Leveled NPCs availability week to week

In my weekly Stonehell/Rappan Athuk game, there are a number of leveled NPCs that regularly join in on our adventures... but not always. Given that each of these NPCs is an independent character, and not a paid hireling, I wanted there to be situations where they wouldn't be available, for whatever reason. To keep it simple, I decided a simple morale check would work, with anything 5 or under would mean that NPC wouldn't be available this week.

Thinking about it more, I wanted to add a little something to the check.

Charisma modifiers were a good place to start, especially as my character Nick has a penalty. It just made sense.

But then I thought about other things that would impact whether someone would want to brave the dangerous dungeons with these particular murderhobos. This is what I've come up with.

Make a morale check. A modified 5 or under means the NPC is unavailable to adventure. Under a 2 means it is very unlikely they will ever rejoin the party, and may organize a rival group)
-1 Reduced to 0hp last adventure
-1 Someone died
-1 Unsuccessful delve (no magic items recovered, not enough treasure to cover expenses
+1 Successful adventure (a magic item was recovered, profit was earned, quest complete)
+1 Leveled Up (NPC gained enough XP to level up)
+3 Very successful adventure (NPC got a magic item)
+/- Charisma Mod of group leader (not necessarily the highest level or most charismatic)
+X Bribe (varies by what's offered)

Finding A Weapons Master

I was talking with my co-DM about weapon trainers, wanting my character Nick to get some training, but there isn't anything that suggested how likely the PCs were to have on available locally. So, I came up with a chart. I'd had a half formed idea already, since several of my players have taken advantage of the weapon training rules, so this really just codified the idea. 

Keep in mind, the arrangement of weapons into the different categories is based on my campaign

Chance of finding a weapons trainer in a large town. Chances reduced 50% for small towns, and 75% for villages. Cities add 10% base chance shown below.

Teacher Level	Common	Uncommon	Rare	Very Rare
Skilled	75%	65%	55%	35%
Expert	55%	45%	30%	20%
Master	30%	20%	10%	5%
Grand Master	10%	5%	3%	1%
	Common Weapons	Uncommon Weapons	Rare Weapons	V. Rare Weapons
	Axe, Hand	Crossbow, Heavy	Blackjack	Blowgun
	Axe, Battle	Hammer, Throwing	Lance	Bola
	Bow, Short	Hammer, War	Trident	Shield Weapons
	Bow, Long	Staff	Cestus
	Crossbow, Light	Javelin	Net
	Club	Polearms
	Mace	Sword, Bastard
	Dagger	Sword, 2 Handed
	Spear
	Sword, Short
	Sword, Normal
	Sling
	Thrown Objects (rocks, oil, holy water, etc)

 

Hireling to Henchman

One of the rules I’ve instituted in my Stonehell game is that hirelings who survive slowly buildup some XP of their own, and if they survive often enough (around the 10 session mark) they level up into 1st level characters. While this increases the might of the party, it dilutes the XP that everyone gets, as each NPC character gets a half share of XP.



At this point, only a couple of NPCs have survived to make this leap.

A-A-Ron was the first. A poor torch bearer for the party, who ended up surviving numerous trips into Stonehell and even helped out in a massive battle in the Quiet Halls. Orpheus was similarly promoted, but as he’d been a man at arms rather than a torch bearer, he became a fighter. Both were done before I’d really formalized in my head a method for the transition. Also there was Yolanda who left the party after Wilhelm died, and founded her own adventuring team.

Darryl the priest was captured and pressed into service.

Brie came up as a random result from the Meatshields generator, and I came up with a backstory to match, and tied it into Yolanda’s story.

Next was Lex the Cheeseman, who like Orpheus has been a man at arms, and so became a fighter.

Most recently, Koltic was just promoted and he became an acolyte under Darryl the Dark. He had to give up his longsword for a mace, but now he can turn some minor undead and has a few extra hit points.

With this, the party now contains 6 NPC leveled characters, and 2 PCs.

Both Orpheus and A-A-Ron are loyal to Eiric, and I don’t see any reason for them to consider splitting off on their own. Darryl and Koltic? Less so, though still fairly loyal. Brie is entirely mercenary, and will stick around as long as she keeps having access to Eiric’s spell book and mentoring. Lex likes Orpheus, and has a snazzy magic weapon. So, honestly, at this point there isn’t any good reason for any of these NPCs to split off on their own at this point. If either Eiric or Karl dies, maybe then.

I do need to spend some time working out some outside the dungeon motivations for them though.

Darryl probably wants to expand his temple’s influence in town. Orpheus has his orphanage and dog kennel. A-A-Ron gets missions from the thieves guild, but at this point is probably will start to take over the guild if he can.

Carousing in my Stonehell game

I've decided to tweak my house rules a bit. I decided that the carousing rules we're okay, but a little flat. Basically I've been running it so that PCs can roll a die and multiply the result by 100, and spend that much of carousing for XP. If they rolled over their level, something bad happened. As they gained levels, they moved up the dice chart, so that there would always be a chance of failure. It worked, but wasn't great.

This is the new rule going forward, though the mishap chart will vary depending on what type of carousing the players choose.

Carousing: Holy Orders

Cost = 75gp*1d4 (neighborhood event) 125*1d6 (Parish event) 200*1d8 (district/quarter-wide event) 300*1d10 (city wide)

If you roll either the maximum amount, or above your level, make a saving throw vs . On a failure, only half of the money spent gives XP, and roll on the chart below for the blunder!

1. Host a Feast Day - Even priests like to party! Sometimes too much…

1. Bit too much of the sacramental wine. Either (1-3) you, or (4) High Priest, (5) civic official/ local celebrity (6) everyone gets totally wasted and causes a scene.
2. Not enough for everyone. Minor riot spoils the event
3. Uninvited Guests - rival temple crashes the party
4. Sacrificial animal objects and gets loose.

2. Parade - Loud, festive and fun! Everyone comes out to enjoy it but…

1. Trampled an orphan
2. Drunken revelers trash the town
3. Bad timing. Someone important dies the morning of the parade
4. Funds are embezzled, and you get blamed

3. Special Service

1. Too many candles, and you set the temple on fire, minor damage.
2. Too many candles, and you burned the temple down!
3. Squirrel in the holiday bush
4. Shrimp is banned for a reason. GI issues… in front of everyone

4. Public Works

1. Feed the Poor - Rotten food, everyone gets sick - make a saving throw vs poison or suffer a -2 to all rolls on your next adventure
2. Clean the streets - Displace a bunch of people into another district, upsetting important people!
3. Restore an old graveyard - Upset a restless spirit
4. Tend the sick - And now there’s a plague. Everyone in the party must make a saving throw vs Dragon's Breath or Suffer a -1 to all rolls in the next adventure.

5. Sponsor Initiates

1. 1d4 new novice nuns/monks
2. 1d6 temple workers (gardeners/cleaners/cooks/etc.)
3. 1d2 Temple Guards
4. 1d10 missionaries

Complications!

1. Infiltration by a member of a rival faith
2. Scandalous behavior revealed after initiation
3. Thieves!
4. Morons, you just can’t find good help these days

6. Commission Artwork

1. Mural/Painting
2. Statue
3. Song/Score
4. Illuminated Manuscript
5. Play

Complications!

1. Sacrilegious
2. Insulting to someone important/you
3. Stolen/Vandalized
4. Left unfinished because
1. The artist is a flake
2. The artist is a drunk
3. The artist dies

5e Aerial Combat

My 5e game has taken some interesting twists and turns as I introduce this, that, and the other thing to keep things interesting. For example, the party has been dealing with a hobgoblin army that's surrounded a walled town. There aren't enough troops to take the town, and the town doesn't have enough troops to force away the army. Clearly both are awaiting reinforcements. But the PCs came from the same direction the hobgoblin reinforcements would be arriving from, and they didn't overtake anyone... So the force should be coming from some other direction... or by some means other than marching. Magic could work, but doesn't necessarily make for a good story.

Flying? That could work, plus sets up an interesting tactical challenge.

I already introduced a green dragon, but he's a selfish SOB. Wyverns don't get enough love, and with Reaper doing Blacksting the wyvern as part of Bones 4 I felt inspired to include some.


Source

Then my players asked me if there were any flying creatures in the town they were helping to defend. I'd actually figured they'd use the big weapons on the walls... but sure, why not. A small stable of hippogriffs that are used primarily as fast couriers.

Okay, so then to check aerial combat in the 5e books... and nothing. Hmmm... Rules cyclopedia? Also not really helpful. Okay, I guess we're just gonna wing it.

I basically decided that I was gonna riff on the idea that for the most part both the wyverns and hippogfiffs need to keep moving to keep flying. I decided that turning would cost 10' of movement, and reversing course would cost half move, except for the paladin's giant bat who I figure is more maneuverable. Altitude would be handled mostly by hand waving it. I used the hex grid, and called each space 10'

Playing on the Sultan... and not taking advantage of anything but the large surface area!

I pulled out 12d12 to represent the wyverns, and each player grabbed a figure to represent them and their mounts. I broke the wyverns into 2 waves of 6, and the second wave would show up after 1d6 rounds.

The players decided to sneak attack the wyverns. They have a magical top hat that's a portal to a large pocket dimension/demi plane, and had everyone and their mounts enter it, while the paladin and his bat were turned invisible by the bard. They'd fly right up to the hobgoblin's on wings, and dump everyone out in the midst of them.

The hobgoblins, loaded for attacking a city were unprepared for an aerial dogfight, so the players got a surprise round. Initially the players focused on the hobgoblins, not realizing just what asses the wyverns were by themselves.

Noting that the wyverns were fairly loaded down, the players asked a bit more about that. and I told them that some were carrying the same sort of oil barrels that the resupply caravan had. The dragonborn paladin positioned himself to breath fire on 2 that had the barrels (I decided the odd numbered ones had them) and let have it with his flame breath attack. One failed its save and caught fire, and then the bard dropped a fireball on them, and the other one fail its save. They both dropped from the fight.

Why do you do this to us?

Unfortunately the bard took a critical hit, knocking her from the back of the bat. She was saved from splatting with a featherfall., but then one of the hippogriffs suffered some massive damage and dropped. A series of aerial rescues, and acrobatic leaps onto wyverns as the battle progressed.

In spite of how well things were going, they were outnumbered, and once the hippogriffs started taking damage, things went downhill for the party fairly quickly. As quickly as they could, they retreated back into the hat. Well, those that could. The new Ranger who'd joined for this session was too far away, and being chased by 3 wyverns. He managed to kill one with Entangle, got a badly injured one to break off, and took the other from the hobgoblin rider when his hippogriff was killed. The paladin on the bat with the hat, entered the demiplane, leaving the hat to blow about in the wind 500' up, and within sight of the hobgoblins. Two of them spotted the hat, and one of them managed to snatch it from the air.

Thoughts:
Okay, 12 wyverns was probably too much. Breaking it into 3 waves of 4 might have been better. On the other hand, I love a fight that really challenges the party.
Lances need a better mechanic. 1d12 damage is nice... but on a charge should probably do more.
Writing the stats for the hippogriffs on the playmat so PCs could track their own mounts was smart of me.
Having some sort of directional marker to indicate which way everyone was flying would have been useful, as well as a way to indicate altitude.
How easy is it gonna be for the PCs to maintain control of the 2 wyverns they've captured???

Demon Rules for RC D&D

I'm sure somewhere out there, someone has written rules for using demons in old school D&D. This is my simple(?) take.

Basic Demon Template:
Demons are immune to sleep and charm spells. NOT hold spells. Silver weapons can cause either half damage (lesser demons) or 1 point of damage (greater demons) on a successful hit. Magic weapons cause full damage. Demons can be turned as undead 2HD stronger than their listed HD. i.e. a 7 HD demon is turned as a 9 HD undead. Demons will often have resistance to certain damage types, usually fire (auto half damage, save for none).

Demonic creatures are unnaturally strong and will gain an additional +1 damage modifier to any physical attack

As for the monsters themselves, stick this template on any other monster, and you've got a demon.

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Additional Generic Demonic Powers. Different demons will have different powers.

Force Grab - Ranged attack w/in 30'. Save vs Paralysis or be thrown 2d6' taking 1d6 damage. If thrown against a wall, the demon may maintain the force, pinning the target in place.

Hellfire - Ranged Attack, 30/60/90 causing 1d6+1 damage per 3 HD of the demon

Corrupt - Melee attack, drains 1d3/1d4/1d6 points of Charisma. Damage can be restored with 1 week/point of damage or Greater Restoration (or better) magic.

Unholy Aura - Any lawful or neutral creatures within the aura must save vs spells or suffer a -2 penalty to attacks, AC, and Saving Throws while within the aura and for an additional 1d6 rounds. Aura size varies based on HD of demon.

Stonehell Events

To make things a little more interesting, and to show how the nixthisis is responding to the party’s stomping through the dungeon, I want to put together a chart for events/moods of the dungeon. One thing that’s really become apparent is that lesser undead aren’t a threat, and most other low level monsters aren’t either, with the exception of things with poison or resistance to non-magical weapons.

Last session I actually bumped up the challenge in one room because even a single monster (wood golem) with resistance to magical weapons isn’t really a challenge, even though there are only 2 in the party (of 12+). 5th level characters really can just kind of stomp their way through a whole bunch of stuff. We’ll see if that holds when they decide to tackle the hobgoblins, which is going be soon, since the first level is seriously depopulated, and they’re in a prime position to expand!

1. Bad Moon Rising – Lycanthropes on the move!
2. The Stars Aren’t Right - All saving throws are at -1
3. Can’t sleep, the clowns will eat me – Any attempt to rest in the dungeon triggers a wandering monster roll
4. If these walls could talk – Ghosts, poltergeists, shadows all restless. Ectoplasm all over the place. Morale Rolls for NPCs required or fear effects.
5. Springtime, and everything is in bloom! – Fungal bloom. Save vs poison or suffer -1 to attack rolls due to allergies.
6. Small Men Resist – Highly organized tableaus all over the place. Mathematic equations written on walls.
7. The Dead Will Rise! – Any living thing killed will rise as an undead creature of appropriate HD and follow after their killers after 1d4 turns.
8. Earthquake! – Collapsed corridors/stairs? Flooding?
9. Redraw the map – A section of the dungeon shifts dramatically
10. Expansion – One power group expands their holdings into unoccupied area (if available) or against one of their neighbors.
11. Vermin Supreme – bugs, rats, and bats have a sudden population boom.
12. Quiet Time – roll d12 for wandering monsters. Reaction rolls tend away from fighting.
13. Spring Cleaning – Gelatinous Cubes scouring the halls, stairs, etc.
14. Where did that door come from: Hey look! A new sublevel opened up!
15. Nurgle’s Blessing – All monsters carriers of various diseases. Rat Plague, Mummy Rot, etc.
16. Warped Gate – Someone opened a portal, and it’s warping those around it.
17. Meet the New Boss – A wizard takes over an appropriate area (wizard’s school, hexperiment, etc.)
18. Blood for the Blood God – All attacks at -2 to hit, but melee attacks at +2 damage
19. Well that’s just Unseelie – The Wild Hunt visits Stonehell. Fey creatures hunting for victims. Pixies, gremlins, etc.
20. New Tenants – A new group takes up residence in the dungeon.

Thanks to Conrad W. Deitrick over on the FB Stonehell group for some ideas to flesh out the list!

Stonehell house rules?

I've written about what house rules I've used in my old school games before, but it's been awhile and I wanted to revisit them. Especially after running a few sessions of Stonehell.So far it's been pretty by the book, though I've already taken advantage of Meatshields. Thus far my players haven't yet learned the benefit of having... well... meatshields in their party. Some of this might be related to the lack of treasure they've managed to collect so far. But beyond that... there are a couple of things I've been thinking about.

Shields Shall Be Splintered - There's a couple of versions of this one kicking around. As kind of a death saving throw, it isn't bad. Stretches out combat potentially.

Death and Dismemberment  - Yet another version of a death saving throw, this one taking place after the players drop to 0, so it keeps combat deadly, but you might survive if your party wins the fight.

Mortal Wounds - The ACKs version of the rule above.

If I go with one of these, it'll only be one. But which one?

Criticals - Double damage? Max damage? Something cool?

Dutch Courage: Any character may heal themselves by spending twenty minutes binding their wounds, catching their breath, and consuming a pint of wine. Doing so heals the character of 1d6 points of damage. This method of first aid may only be used once per day.

2d6 Thief Skills - THe poor thief in BX is just... kinda sad. This does something to help even them out a bit.

Order of the d30 - Once per game session, a player may choose to roll a d30 instead of any normal dice roll. This cannot be used for any purpose during character creation or for hit point rolls.

Town is boring, the adventure is in the dungeon/wilderness! I've been doing this one already. Since my goal was an old school dungeon crawl, I didn't want to spend any extraneous time outside of the dungeon sandbox

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Rather than just drop these on my players, at my own whim, I think I'm going to talk to them about it, and see what they'd like to do...

Carousing: Magical Research

Since I’ve covered my appreciation for XP for treasure, and drafted XP for magic item creation rules, it makes sense to also cover carousing rules. There are a bunch of them out there to choose from, and they all have great charts for when things go really well or really poorly at the party. But like many bloggers out there, I’m not a fan of the one size fits all chart for carousing - especially for my favorite class: wizards.

Because one never knows where research into arcane topics will take a wizard, the results of experimentation are many and varied, though generally less extreme than when attempting to create a magic item, at least for the caster directly. Many of these mishaps cause an effect that might be felt by the local populace, which would explain why so often wizards towers are so far away from cities and towns.

Carousing: Magical Research
Time = 1d6 days * level
Cost = Time * 100gp

As magical research is fraught with danger, a save vs. magic wands must be made. If passed, they gain XP on the cash spent. If the save is failed, or if the wizard runs out of cash before their research is concluded they must roll on the chart below, and do not gain XP.

1. But it should have worked! Your frustration distracts you as you try to figure out where you went wrong. Always surprised/last to go in the next adventure.
2. That was some powerful … umm … something. Your experiment blew up in your face, dousing you with something weird and hallucination inducing. Roll a 1D6 1 – minus 2 to all rolls as you watch the colors next session, 2 - +1 to hit and damage next session as you are filled with psychotic rage, save vs. poison or permanently lose 1 WIS, 3 – See invisible for the next Session, 4 – Catatonia for the next session, save vs. poison for every action taken, 5 – The lizards are under your skin, but you cut them out doing 1D6 damage to yourself at the start of next session 6 – Permanent flashbacks, -1 INT.
3. Not really sure how you did that. You managed to Commune (as per the spell) with a greater being.
4. New way of looking at things. +5% XP next adventure.
5. Well hello there. You summoned a thing. It’s a small thing, but it won’t leave you alone, and trying to kill it would be bad. Very bad indeed. Roll 1d6. 1 - Only you can see it. 2 - Miniature demon/devil. 3 - Floating blob with d6 eyes. 4 - A bat that constantly crawls all over you during the day, and flaps around you at night. 5 - A tiny goblin head grows on your shoulder/neck. 6. Living spark.
6. Just a pinch of cilantro. Brewed a random potion, but lost all your notes in the process.
7. Oh hellfire. You managed to set the lab/library on fire. Roll a d6. 1 - Minor fire, easily put out, however you’re not invited back if the location wasn’t your own. 2 - Significant fire, take 1d6 damage. 3 - Destroyed spellbook! 4 - 1d6 burn damage and either -1 to Dex or Cha. 5 - Burned the building down. 6 - Actual hellfire that will burn for 100 years. Thankfully it doesn’t spread.
8. Like the light of a thousand suns. Suffer penalties in bright light as a goblin or drow for the next 1d6 adventures.
9. Demonic Temptation. Your research shows you a way to gain an extra spell slot of your highest level. A suitable price will be determined by the DM.
10. That which does not kill you probably wants to make you their pet. An extraplaner being has laid claim to you, and has marked you in some way as their own.
11. Power is fleeting. You manage to enchant a dagger +5. Every time you hit with it, the dagger will lose a plus. It will crumble to nothing with the 5th hit.
12. Power is greedy. You manage to enchant a dagger +1, but it’s cursed, and every hit causes you 1 point of damage. It will always appear in your hand in combat. Remove Curse will unravel the entire enchantment.
13. Knowledge is Power. Discover a variant of a spell you know that is just a little bit better.
14. So that’s where it is! Uncover the location of a lost spell or magic item.
15. If only I had the gallbladder of an owlbear! Obtain a rare ingredient, and create a random magical tea (a potion that needs to be brewed)
16. Shouldn’t have spent so much time with that warpstone. Random mutation (per mutant future)
17. Reality shift. Re-roll your highest and lowest ability scores.
18. Out of phase. Lose your reflection. It remains nearby, appearing in other people’s mirrors. If you die, it will come through to replace you.
19. Darker shadow. Your shadow has been replaced by the shadow of the last thing you killed or helped kill. Given the chance it will free itself and attack you.
20. Gimmie some more of that! You’ve managed to create a magic drug that’s magically addictive to spellcasters. Each dose costs 1d4*100 gp to make, and lasts a week. As long as you have a dose, your spells are more potent. If you don’t have a dose, you suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls. If only you hadn’t tried it yourself…
21. It’s alive! You animated a flesh golem… made of mouse parts. Then it escaped.
22. Parlez vous francais? Learned a new language.
23. Energize! You teleport yourself 1d30 miles away, arriving safely on land, but with only the clothes on your back, and only half your usual number of spells memorized.
24. Blink and you’ll miss it. Randomly shift 1d6 feet every round for the next adventure. -4 to hit, +4 to AC and saving throws.
25. Smells bad. For the next adventure you smell like a troglodyte. You don’t notice it, but everyone else does.
26. Getting in touch with your inner reptile. You’re now somewhat cold blooded. Take extra damage from temperature based effects and spells.
27. A touch of the grave. Spontaneously and randomly (at least once per session) animate skeletons and zombies within 100’. You have no control over them.
28. The smell of death. Unintelligent undead will ignore you. Intelligent undead will target you.
29. He’s smarter than the average bear. Give a normal animal 2d6+2 intelligence.
30. I see! Grow a 3rd eye, roll a d6. 1 - Normal eye, +1 bonus to ranged attacks. 2 - Infravision. 3 - Magesight, able to detect illusion and invisibility. 4 - Someone else’s eye. 5 - Ethereal vision. 6 - Improved Magesight, able to detect illusion, invisibility, and magic.
31. Rain of _____. Roll a d6. 1 - Frogs. 2 - Fish. 3 - Blood. 4 - Worms. 5 - Embers. 6 - Cat Urine
32. The spice must flow. Everyone within 1d100’ has indescribable visions of the future lasting 1d6 turns.
33. Unseasonably warm today. The local weather switches seasons for a day.
34. Not in Kansas anymore. A twister pulls the caster and other locals into a different world - DM’s choice.
35. Fogbound. The local area is wrapped in the thickest fog anyone can remember for 1d6 days. No one can get in or out. 25% chance of getting lost going down the block.
36. It was a season of sorrow. A general sense of ennui pervades the local area for the next 1d4 days.
37. Spring is in the air. Most everyone in the area is feeling extra frisky.
38. With a bit of a mind flip. Time either passes twice as quickly or twice as slowly for the wizard while conducting research this time.
39. Bugged out. Creepy crawlies descend en masse. Mostly harmless, but it freaks people out.
40. Sour grapes. All wine within 4d20 yards turns to vinegar. Water becomes blood.
41. A window to the spirit world. Harmless ghosts begin to appear to their loved ones/enemies.
42. Like rats on a sinking ship. Animals flee the local area.
43. The horned king. Your meddling has caught the attention of the wild hunt, and brought it to the area.
44. Fire in the sky. The sky is filled with flickering auroras for 1d3 nights.
45. Something in your throat? The wizard will vomit up a frog at least once a day.
46. Is it hot in here? The wizards head bursts permanently into flame, burning away all hair. The flames don’t harm the wizard but will destroy any hats the wizard attempts to wear. Casts light as a torch.
47. Fingers on one hand grow extra long, and gain an extra knuckle.
48. I like it red! The wizard’s teeth become pointed as a wolf or shark. She hungers only for freshly killed meat.
49. With lobes like these? The wizard’s ears grow 1d3+1 times their normal size.
50. Crossed wires. The wizard loses his primary language, and gains a random one in it’s place.

Crafting Magic Items: Draft Rule

Following up on Saturday's post on Crafting Magic Items, here's the draft rule. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. are welcome!

A magic user attempting to create a magic item must roll 12 or better on a d20, modified as follows:
-1 per spellcasting level/2 (round down)
+1 per spell level
-2 Scrolls, potions, single use items (runes, charms, etc.)
+0 Items with charges (wands, staffs, etc.)
+2 for permanent items (rings, figurines of wonder, bags of holding, etc.)
+2 per plus (Sword +1, Shield +2, Ring of Protection +1)
+1 per plus ammo or specific creature (Sword +1 +3 vs dragons, Arrows +1)
-1 per +10% spent, cumulative (i.e. 100gp base, +10gp, +11gp, +12gp, etc. )

Magic item creators gain XP for the creation attempt based on the cost of the item, regardless of the result (unless otherwise noted). Only gold spent on the base cost of the item contributes to XP.
An unmodified roll of 1 always fails
For all failures, roll on the below chart.

Failed Magic Item Creation Results
Failure doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t end up with a magic item…
Roll a 1d12, add the difference between the target number and the failed roll. Double that if you rolled a 1. (i.e. target is 8, roll was 2, add 6 to d12. if roll was 1 add 14!)

2. The magic failed to bind. If item is attempted again, base cost is ½ normal.
3. The magic bound in a useless fashion. Still detects as magic, does nothing magical.
4. The magic warped the item into uselessness.
5. Magic Backlash! -1 to Int
6. Opened Mind +1 Int, -2 Wis
7. Life drain, item created, wizard loses 1d6 Con or Strength
8. Gained the attention of an extraplanar being. It doesn’t like you.
9. Gain no XP from the attempt.
10. The item now drains magic from other nearby magic items to power itself. If it is especially hungry, i.e. has gone years without feeding, it may attempt to absorb spells cast near by or even the magic from magical creatures.
11. He contracted a magical wasting illness. Save vs. poison to avoid contracting it if you encounter him; if infected, save vs. poison once per week or lose 1 point of Constitution.
12. The item is overpowered and has a 75% chance to create a feedback loop when used. The Feedback loop treats the magic as 1 level higher but also affects the user (if offensive) or the closest enemy in proximity (if defensive).
13. It does the opposite of what it was intended. Offensive magic becomes defensive, healing hurts, etc.
14. The item is either underpowered or over powered. If it's effect was intended to affect a single person, it's now an area of effect (10' R). If it was intended to affect an area, it now only affects a single person.
15. The wizard can never again cast the spell (or a random spell) that was being used in the item's creation.
16. The item works, but it actively draws electrical energy toward it. Lots of static shocks, big ones if outside during a storm.
17. The item grows eight arachnid legs and acts as a monster with 1HD per spell level. It has all power(s) intended for the item.
18. The first recipient of the object's effect becomes imbued with the power naturally. If offensive, it may be used once per day. If defensive, it may be used for 1 minute per character level.
19. The item is ripped from this reality, leaving a hole into another. The hole will last 1 day per use or charge, or forever if a permanent item.
20. The item works but is dangerously unstable. After each use the referee rolls 1d20; on a 20 it explodes spectacularly (1d6 damage per level of spell in the enchantment to all in 20' radius, save for half).
21. Rather than creating the spell effect as desired, the item creates a short lived "spell elemental". These elementals have a number of HD equal to the spell level and their attacks mirror the normal spell effect. While independent from the item's user, offensive effects tend to be hostile to everyone while defensive effects tend to be protective of the user. They survive for 1d6 rounds before they die of "old age".
22. The item is intelligent, and loathes the caster with the power of a thousand suns. The imbued power will not work for the caster, but works x2 against him. The item will struggle to control it's wielder and if it succeeds will direct them to attack the caster.
23. The spell effect become entangled with another random school/spell. A fireball may animate the dead, a shield may be accompanied by a strange phantasmal force, etc.
24. Every time the item is used it summons a demon hostile to the item's user.
25. Every time the item is used or donned, it summons a demon (never a succubus) amorous to the item's user.
26. A person using the item cannot sleep in the next 24 hours. If worn or carried, the character is completely unable to sleep. They get no rest for spell or healing purposes and every day without sleep gains a cumulative penalty (-1 for day 1, -2 for day 2, etc) to all rolls made.
27. The spell went in fine, or at least it seems that way. Any time the item is used roll on the wild magic table
28. Use of the item slowly transforms the user into a creature based on the function of the item. A wand of fire will slowly turn the user into a fire elemental. A ring of invisibility slowly turns the user into an invisible stalker. The down side is that the creature only has HD equal to half the user's level. Each odd use of the item grants the user an ability of the creature. Each even use of the item grants the user a flaw or vulnerability. When all flaws and vulnerabilities are gained, the user loses a level with every even use until they reach 1/2 their original level. 
29. Is now trapped inside the item. He has to replace himself to get out.
30. An arm or leg (1d4) is now imbued instead and the magic is leaking. In 1d6 weeks, it will completely drain out, leaving the extremity a withered, useless husk. If the intended item had a number of uses, they are still available but each use hastens the wither effect by 1 day.

Examples:
(item costs are based on Robert Conley’s Magic Item Creation Costs PDF):

MU1 creating a Scroll of Sleep (Base Cost 100gp)
Base 12
+1 (First Level Spell)
-2 (Scroll)
-7 (extra gold (94.87gp))
d20 roll needed = 4+
Total Cost = 194.87gp

MU6 creating a short sword +1 +3 vs goblinkin w/ detect goblins 60’ (Base Cost 1600gp)
Base 12
+2 (2nd level detect spell equivilant)
+2 (+1 bonus)
+3 (+3 vs goblins)
-3 (MU level)
-4 (extra gold (742.56gp)
d20 roll needed =12+
Total Cost = 2342.56gp

MU5 creating a Wand of Charm Person w/10 charges (Base Cost 2,000gp)
Base 12
+1 (First level spell)
-2 (MU level)
-2 (extra gold (420gp))
d20 roll needed = 9+
Total Cost = 2,420gp

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Big thanks to Wayne Rossi, A. Miles Davis, Duncan McPhedran, Reece Carter, Sean Holland, and Seth Clayton for their help with the failure chart.

Crafting Magic Items

I’ve been thinking a lot about dungeons, and treasure lately. Given that I’ve been writing a bunch of sci-fi locations, this makes perfect sense. And if you’ve noticed on G+ I’ve been writing and asking a bit about magic items...

One of the things that’s been rattling around in my head is the frequency of treasure, and specifically magic items, spurred by a couple of posts. John over at Dreams in the Liche House wrote about revisiting the Magic Shoppe and also about The Vast Wealth of Dungeons, While Brendan over at Necropraxis wrote about banking treasure.

But the one that really got me thinking? The Shadow that Magic Casts over at Edgar’s Game Blog. If you missed those posts, go read them now. I’ll wait. What follows will make more sense keeping these posts in mind.

I’ve always (since my return to old school gaming anyway) been a fan of XP for treasure. However there quickly develops the situation where you end up with low-mid level PCs having incredible amounts of coin sitting around. At low levels there isn’t so much to spend it on once you’ve got the best basic equipment, even factoring in carousing rules (more on this next week). The next logical steps are magic items and/or real estate, which brings us back to Brendan’s Bank, and John’s Magic Shoppe.

http://rosyfingereddawn.deviantart.com/art/Wizard-s-Lab-81769275

This is where Edgar’s post ties in. Crafting magic in old school games is generally the province of higher level wizards, and that’s one of the things I missed from 3.x. I liked being able to make scrolls, potions, and wands at low levels. It just seems like the sort of thing that wizards should be doing while the fighters are off blowing all their cash at the bar. I want to encourage that, but how to encourage it? First off, ditch the 3.x idea that you have to spend XP to make magic items. Wizards don’t become less experienced because they made something new. It was just a bad idea, which is why Pathfinder dropped it.

If the goal is to encourage PCs to craft magic items, there needs to be a benefit for doing so, not just getting rid of the penalty. If the goal is more magic items, we could just open ye olde magic shoppe. But that's not the goal. The goal is to encourage PCs to make their own magic items.

How?

Wizards should get a reward (XP) for crafting magic items.

I’m thinking full XP if they spend their own cash, and half XP if someone else pays them. That would include any group cash. Also, the XP isn’t based on whether the item creation is successful or not.

So what rules for magic item creation? DCC gives wizards the opportunity to make magic items at pretty low level with Wizards Staff, Sword Magic, and Make Potion. Of course DCC involves a lot of rules that fall outside the usual D&D set. AD&D, OD&D, B/X, etc. all require that magic users be high level for magic item creation(except scrolls in B/X).

Robert Conley of Bat in the Attic Games created this Magic Item Creation Costs document which covers basic costs, but not the process.It's a good place to start... But what rules?

I want something relatively simple, but not guaranteed. Not ever. Even a level 36 archmage making a Scroll of Feather Fall might screw it up. It’s not likely, but if the ink runs a little, or smudges, well… And if it’s a major screw up, I want there to be varying levels of badness from singed eyebrows to you’ve accidentally opened a portal to hell and Satan is coming for tea.

In 3.x you’d make a skill check, but most old school games don’t have skills. Maybe a saving throw? Modified by the item type/power? The thing about both of these options is that they’re based on a D20 roll. Is that a problem? Maybe not…

I'm working on a draft rule for magic item creation that even a 1st level magic user can use. I'll probably post it Monday or Tuesday. More to follow!

House Rules

I have never, ever played in a game with the rules as written. Not once. Every game, even board games, tend to be tweaked to fit the participant's wants and needs.

For example, I just played Risk GodStorm last weekend. If you've never played it, it involves conquering the ancient western world (including Atlantis) and gods, temples, and the underworld play a big part. There are 4 gods that every civilization can call on: War, Death, Air, and Magic, and they all have the same rules across the different civilizations. Every god of war is the same. After playing, even a bit during the game, we spent some time talking about tweaking the rules to give everyone slightly different rules so that the choice of civilization actually has an impact on the game.



In my old school D&D games, I use the following house rules.

"Order of the d30"**
Once per game session, a player may choose to roll a d30 instead of any normal dice roll. This cannot be used for any purpose during character creation or for hit point rolls.

"Chop When they Drop"
Fighters dedicate their entire lives to mastering their skill at arms. Because of this single-minded dedication, fighters (not including dwarves or elves) are able to dispatch multiple foes at a rate that astonishes other classes. Anytime a fighter kills an opponent, he immediately gains a free attack on any other enemy within reach. Should he slay the opponent as well, he gains another free attack on a nearby enemy. This series of events continues until the fighter either misses, fails to kill and opponent, or runs out of enemies within the reach of his weapon.

"Shields Shall Be Splintered"
Shields Shall Be Splintered: Anytime you are about to take damage and have a shield equipped, you may choose to attempt to sacrifice the shield in order to avoid incurring the wound. Make a saving throw vs. death and, if the save is successful, the shield is sundered by the blow and destroyed, but you take no damage. In the case of spells that allow a saving throw for half damage, you may invoke this rule if you fail your save against the spell. Doing so successfully reduces the damage by half. In the case of magical shields, invoking this rule successfully means that you take no damage from blows (or half from spells) but the shield loses one "plus" from its enchantment. Thus, a +1 shield would become a normal shield, a +2 shield becomes a +1 shield, etc.

"Dutch Courage"
Dutch Courage: Any character may heal themselves by spending twenty minutes binding their wounds, catching their breath, and consuming a pint of wine. Doing so heals the character of 1d6 points of damage. This method of first aid may only be used once per day.

"Mortal Wounds"
When a character reaches zero hit points, he or she is falls unconscious. Players then roll on the Mortal Wounds chart from ACKS. This rule replaces the previous "unconsciousness and death" rule.

"Zap"
Magic users may use the Zap spells as outline in this blog post.

**This rule is also in effect for my 4e game.

Zeteh Zandana - Cosmology of my Home Setting

More thoughts on my home setting:

As cool as Planescape is, I hate the cosmology that goes with it. The idea that everything fits neatly into a plane of a specific alignment, that it’s set up as a giant wheel, that there are elemental planes, para-elemental planes, quasi-elemental planes, energy planes, etc. is both stupidly overly complicated, and for the most part incredibly boring!

Look at that mess! And somehow it all wraps together in Sigil...

Now, 4e cleaned things up quite a bit. The Mortal world has a pair of reflections, the Feywild and the Shadowfell, and they are pretty much what they sound like. Ravenloft? In the Shadowfell. The court of Oberon and Titania? Feywild. It fits together with the implied cosmology of most fairy tales so much better than the Great Wheel ever did.

The Astral Sea will be much like it’s usually portrayed, including dead gods, strange worlds, demi-planes, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe/Callahan's Bar/The Captain’s Table/etc., and of course Sigil itself. The currencies of the realm are magical power and souls.

What about the gods? I’m going to stick with the idea that there are no gods, per se, but rather the immortals from classic D&D. Mortals who have become so powerful they ascend to demi- and lesser-god like status. They live in realms that float in the astral sea, and interfere as much or as little as they like in the mortal realms. Clerics and other “divine” characters may worship these immortals, and their worship does have an impact on the immortals’ power and standing, but divine power does not derive from individual immortals, but rather from all of them. That isn’t to say that an immortal can’t focus on one individual and boost or block them, but it takes effort and energy on their part. This will allow divine characters to choose just about any god or ideal to worship.

Demons and devils? I’ll stick with the 4e idea that they all come from the elemental chaos. The upper levels of it resemble the classic idea of the underworld, and the deeper you go the more twisted and chaotic it becomes. Players will never visit the lowest levels, as reality breaks down if you go too deep, and this blends right into the far realm - aka outside the player’s universe. I’ll never send my players there, but it’s a great place for *things that are not meant to be* to come from.

PC Races in my game world

While I’m a big fan of the Rules Cyclopedia, there’s a lot about 3.x and 4e that I like, including the various races. While I get and approve of race as class, I also like the idea of race as race. I know if someone came in with a flailsnails character that was an elven wardancer, or a dwarven cleric, or a dragonborn warlord, or a warforged mage, I’d allow it. Hell, if someone wanted to make a character native to my world (for whatever reason) and they wanted to use race as race I’d allow it.... but...

In my world, natively, the core races aren’t quite standard...

Elves and gnomes are otherworldly fay beings. They dance with fairies in the woods, swim with nymphs, and sing with birds. They are naturally chaotic, though not malicious.

Dwarves are actually sexless beings. While they appear as gendered, they procreate by creating their offspring, similar to how they’re done in Dwimmermount.

Half-elves are either elves raised by humans, or humans raised by elves, not the physical offspring of a union of the two. They are often called changelings by humans.

Half-orcs do not exist natively because my orcs are spawned from the earth in a perverted mimicry of the dwarven process. Some claim that the orcs are actually hatched from buried eggs, others claim that they grow like mold.

Kobolds are small draconic humanoids. Dragonborn are distant cousins to kobolds. Both are related to Dragons.

Goblins, gremlins, knockers, hobgoblins, and bugbears are all fay from the unseelie court.

Halflings, Nelwyns, Pecks, Hobbits (all the same thing) are the most standard of the races.

Tieflings are as per the 4e fluff, but visually more like the 2e - Humans tainted by demons, minus the whole empire of tieflings. There was an empire, ruled by tieflings, but most of the people in it were human.