Saturday, September 05, 2020

Sir Zay Mk II

 Sir Zay of Nyron was a D&D character I played for a few sessions and managed to get up to a 3rd level paladin. I do think the leveling up happened too fast but that is an artifact of the way our gaming club did things: we alternated 2 month sessions with 1 month sessions, and rarely went back into a previous game world. And most people prefer playing at a more heroic scale, so most of the games we either start higher than beginning characters or the leveling up gets accelerated. For me, it makes some things seem rushed but that is just the way the in-person group played. Now that we are remote playing via Skype mostly, and we've a smaller sub-group of the gaming club, we've changed how we do things a bit. Essentially still rotating games, but we play an adventure until it is done or at a good stopping place before moving to the next game. While we've not yet gone back to any previous games, the seeds have been planted as I got some favorable responses to running a Traveller game from where we left off. 

And of course, being allowed to transport the same character from the D&D to the microlite version means I do get to play Sir Zay, my somewhat self-doubting paladin.

So, starting with the pure D&D stats, which are a 3d6 range as is the microlite, we should be able to translate the stats 1:1. However, I'll also accommodate any class and racial bonuses so that the end result matches what I think it should be. There will be some GM feedback eventually. Note that for initial stats for a random character he is wanting us to to 2d6 + 6, so initial stats will be generally above the average for 3d6 of 10.5 (the average of any dice roll is given by ( ( Max Die Roll + 1 ) / 2 ) * Number of Same-Sided Dice )

  • Strength: 17. While 17 is the range this character should end up, as he is a fighter and a +2 to strength, we'll put his strength at 15, then add in the +2 for the same 17. For the Fantasy Trip, 17 is really high for a character with a lot of experience. However, being 3rd level give him some experience, and I want to see about keeping this to a 40 point character. We'll go with the microlite pre-class adjustment of 15 but drop even more to 14, which is statistically not as high when comparing systems. But I do want to keep the character from being too unbeatable. But we'll bump that up later with the toughness skill to give him an effective 17 hit points as well.
  • Dexterity: 14. Certainly well within our range. As there are no other bonuses and this fits within the range, we'll leave it as is for microlite. For the Fantasy Trip, 14 is pretty good, though with his plate mail it would drop his chances to hit. Seeing as he is a paladin I may give a bonus on his armor, so we'll drop his DX to 13.
  • Mind (IQ in D&D & TFT): 14. As with the dexterity, for the microlite we'll leave that as is. For TFT, as I am aiming for a 40 point character is considered formidable (see p 16). We'll match this to the dexterity as they are the same in the D&D stats, so 13. This gives us the 40 point character.
The other D&D stats (constitution, wisdom and charisma) don't exist in the other games, though they can translate out as skills and backgrounds. 

And Sir Zay is human and carries quite a pedigree.





Looking over the fighter's background skills, we have thief, powder engineer, soldier, aristocrat and clergy. We can take thief and powder engineer off of our list of backgrounds. His primary background is aristocracy, so we have that at +3. Splitting up the 8 remaining points on really the 2 remaining base backgrounds makes those too high, so we'll do a +2 clergy as he has taken his vow, and a +2 to soldier as he is a soldier as he is a paladin for Pholtus. That leaves us 4 more points for background which I'll have to discuss with the GM as I am not entirely sure if we can pick from other race backgrounds. Though the humans are adaptable so get a +1 to all skill or task rolls.

For the Fantasy Trip, we obviously need the weapon skills. Sir Zay uses a longsword (Sword [2]), javelin (pole weapons [2]), heavy cross bow (bow [2]) and a battle axe (Ax/mace [2]) and we'll assume knife at 1, This is 9 of his 13 IQ points. Looking back at the original character sheet, he has a 16 charisma so we'll throw in charisma [2]. Laying on hands is a divine skill, but as magic uses ST (similar to the microlite rules), we'll just use the physickers ability [2] to mimic that a bit. The aid spell in the rules is too expensive both by dint of magic costing 3x the points to learn for a non-magic user, as well as too costly in terms of the character. We'll finally throw in 1 level of toughness [2] for a total of 15 points. Combined with his increased stats and my goal of the 40 point character with some experience, that is probably about right.

Microlite Sir Zay of Nyron

Strength: 15/17 with fighter bonus Dexterity 14 Mind 14
Background: Aristocrat +3, soldier +2, cleric +2
Skills: Martial (sword, bow, pole and ax weapons; a well rounded fighter). I think cleave may be the ax skill but unsure.  favored weapon being his longsword. He also carries a heavy cross bow, javelin, battle ax and a wide assortment of knives.

Fantasy Trip Sir Zay of Nyron

ST: 14 DX: 13 adjDX: 12 IQ: 13
Skills: Sword, Pole Weapons, Bow, Ax/Mace, Knife, Charisma, Physicker, Toughness
Armor: +2 DX chain armor (3) and toughness (1) for 4 protection
Weapons: 2 handed bastard sword (2d+2), javelin (1d-1), heavy cross bow (3d), battle axe (3d), knife (1d-1)

Background notes

This applies to all the game worlds this character gets played in.

Coming from a noble family, Sir Zay grew up learning both the martial arts and the aristocratic graces from an early age. His mother was an adherent of Pholtus, so young Sir Zay was also brought up to revere the god of light and spent many a day with the clergy as well. The 8th child of his father, and the 4th child from his father's 2nd and much younger wife, led Sir Zay to often be the butt of family jokes. Insecure and knowing he was an expendable noble, he trained exceptionably hard, and on his 18th birthday, left Nyron to explore the greater world, and to prove himself worthy of the family name by dint of courage and action, not mere accident of birth. 

His travels honed his martial arts, and, not neglecting his religious vows, also sought out chapels and clerics to further his devotion. He swore the Oath of Devotion and is bound to justice and order. This gives him some connection to Pholtus and he been known to smite down his enemies, sword flaming with the Light of Pholtus.

He is quite good looking and carries himself with a graceful ease no matter his surroundings. Sir Zay can charm most people and is an earnest listener as well. He cleans his chain mail daily when possible, so that it gleams even in dim light. His sword gleams with an inner light at times, and Sir Zay tends to be a bit more fastidious than most wandering arms men.  Quite good looking, Sir Zay gets along not only with nobility but also the common man. Being the youngest child, his elder siblings, especially those of his father's first wife, teased him mercilessly and he often took refuge in the vast kitchens and actually talked with the servants and learned that they too had lives of their own with their own hopes and dreams.

While he does have lands and titles and could wield significant political influence in the kingdom of Nyron, he is wandering distant lands and has left his holdings in the care of his siblings. There may or may not be a lot left upon his return.

New game world notes

So - how does our Sir Zay end up in the new game world? Last time the character was in use was in the early stages of the  Ravencroft adventure. As that was more than a year ago all I can recall is that we were just in the area where we could see the castle looming above us. One evening, Sir Zay, fully loaded with weapons, leaves the fire the heed the call of nature. One thing his adventures have taught his is always go fully prepared for anything. While in the midst of relieving himself, his is inadvertently passed through a portal, to end up urinating on a guard in the new world. Angry and surprised, the guard names our Sir Zay Pee Boy and sadly that nickname may persist. Bewildered but wanting to do right, Sir Zay will join the battle for good against the darkness. Does Pholtus hold any sway in this realm? Only the gods will know (and perhaps Sir Zay at some point).

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