Nuts & Bolts #160 - Board of RPGs #2 Firefly: The Game

So you and your group aim to misbehave. Maybe you have one of the official RPGs, or maybe you want to use something like Stars Without Number, Cypher System, DCC Star Crawl, or FFG's Star Wars/Genysis system. Regardless you have you choice of rules lined up, you have players making characters, but as GM you have SO. MUCH. WORK.

Unless you happen to also have a copy of Firefly: The Game from Gale Force Nine. No they didn't sponsor this (I actually don't find the board game very playable myself), but I cannot dismiss the utility of this game as a GM's resource. Let's begin shall we?

The 'Verse

So there's that big ol' board. The above actually includes the space added by the two big-box expansions, but still you get the drift. Why is this board great? Well firstly it's actually usable. You can lay it on the table and use it during play, everything is nicely legible, and the spaces laid out for the board game work great for semi-abstract RPG travel & navigation. You can use the spaces as a way to gauge distance and time to travel between locations. Each space can represent perhaps a day of travel, with the option to go "full burn" to allow the group to move faster but spend more fuel and run greater risk of running into unintended trouble.

Traveling The Black

Speaking of traveling, not only are those spaces a nice way to give your players an idea of the time and space required to get from point A to point B, but when you also use the two decks provided in the game (for Alliance Space and Border Space) you can roll cards from the appropriate decks and get ideas for random encounters and events. Consider that these decks contain a lot of "big black" cards (25) indicating no encounter, but a smaller number of cards (15) that yield run ins with Alliance Patrols, Reavers, dead ships, or various problems with your own ship (It's busted cap'n!) and you can see how a GM would be able to draw a card or cards and quickly determine if anything should happen and get some ideas of what.

The cards where something happens also work pretty well to give you some shorthand guidance. Take the "Scrapper Ambush" card, it has two ways to pass it, one requiring a mechanics test, the other requiring a combat test. While the players may think of another way out entirely you can use these as guidance to craft the details of the event. For example, the mechanics test may indicate that the players' ship is either physically held in place, or had been disabled (engine damage perhaps?), if the players are unable to fix the ship they will have to face a boarding party of scrapper and the combat that will almost certainly happen thereafter...

Jobs and Trouble

Speaking of stuff to do... a GMs biggest job in a game like this will be coming up with jobs for the PC crew to take on for pay. Luckily there's not just one deck of jobs, but five! Better still each is attached to an in-universe NPC like Badger or Niska or Patience. Some of these jobs will be totally legal. Others decidedly less so. The job cards contain all the info a GM could want; how much does it pay, is it legal or not, where the job starts (e.g. where you pick up goods, or execute a theft) and where the job ends (often another planet thus forcing travel across the 'verse), and any prerequisites for the job, such a a requirement of firepower, mechanical aptitude, or good speechifying. Illegal jobs often also include a number of cards to draw from the "Aim to Misbehave" deck which adds trouble and complications to the job. A GM can easily take this and create a RPG scenario on the fly. And speaking of that "Aim to Misbehave" deck, it's a wonderful resource for injecting a little trouble into the character's lives and make things interesting even when they are not on the job. Each card has a name and three ways to get past the card with two being tests of some kind that can be used to determine skill challenges in your system of choice, and the third an automatic pass if you have the right equipment or NPC ally.

Gear and NPCs

But wait, there's more! Because this little board game has a LOT of cards you also get a deck for every major planet that contains a slew of ready-made(ish) NPCs and gear including both personal equipment as well as ways to upgrade your ship. NPCs come with a name (usually, sometimes it's more of a title), a cost to hire, a couple of skills, and sometimes a unique ability. Fleshing these out into full NPCs may be more work in some systems than others, but I could easily use that card and a choice of level and require no further effort for a Cypher System game. Let's consider that Gun Hand above. He's a mercenary, with a cost of $100, so I could set his level at 1, since he is good with guns I could give him a level 2 for combat tasks, but he's also Expendable, so he gains an ability to be sacrificed to any GM intrusion or similar even if said Intrusion targets a different character.

Likewise equipment and ship upgrades have their cost and their effects in simple terms. Depending on your system of choice this may require more or less effort to flesh out. Again, were I using Cypher for this I could do very easily by converting skill bonuses into either assets or other similar effects. That "A Very Fine Hat" counts as "Fancy Duds" and also makes you a little better at social tests (1 asset), plus it'll open up more options for work when the times come for a new job. Another example (not shown) is "Vera." "Vera" is a sniper rifle (heavy weapon type) with +2 on Firearms and +1 on Speech; easy enough to say that it provides 2 assets on shooting attacks due to its accuracy, and an asset on intimidation checks because its "Vera". Alternately I could say it does +2 damage over a normal heavy weapon, but that doesn't jive with the sniper rifle trait in my mind.

Then there's ship upgrades like that Cry Baby. Cry Baby has a very discrete effect, it let's you escape Alliance Patrols (might also work for Reavers, but maybe not, they are crazy), but you lose it in the process. Still if your hold is full of contraband and your crew has a warrant or three on their heads it may well be worth it to escape Scott-free.

Closing

So, hopefully by now you're seeing the potential here. I used to think "gosh, a Firefly game would be so hard to manage" but really it's as simple as a moderately complicated board game. Who knew? Hopefully you do now, and maybe you'll find yourself out in the 'verse the next time the urge hits you.

DCC Spell: Nuphon's Staff Infection

Stephen Newton made a joke about "Staph Infection" to which I replied (jokingly) about creating a spell called "Staff Infection" for DCC. However joke soon gave birth to reality so, please enjoy the punny fruits of a Twitter interaction...

Nuphon's Staff Infection

Level: 3
Range: 10'/CL
Duration: Permanent and/or Varies
Casting Time: 1 round
Save: Mundane staves get no save. Magical staves receive a save using the owner's Fortitude vs the Spell Check.

Description: 
The vile arch-wizard Nuphon crafted this spell specifically to destroy the elaborately crafted staves of a rival. When cast on a staff (magical or mundane) the spell will infect the staff and cause rot, mutation, and decay. Especially potent castings of this spell may also affect the owner of the target staff. If no staff is present the wizard may cast this spell on a tree within range at a penalty of -1d.

Manifestation: Roll 1d4:

1. The caster coughs violently before expelling a disgusting blob of sputum that infects the target staff.
2. The caster gestures forth with their hand and a gelatinous blast of sickly yellow-green energy strikes the target staff.
3. The caster vomits forth a magically animated bile that flows over the target staff.
4. The caster belches forth a noxious cloud of infectious gasses that travel to and surround the target staff. 

Corruption: Roll 1d4:

1. The skin on the caster's hands splits open and falls away revealing rough wooden bark like skin.
2. The caster's touch become inimical to wood and wooden items. Their very touch deals 1d3 damage per round to wood. This effect penetrates clothing and boots.
3. The caster doubles over and begins to cough for 1 full round during which they expel 1d3 pounds of rotten wood chips, and suffer 1 point of Stamina damage per pound.
4. The becomes highly allergic to tree pollen and suffer a -1d penalty to all actions while out of doors during the spring season. 

Misfire: Roll 1d4:

1. The caster takes a point of Stamina damage and becomes riddled with disease and cancerous growths. Each day the caster must make a DC 15 Fortitude save or lose another point of Stamina. The disease rages until the caster is dead or succeeds on their save for 5 straight days. 
2. The caster's own staff (or similar hand held item) cracks in half and is destroyed.
3. The ground nearby caves in as a swarm of termites rushes forth and onto the caster inflicting a penalty of -1d on all action dice for 1d5 rounds.
4. A nearby tree becomes diseased and begins to emit foul odors and drip caustic pus. Within 1 round its rotting trunk collapsed and the tree crashes onto the caster (or an ally within range) dealing 1d12 damage.

Results:

• 1: Lost! Failure! WORSE! Roll 1d6 modified by Luck: (0 or less) corruption + patron taint + misfire; (1-2) corruption; (3) patron taint (or corruption if no patron); (4+) misfire.
• 2-11: Lost. Failure.
• 12-15: Failure, but spell is not lost.
• 16-17: The caster targets a single staff within range. The staff becomes twisted and gnarled gaining 1d6 ugly cancerous growths. For each growth the fumble range of the staff when used in melee combat is increased by 1. On any fumble the staff breaks irreparably in addition to any other fumble effect. 
• 18-21: The caster targets a single staff within range. The staff becomes thorny and rough as it splits and twists. The wielder of the staff suffers 1d10+CL damage as splinters and thorns tear through their flesh.  
• 22-23: The caster targets a single staff within range. The staff becomes twisted and gnarled and gains 1d3+CL weeping sores. The holder must make an immediate Fortitude save against a DC of 10+ the number of sores or suffer stamina damage equal to the number of sores. 
• 24-26: The caster targets a single staff within range. The staff becomes twisted and gnarled and gaining 1d6+CL corrupted growths that twist magical energy. These growths disappear at a rate of 1 per day. Additionally, the user suffers a penalty on all spell checks equal to the number of growths. On any spell misfire the staff explodes dealing damage equal to the number of growths remaining in addition to normal misfire effects. 
• 32-33: The caster targets a single staff within range sundering it into kindling. Anybody within 5xCL feet of the staff takes 3d8+CL damage from flying splinters (Reflex save for half). 
• 27-31: The caster targets a single staff within range which explodes in a fiery conflagration! Anybody within 5xCL feet of the staff takes 5d6+CL damage from burning cinders (Reflex save for half). 
• 34-35: The caster targets a single staff within range which grows boils and festering wounds for 1 round before bursting in a shower of pus, ooze, and gore. Anybody within 5xCL feet of the staff takes 3d10+CL damage from diseased mucus (Reflex save for half) and must make a DC 15 Fortitude save against disease or lose 1d4 Stamina as boils and pustules break out on their skin.
• 36+: The caster targets a single staff within range which instantly explodes in a shower of festering shards. Anybody within 5xCL feet of the staff takes 4d10+CL damage from diseased mucus (Reflex save for half) and must make a DC 20 Fortitude save against disease or lose 2d4 Stamina as boils and pustules break out on their skin.

Nuts & Bolts #159 - Board of RPGs #1 Gloomhaven

Four years ago I wrote a blog post about harvesting the boards from your board games for use with your RPGs (find it here; TLDR: you probably already have a closet full of RPG ready maps). Board gaming is a big part of my hobby time as I have gotten older. It's easy to do a board game regardless of who can show up, but RPG sessions often require all players be present (especially when your group is small, as mine is). We play a lot of games from the super lite, 20 minute games, to heavier games like Terraforming Mars, Orleans, Firefly: The Game, and probably the heaviest game that makes frequent rotation: Gloomhaven.

Thing is that while some of these are very "board gamey" others like Gloomhaven, and Firefly have very RPG-like choices to be made and mechanics that would not be otherwise out of place in an RPG. Do you sell the mercenary a healing potion as he asked, or choose not to and risk his ire? Do you take on a job ferrying slaves and risk pissing off your crew during the trip to the next system? These are very RPG-like choices. Playing these games has got me thinking about how board games have clearly been inspired by RPGs and how RPGs can be inspired right back by board games.

All of that said, let's talk about Gloomhaven, the very much an "RPG in a box" board game, that manages to evoke a lot of RPG like decision making and interactions despite its utter lack of a GM to tailor things to the group.

Goals

So, first of all, let's talk goals. When you make a character in Gloomhaven you get two cards of the goals deck and choose one. These cards give you a bit of character background and set up what your character's personal goal is as well as the reward for meeting that goal. The character who meets that goal will thereafter retire. These can be a simple as "defeat X number of [monster type]" or "complete X number of encounters while [condition]". In addition to these, each character will also get a short term goal for each encounter/mission. Things like "end with your maximum health," "only take short rests," or "don't use any equipment." These short term goals act as a way to, essentially, gain experience to unlock perks (Gloomhaven actually has two independent advancement tracks, but more on that later).

At first glance these may seem like board gamey ways to "gamify" the process of unlocking additional content from the box (which it is) and/or improving your character, but surprisingly a lot of role play happens around these goals. When a character is one kill from their goal and that enemy is downed by another character in search of their own goals the talk at the table gets pretty interesting (I needed to hit my short term goal dang it!).

There's value here, especially in a hobby that often loses itself in the theoretical "endlessness" of the game. Yes, you the player may want to keep adventuring, but would that character actually keep going after everything they've been through? I know my decision to retire a character at only level 3 in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game struck some of the other players as odd, but he had modest wealth and was the newly elected mayor of the town, adventuring didn't feel like a choice the character would make. Better still that choice resulted in the character becoming the "god emperor" so I think it was a good one.

A Rolling Roster

Retirement of characters does mean that your cast changes. Rather than looking at that as an bad thing, consider the opportunity that this presents. With the removal of a given character and the introduction of a new character the roles and skill sets that that character filled will likely change. This opens up an opportunity for existing characters to explore aspects of their character outside of their existing niche. This means that a character may be able to step up into the role of tank, or healer, or utility character. It's also possible that the entire party dynamic may change. If your wizard retires and the player brings in a rogue as their next character the way the party approaches combat and exploration is not only likely to change, but is likely to NEED to change.

Certain RPGs really make it hard for a character to die and therefore make it easy to keep playing the same character. Worse, I have seen a lot of "I only play X" and "this is a version of my old character [name]". While I can understand that there is comfort in the familiar I also think a lot of folks are missing out on trying new things. A rolling roster can help motivate the players to try new things; after all, if it doesn't work out that character can just be retired.

Building a Home: Prosperity, Reputation & Influence

OK, fair to say that I didn't learn this from Gloomhaven specifically, but Gloomhaven does do a very good job of this, and has driven a lot of RPG-like talk at the table. So Gloomhaven has a track for how prosperous the city is, another for the reputation of the player party (which can fall below zero because the game knows that people can be a-holes), and all of this had an impact on play as both the player party wields influence and the city wields influence on various encounters. The most obvious way this is felt is that Prosperity influences the starting level of new characters. A fantastic connection that can be directly ported into your RPG if character death is a thing (see above). RPG Judges/GMs could easily just say "you come in at the lowest level in the part minus 1" or similar, but by tying it to how well the city at the center of the campaign is doing you are telling the players that they can affect their own future characters by ensuring the city does well.

Equally as impactful (though we often forget about this) is that reputation influences item pricing. As the player group gains reputation they can buy items more cheaply (or presumably at greater cost if their rep is in the toilet). This hits the players in their characters' wallets, and that can be shockingly effective. Again, the players' characters' actions can have direct feedback on the way the world reacts to them. This is lost on murderhobo style games, which can be a real shame because it robs the players of the repercussions of their own behavior through the characters.

Similarly some of the random encounters that can take place within the city or on the road can be influenced by these values. A merchant may pay more after getting help if the character's have a high reputation, or a NPC group may react differently if Gloomhaven's prosperity is above or below a certain threshold. Consider how the wealth of a town impacts the way that raiders, merchants, and neighboring towns view it. A poor tow is less likely to see raiders and merchants will visit less often, while neighboring towns may look to annex land, and steal capable citizens.

And more ...

I could probably go on for quite a bit about how the structure of Gloomhaven's quests and random encounters mimic the best aspects of a hex crawl, about how the random encounters are really well designed despite being a simple two choice system, or how the game is smart enough to lock side quests away behind gating accomplishments (we really want to find a way to breathe under water so we can do a side quest we learned of a long time ago), but I think that can maybe be another blog for another time. In the meantime maybe take a look at your own board games (RPG-like or otherwise) and see what you can take away from them for the purposes of your RPG sessions, and let me know if there's anything cool out there I should know about or look into.