Pickpocket Press

Happy June my Gamer Friends!

What’s the latest with Pickpocket Press, you say? Why I’m glad you asked 😀

TALES OF ARGOSA

So first up – we’re currently hard at work on what I like to think of as a second edition of Low Fantasy Gaming – working title “Tales of Argosa”.

Now – I’m not wedded to that name – but I’m using it and ToA as the shorthand for now. The idea is that this new core book will have a closer connection to the Argosa Sandbox, which will be an update for the Midlands, as a boxed set, including a detailed hex map for hex crawling and some other physical goodies.

But that’s a ways down the track yet. If we’re going to do it right, we first need to finalise the core system. LFG Original came out in 2016, followed by LFG Deluxe in 2019, and in the wake of the OGL scandal, I feel like 2023 might be a good time to crack on with a second edition.

I say second edition because LFG Deluxe was really just adding extra options to LFG Original (as did LFG Companion), while Tales of Argosa will be a true next iteration of the ruleset. The core game remains the same; roll under Attributes, Exploits, etc, but there are signficant changes too. At present ToA is about 238 pages, and has required a lot of hard choices about what to include, and what to cut. What we’ve tried to do is take the most useful – and most fun – aspects of LFG Deluxe & LFG Companion, and cram them into one Mighty Tome of Ultimate Cromulation.

So what’s changing? Well, the primary improvements we’re aiming for are (i) faster combat, (ii) greater danger, and (iii) fully embracing Emergent Play. With these objectives in mind, the main tweaks being playtested right now are:

• Hit Points on a much flatter curve, similar to Lowlife 2090. PCs start with hp equal to their Con score, plus a small class bonus (1-3 points). Each level thereafter they increase by the small class bonus amount only. This means most characters have hp in the range of 10-40 for most of their career, which I personally think is the “sweet spot” for traditional adventuring. You don’t need many foes to threaten the party, battle is quick and brutal, and as a happy side effect this frees up more precious session time for other things (including, of course, more battle!).
• Trauma Rolls: All monsters and weapons now have a Nat 19 effect. The default effect is a relevant Trauma roll, similar to Lowlife 2090 (eg swords roll on the Blade Trauma table, hammers roll on the Blunt Trauma table, and so on). Most weapons have an alternative or secondary ability, however, for example longswords may disarm your foe instead of rolling for Trauma (player’s choice), and shortswords grant a bonus +2 Initiative bonus.
• Speaking of Initiative, this is now a derived stat, being the average of Dex and Int (like Lowlife 2090). When rolling for Initiative, only one PC makes an Init check for the whole party. If they succeed, the PCs go before the monsters, otherwise they go after. On a Great Success, the party also goes before a Boss. PCs must take turns making Initiative checks. So basically old school Side Initiative, but a different PC rolls each round. In playtesting this has sped up combat considerably.
• Perception mod is used for Ranged attacks instead of Dex, similar to Lowlife 2090. This change is to reduce the importance of Dex.
• Short Rests have been simplified and are always two Willpower checks. If you roll at least one Great Success on your Will checks, you gain a bonus recovery effect (ie, PCs will get between 0-3 recoveries during a Short Rest). A common complainant for new players was that Short Rests were confusing, so we’ve simplified them (similar to LL 2090).
• PC Levels are capped at 9 instead of 12. To be honest I always considered Level 10 the “retirement level” in LFG, and (anecdotally at least) it seems very few people are playing in the Level 9-12 range. It seems sensible then to focus on the levels people are playing in, and this also puts a lower cap on max PC power.
• Spells are levelless, and Magic Users roll to cast against Int, similar to Mages in Lowlife 2090. DDM rolls are made on a d8, d10, d12 or d20, depending on caster level and/or whether a magic item is being used. The upshot is DDM triggers more frequently, which goes well with shorter, sharper adventures. Very powerful spells such as Unchain the World Eater and Forbidden Wish are still in the game, but they are not part of PC spell lists. Instead, they have the potential to appear as Treasure Spellbooks that the PCs might find. Naturally, attempting to cast such ancient magics comes at great risk.
• Encumbrance rules, slot based, more on this in another post, but we basically split a PC’s equipment into “Battle Gear” which they can access in combat, and “Pack Gear” which cannot ordinarily by used in combat. The main reason for this addition is to require meaningful choices about which items a PC has available to them in the heat of battle.
• XP is the default advancement method, similar to LFG Companion but with revised level thresholds, designed to ensure lower level PCs quickly catch up to higher level comrades. There are two main reasons for this change. First GMs can tailor XP rewards to the actions they want to encourage. Second, given the game is more dangerous, there will be more PCs dying. Having replacement PCs close the level gap quicker takes some of the sting out of death, and restores party balance sooner.
• More nuanced Treasure Tables, we now have Carry Loot A, Carry Loot B, Valuables A, Valuables B, Trinkets & Curios, Minor Magical Items, Major Magical Items (including 20 fully fleshed out items), and Lair Treasure.
• ToA is an Emergent Play Adventure Game (EPAG?). What does that mean – I’m not entirely sure! – but it includes a strong focus on tools enabling improvised play. Some tweaks and additions to support this approach include: (i) Default movement by range bands (Melee, Close, Far, Very Far) instead of 30 foot increments to better support Theatre of the Mind, (ii) Hexploration rules to deal with Hex Crawling, including a “Back to Base” (West Marches) rule, (iii) Monster Reaction & Activity rolls up front and centre when starting an Encounter (see excerpt below), (iv) Simplified Dungeon Events, (v) lots of random tables for the GM to riff off, and (vi) Oracle tools. More on Oracles later, when I have some proper prototypes – but suffice it to say I’m excited about our Oracle Deck and Consult the Bones mechanic (or tool; it’s a four dice variant of our 2017 Yes, No, But Die). Of course, you don’t need the deck or bones to play ToA, they merely add to the experience (especially when playing solo).
• ToA will be released under Creative Commons. Moving away from the OGL has required some minor name changes, for example “Staggered” is now called “Wounded”.

But enough jibber jabber! Here’s an excerpt (draft) from the Encounter chapter to give you an idea of how things are shaping up (or Dropbox Link for clearer images):

And here’s some Monsters with the new stat block; hopefully clearer to read, but still compact, and easily cut & paste into your next adventure. “Reac” is the Monster’s default set of reactions.

At the moment the plan is to release the draft of ToA as an extra PDF “update” attaching to the LFG Deluxe DTRPG page, so anyone with LFG Deluxe will have access to it. More on Tales of Argosa next month!

VTT UPDATES

A massive thanks you to Dab (Foundry) and Hachiseiko (Roll20) for their recent updates to the LFG modules and character sheets on Foundry and Roll20!!

Foundry updates:

• New option to use PERC instead of DEX for ranged attacks and damage.
• Situational Modifier Dialog for NPC attacks and damage.
• v11 Compatibility

Roll20 updates:

• Revamped, more user friendly Character Sheet.
• Great Successes, Crits, Nat19s and so on are noted in the roll results.
• Dark mode.
• Various bug fixes 🙂

NEW BOOKS!

Not one, not two, but THREE new books are out via DTRPG!!

(1) Golden Age of Khares from Moose Lodge Games is now available as a PDF. Looking forward to reading my physical copy later this year :DD Check our Oct 2022 update for more details about this Sand & Sandal setting.

(2) Class Compilation Vol II by JD RPG Productions is now available in print! And yes of course I have it. Check our Feb update for more details.

(3) Solapetrum by Nathan Greene is now available in print! In this low fantasy setting, the Great Empires have collapsed, the elves and dwarves gone into hiding in the corners of the world! Solapetrum presents five human cultures, three new race-as-class options, and nine patrons for clerics and cultists. This 41-page PDF is a PWYW! Grab it now – you know you want to!!

HOBBS’ MIDLANDS ACTUAL PLAY

GM Hobbs recently ran an LFG game at North Texas RPG Con, and recorded Midlands Vignette #8 with Robert & Elliott. Grab a drink and enjoy as Vignaal and Dirk return to explore Alatar’s Tower!

UNBOXING IN THE NOOK

PookieUK has started doing quick 10-15 min flick through videos of various RPG books, filmed outdoors in the sunshine of his garden nook. Cup o’ tea anyone? Recently he included unboxings of LFG Companion, LFG Deluxe, and Midlands! Appreciate the the shout outs PUK!

RETRO ROLE CAST

Just had to mention that Retro Role Cast is now up to their 21st episode!! If you’ve been looking for a new RPG podcast to listen to be sure to give them a listen!

HEROES & HOMEBREW

Tristan over on Heroes & Homebrew recently chatted about how he’s intending to run a low fantasy campaign, and that LFG is one of the games that inspired him to do so!! No more kitchen sink world or pre plotted adventures… sounds good to me TR! Some great insights this episode, hope it goes well Mr T, and thank you for the shout out :DD

COMMUNITY CONTENT

It’s been a few months since my last post and it shows – say hello to NINE new pieces of Community Content, including 11th Level abilities, Alchemist Tonics, a GM Screen, Pirate Campaign rules, and Demons!! What more could a gamer want!? A big thank you to PhatPhire, JD, Wulfluf, Awesome Chips, Wannabe Wizard, Zack Hydra, Matius, Moose Lodge Games and Dab for your excellent efforts!!

• Martial Mastery (11th level abilities) by PhatPhire: Link 
• Mass Combat Unit prices by JD RPG: Link 
• Pagan Class (draft) by Wulfluf: Link
• Burner Ball article with team stickers by Awesome Chips: Link
• Alchemist Tonics by Wannabe Wizard (building on material from Jack-E-Boy): Link
• GM Screen (Portrait orientation) by Zack Hydra: Link
• Pirate Campaign XP rules by Matius: Link
• Adventures in Khares CC BY-SA 4.0 Licence & SRD by Moose Lodge Games: Link 
• Demonologist by Dab: Link

And that’s it for now folks, thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week 🙂