Comparing 4 TTRPGs on the Ides of March

This is not a serious post. Yes, I am making light of the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar, Dictator for life of the late Roman Republic. Anybody trying to convince me that over two millennia is too soon is going to be in for a rough time.

Anybody in the mood for salad?

Let's observe the Ides of March by examining four TTRPGs from my collection on the basis of:

• Does the game support stabbing as an in-game activity? What quality of stabbing can player characters achieve?
• Is assassination supported as an in-game activity?
• How savage are the politics in the setting? Are they brutal enough that assassination is seen as a viable and even legitimate political tool? What role does stabbing play in such assassinations?

The four TTRPGs I've selected have been previously featured on this blog. In no particular order:

• Old School Essentials Advanced Fantasy
• Mothership 1e
• Robert E Howard's Conan Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of
• Star Trek Adventures 1e

Stabbiness

OSE Advanced Fantasy
This should be a fabulous opportunity for player characters to indulge in real quality stabbing. However, stabbing is but one option available among many here. And those other options are often more efficient.

Mothership
Although guns are favored, player characters have options for knives and other stabbing weapons. The vibechete has great potential here, but does seem to be more of a slicing weapon. On the other hand, the player characters may not be the ones getting in the majority of the stabbing. Many of the things that lurk in the long dark have claws and pointy tails that put them ahead in the business of stabbing.

Robert E Howard's Conan
The genre is called swords and sorcery, but could just as easily be swords versus sorcery. With swords in the name, there's plenty of opportunity for stabbing. And the game offers a variety of options with all kinds of bladed weapons. It even supports viable archer builds for stabbing at range. Which is ideal for player characters who don't want to walk all the way over there to stab somebody.

Star Trek Adventures
Stabbing isn't really a strong focus of Starfleet. Although Andorians preserve it as part of their cultural heritage. Klingons, on the other hand, make sure to get in some stabbing on a daily basis. They stab their enemies, their still-living food, and each other. It gets even better during the Dominion War, when the Jem'Hadar show up with their bayonets and knives. A close quarters fight between Klingons and Jem'Hadar could quickly devolve into nothing but a stabbing match.


Assassinations

OSE Advanced Fantasy
The game literally has the Assassin class available. And the Thief can also work as a perfectly competent stealth killer. Even more so in some cases, since the OSE version of the Assassin lacks the ability to deal with locks, traps, and other security measures.

Mothership
Corporations and the greed they inspire are the real baddies in space horror. Quietly eliminating a corporate executive at the direction of a rival or to send a message are possible scenarios. Most higher ranking corporate officers with an ounce of sense will likely have security measures in place. There may also be complicating factors like something going wrong with their latest corporate-backed pet projects at the same time as the attempt. Nothing like cloned alien critters breaking out of containment to spice up an otherwise straightforward scenario.

Robert E Howard's Conan
It could be argued that a warrior like Conan would prefer to prove himself on the field of battle. Of course, Conan was never particularly scrupulous about how he made his money. And Conan was the target of assassination attempts when he became too much of a pain for somebody in power. There should be plenty of opportunity in the setting for those seeking employment as assassins or avoiding those employed as assassins.

Star Trek Adventures
Starfleet doesn't condone assassinations. Except for those dodgy Section 31 types. And Sisko that one time. And those times when Worf takes an interest in Klingon politics. On the other hand, polities other than the Federation have even less restraint. Klingons are perfectly content to send warriors with blades to strike their foes from the shadows, although using poison is a no-no. Romulans and Cardassians are happy to rid themselves of troublesome folks using a variety of means, including hired assassins. Solving the mystery of just who killed somebody with a long list of enemies could be a fun exercise in the Star Trek setting.

How about ordering pizza?

Ruthless Politics

OSE Advanced Fantasy
There doesn't seem to be an official setting for OSE, but adopting settings from other F20 games seems simple enough. Most published F20 settings are politically stable. Upheavals typically come around the time of edition changes rather than arising organically within the setting. However, internal conflicts that don't threaten the established order are another matter. A noble title could be made available with the removal of the current holder. In fact, this is routine business in the more chaotic and/or evil parts of F20 settings, such as the Underdark.

Mothership
Although the corporations themselves are too big to fail, individual corporate officers and their pet projects come and go. Sometimes right out the airlock. Corporate politics can get literally cutthroat when little things like laws, ethics, and morals stop getting in the way.

Robert E Howard's Conan
Politics is a lively affair in this setting. Backstabbing and betrayal seem to be the norm rather than the exception in the original stories. Conan himself involved himself in local politics on occasion - commanding armies, involving himself with royalty (sometimes intimately), participating in (usually doomed) rebellions, and often enriching himself at some potentate's expense. And there was the whole business of him leading a mercenary army to claim the throne of Aquilonia. Of course, keeping that throne took significant effort from those who sought it for themselves. Politics in this setting is a good way for a player character to end up with a fat purse and a knife in the back.

Star Trek Adventures
Politics within the Federation seems to be a sedate affair outside of the occasional coup or conspiracy. And, in theory, the Prime Directive should keep Starfleet personnel out of political business outside of the Federation. In practice, Starfleet crews get dragged into some local skullduggery on the regular. The usual scenario is some dark secret concealed down on the planet of the week. Intervening in local politics is more defensible when the locals run their civilization on human sacrifice or something. Of course, they may not welcome the proposed changes.


That concludes my tongue-in-cheek observance of this year's Ides of March. Maybe I'll make this a regular thing. Let's see if I remember next year.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 27: Olivarius, Archer

Since I'm done with Star Trek Adventures for this challenge, let's look at the other 2d20 system in my collection. That's Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of. Conan runs on a mechanically more complex version of 2d20 than Star Trek Adventures. This is partly due to the greater emphasis on combat in Conan. Which, in turn, reflects the increase in the number of folks trying to stab the protagonists compared to Star Trek. However, the stab factor in Star Trek is not zero, mostly due to all the Klingons running around.

I'm going against the gain and not making a thickly thewed fella or a lass with an aversion to clothes. Instead, let's explore somebody with the broad back and shoulders of an archer. Fortunately, archers have been fairly prominent in popular media over the last decade or so. That gives me a variety of material to steal.

This guy even brought his own bow!

I used the online Conan Character Generator to make Olivarius. Unfortunately, the .pdf export feature wasn't working at the time of this post. This means I'll be taking y'all through the process step by step. Cool?

Cool.

I used the normal rules for character creation and restricted myself to the Core book for options. I wanted Olivarius to have a relatively privileged background, so he's from Aquilonia. This gives him Cosmopolitan, which is a situational talent that allows him to speak with NPCs who also have Cosmopolitan.

I opted not to lower or raise his base attributes. Eagle-eyed seemed like a thematic choice for his first attribute aspect. The second aspect was less clear, but I settled on brave. I gave Coordination a boost and Agility a nerf, followed by buffing both Intelligence and Brawn.

Continuing with the privileged background concept, I chose Petty Nobility as his caste. This gave him a boost to Social Standing, the talents Sheltered and Subject, and perks in Command. I picked Left to Your Own Devices as his story. This gave Olivarius the trait Adventurous.

The choice of Archer for his archetype seemed straightforward. This gave Olivarius boosts to Ranged Weapons, Animal Handling, Observation, Stealth, and Survival as well as the Accurate trait. I selected Athletics and Melee as his elective skills. He got a bow, two reloads, and a helmet. For additional equipment, I selected a boot knife, a riding horse, and a brigandine vest and trousers.

Given the inspiration, I picked Stoic for his nature. This gave Olivarius a bump to his Willpower attribute and his Discipline, Lore, and Resistance skills. I selected Healing and Parry for his elective skills. The Deflection talent looked handy for reducing the flow of Doom when using Parry.

I decided that Olivarius received a solid education before being sent off into the world, so he gets Educated by Masterful Tutors. This boosts Discipline, Lore, and Ranged Weapons. His elective skills are Resistance and Survival. I chose Marksman as his talent. He also gets a letter of praise and introduction from his tutor!

The Core rules didn't give me any choice other than a War Story for a notable event. Within War Stories, I picked Shipwrecked as the most thematic option. This bumped up Athletics and Sailing.

The next steps allows for improvements at the player's discretion. I put points into his Agility and Brawn attributes and his Acrobatics, Ranged Weapons, and Stealth skills. The choice of talent was tough, but I decided on Sharp Senses to give him a re-roll for Observation tests. I figured that he picked up some Pirate Code after getting shipwrecked. Finally, I chose not to burn a Fortune point for a boost to an attribute or skill.

For his starting gear (in addition to the stuff he received in earlier steps), I picked a tattoo from his time being shipwrecked, a hooded mantle (for reasons), and a hunting bow from a friend that died in battle.


The final stats for Olivarius are:

HOMELAND Aquilonia
ATTRIBUTE ASPECTS Eagle-eyed & Brave or Foolhardy
CASTE Petty Nobility
ARCHETYPE Archer
NATURE Stoic
EDUCATION Educated by Masterful Tutors
STORY Left to Your Own Devices
TRAIT Adventurous
WAR STORY Shipwrecked
SOCIAL STANDING 2
GOLD 7
FORTUNE POINTS 3
VIGOR 11
RESOLVE 12

AGILITY 9
ACROBATICS 1 1
MELEE 1 1
STEALTH 2 2

AWARENESS 9
INSIGHT 0 0
OBSERVATION 1 1
SURVIVAL 2 2
THIEVERY 0 0

BRAWN 9
ATHLETICS 2 2
RESISTANCE 2 2

COORDINATION 10
PARRY 1 1
RANGED WEAPONS 4 4
SAILING 1 1

INTELLIGENCE 8
ALCHEMY 0 0
CRAFT 0 0
HEALING 1 1
LINGUISTICS 0 0
LORE 2 2
WARFARE 0 0

PERSONALITY 7
ANIMAL HANDLING 1 1
COMMAND 1 1
COUNSEL 0 0
PERSUADE 0 0
SOCIETY 0 0

WILLPOWER 10
DISCIPLINE 2 2
SORCERY 0 0

TALENTS
Cosmopolitan
Sheltered
Subject
Accurate
Deflection
Marksman
Agile

EQUIPMENT
Hunting Bow
2 reloads for bow
Helmet (Armor 3: Head; Heavy)
Boot Blade
Riding horse
Brigandine vest and trousers (Armor 2: Torso/Legs)
Letter of praise and introduction from your tutor.
Tribal/ritual/prestige tattoos and/or piercings.
A hooded mantle, with gilt thread at the edge.
Your friend's Hunting Bow, they died in battle. Better you take it then some stranger!

LANGUAGES
Aquilonian
Pirate Code

What Conan Taught Me About Star Trek Adventures

With the news from Modiphius, this post seems timely.

Our group ran "The Pit of Kutallu" just before the holiday season. "The Pit of Kutallu" is an adventure module for Robert C. Howard's Conan published by Modiphius in 2017 for Free RPG Day. The version of 2d20 it uses feels like the same model car as Star Trek Adventures, but after somebody dropped in a turbocharger. Our group burned through Momentum, Fortune, and Doom with abandon compared to our use of the corresponding meta currencies in Star Trek Adventures. The players were also bolder and less deliberate, even after they started paying the price in Stress and Harms to their characters.

Granted, the quick start rules in "The Pit of Kutallu" are stripped down compared to those in the Conan core book. And I ran this explicitly as a one shot. And swords and sorcery is another whole genre away from space opera. And a Free RPG Day adventure is going to be mostly fights. But I felt that there was something about the contrast between the two experiences to be examined. I put my observations and questions online and got some handy advice on running 2d20 in the future. Thanks in particular to @muttley@dice.camp and betatester at the Modiphius forums for their observations.

Momentum

Momentum in Conan models a swords and sorcery world where player characters are capable of cutting their way through waves of enemies. Buying extra dice with Momentum is cheaper in Conan than in other 2d20 games. This makes it easier land hits and succeed at tests. Rolling more dice generates more Momentum, leading to a loop where players have more Momentum at their disposal at any given time. This loop quickened the pace, making the fights feel more exciting without losing their tactical aspects.

The Momentum pool depletes faster in Conan than in Star Trek Adventures. Our group told me this pressured them into a "use it or lose it" mentality. Fights in "The Pit of Kutallu" usually ended with an empty Momentum pool due to use rather than depletion.

Getting some of that faster pace in Star Trek Adventures involves priming the pump on the Momentum pool.

• "Close-Knit Crew" is a Talent from the Player's Guide that allows a player character to generate Momentum if the pool is too low at the start of a new scene.
• There are ways for a Human player character to finagle "Spirit of Discovery" to trade a point of Determination in to bump up the Momentum pool by three. The player just has to find a way to use a Value or Directive for the Determination spend. A pilot character will likely have a Value related to vehicle operation that can used during a travel scene. Likewise, a science officer may have a Value that can trigger when seeking out new information.
• Supporting Characters can help generate Momentum by providing an assist during a task. Assistance effectively gives players three dice instead of two for rolling against a task and for generating Momentum. Even uncontrolled Supporting Characters can provide assistance.
• A player character in the Commanding Officer role on the bridge can use "Rally" to generate Momentum. The core book is explicit about this being the purpose of the "Rally" action. Groups where the Captain is a Supporting Character can still use "Rally" even if the Captain is uncontrolled as it is a Difficulty 0 task, but a player character must still use an action to suggest that the Captain speak to the crew. Alternately, a player character Executive Officer can use "Rally" themselves.

Doom & Threat

Doom (Conan) and Threat (Star Trek Adventures) are thematically named equivalents to Momentum for the gamemaster. Doom generates faster than Threat due to how Reactions work in Conan. Reactions to parry or dodge attacks beyond the first in a round are paid for by adding to the Doom pool. This gives the players a choice between building up the Doom pool or suffering damage to their characters.

The steady trickle of Doom getting added to the pool slowly raised the stakes throughout the game. I was able to use the resulting pile of Doom to dial up the danger at the climax. Adding to the Doom pool may have an immediate benefit for the players, but there are longer term costs involved. The process gives the players a say in the amount of danger their characters will be confronting.

Players in Star Trek Adventures are often reluctant to add to the Threat pool and there are fewer ways to generate it. I find myself hoarding the initial Threat pool until the ending scene. However, there seem to be more ways to produce Threat and that heightened sense of risk than I was aware of.

• A NPC leader can issue orders to the other NPCs at the start of a scene or during a fight. This is a Difficulty 0 task for the NPC leader that should generate one or two points of Threat. This is balanced by the need for the NPC leader to use an action to perform this task.
• Some NPCs automatically generate Threat simply be showing up. The final boss of "The Pit of Kutallu" has its own Doom pool that it can use up before helping itself to the regular one.

Fortune & Determination

Fortune (Conan) is both more plentiful and easier to use than Determination (Star Trek Adventures). Linking the use of Determination with a Value or Directive makes it challenging to put into play. The single point a player character starts an adventure with encourages players to hoard it to the point of leaving it untouched. On the other hand, Conan player characters get three points of Fortune and can earn more points fairly easily. Fortune points flowed freely throughout "The Pit of Kutallu" with the only concern being saving one for the climax.

• As mentioned above, "Spirit of Discovery" is a Talent that a Human player character can use to pump up the Momentum pool by three in exchange for a point of Determination.
• I'll have to talk with our group about making sure the Values of the player characters are flexible enough to cover a variety of situations.
• I also have to continue to find ways of using Values, Directives, and Determination in our Star Trek Adventures game.

I'd welcome any other suggestions or observations about how to use elements of this system. I hope that this point is handy for other 2d20 gamemasters.