A Blog Post Recommendation and (Probably) Terrible Idea

Firstly, read this post by Hexculture which has its own take on the monk character class.  It's absolutely sick.  It pretty much ticks all the boxes for what a monk should be while being elegant, versatile, and creative enough for old school RPG problem solving.

What if it extended to ALL items on the equipment list though?  Being able to spontaneously recreate or summon them as various mystical effects... wait, that's just a wizard. 

So I'm suggesting that a pretty wicked and easy to grok version of the wizard would be a character that is able to instantly summon and utilize items and item-like effects in a quick, efficient manner.  Spending a slot means conjuring something off of the equipment lists to replicate and achieve an effect quickly.  Flaming oil flasks thrown at people is manifested as a fireball, arrows are magic missiles, javelins are a bolt of energy or lightning, using a ten foot pole to pole vault is a mighty leap or flight spell, climbing gear makes you Spider Man, etc. Using a musical instrument may be a song that helps with reaction rolls... my god, you could have a bard and have it be less annoying!

Obviously there would have to be limits to this.  The wizard would be unable to cast a particular spell/item effect more than once or twice per day or else very bad things occur because the magic dimension starts noticing you or some malarkey.  Add level to damage with spells to keep them somewhat relevant at higher levels.  Start with 2-3 spell slots instead of 1.

You could combine this with random spell outcome rules to get this dude:

Truths and Terrors in Surreal Dungeonscapes with Imaginary Hallways' CESR!

Charlie over at the kickass blog Imaginary Hallways has written a great post on the Bloodborne frenzy mechanics I wrote two years ago!  With a killer little system that I will talk about.

CESR (Charlie's Eerie Simple Rules) is a succinct and no-nonsense game system that involves desperate dungeoneers going into dark, otherworldly places and trying contend with the horrors within.  I'm going to make a quick character for the game to show you why I think it is wicked.

Rolling 2d6+3 for each stats gives us 11 Strength , 9 Dexterity, 13 Wisdom, and 10 Charisma.  Standard checks are 1d20 equal to or under stat.  For HP rolling 4D6 drop lowest gives us a whopping 17 HP. 

Now to pick three abilities.  These are great and really sell the weird, desperate sorts that must contend with the horrors of the dungeon!  I'm going to roll 3 abilities on 1d6, rerolling duplicates, since there are only six currently and I want to see what kind of weird dungeon guy I roll up.  I get 1, 2, and 5.  

The first is a really handy extra attack/1d6 damage per round of fighting.  It's cool how you have to describe why you get the extra damage.  This has great roleplaying potential with the player explaining their character's method of fighting.  It could be a better understanding of weakspots, brutally attacking foes with pure ultra violence, using pocket sand to create an opening, etc.

The second result gives advantage in an area of expertise.  I'm going to randomly roll this one too and receive a bonus to dealing with mechanical devices.  Very handy!  The final ability is the power to see invisible beings and never be fooled by illusions.  It makes me think of the actor character from The Seventh Seal that possesses second sight.  I think I've basically rolled up a medieval "Rowdy" Roddy Piper from They Live.  Fantastic! 

Character advancement is purposefully not a thing, besides maybe getting one more ability.  It's a great call for a horror game like this where the maddening truth lurks in dangerous realms and characters can be made quickly.  Said madness comes in the form of Frenzy, which deals huge damage if it reaches the same score as your Wisdom stat.  Spells can be stored in your head by taking the burden of a number of Frenzy points per spell level.  Being a wizard is a risky game of juggling power and the possibility of having your head explode.  Great stuff.

Did I mention that one of the abilities includes always having a hidden knife?

Needless to say, I can't wait to see further updates!

Heroism (A Skill for LBB OD&D, LotFP, etc.)

"I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh.

I have been called a hundred names and will be called a

thousand more before the world goes dim and cold. 

I am hero." - Marathon 2: Durandal, Kill Your Television terminal.

Summary: The Dungeon Crawl Classics Deed Die or similar stunt system adapted to a rule more in line with the skill system and standard dungeoneering checks of OD&D, LotFP, and similar games.

Heroism is a skill innate to all fighters that allows them to perform feats of combat and stunts during adventuring.  It begins at 2 and must be rolled equal to or lower than on 1d6 to be successful.  

For combat, the stunt or deed must be declared before the attack roll.  The die should be rolled with the 1d20 during the attack, with both a successful skill check and hit required to perform the stunt.  Standard DCC stuff, basically.

Outside of combat, the Heroism skill can be used to perform feats of strength and other pulpy, action movie derring-do.  This absolutely includes kicking open those stubborn, evil dungeon doors.

It increases to 4 at Hero level and 5 at Superhero level.  Alternatively, if you want it to be a near surefire thing at Superhero level, increase it to 6 instead (requires two rolls of "6" in a row to fail!).

Notes: One cool thing about this is that it makes stats less important, which ties in well with LBB OD&D's design.  I imagine that this skill would be only for the human fighter class because of the valuable bonuses and skills given to the demi-human warriors.  However, you could instead reduce the Heroism skill score for demi-human warriors such as dwarves.  You do you.

I co-wrote a Stay Frosty supplement!

 

Slipgate Chokepoint is finally on DrivethruRPG!

Dungeon Madness

You can wield a Tommy Gun in IA.  It is badass.
Art by Waddany.

Infra Arcana is a wonderful little roguelike... well, not little.  It has thirty floors of ghouls, cultists, flying skulls, witches, oozes, zombies, and other things far worse.  You play an adventurer trying to find answers at the very bottom of a dungeon below a ruined church.  The game is highly lethal and bloody difficult.  Light and time are crucial but exploration of its floors, items and monsters is the only way to get experience points.  Note that you don't HAVE to fight any of the monsters.  You just have to observe them.  You have to play around the knowledge of where the stairway is and balance exploration and time.  It is these elements alone that really solidify the game in my mind as a great example of the OSR dungeon play style.  Treasures and exploration are the key, not straight up fighting the monsters.  The rogue class with the stealth skills is a superb character choice for this reason.  Fire and dynamite are fantastic but should be used carefully, much like in OSR D&D.

I should probably also mention that the game is basically Call of Cthulhu meets Old School D&D meets Blood and Evil Dead II.  If that's not enough of a pitch then I don't know what is.  I once blew Keziah Mason's head off with a pump action shotgun after dispatching Brown Jenkin with a knife to the spine.  Yes, the game is THAT good.  You can get it here.

Watch out for the Rat Things of the lower levels.  They are weak
but can ambush you in a swarm...

One of the very best mechanics is the sanity system.  The longer you stick around a dungeon floor, the more your stress levels begin to rise.  Once it is 100+ you must quickly lower it with light or some other means or suffer a permanent trait of madness.  Reaching the next floor resets your stress back to zero.  Monsters and other supernatural events (such as using magic) make your stress far worse.  I have written on sanity before so I'm not retreading that ground exactly.  What I find super interesting is the relationship between the dungeon and its maddening effect on adventurers who stay for far too long.  Here is one approach that does not require bookkeeping but keeps the fear of madness very palpable for the adventurers.

Failure to escape the dungeon by the end of the session will force the character to remain in the dungeon.  They will return to the party next session but their stay in the labyrinthine chaos that is the dungeon will have afflicted them with a form of Dungeon Madness.  Here are 1d4 examples of Dungeon Madness:

1. Babbling: You babble in an unfathomable language at the most inconvenient of times, loudly enough to alert nearby monsters.

2. Shadows: You are occasionally haunted in the dungeon by 1d3 per dungeon level humanoid shades.  Other former adventurers?  Your dead companions?  Who knows.  They will harass you and deal "damage" that wears you down but can never kill you.  Only you can see and suffer them.

3. Phobia: Roll on the wandering monster table for that dungeon level.  You now possess a phobia of that creature, for some reason, and must save versus fear to deal with them.

4. Nutty Room: You had taken a random empty room and lived in it for a while.  You were subsumed into the chaos of the dungeon and created a ghastly abode.  Revisiting the Nutty Room will trigger an inhuman impulse to continue to serve the dungeon and further "decorate" your lair (treat as a sort of Geas).  Save versus Nutty Room.  This relapse lasts only for the session and will generate tragic/amusing interactions with the rest of the party.     

Let's Attack Aggressively! (Stay Frosty Contra Hack)

Stay Frosty is an excellent military science fiction RPG by Casey G. that is 100% elegant and badass, 0% bullshit.  You can purchase the game here and I would highly recommend it. 

I have created a rules hack (for fun) that is inspired by the classic Contra run and gun games by Konami (back when they actually made video games).  You can access it by clicking on the code below: 

UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, START!

D8 OSR/D&Dable Things Inspired by Splatterhouse

Splatterhouse is a brilliant arcade side scrolling beat 'em up released in 1988 by Namco. It plays solidly and has similar gameplay to Irem's Kung-Fu Master (1984), but elevates itself by being stylistically both very gory and a wonderful love letter to 80s horror and slasher films. I would highly recommend this game to both fans of classic arcade action games and horror films such as Evil Dead II.

The cast of gruesome and ghoulish opponents that you have to punch, kick and, well, splatter are kickass, memorable and could definitely serve as inspiration for your D&D/OSR game of choice. Here are some examples:

1. Monsters that have their head fly at you after you attack the body (whether the body is actually destroyed or not) are fantastic, and when used can create a great surprise that will really give the players a very memorable and interesting encounter.

1D4 flying head attack types: 1. Standard try-to-bite-your-larynx-out attack. 2. Vampiric/Stirge type attack (attaches itself to victim, drains HP until victim is dead, will probably lead to Evil Dead II antics). 3. The head suddenly generates fire and its face melts off, flaming headbutts. 4. Long, prehensile tongue. Will try to trip up victims AT-AT style to assist its separated body in combat, pull victims towards them into a bite attack, and other such shenanigans.

These bastards are a prime example of 3. 

2. Hanged, bloated and rotting reanimated corpses that projectile vomit acidic bile at adventurers. When struck by weapons this corrosive bile will spill out of the wound which can damage weaponry and whoever struck the bloated zombie. These could be used as, for example, grotesque sentries placed by a necromancer outside of his/her lair or a cursed hanged man in the gallows of a haunted ghost-town.

3. A fleshy, worm shaped blob with the malformed face of a human in an expression of agony.

“WHAT THE HELL DOES IT WANT?”: 1D4: 1. To kill with it's acidic vomit and eat victims. 2. To die. 3. To absorb living things into its flesh and grow. 4. Revenge.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS IT?”: 1D4: A former heroic figure, twisted and warped by Chaos. 2. A failed attempt to replicate humankind by another race. 3. A relative of one of the PCs. 4. A noble's son/daughter who spurned the love of a witch/warlock and was cursed.

4. An incredibly strong but very visibly mutated humanoid clothed in rags and wearing a sack on its head. It has two huge swords embedded into the flesh where its hands once were. It feels only pain and constant frustration, and will lash out on anyone it senses nearby. Local rumours say that it is the result of a pact between the champion warrior of a tribe and the forces of Chaos in an attempt to gain the strength of a god-killing titan, but there may be another explanation.

Hope you brought two shotguns...

5. A holy symbol possessed by a malignant spirit that floats upside down and surrounds itself with flying, undead heads (1D6+2 heads when the symbol is encountered). It will launch a number, say 1D3, of these heads per round at the PCs and will attempt to put some distance between itself and the party. It can also, instead of launching heads, use its action to regain a similar number of heads. These things usually inhabit churches corrupted by unholy forces, and for bonus points you could make the holy symbol that of the god worshipped by the most Lawful cleric in the party.

6. The spirit of a serial killer and necromancer inhabits a body that is an eerie amalgamation of bones, with strands of rotting flesh, and a scarecrow with a greyed cloak and hat. It flies in the night, summoning the dead and seeking vengeance against its slayers. [1]

I'MMA GROOVIN'... HAH!

7. Maggot men. Near silent, creeping humanoid things with red eyes fully visible in complete darkness. Their lairs are caves or ruined places that are “infected”: womb like flesh grows over the walls and ceiling, from which the embryos of infant maggot men are secreted. The young will leave their embryos quickly when they touch the ground and attempt to swarm and cling to any intruders, dragging them down to either feed upon them or allow the fully grown maggot men guarding the lair to slay the victim easily.

At the heart of the lair is a heart like sac which is the source of the fleshy walls. Killing it will both stop the growth of the walls and the maggot men's means of reproduction. Some say that the “heart” sac and the resulting maggot men were created by the rituals of a powerful Muianomancer [2]. Others say that it was an angered deity of insects that cursed a sinful tribe long ago and that a maggot man both old and powerful enough, like a reverse butterfly, cocoons itself into a sac and grows as the new “queen” of the lair. Others simply do not want to know.

8. When the party finds the important NPC they need to kidnap/rescue/etc., have this happen to that NPC:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


[1] Excellent groovy tune is optional.

[2] A mage or conjurer of flies and fly-based sorcery, derived from Baal muian (βααλ μυιαν, "Baal of flies"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beelzebub