An Abominable Fancy

No sooner did  +Arnold K.  post his Dungeon Hacker class , than I started making a playbook for it. Boilerplate Fantasy Spiritualist I'm still going to get around Arnold's Bug Collector . EDIT: Bonus fun: give the ghosts some color with this table from Elfmaids & Octopi , d100 Petty Undead .

I couldn't help it. I made a playbook for a robot. This is built on  +Patrick Wetmore 's Robot class , and +Stan Rydzewski 's  upgrade variations for that class. Boilerplate Fantasy Robot

(part one of who knows how many) Turns out I left out armor pricing from the Boilerplate playbooks! I'll update them, but until then, here's the information: Armor Shield (+1 AC) 10 gp Helmet (+1 AC) 10 gp Leather Armor (+2 AC) 15 gp Mail Armor (+4 AC) 30 gp Plate Armor (+6 AC) 50 gp EDIT: Okay, armor has been added to all the playbooks, and a few other errors have been fixed up. Please let me know if you spot any others!

Now that I have the documents set up for these playbooks , it's pretty easy to put out more. Here's an Illusionist class, based on the conceit of the Delving Deeper Illusionist —namely, that an Illusionist is a charlatan who imitates magical effects. Boilerplate Fantasy Illusionist I'm pretty happy with the "spell" selection. Each one strikes me as useful, distinct, and allowing for just the tiniest sliver of credence. The problem is: Where do Illusionist characters get new spells? MU's and Elves are motivated to adventure in order to find new spells, and Clerics gotta smite to please their gods. But how do you tie Illusionist trick advancement to adventuring? • An Illusionists Guild that will only sell new training for extortionate prices? • Seed adventures with points of inspiration that help an Illusionist discover new tricks? Eugh, neither of these quite does it for me. Well, I don't have to solve this problem until someone...

Well, personally, I'm tickled by the Patron Deity Table in the Boilerplate Cleric playbook . Roll 30d30 and illustrate by typing their titles into image search: Haamis, The Foolish Champion of Plenty Makwan, The Joyful Keeper of Songs & Storms Yibar, The Shining Bull of Oaths & Shadows Ordnant, The Weary Clamor of Howling Beasts Nulbar, The Hollow Chain of Sleep & Dreams Arnund, The Distant Eater of the Vaulted Depths Imagine these six as the primary gods in a pantheon. What sort of a campaign world do they imply? What are their clerics' vows?

Once in a while I do something I think might actually be useful. These playbooks should greatly speed up chargen, especially for new or young players. Ask the player what kind of character they want to play, hand them the appropriate packet, and then answer any questions that come up. You should be done in about five minutes. Boilerplate Fantasy Cleric Boilerplate Fantasy Fighter Boilerplate Fantasy Magic User Boilerplate Fantasy Thief Boilerplate Fantasy Dwarf Boilerplate Fantasy Elf Boilerplate Fantasy Halfling NOTES They are mostly S&W Whitebox, but with bits of Holmes and OSR-gestalt. And I couldn't help but fiddle a smidge. It's a compulsion. Some eccentricities from standard OD&D: The S&W single Saving Throw and Ascending AC are used. The demi-humans have different prime attributes. For no particular reason. Fighters get Backgrounds based off of the "Backgrounds for Human Characters" sheet from Ze...