/OSR/ Old School Roleplaying General: Deadline Edition

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One last time...

Where can I go to get good graphs done up quick so I may submit the Dwarf Elder?

Rolled 1, 3, 3, 5, 1, 4, 5, 2, 6, 5, 2, 2, 1, 4, 1, 5, 1, 4 = 55 (18d6)

straight down

>>43609811

I dunno, man, I'd just throw them together myself. What are you graphing?

>>43609836

7, 10, 13, 9, 6, 10.

That 13 ain't half bad, but that's a pretty poor roll overall. You've got one +1 and two -1s. I'd let you shuffle him off to go live in town and roll again if you wanted.

Rolled 6, 2, 3, 1, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 2, 1, 6, 3, 3, 6, 4 = 72 (18d6)

>>43609836
STR 07
DEX 10
CON 13
INT 09
WIS 06
CHA 10

Uhhhh... he meets the requirements for 1e Thief

>>43609876
but who am I to turn down mercy?

>>43609905

There we go!

11, 10, 15, 13, 10 13
+0 +0 +1 +1 +0 +1

That's a pretty good roll, in the upper 10% of outcomes for 18d6. (Whereas the last one was in the bottom 15% or so, according to anydice)

>>43609905
STR 11
DEX 10
CON 15
INT 13
WIS 10
CHA 13

Mmm... Magic User! a hearty magic user

>>43609811
What kind of graph are you talking about? If you're talking about progression tables, you can do that in Microsoft Word, Open Office, or google docs.

If you're talking about some other graph, you're going to have to get specific.

>>43609876
I'm doing the character progression chart (exp req., saves, spells/day, extras). I have it all in my notes, but I don't want to just do it in paint or some shit.

Also, roll

Rolled 3, 6, 5, 1, 1, 6, 3, 4, 3, 1, 6, 5, 6, 2, 2, 1, 4, 2 = 61 (18d6)

>>43610015
Damn, now I roll

>>43609993
How do I do it in google docs? I've fiddled with it for maps before but that's all.
>>43610036
STR 14
DEX 8
CON 10
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 7

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>>43610064
open google drive
click on new
go to google sheets

So I'm really not a fan of spell levels as a concept, for the most part.

Is it too gamebreaking/dumb to just let Wizards lower any given spell slot they have to a lower spell slot for an emergency cast? It's not like they are gaining anything for doing it, in fact they are losing a bit of power for that matter.

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>>43610015

I use LibreOffice Calc for stuff like that.

It exports to google drive, and other stuff pretty well.

>>43610195
Yeah, I think that's fine.

So because rolling high is good, that means all those 1 in 6 chances are all rolling a 6 on a d6 right? 2 in 6 is 5 and 6, etc?

>>43610015
I'd use Excel because I'm sucker for fancy crap.

Alternatively you may try LibreCalc or "Sheets" in Googledocs.

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Rolled 5, 2, 1, 5, 3, 4, 5, 1, 1, 1, 5, 3, 5, 2, 3, 5, 3, 1 = 55 (18d6)

Also, rollan MU, because reasons.

>>43610195

It's a common houserule, and works out fine.

If you want to buff it a bit, let 'em trade at a 3 for 2 ratio, so one level 3 slot for on level 2, or 2 level ones.


>>43610359

Old school D&D isn't always "roll high." Sometimes you roll over, sometimes you roll under. It adds a baroque feel to things that some folks seem to like; it also lessens the impact of biased dice. If That Guy wants to load his D20, he can either be good at saving throws/combat and bad at attribute checks, or good at attribute checks but bad at combat/saving throws.

>>43610478
> Str 8, Dex 12, Con 7, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 9
I thought Con would be higher. But - yeah. That's him, all right.

>>43610444

Trips FTW lol.

ok so next you have your classes. Sick of this high damage shit, you get to roll d10 as fighter, d8 as rogue, d6 as wizard. Aso commoner niggaz get a d6. Roll add your con there you go.

When you level you get to roll your hit dice again, if you get max you also add your con bonus. I don't know about hat part anyway.

Small shit gets d4 hit die, or just 1 hp if tiny. Those shit can't do damage cept on a crit when they do 1 damage.

Medium shit gets d6 large shit gets d8 and so on. Hit dice = level, they are one and the same.

>>43610550

Next we have class features. Figure that shit out for yourself.

You get skill points. Don't groan bitch, I'm doing this right. You get your Not score in skill points, can put up to 5 in any skill. Then each time you level up you can increase a skill by 1. That's it.

I don't give a shit if OSR has skill checks because I don't want to have your gay ass roll under shit. Cross that shit out if you want, man, I dont give a shit.

>>43610610

Ok fine, like rogues get a d6 sneak attack damage when hey sneak on shit. Also everyone gets +5 to hit flatfooted shit. Why? SO THERES A REASON FOR PEOPLE TO AMBUSH SHIT SENPAI.

also you can do headshots at- 5 o hit for double damage. Cuz why not. GURPS had called shots and it's almost old enough to count as OSR. Again, said I didn't give a fuck what you think, these are my rules.

>>43610660
>Again, said I didn't give a fuck what you think, these are my rules.

Don't worry, nobody gives a fuck about your rules either.

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This thread got real cocky all of the sudden.

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Favorite OSR art?

>>43610660

Shit I didn't mean to type senpai , stupid auto correct.

Anyway fighters get combat machine cause that's cool as fuck. Clerics can heal like ten times their l er vel in lost hp per day. Or some proportional shit, I don't care.

Initiative is, you all roll d10 plus Dex, highest goes first, then you go clockwise round the table. Thats right son. Fck initiative order. I'm only keeping it in cause roll for initiative is such a big fucking part of DnD

Melee attack is strength plus hit dice vs AC. Fighters get +2, rogues get +0, rangers get +1, wizards get- 2.

Ranged attack is same thing but with Dex.

At 0 hp roll and add con bonus with d20. 10+ you live and are just unconscious,otherwise u dead son.

Also strength bonus on melee damage.

Thatsmost o it.

Oh yeah damage. This gonna be the last thing because my boss is coming in now that work is is over, and he's gonna be hella pissed that I did like fuck all today.

So dagger does d4, swords deal d6, and big ads two hand weapons like spear and threatened deal d8.
AC is 10 plus level plus Sex. I'll figure out this shit more at home and put it in a PDF for the next thread. So keep an eye out for it!!!!

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>>43610783
Anything EO.

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>>43610700
Don't feed the trolls. Just scroll right on by.

>>43610783
Ive always been a huge fan of the older art - like, the shit you can tell they brought in models in bad costumes to paint. The newer stuff is maybe more "sexy" but it always looks like it's being done through a lense of comic book, anime, or video game concept art. The older shit was just realistic enough that you could imagine it being real. My favorite piece? Pic related. It's the cover of one of a 2e splat, I think. But man, if ever there was an image that invited you to pretend you were there.

can someone moneyed buy the OSR+3 bundle of holding and put slumbering ursine dunes and fever dreaming marlinko into the trove??

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/OSR3

>>43610480
>Old school D&D isn't always "roll high." Sometimes you roll over, sometimes you roll under. It adds a baroque feel to things that some folks seem to like; it also lessens the impact of biased dice. If That Guy wants to load his D20, he can either be good at saving throws/combat and bad at attribute checks, or good at attribute checks but bad at combat/saving throws.

Ok, but still I'd like to know. Does the 1 in 6 chance dice try to roll high or low? Or does the person like 'call' what numbers they want?

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>>43610783
I like the dumbass architecture of this place.

>>43611096
I've always assumed "1-in-6" means you need to roll a 1. "2-in-6' means 1 or 2. I mean, you could do it the opposite way and assume 1-in-6 is a 6 or some arbitrary number, but that seems unnecessarily more complicated by comparison.

>>43610195
>lower any given spell slot they have to a lower spell slot for an emergency cast?
Wait... do you mean on the spot, spontaneous casting? Because if so, that's a significant power boost, particularly once you have high level spells. Sacrificing a memorized 5th level spell for your choice of any 4th level spell you know gives you much more flexibility. And hell, just being able to cast feather fall at will makes pits and so forth a shitload less scary.

If, however, you're asking whether it's okay to memorize lower level spells in higher level slots, that's commonly done, and might even be RAW in some editions, for all I can remember.

So guys. I just realized I may be playing the wrong game.

I switched to LotFP because I liked the deadlier/grittier feel to it and the crazy cthulhu magic. I also liked the idea that any class could wear armor/carry any weapon.

We also house ruled some other shit. After a while, we considered the idea of switching to a proficiencies style system instead of the d6s, so we lifted it from ACKS. We've added some stuff since then, but as it stands now..

Combat is still handled by AB vs AC, with HP being mostly ablative until you hit 0, then you take actual consequences/wounds. Any kind of task resolution that has to be rolled is rolled with a relevant ability score. Proficiencies you gain can give you additional or alternate abilities, or they can function as skills, increasing your odds of using an ability roll to do a thing. If you've taken stealth twice, it's ability+2 for your roll, etc.

I think we accidentally just re-invented the Warhammer Fantasy RPG, but without the career paths.

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>>43610783

>>43611118

I personally always run Wizards as having spontaneous magical casting.

People say its overpowered but I don't really think it is as long as you consider how spells are supposed to work and turn them back a bit. And balance doesn't really matter as much as people claim.

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I'm that potential newbie DM from that last thread.

I've since downloaded the basic fantasy RPG and been reading it over. Not quite as complicated or scary as I thought!

Is there an IRC people here hand out on, or is it mostly just the thread?

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>>43612355
>Is there an IRC people here hand out on, or is it mostly just the thread?

Wut?

>>43612569
hang out

>>43612355
It's mostly this thread. There's some forums out there, but this is the place you will probably get feedback the fastest.

>>43612355
most of the people who hang out here are here basically always. If you want any feedback, you'll be sure to get it posting here.

>>43612569
those are eyes of the killer

Can we get an AD&D discussion going? For being one of (if not THE) most popular edition historically, it doesn't seem to get much love in these threads.

Who's playing AD&D?

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>>43610882
desu, a lot of the clutter of old school D&D is an atrocity game design-wise, but it says a lot when you put out a system that has even worse design than that.

Help me, /osr/! You're my only hope!

How do I brew up stats/bonus and negatives for new races? I don't want to make them too strong or too weak!

>>43613146
I'm going to be starting an AD&D game (running GDQ eventually down the line with it). Shit's cash.

>>43613390
is it a case were you can't reskin an existing class?

>>43613412

I wasn't using race-as-class and yes, I would want something different then a dwarf, elf, or halfling.

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>Dwarf
Leper

>Elf
Occultist (made a pact with something)

>Halfling
Urchin

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So I'm a pretty big fan of some of the oldschool stuff, but reading the more newer stuff I saw how the 'specalist' class was phased out and replaced with a thief wholesale.

Is there a reason for this? Is it because thievery and related skills are too useful to not take? Has anyone here played an expert/specialist class that wasn't just a straight thief? Does anyone recommend it?

>>43613984
>how the 'specalist' class was phased out and replaced with a thief wholesale.
What newer stuff are you talking about?

>>43614001

2e and onwards plus Modern retroclones. It's just a trend I noticed that I'm sure others have too, I just want to understand it better.

>>43613984
Don't you mean the other way around? Like, some newer stuff has phased out the thief in favour of some manner of skill monkey.

>>43612704
I take it you haven't seen the movie.

Rolled 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 5, 2, 1, 3, 6, 2, 1, 2, 4, 1, 2, 4, 3 = 47 (18d6)

Let's go.

>>43614595

6, 10, 6, 9, 7, 9
-1 +0 -1 0 -1 +0

Wow, a 47 point total, that's a new low roll for the thread. Odds of going lower than that are 1.09%, according to anydice!

>>43614595
STR: 6
DEX: 10
CON: 6
INT: 9
WIS: 8
CHA: 9

Oh boy.

>>43614595
please, the caves of chaos are off limits to kids

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QUICKLY!

I NEED TO KNOW EVERYTHING YOU CAN TELL ME ABOUT THE ELVEN COURT.

I'm a Halfling Rogue playing AD&D 2e. What should I expect?

>>43614733
As in the elven legal system? Or like the elven royal court?

>>43614760
Elven Royal court, I think? The way the DM mentioned it made it sound like an entire realm.

I'm just joining the game and that's where the other players happen to be.

>>43614733
>>43614801

Which setting? Dragonlance? Mystara? Narrowing it down might help.

>>43614801
Well, there are actually four elven courts, with four kings and four queens, one for each season. As the seasons change the current king and queen will go to sleep, and the next king and queen will wake up.

>>43614821
I'm not actually sure. There's a body of water called the Moonsea

>>43614847
Yeah, this is what I thought he was getting at.

>>43614861
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Moonsea
hmm?

>>43614894
>http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Moonsea
Yeah, this is definitely it. I recognize some other places.

>>43614861

You're in the Forgotten Realms. You can check out the wiki.

http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Elven_Court

Be aware that your GM has probably reworked the Realms to reduce the influence of Ed Greenwood's DMPCs and fetish wanking or at least I hope he did/spoiler] so that may not be 100% true for your group's game.

>>43614949
Okay so using this I've now oriented myself on the map in relation to where their game started.

The DM mentioned that the characters were lost outside of their own time. Is this normal?

How shall I justify my character being there for them to meet?

>>43614971

> Is this normal?

Maybe for your campaign, I don't know. I'd say just go with it.

>How shall I justify my character being there for them to meet?

The DM will plop you down somewhere plausible, I'd expect.

>>43615049
I'll think of something

>>43615061

Talk it over with your DM, he may have something planned out to get you together with the party.

>>43615084
Will do, I'm just trying to come up with ideas before he gets off work

>>43610783
pretty much anything from Peter Mullen

>>43611088
I might do that for those as well as Weird Adventures and Strange Stars as well, is there anything else in it or the first one that isn't in the trove since I got both of them

>>43611178
sounds like what a lot of people's house rules in the 80's and early 90's were like to be honest

>>43613146
well 1E is kinda a mess, and 2E is more complicated than most people like to deal with around here, so that's part of the reason why OD&D and BX/BECMI/RC D&D and their clones are way more popular around here

>>43613984
I think you mean the exact opposite of this. The class was always thief in every edition - OD&D, all versions of Basic, AD&D1e. In 2e, the thief class remains, but it is under the umbrella of the Rogue group.

It doesn't become anything other than Thief until 3e, at which point it becomes Rogue instead.

The only retroclone I've seen change it was LotFP, which replaces it with Specialist - in part because LotFP's class is broader and more flexible, allowing it to represent a thief, ranger, etc.

>>43615652
>well 1E is kinda a mess, and 2E is more complicated than most people like to deal with around here
It's not that it's too complicated; it's that it's needlessly and inefficiently complicated.

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okay so someone posted this character sheet in the previous thread, anyone know where to find where it originally came from?(they mentioned Google Plus, but searching for it only brought up religious right wing nutjobs)

>>43616436
I've seen it on G+ before. It's someone's LotFP homebrew.

>>43613146
I killed my players recently, gonna be starting at level 1 next week.

>>43616627
>I killed my players recently, gonna be starting at level 1 next week.
>killed my players
>players

You're gonna be starting your time in JAIL next week, I'd think.
Unless you meant you killed your players' CHARACTERS.

>>43616599
mind linking to it if you can?

>>43617125
It was a while ago. I wouldn't even know. Your best bet might be scrolling through the LotFP G+ group.

>>43616886
Nah, I wouldn't sweat it. There's always more players.

>>43614595
>>43614668
>STR: 6
>DEX: 10
>CON: 6
>INT: 9
>WIS: 8
>CHA: 9

ezpz, just be a magic-user and stay in the back for a while

>>43615652
If you got both bundles it would be awesome if you could throw up Demonspore too.

Thanks money anon!

can someone share any castles and crusades link? namely the PHB

>My players and I have another DM run a game for us
>He claims that his game is hardcore and that we shouldn't be surprised if we die
>My players pick out every trap and avoid every combat

I trained them well.

AD&D 2e player here, new to these threads. Looking for something similar to 2e but more lightweight and modular. Any suggestions?

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>>43617558
Read the spoilers in the OP, dude.

>>43617637
You must be so proud, seeing them all grown up.

>>43617928
I heard Swords and Wizardry complete has some parallels, I never played AD&D myself but I just ordered the S&W book cus its cool

PDF is free online legally too

>>43617928
If you haven't tried Moldvay Basic, give it a whirl. A lot of people start with moldvay and then just bolt on what they like from later editions.

If you want a retroclone that is both lighter than 2e but has some of the bells and whistles, pick up Labyrinth Lords. The core book is a Basic clone, but they have an Advanced book that does what a lot of people are doing now - using Basic as the core engine, and then adding the cool parts of AD&D.

Adventurer, Conqueror, King is another clone that is similar to AD&D in a lot of ways, but simpler. It's also widely heralded as having one of the better (if not best) campaign/domain management systems in it.

>>43618560
I'll give these a look. Thanks for the help. The trove is also great.

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Is there a way to streamline saving throws? I hate the face there is this big ass table for it, why can't saving throws just be 'roll under CON' or 'roll under DEX' or something?

>>43618815

You can do that, but it makes stats more important, and your class training less important. (A wizard with high DEX will be better at dodging arrow traps than a thief with a lower DEX, for instance)

I've got my own system rigged up which has the average of two stats' modifiers per save, and class bonuses that drive save advances.

>>43618892

Perhaps the level modifier/character class a modifier to stats, then? Or just the stat modifier adding to the saving throws, but doesn't really stop the trouble of needing the extra table. Naturally I like the stat based system, at least, because then you can have fun saving throws that are different from the others such as Strength as a saving throw to stop the iron gate from slamming down on your body, or an intelligence saving throw to stop reading a cursed passage, or a wisdom saving throw to stop going in circles. Of course these are covered by Save v Magic, but kind of cool to have stats play a bigger part.

Also I should mention that I've heard a lot of talk about stats being less important in oldschool DnD, hence why it is randomly generated, but HOW less important are stats really? I'd like to know.

>>43618968

Attribute checks were not even a core part of the rules for quite a while, that's how unimportant they were.
High stats (>12) would give a slight bonus to a couple of things, while low stats (<8) would give you a small penalty, but a lot of things were based on your class rather than your stats.

It did pay to have a high stat for your prime requisite, as you'd gain a bonus to experience to represent your character's deftness at his job.

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So I'm a GM who is a big fan of heavy homebrew, rules lite narrative games, I adore special snowflakes, etc.

The thing is, I want to start investing time and mental energy into a more concrete, down to earth format such as the classics in order to both attract a wider player base and to hone my skills, learn from new experiences.

Does anybody here have any ideas on how you could safely or without too much issue add in small character traits or bonuses at character creation? Things like auspicious birthmarks and heterochromia are fine enough and easy to say is simply there, but what about innate magical abilities? Specialist skills beyond the norm? Strange helpers and luck? Mutations or curses/blessings?

Could these be adjudicated using a starting experience point penalty? Maybe a lowering of a state (they have to roll 3d6 drop lowest for a 2 dice low stat)? Sacrificing starting gold? Social stigma? What?

I know the purpose of crawl style games is character death, but I really enjoy characters who have at least one thing seriously wrong with them, in a good or bad way would depend on the character.

>>43619537

I'm playing about with the idea of a table to roll on for some unique trait or boon for your character.
The problem is coming up with a big list of fun things to put on it.

>>43619562

Why not write a shit ton down and add them to the fanmagazine so people can use them?

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Saw this in another thread.

Could this work as a ruleset for an OSR game, or maybe is it TOO simple?

>>43618560
>>43617928
I don't think there's much in the way of retroclones that are specifically modular, though it's usually easy enough to replace a subsystem in one with that from another. Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion isn't a bad suggestion--it's essential 1st edition stripped of some of the clutter to bring the core system a bit closer to Basic, while retaining the class and spell options of AD&D. You might also want to check out Castles & Crusades, which is AD&D streamlined and modified to use the unified d20 mechanic of new school D&D (and then tweaked a fair amount to boot).

Rolled 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, 6, 4, 4, 6, 6, 2, 6, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 3 = 75 (18d6)

>>43609551
Rollan.
Watch Curtis the Cripple appear!

>>43619649

That's a good idea, but like I said, the problem is actually coming up with a big list of things.

>>43619714
>Str 14
>Dex 12
>Con 14
>Int 14
>Wis 10
>Cha 10
Hm.
That's an excellent spread.
>He's called Curtis the Cripple because he's gong to cripple you.
Any suggestions?
Any Fighter derivative might work.

>>43619714

14, 12, 14, 14, 10, 11
+1 +0 +1 +1 +0 +0

Hardly a cripple. With 75 points you're in the top 6% of rolls.

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>>43618815
Castles & Crusades uses stat-based saving throws. Of course, it's also one of the two big things that C&C fucks up (the other being the ridiculously expansive equipment list (11 kinds of helmets, 25 types of armor, etc.). In old school D&D, saving throws were designed to get easier and easier to make, to make higher level characters more resilient (in parallel with hit points), and to help counterbalance the growing power of high level casters. In C&C, saving throws against a caster of your same level remain very difficult to make, regardless of how high you get. And yes, the ability to easily target your weak saving throws (something you mostly lack in old school D&D) plays a role in this, but mainly it's just the fact that the challenge level of spells increase at the same rate as people's saving throws. (The solution, by the way, is to do something like only adding half a caster's level to his spells' challenge levels, though that's kind of beside our point here.)

Having saving throws be raw attribute checks would create gaps much too wide for casters to exploit. Basing them on attribute modifiers is much more viable, but you have to be very careful that the bottom end (people's weakest saves) don't make them too vulnerable. In essence, you want to balance saving throws more by the bottom than the top end. Still, I approve of the idea of moving to an attribute-based system, though this may, in turn, put stress on your attribute-generation system, further rewarding folks who roll well. At this point, you may want to consider a fairer way for determining your attributes, like a random (or even a non-random) array or card draw (where you substitute 18 carefully-selected cards in place of dice, so that everybody gets the same cards and same attribute total, only in different arrangements).

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>>43618968
>Or just the stat modifier adding to the saving throws, but doesn't really stop the trouble of needing the extra table.
Old school saving throws advance at about the rate of 1 point for every two levels, so you could just standardize it to that. Basically, give starting scores for you saving throws, and just tell people to add the appropriate attribute modifier, and half their character level to that. If you wanted to keep it really simple, you could give saving throws a flat base number across all the classes (plus attribute modifiers), but each class would have a few areas of specialty, in which they'd get the better of two saving throw rolls.

Anyway, pic is the categories for Castles & Crusades saving throws.

How do you make two characters of the same class different and interesting?

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>>43620175
Backgrounds (possibly cemented through something like 2e's secondary skills). I also think that attributes can help, but that requires that they not be de-emphasized like they normally are in old school (which begs for a fairer method of attribute generation, like mentioned in >>43619832).

Rolled 3, 4, 2, 6, 1, 3, 5, 2, 6, 4, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 5, 2 = 56 (18d6)

straight down, managed to fuck up my last post i hope no one saw that

>>43616886
I take it you never read the "How to hide the bodies" supplement.

>>43618815
Check Swords & Wizards. They've streamlined STs quite a bit (1d20+level vs DC 16 IIRC; different classes get additional static bonuses).

>>43620304
That's a good point. Swords & Wizardry has a single category saving throw, which you could either leave as-is, or modify with the appropriate modifier. In the latter case, I'd improve saving throws by maybe a point to compensate for being able to target enemies' weaknesses, but only if most things you run into have a negative attribute modifier that's fairly obvious (allowing you to target it).

Rolled 3, 3, 3, 5, 2, 1, 3, 4, 6, 3, 1, 4, 6, 4, 6, 6, 1, 6 = 67 (18d6)

Straight down, here's hoping for a good CON.

>>43620457
STR 9
DEX 8
CON 13
INT 8
WIS 16
CHA 13

Well, then. Hardy and charismatic wandering holy man it is. Join my snake cult religion, people.

What if you made spells take a number of rounds to cast equal to their spell level? Or is that already a rule? I swear I heard it somewhere.

>>43620501
Completely ignoring the affect it would have on caster power in combat, people playing casters would get really bored, especially at higher levels.

Round 1: I cast cone of cold!
Round 2: ...
Round 3: ...
Round 4: ...
Round 5: Okay, roll damage.

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>>43620558

Ah ha! And this is why you shake things up a bit.

You may always waste a higher level spell slot to speed up a spell by 1 round per level up. So you can cast a Cone of Cold using a 7th level spell slot to get it out 2 rounds earlier, or taking 3 Rounds total.

THEN you can add on that fantastic little wand you've been carrying around. Wands are magical conduits of energy, are they not? They add a -1 Round speed bonus too. Now its down to 2 Rounds.

BUT we haven't got to the heart of the issue yet. You see, just as each character has ability scores and certain talents that define them, so to do magic users have certain talents that define THEM as well. Every spell they learn and come in contact with is a new experience for them, and if they be naturally skilled with one spell they may be a total dolt with another.

As such when THIS Wizard learned Cone of Cold, he may have rolled high and ended up being talented with it, or being taught the fundamentals of the spell from a very skilled master. As such, he can bring it out 1 turn earlier. Now we have a 1 Round Cone of Cold!

I can see this working, and I can also see Wizards taking a lot of thought and effort to reducing their spell casting time to reasonable levels.

>>43620501
>cast equal to their spell level
At least half (round down) of spell level. There is no point in 4+ round long spells.

>>43620175
Play them until they've developed individuality and interest.

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>>43620175
>How do you make two characters of the same class different
Kill one of them.

>>43620591
You seem to have invented a system for leaving magic-users at the exact same power level but irritating the shit out of them. I think it's likely better to just cut the power level down unambiguously.

>>43620684

Rounding down sounds fun, smaller numbers is usually better.

>>43620787

You know I really don't see how it's the same. The above example was just that, an example. If you use the half and round down example instead, then the spell could instead be a 1 turn spell if you have a focus, or a 2 turn spell without modifiers. Even a really badass 8th level spell would be 4 turns, so you got some charge up time for releasing the pain!

Would fit the whole 'mage as artillary' thing people go on about, at least.

>>43614733
They're elves. Kill as many as you can. Rape the rest.

>>43620175

The Plinkett test, anon.

Think about the main characters from the original Star Wars trilogy, and the ones from the prequels.
Pick one from each set of movies.
Now try to describe them without referring to their appearance, names, tools, vehicles, or what they do.

You can do it for the original trilogy, because the characters had actual personalities. The prequel characters, however, are empty vessels layered with lots of shiny stuff.

You can apply this to RPG characters, as well. Mechanics and powers and racial abilities and stuff don't make the character, it's their personalities. Give 'em a character trait or two. A manner of interacting with the world. Add a flaw.
You don't have to do this all right at the get-go, either. Let it come out in play, as you go.

I remember one time my friends and I played an all-thief game in 1e. We all had similar abilities (though each was a bit better at their thing) but we almost all had memorable characters anyway.

>>43621610
So much edge, anon. Are you secretly Minbari Understanding?

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Does anyone have a good B/X DM screen? Was there ever an official one?

I found a couple through Google but they weren't very good.

Something that matches the original typefaces and formatting would be nice.

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>>43624168
I made one a while ago (attached). I also have a version with the original typeface, but I will have too look it up on my home computer (will post it later).

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We've got an AD&D 2e game going that just had its cleric dropped and never really had a wizard to begin with. Would anyone be interested in joining in?

It's not the most old-school, nor the most serious, of games out there, but it might still have a guy or two dying eventually I dunno.

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>>43620886

>Type this up when I go to sleep so I can wake up and read responses; hammer this shit out
>No responses

>>43625437

Well, it seems like a workable house rule to me. I don't see anything obviously wrong to call out on it; I'd say playtest that sucker and see how it goes.

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>>43625496

I would include a few more houserules to it to improve it and make it easier.

First is charging up. The mage can build up the magical energy to cast spells BEFORE he chooses what spell to cast, which improves his options. However he is contaminated with extra magical energy if he doesn't use it, which could result in contamination or makes him more obvious as a mage, etc.

Second; you could probably snap-cast a spell faster then normal, but with a penalty to how it works, or every enemy gets a much easier time on the saving throw, etc.

However the BIG thing I need to know from the thread is do people make Magic require a roll by the magic user? Or do people prefer the old school casting doesn't fail sort of thing?

Does Rolemaster, MERP count as OSR?

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>>43624168
>>43624627
and here we are

>>43625849
You could make an arguement for it chronologically, but the playstyle people are usually referring to is very different, IIRC

>>43626500
This is almost perfect, thanks.

A few niggles (cut-off "y"s, "Asjustment", "601-800coins").

Please fix these! If the tables are correct, this is easily the best B/X screen.

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I want to GM an OSR game, but I'm not very familiar with the old school mentality or the various retroclones. Are there any resources for a newbie?

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>>43626988

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>>43626988
>>43627074
Also The Old School Renaissance Handbook.

It's too big to post, but it's under "OSR Misc" in the trove as "Old School Renaissance Handbook.pdf".

It has a matrix of common features and differences between various retroclones, followed by summaries of each.

>>43626909
Thanks for pointing this out: I'll fix it :)

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>>43627328
and there we are!

has there ever been a good mass combat system for OSR?

Bonus round: Is there a version that doesn't effectively just wind up playing a tabletop wargame instead?

>>43628406
Has there ever been a good mass combat system, one that doesn't just end up a tabletop wargame, period?

>>43628406
ACKS is bad?

>>43628492
Eh. You mean like a card game?

>>43628527
> ACKS is bad?
I'm not really familiar with it. Does it follow the "pause the RPG for a moment, we're going to move some units around the table like a wargame" setup?

>>43628682
>"pause the RPG for a moment, we're going to move some units around the table like a wargame"
It's called "DnD". Granted, most of the time you can survive without battlemat, but the idea is always there.

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So I was reading swords and wizardry white box, and while I am liking it so far, I came to this table.

Why do clerics, magic users, and rogues all have a to hit bonus at certain levels? Isn't that kind of the warrior's thing? And they aren't even that much lower then the warrior's bonuses; what gives?

>>43629142
Clearly, D&D is not an RPG. Gotcha.

>>43629247
They all get better at hitting things, the fighter gets better at hitting things faster.

>>43629247
A Super Hero (8th-level Fighting Man) fights as a Superhero - that is to say, they fight as eight men in Chainmail.
A Warlock (8th-level Magic-User) fights as a Hero, or four men.

In the alternate combat system, both start at THAC0 10 and get +2 to-hit at certain levels - every third for Fighting-Men, every fifth for Magic-Users.

Swords & Wizardry White Box is an OD&D clone, which in turn was somewhat based on Chainmail where Wizards could actually fight somewhat decently (and would be terrifying if actually translated to OD&D, but never mind that. At-will spells 2stronk.)

>>43628406
I like BECMI's Companion's War Machine. It's surprisingly rules-light once you're prepared and know what the armies are like, and you could probably play it in "Theatre of the Mind" if you really wanted to.

It probably works better with a proper hex map, though. And there's probably something better out there if you want more meat to it.

>>43629314
Combat in D&D tends to be the point where the roleplaying pauses and the tactical squad-based wargame starts, yeah.

>>43629403
> Combat in D&D tends to be the point where the roleplaying pauses and the tactical squad-based wargame starts, yeah.
I've actually not had that issue, to be honest. It probably helps that we play pretty fast and loose, and go theater of the mind for everything. Lots of stunts and narrative flair.

How do you deal with skills?

I was thinking in searching for traps. Supposing that they are hidden and that looking for traps should be a function of the skills of the character, just as hitting another dude should be a function of the character's combat skills, how do you solve it?

LotFP gives a straight 1d6 for everyone, unless you're a specialist and put some points on that skill. That sounds kind of lame.

>>43629491
I just give everyone a base chance at finding traps and other hidden things, only thieves have it better and can further improve it with levels.

I forgot to add that I'm mainly interested in character skills, but with a focus on searching. Your stabs at skills in general are interesting to me.

>>43629566
Please specify.

>>43629491
>That sounds kind of lame.
That's because the OSR method is for trapfinding to be a player-side thing, anon.

>>43627074 has some pages on it near the beginning. Sounds like that method might not be for you, though.


See also: the idea that "if you need to roll you have already failed", and saves/thief skills being a lifeline when you've fucked up.

Also, for character skills in general 1d20-roll-under-stat is pretty decent.

>>43629315
>>43629366

So from this, at least in the white box, that means that besides the above table a Warrior's special stuff is;
>No armor or weapon restrictions
>Adds strength to attack AND damage bonus
>Gets to roll 1 attack per 1 HD enemy in a fight
>Biggest hit dice

That sounds about right. Is that all?

>>43629603
Thief's base chance at finding traps is 5%, plus bonuses by race and high dexterity if applicable. And he can improve it by up to 15% every level. A character class other than thief can give a try in something similar, but with greatly reduced odds.

I have similar mechanics for picking pockets and moving silently. The core book already has something like that going on for detecting noise and climbing walls, so it's not much of a stretch.

Should a player character end up using these skills a lot, they might even be considered to have enough experience and training to pick up a level of thief, possibly taking this as the springboard to further advance on the career of larceny. (Similarly, if they exercise and bash in a lot of heads, they might gain some fighter training. I'm generally rather more lax about multi- and dual-classing than RAW is.)

>>43629491
If you assume that looking for traps is a function of the skills of the character, then you're going to want to at least add a trap-finding score. I mean, fighters get a good attack score, and wizards get lots of spells, so there should be some sort of class that's uniquely good at finding traps...

Oh hey, check it out, that's what specialists get. Look at you, reinventing the wheel.

>>43629740
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I'm aware of the specialist niche, but having non-specialists have a flat 16% chance of finding stuff sounds a bit surreal to me.

>>43629697
That's the thief's chance, right? That's a flat "Thieving skills" chance, correct?

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>>43629491
Thieves get their special abilities, other people have to actually search for traps.

>"I search for traps!"
>"All right, what do you do?"

If opening a chest triggers the trap and they open the chest, they trigger the trap.

If there's a pressure plate and they prod it with a pole, it sets off the trap harmlessly and then they can go on.

>>43629669
Also, they have the fastest progression for to-hit and saves. +2/3 vs. +2/4 might not look that big, but it's noticeable.

Also also, IIRC the best magic weapons in OD&D are all swords?

Do note how all of this is for OD&D rather than White Box, though, since I don't know how much that retroclone changed. (Does it have psionics, for instance? 'Cause OD&D psionics is actually kind of interesting.)

>>43629840
>having non-specialists have a flat 16% chance of finding stuff sounds a bit surreal to me.
That's just if they don't roleplay it out, anon.

Really, it's because back in Ye Olde Days traps went off 1-in-6 so that's the chance of finding them when poking them with Ye Olde 10ft Pole.
You can also find them through other methods, like pouring water on the ground to see depressions, carrying a canary with you to spot gas pockets, poking a spear into the orb of darkness in the demon's face to see if it's an Orb of Annihilation, making sure not to open a chest bare-handed, etc.

Which book in the trove is the core book needed to run LotFP?

>>43630267
"LotFP Rules and Magic.pdf"

So even though all the retro clones are extremely similar in how they actually sparse things out or make sense of them, as well as many of the numbers and features, they all also seem to have slightly different spell growth tables for casters and clerics. What gives?

>>43629247
>Isn't that kind of the warrior's thing? And they aren't even that much lower then the warrior's bonuses; what gives?
I don't like the Cleric to-hit progression compared to the Fighter's either, and it's something I houserule. But what gives is essentially that, unlike in neo-D&D where AC and to-hit matters almost to the exclusion of HP, AC kinda-sorta maxes out naturally in the old-school editions and so it's less important relative to HP totals.

TL;DR the fighter's thing isn't just his attack bonus but also his greater HP.

Oh, oh! And I almost forgot, but the access to all magic weapons, as well. Because magic swords are the bulk and the best of magic weapons, and Clerics don't get access to them, they're basically a hidden Fighter class feature in a way: one which not only gives superior attack bonuses but potentially also things like wishes, limited level drain or the ability to fly.

>>43630334
Thanks.

Coming from Basic should expect many major changes? Looking now, and it already looks nicer for level 1 Magic-Users.

>>43630473
>they all also seem to have slightly different spell growth tables for casters and clerics. What gives?
Various wonk. Labyrinth Lord were afraid of being sued, so they changed stuff on the margins about the numbers. Raggi has his own ideas about how magic should work so he fit his stuff to those. And so on.

>>43630601
Not huge, but they're bigger than it might seem, if you're already a Basic player some of it might take you by surprise. For example, only Fighters gain higher attack bonuses as they level. Dwarves are HP tanks, there are no damage dealing spells, there are no weapon or armor restrictions either, and the Specialist is very distinct from a standard Thief.

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Here's what's been asked for so far.

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Plus maps for the previous.

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More comin'.

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And the map.

So, what sort of alignments do people like?

Lawful, Neutral Chaotic?
Good, Neutral, Chaos?
3x3 Alignment grid?

>>43631164
LNC, all the way.

>>43631164
Personal favorite is the LotFP system. I was never a fan of alignment in general, because it doesn't seem like a particularly good model for human personalities (is that barbarian tribe chaotic for its "uncivilized" nature and emphasis on personal achievement, or lawful for its strict honor codes and emphasis on tribal identity and tradition?) When you package it in the way LotFP does, it becomes more palatable for me - Law and Chaos are active cosmic forces of the universe that have nothing to do with personality or society. Chaotic creatures are the ones inherently touched by the Other - arcane magic, lovecraftian nonsense. Chaos is the unmaking - it defies the very law of reality. Law is almost exclusively the domain of clerics, as they have aligned themselves with the gods themselves.

>>43630666
>>43630714
>>43630767
>>43630788
Fucking sweet.

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Let's try that again.

First time GM here. Never ran a DnD game before, so I'm pretty nervous, but I want to try.

Anyone interested?

>>43631309
You'd have better luck with a gamefinder thread

DMs are usually in short supply iirc

>>43631309
Details? - what time? text RP or voice? Skype or Team Speak? Roll20? of slightly lesser importance - what are you planning to run?

>>43631347

true, I was gonna try there too but I thought people here might have 'first choice' so to speak.

>>43631357

Oops, forgot that. Currently I'm just planning the game out, but I was thinking of mid week (wednesdays, Thursdays, and fridays), text preferred, and I was either gonna run it in roll20 or Rolz.

As for the game itself, probably White Box Swords and Wizardry. Has most of the stuff I'm into.

Who is into Exemplars and Eidolons here? How does it play?

>>43631427

Well anyway, I'd like to chat with any potential players on IRC.

Rizon- OSR
Let's see what we get?

>>43631757
I haven't fooled with IRC, honestly. Do you have any specific plans as to what kind of game you want to run? Sandbox, mega dungeon, plot-based, etc?

>>43633873

Sadly, due to my lack of experience I'm not 100% sure what kind of game to run but I'm thinking something with smaller dungeons/adventurers connected by a plot, if that makes sense. I'd probably start people off with a simple type of dungeon with encounters, maybe with a railroad for why they start there but otherwise I'd like the players to do their own thing if they so wish.

>>43634234
>I'd probably start people off with a simple type of dungeon with encounters, maybe with a railroad for why they start there

If you'd rather not railroad, try the Dungeon World routine - drop 'em in the scene ("The doors of the dungeon slam shut behind you, and you hear the worried men on the other side barring them tight") and then ask 'em how they wound up here. Did they volunteer? Were they shanghaied or tricked or sentenced?
Stuff like that. If they come up with a really good idea about the dungeon, steal it and pretend it was your idea all along.

>>43634285

Awesome, I like the idea.

Alternatively, in order to introduce a stranger setting I usually run, I might have then go through the dungeon normally but realize upon exiting that it isn't quite where they came in at. A foreign land.

I'm planning a sandbox, but I'm struggling to find shit to actually populate it with. Once you start plugging things in, it's hard not to start repeating yourself. I deliberately want to avoid building a metaplot to drag the players along, but I'm spinning my wheels.

What do you guys do with this stuff?

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>>43635517

I'm slogging along with the same thing. Here's what I've learned from talking to others:

>Make lots of tables
Random tables can be used to fill out areas as the players visit them. Rolling a certain number may indicate they just stumbled upon a lair of giant spiders, for instance -- now there's something to note about the hex.

>Steal from other sources

Grab some modules and dungeons and things, and put bits of them in your map.

>Don't build too far out at first

Horses are expensive. Travel by foot is slow. Resources cost money. Wandering monsters tables make things dangerous.
All that adds up to the fact that parties will likely not be traveling more than a day away from home base in the early levels.
Don't build much of the high danger stuff in the further wilderness beyond until it comes up.


>Build stuff and don't place it

Related to "steal from other sources" and "make lots of tables" is to build out small weird locations and encounters and just set them aside. If players wind up in some weird place where you don't have much to throw at them, pull one of those out and have them run smack into it.

Have a simple set of rules somebody built for placing monster lairs off a table. I plan on using something like this myself.

What if I replace all saving rolls with a percentile roll under hit points/max hit points?

>>43635773
Wouldn't that basically just mean that the character with the highest HP was the best at everything?

Also, a 9th level fighter in D&D has an average of 40HP before con, and even with a +3 mod you're looking at 67 total.. so still not great odds to actually do something at what is essentially end-game.

By comparison, the d4 HD classes will have an average of 27HP at level 9.

>>43635773
d100 is much too big. (difficulty)d10, maybe, and that favors Constitution yet again.

If Hit points are an abstract representation of your survivability, why does only CON give you a bonus? Don't the other ability scores increase your chances of survival, too?

>>43635882

It doesn't make much sense why Strength would add to your TO HIT instead of damage either.

It's an abstraction, I believe HP to be an abstraction but you still bleed when you get hurt. Minor injuries instead of deadly ones, who getting bashed with a hammer. Even in the arm covered with platemail, still gonna hurt a bit.

>>43635773
For Basic D&D, you could do Hit Dice Size + 1/2 Level (to a max of HD Size + 10 at level 20, assuming your game goes that high) or under on a d20. Thus, if you were a 3rd level cleric, you'd have a save of 6 (HD of d6) + 3 (level 3) = 9. I'm not sure that having things based directly on HD / HP is the way to go, but this method should be much more viable than d% vs. max hit points.

>>43635912
> It doesn't make much sense why Strength would add to your TO HIT instead of damage either.
Something I was thinking about the other day, actually. It makes way more sense for all To Hit rolls to be modded by dex, with strength modifying damage. I've considered changing it in my homebrew, but I wonder if that wouldn't get people all kinds of mad. It seems like such an ingrained assumption.

>>43635912
>It doesn't make much sense why Strength would add to your TO HIT instead of damage either.
But it's not instead of; it's in addition to. And yeah, it is a bit wonky, but it helps to realize that being stronger means that you can change your weapon's direction faster and/or batter your way through your opponent's guard. Also, as we see with AC, making a successful attack roll isn't just about making contact with your target, but hitting him well enough to do damage.

>>43636045
Strength and Dexterity are both fairly powerful in combat (all of the physical stats are), but this would be like lopping off half of Strength and adding it to Dexterity, making the latter something like 3x more powerful than the former (Strength at 50%, Dexterity at 150%). That's a bit of a balance issue.

If you want to do something like that, you really have to split Dexterity into two scores, maybe something like Agility and Reflexes, with the latter modifying AC and the former attacks (whether missile or melee). But that still leaves you with a greatly weakened Strength stat. And maybe you could lump that in with Constitution (call it Brawn, or something), except now Constitution is too powerful (Constitution is at ~150%, while Agility and Reflexes are at ~75%).

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These really should have been submitted at in the thread's first few posts. Maybe they'll snag a few latecomers.

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>>43630648
>there are no damage dealing spells
>there are no weapon or armor restrictions either

I am skeptical but intrigued by how well this will work out.

>>43636213
>>43636221
I've got a handful of submissions in my email already. If you haven't sent them, send them on in. I may or may not have caught them if they were posted in thread - but everything that's in my inbox will be thrown to the editors. Work officially begins on Monday.

Contributors - don't forget to mention your bylines if you want them. Otherwise I assume it's listed as anonymous.

>>43636261

I sent you one myself; were you going to respond to say you got them or not? Just asking to make sure it went through.

What're some of the best old-school modules to run? I'm looking for the ones that have an actual plot in them but that don't railroad the players and let them do whatever they want.

>>43635912
Interestingly enough, OD&D seems to assume you fight in formation, shoulder to shoulder etc.

A round is one minute of shoving and fencing and thrusting, taxing your strength at least as much as your dexterity

>>43636321
In Search of the Unknown

>>43636301
Second this. Troveguy, you might want to reply to submitted emails so that we know they didn't get put into your spam folder.

>>43636321
TAGDQ if you're up for a 15-module campaign (4+4+3+3+1).

>>43629403
>Combat in D&D tends to be the point where the roleplaying pauses and the tactical squad-based wargame starts, yeah.
I think you are kinda missing the whole point of RPGs.

By this logic any task resolution system is an anathema to role-playing.

>>43629491
>LotFP gives a straight 1d6 for everyone, unless you're a specialist and put some points on that skill. That sounds kind of lame.
Well, I use it as a saving throw, if they are going to trigger the trap.

>>43636261
A bit late to this whole thing. When and where is this zine going to be released? Given the ephemeral nature of 4chan, it'd be nice to be prepared ever since moe went down, unless it's getting posted to the trove in mega.

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>>43630666
>>43630714
>>43630767
>>43630788
Thanks anon, you rock.

>>43637554
Read the above:
- deadline is 14th day of each month (hence the "Deadline Edition")
- release (if enough articles) - 1st day of each month

>>43637870
Ah, thanks.

>>43636301
>>43636352
I'll send out a wave of responses when I'm home. I haven't dug into the stuff I was sent yet. Intentionally avoiding it to make sure I got other stuff done so I'd have time to do this. Heh.

If you sent something to me, expect a response within 12 hours.

>>43638851
hey troveguy, I don't personally know how to do it, but you could probably set up a Your Message Was Received autoreply.

>>43638949
What difference would that make?

>>43635773
What is it about everybody hating the saving throws? They're five numbers, they're right there on your sheet! They work fine in play! There's nothing wrong with them, and they were well designed to do what they do; just try to accept that. It's just your sperg gland activating over something that doesn't matter.

>>43639014
It would offload some of Troveguy's work?

>>43635912
>>43636045
Do you guys fence or do martial arts at all? I dont want to overassume, but this is a pretty typical armchair idea. In practice, strength is pretty directly correlated to weapon control, whereas dexterity has nothing to do with it. Dexterity might affect the extension of your lunge, but that's a distance thing which D&D abstracts away, plus there normally aren't rapiers in OSR games. (If you watch something like Scholagladiatoria you'll notice they mention a lot of myths like this, like that one where they try to break a rapier by chopping it)

>>43638949
>>43639014
>>43639169
That could be an idea, if we start getting any real volume of stuff. Thanks for the suggestion.

>>43639186
>>43635912
>>43636045

Consider rolling a critical hit, and rolling Xd4 for damage. And then rolling 1s. There really isn't anyway to fix this unless you want to houserule that when someone make an excellent to hit or dex roll they automatically add additional X points or xdice to damage.

Going beyond that would bog down most rule systems. (dex only effects called shots for example).
And then you add in things like firearms vs armor, (or hell, even just heavy crossbows or balista.) Armorclass doesn't mean shit against most projectiles in reality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTYuYxmICGo

We can either make the game more fun or more realistic, not both.

>>43639186
This gets into a nebulous area where we find ourselves debating the meaning of ability scores. Being high strength doesn't necessarily mean precise muscle control (see the clumsy ogre trope). On the other hand, you also can't be particularly agile without some measure of muscle control and strength. Any measure of "speed" or "reflexes" is also directly dependent on the ability of muscles to quickly fire. In reality, strength and dexterity overlap more than not.

(also: rapiers are quite heavy and physically demanding, all things considered. Scholagladiatoria notes that longswords (the two-handed variety) are easier to manage than rapiers for the less physically strong or fit)

>>43639522
>Consider rolling a critical hit, and rolling Xd4 for damage. And then rolling 1s. There really isn't anyway to fix this unless you want to houserule that when someone make an excellent to hit or dex roll they automatically add additional X points or xdice to damage.
Well, Gygax's fix to that was "go apeshit at the idea of critical hits because that's what the damage roll represents already", which you have to admit is an elegant solution in some ways.

Not so much the going hog wild part, that's not terribly elegant.

So tell me OSR, how do you do magic and cursed items? Can you ever buy them or are they always dangerous to get and use?

>>43639522
>>43639638
My current hack gives the player two options for a critical hit - get a special effect (you disarm the opponent, trip them, etc) or you get an extra attack. The latter is worth noting because we're based off LotFP, and you only ever have one attack per round normally.

>>43626988
it blew my mind when I first realized there are four crows hidden in there

>>43639668
if the magic item is something a player has specifically asked for, and it's cool enough there's always some mad wizard in the woods, or a demon willing to make a deal.

Been looking at White Star to get my sci-fi fix, and I noticed there's no way for characters to make attacks on a starship. By which I mean having a couple of grunts on the ground, say San Holo and his sidekick Crunchy, taking potshots at a passing personal starship with a pair of laser rifles.

I mean yeah, starships have their own AC and all, but I believe that's meant more for ship-to-ship combat, not dude-to-ship combat. MotSP has such a system set up, via their size "stat", and it's quick and easy to understand.

Am I missing something?

>>43639669
Sounds like a good way to handle it. What other hacks do you use in your LotFP based game?

>>43639672
I can only find three...?

>>43639824
>>43639824
Are you missing the one on top of the telescope? That was the last one I found

>>43639668
I can't stand the idea of "magic item shops" personally. I also don't sword+1. Magic items tend to come with some kind of drawback or cost to use, and it's usually tied in with the nature of the item. Said items are difficult to come by in any case, having been lost in some dark and damned place or in the possession of someone who is fully capable of using their power to stop you from taking it.

If the players specifically want a kind of thing, they can try to research it, find clues to where to find it, bargain for it with some kind of elder thing, etc.

>>43639793
I've stolen a lot of things from Last Gasp Grimoire. I've also got some combat tweaks of my own I've thrown in to sort of balance out combat stuff. The more prominent tweaks:
> Two-handed weapons double your strength mod (if positive) when dealing damage
> Shields can be discarded to ignore all damage from a single blow
> Dual-weilding characters only make one attack roll, but can roll damage twice. If both results land on the same number, you get to keep both damage results.
> If a character wants to make a called shot, pull a combat stunt, etc, they roll 2d20 for their attack roll. If both results would have hit, they get what they want. If one misses, they do half-damage. If both miss, they crit fail, essentially. Note that if the attack isn't meant to do damage directly (for instance, tripping someone or pushing them, knocking something out of their hand) then the target doesn't get armor bonus to AC.
> HP is ablative energy/fatigue/bruises, but there's no resurrection spells in the game. If you hit 0, you get to roll on the chart which includes death but also losing fingers, limbs, permanent disfigurements, debilitating wounds that will never properly heal, etc. "Sucking chest wound" is a favorite.

Classes also got reworked, because it's an REH style conan fantasy game.. the list goes on.

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>>43639959
>If you hit 0, you get to roll on the chart which includes death but also losing fingers, limbs, permanent disfigurements, debilitating wounds that will never properly heal, etc.

That list is in Last Gasp Grimoire? Sounds pretty metal.

>>43639865
No, I found that one. Plus the two sitting in the window pane...

>>43640023
Oddly enough, that's one I made myself. Though the idea was loosely inspired by their grit/flesh system. If I get the chance, I'll format and post it (or maybe shove it into this month's 'zine).

It'll show up sooner or later, as I plan on throwing the whole hack up in thread sometime anyway.

>>43639486
Speaking of volume, you've probably got 99% of what will be submitted already. Any ETA on the first zine?

>>43640045
>I'll format and post it (or maybe shove it into this month's 'zine).

That sounds awesome. Random carts like that would be pretty sweet for the Troll Gods content.

>>43640077
see >>43637870

That'll give us plenty of time to get everything proofed, formatted, and get back to content producers about revisions or changes.

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>>43639020
>What is it about everybody hating the saving throws? They're five numbers,
There you have it. Five boring useless numbers. Or, to be precise, five ROWS of boring useless numbers.

It's like Weapon Focus feat taken 5 times each level.

>>43640126
> Or, to be precise, five ROWS of boring useless numbers.
What game are you playing that has five ROWS of useless numbers that you need to write down every level?

Though, lets be honest. If your argument is "numbers are inherently boring" then youre going to have to completely RPGs in general. I look forward to your numberless, not-boring designs anon.

So one thing I'm really bad at is deciding how much damage a player should take for out of combat stuff, be it having a chair thrown at them, falling down a hill, being hit by a wagon, etc.

Does anybody have like, a chart with different die rolls on it paired to an example of level of injury?

like

>wagon rolls over foot roll 1d4
>fall off tavern roof, roll 1d6

etc

>>43640371

Just think about how much damage the situation might cause.

A d4 could badly injure an average person.

A d6 would badly injure them, and could possibly kill them.

A d8 would likely kill an average person.

A d10 or d12 is almost certain to kill them outright

If it's not likely to badly injure someone, just do a point.

>>43629491
I use a variant of the Cha-based reaction system to determine the results of searching and sneaking.
The regular reaction table is used but the Cha modifier is replaced with the skill modifier. Generally the skills start at 0.

When the players enter a new room and when one of the players has declared their character to be keeping an eye out, I roll on the reaction table. There are two ways I can go about using a result:
>1: The quality of the reaction determines the quality of the information. A good result is clear info and useful details, a poor one is vague descriptions and superficial details.
>2: Each level of success gives an opportunity for a safe search, one that takes little time and has a vastly reduced risk of setting off traps or other dangers. Once these are used up they can still search normally. Results of "Unfriendly" or "Hostile" will make searching take longer.
I don't always roll when using this system and instead use a base reaction modified by the character's skill. Cluttered or obscured environments slide the base towards "hostile" while organized and illuminated ones slide towards "friendly."

A similar method is used for stealth with results determining the character's mobility giving them a better selection of hiding places as well as the risk of being seen when attempting stuff like darting across a room or sneaking up on a guy. Risky actions would be treated similar to the use of brash or rude social advances in the social reaction system, possibly bumping a character down a couple of notches on the scale.

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>>43640371
Yeah. this. >>43640452
Remember, what the damage actually means in scale. d4 is being attacked with a dagger by a man of average strength who is actively trying to kill you. It's not a trivial amount of damage.

>>43640227
> every level
> numberless
Strawmanning much?

>>43628682
Not in the slightest (unless you're playing Domains at War, which is their Mass combat/war campaign expansion). It does do pause the rpg a moment, we're going to spend some downtime doing stuff.

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>>43609551
Heya /osr/,
I have been thinking of putting together a setting themed around having players delve into long-abandoned catacombs and dead cities in search of knowledge. I intend it to be quite gritty and potentially high-fatality with some creep factor.
I use LotFP quite often and have been thinking of using that, but are there other OSR systems which can apply such a feel? I would like to get a proper picture and prehaps mix and match some rules.

>>43640126
>Five boring useless numbers.
How is a save vs. poison either boring or useless?

Or more importantly, how is it *more* boring than some poison resistance number that you calculate on the fly from your Con score with a second derivative or some shit?

>>43640371
I agree with the other anons, don't do hit point damage at all for something that couldn't kill. The wagon on the foot might give a movement penalty for awhile; the thrown chair could stun and knock down unless a save was passed.

How many entries in issue #1?

>>43640977
A strawman is when you misrepresent someone's argument. I can't help it if said argument looks so absurd that it seems like a strawman at face value.

Anon >>43640126 said made two arguments.
> Five boring useless numbers. Or, to be precise, five ROWS of boring useless numbers.
> It's like Weapon Focus feat taken 5 times each level.
If he was griping about five numbers, then I would assume that he's using the chart and coming back to it every few sessions when they level.. because it's so much work to update some numbers on a character sheet every 3 or four sessions.

The anon was extremely specific in that it was five ROWS of boring useless numbers, so I was curious as to what system was being used that he has to deal with five ROWS of boring useless numbers each level.

The secondary claim was that the numbers were boring and useless. Useless is objectively falsifiable, because they have a use. Saving throws have a purpose, whether one likes said purpose or the way it is handled. So the only thing left is "boring numbers."

The only interpretation I could divine for a complaint of "boring numbers" is that measuring it with numbers was boring, or that numbers in an RPG was inherently boring.

In either case, I would like to formally invite you or that anon to solve offer a solution to the problem without resorting to "boring numbers." I'll leave that up to either of you to decide whether that means coming up with a solution that doesn't have numbers, or if that means coming up with a solution that has EXCITING! numbers.

I look forward to your exciting contributions.

>>43641450
>Domains at War, which is their Mass combat/war campaign expansion

Does it basically give armies the statistics that a character has and reflavor spells to suit the battlefield or is there actually some kind of tactical movememt involved?

>>43641726
>How is a save vs. poison either boring or useless?
Does it allow you to actually do something? No? Reactive only? Then it's boring.

How often are you using it? Once per session? But it still has one number for each level.

>how is it *more* boring than some poison resistance number that you calculate on the fly
Yes, it's just as boring (one of the problems). But it is no longer useless, since it does not take any additional space.

Do you see how bad saving throws are? Even when you try to present an obviously ludicrous and biased example, you cannot help, but improve saving throws.

>>43641940
>then I would assume that he's using the chart and coming back to it every few sessions when they level
>>43640227
>has five ROWS of useless numbers that you need to write down every level?
Oy. You just admitted you perfectly understood the post, but you still went on and pretended it was about rows of numbers for every level.

If that's not strawman I don't know what is.

>>43642273
> Ignores content of actual post
> Claims strawmanning
> still contributes nothing to discussion

Good job, anon.

>>43642273
>>43641940
>>43640977
>>43640227
>>43640126
If you're going to argue that the numbers are "boring and useless" and then complain that you have five ROWS of numbers, then you're going to have to come up with a solution that
a) has no chart, because any solution that has more than one row of numbers is invalid, per the complaint.
b) has no "boring numbers." So either it has no numbers, or the numbers it uses are exciting.

I look forward to seeing your work.

If you aren't playing HackMaster you're just a baby scrub desu baka senpai

>>43642588
> you're going to have to come up with a solution
I.e. your argument is unless one personally made a better car, he can't judge other cars? That's an interesting and novel idea.

> a) has no chart
Your point being? Swords & Wizardry saving throws have no chart, for example. Of course, you might point out that the extremely complicated calculations you have to make on the fly slow down the process too much. Will you?

> b) has no "boring numbers."
You seem to believe, that there is absolutely no improvement if you have less "boring numbers". Why is that?

And don't say I'm putting words into your mouth. Not only you explicitly demanded "no", instead of "less", you also must've slept through the last 15 years DnD had only 3 rows of saving throws.

Additionally, there are homerules, that allow use of saving throws as "basic proficiencies" instead of ability checks. I.e. make those numbers useful outside of reactionary saving throws.


>>43642503
There is a subtle difference between "taking the bait" and "contributing to discussion". Though, I'd have to agree that "not taking the bait" and "ignoring content" are quite similar.

>>43643343
> I.e. your argument is unless one personally made a better car, he can't judge other cars? That's an interesting and novel idea.
Nope. The argument was that if you're going to hinge your argument on numbers being "useless and boring" then you're shit out of luck unless you want to come up with something that doesn't make use of numbers, or somehow makes numbers exciting.

> You seem to believe, that there is absolutely no improvement if you have less "boring numbers". Why is that?
Because the original complaint was that the numbers were "boring numbers" How do you answer a complaint about "boring numbers" in such a way that doesn't either make them less boring, or not numbers? If you change neither condition, then they remain boring numbers.

> you also must've slept through the last 15 years DnD had only 3 rows of saving throws.
ohhh. You don't know what words mean. If you look at any single class in the 3e or 3.5 SRD you'll find that they have twenty ROWS of numbers. They have three COLUMNS. The original complaint was about five ROWS as the person said "to be precise." Hence the comment about the table.

Swords and Wizardry also has saving throws as a chart. They have one COLUMN added to the rest of character creation, with twenty ROWS along with the rest of the information, per the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules v2.0 pdf.

Care to explain how twenty ROWS of one generic save number is less "boring and useless" than five saves that represent different things?

>>43641767
I dunno how tough you are but I imagine having a solid wooden chair (not the made-to-break junk they use in pro wrestling or in movies) thrown into my body could kill me.

>>43641562
Shameless self-bump.
Also, whats the best way to procedurally generate a dungeon that could be miles deep and spanning the known world?

>>43644680
Voice of experience, chair shots hurt, will probably break bones if used as weapons, but are unlikely to outright kill an average adult.

Anybody got the pdf that cavegirl uploaded a couple threads ago?

Also what archive do we use these days, I'd find it myself if I could.

>>43642918
Might as well be playing The World of Synnibarr.

>>43645444
Not sure about the archive, but the pdf is in the trove.

If caveanon is out there, let me know if you have any updates or a character sheet.

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>>43645126
>>43641562
This sounds fucking awesome! As far as procedural generation goes, since it sounds like you're planning on a fuckhuge dungeon, maybe you could create a node-based skeleton and then fill out each node in actual graphpaper detail? For an example of what I mean, check out http://www.kjd-imc.org/hall-of-fame/setting-design/node-based-megadungeon/ (pic related)

You could procedurally generate the node network (it's basically just an undirected graph), then fill in the nodes based on their position. So a node near the middle of the network with a bunch of connections could be an underground river linking other areas of the dungeon, or a library that serves as a sort of hub/foyer for the neighboring areas of the dungeon. Each node could be a handful of rooms, or an entire multilevel dungeon; the connections could be tunnels, natural caverns, underground streams, mine shafts, you name it.

It makes the megadungeon a lot easier/memorable for players to navigate: "Alright, we need to get into the Black Labyrinth. We think we found a entrance in the depths of the Necropolis, but that place is lousy with ghouls. Maybe there's an entrance somewhere in the Tower of Silence... Remember that wierd room with the obsidian monolith and the opening in the floor?"

>>43646497
This seems like a great way to structure the general large-scale map, thanks! When I asked about procedural generation, I was initially thinking about small-scale mapping - the idea is the "dungeon" is the remnants of thousands of years of stagnated civilisation ontop of each other, growing more alien and twisted as you travel into the true depths (Think Deep Carbon Observatory levels of surreal bleakness), and such needed a quick on-the-fly way of assembing warrens as they pathed between your 'map nodes'. Is there a better way to handle depth with such nodes, prehaps by colour-coding them for distance below the surface?

>>43641562
>>43646497
>>43646676
How do you guys.. pitch a mega dungeon campaign? I'd almost feel sheepish telling my players "so I have this campaign, and it's all going to be one giant dungeon. Why is it here? Uh. You don't know! ...Why are YOU here? .. uh.. hm. Nevermind that.Outside? well. There's an outside, but look at this dungeon!"

Im not knocking the concept.. the logistics are what throw me.

>>43646786
I often get like that with some of my players too. I suppose it depends on the characters (and by proxy the players) perspective on the dungeon. If its something that exists outside normal life its another game, but once they start inside it and the backstory gets complicated you start to feel like its poorly thought out nonsense and get embarrassed.

>>43646914
Whoops, sent. Cont.
I think thats why I made the decision to have some semblance of normality exist on the surface, but have the dungeon as this behemoth that overshadows the setting and holding the answers to all the secrets somewhere in its bowels.

>>43646786
>Why is it here?
Wrong question.

> Why are YOU here?
Better.

You should think about what players can loot there (assuming your players have the proper PC-mindset).

>>43644680
>I imagine having a solid wooden chair (not the made-to-break junk they use in pro wrestling or in movies) thrown into my body could kill me.
Either your bones are saltines or that's indeed only your imagination. Thrown is a whole different story than held and used as a club; most of the force will dissipate in the bounce when it hits you, impelling the chair back. It'll hurt like a bitch, but the odds of dying are about fuck all. Again, if someone were to hold a chair and bludgeon you with it, yeah, you'd die eventually, but that's because the chair's fixated by the guy holding on to it, creating a whole different force situation.

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Does anyone think that allowing casters to cast touch spells, such as Burning Hands or Shocking Grasp through a staff would be overpowered? Personally I think it makes a lot of sense and would actually explain why Wizards would carry those spells around.

>>43647572
>touch spells, such as Burning Hands
Burning Hands isn't a touch spell, it's an area of effect. But other than that I don't see what difference it would make to cast through the staff? Fluff it that way if you like, I guess.

>>43639959
>Two-handed weapons double your strength mod (if positive) when dealing damage

This is really fucking cool, but what does the probability distribution look like?

The concept made me immediately think it softly promotes smaller weapons; makes smaller weapons more useful duel wielding then bigger ones (daggers instead of swords) because you'd get more matches, but now that I think about it again would two swords still be a better match then 2 small weapons?

>>43648210

...Wow, I really fucked that up didn't I?

I mean the whole using Dual wielding and rolling one attack, but rolling both damage rolls and keeping them if they match.

>>43648317
>>43648210
If you have two weapons that do 1d4s then your chance of getting a double is what? 1-in-16? If you have d6 weapons, it becomes 1-in-36. d8s is 1-in-64.

Daggers for our game are also slightly more useful for other reasons. They can be thrown. You can carry two for a single encumbrance slot, and they are the only melee weapon that can be used in a grapple.

In practice, what it usually means is that people will carry a dagger regardless of any other weapons they are carrying, because they are bloody useful. If I'm dual-wielding, it's usually better for me to then grab my dagger (higher probability of getting a double) as an off-hand weapon than it is to carry two swords or something in addition to having a dagger (encumbrance is a big deal for us).

A lot of little things add up to make it a very practical choice.

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>>43648396
Hmm, that's actually hella interesting now that you mention it.

If I am a warrior and carry a SWORD and a DAGGER, then that means I roll a 1d4 and 1d6. Usually this means my d6 will be a bigger number, but if I roll shit on the d6 I have a pretty good chance to get dubs with the d4 dagger, MEANING therefore I can get the double damage bonus and always be doing decent damage instead of going for broke with big combo damage.

Damn, I like that a lot.

>>43648396

For a d4 I crunched the numbers this morning.

dm occ chance
2 3 18.75%
3 4 25%
4 7 43.75%
6 1 6.25%
8 1 6.25%

dm = damage total
occ = number of times it occurs in the probability tree. 8 damage, for instance, is a 1 in 16 chance, for 6.25%


The big thing is bumping up the floor and average of damage, over a single die.

>>43648468
Yeah, in practice it's been pretty great. What tends to happen in play is that it doesn't give you crazy damage so much as extremely consistent damage. There's nothing more annoying than landing a hit and rolling a 1 for damage. Getting to roll a second die makes that sting way less.

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(Damn, it ate the formatting.)

>>43648505

Oh, and to untangle that, here's the actual probability tree, in pic related.

>>43647572
>through a staff
And what would be the difference?

Do you want to use staff as a melee weapon for damage and channel touch spell through it?

>>43649060

Sounds like that's what he means. Which is silly, because a staff has the same effective reach as a touch in D&D.
Now get your DM to let you channel a touch spell through a polearm, or better yet, a whip, and you've got something.

>>43647748
burning hands is the textbook definition of a touch spell.
you literally have hands which burn. how you gonna burn someone with your burning hands if you don't touch them???

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>>43649958
>Burning Hands
>doesn't set hands on fire

Worst spell ever.

>>43642918
What the fuck is up with the sudden flood of desu senpai bullshit on /tg/?

>>43650087
It's just a word filter that got put in on Halloween.

c.uck = kek
t.bh = desu
f.am = senpai

>>43650087
>he doesn't know about the new filters

>>43650119
s.mh is now baka, too.

>>43650123

Hey now, this is the grandpa thread you're talking to. Be happy we know how to use these computernet things good enough to help you kids, what with your word filters and your macro memes and your hamburger sandwiches.

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I read a lot of roleplaying blogs and one article very much intrigued me.

It basically said that most roleplaying games are flawed because Warriors usually start off with nearly the best weapons and armor in the game (mundane wise), and I thought that was also kind of strange and funny.

So then, instead, why not have level 1 fighters start off with shitty improvised, or mob style weapons? Would it not make more sense and not allow a gentler curve into the best mundane gear money can buy, then building into magic.

Personally I really like the idea.

>>43651161
At least in early D&D, the assumption was that as a level 1 character, you were already relatively heroic/powerful/capable by comparison to a level 0 world. Your average human is level 0. Your average soldier is level 0. If a ruler has 100 first level fighters? That's an elite unit. King's guard kind of shit.

Just like a 1st level wizard is assumed to have been studying for years to pick up their craft (default canon used to be that they had apprenticed for a sizable amount of time, and that their beginning spells were gifts from a mentor), a first level fighter is a skilled warrior who has some experience under their belt. While I can see where it would be an amusing alternate start for someone who wanted something different, I would have a hard time justifying that the class whose sole function was skill-at-arms should not be able to start the game with the tools of their trade.

>>43650942
I feel old. I understood only "To Be Honest" acronym and cock out of filtered words.

>>43648210
>>43648396
One other houserule I've seen for two handed weapons in systems that have uniform damage die is that two-handers get to reroll the dice (either taking the new result or taking the higher result, depending on how powerful you want the rule to be).

>>43639793
Other common hacks that I tend to see a lot in OSR houserule lists:

-helms can be discarded to negate a critical hit (if critical hits rules are being used)
-magic shields can lose an point of enchantment to ignore a blow *or* reroll a saving throw (usually vs. spell, though this depends on the saving throw system in use)
-alternate material shields that might do the former without necessarily being magical
-for "0HP=roll on an injury table" rules, one really solid ready-made one is in ACKS.

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>>43651161
You probably want a different ruleset than (O)D&D - weapons and armour aren't exactly that granular, and in some it doesn't matter what you're wielding - you deal d6 damage regardless. Later games differentiate equipment, but we're still talking d4-d10 die range in a game where most basic enemies have 1d4 HP. Most heroes from literary fiction generally don't accomplish feats beyond what a 5th level D&D character can do, either.

D&D evolved out of a mass combat wargame, where numbers generally were not very granular. If you move towards the grim and gritty direction I think you'll find in the long run you'll end up houseruling things to the point where the ruleset starts to resemble Warhammer Fantasy, Runequest, or Riddle of Steel; all reactions to the sort of scale that D&D assumed.

>>43651161
It would probably make more sense just to limit them financially, which would likely limit their armor more than their weapons.

>>43636261
Hey TroveGuy, I'm making some hexcrawl maps with encounter tables. Would you be cool with that kind of stuff? If not, or if so; is there any sort of theme you want contributors to work with?

>>43652384
> hexcrawl maps
Will they fit in A4 black&white format?

>>43652543
Absolutely.

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>>43646786
My "mega"-dungeon (Lotfp+houserules) is based a bit on Darkest Dungeon, in an alternate history european setting. I port from the homebrew thread:

Campaign: Characters are hired by an Italo/Austrian nobleman to reclaim his family estate and find out what his crazed uncle was up to.

It's gonna be a gritty hex/dungeoncrawl with high character turnover due to death/wounds/insanity and "mercenary company" management involved.

This specific dungeon has been purposefully created as an underground laboratory for foul magical experimentation. It connects a pre-existing catacomb with attached (dutifully desecreated) Mithraeum, a half flooded sea level natural cave system and a part of the forest where the trees coalesced togheter through mutated cancerous meat.

"Monsters" are normally scarce, existing in the dark, forgotten or magical corners of the earth. They straddle the line between the folklore and the lovecraftian.

>>43651976
Not 'cock', it's 'kek'. The word became popular to insult others with when moot turned off the /pol/ captcha and ran a kekolding audio before he left. A lot of boards use it now.

>>43652974
I mean C-U-C-K. God damn.

>>43652779
>Darkest Dungeon inspired LotFP
>Folklore/Lovecraft monsters
>Strangereal Europe

Stop posting, me.

Being serious, this sounds pretty awesome. How In-depth do you plan the dungeon to be mapped? Each corridor and room planned, or a web like what >>43646497 suggested?

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>>43653172
I know it's (currently) clichéd, but it's the flavour I want now.

Unsure about the mapping, I have the areas and connections drawn and planned out (see shitty picture), but I think I'll map the whole thing, real life schedules permitting.

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>>43653307
Houserules-wise, this is what the Character sheet looks like at the moment. Houseruling is mainly drawn from Last Gasp, Ten Foot Polemic and Dungeon of Signs and further adapted.

>>43653307
That map looks pretty nice, although I would reccommend going digital. AutoREALM is free and excellent for OSR-style gridded maps, if you can get used to its slightly janky interface.

I wasn't saying it was cliché, its just thats basically exactly what I have been planning. Something something great minds.

>>43653330
Could you explain the spell section to me, please? It looks like the spells are interrelated somehow.

>>43653360
It's not modified from the original Lotfp character sheet, it's just the 7 and 9 levels of cleric and magic user spells respectively.

The magic system is something I also plan to change, albeit the finer details escape me now.
The option of casting above and beyond your level while risking a total-party-Fhtaghn will definitely be a part of it.

>>43653349
That was my first doodle drawn during lunch break, I'll have a look at the software, cheers!

The thread's saged, should we make another one or ride it out?

>>43653330
I'd suggest turning Flesh/Grit point boxes by 90 degrees.

I.e. first number on the left being "Maximum" and the one on the right (the one you'll be changing) and closer to the edge of the sheet - "Current".

>>43654068
Make another. This one will be gone within the hour. Make sure to include the zine contribution pdfs in the first couple of posts.

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>>43654068
>should we make another one or ride it out?
The Algorithm:
1) Declare that you will be making new thread here
2) Check if anyone declared it first
3) If were the first - go and make new thread
4) Drop link here.

>>43654130
My internal processors executed the OSR algorithm.

New thread here >>43654304

>>43652384
>>43652543
>>43652608
Absolutely.

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>>43646397
Boop! Here's a character sheet. There's also a small PDF with most of the useful tables on it if you want.
I can whack the rules PDF up if people want, too.

Incidentally, I'm considering making a few tweaks to things. Mostly it's little things in how spells work (Warp Flesh is, as it turns out, pretty broken at level 2 with the Unnatural Feature chart as it stands, for example). Other stuff I'm looking at is giving the Hunter a small but slowly progressing Charm skill, since they're intended to be the strong leaders of the game and currently an Expert with everything in Charm is waaay better at attracting followers. Also some tweaks to make character gen smoother and quicker. Also applying your INT modifier to your starting gear (since smarter characters will have been able to make themselves more STUFF).

There's a GM's book/setting book in the works that is part Monster Manuel (each monster has a basic stat block and then various alterations such as 'lays eggs in your flesh' or 'has a venomous bite'), part 'how I think good GMing works' manifesto (tldr: randomness over pre-planning or raw improve, and asking players 'what are you doing exactly' and then working out how that can fuck 'em), and part a bunch of random tables to generate maps, tribes, monsters, caves and other stuff on the fly.