DCC RPG: Wizard Character Sheet

This was inspired by Jeff Easley's iconic Dungeon Master's Guide cover. This is, I think, the first DCC sheet I've done for anything other than level 0 characters.

PDF here.

Character Sheet

Doodled another OSR style character sheet. Enjoy. And let me know if you use it. Take pics!

PDF here.

Hammerhand

Hammerhand

No. Enc: 1d6

Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 7
Attacks: 1 punch
Damage: 2d10
Save: F7
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: None
XP: 1140

These humanoid creatures are blue all over and have bodies like giant bears. Their muscular arms end in hammers, which they use to smash enemies to pieces. Hammerhands are not too bright but can be employed as guards. They rarely speak (most can’t) but communicate with each other by bashing their hammers together, a sound they can hear for up to 10 miles away. As magical beasts, they take only half damage from non-magical attacks. Because of their inability to employ subtlety, most employers avoid using these creatures as guards because they tend to destroy everything they touch.

A strike from a hammerhand fist will instantly smash wood, stone, and most other materials and normal items. Magical items and materials are allowed a saving throw to survive. Hammerhands are immune to charm spells.

Rabbits & Rangers: Sheep on the Borderland

My Monday group finished the first playtest adventure for Rabbits & Rangers, a Labyrinth Lord based guide to running cartoon animal campaigns. I cobbled the adventure together without writing much down. I decided to riff on B2: Keep on the Borderlands and I called it “Sheep on the Borderland” (naturally).

The gist was this. A band of adventurers called the Sheeple (all Sheep) went missing after making a journey to an ancient ruined keep northwest of the great city of Zyn Dweomer. The sister of the Sheeple’s leader enlisted the PCs to help her find her lost brother. Her name was Bree Arkus.

I took the map of the Keep and drew a ruined sketch of it. I put a huge rift in the earth next to the Keep, related to the dark magics that were at work in the area.

The PCs explored the surface of the ruin, where nearly all the walls and buildings were reduced to rubble. They fought hammerhands, who were responsible for most of the smashing of walls. It’s kinda like cats clawing… they gotta smash stuff.

Anyway, the culmination of the adventure was an encounter in the only remaining intact structure… the Chapel. So here’s a sketch of the Chapel layout.

There were stinky diseased goblins, Sheep, Monkeys, giant spiders, giant snakes, slithering snake people, and a half bull half sheep demon. It was fun. I learned a great deal about the tension between cartoon style mechanics and straight Labyrinth Lord play.

Next playtest begins Monday… In the Castle of Count Drake-Yulla! I hope to write this one up as a module to supplement the book.

The text for Rabbits & Rangers is finished. Right now I’m focused on playtesting and doing art for the book. I do not have a release date yet. It will depend on when I get the drawings done.

OSR Character Sheet

Here's another OSR style character sheet from the sketchbook. These are so much fun to do.

And a PDF.

Character Sheet Snake!

Here's a new OSR type character sheet. Seemed like a good idea in the moment. PDF is here too.

EDIT: Fixed the sheet. I left off AC and hit points. Now they are there, just refresh the link.

Rabbits & Rangers Update

Rabbits & Rangers is a game supplement for use with Labyrinth Lord. The book will give you the necessary rules to play cartoon animals in fantasy settings. It includes 50 animal races, each with unique perks and drawbacks, and it includes a small selection of optional rules that help promote the “cartoon” side of the idea.

The text is written and edited and playtesting has been going on for many weeks. I’m working on art and I hope to have the whole thing put together in a few months.As I get closer to finishing I’ll narrow that down to a more specific date.

I plan to follow the book up with further animal races and perhaps some adventure modules. We’ll see how that goes. I also want to invite others to publish materials compatible with R&R, once the book is “in the wild”.

I started thinking about this game years ago and I have written several versions of it using original systems, which I may or may not publish in the future. But this version is purely OSR and I wanted it to be firmly grounded in Labyrinth Lord rules. I tried not to add any extra baggage, though as a necessity there are a couple of rules that should be observed in order to get the flavor across.

For example, size really matters. So I include in the game a very simple way to deal with the mouse who fights the elephant.

I also include a “luck point” system inspired by the old Conan adventures published in the 1980s. This is the kind of system I use in all my OSR games and I felt it would be a good fit here too.

Animal PCs have a “nature” that reflects a strong emotion or other characteristic. This is a way to convey behavior similar to cartoon characters who have an exaggerated personality or physical schtick, such as being grumpy or greedy.

For the truly cartoony campaign, there is a whimsy rule. This can be used if you want those pianos falling from the sky or PCs painting doors on the sides of walls and walking through them.

All of these are optional. You can use all of them or none. The list of animal races, which is the meat of the book, can be utilized in any OSR game without the need for nature or whimsy. My goal was to make this book usable.

Here's an example animal from the game. The art is not final.

Wolf

Medium mammal

AC Mod: no adjustment

HD/hp: d6 min

Move: 120' (40')

Abilities: +1 to any two ability scores

Tooth and Claw: 1d6 bite; 1d4 claw

Night Vision: 30’

From the scruff of your neck to the pads of your feet, you are the romantic subject of every Bard expressing her inner animal nature. Rightly or wrongly, you are seen as the original wild animal who can’t be tamed by the fineries of civilization.

Howler: You can issue a haunting howl from a distance, causing your enemies a -1 to hit for their first attacks against you and your allies. You shake their nerves!

Loyalty: You gain +4 to saving throws against magic or other effects that would cause you to betray your friends and allies. When acting in direct defense of an ally you gain +1 to hit and damage and +1 to saving throws for 1d3 rounds.

Pack: When coordinating attacks with allies you gain +1 to hit for 1d6 rounds. You must actively engage in coordinated attacks to gain this advantage, requiring at least 1 turn of planning prior to the battle.

Atlas Articularum

Check out Cyd Clark-Praxis' blog Atlas Articularum for some cool classes and OSR goodness. Got knights, satyrs, risen, paragons...oh my!

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.