Building Bhakashal - Example of Play

I thought I would take a combat sample and do a “split screen” discussing the game mechanics (when they kick in) as I go. I saw this done in a “how to” D&D gaming book and thought it was helpful to unpack the mechanics. Please chime in (on Twitter) if you have thoughts on how well the presentation works to convey the game mechanics as I’m considering presenting it this way in the game.

The PC in this case is a 5th level fighter (in Bhakashal a “mercenary”), stats below.

“Jokai the Mighty” was tasked with rescuing a kidnapped warrior from House Tairn. In Bhakashal kidnappings are used to dishonor opponents at other Houses. Victims are never harmed, harming a bound/restrained victim is the height of dishonor in a martial culture like Bhakashal, but it is an effective way to produce a ransom and strike back at your opponents by showing that they are vulnerable to you.

Jokai located the building where the victim was being held, and entered through the roof. After going down the stairs he emerged into a room lit by several torches, and in the middle of the room was an owlbear, beyond it a door to the room where he believed the captive to be, and on the side of the room stairs going down. The monster hasn’t seen him yet, so he waits until it is looking away and enters the room, hoping to gain surprise on the beast. He takes out his battle axe and approaches.

This is where we pick up. 

Jokai the Mighty - 5th level Saan - Mercenary - Mercenary Guard -  Infantry Commander - House Tairn [LG] MV:12/16” - AC: 4 (Hoplite armor) - HP: 21/11 [4/7/3/2/5]

Ability Scores S - 16 [+3]  I - 11 [+1] W - 6 [-1] D - 12 [+1] C - 11[+1]  C - 9

Deity -  Kurlog Languages - Saan, Togmu, Ogre Magi Appearance - Dark green with light green mottling, back fin Skills/Abilities - Surprised 1 in 6/ Surprise 3 in 6 in forest/marshland, amphibious, infravision (120’), Carpenter [+1], Animal Handler, Martial Arts (Grappling bonus: +18)

Saving Throws Paralyzation [+9] Poison [+7] Death Magic [+5] Petrification [+6] Polymorph [+4] Breath Weapon [+7] Spell [+5]

Weapons - Class Attack Bonus: +3 3 natural attacks/round (CCB) [+6/+3], 1-2/1-2/1-6, WS:1, WvrsAC: -2M/+1L/+3N, Criticals: Cleave/Stab Mace [+8/+5], 2-7/1-6, WS: 4, WvrsAC: +2M/+3L/+4N, Criticals: Bludgeon Battle Axe [+6/+3], 1-8/1-8, WS: 4, WvrsAC: -2M/+1L/+2N, Criticals: Cleave   Crossbow [+6/+2], 2-5/2-5, WS: 4, ROF:1, Range: 6/12/18, WvrsAC: -1M/+2L/+3N, Criticals: Remain

Equipment:  Backpack, 50’ rope, (3) iron spikes, flint and steel, (3) torches, waterskin, iron rations, blanket Encumbrance: +75 gp

Wealth: 50gp, 100sp, 300gp ruby, 250 gp ring Clothing: Leather kilt, black cape  Personality: Curious, easygoing, abrasive

Magic Items Mace of Impact (+1) - Critical: target knocked back 1’ per point of damage, knocked prone (4) +1 crossbow bolts Potion of Speed Potion of Fire Resistance

Owlbear - MV: 12, AC: 5, HD: 5, NA: 3, DA: 1-6/1-6/2-12, WvrsAC: -2M/+1L/+3N, Critical: Cleave/Stab, SA: HUG, SD: none, INT: low , Size: L(8’)  

Kutya Guards - MV: 12, AC: 8, HD: 0, NA:1, DA: 1-8, WvrsAC: -1M/+1L/+3N, Criticals: Remain/Stab

Combat Effects Table

1. Weapon Jammed/Stuck - one action to remove/fix, +2 to hit them while doing so

2. Numbing Blow - motive limb -3” to move, fighting limb, -2 to hit, 2-4 rounds

3. Disarmed - weapon knocked out of melee range, 1 action to retrieve

5. Snatch Weapon - mercenaries & spiders get a bonus attack with the weapon

6. Snatch Object  - object from opponent removed (purse, potion bottle, etc.)

7. Knock Down - opponent -2 to hit, 2 point AC, 1 action to get back on feet     

8. Dodge on Lunge - attack of opportunity at opponent’s back as they pass, +2 to hit

9. Knock Back - attacker may break off with no attack of opportunity against them        

10. Knock Back Into Surface / Object - 2-4 hp additional damage

11. Blow Exposes Weak Spot - Next attack against them ignores armor

12. Temporarily Blind - next two attacks are randomized btw all in melee range or -4 to hit

13. Temporarily Wind - next two attacks do half damage if successful               

14. Disorient - opponent loses next attack            

15. Stunned - Opponent AC 10 for  next attack

16. Knock Into a Combatant - both have 4 point initiative penalty on next attack

17. Extra Unarmed Attack - Opponent set up for free punch/kick/head butt attack            

18. Set-Up Ally - next attack against opponent from an ally is +4 to hit                        

19. Extra Attack - attacker gets one extra attack                                      

20. Extra Damage - double base damage

Example of Play

Jokai drew his battle axe and held it tightly, an owlbear is a fierce opponent, and his best bet was achieving surprise on the beast, dealing decisive damage before it could react.  Jokai waited until the creature was bent over and rummaging through its food (its captors had left several freshly slain animals on the floor for it to eat) to start his approach. Jokai drew back his axe to his right side, holding it in two hands, planning a cleaving strike to the beast’s side. He closed to striking distance and the beast turned suddenly. Jokai wasn’t sure if his steps or his spoor had alerted it, but it was facing him full on in a heartbeat.  The owlbear uttered a strange, garbled cry. Jokai circled the beast, it shook its head, pulled back its arms and lunged towards him.  x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x “As the owlbear lunges you meet it at full force, at the last second you dodge to the right and slash to the left and up, slicing the beast on the side of it’s head. Blood sprays it’s fur, and the creature staggers, shaking its head and swaying.” x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x “It returns Jokai’s attack with fervor, the first blow misses over his head, but the second tags the warrior on his right shoulder, and a bite then crushes his shoulder piece to the point of pain before Jokai can twist free. Jokai takes several steps to the side, gains his feet and spins around.” x x x x x x x x x x x x X x x “You pull back your axe and hurl it through the air, it turns over as it flies and strikes the beast in the chest, eliciting a roar of pain, and it claws the axe loose. You can tell it is badly wounded as it staggers and rights itself, blood flowing freely from its wounds”  x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x “Jokai grabs his mace and prepares for the next attack. The beast is enraged, it pulls back its arms all the way and lunges forward in a desperate charge. Jokai sees an opening; the beast is weary, and he plans to strike before the beast brings its arms forward. He stands his ground, waiting until the owlbear is close, then he takes three steps into a ground to sky blow that catches the creature in its neck, and snaps back its head with a sickening crack. The mace’s magical power is evident as the blow propels the owlbear through the air and back 11’ from Jokai, where it crashes to the ground, limp. As this happens, three Kutya guards appear from the stairs below, longswords in hand. They see the owlbear’s body and shout, charging all at once. “ x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x “The three warriors crossed the room in seconds, the first swings wildly and you easily step aside, leaving you open as the second tags you on the left arm, a spray of blood arcing across the room. The third stabs you in the chest, your armor takes the worst of it but the blade manages to catch a join and you feel the burn of the sharp metal in your flesh as it passes by” x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x “Jokai’s arm aches and his side is bleeding; he needs to finish this fast. He pulls back his mace and swings with mighty force, the first strike hits one of the Kutya in the chest and crushes his ribs, the warrior collapsing instantly, the other two panic and Jokai takes advantage, pulling back from the first hit and swinging around to strike the second warrior in the back as he tries to slip by, a sickening ‘crack’ marking his spine snapping as he collapses like a felled oak. Finally, as the last Kutya pulls back his longsword, hoping to run Jokai through, he brings his mace up then down in a sky to ground blow that lands on the Kutya’s head, splitting it open like a ripe melon. The warrior falls to the ground, dead.”

x x x x x *For PCs other than Spiders (thieves), to surprise a target the target must roll a d6, if they roll a 1 or 2 they are surprised. A d6 is rolled and it comes up a 4, so the owlbear is not surprised. x x x x x x x x x *Roll for initiative! Opponents are at close range and using melee weapons / natural attacks so it is a straight initiative roll. Jokai rolls a 2, plus 3 for his battle axe, giving him a total of 5. The owlbear rolls a 4, plus 1 for a natural attack, giving it 5 as well Simultaneous initiative! Jokai is using a battle axe, his bonuses are: Weapon: +6 Situational: none  WvrsAC: +2 (the owlbear has no armor or natural armor) Armor Class: +5 Total Modifiers: +13 Jokai rolls a 15 +13 = 28, a critical!  Attack Table (d20) 1-14 - miss 15-19 - hit for ½ damage 20-24- hit 25+ critical hit He can choose weapon critical or a combat critical, the weapon critical for a battle axe is cleave, which means that his attack does full dice damage. The player decides that it would be better to go for a combat effect, as the extra damage from the cleave will likely not be enough to kill the creature. Instead he opts for “Disorient - opponent loses next attack”.  Damage from the attack is 1-8 + 3, Jokai rolls a 5 +3 = 8hp damage. In Bhakashal when a creature is wounded the first time you roll the HP on the spot and in the open so the player can see the HP the creature has remaining after the hit. This is meant to model the idea that the hero can tell how badly they have wounded an opponent after they “blood” them with the first hit. The owlbear has 5+2 HD, this is rolled, and the result is 22hp, with 8 hp of damage it is reduced to 14 hp, still above half, so no negative modifiers… yet.  The owlbear loses its “next” attack, since the PC struck first, the owlbear loses its responding attack in the first round, and the first round is over. Round 2 starts. Jokai rolls a 6 + 3 = 9, the owlbear rolls a 6 +1 =7, owlbear strikes first It gets three attacks per round, and in Bhakashal ALL OF THESE ATTACKS happen at the same time, reflecting the ferocity of the beast.  Owlbear Weapon: +5 Situational: none  WvrsAC: -2 (Jokai has metal armor) Armor Class: +4 Total: +7 The owlbear rolls a 5, a 10 and a 12, which become a 12, a 17 and a 19, that makes for: Attack Table (d20) 1-14 - miss 15-19 - hit for ½ damage 20-24- hit 25+ critical hit … a miss and two half damage hits. The first hit rolls a 4 halved to 2, the second hit rolls a 10 halved to 5, that’s a total of 7 hp damage. The hit on Jokai does 7hp damage, lowering his HP to 14 as well. This is also still above half, so neither opponent takes penalties as of this point.  Jokai is up next, he is using his battle axe, and decides to hurl it rather than meleeing.  Battle Axe  Weapon: +6 Situational: none  WvrsAC: +2 (the owlbear has no armor or natural armor) Armor Class: +5 Total Modifiers: +13 Jokai rolls an 8, +13 for 21, that’s full damage but no critical. He rolls a 4 + 3 for 7 hp damage. The owlbear is now down to 7 hp, this is the first attack that lowers the beast below half, so the referee turns over a Jack and the owlbear is now at -1 on all rolls until healed. Jokai’s player now knows that the beast has only 7 hp left.  It is now a new round, the beast is below half HP, there is no morale roll here as it is an imprisoned and enchanted creature, so it will attack until death. It charges Jokai. Jokai will switch to his mace as he has thrown his axe. Normally you assign a 1 point initiative penalty to switch weapons, but as the longest weapon strikes first on charge, and Jokai is using a weapon versus claws, he strikes first so the penalty doesn’t matter.  Mace Weapon: +8 Situational: +2 (beast is charging so their AC takes a 2-point penalty, giving the attacker +2 to hit) WvrsAC: +2 (the owlbear has no armor or natural armor) Armor Class: +5 Total Modifiers: +17 Jokai rolls a 10 +17 for a critical! He decides to go for double damage as he believes he can finish the creature off before it can attack again. Damage from his mace is 1-6 +5, so in this case he rolls a 3, doubled for 6, and add 5 for a total of 11 hp of damage. His magical mace makes the creature fly back 11’. The owlbear has 7 hp remaining, so it is slain! The referee rolls to see if all of this commotion has produced any attention, and three Kutya (dog folk) guards run up the stairs. They charge Jakai in a rage. Their swords are longer than his mace, so they strike first on charge. Longswords Weapon: +1 (Kutya are 0-level but they are “large” so I assume a +1 STR bonus for each) Situational: +2 (charging gives them +2 to hit) WvrsAC: Jokai wears metal Hoplite armor, which gives a -1 to hit penalty for a longsword Armor Class: +4 (Jokai’s armor class is added directly to the roll). Total Modifiers: +6 Attack Table (d20) 1-14 - miss 15-19 - hit for ½ damage 20-24- hit 25+ critical hit The warriors roll a 2, 11 and 16 respectively, this means an 8, 17 and a 22, which are a miss, a half damage hit and a full damage hit, no criticals. The first Kutya rolls a 6 +1 (for STR) 7 points of damage, halved to 3, and the second rolls a 3 +1 for 4 points of damage, for a total of 7 hp damage, Jokai is now down to 5 hp. The first hit takes him from 12 hp to 9, and he is now below half his total hp. As this is the first hit that brings him below half HP the referee flips over a Jack and he now takes -1 on all rolls. The second attack hits and now he has taken the second hit when he is below half hp, so the referee flips over a Queen and Jokai is now -2 on all rolls. Since the hits are getting serious, the referee decides to roll for location: Body Location -  1 - Right Leg  2 - Left Leg  3 - Right arm -  4 - Left arm -  5- Chest - 6 - Stomach –  7- Upper Back -  8 - Lower Back -  9 - Neck -  10 - Head -  The referee rolls a 4 and a 5 for hit location, meaning the first attack hits the left arm and the next the chest. Now it is time for the responding attack from Jokai, there is no initiative as this is the response to a charge, he rolls at a -2 penalty as a Queen is showing, this reflects his exhaustion due to hp loss.  Jokai uses his mace,  Mace Weapon: +8 Situational: +2 (opponents are charging so their AC takes a 2 point penalty, giving the attacker +2 to hit) and -2 (Queen overturned) WvrsAC: +3 (the Kutya have leather armor) Armor Class: +5 Total Modifiers: +16 Jokai rolls a 12 + 16 for a total of 28, a critical hit! Jokai chooses to attack again.  He rolls damage for the first attack, 2-7 from the mace, he rolls a 4, +5 gives him 9, -2 for the overturned Queen makes 7, 0-level warriors have a max of 6 HP, so Jokai slays his opponent. For his extra attack he rolls an 9, for a total of 25, another critical! He chooses to attack again. This time he rolls 5 hp damage, +5 for 10, -2 for 8, and another Kutya goes down. Finally, he rolls a 2 + 16 = 20, a regular damage hit, he rolls 7 damage, +5 for 12, -2 for the Queen, for a total of 10hp, enough to slay the warrior.

Notes

This combat lasted 4 rounds, four minutes. Jokai survived a fight with an owlbear and three bandits, but only has 5 hp left and takes a -2 penalty on all attacks until healed above 1/2 HP. He has no healing magic available and does not know if there are any further guards present. So, he should proceed with caution! 

Smart players will recognize the tactical advantages in the mechanics, for example, on charge, the longest weapon strikes first, so any time a monster with natural attacks charges weapon wielders get to strike first. Situationals matter, charging bonuses, WvrsAC mods, positional advantages, surprise, these things are key to successful attacks and ultimately to survival. 

You add AC raw to the “to hit” roll, WvrsAC mods, situationals, level based “to hit” bonuses, STR and magic bonuses, these all add up. Thus, by mid-level criticals become more likely for everyone, but particularly for the martial classes, and this allows them to do some fancy stuff. Multiple attacks, extra damage, blinding, tripping, knocking back, etc. Smart players realize unless you can “one shot” a monster on the first hit, taking “extra damage” every time is not a smart decision, a situational advantage of some kind is far more helpful than extra raw damage.

Building Bhakashal - Money, Money, Money...

Twitter regularly shows me the most fascinating things, for example, recently I have seen a few threads complaining that the PCs couldn’t find ways to spend their gold. 

Really?

D&D gives out a lot of gold or gold equivalents (jewelry, gems, other coins, etc.), so adventurers will find themselves laden with loot by mid-levels if they are lucky and survive that long.

Here are a few suggestions of ways to drain that loot.

1. Heavy Loot - in AD&D 10gp = 1lb, so 100gp weighs 10 lbs. Doesn’t sound like much, but look at those treasure tables, you can roll 4000 gp as loot, that’s 400lbs of coins. Even if you split it up between 4 adventurers, that’s 100lbs each

I suspect most groups just hand wave the weight, or give out bags of holding and such. 

But that’s part of the reason you have too much gold to spend! If you use some form of encumbrance, every time parties grab loot there will only be so much they can carry out of the dungeon, and they will be slowed by it considerably. You haven’t really rocked it old school until you have had to choose between carrying gold and fleeing from a monster. 

Greed kills!

2. Mounts - During low levels getting around is a slog, by mid levels parties should invest in mounts. This means getting tack and harness, sometimes barding, and arranging for upkeep, housing and food. Mounts are generally one of the most expensive things you get in the early stages of the game, and depending on how messy things get, you will have to replace them eventually as well. 

3. Animals (dogs, pack horses) - PCs are enamored with guard dogs and extra horses to carry out more loot and gear, that costs in training and food!

4. Guides - when in unfamiliar areas, it is usually possible to hire guides, often local hunters, to help parties navigate their surroundings. You get what you pay for…

5. Transportation - I suspect that a lot of referees put their adventuring destinations close to the party so they don’t have to go far, but booking passage on ships or with caravans can be expensive. Also note that if you want to get a ship to take you to some remote island they aren’t going to wait around for free, and they aren’t going to take you on the cheap. Generally ships will only drop you off somewhere if it’s on one of their regular runs, and they will make you pay dearly for it. If you want them to WAIT, as opposed to dropping you off and returning weeks later when they are on their way back, it would cost a LOT.

6. Transportation 2 - Buy a ship! If a party wants to be able to adventure on the waves, they could do worse than to purchase, provision and hire crew for a sailing vessel. By mid-level they should have the wealth for it, and it will give them much greater mobility. 

7. Equipment, Weapons and Ammunition - no more endless quivers! Your adventurers should be replacing lost and broken arrows, spears, etc. over the course of the game. Damaged weapons, damaged armor, all of these things need replacing. A set of chain mail doesn’t last forever, so even if you have no detailed rules for armor and weapon damage, periodic replacement is in order. An easy house rule is to replace one non-magical item every time the PC levels

8. Tithing - 1e had tithing for Paladins and clerics would give to their temple, but really, any class would have guild fees to pay, all PCs would likely donate to their temple, not just the paladins. 

9. Taxes - Everyone wants a “medieval style setting”, but they ignore the taxation that came along with it. If adventurers are hauling back large sums of loot, local administrators are going to want their share of the wealth. 

10. Property - Tables will spend time thinking about where you will be staying on the way to an adventure, but between adventures this is often hand waived. It shouldn’t be! PCs need a place to stay when they are not adventuring too! In most of my games once the PCs hit it big the first time they put some coin into renting rooms at a local Inn on a long term basis. By mid-levels they can often purchase land or real estate.

11. Managing Money -  So let’s say your group has just become flush with funds after a successful adventure, and let’s say further that you manage to get a lot of that loot out of the dungeon. You arrive back in town, your mounts laden with gold filled saddlebags. 

Where do you put it all? Say you slay a dragon and end up with thousands of coins, this is 100% possible given the treasure tables. Say you have 10,000 coins of various kinds, that’s 1000 lbs of loot. Likely you will have to hire porters and mounts to extract the loot, and once extracted you can’t keep that under your mattress, or in your backpack, so it has to be stored somewhere and protected when you are not around. That all costs money. 

Smart PCs convert gold to gems, that saves a lot of space, but this will also cost money, it will cost to convert the loot (there are fees for that) and there won’t be an exact match, so sometimes you will get less for the gem than it is worth. For the ridiculous amount of wealth that a PC gets, storing and managing the wealth will be a significant cost 

12. Sages - Gygax put extensive information about sages into the game, the idea being that PCs can consult sages to get a leg up on adventuring. Sages are a great way to drain gold from a party, as research can take a lot of time and require rare and hard to find books and lore. 

13. Clues and Information - pretty much every fantasy story I have read has a part where the protagonist spreads around coin to gain information. Paying off the locals to get the scoop, bribing guards to let the party through, there are lots of ways to spend gold to get advantages.

14. Henchmen - AD&D and earlier editions assumed that PCs would have henchmen, and the best way to guarantee loyalty from your henchmen is to give them decent shares of the loot. Paying for room and board, buying them equipment and mounts, etc.

15. Training - AD&D also makes you pay gold, a LOT of gold, for training to level up, training is a specialized activity from rare, hard to find higher level NPCs, it should be expensive!

16. Potion, Spell and Magic Item Creation - It varies by edition, but if you have rules for making temporary or permanent magic items, they will all be a huge drain on gold supplies. And not just for rare ingredients, the AD&D rules for magic item creation, for example, require the wizard to sit with the item for days and do nothing else, that wizard needs to be protected and in a remote, or at least hard to access location to do this work uninterrupted. All of that costs gold, the location to work, the ingredients, the guards to protect you, etc, etc. 

17. Potion and Spell Purchasing - though “magic shops” are not really an AD&D thing, purchasing of spells (on scrolls, or to have spells cast) and potions definitely exists in AD&D. Temporary magic items like these can be purchased, and are a significant source of gold drain for the treasure laden party.

18. Magic Item Creation by NPC - At lower levels PCs can hire high level wizards to make items for them. The costs are staggering, but if you really want to drain gold, this is a sure fire way to do so. Keep in mind that the requirements of staying in contact with the item for days means that wizards who take on this work are taking great personal risk, what better time to attack your foe when they are stuck in a room touching a magic item and they can’t spellcast or defend themselves? So PAYING to have someone else do this will be very dear indeed.

19. Helping Others - particularly if you have a good or lawfully aligned party, a gold heavy adventuring group can spread around the wealth in helpful ways. You don’t want to flood the economy with gold, that can lead to problems, but say purchasing a fishing boat for a fisherman who had their’s stolen, or giving a small village the gold needed to hire mercenaries to protect them, that sort of thing is an easy and in-character way to use excess wealth. For real, if an adventuring party has thousands of GP, they could pay to get mercenaries to protect a village for months with that sort of loot.

20. Art! - mid level PCs with gold to burn can become patrons of the arts, commission a sculptor to make a statue of the Baron to curry his favor, have the party’s adventures immortalized in paintings, hire a skald to keep records of their exploits and sing them to all who will listen.

These are suggestions from my gaming experience, I’m sure others will have cool ideas too. Last suggestion: encourage any and all hare-brained schemes your players suggest, as they will likely cost a bundle to execute…