Game Review: BEAN!

BEAN! is a new fantasy roleplaying game system by Jeff Freels. What makes this game truly unique compared to the multitude of FRPG systems out there is that BEAN! is a D2 system. While one may wonder how a game system can be run using only a D2, Jeff has pulled it off quite beautifully.

BEAN! has an intentionally simple rules system. The mechanics are explained in seven (yes, that was 7) pages. There are another four pages of spells, two pages on money and equipment lists, two pages of sample monsters, and two pages of sample magical artifacts. But these are just trimmings. The fact that the core rules of the game are explained, and explained quite well, in only seven pages is extraordinary. The rules can be read and understood in 10-15 minutes. This makes BEAN! perfect for people new to role playing games, children, or for quick pick-up games among experienced gamers. The simple mechanics also make it perfect for solo play.

The mechanics of BEAN! are simple, straightforward, and fairly smooth. As I mentioned, BEAN! is a D2 system. What you use for 'dice' is therefore pretty flexible. You simply need something that randomly generates a '+' or '-'. This can be a coin (heads or tails), six-sided die (evens or odds), a flat bean as the game suggests with a '+' written on one side and a '-' on the other. This really adds to the flexibility of the game because you can play without any special equipment; you really just need a handful of coins.

To start a game you need to have some characters. BEAN! uses only three Attributes to define each character: Body which is a measure of physical strength, endurance, and dexterity; Mind which encompasses intelligence, wisdom, and logic; and Spirit which is a measure of luck, charisma, and mana. BEAN! also uses only three basic character types, similar to 5th edition Tunnels and Trolls. You can be a Warrior, Wizard, or Rogue and each character type has an linked attribute, namely Body, Spirit, and Mind respectively. In BEAN! Warrior are trained in fighting and survival, Rogues are scouts and thieves, and Wizards are mystics and scholars. All characters are rated by the number of 'beans' (or dice) in each of their attributes. Characters start with three beans in each attribute and one extra in their type attribute. Equipping starting characters is kept equally simple; give your character the basic equipment you would expect depending on his/her profession. If you're a warrior, take some leather armor, shield, spear, dagger, backpack, some torches, and maybe a rope and you're all set. No need to worry about shopping or budgets. In addition, characters may start with a random number of copper coins but this is actually discouraged by the author. Jeff makes the point (which I agree with) that characters should stay poor to encourage adventure. Why else would they risk life and limb?

The conflict resolution system of BEAN! really sets this game system apart. These are broken down into Contests, Challenges, and Combat. In each type of conflict, the player throws a number of beans, coins, or dice equal to the attribute being tested. The player tries to match a certain number of positive results as defined by the GM (+, heads, evens, odds) or get more positive results than his/her opponent. For example, if a character is trying to jump over a wide chasm to escape a band of twenty angry goblins, the GM first decides how hard it will be to make the jump. If it is not a particularly wide chasm, the GM may call it a moderate challenge and only require two positive results. This would be a Body challenge, so the player throws as many beans as his Body attribute and tries to get two or more positives. Simple. Combat works much the same way except that both opponents are throwing beans and trying to get a higher number of positive results. Weapons add to the number of beans thrown. The loser takes a number of hits to his/her Body attribute equal to how many beans he/she lost by minus any armor that may be worn. That's really all there is to it. There is also a built-in mechanic to allow for really difficult tasks to be accomplished by low level characters. The 'Add-A-Bean' rule allows a player to throw an extra bean if he/she throws all '+'s'; the player keeps throwing new beans until a '-' comes up.

The magic system is also straightforward. Wizards start with a number of spells equal to 2xSpirit. There is not limit on how many spells wizards may learn and they may cast spells repeatedly and without limit (only a maximum of once per round however); there is no memory or point-based attrition system. The combat spells, however, are about as effective as a normal weapon, so there seems to be a nice sense of balance. Spells are defined by a Difficulty Rating (1-4), which a wizard must roll against using their Spirit beans to determine if the spell is successfully cast. This is another nice check against the infinite spell-casting ability. The rules come with a nice list of 28 spells covering a broad range of effects; more than enough to keep any wizard busy.

The presentation of BEAN! is fairly tongue-in-cheek as might be expected. Jeff Freels is well-known for his art in the T&T community, and he has done a good job providing a lot of original artwork throughout the rulebook. Fantastic illustration of anthropomorphic beans wield swords and casting spells abound. The art definitely sets the mood for the game. While the art is comical, the overall layout of the book is very professional. I printed by rules in booklet format on 8.5 x 11 paper and it looks great.

In addition to everything mentioned above, the 27 page rulebook also includes an introductory 19 paragraph solo adventure and a short GM adventure so you can get started right away. Both are well-written and conceived. The solo adventure is perfect for first time gamers and could always be run as a one-on-one game with a player and GM. The GM adventure is pretty simple with only a handful of rooms to explore in the basement of a wizard's tower, but it would make for a fun night of gaming. Additional support material is already available for BEAN!, including a fun mini-solo adventure by Ken St. Andre (Death Phrogg Attack!) and two rather lengthy GM adventures by Mike Holcomb (Princely Ransom and Gone to the Dogs). All three of these are available for free from RPGNow.

As you can probably tell by now, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of BEAN! This is one of the most original and innovative RPGs to come out in quite some time. Plus, at only $2.00 for a pdf or there is really no reason not to have a look. I guarantee you'll like what you see. You can a pdf or print copy from RPGnow.

Plans for Year 2

Well, it's a new year already. I started this blog and Lone Delver Games in January 2010. I thought I'd take a moment to light a torch, look around inside my head, and write down my plans for this blog and LDG for the coming year, at the very least for my own sake.

My first goal is to have a few more posts this year than last. I had some pretty dry spells some months, but sometimes life just takes over. I now have four regular series that I plan on continuing:

1) Evolution of T&T: Yes, I will be continuing this series. There is a lot to write about here. Next up is Character Types.

2) Solo Design: I have a few new solo design ideas in the works including one on making sure that there are consequences for player actions, a second on plot twists, and a third on ways of allowing players to take initiative and make choices not offered.

3) House Rules: More of these are definitely on the way.

4) Adventures of Phineas the Red: He's been pretty inactive since his adventures in Sword for Hire, but I hope to be able to run some more solos with him this year. The next adventure I have planned for him is Labyrinth.

There will also be the usual miscellaneous posts including some game reviews.

I will also be publishing more material for Lone Delver Games. My solos sold fairly well in 2010. If anyone is interested, here are the final numbers sold:

House in the Hills: 44
Tomb of Baron Gharoth: 43
One of Those Nights: 32
Temple of Issoth: 344

Not too bad. They weren't flying off the shelf by any means and I'm not getting rich, but I am very happy with the interest in my writing. Of course Temple of Issoth was free, but I was and still am excited to see it being downloaded so many times. Hopefully it's getting some new people to try T&T.

For 2011 I plan on releasing two large (250+ paragraph) solo adventures for Tunnels and Trolls. The first will be the spaghetti-fantasy bounty hunting adventure I've mentioned. This should be released by June. The second will be ruin crawl through an ancient temple complete with traps, treasure, and something large and nasty. This one should be released by November.

I am also considering producing a couple more free products. The first will be a book of pregenerated and fully equipped characters for use in each of my solos. I'm thinking of having three or four characters specifically designed for each solo. The second will be a book of my house rules for T&T combat. This will cover all the basic fighting techniques, some of which I've covered in my blog, such as weapon, weapon and shield, two weapon, and two-handed weapon. My goal is to provide some unique advantages to each style without making overly-complicated rules.

Those are my plans. Of course plans always change but I think I've set some realistic goals. I won't be able to post again for another week (I know, bad start), but when I return my next post will be a review of the wonderful new rules-lite game BEAN!

Dual Weapons Revisited

I had three good comments to my post on dual wielding weapons so I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit the subject.

First off I would just like to say that I know that two weapons can be wielded at the same time. I have seen it done to great effect. I myself was in the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) and have seen several fighters wield two swords with great skill. But these were veteran fighters who had been practicing for years. Most used a sword and dagger but some used two swords; however, they never used two swords with blades longer than three feet and I certainly never saw anyone using two axes, spears, or maces. Of course they were using weapons made of rattan and not steel; but these fighting styles are also used by other historical recreation groups that do use steel weapons like the one pictured above and in my last post on this subject. So there is no question that it can be done in my mind, the question is simply how do you reflect this fighting style in game terms?

When fighting with two weapons at once, the weapon in the off hand is often used for defensive purposes (at least as far as I have seen). This off-hand weapon is used to block incoming blows, launch feints, and occasionally make attacks. This is my reason for reducing the effectiveness of the second weapon by not counting weapon adds. Another suggestion on Trollhalla was that the second weapon only provides extra adds in the amount of the dice plus one if the weapon has positive adds. A dirk (2+1), for example, would provide +3 adds if used as a second weapon. I like this idea, but I also like the random effect dice provide rather than pure adds. Of course, this penalty can be minimized by selecting weapons with the most dice and fewest adds. A short sword (3+0), for example, could be used as a second weapon with no penalty.

My comment on game balance had more to do with different fighting styles available to player characters rather than between characters and monsters. As Ken said, the fighting abilities of monsters are often balanced by game masters to match the characters. I usually don't subscribe to this idea, often presenting my characters with both push-over fights and hopeless ones; it's up to the players to figure when they should fight or not. But given the current rules I don't see why any character would not elect to use two weapons at all times. Mine certainly do. In T&T, characters can fight with one one-handed weapon often paired with a shield, one two-handed weapon, or two one-handed weapons.

Let's look at a match up between three warriors with a 14 Strength, 14 Dexterity, and 14 Constitution. Looking for maximum punch a warrior selects a headsman's axe with 4D+4 and pairs it with a pavise shield that can take 7x2 hits. Another warrior, wanting to get the largest weapon possible, selects a forkspear, a 7' polearm that gets 5D+2. Maybe it's not the most practical weapon to bring into a dungeon, but what the hell. A third warrior likes the flash of wielding two blades. He selects a saber and a haladie that gets 5D+8 combined. The warrior with two weapons is the most effective in combat according to the rules as written. Of course, the warrior with the shield can absorb 14 hits of damage, but the warrior with two weapons generates 1D+4 more per combat turn which is often enough to turn the tide of a battle.

I decided to assume that they all have equal personal adds and no body armor to see what happens when the two-weapon warrior faced the weapon-and-shield and two-handed weapon warriors in five battles using standard 7.5 edition rules. The two-weapon warrior fared very well against the two-handed warrior. He won all five fights, the longest taking only four combat turns while he won three fights in just two turns. In all five fights combined he only lost two combat turns both in the same fight. The weapon-and-shield warrior proved a bit more of a challenge due to the fact that he could absorb 14 hits of damage per turn. That's a good thing because the weapon-and-shield warrior lost 57 combat turns out of 60 in the five battles to the two-weapon warrior. The battles lasted an average of 12 turns, the longest being 17 turns and the shortest 9 turns. The two-weapon warrior was able to get past the shield eight times (2/1/1/2/2) over the course of the five battles. This was enough to soundly defeat the weapon-and-shield warrior every time.

These lopsided results point to the reason I think it is necessary to modify the dual-wield rules. I simply don't want the warrior with two weapons to always win a fight just because he has two weapons. This is why I wanted to add some kind of penalty to the second weapon and limit the size of the weapons used. Tom's suggestion of doubling the Dexterity requirement of the second weapon was quite interesting. This rule would definitely temper weapon combination. In the end, however, I think I prefer limiting the number of dice of the weapons that can be used and cutting the adds of the second weapon for the sake of simplicity.

I played out some quick fights with the house rules from my last post and did find them a bit wanting. So like any good set of house rules, I altered them. Here are my newly revised house rules for dual wielding weapons. I think that they are a little cleaner than my last set. Of course they are only my house rules and everyone has plenty of their own.

DUAL WEAPON WIELDING HOUSE RULES 2.0

No weapons with more than 3 dice may be wielded at the same time. This eliminates the ridiculous combination of heavy weapons like a broad axe and a pilum or a war hammer and morningstar. I know this is fantasy I cannot see this happening. Of course this rule applies to human-sized characters. This can be increased by one or two dice for such larger than human character types as trolls, ogres, or giants.

Warriors may use any two one-hand weapons with 3 or fewer dice. Rogues may use a second weapon with 2 or fewer dice. Wizards may not use two weapons at once. This reflects the extra training of warriors but allows rogues to use a dagger or similar as an second weapon. Wizards, with no combat training, are more likely to hurt themselves while trying to wield two weapons than their opponent.

Weapon dice are used for the second weapon but not weapon adds. This accounts for a slight loss in effectiveness of the second weapon in attacks. This is meant to help balance the three fighting styles even if it is not an ideal representation of reality.

The Temple of Issoth

I recently released a stand-alone version of my solo adventure The Temple of Issoth on RPGNow. This solo first appeared in TrollsZine #3 released in August. I have made a few modifications and improvements to the original solo, including corrected a couple of links, adding a few new paragraphs, and providing some new options. I have also added a color cover with art by Joe Calkins (Cerberus Illustration) and Robert Hemminger (Avalon Game Company). The interior of the book includes several black and white illustrations. The Temple of Issoth also includes three fully equipped pregenerated characters just in case you don't have a delver that meets the requirements of the adventure.

The Temple of Issoth is currently available as a free pdf download at my Lone Delver Games page. I will be releasing a print version of this solo on either LuLu or the new print on demand feature offered by RPGNow. So far The Temple of Issoth has been downloaded over 260 times!

THE TEMPLE OF ISSOTH

"You must help me. The priests of Issoth have carried my son away. He is to be sacrificed to their dark god this very night. I will pay you 100 gold talents if you go to the Temple of Issoth and rescue him."

Your blood chills at the mention of Issoth's temple. You have heard only rumors of that dark and forbidding place. Horrible stories of demons and the undead. The priests of Issoth are said to be fanatics that sate the great beast Issoth's every fiendish appetite. This man asks you to risk a great deal and offers very little in return. Do you dare enter THE TEMPLE OF ISSOTH?

This solitaire adventure is suitable for a single humanoid warrior with 20-30 combat adds. You may bring whatever weapons, armor, or equipment you wish. Three pregenerated characters are provided if you do not have one that fits the requirements.

One Sword or Two?

Starting characters are usually pretty poor fighters. Even a well-to-do starting delver will only be equipped with a weapon that provides three dice and a few adds. That's not much, especially when you are going it alone. One way to give your first or second level warrior or even rogue or wizard a leg up against that MR 30 goblin is to leave your shield behind and go into battle with a blade in each hand. With the right combination of Strength and Dexterity, any character can become a unstoppable killing machine; well, almost.

In a previous post I mentioned my preference for using two weapons over a weapon and shield. My personal favorite combination with starting warriors is a short saber and bank. In all T&T editions, as long a a character has a Strength and Dexterity equal to or exceeding the combined Strength and Dexterity requirements of two weapons, he can use those weapons at the same time and get the full combined dice and adds of both weapons. That's a pretty significant increase in fighting power. Even the weakest of characters could go into a fight with two banks requiring a ST and DX of 2 and get 4 dice and 6 adds. An average warrior with a ST and DX of 12 could use a short saber and haladie and get 5 dice and 5 adds. A more powerful warrior with a ST and DX of 19 could potentially wield a falchion and a short saber and get 7 dice and 5 adds on top of any personal adds, which if the character wasn't horribly unlucky would be at least another 14 adds. Not too bad. Such a warrior could handle a MR 50 monster single handed. The dual weapon wielding warrior not only has a better chance of winning a combat turn, but also effectively limits the number of hits he may take if he does lose. In this way the second weapon also doubles as a shield.

It does seem that this rather simple game mechanic can get a little unbalancing. In my play-by-post game, The Lost City, there are two dwarf characters, a warrior and a wizard. The warrior wields two short swords providing him 6 dice and 11 adds in combat. The wizard wields two kukri (daggers) providing him 4 dice and 20 adds (!!) in combat. Just these two characters, therefore, are able to muster 10 dice and 31 adds per combat turn. That's an average CBT of 61 between the two of them and they're first level characters; holy $%#^!

Given the power that using two weapons provides, I have previously stated that shields are almost useless in the rules as written. I tried to remedy this situation in another post with some shield house rules to make them a little more appealing. There is also the question of two-handed weapons. There are few cases where a single two-handed weapon provides the dice and adds of two one-handed weapons; so why bother with a polearm or two-handed broadsword unless your character concept demands the use of such weapons.

Despite the balance issue, there are more practical questions about fighting with two weapons to consider. For example, when fighting with two weapons, could you really get the most out of both? Is it reasonable that anyone could effectively fight with two broadswords, two scimitars, or two heavy flails? Does fighting with two weapons require special training and years of practice that most characters would not have (yes it does)? This is supposed to be heroic fantasy, however, and not an accurate re-creation of medieval combat. Almost every sword and sorcery story includes a warrior charging into combat with a weapon in both hands. So rather than removing the use of two weapons completely, why not alter the rules a little (i.e. complicate them) to keep the arms race under control.

To that end, I have come up with a few house rules for two-weapon fighting.

DUAL WEAPON WIELDING HOUSE RULES

Warriors only: Fighting with two weapons requires special training and practice. Warriors have this training, rogues and wizards do not.

One weapon must have at least 1 die less than the other: The weapon in the warriors off-hand should be smaller to maintain balance and speed. The classic example of this is fighting with a sword and dagger.

Weapons with five or more dice may not be paired with another: There is a limited set of one-handed weapons with five or more dice, but these may not be paired with another weapon.

Weapon dice are used for second weapon but not weapon adds: Only the dice for the second weapon are used in combat, weapon adds are excluded. This accounts for a slight loss in effectiveness of the second weapon. If the weapon has no adds or has negative adds, then it loses 1 die.

Still Delving

Only one post in November? Where has the time gone?

Over the next couple of months I plan on continuing my "Evolution of T&T" series. Future posts will include discussion of Attributes, Character Types, Levels, Arms and Armor, Combat, Spells, and of course Covers.

I also have a few new house rules posts rattling around in my head (two-weapon fighting, ranged weapon combat, and first level spell details) as well as two new Solo Design topics, Consequences and Twists.

I'm also working, somewhat sporadically, on a stand-alone version of my "Temple of Issoth" solo originally published in Trollszine 3. This will be fully illustrated, revised with some new sections, and available as a free pdf from RPGnow. My goal is to have this available by the end of December.

There are some new T&T blogs out there including "Deeper Delvings" and "Five-And-A-Half Trolls" that I plan to add to my list. If anyone knows of any others, please let me know. A few blogs on my watch list have not been updated in months; these I'll likely cut loose.

Inspiration from Clipart

A ruined arch sitting alone on a blasted landscape. The benign remains of an ancient civilization or something more sinister? What will befall those two curious travelers who have taken shelter in the dark shadows cast by the grim edifice? Will they dare to make camp beneath the crumbling stone structure as growing storm and darkness descends upon them? What lies beneath mounded earth surrounding the ruin? Why does nothing grow? It's not a bad start for an adventure; and you don't even need to go underground.