PSYCHOLOGICAL WEIGHT IN SLOT-BASED ENCUMBRANCE: The burden of magic & sin

WHAT IS BURDEN?

Ultra Violet Grasslands (now ENnie nominated!) by Luka Rejac is a wonderful book that distracts you so much with beautiful evokative art that you might miss some of the awesome rules tucked away in there. One of my favorites is below: SPELLS ARE INVENTORY TOO

A character in UVG can carry about 10 significant items. So spells can take up slots just like any other item, tool, or weapon. Spells carry a psychic weight which encumbers the character. And this makes sense in my experience. One can be so occupied with a problem that it literally weighs you down. But riffing on that, why stop at magic? 

Magic items could also take up extra encumbrance due to the psychological weight of carrying them despite their size- like Frodo and the Ring at the end of LotR. Elric's Stormbringer might be another. A good candidate might be the Deck of Many Things- just a deck of cards, but the weight of its potential fate-changing power is great.

More mundane items could do the same thing. For instance, if your PC is carrying the decapitated head of a ruler. A head might take up 1 slot, but the psychological weight could make it greater. Extending this further, what about sins or breaking of oaths? 

Every time the PC sins or goes against some aspect of their background, oath, or pledge- they have slots taken up. It's an additional tangible way the player can understand and experience their choice without resorting to taking negatives on to-hit and skill rolls.

This I think is quite interesting.

EDIT: Also would be good for "obligations" the PCs might pick up. Non-trivial things they know they should do but aren't getting around to doing. This might be particularly useful in a hex crawl.

EDIT2: Could also be used for curses like lycanthropy or ghoulification. Each aspect of the curse would be listed as its own set of 1-3 slots. Again representing the burden of the knowlege the PC carries about thier inner desires.

SO HOW DO YOU GET RID OF BURDEN?
Well, if you can't get rid of it you can make it smaller via compartmentalization. Options include:

• Complete your obligation (removal)
• Seek holy intervention to pardon your guilt (removal)
• Undertake a quest (removal)
• Wear an object or talisman or keepsake (compress from X slots to 1 slot) but NPCs know your sin
• Give in to the desire or curse (compresses from X slots to 1 slot) but DM controls your actions

SUMMARY- I think I really like this idea. It is a way to add player choice in how PCs manifest and deal with psychological guilt/curses/desires/transgressions/sin etc. It promotes its exploration without putting it at the center of the game. And it has a real meaningful (but not intrusive) game impact.

TREASURE: GP = XP; but value come in a lot of forms

Cyril Van Der Haegen is the artist
of one of the best 5e images

GENERAL NOTES

This is some of my musing about how I like to do XP in my BX games. Two other great ways: This article by Ben L. of Through Ultan's Door fame. And the below tweet.

Who the "crown, local lord, and guild" might be will change according to the lands the PCs are in. What follows is human-centric, but one can (and should) imagine a Fey lord will want something completely different as would a Death Knight or Ghoul Guilds.

Players might raise objections to a lot of the below and want a better arrangement. That's absolutely fine and expected. Remember (1) In accordance with GP = XP, they will receive XP for "gross" treasure recovered (pre-tax); (2) only the value they receive in GP is taxed; (3) If they want a better deal they should argue using the in-game fiction.

WHAT IS VALUABLE?

Flora & Fauna
Biles from animals
Nectars from plants
Salts from minerals

Material
Art/Iconography
Books
Rare Raw Goods

Gems & Jewelry
Gems- raw, imperfect, perfect, cut; type associated with a metaphysical/mythic property
Jewelry- magical individual pieces or sets that project power/honor an event
Candleholders, cups, silverware, china- denotes status

WHO WANTS IT?

Professional organizations will want raw materials to manufacture various goods. Biles, Nectars, Salts, Cloth, Gems, and Rare Raw Goods.

Religious organizations will want artifacts lost to the church, the locations, and or bodies of important figures. They will also want to capture the same items of religions antithetical to their beliefs for destruction. Art, Books, Cloth, Statues, Icons, Emblems, and Weapons.

Nobelity will value display above all and want to track the latest trends. Art, Jewelry, "Perfect" Gems, Luxury Objects, and Weapons.

Illicit or Secret Organizations will want items of power that align with their agenda: Books, Weapons, Artifacts, and Magic Items.

WHO CONTROLS WEALTH EXCHANGE?

Crown- will take 30% at the door

Local Lord- will take 20% at the door

Guilds- will take 25% of any sale within the confines; 10% from members (membership esoteric)

HOW TO SUBVERT CONTROL OF  EXCHANGE?

Develop standings and status among those who want items and control wealth exchange 

Thieves guild- will smuggle and help you avoid all the above for 25%

Fences will sell goods quickly, quietly, and/or maximum value (pick two). Not quickly means PCs will have to wait (one complete adventure maybe); not quietly means PCs will draw attention from Illicit or Secret Organizations; not max value means PCs will get less gold.

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH IT?

Fighters: Building a castle and raising troops takes gold, but before that it requires status, and for that, you must look the part and been seen as nobility.

Thief: The guild will require payment, but status in the guild will require increasingly more daring heists and increasingly rare items.

Clerics: Tithes and shrines must be built. Also, holy symbols made from various material symbolically connect to the gods will increase spell casting and the chance of miracles.

Wizards: Spell components can increase casting power, duration, and prevent spell slot loss. The component must have a symbolic, mythological, or alchemical connection to the spell being use. Each component takes up 1 slot of encumbrance as it has to be preserved and easy to reach.

Elves: Similar to Fighters and Wizards, but value magic items above all else.

Dwarves: Much the same as Fighters, but value relics and symbols like Clerics. Gems prized, pearls hated.

Halflings: Like Guilds, value rare and raw goods. Value books, fine cloth, luxury goods, but gifts given above else as a symbol of experience and community.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES?

The wizard, Mayfly, is trying to work out how to bypass a lake horror that guards the bridge to Black Keep. Mayfly decides to create two potions of Flesh to Stone but add bile from a cockatrice and salt from the ground marble of a medusa-made statue. 

EFFECT: Since Flesh to Stone gives a save throw, the DM rules the inclusion of the bile and salt causes that save to be made at a -4. 

The thief, Fetch, wishes to receive divine protection against misfortune on her next sojourn to the Black Keep. Fetch prays at the temple of the Crow, god of the Wheel of Fortune & thieves & Kenku, and offers a jade ring and a ruby ring (both stolen). Jade is associate with the lost Serpent empire and ruby is associated with the heart.

EFFECT: The DM gives a positive sign to the thief (murder of crows swirls around them) and (secretly) gives them +4 to their next save (heart) vs. Poison (Serpent empire) roll from any source.

The fighter, Redd, has decided to entreat the local lord for the land around the Black Keep. After all no one is using it, what with all the death. They decide that because the lord is known for his strict adherence to protocol and formality, they will spend gold to: commission a new shield, clothing, and buy a quality horse & tack. Redd also brings a gift for the lord's high consort & seer: a book of astrology from the Black Keep.

EFFECT: Reaction roll is low: Because the fighter carries themselves in a manner befitting of a knight, the lord denies the land but agrees to confer a title on the fighter. However, they are approached later by the high consort, because of the gift, who has some information about the Black Keep.

The cleric, Fish, is concerned about the demons hold the throne room of The Black Keep. Fish decides to sanctify two bells in order to ring them when demons are speaking-- potentially breaking spells of corruption, lies, and charm. One pure silver bell is made from the silver rosary worn by the head Abbess (but Fish has to go on a quest in repayment) and the other two-handed great bell is made from the wood of a pulpit Fish saved from destruction.

EFFECT: Both bells are made of materials that reinforced the theme of Fish's diety. The DM rules the small one maybe be rung to remove a spell cast by a low-level demon. The larger, because its made from a pulpit, must be rung continuously but also the player of Fish must make sermons every round (CON check) to counteract a spell.

OSR SURVEY: EARLY RESULTS

Above is one of the early results from Necropraxis/Questing Beast survey they put up. For my own edification, I modified this graph to show which editions came out what years.

HOW TO DM FROM B1: IN SEARCH OF THE UNKNOWN (‘79)

What I think is interesting is that it describes the DM as being a moderator who keeps things interesting, allows players to fail if foolish, in a game with an unpredictable nature. It’s all good advice that we hear now, yet it was written in 1979.

A THIEF USES SKILL TO MANIPULATE THE PHYSICAL. A CLERIC USES SKILL TO MANIPULATE THE SPIRITUAL.

Sime

The ever-clever Scrap Princess has posted about mixing up the core four classes with each other- so the fighter learns spell-like fighting moves, while the wizard buys the halbard spell.

I really like her ideas about the cleric using the thief's percentage skill system to perform a limited set of magical tasks, spell-like abilities, and such. I also like it because it finally puts the cleric as a character class that is "skill" oriented like the thief more than the fighters "weapon" orientation and wizard's "magic" orientation.

This, in my mind, makes a good symmetry: The fighting-man uses physical weapons to defeat the opponents while the magic-user employs arcane weapons. The thief uses their skills to manipulate the physical realm for their betterment, while the cleric uses their skills to manipulate the spiritual realm for the greater betterment (of their god).

She lists the follows as short list of classic cleric abilities:
-banishing supernatural agents
-trapping said agents if they can tricked or convinced to enter a vessel
-casting out possession
-healing sickness, infertility, curses
-fertility (land /domestic animals/ people)
-weather prediction-dispelling illusions/detecting of supernatural influence
-protective wards against disaster or ill intend-assessing auspiciousness of dates , partnerships or signs-omens
-lay dead to rest/ placating angered ghost or spirit 

Of course, converting the thief abilities into spiritual ones could be fun:

Hide in shadows (of your god's glory): gain AC bonus (Lawful), attack bonus (Chaotic) or skill bonus (Neutral) as your god manifests through you
Move silently (and avoid the dead & fate): escape the notice of the dead or a failed saving throw (if you fail to, suffer twice the fate)
Find & Remove Traps (of the soul): remove curses, geas, alignment changes, & lycanthropy
Hear Noise (of the gods' whispers): with the appropriate sacrifice, you may attempt to prognosticate
Climb Sheer Surfaces (out of the grave): percentage chance you will arise provide your body is not eaten or desecrated
Open lock(ed hearts): Recruit folks to your cause provided they are of like alignment or neutral
Pick pockets (of those who should donate to your god): Gain funding from the common man for your pious quest from street preaching

"IMAGINATION IS A WEAPON": THREE EXAMPLES OF CLEVER 1ST LEVEL PLAY

Sidney Sime

I am running a B/X/LotFP Caverns of Thracia campaign in a drop-in format at my local FLAGS. With 8 sessions under my belt so far, I've had players come up with some really clever ways of getting around combat encounters against with overwhelming odds or high-level adversaries. Below are 3 examples that stand out in my mind all performed by players with zero D&D experience and 1st level characters in an OSR system:

SITUATION 1- Clever use of the first level spell Message

In the very first game session, I had 10 players approach the ruins of Thracia and become alerted to the beastmen entrance A. While 7 of those players set up for an attack, the remaining 3 (elf, thief, wizard) swept around to entrance B. When confronted by the Death Cultist there, one thief player attempted to pawn herself off as a new prophetess of the cult with orders from their god to attack the beastmen at A.. Of course, the cultists are skeptical, but then the wizard uses their only 1st level spell slot of the day to cast Message at the cultist lead guard and pretend to be the voice of their diety backing up the thief's claim. I let that fly as the DM, and the cultists ran off to confront the beastmen at A. The combined efforts of a 1st level thief talking and 1st level wizard casting Message equals 10 dead.

SITUATION 2- Defeating a doppelganger with poison from a dead hireling

Hireling gets jumped by a spider, fails a saving throw, and dies by poison. After the defeat of said spider, this elf player pulls out one of the two bottles of wine he started with, downs it, and then uses it to collect some of the poison. Later, they unleash two doppelgangers who immediately mimic perfectly the party members they first meet. To solve this problem the 1st level elf player asks, "So does this monster copy everything Emma is doing?" Yes. The player then proceeds to cast Detect Magic to determine which Emma is the monster. Maybe not the exact wording of the spell, but as the DM, I'll let it pass. Then the elf player pulls out both identical bottles of wine, then hands the wine to the real Emma and poison to the doppelganger. They both drink- doppelganger fails the save vs. poison- dead. Not a sword is drawn.

SITUATION 3- Using a mirror to defeat

After the 2nd level dwarf is downed in combat with the guardian, the players have to choose a new champion. Other than the dwarf, no one is really in a good position to be locked in a one-on-one fight that locks out any other participant. Again the guardian calls out, "Choose your champion!". At that point, the same elf player as above grabs the cleric's mirror runs up to the champion and points toward its reflection, "This is our champion." I check my notes just to make sure there is no qualifying statements about champion choice. Nope. Boom, champion "defeats" itself, falls into a rusted heap leaving a Sword, +1 behind. Again, a mirror and clever thinking allow a 1st level character to defeat a 5 HD monster.

This is why I love DM'ing an OSR game. Its really delightful to watch players come up with clever solutions. And I believe the presence of death and asymmetry aid in the natural selection of smart solutions. Certainly, combat is fun, but its situations like the ones above that get the most cheers and claps around the table.

I LIKE THIS IDEA OF PLAYERS EARNING POINTS IN GAME FOR THE NEXT CHARACTER THEY ROLL

At my local FLAGS I have been running a drop-in/drop-out game of The Caverns of Thracia. Since everyone starts out with level 1 characters, it is not surprising they die. This is not too crushing as using B/X-LotFP allows for fast creation. However, it would be nice to reward players somehow for their continued persistence in this game. This is where Kill Your Dungeon Master's fate points come in.  Leveling up, trying a new character class, or whatever the DM wants earns player points they can spend on their next character. So instead of 3d6 down the line, a player can spend points to swap two scores, roll a 4d6-drop lowest for another, maybe even start a level 2!