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Post by crusssdaddy on Jun 20, 2014 19:44:27 GMT -6
I'm working on some chargen flash that's basically a background overlay for characters -- I might tie it to race, I might not. Here's a sample, format is ripped off from Scott Driver's DWARF-LAND:
Dervishes are... Unfathomably cruel savages who haunt the scorching desert wastes. Enthusiastic advocates of sorcery and abomination. Thralls of the Mummy Brains, which unleash them on weird excursions and incite them to rampage in furtherance of inscrutable plots. Overwhelmingly Chaotic – those of other alignment are escapees, outcast and marked for extinction.
Abilities: Desert survival skills +1” move Move Silently as thief of equal level Roll twice on Mutation Table, keep preferred result
Dervish Trait Table (roll d6) 1. Years spent wandering contaminated wastes has rendered you RESISTANT TO CHANGE and you enjoy a +5 bonus to saves vs. mutation effects. Regardless, your appearance is subtly off-putting to non-mutants.
2. In combat you are a FEARSOME AGGRESSOR. You automatically win initiative in the current round if you hit your opponent in the previous round. Your penchant for taking trophies will someday get you into trouble.
3. One of your eyes has been replaced with an INFERNAL OCULUS. Complete darkness is as dim light to you, invisibility is no foil to your perception. When the stars arrange themselves just so, you are bedeviled by phantasmagoric hallucinations.
4. Some time ago you recovered a PERILOUS INSCRIPTION from a buried archive. Fragmentary and unfathomable but unmistakably evil, you may barter this artefact to a despicable personage for a significant boon. Revealing to your benefactor the location of the complete formula hastens the extinction of the planet.
5. You know a CORRUPT VERNACULAR. You can communicate with intelligent spawn of Shub-Niggurath, including each of the six main races. Occasions of parley afford you a +1 reaction bonus with these creatures. The mere sound of your voice arouses suspicions among Lawful types.
6. You know the FORMULA FOR LOTUS POWDER and possess three doses of a variety of your choice. Don't get high on your own supply (you do).
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jun 4, 2014 23:03:47 GMT -6
I would think skills are highly sought in trade: technology repair, dinosaur husbandry/taming, etc.
I'm increasingly looking at adventurers as a complete breed apart from village/castle/citadel dwellers. When adventurers arrive at one of these locations, it's like when modern missionaries or explorers or ethnographers arrive at a village in Borneo or the Amazon: great curiosity, eager to trade for tools, impressed by technology, offered a spot in the headman's hut, etc. Excepting those occasions when you are greeted by having your head chopped off and offered to the local deity.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Apr 16, 2014 21:23:19 GMT -6
I glanced at the cover of the Simmlerallion and was rendered unconscious. No thank you!
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Post by crusssdaddy on Feb 23, 2014 9:37:11 GMT -6
The original goes to eleven.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jan 4, 2014 21:58:26 GMT -6
Is there anywhere else where Tolkien intends horror and pulls it off? It's been too long since I've read his books to remember... the Dead Marshes? Shelob? Something from the Silmarillion, Lost Tales, etc.? I agree that the Ringwraiths aren't particularly horrifying and their accomplishments in the War of the Ring seem to fall significantly short of expectation.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Dec 12, 2013 20:55:46 GMT -6
Is there any real danger of confusing Jackson's LotR with Tolkien's, except in a temporary "can't get this annoying song out of my head" kind of way? I haven't seen Jackson's Hobbit, but I assume it's more of the same. To Kill a Mockingbird is the only film I can think of that has overtaken the source in a substantial way: if I were to read that book today, I would picture and hear Gregory Peck throughout.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Nov 24, 2013 15:24:51 GMT -6
Very inspiring!
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Post by crusssdaddy on Oct 19, 2013 17:10:32 GMT -6
Alternatives to D&D: Deathtrap Dungeon from the Fighting Fantasy series; Heroquest; Advanced Heroquest; Warhammer Quest (obviously, without using the roleplay supplement).
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Post by crusssdaddy on Oct 10, 2013 9:47:24 GMT -6
You can also give the characters a limited-use tech or sorcery devices that emulate magic-user spells that would be used to even the score. A handful of Sleep grenades, or a tazer with 1D charges that creates a Hold Person effect via paralysis, or a cult medallion that can Charm Person. Limited supply or charges means they must be used wisely and will be gone by the time the characters become more powerful (or replace them with better loot).
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Post by crusssdaddy on Oct 9, 2013 19:51:41 GMT -6
I think the ability to flee trouble should be emphasized, with additional rules where necessary. Ask players to be innovative when considering diversions, flight tactics, etc. Offer XP for accomplishments other than killing and loot acquisition.
Another consideration is that probably their most common encounter will be with Spawn of Shub-Niggurath, many of these of the non-intelligent variety. I would take "non-intelligent" literally. These are not creatures that evolved and have millions of years of instinct or an animal intelligence to call upon: they were squeezed out of S-N's butt and now flop hideously across the surface of the planet with no intelligence guiding them. I don't see them choosing optimal behavior in any circumstance, so out strategizing them in combat should be well within player capabilities.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Oct 4, 2013 10:06:44 GMT -6
I would tie the unarmored advantages to movement. Allow an expanded charge distance, ability to attack and move, disengage freely, change opponents from one round to the next, some sort of dodge-based saving throw vs. missile attacks, etc.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Oct 3, 2013 9:26:01 GMT -6
I think there's two ways to approach it: each spell grows in potential effect as the caster gains levels, or the likelihood of a catastrophic f***-up decreases as the caster gains in levels. In the first case, a 1st level M-U can cast Move Earth but the effect will be equivalent to creating a sand castle. In the second case, a 1st level M-U can cast Move Earth but there's a high likelihood of ending up buried alive.
EDIT: I think combining those two is the way Harry Potter does it?
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Post by crusssdaddy on Sept 26, 2013 23:16:53 GMT -6
Sounds like a promising start!
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Post by crusssdaddy on Sept 10, 2013 9:55:22 GMT -6
For clerics, if you dislike plate and shield for aesthetic reasons but want to preserve the mechanical AC benefits, you may consider substituting some sort of "aura of invincibility" effect when facing appropriate monsters, adversaries of chaotic/evil alignment, etc. Sort of like the AD&D ranger's bonus to-hit against certain opponents, but applied to the cleric's AC instead. Or perhaps a limited "Protection from Evil"-type effect against hunted monsters.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Sept 1, 2013 20:20:30 GMT -6
Never, ever been able to find maps for: So if any of you hobbyist cartographers have some free time, you could be the first. Fame, glory! Anyone else have a map or two you'd like to see?
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Post by crusssdaddy on Sept 1, 2013 19:09:30 GMT -6
I think it would be interesting to have a Boot Hill campaign inspired by Jodorwsky's El Topo. Carcosa with guns and horses. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlcoPf9Xi9QNot safe for work/psychostability. I actually put together some very preliminary notes for something like that called "Filth Dakota." Entering the Indian Territories means crossing a dimensional barrier, which basically means you enter Carcosa. General Custer is a Mummy who leads a mounted cohort of Diseased Guardians...
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 29, 2013 13:56:56 GMT -6
I think if you consider Gandalf as a Jedi rather than a magic-user it's a more comfortable fit. Loner bad-ass with a magic sword, mind powers and a quasi-mystical pedigree... it just makes sense.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 27, 2013 10:00:34 GMT -6
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 24, 2013 19:19:25 GMT -6
Shouldn't the paladin's first priority re: transgression be his/her deity?
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 22, 2013 17:14:10 GMT -6
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 22, 2013 8:04:27 GMT -6
Demonlord is a great game. I've been working on and off at adapting it to Carcosa.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 21, 2013 17:21:24 GMT -6
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 8, 2013 14:01:01 GMT -6
One issue this thread was intended to bring up is that of noise vs real information. I can't help but wonder if a lot of the complexity that is possible in dungeons can end up as anything but noise. In other words, does it end up as meaningful to the gameplay or is the extra detail lost on the players? My goal is to follow the LBB in the sense that I want the dungeon to be a difficult obstacle in its own right, but I want it to be possible to deduce from careful mapping where secret areas might be, and so on. That requires a degree of accuracy to be POSSIBLE in the mapping process. My concern with very complex maps, including some of Arnesons, and those featuring tons of elevation changes in levels, with overlapping rooms/corridors, etc, is that they move beyond being graspable by players, considering the information is presented just verbally by the DM. My goal of making accurate mapping possible (though not necessarily likely or easy) conflicts with some of the complexity that I think Kent advocates. Thoughts? I think one alternative that can meld complexity with ease of access is, instead of having the physical layout of the dungeon provide clues for further exploration, have the contents of the dungeon provide those clues. Captured prisoners can be interrogated to uncover hidden areas. Fragments of maps from prior expeditions, found on a skeleton or among the treasures in a lair, can reveal secret doors. Items that provide access to one-shot oracular magic may be questioned. Other evidence that provides clues: prints in dust, scratchings on walls and floors, etc. Interacting with these features may provide richer or at least alternative roleplaying opportunities than examining the map for open spaces.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 8, 2013 13:27:49 GMT -6
For Kent: How do you use this in your play (if you have yet): somekingskent.blogspot.com/2012/10/naqada-djed.htmlTo me this is a surreal space. Do you key it and the PCs wander about? Are encounters episodic in nature and advance a story, like Beholder Contract? Would PCs who explore this space in the manner of a more typical dungeon crawl be destroyed outright within minutes, simply by exposing themselves to phenomena Ultramontane? Is there any analogue in your campaign to the process of ignite torches -- go 60' to end of corridor -- listen at door -- check for secret doors -- okay this area is 30' x 50' with a pit in the center and you can just make out cobwebs in the far corner -- etc... and the rest of that more familiar dungeon crawl activity?
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 7, 2013 20:55:25 GMT -6
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Post by crusssdaddy on Aug 6, 2013 20:34:13 GMT -6
Another early one is the personal campaign of J. Eric Holmes from ~1975-1977, OD&D using the Warlock variant rules, before he had contact with TSR. Mostly unpublished, but we see glimpses in the Boinger and Zereth stories. The later stories in Dragon Magazine and Maze of Peril are distorted by time, but the Alarums & Excursions stories ('76-'77) are basically session journals that give a small window into the campaign at the time. Lots of stuff grabbed from the literature and the real world, coexisting side-by-side - witch doctors, samurai, vikings, Dune-like sandworms, Cthulhoid horrors etc You have any samples of that on your website or blog? Love some links if you do.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jul 30, 2013 10:41:53 GMT -6
Terminal Space is probably the quickest/easiest to jump into, if your point of origin is OD&D. It adds a "Tech Level" stat(3= Neanderthal, 18= StarChild), has a small bestiary but assumes many original monsters will be used, nice ship rules, and I think adds some additional psionics material that essentially re-skins magic use for a hi-tech setting. It generally lacks setting material, but I view this as a plus.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jul 27, 2013 20:52:38 GMT -6
And because TGoP is compact, Time and the Gods and The Sword of Welleran are coming along also.
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jul 27, 2013 20:49:27 GMT -6
I'm right there with you on some of those Teatro Grottesco ones, particularly Red Tower and Foreign Town. I've marked this page to follow up on the other collections.
Desert Island Book: The Gods of Pegana World I Would Like To Play In: Viriconium Currently (Re)Reading: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
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Post by crusssdaddy on Jul 27, 2013 12:22:33 GMT -6
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