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.

Desktop Books Meme!

It seems I'm something of a purist compared to the other people who've posted photos in this meme. The photo to the right  is what's on my desk... very minimal. Labyrinth Lord, the Advanced Edition Companion, Mutant Future and Theorems & Thaumaturgy. Those are what I refer to 90% of the time when writing RPG stuff.

Oh, and you can also see London and its Environs 1900 in the background, which I sometimes use for my on-going Victorian era horror campaign.

And a bag of dice.

One metre to the right of the desk I have another shelf which houses my RPG library proper. I guess I don't really consider myself to be a collector particularly, so I don't think my collection is particularly extensive. Most of the core AD&D books, likewise for 2nd edition AD&D (and, thankfully, splatbookless), the complete Wizard's Spell Compendium, the B/X and Holmes basic D&D sets, a couple of Savage Worlds books, and a few miscellaneous items like Carcosa, Vornheim, Call of Cthulhu, The Dungeon Alphabet.

Wild Magic: Light!

I surmised a possible system for wild magic recently, and made up a table for odd results of casting hold portal. I've been thinking along these lines a bit more, and decided, following smiler's suggestion, to tackle light, one of the least "sexy" spells of all time.

I'm quite pleased with the resulting table.

(See the previous post on wild magic for an explanation of the rough system I have in mind.)


01 The caster's eyes are targeted by the spell.
03 - Darkness manifests instead.
05 - The caster's hair or clothing sets on fire.
07 - A raging 8HD fire elemental is summoned.
09 + Spooky shadows of hooks, clawed hands and sinister spirits flit around the edge of the light's extent. One of them is a shadow (the monster) and will attack at an inopportune moment.
11 The light produced can be perceived by everyone except the caster.
13 - The caster is affected by faerie fire.
15 A sickening strobe light manifests, causing a -1 penalty to hit within its radius.
17 - The caster's eyes emit beams with equivalent intensity to the normal result, but highly directional.
19 - The light produced by the spell's whole normal duration is gathered and emitted instantaneously. All within 60' must save versus spells or be blinded for 1d6 turns. If the save fails by more than 4 the blindness is permanent.
21 + Spooky shadows of hooks, clawed hands and sinister spirits flit around the edge of the light's extent.
23 - A floating silver lantern appears, burning with an ethereal light. The caster can move the lantern telekinetically.
25 - The caster is covered with a thin film of luminescent ectoplasm. Everything he touches gains a glowing residue. This includes his footprints as he walks around.
27 - No light is produced, but objects and creatures in shadows within 60' of the caster are annotated with neon signs denoting their identities. This effect moves with the caster.
29 - A hundred candles appear at the specified location. They burn for the normal duration, but can be blown out.
31 + The created light has an unusual additional property – it absorbs other nearby light sources. Any light source within 30' is extinguished. Each time this happens the radius of the magical light increases by 5'.
33 - The caster is transformed into a globe of light, having the normal effects of the spell.
35 + The light sends off small sparks which gradually form streams leading towards the centre. This attracts wandering monsters (chances double).
37 - A defective light manifests, which is “on” every two rounds, and produces darkness instead every other round.
39 - A brief flash is emitted and a photograph of the scene drops at the caster's feet.
41 - Sound within 60' of the caster is silenced and instead manifests as glowing shapes, colours and images. This includes the caster's own voice. Spell casting is still possible, but speech must be interpreted visually.
43 - A backwards light is produced, which reverses the apparent location of objects. Things which are behind the caster appear to be in front of him, and vice versa.
45 + The light produced is completely invisible from outside its radius.
47 - All living creatures within 60' of the caster are illuminated as if by a spotlight. The effect follows them as they move.
49 - A color spray shoots in all directions from the caster.
51 The light only illuminates the edges of things, revealing outlines without colour or texture.
53 - If underground, the caster and companions are teleported to the surface. If above ground, a meteorite (as per meteor swarm) plummets from the sky and hits a random target within 60'.
55 - The light forms a wide beam 60' long, which rotates around the subject like a lighthouse beacon.
57 The light produced is of an unusual colour such as sickly violet, gloomy red, electric blue, etc.
58 - A torch-bearer (1HD, AC9, unarmed) is summoned, complete with torch which burns magically for the normal duration.
61 + A switch appears floating in front of the caster, and following him as he moves. The switch can be used to instantaneously switch the light effect on and off.
63 The light produced can only be perceived by the caster.
65 - A swarm of fireflies is summoned. A reaction roll determines if they fly off in random direction, swarm around the caster, or obey the caster's commands. The swarm sheds light as the normal spell effect.
67 - The caster is transformed into a holographic being made of pure light. He can no longer directly interact with the physical world, and is unable to speak, but can only be harmed by magic, and can pass through tiny cracks and holes.
69 - An odd light is produced which only illuminates certain things: 1. living beings, 2. invisible things, 3. magic and enchanted items, 4. evil intent, 5. treasure, 6. undead.
71 + The light is augmented by flashing neon-style arrows and slogans of an encouraging, whimsical or helpful nature. (“This way!”, “You're doing great!”, “Look out!”, etc.)
73 - A will-o'-wisp appears.
75 + The light is centred on the caster, who is also affected by invisibility. The caster thus becomes a walking light source.
77 - The spell conjures an elegant standard lamp, with electric cable plugged in in another dimension. The caster can carry the lamp around.
79 - All creatures within range are affected by faerie fire.
81 + The light flashes briefly whenever a creature crosses its boundary.
83 Ultraviolet light only, just like at a rave. Anyone staying in the area of effect for more than an hour will get a tan.
85 + The light is also very hot, causing anyone in its area of effect to start sweating within 1 turn. Heavily armoured characters suffer -1 to hit, due to the heat.
87 - The caster gains the ability to see in darkness.
89 + The light produced has the unusual property of exerting a physical force which can push away objects and creatures. A save vs paralysis is required per round to remain within the illuminated area.
91 + Twisted images of the caster's face dance at the edge of the light's extent.
93 - All creatures within 30' gain the ability to see in darkness.
95 - A scintillating array of blue laser beams emanates from the target, illuminating the normal area. If the target is an object which the caster holds, he can command it to fire intensified beams of laser energy, causing 1d8 damage on a successful hit roll.
97 - Spell's effect replaced by continual light.
99 - The eyes of all beings within range are targeted by a normal light spell.

The Moon of the Dreamlands

Players in my dreamlands campaign, here be dragons! Look ye not further.

After my recent experiment with a google drawing, which was a lot of fun, I've just started another. This time it's something entirely fictional -- a map of the moon in the dreamlands.

I've just started running my dreamlands campaign, which is very loosely inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's concept of the world of dream (but with the usual assortment of D&D weirdness mixed in for good measure). One of my favourite parts of the Lovecraft dreamlands is the idea that it's possible to travel to the moon, and that all sorts of weird and wonderful (and horrible, of course -- this is Lovecraft) things may be encountered there. So I've had in mind that the PCs might come across means to make the lunar transit during the course of the campaign.

This google document is, then, the beginnings of a sketch of what lies on the surface of the moon.

Have a look.

It's pretty basic at the moment, but I plan to add more stuff to it as the mood takes me. Anyone else who feels inspired, also please feel free to make your own additions!