Saturday Q&A (nov 11)

Chris C. writes:

You have asked for comments, but your reply to others' blog posts is also a comment of sorts. I have to admit I need to read your things in moderation. It's the discomfort: I should be writing D&D; I should be pursuing opportunities to gather players. You have made an impact as a writer beyond D&D when it starts spilling out into the real world, you know. The lifestyle of The Way (and guilt outside its departure). I feel some fear over telling the next bit, but here goes: one search result for "fighting claws" turns up a Wikipedia article on "bagh nakh," a weapon from India. And this brief bit: "poisoned bagh nakh had been used by the Rajput clans for assassinations. The most well-known usage of the weapon was by the first Maratha leader Shivaji who used a bichuwa and bagh nakh to kill the Bijapur general Afzal Khan." Is that not enough of a seed to launch a thousand adventures?

Would I the conviction to suddenly study Indian history, and begin my own hex tiling of some region, and launch a campaign setting thereby: India in the 1400s, perhaps, using your wiki as a rule- and sourcebook. It's all very exciting and fertile, as greenfield projects tend. Even so India itself, which in tech circles float the whisper of castes and its discrimination. (And that's just when everyone is human, not half-orc, elf, or the like.) The other is China: in the age when junkers sailed as marvels, the sea and its navigators. There's a clear ending point too: when the emperor closes off and shuts down the navy, and what could have been. Here, the players could certainly launch into their own cleverness.

As someone new to Advanced D&D, as you say, both my son and I should be firming up our mechanics and such. So it won't necessarily be India or China or Europe in culture or flavour, but a bit of what essence may filter through our limited lens, from what we have read, or imagine, and of course with much liberty as could be granted as high fantasy for children, in weavings of parables or a spin on children's tales.

Answer: I'm the first person to argue that the greatest danger in seeking knowledge is that you're liable to run into someone able to write or say something that makes everything you've believed sound like the thoughts of a fool. Happens to me, happens to everyone. I got my first doses in early grade school and those were fundamental to my wanting to be a writer. Writers had changed my thinking and made me feel a fool, and I felt compelled to spread the word of that foolishness-feeling to others. After all, why should I be the only self-aware fool in the room?

I was, though, and am, most of the time. I see NO difference between D&D and the real world, not because I'm I think D&D is the real world, but because D&D is a part of that world. The advice that works in D&D works in the world; the knowledge of managing players is the same as managing anyone. Give them the tools to do the thing right, first, and then, when they know that right way, let them challenge it. Nothing wrong with eventually allowing the player to obtain "fighting claws." Of course they're real weapons; we would not have them in our fiction if they didn't exist in fact. But jumping straight to claws is bad form for someone who hasn't yet swung a common weapon. That's no how we train soldiers; it's not how we train martial arts students; it's not how we train those in grade one to read.

On another point, there no such thing as "a seed" to launch a thousand adventures. In reality, you need a thousand seeds to launch one adventure, because adventures are not built upon a nifty fact from a history source. Adventures, like the game itself, are constructed of hundreds upon hundreds of game elements and structures, imagination and intuition, only one of which can be grown from a single seed. Nay, what's needed is a field of seeds, and another field beside it, and another in back of the house, and a fourth to lay fallow until next season.

Elizabeth in France (temporarily) writes:

I appreciated your recent post on the development of the Sage Abilities. At the end, you say that this is also used for non-levelled NPCs, and from the wiki, they can gain knowledge points through instruction only. This implies that the Expert and Sage levels can only be achieved by levelled characters. What is your opinion on NPCs fulfilling the role of e.g. expert cook, or expert weaponwright, with the resultant supernatural abilities?  Do you think that the equivalent of Wayland the Smith should always be a levelled character?

Answer: To put the sage abilities into context, the very best chefs there are in the real world would have "authority" status; there are no experts or sages among cooks, nor any other profession, since magic does not exist. It the real world, Wayland would be this — but since he IS a mythological character, then I must argue, in D&D at least, that yes, he's a levelled individual. He achieves notoriety for his skill and receives experience when the king enslaves and hamstrings him, and more when he kills the king's son, and from the treasure he presumably takes along with the winged cloak, which is more experience. We may think he has other adventures and continues to advance.

But ... we may also propose a rule that if a character works at a profession, and does not go adventuring, spending a set number of hours at a task per year, perhaps 1200 say, then at the end of the year the character can make a wisdom check which, if successful, gives 1d4 knowledge. Therefore, a non-levelled person, being trained as a youth, and spending 40 years at their tasks, and succeeding in half their wisdom checks, and rolling average on their dice, could add 50 points of knowledge by the time they reach their mid-50s. If they were a bit luckier still, they could reach the level of sage, without needing to be levelled.

Nigel R. in Germany writes:

Thank you for your overview in "The Wherefore and Whyfore of Sage Abilities."  I admit to having had some confusion over why these were "sage abilities" instead of abilities, and that is now clarified.

I used to play a lot of Rolemaster. I/we liked it that a fighter could hide or climb, a mage could use a sword, and so on. However, as everything became a roll, it got too much. I like the idea of assumed knowledge that does not require a roll. You’ve previously given your personal example of pan searing salmon, and I can, for example, pack 8000 wine bottles into boxes at high speed without breaking one, whereas a newcomer could not keep up, and would drop things.

My question is, how do you handle sage abilities that “oppose” each other? For example, Group One is tracking Group 2, but Group two is expecting this and is employing some sort of “counter tracking / hiding tracks” measure.

Or, as a second example, Group One has a guarded campsite, but Group Two is attempting to use stealth to get close and ambush? Is this resolved on a ‘higher level (or skill level) wins’ basis, or is it "embedded" in the descriptions of the respective abilities, or is it something else?

Answer: Some sage abilities do require a roll, and many of those have to do with the "opposition" you describe. Looking at the rules under stealth, you can see adjustments to the distance that a character can approach based on the level of the "observer," whom one tries to approach.

https://wiki.alexissmolensk.com/index.php/Stealth_(sage_ability)

Additionally, there's a sage ability called "counter-tracking," in which the pursued creates situations that slows down the pursuer, that allows shaking off pursuit by increasing the distance between the two. When being tracked, what's required is to spend time creating a situation which, to be resolved by the tracker, takes them MORE time than it took you. Thus, they fall further and further behind, giving the opportunity for the pursued to reach a village where tracking would be impossible, or for a rainstorm to occur, as that fouls everything.

https://wiki.alexissmolensk.com/index.php/Counter-tracking_(sage_ability)

I'm not particularly pleased with the counter-tracking rule; it's jumbled and overly complicated, and I'd prefer something simpler, but the circumstance it's trying to capture is tremendously complex and generally not within the purview of a D&D campaign. This is why a lot of rules for certain things in the game are garbage — it's very hard to gain the sense of what's happening with die rolls. But I take stabs at these things and later I try to improve them. The wiki is good for this; with time, a rule gets better through rewrites.

Never had a character use the counter-tracking rule, and for that matter I can't ever recall a situation in 40 years where an NPC has tracked a party. Nonetheless, the rule is there.

Taylor R. writes:

Your most recent blog post “Climbing’s a Bitch” mentioned climbing shoes. This jogged my memory of a podcast I listened to a while back. The Irish of the Aran islands used a leather sandal which they kept constantly moist to protect their feet from the sharp rocks while they climb over the scree which cover their islands. The source the podcaster is using was from later than your game’s time period, but as he’s describing the remote Aran islands, I imagine their style of sandal had been around for a long while. I’m not sure how useful this would be for you, but it struck me as a good example of local knowledge using limited resources to adapt to their region. Could fit in with a sage ability?

Answer: That would very definitely fit in with a sage ability. Perhaps maintaining shoes of this nature and knowing how to tie them properly is part of the scrambling ability.

 _____

Thank you for your contributions.

If readers would like to reply to the above, or wish to ask a question or submit observations like those above, please submit  to my email, alexiss1@telus.net.  If you could, please give the region where you're located (state, province, department, county, whatever) as it humanises your comment.

Feel free to address material on the authentic wiki, my books or any subject related to dungeons & dragons.  I encourage you to initiate subject material of your own, and to address your comment to others writing in this space.