An Abominable Fancy

Faith and Doubt In a supernatural environment, parsimony insists that gods exist. But that doesn’t mean that your god exists, or that it likes you, or is listening to your entreaties. So, let’s keep the efficacy of prayer mostly secret. Only do this if it’s fun, obviously. Do you and your players like the idea of praying for water, and then looting the body of a dead ogre to find a full waterskin, and not knowing if it’s coincidence or not? Here’s what your player should tell you about their religion: God/Pantheon’s Name: Domain of Influence: Cleric's Sacred Duties: Cleric's Forbidden Acts: Weapons allowed to Clerics: Opposing Force/The Enemy: They can make up lots more, but that’s what’s essential. Secret Spells The GM instructs the player that they can pray for miracles, and the god might respond. Requesting too much can anger/bore the god. And the Enemy is listening, and will tempt you into damnation if you pray for the wrong thing. That's all ...

Some trainers to go with my Training Levels for the Kid's Game. I'm thinking that you need to make arrangements with a trainer every level for Levels 1-4, and every other from 5-9, and you're pretty much self-educated from there. Durgan the Bear Actually a bear. An adventurer that has retired to the woods outside of town. Will happily spar with anyone who shows up at his cave bearing good food. Results: +1 to hit and damage in melee +1d6 Hit Points +1 Save vs. Disease At Fighting Level 1: wear Medium Armor w/o penalty At Fighting Level 3: wear Heavy Armor w/o penalty Fletch the Onocentaur Archer This rough half-man half-donkey has terrible manners and little interest in taking on students, but is the best archer you've ever seen. Results: +1 to hit and damage with ranged attacks +1d6 Hit Points +1 to Save vs. Paralysis Hawkeye: +1 to checks relating to seeing things that are far away Does not count as Fighting Level for purposes of wearing armo...

An additional ecosystem for +Arnold K. 's  Bug Collector class . Levels 1-3 roll 1d10. Levels 4-5 roll 1d12. Levels 6-8 roll 1d14. Higher levels, you need to make something up, I guess. Ain't no sin to take off your skin and dance around in your bones. Collect the first ten and earn your Necropolis Bug Badge!  +2 Save vs. Disease. Collect all 14 for the Necropolis Master Badge! Turn Undead as a first level Cleric, advancing levels from there. Banker’s Beetle: This ravenous scarab will eat up to 1000 coins, and then kill itself pooping out a jewel of roughly equivalent value (1d6: 1. 60%; 2. 75%; 3. 80%; 4. 90%; 5. 100%; 6. 110%). Skull Maggot: Let this guy crawl around a recent corpse for about ten minutes and then eat it. You gain a vision of the exact circumstances of the deceased’s demise, and make the rest of the party think you are super-gross. Mimic Polyp: Can take on the appearance of a small valuable object for about one Turn. Useful for distracting p...

This procedure was developed in the wake of reading the social mechanics put forward by  +Courtney Campbell  in On the Non Player Character . It is not meant as a replacement for the rich, nuanced, and highly-gameable content of that book. And I think what is presented below is mechanically distinct. But I'm not trying to steal anyone's lunch money. If Campbell has any objections, I'll yank this post down, no worries.  EDIT: Got the all-clear from Campbell! Read on with a clear conscience. Upon an Encounter When PCs encounter NPCs in a dangerous environment, such as the Underworld or Wilderness, the PCs have a number of ways they can respond, including: attack, flee, stealth, or communication. If the PCs choose to communicate, they enter Parley. Parley There are three broad outcomes possible from Parley:          1. Combat          2. Help          3. Leaving each other alo...

Distances I don't use miniatures, and rarely even use maps, so I don't have much use for measuring distance in feet or inches or what-have-you. Here are the descriptive units of distance I do use instead: 1. Touch/Grapple         Combat: only small weapons are effective (dagger, fists, very small pistol)         Communication: whispers 2. Melee         Combat: standard hand-to-hand distance         Communication: low-talking 3. Near/Reach         Combat: long weapons (spears, pole arms, whips)         Communication: normal speech 4. Thrown         Combat: ranged weapons are effective; objects can be thrown (rocks, daggers, axes)         Communication: raised speech 5. Short-range         Combat: small bow, pistols, sling         ...

Inspired by a Lulu coupon, I did a little shopping. Old School Adventures™ Accessory CC1: Creature Compendium by Richard LeBlanc 92 pages, $10.96 I didn't especially feel the need for a monster manual— what's easier than making up a monster? But I wanted to have one lying around for the kid to pore over— what's more inspiring than a bunch of monsters?  This has certainly done the job. The kid has been writing up little adventures since he first saw this book. It's a beautifully organized book. There is a full page at the beginning that clearly explains every statistic and notation you'll find anywhere else, all monsters are fully stat'ed for 0e and B/X, there are complete treasure tables in the back, and an index of XP values calculated for no less than six different OSR editions. And every entry is illustrated, which, really, is the sine qua non of monster manuals. The book is presented with the assumption that you have a more standard monster man...

I've been using attribute checks a lot, lately. My PbP game is  Beyond the Wall, which uses attributes and additive skill bonuses. At home, I've been playing Holmes with the kid, with straight attribute checks bolted on. Now, there is a powerful spartan appeal to the default 1d6 skill check of OD&D and B/X. And there's a curvy elegance to the 2d6 check of Traveller and *World. You can use OD&D-style attribute bonuses with 1d6, and B/X-style bonuses with 2d6 without breaking anything. But I've been using using the standard d20 vs. Attribute Score.  Largely, this is because I hate to not use the attribute scores. They are such a prominent part of the character sheet, we expend such hope and energy on rolling them up, and they are so central to how we envision our character—how could we not use them? With the kid's games, I've found this especially gratifying. The kid grasped the significance of the attributes, and how to apply them to a singl...