Dungeon of Signs

THE DWIMMERMOUNT CONTROVERSY

Russ Nicholson Ghasts - Best Art in Dwimmermount

Dwimmermount, long rumored, shrouded in mystery and rage, a controversy and the breaker of titans. I’m not talking about the mega-dungeon, I’m talking about the drama and frustration surrounding the late delivery of this Kickstarted project. I don’t really care about any of the drama and rigmarole associated with the Dwimmermount, but I am interested in the product itself, a consciously ‘old school’ mega dungeon packaged by, expanded on and rewritten by Autarch press (Of Adventurer Conqueror King – which I don’t have much experience with) and originally conceived and written by Grognardia.

It suffices to say that the Kickstarter was frightfully delayed, the task overwhelming (more on that below) and what started out as a hobbyist’s personal expression of his affection for old system dungeon crawls collapsed into something very different and a bit ugly. The somewhat tragic, convoluted and painful process of publishing Dwimmermount is alluded to in the introduction along with the project’s basic goals and intentions, but it should be fundamentally unimportant to anyone who is asking themselves “Can I use this mega-dungeon, and what for?”

RATS AND COPPERS

Besides the now unimportant delay in publication, during Dwimmermount’s production, it’s draft was released in a more or less playable form. In running a test of the adventure one of the groups, GM’d by a well-known OSR blogger and containing at least one other vocal member of the online OSR community found the first level of the dungeon, slow, dull and most importantly frustratingly unoriginal. The exemplar of these alleged problems was a room containing six giant rats and several thousand copper pieces. It should be said that other players, testing Dwimmermount as run by its first author and creator James Maliszewski reported a much more interesting experience. There may be some truth to this distinction as there’s a real possibility that draft notes would be spare and uninteresting compared to the creator’s own understanding of them – certainly my HMS APOLLYON notes, when readable at all, are far less interesting then the ideas they jog in my memory. Still the basic accusation and one that this review will seek to answer is “Is Dwimmermount Boring?” The answer to this question is no. Perhaps a qualified no, stating that if one ran it as a hack and slash combat centric adventure it could have dull spots, and that it’s clearly focused on providing for a long running exploration campaign.

MASSIVE TOME
Dwimmermount is 414 pages long, and while some of this is introductions, space filling design decisions (really if your book is already huge why not) and tables of contents there’s hundreds of pages of gaming content in here, including a starting town, demi-human races and subclasses as well as a lightly keyed wilderness and map. This isn’t a mega-dungeon, it’s a setting focused around a mega-dungeon and should be reviewed as such. With a product this size I don’t think I can really speak to much about how I’d run the module, reskinning it into something different and strange, Dwimmermount is already totalizing, as much as any setting is, which takes the onus off the GM to determine the game worlds feel and basic sensibilities if done correctly. Dwimmermount’s sensibilities are very classic dungeons and dragons and it aims to evoke a swords and sorcery world rather than the watered down Tolkien pastiche known as vanilla fantasy. Still Dwimmermount is undeniably huge, and suffers from some bloat, and the over zeleous explanation of simple things. While some of these odd additions are pretty interesting and useful (a discussion of the magical/ancient and alien materials in the mountain is interesting, but goes on for several pages in a rather convoluted manner). This is too be expected in a product of Dwimmermount’s size and complexity, but can be off-putting when first picking up the module, as the majority of the excess is in the first hundred pages, which contain setting and wilderness.

Sadly, and this is perhaps Dwimmermount’s greatest trouble, the huge book is disorganized – or perhaps overly organized, tritely organized, or badly organized. There are about 300 pages of keyed rooms, broken up by level, but the monster description (not the stats thankfully), magic items and level factions are in separate sections before or after the main meat of the module. It’s the treatment of factions that annoys me the most, especially as the faction conflict in Dwimmermount is nicely set up, with multi-level rivalries and ancient antagonisms that can eventually be deduced at the first encounter with some groups. Factions maybe one of the most important elements in Dwimmermount, yet the faction section is split off, without separate notes for reading with each level, lost in its own little design gulag, where it’s split up by level. Beyond the broad outline of multi-level faction conflict this is information that could easily have been provided in each level’s introduction.

THE SETTING

There’s something a bit strange about Dwimmermount’s setting, it’s gameworld is far too close to a dull Vanilla Fantasy/High Fantasy with a Science Fantasy mega-dungeon at its center. While Dwimmermount and its larger setting background feels a bit more like a more serious Anomalous Subsurface Environment (more Barsoom and less Thundarr), the current outdoor part of the setting (towns, wilderness map and such) is a rather standard collapsed wizard empire with emergent city-states, yeomen and such. This component of the adventure is the weakest, and while it might be molded into an interesting ‘mythic underworld’ v. ‘prosaic overworld’ dynamic, it’s not ideal. If I draw on the comparison with ASE again, the lightly sketched (mostly elaborated through evocative detail and random tables) Land of 1,000 towers/Denethix is far more compelling and far better linked to the mega-dungeon than Dwimmermount’s Muntburg. I think this is important because in my experience running ASE, players will get bored with the dungeon at some point and do some exploration of the above ground world and nearby locations. Yet Dwimmermount’s Muntburg, both less interesting and smaller then ASE’s Denethix, takes up a lot more pages to cover.

THE DUNGEON

Dwimmermount is a fully realized megadungeon. It has mysteries, factions, tricks, traps, unique monsters, sublevels and sprawling maps filled with loops and multiple entrances. The maps themselves are nothing special, their fill is unpleasant, and the talents of Logan Knight appear to have been largely wasted as his elevation map is chopped into several sheets, oriented in a funny direction, and doesn’t actually provide much information. The overhead maps are clean though, and functional enough, with a map for each of the 13 levels (some are sublevels of the same size) containing 50 – 70 locations, on what appears to have been a single sheet of graph paper. That is to say that as Megadungeons go Dwimmermount is more deep than wide, and its levels individually slightly smaller, with smaller spaces and rooms then some other megadungeons. There is good art throughout, though it’s somewhat inconsistent, from a couple of magnificent Russ Nichelson illustrations, in his glorious art nouveau details/dripping grot style and then there are scattered cartoon drawing that provide an entirely different feel. Much of the interior art is grey washed (obviously digitally so) ink drawings of Dwimmermount’s interior spaces. These are largely of good quality and evocative enough to both be fun while reading and worth sharing at the table.

The dungeon itself covers most of the traditional megadungeon/mythic underworld standards: flooded levels, cave levels, laboratories, ancient cities and ancient machines. There’s a nice mix of traps and encounters, but it tends to include a lot more empty rooms then I personally would. This could make for a good exploration game, and there is certainly a nice idea about large gold rewards for discovering historical mysteries within Dwimmermount, that could be the basis of a solid campaign, relying on the numerous mosaics, murals, artifacts, inscriptions and tomes within the dungeon.

There is a good amount of dungeon dressing in Dwimmermount, with rooms seemingly having been designed and placed with some attention to what I call ‘organic’ dungeon stocking. This can bother some GMs who don’t need to know a room was once a barracks or a slurry pond 500 years before, but for me it’s helpful as it informs what might be found there from a careful search, likewise knowing a room’s current use helps the GM flesh out description in game, when the party decides to take great interest in a room that has little or no importance to the dungeon as a whole. The room descriptions in Dwimmermount are correspondingly longer then in many megadungeon products (Stonehell, ASE) because of the historical and dressing detail, but they aren’t pointlessly so especially when one consider’s that Dwimmermount is clearly written for a long exploration game.

The organic detail is more interesting the deeper one gets into Dwimmermount, where science-fantasy and odd touches predominate, as opposed to the first levels which have the feel of a standard, grey stone blocks and ironbound doors dungeon. I think this alow start, as well as the obtuse nature of the mysteries in Dwimmermount may have give one shot players and GMs the feeling that the dungeon is a vanilla slog, some sort of clumsy B1 – Search for the unknown (the description density reminds me of B1) blown up to cover over a thousand rooms. Yet once the party is through the first few levels things start getting interesting and strange.

The slower pace of keyed encounters may emphasize exploration (and hence resource management), and so Dwimmermount depends on the random encounter table for a lot of the in game action, and sadly these encounter tables are weak, cursory and uninspiring – though sufficient and easy enough to modify. If the GM has read the considerable faction material it should be easy to make these encounters fun, and potentially both dangerous and profitable, depending on the players’ interest and abilities at faction based roleplaying. Likewise a good GM can use even the skeletal random encounter table to add signs and noises of the other inhabitants in addition to actual encounters. This might also go a ways towards making the levels of Dwimmermount seem a bit less deserted. This is a minor complaint really, as the core of Dwimmermount is solid, and the content contains many of the harder to improvise elements of a dungeon crawl – traps, tricks and mysteries.

Dwimmermount is enormous, and I can’t really go into detail about its many levels beyond the generalities about, except to see that there are a number of good ideas and encounters on every level, and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that it is a ‘boring’ dungeon or and overpolished one. Dwimmermount has reasonable size descriptions, provides a good amount of information on its keyed areas and has enough variation to make it worthwhile.

MONSTERS, TREASURES AND ENCOUNTERS

Dwimmermount has a good monster set, but it might trick a reader into thinking otherwise. Many of the creatures within the mountain share the name with common D&D enemies: kobolds, orcs, gnolls, and minotaurs, but have an radically different background (as magically vat grown soldier beastmen) that makes them more interesting and flavorful enemies. This is a theme in Dwimmermount, a reluctance to follow Tolkienwsque fantasy naming conventions and give everything different and new a nonsensical name in some pseudo fantasy language. Rather Dwimmermount’s authors have decided to use names that evoke ideas or words related to what they signify. The Eld for example are Martian elves, who are old (hence ‘eld’ as in elder), magic (‘eld’ as in eldritch) and from space (‘eld’ as in Games Workshop’s Eldar). I personally hate confusing fantasy names without real world reference so this is a great naming convention. It’s much easier to remember content with names that give me an idea of what I’m dealing with.

The tricks and traps are generally rational and can be explained mechanically easily enough, allowing player skill solutions and work arounds rather than limiting the game to mechanical skill tests. However, there seem to be fewer traps and such then I’d personally like, meaning monsters present the major challenge in much of Dwimmermount.

The Treasure in Dwimmermount is fairly good, with most mundane treasures getting the few words of description necessary to make them interesting and somewhat memorable. The magic items are likewise good, and while many +X weapons exist they are at least described as being made of magical or supernatural material in a way that gives them some life. There are a fair number of new magic items as well and these are generally excellent, both because they have clear origins and because they are often low powered, but useful.

A GRAND EFFORT

Dwimmermount took a long time to get out, and it seems to have passed through a lot of hands before publication. It’s trouble as they are stem from this convoluted production process, with different authors and designers putting their own gloss the original ideas, and muddying them as they did so. This has led some of the adventure, especially the setting elements to seem rather like dull vanilla D&D imagining, but if one can get past the frustrating mediocrity of Dwimmermount’s wilderness areas (and I’m not saying one should, megadungeon campaigns have a tendency to wander from the dungeon itself in my experience), there’s a lot of great stuff within. [NOTE: Per one of the publishers and editors of Dwimmermount this impression does not reflect the actual process, the editors were true to the notes provided by the auteur, which included the vanilla fantasy above ground. I have heard other versions of this regarding the starting town being phased out quickly in favor of a necromancers' city, and the liberal use of LOTFP locations above ground. Really I'm not concerned about the source of the difference, but personally the split between Science Fantasy Dungeon and Vanilla Fantasy setting is jarring and Muntberg would be what I'd change 1st if I were to run Dwimmermount]. Dwimmermount is subtle stuff, and will require a lot of play time to really get into, but it’s there - a non-gonzo science fantasy D&D mega dungeon built with a lot of attention to detail and an adherence to all the ‘rules’ of building a good mega-dungeon. The very size of Dwimmermount may also be its enemy, a few forays into the place won’t discover much, and the levels get consistently weirder, but start very classically D&D. Of the major historical factions, the interesting ones (martian elves, space wizards, robot gods) are deeper in the dungeon while the Thulians read pretty much like a vanilla fantasy evil militaristic empire. This means that to enjoy Dwimmermount’s more interesting elements one will have to play a campaign, likely a long one. Even the dungeon itself is a long haul, the number of empty rooms is based on the classic proportions, which tend to make for a slow game if the party is cautious or interested in fiddling with dungeon dressing.

All in all Dwimmermount is a solid megadungeon, so big that it may be harder to use, and hampered a bit by dull high fantasy additions to its swords and sorcery (or perhaps sword and planet even) core. The individual levels include factions, decent monsters (everything is a reskinning really, with the classic D&D names pasted on), evocative treasure, imaginative traps/puzzles and a lot of mysteries to explore.

The only real improvement I can think of for Dwimmermount, would be to drop the Megadungeon into a less vanilla fantasy world, perhaps ASE’s Land of 1,000 Towers or even Carcosa, as the dungeon is strange enough to offer a great addition to a real Science Fantasy game world.

Last Gasp’s First Product

Recently Logan from Last Gasppublished his first commercial (not aggressively so - it’s pay what you want, but if you decide to get it - pay the man something) product “Sleeping Place of theFeathered Swine”. I grabbed it right away based on the enjoyment I get from Logan’s blog, and especially from his play reports (including one from Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine). Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine is a simple location based adventure with 13 keyed rooms, and a huge amount of flavor. The adventure has a few piece of great art by the author (monster illustrations) and includes a wonderful map, along with a novel approach to using the map at the table. Size or details aren’t what matters here, what matters is the evocative environment and setting, both the contemporary sort of body horror weirdness, late 80’s Warhammer Fantasy grottiness, and a great deal of late 70’s OD&D deadly. It's not a big adventure, but it will get you through a 2-3 hour session with a lot of flavor.

THE ADVENTURE

The Worm Tumor, a primary antagonist

The party finds a failed adventurer, a wizard of some sort, in the wilderness. He’s lost his Grimore and he’s not well. He tells of an easy commission to surgically take some sort of larva sacks from some kind of horrible beasts that are hibernating in a nearby cave. His companions were all killed by disgusting mutants in the cave, and one was carrying the frazzled wizard's spellbook at the time. He can give the party directions, and proper instructions and warnings regarding the removal and care of the worm cysts, but he's nicely pathetic otherwise. Some alchemist creep will pay good money for the cysts.

Inside the cave things are gross, fungus and piles of rotten feathers everywhere, but worse, the victims of the larva (from improper removal of the monster cysts) turn into horrors ready to spread their plague in disgusting ways. A dying adventurer can be rescued from the now infected previous explorers and provides more warnings (and monster tranquilizers), monstrous freaks lurch from hidden recesses, and all the while a room full of horrible pig/bear/owl things hibernate waiting to be badly tranquilized and have their larval cysts plundered. Everything can go wrong, and going wrong is deadly and disgusting.

There are simple treasures (broken equipment mostly) suitable for a very desperate low level game, a very strange pearl that creates cave crabs and the lost wizard’s grimore of horrible spells (plus the Feathered Swine cysts – assuming the party doesn’t infect themselves gathering them).

GRIM AND GROTTY

The Sleeping place of the Feathered Swine is a small adventure really, good for a single session or maybe two. It’s also a cave adventure of the most basic sort – go in, fight monsters, get quest items and incidental treasure. Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine could be written as a one page dungeon, but it’ not – and that’s what makes the adventure wonderful. There is so much detail, great situations, horrible obstacles that Feathered Swine transcends its simple cave adventure roots. It’s not that the descriptions are long, most are quite short, but that the adventure successfully conveys why the Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine is not just another dangerous cave, and why desperate mercenaries are drawn to it. The Sleeping Place has a lot of promise as a starting adventure because it creates an implied world as well as a location – a world where a broken sword is a nice find as a weapon. The sort of place where characters are likely equipped from the Warhammer Fantasy random tables, and you start out as a street thug with filthy pants, a ball of twine and a cudgel rather than the standard D&D equipment. I personally like this sort of world – I like the idea that the first few levels of gold should be spent on buying decent equipment. Sleeping Place manages to capture this feel, and this alone is worth the price (hey I paid $5.00, I think you can also shell out a few dollars to encourage Logan to do more of these things). The New Spells, gross monsters (dangerously contagious worm host zombies and the feathered swine [owlbears of a sort]), cursed and beneficial magic armor, and excellent map are nice additions.

The strange armor is a perfect example of the sort of baroque detail and clever description Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine is filled with. The armor is found in the bottom of the cave, behind a small copse of mushrooms, still worn by an oddly mummified corpse. Covered in disturbing engravings and clearly dire portents the suit is obviously magical. Indeed, it is a very beneficial suit of plate armor (Plate +1, with the ability to convert some physical damage into temporary Constitution damage). It will save a character multiple times to be sure, but it is also hideous and cursed, melding with and feeding off its wearer in a viscerally nasty way. This sort of powerful boon and curse item is great, both because it creates character identity and makes magic feel special and weird. Generally everything that could be mundane and dull in Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine (and it’s a 13 room cave lair) is so transformed into something strange, memorable and fascinating.

Furthermore these details tell several stories that the party can unravel and explore. The life cycle of the Feathered Swine and the failed expedition to exploit it by dead/dying/transformed mercenaries is one such tale, while the magical items (armor and pearl) and principle opponents (Worm tumors) offer an opportunity to expand and lead to future adventures.

THE LAYOUT

One of the most interesting elements of Sleeping Place is its layout. There’s quite a bit of innovation and as with all novelty some of it is great, and some isn’t to my taste.

First I’ll cover the issues I have with the design, and then I’ll go into what’s great about it. I think it’s also worth noting that this is Logan’s first go at a published RPG product, and that there is far more design good then design bad here. The PDF is largely split into half pages, zine style, with each page containing a single location. This in itself isn’t bad, but it seems to be space intensive, especially as many of the locations only fill a portion of the page. Another interesting choice, that I’m not sure I fully approve of, is the decision to use large one sentence key descriptions in each area. In general I like the idea, of at a glance room descriptions, they can be super useful at the table to jog a GMs memory about a room, but they way they are presented in Sleeping Place is a bit disruptive as giant text, in a different font can be jarring and only adds to the page bloat that the decision about page size and content creates. These are minor complaint really, and I have heard others praise these decisions, so I suspect it’s just my design preferences (Feel free to complain about my own PDF design proclivities - I think Road of Tombs and Kuelberg Flood might be the best examples of my current style).

There are other decisions in Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine that are very good, and quite new.

Excellent linkage in the PDF (anytime an area of special object is mentioned you can click through to its description) is really nice, and something that I don’t see in a lot of larger more high profile products. Likewise the entire PDF feels polished and well put together without the sort of editing and layout sloppiness that can sometimes plague amateur or solo creators. Finally, and most interestingly, there are some wonderful uses of the map. The map (as with much of Logan’s work) is a wonderfully drawn Isometric beauty that does an enormous amount of the description for the adventure. Rather then leave it as something for the GM’s eyes only, Sleeping Place includes a cut out version of the map so that individual rooms can be laid down, tile like on the table as they are explored. This is novel, fun and really evocative. It reminds me of the way many GMs are running their hangout games, using screenshare of a map and slowly erasing a masking layer as the dungeon is explored, but does it for a home-game. Another nice use of the map is the small versions of each room included below each description, which makes for a nice reference to geographical features.

CONCLUSION

I unreservedly recommend Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine, and it’s flavorful, dangerous and allows for in game world building through character decisions. Sleeping Place is precisely the sort of adventure that small creators, amateurs and bloggers have been offering the hobby for the past few years and that now with the resurgence of D&D 5E will hopefully become all the more important as they represent different genres of the classic dungeon crawl, beyond the sort of heroic fantasy Tolkien pastiche currently favored by WOTC and Pathfinder. So go get this thing, read it enjoy it and drop it into your game world. It’s not especially level dependent as the monsters dangerous come mostly from special attacks, and since they are all new monsters their statlines can be easily adjusted.

Lone Colossus of the AKolouthos Sink

Resolute and alone atop a limestone knob, the verdigris covered remains of an Imperial municipal siege unit, a bronze colossus, the ‘Akolouthos’, 3,200 years old and first operational in the service of the Imperial legions, surplused to the Styllus family until only three years ago. The Colossi was the bastion of Styllus dominion over five hundred miles of prime Central Province vineyards and grain, but without it the family has been nearly run under by their neighbors, the Comizius clan. Largely intact, the Akolouthos may even be operational. If the war machine can be repaired or salvaged, the Colossus’ value is immeasurable, and even if destroyed many valuable bits of its arcane workings a likely to be salvageable from the almost intact Colossus.

Like all destroyed Imperial war machines the bronze colossi exudes rotten magic, creating a sink around it of foul arcane corruption. The sink is not as deep or as large as some, but the hillock that the Akolouthos stands atop is bare of life, and now the rock itself bleeds a bluish black and the birds in the area speak in the voices of sobbing children. The Clossi’s own radiation is compounded by the nature of its destruction, and the ancient arcane fluids corrupted by deep forest shadow magic.

A small lair adventure - just 11 rooms, set in the Fallen Empire setting I've made a few comments about. The party can elect to explore a destroyed war machine of the ancient world, recently brought down by noble infighting. Thanks to James A. for giving me a few more mutation effects when my own mind started to fail on this project.

LINK TO PDF (or click on header)

In the next few days or weeks, I'll be putting the final touches on a large adventure (around 40 pages or so) that is a follow up to The Prison of the Hated Pretender. Not a direct sequel to the previous adventure, but something that references the same ancient despotism and events. The Dread Machine will focus on the exploration of an ancient valley, containing a decaying machine of great power and evil. Two keyed locations and several cites to explore, including the Machine itself. It's designed for adventurer's 3rd-6th level and should offer some interesting challenges. All new monsters, magic items and numerous traps, but with an effort to create something that can be dropped into an existing campaign world without deforming it.

HOOKS AND RUMORS

Adventurers die, and usually in hideous ways, but the optimism, entitlement and overweening self-importance that often drives individuals towards delving in ancient tombs and battling horrible monsters also means that few Adventurers will easily accept the finality of death. When one of their companions predictably dies to the horrors of some pit best left untrodden adventurers will seek for ways to transcend mortality and cheat death. Returning a comrade to life is not an easy task. Certain deities, and even their most powerful instruments, can sometimes claw a mortal back from death’s sweet arms, but few adventuring types are in good graces with the gods, and fewer wish to owe the debts associated with divine grace. To these desperate souls many a sage has an answer, and that answer is often the lost Ziggurat of the Pretender, an artifact, machine or perhaps a building created by a forgotten and hated despot in some antediluvian eon. Pinpointing the whereabouts of this wondrous edifice is expensive, and details sketchy, but one thing that the overpaid sage will assure his or her clients is that this device allows resurrection of the dead.

The Yellow Land

The valley isn’t lost, it’s worthless, cursed and shunned. Any of the slow moving, worn out dirt farmers for fifty miles can tell you where the valley is, as they make various signs to ward off evil, sorcery, madness and death. It was finding these plains of yellow dirt that was hard, a place forgotten and overlooked. The plains are almost free of resources but teeming with abandoned, sullen, cheerless clans of cruel, cannibal folk. There is nothing to trade for here, nothing to plunder, and no opportunities to draw the men of civilization. Yet, according to the sage, within a rotten valley that boils from the yellow and rust scrub lands, too poor for even the tireless and moronic dwellers of these parts to farm, is the Autocrat’s Tear, a puckered chancre filled with ancient puissance capable of returning life.

THE MACHINE

A metal cube 80’ by 80’ covered in gears, pistons and jutting devices of unknown use, a doorway in its Southern face spilling a weak internal light, white and cold, onto the cavern floor. Trickles of lubricant, oil and other industrial discharge leak from ancient pipe fittings and run in unnaturally bright rivulets across the rocky ground. The upper level of the object appears to largely consist of an angled set of four huge pistons, all closed.

The interior of the cube is similar to its exterior, a mad jumble of pipes, plates, dials, gears and pistons that overwhelms the eye, with hallways and chambers that appear to have been tunneled out of the mechanical bulk. The halls are between 10’ and 6’ wide where jutting machinery limits passage. The floor is made of either sturdy metal mesh grates, revealing more pipes and devices beneath, or riveted metal plates of steel, bronze or iron. Ceiling varies in height depending on the number of conduits and devices in a particular area of hall, but is never less than 7’.

This is one of the artifacts used by an ancient despot to control his empire. It is powered by sacrificed souls and energy siphoned from beyond the veil of reality. Built partially with the Despots sorcerous skills and partially with material and knowledge of enslaved otherworldly entities, the machine can, extend life, reverse death, create ablife and grant a form of immortality. The alien technology used in its creation is that of the domain of the machine intelligences of the bronze ziggurat, a plane of perfect, horrible order and merciless calculating rationality.

STRANGE TREASURES

The Legion Breaker

Carved or forged from a single piece of unnatural purple black steel, this item consists of a heavy 8’ long chain of hexagonal links topped with a melon sized hollow polyhedral cage decorated with ornate ridges and patterned engravings. The exact number of sides will appear different upon each viewing.

When incense is burned in the censer, it will fill a room up to 50’ x 50’ with thick purple smoke that creates an area of magical order, preventing demons and similar outsider entities of chaos from entering and making other chaotic creatures uncomfortable.

As a weapon the Legion Breaker is a magical blunt two-handed weapon, capable of doing 1D10 points of damage and striking at +1 to hit. If wielded by a cleric in the service of a non-chaotic deity or power it will burn with a pale purple fire when used in combat. On a natural to hit roll of 17 or better (assuming the attack hits) the weapons flames will spread to the target doing an additional 1D4 points of damage, and burning for 1 point of damage per round for the next 4 rounds.

DEADLY TRAPS

Balancing Shrine – the creation and maintenance of this shrine to mechanical perfection is a strange act of worship, still performed by the Wire Ghasts as they intermittently repair and clean the machine - it is also a trap. Disturbing the balance of the shrine will cause it to collapse, dropping an 8’ pile of machine scrap onto whatever is within 10’ of the front of the shrine. This collapse will do 2D6 points of damage to anyone caught in the deluge, but a Save vs. Paralysis will allow a victim to cower for half damage. Worse, the balanced objects in the shrine itself are connected to a series of heavy pipes and beams concealed in the ceiling of the entire hallway (magical searching, or a detect traps success in the hallway will reveal loose pipes in the ceiling). When the shrine collapses, the entire carefully arranged mass will come clattering down, subjecting anyone in the hallway to 1D4+1 attacks by the equivalent of a 3HD monster. Each attack that lands represents pieces of piping or other mechanical debris that will strike for 1D6 points of damage. Triggering this trap makes a great deal of noise and requires three immediate wandering monster check to see if 1D6 Wire Ghasts (for each positive result) are attracted to the noise.

The altar need not be disturbed to trigger the trap as loud noises have a 2 in 6 chance of causing the collapse, as does disturbing the hall’s ceiling pipes. The golden cylinder may be removed by very careful manipulation of the shrine elements, requiring five successful checks on a D20 under various attributes to succeed. Upon each attempt to manipulate or disassemble the shrine roll 1D6, on a 1-2 a Wisdom check is needed, on 3-4 an Intelligence check and on 5-6 Dexterity. Any failed check will result in the collapse of the shrine. Disassembling the shrine entirely will take ten ability checks but will trigger the hallway ceiling portion of the trap when completed. The best way disarm the trap is to tie a thin cord to a piece of the shrine, requiring an ability check, and taking it out of the area to use as a trigger.

FIENDISH BEASTS

Fractal Slurry A blob of brightly colored orange and brown sludge, constantly flowing into crystalline shapes. The creature transforms metallic items into additional fractal slurry and can kill with its jagged form, and while not hungry for flesh, is quite territorial.

Fractal Slurry: HD 3, AC 8*, ATK 1**, DMG 2D8 MV 3’ SV F2 ML 12* Metal Weapons striking the Fractal Slurry do normal damage, but will be destroyed and heal the creature for 1D8 HP the next round. ** Upon striking a target with metal armor, Fractal Slurry does ½ damage, but will dissolve the armor in 1D4 rounds fully healing any damage it has sustained.

THE SLUMBERING URSINE DUNES


Ursine Dunes Cover

Slumbering Ursine Dunes is a gaming product currently being polished and kickstarted by Chris K. from the Hill Cantons blog.Through various machinations and jesuitical maneuverings I have managed to obtain an alpha copy of Ursine Dunes and the permission to review it.

I’ve always enjoyed Hill Cantons, and have repeatedly tried to play a session or two, but been repeatedly stymied by scheduling conflicts. With the production of Ursine Dunes I will finally have a chance to glimpse what Hill Cantons looks like from the GM’s side of the table and to delve into the world more. Now Chris K has provided a lot of free PDF content before, and it’s generally high quality, so I have high hopes for Ursine Dunes, and he appears to be working with some others in the OSR community whose work I appreciate, so I have even higher hopes about the product and from what I've seen it doesn't disappoint.

Now some notes of caution.

A) The copy I received is a bare bones draft, all the content is there, but it’s still getting edited (it has been edited a couple times by now I understand), is missing the final art and maps and thus may have changed substantially. As such I make no representations about the quality of the final product’s editing, maps art or layout (though the art I’ve seen looks great - see above).

B) I like the author and his style of game, so to some extent there may be a promotional aspect to this review – after all the Kickstarter just Kickstarted. However, other than some mutual internet admiration Chris and I aren’t in business together or otherwise connected in any way. There’s no kickback scheme here, though the idea of an OSR kickback scheme would be funny as I envision envelopes stuffed with nickles exchanging hands in the shadowed corners of the night.

THE BASICS

The prospectus for this adventure is that it’s a mini wilderness sandbox with a pair of larger keyed locations and plenty of encounters within the wilderness. The Ursine Dunes does this in a slightly non-traditional way, creating a point-crawl rather then the more common hex-crawl. Personally I like this method as it reduces record keeping and is usually sufficient for travel overland as the players rarely just decide to wander about, but are going from one location to another. It’s a bit odd in a small content rich region like the Dunes, but the module manages to use the geographic aspects of the adventure environment to create pathways and channels that keep the point-crawl from being improperly limiting.

Another large scale mechanic that makes the Dunes interesting is the “chaos index”, an “event subsystem” for large scale changes based on player actions and increasing naturally each session. The Chaos Index is a neat element, as it keeps the adventure from being static, and adds a solid amount of evocative detail as the Dunes, a psychedelic wilderness dreamed by sleeping gods, that becomes stranger or more normal based on events and player action. It’s great when player actions have a tangible effect on the game world, and can really create player satisfaction and a sense of purpose in an adventuring party.

The effects of the Chaos Index are mostly strange occurrences and atmospheric effects that have little mechanical effect, but this is good, because it creates scene and a sense of change without bogging the game down in minutia or being overly punitive. Other effects (positive and negative) are more intense, but effect primarily magic use, and magic is supposed to be wondrous and strange.

Beyond these novel approaches to sandbox play, there are some new classes (war bear mercenaries, and cave-dwarfs - exactly what they sound like, proto-dwarf cavemen), a few new spells, and a number of excellent new monsters.

THE ADVENTURE

In ancient times some Northern Godling got in a fight with a deified bear at a spot along the coast. The dunes thrown up in this fight are magical and strange, and both attract odd anomalies and behave as a mythical wilderness where everyday norms are off-kilter. In the end they melded into a slightly more powerful Demigod and have been loitering about since, dreaming and accepting worship from Soldier Bear (militaristic, mercenary bears, walking upright), centaur and were-bear followers. Recently other factions have intruded into the godling’s little domain, pirates led by some were-sharks, and worse strange, sadistic, science fantasy space elves. The Tower of the bear god (who is lazy in a very bear like way) is under a siege of sorts, with weird elven infiltrators coming from above, and pirates coming from below. The bear god doesn’t want to deal with either threat personally so the party has pretty much free reign to play the factions against each other and loot the tower.

The second location is evocative, strange and creepy - a living barge of space-elf (called Eld after Dwimmermount’s Martian elves) construction, lost out of time. The Eld seek to recover it, skulking about and preparing ambushes, but the living barge’s self-defense and repair mechanisms are also active in the form of very orderly ghoul packs that protect the barge. The Golden Barge is a great science-fantasy location, and reminds me of my own fascination with fantastical wrecks as adventure locales. The treasures and encounters within both these locations are interesting and different, even when they use classic monsters or simple treasures. There does seem to be a bit of a lack of strange magic items, but there are plenty of mundane items that provide bonuses and interesting effects, so this appears to be more a conscious decision about the nature of magic in the Hill Cantons setting then a lack.

Outside the two largely self-contained keyed locations the Dunes also contain many intriguing encounters, toll collecting centaurs, a hermit in an ancient statute head and a field of murderous grain spirits. The encounters are good enough, some are excellent, but there could be more locales for exploring to really take advantage of the Dune's chaos index and strangeness. Some of these encounters border on absurd or silly, and in general Ursine Dunes has a ‘gonzo’ feel. This aspect is brought to the surface by the writing, which while clear and concise is also peppered with colloquialisms and slang phrases, rather than the traditional Gygaxian bombast or vaguely Vancian pedantry that is common in game products. Not to say this is bad, describing treasure as "baller" (not a real example) or describing it as "ensorcelled with a powerful dwenomer" are stylistic choices for the reader to sort out.

The final and key point here is that I’m interested in Ursine Dunes, and I’d like to play it, or even run it perhaps without re-skinning it into something completely different. There’s enough fun content within the Dunes that it’s worth reading even if it doesn’t fit in one’s current campaign. I also don’t think it’s a location that needs to be used on its own, and it could easily be wedged into a Science Fantasy Campaign, especially something like ASE. In fact it feels a bit like an ASE product with a slightly different stylistic focus. As to it's completion? Sure it’s a Kickstarted project, but I have a feeling it will be done on time, given the record of the author at putting out free PDFs and the state of the Alpha. I general I was pleasantly impressed with Slumbering Ursine Dunes, and especially like some of its mechanical aspects that make the larger Dune area feel like a living environment.

LANUAGE AND POWER

The immolation of the Imperial Archives by disgruntled boxing
devotees in the 7th Century of the Successor Empire helped
limit learning to those with access to private libraries

One of the class abilities that both magic-users and nobles (dual classed F/MU with skills in scholarship and ancient knowledge) have is the ability to speak one or more esoteric languages. In early editions of D&D language skills were handed out to characters with a decent Intelligence in huge bundles, and even more common amongst demi-humans. These language skills had value as reaction rolls and morale rolls with intelligent monsters often allowed an opportunity for parley or surrender, providing a very fun roleplaying-rich way of avoiding combat encounters and entering into the ‘faction game’ amongst dungeon dwellers. Just thinking about the set-up of the feuding humanoids in B2 – Keep on the Borderlands should offer an example of how useful speaking orc, goblin and kobald might be in an old Gygax adventure. I have no desire to track the uses and relationships between fifty fantasy languages, however and while I greatly enjoy a tense parley as both a player and GM, for Fallen Empire I want to emphasize a largely human world and primarily use ‘common’ as a language available to all players.

Rather than create languages that are specific to races or types of monsters I have decided to create a set of languages that is useful in dealing with certain classes of society or broad groups of monsters. A scholar need not worry if they speak hobgoblin or goblin, but should be able to talk to denizens of the underdark (yes there is an underdark in Fallen Empire – Deep Carbon Observatory made that certain) if they know the Underdark’s version of common – “Crawl”. Another expected advantage with a smaller number of languages is that inscriptions and mysterious texts can be accessible (assuming you have a scholar in your party) while still being strange and mysterious. I intend to have two tables of languages - Esoteric Languages and Living Languages, with the first only available in very limited numbers to Magic-Users and more easily to noble scholars, and the second open to anyone based on intelligence (likely only one or two extra per PC to keep the numbers down).

In addition I have made the parley game slightly more amusing for me by constructing language meta-games with mild mechanical effects. Speaking Crawl works better if you talk like a cartoon cave man, and trying to overawe bureaucratic robbers or get information out of reluctant functionaries (really the most common kind of bandit in Fallen Empire) will work better if you can speak in Imperial Law and use a really long word or two.

Below is another letter from the wandering and addled noble Imperial Noble "Pepinot Vex, Hereditary Peinkernes Extraordinary" regarding his continued efforts to reach his beloved cousin's country estate. Apologies in advance for the bad fiction - it's just one of those weeks. Feel free to skip to the table of Esoteric Languages at the bottom of the post.

Dearest Cousin,

Winter of the Imperial Septuagennial

I confess I did not appreciate the hardships of travel when I chose to wander beyond the Capital’s crumbling white walls.The road has many twists and turns, to abuse a popular phrase . First we detoured around the trenches and bastions of a range war between fighting rural houses – the flashes of black magic rising along a distant ridge as boorish houseguards, while barely understanding how to prime and fire, kept hurling charges from a snub nosed void projector more ancient then the line of the three village Atman who commanded them in the pointless struggle against his neighbor. I do not mean to be harsh to the county squires of the Empire, dear cousin, as I know you count your father and brothers among them, but the thin blooded lot I encountered blocking the high road, held none that would allow us through and call a truce in their petty feud over a village of poxed toilers, or was it a herd of poxed cattle – it hardly mattered as from the stench the prize had been caught between the lines of battle and slaughtered weeks prior.

This was only the first of the obstacles that my ‘entourage’ and I encountered on the road and it occasioned me to hire a local guide, a rough hunter sort named Zaoimillian who presented himself as knowledgeable of the roads and wilderness between them. With Zao’s guidance we increased or speed, on back roads, herd paths and graveled lanes, but never fully stopped encountering difficulties. Gorg and I were forced to beat ruffians away from the camp more than once, while Zaoimillian and Tanzil put a few arrows into some magical sport that came sniffing around our fire one night.

The strangest incident was our encounter with a band of actual robbers, which may seem surprising given the traditional fear that the Imperial Road Wardens supposedly inspire. Eight or ten men armed with spear and bow, motley clad in piecemail armor and bucksins, their faces marked with the traits of brute nations. Most surprising was their leader, an oleaginous old man, clad in the tattered robes of an Imperial Vicar. The Emperor’s faces on his pectoral were carved from wood by a crippled ape, and badly gilded, but this was a bandit, pretending to be a servant of the Imperial cult. I shouted a challenge, demanding the ruffians move on with a showing three inches of white saber blade, while Grog hefted his partisan. The bandits were unimpressed, and their false vicar stepped forward to demand “contributions, for the church.” When he saw the rage in my eyes and the fingers of my off hand curling into the snake signs that are the first iteration of the ‘evocation of smoke and sorrow’, the bandit leader paused and uncorked a huge flask held by a hairy brute I presume was his lieutenant.

My concentration was disrupted and I felt the sorcery slip from my fingers as a torrent of light poured from the flask, coiling into the form of a beleaguered Scout Cherubim - regarded as one of the most pitiful of military sending, the entity was a far different matter when facing it across a desolate gravel track then when marvelling at the illustrations in “The Dictionary of Biddable Immortals” under the drunkenly watchful eye of Grey Peter, my childhood tutor. The Cherubim stood eight feet tall, or would have had it not been hovering on a great nimbus of frantically whirling wings. It’s flesh was curved in soft pillowing shapes, but gleamed like white stone, and the immortal’s eyes shone with perilous light. On closer inspection the Cherubim had seen better days, strange green bruises marked it’s flesh, there were gaps in its feathers and while its eyes shone, no radiant halo surrounded its head. It was a weak sending, and injured, long without the ambrosia such things require to work their full powers, but it was still an Imperial sending, dating from the war of succession and intended to harry sorcerer dragoons across cloudscapes or rain bolts of righteous fire against demon warded war machines. The Cherubim would do for my cantrips, Gorg’s training and the odd unexpected bravery of Zao and Tanzil.

The fallen vicar, for I now realized that the bandit leader must have at one time been a true priest and maybe still considered himself one, sang out in the musical language of the Heavenly Thrones, commanding the Cherubim to destroy us. “The glory of battle is upon you again, destroy them.” Yet in this emphatic command was the seed of our salvation, as the old vicar’s Celestial was execrable, I doubt he even knew the full extent of the command he repeated, or that it contained a very great flaw of divine grammer. The first of Grey Peter’s lessons in Celestial was that there are no discordant phrases in that language of song, no negative words truly exist amongst the Thrones, and all unpleasant words and concepts: want, death, sadness, no, and destruction are but poor human approximations and translations that grate Celestial ears and souls. Seeing my chance in the bandit priest’s ignorant butchery of the Throne Song, I dug into my memory for the phrases Grey Peter had drummed into my child's mind during the summers of my ninth and tenth years, before he was chased away for stealing and selling some smaller pieces of erotic statuary from doddering Great Uncle’s collection.

“The good news is upon us! Freedom, glory and the will of the great Empire, sublime servant of the Thrones, revel in the glory of battle again, then you ascend again Cherubim, as you will have shown the happy servants of the Empire and the Thrones the light of your glorious protection.”

In explaining what I had said afterwards to my simple but curious companions I told them that I asserted that we were Imperial servants and promised to free the sending from this sphere of existence if it would slaughter the bandits in exchange. The sending liked what it heard, sung properly without the jarring doubt and malice of the vicar’s own commands and it turned, it’s hands crackling arcs of white fire.

We did not stay, as presumably the offer of freedom needed no action on my part, and if it had I lacked the instruments of a legionnaire thaumaturge to deliver it. Luckily the Cherubim was a simple creature and delighted in its “glorious conflict” with its former masters, slowly “bringing justice and ascendant peace” to the bandits, long after we had fled even the sounds of the endless screaming.

While I Remain,
Pepinot Vex, Hereditary Peinkernes Extraordinary

D10	Esoteric Language of the Successor Empire
1	Pit – The languages of the demons and devils of the underworld, uncommon and usually unnecessary, but very useful, as all denizens of the furnace desire conversation. (Expressions of desire or need, especially asking for anything, are a sign of weakness in Pit, and any request that is phrased as such gives a -1 to the associated reaction roll or CHR check).
2	Celestial – The music of the Celestial Thrones is a language, one where no negative or unpleasant word may be spoken. A useful tongue as the ancients weaponized a great many of the angelic host in their waning years. (-1 to any reaction/CHR roll, and speech must stop if a negative phrase or sentiment is uttered).
3	Crawl – That language of desperate grunt and half utterances spoken by those exiled beneath the Earth into the vast anti-world below. Crawl is a trade speech and while many races and species of underdwellers know it, it is so simple that it allows little elegant expression (-1 to CHR or reaction roll for every contraction or connection word used in speech).
4	Birdsong – An unsubtle speech, spoken by most avian life. Most do not realize that birds speak, and speakers of birdsong often opine that it would be best if the vast majority of birds never spoke, so garbled, self-obsessed and pedestrian are their thoughts. Yet birdsong is a beautiful language and in the hands of an intelligent speaker with a good voice and poetic tendencies it can be a sublime to hear even for those who do not understand it.
5	The Voice of Paath – The speech of the machine intelligences, difficult to learn, and harder to speak. All meaning is created through patterns of two tones or sounds and thus complex expression must be carefully considered to avoid overly long or inexact phrases of the sort that the Machine Intelligences deem inelegant. (-1 to CHR check or reaction roll for each word over three syllables used).
6	Foul – Born amongst the lich cults of the Successor Empire’s silver age, this language is designed to be spoken with a dry throat and tongue withered to a husk. Its simpler phrases can even be spoken with only the clacking of bare teeth or bone against bone. The truly dead never speak Foul, but those that have been reanimated often speak it, if they speak at all.
7	Priest’s Cant – The droning liturgy of the Imperial Cult conceals within it a wealth of meaning that allows its speaker to sneer at outsiders it also provides the proper ritual observences to speak to many of the ancient artifacts, automaton, and abominations associated with the Imperial Cult. Speaker’s of Priest’s Cant are few in the current age, but a great many tomes of ancient knowledge, scrolls of power and inscriptions are written in it, making it a useful language for explorers of lost places.
8	Imperial Law – The Law of the Empires, both Ancient and Successor is voluminous and was once a source of justice and regulation that benefited all. Over the years it has changed into another means of self-aggrandizement and manipulation, it’s voluminous and often rewritten codes allow a skilled speaker to justify almost anything. While the language of the Imperial Law is comprehensible to any who speak Common, it’s meanings are not, as almost every word is a term of art, and many a phrase can be built in a way to mean it’s opposite. (Complexity and confusion are the hallmarks of Imperial Law, if a character uses a word of more than five syllables while speaking it, they gain a +1 to any reaction or CHR roll.)
9	Vheissuian – The language of the distant menace, that land of volcanos, prophetic masks and rainbow monkeys – Vheissu. Some call Vheissu the greatest of the Resurgent Kingdoms, but there is no doubt that it is something more. Vheissuian flame hierophants are powerful, and that their Ash Brigades, once the guards of Emperors before the advent of the Ecclesiastic Praetorians represent the only force left in the world comparable to the Empire’s lost legions. Yet, Vheissu is distant and its presence in the Imperial sphere, never great, appears to be waning, rather than filling the power vacuum left by decay.
10	Field Sign – An elaborate language of gestures, courtesies and pithy clichés that has long allowed the country people of the Empire and even the magically altered workers of its Hive Factors to communicate with each other beyond the understanding of outsiders. Hints or phrase books of this language are sometimes found in the better sort of agricultural management texts, and some knowledge of it is indeed useful in dealing with rural Imperials, as Field Sign is the way these people determine who is “good” and who is an outsider worthy of contempt or violence.

SAVE vs. NOVELTY

Blackleaf didn't get a Saving Throw, and we know
how that ended

Saving Throws are an iconic element of table top roleplaying games, that likely has its roots in the First Edition of Dungeons and Dragons, those Little Brown Books (well before that really) . Saving Throws are still a part of Dungeons & Dragons 5^th edition, but frankly I think they’ve lost something. Don’t get me wrong, I like 5^thedition a lot, and have enjoyed the flexibility of the character generation, the careful balancing of armor class (a real problem area if one is trying to limit power creep) and how despite its heroic elements 5e has maintained much of the feeling of character peril one might get from Basic/Expert style D&D.

Yet 5e does something strange with Saving Throws, something I think is a holdover from newer editions of D&D, in that it links them to character statistics. This is a huge departure from the LBB’s and the editions that followed them. In early editions saving throws are static based on level (with a bonus for a high Wisdom in some editions). I like this system; I also like the eclectic names of the classic saving throws “Death Ray or Poison, All Wands Including Polymorph and Paralization, Stone, Dragon Breath and Staves & Spells”. I like the way Saving Throws are managed in the LBB’s (and similar systems) because they are related to class and level, without consideration for ability scores. Likewise the variety of saving throws are bizarre, but clearly they all relate to terrible, likely deadly effects and seem so specific that they encourage adventure designers and GMs to expand their use into other areas/against other dangers.

WHY I LIKE LEVEL BASED SAVING THROWS

This classic system of Saving Throws makes them something of dire consequence, and indeed the name implies this. The player is offered a single roll with a (fairly small to begin with) chance to ‘save’ the character. I always saw this in the manner of Conan or a similar swords & sorcery hero resisting the vile magic of some evil sorcerer, much to the surprise of the sorcerer, and largely because they were the hero in the story, able to withstand magics and trials beyond those of normal men to face. Yes, the Saving Throw is a weak form of plot immunity, based on how accomplished and long played a character is. This is just the diegetic understanding of the saving throw, but mechanically it has a similar purpose.

Saving Throws become terribly important in Mid-Level games, especially in systems with higher hit-point and Armor Class Progressions. This isn’t to say physical Hit Point damage isn’t a danger in games with mid-level characters, but it’s not as much an immediate danger as in a game where one has 5D6+1 HP (A 5^th level LBB fighter – and the LBBs are stingy with HP compared to later editions) and normal attacks do 1D6 damage, including such attacks as a dragon’s bite. In games like this melee may be dangerous, but it’s a predictable danger at higher levels with damage slowly wearing down HP (unlike first level when fighter have 2-7 HP) – another resource to track. Attacks like dragon breath (apparently inflicting the full HP of the dragon), lightning bolt and fire ball are some of the few attacks that do greater than 1D6 damage, and can be quite catastrophic in this system. Likewise monster poison, polymorph and petrification (wand, stave or otherwise) result in immediate death or removal from play. At mid-levels however these sorts of effects become more common, as monstrous opposition increases in potency and right around the time that normal melee become less immediately dangerous. The Saving Throw effectively creates a great deal of the character risk in a mid-level game.

Additionally, if one is running the LBBs by the book, it’s at sixth level that the raise dead spell becomes available, and hence poison and death by assorted spell become less permanent. Remove Curse and Neutralize Poison are available to Clerics at 5^th level, so poison and polymorph are less dangerous to a well prepared party as well. Only petrification requires the high level spell “Stone to Flesh” which a wizard can learn at 12^th level, but a character reduced to statuary is less permanently dead and more a logistical and patronage problem for the party to revive.

THE CLASIC CATEGORIES ARE Idiosyncratic OR SILLY

In a recent post on another blog I saw someone bemoaning the existence of a separate “stone” Saving Throw, apparently because beside the singular Medusa there aren’t any/many mythical creatures of legend that turn people to stone. While this is the sort of gripe that I find absurd when discussing a table top game about fighting strange creatures in inexplicable labyrinths, it’s true that the classic saving throws are a bit bizarre. Yet this isn’t a complaint worth addressing at length, any more than complaints about the need for variable weapon damage or other ‘realism’ based rules modification are – it’s a game (largely about exploring strange labyrinths, recovering enormous amounts of gold and fighting strange mythical creatures) and its mechanics are rules, not simulation.

Poison/Death (though I use a separate death save – but that’s a different story), Wand, Stone, Breath and Spell are silly names, but they aren’t required to be exacting categories, what they really model are different character classes ability to withstand different types of danger. Magic-Users are susceptible to Poison and Wands while Clerics are more resistant, but Magic-Users have the best ability to withstand being turned to Stone and are good at mitigating spell damage. Fighters on the other hand are best against Breath and worst against Spells. The Saving Throw then is a means of creating class difference in a system with very few other distinctions. If one doesn’t like the ‘silly’ names, perhaps rename them, “Stone” can become “Wyrd” and “Poison” become “Natural Physical” or whatever else feels properly serious. The distinction here isn’t really between type of risk, it’s between the character class taking that risk and so a Saving Throw table can become an excellent additional mean of distinguishing a class (great saving throws are one of the halfling’s best abilities in Basic and similar systems for example).

It’s tempting when examining the classic Saving Throw system to create a single save (as in Swords and Wizardry) with modifications by race or class, or to tie Saving Throws into character statistics (after all is resisting poison is a measure of health and endurance, shouldn’t it be effected by Constitution?), but in doing so one removes a useful tool. Saving Throws, as broken out in the traditional categories provide an important rules mechanic that is different from and independent of other ‘survival mechanics’, such as the combat mechanic of Hit Points and Armor Class, or the general mechanic of Ability Score checks. By providing another metric entirely based around level and class, reserved for dread dangers and dependent on a single roll, the Saving Throw adds something to the game by providing a GM or adventure design tool that differentiates challenges and creates a different kind of player reaction. There is a reason that players often look aghast when the GM says “I need a save vs. poison” and it’s because the default use for the poison Saving Throw is for the character to avoid death for guessing wrong about a risk, or otherwise engaging in some dangerous task (like fighting a giant spider) and performing less than optimally.

Apparently while I was writing this up the fellow over at B/X Blackrazor has been thinking about similar things, and come to an alternate and perhaps entirely opposite conclusion. I will keep the classic Saving Throws in my games, and have done so, re-purposing them to cover more areas (Wands is also the standard save in HMS Apollyon against small bombs, shotgun and automatic weapon fire – including the instantly deadly heavy machine gun, while Breath is reserved for large explosions and artillery bursts), though I have been considering a rewrite of the Saving Throw tables for some of the classes to create more variation, especially amongst demi-humans. The key for me in deciding to stick with the classic category based Saving Throw is that not only does it provide a different metric based on class and level, but that the progression can be different. Stat based saves will average out, as do 3D6 statistics, and rarely increase (unless you use 5E’s stat increase system), while ones based on class and level can be modified both by level progression and modifier depending on the needs of setting or GM. For example, Flying Monkeys aboard the Apollyon are very potent characters, with almost the full abilities of fighters, several thief skills and the ability to fly – yet being part of a species designed and conditioned as magical thralls has it’s downsides and the Flying Monkey always remains susceptible to spells, especially mid effecting ones thanks to the design of their saving throw table.

AREA I - Primary Entrance Hatch

Lighting	Soft Yellow light fills the room from a chandelier of metal orbs, but leaves the chambers recesses in deep shadow.
Odors	Faintly musty, with a hint of a sweet perfume like odor.
Traps	None
Treasure	Chandelier Ancient metal globe chandelier, worth (300GP), will take 2D6 turns to remove safely. Weighs 200lbs and bulky.
Encounters	None

Several feet below the murky waters of the slough a mound of earth and rust colored alien fungus almost completely covers this ancient alloy tube, set with a round set of double doors. The doors are two feet thick, a forged of ancient alloy stronger than steel, and cannot be opened easily by force, a difficulty that is increased because they are submerged. The doors a sealed with a mechanical lock, which though made of ancient technology and so resistant to force (requires a roll under Strength at +15) to force with tools, can be picked by a competent thief or opened by magic (Knock).

Fungal Zombies Lurk in the Darkness

Beyond the doors is a 10’ diameter alloy tube that will rotate to act as an airlock, once the outer hatch is closed, revealing a domed chamber extending Westward in the form of an oval, 60’ long and 30’ wide. Water from the airlock will quickly drain through grates around the edges of the room’s slightly concave floor and once drained (1 turn) reentering the tube will cause it to rotate, again facing the exit hatch. The chamber is empty, except for a few encrustations of teal and cyan fungus on the ceiling and walls.

The walls, floor and ceiling of the domed chamber are themselves made of a smooth white glazed ceramicrete. The only sign of decoration in the entry chamber are a set of benches molded into the longer walls and a dangling chandelier of metal globes hanging in the center. The chandelier is heavy and worth only a few hundred GP as a curiosity if a dedicated individual spends 2D6 turns carefully pulling, prying and cutting it from the ceiling.

An archway partially overhung with the thumb thick tendrils of cyan fungus provides the only interior exit to the entry chamber and leads down a twisting and uneven 180’ stair that descends at least 40’ into the darkness. Along the stairway, molded into the cermicrete walls are the mottos “Through Adversity to the Stars”, “From the Stars Knowledge”, and “The Conqueror Returns”.

AREA II - Chamber of Arrival

Lighting	Dimly lit by the soft amber glow of the central crystal
Odors	Damp, rot and a sweet perfume odor that increases in the Western half of the room.
Traps	Teleportation Crystal Instantly transports to area IX if touched by hand.
Treasure	Panels (200 x 50 GP) panels require time and luck to remove, each ways 25lbs and is bulky. Quartz Crystal (25 GP)
Encounters	None

The stairs from AREA I disgorge into a huge rounded vault, 80’ in diameter with a ceiling lost over 100’ above in the gloom. Drips of rank water occasionally fall due to seepage from the slough, and light shined upward will reveal ropey, striped (yellow and brown) fungus snaking from above, though none reach more than 20’ from the floor. The room itself has walls made of a greyish alloy, molded into bas reliefs of man’s conquest of space. Moving clockwise from the archway that leads to the long stair this sculpture show: Sputnik floating above the earth, The eagle lander, Astronauts on the moon, Scientists toiling in a laboratory, Rockets emerging from silos, Men in space suits battling four armed Tharks, Rocket ships battling above a canal covered world, Spaceman tortured on a giant wheel by bug eyed amazons, Beasts surround a submarine in the frozen seas of Uranus, Robots marching on a crater rim fortress, A supernova, Identical women stand in formation armed with sabers, Yuri Garagrin emerging from a sunburst and A giant rocket dreadnaught battling a swarm of saucers. While fascinating, these panels conceal no secrets, though they can be pried from the walls with great care and considerable force, to reveal girders of black alloy beneath.

Individual panels are worth 50 GP each to the wealthy of Denethix for decorative purposes, but while the alloy is sturdy it tenders to shatter if torqued and each panel will take 1D6+2 turns to remove, requiring a successful D20 roll under Int -2 to avoid destroying. There a 50 panels in all, though many simply show geometric designs vaguely resembling starscapes.

In the center of the room floats a strange crystal growth, at roughly chest height. It is a cloudy white, but vague clouds of amber light move within the crystal’s depths. The crystal is suspended by an amber beam of light three inches wide and cannot be knocked free by a blow doing less than 20 HP of damage (AC 2). Nor can it be grabbed, as it is a terminal for a teleportation system, immediately whisking anyone who touches it to AREA IX. Is somehow removed the crystal loses its magical appearance and proves to be a large lump of quartz worth 25 GP.

A stairway with ornate alloy hand rails leads down to AREA VI. On the Eastern wall of the chamber is a hatch almost identical to the one leading to the surface. It is sealed from this side, but will open if the same tonal key is used as in AREA I, leading to AREA III.

AREA III - Encysted Tomb

Lighting	Tiny glimmers of bioluminescent fungus scattered about the room most is reddish, but with some purple and yellowish green.
Odors	Rot overpowered by a cloying perfume odor.
Traps	Wall Fungus is infectious and poisonous
Treasure	8 Tomb behind the wall fungus may contain treasures
Encounters	2 Mobile Growths and 6 Zombies guard this chamber

The ladder enclosed in the white ceremicrete tube leading from AREA IV or AREA V is divided by a small landing when it reaches this chamber, and an obvious exit hatch that is notable only for the large red star and skull stenciled onto it. Close examination of this hatch will show small sweet smelling tendrils of slimy reddish mold creeping around its edges.

Entering from AREA II can only be accomplished by open the sealed and ‘tone locked’ hatch. However there is

a large glowing green button next to this hatch on the AREA III side, which will open the sealed door is pressed. The entire interior side of the hatch is covered with a thick bubbling mat of yellow and red fungal slime that, like the other fungus on the walls of this room, is highly toxic to the touch.

The chamber itself has lost all semblance of an artificial space and is completely covered in oozing red, yellow and purple growths of spongy fungus. Notably two huge lumps of fungus, with leg thick trailing tendrils mound up on the slick floor. The first is near the hatch to AREA II and the second along the Northern curve of the room. These large piles quiver occasionally and odd round orifices on them seem to open and close rhythmically. Almost invisible beneath the pulsing layers of fungus it appears that the marble walls of the room once contained sealed niches (12 of them) widely spaced around the room. Six of these niches appear to have been smashed open, and fragments of stained marble are scattered on the ground near them.

The massive fungal mounds are Mobile Growths , the stellar fungus’ defensive antibodies. Concealed in the shattered niches are also six Space Zombies all of these creatures are well concealed by blankets of fungus and mold. If not aggressively probed via something that can damage them (an arrow or spear) they will wait to attack until there prey is well within AREA III, and then do so with a 1-4 chance of surprise. While attacking the zombies will seek to protect the mobile growths, but the fungal horrors have little strategy beyond luring their enemies into an ambush and overwhelming them unless the colony has greater knowledge of the party’s own tactics (see detailed description in New Monsters section).

Mobile Growth x2:HD 7, AC 5, ATK 5 (frond x4/mouth), DMG 1D8 x4*/3D6 MV 20’crawl, ML 12, SV F7, XP 1,190

Huge piles of predatory fungus, that will lay in ambush until they lash out with a writhing mass of ropey fronds.

*Targets of a Successful Frond attack (fronds have a range of 40’) must roll a contested strength against each frond they have been struck by (fronds individually have a Strength of 12, and each additional frond grants a +4 bonus). Characters failing this roll will be subjected to automatic hits from the frond or fronds holding them the next round and if they fail to escape in the subsequent round will be subject to a devouring bite attack that does 6D6 damage.

** Has all normal plant/fungal immunities to poison and mind effecting spells. Additionally Space fungus is immune to cold damage and moist enough that fire does -1 point of damage per damage die.

Fungal Zombie:HD 2, AC 5, ATK 2 (claw/claw), DMG 1D6/1D6 MV 30’shamble, ML 12, SV F2, XP 15

Shambling desecrations of ancient corpses, their burial jumpsuits torn with varicolored fungal protrusions and their bubble helmets cracked or brimming with putrid organic sludge.

** Has all normal plant/fungal immunities to poison and mind effecting spells. Additionally Space fungus is immune to cold damage and moist enough that fire does -1 point of damage per damage die.

Searchers of the Encysted Tomb must beware of that the fungal infestation here is extremely dangerous, constantly oozing a versatile and deadly poison that can kill from mere touch. If any of the reddish fungus covering the walls of AREA III, including the layer blanketing the six remaining undisturbed tombs, is touched directly a save vs. poison is required to prevent a very unpleasant death within 1D4 turns. Using gloves or gauntlets to touch the fungus will give a +2 to this saving throw unless they are rubberized or otherwise optimized to prevent infection. A character bashing through the thin layer of marble protecting each tomb with tools will also need to save vs. poison at a +2 as chips of the fungus and slime fly about (unless they are protecting their exposed skin in some significant manner. The fungus is damp enough to be nearly immune to non-magical flame attack, but acid, oil, soap or lye will cause it to blacken and slough away from any surface as well as rendering it inert.

The tombs here are finer then the ones in AREA Vthe final rest of heroes and star saints of Rocket Men. They were recently despoiled by a party of adventurers (See AREA IIIA) so only six of the tombs remain unlooted. Opening the tombs will result in exposure to poisonous fungus, unless the looters take precautions, but other then the fungus, each is protected only by a thin marble slab that will shatter with a successful force doors check. The content of the tombs are as follows.

Tomb a “12 o’ clock” – Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

Tomb at “1 o’clock” - Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

Tomb at “2 o’clock” – Contains the chromed fluted remains of a of a cyborg. A robot can use this chassis as a part upgrade for up to Level 7. It is worth 1,000 GP or more to the right robotic buyer.

Tomb at “3 o’clock” – Holds the remains of a Rocketman holy man, the commissar’s robes are rotten and his equipment decayed, but his holy symbol, a star shaped synthetic ruby on a platinum chain is still sound and worth 1,200 GP. The corpse and symbol are also cursed and anyone desecrating the body will be followed by angry spirits which will reveal their location to nearby enemies (knocking over objects, breaking stick etc.) preventing the cursed and their companions from surprising enemies, even from ambush.

Tomb at “4 o’clock” – An empty space suit, ancient even when the Rocketmen ruled, decayed but still useable the suit will prevent damage from gas or poison if worn (cannot be worn over armor, AC 6), however upon each exposure to gas, poison or physical attack the suit has a 1 in 6 chance of ripping and becoming useless.

Tomb at “5 o’clock” – Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

Tomb at “6 o’clock” – The tomb of a woman in a padded black uniform, similar to those worn by the clones in AREA IV. Her gold, rocket and planet motif name badge reads “Valentine Citizen”. This relic is prized by the War clones in Area IV, but they will not be happy if they realize her tomb has been desecrated. The badge is worth 100 GP.

Tomb at “7 o’clock” – A withered mummy in a rotten flight suit.

Tomb at “8 o’clock” – A charred and glowing skeleton wearing a tan officer’s uniform and peaked visored cap. The dead man was an evil and hateful martinent during his ancient life, and has risen as a Wight. He will attempt to strangle the first (surprise on 1 to 5) person who comes within his reach. Radioactive Wight - HD 3 (14 HP), AC 5*, ATK 1 (claws), DMG 1D8**/3D6 MV 30’l, ML 12, SV F3, XP 110 *Immune to normal weapons, undead **Energy drain – 1 level

Tomb at “9 o’clock” – Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

Tomb at “10 o’clock” – Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

Tomb at “11 o’clock” – Smashed, contains zombie and fungus

CARCOSANS

Some for some reason I’ve been rolling up Carcosans lately. Here are their character sheets:

Johnny 2 Bad – Made it to second level playing in a very strange game inside the god Vorn. There was a horrible vampire – many party members almost died. Someone cast sleep on Johnny and he awoke in a murderous fury possessed by evil spirits because Vorn’s body is under Death Frost Mountain. As a player three solid hours of sipping whiskey made me think taking my ax to the unconscious party member was the best bet (like he has a high AC, can’t hit me back, and is already unconscious so I won’t kill him – this was flawed booze logic, but I didn’t kill him). So now Johnny is a 2^ndlevel (almost 3^rd) flailsnail Dolm Man.

Mr. Smyth “The Man” - Mr. Smyth is part of the traveling troupe of actors “The Rainbow Connection” and he’s a white man. I decided he’s greedy and kinda fat. He has a high Dex because he’s also a bit psychic – it’s not that he moves quick, he just has nimble little piggy hands and knows what’s coming at him next sometimes. Mr. Smyth tried to steal some radioactive space rocks from a specimen cabinet and now he’s covered in stinking weeping sores. He’s got a suit of wooden armor that covers him mostly (rare on Carcosa) but I think we can all agree this is for the best. Now if only the party can find some potpourri.

Normagina – A thoroughly normal Carcosan lady - a yellow woman to be exact. I decided she’s level headed and sane. She’s also an actor with the “Rainbow Connection”, who put on only one play, but switch the color of the actors to prey on the prejudices of the audience. It’s gotta be some sort of Carcosan creation myth or something. Normagina’s starting equipment included a furkini, so I can’t really be blamed for that. Plus Carcosa is sort of inherently Frazetta so I figure everyone in Carcosa has the same ridiculous beef/cheese cake body type. Except poor Mr. Smyth who was clearly meant to be a villain.

CARCOSA

So I’m not running Carcosa, but the fellow over at Save vs. Total Party Kill is, and he did a fine job. My own thoughts on the setting are as follows and have nothing to do with the way the game I’m playing in is being run and more to do with what seems sorta hollow about the setting.

That’s right Carcosa is hollow. Sure it’s got the ultimate science fantasy, post apocalypse pedigree, but there’s something sort dull and surface to it. What it needs is more fluff and flavor. He’s what I’d propose.

A) Messing with items and such – the point of Carcosa isn’t getting rich, it’s survival. I’d make food and water the basic XP and wealth drivers. Sure you can sell gold rings for a sandwich, but it’s having the sandwich that gives you XP. I know that doesn’t seem like much, but something like each day of food you recover is worth 10 (or 50) XP – meaning you need to recover at least 70 (or 350 XP) per session to keep the character alive. Yeah I’d create a 50 XP debt per game as upkeep – you don’t get this XP to level, you spend it to not have to roll up a new random dude. Items recovered can of course be traded for food – but their’s no GP, just barter. Each PC should of course start with food for like 2 weeks (2 sessions) and can create a reserve (which they must carry) or spend these starting supplies on a roll on some kind of special “techno/magical doodads” table

The way I see this effecting the game is that it will make the characters into desperate adventure hounds. It may encourage combat, but only with things that look edible – like dinosaurs. A big mess of creatures on Carcosa are likely inedible or poisonous. There needs to be an ‘eating bad meat’ table as well for players who try eating ‘blue hell polyp” meat to see if it’s edible.

2) Character differentiation is non-existent. Sure you can play a sorcerer... Carcosa has all these ‘races’ of Crayola people, but does nothing with them. I already decided that ‘yellow’ people on Carcosa are Simpson’s colored and have 3 fingers on each hand – or at least the ones I play do. There needs to be some differentiations though. Little things. Saving throw bonuses, +X to a skill (Carcosa needs X in 6 skills that perhaps can be point bought for attack bonuses – like 2 points of stealth cost your level increase attack bonus) , nightvision (for Dolm colored people – don’t ask why), stat bonuses penalties, and other minor effects. Like maybe green folk are photosynthetic and need ½ the survival XP, Ulfire have a small chance to reflect spells, and bonemen are sneaky (natural 3 in 6 stealth). This way you can build a competent PC or combat beast rather then having every PC be the same.

3) It’s a damn hexcrawl. That’s fine, but since it’s a weird world a random generator for interesting strange land would be a help. In general Carcosa feels like it needs more flavor. I think of it as an unbelievably ancient land, more Dying Earth/Virconium/Books of the New Sun than Gamma World, and the monuments of dead pasts should abound, along with interesting natural areas. Rocky wastes under a purple sky it may all be, but to the Carcosan there’s gotta be forty seven words for rocky waste. This helps as well in the whole “game of survival” aspect of Carcosa – finding a dell of fruiting succulents or a plain with insect mounds might be a good XP source Of course I’d also make regular use of an exhaustion die/encounter die with separate pips for food and water.

A play generated race/class for my HMS Apollyon game - the creepy mostly undead Draugr. This class is the result of a party of adventurers undertaking a mission on behalf of a lunatic lich they met and befriended within the hull. In exchange for wealth and magic the party smuggled a pair of the necromancer's "children" into Sterntown, allegedly for the edification and education of these undead thralls.

LINK TO PDF

The Draugr

There is no crime in Sterntown greater than the practice of Necromancy. While murder, theft, racketeering and fraud are all conditional, depending on the victim and the perpetrator, necromancy is forbidden to all and punished harshly with mutilation, exile and death. The reason for this draconian rule rises from the history and fears of Sterntowners, both the Upper Deck’s elite and the masses of crew struggling to survive in the ship’s rusting bowels. The risen dead a force to be feared aboard the Apollyon: The Ash Plague and its Ghoul Kings, the spirits of Sterntown’s unquiet dead and even the revenants that rise unintelligent and obsessed from bodies left to rot in the cursed waters within the ship’s hold. All undead are dangerous, and over the ages they have tirelessly worn down humanity’s hold on the vessel. The War Amidship and retreat to Sterntown is still a fresh memory, with its loss of most human industrial capacity, the decimation of the Marines and the deaths of at least 60% of the population, but it is only the most recent victory in a slow war between living and dead.

Yet necromancy has a long history amongst Sterntown’s magic practioners, and was one of the most widely practiced magical arts amongst the sorcerous class when the ship was lost, before the Passenger cabals arose blending their blood with that of strange outsider entities to assure their progenies’ magical potency. Some echoes of these times remain and there are still necromancers hidden amongst all classes in Sterntown, as the art is both easy and seductive compared to some other forms of magic. These renegade necromancers create servants, but are careful to hide their existence; each necromancer thinking they are clever enough to avoid detection and gain power as the madness of their craft slowly takes hold. Likewise the Ash Plague does not rest, and amongst its Kings and Queens the more sane and crafty have raised spies, assassins and agents that can easily pass for living men and women.

These undead parodies of life, whether agents of the Ash Plague, servants of hidden magus’, or undead thralls who have slipped their bonds and outlived their masters are known as Draugr, and exist hidden amongst the population of Sterntown, concealing their nature and eking out a marginal existence. Many of these dead find their way into Scavenging gangs, as their natural abilities make them useful for dealing with other undead and the largely unregulated world of scavenging provides a chance to avoid official scrutiny, explain their odd appearances (scavengers always end up a bit off, being exposed to the horrors of the hull), and potentially contact their handlers amongst the Ash Plague.

Appearance

Draugr vary in appearance much as normal humans do, but appear malnourished and sickly due to their undead nature. There is something a bit off about most Draugr, a hesitance of manner and an understandable lack of human warmth in their eyes, yet to observers they appear human. The majority of Draugr also conceal their bodies as much as possible to hide the ward net that covers their body in strange scars and tattoos. Draugr bodies have been specially constructed to mimic many human bodily functions – they bleed, breath and have muscles that move naturally under the skin. These effects are cosmetic and rarely perfect, but will fool casual observers. Even most magical examination will not usually reveal a Draugr, as their warded bodies register as living to most detection spells. Divine magic that effects the undead will affect Draugr. This effect is somewhat limited and when subject to turning, most Draugr are only prevented from offensive action, excusing themself politely and leaving the area rather than falling into the hissing panicked flight of true undead. Close examination of a Draugr will also reveal their nature to a skilled magician, necromancer or scholar of the undead as the network of warding scars and tattoos that cover them is obvious.

Draugr are strange hybrid creations of powerful necromantic magic, a spirit bound to and controlling a largely artificial body carefully constructed to simulate life with both magical and scientific interventions. The life and ‘humanity’ of the Draugr is contained within a net of wards and sigils carved, stitched and tattooed into their body that tethers a disembodied spirit in place. This spirit is not always the same as that of the corpse it animates, and often the Draugr’s body is a motley thing, made of several different corpses. If the ward net of the Draugr is ever sufficiently damaged the creature will become a mindless ravening beast (assuming the body is still functional), similar to a zombie as the reanimated body takes over and the controlling spirit is banished into the afterlife.

Playing a Draugr

Statistic	Roll To Generate
Strength	2D6+3
Inteligence	3d6
Wisdom	2D6+5
Dexterity	2D6+2
Constitution	2D6+6
Charisma	3D6

Draugr are the most furtive and outcast of the peoples of the Rustgates, they must be cautious and ever vigilant of detection or betrayal. While most Draugr are thralls and servants, either of the Ash Plague or individual necromancers, player character Dragur are assumed to have free will, with their master dead, or whatever geas that compelled them shattered. Alternatively a player may opt to have a preexisting relationship with one of the Plague Kings and a mission from them, but this will depend on the nature of the Ash Plague in a specific campaign world.

Statistics and General Abilities
Draugr are magical constructs imbued with the spirits of the dead, they are somewhat limited in their physical and mental abilities: slow and fairly weak, but highly resistant to damage and with a natural sense for the magical.

Draugr may use light armor (unless they specialize in a class that allows the use of other armor [soldier or juggernaut]. Draugr are not especially adept at combat, and even martial Draugr lack the ferocity or focus of a true warrior. Still a Draugr’s immunity to pain (or at least inability to feel it in the same way as a living creature) and intelligence allow them to learn combat skills and fight with a “Trained” level of effectiveness, and gain HP at the “Intermediate” rate.

Death and Injury

One of the more unique elements of playing a Draugr is that they cannot die in the normal manner and do not recover from injury as normal. When a Draugr is injured they must carefully repair their body, stitching wounds back together, replacing broken bones and repairing damaged wards. Draugr are completely unaffected by magical healing (except that which heals the undead) or normal recovery and the process of self-repair is slow, difficult to perform while exploring the dungeon and will reveal the Draugr’s status to others. Some Druagr’s learn to directly absorb life essence from humanoid opponents they have killed, but this process is ghoulish and quite off putting, even as it magically repairs the Draugr’s injuries. Mechanically this means that a normal Draugr has a 2 in 6 chance to repair 1 HP for every turn spent carefully stitching themselves back together after battle. Draugr with a Chirurgeon skill may substitute it for this roll. Even these battlefield first aid efforts are only temporary and incomplete and will only allow recovery up to ½ the creatures HP at the start of the session. A draugr is able to repair itself fully in its lair between sessions, utilizing a stockpile of preserved body parts and bones to replace its own damaged ones.

The positive effect of a Draugr’s undead nature is that they are very hard to kill. Each time a Draugr is reduced to zero HP (not negative HP) they are considered to have been damaged to the point of uselessness and incapable of meaningful movement or action (head severed, bones broken or similarly damaged). However they are not dead, and may still speak (usually) and slowly piece themselves back together at the normal rate after the battle. Concerted effort (such as burning the body or carefully tearing out all of a Draugr’s wards) will destroy them completely, but otherwise they have an odd form of immortality. However, damage of this nature is not without consequence to the Draugr, as each time they are brought to zero HP the spirit controlling the Draugr is separated from its body for a few moments, and loses some of the animating vitality and humanity that makes a Draugr different from normal undead. After recovery a Draugr player must roll and permanently suffer a loss of 1D6/2 Charisma representing this los of humanity. Should a Draugr’s Charisma drop below three they will no longer appear human, and be forced to flee into the hull if possible. If the Draugr’s Charisma ever goes below zero (for any reason, even temporarily) they become unintelligent and aggressive undead as their controlling spirit leaves the body.

Resistances

As undead Draugr do not need to rest and are unaffected by sleep enchantments. Draugr also do not need to eat and drink, negating exhaustion effects, though similar not encumbrance effects. Being partially alive and possessing simulated human functions Draugr are still effected by poisons, charms and other mind effecting spells, though they have excellent saving throws to both magic and poison.

Level	Poison & Death	Device	Transformation	Spells	Explosion
1-3	10	16	13	15	16
4-6	8	13	11	12	14
7-9	6	10	9	9	12
10	4	7	7	6	10

Power over the Dead

As specially created undead servants with both willpower and intelligence, the presence of a Draugr can cow and frighten lesser undead. All Draugr can turn undead as a 1^stlevel Cleric. This ability never increases (except for those Draugr that follow the ‘Horror’ aptitude), and is not a form of divine magic, only a reflection of lesser undead’s fear of the greater.

In addition, intelligent undead will recognize Draugr for what they are and are more likely to treat them as fellows rather then prey. Draugr gain a +1 to any reaction roll with intelligent undead, though they are equally likely to fall victim to schisms and rivalries amongst undead factions within the Apollyon, which most undead the Draugr encounters will assume they have knowledge of.

Subclasses and Aptitudes

Draugr are somewhat limited in the aptitudes they may follow, normal Draugr may learn to be: Necromancers, Academic Mages, Illusionists, Soldiers, Juggernauts, Champions, Marksmen, Assassins, Thieves, Chirurgeonsor Scholars. In addition they have the unique aptitude of ‘Horror’ which occurs when the Draugr accepts and relishes in its undead nature – both becoming a ghoulish predator upon the living and a master of the undead.

CAROUSING

The scavenger lifestyle is one of contrasts, danger and deprivation can lead to a sudden influx of luxurious amounts of cash, and a corresponding amount of fear, and bad memories. Most scavengers don’t think of the future if they can help it, given that their future most likely involves a horrible terrifying death somewhere down a decaying gangway. The most common way to avoid thinking about the inevitable during downtime between expeditions is to carouse with the abandon of the doomed. As wounds heal, memories fade and wealth dwindles Scavengers may spend up to their Level x 100GP on carousing from one of the three tables below between sessions.

Carousing can provide additional experience, either directly or by providing time for reflection on the events of recent expeditions. More often than not any sage advice, or personal revelation is lost to the haze of drugs, violence, lust and the ever present drinking of the Rust Gate’s bars and food stands. Before carousing the player chooses which type of vices their character will seek: debauchery, lust, or violence, and spending their stake, a scavenger must roll a save vs. poison and a D20. On a successful save the scavenger gains an addition XP equal to the GP spent on carousing, while on failure the carouser gains no XP. Regardless of the result of the first roll the carouser then rolls on the appropriate table.

Here's A PDF version

D20	Debauchery Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Hangover – A soft, nauseous stomach, painful pressure behind the eyes, you’re hung over and roll at -1 on all physical actions next session.
2	Full pockets - Slowly removing the mismatched and battered coins from your pockets you realize that you came home with a fair pile of change 50+2D20 GP (or 100+2D20 on a successful save) are still in your pockets after the debauch.
3	You Had a Great Time – Nothing bad happened, you went out and thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
4	Addiction – You have to get more of whatever it is that you spent the last few days ingesting. It’s not simple desire, it’s a physical craving. Anytime you return to town you must acquire and indulge in your vice (spending 50 GP x Level) on intoxicants. The inability to obtain sufficient intoxicants results in a -2 on all rolls during the next session. There may be cures for this condition via magic or medicine from some factions.
5	Clothing Swap – Somehow you’re wearing another scavenger’s equipment, roll randomly on an equipment table to see what you are now supplied with (1D6) 1- Fighter/Cleric 2-Specialist 3 – Magic User 4- Passenger 5-Frogling 6-Roll Twice, pick your favorite. On a failed save this may include any magical or special equipment, on a successful save it includes only simple equipment.
6	Gambling – It all came down to that last roll of the dice, or that last hand of cards, and you failed, busted, rolled out, got cheated. Either way you lose LevelX1D4x50 additional GP. On a failed carousing save this can include a debt, while on a successful save you only lose money you have.
7	Deep Thoughts – Alone, with the sparkling lights of the Rustgate’s nightlife swirling around you have a realization and a sudden knowledge of how you can improve yourself in the future – gain 1D6/2+levelx100 XP.
8	Bad Joss - The wizened yellow and black frogling hands you the pipe and tells you to “open your eyelids and let the demons run”. You don’t come down, -1 to initiative for the next session as you try to determine the real from the imaginary.
9	Vandalism – Oh yeah! The veritable nectar of truth that was. You had to make your intentions known and did so in lovely three foot tall letters or by smashing up someone’s window. On a successful save, no one knows it was you, and on a failure they suspect you - you now have -1 reputation with whichever faction you like least.
10	Alchemical Transformation – Some folks will drink anything and you’re one of them. The change is random and painful (and may be accompanied by deforming side effects) – Randomly swap 1D4 points between two random statistics. On a successful save this swap cannot reduce a statistic below ‘3’, on a failed save it can, causing death.
11	Fancy Tastes – That divine concoction, you simply must have more! You’ve matured, and you deserve the best! Your high end tastes now require double investment on your future carousing rolls. The effect of carousing is unchanged, and the extra money wasted.
12	Euphoric – Cutting loose was just what you needed. Next Session reroll one roll of your choice due to high spirits.
13	The Jake Leg – Ingesting some sort of power chemical stimulant or similar terrible substance has given you partial paralysis – Dexterity and Strength are reduced to “6” for the next session. Save vs. Wands (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or it’s permanent. Can be cured by Cure Disease.
14	New Friends – You’re the life of the party! Everyone hangs on your word as you tell of your deeds, gain 1 point of reputation with a random faction.
15	Raid! The Stewards raided the establishment you while you were minding your own business. Roll a Save vs. Paralysis (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or you were too intoxicated to escape and were jailed. Money will get you out (100 GP per 10% cumulative chance of getting out per session) or a reputation point with the Stewards can be spent to earn your release.
16	Magical Boon – It was clutched in your hand when you awoke, and it’s an odd bit of magic. A hexed or blessed weapon, a handful of devil shells, a protective medallion of the Leviathan or some other od but minor magical trinket is now yours.
17	Blindness – You drank some gawdawful cheap hooch towards the end of that bender. Suffer partial blindness next session (-2 to hit rolls). On a failed carousing save, Save vs. Wands or it’s permanent. Can be cured by Cure Blindness.
18	Drinking Games – You were the last one standing (wobbly but upright) and win the pot of 1D10X25 GP to the adoring cries of your fellow drunkards.
19	Mugged – they waited until you were drunk before they rolled you in the alley, lose all treasures and coinage, and suffer -1 HP/HD next Session.
20	Carried Away – You return from a flight of boozy inspiration sore headed and soured stomached, but clutching one important and immutable fact. Somewhere in the dark night of total depravity and debauch you spoke to gods or demons, and even your hazed mind remembers a single fragment of the truths they told. You know the answer to one question as the spell “Contact Other Plane”.

D20	Lust Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Cabaret – At the cabaret you find yourself falling for a performer. Used to admirers, the object of your affections will encourage you to bring gifts. If you give a gift less than 50GP before each session, your paramour’s scornful mockery will depress you, with a 1 point penalty to AC. Gifts over 100GP before a session give you a +1 bonus to hit.
2	Prophecy – You asked her that darn card reader about your love life and all she’d say was “You ain’t got no future, you’re never growing old – and the waves keep rolling in.” Next attack directed at you automatically does critical damage.
3	Ghostly Affections - “I’ve come in from the cold just to haunt you” You’ve attracted the attentions of a wayward ghost. It flits about, generally adding an air of doom to your life, -1 to all reaction rolls and all current henchmen abandon you.
4	Courtesan – A beautiful Courtesan catches your eye and you spend far more money than you ever intended seeking to impress the wealthy seducer. 1D100x100GP in treasure is gone, excess is debt. On a successful Charisma check you do manage to impress the Courtesan and he/she may provide you with information.
5	Flirtations – A fine evening of ribald wit and petty flirtations puts you in a cheerful mood, but has no mechanical effect.
6	Lost Love – You think you spot a long lost love across a crowded dance floor, but then they are gone before you can be sure. You begin to second guess yourself and doubt your impulses. -1 to Initiative next session.
7	Stern Lecture – An elderly and officious intermeddler pulls you aside as you wander the Rustgate’s dens of sin. Delivering a withering and earnest castigation that disrupts your evening, this busybody makes you angry. Your rage is so strong that you will critically strike opponents on a 19 or 20 during the next session.
8	Social Disease – The only thing social about this illness is the manner in which you caught it. Lose 1 point of CHR per session until the disease is cured as unsightly boils, sallowness and a sick cheesy smell disfigure you. When your CHR reaches 3, save vs. death and either die or be cured, recovering only ½ the lost CHR due to the scarring.
9	A New Beginning - A transformative night of passion, literally transformative. You awake in a different body having swapped consciousness with your partner. Reroll all stats and pick a new appearance/gender/age etc. If you can find the body hopping spectral entity that stole your corporeal husk (it may have moved on again), a remove curse spell will reverse the process.
10	New Flame – You met someone, someone who’s really neat, and seems to adore you almost as much as you adore them! Right now you are walking on air, insufferable to your companions perhaps with your constant talk about your new beau, but utterly euphoric, and may reroll one roll next session.
11	You are in love with Love! It’s just such a wonderful feeling to care about everyone and everything, and you are filled to bursting with good feeling. You feel the need to share this with the universe, butyou’re your allies gain +1 HP next session due to all that fellowship.
12	A Token – While the dalliance didn’t last, your temporary paramour left you something behind either by accident or as a gift. This minor magical item (a potion, scroll or small magical trinket) is yours now.
13	Married – You end up married to someone, you don’t remember how or when, but they’re demanding a better lifestyle and they have family/faction that will be annoyed if you leave your new spouse, mistreat them or fail to provide at least 100 GP of upkeep cost for them each session.
14	Anything for Love – You end meeting a really nice someone, only to discover they are owned by or indentured to some sort of horrible pimp/madam/underworld figure. You must spend 1D6/2 x 1,000 GP or 1D6/2 underworld reputation points to free them. If you do so gain a permanent +1 to Wisdom/Charisma or Constitution (random) and a potential henchman with a loyalty of 12.
15	Raid! The Stewards raided the establishment you while you were minding your own business. Roll a Save vs. Wands (with a +4 if you succeeded in your carousing roll) or you were too enamored to escape and were jailed. Money will get you out (100 GP per 10% cumulative chance of getting out per session) or a reputation point with the Stewards can be spent to earn your release..
16	Dalliance - You manage to charm a slumming member of the passenger caste, it languidly tells you “you are worth your weight in sorrow; you are worth your weight in gold”. You’ll never see your lover again, but a cameo of you worth 2D6x100 GP is delivered to you by a flying monkey in a tuxedo two days later.
17	Viva Hate - So you go, and you stand in your own. And you leave on your own. And you go home, and you cry and you want to die. A crushing, killing loneliness finds your amongst the light’s that never go out. All attacks do +1 point of damage to you until you have a successful ‘Lust’ carousing check (not including this one).
18	Paramour – The new object of your affections has a paramour, a big, scary, jealous paramour. You’ll need to fight him or her, even if nothing happened, or suffer potential ambush and certain social consequences. Paramour is level 3-10 (D8+2) and fight is likely to be non-lethal unless PC pushes it.
19	Mickey Finn– Such a charming companion, they laughed at all your jokes and you thought they genuinely liked you. They just liked the idea of drugging you and taking all your money. Awake stiff and muzzy from the Mickey Finn and having lost all easily saleable wealth (GP valued items, not equipment).
20	But I Got it for You – In an ill-advised, intoxicated effort to attract the attention of others you purchased a small (but vicious) animal of some kind. A Snapping Turtle, Ornamental Vic, Razor Pigeon or similar mean spirited and mercenary beast with sharp parts and a taste for flesh is now yours. It didn’t work as a romantic lure, the little terror having decided to protect you from anyone who comes near, but you now have a ½ HD creature that can fit in a small sack or purse and attacks for normal damage with a +1 Attack Bonus.

D20	Violence Aboard the Hms Appollyon
1	Battle Scars – Those pit fighting professionals don’t really fight any better then Scavengers, but they sure fight dirtier. You have received superficial but disfiguring wounds. Roll 1D4 1 – Hideous facial scaring (-1 CHR), 2 – Gouged out eye (-1 to all missile attacks), 3 – Impressive and mysterious scar (+1 CHR), 4 – Ear bitten off (-1 to Listen checks)
2	Evil Don’t Look Like Anything – You have become possessed by a dark spirit of violence and slaughter, heal 1HP for every living creature you kill in melee combat. There will be side effects.
3	Gang Fight – you decide to weigh in on one side of a fight between barflies and street thugs. Impressed by your fighting ability the gang has decided you are now a member. They number 2D10 and will provide zero level henchmen, but expect a cut of your income (At least 50 GP a session to maintain the connection and access to LVL 1 Specialist (skirmisher or thief) henchmen).
4	Blood Crazed – The thrill on the blood spattered faces of victory and the agony of the defeated has seduced you. You have become a thing of bloodlust and sadistic pleasures. Should you fail to kill an opponent in a game Session, the Session afterwards you will be depressed and roll all rolls at -1.
5	Bare Knuckle – Win or lose, your hands really hurt from pounding the heck out of someone or something
6	Tavern Games – On a bet you played a game of mumbly peg, or some similar game involving knives and your extremities. Not only are you wounded (suffer 1 HP/HD damage) but the wound makes it awkward to fight (-1 to hit and damage for the session).
7	The Blood Meridian – You are a killer, but even killers have saints and one has taken a liking to you. It will follow you judging your violence and murderousness until it finally kills you. Each Session you gain a cumulative +1 to damage done and damage received, until you have personally killed 10 times you HD in foes.
8	The Moon is a Cold Chiseled Dagger – He just kept insulting you, that huge beast of a man, and you called him out with blood in your eye. Behind the bar, in a filth choked alley you fought, and you won. He bit you though, and now the taint is in your blood. You’ve contracted lycanthropy. Most likely you are a wereboar, but other varieties are possible. In future sessions the GM will roll a secret WIS check to see if you turn into a terrible murder beast when you first take damage. May be cured with Remove Curse.
9	Brutality – Swaggering, glowering and looking for trouble usually means trouble will find you. You got in the fight you wanted, and your rage carried the day. Unfortunately the victim is moderately connected and reasonably dangerous. -1 reputation with a random faction, and the maimed victim of your wrath may seek you out for revenge.
10	New Friends – Your tales of violence and murder from the hull are appreciated by a rapt audience, gain +1 reputation with a random faction.
11	Seen Too Much – There’s too much violence, it doesn’t matter if it’s fights or slaughter in the hull, you’re exhausted and sick of it. You resolve to change your ways and help people. +1 to all healing efforts (amount healed and skill checks) made in the next session.
12	Mentor – You seek out an old salt, a master of mayhem who teaches you a few tricks and fills you with confidence. Gain 1D6/2 + level x100 XP.
13	Beat Down – You spit in the wrong eye and have been brutally beaten for your trouble. All HD are treated as 1D6/2 for the next session as you lurch about on bruised bones, peering from swollen eyes.
14	Trophy – Either b y joining in a pit fight, being tossed it by a victorious champion, or stealing from a drunken fan, you’ve come into possession of some sort of trophy: A shattered tooth, bloody severed finger or torn piece of armor belong to a famous denizen of the pit. This item acts as a magical talisman, deflecting the next critical strike you receive before its magic is exhausted.
15	You Call That A Knife – Searching amongst the weapon stalls and craftsmen of Sterntown’s bazaars you manage to get a great deal on a really neat weapon. This item is of higher quality then normal and has one minor magical effect (hexed, silver etc.)
16	Pity for the Losers – After watching the blood and atrocity of the gaming pits, remorse and sadness suffuses your being. Moping about behind the pits you find a mangled fighting animal still clinging to life. Healing and nursing this creature (at a cost of 100 GP) will gain you a normal 1 HD guard/attack animal of high loyalty in 1D6/2 Sessions.
17	White Knight – You stumble across a slumming member of the passenger caste who is being harassed and threatened by a pack of fierce urchins. Wading in you drive off the street youth and as a thanks receive a portion of the Passenger’s purse (2D6x100 GP) then spend an interesting evening discussing urchin abatement/massacre plans.
18	An Eye for a Winner – At the gaming pits you seem to be able to spot the creatures with the ferocity and toughness to triumph. Crabs, dogs, giant rats, imps and even the squid fights hold no surprises for you tonight. 1D10x25 GP in winnings.
19	The Devil You Know – Your rage and lust for violence has attracted the attentions of an otherworldly patron. You are slowly going mad from the whisperings that demand violence. -3 to all reaction rolls for the next Session as you fume glower and froth, ready and excited by the desire for violence. You may keep this frothing madness as long as you like, gaining the abilities of a TIER 1 Berserker (fight on for 1D6/2 rounds after death/serious injury as if uninjured) while accepting the boon of your sanguine patron.
20	Taught a Lesson – Loitering around the sword school or poking through rare books about combat you find a truly elucidating text about the art of combat. Roll an INT check to understand the hoary document or stunning show of skill and gain +1 Attack Bonus.

EXPANDING THE OD&D/LOTFP SKILL SYSTEM

Below is a list of skills that I intend to use for my HMS Apollyon games it includes variants (Legerdemain, Stealth, Acrobatics, Tinker and Search) of the standard ones found (often limited to thieves) in most D&D/D20 systems. Specifically I’ve modeled these on the LOTFP system of “X in 6” chance of success. I personally like this far better than the percentile system simply as it feels simpler and can shift more readily with level gain, especially in a system where high level play isn’t common, or level is capped at 10^th (As it is in my own Apollyon Game, and as it seems to be by the nature of LOTFP play). These skills do a couple things that I like. First they offer variability to the thief class, and other classes as well – a ranger need not be a separate class, but perhaps just a fighter or specialist with a focus on Animal Handling and Survivial. Second they allow me to provide alternatives to certain first level spells while keeping those spells useful. Last they provide some mechanical tests for certain types of odd activities or provide an element of random failure/success for other popular adventurer activities (such as collecting monster poison).

There is a debate to be had regarding the use of skills, including all the classic “Thieves’ Skills” because it’s often opined that rolling dice to solve a problem rather than allowing the players to use their creativity to figure out the puzzle involved diminishes one of the best aspects of tabletop gaming. However, I think these skill are mostly limited to areas where some mechanical component is necessary. There should be some mechanical component to certain activities that can’t be part of player skill, but are obvious elements of player knowledge. Specifically things that specialists (or other subclasses) know that cannot be readily known by players and which have a mechanical import. The most clear example of this sort of skill is something like “Arcana” or “Tinker” as no game I’ve been in has available locks to pick or secret languages to focus hermeneutic knowledge on. Moreover, focusing on these tasks for too long detracts from the play of other players who aren’t figuring out the lock puzzle or deciphering the secret inscription. On the other end is something like the “Search”which really should be easy to model with player knowledge (I pull on the candle holder, I dig through the refuse pile etc.) but demands a great deal of knowledge by the GM regarding things like secret door mechanisms and what sort of dungeon dressing is scattered about (both to conceal valuables and to provide pointless things to search).

A GM can’t always have these things, but a good module should make efforts at description with this in mind. Rather than saying “secret door in North wall” something like “twisting a torch holder (one of several) on the North wall clockwise will cause a latch to snap open and reveal the secret door on the North Wall”. Yet this isn’t always possible, and sometimes describing the wide variety of cruff on the floor of a goblin lair that the party can dig through is not a good use of game time. In these cases a skill is helpful. Skills also have an advantage of being clear about time and risk, with each skill roll taking one turn (10 minutes roughly but who knows in a game using an overloaded encounter die - as opposed to the Gygaxian strict timekeeping), a roll on a random encounter/exploration die – and a clear risk reward calculation for the players.

It is for this reason that unless there are compelling circumstances that I don’t bother with catastrophic failures for character failure with skills. It’s usually just wasted time, though in some circumstances (trying to stealth past alert guards, trying to run up a wall Kung Fu movie style in combat, trying to disarm a ticking bomb or doing emergency surgery on a dying comrade) there are obvious consequences.

The ultimate point is that I like these skills and find they add aspects to the game, specifically a deeper, faction based exploration game, especially in that they both encourage players to use their skills – a character will a survival skill will try to identify local flora, because they can – and allow the creation of a wider variety of character types. Specialists need not simply be magsmen, sneak thieves and assassin, but can be tinkers, scholars,, charlatans and doctors. While the descriptions below are written with my own Apollyon Setting in mind I think they can be generally applicable to most exploration based settings.

Engineering

Machines and mechanisms play a huge roll in the Apollyon, and this skill serves as a replacement for architecture as well as the skill required to operate heavy weapons like Gatling guns and artillery. In a more traditional fantasy environment the skill becomes somewhat less useful, but could skill be used for siege engines and other mechanical projects (excavation of the Tomb of Horrors for example).

Machines, gears, hydraulics, pumps, steam and cogs are a lot like magic to most people, somehow with knowledge of these strange apparatuses normal men can do the work of magicians both in war a peace. The art of engineering fascinates many as it seems a path to power, but really it’s the same sort of knowledge that builders, mill keepers, alchemists and siege masters have always had, an understanding of tools, basic forces and the mechanics of the natural world. A successful Engineering test can provide information about the purpose of almost any machine and mechanism, as the same principles apply to even the most fantastical ancient or ruined devices. A skilled engineer will also have an advantage (+1 per skill level) to any roll required to use strange mechanical or technological artifacts and machines. This bonus does not only apply to artifacts from more advanced cultures, but to the simple machines common in an Engineer’s own society. From laying explosives, to operating cannon and catapults engineers are more skilled then normal soldiers or artisans. A successful Engineering roll will reduce the time and cost of any siege project by 50%. Likewise the Engineer’s bonus to use devices applies to siege weapons, giving an engineer a bonus equal to skill level in any hit or damage rolls required for use.

Survival

All worlds have their wilderness, and all have those who learn to survive and thrive in this wilderness. Survival is not just knowledge of what specific plants are edible, or the habits of a few animals, which is the common knowledge of most that live from farming, hunting or fishing. Survival is an ethos and way of understanding that allows its practitioners to live and thrive in almost any environment with the knowledge of how to determine which unknown plants and animals are dangerous, which are food and how to best track and snare from whatever materials are available. Survival provides several bonuses, most obviously allowing some understanding of natural creatures observed for a few moments. With a survival check a character may be able to spot the claw marks of the owlbear marking its territory, or recognize a poisonous fungus compared to a benign one. Examining the corpses of dead monsters, one skilled in survival will see more than a carcass, and be better able to spot and extract valuable components, such as fur, teeth and horns, without damaging them. Survival also covers tracking and other field craft, such as spotting ambushes in natural environments, setting and detecting snares and pits in the wilderness, finding the best spot to ford dangerous streams and finding or making shelter from inclement weather.

In a game that uses exhaustion (such as my own use of an exhaustion result (‘6’) on the random encounter die) a successful survival check will allow a character to push on without rest or food.

Piloting or Sailing

Not all machines are stationary, and those that move require a different set of skills to direct and control than those that don’t. A pilot can get the most out of any means of transport, from a simple raft to an ancient steam engine or suit of ancient powered armor. Piloting skill is most useful when operating boilermail or other powered armor, as it adds directly to the suit’s reliability, but the skill has a wide application elsewhere. Most commonly a pilot may control and navigate a sailing vessel of any size (assuming there is sufficient crew) and use the piloting check to avoid the dangers of weather and rough seas as well as to arrive at a specific destination. A successful piloting check may be used to avoid any difficulty or safely navigate a danger (such as sailing a raft through rapids, or stopping a speeding mine cart) this check should be made in addition to any intrinsic mechanic related to the vessel or machine. In a more traditional fantasy setting this skill might include riding, and in such a case one would make a skill check to leap obstacles, calm panicked mounts and perhaps even add the skill bonus to hit and damage while mounted.

Medicine

Not all healing is magical, and there are many things that a knowledgeable chirurgeon can do to brush aside the boney talons of death. As a general matter this skill provides a knowledge of anatomy, health, disease and injury and can be useful from an investigative standpoint when inquiries about the time and nature of death are required. For adventurers the most practical application of this skill however is first aid and battlefield medicine. A successful medicine check can provide aid to the wounded in two ways. First by the application of proper medical procedure (such as it is in most fantasy environments) in the immediate aftermath of battle a chirurgeon can heal up to 1D6/2 points of damage to an individual from wounds received in that battle. Second, the medicine skill can sometimes prevent death. If the medicine skill is used on a character (or NPC) suffering a mortal wound (at 0 HP or less) in the next round after the wound is received the dying individual is allowed a death save (or an additional death save if one is already allowed). Keeping the mortally wounded alive and stabilizing them is difficult however and the medico doing so must spend the rest of the combat caring for any mortally wounded rather then taking any other action. The death save is allowed at the end of combat, when the medicine check is made as well.

Acumen

An understanding of value and business, this skill includes both the knowledge of business practices and procedures: trade routes, contracts, commercial paper and deeds as well as the ability to evaluate and appraise items for value. With a successful skill check the nature, history and value of non-magical treasure and artifacts can quickly be determined and fakes revealed. Likewise, a successful use of this ability will allow the character to understand the terms of complex documents, bureaucratic processes and the etiquette of commercial society.

On a mechanical level, besides the ability to appraise objects for value, this skill allows the character to move in higher levels of society and to impress the wealthy with their knowledge and class. Any Charisma check or reaction roll resulting from negotiations dependent on trust, trade or protocol gain a +1 from a successful Acumen check. Unlike the skill Legerdemain, this is real knowledge, the sort useful for setting up a legitimate business deal or hiring mercenaries, rather than getting investors for a shady scheme or seducing a debutante.

Chemics

The Alchemist and the Assassin both depend on their knowledge of chemicals, solvents, acids, poisons and potions to practice their trade and the Chemics skill represents this. It may be used to identify poisons, drugs, potions, medicines and other substances as well as to manufacture such items. A chemic check is required in almost all aspects of poison-craft as well to assure the users safety and to successfully use poisons. Chemics allows the collection and proper storage of poisons and other dangerous substances (such as slimes and molds), and without this skill even safely obtained monster poison tends to become inert quickly. Additionally a chemic check is required to properly apply poison to weapons. Chemics is also a useful skill in medicine as successful uses of the skill will sometimes (it may be less effective against stronger monster poison) allow the Chemist to create compounds that slow or even cure disease, poison and similar toxic effects.

Scholarship

Scholarship is a skill that represents a character’s general and specific knowledge of history, dead languages and other esoteric fields of study useful in exploration of forgotten ruins. With a successful check, a scholar can decipher the meaning of an ancient inscription or even understand ancient technology well enough to explain its purpose and perhaps means of operation. This skill can be used to gain information about the likely source and purpose of treasure, magical items, constructions or dungeon dressing.

In a game with ancient technology or non-magical items with fantastical effects, Scholarship may be used in lieu of an identify spell as a downtime action to determine the operation, powers and origin of such technological artifacts. Some such artifacts may also provide damage or other bonus for each point of scholarship skill.

Legerdemain

The skills of the grafter, the actor, entertainer, spy and courtier. Flattery, disguise, oratory and slight of hand to pass a bribe, lift a pocket watch or dispose of the incriminating evidence as the secret police kick down the door. Legerdemain consists of all the ‘soft’ skills of deception and its successful use will give a character a +1 to any reaction roll resulting from parlay, or a charisma check based on deception. Additionally this skill includes the disguise and impersonation so that with a successful check, sufficient materials, and knowledge of the habits or classes of the disguise’s subject the skill user can trick others into believing them to be someone else.

As mentioned above this skill also includes the sort of sleight of hand associated with the classic thief skill “pick pockets”. This has always been an underutilized skill, but a large part of that may be the descriptive name, Legerdemain can be used for anything requiring nimble fingers and deception, from card tricks to swapping documents during a negotiation.

Animal Handling

Beyond the basic care and feeding of animals, there is a great deal of skill in properly motivating training and maintaining control of both war and pack beasts. While it causes little difficulty to handle a single attack dog in combat, a pack of such dogs or more monstrous creatures demand special skill to control. Animal Handlers may control up to ½ their own level +1 HD of war beast (more if they are specialists who have elected to take the Animal Handler kit/aptitude). An animal handling skill check is required to retain or regain control of a frightened beast, and also to compel animals to act against their natural impulses (such as encouraging most hounds to attack the undead or other otherworldly creatures).

Animal Handlers also know how to properly care for their pets, and their animals will have +1 HP for every point of Animal Handling skill.

Arcana

A rare skill, limited to those who have actual rigorous training in the magical arts: church inquisitors, well taught wizards and a few esoteric scholars. Arcana is a powerful skill however, similar to scholarship, but much more focused on specific kinds of magical knowledge.

With a successful application of the Arcana skill a practitioner may emulate the effect of the 1^st level Magic-User Spells “Read Magic” and “Identify” as well as generally gaining knowledge about magical effects or objects. For example on a successful Arcana Skill check the character could determine that the effect of a polymorph spell was temporary, or investigate a destroyed skeleton to discover it had been animated recently by arcane ritual.

Using this spell to read magical writings means that it can be used by non-casters to cast magic-user spells from scrolls. This use of the spell has a downside however as failure will result in the destruction of the scroll (while failure to read a magical inscription or conduct an investigation just wastes time). Likewise the Identify function of the Arcana skill represents a long study of a magical object and requires an entire between session, town phase or downtime action to perform, with failure meaning that the item remains unidentified, but another attempt may be made after the next session of play.

Stealth

Stealth is the skill associated with assassins and thieves, but useful to any character who wishes to avoid being spotted. Hiding in shadows, moving silently through piles of dry leaves, and slipping past guards are all part of the stealth skill. Failure of the skill doesn’t automatically mean that the character gives away their presence (if previously hidden), and certainly if given ample time and in an environment with concealment options, the skill is unnecessary to hide. However, where true skill (sneaking past an alert beast, hiding in the shadows of a pillar, moving across a creaking wooden floor to loot a sleeping merchant’s nightstand or slipping behind a guard to assassinate him) is required this skill should be used.

One of the more popular uses of the Stealth skill is to try to set up a target for a backstab in melee combat. I am torn about this, and generally prefer separate backstab rules (targets may engage in melee combat with enemies up to their attack bonus e.g. one per HD for monsters before any additional opponent overwhelms their defenses and automatically makes backstab attacks) for ganging up on enemies, but believe successful round using stealth at the beginning of a combat should allow the specialist to make a backstab attack when they reveal themselves if their target is engaged in melee combat with another.

Tinker

The skill of fixing, understanding and manipulating small devices and tools. Most often it is used by scavengers to disarm small mechanical traps or their triggers, but is also valuable for picking locks and to repair jammed firearms or other broken weapons. It’s a fairly similar skill to Engineering, and in a less technologically advanced setting I might roll the Engineering and Tinker together into a single skill.

When using this skill I generally err on the side of the players, especially involving traps, a failed skill check results in delay (and another random encounter check), rather then triggering a trap or permanently jamming a lock. After all, most locked doors in an exploration game are meant to be a minor obstacle rather then something the party has only a small chance of overcoming. And most small traps, susceptible to the tinker skill (I wouldn’t use it for large or magical traps like falling ceilings or explosive runes, depending on player ideas to bypass these sorts of traps) are nuisances designed to make the player chose if they are more afraid of random monsters or springing traps.

Acrobatics

Any character can climb a rope, or rough stone wall with time and effort, but the acrobat can do it quickly, silently and with a fair bit of style. This skill not only replaces the traditional “Climb” skill, but allows the acrobat to engage in other athletic feats, such as leaping over chasms or across rooftops.

Acrobatics might also function as a combat skill, allowing the acrobat to disengage from melee, rush past enemies or make flying attacks from the rear rank, though this sort of use would have to be situational and would depend largely on GM rulings.

Force

Force is a simple skill of properly applying strength to break things in an efficient manner. It is a universal skill, most commonly used by scavengers to smash open locked or stuck doors. Tools (crowbars, hammers, or wrenches) give a+1 to skill bonus in appropriate situations. Failure indicates a noisy and failed opening attempt requiring an encounter check or breakage. This skill is generally applicable to other tests of strength that are beyond a normal ability check such as bending metal bars, shifting sarcophagus lids and holding gates shut against a battering ram. Because of the extreme nature of the feats associated with the Force skill, it is rarely available to characters in my games, instead limited to the 1 in 6 chance associated with opening doors in the early editions of D&D. However, this doesn’t preclude the possibility of some specialized ‘strongman’ type of character with greater skill.

Search or Awareness

While passive Listening is modeled in my game with a Wisdom check or as the result of a random encounter roll, active searching and listening at doors is a general skill, which like “Force” is available to all. Certain varieties of specialists (thieves, rangers and explorers) may also increase their ability with this skill. Search is used to search through a general area for either items of interest or secret doors, specifically examine objects or small areas for a trap of some kind, eavesdrop on other’s conversations from a safe distance or listen at doors for evidence of what’s beyond. It encompasses the traditional listen, find traps and search checks, making it a generally valuable skill.

An alternative way of using this skill (perhaps retitled as Awareness) would be as a form of save. Assuming some traps or ambushes (giant falling stone blocks, carefully set ambushes with crew served weapons, large explosives, magical vortexs) are completely unsurvivable, a character might roll a reactive search roll to suddenly sense the danger and drop to the ground, leap back or otherwise narrowly avoid destruction. This provides most PC’s with a 1 in 6 chance of avoiding these deadly traps, but gives specialists an advantage that really encourages their players to act as scouts.

VOIVODJA IS HUNGRY

So I’ve been wondering for the past while, where exactly Zak Smith of Playing D&D with Pornstars has been putting his creative energies? His blog hasn’t had the same density and depth that it did in the past. I mean mine hasn’t either, but that’s because I am getting lazy and burnt out, but that didn’t stop me from being hopeful that Mr. Smith was still producing content like a machine. I was right to be hopeful, because today Smith’s long awaited Red and Pleasant Land - a setting book for The Land of Unreason was released by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and it was worth the wait.

I purchased the PDF, which isn’t especially cheap, but worth it given the size and quality of the product. I am sure that the actual book will be even nicer, as LOTFP appears to have lavished a great deal of care on this product in addition to its normally phenomenal production values. The PDF is nicely indexed and in vibrant full color at a high resolution with the art remaining pretty clear up to 200% size, so it’s about what should be expected from a high quality PDF.

Not sure if this is the best piece in Red and Pleasant Land, but it's my Favorite

AESTHETICS

I’m taking a little bit of extra time to discuss the quality of the PDF because the book feels more like an art book or the strange journals (especially in its early pages) of some kind of Art Brut genius like Henry Drager (albeit with no nude asexual/intersexed youth – in fact no art that could be deemed remotely offensive or gruesome), but more because one of the hallmarks of Smith’s obsessions with game book design is usability and usable presentation. Red and Pleasant Land seems slightly less focused on experimental forms of usability then Smith’s prior book Vornheim, or he’s simply become more polished and clear about what exactly he considers good design. On the aesthetic level Red and Pleasant Land is a success, even as a PDF it’s a very pretty book. There are numerous illustrations throughout, both far more artful then those in most RPG books and consistently wonderful to look at. The illustrations, like those in most RPG books, tend to be useful as concrete expressions of the fictional world, and all the more so here because they are the work of the writer. Again this art is better to my eye than anything I’ve seen in a game book, because Smith is a very talented professional artist and unafraid to work in a style that is unique and quite far from the glossy concept art style of digital painting popular in most current high quality game products. I not against the art in the Fifth Edition of D&D, but it seeks to accomplish an entirely different thing then the work in Red and Pleasant Land which gives feeling and an emotional depth as well as a glossy surface appearance. I was also happy to recognize a couple of OSR regulars drawn as various denizens of the Red & Pleasant Land – notably Ram of Save vs. Total Party Kill. The art continues into the maps, where a focus on usability as well as appearance is clear.

The maps in Red and Pleasant Land are amazing, I’m unclear if they are all Smith’s work, and I understand some may be the work of Jez Gordan (he comments he drew up two maps - The Shoe Thief and the red interior maze one) who illustrates many high quality OSR publications in his own signature black ink style, including the new Death Frost Doom release. Regardless of their author the maps in Red and Pleasant land are interesting, eschewing grid lines and distances (you can easily crib it from the distance charts on each map, plus most rooms are square, if you’re playing a more tactical system) in favor of clear labels and notations about room inter-connectivity and contents. These are functional maps, and incorporate a lot of elements that are worthwhile for game map design: elevation drawings of important vertical areas, notations of inhabitants and specific interesting features for the rooms and room labels rather than numbers. Additionally the maps are repeated in smaller sections to accompany the keyed area text. Design decisions like this make Red and Pleasant Land a highly usable game product, not just a strange and wonderful setting book. More than a lot of game books, one could play a game directly from Red & Pleasant land without having to make GM maps, or copious notes. Sure it’s not absolute – monster stats aren’t included in a condensed form in the in the room keys (meaning one has to note this down somewhere and can’t run the locations straight from the book without some page flipping), but all and all there is good information design in Red and Pleasant Land. At first glance one might not think this as the book's aesthetic of dense cluttered art (just the art, the text is nice a and clear) and the hand written fonts on maps seem chaotic, but this is all a gloss (a nice setting appropriate one to my mind), and many a more staid adventure designer could learn a lot about functional information design from Red & Pleasant Land.

Tables, and as an OSR/DIY D&D product there are plenty of random tables, have an efficient enough design to them – most are straight-forward, clear, fun (I always love a “I Search the Body” table and every setting should have one or more) and setting appropriate. There are a few die drop charts and some nested tables, but nothing too complex or overwhelming (This city creation system by Logan Knight for example is far, far, far more complex than anything in Red & Pleasant Land – it is also great). The tables are also useful, letting anyone generate setting specific locations and adventure randomly, a necessity for any setting/wilderness adventure book that seeks to have enough detail to be interesting and still cover a good sized region.

The writing is also noteworthy, perhaps lacking the consistently magical transport that the words in Deep Carbon Observatory provide me, but amusing, whimsical and wry – great for the setting. In the early overview parts of the book it tends to be more evocative and is quite fun to read simply for pleasure (assuming one likes reading about fantastical landscapes) with a good dose of humor to leaven the fundamental bleakness of a land ruled by insane vampires feuding over blood crumpets and imagined slights. In the more game content heavy sections of the book (the locations especially) the writing is terse and effective, with bullet points of room contents giving quick sketches of an area without much embellishment – aimed at clarity and gameable content rather than creating a sense of wonder. This juxtaposition isn’t jarring though as the section create a clean split, and while the writing for the keyed locations may be terse and efficient there’s nothing boring, clichéd or simplistic about the content itself – the keyed locations are excellent with a great deal of strange, a large number of dangerous situations and a good number of details to wonder at.

THE CONTENT

Voivodja, The Red and Pleasant Land is a big place, and a dense place, full of faction conflict. It is a forest and tangled gardens built into and above a fallen world sized castle and sprawling underworld. It’s the kind of setting that would be impossible to write up in a comprehensive way using a traditional gazetteer and keyed location method. Instead the book focuses on the social conflicts and interactions within the setting, provides several keyed locations (both important and mundane) and random generators to fill out the other areas. Physically Red and Pleasant Land includes a few basic sections: an overview, a bestiary, a number of keyed locations and a section of optional rules and tables. The sections work well together and give a solid feel for a very strange gaming setting – a successful amalgam of Dracula, dark fairy tale and Alice in Wonderland. The overview section (for lack of a better description) spends more time on “customs” then it does on actual locations, and this is not a bad thing, as the customs the Red and Pleasant Land’s ruling elites, and their slow war make for solid adventuring hooks while grounding the reader in the strangeness of the setting. The land itself has a few peculiarities (as mentioned it is built up in squares of ruined gardens in and atop a crumbled nation sized palace) that go a long way to establish flavor (as does the short but rather evocative random encounter table, where crocodiles are encountered in almost every biome – undoubtedly behaving in a less then crocodilian manner much of the time) and more of its details are found in the adventure locales later in the book. The overview that isn’t dueling rules and discussions of the Heart Queen’s maliciousness and tendency to hire ‘wicket hunters’ during week long croquet matches, is more a primer in the basic strange geometries and feel of the environment, and includes some useful advice on how the Land, also called Voivodja, should be run as a point crawl and social dungeon of quests, relationships, factions and double-crosses. This is all excellent advice for running a game free of the classic hexcrawl constraints of a slowly revealed map and random locations.

The Bestiary section is excellent, and describes not only the wildly inventive monsters of the Red and Pleasant land, but their faction loyalties and interrelation. Many of these creatures are unique NPC, powerful, strange and with uniquely amusing mechanics. Many are also vampires – in fact that’s the secret of Red and Pleasant Land – it is both the story of the children’s whimsy of a world where the queen of cards battles the king of chess, and the setting of a vampire thriller where Count Dracula and Countess Bathory (a vampire version of course) connive for supremacy, while their vampire courts run rampant across the land in search of fresh blood. The bestiary is the heart of the Red and Pleasant Land, because the setting is more about social relationships and encounters, with players exploring the hierarchies of four vampire courts, then it is about exploration of dungeons and wide lands. The monster write ups reflect this, spending far more time on the attitudes of and interactions one might have with these monsters then on their stats in any technical sense. Simple mechanics and the annoyingly unkillable nature of vampires (though there are distinct ‘staking’ rules and ‘vampire bite’ rules here)make many of the more common creatures quite terrifying, the Rooks of all vampire factions (basically their heavy hitting brute monsters) are especially awful in a variety of ways. The only limitation on this bestiary is that it would be hard to pull beasts from to use in another setting – sure the aquatic vampires could appear as agents of a sinister Voivodjian power in your setting’s capitol, and taking a cue from Smith’s near total reskinning of vampires to create your own orders and hierarchies of evil would be rewarding, but just dropping a riddling Red Rook on the random encounter table of your Phandelver game would be hard. The consistency and in interrelation between the elements of the setting, a concealed order within an absurd seeming fantasy world, are a strong point for Red and Pleasant Land, but perhaps make it less immediately adaptable then a lot of game content.

Beyond the Bestiary is a Section of several adventure locales, the two castles/palaces of the main factions and a few smaller drop in adventures that exemplify the setting. The large adventures are full of strange time and space distorting maps, chess puzzles, riddle games, and plenty of vampires. Indeed the larger locations suppose a high level party to have a chance of winning the combat, 11^th level seemed reasonable in a playtest I participated in a long while ago, but the setting as a whole is accessible for all levels. Additionally since everything is novel and new (except some random encounters with beasts and basic humanoids) changing the level of opposition shouldn’t be especially.

The smaller adventure locales are simply rather wonderful maps with notes written on them. This isn’t to say these locations aren’t useful, but they are more one page dungeons than anything else - less fully keyed locations them a set of notes that should be sufficient for running a session with some improvisation or preparation.

Finally, the most mechanically dense section of Red and Pleasant Land is its Optional Rules section. The rules are largely useful and mechanically simple relating to large scale combat. The tables afterward are much more interesting, and really allow a GM who has read the rest of the book to create Voivodja as needed. Adventure Hook Tables, annoying conversation starters, landmarks for the three basic biomes (forest, garden and interior) and encounters/events for the same. It is this last set of tables, titled “Instant Locations” that provide a very useful way of creating Voivodja a session at a time with minimal effort on the GM’s part. With a sufficient knowledge of the evocative setting one can roll something like this and easily flesh it out:

SAMPLE VOIVODJIAN ENCOUNTER

Seriously 25 of the 30 minutes were this map

This took about 30 minutes – mostly doodling.

The locale is a piece of garden (1) where the forest is starting to overtake the greensward (2) but has stopped at a ruin leading into an interior flooded with crystal clear poison waters. A Bridge (3) crosses a crocodile infested canal and meets a mossy brick path that leads to a gazebo (4) where the Pale King’s Astronomer is cowering amongst the soggy ruins of his lunch (stale blood pastries and cold sausages) from two days before. He has been driven out of his tower (5) by a pack of Jub (which he is inexplicably afraid of, muttering something about them being “twin stealing, cradle robbing vermin”) and is anxious to return (having cowered under the table cloth of his luncheon from the sun for the past two days) to his tower and work. The Astronomer will offer anyone who drives off the Jub a lovely astrolabe, similar minor magic/valuable item, or even perhaps a set of notes about an upcoming lunar eclipse that would absolutely ruin the Heart Queen’s current croquet game. The Astronomer recently caught a pair of Hearts (their ponies now roam the garden) sneaking about his tower in the twilight, and impaled (6 – he’s only really afraid of Jub) them in an area of the garden that is unstable (7) – the sutured land, where the thick lawn is held together by huge stitches and staples and supported by a mess of rusty pillars. The Astronomer hopes to lure the last Heart spy (8) who is atop a rickety stair with a spyglass into this trap. The spy waits, seeking the notes on the eclipse for the Heart King and Knave who hope to mitigate and/or channel the Heart Queen’s rage when the moon goes out on the 137^thwicket. He will pay well for these notes in favors and can easily have the information that other parties (he works for both the Knave and the King, though neither know that) want the notes bullied out of him.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I am departing from my normal Good/Bad/Reskin methodology for reviewing Red & Pleasant Land because I generally think it’s excellent, if eclectic, and my only complaint is this very excellence and inventiveness. Oh there are a couple of typographical errors here and there, I think the March Hare is ascribed to the wrong house, and there are some odd spacing decisions here and there - but this is nothing out of the ordinary for the first edition of even a well edited, well laid out book. As to Reskinning, while many ideas can be taken from Red and Pleasant Land and easily adapted to another game world, Voivodja is itself so distinctive and textured that reskinning it would be almost impossible to do well. The eclectic nature of Voivodja and the amazingly refreshing creativity behind the environment will make one want to fit it in some corner of one’s game world, where it will sit and slowly creep into the rest of it until you are playing Red and Pleasant Land. It’s that good a product, its danger is viral. Conversely Red and Pleasant Land is a novel and startlingly interesting take on fantasy – a bit of the Mieville New Weird, and a touch of the gruesome “Scandinavian metal” dressing that LOTFP is known for, but a refreshingly large dose of the whimsical. Most things and creatures in Voivodja operate on twisted, implacable fairytale logic, and while other game products have claimed to exist in a more fairytale then fantasy (meaning Tolkien pastiche) world, the small mechanical changes, like the magical size rules, within Red and Pleasent Land, and the various customs and factions really do manage an ugly fairytale setting that is neither clichéd or gonzo (in the sense of seeming like an 80’s cartoon) and appears new and unique.

Yet, one of the large problems with game worlds that are new and unique, and the reason that most strange new settings fail to find an audience is that the ideas within are too eclectic and unique, requiring a great deal of backstory – wisely (or luckily?) Red and Pleasant manages to attach itself to already existing fantasy worlds without leaning on the standard Tolkien or Swords and Sorcery fare. The setting manages to be largely about vampires without feeling remotely like Ann Rice or Twilight (That is none of these vampires are misunderstood or troubled – they are monsters, and yet noble refined monsters with a deal to offer), because it adheres to the creepier 19^th century horror implicit in Dracula, but dresses it up in the trappings of Carroll’s children’s absurdist fantasy.

I want to say something critical and balancing, as I have about other great products (Like Deep Carbon Observatory), but all I can muster is that if the idea of throwing aside most of the high fantasy trappings of table top roleplaying game world design is too scary or would annoy your players then Red and Pleasant Land may kill your campaign, because it is greedy with your attention and throws out the standard fantasy tabletop cliches and tropes. Red an Pleasant Land seems like the sort of setting that will have repercussions in a staid fantasy setting, even if it’s just set at the end of the map, because the GM will want to have Red Knights sidling through mirrors to commit atrocities, and Byronic Pale Knights lurking in lonely towers challenging any who cross the moors at night to a joust – with the prize being a map or mirror portal to Voivodja.

THE TRUMPET UNBLOWN

A List of unique starting magical items for noble characters in my (admittedly underdeveloped) Fallen Empire setting. Alternatively I suppose these are the minor items one finds in the crumbled ruins of decadent high-magic mansion, where thousands of years of ease and glory have given way to rot and rodents.

Your house has fallen, not once, not even twice, but like a tottering drunk, tumbling endlessly, colliding with fixed obstacles, cowering from imagined enemies and unprepared to face tomorrow. Why do you alone see it? Your elders, the family head, the old retainers, the children, and even your peers are blind, wrapped up in false glories and an imagined past. While they sit in dark worm eaten parlors, clutching the greasy and threadbare arms of their patched tapestried thrones and waiting for the Empire’s return to fortune, you have calmly laid out the need for change. Over meals of what were once decorative carp but are now your rubbery repast carved up on golden plates, you have shouted and raved for action. In the mossy dripping blackness of the overgrown topiary garden you’ve intrigued and schemed.

Your efforts have come to naught, your warnings, your rumor mongering, your pleas and prayers cannot move the fixed inertia of a Millennium's propriety and tradition. Now there is only flight, clutching poorly prepared supplies and rushing for the unknown world beyond the mansions and spires.

Note the illustration are from a 1940's edition of Wuthering Heights (If the swarthy gentleman digging up a grave marked Catherine didn't clue you in.)

D20	Patrimony Torn from the Clutching Talons of Time and Neglect.
1	Jewel Moth Robe – Carefully stitched from the trans-planar wings of the Jeweled Moth, this robe appears to be an ornate and somewhat garish costume of some forgotten epoch, the robe is still impressive and more importantly (while originally favored for its ability to shed grime) the moth wings provide protection equivalent to medium armor (AC 15).
2	Distilled Chanteuse – Within this decorative green glass bottle is the distilled essence of a once popular singer. If the thick bluish syrup within is poured out onto any surface her apparition will form from its sweet smelling fumes. The ghostly figure will loudly sing and sway for one turn per dose used (there are five doses in the bottle) it has no extrinsic magical effects but is quite an astonishing distraction.
3	Dueling Cane – Elaborately carved bonewhite cane specifically designed for the pugnacious gentleman. The cane is an effective blunt weapon, dense and flexible, capable of cracking skulls, and rupturing organs with a firm hit. The cane is also extraordinary light and agile, being a Finesse Weapon (like a sword) that grants a +1 to hit).
4	Butler’s Fork – A short bonewhite rod with a ‘U’ shaped head, inlaid with a web of golden sigils. When rapped against a mundane lock the fork will vibrate and produce a loud belling tone. The lock also has a 3 in 6 chance of unlocking the door. On a roll of ‘6’ rod will continue to vibrate for another day or two, rendering n it useless for the remainder of the session.
5	House Sword – Gaudy in the extreme -covered in gold, gems and brightly glowing alchemical lacquers, having a champion display one of these giant two-handed swords at formal events was once the height of propriety. Originally for show, House Swords are effective enough weapons, but generally not meant for defense. The interior of the swords’ oversized hollow blades is often filled with superdense magical fluid that lends inertia to blows but makes the weapons unwieldy. Attacks with this weapon do an additional +2 damage, but give a -1 to AC).
6	Healthful Wand – A thin wand of decoratively worked bonewhite, covered in tiny vanes and filigree. When dipped into a liquid it will turn purple if the substance is poisonous or magical.
7	Fanged Idol – A squat idol of green brass worked with vile designs and notable for a mouth of razor sharp teeth. Once the god of a savage tribe, long ago conquered by the Empire in its own days of glory, this idol is a potent artifact allowing an arcane caster to recall a previously memorized but recently cast spell for the sacrifice of 1D6/2 HP per spell level in their own blood.
8	Masquerade Helmet - A high crested helmet with of ornate and ancient lines, made of silver and gold filigree wrapped around a surprisingly functional bonewhite core. In addition to providing the benefits of a helmet (1/2 damage from falling or fallen objects) the Masquerade Helmet has a snug bonewhite faceplate that can shift and reform to magically model the face of any human or humanoid subject the wearer has seen in the past day and copy it in a lifelike manner. There is a 5 in 6 chance that a normal viewer will mistake this face for the modeled individual, though body type, and the absurd gilded helmet may give away the impersonator rather easily.
9	Simian Automaton – An amusing metallic monkey with the necromantically preserved and conditioned brain of a serf or criminal in the glass dome of its skull. The ape will respond to simple instructions, and is entirely fearless. However it is strictly governed not to attack any living thing, and if asked to do anything other then domestic tasks, japing or tumbling will have a only a 4 in 6 chance of understanding the order. Automaton – AC 12, HD ½ HP 4, Atk 1, MV 40’ ML 12 SV F0.
10	Vestarche’s Crest – Forged into jagged and unnatural lines from a heavy ingot of bluish metal, pitted by the crude process that made it this crest was the a badge of office for an inviolate imperial messenger. While living people no longer remember it’s import, the outsiders shackled to war by the empire will honor this sigil, and the holder (though not her companions) is protected from harm by Imperial automatons, angels or demons.
11	Remonstrator – An elegant wand of blackened pewter, meant as a dainty toy for gentlemen, Remonstrators were once a popular means for the Imperial nobility to inflict petty cruelties on their servants and the populace without physical effort. The wand can shoot a lash of ugly red magic at a single target every round. Targets must roll a save vs. wands or suffer 1d6/2 points of damage as the red welts of a cruel beating appear on their body. Old and somewhat unreliable, should a target save with a natural 20 the remonstrator will cease to function for the remainder of the game session.
12	Ring of Hate – An iron ring popular during the 42^nd Dictatorship, a time of brutal repressive violence and military pomp. The ring gives a +2 to all saves vs. mind altering magic, paralysis and charm. I also drains compassion, humanity and humor, reducing CHR to 5 while worn.
13	True Liturgy – Written in inks ground from the burnt bones of saints, gilded and ornate, this copy of an outdated and strange religious text for the Imperial cult was touch by one of the ancient Emperor’s himself. If displayed to priests of the Emperor or their monstrous agents, they will flee from it as if they were undead and the Liturgy was a 2^nd level Cleric making a turning attempt.
14	Uhlan’s Armor – An Imperial cavalry rider’s suit of heavy armor. A Gleaming Bonewhite Breastplate, pauldrons, gorget and high helm, with the limbs covered in bright patterned alchemical fabric laminating discs of bonewhite armor. The suit is enormously protective, and highly resistant to damage (AC 18, 1 point of damage reduction), but also enormously heavy and cumbersome (wearer acts last each round) to anyone who lacks the magically infused strength of an Imperial Knight (STR 19 or better) or is mounted on a heavy warhorse.
15	Sack of Coinage – Dispensing with odd family relics or dust shrouded mysteries, you simply gathered up a moderately sized satchel of gold, silver, platinum and ruby coins. I satchel contains the equivalent of 2,500 GP – live large.
16	Seraphim’s Pinion – The translucent crystalline feather of a great archangel, set into a polished silver metal pole. The feather is razor sharp and makes a very effective spear. It isn’t more effective than a metal spear, but looks impressive a will strike magical, immaterial and ethereal creatures immune to normal weapons.
17	Revivifying Tipple – A gilded hipflask contains five slugs of fortifying tonic. Each drink will rapidly heal 1D6/2 HP of injury or cure exhaustion, but will also intoxicate the drinker. The effect creates a -1 to all rolls per dose until the drinker sleeps it off over several hours.
18	Parfum d’Maudlum- A distinctive black hexagonal bottle contains this once well-known magical eau de parfum which produces both a scent and emotional response. Parfum d’ Maudlum was meant to give its wearer an aura of ineffable and mysterious sadness, and it does if used in appropriate quantities. However, spilled on the ground or applied to a person in a large does (up to 3 per bottle) the perfume fills the air with a cloying scent like fresh rain, cedar loam and the saddle leather of the horse that carrying the news of a lovers death. The vile scent also produces a powerful emotional resonance. Any sentient creature capable of feeling sadness (including the wearer) must Save vs. Spells or burst into inconsolable weeping (a -4 on all rolls) until they either leave the 20’ x 20’ area of the perfume or it evaporates in 1D6 turns.
19	Porcelain Steed – Standing tall, with a glazed hide of glistening white ceramic, Porcelain Steeds were once a common mount for gentlemen about town. Tireless, loyal, and very docile the steed needs to be fed only 1 HP of blood a day to keep its energy up. Identical in speed and carrying capacity as a normal palfrey, the porcelain horse is entirely docile and pliable and will not balk at any command from its rider. Porcelain horses are incapable of attack however, and due to their hollow ceramic nature and magical animation less durable in combat then their living counterparts. Porcelain Horse – AC 11, HP 10, HD ½, ATK 0, MV90’ ML 12, SV F0
20	Magister’s Snuff Box – Like a gourd of finally carved cinnabar this snuff box is both a handsome novelty and enchanted with a powerful narcotic spell. A single deep inhalation of the tiny gold motes that bubble up from its perforated top will produce sublime intoxication for 1D6/2 turns, rendering the user sluggish and euphoric (-1 to any physical rolls, always acts last on initiative).

IN THE SHADOWS OF THE DEAD

One of Goya's creepier etchings

Sarin the Mambo immediately knew something was wrong as the familiar hatch swung open. The pair of Shrine Fanatics, their unarmored bodies covered in devotional tattoos of ancient mechanical schematics, their meaning lost, but their protective power to lure the very spirits of the vessel still puissant could sense it was well as they cranked away at the hatch’s manual override wheel, and their loud chanting of the 537^th sutra to the Prime Engine shrank to a whisper. Beyond the hatch, the formerly domesticated companionway way leading to a slaughterhouse and several large, elementally powered meat freezers was wreathed in fog, fog and utter wrongness. Sarin’s various fetishes of the Winding Gear, her patron, felt as if they were vibrating atop her armor and her frail elderly hand gripped tightened the cord that held the heavy mace to her gauntlet.

Sarin didn’t even need to borrow the eyes of the Winding Gear spirit that “rode” her and filled her with its power to see that there was foul magic beyond the hatch. It was as if death, hate and sorrow were pushing out from the peeling wall papers of the companionway beyond, and weeping from around every bent rivet in the companionway walls beneath, and dripping like curdled oil from the ceiling. The fog was the worst of it, light from the lanterns held by the Mambo’s companions would not penetrate more than a few feet into the shifting miasma whose swirls and eddies gave an impression of intentional, malicious movement.

The slaughterhouse had gone bad, and those who had died within had not merely risen as common revenants or individual spirits, but instead corrupted the whole of the region, the fear and horrors of their deaths leaking into the walls and fixtures of the slaughterhouse to turn the entire area into an expression of hate, fear and a deep abiding sense of betrayal that sought with inchoate fury to punish the living for its multitude of deaths.

Hauntings

Of late I’ve been thinking about hauntings in my Dungeons and Dragons game, specifically the HMS Apollyon, partially because player chicanery has led to the powerful haunting of a previously explored region. I don’t want to just put wraiths or wights or some other kind of undead monster as a form of restocking, I want to switch the genre of the region from fantasy adventure to fantasy horror.

I want haunted areas to be different from other dungeon areas. I want them to feel creepy, but not with the instant threat that some kind of monster is about to pop out of somewhere, but rather that something terrible and transformative might happen, and more importantly that the normal means of dealing with dungeon danger (caution, combat tactics and retreat) might not work so well. Ideally I could be as creepy as a good horror movie with just my GMing tone and word choice, but despite a vocabulary that includes several words for viscera, I don’t really think of myself as an uncanny sort of fellow. Let’s just say, I’m no Nick Cave.

Rather than give general advice involving soundtracks or lighting at one’s table, I’ve created a few random tables that I use for haunted areas aboard the Apollyon. They aren’t really setting specific, and aren’t especially dangerous, but I hope they are effectively creepy. The goal here is to create tension and some aspect of dungeon restocking without making the party entirely re-explore a prior area. The secondary goal is to offer some sort of optional quest for getting the location un-haunted. I suspect this is most likely done by finding the haunting’s source or center and having some cleric do their thing there. Obviously the haunted area, in the manner of the Amityville house, or the hotel in the Shining really doesn’t want that, and manifestations and haunts – maybe even a monster or two, will try to drive the party away as they get closer.

I think these hauntings provide an interesting variance in dungeon restocking, and furthermore offer an opportunity to create in game consequences for character, NPC or monster perpetrated acts of savagery. If for example your party decides to torture a pack of captive orcs for information after ransacking their lair and then kills the surviving prisoners, having the orc lair become haunted by the spirits of the tormented dead seems entirely reasonable. I don’t discourage immorality amongst my players with alignment effects or stern lectures, but consequences such as hauntings and a reputation for brutality seem very reasonable.

TABLES

First a table of some general effects that make a haunted area distinctive. Both descriptive and with minor mechanical effects these aren’t supposed to be dangerous in themselves, but instead set tone.

D10	Weird Environmental Effects of the Haunting
1	Exhaustion – The psychic reverberations in the area are tiring, painful and overwhelming. Travelling through the area is exhausting, and while this is something the characters will notice as they trudge along, the exhaustion doesn’t really hit until the characters have escaped the haunting’s influence. If you don’t have exhaustion rules, then consider requiring a long rest (say 6 turns or 1 turns if the characters have ample food and water).
2	Light Eating – Torches, candles, lanterns and even magical illumination falter and are weaker under the baleful influence of the haunted area. All light distances are halved, but other effects may also occur – light color changing, flames revealing tiny tormented spirits trapped within or specific areas where darkness clings and flows like a liquid of living thing.
3	Fog – A dense fog fills the haunted area. Often this fog lays low to conceal the floor, but it’s possible it clogs entire chambers and halls. While the fog is harmless it conceals other dangers and tricks living creatures that stare into it, revealing skulking shadows or suggestive shapes that suggest the party is not alone in the fog.
4	Whispers/Silence – Sound in the area is dampened to a greater or lesser degree. Obviously listening to doors will simply not work, but one could potentially make parley impossible as well. Alternatively, whenever a character tries to listen intently their head fills with the whispers and pleas of the dead.
5	Shadowplay – Shadows move and twitch as if alive. If watched closely they will seem normal, but the GM can mention occasionally that a player sees another player’s shadow doing something off (i.e. stabbing another shadow with a knife) or that there are shadows cast for things that aren’t present (usually people or horrors).
6	Divine Dampening – Any cleric or divine caster will feel separated and alone, the power that filled them drained. The only mechanical effect of this curse is that all Clerical spells require a roll under wisdom to cast. Also magical healing doesn’t work.
7	Time Dilation – Time moves faster and slower in this area. At the start of each turn roll a D6 on a 1-3, save any encounter rolls or time related effects until the next turn(or the next roll of 4,5 or 6) and add them, on a 4-5 roll as normal, on a 6 treat the turn as if it has been three (three random encounter checks, rapidly exhausted torches, spells go out etc.). Clearly describe these effects – everything stutters in double time, the air moves slowly like molasses
8	Past is Present – Upon first entering an area the description should be as the are was at the time the haunting began. For Example, describe the kitchen as being brightly lit with a turkey roasting on the spit, racks of pans hanging above, and tables of food and only when the characters go to investigate will they notice that the hearth is cold and empty except for a few scattered bones, the tables warped, sagging with growth of mushrooms and the pans rusted.
9	Temperature Change – The air in the haunted region is of a different temperature or quality then the air of the areas beyond or before it. A classic example of this is the haunted chambers being suddenly and inexplicably cold but there is no reason that the effect can’t work the other way, with a hotter haunted area, especially if heat is thematic to the nature of the haunting (death by fire or fever for example).
10	Discombobulating – Space in the haunted area is distorted and twisted by sinister forces. Explorers will quickly get lost. The best way to emulate this is to give bad descriptions and directions (such as telling the mapper a door is in the north wall when it really faces South), or erase and then rotate maps if the GM is preparing them. To avoid making this sort of misdirection unduly frustrating it will help if the rooms themselves don’t change and contain distinctive landmarks or dimensions, so that that a party can have some idea where they are within the haunting’s maze.

When a random encounter comes up here is a table that is designed with appropriately haunting occurrences in mind. I would roll on this table at a 2 in 6 chance (with the encounters below acting as both clues and encounters on an ‘Overloaded’ die).

D6	Haunting Encounters
1	Strange Noises – Strange and threatening noises suddenly echo through the area. They aren’t directed at the party, but may come from a nearby area. If investigated the screaming, laughing, eerie music or other disconcerting sounds will prove to have no clear source.
2	Sudden Increase in Atmospheric Effects – Whatever atmospheric effects that defines the area will suddenly get more severe. Fog swelling to fill the room and so thick as to be almost liquid, light radius’ shrinking another 50% or similar escalating of the uncanny nature of the haunted place. These effects will last until a magic exhaustion result is rolled on an overloaded encounter/exploration die or 1D6 turns pass.
3	Possession Attempt – A weak spirit will randomly single out a party member and attempt to take control of them. The targeted PC must make a contested Wisdom check against the spirit (WIS 10). If the character is possessed the result is temporary (1 roll of magical depletion on the exploration/random encounter die – or 1D6 turns) and the spirit will likely seek to accomplish a specific task, and may even relinquish control if the character and/or companions promise to perform it.
4	Manifestation- See Manifestation Table Below
5	Geist – A cruel disembodied spirit, so lost to rage and hatred over its own death and psychic pain that it cannot be reasoned with and no longer remembers it’s own mortal existence. A pack of 1D6 of these immaterial predators has been drawn to the party’s intrusion. Appearing as trails of ragged mist, sometimes manifesting spectral limbs or bones, these ghostly vermin are aggressive, but easy to turn or ward off . Least Geist* HD 1, AC 14*, ATK 1 (claw), SV CL 1, MV 30’ ML 8 Undead Immunities, but easily turned or cowed by holy items. A circle of blessed iron, a bowl of sacrificed blood, or the efforts of a devote member of the laity (with a holy symbol) will all hold these creatures back as if they were a turning attempt by a 1^st Level Cleric. An actual turning attempt may be rolled twice and the best result taken. ** Immaterial and immune to normal and silver weapons. Take ½ damage from elemental magic, but double damage from holy water.
6	Haunt – See Haunt Table Below

Manifestations are stronger area of psychic power/magical power where the haunting is able to have more localized control and act in a way to actually harm or specifically target individuals. Both the manifestation and Haunts tables can also be used to stock rooms instead of or as an addition to being random occurrences.

D20	Manifestations of the Haunting
1	Shouted warning - “GO FROM HERE” or some similar command or warning comes from an unknown source and booms in a huge threatening voice. For henchmen and followers to continue on and not flee the haunted area they must make a loyalty test at -1.
2	Light’s Out – Suddenly the torches and lanterns are extinguished. Even magical lights will go out (if they fail a save v. magic) and will certainly flicker and gutter even if they save. Mundane light sources will need to be exhausted by this magical darkness, and so will temporary magical effects. Permanent light enchantments (if your game has such a thing) will slowly return after a magic exhaustion result is rolled on an overloaded encounter/exploration die or 1D6 turns pass.
3	Horrifying Hallucinations – Suddenly the room fills with disgusting, gruesome or violent hallucinations. Most often a recreation of some scene of death that created the haunting, but sometimes they are of the same horrors visited on the party. The hallucinations or illusions are not always visual and often include vile smells that linger far longer than the visual effects. Witnessing this is disheartening and all Henchmen suffer a -1 to loyalty for the rest of the session.
4	Call to Arms – A random character will be subject to discrete and potent whisperings from the spirits of the place. These spirits will tell them of the disdain their companions hold them in and the betrayals that the victim will soon face by his former friends. They whisper that all work and no play is making the effected character a very dull boy or girl. The only solution is clearly murder. The effected character will gain Lvl x 500 XP for each companion killed during the session by their own hand or intentional inaction.
5	Dangerous Hallucinations – Something even worse the horrifying hallucinations above, the haunting begin to effect the characters themselves, suddenly making one or two appear undead, giving them the sense that they are rotting within, or infected by falling rot grubs or some similar effect that will compel any character who doesn’t save vs. spells to begin harming themselves (1D6 per round) until they are stopped by an unaffected person and calmed down.
6	Curse – A single party member has been stopped and pointed out by a spectral entity. This looming figure appears, points and intones one word (usually “Death”), cursing the random target with a doom. For the rest of the session all attacks that hit the cursed character will do maximum damage.
7	Slam! – All doors within 200’ of the party slam and lock if open or lock if at all possible. This will be accompanied by maniacal laughter or a similar eerie effect (flashing lights or shadowy figures running towards each door).
8	As I am So You Will Be – Either upon opening a door or after investigating bobbing light sources behind them the party will face spectral reflections of themselves. Each of these phantasms appears as if they had been dead for some time, the result of gruesome injuries. Touching one’s own phantasm brings a doom, and for the rest of the session any blow against the doomed character will do maximum damage. The phantasms will follow the party slowly, and fade after 1D6/2 turns.
9	Skeletal Resistance – Within their own bodies the party feels as if their skeletons and souls are trying to escape. Bones grind against each other painfully, and the very walls seem to call out promising the peaceful slumber of death. Any corpses currently in the party’s possession will animate as aggressive 2HD zombies or skeletons.
10	Foretelling – A sonorous voice intones the party’s doom. This is a true prediction, not of the adventurer’s actual fate but of a potential danger. The nearest trap or set encounter is revealed, with the voice describing some landmark and then the worst fate possible for the adventurers if they encounter the trap or monsters.

Haunts - The most dangerous manifestation of a haunting are the individual haunts and apparitions that represent the curdled coalescence of powerful psychic energies. These entities are not actually the spirits of the individual departed, but amalgamations or wells of necromantic wrath. They will often appear as an exemplary spirit of the area, and in the unlikely occurrence they are brought to combat should be considered a wraith, specter or ghost unless otherwise indicated. The notable difference between haunts and apparitions is that apparitions are linked to a specific room while haunts will follow the party throughout the haunted area (but will disappear beyond its borders).

D10	Haunts and Apparitions
1	Poltergiest Apparition – When encountered all the detritus in the room, from dust to heavy furniture will begin to quiver and shake, and after a single round will attack the party within, propelled by the psychic force of the hateful haunting. Dust and small objects have will blind (temporarily on a failed save v. wands), while small hard objects (office supplies, stones, coins or collections of porcelain knickknacks) will bombard the party doing 1-2 points of damage per round to each party member. Large objects such as notable pieces of furniture will rush forward, each making a single attack as a 4HD monster, and shattering against the wall on a miss. An apparition may appear during this attack but this isn’t always the case. The poltergeist will remain active for 2D6 rounds or until the party leaves the room.
2	Pleading Haunt – This haunt will follow the party pleading for rescue and succor. The only way to satisfy it is to allow it to possess one of the party members (and it may only possess an acquiescent character) and lead it outside the haunted area. If it’s requests are ignored the haunt will become aggressive and threatening, but it cannot cause real harm and after a turn of angry invective and demands it will dissipate.
3	Insistent Apparition - Within the room is a distrust phantasm, that will plead with the characters for some object (food, light, water) or company. If the party interacts with it will at first be cheerful and conciliatory, accepting food or whatever is offered (an offerings will lay on the floor untouched of course). However the apparition cannot be placated, and no amount of food, or friendly attention will ever satisfy it. As an unreasonable spectral entity the creature will never be satisfied, and will attack in a burst of power, doing 1D6 x area level in damage (save vs. spells for ½ damage) to any who are in the room when it is either denied (forcefully or with a firmly stated objection) its desire or as the last character leaves the area.
4	Grinning Haunt – Following silently after the party, this haunt will appear suddenly with a loud laugh. It finds everything the party says funny, it will laugh and laugh, in a very disturbing manner. Eventually, emboldened by their new found companionship the Haunt will itself attempt to tell a joke. This will be something horrible, macabre and unfunny like “How can you tell if your baby is done with the bath? It’s blue and cold!”. The party better laugh. If they don’t it will rush through them attacking 1D6/2 party members as an 8 HD creature and doing 1D6 plus level drain in damage to each character it strikes. If humored the haunt will dissipate in 1D6 turns.
5	Insane Apparition – A frenzied a violent apparition inhabits this room and with a nonsensical tirade it will assail the first party member to cross the threshold. The attacks of the Apparition are as an Area Lvl x2 creature and will age the victim 2D20 years as well as do Area Lvl X 1D6 damage. If the room is left undisturbed for 1D6 turns the apparition will vanish. If attacked it is immune to normal weapons and elemental magic and has an AC of 16, and Area Lvl x 2 HD.
6	Guardian Apparition – A sinister apparition will appear before one of the exits to the chamber. This spectral guardian will make threatening motions if approached, and will only parley to tell the party that they may not pass the exit it stands before (this may be the door they entered through). If defied the Apparition will attack as a specter.
7	Maelstrom of Spirits – A swirling maelstrom of unquiet spirits blocks entry into this room, passing through the chamber is draw 1D6 attacks by area level spirits per person, per round. The maelstrom may be quieted by the successful turning attempt (against an Area Lvl x 2 creature). Otherwise this whirlwind of screaming ghosts will remain in place for the rest of the session.
8	Affectionate Haunt – A fragment of the haunting has taken romantic interest in one of the characters, the phantasm itself is likely to be reasonably attractive (depending on the spirits that make up the haunting) and it will follow it’s chosen paramour offering to do favors (scouting and providing information). However the phantasm is jealous and will curse anyone else who speaks to its object of affection (generally the rest of the party) giving them a -1 to all rolls until the haunt is chased off or destroyed.
9	Baleful Apparition – A horrifying apparition, bloody and gruesome paces this room, shouting for violence and revenge. If ignored it will simply continue it’s activities. Any attempt to interact with the creature will be met with a violent possession attack, as it’s interlocutor must save vs. spells or be possessed by the violent apparition which will use the possessed body to attack its friends. If it fails to possess it’s target the apparition will dissipate and it will dissipate (including if it has possessed someone) in 1D6 turns regardless.
10	Corrupting Haunt – A physically inoffensive haunt that skulks and covers along with the party for 1D6/2 turns. During this time it will whimper and dart about, it’s spectral fingers rummaging through packs and amongst the possessions. Each turn it will focus on a specific character and all perishable objects in that characters possession will rot and curdle. Food, oil, potions, water or wine all will be destroyed as if left to rot for many years. The haunt is not aggressive, but if attacked it will defend itself as a specter and may be turned as such.

Alchemy

The practice of Alchemy is at once one of both the most practical and the most mystical of the schools of magic. A rigorous academic study Alchemy seeks to transform and modify the objects and elements of the everyday world (as opposed to controlling, binding and allying with their essences – the goal of elementalism) for the benefit of the Alchemist’s individual body and soul as well as the creation of the “Magnum Opus”, a great work, most often an artifact of great power: The philosopher’s stone, offering eternal life, the universal solvent, capable of dissolving the bonds of magic and reality or Azoth, a universal medicine capable of raising the dead and curing any ailment.

Beside their contributions to the great work, Alchemists practice a form of magic less dependent on syphoning power directly from ley-lines or their own will and capable of using less power to gain similar effects by magically altering everyday objects. Where an elementalist would bind a fragment of fire to an enemy causing him to burst into flame, and an thaumaturge lash out with a hard won tendril of pure unreality as a weapon, an alchemist will fling a specially enchanted dagger or sling bullet that seeks out and strikes the target (perhaps triggering some sort of chemical combustion reaction on impact). As a result of the importance of mundane items in their work, Alchemists have many useful skills related to machinery, poisons and technology. The Alchemist’s practicality is often lampooned by other magic PR actioners, and the caricature of an Alchemist, crushed under the burdens of his tinker’s tools, engineer’s kit, chemist’s glasses and disorganized research notes is a stock one amongst the schools of academic magic, mocking those with lesser talent for wielding raw power but perhaps greater adaptability and genius. It is a rare group of scavengers that doesn’t prize an Alchemist’s presence as his magic is no less effective for being tied to mundane objects and his broad knowledge of the sciences is often proves more helpful at avoiding danger then the puissance of a more focused sorcerer.

Again with far more legible PDF

Spells

An Alchemist’s first and most basic spell is ArcaneResearch, and in addition to this basic spell the Alchemist gains one of the following spells, determined randomly.

Arcane Research

Alchemists are researchers and scientists in addition to being mages, and the first spell that an Alchemist learns is to determine the properties and nature of magical objects and writings. Les of a spell and more a set of practices, and Alchemist use their time between game session to identify magical items previously recovered. This process costs 20 GP per item for research and materials, but will identify details regarding unknown magical artifacts. This spell may also allow an Alchemist to create magical items by infusing the power of spells they already have along with some of their own life energy (modeled with a varied amount of permanent HP and CON loss) into specially prepared objects crafted from expensive and magically charged materials.

Tin addition to Arcane Research a newly trained Alchemist will have one of the following spells scribed in his spellbook or research notes:

1D6	Introductory Alchemical Magics
1	Flaming Goblet– The alchemist may create a pot of vile smelling liquid from the chemicals in his kit. This magical substance combusts upon exposure to air, burning white and hot and sticking like glue. Kept in a sealed goblet, the traditional way to use this essence of combustion is to fling it quickly at nearby foes, as holding onto the container is a sure way for the alchemist to burn herself. An attack with the flaming goblet will harm all foes in melee with the alchemist and does 1D6 damage, with a save vs. spells for ½ damage. The essence of combustion is extremely volatile and while it can be used to set small fires, an alchemist (even in heavy gloves and a mask) will have little control over it once the essence has been exposed to air.
2	Secrets of Combustion – The alchemist has made an especial study of flame and immolation, and he cannot directly call to the element, the alchemist’s knowledge of fire allows him to sing to and cajole small natural flames in their own crackling language either encouraging it to flame up into a greater inferno or damp it down reducing its heat. With this spell an alchemist can cause a campfire to suddenly sink to mere embers or flare into a bonfire, twice its current size. After these magical changes a flame will grow, shrink or exhaust fuel normally, a bonfire rapidly burning the wood laid out for a small campfire, and the coals catching and reigniting available fuel. Damage producing uses of this spell will rarely do more then double the damage of the fire they are effecting (for example turning a torch into a 1D6 as opposed to 1D6/2 weapon).
3	Stupefying Dust – A sachet of magically charged dust that the alchemist may blow at opponents (usually with a small bellows or pump) while making the proper incantations to various spirits. The dust has a dulling and stupefying effect on 2D8 hit dice of opponents who will be caught in the cloud. Any creature that breaths the dust (and is effected by charms or other mind altering spells) will fall into a docile state of immobility, stupidity and placidity for two “spell exhaustion” results on the exploration die. The spell may be resisted with a successful Save vs. Spells, and life threatening physical pain (at least 1HP worth) will jar victims from their trance.
4	Regal Glue - With this spell the Alchemist temporarily enchants a vile smelling pot of glue that will bond any non-organic materials together so strongly that only magic can part them until the spell wears off after one “Spell Exhaustion result on the Exploration Die, after which a successful “Force” check will break the bond. Most commonly used to seal doors.
5	Purification– With the application of variously magically charged regents the Alchemist can purify water or food that has been contaminated or poisoned, making it harmless. This spell may also be used to inflict serious injury on elemental creatures of water and some forms of demonic corruption in melee.
6	Illumination– A strange paste that glows with terrible brightness when exposed to air. An application of this paste can brightly illuminate an 80’ circle. The glow will last for two “Spell Exhaustion” results on the Encounter Die. The paste is poisonous, causing blindness (with failed save) if ingested.

Class Abilities

Tier 1	Nigredo – The first stage of the great work, ‘blackness’ the process of decomposition and putrefaction and the corresponding spiritual self-examination of the Alchemist’s failings. In doing so the Alchemist also conducts numerous experiments on himself with poisons, drugs and other dangerous chemics. This experimentation grants a +2 to all saves vs. poison. Chemic -3, Tinker – 2, Engineering -1,
Tier 2	Albedo - The second and final physical stage of the Alchemical project, the “whiteness” a purification of the corruption and poisons introduced into the Alchemist and his works during the Nigredo. Through this process the Alchemist comes to some sort of spiritual awakening usually antithetical to any existing religion and cleanses both their body and soul of corruption. This process of purification grants a +2 to all saves against spells as well as a permanent +1 to Wisdom and +1 to Constitution. Alchemy– Alchemist gains the ability to make minor ingestible magic items, however these potions, drugs and tonics tend to be somewhat unstable and prolonged or excessive use is very dangerous. Chemic -4, Tinker – 3, Engineering -2, Piloting -1
Tier 3	Citrinitas– The abandonment of the “lunar soul” discovered during the Albedo, the “yellowness” is a stage of the great work where the alchemist becomes filled with unnatural vigor energy through the creation and consumption of various tonics, potions and elixirs including a great deal of molten gold. These noble elements are transformed by the alchemist’s spiritual furnace into bodily strength and beauty. The resilience and energy of an Alchemist who has passed through the Citrinitas grants a +2 to all saves vs. Petrification, and a permanent +1 to Strength and Charisma. Transmutation– With a successful Chemic’s check, a laboratory prior to each session the alchemist may convert small quantities of one base metal or element into another. Chemic -5, Tinker – 4, Engineering -3, Piloting -2
Tier 4	Rubedo– Sometimes called the reddening or purpling, symbolic both of the Alchemist’s mastery or ‘kingship’ over magical substance and herself. Upon reaching the Rubedo the Alchemist is ready to begin their Magnum Opus” and has purified their own being as well. As a result of this process the Alchemist will gain a permanent +4 Intelligence (Up to 18) and become highly resistant to all forms of elemental damage – normal flame, cold, electricity, poison and acid will not harm the Alchemist and the Alchemist receives a three point per die damage reduction from magical elemental attacks. Magnum Opus– The Alchemist may create a Magnum Opus, a process of great expense and magical resources. The Alechmist will be required to invest at least 100,000 GP in the creation of a powerful artifact Chemic-6, Tinker – 5, Engineering -4, Piloting -3

Transmutation - Lead can be transmuted to gold, or even rare magical metals such as ancient ‘tool steel’ or orichalcum. Normal ‘pure elements’ may even be converted into their magically infused ‘true elemental’ variety through this process. This process is very costly, involving both complex scientific apparatuses, regents and materials that will always cost 1D6 times the value of the metal or elements produced.

The Magnum Opus– At the highest level of their artistry the Alchemist has the knowledge and skills to craft a magical artificat. This Great work is the culmination of all that has come before. For Every 100,000 GP invested in the creation of the artificat there is a 1 in 6 chance of successful creation. Examples of such items include the Philosopher’s Stone that allows the alchemist to store and cast spells, regenerate damage and raise the dead, The Universal Solvent capable of dissolving even the bonds of reality and moving the Alchemist freely between planes and universes (and potentially escaping the Apollyon) or Azoth, a simple tincture of immortality that will transform the alchemist into a golden ageless being.

Alchemy– The process of turning regents and chemicals into magically potent elixirs, tonics and drugs is the pinnacle of the Alchemists art of chemistry, a far greater accomplishment then the mere brewing of poisons or other mundane items like explosives, oils and caustics. This process allows the Alchemist to create a batch of identical magical ingestible (usually potions, but not always) that will have minor beneficial magical effects when used moderately. The Alchemist must spend 100 GP per dose attempted on materials and equipment, decide on an effect and make a chemic skill check. On a successful skill check the Alchemist can creates 1+ their margin of success dose of whatever potion they sought up to the limit they bought materials for. For example: Boils Jeepson, the Alchemist seeks to make some healing tonics, light effervescent fizzes that will cure 1D6 HP upon ingestion. HE’s 4^thlevel, and hence has a Chemics skill of 4, and figures such a useful item will be in great demand, and spends 400GP knowing that he can’t succeed his D6 skill check by more than 3. With a roll of 2, the process goes well, but not perfectly, and Jeepson begins the next session with 3 (1+ the 2 pip margin of success) health tonics, for the cost of 400 GP.

Typical Alchemical potions/items include: Healing Tonics (1D6 HP recovery), Poison Antidotes (allows a reroll of a failed poison save if taken immediately), Vivification Dust (+1 to initiative and +1 attack for 1 combat), Heroism Potions (+2 attack bonus for 1 combat), Salves of Resistance to Fire, Cold, Lightning or Acid (-2 point per die from a specific kind of elemental damage). The use of these Alchemical agents is somewhat dangerous, and while the first dose per session is always side effect free subsequent doses will require a Con Check (at a cumulative -2 per additional dose taken) to avoid the one of the following deadly or deeply destructive, permanent side effects:

D20	Terrible Alchemical Overdoses
1	Brain boils and explodes – Instant Death.
2	Blood turns to liquid fire, igniting the body from within – Instant Death.
3	Endless severe convulsions that rapidly break every bone and rupture organs, ceasing only when the victim’s muscles have torn themselves apart – Death in D4 rounds.
4	Hideous homunculi, antithetical to terrestrial life (1HD Outsider) burrows its way free of victim’s chest before fleeing – Instant Death.
5	Body desiccates and shrivels into a dusty husk – Instant Death.
6	Body is covered with hideous boils that reappear frequently. Carrying capacity reduced by ½, CHR reduced by ½ (death by infection if below 3) and preventing the use of armor due to pain from chaffing.
7	Flesh and muscle liquefy and dribble from every orifice as a pus like slurry. The long-term withering effect results in the loss of ½ STR and ½ CON. If this drops either below ‘3’ the result is death.
8	Character becomes a compulsive and excessive eater of just about anything. This is necessary for their radically altered biology and results in hideous, stinking obesity. -2 to CHR, loss of ½ DEX (if under 3, death by cardiac arrest results) and -2 to initiative.
9	The nervous system of the imbiber becomes supercharged and highly sensitive. While the ability to feel slight drafts as if they were strong gusts and hear the rivets creeking a mile away in the hull grants a 5 in 6 search skill, it also makes the character almost incapable of suffering injury. Any blow will cause excruciating pain, and even with a strong will and training the character must save vs. wands whenever struck or collapse defenseless in excruciating pain for a full turn.
10	Body shrivels and atrophies over the next few rounds while emitting a fierce light. After the light fades the victim is hunched and weakened having lost ½ their STR.
11	Eyes begin to glow and heat like coals. When the searing pain is over the victim’s eye sockets are carbonized hollows and they are blind.
12	Over the course of the next few turns the imbiber’s skin becomes grey and translucent and they develop an allergy to magic. All saves vs. dangerous magic are at -6, and beneficial magic cast on the character does 1D6/2 points of damage per application.
13	Victim begins to glow, creating a 5’ circle of sickly yellow light and result in a -2 to AC vs. missile weapons.
14	Violent Insanity has wormed its way into the potion abuser’s diseased mind. In battle they no longer have full control over their actions randomly striking any target in range, including their friends (GM rolls target randomly each round). Additionally, unless restrained or sedated (with lotus or mad kelp perhaps) the character will now charge into combat with any creature or person that seems remotely threatening (including Steward guards and Vory thugs back in Sterntown).
15	Nothing happens, at least not right away, but when the party returns to safety the overindulgent PC will bud a sinister and evil clone in their sleep. This creature will have the character’s abilities and class levels and steal out into Sterntown (likely taking the character’s equipment) to commit acts of bloody mayhem which will quickly lead back to the character and result in bloody revenge from the aggrieved and outraged factions.
16	One of the imbiber’s arms turns to brittle stone. Besides being wary of shattering, this reduces DEX by 4, STR by 2 and prevents the use of shields and two handed weapons.
17	Victim falls into a coma or magical slumber for the rest of the session and the next 1D4-1 sessions.
18	The victim’s voice turns into the pop of molten metal, the clack of crab claws or the grinding of gears, they may still speak to friends and companions, but cannot cast spells or communicate with strangers.
19	Drinker falls into severe convulsions for 1D6 turns and save vs. wands or do 1D6 points of damage in strains and snapped bones.
20	Skin turns an unnatural color (purple, blue, red or green).

WONDER & WICKEDNESS?

The Cover Includes this Cut Beastie

So Brendan of Necropraxishas released a product into the OSR o’verese, and this makes me very happy. I can’t say this is a completely non-biased review, as I have great fondness for Brendan as a creator of game content, have played in many of his games and plunder his ideas with Mongol like ferocity and persistence. All that said I am not always a fan of every rule change Brendan proposes and his relentless drive to pare everything down to its minimal mechanical elements (I suspect the man may dream in game mechanics) doesn’t always gladden my drunken baroque heart, so I feel I can pass judgment on Wonder & Wickedness as it is deserved in this review. I paid full price for the product (as I tend to do), so it’s not as if my ethics have been suborned by the offer of free game product (could they be? I really doubt it).

WHAT IS IT?

Wonder & Wickedness is effectively a modular "bolt on" spell system for your older style fantasy roleplaying game, composed of unleveled spell lists and an efficient minimalist approach to gaming magic that emphasizes the fictional idea of magic as inherent creepiness, chaos and corruption while trying to use the most elegant and simple rules possible. It’s some spell lists, a magic system, magic items and an ethos. Wonder & Wickedness would likely work best for a game based around OD&D power levels and mechanics, but is not exclusive to any system. The book is also worth reading for other fantasy games, because mechanically it’s simple and evocative, meaning those who prefer more mechanically complex systems may have to adapt it, but they won’t find anything that is tied to another system and will find plenty of good ideas about running magic as a scary, powerful art with a distinct undertone of mystical foulness.

THE PRODUCT

I downloaded the PDF of Wonder & Wickedness through the webstore set up by Lost Pages - also home to the OSR gamebook artifact (hand bound with love) the Chthonic Codex, and the books for Into the Odd – making Lost Pages the new publisher for your intellectual, mechanically minimal OSR products.

As a PDF, Wonder & Wickedness is of good quality, with high production values, and I suspect from what I’ve heard of the publisher's hardcopy products, that the book will be nicely done as well. I understand there are some sort of EU taxing and internet commerce suppression hijinx going on right now, so these link may not work that long, but while they do grab up Lost Pages stuff, and most likely it will reappear soon at one of the larger web retailers. The PDF was $10.00 US, which seems to be the new standard for high quality game PDFs from independent publishers. At 87 pages and with Russ Nicholson art throughout, and a generally polished look this feels fair and reasonable. The (wonderful) black and white line art looks good at 300% (larger then Nicholson undoubtedly drew it) and the writing is crisp with very few typographical errors. A functional table of contents allows easy access to the needed tables or appropriate spells, and while there is nothing revolutionary or profound about the layout and table design it is functional and inoffensive.

THE CONTENT

Russ Nicholson Art Throughout

Wonder & Wickedness contains a couple pages of rules for playing sorcerers and covering spell acquisition, casting and such. It’s a magnificent distillation of simple and effective game rules, disposing of spell levels, and offering modular simple rules for both magic specialization and counter spells. One element I especially like is the sorcerer’s ability to cast a “maleficence” in exchange for another spell – this is one of very few direct damage spells within Wonder & Wickedness, but available to all and suitably potent as either a magic missile style direct attack or an area effect attack. A couple pages might not seem like enough to rewrite the classic Vancian spell system, but Wonder & Wickedness manages to do it with a few interesting rule shifts.

After the basics the book is set up with spell descriptions for the eight spells in each of seven magical specialties, and the descriptions are just full of evocative detail and strange game changing minutiae. As someone who has read a lot of AD&D and other spell descriptions these have a nice amount of flavor and limitations – something like "Spell of Subterranean Gullets” which is either passwall, dimension door or stoneshape and oozes flavor – “All tunnels, pits, and lacunae are the mouths, throats, and visceral spaces of the greater earth god Maxilor.” The spell effect itself is pretty standard fantasy fare, but the implementation demands and makes easy extra description and that provides an uncanny, rare and magical seeming spell effect. Many of the spells in Wonder & Wickedness are like this, classics (pulled from OD&D Brown “Booklet Number 1 – Men and Magic” according to the author), but dressed up in strange trappings that are a call and opportunity for even the most jaded fantasy game grognard to reexamine them as fantastical and strange. The way Wonder & Wickedness breaks out its spell schools while remaining true to the classic spell selection leads to some thoughtful and unexpected spells, such as its contextualization of healing as a necromancy spell. Indeed, all the schools presented in Wonder & Wickedness contain surprises that with no level limits, and an emphasis on non-combat spells, offer some interesting opportunities for exploration focused gameplay and in-game character development.

Beyond the spells there are some amazing lists of “magic catastrophe” (12 for each magical school) and while the mechanics for using these tables are sparse – more of a nod to using them when they seem right for your campaign, these catastrophes, often far more powerful then the spells themselves, suggest a magic system offering players and GM a game world of constant awe and terror.

Wonder & Wickedness also includes fifty magic items. All are interesting and most are excellent, with a different and unique feel. Magic items were always one of the more interesting game elements of Brendan's Pahvelorn campaign, and these items fall into the same sort of sometimes weird, sometimes whimsical, and often only situationally useful items used in that game. Generally Wonder & Wickedness' magic items have enough flavor and strangeness to at least imply a story and should spark players’ imaginations both as to their use and into keeping them for sentimental reasons. Most of the items are unexpected, and often things that aren’t found enchanted in most fantasy games (I count eight hats, hoods, caps and crowns) and many more have great effects that are counter intuitive (A magical mace that is useless as a weapon unless it’s in the hand of a corpse, which it will resurrect as a powerful warrior).

THE GOOD

The creation of a workable “level free” spell system. While magic-users applying the Wonder & Wickedness system will still constantly quest for and horde spells, the spell tables are remarkably well curated to allow spells that make a low level caster powerful, but still limited and yet grow in power over time. Certainly this might not work as well with a system where combat is the primary game focus, but in any system with a fairly flat power curve and the classic emphasis on exploration, the Wonder & Wickedness spell system should add to play and provide a flavorful alternative to the classic leveled spell approach.

More importantly the magic items, spell descriptions and the catastrophes do an excellent job of indicating the sorts of risks and dangers that one can expect magic to overcome, and the sorts of perils it’s casters can create for themselves and others. Many of the magical catastrophes are potentially game changing, and more are adventure hooks in themselves. My personal favorite is an elemental spell failure that drags a small moon/asteroid to float 100 feet above area where the spell was cast. This would be enough, but Wonder & Wickedness decides to provide a small table of space rock descriptions, all of which have the potential for an adventure hook. The other catastrophe that was most evocative for me is one where an overflow of necromantic magic raises the angry bones of a“great, forgotten creature, deep beneath the earth” which will go on a rampage, and then just might start raising more vengeful antediluvian skeletons.

The magic items are likewise evocative and well designed, with tiny histories and fairly unique effects that largely avoid the standard fantasy game magic. It is also nice to see that most of the items have creative drawbacks, curses or limitations on their use that again paint a world where magic is powerful, unpredictable and a bit frightening.

That’s really the gist of Wonder & Wickedness, it’s a spell system with an ethos, largely successful at giving a strange and dangerous feeling to magic that vanilla fantasy games tend to drain away with familiarity and an overly mechanical approach to the stuff. The best part of this is that the sense of magic created by Wonder & Wickedness is nuanced, it’s not the entirely evil sort of sorcery one finds in Carcosa, where the only not completely anti-social way to play a Sorcerer is to specialize in the wards that prevent the use of magic. Wonder & Wickedness, through its spells and more the catastrophes associated with them provides a moral sense of sorts for each school of wizardry.

Necromancy is powerful, and seems like it could be quite beneficial (having healing spells and such) but tends to have destructive longer term consequences as it leads to its practitioners becoming more and more unintentionally dangerous to the living. Elementalism is very staid and rule based, but ultimately rather neutral in its outlook with some dangerously arbitrary and cruel side effects. These outlooks for the various schools are entirely implied by the content, but add to the distinctions between the schools of magic and give more depth and fictional coherence to Wonder & Wickedness' magic system.

THE BAD

There isn’t really anything bad in Wonder & Wickedness, though I feel like it could have a few more interesting spell mechanics included with the flavor, and while this would make the book less compatible with a wide variety of systems it would be interesting to see some new mechanics (why must the shocking grasp/lightning bolt analogue simply do the same HP damage as maleficence – have it attack Dexterity directly or something else that might kill a huge beast through convulsions), especially if they had the same elegance of the mechanics that are included. Still, this isn’t much of a complaint, and overall the spells and calamities described are interesting enough to get any good GM thinking about how to spice some of them up mechanically. What mechanics do exist in Wonder & Wickedness are also perhaps presented too subtly. It is clear that the system changes the book proposes are big, but the rules understated elegance might lead an unwary game master to introduce them without thinking out the consequences. I wish Brendan (who I know has thought out and tested these consequences) gave a bit more insight in how they are intended to effect a game.

My only honest complaint is Wonder & Wickedness’ use of “silly fantasy names." The previously

mentioned “Maxilor”, and others such as “Mergolder”, who gives his name to a suit of armor that can (sometimes permanently) turn its wearer into a wyvern are examples of this. I like the items and concepts involved (earth spirit with far too many mouths and ancient wizard king with an army of men transformed into dragons), but something just annoys me about these sorts of fantasy names. The silly names are easy enough to change to fit a given campaign and there is plenty of game history to justify them (First Edition D&D is full of this kind of thing), but I am irked by them, perhaps because they seem a waste of chance of more descriptive names likes like “The 10,000 Dragon Emperor” or “The Gorger Beneath” that provide a description and a sense of what’s behind the name instead of an easily forgotten and hard to keep track of mouthful of gibberish. Again this is a minor complaint largely based on my on stylistic tendencies, and has no negative effect on the content within Wonder & Wickedness.

RESKINNED WICKEDNESS

You can’t really reskin this product, it’s pure evocative fantasy content, that isn’t hard to place in any context where there’s arcane magic. I contemplate replacing my own magic system in the Steam/Diabolistpunk setting of the HMS Apollyon with the Wonder & Wickedness system. Even if one doesn't completely replace a current magic system, Wonder & Wickedness' spell descriptions will slip easily into any fantasy roleplaying game like a monster sliding into a deep black lake with only the tiniest ripples (where the spell system will then lurk to snap up the unwary). Still, Wonder & Wickedness could be added to. New specialties for wizards are certainly possible, perhaps encouraged, and I don’t think the schools presented in Wonder & Wickedness are a remotely exhaustive list of magic for a fantasy roleplaying, but that’s not reskinng exactly, that’s adding one’s own content. The one thing that seems to be really missing from Wonder & Wickedness is a spell research system, though this could be intentional, and suggests a world where there really are on forty two magical incantations of power.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Wonder & Wickedness is a fun product, it’s interesting to read and gives a GM who is interested in a fantasy exploration style role playing game a lot of content to mull, while making a strong argument for a certain kind of ethos and game world where magic is not a mundane part of the fantasy, but has the classic Sword’s & Sorcery position of a rare and dangerous source of unpredictable power. Wonder & Wickedness is also supplementary in nature, it doesn't set its goal at entirely changing others' play-styles and gameworlds but offers as much high quality content as a GM feels comfortable using at a given time from an odd magic item or adventure hook to an entirely new way of playing the magic-user class. Even if one doesn’t really use the spells or spell system in Wonder & Wickedness, there’s enough thought here to provide a Game Master with ideas that can help fill out a campaign or two. While I might have implied that Wonder & Wickedness is somehow limited, this is largely the result of how good the content it contains is, and that it leaves the reader wanting more spells, more rule tweaks, more items and more gameworld. A entire old-school fantasy game with equally elegant mechanics to go with Wonder & Wickedness perhaps, or just a few wizard NPC and encounters to drop directly into a game? Wonder & Wickedness leaves me looking forward to more of these things from Lost Pages, Brendan and Necropraxis.

I started up a new project the other day, a regional series of small adventures set on the Northern Border of my Fallen Empire setting. House Talpidy is one of the few clans of Imperial nobility with drive and ambition, or at least some sense of stewardship for the residents of their land, which sits on the border with what were once the Northern Provinces, but are now known as the Pine Hells or the Ice Kingdoms. Under an ambitious and active heir the Talpidys are hiring an army of mercenaries and fortune hunters from both sides of the border to deal with threats in their lands and reclaim their patrimony, potnetially including:

1) The Sword Barrow (See Below)
2) White Catherdral (A monumental series of salt mines infested with feral arcane machines)
3) Tilpady Husk (A near collapsed Imperial factory hive, still haunted by its degenerate workforce
4) The City of Alpanie (Ruined mountaintop city, long ago sacked by Northerners)

Below is the teaser and intro for the Sword Barrow with a map and some art.

SWORD BARROW

The Sword Barrow

North up the Great Pass, a week from Talpidy town, looms a pillar of rock, icy gray, standing sentinel over the high point of the pass. The jagged stone and livid lichens of the pillar are a contrast to the trade road's tumbled stones, split by harlequin green moss, and the rolling alpine meadows of most of the pass. In the lee of this uncompromising fragment of the high shears hulks a barrow, mounded up, the blankets covering a slumbering god. Above a huge stone sword, chipped and weathered, driven deep into the barrow.

Imperial Legionary with Culverin

All the peoples of the Pine Hells know the story of the Sword Barrow, built on the site where Kullevro the Implacable and a united army of Pine Hellsman ambushed and massacred the Empire’s XXI Legion. The battle of the pass was expensive and long, pitting war colossus, force lance and bound celestial beings against waves of tribal warriors, ancestral spirits to reanimate the dead, and the shadow sendings of circles of shaman. Kullevro died in the battle along with a great number of the Northern warriors, but it also marked the final fall of the Northern Provinces, and allowed the much depleted Hellsman force to sack the mountain top city of Alpanie. Power struggles over who would lead the united force delayed the Northern advance from Alpanie, and the invaders the levies of the local nobility turned them back in the end. His retreating nation erected Kullevro’s barrow at the site of the battle, and forced captive Imperial magisters to create many of its features, such as sword marking it.

The great battle occurred eons ago and few debris (beyond the pillar itself, pulled up from the earth’s bones to act as the Imperial headquarters) remain from the conflict. Still, the mound is a holy place to the peoples of the North, and in the lax manner of their worship, most Pine Hellsman will raise a hand, or worry a strand of prayer beads in respect as they pass. It is customary to leave the swords of dead comrades thrust into Kullevro's barrow, and its sides bristle with rusted weapons. In the past year, the barrow has attracted the attention of Northern chauvinists, a cult calling itself the “Seventh Egg” has coalesced around the barrow with the goal of raising Kullevro to conquer the Talpidy lands to invade the Empire.

The holiness of the site, its location beyond the official border, and existing treaties with their Northern neighbors make it difficult for the Talpidy to use direct force against the cult and barrow without sparking a larger war. Instead the Talpidy are in hiring disreputable treasure hunters to loot the barrow, massacre or drive off the cult and desecrate the grave of Kullevro. The noble house will pay 1,000 GP per tomb robber, up to 10,000 GP total, for a proper desecration of the tomb.

MAGIC ITEMS OF THE NORTHLANDS

Alpine Unicorn

Here’s a list of 40 magical items for my Fallen Empire Setting, specifically the Talpidy Lands along its Northern Border with the Pine Hells. The first 20 items are from the North and use the shadow or more natural magic of the Pine Hellsman while the last twenty are from the Empire and its fading, rotten tradition of high magic and marvelous arcane manufacture.

I've also included a picture of an Alpine Unicorn, a horrible ghost eating predator of the Pine Shears that enjoys venting its considerable malice on human travelers.

XD20	ARTIFACTS OF THE Blue Meadows	Weight	Fragile
1	Antler Standard – Worn on the back, this insignia of crow feathers and antlers marks the wearer as a Hellsman champion. The wearer of this item may ‘cleave’ (gaining another attack after killing any opponent) enemies.	Backpack 1 Item	No
2	Black Bones – A bundle of charred bones covered in crude runes. The spirit of the murdered warrior (3HD immaterial undead) will hunt one target for assassination if submerged in mead with a possession of the target.	Backpack 1 Item	No
3	Mountain Horn – The great translucent blue horn of a peak ape, ornamented with ancient beaten copper bands. Blowing the horn in snow bound mountainous areas will cause and direct avalanches. Once per session it can create an avalanche that will strike in 1D6-1 turns doing 2 – 10 D6 damage depending on the surroundings.	1 Handed 1 Item	Yes
4	Shaman’s Furs – Heavy seal, musk-ox and mountain goat fur, saturated with the black tarry essence of shadow. These furs both grant a +2 to all stealth checks is worn and give a -2 per die to damage from cold.	Backpack 1 Item	No
5	Pyre Bead – A string of 1D6/2 thick wax beads, painted with lacquer. Within is the concentrated heat and flame of a ritual bonfire. If exposed to flame the beads will burst creating a 10’ x 10’ fireball that ignites all flammable material (even frozen wood) and does 4D6 damage.	Trinket Insignificant	Flammable
6	Mastodon Bone Armor – A suit of banded armor carved from the bones and spirit of a great ice elephant from the far north. The medium armor and grants the wearer some of the mastodon’s strength and ferocity (+1 to melee damage).	Armor 1 Item	No
7	Beast Mark – The tanned skin of a corpse tattooed with cruel runes. Stitched into the skin of the living it will permanently transform them into a were-creature, most likely a wolf or bear, but may be removed at death.	Trinket Insignificant	No
8	Seeds of Endurance – A finely carved bone box containing 2D6 bright green seeds from an ancient pine. Each seed is marked with a silver rune and when eaten will grant immunity to cold for 1 turn.	Potion 1 Item	Yes
9	Crow’s Teeth – Tied in a bundle of bark cloth with pine needles, these 1D6 small black teeth are made of slippery black shadowstuff. When swallowed the eater will transform into a crow for 1D6 turns, though there clothing and equipment will not.	Trinket Insignificant	No
10	Bone Broth – 1D6/2 Cubes of unicorn bone bullion, wrapped in woven pine needles. When added to boiling water the cubes make a healing broth that will return one individual to full HP after a turn.	Potion 1 Item	No
11	Pine Ring – Made of thick pine needles woven into an intricate and complex pattern of magical significance. While wearing the ring a wizard or priest may speak to pine trees. Pine trees are neither especially observant or intelligent but will generally be well disposed towards the ring’s wearer	Jewelry Insignificant	Flammable
12	Berserk’s Girdle – Cracked and bloodstained, this thick belt is worked with teeth and tiny bones. When wearing it a fighter will heal 1 HP for every foe slain and develop a tendency toward foaming at the mouth.	Jewelry 1 Item	No
13	Heart of Winter – A shriveled human heart encased in gleaming blue ice. At first it feels painfully cold to the touch, but if kept near the body it soon (1 turn) feels natural. The owner will become immune to cold, magical or otherwise, but develop a stiffness of manner and body that reduce Charisma and Dexterity to 9 (unless already below 9).	Jewelry 1 Item	Yes
14	Throwing Iron – A blackened iron weapon, weighted for throwing and shaped a bit like a spiked spider (range and damage as thrown hand axe). Upon striking a target the axe will animate and twist, doing 1 point of damage per round until removed with a successful STR check (each attempt takes a round).	1 Handed 1 Item	No
15	Spirit Drum – Covered in the tanned skin of tribal enemies, this small drum has the power to raise the dead while it is in use. On a successful save vs. spells one corpse can be animated while the drum is played (as a 2HD revenant). On a failed save the drummer is energy drained for 1 point of Strength (remove curse will cure).	2 Handed 1 Item	Yes
16	Unicorn Token –A carved and enchanted disk of unicorn horn that when burnt will summon the nearest Alpine Unicorn. The malicious and fearsome creature will appear in 1D6-1 turns and be in the typical foul mood of its kind.	Trinket Insignificant	No
17	Spirit Rattle – The skull of a child, lost to the pines, atop a black horn rod, this object can summon the mocking ghostlights common in the most cursed copses of the Pine Hells. On a successful Wisdom check the bearer can call forth a set of bobbing, darting wisps (as the dancing lights spell) to confound and misdirect.	1 Handed 1 Item	No
18	Hunter’s Respite – a bundled wool rug, pattern to depict a small sound cabin, stocked for a week’s stay. If blood from a freshly slain animal is dripped on the rug, the cabin depicted will appear, providing shelter and sustenance for up to five people for a week, before fading back into a rug. The cabin restocks itself slowly, filling with a day of firewood, food and beer per session it is dormant up to the week maximum.	Backpack 2 Items	Flammable
19	Tincture of Night – A cracked yellow gourd filled with black oily shadow. If oil is ingested it is a dangerous and deadly poison. However, whatever it is poured over (including up to one normal sized person) will become invisible as long as it is night.	Potion 1 Item	Yes
20	Alchemical Bandage – Laced with healing agents and powders this bandage, still sealed in a tin marked with an Imperial military crest used to be standard issue for Imperial troops. If applied to a wound (a 1 round action) it will begin immediately to heal any injury at a rate of 1 point per round until it has healed up to 2D6 hit points. The bandage may not be reused.	Potion 1 Item	Flammable
21/1	Essence of Blue Flower – Distilled, dried and stabilized through a lost alchemical process these blue crystals can be mixed with water or insufflated to cure poison or disease.	Potion 1 Item	No
22/2	Marble Limb – Most likely a leg or arm when discovered, probably still attached to a withered corpse. These sorcerous prosthesis were popular in the first years of the Successor empire as a means of displaying one’s loyalty to the polity. If placed on a stump it will create a poison, acid and heat immune limb of animate white marble.	Backpack 1 Item	No
23/3	Recall Badge – A gilt covered clay badge, emblazoned with the ram’s head seal of the XVII legion, when clutched with a sincere wish for safety or flight will magically whisk the owner back to the central courtyard of Talpidy town before crumbling to dust	Trinket Insignificant	No
24/4	Icon of the Golden Emperor – A corpulent iron idol covered in flaking gold leaf. The holy spirit of the 83^rd“Golden” Emperor, watches the idol and will grant health and vigor to those that sacrifice it gold, by feeding the idol coins or gold dust. For every 100 GP sacrificed the idol will heal 1D6 HP, however the idol, and its spirit are greedy and there is a 1 in 6 chance (cumulative in the same session) that the gold will simply be taken by the idol (on the first use a 6 means the gold has been stolen, on the next use a 5 or 6.	Backpack 1 Item	No
25/5	Lock Swarm – A tiny swarm of insectile automatons, the lock bees will attack and unlock (5 in 6 chance) any mechanical lock in one turn. If they fail however it indicates that the swarm is exhausted and its various tiny limbs and stingers are bent and broken to uselessness.	Potion 1 Item	Yes
26/6	Jaeger’s Bullroarer – A musical instrument and signaling device made from a twisted sheep gut cord and a heavy lozenge of blued wood covered in guild markings. When swung above the head the device makes a cacophonous sound that will repel owlbears and other beasts. Such creatures must save vs. Spells to avoid fleeing the horrible sound. Unfortunately the noise of the bullroarer carries and is very distinctive – immediately roll on the local random encounter table to see what or who it has attracted noting that animals will not approach the sound.	1 Handed 1 Item	No
27/7	Mask of the First Emperor – Finely crafted from gold and ivory, meant to be tied on with string. The mask depicts the shockingly beautiful 1^st Emperor and while worn the wearer is under his divine protection (as Protection From Evil). The mask has no eye holes, and while wearing it the wearing is blind and at -4 to all rolls.	1 Handed 1 Item	No
28/8	Cunning Lamp – Elegant twists of brass wire surround a thin crystal orb trapping a small fragment of some celestial consciousness within. If the proper name (engraved on the base is spoken) the lamp will produce a steady white light as a lantern, without the need for fuel or oxygen and can even dispel magical darkness.	1 Handed 1 Item	Yes
29/9	Hussar’s Panoply – The armor of an Imperial Hussar, AC 18, -1 per die to all damage received and -1 to Initiative. The circumstances of discovering this suit of smooth bonewhite plate vary – scoured clean by snow and ice, with a withered mummy inside or stuffed with straw and painted bright colors as a god to primitive mountain folk, however discovered the armor is like nothing made in the Empire today.	Armor 1 Item	No
30/10	Summer’s Flower – Encased in a glass tube this bright red bloom radiates the warmth of a lowland summer. When the flower is planted, it creates a 10’ diameter sphere of summer and the flower freezes and blackens. All ice, including permafrost melts. Magical ice and ice creatures are destroyed if they fail a save vs. spells.	Potion 1 Item	Yes
31/11	Ring of Songs – This golden ring stores songs. It is likely filled with an ancient marching song, but the song can be easily replaced. The ring is easily triggered to store and replay any speech.	Jewelry Insignificant	No
32/12	Wicker Soldier – Wrapped in a waxed sack, the wicker soldier is a crude bundle of tied lowland grasses that will unroll into a man-sized manikin with 1 HD. If armed and armored it will fight as a 0-level man at arms or otherwise aid its owner for 1 day. The manikin is considered to have physical stats of 9.	Backpack 2 Item	Flammable
33/13	Possible Arrow – A single bonewhite arrow inscribed with silver sigil work. When fired at a target the arrow will multiply along all possibilities of the shot. Roll one attack and then treat the arrow as five attacks, at -2, -1, 0 +1 and +2 to hit from the attack roll. Each hit will do 1D6, and fumbles are possible.	Backpack 1 Item	No
34/14	Prayer Script – A bundle of brittle parchment, engraved and illuminated to resemble various Imperial script, patents and licenses. Burning the entire pile of these enchanted papers will charm the spirits of the Emperors and create a 10’ Diameter circle of protection, immune to missiles from without, and ables to prevent any creature with violent intent from crossing into its smoky confines. The fire will last 1D6/3 turns before the script is consumed and the divine will departs.	Potion 1 Item	Flammable
35/15	Insignia of the XXI Legion – Worn and cracked by time, this bonewhite standard topper is chased in platinum and molded into the shape of a ram’s horn. When displayed prominently atop a pole, the bearer may not act, but all allies within 50’ gain +1 Initiative.	2 Handed 1 Item	No
36/16	Fop’s Panoply -A violently bright suit of lace and frills, 2D10x10 years out of style. The suit will remain forever neat and devoid of stains, which has the advantage of granting the wearer (it will not fit under armor) a +2 to all saves.	Armor 1 Item	No
37/17	Divine Fire – A Heavy glass orb, sometimes still wrapped in layers of black felt. Looking through the thick ensigiled crystal reveals a microcosm of flame and destruction. If the flask is shattered it will create a 80’ diameter apocalypse of otherworldly flame (throwing distance of the orb is a maximum of 60’ without siege engines) that will destroy all creatures within (Save vs. spells or die, on a successful save take 10D6 flame damage).	Potion 1 Item	Yes
38/18	Sweetheart’s Promise – A fine cameo inside a bonewhite and platinum locket. If the image of a willing loved one is placed within the locket (the man or woman currently depicted is long dead) a single killing blow will be diverted by the jewelry’s magic, instead injuring the person who’s image is in the locket (doing 1D6/2 damage) but sparing the wearer.	Jewelry Insignificant	No
39/19	Merchant’s Lens – A crystal reticule that allows its wearer to recognize fakes and value. While wearing the lens the character has the equivalent of a 4 in 6 Acumen skill as it relates to the appraisal of valuables.	Jewelry Insignificant	Yes
40/20	Force Lance – Ancient and powerful, a rod of crystal about 6’ long, this artifact is a fabled force lance. If the proper words are spoken (the name of an Emperor usually) the lance will project a beam of cosmic force at a target. The target may save vs. spells, to resist the power of the lance. Failure results in instant, explosive death. On a successful save the target takes 3D6 damage. The lance has 2D6 more charges before it shatters.	2 Handed 1 Item	No

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