Being the Official Discussion Forum for HYPERBOREA®, a role-playing game of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy
Visit us at the HYPERBOREA web site!
1 of 1- Anung Un Rama
- Vagabond
Offline - Registered: 9/24/2024
- Posts: 2
Few question on rules for new referee
Hi everyone,
I am soon to be refereeing my first Hyperborea campaign. I am super excited. I have only been playing 5e D&D for a few years and was really unfamiliar with AD&D/OSR/B/X and other rules systems. But the artwork and ethos of Hyperborea pulled me in!! Then diving into the amazing modules that are written for similar rules systems, I am totally hooked. I'm starting with Rats in the Walls.
I had a few questions that weren't clear to me after reading through the Referee and Players guides- although this may be due to my inexperience with AD&D or totally missing the explanation within the manuals.
-Exceptional feat of strength tests- is this a d100 (or 2x d10) roll where success if the number or lower? I just wasn't sure what the dice would be for this roll.
-I've become more familiar with the Vancian model of spell casting and I'm into it. But the concept of spell scrolls, and other magical casting items was a bit confusing. Are these basically a single use spell that doesn't count towards the daily spell count?
-Is there something akin to the attack roll that is needed for spell casting? For example, if a player is trying to cast Burning Hands- does it matter what the enemy's armor class is? Or do the cast the spell successfully unless interrupted? Some spells (like Magic Ice Dart) do mention a +1 "to hit" bonus for some classes, so it seems like there is an attack roll. Are you rolling a d20 and using the THAC0 table as if you were in melee or missile combat?
Thanks for the insight! Feel free to pass along any other tips that could be helpful to a new referee!
JD
- Carnby
- Ruffian
Offline
- Registered: 1/07/2022
- Posts: 52
Re: Few question on rules for new referee
Neat! I never moved to 5e so I can't compare how it works with that, but hopefully this should answer your questions:
- Percentile rolls, like extraordinary feats, are generally bottom to top, so if you have a 16% chance, you're looking for 01-16 on the die roll.
- Yes, scrolls are basically single-use items that replicate casting the spell, so it doesn't affect your daily spell usage.
- It varies on a case-by-case basis, but if they do require an attack roll than it will mention it in the description. So burning hands and magic missile don't need an attack roll, but magic ice dart and acid arrow do, for example. If you do make an attack roll, then yes, you roll d20 and use the THAC0 table.
Hope that helps! Rats in the Walls is a good adventure and pretty easy to run. If your players aren't super used to OSR-style gameplay, it might be useful to try and keep pressure up to keep them moving forward. When I ran it, my players tried to back out and rest basically right at the finish line, but luckily went to talk to a priest who was able to tell them it was probably a bad idea to leave a rat daemon around to plot revenge. Luckily they listened, if they had waited the night I'd have had to have them come back to the whole inn infested and the NPCs stripped to the bone by ravenous rats.
- Blackadder23
- The Thousand and First Eye
Offline
- Registered: 3/04/2014
- Posts: 1,551
Re: Few question on rules for new referee
Carnby wrote:
If your players aren't super used to OSR-style gameplay, it might be useful to try and keep pressure up to keep them moving forward. When I ran it, my players tried to back out and rest basically right at the finish line, but luckily went to talk to a priest who was able to tell them it was probably a bad idea to leave a rat daemon around to plot revenge. Luckily they listened, if they had waited the night I'd have had to have them come back to the whole inn infested and the NPCs stripped to the bone by ravenous rats.
One useful method here is to put the PCs on a time limit right up front: "In three days my daughter will be executed by the bandits who kidnapped her. Rescue her before then and you get 500 gp each; if she dies, you get nothing." That will reduce the chance of them fooling around. Another method (although it's heavy-handed, and I would use it less often) is to cut off their retreat (with a collapsed hallway, overwhelming numbers of monsters, or whatever).
Michael Sipe 1979-2018
Rest in peace, brother.
- Carnby
- Ruffian
Offline
- Registered: 1/07/2022
- Posts: 52
Re: Few question on rules for new referee
One useful method here is to put the PCs on a time limit right up front: "In three days my daughter will be executed by the bandits who kidnapped her. Rescue her before then and you get 500 gp each; if she dies, you get nothing." That will reduce the chance of them fooling around. Another method (although it's heavy-handed, and I would use it less often) is to cut off their retreat (with a collapsed hallway, overwhelming numbers of monsters, or whatever).
Yeah, I wasn't expecting them to try to leave off. Were I to run it again, I'd probably play up Annesta being sick, probably make Xill more sickly too. Maybe even have her already be a wererat locked up in the attic and you have to kill the gnagana before the next full moon or its permanent, make the whole thing more explicitly supernatural from the get-go. You'd lose the escalation where they realise it's not merely a really bad rat infestation, but the trade-off of having a definite time limit would help give them a push to keep going.
© 2009-2024 North Wind Adventures, LLC. “HYPERBOREA” is a registered trademark of North Wind Adventures, LLC. “Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea,” “AS&SH,” and all other North Wind Adventures product names and their respective logos are trademarks of North Wind Adventures, LLC in the USA and other countries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.