Hackmaster - D&D Alternatives, Episode 5

In Episode 5 of my Alternatives to D&D series, I discuss what makes Hackmaster unique among old school systems. Hackmaster has dynamic "real time" combat, a flavorful magic systems, and an old school character generation that still allows a great deal of customizations.

Hackmaster Basic is available FREE to download, so this make a great "try before you buy" system to check out.

Castles & Crusades - D&D Alternatives, Episode 4

In Episode 4 of my D&D Alternatives series, I talk about Castles & Crusades which is an old-school hommage to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but with cleaned up modern game mechanics The C&C the Player's Handbook is also currently free to download right now from the Troll Lord Games web store, so this is no reason not to check it out.

Castles & Crusades was one of the first old school games published in the modern era under the Open Game License. It uses a single d20 mechanic for all attribute checks across the game, so it eliminates a lot of the messy mechanics sometimes associated with D&D and AD&D retro-clones.

In addition to Castles & Crusade, Troll Lord Games published numerous 5th Edition Adventure modules for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, which are absolutely fantastic and worth checking out, especially A1 Assault on Blacktooth Ridge (also part of this awesomely inexpensive bundle).

Adventures in Middle Earth and The One Ring - D&D Alternatives

2022 UPDATE: The One Ring is now back in print with its second edition. Adventures in Middle Earth is currently still out of print, but may be coming (somewhat) soon.

In the 3rd episode of my impromptu series, I explore two RPGs set in the Tolkien's Lord of the Rings universe -- The One Ring and Adventures in Middle Earth. 

Both RPGs are low fantasy / low magic to match the narrative feel of the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring has a mechanic based on d6's and a d12, while Adventures in Middle Earth uses the familiar D&D 5th Edition / d20 mechanics. Both systems are wonderful, although The One Ring has a bit less power creep than its 5th Edition translation. Adventures in Middle Earth has many ideas and mechanics that can be adapted to your standard D&D 5th Edition game or other d20-based low fantasy game.

If you're a fan of the Lord of the Rings and D&D-style fantasy, you absolutely need to pick these offerings while they are still available at retail prices (they are now out of print). See the video for what I love about these two games and how they differ.

The One Ring RPG - Books / PDFs
Adventures in Middle Earth - Books (currently out of print)

Lone Wolf Adventure Game - Alternatives to D&D

Though D&D may be the 800 pound gorilla in the table top RPG space, there are dozens and dozens of other wonderful fantasy and science fiction games out there.

In this video I discuss the Lone Wolf Adventure Game, based upon the adventure booklets by Joe Dever from the late 1980's. This is a fantastic, rules light fantasy RPG with very deep setting lore. The game uses a simple d10-based combat and skill resolutions mechanic. The illustrations are wonderful and the basic box set is a great value at $30.

Lone Wolf Adventure Game: https://amzn.to/3amGYNl

At the end I also note another alternative from Cubicle 7, Adventures in Middle Earth. I plan to talk more extensively about AiME in an upcoming episode.

Stop trying to win D&D

AD&D's power gamer wet dream

Over the last few editions, there has been a trend toward "winning" at D&D. The seed was planted with the AD&D Player's Options: Skills & Powers, which came out late in the product cycle of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition... but the tree of this trend really grew from the soil of D&D 3rd Edition (and also Pathfinder).

I'm not simply talking about power gaming here, but a change in the way the power gamer approached character generation due to the internet. Power gamers across the world now could converse and compare optimizations, which have lead to forums meant for just one topic... "character builds".

Character Builds

Perhaps it's the grognard in me, but the whole idea of a "build" raises my hackles. I can already hear the critique of this post. This post will likely be labeled as a "Your fun is wrong!" rant without actually considering my words, so bear with me a moment and read on before you judge.

Here's the thing. Role-playing games are form of improvisation. Your PC acts within the story and the story changes. And the story will also (ideally) change your PC. I don't just mean levels and hit points, but hopefully non-mechanical personality growth will occur. Goals will change. Motivations will change.

Perhaps a PC who is a bit churlish and grumpy will experience something that softens his heart. Or, conversely, a faithful paladin might experience something that hardens her and she eschews her deity for a demonic warlock patron... or the wizard, having experienced a divine intervention of some kind, decides to become a devotee of Pelor.

The whole point is that when you start out with that new character, you don't know what will happen at the table over the course of the next several months. Consider not planning all your feats and multi-class options at first level. By focusing on a "build" you may be missing out on opportunities for your PC to grow organically within the campaign. The "optimal" wizard build doesn't take into account that you might want to change to a cleric or paladin for story reasons for a couple levels.

If you are so fixated on the pre-destination for your character (as outlines in some build guide), you are closing yourself to changes that could occur during the actual play at the table. You don't know what will happen in the game to your PC at level 5, or 8, or 12... so consider not planning every single mechanical leveling up detail at level 1. Let what is going to happen be determined by play. If you are locked into a single character strategy, you have shut out the in-play possibilities.

Skip the game guides. Build a personality.

This is my biggest issue with the focus on builds. They have nothing to do with character growth through role-playing during the game. They are completely about playing D&D as if it were a video or strategy board game. Not only that, but excessive optimization often leads to one character hogging the spotlight over other PCs in the game due to having the highest... everything.

Stop worrying about every little +1 bonus, feat, or ability score improvement from level 1 through 20. Play the character, not the mechanics. Then, when you actually achieve those levels, perhaps make a choice that makes sense for the character's story arc instead of trying to gain the highest possible DPS. I'm not talking about making a "gimp" character here. I'm just talking about not focusing so much on every minor bonus and think a little more about what makes sense within the fiction of the game, rather than the mechanics.

Character growth within the fiction of the campaign is one of the primary reasons we play in-person RPGs instead of games like World of Warcraft. Stop trying to make the perfect monk that can move 400 feet and stunning strike every enemy on the field in 1 round. This is D&D, not League of Legends.

Embrace the non-optimization.

POST-SCRIPT:
I'm getting a lot of "Stop telling me your fun is wrong" replies, and that's NOT what I'm saying.
1) To be clear, I never said you should purposely build an ineffectively gimpy character.
2) I never said you shouldn't pick a combat-effective option or think about what's coming up level-wise.

One of the comments from Peter Olsen on Facebook put it best:
"... extreme focus on progression and builds lends itself to removing attention from where the character is right now."

This. So much this. I'm just trying to advise players (especially newbies) to not think about what's happening 8 levels from now. Think about what is happening in the game right now. Make character choices based on those events. Don't be a slave to the cookie-cutter "optimal build" if something happens in game that might lead your character to multi-class into something slightly less optimal (or pick a different feat, or whatever) because it makes more sense within the story.

GM 101: Adversarial Dungeon Mastering

GM 101, Episode 7 - Adversarial Dungeon Mastering

Using the power of the Dungeon Master, there are many obvious ways one could screw the players in a game. But there are also way you may be unintentionally hindering the players or passive-aggressively acting in an adversarial manner. Don't be the "Gotcha!" DM.

Brace yourselves. Car Wars is coming!

In my prior post about Car Wars and Gaslands, I noted the Car Wars Sixth Edition Kickstarter was coming "any day now"... and here it is!

On Black Friday, Steve Jackson Games will launch their Car Wars Kickstarter with bonus equipment cards for Day One backers. As announced on their website, "Uncle Al and his crew have been working overtime to prepare a special deal for those who join the Kickstarter campaign on that first day – November 29th." There are also several pre-campaign stretch goals that can be unlocked even before the first day.

Car War Deluxe Edition (1985) cover and Car War Sixth Edition sneak preview (source: Steve Jackson Games)

Over the summer, I got the chance to play several games of the CW6e prototype at game conventions. You can read my initial play impressions in my article here. Spoiler alert: I love the new version of Car Wars.

The dashboard shows your current
vehicle speed, handling, and damage.

On the @sjgames web site, Twitter, Facebook, and Board Game Geek blogs, Steve Jackson Games has been showing sneak previews of game components and other in-development ideas they are working on.

The new game will include unpainted vehicle miniatures, cards for vehicles and upgrade/components (ala X-Wing), a vehicle "dashboard" showing the vehicle's current speed, armor, and handling status, a maneuver stick, play mat(s), road section tiles (a stretch goal), and specialized combat dice.

The different colored dice alter the odds of
getting star (hit) or shield (dodge) results.

While the vehicle design rules have not been teased, one can see the basics from the prototypes.  Like with X-Wing or other squad-building minature games, vehicles have a point cost. Weapon systems and skilled drivers or gunners are detailed on small cards and will cost additional points to upgrade a vehicle. Building a vehicle will be as simple as choosing a base model and adding several points worth of weapon and equipment cards to the build.

The new miniatures (which come unpainted) are displayed on a prototype play mat. (source: @SJGames)

Previews of the vehicles have shown some amazing paint jobs by SJG artist Ben Williams. Hopefully, those of us with not-quite-as-mad painting skillz can make them look half as good. The scale is going to be 1/64, or roughly the same as Hot Wheels and Matchbox die cast vehicles. This will potentially allow players to kit-bash their own cars, assuming Steve Jackson decides to sell additional bases.

New miniature on a road tile (source: @SJGames)

SJG has also teased card stock road tiles with an art style that matches the play mat(s). The tiles are planned to be interlocking and double-sided.

At this time, it appears the base rules will only include cars. Motorcycles and trucks may show up in future expansions.

I'm hoping for a stretch goal or two to include additional rules for cycles and trucks, or the option of an expansion released concurrently, but I'm also being realistic.

After all, it took 7 years from the Ogre Designer Edition stretch goal to finally get a Car Wars Kickstarter. Holding one's breath for a Truck Stop expansion is probably not advised at this time.

8-bit highway combat in Autoduel

On a final tangential note, Steve Jackson also announced that the classic Autoduel computer game from 1985 will be re-released in March 2020. You'll be able to make cargo runs on post-apocalyptic highways in all their 8-bit glory. So keep a look out for that.

If you're curious for more about Car Wars Sixth Edition, check out the Steve Jackson Games Facebook and Twitter accounts and be sure to read my play preview.

You might also like:
Car Wars 6e and Gaslands: First Impressions