Felbrigg's Gaming Blog

A random table for an Angry GM

2025-02-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

Wandering Monster "Rolling" table

Roll 1D6 + (1 per room traversed)

1 - 1D3 Rats

2 - 1D3 Centipedes

3 - 1D4 Orcs

4 - 1D6 Goblins

5 - 1D4 Evil Elves

6 - 1D6 Hobgoblins

7 - Geletinous Cube

9 - Ghoul

10 - 1D6 Gnolls

11 - Harpys

12 - Doppleganger

The Sick Room

2024-10-27T13:07:00.000-07:00

The Sick Room is a tarot-driven solo journaling game. The following is a very short game that I played

to understand how it worked. I would expect a normal game to run considerably longer.

The game forces you to engage your imagination, drawing tarot cards for inspiration. Each card has been allocated specific inspirational text to help you explore the horrors to be found in the Sick Room.

---

Tuesday,

I'm in the bathroom, I'm hiding! Hiding from my living room. No, that's not right. I'm hiding from the room, from the door. There's a door in there, it wasn't there before. It just appeared. Am I mad? The door is wrong, it shouldn't be there. I opened it, god forgive me. The door felt cold and there was a strange meaty smell when I opened it.

I can't explain it there's a living room from the 80s behind the door. But it shouldn't, can't be there. The other side of that wall is an empty show shop. I took a step in there, saw the TV, and the wallpaper just like when I was a kid. And, there was a feeling, like someone was standing in there watching me. But there wasn't anyone there. I kept turning round, it was like there was someone being me. I ran up here, I'm still shaking.

Wednesday,

I had to know it was real, had to know I wasn't mad, I went in there again. I stood in the middle of the room. I looked at the TV, it's like the one my grandmother had. I got the feeling I was being watched again. When I turned round they were sitting on the sofa. I don't know what they were, I mean it was a man, woman, and a girl, only they weren't people, not really. I rubbed my eyes, but it wasn't my eyes, the people were blurry. They were talking, laughing I think. They were quiet, I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. Their words warbled, fading in and out. I think they could see me. But I felt there was someone behind me, and when I turned round, there was no one there. I turned again as the people were gone. I couldn't stay there. I moved the table in front of the door when I came out.

Thursday,

I heard a knocking on the door, from the other side. I stared at it, I was shaking. I've never felt fear like that before, I WAS shaking. I stared at the door and ate a whole pack of biscuits, staring the whole time. In the end I moved the table and opened the door. There was no one there. I balled up the biscuit wrapper and tossed it in. It landed on the carpet. Nothing happened. I really didn't want to go in but I had an urge and took two two quick steps. That someone's-here feeling instantly engulfed me. The room, it was, well, it felt close. There was a glow in the middle of the TV screen. I crouched next to it and could here something in the speaker. It warbled like the people had. I turned the volume dial, I only touched it, turned it the tiniest amount. The speaker blared, shouted "fat fuck" at me. I fell back from it horrified, then scrambled-ran out the door, slammed it shut and pushed the table back in front of it. Then I threw up.

Friday,

I woke up determined to master my fear. I stomped downstairs, dragged the table out of the way and opened the door.

There was a packet of bisuits. Where I'd left the wrapper was a full packet. I think it was the same packet, at least the one I balled up was gone, and this was in its place.

I went in picked it up, it felt good in my hand. I don't know why or how, somehow it felt right. I felt confidence while I held it. And that feeling of someone else in the room faded. It didn't go, just felt less invasive. I sat on the sofa facing the TV and ate all the biscuits. I drifted off, I don't know how long, I was staring at the TV. I remember it had shadows moving on the screen but i don't recollect anything about them in particular.

I picked up the biscuits and ate them all. And watched the shadows.

I picked up the biscuits, again. That was when I realised I'd changed. I don't know how many packs I'd eaten but my god I filled the whole sofa, I'd grown fat, hugely big. Shocked I tried to stand, and unbalanced by this new weight I fell. Gasping for breath on the floor I sucked in air that stank. It took a couple of breaths before I realised it was my body that was giving off the stink. I nearly threw up. I couldn't get up, I crawled to the door dragged myself out of the room, rolled over and kicked the door shut. The stink was so bad I couldn't catch my breath it was choking, choking.

I woke up the next morning on the floor. The door was gone. No sign of it at all. I wasn't fat but I felt drained. I got up went to the kitchen, and threw away the biscuits I had in the cupboard.

White Box: FMAG Session.

2024-09-28T08:31:00.000-07:00

I knocked out a quick solo session of FMAG today. I used the cool character generator the Smoldering Wizard web site to generate 4 characters. This is better than most generators out there as it provides, stats, names, equipment, spells, and racial abilities in its output. Here are the characters, post the adventure.

Name: Ra In the Rough

Level 1 Halfling Thief
Alignment: Neutral
Age: 52

STR: 16 (+1)
INT: 10
WIS: 9
CON: 15 (+1)
DEX: 12
CHA: 15 (max: 5 loyalty: +1)

HP: (3)
AC: 7 [12]
SAV: 14
BHB: 0
Thievery: 2
XP Bonus: 5%, 279

Armor: Leather
Shield: None
Helm: None

Weapons:
Mace [1d6]
Dagger [1d6-1]

Equipment:
6 torches
backpack
bedroll
large sack
waterskin
thieves' tools
5 days dried rations
flint & steel
50' hemp rope
158 GP

Racial Abilities:

Giants, ogres, and similar giant-type creatures such as trolls are not
good at fighting small creatures such as Halflings, and only inflict
half the normal damage against them.

Halflings receive a +2 to-hit when firing missile weapons in combat.

When not engaged in combat, Halflings can be quite stealthy, making
themselves hard to spot and moving in almost total silence. The
success of this ability is determined by the Referee.

Halflings receive +4 on saving throws vs. magic (even if the "Saving
Throw Matrix" is used).

Name: Merciggo

Level 1 Elf Fighter/Magic-User
Alignment: Neutral
Age: 251

STR: 14
INT: 9
WIS: 6 (-1)
CON: 7
DEX: 7
CHA: 14 (max: 5 loyalty: +1)

HP: (7)
AC: 6 [13]
SAV: 14
BHB: 0
XP Bonus: None , 265

Spells: Charm person

Armor: Leather
Shield: Yes
Helm: Yes

Weapons:
Warhammer [1d6]
Sling [1d6]

Equipment:
5 torches
backpack
bedroll
waterskin
5 days dried rations
flint & steel
10' pole
96 GP
Pouch & 20 stones

Racial Abilities:

Elves may use either the Fighter or Magic-user class advancement
charts, to be announced at the start of an adventure.

When an Elf adventures as a Magic-user, the character has the same
weapon and armor limitations as a Magic-user. The exception to this
would be magic armor, which may still be worn even when the Elf is
acting as a Magic-user.

Elves gain an +1 to-hit and damage when fighting goblins, orcs,
intelligent undead, and lycanthropes. Elves are also immune to
paralysis caused by undead such as ghouls.

Elves are good at spotting hidden and concealed doors (1-4 on a d6
when searching, 1-2 on a d6 if just passing by).

Elves can speak with gnolls, goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins.

Name: Arer the Icthic

Level 1 Halfling Fighter
Alignment: Neutral
Age: 56

STR: 10
INT: 16 (+1)
WIS: 13
CON: 6 (-1)
DEX: 8
CHA: 8 (max: 3 loyalty: -1)

HP: 1
AC: 2 [17]
SAV: 14
BHB: 0
XP Bonus: None, 265

Armor: Plate
Shield: Yes
Helm: Yes

Weapons:
Club [1d6]
Short Bow [1d6-1]

Equipment:
6 torches
backpack
bedroll
waterskin
5 days dried rations
flint & steel
10' pole
144 GP
Quiver & 19 arrows

Racial Abilities:

Giants, ogres, and similar giant-type creatures such as trolls are not
good at fighting small creatures such as Halflings, and only inflict
half the normal damage against them.

Halflings receive a +2 to-hit when firing missile weapons in combat.

When not engaged in combat, Halflings can be quite stealthy, making
themselves hard to spot and moving in almost total silence. The
success of this ability is determined by the Referee.

Halflings receive +4 on saving throws vs. magic (even if the "Saving
Throw Matrix" is used).

Name: Kracvak Do

Level 1 Human Cleric
Alignment: Lawful
Age: 37

STR: 12
INT: 9
WIS: 12
CON: 14
DEX: 14
CHA: 8 (max: 3 loyalty: -1)

HP: 2
AC: 2 [17]
SAV: 15
BHB: 0
XP Bonus: None, 265

Turn Undead:
Skeleton: 10
Zombie: 13
Ghoul: 15
Wight: 17

Armor: Plate
Shield: Yes
Helm: Yes

Weapons:
Staff [1d6]
Sling [1d6]

Equipment:
6 torches
backpack
bedroll
waterskin
5 days dried rations
flint & steel
10' pole
wooden holy symbol
scroll
84gp 10 gems(10gp each)
Pouch & 20 stones

With those generated I start a session, which quickly got into combat, here are the session notes:

Session

Call to Action

The mayor (Paur Armstrong) of the village Elderglen makes a speech in the Inn looking for heroes. Monsters have been attacking the washer women down by the river. They've taken up residence in an old bear cave near the river. Clear it out for 10GP each.

Travel

Walk to river, 1 in 6 for encounter: 4, no encounter.

The Cave

Arrive at riverside. 1D6 rooms in cave, 2.

Ra sneaks to cave mouth, Thievery (2) , 5, sneak fails.

1st Room

What's in the first room 1D12, 7, Zombie #appearing 1D8, 6

HD 1, AC [12], Move 6, Damage 1D6-1

Z HP: 3 , -1 Merciggo
Z HP: 1 -3 Kracvak
Z HP: 4 , 1, -3 Arer
Z HP: 6
ZHP: 5
Z HP: 2, 0 Merciggo

Are Zombies surprised? 1D6, 3, not surprised.

Ra runs back to the party, who fan out and they have one round of ranged combat.
Merciggo slings, 15, hits #1 for 4HP killing it
Kracvak slings, 12 hits #2 for 4HP killing it
Arer arrows, 9 misses.

Round 2, initiative, PCs 1, Monsters 4, monsters go first

#3 attacks Ra, 17 hits for 2HP seriously hurting him
#4 attacks Arer, 9 misses
#5 attacks Merciggo, 14 hits for 5HP seriously hurting him
#6 attacks Kracvak, 12, misses
Ra runs to max sling range
Kracvak Turns the undead, 7, fails
Arer, runs to bow range
Merciggo runs to bow range next to Ra

Round 3 initiative, PCs 3 monsters 6

#2 runs towards Ra
#4 runs to Arer
#5 runs to Merciggo
#6 attacks Kracvak, 15 miss
Ra attacks #2, 10, miss
Kracvak turns undead, 13, Success, zombies will flee for 3d6 turns 11,
Arer, attacks #4, 17 doing 3HP
Merciggo attacks #5, 8 misses

Round 4

Zombies flee,
Ra catches his breath
Arer fires an arrow at #4, 16, 4HP damage
Merciggo attacks #5,11 miss
Kracvak attacks #6, 19, 2HP

The 2 remaining zombies will flee beyond range and never return.

XP award for defeating the zombies (30 * 6) = 240.

Is the treasure buried 1-3 , 4, no
Is the treasure hidden 1-2, 1, yes
Is the treasure trapped 1-2, 3, no

Treasure roll, 6 (value of treasure is 960gp) made up of: 720gp, 1400sp, 10 gems worth 10gp each

Post Combat

The PCs light a torch, enter the cave and search for what lured the zombies here. 1-4 (Merciggo being elvish) ,4, success. The party find the treasure buried in the dirt floor of the cave. Assume each character can carry additional 20lbs so that's 200 coins each. The remaining treasure of 1400sp will be reburied in the cave against a future return.

Merciggo 200gp, Ra 200gp, Arer 200gp, Kracvak 120gp 10 gems(10gp each), will be worth addition 820xp if it gets back to town.

Back to the village

Returning to village, 1 in 6 for encounter: 4, no encounter.

Each character gains xp, 240 for monsters, 820 for treasure a total 1060 divided between 4 is 265 each.

Getting set up

Rent a "wing" of the Inn, including 2 rooms, full health restored, and stabling for 4 (non existing) horses for a month, 40gp, Merciggo pays.

How many horses are available for purchase during the month, 1D8, 7. Purchase 6 horses for 40gp each (240gp, 60 each)

Hire a groom/Horse-holder 2gp a week for 8gp for the month. Hired by Merciggo (+1 Loyalty) Da Jur a dwarf

Hire a torch bearer 2gp a week for 8gp for the month. Hired by Ra (+1 Loyalty) Risor Lem an Elf

Stitchpunk

2024-01-24T03:01:00.000-08:00

I've released a solo journaling game called Stitchpunk. This game was inspired by the 2009 film "9". You play the part of a small team of animated hand stitched dolls, in a far future where mankind has been removed from the face of the Earth by The Computer and its ever growing army of robots.

The dolls were made by the last of the humans, and they imbued them with their will, soul, spirit, and something else. The human's wishes and desire has somehow passed into these dolls.

Long after humanity is gone, the robots continue turning Earth into a wasteland where nothing lives. Into this world the dolls appear , with the objective of bringing down the The Computer.

Lemuria Space Station, first bounty

2023-10-01T08:03:00.004-07:00

I played my first bounty hunt in Lemuria Space Station today. I was Belasco, a robot hunter of gloomy disposition who just hates robots.

Armed with a rather poor Snub-E station-safe pistol, and a frying pan (hey don't judge its practically armour and packs quite a wallop if you give it a good swing). Checking the bounty board, I spotted there was one of those horrid B3AR-BOTs on the loose. The furry little bastards!

I headed out and started the hunt. It was not a good time, people were either lying to me or just plain stupid. I was wandering all over the place even ended up on the observation deck. Wouldn't you know it, I spotted both Argent-6 and Dexio, two unluckier moons do not exist (-2 in combat). Despite that bad luck I popped into the deck security office and my buddy Deckard was on duty. He let me use the security cams, and I found my target toddling around the cryo-deck peeking at the sleepers. I promised Deckard a beer and headed down to cryo.

I spotted the shit-rig before it saw me., but my shot went wild. It rushed me but I only got grazed as I jumped up onto a cryobed. My next shot took out the bot's control centre. It started running around randomly, and I missed it with all three capture bolt. I smacked it with the pan. That stopped it, but with the head crushed I'd be lucky to get half the bounty. Fekkin robots.

Review - Operation Solo Endeavor

2023-07-30T06:18:00.002-07:00

I picked up this supplement for Operation Whitebox for two reasons. Firstly I'm a huge fan of Operation WhiteBox and I've written a few scenarios for the system too. I thought I might have some fun solo-ing a team through one of my own scenarios.

I like what I found in here. An intro to solo playing, then a straight into a useful table for determining a mission objective. This table is short but it gives a nice variety of mission types. It then guides you into generating some VIPs for your mission. They might be NPCs, officers, targets, or otherwise. There are tables for theatre of operation and then significant places for the mission.

Next we move into "Planning" which takes you the player through the design process of what you want to do when playing, and what sort of NPC you might want to prepare.

It also introduces a mechanic called "Tension". This is a great idea. Its a ticking timebomb for a disaster. As you play it ticks down to something very bad happening. You never quite know when this bomb will go off or what form of DOOM it will take.

Then there's a guide on how to ask/answer the questions that drive the game, and gives you simple "oracle" to get your answers. It's a simple D10 mechanism ... but ... its variable, and you you can tailor it to the situation, ... and ... it drives that Tension mechanism.

Another great set of tables provide you inspiration and flavour for answering questions and feeding into your story. Talking of which, there is an nice set of NPC names tables, tailored to various nations involved. Beyond these, the book gives you plenty of advice on story telling and handling a team of players rather than a single character.

To sum up, I'm really happy with this product, its a perfect fit for Operation Whitebox, and I'm going to be using it tonight! My only gripe, is that I'd like to own this as physical book.

Second playtest of "Adventure Path"

2023-06-27T11:02:00.004-07:00

In my first playtest my test got wasted in a couple of encounters. So I spent some time thinking about how I played and wondering if I did anything wrong. The result of this pondering is the realisation that I didn't really use the Melee Defence skill to its optimum. So in the following play through, I made a point of using it when I could. I also took another four classes of character with different skills, and it went much better, as you'll see...

My characters:

Bowman, HP 11, Missile Fire +1, Ambush +1
Draygon, HP 15, Melee Defence +1, Fireball +1
Toadun, HP 9, Spot Hidden +1, Tracking +1
Nephellin, HP 6, Darts +1, Charm +1

Move 1, Moving into the +0 Zone

Toadun makes tracking roll to get a peak at the Helmet location to see what's there, but he fails

We move into the Helmet location and reveal the encounter to be 2 Orcs

Orc, Melee Attack +1, Damage Bonus +2

Bowman Attempts an Ambush, but fails.

Round ~1~

Nelphellin Melee Attacks Orc1 doing 3HP
Orc2 Melee Attacks Draygon doing 9HP
Draygon Melee Defence blocks 5HP of damage
Bowman Missile Attacks Orc2 killing it
Toadun Melee Attacks Orc1 for 2 damage
Orc1 Melee Defence blocks incoming damage

Round ~2~

Bowman Missile Attacks Orc1 Killing it.

4 treasure have been earned!

Move 2, Moving into the +1 Zone

Encounter a Werewolf, HP 22, Melee Attack +1, Melee Defence +1, Damage Bonus 1D4.

Bowman attempts Ambush, fails.

Round ~1~

Bowman Missile Fire for 3HP damage
Toadun Melee Attacks for 1HP damage
Werewolf attacks nephellin 8HP damage (kill?)
Draygon Melee Attacks for 6HP damage
Nephellin Melee Defence for 3 reduces damage to 5HP

Round ~2~

Draygon Melee Attacks for 2HP damage
Toadun Melee Attacks for 1HP damage
Nephellin Melee Attacks for 4HP damage
Bowman Missile fires for 7HP damage killing werewolf

Earned 6 Treasure (10 total)

Move 3, +2 band

Encounter Village,

Draygon visits the Blacksmith and spends all the party Treasure to gain a +1 Sword (Melee Attack bonus)

Move 4, +3 band, to a "?" space

Roll 1D6 to determine encounter category, result =Helmet Category

Constrictor, HP 12, Melee Attack +2, Damage Bonus +1

Round ~1~

Nephellin melee attacks 5HP damage
Bowman Missile Fires for 5HP damage
Constrictor Melee Attacks Draygon for 6HP damage
Draygon Melee Defence 7HP (so no damage)
Toadun Melee Attacks 5HP damage killing constrictor

No Treasure :(

Move 5, +4 band

Toadun makes a Tracking attempt on the Helmet encounter success "There be spiders ahead". Toadun suggests we go to the Cave encounter instead

Iron Eater HP 12, Melee Attack +3, Melee Defence +1, Damage Bonus +1

Round ~1~

Draygon Melee Attacks 8HP Damage
Toadun Melee Attacks 2HP Damage
Bowman Missile Attacks 6HP Damage
Nephellin Melee Attacks 3HP Damage
Iron Eater Melee Defence, still dies.
The Iron Eater destroyed Draygon's sword :(

Move 6, +5 band, to a "?" space

Roll 1D6 to determine encounter category, Helmet Attack

OwlBear,HP 18, Initiative +2, Melee Attack +3, Melee Defence +2, Damage Bonus 1D6

Bowman Attempts an Ambush, Success.

Round ~0 (Ambush)~

Bowman Missile Fire does 3HP Damage
Draygon Melee Attack does 6HP
Toadun Melee Attack does 3HP
Nephellin Melee Attack does 5HP Damage

Round ~1~

Toadun Melee Attack does 3 Hit Points
Dragon Melee Attack does 5 Hit Points
The Owlbear will not be able to fend off both attacks, so the Owlbear is killed

10 Treasure!

Move 7, +6 band

Campfire,

Bowman takes the Stash Action saving 5 Treaure
Draygon and Nephellin take the Rest option and heal 2HP

Move 8, +7 band, The Lair

Nightmare HP14, Melee Attack +2, Melee Defence +1, Damage bonus 1D6

5 x DarkElves HP 8, Melee Attack +4, Melee Defence +2

Bowman attempts Ambush, fails

Round ~1~

Toadun Melee Attacks DE1 doing 1HP damage
Nephellin casts Darts, fails
DE4 melee attacks Toadun doing 7HP damage
Bowman Missile at DE4 doing 7HP damage
DE1 melee attacks Toadun doing 7HP killing him
DE2 melee attacks Bowman doing 6HP
Draygon Melee attacks DE4 doing 3HP damage killing
DE5 Melee attacks Draygon doing 7HP damage
Nephellin Melee attacks DE1 doing 3HP damage
Nightmare Melee attacks Nephellin doing 5HP damage

Round ~2~

DE1 Melee attacks Bowman doing 6HP
Nightmare Melee attacks Draygon doing 3HP
Draygon melee attacks DE1 doing 2HP
DE3 Melee attacks Nephellin doing 6HP
DE5 Melee attacks Nephellin doing 10HP killing
DE2 Attacks Draygon doing 6HP killing
Bowman does Melee defence stopping 4HP (2hp damage)

Round ~3~

Concede, because 4 melee attacks on last character that he could not fend off

Summary: Killed by the End Boss' but did manager to stash 5 treasure for use in next run. Got much further in this run than the last. I put this down to some lucky rolls, but mostly down to some very good skills. Melee Defence was critical, and Ambush proved very powerful. Spells at first level seem pretty low power which is appropriate. I'm happy with how it went.

Playtesting "Adventure Path"

2023-06-24T12:19:00.001-07:00

I've spent the last few weeks writing up a new solo RPG which takes inspiration from "Four Against Darkness" and the digital card game "Slay the Spire". With the first draft of the rules complete it was time to do my first playtest. The following are my notes from the far too short game.

My characters

Soldier Hp(14) Melee Attack +1 Melee Defence +1
Bandit Hp(10) Melee Attack +1 Initiative +1
Elementalist Hp(8) Danger Sense +1 Earth Shield +1
Acrobat Hp(9) Dexterity +1 Initiative +1

So with my party ready to go, I started my first move up the map. I had a choice of overland or underground encounter, I opted for the slightly easier overland encounter.

Move 1 -----

Move to Helmet Encounter, Difficulty mod +0

Encounter (4) Constrictor, attacks character with most hit points

HP (12) Melee Attack+2 Damage Bonus +1, no treasure

I rolled initiative for characters and monster. Monster rolled a 1.

Acrobat melee attack +0 > 4, Constrictor reduced HP to 8

Soldier melee attack +1 > 3, Constrictor reduced HP to 5

Bandit Melee attach +1 > 6, Constrictor reduced to 0 HP

A win for my heroes, but alas the constrictor has no treasure.

Move 2 -----

Move to Helmet Encounter, Difficulty mod +1

Encounter (10+1) Wererats # App (1d4+1) 5 ,Melee Attack +2, Melee Defence +1 8HP each.

~Round 1~

WR1 Hits Soldier doing 4HP damage

WR4 Hits Bandit doing 3HP damage

Acrobat hit WR1 doing 1HP damage

WR5 Hits Elementalist doing 6HP damage

Soldier Hits WR1 doing 4HP damage

WR3 its Acrobat doing 8HP damage

Bandit Hits WR1 doing 4HP damage

Elementalist Hits WR2 doing 6HP damage

WR2 Hits attacks soldier doing 5HP

~Round 2~

Soldier Hits WR2 doing 5HP damage

Elementalist casts "Earth Shield"

WR4 Hits Bandit Doing 1HP of Damage

Bandit Hits WR3 doing 4HP damage

Acrobat Hits WR3 doing 5HP damage

WR5 Hits Bandit doing 1HP damage

~Round 3~

Bandit attacks WR4 doing 5HP damage

Acrobat attacks WR4 doing 1HP damage

WR4 attacks Acrobat killing him

WR5 attacks Elementalist killing him

Soldier attacks WR4 doing 2HP damage

~Round 4~

Soldier attacks WR5 doing 3HP damage

Bandit attacks WR4 doing doing 3HP damage

WR5 attacks soldier killing him

~Round 5~

WR5 attacks Bandit killing him.

... and so ended my party of adventurers. I expect the game to be swingy because it does use random die rolls to determine encounters. I even think it was back luck to roll 10+1 on the second encounter (were rats) and then to roll the maximum number of enemies 1D4+1 (5). My first inclination is to "harden" the characters, perhaps by giving them armour/shield to act as damage reduction. However I'm not sure if one single play test attempt is a good place to make changes. After all, solo games have to have extreme challenge.

Edit, I'm definitely going to make another playtest before changing anything.

Cloistered, an adventure space for Old School Essentials

2023-05-20T04:05:00.003-07:00

Cloistered is an adventure location for the Old School Essentials RPG. This booklet provides a map of a

working monastery, with NPCs including the Abbot who can act as a patron. Details are given of the monastic rituals and the religion at it core.

The nearby town of "Nasty" is mapped out with NPCs, along with details on the surrounding villages and adventure locations.

The monastery is detailed along with its NPCs so you can have your PCS stay in there for a while, and even use it as a base and place to recoup. To help with that, the area surrounding the monastery is mapped out terrain, villages, and adventure spaces on the map. Customised encounter tables for the area keep it themed appropriately.

There's a scenario seed generator inside so provide adventures that the Abbot can provide to the players.

Two dungeons are mapped out and populated along with some new monsters.

Grab it from DriveThruRPG .

Operation Green Angel

2023-05-17T09:32:00.003-07:00

Operation Green Angel is a one-shot scenario written by yourself, for use with the Operation WhiteBox

WWII RPG. In this scenario the players have to penetrate deep into the Burmese jungle and Japanese held territory to rescue a scientist from the slave camp where he and thousands of allied POWs are working and dying on the "Death Railway".

I wrote this scenario, and was clearly inspired the real world history of the Burma railway that the Japanese drove through the jungle using POWs and local slaves. I always base my WWII scenario of the heroic stories and events of true history, this approach means I never run out of ideas. The real historic soldiers of WWII were real heroes.

"Trail of the Behemoth"

2023-05-13T12:28:00.002-07:00

Trail of the Behemoth is an RPG fills a void that I'd pondered filling myself. In fact I'd even started making notes in preparation to writing into this gap in the RPG market. I put those notes aside to work on other products. And now, I don't have to write a "Monster Hunter" RPG as Dan Felder has done a wonderful job.

The game has some really neat tricks. Its a D6-only system which I love, and the monster...is the map! What a cool idea. Another cool feature is that at 0 Health you can choose to flee or stay, If you stay you get half your Health back...but if you hit zero again you die.

The two PDF set comes as a 15 page player-manual, and 50ish page referees manual that gives you guidance on how to structure the between-fight phase, how to build big bad boss monsters to be defeated, and a hint or two on campaign play.

The game is almost entirely boss-monster-fighting, with the between-fight segments being very limited from a mechanical viewpoint. Indeed, your characters are really only defined in terms of fighting ability, there are not the 6-stats you might see in an OSR game, nor any armor-class or to-hit charts, and no long list of skills. Money? That's for lesser games! This game is mechanically bare bones.

Your character will start with a kick-ass weapon, maybe a one-shot spell, special class ability, and a trinket that gives you something special, and a limited Health.

If you survive a fight you get to take powerful loot (body parts) from the monster and use them in future fights or burn them for XP. And that XP can get you some more class based abilities.

I'm really looking forward getting this game to the table. The theme excites me, the art inspires me,

Operation Grand Slam

2023-04-22T02:08:00.006-07:00

Operation Grand Slam is my first scenario for "Operation White Box". Its a one-shot, suitable for a single session and three to four players. The PCs are working in collaboration with "The Dam Busters", trying to mark a target for the flyers.

In real-world history The Dam Busters had to fly multiple missions to bring down the Nielefeld viaduct, because even they were struggling to bring down this very small target using the Grand Slam bomb (another invention by Barnes Wallis of bouncing bomb fame). In this fictional scenario the PCs are dropped behind the lines with a mission to mark the target with fire.

Get the scenario

Monk-Herbalist class for OSE

2023-04-06T10:07:00.002-07:00

Inspired by the classic monk-ish stories featuring the detective monk Cadfael, I crafted a new class for Old School Essentials, if you like the sound of that please check out my Monk-Herbalist.

Pondering Exhaustion

2023-04-03T09:47:00.002-07:00

I love the simplicity of most OSR games, and spend quite a lot of time thinking about them and their rules in quiet moments. You know, waiting for someone to pick up the phone, on the toilette, in the queue at the post office. Anyway these random thought often lead me into coming up with ways of complicating the simple and making the quick slower.

So with that in mind I was pondering how people get puffed out when fighting, worn down by the effort expended. I was wondering how you might replicate that in an OSR fight and here's what I came up with.

You track the number of rounds your character is in the fight.
Once the number of rounds equals the characters CON, you make a save throw (roll D20 vs CON).
If you fail the save you take a -1 on all future combat attacks.
Fail or succeed, you reset the count.
A success after a failure does not undo the penalty.
Multiple failed saves accumulate penalties.
Once combat ends, and the character gets a chance for a breather, you stop counting and discard any penalties.

Thus a character with CON:9 would attempt the save every 9 rounds.

Hold Portal potion

2023-03-30T04:27:00.005-07:00

In OSR games it can be very advantageous for thieves and adventurers in general, but mostly thieves, to have a potion of "Hold Portal". The idea, being that the thief can be making it away with his ill-gotten gains, dodge through a doorway, splash the doorway with the potion and seal it against any that pursue.

It would also be handy for sealing pockets, panniers, and trunks I suspect. Not to mention closing that bottle of wine against your friend that's drunk too much already.

So, how do you get the potions?

The thieves guild sometimes have them for sale, 2 in 6 for availability, and then a cost of 150gp.

Magical stores have them on a 3 in 6, and charge 200gp.

My First "Operation Whitebox" Character

2023-02-09T11:49:00.001-08:00

A couple of posts back I rolled up a "Whitebox" character, that was for a fantasy RPG, however "Operation Whitebox" is a WWII RPG that is itself a completely separate and self contained game derived from that fantasy game.

I started by rolling 3D6 six times. I got into the fudging business right away. I rolled double 1's twice, and each time rerolled all three dice. The end results were, 10, 7, 11, 9, 15, and 12. Not great, but thanks to the fudging, not awful either.

I allocated the stats as follows:

STR 15
INT 10
WIS 11
CON 12
DEX 7
CHR 9

I slotted the 15 into STR because I wanted to play the "Grunt" class, and STR is a prime requisit for the class. In fact the only stat that earned a modifier was STR, on which I gained a +1, which comes into play during melee combat.

Rolling for nationality I got British (of course!) and as a pre-war profession Academic. My rolled rank was PFC, which I don't think is a British designation, but would be "Private".

Clearly I got English as a language, and I picked French as a secondary.

Rolled 2D6 for HP and managed to get 10 without any fudging!

Basic to-hit bonus, was +1, and Armour Class 11, and Saving Throw 14.

The only thing then to do was make a note of my level 1 abilities.

Get one extra attack against level 1 enemies.
Uncanny Toughness (bonus +1 AC)
+2 to Saving throws against explosives and suppressive fire.

There's no equipment to be bought or noted as that will be given out when the mission briefings take place.

I really liked this process, simple straight forward and quick, meaning no session-zero needed, just roll-up and play.

OSR Bleeding

2023-02-01T10:10:00.004-08:00

It occurred to me the other day that bleeding could be a factor in OSR games, and that it could change the dynamic of combat in an interesting ways. My first thoughts were:

Blunt damage does normal damage.
Blade/puncture damage does normal damage + 1HP per combat round, until bandaged. Each would requires separate bandaging.
Bandaging takes 1-3 combat rounds

The idea behind this suggestion is not to slide the scale towards realism, but rather to create an ongoing problem that can probably be ignored for a round or two but becoming more important as each round goes by. This would change the thought processes of the player.

Instead of limiting the mental calculation to "I can take one more hit" during combat, it adds the threat of accumulating damage that "could" outweigh the damage die of the monster.

There are plenty of variations that you might use instead or in addition, such as only bleeding on a crit', or different levels of bleeding.

My First "White Box" Character

2023-01-28T01:28:00.002-08:00

Last night I decided to roll up a character having just completed reading through "White Box". I started with the statistic rolls running top to bottom.

STR: 10
DEX: 9
CON: 9
INT: 13
WIS: 9
CHA: 17

I was quite happy with that start, I don't think I've ever rolled as high as 17 for stats in a straight 3D6 game in my thirty years of playing! Alas, a quick look at the available classes Fighter, Wizard, Cleric showed that none of them used CHA as the prime stat. However, you can move points between stats if its towards you prime stat. The least amount of fiddling I could do here was move some points to INT which would make the stats best suited as a Wizard.

I took them from CHA which still left me with two stats in the 15+ range. It felt like a shame to reduce my bestest evar(!) stat but needs must. That gained me a +1 on both INT and CHA rolls, and a 5% bonus on XP.

STR: 10
DEX: 9
CON: 9
INT: 15 (+1, +5%xp)
WIS: 9
CHA: 15 (+1)

As a Wizard you can be any alignment, so I went for Lawful. I also got a +2 on magical saving throws because Wizards know their way around the spheres. Alas, wizards do not use armour so I ended on the default armour class.

The Hit Die for a first level wizard is 1D6, I "of course" rolled a 1. Time for that "fudge factor", I cheated, and rerolled getting a 3. I've never played a 1HP character, I just hate the idea of having to play ultra-level coward.

XP: 0
AC: 9
HP: 3

White Box gives you two ways of doing Saving Throws, either a single target number or the classic 6 options, I went with the 6.

Death Poison: 13 (+2 vs magic)
Wands Rays: 14 (+2 vs magic)
Paralysis Stone: 13 (+2 vs magic)
Dragon Breath: 16 (+2 vs magic)
Spells Staffs: 15 (+2 vs magic)

I rolled up 120gp for starting gold, luckily enough this turned out to be enough for a spell book. Would have been a pretty poor wizard without that! To the shopping mall...

Staff
Spellbook
Flint/Steel
Lantern
Flask Oil
2 days trail rations

That left this penniless wizard without even a few coppers for a drink, let alone ink and quill. Anyway, the last thing to do was note the first level spells in his book, and in this I'm assuming the wizard knows all the first level spells.

Finally a quick internet search for a name generator and I named my wizard:

Ovior the Meddlesome

2nd playtest of my Cyberpunk game

2023-01-17T09:22:00.002-08:00

I just ran a fresh new team through the second mission of my in-progress cyberpunk game, and it went down this way...

The team was hired to recover a personal comm' unit which was currently in the possession of corp exec. He had the comm in a safe on his private estate.

My team was made up of an Engineer, a Heavy, and a Netlogger.

The team started at the manor gates and easily wired a bypass on the alarm and slipped through the gates, closing them once through. Unfortunately they were almost immediately spotted by the three guards in the gate house. Heavy was the nearest to a face man they had, so he stepped forwards and tried to talk his way passed them. Sadly they were not having any of it, they slapped the alarm button and... BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Seconds later there were three dead guards, and our team's Engineer was lying down there with them.

The team ran into the manor grounds, and took cover in a briar patch. Guards were everywhere, they swept right past the team without seeing them.

Moving out of the briars they came to open ground surrounding a small lake. The mist coming off the water highlighted a bunch of alarm-linked lasers sweeping the grass. The team danced their way across the grass leaping over the lasers and not giving away their position.

Unfortunately they then found themselves by some willows which appeared to be a temporary hub of the ongoing search of the grounds. Bad luck was hounding the team and they were spotted. The guns came out again. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Four guards lay dead and Netlogger had more holes in himself than he was happy with.

They moved on towards the house which was surrounded by a moat. With a grapnel thrown across the water, Heavy crosses without getting wet, but the injured Netlogger slips and unfortunately shouts in dismay. The shout brings three guards, and only Heavy is able to fight them as Netlogger is swiming the rest of the way across. Fortunately the guards seemed to have been hired for their muscles rather than shooting skills, and Heavy soon puts them down.

The team ran to the nearest window, but that bad luck kept running. As they were fiddling with the window security four guard dogs came yapping for them, the dogs jumped into the moat and started swimming across. The team opened fire at the dogs in the water but missed and then it was a confused melee that ended up with four dead dogs and Heavy bleeding from a bad bite.

They busted through the window and found themselves in the library. The team looked around at the stuff in glass cases thinking it was probably worth a mint, but the alarm blaring meant there was no time to loot.

Exiting the library they came to the stairs but a guard had taken a good defensive position behind the stone balustrade with a machine pistol. With no cover at the bottom of the stairs, the team rushed the guard straight up the stairs. They managed to get up without dying, and mobbed the guard, but in the scuffle both the guard and Heavy ended up bleeding out on the floor.

Netlogger's knees went weak, injured and alone, he decided he couldn't go on, and bailed on the mission.

1st playtest of a Cyberpunk game

2022-12-31T09:47:00.004-08:00

I'm currently working on a solo cyberpunk game, its currently in very early days... only one type of mission available and as yet unwritten look up tables and loot tables etc. So here's how the little story went...

***

The mission was a hit on a convoy. A rich lawyer had purchased a one of kind A.I. and was transporting it, my team's job was to hit that convoy, locate the A.I. and steal it for the customer.

The team was three unnamed characters (names is a table yet to be written), Engineer, Heavy, and NetLogger. They rolled up on the convoy seeking the vehicle carrying the A.I.

The first vehicle they encountered was a likely looking transporter, but it turned out to be a dummy. My NetLogger however managed to sneak into the driver's phone and grab some intel' that would make identifying the correct vehicle easier.

Next vehicle approached was a van full of gun men, some smooth nudging and ramming pushed the van out of the convoy to fall way back and beyond concern. My team now knew that any similar vehicles could be ignored.

Next vehicle turned out to be a cop in an unmarked vehicle, obviously the lawyer running the show had some contacts down town! the cops started shooting and my team returned fire, and simultaneously hacked his cop car computer. The intel, gained help eliminate other vehicles in the convoy. The cop caught some bullets and fell out of the convoy.

The team rolled up on the next most likely vehicle... but a chromed up raging cyborg punched through the roof of the vehicle and started blasting away. The team returned fire, but in a very short time Engineer was dead, Heavy seriously injured and the cyborg almost untouched. NetLogger made the call, and the team bailed on the mission, sadly unsuccessful, they lost "Notoriety".

***

The game mechanic worked well, and I proved the mission is doable, rolling one pip higher on the dice for the vehicle check would have had my team hitting the truck with the A.I. and only dumb luck made them hit the car carrying the cyborg.

Now I need to put some more thought into the "tween-mission" rules. The team need to recruit a new team member, and I need to weigh up the factors that will figure into that. With damaged notoriety definitely playing a hand.

Life Paths for Solo play

2022-12-31T04:00:00.005-08:00

I've come to the conclusion that RPG system that embrace a life-path mechanism for building characters are ideal for solo RPG players. The systems that do this build up a neat story around the character before the actual play even starts.

In Mekton (giant fighty robots) the life path generates not only a family for you, but breaks down the relation ships with your relatives and co workers. Do you have sibling rivalry? Hope so, because that will make for a very infesting character play. These relatives can come into your story at any point for twists and rescues.

In Vaesen, your character has to have been through a terrible mythic trauma. You can make one up yourself, or pick from a list. You also get motivations for your character's involvement in seeking the beasties. This is so much better than going in with a bland character, you are given a drive and reason to push the story forward,

Even Classic Traveller had a sort of life-path system, you would follow the character through their employment and you would have to invent any details around that framework. BUT as the versions have iterated up to Mongoose's, they've enhanced the life path by adding events into the term system. So you start with a character's employment history, but also some life charging events that you can bring into the actual play.

With this addition of character history you are better equipped to make an interesting and rich story, you start armed with threads to pull on.

Of course classic D&D and OSR games don't incorporate more than class and stats which is a very poor form of life path. I actually think that's fine for playing with others and the story emerges much easier between the player's characters, which is something that is just not there for solo play.

If someone is looking to make a small RPG product, can I request that you pump out a life path system for all the classic OSR races and classes? Please. Pretty please.

Well, shit.

2022-12-26T03:16:00.004-08:00

I've just picked up another little title from Michael Brown (compatible with CE, DC, and Trav'), simply called Hygiene, and as the title suggests it presents a few rules for centred around the title. I've so often watched films and even when reading book, and remembered the words "even the queen poops", and wondered how it applies to heroes on screen that are in action for 24 hours.

The rules he presents will need some careful application to your game session. The idea being that "personal grooming and visiting a fresher" is required in order to prevent your character entering the throne room smelling like a beavers bottom.

A possible problem with applying these rules is players getting annoyed with having to actually say that their character is doing something so mundane as freshening up. I've come across this sort of thing in D&D games where players want me as the referee to assume Dwarves are checking for slopes all the time, and elves are always looking for secret doors. Yet, as I've said to these players, if you can't be bothered to mention it, I can't either, and your character definitely wont.

It doesn't take much to apply these rules quickly and easily. Not visiting a fresher only matters...when it matters. Who cares about freshening up when nipping to the corner shop, but who cares when meeting the King? Huge difference. So if players talk about polishing their armour before meeting the King but DONT mention that visit to the most important room, that's when you can bring the rules into action.

Delving with NoteQuest

2022-12-10T03:27:00.004-08:00

Today I had my second dungeon delve using the NoteQuest solo RPG system. The game is self contained so this is not an add on for any other system. At 24 pages its relatively short and a very quick read, and my game only went about fifteen minutes, although I can see how the game could go considerably longer.

Character creation is a matter of rolling on two (sometimes three) tables. My "little" fella for this delve turned out to be a Dwarf Locksmith armed only with a dagger and carrying 10 torches. Torches I should add, are the time limit on your adventure, if you're still underground when your last torch goes out, your character dies in the darkness. So... don't stay down too long. Various activities you undertake in the dungeon will consume torches, such as picking locks and searching for secret doors.

The game follows a strict loop with limited options at each stage and tables provide the results of your activities.

With your character rolled up, you roll to see what type of dungeon you'll face. There are 6 general categories of dungeon, and each has it own set of tables, for rooms, monsters, loot, etc.

You'll burn your first torch opening the door to the dungeon, then you start using the provided tables to build the dungeon as you explore. You'll need paper and pencil to draw out the dungeon and keep track of where your character is..

You'll roll up and move from room to room, checking each room for monsters, and its content. Some monsters and rooms will have loot for you to acquire. There are stairs in the dungeon leading down, and when you get to the third level you'll find the dungeon boss.

My descent was into a relatively small dungeon, I found the stairs down very quickly and had nowhere else to go. I defeated an Orc looted the body and found treasure in the room besides. The boss enemy was a dragon, and I simply ran away as the DPS of the beasty would have killed little Dwarfy long before he could defeat such a beast.

The game has out-of-dungeon actions you can do too, and my character paid to heal up, and sold off what loot he could, this enabled him to replenish his torches. On his next delve he'll be much more prepared with a magic spear, and healing spell that he'd looted on the first trip down. The character survived so he can go onto another dungeon or even back to that first one, and chance his luck.

In summary, this is neat little journaling game that lets you go-a-delving and have a little adventure. The length of game will vary based on what you roll on the dice so be prepared to stash your notes and map ready to return another day.

RPG Page Layout

2022-12-05T11:34:00.002-08:00

I'm an avid reader of RPGs. I don't just play them, I read rules and scenarios for fun. Therefore as a consumer I've got a lot of experience. I've come to a few conclusions about the digital layout and presentation of RPG books that I want to share in the hope that the thousands of professional RPG authors might catch a glimpse.

Alternative/Optional Rules: I've seen this "sin" in a number of rules sets. The principal is especially common in OSR games that like to offer Ascending and Descending Armour class options. I recently read WhiteBox which is a prime example of doing this. They offer two AC stats every time for the two alternatives. Yet even worse, is that in the "attack" section of the rules they offer two different ways of calculating if you've hit your target.

No. Just no!

This is a bad practice in a technical sense, Instead of providing clarity the rules-book is offering a set of alternatives, a mental fog if you will. And it not just on the initial reading, its also every time you need to look up something, you will have to wade through the confusion time after time.

Much better to separate your alternate rules and mechanisms, either stick them in a side bar, or better yet, add a footnote referring the reader the appendices.

Columns: When it comes to laying out rules books, there's always the question of columns. Should I use two column layout, or three? People with a lot of rules such as the Rules Cyclopedia, just default to three columns so they can cram the rules in.

Sadly, most people are asking the wrong question. Its not what looks best, its not how to cram text onto a page. The real question is: How will this book be used?

So, who is reading the book, and how are they reading the book?

PDFs are read predominantly read on phones, sure at the game table you might have a laptop, but the majority of reading is on the humble phone. Multi column layout sucks on a phone, keeping the reader pinching and scrolling on every single page. So if you're creating PDFs for the love of all that's good in the world, keep it in a singular column.

White Box , Silver Arrow

2022-12-04T03:05:00.001-08:00

I recently picked up White Box and was sitting in bed reading the booklet last night when I got to the equipment list and was brought up short by the classic "Silver Arrow".

It's listed as Weight 1, cost 5gp. That's fine, but when compared to standard arrows which are 20 for weight 1, costing 5gp.

How the heck does a single arrow with a silver head cost 50 silver pieces? How on earth does it encumber the same as 20 normal arrows. I'm assuming that a normal arrow has an iron head on it.

I put on my "rationalizing head".

I would expect a standard silver arrow head to maybe be the equivalent of 2-3 standard coins, so there must be much more to this silver arrow than just a silver head. It cant be that the entire arrow is made of silver, that would meet the strange weight statistic but there's no way that would fly from a bow, far too heavy.

So here's what I suggest. The head of the arrow is silver, but also, silver is inset in a thin line along the shaft of the arrow too. This should prevent the monster grabbing the shaft and pulling it out, as the silvered shaft would make that too painful. So now we have a delicate jewellery-level inlaid silver shaft and a silver arrow head.

Whereas a standard arrow can take a lot of bouncing around in a quiver, this arrow needs protection from the buffeting of adventuring. Therefore the cost of the silver arrow covers the cost of the effort put into its production, as well as a special lined and padded leather holster to keep it safe.