The why of temples

Temples feature in a lot of adventures, but it's often the temple of mumble which was built by the priests of mumblecough to serve the function of hey look over there.

Here's a set of tables that can randomly generate a temple, including its background, physical features, reasons a party of adventurers might be interested in it and reasons why no-one has looted it before them.

This temple is set:

1. On a hill
2. In a valley
3. Overlooking a bay
4. In a mountain pass
5. In a cave
6. On an island

It's a:

1. Single-room chapel
2. Small church with priest quarters
3. Small chapel complex with priest and guest quarters
4. Multi-building grounds with workshops and a staff
5. Temple complex with cloisters, schools and dedicated farms
6. Holy city with a permanent population of citizens and businesses

It was built to:

1. House the bones of a saint
2. Provide accommodation for pilgrims
3. Seal an evil portal/hostile entity
4. Prepare for the return of a living god
5. Act as a base for a religious crusade
6. Train clerics and war priests

Its distinctive feature was:

1. A sacrificial altar
2. A library and scriptorium
3. A treasure vault
4. An armoury
5. Extensive catacombs
6. A reliquary housing an ancient artefact

Its distinctive architecture is:

1. A bell tower 
2. A cloister
3. A necropolis
4. Statues
5. Stained glass windows
6. A labyrinth mosaic

Its state is:

1. Abandoned and empty
2. Used as a headquarters by bandits
3. Used as a den by wild animals
4. Inhabited by monsters
5. Operational but barred to outsiders
6. Re-occupied by a cult or opposing religion

Its walls are:

1. Overgrown and half-buried
2. In ruins
3. Pristine
4. Soot-stained
5. Rebuilt
6. Carved with ominous bas-reliefs

An unexpected threat here is:

1. Angry spirits
2. Wandering undead
3. Animated statues
4. Cursed objects
5. Weakened floor/roof supports
6. Disease

I want to run D20 but all I have are a couple of D6s

We've all been there. It's Christmas and you're gathered at Auntie Doreen's place where your siblings and cousins want you to run one of your 'Dumbledores and Dragons' games for the kids to keep them occupied. You didn't bring your gaming dice and Doreen is on dial-up because wifi causes autism and fibre is a plot by animal rights activists to get their propaganda into people's homes. All you've got to work with are a couple of D6s from an old copy of Monopoly that has POO BUM scrawled across the board in crayon. You can do this.

You can use D6s for a fair simulation of other dice. The methods are neither elegant nor straightforward, but they do what they need to do. In the list of operations below I'm going to call the first die DA and the second DB.

D4

The easiest of them all: just chuck DA and re-roll if you get a result higher than 4. You'll probably have to roll three times for every two results you need, but there's no maths involved.

D8

Roll both dice. DA is a D4. If DB shows an odd side, add 4 to DA's number to get your D8 result.

D10

Roll both dice. This time you're rolling DA as a D5 (re-roll on a 6 result). DB is even/odd again. If it shows an odd side, add 5 to DA's number for your D10 result.

D12

Do not roll both dice and add them together. The first issue is that it's impossible to get a 1 result that way. The second is that rolling two dice and adding them gives you a weak bell-shaped probability curve instead of the flat result you want. The odds of rolling a 6 this way are 5/36 (14%) but the odds of rolling a 12 are 1/36 (0.28%).

Instead, roll DA as a D6 and DB as an odd/even to determine if you add 6 or 0 to DA.

D20

Now it's getting kind of awkward. Roll DA as a D5. Roll DB as a D4. You want a result of 0 to 3. For simplicity's sake I like to treat 6 as a 0, take 1 to 3 as rolled and re-roll on a 4 or 5. Add DB x 5 to DA to get a D20 result.

D100

Use the D10 method twice, once for the tens and again for the ones. Subtract 1 from each result. This will give you final result of 00 - 99. You can treat 00 as 100. If you leave out the subtractions, the lowest result you can roll is 11.

Doreen won't mind you using her toby mug collection as giant figurines, will she?

Void adventure

This is a half-baked idea for a zero-prep procedurally generated adventure, but I think it might have some legs to it.

First, the characters successfully navigate a suspiciously short dungeon belonging to a wizard, eventually finding themselves in his library. The treasure is inches away. Then the door and windows slam shut, there's a light show and a dizzying sense of transition. If the characters pry open the doors or window covers, they find themselves looking out into true nothingness - the void. The room was a trap, and it caught them. They've been dumped out of the world entirely.

Presumably the wizard will eventually call the room back, if only to reset the trap. But there's a dead and mummified adventurer here, which suggests that it could be a good long time. They need to rescue themselves, not wait.

The dead adventurer had an escape plan, which he laid out in a journal he had with him. The room could be shifted back into the world by tracing the path of a specific rune on foot and chanting a magical phrase to undo the trap magic. The biggest problem was that a single room isn't large enough to trace the rune.  It needs to be many squares long. However, it was possible to call additional rooms into the void, from structures similar to this room in concept (IE. dungeons). Then the issue would be digging through walls for access, defeating whatever threats came across with the architecture and building a walkable path through them.

The final journal entry states that a terrible void storm had begun and he was returning to the library for the little protection the bookshelves offered. Whatever rooms he managed to add are gone. If the PCs want to follow his plan, they'll need to start from scratch.

Obviously the characters have specific wants in the rooms they summon: food, building tools and supplies, construction that allows them to create openings where they need them. They'd also prefer those rooms to be unoccupied. Each additional criterion adds 1d3 to the difficulty of the magic roll for the summoning. If I was running I'd keep the players in the dark over whether they pass or fail until the room arrives, and remove one of the criteria for every point they fail by. They get a room regardless, but maybe not the one they hoped for.

I like the idea of using the random dungeon generator from Donjon. Hit random each time to get a different dungeon style, but set Details to basic to get a list of monsters and traps. Roll a die to pick which room they get. If the encounter die hits while they're in that room, it's something from the wandering monsters list, arriving some time after the room they occupied.

The characters have to work fast, because another possibility on the encounter die is a void storm. Storms last 1d6 turns, and while they're in progress, areas of the map simply pop out of existence. Erased by the void. Generating those randomly seem like too much effort, so I'd get the players to map out the dungeon they're constructing and drop d4s on their map to determine where the lacunae occur and how many squares in diameter they are. (D4s are indisputably the most evil of dice. Bastard pointy things.)

Send in the clowns

The face of a killer?

A clown bestiary with B/X stats.

People have been talking for years about scary clowns. I always thought it was mostly in fun, but my little nephew is serious about it. I had to change my in-game skin so we could play Minecraft together, because I was dressed as a clown and he hated it.

Players wouldn't be scared though, would they? Not big tough players. I bet they could take on a whole gang of clowns and come out smiling...

Hobo

Dressed in rags or ill-fitting clothes, Hobos are tasked with gathering victims to feed the nest's Foolmother and her Clowngrubs. They're especially attracted to young children, who can be taken in by a painted smile and a bladder on a stick. Many villages have known the pain of hearing their children cry in fear and seeing a Hobo sprinting away on oversized shoes with a handful of kids stuffed into his hula-hoop trousers.

AC 7 [12], HD 4 (14hp), Att 1 × rubber chicken (1d4), squeaky hammer (1d6), claws (1d6), THAC0 16, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F4), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 125, NA 1d4 (2d4), TT S

Specials: Hobos can regurgitate swallowed human intestines to twist into balloon animals, swollen with noxious gas. They burst after 1d4 rounds or if interacted with. The gas irritates the membranes, causing coughing and watering eyes. Save vs poison or -2 to attack rolls until the fight's end.

Pierot

The white-faced Pierot wears motley, a conical hat and a mournful expression.  Don't be fooled, this clown has no mercy. Its skin is coated with slimy white mucus.  The Pierot's chief tactic is pretending to be busy with some task and paying no attention to anyone who might be nearby - then sneaking up and smearing them with its slime as soon as they're distracted.

AC 8 [11], HD 3 (11hp), Att 1 × bucket of whitewash (1d4), claws (1d6), THAC0 17, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F3), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 75, NA 1d2 (1d6), TT R

Specials: Pierot slime absorbs into demihuman skin and paralyses the will, leaving the victim a dazed but willing slave to the Pierot's gestured commands. Save vs poison to resist.

Little dog

Pierots are often accompanied by little dogs, which function as their protectors. They're not actually canines, they have a vestigial third pair of insectoid limbs that fold flat against the body.  Agile, and vicious, the dog can dislocate its jaw at will to open its mouth wider than its head. It has multiple rows of jagged, broken teeth. It goes for the soft parts, and then for the throat.

AC 7 [12], HD 2 (7hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6), THAC0 18, MV 120’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 8, AL Chaotic, XP 20, NA 1d3 (2d4), TT None

Rodeo

The clown nest's soldier caste, Rodeo clowns have nothing subtle or sneaky about them. They operate on instinct, which tells them to attack anyone not part of the nest. They have sticky sweat that binds a protective layer of bullpen dust to their skin. They're also armoured with oversized hats and bandanas. Rodeo clowns can be found defending approaches to the main nest.

AC 6 [13], HD 5 (18hp), Att 1 × headbutt (1d6), claws (1d6), THAC0 15, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F5), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 300, NA 1d4 (1d2), TT Q

Specials: Spits caustic chaw (2d4). 2 x daily, 15' range, save vs breath for half damage.

Foolmother

Source of the filthy clown breed, the Foolmother is a towering blob of flesh in the centre of the nest. She appears bloated and immobile, but most of that quivering mass is actually an egg sac she's embedded in. Give her reason and she'll tear free and leap at you, all sleek black biomechanical limbs topped with a bulbous head and painted smile.

AC 1 [18], HD 8 (36hp), Att 1 × bite (3d8) or claws (2d6), THAC0 12, MV 180’ (60’), SV D8 W9 P10 B10 S12 (F8), ML 9, AL Chaotic, XP 650, NA 0 (1), TT H 

Clowngrubs

The clown's immature stage. Writhing slimy grubs the length of your forearm, with sharp mandibles. They hunt by smell and when one tastes flesh it emits a pheromone that calls its fellows to join the feast.

AC 7 [12], HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 × bite (1d3), THAC0 19, MV 90’ (30’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 6, AL Chaotic, XP 10, NA 0 (0d6), TT None
 

Mime

Every predator has a predator of its own. The clown's predator is the mime. These beasts exist partly in this world and partly in another. They're often hindered by obstacles that exist only on the other side of the divide and are invisible to creatures native to our plane. That weakness is a strength as well, though. The mime can step sideways past barriers that exist only on our side, appearing inside city walls and locked rooms.

Clowns are their natural prey, but they're hostile to any living thing they encounter. The unlucky or unwary die in the grip of claws that can't even be seen.

AC 8 [11], HD 6 (21hp), Att 1 × invisible sword (1d6), THAC0 14, MV 80’ (40’), SV D10 W11 P12 B13 S14 (F6), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 500, NA 1d3, TT R

Specials: Immune to non-magical weapons.

Wizard Squad AP and an adventure

Recently I got a chance to playtest Wizard Squad with my usual group and give them a chance to break my game. The lesson for me in this is 'be careful what you wish for'.  The scenario we played was The Doom that came to Springhill.  Click the name there to download a copy. 

Character creation

The usual suspects were present: Tim, Theo, James 1 and Mila.

Character creation was relatively straightforward, but I had difficulty explaining the magic system concepts: your techniques and forms describe the magic your wizard knows, you can custom-build any spell that draws on those practices, each morning you choose the spells that will be available to you to cast for that day. Effectively it's Vancian magic, but it eliminates pre-written level-based spell lists. The players seemed to like that idea.

Tim rolled up Smith Johns, a relatively hardy wizard with magic techniques in Harming/Diminishing and Person. His specialty was Bureaucracy and his advantage was Reputation. We decided that he was quite a legalistic magic user who had successfully taken a number of minor nobles to court.

Theo created Desmond Aster, Des to his friends. His techniques were Summon, Transform, Spirit and Beast. He immediately created a spell to turn people into sheep. He also asked if it was possible to interpret spirits as distilled spirits and create a spell of summon whiskey. We agreed that it was only logical. His specialty was languages and his advantage Official Contacts, so he came from a diplomatic background.

James 1 made The Great Kazaam. His techniques were Heal/Enhance and Person. Unfortunately he rolled the lowest possible HP, so he wouldn't be doing much healing. His advantage was a spirit companion named Fred, who no-one else could see or hear. They just thought The Great Kazaam was kind of weird, but knew things.

Mila rolled up Me Reana, a sorceress with magic for Move, Element, Person, Beast. She immediately created a spell to give flight to flightless animals, a second one to suck spirits into jars to capture them and another she called Earthbending. Her specialty was investigation and her advantage was a minor magical item. After some negotiation we agreed that she had a bag of holding, but the opening was too small for anything larger than her fist.

Des then asked me if it was possible to create a spell to transform spirits into whiskey so they could be sucked into Me's bottles and stored as a refreshing drink in her pouch of holding. I reluctantly admitted that the rules could be interpreted to allow it, but I planned this as a serious game and meant to veto any magic that seemed too ridiculous. Everyone agreed, knowing full well that my games turn ridiculous no matter what my intentions are.

The squad was dispatched to the tiny isolated village of Springhill, where children were vanishing and monsters have been seen in the woods.

The game

The party arrived in Springhill where the mayor’s man failed to meet them as arranged. They headed for the pub, where they learned that talk about monsters abducting or eating children made the innkeeper nervous and he clammed up. At least they got their drinks for free.

They found the mayor, who was riding back into town from negotiating with a mercenary company encamped by the main road. There’s nothing for miles around, so the concern is that the company is here to sack the town. The mayor gave them details about the missing children and their families and the squad went off to investigate.

Talking to the families they learned that all three of the vanished children spent their free time around a swimming hole upriver, and also that a season earlier there had been a late-night display of weird lights over the hill that gave the town its name. They checked out the swimming hole and saw nothing unusual until Me earth-bent the river bed to rise and show itself above the water line. Then they found a number of fish with pig-like features and river weed that seemed to be budding pig fetuses instead of seed pods. The squad theorised that the disappeared children had become the monsters seen in the woods, and it was something in the water that changed them.

Smith issued the river a ticket for concealing evidence, and a receipt for the items they seized for investigation. The other sorcerers began to understand why a successful wizard like him got sent on an investigation at the arse-end of the kingdom.

They travelled upriver, looking for the hillside spring that was its source. All of them struggled inside the cave mouth against the water’s flow, but Smith lost his grip and got swept nearly a mile downriver before he could leave the water. He issued it a ticket for impeding an officer of the law in his duties. The others pushed on, but soon found the way impassable. Kazaam had the idea of letting Des change him into spirit form so he could continue through the spring. [Ordinarily I would have said no to this because Des didn't have that spell on his prepared list, but the game had a fairly strict time limit and I felt like we needed to move things along.] Exploring in this form, he soon found himself halted by a barrier of invisible force. He called the others up and with Des’ help he had the power to force his way through. That weakened the barrier enough for Des to follow. Me earth-bent an alcove next to the force wall where someone could work out of the water flow, and went after them.

Smith arrived, recognised Me’s alcove for what it was and pushed on. The barrier could only offer token resistance at this point. He scrawled a hasty ticket and dropped it as he hurried past.

Moving ahead of the squad, Kazaam entered a large dry room with unmistakable old-kingdom construction. He spotted lights and raised voices in the distance. Des used a spell to give himself the appearance of a spirit - invisibility - and joined him. They found the room was a grid of stone vats filled with a milky fluid in which a herd of pigs were growing to maturity with unnatural speed. The voices were a trio of men slaughtering and butchering full-grown pigs.

Kazaam flew close and ordered them to stop. The oldest man waved a hand through his immaterial body and told him that no, he didn’t think they would. He sent one of the younger ones to fetch help. Kazaam sent Fred the spirit to follow him, but he lost track of the man in the darkness and twisting pathway out of the hill.

Des recognised enough of the old-kingdom glyphs on the walls to have a good chance at deactivating the room without destroying it. He went for it, and successfully turned off the controlling device overhead. The vats hardened into milky glass and went inert. The two remaining men tried to make a fight of it, but Des turned them into sheep.

The session ended there, but in the postscript the wizard squad went on to arrest a local farmer and his two sons, along with the mayor and the innkeeper. Deprived of the supplies they needed to cross the northern wasteland and attack a keep from the blind side, the mercenaries threatened to sack the town, but Des offered to fix their provisioning problem by turning the first half dozen men to reach for their weapons into mutton. The three missing children were rounded up and after several months of intensive research, returned to human form by the wizard academy.

Conclusions

Playtests never take place under ideal conditions, have you noticed? In this case we didn’t have our usual rooms at the university, so we played outside in the courtyard. The weather was good for it, but the sun went down and we were reduced to squinting and using our cellphone lights to read character sheets until the overhead lights came on - after we finished. With the venue problem, transport issues and character creation, we didn’t get started until late. It was only intended to be one session, so it had to be a 90-minute game.

I threw out a whole bunch of clues, some useful and some not. I intended to curse the players with an overabundance of evidence and force them to sort through it all. Instead (perhaps because they chose to investigate the spookiest clues first), they bypassed most of the mystery and headed straight for the problem’s source inside the hill.

By running Wizard Squad I learned that:

• Players suffer from the blank page problem and need some prompting to start coming up with their own spells. 
• But once they get into the swing of things you can’t stop them inventing new spells and wanting to try them out immediately.
• Players with a D&D background got the magic system immediately. Other players needed more of an explanation. Is it still a one-page game if you bundle it with an adventure, an extended bestiary and a couple examples of play? 
• The game is unplayable without houseruling, which is pretty much what I expected. 

House rules

These were all developed through play.

• The standard die for magic is a d4. Healing? D4 + level HP. Transforming? D4 + level minutes at base cost. 
• Some effects revert back after the spell wears off, some don't. Rule of common sense applies.
• Some spells require a roll to cast, some are automatic. Once again, rule of common sense.
• Players want to experiment with new spells as they come to mind, even if they're not playable that in-game day. The compromise I came up with is to allow a flashback to the wizard academy, where the character tries the spell out for the first time. The player must make a roll. If they miss the target by three or more, it's an undershoot. Roll a d6 and consult this table:
  
  1 - 3 - spell fails and accidentally ruins another student's experiment.
  4 - 5 - spell fails and the PC looks foolish, under-prepared, or over-confident in front of academy staff.
  6 - spell misfires and there's property damage or injury.
  
  If they exceed the target by three or more, it's an overshoot. Roll a d6 and consult this table:
  
  1 - 3 - spell succeeds and the PC looks organised, confident and in control.
  4 - 5 - spell succeeds and the PC impresses a senior wizard.
  6 - spell succeeds and reveals a hidden truth that solves a question the academy has been struggling with for months.

The why of gangs

Criminal gangs are a hazard players are most likely to run across in city areas. They can be ambiguous - enemies or allies depending on how the first encounter shakes out.

Most gangs are money-making enterprises that see violence as a tool of the trade. Often, recruits join up to have protection from other gangs. It's common for gangs to claim a territory and keep order there by muscling out or co-opting other criminals.

This is a table to make gangs less generic by generating a background, operating methods and members. Roll as many times on any given table as you need to reach the preferred complexity.

Their members

1. Neighbourhood thugs
2. Disgruntled ex-soldiers
3. Guild dropouts - drunks, bullies and workshy
4. Long term jobless forced to choose between crime and begging
5. Branded criminals
6. Vigilantes

Their size

1. Less than ten
2. Ten to twenty
3. A few dozen
4. A hundred or so 
5. Many hundreds

Their methods

1. Smuggling
2. Gambling
3. Armed robbery
4. Protection
5. Bootlegging
6. Murder/arson for hire

Their 'reason'

1. Protect immigrant districts
2. Resist political oppression of the lower classes
3. Prevent exploitation of the poor by landowners
4. Stop locals being displaced by newcomers
5. Redistribute unfair taxation
6. Defend neighbourhoods against other gangs

Their real reason

1. Money
2. Power
3. Revenge
4. Fear and respect
5. Fun and excitement
6. Loyalty to each other and their leader

Their main advantage

1. Secret routes under the city or over the rooftops
2. A rich or connected sponsor
3. Reputation
4. Alliance with other gang(s)
5. Clandestine support from neighbourhood residents
6. They've bribed or intimidated the city guards

Their biggest headache

1. Money-making rackets under threat
2. Powerful enemies
3. Territorial dispute with other gang(s)
4. Loss of safe houses and secret routes
5. Law enforcement crackdown
6. Informant infiltrators

Wearable monsters

Yes, that sort of wearable monster.
Image from www.maxpixel.net

I was browsing Old School RPG Planet's bloglist late at night and found myself reading a post about wandering monsters. I was half-asleep and read that as wearable monsters until I was nearly done with the post and hadn't seen a single reference to wearing monsters and wasn't that a fundamentally dumb idea?

*cough* So anyway, here's a list of wearable monsters. Blame them on Abelard the Unreliable. I'm not sure why I gave them statblocks.

Wig beast

This creature wants to yank your hair out and sink tap roots into your scalp. The benefit is that you'll have a full head of thick and luxurious hair once it settles in place. They can be trained into elaborate styles, and change shades depending on your diet. The down side is that your own hair never grows back and the wig beast has an unpredictable lifespan. It may just expire and slide off your scarred scalp in public. They tend to target older women and fashionable young men.

AC 6 [13], HD 1-2 (2hp), Att 1 × hair pull (1d4-1), THAC0 19, MV 40’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7, AL Neutral, XP 5, NA 1d6 (3d8),  
TT -
 

Parasitic medals

They resemble gold or lapis medals with a vague decoration generic enough to just possibly belong to your army. Actually beetles that grip with their legs and bury a proboscis under the skin to draw blood. At the same time they inject a toxin that diminishes reasoning ability and increases belligerence and blood flow. Sufferers can be recognised by their ruddy complexion, disregard for strategy and over-use of phrases like "Peace was never an option" and "We have more men than they have bullets".

AC 4 [15], HD 1-2 (1hp), Att 1 × bite (1d4), THAC0 19, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 10, AL Neutral, XP 5, NA 3d4 (4d10), TT -

Snake belt

These venomous serpents are attracted to the body heat of sleeping adventurers and eat leather. They slither close and devour an adventurer's existing belt, then slide through their trousers' belt loops to take its place. Their tails are armoured so they can grip them with their teeth and not cause themselves injury. By the time a belt snake is discovered, it's probably too late to remove it and the only option is to wait until they get hungry and slither off in search of more edible belts. Their bite causes fever and delirium.

AC 6 [13], HD 2 (8hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6+poison), THAC0 19, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 8, AL Neutral, XP 10, NA 1d4 (3d6), 
TT -

Fleece colony

A fleece moth is a tiny wispy insect with a long, trailing fleecy tail. They collectively settle on a suitable surface and intertwine their tails, creating a light but waterproof and warm covering. Migratory hunters on the high steppes soak their clothes in the juice of the mountain thistle to attract fleece moths. The down side is that the moths only form a colony in cold weather. If a warmer (by their standard) day comes, they may abandon their garment all at once and leave the wearer in just his shirt sleeves.

AC 4 [15], HD 1-2 (1hp), Att -, THAC0 -, MV 80’ (40’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 4, AL Neutral, XP -, NA 10d100, TT -

 

Crocs

Not shoes, actually small reptiles. These swamp-dwelling mini-gators wrap themselves around the feet of careless adventurers, shred their existing footwear, and grab hold. They resist removal with nips and tail-thrashing. But on the other hand they're hard-wearing, waterproof and don't cause blisters. Some travellers think it's worth occasionally being dragged off-course to chase small game.

AC 8 [11], HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6), tail-whip (1d4), THAC0 19, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 8, AL Neutral, XP 5, NA 2, TT -

Dragon onesie

The onesie is a living organism and by putting it on you're technically stepping into its stomach. Don't worry too much about that, it's warm and dry inside. Unless you fail to keep its pockets full of gold. Then it could get a little uncomfortable. Onesies don't go adventuring to enjoy the company. A dragon onesie provides immunity to the breath weapon matching its colour.

AC 4 [15] (when worn, give the wearer chainmail-equivalent AC), HD 3 (13hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6), THAC0 19, MV 80’ (40’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F2), ML 8, AL Neutral, XP 15, NA 1 (1d4), TT D

Trollskin armour

Trollskin armour has to be manufactured and the process begins with getting it off the troll. Who probably won't like it. The skin survives removal and trimming, tanning, sewing etc. When worn it gives leather-equivalent AC and also emanates a smell that frightens away animals and smaller monsters. It's self-repairing as long as it's kept well-fed.  The only way it can feed is to absorb nutrients through its skin, so the most efficient way of keeping your trollskin armour healthy is to soak it in the soup-pot after it's cooled down for a while. Wash it thoroughly or your next meal will taste like feet.

Fantasy Medieval X-Men

Image by Mohammed Hassan via Pixabay

I don't know if this idea has legs or not. It's an interesting metagame but I'm not sure it's fun. But I've had it in my head for far too long without progressing it one way or another, so maybe I can get it out by writing it down.

Wizard X has assembled a team of heroes, each with their own special quality. By way of example, Sir A is as strong as an ogre. Lady B has hypnotically fascinating eyes. Sir C can swim like a fish. They roam the countryside doing good deeds, but the local peasants are always grateful when they move on. There's something unsettling about them.

Each of the characters is cursed and doesn't know it. Sir A just knows that Lady B is under a dark fate and must never see her own reflection. It's his job to keep tabs on her and make sure she doesn't. Lady B knows that Sir C must never taste sea water and it's her role to see that he never does. Sir C knows that Sir A can never eat uncooked meat under any circumstances, and the task of stopping it falls to him.

But the real truth is that Sir A is as strong as an ogre because he is one. Wizard X permanently polymorphed him into human shape and geased him never to think about his past. If he ever eats raw meat, that part of the spell is undone. Lady B has some of the powers of a gorgon because she's a gorgon. Sir C is a Saghuin. Each of them has a taboo they can never break, or their real nature will be revealed to them. Wizard X never told them about the 'curse' or the taboo because he didn't want them to know even that much about their situation. In order to keep them from crossing the line, he gave each of them the job of managing one of their companions.

I think it would be on-theme for only the GM and a character's minder player to know what their taboo is. I can't imagine it being hard to figure out, the cat's going to be out of the bag on the meta level within the first session or two. From there it's going to be about playing their character like they aren't aware of it and don't know why another character is constantly trying to stop them doing something. Obviously for this to make it into a game, players will have to be comfortable with acting out in-game conflict between the two characters. Some people aren't, and that's fine. I'm not sure I could make this work at my table. I know some larpers who might go for it.

It could be a good gimmick for a streamed game, on reflection.

The why of cults

Image by
OpenClipart-Vectors
on Pixabay

A table to generate cult characteristics. A lot of the adventures I've been looking at lately have been premised on ideas like a cult infiltrating a community, or setting up a secret headquarters under a building and performing unspeakable rites. There's little or no description beyond 'a cult', though. I don't have an ongoing campaign involving a cult, so I thought it would be nice to have a chart to generate one on the fly if I was to run an adventure like this as a one-shot.

This cult formed when someone charismatic:

1. discovered a long-hidden holy book handed down by their ancestors.
2. had a vision while meditating/feverish/starving/poisoned by bad mushrooms.
3. made a cynical deal with an extraplanar/infernal being.
4. experienced a mental snap.
5. was helped out of a bad situation by a supernatural entity and wanted to show their gratitude.
6. thought deeply about mainstream religious practices and came to a different conclusion.

They are trying to:

1. recruit influential worshippers
2. obtain magical texts
3. practice unspeakable rites
4. infiltrate positions of power
5. extort a specific group
6. blackmail powerful individuals

In order to:

1. gain political influence
2. build wealth
3. suppress dissent
4. drive out other religions
5. maintain secrecy
6. develop in mystical power

Which will result in:

1. the apocalypse.
2. a breakaway state.
3. wealth and privilege for members.
4. the return of a forgotten god.
5. revenge for an ancient grudge.
6. fulfilment of a prophecy.

They recruit by:

1. drugging prospective members and showing them visions
2. taking in the destitute
3. offering protection and clandestine support
4. encouraging prospects to commit vile crimes
5. threats and violence
6. exposing people to mind-warping magic

And maintain secrecy by:

1. targeting a betrayer's family
2. magically cursing betrayers
3. sending agents armed with a drug that causes madness
4. rewarding loyalty with money and authority
5. geasing recruits not to talk about cult business with outsiders
6. hypnotising acolytes to forget their activities during daily life

Which has caused:

1. a culture of suspicion and paranoia among acolytes.
2. a string of unexplained deaths in the community.
3. a rash of weird events and sightings.
4. rumours and whispering.
5. an unexpected shift in the social pecking order.
6. a wall of silence against outsiders to the community.

Cult members:

1. learn to speak an unusual language.
2. submit to ritual scarring or tattoos.
3. learn a few simple cantrips.
4. carry the same superstitious charms.
5. perform a simple routine task in an unusual way.
6. refuse to say the names of common gods.

The cult is:

1. reluctantly tolerated.
2. feared.
3. despised and ridiculed.
4. dismissed as a rumour.
5. respected.
6. ignored.

Goblin variants

Image from Wikimedia.org

I'm slowly and painfully thinking through a dungeon populated by goblins. In order to keep it interesting and justify what I hope are some genuinely underhanded tactics, I'd like to introduce a bit of variety into the inhabitants.

Ranked in order of toughness:

Goblin runt

The smallest and scrawniest of the goblins, they've had to be quick and smart to survive among their bigger kin.

AC 6, HD 1-2 (2hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 80’ (40’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Snot flick - a goblin with hayfever is never unarmed. Instead of attacking, a runt can flick a blob of mucus with pinpoint accuracy to a range of 10'. No damage, -2 to next attack roll.

Goblin bootlicker

These disgustingly obsequious toadies hang around with goblin pit bosses and champions, yelling warnings and throwing them extra ammo when called for.

AC 6, HD 1-2 (2hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Has a satchel containing (1d6):

1. dried rat meat. (1 ration)
2. goblin brew. Tastes like a bugbear's loincloth. Burns with a blue flame. Might sterilise a wound then infect it with something different.
3. part of a halfling.
4. 1d4 tallow candles.
5. 1d2 doses of berserker mead.
6. 2d6 teeth.

Goblin bomber

Easily recognised by the cooking pots they wear as helmets and the slow-matches they tuck under the brim, even goblin bullies leave these guys alone. Bombers are runts who've taken an interest in chemistry. Madder than a soup-fork and half as useful, they make bombs by packing black powder into pottery, wooden tubs, skulls, anything they can find.

AC 5, HD 1-2 (2hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Fire in the hole - a bomber carries 1d4 black powder grenades. Every second round they can throw one with a 15' range. On detonation, 1d6 damage to the square it lands in and 1d4 to adjacent squares. on 1-in-6 the bomb explodes while the goblin is still holding it.

Goblin shaman

Shamans typically know a few low-level spells and prepare the beserker mead that drives a few goblin warriors into a killing rage.

AC 7, HD 1-1 (3hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 40’ (15’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Spells known (one of): Remove Fear, Cure Light Wounds, Darkness.

1d3 pots of berserker mead: +2 Att and damage, +2 AC. Save vs poison to stop fighting.

Goblin regular

A bog-standard goblin as described in the monster manual.

AC 6, HD 1-1 (3hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Goblin bully

Bigger than an ordinary goblin, and meaner too. Everything they have, they've taken from someone smaller.

AC 6, HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Gimme dat - if disarmed or jealous, a bully can take a weapon from a goblin in an adjacent square as a free action.

Goblin berserker

Frothing at the mouth, biting their own ears and attacking with no regard for an enemy's relative strength.

AC 8, HD 1 (4hp), Att 1 × weapon (+2, 1d6+2 or by weapon+2), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 5, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Goblin pit boss

Pit bosses have years of experience at not dying to adventurers. With a pit boss bellowing orders and enforcing them with kicks and punches, goblins will function like (semi-) disciplined fighters.

AC 5, HD 1+1 (5hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 10, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Tactics - if a pit boss has bombers, bullies will form up in front of them as a protective line while they throw bombs. If the pit boss has runts, they'll flank adventurers while the bigger goblins keep them tied up in melee. Pit bosses count as kings for morale checks.

Goblin champion

Champions have been round the block a few times, and collected a couple of souvenirs on the way. Each champion will have a minor magic item (1d6):

1. Wand of Cold, 1d6 charges.
2. +1 sword.
3. Ring of Control Animals.
4. Potion of ESP.
5. Potion of Heroism.
6. Wand of Fear.

AC 4, HD 1+2 (6hp), Att 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon), THAC0 19, MV 60’ (20’), SV D14 W15 P16 B17 S18 (NH), ML 7 (9 with king), AL Chaotic, XP 10, NA 2d4 (6d10), TT R (C)

Tactics - as pit boss.

Champions count as kings for morale checks.

Goblin hound

Inbred, abused and semi-feral mongrels who've had to fight for every scrap of food. On 1-in-6, they attempt to eat the closest runt instead of attacking the adventurers.

AC 7, HD 2+2 (11hp), Att 1 × bite (1d6), THAC0 17, MV 180’ (60’), SV D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (F1), ML 6 (8 in larger packs), AL Neutral, XP 25, NA 2d6 (3d6), TT None

Boom - sometimes bombers like to strap canisters full of powder and nails with a short fuse to hounds.

Hacking Feast of Legends

A few thoughts on Wendys Burgers' Feast of Legends and what it would take to hack it for long term play.

I figure by now almost everyone will be aware that Wendys has released an RPG. Reddit has been buzzing with it. Some people seem fairly gobsmacked. But restaurants have a long history of giving out toys as a marketing gimmick, maybe they're just catching onto the idea that adults like toys too.

It's strongly themed, with monster names like pangs, grumbles and freezer burns. The BBEG is a clown, which suits me because I believe clowns are powerful and worthy of respect.

The game

Mechanically, this is familiar ground. Task resolution is d20 + mods vs target number. Criticals on 20 and 1. FoL drops Con and Wis from the traditional six stats (folding them into Str and Int) and adds Arcana as a measure of magical talent to make five. Stat bonuses are generated by rolling 4d4 and consulting a chart.  There are no spells, but all characters gain access to spell-like abilities or party buffs as they level. (The game calls them skills, but half of them are always-on passive effects.) Dex appears to be entirely about agility and aim, initiative is by rolling d20 with no mods or other bonuses and all characters get the same movement.

At chargen you pick an Order (which is effectively a choice between Bard, Fighter and Magic-user/Diplomat) and a class, which is a development path within that broad category. There are a bundle of classes. That's good, because picking your class provides most of your opportunity for differentiating characters. All members of a class gain exactly the same stat bonuses and abilities when levelling. 4d4 has a steeper bell curve than 3d6, so characters are going to start out closer in stats than under D20. A Baconator warrior is a Baconator warrior is a Baconator warrior.

There's no skill system or advancement mechanic. The rules are tightly focused on skirmish combat. You gain a level when the bundled adventure says you do. Levels come with HP increases and new spell abilities/buffs, by class. This wouldn't be a bad introductory RPG, there's nothing extra to the core game here. Advancement is capped at level 5.

The hack

I think that playing it RAW would benefit someone new to the hobby, but experienced players would be frustrated by the lack of character choice. To introduce some, I'd get rid of the individual classes, but keep the class levelling packages. Let players pick an order, and then choose a level-appropriate class package out of all the available selections when they advance. I like it with a small number of core classes. This might throw class balance out the window, but I'm okay with that.

I'd introduce a skill system with maybe ten to twelve broad skills. With the kind of stat bonuses 4d4 produces, a system like Sine Nomine's Stars Without Number uses might be a good fit. 2d6 + stat bonus + skill vs target of 8, adjusted up or down to account for difficulty. I should explain this - when I heard about a fast food RPG, I thought it would be thematically perfect for playing Dunkey and Matt Halton's The Gustatory. That setting's less about fighting your problems and more about problem solving and interacting with traditional enemies in a different environment. A skill system would add another dimension to to the game. No crits for skills, just pass or fail.

I haven't run a combat yet to see how it plays out, but the characters start at 4 HD and gain 8 + 2d4 hp per level. The first monster the players encounter has 5 HD. The median weapon damage for the equipment list is d8, so if combat doesn't run long it's only because the characters' team buffing abilities make a big impact. I'd like to stretch out advancement across 5 extra levels and try adding D20 monsters with their HD stepped up to d12 to see how they fill out the in-between levels.

Drop the arbitrary levelling and bring in advancement by XP. Calculate levelling requirements and monster XP using the B/X hit dice and powers table. (Figure out a multiplier that makes numbers from one system workable in the other.) Have all the classes advance at the same rate.

And lastly, drop the buffs and debuffs based on what the players are eating. Too meta.

One page game: Wizard Squad

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

A free one-page game about tactically-trained wizards empowered by the state to investigate incidents of corrupted ancient magic reactivating. Semi-random character creation, 1d20 + mods vs target number. Grab it here.

Wizard Squad is set in a kingdom which is built on the ruins of an advanced civilisation that drove itself into apocalypse through excessive magic-use. Every now and then the seals and wards on some forgotten device breaks down (as often as not through tampering by someone who thinks there's something to be gained by reviving ancient sorcery) and then it's balrogs or worse.

B/X monster: Intruder undead

Art by OpenClipart-Vectors on pixabay

A B/X-compatible monster.

Ghosts are always unsettling and the stronger ones can be dangerous, but there's an even better reason you don't want them hanging around. Ghosts are an open channel between the living world and the afterlife, and sometimes that channel provides a way into the world for things that don't belong to either.

Intruder undead come from a third place which wizards have named the Plane of Restless Flesh. It's a place without structure, where boundaries constantly shift and there's no clear separation between the world and the creatures that live there. Apprentices less mindful of their dignity like to call it the Plane of Screaming Meat.

Some of the beings there have the power to possess ghosts and wear them like environmental suits that let them function in our world. They're not hostile in the way we understand it, but they have a destructive curiosity. They'll smash, rend or tear things (or people) just to see what the pieces look like.

From a combat point of view, once the characters have defeated and dismissed the intruder, they still have the ghost to deal with.

Minor intruder undead

AC 7, [12] HD 1-3* (4/9/13hp), Att x 1 (see specials), THACO 17, MV 90' (30'), SV F3, ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 13/25/50, NA 1, TT none

• Undead: Soundless until attacking, immune to effects that require a living target (eg poison, disease), immune to mind-effecting and mind-reading spells.
• Mundane weapon immunity: Only harmed by silver or magic.
• Poltergeist: Can lift or throw items up to the size of a backpack. Items moved this way transform partially to flesh.

 

Regular intruder undead

AC 5, [14] HD 5-6** (23/26hp), Att x 1 (see specials), THACO 15, MV 90' (30'), SV F5, ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 425/725, NA 1, TT none

• As minor intruder
• Fear: Instead of attacking, the intruder can project a fear aura that causes up to its HD in opponents to develop a sudden hysterical fear of their own bodies. Save vs magic negates.

 

Major intruder undead 

AC 3, [16] HD 7-8*** (32/36hp), Att x 1 (see specials), THACO 12, MV 90' (30'), SV F8, ML 12, AL Chaotic, XP 1650/2200, NA 1, TT none

• As regular intruder
• Possession: Instead of attacking, the intruder can attempt to possess a living being. Save vs magic prevents. They gain complete control and can make use of the following powers instead of an attack:
  Blood spray - can spray scalding hot blood from an eye socket. (2 x only, eye is destroyed in the process. Vision unaffected.)
  Crackbones - can break host's bones and extrude them through flesh to make an attack on anyone in 5" range. 1d6 damage.
  Tentacles - can extrude host's intestines through a slit in the stomach and control them like tentacles to grapple anyone in 5" range.

Body-based powers do 1d6 damage to the host each time, but the hp loss is only inflicted when the intruder leaves the body.

World turtle immobilised part 2

Further exploration of the thought experiment in which we have a world carried on the back of a turtle crash into a spherical one.  This time, the landscape underneath the turtle.

In this post I talked about a full-sized globe planet which has had a second planet, a flat one carried on the back of a juvenile world-turtle, land on its surface with minimal damage.  (IE. we still have two worlds, but they're not in great shape.)  Generations have passed, civilisation has more or less recovered from the turmoil and they're in a position to start looking around and wondering what actually happened.

What's known is that the weather is wetter, there are vast salt marshes forming to the East where the a new geographical feature blots out the sun for half the morning, and strange new animals have been seen in those regions.  And the sages, who have read the antique writings, say the winters are now milder, the summers are hotter and the year is two days shorter than it used to be.  Gods were probably involved, but there's no consensus on who they were punishing or for what.

Expeditions sent by the new empire to explore the area don't actually see the turtle with any kind of clarity.  It's too vast.  On a clear day, from a hundred miles away, you might see a hint of a head or a flipper, with a titanic disc above.  The water pouring off the disc falls into vacuum, which instantly converts it to a fog.  It drifts down, where the jet stream helps by pushing it away to the West.  There's still enough water in the air around the turtle to surround it with clouds.  They figure out it's turtle-shaped by mapping it.  On horseback by land, and by ship where its hindquarters overlap the ocean.  In the process they discover The Bite and the curious effect the blood which is still oozing from it has had on the local wildlife, but that's for a later post.

(I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how much water is pouring off the disc if it has the same flow rate as Niagara Falls.  Then I decided that that magic which recycles that water back onto the disc is still working — otherwise it would have doubled the amount of water on the planet's surface in the first five minutes.)

What the explorers actually see is cloud-covered lands with a strange top-heavy mountain at the centre.  It's never truly dark here  There's a bright point in the fog, lighting it from the inside.  Sometimes it's above the mountain, far away and dim, sometimes it's close and the cloud glows with a diffuse light.  (One explorer described it as 'akin to being shrunk down and standing at the centre of a cold candle flame'.)

The turtle is ringed with concentric circles of volcanic chasms because it's slowly crushing the continental plate under it (its magical nature gives it some buoyancy even in death, otherwise there'd be no slowly about it). If you remember the first post, the turtle world is the size of Ceres, which is shown on the left here compared to Earth. Its weight has created a depression around it which has filled with brine, making an inland sea a few dozen miles wide.

The area around the turtle was damaged so badly in the cataclysm that none of its life survived. The landscape is slowly being recolonised by hardy plants and a few animals that would be equally at home in a desert. The only intelligent life is a few small, migratory clans of orcs and gnolls.

One page game: Green Card Demons

A free one page game about demons trying to make it in today's economy, integrate socially and also cover it up when they slip and commit horrible crimes.  Semi-random character creation, 2d6+mods vs target number. Get it here.

Thanks to Reddit users Don_Quesote and HeadWright for commentary and layout advice and ThornyJohn for sourcing open license fonts.

I love one page games.  They're perfect for those evenings when your regular GM can't be there or there aren't enough players to make a serious attempt at carrying on the adventure.

Wizardly Traveller tech chart

I've never played Traveller, but I do own a core rulebook for it that I picked up on spec.  It was on the bring & buy table at a small local wargaming tournament.  I was there because the website said there might be a couple of RPG sessions running, but that side of things didn't work out.

It turned out to be a fun system just to play with on my own, following the lifepath system to generate unexpected characters, designing ships and the like. Of course, me being me, even before playing a session RAW I had to start tinkering with the rules.  I wanted to add magic and generate a galaxy where Alien, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings could all happen at the same time.

This is the  tech  magic chart add-on I came up with.  It's surprisingly hard to find a title for each rung on the magic ladder. English just doesn't have that many words suitable for quantifying the mysterious and ineffable. 

ML 0: (Primitive) 

No magic.  This world has no active gods, no awakened spirits, no natural sources of mana and no afterlife.  It is not possible to reincarnate here, or from here.  Spells cannot be cast.  Any open-ended spells or artefacts that rely on local mana resources will fail to operate. 

ML 1: (Primitive) 

Magic is mostly superstition.  A few meditation techniques are in use to improve concentration and memory.  Gods are unresponsive.  Local conditions prevent spirits from being contacted or summoned.

ML 2: (Primitive) 

Magic is limited to a few adepts or institutions.  There are a few unsophisticated techniques for contacting spirits.  Invoking spirits or elementals is done through rituals requiring large-scale sacrifice or the participation of entire populations.  The number of spells available to learn is severely limited.  Alchemy is not distinct from normal chemistry.  Enchantment is not understood.  Gods can only be contacted after long ritualistic preparation and their communications require interpretation.

ML 3: (Dabbling)  

Cantrips are available to the educated.  A few low-quality alchemical materials are available.

ML 4: (Connected)  

Low-powered spells are available to the educated.  Gods offer minor blessings in exchange for a suitable sacrifice.

ML 5: (Involved)   

Low-powered elementals and spirits can be bound.  Divination is possible, but unreliable.  Cantrips are available to the average citizen.  Spells are understood  among the educated.  Medium-powered spells are available.  Reasonable alchemical materials are available, but resource-intensive to produce.

ML 6: (Practising)   

Divination is common, but inaccurate.  Small, isolated industrial use of magic.

ML 7: (Arcane)   

Godly activity is often erratic, with poor understanding of the gods' motivations and reasoning.  Small-scale blessings and curses are available without godly involvement.  Moderately powerful elementals and spirits can be bound.  Bound low-powered elementals and spirits are common.  Enchanted items are available to the wealthy or politically-connected.

ML 8: (Far-sighted)   

Gods manifest signs and portents.  Divination is trustworthy.

ML 9: (Adept)  

Gods send visions.  Visions can be accurately interpreted.  Bound moderately-powerful elementals and spirits are common.

ML 10: (Learned) 

A well-defined pantheon of gods with clearly-marked domains.  Gods may be spoken to in their temples.  Magic is widely available, with golems in use for dangerous work and access to informed spirits through government and private institutions.  Many citizens use health charms for minor beneficial effects.  Physical immortality is available to the wealthy or politically connected.  Divination can be verified with a high degree of accuracy.  High-powered elementals and spirits can be bound.

ML 11: (Wise) 

Elementals and minor spirits are bound to power and operate common machinery or mystical engines.  Blessings and curses can be performed at interstellar distances.  High-order artefacts can be created (eg. "The Sword of the Prophecy").

ML 13: (Masterful)  

Widespread use of tutelary spirits in education.  Frequent consultation of ancestral spirits.  5 - 10% of citizens are physically immortal.  Gods may be invested to manage specific small domains.  Average citizens have the use of bound elementals.  Divination is well-understood and probably highly-regulated.  Bound high-powered elementals and spirits are common.

ML 14: (Transcendent) 

10 - 15% of citizens are physically immortal.  Reincarnation is a controlled process and may be used as a criminal punishment or to schedule the re-emergence of great heroes.

ML 15: (Celestial) 

Most or all natives are born immortal and have innate spell-like abilities. Elementals and spirits are invoked and bound for trivial purposes.  Godly activity can be regulated.  Destinies can be altered.

This ecological biome matches 7 of the 9 preconditions for stimulating terror in humans

I've been thinking about Subnautica again, because I think the game has a couple more lessons to teach me. For one thing, it handles tension very well. It scared the willies out of me more than once, and not just because someone tapped me on the shoulder while I was exploring the deepest trench. The creators managed the environments, the creatures and the transitions very cleverly.

A lot of that effort was through visuals that wouldn't easily transfer over to a mostly-descriptive tabletop game, but I think I've distilled down a list of things Subnautica does that I could use in my GMing.

I'm going to avoid spoilers as much as possible, but there's a chance I'll reveal something I shouldn't.  Maybe you should play the game before reading this?

Put the pressure on

You always have to keep an eye on your oxygen gauge. If it ticks down to zero before you reach the surface or your vehicle, you're in trouble. In the early game, you also have to frequently go inside wrecks to salvage technology. Wrecks are mazes of similar-looking rooms sometimes connected by ducts that destroy your sense of up and down. There's technology that can help with that, but you have to unlock it. And you're often tempted to push your luck to grab that one extra piece of gear that can give you access to a new blueprint now instead of in a few hours time.

Put the shiny at the edge of the players' resources, to tempt them to take a risk.

Foreshadow danger

You often know about oncoming trouble before you reach it. And then you head into it anyway, because there are no other options. Subnautica's iconic monster is the reaper, a giant facehugger-eel that loves to chew on mini-subs.  You usually hear it before you see it and then it's undulating through the water in the distance, just visible in the murk. If  you're lucky, it's headed away from you.  It's the same with the sea dragon. You hear it roar before you ever see it and the noise shakes the walls.  Visual indicators are used the same way. Ampeels first make their presence known with their bioluminescent spots in the darkness, then with arcing electricity and then you get to see it.  You also manage to tap into alien communications as the game progresses. The messages you overhear are never encouraging.

The Angry GM has an article about this.  To sum up: if you want to trap your players in a maze with a monster, start by letting them watch from a safe distance while it slaughters a much tougher adventuring party than they are.

Your safety isn't safe

You can retreat to a safe place at almost any time.  You're generally protected inside a base, if only because metal walls will hide you from the creatures outside. But the creatures aren't the only threat, there's also the invisible but constant presence of kharaa. Which gets more serious the longer you're on the unnamed planet.  You could stay inside where nothing's going to poison, explode, crush, drain, shock, eat or drown you but the thought is always present that if you do that... in the end you die anyway.

Give the players a place of comfort and safety, then make it clear that in the fullness of time it won't help them.

You have the power until you don't

On your first visit to the Aurora crash site, you're threatened by crawlers. They're too fast and move too erratically to easily avoid them. Eventually you retreat or they kill you. On your second visit you have the repulsion cannon and you can simply kick them into the surf. You feel like a conqueror! — then you dive into a pool filled with bleeders where you have to put the cannon away and fill your hands with a repair tool. You can see them swimming out of the corner of your eye and just hope you spot them approaching in time to get your knife out.

Power the players up, then challenge them to put the power down.

Pile it on

There's a point in the game where you're trying to bypass a threat much larger than you could possibly handle.  Stealth is the only realistic option.  But while you're trying to sneak, there's a swarm of smaller threats ganging up on you.  You have to occasionally pause to take care of them before they can bring you down, but without alerting the larger threat.

Small close threats seem much more significant when they can trigger a large distant threat.

Don't look back

You can arm your mini-sub in the midgame, but until then if you're attacked while using it your only option is to run.  The creature may or may not chase you.  Checking behind means slowing down.  You have to run without looking back until you feel like you're probably safe, and even then you may be wrong.

Spring a danger, then withhold accurate information until someone's willing to take a risk for it.

No escape

Dying is the thing you spend all your effort to avoid in a game.  But when it happens, the threat is immediately past and you have a moment to settle yourself, check how much progress you've lost and what needs re-doing, then dive back in.

Most of the threats in Subnautica don't kill you outright.  Instead they take a chunk off your health, circle around and maybe come in for another bite.  You have a chance to escape if you make an immediate effort, and you're lucky.  Instead of one instant of "Sucks.  Oh well." you're suspended in the moment of "Aaaaargh no no no run away run away—".

Half-killing the characters and making a credible threat to finish the job can be more frightening than simply ending them.

One page setting: The Shrouded City

Created with watabou's fantasy city generator

Another one-page city setting for Earth-at-the-end. The previous two are the Haunted City and the Mad City.

This time we have the city of Gaulot, where people have been living an idyllic life, protected from seeing the horrors their city is built on by the sea of coloured fog that surrounds the rooftops they live on.  Now they're facing invasion and centuries of peaceful living have crippled their ability to fight back.  Worse yet, the invasion has stirred up the awfulness of the city below and it's boiling to the surface.  Safety was always an illusion, now it's been stripped away.

Click the image to view the PDF

Fascinating OSR material

Image by Pete Linforth

In this post I'd like to focus some attention on other people's creativity.  This is a list I started keeping so I could find my way back to blog posts and adventures I really enjoyed.  Some of these resources are well-known in the OSR-space, others less so.  They all deserve to be played and talked about, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I have.

 Adventures

The adventures I like are strongly themed dungeons or challenging environments that are only technically dungeons.

The Boswitch Bath-house - infiltrate a bath-house, interact with the patrons, sneak around to accomplish your goal.  The adventure has three different hooks for getting the characters involved.

Prison of the Hated Pretender and The Dread Machine -some people call Prison the best module for introducing new OSR players to this gaming style.  An undead king is imprisoned in a building shaped like his own screaming head.

The Stygian Garden of Abelia Prem - explore a house and its grounds, interact with a variety of mystical plants and then head into the underworld in search of Hell's roses.  A LotFP adventure with a broad stroke of beautiful gothic decadence.

Mad Am I - a well-populated hexcrawl on an island hosting an asylum where terrible occult experiments in psychiatry have leaked out.  Also LotFP and similar in style.

Hell on the Moon - explore a crashed spaceship taken over by demons (not necessarily hostile ones) while working nights in a 50s-style diner run by the last Elf family on the moon.

 

Cool mini-fied rulesets

The basics for playing D&D 5E is three books.  The quickstart PDF is around 200 pages.  (Is it because they pay their freelancers by the word?)  The question of how much you can reduce a ruleset and have a game with effective character differentiation and challenge is one I keep coming back to.

Here Is Some Fucking D&D - based on an expanded Searchers of the Unknown. Characters have no stats, they're built from race, class and level.  4 pages.  Includes a bestiary and random adventure generator.

Dungeon Nights lite edition - trimmed down character creation ruleset in which characters can have both a race and a culture that modify their stats.  A blog post which would probably come out to a couple of pages.

Tenebrae - probably the longest ruleset on this list.  It simplifies D&D rules down to a sleek core and adds some innovative ideas.  Characters can swap classes between each other at will.  This game ought to be much better known than it actually is.

Tunnel Goons - three stats and an item list.  The rules fit on the character sheet.  A monster's only stat is a threat die.  The rules have been adapted to several different game genres.

The Golden Sea - also three stats and an item list.  This one simplifies combat and HP.  The character sheet fits the rules, a bestiary and a map on it.

Mimics & Miscreants - my favourite GLOG-derived game.  The resolution mechanic is to roll 1d20 + stat (not stat bonus) and reach 20 or higher.

Tales of Mordhearse - the simplest ruleset in this list.  A character's class is determined by their starting HP.  They have that and one to three randomly-rolled qualities/powers.

Settings developing through blog posts

The Thawing Kingdom - ages ago the kingdom was frozen into magical ice by the machinations of a mad ruler.  Now it's thawing, releasing the citizens who have been trapped for so long.  But it's not thawing evenly and the magical ice has some odd properties, which carry over to people who only thaw halfway.

The City of Infinite Ruin - everything in the city is slowly being drawn into the centre.  As it moves, the space it moves into grows paradoxically larger.  The buildings themselves expand from hovels to houses to mansions to palaces and their history becomes more complicated.

HSM Apollyon - a ship as large as a city, becalmed on an endless ocean for generations.  Inside, brave adventurers from the engineering section make forays into the passenger quarters hoping to bring back treasure and avoid monsters and demons.

Magical industrial revolution - a world where magic is codified, refined, mass-produced and made the basis for a developing industry.

Centerra - a broad-ranging set of creative world-building posts, especially the ruined cities.

The Gustatory - restaurant district the size of a mountain.  Orc chefs, soup baths, mummies in the cool room.  I'd love to run this, I'm just not sure what sort of campaign justifies a fantasy food court...

Nukaria - especially the Handsome Men posts, Nukaria's take on elves.

Sunless Horizon - the human race has survived into the final age of the universe, living in a single titanic world-ship: Ein Soph.  They're ruled by an AI given the task of finding a way to punch through into a younger universe.  The machines that run the ship are slowly going mad.