For Modernisms in Fantasy

 A submission for this month's big blog hootenanny. I don't normally write for these things but I guess I came to a turning point and found my inspiration.

Art by Jon Dunham

If you spend a lot of time thinking about RPGs, you have to be wary not to get super-rarefied tastes. It's nice to cultivate a broad joy, to know what brings you happiness but not get so defeated by every little variation. A common vector of pickiness is whatever people mean by "gonzo", or aversion to some modern trope, or the apprehension of some mutable spectre of "politics."

One of the biggest sore spots is the introduction of elements deemed modern into fantasy settings. I get how the intrusion of some modern concept can overthrow the premise of your game, where mythical elements like an actually-quite-good king named Arthur probably shouldn't be vociferously taken down as though he was a fallible real-life king. But most other modernisms are fair game and I encourage you to step beyond the medieval world for inspiration.

Guns belong in fantasy settings, perhaps your fantasy setting, and you don't need to invent a special magical justification for them. The vagaries of economy and ecology in your fantasy world well might have led to formations of ideologies which we consider modern rather than medieval. Sometimes allowing yourself modernisms will lead to reinventing actual historical occurances. What if there were Roman sport hooligans? What if gladiatorial combat had ad breaks? What if Rome had kitschy gift shops for the tourists? You'd know them s little better.

In modern life, we meet many "kinds of guy" which have the immediacy of our acquaintance, but these personalities go back a long way. The conceited grindsetter, the harsh authority who considers themselves a moral shepherd, anyone you can find a "starter pack" meme for, all of these are people at home in the past and our past-inspired fantasies as today.

I suppose my thesis is that modernisms, well-deployed, can add veracity to a game.

As a point of comparison, here is a write-up for a chaotic antagonist in Locheil's useful monster format, inspired by Arnold's call for army statblocks.

Excoriator

In mobs well-ordered they march, a testudo of crystal shields when a fight is expected, a loose cloud of clubs and boots when unopposed. They wear smooth masks or face cloths with skulls painted on, black armor, and a badge with the motto "Malum Custodit Me", which means "I ward against evil."

When found individually, stats as a bandit with 4 Morale and 14 AC.

Testudo: HD 8. AC 16 (at edges) or 12 (in midst). Morale 6.

Movement: slow jackbooted lockstep

Senses: narrow. Receives telepathic instructions, interpreted with disdain for full context.

Morality: canine. Utterly loyal, eschewing honor and mercy but claiming righteousness.

Intelligence: angry mob with a playbook

Alignment: chiaroscuro-- punitive and self-aggrandizing. Follows the commands of anyone who holds the Lex Notgnihsaw, a tablet enchanted to give off an aura of Good and Law, but which cannot be effectively wielded by good creatures.

Attacks:  Kennel OR Run Down or Fire Spray

Kennel - 1d6 bludgeoning and save or be driven back. If the testudo chose their vector of attack, this will lead to a dead-end, an allied testudo, or another dungeon denizen.

Run Down - save or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. Can afflict anyone within marching range but involves breaking ranks-- treat AC as 12 for at least one turn.

Fire Spray - obscures an area with the pepper-pink Fires of Saint Jeromatch. All who start their turn in the flames are blind and all who emd their turn in the flames save or take 1d4 damage.

d6 Excoriator Activities

1. Stalking for prey
2. Intimidating a caravan into sharing food and drink, then attacking them anyway.
3. Seeking to arrest a naive but puissant paladin who attempted to use a Lex Notgnihsaw for good.
4. Receiving commendation from their master in an officious ceremony.
5. Waiting for the return of two of their number on a disguised mission to infiltrate a nearby town.
6. Hunting an adventurer who graffitied "Querulum nazia, perite!" in their wing of the dungeon.

Though They Be Great (Giant Foe Procedure)

I was never really satisfied with mechanics for fighting really big guys. Vaulting up to a cyclops's eye or clambering along a dragon's scales to stab at its heart should probably be resolved differently than a series of grapple or attack rolls, but it shouldn't be crazy complicated, but but but it shouldn't blindside me when I forget to prepare and the players want to start scaling my hydra but but but it should feel like a risky maneuver that walks the line between being a default strategy and suicidal gambit.

Here is what I'm thinking.

If a monster is 20+ feet tall or long (6 meters toff or blimey for metric readers), we'll call it a giant and you MAY scale it. If a monster is 50+ feet you MUST scale it to damage it in melee.

Rather than giving giants a lot of HP, give them DR-- 2 for the most minor giants, 4+ for proper giants. This assumes that your game has variable weapon damage, and thus having 4 DR means daggers are all but useless against a creature that dwarfs them.

Each particular giant will have different traits. I'm assuming you will assess penalties and bonuses based on common sense. Difficulty or ease of scaling, which attacks can target someone on them, unique affordances, and so on.

Anyone next to a giant can take a turn to scale them. They can get to any part of the giant with a 3-in-6 chance, modified by dexterity modifier (or on a dex save or however you want it to work.) on a failed roll, they fail to make progress-- they can either release and fall down to the ground or just hold tight and wait until next turn.

Like humans, every giant has weak points-- joints, nerves, eyes, whatever. You don't need to list them out, but giving a giant a special weak point with a custom ability is cool. Attacking a weak point is the main goal of climbing a giant, because up close your attack against a weak point ignores the giant's DR. Ranged attacks are assumed to be targeting weak points by default, but only line up a perfect, DR-shrinking hit on a critical hit.

Giants can attack those who are scaling them (as long as this makes sense) but they can't divide their attention between scalers and other enemies. Or, instead of attacking, they can try to delope anyone scaling them-- rolling around, brushing and batting, rubbing against a cliff face, exc.  If they do so, anyone scaling them has to make an immediate climbing roll or fall off.

 

Of course, players will come up with ideas to make these weak points accessible without risking a climb-- tripping up the giant, leaping down from a tower onto their back, setting off a rockslide. This is all well and good, and if logical should have a good chance of working. Normally, identifying weak points should not be the hard part of fighting a giant. Most creatures have sort of a lot of them. 

And that is the procedure. Simple, to give a good wide base to all variations and tactical infinities. The risk of losing a turn is hopefully big enough to make the endeavor feel like taking a chance.

Some simple examples:

Minor Giant: HD 6, AC 14, pole-axe +4 (1d6 in a 20' line) OR grab +4 (1d6 and grapple).

DR 2. Protruding and crude armor gives +1 to climb.

Weak points: armor joints, visor holes, beard.

Can't attack scaling enemies with pole-axe.

Ash Dragon: HD 8, AC 12, claw x2 +6 (1d6) AND bite +6 (1d6 and grapple) OR breath (3d6 in a cone, save for half).

DR 4. Dusty serpentine body gives -1 to climb rolls when it's trying to delope you.

Weak points: heart, underbelly, mouth. If it fails to bite or you grapple your way out of its mouth, you can hold onto its teeth for free, giving immediate access to its weak points mouth but giving -2 AC vs its bites and -2 save vs its breath.

Malasaurus: HD 4, AC 10, trample (save or take 1d6 and fall prone) OR thagomizer +4 (1d6 in 90 degree sweep or 2d6 direct slam) AND beak impale +8 (1d6 but sticks head to ground until pried out)

DR 8. Clumsiness and clumps of feathers give +2 to climbing rolls. 60 feet tall at the shoulders and 120 at the top of the head, therefore must be scaled to harm in melee

Weak points: base of neck and tail, head (which can be attacked without scaling when it's stuck in the ground).

Can't trample or impale scaling enemies, but can thagomize scalers and attack other foes due to a simple second brain in the base of the tail.

A Conspiracy of Ravens on the glog server has some foe-climbing rules in their Carrion Gods RPG you could compare to.