Unlucky 13
Posted by Joshua on May 17, 2009
I generally like the idea of fumbles in games, being both true to life and literature, although they can be a problem if they’re too frequent or severe. A fair number of published systems would have a tenth or more of an army incapacitating themselves over the course of a battle. Another thing that I think is a problem, albeit a minor one, is that most systems tie fumbles into failure, so it’s impossible to both succeed at a task but have something go awry.
Here’s the system I’m currently using in my D&D-esque game: whenever rolling a d20, a roll of a 13 means something unlucky potentially happened. Roll a Luck save (luck is a Stat in this system, but you could substitute some other sort of save). Success means nothing happened, failure means something bad but relatively minor or recoverable (weapon twists in your grip and you can’t attack next turn, sun gets in your eyes, etc.). A second roll of 13 means something quite unfortunate happened, such as dropping your weapon or falling down. Roll again and keep rolling if 13 keeps coming up, making the result more severe the more 13′s you get.
Obviously you can adjust just how bad it is to taste; I feel that dropping a weapon one in 400 times is probably bad enough, but you might prefer that to be the result of failing the luck save, and have the roll of a second 13 be more spectacular, such as a broken weapon. You could also make it more severe, so that e.g. a weapon breaks on a failed save after the initial 13, if you want things to be more chaotic; I lean against that, in part because in most RPGs that sort of thing can really make the PCs seem like klutzes. During a campaign players tend to make many times more roles than any individual NPC they encounter, so a 1 in 20 or 1 in 40 shot may well turn up for each character at least once a night; if the failures are particularly memorable that can be a problem. 1 in 400 is more like once a session or less for some PC or NPC…enough to add flavor without being overwhelming.
I like this because it’s an easy mnemonic, which can be important for something relatively rare. It’s a pain to have to, say, check each roll to see if it missed by more than X if it’s only going to really matter 1 in 400 times. I also like it because it makes it possible to both succeed (if 13 was good enough) and still have something untoward happen, such as hitting a target but having your weapon stick.
Random Exotic Traits Table
Posted by Joshua on May 17, 2009
- Is a Shape-shifter
- Is a Were-Creature
- Inherited 1d10 * 100 times the usual starting money
- Has Random Magic Item
- Has an Unusual Pet
- Has a Magical Power
- Inherited a Noble Title
- Gets one Wish,which may be used before the start of play or saved
- Never fumbles (ignore rolls of 13)
- Savant: automatically has rating of 6 + 1d6 in starting Talent
You’re allowed to roll for an Exotic Trait if you have no Stats above 11 and at least one stat less than 9. This is inspired by Mac’s campaign, where she has a similar rule where you can be a shape-shifter if you have no stats other than Charisma that are higher than 11.
Shape-shifters roll a d100 on a table of random animals, ranging from aardvark to zebra. Were-creatures have the standard immunities to weapons except silver, and so on, but it’s a genuine curse, complete with attempting to eat people when the moon is full. In both cases clothes and equipment don’t shift.
My Appendix N
Posted by Joshua on May 11, 2009
via The Omnipotent Eye (among others), here’s a quick list of the literary influences on my earliest RPGs:
- Alexander, The Prydain Chronicles
- Burroughs, John Carter, Warlord of Mars
- Byfield, The Book of Weird
- De Camp, The Complete Enchanter
- Dickson, The Dragon and the George
- Eager, Half Magic
- Goldman, The Princess Bride
- Heinlein, Glory Road
- Howard (et al–back then his imitators and rewriters were all mixed in with his work), Conan
- Lanier, Hiero’s Journey
- Leiber, Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser
- Lewis, Narnia
- McCaffrey, Dragonriders of Pern
- McGowen, Sir MacHinery
- Moorcock, The Chronicles of Corum, Elric of Melnibone
- Nesbit, Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet
- Norman, Chronicles of Gor (only the first three, and I was way too young to get the sex parts, which apparently got more and more blatant as the series went on)
- Norton, various, but particularly The Beast Master and Star Man’s Son
- Tolkien, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
Megadungeon.net Launches!
Posted by Joshua on Apr 9, 2009
James Maliszewski’s project to collaboratively create an old-school Megadungeon online has hit the net. It was inspired by Monte Cook’s DungeonADay.com, but with a decidedly more Old School slant and without the subscription model. More than just a megadungeon for delvers, it’s intended to provide a discussion of the philosophy of building a megadungeon. Most of the content is OGL, so you’re free not only to use it, but to republish and repurpose it as long as you follow the OGL.
Megadungeon Home – Megadungeon
Welcome to Megadungeon.net
DateThursday, April 9, 2009 at 12:01AMWelcome to am exciting new venture: the creation of an old school “megadungeon” on the Web. This project was first conceived of on my blog, Grognardia, and is now finally starting to take shape. Over the course of the coming weeks and months, with the assistance of many people, I plan to present the dungeon of Urheim and the ruined Monastery of St. Gaxyg that rests on top of it. You can see an overview of the entire locale below in this sideview map drawn by cartographer extraordinaire Rob Conley, co-author of Points of Light.
The Monstrous Majyc
Posted by Joshua on Mar 23, 2009
Well, the meme bug has bitten, and Ravyn asks
Doesn’t everyone sometimes wonder what they’d be if they were an RPG-style monster? I did, as part of a coordinated RPG Blogger Bestiary… and I ended up with this.
Well, no, the thought hadn’t really crossed my mind before. But now that you ask.
The Majyc
Monster Rating: 95 (typically found on dungeon level 1)
Combat Dice: 10d6+48 WIZ 95
Special Abilities: Mirage – cost 0, can cast once per 10 minutes when not in combat. Port-a-Vision – cost 0, can cast once per 10 minutes when not in combat. Mystic Visions – cost 0, can be cast once per combat turn. Wall of Stone – can be cast once per 10 minutes for 0 cost when not in combat, or at normal cost (47) Omniflex – cost 0, once per party, only if captured. Wink Wing – cost 0, as per Leprechaun ability. Blow Me To – cost 0, once, after casting Omniflex.
The Majyc is singular, only one is ever found in a dungeon. It is a small semi-translucent humanoid, about the size of a fairy but without the wings. It is hard to spot (SR5 vs Int) if it’s not moving. It will tend to gravitate towards libraries and collections of books, if the dungeon has any, and then use its powers to divert and distract both adventurers and monsters from the area it’s inhabiting. It will only fight if cornered. If captured, it will offer to cast Omniflex on one party member; after casting Omniflex it is teleported via Blow Me To to another dungeon entirely.
The Majyc is fond of combining its spells with architectural features of the dungeon in order to discourage and confound trespassers. For instance, it might create the illusion of a pit just in front of a real pit, while concealing the real pit with the illusion of a floor, so that creatures attempting to jump the visible pit fall into the real pit (or vice-versa, so creatures seeing the illusory pit will approach the edge to investigate and fall right into the real one), or put an illusion of a corridor over a Wall of Stone. It will not, generally speaking, harass creatures that are heading in the proper direction (away from its lair) or attempt to finish them off. It never possesses treasure of its own, though it is possible that it has established itself in a library that contains rare and valuable items. It will not take a room that’s an obvious treasure-vault for its home, since that is just inviting trouble from adventurers. If it can’t find a suitable book-filled area, it will attempt to create one by pilfering books from other parts of the dungeon. If the dungeon doesn’t have any, it will leave.