Category Archives: Uncategorized

Magic, Evil, and Chaos

14 Replies
Image derived from Wikipedia

I greatly favor the treatment of magic, chaos, and evil as all being different words for the same thing. Thus, protection from evil works on demons, elves, undead, and… sufficiently high level magic-users. Magic-users should become more inherently chaotic as they gain levels, until a sufficiently high level magic-user is essentially an alien being (despite having human form).

Previously, I came up with magical affinity, which is good but insufficiently compatible with the traditional game (and maybe too complicated anyways). So here is another way to do it. The chance that a magic-user is chaotic for the purposes of a given situation is N in 6, where N is the magic-users spell competency (that is, the highest level of spells that the magic-user can prepare). I like this because the chance goes from minimal for low-level magic-users to certain for high level magic-users. Level / 2 round up would also work (or level / 2 round down, if you don’t want first level magic-users to have any chance of registering on the chaos meter).
This is better than an inverse saving throw versus magic (success = treat as chaotic), which is something I also considered, because it never gets to 100%. Further, an inverse saving throw is not straightforward to explain.

This is also the chance that a given magic-user will turn as a demon (of hit dice equivalent to the magic-user’s level) for clerics that have the power to turn demons.

Brewing Potions

Leave a reply
The Love Potion (from Wikipedia)

Magic-users (and, to a limited extent, clerics) can brew potions. The same game systems also apply to creating poison (for thieves) and incendiaries (for fighters). These items have no special use requirements, though some classes are better at creating them than others. For example, anyone can imbibe a potion of gaseous form brewed by a magic-user or coat a weapon with poison created by a thief.

To brew a potion, a recipe is required. Every recipe specifies one or more special components that are required, in addition to mundane ingredients and procedures. There may be more than one recipe for the same potion (each making use of different special components). Recipes can be discovered in play much like scrolls or purchased from specialists such as apothecaries (who tend not to share the secrets of their livelihood) or sages (who often charge ungodly prices).

Potion recipes have a level, just like spells. In order to brew a potion from the recipe, the character in question must be able to cast spells of the equivalent level. Potion components cost 500 GP and one week per level (so a second level potion would cost 1000 GP of ingredients and require two weeks of work). Like magic research, brewing potions may be done during downtime punctuated by adventuring, as long as too much time (by referee ruling) does not pass. Characters do not need to spend money separately to establish a laboratory. It is assumed that as items are created, the character naturally accumulates the paraphernalia required, and this is abstracted into the cost of ingredients.

Fighters and thieves should use the magic-user spell progression to determine if a given character is skilled and knowledgeable enough to create a particular item. Costs are identical (500 GP for level 1 poison, etc). The only significant difference is that each “brew” of poison results in 1d6 doses (unless otherwise specified in the recipe). Different poisons may also have different application methods (also by recipe), so one poison may be contact, one poison may be injected (i.e., for coating a weapon), another poison may end up being a beaker full of gas that may be hurled like a grenade. Mutatis mutandis for fighters. In addition to incendiaries, fighters can create (or oversee the creation of) siege engines and siege works. Schematics for these work exactly as other recipes, and are rated similarly by level.

Note that though the ability to brew potions is available to characters of any level (given appropriate class), the costs involved (along with the fact that spending GP results in XP) means that characters that craft several items (be they scrolls, potions, or something else) will naturally end up becoming higher level, with no other constraints required.

Optional rule: cross-class brewing. One kind of class may create the type of recipe items appropriate to another class (assuming a recipe and special components are available), but the the costs are doubled due to unfamiliarity and the crafting is only successful on a d20 roll less than or equal to the intelligence score. Upon failure, the components are not wasted, but another week must be spent (and another check made) until either the brewing is successful or the task is abandoned. In any case, the spent GP results in XP (learning from failure!).

I’m thinking that maybe each class should begin with one basic first level recipe (love potion, healing potion, minor firebomb, and minor poison, perhaps).

(In Hexagram, provisionally, the ability to brew potions comes with the alchemy trait, the ability to brew poison comes from the assassination trait, and the ability to craft incendiaries or do siege-work comes with the ranged combat and melee combat traits, respectively.)

Wandering in Carcosa

11 Replies
Cropped image from the LotFP store

I recently ran a FLAILSNAILS Carcosa one-shot on G+. This was a rescue mission for a character that had been imprisoned by the Donjon card from The Deck of Many Things.

Here are six Carcosan wilderness encounters that I developed for that adventure.

  1. T-rex corpse, skin mottled red and orange, being feasted upon by fist-sized maggots. Top of skull has been removed with surgical precision, and brain is missing. 
  2. Bipedal humanoid robot (HD 8, AC 3), with a spear and a head that has a single, spotlight eye in the center of a cylinder head. It is dragging a dead velociraptor behind it. It has learned how to hunt by spying on humans, but doesn’t understand what to do with the dead animals, so it just drags them back to a cave.
  3. Cuddly fluff balls (2d6, 1 HP each, AC 7). Bright red, hovering, bobbing up and down gently. Look and behave exactly like poison dirigible fruit (see below), but if observed for a turn there is a 3 in 6 chance of seeing the fluff ball lazily open one or both of its eyes. If petted, a fluff ball will orbit the character. Orbiting fluff balls will give characters a save versus wands to avoid a normal missile (something like an arrow or bullet) that would otherwise hit. A success means that the CFB intercepts the missile and is destroyed.
  4. Poison dirigible fruit (2d6, 1 HP each, AC 7). Visually identical to cuddly fluff balls (see above), but if touched in any way will explode in a burst of poison glop (all within melee range save or die). A poison dirigible fruit tree will grow in the corpse of any characters so slain, and will produce 2d6 dirigible fruit in 1d6 days. 
  5. Mummy with lower half of body buried (HD 5, AC 5, eyes shoot 2 lasers, save versus death ray or take 5 dice of damage). Wearing an emerald medallion (2000 GP). Quiescent unless the emerald medallion is disturbed. Two dead orange men nearby, one with a scorched hole blown in his head, the other with a scorched hole blown in his chest. 1d6 primitively armed orange men huddled at a safe distance discussing how to relieve the mummy of the medallion. They are not interested in treasure other than gems and technology, but will serve if offered such incentives.
  6. Floating circular platform, hovers 15′ above the ground. Space alien technology. 1 in 6 chance to figure out how to operate (intelligence modifier applies, only one try per character though). Can be moved at a rate of 10′ per turn. 3 bone men with spears have built a hut on top, and “desert fishing lines” hang down. The bone men are extremely xenophobic (reaction roll penalty of 2). One of the bone men has 2 sleep gas grenades (as sleep spell but a save versus paralysis applies, 30′ blast radius).
    On the way to the dungeon part of the adventure, the players came across 1 and 4, both of which they avoided approaching.

    Marked by the Grave

    3 Replies
    Knight Approached by Death (source)

    To be used for characters that have a close encounter with the unquiet dead. In the entries below, “the spirit” refers to the particular undead that the character survived an encounter with. Appropriate for accompanying a level drain.

    Roll 1d30:

    1. Flowers wilt when the character is nearby
    2. To others, the character seems to walk slightly crookedly
    3. The spirit can be seen behind the character in reflections
    4. Eyes lose their color
    5. The spirit is now in every one of the character’s dreams
    6. The character’s weapons always drip with rivulets of blood, even after cleaning
    7. Nearby domestic animals become uncomfortable and seek to flee
    8. Character is always cold, and requires extra clothes to remain warm
    9. Small fires (such as lanterns and torches) gutter and go out nearby
    10. A great injustice that the spirit suffered in life shows up as a forehead brand
    11. Echoes of the spirit’s voice underly (and subvert) all words the character speaks
    12. The character’s skin is icy cold to the touch
    13. Garments worn lose their color so that they are only shades of gray
    14. Character slowly acquires the facial characteristics of the spirit
    15. Thin glass cracks upon touch (windows, mirrors, glassware)
    16. All alcohol consumed becomes the spirit’s blood
    17. Insects (especially maggots and carrion bugs) find the character’s scent pleasing
    18. All humanoid enemies slain take on the aspect of the spirit
    19. Unsheathed blades nearby seem to whisper the character’s name
    20. Character’s hands and garments remain soiled always
    21. Becomes somnambulant if not restrained during sleep
    22. Any door the character opens leads to the land of the dead
    23. Afflicted with illusionary stigmata (related to the spirit’s death)
    24. Smile forever appears to others as a rictus even though nothing has changed
    25. Any food the character touches loses all flavor
    26. Plants that grow near the character have a strange and twisted aspect
    27. Garments worn quickly become tattered and ragged around the edges
    28. Nails, grown black and talon-like, continually manifest dripping blood
    29. Footsteps leave tracks of cremation ash
    30. Character often sees the spirit lurking submerged in bodies of water

    A Peek Inside Rappan Athuk

    5 Replies

    My new edition copy of Rappan Athuk (from the recent kickstarter) has arrived, and it is a gorgeous book (it feels very well crafted and is signature sewn). Almost 500 pages (including licence, etc) of megadungeon, with Swords & Wizardry stats (and thus compatible with virtually all traditional fantasy games and their simulacra). It is filled with evocative (though uneven, to my eyes) art. This is not a review (I haven’t spent nearly enough time with the actual content to do a review justice), but I thought some people might enjoy seeing inside.

    Sustained Spells

    9 Replies
    Image from Wikipedia

    Because of a comment Gustie left on my Sorcerer Patrol post, I’ve been playing Dragon Age: Origins recently. The magic system in this game uses the “mana” magic point system that has become standard in most computer RPGs. Spells are divided into activated and sustained categories. Activated spells cost a fixed amount of mana and have an immediate effect (which also may sometimes persist for a short period of time, but wears off quickly). Something like paralyze (which affects an enemy) is an activated effect, as is fireball.

    Sustained spells, however, are essentially permanent but also reserve a fixed amount of mana which can’t be used for other magic while the sustained ability is maintained. Effects generated by this type of spell are often defensive (arcane shield, rock armor), but also auras which penalize opponents (miasma) or benefit allies (flaming weapons).

    It occurs to me that this mechanism could be used for spells in a tabletop game as well, replacing or in addition to the idea of other durations. For example, a spell like shield or armor could be maintained indefinitely, perhaps by occupying two first level spell slots. Personally, I am less likely to modify existing spells in this way than to use this approach as a basis for new custom spells. In most cases infinite duration, even at the cost of extra spell slots being occupied, seems like it might cut into the resource management aspect of the game. However, I still think the idea has legs, especially for effects that are more interesting than a simple bonus.

    Robe Wards

    4 Replies
    Image from Wikipedia

    Here are a collection of special wards that may be added to wizard robes. I’m not totally sure about the power levels and costs of some of these, but I don’t think anything is too crazy.

    Any ward may be decoded with read magic (though see obscuring ward below) and destroyed with dispel magic (the wearer’s saving throw versus magic applies).

    1. Elemental ward.
      Choose one: fire, cold, lightning. You may re-roll the next failed saving throw of the given type. Doing so exhausts the ward. Minor effects related to the element in question often manifest around the wearer, though generally in subtle ways (a faint aura of cold, sparks when walking on stone, etc). Cost: 500 GP. Components: the remains of an elemental creature of at least 3 HD.
    2. Paralytic curse.
      Anyone other than the attuned magic-user donning the robe must make a save versus paralysis or be frozen in place indefinitely. If the save is successful, paralysis is avoided, but the wearer feels uncomfortable and nauseous (taking a -2 to all rolls). Cost: 500 GP. Components: the spleen of a ghoul.
    3. Obscuring ward.
      This ward disguises the nature of another ward. It either hides a ward completely or makes it appears as a different (non-functional) ward. Useful for disguising wards that may rely on forbidden magic, such as diabolism or necromancy. Cost: 500 GP. Components: blood of an adulterer.
    4. Flaming retribution.
      If the wearer is slain, a fireball detonates with ground zero at the wearer. Cost: 100 GP per die of fireball damage, max = robe level. Components: ash from a home that was burned to the ground.
    5. Protection from evil.
      Choose one: demons, undead, faeries. As per the spell. Any hostile action (referee determination; the player should be given information about what constitutes hostility) grants the creature a saving throw versus magic to destroy the ward. Creatures of this type can also sense the ward and thus have a -2 on any reaction roll. Cost: 1000 GP. Components: captured creature of the appropriate type (minimum 3 HD), sacrificed or ritually destroyed.
    6. Demonic sympathy.
      The true name of a demon is inscribed as a ward. If the attuned wearer dies, the demon is destroyed. If the ward is dispelled, the demon is freed. Cost: 1000 GP. Components: demon’s true name.
    7. Undead retribution.
      If the wearer is slain, she raises as a wraith and inexorably pursues the killer. Cost: 1000 GP. Components: fat rendered from the flesh of a person killed by terror or energy drain.
    8. Precipitative ward.
      Rain, snow, and other natural precipitation falls around rather than on the magic-user. Winds are calmed slightly, but not entirely (gale-force winds remain dangerous). Cost: 50 GP. Components: cloud, bottled and preserved.
    9. Relay ward.
      This ward must be created voluntarily with another magic-user. The other magic-user may cast spells through the wearer, though targeting is still up to the wearer. This also creates some form of unidirectional magical channel between the two, and the remote magic-user will always be able to sense the approximate direction and distance of the wearer (the remote magic-user also gains a +2 to all saves versus spells cast by the wearer). Some masters use this ward in order to control their apprentices. Cost: 1000 GP. Components: blood from both parties, freely shed, mingled.
    10. Sartorial ward.
      Robes may shift in appearance as long as they continue to maintain approximately the same surface area. All wards remain visible unless magically obscured. Robes must continue to appear as some form of clothing. Cost: 100 GP. Components: the ashes from a suit of currently fashionable clothing, burned.
    11. Necropotent ward.
      No life will come into being within 10 feet of the robes. Living plants will also gradually die, and animals will become uncomfortable (-2 reaction roll). Useful as a magical form of contraception. Cost: 100 GP. Components: crops spoiled prior to harvest.
    12. Seelie friendship.
      Must be created jointly with another magic-user of the Seelie court. +2 reaction rolls with members of the Seelie, -2 reaction rolls with members of the Unseelie. Generally awarded as a boon to magic-users that have helped the Seelie court. The reverse, Unseelie friendship, is also possible, but obviously not both at the same time. Cost: 500 GP. Components: blood shed in violence of a member of the opposing court.

    Wizard Robes

    6 Replies
    The Beguiling of Merlin (source)

    The act of spell casting opens up magic-users to dark forces and draws the attention of wicked spirits. In order to defend against such dangers, many magic-users wear garments imprinted with powerful and esoteric pictograms. Such wards help protect a magic-user against psychic pollution or opportunistic attack.

    To function correctly, the wards must be imposed spiritually between the magic-user’s soul and the magical threat. There are some extremely powerful magical periapts that can accomplish this task without the symbolism of clothing, but they are very rare. More common are robes which stand directly between the flesh of the sorcerer and the external threat, particularly flowing clothing such as robes, which provide more space for esoteric symbols.

    Just like physical armor, robes provide a defense rating, from 1 to 6. This rating functions as a bonus to the save versus magic and does not provide any bonus to physical armor class. Warded robes also function, by referee determination, as AC against certain special creatures (such as those that are ethereal). In Hexagram, the magic defense trait bonus does not stack with the bonus from warded robes, though the magic defense trait may be used to protect a companion (see the path of wonder trait descriptions).

    The symbolism of clothing requires that the robes bridge the space between flesh and threat, so conventional armor may not be worn at the same time. However, most magic-users fear arcane assault more than physical assault (which may be guarded against by certain abjuration spells and loyal warders). Thus, many magic-users opt to wear robes rather than traditional armor (though they may forego wards and wear armor if desired). There are legends of warded mage armor, particularly among the faeries, but such treasures rarely come without strings attached.

    The base cost of warded robes is as follows, by robe level. This includes the cost of materials and the labor of skilled tailors. Robes take one week per level to create.

    1. 10 gp
    2. 100 gp
    3. 500 gp
    4. 1000 gp
    5. 5000 gp
    6. 10000 gp

    In addition to the saving throw bonus, warded robes may have up to N special wards (where N is equal to the level of the robes) which can provide special protection. The nature, cost, and availability of these additional wards are up to the referee, but often require special materials or far away knowledge.

    Robes must be attuned to a particular magic-user. The cost of attuning a set of robes to a new owner is half the original cost. Additionally, the magic-user must cast a spell of level N as part of the attuning procedure. Warded robes that have not been attuned function at half-level (rounded down) until the garments are reworked to fit the soul of the new wearer. Some magic-users may also work curses into their garments (these would fall under the category of special wards) as insurance against theft.

    In addition to psychic defense, warded robes also have social value. They advertise to strangers that the character is a magic-user. Such open magic-users are assumed to follow the laws of the ancient academy and to reject black magic such as diabolism and necromancy. One of the responsibilities of magic-users following the ancient rules is to hunt down and punish sorcerous rebels. Many magic-users are quite zealous in this task, in order to protect their fragile reputation. Within the society of magic-users, the complexity of robe symbolism also functions as a crude method of assessing another magic-user’s skill and power.

    It is assumed that there are only three kinds of magic-users that do not wear robes openly. Those that are too poor or inexperienced to craft proper garments. Those that wish to conceal their nature (this is considered evil and is a crime in many places). And those, like the arch-mages of myth, that are powerful enough to need no external protection.

    Armor by Class

    7 Replies

    Image from Wikipedia

    Image from Wikipedia

    Armor is something I have never been totally satisfied with in D&D. It’s not because I object to the abstraction of armor making characters harder to hit rather than preventing injury (though I have written about that before). Rather, I don’t much like the idea that a magic-user can’t strap on a breastplate and get some benefit from it. This is not a major problem for me; I don’t have any issue playing traditional B/X with all the armor and weapon restrictions and having a great time. But it does seem like an imperfection.

    That being said, I do think fighters should be better at using armor. The weapon restrictions problem, which is similar, has been very elegantly handled, in my opinion, using damage by hit die rather than by weapon (which I originally based on Akrasia’s damage by class). Perhaps something similar could be done for armor without totally modifying the underlying system?

    First, I am going to fall back on my earlier assumption of a threefold armor classification (light, medium, and heavy corresponding to leather, chain, and plate). Traditionally, there are also several types of character class regarding armor use. The heavily armored classes can use plate (fighters and clerics). The lightly armored classes, such as thieves, which can only wear leather. And finally the unarmored classes, such as magic-users, which can wear no armor.

    My basic idea is that by default, armor grants one point of AC per tier. So, for example, leather armor would grant +1 AC and plate armor would grant +3 AC. Someone with no armor skill (such as a zero level character or a magic-user) who straps on a suit of plate thus only gets +3 AC.

    Additionally, characters gain an AC bonus equal to their armor skill if their armor skill is equal to or less than the AC bonus of the armor in question. The armor skills by class are:

    • Cleric (heavy): +3
    • Fighter (heavy): +3
    • Magic-user (none): +0
    • Thief (light): +1

    In other words, you get to double the AC bonus when using armor of a tier less than or equal to your (class-based) armor skill. None of the big four classes seem to have medium armor skill (though in terms of balance, the cleric probably should). However, there are a number of subclasses that seem like they would naturally have medium armor skill, such as the ranger.

    Effective AC Bonus
    Class Armor Skill Light (leather) Medium (chain) Heavy (plate)
    Cleric
    +3
    +1 +1 = +2
    +2 +2 = +4
    +3 +3 = +6
    Fighter
    +3
    +1 +1 = +2
    +2 +2 = +4
    +3 +3 = +6
    Magic-User
    +0
    +1 +0 = +1
    +2 +0 = +2
    +3 +0 = +3
    Thief
    +1
    +1 +1 = +2
    +2 +0 = +2
    +3 +0 = +3

    In the table above, each armor column has three numbers: the inherent armor bonus, plus the class armor skill bonus, which together = the full AC bonus. The armor skill bonus only kicks in if it is not greater than the armor bonus. So, for example, a thief, who only has an armor skill of +1, gets no armor skill bonus when wearing chain, making chain equivalent in terms of protection to leather (though the thief can still wear chain if circumstances require it).Similarly, for example, magic-users benefit much less than fighters from plate, but a magic-user in plate is still better armored than a magic-user in leather. In effect, this system defines how much protection comes from just wearing the armor and how much protection comes from skill at fighting in armor. Some classes may get less benefit from wearing armor, but all penalties, whether they are encumbrance, speed reduction, thief skill impairment, spell failure chance, or anything else, apply in full. All else being equal, a thief will thus gain the same AC bonus from leather as they would from chain, but will take fewer penalties in the leather. The same thief will be slightly more protected in plate, though presumably at the cost of rather still penalties to sneaking and maybe fleeing (depending on the specific armor penalty rules that are active).

    Potential AC bonus from a shield is equal to half the armor skill, rounded down, meaning that thieves (who have a +1 armor skill) and magic-users (who have a +0 armor skill) would gain no benefit from using a shield, and fighters (who have a +3 armor skill) would gain a +1 from using a shield (as would any class that was deemed to have a medium armor skill). This ends up outputting the original numbers, which is nice, but also means that it is impossible to gain any benefit from a shield without armor skill, and I’m not sure that is satisfactory. Provisionally, I think characters without enough armor skill to use a shield should be able to get the +1 AC if they spend their action focusing on using the shield to defend.

    Incidentally, this same system could easily be used with Hexagram, substituting the path of battle “defense” trait (or something derived from it) for the armor skill bonus described above.

    Hexagram Treasure Overview

    Leave a reply
    Excalibur the Sword (source)

    There are two major categories of treasure: mundane and wondrous. Mundane treasure includes money, valuables, simple machines, NPC favors, and other such things. The most important quality of mundane treasure is that it is not connected to character traits in any meaningful way. There are no prerequisites for use. A sack of money can be used by a squire just as easily as by a powerful sorcerer.

    Wondrous treasure is not necessarily more potent than mundane treasure (though it often is). The defining quality of wondrous treasure is that use is dependent upon character traits. Some traits may also be primarily concerned with using (or even creating) wondrous items. All wondrous items have a rating, from 1 to 6, which relates to a specific character trait. There are traits on every path which relate to different kinds of wondrous items.

    Exactly how wondrous items interact with character traits varies by item. Some require a minimum level of a certain trait in order to function at all. For example, a certain magic sword may be inert (that is, function as a mundane sword) for warriors with less skill than 3 in melee combat. Other items may require a successful trait check (less than or equal to the trait value when rolling a d6) before the item can be used, or even per use. For example, an antediluvian gauntlet may allow reaching into stone as if it were water, but only with a successful antediluvia trait check.
    The wondrous items related to the path of battle are magic weapons, which are governed by either the melee combat trait or the ranged combat trait (depending on whether the item in question is a melee weapon or a ranged weapon). The wondrous items related to the path of guile are antediluvia (artifacts left over from before the deluge). The wondrous items related to the path of wonder are spell formulae, potions or potion recipes, magic devices, and scrolls. Though anyone can use a potion, it can also be reverse engineered. Thus, potions straddle the line between mundane and wondrous treasure.
    As wondrous items are keyed to specific traits, not paths, characters with points in the necessary off-path traits can potentially make use of any kind of wondrous item. For example, a sorcerer with melee combat 3 can make use of a potency 3 sword just as well as a character on the path of battle (though it would have been more costly in terms of experience for the character on the path of wonder to develop that martial skill). The most complex antediluvia might only be usable by a character on the path of guile (based on the cap for off-path traits), but other less complex items are usable by any character with the appropriate trait.
    One method for placing wondrous items: roll d6 to determine if there is a wondrous item; on a 6 there is. Then, roll another 2d6 and take the lowest number to determine the potency or complexity. Finally, roll on the following table to determine the wondrous item type.
    1. Potion
    2. Antediluvian item
    3. Weapon of power
    4. Scroll
    5. Magic item
    6. Spell formula
    All wondrous items should be unique to a given campaign. Though not all wondrous items need have drawbacks, they should all have quirks and idiosyncrasies. Some wondrous items may have no direct adventuring use, only being able to generate strange seemingly useless effects. Few wondrous items are both of unlimited use and without potential drawbacks.

    I am building a system for generating campaign-specific wondrous items as part of the referee scenario design process.