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Category: OSR Project (Page 21 of 22)

Netbooks and Spellcasters

June 9, 2010 /

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.

Cryptic Note Saves Day

May 26, 2010 /

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.

Use of Dice in my OSR-ish project

May 21, 2010 /

Dice

Players use dice are used for three primary purposes: to determine damage, to determine success at a task, or for combat resolution.

d4 - Used to determine damage for smaller weapons like daggers, caltrops, brass knuckles, etc.

d6 - Used to determine damage for simple weapons, arrows, bolts and other hazards (like falling)

d8 - Used to determine damage for crafted weapons like swords. It is also used to determine success for tasks not covered in the rules.

d10 - Used to determine damage for large crafted weapons like halberds and two-handed swords.

d% - This refers to using two 10-sided die to determine success with certain tasks, usually special abilities such as Pick Locks or Catch Object. One die is treated as a tens-digit, the other as a ones digit. Results range from 01 - 99.

d12 - Used to determine damage for unusual monster attacks and for psionic combat.

dB% - This refers to using two 12-sided die to determine success with certain tasks for higher-level players for advanced abilities. The result of one die is multiplied by 10 and added to the other die. Results range from 11 - 132.

d20 - This die is used specifically for melee, missile, projectile and magic attacks.

The GM uses these die for mostly the same uses. At his or her discretion, other die may also be used. These other die are predominantly used for random generation purposes, for example, generating a random monster, etc. These include, but are not limited to:

d66 - Using two six-sided dice, multiply the result of one die by 10 and add the result of the other die.

Others include d3, d14, d16, d24, d30 and d100.

Notes

dB% is something I used to do for Thieves with high ability scores or for thieves at high levels. I added a bunch of abilities available only at level 12 and above like ventriloquism, throw voice, climb sheer surfaces, etc. I think Mr. Gygax himself suggested an arrangement like this at some point, but I don't recall seeing anything more concrete.

Since special abilities are open to any class generated, I plan on using dB% to represent characters that have high ability to perform one of these tasks - a 16 or above. Since the core mechanic of the system will consistently be a roll-over mechanism, some of the scores will be listed as >100.

Next post, I should include the Skill Tables.

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