Unnatural Twenty

After reading this post I remembered a plan to blend a few different campaign settings together. I have Yoon Suin, Qelong, The Nightmares Underneath, Weird New World, and I could add Spears of the Dawn. I can fit all these on a map of the real world, using these settings as fantasy versions of their real counterparts. I don't know if any group would ever visit them all though, but given enough time a group might trek all the way across Europe and Asia.

Another new player failed to show up, so we pressed on with two characters. I might introduce an NPC adventurer if this happens again, partly to give me some dice rolling to do! The pair went back to the dungeon, this time at high noon. The thief went first and checked for traps, and sure enough there was a trip rope at the bottom of the steps. Yolktina sawed through the rope, but then came under fire from four arrows. She moved into the middle of the room and saw four goblins with bows hiding in the tunnel to the next room. She dropped her torch and shot one with her bow, then Brahman came running in, torch in one hand, hammer raised in the other. He picked his way across the bundles that were all over the room and quickly dispatched the three remaining goblins. Yolktina however, had noticed by the light of his torch that the bundles were actually sleeping goblins, about forty of them. Quietly moving over to the dwarf, she passed on this information. After a short discussion they...

This time I had two players and the game was a lot better for it. After some negotiations at a tavern the newcomer, an elf named Yolktina, agreed to accompany Brahman the dwarf on an adventure. He led her back to the dungeon he had visited the previous day, and they found more goblins there. Not trying to communicate this time, they slaughtered the goblins with bow and hammer, then searched the ruins. Finding a secret door, Yolktina let Brahman enter first and they discovered a room with a very well constructed pool in the center. After a short swim, they set off a trap in the base of a broken statue, allowing some ghouls to spring out and attack them. After a  fighting withdrawal Yolktina was knocked out and Brahman had to finish off the last two ghouls single handed. After she recovered, they rested and counted their spoils, a few gold coins from the pouches of the goblins. Again I felt the rules were great, staying out of the way and easily applied to any situation that came...

I just realized that the six ability scores can be divided into three traits. I might have read this somewhere, but I still felt like it was a revelation. Strength and charisma are your abilities to change the world. Charisma is your strength of character (as applied to other people), it’s your force of personality. Strength is your force of arms. Dexterity and intelligence are your abilities to avoid the abilities of others. Intelligence is your mental agility, it’s your quickness of wit. Dexterity is your quickness of body. Constitution and wisdom are your abilities to survive the world. Wisdom is your will to live, it’s your mental toughness. Constitution is your toughness of body. These three traits could be used to define the character classes in original D&D games. The fighter has strength and charisma. He swings his sword, inspires followers, and eventually leads armies. The thief has dexterity and intelligence. He avoids obstacles, obtains riche...

Last night I ran a session on roll20.net using The Black Hack , a new set of rules for old school D&D (OSR). I had only posted an ad the day before, so of the two players who joined the game, only one showed up. We went through the process of making a character, getting equipment, going into a dungeon, fighting some monsters, and leveling up. The rules were so simple they were barely there, although the player (D) did keep thinking that rolling a low number was a bad thing! Another issue I had while running the game was that the player was rolling all the dice. This was only an issue because there were no other players to take turns though, with even two players this issue wouldn’t come up. It was pretty easy for me to run combat, and that left more time for description and decision making. I had expected to find this was a rule set for introductory sessions only, but now I think it really does have the potential to work in a longer campaign. Assuming I get a couple more pla...

I'm looking for an old school feel, but with the new fifth edition rules for D&D. Here's what I've got so far. Character Creation Start with the basic rules (no feats, no multiclassing, only 4 races and 4 classes). First, choose your race Second, roll ability scores, in order (3d6) for strength, dex etc. You can remove 2 points from an ability to add 1 point to another, but this can’t bring a score below 10, or above 16. Humans can be any class (of the 4). Human fighters get no archetype ability, but need 20% less XP per level. Halflings are rogues (thief) Dwarves are fighters (champion) Elves get the special abilities of fighters and wizards (d8 HD), but no archetype abilities. They need 40% extra XP per level. Third, choose background etc (finish 5e character creation). If your character dies, you can make a new first level character. Adventuring No long rests in dungeons. Leveling up only happens back in town. Encumbrance: You can carry one item ...