Alright, I'm back. I'm sure nobody noticed my absence as this blog is more of a collection of my ramblings for easy reference, but after a getting married, moving states and getting a new career I'm backing to hacking away at OSR rules. 

My recent obsession is Knave, I won't go into depth as you can find great reviews of this across the internet, but what really caught my eye was how simple and distilled it is, you've got your stats to determine your chance of success, and then your gear makes the character.

Now, I find this... Somewhat fails in reality, Knave makes it so Fighter types use all their inventory on weapons and armor, magic users on spells... And that's sorta where it starts to lose steam. Thief type characters can load up on 10 foot poles, bear traps, and Lock Picks, but a Fighter with a decent Constitution can also pick up a pair of Lock Picks and, in theory be just as good. 

The bright side is that Knave is designed with modification and expanding in mind, which has been my downfall. I have gone from the 7 pages of light, tight, & original rules to... 44 pages, with UVG Overland Travel Rules, Vaults of Yaarn & UVG races, custom classes into the classless system, and a codified Dungeon Crawl Procedures.

Is this a bad thing? Not really, it's no longer as tight as I'd like, and I think I need to get better at really trimming the fat and formatting the document better, but no matter what, you're going to get bigger than 7 pages with Knave, you're going to want to add something, even if it's just some sort of rules for a Cleric type character.

I won't be sharing what I've created just yet, because it's currently rules from multiple sources (UVG, Vaults of Yaarn, Other Knave Hacks...), with little of my own actual creativity in it just yet, and because three weeks ago I was sure I was going to make a Other Dust & Ultra Violet Grassland mashup, and went through half the effort of making it.

I may have to sit down and figure out more specifically what I need out of my RPG game, or maybe I just need to run more games to figure out what works and doesn't work real time. Well, I'm currently on break while a buddy runs an Only War campaign for me and my friends (First time being a player in 7 years, heck of a feeling), so I got time to figure it out.

I also got a copy of Mythic Game Master Emulator on my desk I've never opened...

Things to Steal (Borrow): Death & Dismemberment

So this is a little different then the past two installment of Things to Steal (Borrow), this is a mechanic I've brewed up in my games for my Dragonlands version of B/X, that can also be extended to 5th edition if I want to make it even rougher on my players.

First a little background, I've always been tinkering with D&D to get it closer to my ideal game/experience, one of the bigger concepts I've been tinkering with is Limb Health mostly via trying to tweak Dark Heresy's version of it, but it ended up being too convoluted at higher levels. My simple solution to achieve that gritty mood is via Death Saving Throws!

Instead of death or dying when you hit 0 Hit Points you get to make a Death Saving throw. If you roll equal to our lower than you Level, you live, however something nasty happens, either you lose an arm, your hand gets mangled, you lose an eye or something nasty, but hey, you lived! If you roll above your level, you die, that's it.

Now, I'm not going to give you a table of Injuries, you can find that all across the internet if you look, and I'd just be remaking the wheel, but poorly. But, I would just make up an Injury that makes narrative sense.

For older editions like B/X, it actually makes the Players heartier and more likely to live, barely, but if they do, they'll have a story they'll never forget. For newer editions, it will feel more dangerous, because you don't get to slowly die, you just die if you fail that save.

Threats & Dangers: The Cult of Rebirth, Part 2

(This is a continuation of Part 1)

The City of Dronter, nestled in the southern hills at the edge of the now declining Dragon Empire, the last walled city along the road to what was once the Southern Dragonlands. This city, a bastion against Hobgoblins & other Monstrous creatures hided a dark secret. A cult that manipulated every aspect of the city, like a puppeteer.

The Cult draws its membership from wounded military veterans, from Orcs to Humans they offer a better life, and a purpose. For the Orcs that served in the Dragon Honor Legions, it's a chance to become akin to their masters & leaders, for humans its a chance of elevating their status, at least within Dronter.

The cult's front is a spa, where their motto is "All is Welcome", besides performing normal spa services, their basement has been transformed into a twisted spa of the macabre, where barrels of Half-Dragon blood are stored to be used in rituals of rebirth.

Members of the Cult who can no longer walk in daylight due to their twisted visage of being Half way between humanoid and Half-Dragon are hidden in a cave two miles to the west of Dronter, returning only to assist in acquiring new "Donors" or to patrol the area.

Dronter however is seen from the outside as a place of freedom and safety, no bandits stalk their roads or Hobgoblins besieging their walls. A new arrival might be concerned at the lack of Half-Dragons in the city, the hungry eyes they might see in the shadows, or that fact that everyone keeps inserting the phrase, "Born Again" or "Renewal" into common conversations. However, everyone is so friendly, and that last merchant gave you some free fruit, so things must be fine!

The cult prefers to take their foes alive, putting them through the Draconic Transformation process, in the hopes that their new existence might make them allies, after all, their goal is to take over the Dragon Empire, and put everyone through this process, they have to desire to fight everyone.

Their Leader is a human by the name of Horace Shimmerscale. He was a warrior a crusade to the Lake Kingdoms, fighting alongside a Red Dragon who was slain in battle. The Dragon's blood covered his platoon and mutated them all. Horace realized that this transformation could be harnessed for good of common man, and returned home to Dronter to found his cult after the crusade failed. In a fight Horace is consider a 12th level Fighter and has the appearance of an aging Red-Half Dragon, however his age is catching up with him and he prefers not to fight if possible.

The Cult aims to slowly turn it's members into enough Dragon's to claim the right to rule and give the Dragon Empire a Rebirth of its own. Assuming no player interaction, the cult will take the following actions with the following results.

• Capture a Dragon to Create new Dragon via their Draconic Transformation 
• Result: Young Dragons will begin raiding and pillaging the landscape, creating new lairs for themselves.
• Create Half-Dragons via the Draconic Transformation process, and have them replace critical leaders throughout the remaining Dragon Empire.
• Result: The cult will have influence over town leaders and businessmen when the time comes to take control, in addition these replacements will provide aid or hardship to players depending on how the cults opinion of the players.
• Seek the blessing of The Eternal, by getting another group to sacrifice for them, or by subjugating another group.
• Result: The Eternal grants it's blessing, mechanically this can be in the form of a +1 to +2 bonus to their actions, or via a magical artifact.
• Create a magical artifact to help control their now out of control Young Dragons.
• Result: The Young Dragons follow the cult into battle without question, and the artifact even helps influence Half-Dragons.
• Take their new army of Dragons and march on every major city, giving them the choice to join them, or be conquered, cities with their Disguised Agents will likely submit.
• Result: The cult will have control of all major cities, places of trade, and businesses.
• A Final battle at the Dragon Keep, where the remaining loyalists will poise a last ditch defense.
• Result: The Cult will seize control of the Dragon Keep, and the Dragon Empire, and will begin forcing the Draconic Transformation on all citizens before attempting to expand and rebuild their new glorious empire.

Additional Player Interaction:

1. The Cult knows of a Dragon's Lair, Empty, and offer the Party the location in exchange for a 10% finders fee, taken from magical artifacts or lore. The Cult is secretly looking for information that be used to reanimate Dragons.
2. A Mildly-Heretical  (By cultist standards) wizard has been experimenting on the results of the Draconic Transformation on Undead creatures with mixed results. He needs the Amulet of Vitality for his work.

Things to Steal (Borrow): Resource Die

 This one will be a short one, because A. The concept is simple, and b. You'll love it, or hate it and go away. The concept for this week is the Resource Die from the Forbidden Lands, now the concept of a time keep mechanic isn't exactly a new concept, but I like the Resource Die from the Forbidden Lands for its simplicity, and that is where I first got exposed to the concept.

So, the Resource Die at its core is a die of any size, when you would expend a resource such as, light a torch, eat a ration, shoot an arrow, maybe even using a wand, you would roll the die, and if it rolled a 1-2 (Or any number you want), the die gets one size smaller, d12 --> d10 --> d8 --> d6 --> Gone. It's a simple way of tracking resources that also adds a little bit of tension, by the players not know how much they should push their luck, "Should we keep delving into the Dungeon? Our torches are on a d8, I'm not sure how much longer they'll last."

Now, there are flaws in the mechanic, which is why you'll love it or hate it. For one, it can feel a little silly when you're down to your 1d4 and ask your DM "How would I not know exactly how many arrows are left?" or you might get REALLY unlucky and only get 4 shots before your arrows run out, and because of this you have to suspend your disbelief a little bit, maybe in the heat of battle you forgot to keep exact count or that merchant sold you bad arrows, maybe some of the rations spoiled, or the torches burnt out faster than normal.

The second issue is it actually can slow the game down in some instances. For Example, I was running Out of the Abyss modified to be above ground for my Dragonlands setting, and the party was escaping a ravine via a lift that had to be manually operated by a crank at the ravine fortress or at the top of the ravine. In the fortress, Hobgoblins pushed against the crank to pull the party back down, at the top, the other freed slaves were doing their best to pull the party up. The poor party was stuck in the middle, slowly moving up and down in this life and death tug of war, thankfully one of the ranged characters was in the elevator, and fired off every single one of his arrows, all 40 of them (Making 40 Attack Rolls), and killed a few Hobgoblins, enough that they were able to escape. Now, making 40 Attack Rolls is already tedious, but imagine having to make 40 Resource Die checks as well to see if you ran out of arrows, that would bog things down like crazy.

I personally think this is a mechanic that should only be selected if the party will groove with the mechanic, but I think the value of this mechanic should not be understated, it's a great tool for randomly determining how long it will take before the party encounters a wandering monster, higher the die, safer the area, how long the Fighter has till he bleeds out, or how long the evil ritual will take to complete, so apply this mechanic where you think it will do the most good, I for one will be replacing the standard 50 charge wand with this mechanic.

Threats & Dangers: The Cult of Rebirth, Part 1

A cult of fanatics who believe bathing in the blood of Dragons, and Half-Dragons will transform them into Dragons, or Half-Dragons. This cult secretly runs the town of Dronter, one of the few remaining loyal walled cities in the Dragon Empire, and one of cities on the southern border of the Central Dragonlands.

The cult is always in the market for the Blood of Dragons and Half-Dragons and will even trade for Half-Dragon slaves which they bleed every 12 weeks as a “Donation” The Cult is careful and rarely conducts this kind of “Trade” within Dronter, preferring to use bases of operations near the city, but well outside of the city walls.

Dronter has come under suspicion from the Inquisitors in the Dragon Keep due to the large number of humans with strange draconic mutations, however their resources are stretched too thin dealing with internal conflicts to dedicate considerable resources to investigation, however they may have enough budget to hire and adventurer team or two for the task.

The Cult of Rebirth’s forward face is a Former Red-Half Dragon named Tersho, who on a crusade to the Lake Kingdoms was bitten and transformed into a Vampire. Tersho developed a taste for the blood of his own kind over human blood and discovered the mutative properties in an orgy of blood consumption. His research into the blood of the Dragons led him to working closely with the Cult of Rebirth using his position as their lead “Merchant” to satisfy his hunger on the “Donations”.

Tersho has bathed in the blood of Half-Dragons many times, and hungers greatly for a taste of true dragon’s blood. However, his mutations have greatly warped his coloration leaving him his scales a shimmering Cherry Blossom Pink.

Tersho
AC 1, HD 8d12, Treasure Type F, No. Of Attacks: 1, DMG 1d6+3
Tersho drains 1 level from the target when he hits with a melee attack, he can only be affected by magical weapons, and he regenerates 1d3 hit points per round. If brought to 0 hit points he is not slain, but is forced into a gaseous form returning to his coffin to rest for 8 hours and reform his corporeal body.

Sleep, charm, and hold spells do not affect Tersho. Neither do poison or paralysis. Tersho take only one-half damage from spells based on cold or electricity

Tersho can be slain by the following methods: exposure to direct sunlight kills the creature in 1 turn, and it becomes powerless immediately. Being immersed in running water for 3 turns is killed. The vampire loses one-third of its hit points per turn of immersion. If a wooden stake is driven through a vampire’s heart it is killed, but only for so long as the stake remains; to finish this task the vampire’s head must also be cut off and its mouth filled with holy waters.  Holy water splashed upon a vampire causes 2-7 hit points of damage per vial-full which strikes the monster.

Any human or humanoid drained of all life energy by a vampire becomes an appropriately strengthened vampire under control of its slayer. This transformation takes place 1 day after the creature is buried, but if and only if the creature is buried. Thus it is possible to have a vampiric thief, cleric (chaotic evil in vampire form, of course), etc. If the vampire which slew the creature is itself killed, the vampires created by it become free-willed monsters.

Tersho also has a breath weapon similar to that of a dragon, usable three times per day but no more than once per hour, which deals 5d4 points of Fire damage, along either a cone 40 feet long and 20 feet wide at its far end. A successful saving throw against Dragon Breath reduces the damage by half. A Tersho gains a +2 bonus to any saving throws against damage of the same type as their breath weapon.

Tersho is always accompanied by 1d4-1 Vampire Thralls and if he is on a Cult assignment he is always joined by 2d6+1 Cultists.

Tersho is a powerful combatant, and he knows it, being very proud of his abilities in the the crusade against the Lake Kingdoms, however he also is well aware if the cult is discovered the Dragon Keep will devote enough resources to remove the cult. As such he often pretends to be a normal Half-Dragon, as normal as his mutated scales will let him be. If he is pretending to be a normal Half-Dragon in combat he will forgo the use of his Level Drain, and will retreat if seriously harmed by magical weapons. Thankfully for the newly christened adventurer, Tersho rarely leaves his lair, sending out Cultists to do his bidding, however he is always present during major trade deals for blood, or new donors.

Tersho’s base of operations is in an abandoned salt mine, that he has put his thralls to work expanding. He has, much to his displeasure and that of the cult, turned two Hobgoblins that he has posted outside as guards, their orders are to kill anyone who does not offer the passphrase, “Rebirth Through The Masters”, and to make it look like Hobgoblins have occupied the mine, instead of a fanatical cult. The Mine however is just a holding pen for the Half-Dragon "Donors" once their donation is given, it is taken back to Dronter, though Tersho keeps a cut for himself.

Inspiration for Interaction

1. A group of Cultist stumble upon the Player Characters and think they can take them in a fight in order to capture the Half-Dragons in the party.
2. The Cult puts a high price of the blood of Dragons, Half-Dragons or living Half-Dragons. Paying 100 Gold Coins per Half-Dragon and 10 Gold Coins per quart.
3. Tersho is interested in acquiring a stonemason to improve the comfort of his base of operations, he contracts the Players to find and deliver a stone mason, he’ll pay extra for a Dwarven one.
4. The Cult reaches out to the party, offering a massive sum for a captured dragon.
5. A favored NPC of the party has been captured by the cult or has been brainwashed by their teachings.
6. An Inquisitor from the Dragon Keep hires the players to find information and maybe quell the cult.
7. The Cult Leader in Dronter dislikes Tersho’s growing power and wishes to replace him before he considered challenging their authority, the Players may be suitable candidates.

There is truth in their bizarre belief if a person is at least 75% covered in the blood of a dragon (So it’s possible to happen, accidentally when slaying a dragon) can undergo a Draconic Transformation. Half-Dragon blood also works, but it is measurably less potent.

Roll a 1d10 on the following table Add +6 If all of the blood is from a Real Dragon.

1. Rejection: Your body rejects the transformation, Save Vs. Poison or die.
2. Madness: Your mind falls to madness, you believe you are a Draconic Creature, or that you must drink of bathe in the blood of dragons to renew your vitality. (Create a fitting madness for the character, just bothersome enough that the character is playable, but annoying enough that they’ll want to quest to fix it right away)
3. Scent of Dragons: Your body reeks of dragon’s blood, and most normal Half-Dragons and dragons will be enraged by it. They must Save Vs. Spells when near you or fly into a murderous rage.
4. Gold Sense: When passing within 60 feet of gold, there is a 1-in-6 chance you will smell it.
5. Gem Sense: When passing within 60 feet of a gem, there is a 1-in-6 chance you will smell it.
6. Scales: Roll a 1d4
1. Patchy scales easily concealed by clothing
2. Patchy scales that are hard to hide
3. Full body scales, -1 to AC when unarmored
4. Heavy Full Body Scales. -3 to AC when unarmored
7. Wings: Roll a 1d5
1. Small wings from the shoulders, cosmetic only
2. Medium wings from the shoulder, allows for gliding and a slow descent
3. Large wings from the shoulders, allows flight
4. Arms partially transform into wings (Like a Wyrm), cosmetic only
5. Arms transform into wings, allows flight, but cannot wield heavy weapons (Suggest limited to Light or One-Handed weapons depending on your System of choice)
8. Talons: Roll a 1d3
1. Short claws of appropriate coloration that replace fingernails.
2. Claws that can be used as natural weapons (1d4 Suggested Damage)
3. Unconcealable talons that can be used as deadly natural weapons. (1d6 Suggested Damage)
9. Tail: Roll a 1d3
1. Just an uncomfortable nub
2. Slender and thin
3. A regal powerful tail
10. Breath Weapon: Gain a breath weapon similar to that of a dragon of the appropriate color, usable three times per day but no more than once per hour, which deals 1d4 points of damage per level, to a maximum of 5d4 damage. A successful saving throw reduces the damage by half.
11. Growth: Gain +1 Strength and Constitution, if rolled again gain only one bonus and increase your size from a Medium Creature to a Large Creature
12. Draconic Soul: You are considered a Dragon for any magics or abilities that specifically target Dragons or have benefits against Dragons.
13. Dragon’s Bed: To be able to sleep you must rest upon your hoard of coins and treasure. You must Save Vs. Magic to spend any treasure or to let it out of your sight.
14. Elemental Immunity: Gain immunity to the appropriate damage type.
15. Draconic Immunity: You take half as much damage from non-magical weapons, if you roll this result again, you are immune to non-magical weapons.
16. Draconic Transformation: You are fully transformed into a young dragon, you keep your level and abilities as the Dungeon Master sees fit, and gain all abilities of a young dragon of the appropriate color. If you obtain this result a second time, you gain the abilities of a dragon of the appropriate color, and your scales become a mix of the two colors, so a Blue & Red result would produce Purple scales. A DM is encouraged to modify the abilities of this result to fit with the mixed heritage.

That's it for the Cult this week, join us next week for Part 2, where we talk about the Cult's operations in Dronter.

Things to Steal (Borrow): Ambition

There are a lot of good RPGs out there besides D&D, and I bet most of you already knew that. I also would bet the farm that most of you already have a few systems or features you lift from other RPG Systems, like the Skill Challenge from 4th edition D&D. Well today I want to focus in on one specific system that I have "Stolen" and why I think you should as well.

Today's Focus is Ambitions from Warhammer Fantasy: 4th Edition.

Ambitions are a mechanic that encourage players to come up with a goal for that character and role play towards that goal.

I find that this mechanic is more beneficial for players that are new to role playing games as they often look to the rules for guidance, which is why the rules of game generally inform the type of role playing done. I mean, just look at B/X D&D where looting treasure was your way to earn Experience and Level Up, the game play became that of a heist/grave robber, and if B/X D&D gave equivalent Experience for trading livestock and textiles, you'd have more of a Merchant game play.

The point of that ramble was to hammer down the point of A. You can motivate Players to play a certain way by rewarding them with what they desire, and B. The Mechanics create a framework for how your Players interact with the world and Role Play.

So what exactly are the mechanics of Ambitions?

Well, I won't write out the full rules for it (Go read the rule book if you want that), but I'll give a summary. Ambitions are broken down into Short-Term Ambitions that take 2-3 sessions to complete and Long-Term Ambitions that takes months or years of  In-Universe time. Completing an Ambition rewards you a small chunk of Experience, more if it's your Long-Term Ambition, though Warhammer 4th Edition recommends characters that complete their Long-Term Ambition be retired from play.

Example Short-Term Ambitions:

• Ruining a local bureaucrat that has been giving you trouble.
• Becoming friends with a local Sage
• Hosting a Feast for the whole town 

Example Long-Term Ambitions:

• Open a school for Adventurers
• Becoming a Duke
• Killing all Trolls in the Tri-State Area

What I like about this Ambition system it gives New Players a focus for their actions, and for Sandbox play it gives your players direction and focus, as each Ambition is an Adventure Hook the Players came up for you!

Now, 4th Edition Warhammer also has Party Ambitions, which function in pretty much the exact same way as the individual Ambitions, but it gives you even more Adventure Hooks that the players are coming up with.

The Short of it is having a clearly stated goal, with a clearly stated carrot (EXP) will keep most players on track, or at least on their track. This is similar to using Milestone Leveling in 5th edition, but more clearly stated so that players know what they need to do to earn that extra reward.

For Example, I'm running Out Of the Abyss modified for the Dragonlands (Surprise, it's Above Ground!), and the Party has the Long-Term Ambition of getting back to the Dragonlands, but each character has their own Long-Term Ambition:

• Blacktalon, Short Term: Disrupt the Hobgoblin Army. Long-Term: Return To the Dragonlands with vital Intel on the Hobgoblin horde
• ???, Long-Term: Find out who I am, and why I can't remember anything
• Sorin Dapperplume (Deceased): Long-Term: Regain his Honor and obtain new Glory!
• Kleimann, Short-Term: Discover who "The First" are. Long-Term: Uncover the Secrets of his Blade Amulet
• Y, Short-Term: Avenge the Death of Bello the Mushreoom. Long-Term: Return home, and rebuild his village.
• Ahkmanrah, Short-Term: Acquire The Seeker's Sword of Sealing. Long-Term: Find the 7 Swords of Sealing and unseal the tomb of the Sorcerer King.

The whole idea is pretty simple, and I would bet most DMs already do something similar, but as I've said above, I've found the codifying it into the rules motivates players to focus on it, because they'll get real tangible rewards. You can even use this to help players Role Play their class, for example in my modified B/X rules Fighters get extra experience from fighting, Thieves get extra experience from stealing, and Wizards get extra experience from crafting magical items. Sure, a thief is already inclined to steal and loot treasure based on their set of skills and abilities, but I find players are incredibly more motivated when just a bit more experience is put on the table.

What's the saying? "I'd trade it all for a little more."