otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 23, 2016 10:50:23 GMT -6
Another question for geoffrey: Do you allow subclasses in your Carcosa game? None have come up in play thus far. I would certainly allow the following sub-classes: illusionists assassins I would have to think about allowing the following sub-classes: druids paladins rangers How about monks? (Had a monk in a Carcosa one-shot I ran one time. That was fun.)
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 20, 2016 15:51:58 GMT -6
I'm using LotFP for it, using MU stats for Sorcerers, and Specialist skills available to both Fighters and Sorcerers. It's real early in the campaign, but seems to be working just fine.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Grime
Aug 15, 2016 20:11:25 GMT -6
Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 20:11:25 GMT -6
It might be easier to say that the state of being grimy imposes a penalty to reaction rolls, reduces your odds of surprising enemies (they can smell you approaching), and factors into chances of contracting a disease.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Grime
Aug 15, 2016 19:42:59 GMT -6
Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 19:42:59 GMT -6
Even better: if a player shows up to the game deficient in personal hygiene, apply corresponding penalties to their character. Nothing like an incentive to change behavior! I am happy to say that I have not had that problem. I only roll dice with a particular circle of friends, and they all have passably good hygiene.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 19:23:38 GMT -6
it sure made me wonder if doods got that situation come up a lot LOL Actually, it has come up for me quite a number of times. A large part of it has to do with playing D&D in bars. Sometimes when you play in a bar, the players decide that their characters should also have something to drink. And then it gets to a point where the players want to roll dice for it. At least in my experience. Drinking rules act as a sort of sobriety test. If you're too drunk to understand the drinking rules, you've had too much to drink.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 19:03:10 GMT -6
You know what D&D could really use?
A fighter subclass that specializes in getting really, really drunk.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Grime
Aug 15, 2016 18:28:58 GMT -6
Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 18:28:58 GMT -6
What I might do with this is just scale it back to a trap or series of traps in a dungeon populated with monsters that track by scent. I could have numerous weak monsters that spew foul smelling spores when slain, and a more powerful monster later on that only pursues adventurers that smell strongly. Players then have an incentive to wash themselves, but it's only relevant for this particular thing.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 10:57:38 GMT -6
Book-keeping is a fair point. I don't think it's any more difficult than tracking encumbrance or prepared spells (in isolation) but it is yet another thing that would have to be tracked on top of everything else.
I should clarify that Grime points are also meant to model all the blood splatter and gory mess that comes from combat (because I run games with that sort of tone) hence the post-combat Grime accumulation. People in the medieval ages might not have been as fastidious as people today, but I don't imagine they went home from battle still covered in other people's entrails and just... resigned themselves to being smeared with guts for the rest of their lives. Didn't Conan wipe himself off in one of R.E. Howard's stories?
*edit* But then I guess it depends on culture too. Contrary to the modern-day image of vikings as filthy barbarians with horned helms, people at the time often commented on how clean the vikings were. Granted they would get stinky after weeks on a boat at sea, but that just made them appreciate baths all the more. I understand vikings would wipe themselves off with wash rags daily, clean and braid their beards, and wear clean clothes daily when possible.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 15, 2016 0:00:39 GMT -6
While the realism and escapism comments are fair points, I have to disagree with the point about people in the middle ages being dirty and generally stinky. While that may be true compared to us contemporary people with our daily showers and our deodorant, Roman style bath houses were popular throughout Europe well into the middle ages. Bath houses didn't fall out of favor until the plague epidemics of the later medieval period.
I think part of this is that I get kind of bored when the players always head to the tavern for their shady quest-giver/rumor-monger needs. I mean, overhearing some senators in the sauna discuss the matters pertaining to goblin tribal insurrection in the North seems like it would be an interesting twist on the formula.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 14, 2016 23:41:24 GMT -6
I wanted to run an idea for a houserule past you guys. This one does bolt an additional subsystem onto the game, but bear with me.
The purpose of the rule is to mechanically enforce social mores in gameplay.
As our explorers journey through the wilderness and dungeons, they accumulate Grime points to represent how filthy and disgusting they get after adventuring. The players get: +1 Grime when they sleep in a dungeon +1 Grime every time they loot a corpse +1 Grime when they put on armor that was previously worn by a corpse +1d6 Grime at the end of combat if they engaged in melee with an edged weapon +1d3 Grime at the end of combat if they engaged in melee with a non-edged weapon (such as a mace) +2d6 Grime when they eat something vile
When a player's Grime exceeds their Charisma, they take penalties to reaction rolls. When a player's Grime exceeds their Constitution, they have an elevated chance of contracting a disease. Note that a character's Grime limits are tied to their ability scores and not to their level; higher levels shouldn't make adventurers any more tolerant of being covered in crap.
Grime is removed by bathing.
I want to encourage players to take care of their characters and keep them clean. Quantified values seem to be the way to attract attention to things in D&D, so I'm using that.
Does it seem like a bit much?
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 14, 2016 12:13:51 GMT -6
If we want to emphasize experience over ability, here's an idea:
When you drink alcohol, you take subdual damage. You can make a saving throw vs. poison to half the damage (dwarves get their bonus on this save.) Last man standing wins, and is awarded XP determined by the HD of his opponent.
If you want to represent a game of beer-pong or something, have the players make attack rolls as though attacking with a ranged weapon against their opponent's unarmored AC. If the attack hits, the target takes no damage but instead must drink.
I'm sure you could even incorporate hireling morale into this somehow.
You can keep things nice and minimalistic this way; instead of adding a new layer of rules to the game, you can represent drinking contests using an adaptation of the combat rules.
*edit* Your constitution ability is still involved with this, of course, as it determines how many hit points you have and thus how much subdual damage you can take from drinking. Incidentally, fighters drink hard. Dwarf fighters drink harder than everybody with their save bonus, but elf fighter/magic-users drink hard too if you use the rule that elves roll hit dice twice and keep the better result. Clerics can't drink as much unless they sober themselves up a little with Cure Light Wounds. Non-elf magic-users are the worst class for holding their liquor.
*edit2* If you want to add a bit of mechanical rigor to this, you could have different kinds of drinks with variable damage dice and special effects.
Example: Ghoul's Hand Brandy Damage: d8 Cost: 100gp per bottle The very height of elven decadence. This spirit of distilled wine is aged in a wooden cask with parts of a ghoul inside (or in some cases, the entire ghoul!) Non-elf characters that fail their saving throw vs. poison while drinking Ghoul's Hand Brandy are paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to the amount of subdual damage taken. Elves take subdual damage from this drink as normal, but are immune to the paralysis effect.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Aug 13, 2016 21:49:27 GMT -6
Do you award XP for drinking contests? If I encounter goblins in a dungeon can I challenge them to a drinking contest instead of fighting them?
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on May 20, 2016 13:07:38 GMT -6
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 1, 2016 22:10:26 GMT -6
Awesome! I wish I had seen this post earlier, but I'm still excited about seeing a new Carcosa product.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Oct 11, 2015 16:53:43 GMT -6
Did you happen to watch the movie The Lair of the White Worm?
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Oct 7, 2015 19:59:36 GMT -6
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Sept 16, 2015 19:36:46 GMT -6
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Apr 25, 2015 6:37:10 GMT -6
Aztec gods would fit right in. I also like the idea of changing the deities' appearance. I'd stay away from the Hindu deities, though, since Hinduism is a current religion. Christianity is a current religion, too. That doesn't stop many DM's from including Protestant witch-hammerers and Catholic militant-orders in their D&D campaigns (I sure do, anyway). You could Lovecraft-up Christianity. I had an aunt that took me to tent revivals once or twice as a kid. I vaguely remember people babbling in tongues and doing weird things with snakes. Those people are halfway to swords-and-sorcery-land already; all they need now is human sacrifices.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Apr 20, 2015 7:30:19 GMT -6
It's the purple worm and its relative, the sea monster. Look at the purple worm first. It has 15 hit dice, more than the most powerful dragon in M&T. It doesn't have armor that's as good as a dragon, and it's slower and can't fly. It has a deadly poisonous stinger instead of a visually-spectacular breath weapon. But it's a pure embodiment of hungry hate. Dragons? They sleep too much, and spend their waking moments gloating over their treasure. Purple worms can have treasure, but they don't care about it. In fact, the book doesn't say, but the treasure is probably inside the worm. Good luck getting that with mere trickery. Wow. It's relative, the Masher from Supplement II: Blackmoor, is even bigger at 20HD! Of course, even that isn't as huge as the might whale from the same book.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Apr 19, 2015 22:43:58 GMT -6
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Mar 23, 2015 3:55:53 GMT -6
I want to work the 'Iron Crusaders' into my campaign somehow. Or maybe use them as inspiration for the various roving bandits one may encounter.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Mar 21, 2015 13:13:02 GMT -6
I just finished watching the first season of this excellent show. Does anybody else see this show as a source of inspiration for their Carcosa campaigns?
With his book and his synesthesia I can't help but see Rust as a lawfully aligned Sorcerer with no rituals and very low charisma.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 29, 2015 14:12:55 GMT -6
Neat. I'd kind of like to see demi-humans conflated with the fantastic extraterrestial creatures of contemporary American folklore: flatwoods monsters, moth-men, dover demons, grey aliens, jersey devils, hopkinsville goblins, etc.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 27, 2015 14:30:54 GMT -6
Check your inbox, Geoffrey!
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 27, 2015 3:24:57 GMT -6
This may very well add a layer of complexity that people aren't comfortable with, but I kind of like the idea of omitting powered-up versions of spells from the spell list and instead listing spell power-ups separately as an option for all spells. That is, you can research continual, delayed, or 10' radius versions of any spells that are already known to you. This allows for shorter spell lists, a more concise grimoire, and tighter customization for people who are into that sort of thing. That might not be everybody's cup of tea, but if I were making my own retro-clone that's the sort of thing I would do.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 25, 2015 6:43:46 GMT -6
Strange Waters looks familiar. Didn't Lamentations of the Flame Princess feature a spell called Strange Waters II?
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 25, 2015 5:34:21 GMT -6
I kind of wish there was an even 20 spells in each level for random spell determination. If there's a d21 floating around somewhere, I sure haven't seen it.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 22, 2015 10:17:54 GMT -6
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 22, 2015 3:35:25 GMT -6
I chose the grappling hook, but only because it came with rope. A simple length of rope is all that is needed to bind the world to your will.
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otiv
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 133
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Post by otiv on Jan 18, 2015 5:52:11 GMT -6
Hello there.
I've been writing up my own D&D setting intended for use with oldschool D&D. The setting is a fantasy version of Antarctica with inspiration drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allen Poe, The Sphinx of the Ice Fields by Jules Verne, and Green Antarctica by Den Valdron on the alternatehistory.com forums. I'd like to playtest this adventure I'm writing. It's designed for mid to high level characters between levels 6 and 8. It's going to take about another week for me to finish up the mega-dungeon I'm working on, but otherwise I have the areas between the Ross Ice Shelf and the South Pole pretty well fleshed out.
Would anybody like to try for another PBP?
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