Power Grid boardgame

So my youngest brother and my sister-in-law came to visit, and as usual when we get together, there were a lot of games played.  I introduced them to Dungeon Crawl Classics, running them through a fairly low-casualty Portal Under the Stars (last time I ran my kids through it, it was a TPK...this time they only lost about four out of twenty).  We combined our Red Dragon Inn characters and played a big seven player game.  But the surprise hit, in my book, was Power Grid.

          

I know power generation and distribution are incredibly important in modern life, but when I think of games, I tend to think of escapism...far away lands, more adventurous times, stuff like that.  Roman chariot races sound like a good game.  Asteroid mining sounds like a good game.  Power plants and high-tension lines don't sound like a good game.

Except that Power Grid totally is.

Now, I'll admit when I first looked at the rules, I was confused as hell.  Player order changes up every turn, sometimes you use normal player order and sometimes you go in reverse order, and there are turns, phases, and steps to deal with.  But going through line by line, we got set up and played through the first little bit, and it became very easy to follow.  And it was fun.

Each turn starts out refiguring the turn order (this is phase one, not to be confused with step one).  Turn order goes by whoever has the most cities in their distribution network, with ties broken by the highest rated power plant.  Basically, whoever's closest to winning goes first, except when they don't.

Phase two is the power plant auction.  The game is arranged so that the power plants available early in the game are less efficient than those available later, so even if every player doesn't want to buy a new power plant each turn, they will want to buy one at least every few turns.  The first player can pass (and then can't buy a plant this turn) or can choose a power plant from those available to auction.  Everyone bids on it until it is sold.  If the player who chose the plant didn't win the auction, he gets to choose again; if he did win, the next player chooses the next plant or passes.  The last guy to go can straight-up buy a power plant at the minimum listed price.  When everyone has bought a power plant or passed, phase two is over.

Phase three is the building phase, where each player can expand their distribution network to more cities.  Early in the game (step one), each city can only have one player supplying it.  In step two, after at least one player has seven cities in their network, each city can have two players supplying it, although the second player has to pay more to set up in that city.  In step three, towards the end of the game, each city can have three players, and again, the third player pays more to set up there.  Phase three is played in reverse turn order.

Phase four also runs in reverse order.  This is when everyone buys the resources they need to run their power plants (coal, oil, uranium, or garbage, although some plants run without fuel).  There is an interesting supply-and-demand mechanic here, where the resources that get used the most end up costing more, while those no one is interested in get cheaper.

Phase five is the bureaucracy phase.  Players get paid for the number of cities in their network that they supply power to, burning any appropriate resources.  The market for resources gets restocked, the amounts depending on the number of players and what step the game is in.  Some updates are made to the power plants available to buy, with the overall effect that cheaper, less efficient plants are available at the beginning of the game, with more efficient plants getting pushed to the end game.  After phase five, the next turn begins at phase one.

Strategy revolves around balancing power plants, networks, and fuel resources to maximize power sold, which maximizes your income and lets you expand and balance some more.  The win conditions are set when one player has at least 17 cities in their network; during phase five of the turn someone expands into at least 17 cities, whoever is able to generate power for the most cities wins. 

The game is well-balanced.  Running phase three in reverse turn order gives the people falling behind the chance to buy up some prime real estate and improve their position.  Phase four's reverse order gives the people falling behind a shot at buying the cheapest fuel, possibly stocking up.  Whoever's in first place needs to overcome some pretty steep disadvantages to stay there.  Rather than the horrible, soul-killing grind of Monopoly, where the winner becomes obvious long before the win, Power Grid feels like it's anyone's game right up til the last turn. 

New project: DCC spell analysis

Since I "finished" that last project with the swells (said with quotes because I do have a few small comments to make about waves and wave related things whenever I decide to try to organize it all), I've spent some time fiddling with a couple of ideas for Patrons from Dungeon Crawl Classics, and being sick, and having some real life happening.

DCC Patrons are pretty complicated bits of background material, generally involving the creation of four new spells in addition to any back story attached to the Patron, and since spells in DCC have eight levels of success, ranging from barely worthwhile up to much-more-impressive-than-RPGS-usually-allow, they're pretty fiddly. I've often had qualms about making new spells in D&D because of the concept of spell levels.  Is this spell really as powerful as a third level spell should be?  Is it too powerful for second level?  Stuff like that.  Now throw in these eight degrees of success, and someone like me ends up a quivering mess.  And being sick and having real life happening too, I had no chance.

TLDR: I haven't finished any Patrons.

I've seen over on Google+ that someone put together a sort of cheat sheet for DCC spells, listing in general terms the type of outcomes spells should have, based on the examples in the rulebook.  The version I saw only had the first three or four degrees of success listed out, though, and may have only included first level spells; higher level spells should have more impressive successes across the board, at least in my opinion.

And while I pondered (weak and weary) over how to solve this dilemma, inspiration struck.  The Hero System!  Hero has long been called a gamer's toolkit, allowing a GM to build whatever type of world he wished to game in, and players to build whatever type of character they wanted to game in it.  No classes, no set magic system, no set technologies, no limits.  Fifth Edition in particular was advertised as a toolkit for gaming in the sense that it could be applied to other games, not just Champions or Fantasy Hero, but as a way to help standardize new powers in other games too.  Build all the spells in D&D under the Hero System, and any new spells you come up with should go with the existing spells of similar point values.  Or so the idea goes...I'm pretty sure that a lot of D&D spells are of the right level if you analyze them this closely.  But the idea is still pretty sound.

And so, I will look at each degree of success of DCC spells in Hero terms, and hopefully an obvious pattern will emerge.  Then, all these Invoke Patron and other Patron spells will more or less fall into place for me.  And hopefully I won't be off line for a month or more in the process.

Random Swells

This could probably use a little more finessing to get it to work just right, but I think it's close enough to publish, and to be honest, I'm kind of getting tired of messing with it.  I've got a backlog of more immediately entertaining ideas I want to post about, so I'm going to kill this particular monster and fling him to the public.

OK, you've got players adventuring on the ocean somewhere and want to randomly determine a swell.  There's no compelling in-game reason to pick a very large swell or a very small one, or even a very medium sized one.  You're letting the dice decide whether it's safe to land the boats on this shore, or how dangerous it is to go into the sea cave at this time, or whatever.  So, the first thing you do is figure out what kind of sea or shoreline your characters are working from.  Constricted areas like the Mediterranean Sea or the Gulf of Mexico get smaller swells on average than the Atlantic, with the Pacific getting bigger swells yet.  This system measures out the ocean in 1200 mile hexes.  Here's an icosahedral world map template; for an Earth-sized planet, each hex is 1200 miles. If your world isn't more or less Earth-sized, you'll need a different number of hexes per triangle to come out to 1200 miles per hex.

For reference, here's a map of the Earth in this template.

To describe the sea in any given area, we'll use two variables which I'll call exposure and fetch.  Exposure is the number of hexsides of ocean a given area is exposed to, not counting the hex in question.  For example, in the following diagram, the western end of Australia is exposed to four hexsides of ocean. (The fourth hex is split into two halves in the template; the two hex halves that the number sits on in the picture don't exist.  Only the two hex halves within the triangles of the grid.  This should be obvious from the full diagram, but gets a little less obvious zoomed in like this.)

Fetch is the straight line distance out from the starting hex until land is hit.  For these purposes, small islands count as ocean, but large, thickly seeded archipelagoes count as land.  If there are enough islands to break up and diffuse waves at this scale, it's land.  Just kind of eyeball it.

By "straight line distance" I don't necessarily mean just the six lines of direct contact radiating out from the six hexsides of the original hex.  Any hex that isn't already counted is one higher than the lowest number touching it, as shown here:

Note that for Western Australia, the mass of Australia itself blocks fetch into the Pacific, Africa shadows the fetch into the Atlantic, and South America and Antarctica shadow fetch into the Pacific to the west.  We could conceivably extend the fetch in this direction further than 9 hexes, but I'm going to go ahead and rule that Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula block off wave propagation to Western Australia except for that very small window immediately past them.

Ideally, this would give us a nice, unambiguous number to use for fetch, but in most cases it will be something like this, with a fetch of 5 being the single most common number, followed by 6, with a small but distinct extreme of 9.  Let's call this 7 in this case.

Now, exposure and fetch won't change very often (unless you have a very chaotic world map).  These numbers can be noted down in your world descriptions for any important or commonly visited areas, and you won't need to go back and recount every time.

Once, you have these numbers, you can roll 4d6 with an additional d6 of another color (to be read as a d2, d3, or d6 as indicated) and consult the following table, taking fetch adjustments into account:

Exposure (hexsides) →	1	2	3	4	5	6
4	0	0	0	0	D2-1	D2-1
5	0	0	0	D2-1	D2	D2
6	0	0	D2-1	D2	D3	D2+1
7	0	D2-1	D2	D2+1	D2+1	D3+1
8	0	D3-1	D3	D2+1	D3+1	D3+1
9	0	D2	D2+1	D3+1	D2+2	D3+2
10	D2-1	D2+1	D2+2	D6+2	D3+2	D3+4
11	D3-1	D3+1	D3+2	D3+5	D3+6	D6+6
12	D3-1	D3+2	D3+5	D3+7	D6+8	D6+8
13	D2	D3+5	D6+6	D6+8	D6+11	D6+11
14	D2+1	D3+7	D6+9	D6+12	D6+14	D6+14
15	D3+3	D6+8	D6+14	D6+16	D6+20	D6+20
16	D6+5	D6+12	D6+17	D6+20	D6+25	D6+25
17	D6+8	D6+18	D6+20	D6+25	D6+25	D6+25
18	D6+12	D6+21	D6+25	D6+28	D6+28	D6+28
19	D6+18	D6+24	D6+28	D6+28	D6+28	D6+32
20	D6+24	D6+30	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32
21	D6+30	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32
22	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32
23	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32
24	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32	D6+32

Fetch adjustment	die roll	steps
	4-12	-3 if fetch=2; -2 if fetch=3; -1 if fetch=4
	13-16	-2 if fetch=2; -1 if fetch=3-4
	17	-2 if fetch=2; -1 if fetch=3
	18-19	-1 if fetch=2
	20-24	no adjustment

 So, continuing with our Western Australia example, if we rolled an 18 on our 4d6 and a 6 on the other d6, we'd check the fetch adjustment for fetch of 7 and a roll of 18 (no adjustment here), then check the table (d6 + 28 = 6 +28 = 34 foot swell). 

Most ocean hexes or ocean shores will not really get a fetch adjustment.  Enclosed areas like the Gulf of Mexico tend to have exposure of 1 and fetch of about 2, and much smaller swells because of this.  With the same rolls as the last example, we would get a fetch adjustment of -1 (making the die roll 17 instead of 18), then check the table to find a swell of d6 + 8, for a total swell of 14 feet. 

The last thing we need to do to get a complete swell description is period.  I'll admit this isn't all that elegant, but like I said earlier, I was starting to get tired of messing with it.  Basically, once you have your swell height, you cross-reference it on this table against your fetch to find a minimum and maximum period.  I'll leave it up to you how you pick the value in between.  If you'd like, you can use the maximum fetch on this table, instead of the fudged number we used above.  

		Maximum period
wave height	minimum period	Fetch=2	Fetch=3	Fetch=4	Fetch=5	Fetch=6	Fetch=7	Fetch=8	Fetch=9	Fetch=14
2	2	7	11	12	13			14		15
3	2	9	11	12	13			14	15
4	3	10	11	13		14			15
5	3	10	12	13		14		15
6	3	10	12	13		14		15
7	4	11	12	13	14		15
8	4	11	12	13	14		15
9	4	11	12	13	14	15
10	4	11	13	14		15
11	5	11	13	14		15
12	5	12	13	14		15
13	5	12	13	14	15
14	5	12	13	14	15
15	5	12	14		15
16	5	12	14		15
17	6	12	14		15
18	6	12	14		15
19	6	12	14		15
20	6	13	14	15
21	7	13	14	15
22	7	13	14	15
23	7	13	14	15
24	7	13	14	15
25	7	13	14	15
26	7	14		15
27	7	14	15
28	8	14	15
29	8	14	15
30	8	14	15
31	8	14	15
32	8	14	15
33	8	14	15
34	8	14	15
35	9	14	15
36	9	14	15

For the Western Australia example, in this case, with a fetch of 7 and a wave height of 34 feet, we'd have a period somewhere between 8 and 15 (d8 + 7 possibly).  If we wanted to use the maximum fetch for W. Australia, we'd use 9 instead, although for waves this high, it makes no difference (waves this high are generated pretty close by and haven't had time to degrade).  The 14 foot swell from the Gulf of Mexico would come in with a period somewhere between 5 and 12 (d8 + 4 most likely). 

And that's about that.  Random swells with not a whole lot of screwing around to get them.  I think they come out a little higher on average than real world swells, but I think wind speeds are higher in the 2d6 wind speed table used in B/X and RC D&D than in the real world, and that (more or less) is what I started from.  High winds and waves provide adventure material though, and give spell users a reason to learn more than magical artillery spells.  I have a few more small things on waves and wave related topics that I think I'll stick all together in one miscellaneous post, and then move on to some new project.  Or probably post a bunch of standalone, unrelated posts on various topics, like DCC patrons or adventure ideas or what have you.  Hopefully I'll post a little more often since I don't have tables and tables of math to do first anymore.

PS:  Thanks to Daniel "Theophage" Clark and his In a Dark Cell blog for the icosahedral hex grid I used for this post.  He didn't post much, and hasn't updated for years, but he didn't nuke the blog when he gave it up.  I wish more people would leave their thoughts out there.  You never can tell what someone will find immensely useful.

Also, thanks to whoever made the mp_IcoSnyder_s82.45(yadayada, etc...it's a long string of numbers after this and you can search for it without them) icosahedral Earth map.  I don't remember where I snagged it, and when I search it none of the hits seem to be the original source.  It, obviously, was also immensely useful.

Coastline mapping

I haven't posted in a long while...I've been forcing myself to stick to the number crunching on that random swell generation system I was working on.  I've pretty much got it worked out, I think.  After crunching the numbers and figuring out the statistics for waves of various sizes based on the amount of ocean they could form in and the distance they'd have to propagate to get to the area in question, and making some simplifying assumptions along the way which turned out some fairly strange results, I smoothed over at least some of the strangeness by fitting the results to a 4d6 bell curve, and then compacting them down from 60 separate tables into 6 tables with some modifiers.  I just need to work out the possible periods for the waves and set up a randomizer for that.  I think in the final form, a DM could roll five or six dice all at once and then check the tables to find the day's swell and period.  And I probably could have pulled it all out of my ass and had numbers just as valid as what I have now, given the complexities of the subject matter, but it makes me feel better that it is based on "good science", even if I have "garbage in, garbage out" issues.

At any rate, I saw this article the other day and felt like musing a little on it.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-its-impossible-to-know-a-coastlines-true-length


Whenever I draw a campaign map, I tend to start with the large areas...continents usually.  I draw more detailed maps of smaller areas as needed. One problem I've always had (at least from an aesthetic viewpoint, looking at the maps; I don't think players ever have an issue with it in-game, unless they see the map themselves) is overly smooth coasts.  It's not easy creating coastlines as randomly rugged as in real life.  This problem gets compounded when I zoom in from the continent scale map to the country scale, and from there to the county or whatever other subdivision you care to use; the smooth line ends up smoother if anything.

Trying to draw rugged lines instead of smooth ones doesn't really help much.  Humans don't do random all that well, and in trying to get less smooth coasts, I often veer into too random coasts.  They just don't look right.  In the past, I have used AutoRealm's fractal lines to make a decent looking coastline, although zooming in still had issues.  At best, I could start out with very zoomed in maps and scale up to keep coastlines looking good, but the file size got really unwieldy in a hurry, and the program spent ever increasing amounts of time re-rendering the map whenever I'd zoom or pan the view.

Reading the Atlas Obscura article got me thinking about this issue again, and I think I have a decent method of fractalizing coastlines that can be done with any graphics program or even paper and pencil.  In the past, I've generally started with a blank sheet of paper and gone to a finished product in one step, whether I was making maps or drawing a character or a scene.  Now, when drawing, I follow the advice we've all seen in every art book ever, where you sketch out the basics in light pencil and simple shapes, and then go back later to detail and shade in darker pencil or ink.  It's definitely a more professional look, moving me up from 3rd grade to about 6th grade art level.  More importantly for this post, it occurs to me that I can use it on maps too.

Simply put, if I start out with light pencil and sketch out my too-smooth continent shapes, I can go back over my map, following the lightly sketched line, and add some jitter.  The final result isn't unrealistically smooth, but by generally following a guide line, it isn't unrealistically jagged and crazy looking either. 

As a proof of concept, here's a simple sketch of a too-smooth small continent or large island.

And here is the same landform with a little added jitter.  Nothing fancy, just a human attempt at randomness with a guide for the overall shape.

A little bit better, I think.  Now, to scale it down, I can pick an area to zoom in on and sketch it out.  It will look pretty smooth when I do this.  Even a fairly sharp squiggle looks pretty gradual when you get real close, right, flat-earthers?

Here's a fairly rough stretch of coast just east of the south-west corner of the continent, scaled up 10x and with the color changed to grey.  If I was doing this by hand, it would be lightly sketched at this stage.

Now I go over it to add some jitter, just like with the continent scale map.

If I wanted to I could zoom in again at this point, maybe to make a city scale map, and add jitter again.  Zooming in and adding jitter at each step allows you to have coastlines of infinite length, just like in the real world.

While I'm on the subject of coastlines, I feel I should point out that areas of especially rugged coastlines tend to encourage seafaring cultures.  If all you have is a straight, smooth, flat coastline, with miles and miles of ocean beyond it, people build boats just big enough to go out and catch fish, and come home after a few hours.  Only fishermen ever go out, and they're not generally a large portion of the population.  If you have a really rugged coast, though, with inlets or fjords cutting into the land every so often, and the land hilly more often than not, things change pretty drastically.  Now, not only do more people live near the sea, but it becomes much more of a means of travel.  Fishermen, of course, will be out tooling around in boats, but if a farmer has a choice of a 20 mile journey over land to take his harvest to town or a 5 mile trip by boat, even farmers will become proficient boatmen.  When you have more people using a technology and experimenting with it, good ideas crop up more often and are shared across more people, and soon your boatmen are building ships and sailing over the horizon rather than sticking with small boats and heading for shore when the weather looks bad.  If you're world-building and want a nation of great sailors, for realism's sake, you need to provide them a Scandinavia, or a Greece, or a Polynesia, or a Caribbean to sail around in. 

Atlantean RPG Classes, Part III, and the Last of the Arcanum

Jumping right in with dual-classed spellcasters, the Charlatan is a Magician/Rogue dual-class, beginning play with 1st level Enchantment spells, Magical Mixtures, and some con-artist style Rogue skills.  As they level up, they learn how to make Toxic Powders, Philtres, Scrolls, Potions, and Minor Magic Items.  However, they don't learn higher level Enchantments, as most other Magician-types would.  Instead, every other level (when other classes would pick up higher level spells) they have the option to learn more Rogue skills, learn a new weapon, improve their attack bonus, or learn 1st level spells of another style (excepting Divine Magic).  Of course, with their Rogue skills and other spell use, a Charlatan could fairly easily convince someone they were a Divine spellcaster, if they wanted to.

The Enchantress/Enchanter is a Magician/Harlequin dual-class, making them a good option for players who like magic-wielding bard characters.  They are all proficient in both Art and Music, giving them bonuses to success when assisting other spellcasters in creating golems, and allowing them (eventually) to influence emotions like bards in many versions of D&D.  They begin with Legerdemain (non-magical stage "magic") and Magical Mixtures in addition to 1st level Enchantment spells.  As they level up, they learn Acting, Acrobatics, Ancient Lore, Philtres, Potions, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, and Rods, Staves, and Wands.  Additionally, at higher levels they are able to create glass Orbs of Enchantment, containing any Enchantment spell until the glass is broken.

Mages are a collection of Astrologer dual-classes, with slightly different abilities depending on their secondary class.  Magi are Astrologer/Priests, with the ability to turn undead and convert others to their faith.  Cabalists combine the study of Astrology and High Magic, and gain a bonus in coercing summoned demons or devils to do their bidding.  Archimages are Astrologer/Magicians, with no additional abilities, but without the alignment restrictions the other Mage classes have.  All Mages are able to build an observatory as Astrologers, and gain the extra spell per day in the same way.  Mages start out with Chirography and Magical Mixtures, and learn Linguistics, Decipher, Ancient Lore, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Runes, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Greater Magic Items as they level up.

Monks are of the Eastern type, like Shaolin monks of our world as opposed to Franciscans (see Savant below for those), and as such are Martial Artist/Mystics, beginning with Acrobatics, Stealth, Martial Arts, and Mysticism spells.  Unusually for spellcasters, they don't learn any magical skills as they level up, instead picking up improved versions of Martial Arts, and several degrees of Archery skill, culminating in Zen Archery, allowing them to shoot at enemies they can't see.

Paladins are Warrior/Priests or Warrior/Shamans, depending on what culture the individual is from, and are the only spellcasters able to wear armor.  They are immune to fear, and have Mounted Combat skills in their basic and advanced forms.  They don't get a lot of bells and whistles as they level up, just attack bonuses, weapon proficiencies, etc, as other highly skilled combatants get, but being able to wear armor and cast spells is a pretty major ability in and of itself.

The Savant is either a Scholar/Priest or Scholar/Mystic.  Savants, like Scholars, pick up many skills as they level up, but  have different lists of skills to choose from depending on whether they are Priest (generally skills appropriate to Western style monks) or Mystic (martial arts hermits) types.  Regardless of which path they choose, they are able to turn undead, and eventually make Holy Items, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Greater Magic Items.

Sorcerers are the only class to use Sorcery as a major magic style (as opposed to learning one or two spells through extracurricular XP expenditure, or Charlatans learning 1st level Sorcery).  They can also choose either Black Magic or Enchantment as their secondary style.  Sorcerers begin play with knowledge of Magical Mixtures, and learn Herbal Elixirs, Toxic Powders, Potions, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Alchemical Dusts, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Greater Magic Items, Magical Weapons and Armor, and Machina as they level up.

Thaumaturges are Magician/Alchemists.  As their worldview is of such a magic-based slant, as opposed to the science based view of Alchemists, Thaumaturges and Alchemists can't work together on a project, and probably bicker incessantly when part of the same party.  Thaumaturges work a little differently in creating formulas, particularly for Homonculi and Aqua Vitae, and they can't make Essences.  They start out with Magical Mixtures and learn Herb Lore, Toxic Powders, Philtres, Herbal Elixirs, Venoms and Poisons, Potions, Alchemical Dusts, Minor Magic Items, Advanced Alchemical Substances, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Golems, Greater Magic Items, Homonculi, and Aqua Vitae.

The Witch/Warlock is another dual-class with options.  Good Witches are essentially Druid/Magicians, while evil Witches are Druid/Necromancers.  Either type can pass through any type of terrain without leaving any real trace.  Even Hunters or other skilled trackers can only determine that something passed through, but won't be able to follow the trail.  Witches start with Herbal Remedies, and learn Venoms and Poisons, Herbal Elixirs, Philtres, Potions, Runes, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Major Magic Items as they level up.

Witchdoctors are Shaman/Necromancers.  They have a particularly cool power: they can make a juju by binding the spirit of a slain spellcaster into the shrunken skin of their head, and the spirit must truthfully answer any questions put to it.  Just don't overdo it, because if you ask too many too fast, the spirit can escape and seek vengeance.  As Witchdoctors level up, they gain the ability to make Toxic Powders, Venoms and Poisons, Magical Mixtures, Runes, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Greater Magic Items, and Magical Weapons and Armor.

The Witch Hunter is a Hunter/Mystic, acting as an assassin or bounty hunter specialized against spellcasters.  They have some of the Hunter's tracking and stealth skills, and their Mysticism allows them to resist a lot of magical detection or coercion on their missions.  Witch Hunters don't learn any new skills as they advance, but do gain in attack bonuses.

And lastly, Wizards are spellcasters combining High Magic with either Enchantment or Black Magic.  They begin with Magical Mixtures, and gain knowledge in Toxic Powders, Philtres, Potions, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Greater Magic Items, Magical Weapons and Armor, and Golems as they increase in power.  With the assistance of an Alchemist, they can also create Homunculi.

Thirty-two classes, not counting variants within a class...not too shabby.  They're all different enough to be interesting, and cover a wide range of character types, but without a huge sprawling mass of rulebooks.  Due to the standardization of skills, no class takes more than a page to describe, with the whole book clocking in at 168 pages. 

I'm honestly kind of surprised that this RPG isn't more widely known than it is.  Several times over the years I've had a moment of nostalgia and searched for it, just to see what others had to say about it, and have never really found much.  (For that matter, I'm surprised it's never been rereleased as a PDF, what with the interest in retro-gaming that's caught on the last 8 years or so.  I know there is an Atlantis RPG out there with the same setting, but it dropped the class/level scheme in favor of a more indie game approach.)  I suppose that's part of the reason I started with this series of posts...to help some other poor slob on his stroll down memory lane.  Feel free to start up a reminiscence about your past games.

At any rate, the next time I pick this up, I'll talk a little about the Bestiary.  I don't expect to go into a whole lot of detail there, so I should get it done in one post.

Atlantean RPG Classes, Part II; Also Magic

When I originally planned to write about the Atlantean RPG, it seemed to me that the best way to talk about classes was to start simple and move into more complex stuff, so single-classed non-spellcasters first, then dual-classed non-spellcasters, then single-classed spellcasters, then dual-classed spellcasters.  And in first planning this, I did a quick mental rundown of the dual-classed non-spellcasters, thinking "So, there's the Assassin, the Bounty Hunter, and the Corsair off the top of my head.  There's bound to be at least that many I'm not thinking of, and that should be enough for one post".  As it happens, that's the complete list.  So today, I'm going to talk about the three of those, and then briefly describe the different magic styles and the single-classed casters associated with them (for those that have them...Sorcery and High Magic are only used by dual-classed casters).  This will be quite a bit longer than I intended for the second post on classes, but three classes is just too short, I think, especially since, being dual-classed, they're practically described just by listing the single-classes they're comprised of.  So, without further ado:

The Assassin is a Spy/Martial Artist dual-class, combining some of the sneakiness of Spies and some of the acrobatics of Martial Artists.  As they gain levels, they also learn to make Toxic Powders as well as Venoms and Poisons. Unsurprisingly, Assassins get the Assassinate ability of Spies.

The Bounty Hunter is a Spy/Hunter dual-class, combining sneakiness and trap-setting abilities in both urban and rural environments.  They also get the Assassinate ability of Spies, as well as the Waylay ability (as described in the last post under Rogues.

Lastly, for our non-spell-users, the Corsair is a Rogue/Warrior cross, with a nautical focus.  They have Swimming and Basic Seamanship as standard abilities, and learn Navigation and Cartography as they level up.  They also have the Waylay and Backstab abilities of Rogues.  Rogue/Warrior is apparently the obvious choice for pirates, since most of the NPCs in Paizo's Skull and Shackles adventures are Fighter/Thief multi-classed; this made it very easy to convert.

Starting in on the magic styles, Astrology focuses mainly on fortune-telling/analysis and zodiac-based power-ups.  Some examples of the former are Detect Magic and Locate Object at lower levels, with Chiromancy (analysis of any diseases, poisons, infestations, or magic a creature is affected by) and Crystalomancy (scrying with a crystal ball) at mid-levels, and Prophecy (seeing the future on a given topic, which will always happen) at the highest level.  Zodiac-based powers include Initiative of Aries (immunity to surprise) and Lesser Incantation of the Moon (darkness) at lower levels, Courage of Leo (immunity to fear) and Fire Sign (a multipurpose spell similar to Fireball, but allowing the extinguishing of fires and dispelling of ice or water barriers as well) at mid-levels, and Greater Incantation of Jupiter (banishing summoned creatures) and Restorative Power of Pisces (Raise Dead) at the highest level.

The Astrologer is the single-classed caster specializing in Astrology.  Astrologers begin with Chirography (copying maps and writings ability), Linguistics, and Magical Mixtures in addition to spell-casting.  As they level up they learn Decipher and Ancient Lore, as well as several magical skills similar to the alchemical ones described in the last post.  Scrolls skill is fairly self-explanatory, allowing creation of spell scrolls in about an hour apiece.  Runes take an hour to engrave, and are usually placed on weapons or a staff or wand.  Most Runes allow a bonus to a saving throw, although there are other effects possible; for example the Rune of War gives a bonus to hit and damage, the Rune of Good allows the user to detect Black Magic, and the Rune of Travel prevents the wielder from becoming lost.  Minor Magic Items take over a month to create and at least 1000 GP of materials, depending on the exact item being enchanted and the powers bestowed on it.  They function similarly to a Ring of Spell Storing.  Rods, Staves, and Wands are also spell storing items, but have more than one charge.  They take at least a month and up to 2 1/2 months to make, and cost anywhere from 1000 to 6000 GP to produce.  Greater Magic Items are those that produce spell-like effects, but do not use charges or require knowledge of spell-casting to use.  They include Amulets, Rings, and Miscellaneous Magic Items.  Lastly, an Astrologer who builds an observatory can cast one extra spell per day (level+3 instead of level+2).

Black Magic focuses on curses, the undead, and demons or devils.  Examples include Circle of Darkness, Mists of Sleep, and Summon Undead at lower levels, Necromantic Shape Change (into a wolf, bat, or gaseous cloud), Contact Lower Plane (similar to D&D's Contact Higher Plane), and Summon Greater Demon/Devil at mid-levels, and Destruction (similar to Disintegration), Ghost Wind (creating a movable area 100' on a side that causes permanent insanity to those caught within), and Summon Arch Demon/Devil at the highest levels.  Practitioners of Black Magic cannot learn Divine Magic, and vice versa.

The spell-casting class specializing in Black Magic is the Necromancer.  Necromancers can make a pact with an arch demon or devil, gaining greater powers at the cost of greater degrees of servitude.  They are also able to turn or befriend undead, and turn spirit beings as a Priest turns undead.  Necromancers don't start with a wide range of skills, but learn to make Toxic Powders, Venoms and Poisons, Scrolls, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Greater Magic Items as they level up.  They also learn Necromantic Rituals allowing them to create an Accursed Temple (attracting up to 13 undead or demonic/devilish servitors) and Necromantic Golems, and Advanced Necromantic Rituals allowing the creation of skeletons, zombies, ghouls, wights, mummies, sahu (spellcasting mummies), and a Necromantic Bell which summons the shade of an ancient Necromancer who will answer questions for the summoner.  Lastly, a slain Necromancer will return after 13 days as an undead creature to carry on with his work.

Divine Magic is the magic of the gods (including evil gods...many evil high priests dealing with undead cults are best modeled by Necromancers).  Divine Magic is similar to D&D's Clerical magic, dealing mostly with healing, power-ups, and opposition to demons and devils.  At lower levels, practitioners can use Blessing, Faith Healing (heals 4 points of damage per level of the caster), and other similar spells.  Mid-level spells include Lesser Invocation (summons a lesser servant of his diety), Safe Passage (complete protection to anyone traveling along a 1' by 100' path), and Spiritual Shield (immunity to possession, mind control, and magical detection).  At the highest levels, a Divine Magic practitioner can cast Awe (those who fail their save will not attack the caster, and only the most depraved who make their save will do so), Omniscience (combining the effects of Detect Magic, Locate Object, Detect Good/Evil, and several other similar spells), and Miracle (raises dead regardless of the condition of the body or how long they've been dead, restores the target to perfect health, prevents a natural disaster, or any of several other effects).

Priests are the wielders of Divine Magic.  In addition to their spells and the ability to turn undead, Priests can convert others to their faith, gaining allies and experience points in the process.  As they level up, Priests learn to create Holy Items (including Holy Oil which gives a bonus to saves, Holy Symbols, Holy Water, etc), Magical Mixtures, Scrolls, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Golems, and Greater Magic Items.  They also are able to create Magical Weapons and Armor, taking one month plus one month per plus or spell-like power added.

Elemental Magic is the magic of nature (plants and animals) and the four classical elements.  At low levels, casters can learn Animal Mimicry, Fog, and Warpwood.  At mid-levels, Speak With Plants, Control Winds, and Plague of Locusts are available.  At the highest levels, casters can Pass Through Earth and Stone, Summon True Elementals, and create a Tempest covering an area 1000' square and sinking small to medium sized boats, smashing small wooden buildings, extinguishing fires, panicking animals, and causing 1-6 damage per minute to all in the area.

Single-classed wielders of Elemental Magic are Druids.  In addition to their spells, Druids start out able to shape change into animals, speak animal languages, speak the languages of fairy folk and other woodland creatures like centaurs, and pass through terrain without a trace.  As they level up, they learn to make Herbal Remedies, Herbal Elixirs, Runes, Scrolls, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Greater Magic Items.

Enchantment is the generic "magic-user" spell list, primarily focused on conjuring and illusions.  Low level spells include Charm, False Dweomer, and Levitation.  At mid-levels, casters can Conjure Fire (either a Fireball or a Wall of Fire), Animate Object, or Disappear (functionally similar to D&D's Dimension Door).  High level casters are able to use The Grand Illusion (1000' cubic illusion involving any visible, audible, olfactory, or thermal elements desired), The Great Conjuration (creating any kind of building up to a 100' cube), and Major Enchantment (making another spell permanent).

The Magician is the Enchantment specialist.  They have a chance to Detect Illusion and Detect Conjuration just by observation.  They start out knowing how to make Magical Mixtures, and learn about Toxic Powders, Philtres, Potions, Minor Magic Items, Scrolls, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Greater Magic Items, and Magical Weapons and Armor as they level up.

High Magic deals with symbols, glyphs, and words of power.  At lower levels, casters can Spellbind enemies (similar to Hold Person), command a door or container to Open (similar to Knock), or use a Minor Evocation to summon a minor spirit, demon, or devil.  At mid-levels, they can command a target to Answer a question truthfully, use a Word of Guard to protect against any sort of magical control, or use a Sphere of Confusion to throw anyone within 20' into stuporous disarray.  The highest level casters are able to force a creature to reveal its True Name or trap undead creatures, demons, or devils in a Spell of Eternal Confinement.  There are no single-classed wielders of High Magic, so we'll see more details on users of this magic style in a later post.

Low Magic involves negotiation and alliances with spirits of nature or ancestors (which are different from undead spirits, I guess).  At low levels, casters can heal using a small doll made of grass and Image Magic I, run without tiring with Fast Traveling, and leave their physical body and travel anywhere on the material plane with Spirit Self.  Mid-level casters can make their allies immune to fear with a Song of Courage, use a crystal to scry with Seeing Stone, and speak with the dead with Spirit Contact.  Casters of the highest levels can Exorcise Spirits, trap the soul of an enemy in an animal or rock with Soul Transference, and restore a recently slain ally to life with Recall Spirit.

Shamans are single-classed Low Magic practitioners.  They are able to bind spirits to themselves in a process similar to Priests' turning undead, and release them later to perform a service.  They can also see into the spirit world (seeing spirits and astral and ethereal creatures), but can't see into the material world at the same time.  As Shamans level up, they gain various woodcraft skills as well as Herbal Remedies, Toxic Powders, Venoms and Poisons, Magical Mixtures, Runes, Minor Magic Items, Rods, Staves, and Wands, Greater Magic Items, and Magical Weapons and Armor.

Mysticism is the unlocking of the powers of the mind.  At lower levels, casters can detect alignments via Aura Reading, function normally in darkness, fog, or when blinded using Inner Vision, or Transcend Hunger and Thirst.  At mid-levels, Mysticism practitioners can increase their strength score through Inner Strength, block mental attacks with a Psychic Shield, and foresee danger with a Sixth Sense.  At the highest levels, they can issue a Mass Telepathic Command, summon spirits, demons, or devils with a Mantric Invocation, or astrally project and still maintain control of their physical body with Bilocation.

Mystics are the specialized casters of Mysticism, filling a similar niche to Priests.  Mystics who take an oath of non-violence receive a bonus to XP as long as they don't physically attack any living beings (use of spells on living beings is okay; anything goes when fighting unliving opponents).  They are able to turn undead like Priests.  Their starting skills are limited, but as they level up, they learn to make Herbal Remedies, Holy Items, Scrolls, Rods, Staves, and Wands, and Greater Magic Items.

Sorcery is the most scientific of the magic styles, or I should say, the most sci-fi; where an Elemental Magic caster might conjure a wall of fire, a Sorcerer creates a Force Shield.  At lower levels, available spells include Infra-Vision, Hypnosis, and Structural Analysis (to find unsafe passageways, rotten ropes, etc and determine how much weight they can safely hold).  Mid-level spells include Magnetic Field (to attract or repel metal), Sonic Blast (to stun enemies; also breaks glassware), and Disperse Energy (to reduce damage from magical or elemental attacks).  The highest level Sorcerers can Reverse Time, create a bold of Negative Energy capable of disintegrating enemies, or create a permanent Sorcerer's Gate leading to any desired location.  As Sorcerers are dual-classed spellcasters, I'll cover them in more detail in the next post.

So, one more post on classes, and I think the Arcanum will be pretty well covered.  The other books of this RPG won't take so long to go over, maybe one or two posts each.  I'm still working on this wave project, slowly but surely.  I went back to rework my numbers after deciding I was kind of doubling up on a particular input which was causing my wave heights to be crazy high.  Luckily, a lot of what I need to do is just adjust some spreadsheet entries so maybe I'll have something to post on that topic fairly soon.  I hope to get this wave project done soon...it really is getting kind of tedious.  I didn't know it would turn into such a can of worms.

Atlantean RPG Classes, Part I...Also Alchemy

I would say that I'm still working on those swell numbers, but I kind of haven't for a while.  Took an almost-last-minute trip to visit family at the beach, played a fair amount of games (the board game Red Dragon Inn and video games Papers Please and Keep Talking and No One Explodes), and after returning home, got some gamer ADD and decided I needed to build a Saturn V rocket using the GURPS Vehicles rules.  But I will get back to it soon; every time I get online and see this neglected tab in my browser, I feel a little pang of guilt over it.

But until I have something swell related to post, I'll talk a little more about the Atlantean RPG.   Classes in this game are considered either single class or dual class (combining aspects of two single classes and/or two differing styles of magic).  I think it'll be easier to describe the single classes first, as dual classes can be most easily described in terms of the single classes they're comprised of.  Similarly, spellcasting classes will be more easily described after a survey of how magic works.  With this in mind, today I present the single class, non-spellcasting classes of the Arcanum.

The Beastmaster, obviously inspired by the 1982 Marc Singer movie, are wilderness oriented, with good fighting skills, survival, and tracking at first level.  They also can understand two (out of eight) animal languages, picking up more as they level up.  At higher levels, they learn to brew up herbal remedies, giving them some pretty good healing powers.  The central defining ability of the Beastmaster is the ability to Influence Animals.  This works kind of like clerical turning in D&D, but the Beastmaster can (with increasing levels of difficulty, and also modified by the level of the animals in question) call animals native to the surrounding area, turn animals (causing them to leave the immediate area), befriend animals (thus acquiring their help for the next 24 hours), and master animals (making them a more-or-less permanent follower).  First level Beastmasters can attempt to Influence animals of up to fifth level (but forget befriending or mastering them...the penalties are too great).  I don't know if the movie's copyrights deter other game systems from making similar types of characters (although Tarzan and Mowgli of the Jungle Book are also similar), or if other game systems just prefer to roll these types of powers into the more standard druid class, but this was an interesting take, and one I wouldn't mind seeing more of in fantasy games.

The Gladiator is a pretty standard fighter type, specializing in one-on-one melee fighting.  They learn Boxing and Wrestling skills at first level, making them pretty useful in the typical fantasy game tavern brawl, and are able to pick up other combat skills (and missile weapon proficiencies) as they level up.  The game's weapon list includes the cestus and throwing net, along with other more common gladiatorial weapons (tridents, swords, etc), so there is a lot of flavor there for those interested in playing Spartacus.

The Harlequin is a performer, sort of a non-magical bard in practice.  They are not front-line combatants, but are not useless in a fight either, much like D&D style thieves.  Where they really shine is their wide range of skills.  Their Oratory skill allows them to manipulate large groups, their Acting allows them to impersonate others, Acrobatics allows wall climbing, reduced damage from falls, and increased leaping distance.  Legerdemain allows sleight-of-hand style "magic", and Juggling allows them to catch thrown objects (including weapons).  At higher levels, improved Acrobatics allows pole vaulting and tightroping, and Knife-throwing allows called shots, with a chance of incapacitating opponents.  To be honest, when I first saw this class back in high school, I couldn't see why anyone would want to play them, but while they may not be badass fighters or wield mighty magical power, they are pretty good charisma type characters, good for courtly political campaigns or getting by on their wits and some luck.  I'd be happy to give it a shot these days.

Hunters get the full gamut of wilderness skills, as well as Riding and Archery skills.  At higher levels, they learn to brew up Herbal Remedies.  If you want a character that's any more like an AD&D Ranger, you'll have to spend some experience points to learn some magic as you level up.  If you want a ranged weapon fighter with tracking and survival, this class is great as-is.

The Martial Artist is another specialist fighter type.  They start out with Acrobatics (the lower level form that Harlequins have), Stealth, and Martial Arts, which gives improved hand to hand damage, increased number of unarmed attacks, and the ability to throw opponents or dodge attacks.  As they level up, their Martial Arts improve, allowing them to inflict debilitating blows, dodge missile weapons, attack with a jump kick, and smash wooden planks (that last might not sound too impressive, but doors are made of planks, so...).  They also get the ability to dual-wield things like sais or nunchaku, allowing them to double their attacks when using them (up to six attacks per round at the highest levels).   High school was a long time ago, and I don't remember many details about the characters my friends played, but one guy played a Martial Artist, and he was pretty effective (and memorable) in a fight.

Rogues are pretty much like Thieves from whatever version of D&D.  Lockpicking, Stealth, Climbing, Hiding, Picking Pockets...the main differences are that Rogues start with the ability to Con others, and in addition to Back Stab, they can Waylay victims, knocking them unconscious but leaving them alive.  As Rogues level up, they have a pretty free hand as to the skills they add, so they can pick up Acrobatics and become cat burglars, for example, or pick up Forgery and become counterfeiters. 

The Scholar is a pretty interesting class.  They generally appear in other games as NPC sages.  In the Arcanum, they start out with six Arts and Sciences type skills, a category which includes Diplomacy, Drafting (allowing the chance to discover potential secret doors and passages if a map of an area is available), Chirography (allowing accurate copying of maps and magic scrolls), Ancient Lore, and even Read Magic and Analyze Mixtures (allowing identification of potions, powders, oils, and other such things).  As the Scholar levels up, he is not limited to these types of skills, and can choose any skill in the game, including Alchemical skills, Thief skills and Combat skills; don't expect to make this character into a combat monster, though.  The Scholar can also trade in two new skills for the first level of spells in up to two different magic styles.  This can be a very flexible, useful class, but won't overshadow more focused classes in their area of specialization.

The Spy is an alternate Thief class, without Back Stabbing, but with both Waylaying (as Rogues above) and Assassination, which works pretty much the same as the AD&D Assassin's ability.  Most of the skills are what you would expect for a Thief, but in addition, Spies get some information gathering skills: Lip Reading, Deciphering, and Interrogating. 

The Warrior is a pretty vanilla fighter class.  They have the heaviest armor options of any fighter type we've looked at so far, and have no restrictions on their weapons.  The only restriction they get is unarmed combat styles...those are for Martial Artists and Gladiators starting out.  Warriors can pick them up later, if they want.  The only other thing setting Warriors apart from other fighting classes is that they pick up their extra attacks per round earlier. 

This leaves the Alchemist as the last non-spellcasting single class.  Alchemists are unskilled combatants, and are not spellcasters, but make up for it with their wide range of skills.  Touching on these alchemical skills will be useful for illustrating the range of the Alchemist's skills, and also later when discussing the spellcasters.  So, starting out, the Alchemist gets several skills related to finding and growing herbs, Healing Arts (a non-magical healing skill), Read Magic, Analyze Mixtures, and Herbal Remedies.  Herbal Remedies are pretty simple healing brews, taking a little water, various herbs depending on the effect desired (and this is one of the strengths of the alchemical system in this game, I think...keeping a good supply of a range of ingredients in order to make whatever concoction you need), a small pot to boil it in, and about an hour of prep time.  As long as the ingredients are available, the 15 minute adventuring day does not apply; you just need to take an hour break for each 15 minutes of adventuring...haha.  These remedies will keep for a day before losing their properties, so they are best prepared as needed, or at most brewed up the night before in anticipation of a particular hazard, such as burn remedies before venturing into some volcanic caves.  There are 20 different variations of Herbal Remedies, most removing some type of harmful status effect, such as blindness, paralysis, fever, pain, etc.  The Healing remedy heals 1-8 points, with specialized healing for burns or poisons providing 2-16 points.  Lastly, a Sedative is available that can double the effect of other healing concoctions at the price of needing to sleep for several hours after taking it; devious Alchemists can also use it for skulduggery if they can get a gullible mark to drink it.

The next skill the Alchemist gets as he levels up is Herbal Elixirs.  Elixirs are small time potions, with many of the same effects, but for a shorter duration (d6+4 minutes).  They require water, various herbs (again depending on effect), mortar and pestle, and a heat source, and take several hours to brew.

Alchemical Devices include poison needle rings, prisms that reveal illusions, cusps (like contact lenses) that provide night vision, lenses to find secret doors, and other similar minor magical devices.  They require a fairly decent supply of metal- and glass-working tools and a lab, and take about a week to build.

Magical Mixtures include oils that provide protection against summoned creatures, inks for scroll creation, powders used to conjure animals, and several types of incenses for divination or dealing with spirits.  They require mortar and pestle, cauldron or crucible, a heat source, and various herbs, chemicals, or other ingredients.  They take a day to prepare.

Toxic Powders can be slipped into food or drinks, or can be thrown or otherwise dispersed onto enemies in combat.  There are 17 types, with effects ranging from amnesia, vertigo or itching to coma or death.  Toxic Powders take a day to prepare, and require mortar and pestle, heat source, various herbs, and a vessel of some sort to heat them in.

Philtres are potion-like substances that induce an emotion in the drinker. The Love Philtre is the most immediately recognizable of the bunch, but there are others that induce apathy, recklessness, sorrow, and treachery, among others.  They take 5-8 hours to make, and last for 5-20 minutes.  Philtres are made with a wine base (making it fairly easy to trick others into drinking them), and also require mortar and pestle, heat source, and various herbs.

Venoms and Poisons take a day to make and require the usual tools.  Ingredients can get tricky to find, since venomous animals are a little more dangerous than your average plant.  As I mentioned in the first post on the Atlantean RPG, there are very few save-or-die situations in this game.  Three of them fall under this skill: curare and wyvern's tail venoms and black death poison.  Most of the other substances here reduce Constitution or cause direct damage over a period of time, but even that can swing the outcome of a combat drastically; the weakest does 2-8 damage per minute for 10 minutes...nothing to sneeze at.  As an aside, one of the characters I played in high school was an Alchemist, and by the time I learned to make Venoms and Poisons, I was well on my way to becoming the richest one in the party.  We had a lot of guys who threatened (and occasionally followed through) on PvP conflict, and I was often hired out to make some nasty toxin by one PC, and then hired out to make a series of anti-toxins by several other PCs immediately after.

Potions mostly follow the types you'd find in other versions of D&D.  They take a week a brew up, and required a pretty costly list of ingredients: powdered gold, silver, copper, and gemstones, as well as other rare ingredients based on the effect.  Whereas lesser alchemical concoctions mostly require herbs for their effect, potions call for things like minotaur horn, vampire blood, or lion heart.  Their duration lasts 41-60 minutes.

Alchemical Dusts, like Toxic Powders, can be thrown or otherwise dispersed onto a group of enemies in combat.  Their effects range from blindness to charming to paralysis to poison.  Several types also exist that should be familiar to D&D players: disappearance, sleep, and itching.  Alchemical Dusts take two weeks to prepare, although help from a Wizard, Sorcerer, or Magician can cut this down to a week.  Their effects last for an hour.  Ingredients are pretty pricey here too...in addition to requiring a base made up of platinum, gold, and silver, they also generally require the ingredients of a potion as well.  For example, Dust of Disappearance requires the ingredients of Potion of Invisibility.

At this point, the Alchemist is hitting the big leagues.  All previous processes could be carried out in a decent apothecary's lab, if not by a campfire, but to do more impressive works, you need an Aludel (a type of vase) and an Athanor (a type of furnace).  Advanced Alchemical Equipment skill lets you make them, assuming you can take the down time required to gather ingredients, construct, and properly prepare the devices, at least two months for the Athanor.

Once you have your alchemy lab fully stocked with professional level equipment, the next step is making Advanced Alchemical Substances.  These are Alchahest (the universal solvent, left with some flaw in the formula so that it can actually be contained in something), Orichalc (a refined magical metal that can be used to make weapons and armor of up to +3 bonus), and Vitriol (the sovereign glue, dissolvable only by Alchahest).  Each of these substances takes two weeks to produce.

Essences are the next step in the Alchemist's progression.  To produce an Essence, the Alchemist must have a quantity of the metal or other substance he wishes to refine, some Alchahest, and a fully stocked (Aludel and Athanor) laboratory.  There are 11 Essences to choose from, including Variable Mercury (the Philosopher's Stone, used to turn lead into gold), Waters of Sulfur (which can restore the dead to life), and True Platinum (which can be used to create items that function similarly to a Ring of Spell Storing).  A particularly interesting Essence is Essential Earths, which can be made into an Elixir of Elemental Power.  This elixir can be used by the Alchemist to gain powers related to one of the four elements, such as the ability to breathe water, walk on water, and speak with water elementals, or immunity to fire, the ability to set flammable items alight by touch, and the ability to speak with fire elementals.

At the highest levels, Alchemists gain the ability to make Golems (fairly self-explanatory), Machina (constructs like the Iron Cobra...several others are listed as well), and Homonculi (which can be of any size and shape the creator wishes, as long as he has the materials for it). 

So, a pretty impressive list of magic for a non-spellcaster.  When I started composing this post, I really didn't intend to get this detailed about alchemy, but I think to do less would do the Alchemist class a disservice.  Additionally, it will be easier to describe the spellcasting classes now that alchemy is out of the way...I can just refer to the alchemical skill now, without having to delve into any further detail.

Next time I post, hopefully I will have worked out something useful related to swells, but if not, I will go over non-spellcasting dual-class classes of the Arcanum.

Races in the Atlantean RPG

I'm getting closer to some kind of swell system.  I've crunched the numbers for about ten different real world shorelines, and while the average swells are probably higher than we see in real life (my model is obviously making some wrong assumption somewhere), I think I can tweak the numbers to work.  I can make a set of swell tables that would work well enough for a historical real-world setting with what I already have, but I think I'll run some more numbers and try to make a generalized table that would work in any given fantasy world (or at least most of them).

But while I ponder these details, I'll talk a little more about the Atlantean RPG.  The game provided some new races with some pretty exciting abilities, and had a few twists on some old favorites that made them a little more interesting as well.

Humans in this game, like most games, are kind of the default.  They don't get a whole lot of abilities, and don't have to deal with a whole lot of drawbacks.  The only thing they get, aside from the ability to take any class in the game, is a +1 bonus to any one saving throw.

The Aesir are the first new race in the game.  They are essentially small giants, or maybe more civilized ogres, averaging just above 7 feet tall, and weighing in at about 350 pounds.  They have an increased racial maximum for Strength, at the cost of penalties to racial maximum for Speed, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Perception.  Aesir get a +2 bonus to Strength saves, and get +1 damage to all attacks.  They also have the smallest list of potential classes, limited only to Warriors, Corsairs, Gladiators, and one spell-casting class - Shamans.

The next new race is the Andaman.  Andaman are animalistic humanoids, most often resembling wolves, jackals, lions, leopards, tigers, or panthers.  Their increased racial maximums are Speed and Perception, while their reduced maximums are Intelligence, Will, and Charisma.  They get a host of animal type racial skills, including night vision, scent tracking, stealth, leaping, and natural weapons.  They also get bonuses to Speed and Perception saving throws.  They have a fairly restricted class list, including Bounty Hunter, Corsair, Gladiator, Hunter, Rogue, Spy, Warrior, Martial Artist (Tiger style Kung Fu, anyone?), and while they have no spell-casting class options, they can become Beastmasters, which have some pretty magical abilities.

The Druas look pretty much like D&D Drow, and they have a bad reputation as mysterious wanderers.  I never really got into Druas myself, but their ability to send a short telepathic message once a day came in handy.  They had increased maximum Will and Perception, with reduced maximum Strength, Constitution, and Charisma.  They got +2 to Perception saves, +1 to Will saves, and infravision to top it all off.  Their class choices were fairly varied, including Assassin, Astrologer, Wizard, Bounty Hunter, Rogue, Hunter, Warrior, Martial Artist, Witch, Monk, Witch Hunter, Mystic, Mage, and Savant.

Dwarves in the Arcanum are pretty familiar.  Mining related skills, infravision, tough but slow.  They get increased Constitution and decreased Speed, Dexterity, and Charisma maximums, as well as a +1 to CON saves.  What's interesting in this game is that they are not locked out of magic-user type classes; the class list includes Magician, Priest, Alchemist, Paladin, Scholar, Shaman, Savant, Rogue, Warrior, and Thaumaturge.

Elves are also pretty familiar.  They get increased Dexterity and Perception maximums, and decreased Strength, Constitution, and Will.  They have +1 to all Perception, Dexterity, and Charisma saves, and also infravision.  Elves in the Arcanum seem to me more like Warhammer Elves than the D&D type, with more high civilization type classes available (High Elves) as well as more woodsy classes (Wood Elves).  I never really understood how D&D Elves (at least in earlier editions) weren't able to be rangers or druids.  Arcanum classes available for Elves are Thaumaturge, Witch, Rogue, Paladin, Magician, Spy, Druid, Wizard, Scholar, Warrior, Hunter, Priest, Sorcerer, Bounty Hunter, Witch Hunter, and Enchanter.

Nethermen are Human/Goblin hybrids, making them Half-Orc analogues.  They fill the same general niche...kind of shady, prone to brutality, not accepted in polite society.  Nethermen have no increased racial characteristic maximum, but take penalties to maximum Dexterity, Intelligence, Will, and Charisma.  They get +1 to Strength saves, and have a 95% chance of infravision.  Their potential classes are Assassin, Witchdoctor, Bounty Hunter, Shaman, Rogue, Spy, Gladiator, Corsair, Warrior, Hunter, and Necromancer.

Selkies are a new race.  In fact, Wikipedia says they didn't appear in the early editions of the Atlantean RPG.  I don't clearly recall anyone playing a Selkie when we played back in the 80s, so maybe that's right; when I got my copy of the Arcanum they didn't stand out as a change to me, though.  At any rate, Selkies are Human/Triton hybrids, and as such, are good swimmers, and are able to stay underwater for an hour per level, before having to resurface.  They get increased Perception maximum, at the cost of a reduced Constitution maximum.  Selkies can be Beastmasters, Corsairs, Druids, Priests, Rogues, Scholars, Warriors, or Witches.

The last race available as PCs are Zephyrs.  Appearing as winged humans, Zephyrs are able to fly for one hour per level before stopping to rest, and while flying move at double their normal Speed.  They get increased maximum Charisma and Perception, with reduced maximum Strength, Constitution, and Will.  They have keen eyesight, and get +1 saves vs Perception and Charisma.  Lastly, they get +1 to hit with missile weapons.  Zephyrs can be Hunters, Scholars, Spies, Rogues, Harlequins, Priests, Bounty Hunters, Warriors, and Enchanters.

So some fairly interesting choices there.  Next time I get around to talking about the Atlantean RPG, I'll start on classes.  As you can see from the lists above, there is a pretty long list of classes available, and some might even be Humans only, from what I remember at the moment.  I'm going to break these down by type, starting with non-spell-casting single classes.

And of course, all the while, I'll be working on swell numbers...

The Horseman's Flail is a Lie!

It is interesting that at least one existing example is now being reinterpreted as a horse whip, though.


https://curiosity.com/paths/the-medieval-weapon-that-never-really-existed-nerdalert

Fourth Age of Middle Earth

Several years ago, there was a thread on the Hero Games forums discussing ways to make a game set in the Fourth Age of Middle Earth work.  It was agreed that there would be no elves or dwarves, or at least there would be next to none.  Someone pointed out that in order to feel like Middle Earth, you needed a big bad guy...after all, in the Silmarillion, you had Melkor/Morgoth causing trouble in the First Age, and Sauron filling the role in the Second and Third Ages.  There were some suggestions that maybe Saruman or some other corrupted Maia would be the bad guy; it was pretty generally accepted that the Fourth Age would have a lesser bad guy in keeping with the lesser grandeur of the age.  After all, even Sauron wasn't as powerful in the Third Age as he was in the Second, and he didn't hold a candle to Morgoth even then.  But the final demise of Sauron and Saruman was too well-documented in the source material.  The thread wound down around that point, without really finishing what it had started.

The naysayers won that one, and no suitable enemy was to be found.  I think Andres Diplotti figured it all out, though:

http://www.cracked.com/blog/snow-white-lord-rings-share-same-universe/

Number crunching interlude and an underappreciated RPG

Doing all these probability manipulations for this swell project is going to take some time, and once I'm done with that, if the numbers come out reasonably well, I'll have to find patterns I can use to develop a system to generate random swell patterns without all this fiddling with spreadsheets in between.  But rather than leaving the blog to sit unattended while I churn my way through, and sometimes make no progress at all when I get tired of it all, I'm going to spend a little time here and there talking about a game that I rarely see discussed online, despite the fact that it was both fun and ahead of its time in many ways.

The Atlantean RPG was first published in 1983 by Bard Games as the "Compleat Series"...The Compleat Alchemist, The Compleat Spell Caster, and The Compleat Adventurer.  It was later expanded into the "Atlantean Trilogy" consisting of The Arcanum (the main rules, including all character classes), The Beastiary (the monster book), and The Lexicon (the oddly named setting book, giving a decent overview of the whole game world, although not much detail on any given area).

I first ran into the Arcanum around 1987.  A friend of mine had it (as well as a ton of other good stuff...I was really envious of his gaming library at the time), and while I was fairly prejudiced early in my gaming career against any game that wasn't D&D, and particularly those games that were very similar to D&D, I became intrigued by some of the changes the Arcanum had made.  Eventually, we made characters and ran at least one Arcanum campaign.  I know I made three different characters, but I don't remember if it was because one died, or because I got tired of one character, or if the group as a whole got tired of the campaign and started a different one later.  We never used the Lexicon, and I don't recall if the DM used the monsters from the Beastiary, the AD&D Monster Manual, or some combination of the two, but the Arcanum had made enough of an impression on me that I kept my eyes out for all three books for years, and finally bought them from Noble Knight Games a few years back.  For what it's worth, at least one of those Arcanum campaigns we played was set in the Forgotten Realms, which was also my first exposure to that idea; the Forgotten Realms never made the same kind of  impression on me as the Arcanum did.

So what makes this game different from D&D?  I'll save details on the races, classes, and magic system for later, but here are some quick bullet points about the game:

• Point-buy stats:  At a time when AD&D classes had stat requirements that could be frustratingly difficult to attain randomly, you were assured of getting the class you wanted in the Arcanum.  There was some minor randomization involving the number of points you had to spend, and if you wanted a stat at the racial maximum, you only had a 10% chance to get it (otherwise you had one point less), but there was no chance of rolling straight 8s and having to play a dumpy character while your friend rolls a bunch of 16s.
• Speed and Perception stats: The Atlantean system had eight stats instead of D&D's six.  Most were the same, with Will and Wisdom as obvious analogues, but the Arcanum added Perception (allowing characters different chances to notice an ambush or find a secret door...yes, Elves had a good Perception maximum) and Speed (giving characters different base movement rates).
• No combat tables:  By the time I ran into the Arcanum, THAC0 was a well-known concept in D&D.  THAC0 requires subtraction,though, and while that's not overly hard, it is still harder than adding.  In the Arcanum, 11 is the number to hit, and characters get periodic bonuses to hit based primarily on class and level, similar to 3rd Edition BAB.  Also saving throws don't have a table, but are based again on the number 11, with bonuses or penalties based on stats.  If it makes sense to dodge a trap, save vs Dexterity.  If it makes sense to tough it out, save vs Constitution.  There are really no save-or-die effects, so while higher level characters fail their saves more often than in D&D, it doesn't matter as much.  Also, lower level characters are more durable because of this.
• Characters are more durable at lower level: Besides easier saving throws and fewer save-or-die effects, characters have more hit points.  Hit points for all characters are equal to their Constitution score, with an additional fixed amount per level based on class, plus a bonus per level for high Constitution.  Even a pretty scrawny mage-type ends up with at least 10 or 12 hp at 1st level most of the time, and since it's a point-buy system, if you feel screwed over, it's your own fault.  No worries about getting mauled by the innkeeper's cat and left for dead.
• Armor absorbs damage: While I've mellowed towards the abstract nature of D&D armor classes, at the time, I was unhappy with it, to say the least.  I suppose it comes from the idea that you need to roll over a certain number to hit, and therefore if you roll too low, it's a miss.  This in turn leads to the idea that there are to hit rolls that will hit a nimble, dodgy thief with a 5 AC, but miss a guy loaded down in platemail and 80 pounds of gear.  The Arcanum foreshadows later editions of D&D in that heavier armor penalizes Dexterity rolls.
• Characters are more customizable:  Most of a class's description breaks down to a list of skills.  These skills can be bought separately by spending experience points, so if your paladin really needs to know how to sneak around, he can delay gaining a level and learn Stealth.  Spellcasters can even learn spells from other lists.
• No more single-use magic users:  All spellcasters have (level+2) spells per day, so even 1st level characters can cast three times before they're out.  Even at that, the skills associated with each class give them something more they can contribute, usually including some sort of minor alchemical ability.
• "I don't want to be the cleric!":  Parties without a cleric in D&D spend a lot of time holed up licking their wounds.  It's hard for a small group of heroes to keep pressure on a large group of bad guys if they have to take a few days between fights, so someone has to be the cleric.  Not everyone wants to be a cleric though, and sometimes it gets passed along as a rotating duty from campaign to campaign.  In the Arcanum, any character with Divine magic, Elemental magic, Low magic, Healing Arts, or Herbal Remedies can heal at 1st level, so whoever's turn it is to be the healer has a choice of 10 different classes.  More characters pick up healing abilities at higher levels, too.
• No walking magic-item hoards:  All my early games of D&D and AD&D seemed to end up swimming in magic items.  Most of them ended up being kept around "just in case", charges hoarded away until the absolute perfect time, which kind of just added to the problem.  (Encumbrance should have kept this under control, I suppose, but like many people, we usually ended up handwaving that in the interest of getting on with the game.)  The Arcanum specifically forbids any character from carrying more than seven magic items or they ALL stop working (one use items like scrolls and alchemical mixtures excluded).  Still plenty of room for a magic shield, magic armor, magic boots, magic sword, dagger, spear, and magic helmet.  But when you find a ring or something, you need to prioritize what you want and what you can do without...

 Okay, plenty of that for now...back to the spreadsheet for me.  I'll post about Arcanum races later.