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/osrg/

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Welcome to /osrg/ - the OSR General, devoted to pre-WotC D&D, retroclones, and all other related systems.

Trove: Down as far as I know.
Secondary Trove (thanks Cleanup-the-trove-guy!): https://mega.nz/#F!wBchjIxB!4JSV-T6_-Ow9Trb9LF-sGg
Temporary Trove Backup: https://mega.nz/#F!oN9XQRaR!3IOuPLcjR9zBh_xvIvrwEw
Links: http://pastebin.com/FQJx2wsC

Last thread: >>48998566

Almost lost it, be careful, fellows.
>>
>like DCC
>want something like DCC(weirdness, ease to convert old modules, ascending AC, dangerous and unpredictable magic) without the charts
>no help in last thread
>>
>>49057957
Lamentations of the Flame Princess? You get the ascending AC, weirdness, and ease of conversion. Not sure if you'll really get the sort of magic you want without a chart though.
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Question /osrg/ : Where do you turn for inspiration for wilderness adventures? I always find my self turning to old western stories, real and fictional, especially mountain man era.
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>>49058879
Norse Sagas, the Illiad and stuff
>>
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Greentext = background. Skip if you want to get to the meat of my question.
So I'm playing around with the attributes for my homebrew a bit, and I thought I'd get some feedback from you guys. I'm not quite sure how I'm doing everything yet, but I'm looking at 3 sets of paired attributes. The stats within each set will probably be partially related (for the sake of illustration, if you were rolling them in the standard method, they might share one or two dice), so that while they may diverge, they are unlikely to do so too dramatically.

I am not having two scores for each attribute--a raw score and a modifier--but rather making them "all modifiers". I'm still toying around with the actual method of generation, but they'll start of ranging from -4 to +5 or so. Aside from skills and saves (which would be a full strength), the value of each point will be about half of what you'd normally expect from a modifier (for instance, weapon damage is roughly doubled in the game, so +1 makes less impact percentage-wise, and each plus of constitution only gives you an extra 1/2 hit point per level).

But what I'm really interested in is what you think of my division of attributes (assuming they're decently balanced). Within each pair, one governs skills and the other saves. Do they make sense to you as categories? Does anything rankle you about them?

>strength = skills, damage
>constitution = saves, hit points

>dexterity = skills, to-hit
>reflexes = saves, AC

>intelligence = skills, languages, wizard spells
>spirit = saves, reaction rolls, cleric spells
>>
>>49059202
>Greentext = background. Skip if you want to get to the meat of my question.
Shit. Ignore this. Went back and edited greentext out without removing warning.
>>
>>49057957
Maybe someone should just convert the whole magic system into a LotFP-friendly mechanic. Maybe I should do that.

Would I get in trouble with Goodman Games if I did that?
>>
I feel like the standard spells in the basic book are boring. I want to include some enemy spellcasters on my next adventure but I notice that the list used by most OSR games (at least acks and becmi/rules cyclopedia) is super short and mostly consists of boring spells.

Can I just use the AD&D 2e spell books (which I happen to have lying around) or would that break the game?
>>
>>49057957
someone needs to convert DCC into a less clunky system. Less use of funky dice bullshit, less charts in general (except maybe the magic ones?), and so on.
>>
>>49061454

It won't break the game. Set the spell ranges at 10th level as default.

In some ways, 2e spells are less powerful than B/X spells (magic missile isn't capped on damage, for example).
>>
>>49058879
lord of the rings
>>
>>49061498
awesome. This way I don't have to buy any new books or anything.
>>
>>49061454
While AD&D spells tend to include more moving parts (scaling ranges, more qualifiers, etc.), they shouldn't be too far out of line with Basic stuff, power-wise. The larger selection of spells might boost player power and versatility, but if you're just using them for enemies, that's less of a consideration.
>>
>>49060733
Not of you don't publish it
>>
>>49061454
>I feel like the standard spells in the basic book are boring.
Speaking of this, how important do you guys think detection spells like Detect Magic, Detect Evil, and Detect Invisible are? Obviously, they could be really useful in some situations, but they're not very dynamic, interesting spells and the circumstances have to be right for them to come into play.

And while we're at it, what do you guys think of the Basic selection of spells overall? Even if you were going to keep it to the same limited number of spells per level, would there be things you'd swap out for more interesting stuff from AD&D?
>>
>>49061695
So I could put it on a blog without issue? I'd imagine that taking all spells (like 60% of the DCC book) and put them online might annoy them.
>>
>>49061769
>Detect Magic, Detect Evil, and Detect Invisible

Detect invisible is the only thing that might be useful there.
Detect magic should not take up a once-a-day slot. It should just be something wizards could do by concentrating or something. It's 99% of the time.
>>
>>49061491
There isn't really a lot of Clunky dice use, Mostly for wizard that rolled good on mercurial effect and two weapon fighting.
Also, removing the charts of criticals fucks with the Warrior, which by the way I think its the best fighter in OSR I have seen so far.
>>
>>49061873
>It's 99% of the time.
accidentally deleted the rest of the sentence
meant to say

>It's 99% of the time useless.
>>
>>49061886
at level 5 (or 6?) every character uses clunky dice to make a second attack

and I'd say that just by virtue of having mighty deed of arms the DCC fighter is the best OSR fighter.
>>
>>49061873

I dunno, it makes sense in a dungeon-crawling environment that being able to immediately spot the valuable magic gear or traps or other magical stuff on sight is unbalancing. It makes finding the best loot in the hoard trivial, and invalidates a lot of trap and spell and device obstacles.
>>
>>49061926
and yet it pales in comparison to the usefulness of a sleep, magic missile, shield, armor, and like every other level 1 spell.

If a spell it's too useless to occupy a once-per-day slot, and to useful to be at-will, it needs fixing.
>>
>>49061916
Yeah, try getting to level 5, I have been having a 2 years campaign and there has been only two characters reaching over level 5
>>
>>49061873
>>49061769
Castles & Crusades changes Detect Magic and Light to level 0 spells, and does the same with the AD&D spells Dancing Lights, Mending, Message, and Wizard Mark. Does anybody disagree with any of those moves?
>>
>>49062044
makes sense to me.
>>
>>49062044

>Level 0 spells

Like at-will?
>>
>massive D&D hiatus
>now playing 5e
>try to get players out of 3e mindset
>"I roll to find traps"
>"you don't need to roll"
>rolls anyway

graaaaaaaaaagh

follow-up:

>"I want to use my medicine skill to see if I can determine what killed him"

>"you don't need to roll for that, you can judge by the paw prints and wounds that it was wolves"

>"I want to use my nature skill to see if I can tell if the paw prints are normal sized or exceptionally large"

>"you don't need to roll, these paw prints are much larger than a normal wolf's"

I'm trying to train them.
>>
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New hexcrawl seed for a new thread:

What is the nobleman's interest in the dungeon the PCs are going to? (does not have to be a literal dungeon but something of the rough type)
>>
What about continual light? It's definitely a useful spell to cast... once... maybe twice in your life. But after that, it's pretty useless to you. Especially in a game like B/X, where the number of spells you know equals the number of spells you can cast per day, it wastes valuable space.

>>49061986
>and yet it pales in comparison to the usefulness of a sleep, magic missile, shield, armor
Not disagreeing about detect magic, but I'd argue that some of the spells you listed are too powerful for 1st level. If we try to make every spell competitive with the strongest at that level, we end up with significant power creep. Sleep would be worth it as a 2nd level spell.
>>
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>>49061886
>>49061990
>Yeah, try getting to level 5
lol, exactly what I was going to say. I've been running DCC for about 2 years now and the highest I've ever seen is level 3. It's an extremely deadly game. People like to say it gets "too easy" once clerics come into play because of how they can save you if you drop below 1hp... but what do you do when the cleric is the one that drops? What is the person that is incapacitated did so by falling into a pit trap?

I don't have my DCC book in front of me, but I remember an entry mentioning something like 1 in 1,000 player-characters reach level 3.
>>
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>>49062161
>Like at-will?
No. They work like all other levels of spells. You just start out knowing a bunch of them.
>>
>>49062161
Some systems like 3.x for example give a number of spell slots specifically for level 0 spells.
>>
>>49062277
Its not 1 in 1000 player characters its more of a 1 in 1000 in the normal population of a city.
>>
>>49062261
>but I'd argue that some of the spells you listed are too powerful for 1st level.
Sleep is indeed too powerful for first level compared to other first level spells. Though I'd say charm person is just as powerful.

As an aside, I believe it is first level specifically to give 1st level wizards a bone. I know /tg/ has been traumatized by powerful spellcasters, but being a wizard in OSR is really fucking hard
>no hp, no armor, worst weapon selection
>very very few spells per day
>levelling up takes forever
>almost no game ever even reaches level 5 to get third level spells
>>
>>49062398
Yeah, 1st level wizards are pretty vulnerable, but I'd rather they have more spells than one super powerful one that they might not start off with anyway. Take the C&C progression here >>49062292 for instance. Whether or not you start them off with two 1st level spells, having 4 0th level spells at your disposal really pads things out.
>>
>>49062292

Hmm. Not bad. I may use this progression.
>>
>>49062472
I kinda like what they did in DCC. Wizards are like most of those things you said, but they get all their spells as longs they don't fail, and if they fail they can sacrifice attributes to get them back.
>>
>>49062472
I like the spell progression there. I'm gonna have a look at castles and crusaders I think.
>>
>>49062539
I remember when I first read that I was like "... well, wizards are going to be OP as fuck in this game." But then I ran it, and holy shit do wizards end up rolling a lot of corruption, lol.

I also like how in DCC magic is described as terrible and rare. Like if wizards see each other, they will duel to the death so they can get the other's spell book.
>>
>>49062594
Castles & Crusades has an issue with caster supremacy at higher levels due to their broken saving throw formula. Essentially, it starts off difficult to make saving throws and doesn't get any easier. There's a really easy fix, which is to add only half your caster level to the spell's DC, but it's something to be aware of.
>>
>>49062216
He's sending the PC's off to rescue the children kidnapped by a sinister cult. The sinister cult that he is secretly a member of. He doesn't expect them to actually succeed, and has hired thugs to ambush them on the way there.
>>
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>>49062613
I really love DCC Spell Duels. Probably my favorite mechanic along with Feats of strength.
>>
>>49062727

Wizard on the right's problem? He's not fancy enough. If he'd step it up like the other guy he might win a few.
>>
>>49062192
I just played a 5e game where the players rolled for almost EVERY action, with the DMs approval. Shit like:

>I'm with 2 people I don't recognize, rolling perception so I can look at them.

Worst of all they all rolled to handle player-to-player interaction. One of the players wanted to ask my character questions, so he rolled intimidate. He gets a nat 20 and the DM tells me:

>You can't tell any lies now when he asks you questions.

That game made me die a little inside, especially since half of them were game design majors.
>>
>>49062727
My only problem with DCC its clerics, they are cool and powerful and their mechanic feels different than the wizards.
But I don't think the God, Cleric relationship ideas were fleshed out.
Also, why do clerics get summon undead but not wizards?
>>
>>49062789
>Travels by dragon propelled throne
>Solid color scheme throughout all possessions
>Badass focusing dagger
>Not fancy enough

Nigga please. That asshole on the right has socks only a golfer and is obviously more bard than wizard.
>>
>>49062850
>That asshole on the right
on left?
>>
>>49062850

So how come he's beating dragon dude, huh?
>>
>>49062216
The nobleman had a younger brother. In his foolhardy years, he and his brother actually went to that dungeon. Monsters ensued and the nobleman abandoned his brother.

He wants to recover his brother's body without knowledge of his indiscretion spreading.
>>
>>49062216
1d4 interests the nobleman has for the dungeon

1. It is his ancestors tomb, and it's gone out of control with ghosts. Needs to be fixed or else great shame falls on the family name.

2. He wants to recruit the beast within, so it can help him in the coming uprising.

3. The dungeon will serve as a fine mine, but the rust monsters have to be taken care of first.

4. The inner circles of noblemen have talked up the dungeon because of some crazed explorers wild tales. Every nobleman wants to be the first to send a successful team inside and find the holy grail that is said to be there.

Are these being compiled anywhere?
>>
>>49058879
/x/ skinwalker threads
>>
I am planning on running a LotFP game. I haven't run an OSR game before, but it looks pretty fun.

I have a couple of questions running it however. Specifically, how many retainers or back up characters should I let each player have? Would letting each player make two characters be all right?
>>
>>49063642
>how many retainers or back up characters should I let each player have?
There are rules for how many you can have, it's based on charisma.

>Would letting each player make two characters be all right?
Assuming the player group is standard size, that seems fine. Just make sure the difficulty is correct.
>>
>>49063642

Also bear in mind that extra characters/retainers get shares of the XP, so the more they bring, the slower they'll level.
>>
>>49063642
As many as you're comfortable with, honestly. Retainers are largely a player's hassle but you need to remember that you're in control of reactions those NPCs might have. The more retainers, the less control you have cause you can't really be bothered to roleplay say 8 retainers, you have other stuff to deal with. So most of those guys will fade into the background until directly adressed.

Generally 2-3 retainers is okay for me. That should be enough to cover back-up characters for now. If your party is smart enough, they probably won't have TPK or more than two deaths simultaneously.

With a large party I'm just making sure that we know who's in front, who's in the back and when players insult their hirelings or speak about them as if they're cannon fodder I just make sure that affects morale and increases possibility of backstabbing when they get to treasure.
>>
>>49063733
In fact, LotFP only uses charisma to modify initial chance of hiring and morale. No limitations for their numbers.
>>
>>49063733
>>49063758
>>49063816
>>49063858
So I should recommend that they take retainers in the first place, but otherwise let them follow the rules pertaining to retainers? I will cap it at about 2 retainers a player then. Thank you very much for the advice.
>>
>>49063858
Really? I must have gotten that mixed with some other system then. Dunno how that happened.

>>49063926
That sounds good anon. Good luck!
>>
>>49063227
I'm keeping it down to one question, one thread (and trying to post the question early in each new thread) so it won't be too difficult to trawl archived threads for each question. If a second issue of Troll Gods goes up these could easily be a page or two.
>>
>>49062804
Yeah it almost seems like Spellcasters and Patrons have a closer relationship than do clerics and their gods.
>>
>>49064125

And the Disapproval feels like random punishment time.
It does force you to proselytize and look a lot more clerical, but still.
>>
>>49064215
>the Disapproval feels like random punishment time

Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make crazy through endless d100 tables.
>>
>>49063227
>1. It is his ancestors tomb, and it's gone out of control with ghosts. Needs to be fixed or else great shame falls on the family name.
Make this the Tyrfing plot IMO.
>>
Y'all have been a help in figuring out this stuff- So maybe someone can break it down for me. What's the point to hirelings? Not the retainers, hirelings like cooks, torchbearers, etc
>>
>>49064026
Charisma cap is a Basic D&D thing (probably in OD&D and AD&D too but slipped my mind honestly) and LotFP is well, based on it, so it's easy to mix both up. No probs.
>>
>>49064304
There's a description for most of them in the LotFP rules, but I'm pretty sure they're there for when players become so awesome they start commanding armies. Who's gonna feed the army? And torchbearers are for when all players want their characters to hold cool things in both hands.
>>
>>49064304
Hirelings = retainers, btw. You're probably taking about a difference between henchmen which are basically sidekicks and hirelings (retainers). I think hirelings only eat up your gold in the form of wage while henchmen also share XP (correct me if I'm wrong folks)

Torchbearer is super-important, because you need someone to keep light up all the time while you're fighting.

Other guys can be super important when you need to get a large amount of treasure ouf of the dungeon fast.

LotFP is very good at explaining all types of hirelings and making each type useful for something. Check "Retainers" in the core book. It also doesn't have henchmen.
>>
Since we're on the topic of hirelings, when should I check their morale? The start of combat?
>>
>>49064542
Ah whatevs, here's some examples from LotFP:

>Scholars reduce the amount of laboratory time
needed for any magical research by d4 weeks
per project. They must be present for the entire
project, and paid by the month.

>A teamster is an expert at efficiently packing
animals and preparing them to haul cargo (or
pull vehicles) over long distances. Teamsters
alleviate some of a pack animal’s encumbrance
and lessen the chance of vehicles breaking
down while traveling.

>Craftsmen include carpenters, masons, metalworkers, tailors, and other such types that take raw materials and make finished goods. Each craftsman hired will specialize in only one such trade, but an estate can hire one general craftsman to work as a handyman.

Some retainers are good for dungeon delving, some are good for when you actually acquire property.

An as mentioned, they are also an easy way to provide you with a back-up character when crawl goes wrong,
>>
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>>49063926
This is what Basic does. I've personally never played with retainers, but even if I did, the limits seem ludicrously high.
>>
>>49064616
Whoops, fucked my quotes up. Pardon.

>>49064616
Generally, yeah. I don't check morale for mercenary-type retainers if enemies are humans since combat is their job. I check morale whenever some fucked up thing emerges. Also when somebody dies during a fight, that goes for both sides.
>>
>>49064542
>I think hirelings only eat up your gold in the form of wage while henchmen also share XP (correct me if I'm wrong folks)
B/X doesn't have henchmen, but retainers/hirelings get 1/2 experience. Not sure how AD&D does it.
>>
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Here's the B/X stuff on retainers, which addresses some of the issues being discussed here.
>>
>>49057957
>>49058102
>>49061491
I am working on an overhaul of lotfp atm. Including a lot of the mechanics i like from DCC (and other systems/osr products/blogs). One of my mandates is to trim as much fat as possible. If a mechanic is clunky in play, it gets pared down as much as possible.
>>
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Threw in a little thing for LotFP, folder "Adventures and supplements". It's pretty much system neutral, but aesthetically very close to Last Gasp's Cörpathium.
>>
>>49064304
Common things you can do with the various "non-combat" hirelings are things like reducing maintenance or upkeep costs for troops. You can also mine other retroclones for ideas as well - ACKS has a number of rules regarding using hirelings to produce equipment or the like.
>>
>>49062192
since when does finding a trap not require a roll?
>>
>>49067415
That's how it is in systems that focus on player surviving by cunning and finding the traps themselves.
>>
Ascending AC and BAB

OR

Descending AC and THAC0
>>
>>49068671
Descending "attack throw" from ACKS.
>>
>>49068671
ascending AC and BAB
I never understood the nostalgia boner for descending and thac0.
Why the fuck does a +1 sword give me a -1 to thac0?
At least ascending is consistent.
>>
Ok this is a bizarre request, but once upon a time I saw an old school supplement that had "rules" regarding the Great Old Ones, such as Hastur, and listed effects if you said their names/activated their stuff etc. Anyone have any idea what that could be and where I could find it?
It included tables with byahkees if that helps any?
>>
>Start new job
>Meet a pretty cool guy that's into TRPGs
>"You wouldn't happen to like OSRs, would you?"
>"Oh Es, what?"
>"Retroclones. Clones of the original editions"
>"Oooooh. Well, I started D&D with 2nd edition......MAN SECOND EDITION WAS SHIT"
>"THAC0 too much for you?"
>"Oh god, THAC0!! GOD, THAC0 WAS SHIT. MAN, OLD EDITIONS WERE SO BAD"

It hurts, /osrg/. I did at least tell him about Castle & Crusades after he told me he was super into Pathfinder, and he seemed pretty interested.
>>
>>49068917
Because you're trying (T)O (H)IT (A)RMOR (C)LASS (0).

The closer you are to AC 0, the closer you are to godliness.
>>
>>49069048
Deities and Demigods? Its got cthulian stuff. There's also Carcosa, its got a lot of random tables. Might be in Realm Of The Crawling Chaos, or that bestiary of Cthulian stuff for osr that got posted a while back.

>>49069131
Sometimes its how they were introduced to a game that makes all the difference. That being said, depends on what parts of 3pf they're into. If its character builds you're fucked.
>>
>>49068671
Ascending, obviously. It's more intuitive imho.
>>
>>49067415
Traps in OSR play should have some rough detail of the cause and effect at the very least. If players take actions that would allow them to detect the trap before setting it off, then no roll is required.

The classic example is advancing slowly and tapping the ground to see if it's steady - such an approach would definitely reveal a pit trap that's covered by a cloth or possibly pre-emptively set a trap off that acts via pressure plate.

Find Traps can alternatively be played as a "sixth sense" saving throw (the thief steps into the room and knows something's up), or alternately can be handled as an ability thieves can invoke instead of any specific action (tapping with a pole for example might be noisy and draw monsters, for example, or the players might be worried that there are traps this approach won't reveal)
>>
>>49068917
>Why the fuck does a +1 sword give me a -1 to thac0?

Add it to your die roll, not your THAC0, dude.

THAC0 - d20 roll (+ mods) = the AC you hit.
>>
>>49071843
I run traps like this.
I ask the players to describe a standard exploration procedure. If whatever they describe would detect or prevent a trap then it is so.

Searching skills are used as a backup that i roll on the player's behalf that allows them to notice anything that their procedure didnt account for.
>>
>>49068671
>>49068917


THAC0 is consistent, you just don't understand the math.

Another anon already laid out the acronym, so I'll just explain the math part.

Let's say your THAC0 is 15, and an enemy has an AC -2. The math works like this:

15-(-2) = 17. You need to roll a 17 or better to hit them. That's it. You're just doing subtraction instead of addition. If they're unarmored (AC 10 in 2e):

15-(10) = 5. You'd need a 5 or better.

Let's say you have a +3 longsword and you're fighting that AC -2 guy again:

(15)-(-2+3) = 14. Or,
(15-3)-(-2) = 14. Works out the same, but it's less complicated to add the plus to their AC.

Attack bonus is just THAC0 reverse engineered. I feel it's easier to explain to newbies, and is superior for that reason. But it's not actually superior just because it's a positive number.
>>
>>49068671
Started with ascending AC and BAB. Can't see any reason to switch. If I started with THAC0, I dunno what my position on it would be right now. Also sorta like Target 20 variant, where you just add enemy's AC value to your roll and it's gotta be 20 to hit him.
>>
So what is the forge document skill even about in DCC? Does it ever come into play in any of the modules and is it really that important to dungeon crawling?
>>
>>49073741
Even if its in the name, in DCC dungeon crawling is not the only thing that you do, specially if your dungeon crawl was one of those mega dungeons with a city next to it, most of the time the city is big enough for you to need to forge shit.
>>
>>49073922
>>49073741
Also, it could be an artifact from basic dnd.
>>
>>49073922
>>49073931
Are there any examples of this being used in play in and old-school way? Is it used by players to get them out of jail and to get an invitation from the king and stuff like that?
>>
>>49073951
I think there's plenty of opportunities to use forged documents if you're into that but making it a simple skill isn't all that interesting. Making it one of possible ways to get somewhere or get out of somewhere is probably better.
>>
Looking for Wayne Rossi's (Semper Initiativus Unum) DUNGEON CRAWL-ZINE
>>
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What is your opinion regarding Thri-kreen?
>>
>>49075978
They're great. I'd love to see more outlandish playable races with unique benefits and drawbacks based on there physiology, though I might be in the minority here.
>>
Necessary bump.
>>
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Any kobolds here? I want to kick your ass
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>>49075978
I'm thinking about adding a small race of flying creatures--about the size of a halfling. They'd have a lot of negatives in combat for being light and fragile, but they'd have a unique role in the party.
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>>49078219
I like kobolds when they're called goblins and look like this.
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Has anyone ITT played Lichway? I heard it was similar to Death Frost Doom and got interested.
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>>49075978
Too weird for the games I run.
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any good old school modules/etc that run around Great Old Ones, or similarly chthonic creatures and themes? My setting is sort of demon souls-y in nature and it would be great to have a few more premade things that fit that theme.
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Here's a list of 12 cantrips I came up with for Basic D&D. Most of them are based on existing spells in AD&D. (I posted a preliminary version of this on /osr/ some time ago.) Do any of them seem out of place compared to the others (in terms of power, etc.)? My current scheme is to have magic-users start out with 4 per day and never gain any more.
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>>49081292
Dwellers of the Forbidden City
The Illithiad
Temple of Elemental Evil
And the one with the underground city.
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>>49059202
Your overall division of the attributes into physical power, agility, and mental power is legit (and is actually quite similar to what I'm doing in my homebrew), but I'm not wild about the saves/skills split within each category. What are you hoping to achieve by doing this?
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>>49081597
Long arm seems a bit strong, especially if they're doing that 4 times a day at range. The +1 dmg for jolt makes a certain kind of sense, but also seems strong. Both of these basically make your wizard notably more baddass at level 1, which might be what you're going for. Not sure about it personally.

How much access do they have to the spell list? Is it any/all, pick 4 per day or some other method?
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>>49081292
>>49081846
Thanks for these, any other suggestions?
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>>49083629
Maybe look at The Dreamlands and Shadow Rift from Ravenloft.
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>>49083747
>not mentioning the literal Illithid domain, Bluetspur
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Anyone know of a short and sweet adventure I can run to introduce my 5 year old to tabletop?

I'm pretty much settled on using Basic Fantasy RPG as the system. I was just going to do something super simple like "The old lady needs you to help her get the rats out of her basement"... which I'm sure would be mind blowing for a 5 year old, but I'm just wondering if there's something out there in the way of a pre-written adventure that maybe has a map and a little story with it.
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>>49084831

See if you can find the April Fool's 3.5 module "Something's Cooking". Steal the plot from it, adjust the stats.

a Calzone (refluff it to Pie) golem in a house full of Disney style animated objects should be right up Ye Childe's alley.
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>>49084831
Check the one page dungeon contest stuff. There's probably something like that there.
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>>49084831
There's quite a few in the Adventure Anthology, including Beneath Byrnassen which has characters delving beneath a tavern to save a bunch of children. I've also used Ruins of Darkfir Castle in the same book as an introductory adventure for three different groups with moderate success.
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>>49084831

This is a set of solo mini-modules, but there's some good ideas for small adventures you could adapt.
Duck Soup would be a great one for kids, and a familiar thing for them. "Crazy adult just demands out of the blue that you to go catch a duck for them, hijinks ensue" is very relatable for kids.
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Any recommendations for modules with a relatively low-magic, bronze age, sword-and-sorcery feel? System doesn't matter.
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>>49084924
Awesome, found a copy. Thanks!

>>49084928
I've been reading through the 2015 version. Lots of good stuff in there.

>>49084931
I started to read the Ruins of Darkfir Castle last night. It would definitely need to be tuned down for a one-player adventure. I remember reading the first encounter being like 8 giants bats or something, lol. I'll have to check out Beneath Byranassen.

Do you run BF RPG?

>>49084984
Cool! I'll check it out. I remember reading through the first adventure in this before - the one when you're in a tower and being teleported around randomly.
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Hey guys

What other races you use on your games?
I wanted to make a setting a bit more weird and I feel that Elves, Dwarves and Halfling are a bit out of place for the thing I was making.
I was making something more like a Science Fantasy setting, using some of ASE's ideas (I liked the Towers, The orbiting AI gods and the Morktar) But then I found myself struggling on what to do, I didn't really like the origin story of elves and everything else. Not like I feel everything needs explaining but I do think I should explain it eventually.
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>>49085413
>I do think I should explain it eventually.

That's maybe not necessary, but I think you should probably have some idea in mind for stuff like that, because it helps avoid the case where you paint yourself into a corner by making thing A about them, then thing B, and then you realized they don't fit and you have to find an origin that won't contradict one or the other.
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>>49085413
I'm thinking of adding a goblin race to the game. To avoid them being evil halflings I'm going to add a randomization system so each goblin is very different from the other and have odd advantages and weaknesses.

Other than that I've been thinking of adding drow to my game, and since some of my players are girls with goth interests I imagine that I'll need to make a race/class for them.
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>>49085385
I do! Personally for a one-player newbie adventure I would recommend having a couple of NPCs as backup and allowing the character to start with their full hit dice on first level. Another alternative would be to steal Scarlet Heroes' fray die, HP and damage mechanics and bolt them on.
Just make sure to let them know that while characters can be heroic, they still need to keep their wits about them else enemies will easily overrun them, and that most of the time non-combative options can be taken like bribery or simply sneaking past.
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>>49062192

Good luck. I found I started liking 5e a lot more, the more I started treating it like an OSR game in some ways.
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>>49061814
Use the system but make up unique spells for it or convert spells that exist in the game you're porting it to.
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>>49085413
Some recs:
>Thri-kreen; they've got a whole book dedicated to psychology etc. so there's lots of material
>Lorwyn Elves; Cloven-footed horned facist bastards
>Shadowmoor Hobgoblins; Imagine Halfings with a serial murderer vibe
>Pathfinder Flumphs; Weird golden space squids who fight against Cthulhus while trying to convince people that they're totally not evil
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>>49083117
>Long arm seems a bit strong, especially if they're doing that 4 times a day at range.
You think? I mean, it's obviously a boost over a base attack, but it's still only d4 damage and you still have to roll to hit (even if you do so at +2). So let's say you've got a 19 THAC0 (as starting magic-users do) and you're striking at a common low-level enemy, like a goblin. That's AC 6. With the +2 bonus, you're gonna have to roll an 11 or over to hit, which means you pull it off 50% of the time. So you're going to do 1.25 hit points per round, on average, when casting Long Arm with a staff, and at a very limited range. (Using Long Arm with a dagger would yield 1.8 damage per round, but only at standard melee range.) Compare this to a Magic Missile, where the damage inflicted would be 4.5 per round, or 3.6 times what you'd do with a staff and Long Arm (and 2.5 times what you'd do with a dagger), and at a much greater range to boot.

>The +1 dmg for jolt makes a certain kind of sense, but also seems strong.
Hmm. You may have a point here, at least compared to Long Arm. You'd still be doing 1 less point on average than Magic Missile, at much shorter range, and only vs. particular types of targets (those in metal armor), so I'm not sure it's broken, but the spell does outshine Long Arm, so maybe one of them should be re-scaled.

>Both of these basically make your wizard notably more baddass at level 1
Hopefully so. I want cantrips to be relatively weak compared to a good 1st level spell, but not trivial.

>How much access do they have to the spell list? Is it any/all, pick 4 per day or some other method?
They'd work the same as any other level of spells, which may vary a bit depending on your DM. Going strictly by the rules in B/X, you know exactly the number of spells you can cast per day at a given level. I think that's a bit harsh, and support knowing at least 1 extra, if only to give you a bit of choice. So maybe you'd know 5 out of the 12 of them.
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>>49087138
>but the spell does outshine Long Arm, so maybe one of them should be re-scaled.
Though it does bear mentioning that Long Arm is more scalable, and could remain a useful option at higher levels, when Jolt isn't much (or any) than a base attack.

>So maybe you'd know 5 out of the 12 of them.
The book leaves the method of spell selection up to the DM, but I personally oppose letting the player freely select what spells his character knows. Something like rolling twice and choosing between the results is better, in my opinion, with the possible option to (try to?) learn off a scroll you found. If you applied a similar method to cantrips, I'd maybe let you roll 6 times and take the 5 you prefer (since you get them all at once).
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>>49062192
I'd be tempted to allow them to fail when they insist on rolling even when you tell them they don't need to. Success would just put them in the default situation you were going to start them out in anyway.
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>OSR is kill
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>>49089182
roll 3d6 in order to start OSR II?
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Anyone have any experience with Call of Cthulu?
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Just lost a player tonight.
I'm down to two.

I'm recruiting players for a Lamentations of the Flame Princess campaign set in Geoffrey McKinney's Carcosa setting.

Discord link here:
https://discord.gg/frjVB
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>>49089455
whaddya wanna know? It's a little outside the usual realm of OSR, but I guess it is one of the first widely published RPGs...
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Rolled 3, 3, 4, 3, 2, 5, 5, 5, 1, 4, 2, 5, 4, 3, 5, 5, 1, 4 = 64 (18d6)

>>49089452
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Watching Excalibur. Want to run a game akin to it but with more gonzo. How would one do so?
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>>49072680
The thing I don't like is the whole "you have a -2 bonus to AC". Bonuses should always be positive and penalties negative. Having mixed bonuses of positives and negatives is just sloppy and invites confusion.
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>>49090448
Charisma 10 (+0), Constitution 10 (+0), Dexterity 11 (+0), Intelligence 11 (+0), Strength 12 (+0), Wisdom 10 (+0)

On the bright side, you don't suck at anything.
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You OSR dudes, what is it that you like most about old RPG design?

I looked at 1d4chan and I tend to browse OSR threads, but I can't tell what the biggest appeal of the old ways are.

From what I can tell, it's usually more open-ended, with guidelines and DM centric designs covering a ton of possibilities without worrying much about flattering the ego of the players. They demanded respect, but also creativity.

If that's true, I think I can join your side in principle. I'm designing my own adventure system currently and I'm starting to wonder if I'm not inadvertently making something for the OSR crowd...
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>>49090824
I answered your question in the other thread: >>49090888
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>>49090824
I'm actually here for the exact same reason. I always end up having to tweak AD&D so people I play with (who don't game otherwise) can have a more narrative heavy game. I ended up splurging today on a ton of notebooks and started compiling all of my homebrew onto docs.
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>>49090824
There's a few things that I enjoy about OSR rulesets and approaches:

1. simplicity at the very base level makes it easy on the GM. This is contrasted with something like Shadowrun or 3.x D&D, where there's a lot of moving parts that take time to understand, especially when I'm busy trying to knit the setting together and juggle a dozen NPCs.

A lot of modern game systems make a big mistake in trying to have monsters and NPCs that follow player rules - this adds stat-building to an already busy GM's workload - and it's even rougher if you need to improvise on the fly!

It's much easier to make something simple complex than it is to make something complex simple. If I need a monster off the cuff I give it an HD value and maybe a special ability or two and I'm done.

2. emphasis on emergent outcomes as the result of an interaction between rule systems, as opposed to more collective-storytelling systems like FATE.

There's something more satisfying, and more "real", about having a character get into trouble through a cascading series of rules interactions compared to him getting into trouble "because I said so". On some level, both methods are equally arbitrary, but it's possible to be completely surprised by the interaction of multiple throws of the dice compared to a story-game where everyone takes turns setting the narrative.
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>>49090468
Pendragon RPG
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>>49090958
Oh thanks for saving it from dying! Replying there
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so what is /osrg/'s opinion of Pars Fortuna?
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>>49091385
Never knew it existed until this post. Since its Stater's, it's probably nice but I don't want to check it out. Should I?
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>>49083097
>I'm not wild about the saves/skills split within each category. What are you hoping to achieve by doing this?
It's mostly a matter of having the divisions of attributes I want to properly detail a character, while having each of the attributes be relatively useful and not dramatically under- or overpowered. Without splitting saves and skills, I end up with gimp attributes. I mean, I suppose I could have some attributes devoted solely to stuff like that, and others solely to other stuff, but that doesn't always make sense (strength adds to damage and hit points while constitution adds to skills and saves?), and leads to a strange sort of separation of utility. Having to-hit and AC split between dexterity and reflexes and paired with skills and saves (respectively) also means that neither is likely to get gimped too much just because you run a particular type of game. They both are useful in active combat.

Keep in mind, however, that I intend for the attributes to be semi-related, so that if one is high, the other is unlikely to be below average. Now, I suppose I could just reduce things to three stats: might, agility and intellect, or something like that, but that strikes me as being a bit boring from the standpoint of character definition.

What's your complaint about the split?
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Castles and Crusades: Classic Monsters & Treasure
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>>49090548

I disagree, since once you understand that lower AC and lower THAC0 is better you can parse "bonus" to mean "lowers AC" or "lowers THAC0". The same goes for saving throws.

I can understand how that might be confusing at first, but it shouldn't be after the first or second time you encounter it.

In general, there's not a lot of fiddly modifiers to THAC0 (at least, not until 2e), so it's not difficult to apply them on the fly so long as you understand that "improves" or "bonus" means lowering it.

Still, attack bonus and ascending AC are simpler to explain to newbies, and I don't begrudge anyone's use of it (I use it. I just won't be bothered if I played a game with someone else and they didn't use them).
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>>49097165
I started role-gaming with Moldvay Basic back in the early to mid 80s, so I'm quite familiar with the way descending AC works. But even so, I've always had to edit my comments about armor class bonuses, because I'll reference something "raising AC" and have to amend that, because "raising" could be taken as "making the number bigger", which is worse. It's just a clumsy way of doing things.
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>>49084831
>5 year old
Good luck. I have a niece and nephew that age and they can barely draw in the lines still. Listen, try out Dagger for Kids
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/111529/Dagger-A-Toolkit-for-Fantasy-Gaming-with-Kids
It's designed for kids and is really easy to pick up. Also free.
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>>49098423
Is dagger any good?
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Pathfinder-style Traits in an OSR ruleset: Good idea or terrible idea?
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>>49098892
I prefer 5e's background system.
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>>49098892
That sounds horrible but you do you, man.
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>>49098423
>https://mega.nz/#F!wBchjIxB!4JSV-T6_-Ow9Trb9LF-sGg
I actually went with a DCC 0-level funnel instead, lol. He always hears me talking about DCC, so he's always asking about it - so I showed him what's up. His mom played with him, so that helped, even though she'd never played an RPG either.

I was initially hesitant about a DCC funnel because of how each player controls multiple characters. Hell, several adults I've GM'd DCC for have had issues with it. So I did it quasi-tournament style. I generated 20 0-level characters (on the 4-up character sheets). Cut all the sheets apart and put them in a stack. As his characters died, another one would take its place.

I read Dagger... I don't think it's bad, but I also don't think a DCC funnel is any more complex. The 0-level characters eliminate spells and class abilities (since you're all peasants). Really the only thing you can do mechanically is attack (d20 vs AC) or try to pull off an action (d20 vs Difficulty Check). He understood very quickly he needed to roll high on a d20 to do things.
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Taxidermic Owlbear's retroclone list has Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition on it. Pic related. However, going to the site, it doesn't actually say anything about ADnD3e except in the URL. And the Basic Rules download link takes me to a WotC site. I'm mainly confused because I thought it was a fan-made retroclone, but it looks like it's not?
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>>49099693

It was taken down due to someone rolling 2d8 corporate lawyers on the encounter table.
You can't find it in the trove, though. Nope. No, sir. Nothing there.
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>>49099855
Ah, thanks. I had started going through the basic rules on the site to see if it was actually a retroclone and it was just DnD5e instead.
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>>49099693
They should be in the backup trove. It's basically, well, 2e with a few "fixes" but still adheres pretty strongly to it.
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What are your opinions on Darker Dungeons? It seems like a pretty solid clone though I am not too fond with flipping magic-user and elf and changing the mystic into a lycanthropic thing.
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Oh, mine got nuked.
Going to bring it back in 24 hours or so if there's still interest. Or I can just upload stuff I added somewhere else.
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>>49100899
Fuck, well, good thing I have a complete copy of it now then...
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>>49100899
Oh wow. I had just downloaded something off there an hour before you posted, too.
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Best old-school adventures for people completely new to D&D?
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>>49101527
B1 In Search of the Unknown or B2 Keep on the Borderlands. Tower of the Stargazer if you want new-school old-school.
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>>49101527
Tower of the Stargazer (LotFP)
Shadowbrook Manor (Labyrinth Lord)
Tomb of the Iron God (S&W)

Some one-page dungeons are pretty great
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>>49101527
Also look up Bryce Lynch reviews from tenfootpole.org. He reviewed tons of stuff and has a list of really great OSR products. Even accounting for various tastes you're bound to find something you'll really like.
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>>49100899
bring it back
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>>49101628
>>49101686
>>49101759
That's really great, thanks anons.
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>>49101628
>B2 Keep on the Borderlands
Probably the single best module out there in my opinion. It hits all of the right chords in my opinion and it so free form the DM is allowed to expand, cut and modify at their leisure/as needed.

Don't want the caves all next to each other? Spread them out? Want more intrigue at the keep? There are spies there!
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Playing in a 5E game at the moment with a some guys from work and I've said I'll let him take a break from DMing and run a few sessions soon, going to run 1E since I've got the A5 paperback of OSRIC (with some charts and stuff I've printed off folded up and slipped in the back with the correct values for stuff that got changed for legal reasons etc).

We're all in our early 20s but when I first started playing about five years ago I just went with 1E because I loved the artwork and tone.

Thinking about inverting descending AC to ascending (ie. AC 4 becomes AC 16) then using a base to-hit rather than THAC0 (ie. a level 1 fighter with THAC0 20 has +0 base to-hit, a level 2 fighter with THAC0 19 would have +1) just for the sake of convenience since they've only ever played 5E.

If I did this, reckon I should also switch the saves to bonuses rather than static values to beat? So for a level 1 fighter it'd be:

D/P/P: +6
P/P: +5
R/S/W: +4
BW: +3
S: +3

Just an idea I'm toying.
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>>49102374
So would the Saving Throws just be rolling 20 or more?
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>>49102374
Ascending AC and attack bonus is obviously a good thing for them. It doesn't matter mathematically, easy as hell to change and doesn't require adjustment period for 5ers.

Saves though? Categories will feel weird to them (wands / staves / rods AND spells, eeeh), but having a default target number you need to hit before your eyes is very useful. So if I had to change anything in saving throws, that would be categories themselves.

Otherwise, if I were you I'd just knock 5e back to oldschool. Fairly easy.
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>>49102250
That's a pretty cool map. Is it just done up in some CAD software or something?
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Kshhhh.... Kshhh.....
Mayday Mayday.
Looks like they took down the Clean Up the Trove Guy's stash!
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>>49102933
it'll be back, they can't keep it down too long
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What are peoples opinions on level drain, particularly by undead in OD&D? My players recently released some wraiths on the area without knowing and I'm deliberating on whether to run level drain as is or modify it somehow.

For one, I like that it makes the players scared as all hell of something that should by all means be terrifying (the undead). This can usually be hard and is awesome. That being said, is it too harsh of a setback on the players in terms of time lost?

I've seen some alternate rules on what to do, but want to hear some more peoples opinions. One of the alternate rules that I seem to like the most is that the first hit is a 24 hour drain and the second is permanent.

Also, do people running the rule raw allow a saving throw? It seems like it would make sense that it would be harder to level drain a higher level character, where levels represent a lot more work. Also the S&W rulebook indicates there are level drain effects that allow saves in the monster creation section but never indicates which monster has which. The OD&D manual never mentions saves at all.
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>>49103441
Level drain is more than scary. It's absolutely demoralizing, OOC. After all, nobody really likes to have to earn back what you already earned.
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>>49103441
it's a terrible idea, at least as anything permanent
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>>49103535
>>49103549
But following that logic, what about character death? There's lots of ways to die quickly, most notably save-or-die. That's like permanently losing ALL your xp instead of just a level worth. This is one of the reasons I'm having so much trouble figuring this out, it doesn't really come out as very crazy compared to the other stuff in OD&D.
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>>49103732
A dead character is dead. That's it. You can't play him anymore (unless he gets Raised, etc.). You roll up a new one.

A level-drained character has suddenly gone from being a cool badass to being a proud citizen of Sucktown. And you still have to play Sucky McSuckstein unless the DM lets you retire him.
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>>49103830
Yeah, but barring special occasions, the standard ethos of OSR is that new characters start at level 1 (I do this slightly different but level is still severely decreased to several levels below). Playing a leveled down hero who lost some his strength, and still has all his shit and spells for MUs is much better than playing a level 1 weakling.

Honestly, I think there's a two main reasons I'm reserved from including it. First, the game is kind of at a critical stage where I want them to be strong enough to be capable of traversing an area so we can move things along. Second, these people are somewhat newish to OSR and I have no idea how some of them will react to such a shockingly different rule than newer editions. With that said, I think I've come up with my solution.

For now, the wights will do one touch 24 hour drain and two touches permanent, since wights are kind of on the lower end of the undead spectrum and most of these wights will be newly formed anyways. This may be different for the original wight who will do drain on one touch. Either way, I can back track on my decisions and make the keep having to touch twice or once.

The other thing I'll do if a player does lose a level is play out their reaction. I think offering that they gain XP at twice the rate until they reach there old XP level is fair, especially considering that I want to keep the game on track. I would be more inclined to do it if they react terribly to it, too. Anyways that's what I've decided for now at least, maybe I'll change my mind but that seems fine.

They really shouldn't be fighting wights (or anything) straight on at their level, and since it's a problem for everyone they can enlist the help of the rather high level cleric in town as well as the militia.
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>>49104542

Sounds reasonable to me. I especially like the "first touch 24 hour" rule.
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>>49103441

I'm not certain what my feelings on level drain are yet. When I played 3rd edition, I never used it because it felt unfair, like I was being a deliberate jerk and that it would seem like I was punishing the players.

But, OSR stresses the "running away" option, and I'm in favor of that. When and if I run an OSR game and a monster with level drain comes up, I will probably run it straight, and then after the session, ask my players how they feel about it (they're a cool bunch).

However, a quick google search brought this up:

>http://www.autarch.co/forum/energy-drain-alternative-0

And I kind of like it.
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Have there been any efforts to convert Darkest Dungeon to an OSR game? I feel like with some additional elements it would make an excellent and innovative system.
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Is being "rules light" a defining trait of OSR?
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>>49100290
>Darker Dungeons
never heard of it
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>>49105291
I dunno. AD&D isn't really rules-light unless you ignore most of the rules (which most people do, though.)
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>>49105291
I'd consider AD&D rules-medium, so no. It may, however, be a defining trait of *good* OSR.
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>>49103441
>>49104542
Logically speaking, level drain isn't as bad as just dying.

but emotionally speaking, it feels worse. It feels more like wasted time than just losing a character.
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>>49105315
Alright, guy made a BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia clone that took all of the core classes (Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic-User, Elf, Dwarf, & Halfling plus the Mystic which is kinda like a monk in later editions) and extrapolated out all of them to level 36 and some other things were added or taken away and stuff. That game in and of itself is solid.

Darker Dungeons is Dark Dungeons with a lot more homebrew rules in it. No more rolling for health ever, a new class that is basically the red mage from Final Fantasy, and a lot of other small things.
>>
Anyone ever give their non-magical classes some magical abilities to make them more interesting? e.g., allowing the fighter to shapeshift into a bear or allowing the thief to shadowwalk.
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>>49105573
Sounds interesting. Any links? I googled and the official site didn't work
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>>49105669
Thieves, in particular, can use some mystic-level powers.

[edit: reposting a newer version]
>>
File: Darker Dungeons.pdf (1B, 486x500px)
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>>49105670
Can't post Dark Dungeons but here is Darker Dungeons.
>>
>>49105976
thanks
>>
>>49106039
Hey, no problem. I have a full backup of the trove thanks to both Trove Guy, CleanUpTrove Guy and all of the kind people who have helped contribute to it.
>>
Which save do I use to avoid falling into pit traps: Paralyze? Or Breath Weapon?
>>
>>49107008
Dragon's breath is makes more sense in terms of intended use, since it's sort of dodge related. Paralyze/Turn to stone is better for game balance since Thieves have a better chance of doing that and I feel they would be pretty good at saving for that.
>>
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>>49107008
You roll against your saving throw stat and get a +2 bonus if you're a thief.
>>
>>49107385
He never said he was playing S&W. In fact, I would assume he's not.
>>
>>49107469
My bad. Just roll vs. Reflexes.
>>
>>49105291
depends on what you mean by rules light, TSR D&D has a lot of rules(even BX and Holmes have a fair amount) but few of them are particularly complicated(outside of maybe THAC0 if you're terrible at math), so I'd say TSR D&D generally hovers between the high end of Rules Light(for Holmes and BX) to the lower end of Rules Medium(for both editions of AD&D and for the higher level parts of BECMI & RC D&D)
>>
>>49107008
You make a Dexterity check.
>>
>>49107627

>High dex wizard is better at it than the Fighter or the Thief
>Never get any better at dodging as you level up

Eww, gross, dude!
>>
>>49107469
LotFP, but I'm also interested in hearing about how other systems do it.
>>
>>49107964
Do a DEX check in lotfp.
I let players make up skills too. So if one had an "acrobatics" x-in-6 they could roll that too.
Hell, you could use a surprise check, since the situation is mostly about observation and fast reaction
>>
>>49105291
I don't think so, honestly. "Don't Fudge Rolls" is a much stronger principle for OSR play, and often the focus is on the interplay of independent rules that create an emergent situation.

GMs might skip out on rules at certain points in an OSR game, but generally they do so to avoid incoherence with the results generated by previous rules (such as a random table), rather than out of any fundamental distaste for rules.

To this end OSR games are actually quite enthusiastic about rules so long as they actively add to that emergent experience. Rules for taking a fatal blow to shatter your shield - great! That adds tactical choice, drama, and makes genre-appropriate choices also tactically correct (suffering the encumbrance of a shield, having your henchman be a shieldbearer with spares).

Rules for tying shoelaces? Not so great. It adds very little.
>>
>>49109679

To add to this, I'd say that the most often added bit of new rules are unnecessary skills. It's one thing to add an astrogation skill in a sci-fi game, but adding a psychotherapy skill knowledge skill doesn't add a whole lot.

In a typical OSR game it's equally unnecessary to have a decipher script skill, since it doesn't add much to the dungeon delving aspect, the wilderness exploration aspect, and can be solved by relying on NPC sages. There's also the fact that any such skill would generally be time intensive - time you don't have in dungeon exploration, time that is also precious in the wilderness. But, I think it would be fair for a DM to say that a PC could know a few phrases of a dead language well enough to recognize them on sight.

I'm sure there are plenty who will respond and disagree with me, and I'm not saying you're having badwrongfun for having skills, or even having skills I consider unnecessary. But I do think that careful thought should be exercised before introducing rules that can be foisted onto an NPC (and create plot hooks and adventure), or should be automatic, therefore within the reasonable capability of all adventurers, like finding north, and telling the approximate time of day.
>>
>>49057846
Need some rules for character death.
>>
>>49110056

1.) When the character dies, roll a new one.

2.) When the character dies, they now control a ghost with 1 hp, no physical stats, and two spells: a Mage Hand spell and a Ghost Sound spell that they can use a number of times per day equal to their Charisma modifier (each). They cannot make themselves seen, heard, felt, or smelled (except in the case of ghost sound). They can move no more than 500 ft. from their corpse, and cannot walk through walls, fly, or have any other locomotion beyond their normal actions. They can be detected with See Invisibility or Detect Undead.

The character has ghostly equipment (equal to whatever they had at the time of death), and can probably fight other ghosts or spectral beings, but is fragile. If they are reduced to 0 hp, the character can make a save vs. death. On success, they reform 24 hours later. On a failure, they go to the afterlife. In either case, they can still be resurrected if the player wishes to do so.

3.) Somewhere nearby, the character awakens inside of a glass tube filled with liquid without any of his possessions. He wears a strange undergarment for modesty, and is safe from suffocation thanks to a face mask. After a few moments, the tub decants the character.

If this is inside a dungeon, it is inside a concealed room. If the PCs are traveling/exploring the wilderness, the room is concealed inside a small natural cave. If inside a city, it may be a concealed room anywhere desired, from a castle to a dungeon, a palace, a slumlord's tenement, or the city sewers.

4.) The personification of Death makes an offer to the character's now ousted spirit: Forgoing all hope for resurrection or immortality (yes, even lichdom or vampirism), the character may return to life to undertake a single task (chosen either by the character or by Death, as the DM wishes). When the task is ended, they die once more, no matter their state of health at the time. They are not immune to being killed a second time, however.
>>
>>49110153

>tube, not tub

*And by "roll a new character" I mean roll it even if your flavor of OSR clone doesn't normally roll for stats (DM's option for rolling method). This is an optional "roll on this table to see what happens after death".

You may adjust chances to roll as needed.
>>
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>>49110056
Use a Mortal Wounds table in lieu of 0HP = dead. Modify the table to make your game more or less lethal.
>>
Bumping because raisons.

Have the AD&D 1e Dungeon Generator.
>>
I may or may not be running something at a local con in the upcoming months. I was thinking of going with an old-school "get to the end of this dungeon if you can, I dare you!" Kinda dungeon, and just challenging whoever comes to the table to reach the end.

What would you recommend for inspiration here? I'd probably build the dungeon myself, since it would be a one day thing.
>>
>>49112465
Tomb of the Mud Sorcerer
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>>49105120
The closest you're gonna get is Torchbearer.
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>>49107885
Quick is quick, regardless of class.
>>
>>49107008
You don't. Just don't step on it.
Traps trigger on 1-2 out of 6.
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>>49085737
Check out GURPS Goblins for ads/disads
>>
>>49102532
Yeah that's what I figured I'd do. Pretty sure the 1E DMG mentions using your own discretion to provide situational modifiers to saving throws anyway, so I could just use regular target numbers with 20 being 'normal' difficulty, 15 being easy, etc.

>>49102543
I'd considered this, too, not sure what the best way of working out would be.

I'd thought of just going with Swords and Wizardry's single save number and bonuses for each class.
>>
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>>49113399
I've long thought that your class should modify your attributes. The fighter, who has spent a lot more time exercising and training his body, should get a bonus to his strength relative to a magic-user. A magic-user, who has spent innumerable hours in study, poring over arcane tomes, should get a bonus to his intelligence relative to a fighter. Same thing for a thief and dexterity.

Constitution modifies hit points, right? So why give fighters bigger hit dice than magic-users? Why give a fighter a bonus to "tough-guy" saving throws? That just introduces additional, unnecessary bullshit and doesn't even address everything (the fighter is getting no bonus to constitution checks). Why not just give fighters a bonus to constitution (and magic-users a penalty to it)? That fixes everything in one fell swoop. Fighters get extra hit points compared to magic-users, they get better constitution checks, and they get better "tough-guy" saving throws if you modify such saves with a person's constitution bonus.
>>
>>49102543
>Categories will feel weird to them
That's because the categories are weird. If by "weird" you mean "ad hoc" and "clumsy", anyway.
>>
>>49107964
I posted >>49107385 not because I thought you were using Swords & Wizardry, which you were clearly not, but as a smart-ass way of suggesting that the traditional saving throw categories are flawed and that there are better ways of doing things. It's very easy to import S&W's single category saves into your game, for instance.
>>
>>49114654
That's sounds interesting, but I've personally always felt that in old-school d&d the attributes are just bonuses or disadvantages upon the class, which is the most important. This kind of switches thing around. I personally like the idea of playing a weak but smart fighter or a dumb but swole wizard. It makes the player change his perspective and might make him get more creative.
>>
Does anyone, through any chance, have the Savage World Lankhmar books?
The system may not be OSR, but the books are apparently better than the ADnD ones.
>>
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Starting to run a hexcrawl using the Blackmarsh map. And the surrounding area too.
I first took the original map and redrew it and colored it, but realizing that's kinda useless to the players, I kept that one for personal Referee use, and made a new parchment-style map with the intent of them drawing locations on top of it.
>>
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>>49115265
My WiP Referee map as well.
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>>49114762
>I personally like the idea of playing a weak but smart fighter or a dumb but swole wizard.
You could still end up with a weak fighter or a strong wizard, only a bit less so.

If you standardized the attribute to modifier progression to 2:1 (like in modern D&D), a Basic fighter might get a +2 constitution, while a magic-user got a -2, with all classes rolling d6 hit dice. Thus, they'd preserve their average hit points per level.*

That being the case, most or all adjustments would probably be -2 or +2. You'd probably want a smaller initial range so modifiers wouldn't get out of hand (maybe 3 averaging dice), or you'd want to increase your attribute to modifier ratio to 3:1.

*Actually, magic-users would get an extra 1/6 of a hit point per level due to always getting at least 1 hp (unless you simply rerolled if your result was less than 0), but that's a pretty minor boost.
>>
Are there any supplements or homebrew rules for ADnD that add more customization or add feats or anything?
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>>49115331
Jesus, that looks nice. Did you draw that yourself?
>>
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Anyone here tried TSR Conan boxed set or its retroclone Zefrs? I have some problems with the summoning magic, have no idea how strong a summoned creature should be statwise.
>>
>>49115837
Yeah, I got a weak spot for maps. They're fun to do.
>>
>>49116235
Not that anon, but did you use a program or something?
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>>49107385
I fucked around and made a single-category saving throw system based on B/X's numbers. Any saving throw categories that deviated from the average by 1.3 to 2.6 points got a +2 or -2 category bonus. No score category deviated from the average by more than this.
>>
>>49117311
Just photoshop
>>
Did anyone do a Keep on the Borderlands conversion to ACKS?

I know about Stone of Sakkara, but I'm wondering about a straight port of the module.
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>>49110181
>Instead of just killing the character, roll a mortal wound
>the definition of a mortal wound is a wound that kills somebody
What?
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hey guys
imtrying to write sword and sorcery

i had a fucked up deam where I was helping a dark wizards flay my firlfriend alive. he had like, a grim reaper's cloak on and nothing but shining teeth through the hood

he told me his name was Guerm Al Vulca

and I sleep texted the name to everyone I have on my phone
I didnt make a group text, I literally texted every one of my friends individually and texted "Guerm Al Vulca" over and over again

I dont remember doing this.

am I fucking insane?
>>
>>49121444
Trips say yes.
>>
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>>49121444

BADD was right!
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>>49114654
>The fighter, who has spent a lot more time exercising and training his body, should get a bonus to his strength relative to a magic-user. A magic-user, who has spent innumerable hours in study, poring over arcane tomes, should get a bonus to his intelligence relative to a fighter. Same thing for a thief and dexterity.

All you're doing is pigeonholing a character into what their class is traditionally supposed to be like that way.

What if I want my fighter to be like Pauly Shore in 'In The Army Now'; some wimpy dude trained for combat? Or my Wizard to be a buff-ass savage who has an incomprehensible natural knack for the arcane. Why shouldn't the thief be a slow fat fuck who happens to be great at mugging people and punching traps?

There's a reason you roll attributes first and pick a class after. If you rolled a high STR, most people will pick Fighter or Dwarf. Same for DEX and Thieves and Halflings. You don't need the game to force your character to be good at something just because of their class.
>>
Hey, /osrg/, describe your personal settings you run/play in.

Mine is set in the lands held by the tribe known as the Rovari, a vast region that was only recently held by the Elven Empire of Apennestria which has fallen to constant civil wars in the nearby regions but is quite a bit more stable around their capital. The area is littered with ruins, magical blight lands, and nascent "kings" (really chiefs of the several Rovari clans). Halflings hide away in their burrows, Dwarves have become reclusive after waging wars on numerous fronts as allies of the Appenestrian elves and monsters tribes are starting to settle in the ruins while others take to banditry or worse. Even the Chantry of the Faiths is beginning to succumb to bureaucratic nepotistic corruption if not outright calling for war on the heathen monsters and non-faithful clans.
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>>49121722
>All you're doing is pigeonholing a character into what their class is traditionally supposed to be like that way.
Classes are pigeonholing characters into particular archetypes. If you don't want pigeonholing, you should probably play a classless system. Besides, much of what I'm proposing is simply pigeonholing things in a simpler, less-convoluted way. For instance, regardless of their actual constitution score (which is *supposed* to represent how tough they are), fighters get at a lot more hit points than magic-users due to their larger hit dice. So what if I want to create a tough-as-nails magic-user? Tough shit. I mean, I can have a magic-user with an 18 constitution, who will actually get a good number of hit points, but it's the same with the system I'm proposing. There's not much difference if it's d4 hit dice with a +3 constitution bonus, or d6 hit dice with a +2 constitution bonus.

And this line of conversation started with somebody objecting to having a dexterity check save you from a pit trap, pointing out that your class would play no part in this. And they're right. The solution to this would probably be to have folks roll a save vs. paralysis and turn to stone, where thieves have an advantage, but not only is this arcane (old school save categories suck), it also fails to take into account somebody's actual dexterity. So if a thief is supposed to be nimble, why not just represent it through his attributes and resolve something like this with the equivalent of a reflex save (which is to say: a single category save modified by your dexterity)?

>There's a reason you roll attributes first and pick a class after.
Then let's not give fighters bigger hit dice or vary saving throws by class. If making primary modifications to a character's capabilities (through attributes) is so bad, why would secondary modifications be any better? It really feels like you're applying a double standard here.
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>>49121987
>Then let's not give fighters bigger hit dice or vary saving throws by class.

Different guy but I'm okay with these. I'm even tinkering with giving all classes the same BAB as a Fighter (although only a Fighter would get extra attacks per round)
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>>49121987
HD for every class, ideally, should be modeled after CON modifiers.

-3: d4 -1 (min 1hp)
-2: d4
-1: d6 -1 (min 1hp)
0 : d6
1 : d6+1
2 : d8
3 : d10

or something to that effect.
>>
>>49121987
>It really feels like you're applying a double standard here.
To expand on this a bit:

As a magic-user, you can't wear any armor.
>okay

As a magic-user, the only weapons you can use are a dagger and a staff.
>okay

As a magic-user, your chance to hit in combat is poor because your class has a bad to-hit progression.
>okay

As a magic-user, you have meager hit points due to your class's small hit dice.
>okay

As a magic-user, your saving throws are mediocre, and you're better at saving vs. paralysis than dragon breath.
>okay

What if, as a magic-user, you had a -2 penalty to your constitution?
>Quit pigeonholing me!
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>>49122150
d6-1 and d4 are very close to being the same thing. d6+1 has the exact same average as d8.
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>>49122249
i just shat out numbers. you get the idea.
>>
>>49117319
I did something like this for OD&D:

>Base save 15
>Bonus of Level * 2/3, rounded
>Cleric: +2 Poison/Death, +2 Wand, -2 Breath
>Fighter: +2 Poison/Death, -2 Spell
>M-U & Thief: -2 Breath
>Dwarf & Halfling: additional +3 across the board
>>
>>49122306
Sure. If you're gonna do that sort of thing, it seems like the thing to do is to go through the full array of dice:

1hp
d2
d3
d4
d6
d8
d10
d12
d12+1
d12+2
etc.
>>
>>49122365
Ideally, one would have access to DCC styled funky dice, but yeah.

-3: d2
-2: d3
-1: d4
0 : d6
1 : d8
2 : d10
3 : d12
>>
>>49122310
Mine is just going by the numbers. I think I could make it a bit more elegant if I tried to cut down on the bonus categories a bit, and maybe strip out the penalties. Though if I really wanted to be more elegant, I might stray a bit from the old school saving throw categories a bit, and move in the direction of what Swords & Wizardry did (or move *past* what S&W did).
>>
>>49122434
But, of course, fighters need to have more hit points or they become a gimp class. So either they need a bonus to their constitution, like we've been discussing, or they need some other way of compensating.
>>
>>49122150
I prefer HD to be a tied to class but maybe a compromise?

Mages are a d4-1 if CON is under 9, d4 if between 9 and 12 and d4+1 if above 12

Clerics are a d4 if Con is under 9, d6 if between 9 and 12 and d8 if above 12.

Thieves area a d6-1 if con is under 9, d6 if con is between 9 and 12 and d6+1 if above 12.

Fighters are a d6 is con is under 9, a d8 if between 9 and 12 and a d10 if above 12.

Thoughts?
>>
>>49122448
I ran the numbers too, but I wanted to see if I could force everyone onto the same progression and just have static modifiers for class. I think mine came within 1 pt for the lowest level in each group, you can get closer if you use modifiers besides 2.

I think maybe the B/X tables have slight differences to OD&D for thief, elf, & dwarf/halfling.
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>>49122584
Why not just have magic-users shift you down one die level, and fighters shift you up one die level? Or better yet, just give magic-users a penalty to constitution and fighters a bonus, because your constitution is supposed to represent how tough you are.
>>
>>49122640
Because I don't like your con being your actual HD, but I do agree it should be a little more than just a straight modifier. That's why I presented my compromise. Mages are always weak, clerics can go from weak to decent, thieves are fairly average and fighters can go from average to fairly good.
>>
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>>49122469
>that's the players discretion, whether to choose being a fighter knowing they have low HD or not.


>>49122584
I still think that's just shoe-horning a character into a traditional role/archetype. It's ok and even fun to play something that makes no sense. Drop class weapon restrictions LotFP style while you're at it.

Roll great on STR and low on INT but still wanna be a Magic-User? Do it. You're a buff muscle-wizard who is dumb as fuck. That's fun and deviates from the norm.

I like something like this pic, but with the CON mod as HD as discussed.
>>
>>49122861
I could make a comment on your suggestion but I don't want some asshole posting a dumb meme in response to my suggestion...
>>
>>49122888
fuck 'em. comment away dude. i'm talking to you, not them.
>>
>>49122861
>that's the players discretion, whether to choose being a fighter knowing they have low HD or not.
Sure, but you've now depowered fighters as a class. Why not take away weapons and armor restrictions while we're at it? That way, after rolling attributes, it's the player's discretion as to whether or not to pick a fighter knowing they will suck compared to other classes.
>>
>>49122905
If you don't want to have your stats mean much to your class or anything, try the Strike! RPG. You choose what your key stats are that your stuff key off of, a class that presents a slew of features and then a role that modifies your abilities. You can play pretty much damn near anything including your muscle wizard, though it isn't OSR and I will now probably have someone flip out that I even so much as mentioned
>>
>>49122434
>DCC styled funky dice
You don't need funky dice.
>d2 = d6/3, round up [1-3 are 1, 4-6 are 2]
>You can do d2 with any even-sided die really.
>d3 = d6/2, round up [1-2 are 1. 2-3 are 2, 3-4 are 3]
>d5, you can do that perfectly fine with [d10/2, round up]

As for d7, it's inelegant, but you could do [d8, reroll 8s until you get a number under 8]. Works out to the same probability as a d7, but you just have a 1/8th chance of having to roll more than once. You can do something similar for other weird numbers like d9 and d11.
>>
>>49122584
So the way it normally is, but capping your modifiers at +1 or -1?
>>
1 HD Retainers add your Charisma bonus to attack, damage, and saves. Thoughts?
>>
>>49124718
That's a bit devastating for a guy with 18 charisma, don't you think? Let's say they're striking at goblins, so the average retainer hits 40% of the time for 4.5 damage. That's 1.8 damage per round. But the retainers serving under a guy with 18 charisma hit 55% of the time for 7.5 damage. That's 4.125 damage per round, more than twice as much as the ones serving under the other guy. And sure, maybe that's not unreasonable for the troops serving under Alexander the Great, but at those levels, they're far outshining low level PCs.

Also, what happens when they reach 2nd level? Do they suddenly become comparatively shitty? Sure, they have twice the hit points, but they inflict less than half the damage per round. At the very least, it seems like the bonus to damage is ill-advised.
>>
>>49124718
This guy
>>49125021
pretty well says it all

Has anyone got experience with the Black Hack? I like that it actually puts the abilities to use, but afraid it does so to the point of making them too important/making character power level too random. Maybe that'd be mitigated with "fair but random" attributes?
>>
>>49124663
What? No, if you look at Clerics and Fighters, they change dice depending on their con bonus but the others stay relatively the same.
>>
>>49124718
I'd say at the start of an expedition you can roll a Charisma Check to give your bonus to Attack, Damage, or Saves. But if you lose more retainers than your Charisma bonus, they take a penalty on morale checks.

It allows a charismatic guy to inspire his troops with a great chance of success and a way to keep hope alive, while a less charismatic person might not be able to do so or won't be able to hold that bonus as long. The morale penalty is added on to any other penalties that might crop up, so those who don't make a speech don't have to worry as much about a "he lied to us and led us to our deaths after that speech!" problem.

Once retainers reach more HD than their leader's Charisma Bonus they no longer gain this bonus, having grown savvy and jaded, nearly adventurers in their own right.
>>
>>49126446
Oh. Sorry. I obviously skimmed it in an overly perfunctory manner. But I don't quite understand the point of sometimes shifting a die level and sometimes applying a flat adjustment. d6-1 gives you the exact same average as d4, d4+1 gives you the exact same average as d6, and d6+1 gives you the exact same average as d8. Why not just pick one method and stick with it?
>>
>>49127262
Because variety. I'm not using it myself, I simply presented it as a compromise.
>>
>>49104542
It seems like level drain is too much of a pain in the ass to be worth it if you're just going to have it last for 24 hours. I do like the idea of earning back XP at twice the rate though.

Maybe instead of literal level drain, you could just impose a penalty. Your maximum hit points are reduced by 1 hit die roll, and you suffer -1 to your attacks and saving throws. All XP you earn go to paying this off, and the amount it takes equals 1/2 the difference between the number of XP it took to gain your current level and the amount of XP it takes to gain the next level. If you get drained more than 1 level, just increase the numerator and denominator by 1 point each, so that 1 level requires 1/2, 2 levels requires 2/3, 3 levels requires 3/4, 4 levels require 4/5 and so forth. Or something like that.
>>
>>49121945
The capital of NotRome (itself but a shadow of an earlier, mystical empire that stood for thousands of years) fell centuries ago, but the remnants of its power remained in the province the PCs are in, as the commander of the army stationed there had kept order and made sure the institutions set up by NotRome continued to function. There was always the hope that the troubles at the heart of the empire would be resolved, as they were during earlier civil wars, but as the decades passed, communication with the centers of power that survived the upheaval (and which still lent some limited assistance to the province) had grown increasingly rare, until they stopped altogether (and a scouting force revealed that there had been no empire at all for some years, as it had completely collapsed and been overrun).

So from the vestiges of the army grew a new ruling class of not-quite-kings that aimed to be successors to the empire. But order and civilization were slowly slipping between their fingers, and at the start of the game, the PCs (members of a small farming hamlet called in what is now the ass-end of nowhere) are shocked to find the highway (which had been increasingly plagued by banditry) was, with no warning, entirely abandoned by the patrols, effectively hanging the hamlet (and plenty of other places) out to dry, and probably signalling the collapse of the successor kings.

The game is meant to explore the struggle between the decaying institutions of order and civilization on one side, and the ever-growing hordes of chaos and barbarism that threaten to drown the land.

Hopefully that was coherent, as my sleeping pills are kicking in and my lucidity is fast fading.
>>
>>49121444
Burn all your gamebooks and contact Jack Chick for an exorcism immediately.
>>
>>49125303
Its a roll-under check. Works for us, everyone at the table has a stat they're good at and a few they're okay at. Don't ask for too many rolls for inane shit, don't let the players use asking to roll as a means of avoiding thinking/describing, should be fine.
>>
>>49069131
I sort've know that feel.

>Met a couple dudes online that are pretty cool.
>Into tabletop gaming. They play a lot of Pathfinder.
>Ask them if they'd mind if I ran an OSR campaign.
>"Does that mean we'll have to learn a new system?"
>Uhm... Not really. You've pretty much already learned the whole system I'm going to use, anyway.
>"I don't know man. Aren't these games gonna feel old and stale?"
>No, just the opposite. OSR games tend to actually feel more natural.
>"Nah man. We'll just stick to Pathfinder."

What the fuck, man?
>>
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>>49131476

Sunk cost fallacy wins again.
>>
>>49098423
>>49084831
A while back, my niece and nephew came to spend the week at my house. We live about 25 minutes out in the backwoods of Kentucky. No cable, limited internet, and that particular week we had a power outage.

They acted like the world was literally ending. They didn't have service on their phone, their tablets were dead, and they killed the battery on my laptop. Every 5 minutes I would hear "I'M BORED!"

I broke out some board games, and played with them a while. At the ages of 10 and 12, neither one of them had ever played a fuckin' board game before. Then, later that week when the power went out, I set out some oil lamps and we played some oldschool D&D. It was pretty fuckin' rad.

Though, when the power came back on the next day, they both scrambled and scratched for the outlet between their beds in the guestroom. Glad I wasn't born in the generation that's currently being raised!
>>
>>49114654
I love this idea.
>>
>>49114654
Why don't we just get rid of abilities and use class and level for everything?
>>
>>49131817

You could maybe do that, but they're useful as descriptors, and I like to have them as alternate hitpoints for different kinds of stat damage. Not having stat damage force you to recalculate a whole mess of derived stats and be worse as a character removes all the worst parts of stat damage systems IMO.
With attributes not being used much, it mostly adds up to just "don't let that fall to zero before you do something about it."
>>
>Grey Matter is a retro-clone of popular role-playing rules form the 1970s, streamlined, polished and updated.

>454 pages
>"streamlined"
>>
>>49132360

How much of that is taken up with equipment lists, spell lists, and monsters? How much is just rules?
>>
>>49132360
>>49132495

He apparently has a bunch of classes and races as options.

You can read the author's thought process here:

>https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?670983-Grey-Matter-Rules-for-Retro-Role-Playing
>>
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>>49062216
1d6 Rumors on the Nobleman's Interest in the Dungeon.

1. The Dungeon is believed to hold a relic that will cement his birthright claim over the region (Somewhat True; Items of Power within could grant him dominion but any ancestral link is far removed.)
2. The Dungeon is said to hold a creature who is plotting the Nobleman's Downfall. (True: The Nobleman's Brother is bound in an iron mask and makes schemes with creatures to avenge himself against his usurper sibling.)
3. The Dungeon was once part of a holy structure, but in its defiled state is a blight upon the region that needs to be cleansed. (Somewhat True: it is corrupted now, but the Nobleman only wants it cleansed so he can broker more favor with the Church.)
4. The Dungeon is known to be a place where beautiful maidens are whisked away by a petty wind God who steals away lovers. The Nobleman wants to know if this is what became of a dear friend. (False: Anyone brought back to the dungeon is generally devoured by fiends, despite the Brother's protestations.)
5. On the lower levels which link to a cove, a smuggler's ship is known to be trapped there. Within, a century old wine meant for an Empire that has fallen. Such alcohol would impress anyone, and it is well worth the cost. (Somewhat true: But not why you'd be sent there.)
6. A mad anchorite has been seen preaching in town, demanding people go to the Dungeon. The Nobleman claimed he'd look into it and the people have demanded action. (Somewhat True: His brother returned to town and demanded to be faced in a duel of honor, but most people couldn't read that deeply into it.)

Whatever the case, the Nobleman is eager to have the adventurers loot and sack the place; cleanse it of all its inhabitants, rescue any maidens fair, and return back with treasure, signs of office, and fine wine. If it can kill his brother he left to die there, all the better. The officials from the Church will visit town within 1d3 weeks of the party's return.
>>
>>49103441
One interesting alternative I've seen for level drain is to replace all level draining with supernatural aging instead.

It gives a very folkloric feel that still fits with the undead: "The ghost drains your lifespan. Your hands wrinkle and your hair goes white before your eyes". Most games also have aging penalties as well, and I usually rule the character keels over if they're aged more than human lifespan (usually I set the threshold around 80 years).

This also makes elf and dwarf characters somewhat more "resistant" to aging due to their long lifespans. You can obviously tweak this to make it more/less lethal by changing the number of years drained in a single attack, and by setting a rate at which lost years recover. "Never" is very harsh, but on the other hand a PC could recover 1 year/week of rest.
>>
>>49132919

I linked something to that effect in this post: >>49105055

Basically, it works with a ratio of years lost for humans, dwarves, and elves.

5:10:20

For creatures that drain two levels of energy, it's doubled:

10:20:40

While I'm still undecided about level drains, I may use this. But, I've been thinking about some of the most common complaints about level drains, and at least one of them doesn't hold up.

>too much book keeping (keeping track of rolled hp)

I'd just have the PC roll their HD and subtract that from their previous total.

However, there are things like proficiencies to consider. I typically play and run LotFP, and there aren't any weapon proficiencies, and there's barely any skills, but at least for the Specialist, they could lose out on level drains.

I'm still on the fence about this, because of the "you lose things you knew before!" complaint.
>>
>>49062216

Noble's reason for interest in dungeon

d5

1. Old burned out mansion is actually the hideout for a local drug chemist and his violent gang. They shorted the noble on his last purchase and told him to fuck off, now he wants revenge.

2. Lost family tomb has heirlooms of great importance both sentimental and a matter of land in the form of a valuable deed. However, the spirits of unknown ancestors and their loyal guard remain vigilant in the watch of the tomb.

3. Series of sea caves said to posses the only oysters that produce the red pearls which his lady love adores. However it is also rumored to be used as a pirate hideout.

4. The catacombs under the old church is the base of operations for a radical group planning a coup against the nobleman and his peers. He isn't sure how to enter but has been sold information on who to follow that will lead the party there so they can "negotiate".

5. His alcholic wizard uncle made a beer golem and it won't leave the lower kitchen of the castle while it eats up the supply of barley, fruits and anything else it can process. It has been terrorizing the kitchen staff and the guard was unable to subdue it.
>>
>>49131476
This is one of the bigger reasons why I'm afraid to run an OSR game, even though I've told people about a few of the settings and they seemed genuinely interested.
>>
>>49122861
that pic is what i've been looking for for a while. thank you.
>>
>>49122861
The points on saves shouldn't be choice for two classes and fixed for the other.
>>
>>49133679
Just do it. I had a group of friends who weren't really sold on OSR and I kind of originally forced Castles & Crusades on them. Some were kind of discontent at first but eventually I changed to it to Sword & Wizardry to give them the whole experience. Just yesterday they were telling how much they liked my game over the other pathfinder game they were in. They really liked all the on the fly rulings and the complete system freedom.
>>
>>49121444
That's fucking rad.
>>
>>49121444

You're insane for making up something so stupid on an anonymous imageboard
>>
>>49133679
I'm a little afraid too, but I agreed to do it anyway. Currently prepping a game for my friends next weekend.
>>
>>49105669
Purely on an ad-hoc basis.

If the fighter spends months of downtime across a couple levels living with the bear clan, brings them lavish gifts, defeats a powerful enemy of the clan, and swears a magically binding loyalty oath, perhaps they'll grant him initiation into their mysteries and tattoo him with the bear totem that allows him to take the form of the great bear.
>he must eat a pound of human flesh to change back to his human form
>>
someone going to make a new thread?
>>
>>49137231

I am. Right now.
>>
New thread: >>49137352
>>
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I use OD&D (LBB only, WotC re-prints with the first printing to fill the blanks).

Add your HD and your foe's AC to a d20 roll to attack, roll 20+ to hit, damage is d6.

Roll HD at the beginning of each session OR when the party reaches a safe haven and spens some time resting. Once per session.

Fuck Clerics. There are no Clerics, only Fighting-Men and Magic-Users. Dwarves and Hobbits can still be FM as RAW, Elves choose whether they're a Fighting-Man or a Magic-User at the beginning of each session and acquire XP seperately.

2-handed weapons deal the best of two dices in damage. Same shit for those who want to have a weapon in each hand, the first requires 13 STR, the second requires 13 DEX.

Dead at 0hp.

Magic-Users can memorize and cast a number of spell equal to their level, regardless of spell level. They start with all the first level spells, and need to research or discover new spells. They still use the usual table to know which spell levels they can memorize (if you're a first level MU, you can't cast anything other than first level spells through memorization); BUT any MU can write and use a scroll of any spell level, as long as they have access to said spell, costs determined as in Holme's Basic.

That's about it.

Questions : should Wisdom do something? if so, what should it do? It's one of those sacred cow that I'm not comfortable with just erasing, and I think some players are going to ask me the point of having it if it doesn't have any in-game effect. It won't affect agency though, just as INT and CHA don't define a character in my book.

Target 20 allows me to use descending AC which feels better to me for some reason I can't explain, and the adding of HD means there's far less shit one need to write or know about his character to be able to play. It also more-or-less follows the Attack Matrix probabilities, according to Delta and Necropraxis and other OSR big bloggers, whom I trust.

Ideas? Opinions? Insults?
>>
>>49137420
>Fuck Clerics
Dropped.
>>
>>49084924
I must admit, I love that adventure for how silly it is. Calzone golem!
>>
>>49137420
You already destroyed a sacred cow with clerics, might as well throw wisdom out too.
>>
>>49137420
0/10, would not play in.
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