White Star Campaign: 0 - Plans and background

White Star can be bought from RPGNow -
both PDF and print formats available!

WHAT IS WHITE STAR?

White Star is Dungeons & Dragons in space, using Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox rules. Basically it is OD&D with a modern and simplified touch, frosted with space-themes. You get everything you need to play, including space crafts combat! In short, easy and fun science fiction gaming where the rules are not a cumberstone!

HOUSE RULE: DIS/ADVANTAGE

I plan to play-by-the-book as much as possible. There are not many different rules, anyways. Only thing I am going to adapt is the dis/advantage system from D&D 5e and/or The Black Hack. Skill tests are d20 < attribute rolls. If the conditions are favorable OR character should know what she is doing or her character class is good at the task, she'll gain an advantage. If conditions are bad, she'll get a disadvantage instead. Easy.

SETTING

I am going to use White Star's default setting with some additional touches from me as a starting point for my campaign. A remote location, with three factions: Space Pirates, Galactic Consortium and The Resistance. Galactic Consortium has cut this sector from rest of the space by shutting down the only (known) jump gate there. They want total power and dictatorship and don't want anyone or anything from other sectors or places to come and interfere with their plans. When they have a total control of this Kelron sector they begin to build their military strength to take on a sector after a sector... Or that's their plan on the paper!

It was 60 years ago when Galactic Consortium cut out the power of the jump gate. It is now heavily guarded, and no one is allowed to get near to it. Safety reasons, they say, but the rebels know better...

Supreme Lord Adlar is either very old, or not completely human anymore. True, some genetics and advanced medical care can expand normal human lifespan, but people talk. Some say that Supreme Lord Adlar is half human, half machine. Some whisper that he has learned darkest secrets of the Void and is immortal. Whatever the truth is, Supreme Lord Adlar's humanity is long lost, and what remains is hunger for power.

Galactic Consortium wants to bend everyone within the Kelron sector into its will. Those who will not become workers or warriors for them, shall die. Galactic Consortium has been careful this far not to just go killing people, as there are more free-willed than brainwashed followers. But they will get there in a way or another...

Resistance is against the Galactic Consortium believing in free will and democracy. They are strong, as Galactic Consortium is not yet ready to fight the people and the mass. They fight against the most active and loud members of the Resistance, using not only firepower and force but also propaganda.

Space Pirates are just people who want to make riches fast by venturing the space and smuggling and stealing. They are stuck here, when the Galactic Consortium cut out the jump gate - only way away from this sector. Many original of the Space Pirates who got stuck into this sector are already dead, but their power and will are strong. They recruit new individuals continually amongst those who want true freedom to travel and explore. They have no place with Resistance and the people, as they are feared because of their original arrival of plunder. They refuse to take steps towards the Galactic Consortium which originally restricted their freedom of travel.

Space Pirates are a loose faction. There are gangs with one leader, the Overcaptain. But as long as the gangs do what the Overcaptain says, anything can happen, resulting that the gangs are rivals. Some of them respect each other, some of them are backstabbers.

Planets and other places of interests are vague enough to be used as they are written in the book, so adding material and adventures custom to the events of the campaign will be easy.

PLAYER CHARACTER

This campaign is for only one player, my girlfriend. She has interest in playing Aristocrat character class, which is a little different from other classes more familiar to D&D or Hulks & Horrors, what we have played earlier. Because this is a one-on-one campaign, I let her roll her stats 4d6 drop the lowest and assign at will. Because more interesting in this is the story of the character than the adventures. Well the adventures create the character, but in this case player will be playing her character, the antagonist of the setting, and her story will be on focus instead of the story what developes by playing adventure modules. If it makes any sense at all.

Player character will also have NPC companions from the beginning of the game. They are close to her, her crew, her comrades, her support, her friends.

Player will choose which faction her character will be a member of. She can be part of Galactic Consortium and try to get rid of resistance in order for her faction to conquer this section before they travel forth. Or she might be part of the Resistance and fight against the Galactic Consortium. If she is a Space Pirate, she will do this and that freelancing for her own good - and maybe towards opening the gate so Space Pirates can get out of this section. It's not good for the business to have been space pirating the same sector for over 60 years!

CAMPAIGN BEGINNING

I'll start the campaign with the beginning adventure from the White Star rulebook called The Second Battle Of Brinn. It's a good introduction to the system, and I can sneak lots of campaign background information. Depending on which faction the player character will belong to.

• Galactic Consortium: The player and her crew must retrieve the data so the Rebels don't get their hands on it.
• Resistance: Get the data before Galactic Consortium will get it, because it is important for the cause.
• Space Pirates: The data is valuable, and will be easy to sell for the highest bidder - Galactic Consortium of Resistance. But before you sell it, you should make a copy of it. The information must be important, because them two factions are both after it. (At location 7, there are pirates, but they are from another gang).

WHAT WILL HAPPEN?

It depends on the player and her character's actions and motives, what the campaign will be like. I will use some scifi adventures and modules I have, dropping them into the campaign where they fit - or I will make the campaign fit the adventures. I did this same thing when I ran Labyrinth Lord for her. We had this campaign plan, the great plot, but I used all different adventure material to flesh it out with fun content.

Forsaken Soul session 1: Faces Without Screams

Campaign idea draft and rules draft can be found HERE.

The Character

A student in a mages' school who got sick of slow pace of learning. She wanted true power, not to start with controlling some light balls. So she left to pursue eldrich knowledge on her own. Unfortunately she was killed by a wild animal during her journey. But death is not the end, and now she is forsaken...

The Mini Manor: Faces Without Screams

(You can get this adventure from RPGNow for free. I'm a lucky SOB for owning a print copy of it! +Tim Shorts is one of my favorite adventure writer and I highly recommend his stuff!

DISCLAIMER: This post will include spoilers of aforementioned adventure! I made some minor changes during the play, though.

Shackled, naked, a big guy cutting up faces of other chained persons. Nameless removes a sharp bone from severed foot waiting for the big guy to get closer. Then she attacks. She only deals one point of damage, but wins initiative attacking again again and dealing 4 more points of damage (exploding dice). Big guy misses critically and slips on bloody floor missing his next round. Nameless stabs the guy on neck killing him and taking the key. Then unshackles herself and opens the door to a corridor...

Slowly proceeding she passes the first crossing pushing forward, until she finds a dead corpse wearing a leather armor and a short sword leaning against the wall (random encounter, actuall). The corpse is rotting and bloated and in his cut wounds awful maggots roam. Nameless is considering should she take the armor and the sword, as they are on corpse slime, but decides to cover her naked body with some kind of a protection...

She passes the next opening to the right but decides to check out the following to the right. Behind a corner there is a beastly man chained on the wall; he is covered with spikes, and he growls animalisticly and madly at Nameless. Luckily the shackle restrains the spiked man-beast from making contact to Nameless, who decides to withdraw back to the main corridor.

In the end of the main corridor there is a door, barred from this side. As Nameless approaches it, she feels how air gets chilly and she can see her breath. Lifting the boards, she hears whispers behind her but no one's there. Determined she enters the room...

A desk with two candles and a chair, nothing more. She goes to the desk ready to search it, finding a parchment on it. She reads it - "Welcome" -  and the door shuts in before her. And a face appears and whispers get really loud. She ignores the face, saves versus the whispers few times (failing once and losing one point of Wisdom) and searched the room to find a new placing on the wall. She broke it with the pommer of her newly found short sword to discover a hidden Soul Dunjon. The soul dunjon is a vessel with prisoned souls. Mages use these kind of "batteries" for eldrich purposes. But undead and forsaken like Nameless could use it to power herself (edible soul experience). Away from the room and back to the corridor.

Nameless doesn't want to go back to where spiked man was so she decides to go to the corridor next to it. In the end she finds a door of hundreds of faces. As she touches it she feels pain, but bears it (save successful), and the faces start to move. Inside is an empty huge room where a corridor leads onwards.

This corridor has a metal veil preventing the spirits to venture any further. After the veil is a red carpet leading into a big room. In the middle of this big room there is a comely man wearing a dress (originally a female, but for a female player I switched gender). He invites Nameless to step further, but she dithers. Man shows off his gown made out of faces stitched together, all faces blink and open their mouths without a sound. Then man winks and hows Nameless' own face sewed on the gown! And Nameless touches her face, but there is only bone and muscles and soft tissue, not faces of her!

Man declares, that even though Nameless is interesting and all, it would not be fair to other victims of him if Nameless didn't also die. So he attacks. But Nameless initiative kick ass and she stabs her shortsword deep int the guts of the protagonist (great roll, great exploding damage worth of 15 points). In pain man blasts magic missile at Nameless, who jerks the sword deeper. Second magic missile doesn't stop her either! But neither Nameless can kill her opponent yet. Man casts hold person, keeps a speech and finally slays Nameless breaking her forsaken neck.

Next time it will be Pamphlet 1: Fields Of Forsaken (PWYW PDF and PRINT)! And maybe Nameless will get a name, too!

Notes

The rules worked extremely well! Swords & Wizardry combat action is so smooth (well damn, Dungeons & Dragons combat system) and fun and fast and quick. We used Lamentations Of The Flame Princess playtest document saves, which in spite of my doubts worked very well. Full success, half success and failure are actually very intuative using dicepool system: Wisdom for all saves and Charisma for magic saves, attribute score determines dicepool of d6s. Roll two sixes and you success, one for half success, zero for failed save. Quite nice!

Starting a campaign with Swords & Wizardry Core + Lamentations Of The Flame Princess playtest document 0.1 mash-up

Today my girlfriend asked if I'd like to run a campaign for her. It's been a while since she was interested in roleplaying games, so naturally I said yes! As I have been waiting for this day for over six months, I was prepared. I am going to use +Tim Shorts' The Mini Manor, and from there go to my Pamphlet 1: Fields Of Forsaken and continue to The Flayed King. From there... I don't know yet.

The setting is inspired by Dark Souls videogames.

Image from Dark Souls 3

The rules are a mix of Swords & Wizardry Core, Lamentations Of The Flame Princess playtest document 0.1 and some of my own house rules I've used for a while. I don't have details for the rules, but basically game play will be close to S&W, character has options from LotFP playtest rules and rest is house rules. For example the character sheet is custom made.

There are some big differences to characters. This is one-Gamemaster-one-player situation, so character is more important as an individual.

• All attributes are 3d6, arrange as you want to
• Each level get one point to put in any desired attribute to rise it
• 1000 experience (soul) points per level. You die, you loose your soul points of the moment
• Free multiclassing. You can choose any class to add when you've collected 1000 experience points. Core classes (Fighter, Thief, Magic-User, Cleric) are always usable, special and other classes must be "found" in the game world to "unlock".
• Total of your class levels is your character level
• Experience (soul points) only from killing monsters (freeing souls) or doing some deeds that are worthy. Also rewards
• Spells are not memorized, character has as many spell points as his Magic-Using level of spell category is. When all spell points are used, character can cast spells, but there is a risk of failure (table from Liberation of the Demon Slayer by +Venger Satanis).
• Death & Dismemberment table by +kirin robinson when at negative hitpoints. Death effect will result as 1 point loss of appropriate attribute
• Character starts at third level

In a nutshell, it's like that.

After character is rolled (no equipment), the player will answer three questions.

1. Who are you?

2. How did you die?

3. Why do you wake up after you have died?

[LL] Material I used for "Forgotten Legend Lives" campaign

It all begun when I wanted to play Labyrinth Lord the traditional-ish vanilla-ish fantasy way. My girlfriend is not a big fantasy fan in tabletop roleplaying games, even though she has enjoyed games like Elder Scrolls III to V.

She likes elves, so an elf character we created for her. I let her roll a random magic weapon from treasure tables. As she was only player for this campaign, I thought I'd give her an edge with more powerful item. Also that item worked as an inspiration for the campaign. The item was +2 sword (+3 against giants). The buff against giants gave me already some ideas.

But a setting needs a map! I thought that it would be a good introduction to fantasy gaming if she didn't know anything about the world her character was about to step in, so I just made a map of the area everything is going to happen at.

So I made a hex map. I didn't have any idea what the setting would be like. I just thought "like a fantasy place" but more humans than demi-humans and fantastic beings.

Then I had to choose the starting place, which is at 56P. And a map for that place. I asked around google plus and +Dyson Logos suggested I'd use one of his maps, The Village Of Brenton's Bend . That is very cool small town map with an extra dungeon to delve. Perfect! I didn't include the dungeon but later in the campaign, though.

This and many other great maps can be found at Dyson Logos' website: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/
Also he's got Patreon campaign going for more maps: https://www.patreon.com/dysonlogos

The campaign started like Elder Scrolls games: you are a prisoner and you end up in the place where you are going to adventure and you yet don't know what the setting - or your character is going to be like. That was perfect for the player so she didn't have to learn what the setting is and everything, she could just start to explore fantasy with her character and herself! It also gave me free hands to go what ever direction I wanted from a scratch. Sounds hard, does it? Not really, I just had to know as much as player knows plus the important events what are in the background. Quite simple and fun, actually.

To get things going, I wanted to have a small adventure what was not a dungeon. So I created "Graveyard Of Dusk". It's a small location with few hotspots to wonder, a NPC to meet and a bigger plot with spooky encounter. Very simple.

That's how it started. Now to the material I used for the campaign:

Labyrinth Lord for core rules.

Dwarves Of Longland post here for describing the most important race after humans.

The Hanging Garden for side-quest but it turned out to be a secret lab (premise) after clearing.

Norman's Gone Missing for side-quest and to introduce cultists into the plot.

The Overrun Mines was a review copy I received, so why not to use it! Also it led to pet dragon.

Gurah, necromancer I created to be the big bad guy.

Cleric Blessed Holy Symbol I created so elf could have some fun turning undead.

Where Is Margesh Blackblood? A side-quest and to introduce a new NPC.

Silvervine Games Paper Mini Maker to craft minis for the final battle.

Dwarven Warrior Stats I created for minis combat.

AC10 Bestiary Of Dragons And Giants for inspiration as the campaign was about those two.

Monster Manuals of 1st and 3rd editions to compare dragon stats and find a cool pet dragon for character.

"AC10 TSR9211 Bestiary Of Dragons And Giants" by Source. Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia

The campaign started with a character who basically didn't know who she is in a land where Elves had left ages ago. She ended to be the elven queen of the past what came back to slay undead giant armies controlled by his father who now was evil necromancer. Also she found her old pet dragon.

FUN!

[LL] Dwarven warriors of Longland stats

Not perfect but it worked fine printed in my game. There's attack "battle yell" but for some reason I forgot to include it! How embarrassing!

So, here it is:

Battle Yell Of Longland Dwarven Warriors

Once a day a dwarven warrior of Longland can make a battle yell. It costs one round to perform but next save roll is automatically succeeded. Duration: 1 hour.

[LL] Gurah, the evil wizard, dark sorcerer, necromancer

Gurah is the main bad guy in my Labyrinth Lord Longland campaign, The Forgotten Legend Lives.

CLASS: Necromancer

LEVEL: 12th

ALIGNMENT: Evil

AC: 2

HP: 28

ABILITIES:
STR: 5 (-2) Weak and wretched
DEX 9
CON 7 (-1) Brittle and sickly
INT 17 (+2)
WIS 16 (+2)
CHA 17 (-1)

SAVING THROWS:
Breath Attacks: 12
Poison or Death: 9
Petrify or Paralyze: 9
Wands: 9
Spells or Spell-like Devices: 8

SPELLS:
4 1st, 4 2nd, 3 third, 3 fourth, 3 fifth, 2 sixth

NECROMANCER'S SPELLBOOK(1):
1st Lvl Spells: Command dead, Command undead, Locate remains, Pass undead, Ray of puking pain* Read magic,
2nd Lvl Spells: Choke, Flesh to salt**, Ghoul touch, Ray of pain,
3rd Lvl Spells: Animate dead (MU), Summon undead I, Unhallow,
4th Lvl Spells: Inter,Summon undead II
5th Lvl Spells: Summon undead III, Wall of gloom
6th Lvl Spells: Curse of undeath, Lich touch, Summon undead IV

*Ray of puking pain: D4 damage. Projectile vomiting of blood, black tar, and glowing blue slime. Combat becomes problematic. Successful save = half damage and keep your insides in. (Thanks +Nick Peterson )
**Flesh to salt: Make a save or be turned to salt. (Thanks +Chris Tierney )

OLD MAGIC-USER'S SPELLBOOK (2):
Gurah generally doesn't use spells from his old Magic-User times.
1st Lvl Spells: Detect magic, Floating disc, Magic missile, Sleep
2nd Lvl Spells: Arcane lock, Detect invisible, Knock, Web
3rd Lvl Spells: Dispel magic, Protection from normal missiles

EQUIPMENT:
Naturally Gurah has many other items both magical and mundane, but these are the things he carries and equips normally.
The Shield. This belt buckle is a powerful defensive item. If the damage result is between 2-5 the damage is ignored.
Robe Of A Necromancer. Any spell from the necromancer's spell list(1) has a 1 in 4 change to stay in a caster's memory when cast.
The Ring Of Resurrection. Once, if Gurah dies, this ring resurrects him back to full HP. The ring is then destroyed blowing up his left hand.

CIRCLE OF SUMMONING UNDEAD:
When ten cultists of Gurah join their minds and powers Gurah has almost unlimited power over dead. He, for example, has sent ten undead stone giants into a fight. With the Circle of Summoning Undead in work he can control up to 100 HD worth of undead walkers of skeletons and zombies from different races. The Circle doesn't work on otherwordly or spiritual beings.
Those cultists who maintain the circle can keep it powered for 10 hours at a time. After that period they need to rest for 1d4 days before they can continue. With magic their stamina of keeping The Circle up can be extended.
_____________________________________________

(1) All these spells are found in Theorems & Thaumaturgy document except those which aren't (mentioned).
(2) All these spells can be found in core Labyrinth Lord rules book.

Necromancer character class (from Theomers & Thaumaturgy, get it HERE) for Labyrinth Lord by +Gavin Norman

Fabulorbis now with a blog

I wanted to get a place for my Labyrinth Lord campaign. A place where I could keep my notes and material easily in hand. And where I can update campaign setting information. I realized maybe this blog is not the right place for a world creation. Too much material... And this is for me and my game. Though why not to share if someone is interested in it?

I tried Obsidian Portal first but found it a little too clumsy and constrained for me (the free version at least). And for some reason I find wiki style updating a little too hard for me.

I am not sure if blogs (in blogspot) are most organized-ready for things like this, but I'll give it a shot. And what is most important is that I know how to navigate it!

At the moment I feel busy and all, so not going to flood Fabulorbis blog with material! But it is there ready for me.

I hope I made all the "about" section right. I am not that good with licenses, trademarks and OGL!

Oh and the world map I created using http://donjon.bin.sh/ is awesome!

The world is crazy big! Now My adventures are set in Longland (map below, need to make it pretty with GIMP).

I do know where Longland is in that huge Fabulorbis map, without hex numbering it is quite hard to point out though...

And the blog address? Here: http://fabulorbis.blogspot.fi/

The second review of The Hanging Garden after I actually Labyrinth Lorded it

Here is the original review in my blog http://cryptofrabies.blogspot.fi/2014/05/review-hanging-garden.html

What I noticed, adventures read differently than they play. I mean, I did like the adventure but it didn't yell awesome. But when I ran it using Labyrinth Lord for my girlfriend's Elf and her NPC crew I actually enjoyed the adventure a lot. And so did she!

The adventure was damn easy to run. I am not very experienced running pre-made adventures of other people in my games, so this was a success. I did not struggle a bit and everything went extremely smooth. And I didn't suffer those oops wait a second, I forgot there's this and you can't be there yet because moments.

+1 for the adventure being extremely simple to run.

But the adventure did need some preparation time using random table to generate those spoiler hidden. It was fun though and I think this table could be re-used later. Maybe even to re-skin those spoiler hidden into other monsters.

+1 for this neat little tool.

Also adventure hooks were damn simple. Adventurers want to adventure, right. I used two of the six rumors in one tavern (don't adventures start at tavern) when two guys were talking and arguing what is going on. Both rumors were naturally wrong but not that far off. As in something suspicious and bad is going on.

+1 for rumors here.

Hojo from Final Fantasy VII became
Erymos Elmyndmor of Hanging Gardens!

The bad professor dude wasn't described that well leaving me a lot of space. I wanted the finale not only being rolling-dice-and-hitting-stuff and wanted the professor to be someone. So I googled "fantasy professor" and chose the first what showed up. That's the picture on the left.

Then I put some Final Fantasy and j-rpg style combat music playing in background and the mood was damn prefect! The professor was so j-rpg mad fantasy scientist and those monsters were so j-rpg/Biohazard mutants. Loved the scene and combat!

And player did too. When Erymos was defeated there was a scene in Anime fashion. Dying professor in character's hand being all moody and stuff.

EPIC!

And my player left the place moody and feeling unhappy about killing the professor. Success!

I say, download this adventure (HERE) and run it for your group. Then run here and tell how it went! I am very, very curious to hear other Referees' experiences with this adventure. Because as I said, I am new to pre-mades.

So to wrap this up:

• I liked this
• Easy and simple to run
• Player liked it
• Fun monster generator

[LL] Dwarves of Longland

Dwarves are an ancient race for the rocky soil itself. They live long and born old.

Appearance

Their skin is grey or brown in different shades as the soil itself. Their hair usually is in different shades of grey or brown. Rarely their hair can be as red or orange as lava deep beneath. These red-haired Dwarves are usually Clerics. Their eyes are bright in colors of different gems; bright green, purple, yellow, red, blue...

Their beard grows long and thick but Dwarves usually trim it for their personal taste. Beard for other races is how Dwarves are most easy way to tell the difference of the individuals.

Their skin is rough and wrinkled and they stand 4 feet long weighting 150 pounds. Their build is sturdy and strong, yet a little clumsy except for their finger which are nimble and precise at crafting.

Dwarves don't use animals as they are as strong as a mule to pull ore from mines and their physique is not well suited for riding horses or ponies. Deep underground many pets would feel miserable anyways.

There are no male and female Dwarves; Dwarf is just a Dwarf.

Reproduction

When two Dwarves love each other (their "love" is different from other races. It is more "practical" than emotional) they both remove a small part of their heart and rib and bury it deep in the rock. After 50 years they crack the rock open and a new Dwarf is let free. The new Dwarf doesn't acknowledge these two as his parents, but as his family - clan. The new Dwarf is an young adult when born and quickly learns what he is teatched.

If there is no Dwarven "love" present when creating a new Dwarf, nothing will produce inside the rock.

Dwarves don't have marriage so they are not monogamous. Rarely two Dwarves from different clans reproduce, but when they happen the new dwarf can choose which parent's clan he will join, if his parents haven't found their own new clan already.

Habitual Residence

Dwarves live deep underground in the mountains of the northern Longland. No one knows how many Dwarves habit Longland in total as they are not too common in other parts of the continent except their homestead and north-east battlegrounds.

Deep underground inside the mountain there are networks of tunnels ending to mines or digging deeper and deeper. Also big underground cities are mined on the very rock. Without knowing where you are heading you easily get lost.

Alignment And Language

Dwarves are usually Good or Neutral depending how they view the outside world. Rarely Dwarves are Chaotic but some Chaotic clans are known to exist isolated in the deepest parts of the mountain. Chaotic Dwarves usually mind their own business and prefer solitude worshipping their god, the Lava Demon. No one knows what is the true goal of Dwarves who turn Chaotic.

Dwarves speak their own language most commonly referred as "dwarven". Different clans have their own dialects what might be confusing for other races who know dwarven language. Dwarves usually speak also common and some know halfling.

They prefer not use Alignment language unless they have to. They don't want to be recognized as belonging into something in a bigger scale rather than being an unique race of their own. Many warrior Dwarves also speak Orcish to be able to better interrogate their prisoners of war and to be able to figure out what their intelligence gathers.

Clans

Dwarf clan leader

Dwarves have clans with different colors, banners, emblems and customs. These clans work together with other clans in a bigger scale but the clan leader is the one who manages his own flock. Clan leaders are the eldest, wisest and most skilled of their flock. Usually clan leader is respected so much there is no rivalry. Also as clan leaders have strong political stand and good relations with other clan leaders it is hard to replace a clan leader without leading the clan to perish.

Professions

Dwarf miner by Greg Opalinski
@ http://domigorgon.deviantart.com/art/Dwarf-Miner-363333156

Dwarves generally love to do three things; dig, craft and fight. Those most patient are diggers or

crafters and those who lack the patience are warriors. Those who even lack of patience for being a soldier become adventurers.

There are no social classes, so a clan leader might very well enjoy his life digging minerals instead of being a stereotypical leader.

Dwarven weapons and armors are masterpieces. All the weapons and armor they create are +1 equipment, but there is a 15% change the equipment is +2, 7% change for +3 and 1% change for +4 and above (5% with other "magical" qualities present). This is when Dwarves create things just for fun of crafting. When Dwarves truly want to create something specific, they can do it. It just takes time.

Warriors

Dwarf warrior

All Dwarves, diggers and crafters, are always ready to defend their mountain and tunnels. Warriors are those who venture outside to fight at outside world. The biggest conflict where Dwarven warriors are present is North-East shore of Longland, where Orcish troops try to invade the continent from the east. Without Dwarven warriors holding the border, Longland would be fallen ages ago.


Trading

Dwarves mine so much ore, minerals, precious metal, diamonds, etc. and craft so much equipment they see not that much value in those as human does. They naturally understand how human sees the lump of gold, but don't understand why that is so valuable. Gold sure is pretty to look at but as it is soft it's not very good material to use except for decoration. As Dwarves don't do anything else they trade what they create and dig with other goods. Dwarven traders travel Longland traiding their goods with human goods.

Eating And Drinking

Dwarves love ale and there is no stronger ale than what Dwarves brew. That is the reason why Dwarves are considered heavy drinkers but that is not true. Human ale is just so mild for Dwarven taste they must drink gallons of it.

Dwarves also love good food what they need a lot as they do physical work most of the time only sleeping for a hour or two per day. They love greasy meat, sausages, eggs, fried potatoes and other stiff foods. Dwarves can also survive by eating only rocks but it is not that sell.

Dwarves trade the food with human and sometimes with Halflings. Elven food they are not too keen with.

Religions

Most of the Dwarves don't believe in other deities. It is the Mother Land, Soil and Rock. Holy trinity of ground they know and trust in. Dwarf Clerics are extremely rare, but they exist (maybe 1 of 1000 Dwarves might be a Cleric). Most of the Dwarven Clerics are more entertainers raising morale than religious leaders. Dwarven Clerics also join the common tasks of crafting, digging and fighting.

Dwarven Clerics are those who lead the events of celebration and holidays. As there are so many Dwarves compared to Clerics these events tend to be enormous instead of small and quiet.

Dwarf Cleric

Dwarven Cleric

Rarely some Dwarven Clerics who pray the Mother Land, Soil and Rock gain powers from their prayers.

A third level Dwarven Cleric has a 1 in 6 change per level from that point to gain Cleric character class powers* of 1st level. When 1st Cleric class powers is gained, he has from that level each level 1 in 6 change to gain second Cleric classes powers and so on. When Dwarf Cleric continues advancing levels Dwarf Cleric cannot use any other weapon than warhammer (or other blunt weapon resembling a tool) to have a change to get a favor from Mother Land, Soil and Rock.

*Spells per day

Technology

Dwarves are really creative what comes into crafting. They like building devices and are quite advanced in using steam. They usually use technology to ease the mass production of weapons for war against Orcish horder but also enjoy building gadgets of all scales.

Dwarves have also experimented with weaponry using gunpowder. Sometimes Dwarves also dabble with alchemy and chemistry.

Other Races

Dwarves can stand other races, especially humans as they are good traders. Halflings are entertaining but useless as they are too weak to do real work and they rest too much. Elven are not favorites of dwarves as Elven folk have abandoned Longland. Some Elven adventurers Dwarves consider to be potentional good allies - but rather not go there.

History

Where Dwarves came doesn't matter any more. And most -if not almost every- Dwarves think that they are ancient children of Mother Land, Soil and Rock. Maybe only a just a little younger. The clan histories are stories Dwarves enjoy to hear and tell which are what matters the most. They tell historical tales of digging, crafting, fighting and adventuring.

Fabulorbis, my Labyrinth Lord world

Lat. fabulosa, means fabulous and orbis means world. Together they are Fabulorbis, a world of myth, mystery and fantasy!

Actually I just invented Fabulorbis for my blog to "label" certain posts under. The point is that I am currently running Labyrinth Lord and want everything I design for this campaign to be a permanent part of a fantasy setting world. Creating and inhabiting a world while playing I thought is a good idea. Also if Labyrinth Lord is visited again with a new character there will be lots of familiar things for the player already from previous game(s).

I know there are settings created so you don't have to do it yourself, but I find pre-made settings complicated to run. There's so many things you should try to remember and adapt and I don't like to run someone else's ideas and (home)world. But there's one setting I am interested in, Mithgarthr (more I write that name more I hate it!) Just waiting it to be a little more complete.

Anyways, the world, the planet, the microuniversums and planes and heavens and hells and dimensions and everything for Labyrinth Lord is one setting, called Fabulorbis. The "earth" (planet) will be big enough to contain many continents with different themes (Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, USA, Antarktis even today are totally different from each other). It will be big enough to hold Forgotten Realms somewhere if I wanted to (the 3rd edition FR campaign book is as interesting as watching does stones move or not - horriblehorribleboring).

At the moment there currently is only one place decided, called Longland (because it is more long than wide, duh). This is a picture scanned with a phone here of the hex map for the Longland:

F56 is the "starting" city, for my campaign Forgotten Legend Lives, is called The Village of Brenton's Bend (link to map at Dyson's Dodecahedron, one of the best rpg cartographers in the UNIVERSE).

The X right above it at F54 is Graveyard Of Dusk (view post here, download unedited PDF here).

The rest of Longland will be revealed during the play, but I got plans. Yes, I got plans...

Anyways, posts behind Fabulorbis label will contain setting material I create. They are for Fabulorbis but as you now already know, Fabulorbis is a kitchen sink name for everything Labyrinth Lord game. So, feel free to grab what you like for your own campaign, as it also is part of FABULORBIS!

Oh, I've tried to create the world with Donjon Fantasy World Generator, but it's always crowded!

[LLtFFL] Derek The Wizardslayer, Cleric NPC

As a paladin of his order, Derek The Wizardslayer is in an eternal quest to slave evil, chaotic and
malevolent wizards in the realm. He is not afraid of death as he believes this is his personal absolution. What crimes against his faith he has done are untold but he is zealot for his cause. If others have same goals as his he will accompany them. He doesn't care about other's sins, as other souls' remission is not his concern.

Name: Derek The Wizardslayer
Class/Race: Human Cleric
Alignment: Good
Level: 7th
Age: 37

Hit Points: 30
AC: 4

ABILITIES:
STR: 13 (+1 to hit, damage, forcing doors)
DEX: 10
CON: 14 (+1 HP per HD)
INT: 9
WIS: 15 (+1 Saving throw mod. to all magic effects, +5% exp)
CHA: 14 (-1 reac. adj., 5 ret., 8 ret. morale)

SPELLS:
1st level = 4 (Detect Evil x2, Protection From Evil, Cure Light Wounds) 
2nd level = 3 (Know Alignment x2, Bless)
3rd level = 2 (Remove Curse, Dispel Magic)
4th level = 1 (Create Food And Water)

EQUIPMENT:
- Travellers equipment in a backpack, 2 torches, sleeping back, knife, etc. you usually need)
- Rations for 3 days
- Silver holy symbol
- Holy Water, 4 portions
- Heavy Flail (dmg 1d8(+1)
- Banded Mail (AC 4)
- Mule

50 gp
124 sp
34 cp

___________________________________

Campaign notes: Derek might be a bit high level to accompany a first/second level player character, but there's a point to that. Derek will step into the campaign to make a fight against a Spectre easier for the character. As fighting this Spectre Derek the Cleric will be level drained to a 3rd level (to still be able to give a hand for the character at the beginning of her journey).

The spells listed are those he usually has prayed.

This naturally is devastating for Derek The Wizardslayer, as his power is drained. How will it affect him psychologically? That's where the npc roleplaying starts.

PS: I love the Cleric picture in Labyrinth Lord!

The picture .jpg is called "cormarren.jpg". I have no idea who the artist is or where the picture originates. I took it from here: http://bernietheflumph.blogspot.fi/2013/11/clerics-of-wyrld.html

[LL] The Forgotten Legend Lives character (with a multiclassing draft! Alternative Elf casting!)

The Forgotten Legend Lives is a Labyrinth Lord campaign I am running for a single player. Here in my blog I already wrote an overview of rules I planned to use. Some have changed for example not at this point using Advanced Edition Characters for player character. Instead the game starts with race-as-class (as in LL core book) and later there are options to multiclass.

Character Creation

Abilities were rolled 4d6 assign as you want as this is a single player game and I wanted the character to be a little more special than just a basic 3d6 in order. Also I wanted player to have some power on the results to create a character she wants to play.

Starting Hit Points equal to Constitution score. This is for a simple reason that this is going to be a campaign of a character and her story, not a survival of the fittest (or cunningest!). Hit Points advance as the original class.

There will be a multiclassing option but I am not still sure how to make it work easily. The experience progression chart is as Fighters for a simple reason. Less numbers to track than with Elf (almost 4x needed compared to Fighter) and it doesn't really matter, as this is with one player.

MULTICLASSING DRAFT: The idea of multiclassing is that all class levels together is character level. The exp needed for next level is character level and Fighter exp chart. At the beginning when advancing a level player can choose (for Elf character) does she take the best benefices from Elf class, Fighter class or Magic-User class (as Elven are Fighter-M-U's anyways). What ever are the highest numbers compared to current are marked as new numbers. Some may have worse saves but get better to-hit or more spells. Some hit better but don't get spells etc. This should be simple enough but at this point is only a draft. I think it'll be finished during the gameplay.
Also other classes are available when character meets some requirements; for Clerics joining an order, Thieves need a quild etc. Race cannot be changed naturally!

Also Elven magic works differently from Magic-Users. As Magic-Users need to learn the spells Elven magic is natural and innate. As Elf levels (her Elf class) she gains new spells as powers. She can cast as many spells levels as her Elf level + WIS bonus per day.

Example: A 3rd level Elf with +2 WIS bonus can cast has 5 spell points. She can cast 5 1st level spells, two second level spells and one 1st level spells, one 3rd level spell and two 1st levels or one 2nd level spell etc. The spell points are re-gained after a rest.

If all the spells points are used for a day Elf can try to spontaneously cast a spell. Save versus Spells or Spell-like Devices - spell level. If successful, the spell is cast as normal. If a failure, spell level damage to hit points is suffered as a system shock.

If the Elf multiclasses to Magic-User the Elven innate spells and learned Magic-User spells are kept separate from each other, as other are innate powers, other learned and memorized.

Other things were by the book.

The character didn't have any starting gold so her starting equipment was just slave's/prisoner's rag. But she did have two magical items randomly rolled from Labyrinth Lord's random magic items charts.

Other item is a weapon player could choose to roll from the three charts; Rods, staves and wands, or swords or miscellaneous weapons. She chose a sword to be rolled.

Also a random magic item was to be rolled.

Also because player chose to be an Elf and when her legendary destiny is to be revealed (in game) I'll let her roll for a subclass from Dyson's d12 elven subclasses. But that is to become later.

Character Background

The character doesn't remember her past etc. For this there are two reasons. The player is not familiar with the setting so as the setting is revealed for the character as she adventures there also the player learns about the setting. The Elves are extremely rare in the setting to make things more logical why this particular "hero" Elf doesn't know much. Also she's from another place than this so this is all new to her. There is a story behind why she doesn't remember anything (generic vanilla fantasy - that's the point in this!), but the plot story doesn't belong here at all.

Second reason is that I've toyed a lot with a campaign similar to Elder Scrolls (particularly Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim) and all those games start with the player character imported to the adventure location without a clue what is going on. And in all those game the player is destined (a legend) to not only save the day but the whole adventure area!

So yeah, this is nothing innovative, but I haven't ran games like this for like 15 years or so, so this is what and how I want to do it.

Only hints to the characters past and who she is are the two magic items she holds.

These things are revealed in game reports I am planning to post here as the game advances (3rd session done, 0 posted here!)

Character Sheet

Character Name: Amaro Utharo
Class/Race: Elf
Alignment: Good
Level: 1
Age: ?

Hit Points: 12 (as CON)
Armor Class: 8 (-1 from DEX)

ABILITIES:
STR: 8
DEX: 13
CON: 12
INT: 15
WIS: 14
CHA: 10

OTHER ABILITIES: Lorimer (I have no idea what this is and when I asked the player wasn't sure either. So if anyone know what Lorimer (or Iomirer) is please let me know...

CLASS ABILITIES AND SPELLS:
60ft. infravision
- search 2/6
-immunity to paralysis
- spell: Magic Missile

WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT:
- Sword +2 (+3 against giants) with a dragon headed handle (this is not only a weapon but also a plot-item!!!)
- Tome of stealth (xp-boost for Thief and Assassin)

Starting Labyrinth Lord campaign, the overview

This weekend I am finally starting to Referee Labyrinth Lord with one -my trusted- player. I have some plans already, but the final campaign is formed during the course of sessions and in between of the sessions. These are the core thoughts I already have.

The idea for the campaign is to be from hero to zero inspired by games like Elder Scrolls (series) and Fable.

Character Creation

Abilities are rolled 4d6 drop the lowest assign as you like. For the player character (and most notable NPCs) the Advanced Edition Companion character rules are used separating race from class. For minor and other NPCs race-as-class as in core book is usually used.

Player chooses a race and makes modifications. He lowers his scores if those exceed the racial maximum and raises if they don't meet the requirements.

The class is chosen from the race's (restriction) list. The minimum requirements must be met. At this point player can fiddle ability points -2 from one to rise another with +1 to meet the requirements for his favorite class. Also this first class determines the experience progression for character's whole career (if multiclassing later).

Advanced HD from page 21 is used! Also in first level add CON to HD. No CON plusses though. (This is also to make the game easier for my character. I want a campaign with a hero, not survival of the tactics. Also as my player is not familiar with old-school style of dungeon dying I don't want the character to be too fragile). The character is a hero with a destiny after all. Also secondary skills (same page) used for some background.

Alignments are good, neutral and evil (see LotFP). Lawful - chaotic is roleplaying, not rules wise. Those three alignments are the characters position in universe. For example evil character might have access to altars, equipment, covenants etc. lawful character cannot.

About equipment. Initiative funds are rolled as normal but player cannot buy starting equipment. Instead player can choose:

• To roll random weapon from one of the following tables:
• RODS, STAVES, and WANDS
• SWORDS
• MISCELLANEOUS WEAPONS
• To roll random magic item from the table

Also character has simple clothes on. (As the game starts from "0". To make it easier for the player to get know the world when the character doesn't know shit either. Also see how Elder Scroll's start, at least Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim which I know).

Death

Death is not permanent. Depending on a situation where player looses all his HP different things can occur. Character is left into a ditch to die robbed, character is captured... what ever suits the situation. Death cannot end the campaign. Still in my experience even if my player has high suspects that her character cannot die (Referee doesn't "allow" it) she acts like her character is vulnerable and important. And she's told me she's been afraid of her characters dying in the past.

Experience Progression & Multiclassing

Experience is gained from treasures and killing monsters. Also some extra experience can be gained if character does something significant for himself or the cause. Mission experience is gold. "Kill 10 spiders in the cellar and get 100GP".

Even if character decides to multiclass later the experience progression chart of his first class is used instead of the new class. The different class levels are totaled for the character level. So a Fighter (initiative class) 2nd level with Assassin 2nd level and Cleric 1st level is 5th level character and needs 32501 exp for next level... what ever it would be.

The multiclassing to those classes available in character creation doesn't need any tricks. You can multiclass to those. To multiclass into a class not available for that race you need to find a guild, covenant, order, teacher... what ever who shows you the ways of the class not familiar for you(r race). This is roleplaying, no rules. See how Elder Scrolls works for guilds and stuff.

When gaining new abilities and attack bonuses and what not the highest possible result is used, even if the highest was the previous from last classes. HD is rolled by the class of that level. Some equipment restrictions apply when used class abilities. Even if a Cleric-Fighter-Assassin the god of the clerichood might ban sharp weapons.

The World & The Campaign

This is a mystery! I need a starting location (small fishing village where character arrives) and some stuff to do there. Basically first sessions are going to be a tutorial, because my player is not familiar with B/X style of play (she's played LotFP and Mutant Future though so know the rules ideas). I take a hex map and draw locations there. The sizes of the hexes doesn't matter. The hex map is a "how different places are related to each other". Two neighbouring hexes are neighbours but there might be 100 miles in between when two other neighbouring hexes might be stuck together.

Pantheon will be what ever it is. I ask player to choose her god/dess. She can invent her own, or take something from any source. Or at the moment be an atheist not believing in gods. Different gods (and godly creatures, including demons) can be encountered via altars (here you pray and devote. It's mostly psychical but who know) or gods might even contact you!

The character has a destiny. Or she had but then something happened and she was cast away and now she is clueless (memory erased or something lame like this). At the course of the campaign she will find out who she is supposed to be. And then she slays the bad guy! But before it she slays those bad guys who support the bad guy.

The world is your generic fantasy world you have seen 1000 times. This is a generic fantasy adventure after all. Why? Because I haven't played this kind of game with my player yet! Quite possible after the start going to use parts of Mithgarthr... who know.

I will record campaign reports here in my blog.