Thursday, September 2, 2021
Q2. Where can we go to buy standard equipment?
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Rose and Thorn Duelist (3e Prestige Class)
Created by the incomparable Aelryinth from Okay-Your Turn.
A Rose and Thorn stylist is equal parts grace and cunning. The style is based around the use of two weapons, the Rose (rapier) and the Thorn (long knife/stilletto/main-gaunche).
Q1. What is the deal with my cleric's religion?
I am going to approach this mostly as "which gods are available" as you would need to know that before creating any details about the religion.
Sunday, August 29, 2021
20 Campaign Questions
You can run D&D with just some PCs and a dungeon. I think that's totally legit. But if you have a campaign setting, here are some things for you to think about. Better to muse on these before your players ask you, rather than finding yourself on the spot.
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Elf Forests of Trokair
The elves of Trokair make their homes in isolated forests and, while they are open to alliance and mutual aid, outsiders are not welcome within their woods.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Variant Races - Adding to the Inhuman
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
GURPS Ebony Death Goddess
Dungeon Fantastic: RIP Ray Harryhausen & the Ebony Death Goddess
Ebony Death Goddess
A golem-like construct in the form of 6’ midnight-black statue of a six-armed nude woman. It is made of some unknown stone-like material. Usually found guarding dark temples, or springing from magical statuettes made by some unknown creator. They project a magical field around their swords that allows them to shear through armor with ease. The swords, however, are usually mundane.
DX: 15 Will: 12 Move: 8
IQ: 8 Per: 12
HT: 15 FP: N/A SM: +0
Dodge: 11+DB 2 Parry (x4)/Block (x2): 14+DB 2 DR: 5
Scimitar (20) (x4): 3d+3 (2) cutting or 2d (2) impaling; Reach 1. Usually launched as Deceptive Attacks -2 (4 in 6, effective skill 16) or Deceptive Attack -4 (2 in 6, effective skill 12).
Skills: Broadsword-20 and Shield-20.
Class: Construct.
Notes: Cannot negotiate. Carries four scimitars and two indestructible medium shields (DB 2). Dull-witted but they fight intelligently. While it will engage multiple foes, it will generally try to attack one target as much as possible. Can and will use Cross Parry (see GURPS Martial Arts, p. 131) to deal with heavy attacks or if it needs a +2; Disintegrates into dust when destroyed, leaving only four normal quality scimitars (each $600, 3 lbs.); its shields are made of the same mysterious material as the statue and will disintegrate with it.
Friday, April 23, 2021
GURPS Gelatinous Cube (obstacle)
Dungeon Fantastic: Iconic Monster Use & GURPS 10'
Gelatin Cube Monster
Killer Cube O' Gelatin
A 10
foot cube of hunting gelatin. "Attacks" by moving into/onto a target
and then digesting it. Usually motors along at less than 1 yard/second, eating
mold, fungus, carrion, and wood (including doors in a pinch!), but it can and
will speed up if attacked or it senses a large amount of food.
ST: 0 HP: 10 Speed: 4.00
DX: 6 Will: 10 Move: 2
IQ: 1 Per: 8
HT: 10 FP: 10 SM: +4
Dodge: N/A Parry: N/A DR: 0
Slam or Touch (N/A): 1 point corrosive
damage (every 5 pts damage reduces DR by 1 and inflicts 1 damage) (doesn’t
affect most metals or any stone/pottery) plus paralysis (contact agent,
resisted by HT-2), lasts 1 minute after no longer in contact with cube.
Envelopment (N/A): It can fully envelop
paralyzed foes; envelopment does 10 points of corrosive damage per second, plus
paralysis as above.
Traits: Amphibious;
Discriminatory Smell; Doesn’t Breathe; Doesn’t Sleep; High Pain Threshold;
Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Immunity to Mind Control; Injury Tolerance
(Homogenous; No Blood); Invertebrate; No Legs (Slithers); No Manipulators;
Regeneration (1 HP/Hour, not from fire); Silence 3; Universal Digestion;
Vibration Sense (Air).
Skills: Stealth-12.
Class: Slime
Notes: Nonsentient and can’t
negotiate. Plant/Slime spells won’t work. Gelatinous cube jelly is worth $10 a
quart, 1d6 quarts can be gathered from a slain cube.
And from the comments section
of that link:
- Wounded guys left behind, unconcious enemies left for "questioning later," corpses left for eventual resurrection - all have some real concerns with this thing. Armed and ready adventurers? None.
- Or deploy them by the dozens as support for the 10 x 10 x 10 yard Mother Cube that does 3d corrosive or so and has a boatload more HP.
- An interesting variation on the cube would be to make it Diffuse, and make it a cloud of corrosive digestive vapor-slime instead. That would make it much harder to kill.
- Basically, it's a way to:
- explain why corpses, etc. disappear
- why chalk marks and such disappear from walls when your players ask why you didn't mention their chalk marks from eight sessions ago
- make it dangerous to leave wounded companions behind or leave corpses behind for later recovery and resurrection
- make it dangerous to let your guard down
- make a mobile obstacle, so previously "safe" places might not be safe this time. Or later on.
- make it dangerous to run in a dungeon, even to try and run out of the dungeon.
But it's not a foe any more than that 10' pit
is.
I really like the idea of the cloud of corrosive vapor-slime. Harder to kill and likely faster moving. Maybe after sufficient meal it thickens out into a regular gelatinous cube and either remains stationary or slowly treks back to a "lair" to digest. It then returns to its vapor form before going on the hunt again.
Thursday, November 12, 2020
Bound to the Black Sea
Kernel of an idea that came to me while driving. I was listening to a podcast (Make Me Smart) and they were talking about the move by the right wing from Facebook to apps like Parler. One of the hosts mentioned that someone had pronounced it like parley instead of parlor and the thought of pirates immediately leapt into mind.
Why would pirates respect a code of conduct like the law of parley (as seen in Pirates of the Caribbean)? Perhaps they are magically bound to do so.
I thought of a large, literally black sea. It could be in the overworld or contained in a vast underground cavern. Any who try to enter the waters or even sail upon the black sea are consumed by it unless they first make a pact to bind themselves. Those who are bound to the black sea must remain within a certain distance of its waters but they are otherwise safe from its deadly consumption (able to swim and sail). This binding includes certain idiosyncrasies, one of which is the law of parley (the rest to be determined later; they will likely include certain weird/faerie things that make little sense to us but serve an unknown/unfathomable [see what I did there] purpose). If one breaks the laws of the black sea, various ill fates may befall them (black tentacles from the unseen depths drag you down; a host of bloated corpses [previous unbound who met their demise] clamber upon your ship or even onto the nearby shore to tear you apart; etc.).
Why would one want to bind themselves to the black sea? Because it is filled with islands brimming with rare resources and outright treasure. Despite its dangers, there are settlements on its shores where one could live it up after acquiring riches from its dark waters. Many exotic plants, animals, and materials are to be found in the black sea and merchants hawk them to traders who visit the nearby cities and town.
Some ideas can be found in an old post about a Pirates of the Sunless Sea idea by Phindar (http://eldriciv.blogspot.com/2008/05/underdark-locations.html). A somewhat similar but separate idea is the Black Pudding Lake (https://eldriciv.blogspot.com/2017/09/black-pudding-lake.html). And perhaps at the center of the black sea lies a lost island (http://eldriciv.blogspot.com/2008/05/lost-island.html).
Friday, June 28, 2019
Arabian Adventures: Voyages of Sinbad
The story is told in flashbacks, so Sinbad survived to tell the tales of his seven voyages. Throughout the stories, however, many of his companions die. Old school D&D has higher potential for death and likely lots of PCs, henchmen, and hirelings die throughout a campaign. Only those who survive and are left at the end will have gained levels and can tell the tale, making themselves out as heroes. But they were not fated from the beginning to do so (in that sense, Sinbad differs from Odysseus). Modern RPGs weight the game in favor of the players to help safeguard continuity of characters and allow for lengthier character arcs. Old school D&D leaves everyone to the mercy of the dice in a hostile and uncaring world, allowing survivors alone to make up their tales.
I want to summarize each of Sinbad's voyages in this or another post. However, the end of the fourth voyage occasions my writing now.
Sinbad was stranded in a rich foreign kingdom where he often attended the royal court. The King much enjoyed his company and coerced him to marry a local rich lady and stay in his country. Sinbad played along but desired to escape back to his own land (Baghdad). One of the locals, whom Sinbad had befriended, lost his wife to sickness. He lamented the loss and sinbad tried to cheer him up. That is when Sinbad discovered that in this country, when one spouse dies, the other is buried alive with the corpse (which is dressed in the richest clothes and jewels). And Sinbad had married a local. She soon fell sick and died. The whole court followed Sinbad into the mountains where a large rock covered a pit that went deep into the rock. They lowered the open coffin with his dead wife and then lowered him in another open coffin with seven loaves of bread and a jug of water. He found himself in a vast cave with lots of decomposing bodies. He survived as he could with his limited supplies and, just as he was in danger of starving, another couple was lowered into the pit. Sinbad clubbed the woman to death with a bone and stole her provisions. He kept at this for several iterations (apparently there was a plague in town) before finally discovering a hole to the oceanside deep in the cave. Some unknown creature used the tunnel to enter the cave and feed on the corpses. He managed to flag down a ship and made off with the valuables from inside the cave.
Easy adventure idea with a dungeon, a means of escape, and a "boss" monster. Would fit well in Lebanon given the tall seaside mountains.
Monday, June 3, 2019
Arabian Adventures
Fenereux is still on my mind and I want to continue developing the setting. However, I wanted another setting that was more established (historically, both in game and in the real world) to help me grasp the realm mechanics. The issue I have had with ACKS has always been my attempt to use it for the colonization campaign for Trokair (and subsequently Fenereux) while the rules seem to want to describe kingdoms and realms that have been in existence for some time (for the initial worldbuilding section).
By modeling a new setting where realms have risen and fallen over the centuries, rather than trying to establish colonies and realms whole cloth in a "new world", I can see how the rules work in situ.
I also want to learn more about the Middle East, particularly Lebanon and the Levant, for my own purposes to understand current geopolitics and better understand my children's heritage on their mother's side.
Finally, I think having a Mediterranean-style geography helps to open the world up a bit. Fenereux was really meant to restrict travel to overland to help contain the setting. By setting up the realms around the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea, I can flex my "create just enough at a time" DM muscles by touching on more realms (Fenereux has such a light touch that non-Birmver realms are just broad concepts because the players are specifically not meant to travel from one realm to another except in very controlled ways).
The realm I will concentrate on is based heavily on the ancient Nabatean kingdom. They created the ruins at Petra and Mada'in al-Saleh (also known as Hegra). Hegra is really awesome. They carved tombs into the side of giant boulders. And I mean GIANT boulders. Some of these things could easily house medium, multi-level dungeons (Qasr al-Farid or Qasr al-Bint). Others could have smaller dungeons or connect to an underground megadungeon. Of course, you also have the Aladdin-inspired Cave of Wonders.
One of the main ideas that is stuck in my head are the Twin Princes. They are literally twins who adventure around the realms seeking fame, fortune, and glory for their realm (still ruled by their father). They are able to act as friends and foes to the PCs depending on whether the party is in their way or working to further their aims.
I am not sure how I want to handle religion. I feel like I want to avoid having a very strong Islam vibe as my historical inspiration is pre-Islam.