GURPS Fantasy First Edition Session One

I always wanted to play this game.

It turns out to be quite a slog. A point-buy characters system with elaborate tactical combat rules turns out to be a very bad combination for getting a game off the ground. I had thought that things would work well if I interpreted everything through the lens of the old Wizard microgame, but GURPS Second Edition is not that sort of game at all.

It took one hour and forty minutes to play out a simple duel in a blank arena map. We had to look very closely at the rules for missile spells and the rules for close combat. At one point the goblin pit fighter failed on an attempt to tackle my fireball thrower. The guy was on the ground right at my feet and I could not find any relevant modifier to this to use to adjust the to-hit roll. Even though not getting a dodge roll was a nice perk, this was irritating. Another thing to come up was that we were completely on our own to adjudicate how to find somebody to attack them when they are inside a circle of 7 hexes of darkness somewhere.

I had allowed “patrons” into the game on a very loose basis so that they could bet on the proceedings and possibly interfere. I thought perhaps to get them character stats, but honestly… I am not sure that anyone cares. The idea of these entities as a faction is more important. Their stables of arena fighters, the amount of muscle that they have available, the objectives that they might have against each other… all of this seems well beyond the default scope of the early GURPS System. At this time I am not sure what to do with it.

The feel of spellcasting in early GURPS is quite different from Wizard. The Blur and Flash effects are effectively permanent. Being able to cast one-point fireballs on an infinite basis is quite unusual. Walking around with a fully charged up fireball that’s ready to throw is fun. I am not quite clear on spell spoilage rules and concentration just yet.

We need character point awards for the session here. I think three for the winner and one for the loser is fine. Attempting to rise above the status level of a slave is the default objective for the game. Buying off the Dead Broke advantage may be the first order of business, however. But for old Fireball here, I can’t see him doing anything else but buying up another skill level in Throwing right now.

There is a tremendous pressure to switch to GURPS 4e. The rules I have selected that I want to explore are not available anywhere except eBay and this turns out of be a nearly insurmountable hurdle for the game. I am the only person with the books and the only person that desires rules mastery of them, so this makes me a bottle neck for anything getting instantiated in the game. I don’t like residing in that position at all.

Update: After the game I realized that I had forgotten to roll the skill check for charging up new fireballs. I rolled them after the game and they all succeeded and none of them got critical successes or failures. Later we realized that we had also forgotten to apply the damage bonus that comes from Brawling skill. Our patron player assumed that this meant that the goblin mage had thrown the match. This seems to me to be a strong interpretation that says something about the campaign world, so I elect to lean into this. The experience awards should be adjusted to 2 character points to each combatant.

Here are in-character accounts of the campaign activity from our very helpful patron player:

Game day is here mooks. We’re taking bets right up until that Goblins feet hit the sand so get out your coin purses .

Win $1 for every $1.10 ya put down and get her Pin.

Remember proceeds might go to funding better roads for Orphans.

Odds
Fireball 1:1
Pitman 2:1

Bob Arum: $1000 on Fireball
Don King: $1000 on Pitman Da Gobbo
Karl Karlsonsonson: $1000 on Fireball

From the Journals of Wimpy, the No Longer Penniless, in which he began his career of monies after a day at the Arena with a Goblin Pitfighter:

The arena buzzed with anticipation as the crowd roared with bloodlust, their chants echoing off the stone walls like the rumble of distant thunder. I stood in the center, my robes billowing in the wind as I faced off against my opponent: a goblin, small in stature but fierce in spirit.

As the goblin charged towards me, I raised my staff, channeling the raw power of the elements into a swirling vortex of flames that danced at my fingertips. With a fierce cry, I unleashed the fireball, watching as it soared across the arena and slammed into the goblin’s chest with explosive force. To my surprise, the goblin blurred before my eyes, his form twisting and contorting as he dodged the fiery blast with uncanny speed. Before I could react, he was upon me, his blows raining down upon me with relentless fury.

I stumbled backward, pain shooting through my body as I struggled to regain my footing. With a grim determination, I charged up a new fireball, the flames crackling with renewed intensity as I prepared to unleash hell upon my diminutive foe. Just as I released the spell, the goblin disappeared from my vision as light flashed in my eyes, leaving me disoriented and confused. I blinked, trying to regain my bearings, but before I could react, he reappeared in view, his eyes gleaming with malicious intent.

As the light dazzled my senses, the goblin launched himself at me once more, his movements fluid and graceful as he danced around my attacks with uncanny agility. With each blow he landed, I felt my strength waning, my resolve faltering in the face of his relentless onslaught.

Yet. Still, I fought on. Trading blows with the goblin in a deadly dance of death and destruction. Sometimes I would summon the elements to my aid, hurling fireballs and bolts at him with all the power at my disposal. Other times, he would catch me off guard, slamming into me with brute force and ferocity.

It was a battle of attrition, a war of wills as we clashed again and again in the arena’s blood-soaked sands. I missed several times, my spells going wide as the goblin ducked and weaved with infuriating speed. But still, I pressed on, refusing to give up even as the odds seemed stacked against me.

And then, just when it seemed like all hope was lost, I managed to land one final blow, a double-sized fireball that engulfed the goblin in a blaze of searing flame. With a triumphant roar, I watched as he stumbled and fell, his body consumed by the inferno until nothing remained but ash and embers.

As the crowd erupted into cheers and applause, I collapsed to my knees, exhaustion washing over me like a tidal wave. It had been a hard-fought victory, won by the narrowest of margins, but in the end, I emerged victorious, the last mage standing in the arena of death and despair.

Megalos At Night Urgent Update:

It appears that rumors of Pitfight da Gobbo throwing Mondays duel were true. Without a doubt those little muscles were not used to their full extent. Authorities are seeking information, will offer immunity and reward those who come forward.

The integrity of the Megalos Arena is of utmost importance. Do your duty citizen.

Now a word from our sponsor:

Seeking restitution for damages due to thrown Duels? Sir Lukius Not-medici is here to help. A small retainer is all I ask and you get to keep 100% of your, ah, settlement.

—

Wimpy Penniless Fireball Wizard

ST 12 [20]
DX 13 [30]
IQ 14 [45]
HT 12 [20]

Thrust: 1-1
Swing: 1+2

[15] Handsome (+2/+4 reactions)
[-20] Dead Broke
[-10] Megolomania
[15] Magical Aptitude
[-20] Social Status -4

15 points in skills:
[8] Throwing [PH] DX+1 14
[4] Carousing [PA] DX+1 14
[1] Climbing [PA] DX-1 12
[2] Stealth [PA] DX 13

10 points in spells:
[1] Ignite Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Create Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Shape Fire [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[4] Fireball [MH] IQ 15 * **
[1] Simple Illusion [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Sound [MH] IQ-2 13 *
[1] Complex Illusion [MH] IQ-2 13 *

* Includes magery bonus
** Spells at skill 15 cost 1 less energy

Large Knife
cutting, 1, C 1
impaling, 1-1, C

Thrown Large Knife
impaling, 1-1, P-B -, Inc. 1, 1/2 8, Max 15

—

Pitfight Pitman

ST 10
DX 10
IQ 14 [45]
HT 14 [45]

Thrust: 1-2
Swing: 1

[-20] Dead Broke
[-10] Impulsiveness
[15] Magical Aptitude
[-20] Social Status -4
[10] Night Vision

22 points in skills:
[8] Shield [PE] DX+3 13
[2] Gambling [MA] IQ 2
[8] Brawling [PE] DX+3 13
[4] Alchemy [MVH] IQ-1 13

13 points in spells:
[1] Light [MH] IQ-1 13 *
[1] Continual Light [MH] IQ-1 13 *
[4] Flash [MH] IQ+1 15 * **
[2] Darkness [MH] IQ 14 *
[4] Blur [MH] IQ+1 15 * **
[1] Seek Water [MH] IQ 13 *

* Includes magery bonus
** Spells at skill 15 cost 1 less energy

Braunstein Play is Fundamental to D&D

Braunstein has been framed as being an intermediary form in the evolution of wargame to roleplaying game. I have demonstrated that Braunstein play is integral to OD&D and AD&D and that its concepts are in fact fundamental rather than vestigial.

Consider that the Braunstein has been called “the first rpg” by some. This is not entirely true, yet there is clearly a connection between Braunstein and rpgs. Consider as well that Dave Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign was billed as a Braunstein. Braunstein has a deep and significant relationship not just to the genesis of D&D in particular and rpgs in general. But what is the precise nature of that relationship?

Only one person has been able to divine the real truth of this matter and that person is me. Anybody else weighing in on this topic has little more to say than, “yeah, the Braunsteins happened and then D&D happened and wow that is really cool.” This is safe. It’s even interesting. But it necessarily steers clear of the question of what the D&D game was really about and how to get better results from your own rpg campaigns today.

If you use 1:1 time, then your campaign becomes a type of Braunstein that is spread out over time. It becomes possible to easily integrate the activities of multiple tables, independent name-level characters, even the events of large-scale wargames. Powerful! Thrilling! Amazing! However, the original Braunstein was great fun in and of itself. Wesely had to wing it because the idea was half-baked. But if you set up a Braunstein session, you can just use your AD&D manuals to adjudicate everything.

AD&D is a toolkit for managing Braunstein interactions.

Conventional play ignores this entirely. Most D&D campaigns focus on the antics of a single party. When they reach a sufficiently high level, both those characters and the “campaign” itself are retired. This approach is a dead end because it has lost the concept of Braunstein.

What is the core element of a Braunstein? Multiple independent actors operating against each other’s interests under a fog of war. Meanwhile, conventional play lost player autonomy almost entirely when it gave up Braunstein play. This is the root cause of why it’s not fun. Everyone that picked up a TSR D&D manual had dreams of what they would do when their fighter reached name-level. Yet most people never met a DM that could pay off that promise. The reason they couldn’t do it is because they had a limited and incorrect notion of what D&D was.

D&D never stopped being a Braunstein. It never evolved beyond the Braunstein. It just spread out. Grew larger. It expanded out into the fantasy equivalent of the world-spanning Twin Cities Napoleonics campaign. The AD&D rules describe a sort of “monster” Braunstein. “Monster” Braunsteins are amazing, and I am privileged to have been part of a group that could put one together. Honestly, most people just don’t have the mettle to pull them off anymore. But these ideas are too awesome to leave to the past.

That is why in November I conceived of the idea to return to the “pure” Braunstein concept of David Wesely and drop it into a continuing D&D campaign as if were just any other session. Braunstein can be just one of many play modes you use in your campaign as you see fit. Sometimes your D&D session focuses on a dungeon delve. Other times it’s a wilderness journey. Sometimes you resolve a titanic miniatures battle that will change the face of your game world. You move between these play modes without thinking about it. Braunstein deserves the same type of treatment.

Braunstein deserves to be a first-class element of a continuing campaign.

Many people have taken up this idea and I think it’s clear: this is a REALLY good idea. It allows more people to fulfill the promise of the old D&D manuals with the kind of attention and resources that are available to the typical D&D group. This is a very big deal. You wouldn’t have the option of doing this if it wasn’t for some guy that figured out that the old 1:1 time rule was actually really important. You wouldn’t have this option if it wasn’t for some guy that could see that Braunstein was the key fundamental principle of D&D gameplay.

That guy was me.

Is AD&D missing part of the charge rule?

This is what I care about. The cavalry charge. I imagine countless people playing D&D for decades and never running a real charge. This creates a black pit within my soul.

Charging gets a great deal of attention within the fatigue rules. Positioning your troops properly and then determining whether to wait or not is suddenly a nontrivial decision. D&D rules universally lack this bit of modeling.

When I played this before, the charge rule resulted in the cavalry unit being out of play once it was committed. My question now is… was this rule intended to create a situation where cavalry repeatedly melees fatigued infantry within a single turn? I have to know!

And lo, the rules are explicit. If the morale difference is 0-19, the charge ends AND melee continues. If it’s 20-99, there is a good chance that there will be more melee as the cavalry completes its charge. Yeah, this is really cool.

AD&D ought to adjudicate charges in a similar manner. With that rule set, check morale. If the target falls back, and additional charge movement remains, allow a follow-melee round with the now panicked figures.

But note that AD&D is complicated by the presence of the rules for overbearing.

The exact order of events in an AD&D charge would probably be something like this:

1. Weapon length will determine first attack. This will probably be the charging cavalry’s lances.
2. Figures are removed for the kills resulting in #1. The remaining defenders may attempt to fend off the overbear attack of the cavalry.
3. The cavalry that were not fended off now make their overbear attacks.
4. The defenders now make their spear (or whatever) attacks.
5. Morale is checked here… and if the defenders fall back and also the cavalry has sufficient charge movement remaining, then an additional set of attacks is made.
6. If the defenders made their morale check, then the two groups remain in contact for the following combat round with the horses making kick and bite attacks then.

Other scenarios are possible and this is just to illustrate the general idea.

Is AD&D Missing a Crucial Combat Rule?

Over at the Joy of Wargaming, an innocent question is asked:

This causes rpg Twitter to return to the Chainmail rules, actually read them, and begin to discern the difference between “turn” and “round” within those pages:

The question now is… are we playing AD&D combat wrong given that we have always played Chainmail wrong?

A cursory glance at Swords & Spells indicates that D&D combat makes a conscious departure from Chainmail melee.

However…

Swords & Spells introduces increased rates of fire for missile weapons with a rule that is immediately familiar to anyone that has picked up an AD&D Players Handbook.

Everyone plays this rule and has no problem with multiple attacks in a regular D&D combat round already.

While we’re here, I have to say… it really sucks that Gary omitted this particular rule from AD&D on how to adjudicate missile fire rates with movement. It’s a good rule.

Swords & Spells does in fact follow Chainmail in allowing multiple Melee rounds per turn, however. In light of the missile fire rules that WE ALREADY USE in AD&D… it’s POSSIBLE that this rule was incorrectly omitted from AD&D due to Gary being high on cocaine.

Q: So Sword&Spells is a necessary part of the AD&D system?

A: There’s a guy playing OD&D raw that consults AD&D in places where OD&D is silent or inscrutable in order to get an idea of what Gary might have intended.

I suggest that– in the same spirit– Swords & Spells should be consulted in order to clear up AD&D combat questions.

Straight Answers to Honest Questions: The Big One

More questions in the mail bag today! This one is suspiciously similar to a previous one, but whatever. Let’s go!

How does 1:1 time account for things that genuinely take months or years? I understand that we can simply take busy PCs out of play for the duration, but this seems unsatisfying.

It’s up to the player. If you play the wizard Frobozz, you have to choose between adventuring with your frens, participating in Sir Homer’s epic mass combat campaign, and researching a powerful new spell for three months. There are tradeoffs for each option.

What’s unsatisfying is never getting to do spell research at all because 12 months of real time only explores two weeks of game time, never getting to operate independently because your assumptions about rpgs preclude it entirely, and campaigns that blow up after six sessions. Bah!

Playing your other PCs for the duration is fun because playing D&D is fun. You don’t believe this, but if you play this way not only will Frobozz’s choice shape the campaign, but it will still be going when he finishes working up his all-new spell. That’s satisfaction.

Playing this way is also more resilient and anti-fragile. Maybe Frobozz is not the most interesting thing you could be doing in the campaign given what all everyone else is putting into it. Maybe you will try out playing a thief or a ranger and find out that it’s actually way more fun. Maybe after three months, you will be really excited to get back to you favorite character. Maybe some days it will be more fun to play one of these characters and not the others. YOU DON’T KNOW. But if you don’t invest in other play options, you will not have them available in the event of your main character getting killed.

So, think ahead. And get used to everyone in your group opting to not put all their rpg eggs in one basket. It’s an objectively better way to run a campaign. Not only is it sure to last beyond today’s norm of six measly sessions, but time and again this format has proven it can GROW your gaming group.

Note: Your question basically boils down to “why should my campaign be meaningful?” Gygax answered this in the DMG. Read it!