April RPG Blog Carnival...Weird Weather

Mortaine over at Mortaine’s Blog is hosting April’s RPG Blog Carnival...and it’s all about weather. So here goes some weather related stuff. Because frankly I ignore weather too often in my games.

Your PCs are in a forest. You want something strange to happen with weather. Roll 1d6...

1d6 Roll	Weird Weather Event
1	Breezy with a faint smell of iron or blood in the air. The smell is coming from the west where a battle was recently fought and 13 bodies of ogre size are lying in a heap of ruin. One of them carries a scroll case that includes a map.
2	Drizzle. The rainfall is only heavy enough to be annoying. But the rain is a bit pasty...and smells a bit like honey. If a PC climbs to the top of a tree or flies up to look over the canopy they will see a giant beehive suspended in mid-air about 300’ above the trees. Giant bees can be seen crawling on its surface...and upon the backs of them are humanoid figures.
3	There is a heavy rain that falls in clumps and gets each PC wet right down to their privates. All paper products such as scrolls and spellbooks must pass a saving throw or be drenched, with a 2-in-6 chance of being ruined. This rain even seems to soak through metal! What wizardry is afoot? Perhaps the twisted spire of a ruined tower in the distance holds the answer.
4	Rain and thunder! The storm rages violently with a 1-in-6 chance every turn of a lightning strike. Each PC must save vs. paralysis. Those who fail are fried and knocked out for 1d6 turns. They awaken to recount visions of a massive, scaly monster awakening from a deep sleep in a watery tomb. He is hungry.
5	PCs start to feel the pitter patter of rain and the gusts of winds...coming from BENEATH them! Within 1 turn there is a torrential UP-pour of rain coming from the earth itself, tearing clumps of dirt and vegetation that are blown upward on raging winds. The winds scream and howl from holes in the ground, hollow trunks, and caves. Nearby the PCs spot the opening of one such cave from which can be heard sinister laughter.
6	The temperature drops suddenly. Within 1 turn the PCs can see their breath in the air. 1 turn later there is snow falling. And 1 turn after that the forest flash-freezes! All PCs must save vs. spells or be frozen in place as by a Hold Person spell. Only a Remove Curse spell can free them instantly. Otherwise they must be slowly warmed up with fire, in which case they will be free to move in 1d4 turns. While all of this is happening, a gang of 4d4 ice trolls come marching along, lead by a beautiful elf maiden with snow white hair. She is, of course, an ice witch.

Doomslakers OSR Character Sheets

Now available at DriveThruRPG:

Six hand-made character sheets for your old school games.

Another OSR Character Sheet

Here's another OSR character sheet for your gaming pleasure. This one features some 1e style ability mods.

PDF here.

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

Mobon

Years ago I did a comic book called Pan-Gea. The book was published by Ape Entertainment as that company got up and running. It was a good one, I think. I followed it up with another Pan-Gea comic called 7 Arrows. These are all available at my website.

Anyway, in the spirit of #finishit, here is another Pan-Gea tale that has been lying around for about 10 years. It isn't my best work but it's a succinct little tale and I might as well put it out there into the world.

The character has a name but I choose not to utter it. She goes way, way back for me. She was my first serious D&D character.

Enjoy. And finish your projects, you lazy bastards.

DCC RPG: d7 Things Found in a Barn

This is what happens when my kids dominate my computer and drawing area and I'm sitting on the couch with paper, pencil, and pens.

Ostensibly this is for DCC RPG since nearly everything I do is based on Labyrinth Lord and I want to give DCC more love. But of course you can use it however you want.

Click here for a PDF.

DCC Class: Chainmail Chicken

I'm always thinking about how to put funny animals into RPGs in a way that feels right for me. So here's a pass at doing a DCC class based on the ubiquitous chainmail chicken...

Get the PDF here...

CHAINMAIL CHICKEN

You are no mere seed-pecker, no simple egg-layer. You were born under a brighter star and will submit before no man or rooster. With a hefty blade in your feathered hand you hack, slash, and cluck your way to a heroic destiny.

Hit Points: You gain 1d10 hit points per level.

Weapon Training: You can use any weapon that is common to your place of origin. Upon using a new weapon for the first time you lose 2 die steps on your attack, but this penalty vanishes immediately.

Alignment: You are a free spirit, often battling against an oppressive hierarchy. You lean toward neutrality or chaos but may also be lawful.

Warrior Tricks: As a clever fighter you share the warrior’s Mighty Deed Die and can perform awesome Deeds. You use the warrior’s level advancement table.

Initiative: You add your level +1 to initiative rolls. You are perhaps a little too keyed up.

Aura of Awesome: Something about a chainmail chicken fascinates her enemies. When you issue a challenge to your enemies before striking a blow they must all pass a Will save or be temporarily impressed, suffering a -1d3 to all attacks against you until the save is made or until you take a blow or miss an attack. The DC for this save is your Luck score + Personality modifier + half your level, rounded down.

Flogger: In combat you sometimes go a bit nuts, launching into a wild flurry of attacks that, while awkward and clumsy, can be quite devastating. When you have lost half or more of your hit points in a single fight you can flog. If you do not wish to flog you must pass a Will save vs. a DC equal to the last successful attack roll against you. Only then can you quell the furious anger swelling in your bosom.

Level	Title
1	Squawker
2	Pecker
3	Seed Slayer
4	Flogger
5	Feathered Champion

A flogging attack must be in melee. During a flogging, you make a number of attacks against any enemies within a 10’ radius equal to your Luck + level. These attacks cannot be Deeds and you do not gain the benefit of a Deed Die modifier, though your Luck modifier must be added to the roll. Each time you miss a flogging attack your Action Die is reduced a die step. These quick, shallow, unfocused attacks deal only half damage. Crits count only as automatic hits but gain no other benefits. A flogging attack lasts one round. Your AC and next attack roll are reduced by 1d3 for one round following such a frenzy of blows.

Feathered Faller: You can’t fly but you do have feathery wings. For every 10’ you fall up to 100’ you may make a DC 10 Ref save to avoid all damage, applying the appropriate check penalty based on armor worn. If you are carrying an excessive amount of equipment the Judge should assign a check penalty for that as well.

Peryton RPG

Peryton FRPG by Christina Lea. I bought this for two reasons. First because Alejandro Gutierrez Franco did the cover. Second because it is an example of a complete game in a fairly small package (144 pages), which I like.

I didn't realize this was a 3x OGL clone until I got it in the mail. That's fine, but I was hoping for an original system. I probably didn't read the description fully.

The layout is clear, fonts are big enough, and the art is ok throughout. The cover is great, of course. So overall the book itself is about an average product.

The system is stripped down 3.5. Simplified nicely into a tight package. I noticed that it has an XP system I have toyed with myself. Basically you earn and spend XP to level up 1:1. So getting level 5, for example, costs 5 XP. However, the text says you earn XP for doing amazing things such as winning an epic battle or solving a tricky puzzle. It seems to me that if you give XP for each successful challenge the party would be hitting new levels very quickly. Perhaps that is by design. A GM could slow that down if they wanted a longer campaign or keep it as-is for more rapid advancement.

Overall, I'm not disappointed with the book though I'm also not blown away. It's good. It's tight. If you want a simple and complete modern D&D style rules set that is inexpensive this will do the trick.

Silverwash

Silverwash, a strange flow often found underground. For Andy Solberg's upcoming Tomb of the Feathered Mage module for OwlCon.

DCC Mood

I'm usually thinking about BX or Labyrinth Lord but lately I've had DCC RPG on the brain. I've been running it with fair regularity since I bought the boss wizard cover rulebook in 2013 (2014?). I guess all told I've ran about 30 sessions with maybe 6 or 7 of those being funnels. Among the official adventures and third party adventures I've ran Sailors twice, Hole in the Sky, Portal Under the Stars twice, Escape From the Purple Planet, Ruins of Ramat, and one of the Sunken City adventures. All great fun!

Right now I'm in the middle of a campaign for my local group and they all just hit level 3 after finally escaping the Lost Pyramid on the Purple Planet. I basically took B4: the Lost City and molded it into a Purple Planet adventure. At first I was just subbing kith for the various factions but very quickly I took the whole thing in my own direction and abandoned most of the content of B4 and most of the Purple Planet material. I used B4's maps and invented a death orm cult lead by a half-kith-half-human priestess (with no actual powers) who the players slew in the last adventure.

The orm they worshiped was a well. It looked like a well, anyway. It's mouth was the ring and its gullet the shaft. It required greenstones to animate and upon animation it could potentially be controlled by a powerful enough wizard making a good enough spellcheck.

The party wizard, who is well known for hiding and not casting spells, managed to gain control of the orm after replacing the last greenstone. The orm turned out to be the mysterious "Ship of Stars" and could navigate the astral plane, taking the PCs as passengers. Thus they were able to make it home.

Upon reaching home the orm was in its death throes, being an ancient and weakened worm. But the wizard scored a nat 20 on a check to regain full control and managed to steer the dying beast to the ground without the DC 15 Ref saves I was going to require to avoid the 6d6 points of damage from the inevitable crash.

*sigh*

Good game. Fun times. DCC is a blast to run.