Keeping skills distinct from random factors

One of the big advantages of the D20 system is that it uses the same resolution mechanic for just about everything. That is, you just roll a D20 and try to match a target number. If you beat the target number, you succeed. Sometimes there are different effects according to how much you beat the target number by.

It works well, but I've recently realized that this system confuses luck with skill. Skill is one thing. Skills is what a character does in the game. In that case, rolling the dice corresponds to some sort of action in the game world. But there are other reasons to roll dice. 

The original Dungeons and Dragons (there were several "originals" so take your pick) had a rule that went, when in doubt, roll a die. You're not rolling for an action by any particular character. I liked that. There are all sorts of uses for this, from deciding what random monsters attack to procedurally generating a dungeon, to developing a character's background through lifepaths, to deciding whether a flock of flying bats knocks torches off the wall.

So what I'm proposing using a different die, and only one die, for random world events like this. Naturally, if you need an extra die, then it stands to reason it would be the standard six-sided die. Besides a D20, what other die are you more likely to have?

Let's call this the D20&D6 system. D20 for skills, D6 for random events and decisions. That ought to be all you need. 

New name and focus

Since I've been having a little bit of trouble updating this thing regularly, I've decided to go ahead and make some changes. The name is shortened, and the domain name is new.

Undoubtedly this will break some links. But I think it's worth it. This blog is still young.

Make no doubt: this changes the nature of this thing. I'm no longer writing about my D20 heartbreaker. Now I'm just going to write about fun stuff. If I come up with any new elements for my heartbreaker, I'll include them, of course.

There. Maybe now I'll be able to update this thing more regularly.

Hello?

I having a little bit of trouble with this site for now. I might have to refocus it on some other topics if I'm going to keep updating it regularly.

By looking at my stats I can tell that my stone carrying capacity conversion chart is the only thing on here so far which has caught anybody's interest. Writing that was a lot of fun for me too. That's something to keep in mind.

Some references

I'm come across someone who seems to really know his stuff about the medieval period. He's worth taking a look at here. Consider, for instance, this one: Did science make progress in the Middle Ages?

Creating the setting, part 5: The Middle Ages is a foreign country

In part 4, I gave three options for the best real world analogy to the generic fantasy setting. Of these, generic fantasy adventures sometimes seem to take place in the first, sometimes the last, but almost never in the second. That is, although they're called "medieval," they actually carefully avoid being medieval. Why? I suppose the answer is that fantasy is imaginary, so it doesn't exist unless people are able to imagine it. Fantasy elements that aren't easy to understand, that don't feel natural to modern minds, don't get passed on. And modern people really can't understand the mindset of the Middle Ages.

We can imagine the Early Modern Period because it wasn't that long ago. Likewise, even though it was a long time ago, Roman antiquity, with its senators and milestones and public works projects, seems strangely familiar. The Dark Age is just the post-apocalyptic scenario of antiquity. Barbarian hordes are the period-appropriate equivalent of zombie hordes. Mad Max, The Road, and The Book of Eli are all essentially retellings of the downfall of the Roman Peace, or at least how we imagine it. (I suppose that's why the unlikely re-emergence of Christianity plays such a large role in post-apocalyptic fiction, since the Dark Ages was the period in which Christianity became dominant in the first place.)

The real Middle Ages, on the other hand, was a completely different society, with its own strange rules, beliefs, and assumptions. It's been said that the future is a foreign country. This must be true of the past, too. And it's hard to get together with a bunch of buddies and role-play life in a foreign country. How much does the average American really know about Egypt or Indonesia? That's why people travel.

I suppose this is why attempts to make "historically accurate" fantasy fail so bad. There never was any single historical period which fantasy was intended to reproduce. Introducing real elements of real medieval life (like prices and city life) only ends up making the vision more cumbersome and unnatural.

A problem with loot

Creating the setting, part 4: Medieval or Dark Ages?

Let me apologize in advantage by saying I'm not a historian. There are people on the internet out there who are much better prepared than I am to discuss these matters. The word "medieval" is lazy and covers a multitude of faults. Does that mean early modern (Shakespearean/Renaissance) Europe, high-medieval Europe, or dark age Europe?

Once upon a time, historians regarded "middle ages" and "dark ages" as synonymous. More recently, though, historians have begun to restrict the term "dark ages" to the actual dark ages, so called for the lack of good historical records after the Roman Empire began its fall, that is, it's gradual descent down a slippery slope into depopulation and chaos. It didn't happen all of a sudden one day. People in the former Roman empire continued to speak Latin and think of themselves as Romans for a long time.

The middle ages, in comparison, is the period between the dark ages and the early modern era, "early modern era" being another name for the renaissance. That's roughly the period of Shakespeare/the Tudors/the grand age of sail.

The dates I'll be using will be Dark Ages (3rd century crisis to AD 800), Middle Ages (AD 800 - AD 1500), and Early Modern (1500 - 1800). Which of these do you like the best?

Dark Ages (before AD 800 or 900)

• Also known as "Late Antiquity," especially in German (Spaetantike)
• Set in the barbarian lands outside of the Roman frontier or during the fall of the Roman Empire
• Frontier between barbarians (peregrines, goths, vandals) and the (remaining) Roman Empire
• A vestigial empire who left behind monumental architecture like bridges, roads, aqueducts, and so on. 
• Robes, togas, chainmail dresses, banded armor
• Torches and lamps
• Wooden motte-and-bailey castles and dirt walls, built quickly and not designed to be permanent
• Christianity is one religion among many, rapidly growing but also facing occasional prosecution
• Legendary saints, monks, and martyrs roam the land
• Roman numerals, abacuses
• Scrolls, codices, papyrus
• Short swords, spears, axes, discuses, franciscas, and war hammers
• Very limited technology - keys and locks, treadwheels, carriage-axle odometers, screw presses, isolated cases of geared calculators
• Time kept mostly by sundials and clepsydras. 
• Waterpower and slavepower but no windpower
• Bronze is still superior to iron

Medieval Period (800-1500)

• Also known as the "High Middle Ages"
• The crusades against infidels and heretics
• Frontier between Christianity and Islam in the east and in the Iberian peninsula
• Chivalry, romantic love, quests, tournaments
• Tunics, foolscaps, nights in full plate armor, cannons 
• Candlesticks, soap
• Stone castles with square towers, designed for practical defense
• The Catholic church develops
• Religious orders, early universities
• Witches are considered a superstition
• Arabic numerals, algorism
• Books and cheap paper, surprisingly high levels of literacy
• Proper broadswords, tiny heater shields
• Clever, but overly large and handmade mechanical devices - mills, looms, traps, etc
• Windpower developed, and horsepower harnessed more effectively, take some of the pressure off slaves
• Refined steel available, superior to bronze
• Fitted stone walls, wells, and castles
• Byzantium survives in Southwest Europe and Asia minor

Early Modern Era (1500 - 1800)

• Also called the Golden Age of Piracy, the Age of Exploration, or the Age of Mercantilism
• The inquisition (which actually stuck around until 1834)
• Conflict between natives and colonists, not just in the New World, but also in Russia, Ireland, the Canary Islands, and North Africa
• Competition between seabound Western Europe and landbound Eastern Europe empires
• Western Europe modernizes rapidly while in Eastern Europe the Holy Roman Empire goes into decline, eclipsed by the upstart Russian Empire and the Islamic Ottoman Empire
• Kings, queens, princes, princesses
• Oil lamps and lanterns
• Poor hygiene caused by overpopulation, periodic flare ups of plague
• Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller
• Grand, Disney-style castles designed more for show than for function, with luxurious living quarters and round towers
• Fencing, boxing, and kickboxing (savate)
• The Reformation brings the concept of redemption by faith alone and sola scriptura, which shifts Christianity from a universal, works-based church into a national, intellectually-focused religion
• Witchhunts begin
• Logarithms and calculus
• Muskets
• Rapiers, bucklers, bracers, and polearms
• Newspapers, journals, pamphlets, beautifully bound printed books
• Beginnings of mechanical revolution - clockwork, cotton gins
• Miniaturized watches and pendulum clocks
• High quality wooden boxes, trunks, chests, and barrels (the sorts of things you picture filled with treasure)
• Silver dollars, also known as doubloons or pieces of eight