Monday, January 31, 2022

RACE: HALFLINGS

My players came around to dungeon games along a route that was heavily influenced by Lord of the Rings, so they love halflings.


HALFLING

 


(art from the Pathfinder books because I couldn't find any other I liked)


Halflings get +2 to DEX. (1)
 
Halflings get +1 to Reflex and Fortitude saves. (1)
 
Halflings get +1 AC due to their size and quickness. (1)
 
Halflings are immune to magical fear effects. (2)
 
Halflings can reroll natural 1s. (3)
 
Halflings heal extra hit points when eating and/or resting. (4)
 
1. Halflings are nimble and stout little bastards and these things reflect that.
 
2. This trait and the next one are the things our group has agreed are what makes wizards seek out halflings for world-changing quests. Halflings can get scared, but it's just "regular" scared and not "the Deathlord's pervasive Bleak Aura of Dread chills your bones, make a Will save or drown in the horror of your soul's inevitable oblivion as his skeletal minions devour your warm flesh" scared.
 
3. This is the big guns. Halflings can fail a roll but they never botch a roll, and yes they can keep rerolling even if they get another 1 on the d20. Seems broken? I don't care, game balance is for COWARDS. (This doesn't apply to damage rolls when you roll a 1, sorry my players but halflings are lucky and brave not murdergods.)
 
4. I owe a lot of my house rules to Ten Foot Polemic, his Unified House Rule Document and blog posts are what I have stolen from been inspired by the most. Basically if I am doing something neat and clever rules-wise then I probably got the idea from his blog originally (sorry not sorry but do read his blog, it's great). Anyway he has rules for recovering hit points that are tied to eating rations and sleeping conditions that I use in our games. I'll share my dumbed-down version another time but the important part here is that when PCs regain HP for eating or resting, halflings get more HP out of it.

Saturday, January 29, 2022

RACE: OKAY, FINE. ELVES.

Elves are okay but they've never been my favorite. My players and I agree it wouldn't really feel like a proper dungeon-y game without Tolkien-style elves in it. I have been kicking around a version of elves that is more Fae and weird and otherworldly but that's for another day. Anyway here's these pointy-eared bastards.

ELF


(artwork by Astri Lohne and Han Peng respectively)

Elves get +1 to DEX, +1 to INT, and +1 to CHA. (1)

Elves get +2 to Reflex saves. (1)

Elves have a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with bows. (1)

Elves are immune to magical sleep and mind control effects. (1)

Elves can see in the dark as if it were daylight as long as there is any moonlight, starlight, or light produced by living things. (1)

Elves can sense invisible beings and hidden or secret doors, passages, and trails with a Wisdom roll. (1)

Elves are immune to magical charm, sleep, and paralysis effects. (1)

Elves can reroll failed rolls to resist diseases and magical aging effects. (1)

If an Elf is even slightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, or other natural conditions they will be undetectable to mundane senses as long as they don't move at more than half speed. (1)

 

1. All this stuff feels Elf-y and neat.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

CLASS: THE DEVIL-PUNCHING CLERIC

I haven't done a list of "fantasy deities for my elf game" so when somebody plays a cleric in our games they are specifically clerics of a more-or-less Medieval Catholic-ish Church and a nominally Judeo-Christian God. I'm not looking to exclude or offend anybody with that choice, it's just that the Middle Ages-style Church is metal as hell. SUFFER NOT THE WITCH TO LIVE! KILL THEM ALL AND GOD WILL KNOW HIS OWN! PURGE THE BLASPHEMER! THE INQUISITION! ETERNAL DAMNATION! Also we pretty explicitly have THE ACTUAL PRINCE OF DARKNESS, THE NO-SHIT DEVIL in our games (maybe too often?) and it just all ties together too well. I understand if your mileage varies on this point but my players are all godless reprobates and I don't think they'd really enjoy themselves if they couldn't have some old fashioned Hail Satan's in their game.
 
 
 CLERIC



(artwork by unknown artist & Ekaterina Burmak respectively)
 

HIT DICE: D8

ATTACK BONUS: +1

Clerics get +2 to all saves. (1)

Clerics can use simple weapons and armor.

Clerics can use Bless, Cure, Heal, and Purify once a day each. (2) Each daily use after the first requires a Faith roll. (3)

Clerics can Turn or Exorcise the undead. (4)

Clerics can call down Divine Intervention. (5)

Clerics start with one random Holy Gift. (6)


1. Seems like a lot, but to me it fits the idea of the cleric as specially blessed.
 
2. Here's the meat of the class. (The individual abilities are described below.) So there's a trend in dungeon-y RPGs where a lot of classes are really just "a different kind of wizard" and that's not for me. I want each class to feel like it does something unique. In our games clerics don't have a list of cleric spells, instead they have their specific cleric-y things that they can do. Their four main ones start from level one -- there are theoretically more that open up at higher levels but none of my players has ever played a high level cleric (actually only one person has ever played a cleric). The higher level powers would (probably) include Smite, Consecrate, Commune, and Resurrect.
 
3. The Faith roll is the all-inclusive "summon your God powers!" roll for clerics and they add their Charisma modifier to the roll (I go back and forth on if they should add Charisma or Wisdom but lately I've stuck with Charisma.) The difficulty of the roll is, uh, whatever I say it is at the time. I generally like having loose target numbers to beat that I can judge on the fly instead of a hard table of numbers, this lets me have a rules dial I can tweak to keep a game moving along and maintain the fun / drama / insanity that our game sessions become. I do expect Faith rolls to be a little difficult though. Also I stole some stuff from DCC and filed the serial numbers off for Faith rolls: every time you roll a 1 on a Faith roll you fail and you suffer Divine Disapproval (there's a table for this I'll post another time), also every time you fail a Faith roll (even if it's just a regular failure) your Disapproval range moves up 1 (so after your first failure you risk Disapproval on a 1 or 2). Your Disapproval range resets to 1 every day. You can get a bonus to a Faith roll by possessing powerful sacred relics, sacrificing treasure, and/or scourging your unworthy flesh (a small bonus for losing hit points, a bigger bonus for losing ability score points, a big-ass bonus for permanently maiming yourself).
 
4. Clerics need a holy symbol for this, no roll is needed; instead the undead make a morale roll on 2d6 according to the rules below.
 
5. This is inspired by Blessed characters in old school Deadlands (I don't just steal ideas from Dungeon Crawl Classics!). Divine Intervention lets you do crazy, dramatic, Old Testament-style effects -- you tell me the DM what you want to happen and if it's suitably "I AM THE LORD THY GOD ALPHA AND OMEGA AND BEHOLD A PALE HORSE" then you A: sacrifice one whole level and B: make a Faith roll. (You can get bonuses to this Faith roll in the usual ways, so a player will probably do enough sacrificing etc. to get the max bonus to the roll and succeed at their mighty miracle, but that's ok because hey it's your levels you're losing). Success on the Faith roll means you get your Divine Intervention and THE RIVERS TURN TO BLOOD, or THE FIRSTBORN ARE SLAIN, or CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER, MASS HYSTERIA!
 
6. Another thing inspired by Deadlands Blessed characters. Clerics get to roll on the Holy Gifts table at first level and I think I let my one cleric roll again at level five, so a new random gift at every fifth level is probably a good ruling. Some of the gifts seem pretty powerful and that's because they are, game balance is for COWARDS. The Holy Gifts table is below. (And yes there is also an Unholy Gifts table but we'll get to that another time.)


Heal: By laying on hands the cleric can heal the target for 1d6 plus the cleric's level in hit points. A person can only receive this healing once a day. Clerics can't heal their own wounds. (The die size is supposed to increase at later levels but high level play is a vague area for my players on account of how much we crave death.)

Cure: By laying on hands the cleric can cure someone of a disease, infirmities like blindness, or magical afflictions like petrification or polymorphing. They can also restore the cleric's level in lost ability score points. Failing this roll means that thing can't be healed by that cleric. Clerics can't cure their own afflictions.

Bless: The recipient of the Blessing receives a bonus equal to the cleric's level on the next roll of the cleric's choosing. This roll can be as specific as the cleric wants. Clerics can't bless themselves. One Blessing per person at a time, Blessings last for one day.

Purify: Up to one day's worth of food and water is cleansed of poisons, toxins, and other harmful substances. One Purification is good for up to four people's rations for the day. (This has never come up, my players never think to worry about food or like dying of exposure when they go into a wilderness so they mostly steal or starve.)

Turn Undead: Clerics can turn away and rebuke undead monsters and ghosts and such with the power of their faith. By brandishing a holy symbol they can force the monster to make a Morale check (it's a 2d6 roll, modified by stuff like being on holy / unholy ground, is it like dawn on the Feast of Saint Magnus or midnight on All-Fiends' Eve, any necromantic meddling, etc.). If the cleric is three or more levels higher than the monster a failed Morale check means exorcism and instant destruction. Assume zombies/skeletons have Morale 4-6, ghouls/ghosts/vampires 6-8, more powerful vampires 8-10, liches 11-12.

Faith Bonus
Holy Relic: Certain sacred relics give a bonus to Faith rolls for as long as the cleric possesses the item. It'll be a small bonus and I'll probably only let you have one relic at a time but it'll be a bonus to every Faith roll you make. A saint's finger bone would give +1 and an actual shard of the True Cross would be +2. 
Sacrifices: By sacrificing unto God, a cleric can improve their Faith roll. Offerings of material wealth are typical. The wealth must be burned, melted down, donated to the needy, contributed to a temple, or otherwise relieved from the cleric's possession. It can be donated as part of a special rite or just hurled into the offering plate. The cleric gets +1 to their next Faith roll for every 100 gold (or equivalent) sacrificed.
Scourging: Clerics can also get a +1 bonus to their next Faith roll for every d4 damage they inflict on themselves, or +3 for every point of an ability score they sacrifice (by rending their flesh, peeling the skin off their faces, etc.; this is basically spellburn from DCC), or +5 or more if they permanently maim themselves (chop off an arm or leg, and no you can't get it healed later or you'll piss off God, He'll be all WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I MADE THE WORLD?!)


Holy Gifts
1. Beast Friend: You get +4 on reaction rolls with normal animals and they are generally friendly toward you unless attacked.
2. Charismatic: Charisma goes straight to 18, or 20 if it's already 18.
3. Mystical Hermit: You only need a single bite of food, a single sip of water, and one breath of air every (your level) days.
4. Divine Providence: You can reroll any natural 1s you roll. If you roll another 1 then you keep that roll.
5. Favored: You can reroll any failed roll once a day.
6. Guardian Spirit: You have damage reduction equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1).
7. Endurance: Your maximum hit points are immediately doubled.
8. Humility: You can't be magically dominated, charmed or possessed.
9. Lion-Hearted: You are never afraid, and get an additional +2 to all saves.
10. Clear-Sighted: You can see through illusions and disguises automatically.
11. Perfect Faith: Demons and devils can't harm or affect you directly.
12. Prophet: Heaven will answer one yes-or-no question you ask once per day.
13. Great Soul: You get a permanent +2 AC.
14. Evangelical: You can speak, read, and write all mortal languages.
15. Vitality: You are immune to all diseases & poisons.
16. Wise: Wisdom goes straight to 18, or 20 if it's already 18.
17. Zeal: You get +1 to all rolls and your normal speed is doubled.
18. Mighty: Strength goes straight to 18, or 20 if it's already 18.
19. Touched By An Angel: You are immune to any damage from fire or lightning.
20. Chosen: The next time you die, you come back in 3 rounds, at full hit points.

Saturday, January 22, 2022

"Where the heck is New Karundi?"

During character creation I have my players roll on a "Failed Profession" table. (I stole this from Dungeon Crawl Classics.) It's a big hit, everybody enjoys the little fun moments that arise when their barbarian slaughter-lord AXEMOUTH THE GOREMASTER, who used to be a chicken farmer, gets to use his chicken farming knowledge in-game. (It comes up!)
 
Before the failed professions table I used a homemade backgrounds table. I tied the entries on it into the locations I was going to use in the game world, and then (as usual) those places never came up so they were never explored or expanded on past the little throwaway line I put on the table.
 
BUT NOW THERE IS REVERSE EARTH AND THESE LANDS SHALL COME ALIVE.


The table:
 
Backgrounds
Roll d20. This is where you're from, what you might look like, maybe something good or bad, and maybe some minor starting equipment or gold.
 
1 Fray. You're from the industrial city of Fray. You might have grey hair or red eyes. Start with a hammer and a piece of chalk.
 
2 Red District (Fray). You're from the worst, filthiest part of Fray. You probably have yellowish skin and pointy teeth. You get +1 to notice unusual smells. Start with a vial of acid.
 
3 Owenga City. It's like Venice, but colder. You probably have blue or green hair. Start with a whistle and 5 extra gold.
 
4 Tusk Bay (Owenga City). You can sail a ship. You probably have blue teeth from drinking squid ink tea. Start with a fish hook and 20 feet of fishing line.
 
5 New Karundi. You're from right outside the Fungal Jungle. You might have purple or black eyes. You like your food extremely spicy hot. Start with a dose of hallucinogenic moss.
 
6 Skull. You're from the City of Thieves. You get +1 to noticing people when they're trying to hide. You're definitely wanted for crimes somewhere. Start with a small knife and 5 extra gold.
 
7 Palace of the Bandit King (Skull). You were a member of the Bandit King's “royal” family (or pretended to be). You get +1 to find secret doors and passages. There's definitely an assassin looking for you somewhere. Start with a signet ring.
 
8 Dryland. The pirate city. You can sail a ship. You get +1 to climbing ropes. There's definitely somebody out there that wants you dead. Start with a bottle of rum.
 
9 Malkovia. You're from the monster-filled countryside. You're really superstitious. Start with a small mirror and some wolfsbane.

10 Karlov Cathedral (Malkovia). It's like Notre Dame, but gigantic and creepier. You get +1 on attack rolls against vampires. You're pretty sure all redheads are secretly witches. Start with a vial of holy water.

11 Albion-Zegovia (rabble). You're from the common people of the “double city.” You're used to weird stuff. You have a pretty good singing voice. Start with a chunk of soap and 5 extra gold.

12 Albion-Zegovia (aristocrat). You're from an elite family in the “double city.” There's an arranged marriage back home but you're trying to avoid it. Start with a bottle of perfume and 20 extra gold.

13 Myth. You're from the ice kingdom of Myth. You have a snowflake-shaped scar on your palm from paying your blood tax to the Ice Queen. Start with a quill, a bottle of ink, and 5 sheets of paper.

14 The Crystal Palace (Myth). Your family served the Ice Queen in her palace. You get +1 on Charisma checks when etiquette and good manners count. You have silver-white hair. Start with a signet ring.

15 Ram-Anku.
You're from the tomb city of the Mummy Kings. Even if you don't serve the Kings-in-Chains now, you did growing up, so you know all the rites and observances. You probably still shave your entire body. Start with 3 candles and a small knife.

16 Tectotl. It's like an Aztec city, and full of lizard people. You have the feather-and-fang tattoo of the God-Lizard on your body somewhere. Start with a vial of poison.
 
17 The Fields of Wind (nomad). You're from the windy steppes. You're really good at riding a horse. Your favorite food is roasted bat. Start with a lantern and a net.
 
18 The Fields of Wind (trading post). You're from a trading village on the steppes. You probably have elaborately braided hair. You're really good at riding a horse. Start with an iron cooking pot and a spyglass.

19 Perihelion. You're from the mesa city of wizards. You know how to fly a hot-air balloon. You like to wear bright clashing colors. Start with a vial of alchemist's fire.
 
20 The College Magnificent (Perihelion). Your family served the Mega-Magician in Perihelion. You either love wizards or hate them. You know an extra language.
 
 
I think I'll use this alongside the roll on the failed professions table. My players always like more random shit added onto their PCs that they can bring up at weird times. 

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

CLASS: DIRTY THIEVES

 We'll cover the thief class we use today. ("Rogue" or "specialist" is fine, but I like "thief".)
 

THIEF


(art by Bob Kehl and Katerina Poliakova respectively)

 

HIT DICE: D6 

ATTACK BONUS: +1 

Thieves get +2 to Reflex saves. 

Thieves can use all weapons and firearms. Thieves can wear leather armor. (1)

Thieves can backstab surprised or unaware enemies. They get a +2 bonus to the attack roll and the attack deals double damage (triple at level 9). (2)

Thieves can move silently at half speed, or at normal speed with a Dexterity roll. (3)

Thieves can scale sheer surfaces with a Dexterity roll. (4)

Thieves can pick non-magical locks and disarm non-magical traps given tools and time. (5)

Thieves can slip out of non-magical bonds (like ropes and manacles) given enough time. (6)

Thieves can make passable forgeries of any document given ink, paper, and time. (7)

Thieves can automatically pickpocket any unsuspecting victim if they are a lower level. (8)

 

1. I go back and forth on if thieves should be able to use big fuck-off martial weapons like battle axes and also firearms, but generally I let them because it seems like the kind of dirty shit a thief could do. If you're not trained in a weapon, then you can only successfully attack with it on a natural 20. If you're not trained in a piece of armor, you can still wear it, but you're over-encumbered. Then it's as though you're a number of inventory slots over your limit equal to the AC rating of the armor you're wearing. So if you were wearing armor that gave +4 AC and you weren't trained to wear it then all your rolls are at -4. (This has never come up in our games which is a shame because it's easy to remember.)

2. "Surprised or unaware" means you know they're there but they don't know you're there. I've seen some complicated methods of working out when a thief can backstab but this is an easy way that works for me. 

3. Moving silently is a good way to get into position to backstab (I have to remind my players of this a lot). What is half speed and normal speed anyway? Uh, thirty feet a turn is normal? Sure, sounds good. And a turn is about five seconds, or maybe ten. Look, I don't let math get in the way of the game. Also it's a good time to mention we don't use miniatures or grid maps or stuff like that. If you do: good, cool, have fun, it's your game! I use descriptive language and maybe some hasty sketches to get the point across.

4. The difficulty of this DEX roll will be judged on the fly.

5. This is judged on the fly as well as how long it should take and if it will make any noise. It's specifically non-magical locks and traps unless you have like ZARN ZORNEO'S ALL-ENCOMPASSING DIADEM OF LOCKPICKERY or something. Or if you're an artificer (another class for another time).

6. Again adjudicated on the fly. This is the all-around escape artist feature for thieves. 

7. This is more of a "gee whiz" kinda thing, it has never come up in game. My players will ignore documents and just try to bullshit their way past people.

8. Yup, auto-pickpocket without a roll. I am under no compulsion to tell you what level your target is though, and the understanding is if they are equal or higher level than you then you fail the pickpocketing and the target is aware of it. What's to stop somebody from just pickpocketing every ragged peasant in town during a game session? Nothing really, as long as you aren't dragging the game down or putting everybody else out. If that's the case then you will be punished. But otherwise yeah, go crazy, swipe those coppers, cowboy.


And that's the thief. Generally in our regular group somebody always picks the thief to play, usually my daughter (she's an adult, I'm old).

Sunday, January 16, 2022

Notes: The Smattering

I have notebooks full of disjointed half-baked game ideas and I want to put some here so I can kick'em around later.

ETERNAL OAK ACORN: Eat an acorn from the Grandfather Oak (watch out for Showattan The Owl That Lives Forever) and until next sunrise any damage you take makes you gain hit points instead of losing them. When this wears off at sunrise you will cough up fist-sized acorn. Plant that acorn and a tree will grow and in 300 years when it is fully mature a perfect copy of you will emerge from inside the trunk.

RASPUTIN'S CHALLENGE: Rasputin is a sinister mad cleric from the Northern Kingdom of the Bear. Offers PCs actual no-shit immortality if they kill the king within 3 days. If they don't they turn to ice. Rasputin is only one to have actually succeeded at his own challenge, centuries ago.

ELEMENTAL PLANE OF MACHINES: Dimension ruled by the Mekannibals (mechanical fiends). Diesel zombies roam in search of fuel for the flesh engines (unlucky dimensional travelers mostly). Would love to invade our dimension, so the inhabitants attempt deals with wizards for access. Primordial oil from this dimension is like atomic rocket fuel for wizards & alchemists, also it gets you so drunk your soul is disfigured.

GATE OF HEROES: Believed by the locals to be magic archway to Valhalla-style afterlife. Actually an ancient alien artifact, when activated it randomly generates a "hero" but its programming is getting wonky and the newly "resurrected" heroes are all glitched up and unstable.

KELBORG: Afterlife realm, all swordsmen who die in any way other than by the sword end up here. Endless gloomy grasslands dotted with alehouses. They only serve weak beer and it must be paid for by reciting the manner of your ignoble death for all to hear. The innkeepers here are all different races and creatures but are all named Frank.

GLYPH OF DOOM: Fragment of a rune in the dead language of the hated Yx. If you see the rune then it's straight up save or die in d20 real world minutes. Bleeding yourself & offering the blood to The Machine That Is God will cancel your doom, but this risks reawakening the dead spirits of the Yxians. 

ANCESTRAL TRANSMUTATION: For the price of 900 pearls or your left eye & right hand, the Artful Buddha will change your birthline to include a famous hero or legendary figure as your ancestor. This will have random but generally beneficial effects on your present self and life and always brings strange fortune.

SAINT TERMOD'S SHOVEL: The shovel +1 of the patron saint of gravediggers. Anyone buried in a grave that was dug with this shovel can never be raised as undead or resurrected.

DEATH'S DREAD STANDARD: Tattered black banner on a cold wooden pole. Stick it in the ground under a new moon and all corpses in a half-mile rise as level 1 undead and obey your commands for as long as you possess the banner. Death will want her banner back.


What is a Grandfather Oak? What is hated Yx? Who is the Artful Buddha? No idea, these are just things I wrote down that I thought sounded neat. That doesn't keep me from using this kind of stuff when I'm improvising at the table (ask my players). 

Thursday, January 13, 2022

RACE: DORFS!

In the same vein as my last post, here's one of the races we play. We do race-and-class instead of race-as-class like Dungeon Crawl Classics and old school D&D. I'm cool with either style but my players like race-and-class more so there you go.
 

DWARF


 

(art by Bob Kehl)


Dwarves get +2 to CON. (1)
Dwarves get +1 to Fortitude and Willpower saves. (2)
Dwarves have a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with axes and hammers. (3)
Dwarves get +2 additional hit points at every level. (4)
Dwarves can smell gold and gems within 100 feet. (5)
Dwarves can see in the dark as if it were daylight if they’re underground or in a dungeon. (6)
Dwarves have double the usual number of inventory slots. (7)
Dwarves can reroll failed rolls to resist diseases and poisons. (8)
Dwarves can choose an individual or a type of creature they've faced when they gain a level. They hold an eternal dwarven grudge against them. They get +1 to attack rolls against that type of creature or +2 to attack rolls and double damage against that individual. (9)
 
 
1. This is a boost to their base Constitution. I use the regular STR DEX INT WIS CON CHA abilities even though I do like the Dungeon Crawl Classics abilities too. (I have an optional rule that includes Luck like DCC but I haven't actually used it in-game yet.) Ability score modifiers to rolls are:
3: -3
4-5: -2
6-8: -1
9-12: 0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18: +3

2. This is using the "common sense" saves of Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower. Usual base save modifier is: the highest modifier of STR or CON for Fort; highest mod of DEX or INT for Ref; and highest mod of WIS or CHA for Will. Then you add any race or class bonuses on top of that. So like a Dwarf Fighter (from previous post) with a Strength of 15 and a Constitution of 17 would have a Fortitude save modifier of +4. Math!
3.  This feels nice and dwarfy.
4.  Dorfs is tough! Also we don't do hit dice + CON modifier hit points at every level, just hit dice. Because we crave death.
5.  Pretty sure I stole this from DCC. I like the LotFP silver coin standard but my players expect to REAP GOLD AND GLORY not silver and glory so we use gold coins in game.
6. This is how I do infravision for dwarfs.
7. Oh encumbrance, you complicated bitch. So PCs have a number of inventory "slots" equal to their Strength score (STR 12 = 12 slots), but a dwarf with STR 12 would have 24. Items take up as many slots as I say they do, but generally it's each item is 1 slot. You can "stack" consumables into 1 slot so like every ration or torch doesn't take up its own slot; I don't have hard numbers for these kinds of things and I just wing it. Also 100 gold coins is 1 slot. Armor takes up slots equal to the protection it provides, so leather armor is +1 AC and 1 slot, chainmail is +2 AC and 2 slots, and like that. (I'll put our working equipment list another time.) If you run out of slots then you're over-encumbered and you get roll penalties. So say you have STR 12 (and you're not a dwarf) and you are carrying 13 slots worth of stuff, you're 1 over and get a -1 modifier to every roll; if you're lugging 16 slots worth of stuff then it's -4 to every roll. YES EVERY ROLL YOU MAKE EVEN DAMAGE ROLLS YOU MUST SUFFER FOR YOUR INSOLENCE
8. Also dwarfy. Such a roll is almost always a Fortitude roll but in the cases where it's not then dwarfs are still at an advantage. 
9. This is a feature in beta, it's a springboard into this Warhammer Fantasy-style Dwarven Slayer subclass I'm working on. (By "working on" I mean I have a half-baked idea in mind for it and for other subclasses.) There's no limit to the number of grudges a dwarf can have. Also see that having a grudge against just one person is less broad but more potent.



Tuesday, January 11, 2022

CLASS: THE GOT-DAMN FIGHTER

Okay let's dig into some stuff. I'm going to throw a class down and discuss points from it instead of doing a dozen different "this is how our group plays" posts.

                                                                      FIGHTER  

                                


                    (art by Bob Kehl and hdy9108, def not by me, i can't draw for shit)

 

HIT DICE: D10  (1)

ATTACK BONUS: Fighter level +1 (2)

Fighters get +1 to Fortitude and Reflex saves. (3)

Fighters can use all weapons, firearms, and armor. (4)

Fighters get a Bad-Ass Motherfucker die. Once a day they can roll a d6 and add the result to any other dice roll they’ve made, even after they’ve already rolled. Fighters get more BAMF dice as they level up.  (5)

Second Wind: Once a day a Fighter can regain (d6 + their level) hit points for free. (6)

 1. Fighters roll a d10 for their hit points at every level. We don't do "max hit die at first level" or any level because we crave death / are hard like that.

 2. Every class gets an attack bonus that they add to their d20 roll when they try to hit an orc in the face with a chair. Most every class gets a plain ol' +1 but ya boy the Fighter gets that plus their level. Because fighters are good at fighting.

3. The saving throws we use are what I call the common sense saves: Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower. I like the simplicity of the three saves. I have a soft spot for the golden oldie saves -- DEATH RAY! POLYMORPH!! PETRIFICATION!!! -- because they sound METAL AS HELL but Fort, Ref, & Will just work easier at the table for us. Also I almost called this blog BREATH WEAPON but somebody else already had that. :(

4. "All weapons" means all melee and ranged weapons, I have a simplified list of weapons that we use for our games. It's simplified because my players don't get hung up too much on the differences between different kinds of swords, I know other people do but that's not our thing. Same for armor. I use the LotFP system of "unarmored human has an AC of 12" and then armor gives a bonus to that. We don't THAC0 around here, my players are not the kind of nerds that enjoy arithmetic. Also yes, there's guns in our game. That'll get its own post.

5. This is something I have been prototyping at the table and so far it's been fun. Fighters are big flashy punch-stab-smash characters so they get a class ability that lets them land that hit on the ogre or twist the knife for extra damage or kick down the door or make that Reflex save and ride the chandelier up to the ceiling. I encourage outlandish entertaining shit at the table. Also "get more dice as they level up" is vague because I haven't set any numbers in stone, so like maybe a level 4 fighter gets 1 more die and maybe the dice change from d6s to d8s at level 7, I don't know. My only players that live to level up are the careful ones and they always play wizards and clerics. The fighters always die like pigs AS CROM INTENDED.

6. Something else I'm prototyping right now. A fighter should be able to wade into the shit and send rivers of blood to the blood god and live to do it again, so this ought to help.


So that's the fighter class we use for our games. It was one of the lesser played classes until one of my players (we'll call him Eduardo) got tired of dying all the time and realized that "more hit points means die less often" and started playing fighters a ton. You'd think that was obvious but that's Eduardo, it took him a couple years and like 6 characters before he figured it out. More on Eduardo later, including the time his character ascended to Heaven as the new Jesus after the old Jesus got trapped in a sub-dimensional void by the Devil (our games can get pretty gonzo).


Wednesday, January 5, 2022

WELCOME TO REVERSE EARTH

 First things first: this game takes place in a world I'm calling (for now) REVERSE EARTH.




 
The era is a potpourri of Medieval, the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, pre-American Revolution, the Qing Dynasty, Japan's Edo period, the height of the Aztec empire, and whatever other cool thing I see on Wikipedia that week. Also there's dinosaurs and crashed spaceships and ancient fallen empires and kingdoms of the undead and underwater cities and you know what? The goddamn planet is hollow too.

Also there's kingdoms on the moon.

The rule set is a heavily house-ruled stew of Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Dungeon Crawl Classics, with a lot of stuff I pinched from other OSR bloggers that are more creative than me (I'll give them credit when it comes up, I ain't a chiseler).

I have a ton of my half-assed ideas to get in here so there won't be much rhyme or reason to what I post. Ask my players about that and they'll probably tell you that's about par for the course.