B/X PDFs!

I recently bought my first ever WotC-published D&D product... The Moldvay Basic rules (PDF).

Looks like the Expert rulebook is coming in a couple of weeks too!

This makes me happy.

I already have the old boxed sets, but it's nice to think I'll be able to print off copies of the PDFs for casual browsing / use at the table, and keep the vintage editions in good condition.

Theorems & Thaumaturgy: The Weirdomancer

A while back I had the idea of running a D&D campaign where the only spells available were those from AD&D's Unearthed Arcana.

Last night the seed of that idea germinated and produced a mutant fruit.

What about a campaign where the only spells available are those from Theorems & Thaumaturgy?

I thus present the Weirdomancer, a class with access to all the unique spells of the elementalist, necromancer and vivimancer classes from Theorems & Thaumaturgy.

It's probably a totally weirdly unbalanced class compared to the standard magic-user, in that it's missing some really basic spells like detect magic, and dispel magic. But I reckon it'd be a lot of fun to play!

A new FLAILSNAILS character, anyone?

City Campaign As Random Table

A small idea wich came to me the other day, which I thought might be interesting to share.

What do you need when running a city-based campaign? Some things are:

1. Lots of roughly detailed locations and NPCs.
2. Lots of rumours.

My idea was to create a city campaign solely in the form of random tables. I was thinking of a format, per table entry, like the following:

Number - Name
Description
Secret: something which could be very interesting to adventurers, but which is not commonly known.
Hook: a direct adventure hook which can be found at this location or via this NPC.
Connection: at least one connection to another numbered entry.

So the same collection of numbered entries can both be placed on a map as locations, and used as random rolls for rumours and adventure hooks.

Sheep Class for Labyrinth Lord

(This is my 300th post on this blog! And what better way to celebrate the anniversary than with a new class for Labyrinth Lord!)

One the PC's in my Dreamlands campaign has been blessed (via a table of random starting equipment) with the companionship of a sheep. At first the sheep was just a walking ball of wool, but inevitably questions started to be asked about its hit points, armour class, combat capabilities, etc. The sheep (named Steve) has now been elevated to the status of a henchman, and I said that the player could give a share of the PC's XP to the sheep, allowing him to advance gradually. That requires a class, thus...

The rest of this post is designated Open Gaming Content according to the Open Gaming License.

Sheep
Hit Dice: d6
Maximum level: 5

Of the standard six ability scores, sheep roll 3d6 as normal for STR, DEX and CON. They roll 1d4 for WIS and INT, and have no CHA worth talking about. Comeliness (if used) may be rolled as normal -- there are some surprisingly stunning sheep out there!

Sheep use the same saving throw chart and combat matrix as fighters. Their experience advancement and level titles are as follows.

Level  XP         Title
1         0           Flockling
2         1,000    Ram
3         2,000    Stud
4         4,000    Battle Ram
5         8,000    Flock Lord

Sheep have a natural butt attack which does 1d4 damage. This damage increases to 1d6 at 2nd level, and 1d8 at 4th level. (Note that it is assumed that an adventuring sheep is male, possessing the aggressive nature and full horns of a ram.)

At 3rd level, a sheep gains the ability to charge (as per Labyrinth Lord p. 61).

At 5th level, a sheep gains the ability to rampage. When rampaging, a sheep gains +2 to hit and damage, and a -2 penalty to armour class. Once a sheep has begun rampaging, it cannot stop for 2d6 rounds, and will attack anything which moves.

It should be noted that, as adventuring companions, sheep are contrary and stubborn. They are notoriously difficult to train, and equally infamous for their wilfulness.

Overland Movement: A Small Useful Table

I've recently started running a wilderness exploration based sandbox campaign (the Dreamlands). It's actually the first time I've been dealing with overland travel as a regular part of a campaign since I was a kid and didn't care about such things as movement rates and terrain types.

Nowadays I do care about such things, and have found myself fumbling around in the Labyrinth Lord rule book, trying to work out how many miles per day a party can travel through various types of terrain. It's not that complicated, I know, but somehow it's non-trivial enough that I have to spend time each session recalculating it. So I thought I'd try to come up with an easier system. All I've done is pre-calculated all the fractions and formatted it all into a table (see above) so that only a single look-up is required. Simply cross-reference the party's movement rate (i.e. the movement rate of the slowest character in the group) with the terrain they're travelling through, and you get the number of miles they can move in one day. The percentage chance of getting lost is also listed, for convenience.

I hope someone else finds it helpful too!

Theorems & Thaumaturgy Paperback

Especially of interest to people in the UK or EU, check out these prices! (I just noticed how unbelievably cheap it is in the UK, for instance.)

Theorems & Thaumaturgy Paperback

In the UK: £2.80 (less than a magazine!)

In the EU: 5,40 € (well, that's in Germany anyway, I guess it's the same in other countries)

In the US: $8.05 (unfortunately not such a bargain... I wonder why)

(These prices are all set automatically by lulu, by the way, and I have no idea how they're calculated.)

Variant Class: Space Elf

A simple variant on the standard elf class, invented my myself and Yves for his (sadly now deceased) character in the Dreamlands campaign, Mr. Sporck. In memoriam:

1. Space elves have no ability with magic, being unable to cast spells or use wizardly magic items. They are however masters of an ancient form of mind-over-matter. They use the psionics rules from Carcosa.
2. Space elves have no immunity to ghoul paralysis.
3. Space elves practice a nerve-grip combat technique. If a nerve-grip attack succeeds by 5 more than the required number to hit, the target is stunned for 1d6 rounds.