Monday, December 22, 2014

HitBox v.3.02

I have done some looking around at other character record sheets for d20 systems and I have come up with a decent one for my own games.

Here Hitbox version 3.02 shall be explained and I'll open it to comments and criticisms. 


Remember, this is for my own use for playing and hopefully players will adopt this form for their own use playing or game-mastering.



HitBox official version 3.02 but denoted 4 (rev. 12.22.2014)
CR : Challenge Rating : is the number of which a PC needs to meet or beat in order to accomplish the challenge.  Mostly used for combat but also represents the difficulty of how to open a lock, wizard barred/locked door, drinking a vile potion or alcohol, and just about anything which could challenge a PC and/or his party.

Player Name: is the owner/user of this form and the one in charge of updating (Last Updated) and giving to the GM for his records.


Type: in my games there are many combat/party styles. They are the following (but not limited to) :

Melee: Hand to Hand
Melee: Ranged
Spell : Arcane
Spell : Divine
Skilled

These types are important because they share the same similar skill sets and thus makes for vastly simpler character generation.


Class (Character Level):  as your PC progresses in level/difficulty it's keen to keep track of the class' level and the overall character level.  How this is done is left upto the player but ultimately the total should be displayed apart from the class(es).


What is the difference between Hitbox versions (1.x, 2.x, 3.x, 4) ?

Some more information is put into the HBX, displayed in grey, and additions to the previous versions for ease-of-use and visibility.
- Of late these will be minor updates to the previous version.  Official (12/22/14) is 3.02 but shall be referred to as Version 4.

Along the top row of HitBox4 you see numbered columns followed by REZ and DEAD.  This is to signify how bad the penalties are to all die rolls for each column breached.  Once you have the hit points for that column after the first then you suffer a -2, -3, or -4 penalty on all rolls.  If you suffer enough damage to reach negative ten percent of your total health (HP by level, plus only bonuses from Constitution) you are no longer combat capable and are category REZ (or resurrectable).  If for some reason you suffer a negative total equal to your total health then you are by no further means resurrectable even by deific means and you are category DEAD (please give this sheet to the GM.  it may be burned, spindled, mutilated, shredded, sent to its grave, but never brought back to use... ever).


HD: Hit Dice : the bigger they are the bigger they hit, fall, and longer to heal.  The idea of having this here is so that when you get hit or land a hit which causes such traumatic damage that instead of lesser hit points (HP) you plainly can see the effects of combat.  If something attacking you is double your HD there's a good chance of an insta-kill.


HP: Hit Points : a good way to fine-line between different stages of recovery columns.

Greyed out is a reminder what to put where and how much.

BAB : Base Attack Bonus : for heavy combat adventures/campaigns please use Pathfinder's rules on this.  In DnD 5E there are rare mentions of multiple attack combinations (multiattacks). Most 5E are listed as a bonus to hit the DC and nothing else.  This harkens back to 1E where multiple attacks were unheard of.  

- In the case of heavy combat games the greyed out portions are:
Main Hand (MH), Off Hand (OH), second MH attack (MH2), second off hand attack (OH2), attack while Hasted (HASTE), and if you are level enough with enough training you may be able to pull off a Lucky Shot (LUCK (MH-25) where your DC is +25 higher/harder. 

AC : Armor Class : is how well defensive you are.  Armor, shields, magical devices, martial techniques, and combat feats provide you with bonuses as well as your DEX.
- BEST : is your total overall best AC which is the DC.  Add up everything you have equipped.
- TOUCH : (Pathfinder rule) Some attacks completely disregard armor, including shields and natural armor—the aggressor need only touch a foe for such an attack to take full effect. In these cases, the attacker makes a touch attack roll (either ranged or melee). When you are
the target of a touch attack, your AC doesn’t include any armor bonus, shield bonus, or natural armor bonus. All other modifiers, such as your size modifier, Dexterity modifier, and deflection bonus (if any) apply normally. Some creatures have the ability to make incorporeal touch attacks. These attacks bypass solid objects, such as armor and shields, by passing through them. Incorporeal touch attacks work similarly to normal touch attacks except that they also ignore cover bonuses. Incorporeal touch attacks do not ignore armor bonuses granted by
force effects, such as mage armor and bracers of armor.
- FLATFlat-Footed : (Pathfinder rule) At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) while flat-footed. Barbarians and rogues of high enough level have the uncanny dodge extraordinary ability, which means that they cannot be caught flat-footed. Characters with uncanny dodge retain their Dexterity bonus to their AC and can make attacks of opportunity before they have acted in the first round of combat. A flat-footed character can’t make attacks of opportunity, unless he has the Combat Reflexes feat.

RESIST : previously you had Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower with the Pathfinder rules system. This is no longer the case in DnD5E.  Instead you now have a bonus to Saving Throws (Saves) with some races and some class ability modifiers.  Example: dwarves are resistant to poison, elves to magic and charm, halflings to fear and the like.
- This area is for specific resistances and immunities.  If they can be dealt with modifiers from race or class they need not be listed here.

Added to the 1.x - 2.x HitBox is the new "Expeditious Levelling" (explained below), and a place to keep track of the PC's abilities, their modifiers, their move, and initiative (self explanatory).


Monday, November 24, 2014

Work in progress...

I've been working on trying to make my games funner to play while extending them in real time.

I've had run AD&D 1e-3e and Pathfinder where PC's were inundated with terrific (and terrifying) magics, creatures beyond belief, and the like...  but the players did not see my vision.

Since starting to run I've seen many other GM's using more realism to their games and I have now understood the reason...  but now I'm hoping to step up and do a realism game yet the quest is beyond the normal structure of the campaign setting.

I am a fan of the Pathfinder Campaign setting and I believe my own rendition of the classic Throne of Bloodstone would do some justice to my gaming career as both player and game master.

My blog, Throne of Bloodstone ( ToBiG blog ) has some of my house rules there but I hope to get a discussion going and perhaps post here.

Hit Box is a concept of visualizing what you need during combat, the numbers you are always trying to add up and/or forgetting.  HB allows a quick way for GM's to keep track of PC's and NPC's and their vitals.

Broken down into columns allows for a easy visual to keep things flowing while keeping the PC alive in the game.  Columns "Rez" & "Dead" are there to signify the end of the line, when you can be risen or when you hand in your records to the GM for shredding (and maybe party loot).

HD  hit points divided by eight.  How many hits will you take before going down ?  Each column is a quarter of your full health (HP) without buffs.

HP is like HD (above) but is the 1:1 ratio.

BAB, Base Attack Bonus, or simply the best main hand (MH) attack, best off hand (OH) attack, next MH, next OH, and next if Hasted, and then if you have 20/15/10/5 attacks then a lucky last attack.
MH/OH/MH/OH/HASTE/LUCKY.

AC, Armor Class, is best, touch, then flatfoot.

DR, SR, MR%, Damage Resistance, Spell Resistance, and Magic Resistance.  If you have them they go in these spots.

STUN, if you suffer a hit which gives you this much damage (either HD or HP) then you are given the STUN condition for a number of rounds listed.  This correlates directly to how many hits you have taken (by HD or HP).


Hitbox v2, updated on 16-December-2014 by Marcaise

Hitbox v.2.0 includes the standard HitBox information AND adds to it Expeditious Levelling (below).

Expeditious Levelling is my concept of allowing levelling at a rate equivalent to the experience tables in various system.  Your level plus your next level is the base challenge rating (CR) of the stuff your party needs to level.  Based upon the Average Party Level (APL) of a group of four PC's.  This does not mean you actually level faster but instead of keeping track of experience by points events are kept track of instead.

I'll be making a webpage with tables so you can actually see these tables and will be linked here when they are ready / done.

I don't like math as much as the next person and counting my pennies just sucks.  So what I came up with was a EVENT REWARD TABLE which should move things along and up the levelling charts.

Encounter:  
  • seen event/target in person and lived
  • seeing something new and proof to another outside of your party
  • event/target may be encountered in any condition: Friendly, Neutral, or Hostile
Defeat:
  • a hostile event/target in which said event was defeated during your immediate presence and time
  • defeated need only surrender or flee but doesn't need to be killed/slain.
  • you (or with party) need only survive this event to gain XP.  You must have had dealt damage or "support" equal to or more than a quarter of its listed XP value from the Monster Manual (or its equivalent if a "Thing"; see later).
Kill (Fatality):
  • a hostile event/target you (or with party) have dispatched temporarily from gameplay (storyline) until it is resurrected (or recreated)
  • event/target is removed from gameplay until becoming fully healthy again, a condition called "Arisen" which mortals can only be Arisen be brought back a certain number of times. "Deific" designated targets have unlimited times to be Arisen being Defeated or Killed, however if Slain it is handled different.
    • Arisen mortals start with a number of Arisen Points equal to his starting Constitution Bonus (or Modifier, whichever is higher during Character Creation)
    • Cannot be changed or affected, ever
    • from another variant AD&D 1E, equivalent to Death Points
    • Killing an Arisen gives a one-time chance a bonus reward
      • roll 1d20, on a 20 receive 150% of Arisen Kill Reward
  • a kill means the hostile event/target was taken down to zero to negative ten health (0 to -10 hp)
Slay (Slain):
  • hostile event/target which has taken so much damage (negative eleven or more) it cannot naturally heal itself, or no heal nor resurrection is possible
  • a "Deific" classed hostile event/target must be slain twice
    • once slain they attain a "Slain by (Hero's Name)" title as a marker for extinction. 
    • if slain twice (truly, a "true death") the hostile event/target will never come back and becomes a Historical Event
    • slaying twice gives both slayers an extra reward chance
      • roll 1d20, on a 1 receive 300% of Deific Slain Reward
EVENT, Number of times the following Events need be achieved to obtain the next level, keeping in mind that you are in a party of four of average party level (the basic APL)...

Event List

  • Encounter: 16 Places, 8 Things, 4 Monsters
  • Defeat : 8 places, 4 things, 2 monsters
  • Kill :4 places, 2 things, 1 monster
  • Slay/Destroy : 2 places, 1 thing, 1 monster

All Events based upon an average CR for your APL.


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Introductions for AD&D 2014 with 5th Edition ...

Hello all fellow gamers!

I'm happy to say that I like 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons that it may take over for the system of choice for my Pathfinder campaign :  Throne of Bloodstone In Golarion  ( the blog :  ToBIG ).

1st edition was simple and very straight forward.  The experience rewards are little and made every player work for their +1 thingamabob. There was some diversity from 2E - 3.xE D&D and more so with Pathfinder.  With 5e they've combined best of all versions and made some improvements in my opinion.

Since I've played since then I have come p with some House Rules which will keep the XP penny counting to a minimum and I hope will expedite gameplay.


DnD5e House Rules

Expeditious Levelling

I don't like math as much as the next person and counting my pennies just sucks.  So what I came up with was a REWARD TABLE which should move things along and up the levelling charts.

Encounter:  
  • seen event/target in person and lived
  • seeing something new and proof to another outside of your party
  • event/target may be encountered in any condition: Friendly, Neutral, or Hostile
Defeat:
  • a hostile event/target in which said event was defeated during your immediate presence and time
  • defeated need only surrender or flee but doesn't need to be killed/slain.
  • you (or with party) need only survive this event to gain XP.  You must have had dealt damage or "support" equal to or more than a quarter of its listed XP value from the Monster Manual (or its equivalent if a "Thing"; see later).
Kill (Fatality):
  • a hostile event/target you (or with party) have dispatched temporarily from gameplay (storyline) until it is resurrected (or recreated)
  • event/target is removed from gameplay until becoming fully healthy again, a condition called "Arisen" which mortals can only be Arisen be brought back a certain number of times. "Deific" designated targets have unlimited times to be Arisen being Defeated or Killed, however if Slain it is handled different.
    • Arisen mortals start with a number of Arisen Points equal to his starting Constitution Bonus (or Modifier, whichever is higher during Character Creation)
    • Cannot be changed or affected, ever
    • from another variant AD&D 1E, equivalent to Death Points
    • Killing an Arisen gives a one-time chance a bonus reward
      • roll 1d20, on a 20 receive 150% of Arisen Kill Reward
  • a kill means the hostile event/target was taken down to zero to negative ten health (0 to -10 hp)
Slay (Slain):
  • hostile event/target which has taken so much damage (negative eleven or more) it cannot naturally heal itself, or no heal nor resurrection is possible
  • a "Deific" classed hostile event/target must be slain twice
    • once slain they attain a "Slain by (Hero's Name)" title as a marker for extinction. 
    • if slain twice (truly, a "true death") the hostile event/target will never come back and becomes a Historical Event
    • slaying twice gives both slayers an extra reward chance
      • roll 1d20, on a 1 receive 300% of Deific Slain Reward

Number of times the following much be achieved to obtain the next level, keeping in mind that you are in a party of four heroes of average party level (the basic APL)...

Encounter 16 Places, 8 Things, 4 Monsters
Defeat 8 places, 4 things, 2 monsters
Kill 4 places, 2 things, 1 monster
Slay/Destroy 2 places, 1 thing, 1 monster

All events based upon an average CR for your APL.