Who let the dogs out?

Some hellhounds have escaped their domain in the Lands of Lunacy (or a small island on the Elemental Plane of Fire). One of Brimfire’s (a fire giant) hounds discovered a jewel that opens a portal to the Prime Material Plane, and the hounds are wreaking havoc hunting and terrorizing the mortals.

The newest adventure to hit the virtual shelves from Fail Squad Games. a 6 page, full color Interlude adventure. BECMI / Labyrinth Lord rule set – for just $3.00.

Don’t have $3?

Join the Fail Squad Games Guild and get it for half off – ($1.50). Just pop up to the upper right hand section of the site and sign up now.

Click here to pop over to the store now.

Thank you for supporting Fail Squad Games, there are plenty more fun adventures, free stuff, and games to come!

~Lloyd M (worker Goblin)

The post Hell Hath No Furry appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Expect – BECMI, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, 1E type of material, not to mention Lands of Lunacy and other slick stuff to keep your players off-guard.
Bookmark the page HERE also don’t forget to “subscribe to blog” at the bottom of the page so you won’t miss anything.

For some real up-coming treats, sign up for FSG exclusives at the top-right of the page.

The post Free Stuff Section appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

I truly salute you. It takes a real love of the game that not many have, to do what you have done. That is, to keep gaming with the wind pushing against you. The language in the Holmes, BECMI and AD&D rule sets is needlessly masculine, and I don’t mean just a little bit and I am not exaggerating “Needlessly“.

 

I am trying to imagine how it would feel if I sat down to a game with a table full of women. Then I read the rules and the entire text was “she” based, my character would be limited based on gender, and I STILL would return for weeks, months or years to play the game. Sometimes even with the men or boys ridiculing me for not “getting it”. I’m slow, but I really am starting to “get ” it. Maybe this article is long overdue from Fail Squad Games.

Women who game TRULY did and do love the game, because you are still here and playing after all this time.

The Authors

Before I continue, I would like to make it clear that this is NOT a personal dig at the original authors of any edition of D&D, BECMI, AD&D. I know many of them and have a deep respect for them as creators of my favorite game, and ultimately my career. I hope they consider this article as a constructive critique if they haven’t changed with the times, and as a sign post to personal growth if they have.

The Excusing Text

In all the old school books like Rules Cyclopedia, BECMI, and AD&D there is a paragraph that reads something like the following (from Rules Cyclopedia):

Pronoun Note
The male pronouns (he, him, his) are used throughout this book. We hope this won’t be interpreted by anyone as an attempt to exclude females from the game or to imply their exclusion. Centuries of use have made these pronouns neutral, and we feel their use provides for clear and concise written text.

As a young teen / preteen reader this made perfect sense to me. I accepted this and never understood why girls or women would feel any twinge of issue with anything about the game. Ok, I could kind of get the chain mail bikini thing, even back then. but hey, images of Elise Gygax sold me the book IN a chain mail bikini!

Was it really THAT bad?

Yeah, it was that bad. As an adult, and an RPG producer in 2018 re reading the text, even I find it distracting as an aging white male. It really is that bad. Come at the text as if you were your daughter reading the book and it sheds a little light on it. Let’s look at a paragraph, there are so many, but I’ll just pick ONE. Rules Cyclopedia page 7

A Magic user is a character who wields magic. He has little or nothing in the way of fighting ability,  and in the early part of his career he has little in the way of magical ability either. But as he gains  in experience, he becomes a powerful character and can wield powerful spells. The magic user’s prime requisite is his intelligence.

For that one paragraph a masculine tense is used SIX times. there are only 61 words in that paragraph! Only the very first sentence doesn’t reference the magic user being male. This paragraph isn’t a cherry picked exception in the book. It’s a standard example of the text.

I know what you are thinking, “Oh dammit! another article by a ‘Social Justice Warrior'” or some such crap. Please, stop right there. This is an article by a long time gamer and a publisher of games and most importantly a DAD to a young woman who likes to game. I am writing this article mostly as a father, secondly as an author, and thirdly as someone who wants everyone to game at my table.

So how do you fix that?

I wanted to write, but the texts I read with the gender pronouns seemed the only logical way to build a sentence. When I first started writing in the genre, I recalled those excusing paragraphs, but something didn’t sit quite right. There were growing pains in the gaming world and a number of solutions came up.

• Use she instead of he everywhere. [The same issue but in reverse. this just feels like vengeance]
• Use he / she [ ok but clumsy to type and read. What about those who are neither?]
• Use he in one instance, then she in the next. [Yeah, this happened around the 3.0 – 3.5 days and it is AWFUL to read and confusing as hell!]
• Use they or proper nouns or reword the sentence to not need a gender. [This is the Fail Squad Games fix and many other OSR publishers are getting on board]

So how would the sentence above read if published in a Fail Squad Games module today?

A Magic User is a character who wields magic. They have little or nothing in the way of fighting ability and in the early part of their career have little in the way of magical ability either. But as the magic user gains  in experience, they become a powerful character and wield powerful spells. The magic user’s prime requisite is intelligence.

It takes about 15 minutes of thinking when you first start writing this way. It makes more sense, the text actually reads smoother when written this way. It is more “clear and concise written text.” The Game master is either “GM, they, their”. Why assume he/his/him at all? After about 1,000 words in, this is the natural way to write and when you read gendered text it’s almost painful. I cringe when I see new authors in the RPG genre writing this way.

Characters with a gender are of course referred to as their gender in the game, it’s a simple, easy thing to do that makes your product better.

Helmets off to the Women

All through this, there are women who loved the game so much, they let this slide. Even when the rules set their maximum strength less than their male counterparts. I always found this troubling and in poor design even as a teen player.

Here’s to you for sticking with the hobby. Here’s to you for gaming through in an instance where, if the tables were reversed, I doubt many – if any-  men would be left standing. I salute your strength of character. I salute you for your love of the game and some who changed perceptions from the inside out. I also humbly apologize for anything you have endured to get here. I love BECMI, truly love the game. I love AD&D, all its authors, artists and contributors. I don’t like this one aspect of it and what it has done.  It was absolutely not necessary to write this way. It is my job as an inheritor of the hobby to fix it.

I will still play the games. I will ALSO continue to produce gaming supplements for the old systems and their clones. I WON’T be using that language in any Fail Squad Games product. I hope I can invite those who aren’t on board, to get on board. You’re on a sinking ship if you think you MUST write he, him, his a half-dozen times in a brief paragraph of 60 words.

What this Isn’t

This isn’t the chain mail bikini debate. I know Tarzan, Conan, Red Sonja, and Caldwell’s babes. This is a pronoun debate. A simple change in literary thinking that improves our hobby as a whole. As a young reader, I didn’t realize what this does to a line of thinking. As an adult dad, I do. As they say in Goonies, “This is OUR TIME! Down here!”

This is OUR time. We are inheriting this hobby from the previous generation. it’s time to fix this. With a couple of minutes of thought, any text can be written without the he, his, him bit. I don’t care that it was used my Shakespeare, Defoe, or any others for centuries. It’s not an excuse to use it now. It’ REALLY is not an excuse to purposefully use it in a hobby that wants to be inclusive. If anything, gaming incorporates the disenfranchised and this language should be something that our hobby leads the way in changing.

I welcome your comments below. If you think you must write with gender *fight me* I’ll rewrite your example text.

The post Women Who Game appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

I openly admit I am ignorant to a lot of things in the various game systems. After all, there are more RPG systems on the market than you can shake a stick at these days.  My casual reading has been strained lately as deadlines and college studies loom over my shoulder at every turn. Holidays are approaching and classes are resting so I started writing another adventure. I just finished up a fun Labyrinth Lord adventure Kickstarter and was diving in on a new 1E style piece. I haven’t put my nose in Labyrinth Lord Advanced in some time… ok hardly at all, and began writing the new adventure with the book closest to me. LL Advanced.

I took a little break to think about story elements while thumbing through the LL Advanced Companion book.

“Wait a minute! 17 STR  (+2)?” I blurted aloud.

That’s right, it had never occurred to me that Labyrinth Lord Advanced was Labyrinth Lord (BECMI compatible) with advanced rules attached, like dividing race and class, adding optional non-weapons, and other things. At the core it’s still basic Labyrinth Lord.

My apologies go out to Dan Proctor at Goblinoid Games for all the times I looked at Advanced Edition Companion Labyrinth Lord rules on my shelf and thought it was another AD&D clone. I was very very wrong. They have taken the things that sat funny with me about BECMI (race as class for one) and said no… here’s a suggestion of play for Basic but with some advanced options! It’s still the core Labyrinth Lord in the center of the pie, but the toppings are much better. Classes expanded, spells added, monsters juiced. My holiday casual reading just got bumped here. My love for this advanced companion on top of the core grew three times this day!  What a wonderful way to approach Basic and add in all the things I wanted to add in basic but never figured out how to play and test.

What about OSRIC?

Anyone who knows me, knows about my love affair with OSRIC and it’s AD&D roots. It makes Fail Squad Games possible! It leans so heavily on AD&D it can nearly be used interchangeably. OSRIC some might say, “Smoothed over the rough parts.” It fixes some wonky things like thief abilities and other bits to become, and yet not be AD&D. Yes, my 17 strength in OSRIC is +1 to hit, +1 damage. It remains at the forefront of books I reach for when writing a 1E adventure (Aside from the original TSR books). It is wonderfully organised with exceptional tables, random helpers, and design tips.

One Vs. the other?

I started this day trying to decide which system to write in. It’s not really possible for the two to compete since Labyrinth Lord Advanced and OSRIC are two different games. Do you want the BECMI simplicity with upgrades? or the head-first 1E feel with the roads repaired? Sitting here looking at both books, I am hard-pressed to make a decision on which system I want to pitch to my old group who are coming back together. The systems are far from the same thing. If you don’t have these books in your library, get them.

Budget tight? oh I’m sorry…. how about getting them for FREE? Both publishers offer their systems for FREE (in PDF).

Get OSRIC here

Get Labyrinth Lord here

~Lloyd M Fail Squad Games

The post Labyrinth Lord Vs. OSRIC – What I didn’t know appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

Labyrinth Lord (BECMI) adventure with 5E rules!

We blasted through the first stretch goal, which means this adventure is now FULL COLOR, but it retains that old school feel. This is a revised adventure from a previously short-run release. There is new art, more content, and Labyrinth Lord rules with 5E rules.

“Several years ago human settlers discovered a marsh covered valley which they knew would provide fertile crop land if only the marsh could be drained. The settlers dammed the river and may have damned themselves! The diverted river has awoken the cliffs themselves. Strange rumblings in the earth and smoke from the cliff tops are sure signs of trouble. The residents of Fertile Valley need some heroes, can you save Fertile Valley before it’s too late?”

It is an adventure for 4-6 characters of levels 1-3. This module has a definite “Old School Flavor” written by Chris Clark who worked directly with Gary Gygax.

We’ve loaded it with art collectible levels and low $ entry marks for digital only options. We are adding in a 5E “Interlude Adventure”, which is a 2 page cardstock quest with 3 hole punch for your trapper keeper.

Back it now before it ends on Dec 16th 2017!

The post Those DAM Goblins! appeared first on Fail Squad Games.

When giving clients design options, smart designers present 2 or 3 of the best options. When more are presented, clients waffle, they are unsure. The designer is asking the client to make design decisions and there comes a hundred revisions before the project ends in frustrated “I guess so” decisions.

In stores, retailers have presented shoppers with a taste test of 50 types of mustard, or 5. When shoppers were faced with 50 the sales were dismal but many samples were had. With 5, sales records were broken and customers returned to sample other flavors later.

Edition Preference

Let’s just start with saying that this is not an edition wars post. If you enjoy your edition and have no issues, wonderful. It is my hope that you might also consider coming back to the origins that new systems claim to emulate and trying them out when you want a change. It’s been my experience that new editions are not emulating Basic as much as they think.

Does it Fall Apart?

When the game options open to any race / class combination and any character spanning any profession at any level, things start to go awry, and here’s why I struggle with it.

Opening the class and race options to everything invites a min/max effort right away. The player feels as if there may be some sort of “edge” to playing a minotaur fighter over a human fighter, and they may be right. Even if the table warns of “Roleplaying social stigma in towns etc.” Most of the player’s life is in a dungeon, where doing 2D12 damage is more important than the barkeep not serving you ale inside. Players start seeking ways to manipulate the numbers of the game before even thinking of their character, and it’s not even on purpose.

If one of the players at the table opts for a dragonborn barbarian that breathes fire, sees in the dark, casts some spells, has some immunities, has extra hit points, can sneak, can go to negative hit-points during bonus rage…. Why would the next one then choose “Human Fighter”? The answer isn’t to give the human fighter more super powers to match the dragonborn. The answer is to balance the player power from the get-go and throughout the game.

Furthermore when one player can advance as a Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric etc.. at any time at will, why do they even need a “party” or “unity”? Maybe only to get more attacks per round.

 Player Options

Why would anyone want to limit player options? Because when players can choose anything, they choose everything. B/X, BECMI, Labyrinth Lord, and the various Basic D&D clones have a commonality. A cap on player class and race power and how it affects gameplay for everyone at the table. Labyrinth Lord (And most B/X systems) offer:

• Fighter
• Magic-user
• Cleric
• Thief
• Elf
• Dwarf
• Halfling

In the days when this was standard, we didn’t expect the GM or publisher to create a set of rules and mechanics because we wanted to play a pirate. We opted for one of the above classes and told the tale of the character’s sea-faring background. Want a wilderness type ranger? Neat! Your fighter has a bow and comes from the Misty Mountains and knows the outdoors. That was it.

A Fighter also doesn’t arbitrarily decide one day to toss his new XP into being a Magic-user to have the power of both. Switching professions was a serious life choice that would bring you back to level 1. Combining fighting and wizardry is the realm of elves, and has it’s price.

The Balance of Limit

With the BECMI / LL / B/X characters, no one class was “better” than the others. The game was carefully balanced, and each played very different roles in the game with their unique abilities. Humans, the most prolific and wide-spread race had the option of four different professions. The rarer sub-races were a class unto themselves by their nature and scarcity. Each advanced at a different rate that balanced their power in the game.

These power balances and abilities create a situation where players rely on one another and the unique abilities of each class. Every class filled a niche hole in game strategy that was important. Even a BECMI fighter with all 18’s in all stats can’t cure disease, or pick the next lock. She might excel at being a heroic warrior, but it doesn’t fill all challenges of the game, it also doesn’t even dominate a combat scenario.

Never Getting a Turn

I’ve sat at the table of various editions (2E and up) where one character might be a race/class combination that just decimates a battle encounter. They dole out copious amounts of damage and can end a combat in a single round. To keep the party challenged the GM has to crank up encounter power. That means other players, if they ever get a turn in combat, only get one hit before they die. Players are fiddling with their phones and soon the only one playing is the super-character who min/maxed correctly.

In B/X and clones, a thief might level up at 1,200 XP, while an elf, who has some neat abilities and spells, might not level up until they obtained 4,000 XP. Balance of power throughout the game is important. It keeps all players important and allows the GM to easily present a game that is engaging for everyone with minimal pressure.

I Want to be a Unique Character

Every character is unique with limited class options. A player could opt to be a Witch, Noble archer, Singing rogue, Arctic Huntsman, or anything that you can imagine. They all fall into the role of one of the classes without adding game mechanics, rulings, and special tables that can up-end game balance. They add story and immersive content.

Distribution of Wonderment

These power-controlled situations in the game also make it easy for the Game Master to introduce wondrous magical items that are fun, exciting and add to the story and fantasy of the realm. When players hold all the wonderment in special abilities, and power by simply leveling up, only magic that totally skews a world stands out. In art I have a saying, “When everything is the focal point, nothing is the focal point.”

Try it

It is my sincere hope that gamers everywhere set aside their shiny new books for a few sessions and just try out the old or OSR rule sets on occasion to get a feel for what the games play like. It’s hard to keep the wizard alive to fourth level, where he starts saving the hides of everyone at fifth. When only one player in this dungeon, a mile underground, can heal that fungal disease, they are contributing to the story. Ragnar can’t smash the lock to get out of a trap and the thief is unconscious? STRATEGY. Dungeons and Dragons can become something like advanced chess when the balance and game works out.

The GM Advantage

Labyrinth Lord, B/X, BECMI, and clones also give ultimate power to the Game Master. It also makes it easy to present and manage the game. Being a GM in newer systems is an intimidating task. The most common thing I hear about becoming a GM is, “I’m afraid I’ll screw it up, I don’t know all the rules.”

When the rules are a short booklet that walks you through running the game, this changes things dramatically.

Becoming a BECMI GM is a future post.

~Lloyd M [FSG]

The post Why is Basic So Limited? appeared first on Fail Squad Games.