Upscaling d20 bullet damage

In a previous post tied bullet damage to the diameter of a round multiplied by the ratio of length to caliber in millimeters. This works fine for bullets which rarely go over 1 inch in diameter, and rarely have a ratio greater than 10:1 (which would max out at 10d12). I randomly mentioned this blog, and that got me pondering how the math would work out. Having looked into NATO Fox Calls for fighter planes, I came to realize that a large amount of weapon specs are available for US Munitions on wikipedia. I'm sure missiles are a bit more complicated than what is presented here, but I thought it would be worth the thought exercise. That being said, one note to mention is that in the previous post, the maximum size was d12 for 1". Most missiles are going to be more than one inch, and the inches should probably be multiplied separately from the ratio, but it seems easier to add the inches to the length ratio and multiply by that number. Both methods are shown here so anyone who wants to use them can use either method

Missile                     Dimensions (ratio) Damage

AIM-7 Sparrow (Fox-1)       ~8x144" (~x18)     d12x26  or d12x144

AIM-9 Sidewinder (Fox-2)    ~5x119" (~x24)     d12x29  or d12x120

AIM-120 AMRAAM (Fox-3)      ~7x144" (~x21)     d12x27  or d12x147

AIM-54 Phoenix (Fox-3)      ~15x154" (~x10)    d12x25  or d12x150

AGM-114 Hellfire (Fox-2)    ~7x64" (~x9)       d12x16  or d12x63

RPG-7 Round (~75x950mm*)    ~3x37" (~x13)      d12x16  or d12x39

AT-4 Round (~84x245mm*)     ~3x9" (~x3)        d12x6   or d12x9

Minuteman ICBM (~5.5x60 ft) ~5x60' (x11)       d12x785 or d12x46,800

Percentile Damage

You may have noticed that multiplying caliber and length separately produces damage in excess of 100 in all cases. It may be helpful to roll fewer dice and get bigger damage values. In that case, round the maximum damage to 100 points in whichever direction makes the most sense, and use that number of d100s. The following is the result of that.

Missile                     Damage Maximums    Percentile Roll

AIM-7 Sparrow (Fox-1)       1728               18d%

AIM-9 Sidewinder (Fox-2)    1440               14d% 

AIM-120 AMRAAM (Fox-3)      1764               18d%

AIM-54 Phoenix (Fox-3)      1800               18d%

AGM-114 Hellfire (Fox-2)    756                8d%

RPG-7 Round (~75x950mm*)    468                4d%

AT-4 Round (~84x245mm*)     108                1d%

Minuteman ICBM (~5.5x60 ft) 561,600            d%x5616**

"" with MIRV                ""                 use d30 for 3 shots,

                                               d20 for 5 shots,

                                               d12 for 8 shots,

                                               d10 for 10 shots,

                                               d8 for 12 shots,

                                               d6 for 16 shots,

                                               and d4 for 25 shots

Musings on Firearms in d20

A long time ago, way back before there were two kinds of Dungeons and Dragons, in an era where the first kind had only three editions, there was a modern version, with guns. It was sort of ok for generic purposes, but they ended up having to put out further supplements on additional firearms, both fact and fiction. That's all well and good, but ya know... it's probably out of print or something, and also you might not want to encourage piracy even if there aren't going to be particularly strong consequences for it. With that in mind, I came up with my own system for gun damage.

Damage Dice

Guns (and everything) deal(s) damage based on F=MV, but we don't need to complicate this. We can replace F with Damage, M with the size of the bullet, and V with a typical load of propellant. We don't have to even do it directly, we can just sort of provide a logical basis.

In this case, the M of the bullet is tied to its caliber, we'll assume that the following is true:

Caliber     mm           Dice
up to.25    up to 6mm    d4s
.26-.40     7-10mm       d6s
.41-.55     11-14mm      d8s
.56-.75     15-19mm      d10s
.76-1"      20-25.4mm    d12s

The V of the bullet is tied to its case length inasmuch as the case length defines what safe amounts of powder can be used to fire projectiles from it (actually thickness and material is more important than actual length, but it's a close enough abstraction for our purposes). To determine the number of dice, use (Case Length/Caliber in mm, rounding to the nearest whole ratio e.g. 9x19 Parabellum is 2d6 with 19 being 2.1x the length of its 9mm caliber. AK rounds (7.62x39) deal 5d6, and 5.56 NATO rounds deal 8d4. A .50 BMG being 12.7x99 makes it 8d8.  Likewise, a slug in 12 gauge is typically 18.5x70mm, which amounts to a ratio of 3.75, or 4d10.

Shotgun Shells

Instead of going into excruciating detail about how many different levels of buckshot and birdshot there are, we can just assume that buckshot or fléchettes reduces dice size by 1, but adds a 2 dice (6d8 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge) birdshot reduces dice size by 2, but adds 3 dice (7d6 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge), and Frangible reduces dice size by 3, but adds 4 dice (8d4 instead of 4d10 for 12 gauge).

Oh and one final thought: That original document may have propagated a myth that shotguns fire in a cone. They sort of do, but even at 150 feet you're only going to get about a 3" spread or so.

Weapon Actions

We will categorize weapon actions more broadly here for the sake of game rules--and because if we didn't a character with an M-16 can easily fire off their entire magazine in under a full round.

Single Shot

Covers breach action shotguns, flare guns, bolt action rifles, and single action revolvers.

• Each attack with this requires a single action (in PF2e) to bring a new round into battery

Semi-auto

Covers magazine fed auto-loader pistols, double action revolvers, lever action rifles, and pump action shotguns. 

• You can fire off as many shots as you can pull the trigger. It's a two action activity to multiply damage by 1d3, and a three action activity to multiply damage by 1d6. This costs 3 and 6 ammo respectively

Full-auto

Covers anything where one press of the trigger equals multiple bullets, including modified trigger assemblies that fire a second round when the trigger is released.

• With selector fire you may treat the weapon as a semi-auto
• If it's full auto only--or you've selected burst or full auto--you can still limit your trigger pulls to multiply damage by 1d6 with a single action activity (costing 6 ammo)
• You can multiply damage by 2d6 as a 3 action activity.(costing 12 ammo)

Dragging a body in d20

Never thought I'd do a rule for d20, but Pathfinder 2 has taken an identity stance I can respect so I'm willing to look into it a little deeper. So I'm reading the bulk section of Pathfinder Second Edition, and I noticed:

1000 coins is 1 bulk and 1 bulk is 5-10 lbs. This was confusing to me because of previous editions being 50 coins per pound, a bulk should be 20 pounds. Also with a medium sized creature being 6 bulk, that's only 60 lbs. at 10 per bulk. I noticed that making Medium Creatures bulk 8-10 keeping small creatures at 2-3, and having 1 bulk correspond to 20 lbs fixes all of these issues for medium and small creatures. Likewise, a large creature could be 12-15 Bulk (240-300 lbs), a huge creature 25-30 bulk, and so on. This does not obey the square cube law but it fits closer to what actual d20 creatures seem to want to weigh, so it works.

Also, side note: There is some text about how an object's bulk is somewhat affected by its awkwardness more than its actual weight, and generally I'm willing to concede the point that a longsword is only a couple pounds, and other such concessions and not change how the rule works overall unless something glaringly annoying comes up. 

Damage is a Fickle Bitch

The chief complaint I get from my players about DW is that players roll 10 or 12, and get a damage roll of 1 (or sometimes 2-3 if they took the extra d6) and that damage tends to gets soaked by armor. On Reddit someone even told me that late game DW tends to turn into a bit of a survival horror. I haven't tested late game myself, but I can tell you how incredibly frustrating it is that people who are supposed to be capable combatants but roll a series of very low damage rolls can't always take it on the chin like a champ. It is with that in mind, that I randomly thought about making damage less fickle :

Typically a character's base dice will be a d6, d8, or a d10 (with one notable instance of a d12). In order to make damage less fickle, assume one of the following

• Subtract 4 from everyone's dice type, and add the remainder to a d4. For example, a d10 would be 1d4+6, and a d6 would be a d4+2
• Subtract 6 from everyone's dice type and add the remainder to a d6. For example, a d10 would be 1d6+4, and a d6 would stay a d6.

Whichever option above is chosen, only modify the base dice. Additional dice granted for any reason remain unchanged.

Optional Spell Points variant

The default rule of Dungeon World is that Wizards can just cast a certain number of spell levels (Level+1) Clerics can Commune for the same number of spells, and everyone else in Core operates under the assumptions of any spells they chose for Multiclass Moves. It is with that in mind that I give you

Empowered Spellcasting

Replaces Commune or Prepare Spells

Instead of having to pray for spells or prepare spells, now you do that with Spell Points. You are not shoehorned into a restriction of which spells you can cast on any particular day, merely how many spell points you have. There are a few options here depending on what your GM wants to use

Eqivalent Spell Power

You get Level+1 Spell Points that you can spend as desired.

Attribute Based

You get Level+(Casting Attribute), where Casting Attribute for Clerics and Disciple (Class Warfare) based casters is +Wis, Casting Attribute for Wizards and appropriate Magician (Class Warfare) based casters is +Int, and Casting Attribute for Bards and other Magician (Class Warfare) casters is +Cha.

High Power

You get Level*Casting Attribute Spell Points.

Risks

As per normal spellcasting, there are risks associated with the amount of energy you spent to cast the spell. In this system it works differently. A badly cast spell generates a number of risk equal to its level. So a 3rd level miscast spell generates 3 points worth of effects

Variable

• Forget the Spell: Doesn't happen. You know the spells you know and that's it. You merely lose additional spell points, reducing risk by a point per Risk reduced.
• Let's Make a Deal: You are contacted by a powerful, potentially corrupting, entity. This removes all Risk Points your last failure or 7-9 generated.

1 point

• Unwanted Attention: A single Horde tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives. before your next turn.
• -1 to Cast: This lasts a number of your turns equal to the spell's Level

2 Points

• Unwanted Attention: A single Group tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives.before your next turn.
• Valuables are Damaged: When you roll Treasure, reduce the number of rolls you make by -1, or assume the value or amount of goods in a roll with a value or amount is halved.

3 Points

• Unwanted Attention: A single Solitary tagged creature appropriate to the spell or the area arrives before your next turn
• Environmental Effects: Everyone should Defy Danger for the remainder of Combat before they can make Hack and Slash attempts. If damage is to be had, the amount is either the Caster's Base Damage (possibly with added moves) or the Spell Damage, whichever is better. 

4+

Mix and Match: Choose effects from lower point value entries in combination with each other.

Backwards Compatibility

Some of the Risks are appropriate choices for 7-9 or 6- in games that don't otherwise use the rule.

Drunken Debauchery, Stealing from Conan

The Drinking Contest introduces gobs of opportunity to get smashing drunk, and a rules-y way to handle it. This expands further on the drinking contests, and the aftermath. It goes beyond the Carouse move, but can often accompany it. I introduce to you (this rule is meant to be used with Abstract Coins): 

Drunken Debauchery

When you spent a night on the town, and got too smashed to remember, roll 2d6+ the number of drinks you had (if this is unclear, add your Constitution score). This isn't really hit or miss, consult the following table:

2: Behold My Grace! You boasted of your adroitness! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Balancing on a Ledge/Beam/Rope; 3 = Bull-Leaping; 4 = Dancing; 5 = Five-Finger Fillet; 6 = Juggling Random Items.
3: Behold My Might! You boasted of your strength! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Arm Wrestling; 3–4= Wrestling Match; 5 = Keg Tossing; 6 = Lifting Heavy Objects.
4: Behold My Stamina! You boasted of your constitution! Roll 1d6: 1–3 = Drinking Contest; 4–5 = Eating Contest; 6 = Long Distance Running / Swimming Challenge.
5: Big Business! You invested another 1 point of Wealth in a merchant’s caravan / ship venture! GM secretly rolls 1d6: 1–2 = It’s a con; 3–4 = It’s legitimate, and in 2d6 months you’ll have doubled your investment (if you’re still alive and around!); 5–6 = It’s legitimate, but the caravan / ship didn’t survive.
6: Brotherly Love! You woke up next to one of the other players’ characters (referee determines randomly)!
7: Brrr . . . Chilly! Someone stole your coat / clothes while you were intoxicated!
8: Dangerous Liaison! You bedded the son / daughter / husband / wife / temple virgin of someone who can make your life in this area very difficult! Roll 1d6: 1 = Local Crime Lord; 2 = Local Militia Commander; 3 = Local Sorcerer; 4 = Local Temple Leader; 5–6 = Important Local Leader / Noble.
9: Drunken Brawl! You started a drunken brawl! You must spend Wealth on damages and fines to avoid incarceration, or flee and be declared outlaw. Roll Wealth. If you don’t have enough wealth to pay the fine and do not flee, you will be incarcerated and your belongings will be confiscated and sold.
10: Fire! You accidentally started a fire in the inn / den of ill repute you were carousing in! You must spend an additional 1d20 × 10 gold pieces on damages and fines to avoid incarceration, or flee and be declared outlaw! Roll Wealth as #9.
11: Gambling! You gambled away your money on a game Defy Danger with +WIS (at -1 if you took a Debility for the drinking contest) vs. Wealth dropping to 0. Unlike normal Defy Danger moves, on a 12+ with this one, you gain +1 to your wealth level (if possible). Roll 1d6: 1 = Dice Game; 2 = Card Game; 3 = Cock Fight; 4 = Dog Fight; 5 = Arm / Wrestling Match; 6 = Pit Fight.
12: Go Directly to Jail! You woke up in jail charged with a crime! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Drunken Disorderly; 3 = Lewd Conduct; 4 = Vandalism; 5 = Theft; 6 = Murder. You decide if your character did it or not. An escape may be necessary . . .
13: Have at You! You incurred someone’s anger (or were angered yourself) and have agreed to a duel, physical or sorcerous!
14: How’d I Get Here? You woke up in a strange place with no idea how you’d got there! Roll 1d6: 1 = Aboard a ship (maybe heading out to sea!); 2 = In a tree or on a roof; 3 = In the back of a wagon (maybe travelling somewhere!); 4 = In the nearest stable / animal pen; 5 = In the nearest temple; 6 = In the sewer / gutter.
15: How Embarrassing! You made a complete idiot of yourself in public! Locals snigger behind your back and consider you a complete imbecile. Roll 1d6: 1 = You emptied your bladder . . . unexpectedly; 2 = You exposed yourself; 3 = You fell flat on your face unconscious while attempting to seem intimidating / skillful / powerful; 4–5 = You performed the worst drunken song and dance . . . ever; 6 = You soiled yourself.
16: I Hereby Swear! You made a foolish pledge, loudly and in public to do something hazardous. Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Clear Nearest Monster Den / Ruin; 3–4 = Bring Down Local Bandits / Thieves / Thugs; 5–6 = Steal Valuable From Important Local (roll as in Dangerous Liaison! to determine who).
17: Just Married! You woke up to find someone claiming to be your new wife / husband! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Attractive; 3–4 = Average; 5 = Ugly; 6 = Pass the bucket! GM also secretly rolls 1d6: 1–3 = It’s a con attempt; 4–6 = It’s true.
18: Love Never Dies! You woke up next to a corpse! Roll 1d6: 1–2 = They died of natural causes; 3–4 = They died of drug / alcohol overdose; 5 = You think you accidentally killed them; 6 = You think you murdered them. GM also secretly rolls 1d6: 1–3 = It’s a setup; 4–6 = It’s true.
19: Mooooo! You woke up next to an animal! Roll 1d6: 1 = Chicken; 2 = Cow; 3 = Goat; 4 = Horse / Camel; 5 = Pig; 6 = Sheep.
20: My Land! You gambled / spent your money and acquired the deed to something! Roll 1d6: 1-2 = Disreputable Inn; 3 = Nearest Ruin; 4 = Plot of Wildland; 5–6 = Run-Down Farm; You are eligible for either Householder, Merchant, or Shopkeeper as appropriate once any GM imposed restrictions are met.
21: My Precious! When you were passed out or otherwise engaged, someone stole your single most valuable-looking item! Track ‘em down and make ‘em pay!
22: Ooh, Shiny! You spent your money on a truly gaudy but otherwise unremarkable item. Reduce Wealth by at least 1. Roll 1d6: 1 = Armour; 2 = Garment; 3–4 = Jewellery Piece; 5 = Shield; 6 = Weapon. GM determines the item.
23: Robbed! As 21, but 1 Wealth instead.
24: Tattoo! You spent your money on a fantastic tattoo! Say what, and  roll 1d6: 1–2 = It actually is awesome; 3–4 = It’s fairly good;5 = It has an obvious flaw; 6 = It has an embarrassing flaw.
25: Unexpected Companion! You woke up next to a member of your preferred gender. Determine attractiveness as Just Married! entry.
26: Yer Mother! You seriously insulted someone who can make your life in this area very difficult. Roll to determine who as in Dangerous Liaison! entry.
27: You’re so Generous! You donated your money to a worthy institution. Roll 1d6: 1–2 = Local Poor; 3–4 = Local Temple; 5–6 = Orphanage / Urchins.
28+: Madman! Roll twice and apply both results!

A Change in Bonds

In pbp, DW and other Apocalypse World Engine games tend to die with Bonds. So the idea I randomly had is to reconstruct how Bonds work.

Firstly, there's a bit of inconsistency with the DW Core rule:

Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one

and Class Warfare, which specifies each Archetype as having a set number of bonds.

Personally I don't really like either rule--because I don't get the logic--and there's that problem about PbP games I mentioned. So I propose the following Caveat:

• Players get bonds equal to Level+CHA (minimum 1) which they can come up with in play. (this becomes part of the Level Up move)
• Other than your Level+CHA you have no restriction on how many bonds you can spend on one subject.
• Players are not initially restricted to bonds specified for their Playbook/Class Warfare build, so long as they write their own build in a way that fits the concept. OF course in order to preserve what I assume DW intended as balance, fitting the concept is subject to the group's collective opinion.
• Players may spend bonds on the world representing events that have happened in game. (that's right, I like the idea of players being more and more connected to the world in a statistical way.)
• If it exceeds +CHA or +1 per 100 coins spent, they can use it in relevant situations.

The reason for explicitly stating you can spend any number of bonds you want on the same subject is because I've never explicitly seen it stated (though rules implied) and I've never played in a group that used more than one bond on an individual. The last bullet point is for situations that come up a lot in my game where the players saved a town from a massive horde, and they get amnesty/favors returned/wenches.

Backstab: What I don't like about it and how I "fixed" it.

Let me just say it's not a bad move, but it has a few problems that don't really jive well with my idea of the fiction, and how I think thieves should work. Here's the default rule:

When you attack a surprised or defenseless enemy with a melee weapon, you can choose to deal your damage or roll+DEX. *On a 10+ choose two. *On a 7–9 choose one.

• You don’t get into melee with them
• You deal your damage+1d6 
• You create an advantage, +1 forward to you or an ally acting on it
• Reduce their armor by 1 until they repair it 
• Use a bit of gear for another effect that fits within the fiction

What got me even thinking about it in the first place is a player asked me [sic] "would that provide any bonus? sneaking around attacking a creature from its opposite flank? or would it be just the same as running up and punching it in its smug face?" Initially, I couldn't really answer the question, or at least didn't answer it correctly.

I said no, DW doesn't do that per se, your situational bonuses are in moves. But then I read closer "you create an advantage, +1 forward (etc)." Alright, that's all well and good, but they rightly pointed out "surprised and defenseless". So it dawned on me that the onus is upon me to determine every time whether a foe is surprised and/or defenseless, and I thought the way to do that was Defy Danger. I didn't like that.

Next there was "you can choose to deal your damage or roll +Dex", then choose 1-2 options, one of which is damage with a bonus, and a couple others have nothing to do with hitting anyone. So I  removed the redundant option, and wrote the following "replacement" move for use in my games:

Skullduggery

When you engage in tricky underhanded tactics, roll+Something*. *On a 10+ choose 3 different options. *On a 7-9 choose 2.

• You don’t get into melee with them
• You deal your damage+1d6
• You create an advantage, +1 forward to you or an ally acting on it
• Reduce their armor by 1 until they repair it(edited)

*Depends on how you describe the tactics.

It removes the need for me as a GM to define if the opponent is surprised (that can be an assumption behind "tricky underhanded tactics", but it doesn't have to be) and make the player roll Defy Danger. It doesn't force the player to strike immediately, and allows them to represent flanking or planning as appropriate with +1 forward. And finally, I prefer "choose 3/choose 2" over "choose 2/choose 1"

Is it broken? Probably, but I thought Backstab was broken in the other way (in being too narrowly defined).

A Matter of Honor or Blood

This G+ post asked how the community would handle duels not intended to go to the death (For those you should just go with Hack and Slash). It would be easy to just have the player roll hack and slash, and call it good, and that move even states that it is for attacking a prepared enemy.

But what if you're not trying to kill them? I present to you the following:

The Duel

When you cross swords for honor, roll +STR or +DEX. *On a 10+, hold 3, on 7-9 hold 2 and the enemy gains a touch on you. You may spend hold on the following:

• Draw a small amount of blood, dealing 1 point of damage (2 hold).
• Avoid the enemy's strikes (1 hold)
• Touch the opponent without drawing blood (sometimes duels are to a certain number of touches, rather than blood)

*On a 6-, choose one of the following: 

• You took the enemy's normal damage roll, and lost the duel.
• You dealt your normal damage roll, and offend some witness for not showing restraint.

Dragging a Corpse

RPG characters die or are knocked out a lot. In DW, there isn't really much in the way of unconsciousness either. At 0 HP you roll to see if you take your Last Breath. If you win, you're alive, and if you lose, you die. So what happens if part of the bargain is that you're unconscious. and your friends have to drag you to safety? What follows is copied over from here but usable by people who don't care about wench vital statistics.

Ned's Head has Weight 1 (because DW doesn't care about lbs, this is somewhat abstract). After a bit of a wiki-walk, and some Google Fu, I find that there are a number of both medical and non-medical consensus that indicate a head weighing between 4500 grams, and 6500 grams. It would not be unreasonable to assume 10-15 lbs is fair (and wt 0 items are below 5 lbs). a study in 1983 said that the head itself was about 8% of a body's weight. 8% is about 1/12th, so we can assume humans are base Weight 12. Given that, we can assume the following: 

• A dwarf is weight 12.
• An Elf is weight 10.
• A Halfling is weight 6. Though I haven't seen them, gnomes are fairly traditional in gaming, so if your game has them, a gnome is weight 5.
• An Orc is considered to be 15 weight rather than 12.
• Add +Str.
• Multiply Weight by 1d6+9 (which is a number between 10 and 15) to get lbs.

A minor note on Load
I've noticed that using a normal range of Load scores (6-12 plus +STR) would make it difficult for even the strongest party member to carry back anyone who died and any gear if using the +stat rather than the score. With that in mind, a fighter would have up to 30 Load with 18 Strength. It's actually pretty standard in a great number of RPGs for a 18 STR equivalent to have a maximum carry weight between 300 and 450 lbs. If you use +Stat instead, Fighters max out at 15 Load, which is only 150-225 lbs. Use whichever you prefer, I'm gonna use Strength SCORE+x

Expanding on Dwarven Stuff

There are a few things in DW that are already dwarven and have specific effects. First, let's talk about Dwarven Hard Tack

Dwarven Hard Tack

Requires Dwarf, Dwarves say it tastes like home. Everyone else says it tastes like home, if home is a hog farm, and on fire.

That one is mostly fluff, but the fact that it requires dwarf (racial trait) and is tagged as a ration suggests that it's a ration for dwarves, and trash for people who aren't (unless they have a move that lets them eat anything). Either that or they're unfamiliar with bacon.

Jokes aside though, there is something to be desired. I give you the dwarven tag:

Armor

Armor made to fit dwarves (i.e. has the dwarven tag) removes the Clumsy tag for dwarves, and adds -1 ongoing to Defy Danger with +DEX for anyone else. Price is increased by 50% for dwarven armor if you're outside dwarven settlements.

Weapons

Shorter than 6 feet, these weapons lose their reach tag. They are often very bulky though, replacing it with the Forceful tag. For weapons that don't have the Reach tag, they still gain the Forceful tag. Price is increased by 50% for dwarven weapons if you're outside dwarven settlements.

Next, let's talk about Stout

Dwarven Stout
When you open a keg of dwarven stout and let everyone drink freely, take +1 to your Carouse roll. If you drink a whole keg yourself, you are very, very drunk.

Nothing wrong with this tag, or with the notion that dwarves are the poster children for alcohol consumption in fantasy RP. But this is something that can stand to be expanded upon, and I will do so here.

The Drinking Contest

 So what does getting very drunk entail? Depends on the fiction. Just kidding, the reason you are here is because for you. there is no current fictional status quo. Here is mine: Whenever you engage in a contest of intestinal fortitude against alcohol, roll +CON

• On a 10+, you survive the round no problems, and an NPC drops out. (if you want, you can use the Whole Damn Army rules and do 1 point of "damage" against the Tavern equivalent to a "green platoon", or 8 HP.)
• On a 7-9, take a debility (other than Scarred since alcohol on its own is not disfiguring)
• On a 6- take 2 debilities, and 1d6 damage

When you become Sick (when you gain the Sick Debility) you drop out of the round. The winner is the last person remaining. If a PC and an NPC are tied, the PC wins. If two PCs are tied, whoever has the better Con score wins. Alcohol based debilities go away at a rate of 1/hour.

A Whole Damn Imperium

Conscripting a Whole Damn Army

It takes at least a City of Steady Population to conscript A Whole Damn Army, while a Steady Keep can conscript a Whole Damn Battalion, and a Steady Town can conscript a Whole Damn Platoon. If a population is better than steady, you can raise it in a steading one step smaller. Whenever they mobilize, the steading reduces in size by one step. If it is worse than steady, you need a steading one step larger. These conscripts are “Green” until they are trained and maintained They have -7 HP and deal (w[2d6+whatever] damage) no piercing, since they are not seasoned veterans. Also if they have no notable commander, they don’t add +whatever, it’s just w[2d6]. These statistics are modified as per Fortified Superiority if applicable.

Guard Forces

A Whole Damn Army is the equivalent of Legion Defenses, a Battalion is Battalion, and a Platoon is Garrison Defenses. Guard Defenses or less are not worth representing with A Whole Damn military unit (at least not without conscription above). If an army has trained for a season, or been to more than 3 real battles, they are no longer considered “Green”.

Collapse

You can militarily cause a steading to shrink based on its “Conscription” statistics as well. For example, if you have a Whole Damn Platoon, you need a steady town. A Whole Damn Platoon only gets 15 HP, but a conscripted one from a town only has 8 HP (and deals the worst damage roll as noted above). If any city has been reduced to 0 HP, it becomes a village in exodus. If they surrender beforehand, they are reduced to a size appropriate to their HP (benchmarks of 8, 15, and 23 HP, modified by Fortified). Prosperity is reduced a similar number of steps.

Want

When a steading is pressed to provide for an army larger than they could conscript other than their Defenses indicate, they gain Want (military and adventuring goods) and reduce prosperity by one step.

Resources (Everything from here down is Optional)

By default, a Whole Damn Army has far less stability than a steading due to not really having much in the way of consistent trade. They take what they can, and consume it. This is represented by Resources. By default resources are +0. You gain resources by lowering the Prosperity of a city (1 point for every step in reduction, and 1 point per every lost Resource), or by winning a battle against another army. Divide HP by 5 to determine how many points of Resources you get. for a steading of Moderate Prosperity. Add or subtract 1 per level of Prosperity deviating from that. “An orc warchief’s tribute” is reasonably 1 point of Resources.  Resources increase by about a point for every factor of 10 above that. You can spend Resources after battle to gain the following:

• +2 HP in the form of new recruits, healing supplies from the infirmary, and so on. (For every +6 HP gained, you can add an additional move (or 5 if you want to go with the original rule, 5 HP))
• +1 piercing damage for the whole of the next battle costs 2 Resource points.

Multiple Resource Coin Value
Whenever you are attacking a group of targets with multiple resource values, you don't add them up to determine the cash value of your earnings for the battle. For example, in a fight against a 6 Resource Whole Damn Army and a city of conscripts (22 HP or 4 Resource) you don't gain 10 Resource. You would need four 6 Resource Point  sources to have the fight be worth 7 Resource (it takes 4 250s to get to 1,000, 4 2,500s to get to 10,000 and so on). It would be fair to say that if you fight any fight involving a force of one level lower than your own, you gain 1 Resource (though not mathematically accurate). If the force is 2 points lower than yours, you need to fight two such forces to gain a point (again, fair but not mathematically accurate) and so on.

Opportunity

The normal rule for opportunity states: 

Subtract the distance (in rations) between the steadings from the steading with enmity’s defenses. If the result is greater than the other steading’s defenses +defense for each step of size difference (village to town, town to keep, keep to city) they definitely attack.

Under these rules, subtract the distance in Resources between the steadings instead to determine if a force will attack. If the distance is greater than the resources, the attacking force loses 2 HP per additional needed Resource.

Surplus and Settling Down

A Whole Damn Army can use resources once the war is over to set up a steading. They gain the default steading appropriate to their army size plus 1 tag per point of resource they spend to advance the steading. 

Commanding a Whole Damn Army

So I recently made a blog and G+ post about size, tactics, and morale of military units in light of my Whole Damn Army creature. A question was posed "Do you see this as characters interacting with GM controlled armies, or allowing players to control armies as well?" in the context of me potentially making a book out of mass combats in Dungeon World. So I while I'm still not sure I want to create a whole book about mass combat, the idea was intriguing to discern the difference between a GM move and a player move as the distinction is relevant. Consider the moster as written, a pile of GM moves. Player moves are going to be based on different assumptions of GM moves.

Damage
As a GM move- Wall of Steel deals (b[2d6+7] damage, 1 piercing). This assumes a couple of things

1) a soldier deals 1d6 damage, so a group of them deals the best of 2d6

2) with enough adversaries at least one of them will get through for 1 piercing

3) The unit will be lead by a fairly reliable character equivalent in combat to a knight who deals (b[2d10] damage), so it's reasonable to attribute the +7 to the Knight. We can assume a knight probably has some score of 14 (reserving 16 for PCs), which means a modifier of +1. Because the knight swings the better of 2d10s, we assume an average of a 5 and a 6 and use that to come to +7. A leader that leads through fear and Intimidation could use STR, one who uses charm and likability uses CHA, one who uses superior memory of military history, and actively being educated uses INT, and one who has a "feel" of battle through experience with it uses WIS.

As a Player move- assumptions 1-3 above suggest that a fighter with a d10 should probably get STR of +3 ASAP to get (b[2d6+9] damage, 1 piercing). Other players could progress their optimal score to that point if it's one of the modifiers listed above. Each lower dice type reduces the 9 by a point (meaning d6+3 will hit the NPC Knight at even damage by virtue of taking the better of a 3 and a 4). GMs can also ignore the average and change the damage code for players to (b[2d6+2dx] damage, 1 piercing) where x is the type for your class if he wants really swingy combats.

Hold the Lines

As a GM move- Armies are not afraid of players, but they might be afraid of players' armies. Whether they are afraid of each other is a function of size (a smaller army being afraid of a larger one) and whether they are fanatic or frenzied. 

As a Player Move- Roll Defy Danger Subtract your army's HP from the other army's HP. if negative that means you have a bigger army and are more likely to Defy. Because you are a notable individual, you may add half of your HP to your army's HP for intimidation purposes.

Sound the Reinforcements

As a GM move- Since those reinforcement numbers count as HP, it would be reasonable to say that this recovers 1d8 HP, but a lot of people don't like rolling for GM stuff if they can avoid it so they can use 4 points. This move can be used as many times as appropriate to the fiction

As a Player move- Roll 1d8 to determine how many points each unit heals. You can do this once per unit of reinforcements you narratively have. Remember also that the default Whole Damn Army is 2-3 units, so if you know you have more on the field, HP can go over 30.

• If you have Bardic Song, or can cast a Cure spell as a rote, you may use it on A Whole Damn Army.
• Some moves may also effect healing rate

Racial Tactics

This section will cover a number of moves that players can earn to reflect their race's heritage for war. They are not like racial starting moves, because almost no members of a race are required to be born great tacticians. They can however be learned as starting Racial moves if you have a reason to have war in your background. 

Dwarves

Dwarven Turtle

Dwarf units have shields that can interlock, while also allowing their polearms to protrude slightly. In return for changing damage to (w[2d6+3] damage) they gain +1 armor and can negate Artillery Superiority. This means that a unit with this move can disregard the Ignores Armor and Piercing tags on their opponents' moves.

The Stonefist Gambit

When dwarves following a commander with this move fight with either mountains or a cavern ceiling looming overhead deal +2 damage.

Liquid Courage

When a commander with this move uses a Keg of Dwarven Stout to carouse with his men, he may also heal them for 1d4 HP.

Elves

Elder Guardians

When elves following a commander with this move fight within sight of The Great Forest, they may deal +2 damage

Treetop Striders 

When elves following a commander with this move do battle within The Great Forest, they count as devious, and negate both devious and Engineering Superiority of their opponents. If the commander also has Elder Guardians, that it applies as well.

Mystical Warpaint

There is a plant that grows within The Great Forest that bolsters elven morale. When a commander with this move orders his men to apply it, they are considered to have +4 HP for the purposes of Hold the Line. That is, they cannot be terrified by a unit whose HP isn't 5 more than their own.

Halflings

Don't Disturb the Shire

When halflings following a commander with this move hide in the hilly terrain surrounding their homeland, they are short enough they can ambush for +1d6 damage.

Can't Touch Dis

When halflings are fighting an army whose individual members are Large or Huge, or an actual creature that is Large or Huge, they gain +1 Armor.

Humans

Racist Bastard

Pick another race. Whenever you fight that race, you deal +2 damage. It's probably fair to allow you to pick multiple races for this one, but if you pick very many it may also be fair to assassinate you in your sleep.

Inquisitorial

When you fight an army whose leader's alignment opposes yours, you deal +2 damage. Alternately, if you are a cleric, you may take this bonus against people who are heretical from your god's point of view if the GM and group allow it. It's probably fair to pick multiple religions but if you pick very many it may also be fair to assassinate you in your sleep.

Pincer Maneuver

Whenever you have Engineering or devious units, you do not have to use your +1d6 damage on the first attack.

Orcs and Half Orcs

Berserker

Whenever orcs work themselves into a frenzy before battle, they are considered to have +4 HP for the purposes of Hold the Line. That is, they cannot be terrified by a unit whose HP isn't 5 more than their own. If you are their commander, and you order a retreat, you must Defy Danger to avoid becoming the enemy.

Troll Blood Stew
If a commander with this move has allied with trolls asks them to augment the rations with their restorative blood, he may roll +Stat for the stat used with Wall of Steel. On any 10+ over the course of the next battle, his unit heals 2 HP. (for NPCs, this occurs when the PCs roll 6-).

Race Trained

You may take a move not belonging to your race only if you either have a background of significant time with them, or spend enough in game time that the advance follows logically from the fiction. Statements within the move that refer to the race you chose refer to you.

Relevant Core Rulebook and Class Warfare Moves

Dwarf

When you share a drink with someone, you may parley with them using CON instead of CHA.

Halfling

You sing the healing songs of spring and brook. When you make camp, you and your allies heal +1d6.

When you attack with a ranged weapon, deal +2 damage.

Human

Once per battle you may re-roll a single damage roll (yours or someone else’s).

Mass Combat Revisited: A Whole Damn Army, and subsequent divisions thereof

Because I'd already codified how a large military unit could work with the existing Horde rules and constitute an entire horde rather than giving each soldier statistics here, Curiosity overtook me and I decided to find out what a A Whole Damn Army would look like in the Dungeon World Codex. This led to a posting and a discussion in the Dungeon World Tavern G+ community Some banter expanded the scope of what the Whole Damn Army could do. Once the whole army was ironed out there was further questioning on the line of writing an Army playbook. While I'm not sure I want to do that, the army does deserve something of a closer look. Here goes

Size

A Whole Damn Army should represent at least 1000 soldiers, but reasonably up to 5,000

Morale

A Whole Damn Army is immune to being Terrified by a smaller army (less HP)

Superiority

This article discusses Superiority. Rather than modifying its text, use the rules below

• For mobility superiority, each "doubling" in the original rule provides armor 1
• Armor superiority is only available for units with a default armor above 4. Use their new armor as the base.
• Artillery Superiority has 4 Piercing (or more). The attack doesn't do more damage than normal, just 4 damage blows through armor
• Engineering superiority or other armies with devious may ambush their foes, dealing +1d6 damage on the first attack.
• Fortified armies (those that are garrisoned in a settlement) have several advantages. If they are at least Steady they add +2 HP, and another +2 for each of Growing or Booming. If they are at least a Town, they gain +1 armor, while a Keep gains +2 and a City gains +3. Keeps and cities also have Artillery superiority, while any smaller steading has Ranged and all have Transport. A town or better also has Sound the Reinforcements.

Scaling Down

A Whole Damn Army is an abstraction of 2-3 units plus a commanding officer. It is reasonable to divide them into military units. A Whole Damn Platoon only gets 15 HP, and isn't big enough to Shatter Their Morale. They get one other move of the ones listed. A Whole Damn Battalion gets that move, plus Shatter Their Morale and has 22 HP.

Scaling Up

Having more than 30 HP for any Dungeon Worlds monster was decidedly obnoxious, but it's not unreasonable to give armies over 5000 men one extra move per +5 HP. Even I don't recommend giving any more HP out after you've got all the moves.

If you're interested in playing these, or any of my other Dungeon World ideas, you can join my discord, DW Linky Here!

Into the Heart of the Dragon

So I made a map for a Dungeo World campaign in which the party is swallowed by a dragon big enough to eat a village whole. The idea is that they escape the dragon by killing it from the inside, and it crash lands, This map is where the dragon crash lands.

Since the game also takes place in part, inside a dragon, I'll also leave you with the starter for the group inside the dragon:

World Eater was once a normal dragon. For many centuries now, the dragon has been so big it could eat a village. The additional size means the dragon does not have the same physiology as other dragons. Old tales tell of ancient heroes with legendary weapons could once pierce its scales, but nobody has succeeded in doing that as long as anyone can remember. Assuredly, larger holds survive by sheer volume of siege weaponry they can bring to bear. You are from no such land. Some of you may have been here a while, others only a month. This is your story.

First Impressions

Ø  World Eater was once an ordinary black dragon, but now has a variety of gemstones and minerals that have become embedded into the dragon due to its hibernation and feeding cycles.

Ø  The town of Gullet as far as anyone inside can reckon, is a little way past where the Dragon’s esophagus meets its trachea, hence the name. Occasionally the dragon eats, and the whole town shakes like an earthquake. Dirt and rubble from a new town becomes a part of Gullet.

Ø  Gullet is situated deep in a “valley”; deeply enough that when the dragon breathes fire, the citizens are not harmed. They do however feel an intense pressure wave.

Ø  Gastric Fog occasionally comes from “south” of Gullet, leaving those who are stuck outside with mild acid burns for the next several days.

Ø  There is something the villagers are not telling you.

Ø  A constant faint creaking sound accompanies a slight rising and falling, as if the entire area is in a constant tide.

Questions

(in addition to the bonds you make with the other players, answer +Wis of the following)

Ø  Are you on good terms with the citizens of Gullet?

Ø  How did you survive the fall from the Dragon’s maw to the town of Gullet?

Ø  How long have you been in Gullet?

Ø  What rumors have you heard about escaping the dragon?

Ø  Whence did you hail before your home was swallowed?

Ø  Who do you know in Gullet?

Ø  Who would try to stop you from escaping the dragon if you could get out of Gullet?

FF3e Houserules

So back in the day, I used to peruse the giant in the playground forums because I had a strong desire for something different from your standard RPG fare. I looked over everything from houserules for porting existing systems to other uses, to 1km1kt and other 24 hour RPG sites, you name it, I'd give it a once over. I found one on giantitp called FFd6 that said it was based on the idea of simplifying FF3e Both systems are beautiful, but FF3e is complicated, and never had a bestiary. I've been trying to play the game for ages now, but so far I get GMs start a game, and fall flat. Anyway, there's a bit of an abrupt stop in FF3e's rules, so I thought of something they missed as a way of expanding them. (these rules will be crossposted on my discord https://discord.gg/JQ6jTvP)

Limit Breaks

Characters in Final Fantasy are famous for flipping out. They are able to use power beyond the potential of most humans. This ability is often unlocked at dramatic moments. Sometimes it is called Trance, Desperation Attacks, or Overdrive. Nonetheless, FF3e doesn't seem to have a system to replicate this. Or does it?

I noticed that the Monster Creation System has a nifty little XP/Gil Modifier system for creating monster attacks. Since we don't want players to throw limit breaks willy nilly, we need to establish some provisions.

Characters only limit whenever they are in dire situations, or when they have a lot of power to burn. The default rules allow for Key Points to be spent on certain special circumstances. As a result, Limit breaks occur either on a critical hit at 25% HP or less, or with the expenditure of 3 Key Points per level of the break. This is slightly worse than SOS Gain.

Characters limit breaks automatically hit. End of story.

The two modifiers roughly cancel out, and they're always on limit breaks, so those modifiers should be ignored when designing limit breaks.

Now on to the actual building of Limit Breaks. There are two camps that I'm aware of regarding limit break quality and quantity. The first wants 3 limit breaks, the second wants considerably more.

If you want 3, the limit breaks are gained at 15th 30th, and 60th level and are worth "Limit Points" equal 3x the level they are obtained at using the XP Modifier columns.

If you want 6, they are gained at 15th, 30th, 45th, 60th, 75th, and 90th level, and are worth twice the level they are obtained at using the XP Modifier columns.

Appropriate Limit Break Abilities

Attack, as well as any modifiers other than Auto-Hit or SOS Gain.

Add Status

Auto Status (until the end of battle)

Critical Attack

Elemental Absorbance, Immunity, Potency, Resistance (until the end of battle, possibly in conjunction with Weakness)

Imprison

Field Effects

Restore

Status Resistance or Immunity

or Steal Status

Lengthy Limit Breaks:

In doing a bit of research into Slow Actions for incorporating some FFd6 stuff into FF3e, I found out that spells don't seem to have CTs, but do seem as if they might tick off initiative. This is similar to my view of Limit Break cinematics inasmuch as they seem to take a while depending on the game, but nobody can really interfere. It is with this in mind that I make the following suggestion:

If your limit break is worth more than 35 points, it is "Extremely Lengthy" Feel free to be extravagantly lengthy with your description, and throw what you think is more than 1 turn of detail in there (additional details on pp. 188-189)

Advantage Rules

Maximum Advantages

When you make characters, the book suggests you should have a total of 0 or less in Advantages and Disadvantages. This houserule would change that by allowing your starting total to increase by 1 for every 10 levels. With these additional points, you may buy off disadvantages, or purchase additional advantages at the GM's approval.

Vehicles using Animal Companion

As with Animal Companion, Vehicles have 10 points per Advantage Point they are worth. The following Animal Companion features are appropriate for vehicles:

Sentient (2)

Summoned (2)

Packrat (3)

Flying (changed, see below)

Keen Senses (5)

Large (5)

Very Large (10) Extrapolating from this cost, a Multipilot vehicle could feasibly be 20 points

Additionally, vehicles may have the following:

Provides Rest (Varies)

If a vehicle is at least Very Large it can provide rest. A Fitful Rest costs 2 points, a Travel Rest costs 5 points, and a full rest costs 10 points. (This one may be appropriate for hideouts as well)

Combat Statistics

Hit Points/Mana Points-A vehicle has HP as a normal monster with a Hit/Magic Base of 1, 2, 4, or 8 for twice that number of points (e.g. 2, 4, 8, or 16 points). Otherwise, the vehicle just breaks when it breaks.

Calculate Acc, M. Acc, Eva, M. Eva, DEX, and Mind as if the vehicle has the character's attributes.

Armor and M. Armor Base is the same as a monster (.5, 1, 2, 4, or 6) for twice as many points.

Vehicles may purchase Attacks, Action Abilities, Field Effects, Reaction Abilities, and Support Abilities (except Comeback, or Minion) at full price.

Movement Abilities and Spells at half price (round up to the next whole number).

Use the Gil Modifier price to determine their point cost. Typically Boss Abilities are not appropriate for player created vehicles.

Experience

FF3e:
Due to the speed with which they are resolved and the large number of potential ‘safety nets’ players have at their disposal in the event of failure, physical challenges should not yield XP or Gil. Rather, they are best treated as obstacles to be overcome on the way to a greater reward.

That's debatable, but it leaves me context for my next point:

FF3e:
As with physical challenges, overcoming a social challenge rarely yields Gil or XP.

I don't like that. It contributes to a pure hack and slash game. If you have a conversation that has world or region changing ramifications but doesn't result in combat, it should be worth XP.

FF3e:
The effects of failure depend on the stakes; attempting – and failing – to intimidate a powerful political figure, for instance, could well land the entire party in jail indefinitely.

Be that as it may, it's not really a valid reason to disallow the player to gain XP or other rewards where appropriate (and successful). I'll concede that it may not be appropriate all the time (negotiating for a sword never is, nor is 'Roll play' Epically describing what happens on your end may be grounds for an award though).

Where appropriate, an XP or Gil award for a physical or social challenge is worth a little less than a monster: 25 EXP or 10 Gil x level.


Senses
For reference, here is the default rule:

Because FFRPG monsters have no Skills, they cannot use Awareness to spot or track a party. Instead, they use Senses as a When creating the monster, give each of these Senses a Rating from 0 to 100. If a situation arises where one or more party members are using Stealth to sneak by the monster, use the highest rated Sense in place of an Awareness Rating for the Opposed Skill Test to see whether the monster notices. Conditional Modifiers imposed on the characters sneaking by should be appropriate to the monster's primary sense. Wearing camouflage will do nothing to fool a creature using Life sense, for instance – the only way to completely disguise yourself is to cast Zombie.

I don't really buy that monsters not having skills is a good reason for not giving them a default Awareness rating. It would be fair to assume they also have a base 30 awareness to be further modified as follows

Add a number of points equal to the monster's level, so a 1st level monster gets 1 to spend somewhere and a 10th level monster can tweak one or more senses up to a total of 10 points.
You may add points in one sense after that, but should subtract points from another sense.
Alternately, if you aren't sold on base 30, there are 6 senses so you could spread 180+Level points among the senses as you wish provided you don't exceed 100 in any of them or go below 1. The main reason for this rule is that it feels less arbitrary. If you don't mind the arbitrary, you can always stick to the default rule.

Inverse World Tags Outside of Hazards

Inverse world has a tag for Hazards called Social. (This hazard is human [-oid] in nature. Social hazards are often unable to be solved with violence, for one reason or another.) That book suggests that Social threats don't need the intelligent tag because they are assumed to already have it. I think it would be fair to swap "unable to be solved with violence" with "almost always solvable without violence." then add "Social creatures have sufficiently advanced societies that that some individuals pick up other skills. The GM can adapt the monster by adding tags to reflect specific training, like a mage or warrior." With these changes, the Intelligent tag can be removed entirely. 

By default, the Social tag otherwise doesn't give any incentive to be non-violent except players acceptance that you shouldn't kill certain people. combining it with Friendly (This hazard does not mean you any harm. This doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous, of course, but it doesn’t intend to be.) probably helps with that incentive, but I think it fair to offer players a chance to mark XP for a Social threat of any kind to be dealt with peacefully.

Notice Me Senpai

I've been working on Visual Novel World for a while now, and here it is, ready for playtest! It takes the "Class Warfare approach" of presenting character subtypes and allowing people to cobble together a character from 2-3 choices of those subtypes. All of them are geared either to anime/manga/visual novel stereotypes, or a(n admittedly western) idea of (mostly modern) Japanese culture, or at least the culture that Americans see, which is mostly varying degrees of cooking/food culture, martial arts, mecha, romance, schools, or squick depending on the example media.

I got a Discord

TL;DR- Go here and join my Discord gaming server!

Been a while since I did a regular post, and this one isn't going to be what you would call a regular post, or even a full length post. It's more of an update. A while ago, someone suggested getting discord, and moving away from Skype.

Not too long after, the Unofficial Elder Scrolls RPG team posted here on blogspot they would probably leave to go to discord. So I got the Discord app to follow them, and have decided that Discord has everything I wanted from Skype, plus none of the stuff I didn't want. They also have the ability to create numerous topics all within the same group of people, and cordon off separate rooms for a smaller subset of that larger group. And finally, you can make your own emojis. My server is here.

The Peasant King

in GURPS fantasy, there's this concept of a king who is spiritually attached to his land. Apparently it's called a Fisher King on TVtropes, but somehow I like peasant king better, because it doesn't tie the character down to a particular profession.

So I asked the folks over at the DW tavern:  if there was an existing playbook. Someone suggested a compendium class. Surprisingly among the more helpful responses was "Just do it". They're also where I found out it was called a Fisher King in the first place. A very short conversation, and a cursory glance at DW Perilous Wilds and I got the idea that the book could almost write itself. I was basically right.