Thursday, April 23, 2015

B/X Trollery Continued

See this post for some background on how easy it is to be "peer-pressured" in the OSR. So here's part two, again inspired by Alex Schroeder's answers, again to questions that Random Wizard originated as part of an evil scheme to take over the Trolls of the world.

Should energy drain take away one level of experience points from the character? Yes or No? If no, what should level drain do? I've actually never run into this. I guess I don't play enough D&D? I've had characters turn into werewolves and eat the rest of the party, I've had characters die while riding into town to start their adventuring career, I've had all kinds of bad stuff happen to characters in my games. But not this. So I'll put on my "player hat" for a second and say that I hate energy drain. Not because of the loss of level and XP mind you, but because of the book-keeping horror it entails. I'd rather just fail a save and have the character die instead! Wanted to try playing a halfling bard anyway...

Should the oil used in lanterns do significant damage (more than 1 hp in damage) if thrown on an opponent and set on fire? Yes or No? If yes, how much damage should it do? I realize that for all kinds of somewhat scientific reasons, lamp oil should not be the cause of an inferno that sets entire dungeons on fire. But it's sometimes fun to set shit on fire (in game mind you!) and I've had my share of laughs with players fumbling attack rolls and dropping the darn things on their own party instead. Good times! The B/X standard of d8 damage may be a bit excessive, but I'd probably stick with it just for the heck of it. Also holy water does d8 to undead, so at least it's consistent with that. BTW, many monsters can toss those things right back at you if you fail to hit...

Should poison give a save or die roll, with a fail rolled indicating instant death? Yes or No? If no, how should game mechanics relating to poison work? I think that should depend entirely on the poison, don't you? There are different kinds after all, at least in my worlds. The real question trolly-troll hid here is "Should there be save-or-die rolls at all?" so I'll go with that instead. Sure, there should be "save-or-die" rolls, at least every now and then, at least for certain very powerful monsters, at least for (some) climactic encounters. Those saving throws on your character sheet get better for a reason: They measure how much work you've put into your character so far and how sad it would be to lose that character. It's a perfectly fair setup and you sat down to play the game. Now roll up another character! That said, I am not opposed at all to converting "save-or-die" things written into a module to something completely different if it suits me better. There's little point in tricking noobs with yellow mold spores for example. They just don't know, so they'll have their first character die on entering that room without really having a say in the matter. Not fun at all. So I'd replace that with a huge coughing fit that attracts monsters, maybe some minuses for 6 turns, etc. Oh, also important: If you use "save-or-die" stuff on player characters, be fair and allow them to use it on your favorite villain as well.

Do characters die when they reach 0 hit points? Yes or No? If no, then at what point is a character dead? The house rule from my "Expedition to the Borderlands" open-table game is pretty representative of what I usually do: "Characters are unconscious at 0 hit points and dead at their negative constitution score. Serious injury (negative hit points) can have permanent effects such as scarring, broken bones, missing limbs, etc." I don't specify a particular table, and usually I don't do evil things like letting the player roll for their character's new disability. Maybe I should? After all there's an entire blog dedicated to this stuff! (As a side-note, I am not too fond of critical hits. Most players aren't either once their character has been on the receiving end of a Stone Giant who crits his thrown rock.)

Does the primary spell mechanic for a magic user consist of a "memorize and forget system" (aka Vancian)? Yes or No? If no, what alternative do you use? Yes. In my "home game" however, I am giving wizards a permanent "detect magic" and priests a permanent "detect evil" as it were. I'd roll it, like finding secret doors or something, but those things wouldn't be spells. They are silly as spells. (Also here's a cursed sword for the fighter-types who keep complaining about that "one-shot" wizard in the party.)

Should all weapons do 1d6 damage or should different weapons have varying dice (1d4, 1d8, etc...) for damage? I know I'll get at least one "but you're double-dipping" comment for this, but anyway. Let me quote another house rule from my open-table game (which I just noticed I had never posted to our G+ group, something I'll have to remedy): "Damage is primarily class-based: Fighters do d8, Clerics do d6, Thieves and Wizards do d4. Light weapons (dagger, sling, etc.) get -1, heavy weapons (two-handed sword, pole arm, crossbow, etc.) get +1 to damage." The "home game" would differ on a few details (I give Thieves d6 hit-dice so they'd do d6 damage), but overall the system would be the same.

Should a character that has a high ability score in their prime requisite receive an experience point bonus? Yes or No? Depends. If I run B/X straight then there's an XP bonus. In my "home game" there wouldn't be.

Should a character with an constitution of 18 get a +3 bonus to hit points, or a +2 bonus to hit points, or a +1 bonus to hit points or no bonus to hit points? And should other ability scores grant similar bonuses to other game mechanics? Depends again. I am so fickle! "Moldvay knows best." is what Alex says and for B/X RAW I agree. The "home game" is again a special snowflake because I use standard deviations (strictly speaking 2.9581 but I round up to 3) from the "average 9-12 range" as the measure for bonuses: 13-15 is +1, 16-18 is +2, and the same on the other end.

Should a character have 1 unified saving throw number, or 3 saving throw types based on ability scores (reflex, fortitude, will), or 5 types based on potential game effects (magic wand, poison attacks)? or something else? Finally one of these questions really gets to me. Of course the B/X answer is easy, just roll with the five classic saves and we're good. I've looked at saving throws in different editions and various clones before, trying to figure out what I really like. But those posts didn't help in the end because I'd still really like a simpler approach (or better rationales for the existing numbers). As per usual, Daniel Collins has a good answer. But I am still hopelessly undecided.

Should a cleric get (A) 1 spell at 1st level  (B) no spells at 1st level (C) more than 1 spell at 1st level? Straight B/X for the open-table game, although all characters start at level 2 in that one so it's not something that bothers people. Priests in the "home game" would use the same progression as wizards, the one I first suggested here and later compared across various systems. (Back when I still had clerics, they would have used a slower progression to compensate for their "martial" aspects. Alas that's now taken care off by my strange approach to multi-classing.)

And done?

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

B/X Troll-ol-lol

I posted a link to Jeffro's blog on G+ the other day. Now Alex Schroeder insists that I shouldn't be allowed to just post stuff, I have to work for it and answer the Trollish Questions myself. Much like he did here and here. Well alright then!

Race (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) as a class? Yes or no? Depends on the kind of game I run. For my current "Expedition to the Borderlands" open-table game I use B/X as written. I might tweak it if there was a reason for it, i.e. if the players went to the Dwarven Clan in the West and begged to recruit a cleric of Moradin or something. For a "real" campaign, the ominous "home game" I keep dreaming about, I'd go with my own version that splits race and class although the "chassis" of the rules would still be B/X.

Do demi-humans have souls? Does anybody? Under the weirdo D&D-esque assumption that the dead "transcend" to a plane according to their alignment, sure. Whatever it is that "does the transcending" could be called a soul. Doesn't really matter though, I don't run planar games. (Wait, maybe I would. If the only way to get to the planes was if the characters killed themselves, that would be kinda cool.) What matters is that you can resurrect everybody just fine, doesn't matter if they are human, demi-human, humanoid, or intelligent mushroom. And nobody even gets a saving throw against it. :-)

Ascending or descending armor class? I really don't care, plays more or less the same. But Target20 works great with descending AC and I grew up with descending AC and I use resources that have descending AC listed so that's what I use. (I only get annoyed by the silly little difference between D&D and AD&D.)

Demi-human level limits? Sure. It's only fair. Again, it depends on the kind of game I run. In the "home game" I'd use my own version with my own crazy "rationale" behind it all. You should try inventing your own rationale as well!

Should thief be a class? Sure. If you don't like them, don't play one! But anybody can attempt to do what a thief is able to do, they just never get much better at it. Wizards can fight with swords too in my game, they just suck at it so it's a really bad idea for them. And if a halfling decided to cast a spell from scroll? I'd probably give them a chance! A very, very low chance. With hilarious consequences if they mess up.

Do characters get non-weapon skills? Sure. But it's not really formalized. If you want your character to be good at something that's not in the rules, ask me: Maybe I'll let you write something down. I won't let you write things down again and again, not even if you're playing an elf who could have learned 27 different trades by the time they turn 314. (And of course it's easier to convince me that your halfling can cook and that your dwarf is a decent smith than to convince me that your elf is a deadly assassin and that your fighter can fly.)

Are magic-users more powerful than fighters (and, if yes, what level do they take the lead)? Sure. Wait what? Troll-trolly-troll left out thieves and clerics and all the other fun things like Balrogs and Gargantuan Purple Worms. Useless question. Next!

Do you use alignment languages? Not as they are usually defined in D&D. So let's just say "No!" and be done with it.

XP for gold, or XP for objectives (thieves disarming traps, etc…)? I use B/X RAW for the open-table, so XP for gold and some for monsters overcome. I'd probably switch to "XP for money spent" for the "home game" I keep talking about. Sometimes I like "objectives" but they are so anti-sandbox. (I hate AD&D2 in this regard, so that's a total no-no. But I suffer through it for the game I play in.)

Which is the best edition; ODD, Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, Rules Cyclopedia, 1E ADD, 2E ADD, 3E ADD, 4E ADD, Next? I grew up on BECMI and really liked RC for a good long while. But that was because I never knew about B/X, it wasn't available in Germany when I got started. There's no question in my mind that B/X is the best overall package, period. I do like AD&D as well, but only Gary's and only in mild doses. So I guess what I am saying is I tend to like some of the AD&D classes (hence probably my fascination with this thing). AD&D2 is horrible, just horrible. I'd probably play AD&D3 if it's just the core three books, but I wouldn't touch 3.5 or 4. I have no real opinion on 5 yet. I like some mechanics and I appreciate that they rolled some nice options into character generation. But really it's B/X for me. OD&D and Holmes win special prices for being, well, special. But I don't play them.

Unified XP level tables or individual XP level tables for each class? This was Jeffro's bonus question. Again, depends on the game. In my "home game" I would use a unified XP table, the 2000/4000/8000/... Fighter table. Edit: Should have linked to this post.

And done?

Monday, April 6, 2015

Better be at least this paranoid!

So you've prepared the disk in a way suitable for your level of paranoia, now it's time to actually create the encrypted file system on it. Luckily that's an increasingly simple task, at least if you are using a moderately well-equipped kernel. If you didn't build your own, then it probably has everything you need already; if you did build your own, you should know how to fix things if something is missing. So we're good to continue.

I start by partitioning the disk. Note that if you want to be more mysterious you can encrypt the entire thing without partitioning it, but I like to at least get some kind of message that's not "disk not formatted" out of most systems I am likely to connect the drive to. So I partition. Since this is a pure "data disk" there's really no need for more than one partition, therefore no need for GPT. I simply make an old-school MBR partition table. But then I create two partitions. The first one (/dev/sdX1 say) is tiny, just 1 MB in size for example, and it'll get formatted with ext2. I like to put a small disclaimer and a few related files (such as the Bill of Rights) on that one.

The rest of the disk gets allocated to the second partition (/dev/sdX2 say). Here's how I then set up the encryption layer:

cryptsetup --verbose --cipher aes-xts-plain64 --key-size 512 --hash sha512 --iter-time 5000 --use-random luksFormat /dev/sdX2

Alright, that's quite a long command, so let's see. First I explicitly pick a cipher that is reasonably secure as of this writing. It's actually the same cipher that cryptsetup would default to anyway as of 1.6.0 or so. But I turn up the key size to something higher than the default and I also replace the hash function used for key generation to something more likely to survive a few more years. Finally I tell it to iterate for 5 seconds instead of just 1 second when computing the key. It's hard to say what kind of improvement that is, but in general the assumption is that if you spend more time generating the key, it'll be "better" in some way. Oh, I also use /dev/random instead of /dev/urandom, something you may not want to do if your system doesn't have enough entropy built up. Overall I think those are fairly conservative options that should result in decent security for the next few years. Or so one would hope...

Pick a good, long, cryptic, etc. pass phrase!

But we're paranoid, right? So let's make sure that we actually got what we requested from the command. Here's how to see that:

cryptsetup luksDump /dev/sdX2

This will spit out some interesting information I don't want to get into, but it'll also show you that the cipher, key size, and hash function are as requested. Good to know, right? Now it's time to actually attach the encrypted device to the system. Here's how we do that:

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdX2 encrypted

The name "encrypted" will be used to create /dev/mapper/encrypted which is the name we use to refer to the encrypted version of the partition. (Remember that /dev/sdX2 is the raw, unencrypted partition and that we're "simulating" an encrypted layer above that.) Now I go ahead and create an ext4 filesystem as follows:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/encrypted

And after mounting that sucker, we're set: We can now write data to the ext4 filesystem on top of the encrypted disk on top of the actual raw partition. Win! After your backup, unmount the whole thing, issue an

cryptsetup luksClose encrypted

and finally store the disk in a safe place. You have succeeded. More or less anyway. Good luck in that military tribunal!

Sunday, April 5, 2015

How paranoid would you like to be today?

I've been working on new backup practices for myself. I can't say that I am finished, but I've at least thought about the encryption aspect a bit.

Encrypt my backups? Why would I want to do that? For starters I can hand an encrypted backup to someone else to store for me: A friend in Baltimore, my parents in Europe, the bank's vault, a lawyer's safe, etc. As soon as the disk is encrypted, I don't have to worry about them finding things I don't want them to find. Like my draft autobiography that may talk about them in a way they don't approve of. Or whatever.

So how should I do it? That brings me to the topic of this post. The process really depends on how paranoid I want to be, doesn't it? For starters it would be good if the disk I am using actually worked. Luckily there's a neat tool for that: badblocks. Study the man page for a bit and you come up with something like this:

badblocks -s -v -w -c 16384 -t random /dev/sdX

Note that this performs a destructive test (-w) so you'll lose all the data on the drive! It also fills the disk with random garbage (-t random), probably a plus since that'll make it a little harder to reverse-engineer things from the encrypted disk. (Note that this took about 15 hours for a 1 GB disk attached via USB2. Sheesh.)

Wait, that's a good point. A decent rule of thumb when it comes to cryptography is that you want the encrypted data to look random. But now the question becomes whether the "random" that badblocks uses is "random enough" to blend in with my encrypted data. How paranoid should I be about that? Turns out that badblocks just uses the C library, probably not cryptographically sound...

Of course help is on the way in the form of shred, a program often used to securely delete files. Now I can choose my source of randomness, /dev/urandom say. So we could use something like this:

shred --iterations 1 --random-source=/dev/urandom --verbose /dev/sdX

Great! Or is it? Don't get me wrong, the randomness is fine now, probably good enough even after just one pass, but I've at least doubled (more likely "increased by an order of magnitude" I'd guess) the time I have to spend on prepping the disk. After all, badblocks already did part of this job, right? I am probably not that paranoid. (Some of my friends might disagree?)

Even if I were that paranoid however, we have completely ignored another problem so far: We've assumed that disk drives are dumb and contain no data except for what we write on them. And that's decidedly untrue! Modern disk drives are moderately sophisticated computers in their own right and they store all kinds of data in places that a "normal write" can't ever get to. But luckily most disk manufacturers have added a S.M.A.R.T. feature called "Secure Erase" that should (in theory!) allow you to completely erase a disk back to its factory defaults. You can check out the details here but it turns out that using this feature through USB has a good chance of bricking your disk permanently.

So if I was that paranoid, I'd have to first move the drive onto an internal SATA port, then perform the "Secure Erase" process using hdparm, then perform the badblocks test, then shred the drive, and finally move it back onto the USB port.

Too. Much. Trouble.

That's what I decided anyway. I guess I am really not paranoid enough for this modern world? I am sure some people need to be this paranoid. They shouldn't have to be in a free society, but sadly that's not what we live in.

But before I get too political I'll just go back to my little backup project. I'll try to write another post tomorrow that describes the rest of it, i.e. what's needed after the disk is finally prepped according to your paranoia level.

Update 2015/04/06: I had forgotten the most basic trick to achieve a random fill that "blends in" nicely with the encrypted stuff you'll eventually store. Just create an encrypted disk, fill it up with whatever you want through the encryption layer, /dev/zero or /dev/urandom or whatnot, then start from scratch with the "real thing" as it were. Should "blend" very well. Of course it'll still take way too long for my level of patience...