Sunday, October 30, 2016

AGE of Tamriel - Armor Training Talents

Been awhile since I did any real work on AGE of Tamriel, so I spent the morning trying to re-kindle the fire for that project. Here are the two armor training talents that I've come up with. These talents were based on the armor training talents from DracoDruid's Free-Form FAGE, plus the perks from light armor and heavy armor skill trees from Skyrim.


Light Armor Training

Requirements: Dexterity 2 or higher.
You are trained in wearing lighter forms of armor.

Novice: You are trained in wearing leather armor. You ignore the Armor Penalty from leather armor, it neither affects your Speed nor your Dexterity.
Journeyman: When wearing leather armor or no armor you have a +1 bonus to your Defense.
Master: Agile Defender. When wearing leather armor or no armor you gain the Rogue ability, Slippery.

Heavy Armor Training

Requirements: Strength 2 or higher.
You are trained in wearing heavier forms of armor.

Novice: You are trained in wearing leather, mail, and plate armor. You do not suffer the Armor Penalty to your Dexterity when wearing armor.
Journeyman: You reduce the Armor Penalty for mail and plate armor by 1, to a minimum of 0. You also gain 5 extra Stamina.
Master: Juggernaut. When wearing mail or plate armor you retain one-half the Armor Rating (rounded down) from your armor when you take penetrating damage.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Kits and Kaboodles (5E, Basic Fantasy, Fantasy AGE)

In a bit of late-night inspiration, I had an idea for simplifying the process of equipping characters, and that is with Kits and Kaboodles. Kits and Kaboodles are a collection of items intended for a specific task; such as adventuring, healing, cooking, wilderness survival, etc. Now instead of buying equipment piece-by-piece, you just buy a Kit or Kaboodle for whatever purpose you want and get on with the game.
Admittedly, this idea is nothing new; I've seen similar ideas in other games many times before. Even so, here is my take on the concept for 5th Edition D&D, Basic Fantasy, and Fantasy AGE. But, really, it can be applied to any game system with a bit of tweaking.


Kits and Kaboodles

Kits and Kaboodles represent a collection of items for a broadly-defined purpose, such as adventuring, healing, cooking, wilderness survival, etc. However, there is a key difference between them; Kits are re-useable items that modify a character's chance of success, whereas Kaboodles have a limited number of uses before being exhausted.

Examples

Here is a sample list of Kits and Kaboodles. Obviously, this isn't a complete listing, so use your imagination for other uses.

Kits: Adventuring, Blacksmithing, Climbing, Cold-weather, Grooming, Warm-weather, Leatherworking, Riding.
Kaboodles: Alchemy, Cooking, Fishing, Food/Water, Healing, Perfume, Traps/Snares.

Quality Control

Another aspect of a Kit and Kaboodle is its Quality. Quality determines the item cost and weight of the Kit/Kaboodle, a Kit's modifier, and a Kaboodle's number of uses.

ITEM        COST*   WEIGHT    NOTES
===================================
KITS
  Poor        4      3 lb.    -2/-1** penalty to any related ability tests
  Common      8      6 lb.
  Fine       12     12 lb.    +2/+1** bonus to any related ability tests

KABOODLES
  Poor        2      2 lb.    3 Uses
  Common      4      4 lb.    6 Uses
  Fine        8      8 lb.    12 Uses

* Costs are in gold pieces (gp) for 5th Edition and Basic Fantasy.
   In silver pieces (sp) for Fantasy AGE.

** 5th Edition and Basic Fantasy modifiers are +/- 2.
    Fantasy AGE modifiers are +/- 1.

The Kit AND the Kaboodle!

Now, it is possible to have a Kit and a Kaboodle both intended for the same purpose. However, in-game they are both still treated as separate items. For example, you can have a fine-quality Alchemy Kit (for a +1 bonus), but have poor-quality Alchemy Kaboodles (for 3 uses).

Lost or Damaged Items

When using Kits and Kaboodles, it is still possible to lose or ruin items.
For Kaboodles, a lost item is easy to deal with, you simply lose 1 use of the Kaboodle.
Kits are a bit more involved, however. First, make a note on what Kit item was lost. Now, anytime you attempt to perform an action that would require the lost Kit item, you cannot perform that action. But you are still able to use the Kit for any other actions unrelated to the lost item.

Weapons, Armor, and Specialty Items

Another concern is that certain items, especially weapons and armor, cannot be found in a Kit or a Kaboodle. These types of items must be purchased individually.

The Exception: Ammunition Kaboodles

Ammunition may be bought as a Kaboodle. But instead of tracking individual pieces of ammunition, the Kaboodle tracks the useage of ammunition in an abstract way. After each combat encounter in which you use a weapon with ammunition, you lose 1 "Use". In addition, you may lose addition "Uses" whenever you roll badly on attack rolls made with such weapons. How this is handled in-game depends on the system being used. When your ammunition Kaboodle reaches 0, you are out of ammunition.

5th Edition / Basic Fantasy: Whenever you roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, you lose 1 "Use" of ammunition.
Fantasy AGE: Whenever you miss on an attack roll AND the Stunt Die rolled a 1, you lose 1 "Use" of ammunition.