Sour Grapes vs. The ENnies

The ENnie nominations have just been released, and I've got a huge case of sour grapes!

http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2012-nominees/

Heroes Against Darkness may not have been released by some hot (or huge) company, but it's an actual free product than anyone can download and play and use forever for free.

Let's take a quick look at the their best 'free' products:

An adventure that was available free for one day of the year:
Black Crusade: Broken Chains

A demo of a real paid RPG (Dragon Age):
Dragon Age: Quickstart Rules

A short adventure released as a promo for a real paid RPG:
The One Ring: Words of the Wise

A conversion guide from Pathfinder to Shadowlands?:
Shadowlands Conversion Guide

Another short adventure released as a promo for a real paid RPG (Pathfinder):
Pathfinder Module: We Be Goblins!

UPDATE: There is a free download of the Black Crusade adventure, but it wasn't on the first ENnie nomination post, and before the nominations came out you'd have to find the link through Google (not through the ENnies or the publisher):
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/black-crusade/news/free-rpg-day/follow/Broken%20Chains%20Low%20Res.pdf

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Here's what a real free product looks like, enjoy:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

More AnyDice d6 Dice Pool Probabilities

Following my previous exciting and enigmatic post about d6 dice pool probabilities, I've also run the same combinations of dice pools through AnyDice to see what the probabilities are when you take the cumulative totals of the pools, rather than just the highest of either pool.   The results are (obviously) a lot different.

First though, here's the AnyDice code:

---

function: opposedhighestcume of A:n and B:n
{
      if A >= B { result: 1 }
      result: -1
}

output [opposedhighestcume of 1d6 and 1d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 2d6 and 1d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 3d6 and 1d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 4d6 and 1d6]

output [opposedhighestcume of 1d6 and 2d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 2d6 and 2d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 3d6 and 2d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 4d6 and 2d6]

output [opposedhighestcume of 1d6 and 3d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 2d6 and 3d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 3d6 and 3d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 4d6 and 3d6]

output [opposedhighestcume of 1d6 and 4d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 2d6 and 4d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 3d6 and 4d6]
output [opposedhighestcume of 4d6 and 4d6]

---

That code outputs either -1 or 1, depending on which pool 'won':
•   1: Attacker's total is higher (or ties, which is also a win).
•  -1: Means that the second pool 'won' and the attack was unsuccessful.

Here are the results for the cumulative opposed checks, with ties resolved in favor of the attacker:

Attacker's pool (down the left)	1d6	2d6	3d6	4d6
1d6	58%	16%	3%	0%
2d6	91%	56%	22%	6%
3d6	98%	85%	55%	26%
4d6	99%	96%	81%	54%

Here again are the previous results for the 'highest dice' opposed checks, with ties resolved in favor of the attacker:

Attacker's pool (down the left)	1d6	2d6	3d6	4d6
1d6	58%	42%	34%	30%
2d6	75%	61%	53%	48%
3d6	83%	72%	65%	60%
4d6	88%	79%	73%	69%

That's all pretty boring, right?  

Well, hopefully it will make sense one day. :-)

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Check out Heroes Against Darkness, which has a dice mechanic no one could call innovative: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Tabletop Forge Kickstarter!

In working on Heroes Against Darkness I've discovered the great community of role-players out there on the internets, and specifically the great community of not-crazy role-players on Google+.   Through these people I've met and gamed with Charles Jaimet, who's one of the programmers of Tabletop Forge, which is a free Google Hangouts application:

"Tabletop Forge is a Google+ Hangout application that lets you play tabletop roleplaying games inside of a Google+ Hangout.   It includes things like dice rolling, whispering, and map functions.   Please see the features page for a list of all the current features and the roadmap for what we have planned in the future!"

I mentioned that Tabletop Forge is free, so Charles and Joshuha Owen launched a Kickstarter to support the project, allowing them to license game tokens, maps, and other cool game add-ons.   The Kickstarter is in it's last few days, so this is your last chance to get on board and help support these guys who are building a great tool for everyone in their own time.   Every dollar you pledge helps make Tabletop Forge better, and that's good for everyone (although it does sound a bit like socialism... :-) ).

As an added bonus, the $120 HORN OF SUMMONING pledge level gets you four-session Heroes Against Darkness mini-campaign with me (think of how awesome that would be).

Go show Charles and Joshuha some respect and put some money in to their Kickstarter:

Tabletop Forge: The Virtual Tabletop for Google+ Hangouts

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Heroes Against Darkness is also compatible with real live people:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

Review of Heroes Against Darkness on The Free RPG Blog

Rob Lang's just posted an awesome review of Heroes Against Darkness on The Free RPG Blog:

Heroes Against Darkness by Justin Halliday

I'm not too proud to cherry-pick quotes:

"It is breathtaking."
"Most remarkable of all for a free RPG: It's finished."
"It's an unmissable Post-Old-School fantasy RPG."

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Check it out for yourself at the downloads page:
Heroes Against Darkness: Downloads.

AnyDice vs. a d6 Dice Pool Mechanic

I've been mulling over a set of super-simple RPG rules for kids (maybe from 4 and up).   As part of this I've been thinking about a simple (but playable) dice mechanic that involves opposed pools of d6s, with only the highest dice counting for each of the participants (and ties resolving in favor of the attacker, although this could change).

I've finally managed to get AnyDice to spit out the probabilities I was after for the opposed dice pool mechanic (gosh I hate it when people get excited about their 'new' dice mechanics).

This code for AnyDice spits out the amount by which the highest dice of the first dice pool is equal to or greater than than the highest dice of the second dice pool:

---

function: opposedhighest of A:n and B:n
{
      if A >= B { result: A-B }
      result: -1
}

output [opposedhighest of 1@1d6 and 1@1d6]
output [opposedhighest of 1@2d6 and 1@1d6]
output [opposedhighest of 1@3d6 and 1@1d6]
output [opposedhighest of 1@4d6 and 1@1d6]

---

•  -1: Means that the second pool 'won' and the attack was unsuccessful.
•  0: Means the highest dice of each pool were tied, which can be resolved in favor of the attacker or the defender.
•  1+: Higher numbers represent the disparity between the attacker's highest dice against the defender's highest dice.

Here are the results for the opposed checks, with ties resolved in favor of the attacker:

Attacker's pool (down the left)	1d6	2d6	3d6	4d6
1d6	58%	42%	34%	30%
2d6	75%	61%	53%	48%
3d6	83%	72%	65%	60%
4d6	88%	79%	73%	69%

And, here are the results with ties resolved in favor of the defender:

Attacker's pool (down the left)	1d6	2d6	3d6	4d6
1d6	42%	26%	17%	13%
2d6	58%	39%	28%	21%
3d6	66%	47%	35%	27%
4d6	71%	53%	40%	31%

What does it mean?   Which one is better?   

I'm not sure yet, but I'll let you know!

---

Check out Heroes Against Darkness, which has a dice mechanic no one could call innovative: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Remaking Magic: 4 Pages of Spells Per Class

Of all of the decisions I've made during the development of Heroes Against Darkness, the page limitation on spells per class is - at first glance - amongst the most arbitrary.  However, my hope is that this limitation actually reinforces the game's goal of balancing the magi and martial classes.

Over the course of the 10 levels of full support in Heroes Against Darkness, the martial classes have about 17 powers.  These 17 powers include a few common ones, like Rally, Melee Attack, and Ranged Attack, and then unique powers for each class which two are gained each level up to Level 5, and then one per level until Level 10.  All in all, each martial class's 17 powers takes up two pages.  By way of contrast, each of the magi classes has spells from the Common Spells list (which is itself three pages) and from the class's unique list which I deliberately limited to four pages.  The spells generally take up a little more space on the page than the martial powers, so the four unique pages of spells for each magi class gives them about 35 spells, which is twice as many spell powers as the martial characters have martial powers.

I previously wrote about the number of pages that some other fantasy RPGs have dedicated to their spell lists:

RPG Round-Up: How Many Pages of Spells!?

Here's the breakdown, for your convenience:

D&D Systems

System	Pages of Spells	Player's Guide Pages	Percentage	Notes
Basic D&D	4	64	6%	Combined Player's and DM's Guide
Expert D&D	8	64	13%	Combined Player's and DM's Guide
AD&D	60	128	47%
AD&D 2nd Edition	118	256	46%
D&D 3rd Edition	115	286	40%
D&D 4th Edition	39	316	12%	Cleric, Paladin, Warlock, Wizard

Non-D&D Systems

System	Pages of Spells	Player's Guide Pages	Percentage	Notes
Castles & Crusades	53	128	41%
Dragon Warriors	35	106	33%
Dragon Age	4	64	6%	Level 1-5 only
Dungeon Crawl Classic	44	147	30%
Heroes Against Darkness	23	102	23%
Pathfinder	150	396	38%
Savage Worlds (Explorer's Edition)	10	159	6%
Savage Worlds: Fantasy Companion	21	158	13%	Includes spells in the Explorer's Edition
Savage Worlds (Deluxe Edition)	11	159	7%
Swords & Wizardry	24	70	34%
Warhammer Fantasy Role-Playing (2nd Edition)	23	189	12%

Maybe it's unfounded, but my feeling is that games that dedicate a disproportionately large number of their pages to spell lists are more likely to focus more on magi classes at the expense of other classes.  More pages of spells gives magi more options and tempts the games' designers to create more and more specialist spells, which are themselves likely to stomp on the specialties of other classes.  So each extra page of spells for the magi increases the scope of that class and when that is not matched by a corresponding increase in the capabilities of the martial classes, then the relative power and utility of that magi class increases.

Obviously, magi do offer a level of complexity in play then martial characters, and the magic system in Heroes Against Darkness still offers that complexity (and more through the flexible anima system).  Hopefully the game finds a balance between the complexity of the magi classes with the utility of the martial classes.

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Check out Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.

Remaking Magic: Blood Anima

One of the deliberate features of the magic system in Heroes Against Darkness is the strict limits on the amount of anima that is available to magi. Level 1 magi have about 9 anima and by Level 10 they have about 15 anima.  This is combined with the rules that limit the amount of anima that magi can spend in a single turn: Level + 1 anima.

Rule:  Maximum anima points is 5 + Wisdom bonus. Rule:  Magi spend anima points to cast spells. Rule:  All spells have an anima points cost. Rule:  Variable anima cost spells must have at least 1 anima spent on the variable X component. Rule:  Magi cannot spend more than Level + 1 anima points in a single turn. Rule:  Magi can end the ongoing effects of their own spells as a move action.

The combination of these two rules means that magi have a virtual abundance of anima at lower levels, but at higher levels they have the potential (and risk) to 'spend' their anima very quickly, or to eek out lesser amounts over more rounds.

But there's always another option.  Once magi are out of anima they can choose to use blood anima to pay for their spells:

Rule:  Magi can overspend anima at the cost of 4 health points per anima point. Rule:  Magi cannot overspend anima on healing spells.

Each blood anima costs 4 HP, so magi will generally be able to afford an extra blood anima each level they gain, in addition to the four or five that they have at Level 1.  So by Level 10, a brave magi has almost 30 anima at their disposal, rather than the nominal value of 15, which is their actual anima.

A curious person would ask, simply:

What is the point of blood anima?  Why not just double the amount available anima (or ramp up to the higher amount) and get rid of the blood anima?

Why indeed...

In combat warriors and their ilk 'spend' their HP to defeat enemies.  Blood anima introduces a risk/reward mechanic for magi classes.  The player of a magi character can choose to operate within the limitations of their normal anima or they can choose to use their blood anima to increase their round-to-round power at the risk of their character's safety.  The also combines with the Rally power, making that power all the more effective when used by a character whose anima and health are depleted, compared to a magi who has only used his (or her) anima and is otherwise on full HP.

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Check out Heroes Against Darkness over at the downloads page: Heroes Against Darkness - Game Rules.