Now, I’m happy to see the new and improved “barebones” edition of MiniSix. Go download it, it is 32 pages of goodness. In 32 pages, it fits in two combat options, four mini-settings, a bunch of spells, weapons, vehicles, and NPCs. This book oozes with cool.

Please check it out. Best of all, it’s free.

Errata

Important errata from the advancement rules:

Whenever the GM allows the players to advance they may do any one of the following:

• Raise one attribute by one.
• Add 1d6 to either HP or Mana
• Gain an additional skill
• Gain a talent

New Spells

1st Circle

Speak with Animals

With this spell, the mage can speak to any *one* type of animal for five minutes. The type of animal must be chosen before the spell is cast.

2nd Circle

Open Normal Lock

Opens one non-magical lock. The lock can be of any normal type including, but not limited to; door locks, chest locks, and handcuffs.

3rd Circle

Tremble with Fear

Causes one target create to be in total fear for five minutes. At GM’s discretion, the affected creature may either be paralyzed or run at top speed away for the caster. To succesfully use this power, the caster must make an opposed roll against the taget’s Mage Attribute, Awareness Skill +1d6 to imbue fear.

4th Circle

Mystic Prison

This spell places a target creature(s) into a ten foot by ten foot by ten foot cage. The walls of the of the cage each 8 hit points and each level of enhancement adds 8 more.

NPC

Peregrine

A gun-toting mage from Warrior, Rogue & Mage.

Full Name: Gnaeus Ovidius Tractus Peregrinus

W: 2 R: 4 M: 5

Skills: Awareness, Daggers, Firearms, Thaumaturgy

Talents: Dual Wielding, Familiar (Cat) -named Plato

HP: 13, FATE: 3, MANA: 10

Defense: 7 + 2 (Leather)

Spells: Healing Hand, Telekinesis

Trappings: Leather Armor, 2 daggers, 2 dragon pistols, 20 rounds, Ring, pouch with 34 silver pieces

History

Leaving his mage training behind, he has learned to use dragon pistols. He originally began training as a Mage in Cemimus. Disillusioned by the brutual rule of the emperor and the corruption of the Senate, he left Cemimus and to travel through Bekel. In Bekel, he briefly joined a group of former Cemimus citizens dedicated to the assassination of the Emporer. During his travels in Bekel, he encountered many mine owners. He was appalled that many of the mine owners treated their workers worse than the Emporer treated prisoners of war. Narrowly escaping, Bekel, he travels the fields of Chaetril searching for purpose. The church has taken some interest in him. The Paladins of the Cathedral believe that he may be “the Hidden Paladin” mentioned in one of their oldest prophecies…

I knew that 2e expanded the numbers of powers and introduced MAC and MTHAC0. The guys and I wondered why this was necessary. After all, there is no Magical Armor Class nor To Hit Magical Armor Class 0. Spells got a saving throw, why not psionics?

In thinking about psionics in the OSR Project, I happened upon a good nugget of information that can provide some much needed OGL material. It turns out that under the 3.0 version of the SRD, psionic attack and Defense Modes were still in use. Better yet, the matrix of attack vs. defense mode were converted to use with saving throws already. Sure they were Will saves, but after an hour with some ‘what if’ scenarios, I was satisfied with the results. This bit of good news means that I have a way to describe and roughly stat the attack/defense modes from the srd. (I get nervous about how much the serial numbers are really filed off when I describe things, sometimes.)

One thing I had to add, though. Seeing as 2e Psionics (I mean Skills and Powers option, not the Psionics Handbook) had each attack mode represent a dice, I felt the need to add one more. No, I didn’t add a d20 attack mode, I added a d2 attack mode. It’s called Socrum’s Needle. It is akin to the Slow Blade in the DUNE series. When a high level psionic scoffs at what he perceivesto be a small minded warrior with meager psionic talent, he had better hope that the warrior does not have the needle. It is available only to those with wild talents and it functions as a straight attack roll instead of a saving throw. It’s main purpose is to open the mind of high level psionicists.

In my universe, you got to give the underdog a way to fight without relying on a natural 20.

Hopefully, I’ll have a beta document up soon.

High Magick Zodiac

I’ve also corrected it in the original post.

First item is something I found off somewhere in the dawn of the internet. Folks will probablu recognize it when they see it, but I don’t remember when and how I got it. It is a “High Magic” system that relies on the zodiac to determine effects on spells. One day, I would love to turn this into a spell building system.

High Magick Zodiac

My favorite read of the day features some unusual weapons from spaghetti westerns, all real weapons. My favorite is the LeMat Revolver.

I could see this revolver as one of the rare Garuda Firearms in my Shayakand campaign.

Lastly, is a discussion of class. I mention it because my retroclone address this.

Out of time. More later!

We didn’t use any of the optional rules from 2e.

No skills, no endless kits, no player’s options, nada. We used the 1e PHB, 1e DMG, 1e MM, MM2, Fiend Folio, 1e Outer Planes, 1e Oriental Adventures and every Spelljammer Monster supplement we could find.

I’m joining a 2e group this month, and it didn’t take me long to realize that 2e was *not* what I ran. The only thing from 2e I used was thac0. The only reason I knew about Thac0 was that it appeared for all the Spelljammer monsters.

So, considering the fact that I didn’t really use as much of an amalgam as I thought I did, I considered just adding house rules to OSRIC or the AEC for Labryinth Lord. Yet, I redefine thac0, I add a system for creating classes and monsters, my Fighters are different, Thieves/Rogues have tremendous variety in what they can do. Psionics are not the same as 1e or 2e, but are two distinct classes. One is handled like another spellcaster, the other is more like d20 psions. There’s an alternate non-vacanian spell casting system. I incorporate some of the Oriental Adventures stuff, especially martial arts styles. Then there’s the whole issue of Manueverability Class and how we didn’t go from A to E…

There’s enough differences that it’s a bit more than an add-on to a 1e clone, but nothing like a 2e clone.

So, for now, I’m shooting for a project under the working title of The Odd Omnibus – an Extraordinary Companion for Early Editions. I’m going to write it in a similar vein as the AEC for Labyrinth Lord. It may not be popular, but it will at least be positioned as an add-in instead of Yet Another Retroclone.

I also have nothing at all against the d20 mechanic and ascending armor class.

So what do you do in a retroclone? Do you follow the spirit of the old ruleset and have a To Hit table like OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry? You could use the table and manually write a “To Hit Armor Class 0″ on the character sheet.

You could go the route of Dark Dungeons and use something like thac0 and a to hit table and come up with Attack Rank. Attack Rank A =  thac0: 20, Attack Rank B = thac0: 19 and so on until you reach Attack Rank S = thac0: 2. It takes until Attack Rank X to be thac0: 1 and then it descends again throughout Attack Rank Z to Attack Rank XX. Again, you can pretty much convert an Attack Rank into a thac0, cross out the Attack Rank letter on the character sheet and substitute a thac0 number.

You could go the Basic Fantasy route and just use Base Attack Bonus and ascending armor class. In this case, you take your old material, perform a 10-AC conversion and make appropriate notes throughout that penalties to target’s AC are really bonuses to attackers’ to hit roll.

Which one?

For now, I plan on using a Successful Attack Target Number or SATN. (considering the consternation created by thac0 discussions, I think the acronym is a perfect fit!)

The forumla will work like this:

Roll 1d20 +modifiers + target’s AC >= SATN is a hit.

The beauty of this system is that when I see thac0 in my old modules, I treat it as the SATN. Thanks to the additive property of equality, the result is the same. Don’t believe me? Look it up on any thac0 discussion. Also, let’s follow this example:

Brad, a 2nd level Fighter has a thac0 of 19. He is attacking a goblin with an AC of 6. With a STR of 15, he receives a +1 to Hit.

Roll is 13. Add bonus to hit to increase the total to 14. Take thac0 (19) and subtract the armor class: 19-6 = 13. The roll of 14 is greater than 13, so the attack is successful.

now try this:

Brad a 2nd level Warrior has a SATN of 19. He is attacking a goblin with AC of 6. With a STR of 15, he receives a +1 to hit.

Roll is 13. 13 + 1 (STR Bonus) + 6 (Target AC) = 20. This is larger than the SATN of 19, so the attack is successful.

On the GM side of the screen, 2nd Edition monsters appears with a thac0. The GM does the same calculation as the players when rolling for the goblin.

The other thing this mechanic allows (you know essentially keeping the thac0), is that this allows fiddling with monsters. More on that later.

noctivagant: adj. Going about in the night; night-wandering. [L. nox, noctis, night + vagans, p. pr. of vagari to wander about.]

So in essence, this would be a creature that evokes the description of  “The Night Wanderer”.

Intro Level Creature Idea

Assuming that this would be for a low-level party ranging from levels 1-3, this could be a kind of undead. When encountered, this humanoid creature appears to walking deliberately to some unknown destination. Upon closer inspection, the creature eyes are closed. It does not respond to any normals attempts to communicate. The special ability would be a sleepwalking effect on all creatures that come within 60 feet that fail a saving throw. The sleepwalking effect would basically cause those affected to have all the effects of a sleep spell, but would also be compelled to walk slowly in a random direction while within 60 feet of the noctivagant or 10 rounds, whichever is greater. Under the influence of the sleepwalking ability, an affected creature can walk into trees, step off cliffs, etc. They cannot, however, climb or perform any other action other than walking. If a creature dies under the influence of a noctivagant, they become one. Once they become a noctivagant, they are no longer in danger of walking into trees or off cliffs, etc.

Being attacked breaks the effect of the sleepwalking ability.

In the end, this is like more of a nuisance than threat.

A Devious GM

However, take one of these and waltz them into a village and now the character cannot tell which is the noctivagant and which are the victims of the attack. Characters that favor combat as a solution will end up creating more of these things. A clever PC may attempt a “Talk to Dead” spell. Victims of the sleepwalking ability aren’t dead, so will not respond. Still, the PC may not be close enough to the noctivagant to get the desired effect.

Come to think of it, these things could really wreak havoc. Get an elf (immune to sleep) to collect one of these and unleash it into huge crowds. (Who says there’s no such thing as an elven jester?) Better yet, an adventurer could take one of these and turn it into a necromancer’s idea of a ten foot pole. Why poke and prod looking for traps when this thing, which is already dead, can just walk in and trigger everything.

I could see this as something a necromancer initiate would create. One of these could certainly disperse the “peasant angry mob”. It could even divert small armies away.

Stats coming later. Nothing more than 2 Hit Dice.

As an aside, do any of you have the Spell Markup Language?  Fun to read…

Anyway, there’s something about the wealth of the house rules that inspire all kinds of creative possibilities. I plan on adapting a well playtested spell point variant to the OSR Project. Spell points available would be properly notated like this:

and add 1 to the result.

The spell level limitation will be per the Microlite 20 Core Rules – Spells can be cast with a spell level equal or below 1/2 a spellcaster’s level, rounded up. The cost to cast a spell will be 2* spell level. Cantrips will cost 1 point. Owing to my OSR ways, all of this information will be presented in a chart that looks something like this:

For those that wonder, this makes them weaker than standard spellcasters – the effect is that noticeable until around 10th level or so. As a result, the XP required to advance to the next level is approx 10% less than a standard spellcaster. Debate now swings around Meditation in lieu of sleep. Basically, 3 hrs meditation = 8 hours sleep.

More later.

Here’s the pertinent section – it is found when describing the skills a Rogue uses:

To determine the initial value of each
skill, start with the base scores listed on
Table 26. To these base scores, add (or subtract)
any appropriate modifiers for race,
Dexterity, and armor worn (given on Tables
27, 28, and 29, respectively).

The scores arrived at in the preceding paragraph
do not reflect the effort a thief has
spent honing his skills. To simulate this
extra training, all thieves at 1st level receive
60 discretionary percentage points that they
can add to their base scores. No more than
30 points can be assigned to any single skill.
Other than this restriction, the player can
distribute the points however he wants.

Each time the thief rises a level in experience,
the player receives another 30 points
to distribute. No more than 15 points per
level can be assigned to a single skill, and no
skill can be raised above 95 percent, including
all adjustments for Dexterity, race, and
armor.

In other words, there is no table in 2e because there are base skills, Dexterity and Racial modifiers and discretionary points. I saw a note written in the margin that says “Neat!” and now I remember why. It allowed us to have a 5th level Thief (we never called them rogues) with really high abilities to certain skills in order to create interesting subclasses. We had a trapmaster that was great at finding and removing traps, a ninja that could move silently and climb walls, or an urban thief that was a great pickpocket and lockbreaker.

So our skill table will look something like this:

Pick Pockets 15%
Open Locks 15 %
Find/Remove Traps 15%
Move Silently 15%
Hide in Shadows 15%
Detect Noise 15%
Climb Walls 60%
Read Languages 0%
Read Magic 0%
Catch/Batt Away Object 15%
Acrobatics 50%

For Each Skill a player chooses for their class, the player is give 7.5 discretionary points (Round up). The player may use these points to boost skill percentages in any or all skills. An individual skill cannot receive more than half the total discretionary point pool.

Remember that all character classes can attempt these skills on a 1 in 8 dice roll (12.5%). Only those that take them as a focus can increase their abilities. The balancing feature that prevents someone from taking ‘every’ skill is the XP cost. Each skill has an XP cost that makes in more difficult to advance in levels.

Two side notes: Fighters in the pre-built classes have one skill, catch object. At first level, a Fighter has a 23% chance of catching/batting away a thrown object – this can include certain spells. At 11th level, they can be pretty difficult to hit from a distance. Magic-Users purchase the Read Magic ability at 100% in a different part of character creation.