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February 7, 2012

June 9, 2010

Noctivagant – Idea of a New Creature

by John Payne — Categories: Electrum Pieces — Tags: , — Comments Off

In the dictionary, the word noctivagant appears like this:

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.

June 9, 2010

Netbooks and Spellcasters

by John Payne — Categories: Electrum Pieces and OSR Project — Tags: , , , , — Comments Off

Unearthed Arcania is one of those supplements that I found later in my gaming career that I wish I had found much earlier. For completeness, I also would have liked Rhyme of the Ancient Spelljammer and Temporum Sphaera. (I currently have all three now.) Sometime ago, I also found a netbook called Wizard’s Netbook that provides all kinds of spellcaster variation. I could list a lot more of them, but if you remember them at all, you probably have all the same ones I have.

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:

Level Spell Points Max Spell Level
1 2 1
2 4 1
3 7 2
4 11 2
5 16 3
6 22 3
7 29 4
8 37 4
9 46 5
10 56 5
11 67 6
12 79 6
13 92 7
14 106 7
15 121 8
16 137 8
17 154 9
18 172 9
19 191 9
20 211 9

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.

May 26, 2010

Cryptic Note Saves Day

by John Payne — Categories: Electrum Pieces and OSR Project — Tags: , , , — Comments Off

While creating the massive table of skills for the OSR project, I found a note written in my 2e Player’s Handbook.

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.

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