TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 8

 

The Ultimate Warrior! Over at Save vs. Total Party Kill, Ram discusses a quick rule for determining death or unconsciousness at 0 hp or below by making a save versus Death. On a roll of a natural 20, the PC rerolls all their HD and gains that HP. I kinda like this idea for con games, its quick, but really impactful and has the same feel as Death's Door in Darkest Dungeon.

Social Bonds: At the BREAK!! blog, Naldo helps us figure out how exactly our PC know each other. Again, another great trick for con games, but also plays very well at the table.

Shuddering Forms Crawl Forth!: Save vs Worm lists out some new undead for their King of Kings setting. I particularly like the named undead that they have listed out:

Dog-headed Dyan the Dreadful: The only known wraith of the dog-headed men, who are already known for their demon-haunted cruelty. He was known for injustices done unto babies and mothers. Just wants to taste succulent childflesh again, but for his burnt-out tongue.

Before You Crawl B2, Check This Hexmap Out: Over at Blog of Forlorn Encystment, WEC rebuilds the wilderness region around B2 into a fantasy ~20 hex area. Demonstrating how little you need to have a fully stocked campaign!

$7 Mordheim/Forbidden Psalms Terrain: Summon Lesser Maker did this video and it really drove my creativity into high gear. I have been working to complete four 1'x1' skirmish boards using his techniques wth popcicle sticks and cardboard. Its really been awesome! I want to do some more posts about the painting/kitbashing folks that I am following.

Straight Up Villain: Bommyknocker Press writes about the "Nemesis System" which was found in the Shadow of Mordor video game. Glad to see other folks writing on it. I did here a little while back and recently need to use it again in my Nightwick game.

YOUR BACKPACK IS A SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: Don't Let Monsters Steal Them

 

There was a discussion in a Discord forum I inhabited about how realistic the encumbrance of ration is in BX D&D. That doesn't interest me. What interests me is what the PCs chose to do with those rations.

But related interest is what do you do with the pack on your back?

I was a Boy Scout back in the day and the summer before high school, I participated in Philmont. This consisted of doing a roughly 10-day hike over 120 miles with everything I needed in a frame pack on my back. You can't really fight in such a thing. Even a loaded school backpack is going to encumber you or throw you off balance when you are swinging a weapon. But how can this be gamified?

A dungeon delve is a raid not a camping trip.
Let the hirelings carry stuff, you're there to delve...

✤ If you drop your pack or are not carrying one at all, you are limited to 4 encumbrance slots +2 for hands, but you gain a +1 on all d20 rolls. 

✤ However, if the PCs dropped packs are marked on the battle map and become a target for monsters. If monsters reach this marker, they destroy or take a random items.

✤ If monsters take an action at this backpack marker, they now own a whole pack of items.

TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 5

 

1. The Moon Realm: One of the minor domains of the OSR is screwing with the moon and Alone in the Labyrinth maintains that tradition with their "exiled stone-age psychonauts exploring the spirit realm". I especially enjoy blogging about settings/campaigns because it harkens back to blogging of yore.

2. Market Instability: Nickoten at Pathika lays out a brief rule for market instability: 

The “base” price of a good is 2d6 of your standard currency, which can be rerolled for each item or each shopping trip. This price is then multiplied depending on the price category. So a “Plentiful” good is 2d6 coins, a “Limited” good is 10x that, a “Rare” good is 20x that, and a “Treasured” good is 200x that.

3. Review of Appendix N: False Machine not only does a nice job reviewing Appendix N: Weird Tales From The Roots Of Dungeons & Dragons but I think it also succinctly frames what is attractive about the energy of sword & sorcery stories: 

Impulsivity, immediacy and atavism, but always with intelligence, sharp wits and keen senses. These stories are about things happening now. Too late! In the time it took you to read this sentence the Barbarian has killed a man and moved to another scene. 

Also, I have this book and I am on my second read-through despite having read a few of the stories like Tower of the Elephant many times before. However, its interesting to consider them all in aggregate. Its also a great gift for D&D fans, young and old. 

4. Most Adventures Are Bad: Gus L. has a breakdown of why a published adventure might miss the mark in terms of quality as well as a few questions we all could ask ourselves when putting together something for the table.

5. Where to Start With OD&D: I faced this same issue when running the Gygax 75 Minute Challenge. I am leaning toward WhiteBOX: FMAG as it seems to keep me from overly obsessing about the ruleset, which puts attention back on the game.

6. Holme Alone: This is a nice post about a 2008 thread from Carcosa's author McKinney about looking at Holmes Basic as a complete game- "Holmes 33". No AD&D supplementation, Level 3 is the cap, and it would last as long as it would take to reach third level which is about 33 sessions. I like this because it matches some of my ideas about level 4 being a natural break point and 33 sessions make for a nice timeframe, especially with today's modern entertainment environment. Its a sorta capsule campaign and something to think about as I frame Tropics of Cancer. Also, Blueholme: Printice Rules is a favorite ruleset of mine. And if you are thinking of such a game, the Zenopus Archieves Holmes Reference is a must!

TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 4

 

The "TORCHES (6)" posts are basically my bit of microblogging when I spot something I like but don't really have a deep opinion beyond "Look at this good thing!". Its also a little bit my effort to read and promote more blog stuff.

INJURIES FOR YOUR DEATH & DISMEMBERMENT TABLES: I really like this table of injuries from Swamp of Monsters! I find such tables lead to PCs living longer but sometimes lack a little lasting bite. This table rectifies that and helps save deciding to actual injury until in a downtime mode. Also can't deny that Nick L at Papers And Pencils has a really nice short table as well.

DUNGEON GODS: dungeon dolls is a fantastic new blogger tackling their own OD&D homebrew one post at a time. Here is an example of the fine work being wrought: a post on dungeon gods that could easily be dropped into almost any megadungeon campaign. And something must be in the water because Nothic's Eye also has some demi-gods of the dungeon underworld.

And stay on the blog to check out Alice's Hagfish Hall play reports!

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOUR DUNGEON: The dododecohedron nails what most people get wrong about adventures. Its a really nice numbers #1 and #3 are certainly elements I strive for.

FROM 5E TO DOLMENWOOD D&D: It looks like the OSR is not dead after all, and converts may be found through its various avatars. Here is one such example from Patchwork Paladin in moving their 5e game to Dolmenwood. This seems to support another commenter's idea that people might not realize they are in the "OSR" camp because they come through a particular ruleset and so just know what they play a "Mothership" or "Dolmenwood" or "Shadowdark".

AND MORE BROADLY, HOW TO COMMUNICATE OLD-SCHOOL PLAY TO 5E: Over a New School Revolution, Yochai of Cairn fame discusses aspects of OSR play, but frames them if a group is coming coming from 5e. I particularly think this one might be key (also sorta explains why save throws exist):

Know when to ignore mechanics and just do what makes sense in the fiction. If a PC gets a boulder dropped on their head, armor doesn't really come into the picture: They're just dead.

FIRST THE X-IN-6 THIEF, NOW THE X-IN-6 FIGHTING MAN: I was thinking about implementing some of the push/pull/trip mechanics I toyed with long ago in the Battle for the Ruby Skull. In a recent post at Fallen Constellation, a Fighter X-in-6 maneuver mechanism is discussed. Instead of assigning X-in-6 to each type of maneuver, I might just do a base 2-in-6 for all maneuvers that increase with level.

TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 3

ONE MORE ROUND! Luke Gearing mixes up a d100 Carousing table for his Whitehack game. I think Luke gets it right here in that the table not just serves as an XP gamble, but also as a tool to entangle the PCs with the greater world. Its something I tried to do with my Serpent Song Hymnal tables too.

GO SMALL OR GO HOME: I agree with James here that world-spanning (and plane-spanning) campaign building is a siren's song. Better to have a small area where a lot of relationships are built between the PCs and the local NPCs and institutions.

ALWAYS A METHOD TO THE (LAYOUT) MADNESS: Mork Borg does it right while the imitators often get it wrong. Clayton explains why. 

HGTV 40K: Eric's Hobby Workshop demonstrates how to make some terrain for 40K by simply cutting off the corners of a diaper box and cutting windows as a start. The whole process has a wonderful DIY feel. A raccoon makes an appearance.

THE LORD OF ALIGNMENT: The Wandering DM's interview Micheal Moorcock of Elric fame. Its a very pleasant conversation that spans both how he writes and his view on several questions about the Elric system-- including a hint of a possible movie/tv show!

WHAT'S THAT SMELL? d4 Caltrops is back with another of their fantastic d100 tables: Incense & Candles. I always feel dreamland campaigns should make strong use of those and since I am running a campaign involving a wicked abbey-- this table is highly relevent.

TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 2

 

1HD MONSTERS ARE GREATER THAN THEY SEEM: Traverse Fantasy talks about how 1 HD monsters are a special case in that they often take effort to kill than their 1 HD indicates. The resulting math indicates that a 2 HD monsters for instance is not equal to two 1 HD monsters but instead two 1/2 HD monsters.

PORK FACES & ROMAN DARTS: In 2d AD&D, MU could use darts. In my pre-teens, I thought that was a silly weapon- a little throwing dart? Here is a video with a more accurate presentation of what these darts were. I like the use of pork shoulder to represent the size/density of someone's face.

RULES-AS-CLASS: Pretty neat here how this person had divided the player rules into little pamphlets for each old-school class; maybe I should do Serpent Song this way.

ABILITIES SCORES AS CHARACTER REACTIONS ACTS UNDER STRESS: Love this post by Zedeck where he talks about how DEX is more reflex than balance; maybe I should do Serpent Song this way as I have always liked the idea of save throws as prime stats.

PROCEDURE FOR BUILDING FACTIONS from Dungeonfruit. I especially like the note about giving factions specific & proactive goals.

SHARP "ESS" WORDS: Social combat from Amanda P over at Weird Wonder. This seems like a fun little system that could be employed in a lot of places or maybe as a sorta downtime activity too.

TORCHES (6): A RPG Microblog Collection 1

 

I think for 2024 and beyond I will try to start running a microblog collection of RPG posts that I find and like. Microblogging I feel is one thing that is not quite bridged by either "Xitter" or Blogspot. If I post something on Twitter or Bluesky, I quickly forget about it and/or lose track. But making a formal blog post about a single link or for something I just want to say one line about seems like too much as well.

Variable Weapon Properties (Blog of Forlorn Encystment): I particularly like the nice rule that if a PC uses their DEX bonus for to-hit/dmg, then the weapon's die drops 1 size

How to Turn Negative Mechanics into Stuff Players' Want to Track (Trilemma Adventures): Good stuff- I especially like the +1 to all rolls if a PC only has four encumbrance slots filled; and I do like the idea of spell components giving MUs bonuses. Both fit into the new "short form" character sheet I recently made.

2023 Novies (Playful Void): Nightwick Abbey wins a Novie and in a follow-up post Nightwick is previewed: "When a publisher gets a hold of this (honestly publishers should be begging to have this on their slate), and the layout and art is finalized, you’re in for something very very special." 100% True, but I'm biased.

The Underground Maze or Primordial Stack (All Dead Generations): Gus L performs a very nice analysis on the advice given in the LBBs about designing a dungeon and if dungeon design by the early advice differs from current OSR concepts of such.

Megadungeon As Overworld (Playful Void): More megadungeon advice, but I particularly like Nova's analysis here about what exactly makes a "sublevel" of a megadungeon differ from a regular level.

PORK FACES & ROMAN DARTS: In 2d AD&D, MU could use darts. In my pre-teens, I thought that was a silly weapon- a little throwing dart? Here is a video with a more accurate presentation of what these darts were. I like the use of pork shoulder to represent the size/density of someone's face.