[LotFP] Witchfinders, Demonhunters and Inquisitors

In the world where weird monsters and horrors are reality lurking behind the veils of everyday life, some brave and determined men and women have dedicated their lives to seek out and destroy these things. They are marked with a sacred brand on their forehead to grand special powers against the infernal and cosmic forces of evil.

Any new character from any class from the beginning of the campaign can be branded to gain a special power, which you determine rolling 1d6 from the table. Also roll for a disadvantage of the devotion. A character might later on a campaign become one going through a sacred ritual of branding. They must devote their adventuring life for the cause they have chosen.

WITCHFINDER

They are professionals that seek out those who have powers beyond the man for selling their soul to the forces of evil. They know how to deal with witches and protect themselves against their malicious spells.

Advantages

1. Immune to any charm or mind affecting powers of witches.

2. Can make a special balsam against witches powers. The balsam costs 100 GP of protection per level of witch's HD. The balsam, when applied to the skin, protects against one direct spell of the witch except charm and mind affecting spells.

3. Can sense a presence of a witch within 100 feet per their level.

4. When making a finishing blow against a witch, they can absorb one random power of her if they will. They must success a save versus Magic or be corrupted of the witchtanic power and lose their special ability for 1d6 levels.

5. Specialist in long-distance murder and take advantage on technology. +2 using gunpowder weapons. Also all maintenance work for gunpowder weapons are halved.

6. Resistant to poisons, but must drink a dose of poison daily or die, if doesn't save versus poison.

Disadvantages

1. Every witch she kills reminds her of her own mother for a reason or another. She must save against paralyze or be depressed the next adventure suffering a -1 penalty to any roll.

2. She is hypersensitive for witch's body. Any time witch inflicts unarmed damage, she suffer extra 1d4 damage per witch's HD.

3. Her ancestor was a witch, and in her blood thin witchtanic trace. If she comes in touch with witch's blood, there is 1-in-6 chance that the witch within is invoked. Her alignment changes to chaotic and as she loses her advantage, she gains witchtanic powers.

4. All potions and alchemical fluids have double effect on her. Both helpful and harmful.

5. Has saved someone from witch's claws and now her responsibility is to protect him.

6. Is permanently ill, thanks to witch's curse. Needs medicine once every 2d4 days. Ingredients for one dose costs 10 GP per level and needs one special incredient to produce. With a successful Intelligence roll (under), can produce the medicine herself. Even though she doesn't success, the GP used for the ingredients is lost. If she buys the medicine prepared, one dose costs 25 GP per her level.

DEMONHUNTER

Infernal, demonic, monstrous and otherworldly beings are their enemies. Their mind is strong against the temptations and body resistant of their corruption. Their blade cuts precise and deep.

Advantages

1. Against demonic creatures they deal extra 1d6 damage.

2. Can roll two dices to save against demonic powers and corruption.

3. Can learn from the demons they destroy, giving them +1 to attack rolls, damage rolls and saves against same types.

4. Has 5% chance per their level to learn a spell cast against them. They can use it once, until learned again.

5. Has one special weapon you have used to kill your first monster. With this weapon you get +2 to damage, to-hit and armor class. Without that weapon you suffer severe effects of fright and self-esteem problems causing you to be extremely insecure and undetermined also suffering -1 to all actions you take.

6. Can brand others. In exchange of permanent bonus of 1 to saves versus demonic and monstrous powers they suffer 1d4 permanent damage to HP.

Disadvantages

1. The lure of demonic powers is strong against her. Every time she encounters a demon she must success in save against magic. If she fails six times in her life, her soul is lost and possessed by a demon (roll summon spell chart to see what abomination she will become).

2. There is a 1-in-6 chance a day that she will mistake something ordinary (a peon, a goat, a windmill) for a demon and she will try to destroy. It is possible to stop her and talk sense to her, but it is not an easy task.

3. She is like a magnet for the demons. Demons can sense her from a distance and from beyond the curtains of dimensions. Every week there is a 1-in-6 chance that a demon finds her and tries to destroy her.

4. All the evil she has seen and conquered has tainted her soul, and no clerical magic works on her.

5. Has had a taste of blood of her enemies and must drink demonic or monstrous blood at least once per week or die if doesn't save against poison.

6. Has hunted creatures of darkness so long, that suffers from sunlight. It burns her skin and she cannot see well. -2 to all eyesight related tasks and 1 HP damage per hour when exposed to direct sunlight.

INQUISITOR

Not necessarily the forces of evil are always witches or demons. Also ordinary people are capable of horrible things and crimes against humanity. You are the one who weeds the evil from the hoi polloi. Your actions might be horrible or brutal, but it is for the good of the humanity.

Advantages

1. Knows how to torture and get information or confessions out of anyone. It takes one hour and 1d4 damage per HD of the victim to squeeze out whatever the inquisitor wants to know. Unfortunately, there is a 50% chance that the victim just says what inquisitor wants to hear, so he can get a release from the pains and horrors of torture.

2. Knows how to hurt people. When your attack roll is 19 or 20, you can aim your opponent and cause him severe pain with extra 1d4 +1 per level damage.

3. Gets +2 bonus to your Charisma every time you intimidate someone.

4. No pain, no gain. They have caused so much suffering, they almost live out of it. As a bonus action inquisitor can wound himself to gain half of that damage to next attack as a to-hit bonus.

5. Harsh training has made her tougher. She needs half the amount of rations and can resist harsh weather effects with doubled efficiency.

6. Can prevent evil spells from harming her and her group if will sacrifice as many people as the spell level in 12 hours. If doesn't, all the spell effects will fire on her with double effect.

Disadvantages

1. Has seen so much blood and suffering you have inflicted, that you cannot feel empathy anymore. Every action you take is aggressive against normal people and you can only see the worst in them.

2. Is scarred from the burning firebrands and self-inflicted wounds and need to hide your monstrous skin under a hood not to scare people. You look like a monster yourself.

3. Is haunted by ghosts of innocent people she has killed in torture. In the beginning of game there are 1d4 souls to haunt her, and every time an innocent person is dead by her hands she must save against magic or suffer of another haunt. Naturally, there are psychological effects to this every day there is 2% chance per haunting soul that her conscience is making her question her cause and her advantage doesn't work that day.

4. Is twisted and bloodlusty and will always kill if there is a chance. No enemy or victim of her should remain alive.

5. Must daily repent her own sins or lose her advantage for a day. Repenting sins demands two hours of prayer and self whipping.

6. There is something holy in her, god knows what twisted god thinks so. She has stigmata that bleeds constantly. Lose 1d2 HP daily from bleeding palms. Also handling weapons is harder without gloves or straps as blood soaked hands are slick.

You can download the pdf, with slightly revised text, from my Patreon page!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/witchfinder-and-6535360

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?

Gaming report: Liberation Of The Demon Slayer

Adventure used: Liberation Of The Demon Slayer by Kort'halis Publishing, +Venger Satanis
Rules system: Swords & Wizardry Core with the following house rules:

• Death & Dismemberment table by +kirin robinson (at negative hitpoints roll 2d6 minus negative damage, smaller result is worse)
• Wild spell casting: Magic-Users and Clerics might cast any spell they know ex-tempore. Doing so they must roll d20 + modifiers (level/2 + INT/WIS (M-U/C) bonus minus spell level. Higher result is better, from catastrophe to epic success. This formula can be found in LotDS adventure house-rules section.
• Advantages and disadvantages. From 5th edition of D&D. Roll twice and keep better or worse result. As there are no skills, your character's class can give you an advantage if your class is supposed to know how to do it. Roll under attribute as skill tests.
• Basic/Expert style Attribute bonuses, from -3 to +3 instead of -1 to +1 which is in S&W.
• Exploding damage. Highest result in damage die allows you to roll damage die again and add.

Characters: Pre-generated. No class restrictions for races. Humans get +1 to every Attribute. Start at second level, max hp at first. Characters were Halfling Magic-User, Human Cleric and Dwarf Thief.

Setting: Homebrew, remote island with remote little island where this all happened.

Background story: All these characters have traveled to this adventure location, because they have had unsettling dreams of demons landing the Realm and starting havoc.

They all arrive to this remote small island, where they follow their auspice. They soon find out, that within this island is a small remote village, where this dungeon lies. They start their travel to the dungeon in carts, that head to the village. Before some rumors were gathered and local church was visited. Donation was made and one vial of holy water received.

In final part of the trip they encounter six cheerful cultists of Yogshothoth. The cultists know that the demons will soon arrive, and they have embraced the weird godcreature of chaos. "Only Yogshothoth the Chaos can save us", they celebrate. The caravaners stop.

Human Cleric of righteous god hating infidels and heathens attacks without question. A combat starts, where two cultists engage this zealot. Remaining four cultists don't want to interfere in violence. Soon Magic-Using halfling has charmed a cultists in back row to engage his comrades. And some Magic-Missiles happen, too.

The combat is fierce. One charmed cultist murders his comrade, and soon another cultists is charmed. One cultist is turned into light with very successful and high damage roll. One is captured, one escapes. The horses halfling thief let loose didn't hit the cultists, but ran away.

Halfling wanted to interview the captured cultist, but went to help the caravanists to retrieve their horses let loose. Meanwhile Cleric murdered the cultist.

Caravanists were not pleased with this violent and hazardous encounter. With three cultists dead, one escaped and two charmed (as henchmen now), they get to the village.

They meet some villagers and rent an old warehouse they turn hastily into a base. And they head to the dungeon...

Next to the village a shiny and steep rock stands. On its surface, there is a portcullis blocking the way in. Above it, there is an evil rune. Magic-User studies the rune only to find out it will devastate everyone entering (if save is not made). Outside the dungeon entrance on a rock a little girl sits.

Cleric detects evil with quick prayer and finds out the girl is not evil. But as the god favored his prayer, he did feel how the dungeon reeked evil from the depths.

The little girl wanted to make sure these are the adventurers, who would (possibly) stop the demon invasion. Only they need to do is retrieve a sword, Demon Slayer, and slay the first demon descending in meteor rain from hell. Then she opened the portcullis and let adventurers in.

SPOILERS AHEAD, SO STOP READING IF YOU THINK YOU SHOULD NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ!

Not far from the dungeon entrance there is a sprung pit trap. In the bottom some corpses lie. Lots of planning and rope tricks later, they get to the other side. Cleric took some damage to leg while climbing up, when a monster lurking the bottom of the pit bit his leg. And rope mishap killed other charmed henchman cultist. The Cleric managed to get some clear quartz loot from the bottom, though. They continue the dungeon, one man down...

Only to find another sprung trap. Careful examination tells that there were poison darts shot from the wall that killed these two adventurers. Trap is harmless now, so they continue.

(I skipped the third sprung trap, to get going on). They find a cave room, where root like material covers the ceiling and walls, expanding as roots or tentacles on the floor. In the other end there is a pedestal where a globe rest. They decide not to risk it, as they think the room is dangerous, and leave the globe there advancing.

Next room is a laboratory, where Magic-User spends some time exploring and studying it finding instructions to summon a demon. He finds out the fiend's name, but doesn't know who this demon is. Might come in handy... Cleric wants to know what he learned, but the Magic-User keeps the information for himself knowing that the Cleric probably wouldn't like demon-summoning skills.

As they continue their exploration, the path forks. There Magic-User finds a ring. He commands his charmed cultist henchman to grab it. Nothing bad happens, so the Magic-User keeps it for himself. He knows the runes are demonic and can contact a demon. He doesn't know how and what will happen, if used, though.

They choose the second path and advance it, when a portcullis comes down crashing. Saves are rolled to avoid getting hit by it! Thief has an advantage because it is a trap, and he successes very well pulling Magic-User back with him. Charmed cultist makes his save and jumps back. Cleric fails, gets some damage from the falling portcullis, but luckily jumps back, too. The party is not separated.

Cleric says quick prayer trying to heal his wound with godly power, but his god didn't like this quick prayer and instead damaged him! Cleric refuses to continue before he has prayed his god (for more spells). Others refuse to wait, so they advance to the other fork leaving the Cleric to pray on his own.

Magic-User, Thief and charmed cultist henchman advance to find a skull fountain. Charmed cultist is commanded to manipulate it and blood starts to flow. Magic-User takes a sample.

Meanwhile a (random encounter) cultist walks from behind the portcullis trap and confronts the praying Cleric. "Who are you", he demands, but the praying Cleric ignores him. Waving his dagger for a short time, the cultist withdraws back to the depths of the dungeon.

Magic-User wants to go to the previous laboratory they found to study the blood. They go there grabbing the Cleric back with them. While studying the blood Cleric prays. Some rolls were made and god thought the Cleric can have his spells back (that was a long rest there... no random encounters).

At this point lots of game time was used, and we knew we had to quit at some point. Players discussed and thought, that they could never explore the dungeon in the remaining time, and would only find new rooms with new content. So they decided they (as players) want to try to figure out how to get the globe instead, and try to leave the dungeon to continue later.

Before trying to figure out how to get the globe from a room of root tentacles, they start to think how they can secure a quick escape over the sprung pit trap. Lots of planning, how to do it, with ropes, or jumping or climbing... when they use a solution: from the laboratory take desk and bookshelves and whatnot and throw those in the bottom of the pit to use as a leverage. While carrying stuff around, a (random encounter) talking lion appears. He doesn't like the noise these adventurers are making in the cave! Adventurers more or less ignore the lion apologizing, and after a while the lion leaves them alone.

After they have thought they have secured their escape making it a bit more easier and a bit safer, they start to think about getting the globe. All kinds of lassoing it suggestions are made, but finally the charmed cultist is sent in. In the halfway to the other end of the room where the pedestal is, four tentacle roots from the ground attack the cultists capturing him. He yells in pain screaming! Magic-User uses his fireball scroll, rolling 20+ points of damage (with some exploding dice). The fireball scorches the room turning everything inside it to ashes, except the globe. As the damage was so high, it backfired from the dungeon on the corridors...

The Magic-User was safe from it, as was Thief surviving a save... but the Cleric wasn't that lucky. He suffered great deal of damage, and his left leg was burned off (Death & dismemberment table). From oven hot room Magic-User retrieved the globe pouring some drinking water on it to cool it.

Both cultists now dead and their Cleric's leg burned off they decide to call it a day and escape. But the dungeon is sealed, and the little girl who let them wont let them out without the Demon Slayer sword. They are trapped in! At this point they have made an observation, that they had two dead cultists, and there were already two dead cultists when they entered it. Also other dead corpses they found were a human, a halfling and a dwarf: exactly as their party!

Magic-User uses his new summon demon skill to summon a demon, which is trapped in the summoning circle. Cleric sprinkles holy water on it only annoying it more The demon tries everything for anyone of them to break the circle and let them loose: sell your souls to my master and I will open the dungeon entrance for you, sell your friends' soul and I'll let you out. Just break this circle and I'll let you out... But they wont.

They are trapped inside... And the game ends.

If the game had continued, we discussed three possible endings:

1. They let the demon free and hope that he unseals the dungeon so they could get out. It is uncertain what the consequences would be...
2. They would continue to explore the dungeon in hope of finding the Demon Slayer, so the little girl would let them out. Then they would start fighting the demon invasion.
3. They die. Starve to death, or the dungeon or monsters within would kill them.

Thoughts of the module:

It took five hours or so, and we only explored 7 areas of total 23 or so, and I skipped the third one entirely! Sure, pre-dungeon gaming took some time. The dungeon was quite random in content. I am not sure did I like it or not. Some of it didn't make lots of sense as why this is here and that there. Some did more.

Liberation Of The Demon Slayer's first floor is an interesting place to explore, for sure, but that is what it is. A place where you check out content and try to survive while searching for the sword. What I like is that you can run only the first level, but can expand to other levels as a mini setting and campaign. There is a lot of content, and NPCs to interact, too! Some day I'd like to explore this more (well, technically watch as it is explored).

I did make some changes for the background, not using default background of the module. I also made some changes to the content.

Did I like it? Players were great and entertaining. Sami is a veteran player and gamemaster and a scene activist. I've played with him few games. One player I had played with also, and the third player was new for me. I liked them a lot!

You can read my review of the module HERE with commentary by Venger himself!

OSR Hit locations for Ascending AC

METHOD:

• Natural d20 die result, when successfully hit with to-hit bonus, also determines the hit location.
• Natural 1 die result is always a fumble (determined by DM or other optional rules).
• Natural 20 is a critical hit with other optional rules.
• Results 2 and 12 let the target hit to choose the hit location.

HP DISTRIBUTION (optional rule):

• Every damage from a successful hit is reduced from character's hp value.
• The damage is also reduced from a hit location.
• Hit locations have individual hp based on character's hp value (normal rounding rules, minimum 1).
• When a hit locations hp is reduced to zero, that body part is incapacitated. Healing takes one week per negative hp.
• A save versus death must be made every time a body part with negative hp suffers damage. A save is made in a penalty of negative hit points of that body part. If the save is unsuccessful, that body part is lost. If head, chest, or abdomen is lost - you die.

HP DISTRIBUTION EXAMPE:
Bermund, 3rd level Fighting Man has 13 hit points. His hit location hp would be:
Head: 3, Arms 7, Chest 9, Abdomen: 7, Legs: 4.

COMBAT DAMAGE EXAMPLE:
Orc swings his axe at Bermund with roll result 17, hitting him at chest. The damage is 4 points, so Bermund's total HP is reduced to 9 and chest's HP to 5. Next blow hits his right arm with die result 19 dealing 5 damage. His total hp is reduced to 4 and right arm's hp to 2. Third hit strikes the right arm again, dealing 3 damage. Total hp is at 1 now, and right arm at -1. Bermund rolls d20-1 to save, and fails. His right arm is chopped off.

COMBAT HEALING EXAMPLE:
Bermund's right arm doesn't heal, as he doesn't have got it any more. It takes one week though, to bring the stump from -1 back to 0. After one week, his stump of a right arm is healed.
His chest is healed in five day's rest and he is back to maximum 13 hp after 12 days of rest.

BONUS: ALTERNATIVE HIT LOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
+Joshua Fox at Google Plus suggested these hit locations saying:

I'm not an expert, but I recon the fighter works hardest to protect their head, followed by their body. Their arms are constantly exposed to danger by attempting to strike their opponents or ward off blows, and the legs are just a bit harder to protect given you're focusing on the head and body.

So I'd say something like

• 20: crit, attacker's choice
• 9, 12, 19: sword arm
• 8, 11, 18: offhand arm
• 2, 7, 17: leg on same side as sword
• 6, 16: other leg
• 5, 15: abdomen
• 4,14: chest
• 13: head
• 1: fumble, and defender's choice 

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Disclaimer: I haven't playtested this. So I have no idea if it works or not! I suggest you only let player characters use this as counting hit location hp for all orcs and skeletons is a lot of work. Just describe how they suffer!

[D&D 5E] Leveling without experience points tracking

Adventurer party from dnd.wizards.com

+David Rollins made an interesting blog post about a campaign, where he would use Lamentations Of The Flame Princess material in Known World setting using 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules.

This is what David wrote in his post:

"My big challenge will be adapting the experience awards in the adventures to suit 5E. I'm reading through my new DMG in the hopes that I can figure out a fair way to assign experience since the adventures I'm using where [sic] designed to use treasure as the main source of XP rather than the conflict."

This is what I would do! This is not my original idea. I've read this somewhere, probably many times from different sources. But I like it.

The number of adventures/modules you play is how fast you level.

Rule of thumb: You level when you've completed number of adventures/modules equal to your current level. First level character needs to complete one adventure, fifth level needs to complete five adventures. Fifth level character has completed total of 15 adventures.

Some adventures are shorter or easier, some longer or harder.

Easy fix. Easy or short adventures equal 1/2 or even 1/4 of a "normal" adventure. Hard or long adventures might equal to two or three normal adventures. You might need four very short and/or easy adventures to get to the second level. From third to fourth level you might need only two longer or harder adventures.
If the adventures are hard enough to earn you more than just one level, just ignore the rest. You cannot skip levels, same thing with gold-xp.

Works best with unified experience charts.

Old-school games usually have unique experience charts for each character class. More modern D&D versions have same experience advancement chart for each of the classes. Easy to adapt for modern versions, might need tweaking for older versions, as the classes are balanced with experience point requirements.

Do you have a way to convert B/X or 1E (or even more recent) experience points for the fifth edition, or vice versa?

Share your method in comments!
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Disclaimer: I haven't read 5th edition rules (yet), so I don't know what I am talking about!

[LotFP/LL/S&W/OSR] Knife fighting

Pic from: http://www.gutterfighting.org/

Introduction

In The Brotherhood Of Rose novel by David Morell there was a knife fighting scene between two agents. They used knife hand to attack and off-hand to parry opponent's attack. That is an inspiration for this post. I decided to use LotFP as a default for writing this, but this is easy to adapt to other OSR games like Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord, as long as you remember that Armor Class values are a bit different in those. LotFP unarmored default is 12, in S&W it is 10. Both of those are ascending. In Labyrinth Lord default unarmored AC is 9 and it is descending.

Mechanics

In this example I use a character with leather armor which is 2 better than unarmored in every edition. In addition the example character has +1 modifier (-1 in descending) to AC from his Dexterity Score.

This is how his AC looks:
Unarmored--with Dexterity--With leather armor--TOTAL
------12------------13--------------------15-----------------15

When using a fighting technique, where you use your main hand to attack with knife AND your off-hand to parry opponents knife strikes, add 2 to armor class. The AC would consist of the following:

Unarmored--Dex--Leather--Technique--TOTAL
------12--------13------15----------17----------17

So, to hit the character and inflict knife's d4 damage to HP opponent needs to roll 17 or higher. Just like by-the-book. But parrying with your hand hurts, am I right?

When the attack roll hits the range of the "technique", which in above example would be 16 and 17 of AC, one point of damage is suffered. Why?

0-12 is the default how hard anything human sized is to hit. 12-13 is how much the guy with DEX bonus dodges and moves around. 14-15 is where the actual armor comes in play. 16 and 17 are your hand blocking the knife's sharp blade, so naturally roll results of 16 and 17, which in AC scale represent your hand result damage.

In A Nut Shell:

Fighting with a knife using off-hand to parry gives +2 to AC, but the AC values in that +2 ranges when rolled with to-hit (with attack bonuses) deal 1 HP damage.

I fixed low monster xp for B/X style games

Monsters don't give much experience points in earlier editions and similacrum systems (OSR) because the point of the game is treasures and exploration. Generally if you want to kill tons of monsters you should choose a game with less deadly (early levels) combat and better support for monster killing.

There are cheap and quick fixes for character survival; max HP at first level, dead at -X instead of zero HP, starting HP equals to CON score etc. These fixes give characters few extra hits to survive but don't change the advancement.

Here comes XP multipliers for monsters!

So, when characters kill monsters in creative or cool ways, X2.

When they kill monsters in sneaky ways, X3.

When they survive the combat uninjured, X5.

The point is to make fights rewarding and to encourage players to do everything else than roll dice taking turns (and propably die - also boring).

Avoiding monsters gives normal monster XP, so spotting them and getting around them is still a reward. Now you can concider the risks: should you sneak past them (X1 XP) or try to maul them with cunning and survive unharmed (X5 XP).

True, if you engage many fights you will get more XP than default. You are more likely to lose those extra experience points, though. With your character's life!

I have to admit I am a little loose on handing experience points. I don't have months to see players' characters to grow in power, and they will be dead or retired at some point anyways.

Once I even gave solid 10x for all monster XP for more heroic and combat oriented game! It's all about what you want from your campaign and what will be the focus. The focus of the campaign is a good start to determine the source for XP.

One-shots and adventure module gaming RAW is fine. In that kind of game experience is not numbers on the paper (is it ever only that) but the challenge and the story for the players to have fun with.

Well, that's how I roll.

Attribute checks with six-sided dice

I replaced normal (basic/expert style) Attribute checks with this:

Ancient Roman bone dice
http://www.ancientresource.com/

System

Roll D6s under your Attribute score to success.

Difficulty

How many dice, how easy it is to roll under, is determined by the difficulty of the task.

Easy - 2D6
Normal - 3D6
Hard - 4D6
Extreme -5D6

Double Sixes Always Fail

No matter how many dice you roll, two sixes is always an failure.

Wild Die

If the character class should know how to do it, roll an extra die of different color - wild die. Wild die result can be used to replace any other die result.

Teamwork

How many people can help in a task depends on the situation, space around it, individual capability, etc. All additional participants' Attribute modifiers are added together and divided by three. This is extra wild dice that can be used.
__________________________

Examples

Example 1: Roger the Thief tries to remember very hard has he heard anything about weird incidents in the city sewers. The town is quite big and Roger is familiar with it, so the task should be easy (2D6). For the fun of it, Charisma score is used. Roger rolls 4 and 6 (10), under his Cha of 12 and has heard rumors considering the sewers...

Example 2: William the Fighter tries to bend bars of the cage his fellow adventurers are locked in. The bars are rusty, so 3D6 are rolled against his Strength. Other characters locked inside will help him, with total Strength bonus of 4, so they add one wild die. William, as a Fighter is supposed to do tour de forces, so he adds another wild die from his class.

Example 3: Time is running out when a friend is suffering severe magical poisoning. Time cannot be wasted but there are just so many books in this arcane library. Magic-User Matthew rolls 4D6 trying to score under his Intelligence. But he knows them books, getting a wild die to help his task.

Example 4: Weird old engine of ancient dwarves. All the pieces seem to be collected, but now it is time to assemble it. The adventurer party of four puts their heads together and start the job. Difficulty is extreme, 5D6, but at least they get three wild dice. Intelligent ladies they are.

___________________

Inspiration:
Praedor roleplaying game by Burger Games, +Ville Vuorela
Liberation of the Demon Slayer by Kort'thalis Publishing, +Venger Satanis

Hulks & Horrors Redshirt Template And NPC Quick Generator

Redshirts in Hulks & Horrors roleplaying game are a character class for those fresh characters who cannot qualify to be any of the seven classes. Instead of re-rolling there is an option to play a redshirt class. They are weak but learn a stat point in every level until they can qualify for a class and get "promoted" to that class.

This document gives DMs a quick rules to create NPC redshirts (something like "henchmen" in fantasy editions) and a character tracking sheet.
First table shows HD/level, to-hit modifier and HP for redshirt. Either choose what level redshirt NPC you would like to create OR roll % dice to see what level redshirt you got.
Example: Rolling 83 gives HD/LVL 3 redshirt with +1 to-hit and 9 HP, unless you want to roll the HP using 3D6.

Firearms are rolled with 1D10. One firearm per redshirt. How much ammunition, shots, the redshirt has for his gun is rolled 3D10 minus roll result of firearm.
Example: Result 8 gives redshirt Naval Pumpgun and 3D10 - roll result 8 five shots for it.

Melee weapons are rolled like firearms. One per redshirt.

Armor are rolled using D6. It's more likely that a redshirt is unarmored (he's got a red uniform, though. Or any other kind of uniform his job fashions).

Other equipment is given for the redshirt. If a redshirt is hired he possesses a firearm, a melee weapon and possibly an armor. NPC redshirts player characters encounter have the equipment DM gives them.

NPC tracker is used for created redshirts. # is basically identification for additional notes and information. HP is current HP.

Feel free to download! There might be version updates (1.0 at the time writing this), or not.
DOWNLOAD PDF.

[Rules] How player characters might find items they need?

Simple rule. If player characters own a castle, spaceship or a dungeon they conquered last month there's a big change that there are items left behind from previous settlers. But it is too time consuming to make an imaginary inventory of every nail and board and toothbrush! Here's a quick solution:

 Can We Find It?

When players ask can they find item X in their place, there's one-in-X chance there is one of these items. The X chance varies by how rare and powerful the item is. A simple tool might be 1-in-3-chance (result 1 with 1D3) when an ancient relic to open dimensional portal to Limbo might be 1-in-1000-change (result 1 with 1D1000). Naturally the probablity of the desired item being found depends on a setting, and location where it is been searched. A tome of magic necromantic in nature is easier to find in old crypt than in a bakery.

There is a big change that the item is worse compared to an item your player have bought. But hey, these are free items you happen to find behind that cupboard or in the dusty corner of the hangar. 

Now that the item is or is not found, there are some other things you might consider. For example...

Condition

I am not going to write long rules for the condition, but you might roll a D4 to determine what's the abstract condition of the item. Result "1" is 25% of original condition, "2" is 50%, 3 is 75% and 4 is 100%, mint. Also if you rolled 4, roll again. If you roll another 4, the condition is 125% of the original! If you want to go crazy and roll another 4, just add 25% to the previous (exploding dice).

The condition might affect item in many different ways. Here are some examples how:

• Reduced damage every 25%. 75% condition is -1 to damage, 50% condition -2 and 25% decreases damage die one step (1D8 longsword now deals 1D6 damage). If item is in a better than original condition, the weapon deals one die step higher damage (1D8 longsword would do 1D10 damage).

•  Reduced protection. -1 per 25% below 100%. Better than mint condition adds 1 to AC.
•  Tools or other equipment you need to use to achieve something give penalties or bonuses to dice rolls. 1 bonus or penalty per 25% over or under 100%.

Fixing Mutant Future low melee damage

Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord (well, basic era games in general) have similar melee weapon damages but there's a big difference; the HP.

In Labyrinth Lord you roll one die per level so your first level adventurer has enough hit points to survive a blow or three. In Mutant Future you roll dice equal to your Constitution score (16 dice for CON 16 dude) making him around ten timed -or more- resilient than his poor fantasy cousins.

Firearms and lasers do more damage, but aren't melee weapons lethal too instead of just being annoying? And in default Mutant Future setting(s) modern and future weapons are scarce... Mutant powers deal good amount of damage though...

But as there are good damage dealers in the game (modern arms, mutations) why make most common available weapons damn ineffective and boring? Baseball bat with nails and good-ol-machete re cool in hands of mutant - but not in this game.

Mutant Future Low Melee Damage Fix

Weapons have base damage as listed.

When base damage is rolled, multiply it with STR bonus, if positive.

In some situations (finesse weapons, skill matters more than brutal strength) DEX modifier can be used.

Example: Dex the lizardman gets into a barfight! He opens his butterfly knife and maked it dance between his fingers. He might not be the quickest pistolero in the wasted, but he sure is damn nimble.
Quick attack and his opponent is bleeding - badly.
Dex rolls 1d6+2 damage (his butterfly knife is goo'od) and scores 7. He is nimble with DEX modifier of +3, what is now damage multiplier so his total damage dealt is 21! Not bad!

(I don't have MF rulebook in my hand so I had to pull knife damage and DEX modifier from my hat).

When rolling random encounter roll also a wild die

This is not my original idea. The inspiration I got from +Eric Hoffman at Google+ Mutant Future group. His blogpost "Mutant Future Expanded Wilderness Rules" is where I got the idea from.

When you roll for random encounter, also roll an additional d6. If the d6 shows "6" roll twice from the random encounter table. The encounter will be these two creatures interacting somehow. Also when you had a result 6 roll again - another 6, add an additional creature to the encounter and roll again.

Example: Before I roll d20 to see what the random encounter is, I roll a d6 and have a result "6". So that's two critters they encounter. But because I scored a 6 I roll again. Blah result is 3. With another 6 I'd got to mix one additional creature in the encounter extravaganza!

When you know how many encounters there are, roll their relations to each other:
1 - Aggressive, they most likely fight each other
2 - Suspicious of each other
3 - Passing by
4 - Close to each other, neutral
5 - Friendly, but not associated
6 - They work together

To make things fun, roll for each encouter pair. For example of three encounters Spidergoats and Morlock might be passing by when Spidergoats work with Brain Lashers but Morlocks fight them. Try to figure that out, nah, let player characters do it! You grin and let the mayhem begin!

If you feel that 1 in 6 change for double-encounter-situation is too big, then just rise the die size. Use d12 or d10 instead.

[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)