His Majesty the Barkeep

Been radio silent for a bit. Just ain't nothing catching my interest, paired with the business of life. You know how it is. 

Anyway, to start easing back into things, I took apart in the Barkeep on the Borderlands jam and produced a little entry entitled "One More Round," a collection of four additional locations to use in the setting. 

Well then, this comment was posted and that started moving the old brain wheel again. 

So here I am, ruining two perfectly good games by jamming them together: His Majesty the Worm and Barkeep on the Borderlands. It needs a little hammering out, but I reckon it's a good start, and I should be able to get it prettified before the end of the Worm Jam. A large chunk of this is taken from the Barkeep on the Borderlands Third Party License and SRD 

Why post these first, instead of straight to the jam? I don't know. I've been inside my own head too much lately. Maybe just wanting for a chance at feedback.

New Effects

Sober

Sober creatures have no alcohol or other intoxicants in their system. Really, it’s the absence of an effect, as characters are assumed to be Sober by default. 

Tipsy

Tipsy creatures are within the early stages of intoxication. Characters have Favor on all Wands tests, but also have specific results in failing a test of Fate in relation to Sobriety. See below. 

Drunk

Drunk creatures have entered an advanced stage of intoxication. A character has Disfavor on all tests except those involving Wands. Additionally, they have specific results in failing a test of Fate in relation to Sobriety. See below.

Blackout

Blackout creatures are deep within the throes of being intoxicated. Characters have Disfavor on all saves and tests and are no longer exclusively played by their player.

Hungover

Hungover creatures have expelled the alcohol within their system and are no longer intoxicated. They are, however, Exhausted and may be Stunned by loud noises.

Pubcrawl Pointcrawl Procedure

The pubcrawl proceeds in Turns. Each Turn represents an abstract and indeterminate length of time necessary to complete a simple activity, such as ordering drinks, flirting, brawling, bumming smokes or something similarly time-consuming. 

At the start of each Turn, the referee describes what is happening and any changes since the last Turn. The players may ask any questions of the referee, which they will answer according to what the characters would know. If the characters would not reasonably know the answer, the referee may tell them how they could find it out.

Each Turn, the jolly crew takes one action, individually or collectively, and each jolly crewmate tests their Fate. Moving between pubs may take a few Turns, as shown on the map.

After the jolly crew resolves their action(s), the referee draws a card from the Major Arcana and consults the Meatgrinder to determine what else happens during that Turn. 

CARD	MEATGRINDER EVENT
I-VII	Setback
VIII-XIV	Drinks Gutter
XV-XXI	Mark Time

Interpreting the Meatgrinder

Setback.

If the jolly crew is inside a pub, read from the Situation table of the pub they are in. If the jolly crew is outside a pub (such as when traveling between pubs), read from the Sidetrack table for the destination pub. Both tables use the value of the drawn card to determine the resulting Setback.

Draw for an initial Situation for a pub when the jolly crew first enters it. If a Situation refers to a character who isn’t present at the pub, they arrive when it is drawn. The referee may also begin a Setback as they deem appropriate.   

When consulting tables ment for 2d6, simply use the first seven entries to determine Situations, with the remaining five serving as backup Situations, replacing any previously drawn results.

Drinks Gutter.

Each character checks their drink, and marks a Gulp. Short drinks have one gulp, tall drinks have two. Cocktails are typically short. Shots are consumed instantly. When a drink is out of Gulps, the character will need to buy a new one to continue drinking. Each character also Tests their Fate an extra time that Turn, moving forward on the Sobriety chain on failure. Characters who have been drinking water instead of alcohol may sober up instead, moving backward on the Sobriety chain.

Mark Time.

An hour passes in the fiction, and the bell towers toll the current time. The referee tracks the current time. At 1:00 in the morning, it's last call for drinks, and at 2:00, it’s closing time.

Drinking Rules

Sobriety

Measures the current level of soberness of a character, from Sober to Blackout. Various effects are applied to said character as they make their way from left to right on the Sobriety Chain

Testing Sobriety

When there’s a call to test Sobriety, simply make a Test of Fate using your Swords attribute. Success means they may continue drinking unhindered. Failure moves the character down (to the right) the Sobriety Chain. In terms of Bound by Fate, a new drink is considered a significant change. 

Sobriety Chain

Sober → (Tipsy) → (Drunk) → Blackout

Drinking

When the Meatgrinder determines Drinks Gutter, each character tests their Sobriety (unless they did not have anything to drink). If they drank to excess that Turn, they test at a Disfavor.

Not Drinking

Not drinking alcohol while inside a pub will raise the eyebrows, then the hackles of the patrons. They will assume you are hiding something or you want to take advantage of their inebriation. 

Sobering Up & Hangovers

If a character spends a Turn drinking only water, they move back a step on the Sobriety Chain the next time the Risk Card shows Drinking, unless they are Blackout. A full night’s rest returns even a Blackout character to their original Sober state.

 

When the character returns to full Sobriety after being Drunk or Blackout, they are Hungover. Being Hungover causes exhaustion and headaches. Some magics can cure hangovers or accomplish sobriety quicker.

Being Tipsy

A Tipsy character has Favor on all Wands tests. When they fail their Sobriety test, consult the following table, based on the last card drawn.

CARD	RESULT
⚔, ⛧, 🥤, 🪄	Inebriation. Become Drunk.
⚔ [Reversed]	Gassy. Burp rudely or lose a Resolve.
⛧ [Reversed]	Dizzy. Disfavor on Pentacle saves and tests for next Turn.
🥤 [Reversed]	Forgetful. Lose an item in [value] slot.
🪄 [Reversed]	Vibing. Restore a Resolve.

Being Drunk

A Drunk character has Disfavor on all tests except those involving Wands. When they fail their Sobriety Test, consult the following table, based on the last card drawn.

CARD	RESULT
⚔, ⛧, 🥤	Inebriation. Become Blackout.
🪄	Sickened. Vomit or suffer a Wound. Vomiting has a 1-in-4 chance to reduce the character’s inebriation to Tipsy but has social drawbacks.

Being Blackout

When a character becomes Blackout, they have Disfavor on all saves and tests and are no longer exclusively played by their player. Instead, each Turn, their player draws a card to determine who will play their Blackout character, as shown below.

CARD	RESULT
⚔	The referee
⛧	Another player of the player’s choice
🥤, 🪄	The player

If a Blackout character is ever separated from the jolly crew, then the GM draws from the Hangover table (page 157) to determine the Blackout character’s fate. 

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Motivation and Bonds

 

I believe this started as a Goblin Punch post that then influenced Rise Up, Comus’ Bond system in his soon to be released His Majesty the Worm game; to which I am now filing the serial numbers off of and remixing a bit. Has he spoken about it before? I don’t recall. 

The original intent was to use this system in a Firefly themed game, but we can all see I ain’t getting around to it anytime soon. It would’ve probably have been most of Some Weird Sin rewritten in the voice I used for that one dragon post. 

Bonds and Motivation

No man is an island. Except for, of course, Island Pete. Though he’s technically an AI operating a colossal party barge out in international waters. The idea is sound, however. Everyone is connected to someone, whether we like it or not. We’re social creatures and tend to form bonds with others. In our grim, dark time, struggles these bonds are what tend to spur us on; to motivate us. To that end, and to squeeze more role playing out of the players, a few changes are getting made to the Conviction system. 

These may make Stable play cumbersome. I have no solution for that at the moment. 

Motivation

Let’s start here. What was called “Conviction” is now “Motivation.” Honestly, the name is more inline with the intent of the subsystem. “Why did you become a mercenary?” “What are you willing to risk your life for?” - Your motivation. 

Now, Conviction had a pool of points connected to it, that filled by one every time you put yourself in trouble for following your Conviction. Points could then be spent to add a bonus to a dice roll based on circumstances. (Also, in reviewing the system for fixing, I’ve realized the bonuses are going the wrong way. In a Roll Under system, the +4/+8 should be -4/-8.)

The points are remaining, but the pool is getting a little bigger. Each Bond (explained below) has a condition associated with it and, when the condition is met, that Bond is considered Filled and remains so until used. 

Filled Bonds can be used a number of ways:

• Provide a -2 bonus on d20 rolls unrelated to your Motivation

• Provide a -4 bonus on d20 rolls related to your Motivation

• Modifying a roll made in combat by the Bond’s Target, up or down, by 2. Both characters must be present (and alive) in the combat. 

• Remove a point of Lethal Damage from yourself. Must be accompanied by a motivational affirmation. 

I seem to have just talked myself into modifying the Assists system as well. No one made it to level 5 anyway. 

The values in the bonuses are lower, but you get them more quickly and they stack. You can spend as many as you wish in a round, even on other people’s turns, but the -2/-4 must be declared before the roll is made. 

Bonds

A bound is made between two players, one for each pair of players. Each Bond has a condition associated with it that must be met in order for the Bond to be considered Filled. I’ve provided examples of the bonds, but they’re mostly Neuromancer related as I’ve just read the news about the TV show and it is freshest on my mind. Don’t you worry, I’ll probably have opinions on that as more news comes out. 

Allies 

Other crew members that you’re professional and amicable with. This is the default bond. 

Example: Case and the Finn

Filled When: You make an ally laugh in and out of character. 

Antagonist

They may be part of the crew, but there’s no love to be lost between the two of you. This is not an excuse for being an ass to the other player, mind you. 

Example: Molly and Riviera

Filled When: You witness your antagonist fail a check. 

Best Friend

Maybe you’ve been best friends since childhood. Or maybe you met at a some weird guy’s basement to play roleplaying games. Either way, best friends tend to know each other better than themselves, and totally don’t get mad when the other steals content from their soon to be released game.   

Examples: John Anderson and Tina Bonemeal; Case and Molly

Filled When: You share a secret with your best friend

Bodyguard/Ward 

Someone on the crew needs a little extra protecting, and the Bodyguard sees that this happens. 

Examples: Turner and Angie Mitchell; Molly and Kumiko

Filled When: 

• Bodyguard fills when their Ward survives a lethal encounter (combat) without taking damage. 

• Ward fills when they get into lethal danger

Business Partners

The bloody gears of capitalism keep on grinding and, even though it’s enslaving and killing you, that doesn’t mean you can’t make a little something for yourself. 

Examples: Cowboy and Roon

Filled When: Business partners fill their bonds when a significant capital venture pays out 

Codependent

Codependent characters tend to rely on the support of each other, both emotional and physical, to shake off the crushing loneliness and isolation of modern society. 

Examples: Sarah and Daud

Filled When: Codependent characters fill their bond when they seek out emotional support and validation from the target of the bond. 

Drug Dealer/User

The Dealer is a man with love grass in his hand. The User, uh…uses. Uses drugs. 

Examples: Zone and Case

Filled When: 

• Dealer fills when they sell drugs to a User

• User fills when they buy the drugs from their Dealer

Employer/Employee

Turning players into the hired help. This is what it sounds like: One player is the employer, the other is the employee. 

Examples: Molly and Armitage; Wage and the Joeboys

Filled When: 

• Employer fills when they pay their employee an agreed upon payment or other reimbursement. 

• Employee fills when they perform a significant task to the benefit of their employer over themself (a Job). 

Lovers

Despite the cold harshness of the world, you two have found each other. If both players are okay with it (seriously, don’t get weird) a Lovers bound 

Examples: Bobby and Angie Mitchell 

Filled When: This bound is filled when you do something romantic for the other in character - be it tagging an overpass with their name or making them an 8-bit chiptune mix tape. 

Mentor/Protege

The mentor is someone with a wealth of knowledge to provide (or at least fake it). Their protege is someone they’ve taken under their training and guidance. Think jedi master and padawan.

Examples: Case and Dixie Flatline

Filled When: 

• Mentors fill this Bond when Protege follows your advice

• Proteges fill this bond when you ask the Mentor for advice and it is given. 

Ride or Die

This isn’t the first crew the two of you have been part of, and you’ve seen each other through thick and thin. With unquestionable certainty, you know they have your back. 

Examples: Hiro Protagonist and Y.T.

Filled When: You assist your partner in making a check. 

Rival 

A friendly competition never hurt no one. “Friendly” being the keyword. 

Examples: Molly and the Yakuza assassin (it’s not a perfect fit) 

Filled When: You see your Rival succeed in making a check. 

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Pog Mechanics

 Few days back (holidays) I was digging through the artifacts of my youth. Strangely, amongst the detritus was a huge collection of pogs. I say strangely because I have zero memory of playing or even owning said collection of pogs. At what point in my juvenile delinquency did I sink so low as to spend ill gotten currency on pogs? Had a backwater swamp witch cursed me into possessing such frivolous and deranged items? There are dark marshes in the woods of my childhood home. Marshes I swore never to set foot in again, less the evil there follow me out. Perhaps the answer lays there? It will remain, if so.

Confused, I returned the junk to the cubbyhole allotted to me in my mother's attic. 

Days later, I discovered this challenge issued by Reginald Prismatic of Prismatic Wasteland. I assume that's his name. I didn't...I didn't look very hard. 

I don't know what that damned swamp witch intended, but this seemed the time to inflict the curse on others:

Pog Mechanics

"You remember mechanics, Bart? They're back. In pog form." 

You got yourself an Attribute. I don't know what it is or how you determine it, but I DO know it has a [value]. This [value] determines how many caps you get. 

Whenever you're called to test that Attribute, be it a check or a save or what have you, you place [value] caps into the center of the table. You then take a Slammer and knock the shit out of the stack of caps. Any cap that lands face up is a Success. Certain Difficulties require a certain number of Success in order to succeed. 

If doing damage, then Damage Chips are placed into the stack. Any that land face up is a Success AND a point of damage. 

Essentially it's 20d2. Which is basically just a 4d4. 

But, unlike common dice rolls, the stack itself can be messed with and other meta values adjusted:

• Effects can add or remove caps. 
• Fatigue can force you to stack Fatigue caps first before the rest of the stack is added. These are required in all stacks until healed, but Successes don't count for nothing. 
• Some Monsters have Effect chips which, if Successful, cause effects.
• Wyld Fire elemental's Effect chips inflict Fire damage if Successful, from you being so close to the unnatural fire.
• Those Infected by the Mind Worm add a Parasite chip to the stack, which causes a whole new set of problems should it be Successful. 
• Spells can effect your throwing (i.e, make you throw the slammer from your off hand; make you stand farther from the table)

It'll take ten times as long as just rolling dice, but it'll get ya playing pogs again. 

This started as a pogs only post, but I've had other mechanic ideas that never went anywhere. Seems a good time to dump them out of my brain meat:

Success Pogs: Each player throws once at the start of the session. Each Success is kept by the player to use as tokens to be traded in. Attempting an action? Costs you one token. (Actually in hindsight, not great. Might cause players to not try anything and over ration the tokens)

Mechanic based on playlist. "No stats, just vibes"

Number stations. I feel like there's something gameable in them, I just need to crack it. Every time I try I blackout and wake up in the basement of a foreign embassy.

Random Number Books. Back before we had these fancy-dancey high speed processors to generate random numbers, thick books of random numbers were printed and useful for statistics and cryptography. At the start of the session, the GM rolls secretly. That result tells you where to start in the book and which way to read the random number tables (row wise vs column wise). As the game progresses the GM pulls success and failures from the sequential digits in the book, never stopping to roll again. 

Gom Jabbar. Part of a Dune themed GLoG I got too side tracked to complete, the premise was rather simple: just as Paul was tested via the Gom Jabber using a pain box, so too shall the players be. This requires one of them hand shocking toys, specifically ones that increase their power the longer the triggers are held. The last person holding the buzzer takes the Win. 

Another rule from the Dune GLoG was drinking ipecac to determine who could play the Kwisatz Haderach, just as Paul had converted the Water of Life

I have suggested these rules to Modius for the next version of Dune. I have not heard back. 

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Probably Gonna Make Everything One Damage

 
Whenever I'm faced with a powerful amount of stress, I tend to start stressing and fussing over things that neither need it nor matter. Really just start poking at things that work fine enough. Anyway, that led to this: 

I'm Probably Gonna Make Everything One Damage

One thing that always struck me as odd during play was the fact that you have to roll under to succeed in an attack, but then roll over to "succeed" in damage. Tradition, probably. But what to do? Convert to Roll Over like a normal person? God, no. Gross. Other ideas involve: 

1. Subtraction This clearly won't work. I can hardly get players to add. Having them work out something like "7-1d6" every other roll would really grind things to a halt. 
2. Damage Array While I still like the idea, it seems like a step in the wrong direction. Also, it would generate a bunch of work. Though, as I write this, I realize so would...
3. Making Everything One Damage One of the design philosophies behind the original GLoG was making things more simple, namely in reducing rolls. From two rolls to one, from one to none. This one largely gets ignored (from what I've seen), but here's a place to actually do that. 

An attack roll is basically just two rolls to determine one value: the amount of damage you do. Ranging from "none" to "max" it's a tradition that held on and hasn't, from what I've seen (not that I've really looked), been challenged. 

But it's also two rolls for one result. I like rolling the dice as much as anyone, but in holding with the simplification design principle, them rolls gotta get squished together. I suppose I could go the Into the Odd route and make all attacks automatically hit, thus making every character's turn automatic damage to someone. That seems too far to me, however. 

Basically, I've got the notion in my head that every attack is some form of gambit and should come with a risk. One that should pay off immediately. If you're gonna stand out in the open and/or foolishly fight fair, you should run the risk of failure (Attack roll), but receive a significant payout immediately (1 damage). 

Alright, but why 1 damage?

That value is coming from 2 seconds of intoxicated math applied to averages. Allow me to reproduce my hard to read scrawling:

Given 4d4 as the dice used to generate Constitution, and therefore HP, the average of the roll is 10 HP. 

Light weapons did roughly 1d6 of damage, making the "average" 3.5 damage.

Medium weapons did 1d8 for 4.5 damage "average."

Heavy weapons came in a 1d10 for 5.5 

With these values, to take a 10 HP "average" character down to zero, light weapons would require roughly 3 hits, as would medium weapons. Heavy weapons came in for only 2 hits. These hit amounts look good to me. Perfectly fine. Armor is important for a reason. 

In moving the damage range down to 1, HP will also need to be adjusted. Namely instead of the noble 4d4, the value becomes (4d4)/4, which drags the range down to 1 to 4, usually 2. Modified by templates and augments, this also seems fine. Don't get shot. 

 On one hand, while this will speed up combat and standardize weapon damage (let's be honest, I was obviously making the damage values up out of thin air. And I clearly had favorites.), it also means I'm gonna have to rewrite the gear list to make them stand out via special qualities. Which I probably should have been doing anyway. Also rewrite the combat section, damage section, augment section...

But it seems worth it. It feels better to me. When the time arises, I'll have to do a one shot to test it out. Might take a minute, but I should definitely do a play test before the rewrite. For once. 

Also, it seems like someone has done this before, but I can't place it. I'm sure that won't cause problems. 

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Bubble Head

 I ain't got time to make it pretty, but I've got time to force it up on you. Hell, I'm still on phone, so I don't know how big that image is gonna be. 

Bubble Head

Some poor bastard who's had a parasitic prototype of a military grade cyber augment forced upon him by some unknown party (Vitulus Aureus lab technicians) and some how made his way back into the general public. His actions and consciousness might not be his. 

The gimmick here would have been (players never met Vitulus Aureus "representatives") to teach the players to shoot the glowing red spot that was the Drone Control Unit on the figure's head. Rough, but not impossible, if they didn't get it. Quick and rather easy if they did. Which would have been good, because the system would have turned up on robotic tanks later. 

Update

Huh, okay, yeah. That was not the best time to be gone. 

There are questions, naturally. I will see if I can address them. 

When addressing puzzles, players typically have three options:

1. Fuck Around and Find Out
2. Use Knowledge
3. Run Away

This methodology can apply for component enemies, though with more aggressive results as the "puzzle" will not want to be interacted with or will be trying to interact with the players in a less than friendly manner. 

While usage of a Component enemy is relatively the same as a normal creature deployment, a small amount of effort must be engaged in by the game master/game designer. Namely, as the GM would describe a puzzle in detail, so too must they offer greater detail to the players than "bandit in leather armor." Communication is key here. Care must be taken to ensure that every non-secret piece of the puzzle is provided. Likewise, when the PC attacks or otherwise interacts, the GM should ask "how are you attacking and what are you targeting"?

"The frail, lithe figure stands his ground, though his eyes are ever distant. Upon the top of his head, lording over the figure, a cybernetic sensor array glares, unblinking, forever judging. A heavy shield composed of polycarbonate fullerene drifts quietly on micro fusion monojets tucked within its carapace, lurking hungrily around the figure as though a dog preparing to defend its master."

Here the description has noted the three main pieces: the meat body (just sort of there), the DCU (above the meat body, and suggested to be separate from), and the shield drone (circling the meat body). 

So what are the potential ways the players interact with it? Let's look:

Fucking Around and Find Out

The answer is not always on the character sheet, nor is it always in the GM notes. 

What if we shoot it?

Probably the opening move. The shield intercepts and the attack is absorbed.

What if we shoot it again?

Honestly, you might get lucky and do enough damage to the shield to break it, leaving the Meat Body defenseless.

What about an area attack? 

Probably gets through the Shield's protection. You're attacking an Area, not the Meat Body (pedantic). Also the shield can't really stop gas, can it? EMPs might also screw the system up.  

 

What if we break the monojets of the shield?

Hey! Now you're thinking. Damaging the jets probably slows the shield down, offering a "x in 6" chance of the attack getting through, where x is the number of monojets destroyed. 

 

What if we shoot the sensor array on top? 

It's not part of the Meat Body, so is unprotected. Then the Shield stops receiving information and the Meat Body is unprotected. 

What if we shoot the gun? 

Technically not part of the Meat Body and unprotected. It probably breaks. 

Using Knowledge

You HAVE been leaving lore around the dungeon, right? 

Remembering the post-it note on the discovered schematics complaining about how the Z-axis alignment was misaligned on the Shield orientation. 

Probably means the DCU at the top is unprotected. 

Remembering the Command word mentioned in the inner office email from the hacked system. 

Yelling it probably deactivates the system.

The game mechanics offer multiple ways of gleaning information not typically given in descriptions. 

Try using those to see if something else is available.

Remembering that one episode of Burn Notice where he used a thick wool blanket to trick a motion sensor. 

I wonder if that actually works?

Run Away

Honestly, how is this your problem? Run away and let someone else deal with it. 

Attacking a creature using it's weakness (werewolves, silver) is a stripped down form of this. Players know to use silver and/or Wolf's Bane on Werewolves because of previous Knowledge, and well known Fucking Around and Finding Out. The Werewolf's healing factor/damage reduction is simply a component of the beast, which is deactivated using the weaknesses. 

Yes, yes, it's not a terribly complicated puzzle, much like that first lock in the first dragon tomb you encounter in Skyrim, but it's there to ease you into it. More complicated examples to (possibly) come. 

As the enemy can (and should) attack your character sheet, this is similar to attacking theirs. It makes combat a bit more strategic, and certainly better than the boring "I shoot it." round after round after round. 

If it helps, "Bubble Head" can been seen as a collective name for three individual entities working together in symbiosis: 

1. The Drone Control Unit: Programmed to protect the Meat Body, but not itself, via orders given to the Shield. Sits above the Meat Body, like a malicious hat. 
2. Shield Drone: Only knows the world through data provided from the DCU. Only wants to protect the Meat Body. And only the Meat Body.
3. Meat Body: His name used to be Greg and he enjoyed bird watching. Now it's Unit #136 and he enjoys carrying out the violent orders of his handlers. 

The Shield Drone does not stop attacks against the Drone Control simply because it is not the Meat Body. However, without the Drone Control it can not receive input and goes offline. 

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