Dwarfs!

At long last, the Rock Hardy Book of Dwarfs is in the hands of a mighty layout artist known as Matt the Hildebrand.

I decided this book would be part of my Doomslakers Adventures series, which started in 2014 with Howler. I've long neglected doing modules and it's high time I got back to it. This isn't an adventure, but more of a setting, though it does include a short adventure at the end of the book. It's a book that outlines life in the Rock Hardy Mountains among the dwarfs (see Black Pudding #7 gazetteer).

It'll be something like 24-28 pages, 8.5x11 module size. Whereas the first two in the DSA series are specifically Labyrinth Lord compatible, I think this one will fly solo. I could slap an OSE label on it, but I'm kind of leaning toward just a general "BX" vibe. Obviously it is fully compatible with OSE, LL, BFRPG, etc.

This is the cover art, but not the final cover layout.

Here are the first two modules:

Kneebiter

Kneebiter, +1 Two-Handed Sword: 2d6 dmg vs. giants. On a critical hit, target is knocked prone 1d4 rounds and suffers -3 Morale until regaining their footing.

Kneebiter was used by the giant-slayer Uuldskol of Red Peak to defeat the master of giants, Zeektara the Cloud Rider, along with their nine sons and daughters. The battle lasted 3 days and leveled 3 great giant halls. At the end of it Uuldskol unbuckled his magic belt which granted him supernatural strength, placed Kneebiter gently in its sheath, and promptly died.

 

Fang

Part of the Doomslakers B/X project.

Fang, +1 sword: User can speak with serpents at will and transform into a pit viper once per day for 3 turns. Snakes will not strike the user.

Fang's history is obscure. It seems to have started life as a fairly mundane scimitar that was perhaps used to slay various foul beasts roaming the darks of Underwood. It seems to have gained notoriety when a particular hero named Low Hill (so named for she hailed from a low hill) wielded it on many an adventure, many of which involved the slaying of giant snakes. She hated snakes, apparently. Low Hill was known to run with three wizards named Bo Zun, Tala Dulak, and Epizidimus the Wary. Perhaps one or all of them conspired to enchant their companion's sword as a special gift. Low Hill was eventually swallowed whole by a purple worm.

Thief: +25%

After posting this Thief thread recently I had another couple of little thoughts of only miniature merit.

My Double Dexterity house rule puts a huge premium on the Dex score. For my own games, this is fine because I let players put their scores wherever the hell they want. If you're gonna play a Thief, you'll almost certainly put your best score in Dex. And I think that's perfect for my campaigns.

But what if you run games a little bit more close to rules-as-written? Meaning, what if you do the whole 3d6-in-order thing? Then it is probably going to be the case that only players who happen to roll a good Dexterity will choose to be Thieves. In that case, perhaps an even simpler house rule would suffice: Thieves add +25% to all skills other than Climb Sheer Surfaces and Hear Noise.

I mean, this isn't a genius move or anything. It's a blunt instrument. The Thief skills are too low, we all agree*, and this is just a brute way of addressing that fact.

Another idea for the 3d6-in-order crowd (or anyone, I suppose) is to give Thieves a randomized bump. The player rolls dice for each skill at the point of character creation and adds the result to the skill. This one just hit me, actually. And I kinda like it, in principle, because it makes all Thieves very unique in their skill sets. So let's explore this by looking at some ways to randomize it.

1d100: Just roll 1d100 and add the result as your bonus. Uber swingy! You might start with Hide in Shadows 21% and Pick Pockets 105%. But what an excellent reflection of individual thievery.

1d20: Far more modest, low key. Blah.

3d20: Now this is interesting. You'll have an average bump of 30 points, which puts your skills around the 40%-50% range that the Double Dexterity rule gives you. But it disentangles skills from your Ability score, if you like that sort of thing.

3d6 Exploding: Hmm... average of 10 or 11? With the exploding bit I'm not sure how to do that math. I suppose the average would be higher than 11 but not by too much. Yet you have the potential for a huge skill bump if you luck out and roll a lot of 6s.

Off the cuff... out of all these ideas I actually like the +1d100 one the best. It's super swingy but that really adds some flavor to your PC right out of the gate. Like why is Sniffle the Sneak total shit at picking pockets but he can melt into the shadows like a magic ninja? Perhaps he gets nervous around people.

Ideas and shit.

*We all agree.

Thief Me Baby One More Time

Given how many times I've written about how to fix the B/X Thief you'd think it was my favorite class. Not true. If I'm sitting down to play B/X at a con or whatever, I'm probably picking Elf. POWER GAMER.

Anyway... thieves.

This is a shit or get off the pot kind of moment. I've noodled Thief fixes for years but since I'm cementing my B/X house rules in a printed book forever I need to pick a path, right?*

TL:DR: Thieves add double Dexterity to most of their skill ratings and they get 7 new skills.

The current draft includes these fairly simple tweaks:

1. DOUBLE DEXTERITY ADDED TO SKILLS

Thieves add double their Dexterity score to all Skills except Climb Sheer Surfaces and Hear Noises. When trying to Find Traps, they add Intelligence x2 instead of Dexterity x2.

Let's talk about it.

First of all, the exclusions. I exclude Climb Sheer Surfaces because those skill ratings are already quite good. I suspect the designers didn't want to subject the lowly Thief to dying from a fall multiple times per session. Because while it's logical to say that failing to Move Silently does not mean you were heard it is harder to logically argue that failing to Climb means you didn't fall. I think I get it. Anyway, you don't add double Dex to that skill.

You don't add it to Hear Noises because that's the only Thief skill that isn't a god damn percentage.** 

Second of all, the skill ratings are famously and monumentally shitty. We all know it. Some of us like to make rational arguments to justify low scores but in the end we're just wrong and grasping at straws so we can idolize the most perfect TTRPG ever published. The Thief skill ratings are just too damn low. It would have been far better to start them around 50% and just slowly raise them by 2 or 3 each level or something like that. But nooooo. Fucking 10%.

Sorry, ranty moment.

Doubling your Dex and adding to the skill ratings brings your chances up towards 50% to start. For example, you have a 20% chance to Move Silently at level 1. Let's say you roll up a Dex of 14. Your Move Silently would be 20+14+14=48%. Not bad. It's on par with the chances of a first level PC hitting a target with AC 9 [10]. It makes some fucking sense, if you ask me.

"But James, this places a lot of weight on the Thief's Dexterity score. The original game didn't emphasize stats this much. Are you sure about this? What if the player rolls a really shitty Dex score?"

Yes, I'm sure. B/X gives us the well-loved roll-under-Ability mechanic, after all. Clearly the game was realizing that Ability scores aren't just window dressing and a bonus to XP isn't as super sexy as they thought it was. Also, I made 4d6-drop-lowest and place-score-where-you-want canon in my games. It's statistically unlikely that the Thief player will not have a good Dexterity score. As it should be.

"But James, then the 9th level Thief has a 103% chance to Move Silently! That seems very high to me."

Yes, 103% is very high. But consider these points. First of all, and let's be honest here, the lion's share of B/X play happens in the 1-7 level range. If you're running con games, you're doing level 1 or level 3 or something like that. If you do a campaign, it'll likely peter out by name level. But OK... let's say it doesn't. So second of all, who cares? The 9th level Thief is a Master Thief according to the level titles. Let them be mutherfuckin' masters. The DM can always make the situations harder and apply penalties. That's kinda how this game works. And it's especially ok when you're not playing with 36 levels.

"So, James, if these pathetically low Thief skills irritate you so much why not just house rule an entirely different skill system?"

Because when it all comes down, this is a B/X fan production. If I wanted to make a whole new dungeon game I'd do that instead. But I'm making a B/X inspired RPG supplement. I wanna preserve as much of the original spirit as I can. I want as few changes as possible. Simple as that, see?

2. ADDED SKILLS

When I went to Gary Con I met Frank Mentzer. This was like meeting a rock star for me since it was his red box that was the first RPG that I ever owned. I used it so much that eventually the box fell apart completely, long lost to time and the trash bin. So I asked Frank one question that always bugged me. In B/X's Expert book under the Thieves section for higher level play it says that in the fabled Companion rules the Thief would gain skills such as ventriloquism, distraction, and climbing upside down. I asked Mr. Mentzer why he didn't include those in the official Companion rules.

He said they were silly so he didn't want them in there.

Major points lost, Frank. Major points lost. My man... climbing upside down, scurrying across a ceiling like a fucking demon ninja? Hell yes.

So I added these skills to Thieves in the world of Yria, where Thieves are somewhat like assassins in that they have secret signs, secret guilds, and highly specialized training. I didn't add these to any Thief XP table because, again, I wanted to preserve the original spirit. So each of these skills simply uses the ratings of existing skills (in parenthesis).

-Evasion (Remove Traps)

-Climb Upside Down (Move Silently)

-Ventriloquism (Hear Noise)

-Mimic Voice (Hear Noise)

-Disguise (Pick Pockets, adding Intelligence x2 instead of Dex, and modified by the target's level in the same way as Pick Pockets)

-Forgery (Pick Pockets, adding Intelligence x2 instead of Dex, and modified by the target's level in the same way as Pick Pockets)

-Use Poison (Open Locks, adding Intelligence, not doubled, with serious risk)

Thieves are the original skill class, after all.

*Of course this is not true. The Doomslakers B/X Playbook is but one iteration of B/X campaign house rules and setting notes. Many more could follow! I can dream.

**WTF, designers? Did you not realize in 197x that in 202x people would be critiquing your work? Anyway, I'm kind of OK with the Hear Noises ratings. If anything I'd bump it up by 1 to start. So maybe that Wis modifier could play a role. But I'm thinking just leave it alone.

Lesser Gods of Rone Campaign

I am going to run a new campaign for the Monday night Doomslakers group. It is set in a world called Rone, which is a lake world I dreamed up maybe 15 years ago. I pitched it to the group like this:

Jack Kirby and Mike Ploog fall into an EC Comics fantasy world controlled by the better side of Vaughn Bodé's imagination. A mist-covered lake riddled with tall, mossy islands and weird creatures. Old gods beneath the dark waters. Strange races of weirdos. Long lost temples. Robots. Armies of ants. Waterlogged dungeons where slumbering computers reboot as you tread the dead hallways. It is a platform game slick with algae.

It's a BX D&D based campaign with 9 custom classes, including the one pictured here. Should be a hoot! Might even be a published thingie for Old School Essentials to be squeezed out of it.

Black Pudding Heavy Helping Vol. One... Still Alive!

Never hurts to promote your work now and then...

Black Pudding Heavy Helping Vol. One is a re-organized, slightly re-mixed hardcover collection of the first four issues of my OSR-style RPG gaming zine Black Pudding. It's heavy on style and cartoony fantasy art with plenty of game-ready stuff like character classes, monsters, spellbooks, and ready-to-roll dungeons!

Luchadors!
Catgirls!
Hoard Horrors!
Whispering Vaults!
Sinewy Barbarians!
A Goblin!

With some nice contributions here-and-there from people such as Matt Hildebrand, Karl Stjernberg, Jayne Praxis, and Ed Heil!

The hardback book is a mere pittance at $18 and if you're cheap or you don't do paper then you can get a PDF for a trifle $6. You cannot fail in this adventure. But if you do, there's a random table to find out what the monster does with your ruined corpse.

Get yours while supplies last!

Front cover

Back cover

Gorgaro Will Eat All People

This is the gorgaro, a B/X D&D style monster. It's good at killing and eating people.

Yria Campaign Reference Sheets

I put together a bunch of reference sheets for my own OSR house rules. These rules are generally based on old D&D such as the 1981 version by Moldvay, Cook, and Marsh (B/X). But also on Swords & Wizardry White Box. This is incomplete, but since I am pausing this project for a bit I figured I'd share the whole current series for those who might be interested. Roll some dice!

Yria OSR Reference Sheets: Basic Stuff

I started putting together my favored OSR style rules, arranging them into sheets I can print and put into a ring binder for use at the table. The goal is to have a single binder with all the stuff I need to run games the way I like to run games. A lot of these sheets double as player handouts, so the players get a huge benefit as well. For example, you can just have a copy of the Fighter class if that's what you are playing. And so forth.

The project is currently called Yria Fantasy Campaign, named for the setting in which I place most of my OSR-style games. That could change. I favored Doomslakers OSR as the title, but people keep calling it Doom-SLACKERS... it's not "slackers". It's Doom-SLAKERS... as in "to slake the doom". *sigh* I always hated the slacker movement, so there's a negative vibe for me.

Anyway... back on point.

Yria is, of course, based on classic D&D via the various retroclones that emulate that game. Specifically, I'm using Swords & Wizardry White Box as the skeleton, with ample meat from B/X (Labyrinth Lord). I'm using ascending AC, so un-clench all you to-hit-table-haters.

The first sheet is pictured here. It's the very basic, common tools a Judge uses at the table. Stuff like reaction rolls and surprise, resting, healing, and opening doors.

I thought about going with a universal d6 system for all of that stuff, or going with ability checks like The Black Hack does. But in the end I decided this was such a small, simple list of tools that I could keep a ton of the original flavor without complicating or confusing the matter. It's really not that hard to remember when to roll a d6 and when to roll a d20.

Next up, a look at character creation. Also, all of this is subject to extreme change. And yes I do plan to compile the whole affair into some sort of book in the end.

Character Class: Jack

I started a B/X campaign a month ago that I'm calling Deep Valley. The idea was to start fresh and design some things based on images only. So I spent a few days picking art that I love - such as paintings and drawings by Rodney Matthews, Hannes Bok, and Eyevind Earle to name a few - and writing short things inspired by them. I wrote a bunch of character classes and asked my players to choose from them instead of anything standard.

This class emerged from that idea. It's my riff on the sly Jack from Jack Tales stories. This class sort of stands in the place of the Thief in the Deep Valley setting, which has a strong faerie tale falvor (I hope).

Here's a PDF of the Jack class and screen shots below. This is formatted to digest size.

Next Project Pondering #1

Rabbits & Rangers is finished and in the hands of the best layout guy I know. So now I'm thinking about what to do next. And what's been rattling in my head for a while is something that captures my love of B/X and allows me to use a bunch of material I've got lying around. So maybe, just maybe, I'll do a B/X setting book like I talked about doing last year.

The setting I've been using as a default for a little while is the city of Old Gnarl. This is an ancient place full of corruption and evil and other good stuff and its a melting pot of races and cultures. So naturally it makes a good launching point for any good old fantasy campaign.

Players in my Monday game will recognize elements of this idea because it is the same setting in which I ran the Frimmsreach campaign in 2014. But in their case, they never actually explored beyond one small area of the frozen north so the city of Old Gnarl never came on the radar.

I'm always nervous about attempting to write setting material. I always feel hemmed in if I do a big map with lots of detail. It makes the world feel smaller. But at the same time a world without boundaries feels limitless and unfocused. A bit overwhelming. I think a good compromise is a zoom-in on a setting. Just show a city and stuff around it. Hint at what might be beyond the map's edge. But don't lock yourself in too much.

I don't know. This is all still up in the air. If I end up not doing it then this barbarian chick won't have a home.

Character Class: Neanderthal and Neanderthal Shaman

I recently started a new Labyrinth Lord campaign and one of my players chose to be a Neanderthal. Here are the class descriptions I'm currently using. Enjoy!

NEANDERTHAL

Requirements: Str 13, Con 13

Prime Requisite: Str, Con

Hit Dice: d10

From out of primordial caves the Neanderthals lumber, club in hand, ready to bash any monsters that get in their way. These hairy "cavemen" with sloped foreheads are similar to humans in height but thicker and heavier all over. They come from wild regions far from civilization.

They fear and respect magic. They will not use an item of magic without passing a save vs. spells. If the save fails, they will never use the item, considering it to be sacred (or evil).

Neanderthals attack and save as Fighters. They may use clubs, stone axes, spears, and hammers and may throw rocks with great accuracy. But when using any other weapon they have a -3 penalty to hit (-5 for bows and crossbows). Neanderthals wear as little clothing as possible and their thick hair and toughness grants them -1 to armor class. They may only wear hide armor but can use a simple shield if taught how to handle it.

A Neanderthal may willingly buck tradition and begin to use strange weapons and wear fancy armor. But such a dramatic shift in temperament will rob the character of its natural abilities. Such PCs become Fighters without any special Neanderthal abilities except for the inherent toughness (-1 to AC). Even then, such characters will naturally mistrust magic and must pass the saving throw vs. spells in order to use any magic item.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Savagery: Neanderthals attack with primal ferocity and may re-roll any natural 1 when rolling for damage.

Stonework: Neanderthals may craft stone axes, spears, hammers, and clubs at a rate of 1 weapon per day, per level.

Toughness: When rolling for hit points Neanderthals may roll a number of dice equal to their new level and keep the best die result. They are highly resistant to extreme natural temperatures and dangerous weather conditions and get +3 to save against such effects.

Wary Hunter: Neanderthals are good hunters. Their skill in hunting and tracking in the wild is 75% plus Wisdom. Due to their increased awareness they are only surprised on a 1-in-6.

NEANDERTHAL
Experience	Level	Hit Dice
0	1	1d10
1500	2	2d10
3000	3	3d10
6000	4	4d10
12000	5	5d10
25000	6	6d10
50000	7	7d10
100000	8	8d10

NEANDERTHAL SHAMAN

Requirements: Str 9, Wis 9

Prime Requisite: Str, Wis

Hit Dice: d8

Among the thick-muscled Neanderthals are a few wise members who have been taught the ways of the primordial forces of nature and may call upon those forces to produce miracles. These priests of the cavemen, like Clerics, have the ability to cast magic spells sourced from the wild spirits they revere.

Like all Neanderthals, the Shaman must pass a saving throw in order to use a magic item. But the Shaman, in their wisdom, gains +3 to the save. Unlike other Neanderthals, the Shaman is more confident in his place as a holy one capable of wielding such power.

Neanderthal Shamans use the Fighter's attack values and saving throws. They may use clubs and staves as weapons and may wear hide armor. Like other Neanderthals the Shaman has a -1 to armor class due to toughness and their thick, hairy hide.

Neanderthal Shamans may cast Cleric or Druid spells per their own spell progression chart.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Beast Master: The Shaman may conjure animals once per day. This ability improves to twice per day at level 3 and finally three times per day at level 6. The Shaman may also speak with animals once per day per level.

Beast Form: At level 3 the Shaman gains the ability to transform fully into any natural animal of HD equal to the Shaman's level or less. The animal must be common to the Shaman's area of origin. He may do this once per day, maintaining the transformation 1d4 rounds plus 1 round per level. While in animal form the Shaman retains all his mental faculties as well as gaining the general mental faculties of the animal.

NEANDERTHAL SHAMAN
			Spells
Experience	Level	Hit Dice	1	2	3
0	1	1d8	1	-	-
1500	2	2d8	2	-	-
3000	3	3d8	2	1	-
6000	4	4d8	3	1	-
12000	5	5d8	3	2	-
25000	6	6d8	3	2	1
50000	7	7d8	4	3	1
100000	8	8d8	4	3	2