"For the Princess? ...To the death?"

"I accept!" 

This one's about verisimilitude, combat procedures, and fixing morale (if you think it's broken).

Why We Fight
(One of my favorite albums, by the way.) 

I've played elfgames for over two decades, and have been on both sides of the screen for plenty of combats where neither side seemed to have a reason to fight besides "we're all here, so let's hack and slash one another." It sucks. Few things break verisimilitude for me like pointless fights.  

So why would any NPC, person or creature, choose violence? There are a multitude of reasons, to be sure. Defending a lair, protecting or reclaiming a treasured macguffin, holding the heroes at bay until the ritual is complete—you get the idea. Violence is one way to get something, to accomplish a goal.

If you're playing an OSR game, reaction rolls are a big thing. When an NPC's reaction to the party isn't obvious, roll on a table. Sometimes that can clarify things, sometimes you're left struggling to come up with the why. It's why my hack has the GM pick three possible reactions from a potential five—I'm never left going, "well I'll roll for it but I really hope I don't get one of these because it doesn't make sense to me." 

As a quick aside, d4 Caltrops has a great spark table that gives possible reasons why an NPC might be friendly. I think it'd be fun to make a dungeon that gives hostile/friendly spark tables for its denizens, tailored to the person/faction/creature. Hmmm...

Anyway! I think NPC combat goals matter  They should be things the PCs can potentially figure out, whether before, during, or after the combat has ended. Having internally consistent logic as to why someone is choosing violence not only makes the world more believable, but it gives the players the ability to make informed decisions in game. You know, a cornerstone of survival in OSR play. 

Speaking of verisimilitude surrounding combat...

I Don't Like Morale

Okay, that's not entirely true. I just don't care for how morale rules are implemented in most OSR games. 

Has this ever happened to you? The party is facing off against a group of enemies, and you check morale after the first one drops. The enemies pass. The battle continues on, and you check again when half the enemies are felled. You even give them a -2 modifier because they're clearly losing. They pass again, and now they're in it until death. And you sit there wondering things like, "how long is the rest of this fight going to take?" and "really? now there's just one stirge left and it's just gonna keep attacking until it's dead?" 

Call my sense of immersion a song featuring Amy Lee the way it's broken.  

I think the standard morale rules are a good simplification of the morale procedures from Chainmail. Those rules for medieval miniatures are for clashes between units of trained combatants following orders issued by authority figures. Wargames don't care about the individual soldier that breaks the first time an arrow goes whizzing past their head, or the one that defies orders to carry his injured brother to a medic. I believe elfgames should.

I know that morale is often an optional rule, I could just do all of this without it. But I like procedures, and I think morale is a good idea—I just wish it was different. You might be thinking...

What's Your Solution, Smarty-Pants?

For me, it comes down to two things: goals and checking morale more. 

The goal supersedes procedures. What is the goal, and are they willing to die for it? The title of this post is a quote from the iconic battle of wits scene in The Princess Bride, wherein Vizzini and The Man in Black agree to the terms of their duel. No morale check needed, they're both in it til the bitter end. 

If they aren't willing to die for it, then they will flee or surrender when faced with their own mortality—let's say when 25% of their HP remains—or whenever it is clear their goal is no longer attainable. 

Those not willing to die will also check morale before the points listed above. Individuals comprising groups and solo creatures will check it the first time they are hit (adjust up to +/-2 for especially high or low damage), and again at 50% HP. Groups will check when the first amongst them falls, and again when only half remain. 

It might seem like a lot to check morale that much, and maybe it is, but I think it's a way to still use the procedures while lending to the verisimilitude of small-scale combat. It makes it easier for me, as the referee, to play as these adversaries. The first time I might rethink a fight is the first hit I take, followed by when I feel like I'm halfway to being dropped. As a group, I might turn tail at the first casualty or once things start to look bad. No matter what, if I'm not willing to lay my life down to see my objective through, I will try to live to fight another day. 

 

 

Incentivizing Death

This one does what it says on the tin.

I have been told I'm a contrarian. That I have a strong aversion to authority. I am rather infamous in my friend group for having the highest reactance—the quickest way to ensure I never do something is by telling me to do it. If you think that sounds annoying, I can assure you my friends agree. Thankfully, they have found plenty of other reasons to love me anyway. 

I'm sure it's not difficult to see how my personality can put me at odds with something like, say, a book that says, "here are rules for playing a game. Follow them." Which is why I love when a book presents them as suggestions. Oh, I can use whichever ones I want? Cool! I'll try them all out, at least for a while, and then change to taste. 

On top of that, I also headbutt with prevalent attitudes held by ttrpg communities. Nothing makes me want to make a PbtA dungeon crawler more than seeing people say it wouldn't work. Same goes for skill systems in OSR games. But sometimes it goes deeper than that. 

For example, sometimes I see people in OSR spheres discussing character death, and I think, "what if we incentivized death? What if we rewarded it? What would that look like?" Well, if we used the lingua franca of OSE/BX, maybe it would look like this.

Death, Advancement & The Mythic Underworld  

The deadly dungeons and strange subterranean places adventurers delve into is a different world, a universe unto itself. The player characters are interlopers into the Mythic Underworld, which rejects them—even in death.

Rule 1. Don't be a weasel. This first rule is taken straight from Blades in the Dark. No getting into combat and refusing to fight, that sort of thing. You're still playing a character who wants to live, because dying still kind of sucks. Surviving a fight is probably a step toward a larger goal, and dying puts you further from accomplishing that. Plus, it now it changes you. More on that shortly.

Rule 2. There is no XP. Gold for XP naturally leads to the question, "why does my character need all this gold? Why are they willing to risk their life to get it?" Those questions are still in play. You've made a little freak and are sending them off into freaky places, figure out why they're doing that.

Rule 3. When you hit 0 HP, you're taken out of action. You're dead, but the Mythic Underground won't accept you. Once the battle is over, the trap is overcome, etc. you come back. Hopefully your party members brought your body along. If your body was destroyed, it materializes where you were last out of harm's way.  

Rule 4. When you return to action, you level up. That's right, you heard me. It's probably a good idea to start leveling your character up as soon as you're taken out of action, that way you're ready to go once your surviving party members finish up with what killed you in the first place. 

Rule 5. When you return to action, you've changed. When the Mythic Underground bludgeons your soul back into your body, it leaves a little bit of itself with you. Roll on the following d84 table and note the way your character is different now.

1. You grow vistigial... 
    1. Wings 
    2. Tail
    3. Tusks
    4. Antlers/horns

2. Another 1d4 eyes appear on your...
    1. Head
    2. Arm
    3. Torso
    4. Leg

3. Your hand becomes...
    1. A crustacean claw
    2. Tentacle-fingered
    3. A snake's head
    4. A bird's foot

4. Your legs become that of a...
    1. Sheep
    2. Feline
    3. Lizard
    4. Aphid

5. You grow another...
    1. Arm    
    2. Leg
    3. Mouth
    4. Row of teeth

6. Your head becomes that of a...
    1. Mantis
    2. Wolf
    3. Bat
    4. Frog

7. You have...
    1. A tongue that forks like a serpent's
    2. A third eyelid that blinks horizontally
    3. Translucent skin
    4. A second, discordant voice

8. Your...
    1. Mouth(s) become a beak
    2. Hair is replaced by feathers
    3. Shadow moves slower than you    
    4. Ears grow fingers

Rule 6. When you have changed a number of times equal to your maximum class level plus one, hand your character sheet over to the referee. The transformation is complete. Your character is a part of the Mythic Underworld now. The referee should play them as they would any other powerful underground-dwelling NPC. Like most other denizens of the Mythic Underworld, they now stay dead when killed. 

 

Well, there it is! I have not tried it. I may never try it. But it was fun to come up with. I like the idea of this otherworldly place rejecting you until it transforms you into something it will accept. I like the potential roleplaying consequences of adventurers delving over and over, returning to the World Above more alien the more powerful they become. I like that if I do end up using this, my players would undoubtedly engage with more of the danger I telegraph. 

If you have or do come up with a way to incentivize character death, let me know about it here or on Bluesky.