VANCIER MAGIC SYSTEM [B/X]

Quick post I’ve been thinking about lately. I recently read Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth after going down an Appendix N rabbit hole during the pandemic. I’ve always liked the Vancian casting system old d&d uses but reading the book really solidified my appreciation for it. Vancian casting just makes sense now. That being said I wanted to toy around with a system emulates the Dying Earth magic that’s still somewhat balanced for b/x-esque games.

Dying Earth Art by George Barr

Here’s what I’ve got jotted down so far:

BRAIN SLOTS (Name pending)

• A magic-user begins play with a number of Brain Slots equal to 1 + their Intelligence Modifier. Thus a magic-user must have a score of 9 or higher in order to hold and cast spells at all.
• Brains Slots represent a magic-users ability to hold the esoteric spells they find during their careers.
• On level up the magic-user may roll an Intelligence check (roll under INT) adding their level to the attempt to gain a new Brain Slot. This check represents the character’s natural talent, mental exercises and meditation they undergo to increase brain plasticity. The penalty represents the slump and hubris that comes with success.
• A human brain can only have a maximum of 10 Brain Slots. [My first instinct was max 6 brain slots since B/X spells only go up to level 6 but I liked the nice simple 10 that b/x uses a lot. Rounds, turns, ect]
  
  

SPELLS

• Spells are held in Spellbooks and must be prepared and contained in the Magic-User’s Brain Slots before they can be cast.
• Preparing spells to hold in Brain Slots takes 1+1 turn for each spell level above 2. This represents the caster "priming" the spell and performing the necessary chants and gestures before imprisoning it in their brain to cast when needed.
• Spells weigh a number of Brain Slots equal to their level. So a Third Level spell would take 3 Brain Slots to contain.
• Spells may also be found imprisoned on Scrolls and can be cast from them without utilizing Brain Slots.
• Spells can be transferred from scrolls to Spellbooks or Spellbook to Spellbook but comes with risks and costs.
  
  

NOTES

So using this system a 1st level magic-user with a 17 INT could prepare and cast a Fireball spell (3rd Level) but just that one spell. Or they could prepare and hold three 1st level spells.

One thing I'm really liking is that it's not guaranteed that a M-U gets a new brain slot each level. The most powerful magicians in the Dying Earth could only hold a few powerful spells. I think this system showcases that well. But let me know what you think, is this playable? What would you change to make it feel more Dying Earth?

That hat, goddamn. Yum.

Campaign Map Building 01

Land of Confusion Base Map

The above is the starting map I drew up a couple of hours before my session last week using Worldographer and this blogpost by Melan as a guide. 

I started the campaign off in Hex 0804 which houses the Fell Temple of the Baboon God. A basic dungeon I wrote up using the procedures found in Old School Essentials. The players returned to Hex 0905 at the end of the session which contains the starting town of Gillamore. In session two the players wanted the visit the Northern River Temple in Hex 0703, but got stuck in Hex 0904 where they encountered slavers (random encounter roll) who were on their way back to the City-State of Nostia in Hex 1107. They slaughtered the slavers, freed the slaves and claimed the slaver's treasure as their own. They once again returned to Gillamoor to carouse and hire new retainers. So two sessions so far and they've only been in 3 hexes, a little content goes a long way.

After my 2nd session I decided to fill out my map some more using the stocking method outlined in the simple Hex Guide I linked to earlier.

The guide says to roll 2d12 for 6-mile hexes for Ruins & Lair but I changed it to 3 to add a wildcard with Wonders & Vignettes.

HEX STOCKING METHOD
Roll 3d12 different color dice. On a "1" stock the hex as per the table below.

DICE 1--WONDER [Triangle] or VIGNETTE [Triangle w/ Circle]
DICE 2--RUINS [Square] or STRONGHOLD [Square w/ Circle]
DICE 3--LAIR [Circle] or SETTLEMENT [Circle w/ Circle]

You can roll a dice or just choose which content the hex has.

After rolling the above for each hex I ended up with the following map.

Was pretty surprised that HEXES 0305, 0905, & 1107 were hits considering they were already settlements so I decided 0305 would be the hidden lair of an Ancient Sorceress turned Demon, and 905 would be the lair (palace) of the Sorcerer King. Haven't decided what's in 0905 yet, first instinct is thieves' guild. At first I wasn't going to roll for the ocean portions but was surprised at all the hits I got. I think 1203 is for sure going to be Crap people. 

OH yeah before I forget to write it down, I based the map off my home town of Los Angeles. 

Orange hexes are Chaparral terrains.
Red are mountains.
Purple are wetlands.
Pink are Swamps.
Teal are Forests.
Brown are hills.
Green are grasslands.

But yeah, I'm having a great time keying this map and I can't wait for my next Land of Confusion session. I'll post my full Hex Map Key on the blog when I finish it. Thanks for reading!

Land of Confusion, Session II Recap

Source

[Read Session I here]

CONTENT WARNING: Extreme Violence, Gore and Immaturity. Also Murderhoboness.

LAND OF CONFUSION Campaign (Homebrew OSE), Session II

CAST:
AELFUM [Sorcerer 1]
HARLOCK [Sorcerer 1]
KUAN, the Slayer [Vagabond 1]
BARTZ NAKED the Gambler [Vagabond 1]

RETAINERS/HIRELINGS:
N/A

Session II UPKEEP:
Current Settlement: GILLAMOOR
Time Spent: 1 Week.
Funeral Fees:

• Situal’s Family was paid 100gp for his death.
• Sundor had no family/friends and thus no one to collect the fee.
• Ramra’s husband was killed by Bartz in a back alley after “asking too many questions.”

Living Costs:

• Bartz chose to live a life of squalor in Gillamoor and spent his time fishing along the Belleboros Channel.
• Aelfum, Kuan & Harlock chose a moderate lifestyle.

DOWNTIME ACTIVITES: 

• Carousing after Last Adventure, Bartz ended up owing money but borrowed from Kuan to stay out of debt to a crime boss.

GAMEPLAY NOTES:

• The name Los Monos (The Monkeys) is agreed upon as the adventuring party’s name.
• Los Monos hears rumors of a castle called Al Pastor gone dark in the southern Chaparral, a recently built Necromancer’s Tower in the Northern Hills and that the Priests of the Northern River Temple are angry for recent escalated tensions between the two city states. They also hear of the infamous Man in the Coyote Mask who steals people’s OD [1].
• The party discusses checking out the Castle but decide against it after agreeing it’s name is a bad omen. They then decide to visit the Northern River Temple.
• Before setting out for adventure the party sells old Baba Yun the pack Chaboka [2] and buys 3 War Chaboka instead with the gold recovered from the Baboon Temple.
• The party departs the settlement of Gillamoor and begins their trek north along the Belleboros Channel. The surrounding terrain is wetlands which slows the party’s travel to a crawl (50% slower). The journey to the temple will take two days.
• On the First Night of travel the party makes camp on a dryer elevated hill along the river. They start a campfire.
• Harlock notices another fire in the distance and alerts their party. They quickly snuff out their fire and make for cover and darkness.
• Luckily it’s a very clear night and the twin moons and starlight cast enough to see a lone man seemingly beaten to shit and in rags who calls out for help. The party is suspicious so they wait for the man to get closer.
• They notice 3 other figures sneaking about 100’ behind the first.
• Aelfum the Charming begins speaking to the lone man who is now in the camp. He says he needs help again and again and motions his eyes to the figures behind him and mouths the words: “Help me”.
• Bartz hides in a scrub and waits for the leftmost person to approach so he can catch him in silence. He succeeds and grapples the man down in complete silence and threatens his life. Kuan the slayer jumps out from his hiding spot and launches an arrow at one of the men who appear to be Nostian Slavers! The arrow veers heavily to the right and the men who were surprised scream a cry of battle. Combat begins.
• The fight was brutal and swift but Los Manos emerged victorious with no injury sustained. The surviving slaver flees over a hill but is run down and eviscerated by a War Chaboka ridden by Aelfum.
• Aelfum sees 5 more slavers coming up the hill to join the fight.
• Bartz stabs his captives leg to prevent him from fleeing and joins the new fray.
• Combat! Heads were taken, arrows flew and missed their targets, again, by Kuan. Harlock cut a man from his shoulder to his ribs and before caving his head in with a staff. Aelfun charms one of the dumber looking slavers. Combat is over, no injuries sustained.
• The beaten man thanks Los Monos for their help, he was captured by Nostian Slavers in his village to the west. They were taking him and the others who were captured to the City-State of NOSTIA.
• The party investigates the slaver camp and finds 3 other captures slaves in a cage and locked chest on a pull-cart. They free the slaves and give them 5gp each to start over.
• The party finds the key to the chest on the Slaver’s leader along with a sigil of rank. They unlock the chest and find obscene wealth. They decide to pack up and return to Gillamooor to better gear up for adventure.

TREASURE RECOVERED:

• 2000 EP
• Jewelry worth 1650 GP

END OF SESSION

[1] OD, ones lifeforce or Ki. (Idea Stolen from Berserk).

[2] Chaboka: imagine a ancient Moa mixed with a Chocobo. 

REFEREE NOTES

Books used this session: 

• OSE Rules Tome
• Broodmother Skyfortress

I did made a few huge mistakes before the game started, luckily I'm decent at improve.

The first mistake was a couple of hours before the game started I decided I hated my campaign map and completely redrew it in Worldographer. My original map was 27x17 hexes. The new one is 12x12 after reading Melan's Hex Campaign Simple Guide. Which is one of my favorite blog posts of all time now. This also meant I had to throw most out my random encounters. The only one liked and kept was Nostian Slavers, and of course the players just happened to roll a random encounter as soon as they exit the town.

My second big mistake is that I decided to say the Slavers were caring a treasure chest with them. I really wanted to randomly roll the treasure inside so I said it had 100gp in it plus whatever they rolled. I checked the treasure types in the OSE Rules Tome and picked...Type C. The average was 1000gp what could go wrong I thought. Well as you can see they were lucky as shit and got A TON of money. Oh well, let's just say someone is gonna come looking for it.

All in all, we had a blast and I'm really looking forward to the next session. I actually really like my new campaign map too, just gonna clean it up a bit and stock it before I print it out.

Custom Character Sheet V1.2 (B/X--OSE)

 

Upgraded sheet for my homebrew b/x game. Old version here.

Custom Character Sheet (B/X--OSE)

Made this custom character sheet for my Land of Confusion campaign using Google Slides. Format taken from I Cast Lights' sheet. 

EDIT (11/20/2021): Added the updated sheet.

Sword & Sorcery Base Classes [B/X--OSE]

The above are the classes I'm using in my Land of Confusion campaign, made with B/X in mind. And yes, I've been on a Sword and Sorcery kick lately. I'm testing out the Flesh/Grit system made famous by Last Gasp Grimoire but if you want to use classic hit points just use the Grit column as the HP progression.

Land of Confusion, Session I Recap

Moon Men by Frank Frazetta

So.

Two weeks ago my players started asking me to run a in person campaign and I agreed it was time. The last IRL game I ran was around October 2019 but we were never able to get back together since the pandemic hit. I've been wanting to run a Sword and Sorcery (Planet?) themed game using Old School Essentials, I spent the last week writing up a dungeon (just one level) and starting town. The dungeon was an ancient Ellkaien (Elven) Temple that had since been overrun by wild Baboons and cultists. Yesterday we played.

I decided to call this campaign Land of Confusion after my favorite Genesis song. The following are some quick recap notes I jotted down after the game.

CONTENT WARNING: Extreme Violence and Gore, Sexual Imagery, Nudity, Immaturity, 

LAND OF CONFUSION Campaign (Homebrew OSE), Session I

CAST:
BERRON [V1]
KARLOCK [S1]
SIMON [T1] DECEASED
KUAN [V1]
BARTZ NAKED [V1]
HOEY [V1]

HIRELINGS:
SITUAL the Man-At-Arms DECEASED
SUNDO the Man-At-Arms DECEASED
RAMRA the Torchbearer DECEASED
Baba-Yun the Old Pack Moa

• Our band of vagabonds traveled from the settlement town of Gillamoor to a lost Ellkaien Temple now overrun by sinister cultists and ravenous baboons.
  
  
• The adventurers descended the ancient halls to loot as much treasure as possible.
  
  
• They encountered a baboon taking a shit in a room of refuse which was subsequently suplexed to death by the thief Bartz Nakel.
  
  
• Simon the 1st Level Thief was badly burned by a still functioning Ellkaien Laser Defense turret.
  
  
• Screaming cultists dressed in baboon skin ambushed the party after further exploration, retainers were cut down by waved daggers, and cultists were dotted with arrow fire. Much blood was spilled. 
  
  
• The party discovered the turrets did not fire upon the cultists for some reason, perhaps due to the baboon skin they were wearing. All but Simon the 1st Level Thief donned the baboon skin.
  
  
• Simon the 1st level Thief was disintegrated by a still working Ellkaien defense turret.
  
  
• The party discovered the eastern entrance to the temple, they met Kuan the 1st Level Vagabond (replacement character for Simon's player) and Bartz threw a dagger covered in shit at him, he was infected with sepsis.
  
  
• They soldiered back into the dungeon. More cultists, more blood.
  
  
• Room with Art Fresco depicting Star Children arriving on the planet greeted by the Ellkaien.
  
  
• Ramra the Torchbearer was bisected by a scythe trap.
  
  
• They discovered the bronze idol of a lost Ellkaien goddess. The idol sat crouched in a meditative pose with 4 arms and hands outstretched displaying arcane signs. It's three supple breasts and crotch were polished from seemingly constant touch. It had 3 eyes, one of which sitting on the forehead was a large emerald. Karlock the Sorcerer caressed the idols breasts which activated the trap! A flash of sickly green light from the forehead emerald of the idol blinded Karlock, Berron & Bartz for one hour.
  
  
• The party decided to rest in the idol room and was met with haunting vignette of ancient Ellkaien specters acting out their past lives of worship in the idol room. An hour passed and party decided to pack up and return to town.
  
  
• The session ended as the party returned to the settlement town of Gillamore to sell their ill gotten treasure.
  
  

Total Treasure Recovered: Emerald 2000gp, 7x Baboon Costumes 175gp, 30gp looted from Cultists
XP GAINED: 450

The Corpse Reluctantly Parts With…

I was cleaning out my google docs and found my old Loot The Body Table for LotFP. I was planning on putting it in a zine but I probably won't be running Lamentations anytime soon so might as well give it away. 

Download: The Corpse Reluctantly Parts With...Table here.

Let me know what you think!

Blog Update

Doing my monthly check-in. Still alive, LA is still a shit show. Working on my tentpole megadungeon AND a house-rule document. I'll probably throw out the document in a week or two, gonna be at least 20 pages of fun. That's it for now, see you later! Please get vaccinated!

The Berserker Armor [RIP Kentaro Miura]

The Berserker Armor [PLATE +1]
"May we run rampant with hatred and wild joy just to crush with these fangs the true light that burns us." – The Beast of Darkness

Those who don the Berserker armor experience the following:

• The armor circumvents their bodies natural limiters, allowing them to exude terrible strength and speed [STR & DEX become 18 in combat].
• Damage Reduction 1 as the armor allows the wearer to ignore the pain from injuries. 
• If an attack would reduce the wearer's HP to 0 or less, roll 1d8+1 and you gain that much temporary HP as the armor inserts metal rods to bind and mend the body to keep the wearer fighting. Each round afterwards you lose 1hp from blood loss and the armor's insertions, if the wearer's HP would become 0 due to the armor, the wearer dies.
• Once the wearer's HP has been reduced to 0 or less the armor's Berserker Rage activates; only melee attacks can be made and are rolled with advantage, all melee damage is doubled, and finally the armor begins to take the shape of a beast of the player's choice and the wearer can no longer differentiate between friend or foe, all within melee range are attacked. 
• The wearer may attempt to end the Berserker's Rage at anytime by making a CHA check, however doing so before combat ends costs 1 permanent point of Charisma. A pass means the Berserker Rage effect ends. A failure means you lose 1 permanent point of Charisma and become temporally consumed by The Beast of Darkness; i.e losing control off the character for a number of turns equal to your CHA score. Only a sleep spell or death will end the Beast's rampage.
• If the wearer's CHA becomes 0 the The Beast of Darkness consumes the wearer's mind and exerts control over the body permanently (becoming a NPC that seeks to cause as much chaos and destruction as possible).
• Once combat is over the wearer loses all temporary HP gained and their HP becomes 1 + CON MOD (min 1) and must rest for at least a turn before continuing with the adventure. After the current adventure ends the wearer must rest for a minimum number of days equal to their CON score.

[Referee Notes: To me the CHA score has always represented force of personality or "spirit/soul and seems a good sub for Berserk's Ode].

The passing of Berserk's creator Kentaro Miura was the first time that I felt a personal sense of loss for someone that wasn't family or friend. I started reading Berserk when I was 16, I'm turning 32 this year, literally half my life. I can say with no exaggeration that Berserk gave me my love of manga and dark fantasy. The above magic item is my small homage to Miura, thank you for everything, and rest in peace.

Megadungeon Dreams

Megadungeon like dis.

During the pandemic I've become obsessed with running a "traditional" vanilla d&d campaign. And one facet of that I've really wanted to try was creating a Megadungeon. I've journeyed down the blog rabbit-hole about megadungeons' (especially this page) and have started jotting down some of the things I would want to see in a google doc. Thought I should share some of what I have and maybe I'll even chronicle my megadungeon journey on my blog here, from inception to play. 

Megadungeon Slush Idea Pile [VERY ROUGH]

• "reverse skyscrapper shaped" The dungeon is modern-esque but still fantasy, maybe shaped like hive from the Resident Evil movie. Has rusted pipes and furnaces, very rusted ala Silent Hill's otherworld. Very Mythic Underworld and weird. 
• DRAGONS on random encounter roll “2”. [Stolen from Papers & Pencils blog]
• LOTS ‘o’ Undead.
• Dungeon Worshipers/Cultists
• Dungeon Gnomes: Repair’s the dungeon, made of clay & fueled by miasma
• Dungeon Fruit: Bestows dungeon blessing (see in dark, open stuck doors, etc) must make a save vs spells or become charmed by the dungeon. Cultivated by the Crass Clown.
• Dungeon Miasma
• Dungeon’s Curse: Those who die in the dungeon become an undead in 2d6 turns. A bless spell permanently prevents the corpse from rising.
• Rival Adventuring Parties [Alignment Matters]
• The Crass Clown serves as the dungeon’s custodian. The Crass Clown goes about the dungeon removing adventurer’s corpses, resets traps and places treasure. 6 hands, two of which (“hand-feet”) maneuvers the creaky unicycle that is his lower half. Wears the Crown of Gambles (Crown with d6 shaped gems), wields a Bubblegum Laser Gun (shoots bubble made of gum).
• Floor Demons [Bosses] that match level/section theme.
• Mad M-U’s.
• Hall Of Doors, Section with a ton of doors.
• Insect Level/section
• Comically large pile of shit with 2000 copper coins painted gold within
• Golems
• Mortician’s Hide-away. Resurrection possibility, worship God of Death.
• Gallery of Faces [That creepy face room from FF9] Can ask 1 question about the dungeon and the faces will answer truthfully. Requires tribute (a face?).
• Great Fairy Rooms [Huge weird naked woman ala Legend of Zelda].
• Madfolk/Vagrants [Upper floors only]
  
  

I'll probably come back and upgrade this went I have more ideas. 

Dungeon Idea & Blog Highlight

Heaven but it's a dungeon?

Holy smokes! April is almost over and I haven't posted jackshit. So much for once a week...

UPDATE
Anyways. Looks like I'll be able to start running games IRL soon again, my family and I were lucky enough to be to get fully vaccinated early-thank god.

As for the campaign prep; I keep drawing campaign maps and tossing them. I don't know why, they look cool but I just hate them for some reason. I think I might just go the minimalist route and grab a free dungeon off the internet and run a b/x (ose) campaign "off the cuff". What I'll probably end up doing is cram-prep like a day or 2 before the actual game date, as I usually do lol. 

BLOG HIGHLIGHT//DUNGEON IDEA
I found a blog called I Cast Light!  and really enjoyed their post about encumbrance and sins. Especially because a couple of years ago when I was deep into LotFP stuff I had a similar idea for a (mega?)dungeon set in heaven that utilized sins as encumbrance. The characters (17th century ruffians) would stumble upon a stair to Heaven during their travels, maybe after finding a mass grave or something. The floors of paradise would be made of stained glass and as the characters explore they naturally gain treasure and sins (literal encumbrance/weight of guilt) which causes the glass to crack beneath their feet. Too much treasure or sins and they fall through the glass to their doom. I might actually make this since I had forgotten about it until I read the blog I wrote about above.

What do you think? Dumb idea or great?

Updated B/X THIEF V1.1

Everyone tries to "fix" the b/x Thief. EVERYONE. And now it's my turn. I was inspired by one of B/XBlackrazor's Thief posts here which basically let the Thief succeed every check. While I didn't want to go that far; I do want my campaign Thieves to feel competent starting off while keeping things simple. Which is why I only have the numbers go up when saving throws and THAC0 improve.

[Here's OSE's Thief SRD to compare]

THIEF [b/x--OSE]

Level	CS	TR	HN	HS	MS	OL	PP
1--4	80	65	1-2	65	65	65	75
5--8	85	75	1-3	75	75	75	95
9--12	90	85	1-4	85	85	85	115
13-14	99	99	1-5	99	99	99	125

Let me know what you think!

10 Hex Locations I

A lot of my IRL gaming group is starting to get vaccinated which means I really need to start prepping a sandbox to run OSE in. The following are some hexes I wrote up that I want to throw onto a campaign map. 1st in a series probably?

[I put the influences or where I straight up stole the idea from in brackets.]

1. Village of the Blessed: Village was struck with famine and starving until a prophet arrived with an endless supply of food, himself. The prophet is able to instantly regrow flesh daily. Accompanied by the “Sacred Butcher”. [Idea Stolen from Fire Punch]

2. Ancient Forgotten Town: Empty town haunted by a female ghost who dances herself to death every night from the tunes of a manic flute playing demon. Ghost will invite the party to uncle’s house to join in the merrymaking. Looks like a lively town at night (but strangely empty) but just ruins and foundations during the day. [Idea Stolen from Tales of the Dying Earth]

3. Dryad w/ Parasites: A weakened dryad asks for assistance to slay parasitic wasps that have infected this forest’s mother tree. Will offer a fruit from the Hidden Tree of Might, Increase STR to next highest + Modifier, or to a +1 Modifier. [Idea Stolen from Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter]

4. Red Lotus Field: A flooded plain tended to by the Carmine Monks who do not tolerate lotus thieves. The Lotus can be made into a very addictive drug that has proliferated in the closest city-state. At the center of the field is The Abbey of St. Padua.

5. Village of the Dog: Village that breeds war hounds and worships the Dog God. Will sell War Hounds (Base) for 150gp. 

6. Castle Al Pastor: Warlord Pastor is a name level Fighter who “retired” and built this castle. Has since been invaded by a trio of Devilswine who keep Pastor as the castle’s butler under a strong charm. Pastor will pay 5000gp and a pick of magic item from his treasury if the castle is reclaimed from the Devil Swine.

7. Shrine to Fell God: An ancient shrine carved into a large boulder dedicated to a forgotten god. 2-in-6 chance of 2d6+2 pilgrims worshiping. 

8. Necromancer’s Abode: A Necromancer’s keep, inside the walls is a vast beautiful garden tended to by undead. The Necromancer will pay well for Red Lotus stolen from the Carmine Monks.

9. Lost Amphitheater: Lair of the Undead Fight King, challenges those worthy to various fighting competitions. Winners gain the Fight King’s Favor (permanent +1 to attack and damage rolls). [Stolen from Adventure Time]

10. Cave of Shadows: Lair of 2d8+1 shadows. The shadows dance around a dead cleric’s skull that had continual light cast on it. The light is a dull eerie red.

Sacred Dwarven Forgemaster

I can hear Power Metal playing in the background

[The following is a substitute for gaining a stronghold at name level for the Dwarf Class (b/x--OSE]

DWARF
AFTER REACHING 9th LEVEL...

A dwarf has the option to build a sacred forge in a secluded place and become a Sacred Forgemaster with the aid of the Dwarven God. Once built the forge will attract 1d6+3 fellow dwarven artisans and smiths to aid in the creation of Magic Items. The Forge built will be blessed by the Dwarven God and allow the creation of holy relics and weapons. See OSE Magical Research: Creating Magic Items.
Due to the intervention and guidance from the Dwarven God the time and cost to create a magic item is cut in half. Magic Items made must be in line with the belief systems of the god. 

Was Bored, Made a Map

Felt like messing around with Hex Kit and made a Island(s) Hex Map. Feel free to steal for your home games!

TTRPG Bucket List

-Art Source-

Ah the old bucket list. While I'm not planning on dying anytime soon I did want to jot down some TTRPG Campaigns or one-shots I eventually want to run. Just in case. 

In order they are...

1. French Vanilla B/X campaign. I'm dying to run a basic d&d game using OSE and I want a homebrew campaign world that I'm actually willing to return to and set b/x games in.
   
   
2. Adventures In Space. I have yet to run some Sci-Fi in my gaming career and am itching to cross this one off the ol' list. I'm thinking Flash Gordon mixed with some Dai Dark. Using Mothership or maybe Traveler as the base rules.
   
   
3. A Supernatural Knock-Off. A campy/cheesy picaresque campaign modeled after one of my favorite monster-of-the-week shows Supernatural.
   
   
4. ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! As seen in Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Walking Dead, etc. I would want the game to start in media-res right at the beginning of the infection. 
   

I'll come back and update this post when I think of more stuff I want to run. 

God's Dice; Gambler's Fallacy

Source

This post is about a magic item I pretty much stole whole cloth from Hunter x Hunter. An item called the Risky Dice. 

So here's my gamified version for your elf games that I call...

God's Dice; Gambler's Fallacy

A small black d20 made from the remains of meteorite that destroyed a lucky village. The village was recently blessed with a very bountiful (and profitable) harvest. 19 sides of the dice have the rune for good luck with the remaining having a skull, which represents bad luck.

Before you would take an in-game action that requires a dice roll you may instead roll God's Dice [The Referee's favorite die]. If the Good Luck rune is rolled [2-20] the action auto succeeds! If the skull is rolled [1] the action auto fails and the worst possible situation occurs with a high chance of death.

This sounds busted to me but that also means it should be damn fun. 

So I Played MÖRK BORG...

-Pick Up Graves Left Wanting Here-

And it was fun!

Thanks to the always great Fantastic Dimensions I got to play in a one shot using the hot new item in the OSR scene, MÖRK BORG. A game so head turning it even brought Grognardia back from the dead! We played the Fleshworks and Graves Left Wanting modules. Here's some of my thoughts on Mork Borg, real quick.

What I didn't like about Mork Borg:

• This is probably more of a 3rd party problem than official stuff but designers need to playtest their stuff, even a little helps.
• At no point in the session did I feel, in danger? With the way armor works and MB having luck points I felt pretty confident going into each fight. Also you can heal after each combat, for zero cost? I think? Idk gotta read the rule book again. Then again I did die at the end, so maybe its just me...
• Boss Fights. At the end of Graves Left Wanting there's a boss fight, that you have to beat in order to complete the adventure. So Mork Borg is a combat as sport game, not very OSR but that's ok. I'm not sure Borg even labels itself as OSR, more OSR-adjacent.
• DC (DR in MB) checks always felt lame to me, idk why. Maybe because I have horrible flashbacks about my old Pathfinder games.
• The setting. You would think a hyper edgelord like me would enjoy the hell out of MB's setting but eh, i'm just not feeling it.
  
  

What I did like about Mork Borg:

• The magic system, very few spells makes them seem actually rare and mystical. I also like that anyone can find a scroll and use it. 
• The calendar system. You can easily staple this onto a b/x system and I think I will. 
• How easy it was to learn, I just skimmed the rules and was ready to go.
• The art is sweet and the general vibe of Mork Borg is great.

Cool game and fun to play but I don't think I'll ever have a desire to actually run it. I'll definitely steal some stuff from it for my home games, like the calendar and misery mechanics.

Oh and here's the vid to the game I played in if you're curious. 

Sword Saint Techniques I

Art Source

I was inspired after reading From the Pilgrim's Temple's blogpost called "Weeaboo Fightan Magic", heh, and decided to write my own pretentious version.

Sword Saints are masters of martial prowess and sacred hidden techniques known only to a few. Seek them out to learn their secrets or best them to steal their title. The following are a few of their known techniques.

[The following techniques are only learnable by the Fighter Class (b/x--OSE).]

Form Of The Dragon

Technique Description: The user lashes out with three quick strike melee attacks that mimic the Dragon’s claws and bite attacks. Damage is as a dragon’s claw/claw/bite attacks.

Learning Requirements: Slay a Dragon solo and survive. Then train in solitude for 4d4 weeks +/- WIS MOD with a favored melee weapon to master this technique.

The Ape King’s First Parable

Technique Description: Allows the user to push their body beyond its limits and open the first inner gate. The user goes first in initiative and deals double damage for a number of rounds per day equal to their level. The user may push their body further and continue the effect for additional rounds beyond their level limit but must make a save vs paralysis each time, a failure means the user falls unconscious for 1d6 turns. The user must rest for a turn after each combat this tech is used or surfer a -1 to all rolls until they are able to rest. Additionally the user must rest after the adventure for an extra week to compensate for using this technique.

Learning Requirements: Travel to the Jungle of Abudca and study under the Wise Ape King for 1 year.

The Thunder God’s Waltz

Technique Description: The user gains a permanent +2 to AC in combat due to the esoteric movements of the Thunder God’s Waltz (must be wearing light or no armor). The user can also automatically dodge lightning bolts and take no damage.

Learning Requirements: Master the Thunder God’s Waltz* and use it to completely dodge a lighting bolt (Dex Save with Disadvantage). Failure to dodge the bolt means you offend the Thunder God and take an additional 1d6 damage in addition to the lightning bolt’s damage. *Takes 3d4 weeks +/- INT MOD to learn under tutelage of a master of this tech.

Fist Of The Wave’s Nod

Technique Description: The user may shoot a projectile of Ki from their fist for 1d6+1 damage per level. Range is equal to 30ft plus 10ft per level. May be used a number of times per day equal to 3 + CHA MOD (min 1).

Learning Requirements: Meditate under a waterfall for at least one month from dawn to dusk. Then hurl 10,000 punches against an ocean’s waves and if the ocean recoils against the 10000th punch you will learn this technique (Roll a d20 +STR MOD +CHA MOD +1* versus the ocean’s d30+5). Must restart the process if you fail to intimidate the ocean. *Add an additional +1 for each extra month spent meditating under the waterfall up to +12.


If you like these and want more let me know and I'll make this a series. 

The Seven Resplendent Orbs of Zulan

I would religiously watch DBZ everyday on Toonami as a kid and was fascinated by the lore of the Dragon Balls. If you collected all 7 together you would summon a dragon god that would grant you any one wish. That still sounds cool to me, and gameable. Today's post is a homage to DBZ and a bit of my childhood. 

THE SEVEN RESPLENDENT ORBS OF ZULAN

"Whosoever gathers together the Seven Resplendent Orbs shall be granted any one wish thine desire. A parting gift to the world that labored under my eminence"

-Zulan the First Mage

1. The Ruby Orb of Insanity
   All spells require a save vs spells to be successfully cast within a one mile radius of this sphere. A failed save and the caster casts a random spell instead and a hint of madness slithers into their mind.
   
   
2. The Emerald Orb of Might
   All damage dice are doubled when within a one mile radius of this sphere. 
   
   
3. The Sapphire Orb of Magic
   This sphere holds any M-U spell from any OSR retro clone you own. A M-U may meditate for 3 days and nights to exchange one spell from the sphere with a spell of equal level from their spellbook.
   
   
4. The Opal Orb of Pacifism
   No harm may be purposely inflicted or meditated within a one mile radius of this sphere.
   
   
5. The Onyx Orb of Malice
   The wielder may inflict agonizing pain to one person or creature of their choice (must know their name and face) by performing harm to themselves or a sentient sacrifice. Each sacrifice inflicts 1d6+1 damage per HD of the sacrifice. 
   
   
6. The Violet Orb of Passion
   The wielder is able to hyper focus on a task or problem and reduce the time taken to complete it by half. This counts for spell research and training.
   
   
7. The Amber Orb of Babel
   All spoken words are understood by all within a one mile radius of this sphere.
   
   

NOTES:

• When all Orbs are gathered in one location the Avatar of Creation will appear before the gatherers and grant any one wish. After the wish the Orbs are scattered across the campaign world to random locations.
• The orbs are fist sized.
• The orbs have a 1d4+1 year cool down before the Avatar is able to be summoned again.
  
• There may or may not be a password or phrase to summon the Avatar. 
• All orb effects are written for a b/x-esque system.

LotFP & What Needs To Change

The Grindhouse Referee Book

I like Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP). So much so that once upon a time Raggi hired me to run his social media [1]. However the enthusiasm I had for the game has since died down to an ember but I still want it to do well. Trouble is Lamentations barely managed to crawl out of the abyss and it's still hanging precariously close to the edge. It needs an outstretched hand. And while I don't think Lamentations will ever reach the pinnacle of what it was, it can continue to put out quality products, like the DCC peeps. They just need to clear some stuff up and fix some things that need fixing.

So with all that said here's what I think needs to change for LotFP to survive in the current happy-fun-time landscape and maybe even thrive again. 

• Misinformation
  There is/was a whole cabal of publishers who threw fuel on LotFP's funeral pyre when the Zakpocalypse festered. LotFP once dominated the OSR scene and there was definitely some resentment. The fact that a edgy grimdark retro clone was raking in all the cash and snagging the big awards year after year really rubbed some jealous people the wrong way. This cabal continues to work behind the scenes and shit all over LotFP stuff wherever and whenever they can [2]. If LotFP wants to circumvent this at all, they need to rally the fanbase and denounce misinformation whenever it's seen. The outright lies I've witnessed, oh boy. I've have since given up doing this since I decided it wasn't worth the stress. Especially after that whole fanzine debacle [3].
  
  
• Controversies
  One of the reasons I got into LotFP was because it used to push people's buttons for the right reasons. Not because of an online difference of personalities or the disc horse that's popular nowadays but because books themselves were controversial. Better Than Any Man is one of my favorite rpg books of all time and was highly controversial at the time. Partly because it was a Free RPG day book that blew the other submissions out of the water and party because there's some really dark shit in there. Let's go back to that; the books are controversial, not people. 
  
  
• Da Rules

  While Raggi never thought the core rules were super important, I think they are. Look at OSE, people wanted a skeleton d&d system to fill the LotFP void and Necrotic Gnome filled it. If LotFP had the quality modern day layout OSE does I would continue to use it as my base system. It's time to upgrade Raggi, hire a fancy expensive layout person and clean up the rules a bit. Visual aesthetic and ease of use are king now. Remember you're competing with computers and books need to be as useful at the table as a phone.
  
  
• The New Referee Book
  This fucking thing. I vaguely remember hearing that it was going to be a huge book and mehhhh. Here's what you do instead. Get the old Grindhouse Ref book [4], get the old tutorial book slap them together and write a new foreword apologizing for not putting out a new ref book but it just ain't-gonna-happen. Then, add a shit load of random tables for the default 17th century that's "implied, add great new art, a new modern layout, mix them all together and put it in a beautiful hardcover leatherette book with a sweet title. BAM! New Ref book. Maybe add some material from the new draft as a appendix but not too much just the really good shit. I'd buy that.
  
  
• The Implied Setting
  I love the 17th century and the real world history. Most people don't. Look at the Mork Borg craze, people love that setting and it's literally just a map with like 5 thinly alluded to places. If you want to stick with the implied 17th century history setting you need a goddamn history book. A gameable one. Lay out out all the real world kingdoms and empires Game of Thrones styles with why they hate each other and why the century sucked to live in. Stat up famous NPCs like so and really do the history justice. OR make a generic map and just give the locations grimdark foreign sounding names [5]. 
  
  
• The Product
  Stop making books that are weird for the sake of being weird. For example, while I loved Big Puppet's premise I get the feeling it would be a pain to try and implement and explain. Back when I was running my LotFP campaigns what I really needed were A. The fucking history book I talked about earlier and B. decent dungeons. Where are all the goddamn dungeons? If I need treasure plundered from dangerous places on the fringes of society to level up classic d&d style where are they? Give me a entire book of short dungeons themed to 17th century history. A hidden dungeon under Stonehenge that houses alien mummies, an aztec temple with elite guardians that are trying to keep people out for their own safety. Fucking Scholomance a horror themed Hogwarts? Come on it writes itself. An ancient crumbling roman temple with secret sex crazed Aphrodite worshippers. MORE GOOD DUNGEONS, short ones and maybe one huge mega-dungeon. Fermentum is an ok start.
  
  
• New Blood
  This one is going to be probably the most difficult but LotFP needs more good writers, preferably with a following already. Reach out, give them bags of money if you have to. OR Raggi needs to write heavy hitters again like Death Frost Doom or Better Than Any Man. Btw where is that hardcover version of BTAM?
  
  
• EMBRACE AND FOSTER THE 3RD PARTY STUFF
  When someone makes something for your game it needs to be promoted to hell. That's what I tried to do when I ran the social media. People having enthusiasm for your game is key, again, look at the new players like Mork Borg and Necrotic Gnome. Huge support for their 3rd party stuff.
  
  

All these things (and more) need to be fixed before LotFP can stitch itself together and claw out of it's shallow grave. But what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my observations? Or let me know what you think LotFP needs to change. Let me know in the comments.

[1] Check out my dead blog if you want to read me whine and bitch about why I quit.

[2] I'm only a quarter serious. Most people just parroted the same bullshit a few loud ones vomited out.
[3] Yes, I'm still salty about that lol. 
[4] A fucking masterpiece DM's guide btw.
[5] Mork Borg is sweet, I'm just yanking their chain.

Raise Dead; Trials and Trepidations

A Failed Raise Dead Casting?

B/X's (OSE) spell Raise Dead is so strange to me. It's a spell that completely circumvents the biggest fear a character has in-game and makes death just an inconvenience, a speed bump. And yet I kind of like the idea of it existing but there has to be some consequences to it. Otherwise some rich merchant could theoretically buy some Raise Dead scrolls and be done with death. So here are some further rules and prerequisites I'm thinking off adding should someone gain access to the Raise Dead spell in my future hypothetical OSE campaign.

RAISE DEAD

CHANGES

• Raise Dead is no longer instant and instead takes minimum 1 hour to cast depending on the caster's customs and rituals.
• Range is changed from 120' to 5'. The caster must be in very close proximity to the body.
  
  

LIMITS

• Cannot bring back someone who died of advanced age.
• The spell will mend wounds but does not regrow lost limbs or such. Think Beric from GoT.
• The target cannot be an enemy of the caster's religion, god or alignment.
  
  

CONSEQUENCES

• The caster must make a save vs spells when Raise Dead is cast, this represents the caster's faith. A failure means the caster ages 1d10+2 years and this casting is unsuccessful. I might allow some bonuses if the caster prepared some fancy expensive incense burning and lamb offerings and such.
  
  

I'm also thinking about adding a monetary cost to each casting but might save that for NPC castings of the spell. 3-13 possible years of aging seems like a significant penalty to prevent spamming the spell.

Do you allow RAW Raise Dead in your b/x--OSE games or do you change it up? I'm curious so let me know in the comments! Would love to hear some Raise Dead stories too.

GYGAX 75 Challenge; REDUX: Week 5

Find Week 4 here

WEEK 5: THE LARGER WORLD

Week 5 is all about filling out the campaign world by listing mysterious locales, deities, mythical treasures and more. Most of the tasks are dedicated to this but only require you to do three. I'll instead pick out the most interesting tasks to me and then that'll be pretty much it for my run of the Gygax 75 Challenge. It was really fun and got my mind off shitty pandemic life and Trumps shit attempt at a insurrection. I'm gonna keep working on this world and I'm probably gonna test run with my SO and child and hopefully with the old gaming group after the pandemic. I'll write up some session reports if/when I do. Anyways on to the tasks!

TASKS:

Develop a Pantheon and Powers
I want this campaign world to have numerous strange gods with each settlement having their own deities and religious practices. I have this vague idea of a Sun Worshiping Cult* in the beginning stages of becoming a global religion, maybe, if they can put down all the other rival cults. Then this Sun Cult is going around proselytizing and perhaps slaying (burning?) heretics and rival cults.

In my Week 4 I already started this practice by showing the great river spirit Undine and one of the blessings she bestows upon the town. Also want to throw in some Saints of various aspects, like a Saint for Murderers, Assassins and Eccentric Musicians called St. Emil. 

*Yawn, I know done to death BUT it's something that I want to try out.

Develop a Rival Adventuring Party or Mercenary Band
St. Emil's Regulars are a band of music hunters seeking out rare sheets for their god, The Red Musician. Their leader Ri-Kas is the 41st apostle of St. Emil and 5th level Cleric.

Create Events and Rumors from other lands the characters might hear. 

• The Praetorians have been seen in the mainland's coast ransacking villages and taking slaves.
• A red dragon has been rampaging and causing mayhem down south. 
• A red star fell from the sky and landed somewhere west near the village of  Piurn. Bad luck for them.
• The White Sun's Zenith approaches and the City State of Dis prepares it's grand festivals.

Create more major magical relics of the world and short history, including where they were last seen and who/what owned them.

• The Sinister Hymn of Fiends is a piece of sheet music written by a forgotten devil. Those who listen to it to completion and survive gain a fiend's strength. Last seen at the Monastery where St. Emil ascended to godhood. Some say Emil himself heard the Hymn and ascended but for other's this is blasphemy. 
• CHIME [As seen here] is a dwarven forged bident tuning fork used to slay Dragons. It's current rumored location is in the Tower of Ivory Stoops in the Praetorian Empire of Birdosa.
• The Seven Orbs of Zulan, basically a Dragon ball rip off. Have to find all seven orbs that are scattered all over the world to get a wish. 
  
  

And that's it! I'm super proud of myself for finishing this challenge and I hope any readers out there were as entertained as I was. Stick around as I go back and finish some of the extra credits and flesh out the campaign world even further.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

d66 Magic-User Deviances

Learning the arcane arts takes a blackened toll on the magic-user’s mind and body, a price that manifests in eccentric behaviors or physical disfigurements.

After creating a Magic-User roll d66 and consult the table below.

11. Your eyes are yellow and cat-like with vertical slit pupils.
12. Your eyes are green and snake-like with vertical slit pupils.
13. Your eyes glow a violent shade of red in the dark.
14. Your nose grows long and sharp.
15. You have no hair.
16. Bloody tears run down your face after casting a spell.

21. Mercurial tears run down your face after casting a spell.
22. Your hair is an unnatural silver color.
23. You have an overwhelming urge to sleep with your head pointing south.
24. You have an overwhelming urge to sleep in a box.
25. You have an overwhelming urge to wear only the finest, most expensive clothing.
26. You have an overwhelming urge to wear only the poorest, least expensive clothing.

31. You have an overwhelming urge to dance naked under a full moon for a turn.
32. You have an overwhelming urge to eat more than necessary.
33. Your blood is vanta-black.
34. Your blood is floral white.
35. Your skin is pale white and powdery.
36. Your skin is a dull wine red and oily.

41. All your teeth are sharp edged and serrated.
42. You have sharp blackened fingernails.
43. Your tongue is bifurcated.
44. Your tongue has all the qualities a toad has.
45. You leave hooved footprints behind you.
46. You have a prehensile hairy red devil tail protruding from the small of your back.

51. You have a prehensile black monkey tail protruding from the small of your back.
52. You have an overwhelming urge to crack each finger after every casting.
53. You have an overwhelming urge to whistle a short melody after every casting.
54. You have an overwhelming urge to roll a coin across your knuckles after each casting.
55. You cannot stand to touch iron and take double damage from iron weapons.
56. You have goat horns protruding from your head.

61. You have two left hands.
62. Your hands are stained red.
63. You have a birthmark shaped like a star somewhere on your body.
64. You have a birthmark shaped like a death-rune somewhere on your body.
65. A vertical third eye opens on your forehead after every casting. Appears for 1d6 turns.
66. Your jaw can unhinge and can stretch like a snakes.


A Magic-User may attempt to deny his overwhelming urges but must make a save vs spells with a -2 for each successful past denial. Denying an urge bestows a -1 to attack rolls and saving throws for each denial. The penalties reset when the caster gives in to the urge. Physical disfigurements cause a -1 to reaction rolls.