First, I'd like to do a follow-up on For Gold and Glory (FG&G): good, solid game. We experienced only two minor issues. First, we find it worthwhile to actually purchase a hard copy of the game’s book. We were using PDF readers on my laptop, an iPad, and a Windows tablet. Looking something up quickly was more difficult than it needed to be, and a printed copy would have removed that difficulty. A softcover edition in black-and-white (with a color cover!) cost less than $11, and arrived within ten days. The second minor issue relates to my being bad at math. FG&G uses the same “THAC0” (“To-Hit Armor Class 0”) combat system that AD&D used, but I chose to use the system from Stars Without Number, a free science-fiction RPG that uses “Old School” elements. In this system, the attacker adds the result of a d20 roll to his Base Attack Bonus, any relevant modifiers (like Strength bonus to attack with a melee weapon), and the defender’s Armor Class (which starts at 10 for an unarmored target and improves by the number getting smaller, just like in AD&D and FG&G. Chain Mail, for example, is AC5, and could be modified by Dexterity, shields, and magic items.) If the result of this modified roll is 20 or greater, it’s a hit; 19 or less, a miss. To get the Base Attack Bonus (BAB), simply subtract the THAC0 given in the book for your class and level from 20, and write that number down on your character sheet. Example: George the third-level fighter has a FG&G THAC0 of 18. 20-18=2, so George’s BAB is 2. He’s very strong; his strength bonus to hit with a melee weapon is +2. He’s specialized in Cutlass (a type of sword), so he gets an additional +1 to hit with it, and he owns a +2 magic cutlass. When using a cutlass in combat, George therefore would add 2 (BAB) to his other modifiers (Strength +2, Specialization Bonus +1, Magic +2: total +5) and his opponent’s Armor Class (AC) – let’s say a human wearing chain mail, so AC 5 – to a d20 roll. 2+5+5=12, so d20+12, and any result of 20 or more is a hit. Most of this math can be done beforehand, with each weapon carried, so it’s simply a matter of adding the enemy’s AC to George’s normal +7 with his cutlass. The math problem that I will confess to is the simple 20-THAC0=BAB equation. I did not prepare so diligently as to write the total attack bonuses (BAB plus modifiers) down, and a couple of times I subtracted the bad guy’s AC from 20 instead of his THAC0. Mea culpa, I'm math-dumb. Regardless, For Gold and Glory” is awesome, and well worth both the free download and buying the book. If you haven’t yet done so, please point your browser to http://drivethrurpg.com/product/156530/For-Gold--Glory, and download the free PDF. Now, I did get a new (to me) game published by Goblinoid Games entitled Starships and Spacemen (S&S). Goblinoid Games is the publisher of other “Old School Roleplaying” (OSR) games: Labyrinth Lord, Advanced Companion Labyrinth Lord, and Mutant Future. Labyrinth Lord is strongly based on “Red Box” D&D, while Advanced Companion adds elements from AD&D First Edition. Honestly, the AC is kind of like how my group played AD&D back in the day: a bit of “original” D&D, a bit of “the new stuff.” Anyway, Starships and Spacemen has a very similar “engine” to Old School D&D. There are races (species) and classes; each class has a specific function, as well as different primary (and secondary, and “other”) skills. For example, a Medical officer is a subclass of a Scientific Branch officer. As a Scientific Branch officer, he has a primary skill of Science, and as a Medical officer, he has a secondary skill of Technical. This gives him a better Science skill than, say, a Military Branch officer (as well as a better Science skill than an Enlisted (Scientific Branch) character) but his Technical skill is not as high as that of a Technical Branch officer. There are three branches: Military (who wear gold uniforms), Science (who wear blue), and Technical (who wear red.) Enlisted characters have a lower Experience Point (XP) requirement to advance than officers, and Military Branch officers have a higher XP requirement than officers of the other two branches. Each branch has sub-classes: Military has Command, Security, and Fire Control; Scientific has Biology, Medical, and Sentient Life; and Technical has Communications, Navigation, and Engineering. Officers progress through twelve levels, and Enlisted through nine. (There is, to my Navy brain, a mistake in the rank titles for enlisted crew: a fourth-level enlisted is listed as “Petty Officer First Class,” with 5th Level being Second Class and 6th Level being Third. In the Real World – and in STARFLEET, for that matter – it’s the other way around. 4th Level should be Petty Officer Third Class, 5th = Second Class, and 6th = First Class.) There are four Skills: Combat, Contact, Science, and Technical. Primary skills are higher than Secondary, and both are higher than “Other” (If it’s not a primary, or a secondary, it’s other.) These skills improve with level, and the game mechanic calls for the player to roll the skill number or lower on a twenty-sided die (d20). The skill may be modified by ability scores, special items, situations, equipment, etc. The races somewhat resemble standard Star Trek races. For example, the “Taurans” are a green-tinged, pointed-eared species with great strength, a “machine-like logical mind,” copper-based blood, psionic powers, and a nerve strike that may stun a victim. They also go into a “blood fever” every so many years, during which their ancestral aggressive impulses rise to the surface. Pon Farr, anyone? Since the system is similar in many ways to other games published by Goblinoid Games, it would not be difficult to use “monsters” from Labyrinth Lord or Mutant Future as aliens – sentient or not – in this game. For that matter, it would be fairly easy to add Elves, Dwarves, or Halflings to a starship’s crew. Equipment is issued to characters based on their level and class: a Security officer can’t get an “auto-analyser” (tricorder), a Biology officer can’t get a Skirmish Suit, and an Engineer can’t get a Medkit. The more powerful the item, the more “Units” it costs. A starting Human Ensign has two units to “spend.” A communicator is one-half unit, as is a Universal Translator. A Beam Pistol costs one unit. Equipment is returned to the ship’s locker, or to the starbase, at the end of the mission. There’s a lot more to it, but overall, I find it simple to understand, and probably very easy to generate characters and to play. I’ll let you know how it works (if I ever get a chance to play it)! Meanwhile, I designed a character sheet that I like better than the one that comes with the game. You can get it here. Grab some dice, and let’s start killin’ some goblins – er, I mean “Zangids” … Sum non Satis? Commodore Tank Clark, SFMD Team Leader, 33rd STARFLEET Rangers (“The Paladins”) “Have Phaser, Will Travel”
1 Comment
|
Commodore Tank ClarkCommodore Clark has been the Team Leader of the 33rd STARFLEET Rangers for several years. His monthly articles about games (usually Role-Playing Games -- RPGs -- but sometimes about other tabletop forms of entertainment) appear regularly in the Regulator Charge!, the ship's newsletter. Archives
September 2017
Categories |