Crap Armor House Rule

Armor in BX DnD is hella cheap. Why? Because it's old and crappy. 

On any successful hit against a PC that does 6+ damage the player must roll a D6 and subtract that amount from the damage but also loose that many points of AC. 

Armor can be repaired. It costs half as much as getting new armor. 

Fancy/very well made armor can be found, sure. Doubling the cost raises the amount of damage that triggers a break by 1. Like this:

ARMOR	Cost
Damage to Break	Leather	Chain	Plate
6+	20	40	60
7+	40	80	120
8+	80	160	240
9+	160	320	480
10+	320	640	960
11+	640	1280	1920
12+	1280	2560	3840

I like this because when making a character it doesn't change any thing. Armor costs what it says in the book, there's no weird rule to teach the Players. Then on the second or third session when the ogre hits one of your Players with his spiked war club and does 9 damage you can be like, "that's 9 damage, are you dead? yeah, shoot. oh wait, roll to see if your armor is busted instead." They'll be delighted, and then later you'll get to make up a funny voice for the armorsmith in the next town. 

ONE PAGE DOUBLE ZINE: DUNGEON BROADSHEET/PhASM

I've made a one page zine that's actually two zines. It's two one-page dungeons, one on each side of a single 11"x17" sheet.

On one side is the Dungeon Broadsheet #1: a cleanly presented location based adventure for low level characters for any old school fantasy adventure game. This is formatted so that it reads as a booklet with an 8.5"x11" centerfold map. The adventure involves a psionic froghemoth and the cult that worships it.

GRONOX just wants to go home and he's willing to turn your PCs into mutant frogmen to get there. 

On the reverse side is PhASM #1: a single 11"x17" completely hand drawn and lettered map of the domicile of a space sorceress in a crystal asteroid. A few ideas for how to use this are suggested, but it is likely going to be a heist or roleplaying encounter rather than a simple dungeon crawl. PhASM is intended for any space opera or cosmic fantasy game.

 Partial view of PhASM #1

To see more pictures and to order click here:
Dungeon Broadsheet/PhASM #1

Pangolin Class

To celebrate the passage of I 1401, here is a character race/class for your fantasy adventure games:

Pangolin
Pangolins are about half the size of humans with long snouts and even longer tongues. They are covered in scales, a form of natural armor. Pangolin Player Characters can of course walks and talk essentially just like humans.

Pangolins can't use large weapons and they can't see well enough to use ranged weapons, however they can attack with their claws and tail for D4 damage.

XP as Halfling
HD as Halfling
Save as Halfling
Combat as Halfling/Fighter
Special Abilities: Pangolins can Climb (96%) and Hear Noise (1/4) as a 10th level Thief. They have natural armor that functions as Scale Mail (AC 16/4) They can also curl into a ball and when doing so may add their level to their AC. Upon reaching Level 2 Pangolins may roll their normal movement rate when curled in a ball like Samus from Metroid.

Pangolins may advance to 8th Level when they may build a sweet tree fort or dig a secret lair. At that time 3d6 Level 1 Pangolins will come hang out and eat bugs with the PC.

BARBARIAN FIRE WIZARD

Wait, was that Conan shooting a fireball in that ridiculous picture in that last post a while back?

Why yes it was.

Here's a new class for Swords and Shenanigans or Lamentations of the Flame Barbarian or Labyrinths and Lizards that uses those Magic Words we were talking about:

BARBARIAN FIRE WIZARD

Prime Requisite: Strength and Charisma
Save as: Fighter
Hit Dice: as Fighter
Weapons: as Fighter
Armor: Leather, wool or none
Spell Progression: as Cleric, but can only cast spells that have FIRE in the name. No spells at first level means your BARBARIAN FIRE WIZARD just has to set fires the old fashioned way.
XP Progression: as Dwarf.
Special: Barbarian reflexes. +1 to AC per level up to double Charisma modifier.

Spells particularly suited to this class:

1	Charm	Fire	Allows the caster to control existing fires.
2	Hold	Fire	Allows the caster to grasp smoke as if it were solid.
3	Fire	Force	creates a disc of fire that does d6 damage per level and lasts as long as the caster charges forward.
4	Protection (from)	Fire	The caster is unharmed by fire for one day per level.
5	Read	Fire	burning a person's belonging allows the caster to divine one fact about them.
6	Fire	Portal	The caster can thrust or throw something into one fire and it will come out another.
7	Fire	Missile	The caster may fire one missile per level. Roll to hit. Damage is 1d6(+1 per level) plus ongoing flame damage. The spell starts a fire if it misses.
8	Ride	Fire	The caster may disappear into a fire and remain in it for up to 1 hour per level.

There are some more great fire related spells in this.

Fantasy Medieval Glamping

We allow for a roll of each character's Hit Dice to recover/heal every morning.  The way we've been doing it you get advantage or disadvantage dice for good or bad sleeping conditions. The idea is you get penalty or disadvantage dice if your roughing it and bonus or advantage dice when you stay at a cozy inn. Normally, when the PCs have been in town and resting up for a week or two in between adventures we just say their at full health rather than roll all those dice.  The thing I've noticed is that rolling Hit Dice tends toward the average so unless their really hurt they don't roll.  Also the bonus/penalty for accommodations seems minimal.  And Jeezy Creezy, my Players do not like to pay to stay in inns. They would feel perfectly Ok about camping right outside an inn.

So, I'm going to change how camping works juuuust slightly.  Instead of replacing your current total these Hit die are going to add or subtract from your current total, and instead of getting an extra die and dropping the highest or lowest like with advantage or disadvantage you actually loose or gain Hit Dice or Hit Points.

You gotta remember that in my book Hit Points are not physical damage. Whether it’s in a knife fight or a bad night’s sleep, your loss of HP represents getting tired, sore, and stressed out. Real physical injury is something that you are only at risk of when at 0 HP.

Here are the new camping rules:

For each of the Penalty conditions that are present, it's -2 HP in the morning.

For each of the Normal conditions that are present it's +1 HP in the morning.

For each of the Bonus conditions that are present, +1 HD in the morning.

You can't exceed your maximum and you can't go below 1 HP no matter how good or bad the accommodations.

HIT POINT RECOVERY
FULL NIGHT'S REST	Penalty   (-2 HP)	Normal   (+1 HP)	Bonus   (+1 HD)
Bed	Sleeping on the ground	Bedroll or Inn common room	Real bed
Weather	Camping outside in hot or cold, rain or snow, Camping in Dungeon	Camping with or without fire in warm weather, Camping with fire in cold weather, or with tent in extreme weather, Camping in a cave	Inside
Food	Spoiled standard rations	Iron rations	Home cookin
Recreation or Activity	If sleep is interrupted more than momentarily	Evening Recreation: Music performance, poetry reading, religious ritual, storytelling, etc. *Must make noise and only one per night (+1 HP)
DAYTIME REST
Resting in fair conditions		10 Minute Short rest, max. 1 per day (+1 HP) 2 hour long rest, max 1 per day (+1 HP) Full day of rest (+1 HP, cumulative w/ recreation)
Recreation		Daytime Recreation: swimming, napping, sport, gaming, good conversation, meditation, etc. *2 hours min. each activity. Up to two per day (+1 HP each, +2 HP Max.)
Recovery		Special: for Wounded characters, a full night and day of rest counts as 2 days toward their recovery time.

Examples:

Camping in a bedroll with a fire in cold weather, eating iron rations, but sleep is interrupted:

+1 HP

Sleeping on the ground, in the rain, eating standard rations (not spoiled):

-4 HP

Sleeping on a real bed, inside, with good food and some guy reciting sonnets:

+3 HD +1 HP

A full day of rest with swimming and napping: +5 HP

This got sort of baroque, I'd like to see if I can simplify it. It does make Inns great especially for higher level characters and the recreation bit encouraged common room and maybe even camp site shenanigans.  Low level characters with just one or two Hit Dice aren't so fancy and they can get by just fine camping with some good food and a bit of music. Roughing it can whittle you down, even higher level characters over time. And everybody likes to recreate but for the low level folks it's especially beneficial!  Also, tents are handy! Also, poetry gets you bonus HP, seriously? Sure -  I'm already planning on introducing a poet who's so bad you actually loose HP, Ha!

The most underrated of dungeon exploration equipment is:

The Shovel.

I posted way back a million years ago about playing a character who's main weapon was a shovel. Durn the Dwarf, bearer of the rune shovel died in a dismal cave. Talysman was running the game and in fine old school fashion when the dice said that Durn died that's what he did. I was thinking today that the shovel really is a top notch dungeon exploration weapon/tool. Maybe the western martial arts crowd would say that there's no room for such an unwieldy two handed weapon in a dungeon environment, but I think I'm not going to worry about that too much in a game where the dwarves who are famous for dwelling underground (in presumably tight quarters) are also famous for wielding big axes and hammers. What I mean is, in a world of 10' corridors it hardly seems like an issue. Though if the caves did suddenly get all realistically twisty and narrow what better than a trusty shovel to make a bit more room for the broad shouldered barbarian? If these games were realistic then dwarves and goblins would be crawling around in the dark in tunnels too small for humans and I doubt they'd carry much more than a shiv or two.

Ah but if your after realism then the shovel is the first thing your PC should pick up when spending their 3d6x10 gold!  Let's look at a potential real world situation: Say you come across a rabid raccoon attacking your neighbors cat and you must rise to the occasion and intervene. What would you rather have a knife or a shovel? Are you going to bend over and take a stab at the raccoon? That would be rediculous, certainly far more dangerous and nerve wracking than being able to put the shovel between the two animals and if you had to be more forceful you could from a safer distance. Heck, I think in that situation a shovel would be preferred to a .22. You might hit the cat after all.  Now, if this situation sounds like it has nothing to do with D&D, look at your preferred 1st level monster list. A lot of those creatures resemble a rabid raccoon! In size, temperament or both.

But a shovel is a ridiculous weapon you say? Let's look at the Level 1 Wandering Monster table. Of the 20 entries on the table 9 (almost half!) are  monstrous creatures the shovel could be used to chop or swing at. These are creatures like the fire beetle and the spider crab as well as the aerial attackers: the killer bee , the sprite and the stirge. 10 on this list are humans or humanoids. They probably don't want to get whacked by a shovel either. That leaves the green slime. This type of creature is best prodded from a safe distance rather than attacked. Don't have a ten foot pole? A shovel will do in a pinch.

The Level 2 list breaks down similarly. Not until we get to the level 3 monster list does the shovel start to seem outclassed, but I think it's just an oddity of the popular imagination that a sword seems like it would do much better. Against these creatures you really need higher hit dice or a magic weapon or both. And if that's the case, then why not play a Dwarven Shovelmaster (3rd level) with a +1 Rune Shovel?

How about weapon restrictions? There isn't anything that prohibits a wizard or cleric from carrying a shovel is there? Is your wizard tired of striking Gandalf-esque poses while not actually doing much that is useful? Put a shovel head on that staff and get busy! My point is this: If you can walk into a dungeon with a magic missile spell memorized then certainly do so, but bring a shovel too.

Zabel's Return... with tentacles

 Recently I found this painting:

 Zabel's Return by Vardiges Sureniants

It's a nice painting, right?  Queen Isabela of Armenia is returning to the throne.  But wait a minute, what is that guy on the far left looking at?  It really looks like he's staring with a shocked look on his face at something over her head.  It must be that he's supposed to be looking at the crown, but not to disparage mister Sureniants at all, it really looks like he's looking above the crown to me.  is somebody waving at him?  did he spy an assassin?  What's going on?

The only conclusion I've come up with is that there's actually supposed to be cthulhoid tentacles reaching from behind the curtains, and the guy on the left is the only one who made his initiative/surprise roll.  So, I've fixed the painting:

I haven't been able to figure out what the rules are regarding modifying public domain art.  If this isn't legal maybe somebody let me know.

Four House Rules of the Apocalypse

Four house rules that I've been contemplating:

1.  1/2 share of GP/XP for Hirelings, even if they die. 
I've talked around this issue before.  We run through a lot of hirelings, they're fun mini-PCs and when PCs croak they get upgraded.  We currently give hirelings the half share now.  If they somehow don't make it back to town though, some gold goes to the family maybe but the PCs keep a bigger portion and the XP.  I've realized that this actually provides incentive to killing off the poor mooks.  I don't think the players actually play to that incentive but it would be nice to flip it and incentivise keeping them alive.  That might mean fewer mooks get hired but I doubt it.  Or it might mean the PCs try to enter into working relationships with NPCs which usually provides lots of opportunity for shenanigans.

2.  No negative attributes.
I use the basic D&D -3 for a 3 to +3 for an 18 modifier scale.  It's pretty common to have characters with some -1s, and I don't really mind, one of my favorite characters recently had more minuses than pluses.  He was a chickenshit backstabber, he was smart and he was fun to play.  I say was, because shortly before he made it to 3rd level he had a change of heart and tried to save the world.  He died and failed, setting a Godzilla sized fire elemental loose on the world.  The fire beast went straight towards the nearest metropolitan area and the surviving PCs went the opposite direction!  Anyway, It seems to me that negative modifiers only make it easier for 1st level characters to die and they don't need any help in that regard.  So, what if instead of the normal minuses we change what it means to have a low score , like this:
STR:  1 handed small weapons only
INT:  fewer languages, bad at speaking languages, this is pretty much Rules as Written
WIS:  Player has to make up a paranoia or dumb thing, like the PC doesn't know how to count over 10.
DEX:  takes a round to switch weapons.  (we normally go from missile to melee without loosing a round)
CON:  Save or passes out at 1, 2 or 3 HP.
CHA:  DM gets to make up an enemy NPC.

3.  It seems entirely reasonable to me for the DM to base the HD of monsters & NPCs entirely on how entertaining or enjoyable doing the NPC or Monster's Funny Voice is.

4.  Cleric's, Undead and Alignment:
Lawful Clerics: Turn Undead
Chaotic Clerics: Command Undead
Neutral Clerics: Speak with Undead

The Law and Chaos is normal, but I've never played with the Neutrals getting anything cool or unique.  I think in most versions they have to choose to be like Lawful or Chaotic Clerics.  I think it'd be fun to have a Neutral Cleric in the party and have Kurosagi's Corpse Delivery Service inspired adventures.

Monster Action Tables?

I called the tables I sketched out in my last post "encounter tables" but that doesn't seem like the right term. One table answered the question, "what are the monsters doing when the PCs encounter them?" and the other answers the question, "what are the monsters going to do this round?"
I've used Telecanter's brilliant and all purpose 'what' are the monsters doing' table, but having a quick little table like this for specific monsters seems like a good way to jazz up encounters in a way that gives a particular monster a unique flavor, as well as making combat more exciting, cinematic and interesting. I think I got the idea for the "what do the monsters do this round?" table from the 4th edition thing where instead of encounter or daily powers, the DM rolls a d6 to see if a monster does a special attack. So a dragon, for example, instead of getting 3 uses of their breath weapon in a day, they let it loose on a 5 or 6 on a d6 that the DM rolls ever round. This takes a decision out of the hands of the DM in a way that I think can be interesting, at least sometimes. Another way to do this would be with 'Kung Fu dice' which is a thing that I'm pretty sure I first read about on D&D w/ pron stars, but I don't know that Zak invented it. This uses the d20 attack roll instead of a separate roll, which is pretty slick, but I don't think it's a big deal to roll another d6, you can roll it at the same time as the d20 attack roll and read the results at the same time. With the d6 you can also use the to hit roll if you need to.

This kind of table seems like a really good tool, I wonder why I haven't seen it more often? Or maybe lots of folks use it in published adventures and supplements an such, I just haven't picked them up or heard of them...

Gomerville, new village on the Borderlands

We just finished what I'm pretty sure was our 8th session of Keep on the Borderlands, and we're ready to go on to other things. The PCs have not left the map and are in fact in the Keep right now, but after time warping 50 years into the future the Keep is a ruin and the lair of a gnoll sorcerer who rides a giant spider.

While the PCs were time warped in the Shrine of Evil Chaos a town was built and named after one of the characters:

The town's population is about equally divided between humans, bugbears and dwarves.  (bugbears and dwarves are now optional PC races) This is what they saw when they approached the town:

That tower in the middle is the Temple of St. Cuthbert.  

Here's the player map of Gomerville:

And here's the DM map of Gomerville:

The town has some factions and I threw some in-town adventure hooks at them, but they didn't bite on any of these this session.

Fast & Loose Lovecraft City Generator

So I just discovered the Fighting Fantasist blog. He has this series about dungeon design/stocking using a Free Association technique.  (basically write down 100 words then roll d100 three times and make a room or encounter out of that)  I've been enjoying playing around with this idea of his.

Also,

It reminded me of the Mega-Dungeon Area Name Generator that Al at Beyond the Black Gate put together. This is one of my favorite things that anybody in the OSR has made.  Seriously.  I've incorporated it into my Impromptu Basic D&D DMG.  (I'll likely talk about that more later)  My goal is to use it as a Fast Table, which I don't think was Al's intent, but if have to pull a dungeon/adventure out of thin air I would soooo much rather have that set of tables in front of me than not. 

then I thought about this:

And I thought, all those great descriptive words in there, what if you made a table like Al's or Coopdevil's that used Lovecraft's very own words.  So, I flipped open the book and started writing down nouns and adjectives to make a chart.  The chart below is made with just the first paragraph.  If you were more selective about the words you picked I think you could make something more dungeonesque.

In one throw the D4, D12, D8 & D6 are coming together in one table to impersonate a D24 to generate two words for you to begin building a Lovecraftian Dream City.  If you haven't read Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, you should. 

Now, this has me thinking.  A good number of the tables I've made are open ended.  Maybe not as open as The Fighting Fantasist's free association lists, but more open ended than the Fast table that Zak describes in that post above, and there is a fair amount of filling in the blanks that the DM needs to do.  I'd say that in addition to a distinction between fast and slow there are tight and loose tables.

The table above is Loose.  It gives the DM something to work with, but it's just the beginning of whatever the hell the DM is going to describe to the players.  Why are there silver trees?  what about the peaked gables are fabulous?  What do you mean the temples are almost-vanished?  Unvisited clouds?  This table is like something that an audience member would shout out at improv theater.  Some results from the table above are harder to run with than others.  Some might be unusable even.  Maybe for some DMs every table is a loose table.

A Tight table does more to answer whatever question caused the DM to roll on the chart.  You roll on the chart and then move on to the action.  There are of course always details that a good DM can fill in, but the tight chart doesn't really leave holes for the DM to fill or connections to make.  These are easier to use in play.  I'd guess that these are also way more common in published products.  

Here's a little rundown of the kinds of tables I've posted on this blog:

Treasure Hoards and Magic Items	Slow & Loose
Starting Equipment	Tight (doesn't really have a speed because it's made for pre-game)
Space Fantasy Castle Inhabitants	Fast & Tight
Arcane Stress and Spell Mutation	Slow and Tight
Slimes Molds & Jellies	Fast and fairly Tight
FeyBeasts	Fast & Loose
Fey Humaniods	Fast & Loose
Orc Cult Names	Fast & Loose
Orc Cult Rituals	Fast & Tight
Orc Cult Schemes	Fast & mostly Loose

Most of those are linked over on the right.  Not as many of them are Fast and Loose as I thought.  I'm thinking it's good to have a mix...

ORC CULT CAVES

So I have this back burner project about orcs.

In it I am re-imagining the beloved/reviled humanoids a little.

Orcs are more like this:..                                                      

...and less like this (although I love this picture)


















Anyway, here are some bits of the project.  The idea is that orcs are amphibious and they live in one huge interconnected cave complex that is partially under water and they are loosely organized into a whole bunch of cults who worship everything from the big amphibious monsters that they share their caves with, to the "Ancients" who long ago lived in a city which is entirely buried and coincidentally right under the Orc Cave.

These first two charts you are meant to simultaneously roll three different dice to get a result.  (you can note which color die is for which column right there on the chart)  I've used this (during play) and it works pretty well and quickly.  Each cult has at least one scheme and maybe some rituals... and an enemy cult or two.

What I'm setting up here is for the Characters to get involved in all sorts of nefarious cult schemes, and kooky cult politics, kinda like this:

Huge Castle

I haven't been posting much, but I have been gaming, and I'll likely be doing some more over the holidays.  I'm gathering resources to do a by-the-seat-of-the-pants Megadungeon.  I'm thinking about giving the Players a giant version of this map.  (can you spot the modern architecture?)

I'd say that the Castle has been ruined and shrouded in terminal mist for generations.  Perhaps the map is from one of the masons who worked on the castle before it fell to ruin. 

We'll run it in LotFP with as few house rules as I can manage to limit myself to, Likely these:

• I will let M-Us use Arcane Stress.
• An equipment list closer to B/X. and maybe I'll use B/X headgear.

aaaand I think that's about it.

Here's a Castle Name Generator:

So now you too can find out what the Mad Lords of Castle Gorgonmaw have been up to!

miscelania

I got to play a dwarf today who's chief weapon/dungeon exploration implement was a shovel.  I really think that shovels are going to be the weapon/dungeon exploration implement of the future. 
Sooner or later I suppose the DM will get sick of it and say the shovel breaks, then I'll have to hire a shovel-bearer to carry my PCs extra shovels.  Seriously, if I were in a dungeon there are way more situations that I would want to have a shovel than a sword.


Welcome to humber-grognard, h.r., karnak, and cygnus!


Here's D4 potions:

1. Occu-tonic: 
Eyes sprout out of the palms of the imbibing character's hands.  These eyes can see invisible and have infravision.

2. Tonic of tongues:
a mouth sprouts of the palm of the imbibing character's right hand.  The character is able to comprehend languages, and the hand-mouth can speak any language.  There is a 1:6 chance that the mouth does not say exactly what the character wants to say each time it speaks.

3.Oracular Somnambulation:
The imbibing character imediately falls asleep and begins to sleep-walk.  He/she will walk in the shortest route possible to the nearest secret door and attempt to enter.  While sleep-walking the character cannot fight and will be automatically hit if attacked.  If the character crosses the threshold of a secret door he/she wakes up.

4. Basilisk Blood Brew:
The imbiber's skin turns green and scaly for the duration of the potion, and he/she is immune to turn to stone effects.  At the end of the potion's duration the clothes and/or armor of the character turn to dust.

Elves of Invisible Moons

I've had this post partially completed for a while and the discussion about elves at 9 and 30 kingdoms and Strange Magic has inspired me to kick this out:

This could be used for all elves in a campaign, or an optional variant sub-race, perhaps called "Moon Elves".

ELVES:

Origins: All elves descend on silver chords from one of five invisible moons.

• Elves from the first moon do not wish to be seen and so they descend on nights when there is no light from the sixth (visible) moon, or into fog or mist.
• Elves of the second moon descend into cities, into markets or fairs, sometimes onto balconies or minarets.
• Elves of the third moon descend only to the highest mountain peaks, or sometimes climb as far as they can on their chords and then trick or cajole winged creatures into carrying them the rest of the way.
• Elves of the fourth moon disguise their silver chords as lightning.
• The fifth moon floats in the sky in the hollow center of the world. Elves of the fifth moon"descend" into caverns and caves.

Physical Characteristics:  Elf PCs roll 2D12 and use the result that is closest to 6 as their hieght in feet.  roll another D12 and add that many inches.

Alignment:  All elves are in love with the world.
Some elves are driven to jealousy  and plot against or destroy all other living creatures. (Chaotic)
Some elves love all creatures and would not knowingly destroy any creature. (Lawful)
Some elves blame one type of creature (randomly determined by DM) for all of the problems in the world and will hunt and kill that creature type.  (Neutral)

Beliefs: Elves believe that by doing one of the following they will be granted a wish once in their lifetime:
1. ringing brass bells at midnight
2. dancing nude for at least 30 minutes every day at noon.
3. weeping every evening
4. fasting every other day
5. never refusing a request for drink
6. eating wild mushrooms
7. singing before every meal
8. feeding all wild animals
9. telling strangers fortunes
10. never lying
11. talking to plants
12. fighting to the death

Elves and monsters: All ghouls were once elves. These undead come form a time when elves varied more in height than they do today, simply roll 1D12 for ghoul's height.

Elf levels: When an elf gains a level the player must roll 3D12.  At least one die must be higher than the elfs current level.  If none are higher, the elf returns to the invisible moon of his origin and is never seen in the world again.