Topic: The lightest possible set of rules

[Peter R]

It was mostly a joke though.. It was because you wrote you had all the PCs stats so they dint need to do anything them self

There are two reasons for that. Firstly if an assassin misses with a blow dart, I may ask the PCs for a perception roll but I don't want to ask  them for their DB and armour type.

The second reason is that one of my players has a convenient habit of forgetting how many power points and wounds he has picked up and would cast spells all day given the chance.

If the players are all in a very bad way I have been known to tone down an encounter. I am happy to kill a character if bad things happen but I will actively avoid a total party wipe out.

[Malim]

Cheaters could also summon the wrath of Klysus! ( trident +200 attack to face)

[Witchking20k]

I also keep track of the PCs AT(DB) etc. for the same reasons. 

[Malim]

Thats really wierd that people would cheat tbh!!
Makes no sense to me!

[Peter R]

With that player I think it is a case of not being heroic being perceived as failure. So he wants to always be in the fight, always throw the last spell and so on.

[Witchking20k]

Everybody plays for a different reason. 

[Peter R]

I also keep track of the PCs AT(DB) etc. for the same reasons.

At the start of each session I get my players to give me 10 d100 rolls. I use these for perception rolls and the like that the players are not aware of. For times when I don't want to alert the players that there was something to be detected.

That helps if say they are just walking through a hall and the eyes in a portrait are following them for example. If I know they don't notice it then we can just keep the game moving.

[Witchking20k]

I also roll randomly when there is no reason to.  LOL

[bpowell]

I also roll randomly when there is no reason to.  LOL

I thought I was the only one that was that evil.  One time I roll and passed a not to a night guard and told the player that the character saw a "large shadow moving on the ground".  Turns out it was just a cloud moving across the moon.

-BP

[jdale]

The game Paranoia specifically instructs the GM to roll at random intervals and look at players and cackle.

Our GM has been known to hand out notes that say, "hi, did not want you to feel left out."

[bpowell]

The game Paranoia specifically instructs the GM to roll at random intervals and look at players and cackle.

Our GM has been known to hand out notes that say, "hi, did not want you to feel left out."

OMG!  I love it.   And yes, I did play Paranoia at one time.

-BP

[Spectre771]

The game Paranoia specifically instructs the GM to roll at random intervals and look at players and cackle.

Our GM has been known to hand out notes that say, "hi, did not want you to feel left out."

I've done the very same things too.  The GM needs to keep the players interested.  With cell phones, texting, FB so easily accessible, the GM needs some little hook to get the player thinking "OMG, what did I miss?  I wasn't paying attention.  Why am I rolling???"

I've also sent notes that read "This is a blank note.  Just tell me a random number out loud for all to hear" to get other players in the party curious about what's happening, particularly if the party is in separate parts of a building or dungeon. 

[Spectre771]

It was mostly a joke though.. It was because you wrote you had all the PCs stats so they dint need to do anything them self

It was a funny joke. 

However, I take maybe a half measure of what Peter does.  In an attempt to speed up combat a bit, I take down all of the PC's AT and DB and Magical-only-DB (+5, +10, whatever) and weapon.  When I do my attacks, I'm not asking for those stats over and over and I can pull out the weapon tables for the weapons.  It beats flipping between pages.  I have the attack tables and crit tables photocopied and in protective sheets so I can pull those sheets from the 3-ring binder and just glance down to see what I need.

I would limit the type of weapons available, but I wouldn't go to the extreme of using the Dagger Attack table for all 1-H Slashing.  However, you could eliminate Falchion, Scimitar, Main Gauche, Rapier, and say those weapons use broadsword table.  Eliminate the non-standard weapons from the later companions; Steel Whip, Tebuje, Estock, etc.... those weapons that not only have their own attack tables, but also their own crit tables.  (Alas, without the Tebujue... no disemboweling of PC's )

Definitely have the players write out their spell lists or photocopy the spell lists for the players so the GM doesn't have to pause to read the rule, the GM doesn't have to give up the books to let a player read the rules, and if there is a question, the player already has a print out and can hand it off to the GM (or tell him the page number to look at).  No need to reference any other books.

[kwickham]

I just saw this post. So how did it go if it was this past weekend. I was going to mention maybe something to speed up leveling adjustments if you don't have something. I hate it when the game slows down to adjust stats and level.

[Peter R]

I just saw this post. So how did it go if it was this past weekend. I was going to mention maybe something to speed up leveling adjustments if you don't have something. I hate it when the game slows down to adjust stats and level.

The actual adventuring was pretty fast and slick. I don't actually think I can speed up that element of the game any further.

Leveling up on the Sunday morning took a chunk of time but I am not too worried about that as in my next campaign I will be playing a level-less game so that will not happen.

I am working on things that can improve my prep time now. The amount of time I have available is fairly fixed but if I can work that time better, smarter or more efficiently then the resulting game session will or at least should be better. For me this at present involves using spreadsheets to preform regular calculations or game conversions and creating digital copies of paper forms so I can edit and save rather than rewrite sheets.

[Witchking20k]

One trick for levelling is to have them pre-spend X amount of DPs & reduce the amount of stat gains you get.  Stats are what take up the bulk of time in my experience.  So, I do 1 Mental & 1 Physical stat per level.  If you use fixed DPs then you can have the platers pre spend 50% of them for the next level before they come to play.  This can help simulate acquiring new skills too....

[Spectre771]

Leveling up on the Sunday morning took a chunk of time but I am not too worried about that as in my next campaign I will be playing a level-less game so that will not happen.

I am working on things that can improve my prep time now.

For me, the PC creation process is the most time consuming.  I would try to get the players created prior to game day.

Leveling up wasn't so bad but I made the players do some housekeeping at time of creation.  The players tended to know what skills they wanted to purchase as they play through the sessions.  I made character sheets with a space to put the skill cost so they wouldn't have to flip through books and there were blank lines to add skills and costs that they want for next level.  At time of creation they would be prepping for level 2.

1/4 Spear      ****000000  ST/ST/AG
1/5 Riding      **00000000  AG/ST
2/4 Iaijitsu     0000000000  AG/QU

* - I'm just pulling stats out of the air for examples

When this PC hits level 2, he knows the costs per rank, and the stats associated with it.  If the stats changed on the stat gain roll, then he knows to recalculate those skills.  That takes a lot of burden off the GM at level up and the player knows ahead of time that Iaijitsu is a skill he wants and the costs and stats needed.  No need to flip through books to find the info.

Also, when players leveled up, we tended to break for lunch/dinner.  During the break in gaming, the players would tend to their PCs to not take time away from actual play time.  Some would play as they were leveling up because they didn't want to stop game flow.

[tbigness]

I generally have the PC's "level up" with skills they wish to purchase for the next level. That way it is already done and they just have to put in the numbers. If they decide to add new skills that they think is important then they just modify by subtracting from the skills already purchased or if they had extra points left over then use them or combine both options. This made for easier leveling. This also included stat gains so that everything was already waiting for the leveling.

I even toyed with having them chart a level up for the next 5 levels with stat gains. This would be flexible to add new skills or change the way the character is going but is good for PC's to see a flow of their character concept going up the levels to see if this was playable and what was needed. A little more work on the front end saves a lot of work when leveling up.

[Peter R]

Yes, I agree creation is the most time consuming single task. Leveling up is probably the second most time consuming.

Our character sheets have a page with the skill name, cost and stat for the reasons you suggest. Bearing in mind that I used a somewhat reduced skill set (pretty much all the skills from Character Law and RoCoI but none from RoCoII-VII or other companions plus I have introduced Vocational from RMU. Some of my players have adopted a character sheet that includes Every skill with its cost and stat listed. This means they can, and do, make unskilled checks and already know how bad the skill bonus will be. There is no thief in the party so watching them attempt to pick a lock was amusing. they had no idea that the lock was so sophisticated that it was sheer folly to attempt to pick. One player was really confident when he made an open ended attempt and still failed!

I am not too worried about leveling up in the long run as this will hopefully be the last game I run under these rules. All future games will either be RMU, HARP or my house ruled varient.

The character creation we did a lot of be using email correspondence prior to the game, particularly the character background where I could give the players blocks of setting based lore that their character would know and to try and ground the characters in the setting. That worked well as the backgrounds were very well developed and the players had a few months to get to know their characters prior to playing (we only meet to play about 3 times a year).

Things I have done to improve my prep are:

• I have a spreadsheet that does AD&D to RM monster conversions using the rules from the vault.
• I have a spreadsheet that recreates the Gamemaster Summary sheet with an increasing number of rows as they meet a wider range of creatures. I just need to hide the rows that are not relevant to the coming game session and then print.
• I use the RCU software (freeware) that I have edited to remove the races, professions, skills, spell lists and background options that I do not use. If you are a RM2/RMC GM then you can easily create a 10th level NPC in 30 minutes with this with all their skills and spells
• I have post-it based potted summaries of NPCs' personalities and combat tactics for first round, second round and if they are goin to flee. These are quick and easy to produce and keep my NPCs consistent from session to session.
• I print copies of the adventure so I can highlight key points such as magic items/special items and likely combat points. This is so I don't end up describing a location in wonderful detail and fail to mention the dragon sat in the middle of it because it was at the top of the next page and I haven't turned the page.

[Peter R]

I generally have the PC's "level up" with skills they wish to purchase for the next level. That way it is already done and they just have to put in the numbers. If they decide to add new skills that they think is important then they just modify by subtracting from the skills already purchased or if they had extra points left over then use them or combine both options. This made for easier leveling. This also included stat gains so that everything was already waiting for the leveling.

I even toyed with having them chart a level up for the next 5 levels with stat gains. This would be flexible to add new skills or change the way the character is going but is good for PC's to see a flow of their character concept going up the levels to see if this was playable and what was needed. A little more work on the front end saves a lot of work when leveling up.

I have a dislike for stat gains. They create a huge amount of work, especially for skills heavy characters and I have seen a player roll badly repeatedly on the same stat to the point where the magician had no powerpoints at all for three levels. I think the points based systems where if you want stat increases you have to pay for them is a better option. If you have a stat gain you wanted and paid for then you are going to be happy to recalculate all your skills.