So the following words are not my own. They are the introduction by Dave Arneson to his Blackmoor setting. The odd piece of history that exists between post-Chainmail and pre-D&D. It has some odd ideas but is also a brilliant piece of game design. I see large complex design issues being solved by combining these pieces together that I would normally not think to do.

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From the first excursions into the dark depths of Blackmoor Castle’s Dungeon, it became apparent that these first hardy bands of adventurers would soon seek out new worlds to pillage. From the castle itself the small town of Blackmoor grew, then the surrounding countryside became filled with new holes to explore and beyond that talk was already spreading about visiting the Egg of Coot. Each of these steps entailed a great deal of work upon a naive Judge who felt that there was already more than enough trouble already available to satisfy any band of adventurers, a phrase no doubt heard rather frequently since then, in other areas. In general, a fairly loose procedure was set up for the establishment of each of these new areas, with a great deal of emphasis being placed on the players themselves setting up new Dungeons, with my original Dungeonmaster role evolving more into the job of co-ordinating the various operations that were underway at any given moment. At the height of my participation as chief co-ordinator, there were six Dungeons and over 100 detailed player characters to be kept track of at any one time.

Each area had to mesh with those areas that were around it, in so far as setting up the various monsters, etc, were concerned. It was also readily apparent, from previous experience running a “Conventional” Napoleonic Wargames campaign that some sort of Overall Background would have to be constructed to provide a framework within which the players could work. Thus the overall concept of the Evil Egg of Coot and the Great Kingdom was born. These two entities could prove to be the source of great events outside of the actual campaign, a source of new recruits and monsters, and give the stimulus, in the way of quests and adventures to give the players more of a motive than just looting the Dungeon. Also with such powerful and potentially aggressive neighbors, the locals decided that at least some taxes should be collected to provide for the common defense. This was a good plan but one which failed to take into account the drain placed on the local manpower pool by the repeated sorties into the Dungeon areas. So it was with the Dungeon of Blackmoor. It began with only the basic monsters in Chainmail and was only some six levels deep. Six levels was chosen since it allowed random placement with six-sided dice (no funny dice back then) (sic). So even in the Dungeon it became quickly apparent that there was a need for a greater variety of monsters, more definition even within the type of monsters, and certainly a deeper Dungeon.

So there were now different types of Dragons (by Size) and other new creatures, like Gargoyles, from standard mythology. AC was determined by description of the creature (Hide, scales, etc.) and how impervious it was in the accounts given in mythology about it. HD [read: hit dice or health] was determined pretty much on the size of the creature physically and, again, some regard for it’s mythical properties. For regular animals that were simply made larger, like Beetles, a standard text book provided interesting facts about the critters and all were given HD proportionate to their size, relative to other Beetles for instance. Insects were all given about the same AC with additions, again, for unique properties.

Character motivation was solved by stating that you did not get Experience Points until the money had been spent on your area of interest. This often led to additional adventures as players would order special cargos from off the board and then have to go and guard them so that the cargo would reach their lodging and then the player would get the Experience Points. More than one poor fellow found that his special motivators would literally run him ragged and get him killed before he got anything.

Combat was quite simple at first and then got progressively complicated with the addition of Hit Location, etc.. as the players first rolled for characteristics, the number of Hits a body could take ran from 0-100. As the player progressed, he did not receive additional Hit Points, but rather he became harder to Hit. All normal attacks were carried out in the usual fashion but the player revived a “Saving Throw” against any Hit that he received. Thus, although he might be “Hit” several times during a melee round, in actuality he might not take any damage at all. Only Fighters gained advantages [read: leveled up] in these melee Saving Throws. Clerics and Magicians progressed in their own areas, which might or might not modify their Saving Throws. And so it went, Hit Location so that even the mighty Smaug could fall to a single arrow in the right place (very unlikely), height differentiation, so that the little guys could run around more and the big ones could kill more, etc. Still these were guidelines, Hit Location was generally used only for the bigger critters, and only on a man to man level were all the options thrown in. This allowed play to progress quickly even if the poor monsters suffered more from it.

By the end of the Fourth year of continuous play Blackmoor covered hundreds of square miles, had a dozen castles, and three separate Judges as my own involvement decreased due to other commitments. But by then, it was more than able to run itself as a Fantasy campaign and keep more than a hundred people and a dozen Judges as busy then as they are today. Whether there will ever be the co-ordination of all the area Dungeons in the future as they were way back in “the Good Old Days” is unlikely, but already there are 20-30 people meeting every 4th Saturday to do Blackmoor and other Fantasy in related areas, so who can tell…after all, the keynote is that “Anything is Possible”, just that some are more likely than others.

– Dave Arneson

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So lots of interesting ideas in there to unpack. First off, I think every DM can appreciate the world growing too fast and the players running off in the wrong direction… c’est la vie. It is also worth noting the Dave did not try to DM everything. He quickly let other people run things and made himself more of a WM (World Master) with others running dungeons as is needed.

Paragraph 4 has the best idea I have heard in a while and it is a details that is often missed. Yes, players want gold. But they gain xp by spending that gold. You don’t kill the dragon to gain a level and become powerful. Instead you kill the dragon, loots its’ horde, and then spend that horde on new armor and training… which makes you powerful in the story and gains you the level in the class.

Player are looking for a gold sink to gain levels with. Spending was not a second source of power to be controlled, it was the primary source of power so why not spend it in a way that helped your class. Players were trying to empty their pockets as fast as they could. Cleric would make scarifies to their Gods… because it was a gold sink, not for some boon. Yes, the bard going to the brothel is a legit gold sink to gain levels. And to add a level of story, the bard is not pious and the cleric stays pure, so they don’t get each other’s gold sinks. Both gold sinks have a set cost and thus growth is limited so players would spread it out over multiple sessions in town.

This inverts the tradition rules of player incentive. Fights are skilled in all weapons… so they can carry one of each, thus giving them more gold sinks. Players want to pay 5,000 gold for a +1 sword, but not for the sword. This also means gaining a title or rights to build a castle is a really big deal. This is why old school players would always build a keep and raise an army. The is how you gain the higher levels.

This also changes how the players interact with the world. The thief does not want to steal from vendors because that is lost xp. The town does not have unlimited supplies, so the players want to town to grow. Securing supply lines means more items means more gold can be spent means you gain a level. The party wants to save the town blacksmith when he is kidnapped by goblins… because if they don’t then they are limiting their own leveling. This solves for all kinds of in game problems.

The “saving throw” is really more an active dodge mechanic. I think it would slow the game down… but I like the feel. It allows for health to be kept lower so there is still a thrill. Maybe both roll at once, one to hit and the other to save to keep the game moving. Also limiting it to the fighters would work. This is also why armor originally went down instead of up. It was leaning into not an armor mechanic but a dodge mechanic.

If you start to look into the math underlying this systems, or at least as much of the math as we still know since Dave didn’t take notes and was always changing the rules, what you are looking at is:

1. Hero, Fighter: 4 health, coin flip to dodge, coin flip to hit enemies with a killing blow (mostly)
2. Hero, Cleric and Magic User: 2 health, coin flip to hit
   • Cleric get healing and some defense to stay alive
   • Magic User get invisibility and some movement spells to stay alive
3. Basic Enemy: 1 health, coin flip to hit for 1 damage
4. Big Enemy: more health but could still be killed on a lucking hit, player roll d100 against this enemy instead of a coin flip, the big enemy still does a coin flip to hit the heroes for 1 damage (or bonus effect)

This gets you a combat where the fighter can take out a half dozen basic enemies before they need healing. It is super fast… and just kind of works. Yes that example is over simplified to the point of inaccuracy, but if you want to do a quick test on the old system then use those numbers and see what you think.

Giving big enemies their own rule set is odd by modern standards, but is makes sense going from a war gamer. One-off rules to handle things like siege weapons or tanks were common and this does give the game that video game feel when the boss’ health bar appears on screen and you know things just got serious.

So about a year ago I started to lay the groundwork for my new tabletop campaign. I knew I wanted to wrap up my current campaign, it was a homebrew fantasy setting using 5e Dungeons and Dragons, and those kinds of campaigns need finality to the character arcs. Also, I think 5e is irredeemably broken past a certain power level and we were well past that power level. So I started to aim that campaign to an ending point. I also used this time to revisit my cyberpunk system, Burning Light, which I have written about previously. 

Originally, I had planned to build out many themes and then let DM’s include whichever themes fit their world(s). I actually backed off of that plan because of how that often works at the table. Anytime WotC released a new expansion to D&D people wanted to play those classes/races even if they did not fit the world at all. In fantasy, including an odd race is slightly jarring but is often hand waved and still works ok, but in sci-fi introducing radically different technology can derail the entire setting. Recognizing that this disconnect was incoming, I pivoted. 

So I removed all the class/theme limitations from the game entirely and retitled the system “Star Chaser”. Anyone can be anything and use anything. And that worked really well. I asked my player to “stay adjacent to your character idea” but also over multiple sessions “grow your character”. They did this without a problem. I think it has more to do with specific players learning to love specific weapons and items… which is fine. Specific characters have developed a specific feel to them and a tactical specialization that the player maneuvered around without the need to create classes. Gear as class not only worked, it is better because the exact details of that balance shift somewhat session to session. 

This approach to players of “no, you tell me what you want to play and I will match you with options” really opened up player creativity. I would not have made half the ideas and class-like roles that the player naturally came up with. This open call to create something new and weird really worked. 

In Burning Light, we had the pawn shop function which was little more than me dealing the top 6 cards from my stack of 50 or so 3×5 cards, but in StarChaser there are way, way more items. From about 50 items in Burning Light to 3,000+ in StarChaser. That said, I still leveraged that pawn shop function. I am only in the second version of it, but currently it is 3 random weapons/armors, 3 random utility times, and 3 items with a shared idea like all are relics from a specific faction or all ground vehicles or all new crew members.  

Originally I had some crafting options to act as a backup to the pawn shop. I have since removed them. Partly, this was because the pawn shop generation needed some work as it was generally providing under powered or uninteresting items. Secondly, the alternative crafting method was way too powerful. The players were leaning on the alternative method almost entirely. At the end of the day, I wanted power gain to be connected to the world, not the character, and people trying new ideas, not a strategic level up process. Players have some control over the process by where they complete missions at. Either way, this puts the players dependent on the world to power up and not a rule set.

The long term goal here is this allows the DM to control gear/classes/power-features of the game directly via the pawn shop. If the DM does not like an item, reroll the option if it comes up in the pawnshop. This level of control is still session by session and not all the start of the game. So this is not a DM saying “low magic” during a campaign’s session zero or banning specific classes or builds. Instead the DM is holding back the magic items until much later on in the campaign or simply not letting a class’s mechanics be available in play. I.e., instead of a “No Monks Rule” the party just never seems to find Monk items. This is a more organic, and entirely behind the screen, balancing mechanic for the DM to use if needed. This also allows the DM to keep their world focused on the themes they want to play around. It stops that random idea derailing your world because a designer for a completely different setting published a fun book that works for their world but not yours. If players pull their power from class/source books, that different designer is a threat. If players can only pull their power from engaging in your world, then the DM can pick and choose the ideas that fit their world from that designer. That threat is now a buffet. 

Power scaling in gear is still something I am pinning down. In Burning Light, there was generally only one level of gear. A few pieces had an upgraded version. Originally in StarChaser I had 10 levels of power. Currently I have scaled that down to 4. The “new” four are just levels 1, 4, 7, and 10 of the previous system. That said the overall power scaling may still be too much. I may later scale them to 1, 3, 5, and 7. That said, my players have not really played a ton at the higher level and those items all contain drawbacks. We will have to see how hard that drawback hits as to if we need to scale those items back. 

I think I can get the weapon options a bit more flesh out within the current constraints, but 2 more options would really help. A lot of relic choices have not been fully leveraged so that will partially fill this gap. I also think this system will open up a bit when the drawbacks start to kick in. Some of the movement driven options are also only now being fully utilized. That said, even just 2 truly new weapon types may add in a lot of extra diversity to the combat options. 

So with 6 months of game play behind us, I am happy with mechanics overall. Improvements are needed in places, but happy overall. I think the real challenge of this system has been the world building. 

So where to even start? First off, I am used to building a world made up of cities, but in this system I needed to build a galaxy made up of systems made up of worlds made up of cities. I was two exponential scales larger than I was used to so I would have to invent new solutions. 

So I started at the largest scale and worked down. I spent a bit of time seeing if there was a way to make a functional 3D map but that was a rabbit hole with no easy solutions. So I decided on a flat map with about 100 solar systems. That is an awful idea and I was committed to it. I also wanted some randomness in the locations and pathing. To do this I spent some time in excel, basically using a random number function for 1 to 4 and then removing all results for 2-4. Wanting a 100 systems, that means I needed a 20 by 20 grind. I generated a few of these and picked the result with the more interesting set of patterns. This ended up being 94 systems. 

I then set out to create a random solar system generator. I did some research of what Nasa has found in its search for exo-planets and then applied some of the ideas into a random number generator. The idea here was to create different mixes of stars and then place planets in different bands. I ended up generating the star types first because there are S and P styles of binary star orbits. P types are close together and the planets rotate around both stars. S types are far apart and do not share planets. Each S type star with all their planets rotate around a mutual point between the two stars. 

For single stars and P-types, I used multiple bands beyond the star(s) with the possibility of empty results, asteroid belts, and gas giants with their own moons. The inner system always had 1-2 habitable planets, a low possibility of a gas giant, and a high possibility of a rock world in the first band. The out ring had a moderate possibility of a gas giant with moons in the first few spots and a mix of none, asteroid belts, or small rock world in the last few spots. For S star systems, I just ran the inner system twice and removed the outer system. 

I tweaked this system a bit and ran it a few times, once again picking the option that produced the most interesting mix overall. I also then decided to hand make the “core world” as those systems are actually the systems closest to the real earth, so when good quality data is available, that overwrites the randomly generated system. 

This is actually an approach I think works really well. Use random generation to create something different and unique, then as the DM respond to it and edits it as is needed. Do not hold the random result sacred, instead let it be an inspiration point. The random result will do the bulk of the work for you, but you will tie everything together. 

From here I realized I had just created 780+ worlds. I thought about all the work I had put into just one world in D&D and then released how much work may be in front of me. So take a deep breath, divide up the content, and go at it. I started by just working on the bottom right corner of the map. Sure enough, the solar systems created were interesting enough in their own right, I was able to ask myself “how would this system work?” and was able to come up with answers inspired by the systems. Some stories were smaller, some systems were denser and messy. Some systems were rich empires and other systems were barely scraping by. 

Part of this process was going out and finding every image of a planet I could find. Movies, video games, fan art, all of it was taken and categorized. When building the solar systems I then moved through the various rocks, forest worlds, etc. as they came up in order. This was a quick and dirty solution that worked really well. 

With the galaxy, solar systems, and planets taken care of, I was only left with cities… which has actually turned out to be the hardest part. I was spoiled when running fantasy games and there are so many great village maps and even full one village generators. Neither is true for sci-fi cities. I was kind of able to use some of the village generators… some of the time but only after a lot of manual manipulation. Right now I am working on a project to grab assets and be able to build out the cities in the raw directly on d20. I am not a huge fan of that solution so stay tuned to see how well that goes.