In my review of Warlock!, I mentioned that I was running a group of players through my conversion of Deep Carbon Observatory. Now I love the Warlock! system, but if you don't see the gaps in the rules while reading them, then you'll find out when you run it.
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| The great Mustafa Bekir is coming for you... |
Rules for poison? Falling? Combat movement? Nope, none of that. So then you know there aren't any mechanics for sneak attacks! I anticipated some of these things ahead of time, and others came up during play. Along the way, I even decided to make a major revision to the magic system.
What better place to share all that than here?
Without further ado, here are the house rules:
Combat
My additions are pretty modest. I knew I'd have to cover sneak attacks and grappling, because those always come up (they did). The rules are surprisingly vague on the value of shields! That had to be corrected, and I've always felt that fantasy games tend to undervalue shields, so I feel like I corrected that, too.
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| More from Mustafa |
Prepared attacks
An attacker may take an extra round to either improve the chance of hitting or hurting. The advantage of doing so is a +5 bonus to the attack roll or automatic double damage on a hit - the attacker must choose beforehand. This could consist of aiming, winding-up, mental focus, battle cry, etc.
Surprise
To determine which party first becomes aware of the other, consider four situations:
- Both parties are being inattentive: PCs may test Luck. If they succeed, they detect the NPCs first. If not, the NPCs detect them first.
- Both parties are being attentive: Opposed skill test between PCs and NPCs, with the winner detecting the other first.
- PCs are being attentive, NPCs are being inattentive: If the NPCs are noisy, the PCs automatically detect them first. Otherwise, the PC with the highest skill should test it, and if successfuly, the PCs detect the NPCs first. Otherwise, the NPCs detect them first.
- PCs are being inattentive, NPCs are being attentive: PCs may make a Luck test. If they succeed, then it is treated as though both parties are attentive, as above. If they fail, then the NPCs automatically detect them first.
In the scenarios mentioned above, the generic term "skill" refers to the appropriate skill for the situation. This is usually the Spot skill, but if a party is being stealthy, then use the higher of the Spot and Sneak skills.
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| I don't have mechanics for this |
Sneak attacks
Melee
To get into position for a melee sneak attack requires either a successful Sneak vs. the target's Spot, or the target's trust. Such a sneak attack is treated like an automatic mighty blow, inflicting double damage.
Ranged
Ranged sneak attacks don't necessarily require Sneak tests, but they don't automatically hit. Instead, the attacker must make a ranged attack as though the target has a Dodge skill of zero. This roll can be adjusted by the usual modifiers, including the benefits of a prepared attack (see above) if time is taken to carefully aim.
Engagement
As stated in the official rules, there are no “opportunity attacks.” However, if attempting to move past or through a melee opponent within reach, that opponent may preempt the movement with a melee attack if they haven’t acted yet in the round. This attack receives +2 to hit.
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| That one guy is just waiting patiently |
Gear
I'm not terribly happy with the default weapon stats in Warlock!. In particular, the mace seems to inflict outsize damage.
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| Weapon of Mass Destruction? |
I made my own weapon damage table to improve on things. In addition, I added some noteworthy traits for many of the weapons. These are tweaks to the weapon performance that give them a little more character than mere numbers. Much of the time, they may be ignored, but should be brought into play whenever players describe their actions so as to take advantage of these characteristics, or if the GM wants to make things interesting.
Also, did you notice that this game has a Medical skill but no rules for common usage? I added that under the medical kit rules below.
Revised weapon table
Here are what those terms mean:
Damage types
These are taken straight from the core rules, but here are some mechanics for them:
- Crush: Half-damage to targets which lack any rigid structures, like jellies.
- Pierce: Half-damage to targets with no vital locations e.g. undead, elementals, jellies, etc.
- Slash: Full damage to all targets.
Attributes
These are very standard characteristics:
- Melee: Can only be used for melee attacks.
- Improvised: Can often be easily constructed from materials at hand, and typically appears innocuous.
- Martial: Clearly designed for combat, such arms are not acceptable in civilized company.
- Two-handed: Requires two hands to wield, precluding the use of a shield, hand-held illumination or off-hand weapon.
- Ranged: May only be used for ranged attacks.
Traits
These are special aspects that give weapons their quirks:
Grapple
An unarmed attacker may attempt to control its target instead of harm it. On a successful grapple attack, no damage is inflicted, but until free, the victim cannot move and performs all actions at -5.
Obtaining freedom requires a successful counter grapple (not subject to the penalty), or a counter attack which does damage followed by the grappler failing an Endure check. Note that a third party can perform either action, and even the grappler receives a -5 to defend against anyone else.
After obtaining a hold, the grappler may attack his or her victim on subsequent rounds. A normal attack roll is made. Most weapons used by one grappled foe upon the other inflict -3 damage--however, unarmed attacks made on a grappled opponent ignore armor completely.
Close
As stated, most weapons inflict -3 damage in a grappling situation, but weapons with this trait inflict full damage even in a hold, and even effectively reduces armor by one class (e.g. heavy armor only blocks 1d6 damage).
Shank
Automatically ignores armor on a sneak attack. This does not take effect if the attacker is not aware of any gaps in the armor, or cannot reach them.
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| The Garotte-Pants Gang had a strange MO |
The initial attack with a garotte receives a -5 penalty; the garotte is meant to be used in a sneak attack.
A successful attack results in the victim being grappled. In addition, until the victim escapes, he or she automatically takes 1d6+1 damage every round, and is unable to speak.
Natural armor (like reptile scales or a lion’s mane) may reduce damage, but most worn armor does not. The attacker cannot do anything but maintain the hold, until the victim is released. This doesn’t work on creatures that don’t circulate blood to their heads, possess multiple heads, etc.
Penetrate
On a mighty blow, the attacker may choose to inflict only 150% damage (round up) but ignore armor. This does not take effect if the attacker is not aware of any gaps in the armor, or cannot reach them.
Sunder
On a mighty blow, the attacker may choose to damage a defender’s armor instead of inflicting harm. This causes armor to drop one class - i.e. heavy to medium, medium to light and light to nothing. And if the defender has a shield, test Luck for it to be shattered in place of damage to armor - the protection is still lowered by one notch, but shields are far easier to replace.
Note that this only works against worn armor, and not the natural armor of beasts and monsters.
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| The old peek-a-boo |
Those attacking from the front before the character has attacked in the round, who do not also have reach, are at -5 to attack rolls. If they attack in a blind rush, then they are not penalized, but they will take damage from the weapon with reach whether or not they succeed in the attack.
Such a weapon can also be used to attack from the second rank of a battle line, as long as it is relatively unimpeded.
Load
Cannot be used in a round where the wielder is attacked in melee beforehand, unless already prepared when the round begins.
Long load
It takes a full action, uninterrupted by melee attacks, to prepare the weapon for one use.
Medical kits
Medical kits cost 2d6 silver coins. They are good for a single treatment, and are consumed whether the attempt succeeded or failed. It takes one round to use a medical kit for emergency situations on a willing subject. Here are some common applications:
- Stabilize: On a success, impending death is prevented. Instead, the character is incapacitated for 1d6 hours and unable to move without assistance for 1d6 days.
- Cure: On a success, the character gets another chance to resist a physical condition (such as poison or disease) if there was any chance of resistance, or clear up the effects of any temporary deleterious condition.
- Heal: If successful, the subject immediately regains 1d6+3 Stamina. This can only be long-term Stamina loss, not the loss from fatigue that is regained after a short rest.
The Medicine skill could have other applications, but these are the main uses of medical kits.
Shields
The benefit of a shield is to effectively increase a character's armor level by one in situations where it would apply (i.e. forward facing attacks, usually). If a character is already wearing heavy armor, then the bonus is merely +1.
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| Actually quite useful |
Dual wielding
If a character is dual wielding, then on a successful attack, they may roll damage for each weapon, taking the higher of the two. If both damage rolls are tied, increment one to that value.
Magic
The biggest problem I have with magic in Warlock! is that the combat magic is always a low value proposition. When you compare how much damage a mage is taking from casting a spell to how much the spell is likely to deliver, it seems like a bad choice. My solution was to introduce a new attribute on par with Stamina and Luck: Willpower.
Willpower is rolled for each character at creation as 1d6+7. Spells now expend Willpower instead of Stamina, and the costs are reduced by one; e.g. a BLAST spell costs three Willpower instead of four Stamina.
Willpower is recovered like Stamina. Half of what is lost is returned after a short rest, and the remainder recovers after a night of sleep. At the GM's option, it can be reduced by things other than magic. If the GM calls for a stress test due to some great horror or mind-warping effect, PCs test Willpower. On a success, they lose only one point, but on a failure, they roll 1d6, losing that many points and freaking out for that many rounds.
"Freaking out" in this context means that the PC can move as normal, but suffers -3 to all tests and may be restricted in other ways, based on the situation. The GM may decide that a surprised and terrified character screams, for example.
If a character's Willpower is reduced to zero or less, they suffer trauma, which is like the psychological equivalent of a critical hit. The GM should roll 2d6, adding the amount by which the character's Willpower is less than zero.
Motivations
Since we weren't running a campaign, and DCO is a pretty long and perilous adventure, I decided to give my players mechanics that would encourage role-playing in return for Luck recovery. These traits are called motivations.
There are three types of motivations, each with its own table: goals, relationships and vices. New characters may roll four times, each time choosing which table to roll on. Then they may select any two of these motivations.
To regain a Luck point for a goal or relationship, the character must undertake some risk or sacrifice. A risk would be a serious chance of a setback and possibly a small chance of death, whereas a sacrifice means the loss of something valuable, like a chunk of treasure.
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| "I think we have a problem" |
For a vice, the risk or sacrifice need not be so great. For instance, if a character is a drunkard, then getting soused in the middle of an adventure (and thus earning -1 to tests for an hour) would be good enough. However, a character with a vice may lose Luck for failing to indulge.
For a relationship, the PC must choose another PC in the party who is the other half of the relation, and that PC's player decides which is which.
Vices are always fun...
Other stuff
I added a bunch of other rules to the mix, but they were mostly for the circumstances of DCO. For instance, I added some rules to advance their characters to be a little more seasoned than novice adventurers, and I adapted the DCO mechanics for dehydration, starvation and sleep deprivation, while adding a few more rules for other forms of privation--exposure and lack of a campfire.
I introduced a simple but quite important rule: when you fail a skill test, you have an option to Test Your Luck once to succeed. It was remedy for too low general skill levels. And the Luck is decreasing, so players usually used this rule only for more important tests.
ReplyDeleteI like this mechanic. I think the approach of Warlock is to avoid having players make "metagame" decisions about Luck tests. I'm a big fan of DCC, which puts most decisions about Luck in the hands of the players. I've had some very entertaining situations arise from this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteThe downside of this kind of mechanic is that you have to explain it to new players. Whereas with a simple old-school style game like this, you don't have to teach the players any rules up-front. For instance, if you run DCC at a convention, you absolutely have to spend a couple minutes at the start of each game explaining how Luck works.