Sternvale Adventures

"One player character is much more powerful than the others, and it's making it hard to balance fights." "My players have bought everything they need and now money is worthless." Have you caught yourself saying anything like this? Your problem might be to do with character progression , the leading cause of death among games in the 18-34 age bracket.  Here, I'm going to discuss why it exists, what problems it causes, and why you don't actually need it.  Why it exists Narratively speaking, character progression is satisfying. We like to see characters grow and change to meet their challenges. Players enjoy the feeling of character advancement, watching enemies that were previously a challenge become non-issues, and this can help build a sense of scale, particularly in video games that have a fixed beginning, middle and end. By starting the game fighting goblins, and ending it fighting gods, it's easier to appreciate the stakes of the story. From a pow...

 Finding myself without the time or inclination to play through these dungeons, I'm just going to post them - maybe someone will get to use them! You're on your own for monster stats, though, as I wouldn't want to repost published content.  Dungeon map courtesy of  Donjon  RPG Tools 1: Entranceway Shape: SM 0 arched ceiling. Dotted with small stalactites and stalagmites.  Walls: Rough limestone, solution-carved. Damp.  Floor: Rough limestone, solution-carved. Damp. Dotted with shallow depressions in the floor, filled with water.  Atmosphere: Darkness -7; only light is from entrance to east. Cold, from water evaporation. Slight breeze directed SW. Occasional dripping noises, with echoes.  Entrances:  Stepped 40° slope up to E (0).  Smooth 30° slope down 3' to SW (2), through horizontal SM 0 gap where the wall meets the floor.  Traps: None.  Monsters: None.  Treasure: None.  2: Foyer Shape:  SM +1 ceiling. Slop...

The Basics The Thrust vs Swing argument - debate, comparison - is a long and storied one. Much of it stems from the confusion around what damage actually means in GURPS, which is a difficult question to answer. In fact, it's already half-answered. The damage of high-tech guns and bullets is well-documented. By defining 1" of RHA steel as having DR 70, we can use the penetration energy of the projectile and its other properties (expressed as a long and complicated formula), below, to calculate its penetration and its damage.  Penetration Damage (points) = sqrt(KE1.04/Xsect0.314)/13.3926 and  Wound Channel Damage (points) = MV × Xsect* x 26,220 where Xsect* = (1-V/600) ×π(Bore/2)2 + (V2)/216,000 ×Bore2 ×(Aspect Ratio) (From http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=2794) Ugly. Regardless, it's a system, and it works. What we have for low-tech damage - fists and melee weapons - is more arbitrary. Whether or not it works is another question. Muscle-powered damage is split ...

 A common failure mode I run into when designing a dungeon is the need to have rooms with a purpose. I'm very much a fan of verisimilitude in my games, whether those be tabletop or video games, and I like form to follow function. The problem with this is that it's often boring ; most historical castles didn't have a huge variety of needs. Think about your own house - you have a kitchen, a living room, enough beds for everyone, a bathroom, a garage, maybe a storage room or two... and then what? This is one reason why I struggle to play much Minecraft  these days - I've built a bedroom, a storage room, an enchanting room - what else do I need? Farleigh Hungerford Castle, in Somerset, England We can see most of these have rough analogues in medieval castles (and therefore fantasy). We can even throw in some things that are historical but not really in the right place - why does every other dungeon in Skyrim have a well-stocked forge, anyway? - but we're likely to end ...

Lottie the thief awakens under an unfamiliar roof as the sun begins to shine through the shutters. A quick pat-down reveals that all of her organs are (mostly) in place, although the blackened bandages around her chest - and the sharp pain when she tries to breathe - reveal that not all is fine and dandy just yet.  Lottie: HT, vs 10: 13.  Her condition hasn't improved overnight, but it hasn't got worse, so she forces herself to her feet and joins the other party members in the dining room. Miguel and Garret are hard at work preparing their weapons; Miguel in particular seems very happy to have his sword back, and he sits at the table oiling it enthusiastically. Almost gleefully, in fact. Garret's weapon is not as sensitive as the sword; his preparation mostly consists of swinging the flail around a few times to loosen the chain, barely missing Elias as he comes in. "Good morning," he says to Lottie. "How do you feel?" "Like I've been shot in the...

The party set out the following morning. Miguel finds he's slightly overburdened, so he places his rucksack in the wheelbarrow for Garret apologetically. The big lad's a little grumpy, but it doesn't slow him down significantly, and he would have been far more annoyed if they'd taken longer to travel because Miguel was walking slowly.  Weather: 7, passable.  Travelling at a leisurely 2 miles an hour, they make it to the outskirts of Old Man Rutger's land before lunchtime. The barrows are visible behind his fields, although you wouldn't recognise them as such unless you knew what they were beforehand - they're sufficiently covered in turf that they barely stand out from the sometimes-hilly landscape. A handful of sheep can be spotted grazing away happily on their slopes, and the sounds of chickens clucking can be heard from the gate. "Looks normal to me," says Garret, as he trundles the wheelbarrow up the rough path towards the farmhouse. The house ...