Quote from: Justin Alexander;474705On the gripping hand

I see what you did there.

Quote from: The Butcher;474712I see what you did there.

I was wondering if anyone would.

I'm usually not one to use geek slang, but for some reason I just really grokked that one when I read the book.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;474780I'm usually not one to use geek slang, but for some reason I just really grokked that one when I read the book.

Me neither, but it is a fairly handy idiom.

100% COMPATIBILITY...

Legends & Labyrinths features 100% compatibility with the advanced version of the 3rd Edition rules. This means that any stat block or mechanic usable in 3rd Edition can be used in Legends & Labyrinths without conversion.

USING ADVANCED RULES IN LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS

Perhaps the most important question is the degree to which the vast supplement library of 3rd Edition can be used in your Legends & Labyrinths game.

Spells: Although the grimoire entries for advanced spells include extra information used by the more complicated rules, these spells can be used in Legends & Labyrinth without conversion. Simply ignore the extraneous information.

Monsters and NPCs: There are two ways to use monsters and NPCs. First, as with spells, you can use their stat blocks without conversion by simply ignoring the extraneous information they contain.

Alternatively, the Legends & Labyrinths rules allow for very quick conversion. For example, the stat block for a fighter in Legends & Labyrinths requires only level, hit point total, ability scores, and equipment. So if you see an 8th-level fighter in an advanced supplement, you can either use the full stat block provides or you can just pull the pertinent information (hit points, ability scores, equipment) and run the NPC as an 8th-level L&L fighter. (This also allows for quick conversion of classes not included in L&L: If you see a samurai, ranger, or witch, for example, and their stat blocks don't include enough information to run them as-is, it's a simple matter to convert them on-the-fly to an appropriate L&L class.)

Monsters can be handled in a similar fashion. If you don't want to use the advanced stat block provided for a monster, you can either do a complete conversion (recreating the monster from scratch using the Monster Creation rules) or you can easily do a partial conversion (using the appropriate core stats for a monster of the given CR, but using the powers listed in the monster's advanced stat block).

Running Adventures: As detailed above, all of the spells, monsters, and NPCs in adventure can be run without conversion. The same holds true for traps, skill DCs, and treasure. You can pick up any adventure designed for the advanced 3rd Edition rules and run it seamlessly in Legends & Labyrinths.

Supplementing the Rules: Because Legends & Labyrinths is 100% compatible with the advanced rules, you can incorporate any core mechanic from the advanced rules into your Legends & Labyrinths game on an ad hoc basis.

For example, Legends & Labyrinths features a stripped-down combat system. But what if you really like the detailed combat mechanics of the advanced rules? Well, all you have to do is use them. Similarly, if you really like all the character creation tools the advanced rules give you (allowing you to tweak your character just the way you like), you can create your PCs using the advanced rules and then simply play them using the Legends & Labyrinths rules.

Legends & Labyrinths functions as the streamlined foundation of the game: Advanced rules can be added to it in whatever combination you desire.

Creating New Classes: You can use the advanced character creation rules to create new classes for Legends & Labyrinths. Simply select an advanced character class and make appropriate selections for its feats and special abilities. Do not select a 1st level feat.

USING LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS WITH THE ADVANCED RULES

Since you can easily add any or all of the advanced rules into your Legends & Labyrinths campaign, it follows that you can also take rules from Legends & Labyrinths and plug them into a campaign run with the advanced rules.

Transferring Characters: PCs created in Legends & Labyrinths can be transferred to the advanced rules at any time. Simply select a single 1st level feat for the character. (All characters in Legends & Labyrinth are assumed to gain the benefits of the Leadership feats in place of their 1st level feat.)

Fast NPC Creation: Because the classes in Legends & Labyrinths are pre-built, creating an NPC is as simple as picking ability scores, race, class, level, and equipment. This makes it much easier to prepare NPCs or even create them on-the-fly during a session. And since the resulting stat blocks are 100% compatible with the advanced rules, they can be used seamlessly in a campaign using the advanced rules.

Hazards, Traps, and Monsters: Hazards, traps, and monsters created in Legends & Labyrinth can be used in an advanced campaign. As with NPC creation, these streamlined systems allow for rapid, on-the-fly improvisation during a game session.

Stunt System: The Legends & Labyrinths stunt system gives a unified mechanic for adjudicating ingenuity. It can be seamlessly integrated into a campaign using the advanced rules.

Other Original Elements: Legends & Labyrinths also includes rules for minions and potentates, a Fly skill, social ranks, training rules for advancing characters, and other innovations. Because the game is 100% compatible, all of these original elements can be easily used in the advanced game.

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SIDEBAR REFERENCE SYSTEM (SRS)

Legends & Labyrinths will be using the Sidebar Reference System originally developed for Dream Machine Production's line of Rule Supplements. Using this format, rules are presented exactly when and where you need them.

For example, consider the description of the entangle spell from the advanced version of the 3rd Edition rules:

      Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area, holding them fast and causing them to become entangled. The creature can break free and move half its normal speed by using a full-round action to make a DC 20 Strength check or a DC 20 Escape Artist check. A creature that succeeds on a Reflex save is not entangled but can still move at only half speed through the area. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

There is key information missing from this spell description which will leave players flipping through their rulebooks: What are the effects of being "entangled"? How do you make a Strength check or an Escape Artist check? One could add this information to the description, of course:

      Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area, holding them fast and causing them to become entangled (they move at half speed, cannot run or charge, suffer a -2 penalty on attack rolls, a -4 penalty on Dexterity checks, and casting a spell requires a Concentration check). The creature can break free and move half its normal speed by using a full-round action to make a Strength check (1d20 + Strength modifier vs. DC 20) or an Escape Artist check (1d20 + Escape Artist modifer vs. DC 20). A creature that succeeds on a Reflex save is not entangled but can still move at only half speed through the area. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

But this only makes the spell description even more difficult to parse and adjudicate.

Using the SRS system, on the other hand, we can simplify the presentation of this spell so that it looks something like this:

      Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area. The area is treated as difficult terrain and creatures that fail their Reflex saves are stuck and entangled. A creature can break free by making a Strength check (DC 20) or Escape Artist check (DC 20) as a full action. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

In the sidebar, the red-highlighted keywords are given references like this:

      difficult terrain, page 52: Movement through difficult terrain is made at half speed.

stuck, page 58: Cannot move away from the object or location.

entangled, page 56: Move at half speed, cannot run or charge, -2 on attacks, -4 to Dex, casting spells requires Concentration check (DC 15 + spell's level).

Strength check, page 65: 1d20 + Strength modifier vs. DC

Escape Artist check, page 43: 1d20 + Escape Artist modifier vs. DC

The SRS puts all the information you need right at you fingertips. And, if you need more details, it gives you a page reference so that you can quickly find the full citation. Some of this information you may already be familiar with as a player, but it's great for beginning players. (And I can't be the only guy who, even after years of playing a game, will still need to double-check a reference.)

But the SRS also makes the text itself easier to parse. Partly because it removes all extraneous detail to the sidebar, but also because the references almost unintentionally provide a mechanism for quick comprehension. Look at the words highlighted in the entangle spell again: Difficult terrain. Stuck and entangled. Strength check or Escape Artist check. That tells you 90% of what you need to know about the spell at first glance, right?

More than that, the SRS both rewards system mastery and simulates system mastery.

For one who has mastered the system, for example, the term "difficult terrain" is a very quick, clear, and compact way of saying "characters can only move at half speed through the area". Because the SRS  lets us just put the keyword in the text (with the full reference pushed to the sidebar), system mastery is rewarded by streamlining the main text. A system master can see the keyword "difficult terrain" and immediately understand the effect of the spell without wading their way through additional verbiage.

But the system also simulates system mastery. The system master sees the keyword "difficult terrain" and immediately knows what it means. With the SRS, however, the beginner can simulate that mastery by simply flicking their eye two inches to the left.

In many ways, the SRS is also teaching system mastery. Over time, the player will probably find themselves relying on it less and less. But when you need it, it will prove itself an invaluable time saver every single time.

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FYI, there is a thread on RPGNet asking about the game.

8 REASONS TO BUY LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS (EVEN IF YOU NEVER PLAY IT)

1. INTRODUCING NEW PLAYERS

Legends & Labyrinths is an ideal way to introduce new players to your existing 3rd Edition game: It gives them a simplified set of rules that are easier to learn and use. This is particularly true of character creation, which has been boiled back down to the classic trio (roll attributes, pick race and class, select equipment).

And because Legends & Labyrinths is 100% compatible with the advanced rules, you can just gradually add complexity until they've learned all the bells and whistle of your full 3rd Edition campaign.

2. MINIONS AND POTENTATES

These fast, easy templates can be applied to any 3rd Edition monster to create a horde of mooks or a powerful solo encounter. Actually, describing these as templates is probably misleading: Templates have traditionally involved a lot of fiddling math, but creating a minion or potentate is more like flipping a switch. Blink and you're done!

3. ENCOUNTER BUDGETS

Ever get tired of trying to figure out what EL you're dealing with when you've got an encounter featuring five CR 8 creatures, a CR 9 creature, a pair of CR 10 creatures, and a CR 14 boss just to round things out? Legends & Labyrinths includes a super-simple encounter budget system that makes prepping complex encounters a breeze.

4. FAST-AND-EASY NPC STATS

Remember the days when you could basically create a full-fledged NPC by just saying "he's a level 9 fighter"? Legends & Labyrinths makes that a reality for your 3rd Edition gaming, stripping NPC creation back to the classic trio: Roll ability scores, pick race and class, select equipment.

5. TRAINING RULES

On-the-job training is great, but sometimes you just want a nice little training montage that ends with your character dancing on the stairs in front of the Cosmopolitan Museum for Magical Curiosities with their arms flung high in the air. You can do that with Legends & Labyrinths.

6. THE STUNT SYSTEM

Legends & Labyrinths simplifies the 3rd Edition combat system down to a lean, mean, fighting machine... And then makes it more dynamic than ever with a super-simple, super-flexible stunt system. Shove your enemies around, help your friends, and just generally do awesome stuff on the field of battle.

7. HAZARDS AND TRAPS

3rd Edition may have traps, but it doesn't have Legends & Labyrinths' slick hazard and trap creation system. This thing is so streamlined that you can create new hazards on the fly. The players want to drop a chandelier on your doppelganger? Your ogre wants to chop through the balcony's supports and make it collapse? Bam. Legends & Labyrinths has you covered.

8. MONSTER CREATION RULES

Are you tired of turgidly building monster stat blocks instead of whipping them up? Creating slavering monstrosities doesn't have to be an exercise in advanced calculus. The monster creation system in Legends & Labyrinths is going to cure all your woes. Combined with the encounter budgets and hazard creation system, creating complex, dynamic, and flexible encounters has never been this easy.

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Quote from: Melan;475337FYI, there is a thread on RPGNet asking about the game.

Matrix Sorcica: "Sounds interesting enough, but the details on the blog is few."

Matrix Sorcica: "Yeah, but I'm too lazy to read backwards for many a blog post."

ಠ_ಠ



Thanks for the pointer. Wish I could post over there to answer questions and stuff. Ah well. Their loss. Point 'em this way if they get quizzical.

The earliest design goal for Legends & Labyrinths was to reveal the slick, tight, elegant system at the heart of 3rd Edition.

Like most RPGs, I've found that the secret to mastering 3rd Edition lies in finding the core principles on which the system is built — the essential mechanics from which everything else is built. And some of the first material ever developed for the game (even before it was a game) was written for online messageboards where I was attempting to share this mastery by demonstrating the simple, flexible core of the game in concrete terms.

In other words, Legends & Labyrinths was born out of a simple methodology: If it's not a core mechanic, it's not in the game.

This methodology naturally led me to re-examine character creation. Although 3rd Edition had created a system which made it possible to customize your character in myriad ways, if I wanted to design a game that was specifically friendly to new players then I knew it was important for Legends & Labyrinths to feature a streamlined character creation system. (This is something I'll talk about more in the future, but it's a design goal which only grew in importance once I started running an open table.)

After many tribulations and the pursuit of more than a few false ideals, I eventually brought the classic trio of character creation to Legends & Labyrinths: (1) Roll ability scores. (2) Pick class and race. (3) Buy equipment.

Character creation, however, led me inexorably to monster creation. Just as the designers of 3rd Edition had given players unprecedented control over their characters, they also gave DMs an unprecedented suite of tools and rules for creating and modifying monsters. It's an impressive and powerful system, but it can also be overwhelming and time-consuming.

My initial impulse, as with character creation, was to simply roll back the clock: Strip out all of the advanced guidelines 3rd Edition offers for monster creation, include a bestiary of a few hundred nasty creatures, and then just leave it up to the DM to eyeball whatever stats looked appropriate when creating new beasties. That's basically the way it was handled back in my original Basic Set, after all.

After some initial playtesting, however, it became clear that some sort of system for monster creation was necessary. This system went through several iterations and design cycles (being completely scrapped and restarting from scratch on at least two occasions). The system as it exists today, however,  is heavily influenced from my experiences running the 1974 ruleset. What particularly struck me was that by simply setting a monster's HD you immediately knew everything you needed to know about the monster's stats. All you had to do was toss on a unique power or two and — blammo! — you had a monster. It was a process that took seconds, making it easy to spontaneously improvise entirely new creatures right at the game table without missing a beat.

It was out of this revelation that the Challenge Rating Table was born. (You can find it on page 123 of the Black Book Beta rulebook.) This table lies at the heart of the monster creation system in Legends & Labyrinths, and it led directly to the creation of what I came to think of as the "Three Pillars" of the game.

THE THREE PILLARS

The Three Pillars of Legends & Labyrinth are the monster creation system, the hazard/trap creation system, and the stunt system.

Let's start with the monster creation system. Creating a monster in Legends & Labyrinths is a four step process:

   1. Pick a challenge rating.
   2. Select powers.
   3. Assign ability scores.
   4. Pick skills.

The CR of the creature determines is hit dice, armor class, attack bonus, attack damage, save bonus, the save DC for its special abilities, and the number of power ranks it receives. Powers are purchased using the monster's power ranks, but the intention is that you pick a handful of significant powers and then quickly dump the rest into generic adjustments.

It should be noted that ability scores don't modify any of the core stats determined by the monster's CR. They only become relevant for ability score checks and skill checks. Nor are there any particular rules for picking the skills a monster gets: It's assumed that the DM will exercise their best judgment in what skills a monster should possess.

(Playtest Tip: You want a copy of the Challenge Ratings Table on your DM screen. Just like the old "To Hit" tables, the CR table lets you pick a monster's CR and then have all of its stats at your fingertips.)

When this simple, streamlined system finally clicked into place it was a major revelation. And I realized that its basic structure could be used to solve the problem I was having with traps. Here we come to the Second Pillar, in which hazards and traps are designed in a four step process:

   1. Pick a challenge rating.
   2. Define area/targets.
   3. Define effect.
   4. Define defense.

(For traps you also need to define a trigger.)

As the monster creation system is based in the Challenge Ratings Table, the hazard/trap creation system is based around the Hazards table. This table is one-half old school and one-half 4th Edition's page 42. It contains general check DCs, trained check DCs, save DCs, attack bonuses, attack damage, repeating damage, and one-shot damage for every challenge rating.

Finally, we have the stunt system. The Legends & Labyrinths stunt system is a flexible method for allowing characters to perform unusual maneuvers during combat. A stunt can allow a character to apply a bonus to another character (or themselves), apply a penalty to another character, boost their speed or the speed of an ally, force opponents to move, or apply a variety of conditions to opponents. Resolving a stunt is a three step process:

   1. Define the effect of the stunt (which determines the DC).
   2. Perform the stunt by making the appropriate action check (usually a skill check).
   3. If successful, the target of the stunt may attempt a stunt save to negate its effect.

The DC of the stunt save is determined by the level or CR of the combatant performing the stunt, as shown on the Stunt Difficulty Class table.

USING THE THREE PILLARS

I started thinking of these systems — monster creation, hazard/trap creation, stunt creation — as the Three Pillars when I realized that the Challenge Ratings Table, the Hazards table, and the Stunt Difficulty Class table were all fundamentally joined. Not only do these tables share elements all cross-referenced by challenge rating (save DCs, attack bonuses, etc.), at a very real level they collectively form a single meta-table which defines the spine of the 3rd Edition ruleset.

(In fact, I actually considered unifying them all into one table for awhile. But I realized that although it can be useful to think of them as a single meta-table, from a utility standpoint they're more effective as separate tables.)

What's a reasonable save DC for a 9th level character? What's a good target number for a skill check intended for a 15th level character? Whether you're running Legends & Labyrinths or any 3rd Edition game, the meta-table of the Three Pillars gives you the answer (which you can then, of course, tweak to your heart's content).

But more than that, I came to think of these systems as the Three Pillars because they form an important part of the foundation which makes up Legends & Labyrinths. One half of this game is "3rd Edition without the noise"; but the other half of the game is a suite of powerful new tools which can be used to revolutionize any 3rd Edition campaign.

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PREVIEW 1: EXAMPLE OF PLAY

This should give you some idea of what the final look of the book will be. A couple of things to note: First, in this section of the rulebook I'm using the SRS to introduce concepts to new players. There's a slightly more informal, instructional quality to them. (You'll see what I mean.) The SRS references in the rest of the book are crisper and primarily serve as reference tools (as shown in the examples earlier this week).

Second, you'll probably notice a few dreaded "page XXX" references. For the moment, these are intentional. They're pointing to material that either (a) doesn't exist in the Black Book Beta or (b) will have a different page number in the final rulebook (pretty much anything in the Grimoire, Treasury, or Bestiary). By leaving these "XXX" references in the Black Book Beta instead of replacing them with temporary references, we're significantly reducing the chance of these references not getting properly updated for the final rulebook. (Finding "XXX" is easy; noticing a page reference which is now pointing to the wrong place is harder.) This is a conscious decision on my part to sacrifice some degree of quality in the Black Book Beta in order to make the final rulebook the best it can be.

If you spot any other errors or typos, though, you should totally light up the comments here or my inbox.

PREVIEW 2: CLASS PREVIEW - FIGHTER

There are six classes in Legends & Labyrinths: Barbarians, Clerics, Fighters, Rogues, Sorcerers, and Wizards.

Each class in Legends & Labyrinths receives an easy-to-reference two page spread. If you're a player, you can lay your rulebook out on the table in front of you and have everything you need to know about your character class right at your fingertips. Everything else you need to know about your character could fit on a notecard! (But it won't have to: We'll be previewing our innovative character sheet in a couple of days.)

In addition to the SRS, you might also notice that the class abilities have been organized in alphabetical order (for easy reference). There's also a thumb tab on the edge of the page indicating that you're in Chapter 5. (These are located throughout the book to make quick-referencing easy.)

As I mentioned in "The Long Road", there was a period of time in which Legends & Labyrinths was going to be positively over-flowing with classes: Barbarians, Bards, Cavaliers, Clerics, Duelists, Druids, Fighters, Monks, Paladins, Psions, Psychic Warriors, Rangers, Rogues, Scouts, Spellsongs, Sorcerers, and Wizards.

But that long list was bloating the game away from the simple, stream-lined rulebook I was hoping to produce. I whiplashed my way back to the 1975 Gang of 4: Cleric, Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Thief.

This shorter list eventually expanded into the Gang of 6 for a couple of reasons: First, I was deeply conflicted about whether to include the Sorcerer or the Wizard as my arcanist of choice. The Wizard, of course, provides the classic gameplay. On the other hand, I was very interested in Legends & Labyrinths providing a rulebook for new players and, in my experience, sorcerers are a better choice for newcomers.

Second, once I decided to include two arcanists, it made sense to "balance the scales" by providing two martial classes. Including the barbarian meant that I could focus both the barbarian and the fighter on distinct-yet-different styles of combat. Players could choose the style that suited their character best or use the multiclass rules to blend the two.

Finally, the Gang of 6 provided a nice balance for the six races I was including.

Six Races. Six Classes.

PREVIEW 3: CHAPTER 4 - RACES

Yup, that's the entirety of Chapter 5 there.

The artwork in this chapter is by Larry Elmore, used under license. His artwork opened the doors of fantasy roleplaying to me, and I can't think of a better way to capture the iconic images of the core races. (With that being said, I made a couple of "risky" choices in here and it'll be interesting to see how people respond to them.)

One semi-interesting thing of note is that, in writing this chapter, I very specifically did not want to give humans primacy by placing them at the top of the chapter. Instead, I wanted them to appear in their proper place in the alphabetical order. But when I got to the actual layout, I ended up with a space at the bottom of the first page that was too small to fit dwarves into. I initially planned to fill it with some generic artwork (with the intention of possibly replacing it with a "fantasy line-up" as a commissioned piece of art). But then, when I tried to place the entry for humans later in the chapter, I either ended up with a page filled with white space or crunching a whole bunch of races up into a space that was too tiny for them.

Eventually, it just made sense to use the humans to fill that white space on the first page and embrace a consistent approach of "1 race per page". It still leaves more white space in this chapter than anywhere else in the book, but sometimes you just have to embrace what fate is telling you.

As I mentioned in the class preview, I decided to go with a Gang of 6 character classes and then matched this with six character races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, and Half-Orcs.

Here, too, I had seriously considered sticking with either the "classic three" (humans, dwarves, elves) or "classic four" (throwing halflings in there). But getting half-breeds into the mix, in my opinion, establishes an important "conceptual beachhead" in the pastiche fantasy-land at the heart of the game.

So... half-orcs to fill the role of "bruiser" and "outcast" that isn't well-covered by the other races? Or half-elves, like halflings, out of respect for their Tolkienesque roots?

Eventually, I decided that including both would (a) provide some nice variety within the general type and (b) balance the game evenly with six races and six classes.

I am aware that this means only gnomes are excluded among the core D20 races and that, therefore, I run the risk of being classed among the "gnome haters".

But that's a risk I'm just going to have to take.

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15-MINUTE CONVERSION TEST

Auroch wrote a reply to "Opening Your Game Table" asking for advice on how to get started. This led me to touch briefly on the fact that L&L's monster creation system makes it super-easy to convert pre-3E material to L&L. (3E material, of course, can be used straight out of the box thanks to that 100% compatibility thing.)

How easy? Well, since I was talking about Caverns of Thracia, let's give it a whirl. I grabbed my copy of the module, flipped open my beta copy of Legends & Labyrinths to page 123, and set an egg timer for fifteen minutes. Starting from the top of the module, how many encounters could I convert?

AREA 4 – GIANT CENTIPEDES (CR ½): 5 hp (HD 1d8+1), AC 13, bite +1 (1d4 and poison), Save +3, Ability DC 11, Size Small, Climb 30 ft.
   Str 8, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills: Climb +10, Hide +6, Spot +4
DR 5/piercing
Poison (Ex): Small Centipede Poison (1d2 Dex/1d2 Dex)

AREA 5 – LIZARDMEN (CR 2): hp 15 (HD 3d8+2), AC 17, club +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13, Spd 40 ft.
   Str 16, Dex 12, Con 11, Int 11, Wis 8, Cha 9
Skills: Listen +5, Spot +5, Swim +9
Amphibious (Ex): Can breath both air and water.
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 6 – GNOLL (CR 2): hp 21 (HD 4d8+1), AC 15, morningstar +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13.
   Str 15, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Scent
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 7 – GNOLLS (CR 2): hp 21 (HD 4d8+1), AC 15, longbow +4 or battle axe +4 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13.
   Str 15, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 10
Skills: Listen +7, Spot +7
Scent
Darkvision 60 ft.

AREA 9A – INCARNATION OF DEATH (CR 4): hp 30 (6d8+3), AC 17, touch +8 (energy drain), Save +7, Ability DC 15.
   Str 11, Dex 16, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 17
Skills: Hide +12, Intimidate +12, Listen +11, Search +11, Sense Motive +11, Spot +11
Energy Drain 1 negative level and incarnation of death gains 5 temporary hp.
Invisibility Can be seen by any characters within 3 hp of death.
Despair Creatures who can see the incarnation of death suffer a -2 penalty on Will saving throws.

THOUGHTS

Five encounters in fifteen minutes. A little over three minutes per monster, including the time to type out full stat blocks. That should give you some indication of how easy it would be to whip up monsters on-the-fly during the game session, allowing you to easily keep up with rambunctious PCs and enabling spontaneous bursts of improvised creativity like the one which resulted in the creation of ash wraiths and lycanthropic ghouls.

It also speeds up prep time in general. Even in my full-blown 3E Ptolus campaign, I've been transitioning to a mixture of advanced NPC stat blocks and L&L stat blocks. And over time I've been leaning more and more heavily on L&L stat blocks because they're so much quicker and easier to generate.

Once you get your hands on the Black Book Beta, I'd be interested in seeing what happens when you take this out for a spin.

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HAZARDOUS BUSINESS

Legends & Labyrinths includes a hazard creation system. It gives the DM a toolset for quickly designing treacherous obstacles, deadly environments, and breakneck challenges. Creating a hazard is a quick, four-step process:

   1. Pick a Challenge Rating
   2. Define Area/Targets
   3. Define Effect
   4. Define Defense

Basically, you define the specific scope of the hazard by setting its CR. Then you can refer to the Hazards table on page 86 of the rulebook — which includes General Check DCs, Trained Check DCs, Save DCs, Attack Bonuses, Attack Damage, Repeating Damage, and One-Shot Damage to mechanically define the specifics of the hazard.

PUTTING IT THROUGH ITS PACES

A couple days ago I did a 15 Minute Conversion Test to show off the speed and flexibility of the monster creation system by converting a half dozen encounters from the Caverns of Thracia. While performing the conversion test, I noticed this encounter key from area 1:

The air in the room stinks of bat guano and hanging from the ceiling are several hundred normal bats. The ceiling, which is 30′ high, is covered with them. The bats will be mildly irritated by torches but a Light spell will send them winging about through the air, severely agitated. The guano on the floor makes it slippery and will require a saving throw on a d20 of under the character's Dexterity +2 per turn spent running through the muck or per round spent fighting in it. Failure to make the throw indicates slipping and falling into the goo.

Let's say we wanted to model this slippery bat guano in Legends & Labyrinths. Like Jaquays you could just pluck some reasonable-sounding numbers out of the air, but you could also turn to the Hazards system for guidance. If you did, it would look something like this:

1. PICK A CHALLENGE RATING: The rulebook suggests, "In general, a hazard with a challenge rating equal to the average level of the party represents a danger that the party can routinely handle with little risk. (So if anybody plucked off the street could deal with it, the hazard is probably a CR 1. If it's something that requires a good deal of skill or luck to endure, it might be a CR 5 hazard. If it's something that only legendary heroes could expect to encounter and survive, on the other hand, you'll want to start looking at a challenge rating of 10 or more."

This seems like something most people should be expected to handle. Let's make this a CR 1 challenge.

2. DEFINE AREA/TARGETS: The bat guano covers the floor in areas 1, 2, and 3. It also covers the last 20′ of the stairs leading down to area 1.

3. DEFINE EFFECT: The bat guano will render a character prone. We'll check the Hazard Effects table on page 87 to see if the prone condition requires a minimum CR (it doesn't).

4. DEFINE DEFENSE: Quoting from the rulebook again, "Characters within the area affected by a hazard or targeted by a hazard generally get some defense against the hazard's effect. (...) Saving Throw: If a hazard does not need to make an attack roll, a character affected by the hazard is allowed to make a saving throw. Choose the type of saving throw which is most appropriate for the hazard's effect. (...) Action Check: For some hazards, a character may be able to make skill or ability checks in order to interact with the hazard or bypass it without suffering its effects."

So we've got a couple of options here. We could require a Reflex save from anyone moving through the area (in which case we'd look at the Hazards table and see that the Save DC for a CR 1 Hazard is DC 12). But I think it probably makes more sense to require anyone hustling, running, or fighting in the bat guano to make a Balance check. Looking at the Hazards table, we'll pull the General Check DC (used for "any action check which needs to be made by every character in the party"). A CR 1 hazard has a General Check DC 14.

And that's pretty much it. Our final hazard looks like this:

Bat Guano (CR 1): Covers the last 20′ of the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Balance check (DC 14) or fall prone.

ADDING SOME BATS

But what about those bats that are swooping around?

The first question I'm going to ask is: How much of a pain-in-the-ass do I want those swarming bats to be? At the low end, we could say that they effectively dazzle characters in their midst (-1 penalty on attack rolls, Search checks, and Spot checks). At the high end, we could say that they're entangling characters (move at half speed, cannot run or charge, -2 penalty on attack rolls, -4 penalty to Dexterity, casting spells requires a Concentration check).

Checking the Hazards Effects table I see that there's no minimum CR for hazards that dazzle, but entangling hazards have a minimum CR 2.

Let's go ahead and make 'em a real pain in the ass. Some of these bats are just one step removed from being dire bats (they're related to their larger cousins in the caverns below) and until they get into the open air they're basically a solid wall of flapping terror.

Although this isn't a trap, we'll grab the concept of a trigger from the trap rules to simulate provoking the bats ("certain natural hazards may also possess some or all the characteristics of a trap). Then we'll set this as a CR 3 hazard requiring a Fortitude saving throw. We check the Hazards table for the CR 3 save DC and get:

Bat Swarm – Entangling (CR 3): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or entangled. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

Another option would be have the bats actually physically batter those caught in their area. Using the rules for mixing CR effects, we could keep the DC 14 Fortitude save (a CR 3 effect) to avoid taking 1d6 damage (the repeating damage for a CR 1 hazard). Since these are the significant contributions to the hazard, you simply average the CR values to give you:

Bat Swarm – Battering (CR 2): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or 1d6 damage. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

Alternatively you can combine multiple effects into a single hazard by simply combining CRs like any other encounter (using the rules on page 15):

Bat Swarm Totality (CR 4): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or 1d6 damage and entangled. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

USING IT IN PLAY

Where the hazard systems really comes into its own, in my opinion, is during play. It provides you with general guidelines for appropriate action check DCs, saving throw DCs, and damage for characters of any given level.

That's useful all by itself. But it also gives you a simple structure for rapidly facilitating improvisation by you and your players.

For example, let's say the PCs want to weaken the support beams for a balcony and then lure a large monster onto the balcony so that it will collapse. Call for some appropriate action checks to prep the trap. Once its set-up you just need to set a CR and everything else will pretty much flow from that single decision point:

CR 7. Therefore, Balance check DC 22 for a PC to scamper across it without triggering the trap prematurely. When the unwitting monster hits it, it's 7d6 points of damage (CR 7 one-shot damage) with a Reflex save (DC 17) for half damage.

(Maybe you set the CR based on check result of the action check the PCs use to set the trap.)

You'll find some similar, non-improvised hazard creation tucked away in the Equipment chapter. For example, the description of wire includes:

Tripwire: A properly secured wire can serve as a CR 1 hazard. Characters can make a Spot check (DC 14 or opposed by the ambusher's Hide check) to spot the wire. If they fail, they must make a Reflex save (DC 12) or fall prone.

The system is just too simple and versatile not to use.

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We've got less than 24 hours before the end of the month and our deadline for early bird completion of the $3000 landmark in the Legends & Labyrinths 8-Bit Funding project.

If we hit that landmark by midnight tonight, all Labyrinth Prowlers ($30 and up) will receive PDF copies of Mini-Adventure 1: Complex of Zombies and Mini-Adventure 2: The Black Mist as a free bonus when the project is funded.

Either way, tomorrow morning I'll be announcing our next landmark and the bonus perks to go with it! If we hit the $3000 early bird landmark, we'll stay on the super-charged early bird track. If we don't, then we'll transition onto a more traditional landmark track.

Stunts vs. Combat Maneuvers

In large part, Legends & Labyrinths replaces the complicated variety of the 3rd Edition's combat maneuvers and special attacks with a streamlined stunt system. But how much tactical interest are we sacrificing with those combat maneuvers? And is the stunt system just replacing one form of complexity for another?

SIMPLE STUNTS

The process of resolving a stunt is simple:

   1. Define the effect of the stunt (which determines the DC).
   2. Perform the stunt by making the appropriate action check.
   3. If successful, the target of the stunt may attempt a stunt save to negate its effect.

What makes the stunt system simple is specifically that the DCs are hard-coded. It turns it into a substantive part of the combat system instead of the "beg the GM for a nice DC" negotiation that many stunt systems boil down to.

What makes the stunt system work is a divided workload: On the one hand, we use an action check to determine whether or not the character successfully leverages whatever skill/ability they're using to perform the stunt. (This encourages — but doesn't mandate — characters to perform stunts within their areas of expertise.) On the other hand, we allow the target to make a saving throw to negate the effect. (This prevents high-level characters from being just as easy to pratfall as a low-level character.) By dividing this workload, we avoid the problem similar systems have had in which the DC calculation become difficult-to-balance calculus: Add up all your stunt factors, then divide by the performer's HD before multiplying by the target's HD, then modify according to difficulty factors before blah blah blah...

STUNT VERSATILITY

But does the result offer the same tactical versatility as the detailed special attacks offered by 3rd Edition?

Well, let's talk about that.

(Note that the base DC for all stunts is DC 5.)

Aid Another: The stunt DC is +5 per +1 bonus. (A +2 bonus requires a DC 15 check instead of DC 10, but the mechanic is open-ended. The simplicity of +5 per +1 playtested much better than work-arounds which attempted to maintain the DC 10 = +2.)

Bull Rush: Forced movement +1 DC per 1 ft. So if you wanted to push someone 10 ft. over a cliff, it's a DC 20 stunt check.

Charge: We left basic charges in the game as an optional rule. (Surprise rounds are hamstrung without them.) But there are quite a few ways to use movement to apply a bonus to your attack roll using the stunt system.

Disarm: Forcing an opponent to drop an item is a DC 15 stunt.

Feint: There's not specifically a way to deny your opponent his Dex bonus to AC, but you can use a Bluff stunt to apply a penalty to his AC.

Grapple: L&L includes a simplified grapple system. Instead of being a complete departure from the rest of the combat rules, L&L's grapple rules just modify them using a single, simple mechanic that's easy to remember. In play it's surprisingly not that different from the advanced grapple rules of 3E, but you won't have to keep flipping the book open every time somebody tries to grab a monster.

Overrun: This one, I'll admit, is missing functionality. We briefly playtested including "helpless" in the stunt system, but it was badly busted. The closest you'll get is just using a forced movement stunt to shove them out of the way as you continue moving.

Trip: Prone is a +10 DC stunt.

So, from a tactical standpoint, we've found that the stunt system effectively replaces most of the existing combat maneuvers.

"Okay," you say. "That's all well and good. But all you've done is duplicate functionality the game already has using a slightly different system. Big deal."

But, of course, the stunt system can do much more than that. And you can actually do any of these actions using any action check (assuming you can explain how the action check will provide the desired result). For example, you can trip people by making a melee attack roll... but you could also shoot them in the leg (ranged attack roll) or aim a cone of cold spell to create a sheet of ice under their feet (Spellcraft check) or throw them down (grapple check) or force them to leap aside by threatening to run them down (Ride check) or yank their feet out from under them with a lasso (Use Rope check) or anything else you'd care to imagine.

So we basically hoover up all the existing functionality of the 3rd Edition maneuvers into a simple superstructure that's both (a) simpler than the functionality it's replacing and (b) capable of adding much more functionality to the game.

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Less than 24 hours remain!

Once this 8-Bit Funding project comes to a close, I currently have no way of offering the Black Book Beta for sale again. (If I can figure something out, of course, we'll go for it.) So this may be your last chance to gain access to Legends & Labyrinths for several months: Don't miss out!

It may also be your last chance to lock in these prices for the final PDF and print versions of the game.

And this is absolutely your last chance for many of the perks being offered here! (And to gain access to the exclusive Tomb of the Crypt Spiders adventure!) If you want artwork featuring your characters or a game session run by the designer or an exclusive, fancy-lookin' t-shirt or your character's name in the rulebook... This is it!

We're also very close to our $3500 landmark, which will unlock extra bonus perks for contributors. So spread the word!