OWB T2k - Character Generation

The following are some initial ideas for using the OWB (Operation: White Box) ruleset for a Twilight 2000 campaign. Unless otherwise noted, this is presented as an alternative to the more mechanically complex T2k v2.2 rules that provide significant detail but may be seen as a barrier to new players picking up the game for the first time. 

OWB is based on a much simpler, familiar game system.

War. War Never Changes... but does the ruleset always remains the same?
(Artwork is a mashup of the OWB and T2k v1.0 Covers)

Twilight World Character Creation, OWB style...

In general, as OWB is much simpler and more streamlined than T2k so my comments default to using the RAW ("rules as written") for the game, but there are some distinctive elements from T2k v2.2 that capture the particular feel of the GDW game that I think could be readily incorporated as "optional" rules and are therefore noted below.

Attributes

Replace with the standard OWB Abilities; AGL becomes Dexterity, EDU becomes Wisdom.

As T2k v2.2 uses a 1 to 10 scale, halve all T2k v2.2 related formulas when using OWB Abilities instead of Attributes for any non-OWB based mechanics used.

Use one of the following approaches:

• Random Generation: In this method, each Ability is determined by rolling 4d6-4 (reroll any roll that would result in a 0 Ability score). This gives a range of from 1 to 20 for each Ability. A player who rolls attributes totalling less than 60 points may add attribute points (allocated as he sees fit) to bring the total up to 60. This way the character is always at least average. 

• Allocation: Players who choose the allocation method have a total of 64 points to be distributed among their Abilities in any combination they wish. No Ability may have a value of 0 or more than 20.

Nationality & Languages

Pick a Nationality as per OWB, pages 8 and 9. Substitute "Soviet" for Russian - this reflects either Russian, Polish, or other Eastern Bloc origin personnel. Such characters can only choose to be Partisans (if Polish in the default setting) or Defectors (if Russian or other Eastern Bloc see below) and cannot choose one of the basic OWB classes.

Polish or other Eastern bloc characters are treated as "European" for the purposes of determining their fluency and number of additional languages. Russian characters, however, begin only with fluency in Russian (F) and only basic fluency (B) in one other language unless they have high Intelligence.

Terms (and Professions)

OWB does not use Terms to generate characters, unlike T2k v2.2. The closest correlate is probably character level - each character level reflects up to 4 years in service. A party of mixed character level is possible but it is recommended that the characters are all within 2 levels of each other.

For beginning campaigns, set the party's average character level at between 1st to 3rd level. At the GM's option, a starting character may be 4th level but automatically apply ageing effects to their attributes as if their roll was unfavourable (see Age below).

OWB professions (Pages 9 and 10) provide some background detail but minimal mechanical effect.

Character Classes

The six basic OWB special operative classes: Charmer, Combat Engineer, Grunt, Sniper, Tactician, and Wheelman are available without modification. There's not really a direct OWB equivalent of armor crewman, artillery specialist, combat medic, heavy weapons specialist, or pilot at this stage so creating a character along the lines of these archetypes may require some ingenuity.

The Maquis and Uberlaufer classes are readily modified to reflect non-Western individuals as follows:

Partisan replaces the Maquis class. This reflects Polish (or other Eastern Bloc) civilians siding with the western forces and/or local militia unfriendly to the Soviets. Use the same mechanics except that instead of France, abilities such as Contacts and Resistance Leader mentioning France are linked to the character's country of origin based on their chosen Nationality (default is Poland). 

Defector replaces the Uberlaufer class. This reflects Soviet (Russian, Polish regular or other Warsaw Pact forces) personnel forced into military service that defected early during the Twilight War and have since become incorporated into regular Western (US or German army) units. Replace Wermacht Understanding with Soviet Understanding and Nazi Hate with KGB Hate, modifying the mechanical effects to reflect the appropriate modern groups. Hero's Welcome changes to Defector Leader and  reflect a cohort of more recent defectors that join the character attracted by their fame and deeds rather than individual's from his or her hometown but is otherwise mechanically identical.

Option: non-Western military personnel of the six basic OWB classes are possible as later player characters and recruits as the unit travels through post-war Poland. Such characters gain the equivalent of Soviet Understanding in addition to their usual class abilities, but suffer a -5% XP penalty and may not speak English particularly well. 

Rank

Use the OWB rules on page 10 for simplicity - rank has no real mechanical bearing on *either* game in actual play except for doubling the starting equipment buy allowance in T2k v2.2.

Option: all characters except Defectors (Uberlaufer), Partisans (Maquis), and Tacticians roll 1d6 - on a 6 they are an officer. Defectors and Partisans are never officers. Tacticians also roll 1d6 - on a 4 or greater they are officers and are automatically officers if they start to play at 3rd level or higher.

Contacts

Consider using the general rules from T2k v2.2 but modify as there are no Terms in OWB - add one contact per character level - note this may adversely affect the uniqueness of the "Contacts" base ability of the Partisan (aka Maquis / "Resistance Fighter") class.

Initiative (and Panic)

Use the standard OWB rules, rolling 1d6 every round of combat.

Option: use the T2k v2.2 rules based on character generation and NPC classification below:

To determine Initiative, regulars roll 1D6, reservists roll 1D6/2 (round up), and draftees roll 1D6/2 (round down, but re-roll results of 0). Add +1 to this roll for rangers, airborne, special forces, force recon, snipers, and equivalents. Modify by -1 from this roll for support, air force enlisted, aviation enlisted, and military intelligence (but never reduce Initiative below 1). Animals have a base Initiative of 6 unless noted otherwise.

Converting across, OWB Snipers add +1 to the base initiative roll, Charmers and Wheelmen modify by -1 from this roll. For all characters add the character OWB level to the player's Initiative rating instead of tracking experience separately for Initiative. Characters with an Initiative of 5+ gain an additional action per round (see T2k v2.2, page 194).

Panic

If the character is knocked down or surprised, roll a 1D6 and if the result is higher than the character's OWB level, the character is frozen and stunned for a number of rounds equal to the number by which the die roll exceeded the character's level.

Option: the character can make a Saving Throw against being stunned.

Alternative: using the expanded initiative option above opens up the potential of the original Panic rules (T2k v2.2 p197, formerly referred to as the "Coolness Under Fire" mechanic in T2k v1.0 and modified for the later edition):

Whenever a character is knocked down by wound damage (see "Wound Effects and Healing," page 211) or surprised (attacked from an unexpected direction, ambushed, or surprised by an encounter as defined in the encounter rules), there is a chance that he or she will panic. This is not blind panic which sends the character screaming away, but panic which causes him or her to momentarily freeze.

To determine if a PC panics, roll 1D6. If the result is greater than his or her Initiative rating, he or she panics. The PC may not conduct any action for the number of turns by which the die roll exceeds his or her Initiative. However, if the character is forced to freeze for more than one combat turn, he or she may go prone on the second turn and remain there until able to move again. If the character has already conducted his or her action for the turn, the following turn counts as the first turn frozen. If the character has not yet acted in the turn in which he or she panicked, the current turn becomes the first turn frozen.

NPCs have initiative based on their equivalent level (see T2k v2.2 page 139).

For ease of reference, use the following T2k v2.2 values below:

• Novice NPCs have Initiative 1
• Expert NPCs have Initiative 3
• Veteran NPCs have Initiative 4
• Elite NPCs have Initiative 5

NPCs with OWB professions add their character level to their Initiative as above.

Rads

Civilians roll 1d10 x 1d6. Others roll (2x OWB Level) x 1d6 for a minimum of 1d6 Rads. Radiation rules are otherwise the same as for T2k v2.2 (p242-243) but halve the Constitution score in the formulas (as T2k v2.2 uses a 1 to 10 Attribute scale).

If using the optional expanded Initiative rules above, Rads = (2 x Initiative) x 1d6.

Radiation isn't dealt with in the basic OWB rules, so that will have to be detailed further later.

Age

OWB does not use anything similar to T2k v2.2's 4-year Terms, but the concept of effects beyond age 29 affecting starting characters significantly makes sense. Terms loosely correlate to character level (see above), so requiring Ability loss checks at Level 4 and for each level thereafter as per the table on page 24 of T2k v2.2 makes sense - this encourages low-level play and retiring older characters.

Excerpt from T2k v2.2 Rulebook

The character loses 1 point from the relevant attribute if the 1d10 roll is less than the current level of that attribute. If the roll equals or exceeds the attribute, there is no loss. 

This check, also called an age saving throw, is made at the end of each term.

Skill- and Attribute- Derived Values

The combat values are irrelevant in an OWB based game (Hit Capacity and Unarmed Combat Damage), but the other derived values are of optional relevance: 

Weight: A character's weight in kilograms is equal to 80 plus two times Strength minus Dexterity [2x(Str - Dex)] +80. This accounts for the difference in Attributes between T2k v2.2 and OWB. 

Load: in  T2k v2.2 a character may carry, without being heavily burdened, weight in kilograms equal to three times the sum of his Strength and Constitution divided by two (Str + Con) x 3/2 to account for the differing Attribute scale. This is called his normal load - compare to the more generous default 11kg (25lbs) for normal individuals and 45kg (100lbs) for the somewhat cinematic allowance for special operatives (OWB pages 38-39).

Throw Range: the distance (in meters) a character can throw a one-kilogram weight accurately is called his throw range in T2k v2.2. Throw range in OWB is twice the character's Strength (Str x 2) in metres or six times the character's Strength (Str x 6) in feet, depending on which scale of tactical combat grid is being used.

Equipment

Use the T2k v2.2 rules for starting equipment with "generic conversions" to OWB mechanics. This equates to $5000 x number of Terms in the military, but instead use OWB character level (doubled if an officer, see above). Additional equipment can be bought using the usual T2k v2.2 Equipment lists and/or P. Mulcahy's online expanded equipment lists if desired.

Most equipment other than weaponry has clear benefits that can be converted easily across to OWB mechanics as needed (see later post for details), but see the special section on modern armour such as kevlar flak vests and ballistic kevlar helmets.

Starting Transportation

Use the standard T2k v2.2 "Starting Vehicle" table on page 26; roll 1d6 for every 3 characters in the unit (as opposed to 1d6 for every 2 characters in v1.0). Vehicle conversion will be covered in separate posts, with modifications (and quirks) playing an important part in an individual vehicle's "character" and performance. 

Option: use either my simple Revised US Starting Vehicles table or the complex Version 2.0 PDF derived from Paul Mulcahy's excellent resource website.

WWII: Operation WhiteBoxTM is a trademark of Peter C. Spahn 

 

Answers to 20 Quick Rules Questions: NGR (Neoclassical Geek Revival)

I enjoyed answering "20 Quick Rules Questions" for Twilight: 2000 so much that I thought I'd look at answering them for another favourite game of mine that I'm even considering adapting for use as an alternate system for a Twilight: 2000 campaign:  

Yes, that's really a three-eyed goat, not a raven...
(NGR logo by Dyson Logos)

For those of you unfamiliar with this system created by Zzarchov Kowolski, I'd highly recommend checking out Endzeitgeist's comprehensive review (a good accompaniment to this post in any case) and considering downloading the freely available "Art-free edition"  to look over.  It's built originally from "OSR" style retro-clone roots but has been tweaked and improved over the years from its origins as "Piecemeal" pre-2009 into a versatile and robust game system in its own right.

Note: all page references refer to the "Dyson Logos Edition" as that's the version I have, although the "Art-free edition" and other different art editions have a similar enough layout.

Neoclassical Geek Revival - 20 Quick Rules Questions

1. Ability scores generation method?

The default character creation method is known as "Shrodinger's Character" - the player determines some basic characteristics (name, species, gender) and allocates 80 points across the 7 attributes (pages 8-9). Alternatively, the player can roll 3d6 for each attribute and add up to 10 discretionary points but runs the risk of creating a very incompetent character (balanced by the chance of a very competent character).

The rest of the character is worked out during the first adventure, allowing them to tailor their character to survive the first session, as explained here (pages 12-13):

"The characters just happen to be the perfect heroes for their first adventure. The first session is "character creation" this session starts with all players naming their character, assigning a species and assigning or rolling their attributes. The players then proceed with their character by filling out aspects of their character when required and after any rolls are made. This requires some record keeping on the first game but allows for a more organic character creation."

This includes skills, items, traits, relationships, a major and a minor morality, and 3 pieces of "pie" - the NGR equivalent of class (or profession) in most other OSR / retroclone games. The concept of "pie pieces" is inspired and truly unique and really deserves its own discussion in a later post.

2. How are death and dying handled?

Death is the ultimate result of accumulated Strength or Health accrued points (page 41-45) - accumulating half your Strength in damage points results in "Incapacitation", accumulating damage points equal to your Strength points results in death. Stun points accrue against Strength also but have different effects at halfway and equal to the character's score.

This is one of the key mechanics of NGR and while perhaps initially complicated to grasp, allows for a versatile system that can cover a wide range of scenarios, challenges and contexts.

Disease, Poison (temporary disease), Intoxication, and Mutation points accrue against Health but have differing effects, although only Disease (and Poison) can lead to death.

Other points can accumulate against Agility (Suspicion), Will (Stress, Influence, Fear) and Charisma (Infamy) and lead to different penalties and effects but not death. There is an Unknown type of points that doesn't inflict penalties and is used for special effects.

There are no "hit points" per levels as such but each character has Luck points gained per level that are used to offset accrued damage and other points - this means that a higher level character with more Luck can "soak up" more damage (or other effects) without penalty, fending off the "death spiral" that is otherwise inevitable as penalties accumulate across the various types.

3. What about raising the dead?

Resurrection is a priest miracle in NGR (page 135-136).

"Unless the target was in a state of grace upon death, death can only be reversed within a number of hours equal to the priest’s cumulative faith. A sacrifice is always required. For evil patron’s this may be people; a good patron may require a loss from the priest, either something specific like sight or something generic like d4 health points."

It's very difficult to access at 500 piety points, however as this amount is equivalent to the reward for building a cathedral, converting a large region or completing an epic task of faith (page 127).

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

The "Shrodinger's Character" rules (see question 1 above) offset the issue of untimely PC death to some extent for the first adventure, improving newcomer survivability but after that, there are no guidelines per se for a replacement character other than using the normal character generation process.

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

Individual.

Each character rolls either their Agility die or if acting "with deliberate thought", their Intelligence die - this latter option means they forgo deliberately defending themselves. The character with the highest score can choose to act first, but the character with the *lowest* score must otherwise act first and can be *interrupted* by a character with a higher score (pages 54-55).

Effectively this system allows for tactics, overwatch fire and attacks of opportunity.

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

Yes, indeed there are.

A roll that succeeds by 5 or more is a critical success, one that fails by 5 or more is a critical failure. A natural 20 is an epic success, a natural 1 an epic failure (page 38). This applies across not only combat but for the other forms of conflict (social conflict and covert actions).

7. Do I get any benefits of wearing a helmet?

Yes. A helm improves the chance of avoiding critical hits, by increasing the "threshold" of success required to score a critical hit but has an inverse effect on perception (page 80).

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

I'm not sure - I can't find specific rules that cover this situation in the published rules.

Addit: I've asked on the NGRRPG subreddit and Zzarchov gave this answer:

"No penalties. 

If you use the "theatre of the mind" blast effects for AoE spells the only risk is that it has a number of targets that may end up higher than you'd like if people are clustered together (power level 2 hits 3 clustered targets for example with a blast). So if you have two of your party fighting two enemies and you want to hit both enemies, you'll also end up hitting one of your own in the blast. 

The main danger with missile weapons in melee is for the shooter. It takes 1 action to shoot, 1 to reload, and 1 to defend yourself and you only have 2 per round." 

(TheRanting Savant) What about #burst weapons? 

"Still fine. Two things come into play here: 

• Characters are assumed to duck and weave and move about the area they are in rather than being static during a round. 

• It is assumed that characters will naturally help each other set up optimal situations because they are competent adventurers.

If you shoot at someone in melee with one of your party members with a burst weapon (you had mentioned earlier a post-apocalyptic setting so I am assuming an ak47 for this) that you would first yell "duck" or "suppressing fire" or in some way motion to you party member to move out of the way as you shoot. If you fumble then the opponent might have you shoot your teammate as their opportunity attack. 

Guns DO have one rule where shooting at someone in melee is more difficult. If your opponent doesn't have potential cover to hide behind they can't use their combat modifier to try to avoid being shot. If they are in the same area as your party member they could use your party member as potential cover and thus add their combat modifier to defense. 

They could also take a block action to hide behind your friend and get a cover bonus no different than hiding behind a tree or rampart (regardless of if you are using a gun for that one)."

- Zzarchov Kowolski, NGRRPG subreddit (April 2019)

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

It's implied that you'll need to run and/or withdraw from exploring too deep into the "dungeon" - the further you penetrate the more XP you gain, but there is a trade-off and a limitation implied.

Given there are solid rules for "social" conflict and "covert operations", there's the opportunity to solve encounters and conflicts through means other than fighting.

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

Not in the core rules per se - there's no actual "Monster Manual" for NGR.

The accrual of points of various types (pages 41-45) simulates debilitating effects and is probably the closest to the level drain of various retro-clone games.

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Yes, there are saving throws, although they work somewhat differently in play to retro-clone style games and are related to attribute checks rather "saving throws" based on class and/or level. To gain the chance of a saving throw the player must declare a *specific* course of action in response and the GM determines whether this is "crazy enough to work!", "a standard response", or "a brilliant defence!" and adjust the resulting success or failure accordingly (pages 40-41).

"Occasionally, characters will encounter events where they have but a split second for a chance to avoid crippling injury or certain death. These events allow a character to declare a course of action to try and avoid the injury through making an attribute check such as dodging falling rocks or avoiding a ball of fire. Normally this action has to be related to one of the two actions the character is currently performing." 

"Often I will describe to the players a small click or a tug at their boot and mentally count to three. If someone hasn’t announced they are doing something they do not get a saving throw. If this is a new player to the game, give them one warning where you explain the concept and let them think about a saving throw."

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

Encumbrance is tracked using a simplified and abstract "dot" system (page 76-78).

"The dot system is basically categorizing weight and general difficulty in carrying items with a number of dots. It’s fairly abstract because while important, it’s also boring and time consuming since items carried change so often. The dot system specifies how many ‘dots’ worth of equipment you can carry, as well as where you carry the item, without a lot of fuss."  

Containers are special items such as backpacks, sacks and knife belts that have a dot size but also capacity, allowing a character to carry more items more easily, maximum item size and a "search time" (accounting for how many actions it takes to rummage through the container).

13. What’s required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for downtime?

Gaining a level results in improved modifiers depending on the amount of "pie" pieces in each class (table on page 13), an extra piece of "pie" at 1st and 10th level, and a "milestone" at 1st level, 5th level and 10th level. Milestones act as level caps unless the character has accomplished something appropriate to pass these barriers (page 141).

"Milestones act as a barrier, preventing heroes and villains from levelling up until they perform feats or acts worthy of further levelling. This means that merely slaying goblins all day for a few years is unlikely to raise one to tenth level. Each milestone represents becoming another ‘tier’ of villain or hero." 

Training allows learning new skills after spending a season on a successful check (page 31) or learning a combat trick after a day spent with a teacher who knows the trick (pages 94-95).

New spells are not gained automatically, they must be discovered and/or deciphered during play whether form spell books, other spell storage items or reverse engineered from creatures.

It's not entirely clear, but the "Experience Points & Level" section occurs in the final chapter entitled "End of the Session" which implies levelling up can occur during downtime or if the adventure spans more than one session, during the adventure.

14. What do I get experience for?

A whole lot of things actually, not just killing monsters like many games (pages 143-149).

XP is awarded as either group XP (split between the party members and NPCs with levels) and individual XP. Characters can gain experience from the following sources:

• Travelling overland
• Exploring and reaching locations
• Completing dungeons 
• Defeating minions
• Slaying monsters
• Outsmarting the opponent
• Finding and bypassing traps, riddles and puzzles
• Treasure aka "the Big Score"
• Completing an epic quest worthy of a "milestones"

In addition, characters can gain awesomeness which is traded for a chance to gain fate points which can be used re-roll poor dice rolls, restore luck points or modify a scene in a favourable way.

Characters that undertake a life-altering quest can gain destiny points which are used similarly but have an even more profound in-game effect when spent.

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

Some combination, with an emphasis on narrative like many "old school" games.

The core mechanic is Attribute checks against different difficulties adjusted by modifiers (page 39).

The Perception attribute is key here, likely modified by the Rogue's Expert power, which adds +5 when employing skills on attribute checks compared to the usual +2 (page 17).

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?

Retainers and hirelings are not specifically detailed.

I'd suggest using the "Retainer" rules from the readily available "Rules & Magic Free Version" of Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) or other retro-clone systems as a starting point.

Henchmen in NGR specifically refer to the unusual "personal item" of Bards - a "personal item" is otherwise a weapon, trophy, holy symbol or similar piece of equipment specific to the character that improves between adventures. These henchmen are Level 0 companions that may take the form of a body- guard, squire, personal assistant, student or some other minor role (pages 26-27):

"The main benefit of the henchmen is that the bard can choose to make one of her henchmen suffer grisly death on behalf of her or another member of the party. This could include the henchman shoving a bard out of the way of a volley of fire from an ambush, setting off a dangerous trap, or being crushed by falling rocks in a landslide. You can feel free to give each henchman a nice red shirt if you would like."

A bard's henchmen are completely loyal - they don't need to make morale checks.

Morale is used for both individuals and mass combat but is not checked for levelled characters, including player characters (page 66). A morale check is triggered under certain conditions and causes an appeal that can inflict !d6 fear points if successful against Presence based resistance. Several spells can trigger morale checks or inflict fear points.

17. How do I identify magic items?

A Wizard with the Sage power can identify magic items and decipher texts (page 19):

"This power allows the wizard to discern the magic involved in mystical artifacts and creatures. A sage may study an individual or item and attempt to discern what spells are influencing the item or creature, permanent or otherwise."  

This power is not an automatic success, requiring an opposed d20 roll with modifiers but the extended part of the power can also be used to reverse engineer an effect from a creature or item to learn a spell of their choice, although this destroys the creature or item.

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?

This depends more on the campaign, but magic items, including potions and magical weapons, are discussed in passing in the basic rules and implied to be part of the base game.

There's no "magic item chapter" however in the base rules.

Several examples of unique magic items are given in Zzarchov's dual-statted LotFP/NGR adventures such as The Gnomes of Levnec, A Thousand Dead Babies, The City of Tears, and other titles. The implication from Zzarchov's other work is that in a default NGR game magic items are rare in keeping with the philosophy of magic items in a default Lamentations of the Flame Princess game.

19. Can I create magic items? When and how?

Yes, at least simple "one-charge" ones.

Potions, scrolls, runic pendants, and even food are suggested items for use with the spell storage spell but the item only lasts without deteriorating if stored under perfect conditions or using spell components (page 121). Any character who knows the desired spell and the spell storage spell can create a simple magic item.

Each character class except the Fool (no item) and the Bard (see "Henchmen" above) has a "personal item" that can improve over the course of play. Wizards have a talisman as a personal item which provides them with bonuses to their spellcasting and priests can gain a relic as their personal item (pages 21 and 23). Warriors and Rogues can gain a trademark item or lucky item respectively as their personal item - although not magical per se these add benefits similar to magic items in other game systems (pages 16 and 18).

Rules for more complex magic items are not given although "+X" magic weapons are implied in the section "Items of Different Materials" as comparable to faerie silver, meteoric iron and other rare materials (page 88).

20. What about splitting the party?

As many have said before, never split the party - it's always a bad move!

OK, all jokes aside, the main issue is the meta-game issue of player boredom while one group or player sits out while the GM concentrates on the others but this is better discussed elsewhere (such as here, or perhaps here).

Appendix: Various NGR Resources

• Original Unofficial Games blogspot site (less here since the demise of Google+)

• The NGR RPG subreddit

• Post on Pen and Paper announcing NGR back in 2011
• BoardGameGeek post for NGR (2011 edition)

• DriveThruRPG "Zzarchov Kowolski" NGR and other products

• Reviews

• Endzeitgeist's review (NerdTrek)
• Malakor's review of NGR
• Grand Tapestry review of NGR
• I Failed My Save review of NGR
• Tower of the Lonely GM (kind of) review

The Savant's Lamentations

An Iconic LotFP Fighter?

I've long been considering my reaction to the always exceptional, but often controversial, Lamentations of the Flame Princess (aka LotFP) OSR game and I've finally decided it's an excellent basis for my style of gaming - not just the mechanics, but also the design philosophy behind it.

To me, OSRIC is more a set of modern-styled rules and a toolbox than a game. LotFP is indeed its own unique Weird Fantasy RPG with its own sensibility and style.

And that's great in my opinion.

That's not to say I don't find some of the art scattered through the core books and supplements confronting or at times troubling in their depictions of the scenes and their mature content - I actually prefer the "Art Free" PDF primarily for its simplicity, lack of distraction and clarity - but the play style encouraged by the game is much more in line with my preferences than some of the more modern offerings available from the larger publishers. 

This means PFRPG and to a lesser extent, 5E D&D, being the most familiar to me in terms of successors to BECMI and 1E, but also my penchant for unconventional Ars Magica stories developed while writing for the ArM5 line over the years.).

So I'll be venturing into LotFP territory now and again on this blog.

This may either be directly by commentary, via conversion notes for the "All that Glisters..." / "Return to the Wind Walker's Passages" project(s), or even possibly some Ars Magica derived material cross-posting such as the Genoa / Corsica / Sardinia material. The latter should be readily adapted from my existing notes and research books from the early 13th-century default of ArM5 to the later time period of LotFP. 

Also, since I've long been a fan of the Silk Road region, I'm thinking that the default 17th-century setting of LotFP could be interesting to explore from a Central Asian perspective...