Mothership: The Gardens at New Tharsis

I ran a game of Mothership over the New Year for my brother and sister and one of my sister's friends. It's likely to continue at a slow pace, since my sister is only in town every month or two.

The Setup

The Gardens at New Tharsis was once the residence of the Regiphontes, a House Minor oathsworn to the House of Antares (also known as the Aiacids and the House of the Griffon). Approximately 200 years ago, the Regiphontes attempted a hostile takeover on the board of Selexi Incorporated, which was controlled by the Aiacids. As a result, the Aiacids destroyed the Regiphontes and their residence, leaving servants to scrabble for subsistence in the ruins of the house.

Today, the Gardens are inhabited by about 300 descendants of the survivors. Colonization and mineral rights to the planet had been held by Selexi, but were recently purchased by SEBACO, who hired a platoon of Goliant mercenaries to take control of the settlement. In addition, the Halcyon Institute has been excavating the Antares landing site and the old battlefield, trying to recover and reverse-engineer the house's proprietary technologies.

Unbeknownst to all, an Aiacid armiger had been left in suspended animation when the dropship landing the shipping container with his cryopod and armaments was shot down. The Halcyon Institute's dig set off his container's proximity alert and awakened him, after which he killed several members of the dig team.

The crew was hired by the Halcyon Institute for general labor and cargo carrying, but aren't aware of the situation until arriving on the planet.

Players

- Greg (Scientist, Surgery)
- Rian (Marine)
- Jim (Teamster)
- Wesley Escobar (Marine, Tempest Company squad leader, promoted to PC after Jim's death, demoted from PC when I realized it was going to make A Pound of Flesh an absolute mess to run)

The crew landed uneventfully on New Tharsis, had a brief interaction with the spaceport admin, then went on to the dig site. They met Dr Theodore Lawrence, the leader of the dig, and Wesley Escobar, a Tempest Company squad leader running security for the dig. After being informed that the last group in the catacombs had gone missing, the crew went in to search with Escobar and two Tempest troopers.
In the Regiphontes family crypt, they found damage on one of the giant marble sarcophagi. After proceeding deeper into the catacombs, they found the body of one of the diggers, with a massive bullet wound in the chest. They brought the body back to the surface, then returned to the catacombs, where the found several more bodies. In another burial chamber, they found cracked marble flagstones leading to a corridor. They followed it and discovered a massive marble box that had apparently fallen through into the catacombs from above, with open doors at one end. The box contained an empty, open cryopod sized for an 8 foot tall humanoid, an assembly rig for power armor, and a weapons rack containing a six foot gilded broadsword. Greg tried to retrieve the broadsword, but an alarm activated when he entered the box. He quickly left, and closed the box's doors.

The crew then decided to return to the surface. On the way back, they were confronted by a giant man in gold power armor. Rian and Greg ducked back behind cover, while Jim remained in the open with his hands up. The giant asked Jim "To what house are you oathsworn", to which Jim replied that he was contracted to the Halcyon Institute. The giant started to raise his gun, at which point Rian started shooting. A short fight ensued, in which the giant shot one of Escobar's men, killing him instantly, and disemboweled Jim. Jim was able to damage the giant with his vibechete, and the survivors drove him off. Greg fled during the fight, but when he returned to check on the wounded, Jim was already dead. (At this point Jim's player took over Wesley Escobar). Greg was able to collect a sample of the giant's blood, which might be valuable because of his genemods.

Escobar and the surviving trooper returned to the surface, while Rian and Greg set up an ambush at the cryopod. When the giant returned, he quickly hurled both of them out of the box before slamming the doors shut, at which point Rian and Greg returned to the surface.
Escobar tried to make contact with the Goliant mercenary base on the other side of The Gardens, but wasn't able to convince Goliant to involve themselves.

We left off with the whole Halcyon dig team leaving aboard the players' dropship and returning to orbit. The players' plan (?) is to sell the blood sample on the black market - I suggested Prospero's Dream as a location where that might be doable.

HMS Tartarus: The First Three Sessions

I’m currently running a game of D&D 3.5 for some of my family during our beach vacation. We’re doing fairly short and frequent sessions because of the vacation - so far it’s been a two or three hour session every day, once character creation got wrapped up on Sunday.

Cast of Characters

• Sir Guy, Human Paladin 3
• Una, Half-orc Barbarian 3
• Mimsy Whirlwidget, Gnome Druid 3
  • Juno, wolf companion
• Tigvi, Dwarf Wizard 3
  • Rat familiar, name unknown

Session 1

After being hauled aboard the HMS Tartarus, our heroes were grouped into a scavenger crew and ordered to search the hull for things of value. After reading the Gatetown Notice Board, they decided to follow up on a request to retrieve the worldly goods of Jonathan Almsker, a steward presumed dead after being attacked by frogmen. They met Jeremy Swinn, the steward who had posted the notice, and got directions and a list of Almsker’s possessions.

Passing through the Pale Gates, they followed the Straight Road until finding the side passage to Hydroponics Bay 17. Mimsy bribed their way past a pair of feral goldendoodles in a side room. They turned down a side passage, and Sir Guy detected evil behind a door of scorched wood. They opened it to find a hellhound, which was swiftly dispatched, and recovered 600gp from the room. the next door down the hallway was stuck, and took some effort to open. They found a sea chest containing a ruby, a pair of unknown devices, and 10 lead bullets wrapped in wax paper along with a strange black powder.

The next door down the hallway, marked “Summoner’s Study”, led to a room with four frogmen, carrying shields but with their weapons lying on a table. After a brief attempt at negotiation, Tigvi cast sleep, knocking out two of the frogmen and leading to a quick fight in which the others were easily dispatched. After tying up the sleepers, Tigvi cast Charm Person on one of them, then woke him and attempted to sweet talk him. The frogman spat back, and realizing that the spell had failed, Sir Guy took over the interrogation. After intimidating the frogman, Sir Guy got him to reveal that the shaman Revit had taken Almsker’s personal effects, Revit’s location in Hydroponics Bay 17, and a back route into the bay. Opting to avoid the back route due to a vague warning of danger, the party proceeded through the hydroponics storeroom across the hall. Disappointed to find that it contained only rice, fishflakes, and root vegetables, they went on to the bay proper.

Session 2

In the hydroponics bay, a flooded rice paddy with a system of catwalks, they found several frogmen, including a shaman. The shaman demanded 2000gp for the steward’s possessions, which matched the reward offered for their safe return. Tigvi used his wand of Enlarge Person to double Sir Guy’s size, at which point he was able to intimidate the shaman into giving the items back rather than starting violence.

On the way out, the party encountered another group of frogmen. A fight quickly broke out, Mimsy summoned a wolf to aid them, and the frogmen were slaughtered, aside from one who escaped back to the Straight Road.

Upon their return to Gatetown, they returned to Swinn and delivered Almsker’s possessions. Sir Guy attempted to detect evil in the tavern, but found none.

Session 3

The party divvied up the treasure. Sir Guy took one of the “strange devices”, now identified as pistols, while Tigvi took the worm lantern. They also purchased a pack dog, bred over the centuries for enormous size and strength. Returning to the Summoner’s Study, they found the two feral doodles, now reacting with hostility. The party resorted to violence, quickly slaughtering the dogs. Tigvi searched the shelves for interesting books and collected about 20, including treatises on elemental summoning and a few books on the history of the ship.

Opening the next door, they found more frogmen and another shaman. Tigvi cast sleep, Una charged the shaman and slew him in a blow, and the remaining frogmen were slain to a man. At Sir Guy’s insistence, the sleepers were tied up and left behind a chair in the Summoner’s Study.

They next entered the antechamber of the Summoner’s Court and found a hellhound, which was quickly dispatched. Returning to the hallway, they entered the Wardroom, where Sir Guy had detected six evil presences. Thwy found gleaming white skeletons in tattered naval coats with gold braiding, which quickly attacked with cutlasses. The front line held the door and Tigvi cast Flaming Sphere, which destroyed one of the skeletons. They found a gleaming longsword hanging on the wall, which was packed away to be identified on their return to Sterntown.

Beyond the wardroom, Sir Guy detected another six evil presences. The party found an armory occupied by six zombies with greenish skin and metal prosthetics. The party used similar tactics as they had against the skeletons, with Sir Guy and Una holding the door. After destroying the zombies, they found two arquebuses with ammunition, a keg of gunpowder, and twelve salvageable cutlasses.

HMS Tartarus: Sterntown Equipment

Equipment primitive enough or common enough to be available for purchase among the general populace of Sterntown.

Melee Weapons

Boarding Axe. A tool of the ancients made of imperishable steel. Axe head with back spike, crowbar base. 40gp. 1d12, 20/x3. Two-handed, +2 bonus to break or unstick doors. 12 lb.

Fire Axe. A greataxe with a flat back on the head, usable as a sledge. 20 gp. 1d12, 20/x3. Two-handed, +2 bonus to break or force doors. 12 lb.

Ranged Weapons

Pistol, flintlock. 100 gp. A muzzle-loading pistol. 1d8, 20/x2. Range 30ft. Reload as full action. 4 lb. 

Carbine, flintlock. 150 gp. A short, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading firearm. 1d10, 20/x2. Range 40ft. Two handed. Reload as full action. 6 lb.

Musket. 200 gp. A long, smooth-bored, muzzle-loading firearm. 2d6, 20/x2. Range 60ft. Two handed. Reload as full action. 10 lb.

Rifle, flintlock. 500 gp. A long, rifled, muzzle-loading firearm. 2d6, 20/x2. Range 200 ft. Two handed. Five full actions to reload. 10 lb.

Ammunition

Flintlock cartridges, 10. 10 gp. 1lb.

Black powder. 10 gp. 1lb.

Bullets, silver. 10. 20gp. 1lb.

Grenade-like Weapons

Grenade, black powder. 30 gp. Your classic cartoon bomb. 2d6 in 10’ radius. Standard action to light, standard action to throw. Explodes at start of the user’s second turn after lighting. Dex check to pick up quickly. 3 lb.

Armor and shields

Powered

Boilermail. A steam-powered armored exoskeleton, too heavy to be effectively worn without assistance. 4000 gp. +10 AC, 45% ASF, +40lb carrying capacity. 50lb. Consumes 5lb coal per hour. When unpowered, 80% ASF and -8 dex.

Cargo Exoskeleton. A steam powered exoskeleton designed to maximize carrying capacity. 2000 gp. +4 AC, 35% ASF, +100lb carrying capacity. 20 lb. Consumes 5lb coal per hour. When unpowered, 70% ASF and -8 dex

Food and Drink

Ancient

Meal, Ready-to-Eat (1 day). 2 gp. The imperishable food of the ancients. 1lb, reduces fatigue.

Cola, Can. 1 gp. The effervescent drink of the ancients. 2/3 lb, reduces fatigue.

Mermaid’s Milk, Bottle. 10 gp. A brownish, milky liquid with a bittersweet taste. 2/3 lb, reduces fatigue.

Modern

Produce, Fresh. 1d10 gp/lb, rolled weekly (on a 10, reroll and multiply). A limited supply of fresh fruits and vegetables is available in Sterntown, either grown in recovered hydroponic racks or found at great risk in the hull and on deck.

Nori. 1cp. Dried seaweed. 1lb.

Fish Flakes. 1sp. 1lb.

 Fish, Fresh. 3sp. 1lb.

Mushrooms, Edible. 5cp, 1lb.

Rice. 2cp. 1lb.

Rice Wine, Cup. 2cp.

Adventuring Gear

Power, Light, and Heat

Battery, Disposable. 2 gp. 10 units of charge. 0.1 lb.

Coal. 5 cp. An efficient heat source for steam power. 1 lb. Chemlight. 2 sp. Disposable light source, powered by chemical reaction. Once snapped, provides light as lantern for 10 minutes, then light as torch for 50 minutes. Can be safely tossed or dropped without breaking.

Tools

Multitool. 20gp. A common tool of the ancients. 1d3, 20/x2. +2 bonus to basic repairs and dismantling. 1/2lb.

Engineer’s toolkit. 40 gp. Wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, screwdrivers, hammer, grease, oil. 10lb.

Roll of Duck Tape. 5 sp. The adhesive fabric that holds society together. 1/4 lb.

Halligan Bar. 40gp. A steel bar with a combination adze/spike head on one end and a forked prying head on the other. +5 to force doors and break locks, +10 if used in combination with a sledge or fire axe. When used as a weapon, 1d6 damage, piercing or bludgeoning. 12lb.

HMS Tartarus: Player Intro (cousin game)

 Some introductory material for a game I'm running for some of my family. It's possible I'll run another game in the same setting, either in person or online. The debt to Gus L.'s HMS Apollyon should be obvious to anyone familiar with the setting.

Introduction

As you come to, you’re hauled sputtering from cold, briny water onto a foam-slicked floor of dull bronze. “Welcome aboard the HMS Tartarus, flotsam! You’re lucky to be alive, if you can call this living.” The ruddy-faced man chuckles at his own joke, then carries on. “It’s a rough lot you’ve been cast, being pulled aboard a ghost ship. You get five days by the grace of the stewards, then you sign on to the crew.”

HMS Tartarus will be a gritty old-schoolish mini-campaign run using the Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook 3.5, with the Epic 6 houserule, experience for gold, and a nonstandard XP chart. Additional player-facing material may be made available over the course of the campaign, including a mixture of official, third-party, and homebrew sources.

Game details

• Gritty means you’re not the big damn heroes saving the world. The player characters will be thrust into an unfamiliar environment, the vast interplanar liner HMS Tartarus, lost on its maiden voyage to the City of Brass. Character death is on the table, but mechanisms will be in place to allow starting above first level and catch up. Expect a struggle to survive in the early sessions, followed by increasing power and agency as the game progresses.
• Old-school in this case means we’ll be including hirelings, retainers, experience-for-gold, and an acceptance that Dungeons and Dragons hasn’t been balanced at any pont in its history. Negotiation with, and retreat from, dungeon encounters is encouraged. Expect tracking of mundane equipment, encumbrance, ammunition, and money to matter more than in typical games.
• To start, we’ll be using whatever mix of 3.0 and 3.5 core books haven’t fallen apart on me yet. Pathfinder 1e derives most of its rules from D&D 3.5, so some familiarity there may help. Everything in the 3.5 PHB is on the table, DMG and MM content will appear but please don’t build your characters with it. I’m willing to consider additional player-facing material from all kinds of sources, but prestige classes don’t really mesh with the E6 level cap, so they’ll mostly need to be chopped up and made into feat chains (which E6 will let you take eventually). The limit on rules is mostly about keeping the focus on exploration and in-game problem solving rather than character optimization, and I’m willing to relax things as long as that stays the case.
• Epic 6 is a houserule for 3e D&D capping character levels at 6 and allowing progression beyond that via additional feat choices every 10000 XP gained. This is more about giving an upper bound on raw character power that keeps things dangerous even in the nearer sections of the hull while allowing some divergence in character levels.
• Experience for Gold means that an experience point will be awarded to the group playing in a given session for each gold piece worth of treasure brought back to civilization. Aboard HMS Tartarus, that means bringing things from the hull at large into Sterntown and having the Pale Gates shut safely behind you. The goal here is to encourage noncombat solutions to problems - killing the frogmen and taking their stuff is one option, but so is stealing from them, bargaining with them, allying with them, or avoiding them entirely.
• Given the above, you’ll get XP a lot faster than usual, and the level-up chart will be adjusted to compensate. I haven’t nailed it down but the general target is about the same as core 3e (so three or four sessions per level up).

Character Creation

For the beach game, we’ll be starting at level 3, with some level 1 and 2 PC-classed retainers available. Retainers are generally brought on for the long term, and paid either a substantial wage or a half share of the party’s profits. Level 1 NPC-classed hirelings may be available should the party return to Sterntown successfully, but generally will only join a larger expeditions. Starting gold is 3000gp - spend as on PHB and DMG items, no more than 1500 gp on any single item.

Overheard on the Tartarus

• There’s strangers in the hull, all pale skin and black iron. Seen ’em on the Straight Road but never got close enough to shout
• It’s not just plague dead in the hull. They say there’s a walking skeleton in marine armor, clean as the day it was made, who stands guard at the aft chapel.

The Gatetown Notice Board

Among the tattered papers at the Notice Board

• In a mess of typefaces: “Harold’s Scavenger Supplies: The Finest in Arms, Ammunition, and Curiosities. Buying and Selling.”
• A large, fresh poster boldly stating that “Trade with the Frogmen is Strictly Forbidden by the Passenger Class.” A long series of definitions, subparagraphs, and pictograms fills the rest of the poster.
• In neat writing on a small card: “Cyrus of Ephebus, Priest of Pelor. Half share an expedition. Retainer as healer 10gp a week. Find at the Shrine of Pelor”
• In sprawling, messy writing on handmade papyrus: “Scavenger-General (Acting) Ebeneezer Gerund offers a wide variety of MAPS and INFORMATION as to things of VALUE in the HULL. Act quickly! Our SHIP relies on it.”
• In simple block type: SEEKING HYDROPONIC RACKS. DELIVER TO STEWARD SECOND CLASS THEODORE SMITH. REWARD OFFERED. - A PASSENGER
• In neat writing on a small card: “Ulric Red-hand, Bersarkr for hire. Half share an expedition. Find him at the Shrine of the Kraken”
• A ragged poster: “KEEP THEM SCAVENGING”, a blacksmith hammering on glowing metal.
• A faded postcard of an elegant sunroom, scribbled with “Remember what They took from You”
• In simple block type, a price sheet listing dozens of common foodstuffs with prices in the tens and hundreds of gp. The date marked is 1524.05.01 LLS. A stack of slightly varied sheets is pinned beneath it.
• On a ragged scrap of paper: “Elsa and Vissen, scroungers for hire. 20gp each an expedition, or half share. Find us at the sign of the Red Lion”
• On creamy paper in a calligraphic hand: “Steward Third Class Jonathan Almsker was slain by frogmen who approached his expedition under a flag of truce. Jeremy Swinn, Steward Second Class, seeks brave members of the crew to recover his personal effects. 2000gp reward.”

Ventured Horizon - 13 item worldbuilding

In the spirit of Trilemma Adventures' 13 item worldbuilding challenge, example equipment lists for the three human factions on the Absalom Interstellar generation ship Ventured Horizon.

Gaian

• Wool toga
• Bronze knife
• Bronze spear
• Identity Badge, Provisional (Hydroponics Repairman)
• Holly crown
• Goat jerky
• Sandals
• Goat blood warpaint
• Repair Kit, Hydroponics
• Silver amulet
• Book, Children's, Greek Mythology
• Access Key, Genebank
• Vial, Sample (goat blood)

Spacer

• Vaccsuit, Custom Size
• Knife, Chef's, 10 inch
• Knife, Paring, Rebalanced (x5)
• Bandolier
• Long Johns, Thermal, Custom Size
• Identity Badge (Engineer's Mate)
• Songbook, Sacred Harp
• Dosimeter, Radiation
• Cable, EVA, 200 ft
• Carabiner, EVA (x10)
• Dosimeter, Acceleration
• Boots, Magnetic

Crewman

• Chainmail shirt
• Wool tabard
• Silver amulet
• Knife, Chef's, 10 inch
• Goat leather scabbard
• Identity Badge, Provisional (2nd Lieutenant)
• Boots, Steel-toed
• Helmet, Hockey Goalie's
• Canteen, Plastic
• Goat jerky
• Repair Kit, Hydroponics
• Bible, Gideons
• Bone flute

Mothership: the Ventured Horizon

Absalom Insterstellar's Ventured Horizon, part of the Ventured class of slow-boat generation ships, was launched on a 100 year voyage to the Epsilon Eridani system. The last message from the vessel was sent 5 ship years prior to its scheduled arrival, and reported no unusual circumstances. Now, 200 years later, the ship's hyperspace navigation beacon has activated, enabling Absalom to compute a Jump-1 route to the system.

The Ship

The Ventured Horizon, exterior view

As with all Ventured-class vessels, the Horizon is a 10 mile long cylinder 2.4 miles in diameter, hollow through the middle, with three additional modules along a center shaft. Each center module is connected to the outer shell by three spokes. The bridge is located in the forward center module, the Autarch (primary AI core) in the middle module, and the engines on the rear module. Several fabrication units are located in the center modules, including the dedicated fab for the ship's marine complement. The genebank and terraforming AI (GAIA) are located in the aft section of the outer shell.

The Mutiny

After 95 years of transit, the ship's third captain, decided to retain his power by refusing to land, and ordered the ship's AI to cut communications with Absalom Interstellar and the universe at large. This provoked a mutiny among the ship's engineering and terraforming staff, which ended with large sections of the shell depressurized, the engineer faction in control of the low-gravity center modules, the captain's loyalists in the front section of the shell, and a prematurely activated GAIA in control of the rear of the shell. Communication lines from the Autarch to the shell were cut during the mutiny, leaving the loyalists unable to formally authorize any succession following the death of the captain. Conversely, the engineers, while in contact with the AI core and able to authorize successions and promotions within their department, lacked the command authority to replace the captain directly, or to assign any privileged roles outside engineering.

The Spacers

In the two centuries since the mutiny, the descendants of the engineers, now calling themselves spacers, have lived in the low gravity of the center modules. Those born and raised in low-grav grew tall and slender, to a degree impossible under the conditions of gravity. In the poorly-shielded environment, mutations and cancers have run rife.

The chief example of this is the Oracle, born in the first year after the mutiny. With a novel form of gigantism and growing unchecked by gravity, he seemed strangely ageless. By his 70th year, he was a spiritual leader among the spacer population, but could no longer fit in airlocks to move between the modules. When his heart finally succumbed to the square-cube law, his head was removed and placed on life support so he could guide his people, but he still continued to grow. Now a grotesque ten feet of skull and brain, his influence has preserved the belief system of the original engineers, including the understanding of planets and interstellar travel.

The life of the spacers is based primarily around the limited low-grav hydroponics racks and the fabrication units they do possess. Their limited authority prevents them from producing proper military equipment, but they can still construct vaccsuits and EVA gear, permitting travel and trade between modules despite the loss of the Intraship Transit System.

The spacers rarely descend into the shell of the Horizon, and only at great risk. They remain at war with both the Crewmen and the Gaians, and are at a severe disadvantage in the unaccustomed gravity. The risk is worth it, however - the no-mans-land of the algae stacks is home to catfish and herons, the Crewmen only have loose control over their hydroponic gardens, and particularly brave and lucky war parties are occasionally able to poach a goat from Gaian territory.

The Crewmen

Meanwhile, the captain's loyalists ("Crewmen") have regressed into a semi-medieval culture based around the hereditary ranks of their ancestors. However, they are unable to formally authorize any transfer of command authority, leaving their ranks meaningless for interacting with the ship's systems. While their autofabs are therefore limited to producing civilian items, they have cobbled together a hand-crafted material culture that includes a variety of low-tech armor and weapons.

The Crew have lost any understanding of the ship and its journey as such. Their leaders preach that the journey is only a metaphor for the progress of man. They consider the Autarch a god, whose intervention can preserve them from the dangers of the muties.

For food, they rely primarily on their hydroponics banks, which lie immediately beyond their sealed section of the hull. They supplement their diet with fish and birds from the algae stack as well sa the odd goat stolen from GAIA.

GAIA

The prematurely activated terraforming AI, GAIA, has gone insane. Unable to process the fact that she was not on the destination planet, and exposed to a summary of Greek and Roman mythology, she has convinced herself she is in fact the goddess for whom she was named. The descendants of the original terraforming staff have bought in to the mythology as well and have formed a cult around her.

The rear section of the ship has been transformed into an approximation of the Greco-Roman world complete with monsters. Her people herd goats, produce bronze weapons and armor, and wear togas and laurel crowns. The Minotaur and satyrs were an easy job for a superintelligent master of genetic manipulation. While the Medusa never quite worked as planned, the final research subject escaped into the hull and is thought to be lurking in the algae stacks.

Where the Players Come In

The Autarch has recently managed to talk itself into the position that the Horizon's hyperspace beacon doesn't count as communication per se, and as such has followed its original programming and activated it. It hasn't mentioned this to the Spacers, since none of them are bridge officers. Absalom Interstellar has tracked the beacon, and since they retain formal rights to the colonization of Epsilon Eridani, have computed a new Jump-1 route to the system. The players are hired for a basic salvage job - recover as much viable material of lost species from the genebank as possible. No other mission parameters are specified, and the PCs will be the first ones arriving in system since the Horizon itself.

Mediography and Acknowledgements

An obvious debt to Arnold K's Axis Mundi.

Some aspects of the Muties and the overall situation are drawn from Robert Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky.

The Oracle is inspired by the music video for the Gorillaz' DARE

From Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun comes the word "Autarch" and some aspects of the Oracle.

Alternate Combat: One Foot Squares

I've been doing some thinking about how to square realism and playability without breaking the game too badly, partly inspired by Bret Devereaux's recent post on ancient and medieval heavy infantry spacing, partly by this gallery of HEMA fighters in 5-foot squares, and partly by some of my frustrations with both oldschool and 3.x positioning and their implications in different-size rooms. The post title gives away the short version of the answer - one foot squares, with man-size characters occupying a depth of two feet and a width of two or three feet (depending on armament). 

From there, weapon reach becomes important - the front lines are no longer necessarily immediately adjacent, since a spear is going to let a combatant reach 6 squares beyond the space they're occupying. On the other hand, it might not let them effectively attack someone immediately adjacent, making daggers advantageous in wrestling range. The issue then is that the spearman wants to keep the dagger wielder at bay, while the dagger wielder wants to close through the spearman's effective range. The obvious solution here is to borrow attacks of opportunity from 3.x - the spearman gets to make an attack as the dagger wielder tries to pass through their range, and on a successful attack, they not only do damage but also prevent the dagger wielder from closing. Adding the option for the swordsman to retreat would also make the system somewhat more realistic, while giving a major advantage to longer weapon. So far so good, at least if we're looking at a duel on a fencing strip.