Showing posts with label dungeon meshi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dungeon meshi. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Resupply in Dungeon = Player Skill

At the core of dungeon crawlers, once the fantasy veneer is stripped away, is resource management. While overly obvious and reductive statements like this aren't really interesting, I think it's important to underline some concepts here. Let's talk about resources.


Light
Light is probably the most common "resource" that is associated with dungeon crawlers, and also very critical. It is easy to imagine that loss of light and all light-granting resources would just mean a TPK situation. Light is also very hard to reduce. You could imagine going on half rations for food to let them last a bit longer, but you can't really burn half a torch for less light- many games don't even have partial or low-light rules beyond other "you can see" or "you can't see". Light is also a very off or on resource in the fact that many fantasy races don't need light to see in darkness- comparatively few mechanics have in-universe methods of granting permanent, unlimited access to it. Comparatively few fantasy races have the ability of things like; don't need food or don't need arrows to shoot a bow or don't need to conserve hit points, etc.

The concept of light as a resource is often broken down into what the players can bring- namely Torches, Oil, and spells. Stranger forms of light resources- such as a racial ability to create light once p. day or a friendly torchbug companion that can glow to light up a room for you and so on go beyond the scope of this list.

Torches could be thought of as anything burnable. Potentially anything long and straight could be made as a torch or primitive torch. Real torches (as real candles) have specific methods of production; you can't just burn the end of a branch to make an effective torch. But this is fantasyland and it will work in a pinch.

Oil is more complex. Is it whale oil, plant oil, or magical fantasy oil? The concept to restore oil out of the bodies of slain monsters is a good one. Also; burning oil could make different smells- so a tribe of hobgoblins wouldn't notice your whale-oil-lamp but when they smell their chieftan burning to light your lantern then they'll get pissed. Oil is also in my opinion one of the most likely things you'll actually find in a traditional dungeon; any mineshaft or deep underground cave could have an oil drum or barrel left by the excavators or previous adventuring groups.

Light making spells is magic, and as such little rules of reality apply. Anything that can restore magic, or power from a patron of light/holy magic, or connection to the surface world for a druid, etc. could be used to restore light from a light spell. Another idea; a magical/holy light spell that gets dimmer the longer it goes on, but can be refreshed by brutal blood sacrifice of sentient beings. Imagine sacrificing bat people to Quetzalcoatl so you can search for more of that Aztec gold.

Rations & Feed
Food is the easiest thing to resupply in the dungeon; just eat monsters. Mushrooms are also around. Dungeon Meshi ran with this entire concept; it's good.

Feeding animals, especially herbivores (cave donkey?) is a bit harder and would require some supernatural elements. I like the Dwarf Fortress method of cave moss being good enough for surface dwelling herbivores to consume and survive on. In some parts of subterranian caverns it grows like a thick blanket. In smooth stone dungeon and generic mining tunnels? Not a lot of food or water here.

Of course- this only applies to traditional dungeons. Hex or city-crawls are brimming with opportunities for food- from foraging to hunting. Personal take- high towers or "vertical" dungeons like mountains have water being common, but food is more scarce. Then again, dungeons or deep caves should have more water, just less clean water, so unsure on this one.

Ammunition
Obviously spells and ammunition (either for actual guns or arrows and bolts) are a big part of the resource management. You typically have to have more risk to use a sword up close, but swords don't run out. (Equipment is also a resource too though- that's later).

Resupplying ammunition in dungeons requires some creativity. Personally, I'd allow skilled characters (dwarves) to identify nitrates in caves or soils to be used to make shitty black powder, and probably even stuff a gun barrel with little gravel flakes as an improvised form of ranged attack. Arrows are more complex, but you can probably imagine making arrows out of mushroom wood + underground birds for plummage, with arrow heads being easily reused. Ammunition made in dungeons is probably of pretty poor quality- the main cost here is time. Realistically speaking, unless you're spending multiple days or weeks in a dungeon, it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and hunt down all the materials you'd need to make arrows.

Ammunition is very easily recouped from intelligent enemies however; both their camps and patrols (goblins have shitty arrows, orcs have crossbows, drow have good arrows, bug people have bombs, and so on). It is probably one of the easier resources to recover if you aren't in a naturalist dungeon (cave) or an undead dungeon where everything is old and rotting away. If there are no intelligent monsters in the cave that use humanoid weapons, then you're screwed.

I'm also a big fan of magic rods as a type of "ranged magic weapon" to replace infinite use cantrips. They shoot magic blasts and are essentially a reskinned bow or sling for magic users. If you go with the lore of them being topped with a gem to be used as a power source, then this is a really easy method of resupply- just put a gem you got as treasure on the rod and each shot drains a certain amount of its value as the gem loses luster and eventually turns into a pebble if its all expended.

Spells
Spells are a tricky one. With such a massive part of the game balance being based on resource management, and Magic-Users being so reliant on spells- which are essentially their methods to solve problems at the cost of being very limited.

In some games, spells can be regained through studying your spellbook after either eight hours of rest (possible but difficult in most adventure situations / dungeons), or by studying your spellbook again after casting your magic dice/spell points, or what not. Further games have secondary mechanics- risk reward of casting extra spells past your "safe" limit but at the chance of screwing everything up. However, these methods of gaining extra spells do not count from resupplying in a dungeon itself.

The power gained by spells (instant problem solutions) can be "resupplied" in dungeons through finding scrolls, magic wands, or other magical loot in a dungeon itself. Chopping off a fetish from a defeated kobold shaman and being able to use his remaining spell he had prepared before you killed him is a fun concept- as is having yet unknown and unidentified spells scribbled on walls or stored in little glass balls. The only clue on what it does is a few random words- is it safe or will it blow you up?

Side note: "Spells" in the form of instant use solutions, not necessarily related to combat, are also somewhat "resupplied" by needing less of them over time. For example, you don't need to use Levitate to reach a high platform once you tie a rope around it and can now climb it easily.

Health & Cures
Health is one of the most important aspects to resource management. It is the primary "resource" of martial/fighter-type classes, and important to every character. Dungeons can't give back too easily, or else one of the biggest pressures for getting in and out is removed. Many rulesets allow for short or long rests to recover some amount of health, or using limited use spells or abilities like lay on hands to recover HP.

Other ideas; friendly NPCs in the dungeon that will heal you in exchange for something else. Healing potions are an easy one. Healing fountains stuck in the dungeon make a nice static location where healing can be done; but there has to be a good reason why you can't just bottle the water or swim in it- maybe mutations if you use it more and more. If a dungeon is built or famous for a famous treasure, you restore +1d8 HP or "Grit" just for touching it like a pure morale boost. This helps since it will almost always be guarded by the most dangerous monster.

As for first aid and medicine- I've already written a whole post about it.

Also; the concept of certain stats or your level being damaged (level drain) could be tied under health. Typically, these aren't easily cured in a dungeon and are instead related to the overall campaign and bed rest. An extra rule, like laying a ghost's physical remains to rest cures you of its level drain, might be a nice way to allow players to resupply in exchange for doing something difficult and karmic in universe. Curses get an extra bit- Arnold likes curses that you can cure by doing shit- make the dungeon harder for yourself to remove a penalty.

Equipment
Dungeons contain traps and situations that consume equipment- prybars break eventually, wooden doorwedges are thrown away, and your swords are eaten by rust monsters. Recovering equipment in a dungeon is simple; stealing it from the monsters and corpses here- perhaps even your own fallen party members. More recent corpses probably have better equipment, and anything you steal from monsters will be of poor quality, trapped/cursed, or both.

Creating new equipment or doing advanced repairs to serious damage is probably out of the scope of the timeframe and skill of the characters in a dungeon; but characters of a specific race or class might be able to do so. I like dwarves or gnomes, or those of magical artificer classes, being able to repair anything related to their professions in one exploration turn of downtime. Metal plates may also be stolen from various environmental pieces to patch yourself up; the classic wooden barrel lid as a shield. Why does nobody just use the armor that the animated suits of armor puppet around after you break them apart? That shit is expensive. Snailpeople can just put themselves into a new shell if they manage to find one- that's a good reason for adventuring.

Manpower / Numbers
People will die or become lost/run away as you explore the dungeon. This applies to player characters to a lesser extent, but is mostly related to your hirelings and followers. Link and lantern boys, porters, thralls, whatever- all of them perform useful labor that isn't realistic for a small party of individuals to do; like tear down barricades or haul giant gold bricks out of a dungeon. Some treasure may become totally unable to be recovered if you don't have enough people to carry it, but group size is self mitigating; too many hands means not enough coins, and larger groups tend to use up more resources and attract more wandering monsters.

Groups of people also have other advantages; taking turns on watch, being able to carry each other, etc. It's similar to Kenshi; if enough people get downed in that game and you can't carry them away is when situations quickly spiral out of control- as long as you have enough healthy and strong people to support the knocked out ones, you can remain as mobile as possible.

Manpower is hard to recover in a dungeon on purpose; fresh meat is found back in town, at the tavern, but there are some methods. The classic of finding an imprisoned or lost person in a dungeon to act as a replacement PC could just as easily work for a retainer. I also like the idea of pressing a random goblin or other mook to join your party and do dangerous or demeaning tasks- though this comes with the explicit cost of knowing they will betray you at the first opportunity. More honorable creatures, like orcs, may offer to aid you as a group in exchange for performing a task for them first.

Of course, all of the examples above are for replacing dead or lost party members with new ones, not bringing back old ones. Health is already covered above and resurrection magic tends to be too high of power and scope for being "resupplied" in a dungeon. However I could see very dangerous dungeons having "soul fountains" where the last dying breath of a person (trapped in a bottle of course) can be brought and they will be reborn within a time limit. Or a really haunted place having the ghost of the dead PC being able to be brought back- but they'll need a new, living body. Have them possess a random animal or monster for funsies.

Time
The one thing you can't get back. Time is a "resource" that (probably) can't be recovered in a dungeon at all, but thankfully isn't a problem in every dungeon. In this case, it's less "time" and moreso a time constraint mechanic. Toxic spores that get more dangerous the longer you inhale them, a dungeon slowly sinking into the mud that will soon be submerged in 1d4+2 days, or needing to get someone or something out of the dungeon very soon, else a catastrophic event will happen.

However, "time" as a resource could be returned either with super high level magics (timewarping? Rope trick?) and relating it to the fiction. I could see a campaign where killing high level cultists slows (but does not stop) the return of an elder deity, so taking a detour to search every cultist hideout becomes a valuable way to recover your "time".

Surprise
While only a vaguely resource in a quantifiable sense, the element of surprise could be a significant resource to a party when first exploring a location. If a location is heavily guarded or has at least one intelligent faction there; every time the party fights or is spotted it will be more and more clear that adventurers are coming to plunder or mess up their plans. In that regard surprise becomes like a resource; traded in when you fail stealth rolls, and making future encounters more difficult as enemies prepare for you.

Surprise cannot be recovered once directly lost, but it can be mitigated. Killing guards who spot you before they raise the alarm, covering your tracks with branches in the mud, or waiting a long time before returning to the dungeon to let their guard back down are all valid ways of regaining or preventing loss of surprise.

Confidence
This resource is totally meta- player attitude. Confidence is something that is a direct resource that is expended while a dungeon is explored, but isn't on your character sheet. In a way, the desire to take risks and explore is a resource that is slowly used up as other resources are lost- optimal and safe become more important and socially enforced as the party's position becomes more precarious.

Confidence and time (real life time) is highest when you begin a session- which usually includes a return to the dungeon. From here, the knowledge, mapping, and accumulated player power from progression acts as a sort of boost for confidence, until new areas are explored. People can only go so far before a cautious retreat is in order; especially if loaded with treasure. Winning battles and finding more treasure regains confidence, but also increases risk. If your dungeon is properly large, players may not even explore the whole thing once the cost to risk ratio of remaining treasure and acquired treasure becomes too costly to keep exploring!

This isn't a bad thing though; players not exploring an entire dungeon leads to a mystery and a more "realistic" mindset that treasure hunters would really have; once they've got the hoard, it isn't worth the time and effort to go scrabble for the last few gold coins. The unique values of OSR play make resources especially important and lead to gameplay that isn't just a set up and resolve using the most optimal combat methods your players know; it means the ability to be further invested in the fantasy space- any way players can use their own intelligence and skill to let them stay in the dungeon longer is a direct continuation of that idea.

Monday, June 1, 2020

Vagueposting- Demihumans

This is going to be the first article of many I have written based around very abstract or vague concept. Hence, they are titled “Vagueposting”. They are a bit more ranty then my other blogposts and are more about capturing a specific mental feeling or “emotion” that may be hard to describe, as such this is due warning that my Vagueposting articles will be a bit more focused on fluff and abstract fantasy world stuff then actual game rules- however I do hope these articles can communicate the ideas that I am thinking of when I write them, but you are free to skip them if you want more useful or structured game content. Hence, Vagueposting.

Vagueposting- Demihumans
So let's talk about Demihumans.

Now when it comes to the standard mix of Demihumans; I used to not like them as much, but they've grown on me a bit. My main problem with them is the lack of diversity in body types and cultural-stereotypes. If you take the generic 5 races; Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Gnome (some will also include half elf and half orc to this list), you basically have a majority of these races as just “shorter version of human”. This, to me, is really boring. In many of these worlds too, Elves are also shorter then humans, so it's really more like 4 versions of shorter and/or more magical humans.

Culturally; ALL of these demihumans are depicted as being longer lived and wiser/more conservative in action or attitude then humans, with various cultural traits between them. Elves tend to be close to nature, with Gnomes usually also being close to nature or being mad tinkerers ala Warcraft. Dwarves are all about their grudges and conservative cultures, where as Halflings are intentionally designed to be passive and a bit boring; just pastoral, comfy villager people. I think in order for these Demihumans to be more interesting as a whole, there needs to be something that really sets Halflings and Humans apart, as well as Gnomes getting a bigger list of differences to Elves.

However, the one thing I'll say about this that I do enjoy is it gives the “human” race a more unique element. Humans instantly stand out as being the largest and usually physically strongest race (though Dwarves tend to be close, or perhaps stronger but stockier, usually implied to have more endurance), which is a nice change of pace from humans being the generic middle of the road everyman.

Now if you read this blog, you know I have a LOT of weird race ideas. Some of them are furry, some of them are aliens, some of them are just weird. I want to mention here I do enjoy certain aspects of Demihuman-like races, things like goblins, orcs, trolls, hobgoblins, (as an inclusion to playable races) feel different to me then things like tengu or khajiit, the non-animal nature of them I think makes them actually feel a bit more foreign and interesting.

Now, let me share some of my favorite demihuman depictions.

Hawk the Slayer
In the Hawk the Slayer movie, there are a few demihumans depicted. Gort the Giant on the left, Baldin the dwarf as second to the right, and Crow the elf on the far right. The woman in the center is just an old human witch/sorceress, I have no idea why she's squatting down so low. Unfortunately, the highest res image I could find for this picture is this shit with its stupid watermark, so you'll have to forgive me for that. This is a classic movie that a lot of people have nostalgia for, especially the UK, I personally only watched it recently as a part of my Appendix N cultural enrichment. (Hawk the Slayer actually was made after the LBB and AD&D, clearly it's based on the same tone however.)

Anyway, Hawk the Slayer features three demihumans. There's a giant, a dwarf, and an elf. I want to mention here that as movie actors, they just grabbed actors who fit the physical profiles here, and it works REALLY well. In my mind, I like to imagine these demihuman races as just far offshoots of humanity, or in a fantasy world these fantasy races are ACTUALLY races of humanity, not different species or fantasy-esque version of “species”, and can freely interbreed with humans. The race of giants is just really tall men. In the same way that real life races existed from evolutionary pressures in their environments, this fantasy world could have similar pressures. The giant is just a race of really tall, if somewhat slow witted people. The dwarves are just very short, small people who are hardy and used to living underground. I like this a lot as it implies a much more grounded setting in general, but actually makes the whole of humanity more interesting in the fantasy world. I also think that this makes the “Elf” as a race or subspecies even more interesting.

While in the real world no human races fit these kind of profile, the thought of a human race developing sharp senses, quick wits and agile fingers for archery, and an affinity for magic (perhaps to evolve for survival in a fantasy/fairy forest?) is really cool. I like this because you can imagine some weird combinations for special snowflakes; what would a half giant, half elf look like? Probably something pretty close to a tall human who is a bit slender, perhaps with slightly pointed years and a knack for non-academic magic? Of course, crossbreeds don't have to actually be a factor at all, I just think it's an interesting part of it. Secondly, you can take into account that Half-Elf is a racial choice often in games, but I actually think this detracts from the above feeling. Somebody could have Elf in their family history and just look like a normal human, just with slightly more elf-ish features, a slightly longer lifespan, and a bit more of a loner attitude. I think that's more interesting then a specific and strong divide between human, elf, and half-elf.

Dungeon Meshi
Another of my favorite demihuman race depictions is from Dungeon Meshi. It has the generic list of races (humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes). On top of this, it also includes very humanoid orcs AND ogres/oni who are very humanoid as well, which I think really adds to the experience of rounding out the race list. Of course, there are also kobolds which in typically Japanese fashion are dog people, but for the most part the race list is very human and pretty interesting.

I think this gets even better because of a specific list of chapters in the manga. There is a part where the main characters get race swapped due to stepping through some changeling mushrooms, which change whatever steps through them into a closely related species. (It's not a permanent change, you can just take a bath to wash away the spores.)


Remember: Manga is read right to left.
Here we see a Laios, a human and one of the main characters of Dungeon Meshi (arguably the protagonist) detailing the benefits of being a dwarf. This chapter is great because the characters can give us some perspective on what their new form is like different from their old form. Laios specifically notices that Dwarves are very strong, tough, and have good dark vision making them perfect for living in dungeon environments. Of course, later he finds out it isn't all its cracked up to be because Dwarves have no stamina. (usually the opposite in most fantasy worlds, but I like to imagine he's more referring to short term “sprinting” stamina, if given short breaks Dwarves can work or explore much longer then a human could over a full day or several days, but this is just my headcanon for the Dungeon Meshi universe.)


Another good example is Chilchack. He's a halfling, who gets turned into a human. I never considered a difference between races in this way, but I think it's really cool- even ones own perceptive abilities are routed in biology. Halflings seem to have better senses, both of touch as well as taste and smell (something that Senshi is jealous of, as a food-obsessed dwarf). Later it even explains the fighting styles of the races too; Chilchack in his human form tries to just run back while the group fights a monster, but finds that it targets him first as he's the biggest- normally he just runs away and becomes unassuming as a short, stealthy halfling rogue.

Unfortunately, we don't get too many examples of what differences an Elf, Ogre, Kobold, or Gnome may have, as the characters who turn into those races aren't very talkative, and I'm pretty sure nobody gets turned into a Gnome for anything other then a visual gag. While just one chapter of the Manga I think it's really telling and interesting in how the mangaka put a lot of thought into how the various demihumans would actually feel to be if you were to suddenly change into them, and by that we can infer how they live their lives and even how they may explore dungeons or pick their various related professions and roles in a party. Marcille also, somewhat humorously gets turned into an ogre (which I call oni, since they look more like Eastern “ogres” then a more Western “ogre” if that makes sense)- she doens't talk much in this form and doesn't really cast any spells that I can recall, so I think it's being implied that ogres are less intelligent then other races, but are obviously huge and very strong. Also, a human character gets turned into an Elf in a later chapter and describes themselves as being physically weaker, but being able to "tell" that something has magic in it just by touching it, which makes sense. This fantasy world also explains that magical energy or mana is a direct biological component and some races (like Elves) just have more of it then humans, but will pass out or become weak if they cast too many spells as it is similar to bodily stamina.

Finally; this interesting changing of races thing is so well explored in this manga that there's even a panel that logically explains why these race-changing mushrooms aren't totally uprooting the setting.

For those interested, the entire Manga is a treat, but the individual chapters referenced here are the "Dumplings" chapters, since every chapter is about food. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this first VAGUEPOSTING article. I have a few more written up in advance before even finishing this, but hopefully as an introduction this works out well for trying to explain the purpose of these. 
See you next time.