Class Struggles: B/X Classes

The last few weeks I have been focussing on various classes and it dawns on me that I need something along the lines of a B/X Class Compendium for myself.  Not to publish or anything, but just my own use.   I also have to admit that I have been following (but commenting as much as I would like) +Jonathan Becker's analysis of the Holmes classes and subclasses.  If you have not read it, please do, it is great stuff.  Yeah it might be nostalgia and navel-gazing, but who cares, it is fun stuff.

Like Becker I am a fan of B/X, aka Moldvay/Cook/March era D&D.  So my class choices will be ones that are largely compatible with that.  It's also no big surprise that most of the classes I like also tend to be magic ones.

Lets see what I have.

Witch
Covered many times and many places here.  Yes, I am partial to my own witch, but I am also rather fond of the witches from other designers. While some have this class as a sub-class of the Magic-User but I have the Witch as her own thing.
Warlocks have always been problematic for me.  It was not till I started working on for Pathfinder. I looked a few of these as well.  I am still not 100% certain which is my favorite to be honest.  Maybe the one from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
But if I am going to have witches and warlocks then I am going to need a witch hunter.  I looked at a few, but I think I will have to go with the one from Jonathan Becker's The Complete B/X Adventurer.

Fighters
I have maybe played two fighters, proper fighters, in the last 36 years.  But I really enjoy rangers and paladins.
Knights/Cavaliers.  I have not covered these guys yet, but I am rather fond of the Castle & Crusades Knights.
Beastmasters. I rather like these guys and my favorite is from The Complete B/X Adventurer.
If I am going to have a paladin then I am going to want an Anti-Paladin. My favorite is the one from the ACKS Player's Companion.

Rogue
Covered yesterday, the B/X Rouge could be a replacement for the normal thief class.  With this class I can make a thief, a bard, an arcane-trickster, or any other thief like class. There some templates though I can look at.
The Bard is of particular interest to me really.  A really good bard would be great.
The Occultist is a class from Fantastic Heroes & Witchery is another rogue-like class that I could build using the rogue.

Magic-Users
I would opt for the Wizard alternate I have in my Witch book.
For Illusionists I am going with the Basic Illusionist  from +Nathan Irving. I think it is the best choice.
For Necromancers there are so many choices, I might have to make my own.

Psionics
For psychic classes, +Richard LeBlanc has me covered with his Basic Psionics Handbook. That gives me a Mystic and a Monk.

Clerics
I have always been fond of clerics. They were the first class I ever played.  I would keep them as is, with the additional rule that they can use the same weapon as their god.
I will also keep Druids and add in a Healer class I made back in the early 80s.

Class Struggles: Mara Witch Tradition

Witch by ivangod

Today's Class Struggles is going to be a total cheat.  After two weeks of psychic classes, I have read a bunch of psychic and occult material which, of course, gets me thinking about witches.  Since I spent a lot of time yesterday with Wee Jas and to a much smaller degree Hecate, I wanted to talk about the witches of Wee Jas as influenced by the witches of Hecate I have used in the past.

The Mara Witch Tradition

The Mara is a witch tradition that is very, very old.  They share more than just a little relationship with Night Hags, which some scholars believe may have been some of the first Mara Witches.
The Mara understand, maybe more so than most, the life is a constant struggle not against death, but towards it.  This struggle of competing forces is what the Mara seek out. Life and Death in a constant struggle to the inevitable end.

Role: These witches most often serve gods or goddesses of Death, Transition, Change or even Destruction.  There tend to be two basic archetypes of Mara detailed below, the chaotic Mara and the lawful Mara.

Joining this Tradition: To join this tradition the witch must realize that life if nothing but a transitory period between oblivions.  Even if there is life after death in the form of reincarnation the witch is not aware of it on this plane now.So the witch chooses not to be apart of this charade anymore and embrace the death in all of us.

Leaving this Tradition: Typically the witch has such conviction that the only way out is her death.

Occult Powers: The occult powers of the Mara are derived by the struggle of life and death.  There is magic in both life and in death.  There is magic and power in the transition.  While evil Mara are often accused (and rightly so) of killing newborn babies, good Mara also are there to wish children pleasant dreams and act as guardians.

Least, 1st Level: Familiar. The Mara witch gains a familiar.  The familiar is often a floating skull, a ghost or some other omen of death made real (a banshee, a barghest, a black dog). The witch can communicate with this familiar regardless of the form it takes.

Lesser, 7th Level: Dream Invasion. Once per day, the Mara Witch can invade the dreams, the so-called deaths of every day, of others.  She can use this invasion to gather information, learn about various targets or even drain the victim's on life force for herself.  She can drain a total of 1 point of Constitution per night for three nights (3 points total).  This draining she can add to her own pool of hitpoints. Each point of Constitution grants her 3 hp over and above what she normally has.  After the third day, she forfeits her ill-gained health and her victim will recover at the rate of 1 con point per week.

Minor, 13th Level: Nightmare Shape. Once per day, the Mara witch can polymorph herself into any type of undead creature and back. The creature in question must be of comparable size. The witch gains the powers of the creature and retains her ability to cast spells, but she also suffers from that creature’s associated weaknesses. She retains her own hit points and level.  If she is "turned" by a cleric then she is forced back into her "human" form and can not switch back till the next new moon.

Once the mara witch reaches this level, she gains the undead's intolerance of silver. Any silvered weapon will do an additional 1d6 points of damage to the witch if touched, similar in the way Holy Water damages undead. Unless a weapon is specifically listed as being silvered iron, then assume it is not.  The witch is vulnerable to silver in any form she takes.

Greater, 19th Level: Witch’s Curse. The witch can place a powerful Curse on one creature once per day. The curse can be of any sort, but will usually bestow a -4 to all to hit rolls and -2 to any saving throw rolls. Witch curses are quite powerful and require the use of two (2) remove curse spells to be fully removed.

Major, 25th Level: Dead Zone Mind. The mara witch has become so accustomed to turning into a nearly undead creature and moving closer and closer to death herself that her mind is no longer that of a living breathing person.  She becomes immune to charm and hold spells. Her mind can't not be probed or read via telepathy, ESP or similar powers.

Superior, 31th Level: Kiss of Death. The witch gains a Kiss of Death. When the witch wishes, she
can give a target a Kiss of Death. If the person has 9 or fewer hit die he dies, if he is over 9 hit die he must save vs. death or die. This may not be used in battle, only in a non-combat situations.

Special Benefits and Restrictions: Mara witches can use spells normally reserved for necromancers.  They are though barred from using any spell that could return a person back to life such as Raise Dead, Resurrection or Reincarnate.

Equipment:  Nothing special.

Preferred/Barred Covens: Typically evil covens.  There are usually a Night Hag or two present in their covens as well.

Relationship to the Patron: For chaotic Mara the Patron is usually the Bringer of Death. This is usually a bloodthirsty god or goddess that revels in death and destruction.  Lawful Mara have a Patron that is the Protector or Steward of the Dead.
The greatest Patron of the Mara is an ancient Hag named  Marzanna (in Polish), Morė (in Lithuanian), Morana (in Czech and Slovene), or Morena (in Slovak and Russian). She is an ancient creature associated with Winter and Death, but also the rebirth of the seasons.  Other Mara patrons include Hecate, Lilith, and Wee Jas.  The Aztec Goddess of vice, Tlazolteol, also has many Mara followers.

Source/Views of Magic: Magic comes from the struggle of Life against Death. People live and they die and this creates powerful magic in the world.  While the chaotic Mara might focus on just the death magic, the lawful Mara also know there is magic in life and in the celebration of life.  Especially the celebration of life in the face of certain death.

Archetypes: There are two basic archetypes of Mara.  The "evil" Chaotic Mara. These witches revel in death and destruction.  The more death they are around, whether they cause it or not, grants them power.  The Lawful Mara could be considered "good", but in truth they also see the need for death.  Everything must die to allow new things to live and grow which in turn must die. Neutral Mara, generally speaking, do not exist as there is no middle ground between life and death.

The Mara for Other Witches

For Adventurer Conquer King's Player Companion from +Alexander Macris and +Tavis Allison the witch is limited to 14th level.  The 6 occult powers can be spread out over these levels.  I would remove the Witch's Curse and then evenly spread out the remaining five.

Similar plan for +Jeff Talanian's Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea's witch.  Though in this case I would also remove the option for "Lawful" Mara.  Mara in this world setting are nothing but evil.

For +Joseph Bloch's Adventures Dark & Deep, The Witch the BEST thing is adding spells from his Necromancer class.  Spread out the powers, replacing the ones listed for the Witch.

+Jonathan Becker's Complete B/X Adventurer also has a witch class. His witch lacks outright powers, but has plenty of spells.   So if you want to convert ANY of my witches to one of his make the Occult Powers into Witch Spells only that kind of witch can use.  Here is a quick anf dirty guide.

Basic Witch Occult Power	B/X Witch Spell Level
Least, 1st Level	1st level Witch Spell, 1st level witch
Lesser, 7th Level	3rd level Witch Spell, 6th level witch
Minor, 13th Level	5th level Witch Spell, 12th level witch
Greater, 19th Level	7th level Witch Spell, 21st level witch
Major, 25th Level	8th level Witch Spell, 25th level witch
Superior, 31th Level	9th level Witch Spell, 30th level witch

For his 10th level spells you would have to come up with something appropriately cool.
Heck I might grab his 10th level spells for my own witch games!

Becker also spends some time with a Holmes-style witch, but I am not sure these sorts of powers would work for that.

So now regardless of what OSR Witch you use noe you can unleash the Mara on your players!

Review: Basic Psionics Handbook

I love Basic-era gaming.  Basic/Expert D&D was the first D&D I ever played. Even when I had moved on to Advanced D&D, it still had a strong Basic feel to it.  So I was very, very pleased to hear about +Richard LeBlanc's new psionics book, Basic Psionics Handbook.
If you have been reading his blog, Save vs Dragon, a lot of what is in the book won't be a surprise, but it is all great stuff.  Even then there are things in the book that are still a treat and a surprise.

The book itself is 58 pages (PDF), full-color cover and black/white interior.
The book covers two basic (and Basic) classes, the Mystic and the Monk.  Both use the new psionic system presented in the book. The system bears looking at and really is a treat.

Overview. This covers the basics including how psionics is not magic and how attributes are used.  It's a page of rules that slot in nicely with the normal Basic rules.  The basics of psychic power including Psionic Level and Psionic Strenght Points (PSP) are introduced.

Mystics are next.  Mystics in this case are more molded on the Eastern philosophy of  mystics, not the clerical sub-class-like mystics I have detailed in the past.  Though through the lens of Western thought.  That's fine this is not a religious analysis, this is a game book. This class helps builds the psionic system used in this book based on the seven chakras.  Chakras divide the psionic powers into broad groups; something like the schools of magic for spells.   As the mystic progresses in level, they open up more and more chakras.
Each chakra has seven Major Sciences and twelve Minor Devotions, similar to the old AD&D rules (but not exactly the same, so read carefully).  This gives us 72 devotions and 42 sciences.  That's quite a lot really.
As the mystic progresses they also earn more PSPs and more attack and defense modes.  They are the heavy hitters of the psionic game.

Monks are the next class.  Monks really are more of psionic using class in my mind and to have them here next to the mystic is a nice treat for a change.  Everything you expect from the monk is here. Unarmed attacks, no need for armor and lots of fun psionic based combat powers.  The monk does not have the psionic power the mystic does, but that is fine it is not supposed to.  It does have a some neat powers from the mystic's list.  One can easily see a monastery where both mystics and monks train together, one more mental and the other more physical.  The monk has plenty of customization options in terms of choice of powers.  In truth it is a very elegant system that shows it's strength with the mystic and it's flexibility with the example of the monk.
This is very likely my favorite monk class.

Psionic Disciplines detail all the powers of the chakras.  It is a good bulk of the book as to be expected. There are not as many psionic powers as you might see spells in other books, but this is a feature, not a bug.  Powers can be used many times as long as the psychic still has PSP.  Also many do more things as the character goes up in level.

Psionic Combat is next and deals with the five attack modes and five defense modes of psychic combat.  The ten powers are detailed and an attack vs. defense matrix is also provided.  The combat is simple and much improved over it's ancestors.

The next large section details all the Psionic Monsters.  Some of these are right out of the SRD but others are new.  Personally I am rather happy to see a Psychic Vampire. Though it is not listed, I assume that these creatures are also undead and are turned as if they were vampires.

Appendix A deals with something we abused the hell out of, Wild Psionics.  At two pages it is the simplest set of rules I have seen for this sort of thing.  Also it looks like something that could be ported into ANY version of D&D including and especially D&D 5.

Get out your crystals, Appendix B details Psionic Items.  Again, short, sweet and to the point.

Appendix C: Psionics and Magic is a must read chapter for anyone wanting to use both in their games.

Appendix D: Phrenic Creatures turns normal creatures into psionic ones.

Appendix E covers Conversions for Monsters from LeBlanc's own CC1: Creature Compendium.
Appendix F details how to convert any monster into a psionic one.

We end with a a couple pages of collected tables and the OGL.

Bottom line here is this is a great book.  Everything you need to play psionic characters and add psionics to your game.  Personally I am going to use this to beef up The Secret Machines of the Star Spawn which I also picked up today.

Plays Well With Others: Ghosts and the Witch

This is completely self-serving, BUT it is coming from a place of sharing.  I just grabbed +James Mishler's newest product Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead.  If you want to get an idea of what you can do with his new book check out his blog at http://jamesmishlergames.blogspot.com/.
In particular The Pesky Poltergeist, The Ghost of the Haunted Keep and the Friendly Ghost.  Check them out if you recognize them!

To make the claim that this book "Plays Well With Others" is actually weak on my part.  Weak because the book is really designed to "Play Well With Everyone".  It is Labyrinth Lord compatible (says so on the cover!) but beyond that it is really compatible with just about anything I can think of.  In particular I was thinking how well this would work with Castles & Crusades, or even one of my favorites Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea and D&D5.  His book is written in some sort of Ur-D&D that pretty much works with anything.

So my claims really are not really needed.  But I want to make them anyway.

What I am really excited about is how well it works with my own witch book (that's the self-serving part), but I am excited all the same.

Witches and Ghosts have always had a nice relationship.
Within James' book there is the "Ghost Net" which is mentioned as being created by witches (well and by others too).  According to rules in The Witch a Ghost Net is created as a Talisman.  It can be hung over the threshhold of a doorway to keep ghosts away.  Usually a Protection from Evil or Ghost Ward spell is all that is needed.

From my book here some spells that would work well with James' Ghost book.  Either for or against ghosts.  If you are using James' Hercynian Grimoire #1 then these are Charisma based-spell casters.

Level 1
Ghostly Hands
Ghostly Slashing

Level 2
Death Armor
Ghost Touch

Level 3
Danse Macabre
Ghost Ward
Magic Circle Against Undead

Level 4
Animate Shadows
Dance Macabre
Phantom Lacerations
Spiritual Dagger
Undead Destruction
Undead Enslavement
Withering Touch

Level 5
Death Candle
Death Curse
Wall of Bones
Wave of Mutilation

Level 6
Break the Spirit
Death Blade
Ethereal Banishment

Level 7
Call the Restless Soul*  (in this case it would be an actual Restless Soul)
Death Aura
Etherealness

Level 8
Mystic Barrier
Wail of the Banshee

So what is the intersection of these two books?  Well that is easy! The Bell Witch.

Bell Witch
No. Enc.: 1 (1)
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: N/A
   Fly: 240’ (80’)
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 3****
Hit Points: 14 hp
Attacks: 1 Touch or TK or Spell
Damage: 1d4 plus Fear
Save: Witch 3
Morale: 12
Intelligence: 14
Hoard Class: NA
XP: 150

The legend of the Bell Witch has been a part of American folklore since the 19th century.

You can read more about the Bell Witch here, http://www.bellwitch.org/ and here http://www.bellwitchcave.com/.

For your game here are the pertinent details.  Katie Batts was an old witch that died on the Bell Farm sometime in the early 1800s.  She haunts the farm and in particular Betsy Bell to gain her revenge on John Bell, whom she believes is responsible for her death.

Katie Batts was a 3rd level witch in life. She had a small dog as her familiar who died when she did.

Treasure: The Bell Witch has no treasure.

Ghost Witch:  The Bell Witch was a witch when she was alive. She can still cast spells as a 3rd level witch.  This is the same as Ghost Magician ability.

Poltergeist: The Bell Witch is a type of powerful Poltergeist.  She can manipulate up to 150 lbs at a time.

Bell Witch Ectoplasm: This ectoplasm will allow the imbiber to use witch witch spells of up to the 2nd level.   The imbiber must make percentile roll against the total number of ounces imbiber has had their entire lifetime. Rolling under this amount results in the loss of 1 life level (or Constitution point).

Review: Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead

+James Mishler  has been producing quality material for the "Basic" era games for a number of years.  I have followed him online and have always enjoyed his posts in various forums and on his own blog.
James has been in the business of releasing his own material for a couple of years now and they are always fun.  Well this Halloween he has really, really outdone himself.

I grabbed his and his wife's latest product Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead, pretty much without reading the details. It was James. It was Ghosts. How could I loose?  Well let me tell you. I was in for a sweet surprise!  I will be honest here.  Pretty much EVERY other games can deal with ghosts better than D&D used too.  This little book has a lot of work to do.

First off this "little" PDF is 64 pages.  I printed it out and it would make a great supplement to my collection of various "Basic Era" books.  Put on a nice cover and it would be right at home next to Labyrinth Lord, The Witch and many, many other books on my shelf.  Let me step back for a moment and comment on this.  James really "gets" Basic D&D.  He knows why people choose it over Advanced or other games.  His rules are very much in the vein of Basic/Expert and BECMI style D&D (More B/X than BECMI) but he also gives people options who like more Advanced-feeling games.

We begin with an overview of what ghosts are. I was pleased to see that this book treats ghosts as all being unique.  A brief description of common powers to all ghosts is also given. Detail is paid to two of these powers, Fear and Level/Life Drain.  In keeping with the Basic roots, the Fear effects table is simple and effective.  If you are playing a horror game then you might want more, but in truth this is plenty.   Level Drain is also discussed and how to regain those levels.
Now for me, I am still more inclined to use Constitution drain instead of level drain.  Thankfully the rules as written here will allow that.

Next we get into people and animals with the Sixth Sense and Sensitives.  No detailed rules here, just a nice simple approach that I really like.  There is also a discussion on Mediums and Séances.  Now THESE are much needed rules.  This helps move ghosts from a monster with X amount XP to something that can be worked into a plot.   We end with some information on ghost-sensitive animals.  I love what he has done with cats and am thinking of using it for all witch familiars.

Next is the meat of the book.  Ghosts Lesser and Greater.  This is the "monster listing" of all the ghost types with their powers, weaknesses and alternate types.  Included are some old favorites like Apparitions, Haunts, Spectres and Wraiths next to new one like Lost Souls and Geists.   Following this is a list and description of all the special abilities (And ectoplasms) of the ghosts.  You can mix and match to make anytype of Ghost you want.   Following this is uses for uncanny ectoplasm.

There is a section on magic items.  Some spells usable by or on or about ghosts.
(*The Spawn Ghost spell is really nice.  If you are playing a witch then the spell level is 5.)

Finally is a Creepy Appendix N. There are a lot great resources on this page for ghosts of every type "inspired by anything from Hanna-Barbera and H.R. Pufnstuf to H.P. Lovecraft and H.R. Giger"!

There is no art. BUT I also want to add that ghosts are either invisible or look like anything. So this is not a downmark for this book.

If you play any old-school game, original or OSR, and you use ghosts, then you need this book.  It isn't revolutionary, but it does feel a much needed gap in the rules and (if for no other reason) it will get game masters and players thinking about ghosts a different way.
Combine this with his Vampires of the Olden Lands for some serious Halloween fun.

Review: Fantastic Heroes & Witchery

This week I want to spend some time with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery.

Full Disclosure: I have worked with the author, Dominique Crouzet, in the past on a couple of projects. I think Dom is a great guy and I love the work we had done together.  I am going to review FH&W on it's own merits.

For this review I am looking at the PDF copy found at DriveThruRPG and the print copy hardcover from Lulu.

Fantastic Heroes & Witchery Reto-RPG (FH&W hereafter) is a newer "retro-clone" of the classic D&D rules.

The book itself is a massive 430 pages.  This includes the table of contents (4 pages), index (4 pages), spell index (4 pages) and OGL statement (2 pages).  The PDF also has a "quick click" index to get to sections in the book faster.

A while back I referred to this as the "Rosetta Stone" of OSR games.  It still works like that, but this really more of an meta-analysis of OSR RPG elements put into a cohesive whole.  The game feels like Basic era, BEMCI, D&D, but it also has the options of both 1st and some of 2nd Ed AD&D.  Other games like Swords & Wizardry have also contributed to the DNA of this game.  A quick look at the OGL statement in back makes it clear that this game is very much a product of many, many games.  This is not a slight, there is an absolute ton of new and original material here.  It takes the best and develops more to make it all work well.  In fact this book is a good point of translation between the various clones and 3rd Edition.  Not that translation is difficult, this helps smooth out the "local idioms" to some closer to normal.

A note about the art. Dom is not just the author of this game he is also one of the primary artists and graphic designer.  The art is reminiscent of both B/X D&D and AD&D, on purpose.  In fact there are a few tongue in cheek references to old AD&D books.  To further this feeling there is also art by Jim Holloway.

Chapter 1 deals with character creation.  Here we are given the details about Ability Scores (OSR standards here) and then we get into races.  The usual suspects are here, but some of the newer folk as well like tieflings, and some new ones.  The new races include tainted humans, primates, reptilians, revenants (undead), winged folk, and witchlings.   I love the idea behind the primates, intelligent apes and wonder why we have not seen more of those in other fantasy games.   A personal aside, the Witchlings are very much something I would expect out of Dom.  I am very intrigued by the race and plan on exploring in more.
The next section of the chapter is Character Backgrounds.  These are more role-playing options with suggestions of mechanical advantages (Foresters are better at climbing trees for example, but no pluses are given).  This is a nice section that does better than it's inspired materials but doesn't quite go as far as the newest edition of the D&D game.  That is likely a perfect sweet spot for the types of games that are going to be played here.  We end with a discussion on alignment.

Chapter 2 discusses character classes.  We have the expected list and then some more.  Again since this is a merging of Basic and Advanced ideas there are some "racial" classes here.  I like the idea myself and will discuss those in a bit.  There is also a section on "Weird Tales" pulp-era classes.
Classes are divided up into groups much like 2nd Ed or Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.   We have Warriors which include Fighters, Beserkers, Knights and Ranger.  Rogues which include Thieves, Acrobats, Assassins, and Bards. Divines which consist of Friars, Mystics and Templars and the racial classes. Dwarves include Clans-dwarf and Gothi. Elves are split into High and Sylvan they include Eldritch-archer and Fae-mage (High) and Forestal and Warden (Sylvan).  Gnomes get Illusionist and Trickster. Halflings get Folk-champion and Scout.  Finally there are the Weird Tales classes; Necronimus, Occultist, Psychic, Rifleman, Savant, Sky-lord, and Wild-brute.

Like editions 3.x and beyond, all classes use the same Experience Level chart.  So 2,000 xp is 2nd level for everyone.  This has a number of nice benefits including easier multi-classing.
Like newer editions each character class has a base to hit modifier.  So for fighters this goes up +1 per level.  Each class has HD, Base to Hit, Saves and abilities per level.  Saves are standard Sword & Wizardry style, but there is an Appendix for conversions later in the book.

An note about levels.  Like B/X, AS&SH or Adventurer, Conqueror, King, FH&W assumes that 13 is the max level.  There are XP values given for 14 and above, but the abilities stop there.

I will discuss the Wizard classes later when I talk about the spells, but for now I want to say that racial classes are really some of the nicest new classes of the book.  It is easy to create a bunch of human centric classes, but these different cultures would naturally produce some professions or heroes of their own.

The Weird Tales classes are an interesting bunch.  Some would fit right in with the Ranger or Knight, others, less so.  The Necronimus is basically a spiritualist or speaker of the dead. The occultist learns spells as the find them from old tomes, the psychic is what is says on the tin.  Others like the Rifleman or the Savant (aka Weird Scientist) could work with some good role-playing and a lot of help from the GM.  The Sky-Lord...is a great class, but it is very Sci-Fi or at least Sci-Fant.   The wild-brute would work anywhere to be honest.

Hit-dice and hp are discussed in the next section as well as saving throws.  The model of saving throws in the Swords & Wizardry one but also it could be said the D&D 5 one or the Castles & Crusades one.   Conversions and notes are given for how to translate a Fortitude save or a Breath Weapon save over to this system.  Honestly this is a gem and worth printing out these pages for any game you play.   Next are skill checks and how to handle them.

Some of the games that are compatible with Fantastic Heroes & Witchery

Chapter 3 covers Equipment.   This is what you expect but there is a lot to choose from here.  In fact t might be one of more comprehensive collections.  Worth the price of the PDF to be honest to have all of this in one place.  The section on Sci-Fantasy equipment is an added bonus.

Chapter 4 details Combat.  There is your garden variety melee and missile combat, but also vehicle based combat and psionic combat (for the psychic class). Stuffed in the last paragraph is the very interesting Duels of Rhetoric.  Basically, combat of words.  There is a lot of potential here and something I want to use in my next D&D5 game.  Yes it works with any version of D&D or OSR game.

Chapter 5 is Moving and Exploring.  A lot of what becomes a goo dungeon crawl is more than combat.  This also details carrying capacity.  What you expect is here, but there is also a nice section on "Chase rules" to go with your vehicle based combat.  Suddenly I want to do a Stephen J. Cannell-style chase with chariots or even dragons!

These two chapters have a logical conclusion found in Chapter 6, Hazards and Injuries.  This includes a Wound and Vitality system for use in any D&D-like game. Other topics include massive damage (like AD&D 2), subdual (a feature of my Basic D&D games) and healing.  There is a section of Threats and Hazards.  This details a lot of conditions PCs can find themselves in; Blind, Fearful, Drunk, Poisoned and so on.  Congrats, we just worked in the best parts of D&D4!  Beyond that the Conditions/Afflictions also extend to the Supernatural.  So Energy drain, Lycanthropy and so on.

Chapter 7 covers Monsters and NPCs.  There are no monsters in FH&W.  Not that there can't be, but the book does not list them.  It does talk about how to use monsters and how NPCs can also work as monsters.  By default FH&W assumes an OSRIC style stat block for monsters.

Chapter 8 is an interesting one. It covers Priests and Religions.  Different types of world views are discussed. Also the priest classes are mentioned with different "templates" one can use to make the priest feel different.  Some concepts of gods are later detailed.  One could add names to these from any myth rather easily.  Names are not provided though.  Each God archetype also has a suggestions for their clergy.  After this we get into a discussion of Law vs. Chaos.  This includes another class, The Agent of Law/Chaos.  If you are thinking Elric or other Eternal Champions (but also I will add, He-Man from the Masters of the Universe media is a great example of an Agent of Law). In fact so engrossing is this concept I might create three agents using this as my outline for Law, Chaos and Neutrality.  If you pick this up, really consider this chapter and what it could mean for your game.
There is even a treatise on the immortal soul and some details on the outer planes.

Chapter 9 covers magic and spellcasting.  There is a lot here. One of the better sections is acquiring arcane spells.  There are equally as good sections on getting spell-like powers.  Also covered is an optional rule on Incantations, which are spells that anyone can use.  As expected the schools of magic are covered, with the different specialists such as Illusionists, Necromancers and so on.  Also presented is a War-Mage class.
The next section deals with the craft of magic.  This includes a lot of information on magic circles, scrolls, and even creating magical talismans!  My favorite is part on ley lines and power nexuses.
We get into the bulk of the chapter with spell lists by class.  Spells are divided into Psychic, Gray, Black and White magic, Nature and Delusion spells.

Chapter 10 is the Alphabetical listing of all the spells.  164 pages worth of spells, 666 spells in all.  Thats 2/5s of the entire book.  I know some are new, but I would have to read each in detail to know which ones.  There are a lot here in any case.  Personally I LOVE that the Mordenkainen's spells have been changed to Morgane's.  While many of the spell casting classes stop at level 6, these spells do go to 7th, 8th and 9th levels.

Chapter 11 covers the Appendices.  These are:
Appendix 1: More About Ability Scores. - Ability scores above 18 to 25.
Appendix 2: Physical Appearance.  - height and weight by race.
Appendix 3: Personality.
Appendix 4: Allegiances.
Appendix 5: Cultural Background.
Appendix 6: Social Background.
Appendix 7: Rolling Hit-Points.
Appendix 8: Sanity / Insanity.  - I am not a fan of sanity in a FRPG.  but this is a simple solution option.
Appendix 9: Skills in More Detail.
Appendix 10: Talents (Custom Abilities).
Appendix 11: Fighting Schools and Maneuvers.
Appendix 12: Adding More Character Classes.
Appendix 13: Epic Levels (14th to 20th / 25th level). takes the characters into epic levels, in this case 14th to 25th.
Appendix 14: More About Saving Throws.  - more Saving translations.
Appendix 15: Domain Spells.  - divine spells by theme
Appendix 16: Critical Hits (Complete Table of Secondary Effects).

A bit more about Appendix 12.   This is a GREAT section about adding other classes including 3e prestige classes. This includes note on how to add my own Witch to this game.  There are also more classes here including: The Adventurer,  the Animist, the Scary Monk (the monk from AD&D), the Sea-Dog, the Sea-Witch and the Thick Brute.

We end with the OGL notice and a character sheet.

What can I say at this point really?

This is an awesome resource. It is a great game in it's own right, but it shines when added to other games.  Use this to play an OSRIC game while importing some 3.x style classes and as Swords & Wizardry monster book.  Or whatever you like. There is so much here that there is no end of what you can do with it.
A serious high mark for all OSR products in terms of utility.

Class Struggles: The Beastmaster

Class Struggles: The Beastmaster

Rewind to 33 years ago today, the latest movie in the early 80s flirtation with Swords & Sorcery hits the late summer movie theatres.  Everyone was going to see the dearing-do of Marc Singer as Dar "The Beastmaster"!
ok. Not everyone really. The movie didn't do that hot.  Plus, lets be honest here just as many of my friends went to see it for Tanya Roberts as much as the sword & sorcery content. But The Beastmaster left a solid dent in the game playing of many of my peers for years.  I remember seeing tons of "Beastmaster" classes.  I even helped make one of my own.

The idea is a compelling one really.  A barbarian (of sorts) but has the magical ability to communicate with all animals. Maybe even he (it's almost always a he, but I have a few great exceptions to that rule) has the abilities to fight like an animal.  Fiction is replete with such characters. The aforementioned Marc Singer role, Tarzan, Sheena Queen of the Jungle, Vixen from DC Comics, Mowgli, even various "wolf boys" or "wild childs" that appeared in true and fictionalized accounts of children left in wilderness.

+Jonathan Becker must have had these in mind when he created his Beastmaster class for his The Complete B/X Adventurer.

The Beastmaster of this book is an interesting class.  It is actually closer to a monster in terms of play. For example it uses a 1d8 for hit points (like fighters and monsters) and it uses the monster attack matrix using it's level as HD.  This makes it a very good fighter.  It's saving throws are from the cleric list (good choice) so it will feel different than playing a fighter.
The beastmaster's prime ability is Strength.  This makes it slightly different than say your typical barbarian and their reliance on Constitution.  The reason given is that nature respects strength. This is true, but I think nature respects survival more than anything.  So Constitution would have been a good choice too in my mind.   The beastmaster also needs a better than average Charisma.

Becker's beastmasters have a number of abilities that set them apart. First is their ability to learn the languages of animals.  This is quite a nice skill because it is a gateway to other abilities the beastmaster has such as Calling, Befriending and Mastering.   These are really the key elements of any beastmaster archetype.  Think of Tarzan and his trademarked call. Ok, think of the Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan.

In many ways the closest AD&D class to the beastmaster is the Ranger and not the Druid.  In fact I would have upped the XP per level for the beastmaster a bit and given him some Ranger like abilities including a starting animal companion (though you can get one with Mastering) and maybe some beast-like fighting styles.  But I see why that was not done here since it would make the beastmaster more like a reskinned ranger than something unique.

The beastmaster is hardly ever surprised, can't wear man made armor and has a limited number of weapons to choose from.  All of this works with the character concept really.

But don't just take my word on this.  Jonathan did a series of posts himself on his beastmaster.  Our opinions differ a bit; but only as creator vs user.

• The Compleat [sic] Adventurer
• A Barbarian Alternative
• B/X Beastmaster

It is an interesting read combined with the final Beastmaster in the book.

Other Beastmasters of Note
The big one is the beastmaster of the Compleat Adventurer book from Bard Games written by Stephan Sechi.  As Becker claims this is the obvious inspiration for his beastmaster class. This class also adds animal Turning to their skills.  Not like undead turning, but the opposite of friendship.

If you want an idea of what this beastmaster was like, +Richard LeBlanc put one together about a year ago and it captures a lot of the same notes.
http://savevsdragon.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-beastmaster-and-thoughts-on-it-as.html

The next one is the Beastmaster kit for the Ranger for 2n Ed AD&D found in the Complete Ranger Handbook.  As with many of the kits this one was fairly over powered in my mind, giving the beastmaster telepathic communication with their animals at a low level.  Though the same feel is here, all three could exist in a room together without breaking the laws of the universe.

Finally, though by no means the only, there is the beastmaster archetype from the new 5th Edition of D&D.  It is in many ways a spiritual successor to the Bard Games beastmaster and if you are looking for cross system compatibility it makes for a good translation of Becker's beastmaster. This one is more animal companion focused. But in truth you can easily take one of these beastmasters and use them to emulate the others with good roleplaying.

The final question always is "would I play this class?" Well. yes. In fact like I mentioned above we had done our own beastmaster back in the day and I played the hell out of that class.

From 1986 or so.

Absom Sark
Level 7, Beastmaster ("Wild Guardian"), Male
Neutral

Strength: 18
Dexterity: 17
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 18
Charisma: 16

Hit Points:  46
AC: 6 (Cave Bear pelt armor)

Languages: Canine, Ursine, Feline, Mustelid, Saurian.

Absom Sark was the child of a prince and his wealthy wife until their caravan was attacked on route to a diplomatic mission.  Everyone was killed in the ensuing battle save for little Absom, who was only a baby.  Wolves came to feast on the remains and found the crying baby. A large she-wolf fostered the child, recognizing a kindred spirit in him.
Absom grew into the protector of the wild and he vowed that no one would use his wild to murder others.

--
Our beastmaster had a limited selection of various druid spells. I don't think it added much to the class to be honest, but maybe even a more restricted list focusing on animals might be nice.  Summon Animal I, II, and III would be good.  Limit the beastmaster to 3rd level spells or something.

The class is really fine as is. I just have a thing for spell-casting classes.

How effective is this class?  Well in the dungeon it might end up like a fighter. But in the wild they shine.

Here is video documentation of one beastmaster (though she might have some levels in bard) attacking two treants.  She speaks avian, mustelid, rodent, and ungulate.


Easily a class I would play.

RPG a Day 2015, Day 11

Day 11: Favorite RPG Writer

Again, do I have to choose?

I think when it gets right down to it Tom Moldvay is still one of my favorites. I love his style and the pulp influences her brought to his adventures.

New Tradition: Daughters of Baba Yaga

This tradition is based on my Family Tradition found in my Basic Era Witch book and on the Daughter of Baba Yaga Prestige class.

One such Daughter was Elena the Fair.

Section 15: Daughters of Baba Yaga, Copyright 2015, Timothy. S. Brannan.
OGC Declaration: The following content is considered Open Content for term of the OGL.

New Tradition: Daughters of Baba Yaga

There is an ancient tradition among young witches to seek out the Great Crone Baba Yaga to learn arcane secrets known to no one else.  The vast majority of witches never find her mysterious hut. Those that do are often killed and eaten for their impropriety and presumption.  But a few, a very few, find the ancient hag and she sees something of worth or value in the witch.  These witches go on become quite powerful in their own right.  They are known as the Daughters of Baba Yaga.

Daughters of Baba Yaga must join this tradition as young girls.  Baba Yaga molds their learning and provides the access to her great lore of spells and arcane knowledge.  In many ways Baba Yaga is their Patron.

Role: These witches often become some of the smartest, cleverest and dangerous witches in the land.

Joining this Tradition: Only young girls may join. Typically they are very clever (Intelligence of 14 or higher) and often have some form of family tragedy, such as mother who died while she was young.

Daughters of Baba Yaga will meet when they are together in their fosterage, but rarely afterwards.  They do recognize each other on sight regardless when they were fostered.  There is something about the aura of someone that was taught magic under the cruel Baba Yaga.

Daughters for the most part are neutral, with some gravitating towards chaotic

Leaving this Tradition: There is no leaving this Tradition. Once you have been tutored by the Crone you can not give that back.

Arcane Diversity: Starting at 2nd level, the Daughters of Baba Yaga can learn any one 1st level Wizard/Magic User spell that is not on witch spell list.  This spell is treated as if it were one of her witch ritual spells. Every other level after this the witch may learn a 2nd level spell at 4th level, a 3rd at 6th level and so on till 8th level spells are learned (16th level witch).
These spells are cast as rituals and will require ritual implements but do not require other witches.

Occult Powers
Minor: 1st Level: Familiar.  The daughter will gain a familiar that appears to be normal, if somewhat "worn" animal.  Common familiar's have been a tiny mouse, a scrawny cat, a brow beaten dog, even a thin cow in one case.  Particularily evil Daughters may be granted a demonling.

Lesser: 7th Level: Kitchen Witchery. The Daughter of Baba Yaga can brew simple potions based on any spell she can cast.  The spells can be kept fresh in potion form for a number of days equal to her level.  Spells that affect the self must be drunk or rubbed onto the skin.  Spells that affect others must be splashed, rubbed or forced to drink.

Medial: 13th Level: Detect Bloodline. At 13th level, the witch is granted the ability to detect bloodlines of all types, and able to track the target’s history one generation per level. Essentially, this ability allows the witch to practically smell if someone is related or not, by supernaturally detecting tiny familial features within people. This can include royalty, inherited (but not contagious) lycanthropy and the creature’s true race. This ability might also provide a bonus against those trying to disguise themselves (say, a half-elf posing as a human, or someone disguising themselves as royalty).
The witch must be within 10 feet of a person to detect their bloodline. The Daughter of Baba Yaga can also detect undead with this ability.
The Witch also gains an insight into the target’s personality. For each round assessing the target’s bloodline, the Daughter of Baba Yaga can determine one of the following: One aspect of the character’s alignment (chaotic, lawful, or neutral), hit dice, age or personality.
For each round studying the character’s personality, the Daughter of Baba Yaga gains a +1 bonus to sense motive checks against the target.
The Daughter of Baba Yaga cannot examine the target’s personality whose level/hit dice are greater than her witch level.

Greater: 19th Level: Curse. The Daughter of Baba Yaga can place a powerful Curse on not just a single creature, but an entire bloodline. She can only do this once per day (for a single creature) or once per month on an entire family. The curse can be of any sort, but usually the curse will bestow a -4 to all to-hit rolls and -2 to any saving throws. Other curses may be allowed, such as the Bestow Curse spell. Witch curses are quite powerful and require the use of two (2) remove curse spells to be fully removed.
A Daughter of Baba Yaga may release a person from a curse placed by another Daughter without the use of spells. The witch will know how to remove the curse intuitively.
Note: Some good witches prefer to give a Boon instead of a curse.

Major: 25th Level: Shape Change. Once per day, the witch may change her shape to any type of natural animal indigenous to her area, as per the spell Shape Change. For 1 turn per level, the witch may move freely back and forth between her animal and human forms. Once the form is chosen though, that is the only form she can use for the day. So, a witch may choose to change between the forms of human and fox, but cannot go between fox, human and bird. Once the duration has expired, the witch reverts back to human form.

Superior: 31st Level: Longevity.  The witch stops aging.  Her appearance will continue to age but her body and mind will stay the same age she was when she reached this level.  She is also no longer affected by magical aging.  She can still be killed by normal means.

Special Restrictions:  Only women may join this tradition.  Once joining the new witch must take an Oath of Fosterage.  The Oath of Fosterage must be taken when Baba Yaga first considers to take on the potential daughter.  Baba Yaga will often demand some sort task or quest from the witch.  The task will be one that is difficult and require cleverness to complete.  For example asking her to fetch water from a well but only give her a sieve to collect the water.
Once the Oath is made the Daughter cannot attack or harm in any way any other Daughter or Baba Yaga despite their alignment.  All Daughters, despite when they were fostered will know each other on sight.

Equipment:  None required.

The ritual tool of the Daughter is a mortar and pestle, to honor their "Grandmother".  It is used much like a wand or athame is.  They are also most likely to use a besom (broom) in place of a staff.

Preferred/Barred Covens: None. Daughters are typically solitaries.

Relationship to the Goddess/Patron:  For all purposes the Patron of these witch is Baba Yaga herself.

Source/Views of Magic: Magic comes from wrestling the secrets of the world from those that keep them.  These secrets often come from primordial spirits of nature, demon lords, heralds of the heavens and nearly forgotten fae.

Wealth: Daughters are all typically rather poor. They start with half the amount of gold typical for a 1st level witch.

Review: Manse on Murder Hill

The Manse on Murder Hill is a Labyrinth Lord Adventure for character 1st to 3rd level written by +Joe Johnston. The PDF is 50 pages which includes 2 title pages, 2 blanks and an OGL page.
Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this pdf in exchange for a fair review.

Ok now that I have that out of the way I also want to add that this is also the exact kind of adventure I would have sought out. Especially these last few weeks. It is "Basic Era" so already I like that and it is a haunted (or so they say!) house. So pretty much I am sold and I have not even gotten past the cover yet.

The art includes work by +Stuart Robertson, +David Guyll (whom I have been enjoying a lot of his Dungeon World material of late) and +Tim Hartin. I want to take a moment to talk about the art. IT is great and really helps set the mood. This module feels different than other "old-school" modules and it is a nice change of pace really. The art and overall feel of the module make this feel more like something you would play with Chill than Labyrinth Lord.  Maybe Joe and his team could redo it for something like Cryptworld, Rotworld or Majus. Course the monsters would need to be changed to something else, but it still works.

The adventure itself is for 6-10 characters.  I am not sure what the survival ratio is supposed to be, but that seems like a lot.  I would rather reduce the party size a bit and have higher levels go. There is a lot going on here, so the larger numbers do work.   I think one of the issues some Labyrinth Lords might face is a party "splitting up and searching for clues".

The feeling of this adventure is old school, but old-school+.  Like I mentioned above there are modern sensibilities here.   Yes, there is a great rumor table (which has a nice XP award system attached), but there is also a backstory to what is going on.  The village of Little Flanders feels like something you would have found in a book from a red box, but there are other touches as well.
Characters should feel free to search the village, but keeping in mind that a village is not a dungeon.

The titular Manse itself is not very big.  It doesn't have to be really.   The place has the requisite eerie feel to it and the table of random "illusions" (I would have called them "hauntings" or "phantasmagorias" but that is me) help.  There are also some wandering monsters.

Truthfully I kept picturing #12 Grimmauld Place from the Harry Potter books when I was picturing the Manse.  There is plenty of great descriptive detail, but anything more you can add while playing is great.  Don't forget the smells and the little noises too.

The module progresses until the goal is discovered, the lost children.

The module is quite flexible.  I could not help but think that I could change the monsters to Bogarts and Goblins and have a Faerie-lands sort of adventure.  Change them to degenerate humans and suddenly we have a cult to break up.  Change them to various types of undead and...well you get the idea.

It should be a perfect rainy-afternoon sort of adventure. Which also happens to be one of my favorite kinds of adventures.

Maybe it can go without saying, but I will say it anyway.  This is a very flexible adventure and you can put it into just about any campaign world you want.

Now lets talk about the price.  At $2.00 this is criminal steal. Seriously I have very recently paid twice as much for far less adventure than what I got here.  This a great adventure.

Skylla: Adventurer Conqueror King & Players Companion

Trying to tie a few loose threads together and I noticed this was missing from my mix.
So here are some purposes this post serves for me.
- I wanted to go back and have another look at Skylla. In particular how this version compares to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
- I wanted to go and have a look at the witch from the Adventurer Conqueror King System and the ACKs Player's Companion.
- I am gathering together some threads for my "Adventure Path" War of the Witch Queens.

When it comes to "Old School" Witch classes.  Adventurer Conqueror King System and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea tie for second place in my mind.  Both are so close to what I like doing with witches.  There are plenty of great ones out there, but these are closest to how I like to play.

Adventurer Conqueror King System also limits characters in terms of levels.  While AS&SH goes to 12, ACKs tops off at 14.  ACKs is also closer to my favorite version of D&D, Moldvay Basic/Cook-Marsh Expert.  In fact all three systems do work pretty well together.  In fact I tend to think of the world used in ACKs as being just a little "south" of the world in AS&SH.  I have not spent as much time with ACKs as the other games, but what I have played I do like.

Like my witch the ACKs witch can belong to a Tradition.  In truth you could move traditions back and forth between the two with relative ease.  The problem here though is that none of the traditions really seem to fit the "knowledge at all costs" mentality I see Skylla as having.  Chthonic is the closest with Voudon coming in a close second.  In the end the powers and spells the Chthonic witch gets tips it into favor.

ACKs though also has a Warlock class. The warlock as described is a much better fit for Skylla than the witch is.  Since the warlock is an arcane spellcaster and the witch is more divine it also makes more sense to go with the warlock.  The Corrupted Scholar template from the Warlock is also a perfect fit.

Skylla, 7th Level Warlock (ACKS)
Template: Corrupted Scholar

Strength: 9
Dexterity: 11
Constitution: 10
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 11
Charisma: 12

Hit Points:  20
Alignment: Chaotic
AC: 4 (Ring of Protection AC 4)

Proficiencies: Alchemy, Loremastery, Knowledge (Occult)

Powers
1st level: Familiar (owl)
2nd level: Secrets of the Dark Arts (control Undead as a Chaotic Cleric 3)
4th level: Hex
6th level: Contact Dark Powers
7th level: Scribe Scrolls, Magic Reserach (minor)

Spells
First: (2+1) Charm Person, Light, Magic Missile
Second: (2) Detect Invisible, Levitate
Third: (1): Lightning Bolt

Magic Items
Ring of Protection AC 4, Dagger +1

This Skylla has less spells, but what makes her shine here is the same thing that makes ACKS shine and that is the proficiency system.

Why I Love RPGS: Moldvay Basic

Note: This is part of the Dyvers Project on RPGs.  We are supposed to talk about RPGS we love and why we love them.  This is my first part.

RPGS I Love: Moldvay D&D Basic

Christmas 1981 will forever go down in my memory as the one where everything changed.  I was in Junior High and had been playing D&D for a about two years, off and on.  I had read the Monster Manual and I had a copy, badly xeroxed, of the Holmes Basic set.  Christmas though was the turning point. I got two box sets that year; the Ballantine Books boxed set of Lord of the Rings and the "magenta" Basic Set.
Inside was finally my own book, not a copy of someone else's book. I had my own dice (finally!) and a complete adventure.
I devoured that book. Cover to cover. Every page was read and read over and over.

A lot of people talk about "the Red Box". My Red Box was magenta and had Erol Otis on the cover.  For me this was the start of what became "my" D&D. Not someone else's game, but my own.

In 1981 I felt fairly proficient D&D. But with Holmes D&D I always felt like there was something I was missing. I only learned later of the "Little Brown Books" and how "Basic" actually came about.

The Moldvay Basic set had almost everything I ever needed for a game.  Plenty of classes and races.  More monsters than I expected (it had dragons!!) and what then felt like tons of spells.  I made dozens of characters, some that saw actual game play, but I didn't care, for me it was the joy of endless possibilities.
And that was just in the first couple of dozen pages.

Everything I know about exploring a dungeon, checking for traps, carrying holy water and 10' pole began here.  I learned that ghouls can cause paralysis (unless you were an elf!) and that zombies always attacked last in the round.  I learned Thouls were a magical cross-breed between a hobgoblin troll and ghoul. No I still have no idea how they are made. I got to meet Morgan Ironwolf herself.
There was a sample adventure in the book, but I never really looked over. I don't think anyone did. It was called the Haunted Keep by the way.

This magenta colored box with strange art on the cover also had other prizes. There inside was my first set of real D&D dice.  No more raiding board games for six-siders, though I learned that they were properly called "d6s".  I had a set of blue dice with a white crayon to color them in.  They are not great dice, even then I knew.  But they were mine and that is all that mattered.

I want to pause here a second and come back to that art.  Lets look at the cover again.  A woman casting a spell, a man with a spear. Fighting some sort of water dragon (that didn't even appear in the rules!). But look how awesome it is. Do you need to know anything else? No. They are fighting a dragon! That box is the reason so many gamers fell in love with the art of Erol Otis.  Inside are some equally important names; Jeff Dee, James Roslof, David LaForce and Bill Willingham.  They gave  this D&D a look that was different than AD&D.  I love that art in AD&D, but in this book that art was just so...timeless. It was D&D.

In that box was also the Keep on Borderlands. I don't think I need to go into detail there. We have all been to the keep. We have all taken that ride out along the road that would take us to that Caves of Chaos.  Nevermind that all these creatures, who should by all rights be attacking each other, never really did anything to me.  They were there and they were "Chaotic" and we were "Lawful". That was all we needed to know back then.

What treasures in such a small box!

The Moldvay Basic set was more than just an introductory set to D&D. It was an introduction to a hobby, a lifestyle.  The rules were simply written and organized. They were not simple rules, and re-reading it today I marvel that we all conquered this stuff at age 10-11.  It may have only covered the first 3 levels of character growth, but they were a quality 3.

I picked up the Expert Set for my birthday in 1982. Bought it myself, and for the longest time that was all I needed.   Eventually I did move on to AD&D. I also discovered those Little Brown Books and even picked up my own real copy of Holmes Basic. I love those game and I love playing them still, but they never quite had the same magic as that first time of opening up that box and seeing what treasures were inside.
I did not have to imagine how my characters felt when they had discovered some long lost treasure. I knew.

Today I still go back to Tom Moldvay's classic Basic book.  It is my yardstick on how I measure any OSR game.  Almost everything I need it right there.  Just waiting for me.

Time to roll up some characters and play.

More Mail Call

I also got this.

It was a total spur of the moment thing, but I am so glad I got it. I have a lot of ideas for this one.
The PDF is nice, but this looks better on my game table.

Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall

I know I have been going on and on (and on) about this one, but we are in the final hours now.

Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/665143704/guidebook-to-the-duchy-of-valnwall?ref=card

So much great stuff is going into this book and another 100 bucks would be great to get more authors.

Check it out, support or at the very least pass it on to others.

Review: Stars Without Number

Continuing my deep dive into the OSR-based SciFi games we naturally next come to Stars Without Number.  This gem was released in 2011 and was written by +Kevin Crawford and Sine Nomine Publishing.  SWN is a big book, 254 pages filed with maps, sheets, a great index, but no OGL statement that I kind find.
To me this book feels more like the work of hard sci-fi; like that Asimov, Bradbury and Heinlein.   Certainly it is epic in scope.  There is more of a setting here than other OSR-flavored games, so if you like that, great, if not, well it seems easy enough to ignore.

Chapter 1 covers Character creation.  We have seen this all before, but perfect for people new to RPGs or scifi fans new to the Classic 6 Attributes and level/class systems.
The classes are the three "archetypes" that you can find in True20 and other games, The Expert, The Psychic and The Warrior.    Each has their own advancement table and Hit Die.  SWN assumes a 20 level career in case you were curious.   Each class also gets their own saving throw tables.
There are background packages which can be added to classes to give your character more depth and determines some of their skills.  There are also training packages to further define your character.
Character creation is a breeze and no one seems to die while doing it.

Chapter 2 covers Psionics.  There are quite a lot of psionic powers detailed here.  So first thing, if psionics are something you must have in your sci-fi game then please check this game out first.  Powers as expected have point cost values.  Psionic points always give the powers a different feel for me than magic, so this is another plus really.  These powers are not merely reskinned spells, they have been redone to fit within the mythos of the game better.

Chapter 3 details all the equipment you will need including the Tech Level of the equipment.  D&D would be tech level 1 (or so) while we are at TL 3.  The game is set at TL 5 with some artifacts at TL 6.  Time Lords are hanging out at 7 or 8 I would say.  D20 Future and Traveller also use a similar mechanic, so if you want to see how they can also work, checking out those games is advisable.
The standard batch of weapons and armor from sticks and stone all the way up to energy weapons are discussed.  AC is descending by the way.  What is really nice about this game is in addition to lasers, energy swords and computers it also includes Cyberware.

Chapter 4 is the Game Systems chapter.  It includes the expected combat, but also a new twist on the skill checks with Target Numbers.  Useful if you are using the skills as described here, but it's real utility comes in how flexible it can be.  I would have to try it out more, but it's close enough to other skill + die roll + mods vs TN that I can see it's use in a variety of situations.

Chapter 5 covers the history of space of the default campaign setting.  Even if you don't use it there are some great ideas here.

Chapter 6 is the Game Master Guide of the game.  Deals with running the game and how and where to use skill checks.

Chapter 7 is World Generation which is just FULL of material for any game.  While this game has a lot going for it, this is the real gem in my mind. This flows right into Chapter 8, Factions.  Factions are important groups.  Say a group of allied pirates or smugglers, a government or a band of plucky rebels.   Several key factors when creating a faction are given and there is a huge list of sample factions.
Chapter 9 discusses what sort of adventures you might be able to have.  With Chapters 6 through 8 and all the details they give, running out of ideas is the least of your worries really.

Chapter 10 covers the creation of alien species. First the hows and whys of aliens are discussed; what to use, where and why to use them.  Some of this is situated in the campaign setting, but there is some good advice here even if you plan on using your own background/campaign or not even have aliens.  Plenty of traits are detailed and how they might combine.  There are three alien races detailed.
Naturally this flows into Chapter 11, Xenobestiary. AKA the Monster Manual.  Again we are given a lot of detail on how make alien beasts and then a listing of several samples.
Chapter 12 gives us Robots and Mechs.  We have various traits detailed and then plenty of samples.
Chapter 13 deals with societies.  This might have felt better coming after Chapter 8 really.
Chapter 14 has designer notes. I nice little treat to be honest.
Chapter 15 deals with the Hydra Sector, or the "Known World" of this game.  Instead of countries we have planets.
Chapter 16 ends the book with scores of random tables. Create just about anything with a few rolls of the dice.
There is a nice Index (sadly lacking in many books) and plenty of maps and blank sheets for characters, starships, and adventures.

Stars Without Number is big.  It is a vast game with endless possibilities.  If there is a sci-fi property out there chances are good that this game will be able to do it.

My only complaint is a non-existent OGL declaration.  Can you do a game like this without one?  Maybe, but I would not want to.  Plus it makes the game's utility a little less for me.

The game is beautiful and there is so much going on with it that it would take me a number of games with it just to get the right feeling for it.   The overall feel I get with this game is that it is the perfect child of Basic D&D and Traveller.  So much of what made both of those games so great is here.

Is Stars Without Number perfect? No, not really. But it is really, really damn close and even from a short distance I could not tell it apart from a perfect game.

Kickstart Your Weekend: The Haunting of Oakcrest Manor

"No one is actually sure when the troubles at Oakcrest Manor began.  What is known that many years ago Lord Borgric and his wife Rebecca retired from a life of adventuring to settle down in the quite village of Nahm.  He built her a home where they could live their remaining years in comfort. He also built her a wing on the house where she could continue her life's calling of taking care of the sick and wounded.

We know they had a daughter, Imogene, who was as lovely as her mother, but had none of her warmth or compassion, and another daughter Marris, who sadly took more after her father in both looks and intelligence but was as warm-hearted as both her parents.
We know that many years after her parents death Imogene continued her mother's work, but sadly lacked her skill. 

We know from the grey beards that one night Marris ran from the house screaming, only to drop dead of fright. That screams came from the house that could be hear all through the village and nearby wood. We know Imogene never left the house and all inside were dead.

Now the house stands alone, unused, but never forgotten.  No one goes to the manor. No one that goes in ever comes back out.  Some even say that if you listen close you can hear the screams of the people inside and the cruel laughter of Imogene.

Everyone knows Oakcrest is haunted.  No one knows by what."

Want to learn more?

The we just need to hit my stretch goal!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/665143704/guidebook-to-the-duchy-of-valnwall?ref=card