Fan Map for Bone Hoard of the Dancing Horror

Want to run Bone Hoard in style?
This map is meant to address a couple things that dumb game judges like me can benefit from. It shows a couple monsters near where they might be encountered (just out of site of fog of war if you are using Roll20), including the heretofore unillustrated [in the original module] dancing horror itself.  The hordling is near a room where the adventure suggests it make itself known. There are a couple of traps illustrated too. I hope it enhances your experience. Click to embiggen. You might enjoy my fan map for Death Frost Doom too.

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XP for Gold revision 100: Montage

This is an embed of a revision of my XP for gold DCC rules, which my players quite frankly hate but I stubbornly think add something to the game. Enjoy.

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The Chase (an RPG mini-game to keep escaping exciting)

I'm tired of opposed die rolls for chases. What is needed is an event each round for each side. Then they decide how to tackle the event, or roll against its DC. This could be done with a table or cards or whatever (I've provided such a table below). 

If the escapee gets 5-minus its Dex mod in victory points, it slips away. Each success for the pursuer can can remove a victory point from the escapee, and if they have no more to remove when required, they are caught within either melee or ranged attack distance (pursuer's choice). 

Escapee rolls first. Escapee can give up running and parley or fight at any time. Escapee may have thief abilities that they can use, but they still need victory points to get away for sure. If they are caught up with, the escapee is too tired/out of options to run any more. They will have to make their stand here. They can't move out of range of the attacker unless a third party interferes.

If there is more than one pursuer and/or escapee, they alternate rolling on the table for their side and deal with it (but normal helping rules for your RPG system can come into play).

The table:

1d12 roll	keyword to ad lib off of	Pursuer's challenge and/or choice	Escapee's challenge and/or choice
1	obstacle	Something that has to be scaled, jumped, or run around	the same
2	cover	Something that block’s sight and must be somehow seen through	something that can be hidden behind if one is quiet and/or clever
3	ranged attack opportunity!	Can roll a ranged attack, or simply use the visual information to try and catch up	You’ve been spotted! Try to dodge out of sight or missile weapons
4	melee attack opportunity!	Can roll a melee attack, or simply try to keep close pursuit	Can roll a melee attack (normal withdrawal rules will apply if you don’t want to end the pursuit here), or run under their blade and keep going
5	trap opportunity!	use available items cleverly to trip up your foe	the same
6	what the?!	something unexpected here; judge rolls a random encounter or landmark to be reacted against	the same
7	impressionable able surface (makes tracks)	track your quarry!	cover your tracks!
8	golden opportunity	a hard check, but you can stop the escapee this round!	a hard check but you can stop the pursuers this round!
9	he went that way!	see through your foe’s attempt to throw you off the scent	use wits to convince foe you are headed a way you aren’t headed
10	hamstring	melee attack check to stop the escape now	attack check to stop the pursuit now
11	weather or environmental obfuscation	try to peer through this stuff	if you stand still enough, maybe they can’t see you...
12	I’ve got an idea!	pull something out of your pack and use it now, or lose this check to time spent lamenting if you weren’t clever enough to pack something useful	the same

Example of a PC trying to run down an escapee (what the keyword means is ad hoc'ed by the Judge on the fly):

Escapee: rolls cover. A large tree. Dex DC 7 or Wis DC 10 to hide behind. They have crappy Wisdom, so they roll their Dex. It works. They spend this turn hiding and biding their time as the PC runs around. One victory point.

PC rolls obstacle. A slippery, muddy marsh. Dex DC 5 to nimbly walk through without falling or Str DC 10 to jump over. Failure means slipping or falling and having disadvantage during the next round. They don't make their test roll.

Round 2:
Escapee: Rolls obstacle. Thorny hedge. They can try DC 10 to run around it, or DC 10 to jump over it. They opt for Dex again, but fail and remove a victory point. Back down to zero.

PC: Rolls ranged attack opportunity: A clear shot. They can make a ranged attack or a DC 5 Dex roll to use the view to catch up. They chose the former and even with that remaining disadvantage, roll a hit against the opponent. It takes damage, but the pursuit is ongoing if the escapee keeps running. It does.

Round 3:
Escapee rolls trip-up opportunity: A big tree with long branches that can be pulled back and released into a pursuer's face (Str DC5) or simply run over to try and gain more ground. They opt for the former and easily make the roll to slap the pursuer in the face. This nets another victory point for the escapee (back to 1).
And so on.

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DCC lvl 1 Spell Memorization Effects

+Courtney Campbell Reminded me that I was always meaning to do something with +James Maliszewski's idea about the effects of memorizing a spell have on a wiz. So here's my take, using the core spells of DCC. DCC is probably too crazy already though. But still.

All effects evaporate if you forget a spell. Hey look, I included reverse spells that the book only hints at.

• Animal Summoning: You have furry features. Go to your happy place and imagine your power animal.
• Cantrip: Choose something odd to always be happening, like hair floating as if under water, a gnome living in your ear, etc. And you know what? In my campaign you can't forget cantrip.
• Charm Person: +1d (dice step) to influence people or even jedi-mind trick them.
• Repel Person: -1d to influence people, but they will be very willing to leave you alone if they can.
• Chill Touch: Can't enjoy hot coffee. Can cause frostbite if you hold your skin against someone's for a round. Frost palm-sized surfaces.
• Warm Touch: Can scald if you hold your skin against someone's for a round. Paper will burn in your hands.
• Choking Cloud: -1d to influence people, as they don't like the miasma that floats about you. You always want your wizard pipe.
• Refreshing Cloud: Everything near you for a turn will be clean and creatures will feel awake and dandy.
• Color Spray: Eyes glow with psychedelic colors. They can project the colors like a spotlight if you desire.
• Comprehend Languages: Use a d16 to try and understand languages just like a thief does. Inject a lot of Sesquipedalian terms, Latin and French into your character's speaking.
• Befuddle Languages: Everyone must speak weird around you. Pig-latin, yoda-speak, Christopher Walken. Everyone (including PCs) has their own idiolect on top of whatever funny voice they might already have. 
• Detect Magic: If someone is dweomer crafting (casting) near you, you're gonna get spider sense about it. The bigger the spell the farther you can feel it from.
• Obfuscate Magic: You seem very boring and mundane. Other memorization effects are canceled.
• Ekim’s Mystical Mask: You have a domino mask stuck to your eye area. People have -2d to recognize you, just like in the comics.
• Enlarge: You are one head's length taller than normal, and can dunk.
• Ensmall: You are one head's length shorter than normal, and dwarves start to make fun of you.
• Feather Fall: You can bound like an astronaut on the moon.
• Stone Fall: Your movement is slowed by 5 feet.
• Find Familiar: N/A. This spell is obviously a ritual.
• Flaming Hands: Fingernails exude constant flame that will alight stuff. Have care.
• Freezing Feet: You can withstand up to -10 degrees celsius with no ill effects. Your boyfriend will be cranky at bedtime.
• Force Manipulation: Minor telekinesis per 3e Mage Hand.
• Invoke Patron: N/A (too messy with the potential of multiple patrons).
• Counter Patron Meddling: Extraplanar creatures avoid you if friendly and attack you if hostile.
• Magic Missile: +1d to throw items well/far (not for attacks).
• Magic Shield: +1 to AC
• Mending: Heal 1HP every hour.
• Patron Bond: N/A
• Read Magic: Mystical runes encircle and rotate around your head like a halo.
• Ropework: Any ropes you have on you lazily grope their way about your person like snakes.
• Runic Alphabet: Potential runes flit about on your skin/clothes as if something was casting shadows in their shape upon you.
• Sleep: During non-tense times, you are rather prone to dozing off. Anyone near you has to roll under Luck to resist falling asleep too.
• Spider Climb: Sticky hands, but not in a way that stops you from casting. Paper and dirt will stick to your palms.
• Ventriloquism: You, or, if you're not willing, the Judge (yay!) will have a disembodied voice make smart-alec remarks. NPCs will be like "Guh?"
• Ward Portal: You know instinctively if any given door is stuck or locked. 

Lvl 2 next time!


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Insanities Holding Your PC Back

A ghost touches your soul. An elder evil's face is glimpsed. Your whole family dies. Roll under your own wisdom score or take a condition below*. While you have a condition, you cannot gain XP. All the conditions' mechanical effects and XP nullification will go away once their requirements have been satisfied, but these should prompt lingering role-playing issues.


1d12 Insanities:

1. Secrets†: You're certain that a random ally or NPC has a secret, and you must find it out by any means necessary (the secret doesn't have to be true, but your character must be satisfied with the confession).
2. Paranoia: You must change your current, true name and hide it in a Matryoshka doll in a box in a chest within the pits of ______ (the DM can decide how to get you the name of the place).
3. Resentment: You must secretly or suddenly set up a situation harmful to a random ally or NPC. This should expose them to significant possibility of harm or loss of reputation.
4. Power: You must gain an office with sway over no less than 100×your level sapient beings.
5. Puzzlemania: You have to solve one adventure puzzle or riddle on your own. If anyone tries to help you, not only is the chance to end this condition ruined, but you also have the Resentment condition from above towards that character too!
6. Monsterphilia: you have to woo one monster. Consummate the relationship somehow before regaining your wits.
7. Gold fever: You need to collect at least 100 gold coins (no sharing!), then roll a (DC 15-1 for every 100 gold hoarded since you got unwell) Will save, or you still have this condition.
8. Fear: Hire a body guard and cower during fights as long as the body guard lives. After they die you reluctantly start taking care of business again.
9. Obsession: Chose a quest/mission/objective you have yet to fulfill (even if it is a really old one you kinda forgot), or throw yourself at the mercy of the DM and they will make up one for you. Drop any other current objectives and single-mindedly pursue that one to completion.
10. Fey-primitivism: You abhor worked metal of any kind, and seize up with imagined allergic reactions at the touch of such. This condition ends once a foe has pierced you with such an implement and you survive. 
11. Pyromania: You must set some structures (occupants quite optional) ablaze. The amount of floors of burned structures must equal your current level.
12. Tomemania: You become obsessed with finding esoteric information (of your choice) that you are convinced is to be found in the tome of ____ and won't be sane until you have studied it for a number of weeks numbering (roll until you roll under your Int). You must do some research to find the name of the tome, as well as clues to where it might be.  

*:An alternate system involves no save, only XP damage. If it takes you below a level threshold, you get teh insanes.
†: This one is almost directly ripped from a False Machine post that started this idea for me.
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here's one I rejected for not being questy enough and overlong:
Body issues: You must (1d3) 1: loose 1d20 pounds, 2: gain 1d20 pounds of fat, or 3: gain 1d10 pounds of muscle. It will take 1 day of fasting to lose any 1 pound (roll over Con to confirm), and 1 week to gain any (roll under Str or Con to confirm). If you lose or gain fat, also lose or gain a point of Con when you reach your goal weight. If you gain the muscle, gain a point of Str, but you must eat double rations to maintain your body image/gained score.
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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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Initiative Dice

Messing around with the initiative rules for the KIWF RPG. Keep in mind that there is a limited amount of attack and defence dice for each creature each round, so I don't really see this system getting abused. Here it is in as per the current draft:

At the beginning of a combat round, the Ref will announce the enemies’ apparent intentions. “Charles the vampire attempts to mesmerise Sarasa” and so on. The players then announce their intentions. Every being taking an action (which constitutes something like: a move, quaffing a potion, an attack, readying a conditional action, intoning a spell, etc.) needs to roll an initiative die. If it is at/under their coordination, they will keep acting after this action. If not, they are done this round with the one action (keep in mind your attack and defense pools only get replenished at the beginning of a round). If a determination is needed to see who acts first at any given instant, the one with a lower-numbered initiative goes first (same numbers act simultaneously as possible).
A die may be forfeited from your group’s bloodpool to take a bonus action, provided you then roll it at/under your coordination score.
Outside of your turn on a round you can try something like talk, warn, threaten, taunt, or cajole.

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