Trollsmyth

Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar

2025-03-13T10:00:00.001-05:00

This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla.

Without impulses, other than that of an urgent desire for solitude, he turned his steps toward the suburbs, avoiding the neighborhood of taverns and lupanars, where the populace thronged.

A lupanar is a brothel, so called because the ancient Romans supposedly likened the sounds of whores to the howling of wolves. Of course, if your brothel happens to be a hideout for werewolves, calling it a lupanar is more than appropriate.

Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Calenture

2025-03-06T08:38:00.001-06:00

Clark Ashton Smith makes me very thanksful for electronic readers; I've never read anything by him that didn't include at least one word I'd never encountered before. He is, of course, the author that inspired X2: Castle Amber, a fun-house dungeon much beloved by many grognards.

As a glossary of words gamers might find useful, I begin with his short story "A Vintage From Atlantis":

I turned giddy; and a sort of dark confusion possessed my senses by degrees; and I seemed to hear and see and feel as in the, mounting fever of calenture.

According to Miriam-Webster, calenture is "a fever formerly supposed to affect sailors in the tropics."

While you could use this as part of the name of a spell or a plague ravaging the Isle of Dread, I think it might also make an excellent name for a succubus or night hag.

The Bramble Marches

2025-02-15T15:57:00.001-06:00

The Bramble Marches is a campaign I've been working on that's meant to include TSR-era exploration and end-game content into 5e D&D. A friend of mine has actually done more with it so far than I have. ;p

The basic premise is that a thousand years ago, a great dark empire crossed the Mistweaver Mountains and destroyed an Arthurian-inspired kingdom, force-marching the survivors to the far south. Those survivors eventually threw off the yoke of their subjugation and have been slowly expanding their new territory ever-northwards with the goal of reclaiming their ancestral lands. In the meantime, the old evil empire collapsed, leaving those old ancestral lands a wild wilderness full of ruins and monsters.

The Bramble Marches is the furthest north territory of the survivors of the old kingdom, and its current northern borders are on the southern borders of the old kingdom.

The map was made in Inkarnate.

Grimdark vs. Eucatastrophe

2024-06-15T22:29:00.006-05:00

Noisms has some interesting ideas in this post about his desire for some depth to his grimdark, and turns to Gene Wolfe and Tolkien for relief. Now, it can be argued that he’s watering down, even spoiling his grimdark by twisting the universe to actually be caring and not indifferent. And that’s true, but it sounds like Noisms finds the nihilism of grimdark to be hollow, all shadow puppets without depth or impact. And I totally get that. I don’t think his preference for a greater truth that bends the universe towards benevolence if only someone dares to reach for it is the only way to solve the issue, but it is an interesting one.

He follows that up with an elevator pitch that’s rather like something he’s done before with a dark science-fantasy twist. And then he lays three conditions, or design pillars, on the idea:

The task is to provide maximum campaign flexibility and maximum player agency combined with an institution-based mode of advancement.

Now, straight up, I’m not sure how I see these design pillars necessarily intersecting with this theme, and I’m not entirely certain they do. They might only be challenges Noisms thinks are interesting to tackle in RPG design. I certainly think they are.

I think the core of making this work is building towards one or more eucatastrophes over the course of a campaign. The challenge is that they can’t be random; just as Bilbo and Frodo sparing Gollum's life results in the destruction of the Ring, so do the eucatastrophes in the game need to grow from the actions of the PCs and the choices of the players. The benevolent universe only puts its finger on the scales when courage and virtue invite it.

There are a number of ways you could do this. You could give the players points when they do something that invites eucatastrophe that they get to spend for rerolls or power-ups, but that feels cheap to me. You could use Progress Clocks a la Blades in the Dark; as the PC knights exhibit virtue in the face of a hostile world, the Progress Clock fills. Once full, Providence takes a hand, and by “miraculous happenstance” our heroes get their fat pulled out of the fire or stumble across a clue or tool necessary for their success.

To truly make this work, I think the GM would need to keep the Progress Clock (or Clocks, as you could have one for each PC or tied to different threats or different virtues; I myself favor different clocks for different virtues) so the players would have no idea if the clocks are full or not at any time. Heck, the GM might not know; perhaps the GM rolls each time the progress clock gets a tick to see if it’s full or not, with the odds rising for each tick but never quite reaching 100%.

This way, the players know that acting in accordance with virtue is beneficial, but they never know quite how beneficial. And since a full Clock doesn’t necessarily “go off” as soon as it's full, they can never know if the risk they take for virtue’s sake is actually benefiting them, or if it’s “wasted” on an already full Clock. Which only feels right to me.

I think this is ringing for me in some part because I’m reading Pendragon 6e’s Player’s book right now. I’d be tempted to use the virtues from the old Ultima computer RPGs, especially since those come into conflict with one another in beautiful ways, challenging not only one’s commitment to the virtues as a whole, but to individual virtues in relation to the others.

The Light Dawns

2024-04-02T14:12:00.002-05:00

THIS!!! Yes, a thousand times, this!

Back in the day, I referred to this as “neo-classicalgaming,” which is to say, the sorts of games that came out of various deep dives into older games to see what was actually going on under the hood, rather than what everyone assumed was happening. (The ‘90s were a terrible time where dumb “conventional wisdom” ruled conversations about RPGs, but much of the thinking from those days still lingers, especially in professional spaces.)

Anyway, point is, if the core of gaming is making interesting decisions, rolling the dice isn’t playing the game; it’s putting the game on pause while a random element is introduced to force the players into potentially rethinking their approach and how they value their various resources. So the more a game has rules about a thing, the less it’s potentially about that thing.

This creates weird mechanics that kinda sidle-up to their topic. On the one hand, if you want the players to be making decisions and talking around the table about a particular subject, you can’t gloss it over with a dice roll. On the other hand, what rules you do have should encourage conversation about the topic. Mothership wants you to spend time on being stealthy, so it has rules that make combat very dangerous, and creating spaces where you’re going to be chased by critters that want to engage you in combat. So the game’s mechanics encourage stealthy activity and conversations because the alternatives (touching the dice) are much worse from a mechanical standpoint.

Granted, these games require a LOT of trust all around the table; lack of skill and lack of trust can ruin a game like this. Luckily, it only requires a modicum of social skills to be able to put together a good group and engage in this sort of gaming.

Corkboards & Curiosities: a New Angle on DMing

2024-02-19T13:23:00.005-06:00

Here's a new YouTube channel that's absolutely worth your time. There's some clever ideas in this video I will absolutely be implementing in my campaigns soon (especially the "what are you thinking" one).

Fun Dice Tricks with Map Crow

2024-02-11T12:48:00.001-06:00

Map Crow is a YouTube vlog that’s hit-and-miss with me; when it’s hot, it’s pretty hot, but when it’s not, it’s pretty meh. FOR ME, I’ll hasten to point out; there’s a lot of stuff being discussed out there this old troll has seen many different times over the years, nuggets of wisdom rediscovered by new generations. Reminds me that sometimes the topic I think has been done to death is, in truth, a brand new revelation for somebody, especially with so many new folks entering the hobby.

Anyway, Map Crow’s latest is on fun random encounter tables, and he does some really neat stuff using 2d6. The sum of 2d6 gives you what the encounter is, while the red d6 tells you what the disposition of the encounter, while the blue d6 gives you their distance from the party. Check it out; he does some fun things with the interaction between the bell-curve and the flat curves, making a the extremely rare roll of snake-eyes really, really ouch.

His division of his map is similar to what I did when talking about Hex Mapping, but combining the table, the disposition, and the distance all in one roll is very clever. I’ll still probably default to my own What-Are-the-Monsters-Up-To table (I’m too much in love with how you can roll differently for intelligent and bestial encounters on the same table), but game must recognize game!

Mad Mashup: One Roll Combat?

2024-02-07T13:37:00.001-06:00

Ok, not a single roll to cover the entire fight. But a single roll by each player to adjudicate not only the success or failure of their attack, but also how much damage they did to their foe and how much, if any, harm their foe did to them.

This should grant us a number of benefits:

It’s faster! And when playing online (something I do a lot of lately), this is important.
If you roll high, you hit hard; no more rolling a 19 and then rolling a 1 on damage.
Often, both you and your opponent do damage to each other, which makes fights shorter.
Something will happen every time, and we won’t go round after round where you miss, and your foe misses, and you miss again, and your foe misses again…
No rolling for the monster attacks. Roll poorly, and the monsters will maul you! Roll great and you’ll send your foe reeling. This is great because:

It means a lot less rolling, so things move along a lot faster.
We don’t have to worry about initiative and fights can flow more dynamically.
Large solo monsters don’t get whaled on by lots of PCs, while only being able to target a single one in reply. This makes big scary monsters big and scary, instead of dying in the first round to a massive alpha-strike from the PCs.

Things this doesn’t mean:

It doesn’t mean that monsters won’t attack if you don’t attack; they’ll still try to chew off your face if they can.
It doesn’t mean surprise doesn’t happen; if you get the jump on the baddies, you’ll get a full round to have your way without them getting to reply.
It doesn’t mean shooting someone with an arrow allows them to hit you with their claws from across the battlefield; ranged attacks will work a bit differently.

Ron Cobb: Implied Storytelling in Concept Art

2024-02-06T11:18:00.000-06:00

Ron Cobb is a name to conjure with in the art world, and his work as the concept artist for the ‘82 Conan the Barbarian movie is well known to me. At least, I thought it was!

I came across the official Ron Cobb website and was blown away by the work he did on this movie. There’s this chonkiness full of soft curves, hints of brutalism in the bones of it all, but softened by earthy silhouettes. An almost welcoming chthonian quality.

But what’s even cooler, to my mind, is the implications of a lost age, a more advanced before-time that’s best seen in the castle of King Osric.

I love the mix of heavy timber and almost delicate stone. It gives the piece a lot of visual interest, but more than that, there’s this implication that the folks who built the timber part couldn’t do the stone part. And that’s emphasized by this illustration of Zamora’s Gate, not used in the movie.

Or maybe this is just the implication that Osric is an usurper, that he conquered Zamora and hasn’t done a great job of putting it back together again? Or both? In any case, lovely work, and effective storytelling that makes the world of the movie feel grounded in a past through implication rather than exposition.

Stellar Atlas of the Zauberreich: Verðandi, First of the Norn Stars

2024-02-05T13:29:00.003-06:00

Verðandi

Verðandi is a G-type star, and among the earliest stars claimed by Humanity, most likely during the Second Diaspora. Settlement on Verðandi’s worlds date back at least to the collapse of the Confederation of the Golden Gate and the rise of the Republic of Mars as the de facto leading world of Humanity. It’s believed that Verðandi was the first of the Norn Stars to be colonized.

Unlike the other Norn Stars, Verðandi held no Precursor artifacts or ruins. Legend says that the Confederation had rules against settling on worlds with Precursor ruins, and that Verðandi had started as an outpost to supply those guarding the worlds orbiting Urðr and Skuld. However, as the promise of the Confederation proved hollow and the alliances founded in its name collapsed, Human refugees settled on all of the habitable Norn worlds.

Some of the most famous and heavily populated worlds in the Zauberreich orbit Verðandi, including Odin, Frig, and Thor.

Stellar Atlas of the Zauberreich: Praxis, Capital System (and World) of the Zauberreich

2024-01-31T21:05:00.010-06:00

The capital city of Praxis contains a dozen palaces for the Hexenkönigin (one for each of the Twelve Houses of the Galactic Wheel), the bureaucracy of the Zauberreich, and the most prestigious university of sorcery within the Golden Gate Sector of the Orion Arm.

Praxis is the last of the manufactured worlds; after the destruction of the Sol System in the Dust Wars, Humanity fully embraced sorcery in an impassioned example of the “fight fire with fire” philosophy. To a degree, it worked; those worlds who refused to join the Zauberreich or embrace sorcery as a means of defense were devoured by the Dust or crushed in the ancillary wars, but the newly-forged Zauberreich survived.

Even before the Dust Wars were completed, the talisman world of Praxis was wrought upon a lonely brown dwarf. By sorcery was the brown dwarf tamed, and, to a degree, humanized, but not in the manner of the worlds of the Satya Yuga.

Floating in the upper atmosphere of Praxis is the Comb, a lattice of hexagons fashioned from adamantium incised with orichalcum runes and then covered in gold. Each segment of the lattice is 12 miles long. Upon this giant lattice is built the capital city, by turns called Praxis, the Comb, or the Palace of Palaces.

Looking at only the buildable sections of the Comb, the actual lattice segments themselves, there is roughly 12 million square miles of liveable surface area on the Comb. The Comb houses something like 2.5 trillion people, giving it a population density of roughly 200 thousand people per square mile. To say Comb is densely packed is an understatement. Over 90% of that population is Humans, with a wide range of aliens making up the rest. Roughly two-thirds of the Comb’s inhabitants are slaves.

The Comb is lit and powered by the hellish radiation of the decaying brown dwarf. The streets are literally paved with gold because gold is a necessary ingredient in the magic that channels this radiation for the use of the citizens and protects those same citizens from the dangers and heat of the radiation. Attempting to remove the gold, so legends say, removes the protection of the Comb from the one damaging it, meaning they will immediately burst into flame and vaporize. By that same sorcery, the light rising up through the massive holes in the comb (each over 300 square miles in area), waxes and wanes in a 24 hour cycle that is the Human preference. Likewise, gravity on the Comb is 0.97 g.

Sorcery is a matter of daily life on Praxis. The locals think nothing of it, nor do they question the thousands who get their hearts ripped out and their souls sacrificed to demons every Human year to keep their strange city-continent floating above the throbbing maelstroms of the brown dwarf. Praxis is the most civilized city in the Golden Gate Sector completely lacking in temples to Astarte.

Art by Stable Diffusion and JB Murphy (using GIMP).

Parley?

2024-01-29T12:51:00.002-06:00

I’ve been too busy to keep up with the RPG blog-o-sphere lately (more on that later), so I missed this excellent article at Goblin Punch on negotiations between PCs and monsters/NPCs. It makes a nice compliment to these two articles I’ve written on the subject:

Honey Cakes For Cerberus

More Honey Cakes for Cerberus

I’ve also got this handy-dandy random table for monster motivations that’s definitely in the top ten for things I’ve posted on this blog that I use most often.

Mad Mashup: Bard

2024-01-27T15:19:00.004-06:00

And back to my series of classes for my mad mashup of various sources, but based on a B/X core.

Bard

Some artists can literally tap into the music the Primal Ones used to sing Creation into being. They can express this through song or stories or music or dance. In any case, it grants True Bards powers beyond the abilities of mere entertainers.

Requirements

Bards roll their hit points with a d6.
They save as Thieves.
They can use any weapons but longbows and wear any armour except plate. They may not use shields.
Bards can only cast spells if they are at most Heavily Encumbered.
A Bard must have Dexterity of at least 9 and a Charisma of at least 13. If a Bard has Dexterity of at least 13 and a Charisma of 16, the Bard enjoys a 10% bonus to all earned EXP.

Abilities

Every even level, they add a spell of any level from the Bard list to their repertoire. To successfully cast a spell, the Bard’s player rolls a d20. They add their Level to the roll and subtract the level of the spell. If the result is 11+, the spell goes off without a hitch. If they roll from 6 to 10, the spell goes off, but there’s a backlash. If they roll 5 or less, the spell doesn’t go off AND they suffer a backlash.
Every 5th level (5, 10, 15, etc.) the Bard adds another known Language.
When trolling for rumours, a bard will gain one more than usual.
Bards enjoy a +1 bonus when rolling the reaction to an offer of employment to potential Retainers.
During fights, a Bard can perform instead of fight. While they do this, all their allies get +1 to all attack rolls, saving throws, and morale checks.
Bards can use the wands, staves, and wands that Wizards can use.
All who watch a Bard perform for at least one Turn (10 minutes) cannot help but be affected by their skills. When the performance ends, the audience must make a save vs. Spells or have their mood and emotions shifted according to the desires of the Bard. For every Turn past the first, the saving throws are lowered by -1 to a max of -4. (See the Apsara for potential synergies.)

A fun class for players who want to risk “bad” magical fumbles. The combat performance option is also an easy choice for players who don’t enjoy being on the spot or suffer from analysis paralysis.

Art by NC Wyeth and from the manuscript Rudolf von Ems, History of the World, created around 1300.

Mad Mashup: Apsara

2024-01-06T12:12:00.002-06:00

And back to my series of character classes for my mad mashup D&D game based on B/X but including rules from all over. This time, a bit of Hindu myth that really, really harshes on what lots of folks consider a core element of the Old School vibe.

Apsara

Apsara are the handmaidens of the gods, divine nymphs who serve the powers of Order and Chaos equally. Thus they must be Neutral in alignment. They are also all female with skin in various shades of blue. Each is an expert artist, and most favour dance, music, and the erotic arts.

Requirements

Apsara use d6 for their hit points.
They cannot wear any armour or shields.
They can use any weapon.
They can cast cleric spells, but only while at most Lightly Encumbered.
They save and fight as Clerics.
An Apsara must have a DEX and Charisma of at least 13. If both are 16+, the Apsara gets a 10% bonus on all EXP earned.

Abilities

Apsara can understand all spoken languages, and be understood when they speak. They are, however, limited as normal in written languages.
They are also immortal. They do not age and they cannot die. Only the most potent of foes or weapons can leave scars on the mind or psyche of an Apsara. They can, however, be knocked unconscious, charmed, etc.
All who watch an Apsara dance for at least one Turn (10 minutes) cannot help but be affected by her grace. When the dance ends, the audience must make a save vs. Spells or have their mood and emotions shifted according to the desires of the Apsara. For every Turn past the first, the saving throws are lowered by -1 to a max of -4. If they are being aided by a Bard or another Apsara, that penalty can go as low as -6.
Apsara can use all magical items designed for Clerics, as well as all magical musical instruments.
3rd Level: the Apsara can cast Charm once per day.
5th Level: Foes must successfully pass a save vs. Paralysis in order to target the Apsara with attacks or harmful magic. This does not apply if the Apsara is inside a wider area-of-effect attack (like poison cloud or a fireball spell).
6th Level: the Apsara can manifest a second pair of arms, allowing them to take a second action in a Round.
7th level: the Apsara can cast Confusion once per day.
9th level: the Apsara can cast Charm Monster once per day.
10th level: the Apsara can manifest a third pair of arms, allowing them to take up to three actions per Round.

A fairly straight-forward support and social class. Fun for people who really like to wield "soft power" and make others look cool.

Magical Magic That Feels Magical

2023-03-26T14:26:00.003-05:00

14. Heart Of The Beast: Cast this spell on a slain monster’s heart (or reasonably equivalent organ or portion), then consume it. At any time, you may take the devoured creature’s shape, once, for 10 minutes. You will retain some physical mark of this transformation afterwards.

Once again, Taichara hits it straight out of the park!

UPDATE: Ok, I posted too quickly. Here are some thoughts:

Heart of the Beast is clearly meant to allow you to assume the shape of creatures, but "monster" can be an ambiguous term; could the truly unscrupulous use this to mimic a murdered person?

Can you use Skyclad in conjunction with The Stars to Guide You? I'd certainly allow it.

You Should be Watching Emergent GM

2023-03-13T13:01:00.004-05:00

This guy packs more in a two-minute video than most others manage in 20+ minutes.

Bill Willingham on Polite Society

2023-02-23T21:49:00.001-06:00

Face it, if you want something in this harsh and unforgiving world, you have to do unto others as the royal and filthy rich have done unto you: you gotta steal it.

- Mark Finn

Mark Finn, raconteur both extraordinary and professional, has a ‘zine in this year’s Zinequest. Polite Society is all about heists and big-time capers a la the greatest heroes of Sword & Sorcery. What does Mark Finn know about Sword & Sorcery? Mark literally wrote the book on Robert E. Howard.

Yes, it’s that Mark Finn. So you know it’s going to be good.

But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Bill “Fables” Willingham has to say:

Let me tell you some of the reasons you should consider buying Mark Finn’s new ttrpg zines called, POLITE SOCIETY: The Zine for Thieves, Scoundrels, and Ne’er-Do-Wells.

First of all, Mark writes good rules. Like him, they’re aged in fine oak casks, and go down as smooth as 20 year old scotch. No critique intended against every year’s new crop of hot young gunslinger rules writers – you all have your place keeping the games fresh and alive – but give me rules by one of the old guard rpg guys with nothing more to prove. He’s already spent a lifetime behind the dice, seeing what works and what doesn’t, and we reap the rewards.

Polite Society works. And, believe me, as one of its playtesters (along with Bill Williams and Brad Thomte), I tried in every way possible to wreck, ravage, and undermine those rules, because trying to get away with all kinds of sabotage is part of a playtester’s remit. Test To Destruction is the operable term. No destruction occurred, and instead we had a wonderful extended campaign. I’ve playtested many a game (including, but not limited to TSR’s Star Frontiers, and Top Secret, and too many D&D modules to count, and the original revamp of Jeff Dee’s and Jack Herman’s Villains & Vigilantes), and this is the first time the system being tested didn’t need a ton of work, just to make it minimally playable.*

But a set of cool rules (to quote Spicoli) isn’t enough. That’s the same as admiring a well-written recipe and actually eating the dish that results from it. Can you plan and execute a good, workable caper with Polite Society? The answer is unequivocally YES. Not only can you run a good heist, and maybe even a great one, but you can do so with only a few minute’s preparation. One of the best parts of every playtest sessions was after the fact, when Mark would run down the checklist of what went into planning that day’s caper. The job, the twist, the unexpected complication, and so much more – it’s all in there, every time.

So then, without reservation, or hesitation, I invite you to back Mark’s crowdfunding campaign, and/or buy the zines as they appear. In this brave new age of larceny-themed fantasy role playing games (and movies it seems) this is an addition to the popular new subgenre that’s guaranteed to stand out.

Thank you for listening,

Bill Willingham

Former TSR staff artist; lifetime gamer; creator of the long-running comic series Fables.

*For example, in Top Secret did you know there was originally a defensive fighting position one could get into during Hand to Hand Combat in which you could not possibly be touched? Of course you didn’t, because we found it and fixed it. And the hand grenade damage rules were flummoxed by us playtesters by taking turns swallowing each grenade thrown. Since it only did a single d10 of damage, but did it to everyone in its area of effect, we’d just take turns taking the hit for the team.

And yes, it's this Bill Willingham:

Mad Mashup: Elves

2023-02-13T16:08:00.004-06:00

Elves represent the greatest deviation I’m making from the classic classes. B/X elves are warrior-wizards. My elves are much more Tolkienesque. They’re an excellent alternative to Clerics for a party healer and have some nice synergies with the Ranger.

The Elf Spell-list isn't detailed here. In a more Tolkienesque world, they would actually use the Druid list instead of the traditional Magic-user list. Which I use depends on the flavor we're looking for.

Millenia ago, for mysterious reasons, the Elves migrated from Fairey to this world. While they still maintain more than a touch of their Fey ancestry, they are now also very much creatures of this world. Today they guard the wild and beautiful places, and try to maintain balance in the struggle between Order and Chaos by championing the side that’s weakest. For this reason, most of the gods find Elves very annoying, and few will accept them as priests.

Requirements

Elves roll d6 for their hit points.
They may use any armour, shields, and weapons.
You use the Elf’s Saving Throws.
They may only cast spells if they are at most Heavily Encumbered.
Elves must have a DEX of at least 13 and a WIS of at least 9. An Elf with both scores 16 or above enjoys a 10% bonus to all EXP earned.

Abilities

At every level, an Elf may add a spell from the Elf spell list to their repertoire. The levels of spells they can pick from depend on their class level. They may cast each of these spells once per day.
Elves have strong rapport with animals. A group with at least one Elf in it enjoys a +1 on reaction rolls with normal animals. If an Elf spends an entire Round (10 seconds) talking to an animal, they can radically shift its mood.
Elves are also known as excellent healers. When an Elf casts a healing spell, roll twice to see how many hit points are restored and take the higher roll. Those convalescing under an Elf’s care regain double the hit points they normally would (before any other bonuses are applied).
Elves can see by dim light like starlight out to 60’. In total darkness, they can see dimly out to 15’.
Elves cannot be put to sleep by magic, and the touch of ghouls does not paralyse them.
All Elves speak both High Elvish and Vulgar Elvish as well as Common.

No Dice for You! (And a Question About Mechanics)

2023-02-03T20:54:00.004-06:00

What are you general thoughts about rules that don't have the GM rolling any dice. For instance, if a monster attacks a PC, instead of the GM rolling on behalf of the monster, the PC's player rolls for the PC to resist the monster's attack.

On the plus side, I'd think combat would run more smoothly this way, and the GM can focus more on tactics and making the fight fun, rather than juggling dice.

On the minus side... GM's don't get to roll dice? I'm having a hard time coming up with negatives on this.

There are a few games that run this way already, with Numenera/Cypher probably being the biggest. I wasn't a big fan of how Numenera pushed so much of the mechanics onto the players, but that had more to do with burning stats than having the players roll the dice.

What say you?

UPDATE: someone on the Book of Faces pointed out that the GM can't fudge rolls. Man, it's been a long forever ago since I fudged a roll.

Shields Still Being Splintered

2023-01-29T16:20:00.000-06:00

It does this old troll’s heart good to hear that folks are still getting fun out of Shields Shall be Splintered. I recently discovered that the Down In a Heap podcast discussed the rule, and that conversation was picked up by theConfessions of a Wee Tim’rous Bushi podcast, expanding the idea further in other types of armour. (I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but it kinda-sorta sounds like a codification of Jeff's Everything Shall be Splintered idea.)

As for me, I’m still very much using it. I do limit it by using LotFP’s encumbrance system, which makes tracking encumbrance as easy as just writing things on your equipment list. I have no problem with hirelings carrying spare shields; shield bearer is an actual word from history. (But so far, no one has really pushed this and I’ve not heard of it annoying anyone else at the table.)

As for who else can use it, that really depends. I swing back and forth on the players running their PCs’ hirelings, and if the players are doing so, I let them decide when the hireling might sacrifice a shield to protect themselves. Monsters typically do not use it, unless they have names or the Rule of Cool suggests now is a good time for that to happen.

ADDENDUM: It appears the idea of the shield stopping some of the damage, but not all, is a popular one. Here’s another variation on that theme.

ZineQuest?

2023-01-22T13:51:00.000-06:00

Contemplating doing ZineQuest this year. Any advice from those of you who have done it before?

Tell Me a Story, Please, Mr. Robot?

2023-01-17T10:00:00.001-06:00

First off, let me say that ChatGPT is a chat-bot, not story-writing software. And I do not doubt that, in my lifetime, we’ll see story-bots that can do better than this. But ChatGPT isn’t going to take Sanderson’s job anytime soon.

Tell me a Conan story in the style of Robert Howard.

It was a dark and stormy night in the land of Hyboria. The sky was filled with ominous clouds, and the wind howled through the trees. Conan, the Cimmerian, stood on a rocky outcropping, his keen eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of danger.

He had been wandering the wilds for weeks, seeking to put as much distance between himself and the civilized lands as possible. But even in the untamed wilderness, there were still dangers to be found. Bandits, wild beasts, and worse roamed the land, preying on the unwary.

Conan's hand instinctively went to the hilt of his sword, feeling its comforting weight. He had faced many dangers in his time, and he was not afraid. He was a warrior, born and bred, and he would not be bested by any man or beast.

As he stood there, the wind suddenly changed direction, and he caught the faint scent of smoke on the air. Cautiously, he began to make his way down the rocky slope, his eyes and ears alert for any sign of danger.

As he approached the source of the smoke, he heard the sound of men's voices, raised in anger and fear. Cautiously, he crept closer, his sword at the ready.

He soon came upon a clearing, where a band of bandits had set up camp. They had built a fire, and were feasting on the spoils of their recent raid. Conan counted at least a dozen men, all heavily armed and dangerous.

Without hesitation, Conan charged into the clearing, his sword flashing in the firelight. The bandits were caught off guard, and several fell before they could even draw their weapons.

Conan fought with a fury that was terrifying to behold, his sword flashing and slicing through flesh and bone. The bandits, realizing they were outmatched, turned and fled, leaving Conan standing victorious in the clearing.

He sheathed his sword and looked around at the carnage. The bandits lay dead or dying all around him, their blood staining the ground. He felt no remorse for what he had done. They were thieves and murderers, and they had gotten what they deserved.

With a sense of satisfaction, Conan turned and walked away from the clearing, into the dark and stormy night. He knew that his journey was far from over, and that there would be many more dangers to come. But he was Conan, the Cimmerian, and he feared no man or beast.

It was a dark and stormy night? Really? I give this one a D; it at least knows who Conan is, but I fear it’s read too many of the comics. 😉

Tell me a Kane story in the style of Karl Edward Wagner.

The night was dark and moonless, and a bitter wind howled through the deserted streets of the city. Kane, the immortal, stood at the edge of a rooftop, his cloak billowing in the wind. He was a dark figure, tall and imposing, with eyes that glinted like cold steel in the darkness.

For centuries, Kane had wandered the earth, a solitary figure, driven by an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and power. He had seen empires rise and fall, and had known the touch of both pleasure and pain. He was a warrior, a sorcerer, and a scholar, all rolled into one.

But tonight, Kane had come to the city for a different purpose. He had received word of a powerful artifact, an ancient relic said to possess the power of the gods. Kane had spent centuries searching for such an object, and he would not rest until he had it in his grasp.

He made his way down the side of the building, his movements fluid and graceful, like a cat stalking its prey. He knew the city well, and he knew the ways to avoid detection. He had been to this city many times before, and he knew the secret passages and alleys that would lead him to his destination.

As he approached the entrance to the underground temple, Kane heard the sound of guards on patrol. Without hesitation, he unsheathed his sword, a weapon forged in the fires of the underworld. It was said to be unbreakable, and it had served Kane well in many battles.

The guards never knew what hit them. Kane moved with a speed and ferocity that was almost supernatural, his sword flashing in the darkness. In moments, the guards lay dead at his feet, and Kane stood alone in the entrance to the temple.

He descended into the depths of the temple, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He passed through chambers and corridors, his senses alert for any sign of danger. But the temple was deserted, and Kane soon found himself standing before a door of ancient stone, covered in inscriptions and runes.

With a sense of triumph, Kane opened the door and stepped inside. There, in the center of the chamber, stood the artifact he had sought for so long. It was a stone, black as midnight, and it pulsed with an otherworldly power.

Kane reached out and took the stone in his hand. He could feel its power coursing through his body, filling him with strength and knowledge. He knew that this was just the beginning, and that there were many more battles yet to come.

But for now, he was content. He had what he had come for, and he would use it to further his quest for power and knowledge. He turned and walked out of the temple, into the night, a solitary figure, driven by an unquenchable thirst for power.

First, I’m surprised it even knew who Kane was, and it does at least try to capture something of Wagner’s style.

But it doesn’t seem to understand what Zothique is. Nor does it have anything like Clark Ashton Smith’s vocabulary.

Tell me a Zothique story in the style of Clark Ashton Smith, please.

The sun had set over the land of Zothique, and the sky was ablaze with the colors of the aurora borealis. The stars shone like diamonds in the sky, and the desert winds howled through the dunes. Zothique, the sorcerer, stood on the peak of a dune, his eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of his quarry.

For centuries, Zothique had wandered the earth, seeking out ancient and forbidden knowledge. He had delved into the dark arts, and had raised the dead to do his bidding. He had stood at the threshold of the abyss and looked into the eyes of the Old Ones. He was a master of the occult and the arcane, feared and respected by all who knew of him.

But tonight, Zothique had come to the desert for a different purpose. He had heard of a powerful artifact, a book of spells said to hold the secrets of eternal life. Zothique had spent centuries searching for such a book, and he would not rest until he had it in his grasp.

He descended from the peak of the dune, his steps sure and steady, despite the treacherous path. He knew the way well, for he had traveled it many times before. As he walked, he recited ancient incantations, calling forth the spirits of the dead to guide him on his journey.

As he approached the entrance to the tomb, Zothique felt the presence of powerful wards and protection spells. He smiled, for he knew that such spells would be no match for his own dark powers. He raised his hand, and spoke the words of a spell of dispelling. The wards and protections crumbled, and the tomb lay open before him.

He descended into the depths of the tomb, his eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of danger. He passed through chambers and corridors, his senses alert for any sign of traps or guardians. But the tomb was deserted, and Zothique soon found himself standing before a sarcophagus of ancient stone.

With a sense of triumph, he opened the sarcophagus and reached inside. There, lying within, was the book of spells. It was bound in human skin, and its pages were made of parchment made from the same material.

Zothique reached out and took the book in his hand. He could feel its power coursing through his body, filling him with dark energy. He knew that this was just the beginning, and that there were many more secrets yet to be discovered.

He turned and walked out of the tomb, into the night, a solitary figure, driven by an unquenchable thirst for forbidden knowledge. He knew that with the book of spells in his possession, nothing could stand in his way, and he would continue his quest for eternal life and ultimate power.

Still, it did include a number of tropes common to CAS’ writing. So that’s something. In another five years, maybe it could actually give us new Zothique stories that sound like Smith?

A Sorcerer Miscast List

2023-01-16T17:49:00.000-06:00

As requested, here is a Sorcerer Miscast table used by one of my players. The PC is a cambion, which is why there are so many references to demons in this. (Since this was made, I’ve written up cambion as a playable PC race-as-class I’ve made for my mad-mashup game. But that’s a tale for another day…)

When the Sorcerer rolls a miscast, roll a d20 and add the level of the spell to the roll. If the Sorcerer has a spell cast on them (beneficial or otherwise), add an additional +1 to the roll.

Tipsy-giddy until end of next long rest: disadvantage on Dex-based checks, advantage on Chr-based checks. (Yes, I’ve totally stolen Advantage/Disadvantage for my mashup game.)
Her tongue doubles in length and turns forked like a serpent’s for 1d4 days. During this time, nobody believes her lies and 25% won’t believe her even when she speaks the truth.
Tongue turns black, lips crack and bleed. She can only speak in Abyssal but everyone can understand her. Those she speaks two shift towards a negative reaction (though they also suffer a penalty on morale checks) and her spit is poisonous until the end of her next long rest.
When she speaks, flower petals fall from her mouth until the end of her next long rest. Disconcerting, but otherwise harmless.
When she speaks, frogs appear in her mouth until the next sunrise. Makes it impossible to carry on a conversation and she must pass save vs. Poison to successfully cast a spell with a verbal component. 1-in-6 chance the frogs secrete a hallucinogenic slime, giving her disadvantage on all rolls for up to an hour after the last frog has popped out of her mouth.
A glowing crown of St. Elmo’s Fire surrounds her horns, hovering over her head until the end of her next long rest. During this time, sneaking is impossible without the halo being hid by an illusion.
She starts to exude powerful pheromones. Increases the chance of random encounters, and increases the chance of a baddie targeting her.
Her sense of smell becomes incredibly sensitive until the end of her next long rest. At least a 10 minute warning before any random monster encounter, bonus on surprise checks, but disadvantage on all saves vs. gas attacks (like poison gas, stinking cloud, or troglodyte musk).
Until the next sunrise, Aezlyth’s STR drops to 6 unless her bare skin is touching the earth.
Until the next sunrise, whenever Aezlyth takes physical damage, long spines or thorns erupt through the wounds in her skin. Each such eruption does an additional 1 point of damage to Aezlyth’s target when she makes a successful attack in melee. The damage counts as coming from a magical weapon. The spines and thorns last until moonset.
A dark miasma lightly veils her until sunrise. Has a 75% to successfully hide in shadows.
The spell fails to go off, but a random demon gates into this world inside the body of the spell’s target. The demon rips through the target, killing it instantly. The demon’s opinion of Aezlyth is determined by rolling 2d6. 2: immediate attack; 3-5: hostile; 6-8 Uncertain and confused; 9-11: doesn’t attack and may consider offers from Aezlyth to join her side in this fight; 12: friendly (for a demon).
Aezlyth acquires one of the mild insanities from page 83 of the DMG. Every moonrise, she gets to roll a save vs. Poison to shake off the madness.
Before (or just after) the party takes a rest to reacquire spells, Aezlyth encounters a tent of midnight blue silk stitched with golden stars. At the peak of the tent is a golden crescent moon, horns pointed down. Outside the tent is a suc/incubus wearing nothing but sheer silks. They will welcome Aezlyth and her friends to “the Phantasmagorical Seraglio of Valentine the Sly.” They will also be instructed to take off their shoes before entering. (Anyone not barefoot when they enter the tent will feel off-balance and fuzzy-headed, and suffer disadvantage on all saving throws while in the tent.) Inside are more incu-succubi serving a richly gowned arcanaloth smoking from a hookah. Valentine is a fixer, information-broker, and advocate for the powers of the Lower Realms (specifically demons and devils). Exactly what he’s up to and what he wants is up to the DM, but this is an opportunity for the PCs to purchase magic, information, or help at a very steep price. It’s also an opportunity for Valentine to deliver any messages from a demon to the PCs.
Hag-ridden! As soon as Aezlyth settles down to sleep, she’ll vanish in a cloud of foul smoke and a wicked, cackling voice will promise to return her in eight hours. She’ll be pony-girled up and hitched to a night hag’s chariot, forced to transport the hag through the Ethereal Plane on her foul errands. She’ll be returned at the end of 8 hours still trussed up in pony gear. She will not get the benefit of any rest and, if exhaustion is used, she probably acquired some.
A stinging pain, like a shirt of nettles, descends on Aezlyth’s back. Her back is now tattoed with a rainbow of scintillating script in Abyssal. Roll a d6 to find out what the script says. 1: the truth about Aezlyth’s parentage (1-in-20 chance it includes her father’s name or other details about him); 2: a beautifully written description of Aezlyth’s last erotic experience; 3: a charm that, if read aloud, will force Aezlyth to obey any non-suicidal command the reader gives her until the end of the reader’s next long rest; 4: the true name of a randomly determined demon; 5: what claims to be the true name of a randomly determined demon, but it’s not accurate; 6: a randomly determined spell that can be cast like a scroll from her back. The tattoo vanishes as soon as the magic is used or the night of a new moon ends.
After their next sleep, Aezlyth and her companions wake up in the Wandering Bazaar, a plane-hopping marketplace populated by demons, modrons, yugoloths, drow, etc. When they leave the bazaar, they find themselves wherever it was they’d started that long rest.
The next spell-casting creature Aezlyth kills turns into a green slaad.
Until the next sunrise, domesticated animals fear Aezlyth.
During her next sleep, Aezlyth is visited in her dreams by a powerful demon. She is forced to play dragon chess with this being (some of the pieces look disturbingly like her friends). She must out-roll the demon (who has a +3) to win the game, using her INT the first time, her CHR the second time, and either for every roll after until one of them has won a total of three rolls. If she loses, she owes the demon a service. Her body will be marked with a tattoo or brand until she clears the debt. If she wins, she acquires a new spell of her choice from the Magic-user list. In either case, she wakes feeling fully refreshed.
During her next sleep, Aezlyth is visited in her dreams by a quintet of succubi who claim to be her cousins. She’s forced to play dragon poker with them. When the game is over and she wakes, roll a d6 to see what happens. 1: she’s completely naked and covered in hickies, having lost her clothes in the game; 2: lost half her money (rounded down); 3: returns with a lovely collar of lace and velvet locked around her neck, owing one of her cousins a favor (even if she gets rid of the collar, she still owes the favor); 4: lost one magic item of her choice or, if she has none, all her gold pieces or, if she has no gold either, see 3; 5: doubled her gold pieces; 6: acquired one randomly determined magic item. In any case, she wakes up feeling fully refreshed.
Aezlyth spends the next round vomiting up a quasit. She can take no other actions during this time.
The target of her spell acquires a random mutation.
The target of her spell spends the next 1d4 rounds vomiting up a red slaad each round. While the target can do nothing else, the slaadi fight to the death to protect the target.
Her spell-casting has been noticed! The chance that the next random encounter the group has is with demons or those who serve demons is increased.
A pride of lamia (1 male and 1d6 females) will begin to hunt Aezlyth and her crew. Unless they do something to hide their tracks, the lamia will catch up to Aezlyth in 1d4 days. If they defeat our heroes, the lamia will drink their blood (leaving each with a single hit point) and steal all their jewelry.

The 2023-24 Fantasy RPG Mad Scrum is ON!

2023-01-13T17:48:00.002-06:00

Anyone else feeling a bit of RPG industry déjà vu?

At this point, there doesn’t seem to be much WotC can do to put the genie in the bottle. The whole OGL fiasco has been a self-own of 4e proportions, and now everyone else in the biz is being pushed by a realization that the OGL is no longer a safe harbor AND scenting blood in the water of that no-longer-safe harbor.

In short, we should see a flood of new fantasy RPGs out this year and into next.

Free League Press was already set to release the English version of Drakar och Demoner (which is being called Dragonbane). Kobold Press has their Black Flag project (be patient; their web site is getting pounded), which I’m expecting will be as close to 5e as the lawyers will allow, but which I hope is more Sword & Sorcery than that. There’s a new version of Sword & Wizardry coming, but that will simply be the game we know with any actionable trace of D&D language altered.

The one I’m really curious about is Critical Roll. If WotC hasn’t already locked the CR team into a contract to run 6e next year, they’re bigger fools than I thought. So far CR has only released a fairly anodyne “we standby creators” statement. That could mean WotC already has them roped in, or it might just mean that lots of their add space in their streams has already been purchased for D&D Beyond. (I’m hearing that the episodes being released now were filmed last month, so they won’t have pivoted that quickly, nor do I know how far in advance they’ve sold advertising for.)

If WotC doesn’t have CR locked into a contract already, Mercer & Co. have a huge opportunity ahead of them. D&D might have the biggest name recognition, but their outreach is barely existent when compared to Critical Role. Yes, a movie and a TV show will help if they are good, but that’s not really the way to bet based on other popular properties that have made it to streaming recently.

If CR goes their own way and releases their own RPG (and it’s good), they’ll be a serious contender against D&D, the same way Pathfinder was for 4e. If they sign on to play someone else’s game, that could be even more dangerous for D&D, wedding CR’s outreach with another company’s publishing experience and team of creatives.

The big issue here is, which game would they pick? It’s well known that CR started playing Pathfinder but moved to D&D because it worked better with the streaming format. That means Pathfinder 2e is not a likely choice. I think it also knocks the Cypher System and the AGE System out of contention for similar reasons. Fate and the Forge games do odd things with storytelling that I don’t think would work for what CR does. The dice mechanic for Savage Worlds might be a bit too difficult to follow on a show.

I’d love to see them play an OSR game like NeoclassicalGeek Revival or Old-School Essentials, but I suspect there are folks already bidding for CR’s attention with lucre that no OSR game could match. If Kobold Press was willing to stray a bit from the 5e formula and tweak things to better serve a streaming show, they could have a shot.

Whatever happens, WotC has shown weakness and memories of’08 are still fresh enough that everyone is slavering at the jaws for a chance in the ring with the king. I fear most will try to play it safe and come out with something that’s as close to 5e as possible, but I’m hoping we’re about to see a deluge of creativity and variety that the RPG industry has never seen before.

It's going to be an exciting year.

A Little FUDGE

2023-01-07T14:18:00.000-06:00

A player in my weekly face-to-face game mentioned that they’d hardly played anything other than D&D, and 5e at that. I couldn’t let that stand, so I promised to run something for them after the holidays. That was this past Thursday, and the game I picked was FUDGE.

I chose FUDGE because it has three virtues. First, its flexibility allowed me to create a setting that was space opera; a nice change of pace from the usual fantasy. Second, it’s easy to pick up and play; the player in question already mentioned how much simpler the math is. Finally, and most importantly, the core mechanic is about as not-D&D as you can get while still using dice and not going deep into Forge-esque territory.

For those not in the know, FUDGE is a descendent of GURPS, and like GURPS, eschews the randomness of a single d20 for a bell-curved core mechanic. The result is a very not-swingy game, where your stats and skills are very important. GURPS uses 3d6, but FUDGE uses proprietary dice that have six sides with two marked +, two marked -, and two left blank. You roll 4 (or sometimes 3) dice, add any modifiers, and compare to a target number. Each + adds 1 to your total while each - removes 1. It’s extremely rare to get outside the range from -1 to +1, so if you can’t reach the target number with just your stats and modifiers, you’re probably not going to reach it at all.

This actually makes FUDGE a decent intro to Old School play since you can’t rely on the dice very much; if you’re going to accomplish the difficult thing, you’ve got to find a way to really rack up the bonuses or (better yet) find a way to succeed without the dice entirely.

On the DM’s side of the screen, however, I discovered how much I’ve leaned on random tables and the dice for inspiration. Letting the dice describe elements of setting or situation has been a great boon in introducing elements that are different from my own usual go-to stuff. But when the usual range of a roll is only three possibilities, that doesn’t leave a lot to hang randomness on.

Labradorite Fudge Dice from URWizards.