For it is Dark and We May Die (a dismemberment table)

Are you prepared for the death
you've earned, little man?

Running a little Arden Vul Shadowdark lately. Sign up via my email at the bottom there.

We had been playing with "CON score is your back real HP". But it seems a bit too easy. Just a bit. So I'm thinking of a new rule (I think Arnold K and Cavegirl deserve some idea credit for wound systems here): 
 
Minimum HP is zero. While you are at 0 HP, you are fine, but you can only take a number of extra hits equal to your CON mod before you enter the dying state, and each hit will force a roll on the table below.

Roll a d20 - damage taken from the attack that hit you while you were in this HP-less state. LVL 5+PCs may roll a d30 instead.

Nat 1: Gory death: Every ally that witnesses it has to roll WIS vs 12 or freak out as per the losing it table below.

5 or less: Maimed: You lose a limb, an eye, or some fingers. You survive, but you're not whole. Besides the logical problems of losing bits, you need to roll a CHA check vs this roll or freak out till you get some good drugs. 

Losing It table Roll a d6.
1) Go ape-shit, attack everything
2) Run away--roll on the megadungeon table
3) Nihilistically give up "YES! KILL ME!"
4) Revert to childlike personality
5) Manic screaming or laughter that the others cannot shut up
6) Fruitless attempt to reattach missing bit

6-15: Defeated and on the ropes: You’re out of it until you make a CHA (willpower) check (on your turn's beginning) or someone uses an action to splash you with something. Equal chance of a concussion or a scar.

16-19: Supine: You're knocked down indefinitely and have to make a STR check to stand up, unless an ally spends their action to rally you.

Nat 20 (or more): You're fine (this time). In fact you inspire your group with advantage for the rest of the round (if your turn is last gain 1HP instead).

The above table was kinda made with a just-losing-your-turn-is-boring kinda mindset. There should be something interesting happening with you. Even if you do go down you got the usual death roll mechanics of Shadowdark to give you something to do when the round comes round to you.

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My DM Bugbears

This is a list of comments and consternations that constantly come up in my campaigns, sometimes cantankerously or contentiously so. I don't always get into them, cause RPG settings often win out due to being a bit of a buzz kill to shoot down.

1. Darkvision prevents you from being properly afraid, and kills mystery.
   Underworlders see in the dark cuz evil is metal AF.
   Permanent light sources should be rare. No rods of light without a catch. What light you do get is dim.
   
   
2. Torches suck. Candles suck.
   Torches blind you IRL. Candles flicker out and are dim. Lamp-master-race supremacy.
   Torches are not so easy to just put together. You need stick, wick, and fuel, plus time and swearing to light it.
   Advanced darkness is awesome tho. Now everything sucks like a candle.
   
   
3. "What class does the party need?"
   My sibling in Christ, the dice decide what your ability scores are, then you choose a class/species based on what you can make do with. If you want to cheat and re-roll, leave me out of it.
   
   
4. Clerics should worship all the gods, patrons, and saints that they can. 
   It makes sense to appease a pantheon or a faction more than just one of the myriad gods.
   
   
5. Molotov oil flasks should not be a thing.
   I'm kinda open to high-proof alcohol and alchemy tho. Gotta cost a little bit of gold.
   You throw your torch at a pool of flammable enough stuff (Greek fire?) and we'll talk.
   
   
6. It's not easy to backstab in combat.
   It’s mostly about ambushes. If you check to creep or your fighter friend sets you up for the alley-oop, I'm down to clown.
   Backstabs should not be limited to the thievin classes; anyone should be able to try and sneak up.  
   
   
7. Orcs shouldn't have babies. 
   BTW all dwarves are statues and elves are immortal in both directions.
   
   
8. "I hit him with the flat of my sword." If you knock out someone, you have just endangered their life because that is very bad for their brain. 
   Maybe I'd make an exception if we were playing a pulp, Hollywood-logic game.
   
   
9. Blacksmiths and merchants shouldn't hold much interest in purchasing used gear, except as scrap.
   This ain't Final Fantasy.
   
   
10. PCs should be constantly freaking out and making knee-jerk actions. 
    I think fumble rules help here. 
    You ever see someone try to shoo a bat out of their house? Or even a spider? Now imagine it's them trying to deal with a spider the size of a doberman. 
    
    
11. "I aim at the one that is most hurt." 
    I understand you want to, but your character is not always so cool. In the chaos of battle, you panic a bit and flail at the closest guy or, if you are really cool, one that not standing next your friend. 
    It's dark in here and everyone is dodging about. You are lucky you don't hit allies more often.
    When in doubt, I ask logic and the dice who you attack. 
    Choosing slightly stabbed targets reeks of playing the game as a boardgame and munchkinism.
    
    
12. Locals should kinda hate you.
    You are grubby murder-hobos that are crazy enough to go into holes.
    You spend all your money carousing.
    You try to sell junk and are constantly trying to bargain up the price.
    You got those demi-human freaks with you. Demi-hyooms should be a rare spice, BTW.
    You never bathe.
    I'll make a bit of an exception in an isekai setting. 

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What would you put in Tizun Thane's mirrors?

wish I had written my name on this map before 4chan got ahold of it.

Tizun Thane is one of the best things contained in the old White Dwaft magazines. It has portals to eight worlds. Just spitballing ideas for now...

1. Lichway
2. Darksun's Tyr
3. B1
4. B2
5. The overworld of Walking Wet [hey, I drew that and it was pretty cool], on the border of Caverns of Thracia basin
6. The Tomb of Horrors [oh, I made a cool map of that too].
7. Island village of UK1 Beyond the Crystal Cave
8. Ravenloft

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My Next Character Steps out of the Shadows: Tyranny of the Archons

There are a couple things I'm a fan of: PC death and quick PC replacement. Anyone that keeps an eye on my folder of free games I make might have noticed I try to make character gen lickitty split fast. But how do these new PCs end up in the dungeon? 

It's the fault of the Archons. These coweled robots are the servertors of Partee, god of high adventure. They roll into a tavern, scan the patrons for likely candidates, and zap them with transport beams. The beams transport hapless souls to dungeons that have a dirth of PCs to challenge them.

It is tradition to try to get along with people who get ported into your midst; to anger the plans of the archons is to risk them transporting you deeper into the underworld. 

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On the Procreation of Dwarves

It is a little known fact outside of dwarf communities, but dwarven kind do not reproduce by anything as silly as mingling gametes.* 

When a community decides they need a new dwarf, they start the great chiseling. They find a rock worthy of dwarfiness, such as good marble, and begin to carve away until a statue of a dwarf is made.

You may have noticed there are no dwarf women, or heard speculation that their females are bearded. This is because there are also no dwarf men. There are just dwarves. It's a species designation, and gender is a somewhat alien concept to them. But most people use male pronouns because dwarves don't correct them.

So the statue looks a lot like any other dwarf. Many clans have developed tribal embellishments over the years. Mohawks are a popular "mutation" for example. But all dwarves have beards, and usually mustaches. The statue will not become a flesh and blood dwarf without treasure. Gems, silver, gold, et cetera are added. Runes are inlaid with diamonds. Ancient words are chanted, and blessings intoning the names of the fourteen dour dwarf gods are muttered. The dwarf statue glows brilliantly, and is transfigured into blood and sinew. The newly born dwarf blinks and is handed a hammer, battle ax, or ale. This is the way. 

There are times when a tribe will fill a great need by crafting specific traits into a dwarf. Genetic engineering by another name. Usually it is to fight a threat. Other times it is to fulfill a task. Such creations often turn out to not be dwarves at all. Some tribes call them mulls. Others might use the word golem. And many think them abominations that shouldn't be created even as a last resort. There are rumors that these creations sometimes escape and become monsters capable of reproducing somehow. Dwarves don't talk about it to outsiders though, and their runed walls don't ever record this shameful secret.

The need to gather treasure is instinctual--nay holy--and pleasing to dwarvenkind. But this desire gets perverted into greed all too easily, especially if the dwarf is not around his own kind. If dwarves don't reproduce and instead hoard their wealth, they start to undergo a blasphemous transformation. They grow scales, wings, horns. They turn ravenous and consume great quantities. They become ogres, giants, and even dragons. They all guard their hoard jealously. So if you see a dwarf muttering to his treasure and hissing at anyone that gets too close, beware! 

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*: Now, non-dwarves that discover these things are mighty curious about certain facts of dwarf anatomy, but I'd rather not get into that. They eat and drink. They go to the bathroom. They don't like to peeped at in the bathroom. So don't. 

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I need a preview image for this post, so I'm going with a pic of a drow take I did previously on the blog. If you want to read on what's up with the drow on my world, you can't, because the pic is all I really need to say on that topic (old post will tell you much the same).

 ;-)

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Epic Humble Beginnings, a tale of starting a campaign

I need to break out of my cowardice as a DM. Namely, the fear of running without a module in front of me. But that doesn't mean I'm going to free-ball it. So here are things to help me plan.

The campaign starts in the town. The town is slightly isolated. There is a great empire ruled by the Underlord. The empire is evil, but since the Underlord wants to rule humanity instead of destroy it (for now), the village isn't much bothered most of the time. There is a mayor who collects grain from the townsfolk to give up as tribute to the Baron's collector or the occasional garrison that comes up from the city-state of the invincible underlord. 

The first line of the campaign will be, "your loins are being girded by the white girdle of novice cubs. As they cinch your nethers a bit too tight, the guild receptionist-slash-bartender mutters,  'Be sure to write your name on this, so they can identify your remains.' Then he moves on to the next member of your party. Now then, who is our sole demi-human?"

There is one demi-human in the party to start. Other races can be unlocked by encountering and befriending them. But otherwise, this is pretty anthropocentric beginning. Also ask who has the highest charisma-like stat. They are the de facto leader of the party. 

 

The guild is in a public house. Joining is one coin. Beer is one coin. A night with the village sex workers is one coin and a lot of shame. A sniffer of blue-mold is one coin. Everything is, except weapons and armor. We don't even have a dude that knows how to make armor yet. Maybe you could unlock that by doing a quest for the dwarves, who are in some nearby mountains working on their glory holes. 

 

How did you feel when I did a little blue humor just now, players? Let's talk about lines an veils.

There are a few quests on the guild bulletin board. Most people in the village can't pay much though. Maybe you have to find your own fortune. Can't clear rats out of basements all day.

The town is not too far from some manse reputed to be haunted. This is mega-dungeon one. It has 666 rooms, each more haunted than the last. Lots of cursed treasure too.

The town is also not far from some standing stones, which are rumored to be a gate to The Zone. This is mega-dungeon two, but it is more of a hex crawl through a parallel world with many ruins. 

There is a forest between here and Hinterville, and the forest is a forest-crawl. People say that the druish people there had great treasure. This is an odd rumor, maybe a bit racist. Anyways, people say barbarians and bandits are constantly in those woods, coming down from hyperboreal mountains to the north. The woods have an underground network below them full of dinosaurs and mushmen. This is mega-dungeon number three. 

Hinterville is said to be a lawless place under dispute by three wizard siblings and their subhuman creations, the slow mutants. But it might be worth going there to learn a spell or two. 

To the south are the Thousand Misty Islands in the Four Lakes. People say that the are used to not be a sea, until some great disaster made a huge crater there. Traders, slavers, pillagers, and the dead live on those islands. The Necromancer has her great keep somewhere amongst the islands.

A table of nasties for The Zone

1. Bark! d6 bloated waste-hounds. Infective bites, explode if critted.
2. Clatter!d4 headless knights. All non-critical damage they take becomes one damage.
3. Rustle. A phage-tree. Save when you smell its blossoms or go berserk-mad.
4. Ootini! Ten jawas. Have blasters that only they can recharge. Their mobile fortress may be nearby.
5. or 6. Homage! Just steal something from Beyond the Black Gate. Cuz there are none better.

What follows is a map. Plan B. Based on some old Judges Guild stuff.

Why Vancian is Better Than Spell Points (and what to do about it)

First, let me lay out my credentials for my click-bait title.

Over on our Discord, (mail me if you want in on chances to play elf-games online), we have been playing a lot of Lodoss Companion, a game I translated from Japanese. It uses a stat called MP (magic points) to cast spells from. If you run out of MP, you faint.

About a couple years back I was in another RPG that uses spell points (run by Fear of a Black Dragon's Tom), Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying 1e. We played through the Enemy Within adventure path thing.

On the Discord, we also spent a few months going through my other big fanslation project, Double Moon. Dubmoon, being from the same publisher as Lodoss, shares a lot of its DNA, including the MP system, using Psychic Points called PPs, much to our amusement.

Finally, also on the Discord, we messed around with my hack of Arduin for a while. Uncle Dave "Killmepleasedaddy" Hargrave used a hybrid between Vancian and spell points back in the day. He also gave levels to spells because he was basically using 0DnD. I opted to just have spell points spent just be the level of the spell, let PCs cast any level of spell, and kicked Vancian restrictions out of there.

So all of these systems used points is my point. What is the problem I've noticed time and again? You are extremely incentivized to cast the same spells each combat. It was really bad in WHFRP. Once I learned Lightning Bolt, I would try to cast it each round. We could point out here that RAW material components would have ameliorated the problem, but like most groups we ditched those rules.

In Lodoss it's usually the same routine. Cast buffs on the fighter. Summon a spirit to fight. There is a bit of deja-vu each combat. My players do like the system though. One said they really dig not having to choose spells that they might use each game morning.

The Arudin games were a bit better, probably because of the sheer amount of gonzo spells the players wanted to try out. Also, without level restrictions, they could consider casting powerful, yet expensive spells.

 So, what's my solution to keep a game with spell points interesting? Well, I have a few.

• Spell points are still a thing, but whenever a player casts a spell, it is gone for the day (sneaky Vance). 
• Spell points are still a thing, but each additional time you cast a certain spell in a day costs one extra point per level of the spell (Vance tax).
  
• Use DCC-style Mercurial Magic, which may make the player prefer to cast different spells for different situations. You don't need DCC tho; I got a d60 list of crazy spell requirements and effects.
• Incentivize spell prep with Memorization Side Effects (using a Vancian hybrid or pure Vancian).
• Use those material components up. Boo. Hey, maybe have all your spell-casting based on material components to make it better?
• Seed a whole lot of situations that will require spells as tools. This one is hard to do, because utility spells are usually taken care of by equipment or the thief's abilities. 
• Spells are free-form, but you can never cast the same spell twice (the Barony/Conrad's Game method).
  

Got more ideas? That's what comments are for!

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Tekumel Hack to get you into EPT

So embedded below is a hack designed to get the players going (the title is a reference to the subject of the first post of this blog, where I talked about Ebon Bindings). I personally, as the GM, am going to be using Empire of the Petal Throne's original 1975 game rules for the most part. The goal of the hack was to bring the percentile nature of the ability scores more into the game and to unify mechanics so it's easy for beginners to grok. Roll low is good for everything in the hack except damage. Of course you want high damage. The spells are a bit better too now, if I say so myself. I wanna see some gray hands and silver halos flying about soon!

BTW I recently discovered Jeff Dee's Tekumel take and it is sweeeeeeet.

Read below or on Google Docs.

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Fixing Drow

I was thinking about what all I should write about the drow, but a picture is worth a thousand words. So this picture is how I fixed the problematic skin color issue of the drow. Yay! Aren't you happy with your new drow? No more racism in your D&Ds. Happy Holloween!

The Bloodlines of Tiamat

You know those role-players that insist on writing down details like their eye color? Well, we're going to make eye color matter in DnDs. 

In the beginning, the Lords of Mutability Fought the Lieges of Stability. Jokulhaups, god of renewal, remained unconcerned in the fight, viewing time as a cycle and the conflict as pointless. However, the Elder Eye, a god that switched sides and was later imprisoned for it, wormed his way into Jokulhaup's heart and rent it in twain.

From the Strength, Constitution, Intelligence, Dexterity, and Charisma of the divided god was born Tiamat, she of five heads that represented the five aspects. From Wisdom was born the god Bahamut. Being of a common origin, they created similar agents to enact their agendas, the dragons.

Bahamut has to play a patient game. He knows he can't beat Tiamat without eons of careful and considered stratagems.  Bahamut's most powerful creations are the psionic dragons, most of which became gods in their own right. Metalic dragons are also Bahamut's doing. In his wisdom, Bahamut has not deigned to rule his creations, but rather does parallel universe Mario64 Chess, prodding pieces into position.

Tiamat has five heads of five hues. Each head has endeavored to create cult and cabals throughout the cosmos. These are known as The Heads to those--usually mad prophets--who have been able to glean her designs. Unbeknownst to Tiamat herself, she is a pawn of the Elder Eye, serving as his aperture into reality and as the get out of jail card he's been manipulating for half a kalpa. 

So where does eye color come in? Well, if a player chose to go with red, yellow, blue, green, or black for their PC's eyes, they are already an inheritor of Tiamat's legacy. She's the dark ancestor of humanity on a spiritual level. Bahamut counts for all the other colors. No, they (probably) didn't make humans and demihumans  personally, but they have manipulated the history of the races of Midgard. 

Now this has campaign potential. At first, the GM can mention the striking eye color of certain prominent characters, then the players can start to connect the dots and get paranoid of anyone with that chroma. Then a new croma is introduced. What color were so-and-so PC's eyes again? The same color? Huh. Have you ever thought of switching sides? This agent of Tiamat would like to make you an offer, and it's really tempting... 

Of course, eye color is just a hint at what could be in the complex makeup of one's soul. In fact, when people really consciously dedicate themselves to factions, their eye colors change to match their allegiance.

The Red faction of Tiamat is all about strength. They tend to be war mongers and generals. War forever! That's the ticket! They love riling up the demihumans, especially the "ugly" ones, to keep them on hostile terms with with humanity. Keep in mind that there are many Red agents within the orc and goblinoid tribes too; they work with their human counterparts to keep tensions and racism high.

Transplantable cannon

I run a lot of games. Every Saturday the lads and lasses gather and I usually run a one shot with one of my one page RPGs. But some things are usually the same for whatever elfgame setting I am laying out. Here are a few things I have as my default mythos.

Robots and god-computers are supposed to be everywhere. I am way behind on my robot quota. In general, the world is supposed to have clues that great civilizations have come and gone, and are out there in the cosmos.

I want to seed more slow mutants too. In general, a lot of The Dark Tower octalogy exists in my world, such as "he Jesus Man" being a god and gunslingers wandering the land.

Amazons are a buff, seemingly human but definitely not human race that has nothing to do with real world Greek legends. They look like us, the bad tribes steal human men and have no interest in human women. They do have use for men in terms of baby-making, but they only have more amazon (female) children.

Lately, the amazon cannon has expanded to include hags. Hags are what evil amazons evolve into, and they steal men to make more babies, but hags give birth only to monsters. Most amazons encountered are the PCs themselves, so the evil potential of amazons has been unexplored. Good players.

Manazons also exist, but we don't know how they reproduce. Only that they seem to look like human men, but that they are not. Maybe I should look into Gargareans?

Alignment languages are not cants or code-phrases. They are writings and vocalizations that only someone of the proper alignment can parse and comprehend. If you lose your alignment, you forget the language. It can be written down, but it just doesn't make sense to those not of the way. Only beings of other worlds naturally make these vocalizations, so the PCs can't spout Lawful to an angel and hope to be understood. There is just a certain quality to it that can't be imitated by mortals. It's like that Yiddish-speaking grandma you have that you understand yet can't speak back to in Yiddish.

Orcs don't exist. Oh, a few have slipped in over the years, but I've always regretted letting it happen. Orcs are boring. The kids on twitter will call you racist. Just say no to orcs. Evil humanoids that bubble up out of the underworld's toxic plasms? Okay, that's better.

The underworld is mythic, filled with dungeon-logic. You dig deep enough, and reality starts to change on you. Here's a good source on that sort of thing.

Gnomes are a foot tall. They are David. They are not PC race material.

Elves don't age. They live forever. They have lived forever too, as far as they can remember, but they can only remember a couple hundred years. Everything feels like it happens in the blink of an eye.

Dwarves reproduce through sculpture, not something as dainty as sex. They don't make women themselves, but occasionally have been commissioned to do so ala Pygmalion. Dwarves also do not cast spells, but they can make magical rings, swords, and other artifacts. Dwarves love gold and can smell it. They turn into dragons if they amass too much wealth and don't share it with their clan.

BTW elves and dwarves, not elfs and dwarfs.

Just as every monster is best if it is unique, so too for magical items. No +1 swords in these games.

More on the cosmology is contained here. The players have only uncovered a small bit of the information in that post or this one. I like to let them discover what they like, as if they are amateur archeologists. There is probably some fancy word for this kind of world-revealing. Diagetic? Whatever the word for the opposite of a blog post is.


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The Party Actual Play Report

A while back, I made the game The Party, which is basically a list of odd characters and one paragraph of rules. If I do say so myself, it's the ultimate pick up and play TRPG. We've played it a couple times now, and I'm here to tell you how the latest session went.

We played a version of Night of the Walking Wet. Here, have the map I drew for the overland. Then scroll down to the report below it.

To do things, roll a d20 and the GM will roll one too. If it seems to be something you would be better at than other classes would be—exempli gratia, a warrior rolling to hit—you can roll a d30 instead. If you roll higher, you do the thing. If the GM die rolls close to yours though, maybe you didn’t do the thing so smoothly. If you failed, there is some bad thing that happens now and makes sense for the danger you have blundered your way into.

That's pretty much all the rules up there. So we started with a thief that poses as a blind umbrella salesman (we've rolled this result in a past session so I tweeked it, and thru play the PC became more exotic-umbellateer than thief), an Amazon out to find the dragon that razed her village, and an eye-mage (they were a leprechaun, but that didn't come up). I had the players roll d30s on the char-gen table because I felt like having an odd session.

They proceeded south in hopes of selling umbrellas to Thracian goat herders (this map goes all in on Judges Guild stuff), but soon became distracted by the sight of a dragon soaring in the sky. Eye mage decides to try to obscure vision of the dragon. This is definitely an eye-magey thing to do, so I grant them a d30 and roll a d20 for the opposition. We both get natural ones! The mage attracts the dragon's attention, but is hit out of nowhere by a rogue UFO. Maybe I shoulda had more consequence for the mage than that, but oh well.

So the players track down where the dragon crashed and finish it off with an umbrella up the intestines. Too bad, because from the looks of it, that dragon was the brother of the dragon the amazon was looking for. They start harvesting organs, so I ask if they have a clever way to preserve them long enough to get to someone who can actually afford it (Startsville has a poor economy since the lands to the south got full of zombies and odd humanoids about a hundred years back, when the "comet" crashed). Well, I have jars of piss (ammonia) says one player. We roll to see if they are big enough, and they roll high, so yes, yes they do have those jars.

The players also decided to scope out the karst believed to be the dragon's lair. Turns out the roost is like sixty feet down a cliff. Umbrella dude is like, "No prob, just take one umbrella in each hand and float down, friends." Others are like, "After you." Natural 1. Splat!

So that player rolls up a dwarf into rune-priestcraft and is encountered by the other PCs as they are back in town to hawk piss-pickled dragon organs. Okay, long story short, dragon blood is harvested too, magical research (think carousing table) is undertaken, and a little stone dragon familiar joins the priest. Slime missionaries try to convert the party with paper-airplane flyers. Das PCs end the session by fumbling their journey roll and thus cornered on the karsk by a small army of weird humanoid monsters, who they shake off by creating a rune-earthquake and giving lots of pinkeye to.

So yeah, good game and fun system. If you want the character table, go here. The only revision I've really done to the rules is to emphasize that natural 20s can beat higher numbers than 20 on the opposing die.
 
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You shoulda been there when I kicked Satan in the Jimmies: A new way to level up

I'd eyed a lot of goal-based and accomplishment-based systems of late to include in Quest for It, but none of them were sitting quite right with me, so I came up with a system whereby you get drunk and recall the exploits of recent sessions.

 Rules:

The players get together to petition the Judge every once in a while, in the form of boasting PCs talking over drinks. “Remember the time you got turned into an egg and the dragon laid you?” For each of these stories the barflies (Judge) are impressed with, the players have gained one chance as a group. When the players are out of stories, the judge rolls a d10. The players’ chance of leveling up is x in 10, where x is the number of stories. Players that are below the party average level will have 1 higher chance in 10, but only the one die is rolled. If the die rolls x or lower, players level up.

Today was the first time we'd actually tried the bragging part out. The players talked about 8 things by my count. I was surprised by how fun it was to hear the players play this out as I goaded them on as a bunch of non-descript NPCs and the occasional hireling.

Things the party has done or seen:

1. Zombies that were their former compatriots from the funnel
2. Mankies--monkeys without heads and upside down faces on their chests, that they got paid to head-hunt
3. The battle of giant ants and climbing/sleeping foibles
4. Sexy oil stories (basically, the barbarian +Paul C  saw a bunch of oily dudes and got curious)
5. Met a god that was an eye (thanks, +Rafael Chandler)
6. Rival factions (this was a bit of a gimme, and maybe I shouldnna counted it, but there was a story about how the party stumbled into danger because they didn't realize how packed that manse was)
7. Fought a ghost king
8. Lost valiant hireling Igor to yellow mold (made the crowd weep until the cleric started dealing mold like a drug)

8 out of 10 chance there. I rolled a d10 and got a 7, so the party leveled up. If I'd had rolled a 9, just the newish wizard would have leveled, as they were only level 2 compared to the level 4 party average.

So, some drawbacks I noticed to other systems that make mine the obvious one true path:

• XP for Gold: My players never found gold. Like never, ever. Always missed secrets and never checked under the right beds. And they still just murdered anything they could. But usually got murdered first.
• XP for murder: Just reinforces the bad habit of stabbing all the things. Players do that anyways.
• XP for danger ala DCC: It's pretty close to XP for murder, and hard to assess how much danger was averted when PCs are smart enough to actually avoid a fight because it is the severity of the fight that gets you XP in the first place. Also, didn't work well for our weekly 2 hour games; took forever.
• XP for goals: Sometimes, everyone has different goals. But it's not too bad, really. Can take a really long time for some goals if the players are hexcrawling and whatnot.
• XP for ignobles ala Rogue Swords/Conrad's Fantasy: Takes a long time at 2 hours a week. But it inspired the current system a lot.
• XP for failure ala DW: Actually, I like this, 8 out of 10, would roll to hit again. Players are encouraged to try stuff.

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A roll-low saves system for DCC

I started a couple roll-low initiatives in DCC a few months back. One was to have players do ability checks instead of "skill checks". They just have to roll at or under their ability score on a d20 to do the thing they want. Have a more difficult challenge, or an untrained (0-level job-wise) PC? roll a d24 or d30 instead. I've abandoned this one recently because, quite frankly, I want some things to be near impossible. For instance, breaking through a porticulis in the module Silent Nightfall. I saw the DC 35, but the players went through it like paper. Rubbed me the wrong way, but I think it's still a valid resolution mechanic. However, I've abandoned it for now.

But the other roll-low thing is one I'm going to keep for a while yet. I think it's working. Saves. In normal DCC, saves are pretty much your standard 3.x DnD saves. Roll to beat a DC. Only, the highest you can roll with this system under normal circumstances is 29 (max stats at level ten with a good save), and that can be a problem when you are trying to resist a wizard spell that rolls higher. Some would say wizards that roll high deserve to auto-win against their targets. Valid point, but not one I'm happy with at this time in my development as a judge.

 

 So here is how roll-low works:

The judge says roll an x save, where x is one of the three (REF, FORT, WILL). The player looks at their number for that save (which may-well be negative if you are low level with low stats). They add that number to 10 and roll a d20. Rolling at or under that sum on the d20 means you made the save.

If the danger is particularly pernicious (say the wizard rolled a 42 to hex you or a dragon is being a scary dragon flaming you), the judge can ask you to roll a bigger die instead. Maybe even percentile dice.

I find this system has a certain charm as being like a reverse of old school DnD rules as I understand them. In some older editions, you have save numbers that you have to roll over to save (flavored depending on the threat). As you level up, the saves get easier, until you only have to roll a 4 or better to save against most things. The save names are different and simplified these days, but they mirror the old ones quite well when using the new saves system detailed above.

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You Feelin' Lucky, Punk? A DCC gambit houserule

I'll give a little update of my DCC luck-regain rubric at the bottom of this post. I think it works swell, but sometimes players got more Luck than they know what do with.

So here is the gambit rule. You are out of ideas. You might die. You ask the judge, "Can I get some kind of miracle here?"
"Wanna ask your gods?" She suggests with a DCC judge smile.
"Not really. The cleric has disapproval 4 right now... And Crom doesn't listen to me anyways. To hell with him!"
The judge, ever the Faustian entity, is ready with a followup: "Hmm. Sounds like you need a little deus ex machina. What's your wager?"
"Hmm... Six Luck?" You figure you can spend that much and still be okay.
"Alright. Roll a d20!" She declares.
Rattle. "I rolled... a 14?!" Your hands go to your face in shock at the lost gambit.

"Too bad. Well, hope you saved some luck for when they roll over your poor carcass."

However, in the good universe (see the law of Abed-thermo-dynamics) you rolled a 3. Which is at or under your wager.
The judge frowns, robbed of the description of your grizzly demise, but concedes your victory, "Your Luck has proved a fair loss this time, Hogarth MacMorn of the clan of feral men, for the grue advancing upon you suddenly falls to the ground. He's having a bit of indigestion. Shouldn't have eaten the party halfling. He'll be distracted for a little while, if you'd like to slink out of here now."

So yeah, spend some Luck. Roll at or under that number on a d20. If you do, the judge helps you out. You lose the luck points permanently either way. 

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LUCK RUBRIC

Anyhoo, here's how regaining Luck has been going in my online DCC games. I allow players to roll a d20 once for each of the following conditions. If their roll goes over their character's current Luck score, it goes up by one and then we can see if they have any more chances to roll. If a 1 is rolled, you are done getting Luck chances today. Sorry. If you roll a 20, you get a bonus chance!

You get a Luck chance if you:

• Completed a "quest."
• Saved an important thing.
• Have done a character report in the forum since last time.
• Have done something cool or funny (you can't petition the judge, they'll let you know)
• Had a victory that is particularly good for your alignment's gods.
• Showed up on time (actually I give 2 to people on time and 1 to people who had to come late just as thanks for showing up).
• Appeared on camera (hangouts are better with humans).
• Were voted MVP by the other players.

The catch is if you are a thief or hobbit, your Luck can never exceed its original amount with this method. Because you have too many Luck advantages already. But it at least lets you regenerate Luck quicker than normal.

In addition to the above, I stole these other things that engender chances from Dungeon World:
Wizard/elf/psion:

• Lawful
• Used magic to solve a puzzle.
• Neutral
• Discovered something about a magical mystery.
• Chaotic
• Used supernatural power to cause terror and fear.

Thief or hobbit

• Lawful:
• Pleased your client or da boss
• Neutral:
• Avoided detection or infiltrate a location.
• Chaotic:
• Shifted danger or blame from yourself to someone else.

Warrior/dwarf

• Lawful:
• Defended a teammate or love interest.
• Neutral:
• Defeated a worthy opponent.
• Chaotic:
• Killed a defenseless or surrendered enemy.

Cleric:

• Helped the cause of your alignment.

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DCCRPG Dark Sun Setting

EDIT: There was an expansive new version made. This one is fun to look at tho.

I'm pretty happy with the Paranoia/A Boy and His Dog/Star Wars/Dune (duh!)/Logan's Run/The Prisoner tone this thing has taken, if only in my mind. I'd run the sessions much like Paranoia with missions from the templars and secret preserver, gestapo, and defiler characters mixed in to the PC ranks.

Which classic modules would fit this Paranoia spin? Hmmm....

The embedding probably isn't pretty, so you can visit here to read it in a more print-friendly form.


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Death Frost Doom Isometric Map

I shared this a while back in the G+ community for LotFP, but here is an isometric map of DFD, perfect for Roll20. Almost all the rooms are there, just in different places. One set of crypts is in the shape of the evil sign. I think I relocated the evil sign to the door to room 2. Click to embiggen.

As for plot, I still had a plant hanging down blocking the way to the giant skeleton room, but it does not sussurate. Instead, there is an ancient old man that ceaselessly pipes away on a flute in 21. He has an extra flute in his coat and will offer it while still playing. Any player that takes it up is cursed to play until a new flautist comes. The dead get real cranky if their music is turned off.

I made the vampire into a seductress. In my campaign, the PCs for the most part joined her and then she took them with her to be lich kings in the new undead empire.

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A Cosmology

Sigil is widely regarded as a microcosm
that reflects the shape of the macrocosm
that comprises the known universe. Imagine
Azathoth at the middle and you may start to
understand Our Lady of Pain.

A little something I am going to be using as my cosmology in games for a while. Each area will have some Powers (gods) and Inhabitants (monsters) detailed.

This universe is a great torus; galaxies and planets ring it, but its edges dissolve into the terrifying pseudo-matter that is The Outer Limits.

The Outer Limits

A realm where the laws of physics melt and reality bends back upon itself. It's an unfathomable distance from known space, and other realities pervade our own here. It surrounds the great torus on all edges. Dark energy pushes the torus further and further apart with the march of the aeons.

• The Outer gods: Azazoth floats in the middle of all reality, just outside of it, attended by his pipers. Azaoth fuels the beginning and end of all things. 
• In his mad dreams, Shub-Niggurath is ever pregnant and making cosmic horrors.

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The Astral Sea

This can be thought of as the stars, planets, and galaxies close enough to our own to matter.

• The Stars themselves: Unfathomable entities that control the fates of men and whisper strange secrets to the mad. 
• The Great old ones: Gods in their own right, the spawn of the stars, such as Cthulhu, originate here, though they tend to be subject to the whims of the cosmic ley-lines and many of them are mercifully sleeping on some planet until they can outlive death again.
• Astral Oddities: Githyanki pirates, Chael, Maruts, Inevitables, Shmodrons, Neogi, Beholders, Illithids, Mi-go, Greys

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The Seven Heavens

A heavenly series of locales for almost any temperament. Of particular interest is Valhalla, the barrier to this reality, where warriors that please their gods are restored for feasting each night.

• They Who Watch: Venca, Tiamat, Psionic Dragon Gods, Zagyg, the Pantheon of Law, the Igigi
• The Heavenly Host: Cloud Giants, Angels, Daevas, Dead Heroes, Archons, Ambassadors of all kinds.

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Midgard (called Aert by common man)

The realm we know the best: the proving ground of the new human race. Elves and dwarves remain from the golden age, but mankind is still struggling to decide their own destiny.

• They Who Walk Among Us: Avatars, Earth-bound Great Old Ones, immortals, nephilim, gibborim, rephaim, old man Bahamut, Iuz the Tyrant,
• Mundane Monsters: Wizards (suffer them not to live) and their experiments, fey, robots, dragons, the undead, the uplifted beasts
• The kingdoms: Kings, emperors, necromancers, and khans squabble over the lands of men
• The demi-humans: Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits withdraw into their alien societies

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The Underworld

Beneath the earth lies the dungeons of things forgotten or sealed away, and mazes made for strange reasons by the servants of various entities. The City of Death is here, eager to claim new souls for Nergal to rule over, and in its catacombs (death for the dead!) is the gate to Tartarus.

• The Cthonics: The Drakainas, Lolth, Torog, some Anunnakit (see below), Tsathoggoa, Atlach-Nacha
• The Shunned: Kobolts (cave fey), Pale Elves (blind), Duergar, Deros, Morlocks, the porcs who bubble up, The Dead, The Phorcydes

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The Gates of Tartarus

The Barrier that holds back the Titanomachy's losers. Devils are former servants of the gods, bound to hold the gates in recompense for their immemorial sins.

• The Wardens: Cerebus, Hel, Lucifer, Yama, Hecatonchires, the 7 Anunnaki judges
• The Hell-bound: The Evil Dead, Devils, Tasked-angels, Maras

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The 9 Hells

These realms of torture are intended to preoccupy and imprison the most dangerous beings from primordial times. The only escape is deeper down...

• Titans and Ashuras: Maya-demons, Vrita, Kronos, Mnemosyne
• Horrors: Cenobytes, Slaadi, the Ancient Dead

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The Abyss

A chaotic vortex in the middle of an elemental crucible that reaches down through an insanity that reflects The Outer Limits.

• The Demon Lords: Baphomet, Orcus, Demogorgon, Juiblex, The Elemental Royalty
• Chaos' childer: Demons, Oozes, Obyriths

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The End of Creation

Tharizdun, lord of paradox, is imprisoned at the bottom of reality, in the singularity of nothingness that lies there. His release would spell the end of everything.

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