I posted up to guage intereste at a FLGS for a session 0 and basic encounters to demonstrate the rules; 3
players so far. Hopefully will get a couple more as I'd expect a couple may not be able/not want to establish a regular game.
SIEGE is probably my favorite thing to talk about, so don't mind answering any questions you might have. One thing I'll say up front is that it's very "bare bones" by design, making it easy to tweak into exactly what you like.
There is quite a lot of jargon, so I'll just explain it the way I do it if running Rules as Written (RAW):
There is one "Target Number" (TN) for all rolls that determines success for Saves and "Skills": 18
There are a number of things that modify that roll: Prime and Attribute bonus.
Each described here: Prime: You get 3 attributes (2 if demi-human) at creation that are "Prime". Prime attributes get a +6 to their rolls. Attribute Bonus: Derived from score. Uses B/X spread (9-12 average).
Since these two things are pretty static, to make things easier you can now just adjust the TN for each attribute and note it on your character sheet.
For instance, a Level 1, Prime STR 16 (+2) character would need 10 or higher (18 - 6 (Prime) - 2 (Attribute Bonus)) to succeed a "typical" Strength challenge.
I said "typical" because there is one final layer of complexity: Challenge Level (CL)!
This is what used to determine how hard the task is. Thankfully, this is usually just the difference between Level/Hit Die of the target in question and the character. In the times you don't have that handy though, you'll need to assign your own number, usually 0-10.
Anyways, this is the number you will need succeed your modified TN by to actually succeed! BTW, I refer to the number written on your sheet at THCL0, for "To Hit Challenge Level 0".
Okay, that's a lot of words for something that is stupid simple, so lets use a couple examples:
Let's stat out the rest of our Level 1 character above:
STR* 16 (+2), DEX 12 (+0), CON* 13 (+1), INT 9 (+0), WIS 15 (+1), CHR* 8 (-1) (X ) is the attribute bonus, * denotes Prime.
Our calculated THCL0 for each would be:
STR [10], DEX [18], CON [11], INT [18], WIS [17], CHR [13]
Character want to arm wrestle the local bully for coin. Bully has 2 HD.
DM: "Give me a STR check to see if you win."
PC: "I rolled a 13, so I beat CL 3 (13 - 10)."
DM: Sees the CL is 1 since the difference in Level/HD is 1 (2 - 1)
DM: "You slam the bully's hand against the table causing him to grimace from the force..."
A Harpy uses Captivating Song to lure the player into doing its bidding! Harpy has 3 HD.
DM: "Give me a CHR check to see if you resist."
PC: "I rolled a 14, so I beat CL 1 (14 - 13)."
DM: Sees the CL is 2 (3 - 1)
DM: *Sorry, the Harpy's song is just too much for you. You lay down your sword and slowly approach the monster."
The character wants to walk a rope strung tight between two raised platforms.
DM: "Give me a DEX check to see if you make it across."
PC: "Oh boy, this is probably a bad idea... Might not help, but I pull out the staff I found and use it to balance."
PC: "I rolled a 13, so -5 CL... I'm guessing I don't make it?"
DM: Doesn't have an exact CL, so goes with 0, but likes the staff idea, so makes it CL -2 to be nice.
DM: "Ha, sorry, not even close. You go tumbling down to the ground and take D6 damage from the fall."
Okay...I kinda get all of that. How does it work for attacks?
Say, Igor attacks an Ogre with his sword, or Markus casts a fireball at a group of Gnolls.
Yeah, I could definitely see many combinations of class and a half being too good. (A barbarian with cleric spells would be scary.) My campaign just used it as one for one swaps on classes that traditionally had spells, so it wasn't terribly disruptive at our levels.
There is one "Target Number" (TN) for all rolls that determines success for Saves and "Skills": 18
There are a number of things that modify that roll: Prime and Attribute bonus.
I said "typical" because there is one final layer of complexity: Challenge Level (CL)!
This is what used to determine how hard the task is. Thankfully, this is usually just the difference between Level/Hit Die of the target in question and the character. In the times you don't have that handy though, you'll need to assign your own number, usually 0-10.
And here's my problem with that: That seems like a lot of steps to do the same thing a regular DC difficulty roll does, but with more steps and less clarity. It really feels like the Trolls' house rules that they love and have never really interrogated.
What advantage does SIEGE (which isn't actually an acronym) have over a standard D20 roll system?
Okay...I kinda get all of that. How does it work for attacks?
Say, Igor attacks an Ogre with his sword, or Markus casts a fireball at a group of Gnolls.
Siege engine is for skills & saving throws. Attacks are the base to hit ability mod (basically 3e attack model). So a fighter starts at +1 base attack at lvl 1 and it increases 1 per lvl. Wizard starts at +0 and it goes up every two lvls. But (besides a class ability from fighters) you really only have attack per round. Since HP is lower the fights usually don't go that long.
The CKG has options for different ways of doing the siege engine. That is just for 'skills' & saves.
The basic model is base difficulty 18 for your bad saves/skills (non-prime) and 12 base difficulty for your good saves/skills (primes).
A fair amount of players use the base difficulty of 18 for all saves/skills and a PC's good rolls (prime) get a +6 to the roll.
I like the 15 base difficulty for all and +3 for all prime rolls, -2 for all non-prime rolls. But that's me. Most games don't go past lvl 12 so it hasn't been an issue.
I also use half creature HD or PC level (rounded up) for saves/skill checks because I like more success at later levels.
Again, lots of options in CKG.
And here's my problem with that: That seems like a lot of steps to do the same thing a regular DC difficulty roll does, but with more steps and less clarity. It really feels like the Trolls' house rules that they love and have never really interrogated.
What advantage does SIEGE (which isn't actually an acronym) have over a standard D20 roll system?
It's just a different way of doing things. D&D 5e has the expectation of getting to 20th level. C&C games i've seen usually cap out around lvl 12. So instead of waiting for the +6 proficiency bonus of high levels for characters, I am using a +10 bonus by lvl 10. And since the difficulty adjustment is equivalent to the adversary HD, rolls tend to be in that same area.
For prime rolls, I have used advantage on rolls vs the 6 point difference in difficulty before and it worked fine.
If I went back to C&C -- and WotC's new OGL nonsense could theoretically do it -- the first thing I'd do is just write up a single page (or, rather, rewrite it from 3E D&D) on the D20 DC system and have done with it. Heck, I might even publish it under C&C's own license to provide an alternative for other switchers.
