Category: Game Ideas

Free Cities Bar Association

In the Free Cities, law and order is maintained by an elite corp of attorneys. The Free Cities Bar Association is the guild that controls the pricing of the services of attorneys. While the people of the Free Cities call them attorneys, the rest of the world considers them to be duelists or assassins. Free City Attorneys do not argue cases in a court of law, rather they are paid to duel on a patron’s behalf. They are also rumored to take payment in exchange for quietly eliminating anyone a wealthy patron wishes. As such, the wealthiest attorneys are also the most deadly, feared, and expensive to keep on retainer or hire.

Some of the eldest attorneys have created partnerships, where successful attorneys pay younger attorneys with little to no reputation to take on cases for them.

The Ship in the Trollands


On the Dark Side, in the Trollands, is a ship. This ship fell from the sky years ago and lodged itself into a hillside. No one has ever been able to gain entry to the ship. It’s smooth metal surfaces are seemingly impervious to any axe, pick, or battering ram. Strangely, since the ship crashed here, the native life to the area has… changed. The trolls and giants native to the region have mutated in strange ways. Multiple heads, hunchbacks, bestial limbs, and extra eyes are all common with even stranger mutations rumored.  

The Silt Sea

The Silt Sea is a shallow sea, named for its bed of silt formed from the runoff of hundreds of rivers and streams that empty into it. The body of water is also called the Gold Sea, as small gold nuggets are frequently found by sifting through the silt. Prospectors have formed boom towns all around the sea, and theft and murder is a common occurrence among the prospecting towns. Fortunes can be made at the Sea, but getting that fortune out to real civilization, past the other prospectors, pirates, and highwaymen, not to mention monsters, is easier said than done. Vast caravans travel by land to and from the various towns selling wares and trading for gold.

The Rim

Strathos, the world, is made up of four sections. The first is the Axis, which is the central spoke. The vast majority of the world is made up of the Disc, which is actually two separate sections stuck together like wafers; the Light Side, and a Dark Side. The outer edge of the Disc forms the fourth section; The Rim.

Rimward is the word used to describe travel away from the Axis towards the Rim.
Regardless of which side of the world one is on, The Rim is considered the Unknown, due to its isolation. Many myths, legends, and stories exist pertaining to the Rim, and many of these tales involve intrepid but doomed adventurers falling off the end of the world, or being taken away by celestial beings for use as playthings.

The lands leading toward the Rim are cold and desolate. On the Light Side, there are often coniferous forests or tundra. On the Dark Side, there is simply tundra or glaciers or barren rock. Mountains often tower at the edge, overlooking the interior. In a few spots, the ocean drains down from the Rim in massive waterfalls, to be collected and funneled back toward the Axis through the center of the planet and belched forth back to the surface from springs within the central continent. 

It is said that the lonely towers found on the rim are the retreats of monks who have given up on the world. Some say these monks oppose the lords of the Axis. Some say they call themselves the Children of Gith.

The Axis of the World

While I haven’t been keeping up on the blog, I have been keeping up in my notebook.

Strathos has expanded from a continent to an entire world!

Strathos (the world) is in the style of a “Flat Earth,” in that it isn’t a globe or sphere, but rather a disc. However, this disc, like a coin, has two sides. A Light side, and a Dark side. Which is kind of a misnomer, as there is darkness on the light side and light on the dark side, but well I’ll explain as I go on.

Imagine a coin or wheel floating in the air, laying parallel to the ground. Now put an axle through the center of the wheel, with equal lengths on either side of wheel. At each end of the axle, imagine a light bulb. When one light bulb is turned on, the other turns off. Now, place a bubble on either side of the wheel, encompassing everything within that side of the wheel, including the axle and light bulb.

That’s a rough description of Strathos.

I never claimed to be a good artist

For our purposes, I will refer to the world as the Coin, and the previously described axle as the Axis. The light bulb is the Sun.

The center of the coin, the area surrounding the axis, is the hottest area of the world. Jungles, swamps, deserts, tropics, etc.  The outer edge of the coin is the coldest; tundra, ice flows, glaciers, and so on. In between is the temperate regions.

The Light Side of the coin experiences daylight for a uniform 16 hours a day, and 8 hours of darkness. The Dark Side, by contrast, experiences daylight for 8 hours a day, and 16 hours of darkness.

The Light Side is where I’m going to concentrate first.

The Axis in the center of the Coin, rises higher than the tallest mountains. At its pinnacle rests a gigantic sphere that emits light and heat. Not as much light and heat as a traditional star, of course. But just enough to mimic most of the conditions here on Earth.

Surrounding the Axis is a continent filled with steaming jungles.

Outward from that continent are more continents and landmasses, each with their own ecological systems and dominant life forms. These would be the “sandbox,” to borrow the popular term. I will build upon the central continent and Axis, while the rest of the world can be whatever; premade settings, homemade ideas, or a mixture of both.

Wizard Spells in Dungeon Crawl Classics

I’m really trying not to mod the shit out of DCC, which is hard because I love tinkering with rules (which should be obvious from reading this blog or any of my previous blogs).

However, a particular aspect of the magic system rubs me the wrong way and it has to go.

Wizards in DCC have a very limited number of spells they are allowed to know. As in, a level one Wizard could have books with 500 spells in them, but can only cast four of them. Not four in a day and the next day can study and switch them out. No, they know the same four spells forever, unchanging. Those other 496 spells collect dust, never to be used.

How does that make sense? How does that go with Appendix N which DCC constantly trumpets the virtues of?

Screw all that. It isn’t fun. The Wizard already has a pretty crappy lot in life; spells have a good chance of hurting them (temporarily or permanently), patron bonding is arguably more hurtful than helpful, they have few hit points and armor makes it harder to cast spells. On top of all that, they can never learn new spells?

It’s almost like the rule is a mistake, but apparently it’s made it through four printings and the official DCC forums say it’s for real.

Furthermore, the rules say a Wizard can not cast spells higher than their level chart indicates. So a level one or two Wizard can not cast spells higher than level 1.  A level three Wizard can not cast spells higher than level 2.

But later on in the magic section it says spells of higher level CAN be cast, but it is more dangerous. It doesn’t say exactly how or why it’s more dangerous, but I have to assume it’s because the Spell Check is higher and the Wizard being of lower level doesn’t have as good of a bonus to cast as a higher level Wizard would.

Not only that, but non-magic characters can cast magic, albeit with mandatory Luck burning, but still. If a Warrior can cast a spell at all, then a first level Wizard should be able to cast a 5th level spell (with all the associated penalties).

So, here is my very simple rule change.

A Wizard character can know any number of spells. The number they can memorize is equal to the number indicated on the Wizard chart in the class description. So a level one Wizard can memorize four spells, regardless of the level of those spells. A level two Wizard can memorize 5 spells, and so on.

Spells that are available to be memorized must be researched and a check roll must be made, as is written in the rules. A character isn’t just automatically going to have access to a spell just because they have a grimoire or scroll in their possession.

When a Wizard character successfully checks to learn a spell that is in their possession, it goes into their pool of available spells to choose from. If the check fails, they must wait until they reach the next level of experience before attempting to learn the spell again.

Example:

So a level one Wizard has their normal four starting spells from level 1. In the course of an adventure they find a spell book with two level 2 spells in it. For brevity, we’ll assume that the adventure ends with the Wizard making it to a town or other safe area to rest for an indefinite amount of time. During this down time, the Wizard studies the spell book and attempts to learn the two spells contained within. The fail the attempt at learning the first spell, but succeed in learning the second spell. 

Now, the first level Wizard can memorize a total of four spells per day, but has five spells to choose from. The fifth spell being a level two spell means it is more difficult to cast, and therefore more dangerous to the Wizard, but gives them another spell casting option.

Man, I think that is a simple rule change. Yeah, it’s more like DnD, but it also makes sense.

 

Skills and Skill points

Skills and Skill Points

Every character has the ability to perform skills. In most cases, character’s aren’t particularly good at any skills, but have at least some chance of success. Skill rolls are only necessary if the Referee determines that there is a chance of failure if attempted. Otherwise, the Player should be able to role play the situation without needing to roll dice.
Skill level is ranked from 1 to 6. All characters start play with a 1 in 6 chance (around 16%) to successfully attempt a skill and is resolved by rolling a d6 and rolling equal to or less than the skill level. Certain skills are affected by a particular Attribute Modifier, and in that case the modifier is subtracted from the die roll, not added to the skill level. If a skill should advance to a 6 in 6 chance of success, then two d6 are rolled, with failure only occurring when double sixes are rolled.
The names of the various skills are:
  • Bushcraft: Bushcraft shows the chances of your character being able to survive in the wilderness through foraging or hunting, and identifying tracks, plants, and animals.
    • A successful Bushcraft check can mean that foraging or hunting for food takes less time and produces higher yields.
    • A character’s Wisdom attribute modifier applies to Bushcraft.
  • Climb: This skill is rolled when a character is climbing under adverse conditions or attempting to scale a vertical surface that would be more difficult than the average person could reasonably attempt.
    • Climbing a tree or cliff with numerous hand and footholds would not require a roll against this skill. Climbing a ladder of any height would also not require a roll.
    • Attempting to scale a cliff face or castle wall with few hand or foot holds would require a roll against the Climb skill.
    • Situational modifiers can be applied, such as having (or not having) proper equipment, being encumbered, the weather, duress, etc.
    • A character’s Strength Modifier applies to Climb.
  • First Aid: This skill is used for minor healing when a safe place to rest is not available. First Aid can only be used on a character once per encounter, or once per injury. Based on the skill created by James Young at http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.co.uk
    • On a success, the character can heal a number of Flesh equal to the die roll.
      • For example; if your skill is 3 in 6, and you roll a 2, then 2 points are healed.
    • On a failure, the character takes an additional 1 Flesh damage for every point they failed the roll.
      • For example; if your skill is 3 in 6, and you roll a 5, then 2 points of damage are inflicted.
    • A character’s Intelligence modifier applies to this skill.
  • Language: Language skill indicates the chances of the character to be able to understand a particular language.
    • Every time a new language is encountered, the character rolls against this skill. Success means they know the language.
    • Failure means the character does not know the language and may not roll again for that particular language until the character reaches the next level of experience.
    • A penalty of +3 to the character’s roll is applied for obscure/dead/cryptic languages, and a +2 penalty modifier for exotic languages from other realms.
      • For example; a character has a Language skill of 3 in 6 and rolls to see if they somehow know the language of the Cult of Duvan’ku, which hasn’t been spoken in centuries and was little known when even back then. They roll a 2, but with a +3 penalty, their total roll is 5, which is a failure.
    • A character’s Intelligence attribute modifier applies to Language.
  • Navigation: Navigation is the character’s ability to not get lost while traveling. Following roads and paths does not require a skill check, but travel through the wilderness or on the high seas does.
    • A character’s Intelligence attribute modifier applies to Navigation.
  • Search: Searching is the ability to discover hidden items and clues.
    • Searching a 10ft area takes a single 10 minute Turn.
    • If you fail your roll, you may not search the same area again until your next level of experience.
  • Sleight of Hand: Sleight of Hand includes hiding objects on one’s person, picking pockets, readying a weapon without an observer noticing, and other such actions.
    • A character’s Dexterity attribute modifier applies to Sleight of Hand.
  • Sneak Attack: Unlike other skills, the skill level of a Sneak Attack does not indicate the chances of success or failure, rather, it indicates the amount of damage done in the attack.
    • A single rank in Sneak Attack means 1x normal damage. Two ranks means 2x damage. Three ranks means 3x damage, and so on up to 6x damage.
    • Sneak Attack bypasses Grit and inflicts damage directly to Flesh.
    • A Sneak Attack can only be attempted on an opponent who does not know the attack is coming.
    • Any character, creature, or opponent who is eligible to be the target of a Sneak Attack is also considered to be Surprised for the purposes of the Sneak Attack.
    • There is not an attribute that applies to Sneak Attack.
  • Stealth: Stealth is the ability of the character to move or hide themselves or an object, and remain undetected.
    • Stealth is always considered an Opposed Skill Check (see below). If the situation would not require an Opposed Skill Check, then success (or failure depending on the situation) is considered automatic.
    • A successful Stealth check to sneak up on someone means that they are considered Surprised for your next attack. This also means that a successful Stealth check can lead to a Sneak Attack.
    • A character’s Dexterity attribute modifier applies to Stealth rolls in situations where the character is attempting to physically hide themselves or sneak up on an opponent.
    • A character’s Intelligence attribute modifier applies to Stealth rolls in situations where the character is attempting to hide an object from visual inspection.
  • Streetwise: This skill is similar to Bushcraft but for urban environments. It allows the character to find food, shelter, and people within a city or town.
    • A character’s Intelligence OR Charisma modifier applies to Streetwise.
  • Swim: This skill is used when a character is attempting a difficult feat when immersed in liquid.
    • Attempting to cross a raging river or swim across a pond while while encumbered would require a roll against this skill to avoid sinking and possibly drowning.
    • Attempting to swim a long distance would require a roll against this skill in order to avoid tiring and drowning.
  • Tinker: Tinker is a loose term used to describe the ability to manipulate mechanical objects. This can be used to pick locks, disarm traps, use unfamiliar machinery, build a wrist watch, and similar.
    • A character’s Dexterity modifier applies to Tinker. 

Leveling Up and Bonus Abilities

Each of the classes I’ve posted on this blog has something in common; they receive abilities as they level up.

I added that feature to each class because, lets face it, standard classes in LotFP are lackluster and boring. However, that dullness serves a purpose; to keep the game gritty, keep the players on their toes, and to avoid the super heroics of other similar games.

I lost sight of all that, especially the third one.

So I’ve been thinking; I don’t want to completely get rid of level up abilities. I also don’t want to turn the game into a bloated feat-fest of super heroes who can never die.

So I came up with the following;

If your character class has level up abilities, you only gain an ability on a 1 in 20 die roll. This is cumulative, so that the higher in level you go, the better the chance of getting something cool. The reasons for this are as follows:

  • To reward the players for surviving.
  • To keep cool, special abilities without overpowering the game mechanics.
  • To keep things gritty.
  • To help differentiate characters from each other.

I will be including this in the Strathos player’s guide I’ve been writing.

Language and Language Skill

Today’s post isn’t a rule change or new class. Instead it’s just my brief thoughts on a particular aspect of role playing games.

In my getting-near 30 years of gaming, something that has always fascinated me in RPGs is language.

For me, language (including literacy) is a big part of what I think of when I think about good role playing.

In the real world, there are hundreds of current languages, and thousands of dead languages. There are codes and cyphers that act as languages. There are fictional languages. Language is everywhere and without it, we wouldn’t be able to effectively communicate. We’d still be living under rocks and grunting at each other.

So using language in a game is not only a great thing to do, but I think increases the enjoyability of the game. Language adds tension, adds background flavor, adds complications, can escalate or de-escalate conflict.

Some games deal with language by not dealing with it; everyone can understand each other. Either by default or because of babelfish or universal translators or whatever. It’s an uninteresting cop-out.

Other games provide a “common” language, with other languages existing in the world to a lesser degree. Many of these games provide a set number of languages a character “knows” from the begining of the game. Or a maximum number of languages a character can know in their lifetime.

So when they roll up their character, and have Common and 4 other languages to fill in, what do they do? Scratch in Elvish, Dwarvish, Goblin might come in handy, and uh… whatever demons speak.

The problem with this is A) why the hell does your first level fighter know the language of demons, and B) If you never have an opportunity to speak with demons, or elves, or dwarves, or goblins, you wasted those language slots.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess utilizes a skill mechanic for languages that fits my needs as a GM and my wants as a player. Namely, simplicity.

In LotFP, Language, as with all skills, are rated on a scale of 1 to 6, with success determined by rolling under the value with a d6. Intelligence modifiers add to your skill score. So a INT mod of +1 would add 1 to your skill, making your Language skill 2 in 6. Got it?

With the Language skill in LotFP, you start play speaking whatever language you want, although speaking the dominant language of wherever you are is a good idea. There isn’t a list of additional languages. You don’t start play with additional languages. Instead, whenever your character encounters another language, whether it be from the foreign trader, the ancient religious text, or the kingdom next door, you roll your language skill. If successful, you know the language and can utilize it from then on. If you fail, you don’t know the language.

That’s it.

It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s intuitive, and it doesn’t tie anyone’s hands with poor decisions at character creation.

And it can be used in most other games with little modification.

That’s it. Go read something else now.

Setting Notes: Strathos

I’ve been working on and off on a setting for a year now. Figure I should share some of what that is.

Very rough map

This is a rough map of the continent of Strathos. It is located in the southern hemisphere of the world.  The map is mainly to show a rough geographical positioning of nations and regions in relation to each other. Notice no actual geographical features like mountains, rivers, lakes, or swamps.

Geographic relations to other lands

I will describe in more detail each region on the map in later posts. For now I’ll give a brief summary. The names are all working names until I think of something better, so yeah, I know some of them are stupid.

  • Pretonia: Pretons are the oldest of the human races on Strathos. They are descendents of slaves of the Serpent Men from long ago. They still worship the Serpent Men, who they believe have ascended to the stars. Essentially stone age cave men. Pretons are monsters, essentially, who live to destroy the works of humanity. As the Nords and Hobgoblins swept through Pictland, pushing the Picts South and East, Pretonia was split in two. Pretons are based on pre-Anglo-Saxon invasion Celts.
  • Pictland: Picts are descendents of the Pretons, and are a bit more advanced culturally and technologically. They were poised to be the dominant people on the continent until two major invasions occurred. The Pict language is considered the Common tongue of the continent, and peoples and places are named in the Pict way. Pictland is a huge expanse of mostly unexplored wilderness filled with gigantic prehistoric beasts. It is much like Canada or Siberia: a vast, cold, forest with numerous rivers and lakes and mountains.
  • Yonwood is a large, forested region of impossibly tall trees. The Yon Ape Men are the dominant society here. The place is crawling with giant-sized insects, carnivorous apes, and deadly plants. The weather conditions are similar to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest.
  • Mushroom Forest is an area of the Yonwood were the trees are supplanted by colossal varieties of fungus. This is where the fungoids and Needlemen come from. 
  • Nordheim: Home of the Nords, a piratical people who conquered the area a few hundred years ago. The Picts living there became serfs and slaves of the invaders. Nords are based on Vikings, with magnified stereotypes.
  • Hobland: I feel like hobgoblins have always gotten shafted in DnD; they’re described as being organized and technologically advanced, but they only appear in ragtag groups with other monsters that share nothing of their culture. Makes no sense. So this is the Great Hobgoblin Empire. Or, at least, part of it. Picts and goblins make up the lower castes of this advanced feudal society, although there is at least one human-ruled member-state of the Empire. Based on the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Icefields: The Icefields are the permafrost areas. The few people who live here hunt seals and whales. Populated by Frostmen (Fiend Folio, yo) pushed down to the bottom of the world eons ago by the pretons. There isn’t much in the way of easily exploitable natural resources, so everyone else tends to stay away.