Running m74 for first time - some comments/questions

[Chgowiz]

I just blogged about running a microlite74 game for the first time. The executive summary: It was great fun! The minimalist approach made for an easy game to set up and run.

Some questions though:

1. Awarding full XP earned to each character, rather than dividing it up. Is this by design? I note that m20 seems to award full XP to each person, so I'm guessing it is, but I wasn't sure. This could make leveling pretty fast! I'm not the swiftest about knowing the ins/outs of game mechanics, so we'll see how this works out.

2. DCs for various things, like ghoul's paralysis. I didn't look at the SRD to get DCs, rather I based them on a rough eyeballed average of what the Holmes Saving throws were. It worked, but I was wondering what the consensus/thought would be about how to assign some sort of values to things like that, or Dragon's Breath, or spider poison (Save or Die).

GREAT JOB, Randall - the m74 rules rock!

Chgowiz

[randalls]

I just blogged about running a microlite74 game for the first time. The executive summary: It was great fun! The minimalist approach made for an easy game to set up and run.

It sounds like a great session. I wish I could have been playing. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend doing the relative thing and decorating for the holidays.

1. Awarding full XP earned to each character, rather than dividing it up. Is this by design? I note that m20 seems to award full XP to each person, so I'm guessing it is, but I wasn't sure. This could make leveling pretty fast! I'm not the swiftest about knowing the ins/outs of game mechanics, so we'll see how this works out.

Yes, this was intentional. Players who participate in an encounter get the XP for it. This was to keep things simple. The GM can total up the XP after the encounter and those players who participated can add it to their total. No elaborate encounter record-keeping needed or end-of-session GM bookwork.

2. DCs for various things, like ghoul's paralysis. I didn't look at the SRD to get DCs, rather I based them on a rough eyeballed average of what the Holmes Saving throws were. It worked, but I was wondering what the consensus/thought would be about how to assign some sort of values to things like that, or Dragon's Breath, or spider poison (Save or Die).

I would be interested in hearing what others think as well. I can easily put a 0e style saving throw table in, but was trying to stay with the D20-style here seeing as how saving throws are calculated really does not affect the "feel" of play.

GREAT JOB, Randall - the m74 rules rock!

Thank you! I really enjoy hearing that people are playing M74 and enjoying it.

[Chgowiz]

I would be interested in hearing what others think as well. I can easily put a 0e style saving throw table in, but was trying to stay with the D20-style here seeing as how saving throws are calculated really does not affect the "feel" of play.

I'm really good either way, knowing now what you intended. I can easily use the 3.x SRD to get rough ideas for DC and then fudge the numbers based on what I think that particular encounter deserves. A saving throw table might be easier, but I do like the combination of d20 and old school, so I guess I'm biased.

Thanks for the response!
Chgowiz

[randalls]

I can easily use the 3.x SRD to get rough ideas for DC and then fudge the numbers based on what I think that particular encounter deserves.

I just came up with DCs for various difficulty levels (e.g. easy, average, hard, difficult, very difficult, extremely difficult, you've got to be kidding...) and wing it from there. That's how I'd do it if I were GMing 3.x too. I can "just decide" a lot quicker than I can look it up -- especially as I have 30 years of experience in "just deciding" such things.

[Chgowiz]

I just came up with DCs for various difficulty levels (e.g. easy, average, hard, difficult, very difficult, extremely difficult, you've got to be kidding...) and wing it from there. That's how I'd do it if I were GMing 3.x too. I can "just decide" a lot quicker than I can look it up -- especially as I have 30 years of experience in "just deciding" such things.

Now there's a trick I should've remembered. Probably a damn good idea and I'll steal that, tyvm.

Chgowiz

[randalls]

Now there's a trick I should've remembered. Probably a damn good idea and I'll steal that, tyvm.

I generally think complex tables for things like DC are silly.  The number the designer comes up with are usually just as arbitrary as what the GM would come up with so why not just give the GM some easy to remember guidelines and forget the detailed tables.