50 one error allowed one option ruled out in first step g 2 in 3 67 two errors allowed h 3 in 4 75 one error allowed but dm tells you first step i 5 in 6 83 two errors allowed but dm tells you 2nd step after guessing the first j 7 in 8 88 two errors allowed one option ruled out in first step k 11 in 12 92 three errors allowed rules unless otherwise specified count errors globally so that one error allowed means that over the course of guessing all three actions an incorrect action can be selected just once making the lock stiff before any additional incorrect actions make the lock jam no errors allowed means that the lock immediately jams if an incorrect action is attempted note that the original game from telecanter with the rule that allows one error per step has the same probability as if we allow two global errors version g i think allowing two global error is more interesting though since all three steps can be dramatic if the burglar uses up both errors on the first step they can still choose to continue but the pressure is on and their chance of success has dwindled errant s default is version e and the rules from prismatic wasteland include e f and h commentary these rules variants give a pretty good spread across the probability space all we re missing are 5 12 and 7 12 let me know if you think of a way to include those that can be explained in one sentence character skill and lock complexity can now be represented by the number of errors the burglar can recover from before the lock jams and the options they re able to eliminate without using up a guess if you wanted to you could stop here and have a nice little self contained system the group selects an appropriate difficulty based on the character s skills and circumstances and the quality of the lock the dm secretly writes the correct combination and the player can attempt the minigame maybe a candidate for mosaic strict but in the spirit of the prismatic wasteland post let s graft this minigame into d d first 5e then b x procedural lockpicking for 5e there are many factors that affect an ability check in 5e the character s ability modifier their proficiency bonus and the dc fortunately bounded accuracy ensures that bonuses will almost always be between 0 and 11 and round dcs have common interpretations this gives us a compact cheat sheet for success rates on ability checks each of which maps more or less to one of the minigame versions above ability modifier to success and minigame version by dc roll mod easy dc 10 medium dc 15 hard dc 20 v hard dc 25 0 f 55 d 30 a 5 0 1 f 60 e 35 a 10 0 2 f 65 e 40 b 15 0 3 g 70 e 45 c 20 0 4 h 75 f 50 d 25 0 5 h 80 f 55 d 30 a 5 6 i 85 f 60 e 35 a 10 7 j 90 f 65 e 40 b 15 8 k 95 g 70 f 45 c 20 9 100 h 75 f 50 d 25 10 100 h 80 f 55 d 30 11 100 i 85 f 60 e 35 shift up or down a letter for advantage disadvantage example welby goodbarrel a nimble 4 dex 4th level rogue with thieves tools grants proficiency bonus 2 want to pick a well made dc 20 lock instead of calling for an ability check the dm looks up the odds of success for a d20 6 roll vs dc 20 it s 35 and maps to lockpicking minigame version e the dm secretly selects a combination and says guess the combination to open the lock one mistake will make the lock stiff and a second will jam it this might seem like a lot of table lookups but in practice you probably only have a couple of characters who ll attempt to open locks so for the character in this example i could jot down easy i medium f hard e v hard a just like one might do for passive perception procedural lockpicking for b x thief skills are already percentage based and there are no modifiers for different qualities of locks so it s straightforward to map to minigame versions note that the easiest version k three errors allowed only has a 92 chance of success so you may want to revert to a chance at level 12 14 thief level to open locks and minigame version level ol vers special rule repeated 1 15 b no errors allowed one option ruled out in first step 2 20 c one error allowed but only in the first step 3 25 d no errors allowed but dm tells you first step 4 30 d no errors allowed but dm tells you first step 5 35 e one error allowed 6 45 e one error allowed 7 55 f one error allowed one option ruled out in first step 8 65 g two errors allowed 9 75 h one error allowed but dm tells you first step 10 85 j two errors allowed one option ruled out in first step 11 95 k three errors allowed 12 96 k three errors allowed 13 97 k three errors allowed 14 99 k three errors allowed the usual caveats for how to think about thief skills apply here see robert fisher s on thief skills in classic d d and the b x thief is good from gorgo mormo and only call for a roll or minigame when the lock is challenging and failure would be interesting changelog date comment 2021 05 19 substantial revisions to the discussion about precursor rules 2021 05 18 posted initial draft mausritter character sheet for online play 22 may 2020 tools like many of us i m playing more games while social distancing and all of those games are online mostly in discord or google meet i ve been working through a backlog of great systems like trokia and moonhop and next up is mausritter the game s inventory system features an arts and crafts paper tetris approach to management and i think it s important for players to be able to experience that so in lieu of asking folks to print things at home i ve made a version of the character sheet and item cards in google sheets which you can copy here or by clicking the image above you can also just view it here if you want to leave comments the original character sheet is nicely designed so i ve tried to stay as true to it as possible update mausritter s writer isaac williams has a post about running mausritter online which i d not seen and offers some other options there s also a larger set of item and condition card images you can download there and use with this sheet alphabetical adventures a b 03 feb 2020 ideas i m starting up a new 5th edition campaign for a coworker and friends as part of a new year s resolution to play more games in person i went into session zero mostly blind so to prep i decided to start reading through the 5e monster manual to come up with a potential scenario for each monster with cr 3 or less i only got through letter b before i had to move on to other prep but it was a fun exercise which i think i ll continue a a shard of the rod in seven pieces lies on the roof of the castle s highest tower a raging storm prevents anyone from getting close but a flock of aarakocra will do anything to retrieve it a wizard is trapped and wounded by a spell of her own design within her secluded tower with her resources limited she communicates with the outside world through animated objects crudely enchanted to bring help or bring a mortal soul to free her a farmer lures ankhegs to attack his rivals farms but now they ve learned to demand tribute and there are a lot of them an artificer has bound an azer to the material plane and makes it work the furnace the shop produces the finest weapons you ve ever seen but the surrounding land for 30 miles around has become a desert b the death palace of endon is built from the petrified bodies of thousands of his subjects and foes his beloved basilisks which he bred for sport still live within guarding his treasure a legendary illness has returned to the land and the only cure grows in a glade guarded by a spectator beholder ironically the creature was summoned a generation ago by a great medical scholar to ensure that the cure would be available in just this situation some misguided druids perform regular sacrifices over the stump of a great tree now there is new growth and blights carrying echoes of the sacrifices prowl the night it s a reverse siege bugbear mercenaries burned a path to the middle of town saw their warlord fall to a lucky arrow and promptly quit the fight now they control the town square and the inn and they re almost out of beer baron uurk urgit a bullywug thought he d stolen a shiny bauble for his queen but that s a fire elemental in a delicate jar get it back before someone breaks it flip to continue b side sessions 04 nov 2019 tools my regular gaming group prefers to play our main campaign only when every player is available scheduling is hard so we ve canceled a lot of sessions over the years as a result the past few months though we ve kept to our schedule more often because we ve introduced a backup game this game is run by me so that the main campaign s gm can pc and also because i like to gm set in the same world and time as the main campaign run as a series of one shots with weaker continuity than the main campaign and thematically distinct from the main campaign we call it the b side game and hitting all of the bullets above each time we play is a fun little side project for me while my group started this to deal with scheduling challenges i d recommend this format for any group that wants a change of pace especially if there s a player who s looking to experiment or build up skills at running one shots with little prep here s how we do it tag in a backup gm or even better a couple of them since you want to be able to play this game when a subset of your players are availble if you can avoid having any single player be a lynchpin you ll get to play more often it s especially valuable to play your b side game when the main campaign s gm is available to play so that they have a chance to experience their own game world i also recommend sticking to the same ruleset for the same reason and so that there s less of a mental shift required if you switch from a side main campaign plans to b side last minute meanwhile setting the b side game in the same world as the a side lets your group enrich the setting and explore paths that the main party didn t follow as the gm you also get the benefit of free plot hooks recurring npcs and lore courtesy of the main campaign you also leave open the possibility of crossovers in our game each player has a b side character that they reuse between b side sessions although they re welcome to change at any time one and done b side sessions should be self contained so that they never interfere with scheduling the main campaign this requires forethought to pick an appropriate starting point and discipline in guiding the session to a satisfying conclusion there s often an impulse to over script a one shot but try to fight this my trick is to make the first scene so open ended that i can t predict what the players will do we collaborate from there and in the last hour of our planned game time i ll start actively looking for ways to bring the session to a close all the usual one shot tricks apply start in medias res cut scenes agressively pit the characters against the clock and don t pull your punches if your players reuse their characters between b side sessions and you use the tricks above weak continuity is a natural consequence even if a session ends with a cliffhanger seriously consider jumping in time or space for the next session blank spaces and apparent contradictions are interesting remix besides ensuring that we play more often my goal for the b side game is to complement the a side game in a way that s exciting for the players and doesn t compromise the main campaign s status as the main game while organizing play into one shots help with this the tool i employ most is using setting characters and plot to push the tone of the game away from the tone of the a side we re playing starfinder our a side crew is a party of semi professional space pirates chasing down an ancient super weapon while getting in the middle of some complicated interplanetary politics great stuff for a long running campaign with a lot of space opera and space horror influences on a grand scale for the b side game we stick to smaller stakes so far the party has been down on its luck stuck on a desert planet while there are still big action moments i m drawing on cyberpunk and post apocalyptic tropes and aiming for a tone like the slow episodes of cowboy bebop it s punchier more comic and generally less real than the a side campaign which makes it natural for the players to want to flip back to the a side by default roll for fluency 12 apr 2019 ideas my friend crypt thing from swords against dungeons gave me a shoutout in an article about fantasy languages last month so i figured i d chime in on the subject ct s post touches on a lot of topics but i ll just pull out a few of them keeping common first and foremost common is replaced by regional languages common gets a bad rap for at least two related reasons both of which are reasonable reactions to the way common is used in many classic fantasy settings first there s a family of arguments that say that glossing over linguistic differences harms the setting and makes the game world less rich or believable because language should be one of the most obvious markers of difference and interest in games where travel and travelers otherwise take center stage i ll call this the common is unrealistic argument the second family of arguments takes this further and says glossing over language in this way is actively harmful because of how easily common can make one culture or set of viewpoints the default under this view it s not just that common is unrealistic or even boring but that common has a homogenizing effect that erases differences to the common is unrealistic camp i d say that there s more precedent to this than you might think throughout history disparate groups have settled on common languages to use for trade or government purposes while still retaining their native languages this is often called a lingua franca the tvtropes page on the common tongue actually covers this fairly well if you imagine your setting s common as a trade language or the language imposed by an empire that fell a couple hundred years before it s totally reasonable that many people would speak it at least in the circles that adventurers tend to move in to the common is homogenizing camp we need to retcon common so that it becomes a reminder to celebrate differences instead of ignore them this post offers a nice fix along these ...