A couple days ago we had a class preview by taking a peek at the fighter. Let’s go ahead and preview the races… all of them.

(click for PDF)

Yup, that’s the entirety of Chapter 5 there.

The artwork in this chapter is by Larry Elmore, used under license. His artwork opened the doors of fantasy roleplaying to me, and I can’t think of a better way to capture the iconic images of the core races. (With that being said, I made a couple of “risky” choices in here and it’ll be interesting to see how people respond to them.)

One semi-interesting thing of note is that, in writing this chapter, I very specifically did not want to give humans primacy by placing them at the top of the chapter. Instead, I wanted them to appear in their proper place in the alphabetical order. But when I got to the actual layout, I ended up with a space at the bottom of the first page that was too small to fit dwarves into. I initially planned to fill it with some generic artwork (with the intention of possibly replacing it with a “fantasy line-up” as a commissioned piece of art). But then, when I tried to place the entry for humans later in the chapter, I either ended up with a page filled with white space or crunching a whole bunch of races up into a space that was too tiny for them.

Eventually, it just made sense to use the humans to fill that white space on the first page and embrace a consistent approach of “1 race per page”. It still leaves more white space in this chapter than anywhere else in the book, but sometimes you just have to embrace what fate is telling you.

As I mentioned in the class preview, I decided to go with a Gang of 6 character classes and then matched this with six character races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Halflings, and Half-Orcs.

Here, too, I had seriously considered sticking with either the “classic three” (humans, dwarves, elves) or “classic four” (throwing halflings in there). But getting half-breeds into the mix, in my opinion, establishes an important “conceptual beachhead” in the pastiche fantasy-land at the heart of the game.

So… half-orcs to fill the role of “bruiser” and “outcast” that isn’t well-covered by the other races? Or half-elves, like halflings, out of respect for their Tolkienesque roots?

Eventually, I decided that including both would (a) provide some nice variety within the general type and (b) balance the game evenly with six races and six classes.

I am aware that this means only gnomes are excluded among the core D20 races and that, therefore, I run the risk of being classed among the “gnome haters”.

But that’s a risk I’m just going to have to take.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

Legends & Labyrinths includes a hazard creation system. It gives the DM a toolset for quickly designing treacherous obstacles, deadly environments, and breakneck challenges. Creating a hazard is a quick, four-step process:

1. Pick a Challenge Rating
2. Define Area/Targets
3. Define Effect
4. Define Defense

Basically, you define the specific scope of the hazard by setting its CR. Then you can refer to the Hazards table on page 86 of the rulebook — which includes General Check DCs, Trained Check DCs, Save DCs, Attack Bonuses, Attack Damage, Repeating Damage, and One-Shot Damage to mechanically define the specifics of the hazard.

PUTTING IT THROUGH ITS PACES

A couple days ago I did a 15 Minute Conversion Test to show off the speed and flexibility of the monster creation system by converting a half dozen encounters from the Caverns of Thracia. While performing the conversion test, I noticed this encounter key from area 1:

The air in the room stinks of bat guano and hanging from the ceiling are several hundred normal bats. The ceiling, which is 30′ high, is covered with them. The bats will be mildly irritated by torches but a Light spell will send them winging about through the air, severely agitated. The guano on the floor makes it slippery and will require a saving throw on a d20 of under the character’s Dexterity +2 per turn spent running through the muck or per round spent fighting in it. Failure to make the throw indicates slipping and falling into the goo.

Let’s say we wanted to model this slippery bat guano in Legends & Labyrinths. Like Jaquays you could just pluck some reasonable-sounding numbers out of the air, but you could also turn to the Hazards system for guidance. If you did, it would look something like this:

1. PICK A CHALLENGE RATING: The rulebook suggests, “In general, a hazard with a challenge rating equal to the average level of the party represents a danger that the party can routinely handle with little risk. (So if anybody plucked off the street could deal with it, the hazard is probably a CR 1. If it’s something that requires a good deal of skill or luck to endure, it might be a CR 5 hazard. If it’s something that only legendary heroes could expect to encounter and survive, on the other hand, you’ll want to start looking at a challenge rating of 10 or more.”

This seems like something most people should be expected to handle. Let’s make this a CR 1 challenge.

2. DEFINE AREA/TARGETS: The bat guano covers the floor in areas 1, 2, and 3. It also covers the last 20′ of the stairs leading down to area 1.

3. DEFINE EFFECT: The bat guano will render a character prone. We’ll check the Hazard Effects table on page 87 to see if the prone condition requires a minimum CR (it doesn’t).

4. DEFINE DEFENSE: Quoting from the rulebook again, “Characters within the area affected by a hazard or targeted by a hazard generally get some defense against the hazard’s effect. (…) Saving Throw: If a hazard does not need to make an attack roll, a character affected by the hazard is allowed to make a saving throw. Choose the type of saving throw which is most appropriate for the hazard’s effect. (…) Action Check: For some hazards, a character may be able to make skill or ability checks in order to interact with the hazard or bypass it without suffering its effects.”

So we’ve got a couple of options here. We could require a Reflex save from anyone moving through the area (in which case we’d look at the Hazards table and see that the Save DC for a CR 1 Hazard is DC 12). But I think it probably makes more sense to require anyone hustling, running, or fighting in the bat guano to make a Balance check. Looking at the Hazards table, we’ll pull the General Check DC (used for “any action check which needs to be made by every character in the party”). A CR 1 hazard has a General Check DC 14.

And that’s pretty much it. Our final hazard looks like this:

Bat Guano (CR 1): Covers the last 20′ of the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Balance check (DC 14) or fall prone.

ADDING SOME BATS

But what about those bats that are swooping around?

The first question I’m going to ask is: How much of a pain-in-the-ass do I want those swarming bats to be? At the low end, we could say that they effectively dazzle characters in their midst (-1 penalty on attack rolls, Search checks, and Spot checks). At the high end, we could say that they’re entangling characters (move at half speed, cannot run or charge, -2 penalty on attack rolls, -4 penalty to Dexterity, casting spells requires a Concentration check).

Checking the Hazards Effects table I see that there’s no minimum CR for hazards that dazzle, but entangling hazards have a minimum CR 2.

Let’s go ahead and make ’em a real pain in the ass. Some of these bats are just one step removed from being dire bats (they’re related to their larger cousins in the caverns below) and until they get into the open air they’re basically a solid wall of flapping terror.

Although this isn’t a trap, we’ll grab the concept of a trigger from the trap rules to simulate provoking the bats (“certain natural hazards may also possess some or all the characteristics of a trap). Then we’ll set this as a CR 3 hazard requiring a Fortitude saving throw. We check the Hazards table for the CR 3 save DC and get:

Bat Swarm – Entangling (CR 3): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or entangled. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

Another option would be have the bats actually physically batter those caught in their area. Using the rules for mixing CR effects, we could keep the DC 14 Fortitude save (a CR 3 effect) to avoid taking 1d6 damage (the repeating damage for a CR 1 hazard). Since these are the significant contributions to the hazard, you simply average the CR values to give you:

Bat Swarm – Battering (CR 2): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or 1d6 damage. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

Alternatively you can combine multiple effects into a single hazard by simply combining CRs like any other encounter (using the rules on page 15):

Bat Swarm Totality (CR 4): Effects the stairs and areas 1, 2, and 3. Trigger (light spell or other strong light source). Fortitude save (DC 14) or 1d6 damage and entangled. Duration 1d4+2 rounds.

USING IT IN PLAY

Where the hazard systems really comes into its own, in my opinion, is during play. It provides you with general guidelines for appropriate action check DCs, saving throw DCs, and damage for characters of any given level.

That’s useful all by itself. But it also gives you a simple structure for rapidly facilitating improvisation by you and your players.

For example, let’s say the PCs want to weaken the support beams for a balcony and then lure a large monster onto the balcony so that it will collapse. Call for some appropriate action checks to prep the trap. Once its set-up you just need to set a CR and everything else will pretty much flow from that single decision point:

CR 7. Therefore, Balance check DC 22 for a PC to scamper across it without triggering the trap prematurely. When the unwitting monster hits it, it’s 7d6 points of damage (CR 7 one-shot damage) with a Reflex save (DC 17) for half damage.

(Maybe you set the CR based on check result of the action check the PCs use to set the trap.)

You’ll find some similar, non-improvised hazard creation tucked away in the Equipment chapter. For example, the description of wire includes:

Tripwire: A properly secured wire can serve as a CR 1 hazard. Characters can make a Spot check (DC 14 or opposed by the ambusher’s Hide check) to spot the wire. If they fail, they must make a Reflex save (DC 12) or fall prone.

The system is just too simple and versatile not to use.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

This article has been updated and expanded. Read the current version here.

I think stat blocks can tell you a lot about a roleplaying game. What type of information do you need to juggle? What does the game consider important in distinguishing one character from another? How complicated will a game be to prep and run?

Holding that thought in mind, let’s take a brief tour of the stat block.

THE 1970’s

The first published adventure module was “Temple of the Frog” in Supplement II (1976). It didn’t contain stat blocks, instead describing everything narratively. For example: “…the room which contains five skeletons of 2 hit dice that have armor class 7 and move 6″ per turn.”

Next came Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976), in which the entire adventure key was presented in semi-tabular fashion. But basically here you could interpret a “stat block” of sorts which included the creature encountered and their hit points. For example: “2 vampire guards – 23, 26”

Unfortunately, I have never seen a copy of the original Lost Caverns of Tsojconth (1976) from the Metro Detroit Gamers or Gen Con IX Dungeons from Judges Guild. But I do own a copy of the revised City State of the Invincible Overlord, which used tables for many NPC stats but also included what may be the first true stat blocks with entries like these:

Two Mercenaries: FTR, N, LVL: 3, HTK: 16-20, AC: 6
Bartender Koris Brightips: FEM, FTR, CG, LVL: 2, HTK: 4, AC: 9, Dagger, sings.

We see similar stat blocks from Judges Guild throughout ’77 in Tegel Manor, First Fantasy Campaign (Arneson), and Modron.

In ’78, TSR publishes the G series, D series, S1, and B1. In G1, monsters were still being largely described narratively as they were in “Temple of the Frog”, although hit point totals were now being given in parentheses: “Here 12 young giants (H.P.: 26, 24, 3 x 21, 18 x 17 [sic], 2 x 16, 14, 13) are rollicking, and beefy smacks, shouts, laughter, etc. are easily heard. All these creatures have weapons and will fight as ogres.” and “14 dire wolves run free here (H.P.: 25, 23, 22, 2 x 10, 19, 3 x 18, 2 x 17, 15, 13, 12).”

By the time D1 rolls around, more information is being dropped into the parentheses but things are still pretty narrative. For example: “This 6th level cleric (H.P. 30; +3 chain mail, +3 buckler, +1 for dexterity of 15, for an overall AC of -3) carries a +1 mace on her belt, for her major weapon is a short-handed staff sling. This weapon hurls missiles up to 9″ distance (providing the ceiling is at least 30′ high), minimum range 3″. Probability of a hit is normal out to 6″, -2 thereafter.”

By ’79, Judges Guild has firmed their presentation of NPC statistics into definite stat blocks. For example, here’s the text from key V-5 in Dark Tower:

Avvakris: 10th level cleric of Set, Align: CE, chainmail, AC: 5, HP: 50, S: 14, I: 14, W: 15, D: 14, C: 11, CH: 15, weapon: mace, spells: bless (reverse), create water (reverse), detect good, detect magic, hold person (x3), silence 15′ radius, animate dead, dispel magic, speak with dead, cause serious wounds (x2), divination, flame strike (x2.)

Seth the Huge: 6th level fighter, align: CE, chainmail and shield, +3 dexterity bonus, AC: 1, HP: 34, weapon: longsword, S: 16, I: 8, W: 5, D: 17, C: 11, CH: 12. Large and cruel looking.

Wormgear Bonegnawer: 6th level fighter, align: CE, chainmail and shield, +1 dexterity bonus, AC: 3, HP: 48, weapon: longsword, S: 16, I: 11, W: 14, D: 15, CH: 11.

TSR, too, is firming things up. In T1 The Village of Hommlet, stats are still being dropped into the middle of paragraphs, but they’re being completely contained in parentheses which are gaining a standardized form. A couple examples:

Canon Terjon (6th level cleric — S 11, I 10, W 16, D 12, C 16, Ch 8 — chain mail, shield +1, mace; 41 hit points; invisibility and mammal control rings; typical spells noted hereafter)

Jaroo Ashstaff (7th level druid — S 11, I 11, W 18, D 9, C 15, Ch 15 — HP: 44, padded armor, cloak of protection +2, staff of the snake, +1 scimitar, ring of invisibility; spells given below)

black bear (AC 7; HD 3+3, HP: 25; 3 attacks for 1-3/1-3/1-6 plus hug for 2-8 on a paw hit of 18)

two dogs (AC 7; HD 1+1, HP: 5, 4, 1 attack for 1-4 hit points of damage).

THE LONG, SLOW EXPANSION

By 1980, stat blocks were assuming standardized forms and TSR was creating editorial standards which applied to all their products.

AD&D stat blocks from T1-4:

Black Bear: AC 7; HD 3 +3; hp 25; #AT 3; D 1-3/1-3/1-6; SA Hug (if paw hit 18+); Dmg 2-8; XP 185

Jaroo Ashstaff: AC 6 (padded armor); Level 7 Druid; hp 44; #AT 1; D by weapon or spell; XP 1427; cloak of protection +2, ring of invisibility, staff of the serpent (python), scimitar +1

Standard druid abilities: identify plant type, animal type, pure water; pass without trace; immune to woodland charm; shapechange 3 times per day; +2 bonus to saving throws vs. lightning; q.v. PH page 21.

Spells normally memorized:
First level: detect magic, entangle, faerie fire, invisibility to animals, pass without trace, speak with animals
Second level: barkskin, charm person or mammal, cure light wounds, heat metal, trip, warp wood
Third level: cure disease, neutralize poison, summon insects, tree
Fourth level: cure serious wound, plant door

Spell lists are obviously, by their very nature, lengthy. But you can see how clean and elegant this standardized “stat-line” format is for the stat block. Albeit nearly incomprehensible when you first look at it, it doesn’t take much familiarity with the rules before this stat block becomes very easy to use by virtue of compactly presenting every piece of necessary information and putting it right at your fingertips.

BECMI stat blocks were largely identical:

Goblins. (2d4) AC 6; HD 1-1; hp 3 each; MV 90′ (30′); #AT 1; D 1d6; Save NM; ML 7; AL C; XP 5 each. Each goblin carries a spear and 2-12 ep.

Champion (7th level Fighter): AC 6; F7; hp 42; MV 120′ (40′); #AT 1; D 1d4 (+2 for magic weapon); Save F7; ML 9; AL L; XP 450.

And these stat blocks were largely unaltered when 2nd Edition rolled around. Here’s a sample from a late-2nd Edition module:

Behir: AC 4; MV 15; HD 12; hp 70; THAC0 9; #AT 2 or 7; Dmg 2d4/1d4+1 (bite and constriction) or 2d4/1d6 (bite/6 claws); SA once every 10 rounds can breathe bolt of lightning up to 20 feet long that inflicts 24 points of damage (save for half), swallow whole on an attack roll of 20 (victim loses % of starting hp until death on the 6th round, can cut himself out by attacking AC 7, but each round the victim spends inside the behir he faces a cumulative -1 damage penalty); SD immune to electricity and poison; SZ G (40′ long), ML Champion (15); Int Low (7); AL NE; XP 7,000

But here we can start making two additional observations. First, as the rules for a creature become more complicated, the short simplicity of the stat block begins to decay into a mass of incomprehensible text. Second, as rules for creatures become less dependent on a chart look-up keyed to Hit Dice, more information needs to be coded into the stat block (like THAC0), contributing to the “mass of text” feel.

Which brings us to 3E. Here every monster is made as customizable as a PC and their stat blocks balloon as a result. A sample:

Jot: Quasit; CR 3; Tiny outsider (chaotic, evil); HD 3d8; hp 18; Init +3 (Dex); Spd 20 ft., fly 50 ft. (perfect); AC 18; Atk +8/+8/+3 melee (1d3-1 and poison, 2 claws; 1d4-1, bite); Face/Reach 2 1/2 ft. by 2 1/2 ft./0 ft.; SA Poison; SQ Spell-like abilities, damage reduction 5/silver, poison immunity, fire resistance 20, alternate form, regeneration 1 (normal damage from acid and holy or blessed weapon); SR 5; AL CE; SV Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +4; Str 8, Dex 17, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 10.

Skills and Feats: Hide +15, Listen +6, Move Silently +6, Search +4, Spellcraft +4, Spot +6; Weapon Finesse (bite, claw)

Special Attacks: Poison: Claw, Fort save resists (DC 13), initial damage 1d6 Dex, secondary damage 2d4 Dex

Special Qualities: Spell-like abilities: At will, as 6th-level sorcerer (save DCs, where applicable, are 10 + spell level), detect good, detect magic, and invisibility; 1/day cause fear (as spell, except its area is a 30-ft. radius from quasit), 1/week commune (six questions) as 12th-level cleric; speak telepathically to any creature within 100 ft.; Alternate form: polymorph self to one or two Medium-size forms.

BACK TO BASIC PRINCIPLES

The initial 3E stat blocks were, frankly speaking, terrible. This was primarily the result of four things:

1. A desire to minimize the amount of space the stat block takes up. (Legitimately motivated by a desire to make sure the information all stayed relatively compact. The entire point of standardizing things into a stat block, after all, is to move away from the early, casual style of describing stats narratively.)
2. An early failure to prioritize key information. (This didn’t matter in the early stat blocks because they were only trying to code roughly a dozen pieces of information. When there’s only 12 pieces of information sitting there, it’s easy to find anything you’re looking for pretty much instantaneously. By the time 2nd Edition arrived, the stat block was commonly trying to code twice as much information. In 3rd Edition the information had more than quadrupled. And the amount of information being coded was increasing because of…)
3. A desire to include all of a monster’s pertinent stats. (The motivation here is to avoid needing to look up information somewhere else. THAC0 is the most pervasive example of this, but you can see a general trend by simply glancing at any of the stat blocks up above.)
4. A failure to minimize the presentation of certain information. (For example, is it necessary to include the “SV” abbreviation to prelude the saving throws? Probably not. Another example would be “speak telepathically to any creature within 100 ft.”. Can’t you just write “telepathy 100 ft.”? As with the 2E stat block, this is being complicated by another trend that dates back to 1977: A desire in the advanced rules to codify effects as precisely as possible to eliminate any doubt, confusion, or interpretation and create a “standard” version of the game. This combines poorly with a simultaneous desire to “include all the info you need in the stat block.”

In 2006, Wizards attempted to fix this problem by releasing a new stat block. It separated the information into five sections: Information for the start of an encounter, information for when the PCs are taking their turns, information for when the monster is taking its turn, non-combat information, and explanatory text.

They weren’t alone. That same year, Monte Cook introduced a revised stat block in Ptolus. It used a similar use of white space, but chose to focus on separating out “crucial” information.

Paizo also revisited the Wizards stat block for Pathfinder. They kept the concept of dividing the stat block into multiple sections, but specifically labeled the sections and integrated a section describing tactics right into the middle of the stat block (Defense, Offense, Tactics, Statistics).

What strikes me as interesting about all of these efforts, however, is the degree to which they effectively concede the battle. All of these revised stat blocks are essentially indistinguishable from entries in the MM. In other words, by 2006, most of the industry had basically given up on the idea of the “adventure stat block”.

To put it another way: The had chosen to prioritize key information (#2) and maintained a desire to include all pertinent information (#3). They had worked to minimize the presentation of certain information (#4), but essentially given up on the idea of minimizing the amount of space the stat block takes up (#1).

My opinion was this: I felt they had designed a fundamentally superior format for MM entries, but I felt that you could use similar principles to create a short stat block that could be more efficiently used in published adventures (and for prepping your own adventures). I laid out my thoughts on the matter and offered both a revised stat block and a short stat block for use with 3.5. (I haven’t done much with the former since then, but the latter has proven to be a consistent god-send in prepping and running my home campaign.)

LEGENDS & LABYRINTHS

Which brings us, at long last, to Legends & Labyrinths.

The short stat block for a monster in Legends & Labyrinths looks like this:

NAME (CR #): # hp; [adjustments]; Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #; [skills]
Power 1 ([type]): quick description
Power 2 ([type]): quick description

GOBLIN HUNTER (CR 1): 10 hp; Speed 60 ft.; Str 11, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10,
Wis 9, Cha 6; Hide +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +6, Ride +6, Spot +4.

SCYTHE DEMON (CR 8 ): 89 hp; Size L, Reach 10 ft.; Str 28, Dex 12, Con 14,
Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 13; Climb +25, Jump +25, Intimidate +14.
Damage Reduction 10/good
Fast Healing 15

This stat block assumes that you have a copy of the Challenge Rating Table from pg. 123 clipped to your DM’s screen. Based on the monster’s CR, that table gives you their HD, AC, attack bonus, attack damage, save bonus, and the saving throw DC for their special abilities.

If the idea of a chart look-up doesn’t thrill you, just use the full stat block:

NAME (CR #): # hp (HD), AC #, [attack] +# ([damage]), Save +#, Ability DC #, [adjustments].
Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #
Skills: [skills]
Power 1 ([type]): full description
Power 2 ([type]): full description

GOBLIN HUNTER (CR 1): 10 hp (HD 2d8+1), AC 14, longsword +2 (1d6+1), Save +5, Ability DC 13, Speed 60 ft.
Str 11, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +6, Listen +4, Move Silently +6, Ride +6, Spot +4

SCYTHE DEMON (CR 8 ): 89 hp (HD 11d8+40), AC 20, scythe arms +14/+14 (2d8+4), Save +11, Ability DC 18, Size L, Reach 10 ft.
Str 28, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 13
Skills: Climb +25, Jump +25, Intimidate +14
Damage Reduction 10/good (Ex): The scythe demon ignores the first 10 points of damage from weapons and natural attacks. Good-aligned weapons ignore the scythe demon’s DR.
Fast Healing 15 (Ex): At the beginning of each turn, the scythe demon heals 15 hit points.

What about NPCs built using PC classes?

Well, NPC stat blocks are basically a blast from the past. Because of the way the game is built, you can get away with a short stat block:

Name (CR #): [Alignment] [Class] [Level],# hp (HD), AC # ([armor]), weapon +# ([damage]), Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #.

Kruskoff Skullbeater: CN Fighter 6, 32 hp (6d10+6), AC 15 (chain shirt), longsword +10 (1d8+4), Str 18, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 11.

This shows you how quickly you can create NPCs on the fly: Jot down class, level, some ability scores, and whatever equipment you think they should have and the NPC is done and completely playable.

On the other hand, you can use the full stat block if you want to prep the derived stats and have them at your finger tips:

Name (CR #): [Alignment] [Class] [Level],# hp (HD), AC # ([modifiers]), weapon +# ([damage]).
Str #, Dex #, Con #, Int #, Wis #, Cha #
Fort +#, Ref +#, Will +#
Skills: [skills]

Kruskoff Skullbeater (CR 6): CN Fighter 6, 32 hp (6d10+6), AC 15 (+1 Dex, +4 chain shirt), longsword +10 (1d8+4).
Str 18, Dex 13, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 11
Fort +6, Ref +3, Will +1
Skills: Jump +13, Tumble +10

How can it be that simple? Because Legends & Labyrinths embraces the old school methodologies of character creation. Everything is derived from core statistics. This allows newcomers to immediately take full ownership of character creation, but it also provides a platform for the DM to create NPCs without a lot of rigamarole.

Even if you eventually decide to incorporate more advanced rules into character creation for your players, you’ll find yourself continuing to use Legends & Labyrinths as a platform for rapid generation of stock NPCs.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

The earliest design goal for Legends & Labyrinths was to reveal the slick, tight, elegant system at the heart of 3rd Edition.

Like most RPGs, I’ve found that the secret to mastering 3rd Edition lies in finding the core principles on which the system is built — the essential mechanics from which everything else is built. And some of the first material ever developed for the game (even before it was a game) was written for online messageboards where I was attempting to share this mastery by demonstrating the simple, flexible core of the game in concrete terms.

In other words, Legends & Labyrinths was born out of a simple methodology: If it’s not a core mechanic, it’s not in the game.

This methodology naturally led me to re-examine character creation. Although 3rd Edition had created a system which made it possible to customize your character in myriad ways, if I wanted to design a game that was specifically friendly to new players then I knew it was important for Legends & Labyrinths to feature a streamlined character creation system. (This is something I’ll talk about more in the future, but it’s a design goal which only grew in importance once I started running an open table.)

After many tribulations and the pursuit of more than a few false ideals, I eventually brought the classic trio of character creation to Legends & Labyrinths: (1) Roll ability scores. (2) Pick class and race. (3) Buy equipment.

Character creation, however, led me inexorably to monster creation. Just as the designers of 3rd Edition had given players unprecedented control over their characters, they also gave DMs an unprecedented suite of tools and rules for creating and modifying monsters. It’s an impressive and powerful system, but it can also be overwhelming and time-consuming.

My initial impulse, as with character creation, was to simply roll back the clock: Strip out all of the advanced guidelines 3rd Edition offers for monster creation, include a bestiary of a few hundred nasty creatures, and then just leave it up to the DM to eyeball whatever stats looked appropriate when creating new beasties. That’s basically the way it was handled back in my original Basic Set, after all.

After some initial playtesting, however, it became clear that some sort of system for monster creation was necessary. This system went through several iterations and design cycles (being completely scrapped and restarting from scratch on at least two occasions). The system as it exists today, however,  is heavily influenced from my experiences running the 1974 ruleset. What particularly struck me was that by simply setting a monster’s HD you immediately knew everything you needed to know about the monster’s stats. All you had to do was toss on a unique power or two and — blammo! — you had a monster. It was a process that took seconds, making it easy to spontaneously improvise entirely new creatures right at the game table without missing a beat.

It was out of this revelation that the Challenge Rating Table was born. (You can find it on page 123 of the Black Book Beta rulebook.) This table lies at the heart of the monster creation system in Legends & Labyrinths, and it led directly to the creation of what I came to think of as the “Three Pillars” of the game.

THE THREE PILLARS

The Three Pillars of Legends & Labyrinth are the monster creation system, the hazard/trap creation system, and the stunt system.

Let’s start with the monster creation system. Creating a monster in Legends & Labyrinths is a four step process:

1. Pick a challenge rating.
2. Select powers.
3. Assign ability scores.
4. Pick skills.

The CR of the creature determines is hit dice, armor class, attack bonus, attack damage, save bonus, the save DC for its special abilities, and the number of power ranks it receives. Powers are purchased using the monster’s power ranks, but the intention is that you pick a handful of significant powers and then quickly dump the rest into generic adjustments.

It should be noted that ability scores don’t modify any of the core stats determined by the monster’s CR. They only become relevant for ability score checks and skill checks. Nor are there any particular rules for picking the skills a monster gets: It’s assumed that the DM will exercise their best judgment in what skills a monster should possess.

(Playtest Tip: You want a copy of the Challenge Ratings Table on your DM screen. Just like the old “To Hit” tables, the CR table lets you pick a monster’s CR and then have all of its stats at your fingertips.)

When this simple, streamlined system finally clicked into place it was a major revelation. And I realized that its basic structure could be used to solve the problem I was having with traps. Here we come to the Second Pillar, in which hazards and traps are designed in a four step process:

1. Pick a challenge rating.
2. Define area/targets.
3. Define effect.
4. Define defense.

(For traps you also need to define a trigger.)

As the monster creation system is based in the Challenge Ratings Table, the hazard/trap creation system is based around the Hazards table. This table is one-half old school and one-half 4th Edition’s page 42. It contains general check DCs, trained check DCs, save DCs, attack bonuses, attack damage, repeating damage, and one-shot damage for every challenge rating.

Finally, we have the stunt system. The Legends & Labyrinths stunt system is a flexible method for allowing characters to perform unusual maneuvers during combat. A stunt can allow a character to apply a bonus to another character (or themselves), apply a penalty to another character, boost their speed or the speed of an ally, force opponents to move, or apply a variety of conditions to opponents. Resolving a stunt is a three step process:

1. Define the effect of the stunt (which determines the DC).
2. Perform the stunt by making the appropriate action check (usually a skill check).
3. If successful, the target of the stunt may attempt a stunt save to negate its effect.

The DC of the stunt save is determined by the level or CR of the combatant performing the stunt, as shown on the Stunt Difficulty Class table.

USING THE THREE PILLARS

I started thinking of these systems — monster creation, hazard/trap creation, stunt creation — as the Three Pillars when I realized that the Challenge Ratings Table, the Hazards table, and the Stunt Difficulty Class table were all fundamentally joined. Not only do these tables share elements all cross-referenced by challenge rating (save DCs, attack bonuses, etc.), at a very real level they collectively form a single meta-table which defines the spine of the 3rd Edition ruleset.

(In fact, I actually considered unifying them all into one table for awhile. But I realized that although it can be useful to think of them as a single meta-table, from a utility standpoint they’re more effective as separate tables.)

What’s a reasonable save DC for a 9th level character? What’s a good target number for a skill check intended for a 15th level character? Whether you’re running Legends & Labyrinths or any 3rd Edition game, the meta-table of the Three Pillars gives you the answer (which you can then, of course, tweak to your heart’s content).

But more than that, I came to think of these systems as the Three Pillars because they form an important part of the foundation which makes up Legends & Labyrinths. One half of this game is “3rd Edition without the noise”; but the other half of the game is a suite of powerful new tools which can be used to revolutionize any 3rd Edition campaign.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!

Legends & Labyrinths will be using the Sidebar Reference System originally developed for Dream Machine Production’s line of Rule Supplements. Using this format, rules are presented exactly when and where you need them.

For example, consider the description of the entangle spell from the advanced version of the 3rd Edition rules:

Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area, holding them fast and causing them to become entangled. The creature can break free and move half its normal speed by using a full-round action to make a DC 20 Strength check or a DC 20 Escape Artist check. A creature that succeeds on a Reflex save is not entangled but can still move at only half speed through the area. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

There is key information missing from this spell description which will leave players flipping through their rulebooks: What are the effects of being “entangled”? How do you make a Strength check or an Escape Artist check? One could add this information to the description, of course:

Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area, holding them fast and causing them to become entangled (they move at half speed, cannot run or charge, suffer a -2 penalty on attack rolls, a -4 penalty on Dexterity checks, and casting a spell requires a Concentration check). The creature can break free and move half its normal speed by using a full-round action to make a Strength check (1d20 + Strength modifier vs. DC 20) or an Escape Artist check (1d20 + Escape Artist modifer vs. DC 20). A creature that succeeds on a Reflex save is not entangled but can still move at only half speed through the area. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

But this only makes the spell description even more difficult to parse and adjudicate.

Using the SRS system, on the other hand, we can simplify the presentation of this spell so that it looks something like this:

Grasses, weeds, bushes, and even trees wrap, twist, and entwine about creatures in the area or those that enter the area. The area is treated as difficult terrain and creatures that fail their Reflex saves are stuck and entangled. A creature can break free by making a Strength check (DC 20) or Escape Artist check (DC 20) as a full action. Each round on your turn, the plants once again attempt to entangle all creatures that have avoided or escaped entanglement.

In the sidebar, the red-highlighted keywords are given references like this:

difficult terrain, page 52: Movement through difficult terrain is made at half speed.

stuck, page 58: Cannot move away from the object or location.

entangled, page 56: Move at half speed, cannot run or charge, -2 on attacks, -4 to Dex, casting spells requires Concentration check (DC 15 + spell’s level).

Strength check, page 65: 1d20 + Strength modifier vs. DC

Escape Artist check, page 43: 1d20 + Escape Artist modifier vs. DC

The SRS puts all the information you need right at you fingertips. And, if you need more details, it gives you a page reference so that you can quickly find the full citation. Some of this information you may already be familiar with as a player, but it’s great for beginning players. (And I can’t be the only guy who, even after years of playing a game, will still need to double-check a reference.)

But the SRS also makes the text itself easier to parse. Partly because it removes all extraneous detail to the sidebar, but also because the references almost unintentionally provide a mechanism for quick comprehension. Look at the words highlighted in the entangle spell again: Difficult terrain. Stuck and entangled. Strength check or Escape Artist check. That tells you 90% of what you need to know about the spell at first glance, right?

More than that, the SRS both rewards system mastery and simulates system mastery.

For one who has mastered the system, for example, the term “difficult terrain” is a very quick, clear, and compact way of saying “characters can only move at half speed through the area”. Because the SRS  lets us just put the keyword in the text (with the full reference pushed to the sidebar), system mastery is rewarded by streamlining the main text. A system master can see the keyword “difficult terrain” and immediately understand the effect of the spell without wading their way through additional verbiage.

But the system also simulates system mastery. The system master sees the keyword “difficult terrain” and immediately knows what it means. With the SRS, however, the beginner can simulate that mastery by simply flicking their eye two inches to the left.

In many ways, the SRS is also teaching system mastery. Over time, the player will probably find themselves relying on it less and less. But when you need it, it will prove itself an invaluable time saver every single time.

CLIMB INTO YOUR LABYRINTH AND FORGE YOUR LEGEND TODAY!