Monsters & Magic Continuing review

I have been fairly silent this last week on the blog because I have been prepping for Gam3rCon. 27 hours of Judge Dredd MG, Running the intro adventure to M&M And Running a free-form Machinations of the Space Princess.

With Gam3rCon coming up, and me running an M&M event, I will be doing a big actual play review after the Con. The system is different enough from normal OSR and from FATE, that there will definitely be a learning curve.

Here's some of the differences I have noticed. 

• Dice 3d6 versus 1d20 (love this)
• Everything has 1 attack...this attack covers all of your normal attacks over a turn, this is good, as it is based upon a cinematic style, when converting a monster from previous editions, multiple attacks of say 1d6/1d6/1d8 might be converted into 1d8+2, which is actually significant, since that pushes the totals up for the creation of an effect. 
• Effects and Consequences: This is where the fate style play comes in. When you have an trait you can utilize, it's easy to start boosting your numbers up, pushing it toward a
• Negative traits don't grant you FATE points in M&M, they give you extra XP if you complicate your life with them.
• Primary traits, one of the strange aspects I find in M&M is the doubling of the Primary trait, this is perfectly fine in a rolled stat game; but when you get to a 4d6 arrange the stats kind of game, Munchkins are gonna come out of the woodwork. So creating fighter with a +4 STR bonus, that becomes a +8...HUGE

EFFECTS & CONSEQUENCES

This is where the game changes...a successful attack can just do HP damage, with Physical or Men tal based upon the type of attack. 

WHAT EFFECTS DO

When you create an effect, first select the game mechanical effect you want from the list below, then describe what that looks like. Suggestions for describing effects and consequences are given on pages 45 and 46.

A minor effect (5 effect points)…

• bestows a +2 bonus, or a -2 penalty (if a consequence), OR
• removes an existing minor effect, OR
• permits or forces the recipient to move 5 feet or one range band (page 51); you may disengage or engage while doing so; OR
• lets you dismount a horse; OR
• lets you mount a horse if not engaged in melee; OR
• allows you to sheath or draw a weapon; OR
• uses up a minor resource (one charge, arrow, dropped item, or single use of a multi-use item, like adventurer’s gear or a potion), OR
• permits or forces a change of stance, OR
• if the GM is defining the effect (including if it’s a consequence), she may make a GM reaction (page 46), advancing the current encounter step (page 75), including describing a monster action.

A major effect (10 effect points)…

• bestows a +4 bonus, or a -4 penalty (if a consequence), OR
• removes an existing major effect, OR
• permits or forces the recipient to move two range bands; you may disengage or engage while doing so; OR
• lets you mount a horse if engaged in melee; OR
• uses up a major resource (forget a spell (see sidebar), lose an entire piece of equipment, like a sword, shield, lockpicks, staff, or spellbook). The subject may be disarmed as a result. This may be repaired or replaced using a subsequent major effect.
• as a GM reaction (page 46), the GM may move onto the next encounter step (page 75).

An extreme effect (15 effect points)…

• bestows a +6 bonus, or a -6 penalty (if a consequence), OR
• removes an existing extreme effect, OR
• disables one of the target’s special effects (page 47), including monstrous effects (page 101).

Minor consequence

You’re sickened, off-balance, demoralised; inconvenience someone you meant to help; suffer from adverse environmental conditions, a tactically disadvantageous moment, magic drain or minor spell backfire; or are knocked back or unnerved.

 Major consequence

You’re knocked down, disarmed, befuddled, partially blinded, hallucinating, paralysed, immobilised, slowed, terrified; hurt someone you meant to heal; forget your spell (page 44); suffer a sprain or painful wound; or are bleeding heavily. 

Extreme consequence 

You’re maimed, concussed, staggered, totally blinded, suffer “magic block”, or one of your limbs is severed!

As you can see from reading the list, there is definitely a lot of choices with the system, and thus a lot of flexibility.

I look forward to running it at Gam3rcon...now back to creating PreGens. 

Gam3rCon Events (OSR & Judge Dredd Minis)

Just a heads-up San Diegans who aren't heading to San Diego Comic Con, Gam3rCon is coming up.

I will be running multiple sessions of Judge Dredd miniature games, i have a lot more new models now as well, so I will be running a bit of a different scenario. I still have to design it, but it should be interesting. I think it will be Judge Giant running a cadet through their Full Eagle Day. This will give the players a chance to see an actual hero in play; and make them have to attempt to make arrests. This will be Giant and a cadet versus a group of punks (played by me or by another player.)

As far as Roleplaying sessions; I didn't end up with DCCRPG slots, since another GM filled up all the slots for DCCRPG, but I hope I'll get a chance to play then.

Anyway, that leaves me open to running some new stuff; As part of my review cycle for Monsters & Magic, I'm going to run it at SDGC! I will be running the adventure contained with the book, since it's a new game it shouldn't be like running into Mr. Bubbles for the 10th time in Paranoia.


Secondly, Machinations of the Space Princess was released!!! FLICK YEAH!!! So I will definitely be running that!! Even if we JUST go through character creation and run the introductory adventure.

Machinations of the Space Princess is a Science-Fantasy role-playing game. That means it’s very much about style over substance, mixing science-fiction, magic and
psionics in a game world that owes much more to Metal Hurlant and Star Wars than it does to 2001 or Bova’s Grand Tour. This is a game of strangeness and fun, of space
pirates and beautiful alien princesses, of living planets and robot hordes, of blasters at noon.
This is…

Sexy, sleazy, swords and sci-fi!

A full game combining old and new school thinking, packed with GM and player advice and with simple tools for creating your own monsters, adversaries, weapons, armour, ships and alien races.

Monsters & Magic Character Creation Walk-thru

OK so I'm going to go ahead and walk-thru character creation by actually CREATING a character.

• 1. Generate your attributes (see below), and select your race and character class (pages 10 and 14). Use your character concept (see box), if you have one, to help you do this.
• 2. Make any racial adjustments to your attributes indicated by your racial write-up (like a +2 Dexterity, etc).
• 3. Write down your character’s racial traits (pages 10-13), or use the appropriate racial traits card from the appendices (page 127).
• 4. Write down your ATT modifiers (page 8). Double the ATT modiifier for your character’s prime attribute, determined by his class (page 14).
• 5. Write down your character’s level: characters begin at level 1.
• 6. Write down your character’s physical hit points, calculated by adding your character’s Constitution score to the maximum possible die roll on your character’s physical hit die (determined by his character class).
• 7. Write down your character’s mental hit points, adding your character’s Wisdom score to his maximum possible mental hit die score (again, determined by character class).
• 8. Write down your character’s class traits (pages 15-24), or use the appropriate class traits card from the appendices. Don’t write down any advancements yet.
• 9. Write down any class restrictions your character has.
• 10. If your character can cast spells (ie is a magic user or cleric), work out how many spell levels he has, and choose his spells from Chapter 7: Magic, as indicated in his character class write-up.
• 11.Roll the dice to determine your character’s starting money in gold pieces (gp), as indicated in his character class write-up.
• 12.Finalise your character (page 24), choosing his alignment, goal, first (and possibly second) advancement, hero points, starting equipment, and armour class; and also by filling in his age, height, weight, sex, weight carried, and maybe a physical description.
• 13.You’re ready to play!

First step: Generate Ability Scores. I'm going to go Old School, 3d6 in order.

Strength 5
Dexterity 8
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 15
Charisma 12

Up until I rolled that 15 I thought I was looking at a waste of a character sheet, but that 15 Wisdom, that will create a Cleric with a 10% experience bonus.

And I think I'll base my race upon improving the weak stats. So I will pick a Half-orc, modifying my stats by +2 Str, -2 Int, and -2 Cha to non-orcs.

• Torn Between Two Natures.
• Speak Orcish: as well as the Common tongue.
• Infravision: see in the dark up to 60ft.
• Brutish and Strong.
• Savage and Intimidating.

Step 4.
Strength 7 (-2)
Dexterity 8 (-1)
Constitution 10 (0)
Intelligence 8 (-1)
Wisdom 15 (+4) this is doubled
Charisma 12/10 (+1/+0)

Step 5. Level 1

Step 6: Physical Hit Points, Constitution Score 10 + 8 (maximum 1d8 Hit die) = 18 PHP

Step 7: Mental Hit Points, Wisdom Score 15 + 6 (max 1d6 hit die) = 21 MHP

Step 8: Write down Cleric Traits

• Turn Undead
• Religious Lore: you’re schooled in temple matters and the affairs of the gods.
• Clerical Magic: cast clerical spells and counterspells. See below.
• Use Temple Weapons: use the weapons espoused by your temple.
• Wear Light and Medium Armour and Use Shields.
• Devotion to Deity: acquire a specific trait representing the beliefs and attitudes of your deity’s worshippers. See “Gods and Demigods” below. 

Step 9. Class dCan't play neutral alignment.

Step 10. Choose spells. 5 levels of spells (1 for being first level, +4 for wisdom bonus.) 

Step 11. Roll for Cash (3d6x10gp) Rolled 16, so 160 GP, That's a lot of equipment for someone who can't carry much equipment.

Step 12. Finalize Character. Alignment Neutral Good, Goal: Bring Prosperity to the Downtrodden. , Advance: Mother to the Motherless. Judging by her stats, this is a gangly uncoordinated half-orc, so I'll make her 6'8" tall but only 145 lbs. She's young and grew up on the streets as an Orphan, so she likes to protect the little guy. She's not wholly unattractive, taking after her mother, but she does have prominent orc tusks, making others leery of her. And that's about it, other than fully fleshing it out.

Hah, I just started rolling up stats again for the fun of it, (18, 13, 16, 15, 12, 8) Yes, that was on straight 3d6.

Monsters & Magic Review (part 1)

This is the first part of a multi-part review of Monsters & Magic, the new OSR ruleset by Sarah Newton.



First I'll cover what the game's goals, it's hopes and dreams. The basic mechanics, etc.

Basic Mechanics: Tosses the d20 and utilizes 3d6, I like it already, as you must know if you read my blog about my d20 hate.

Here are some of the gaming concepts which differentiate Monsters & Magic from the original classic fantasy rules:

Narrative freedom. If you can describe your character doing it, the rules should model it. If you want to draw on your love for the dead king to persuade the tournament audience to give you their moral support in resisting the intimidating power of the Black Knight’s reputation, the rules should let you do so. Monsters & Magic does so, seamlessly.

Interpersonal mechanics. Do you want to terrify your foes? Confound your enemies at the Sages’ Guild with webs of logical argument? Drive men and women wild with your beauty and charms? Monsters & Magic lets you do these things.

Teamwork and leadership. The Monsters & Magic system lets you model characters giving one another aid and advice; warlords briefing their troops, strategists planning the battle, thieves casing the temple sanctum and orchestrating an elaborate heist. Rules for collaborating and helping others provide layered and flexible mechanics 

Monsters & Magic incorporates many other roleplaying concepts, as well as a few innovative tweaks you may not have seen before. It’s a fresh look at classic fantasy gaming, a way to explore new vistas in your favourite fictional worlds. We hope you’ll like it…

At the heart of M&M is The Effect Engine. This is an interesting system, utilizing the 3d6 roll versus the resistance (target number or contested roll); the result ends with either positive or negative effect points. Effect points are used to buy...effects! Negative results result in consequences (fumbles) to you. Similar to FATE, which makes perfect sense since Sarah also wrote Legends of Anglerre, a Fantasy FATE system.

Traits in M&M don't rely upon hero points to be used, rather they just provide bonuses when they do apply.

Rounds in M&M veer pretty far from traditional D&D, going from 6 seconds to a full minute. But more on gameplay later.

Character Creation
This part feels like Old School character gen, with a few twists.
First off, the 6 ability scores will be very familiar:
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma.

Stats are derived in a manner common to old school dice rolls (various, including 3d6, 4d6, even 5d6 drop 2.) or from point buy.

The attribute modifiers, this is where things start to deviate a little. First, they seem similar to 3rd edition, 10-11=+1, 12-13=+1, 18+=4, etc, looks like 3.5. This holds true except for the prime attribute.Prime attributes 'double' the bonus, and if the stat had a penalty, it is bumped up by two. This means a character with an 18 in a primary has a +8 bonus...WOW, that's huge. I need to see this in play to see if it's too powerful. Now, it doesn't appear that the stats increase above 18 at this point. Sub-classes (more on these later) have a secondary attribute as well. A Primary stat 15+ gains a 10% XP bonus.

As secondary stat doesn't grant the double ATT bonus, it actually makes a Fighter/Magic-User and the Magic-User/Fighter different on a whole other level.

Races
Again, the races feel familiar, utilizing attribute modifiers which should feel normal to anyone who has played OGL. Elves have the +2 Dex, and -2 Con for example. It does have some old school feel, dropping the class freedom which came with 3rd edition. Dwarves can't be magic-users as another example, and half-orcs have -2 charisma with other races.Where M&M deviates race wise is the the traits. This is where the influence of FATE really starts to appear; Highly Adaptable, is a human trait, but you're allowed to rename these traits while keeping them mechanically the same, in order to fit your character's vision; so if you have a character that is good at everything, change it to Jack-of-all-Trades. The Elven trait of Keen Perception, could be called: Eyes of the Falcon.

In addition to Racial Traits, there are background and cultural traits. These traits lend much to extended play. Perhaps your character was a Gong Farmer, and you're searching for clues to what happened to the family at the abandoned farmhouse, you'd get a bonus to your search through the gong for clues!

Feats in M&M are called advancements. (more on this in part 2.) For example a human starts with 2 advances instead of just 1.

Classes & Sub-Classes
The normal gamut of classes is available in M&M, however many races are restricted in class selection. There's so much to character creation, that tomorrow (Part 2) I'm going to actually do a step-by-step character creation, I'll cover some of the class selections, etc.

More t Come:
One interesting thing I'm really looking forward to reading about is scaling. The game starts at Adventure scale, but ramps up to heroic, epic, legendary, and finally mythic...but that part comes later.

THERE is a LOT to absorb in this book, it features lots of Old School feel, but you need to comprehend everything before you can really enjoy it.