Luka’s Sack Rule of Inventory

Some initial thoughts on an inventory system based on Luka Rejec’s Skeleton – pulling from UVG and Longwinter but with some extra crunch because I am that guy and I have those players. None of this is playtested.

Luka’s Sack Rule of Inventory – “A Human can carry one sack unencumbered and two sacks encumbered.” Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just leave it at that!

One Sack is Ten Stones, and one Stone is Ten Soaps. A Stone is equivalent to a normal sized item (~15 lbs), and a Soap is a small item (~1.5 lbs).

1 sack = 10 stones = 100 soaps = 2500 cash

stones soaps

I am hacking Usage Dice onto Luka’s Inventory system, denoted as ∆ and then a number. Usage Dice will step down one dice value each time they are rolled and result in a 1-2. The dice step chain is: ∆20,∆12,∆10,∆8,∆6,∆4.

Strength Modifiers – If you have a Strength modifier, that will simply make a sack larger/smaller by your modifier amount. So Strength 16 (+3) would make a sack hold 13 stones instead of 10.

Encumbrance – If you carry more than 1 sack, you are encumbered. You can’t carry more than 2 sacks.

Coins – 250 coins is 1 stone = 25 coins is 1 soap.

Armor – Light armor is 1 stone, Medium armor is 2 stone, heavy armor is 3 stone. A Shield is 1 stone.

Clothing – Your worn clothing does not take up any inventory space. Ceremonial clothing or anything elaborate would be 1 stone. In Luka’s Longwinter, each layer of Warm Weather clothing takes 1 stone.

Weapons – Most weapons are 1 stone, Heavy Weapons are 2 stones. Ammunition is 1 stone / ∆10.

Lighting – Candles – 1 stone / ∆8. Torches – 1 stone / ∆6. Lantern – 1 stone. Lantern Fuel – 1 stone / ∆6.

Candles provide dim light for 1 person, Torches provide bright light for 4 people, Lantern provides bright light for 6 people.

My fear is that Adventure Pack is too broadly useful, and there are still too many little trinkets in the 5e equipment list to want them all to be Soaps on their own merit. So I hacked down the list of items in the 5e equipment book and made this list of packs:

Packs – Each pack is 1 stone / ∆10 – Each pack costs 20+4d6 gp. Packs can be “refilled” for 2d6 gp per ∆ step.

Camper’s Pack – For Making Camp & Camp Life (Ex. Stove, Tent, Bedroll, Pots & Pans, Salt, Fishing Tackle)
Excavator’s Pack – For Digging, Unearthing, Reinforcing Tunnels (Ex. Pick, Shovel, Hammer, Block & Tackle)
Climber’s Pack – For Climbing, Descending, & Rappelling (Ex. Rope, Pitons, Climber Pick, Chalk, Grapple)
Bureaucrat’s Pack – For Notarizing, Certifying, Authenticating, Contracting, Auditing (Ex. Ink, Paper, Wax Seal, Signet Ring)
Priest’s Pack – For Rituals, Sermons, Judgment & Penance (Ex. Psalm Book, Incense, Holy Symbol)
Healer’s Pack – For Staunching, Cauterizing, Amputating, Bandaging, & Sterilizing Wounds (Ex. Bandages, Bone Saw, Alcohol)
Specified Crafter’s Pack – For Crafting with Specified Skill (Ex. Blacksmith hammer, alchemist scale, Forgery tools, Disguise makeup)
Outdoorsman Pack – For Hunting, Fishing, & Trapping (Ex. Traps, Whistles, Specialized Knives, Lures, Salt)
Thieves Pack – For Picking Locks, Disarming Traps, Greasing Hinges (Ex. Lockpick, File, Grease)
Winter Survival Pack – For Navigating Ice, Walking on Snow, & Not Freezing (Ex. Crampons, Ski Poles, Ski Shoes, Blanket)

Some items seem broadly useful or specific enough that players would want to write them down specifically.

Other Common Soaps:

Bell, Chalk, Crowbar, Glass Bottle, Hammer, Hourglass, Iron Spikes, Lock, Magnifying glass, Manacles, Soap, Spyglass, Steel Mirror, Tinderbox, Whistle

Cumbersome Items (2 Stones Each):

10 ft. Pole, Ladder, Battering Ram

Consumable Soaps:

Ball Bearings (∆4), Caltrops (∆4), Holy water (∆4), Poison Vial (∆4), Potion of healing (∆4)

Spellcasting Soaps:

Component pouch, Arcane/Divine Focus, Spellbook, Specific Materials

My Love of Symbaroum

dore_sleep3

Enthusiasm

I first saw Symbaroum on Kickstarter in July of 2017, when the campaign for “The Witch Hammer” was underway. I was immediately hooked by the art and setting, eagerly backing the campaign at one of the higher levels so that I could get all of the books. When I got the PDFs I was in awe of the art, but felt overwhelmed by the presentation and had no idea what the game was really about. I searched online for actual plays, and I even joined a Twitch livestream of some group playing the game.

A lot of what was happening seemed familiar. At the time, I had been running a lot of Numenera so the player-side dice rolling didn’t bother me. While it was familiar, it was also just unique enough to be discouraging. I am the only GM in my group, and most of my players are still pretty content to play D&D 5th edition every week. As the GM, I have a lot of control over what to run for my players but ultimately need to respect player preference and run games that people are excited to play.

Symbaroum arrived at my house at a inopportune moment in my gaming life. My players were experiencing some acute fatigue from my Kickstarter driven system-of-the-week style of scheduling one-shots or month-long mini-campaigns. I was then (and still am) Kickstarter crazed, and my shelves were (and are) full of games that I hadn’t played or had barely skimmed.

Even so, Symbaroum has stuck out in my mind. Despite not having played the system, I backed the “Monster Codex” when it hit Kickstarter during November 2017. I kept going back to the books, and the setting continued to inspire. I would reference the art with other games that I ran, even using the Symbaroum GM screen to set the tone for other games. It was the game that I kept wanting to run, but the fates kept resisting me.

Resistance

Lots of things can get in the way of running a new system, some of them are in the control of game developers but most exist outside of their influence. The presentation of game content in Symbaroum ultimately is not for me and provided a high amount of internal-resistance to being played, but I don’t want this to be a negative review and so I am not going to go into any of my specific criticisms that are a matter of personal preference.

I haven’t run a campaign for my players in the better part of a year, so when I recently started talking to them about the fact that I was interested in running a new campaign, we started discussing what to play. A few players said “anything,” others said “anything that we already know, no new systems please,” and a few other players said “I really only want to play 5e.”

I came up with a list of the things that I wanted in my campaign, and I realized that I could achieve them all with 5e. I came up with a list of the things I liked from Symbaroum, and I realized that I could hack them into 5e. My players were excited, they too love the art of Symbaroum and the implied setting. Now I could finally take all these books that were full of setting and lore inspiration and make them usable in a way that they never were to me as a complete system.

My Symbaroum

In my mind, Symbaroum is focused on the forest Davokar. The politics are just a backdrop and the personalities hardly matter. The history is vague and contradictory, every noble and faction tells it differently anyways. The players are all Ambrians, they matter to themselves and they are situated in the landscape. They migrated, they remember the great war and terror. They want to create a better life for themselves, or at least want the power to defend themselves against the hostile world.

There is a lot of rich content in the Symbaroum books. I didn’t know what to do with all of that content over the last year. It felt like I couldn’t access it. There are so many personalities and details that it boggles my mind, “How am I ever going to get any amount of this content across to my players?”

Now, I have a way to engage with that content and bring it to my table. Albeit, on my own terms.

Hacking a Game is not an Insult

This post is largely a response to Paul Baldowski’s post on The Iron Pact:

“All games do not come from the same cookie cutter or jelly mould. Each has a heart set in mechanics and raw concepts, but in building a new game the designers imbue the basics with their own flavour, theme and focus. When we step into Ambria, we enter a world created by a small group of writers and that world has a slant of their own. Coming from any other game, we must cleanse our palette of preconceptions and try hard not to shoehorn Symbaroum into a form like those we have just left behind.

Symbaroum is not Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder, nor The One Ring, Genesys, RuneQuest or Warhammer. While you can read the Core Book and use the setting to run another game with another system, the best approach to actually play Symbaroum requires you set aside your hunger for spell ranges, feat trees, battle mats and point-based character balance and embrace the idiosyncrasies wide-eyed and open-minded.”

I have played in and/or run 32 different RPG systems since my first TTRPG session in 2015. I like things and have learned from each of them. On top of that, I have read, skimmed, or played hundreds of modules, splat books, adventures, monster manuals, blog posts, gaming zines, tweets and G+ posts.

When I land on a book that lodges in my imagination and consciousness for more than an initial skim through, I get excited. When I am excited about a book, the way I channel that excitement is by hacking the content into a form that will be usable by me at my table with my group.

It feels very unproductive to read anyone talk about the “best” way to play a system. Different groups want different things and different GM’s run games differently. At the moment, our hobby feels full of people drawing lines in the sand and planting flags. I believe that we should each be conscious of our actions and engagement within this space. I want my actions to make play culture more diverse, divergent, individual, and free-form. I want to make accessible tools that can be useful for GMs regardless of system.

I understand that game developers create a game with a certain experience in mind. I run and play lots of PbtA games that are clearly designed for a specific play experience. As a GM I am very intentional about player motivation and intent around the games. Symbaroum might have been created to encourage a specific type of play, but choosing to engage with it differently should not be viewed as an insult or as an act of resistance.

In my mind, hacking a game is a compliment. It is a love letter to the game to like it enough to make it your own when it would be easier to use a system neutral setting or something already written for 5e. I want to continue posting about how I am hacking Symbaroum, but I am not sure if there is even an audience of people interested in this type of engagement. I hope that I can make the setting more accessible to GMs by creating tools that I will use at my table and by sharing Actual Play reports of how we are engaging with the setting. I hope that my engagement is viewed not as an insult to the system, but as a contribution to the community.

5e Symbaroum – Session Zero AP

baltimore (24)

A few players were running late, so I decided to open the session with a discussion on expectations/hopes about the campaign. Most of the players I had met with prior to session zero, to talk about my intentions for the campaign and hear if they had any concerns with my choice to limit the game to human characters and to introduce some game hacks. As a group, the four players present talked about what they were excited about:

The darker setting/tone and the idea that magic is somewhat taboo
Playing at a physical table & playing with a more serious tone – not adventure zone
Having a regular time to get out of the house to hang out with friends, hoping for a longer campaign
Exploring the setting and learning more about the mechanics that we will be hacking into 5e

I was grateful that the players were excited about many of the same things that I was hopeful to do with the campaign. I think that meeting with them ahead of time to discuss my aspirations about the campaign was helpful to get everyone on the same page during session zero.

After one player discussed mechanics, I told the group that I did not want to run a game where character optimization or balanced encounters were a core focus. I shared a bit about the fact that while I do know the rules and want the rules to guide 95% of what happens at the table, I believe that game tone is the most important element. That as long as we have a shared understanding about the tone of the setting, that we can each enjoy the game and have varied sessions that speak to the interests of each player. I want combat to be fun, but I will not usually prepare a series of “set-piece” encounters for any given session. Further, if there are times when we aren’t sure how the rules would work in a particular situation, I will want us to discuss it as a table and choose the option that best fits into the established tone and fiction.

I transitioned us into gameplay by passing out pregenerated “level 10” characters. I used a stripped down character sheet for each one that only had a handful of attributes, abilities, and values. I told my players that we would be playing with cinematic rules for the purposes of this session zero. I had prompted them by emailing that we would be playing out a historic vignette that would have occurred a generation prior to our campaign. I elaborated on this idea at the table, by giving some narration:

“You are elite troops who have spent your lives fighting a generational war against the Dark Lords. A few years ago the king died and the young queen, only 12, picked up his spear and has led the charge against the undead foes. Unfortunately, despite all the gains of late, the young queen was captured within the past month. This loss has galvanized the army, and now you are with a group of templars leading the charge against the Vampire’s Castle where the queen is being held.”

I asked the players to name their pre-gen characters, letting them know that north-east European names would be the norm. We ended up with: Peter Petchkoff, Piotr Metchnik, Akman, Gregor, and (after Gregor died) Irena.

bosma_skull (1)

Scene 1 – Undead Masses

“A trebuchet payload breaches the tower nearest your position, the four of you run through the opening before the stonework crumbles behind you. You are isolated from your battalion. Ahead of you in the dark tower you see one of The Undying. He speaks words of arcane power that awaken the many servitors along the two walls. These skeletal troops wear the armor of your nation, they are the animated corpses of your fallen comrades. The air reeks of carrion and decay. A blue circle fades into life and the Mage disappears, teleportation magic. The circle is still active, but fading. What do you do?”

I had miniatures set out on the table, the players were on one end of a hallway. Each side of the hall had 8 zombie/skeletons and one giant flesh golem. The teleportation circle was about 40 feet away from them. After initiative was rolled, only one player was able to act prior to the horde. The greataxe wielding fighter (Akman) took out two of the lesser undead, and then all the players were swarmed. The masses of foes didn’t do too much damage, but the golems began pounding away at the heroes. The wizard summoned a wall of fire, killing eight undead and wounding a flesh golem. The cleric healed one of the fighters who had been struck by the flesh golem, and then ran towards the portal. The others fought as they could, Akman realized that one of the zombies was the animated corpse of his brother, who had fallen in combat against the Dead Nation. The wizard ended up isolated on one side of the room, and both flesh golems charged him. They pounded poor Gregor into the ground as the other three characters stepped into the teleportation circle.

Scene 2 – War Room & Hallway

“You emerge from the teleportation circle into a round room, ringed with similar circles of power. They are all dull & inert, the one you stepped out from fades to grey. The center of the room holds a heavy wooden table, covered with maps, books and other objects. It appears to be a war room, a place of strategizing. The room is ringed with leaded glass windows. The sounds of the siege echo from far below. You realize you are near the top of the main keep. Some burning pitch flies past the window, exploding in a blaze against a nearby tower. There is one large door leading out from this room. A trail of fresh blood leads from a nearby teleportation circle through the ajar door. What do you do?”

The group took a moment to mourn for Gregor before heading towards the door to scout. They discovered a hallway leading to a large door about 50’ away at the opposite end. Another large door was midway down on the left wall, and a small reinforced door was set into the right wall near the far end. Voices could be heard down the hallway from the room at the end.

The group listened first at the door to the left. They heard numerous footsteps running away from the door. The blood trail led through this door.

The characters proceeded to the reinforced door, and heard a rattle of chains within. At this point, I turned to the player who had been playing as Gregor and told him that he was a woman in her late 20’s who had been captured along with the queen. I asked him what class he was, and he chose to be a rogue named Irena. I said that Irena has been plotting her escape these last few weeks, and has learned how to work her chains loose.

We had a good scene with Irena asking the party who they were with the opening question “Are you the Dead or the Living?” before freeing her from her captivity.

The cleric (Petchkoff) soon convinced Irena that they were allies, but the commotion of the conversation alerted the well-trained ears of the vampire steward in the next room. Filip the steward appeared in the doorway, receiving an arrow to the chest and an axe blow to boot. The party was dissuaded that their blows seemed to barely hinder the vampire, who then bit the fighter and regained his full health.

Petchkoff held forward his holy symbol and channeled his divinity, Prios the Lightbringer. Instead of a normal turning a miracle then occurred, waves of sun fire filled the hallway and reduced Filip to a pile of smoking ash. After the blinding brilliance faded, the cleric found that the holy symbol he held was now a sphere that appeared as a sun.

bosma_skull

Scene 3 – The Dark Lord’s Chamber

“In the silence following the miracle of Prios, you each feel something vibrating the very air of this hallway. In tune with your own heartbeats, the very chamber before you seems to thrum with a heart of it’s own. Beyond the charred doorway you behold a large octagonal chamber with an enormous black iron chandelier hanging far above. The chandelier holds enormous red wax candles that burn crimson. Each candle seems to contain a skeletal corpse within the wax. Opposite you is an enormous bronze and iron sarcophagus set against the far wall. Nex to that chamber is a smaller door, where Irena believes the queen to be held. Laughter fills the chamber, as the Dark Lord whispers telepathic promises of death to each of you.”

Akman ran to investigate the crypt while Metchnik, Petchkoff, & Irena opened the door to the queen’s cell. They freed the queen, who was extremely weak and frail from torture and starvation. She reached out a hand to Metchnik, asking who it was that freed her and offering her blessing against the dark lord. Metchnik received her boon, standing up and applying a vial of blessed oil to both of his short swords.

The sarcophagus opened releasing a thin fog and ten ghasts. The cleric cast holy aura, giving advantage to his allies and disadvantage to the undead foes. After a round of fighting, the fog thickened such that all were effectively blinded. In this chaos, a few ghasts were slain. In the following round, the chandelier flames roared as a deep arcane voice boomed out from the crypt. The flames seemed to depart from the candles, each character saw in their peripheral vision the apparitions of many flaming skeletons flying through the room, but they could never see one clearly, only in their peripheral vision.

These flaming wraiths seared away some of the fog, reducing it from heavy to light. In the light fog, they witnessed a 10’ tall hulking vampire lord emerge from the crypt.

During each round of combat, I described sounds of an approaching force of templars. As the lord emerged, the templars were attempting the breach the iron portcullis that closed off the chamber after the players entered.

The players fought a last round of combat against the giant vampire. Metchniks’ blessed blades seemed particularly effective, and the dark lord’s skin blistered where the blades cut him. The lord spoke arcane words and suddenly appear as multiple identical images. The lord then pointed at Irena and spoke words of death and disease. Irena was reduced to 4hp after failing her con save.

At this point we faded to cutscene, narrating the resolution of the battle as the templars entered the chamber. I worked in the prep questions (below) to the players as they narrated the resolution of their characters.

We talked about these events being part of the lore of the world, and I told the players that they could narrate the fate of each of the characters and also describe whether there was any link between their campaign character and their pre-gen. We had some really good discussion around this topic, the players all really loved Gregor the Wizard who died in the first scene. Since Irena the Rogue was at 4 hp, the player decided that she was mortally wounded in the upcoming fight. He was somewhat gleeful and chuckled “I’ve never had two characters die in one session before!”

With the rest of the time, the players created their lvl 1 characters for our upcoming campaign. They each rolled for attributes and together chose to play two Fighters, a Paladin, a Rogue, and a Cleric.

The only prep I really did for this whole session was writing the following four questions, some of them I was able to get into a scene but the rest of them were answered during the end narration:

You come face to face with your brother, now raised to serve as undead in the dark lord’s army.
1. How does he appear to you?
2. What family heirloom do you recover from his body?
In the tower of the dark lord, in a moment of respite you notice an ancient tome of power.
1. Is it in a script that you understand?
2. Does anyone see you take it?
Surrounded by skeletal foes, you surge with the holy fire of Prios. After the blaze recedes, a blessed object now rests in your hand.
1. What form did the holy artifact take?
2. Was it handed over to the church or kept secret?
After rescuing the queen from her captors, the queen gave you a boon.
1. What did you ask for?
2. How did it go awry?

I used the Blood tables in Kabuki Kaiser’s Castle Gargantua to come up with descriptions of the rooms.

Art from Sam Bosma and Lord Baltimore

52 Card Deck of 5e Magic Items

07-Jaan-Tammsaar-estonian-illustration-1984_900

I was running a one-shot where I wanted to give out magic items more readily than I normally would, so I prepared this list and slapped a deck of cards on the table. When players looted the corpses of each big bad, they would draw a card from the deck and I would tell them what they got from this table. It was fun.

Card	Suite	Object
K	Hearts	ELVEN CHAIN
Q	Hearts	BRACERS OF DEFENSE
J	Hearts	ARMOR, +1
K	Spades	SWORD OF DAWN
Q	Spades	GIANT SLAYER
J	Spades	WEAPON, +2
K	Clubs	MANTLE OF SPELL RESISTANCE
Q	Clubs	WAND OF THE WAR MAGE, +2
J	Clubs	RING OF SPELL STORING
K	Diamonds	RING OF PROTECTION
Q	Diamonds	IOUN STONE
J	Diamonds	CLOAK OF DISPLACEMENT
9-10	Hearts	SHIELD, +1
7-8	Hearts	CLOAK OF PROTECTION
5-6	Hearts	ADAMANTINE ARMOR
3-4	Hearts	MITHRAL ARMOR
2	Hearts	CLOAK OF ELVENKIND
1	Hearts	BOOTS OF ELVENKIND
A -10	Spades	Weapon +1
10	Clubs	Scroll (Arcane)
9	Clubs	Scroll (Arcane)
8	Clubs	Scroll (Arcane)
7	Clubs	Scroll (Divine)
6	Clubs	Scroll (Divine)
5	Clubs	Scroll (Divine)
4	Clubs	WAND OF THE WAR MAGE, +1
3	Clubs	WAND OF MAGIC DETECTION
2	Clubs	STONE OF GOOD LUCK (LUCKSTONE)
1	Clubs	WAND OF MAGIC MISSILES
10	Diamonds	ROPE OF CLIMBING
9	Diamonds	RING OF JUMPING
8	Diamonds	KEOGHTOM’S OINTMENT
7	Diamonds	IMMOVABLE ROD
6	Diamonds	GOGGLES OF NIGHT
5	Diamonds	GEM OF BRIGHTNESS
4	Diamonds	EVERSMOKING BOTTLE
3	Diamonds	ELEMENTAL GEM
2	Diamonds	DRIFTGLOBE
1	Diamonds	BAG OF HOLDING

Running One Thousand Dead Babies w/ 5e

I statted up some 5e dudes to use w/ One Thousand Dead Babies by Zzarchov Kowolski

Brigand      HP 11, AC 12, Avg. Stats (10).
25xp         Shortsword (+3 d6+1), Light Crossbow (+3 d8+1)

Cultist      HP 9, AC 12, Avg. Stats (10).
25xp         Shortsword (+3 d6+1),
             Dark Devotion. Advantage on saves vs. charm or fright

Ruffian      HP 16, AC 14, Avg. Stats (12), Perception 11.
100xp.       Multi-Attack. Shortsword (+4 d6+2), Shortbow (+4 d6+2)

Elf Scout    HP 16, AC 13, Dex 16, Nature/Survival +4, Stealth/Perception +6.
100xp        Multi-Attack. Shortsword (+5 d6+3), Shortbow (+5 d6+3)

Wolf         HP 11, AC 13, Dex 15, Stealth +4, Perception 13. Speed 40ft.
50xp         Bite (+4 2d4+2)
             Keen Senses. Advantage on Perception Checks
             Pack Tactics. Advantage on attack rolls if an ally is within 5ft of target.

Beast        HP 26, AC 13, Str & Dex 15, Perception 13.
200xp        Multi-Attack. Bite and Claw (+4 d8+2)
             Pounce – If charge 20ft and hit with claw, DC 13 Str test or prone

Evil MU      HP 22, AC 12, Int 17, Str 8, Perception 11. Spells +5, DC 13.
300xp        Cantrips: Light, Shocking Grasp, Chill Touch
             1st Level (4 slots): Charm Person, Mage Armor, Magic Missile
             2nd Level (3 slots): Hold Person, Misty Step, Darkness

Witch        HP 28, AC 14, Wis 17, Str 8, Perception 14. Spells +5, DC 13.
300xp        Cantrips: Druidcraft, Thorn Whip, Poison Spray
             1st Level (4 slots): Charm Person, Faerie Fire, Fog Cloud
             2nd Level (3 slots): Heat Metal, Spike Growth, Flaming Sphere

Cleric        HP 30, AC 16, Wis 17, Dex 8, Perception 14. Spells +5, DC 13.
300xp         Cantrips: Thaumaturgy, Light, Sacred Flame
              1st Level (4 slots): Bless, Command, Inflict Wounds
              2nd Level (3 slots): Hold Person, Spiritual Weapon, Silence

Evil Knight  HP 52, AC 18, Str/Con 16, History/Religion/Intimidation +5
700xp        Multi-Attack. Greatsword (+5 2d6+3), Heavy Crossbow (+2 d10)
             Dark Devotion. Advantage on saves vs. charm or fright
             Leadership. All allies in LOS get d4 on attack rolls and saves for 1 min.
             Parry (reaction). Add 2 to AC against one melee attack that would hit.

Half-Goat    HP 76, AC 11, Str/Wis 18, Perception 17. Darkvision 60ft.
700xp        Multi-Attack. Spear (+6, d8+4) Gore (+6, d8+4)
             Reckless. Gain advantage on all attacks, all attacks against have Adv.