Drudgeons and Dagons

This is something I have lying around for some time. Is not that I plan to really do anything with this for now, but man, this practically writes itself.

Though I really like Lovecraft, I've always felt that Chtulhu games are very limited in scope. As a player, you're there to find out about a mystery, but the usefulness of Agatha Christie style deductions is always confronted by the genre knowledge that there is a whole lot of supernatural causes and effects in motion; but that your character is supposed to be oblivious to. This causes some bad sync between PC and Player (unless the players do not know about the genre, which is also kind of cool)

But given that this blog is for now a collection of D&D rewrites, I ask myself: what if the PCs we're already initiated into the mythos and the players just have to worry about leveling up? 

All characters start as new members of a "good" cult, settled maybe in 1930's Miskatonic. The cult is dedicated to the preservation of the mythos knowledge, to prevent that it falls in the wrong hands and to combat those who might be using it for evil. Some kind of special agency against eldritch crime with minor rapport with the government. 

The only class is Drudgeon, 1d6 per HD. You get a skill to represent your background profession (Roll under INT to perform it, maybe) and you get spells as a cleric, from level 2 onwards. This represents the hidden knowledge your cult grants you, once you get more and more involved on the work for them. You might never get to advance combat, as in this world its mainly done through guns. Instead, you get buffs to HP and better Saves.

Instead of dungeons depleting your resources, you delve in towns, neighbourhoods, societies, etc which are suspected of mythos misuse activity, and the main resource you lose is time. 

When its a matter of hours, days are divided into six parts: Morning, noon, afternoon, evening, midnight and pre-dawn. When a mission is a matter of months or requires significant travel between two points, you only get morning, afternoon, evening. 

Attempting one action (interrogating a store owner, cracking into an abandoned house, going shopping, investigating a crime scene, etc) takes 1 day part, and might require a check: If the roll fails, no progress is done but you can try again. 

Losing enough time triggers events like:

1. Your enemies getting stronger: city gangster is to busy studying the practical uses for the Vermis Misteriis and has called some armed allies to patrol the streets searching for the missing idol.

2. Somebody attacks you or your team to sabotage your investigation

3. Valuable resources leave the area (a book, an idol) which would have granted you XP

4. Possible clues wither or witnesses leave the area, or are eaten by a stellar vampire. 

5. Eldritch spawns attack the area, ghoul awakening. Chances are that the happening makes mythos a public affair (it will be on the papers for some weeks until it starts to sound like somebody made it up)

6. The stars are right / Enemy Cult forces confrontation, so you must stand with anything you've got

This is what this game "wandering monster checks" look like. Of course, sometimes a wandering monster is just a monster: there is a bestiary, in which mostly anything is too tough to be shot down nicely (ghouls, cultists, fishmen... maybe. Byakhees? Non-Euclideans? hardly). Once we get to that, the only thing to defeat them is to use magic or ancient technology (The first game I ever ran was Pokethulu, and I love the concept of catching shoggots into shining dodecahedrons)

inspiration: The Last Door

I guess that the main thematic antagonistic forces of the time would be: evil cults, criminal gangs, private collectors, lone madmen, communist factions or maybe even nazis. The main reason for which I would probably never write this is because I'm not very learned on North America, much less early XXs century North America. But its the kind of game that would be cool to mix with actual events that happened around that era. I picture the mythos themselves being treated by the populace much like UFOs were later: most anybody has heard about them vaguely, but few really have dedicated time or resources to really investigate them. But of course there are independent individuals who are fascinated by it, and keep a scrapbook with all the weird reports they read on the printed press.

I want to resist to give this project a plain XP for mission. Following the milestone approach I made on there, I'd try to make it so there is always incentives for players to go forward on their own whims, if they see that the reward is good enough. Basically you level up once you cross out one of this:

[_] [_] Recovered an ancient book or relic

[_] [_] Sealed or repelled a powerful entity

[_] [_] Thwarted the plans of an mythos misuser without it trascending to public knowledge

[_] [_] Reported back information about a rival group (your GM will tell you when you have gathered enough information to earn this, but by then the problem is probably getting out of there alive)

[_] Deal with something pending from your past, that somehow is involved on an investigation (is your call to say how the current situation has to do with that, let your GM work the details)

2d6 under ability score: A system sketch

Expanding from the last entry, and opposed to all the other previous entries, in this one I devise a system without levels, classes, hit dice, etc. But the weight falls over the ability scores, and uses 2d6 for resolutions. But there are no +mods involved, only the scores themselves.

A good curve seems to be to roll 2d4 at the start to generate the scores. 6s are meant to be greater than average; and anything over 7 carries implicit superheroic feats. Saves are rolled with 2d6 under relevant stats, with only super-heroic characters able to stastically save more often than not.

The basic combat rules are that you roll 2d6 to attack, everything that exceeds the monster's AC is damage dealt. Longer weapons attack first. Over this premise, I explain some uses of each attribute:

STRENGHT: 

-When you attack with a heavy weapon, and roll your strenght or less, you can re-roll the smaller die.

-When you have strenght 7 or higher, you get a save vs death when at 0 hp

-The score is also the amount of big things you can carry

DEXTERITY

-Spend a turn aiming with a bow and roll 2d6: If under this score, you add +2 when shooting after.

-If you use a light weapon and roll less than your dexterity, you can diss your roll but get +1 AC this turn.

-You roll a save to catch or flee from a monster with higher dexterity. It doesn't have to roll anything, only the one with lowest score does.

-Over 7 you can perform acrobacy feats.

WISDOM (the magical stat)

-At 6, roll under it to use magical tools, detect magic and other minor magical skills 

-At 7 you can cast level 1 spells, at 8 you can cast level 2 and so on.

INTELLIGENCE (the mundane knowledge)

-At 6, you can use one set of specialist tools (Specialized kits detailed in the inventory: doctor bag, thief's tools, artificer, etc) or know an extra language.

-At 7 you can attempt to produce something you've been working on (state what it is at the moment) related to the tools you carry (poison, chemicals, a small gadget), and maybe more times per day at 8+

CONSTITUTION (which really just says how well a fighter you are, or a measure of you will to live): 

-The score is your HP. Armor adds to your AC, but some armors also add some HP.

-At 6 you always act before your opponent in combat providing there are no other substantial differences in leverage.

-At 7 you get +1 attack per round with any favored weapon

-At 8 you get +1 AC for free

-At 9 you get an extra attack regardless of weapon

CHARISMA

-I like to conceive it as a save vs manipulation, fear or some measurement of "self-integrity"

-Also the classic hireling numbers and their morale checks.

-If you use animal companions, you also use this for complex rapport with them.

-On monsters (because with this system, numeric values from monsters are also rolled like this as there is no other math) this can represent how many allies they have in an area. For example an undine with 7+ charisma might use this to command friendly animals or entangling vines in the encounter area. This is the score that a Disney Princess would max out.

Advancement rules: 

When you level up using whatever method you prefer (as there is no need for numeric levels, I'd try to avoid using them for advancement and probably use sandbox milestones) you roll 1d6 against one ability score you want to increase.

If you roll less than it, raise it by 1, to a maximum of 9 or maybe 10

If you roll equal or over than it, raise it by 1 and raise any other stat by 1 

In this way, people who rolls bad stats at creation can increase them slightly faster than the others, and there is some risk/reward between raising "dump stats" and maybe not getting what you wanted, or raising your main ability score straight.

No class, no saves, no problem: All in the Attribute Scores

An opposite approach from what I did in here is to ditch classes, level and skills and choose the other abstraction to build the system around: The ability scores.
Wisdom decides how well a cleric you are. Dexterity does that for thieves. Strenght doesn't really work for fighters, however, as there are other factors that might decide in how good a fighter you are than your bulk body power, so I'm using CON instead
The most obvious advantage on using ability scores is that it keeps the thrill of rolling a character (instead of just rolling the HP), and also allows checks by rolling under the given ability score. For a game with both clerics and wizards WIS and INT can be separated. I prefer to merge both concepts into an attribute called MAG.

When you create a character, roll 2d8 in order (yeah, that will produce below average guys) Mods, however, can't go below -1. Positive mods ALLOW you to perform certain tasks,  and you still roll under score to see how well you perform (having +2 STR is better to force doors than just +1 even if you can attempt it with just +1)

STR: Mods adds to melee damage. +1 allows for force doors, +2 allows to bend bars
DEX: Adds to missile. +1 allows for easy thieving skills like pickpockets, +2 allows for advanced thief skills like climb sheer walls. Used as a reflex save.
CHA: Your common hireling/reaction mods. Also used to save VS any soul or mind controlling effect (willpower save).

CON: This amount is literally your Hit Points, and also says how well you are as a fighter. At +1 you get an extra attack with your favored weapon, or maybe some armor. At +2 or +3 you get extra attacks regardless of weapons. Read the last articles to know more about my stubborness of claiming that Fighting Prowess is indisoluble from Having more HP. Can be used as a Fortitude save but I'd rather make that kind of things just drain HP
MAG: How much magical shit you know. Roll under this to detect magic or to get a glimpse of the otherwordly side of your surroundings.
At +1 you get a 1st level spell
At +2 you get a 2nd level spell and two 1st level spells
At +3 you get a 3rd level spell, two 2nd level spells and three 1st level spells.
Rearrange spells to fit in three level categories OR allow higher level spells to be cast using magical trinkets, magical places or other aids.



Provisional score to mod conversion:

2-8: -1
9-12: 0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18:+3


Evidently, in a game deprived of levels or other mechanical parts, when you "level up" you raise your ability scores (thats why I had them start low at 2d8). Maybe raising 2 points at will per level, always capped at 18.
And that is how you become a better figher/wizard/thief, not by picking it as a class.


Rolling certain distributions at the start might give you the chance of playing an ELF, DWARF or any other, like a class requirement. Then you get the darkvision or knowledge about caves; thats the only way to pick them.