Welcome to the Old School Renaissance General thread. >L

>>51998762
dammit, I forgot the header :(

What do you guys think about a multi-genre OSR system?

I feel like something where everything is a stat 3 to 18, and rolls are 1d20 + the stat versus TN 21.

Skills, if they existed (and probably would to a small degree if it was generic) would work similarly.

Not sure about hit dice or how attack bonuses would go.

I dunno, does this sound at all interesting or just total whack? Cause I'm leanin toward the latter right now but the idea still intrigues me.

>>51998824
I like it, but I feel we already have what we need if we want to do the set Challenge Rating in the shape of the "Seige" engine.

In B/X:
A) Read Magic allows you to cast from a captured spellbook like from a scroll (one spell each time you cast Read). The spell vanishes from the spellbook as a scroll would.
Or even better: you cast Read Magic, read all the spells in the book, cast one, and the whole book fades.
B) Monsters award 100 XP per HD. This speeds up the low levels but keeps the high end the same.
C) Clerics pick their weapon of choice. I know B/X has a lot of focus on swords being OMG AWSUM if played btb, but I've never found any of that so far.

opinions?

>>51998762
whack and bogs down play
>>51998824
whack imo, focused and tight gameplay > generic systems that you have to refluff/adapt.
Multigenre sounds good in theory but never plays quite right... Genre-mix is another thing, tho.

What are the best (most active) websites for Play-by-Post games?

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>>51998258
Bandits and (hostile) Paladins see in the dark just as well as Bugbears while in the dungeon.
ANY "monster" can see in the dark down there.

>>51998178
I always try to justify that somehow.
>Your torches spoil its indecision
>Your footsteps drown out its tremorsense
>Your ambient thoughts overwhelm its ESP
Etc.

>>51998762
>Weapon speed. Is it good, or is it wack?
Suuuuuper whack. Even Gygax came to admit that.

>>51999084
>A
Just use Gygax's original rules for spellbooks. c >>51943525
>B
Takes low levels to the speed of light. No.
>C
Fine by me. OD&D Clerics has full weapon access, they couldn't use the Fighting-Man exclusive *magic swords*

>>51998824
>What do you guys think about a multi-genre OSR system?

You have to ask yourself this: What would this system be able to do that Melee/Wizard/The Fantasy Trip/Heroes & Other Worlds and some barely converted GURPS material couldn't do?

I'd also argue that "generic" and "universal" are almost always viewed as dirty words by grogs so you wouldn't be able to sell very well if you go commercial.

What are the tropes of OSR?

>>51999611
Before getting sacked Gygax had half-baked plans to make AD&D more setting-ambiguous.
Among other things, he was trying to merge it with a Wargame about Tanks.

>>51999639
What does he meme by this?

>>51999530
>A
But I like B/X magic. I just hate all those spellbooks left to rot in the battlefield...
>B
What if you get 100xp per level of difference? Average party level - enemy HD. Monsters of your level or less give the normal amount (or zero).

To be honest, I like B/X as it is, but I want faster advancement and I feel like halving the XP tables is way too much.
I love the very first levels, I'm sooo tired of playing at low level forever... and I get to play only rarely, so it feels really wrong to end a session with "ok guys so you get 7 xp each. see you next semester."

>>51999639
I don't understand your question :/

>>51999639
Great heroes can be found even here, in the mud and rain.

Strong drink, a game of chance, and companionship… the rush of life.

Some may fall… but their knowledge lives on.

Death waits for the slightest lapse in concentration.

How quickly the tide turns!

The bigger the beast, the greater the glory.

Injury and despondance set the stage for heroism...or cowardice.

This is no place for the weak or foolhardy.

Survival is a tenuous proposition in this sprawling tomb.

These nightmarish creatures can be felled, they can be beaten!

Remind yourself that overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer.

The sin is not in being outmatched, but in failing to recognize it.

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>>51999704
>I just hate all those spellbooks left to rot in the battlefield...
You didn't even read the thing I linked you.

Which is really annoying. I stitched that together in paint.
Took like 25 minutes!

>>51999701
>a Wargame about Tanks.
Ah, yes good old Tractics.

>>51999639
The OSR, like anything has a lot of meaningless buzzwords and half-baked memes. Ask 10 people and you'll get 20 answers.

>>51998762
>Weapon speed. Is it good, or is it wack?
It's shit.

Is there something like a 5e OSR?

>>52000014
The Black Hack uses Advantage and Disadvantage.

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>>51978536

>>52000014
I'm what context?

>>52000014
>>52000297
The major thing worth taking from 5e would be it's combat framework (move, action, bonus action, reaction), and I don't know of any retroclones that make use of it.

>>51999887
Don't be like that, anon. Already read that when you posted it previously (last thread?) and I plan to give my witchy NPCs some of those cantrips. Thanks for the effort btw!

But I REALLY like how B/X works. You have your own and very unique spellbook, containing your few and carefully selected spells (or rolled if your DM hates you). You are your spellbook, like a samurai with a paper katana.
Those Gygax houserules talk about spells you know and can use already, which is reasonable but out of bounds for a B/X caster. He wrote that from a AD&D point of view, I want something Basic. You either do or you don't, like everything else in the game.
And god forbid rolling a d% just to see if you get that 01.

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I need to thank >>51949735 for the solo-stuff.

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>>51999639
> What are the tropes of OSR?
There is only one trope I'm aware of.

>>52000431

You're welcome, anon. Most of that was compiled by a different anon, although I did help out.

>>52000418
>He wrote that from a AD&D point of view, I want something Basic.
Literally remove the line about having to know the spell. As written you already need Read Magic for captured books.

Do you give XP for non-shiny treasure? Stuff found in a dungeon or outright stolen that it's not coin/gem/jewel/etc.
IMHO it slows down the game a lot, and turns it into a full muerderhobo graverobbin spree. Cool for a bit, but the novelty wears fast.

Also, do you give a price when describing things?
>In the corner, a fine silver service worth at least x gp!
I always do, giving a very rough price of course - first to avoid the question "is that valuable?" and second to direct the PCs attention into what's important (in my game).

>>52000672
Of course! Deeds, stamp collection, exotic spices... the works.
Any I put a tapestry worth 200 silver in EVERY dungeon.

>>52000721
B-But why? I get that the logistics of getting all that from the dungeon and finding a seller can be fun, but it's not like.. super slow and grindy? Taking the focus away from "Adventure!" into "gritty bookkeeping minutae"?
Maybe I'm too used to play D&D like a roguelike :(

stamp collection sounds mad fun, tho.

>>52000796
Nah, I play it like a roguelike too.
Any character able to recognize it as treasure is able to find a buyer during downtime.
>B-But why?
It's great for conspicuous "hidden treasure."
Like how a leftover poisoned caltrop from a previous adventurer makes for a great conspicuous "trap".

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What are people's oppinions on The White Box treasure rules?

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So what's the role of Wizards in OSR?

They seem to be a bit of a mix of jack of all trades, the crafting class, the artillery class. It's very difficult to pin down or distill into something really base. How would you describe their role?

>>52002384
>How would you describe their role?
Panic button.

>>52001323
A bit too flat for my tastes. Treats all the monsters equally... and still has some problems for copying B/X like multiple rolls for different coins.
I really like the treasure types in B/X, they give a very 'natural' distribution - If you don't mind using a treasure roller*, that it, because they involve lots and lots of fie rolling.
This tables look a lot simpler, but still idk if I would stop a game to roll on them.

My ideal teasure-per-monster would be, for example:
-chance of having treasure 50%
-total treasure: d1000
If it has any treasure, roll d1000 and that's the total. Distribute into gp, sp, cp, ep, pp, gems and jewels and tapestry and whatever depending of what makes sense based on monster INT, encumbrance and volume of treasure.

* http://www.mithrilandmages.com/utilities/LLTreasure.php

Is there a reason why so many OSR bloggers use Blogspot instead of Tumblr?

>>52002384
I most often see them being played as pack mule, hauling the treasure so the players already wearing plate are even slower. If they got a good spell the most likely use is for an escape plan. They might also use a powerful spell to nuke toughest monster when something valuable is in sight or if the session is about to wrap up they use their spell to clear the way out of the dungeon faster.

>>52002607
because Tumblr is awful to search and read?

>>52002607
Most Tumblr styles have a strong focus on images and image sharing instead of long text posts. You also can't attach/host PDFs and the file size is also pretty restrictive (10MB for images, 1MB for .gif files). Also Tumblr has a reputation that many people don't care for. Lastly, it's easier to get Google AdSense on blogspot pages, but I don't think that matters as much as the other stuff I mentioned.

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Speaking of Wizards; I've been spending the past two weeks trying to make Wizards in my game something I can be proud of, but it just isn't working out.

I believe partially because my personal views on how magic should be done is interfering with it. For example; I don't think Wizards should be the sole crafter of magic items. I think Fighters should forge magic swords by taking the blood of their biggest slain monster and mixing it with a meteorite's metal and cool shit like that. Thieves should take the shroud they were buried in, when they faked their own death, and take it to the dark place where no light has ever touched to create a cloak of invisibility. This is how I think magic should be, but it could also take away a lot of what makes the magic user special.

Do you think a similar system to this could still be used for OSR if magic users keep a specific focus, such as to spellcraft? Magic users could craft magic items too, but they'd either be weak trinkets, or equipment well suited to their actual class.

>[in Holmes] Wizard Lock can be bypassed with Knock "without breaking the wizard spell." So it stays magically locked if you let it swing shut[...]

How do you treat interweaving magic, /osr/? I'm tired of spell overrides spell.

>>52002937

Wizard's choise.

Unless if there is a magically powerful monster deep in the dungeon, like a demon, dragon, or ancient ghost. In that case, the spells work in whatever way it would want the most.

Am I the worst DM?
>always improv
>run straight donjon proc-gens liberally and without warning
>roll monsters hp after combat starts
>town time = 'here's this list, buy something' + smoke break
>B/X btb
>Anon, what's your encumbrance? Did you add that ring and the scrolls too?

I'm about to start a megadungeon. A seriously big one for what I'm used to. Any advice before I delve into this madness?

>>52003258
town time sounds dumb,
Towns are filled with people, and people talk about shit, steal from each-other, and have their own general problems.
Towns should be full of little plot hooks (perhaps so mundane the players wouldn't be bothered with it, But may choose to help)
Ie: A little girl is crying as a small boy runs away with her doll
*Explanation of where town buildings are*
So what do you do?

and encumbrance only matters when leaving a dungeon with all the loot
(It's more of a way to force players to share their items than to stop them from getting it)

>>52003284
put a town or small camp of people (Perhaps monster people like kobalds) in it, have them lost and trying to find a way thru with the party... But then they're just manipulating the party into a tricky situation.

>>52003258
>always improv
Sessions should be AT LEAST 60% improv, but 100% is right out.
>run straight donjon proc-gens liberally and without warning
You should feel bad. Or add least add nice puzzles.
>roll monsters hp after combat starts
I even do that *in front* of my screen.
>town time = 'here's this list, buy something' + smoke break
Unless you're handing out a hook (or people go fishing) that's tolerable.
>B/X btb
As in... no house-rules?? Y-You still make rulings... right?
>Anon, what's your encumbrance?
It's easy to track and they SHOULD keep it up to date.
>Did you add that ring and the scrolls too?
Did they that ring and the scrolls too?

>>52003284
Just do the first three floors.
Always start any dungeon with just three floors.
You should do the rest later.

If you REALLY want to get ahead of your self, draw how more floors connect to eachother.
Also make a note on the theme of each floor (or subfloor). But DON'T BOTHER with floor plans yet.

How to convert hex maps to square ones, /osrg/?

I'm making a D&D game on RPG Maker (that works with squares) and want to use hex maps from old modules

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>the player isn't playing along with my script?
>I'll beat up his character with a mob and a DMPC, that'll show him!

Why was Gygax so antagonistic?

>>52004107

>act like a murderhobo
>play the game only to 'win' and give no consideration to the world
>be surprised when the GM makes NPCs react realistically to your metagaming

>>52003853
Basically: hexagons tile as squares that are half a side-length offset (in rows or columns depending on which way the hexes are even). Thus, the easiest way is to make the same number of squares and shift the contents of the hexes in alternate [rows/columns] half a step up or down.

However, this introduces some pretty serious distortion, especially if the coastlines (or any other feature for that matter) are drawn through hexes rather than following the hex borders, so for a really careful job you'd need to remove the hex grid and lay over a square grid, then correct hex contents by hand. But you can still use every other [row/column] as-is! This is surprisingly helpful in getting the other half right.

>>52004107
1: That rule smacks of Arneson. It's exactly his type of refereeing, and not very similar to Gygax's. AFAIK also most of the (relatively complex) non-dungeon stuff, like the castle building as well, was Arneson's work and fairly unchanged from his rules; I've heard claims that most of the rules he originally sent to Gygax were this type of material. Plus, his campaign seems to have been rowdier in that sense, with characters like the Gin of Salik and Marfeldt the Barbarian.

2: There isn't any mention of a script, just that you shouldn't hesitate to have the rest of the world react to PC shenanigans just becuase they're controlled by the players. You'll notice it's not even *disallowing* insane outrages, just advocating a suitably Hammerian response.

3: shit bait but you made me answer, so I guess you get 3/8.

>>52003853
You can:
-offset every odd row/column by 0.5
-overlay a hex grid on top
-fuck geometry, use squares I do that, players rarely notice. hexes are for grogs

Never thought of using RM for mapping, the autotiles are really comfy. Maybe I'll make a oldschoolish tileset and give it a try.

Does anyone have an image of the hex map for LotFP World of the Lost?

Way to balance Wizards without using daily limits? Or is it better just to keep to a spell slot/MP system?

>>52004137
It specifically calls out a PLAYER misbehaving, not a character. Why would a mob lynch my wizard because I cheetos with my mouth open?

>>52004242
>That rule smacks of Arneson. It's exactly his type of refereeing, and not very similar to Gygax's
AD&D DMG 1e has a similar rule on pp. 110 (and somewhere else I couldn't find on the subject of trapfinding), and Gygax promoted the use of "bolts from the blue" on dragonsfoot.

>>52004367
>I cheetos with my mouth open?
You deserve everything that happens to your character. I bet you don't even use coasters

>>52004367
>It specifically calls out a PLAYER misbehaving
Did you know that autism can cause severe difficulties with reading comprehension?

>>52004358
Spell slots are the just the spells that can be safely cast. Exhaust them and you lose HP equal to spell level to cast anymore.

>>52004358
>Or is it better just to keep to a spell slot/MP system?
Yes. People have been trying to find a
>>52004358
>Way to balance Wizards without using daily limits
for literally the entire time the game has existed, and so far nobody's ever succeeded.

I don't say this to discourage you -- for instance, you might decide that atmosphere is more important than balance, or that balance is ultimately washed away by every PC dying like a schmuck anyway if the player isn't good, as many OSR players do -- just to answer your question. It is super fucking hard, and if you're concerned with balance and playability you're genuinely better off sticking with the simple and gameable system in the books.

Personally I don't even understand what it is that gives people this insatiable aesthetic twitch to change Vancian casting, but I know it must be there since it's virtually universal.

>>51999756
You remember our ancient house?!

>>52004571
Opulent, and Imperial?

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>>52004484
>Personally I don't even understand what it is that gives people this insatiable aesthetic twitch to change Vancian casting, but I know it must be there since it's virtually universal.

It's because Vanican casting, on the surface, *seems* extremely limited.

You mean the Wizard, the most of creative class, has these incredible restrictions on what their magic can do? Lame!

Think about another example; such as Merlin from Sword in the Stone here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bd5YUEOwlE

This fucking scene is something that instantly pops into your head when you think of WIZARD in all caps because it's something a Wizard would do. Somewhat unnecessary, flashy, fucking awesome. With an emphasis on utility and funny or random rhyming and ritual. Why does he have to jump up and down and sing a song? That's part of the spell. So people question why there isn't a spell for this, and think Vancian magic is the fault of this and think it's lame and or boring.

HOWEVER

In truth Vancian magic is one of the most liberating kinds of magic because not only does the MU get multiple low limit spells per day that they MUST cast on low level spells, they can research or create their own spells. So if your magic user wanted to create a 'Higitus Figitus' packing spell, they totally could. I'd allow it at spell level 1 or 2, just because I think it's cool.

The second point is that it's limited on purpose. If magic users can just invent spells on the slot, it would greatly unbalance the game. The whole point of MUs is they are supposed to be preparing for danger ahead of time, because the game is a dungeon crawler, and they prepare spells for that purpose.

The truth is Vancian magic is not understood as to what makes it good, and if you want to get your players to enjoy it you need to explain why its good instead of just assuming everyone will understand the core underlying design philosophies.

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>>52004270

>>52004593
Gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor?

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>>52004484
>>52004636
I don't know how much this really plays into it, but recently I've seen a lot of people who are under the belief that in Basic the rules tell you to roll to get a random spell, but that's simply the case.

>>52004484
>and so far nobody's ever succeeded.

According to your definition of what succeeds or not, and since you are an OSR grognard fanboy none of them will ever be good enough according to you. Faggot.

>>52004898

Probably comes from people remembering the AD&D spell rules, and then noticing the handy numbers 1-12 next to the list.

Anyone here use the psychic phenomena/perils of the warp tables from Dark Heresy in Stars Without Number instead of the power points? It sounds like a neat flavor idea, but I'm not sure how well it would play out in practice. Might also be neat to use for magic, but the WHFRP magic system is probably too different from OSR to make a clean translation.

How do people like the 'number of spell slots equal to level, no daily limits, only first level spells exist' houserule?

>>52004898
Naw, I doubt that's it. People were whining about Vancian casting from the moment the LBB's came out, and in those (I believe this changed in Greyhawk) the implication seems to be that each M-U automatically gains access to all the standard spells of each level he can cast.

There's a great part in Playing at the World where he quotes some rando in an early Alarums & Excursions or maybe even a pre-Alarums fanzine being incredibly indignant that you can only cast each memorized spell once. (They had been playing "unlimited castings" due to the infamously opaque first-printing explanations and then written to Gygax for clarifications or something.)
This dude is utterly outraged in exactly the manner of an online sperglord, huffing about how Gygax doesn't understand his own rules, using all caps and too many exclamation points and so on. It's amazing.

>>52005129
>number of spell slots equal to level
>no daily limits
???
?
?????

>>52005129
Anything that lets you cast unlimited Sleeps or Charms will completely shit up the game until level 7 or so. Hell, even Magic Missile isn't balanced for infinite use since it autohits. OTOH, at mid-high levels suddenly M-Us become totally shit since they can no longer charm anything worth pushing into battle, and likewise their Sleep spells affect nothing. All they can do is plink very reliably with their missiles until they get killed first.

Couple threads ago some anons were compiling B/X into an even smaller format, any progress?

>>52005185
He means you prepare one first level spell per MU level, and can cast them all day.
>>52005129
Might as well nix spell slots and say you /know/ one spell per level. Even then, eww.

>>52005185
>>52005299

No, that is not what I meant.

What I meant was you can prepare any spell, up to a number of spells equal to your caster level or less. Once cast, the spell is lost and has to be prepared again as per normal, but there is no actual daily limit to how many spells you can cast. Still takes time to prepare spells over and over again though.

The idea behind this being you have to prepare a more powerful version of your spells to get better effects, meaning higher level Wizard either use multiple spell slots to improve spells or just try to cram in as many spell as possible.

>>52004898
Probably a result of people looking at LotFP or other games that mimic B/X and have you roll for spells, rather than actually looking at B/X.

How do you guys feel about MU specalization? Like Evocation, Divination, etc.

>>52007054
I dont like it, if you want to more niche spellcasters I would just drop MU and add a varied of classes.

>>51998762
>Weapon speed. Is it good, or is it wack?

How is this even a question? Best mechanic. Balances weak but fast vs slow but strong weapons easily, it's another interesting thing you could tie monster powers or magic items too.

Personally I prefer snappy rules, so instead of a set number for each weapon, your weapon damage size instead is your speed. Small is faster on average, but there is always that 1 in 10 chance that the greatsword user will spring into action.

You want some extra rules? Add your encumbrance points and the AC of your shield. Boom, easy initiative.

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How much do you guys prep your town and villages beforehand?
I have a sand box setting in England for LotFP that i'm starting for my group with one city, four villages and one Dunnsmouth.

The setting contains the following modules Tomb of HR, Death Frost Doom, Dunnsmouth, and a Wizards Seclusium.

But I don't know how indepth to go on each of the towns and cities? Any tips?
Much appreciated.

>>52007715
I'm gonna be running God That Crawls and the only prep I've done so far is googling what Dover was like at the time it's set and making a handful of spare character pages in the roll20, with names attached but nothing else, just in case I need them.

>>52007419
Surely one single tweak to a class is the simpler solution then writing 8 new classes

>>52007916
You don't need 8 new classes.

>>52007054
Illusion is flavorful.
Necromancy is flavorful.
Transmutation is flavorful.

Abjuration is flavorful but feels like something you do on the side.
Conjuration feels like something you do on the side.
Enchantment feels like something you do on the side.

Divination is boring and belongs to NPCs.
Evocation isn't quite boring, but it's definitely not interesting.

That's maybe 3 new classes, 2 if you recycle the existing illusionist.
Necromancer and Transmuter probably deserve to be farther removed from Magic-User than Illusionist is.

>>52004687
Thank you anon!

>>52007916

This. Just adding in the ability to specalize allows players to create their own interesting combinations.

Abjuration and Evocation? Offense and defense caster.

Abjuration and Conjuration? The caster summons minions and shields himself.

Abjuration bad Transmutation? Arcane scientist, shielding himself from nasty accidents.

No need to write a bunch classes, just pick and match them up.

What are some novel combat systems that use something other than d20 and AC?

I've been trying to do a d12 system for more simplistic combat, where you roll higher than 6 to hit, but have increasing penalties the roller your roll (Crit Fails are resolved as dropping you weapon, magic failing to go off yet still expending the spell slot, halving your initiative, etc; near crits are things like spells backfiring, hitting anything in the immediate range of the target, etc.)

Has this sliding scale combat been done before, because I'd love to see a more experienced/professional variation of this to adapt.

>>52005282
Yes, almost done. But depression and total poverty aren't helping.

I still need to fix tons of tables and proofread everything (currently ~120 pages). And that shit. Is. Really. Taxing.

In my search for the perfect OD&D clone I stumbled across this little gem: http://www.lulu.com/shop/leonaru/full-metal-plate-mail-pdf/ebook/product-22104623.html

It must be one of the tightest clones I've seen so far, what does /tg/ think of it?

>>52009534
You need any help on proof reading?

>>52007916
>8 new classes
You mean 12.

In B/X, can clerics try turning again and again?

Everything else in the game is roll-only-once. Except in combat, where you roll a lot. Turning thends to happen in combat.
Confused.

>>52010233
It's not explicitly mentioned in the rules, I think. I tend to rule that you get one chance at turning the undead. When the cleric has held aloft his holy symbol and with a booming voice ordered the undead to return from whence they came and it turns out to be ineffective, then that's that.

>>52010233
B/X doesn't seem to say, so you'd probably have to jack the rules from another edition.

Holmes Basic seems to say that turning is automatically checked for when the cleric confronts the undead, BECMI lets you keep going as long as you still have undead to turn, AD&D 2e lets you try once per encounter, 1e lets you keep going on mixed groups as long as you keep succeeding and you're capable of turning their leader, but only once on any particular undead (which is a real problem if it's something like a vampire or lich and it gets away from you).

>>52002384
> So what's the role of Wizards in OSR?
> How would you describe their role?
From the in-game reality's point of view? Jerk. Asshole. That Guy.

It's in the name. "Wizard" is a derogative. Compare: bastard, braggard, coward, drunkard, dullard, ...

Wizard abuses Wisdom (in non-DnD sense).

>>52010298
>>52010351
Thanks, I think I'll go with BECMI since it's the closer, and how I have played so far. A round holding the holy symbol is a round not holding the mace, anyway.

>>52010439
>Wizard abuses Wisdom
So a coward abuses cows?

>>52010543
"Cow" is also a verb.

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Working on my shitting homebrew.

Magicians (MUs) get a spell slot every odd level, including first level. All spells are considered 'first level' and fit into this slot, and all spells take 1 turn to prepare. Once cast, you can refill another slot with a spell but it takes a turn still.

Every EVEN level the Magician instead gains a single step in the magic circle of their choice. Each magic circle covers a wide range of spells, and each 'step' in that circle aids them in both researching spells of that type and increasing the power of spells cast of that type.

The Circles of Magic are;
>Abjuration
>Conjuration
>Divination
>Evocation
>Obfuscation
>Restoration
>Transmutation

r8

>>52007916
Like this guy said >>52007989

You dont need 8 classes I would do this

>illusion + enchantment (beguiler)
>Necromancer
>transmutater
>evocation + abjuration (battle mage)
>Divination is dropped, npc thing
>some conjuration spells go to necromancer, I dunno about the rest

>>52007715
Depends on how big the town is. I usually look at Yoon-Suin or Corpathium for ideas to tack onto each town on the map, a complicated npc or two and what the town's main deal is. Gives me something to describe that makes it different than the last place and a hook to throw at players.

Usually ends up being 3-4 lines on an index card. As they do things in the town I fill in notes and either something interesting clicks or not.

But yeah, Corpathium is the city from a blog lastgaspgrimoire that does weird europe. Yoon-Suin is more orientalist, but both have a lot of random tables and ideas to loot.

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>>52007989
>>52011705

The only interesting thing that could come of making magic users a bunch of different classes like this is if you make all their magic abilites into new formats or non-spell slot based magical powers.

Otherwise even two classes sharing the same mechanics but different spell lists are boring as fuck. Many people already find the Wizard / Cleric split lame, much less if you went with a conjurer, illusionist, and transmuter.

>>52011805
You just need to give these new classes interesting features, if you dont then the classes will be "wizards but with more restrict spell list", which is boring.

Is ring of regeneration broken/a typo in B/X?
>recover 1hp per combat round
That's 1hp per 10 sec, 60hp per exploration turn.

Trolls otoh regen 3hp per combat round... but they are trolls.

>>52010233
Turning has always been very vague; the outcome of successful turning has never been as clear as one might like, either. I'd rule either that you get one shot and when you succeed it makes the undead flee, or that you roll each round whether you succeeded the last round or not, and that it merely makes the creature hiss, shriek and stay just out of reach, cowering (the way it works in most classic vampire movies, for instance).

>>52003258
No. This actually sounds fun, and I'd play your game any time.
>No-nonsense, to-the-point, gameplay
>Improv can be fun, if the DM has fun with it and isn't an ass
>Procedural generation can spice things up as long as the parameters for what is generated aren't out of whack (i.e. generating an adult dragon in a closet)
>I always roll monster HP once the monster is hit, so I want to believe that this isn't a flaw...{/spoiler]

>>52002714
>>52002725
This makes sense

>>52012307
although I'm only saying Improv is fun on the assumption that you're exaggerating about how much you do it...

>>52011196
I like it. It keeps the limited spellcasting per encounter angle of wizards, but also keeps them from being essentially dead weight after they cast their single first level spell. I might steal that.

>>52000014

http://classicmodulestoday.com/conversion-guidelines/

>>52009548
>the perfect OD&D clone

Have you looked at Iron Falcon?

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I'm about to run my first ever OSR game* for a group of 6 total noobs. Is there anything else that I need to prep?

-Rules (2 copies)
-2 character sheets per player (just in case)
-Dice
-Snacks (Italian wife. So many snacks)
-Monster booklet
-Spell booklet
-Dungeon map
-Region map
-Table of potions
-3x Table of items, magical or not
-Random encounter tables

Anything else I should have handy?


*not first ever rpg, I'm pretty good at this, but mostly fancy hipster stuff like FATE

Is there a PDF of Blood in the Chocolate up in the trove?

>>52013570
6 copies* of the rules, spells should be on cards.
You should also have like, notes or a module or something.
*you can get by w/ 1 once they know the system, but they *will* reference or during play at first

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I have a vague memory of some D&D hack/retroclone that leaned into the old satanic devil worshiping reputation that early D&D got. Is this a real thing? Was I dreaming?

>>52013570
Nah, you're fine. This guy >>52013804's wrong, the players should be encouraged to not even care about the rules in mechanical terms, just say what they want to do. Spell cards are a great idea but on level 1 each M-U has *one* spell, so those will only matter in the future. If you have some index cards, handing out scrolls as [card with description of spell effect] is a good idea, though.

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>>52013804
The rules are pretty much 4 pages long, so I think passing them about as needed should be OK for now.

Good call on the index cards though.

And yeah, the maps are annotated, so I think I should be Ok there.
Also, in a system where Levels 1-4 are Important and levels 5-whatever add very small incremental progression, what do you think about this for an Xp system?

Bear in mind, costs are scaled around 1 copper piece (cp) = $1 of modern money. Pots and pans are about $20 (2sp). A cheap inn is $50 a night (5sp). An enclosed 4-horse coach (without the horses) is about $30,000 at the low end (300 gp)

Does that feel about right?

Level 1: 2,000 sp
Level 2: 4,000 sp
Level 3: 7,000 sp
Level 3: 10,000 sp
Every level after that: +4,000sp
Evey level past 10: +5,000sp

So by Level 4, each PC will have accumulated around $100,000 in cash just from tomb robbing and plunder.

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>>52014116
By level 4, in this system, the Wizards will have 10 spells total*, but they can only cast about 4-6 per day, at their weakest power. That's as good as it gets.

I do expect them to loot the spellbooks of fallen first level PCs though. Maybe having each index card as a book is a good idea. I can take them and use them as "treasure" later.

*discounting looted or learned spells

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Why is LotFP the only retro-clone willing to try anything different?

>>52014223
>I do expect them to loot the spellbooks of fallen first level PCs though.
Give "fresh" MUs a lot of overlap with their fermenting brethren when it comes to spells known.
They came from the same Master. Or guild. Or those spells are "common" in this region. etc.

>>52014659
It's the only retroclones trying something different while staying similar enough to be comfortable.
Take a closer look. *Most* of the differences are flavorful or thematic. Fluff.

>>52014659

It's not? I mean there's the White Hack, the Black Hack, Wolfpacks and Winter Snow, Ruinations, White Star, Sentinels of Echo City, and god knows how many others.
I like LotFP, but it's hardly the only retroclone to do its own thing.

>>52014659
What do you mean by different? The mechanics aren't as wildly different from Basic as some other clones. if you mean the setting then that varies. I guess that it isn't Lieber-esque, but there is plenty in the realm of stranger themes covered by other clones.

>>52014754
>>52014729
>>52014717

I'm clearly not talking about the mechanics. It's just a modded B/X. I'm talking about it's modules. There is no other system coming close to putting out anything half as original as LotFP.

>>52014766

Well, you should have said modules from the start. Yeah, Raggi's really good at getting interesting high quality modules for his system. I don't know how he does it, but he does it.

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>>52014717
It goes by school. There are 10 schools, one of them is Elf-only.

Level 1 characters start with 2 of the 6 starting spells from their school. There's built in overlap. If three Illusionists die in the dungeon at level 1, their spellbooks will contain redundant copies. And if they died with spells in their brains, instead of in their books, the spells are gone forever.*

You can cast spells from outside your school, but it costs slightly more, and you can't do it as often until you've cast the spell 8 times.

*Unless you get a needle, a bowl, a piece of parchment, and the dead wizard's skull. You can, in fact, transcribe a spell from a dead wizard's brain because it leaves grooves on the inside of the skull. Dead wizard skulls are quite valuable if you know this. Most people don't.

>>52014766
>raggi

>>52014729
>Sentinels of Echo City
Describe this? Never heard of it before.

So I've got this map with lots of rivers and mountains, I'm not sure where all the forests go but I'll figure it out, and I've got the big cities and a couple villages.

Wow my map still looks fucking empty. Like what the fuck do I fill it with? I have 4 cities, 3 or 4 villages, an abbey (dedicated to worship of the Stoat God) and nothing. I think a dungeon should go in the near by mountain range but that's still loads of open space.

As a side note where should I put cleric strongholds? Other than the abbey there is zero religious presence outside of towns. The closest I've got is 2 forts paid for by the cities so that dudes can ride in and break sieges if the need should arise. Maybe cleric strongholds are to guard mass graves or someshit? How do you even decide where you build this stuff?

>>52014766
>I'm talking about it's modules. There is no other system coming close to putting out anything half as original as LotFP.
Just a hypothesis, but I think the deal is that most publishers of adventures know the market's small, so they try to fit themselves to the grog niche so they can eke out a consistent profit. Raggi knows the market's small, so he tries to stand out and be exceptional to get noticed over the throngs. Notice that LotFP has at least as much shit-to-mediocre product as good stuff, it's just that the gambles that become huge pay for those that didn't work out, in some sense. Each Carcosa makes up for a dud like Isle of the Unknown. Throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks is working out for him, and I'm damn glad, but it's unquestionably the high-risk, gutsy approach.

>>52015630
The forests go everywhere the villages and farms aren't.
Unless you've got, like, deserts or something.

You should also have a village every 1 or 2 6-mile hexes (in "civilized areas," place goblin tribes (or whatever) in The Unknown instead).
And those are Towns, not Cities.


There was a great site with medieval demographic info I saw a while back.
Can't seem to find it again. Maybe someone at Worldbuilding General has a link?

Hey guys, assuming Swords and Wizardry Whitebox, how would you go about making armor do SOME DR while still changing AC? I was thinking that it'd just help me spice up the fights, coming from Savage Worlds which has neat differentiation between attacks that went wide and ones that glanced off of armor. I was thinking about heavier armors lessening damage by maximum of 3 pts for plate armor, but I dunno how to balance it out with AC, maybe I should try the 3.5 thing where your DEX bonus applies to AC, and heavier armors trade off AC for DR? But then, how much should I reduce AC bonuses to make this somewhat balanced and both choices viable...

>>52015596

It's a cape game built on B/X, I've not played it, but I have heard some locals dig it.

>>52015859
well the idea for this area is that until recently it was wild land, and the south is still very untamed. The further south or east one goes the more magical stuff gets, but the more civilized north still looks too depopulated.

Thanks for the advice though, a village every 6 to 12 miles sounds about right.

City is a relative term, I just took a map of 16th century Nuremberg I have and ripped it off for my original idea: Flussberg™. So I figure city designs and demographics are pretty good for those cities or townships. Villages I'm more uncertain about.

Alright everyone, I ask a favor.

Just finishing up prepping Nbod's Room (Dungeon #51)

At the end of the adventure is a +3 Cutlass that was once a pirate captains.

Well that sounds borings and my brain is blanking. Any ideas of an alternative item? Should be pirate themed if possible. Doesn't need to be a weapon.

Thanks!

>>52016163
An eyepatch. Put it over your good eye, and your empty eye socket can see in the dark.
A bulky gimbeled compass that points to treasure.
A flag that summons 25-250 pirates when flown on a boat.
A hook that can telekinese objects (with all the finesse of a hook!)
A cutlass +3 that can't injure people who surrender.
Magic hooch.
A bonsai tree. Gives 2d4 limes and 1d6-1 lemons daily.

>>52016163
An opaque glass conch shell with a mollusc living inside it. You can offer the mollusc the bones of an intelligent creature and some line. It takes them inside to carve and scrimshaw into a windchime that can be hung on a ship before slumbering deeply. The windchime grants 1 day of smooth sailing per HD of the creature offered. The bones turn to sand and blow away after use and the mollusc awakens.

>>52015866
>making armor do SOME DR while still changing AC

Stop. Either make armor full DR or full AC, never mix the two.

>>52016384
Ok, anon, I hear you, but just.. why? What about if some armors gave flat DR while others gave AC?

>>52016539
Honestly I don't see why he's being so autistic about it. I mean my knee-jerk reaction is that I'd do one or the other, but I don't see a reason why it has to be inherently flawed.

>>52016539
One weird consequences of OSR's combat system is that most parts are semi-redundant.
DR just effects average damage. AC "just" effects average damage.
Touching either will get average damage where you'd like.
Touching both will probably contort your average damages in unintended ways.

>>52016628
You're not wrong about this and I'm aware of that caveat, which is why I'm asking if anyone has a good idea how to balance that shit out. If not, I'll just number crunch on anydice.com until I get something that satisfies me enough. I just like having mechanical distinction, however small, between hits that miss, and attacks that bounce off. Also this would give me some nice leeway into making armor a bit more nuanced than "grab the best AC there is for your class". I'm not planning on making an entire armory either, just spicing up the three basic armors and leaving the shield as flat +1 AC. And if I can't achieve a decent differentiation I'll just quietly drop this idea, like many before it.

>>52016768
4 points of DR for a person in plate+shield isn't going to break the game. Go ahead and do it if you want.

>>52016827
I was thinking more along the ways of comparing AC of armors and possible DRs. For a 1d6 damage, each DR point adds 16%points to the chance fo nullifying an attack. Each point of AC is worth exactly 5% for that matter, so assuming a +0 1d6 attack as a baseline, 1 point of DR is worth roughly 3 AC. Now, I'm getting to multiple dice worth of damage and positive attack bonuses and that's where I'm sorta stuck. I might just have some white room fights, or write a simple program to simulate them and see what happens on average when I make attacks deadlier.

Guess my next question would be fluff-wise one: What armor would have higher DR over AC? And what sorta armor would benefit AC over DR?

>>52016768
Fold AC into DR and fold to-hit rolls into damage rolls?
So, each attack deals [attack dice] +/- [modifiers] - [defense] damage (min. 0)?

>>52017108
I like the way you're thinking... Except this still ends up with attacks that act mechanically the same for high dodge and high armor guys. I guess it'd be easier to include armor's AC as a separate value and just fluff the attacks that hit character's AC but not the armor's AC.

If I change AC to DR, how much damage each kind of armor should reduce ?

>>52017453
Your issue is hit points, not armor class.
Split them into "meat" and "fatigue," or something.

Daily reminder that all hit dice should be d6.

The average weapon is d6, the average monster and player health per level/HD should also be d6.

>>52017932
Except wizards, cuz they deserve to be punished for playing casters, right?

>>52017993

Naw man. Give them 1d6-1 for first level. Then 1d6, then 1d6+1, then finally 2d6-1. Go in that pattern.

>>52017993
>>52018067
If you roll 0hp you roll a new dude, but not an MU.

>>52013934
Aquelarre?

>>52017932
I did that for a d6-only version of BX I ran for a while. Felt pretty gud, but I used only modifiers to hit dice, no bumping to the next die.
The game also improved quiete a bit with the 'bell' curve of 2d6.

>>52018067
I like White Box's approach of a new hit die for M-Us every odd level, so progression was 1, 1+1, 2, 2+1, 3, 3+1, etc.

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>>52017993
>>52018088
>>52018310
>>52019131

Made an OSR post for gamefinder.
>>52018602

>>52004367
For starters, back in them ye olde days of RPGs, terminology like d20, Player Character/PC, etc. were not exactly a thing. PCs were frequently referred to as '[of the] player', and likewise, NPCs were called 'non-players'. So calm your tits.

Also cheeto-fingers and/or mouth-breather food consumption is entirely fair game for the DM fucking with you.

>>52014659
>lolrandum is d i f f e r e n t
Seriously tho m8, it's a snowflake in a mound of snow.

>>52011863
It seems like the only way that wouldn't be broken is if hit points were less about resource management. Like, if you were expected to be brought from full hit points to not many in a challenging fight... and you subsequently had a chance to recover a lot of them. If it's more a matter of attrition, with your hit points being whittled away by each successive encounter, then a ring of regeneration completely upends that.

>That's 1hp per 10 sec, 60hp per exploration turn.
If I were to do a ring of regeneration, I'm not sure I'd tie it so strictly to time like that. Maybe, for whatever reason, you heal quicker during combat (maybe it's just recent hit points you heal quicker... so you can heal any damage you took in that combat by 1 hit point per round... up to a certain amount... maybe your level). But I think I'd be tempted to do something like have you heal 1 hit point per round in combat and 1 hit point per turn outside of combat.

On the other hand, I might just avoid the hassle and ditch the ring altogether.

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>>52014815
>>52014223
>>52014162
>>52013570

Game went excellently. One death, two characters on 0 hp or below.

The owlbear didn't kill anyone. Eating owlbear meat resulted in two characters trying and failing to vomit up owlbear egg-slime that had formed in their stomach, killing one character.

Lightning trap zapped another one to near-death.

And mummy fragment arms broke another character's ankle. A crit-fail attack from a helpful PC sliced off their toe and caused more damage.

It was an excellent game.

And they got next-to-no XP.

>In RC a neutral cleric may opt to become a druid

How do you deal with this flavour-wise? The Cleric just drops his heavy armor and mace for a wooden stick and robes?

>>52002742
Honestly, I tend to stay entirely away from PCs crafting shit. It's just more headache than it's worth. If I were to do it, I think I'd have be a special case so that in the end, it's rather like finding a magic item. Like, you find X you need to make magic item Y, so now you can make it, maybe after you go on a quest for component Z, which you need as well. So it's not like you can really set about making magic items until you happen to acquire some essential component.

But to more directly answer your question, wizards are about casting spells. I don't see any reason why making magic items needs to fall solely or even primarily into their domain. In fact, it's less interesting if it does, and I think it's part of the trap whereby fighters have to be "realistic" and anything non-realistic has to be magic, which means wizards or maybe clerics.

>>52004898
A non-micro-managing way of assigning magic-user spells is to roll them at random. In other words, the DM does assign spells for the character: random ones. Personally, I like the idea of having the player roll twice and pick the one he prefers. That way, he gets some choice, but every magic-user can't just pick the most powerful spell from each level.

>>52021947
Tbqh I just changed it so the Druid is what Neutral Clerics are from level 1. I also made its special abilities less of a fuckover compared to the regular Cleric abilities.

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>>52019939
What about clerics?

Also, that's the biggest advantage I think I've seen fighters have in hit dice. If magician has approximately the equivalent of d4 hit points, and rogue has approximately the equivalent of d6 hit points, the fighter is rolling something like a d12.

>>52016384
I could see Heavy armor being all DR (as it's hard to dodge in)
and leather being slight DR slight AR,
Just as long as AR is used for light materials (like a dodge chance instead of actually armor-class)
and DR be used for heavier or more Stiff armors ( Hardness of materials being able to absorb more damage)

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>>52022185
>What about clerics?
What about clerics.

>>52022185
>What about clerics?

I don't use Clerics, so I didn't include them.

As for Fighters; no I actually agree about that. In the Fighter class section for my homebrew I have the rule of 'Fighters always count their first HD as though it rolled a 6'. That way Fighters will always start with a high amount of HP and also means that next level they have to at least get up to 7. If you'll excuse the game design shit I think that's a positive thing; if you give any character at least 7 HP that means a normal d6 attack can't kill them in one move, so it feels like a lot more of an increase then from 2-3 or 4-5 or whatever.

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>>52016768
With my "armor as DR" system, I balanced things according to a "1 point of DR is worth 2 points of AC improvement" scheme, and ended up results that were pretty equivalent to the RAW in terms of damage per round. Of course, you have to be careful not to run low-damage weapons into the ground with high DRs, rendering them next to useless (which is why I upped weapon damage by 1 die level and tweaked your base chance to hit people to compensate). Attacking somebody in leather armor is basically the same in both systems (same chance to hit, and your weapon is one die level bigger, but inflicts -1 damage). An unarmored man is harder to hit in my system than in the RAW, but you do more damage when you hit. For chain mail and plate mail, it's the other way around. It's easier to hit them, but you inflict less damage. And with a maximum DR of 3, and daggers doing d6 damage, they don't get completely run into the ground.

So I guess what I'm saying is that a 2 for 1 balance (2 AC for 1 DR) is about right, but you might need to play around with your numbers a bit to make it work.

>>52022345
Please don't spazz for no reason, it's against basic human decency.

>>52022185
If I were to lift the HD rates from The Manse for another system for whatever ill-conceived reason, I would give Clerics HD as Thieves.

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>>52022375
And the calculations on that. The percentages shown are damage in the DR system divided by damage in the RAW. So if something says 103%, that means it does 3% more damage per round in the DR system.

>>52016539
>>52016539
Here's the thing: TSR AC already encompasses DR. Don't have a silver weapon and you're attacking a werewolf? Either not hitting (a miss) or not making a wound (a hit) are both the same thing at the end of the day. It works conceptually.

On the other hand, a DR + defense (not AC) works really well, as show by WOTC's Star Wars RPG: Expanded Edition. Armor gives flat DR (heavier=better) but Dexterity and Class help you Defense (which is what attackers roll against). Defense is clearly dodging and DR is clearly shock absorption. It works conceptually.

3.5 messes both of these approaches up. Why does armor make you harder to hit? 3.5 doesn't answer because it's too busy piling shit onto sacred cows.

>>52022191
>I could see Heavy armor being all DR (as it's hard to dodge in)
>and leather being slight DR slight AR
That makes no sense, unless being unarmored gives you an even bigger AR.

What was the basic rundown of the different OD&D wilderness tables again?

Swamp = swimmers & dinosaurs
Mountain = cavemen & giant/prehistoric mammals
Forest & Plains = nothing particularly interesting
Desert = mars (maybe)

And of course, permanent zombipocalypses in towns.

>>52022503
Un armored would probably be the best for dodging
But you'd have no Damage reduction, so it would Hurt if they hit you

>>51998762
>Weapon speed. Is it good, or is it wack?

Its great in 1e, terribly pointless in 2e (longswords are already best).

>>52022503
Also I didnt notice I was typing AR instead of AC
Hehe

>>52022465
Let me throw in my 2 cents before dropping the matter. I think that part of the idea is that without names, you don't have social status, and people don't suck up to "famous" individuals or form de facto cliques. There are obvious advantages to having names, and different ones when everybody's anonymous. In a place where 99+ percent of people are anonymous, somebody who uses a name without an immediate reason to do so can, fairly or unfairly, come across like an attention whore. You're like a guy who talks really loudly in the library; it's jarringly out of place. Speaking for myself, I don't really care that much how you come across, but you're inviting antagonism, and not all in the "cut that shit out" sort of way. Expect to get more negativity in general, and to have people treat you and your ideas with less respect than they would otherwise.

>>52022538
I figured it was Accuracy Reduction.

This isn't exactly 100% on point, but I guess it still kind of fits here. I tried to post it in 5eg, but they're sperging over the finer minutiae of how hard you should be fucked up by falling to be of any use. So:

I've been toying with an thought for some time. How much of a terrible idea would it be to basically run Baldur's Gate for someone as a tabletop campaign?

Basically, my wife's been interested in tabletop stuff for some time now, but she's likely never going to touch the BG series (she's pretty intimidated by them), but I'd still like to show her the series that was really, really important to me in my youth, in some form. And I though, why not?

It'd take some rejiggering and restructuring, and you'd probably have to dump a lot of fetch quests and such, but looking at the games, I don't really see why it couldn't work. The story's not great, but it's not terrible either. I honestly feel there's potential for something like this to work. Hell, the games were more or less already trying to recreate a D&D campaign. Much of what's in there is sure as hell not worse than many campaigns I've been in. Done right, many of the adentures would be very memorable and entertaining.

Has anyone actually tried something like this? Just straight up taking the whole campaign from somewhere and running it for a player/players who haven't experienced that before?

For bonus points, should I just run it with straight AD&D rules?

>>52022712
>How much of a terrible idea would it be to basically run Baldur's Gate for someone as a tabletop campaign?
Pretty terrible, you can't enforce plot. Or rather: You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Recycling content is a decent idea though.
>For bonus points, should I just run it with straight AD&D rules?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>>52022804
I don't think that would be too much of a problem with this player. She's pretty eager to just go where pointed. And honestly, if the she started going off the rails, I'd be happy to see where it goes. I've run a lot of basically improvised sandbox stuff, so I could probably run with anything that happens. That could be pretty fun, really.

>>52022519
Underworld and Wilderness Adventure is in the Trove if you want to go check.
You can also tack filetype:pdf onto a google search to filter results.

But yeah, pretty much.
Only thing you missed is that rivers have the safest travel per distance, but the most dangerous travel per encounter.

>>52022712
The big problem for you as I see it is the same problem everyone who tries to do epic in Basic or AD&D has: it's real fuckin' lethal. In the BG games they expect you to just load a save when you die, they even build the major challenges with the expectation of you fucking them up a couple times before beating them. That doesn't transfer to tabletop D&D *at all*, mulligans feel weird and wrong even if you do use them.

My advice would honestly be to run a story game if she's the kind of person who wants to have A Story with My Character. If she doesn't mind character death and boardgamey stuff so much, do a sandbox with her running a small group of adventurers which later becomes a larger group as they hire retainers and so on. That way, she (any player, of course) can be invested in the company itself and treat the characters all at dollhouse distance rather than novel-protagonist distance and it's not as offputting if somebody dies.

>>52023021

I've actually been proposing this for a long time when it comes to old-school D&D. In my experience, the thing that puts people off when it comes to character death (in high lethality games) isn't so much the fact that they're so sad to lose their randomly rolled character (that likely hasn't been alive for long anyhow). It's the fact that when lethality is high, it becomes really hard to actually invest anything in a character. There's no guarantee any plan you make or any expectation you have is going to carry for any amount of time. In fact, it's probably not.

Shifting the focus to a faction you control lets you invest a lot more into all that without having to fear it's going to get pulled out from under you.

Then again, OD&D already included raising the dead as kind of an impact lessener. Of course, there's no guarantee it'll work, and even then it's limited and expensive. But still.

Has anybody experimented with a total resource based OSR conversion?

Like Magic Users get a limited number of spells like normal, but Fighters get a limited number of combat moves, Thieves get a limited number of tricks, etc.These only refill after your dungeon run is over, or when you return to town.

>>52023487
The last time I played a Roguelike anywhere NEAR that restrictive, it was actually a puzzle game committing false advertising.

>>52023487
>>52023545
It was a REALLY GOOD puzzle game, mind you. But it wasn't a Roguelike.

>>52023545
>>52023559

Should have been more specific.

People can still do regular attacks and sneak around and stuff, but instead of having class based abilities specific to each character they'd get a specific and limited number of points to use on special abilities, restricted to each class. That would help push the theme of resource management, since everyone is managing resources.

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I have no idea how to worldbuild for OSR style games. Should there be a God of dungeons? The fuck am I supposed to do to keep my players interested in exploring?

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>>52024056
>Should there be a God of dungeons?
I've always liked this guy. The Dungeoneer #24, Dec '80/Jan '81.

>Fire God by Scott Zeppa
>No. Appearing...1
>AC...2
>Hit Dice...3+1
>Align...CE
>HP...20
>Fire God can only be hit by magical weapons. Attacker(s) must withdraw after four melee rounds for one round unless the attacker takes [a] Potion of Fire Resistance or wields a Sword of Cold. If not, the attacker must wait the one round before he/she may return to combat. The Fire God has a pet Hell Hound.

And you thought Lolth was weak with her sixty-six hit points, huh? This guy's sword & sorcery as all fuck.

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I've shilled the idea in a few threads now. I want to know people's opinion on magic rods as weapons.
>Probably use Int as a scaling stat (+1 to hit and damage for the modifier?)
>Rod is made out of metal, wood, or bone, probably inset with semi-precious stones
>Medium ranged weapon
>Can be used once in combat without expending its charge. If used more then once then use it every round because now it's going to have its charge used up at the end
>Once rod has lost charge takes a few turns to come back
>Anyone can use a Rod, but MUs get some bonuses with them

How does this sound to add a new interesting type of weapon to a high fantasy world?

>>52024141
Infinite ammo blows most medium range weapons out of the water.
Nix the "few turns to come back" bit, and the weight becomes an actual trade-off for one attack per combat.

>>52024205

But keep the 'use it twice in one fight and spam it because you might as well'? I kind of like that mechanic, stolen from a gane with interesting ammo rules.

>>52024141
>Probably use Int as a scaling stat (+1 to hit and damage for the modifier?)
Unless they're low damage, this dramatically ups the power of a magic-user's combat abilities, doesn't it? If they're d6 damage weapons, magic-users now have a ranged weapon that goes significantly further than a thrown dagger and does more damage than a thrown dagger, even before their intelligence bonus is taken into account. A magic-user who is lucky enough to have a 16 intelligence, would be doing d6+2 damage and getting a +2 chance to hit in the process. That would give them approximately the same chance to hit at name level as a fighter with no dexterity bonus using a bow, and 1 more point of damage.

>>52024437
>and 1 more point of damage.
Sorry. 2 more points of damage.

>>52024360
Absolutely. But maybe make one of the modes (not sure which) MU exclusive?
Or maybe not, if you can find more interesting options to give MUs.

>>52024141
Why not a rod where you can slot a gem, and each gem works as a quiver, with limited charges? And a ruby for fire damage, for example.
This makes the MU searches for gems instead of gold.

>>52024801
what would happen if you slotted a turd into it?

>>52024071
Oh yeah, that dude. Remember the blog article that was talking about him? I loved the little extra details they put into it too. What with the fire god once being important, but now that man knows the secrets of fire, he's been kind of put off to the side. But still, when a child is caught in a house fire or some other event, people pray to him for help. etc.

>>52024876
The same thing that happens when you replace your car battery with a pile of shit?

What is the opposite of Old School Revival?

>>52025024

New Asylum Killing? story driven games?

I like classes, but what if I don't like levels? Can I do OSR without leveling?

>>52025024
3.pf. Character building bullshit, boring combat focus, generic monsters, linear modules, magic items mundane to the point of assuming everyone is completely loaded with them and people include specific ones in their builds.

>>52025024
anything that de-emphasises player skill, I suppose (so 3.5e/4e/pf or anything with lots of skill checks, character builds and specific lists of actions you must choose from).

Also anything that empowers players at the expense of DM agency (typically storygames).

>>52025572
>I like classes, but what if I don't like levels? Can I do OSR without leveling?
Why not? I mean, you could literally just play D&D and say "Everybody is always level 4; the end." Whenever I'm homebrewing a game, I tend to skimp on mechanical advancement, because it's just not that important to me. Maybe characters can slowly nudge up their attributes, but I don't see any need for the sharply increasing power levels like you see in D&D.

I've been skimming through Torchbearer, and while the system is far too crunchy imho, I'm considering using LotFP's skills, but making the game classless, and separating levels from attack, skills, and magic.
Instead, those things advance through actual play and use.

Now, my issue is that while I like the whole concept of it, it feels rather abuse-able, and would unduly punish players who avoid combat and time-sink skill checks.
It'd incentise a different kind of play.

Now, my question is, did anyone attempt something similar? And do you see any way of fixing these issues and making bypassing combat situations and using in-game interactions instead of dice the more optimal strategy after all?

>>52022712
I did that with Gothic (a PC game). The trick is to have the elements but ditch the story.
Use the map, use the quest hooks, have the big bad present, but DO NOT run the story as it plays out in the game. Nobody will give a shit and it will result in a bad time for all.

>>52026284
Games in the RuneQuest at least partially address this by having people who use a skill roll against that skill after the adventure's over. Only if they *fail* the skill roll, do they get to increase the skill (with the idea being that the better you get at something, the harder it is to progress).

>>52026376
That's similar to what I had on mind. The idea is that you need a couple of successes on hand, and then when you get a week of down time, you need to roll above your score to increase it by 1

>>52025572
do you still want character advancement, just without xp and levels? or no advancement; just play.

>>52025572
I don't see why not
Either just have no progression, everyone is at a set level, or have progression through play.
Make the players go on adventures to find legendary trainers to increase their bonuses, the ingredients for bizarre potions to boost their hit points, that sort of thing.

>>52026388
Maybe you could give some general accomplishment / you survived / quest complete / add anywhere points as well. That way people can shore up their characters a bit where they're weak. Combine that with increasingly expensive requirements the further you advance shit, and they shouldn't fall too far behind in any particular thing.

Is there a good setting/system for late Neolithic / early Bronze Age?
Is it any good?
And
Should I make one?

>>52022375
>>52022419
I like it, I really do. Might steal an idea or two from that. Thanks!

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>>52025572
If you just wanted more gradual and staggered power increase, you could do something like this...

>>52026897
Wolf-packs and Winter Snow

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>>52026897
Wolf-packs and the winter snow is from here and neolithic. I like it a lot, has interesting takes on tribe building as gathering followers, caves/ritual sites as spellbooks, stuff like that. Does a fleshwound/reallyhurt hp system, depends on how you feel about those.

Mazes & Minotaurs is bronze age, but I haven't played it.

Early bronze age is cool. Do it.

>>52025572
In addition to the other good ideas people have recommended, You could put together a little hack where characters get good by repeating a task a critical amount of times. This works better with a skill system already in place, like SWN or Lamentations. Made attempted Disarm Trap 100 times? Congrats you actually learning something and now have slightly better odds at disarming.

>>52028202
I had seen a system at some point where you got bonuses for dealing e.g. 100 damage. Maybe if was something from Monte Cook? It seems like a lot of bookkeeping though.

>>52027648
>>52027674
Ty! Wolf-packs looks amazing and very complete, but maybe too close to standard D&D (10' pole? vancian magic, feeblemind?)

I wanted to do something simpler and more over the top. PCs are proto-indo-european folk with stone weapons and a hide for armor in a fucked up world filled with anachronisms and pulp to death. The gods are very real, the dead wake up at night, dinosaurs still roam the Earth, notDwarves have invented metal long ago, notElves are already a dark ages culture.
Focus on exploration, survival, trade.
Classes are hunter (combat/wilderness), artisan (resource/trade), priest (spiritual/mage).
Priests get one spell per level, when gaining a level. You have to choose its effect when you get it, but it can be anything (!). GM decides components needed. Once cast, its lost until next level, and can't be replicated by another priest ever - yes the good ones are already taken.

Metal = magic. Magical +1 swords are simply made of metal

>>52028296 >>52028202
>>52026943 >>52026423
>>52026388 >>52026376
This guy (>>52026274) gets it.

>>52028340
notDwarves ⇒ something between Nation of Islam and Nuwaubian Nation
notElves ⇒ time travellers from the human Dark Ages (or maybe renaissance reinactors?)

>>52028340
Always saw a game like this going bone for base weapon, wooden or stone for +1, metal for +2 and higher.

>>52028548
No no, they ARE dwarves anf elves, but only the GM knows. But that sounds great, will consider stealing.

>>52028686
Makes sense, but it loses its charm, it becomes simply a number.
In the stone age, having a metal weapon must be like having a magical weapon in d&d: it works better, no doubt, but you can also hit supernatural things with it. Where normal weapons always fail, you can succeed.
It's not simply a mechanical bonus, it's a reality-bending, empowering tool. And shiny.

>>52025077
Aren't all the best old games story-driven?

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Does anyone have a PDF of this? Couldn't find it in the Trove.

>>51998762
Is there a nice long dungeon I could drop into my game that you guys would suggest?

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>>52031067

>>52031067
Barrowmaze, Rappan Athuk, Dwimmermount, Stonehell, all huge dungeons.

How am I supposed to handle backup characters in a game? I am going to run a game where everyone starts at level 1, but any hirelings they take will only be level 0 NPCs. Along with that it may be hard to have a reason for another character to just pop up, as the party will be spending their time trekking through the backwoods. Do I just handwave it and say that a new character shows up whenever an old one dies?

>>52031373
>Do I just handwave it and say that a new character shows up whenever an old one dies?
They're just around the corner.

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>>52031067
There's something very satisfying about building your own.

But if you want loooooong dungeons: >>52031169

Has some epic crawls.

What are you trying to accomplish with the dungeon? What is it supposed to be? What characteristics will it have that compliment the group?

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>>52031373

The new PC:

1. Fell down a crevasse while gathering mushrooms
2. Captured by the trolls in room 16B. Currently alive and marinating.
3. Got black-out drunk and wandered down here.
4. Was testing out a scroll of teleport, fucked it up.
5. Licked a cursed ring he found in an antique shop.
6. Searching for a rare herb, following a scry spell
7. Last survivor of a now-dead party
8. Last survivor of what he thinks is a dead party. Party actually survived, but they are real assholes.
9. Trying to preach the gospel to the dryads. The dryads just want sappy sex, and have been trying to corrupt him for days.
10. Ran away from 1. home 2. indentureship 3. marriage 4. giant spiders

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>>52031641

>Players declare actions before initiative is rolled.
Did you try this? how did it go?

I think my players would kill me if I imposed this, for some reason.

>>52031641
>running away from indentured servitude to giant spiders who are trying to coerce him into marrying one of their brood

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>>52032177
Only for barbarians, while raging.

They can't coordinate with allies or make tactical decisions, so it makes complete sense.

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>>52032183
"She's going to eat my head and lay her eggs in my torso!"
"Yes, well, other than that, she's a very nice lady."

>>52032177
I've doen this for so long that I can barely make sense of the alternative anymore. Of course the declaration phase comes first! Then you rool group initiative but it's really just a tie breaker, as both sides shoot, the move, then melee, then cast. So initiative really just determines who goes first in each phase.

>>52032244
But don't worry, we'll hold the marriage off until you've finished the forge job, so you will have gained your freedom in time to have a fabulous honeymoon.

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>>52032480
That's it, I'm writing a full d100 table of "How Does Your Replacement PC Show Up?" for OSR games.

>>52033099
t. Occultesque

...that actually sounds really helpful though.
Could you try and keep it on the mundane side?

>>52033099
99. "but I've been here al the time"

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>>52033099
kick ass, i look forward to it, this is something i could make use of

>>52033175
Sure, can do. Are the options in >>52031641
too zany for you, or just right?

>>52033330
>>52033192
I'll post an image here when I'm done. Might not be until later. The copyable text will be on my blog: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/

>>52033457
>too zany for you, or just right?
5, 9, and 10 are pushing it, but not quite too far.

>>52032177
I like making whoever lost initiative, or had lower, declare their action, so the other party can act accordingly.

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>>52031373
>>52033618
>>52033330
>>52033192
>>52033175
What do people think of this? 50 reasons to find a new PC in a dungeon.

Rolled 11 (1d50)

>>52035215
More than most generators, this feels like it could use weighting.
But it's a good start.

>>52024056
>I have no idea how to worldbuild for OSR style games. Should there be a God of dungeons? The fuck am I supposed to do to keep my players interested in exploring?

1) Premise. Before starting the game, point out to your players that you want to run a game that features exploration. If they make characters not interested in exploration, ask them why. Be non-confrontational, but clear on how the game will be.
Basically: you can't FORCE them to explore, but if you offer them the opportunity to explore and they do not do that, then they effectively do not want to play the game. Ask them why.

2) Make an explore-able world. Decide immediately if you're using a published setting or something original. In either case, Have a full map for yourself. Give a small map to the players, focused on their surroundings, and that gets vague fast as it goes into strange foreign lands. Having a physical map in their hands, in my opinion, goes a long way towards getting them to "buy into" the setting as a world. Don't infodump all the places on the map/setting (no list of countries and realms, shit's boring), but always answer their questions.
("Hey, is there any place from where a viking-style character could be from" "Sure this place is basically vikingland. It's ruled by a collection of squabbling jarls and every summer they raid the Jade Coast so you can have vikings fighting chinese warlords." "That's rad.")

3) Give mechanic incentives for exploring. There are buried treasures out there. You only gain XP by unearthing ancient treasures or finding forgotten ruins. Etc. Also figure out fast what your players (not characters) are MOTIVATED by. Some want the thrill of combat, some want character interaction, some want to delve in a fictional world and discover its secret story, some want an epic feud with an recurring archvillain, etc.
Give them a bite of what they want, then dangle more in front of them.

4) i have no idea what having a god of dungeons has to do with this

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>>52035424
How many uses could it see in the average game? 10, at most? Weighting it wouldn't really do much. Even adding 50 extra options wouldn't actually add much.

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>>52035215
saved, i like it. thanks.

Is Basic Fantasy RPG good? I'm skimming through it and it looks pretty dope, just like the Baldur's Gate games I grew up on, and I'd like to DM that, but I'd like to know if there are any obvious pitfalls I'm not seeing or if there is something better.

>>52035638
>pic
I was was not aware they made these for 5e modules, is it from dragon+?

>>52035857
Basic Fantasy RPG is pretty good. The Thief skills are still fairly low and the main rules PDFs could really use some bookmarks but it's still a solid game.

I was wanting to throw my players into a dungeon or at least a themed-encounter in which they had to dig their way through. My idea is that there was a structure embedded in a mountain and at some point it collapsed, dirt piling in.

Pockets of fully intact room still exist, but the PCs get free reign over where they dig, and thus the order they discover things.

My question is how can I spice it up a bit, or make it more interesting than just digging? I think that maybe this will just be for the first level, and then it will give way to a regular dungeon, but I dunno. What do I put in these rooms?

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>>52035868
No idea, found it via google image search, sorry.

>>52035857
It's my go-to after LotFP. I like that it has race and class separated, ascending AC, and it has a billion supplements to flush out almost anything you want (classes, races, thief skills, regular skills, equipment, etc.)

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>>52036311
>>52035868
https://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2016/11/

>>52036686
God bless you anon.

Also your pic made me want to play a thief-acrobat, how would someone adjust it to Basic D&D, does ir need any changes?

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>>52036762
pg. 14

>>52024141
I'd have each rod have it's own number of charges, and it takes a day to get one charge back (so it charges back slowly)
Allowing a Strong wand to be Once a day for massive effect, or a smaller wand for a bunch of uses, but you still have to wait to recharge it.

Maybe even encouraging the seeking of multiple wands.

>>52036991
I thought you'd given up your tripfag ways?

>>52037268
Anon said that, it could have been ANYONE masquerading

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Yo,what are some good sources of media that have the same historical vibe as LotFP?
Off the top of my head I can think of:

FILM:
A Field in England
Brotherhood of the Wolf
The Witch

GAMES:
Darkest Dungeon
Grim Dawn

BOOKS:
The Folly of the World
The Enterprise of Death
The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

Guys, while I know it isn't usually considered part of OSR, and that I could just use ZeFRS, any of you savvy on where to find the TSR conan rpg?

>>52037709
A man of taste. I wanna know too.

>>52037709
>>52037851
https://dnd.rem.uz

check the advanced d&d (unsorted) folder.

>Tfw you get inspired and start writing a shit ton of material

I just wish it would last.

>>52038148
use archival paper.

I see a lot of praise for Carcosa. Is it that good?

>>52038643
It's brilliant for what it does, but you need to be aware that it's not everyone's cup of tea. Hyperbleak, gruesome cosmic horror in a stone age mixed with laser guns and space aliens is uh... "an idiosyncratic taste".

That said it does do Lovecraftian better than any other game I've seen, notably Call of Cthulhu which is mostly just a guide to being your own Derleth. "Now YOU can shit on Lovecraft's life's work in the comfort of your own home!"

Also, the book is fucking excellent, physically speaking.

>>52038133
Thanks

>>52038643
I read the book and I like it a lot. The ritual magic is top tier, as is the hex map they've got. I didn't like the setting at first but it grew on me the more I learned about it. Just pitch it carefully to get people to play, and once they're in game they'll enjoy it.

Why would anyone play OD&D (or Whitebox etc) instead of Basic?

>>52039580
Given your comparison to Basic, I'll assume to you meant LBB.
Bragging rights, mostly.
There's some concepts to riff house-rules from though.

OD&D proper is AD&D across 6 books with even worse editing.

>>51999639
>>>/tvtropes/

Goblin get ye gone

>>52039580
OD&D has some nice procedures that aren't in Basic, and is also an extremely free ruleset -- aggressively encouraging you to make the game your own.

Plus, it's got Chainmail combat, which is GOAT.

>>51999639
Lawful Human Fighting Men

Best wild west OSR game?

>>52037268
Shit sorry, I trip on other boards (Mainly /WG/ as I mod images on the IMT thread)
>>52037312
This is one of my reasons I like triping, but I will try to not trip here, as I respect the Board and it's "Culture"

Hey /osrg/, what's the best website for information on TSR product codes, different printings, etc.?

Also does anyone have that page with the condition grading system for old modules? Found it linked on eBay once, now I've lost it.

>>52041168

Nobody cares about your opinion. Using a trip because you want attention and then taking it off and saying "look everyone i took it off! I respect board culture" means nothing. You are STILL a fucking attention whore. Just fuck off already.

>>52041287
Chill out. I'm generally against tripping here, but it's not a high crime or anything, and he's stopping in any case. He's used to something different, and so was I when I first showed up here many years ago.

Is strange stars in the trove?

Is XP-for-Loot as good in practice as people seem to wax poetic about it?

How big should be a megadungeon?
Dwimmermount has 50-80 rooms per floor, 13 floors.
Barrowmaze has 40-80 rooms per floor, 4 floors.
Maze of the Blue Medusa has 7 areas, 30-50ish rooms per area.

Do you really need floors that big? I usually do ~30 rooms for my big-ish floors...

>>52043032
When I'm designing one, I do it for the expected group, to keep floors and xp levels consistent (so you'd be level one, working the level 1 floor, etc). This means I've got to give out sufficient experience on a given floor for the party to level. (These days' I pad that by 20% and restock as needed, seems to keep up with my mortality rate).

For a tentpole dungeon, it makes sense to treat it like a game, not like actual construction.

Once you know what goes on the level, and you decide how many empty rooms there are, you've got an idea.

>>52042938
My last campaign, I did XP for loot not spent on equipment. Examples of this that happened in game:
Magic Research
Throwing a festival
Hiring a personal trainer
Hiring a herald to talk you up to the people

The spending kept the money under control, and proved to be a font of adventure hooks. We had a local big shot who didn't like this bum bankrolling the fall festival issuing a challenge, a wizard kidnapping town drunks for experiments, etc. Making the gold a resource that could be used for equipment or status (and level) did a lot to bring the town area to life.

>>52042938
Yes. I mean it makes sense to incentivise treasure hunting, right?

>>52043241
You mean you include 80% of the xp needed for your group to level up. So they'd need to 'clear' the level, and in several delves (so it restocks), right?

I've usually done the opposite so far. I include extra content, in case they miss a secret hoard or whatnot.
I feel like if I do it your way, they'd end up trying luck in the next level (not a bad thing... maybe?), or a go nuts trying to find secret rooms.

>>52042938
Have you ever played Monopoly?

>>52043372
I mean I target for 120%. If they could manage to do in in one delve, good on them (that hasn't happened). Shorting them could be interesting though.

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>when you're reading a splat and it's very good but then the author's magical realm starts to leak out a bit

>>52044813
What splat?

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Quick, I need 20 crazy and gonzo locations for a hexcrawl! Weirder the better!

>>52046303
One of the hexes is inverted (sky below, ground above).
It's carved out in a perfect hexagon.

Gravity inverts too, but if you don't enter along the mountain range you'll splat.

>>52046303
A villiage of mechanical clock-people who, despite always displaying the time, cannot read analog clocks and constantly pester passersby for the time.

>>51998762

I've been out of the loop for the last two years. What's new in OSR?

>>52046493
Well, there is this new great OSR called D&D. You should check it out!

>>52046493

Maze of the Blue Medusa, World of the Lost, the White Hack, the Black Hack, Godbound, Wolfpacks and Winter Snow, the dude from GWAR made a crazy gross module called Towers Two. Lots of stuff happening.

What's your go-to stocking method?

I've been using the tables in B/X, and they work in terms of distribution, but shit's slow. A roll to see what's there, another to see if it has treasure, and another to determine how much (referencing Treasure Type of each monster [lookup its stats first] or Unguarded Treasure tables).

Tell me there's an easier way...

>>52046303
A cave with a coven of inhuman witches. They're waiting for a prophesy and nab anyone who basically meets the description. They melt the flesh off the subject's left hand and read the lines on its palm bones. If you get your palm read roll a D12. They grow the flesh back and send you on your way if you don't make too much fuss.
1.You are the Hand Of Doom, destine to crush the moon in your grip.
2.Your hand contains directions to the nearest secret tomb.
3.A list of names of the next 12 Lords of the land. Note the change in family names...
4.Recipe for potion of flight.
5.Your hand bones are made of blue-metal, and the witches shun you.
6.A star chart that shows the next coming of the screaming comet.
7.Your hand bones have been worked into zen-garden patterns.
8.A small socket rests in your palm a gem could be set in.
9.The face of your true love is carved there.
10.An outline of the best that will slay you.
11.Totally blank so the witches place a strange seed in your grip before growing your flesh back.
12.Your shadow sees the fortune first and flees with it in terror. The witches advise you catch it before your shadow cheats you.

>>52046622
Pretty much that. Write them down on index cards with a hook or an idea that comes to you. Keep them around and draw them randomly when you roll an encounter. Make new cards when you feel like you don't have enough. Its a writing exercise, no harm in coming up with ideas.

>>52047532
*10.Outline of the beast that will slay you.

>>52047532
Anon, that was glorious. link to your blog nao

>>52044813
What does it matter?

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>>52048463
No blog, not that cool yet. I just finished reading a bunch of hellboy comics so witches and stuff was on the mind. Its homage to pulp stuff so lots of osr crossover, ancient witches, alien gods, hyperboria, monkey cyborgs.

Reading a lot helps with ideas to loot and modify.

FR question here: Is there a version of Cyric that isn't
>*betrays u*
>*drinks ur tears*
>*holds up spork*
>MOM'S GONNA FREAK

Because he seems like total shit in Faith & Avatars

>>52046622
Online treasure generators.

>http://www.mithrilandmages.com/utilities/LLTreasure.php

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>>52050603
Witches are always fun

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>>52046303
Modron testing grounds. Roll 1d6 to see what item the Modrons are making their human captives test today.

1. Modron Sword: It's a point with no blade. The blade is stored in another dimension, but the point is not. You can't parry or be parried, but you can really easily poke someone to death.

2. Modron stilts. Middle bit of stilts are stored in another dimension. They're basically boots that let you walk 6' off the ground without visible support.

3. Modron cannon. Cannonball phases in and out of another dimension.

4. Modron helicopter backpack. Engine and blades are stored in another dimension. Backpack lets you fly around but with a hell of a racket.

5. Modron beartraps. Metal discs surrounded by a halo of metal spikes. The rest is in another dimension.

6. Modron racecar. A seat with wheels. Engine is in another dimension. Hell of a racket, and impossible to control.

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>>52049915
Were not going to associate your fetishes with Anonymous et al. (...or at least, not with *you*), but we have a sliver of hope that you might be onto something with what you're into.

>>52051944
What?

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Has anyone else built a "training dungeon"?

I designed the Tomb of the Serpent Kings as a "learning" dungeon for new players. When you first start up Super Mario Bros, the game doesn't give you any instructions. The first level is cunningly designed to teach you the rules: jump on enemies, pick up mushrooms, look for secrets, get coins, avoid pits. There is no tutorial. The game itself is the tutorial.

This dungeon is designed to take a group of non-gamers - even non-video-gamers - and teach them the basics of dungeoneering.

The first rooms branching off the entrance hall (1) are two identical burial chambers (2A, 2B). Each chamber contains a wooden coffin with a clay statue of a snake-man warrior inside. The statues are hollow and contain a gold amulet worth 1gp, a dried snake skeleton, and a cloud of poison gas (d6, can only reduce a PC to zero HP).

Lessons: the dungeon is organized. There are patterns. There is hidden treasure. There is also hidden danger. The PCs will probably approach the 2nd coffin with more caution, and earn the reward (gold) without the danger (poison) by using their brains (and a rock or a long pointy stick).

Next, there are 2 more burial chambers. Room (3) contains a snake-man scholar statue in a coffin, but his scrolls have crumbled to dust. His clay statue still contains an amulet (and a snake skeleton, and poison).

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>>52053177
Room (4) contains another coffin, but this one contains a snake-man sorcerer. He is wearing a silver ring. If the PCs didn't discover the other statues were hollow, they'll almost certainly try to pry the ring off, breaking the statue open and revealing the poison glass and the amulet. The ring is a magic ring, but it is also cursed. If it is worn on a finger, the fingernail becomes long, bifurcated, and pointed like twin fangs. It can be used as a poison dagger, but each morning, the wearer must Save vs Poison. If they take 6 damage at once from the poison ring, their finger falls off and turns into a snake.

Lessons: Hidden treasure can be magical and useful and sometimes cursed.

The passage ends in a barred door (5). The heavy stone bar hangs off two iron pegs. It requires at least 3 PCs to lift. When the bar is lifted off the iron pegs, a trap is activated. A huge stone hammer swings down from the ceiling, aiming straight at the now-trapped PCs. They have their back to the hammer, and their are carrying a stone bar.

The PCs can a) Save to dodge or b) use another PC as a springboard, giving them +2 to Save but giving the shoved PC a -2 to Save. Time to find out who your friends really are.


Lessons: there are deadly traps. The dungeon can be lethal.


The hammer slowly retracts into the ceiling unless blocked. The impact does knock open the doors to room (6), the burial chamber of the snake-man king and his two brides. The king and his brides are skeletons, and will attack if their coffins are disturbed.


Lessons: there are undead in the dungeon. They take less damage from slashing weapons. PCs can use the environment against them (lure them into the hammer trap).


Room (7) contains a giant statue of an ugly snake-man god. Water leaking into the tomb has eroded the floor, revealing a secret passage under the statue to the True Tomb.

Lessons: there are secret passages. They are associated with statues. This might be a false tomb.

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>>52053193
It worked out fairly well.

The PCs, and their completely new players, discovered the amulets and poison gas in the statues. It did take them three statues and a lot of HP damage to come up with a plan to safely disarm them, but they did eventually come up with a plan.

The cursed ring was pocketed, not worn.

The PCs /all/ dodged the hammer trap, despite their minimal chances. Even Tito the Toadman Assassin, who was shoved by every other member of the group, escaped unharmed.

The Rogue used the hammer trap to smash the skeletons.

And they sat down and worked out a plan before descending further.

Overall, it was a great success. They'll do just fine.

>>52052133
Sorry, misread that.
Thought >>52049915 was replying to >>52046255

New thread

>>52053521
>>52053521
>>52053521

>>52053177
Sounds great dude been enjoying reading the progress of your game so far. Can you pileit into a pdf file? Thanks in advance.

>>52051871
Your modron sure like to fight ghosts.

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>>52053693
It'll all be on my blog. Do you want it in a PDF anyway?

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com

>>52053712
Not really.

A Modron screwdriver is a classic magic item. If you can see across all the dimensions, it's a perfectly ordinary screwdriver.

But in our dimension, the head and the handle are the only visible bits. The shaft is "elsewhere". It's in another dimension. Ghosts and ghasts can't interact with it (unless they're very clever with math).

It's not a spectral screwdriver. It just has a piece that's "elsewhere." The Modrons insist it's not magic at all.

It's damn handy for doing up screws. The shaft still connects the handle and the head, but it's not present in our dimension, so you can tighten a screw that's blocked by a solid metal plate, provided you can get the head into the socket.

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>>51998762

Are OSR games strictly restricted to Heroic-Fantasy games or do we find other genres as well ? (Cyberpunk, Space Opera, Horror, Post-Apo)

>>52053955
Literally half of the retroclones are sci-fi or post-apoc.

>>52041287
Hey there man, I Didn't have any intention of being an attention whore :(
I just like my Trip...
It was an accident that it showed up again. I have it set to auto fill, So I gotta remember to remove it for this board
My Bad bro