29 January 2010

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net

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[Colonial Gothic] A preview of Session Frequency

JAN 28, 2010 09:20A.M.
the Gazetteer
JAN 28, 2010 08:09P.M. I noticed that, in the comments about my last session of the
Dwimmermount campaign, there was some incredulity that I played
So, you want a sneak peak at the Colonial Gothic Gazetteer? every weekend with my group. Now, given the fact that the campaign is
now a little over a year old and there have only been 28 sessions, you can
I know you do. see that, in point of fact, we get together more like once every other
week. The realities of “adult” life — work and family responsibilities, for
Take a gaze at the state of my birth: example — mean that we often have to skip a week. But, that said, we
aim to play every week and we quite often will hit that mark consistently
Colonial Gothic Gazteer Preview for long stretches of time, with the summer and period around
Christmas/New Year being the most prone to interruptions in our play
There is more cool things were this came from. schedule.

I am, however, getting the distinct impression that gaming even every
other week is something of an anomaly among my readership. Am I
ROGUE FEED mistaken in this? How often do you typically meet to roleplay? I ask both
out of personal curiosity and because a regular jab made at the old school
Font Test movement is that it’s made up primarily of guys who no longer actually
JAN 28, 2010 01:49P.M. game but just like to talk about gaming. Is there any truth to this?

What do you think of this font? Does it suggest anything to you? Is it

evocative of pulp fantasy decadence or does it look too “historical?”
ROGUE FEED

Chartless Combat
JAN 28, 2010 08:39A.M.

A frequent complaint about old school Dungeons & Dragons is the need
for a matrix to tell you what your character needs to hit an opponent in
combat. This fact is also often used as a justification for the shift to an
ascending armor class system, like that introduced in D&D III, which
obviates the necessity of such a chart. While it’s true that old school D&D
has traditionally employed a chart to present “to hit” numbers, that’s not
the only way the information could be presented.

In my own Dwimmermount campaign, I don’t use a combat chart at all

when refereeing. Instead, when a monster attacks, I roll a D20, and add
the monster’s Hit Dice and the target’s (descending) armor class to the
result of the dice roll. If the sum is 20 or more, the attack is successful.
This system is simple and quick and I don’t need to consult any charts.

The players write down their attack numbers on the character sheets, so
they don’t regularly use a chart either. Of course, they could use a similar
system to what I use for monsters if they wanted. They’d just have to

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 29 January 2010

change the addition of Hit Dice to the addition of a class-based “combat succeeds.
bonus” that boiled the charts down to a single +x to hit. For example:

Fighting Man

Level

Combat Bonus

1-2

+0

+1

+2

+3

+4

7-8

+5

+6

10-11

+7

12+

+8

Example: A 4th-level fighting man wearing plate mail (AC 3) is facing off
against an orc champion wearing chain mail and carrying a shield (AC
4). His player rolls 1D20 and scores a “2.” To this the player adds his
character’s combat bonus (+2) and the orc’s armor class (4), resulting in
a total of 8. Since that doesn’t equal 20 or more, the fighting man misses.
The orc (who has 2 Hit Dice) attempts to attack in return. The referee
rolls “15.” To this he adds the orc’s Hit Dice and the fighting man’s armor
class (3). The result is exactly 20, meaning that the orc’s attack