u/Affectionate_Mud_969

A dude with armor, shield, and hand weapon costs 30 points. The same amount can be used to buy 3 basic dudes (unarmored, improvised weapon). Has anyone had success with just swarming the opponent with a meat wall of cheap dudes to block certain paths or just tie up the opponent's more expensive models?

I know this ruleset is mostly for narrative play, but I'm always interested in goofy gimmicks that exploit the mechanics. What other cheese or silly things have you tried?

SD Core: hexes are 6 miles across, PCs travel up to 8 hours, crossing a hex takes 4 hours (walking), meaning PCs can travel 12 miles (~20 km) per day, a reasonable amount.

WR Player's Guide: hexes are still 6 miles across, PCs can "spend" 4 points to enter hexes, meaning PCs can travel 24 miles (38,6 km) per day, which seems athletic level stuff, and this can be x1.5 by forcing to an absolutely bonkers 36 miles (58 km).

For reference, I checked some hiking subreddits, the general preference is under 20 miles per day, and anything above 30 miles is considered extreme.

I also looked at White Box: forced march with light gear is 18 miles per day.

Please do not take this the wrong way, I know I can just use the old rules or whatever rules I want. I am genuinely concerned that I am missing something in the rules.

I'm loving White Box: FMAG right now, but the optional "Alternate Combat Sequence" has me scratching my head. Here's the text:

>[surprise, initiative is as usual]

- First, any “prepared” spells are cast. It takes a full combat round to prepare a spell, but one can be prepared ahead of time. Spellcasters who won the initiative cast their spells first. They may then start preparing a spell for the next round, if desired.
- Next, missile weapons are fired (if the bow was already in the character’s hands and ready to go). This also happens in order of initiative.
- Then melee combat takes place, in order of initiative. Finally, movement takes place, in order of initiative.

It's this last part that me confused. Movement comes AFTER melee. This means that as a melee guy, you need to spend your first round getting in range, and you can only attack in the second round. This is different to what I have seen in basically every other system ever. In B/X for example, it goes like this: winning side acts (movement, missiles, spells, melee), then losing side acts (same order). So here, if you win initiative, you can rush in and hit all in the same round.

Bonus question: in OD&D, a combat round is 1 minute, which is quite a lot. Do you allow PCs to take out their bow+arrow AND shoot in the same round? The WB:FMAG rules I quoted above forbid this.

What are your thoughts on these topics? How would you rule these cases? What combat sequence do you use in your OD&D games?

[rant]

Deathbringer is Professor DM's game, based on Shadowdark, it's supposed to be a "retro" game with chainmail bikinis and pig-faced orks.

The kickstarter was funded in 14 minutes, and is currently nearing $1M. The book is $60 (same as Shadowdark). The more premium sets are $250 or $500. There is an ultra-premium set for $1K. Holy heck.

I mean I know that D&D and RPGs in general were created to make money in the first place. The whole thing with AD&D was about cutting Arneson out of royalties (allegedly). And I also see that WoTC is releasing modules at a very fast pace. But the idea that people are dropping 250-500 bucks for what is basically a Shadowdark supplement is just plain crazy to me. What sort of disposable income do these people have?

To me, RPGs have always been a sort of minimalist, inexpensive hobby. My favorite systems only need a handful of dice, a few sheets of paper, some pencils, and optionally some minis or tokens. To me, this genre is kinda like chess: it's not the fancy board and pieces that matter, but what you do with them.

But apparently there is a side of this genre where people are spending such amounts on a single game that equals to what I spend on food for an entire month. I mean, come on! Some great systems (like Cairn or White Box FMAG) are completely free (the pdf is, at least, print on demand is like 5 bucks), and they provide material for YEARS of gaming.

Is the concept of owning stuff just so appealing to these people? Will they really use ALL those fancy bits and bobs in their games? I guess it's none of my business...

Hello there boys!

I have been reading White Box FMAG, in preparation for my second solo campaign, and I just CAN NOT wrap my head around how wizards do wizarding stuff. So please help me make sense of these paragraphs:

The Magic-User:

>Reading from [her spellbook], the Magic-user presses a select spell formula into her mind, effectively “preparing” it to be cast. Once a prepared spell is cast, the spell formulae disappears from the Magic-user’s mind, and must be prepared again before another attempt can be made to cast it. However, it is possible to prepare a spell multiple times using the available “slots” in the Magic-user’s memory.

Alternative Combat Sequence (optional):

>First, any “prepared” spells are cast. It takes a full combat round to prepare a spell, but one can be prepared ahead of time. Spellcasters who won the initiative cast their spells first. They may then start preparing a spell for the next round, if desired.

Spells and Magic:

>Spells have three phases. First they are memorized (a character can only memorize a certain number of spells to bring along on an adventure – see the description of the character classes to find out how many, and what level). Second, they are prepared, which is the process of saying the magic words and making the magic gestures. Third, the spell is cast, which means it takes effect and the magic happens. In the normal sequence of combat, the caster starts preparing at the beginning of the round and casts the spell whenever his/her side has the initiative. In the alternative combat sequence, it takes a whole round to prepare a spell, but spells are cast at the beginning of the next round, and the caster can then take other actions during the round, including preparing a spell for the next round.

I feel like the author uses "prepare" and "memorize" interchangably, and that is causing my confusion.

So let's take an example, a third level MU has the following spells in her spellbook: Read Magic, Detect Magic, Sleep, and Invisibility.

Now she has 3 first level slots, and 1 second level slot. So she memorizes? prepares? her spells during? after? a long rest? and let's say she picks Detect Magic, Sleep x2, and Invisibility.

When the party is about to bust the door on a bunch of orcs in a room, the MU "prepares" Sleep to cast it as soon as combat starts, to make the fight easier. This is possible because she has memorized it beforehand, and as soon as she prepares the spell, it's gone from her slots, meaning she can only cast it one more time (she memorized it twice). She can then begin immediately preparing another spell, which will go off in the next round.

Am I getting this right?

EDIT: Thank you all for the answers, the examples from Vance's Dying Earth were really helpful!