Holy Powers

by on July 8, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: GURPS

GURPS developed a very strong magic system in one its first supplements. Other systems came later, and Fourth Edition has done a great job expanding the options, and systems available.

But religious magic has been stuck with the advice from GURPS Religion, which boiled down to ‘use the normal skill-based magic and substitute Clerical Investment for Magery’. GURPS Powers: Divine Favor is a small PDF product that introduces an entire new system based on the precepts in GURPS Powers (which is not needed to use this).

The main idea is a leveled advantage called “Divine Favor”, which allows a character attempt to call upon the power of his god directly, as long as he takes and sticks to at least 10 points of disadvantages that represent the character’s faith (vows, code of honor, etc). When a character needs a miracle, he rolls 3d6 against the level of his Favor, and if it works, his god has heard him.

From there, the GM does a reaction roll for the god (a standard mechanic) and on a ‘good’ or better reaction, the god intervenes with a miracle (chosen by the GM). Neutral reactions still generate a small bonus, and beware of bad reactions!

Since the minimum roll is ‘3’, the Divine Favor advantage starts at level 3, but a Pyramid article proposes levels 0-2, which require getting positive modifiers to get the target number to a minimum of 3 (such as taking extra time, praying inside a church/temple dedicated to that god, a large group…). If level 0 Divine Favor is allowed then anyone with the disadvantages defined as required by that god could get his attention.

In addition to this, there’s also a system of specific and learned prayers. These are less random, with pre-defined limits. Specific prayers are a case of asking the god for a specific miracle, instead of just ‘Help!’ Generally, nothing bad will happen, but the truly outstanding results of an excellent reaction roll cannot happen either. A learned prayer is a ‘power’ by any other name. It’s paid for with points, it can be done without any rolling; it’s a permanent feature of the character. Of course, it is linked to Divine Favor, and if something happens to that (violating the prerequisite disadvantage(s) of the god), it stops working. The bulk of the PDF is eight pages of example miracles already priced out.

When I saw this title, I didn’t think much of it with GURPS’ poor track record of divine magic, and just picked it up cheap on sale. Once I read it, I was very impressed. It’s a clever idea, well done and presented, and feels so right for divine magic I don’t think I’d ever use any other system for it.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 11 in Review

by on July 6, 2015 at 4:20 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Federation continues to burn through its stockpiled EPs. At the current rate, there won’t be enough left over next turn to ship 20 EPs to the Kzinti, before accounting for any economic damage from a Romulan invasion. The likely solution will be to slow down carrier production, and just produce a CVA next time.

But this turn the Federation did produce two CVSs and four DEs to escort them. The Kzinti have finally taken care of the cripple backlog and converted an F5 that was captured ages ago to Kzinti technology (there’s still a backlogged D5 to take care of).

While I knew that my main operational focus was going to be to do keep the Lyrans from extending their supply range into eastern Kzinti space, I had a hard time coming up with a real plan. In the end, I decided to take out all the infrastructure the Lyrans had built in Kzinti space, and sent out a line of FFs to block the remaining routes to the Lyran supply grid from 1202. The Federation pushed into the “neck” of Klingon space, taking out two planets there that had very little in range to defend them.

Bel had left a stack of crippled D5s in 2008, and I’m still not sure why. I think he had plans of using them to help pin some cripples in the neutral zone, but I just pinned them, and moved my cripples out.

Meanwhile the Hydrans tried to make an entry at the SW corner of the map that was immediately pinned. Their on-map fleet in 0117 did get a CU into 0116 to take (partial) control of that province again.


Kzinti theater. Lots of ships to coordinate.


Operation “Wedge”

Battles:
0119: Lyran: crip CVL, CWE, DWE; Hydran: dest RN
2008: Klingon: dest 3xcripD5; Federation: crip FF
1911: SSC: Klingon retreat
1808: Klingon: dest F5
1514: Klingon: 2xPDU, dest 2xE4, crip 2xE4; Federation: crip 2xNCL, capture planet
1714: Klingon: 4xPDU; Federation: crip 2xFF, capture planet
1813: Klingon: dest BATS; Federation: crip 2xFF
2215: SSC: Federation retreat
2214: Klingon: crip D6, D6M, D5; Federation: crip CC, FF
1107: Klingon: dest BATS; Kzinti: crip FF
1105: SSC: Klingon: crip D5, retreat; Kzinti capture planet
0703: SSC: Lyran: dest MB
0903: SSC: Lyran: dest FF
1203: SSC: Lyran: crip CW, retreat; Kzinti: crip BC, retreat
0902: Lyran: dest BATS; Kzinti: crip BC, MEC
1001: Lyran: 2xPDU, dest SB; Kzinti: capture planet
1201: SSC: Lyran: dest CC; Kzinti: crip CC, retreat
1202: Lyran: dest TGP(MB), 3xDW, crip CA, 3xCW, 3xDW, capture CL; Klingon: dest F5E; Kzinti: dest CL, DD, crip 2xCC, 2xBC, CM, 2xMEC, EFF
1806: SSC: Klingon: crip D5, retreat; Kzinti: retreat
1907: Klingon: crip 2xD6, D5; Federation: crip 2xDD, FF
1403: SSC: Klingon: crip E4, retreat

The Hydrans can’t afford to lose a cruiser every turn like this. I am starting work on the problem, however.

With the Reserve, the attack on the minor planet at 1514 was pretty even (I had a CVA and smaller ships, and the reserve was pretty small), and I figured I’d end up taking fighters and retreating. But two rounds of good rolls forced Bel to retreat and let me take the planet.

I had a decent superiority at 0902, but Bel had a full line, and I figured he would make me go a round or two before retreating behind the base. Instead, he blew it the first round and we both retreated out. That allowed me to send those forces onto the Lyran SB+RGT at 1001 which only had a few cripples at it (the reserve being pinned on 0902, the main fleet reacted to 1202).

I had originally figured to have a big pinning battle at 1001, but the big climax was six rounds at 1202, which I mishandled. We were about even going in, and I was hoping to take the planet, but the die rolls were even (and against me in the second round), and I ended up retreating out with most of the fighters gone (kept 12 on the CVA Titan in case of pursuit). I just dumped damage on him, which hurt a lot, but I should have just blown the two tugs in the hex (got one) and retreated out a round or two earlier.

Turn 11 scoring:
Coalition: 283 EP (x2) + 320 (bases) + 363 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1058.6
Alliance: 334.2 EP (x2) + 515 (bases) + 478 ships (/5) = 1279

Difference = 220.4 Major Alliance Victory

I seem to have missed a couple of Lyran bases last time …and something else went wrong. Probably didn’t multiply the Coalition EPs by 2. I’ve updated the totals on the Turn 10 post.

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…And One From Column C

by on July 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: D&D

Module I14 Swords of the Iron Legion sits at a crossroads of Dungeons and Dragons: It is the last of the fabled “I” series modules. It is an early Forgotten Realms adventure. It is a set of BattleSystem scenarios.

In all, it’s a disappointing note for the I series to go out on.

In form, it is a slightly large adventure module: 64-pages with a detached cover. The contents are a collection of eight loosely-connected adventures, plus three pure BattleSystem scenarios. All the adventures have a common general background, and are supposed to happen in sequence… an unspecified time apart. While it is mentioned that you could run them as part of a campaign, there is no support for actually doing so. This is an anthology, with each adventure written by a separate author, and it shows, with different styles, amounts of information given, and pretty close to zero linking between adventures (one NPC shows up in two of the adventures, with no acknowledgement of this fact). Also, the recommended level for the PCs goes up by about two each time, meaning that the DM of a campaign would have to find something for the PCs to do each time before steering them towards the next battle/adventure from the module.

All of this is set around the Vilhon Reach, in parts of Turmish and Chondath, an area that would not get any further exploration for years. There’s not a lot said about the region in the module, though a few things do come up. A nice touch is a reproduction of the appropriate area of the poster maps from the Campaign Setting box set on the interior cover. The cover also has the map for the climatic battle of the series, and a chart of all monster types encountered in the module.

As a set of BattleSystem combats, they’re not too bad, the scenarios start out small, though maybe not as simple as could be desired, and move up in scale and scope from there. The three ‘firefights’ (pure BattleSystem combats) are relatively small, and while uncredited, also suffer from uneven writing. Sadly, while there’s good tabular stats for all the units in each battle, the commanders (needed for each unit, plus possibly brigade and army commanders) are all buried in the text. Now, the PCs should be taking part, often as commanders at various levels, but it would much better to display the basics for these too. (And in some places, including one of the firefights, I don’t see the commander info at all.)

As AD&D adventures, any one of them could be dropped into a campaign, some with more trouble than others. At that point, their success will largely depend on having a group that wants to go adventuring and likes the idea of commanding a small body of troops enough to want to play out a miniatures battle at the end of the adventure. A rare breed in my experience. My initial thought when seeing this module was that it would be the adventures of the commanders of a mercenary company as they accept various contracts, so that miniatures combat would be part of the buy-in to the campaign. I still think that’s a workable idea, and would lead to a much more cohesive module than this collection of battles that normal adventurers just happen to stumble into (and given the original Campaign Set outlined a number of mercenary companies, a reasonably obvious one).

Fine, but you still have the bare bones of a Vilhon Reach campaign that a DM could flesh out into something workable, right? Well….

The biggest problem with these adventures as a set, is that they all have a supposed common thread, they’re all part of the machinations of a daemon who’s using this fighting to further goals elsewhere, and it is all invisible to the players. Even the final climatic battle isn’t designed to let the PCs in on what’s happening. They get briefly told that this one daemon that they’ve never heard of (though they might have encountered him disguised) has been instigating wars to get souls to power a doomsday machine. No big discovery, just a bit of background info-dump. And the info-dump isn’t even complete or entirely correct (more invisible machinations).

The main feeling I would imagine a party feeling after the final adventure is frustration. I think some of the other adventures are worth a look, though I don’t know that I’d want to run any of them ‘straight’. But it’s just a nice idea, with some good production (I really like the combined monster statistics table), and a severely lacking execution.

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A Dragon’s Head and A Serpent’s Tail

by on July 3, 2015 at 10:10 am
Posted In: Books

Being something of a fan of warring states Japan (you can largely thank Nobunaga’s Ambition II for that), I’ve been aware for some time that at the end of the era, there was a Japanese invasion of Korea. But not a lot of attention gets paid to it; it’s just a short incident between the death of Nobunaga and the death of Hideyoshi.

So Kenneth M. Swope’s book on the entire war with Korea is very interesting, and pretty much all-new to me. Even more so, as Swope is primarily a specialist in Ming China, and this book is centered on China’s role in the war. Korea pretty much collapsed at the beginning of the war, and Ming China sent all sorts of aid to retrieve the situation.

Swope calls this the ‘First Great East Asian War’, because China was also dealing with other border problems at, or nearly so, the same time, and at the beginning of the book, he places the Korean problem in context with the rest of the ‘Three Great Campaigns’, which are something of a high water mark for the late Ming Dynasty. In fact, this period is generally seen as something of a disaster for the Ming, and Emperor Wanli one of the worst China had. Swope argues that this is not so, and that China weathered these crises well, and in good shape. Wanli is shown as being able to override court factionalism and appoint competent administrators and commanders, and stick by them when they are criticized. He was not, however, able to stop such infighting, which seems to be part of why he thinks the Ming collapsed only a couple decades later (he has a book about this out, currently on sale for $120. No.)

This is primarily a military history, but also includes accounts of the diplomatic talks between China and Japan, and the fate of Korean civilians, and court politics. This is a fairly high-level overview, and a very good one, but there’s a lot more details I’d like to read about in the future.

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The Four Vassal War Coalition Turn 2

by on July 2, 2015 at 10:19 pm
Posted In: Four Vassal War

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

A little to my surprise, Belirahc and I’s Four Powers War game has finished off a turn before our main game, though it’s about done too.

The Lyrans are trying to clean up the mess left by the civil war. 27 EPs went into repairs, and there’s still a fair amount left to do. I’m prioritizing the current war-zone of course, but there’s not enough facilities to go around, and every fleet got some repairs. The Far Stars fleet will start slowly releasing ships after it’s all repaired, but I have a DD and 2xFF to go on that project.

Meanwhile, the Klingons are starting their fourth war with the Kzinti.

Builds:
Klingons: C6, D7, D6D, F5L, F5, 3xE4, E3, SAF, D7->D7C
Lyrans: DNE, TGP, 2xCL, 2xDD, 2xFF

Yes, the Klingons now have a ship worse than the HN in the game: the lowly 3/2 E3 Escort. The new edition of FO will have counters for them and the E3A. Just what every Coalition player wanted. >.<;

I sent out heavy ships raiding (BCE, D6), and got a pair of cripples for my pains. The Lyrans at least, should have raided a bit closer to home.

The Klingons struck into Kzinti space, mostly going after some of the border defenses, though I made a try for the Duke’s starbase and the planet at 1504 as well. I always seem to have trouble sorting out my forces (in any game) the way I want/need on the first turn, and this was no exception, with my Admiral stuck at a minor battle, and other oddities.

The Lyrans had fairly limited operations. The Hydrans are still in the area in force, and anything I tried to do, Bel reacted to aggressively. And at this point, bases with fighters on them are fairly intimidating.

We both made some errors. It wasn’t until movement was over that Bel realized he’d never set up reserves for the Kzinti. o.0 And shortly after that, I realized I forgot to move my Commercial Convoy.


Regrouping on the Hydran border.


Opening moves of the Fourth Klingo-Kzinti War.

Combat:
0410: SSC: Hydran: dest SA, crip 2xHN, retreat; Lyran: retreat
0113: Hydran: crip 2xKN; Lyran: dest CL, SC, crip CA, DD
0211: Hydran: crip CR, CU; Lyran: crip CA, 2xFF
1004: Kzinti: dest BATS; Klingon: F5, F5G
1205: Kzinti: dest BS; Klingon: crip 2xF5
1605: Retreat after refused approach
1506: Neutral: dest 2xPGB, planet captured; Klingon: crip F5
1504: Kzinti: crip CL; Klingon: crip F5L
1304: Kzinti: 2xSIDS, dest POL; Klingon: dest E3, crip D6, E4

Bel had a HN in 0410, and when I sent a ship to kill it, he reacted in another and a SA. I moved from the EB starbase (away from the nearby fleet) with a good SSC force (15 ComPot total) and then rolled an 11 to nearly wipe them out. Past that, the Lyrans didn’t have any combats where they had an adequate force.

The Klingons put a D6D and TGB-2DP on the line with an F5S in support for the starbase battle for 5EW, but Bel just put a SF in support with a CD and CLD on the line, and dialed the SB’s EW to 6 to generate a -2 shift anyway.

I’d hoped to do a lot more than kill two bases this turn, but I’m going to have to come up with a better plan than this to do it.

However, the score is a bit more even now, partially thanks to continuing repairs, and partly to killing two Kzinti bases. The Coalition is up eleven points to 34.5 VP and the Alliance is up point nine to 59.4, a Major Defeat for the Coalition

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