The Unknown Armies Open Table?

 

I've cooled off on open table games over the last decade or so. Pacing is really important, maybe the most important part of running a game, and ensuring every game ends at a "good stopping place" where you can swap players/characters in and out is a pain. Playing with a consistent cohort who don't need everything explained to them repeatedly (not just rules explanations but repeated recaps of who they are, who the NPCs are, what's going on in the game world) is way better.

 

On the other hand, I thought about running a UA3 open table long before I got sick of running this style of game. Weekly open table games get better attendance at the RPG club than oneshots demoing new systems, which struggle to scrape together even a couple players.

Begone, FUNNEL Draft 1

Alekseev

 

Is it fun to run a DCC style funnel in Begone FOE? Let's find out.

 

Every player starts with four randomly generated level 0 characters. They move and act as a group and go on the same initiative count in combat (use the highest SKILL value to place them in initiative order). You can break up the group and send one character to scout ahead, check for traps etc, but the default assumption is a four man blob.

This document assumes you're familiar with basic Begone FOE chargen, including derived statistics and how skills and magic work.

Maintenance and Preservation - Lessons Learned

Juan de Valdés Leal

 

Simplification is great. The lack of classes and class subsystems meant character creation only took a few minutes. This let new players quickly join tables of experienced players without the need to prepare before the session. This is a fantasy offered by other Basic clones like OSE and Lamentations, but in my experience chargen in those games takes substantially longer and requires more paperwork at the table, because you've got to pick a class and then copy a bunch of class features, saving throws and additional items (particularly rolled spells) to your sheet. Every player missed something on their first go (skills, starting items, the ability to "invert" ability scores which I admit is unintuitive) but since there weren't a lot of interdependencies on the sheet it was easy to fix.

 

Unknown Armies: In Defense of Milestones

 

In Unknown Armies 3e, the players and GM create the characters and setting together at the beginning of the game, all pointed at a shared objective chosen by the group. The player created objective is supposed to have GM created "milestones" that grant percentage point increases to the score when accomplished during the course of play. 

 

Esoteric Enterprises: Maintenance and Preservation Player's Guide

I've been thinking about running Esoteric Enterprises in person at a game store. The amount of paperwork necessary (class reference sheets, huge equipment list, huge spell list, starting tomes, starting gods...) put me off at first, but the Maintenance & Preservation concept lets me discard all that and fit everything on a single double sided page. That plus a character sheet with some info pre-filled in (like saving throws) gets us most of the way there. I have no idea what resonates with normal people but I know the "blue collar urban exploration horror" concept has been popular lately in games like Lethal Company.

I ended up not converting the skill system to d20 roll-under because I want to limit how much of the base game I rewrite. 

Esoteric Enterprises: Maintenance and Preservation

I'm thinking of doing EE again. Something more contained, both in scope and player power level. The characters are city workers who descend into the underworld to fix mechanical problems. 

Dune 2d20: The Spice Melange

I ran a few sessions of Dune 2d20 and found it to be basically a serviceable tabletop version of the Dune setting. The big omission from the game's voluminous gear list is the Spice Melange. This is an absurd omission, Spice is the entire reason everyone is on Arrakis in the first place.

 

By Sketchphase

 
Spice can't be acquired via momentum spend to create an asset. It can be bought from legitimate sources on worlds where the ruling House doesn't restrict the supply, or from smugglers at a markup on the already high market price. Either way, the cost is prohibitive to all but the wealthiest Imperial families. Spice can be looted from the treasuries of Great Houses, or stolen from Nobles who have it on their person for private use. Diluted Spice is easier to acquire, by the time of the Regent Alia Atreides "even the vast middle class of the Imperium ate diluted melange in small sprinklings with at least one meal a day." Spice of any kind is much cheaper and easier to acquire on Arrakis, without the Guild monopoly on shipping and Imperial tithes driving up the price.

Consuming a dose of the spice Melange restores a point of Determination.

Consuming even a single dose grants the complication: Spice Addiction. This is permanent, although it only becomes relevant after the character has gone without Spice for an extended period. Severe withdrawal is fatal. Diluted spice staves of withdrawal but provides no other mechanical benefit. Spice addiction is a great way to control someone, if they can't afford a fix or live somewhere the supply is tightly controlled.

Prolonged, excessive spice consumption grants the trait Eyes of Ibad, tinting the iris and sclera a total blue so dark as to be almost black. This is an unattractive trait anywhere except Arrakis, and most people wear contacts to make their eyes look "normal" in polite society. Fremen consider the Eyes of Ibad a desirable trait, though this alone is not enough to overcome their distrust of offworlders.

Dune 2d20 - Watcher and Free Shooter Chargen Options

The two armies procured by the agents of House Viracocha have a handful of unique talents that supporting characters can take in place of (or in addition to) traits from the trait list in the corebook.

Players may purchase these traits for their main characters using advancement points, receiving training from teachers in the corresponding military force.

WATCHERS

The Watchers are a mercenary company specialized in observation. If they have a chance to watch their target and assess their weakness, they can methodically dismantle them in battle. If caught off guard, they struggle in direct combat.

The typical Watcher trait is either Watcher or mercenary.

The new talents available to Watchers are:

• Amtal Rule: You are an adroit assessor of weakness. Any time you attempt to force a trait onto a target, you may reroll a single die.
• Limited Prediction: In conflict, as a free action, you may spend two momentum to learn what an NPC (or group of NPCs in cases such as warfare where multiple people are treated as a single asset or entity) will do next. The NPC(s) must attempt the predicted action when their turn comes up, unless changing circumstances  render it physically impossible.

FREE SHOOTERS

The Free Shooters are former slaves from Gamont, granted their freedom by House Viracocha and enlisted by their parent House Runasimi as spies and assassins. Their lack of skill in personal combat is counterbalanced by their superb tradecraft and their unshakeable faith in the existence of another universe in which they will be reborn after their inevitable gory death.

Free Shooter traits are either the generic "freed slave" or a specific former job function like gladiator, prostitute, tour guide, chef, etc.

Les Francs-tireurs by Auguste Louis Lepère

New Talents available to Free Shooters are:

• Berserker: In conflict, you can add one additional die to your pool on a roll, in exchange for reducing the difficulty of attacking you by two until your next action. This bonus die does not increase the cost of dice purchased with momentum.
• Deep Cover: You can play any role, no matter how unpleasant. When disguised or undercover, and your cover is blown, you may choose to take a complication to maintain your cover. You cannot do this again until you remove the complication or change disguises.

Esoteric Enterprises - Dungeon Entrances

Meant to write this one up a year ago, forgot about it until now.

Dungeon entrances for Esoteric Enterprises. The core rules text gives various entrances. Sewer tunnel, crypt, housing project, nightclub, etc. Besides these locations, there's very little flavor or gameplay given to the surface city. More types of entrance means more flavor for the surface city.

Photo by JJ Harrison

GALLERY

Not a full on Occult Gallery, but a surface structure that could have a painting or two linked to one. It also has a hidden staircase or hatch that leads into the underworld.

They charge a fixed fee per use of the dungeon entrance. Say $50 per person, or $40 per head for a group of four or more people. This is framed as a "suggested donation" but they aren't unlocking the door unless you pay. This one-time fee includes entry and exit, they aren't going to toll you twice. If you enter somewhere else and exit through the gallery they don't charge you.

MAFIA CONTROLLED BUSINESS

A bar, bathhouse, restaurant, or other legitimate front. The backroom or basement has the stairs down to the dungeon, watched over by armed wise guys.

Entry into the undercity is free (for anyone not known to be a police informer or enemy of the family). Anyone exiting to the surface through this entrance is taxed 10% of the value of the loot recovered. Safe from exit campers, at least.

Obviously the guards on the stairs are gun toting Mobsters, with a Lieutenant somewhere on the premises in case they need backup.

MUSEUM

A museum in an old building. It's closed at night, patrolled by security guards. There's a closed wing in the back, under renovation or used for storage. In that room is a staircase going down to the underworld below.

If the stairs go down to a dungeon node populated by a faction, the room is guarded by a couple NPCs or creatures from that faction.

NECROPOLIS

The dungeon entrance is in an old mausoleum. The necropolis is guarded by a militia drawn from the wealthy families whose ancestors are entombed there. They assume anyone entering at night is here to pillage graves. They politely escort trespassers out on the first offense, and shoot on subsequent violations.

The militia are Thugs with rifles, pistols and shotguns, plus a couple leaders who use the Mobster stat block.

If too many gunfights break out in the Necropolis, the police kick the militia out and establish a permanent presence there, making it even harder to enter and exit.

 

NIGHTCLUB
The top level is a normal nightclub. The bottom has underworld creatures and doorways leading into the dungeon. Entry and exit are free, but the tables are occupied by a random faction every time the players visit, which can result in awkwardness or violence.

WAREHOUSE

Or other abandoned building in a violent or abandoned part of town. No faction controls it, but there's always a random encounter when you enter or exit. It's highly likely that intelligent humans camping the exit are waiting for adventurers to emerge so they can rob them.

Generic Pursuit System for Dungeon Crawlers

This is Fallout. It's what popped into my head when I imagined a guy running away

If you want players to do something, you need to make it easy enough that it isn't overly punishing, and isn't dramatically harder than the alternative. If it's harder to run away from a combat encounter than fight, the players are going to fight to the death rather than run away. It isn't enough to tell the players "not all fights are designed to be won", you need to provide mechanical support for this concept.

But you also don't want getting away from a combat to be costless, otherwise there aren't any stakes. There has to be an element of risk, even if the odds are tilted in favor of players.

But I also don't want it to be completely up to a roll of the dice. Otherwise you get one of those cases where the players flub the perception test (or surprise roll, or whatever) to spot the monster, flub the reaction roll, lose initiative, get beaten to a pulp in the first round, and then on top of all of that, fuck up the roll to escape the fight and get mutilated.

So the way I handle it is

When player characters run away from combat, each rolls a D20 and adds the number of empty slots they have in their inventory. Their pursuers (if the NPCs chase them) each roll a D20 and add any bonuses they get from their movement speed (default +0, up to +5 for a speedy foe, +10 for a blazing fast one).

If a character is overencumbered, subtract the number of excess slots from their D20 roll.

Escapees who roll lower than their pursuers are forced back into combat for one round, before they have a chance to try and escape again. Escapees who beat their pursuers are able to get away.

If a player (or NPC) fails to escape pursuit, they may elect to drop encumbering items equal to the difference between their roll and that of the pursuer, in order to escape that round.

Get a bonus to your roll to escape for running through an uncharted area, but run the risk of triggering traps or running into other monsters. You can choose to do this after you roll and fail to escape.

A clever solution (I cut the rope bridge with my axe once everyone’s across!) might just succeed automatically.

When dragging an incapacitated character, the person doing the dragging rolls to escape pursuit as normal, but subtracts the number of items carried by the character being dragged from their total. They may improve their odds by leaving behind the victim’s backpack, weapon, etc.

If the players pursue fleeing enemies, it is the same, but roles are reversed.

I'm sure this has been done before in some format, but I'll talk about why I did it like this.

The key is that the players have the ability to make choices after a failed die roll to turn it into a success, at the cost of spending a resource or endangering themselves in some other way. Either throw away some items to move faster, or run into an uncharted area and potentially get in even more trouble.

We can imagine assigning other bonuses and penalties based on things like the player characters' movement speed, where a faster than average character gets a bonus to the roll and a slower than average one (dwarves for example get a malus to their speed in various editions) gets a penalty.

The rules for dragging an incapacitated character omit the weight of the character and only count the weight of their carried items. I erred on the side of making the rules less punishing here because I've seen players get endlessly tarpitted by creatures with stun or paralysis abilities - unable to stand and fight, unable to retreat if they have to haul a downed ally out of the fray, and unwilling to abandon a friend. While the dilemma of leaving a wounded comrade behind to escape yourself is a rich vein of drama to tap, it's not the kind of drama everyone always enjoys.

This isn't a perfectly generic system. It assumes a couple things about your dungeon crawling game:

• It uses a D20 roll over system
• It uses a slot based encumbrance system

If your game doesn't use a D20, you can modify the math so that the sizes of the bonuses and penalties isn't overwhelming. So if you use a D10, divide by two. If you use a D6, divide by three or four, depending on if you want to round up or down.

If your game doesn't use slot based encumbrance, things get trickier. I'm personally of the opinion that non slot based encumbrance (that actually tracks pounds and ounces) is mathematically annoying enough that in practice it's usually ignored where it appears in rules. But I know that some people play games with digital character sheets that might auto-calculate stuff like carry weight of items, making those rules more practical. So there might be people out there who do use pounds and ounces encumbrance, and this system isn't going to help them at all.

Esoteric Enterprises - Starting Equipment

Esoteric Enterprises Character Creation takes too long. In addition to painstakingly copying down their Saving Throws and Skills, then adjusting them based on their ability score modifiers, players are asked to fill out their character's equipment from a big list of gear.

But what if there was a list of recommended starting equipment for each class? Something like...

Esoteric Enterprises - Hustles

UPDATE DECEMBER 7 2020: The latest version of these rules can be found here.

In Esoteric Enterprises rules as written, there's no tracking dollars and cents of money. The cash value of items recovered translates into XP and is then forgotten. Purchases are made by rolling against your "resources level", by default equal to your character's experience level. When you level up, your hoarded wealth has made you rich enough that you ascend one rung on the financial ladder.

In my house rules for Esoteric Enterprises, I threw that out. The players wanted to spend their ill-gotten gains, not have them disappear into the ether until they met an arbitrary breakpoint to increase their roll-under chance of buying things. We're already tracking dollars and cents for XP anyway. So I recoded the resource level as the character's weekly income. Now, instead of the resource level reflecting hoarded wealth FROM adventuring, it's their money IN ADDITION to adventuring.

But where does that additional money come from?

I've complained before that Esoteric Enterprises doesn't actually have rules for starting your own gang. Maybe I can solve both problems at once.

The design goals are:

• Provide interesting choices without adding too much complexity
• Integrate player hustles into the existing reputation mechanics
• Use simple narrative hooks to give the players a stake in the game world
• Allow players to be gangsters as well as high powered homicidal transients

Quick Reference

When a player reaches Level 3, they must find a territory and either roll Contacts to choose a hustle, or roll a D12 to see what market they end up in.

Every week, the players decide what share of their income they want to spend on security for their hustles, then roll a D20 to see whether one of the gang's hustles is in trouble

After Level 3, whenever a player levels up, they can roll Contacts to diversify into a new hustle

Where Does The Money Come From?

At Levels 1 and 2, the players' income is assumed to come from low rent petty crime that they engage in by themselves. There is no need to track how this money is obtained, and it does not represent a significant criminal enterprise.

When a player reaches Level 3, they become a minor figure in the occult underworld, with their weekly income derived from more organized criminal activity.

In order to cash in on Resource Levels 3 and above, players need territory and a hustle. Without these, they cannot rise above Resource Level 2 (unless they have one of the social advantages from page 29)

Territory

Finding "unclaimed" territory in a city to operate in requires either a Contacts roll or some in-character legwork.

If the entire city is claimed by existing criminal factions, the players must either run a fly-by-night operation and hope to stay under the radar, or come to an arrangement with an existing non-hostile faction. This may require another Contacts roll to set up the connect.

Players operating in another faction's territory must kick up a percentage of their weekly income, usually 10%, for the privilege of working in their territory.

Players who operate without asking in someone else's territory pay nothing, but if discovered their operations will be targeted and they themselves will be subject to reprisals.

Hustles

When a player reaches Level 3, and has a territory to work in, they need a hustle.

Choosing a hustle requires a Contacts roll. If the roll fails, they don't get a choice in what the market demands. Roll a D12 to see where their weekly income comes from:

1. Prostitution
2. Loan Sharking
3. Bookmaking (Sports Betting)
4. Gambling (Weekly Card Game)
5. Drug Dealing
6. Smuggling
7. Unlicensed Version of Legal Business (Illegal Clinic, Sweatshop, Bootlegging, etc)
8. Protection Racket
9. Mobbed Up Legitimate Business (Construction, Trucking, Waste Management, etc)
10. Money Laundering
11. Fence (Buying and Reselling Stolen Goods)
12. Occult Crime

(Alternatively, if a character has a skill that ties into their illegal occupation, they can roll that to choose it instead of Contacts. IE Medicine for an illegal clinic, Technology for a wire fraud business, etc).

The weekly income provided by the player's resource level is their take from the gang's hustle. The rest of the money goes towards rent, payroll, supplies, and other business expenses associated with illegal criminal enterprises.

Hustles may provide other perks. The most obvious is a place to meet, stash items, do business and hide out. A cab stand, nightclub, bookie joint, garage, cathouse or other illegitimate business. Beyond the location, a hustle usually provides goods and services to its owners. Smuggling gives the characters access to the smuggled goods. A protection racket can get them discounts or favorable treatment from local businesses.

Every level after 3, the player can make a Contacts roll to set up a new hustle for the gang. This doesn't bring in additional resources, but it brings additional perks and diversifies their portfolio.

The scale of a hustle is determined by the player's level. At Level 3, it's a small operation with a handful of NPCs, and the player is directly involved in its operations. At higher levels, the player delegate more responsibility to trusted henchpersons. Eventually, the players will be powerful enough to extort entire gangs.

Problems With Hustles

Roll a single D20 every week for the whole group to see if their hustles run smoothly, or if there's an issue. 

• 1-10: No Problem
• 11-15: Minor Irregularity
• 16-19: Serious Irregularity
• 20+: Someone makes a move on the operation

Add between one and four to the roll if the players have a serious negative reputation with another dangerous faction, or if the players have significant legal heat

Add between one and four to the roll if the players are operating in someone else's territory without an arrangement

Subtract one from the roll for every 5% of their share of income the player spends on goons, security, etc for their hustle.

On a 12 or higher, one of the players' hustles has a problem.

Irregularities
A minor irregularity can be corrected by an in-person visit from a player character. The most common form of irregularity in the criminal underground is failure to pay up. A business has a slow week, or a gambler runs up a huge debt.

A serious irregularity is harder to deal with. Usually this is a business that refuses to kick up, or pays out to another faction. Correcting a serious irregularity requires a visit from the players, and some straightening out. If the DM or players aren't interested in roleplaying the ensuing leg breaking, window smashing, etc, they can roll either Charm or Vandalism (whichever is better) to deal with the problem quickly off screen.

Either way, an uncorrected irregularity halves the affected player's weekly income.

Hits
If you roll a 20 or above, the player with the highest Contacts score can roll Contacts. On a success, they receive word through the grapevine that a hit is incoming on their hustle, and can take means to correct it (set an ambush, move the load out of town, hit the perpetrators before they hit you, etc).

When someone makes a move on a players' hustle, that means another faction hit it. If there's an obvious choice, such as someone who's REALLY mad at them, they're the perpetrators. Otherwise, dice for a random unallied faction. If there are no factions who would dare attack the players, it's some no name punks looking to make a name for themselves. If the players have high legal heat, it's the cops who take it down.

The card game gets robbed at gunpoint. The stash house for the drugs is burglarized. Vice shuts down the cathouse. Someone bombs the cab stand.

A hit that the players don't prevent takes away all the affected player's weekly income. Unless they respond, they also receive no income from their hustle in future weeks.

Responding to a hit requires either a counter-move on the perpetrator's operation of equal or greater value, or a Contacts roll to set up a new criminal enterprise.

Esoteric Enterprises - Crews - UPDATED NOVEMBER 15, 2020

UPDATE DECEMBER 7 2020: The latest version of these rules can be found here.

Your hustle has goons, civilians, etc who carry out its day to day operations. Aside from a couple memorable NPCs who might serve as points of contact, they can be sidelined and forgotten about during actual play. The people you care about are your Crew.

When you hit Level 3, you get a Crew. Your Crew has total Hit Dice equal to your Level plus your Contacts score. That might mean one tough NPC, or a handful of lower level goons. It's your choice who you want to recruit.

• You can always recruit Thugs, Drug Pushers, Mobsters, Doctors, Mercenaries, and other mundane humans
• Recruiting magic users and other occult weirdos requires either a Contacts roll or some other connection to the world of wizards and witches
• Recruiting intelligent supernatural beings requires the player to have contact with them or their faction, at the discretion of the DM

Your Crew are paid out of the income from your illegitimate business. The equipment that comes with their NPC stat block is covered by this payment, anything beyond that (weapons, armor, other items) you have to buy for them with your own money.

Members of your Crew can accompany you on adventures. They'll go into the underworld and face danger alongside you. They'll follow orders that aren't suicidal. When your Crew has to test morale (because of hideous injury, scary magic, casualties, etc), you SUBTRACT your Charisma modifier from their morale test instead of adding to it.

EDIT JUNE 23, 2020: You can send your crew to take care of things, ranging from mundane errands to petty crime. You can send them to straighten out difficulties with your Hustles if you don't wan't to or can't do it in person.

EDIT NOVEMBER 15, 2020: When XP is earned during an adventure, player characters who brought NPC crew members along must pay their crew. Not in money, but in earned experience. The cost is 5% of their personal share of the XP for each hit dice of NPC crew they brought on the adventure.

Example: Robert is part of a 5 player dungeoneering gang. The player characters earn a total of 5,000 XP from a dungeon crawl. The XP is split 5 ways between the player characters, giving Robert a share of 1,000. But, Robert also brought his trusty Mob Lieutenant with him. The LT has 5 hit dice, meaning he gets 25% of Robert's share. Robert therefore only gets 750 XP, with the other 250 points going to the LT.

Replacing a Crew member who dies, retires due to injury, or leaves due to poor treatment requires a Contacts roll to find someone you can trust. You can make this roll once a week. If the vacancy was caused by obvious cowardice or incompetence on your party, you get a negative modifier to the test, since nobody wants to work with you again.

EDIT JUNE 23, 2020: When you gain a level or increase your Contacts score, you can either recruit a new crew member, save up for another one, or promote an existing crew member. This obviously depends on the class having an advancement path - a Mobster can become a Mob Lieutenant, a Morlock can become a Crawling Killer, etc.

Esoteric Enterprises - House Rules - UPDATED JULY 14 2020

UPDATE DECEMBER 7 2020: The latest version of these rules can be found here.

SKILL CHANGES

Everyone starts with 1 extra point in Athletics, meaning average characters have a 2 in 6 base chance. If this takes you to 7 in 6, you must put the extra point somewhere else.

CLASS CHANGES

BODYGUARD
The Bodyguard class has the option to take damage in lieu of someone else taking it. This is subject to narrative plausibility at the discretion of the DM. You can dive in front of a knife or bullet, you can't take the damage from poison if someone else drinks it.

MODIFIED JULY 14, 2020: 

MYSTIC

• Mystics now start with 3-6 charm, plus or minus CHA modifier. This does not increase as they level.
• Blessings do not require a roll on the Cost of Holiness table if the recipient of the blessing passes their Charm roll.

EXPLORER

Explorers do not shrink the damage dice of their weapons. They roll damage normally.

ADVANCEMENT CHANGES

Multiply experience gained from treasure by 5. This results in the awkward expedient of dividing job rewards by 2 (since they give half XP), dividing that by the number of party members, then multiplying by 5. But it makes advancement fast enough to matter, instead of glacial. And it doesn't disrupt "balance", because the game has none and doesn't care.

Your character's Resources value functions rules as written during character creation. After character creation, buying items is done with cash. It's up to the DM to come up with cash prices for items, but the book has some guidelines (ex pg 134 lists 300 for a handgun, 600 for a heavy weapon, etc). In addition to money from adventuring, you get a weekly influx of money equal to the "budget" for your Resources level on page 56.