Undead, and more Undead!

Today's Cast

• Fain, a shadowy stalker of the night (Illusionist/Assassin)
• An as-yet-unnamed cleric from the Barros temple
• Flynn Rider, a ranger with a troubled past

 This session, the players went deeper into the tombs (for the map, check out Dyson Logos' Medusa's Chasm [SPOILERS FOR MY PLAYERS]). Last week, they were standing in a room littered with bones (almost knee-high). This week, the bones began to rise up and attack as skeletons, so the PCs moved on. Still avoiding the room full of skeletal scorpions, they dealt with some zombies, scared away a wraith, and a massive super-zombie with gold plate and a +2 greatsword.

After very cautiously crossing the rickety bridge over the chasm, the party found their way to a large chamber with huge zombie pits. A vampire (dubbed "Many", for reasons I've forgotten) demanded that the party surrendered. Predictably, there was a massive fight, with many hp and XP lost, and temporary negative levels given (a la 3.5, as we've all gotten sick of PCs actually losing levels). Eventually, the party beheaded and staked Many, and found the treasure under his coffin. It was a good haul, and Flynn finally levelled up.

My house rule for new characters is that they come in at the bottom of the party's lowest level (with multi-classed characters having the total XP of an equivalent fighter split between the classes). After over a year of scraping along at level 6, the party has finally all made it to level 7, to much joy and happiness.

On the down side, nearly two years of weekly DMing has worn at me. Once the Horn of Tirea is found, we're going to take a break from this campaign, and try something new. I offered to GM some sci-fi, but one of the players has taken an interest in Star Wars: Edge of Empire  from FFG, so he's going to take us through the beginning adventures, and we'll see where that goes.

A Demon in the Room

The PCs have explored much of the Deeps now. The latest session has mostly been an attempt to see where the few unexplored passages go. So far, all the options they have are: a bridge, on the other side of which is (allegedly) a Drow city; a pair of tunnels full of spider-webs, that probably don't go very far; a cave owned by massive Fowl Trolls, one of which is still paralysed (and probably dead) from a previous encounter; and the place the PCs are exploring now, which seems to be a haven of undead (at least, there's scimitar-weilding zombies, a room full of bones, and skeletal scorpions, so it's a safe bet).

Oh, yeah, and there's a demon who says that he is the only one who can help them find the Horn. According to him, he was bound by Tirea, the holy being who made the Horn in the first place. If the PCs unbind him (with a key they found), he will not only give them the location of the Horn, but grant a boon to the one who turned the key. Oh, let the in-party fighting begin.

The party cleric has been promised the true name of the demon's son, who just happens to be one of the Ten (the demons that are being summoned to bring forth Ragnarok). The illusionist/assassin has been offered the Cloak of Night, a mantle which will allow the wearer to pass "unseen, unheard, unfelt through the night". The ranger has been offered a lead towards someone who wronged him badly in his past. And the fighter (when he returns) will be offered the resurrection of his fighting dog, who died the last time he was here to crystal scorpions.

The players I live with reckon that the cleric's offer is the best for the party as a whole, but since it's the cleric, he won't be the one to turn the key. The Cloak of Night is probably the next-best one, but the fighter really loves (loved) his dog, so it won't be an easy sell. Blood will probably be shed over this. The players have called me evil.

They're right. Muahahahaha!!!!!

It's been a while since I made a post of any sort. Thought I'd catch you up on what the party's been doing lately.

They're hunting for the Horn of Tirea, a holy artefact designed to battle demons--even destroy them utterly, if their true name is known. The dungeon it is contained in is a deep series of levels, around a deep, potentially bottomless pit.

In one area, the party encountered heavy resistance from a lot of Drow, and learned that there is an entire Drow city down there, on the other side of a Khazad-Dum style bridge. In the first encounter with the Drow, I totally forgot to apply their magic resistance, so they all got fireballed to death. Every fight after that, though, ended up being fairly skin-of-their-teeth escapes for the party, except for the last one, in which the Illusionist/Assassin PC was totally awesome. First, he sneaked up behind the Drow leader while she was praying with her armour off, and backstabbed her to nearly dead (with the d30 rule), then let loose on the rest (still resting in their barracks) with a Wand of Ice, rolling nearly maximum on the spell penetration. One small negotiation (admittedly at the fangs of some giant spiders), and the Drow fled, leaving their loot behind.

In another area, there are crumbling corridors and collapsed rooms. Open-air cells look out over the pit, and the players have found what appears to be a subway system. At the top of the deeps, the dungeon was a dwarven mine, but now the architecture has changed dramatically, and there's ancient writing all over. Oh yeah, and in an arena in the centre, there's a chained demon who says that he knows where the Horn is. Whoever unchains him, he'll tell them how to find the Horn, and also give them their greatest desire. It took a while, but I finally have something for all the PCs. Now, if they decide to deal with the demon (which the cleric is very much against), I can watch them all fight for who gets to do the deed.

In other news, I've been working with a generic RPG called LORE (available here), outfitting it for use in a sci-fi campaign I plan to run someday. LORE is quite a lot like GURPS, but simpler, with elements from other RPGs thrown in. There's no sci-fi sourcebook, so I shamelessly ripped off Stars Without Number, GURPS Space, d20 Future, and whatever else I could find. I hope it ends up being palatable. I would have been fine with SWN, but I think the guys want a change from the D&D system. The only problem is that, now that I've finished it, it's probably going to be months (if not years) before the current campaign ends. *sigh*

A Card Game

I learned this really neat card game on New Years. It works best with three people. You deal out the entire deck (with two jokers) between the three; the aim of the game is to assemble a full suit in your hand.

When it's your turn, you pick another player. They have the option of putting up to three cards from their hand face down in front of you. You may pick the pile up. If you don't, you have to say the suit of a card you want. They have the option of either adding another card to the first pile (if they made one), or making a new pile of two cards (which must be of the same suit). You may now take either pile (if there are any). If you choose not to (or they put down no cards), you may name a card of the suit you mentioned previously. If they have that card in their hand, they must give it to you. If they do, you get another turn (you can target the same player again), ad infintum.
Once the current player doesn't name the correct card (or picks up a pile), their turn ends.

Jokers count as wild cards: you can give them up instead of a named card, or put one down with another card in your second pile (which have to be the same suit). But they don't count as a card in a complete suit: you have to get all the real cards for that.

And that's it, really. It's easy to play once you get the hang of it, and there's a whole lot of tactics involved. It's a bit like Go Fish, I suppose, but with so many steroids it's not even funny.

Spell fumbles table

Since I just posted a couple of class variants which call for spell fumbles, I thought I'd post a table for such things. Like most people, I haven't found one I like, so I cobbled my own together from a bunch I've found across the internet. (I'm being very original lately).

01-05    No effect (spell simply fails)
06-15    Minor backlash of arcane power. You are dazed/dazzled for 1d6 minutes.
16-30    Spell hits a random target within 100' (or the AoE is centred at a random location).
31-40    You are wreathed in unearthly fire; take 3d6 points of damage.
41-50    You believe that the spell has been cast normally, and are dazed for 1d6 rounds.
51-60    A minor-level demon is summoned, and attacks you.
61-70    You are forced to glimpse into the Beyond. You take 2d6 points of subdual damage, are stunned for 1d10 minutes, and must make a WIS check or gain a random madness.
71-75    Moderate backlash of arcane power. You must save vs. spells or suffer a critical failure each time you cast a spell for 1d6 minutes.
76-80    Minor spell storm. 1d10 random spells (of level 1d3) are targeted/centred on you.
81-84    A medium-level demon is summoned, and attacks you.
85-90    Your blood begins to freeze in your veins. You must save vs. spells at -6, or take 2d6 points of cold damage, and then save again each round at +1 until you make the save.
91-94    You arm is shattered by the backlash; take 2d6 points of damage.
95-97    Major backlash of arcane power. You are dazed for 1d6 rounds, and cannot cast any arcane spell or use a magic item for 2d6 hours.
98-99    Major spell storm. 1d10 random spells (of level 1d10; roll twice on 0) are targeted/centred on you.
100    You explode in a shower of gore and energy. You are dead, only to be resurrected by a true resurrection or wish. All within 30' must take 6d6 points of force damage, and make a CON check or be nauseated for 1d6 minutes.

Wizard Variant/house rules

Here is an optional variant for the wizard for old-school D&D. I've borrowed these from a couple of sources on the blogosphere, one of which is Brendan, the other of which I can neither remember nor find at the moment, so sorry. I've adjusted them slightly to be consistent with each other. They probably make the wizard a lot more powerful, but *shrugs*

Want to cast a spell of the same level, but different to one you memorised? Double the casting time, and save vs. Spells, fumbling on a Nat. 1.

Want to retain a spell as you are casting it? Double the casting time, and save vs. Spells minus the spell level, fumbling on a Nat. 1 unless the spell is three levels lower than the highest level you can cast.

Want to cast a spell, but you've used up all the spells of that level? Double the casting time, and save vs. Spells at a cumulative -2 penalty, fumbling on Nat. 1 for Level 1 spells, Nat. 1-2 for Level 2 spells, etc.

Want to cast a spell of a level higher than you can normally handle? Double the casting time, and save vs. Spells at a penalty equal to 2x the spell level, fumbling on Nat. 1-2 for Level 1 spells, Nat. 1-4 for Level 2 spells, etc.

Want to do any of the above with a spell that isn't in your spell book? Double the casting time, save penalty and fumble range again.

If the save vs. Spells of any of the above succeeds, the attempted action succeeds. If the save fails, or if the caster is interrupted while casting, the action is wasted, and if any spell slot was being used up, it is lost. If the save is fumbled, roll on a spell fumbles table.

Custom Class: Sorcerer

After quite a bit of toiling and nit-picking with some of my players, I have come up with a sorcerer class that I like better than anything else I've tried so far. Enjoy.

Sorcerer (Wizard sub-class)
Hit Dice: 1d4
Prime Requisite: Charisma

The sorcerer is treated as a wizard in all respects, but for the following differences:

They can cast wizard spells spontaneously. They gain 1d4 magic points each level (1d4+1 at first level); casting a spell requires the expenditure of 2 points/spell level. After a full night's sleep, a sorcerer regains 2d4 magic points. After a full day's rest, with no strenuous activities, a sorcerer regains 2d8+CHA magic points.

A sorcerer knows only 2 spells per spell level (or 1+CHA, whichever is higher); they may pick one spell of any level when they level up, or they may replace a spell they already know with a new spell (doing so fixes this spell in their mind, and it may not be replaced, and the spell lost this way cannot be relearned). The spells chosen may come from the standard spell list, or any spell the sorcerer has seen cast, or read. Sorcerers automatically know read magic, which only costs 1 point to cast.

To cast, the sorcerer rolls d%, trying to roll under the given number, with a penalty equal to the spell level. A failed attempt to cast a spell costs half of the normal number of points (rounded up). Rolling under chance divided by 10 (round down) is a critical success, which costs half of the normal points; rolling 95-100 is a critical failure, and costs the full amount of points; in addition, rolling 100 causes a spell mishap to occur.

Level    Skill
1    55%   
2    58%    3
3    62%    4
4    65%    3
5    68%    3
6    72%    4
7    75%    3
8    77%    2
9    79%    2
10    81%    2
11    83%    2
12    85%    2
13    87%    2
14    89%    2
15    91%    2
16    93%    2
17    95%    2
18    97%    2
19    98%    1
20    100%    2

At fifth level, the sorcerer can change part of a spell, increasing its cost by 1 magic point. The sorcerer can change a fireball to a lightningball or a firebolt; flesh-to-stone can become flesh-to-crystal or flesh-to-ice; massmorph can transform the targets into rocky pillars rather than trees. Any cosmetic change is acceptable, as long as it is not an out-and-out increase in power, but situational. DM rulings here.

At ninth level, the sorcerer can increase the potency of spells. To do this, the sorcerer must take a 5% penalty per increase of potency, and pay an additional 2 points if the spell is successful. If the spell succeeds, the sorcerer can increase the damage of the spell by 1 die, increase the range or duration, impose a save penalty of two, etc. The DM may rule that a stated increase of potency is worth a greater penalty/cost.

At eleventh level, the sorcerer can begin to research magic spells and forge magic items. He can build a tower and gain followers as the wizard.

(By the way, the gaining of magic points and the percentile progression are both things I ripped off of the Basic Fantasy RPG: Questing expansion, so I can't claim credit there).