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Adventurer ! (fictional Book 9) feedback

Adventurer Characters

The first of two characters I rolled up yesterday:

Jinna 69A995

Jinna was born a commoner Girl, "Bookish" type from a poor family but quite fond of outdoors hiking and hunting. Her enthusiasm for learning landed her an apprenticeship as a scribe at the local Mage's guild hall.
  • Childhood skills - Hunting/1, Trade/1 (scribe)

At 14, the Guild master invited her to join the guild and train as a mage. She was a quick study, and soon earning her an advancement to the rank of Seer, and gained a better knowledge of Cantrips than many of the older students.

  • Enlistment skills: Cantrip/1 (Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light)
  • Service Skill: Dagger/1
  • Advanced to 'Seer': Cantrip/2 (Magic Missile, Shield, Prot/Normal Missiles)
At the age of 18, Jinna was a rising star at the local Mage's guild. She easily re-enlists for another term, earning the rank of Thaumaturgist for her work in the school of Summoning. Her studies also lead her to learn the secrets of Sorcery.

  • Promotion: Thaumaturgist (Mystery/1 - Summoning: Monst Summ/1, Conjure Elemental, Invisible Servant)
  • Advanced Education: Sorcery/1 (Dispel Magic, Fireball, Hold Monster)
At the age of 22, Jinna was quite an accomplished young lady, and longed to join the ranks of the Maji. She enlisted in a third term of study, but the Council of Mages passed her over for promotion, telling her that (frankly) she had gone as far as a woman with her admittedly keen, but not brilliant intellect could go.

Still, her third term in the order was not wasted. She further mastered the arts of Sorcery and glimpsed the workings of the more advanced Dweomers being taught in the guild.

  • Sorcery/2 (Haste, Slow, Passwall)
  • Dweomer/1 (Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, Wall of Fire)
When her third term expired, the council informed Jinna that they did not believe she would be able to further benefit from their teachings. Angry and a insulted, Jinna packed her few belongings and set out to seek her fortune as a freelance mage.

  • Mustering Out: Familiar, Magic Item, Dagger, 70gp

Final Character: Jinna the Thaumaturge 69A995, Age 26
  • Possessions: Dagger, Magic Staff (gives a +1 to magic skill checks), Familiar (cat, "Mr. Boots"), 70gp
  • Skills: Hunting/1, Literacy/1, Dagger/1, Cantrip/2, Sorcery/1, Summoning/1, Dweomer/1
  • Cantrips: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light, Shield, Magic Missile, Protection from Normal Missiles
  • Sorcery: Dispel Magic, Fireball, Hold Monster, Haste, Slow, Passwall
  • Summoning: Invisible Servant, Conjure Elemental, Monster Summoning I
  • Dweomers: Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, Wall of Fire
 
And the second:

Bran Smithson A7A887

Childhood:
The son of a local blacksmith, Bran was a large, strapping lad whose keen wit and innate wisdom seemed almost out of place in one so burly. Studying at his father's side, and of course getting into mischief with the other boys from time to time, it was only natural that Bran would enlist in the Town Guard when his 14th birthday came. He swore oaths to his Thane and began his training.

  • Skills: Brawling/1, Trade(Smithy)/1

Term 1, 14 years old:
As a natural brawler, Bran quickly proved his worth as a fighter protecting the town from bandits (position gained, rank: Veteran). He learned the art of riding a horse and ways to approach an enemy without being seen, both skills useful in hunting bandits.

  • Starting Skills: Blade/1
  • Position: Riding/1
  • Advanced Edu: Stealth/1

Term 2, 18 years old:
Already a veteran of several skirmishes, Bran signed on for another term and earned the rank of Swordsman, honing both his interpersonal and swordfighting skills to a keen edge and securing his place in the town's fyrd.

  • Personal Development Carousing/1
  • Service Skills Blade/1

Term 3, 22 years old:
Having proved his ability to command the respect of the other men, Bran was selected as a unit leader, and advanced to the rank of Myrmidon. He learned how to lead men in battle and provide for them on the march, becoming a valuable member of his Thane's household troops.

  • Promotion/Service: Tactics/2
  • Service Skills: Bow/1, Survival/1

Term 4, 26 years old:
Just as his career seemed to be secure, political maneuvering forced his Thane into exile, leaving Bran with no employer (ie, he failed re-enlistment) and few options. Crestfallen and unwilling to sign on for a different shire's defense, he set out to seek his personal fame and fortune as a sell-sword.

  • Mustering Out: Blade, Panoply, Patron (His old Thane, exiled to a neighboring kingdom), +1 Soc, 180gp

Myrmidon Bran Smithson A7A888, Age 26
  • Possessions: Panoply, Bow, Patron (His old Thane), 180gp
  • Skills: Brawling/1, Trade(Smith)/1, Blade/2, Tactics/2, Bow/1, Carousing/1, Survival/1, Riding/1, Stealth/1

Notes: I'm clearly basing his background on "Dark Ages" Saxon England, so Bran's Panoply would consist of a chain shirt, helmet, sword, round shield and a serviceable (though non-war trained) horse for transport. I've considered splitting his Blade/2 into Blade/1 and Spear/1 based on his background, but since the spear is hardly the weapon of a Hero, I'll let literary convention win out on this one. ;)
 
hdan said:
And the second:

Bran Smithson A7A887
[snippage of lots of really good stuff for brevity]

Great stuff ! & thanks for the writeup, also.

Seems like the characters are coming out about where I hoped....better than tyros, but not Conan the King, either. Looks like the childhood term worked out well -I'm glad you tried it out, its a newish addition.

The Mage and mr Boots is a fun characterization -her knowlege of some fairly buff spells is well balanced by the fact that shell have limited use of them, if the spellsystem works out right ;) - and I'll bet that she doesn;t really ghet that part and is waaaaay overconfident and cocky. Either than or "Kiki's armed delivery service" (<- incomprensible joke if you don;t have kids who like anime).

The Huscarl is nice, too. You may want to go with Axe-2 (2-handed type) for maximum varangian sellswordy goodness -after all, a bunch of Byzantine emperors can't be wrong when it comes to hiring dangerous bodyguards,....

The AngloSaxon period is, BTW, a favorite of mine -I always wished there were more RPG setting in that period.....maybe....hmmmmmm.
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captainjack said:
Great stuff ! & thanks for the writeup, also.
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NP, it was a fun way to kill some time while my computer was recompiling a bunch of data.

Seems like the characters are coming out about where I hoped....better than tyros, but not Conan the King, either. Looks like the childhood term worked out well -I'm glad you tried it out, its a newish addition.
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Definitely. The starting skills sets (along with the stats) helped me come up with a plausible background. When I roll stats, I pretty much take them as I roll them, and in order. If I get a character whose total attribute modifier isn't at least 0, then I'll start over. I then swap one pair of stats to better match whichever direction the character seems to be leading. I got pretty lucky with these two.

The Mage and mr Boots is a fun characterization -her knowlege of some fairly buff spells is well balanced by the fact that shell have limited use of them, if the spellsystem works out right ;) - and I'll bet that she doesn;t really ghet that part and is waaaaay overconfident and cocky. Either than or "Kiki's armed delivery service" (<- incomprensible joke if you don;t have kids who like anime).
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Right, I imagine her as being a fairly competent person, but since her Int isn't really super-high, she's going to think she's tougher than she really is. It lead her into overconfidence in her spell choices, and ultimately is why the council decided to "glass ceiling" her. Fortunately with her high End, she'll have room to make some mistakes. "Mr Boots" was there to help keep her still a little "girly". And yeah, I get the Kiki's Delivery reference. :)

The Huscarl is nice, too. You may want to go with Axe-2 (2-handed type) for maximum varangian sellswordy goodness -after all, a bunch of Byzantine emperors can't be wrong when it comes to hiring dangerous bodyguards,....

The AngloSaxon period is, BTW, a favorite of mine -I always wished there were more RPG setting in that period.....maybe....hmmmmmm.
Click to expand...

Me too. I sometimes game dark ages stuff with Warhammer Ancients and I'm also a big fan of Cornwell's "Saxon Chronicles" books. The other two periods I wish were more explored in Fantasy settings are the Classical Greece and "Late Bronze Age" Mesopotamia. Does it all have to be Medieval or Celtic Europe? :)

I might switch Bran to Axe-2, though my image of him is more Select Fyrd than Varangian.
 
Hdan, you've inspired me to generate some of my own characters. I will eventually; Capt. Jack's generators are quite nice.

captainjack said:
YOUR MOMMA, Sergeant; WEARS COMBAT BOOTS SERGEANT !

...and very attractive ones they are, tooo.
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Damn Y :oo: ... wait a second that was a compliment...

Wait, that was a compliment! Curse You! ;)
 
Jame said:
Hdan, you've inspired me to generate some of my own characters. I will eventually; Capt. Jack's generators are quite nice.



Damn Y :oo: ... wait a second that was a compliment...

Wait, that was a compliment! Curse You! ;)
Click to expand...

Bwaaa haaa haaaa & etc.:devil:


.......and thanks. Be sure an post em !
 
Combat rules seem influenced by the MGT turn sequence, which IMHO isn't a bad thing.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the use of a Shield. Is this right?

You can use the shield passively for a -1 DM against anyone attacking you, so long as you don't use the shield to parry.

You can parry with the shield ONCE for a -2 DM at no penalty, then parrying is as normal (get -2DM for a -1DM and -2 Init), but you don't get to use the shield as "armor" anymore.

That seems reasonable and I like the "shields get one free parry" idea quite a lot.

I'm going to drift away from D&D convention a bit here and into what hopefully is more "historical" style, which may be out of place in a Swords and Sorcery setting, but I can't help myself sometimes. :)

If any "off hand" weapon (small shields, second blade, etc.) could get one free Parry against melee, and any medium or larger shield could count as cover for any Dodge, that would make me happy.

Re: parrying with weapons, how about allowing a player to parry a blow (not for free though!) if the parrying weapon has no negative modifier at the range of the attack? Thus a pike can parry at Pole range but not closer, and only daggers and short swords can parry at Close range (a compelling reason for the maine-gauche!).

I started writing some ideas for varieties of shields, but that level of detail seems pointless.

Something that might be worthwhile, though given the scale of the game maybe not:

Locking Shields: Three or more characters who form a solid line and overlap their shields get a -2 DM without having to actively parry. It costs one minor action to hold the shieldwall, so they can't fight, lock shield and move at the same time.
 
My first character (made through the Pen and Paper Forums chat function, which contains a die roller, which can be found at http://www.penandpapergames.com/forums/forum.php ) :

Morgana Armstrong 5A7586 2-term Swordsman-rank Fighter, 22 years old
Blades 2 Survival 1 Leader 1 Tactics 1 Admin 1 Bow 0 Riding 0
Mustered out with Sword, Mount, 20 Gold

Morgana joined the local lord's militia to get out of having to learn weaving and going into the town's loom industry; it required calmness and patience, things that she never had in abundance. She wasn't the strongest of the soldiers in the militia, but her quickness and coordination impressed the recruiting sergeant. She quickly mastered the sword, and in her first campaign when enemies cut off her unit, killing or dispersing the members, she managed to gather a number of her fellow soldiers together. They made their way back to the lines fairly slowly, though Janna did learn much about survival. When the lord was told of her leadership ability, he gave her a promotion and had her sergeant teach her about tactics, which, while she learned with some difficulty, she finally mastered.

By the time her 20th birthday rolled around, the war had ended, and she was put into garrison; her impulsiveness got her disciplined, and the sergeant tried to find something for her to do. Upon discovering her literacy - her family'd had barely enough money to educate her, her older brother and middle brother - he had her become a watchstander and help with the administration of the garrison. While this did help temper her impulsiveness, it didn't cure it; besides she was unpopular with some of the garrison, who resented a woman who wasn't willing for them, so she picked up her sword, got some money and a mount and is looking to begin adventuring.
 
One thought: do you have an equipment list? This would be useful for things to spend money on. (I have a copy of D&D 3.0; this might be useful but I think the prices will be way too high.) It should include mounts, barding and lodging.
 
I haven't really been following this, but I did see the thread/part about magic. You've copied the D&D spells. I think Adventurer should have an entirely new magic system--something different. Give it a different feel.

Maybe use the D&D spells for inspiration, but go a competely different route.

From the original Adventurer box mock-up and what-not, the game seems to be based on Conan's Hyborian Age using CT rules. Why not use the fantastic, and completely different, magic system/spells from that game, if you're going to lift from another game?

There's a whole new feel to the Conan spells than the D&D ones.

For example, with D&D, a character learns spells, can memorize a few each day, and has a limit on how many he can learn.

In Conan, there's no limit at all. But, magic is much more rare and "dark", like it is in Conan's tales. Each person has, innate within them, some magic ability, whether they know it or not. It's mystical, based on your soul and your connection with the "other world". Blood sometimes has a lot to do with it, releasing magical power. They're called "power points" in the game, but you can think of it as mana, or magika, or whatever.

Spells, in order to be cast, require verbal, somantic, and material components (the material component is many times a foci), but they also require power points. So, if you've only got 4 power points...how do you get more points if you need to cast a spell that, say, needs 8 power points to be cast? There are several ways. Spell preparation may enhance your power. Certain successes with magic will help your power grow. Sacrificing virgins (or others) will steal their power and make it your own. Etc.

My point is...doesn't that seem more interesting to the Adventurer game than the standard old D&D magic system?
 
Considering that the basic premise of it is "What would LBB D&D look like if it had been a Traveller product," the use of a vancian magic system is the right tone, for reasons Gary repeatedly put to print:
1) it makes for easier wargaming
2) It makes running out during an enounter likely
3) It intentionally limits the individual caster to preselection of spells, making for
4) easier gamemastering and
5) less analysis paralysis time.
 
Aramis has the right of it, although oddly enough I also agree with S4 about recycling magic systems in general -but not in this case.

I posted a bunch of stuff in the base traveller fantasy thread about different systems, and, in particular, a system I've been putzing about with for years -how to model a games system on what real people in classical times expected magic to work and what it was expected to do.

Problem was, it's a lot of work, and will require tons of testing. Plus, trying to match it to an adventurer style game was more work than the rest of the game combined, if I wanted it to work and play easily for both fighters and mages. Once I gave myself freedom to clone a Vancian system, I realized I could get on with all the rest, and Adventurer is basically the result.

While I'm not going to jump on the "EGG was an epic level genius and guru bandwagon", I've come to appreciate how effective the whole D&D magic system is as a game mechanic for getting on with playing a game.

That said, I realized that the mustering tables were omitted in the latest upload; here they are:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=22101
 
captainjack said:
Problem was, it's a lot of work, and will require tons of testing.
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Absolutely. Any project like this requires it.

The "feel" is all wrong, to me, that is, but I guess I'm coming from my own perceptions of what Adventurer or Wanderer should be.



EDIT: Thinking a bit more on this, you could do a pseudo-patch to change the feel a bit from the D&D magic system. You don't have character levels anyway. So, take the D&D system as a base, the level requirement will be what you will work with for spell required power points (call 'em power points, mana level, magika tier, whatever). And, then change the name of the spell--just for a little more atmosphere (you certainly don't want Tenser's Floating Disk in Adventurer--and, I bet you can come up with something more universe-friendly than just "floating disk", as the spell is described in non-Greyhawk worlds).

So, something like Magic Missle (which you've changed the name to "Serpent's Sting"), will require 1 power point to use, since its a first level spell. The character is limited in how many spells he can cast by the number of power points he has. You could limit it, like Conan does, to 4 native points, or you could base it on the character's EDU stat or something like that. Spell preparation, sacrificing virgins (if you go the dark fantasy route), successful chain casting--all of this could increase the number of magical power available to the PC.

For example, a character could throw Serpent's Sting, if he knows the spell, at the drop of a hat, if he has enough power left (he needs one point plus whatever components the spell requires--which, if memory serves, is V, S). Spell prep may cut the cost in half. So, a character with 4 points of power could cast Serpent's Sting 4 times. If he prepares the spell properly, he could cast it 8 times, because the cost is cut in half.

Or, maybe different regions of the game world ebb and flow with different levels of magical power. One location may be "strong with the force, Luke!", and give the spell caster +2 points of power simply for being there and tapping into that power. Other areas may be mana-dead, and suck the life force from spell casters: -3 power when there.

I like the idea of spell casters having to give something of themselves when they pervert nature by using magic to throw spells. You might want to toy with the idea of, for every power point spent, the character loses a hit point.

You could even base the number of power points a character has on his hit points--his physical stats. As he casts spells, he becomes weaker and weaker. "The mage, having cast the demonic spell, must return to his keep to rest, for the ritual rite has taken much from him..."

Just some ideas on how to alter the D&D system, without reinventing the wheel, but still giving Adventurer its own feel.
 
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Supplement Four said:
[FONT=arial,helvetica]The "feel" is all wrong, to me, that is, but I guess I'm coming from my own perceptions of what Adventurer or Wanderer should be.
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[/FONT]Its one of the main reasons I went with Adventurer as a name rather than Wanderer. Wanderer already has expectations and at least one development project .
Wanderer is "the traveller FRPG" as opposed to Adventurer which is the "FRP as traveller", if that makes any sense. [FONT=arial,helvetica]

[/quote][/FONT]
EDIT: Thinking a bit more on this, you could do a pseudo-patch to change the feel a bit from the D&D magic system.
<Good stuff snipped>
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Well, if nothing else, I'm glad you brought this up, becuase is indicates that I didn't do a very good job describing how the spell system works -some of those suggestions are in it -at least from my POV: personal power, stat damage, etc. I'll try and fill that out more.

My intent is to tart up the names , too - but its a lower priority right now; I'm banging away on airship rules (ala Barsoom, not zeps).

Do you have a bit of time to spare to look at the improvent rules ? Your posts about the CT improvement system are what inspired me to look at what CT has, and how it works.
 
captainjack said:
Do you have a bit of time to spare to look at the improvent rules ? Your posts about the CT improvement system are what inspired me to look at what CT has, and how it works.
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Sure. Are they earlier in this thread?

The thing to remember about the CT improvement system is that, because we're dealing with 2d6, you can't improve the character much. What MWM did with Traveller was allow two immediate, but not permanent, improvements. IF the character stuck with those improvements for a long time (8 years!) he got them permanent (but, IIRC, in 4 years, he could work on two more--they overlap).

Many times, in a game, a player keeps two skills being trained, then drops them in favor of two others because he didn't go the full 8 years (as expressed with MWM's example of a sniper, at the top of his game while on active duty, but loses his touch a bit after he gets out of the service and is no longer shooting).
 
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