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No Hit Points? No Problem!

As anyone who's read the Oz books knows, it's easy to fall into a trap. It's really easy. How often did Dorothy and company get steered into the wrong place, or fall into someplace bad? Per book? Yeah.

Guess what? It can happen to game designers, too.

As I create this blog post, I'm putting the finishing touches on the new, updated version of Instant Oz. The version that's currently out now is great, but it still doesn't capture the essence of playing in an Oz book. It was just about there, but not quite. I couldn't put a finger on it.

By the way, I'm also drawing up a document for Instant Oz using the Fate Accelerated Edition rules, seeing as I want to add a Fate version as a stretch goal to our forthcoming Kickstarter campaign.

Now then, what is so brand-spanking new about Instant Oz? Well, Heroes are just a little bit different. For one, the Abilities are changed up and made a lot more intuitive. There are six of them and cover everything an Oz Hero needs to do (Lifting, Thinking, Moving). The other one is that I greatly simplified the conflict system.

See, this is where the trap is. With pretty much every game system out there having a way of tracking your downward spiral, I felt that I needed to have the same thing, in some way shape or form. Therefore, while there is no damage track or hit points, there is a three-strikes-you're-out mechanic and a requirement to track consequences.

However, every time I've ever played this version of the game with my group, I've never used either. Honestly, they just seemed to get in the way. So now, with this new version of the rules, all that is gone.

Simply put, matter what you do, you roll the dice, find the result, then narrate the result. In a conflict, both opponents roll, find the results, see who wins, winner narrates. If it makes sense to keep the conflict going, then it keeps going. If not, it doesn't.

I have found that this makes everything just go so much faster.

Seriously, how many times have you seen an extended conflict in the Oz books? Yeah, I didn't think so.

I also feel that doing it this way really puts the narrative into the players' hands even more, and I think people are smart and creative enough to determine when a conflict logically ends.

So yes, no hit points, no wit points, no hit locations, no damage tracks, no lists of consequences, just dice rolls and narration. Sweet, easy, and beautiful.

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A new "Approach" to Heroes of Oz

All righty, folks, another quick update for y'all. I'm finishing up on revising Instant Oz, and it will be going into layout shortly. Also, Evil Hat finally released the open content for Fate Core and Fate Accelerated Edition, so I'm also preparing a FAE version for your enjoyment, too. Just to give you an idea of what an Oz character looks like in Fate Accelerated, here's Red Reera the Yookoohoo: http://bit.ly/11CbbO4

But first, I will finish and upload the updated Fudge game. Here's the thing, though: There's going to be two versions of the Fudge game going  up. See, FAE has this great way of building characters: instead of distributing levels for WHAT your character can do, she has Approaches, defining HOW she does it instead. I just fell in love with this. The game has six Approaches: Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, and Sneaky. How cool is this? So when you go to do something, you tell the GM how you're doing it and roll against it. In FAE, your Aspects tell you what you can do, and aren't leveled; just the Approaches are. I think this is a real innovation here. So, when doing all this revising, I decided to swipe the Approaches method and convert it to Fudge (easy enough, considering Fate's origins). So far, it seems to work like a charm.

Just to give you an idea of what I've been up to, here's how I have Dorothy statted up, both for the standard version, and for the Approaches version.

First off, here's the updated Ladder: Outstanding Superb Great Good Fair So-So Awful "Fair" is still the "average" for Heroes, just like in Plain Vanilla Fudge. So, having that, here she is, first using the regular (updated) rules: Type: Human Body: Fair Brains: Fair Heart: Great Agility: So-So Friendship: Good Talent (Kansas Farm girl): Good Gifts: Forceful Personality: +2 to Friendship when confronting someone socially; Princess of Oz Trouble: Honest to a fault And now the Approaches rules: Concept: Kansas farm girl and princess of Oz Careful: Good Clever: Fair Flashy: Fair Forceful: Great Quick: Good Sneaky: So-So Gift: Forceful personality: +2 when Forcefully confronting someone socially Trouble: Honest to a Fault I will be uploading both revised versions of Instant Oz (complete with a couple of adventures, to make it even more "instant") to RPGNow and to this web site, and then I'll put up a poll for you, the players, to vote for which you like better. See, I'm kind of leaning towards the Approaches method, but I still like the work I've done with the other rules, so I can't make up my mind which to make the default version. Therefore, it'll be up to you, and whichever version you like more, that's what will become the one, true Heroes of Oz RPG. -Mike

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Major updates coming...

Sorry, we've been silent here in the Land of Oz, but we've been busy. We have a major update coming soon, so subscribe to either the RSS feed or the e-mail subscription form on the right. This is going to be big, so hold onto your hats!

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Statted up: The Tin Woodman - FATE Edition

Last time, I posted the official stats for The Tin Woodman for Heroes of Oz. I got some good feedback with it, and I'll be posting more stats soon (and while we're at it, who would you like to see?). For those not aware, the FATE system is a build of Fudge, the same game system that powers Heroes of Oz, and was released by the folks at Evil Hat Productions. Some of the ideas that are in FATE show up in my own Storybook Fudge (see here for more on that), but I love FATE as it is, especially the version that shows up in the Dresden Files RPG. They did put a system resource document (SRD) of the rules from DFRPG , so I decided to try it out by building Nick with it, and I'm rather pleased with the results. You can read the rules here for yourself. Partially, I did this for fun, but the other reason was that we're looking into doing a FATE version of Heroes of Oz later. I've had people get excited when I've mentioned that, so it's something to consider. I wouldn't mind putting that out. I did use the DFRPG for a little help when picking Nick's stunts, and I'm pretty satisfied with what I came up with for him. Feel free to leave some comments on either these stats or even the previous ones I posted. Nick Chopper, The Tin Woodman of Oz Aspects High Concept: Master of the Ax Trouble: Rusts solid when wet Raised in the Munchkin Woods Hollow Body of Tin Has a kind, but not loving, heart Nickle-plated emperor of the Winkies "Unlike you meat people, I never tired or need food" Skills Superb: Weapons Great: Presence, Rapport Good: Conviction, Survival Fair: Might, Performance Average: Alertness, Intimidation Stunts Wall of Death - Nick is good enough with his ax that he can take on multiple opponents that are attacking within his zone. Best Foot Forward - Nick is just a sweet guy, and gets a +1 to rolls when making a first impression Natural-born Leader - People, especially the Winkies, look up to Nick, so he gets a +1 when commanding a group, and when coordinating a group efforts, moves 1 time increment faster Personal Magnetism - Since people are drawn to Nick in a friendly manner, he recieves a +2 to rolls for getting passive reactions to him. Stress Physical OO Mental OOOO Social OO Other Stats Power Level - Feet in the Water Skill Cap - Superb Skill Points Spent - 25 Fate Point Refresh - 2

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Statted Up: The Tin Woodman

Okay, it's been way too long since this site has been updated, so it's time to change that. To start with, let's take a look at my personal favorite. Once a flesh-and-blood man, Nick Chopper fell in love with the wrong woman, and his ax was cursed to cut him to pieces (the whole sordid tale is recounted in The Tin Woodman of Oz). Remade with a tin body, he continues on as the Tin Woodman, never tired and always ready to lend a hand. His new tin body didn't have a heart, but an adventure to see The Wizard of Oz changed that, and now he carries the softest and kindest heart in all the land of Oz, and has even earned a position as the Emperor of the Winkies.

Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman

Abilities Fair Body Fair Mind Great Heart Good Agility Superb Friendship Benefits Master of the Ax: Nick's ability is Superb when using his ax Emperor of the Winkies Has made many friends across Oz Troubles Rusts solid when wet Extremely vain - loves to talk about how superior his tin body is compared to "meat" ones. An optional Trouble to consider: Nick's ax was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East. What's not specified is whether his ax is still cursed as he continues to carry it, or if he got a new one later. Since it's cursed to cut off flesh body parts, it no longer works against the Tin Woodman, but if someone else were to try and use it, they might also be in for a trip to the tin smith. Design note: I originally considered giving Nick a Trouble of Pacifism, but then I realized that he's had no trouble taking a life if doing so protected his friends or innocent people. He also offered to rally the Winkies to fight against the Nome King's army in The Emerald City of Oz, so, unlike Princess Ozma, he doesn't really have a problem with violence.

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Statted Up: Nyan Cat

This isn't the post that I promised, but I woke up in such a strange mood, I had to do it. I think this character would be so at home in Oz. Presenting... Nyan Cat! (Note: I've researched as much as I can, but couldn't find a reference to gender, so in these stats, it's a girl)

Nyan Cat

Type: Animal (Cat with a cherry Pop Tart for a body) Body: So-So Mind: Good Heart: Good Agility: Superb Friendship: Great Benefits: Singing makes people happy Flies through space Can get into the darnedest places Subplots: Diet of candy; vegetables are poison to her Many natural enemies due to having a cherry Pop Tart for a body Despite her high Agility, has a limited range of movement

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Design Notes #2: Story Points: Why Use Them?

In my last post, I talked about how much of a good thing it is when bad things happen to your character. I hope you enjoyed it. I also mentioned how some games, including this one, use points to help emulate bad things being good things. But really, I can hear some of you saying, that all seems like bribery. Why can't you just say what you want to do, roll the dice and let the results fall where they may? After all, if it's an important plot point, or the Game Master wants to make sure nothing bad happens to your character, he can always just fudge those rolls. This is true, but to me, constant fudging really cheapens the experience. After all, why even roll the dice if the GM is just going to undo the results? Come to think of it, why is the GM supposed to do all this work anyways? Where's the fun in this? The way I figure it, the traditional style would basically be Dungeons & Dragons in Oz. Bear this in mind: I like Dungeons & Dragons. It's what got me into role-playing. I even like the current 4th edition of the game (just don't get me started on Essentials). But if I wanted D&D, I would play D&D, and as much as I like it, I don't believe it would work to emulate playing in an Oz story. As I also said in the last post, it's the characters that makes things happen in a story. In order for that to happen, the responsibility for making those things happen goes to the player. This is going to be a radical shift in thinking for those of you used to the traditional model of role-playing. I understand. I had to make that shift as well, but once I did, it opened up a whole new world. So what exactly do Story Points do? Simple: They allow the player to rewrite part of the world to their character's benefit. Yeah, you read that right. By spending a Story Point, you can make the world benefit the character. Need an axe conveniently laying around? Spend a Story Point. Does the witch you're facing owe you a favor? Spend a Story Point. Did the dice give you a really bad result? A Story Point gives you a do-over. Do you want to make sure that the final act of the story results in a happy ending? Save a Story Point and spend it at the right moment to make everything work out nicely. To use this nice little rule, the Historian (Heroes of Oz's name for the Game Master), need only remember three little words to tell the player: "You tell me." "Hey, is there an axe laying around?" "You tell me." "Would it be all right if the witch and i knew each other before?" "You tell me." "I just rolled -4? Dang, can I reroll?" "You tell me." That's right, player, get creative. This isn't one of those games where the GM has to do all the work. This is your game! Your story. Make it such. Of course, you have to be able to acquire these points as well. How do you get them? While the rules will expand upon this, there are three ways to get them: 1. Start out with a minimum number at the beginning of each story. 2. Let the Historian do something bad to your character. 3. Do something really cool that makes the Historian or the other players laugh, stare in awe or cheer. Role-playing hath its rewards. I know some of you are saying that using Story Points can bring about the situation I mentioned at the beginning of the article, and it could. But then again, it's the player doing all the fudging, not the Historian. She is in control of the character's destiny. You could even go entirely diceless this way. If that's what you like go for it. Of course, the final consideration is this: Story Points are finite. Use them all up right away on every little thing and you won't have any for later. And you can't just throw yourself in harm's way or some something debilitating just to try and get more points. The bad things that happen to your character have to work for the story, not just happen to happen. Besides, is there really something wrong with living with a bad die roll? It's Oz. It's not like you can die... Next post, you'll get to see what a Heroes of Oz character looks like, using an original character as well as a character pulled right from the books. Until then, take care.

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Design Notes #1: Bad Things Happen, and That's Good!

Hello again, fans of Oz, I hope everybody reading enjoyed my little April 1 story yesterday. Was any of the real? I'll let you decide because I'm not saying. 🙂 In that story, as you saw, quite a few bad things happened during its telling. People were hurt. Oz was invaded. Any of us that could be there would hate to be involved in such a horrible things. We don't like it when bad things happen to us. The same thing holds true in role-playing games. We spend time rolling up characters (or building them, depending on the system) and we want them to the last as long as we can make them last. In most games, we try to avoid bad things. After all, when bad things happen, at best the character's taken out of the game. Maybe a little humiliation. At worst, your character is dead and you have to make a new one. In some types of games, that's a good thing. When you live by what the dice have to tell you, it puts you on edge. You don't know what can happen next. But the same time, we invest a lot in our characters. We don't want one fatal dice roll, a single stroke of bad luck, to put an end to all our hard work. On the other hand, when we read a book (or for that matter, a comic book, or watch a TV show, or enjoy any kind of fiction), we live for the moments that bad things happen to the characters. After all, a story that has no conflict is absolutely no fun to read at all. What's the point? We thrill to the heroes of the story overcoming adversity! Role-playing games are a completely different animal than stories – or are they? A better question: do they have to be? I spent years trying to figure this part out. My goal was to create a game that emulated being in an Oz book. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to do it. I looked into games that were supposed to emulate genres: being in a superhero comic book, being in an eighties cartoon series, etc. Good stuff, but I had a little bit of a difficult time with it. Maybe I just wasn't getting it. Evil Hat Games created a Fudge-based engine called FATE. The FATE System is currently used in games like Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files, as well as other games by other publishers. Looking through FATE games (as well as a Fudge build called Marvelous Superheroes) I came to realize one thing: To emulate a story, players had to love bad things happening to their characters. Yes, a radical concept, to be sure. It flies in the face of RPG convention. You want to AVOID bad things, right? But, to play a story-based game, you have to desire the bad things. When looking at FATE and MS, I realized another thing: it's the characters that make things happen in a story. Think about it. You don't enjoy a story for the adventures; you enjoy it for what the characters do during an adventure. This means that a story-based game has to be purely centered on the characters. The result is a tradeoff: let bad things happen to your character and in return, the character will have greater control of the story later. Oz is no exception to this. In any given Oz book, characters get captured, lost, enchanted, and anything else the writer can think of. Therefore, Heroes of Oz had to follow these two concepts. The FATE System does this using Fate Points. If you let something bad happened to your character, you get a Fate Point. You then spend the Fate Point later to have a greater effect on the story. Heroes of Oz does this with the Story Point. Of course, bad things aren't the only way to get a Fate/Story Point, but they are the most exciting way to get them! I'll talk about Story Points more in the next post. Until then, be blessed and brush up on your Oz history. You're going to need it!

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Heroes of Oz: the Gift for my Wife, Ozma.

Good day to you, everybody. After all this time, I'm sure many of you are wondering why it is exactly that I haven't given up on getting this game out. The fact is, I made a promise. Not just to you, although you all are a large part of it. The fact is, I made a promise to my wife. My wife is a Ozma, ruling princess of the land of Oz. You see, in another lifetime, I was a part of a group of people called The Circle of the Crescent Moon that went to Oz. We were fighting the forces of evil, beings that were meant to destroy the dreams of mankind. Oz was a key part of their plans. Of course, we had to stop them. Back then, my name was Harper, King of Harpies. No, I'm not going to explain why I was the king of the harpies. It has to do with a certain Emerald city maid, a misunderstanding, and a fit of jealousy. Long story. Princess Ozma took a shine to our leader, whose name was Orryn. After many adventures, and for a variety of reasons, Orryn and Ozma got married. The marriage surprised everybody. A little disclaimer: I was also married at the time. Her name was Vorestia, the Princess of Unicorns. She was a true vision of beauty. Looking at her, you wouldn't know that this demure figure was a truly fierce warrior. She could become a unicorn herself, and she took every advantage of that form. At some point, I might go into more detail about the Circle. For now, it's unimportant. Orryn and the Circle received word of a major invasion of another land by our enemies. I was told to stay behind. I was to guard Ozma. To this point, Ozma and I didn't really get along. The first time we met, we'd gotten off on the wrong foot. But for now, with the Circle gone, we were both left alone. War is scary, and both Ozma and I knew that there was the possibility of losing our spouses. They weren't in Oz, so they could be killed. Neither of us liked that. After a month, Ozma showed signs, very clear signs, of missing her husband. She was worried. In spite of our animosity, I entered the empty throne room one day and asked if she wanted to talk. She seemed surprised, but then she asked me to close the doors to the chamber. I did so. She then descended from the throne and in her graceful way, walked up to me. Then she kissed me. I won't go into the details here, but during that time that our spouses were gone, there were many nights when we never parted. That's all you need to know. Eventually, the Circle came home. Long story short, Orryn and Vorestia did find out about the affair. Vorestia was much more forgiving than Orryn was. (although at first, Vorestia was upset, calling Ozma a "common trollop.") In time, the circle had to leave. I and a few others stayed behind in Oz. Perhaps understandably, Orryn didn't look back as he left. I think in time, though, he would forgive her and even think fondly of her. A year later, the Circle's enemies found Oz. The land was successfully invaded, and Ozma did what she normally felt would be unthinkable: from Ev, the citizens of Oz mounted a counterstrike and drove out the invaders. Taking back Oz, however, came at a terrible price. Many were killed (long story about that, too), and I was one of those killed. Before I died, I did get the opportunity to say goodbye to Ozma. No, Ozma and I were not right in we did. But it happened. In a new lifetime, I became the person that wrote this post that you're reading right now. But that's not the end. Vorestia came looking for me. She found me, and reported back to Ozma. Over time, and with the help of a friend of mine who is psychic, I learned how to see them and even how to travel to Oz in my sleep to be with them. A few years ago, I married Ozma. Yes, in a distant land, I'm the proud husband of two women. Isn't that big o' me? Anyway, since I had read the Oz books in my youth, I had wanted to do a role - playing game that spotlighted the land I loved. Ozma gave me her blessing. I promised it would be out no matter what. Heroes of Oz is my gift to her. I will not fail her.

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Time for updates!

Hello, faithful readers. Coming back my website and looking at the date of my last post, I have to say that I feel really bad. A full year without any updates. Really, there's no excuse for that. First off, I'd like to offer my apologies to you, my faithful readers. 2010, as far as years go, but particularly bad. I lost where I live, so I experienced homelessness for a while. Trust me, I don't wish that on anybody. After losing my home, I also lost my father. And all that was only in the first half of the year! However, I choose not to dwell on the past, as doing so is to merely provide an excuse and I don't want to be making excuses. 2010 is over, and 2011 is here. But so far, I'd say it's going pretty well. In case anybody's been talking, no, I have NOT given up on Heroes of Oz. However, after many years, the rules finally do exactly what I want them to do: they emulate playing an adventure in an Oz book. I am ecstatically happy with these rules. They have been playtested and, I have to say, it was the most fun I've ever played a game. My goal is to post at least once a week. I'm keeping you all in the loop, because things are getting more and more exciting with this game. Currently, I'm getting all of the rules merged with all the setting information, then it goes into layout. As the weeks go on, I'll be providing previews of the rules as well as character write ups both from the books as well as original characters. By the way, as promised, I will continue my series on video games and tabletop roleplaying. Anyways, keep coming back for more updates. I look for to what's coming and I hope you do, too. For Oz!