My computer got a virus that totally messed up everything. I said screw it and I bought a new computer. The problem now is that my wife does not want me plugging any of my external hard drives or memory sticks into our new computer. She’s afraid the virus is hiding in one of these devices. So I am on a quest to figure out how to save all my game related stuff. I’m still working on the d30 Car Combat game but it is on hold until I can convince my wife to allow me to have access to it.

In the meantime I started working on another idea of mine. Well not mine idea actually. This idea has been around since I can remember, however this is my take on the 0-level character. This one is for D&D 4e.


Creating 0-level rules for 4e.
In creating these rules, I looked at the different 0-level rules created for previous editions for inspiration. I didn’t like how, in all the rules I looked at, that the rules were a completely different set of rules used just for 0-level characters and that it didn’t feel like the D&D game from 1st Level and on.

I wanted to create rules that made 0-level characters play the same way as any other level characters in 4e just with more limitations, and without the DM having to keep track of an alignment table or which weapons you have swung and how many times you swung it.


Why play a 0-level character?
Because there are some great roleplaying opportunities with a 0-level character that you truly cannot have with 1st Level characters.

Here are a few reasons to start players at 0-level;

Extremely new player: This person has never played and RPG of any kind. They don’t even know what RPG stands for. By starting this player at 0-level you limit their choices in combat and don’t overflow them with multiple at-wills, encounters, and dailies. You teach them the basic a little bit at a time.

Backgrounds: Maybe you have some free time on your hands before the campaign starts but a player really wants to play. You can create his character as a 0-level and you guys go through his background getting him to the place he starts in the campaign. This will give him a whole lot more detailed background and might even spark a few other ideas for the campaign as you play.

Nostalgic “Feel”: Remember the days when the starting characters were so weak that a scratch from a housecat could kill them? Well 4e 0-level characters are not that weak but playing them will remind you of the days when your characters were truly scared to go into that dungeon.


What do the players get for playing a 0-level character?

The game usually starts players at 1st Level, as heroes ready to save the world. Starting out as 0-level will make the campaign longer, taking longer to reach 30th Level, gives the players less powers than if they had started normally. Not to mention that characters can die really easy as 0-level characters.

It is suggested that players willing to go through with the 0-level start should receive something a little extra upon reaching 1st Level. Fitting within the current guidelines of the character advancement table in the PHB, we will add to the 1st Level Ability Score section a +1 to all ability scores for reaching 1st Level.

Note: According to the PHB page 11, when you round down you must end up with a whole number. Now the smallest whole number you can have is 0. So the number that is half of 0-level is 0.


Creating a Character
You follow the same 9 steps listed in the PHB (page 14) when creating a 0-level character as you do when creating a 1st Level character. Though there are a few changes to the steps as listed below.

Character Creation Steps
1) When choosing your Race you gain all the abilities of that race. If an ability specifically states that the ability is gained at 1st Level then you will not get that racial ability until you reach 1st Level. For example; the half-elf’s Dilettante ability or the Human’s Bonus Feat ability.
2) When choosing your Class use the following Template to help figure your class traits;


3) Your ability scores are determined as normal or as you DM sees fit for his campaign.
4) You are only trained in skills listed in your Race (Eladrin Education) or predetermined skills for the Class you have chosen (Arcana for Wizards). You cannot choose training in any other class skills until you reach 1st Level.
5) Starting Characters only start with bonus feats given to them from their chosen Class. There is another Feat option listed in the Special 0-level Rules Section (see below) that can be taken if the player wishes.
6) 0-level characters start the game with one 1st level At-will power offered by their chosen Class. (Humans receive a second one).
7) Check with your DM to see how much starting money your character begins with to purchase equipment.
8) & 9) These two steps remain the same as described in the PHB.

Note: If you are playing with regional background bonuses you will receive this bonus at 0-level.

Character Advancement
Character Advancement works just like normal D&D except 0-level characters begin the game with -500 XP. When a 0-level character builds up his XP to 0, he advances to 1st Level.

0-level characters are not part of the Heroic Tier, they are part of the special Novice Tier. Mechanically the Novice Tier works as if it was the Heroic Tier when it comes to choosing feats and such. The separation is noted only for future reference incase I want to expand on these rules. (yes of course I have ideas filed away)

The Character Advancement Table from the PHB (page 29) is updated here:


Advancing to 1st Level
Once you become 1st Level you will gain the following:

• You now have access to your Classes Armor and Weapon Proficiencies.
• Your Classes Bonus to Defense will be as described for the class you have chosen.
• You will gain hit points as described under your Classes ‘Hit Points per Level Gained’.
• You are now able to choose training in Skills as described in the class you have chosen.
• Any Racial abilities that require you to be 1st Level are now accessible.
• You gain 1 Feat
• You gain one 1st level At-will attack power, one 1st level encounter attack power and one 1st level daily attack power.

Special 0-level Rules

1st Level At-will Powers: Any 0-level character with a 1st Level At-will power is able to use it while at 0-level.

Action Points: 0-level characters start with no action points. They can only gain action points by reaching a milestone. After taking an extended rest they lose any action points they haven’t spent and upon waking up, have 0 action points once again.

Second Wind: 0-level characters cannot perform the heroic Second Wind combat action. They must rely on other means to use their Healing Surges.

Fumbles: Since 0-level characters are not fully trained they are susceptible to the fumble rules detailed in the DMG page 189. Once they become 1st level they will no longer have this hindrance.

Rituals: Characters that have access to rituals at 1st level also have access to the rituals at 0-level. 0-level characters can cast 1st level rituals at twice the time it would take them to cast the spell at 1st level. Everything else, including the component cost, remains the same.

Cantrips: Characters with cantrips gain the use of all their cantrips at 0-level instead of 1st Level.

Retraining: While there is nothing different about retraining in the 0-level rules, I just wanted to indicate that it can be done at 1st Level.

Feat instead of At-will: The player has the option to choose a feat rather than choosing an at-will power from his class. If he takes this option he does not gain a new feat at 1st level, but instead gain two at-will powers at first level instead of one.

Class abilities that deal extra damage:
Some class abilities deal extra damage in certain situations, sneak attack for example. When a 0-level character uses these abilities, they are performed as if they were a 1st level character, but with the damage halved.



Running a 0-level adventure should be like running any other level adventure. There is no extra alignment charts to keep track of, no “testing” weapons and spells by counting the number of times a player uses them.

The main thing to remember when running 0-level characters is to avoid making it feel like a 1st level adventure. Players with 0-level characters want to feel as if there characters are learning the ropes, and while not quiet a hero yet, they want to slowly become heroes.

Some ideas for 0-level campaigns:

Apprenticeship: The characters are still learning their chosen profession. They have a mentor teaching them.

Adventure idea: The mentor sends the characters on a coming of the age quest, or the mentor is captured and needs the help of his students.

Peasants: The characters are farmers, herdsman, peasants who show great promise of making something of themselves.

Adventure idea: Their town/farm/sheep is under attack by some recently moved into the area monsters. With no real adventures around to help, these characters take to arming themselves and taking matters into their own hands.

Slaves: Born into slavery or peasants recently captured and turned into slaves. They usually start out with nothing.

Adventure idea: Either the characters escape their masters or are released; they must now fend for themselves.

Children: The characters are just reaching puberty and are now finding out what kind of trouble they can get themselves into.

Adventure idea: Finding themselves the target of a double-dog dare, the children leave their safe point of light and head into the darkness or a group of bandits came through their village killing all the adults, the adventurer children escape capture but now must figure out how to survive.

Finding Instructors: The characters are on the verge of becoming heroes but need to be trained.

Adventure idea: The entire 0-level portion of the campaign can be a hunt for someone skilled at the player’s class so that they can be trained into 1st Level.

Prisoners: The characters have or are spending years of time in a dungeon. They usually start out with nothing.

Adventure idea: The characters were framed for a crime they didn’t commit and now must escape and prove their innocence. Or maybe they did commit the crime but after escaping must live the life of an adventurer or face the consequences of their crime.

Actions the Rules Don’t Cover
The Actions the Rule Don’t Cover on page 42 of the DMG is very useful when dealing with things outside the printed rules, but it doesn’t include 0-level characters. Well here is the updated table for those actions.


0-level Monsters
Using the guidelines in the DMG page 174 you can turn a 1st Level monster into a 0-level monster by decreasing its level by one. You can also create your own 0-level monsters as described in the DMG page 184 (remember level equals 0 and zero times any number is zero.)

You can use the Normal Damage Expressions and Limited Damage Expressions tables above to determine damage dealt by the 0-level monster you’ve created.

Here is the XP values for the 0-level monsters you create.


Creating Encounters for 0-level parties:
For the most part you do things as normal. Here is a modified Target Encounter XP Total table from DMG page 57. It should help spending an XP budget for the encounter.


One more cool thing about 0-level encounters is that you can finally create easy encounters for your 1st level parties as well.

Treasure
1st Level characters begin the game with 100 gp to spend on equipment, weapons, and gear. They don’t start with any magical items or things of the sort. This puts a damper on handing out treasures for 0-level characters.

If we look at treasure in a slightly different way for 0-level characters, you can instead of having the players purchase their gear, use this unique opportunity to make the equipment, weapons, and gear BE the treasure the players find.

This means each 0-level character will have 100 gp worth of ‘treasure’ to acquire during their 0-level adventure.

For those partial to the parcel system here is the recommended parcels for one 0-level character.


The parcels listed above are total gold. You can break this up anyway you see fit. For example using parcel 6, the character gets a suit of chainmail armor (40 gp) and a short sword (10 gp) as gifts from his father before heading out on his adventuring life.

Additionally, you do not have to start players out with nothing. You can give them one of the parcels during character creation to purchase starting equipment. Of course this all depends on the DM and the starting 0-level campaign he has planed.

For each additional character you add one Parcel equal to 100 gp, so a group of 5 characters will have a total monetary treasure vale of 500 gp with 10 Parcels of treasure.

When coming up with ‘treasure’ for the 0-level characters, listen to what kind of characters the players want to play. Don’t give the rogue a suit of plate mail or the wizard a falchion. Wish lists are especially useful for 0-level characters.

Some DMs like to give out gifts or magical heirlooms to players before starting the game. This is of course outside the 100 gp Parcel system. 0-level games allow DMs to hand out these items during play without it feeling artificial.

Well here you go, my take on the 4e 0-level characters. Drop me a line if you like it, or even if you don’t. Suggestions are great as well. Attached is a PDF version of this blog for those who want to print out a copy of these homebrewed rules.

Thanks,
King Nate

King Nate

Ok, after some computer problems and loss of some files, I am back. Lucky for me I keep my game information on a separate external hard drive so I didn’t lose any of my game files.

So previously I talked about my background in game creating and then discussed the 5 basic guidelines I set for myself for this new game. Here I am going to discuss the type of game I am creating.

I have decided to create a car combat game. I remember, when I was younger, picking up Car Wars, wondering how this game worked. I never bought it, nor to this day, have I ever played Car Wars.

To begin with, I am not exactly sure why I am making a car combat game. You see, I don’t like cars and I don’t know anything about cars. This is coming from a guy whose first car blew up because there was no oil in it, and his second car also blew up because there was no oil in it. I haven’t watched any Mad Max movies in a couple decades and the whole car combat craze died for most in the 80’s, then in the 90’s for everyone else.

Like I mentioned before I started playing D&D 4e in a PBP game on www.thetangledweb.net and in their silly game posting area there is a posting game called Race War. It must be pretty popular since it is always being bumped up. I initially thought it was a car combat game similar to Car Wars, as it turns out it is nothing more than people making fun of the D&D races, or something like that.

This Race War post however catches my eye every time I log into my D&D game. So after all these years I thought I would finally get around to checking out this Car Wars game from Steve Jackson (I believe). However I cannot find too much information on google. Maybe I’m not looking in the right spots, who knows. So because of that Race War post, and my lack in ability to find any concrete information on Car Wars, along with the fact that I just like making games, made me decide to just create my own car combat game.

So the second thing I did after creating the guidelines for my game was research the other car combat games out there. (For those wondering I haven’t mentioned the first thing I did yet…that will come in the next blog.)

I found a bunch of homebrewed rules, many of which are just mere skeletons of an actual game. The creators of these games probably know exactly how to play the game, but was either too lazy to fill in all the details or figured that everyone played the other car combat games that they based theirs off of and decided not to help out those of us who have never played a car combat game.

I did find one Dark Future from Game Workshop as a free download. A descent game except for the fact that your cars can’t turn! That’s right you can only go forward or backward. It’s like a racetrack, as you circle the racetrack you try to kill each other. I like a lot of the game, but would like the freedom to turn left or right, like most cars do.

One of the things I noticed in all these games is that you are either in a post apocalyptic world or in some kind of car combat arena. (For the record, I don’t know anything about Car Wars so I don’t know if it fits either one of these stereotypes). I don’t want to limit people to these two styles of play. Pretty much I want to first create a rules system that will work in both of these styles and more.

The next blog I will discuss the first thing I did after creating guidelines for the game along with a couple of problems I had.

King Nate

After going through an incomplete history of my previous game making life, it’s time to talk about why I am making a blog about this new game, why I am even making a new game, and to set out some guidelines for the new game.

My wife, who does not enjoy games, though I constantly try, was looking at one of her friend’s blog. My wife turns to me, as I am studying my Japanese, and tells me that we need to start up our own blogs.

I laugh her off, because I don’t have anything worth blogging about. Once I get my turn at the computer (we need to get another computer), I start brainstorming an idea for yet another game.

Then it hit me, I can write a blog about this game making process I’m just about to start. I can get feedback and suggestions. I can keep track of my train of thought so I don’t lose track of the type of game I wanted to make. Some good can come from this whole blog thing after all. So that is the why I am writing a blog.

I started off my giving myself some guidelines to follow. I don’t plan on breaking these guidelines, however if a better game can be created by breaking them, I will, but I will do my best to stay within these guidelines I set for myself.

The first thing I wanted as a guideline; To make a perfectly compatible game between tabletop and PBP (or PBEM).

This whole idea for my new game sprang to mind from my current online PBP (play by post) D&D 4e game at www.thetangledweb.net I moved to Japan recently and as a result lost a lot of available people to play games with. I turned to the internet. I discovered PBP games a long time ago, but always thought they we silly. Now I decided to give them a try, desperate times call for desperate measures. While I’m having a lot of fun with the game, as it turns out playing D&D 4e online just isn’t the same. Immediate Actions messes everything up. Opposed skill checks and stuff like that, there are some things as a DM I have to do that I wouldn’t in a real game. I wanted a game that would be able to play in a PBP very easily yet still have the fun cinematic feel of D&D 4e. That’s when I decided it’s time to make another game.

Guideline 2; how to determine random outcomes.

Now I am a big fan of the percentile dice (1d100) it’s perfect in my mind. As a GM you decide the difficulty of the situation in percentage and the player rolls under that percentage. For players that like rolling high numbers you determine the percentage of failure and then that player must roll higher than that number. Everything can be converted into percentages pretty easily.

The other thing I like to do when creating games is to use as many different dice as possible. So if I don’t use the percentile dice I will use ALL my dice.

I also like the d20 set up, especially in 4e. You take the most popular die in the game and build the system around it, and it all seems to work out pretty good.

So after going over my three favorite options, I decided to take a page out of the d20 book, but not with the d20. You see, every time I open my dice bag I am mocked by my purchase of the d30. While I have done my best to add the d30 to other games it feels extremely underused. So I want to make the whole system based on the d30, similar to the d20 method.

Guideline 3; Cinematic.

I greatly enjoy WotC’s decision to make a more cinematic D&D opposed to a realistic model. Most of the game’s I’ve ever created or modified was based off of realism. This will be the first time I will focus on a more cinematic experience.

Guideline 4; Simple

Since this will also be a PBP compatible game it needs to be simple enough to have each person make all their actions and dice rolls in a single turn.

Guideline 5; Easy math

This is really a combination of guidelines 2 and 4, but I gave it its own guideline because I wanted to constantly remind myself to not go overboard with this. I only want to have addition with no subtraction, and I want high rolls to mean good and low rolls to mean bad.

To sum this up, here are the 5 guidelines I set for myself while making this game.

1. Make a compatible tabletop to PBP (PBEM) game.
2. Use d30 system.
3. Cinematic over realism.
4. Simple to play.
5. Easy Math.

The next blog I’ll talk about the type of game I am creating. What genre it falls under and how it will be different from the other games in that genre.

King Nate

So I began designing another game today...

Ever since I can remember I’ve added rules to everything I’ve ever played with, or modified existing rules into something more of my liking. I’m sure there is some name for this mental disorder I have, if you know it please let me know so I can seek help.

You see, I couldn’t play with my action heroes until I created rules for them, usually with some kind of resource management abilities, when you run out of poker chips you can no longer fire your weapon until you restock your chips.

Legos? Everyone gets a certain number of specific colored blocks to build their spaceship (or what-have-you) out of. After everyone is finished we fly around shooting each other. Each person gets one shot a turn. When you take a shot, you pull a random block out of the pillowcase. If your spaceship has that shape and colored block, then it is destroyed and removed from your ship. If you lose a wing you crash and burn.

A large piece of paper? Turns into a board game.

Books? I might have done well if I read them instead of building houses out of them. I would then decorate each “house” with bad guys, hostages, weapons stocks. My little brother would be armed with nothing but bombs (AAA batteries) and listening devices (a scrap wire with a broken toy tied to the end of it). He could only use the listening devices a certain number of times before it broke and at times had to guess whether or not he should use bombs on certain houses risking the lives of the hostages he was trying to save. Each hostage saved was a point, each one killed lost one point.

Drawing? I even made rules for my art and turn pictures into games. Depending on what the picture or drawing was determined stats for the picture. It’s still a bit fuzzy remembering how I made my drawings come to life, but I remember having fun with it.

Then one day I was introduced to D&D and had a blast in my only game. I played someone else’s character, a wizard armed with all kinds of magical devices. The one that stuck out at me the most was something called the wand of wonder. The first opportunity I got to use that wand I went for it, and it didn’t take long, “I wonder what is behind this wall” I said to myself before pointing the wand and unleashing holy hell into the dinky room I was in. I was hooked. I bugged my mom for days, weeks, months, and yes, years for her to buy me the game known as D&D.

But I didn’t just sit around doing nothing waiting for her to buy me the game…I made my own D&D game. I called it “The Beginning of Dungeons and Dragons”. Ok, so I wasn’t very original with the name and I wasn’t very original with the game either. The game started exactly like that one game I played, we were all sitting in a bar minding our own business when a stranger walks up and asks us to go on a treasure hunt. I guess my first DM wasn’t very original either; he helped lay the brickwork for all those tavern starting games in my youth. Did I mention that everyone who played The Beginning of Dungeons and Dragons always started out with a wand of wonder and that we were stuck with boring dice with only six sides?

Oh and when I finally got the red box for Christmas I added a lot of my own rules. “Why is there no ability for perception?” The seventh ability is called sight, then came hearing, smelling, and huge homemade charts to determine what color your hair was. Sometimes I think I went a little too far.

I’ve played so many different games growing up that mechanics or rules I liked in one game ended up in other games.

I even made rules for video games! Super Streetfighter II Turbo had a cheat code that allowed you to lock special moves of the fighters. I created charts where you roll to determine your character, his handicap (stars), and which specials he had unlocked. We would then randomly determine how many turbo stars each fight would have, then we fought. One of my friends ended up with Saget with max stars and a tiger knee attack. He was tough to beat, but if I remember correctly I was the one that finally took him out. This apparently was one of the most fun created ideas I had, since I still hear about it to this day.

These days I still find myself modifying or creating games. I’ve created a super monopoly game, added a campaign storyline to Magic the Gathering, made games out of boxing, pro wrestling, football, and baseball. I have homebrewed war games and my very own poker game (which I'm very proud of). I have numerous hard drives filled with homemade games, homebrewed house rules for just about any game you can think of, and folders of game ideas and started, yet unfinished games.

So I began designing another game today...and in my next blog I will go into details of why and what kind of game I am working on. Along with why I am making a blog about it.

KING NATE

King Nate