Game log 24 May 2020: Good things happen when you're polite

Dramatis personae

Horace, wizard scholar
Felcanis, elf cleric
Jiro, swordswoman
Lucdalen, elf-hating elf wizard/thief
Kurt, hobbit fighter

Quid occurrit

They rest, and Horace reads some of his book. He finds the passage: “Trákkē bore with her a staff, her power item, that shed a light that only wizards could see.” Thus, Horace casts Seeker for this staff, and finds it is to the east. So the group goes back to the garden. Lucdalen casts Displace Spell to circumvent the magic door, and it works after a few tries.

Once in the garden, Lucdalen inspects the creek then rests. Horace and Lucdalen see stairs beyond the bridge, but rubble blocks them. Horace crosses the bridge and inspects a pine tree, which has cones that are cylindrical with a blunted tip at the end. He looks in his book, and finds the passage: “The wizard caretakers of the Garden in the Cairn were the Collectors, who bred trees to have odd properties, like odd leaves, odd hues, odd ways of reproduction, odd smells, odd tastes. The goddess Rōrpermónē did smile upon these attempts to make her creations more hardy, and did send a guardian.” Horace then inspects a white willow, which shocks him. Felcanis heals him with Stop Bleeding, Lucdalen casts Share Energy, then Felcanis uses the extra FP to cast Major Healing on Horace.

Now on the other side of the garden, they see a door, and Horace sees magic trap on door. Lucdalen opens it with Wizard Hand and uses his Wizard Hand to open later doors. He also uses it to trigger Evil Runes, and these dispel his Wizard Hand. Lucdalen uses Displace Spell to get through the magic trap on the door. He casts another Wizard Hand to open the other doors they see to their left. Horace casts Glass Wall to see into the room with the Evil Runes, and sees a summoning circle. Lucdalen uses Displace Spell to handle a patch of the Evil Runes. He then goes to work, one patch at a time. While Lucdalen works, Horace and Jiro go to the left and see two giant flies. They choose to wait to fight the flies until Lucdalen is done, so go back.

While he works, four flies come in through the door on the other side of the room with the runes. After a moment, they see Lucdalen, who readies his spear to stop thrust. The flies buzz nearby, but stay clear of the spear. Horace casts Haste 2 on Jiro, who then whips out her sword. Felcanis fires up Sunbolt, and Kurt tries to jump into the air to grab a fly. The fly gets out of the way and Kurt falls a few inches short of some runes. Jiro rushes towards a fly but misses. Lucdalen starts casting Mass Sleep. The flies bite at Jiro and Kurt, but Jiro parries and Kurt’s armor soaks up the bite. Jiro again swings at a fly and hits air, but her second swing hits one. Kurt gets out his mace and smashes one. Felcanis lobs a Sunbolt and misses Kurt and a fly, but hits another one in the leg. That’s enough for the flies and they pull back. The heroes can’t chase them because that means stepping on the Evil Runes.

Lucdalen finishes making a path through the Evil Runes after some rest. While he casts, Horace reads, “Rōripermónē loved the garden, and blessed it after the cult left. Some other plants moved themselves into the garden as well, and enjoyed the eternal light.”

The gang goes through path, and comes into room with a naga inside. Horace and the naga chat, as he thinks staff is behind her. The naga hisses at them but speaks: “Come closer, Children. Rōripermónē welcomes you to her garden, as you've already passed through. I am Ímvā, guardian of the garden, now living in the home of the Collector. So many of you today! Are you with the other Children? Need you a curse removed as they did?” Lucdalen says he is a Child of the Spider, while Horace guesses the naga is the Guardian, and asks Lucdalen to ask her about the staff. Ímvā says, “Really. Son, you're not going to impress me with that. You should be like your friend, quaking and quivering and sweating and going on about the staff.” Lucdalen says he’s suffered exile, which is worse than death, but Ímvā says, “Relax, Child. If I had wanted you dead, you'd be dead already. Didn't your friends say something about me?” Lucdalen says Ímvā is hiding Horace’s staff. Ímvā says, “Oh, no, it's not his staff, but it has been here for centuries. Funny, your friends didn't bother to ask me about it, just wanted to get their friend turned back into flesh.” Lucdalen insists the staff is Horace’s, but Ímvā will have none of it, while Horace tries to flatter her. Horace casts Aura, and finds Ímvā’s is a golden aura. They keep chatting, and find that Rōripermónē sent Ímvā to watch over the Garden, and that she doesn’t like the ogres. She also says, “I figure I'll do this for a few more millennia, then go on to do a stint in Kelestia or Oerth. My sister is in Kelestia. Last I hear she was scaring some peasants.” Her other sister, she says, lies dead in the rooms to her right, but don’t touch her body because she called a dying curse. Horace asks where the staff is and says that if she lets him take it, he’ll leave, and amazingly, she agrees. Horace walks around the corner and takes the staff. Ímvā says, “There you go, Child. You just asked and it was yours. Is that really so hard for folks to understand? Nobody bothers to be polite. Last time anyone was polite and asked was on Krynn and that nice boy with the hourglass eyes.” She also lets them know there are more ogres and a medusa. They then head off.

Res aliae

I'll leave off with the observation that the difference between a TPK and a magic item is often a good reaction roll. There's a little more to it than that, of course. It also helps when the naga is sent by a goddess and not a narcissist living in a swamp, though those naga were a little weaker than she.

Dungeoncrawl procedures

Not long ago there was a post on the Alexandrian about the lack of dungeon keying guidelines nowadays. Fast forward to this week when I was chatting with someone on Discord about scenario structures, which led me to try looking for procedures for certain scenarios, which led me to an older post on the Alexandrian with a summary the dungeoncrawling procedures from the original Dungeons & Dragons. Somehow, I had missed this post before, or hadn’t paid it much heed, but this time, I was in the mood to fully port these procedures to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. So, this is it, with commentary below:

1. You can move a number of yards equal to twenty times your encumbered Move each turn. A turn is about 10 minutes long. Alternately, a party can move one room each turn.
2. Non-movement activities also take up a turn or some fraction of a turn. Searching a 10-foot section of wall takes 1 turn. Secret passages are found a Search roll at penalty, average -5; roll 2d-2 if you need a random number.
3. The party must rest 1 turn in 6. If a flight/pursuit has taken place, it must rest for 2 turns in 6. If they do not rest, the characters are down 1+Encumbrance level FP until resting.
4. Wandering Monsters: These show up on a 6 or less on a roll of 3d each turn; 7 is a clue if moving.
5. Monsters: When encountered, roll 3d on Reaction Table. Poor or worse is a negative reaction (fight); Neutral is an uncertain reaction (wary); Good or better is a positive reaction (welcoming). Apply appropriate modifiers.
• Monsters sighted at 4d yards, or edge of the room.
• Surprise: Per check. If failed, must make a DX check to keep from dropping a held item. Monsters are sighted at 2d yards instead of 4d.
• One side can try to avoid the encounter unless it is surprised and within 7 yards of a non-surprised side. Flight is a simple comparison of encumbered Move scores. Handle this in blocks of 15 seconds (since that's the threshold for a HT check); if the fleeing side gets a lead of 30 yards, the other side stops chasing it. If the PCs turn a corner or go up stairs or go through a door, there is a 2 in 6 chance the monsters keep pursuing. If the PCs go through secret door, there is a 1 in 6 chance the monsters keep pursuing. (See Running Away! (Exploits, p. 22) to handle obstacles for each side.) Burning oil keeps many monsters from pursuing; handle this as a Reaction roll: Bestial monsters will stop pursuit on a Neutral or better reaction, others stop on a Good or better reaction. Dropping edible items will force monsters who lack Doesn’t Eat or Drink to make a Will check or stop pursuit (Gluttony modifies check per Fright Check modifier); Bestial grants -5 to this check. Dropping treasure also forces a Reaction roll (Greedy modifies check per Fright Check modifier) to stop pursuit; monsters will stop pursuit on a Neutral or better reaction unless the monster is Bestial, in which case it will ignore treasure.
6. Other activities:
• Many doors must be forced open with Forced Entry at a penalty; roll 1d-1 if you don't know it. Failure means that you get the door open, but the GM makes another wandering monster check. Up to three characters can force a door simultaneously (each trained helper grants +1 to Forced Entry), but forcing a door means you can’t immediately react to what’s on the other side.
• Most traps are sprung 2 in 6; roll for each delver.
• Listening at doors (Hearing at -(DR+HP)/5, and at an additional -2 if you do not have a spy's horn) detects monsters behind closed doors. Monsters with Doesn’t Breathe advantage do not make enough sound to detect in this way.

Some comments:

1. The rates I give let PCs move a little farther in a turn than in D&D; the D&D rates translate to sixteen times Move for unencumbered movement. There are a few reasons for this. First is that it’s easier to multiply by twenty in your head. Another is that Dungeon Fantasy characters are much more likely to be slightly encumbered than D&D characters; almost no starting character is unencumbered without dropping all gear or having the Lighten spell always on. Countering this is that base Move for most Dungeon Fantasy characters is slightly higher than normal (Move 6 is average). A third reason is that the D&D rate is really slow, or 4.8 inches a second unencumbered. I get that this is abstracting searching and being on your guard as well, but still, you’re talking about the slowest you go.
• A handy coincidence for the 10-minute turn is that FP recovery rates are keyed to 10 minutes base. You can just say that a resting character gets back 1 FP in a rest, or 2 FP with Fit or Recover Energy-15, or 5 FP with Recover Energy-20.
2. I think we can assume that the movement rates above assume some general searching already. Again, D&D characters move 240 feet every 10 minutes. Unencumbered. If all they’re doing is moving, they're turtles. Characters in plate armor are moving half that.
3. The idea for this being the penalty comes from Travel Fatigue on p. 24 of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures. Having said that, I’m not wholly sure we need this; spellcasters are going to want to rest often in this system anyways. Anyways, OD&D doesn't list a penalty for not resting; Tom Moldvay's Basic D&D set has -1 to hit and damage. If we do want to go this route, docking FP is the way to go since this greatly weakens spellcasters and fits with how things otherwise work in GURPS.
4. Right now, wandering monsters in Dungeon Fantasy are mostly 9 or less on 3d every hour, or a 38% chance. Checking wandering monsters every turn keeps characters on their toes (and keeps the spellcasters from resting) and it’s easier to remember if you’re always doing it. Regardless, a 6 or less every 10 minutes translates to a 44% chance an hour, which is in line with the current rate. The chance of a clue is my addition; I’m keen on clues. Regardless, I pre-roll these, and just go down the list each turn.
5. This is a lot, but I’ll start with reactions. Not all monsters will fight. Granted, the reaction modifiers in Dungeon Fantasy make fight more likely than in D&D, but there always needs to be a chance. My own game's last session had an encounter which went well due to a good reaction roll. It would have been either a TPK or PCs skedaddle out of the dungeon had it not. Like wandering monsters, I preroll these.
• Sighted: This is a literal translation of D&D distances.
• Surprise: A Perception check works well for Dungeon Fantasy, and the rules (Surprise Attacks, Exploits, pp. 26-27) support this. This also lets me just halve the roll for the encounter distance.
• Avoid: I’ve done some fretting about how to handle running and you can convince me that there’s a better way. A more comprehensive system is on pp. 31-35 of GURPS Action 2: Exploits. Archon Shiva has another system and more thoughts on this. Regardless, I fixed the likelihood that going through doors or around corners stops the chase; Justin Alexander just transcribed things from The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures wrong or was writing it fast. (I think he was going from memory, and the exact rates aren’t important in the article or change its point.) I’m not wholly sold that I’m handling dropping treasure perfectly, but I like the basic idea: you can get away if you get rid of a precious resource. I’m sure bigger monsters need more food or smarter monsters need more treasure, but I don’t feel like working about that now. 
• Note on handling Greedy and Gluttony: Phobias in GURPS have modifiers to Fright Checks based on self-control roll. Apply this as-is (negative) to an attribute check or the inverse (positive) to a Reaction roll. Thus, a monster with Gluttony (9) will be at -3 to the Will check to keep from stopping to eat.
6. Other things:
1. Doors: I got rid of the auto-shutting doors of OD&D; that’s just too weird for too little benefit. If you want them, just use the OD&D rules for wedging open the door.
2. Traps: One benefit of being familiar with early OD&D (my knowledge comes from running Caverns of Thracia) is the idea that PCs do not auto-spring traps. The die roll abstracts the room and keeps you from having to suddenly force PCs to start showing you where they are on a map.
3. Listening: I did like being forced to think about how to handle listening at doors, and what that means. That’s part of the reason for this exercise. Thus, listening at the door means trying to see if there's a monster given non-obvious activity (I'm sure that if the monsters are covering Camel songs the PCs don't need a Hearing roll). Since undead don’t make a sound, that leads me to think that there’s something about the characteristics of being undead that avoids sound, and that led me to using Doesn’t Breathe for this. I took the penalty from the spy's horn on Adventurers, p. 26 (or p. 113 for the one in the boxed set), with the additional -2 to incentivize buying a spy's horn and thus treating it as equipment. Anyone can press his ear to the door and try to listen; spy's horns just make it better.