Adventurer: New experience rules

The issue of experience in traveller is always difficult and often (cough, cough) contentuous.  To some extent, I think it reflects different genre styles.  The wellspring fiction of traveller does tend to value continuity more than the wellspring  fiction of Swords and sorcery as it was in the day. What a character is capable of  is a big part of that.  Intrerestingly, experience (from a character viewpoint) is one of the unchangingly simple elements of an FRP:  score points, go up.  SF seems determined to real it up by worrying in depth about training and etc., generally resulting in obscure or byzantine ways to improve characters.  Plus, what one tracks isn't experience points (easy) but compliance with the training program -which is a pain (ask any HR or manager).

 I know classic traveller has a way to improve characters, and if one reads it, it isn't the complicated or glacially slow  process it is often clamed to be.  And it isn't a constant process, one just makes some decisions, rolls some dice, and them waits until one has to roll again.   But the fact that after 30+ years it is still overlooked and misunderstood tells me that there is a problem.

So, in porting the traveller ethos to the Original RPG mindset, we run smack into that.  So, I've tried to devide an experience system that is front loaded (no tracking compliance) and simple; and yet a bit more than 1gp =1xp.  This is the new default experience system I'm proposing.  Comments and questions are solicited !

Plus, my own feeling is that I'll accept more power creeep in a fantasy setting than in a SciFi setting, where it seems more muchkinly. No idea why, really, just my gut reaction.




Regardless, experience seems to be one of the two  big style issues that differentiate traveller from Many Another Fantasy RPG (tm)

Increasing everything else (skills and characteristics): Simple Method

Assume that the campaign is broken into sessions, episodes and epics. Sessions are when you sit down and play; episodes are sessions that make up a specific story arc or chapter. Several chapters are an epic –or a chapter can be free standing. The intent is to allow players to advance something every three to five related sessions –so for a monster story arc, have several smaller ones, as that is where players will advance.

At the end of each session, if the player was present and has at least tried, each character gains one skill point. Ending a successful Epic or story arc gains a bonus equal to the episodes (sessions) involved. Note that one-offs or side quests don’t count for the bonus. Wildly successful, helpful or genre consistent play should also be given a bonus.

Unconnected or side sessions are just that; the players can get general experience, but not the bonus for completing an arc, and cannot spend them until an arc is completed.

After each chapter, during immediately subsequent session, a player can opt to improve one existing skill by spending skill points equal to the new level, and them rolling greater than the new level on 2d6. Extra skill points can be added at this point to increase the roll.

• If the roll succeeds, the points are expended and the skill increased by one.
• If the roll fails, no skill is gained, but the points remain; the player may spend one point to attempt to increase a different skill, repeating while points remain or until successful.

Only one skill may be improved per chapter, and only by one level, but the player may try several skills until successful. Note too that advancement can only occur immediately after a chapter. If desired, points may be saved for the next chapter resolution, but cannot be spent until then.
Instead of increasing an existing skill, a player may automatically gain a new skill at level 1 by spending 3 points. This too can only occur once, for one skill, per chapter.

Any physical stat can be increased by treating it as a skill equal to ½ the value of the stat.

Increasing characteristics may only improve the characters undamaged characteristics; also, the player must be in good health with regard to the stat in question.

A characteristic that has been reduced by ageing cannot be further increased

Interlude: Adventurer. new introduction.

 Yeah, a job that I like, keeps me busy and is interesting, plus a minecraft addiction (but with the whole family, so its semi justifiable) have been major time priorities; the retrorockets campaign material is going along at a poky rate, but nothing worth posting yet.  So, while looking around, I pulled up Adventurer, and started giving it another look, and, naturally, fiddling with it.  A gratifyingly large number of y'all have downloaded it -probably over a thousand in all versions, and even if feedback has been infrequent, I like what I see.  So, I figured I'd post some of the revised bits as I do them -mainly simplifications of experience and combat, plus edit edit edit. Here then is the new introduction.

________________________________________              

In Principio

It’s a simple premise that started this: what if G & A had different inspirations than the one(s) that became The Big RPG . From it (so far) has come at least two variants I really like: Mazes and Minotaurs and Xplorers ; these ask “what if the font of inspiration was Greek myths, or Science fiction. Really well done, check em out.



This, then, is that, but spun thusly: what if the first RPG was Traveller? I’m not even going to get into the possibility that this might have happened (I hasten to add), but rather just follow it up . What if Fantasy was the red-headed stepchild of the RPG industry, which is seven-tenths dominated by endless SciFi worlds adventures and rules sets. Specifically…. recovered from the detreitus of a quantum chronoinfindibulum experiment at CERN, which turned out to contain this manuscript and some very, very odd dice.



In 1974, a garage-based game failed to get off of the ground due to lack of financing, and the efforts of two well known miniature and board game designers (an odd miniatures supplement called “the fantasy game” ) languished unpublished in a box in a garage. Eventually the designers ended up at GDW, best known nowadays for the breakthrough and innovative game Traveller which caught and rode the wave of star wars popularity, and created a whole new genre and audience for games. Adventure Simulations Games (as they are called) cater to an endless variety of SF settings and adventures, all ultimately derived from Traveler and an infinite variety of SF settings. Looking to expand the boundaries of the new hobby to other genres, G & A convince GDW to try a new approach to travelling: “howzabout something like that Robert E. Howard/Lovecraft genre , but the swords and sorcery version more than the pulp horror of Investigator; you know, like in Fritz Leiber's stuff ? …or, heck, Anderson's fantasy stuff...... Low tech, ya' know ? C'mon Marc, pleeeeeeze ?”

And so, in 1977, following the phenomenal success of book 8 (Droidbots), The Adventure game is dragged out and dusted off. Months later, Book 9 Adventurer is released. Always enjoying a small but devoted player base, Fantasy has remained a constant niche in Adventure simulation gaming. Adventurer has been the touchstone of the genre, and despite revisions and imitations, has always remained in print for the entire run of all editions of traveler, through Advance, 2nd and 3rd edition. With the contentious release of Traveller 4.0 considerable interest in older editions of the original ASG has developed, and GDW (now owned by Conhugebro) has now rereleased the original edition and supplements for a new generation. Whether you are a revered elder gamer from the first days, or a recent entry to the hobby, we are delighted to present the most unusual supplement Traveller ever produced.




“Scouts may come and go, and core rules change from space opera to gritty apocalyptic SF(and back), but swinging a sword and looting evil ruins always remains a comforting constant. Plus, there are no frikkin’ stellar spectra charts to constantly bicker and obsess about updating, right Marc ? "
– G, asked about the constant popularity of Adventurer at AdventuCon 22.






“Two words: Pole Arms.”
-Marc’s response

ADVENTURER is complete ! Book Three: Races, Realms and Riches is up and posted !

Well, here it is. Book three of three. It's done.

This one covers the equiv of the wilderness and underworld adventures for original D&D. Player and non-player races, animal and fantastic creature generation rules; map, city and dungeon generation rules, plus traveller style profile strings ! analogues for all the major traveller races ! Major geek fest !

All it seems to lack at this point are some easy combat rules for flyers, and a few careers for the same -or at least skills for them.  I'm not sure if I should add them to book two, or remove the flyer construction rules from it, and have a first supplement covering skyships.  The latter is easier, but would leave  book 2 a bit skinny, and entirely devoted to magic.  Any thoughts ?

So, except for the above, this is probably the final version of Adventurer unless I decide to go semipro and actually publish it via POD or PDF.  Or if major problems show up, obviously.....

So, I've got other stuff to blog about, but I've been forcing myself to  finish this off; it's been gratifying seeing the followers increase even in the face of seriously dense and specialized posts.  I hope you all enjoy this.  And I'd love to hear any comments or stories from actual play.  My local playtest has been a long time thing, but somewhat limited in scope and player headcount.  I know more input would be better, so........http://www.box.net/shared/gzu9dcs4c4r61nrx2zo4

Update to Treasure and Dungeons for adventurer - PERIL !

After generating, tweaking and fudging the basic UDP, generate the Peril level. Roll 1d6 and add the following modifiers.

Peril

	Challenge	Denizens	Size	Type*	Reputation	Protection	Strategy
0			+1	-2	+1	-2	-3
1				-1	+1		-2
2							-1
3				+1
4
5				+1
6				+1
7							+1
8		+1		+1	+1		+1
9		+1		+1	+1	+1	+2
A	+4	+1	+1	+2	+3*	+1	+2
B	+2
C	+1
D
E
X	-2

Peril is a very subjective rating of the average danger of a typical member of the protection team.  Assuming that it isn’t a fish story, peril rages from -6 (the minimum value) to 18. 

At a very rough quantification, the peril level corresponds to a normal person with the given number of terms in an appropriate career –such as , say, barbarian, soldier or mage.   As a rule of thumb, use the peril as the total number of skills and stat advances added to a normal human (777777). Negative values subtract from stats, but regardless of the peril rating, all denizens have enough level-0 skills to be able to act appropriately.  In general, no more than half the adds should be applied to skill levels.  Note too, that the actual d6 roll  is the maximum possible skill level for one skill –which may or may not actually be achievable.   All other skills must be less than the maximum, no matter how many.

As an example, consider an average dungeon (C-556555). A series of catacombs sheltering the remnants of an unspeakable snake cult, which has broken up into several mutually opposed sects, each defending their own turf against all comers.

Given a roll of 4, it would be peril 5, and would have a typical denizen (let us say evil human cultists minions) with stats of 987777 (three advances) and one key skill at 2, or two at level 1.  All would have “worship huge-ass snake god” at level -0.  Some acolytes would have access to one or two  spell levels (say, dwemomer-1 and mesmerism-1, or perhaps skinshifting -2; both options would also would have dagger-0).

A truly epic campaign ending dungeon site might be AAA99A:  An underground lost kingdom ruled by the terrible sorcery using dragon that destroyed it.  A roll of 6 gives a final peril of 18; good luck !  A dragon the size of 18 men, with appropriate stats lurks deep in the ruins of the elven kingdom it destroyed; it has 9 levels of magic: mesmerism-5 nad several others at one or two.  Its stats would be determined by its size rather than by upping a human, and the creature building tables should be consulted, using appropriate modifiers.  Possibly, (as per challenge level A) it also has the disturbing spirits of grief stricken dead elves, physically harmless, but importantly, loud; with a  few being insane and violent.  Some few enslaved goblins may be on hand to run errands and get groceries (such as adventurers).  As I said, good luck.

Obviously, not all denizens will be human, or directly comparable, so considerable input from the DM will be required for this to work in a sane manner –although pure gonzo is also a possibility. 

The Hoard

Finally, the reason we are here ! The sites’s horde rating is the final measure of its value, both in the main cache of the biggest boss,, and spread around and hidden throughout. Basic procedure is: roll (1d3-1d3) and add the peril.  The below table suggests some modifiers based on  some of the authors favorite S&S tropes; feel free to ignore or modify them.  Indeed, the horde should always be modified if the reward is inappropriate to the danger level and/or the type of campaign.  ALWAYS.

Horde

	Challenge	Denizens	Size	Type*	Reputation	Protection	Strategy
0						-2 -1	-1
1						-1
2
3
4
5
6				+1
7						+1
8						+1
9				-1		+2
A	+2			+1	+2
B
C
D
E	+1
X	-2

*Remember, it’s a fish story…….

1d6 + mods	Metal	Gems : d6 x (rating+1)	Jewelry: d6 + rating	Minor magic: d3	Magic item: H -L	Artifact: 1
0	Copper  2d6 *10	10+	12 +	10+	12 +	12 +
1	Copper  2d6 *100	10+	12 +	10+	12 +	12 +
2	Bronze 2d6 *100	9+	11+	10+	12 +	12 +
3	Silver 2d6 *100	9+	11+	10+	12 +	12 +
4	Bronze 2d6 *1000	8+	10+	9+	11+	12 +
5	Silver 2d6 *1000	8+	10+	9+	11+	12 +
6	Gold 2d6*100	7+	9+	9+	11+	12 +
7	Silver Talents 2d6	7+	9+	9+	11+	12 +
8	Silver 2d6 *10000	6+	8+	8+	10+	12 +
9	Gold 2d6 *1000	6+	8+	8+	10+	12 +
A	Silver Talents 2d6 *10	5+	7+	8+	10+	12 +
B	Gold Talents 2d6	5+	7+	8+	10+	12 +
C	Gold 2d6 *10000	4+	6+	7+	9+	12 +
D	Silver Talents 2d6 *100	4+	6+	7+	9+	12 +
E	Gold Talents 2d6*10	3+	5+	7+	9+	12 +
F	Silver Talents 2d6 *1000	3+	5+	7+	9+	12 +
G	Gold Talents 2d6 *100	3+	4+	6+	8+	12 +
H	Silver Talents 2d6 *10000	3+	4+	6+	8+	12 +
J	Gold Talents 2d6 *1000	3+	3+	6+	8+	12 +

The main horde consists of final number on the Hoard table; this result is in one place, or at least in a concentrated sub area of the site  This is the big one, the one the whole thing may be protecting – or the main dumping ground for undead who dislike silver (say).

Final reward

All lower coin values are also found, but spread out through the rest of the dungeon and its denizens. Thus, a hoard type 5 also contains loot equal to hordes 4, 3, 2,1 and 0-. Whereas the main treasure trove will tend to be concentrated, the remainder will tend to be spread out throughout the site, some guarded by lesser foes, some simply hidden or lost.

Similarly, roll once more on the gems, jewels and magic items at Hoard -1, and distribute any that result as with coins.   Now that’s a place worth getting you neck snapped for, right ?  Hmmmmm.  Your characters neck.  Sound better ?

Gems typically have negligible weight and value d6xd6 xd6  coins:1bronze coins, 2-4 silver coins , 5 gold coins, 6 Special, reroll: 1-5 gold, 6  determine the value as if jewelry (below);  this result represents the ruby the size of a mans fist, the mountain of  light diamond, or the pearl the size of  a plovers egg.

Jewelry have a value per piece of d3  talents: 1-3 Bronze talents, 4-5 Silver Talents 6 Gold Talents.  Remember, 1 Talent = 6000 coins of that type.

Minor magic: this covers a variety of helpful but not decisively powerful items.  As a rule, they should never approximate or contain spells of greater than second circle or equivalent mystery spells; nor should they have more than 1d3 specific powers, with 1 such power being the most common. Only the weakest should have constant effect or unlimited use.  A rough guideline is that number of spells + circle of highest spell must be no greater than 3.  And yes, that is very limited.  Spells with expendable charges or single use can have more spells and power, such scrolls of d3 spells of 1-2^nd circle; potions; small weapons; item bound spells of 1^st circle.