Douglas E. Berry

Some sad news from Traveller.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 07:24:00 GMT

Longtime Traveller Grognard and the driving force behind TravellerCon, Keith Frye, has lost his battle with cancer. To help the family with bills, a Bundle of Holding has been put up on Drive-Thru RPG.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/430303/Keith-Frye-Memorial-Bundle-BUNDLE

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Prepare for Ludicrous Speed!

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 07:04:12 GMT

Part of my sparse posting has been my work schedule, dealing with Kirsten's cancer, and not having enough hours in the day. As is typical for a writer, complete ideas spring into my head just as I fall asleep. My muse is a jerk.

But I have a pile of notes for future posts, including more about the K'kree, wrapping up my series on HarnMaster, and more on my work in progress. I'll be writing about Traveller, Ars Magica, and why the San Francisco Giants might be why I need a pacemaker.

My job as a Crossing Guard goes on hiatus for the summer as of June 1st. I'll have plenty of time to write content for all y'all. As a reminder, I crave feedback. Tell me it's good, point out my errors, tell me I've screwed up, and I accept it all.

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This is hard.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:55:12 GMT

My wife has breast cancer.

Those words are still unreal to me. We've been married for 32 years, and she has always been the rock while I've dealt with ongoing health issues. Now I'm the one sitting in the corner, watching as my world fights for her life against an enemy I know too well.

My battle with cancer is very different from Kirsten's, thankfully. I was staged at IV-B; hers was caught early. She has an incredible medical and social support team in place. She has a port installed, reducing trauma tenfold from the start.

But it's still hard. Her energy levels are terrible, and she's dealing with horrible, predictable side effects. Her hair is started to fall out, and if you know Kirsten at all, her hair has always been her one point of vanity. She got it buzzed down to make clean-up more accessible, but we now see the reality of hair loss.

I'm terrified for her. And for myself. We have months of this ahead of us, and with cancer, there is never an easy or clear path forward. Damn, it was much easier being the patient; all I had to do was lie there and do what the doctor said to do.

Still, I'll find the strength somewhere. She was there for me. I have to be there for her.

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Europe in the Central Middle Ages, 962-1154. My review.

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:42:54 GMT

https://a.co/d/84L804L

3.5 stars out of 5.

The book is quite enjoyable and written in a friendly style that draws the reader in. The problem is in the first half; there is an incredible lack of focus as author Christopher Brooke tries to address broad aspects of life in the period covered. He wanders into digressions, fails to provide critical information, and for the most part, were just confusing. The best example comes in the "Travel" chapter, which never addresses many facts about travel in the Central Middle Ages. What were the roads like? How were caravans organized, and what tolls and hazards did they face? How many miles a day could you expect to make, and what would a weary traveler do at night? Sea travel? OK, describe the ships of the era, how they navigated, and what they could carry. What were the major trading ports?

Instead, we get a ten-page divergence into the Crusades and the Song of Roland.

The style settled down a bit in the second half, which is a more chronological examination of Europe that focuses on the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian states, which I'll admit is a decent focus to have.

In total, it was an interesting book, but as a proper history, it falls short.

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Why you should be playing Hârnmaster 3.5 - Religion

Fri, 22 Dec 2023 06:29:06 GMT

Yeah, I fell off the posting wagon; it's been a rough start to summer. But back to HârnMaster! We've covered character generation, how skills work, and the sheer joy of the combat system. Today, religion.

Designed as a deliberately low-magic, skill-focused system and setting, the gods of Hârn are real but distant. They do provide rituals to their priests, which can be quite powerful, but for the most part, the various churches are more shepherds and institutions. The Gods of Hârn are:

Agrik: the god of bloody war and fire. He believes that might makes right, only the strongest should rule, and that the uncertainty of conflict brings necessary improvement. War and tumult are the great threshing floor that separates the worthy from the unworthy. Agrik is in direct opposition to Larani and her rigid adherence to order. His worship is proscribed through much of Hârn, except in Rethem where it is the state religion.
Halea: the Maker of Bargains, the immoral goddess of beauty, wealth, and hedonistic pleasures. Halea usually appears to humans as a beautiful youth. For Halea, greed is good; power is better. There is no sin, only pleasure matters. She shrewdly maintains her position in the courts of the gods and wishes stability, so she may continue to enjoy her pleasures. She has temples in most trading cities but is most worshiped in the Thardic Republic.
Ilvir: known as the “Ochre Womb" and the “Brooder in the Blasted Plains”, Ilivir creates strange beings known as Ivashu. The purpose of the Ivashu are a mystery known only to Ilvir. Ilvir’s adherents are drawn to him by the promise that after death their souls will be reincarnated into Ivashu, which they believe is a higher form of life.
Larani: the Lady of Paladins, the good goddess who represents order and the chivalric ideals of faith, piety, honor, righteousness, truth, justice, courage, and strength. She teaches perfection through order and faith. Larani directly opposes Agrik and his followers in their savage and chaotic attempts to achieve perfection through strength, mean survival, and brutal and unnecessary conflict. Larani is most popular amongst the nobility. Being found to be an adherent of Larani in Rethem gets you a spot at the next heretic burning.
Morgath: the god of death, retribution, and revenge. Lord of the undead, suffering, and chaos. Morgath gathers souls to feed the Shadow of Bukrai and upend the order of the universe; he offers those in service to him eternal life, of a sort, with the offer to become Amorvis (free-willed undead). Proscribed almost everywhere but Rethem (sigh).
Naveh: the god of nightmares, thieves, and assassins. He rules the night and is the silent death. Seemingly Nihilistic, Naveh's purposes are obscured in shadow, seemingly with no discernable aims. Every state on Hârn suppresses this religion. Or so they think.
Peoni: the good goddess of peace forgiveness, love, life, and healing. She believes in achieving perfection through teaching peace and forgiveness. She nurtures with love, feeding the hungry, bringing hope to the hopeless, healing the sick, and forgiving sinners. She rewards patience, virtue, chastity, temperance, and forgiveness. She is the most popular 'goddess', especially amongst the lower classes. (Except in Rethem, of course.) Peonian clerics seeking martyrdom often sneak into Rethm to establish covert churches.
Sarajin: the god of courage, strength, prowess in combat, fame, clever tactics, battlelust, and the “sport” of war. He loves Kelestia as it is. His followers seek his favor by gaining fame with acts of bravery in combat, canny gambits, and martial skill. Sarajin is said to most often appear as a giant, yellow-haired warrior in leather and furs, carrying Fakang, his massive double-bladed axe. He is the god of the Invinians, the Viking analogs in the setting.
Save-K'Nor: the god of intellect, learning, and true knowledge. Save-K'nor seeks to guide his adherents by perfecting their intellect and knowledge of moral philosophy so that they may understand the true nature of Kelestia and thereby select the righteous path of their own free will. The church of Save-K'nor has few adherents because of its focus on scholarship; however, their level of education puts many in place to be of singular influence on events.
Siem: the benign god of magic, mysteries, and dreams. Siem is the oldest of the 'gods'. He chose to withdraw from the other ‘gods’ to his own idyllic domain within Kelestia, 'the Blessed Realm', where all remains preserved in a pristine state, and there is almost no passage of time. He is most associated with the Faerie folk, Elves, and Dwarves, though some Men worship him too.

HârnMaster allows a player to create a newly-consecrated priest of any of these faiths, subject to the character's place of birth and the campaign's focus. Clerics start with many skills, but they have obligations to their church and order.

A Laranian Matakea (Temple Priest) might be ordered by his Rekela (Bishop) to accompany a young noble on his journeys. (Yes, this is a campaign seed.) A Peonian Reslava (Mendicant Priest, similar to the wandering friars of the Franciscans) would be constantly nagging his companions to show mercy, stopping to help every hamlet and cotter hold and healing the enemy. In short, the system encourages you to roleplay a genuine representative of your deity, not just be a walking first-aid kit and backup combatant.

Then there are the Invocations. These are rituals or prayers the clerics can use. For example, Laranian priests have access to Bandage of St. Pereline, which can stop bloodloss and heal an injury level from a single wound. A critical success heals the wound entirely in one day, while a critical failure causes the wound to develop an infection.

Every religion has these, some in the HârnMaster rule book, with more in the HârnMaster - Religion tome. More about that: do you want to know where the Amansurif of the Agrikian church lives? Want more details on church politics? Planning a campaign based around a mostly Laranian party campaign against the vile Agrikians? This book is for you. But there is more than enough in the basic HârnMaster rulebook to get started.

One final thought. As in most settings, there is a compact that keeps the gods from meddling too much in the mortal world. So if you want to run a mini-campaign where the PCs have to expose and oust the evil Sulapyn (Peonian bishop) who has been embezzling funds, go for it.

Tomorrow, I swear, Magic.

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Why you should be playing HârnMaster 3.5 - Combat

Wed, 25 Oct 2023 05:59:54 GMT

Combat in HarnMaster is pretty fast once you get it down, and it generates real injuries as opposed to arbitrary hit points that have no real effect on the character. So you can leave a fight with a broken arm, a nasty gash on your face, and limping from when that mace hit your knee. Each wound heals separately, and while there are no hit points, each has injury points that act as a universal negative on skill rolls.

There are also immediate effects of being wounded. You might go into shock and be out of the fight. A hit to your arm might cause you to drop what you hold in that hand, or an impact on your legs might cause you to stumble and fall. In the end, a lucky swing of a sword or axe could decapitate an enemy in one stroke.

The actual mechanic is simple. You declare you are striking at a foe with a weapon. Your target chooses to Block, Counterstrike, Dodge, or Ignore. Each side rolls against the appropriate skill (except for Ignore) and compares their result (Critical or Moderates success or failure) to see the result. Every weapon has three aspects, Blunt, Edge, and Point, with a number describing their impact. For example, a spear has 4/-/7 meaning it is best used as a thrusting weapon, although you could use it as a quarterstaff in a pinch.

Armor is also rated for its defense against B/E/P, can be layered (within reason), and covers specific hit areas. So let us assume that a person wielding a spear gets moderate success against an enemy who rolls a mild failure to block. The result on the chart is A*1, meaning the attacker rolls 1d6 and adds it to the point aspect of his spear. I roll a 5 for 7+5=12—12 impact. A d100 roll for hit location yields a 42 for the right elbow. The target is wearing a long-sleeved leather jerkin, which gives 3 points of protection against Point attacks. So nine injury points go through.

Consulting the Injury Table, nine injury points to the elbow is a Serious 3 stab. This has several effects. Three Injury levels immediately incur a -3 on all attribute rolls and a -15% on skill rolls (-5% per injury level.) In addition, the wounded combatant must roll 1d6 for every point of his Universal Penalty, including all injury points, fatigue levels, encumbrance penalties, etc. This roll is compared to the Constitution of the combatant, and if it is higher, the wounded man goes into shock and falls unconscious. There is also a 3d6 Fumble roll against Dexterity; fail that, and the combatant drops whatever is in his right hand.

It sounds complex, but with practice, it flows very well. Many HM players roll two sets of d100s for both their to-hit and hit location rolls simultaneously to save time. As you can see, getting wounded has severe and immediate consequences, and you can be knocked out of combat by the first wound you take. Edged weapons can amputate limbs and even heads with a lucky strike, some injuries leave you bleeding to death, and you may find yourself crawling from the battlefield, dragging your useless leg behind you.

The system is fast and brutal, leaving PCs with real consequences for drawing swords. Did I mention the rules for wound infection? Yeah, you can die from that. Probably the best realistic combat system around. I like to take new players and have them do a few combats with pre-generated characters to emphasize that this is not D&D.

There are also rules for mounted combat, missile combat, and jousting. What is missing are rules for fighting in a shield wall, which is a glaring omission, as it was the most common infantry formation of the era for most nations. With the pseudo-Roman Thardic Republic and its legions as part of the setting, you would think that this would be an essential inclusion.

Next up, Gods and Magic!

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