+-----+-------------------+ | 2d6 | Reaction | +-----+-------------------+ | 2 | Attack | | 3 | Robbery | | 4 | Threats | | 5 | Surly | | 6 | Confused | | 7 | Unsure | | 8 | Weighing the odds | | 9 | Take no risks | | 10 | Work together | | 11 | Friendly | | 12 | Helpful | +-----+-------------------+
The table above is my attempt at adding words to the venerable reaction roll table.
I’ve been noticing of late that my campaign has moved into fewer dice territory and I don’t know whether I should be happy about it. Today we had another session full of investigating and talking to humanoids, with maybe three or four reaction rolls. The party has main characters in the 5–9 level range, the party size somewhere between 15 and 20 characters. We used to avoid fights due to scouting, asking around, sneaking. These days we split the opposition, win some over, craft deals, build alliances and fight the rest when there is no more talking left to do. Also, my players have avoided megadungeons. Dungeon adventures are rare.
One player said at the beginning of the session that he wanted to go look for treasure. Then they all started talking about the closest crisis and how to resolve it peacefully and I interjected: “Well, one thing’s for sure – there isn’t any obvious ways to find treasure, here! Specially not by making peace.” They all nodded and continued their plotting. And at the end of the day, no treasure, no experience points. I don’t think anybody minded and next session it will all be about stone giants...
So, what now? Is it all good? Once players reach the mid levels of seven or eight, gaining levels is hard, and therefore it doesn’t really matter if you gain experience points—leveling up will take forever no matter what?
I’m leery of giving experience points for other things because it gets closer to “get experience points for sitting at the table”. I like the game aspect: If you want experience points, you need to do this. You (the players) need to find ways to do this, even though I (the referee) will distract you with other problems.
On top of it all I like the quandary of doing good and working for peace not increasing your power and influence. How good is the doing of good deeds if there’s great reward that comes with it? Straying into philosophy and ethics, I know. Having no immediate rewards gives meaning to sacrifice and pain. If in-game altruism is out-of-game selfishness, then it won’t work for me.
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Also note Courtney Campbell’s post, On Advancement Mechanics, Experience. There, he notes: “Basically this results in role-playing and planning heavy sessions with a large player buy-in and strong reinforcement for creative and intelligent play.” (in *Driving Player Behavior – Old School*)
On Advancement Mechanics, Experience
Even though I provide experience points for gold, Courtney later writes: “[...] but without an objective metric, it has moved too far away from ’game’ for me and too close to ’unstructured play’.” (in *But what about my Character exploration role-playing feel-goodery?!*) Strangely, my game still seems to be heading in this direction. All I have at the moment is the reaction roll. Courtney, on the other hand, has a $13 PDF, On the Non Player Character (also lots of posts on his blog). Back when it was released, I read a longer review by Brendan S. and decided that I was probably not going to need it and so I didn’t buy the book. When I first wrote this blog post I was no longer sure. Years later, after having bought the book and never having used it, I think that it’s not what I’m looking for.
After all, the reaction roll is Why B/X Is My Favorite #10, says P. Armstrong. More in Reaction Rolls - My favorite sub-system.
Reaction Rolls - My favorite sub-system
The last session of my campaign was all about preparing for a party of high elves and trying to identify one dude and getting him to join the cause of the party, or kill him, or make a third party take care of him using some blackmailing (which is how it turned out). Three hours and all we rolled was reaction rolls! Everybody cheered when we discovered that the new player who had brought a 1st level cleric to the table had also rolled an 18 for Charisma. 🙂
I guess that unless I start thinking about the kind of adventure hooks I provide in my sandbox, this kind of player diplomacy—sessions dominated by talking and the occasional reaction roll—will become more prevalent. Do I want to add Courtney’s minigame or do I want to engineer adventures that lead back to fighting?
Just recently, I looked over my reaction roll table and started thinking about adding some more words to help me improvise better. Add more words. More *suggestive* words. I also wondered whether I could turn it into a series of *Moves*, much like my thoughts on research and chases. Hm.
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A commenter pointed me to this blog post: The relative roles of conflict and violence (Fictive Fantasies).
The relative roles of conflict and violence
#RPG #Old School #Sandbox #Diceless
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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Why we have dice rolls, game mechanics and stats. An excellent read.
Why we have dice rolls, game mechanics and stats
– Alex Schroeder 2020-01-03 19:31 UTC
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Ghibli-esque Monster Reaction Roll: “The primary and simplest one was the replacement of the standard reaction table with something with a more complex and subtle arrangement of social and emotional interactions.”
Ghibli-esque Monster Reaction Roll
On romantic fantasy and OSR D&D: “If you use the reaction system, then instead of the dungeon becoming a series of tactical combat challenges, it becomes a network of *social* challenges. What does each group want? What does it need? What can you offer them, and what can they offer you? With a bit of quick thinking and a lot of heart, you can *talk* your way through a dungeon much more effectively than you could ever fight your way through it.”
On romantic fantasy and OSR D&D
– Alex Schroeder 2020-05-13 10:37 UTC
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Maybe something like the following:
+-----+-------------------------+ | 2d6 | Reaction | +-----+-------------------------+ | 2 | Attack, pursue | | 3 | Rob, denigrate | | 4 | Threaten, ridicule | | 5 | Melancholy, distracted | | 6 | Quarrel, infighting | | 7 | Dream, absorbed | | 8 | Reluctant, pondering | | 9 | Joyful, concomitant | | 10 | Cooperative, reasonable | | 11 | Friendly, open | | 12 | Enthusiastic, helpful | +-----+-------------------------+
– Alex Schroeder 2020-05-13 19:36 UTC
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Similar observation in this podcast episode: High Level OSR; Politics or Deeper Dungeons?, Bandit’s Keep.
High Level OSR; Politics or Deeper Dungeons?
– Alex 2023-03-30 10:23 UTC