Notes for the game I just ran, in all their sketchy, unfinished glory.
Just ran my first game in a calendar year. Back in town from school, and reunited with some old DnD friends to play a Pb one-shot. The new Pb system is the latest in a long line of developing sister-hacks, starting with RbSDnD and moving through the SCULPTED WORLD, but it's never had a terribly rigorous combat test from savvy, mechanically-minded players. That changed this evening. Here's what I learned from my experiences running the system.
- A mindset shift I have to accommodate to: in leveled games, less difficult fights with weaker enemies often results in boring and cumbersome combat sequences that don't have a meaningful impact in the long run. However, with the way the math works in Pb, every hit point counts, and 2 lighter flights can make a 3rd lighter fight lethal, or a climactic fight a bloodbath.
- Only foes meant to be encountered solo, or as part of an overwhelming combat, should have 2 HD attacks, or attacks that explode. 3 HD attacks are lethally deadly to anything but the most powerful characters.
- Similarly, having two or more hearts should be reserved for solo or very small group foes. If there's a large group, it's usually best to have one or two foes with hearts, and have the rest be minions.
- Can't recommend enough rider effects on attacks. Especially when they involve a player rolling to avoid an extra effect; it gives the players some feeling of agency in the face of the inevitable damage of a system without attack rolls.
- Cover, and terrain that players can use to put artificial distance between them and an enemy, makes a much bigger difference in combat without attack roles, and the more opportunities to exploit that you as the DM can set up, the more interesting combat will become, in (for one example) weighing the choice of diving behind the cover or staying to make a second attack.
- I'm very pleased with how fast boring parts of combat zip by in this system, and how high the ceiling is for interesting, dynamic combat that goes beyond punching at hit points. With a system this sparse, the standard OSR principles of giving players access to open-ended resources or problems (like hypo-oxygen bladders! like powerful lesser demons, who are vulnerable to iron and afraid of ankhs!) make a big difference in getting the simplicity to "sing".
- I enjoy the ritual of "carving out" what a spell means with the players. You have to touch someone to use VAMPIRISM. You can't use the same CURSE twice. PETRIFY works for Td4 TURNS. Over time, you build out a known world of effects from the one word prompt.
- Any game system or world is fun when you're with fun people. Thanks, Thomas, Em, JC, and Caden, for years of great games, and for a feeling of friendship like I never left whenever I'm home.
This insight would probably apply to any game without attack rolls?
Things Pb needs: loot table, mutation table, equipment ranked by cost bracket a la Black Hack (common, modest, expensive or something), a simple starting dungeon. I could pile in things like NPCs, aerodyne features, that sort of thing, but I'm not sure how much that deserves to live in the artifact. Are those sorts of tables worth the space, working DMs out there?
[Edit: starting rewrites. For posterity's sake, here's my random item table, having been replaced by items by price.
1 Random SCROLL (150g)
2 Random ELIXIR (75g)
3 Phosphoric torch (5g)
4 Lockpicks (20g)
5 Bile-pots (25g, Ud6)
6 Book (15g)
7 Paper map (2g)
8 Journal (5g)
9 Dagger (10g)
10 Manacles (40g)
11 Magnesium lighter (15g)
12 Metal pole (5g)
13 Jewelry (50g)
14 Silver coin (10g)
15 Ankh necklace (10g)
16 Rat (5c)
17 Rope (1g)
18 Key (5c)
19 Mundane crystal (2c)
20 Mushroom jerky (2c, Ud4) ]
Promise I'll put out something more directly usable soon- I'm having fun wading back into game and adventure design, and the world of Pb gets sharper and clearer every time I return to it. Thanks for reading, and happy gaming.
