A Psionics Sytem Using Playing Cards for Old School D&Ds and BRPs

Zener cards

First, you gotta see if you are psychic. You must roll a d100 at or under your mind stats (one chance per each stat. So in D&D you would roll three times, once each vs your INT, WIZ, and CHA.

Since the average score for an ability is around 10 if you are doing 3d6, you overall end up with about a 27% chance of being psychic in this system, so DMs gotta be aware that it won't be rare if they adopt this rule.

Let's get to the actual meat of the post. The brain meat. If your GM has access to those psychic guessing cards from Ghostbusters, use those. Most tables will have to use tarot or playing cards tho. Do magicians shops have Zener cards?

Anyhoo, to do a psionic thing, negotiate the potential effects this the ref and then guess a card (Zener) or a suit. If you guess right, you did the thing without issue. If you guess wrong, you take a consequence in accordance with how hardcore you pulsated your temple-veins.

when she goes
for closing the
gate at the end
of a season,
that is a
high stakes risk

For instance, if you tried to scanners a guy's noggin to pulp. The game Judge may simply say, "you're dead." But I say if you are trying to splode a simple mook's pituitary, the stakes are still low. If the stakes are low, I think it is more appropriate to have a psychic nosebleed.

You take damage from the nosebleed equal to the number that appears on the card (face cards make you pass out). Since Zener cards don't have obvious numbers, count the lines on them (a circle has 1 line, an star has 5).

See, now that you know they are more forgiving, you are going to buy the game facilitator a deck of these Zener things.

One parting bit of consideration: as a PC gains experience, perhaps they should get a little bit better at doing the dramatic stuff. Maybe once you get seasoned, stuff that used to be dramatic, like picking up a whole semi truck, are not quite as risky for you as they used to be. Or maybe you get to draw two cards and take the best for something that is now a tried and true power for you. The world is your Ψ-oyster.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

d12 Names for Ravens

I'm not sure when I am going to use these in the course of running elfgames exactly, but I think I might adapt the Crow Mauler from Fear & Hunger. To be honest, I mostly was geeking out about the etymology of raven words.

1. Nihthroc
2. Hhræfn
3. Corvo
4. Huginn
5. Muninn
6. Poe
7. Abraxas
8. Phobos
9. Deimos
10. Oreb
11. Brân
12. Corbie

Do you have any good black bird names? Rook away in the comments. I wanna see a whole murder of you.
----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Vexillum [Dungeon Vocab]

Today's word is one that may work for something held by hobgoblin bands and clerics alike, tho of different appearance. 

Vexillum is a diminutive form of the Latin word for sail. I stole most of the followng info from a wiki. Suckers.

The term "vexillum" (plural "vexilla") is used more generally for any object such as a relic or icon used as a standard in battle, & may be considered the offensive equivalent of the more defensive palladium in this context.

 Vexillology, or the study of flags, derives its name from this word, and a vexilloid is a standard that is not of conventional flag form. Nearly all of the present-day regions of Italy preserve the use of vexilla.

Many Christian processional banners are in the vexillum form; usually these banners are termed labara (Greek: λάβαρον) after the standard adopted by the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine I which replaced the imperial eagle with the "Chi-Rho" symbol ☧. For example vexillum is used by the Legion of Mary as the term for its standards. A small version is used on the altar and a larger one leads processions.

----------------

Bonus words: Furca is a hobo-pole and sarcina is a hobo-bindle, in roman soldier terms.

 

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

d12 Origins of Sorcerous Knowledge

1: A leprechaun whispered it to be freed. 

2: By following the clues uttered by an imprisoned madman. 

3: Revealed in a sweven (prophetic dream) after drinking a priest's blood.

4: Painstakingly worked out from an acrostic uttered by a cursed Say and Speak.

5: Spelled out in braille on the back-acne of a giant.

6: Granted by a talking fish in gratitude for being thrown back.

7: Hidden on the sole of an angel's sandal.

8: When the names of 13 demons were fed into a computer, it spit this out of the laser printer.

9: From your pen-pal, Pandelume.

10: The mantras of meditation were learned by listening to the ravings of an oracle.

11:  A satellite in geosynchronous orbit has been sending you microwave-pulses.

12: A visit to Mimir's preserved head in the forgotten grotto of the gods was most illuminating.

 

 ----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

d66 Random Dungeon Generation

If, when rolling the dice, you need some shapes, take cues from the dice you rolled. 1s can be long, 2s can be symmetrical, 3s can be round, &c. You could even use the numeral shapes themselves. Doors can often be placed by feels alone. 

11 Corridor, ending in a door.

12  Corridor, doors on both sides.

13  Corridor, dead end.

14  Corridor, leads to cruciform intersection.

15  Shaft down. Corridor with secret door it that is too soon.

16  Shaft up.

21 Teleporter room, altar to the god of dungeons.

22 Teleporter room, trap (sigils lead to other sigils).

23 Teleporter room, magic mirrors.

24 Empty room, dead end.

25 Occupied room, dead end.

26 One-way path such as a drop, turn-style, crumbling Moria pillars, &c.

The threes may have to apply retroactively if they are rolled first.

31 Same as whatever the last roll was, but also with a small shrine.

32 Same as the last roll, but also trapped.

33 Same as the last roll, but there is a secret passage.

34 Same as the last roll, but occupied by a treasure-guardian.

35 Same as the last roll, but the floor or ceiling has given way.

36 Same as the last roll, doubled.

41 Cavern, small. Next four things are also cave system.

42 Series of small caves and grottoes.

43 Underground river, lake, or sea. 5 places to go around it.

44 Path carved by the god of the underworld.

45 Purple worm tunnels. Walk without rhythm. 

46 Bug tunnels. Some bugs are smart. Some are humanoid.

51 Stairs up.

52 Stairs down.

53 Ramp up.

54 Slope down.

55 Elevator.

56 Wind or pheumatics. 

61 Fortified area such as a fort or castle. 10 or more rooms.

62 Fane. At least 4 rooms.

63 Cluster of 5 rooms occupied by a faction.

64 Catacombs. Long and tall.

65 Under-jungle (usually fungal).

66 Dragon complex. Nice and roomy with 5 areas.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Old School Saving Throws as Milestone Advancement

 

Remember years ago when I talked about Barony/Conrad's Game? Today we're gonna mix the ignobles milestone advancement from that RPG with the old D&D saves. In never actually talked much about the ignoble deeds before. It’s a neat system. Maybe the first milestone system in RPGs! To advance from one job to the next in Barony, you need to check off the following things:

Adventure (Travel Exotic Lands, Danger and Intrigue) 

Bard's Tale (Fame, Triumph, Notoriety) 

Battle (Military Engagements and Strategy)
Crafty Deeds (Cunning Execution of Skills and Ingenuity) 

Desires Fulfilled (Profit, Revenge, Power)
Exercising Prudence (Forethought Plans or Precautions) 

Growth (Leadership, Comradeship, Political Authority) 

Heroics (Boldness, Courage and Audacity) 

Magical Events (Acquisition, Exposure, Use)

Each deed can only check off one thing. 

 

I could actually say to use this system and call it a day, but we are here to provide a slightly simple alternative to XP counting for old school D&D type games, or at least in the spirit of them. 

 

So, here comes my idea:

When, in the course of your wanderings, you character survives* something that falls under the following categories, check it off. If they are all checked, you erase the checks and you can level up.

□　Death Rays or Ray-guns

□　Poisons or Diseases

□　Mesmerism or Mind Control
□　Paralysis or Stonification
□　Dragon Breath or Explosions
□　Wands, Rods, Staves, Curses, or Spells

There you go, no need to count XP. 

You might have noticed that my old school D&D saves don’t match your rulespedia or whatever. That’s okay, none of the old D&Ds agree with each other. Just use yours. Mine are better tho.

Maybe undead can be slightly friendlier in this system; if you get caressed by a ghoul, you lose one of your check marks (not the paralysis one!) instead of a whole level. 

——————

*: Or is resurrected after experiencing.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

The Seventh Ability Score is Gold

Sometimes the seventh score is Luck, and that is a useful one to have, but this post is about starting gold. Many D&Dalikes have you roll 3d6*10 for starting gold. And many DnDs let you swap ability scores around or lower one score to raise another. In our Black Pudding game, I have let the players consider gold to be a score that these options are applicable to. Can't afford that helm? Maybe you can sacrifice your CON of 11 to get a little extra cash up front.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

A less tedious way to do prime requisits

The tired-sauce way.

I've actually done this in a couple campaigns now, and it worked pretty fine, though this is the simplest iteration of the rule: Your prime requisite score is applied as a percentile reduction to the XP you need to level up.

Simple example: A Wizard with INT 10 needs 100XP to reach level 2. She only really needs 90XP to level up. Easy peasy, wizard-squeezy. 

Aw, I started my example on the high road to really drive home that the glass-ceiling was being burst, but ended it creepy.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Let Them Find the Secret Door

Lately, I have not been asking for many search-type checks. Sometimes I have asked everybody to roll a d6 and hope for a 1. Sometimes we are playing Dragonbane and I want to reward having that skill. But really tho, I have found straight up success, especially at finding doors, to be good for the feels of the game. 

Each time the PCs devote time to searching for doors or whatever, they're gonna find them, but I am going to loudly roll encounter dice (or happenings dice). Players know there is a risk. That's fun. They find the things and that's fun too.

Now then, finding a secret door does not mean you know how to open it. I usually have a super-dooper simple trick to opening it in mind. In a library: notice the floor marks from the swinging shelf, but you have to find a likely book and pull it to open the latch holding it closed. Looking at baas-relief dwarven carvings? You find one with a hammer shaft that has to be worked to open the way.

Have you tried poking its eye?

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

HP Burn

Almost all games I run now use HP burn.

Sacrifice a couple HP to raise (or lower) the results of one of your rolls. Will that burn come back to bite you? Maybe! Risk vs Reward, baby!

HP works well as a meta-resource like Luck or bennies. After all, it doesn't make much sense as Health or Hit Points when you really look at it, but feels perfect as Hit Protection or Heroic Perserverance.

So what if a PC burns down to 0HP? Well, I'm also a fan of ill-advisedly fighting on when you should give up. I didn't hear no bell!  

If using CON or STR score as true health, HP burn works great. If using something like 5e Deeandy on Dragonbane, consider letting the PC fight while making death saves, but no more burn. If using VtM, I am really confused how you are burning HP...

Try it in your next game. Crom!

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Black Magic Mechanics for Lankhmar

Because Fritz said:

It seemed to Ivrian that she heard the mellow voice of Glavas Rho repeating a statement he had once made to Mouse and to her. ‘None can use black magic without straining the soul to the uttermost—and staining it into the bargain. None can inflict suffering without enduring the same. None can send death by spells and sorcery without walking on the brink of death’s own abyss, aye, and dripping his own blood into it. The forces black magic evokes are like two-edged poisoned swords with grips studded with scorpion stings. Only a strong man, leather-handed, in whom hate and evil are very powerful, can wield them, and he only for a space.’

I say spellburn, ala DCCRPG, should be a requisite component of each casting. You may heal that ability score damage, but 5% of the time you will roll a 1 while rolling to cast and take permanent ability score loss.

Tangentally to this bit, the mouser makes a good case for allowing multi-classing; abandon the path of pain and embrace subtle skullduggery.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Old School Fast 5e

I may try to advertise a 5e game the next time our Discord runs shallow. Behind the screen, I'd probably give monsters hits equal to their HD, less the PCs' average level (1 on damage=I don't let a killing blow happen with this strike).

Species allowed: Human, Elf, Half-elf, Kenku, Cyclops (Goliath), Dwarf.

Classes allowed: wizard, thief, barbarian, fighter, cleric.

Generation method: 4d6d1 down the line on Roll20, with all players witnessing your rolls. You see your stats and choose a species/background/class that will compliment them.

No feats. Take ability score increases. You wanna cleave or something, go for a gambit (roll with disadvantage or take consequence on failure). 

Can spend HP on rolls, including damage rolls.

1XP if you attend a session. [LVL to be gained]XP to level up (resets to 0). You have to spend a month in civilization to gain any level benefits before you jump back into adventuring.

d6 vs d6 group initiative. Match= simultaneous. Someone can spend HP to raise your side's roll.

Roll area/monster difficulty or better to intone your spell well enough to cast it this round. Awesome stuff if you roll a 20. 1 is a fumble.

No money survives carousing between adventures, so spend your treasure as soon as you get back into town. On the other hand, we shall hand-wave all room and board fees.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

d12 Enveloped in your Prismatic Embrace

When the living prismatic misfired spell or swarm of rainbow bats or spectrum ghost gives you a rainbow hug, roll an explosive d12 (GM decides any particulars about damage amount and save difficulties):

1: Fiery red damage.
2: Acidic orange damage.
3: Electro-yellow damage.
4: Poisonous green assault; save vs death-poison.
5: Stony blue assault; save vs turning to stone.
6: Indigo Insanity assault; save vs mania.
7: Violet Dimension assault; save vs dimensional displacement.
8: Ultraviolet Violence assault; everyone has to save each round for d6 rounds to resist the temptation to mindlessly attack you.
9: Sonic Chartreuse damage.
10: Radioactive Infrared damage (permanent damage, only heal-able after a Cure Disease is cast on you).
11: Unleveling Ulfire assault; save vs losing levels.
12: Roll again twice (these both are explosive rolls too).  

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

d12 LVL 1 Wizard spells

I bet I could make like 9 more posts in this series. Can you guess which one I almost wrote "finger up the bum" for but chickened out?

Wizards have mana equal to their level, and may spend d6 HP as emergency mana. The player may entreat the DM to use a mana to boost or alter a spell in some manner, such as an extra die of effect, an extra time unit of duration, or a different kind of target or effect.

1st level spells

1. Flame control: you may start a fire, keep a campfire or torch going for LVL turns, or scald a foe with your touch.
2. Charm person: Target becomes friendly towards you, not wanting to consider harming you and now is willing to help you out as long as they don’t risk their own safety too much.
3. Detect magic: You can smell whether a close item or being is magic, enchanted, or bewitched.
4. Hodor: You instruct a door, window, aperture, &c to hold firm. The barrier will effectively resist LVL successful attempts to be knocked down.
5. Yew Pew: You need a sprig, cane, or stick. From this wand issues out a blast that does LVLd4 damage, spread out as you like amongst one or more targets (each target has one or more of the d4s rolled against them).
6. Read: You can use this spell to decipher one spell text, speed-read a mundane book, or translate one page of text from any language to a hologram projection that everyone can ooh and ah over.
7. Shield: You can pull this up immediately with a DEX check. For the duration of one battle, you have a pool of LVL d8s. Any time you take damage, roll one of the d8s and reduce the damage by that amount.
8. Sleep Dust: All within LVL yards except you have to roll a Willpower type check or fall into slumber for a turn. Sound won’t wake one from this, but a wet-willy will.
9. Seeing things: Make a sound, voice, shadow, or fleeting illusion. This spell can be cast mentally if you spend a mana.
10. Jeeves: Summon a creature to existence. It will carry something heavy for you for a session. It could carry you. Or you could tell it to do anything an octogenarian could do. If you spend a mana, it could answer a question or put forth a theory. Will that be all, sir? May I not exist now sir?
11. Summon Devil: Foolishly, you draw a pentagram and summon a being from beyond. Oh, you want to make a bargain? Too bad you didn’t etch the pentagram into something permanent, and this demon is breaking it now.
12. Ink Cloud: You fill a LVL meter sphere with darkness. Anyone wanting to hit a melee target in the sphere will need to make a WIS check first.  Arrows into the darkness will hit nothing 80% of the time and a random target in or behind it otherwise.

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

DCC House-rules

Well, as happens so often, my players have ended up playing DCC again. I've posted DCC houserules before, but that was years back. Have a look at the new hotness.

Dave is my spirit animal

Ability/skill checks
Roll a d20 action die if you have an average or sucky score. If you have a 13 to 15, roll a d24 instead, and if you have a 16-17, roll a d30. D36 if you have an 18 in your score.

If you have a relevant background or species to the task, add your HD to the ability-skill roll.

Star sign: Everyone has a not-Luck based star sign. If you do a thing related to the star-sign, roll a +1 size bigger die, up to a d36.

Spell acquisition not guaranteed. Half the time the party will be searching for a spell rumor, then following its indications, then questing to learn how to actually cast found spells. The wizard will die at some point in this process…

To hit, roll your class HD with your action die. If you hit, you have already rolled the HD and dealt that amount of damage. Once the warrior or dwarf hits a level where their deed die would exceed a d12, they get to use it!

This means weapons are flavor, but, I got some concessions: Two handed weapons roll action die+2d𝓍kh1 (𝓍=HD size and kh1=keep highest 1) if you are kind enough to include it in your macro, but are slower too, so treated as if the HD doesn't exist for the initiative roll written below; one light weapon lets you roll with a DEX action die instead of STR.

Initiative goes to the entity that rolls higher to hit. Two versus one? Still goes to the highest guy of the three.

No Luck burn on level up HD rolls. You may burn d6 real Luck to reroll it tho.

We have an alternative to mercurial magic. Faster, simpler magic.

Please roll and record your spell-manifestation for use every time.

Spellburn always makes your spell happen last and you have to roll on the spellburn table. If someone hits you, you can’t cast until the next round at the earliest.

We use Lankhmarese fleeting luck rules. So don't roll until we're sure it's worth luck flux.

If a cleric is not present, we can use Lankhmar drunk heals too.

Help Finish someone’s quest? You level up if you were in the final session of that quest. If you are under-leveled, you gain 1.5 levels to help you catch up.


----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Pregens are an art-form. Meet Bosclori

So, in an effort to get more interest in my achiest heartbreaker RPG, Crypts & Cryts, I have been working on pregens to get kids new to the system up an running fast. The secret to a good pre-gen is consisely baking the rules into them as best you can. So I put little snippets of info here and there. This sheet even introduces the core mechanic by having you roll a weird die to get a horse.

Another thing is the pregens don't have any backgrounds from our chart, so they will feel unique if they join a party mid campaign. Since Bosclori here is a dwarf, I added little bit of world-building; dwarves have children in a very unique way.

If you want to get into Cry&Cry, please send a SASE to the link below.
MyBestEverRPGOmigoshWhyCantAnyoneLoveItLikeIdo

Or shoot me a request at the below gmail or even my Blusky to ask to be in my Discord server and actually play this crazy thing!

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Teeny tinly adventure generator

 

So, I've been working on a little RPG, as I often do, when I'm not fanslating JTRPGs. I'll link it below. But anyway, put a little adventure generator into it. Thought I'd share that to inspire you.

3d6s    Go to                Threat                       Why

---

1    underworld             human/iod                retrieve/filch

2    fane/manse             beast/men                enshrine/replace

3    foreign land            demons                    escort/catalog

4    city/hamlet             aberrants                  kill/seal away

5    tower/fort               creations                  report/spy

6    roll twice                roll twice                 roll twice

The DM chooses any details, including which of the Why results or even both of them. 

Then the DM rolls a twist secretly from the following on a d6: 1) betrayal, 2) red herring, 3) rivals, 4) god machinations, 5) destination is not final part of journey, 6) roll twice, but if you roll any more sixes, there is no twist.

 
A few rolls on that later and I had envisioned a mission for the PCs to escort a vestal virgin's holy entourage to enshrine the Egg of Cooter within a temple a few days away, but the twist is that other people from the caravan are going missing each night, and the virgin is a false suspect. 

Link to the little devil of an RPG itself: Blessed with Dungeons.
 

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

RIP Jaquays; Let's Jaquays the Dungeon Forever

In light of the news of Jaquays's passing, let us forget about the brief period where we were asked to call it xandering the dungeon. Jennell Jaquays invented it, even if she didn't realize what an innovator she was at the time. 

Pour one out for Jennell. Make a dungeon level in her honor, and Jaquays the hell out of it. Also, run some her old stuff! Judges Guild stuff she did is out there.

This is just one thing I got into thanks to Jaquays

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.

Guidelines for RPG survival

• 
  Always bring lantern oil.
• Make a plan. If you try to fight everything, eventually the dice will turn against you.
• Keep track of gear and coin, thinking of alternative uses for all of it. MacGyver!
• Be careful about climbing and swimming.
• Be specific about positioning of your PC in the room; it may save your life.
• Spend a few coins at the tavern to gather rumors and advice. Ask that guy with the missing hand what ate it once he's sauced enough.
• Make allies and offerings whenever you can.
  

----
Share good posts with good goblins. Claytonian at the gmails.