Why?

The main reason is that I house-rule just about every retro-clone I try. It’s not that I don’t like the system at all, it’s just that I have a ‘kitchen sink’ mentality to what is included in games I run. For example, I love Spelljammer and Mystara. Both have flying airships and interplanetary travel. (Granted, you can only get to the moon in Mystara.) Looking at rules for aerial combat in various games, I rarely find any that are really straightforward that allow the player some diverse options. This generates a set of house rules for aerial combat. Once the rules for it are generated, I think about a class that specialized in it. That generates more house rules. Then I think about aerial travel over long distances, life on an aerial craft, fresh air for interplanetary travels, etc. More house rules and bolt-ons.

This is the way my first group played and I’ve never gotten far from it. You want lasers? Okay. Flintlocks and Aliens? No problem. A class of adventurers that use origami creatures to do its bidding? Sure, here’s the XP chart.

I came this close to calling the system “Pocket Dragons & Pomegranates”

I abhor combat that takes 30 minutes for an encounter. I value combat, but not the feeling that a group of me and my friends are wading through layers of rules and charts. It’s an element of the story. It could even be the focus of the story. Still, I award XP for good role-playing, treasure, innovative tactics, etc. Players wringing the rules for every ounce of advantage is just not for me, though I don’t penalize for it. I have to admit that a couple times, this type of play generated some very unusual play that was fun  for everyone.

The real reason, though, is that I want to put together all the things my first group and I did into one cohesive whole. It’s not easy, due in part to a lack of concern for contradiction. We just called it “gamer’s paradox” and let conflicting rules lie. This time, I don’t want a paradox, but I want largely cohesive system.

Having said all that, here’s an sketch of what I imagine the system to be:

• B/X and BECMI based with a mixture of M20, 1e and 2e.
• Simple mechanics with lots of charts.
• Build systems for new and existing classes, monsters, and races.
• Race and class are separated.
• Rules for adventuring in any locale (air, water, planes, ether, planets)

That says a lot, so here’s a few specifics in no particular order. No THAC0 despite my love for it. No 2e style kits, at least not intentionally. I hope to achieve so-called game balance by XP, not by making everyone equal in power. I don’t want to re-create a HERO system style build process for everything. I’ll use BAB like Basic Fantasy does. There will be an optional silver-based economy set of rules. Lots of creatures, but not at the cost of making them look like they were created in a random generator. Yes, psionics, but using what I believe to be a non-traditional system.

In short, it will be a kit and a rudimentary setting ready for use. Folks will be able to pick and choose what rules they want to use, and what rules they want to discard.

As an added bonus, I hope to use Dokuwiki and the bookcreator plugin to allow individual players to download a customized ruleset. The layout may not be perfect and there may be a couple odd page-breaks, but it should work.

The class generator is complete. The monster generator only creates low-level creatures so far. True to my old school roots, they live as spreadsheets at the moment.

Otherwise, I can only say that I am fully aware that this is largely a vanity project. I have no illusions of ‘energizing the OSR market’ or being the next LL. More than anything, it’s a labor of love for something I loved as a kid.

Stay tuned!

The big change is the addition of the bookcreator plugin. Once I get it working correctly, I should have a post here describing it in detail.

So a quick brain dump here in an attempt to get going:

Odd Retroclone Idea One:

Wanted to be successful with M20 Odd Duck inspired by this post. Basically, the spell list would be substituted with the spells from The Fantasy Trip. Conversion of the spells has been problematic. I finally figured out that IQ level =! M20 spell level. ST cost also doesn’t seem to translate as some spells have 50, 60 or 100 ST cost while many others range from 1 to 10.

I created a spreadsheet to rank them relatively to each other. An IQ 14 spell that cost 1 ST would be a higher level than an IQ 8 spell that cost 2 ST. The formula is not that complicated as I opted out of trying to determine a normalized distribution. Besides, I’m not that good at normalization (in math or databases) anyway.

I may never finish it. Ugh. It’s a good idea that I just cannot implement.

Odd Retroclone Idea Two:

I also have some bizarre deathwish to create my own retro-clone. It would be a complete vanity project that ‘feels’ like the amalgam of B/X, 1st and 2nd edition AD&D with some new found love for BAB and other d20 conventions. The other oddity would be how everything is inspired by Paul M. Crabaugh. I will include a class generator (which only needs options for illusionists) and a monster generator. I am about 33% done with the generator – it only generates non-magical beasts at the moment.

What compels me on this idea is a mystery to me.

Part of it mentions the critters.pl script greywulf hosted on the old m20 site. I couldn’t find the original, but I found my modified script for M20 (my other post has it modified for Action!).

CODE:

#!/usr/bin/perl
srand(time ^ $$ ^ unpack “%L*”, ‘ps axww | gzip’);
$usage=”usage: $0 number maxhd\n”;
$ARGV[0]=~/^(\d+)$/ && ($numb = $1) || die $usage;
$ARGV[1]=~/^(\d+)$/ && ($maxhd = $1) || die $usage;
%rule = (
‘W’,'VF YF YF YXF YXF YXYF B’,
‘B’,'PB YNF YNXF YNXF YNXYF YXYNF’,
‘P’,'a ambi ante circum cis co de dis ob per prae se sine sub’,
‘Y’,'Ca Ce Ci Co Cu Cy Da De Di Do Dy’,
‘X’,'Ce Ci Co o’,
‘V’,'a e i o u’,
‘F’,'Ca Ca Ca Cae Cos Com Cus Cus Cus Cus Cus Cium Cium Ces’,
‘C’,'b b c c ch ch d d d g g l l m m n n p p ph r r r s s s t t th th v x z Rr sH Ll’,
‘D’,'b b c c ch ch d d g g l l m m n n p p ph r r r s s s t t t th th v x z Rr sH Ll h qu gn pt’,
‘R’,'b b c c c ch ch g g p p ph t t th th’,
‘L’,'c ch p g f’,
‘H’,'c ch cl m n p ph pl pr qu t th’,
‘N’,'n c l r’
);

for (1..$numb) { print &parse(‘W’), ” : “, &stats, “\n”; }

sub parse {
$_=pop(@_);
/[^A-Z]/ && return $_;
@TMP=split(/\s+/, $rule{$_});
$_=splice(@TMP, rand @TMP, 1);
for (split(”)) { print &parse($_); }
}

sub stats {
$tst = int(rand()*13)+1;
$hd = int(rand()*$maxhd)+1;
$hp = int($hd*4.5)+int(rand()*4*$hd);
$ac = 10+$hd+int(rand()*5);
$tohit = $hd+int(rand()*4);
$dmg = int(rand()*2)+1 . ‘d’ . (int(rand()*6)+1)*2 . (rand>0.6?’+':’-') . (int(rand()*4)+2);
%weapon = ( ’1′ => ‘Bite’,
’2′ => ‘Claw’,
’3′ => ‘Talon’,
’4′ => ‘Gore’,
’5′ => ‘Slap’,
’6′ => ‘Slam’,
’7′ => ‘Sting’,
’8′ => ‘Tentacle’,
’9′ => ‘Weapon’,
’10′ => ‘Weapon’,
’11′ => ‘Weapon’,
’12′ => ‘Weapon’,
’13′ => ‘Weapon’,);
$type = $weapon{$tst};
#    $type = (rand>0.6?”By weapon”:”Natural”);

return “HD$hd (${hp}hp), AC$ac, $type +$tohit ($dmg)”;
}

Adult Granite: HD 21d12+105 (241), AC 28, Bite +27 (2d8), or Breath 8d6 stream of rocks DC 25,  phys+DEX to dodge for half, or thorwn rock 2d6+7.

And now for the Basic Fantasy Statblock

Dragon, Granite

Granite dragons have thick, rock-like scales with small black spots on them. The scales also tend to become for red as they age. They prefer to live on top of ancient mountains or near stone quarries. In order to properly digest their food, they swallow heavy stones in a gizzard type of organ. The bite of a granite dragon is severe due to their hardened teeth. When fighting, a granite dragon prefers to be near a source of rocks. When their breath weapon is not available, a granite dragon will attempt to hurl boulders. Granite dragons are capable of great cruelty. They enjoy swallowing humanoids whole and listening to their cries as they are ground into pieces by the stone in their gizzard. Outside of this rare pleasure, granite dragons are motivated by the urge to live, breed and collect valuable items.

Granite dragons are immune to poisonous gases.

Adult Thunder: HD 18d12+72 (189), AC 27, Bite +22 (2d6+7), or Breath 6d6 sonic DC 23, phys+DEX to dodge for half. STR 23, DEX 10, MIND 10. Phys 5, Subt 8, Knowledge 5, Communication 5

And now for the Basic Fantasy Statblock

Dragon, Thunder

Thunder dragons are about the size of white dragons, but more stocky in build. They are slow fliers that prefer to move along the ground. They are light brown and distinctively marked with large, irregularly-shaped, blood-red-edged ellipses. When first seen, sages called them clouded dragons.

Thunder Dragons prefer to live in large caverns in mountains or hilly areas. Over time, they continue to enlarge their home cavern into a byzantine maze. They are considered by other dragons as more brute than intelligent dragon. As a result, thunder dragons tend to be neutral in outlook, and generally distrustful of other dragons.

Thunder dragons prefer to fight by means of a sophisticated ambush that best uses their sonic breath weapon and chameleon-like abilities. They are motivated to reproduce and accumulate treasure. They prefer a diet of vegetables and rocks, but they are not adverse to eating the occasional mountain lion or dwarf.

Thunder dragons use a sonic breath weapon. This blast of sound disorients target creatures, leaving them effectively stunned for 1d4 rounds. No attack roll is required, but a save vs. Death Ray is allowed to resist. They also have the ability to blend into their surroundings like a chameleon, allowing them to surprise prey on 1-3 on 1d6.

Thunder dragons are immune to sonic attacks.

Thunder Dragon Age Table

So, there will be content on my site from this point forward designed specifically for the BFRPG. This month will include new dragons, as well as statblocked content from Nevermet Press.

Did I forget M20? No, I start with M20 and work my way forward. I also intend to provide M20 statblocks for everything as well.

Here’s to a reboot of Sycarion.com