Set & Setting - XII - The Races of Man Revisited

Introduction

Again I peer into this corner of the fantastic conceptarium: mankind and the close analogues thereof, at once different yet all touched by the human condition, organized into a roster that recognizably calls back to the shared literary gestalt that underpins the entire genre (with later contributions from other media).

This most eminently unfashionable of topics is broached for aforementioned reasons two: immersion into another world, of course, but also as a means of adding variety to play through character details, by ensuring that a human ranger and an elven ranger don’t amount to quite exactly the same.

Here, more than ever, is a matter where holding fast onto mechanical differences will serve the game best, rather than waxing poetic over ornate psychological subjectivities that might prove apt for a literary study in character but that for the sake of play must come to be regarded as fully optional or left at the door.

Past establishing the above, it must be said that addressing it was decidedly not a strength of AD&D, whose draft of playable races is… lackluster, to say the least. And I don’t mean its selection per se, as these calques of humanity who some might find unbearably staid are perfectly palatable to me. It is the rules governing them that are rather lazily cut and pasted, resulting in a bunch of roses with different name tags. This exercise in redundancy sees five races be awkwardly brushed with uneven strokes from a repetitive set of mechanics: dwarves and gnomes forming one of the “ability groups”, half-elves and elves making up the other and halflings left to be squeezed in the middle, taking a little ballast from each. It feels like a collective identity crisis all the way, granting that a little of it makes sense due to shared heritages, but designwise equating an attempt to butter five toasts with enough butter just for two. 5th edition is afforded the benefit of having had three whole editions of fermentation since that time, yet it provides a deal that’s only a little better in this regard, having opted for minimization of the racial element to the point of vestigiality.

The big mechanical problem with races is that rather than lending variety and adding interest, their advantages simply funnel the canny player into a “perfect match” rut of sorts, giving us the rational stereotypes of the halfling thief, the half-elven bard, the elven ranger and assorted chestnuts. I’m to continue to strive for the platonic ideal, mostly within the constraints of the source material, to have each combination of race and class offer something a little different. Not as easy as it might first appear, this will undoubtedly see me return to the drawing board time and again as class writeups are touched upon. Granted, it is inescapable that a given race will always suit a given class best, the challenge lies in making it so that the deal isn’t a completely open-and-shut one.

The Limits of Exoticism

Time for a short detour before we continue.

I talk about wanting different play experiences and yet I’ll dismiss out of hand most of the catalogue of aberrations borne out of edition bloat, later to be enshrined in the cores of 4th and 5th, the lot of them undisputedly different and playable, yes, but in the way of a computer game avatar. Effective play beyond the confines of 8-bit hack & slash requiring human emotion, being what makes me wary of “speak with …” spells and helps explain my abiding hatred of character pets.

The willingness to play around with elves and dwarves, as done-before as it may be, has a reason: they're possessed of both legendary heft and a close enough affinity to humanity that ultimately makes them relatable.

As I may have mentioned earlier, when it comes to my tolkienistic views of fantasy, I’m a deeply, deeply vanilla, “one-missionary-to-screw´em-all-and-in-the-darkness-bind-them” kind of guy. I could perfectly stand to live with a game with nothing past mankind – of which demihumans can hardly escape being a distorted reflection – for I am of a mind that there’s a liminal point of believability in rpgs that is invisible, unsoundable and yet it is there. Step on it and you’ll feel the running cheapen on the spot. Take two steps further and you’ve got a full-blown furry convention on your hands.

Playable Races & Design Thoughts

Having left subjectivism to the care of philosophers and method actors what remains are the mechanical leverages. I’ve decided for 5-6 salient characteristics for the demihumans, starting from AD&D 2nd but plundering far and wide for inspiration as well as rubbing off some of my own musk in between. Many among these are bound to be numeric bonuses which on the one hand are terribly unexciting but on the other are good objective markers of competence that don’t require special attention on the player’s part (as analysis paralysis is a definite concern).

I also return to the concept of apex and nadir attributes (the bolded stat increases and decreases), who have to be assigned the highest and lowest rolls respectively, being compulsively switched, if rolling in order.

Man

·         Movement: 30’, medium size

Racial Abilities

·         Zestful Drive: 10% bonus to experience point gain

·         Adaptability: may round attribute fractions up when facing difficult or very difficult checks

Eligible Classes: Any class

Men are nothing if not an oddity, traditionally presumed as preeminent in the typical fantasy setting (even if we look at sci-fantasy) but for which no credible mechanical reason whatsoever is ever given. The thematic of being adaptable and tolerant is touted back and forth, or we get some vague “the time of men has come” platitudes implying that the other denizens of the world have simply packed it in and given up. On the other hand, humanity is overwhelmingly multifaceted, so whatever I came up with would have to fit with every class and every playstyle. In the interest of simplicity (for they're not to be dislodged from their usual place as the most common race), the benefits of playing a human are always at work and, though discreet, incredibly effective no matter the situation.

Knowing that oftentimes conquests aren't entirely attained through capability as much as they are by sheer will to prevail, I made out humanity’s lot – our lot – as being spurred by the curiosity afforded them by their mortality, translating the gift of superior drive into gaining in levels at a faster rate. Their other ability effectively acts as a conditional minor increase to every stat when the chances of success are narrowed, the exact kind of understated advantage that makes for a good all-rounder.

Lastly, altough the notion of level limits is one that I reject outright, the same isn’t true for classes. Humans are allowed to choose any class for which they qualify.

Half-Man

·         Movement: 25’, small size

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +1 Dexterity

o   -1 Strength

Racial Abilities

·         Lesser Resilience: +2 bonus to Saving Throws against Poison/Death

·         Lesser Magic Resistance: +2 bonus to Saving Throws against Magic

·         Nimbleness: +4 bonus to Evasion Saving Throws against melee attacks from large-sized (or larger) creatures

·         Ambusher: +2 bonus to attempts to Hide in Shadows (+4 if in vegetation)

·         Rock-throwing: +1 bonus on attack rolls made with slings & thrown weapons

Eligible Classes: Fighter, Thief, Ranger, Druid, Assassin

Half-Men stand conceptually astride dwarves and elves, they’ve decent saves against magic, poison or death (meaning most spellcasting is off the table) and slipperyness and stealth aplenty. They have a hard time presenting as credible fighters, that being the archetype most disproportionally impacted by the race’s small size and strength penalty. In order to offset this, they become the sole proprietors of the coveted defense bonus against large opponents, along with an ambushing specialty and a minor weapon bonus, being perhaps the second best all-rounders after mankind. Their choices of class are restricted by my view of them to mirror that found in Dark Sun, where pastoralism is nowhere to be found. They’re fierce tribal warriors gathering in burrow-dwelling communities, their religious observance guided by shamanism as represented through the Druid class.

Dwarf

·         Movement: 25’, medium* size

*(Counts as small-sized for feats of athletic movement)

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +2 Constitution; +1 Strength

o   -2 Dexterity; -1 Charisma

Racial Abilities

·         Infravision 60’ (perceives shapes but not colour nor fine details)

·         Workhorse: treats Exhaustion and Encumbrance penalties as being one level lower

·      Resilience: +4 to Saving Throws against Poison/Death; always applies CON bonuses to HD, regardless of level

·        Magic Resistance: +4 to Saving Throws against Magic; magical items not of dwarven make that are worn or used have a 1 in 4 chance of temporarily losing their dweomer due to the dwarf’s mundanity (effect lasts an hour)

·         Stonecunning (may determine, at up to a distance of 10’, except for depth/bearing):

o   Grade or slope in passage

o   New tunnel/passage construction

o   Sliding/shifting walls or rooms

o   Unsafe walls, ceilings and floors

o   Stonework traps, pits and deadfalls

o   Determine approximate depth/bearing underground

·         Dwarven weapon training: +1 bonus to hit with battleaxe, throwing axe, warhammer or crossbow

Eligible Classes: Fighter, Cleric, Thief, Assassin, Berzerker

Dwarves are the rock that won’t budge. Where other races rely on avoidance, the dwarf instead takes the punishment in stride, be it through saves or raw Hp. I’ve kept all of the features that’ll make them naturally shine in underworld play regardless of class. As thief-types they’re definitely a little wanting, due to their lack of Dexterity but it must be considered that they’re one of only two races to get infravision (which can be huge for stealth purposes), can weather encumbrance better than other thieves and have the stamina to endure and persist when called to athletic action, as a ways to compensate for being poor performers. An entry for weapon training also prevents them from being completely hapless with ranged weaponry. Their signature magic resistance (folded into the save, rather than being an extraneous roll) prevents the choice of casting classes other than the Cleric, their isolationism and aversion to the great outdoors sees off the rest.

Elf

·         Movement: 35’*, medium size

o   *(if no more than lightly encumbered – second level of encumbrance penalties costs an extra 5’ of movement)

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +2 Dexterity; +1 Intelligence; +1 Charisma

o   -2 Constitution

Racial Abilities

·         Lowlight Vision 120’ (halves penalties, no effect in pitch darkness)

·         Fey Blood: +4 bonus to saving throws against Charm/Suggestion; cannot be paralyzed or put to sleep by magic

·      Keen Senses: decrease the chances of being surprised by 1, extendable to a party with any elves among its number

·         Silent Step: +2 bonus to attempts to Move Silently

·         Mask of the Wild: +2 bonus to attempts to Hide in Shadows while in the wilderness

·         Elven weapon training: +1 bonus to hit with longsword, shortsword, short bow or longbow

Eligible Classes: any except Paladin

Elves are the graceful followers of the path of better-than-thou. Having Constitution as premandated dump stat hampers them badly across the board. To balance that, they get a couple of free stat bumps, an interesting suite of avoidance bonuses, a movement boost, and their enhanced senses benefit the whole party. As both warriors and rogues, the weapon training grants them a slight attacking edge. I recovered their fey resistance to paralysis to add to the sleep immunities, but in an effort to stop the proliferation of infravision chose to keep their vision shy of functioning in full darkness, leaving darksight as an exclusive of those races who do dwell under the earth. They obviously shine as rogues but their lack of staying power prevents them from being crowned in absentia. They can be most any class, depending on the latitude from which they hail.

Half-Elf

·         Movement: 30’, medium size

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +1 Dexterity; +1 Charisma

o   -1 Constitution

Racial Abilities

·         Lowlight Vision 60’

·         Fey Heritage: +2 Bonus to Saving Throws against Charm/Suggestion

·         Lesser Zest for Life: 5% bonus to experience point gain

·         Lesser Adaptability: may round attribute fractions up when facing difficult checks

·      Traveller of Forked Paths: May multiclass in accordance with the AD&D rules but using just one experience total and increasing each class’s level threshold by 500 Xp points (750 Xp if three classes), accordingly multiplied further up the level table

Eligible Classes: any except Paladin, plus Fighter/Thief, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Mage, Cleric/Thief, Mage/Thief, Fighter/Mage/Thief, Fighter/Cleric/Thief

Half-Elves have the dubious honour of being the least interesting race from the AD&D book, exhibiting a watered-down mix of elvish and human traits. In addition to following through with that script to its logical conclusion, it occured to me that they would be the only race to possess the mixture of drive and curiosity with the increased lifespan to allow for effective multiclassing, making them, in a way, the ultimate all-rounder, avoiding the psychological rigidity and lack of dynamism that are the hallmarks of the demihuman. This is, of course, already hinted at in the books, with the half-elven array of choices for multiclassing ever being among the top tiers, but the problem with “advantages of choice” is that, once that choice is settled for, all of the remainder reverts to just being wasted potential.

And here’s the thing: I’ve never seen much love for multiclassing in whatever edition of the game. It’s there, mostly as a curiosity for completists, with its draw of purported character versatility always running afoul of the shoals of the economical principle of specialization as applied to the scale of the adventuring party. If a game were to be run solo, that versatility might be worth the price of admission but in party-driven play? The smart money’s always on just letting each body tend to its own niche and be a more effective unit overall. Now, of course, there’s always the problem that it might turn out unbalanced, becoming shiny enough to attract munchkinism. But even in that unlikely event, until measures are put into place, it being guarded within the folds of a rare and otherwise unexciting character race seems like a good place to put it.

Gnome

·         Movement: 25’, small size

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +2 Intelligence; +1 Constitution

o   -2 Wisdom; -1 Strength

Racial Abilities

·         Infravision 60’

·         Superior Caster: may weave magic while encumbered or heavily encumbered and with the use of only one free hand

·         Spell-Eater: if a Saving Throw against Magic is an adjusted 20 or greater, a gnome negates the spell’s effect upon himself (though not other targets) and gains a hit-die's worth of temporary hit points instead; While they persist, a gnome’s melee attacks count as magical in nature

·         Innate Magic: the bonus spell slots granted by a gnome’s Intelligence modifier are innate and always usable, regardless of character class, armour use or encumbrance. The spells for these slots use Intelligence as the casting stat and must be determined from the following list:

1.       Detect Magic, Disguise Self, Audible Glamour

2.       Invisibility, Fool’s Gold, Phantasmal Force

3.       Detect Illusion, Dispel Magic, Spectral Force

4.       Improved Invisibility, Hallucinatory Terrain, Stoneskin

5.       Advanced Illusion, Passwall, Stone Shape

·      Chtonic Affinity: while under the earth, a gnome forgoes casting rolls to cast any of his innately known spells

Eligible Classes: Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Assassin, Witch, Sorcerer

Gnomes are reimagined into natural talents with magic more reminescent of germanic fairytales, the matter having come down to either dropping them on the grounds of redundancy with the dwarves or effect some sweeping changes. I wanted to distance them from just “good saves against magic”  thematically associated with magic resistance (and, by extent, lack of casting capabilities) and so I went down a different path. There was also the concern with typecasting, as the compromise with high intelligence would easily moor gnomes overmuch to the casting classes, meaning they needed something to offer the remaining archetypes. I have to say I’m quite pleased with the result, as their ability to gobble up magical energies offers something to everyone while rewarding the higher class HDs and their innate casting capabilities handily set them apart from the remaining fighters or rogues (5th edition’s concepts of Arcane Trickster and Arcane Knight not being entirely lost on me), with a side-dish of illusion magic proving most useful for both thievery and assassination purposes. Also, to prevent them from being the proverbial ultimate caster, their fallible Wisdom ensures that their rate of spell recovery is lackluster. They can choose from among all of the non-divine casting classes and the basic martial package.

Half-Orc

·         Movement: 35’, medium size

·         Attribute Adjustments:

o   +2 Strength; +1 Constitution;

o   -2 Intelligence; -1 Charisma;

Racial Abilities

·         Lowlight Vision 60’

·         Ferocious: rolls an additional damage die for critical hits in melee

·         Untiring: treats the effects of Exhaustion as being two levels lower

·         Inured to Pain: subtracts 1 point from every damage source

·      Eater of Flesh: can only draw nourishment from meat and must eat an additional portion of rations every day

·   Seed of the Great Leveller: Disadvantage to interactions in civilized/urban environments (initial reaction rolls, hiring retainers, gaining followers, etc.)

Eligible Classes: Fighter, Thief, Ranger, Assassin, Berzerker, Witch

Half-Orcs are shorthand for brute force, their human heritage merely serving to tame their nature to the point of playability. Declaredly inspired by the Uruk-Hai, their physical prowess is written large not just in attributes but also in abilities and superior mobility, being the only race to boast increased movement with absolutely no strings attached. They do come saddled with a logistical problem only made possible by a game where encumbrance is enforced as well as the rare instance of a social disadvantage, for unlike the fluctuating tensions one could deem expectable surrounding the other races, being the offspring of an archetypical enemy of civilization unavoidably increases the risk that the character may regrettably run afoul of prejudice or outright aggression, fuelled by fear. The pursuits of half-orcs are almost entirely martial, with a backdoor into witchcraft for the occasional bout of hedge-wizardry.

Rules of Engagement - II - Updating Encumbrance, Stamina and Exhaustion

Introduction

Encumbrance, Stamina & Exhaustion. For every character, three systems. What could be simpler, right?

One can only learn to love that curdled smell of emergent complexity brought forth by penalty dispensers being frantically milked for diminishing returns. What’s more, concerning oneself with this kind of thing in a game that traditionally allows its characters to perform at peak shape until they’re down seems almost contrarian. Feels like I bought the right ticket, is what I’m saying.

Cavalierly skewering all of these systems simultaneously wasn’t on the program when the word document got opened but these structures just come daisy-chained in a way that going for the one necessarily begs questions about the others, their interactions feedbacking into each other, oftentimes to the point of near-redundance.

A look at the books starts off our tour of dismay: AD&D’s tag on Encumbrance oscillates between minimalist “tournament rules” and byzantine “fully optional” and it doesn’t fare any better elsewhere, despite being a system that I take as a cornerstone of effective hexcrawl play. Exhaustion in turn is appendix-material on 5th edition, and both it and Stamina are referenced in AD&D only obliquely, being inserted into the movement rules in a very piecemeal fashion, relying on fluctuating attribute point loss and recovery and a lot of checks made at ever-shifting penalties. At one point, as an instructive example, the rules candidly refer the possibility of levying a -17 ( … ) attack penalty upon a character.

Perusing more recent efforts, the indiscriminate usage of Disadvantage strikes as fine and dandy when a lightning-quick adjudication is needed but there’s quite a lot to dislike about it when attached to systems of this nature, namely that when it drops, it drops like a hammer, essentially exacerbating all of the problems of lack of granularity that are usually levelled at encumbrance systems. It has no place here and it needs to go.

Exhaustion is likewise a decent idea with a poor implementation, as it is guilty of the same high-swinging penalties, many of them redundant with those of encumbrance. Once upon a time, my 5th Ed. gut reaction would have been to say that if you get disadvantage from two different sources to the same roll the action simply becomes impossible. Now, a different approach beckons.

Reinventing the Breaking Wheel

Starting with obvious, there’s the fact that Encumbrance and Exhaustion are two nominally different systems that conspire to do the exact same thing: drag a character’s effectiveness down in response to play events or decisions. The path of simplicity would point towards simply merging the two. Ultimately though, they do represent different things and so I compromised to keep them separate and try to streamline both as much as possible, as they need to be gained and shed fluidly during the course of play, especially considering the implementation of Stamina, our third man, as it were, in this little gathering of subsystems.

Making sure the three systems connect is an ongoing concern and gradualism is to be the name of the game, as I tried to make the penalties mount less abruptly and in a sensical progression. Shutting out all the gripes about modifier complexity afforded a much greater design freedom (while still managing to steer clear of the 1/3 and 2/3 modifiers apparently so dear to AD&D) to achieve this goal.

Curiously, the most direct unifying line between exhaustion and encumbrance ends up being the character’s movement rate, a finite resource which aptly acts as a kind of shared currency: the more fatigued a character is, the less objects he is able to carry without being reduced to immobility and encumbrance likewise coming to bear in determining how fatiguing in turn a given task is ruled to be.

Stamina

Many activities are deemed tiresome and cannot be engaged in indefinitely, being necessary to record the time spent in their pursuit and confronting it with each character’s endurance. Fatigue should be a carefully considered factor, as particularly harrowing experiences may find a character risk collapse from overexertion.

·         The type of task dictates the time intervals at which stamina is checked: the greater the momentary exertion involved, the shorter the time segments

·         Whenever characters exceed their stamina, they must either:

 

o   Stop and rest the prescribed length of time

or, if persisting in exertion:

o   Make a Constitution check to avoid increasing their level of Exhaustion

o   Halve the characters’ stamina for the remainder of the activity

o   Double the length of time needed to recover afterwards

o   Repeat the procedure once stamina runs out anew, with the Constitution check, if any, made at increased difficulty (second part of this post explains what I mean by "difficulty")

 

·         A character who hasn’t rested is not fit to attempt further fatiguing actions (or must face an outright increase of exhaustion if he does)

·         Resting after (or during) a given activity will replenish the character’s stamina for renewed effort; any levels of exhaustion can only be recovered at a rate of 1 level per day of rest

·         A day in which a character acquires any levels of exhaustion from exertion will require that food and drink intake be doubled

·         Depending on the circumstance, a character who reaches the sixth stage of exhaustion may collapse from overexertion, faint from dehidration, hypothermia or overheating, starve to death, slide off the rock face during a climb or simply drown

·        Days spent in the Wilderness is a special entry, conceived to represent the harshness of life beyond the confines of civilization. Any points of exhaustion imposed by it cannot be recovered through normal rest but instead require downtime away from the wilderness (they also don’t interfere with food intake).

Stamina Table

Exhaustion Table

Encumbrance Table

Character’s Carrying Capacity (Inventory Slots)

Standard stuff, mostly unchanged from my previous post on the subject, save for the adjustments to the encumbrance levels above and the simplified armour penalties, to follow below.

As a quick recap:

·         Medium-sized characters have 20 inventory slots, Small-sized characters have 15, including left and right hands in each case

·         Worn clothing is disregarded unless specified

·         Slots represent the maximum practical number of significant items that the character can strap to himself. Beyond this, further objects need to be carried by hand in containers

·         Minor items can be bundled in multiples to a single slot

·         Heavy weapons take up two slots

·         Bulky objects take up a variable number of slots

Armour Penalties

·         Worn armour shifts encumbrance up by one category if the character does not conform to its minimum Strength requirements

·         Wearing any heavy armour will increase a character’s level of encumbrance

·         Some finer actions, such as spellcasting and thief abilities, are further impaired by the use of any armour beyond encumbrance, the action’s description details penalties, if any exist

Press-Lifting

Particularly large objects not meant to be carried or worn are not adequately representable in slots but rather by their gross weight. If a character wants to move a thick lid off a tombstone or drag a heavy chest out of the dungeon no dice need be rolled, rather enough help or mechanical advantage needs to be gathered to surpass the inertial threshold. This is represented by the special Overburdened category of encumbrance. A character cannot lift more than twice his own weight, regardless of Strength. 

Closing Thoughts

The guiding principles remain the same as before: to sap the idea, promoted by incipient rules, that characters are universally endowed with superhuman resilience, to affirm the less obvious undercurrents of challenge faced when braving the wild, to juke the player out of the comfort zone.

These are the kind of rules that, if you’ll pardon my saying it, separate the men from the boys, as they open a world of nuance and lend the game a more human touch. They force planning to center stage, they are more than a bit hard to keep track of, they don’t forgive much. Above all, they attempt to provide a fair systematization for modelling that tremendously disagreable thing known to us as the setback or the everyday inconvenience, being of utmost importance that the player be faced with transparent, sensical and adequate in-game repercussions for things befalling the character during the course of play. These are the kind of rules that don’t win any popularity contests and are frequently loathed by players but they’re of unmatched importance in striking a tone. If a player pans them out of hand without offering up anything better, that’s a player best done without.