Underground Doctors (a monster)

 

"The ones in the left and the right are doctors. They are healing the one in the middle, who was sick and had blood. The doctors have put an eye on the wound and have healed it" said my three year old daughter explaining her work.

I can't help but wonder. How many fights has the doctor on the right been on to be so toppled with eyes? What is the mysterious ball that the left doctor is holding in his/her arms?

MAGENTA SLIMES A.K.A. UNDERGROUND DOCTORS (Slime, Neutral), stats as B/X

Armor class: 9
Hit Dice: 2* (for each 1 rolled when finding HP, the doctor gets an extra HD and an extra eye)
Move: 120' (40')
Attacks: 1 strike, 1d6
No Appearing: 1-6 (2-12). On a group of 6 or more, there will be a leader with 1+d6 eyes.
Save as Fighter 1
Morale: 8

These slimes are around 1 to 2 feet tall, but their constitution is sturdy: dense as solid mud. They do not have a mouth and are for the most part quite silent, but at the same time they are highly intelligent, able to roughly understand the PCs if they use gestures. They form small "clans" on caves, where they settle around a "cave of eyes": a location where their shaman has some kind of plantation where 1d6 (artificial?) eyes are sprout from the moist rock, and many more are in the process.

They are not violent but are territorial and may attack to keep invaders away from their lair, or just as part of their martial training. They will do hit and run attacks, covered by surprise, and then run away hoping their victims get the message and turn back. If things go bad, they trust their shaman to bring them back to health with their Eye Healing.

When the shaman puts one eye from his?/her? harvest into a fatal wound, it closes and the treated slime regains 1d6 hp instantly. One or two shamans, who carry a blue ball as if it was a symbol of their position, are always present on a lair (2 in 6 chance to be on a wandering monster group). The shaman will not attack at first, but wait and run away towards the cave and fetch some eyes if he sees that a fellow member has fallen. A PC that has been dropped to 0 hp or less can be treated with eye healing, but will only regain HP on a roll of 6; and the eye won't catch functionally into the body. Eyes will also lose their propierties if carried for more than one day.

The defining act of a shaman is developing the ability to plant eyes in stone. This is done through a (very slow) variation of the Stone to flesh / Stone to mud spells, applied to small portions of rock. This means that in case of need, they can de-petrify any being that has been turned to stone, though it will take a full day's work for a shaman, or half of it if aided ritually by the whole tribe. If attempted on a statue, it will just turn into mud.

This ability makes them relativelly unafraid of stone-turning monsters, to the point that they will try to capture cockatrices and use them as guards at strategic points, or even as a mount for the smaller slimes. Feeding the cockatrices will be a task itself, as the slimes do not need to hunt for themselves (they absorb minerals or something through osmotic exchange). But having to feed their pets might send the young slimes into bushcraft missions, to get mushrooms, carrion or loot the PCs rations.

 

I knew I had this cockatrice drawing somewhere! In my game, cockatrices are as large as a coyote. Is it hard to believe that a smaller bird can have 5 HD.

 

The blue ball also stores an alchemical compound able to cast an equivalent of "Resist fire" on an area once per day (Unharmed by non-magical heat or fire, gain a +2 bonus to saving throws versus fire-based magic or breath attacks: damage is reduced by 1 point per damage die rolled to a minimum of 1). This allows the tribe to colonize underground places otherwise blocked by magma, and gives them an edge when confronting nearby fire-based monsters.

Design notes: I wasn't sure if allowing PCs to be healed by eye therapy was a good idea, so I leaned for the middle path and made it a difficult chance. What I love about this fuckers is that they are level 2 monsters as an encounter, but together as a tribe can overcome many troubles present in their ecosystem: Magma, fire breath, petrifying attacks, gangs of goblinoids or other thugs, accessing high passages on the wings of a cockatrice, etc. Their defense is built around their intelligence, their drive to tame nature and teamwork as a society. They have reasons to be violent or friendly depending on the situation; and can be very useful some day if befriended.

An in-game bestiary (some play report inside)

My new game is going so great. All of them are long time friends, with the exception of a kid, nephew to one of them. I'm getting a lot of advantage of them never having actually played D&D so I am selling all my quirky houserules such as GLOG magic and all d6 pool resolution as "this is the real game guys". And they are really liking it, but not as much as me. They keep me asking for information about new spells (so I have actual pressure writing my long procastinated spellbook). It feels awesome when you just met for a coffee or a walk and they just ask you things about what they found in that dungeon the other day. I know I am doing something right.

One of them happened to be devoured by a ghoul recently; precisely right after he had spent the previous night drawing a portrait of his character (Krim, see above). He died like a hero, tanking a doorway, and two hobbits managed to finish the ghoul shortly after. When the player rolled his new character for the next session, he told me previously that he wanted something:

As I wrote recently, I give characters a "once in your life" object at any time, that must be related to your life background. This is mostly a trick to make characters have at least some tenuous background without the need of writing it prior to play, but has no further impact unless your intelligence is higher than 13 (see full entry if you want). He (an intelligence 9 fighting man) said he wanted to be a former sage, and have a bestiary book as an object.

I quickly saw the potential in this: They are all new players, unfamiliar with the deep lore of D&D beyond what has permeated Final Fantasy, Warhammer and others. This could be a fair way to introduce information that other players take for granted; and the player was actually paying a cost for it: his special object.

So I made it like this: As the character appeared the next day and brought up his book, I made him roll 3d6 and take the middle one: It was a four.
So, his bestiary would give him information four times, after that it would be considered exhausted (actually a great quality I guess). The information would be only about monsters, and it would only have information 50% of the time; you must make a concrete question (are ghouls vulnerable to something?). Failed searches would not tick down uses.

For now they have been only used it twice: One for learning that ghouls are vulnerable to holy water, and another for knowing that ghoul touch produces paralysis. It seems that whoever wrote that book knew a lot about ghouls! Maybe the book is no other than Comte d'Erlette's Cultes des Goules itself!(the fictional book from the Chtulhu mythos)

Before that, the magic user had been picking ghoul drool from its grotesque corpse with his bare hands. They left the room by a new path; the magic user leading the march. I resolved to not have him be paralyzed until two turns had passed for some reason (it felt right). Just at that time, they found a silent, armored knight giving them the back, and then turning his head slowly towards the newcomers.

The magic user got paralyzed right away starting from his hands. The rest of the party (three hobbits, fighting man was dead by then) took him out of the room quickly, all paranoid because they thought it was the gaze of the knight which had caused such effect. They spent the rest of the session recovering a broken mirror from another room (which currently still has a very angry doppelganger inside) and then trying to attack the knight using a mirror to see him, or just shooting at him with the eyes closed. Luckily, they soon understood they had to flee. I had a really bad time trying to not tell everyone of them how cool it was that they were acting so well in a way, but on completelly erroneous assumptions!

I think I am going to put some more books around the setting. Not all of them bestiaries, but can work the same way as that one with other topics; maybe they can even be bought at shops for some ton of money, or even found as treasure. Maybe small town wise men can work like that too: weird people that funnily has an answer to a current problem, and then proceeds to not say anything interesting at all in a lot of time or ever.

(Idea sketch) defensive/offensive combat maneuvers

Some idea I had for combat rules for a given game.

Armor numbers being something like: 

Light armor: 3
Better armor. 4
Best armor: 5

Then you have a panoplia of weapons with one assigned dice each, for example:

Greatsword: d10
Sword:d8
Dagger:d6

etc.

If you get your weapon and hit greater than the armor, you deal a hit (scratch a heart away, roll for damage or whatever you like to do afterwards)
But after you have rolled "to hit", you can choose to convert that result in your armor score this turn, then roll for attack again.
This can be used for both defensive and offensive maneuvers, and represent the parrying potential of certain weapons, while also adding some "choice" into combat.

Example:

Your PC, armed with Light Armor and a Sword, fights an enemy who has Best armor and a Greatsword.
You know that the greatsword will easily hit an armor of 3 with a d10
You attack first, and roll the sword's d8, and get a 6 (which is over the enemy's armor score)
You can choose between dealing a hit OR adopt a parrying style, converting the 6 into your armor score for the round and trying your luck rolling "to hit" again.

The same idea can be used aggresivelly: Lets say that you rolled a 1 instead. You can choose to keep that first roll as your armor (lowering your armor to a score of 1) but you would get to roll again and maybe take your enemy's last hit.

Certain weapons can be worked out so they have different damage dice on the first roll than in the second, to illustrate they are more defensive or offensive in nature. For example, a spear can have a d10 on the first attack, capable of defending up to 10 ac, but have a secondary attack of d6.
Great axes can be done in reverse: a first attack of 1d6 and a second of 1d12. The first one will probably get you exposed in order to deal the big, bad second attack.

As always, unarmed combat is difficult to model, as anything worse than a d6 will never go through best armor unless the enemy chooses to adopt a worse ac for some reason. One possible way to do it is to have unarmed combat go like (First attack d4/Second attack d6)

Shields can be done by adding an extra d6 to the first attack roll, choosing the best of the two. In this way, it provides help both in the defensive mode and the offensive mode. The shield die cannot be used to deal damage, only to be put as armor... unless the master decides otherwise. I must make the numbers so the combination of sword and shield doesnt deal both better defense and attack than a greatsword, which would render it useless.

how I do character backgrounds

 Image: Ilya Shichkin

Right now, I have my players choose between four classes: Hobbit, Elf, Fighter and Magic User. Normal people doesn't have levels on any class. They are "level 0" to say. 

Thieves come from a "Thief" background, while Rangers come from a "Ranger" background. Those are in addition to the class they might have. The trick is that no matter which one they choose, it doesn't actually take mechanical effect unless the PC's intelligence has any bonus. 

I am also a fan of backloading complexity, so I tell them to choose background during play, never at character creation.

Now, the long explanation:

As I explained on previous entries, Wisdom is the magical ability score, while...

Intelligence is strictly non-magical. You have a list of backgrounds that are mostly dressing, but when you have an intelligence bonus you get an extra die when performing related tasks (lockpicking, bushcraft, navigation, etc. That kind of marginal stuff). Not only that, but once per character you can retroactivelly produce an item on your inventory that is related to your background or is on the basic items list of the closest rulebook at hand. This is often the main bonus of it.

This means that, unless your intelligence goes beyond 12, your background might give you RP opportunities, or let me, as the GM, give you specific information through a different lens or influence the way that NPCs react to you; but normally it won't give you mechanical benefits. Your ability scores might grow a little bit over time (2 in 6 chance to increase one by 1 every level) but if your intelligence is low, you have little pressure to choose your background. You can even not to choose any at all.

However, if your intelligence is high, is probable that you want to get the most advantage of it. So you will probably want to see the list of OFFICIALLY APPROVED BACKGROUNDS. Notice that by design, they will never give you combat bonuses:

Thief: pick locks, sleight of hand. You get to roll 1d6 per INT bonus, with 5+ being a success.
Ranger: +1d6 per INT bonus while foraging/surprising on the forest (other terrains, like desert, mountain, urban... can be chosen instead)
Sailor: +1d6 per INT bonus on any roll related to piloting a boat.
Engineer: Allows for the Dwarven "structure knowledge" roll, and if a PC has this, you dont need to hire an engineer when you build a castle.
Sage: You can investigate yourself instead of hiring a sage for 2000gp: roll after spending significant downtime into investigation, each 5+ is a success. You can only choose a broad field of knowledge to be a sage of, but you can choose it anytime. You get an extra die if you have access to a library or similar.
Animal Trainer: As BX specialist, requires a success to advance in training every downtime
Armorer: As BX specialist. Low Int armorers can be assistants or smiths.
Alchemist: As BX specialist, a success is needed for each attempt at a potion.

You can make your own, of course, but as always, my advice is that they shouldn't be strictly better than an existent one. To narrow down the exact abilities of a background, a good measurement is to pick an existing skill and enhance it, or allow a PC to do him/herself the work of an specialist. 

Note: Only the thief and ranger backgrounds have been actually tested XD. It sounded clean in my head but now I see it written looks like a mess.

The Official OSR D&D Skill List

 

Clickbait /OFF

I only want to transcribe here something from another blog, for it is too useful to be lost to the flow of the internets: "The skills you didn't know you had", where the author distills all the different "x in 6" rolls scattered through the OSE book into a "skill list". I am actually using this list as inspiration for MY OWN LIST (to be posted next time), but the source material is so interesting itself that I felt it deserved recognition.  

    Open doors: 2 in 6, modified by strength
    Listening at Doors: 1 in 6 chance of detecting subtle sounds beyond a door, increased for demihumans.
    Searching: If a character is searching in the right location, there is a base 1-in-6 chance of finding a secret door or room trap, increased for some demihumans.
    Avoiding Traps: Every time a character makes an action that could trigger a trap, there is a 2-in-6 chance of the trap being sprung. Lets rephrase this as a 4-in-6 chance to avoid a trap.
    Foraging for herbs, fruits, nuts, etc: can be performed alongside normal movement. The party has a 1-in-6 chance per day of finding enough food for 1d6 human-sized beings.
    Hunting: must be engaged in as the sole activity for a day—no travelling or resting is possible. When hunting, there is a 1-in-6 chance of encountering animals which may be suitable for eating (if they can be caught!). This is in addition to the normal chance of random encounters. A party with a ranger succeeds at foraging with a 2-in-6 chance and finds prey when hunting with a 5-in-6 chance.
    Boarding: If the occupants of one vehicle wish to forcefully board the other vehicle, there is a 2-in-6 chance of being able to successfully manoeuvre the vehicle into a boarding position. The two vehicles may then be clamped together with grappling hooks.
    Surprise Checks: That's a 2-in-6 stealth check right there.
    Tinder box: Used to light fires, including torches. Using a tinder box takes one round. There is a 2-in-6 chance of success per round.
    Dwarven Detect Construction Tricks: As expert miners, dwarves have a 2-in-6 chance of being able to detect new construction, sliding walls, or sloping passages when searching.
    Detect Room Traps: Due to their expertise with construction, dwarves have a 2-in-6 chance of detecting non-magical room traps when searching.
    Halfling's Hiding: In dungeons, a halfling can hide in shadows or behind other forms of cover. The chance of success is 2-in-6. Hiding requires the halfling to be motionless. This enables an additional layer of stealth on top of the base one. If they are still, and behind cover or in shadow, they have an extra chance to be unnoticed to the rest of the party.
    Lore: From 2nd level, a bard has a 2-in-6 chance of knowing lore pertaining to monsters, magic items, or heroes of folk-tale or legend. This ability may be used to identify the nature and powers of magic items.
    Path-Finding: At the start of each day of travel, the referee should roll to determine if the group loses direction. The probability depends on the terrain being traversed:

        Clear, grasslands: 1-in-6.
        Barren lands, hills, mountains, woods: 2-in-6.
        Desert, jungle, swamp: 3-in-6.

Lets restate this one as a navigate skill with a chance depending on the type of terrain. 5-in-6, 4-in-6, or 3-in-6 depending on the difficulty of the terrain. Listed later is the fact it's 4-in-6 to navigate while waterborne. Paths and rivers eliminate this chance. While waterborne however, it requires a specific navigator to help sail, so this is clearly not a skill that all adventurers have. A party with a druid has only a 1-in-6 chance of getting lost in woodlands, so druids score themselves a 5-in-6 in the skill we now have a name for, pathfinding.
    Duergar's Stealth: Underground, duergars have a 3-in-6 chance of moving silently.
    Svirfneblin's Blend into Stone: Svirfneblins have the uncanny ability to go unnoticed when in an environment of natural or carved stone so long as they remain silent and motionless. The chance of success is 4-in-6 in gloomy conditions or 2-in-6 in well-lit conditions.
    Stone Murmurs: Svirfneblins can understand the imper-ceptible grumblings of stone. If a svirf-neblin stands quietly for one turn with their ear pressed against a stone surface, they have a 2-in-6 chance of divining one of the following pieces of information (player’s choice):

        The presence of secret doors in the stone, within 10'.
        The presence of gems or precious met-als, up to 30' beyond the surface.
        The presence of living creatures, up to 30' beyond the surface.
        The presence of bodies of water or open spaces, up to 60' beyond the surface.

* * *

At the end, the author classifies them broadly:

Individual skills are rolled for every person attempting an activity.

    Force isused for forcing open doors through strength.
    Listen is used to hear monsters through doors (breaking their stealth).
    Search isused to find hidden passages and traps.
    Luck is used to not trigger traps by through chance by stepping over a pressure plate instead of on it.
    Enhanced Stealth is used when the party fails its stealth check, but you are a class that has better odds of hiding.
    Use a tinderbox is used to use a tinderbox.

Group skills are performed by the entire group, usually with a single person leading the activity who can provide their experience as a bonus to everyone.

    Forage is used to find food while travelling overland.
    Hunt is used to find food dedicating time to the task.
    Pathfind is used to navigate without a road or river.
    Board is used to position vehicles for boarding.
    Stealth is used to be unnoticed by foes.

* * *

In order for it to be a comprehensive list, we should add the Thief Skills to it; and, why not? convert them approximately to X in 6 format for cohesion. 

   Find/Remove Traps: starting at 1 in 6, increases by 1 every 3 thief levels
   Hide in Shadows: as above
   Move Silently: as above
   Pick Locks: as above
   Pick Pockets: as above
   Climb Sheer Surfaces: 5 in 6 chance
   Read Languages: 5 in 6 chance, available at level 4
   Scroll use: 1 in 6 chance, available at level 10

From Asterix & Cleopatra. Searching for an image to illustrate the post, I realized that this is the mental image I have for D&D thieves

Reimagining Charisma

Tuvstarr on the field, by John Bauer

 

In my current iteration of rules, I am using only four attributes. 3d6 in order, but you have a (2 in 6) chance to increment one of them by one every level up.

Strength is roughly mixed with constitution. The score is equal to your inventory slots until you are encumbered, and each modifier adds +1 HD (which at some amount add to your attack prowess). Probably the most useful attribute score at level 1 if we get practical.

Dexterity modifiers give you either a weapon proficiency (each has its own trick) or a sneak proficency (re-roll a thief-related roll once per rest)

Wisdom score is required by certain magic items to be used, instead of a class-based cap. Positive modifiers add one spell slot each

Intelligence is strictly non-magical. You have a list of backgrounds that are mostly dressing, but when you have an intelligence bonus you get an extra die when performing related tasks (lockpicking, bushcraft, navigation, etc. That kind of marginal stuff). Not only that, but once per bonus and per expedition you can retroactivelly produce an item on your inventory that is related to your background or is on the basic items list of the closest rulebook at hand. This is often the main bonus of it.

I like this approach a lot. I like that the impact of the scores is small enough to make bonuses a nice gift, but not mandatory in order to have a competent PC; and that they help everyone to paint the concept of the character in our heads: thats what I missed out the most when I have played "attributeless" versions of the game. To the point that I have come to think that the main mission of the 3d6 in order roll was originally such: to generate a random avatar with distinct features.

Thats why I miss charisma being in the game. I don't need it at all by its traditional gaming uses: reaction rolls work IMHO much better unmodified, or modified by the character's approach. To put it roughly: violence might give you +1 versus submissive monsters and -1 versus dominant ones, the reverse may be true for kindness. Scheming-type monsters may get -1 if you show yourself in need of something, etc. And as for number of retainers, I have never had use for that. No PC ever I've played with has ever had more than one, so I couldn't care less about it. 

If I put charisma back to add a new layer of character depth to the pcs, it has to have some mechanical effect that at least represents symbolically what charisma is. And I actually have some idea; not defined enough but I am on my way:

Charisma is an abstract combination of (in unknown quantities) purity of heart, heroism, determination, uprightness, kindness, virtue and being chosen by fate. In a way, this makes a charismatic character more "lawful" for all alignment related effects, so it will probably replace alignment if you use it (I wasn't, actually). It is what a true knight has, that makes him different from a common men at arms; or what turns a peasant girl into a saint, as opposed to her local priest.

Your charisma score will be quite obvious for good or bad to both princesses and witches and other magical beings in the world. Doing unlawful things may decrease it. Devils and other malefic imps will surely tempt you or offer temporary power so you end up "Saving Throw versus decreasing your score by 1d6"; while completing a dangerous quest for an unjustly dethroned lady, or swearing to protect her with your life will surely increase it by 1. Monsters and men alike might give a fuck about your wisdom or your intelligence, but sure they will many times treat you differently depending on your charisma.

OK BUT WHAT DO THE MODIFIERS DO? well, some or all of those:

*You get one "revive token" per charisma modifier, and they never refill. Once you fail a death save, you can spend one to roll again. Good results will bring you back no matter which kind of doom you faced, with +1 extra charisma point as a souvenir.

* If charisma can permanently add to a type of save, it would surely be versus fear, or whatever type encompasses it in the rulebook. Extensible to demoralization and maybe mind control to an extent.

* Modify if you can or can't use a certain "alignment charged" item. Lawful items will have a minimum requirement to be wielded, while chaotic ones will result in charisma loss.

* In the same way, Lawful beings may have a minimum requirement of charisma to grant you a quest (trades for XP) or other boons. Chaotic beings will be eager to help you, but they will decrease your charisma and/or other evil tradeoffs. 

* Charisma as an HP bar for "corruption" type damage. A character that falls under the dominance of a vampire may get 1d6 charisma damage: then become his thrall (and thus, an NPC) if charisma falls to zero. Working in behalf of a dark lord by decision will also bring your charisma down eventually.

* Modify the scope and power of "cleric type" spells, particularly protective or healing ones.

* Modify the reaction rolls versus Lawful-type monsters and NPCs, as well as morale rolls of everybody under your command.

* to be expanded. Not really sure on where I want to go with this but I like the color of it.

Answered prayers, by Seb McKinnon

 

 

Slot Machine Level Up

The new level up method I am testing right now in this new campaign (We had only one session for now, so there is no feedback yet). Found in my old notes, probably inspired by this post. I call it the slot machine level up.

 

Instead of having your classic charts (for example the fighter's one above) I cut the requirements approximately into a third, rounding down to compensate the fact that I don't use prime requirement reductions.

level 1: 0
level 2: 600
level 3: 1200
level 4: 2500
level 5: 5000
level 6: 10000
level 7: 20000
level 8: 40000
level 9: 80000
level 10: 120000
level 11: 160000
level 12: 200000
level 13: 240000
level 14: 280000

Once a PC goes back to town with XP enough to get a new level, they do a training roll: a 2 in 6 chance to level up. No matter if you fail or pass, your XP amount is set to 0 after the roll.
This, in my humble mathematical knowledge, gives PCs stastically the same advantage rate as in the original (1 in 3 chance, with one third of the XP), but has a handful of things I like:

- Making uneven advancement for different PCs, because I like when there are PCs of different levels on a party as it makes for interesting hierarchy dynamics.

- Random payoffs have an addictive component. The feeling of "maybe I could level up at the end of this session" is something I think is cool.

- The amount of XP you have to track is small as it restarts from zero every time you level up. This has not any advantage beyond the psychological sensation of not tracking a big amount of numbers, but psychological shit is important. We live on the mind after all.

art by Diego Sanches