Carcosa -- Classes, skills & talents

So, next up in my Carcosa / Mutants & Mazes chargen rules is choosing a class. In Carcosa it is suggested that there are only two classes of adventurer: fighters and sorcerers. I have decided to reduce this even further and have only one class, making the whole concept of classes redundant. Thus there are no classes.

All characters progress as fighters, in terms of hit points, to hit rolls, XP, saving throws, etc. They can all use any weapons and armour. (Probably... I am also considering a simple weapon proficiencies system, where each character is proficient in like 4 weapons, and suffers -2 to hit with others.)

What differentiates characters (apart from their randomly determined race and any background / personality traits which the player might imagine) is a choice of talents.

Before going into what the talents do, here are four standard skill rolls which players can make. You will notice these are based on the standard "adventuring actions" of D&D. All skill rolls have a base 2 in 6 chance of success, modified by specified attribute (minimum 1 in 6 chance, maximum 5 in 6).

1. Move quietly (DEX) - penalised by 1 per point of AC below 8.
2. Search - one turn per attempt. (Note that you stand a better chance of finding things if you describe specifically what you're doing.)
3. Climb (DEX) - 30' per roll, penalised by 1 per point of AC below 8.
4. Smash stuff (STR) - usually makes a lot of noise.

Ok, pretty simple, and you can see how characters with high DEX, for example, could choose to wear light armour in order to take on a thief type role.

So, the talents. Each player can choose 3 of the following for his PC. As currently conceived, these are a one-off choice -- it's not possible to learn new talents as a PC advances. Again, many of them are based on a 2 in 6 chance of success, possibly modified by an attribute.

1. Lockpicking (DEX) - one turn per attempt.
2. Pick pockets (DEX) - target notices on a roll of 6.
3. Tracking - make a search roll to find & follow tracks.
4. Languages - know additional languages per INT score.
5. Climb sheer surfaces (DEX) - automatically succeed at climbing, roll to climb sheer surfaces.
6. First aid - spend one turn up to 1 hour after a battle to heal 1d3 hp.
7. Move silently (DEX) - automatically succeed at moving quietly, roll to move silently.
8. Weapon specialist - +1 to hit with specialised weapon.
9. Heavy armour specialist - 25% less encumbrance from metal armour.
10. Slayer - +1 to hit & damage against special enemy.
11. Tech lore (INT) - one turn per attempt to identify tech items. +2% to use artefacts.
12. Arcane lore (INT) - one turn per attempt to identify magical effects or creatures. +1 bonus to learning rituals.
13. Awareness - +1 bonus to searching. Only surprised on a 1.
14. Poisons (INT) - use poisons safely, one turn per attempt to identify substances.
15. Backstab - +4 to hit, double damage.

It's probably clear that that list of talents contains a large proportion of the class abilities from traditional D&D, and even some from AD&D. Obviously the cleric's abilities aren't in the list, but that class doesn't fit at all in the setting, so things like turning undead were deliberately left out.

It's a nice, quick, simple system, but I think it should provide enough choices and variety to make characters interesting.

Next up: rituals! (and that's where Call of Cthulhu will also enter the mix :)

Dungeon stocking -- it's all about atmosphere

Just finishing a very pleasant dungeon stocking session, and thought I'd share a nice atmospheric photo of the surroundings. DM prep is best done by candlelight, I find :)

5e -- why should I care?

Yes, the obligatory 5e post ;)

My reaction is: I have a kind of theoretical interest in what WotC might get up to with D&D 5e, but otherwise:

Why should I be interested in a new "version" of D&D?
I have the Labyrinth Lord books which I use to run my games.
I also have loads of AD&D books.
I also have all the important AD&D 2e books, for that matter.
If I really need it, the important bits of 3e (the SRD) are freely available online.
I also have free downloads of any number of other rule sets (S&W, OSRIC, LOTFP, etc) available.

Basically I have far more rule books than I will ever need, and the ability to house rule stuff together to cover bits I don't like or feel like modifying. So why should I be interested in a new "version" of D&D?

I just don't really get it... what do WotC want people to be interested in here? (And I'm not just talking about us OSR grognard types... same goes for people still playing 3rd edition, Pathfinder, 4th edition...)

I guess they're just relying on gamer ADD, the search for something new and perhaps "better".

Maybe there is a good reason why I should care about 5e, that I've not thought of yet. But for now, I'll stick with the plentiful gaming material I've already got... no reason to change.

As to what I would be interested in seeing WotC produce, well, personally nothing. I just don't tend to buy gaming materials apart from the rulebooks I use to run games. But I know lots of people like to buy campaign settings and adventures.

To be honest it surprises me that they think what people really want is another set of rules! Strange.

Carcosa -- Attributes & mutations

Continuing my planned house rules for creating characters in Carcosa, up next is attributes and mutations.

Attributes will simply be rolled 3d6 in order. Quick, traditional and fraught.

However, as a slight twist, every attribute rolled which is below average (i.e. 8 or lower) grants the character a beneficial mutation from the lists in Mutants & Mazes. Scores of 7 or 8 grant a class 1 mutation, 5s or 6s grant a class 2 mutation, and 3s or 4s grant a class 3 mutation. Where applicable (class 2 & 3) there's a 50% chance of the mutation being physical, and a 50% chance of it being mental.

For ease of reference I've compiled mutation tables which include the experience level at which each mutation becomes active. For mutations which first activate at 2nd level or higher, I think I'll create a list of pre-active variations, so that the mutation has some use before its main effect "goes live". For example energy retaining cell structure, which is fully active from 3rd level, would perhaps allow a 1st or 2nd level character to discharge a minor shock (1d6 damage) once per day.

Class 1 Physical Mutations

d10	Mutation	Level
1	Aberrant Form	1
2	Dwarfism	1
3	Echolocation	1
4	Epidermal Photosynthesis	1
5	Gigantism	1
6	Night Vision	1
7	Prehensile Tail	1
8	Spiny Growth	1
9	Thermal Vision	1
10	Ultraviolet Vision	1

Class 2 Physical Mutations

d00	Mutation	Level
01-11	Energy Retaining Cell Structure	3
12-22	Fragrance Development	1
23-33	Increased Balance	1
34-44	Increased Physical Attribute	1
45-55	Increased Sense	1
56-66	Natural Armor	1
67-77	Optic Emissions (bright eyes)	5
78-88	Shriek	1
89-95	Toxic Weapon	5
96-00	Unique Sense	1

Class 3 Physical Mutations

d12	Mutation	Level
1	Chameleon Epidermis	1
2	Complete Wing Development	1
3	Density Alteration (Self)	7
4	Dermal Poison Slime	1
5	Dual Headed	1
6	Energy Ray	4
7	Metamorph	7
8	Optic Emissions (gamma eyes)	5
9	Parasitic Control	7
10	Quickness	5
11	Reflective Epidermis	3
12	Regenerative Capability	1

Class 2 Mental Mutations

d12	Mutation	Level
1	Ability Boost	1
2	Acute Hyper Healing	3
3	Combat Empathy	1
4	Empathy	1
5	Increased Willpower	1
6	Intellectual Affinity	1
7	Know Direction	1
8	Mental Barrier	1
9	Mental Phantasm	5
10	Metaconcert	1
11	Mind Thrust	1
12	Neural Telepathy	3

Class 3 Mental Mutations

d00	Mutation	Level
01-04	Accumulated Resistance	1
05-08	Ancestral Form	11
09-13	Body Adjustment	5
14-18	Control Light Waves	5
19-22	Control Weather	10
23-26	Damage Turning	5
27-32	Density Alteration (Others)	7
33-36	Disintegration	11
37-41	Dual Cerebellum	1
42-46	Flight, Psionic	5
47-50	Force Screen	7
51-54	Force Screen, Greater	9
55-58	Killing Sphere	10
59-64	Neural Telekinesis	9
65-69	Plane Shift	9
70-74	Possession	9
75-78	Precognition	3
79-82	Mind Reflection	7
83-86	Quick Mind	7
87-92	Teleport	9
93-96	Temperature Control	5
97-00	Vampiric Field	12

Carcosa -- Racial determination and benefits

So, as I mentioned in my mini-review of the mighty Carcosa supplement, my thoughts turned immediately to using the book in play. As the book comes with no assumed rules set (it's broadly D&D, but could work with any edition really), this inevitably led to the question: which game system to use to run it? What came to mind is three things: Labyrinth Lord (for the D&D base), Mutant Future (to further emphasise the pulp sci-fi / post-apocalyptic elements in Carcosa) and Call of Cthulhu (for more rituals -- more on this another time).

What I ended up deciding on is a mixture of all three! The base is Mutants & Mazes, the LL-MF integration described in an appendix of Mutant Future. I've come up with a very simple custom character generation system, which I'll post here in sections over the coming days.

The first topic is race. The Carcosa book describes the 13 different races of Men who inhabit the planet, but doesn't mention how a PC's race should be determined, or any differences between the races apart from skin colour. So I thought a random table would be in order, including some little mechanical differences for each of the races.

d30	Race	Benefit
1-2	Black	+1 bonus to saving throws versus poison or disease
3-4	Blue	+1 bonus to unarmed attacks
5-6	Bone	+1 CON
7-8	Brown	+1 bonus to saving throws versus magic
9-10	Dolm	+1 bonus to melee attacks
11-12	Green	+1 STR
13-14	Jale	+1 bonus to learning rituals
15-16	Orange	+1 INT
17-18	Purple	+1 WIS
19-20	Red	+1 bonus to missile attacks
21-22	Ulfire	+1 CHA
23-24	White	+1 DEX
25-26	Yellow	+1 bonus to saving throws versus fear or psionics
27-28	Roll again	Gain a mutation*. Additional rolls of 27-28 stack.
29-30	Roll again	Gain a psionic power. Additional rolls of 29-30 stack.

* For racially determined mutations I'll probably use the table in the appendix of Carcosa. Obviously, as I'm planning on using Mutant Future, the beneficial mutations therein will also come into play.

ps. For players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign: don't worry, your PCs are not about to be mysteriously warped to Carcosa! Haha. I'll probably run it as a one shot / occasional sessions, just for fun.

Carcosa!

Having received the new LOTFP edition of Carcosa in December, I sat down last night to have a first proper read of it (I'd just flicked through it previously). And, wow! I was really impressed.

To give this mini-review a happy ending, as I'm indeed very very happy with Carcosa, I'm going to describe a few minor gripes I have with the book, before going into the things I love about it.

Firstly, I do question the unusual choice of Armour Class system -- ascending from 12 -- as this system isn't used in any traditional or modern version of the game, meaning that the vast majority people who use this book will have to come up with some kind of conversion table or formula. I presume the base 12 ascending system is used in James Raggi's LOTFP RPG, but I think AC either descending or ascending from 10 would have been a better choice in this respect, as those are far more familiar and more easily usable to most people. But that's a very minor quibble.

Secondly, I got the feeling that the book is written with a certain amount of knowledge of the source material (especially the writings of H.P. Lovecraft) pre-assumed. I've personally only read a smattering of Lovecraft, and found myself a little confused by the unexplained references to things like Old Ones, the Great Race, Primordial Ones, etc, and the relation all these beings have to Carcosa. A very small introductory passage, describing what these Mythos races have been up to on Carcosa (similar to the section describing the races of Men on Carcosa), would have been much appreciated. As it is, the book launches straight into a section on "Technological Artifacts of the Great Race", before any mention has been made as to who or what the Great Race are.

Lastly, despite the physical beauty of the book, I wonder how practical the A5 format is for use at the gaming table. It's not possible to lay it flat open at a page, for example, which is possible with traditional full-size RPG books.

So, those minor issues aside, here's why I love it!

Firstly, purely as a physical artefact, the book is beautiful. It's definitely the best looking gaming book I own. The artwork, layout and quality of construction are all top notch. Clearly a lot of effort has gone into these things, and it has really paid off.

Secondly, as an RPG sourcebook, it did what good examples of such books should do -- made me want to play! Reading through it, the mind is filled with so much amazing imagery, and presented with so many interesting situations, monsters, encounters and treasures, that one cannot help but immediately think about how awesome it would be to use this stuff in play.

Aside from the vividly described details of the setting, one thing which really struck me as well was how usable and flexible the content is. It is fairly light on mechanics, meaning that it'd be easy to use with any version of D&D (or clones), and a good number of other RPGs as well, no doubt. Completely unexpectedly, I was eager to use Carcosa not only with Labyrinth Lord (my D&D flavour of choice), but also with Mutant Future, and even Call of Cthulhu! In fact, I pretty much concluded that I'd use an unholy hybrid of the three to run games in Carcosa (more on this another time).

As to the controversial ritual sorcery, it is very horrid. To be honest I can't really imagine running a game where the PCs were the ones doing this kind of thing. But from the point of view of flavour it really adds a lot to the setting, and even if the PCs only come across others performing these rituals, or encounter them in old tomes or libraries, the presence of such magic would weigh heavily on the mood.

In conclusion, this is a first class RPG supplement, and may perhaps gain the honour of being the first pre-written setting that I will actually make any use of!

2011 retrospective

2011 was the year I properly launched myself into the OSR. On Jan 16th I DMed my first game of Labyrinth Lord, and that, as they say, was that -- I've not looked back since.

As some others in the blogosphere have been doing, I thought I'd kick off 2012 with a look back at what I got up to in the previous year. Just looking through the posts I made last year, I've picked out one or two each month, which for me are defining moments.

1. In January, I played old-school D&D for the first time in many years, and put the finishing touches on my Tome of the Spider Mage.
2. In February, I published a PDF of my Elementalist class for Labyrinth Lord, and wrote about psychoactive substances for adventurers.
3. In March, I wrote some nice illusionist spells dealing with prisms.
4. In April, I participated in the A-Z challenge, which ended up in the publication of a PDF with a load of new spells: An Arcane Alphabet.
5. In May, I decided to run my first game at a con, and wrote an amusing little historical piece about orcs in my campaign world.
6. In June, I decided to write a book!
7. In July, I won something.
8. In August, I published a PDF of my Necromancer class for Labyrinth Lord.
9. In September, I didn't do that much, but I did name the book.
10. In October, I had an idea for an online collection of old-school monsters, which Alex Schröder kindly realised during the night, while I slept! It unfortunately hasn't gotten the attention it deserves, so go and check it out right now!
11. In November, I finished the draft version of my book, and had some amusing conversation about what happens to playerless PCs in a dungeon.
12. In December, I didn't do much, but I did draw a funny picture.

All in all 2011 was a great year for my old-school gaming activities! Looking forward to more this year -- including, of course, the completion and publication of Theorems & Thaumaturgy!

Happy 2012 everyone!