Posts tagged cyclopedia

Another RPG Week draws to a close here at Greywulf Towers. In previous Weeks we’ve looked at the marvel that is Dragon Warriors, The marvel that is…. uhhhh… the Marvel RPG, and this week it was the turn of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. We’ve looked at it’s character generation, cosmology, combat mechanics and mass combat system. And we’ve barely even scratched the surface. Heck, we’ve barely even scratched the air above the surface. We’ve barely even scratched at all.

In this final post I was going to show you some of the things I’ve not covered such as the Weapon Mastery rules, the Monsters, the encounter rules, Castle building and dominion economics. I could show you all this, and more.

But, in the best Top Gear (an excellent comedy series here in the UK that masquerades as a motoring show) tradition, I’m not going to bore you with hard facts. It’ll spoil your own personal voyage of discovery with this utterly brilliant system.

Instead, and at the risk of invoking the spirit of Jeremy Clarkson too much, I’m going to end with a car analogy.

The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is like this 1969 Corvette.

Whereas 4e D&D is this 2009 model

Now, you might well argue that the newer model is the better car. It’s the result of decades of design theory. It’s probably more efficient, and comes with more cool Powers…. I mean, gizmos than you can shake a shift stick at. In arguably every way, you could claim that this model is superior.

And you’d be wrong.

For all the technology, engineering and advancements in the newer model, it’s the old one that appeals to the inner child. Its the one your heart wants to drive. Sure, it might leak a little and show it’s age. You might have to hold parts of it together with duck tape, and change gear *just so*, but it’s got something that the newer model lacks.

It’s got soul.

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I’ve already written some about how Classic D&D’s gameplay evolves as the players climb the level ladder. Starting out as naive hicks off the farm, our heroes might eventually reach the heights of 9th level and be awarded title and lands to go with their burgeoning egos fame. From there, they steadily carve their own empires, and that usually means only one thing – WAR!

I’ll say this just once – the War Machine rules in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia are worth the price of entry alone. It’s a standalone mechanism that can be used with any other system out there (I’ve used it to great success in GURPS, 3e D&D and even Mutants & Masterminds), and quite simply one of the best, funnest ways to handle a huge-scale combat at the gaming table – and this coming from someone who comes from the De Bellis Antiquitatis world of old school (really old school!) wargaming.

Compared to the rest of the Rules Cyclopedia which has a wing-it-on-your-ass free-wheeling style, War Machine Mass Combat system is rather damned crunchy, requiring ploughing through a Worksheet for each force to get a Battle Rating. This is then modified according to Environment, Troop Morale, Terrain, etc. Then it’s just a matter of rolling d100, adding the modified Battle Rating and comparing the results. That’s a day of battle done. The highest roller has won the day (but not the war!) and casualties, fatigue and changes in location are noted for each side.

In other words, it’s kinda like regular D&D combat, only with d100s instead of d20s, each turn lasts a day and the players are responsible for hundreds or thousands of troops instead of one single PC. Add in a few more options such as the effect of Tactics, Character actions, Heroism, Troop Movement & Supplies and the whole system can be as detailed or fast’n'light as you want.

We’ve used the War Machine rules on their own for entire sessions, and also used them as background colour to show the effect of the player’s actions as they attempt to turn the tide of battle. War Machine is also pretty fun played solo when there’s no other gamers around!

Here’s a quick example of War Machine in action. But first, we need two armies. If you want to follow along, I’m basing this on the Battle of Hattin, an actual battle from 1187 that took place near an extinct volcano and turned the tide of war in Saladin’s favour for years to come. Because battles near extinct volcanoes are feckin’ cool, that’s why.

In the white-and-red corner there Guy de Lusignan’s Crusaders – a 20,000-strong force which includes 15,000 infantry, 1,200 knights and 500 turcopoles (mounted archers). With him are three other heroes – Raymond III of Tripoli, Gerard de Rideford and Balian of Ibelin – all of whom are 9th level or above. The Troops are all excellently trained with good equipment, but most don’t have much field experience. The average Officer level is 5th, and the average Troop level is 2nd.

Working out the numbers, the Basic Force Rating for the force is 110; their Troop Class is Excellent. No surprises there. If the Crusaders had more mounted troops, spell-casters or substantial missile support this would modify the number further, but they don’t, so it doesn’t.

Against him is Saladin, who (for the sake of keepin’ things Fantasy-themed) is a powerful leader of the Desert Elves. He’s powerfully charismatic and leads 20,000 mounted Elven troops into battle against the usurpers. They are armed with horsebows and scimitars. As Elves, the Troops are 1HD foes.

The Basic Force Rating for these guys is 91, and they’re classed as Good. Their final modified Battle Rating (taking into account their horses and wicked elven archery skillz) is 118. It’s going to be a close fight!

The Battle Rating only needs to be calculated once for each army, so once it’s done it’ll only change if anything that affects it alters (such as a change in Leadership). On to Day One of the battle……..

Guy’s troops have beaten this foe before, but they’re in an unfavourable environment. That’s a -15 modifier so Guy’s player rolls d100+110-15, for a total of 158.

Saladin’s Elves are on their home turf and are well suited to the environment. That’s a net +35. Ouch. Rolling d100+118+35, the player gets 195.

That’s a win for Saladin on Day One, with a difference of 37. Guy takes 40% casualties a so he’s down to 12,000 fit-to-fight troops, while Saladin takes 20%, so he’s down to 16,000 troops. Worse yet, Guy’s army is Seriously fatigued after the first clash, while Saladin’s is only Moderately fatigued. It was a close-fought, hard won first day, and both sides withdraw to lick their wounds and recover from the clash.

Two rolls, one day and 12,000 casualties.

Dude, it’s like a war out there.

Next: The Known World!

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In the grand cosmology of the Rules Cyclopedia, there isn’t an Epic Battle between Good and Evil. It’s bigger than that.

This is Classic D&D with just three Alignments – Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic. The Good and Evil axis is absent, and the entire rulebook remains conspicuously silent about the whole ethical side of things other than to concede that Chaotic behaviour might be called “evil” in some circles.

No, this isn’t about good vs. evil. It’s about Civilization versus Savagery. It’s about Nurture versus Nature. It’s about Order versus unbridled Chaos. It’s Us…… versus Them.

But, Epic as that sounds, that’s not all.

There’s multiple Planes of existence, alternate realities and dimensions to explore all covered in a mere three pages of the Rules Cyclopedia. Each alignment has it’s own tongue. In our campaign, the language of Law is Latin (of course). Law books and religious texts are written in this tongue, and most civilised folks know quite a lot of Latin words without even knowing it. The language of Chaos is very bad German Thrash Metal….. no, I mean Old Norse, and the language of Neutrality is French, the tongue of the philosophers.

But that’s not all.

Gradually, as the characters steadily gain levels they discover that the world is more than it first appears. For a start, it’s Hollow (but we’ll save that for another time, ok?). Those Gods the common folks worship and the Clerics pray to for spells….. they’re not Gods at all, but powerful Immortals who were once members of ordinary mortal races like you and I – and it’s possible to become one of them! These are deities in the classic Greek, Roman and Norse tradition with all-too-human ambitions, passions, plots and goals. There’s a strict hierarchy with lesser Immortals plotting and scheming to gain power and prestige in their area of influence.

Each Immortal is a Patron to one of five Spheres – Matter, Energy, Time, Thought and Entropy – and their prime objective is to further the cause of their Sphere while at the same time thwarting the wiles of the other four. It’s easy to label the Immortals in the Sphere of Entropy as the Big Evil (indeed, many are), but each Sphere has more than it’s fair share of righteous and unrighteous Immortals. The power-play between the Spheres means there’s a precarious balance in the heavens which is ripe for all sorts of wonderful GM-spawned high-level adventures. Immortals are also obsessed with their own personal interests, so the Immortal of Boomerang Throwers might have an ongoing feud with the Immortal of Shuriken Wielders, even though they’re both members of the same Sphere. An Immortal who was originally an Elf might have a closer affinity for that race, or an Orc-born Immortal be busy poking his followers eyes out with a stick. Or whatever.

In short, the Classic D&D take on religion is living, dynamic, plot-filled and an order of magnitude awesomer than any other D&D Pantheon that’s followed.

Want more proof it’s so cool it hurts? One of the Immortals is a feckin’ Tyrannosaurus Rex! Yep, Classic D&D has a T-Rex GOD. Ka the Preserver, I salute you.

Next: Combat and that THAC0 thing

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Anyone who has read this blog for a little while already knows that I consider the D&D Rules Cyclopedia to be the definitive version of D&D, bar none. It’s my role-playing bible, the single best edition of the Dungeons & Dragons ever made. And this week, I’m going to show you why.

Each day I’m going to touch on just one piece of the Rules Cyclopedia, from character generation to encounters and combat, from monsters to the Known World and show why your game would benefit from a little Classic D&D injection, whatever Edition of the rules you use.

Is this the best D&D ever? I think so.

Let’s start with just the facts, ma’am. The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is a 300-page hardback book released in 1991 that collated the vast majority of the Classic D&D rules from the Basic, Expert, Companion and Master rules (and other supplements) into one single tome. Unlike 3rd Edition’s Rules Compendium, the Rules Cyclopedia contained everything you need to play – and when I say everything, I mean….. everything. From complete character generation for all levels of play from 1st to 36th (and beyond) to monster stat blocks, a complete game world (with colour hex maps) and more, the Rules Cyclopedia has the lot.

Basically, if it’s in D&D, it’s in this book. Want a Druid class? Paladins? Wandering Monster Tables? Planar Travel? Castle building? Seige combat? Naval combat? Manscorpions? Treasure tables? To get the equivalent content in 3rd Edition D&D you’d need all three Core Books and many other supplements to boot. By my reckoning, to equal the Rules Cyclopedia’s $24.95 value, you’d need to invest well over $200 in any other edition to even come close. Oh, and that $24.95 was the cover price back in 1991. Now, you can get all that goodness for around five bucks as a PDF from RPGNow. What’s not to love?

Ok, I’m gushing again. I’ll stop. Maybe. For a little while.

The thing is that not only is it a complete enough set of rules to keep me gaming and raving about it 18 years later, but it’s also damned good fun too. Sure, some of the rules might seem hinky on first impression, but the whole  thing hangs together beautifully. Unlike later Editions of D&D, if you want to change something you can without feeling like the whole thing is going to fall apart around your ears. This is a version of D&D that just begs to be toyed with, hacked and customized to your liking.

Y’know the crazy thing though? The more I play with the Rules Cyclopedia, the less I hack. It’s a zen-like voyage of discovery where you’ve got to go through the pages and pages of house rules and come out the other side.

Case in point: the Classic D&D Classes. In the Rules Cyclopedia we have Fighter, Thief, Magic-User and Cleric – all of whom are Human – and the demihuman “classes” of Elf, Dwarf and Halfling. In our campaigns we say that humans undergo a Casting ceremony while still a child (at birth or later, depending on religion and culture), and their path in life is revealed. The D&D human Classes are the character’s Caste, and wars have been fought over a child being Casted a Thief to a long line of noble Fighters. The other races have no such ceremony – an Elf is just an Elf – and are bemused by human’s pre-occupation with pidgeonholing each other. In many cultures, ordinary folks can’t afford the Casting ceremony (unless a kindly Cleric offers it for free), and end up as castless Commoners, shopkeepers, etc.

See? Suddenly the hinky Classic D&D classes make sense, and no House Rules needed. Zen, indeed.

Next: Let’s take a closer look at those Castes… I mean, Classes.

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