HiBRiD Things for Your Game #2: Armor (Damage Absorption)

In most popular D20/OSR games (Hackmaster Basic™ being the exception and I am sure there are a few others…please feel free to correct me and educate me if I missed any others…I can always learn more and expand my personal game collection!), the protection of armor is reflected as a decreased probability to damage a target. The system assumes that armor always affects a standard attack and a successful attack does full damage. This creates a clean, all-or-nothing mechanic on the to-hit roll. The method assumes that the armor was completely bypassed by the attack in some way. Additional complexity to account for touch attacks, unarmed attacks, called shots, and so forth results with a variety of modifiers on the task roll to hit, often resulting in a table being required.

In contrast, HiBRiD™  reflects the protection of armor as a damage absorption mechanism, reducing damage inflicted by an attack. Like the previous system, HiBRiD™  also assumes that armor affects all standard attacks. Unlike the other systems, however, the armor reduces the damage inflicted rather than the probability of inflicting damage. This places the complexity of the action resolution in the damage system not the attack roll.

The debate over armor affecting hit probability vs. damage reduction has been hashed out for decades in many forums (from USENET in the 80s, to ENWorld™  in the 90s, to Reddit nowadays), and I will not enter it here because I see merits to both. I would say that at first glance, damage absorption seems to fly in the face of the HiBRiD™  philosophy by requiring mental subtraction during combat. In a situation of multiple attackers and hordes, determining damage to a target has the potential to get complicated as each attack must be accounted for when applying damage to the target, also seeming to fly in the face of HiBRiD™  gaming style. 

The Reason Why

So, why did I choose this system? Well,

• With a lower number required to hit a target, Reflexes/Dexterity plays a bigger part in the defensive scheme. Characters with higher attributes in this category also have a tendency to try more crazy things and get more creative during actions scenes rather than standing toe-to-toe slogging it out.
• With lower defense ratings, the likelihood of hitting the target increases. Knowing you have a relatively high chance of a success when you attack encourages players to be more assertive, attempt more risky actions during an action round, and get more heroic rather than simply attacking.
• Player characters are more likely to get hit, making combat feel more lethal. Knowing there is a good chance of getting hit adds tension. It makes players think twice about diving into yet another combat situation, subtly reemphasizing problem-solving rather than just powering through yet another combat session.
• When there are a large number of low-power mooks, heroes can completely shrug off their attacks that do minimal damage and focus on the big hitters. This gives combat a more epic feel when fighting evil hordes. (By the way, this also mitigates the problem mentioned above of having to do the damage calculations for most low-power mooks).
• When fighting large and seemingly invincible opponents, players are forced to think of ways to penetrate or subvert armor and try more heroic actions, such as called shots, using environmental factors, et cetera. This also creates a change in action flow when having to do the calculations also tends to subtly bring the lethality of attacks into focus for those characters wearing armor.

I have played systems with more lethal combat and noted how combat scenes could be sped up. In less lethal games, I like the old-school simplicity of the hit-then-damage mechanic, but become bored with hours of attrition-based combat. So, basically, when I decided on the role of armor, I chose to meld (or HiBRiD™ize) the various factors from both types of games into one, and create a different kind of combat scene. I wanted armor to represent a delay of the inevitable downfall of the hero more obviously with STUN/hit points rather than relying on the subtleties of probabilities on the attack roll. I wanted to combat to be short, deadly, colorful, and have meaning.

The Crunch

So you like damage absorption, Hujraad. But what can I use to HiBRiD™ize my game?

1. First, the director needs to decide if armor will either minimize or completely absorb damage. This will determine a number known as an intent factor. A desire to minimize damage indicates an intent factor of 2 while the damage to completely absorb as much damage as possible indicates an intent factor of 1.

2. Next, take the armor class of the armor in the game and determine the number of steps it affects Armor Class. An armor class of 2 (Old School) (or 18 New School) has a value of 8.

3. Finally, divide the number of AC steps by the intent factor, rounding all decimals up. This creates new stat, the Armor Value, of the armor in question.

An Example: In D20/OSR games, a dagger does 2.5 damage and a zweihander does between 5.5 (Old School) and 7 (New School). A director minimizing damage will have a campaign where a standard hit from a zweihander/greatsword on a plate armored character will still inflict 1.5/3 points of damage. A director cancelling damage will have a campaign where a standard hit from a zweihander/greatsword on a plate armored character will inflict no damage   

One final note: This only affects worn armor; shields are treated normally within the game system being used

Conclusion

But wait a minute…

This doesn’t seem to solve the problem of attrition you talked about before. In fact, doesn’t damage absorption seem to actually foster it? Nickel and diming players for hours on end rather than dropping their hit point totals in large, scary chunks?

At first glance on paper and taken by itself, that would be absolutely correct. But there are other ways to balance this.

Ways I’ll be discussing in my next entry…

HiBRiD Things For Your Game #1: Game Hook-The Sad Manatee

Since my family will be fusing HiBRiD rules with the Castles and Crusades game over the coming months, I am once again filled with excitement as we switch gears to the new genre.

In making my preparations for the game, I have already discovered some differences between the two systems that mesh cleanly but in an interesting manner. As a result, over these next few entries on HiBRiD™_Theory, I will be providing these as free resources you may use in your own games, even if you aren’t using the HiBRiD™ system. Think of them as plug-and-play modules you can swap in and out of your own OSR games to spice them up until HiBRiD can get out on the shelves. The numbers provided should work in any version of D&D™ as well as Assfinder™, er, Pathfinder™, though conversions to any other systems should be pretty easy…

So, without further ado, let’s get this started off with our first contribution: The Sad Manatee…

Dr Fatatee Lives...

My daughter wants to play a manatee. She played one in our Tiny Horsies™ game. She played one in our Gamma World™/HiBRID™ game. She played one in our HiBRiD™ Snakes on a Plane in Redux Canyonside game. But now we are switching to a new genre, and we are faced with the challenge of finding where a land-based manatee will fit in. The manatee is a slightly out of genre character in the Castles and Crusades™ game we will be playing...

...or is it?

The Hook

So, to ease the transition between HiBRiD™ and Castles and Crusades™, I decided to go with a classic “Break the Curse” quest. Each player will choose a natural animal that their character was originally were before the quest. An Evil Mage by the name of Rotenbach (Does that name sound familiar to any of you out there?) has cursed the PCs and turned them into humans. Interestingly enough, in times of great stress, the PCs revert back to their animal form (i. e. during any action scene).

The hook? The PC does not completely revert to their natural form; only to the animal form in one random way. Each player will chose at least 3 but not more than 6 traits that the animal (or previous HiBRiD™ character) possessed. For each trait, the player will designate 1 benefit and one detriment. For example:

Trait             Benefit                                               Detriment

Claws            Cause damage                                     No opposable thumbs

Gills              Can breathe in water                           Drowns on land

Chlorophyll    Heals damage on sunny days                Takes damage in dry climates

The director/CK assigns each trait to one or more numbers on a 1d6. Each time initiative is rolled, the director rolls a blinded 1d6 for the PCs (or rolls a d6 for each one if she wants to mix it up a bit) and that randomly determined trait manifests until the action scene is over.

The director does not manifest the trait until the player is right in the middle of conducting his first action. The manifestation fades after the action scene ends. Players can use a point of Ité to control which trait manifests if they so wish.

This allows the characters to still play their favorite traits of their HiBRiD™ characters on occasion while still getting to experience the Castles and Crusades game and the fantasy genre. If this game goes well, I may run it at GaryCon in 2018….

We have already decided that my daughter’s character will be a manatee trapped in human form. Her character’s quest will be to be turned back into a manatee so she can live her carefree days in the warm waters off the coast of Brih’ ja’ dun eating sea grass and playing with Brih’ja’dunian children in the shallows. I can't wait to see what the boys come up with.

So for anyone wanting a quick game hook, go all “Wizard of Oz” on it HiBRiD-style…have all the characters off to look for the Mage of Osz so they can find what they need and go back home away from the hustle and bustle of humanhood...

…just make sure there are magic missiles and fireballs flying around…

Gamma World HiBRiD Campaign Completion…Now What?

Now that we have finished up our Gamma World/HiBRiD game here in our house, I will be running a new genre of RPG with meine Kinder: Fantasy!

Why Fantasy? 

It started with the review I did of Green Ronin’s Dragon Age. As I mentioned briefly in that review, there is no magic system for HIBRiD. With that inspiration, I created a playable workaround, but never was presented with the opportunity to test it under fire. I finished the conversion, published it on the blog here, then set it aside, waiting for the subject to present itself once again.

The fantasy genre came back to mind with the Troll Lord Games twitter feed I follow. They posted about how much fun they had a Gary Con, a convention I wanted to run a HiBRiD game at this year, however, I had nothing really prepared (I am looking to run a HiBRiD fantasy game there in 2018, by the way). I once again set it aside, figuring I would playtest the module after the 2017 GenCon game had come and gone.

The final straw occurred last weekend, when we finally finished our year-long Gamma World HiBRiD game. During that game, my son wanted to launch a fireball at the main fortress of the bad guys, though he only had the pyrokinetic blast aspect, which would not cover the area he needed to cover. When he asked why it wasn’t an aspect, I explained it was “out of genre”, which sparked a whole discussion of the subject of genre with the kids. I realized they needed to experience it to understand it. So the embers were lit…the Johaansen family would finally enter the realm of fantasy roleplaying.

 No HiBRiD Fantasy?

With the decision made to change genres for our next game, a major decision lay before me: which game? Of course, the answer would normally be HiBRiD of course, but not in this case. Why not HiBRiD, you ask?

First and foremost, HiBRiD is fast, furious, and cinematic. The game, however, was originally designed with post-fantasy settings with the ability to extend into the fantasy setting if the game went that way. We could extend the HiBRiD rules and indeed play into the fantasy genre, but I wanted to provide a bit less familiarity to the kids to give a feeling on uncertainty and really bring the genre to the forefront. That takes it off the table as the primary game system.

Additionally, having cut my teeth on D&D like most players my age, I have a certain nostalgia for D&D. I tried other fantasy games in my younger years, such as Rulemaster, Mythus, Runequest, MERP, and Warhammer, but none of them held the feel and charm of the BECMI, 1E, and 2E versions of the original D&D. I even tried to keep an open mind and actually ran a 3E game for 2 years! But I missed the way the old games felt when played. The clunky simplicity and flexibility of the old school systems are unique and not really present in many of the more slick and efficient games of today, HiBRiD included. I wanted to introduce my kids to the genre and the old school feel of the games that I loved. I wanted them to experience a Vancian spell system that was not streamlined with the combat system, which was different from the system of turning undead. Such systems are streamlined and uniform in HiBRiD; I wanted them to feel a difference and experience tabletop gaming in a new way.

Finally, D&D is a classic; a brand with name recognition. When you say you “play D&D”, even lay folk understand in some sense what you will be doing and it is easier to find players. Familiarity with D&D would (and will) help to nurture my kids’ growing interest in the hobby I love so much by finding them people to play it with. If my kids say they are inviting their friends over to play “a version of Dungeons and Dragons”, their parents know what to expect. If my kids say they are inviting their friends over to play “HiBRID”, that makes it a bit of a barrier to entry, as their friends’ parents may not understand what their kids are going to be doing with their afternoon!

So which version?

I originally planned on introducing them to D&D the way I was: by using my old books BECMI, 1E and 2E books/PDFs. The overwhelming, response, however, was less than stellar. My oldest kids decided they want something “new”, not the “old stuff” dad pulls from the shelf of his collection or prints out from PDFs on his “weird Linux computer”.  So the old books were no longer an option, and I found myself looking at what is currently out there.

I tried 3E as a one-shot on three occasions, using the 2006 Dungeons and Dragons Basic Game boxed set from Wizards of the Coast. They liked the figures and premade maps, but were annoyed by several of details by the game mechanics (natural 1s and 20s do nothing, tracking movement), the incomplete nature of the characters that made them feel limited, and the fact that there was only one adventure, so playing that again was off the table. I could also, in good conscious, not let them play 3.XE, 4E, 5E, or Pathfinder as feats are the absolute worst thing to hit HiBRiD-style as well as any roleplaying…EVER! And, as you all also know, there is also only a finite set of conditions that would ever lead to me playing Dragon Age or use Green Ronin’s Adventure Gaming Engine, so though simple, that was out as well.

So what's left? 

The Final Verdict

To get the old school feel that I want my kids to experience, then, I decided to turn my attention to the host of other Old School Revival of RPGs, hoping one would float to the top. I have over a half a dozen of them (OSRIC, Basic Fantasy, Hackmaster Basic, Hackmaster, Labyrinth Lord, and Castles and Crusades). Of these, Castles and Crusades is definitely what 3E should have been. It shreds the complexities of the 3E pathway, but has all the original BECMI simplicity. It uses the 4e Gamma World ascending armor class that dovetails perfectly with the HiBRiD defense rating/Armor Value system, and both games have drop-in compatible damage systems which will make the transition for my kids seamless. (If anyone wishes, drop me an email or a tweet and I will write a complete 4-part review like I did for Dragon Age and Tiny Horsies.) It also is compatible with my HiBRiD monsters as well as all my old D&D material, so I can introduce them to all the wonderful things that I grew up with and learned to fear…and loathe…and love…(rust monsters, carrion crawlers, umber hulks, purple worms, magic mouths, magic missiles, et cetera) as well as the weird things sprouting from my own games (cyanobacters, LiRAs, Underwater Alligator Men, Jotuns, just to name a few...).

Like always, we will, of course, be tacking on the Ite' Gaming Engine, just to kick up the heroic machoness a peg or two (10 points for everyone). This will also keep a familiarity with the gaming style they are comfortable with as they make their foray into the new genre.

Stay tuned for further developments from the world of HiBRiD and our return to my Ara Knochen game world reborn…Who knows? This should be interesting to see if the kids take to a new game system or if the kids’ desire to continue with the system they have grown up with will finally lead to the creation a magic system for HiBRiD once and for all.

2 New Cinematic Aspects: Gore and Railing

While I was combining files and writing out the actions scene for the 2017 Canyonside Event, I came across two aspects I wrote that have not yet been integrated in with the core rules. Feel free to use them in your FATE™, FADAD™or Tiny Horsies™games as you see fit, a gift from me to you.

Gore
Initiation: Constant
Grading: U
Modes: N/A
Cost: 8

This aspect reflects a unique way with the viscera of defeated opponents. Once per game session, if your director judges your description of how you eviscerate your opponent as appropriate and sufficiently disturbing, your character receives one floating point of Ité to spend on the action he is committing.

Railing
Initiation: Constant
Grading: U
Modes: N/A
Cost: 4

This aspect reflects a unique ability to control railings in the environment. Once per game session, if your character judges that it is dramatically appropriate, you may either choose to have a railing spring into or out of existence where one should be or in a location or situation where it would be dramatically appropriate. 

GenCon 2017 Inspiration (Part 3)

The GenCon 2015 event started out with a kick in the crotch, a slew of bloody noses, and cyborg nightmare ensconced in glowing blue orbs of light. The players had made it back to Canyonside and were now dealing with the ramifications of the events of the technology that was recovered by the U. S. Government from the previous events.

The primary development was the evolution of the little town of Canyonside into a hub of the new Maglev Rail system that was sprouting like a weed and connecting the major cities of San Diego, Canyonside, Chatanooga, and Washington D. C. This new prosperity put the little town on the national map and led to the introduction of a new villain, Dieter Kauffman, and his henchman Vindrick.

The Storyline Transition…

Historically, players have just kind of rolled with the punches and not followed these story lines or cared. Last year, however, several players emailed me with queries that can be summed up by three questions. With all of these open questions from the players and the multitude of endings, I thought I would lay down the canon results from last year’s event here. Well, at least SOME of them…gotta keep a few surprises…

Spoilers, Answers, or Just Red Herring?

First, let me assure you that the “Vampires”, the Terminators, and anything that might show up for 2017 and 2019 are all connected to the past events and these connections will be elucidated in-game as we approach the 2021 GenCon event. The connections are already laid down, but the specifics as to how they relate to the story line are not, as they will depend on the PCs’ actions after each convention. In general, if all of the groups achieve a certain outcome, it automatically becomes canon. If two or more groups achieve a two or more outcomes, I try to weave them together so that they both can happen. If this isn’t possible, I look at the players’ reactions to the outcomes of the action scenes that led to the result in question. The players who were the most boisterous at the table, the most creative in their scene resolutions, or the most HiBRiD in their attitudes always win out and determine canon. Since every year there are one or two groups that go over the top, it is relatively easy to make these judgments.

Now, to answer the questions.

Question 1: What finally happened to Vindrick and Kauffman? (Was Vindrick slain on the Magev train outside of Chatanooga or in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building? Was Kauffman slain in the rotundra of the Capitol Building or did he get away, laughing mockingly at the PCs as he flew away flying away in a Hujrat Alfa helicopter towards GenCon 2017 to once again terrify the PC?)

Vindrick was indeed slain in the final scene in the Rotunda of the Capitol building. Kauffman, however, did manage to escape on a Hujrat Alfa helicopter, laughing at the PCs and cursing their foiling of his plans in the process. That is the second NPC that has escaped the clutches of the convention players since 2009. You all may want to keep a count...

Question 2: Were Vindrick and Kauffman Vampires? Is this some World of Darkness crap? Are tragic teenage vampires and werewolves going to vent their spleens, lust, and angst on one another?

Kauffman and Vindrick do have characteristics of vampires. Those players paying attention probably noticed through play that they are weaker in bright daylight, they are affected by certain materials and unaffected by others, and they have mentalic abilities that they use to control minions and attempted to use to control PCs in some cases. Knowing that several supernatural (magic?) phenomena have occurred in the game, there is a possibility they are, but I won’t reveal that here…you and your friends will have to come to play to find out.

If they are, I PROMISE you this (hint, hint, hint…): they need to be staked! There is no tragic, Goth, love story bulls*** that Anne Rice, White Wolf, and the multitudes of lemmings seem to drool over. They need to be staked. Period. There is a reason “The Coreys”, Wesley Snipes (If not being played), George Clooney, Buffy, Hugh Jackman, James Woods, and Daniel Baldwin were on that MagLev as NPCs.

If they are not vampires, you all may want to stake them anyway, just to be sure.

Question 3: Where did the Terminators come from? Is this a continuation of the Portal story?

The Terminators are indeed an extension of the Namenlos Welt game world. In that world, there is a series of semi-sentient humanoid robots know as LiRAs. LiRAs are instilled with the Zeroth Law as well as the classic Asimovian Three Laws of robotics.The LiRAs were the original keepers of the Macrossean people designed to ensure their survival. When the portal device was created, they were the ones sent through first to determine if the portal worked. They agreed to go under the pretense of saving human lives, but actually went for their own purposes.

The addition of the Terminators to the scenario resulted from a combination of factors. At the time of the first few play-testings, we noticed the “GothKids” failed to pull the action from the Bloodsport Opening Scene to the first Exposition Scene. Inspired from the release of Terminator: Genisys just prior to the convention, I overlayed the LiRAs from a back story that had been left out in 2009 for simplicity reasons, and play-tested it to solve the problem. The  scene worked in all three play-tests to help push the action, so we made them a permanent addition to the initial and final action scenes. They also served as bookends for the scenario in general. They also fit in with the Kauffman back story that will be elucidated a bit more in the 2017 game.

Conclusion

Well, that is it. The 3-part inspirational rant is officially over. Now, back to prepping the scenario for playtesting!

Next up: I will be providing the HiBRiD stats for several creatures in games past, a few new Aspects that will be making their appearances in 2017, and a few things to take with you all to your own games. While the stats provided will be in HiBRiD stat blocks, they should be easy enough to translate into your own games, should you wish to do so. Shoot me a note/tweet/email if you need help; I'll be glad to help..

Until then, keep rolling dice and slinging Ite'....