Initial skills matching in GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

I went through Dark Heresy RPG and Trail Of Cthulhu and compared the skill sets. Sticking, for now, to the basic skills from Dark Heresy and not looking beyond ToC I compiled this match, which is pretty impressive. There is a lot less work here to do than I fear, clearly Messier Hite and Laws knew someday it would come to this. I can see that I'll need to add some kind of specialisation option to Athletics, to allow people to be particularly good at Contortionist, or more likely Dodge. There are quite a few GUMSHOE skills I'll want to added to GDH. Finally I realise that the list of Lore skills will be quite large and I should consider if PC's should get more investigative points to adapt to this increase. Probably not.

Dark Heresy Basic Skills with existing Trail Of Cthulhu GUMSHOE counterpartsAwareness - Sense trouble
Barter - Bargain
Carouse - Athletics
Charm - Flattery or Flirt
Concealment - Conceal or Stealth
Contortionist - Athletics
Deceive - Reassurance
Disguise - Disguise
Dodge - Athletics
Evaluate - Art history (partial)
Gamble - Streetwise (partial)
Inquiry - Interrogation, Reassurance or Assess honesty
Intimidate - Intimidate
Logic - Cryptography or Physics
Climb - Athletics
Scrutiny - Assess honesty
Search - Conceal
Silent Move - Stealth
Survival - Outdoorsmanship
Swim - Athletics
Tech Use - Mechanical repair or Electrical repair
Tracking - Shadowing

Trade - Craft or Art
Animal Wrangling - Riding (partial)

ToC GUMSHOE Skills missing from Dark HeresyCredit Rating
Evidence Collection
Language
Locksmith

Medicine

Oral History (gossip, traditions, folklore)

Streetwise

ToC Abilities To ConsiderAthletics
Conceal (items)
Disguise
Driving
Electrical Repair
Explosives
Filch (pilfer)
Firearms
First aid
Fleeing
Health

Mechanical Repair
Pilot
Preparedness (kit, stuff)
Psychoanalysis
Riding
Sanity
Scuffling
Sense Trouble
Shadowing
Stability
Stealth
Weapons

Dark Heresy Lore SkillsCommon Lore:
Adeptus Arbites
Machine Cult
Administratum
Ecclesiarchy
Imperial Creed
Imperial Guard
Imperium
Tech
Underworld
War

Forbidden Lore:The Black Library
Cults

Daemonology

Heresy
Inquisition - Ordos (Malleus, Hereticus or Xenos)
Archeotech
Mutants
Adeptus Mechanicus

Adeptus Astartes
Psykers
Warp
Xenos

Scholastic Lore:Archaic
Astromancy
Beasts
Biologis
Bureaucracy
Chymistry

Cryptology
Heraldry
Imperial Creed
Judgement
Legend
Numerology

Occult
Philosophy
Tactica Imperialis

GUMSHOE Dark Heresy

In The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future There Is Only Heresy.

While not a straight conversion GUMSHOE Dark Heresy is based on the original game, particularly around background and occupation suggestions. As GUMSHOE is a points based character system there are no enforced classes though, and players are free to imagine their own backgrounds if they wish. Characters spend points to gain access to class abilities. For example to gain augmentation, the character must buy points in Tech Priest. The starting power level is akin to Trail Of Cthulhu, in that the characters are talented but still starting out. The game will also feature troupe style play, like Ars Magica, where each player also has one or more secondary support characters, mostly likely more combat based. This is not to say that investigators, the primary characters, shouldn’t take combat skills, there is danger in every corner of the 40K universe, but when needed the investigators can call in combat retinue. 

There Is Only The Emperor, And He Is Our Shield And Protector.

The sanity and stability rules will be used from Trail Of Cthulhu, however Sanity is called Faith, and is a measure of how far from the emperors light the character has fallen. There are of course many ways that a character may descend, towards Chaos, towards rebellion, towards The Greater Good, towards selfish corruption, or towards inhumanity. Pillars Of Stability, that which helps you keep your faith, will come from the reasons behind your dedication to the inquisition, and can range from pious belief to utter self-interest. It might be that you’re a naive believer in His Divine Light, you may rationalise that only the Inquisition stands between mankind and the darkness of the void, it might be utter devotion to your lord inquisitor that keeps you sane or it might be you see power and righteousness trickles down to you through service.  

Big Guns Never Tire.

The gun-crunch and combat rules will mainly come for Ashen Stars. Further action elements can be discovered in Essoterrorists 2.0 and and Night’s Black Agents. Ship to ship combat, and design, as and when we need them will also come from Ashen Stars. Characters spend points to access more powerful weapons and armour than basic equipment. However while they can loose these items situationally, you get them back between acts. Likewise found items are yours only until the end of the current adventure unless you buy them with points.

The Flesh Is Weak.

Biomechanical augmentation can provide special abilities from Mutant City Blues. These tend to be things that enhance senses and provide beyond human-normal capabilities. However these enhancements reduce Faith as the character becomes less and less human. 

And When You Gaze Long Into The Warp The Warp Also Gazes Into You.

Psychic powers also come from Mutant City Blues and from a greater range. Psykers use the Quaid diagram in much the same way as intend in the MCB rules and gain the drawbacks of psychosis when they cross power boundaries. Some MCB powers are not available as psychic powers however. There is also always the danger of the perils of the warp.

Many Are The Faces Of The Enemy, And Many Are The Hands Which Do Its Work.

Investigative abilities are the main stay of the characters and much of the game will be driven by their application. This means that characters will get a separate pool of points to spend on investigative skills. 

Star Trap Monster Manual

Here is is a link to a PDF of the monsters that reside on the first level of Star Trap Dungeon. They're presented in home brew Dungeons & Dragons style, and borrows from 1st, 3rd and 4th editions. The file is completely unformatted for now.

Star Trap Monster Manual

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons using Warhammer 40K rules, part one.

On the plane from Denmark home I had a bunch of ideas, some about Star Trap Dungeon and quests which I’ll talk about another time. One was around using my many fantasy miniatures in wargaming. While I have some old TSR books on D&D wargaming I seem to remember not liking them much. Since I’m most familiar with Warhammer 40K rules, and I know my wargamer friends seem rather down on fantasy Warhammer I thought I’d have a go at converting the D&D universe to 40K. This isn’t meant to be statistically correct by any means, but is more about the flavour of the creatures.

Baseline.

Human guards Average intelligence, Neutral alignment, AC 5, HD 1, D/A 1-6.

Ws Bs S T W I A Ld S

3 3 3 3 1 3 1 6 5+

Close combat weapon, shield, chainmail.

Ok, that’s simple. Dungeons & Dragons is less descriptive about combat than W40K. This means that most creatures combat prowess are defined by their hit dice, and there is no such things as a high strength, low weapon skill combatant. That’s a little problematic has 40K’s scale is all about d6. So you have to split hit dice into weapon skill and strength.

So lets look at weapon skill like this.

2+(lvl/2 : rounded down). That gives HD 1-1 critters Ws 2, orcs Ws 1, ogres Ws 4, trolls Ws 5, medium red dragons Ws 7. Seems good.

Ballistic can be the same, so that’s easy.

Strength is a tough one. Again, it’s a mixture of Hit Dice, but also damage.

2+(lvl/3 : rounded up + 1 for maximum damage over 10 pts). That means any creature that’s total attacks do over 10 points adds one.

Giant rats S 2, orcs S 3, ogres S 4, trolls S 5, red dragon S 6.

Toughness is a mixture of hit points and armour. For armour in the normal range (10-0) should be dealt with using the Sv attribute, but below this it starts adding to Toughness.

2+(lvl/3 : rounded up + every two points below AC 0, rounded up) e.g. AC-1 is +1, AC -3 is +2.

Giant rats T 2, orcs T 3, ogres T3, trolls T 4, red dragon T 6.

Initiative. Dungeons and Dragons has almost no sense of initiative bonus when monsters are concerned. Therefore we’ll have to take what limited information we have. Characters are easier, but I’ll deal with them later. So bugbears surprise on 1-3. Sounds like they are sneaky, so let’s give them a +1. Zombies are slow, so let’s make them I 1. Elves gain a +1 bonus to their Dex, so let’s include that, making them I 4.

Attacks are thankfully simple. Each attack counts as +1. Orcs A 1, trolls A 3.
Wounds are HD / 2 rounded up. Giant rats 1, orcs 1, ogres 2, trolls 3, red dragons 5.

Leadership is complex in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (it’s easier in B/X D&D) as monster have no morale. Hit dice and intelligence is a good indication, but also alignment. Of course some creatures are fearless, such as undead and slimes.

Ld 6 + (HD / 3 rounded down). -1 for low or below intelligence, +1 for highly or more. -1 for chaotic alignment, +1 for lawful.

Giant rat ld 5, orc ld 7, ogre ld 6, troll ld 6, medium red dragon ld 9

Armour saves. As seen before, very good armour class improves toughness. However normal ranges are converted like so.

AC 0 AC 1-2 AC 3-4 AC 5-7 AC 8-9

2+ 3+ 4+ 5+ 6+

So that rounds off the basics. The fun stuff comes next, spells, characters and special effects to make the game more fun.

Using AD&D for 3rd age Middle Earth roleplaying – a quick and dirty guide.

A short collection of thoughts on running a Middle Earth campaign using AD&D rules.

Character creation

• There are no clerics, except for elven magic-user/clerics, who are restricted to magic-user weapons and armour usage, but may also wield longswords, shortswords and bows.
• Pure magic-users, illusionists and druids must be human and derive their powers from the same source, given to them by the Valar and is spiritual in nature. They are nominally lead by the 5 Istari Wizards (Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Morinehtar and Rómestámo ) who train all types by tend to favour certain classes, Saruman favouring magic-users, Gandalf favouring magic-users and druids, Radagast favouring druids, Morinehtar favouring magic-users and illusionists and Rómestámo favouring illusionists.  There is no magic-missile spell!
• There are no gnomes or paladins.
• Half-elves are considered High-men and half-elves are usually elves.
• Half-orcs are considered Uruk-hai, evil by all other races, and maybe challenging to play unless the party are in league with Sauron or Saruman. 

Bestiary

• Goblins, hobgoblins, orcs, bugbears and ogres are all types of goblins and orcs.
• Undead of all types. Nazghul are fighter/magic-user spectres.
• Will'o'wisps.
• Wyvern's without stings are fell beasts.
• Giant spiders of various sizes. Shelob being one of the largest.
• Hill giants are trolls.
• Stone giants.
• Balor demons are Balrogs. Other demons are hinted at throughout the books.
• Were-creatures.
• Dire wolves are worgs.
• Treants are ents. They can be used for evil or angry tree spirits.
• Faerie spirits are related to Tom Bombadil, and can be dryads, nymphs etc,.
• Creatures like carrion crawlers are hinted in the dark caverns of the world, and should be used as singular entities.
• The watcher in water could giant squid or even a hydra aka cold drake.
• Dragons and dragon like giant lizards.

Magic items

• These should mainly be arms and armour, often of elven manufacture and all individually named.
• Avoid very D&D themed miscellaneous items. 
• Herbs, properly harvested and applied can count as healing spells of various sorts.  Rangers, druids and elves are able to recognise such herbs on a % roll of 5x their level.

Dungeons & Detectives

GUMSHOE-like rules for AD&D, which are far more rough and poorly thought out than the excellent Lorefinder. As I ponder running AD&D again for the first time in very many years I find the lack of a skill system, particularly knowledge and research skills, a bit daunting. Recent de-motivating experiences with skill rolls in the otherwise excellent Dark Heresy make me favour GUMSHOE style never roll points pools, and it’s a relatively simple idea. Player characters with a particular skill never need roll to receive information from the GM that pertain to that skill. Initially to an old-school gamer this might seem bizarre. Why not just read the wholegoddamn scenario out to the players, why don’t you? Gah.

But actually the art of figuring out things isn’t in the rolling of dice but knowing to ask the right question. And GUMSHOE adds an additional level of decision making, as you spend points if you believe there is more to known about a subject than just the base line given to you, and you have limited points.

So for example, until the Identify spell came along in Unearthed Arcana, it was difficult to know as a PC what magic items did and as a GM it was always a little awkward to manage them unless you were very meticulous. However, say we have a character called Thego the archeologist-duelist and who has 5 points in History. Upon finding what appears to be a magical sword he examines and, suspicious that there is more to meet than meets the eye about this weapons spends 3 points. The GM reveals that yes, the sword may well be the fabled Nailbiter, created by the ancient war-wizard Thanazdul for his henchman to battle against the Golem foes of his rival. The sword was past from father to son for many generations, as Thanazdul extended his life by necromatic means and retained the services of the henchman’s family. It was lost some 300 years ago, stolen by a band of Ogre mercenaries. The sword has a minor enchantment (+1) against most foes, but against Golems and constructs it is immensely destructive (+4).

The GM decided that the baseline (no spend) would reveal the sword is indeed unusually ancient, 1 point would have revealed the swords name, two points that it was created by Thanazdul and passed onto his henchman and that it was designed for use against specific foes and 3 points revealed that the foes were Golems and constructs. If Thego spent 4 points the extra point would have been wasted.

It’s important, vital in fact, that information that the players absolutely must have to continue the story can be revealed at the baseline. Further points can give more background and flavour in these cases but you shouldn’t hold up the flow because someone didn’t spend or have enough points.

Now that the points are spent, how do you refresh the pool? It’s between the GM and player to come up with interesting refresh opportunities, but Thego might for example spend the evening talking to a sage in a tavern or an afternoon in a old library and the next day wake with a refreshed pool.

One final optional extra, specialization. PCs can specialize in a particular area. This means that they spend one less point, and 1 point clues or information become free, if the area is in their field of specialization, and is always available meaning they always know more than just the baseline.

Rules stuff...
1st level characters receive points based on their class.

Magic-users and Illusionists get 5 points at 1st level and gain an extra 1 point per 2 levels thereafter.

Thieves, Clerics, Druids, Paladins, Fighters, Rangers, Assassins and Monks get 4 points at 1st level and gain an extra 1 point per 3 levels.

Specializations cost 1 point to add to a skill and can only be taken once per 3 levels.

Example skills & specialization

History (ancient, local, regional, military, secret societies, religious, magic)
Magic (elemental, demonology, necromancy, illusion, alchemy, fae, planar, spells, divination)
Religion (pantheon, ancient, planar, history)
Nature (regional, fauna, flora, fae, peoples)
Dungeoneering ( monsters, peoples, underdark, caves, traps, regional )
Military (strategy and tactics, arms and armour, melee
Appraisal (art, jewelry, gems, magic items)

Bookhounds of New Crobuzon

After reading Ken Hite's excellent Bookhounds Of London I'm daydreaming about running a Bookhounds mashup of Ars Magica set in New Crobuzon.

The players would take the role of a magical bookshop's guards, bookfinders and sellers as well as alchemists and ingredient sourcers. So many games, so little time.