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Review: Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland

NEON LORDS OF THE TOXIC WASTELAND

Words by Brian Shutter

Art by Mustafa Bekir

Published by Super Savage Systems

“BAD DUDES DUKE IT OUT
IN RAD ADVENTURES IN A FORGOTTEN FUTURE
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A BAD DUDE?“

Page 2

Two words describe this game.

fuck.

yeah.

I got lucky and was sent a preview copy of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland to review before it goes up on Kickstarter.

This is the goddamn PREFACE!!!

“Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland can be summed up as HE-MAN escaping from New York in a post-apocalyptic vehicle blasting heavy metal while his wizard pal spews the most unholy evil spells from the passenger side window at a horde of mutants. It is an ultra-violent and style matters rpg set in the far future, after the neon wars of 1992. Half Medieval Fantasy, half Sci-Fi, all Gonzo. Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland stemmed out of my love for 80’s and 90’s action, horror, sci-fi, and pop culture. It’s a pen and paper rpg mix-tape of all the radness that came from those decades.”

The Rules

Neon Lords is based on B/X Dungeons and Dragons (the Basic/Expert edition from the early 80s, if you’re a noob), so the game play is simple, familiar, and easy to pick up. It uses the standard range of dice, but the names of stats have been changed to better fit the setting. This is a great idea that more OSR games should do.

The differences between Neon Lords and B/X are conveniently listed on the first page;

• CORE MECHANICS BASED ON THE B/X RULES
• 9 CLASSES: DEATH BRINGER, WAR WIZARD, COSMIC BARBARIAN, DWARFLING, STAR SPAWN, HOLY SMITER, CYBERSKIN, SKULL JAMMER, AND NIGHT STALKER
• RACE AS CLASS
• PROWESS, AND FORTUNE
• CLASS-SPECIFIC ABILITY SCORE
• ROLLED ABILITY SCORES AND HP
• ASCENDING AC
• NO SKILLS / SMART PLAYERS
• SPELL CHECK / TO HIT MAGIC SYSTEM
• POINTS BASED CLASS ABILITY SYSTEM
• SPELL MISFIRE CHART
• CRITICAL FAILURE AND SUCCESS CHARTS
• SLOT ENCUMBRANCE SYSTEM
• SLOWER, WEAKER REST AND HEALING
• HIRELINGS AND REACTIONS
• SAVING THROWS: GRIT, AGILITY, RESOLVE, AND DEATH

The ATTITUDE of this game is off the fucking charts. It’s obnoxious, loud, brutally honest, and in your face. The writing and artwork both enforce this.

Still on the first page and Brian Shutter writes the following;

“Death is right around the corner. One slip up could end in a new character.”

“Characters die every day. They are not special, and neither are you!”

Neon Lords includes a mechanic called the Neon Blast Roll, which is an exploding die when rolling for damage. Why exploding dice when rolling damage? BECAUSE THIS GAME IS HARDCORE

The game uses Fumble and To the Max! charts. To the Max is the name for a natural 20 critical hit. I wish Fumbles had a cool nickname, but whatever. I love rolling on charts and tables no matter what they are called.

The saving throws are more akin to modern D&D, with Grit (Fortitude), Agility (Reflex), and Resolve (Willpower). There is a fourth saving throw, though; DEATH. Death saves kind of take a little bit from the other three saves and represent the really bad shit that you would need a lot of luck to survive against.

A really cool thing that I don’t recall seeing in other games is that in Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, you can Fumble or take it To the Max! on saving throws. Which is an awesome idea, and without giving everything away, I’ll just say DON’T fumble on a save!

Another thing I haven’t seen before is critical successes on percentile dice rolls. That’s pretty nifty and I wish I had thought of it 20 years ago when I played Rifts.

Character Creation

Hit Points

I’m going to take a moment to talk about Hit Points. I’ve never really understood why many games give your character a number of hit points, but you really have more hit points than that because you don’t die until you go into NEGATIVE hit points. Like, why not just add more hit points and die at zero?

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland does hit points right; at zero, you’re dead. Well, you’re dead unless you succeed on your Death save.

Ability Scores

Neon Lords uses its own ability scores, rather than the old B/X abilities. This is a great thing, because it really enforces the attitude of the setting.

Burliness: equivalent to Strength. Score high enough and you also get a bonus to your Attitude score!

Prowess: equivalent to Dexterity

Endurance: equivalent to Constitution, but with an added bonus if you score really high.

Attitude: equivalent to Charisma, but if you score high enough you can start the game with a meat shield minion!

Brains: equivalent to Intelligence.

Sleaze: Sleaze is sort of the oposite of Attitude. A character with a high Attitude score and a low Sleaze score is considered charismatic in the human dominated areas, but seen with suspicion in the wastelands. There are some specific examples given of when and where to use Sleaze and the Sleaze modifier. It’s an interesting mechanic and makes sense to have when you consider that in normal D&D, an elf with a high Charisma is going to be hated by the monster races. So an ability that is sort of at the other end of that is welcome.

Fortune: Fortune is a point pool that can be spent to affect certain rolls. It’s essentially Luck points and works basically the same way. However, if your character ever runs out of Fortune (Fortune doesn’t regenerate) you have to roll on a Bad Luck table at the end of EVERY long rest! Most of the items on the table are bad, but not seriously bad. Some are even beneficial!

There are also Class Abilities that have their own scores, charts, and consequences.

After rolling up you Ability scores, the next (and vitally important) thing to do is determine your Hair Style. Everything from the classic Mullet, to the Prince Adam, to the Devil Lock. Not only does this add some flavor to your character, but each hair style also has a special and unique power!

Classes

Rather than have the tried and true (and boring) Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Thief classes, Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland uses nine basic classes. While some of them are basically stand-ins for the classic classes, others are cool and new and all of them have a unique flavor.

For example, the Death Bringer is a re-skinned Fighter. But it also has a special ability that allows it to regain hit points if it “kills and opponent… may bask in the slaughter and drink the lifeblood of his fallen enemy.” Metal.

The War Wizard is a cranked up version of the classic Wizard that, get this… gets an armor class bonus based on their Brains modifier! They also start with a skull that has its own random table to determine whose skull it is. War Wizards have a class ability called Chaos points that they can use to do a variety of powerful shit.

The Cosmic Barbarian is a cocaine (I mean, “space dust”) addled badass who starts the game with a pair of Sick Shades and a fanny pack. They have a special attack called, You Sonofabitch which is when two Cosmic Barbarians high five during battle (like in Predator), it creates a huge blast!

Equipment

Remember those Sick Shades and Fanny Pack I mentioned as the starting equipment for the Cosmic Barbarian? Yeah, those have full descriptions AND special abilities!

Mercenaries

Neon Lords has a series of tables to quickly create Mercenary hirelings, if the PCs want to hire them. In just three rolls you can have a mercenary that is a mutant who is annoyed with taking the job, and has an out of control mechanical arm.

Magic

Spell magic works similar to the classic style, with some differences. Each spell slinging class has Spell Dice. Spell Dice sort of work like a dice pool; roll a bunch of dice, any that come up 4 or higher are good. When spellcasters are at rest and working out which spells to memorize for the next day, they roll the spell dice and the successes equates to the number of spells they can memorize; 4 successes equals 4 spells available.

Neon Lords also uses Spell Checks for spells that rely on a target rolling a saving throw. d20 compared to a DC. Magic classes can spend their Class Ability points to alter this roll.

A roll of natural 1 is a fumble on the spell check and means Spell Misfire and bad shit happens. Roll on the misfire table!

My copy of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland has only spells for level 1 for War Wizards, Holy Smiters, and Star Spawn. Some notable spells are Dub Step Thunder (horrible sound that hurts enemies), Necrotic Regurgitation (acid puke that causes others to puke), and Shield (has a mini table to roll on to determine what the manifestation of the shield is; flesh, slime, etc).

Adventuring

The adventuring section is mostly what you would expect from every role playing game, with some cool additions like different types of unnatural sight (Infravision, Smell-o-vision, Truesight) and a table for Breaking Down Doors based on Class. Intimidation has a cool write-up and works with Fortune and Sleaze to get a Reaction.

Experience Points

Neon Lords uses XP from gold and from killing shit. All the XP gathered from this is put into a pool that the Players then decide how to split. If this turns the session into an argument between the players, the Neon Lord (DM) can decide to take all the XP away and no one gets anything!

Encumbrance

Encumbrance in interesting in that each class has a number of slots they can use for equipment before needing to get a backpack or some other thing to carry stuff. War Wizards and Star Spawn get the most equipment slots, as they can utilize pocket dimensions for stuff.

Combat

Combat works like every other game, except a neat little chart is provided that gives the order for combat. This would probably be really helpful for noobs, and even includes separate sections for single handed and two handed weapons. Good stuff.

There is a Firearms Fumble Chart with results ranging from Nothing happens, to Shooting Yourself in the Foot. Non-firearm attacks get a much larger Fumble Chart.

Critical Hit tables (To the Max!) are specific to each class, which is cool.

Neon Lord’s Section

This part of the book is for the Neon Lord (DM) and players ain’t supposed to look in here.

There is a Fear Table, that PC’s roll against when they could get scared. The die they roll changes as they go up in level, decreasing the chances of being really scared. It’s a cool mechanic that more games should look into using.

Included is a Loot the Dead Dude table, which is always helpful. Other tables include Drug Effects and Minor Mutations.

Next is the Bestiary with such monsters as the Barf Bag; irradiated vomit causes mutation and damage, and the Drool-Aid Man; who is filled with acidic liquid and shatters when damaged, drenching everyone around with flesh dissolving gore!

All of the monsters have simple To the Max! tables for the Neon Lord to roll on. Most of these have an Instant Death option, like the Mutant Brawler who is unimpressive overall, but on a 20+ on their To the Max! roll, punches a hole through your chest!

Monsters also have a Fumble Table, because its only fair, right?

Rad Treasure

In the Wastelands, the goblinoids and mutants use human teeth as currency. These are worthless in civilized areas and are not transferable to gold.

We’re given a lot of special, alien, ancient, and magical items in this section. Energy drinks that restore HP, Leopard print spandex briefs that allow you to communicate with Lord Randy (of course the Macho Man is a god in this world!), and the Fanny Pack of Eternity!

Sample Adventure!

The Last Outpost on the Left

Some force has taken over an outpost and the PCs have been hired to see what happened, rescue any survivors, and wipe out the mutant freaks who did the vile deed.

This adventure introduces something called Nightmare Mode, which is like an Expert level version of the game. This increases the deadliness of the adventure but also doubles the XP.

I don’t want to give too much away about the adventure, but it certainly looks fun, the descriptions are all like that of an 80’s action movie, and the final boss is awesome.

Optional Rules

Including the aforementioned Nightmare Mode, there is also Saturday Morning Mode, which makes it super easy for wimpy PCs, and ULTRA-NIGHTMARE MODE! “For the true sadist only!“

And finally, a table for Lasting Injuries and their effects.

Conclusion

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland is… well, its fucking badass and awesome. That’s pretty much it. I can’t wait for the finished version. I reccommend buying into the kickstarter, cause this thing is going to be epic.

Kickstarter happening November 1st

Check out the DrivethruRPG

Sweet Merch at TeePublic

Changes to the blog

In an on-going effort to improve the blog, I’ve made a few changes.

First, and most obvious, is the change of color. The black background is gone!

Second, I’ve removed a lot of the stuff on the sides. I felt that it was distracting having links and lists and other stuff crowding out the actual blog posts. So now there is just some navigational tools. Which leads to…

To ease navigation and make it easier for you, the reader, on the left you will see a list of links to the main categories of stuff on the blog. Click one of those links and you will be taken to a page that has all the posts on the blog that are relevant to that topic.

Ramon Perez jr

Getting the Word out, part 2

My last post was mainly a rant. Here is some more.

In the last post, I mentioned the term, “street team.”  It’s a term I lifted from musicians and bands who use social networking to get fans to volunteer to spread the word about a band, particularly in cities and towns the band is going to hit while on tour.

Some games publishers already do this. Off the top of my head, both Goodman Games and Palladium have Ambassador programs, where people who voluntarily run games at stores and Cons get shwag from the company. I have a promotional poster from Goodman Games specifically for Dungeon Crawl Classics that includes spaces for date/time of an upcoming game. It’s also a rad looking poster in its own right.

People like free shit, they also like to feel like they are part of something larger than themselves. It doesn’t take much for people to advertise their favorite game system and run games for new players to that system. A poster, some beer/pop coasters, a Referee screen (or better/cheaper yet, screen inserts), dice bags, etc… all very cheap to produce, all advertise your game, and all will be cherished and used by your loyal fans.

Availability of your product

I live in a city with four or five tabletop game stores. All of these stores have huge sections devoted to Hasbro DnD, Pathfinder, and Warhammer. With stand-ups, huge posters, books, miniatures, specialty dice, and other company logo’d merchandise.

I’ve never seen any promo material for DCC or LotFP other than stuff on the “free shit” table or the “looking for a game,” corkboard. On top of that, other than Free RPG Day, I’ve never seen product from either of those two companies inside a game store. Which means that one of, if not the, major channels of introducing new players to those games is completely ignored and out of the loop.

Go to any small publisher’s webpage and you’ll see halfhearted pleas to get players to request their products at their local game store. But where is the incentive for the game store owner whose main concern (rightly) is making money? Special ordering one game book for one nerd isn’t going to increase that store owner’s money.

What will get that game store owner’s interest in not only stocking your product but not shoving it into a corner some where? Make it worth their while. Contact store owners directly, send them promotional and merchandising material to put up. Agree to cross promotions like, if a customer buys your rule book, they get a discount on an adventure book. Or a free set of dice. 

There aren’t that many dedicated game stores out there. Send them promotional material to put up to drive interest in your product, which ultimately means sales.

If a person goes into a game store for the first time and only sees Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and Warhammer, then they will believe that is the extent of the hobby.

Are there record stores that only sell music from three bands or three record labels?  Of course not. They sell a wide variety of music from a wide variety of labels, all at different price points.

which brings me to

Price Point

LotFP publishes some of the best products in the industry, in terms of physical production value. I don’t even know if that’s debatable at this stage. What IS debatable is the actual monetary value of those products. Especially when considering that for the vast majority of people who buy LotFP products, they have to buy from the LotFP webstore, deal with massive shipping charges, and wait weeks for their product to arrive. Sometimes, you can get lucky and buy a book from Noble Knight before it goes out of stock.

LotFP offers a free, artless pdf version of the rulebook for download on their website. Which is cool, if you can find the link hidden on the front page, or if you are already interested in LotFP. But doesn’t help anyone who has limited or no knowledge at all of LotFP.

What would be a low cost alternative? A quick-start rule book with minimal black and white art, the essential rules, and first level spells, and a short 1st level adventure. Send copies of it to game stores and use the merchandising suggestions from above. MSRP of $5.99. It is a stepping stone to drive interest towards more expensive but complete hardcover rule book and all of the adventures.

Goodman Games sells the DCC rule book for around $40-50 for the massive hardbound version. Those hardbound rule books are gorgeous, too. They just recently started selling a softbound version for half the cost. They sell quite a few adventures for a reasonable price, although the cost of pdf versions of those adventures are insane! A pdf should never cost as much as a physical book. There is a reason every single DCC adventure has been pirated online.

GG could make a stand-up display that has ten slots for ten different adventures and ask game stores to place it near the register. Plastic wrap them and put an insert inside with a free download code for a pdf of that same adventure. Once that code is used, it will no longer work.

Now, look at Basic Fantasy Role Playing. Same OSR theme. Physical copy of the rule book? Five fucking dollars. Pdfs are free. There are a bunch of published adventures, too. All ridiculously cheap for physical copies, and free for pdfs. What Basic FRPG doesn’t have is great artwork or marketing of any kind at all. Which is the price of not making any money, I suppose. But they sell at cost. So, what if they decided to add a dollar to the cost of the Rule book? It’s still cheaper than any other physical rule book out there, and gives them some cash to to actually advertise.

Something you don’t hear everyday… Music.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess started out as a fan-zine for metal music. Dungeon Crawl Classics defines itself as a 1970’s psychedelic trip. Put out soundtracks to your games. Oh I know, licensing costs a lot of money. That’s true. But making an official LotFP Spotify playlist costs NOTHING. Or a Pandora station. Or whatever other streaming music station. Hell, make one on every streaming music source. DCC already has a Google Plus group that shares their fan-made Spotify playlists. Goodman himself should have one, too. James Raggi should definitely have one. His last book, Vagina’s are Magic, names its spells after song titles! Why is there no LotFP playlist???

Also, look to your fans. Find out who they listen too. Find out which bands are known to play RPGs. If they already play your game, send them badass looking t-shirts to wear on stage. If they don’t already play your game, send them a rule book or quick start guide for free.

Use video to your advantage

Play your games on a video feed so people can watch and see how you play your own product. Twitch is unbelievably popular for this. If you are already playing, you have no excuse. It brings you closer to your fan base and introduces new potential fans to your product.

Finally, and this is unbelievable that I even have to mention this…

USE SOCIAL MEDIA

This means Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, Google Plus, Ello, and anything else.

Do NOT use social media to talk about your personal life or your personal politics or beliefs. No one cares about that stuff and if they do care, it is only to use against you.

Use social media to interact with fans; promoting products, and answering questions about your products. Do this EVERY DAY. Not once a week. Not twice a week. EVERY DAY.

Ignore users who try to push your buttons or troll you on social media. I know that is hard to do. I’ve trolled and I’ve been trolled. Don’t fall for it. Mute, Block, and Ignore are your best friends on social media.

Using social media regularly (remember, EVERY DAY) keeps you in the know about what your fans are into, what they are not into, what they want to buy, what they don’t want to buy, what other company’s stuff they are buying, and more. Social Media Marketers call these things, “Metrics.” It’s a very important term any business must know about. Know and track your metrics in order to grow your business.

Lastly,

HIRE SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING

You aren’t helping your business by getting in arguments on twitter. You aren’t helping your business by remaining hidden just because you don’t want to spend a few bucks on advertising.

I don’t know about you, but I want to buy some minis and whatever adventure this is from

Getting the word out

A couple weeks ago, a prominant ‘OSR’ publisher asked a question on G+ about how to get more young people to play his game.

I responded, and my suggestions were dismissed. Another, prominent ‘OSR’ writer responded later who said much the same thing as me, and was heralded!

Both of these guys are older than me. Keep in mind the question was about bringing younger people than them into the fold.

So, here are my thoughts on “How to get younger people to play role playing games.”

1. Listen to them.
2. Market to them.

Expanding on these ideas
1. Listen to them: When you cry out, “WHY??? Why doesn’t (insert demographic) play my game in greater numbers???”  And then IGNORE and DISMISS comments from that demographic, how do you think that makes you look to the people you are trying to attract?
Story time…
When I was a kid, I used to collect baseball cards. Up until I was 10 years old. I stopped when I went to the baseball card shop and the clerk paid no attention to me. I was standing at the cash register, money in hand, a pile of cards on the table… but he was much more interested in talking to an old guy in a suit who wasn’t ready to buy anything. After what seemed like an eternity, I walked out with my money and without the cards I wanted. I never went back to the shop and stopped collecting baseball cards forever.
I now work as a salesman. I have been awarded by my company time after time over the past six years not just for sales figures, but because of customer feedback about myself. See, I treat everyone, young or old, rich or poor, with the same amount of respect and give them the same amount of attention. In fact, I give more attention to the people who are less inclined to make large purchases because I relate to them much more than I do some guy with a fat wallet.
How does that relate to selling games to young people?
Fat wallet guy is going to buy stuff no matter what. That’s why he showed up. That’s why he’s been buying for years. He’s a cash cow, and he’s not going anywhere. He knows, and you know, he’s going to buy everything you publish because he’s a geek with disposable income. A collector. Eventually though, he’s going to die and his money will be gone.
Young people don’t have a lot of disposable income and have far more choices on hand to spend that small amount of money. Ignoring needs and non-entertainment goods, they could spend money on tabletop RPGs, Magic the Gathering cards, miniature wargames, Console or PC video games, or boardgames.

If you want them to choose your game over those other choices, you have to work.

  • Magic cards have a cheap buy-in and dominate every game store. You can keep a deck in your pocket and play during lunch at school.
  • Wargames are expensive to get into, but once a person is hooked, that’s where their money is going. Not easily portable and not big with the kids, as it costs too much to start.
  • Video games are the big gorilla and might as well not even be considered competition.
  • Boardgames are having a resurgence right now and people pay a lot of money for them. But it is still mostly people over the age of 30.

So how are you going to get hip, edgy, cool, teenage whippersnappers (that’s what you old people say, right?) to buy your product?

Which leads to #2: Market to them.

Identify the types of young people who play RPGs. That’s easy; they’re the same types who have always played RPGs.

  • Nerds – the base of geek culture. Obsessive about their hobbies and looking for acceptance from other people.
  • Druggies – They have blacklight posters of mushrooms and listen to music their parents hate and smoke lots of weed. This was my demographic (minus the blacklight posters). We had nothing to do and a lot of spare time to do it. Probably two thirds of the people I’ve gamed with have been pot heads.
  • Military – people who either obsess over the military or have served and got into RPGs while having nothing to do on base. Probably half the gamers I’ve met in my life got into the hobby while stationed somewhere and played because they had nothing else to do. 
  • Hipsters – people who latch onto trends. They typically let go of something once it is no longer trendy, though.

I hate to say it, but don’t market to the nerds. They may seem like the easiest bunch to cater to, but that’s exactly why you shouldn’t. It’s unnecessary.

The druggies and the military kids are the ones you should go for. 

Military sure, but pot heads? Why them?

Because pot heads have imagination. Pot heads have time to sit around with friends and eat munchies. They like to get weird. They wear clothing with stuff printed on it, they skate on boards plastered with artwork, they decorate their rooms with posters of weird shit they think is cool.  Throw the artwork from your product onto skateboards. Make t-shirts that look like they’re for a metal band and leave off those three uncool letters, “RPG.” 
DO NOT make shirts like those god-awful Dungeons and Dragons shirts from the 90s. No cool person ever wore those. In fact, they probably did more harm to the hobby than anything else.

Put this on a skateboard

Place ads in comic books and skate magazines. Organize street teams at college campus’ who can staple posters to telephone poles like they do with concert announcements. Send free posters and merchandising to comic shops, game stores, record stores (yes, record stores not only still exist but are having their best decade in history). Hire graffiti artists to tag your stuff at skateparks or the sides of buildings or overpasses.

As for the military… go to the Palladium Books forums sometime and check out how many people there talk about their former or current military service. I use Palladium as an example because a LOT of Palladium players seem to have a military background. Why is that? Well, one reason could be that years ago, Palladium used to (I’m not sure if they still do) send free game books to deployed military personnel, as a way of saying “thank you for your service.” Brilliant move. People who don’t play Palladium games are often at a loss to explain why anyone still plays their games. It’s because of shit like that.

Lastly, the big thing, that no small business person who thinks they know everything ever wants to hear;

hire someone who knows more than you do.

The Primacy


The Primacy
The Primacy is based on expansion and ruled through a strict and formal military bureaucracy that pervades all aspects of life. Because of rapid expansion, massive population growth, and emphasis on military industries instead of agriculture, the Primacy is always in need of food and supplies. This causes the Primacy to constantly raid its neighbors, which also serves as a means of scouting and reconnaissance for future invasions.
The Primus and their subordinates truly believe that subjugating people means bringing order and peace to their lives. That they are doing the conquered peoples a favor by bringing true civilization and law to the lands they invade and the cultures they destroy.
They follow (not necessarily worship) the order and structure of the Modron’s Nirvana. The Empire is structured in the same way as Nirvana.
Think of the Primacy abstractly as a wheel, with the Primus as the central hub. Four spokes reach out from the hub and within those spokes are the realms of the Secondus. Each of those quarters is subdivided into a region ruled by a Quarton. Each of the Quarton’s regions is further subdivided into the sectors of the Octons.
When the occasion arises where a citizen of the Primacy dies, a member of the next lower class is elevated to the newly opened position as a replacement. This usually happens rather quickly as everyone has ranks and sub-ranks and is well aware of their place in society. If a citizen should fail in their duties, then they can be demoted and replaced. In this way, a lowly Monodrone has the potential to become Primus, and even Secondus have the potential to be cast back to the status of a Monodrone if they fail in their duty. Only the Primus is exempt from demotion. Titles and status are not hereditary; all citizens begin as Modrons.
Lower classes –
  • Monodrones: There are innumerable Monodrones, who are could be considered the laborers or serfs of the Primacy. They also serve as a militia force when needed.
  • Duodrones: There are innumerable Duodrones, about one for every six or seven Monodrones. Duodrones act as the lowest ranks in the military.
  • Tridrones: There are one hundred forty five thousand one hundred fifty two  Tridrones and the act as the corporals in the Primacy’s military and police forces.
  • Quadrones: There are twelve thousand six hundred eighty eight Quadrones and they act as the sergeants in the Primacy’s military and police forces. 
  • Pentadrones: There are one thousand three hundred sixty four Pentadrones, and they act as the lieutenants in the Primacy’s military and police forces. 
Sub-ranks of the lower classes.
Due to the number of Monodrones and Duodrones, they are further divided into lesser ranks based on number. A Monodrone rank 2 outranks a Monodrone rank 1, for example. This ranking system is used for organization of work and jobs. A Monodrone or Duodrone does not have to work their way up every sub-rank in order to be promoted to the next major rank.
Upper Classes – these can be considered the nobility of the Primacy. Most of the upper classes have cleric powers of considerable power, and are correspondingly fanatical in their loyalty to the Primacy. Names in BOLDare those that govern territory within the Primacy.
  • Decaton: There are one hundred Decatons; one assigned to each Octon, and one assigned to each Hexton. Decatons oversee the well-being of the lower classes, and act as the voice of the lower classes to relay their needs and wants to the Octons and Hextons. 
  • Nonaton: Nonatons serve as the Captains of the military and police forces. One Nonaton serves each Octon, one serves each of the nine Tertians, and eight report directly to the Primus, for a total of eighty one Nonatons. Each Nonaton has twelve Pentadrone lieutenants, one hundred forty four Quadrone sergeants, and one thousand seven hundred twenty eight Tridrone police.
  • Octon: Octons are regional governors, of which there are sixty four. The lower classes, as well as the Nonatons and Decatons, are the Octon’s responsibility. Each has a personal staff of one Decaton, one Nonaton, five Pentadrones, sixteen Quadrones, eighty one Tridrones, two hundred fifty six Duodrones, and one thousand seven hundred twenty eight Monodrones.
  • Septon: There are forty nine Septons; 8 serve the Primus, four serve each Secondus, one serves each Quinton. Septons are officials who travel throughout their assigned areas as inspectors and charged with transporting/relaying information from outlying areas to the centers of the regions, quarters, and the capital. 
  • Hexton: There are thirty six Hextons, each the commanding general of an army. Nine serve the Primus directly, three serve the Tertians as military police, each Secondus has the services of two Hextons, and the remaining sixteen serve the Quartons. Each has a personal staff of twelve Pentadrones who are fanatically loyal.
  • Quinton: There are twenty five Quintons; five reside within the the palace of the Primus, one with each Secondus, and one with each Quarton. Quintons are record-keepers, inventors, and scholars.
  • Quarton: There are sixteen Quartons, each of whom administers a quarter of a Secundus’ territory. Each Quarton resides in a tower that is similar too, although smaller than, that of the Secondus.
  • Tertian: Tertians are the judges of the Primacy. They supervise law enforcement as well as cast judgement in trials. There are only nine Tertians at any one time. 
  • Secondus: There are four Secundus, who each rule a quarter of the Primacy. Each has a staff of two Tertians, two Hextons, and four Septons. Each Secondus has their own tower that is very similar too, although smaller than, that of the Primus.
  • Primus: The ruler of the Primacy. The Primus is chosen from among the Secundus, by the Secundus. The position is for life. Rules from a massive tower that serves as the capital. 
Species of the Primacy
Hobgoblins created the Primacy and hold most of the upper class positions.  As the Primacy has expanded and new peoples have been brought into it, other species have joined the ranks. All start as Modrons and have the opportunity to work their way up the ranks. Theoretically, any person of any species can become any rank, even Primus.
Magical species are never allowed to be citizens and are driven away or killed when encountered. If they are powerful, they are ignored until overwhelming force can be brought to bear. Elves, faeries, dragons, and the like are considered magical.
While this bureaucratic system works for the Primacy as a whole, there is constant infighting and backstabbing as citizens are promoted or demoted based on influence, favors, friendships, and more. 
The Primacy is not currently located in Strathos, but on a distant continent and launches raiding/scouting missions to Strathos.

Strathos Setting Update: part tres

Playtested last weekend. Here is the skinny:

  • Ran the players through Tower of the Stargazer. A quick, 1st level adventure by Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 
  • Got the players to try out the new Wizard, Fool, and Yon classes. 
  • The Wizard died after losing a game of Blackjack with a ghost.
  • They took to the three-save system immediately.
  • Flesh and Grit took a little bit longer to understand, but I used Palladium’s HP/SDC system as guide – they are old Palladium players, so it made more sense to them with that example.
  • Didn’t get to try out the new firearms rules, as no one had a gun. 
  • Didn’t get to use Shields Will Be Broken, although we’ve used that in the past, so no big deal.
  • I got good feedback on my rules document and character creation document. By “good,” I mean I now have more ideas on how to improve those documents. I play with people who ask a lot of questions and aren’t afraid to tell me what they don’t like. Which is great! It’s refreshing to receive constructive criticism instead of just hearing that everything is wonderful.
  • Didn’t get to playtest the Muscarn Mushroom Men, as I’m still working the kinks out of the class. There was a nice amount of interest in them though, so that makes me happy.
  • Looking back, I think the player who used the Fool class didn’t fully read the Level Up section, because I don’t think they rolled on the table at level 1. Which I should have noticed while playing, but didn’t think about until afterwards. I’m rewriting and reorganizing the Fool class to make it easier to read AND make it more in tune with the setting, and less like the source material I took it from. 

Next up, I’m going to publish the Three-Save rules I came up with, and how to convert LotFP classes to it. I’m also going to publish the firearms rules I’m using. And yet another write up of the Yon class, Wizards, the Fool, Shaman, Barbarians, and maybe more setting specific stuff.

Addendum to Wizards and Clerics and Shit

After further review, I have come up with the following changes to Magic Users

by Ramon Perez

Hit Points and the cost of spell casting are as follows:

  • d4: Zero level spells = 0 HP, Other spells cost 2 HP -1 per spell level
  • d6: Zero level spells = 1 HP, Other spells cost 2 HP per spell level
  • d8: Zero level spells = 1 HP, Other spells cost 2 HP +1 per spell level

In other words, if you’re a d4 Hit Die Wizard, and cast a level 3 spell, it will cost 5 hit points. If you’re a d6 HD Wizard, and cast a level 3 spell, it will cost 6 hit points. If you’re a d8 HD Wizard, a level 3 spell will cost 7 hit points.

The number of spells a character starts with also varies by hit die. 

  • d4: Starts with 4 zero level spells, 2 first level spells, and 1 second level spell.
  • d6: Starts with 3 zero level spells, and 2 first level spells.
  • d8: Starts with 2 zero level spells, and 1 first level spell.

Spell progression in Strathos is limited in that new spells are not automatically learned. New spells can be gained by purchasing them from a more experienced magic user, converting a spell scroll or book, making a deal with a higher (or lower) being, or figuring them out through research and trial and error.

A Magic User can trade 3 spells of any level to gain a single Fighter or Specialist ability. This is only possible during character creation, and not available after the character has been used in play. This is my crappy version of multi-classing.

Magic Users suffer penalties to encumbrance (NOTE: I use Lamentations of the Flame Princess’ encumbrance system):

  • Armor of +2 or higher uses 2x the amount of encumbrance slots.  
  • Weapons inflicting more than d6 in damage use 2x the amount of encumbrance slots. 
  • If the Magic User is more than lightly encumbered, all spell casting costs double the amount of hit points than normal. This makes having loyal (or paid) retainers/servants a necessity.

Magic Users saving throws are based more on individual character concept than set-in-stone class mechanics

  • A traditional Wizard would have Intelligence as a Prime attribute, with associated saves having that benefit.
  • A traditional Cleric would have Wisdom as a Prime attribute.
  • A Bard would have Charisma as a Prime.
  • Other builds can be argued if necessary. 

Wizards and Clerics and Shit

Army of God, by Draegg
 

I have never been a fan of “Vancian” magic systems. I’ve never read Vance, and never even heard of him until less than a decade ago. I’m sure some nerd’s head just exploded somewhere. I don’t really care.

Maybe in its original context it was hip and cool and edgy and neat. But Vancian magic hasn’t been any of those things in the 25 years I’ve been gaming. It isn’t fun; it’s an arbitrary handicap. It isn’t balancing, and even if it was, fuck that; balance is bullshit. And the worst part of it is that in spells are written down in spell books and have components you must possess… But you still forget them after casting.

(Yes, I know Gygax or Arneson or some Steven in Dragon magazine explained exactly why this is the case back before I was born. I’m sure that explanation made perfect sense, too. I don’t care. You will not convince me that it isn’t a ridiculously bad system)



So what’s the alternative? Point-based systems? Well, I’ve always preferred point based systems over the, “oops I forgot my livelihood,” spell slot system of Dungeons and Dragons. I’ve looked at many alternatives created by many people over the years, and none of them gelled with me.

The problem with point based systems is that while it offers the player character more choice and freedom, it also makes for more book keeping and an additional stat to keep track of. 

So, I’ve been working on something different.

Wizards and Clerics and Druids and Witches and Sorcerers and Warlocks and Wu Jin and whatever the hell you want to call your magic users all work pretty much the same way.

First step: Choose to be a magic user.
Second step: Choose your hit die.

Waaaaait… what? Choose your hit die?

Yep, choose a d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12.

Third step: Roll attributes, choose equipment, pick spells.

That’s it! You’re done!

Okay, it’s a little more complicated than that. Going back to to choosing your Hit Die, the HD represents what kind of magic user you want to be.

If your hit die is…

  • d4, then you start with 1 additional spell, in addition to Ability/Attribute bonus. Spells cost 1 HP per level of spell to cast. Zero level spells cost 0 HP, making them “at will.”
  • d6, Spells cost 1 HP per level to cast, Zero level spells cost 1 HP.
  • d8, Spells cost 2 HP per level of spell to cast, Zero level spells cost 1 HP, start with 1 less spell.
  • d10, Spells cost 3 HP per level of spell to cast, Zero level spells cost 2 HP, start with 2 less spells.
  • d12, Spells cost 4 HP per level, Zero level spells cost 3 HP, start with 3 less spells.

You may be asking, “Why?” 

Well, this allows the player to have a sorcerer-supreme type of wizard in the classic sense; few hit points, lots of magic. It also allows for the battle-priest type of the classic cleric. It allows for the tough outdoorsy druid. It allows for a barbarian shaman with a couple of ringer powers. You could choose to be a gigantic muscle man who uses a couple low level spells to help him win body building contests. It leaves a whole lot of room for the player, rather than force them into an archetype.

The higher the hit die, the less practiced of a magic user the character is, so the fewer spells they have and the harder it is to cast those spells. They were too busy working out, hunting critters, punching things, or standing under waterfalls to spend a lot of time practicing magic. Or they just didn’t have an aptitude for it, but Dad paid for the education, so they had to learn a little bit. Maybe they worship a warrior goddess who grants some powers but considers reliance on magic to be for weaklings. 

The backstory is up to the player.

Spell lists are whatever the player wants to fit their character concept. I’m building a spell list combining AD&D, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and Castles & Crusades, with some Palladium Fantasy thrown in there for the Strathos setting I’m working on.  

Spells costing hit points was something I’ve thought about implementing for a while, and then I bought Maze of the Blue Medusa and the NPCs all spend HP to cast spells, and it sold me on the idea. It gives a point-based feel, without an addtional stat to keep track of, and makes magic more interesting by increasing its rarity due to the personal effects of wielding it.

I don’t like the “Clerics can cast any spell of an available level,” while Wizards can only cast spells they know. That doesn’t make sense to me. A cleric’s life is about their religion and belief system. Their spells should reflect the values of their god(s), religion, or religious sect/order. Since cleric spells are complicated prayers that call upon higher powers to act on the cleric’s behalf, they should be learned and passed on the same as wizard spells. Clerics have hymnals and prayer books and scrolls and prayer beads and holy symbols and altars and incense and drugs and alcohol for the same reason wizards have spell books, laboratories, crystal balls, wands, staves, pointy hats, robes with the cosmos printed on them, etc. It is for studying and recalling knowledge to perform magic.

So, if you choose d4 HD, you get a bonus spell, you get freebie spells, and your spells are very cheap to cast. You are rewarded for playing a weak, easily killed character.
With a d6 HD, you’re kind of like the “average” magic user, with no special bonuses or penalties.
At d8 HD, you’re entering Fighter territory, but with a magical edge.
With d10 and d12, your magic abilities are severely hampered, and you have a lot of potential Hit Points, but what spells you can cast will eat up those HP pretty fast. 

Fighting type characters get their own special abilities, so don’t think of a d12 magic user as a Barbarian bad-ass with magic powers, cause it is not. Far from it, actually.

One thing I forgot to mention was Ability scores for magic users. In D&D, Wizards get extra stuff from Intelligence, Clerics from Wisdom. In Castles & Crusades, those would be the Prime Attributes. Same thing here. If you have a player that wants to be a Bard, and you haven’t kicked them out of your group yet, they can choose Charisma for their Prime Attribute for their bonus spells. 

Let me know if I missed something glaringly bad or something is poorly written.