About what happened last session

Illustration of a goblin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* the thief lies dying on the ground after an attack, slowly bleeding out, the goblin cleric was just hit with a critical and lost his ear. What is the most reasonable thing to do? Heal the ear first of course! Stupid human weakling is  not as important as a good goblin ear.

* they have cornered the wererat and his minions who have taken over the dwarven cave and killed all it’s inhabitants. What do they do? Parley of course. So they get another job: bring us one of the bouncing bears from the surrounding forests because we are hungry.

The end result: the orcish warrior now has a nemesis in a purple gummi bear who swore to avenge his brother. And I just wanted this to be a bit of comic relief.

* I dropped a deck of many things on them, and what does the thief do? Draw five. How bad did it end for him? Well, he is more dexterous now, more experienced, and got a treasure map and a magic weapon. So the goblin cleric tries the same. He lost all his experience but gained a bit more wisdom.

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[Labyrinth Lord] Chocobo

Chocobo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Chocobo (Riding Bird)

No. Enc.: 1d4 (1d20+4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 60’ (30’)
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 2 +4
Attacks: 1 (bite 1d8+2 or claw 1d6+2)
Damage: 1d4+2 or special
Save: TH4
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: None
Large birds looking like a cross of a giant chicken and an ostrich. With long necks and intelligent eyes they can be found in flocks in plains or isolated forests.
They can run quicker than any other bird, even when carrying an armored man.
On average 7 feet tall and about 400 pound heavy they often react to paladins’ call for mounts or Summon Nature’s Ally III
Black Riding Birds: rare variant that can be bred by selective breeding of other variations. They also have a fly speed of 90″

I have been playing Final Fantasy IX for the last two weeks or so. My mind might be affected negatively. On the other hand: this is not a first. There was an article on Chocobos in some old issue of Dragon Magazine.

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[Labyrinth Lord] Spellslot System

Spellslot System (aka The Even-more-Vancian-and-a-bit-Pratchettian System)

When Magic users gain experience they gain a better understanding for the workings of magic and wizardry. Their mind becomes more capable of holding more and more spells of smaller sizes, or spells of larger size.

Magic users basically can exchange the spells they have memorized in between levels in a ratio of 2:1, meaning two spells of a lower level are worth 1 spell of the next higher level, and the other way around. This can also be used over multiple spell levels.

Example: So, the sorceress Linda (2nd level) just found a scroll with a second level spell and dutifully copies it into her spellbook. The next day she and her companions are in an area in which this spell might come in handy, so she does not memorize her two first level spells, but one 2nd level one instead.

Spells are fickle beings, a sort of memetic daemon that exists only to fulfill it’s use and then disappears (which is why magic users have to relearn their spells every time they have cast them). They also are a bit jealous of other spells and want to be treated right. A magic user can only ever safely learn a single spell once a day (so only one of each kind of spell) and it might feel cramped if the magic user doesn’t have a slot for this kind of spell yet. If this is the case the magic user is in Overcast state, which is a bit like carrying around an unsecured weapon. If the spellcaster fails any save during this time or loses hitpoints 1d4 spells are released randomly. If the fail is critical then all the spells are randomly released. In this case the GM decides what exactly happens.

Example: Linda prepared a web spell that was over her limit. The she and her companions are surprised by a couple of crafty kobolds shooting darts at them. The wound was only small, but smarted like hell.

“Ouch!” says Linda and loses concentration. All of a sudden glibbery white mass is sprouting all around her and her companions and keeps them from moving. Now they can hear the hollering and whistling of the kobolds as they prepare another volley of darts, and there is no way to run from them…

Random Spell Release Table

1. all the spells just disappear in an explosion of shining light *poof*

2. all the spells hit the spellcaster and everybody around (both friends and enemies), random determination of who gets hit by what

3. half the spells hit everybody, the rest just disappears without any effect

4. the spells cause 1d6 imps to appear out of thin air. They will hang around for another 1d6 hours and play the most imaginative and dangerous pranks possible

5. the spells manifest themselves as magic daemons and linger around

6. The spells manifest themselves as magic daemones and wander off somewhere else

Spell

This small creature looks like a whirl of energy, somehow similar to the spell it technically is. It gets bigger with spell level and can be baited onto a piece of paper and pergament, creating a scroll, or captured in a jar. If it attacks it will just use the spell it is made of as an attack and disappear into nothing.

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My Frankenstein

I was not idle the last few weeks, I was just busy with other things and in places that didn’t have a good internet connection for blogging. Christmas, and work, and other stuff kept on interfering with that. I still worked on my own rules compendium. I renamed it from Gonzo to Frankenstein, because by now it feels less like improvised mayhem, and more like a carefully crafted body made out of parts of other bodies. It still looks weird.

At it’s core it still is OD&D (well, Labyrinth Lord), although the surrounding elements have changed. There is a certain mechanical orthodoxy that I like about the game, and I don’t want to change too much. I want this to be still recognizable as based on OD&D, that is why so far I tried to get around things like spell points or Ascending AC, both of which I find more natural and easier to handle. I did introduce Delta’s Target20 mechanism and a corresponding Fighting Ability score though, mostly because I find a single formula easier than looking up stuff in the tables. This, by the way, is also one of the reasons why no ascending AC so far: the Target20 mechanism uses descending AC beautifully. Also I would have to change ACs on all my monster statistics.
So far I have mostly added to the whole thing (classes, races, spells), purged a few things I did not like (alignments and a few spells connected with them), and then found a lot of optional rules that might come in handy once in a while. True, that does go against the idea of “Simplicity” and “Rulings instead of Rules”, but I try to keep them simple and mostly collect mini-games/subsystems for the sake of variety and ease of use.
That is what I am actually mostly going for: ease of use. Because I am the one editing this system, I slowly gain a good understanding of what different parts really do.

The chapter on combat gained a few more interesting bits, basic rules on how rule some specific combat situations, which all are just variations on a theme (it all boils down to “you get that bonus if you attack with that minus”). I know that this might keep people from really improvising in a battle, but they might show people what is possible.
It’s not like the whole thing is too long anyway. I cut down a lot of superflous stuff, made a few things easier to understand, and so on. The largest part of the whole thing right now is actually the endless lists of spells and psionic powers. I didn’t really want to cut too many of them  because I like variety. The amount of spells is a large part of the game in any case, and the characters don’t really need to read more than the ones they can actually use anyway.

I don’t want to allow players to gain more than a few whimsy spells from their guild, or whatever place they buy spells at. They will either have to research spells or find them on scrolls during the adventure. What sort of a wizards’ guild would just give out what amounts to spells of mass destruction to any PC just waltzing in anyway?

Anyway, so far the largest parts that changed are:

1. there now are 5 base classes that can be played by anyone without requirement and the psion is one of them, all other classes need requirements and/or special DM allowance

2. combat has become easier and has more options, the tables were replaced with a unified system which did not actually change anything mechanically

3. race-as-class now are called paragon classes (yeah, I stole that from 3.5) and cannot advance higher than a specific point, this doesn’t matter too much as multi- and dualclassing is available for all characters. Race/Class combinations are the normal way. I just noticed that my players all had played Baldur’s Gate before and had brought some ideas from there.

4. I reinstated the typical AD&D spell names

Still working on the whole thing. We finally might manage to play again next Saturday, so there it might get tested.

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[Labyrinth Lord] Chupacabra

Chupacapra
No. Enc.: 1d6 (3d6+4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 40’ (20’)
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 5 +1
Attacks: 1 (claw 1d4+2, grapple)
Damage: 1d4+2 or special
Save: MU5
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: None
Small, elusive creatures that feed on the blood of mammals (hence goatsucker). Normally they life in small communities in warm woods and grasslands. They sneak into civilized areas at night (they are stealthy and have excellent low-light vision) and drain entire herds of farm animals in days; some have acquired a taste for humanoid blood as well. They generally are seen as half-intelligent: they are not tool users, but they show crafty tactics while hunting and hiding.
They prefer to attack enemies from behind, drain as much blood as possible, then try to flee to digest their meal.
They normally attack by grappling enemies from behind (additional +2 for grappling attacks), then sucking the blood out of their victims. Every round they are attached they can drain 1d4, up to 12 CON points

Converted from an old Dragon article for 3.5 (Dragon #343). I think they might be a bit hardcore.

[Labyrinth Lord] Viking

English: An illustration of Vikings on a boat. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Requirements: CON 9
Prime Requisite: STR
Hit Dice: 1d8
Maximum Level: 12

Vikings have a reputation to be great seamen, great drinkers, and often inclined to appropriate other’s property if it is not defended properly. Often a Viking ship is both trader and raider in one. They often test the waters first to see if the place they arrived in is defended, and will try to raid it if it isn’t.
They are proud and tall humans, more often than not blonde or redhaired (although their travels take them far and wide and bring back quite a lot of other blood). They value the sea and often will settle somewhere close to it.
However, they can use any weapon or armor, but they prefer axes, swords, and shields.

If professional skills are used they automatically gain the skill seafarer in addition to any other skill.

They have their own tongue, even though all of them are versed in the common tongue as well (as it is an important trade language). Because of their frequent interaction with them, Vikings often also speak dwarvish, gnome, and elvish.

Reaching 9th Level: When a viking reaches level 9, he has the option of creating a stronghold that will attract other vikings. Most of the vikings and their families will be of his own clan, but there always might be some others that settle around this new stranghold.

Viking Level Progression
Experience Level Hit Dice (1d8)
0 1 1
2,187 2 2
4,375 3 3
8,751 4 4
17,501 5 5
35,001 6 6
70,001 7 7
140,001 8 8
280,001 9 9
400,001 10 +3 hp only *
540,001 11 +6 hp only *

660,001 12 +9 hp only *

*Hit point modifiers from constitution are ignored

Yes, this has been based on the dwarf. The class is technically not really needed… but I had to remember the fun we had with DSA’s Thorwaler.

[Labyrinth Lord] Easy Multiclassing

The only game I found which handled multiclassing in an elegant and simple way was D&D 3.X. And I had my gripes with that as well, the least being that it demanded a complete rewrite of the system and it’s classes to be feasible.
That was… a bit over the top I guess. But well, the game was a success, and despite the bloat rather playable.
It doesn’t work with the older editions though. In the older editions we have the awful concepts of dualclassing and multiclassing, which both kind of work, but are so artificial I wish they wouldn’t. So this is my way of fixing the whole mess for my games. It’s not an easy system for the characters. It punishes people for focussing too much on one career path, but that is actually quite ok I guess. The more someone advances in a class, the harder it is to learn something new. At a certain point it becomes more feasible to just start over again.
Requirements: this should work with race-as-class classes as well, but of course the requirement here is that the character has to be the actual race to take up a race class.

Divergent Classes
Characters can gain levels in up to 2 other classes after they already started a character if they 1) fulfill the requirements and 2) pay XP amounting to the highest level threshold among all the classes. So a character gaining a level in a new class will have to pay XP as if he was gaining a new level in his original class.
The characters uses the best abilities, saving throws, spells, and attack rolls available to him.
[yes, that means if a level 10 fighter wants a level of thief he has to pay 480,000 XP for each level of thief until both his careers are the same level]

Example: William the Wizard is a level 5 magic-user. He travels through the wastelands with his companions, fights quite a bit with strange creatures, and in the evening he lets Fred the Fighter teach him some martial arts. When the time comes to gain a new level William’s player decides that William might need some fighting prowess if he is to survive the wilderness. So he gains a level of Fighter. If he decides to level up his Fighter levels instead of his levels as Magic-User he will continue to pay XP as if he was levelling as a Magic-User, until the cost of the next level of Fighter is higher than that.

Synchronous Classes
Characters whose levels of classes are the same may level both classes together after gaining enough XP for both classes.

Example: William the Wizard is now a Fighter and a Magic-User of level 5. He decides that this is exactly what he is, a fighting mage, and decides to pursue this path of advancement. It’s harder for him now (he has to gain experience for both his careers) but the benefits are larger (he can roll twice for hit points after levelling).

Dual Classing
Characters can change careers and level in another class for the normal cost of advancement from level 1 on. For this the lose all the benefits gained by their previous class (including saving rolls, spells, and hitpoints), as they now focus exclusively on the new class. They gain the old abilities again after they reach the level of their previous class with their new class. After this they can level according to the above rules.

Example: Fred the Fighter learned a lot during his time teaching William. After teaching him a long time he gained some appreciation for the arcane arts. So much actually that he decides to learn magic for himself. When they reach the next city he searches out the local wizard and becomes his apprentice for a while. After a few months the wizard has taught him everything he could teach him, and Fred goes forth, searching for new opportunities to get better in his new craft.

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[Labyrinth Lord] Thief Skills for everyone!

A while back I was thinking about thief skills in D&D. According to the rules they are just for the Thief class, but how much sense does that make? Oh well, we are talking D&D, so it doesn’t have to make that much sense, but really, why should a normal hobbit not be able to sneak unheard around the troll lair?

Of course a lot of the basic abilities of the classes in D&D are not so much different from each other. The level 1 Fighter is a bit better in fighting and getting hurt. The Magic-User can do some parlour tricks. And the thief is a bit better than average in doing illicit things. So this one is more like guidelines for the times when the fighter in the group wants to sneak, or the cleric wants to sneak off to his date with the elf.

Thief Skills for everyone
Every character can perform thief skills as a level 0 human. Thieves are just a little bit better at these skills in the beginning, and improve this edge over time.
Pick Locks 10%
Find and Remove Traps 10%
Pick Pockets 10%
Move Silently 15%
Climb Walls 50%
Hide in Shadows 10%
Hear Noise 1 in 6

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[Labyrinth Lord] Achievement System

I was lately thinking if it might be possible to have a bit more metagaming aspects in the development of my campaigns. Yes, I know, metagaming is EVUL! but I thought it might not be a bad fit for something like Labyrinth Lord. The main problem, in my opinion, is that people in the beginning of  a campaign are often given too many options which they don’t really appreciate or even understand. The idea I had was that I would only allow players in a campaign the use of a limited amount of classes, and all further classes have to be earned in play.
This is of course very metagamy. After all it would not be the character which would earn things, but the player. On the other hand this might be a good way to introduce people to a game world first before allowing them to take on characters they don’t have a clue about. At the same time I thought about connecting this to an achievement system that gives other benefits as well (titles and bonuses on reaction rolls), and a variation of the Dark Sun character tree. Labyrinth Lord, and the other OD&D retroclones, might be good for that, considering the amount of PC deaths that might be caused by applying the rules as written. So there might be both a constant need for new characters, as well as a reason to have a system that keeps people interested in the game even when their characters die over time.

Starting Character Options
Race: Human
Class: Fighter, Thief (or Specialist)
Optional (limited, only with special reasons, maybe stats): Priest of local god, Magic-User (Apprentice of NPC  wizard or witch), Hobbit

The Achievement Tree

Players (not characters) start out with only a few possible character options. Some of them are available to everyone (e.g. race: human or class: fighter), others are only of limited availability (e.g. a variation of cleric or magic-user). Further options have to be unlocked over play.
Players can hire minions/henchmen/retainers as usual.
Protégé
Starting from Level 3 onward a character gains the ability to train 1 protégé in a master/pupil or similar relationship. This character can be rolled up as a separate character according to the usual rules for character generation (limited by the players available choices), or can be taken from the ranks of the retainers following the character already. They count against the character’s count of retainers.
The character gains further protegees on level 7, 12, and 17. These protégés can adventure with the group as retainers/secondary characters, can be used as characters in their own right, or be left at home/on some secondary mission. If the main character snuffs it they will be available as replacement characters, even if left somewhere else entirely, within a reasonable amount of time. The highest ranking replacement character will take on the role of master from that point on (at least until someone manages to raise the former master).
Protegees themselves are limited in protegees, they can only take on one protegee of their own on level 7, that is until either their master is killed or retires. Retirees can be brought back from retirement by the DM’s discretion.

Achievements
Achievements are awards for certain deeds and situations that reflect in one way or another on the character. Achievements might be rewarded for the successful completion of certain tasks or quests. Some grant titles with appropriate bonuses. Most grant additional XP. All of them are subject to the DM’s wishes for his campaign. He might or might not make these public.
Bonuses might give an option to choose from for the sake gameplay (the second time a player receives a character option bonus it’s basically worthless, so he receives an experience bonus instead)

Examples
Dragonslayer
Participating in the killing of 1 dragon
Bonus: Title “Dragonslayer” +1 reaction roll from lawful folk, 400xp

Friend of Dwarves
Saved the life of at least 5 dwarves
Bonus: Title Friend of Dwarves, character option Dwarf (raceclass) or 100xp

Rescuer of Dwarves
Saved the life of at least 500 dwarves, Friend of Dwarves
Bonus: reaction roll +1 from dwarves, character option Dwarf (race/class) or 500xp

Saviour of Dwarves
Participated in saving a nation of dwarves from extinction, Rescuer of Dwarves
Title: Saviour of Dwarves, reaction roll +3 from all dwarves or 3000xp

Talk of the Town
Came back alive from an adventure
Bonus: 100xp, +1 reaction roll from local townfolk

Talk of the County
Came back alive from 5 different adventure situations, Talk of the Town
Bonus: Bonus 500xp

Local Hero
Reached level 3, Talk of the County
Bonus: 1000xp, title “Hero”

Arcane Scholar
Studied at an academy for wizards for at least one semester of courses (6 months)
Bonus: 1 spell of the academy’s specialisation, character option magic-user (specific Academy)

Magister Arcanis
Arcane Scholar, at least level 5 MU, added at least 1 completely new or 3 previously lost/unknown spells to the repertoire of the academy
Bonus: Title “Wizard/Sorceress”

Phantasist
Studied with an illusionist for at least 3 months
Bonus: 1 spell of the school of illusion, character option Illusionist

Graverobber

Studied the methods of necromancy with an appropriate teacher
Bonus: 1 spell of the school necromancy, character option Necromancer

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[Labyrinth Lord] Hopping Half-Vampire Freaks

Oh, today is one of these fantastic days.

Around 13:45 I say to myself: “Hey, it’s sunny and warm right now, let’s put all my trousers into the laundry! They will be dry until I have to work tomorrow.”

At 14:15 my colleague calls and says” “Hey, where are you? You have afternoon shift today.”

And I say: “Oh, f—.”

My schedule this month is kind of crazy.

So I am sitting at work right now, thinking about what to do with my time. I found a pair of jogging trousers in my wardrobe which of course are totally against the company dress code, so shhhhh… There is nothing to do, no mails, no tasks, hopefully no calls.
Because if there is a call it means something has gone belly up. And I really can do without that.

So, what to do with the time?

Hopping Half-Vampire Freaks
No. Enc.: 1d2 (1d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 60’ (20’)
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1 (touch, see below)
Damage: 1d8, drain life energy
Save: F4
Morale: 10
Hoard Class: VII

In certain regions of the multiverse the local vampires are not the noble and glamourous monsters they have come to be known as in the rest of the world. They instead are freakish creatures that lure unsuspecting victims into the darkness of the wood to suck out their blood. The interesting part about these beings in this case is that they literally are half-humanoid in their appeareance. The right or the left half to be exact. Legend says that these beings are created by mad shamans or others of similar disposition by using the corpses of murderers executed by being sawed in half. It seems that the bodies of people executed that way are easy to possess for the demons and spirits that animate the bodies of the soulless.

The resulting undead are… notoriously hard to control thanks to a very limited intelligence (they both have only half a brain after all…) and very thirsty for human blood. They nevertheless have similar problems as other vampires, while the stake to the heart might not work against them that well, the powers of clerics affect them like mummies, and sunlight burns them like fire.

New spell:

Two for the price of one
Level Shaman 3, Cleric 4
Range Touch
Duration: Ritual

The spellcaster creates a vortex into the netherrealms inviting a host of demonic spirits to inhabit the half-bodies of a murderer sawed in half. Both body parts will animate and follow the will of the spellcaster to a certain degree (the resulting creatures notoriously being dumb as bread).