Today we're looking at "The Haunting of Hainsley Hall," a simple haunted house (written by a legend, and illustrated by another legend) that promises mystery and some spooky shenanigans.

Michael Prescott (of Trilemma Adventures Fame) and Skerples (of the best Monster Book out there, among many other gems) came together to make this adventure.

B.L.U.F. (Bottom Line Up Front)

This one is cool. It is a fantastic choice for a low-level party (or any level party, really), especially if you want to inject a bit of mystery and non-combat problem-solving into your game. It's almost zero-prep, easily dropped into any setting, and can suit just about any level of party.

• Recommended if:

  • Your party wants a break from mortal danger

  • You want a fun, spooky session

  • Your party has fun with role-play

  • You can handle a good bit of improv

• Not recommended if:

  • Your players are hack-n-slash types who get bored with no fighting

  • Your players get bored with role-play

  • You dislike the idea of playing many different characters in one session.

Prep Needed (higher is better): 10/10

• You can slot this anywhere outside a town, city, or village. In less than 10 minutes of reading you’ll be ready to go.

Formatting: 9/10

• Easy to read, the structure of the house is very simple but in an intentional way. Each room could contain a secret passage to another random room. This would be annoying in a serious adventure, but I find it somewhat charming in a fun-house adventure like this one.

Setting neutral: 8/10

• Well, ghosts tend to exist in fantasy. In this particular adventure, you need to either be a medium, a cat, a wizard, drunk, terrified, or insane if you want to see the ghosts. This may go against the general rules for ghosts in some home settings, but I think it would be easy enough to wave it away as some local curse/enchantment.

Interesting: 9/10

• The premise is fantastically unique and engaging. It brilliantly flips the traditional "haunted house" trope on its head by having the ghosts hire the party to deal with a living person. This immediately sets it apart and promises a memorable session. The diverse cast of ghosts and the eccentric hermit add layers of potential interaction and role-playing opportunities.

The Mansion Itself

Premise

"The Haunting of Hainsley Hall" begins with a compelling hook: the locals know the mansion is haunted, and they're right. However, the twist is that the thirteen ghosts who haunt the place are the one’s compaining. They have a drug-addicted, romance novel-writing squatter in their home and they want her to leave, as she is "unfashionable".

The ghosts have contacted Madame Anna, a medium, who hires the adventurers to get rid of the hermit. This setup is clever and provides immediate, unusual motivation.

Encounters

The random encounters are the beating heart of this adventure, as the rooms only have dressing. Instead of focusing on combat, players will encounter a delightful and varied cast of thirteen ghosts, each with a brief, evocative description that sparks the imagination. To name a few:

• Baron Fisbick, who was murdered by his wife.

• The Twins, who died from a tragic bubblebath accident.

• Rex, a spaniel who looks more "like a dachshund now" after being run over.

• Lady Martha, flirtatious, was strangled by her jealous husband.

• Mister Gristam, the poet who secretly loves the Hermit.

Beyond these named spectral residents, there are also general atmospheric events like "Ominous Groan", "Eerie laughter", and "Crash of thunder", as well as a couple chances at some treasure.

The random appearance of "The Hermit. Flitting about on drugs" adds to the unpredictability and provides spontaneous opportunities for interaction.

Lots of fun. But, if you’re not down for some role-play, this will be a rough one. This sort of adventure will come with lots of winging-it.

Rooms

The dungeon (or rather, haunted mansion) is presented with a simple, intuitive layout thanks to the exceptional isometric illustration. Each of the twelve numbered locations, plus the High Gable, is concisely described. But, all you get is set dressing, as the random encounters are really the bread and butter of this adventure. The set dressing, while simple, provides enough to give some flavor and ambiance without have read-aloud descriptions.

Many of the rooms have opportunity for loot, from treasure to potentially useful items such as spyglasses and candles.

There isn’t much to dig into with the rooms, because this really is different from a typical dungeon. It simply isn’t meant to have the same structure.

The inclusion of the secret passages, with a 50% chance per room leading to a random other room introduces a dynamic element, that will likely confuse your players. I think that shit’s hilarious, because this is meant to be a strange and confusing adventure.

Conclusion

"The Haunting of Hainsley Hall" is an exceptional one-page adventure that fully demonstrates the creative potential of the format. It confidently steps away from typical combat encounters to deliver a social, investigative, and atmospheric experience. The core premise is brilliant, the randomized ghost encounters are full of unique character, and the detailed isometric map is very fun to look at.

The only exception is that this isn’t always the perfect one-shot dungeon for any random session. It provides a certain atmosphere, and that is very deliberate.

This adventure is truly zero-prep, easy to read, and provides abundant, unique role-playing opportunities. It's a fantastic choice for GMs looking to offer their players something memorable and distinctly different.

Final Judgement: 9/10. An awesome spooky, hip-pocket, halloween, pallate-cleanser, whatever other thing type of adventure. You should absolutely keep this on standby, especially if you want to give your players players a (most likely) fighting-free session.

The Burial Mound of Gilliard Wolfclan is a classic in the OSR scene. It was written over a decade ago, and constantly comes up as a recommendation for a quick no-prep adventure. Let’s take a quick look and see if you should add it to your repertoire.

B.L.U.F. (Bottom Line Up Front)

• Recommended if:

  • You are running a session for new players

  • You want no-prep, almost-no-treasure filler for a low level sandbox

  • You’re cool with ultra generic

• Not recommended if:

  • Your players are tired of goblins and centipedes

  • Your party is any higher than level 1

Prep Needed (higher is better): 10/10

• Literally just put this anywhere within a day’s walk of a settlement, and spend about 4 minutes looking at it before running.

Formatting: 9/10

• Easy to read, but isometric layout annoys some people (not me)

Setting neutral: 10/10

• This is straight up generic OSR fantasy

Interesting: 4/10

• The premise is generic, the dungeon is generic. That doesn’t stop it from being a solid starter dungeon.

The Dungeon Itself

Premise

So, this dungeon comes with a simple hook that gives exposition, and a goofy old man NPC that is just plain fun. The background of the dungeon is also fun, but generic. A barbarian from long ago went mad with dark magic, and him and his followers were trapped in a burial mound.

Encounters

One detractor here is that there are no random encounters. Now, this is a 9 (8, really) room dungeon, so maybe they aren’t necessary, but I always like the idea of some sort of dynamic event, even if it’s just one wandering monster that could add some surprise to the dungeon.

Rooms

The dungeon is easy to read, with a simple layout and concise descriptions. I will note, room dress descriptions are completely missing except for important items and enemies. In a dungeon this short, that’s fine, because you really will have time to make it up as you go. However, two or three flavor words per room can go a long way for inspiration.

Your players will probably not like this very much if they’ve played a lot of stereotypical 1st level dungeons. We start with fire beetles above ground. Then a pit trap that drops to the next level.

Then drunk goblins, with a boss. The boss is given a fun little hook, he may be willing to help the party because the guy in a later room took his job. These little details add to the game. Now, a careful party can earn the reward of aid from enemies by taking time to listen at the door and hear any complaints, and formulate a plan, instead of just walking in and fighting.

In another room, is an elf who is the new leader of the goblins, and his goblin witch-doctor sidekick. There is less than 70 gp in the entire top level (5 rooms) of this dungeon. If your players are not running brand new, fresh chracters, they will be pissed as hell.

Then… dun, dun, dun! Centipedes. Yeah, not very surprising. Next is a wolf totem that can answer questions for faithful adventurers, and summons a dire wolf to eat the rude ones.

Just before the FINAL BOSS room are some dead goblins in front of a poison-trapped door. Clever players will be suspicious of the door and want to investigate to see what is up here. Unfortunately, there is no information on what to do here. I guess just have a dwarf do it while everyone waits in the next room?

FINAL BOSS time. A ghoul of Gilliard (but not really, he has 10 hp and no special abilities other than his +1 sword) and 6 skeletons. this is fun enough, and will certainly be pretty challenging.

And what do the party find for getting through all of this? 100gp and a silver dagger.

Conclusion

Now, I don’t want to sound too cynical, because this is a great starter adventure. But the truth is, that is the absolute only thing it is good for. The only thing the party will leave with is some money for restocking on supplies and maybe buying better armor, a magic sword, and a silver dagger. For brand new adventurers, this is fine. Otherwise, it’s a no-go.

Overall, I think this is good. It gets the spirit of the one page dungeon. It is truly zero prep, easy to read, completely setting neutral (maybe too setting neutral?), and provides at least one decent role-playing opportunity.

Final Judgement: Decent-ish/10. Only use this for brand new parties of brand new characters. If your players are experienced, even if their characters are brand new, you should probably look elsewhere.

Today, I will be taking inspiration from the Mage class, by Gavin Norman (this can be found in one of the Carcass Crawler zines). For those not familiar with the class, it was a simple and clever attempt to create a more “Gandalf” type magic user, using magic abilities as “skills” and with the typical progression of the Thief class skills.

What is Skill Magic?

This gets into mild spoiler territory if you haven’t read the fantastic Realm of the Elderlings books by Robin Hobb.

Skill magic is a magic that is only present in certain individuals, which needs to be practiced dutifully to hone. It includes a number of abilities, all of them stemming from the mind, more or less. It can be used to communicate over great distances, influence people’s actions, make them see or believe things they normally wouldn’t, ride along in someone’s mind to see and hear what they see and hear. It also includes some healing abilities, as well as the ability to drain the life from someone. The main character, Fitz, can even use it to physically repel at individuals.

It also comes at the cost of being addictive, and can seriously drain or hurt the user.

Let’s turn these abilities into mechanics

Based on the nature of difficulty to master the Skill, it actually makes quite a bit of sense to use a skill progression of sorts such as the Thief class uses.

These powers are used in a much more subtle way than in most OSR games, so it is important to remember that these powers don’t require any gesticulations, words, or rituals. This inherently makes some of these abilities a little over-powered. I have taken the liberty of somewhat limiting the degree of power that these abilities have in order to make it more game-able.

So, I see a handful of different powers we need to flesh out. Here are the individual abilities and their rules:

• Communication - Mental messages sent instantly over great distances. This one is pretty simple. Skill-users can send messages, but only other skill users can reply. You don’t need to know where the individual is, but you do need to know who you are reaching out to. The recipient hears your own voice in their head as if you are speaking to them aloud.

• Influence- Influencing people’s actions is not too different from the Charm Person spell. Let’s say, choose one or more individuals within a 60’ radius, with a total HD no more than 1 higher than the Skill-User. On a failed save, they will believe whatever you tell them, and follow commands for up to one turn duration as long as it does not actively harm them. On a failed roll, the targets make a saving throw. On a successful save, the targets can sense that someone is trying to dig into their minds.

• Hallucination - You must be aware of the general location of the target, or have knowledge of exactly who you are looking for. On a success, the target makes a saving throw. If they fail, you can make them believe or see something they normally wouldn’t, but not something that is completely unrealistic. For example, you could make the ogres in the next room believe they hear footsteps from the opposite direction. A maximum of Xd4 HD of creatures may be affected, where X is the Skill-user’s level. Creatures with 3 HD more than the Skill-User are unaffected.

• Ride-Along - You can tap into someone’s mind and see, hear, and feel through them. The distance does not matter, but you must have at least seen the person before. The target must fail a saving throw, and they get a +1 bonus per HD higher than the Skill-user. If the targer is also a Skill-user, they get advantage on their save. A willing target need not save.

• Healing - Something simple, such as maybe 1HP per level of the character, distributed any way they like, or spend 1HP of healing to force a successful health-related saving throw such as Poison.

• Life Suck - Drain the life of an individual by touching them. Drains 1d4 HP per round of contact. If in combat, this requires a successful melee attack.

• I feel we need to limit the amount of uses of these powers, and possibly have a potential negative effect. I think giving a set daily limit, and a chance for damage to be taken will be enough. (This is also consistent with the writing. Using the Skill is known to be draining to those who use it too much.)

The Skill-User Class

Requirements: WIS 10

HD: d6

Armor: Leather

Weapons: Simple, one-handed. No shields.

Skill Abilities: A Skill-user has the ability to use the Skill. A complicated, but very useful form of magic that stems from the mind. The following abilities may, cumulatively, be used (2 + WIS bonus + level) times per day. Each usage of the skill has a 1-in-6 chance of reducing the Skill-User’s HP by 1.

• Communication - Send a mental message to anyone you desire, but you must know either their face or name. The recipient must be a Skill-User to send a reply. The link lasts 1d6 minutes.

• Hallucination - You must be aware of the general location of the target, or have knowledge of exactly who you are looking for. The target must make a saving throw. Upon failure, they can be made to see or hear something that isn’t there. The hallucination may not be too unrealistic. A maximum of X-d4 creatures may be affect, where X equals the Skill-User’s level.

• Healing - You may heal others up to 1 HP per character level per day, distributed in any way. 1 HP of healing may be spent to force a successful saving throw against a health related effect (such as poison). Requires physical contact and 1 turn of focus.

• Influence - One or multiple targets totaling no higher than 3 HD more than the Skill-User must make a saving throw. Upon failure, the target will do what told, short of being forced to harm themselves of someone they care about.

• Life Suck - Your touch can drain the life from an individual. Drain 1d4 HP per round of contact. In combat, a successful melee attack roll is required.

Read The Farseer Trilogy, Please

If you haven’t read any of Robin Hobbs’ Realm of the Elderlings books, I recommend you do so immediately. I just finished reading the first trilogy, The Farseer Trilogy, and was blown away.

Not only are the story and writing amazing, but the worldbuilding is spectacular. It really got my GM gears turning, thinking of new scenarios and mechanics.

One thing that really struck me was the magic systems. They are subtle, rare, and simple yet useful. There are two primary magic systems, the Wit and the Skill. This particular post is about Wit, but I plan to do a write up about the Skill soon.

What is Wit Magic?

First, let me explain what the Wit is, if you haven’t read the books.

This is technically mild spoiler territory because the depth of the wit isn’t established until after the first book, however I will avoid bringing up any plot points. You’ve been warned.

One who is capable of using the Wit (or rather, one who is Witted) is capable of doing a few different things with their magic. Heres the gist of it:

• Form a bond with an animal, sensing one-another’s emotions. This eventually evolves into the ability to see, hear, and smell through the animal, then full-fledged telepathic communication. Eventually one will be able to sometimes take control of the animal as if it were an extension of their being.

• Sense the presence of animals and people in the area

• “Quest” out to animals and people near you and gain a sense of their mental or emotional state. This isn’t quite mind reading, but you can learn a lot with it. Some people seem able to block this ability even if they themselves have no aptitude for magic.

One important thing to note is that the animal companion is not a master-slave relationship. The bond is mutual, and very deep. When an animal someone is bonded to dies, it leaves a gaping hole in their soul for quite a while.

There may be some that I’m missing, but these three abilities make up the majority of it. As you can see, we have a magic that is very naturalistic, somewhat druidic in D&D terms.

Making this Gamable

So, to make this into something you could add to an OSR game, we need to turn these abilities into mechanics.

• For the animal bond, this seems simple but we have some thinking to do. Something along the lines of: choose an animal, it is bonded to you, and the connection gets stronger as you level. If the animal dies, enforce some sort of penalty. We should also include a rule that keeps a 1st level player from choose a polar bear and just tearing up every dungeon ever - maybe we will have HP scale up to a certain level.

• Sensing the presence of living beings should probably be changed from an “always-on” ability, to an ability that can be used X times per day, with a range. Say, 1 time per day per level, with a 60’ radius or something like that.

• “Questing” should probably have a range that increases with level. It should also require a save, from anybody who suspects the character of being Witted.

Finalizing What We’ve Got

Alright. We have the idea for our mechanics, lets turn it into hard rules.

As a character class, this would likely be d6 HD class, with XP progression of the Cleric.

Animal Companion

At level 1, you may choose any natural, non-magical animal to be your companion. The animal should be of normal size (for example: dog, wolf, jaguar, black bear) and not extremely small or short-lived. You have a deep bond with this creature.

The companion starts with 1 HD, and gains 1 HD each time you level. Once it reaches 4 HD, it can no longer increase in HD.

• You and the creature can sense eachother’s emotions keenly, but cannot communicate any complex thought.

• The animal will always fight to defend you.

At level 2, your bond deepens enough that you can use telepathy to communicate plainly with your companion.

• The companion cannot understand spoken language.

At level 3, you can go into a trance-like state and see, hear and smell the things that your companion senses.

• This can be done for one turn per level, per day.

At level 4, you can inhabit the mind of your companion and control it.

• This can be done for one turn per level, per day.

Upon the death of your companion

• You will have your level reduced by one, including HP and saves of your previous level.

• You must undergo a period of mourning (length determined by GM, recommended 1d4+1 weeks). During this time you may adventure, but you cannot use the Wit in any way.

• After mourning, you may bond with a new companion. The bond with the new companion progresses at one stage (or level) per week until the bond is completed or the chracter level and stage match.

Sense Sentience

Beginning at level 1, you can sense the presence of any living being that has a soul (animal, monster, or person, but not undead).

• This does not provide a precise location, only an approximation.

• The range of this ability is 30’.

• This ability can be used for one turn, once per day.

At level 3

• Range: 60’. One turn, twice per day.

At level 5

• Range 90’. One turn, three times per day.

At level 7

• Range 120’. One turn, four times per day.

Questing

Beginning at level 2, you gain the ability to sense a living being’s mental or emotional status.

• The subject must be touched.

• The effect is instant.

• Can be used once per day

• Those who are aware that the Witted individual has the wit, and are on guard, can block this ability. The GM will make a save privately to decide. On a successful save, the character feels nothing from the individual they quested out to.

At level 4

• Range extends to all beings in a 5’ radius, twice per day.

At level 6, your control over your questing ability becomes more precise.

• Range extends to all beings in a 15’ radius, or to one particular being in a 30’ radius.

• Can be used three times per day.

Conclusion

That’s all I’ve got for you, I plan to do the Skill soon, before moving on to another book series after.

I originally looked at the Feats of Exploration system from Jon at 3d6 Down the Line (which is actually a really good XP addon, you should buy it if you run lots of dungeons. I am not affiliated in any way) but that is geared more specifically to dungeon crawls, and I knew I wanted something a bit more universal.

The Whole Point of XP

So, I sat down and thought “what is the point of XP?” Aside from gaining levels, I mean. Well, the point of XP is to provide a motivation for engagement with the game and the world. In most OSR games, the largest factor of PC growth is treasure found and brought to a safe place. This encourages players to delve dungeons, and return home safely. That is the core loop of character development in the game. It's simple, sweet, and gets the job done. I DO NOT want to do away with that. I do, however, want to add to it.

What Should We Give XP for?

The two questions I needed to ask myself were: “what should be important to PC development other than collecting treasure and killing monsters?” and “what behaviors do I want to encourage from my players?”

The answer to this was “IMPACT”. I want the players to have an impact on the world around them. Well, how do we encourage the players to interact with the world?

For me, there are two satisfying answers to this: faction play, and heroism. Here is my justification for both of these:

• Faction play is the players’ chance to leave a permanent mark on the people or areas they are engaging with. This usually takes planning, time, thoughtfulness, and often, combat. Awarding XP for it gives the players the green light to engage with the people and conflicts they find important rather than floating through the world explusively looting dungeons. In my opinion, significantly altering the social landscape of an area is worthy of XP.

• Heroism, in my opinion, is important. I think most GMs would agree with me that we sometimes wish our players would engage with opportunities to commit heroic acts, but they so often follow the money. Of course, there are many players who will take the moral high road even if it means slowing their progress (and we love those players), but giving XP for it removes interparty conflict regarding “wasted time”. Also, I think players deserve XP for it anyway.

The System

So, here’s what I’ve come up with.

XP for Impact - factions and heroism

Interacting with factions, as well as acts of heroism, can have big implications for in a campaign. When you intentionally make choices that affect a faction, or commit heroic deeds, you earn XP.

There are three categories of impact: Minor, Significant, and Major.

Minor Impact

Factions example: Mildly hinder or aid a faction.

Heroism example: Saving an inconsequential individual, helping find something lost.

Significant Impact

Factions example: Hinder or help a faction in a way that greatly aids or deters them. Complete destruction of a minor faction.

Heroism example: Save a group, save an important person, stop a seriously bad event.

Major Impact

Factions example: Completely destroy a powerful faction or bring a weak faction into a significantly higher echelon of power.

Heroism example: Save someone of royal/regional importance, save an entire region or kingdom, stop a cataclysm.

Use the chart below to calculate Impact XP by multiplying the Impact tier and the combined level of all party members (retainer levels are halved).

The XP for the imact is then divided among the party the exact same way it normally is.

Faction play and heroism XP can be given at the same time. For example, say the party drives away a band of goblins that have been terrorizing the area (faction play, maybe a small argument for heroism) and in the process they rescue the blacksmiths daughter from their goblin prison (definitely heroism). In this case, the party would get XP for a minor act of heroism, and a minor (possibly significant, depending on the circumstances) faction play.

XP for Treasure

For every 2 gp brought back to a safe haven, 1 XP is earned. This can be in the form of money or treasure items, but not magic items.

This is the same as in other OSR games, but with a Gold:XP ratio of 2:1 instead of the typical 1:1. I did this to slightly slow the progression back to a normal pace.

XP for Combat

No changes here, run it as usual.

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Conclusion

I have playtested this XP system a bit, and it has gone over really well. Players have chosen to have meaningful involvement in towns, and among factions, because they are aware that their progression is no longer at risk if they spend half a session working on non-wealth-generating activities. I am, so far, very satisfied with it, and it has been months since I’ve last make any tweaks to it.

Let me know what you think!

Here is the Kickstarter link if you want to just check there!

The False Temple is a small megadungeon consisting of 4 levels with well over 100 rooms (finished product should have around 150 rooms), a starting town and surrounding area, and a dark background to intrigue both you and your players.

A party of levels 4-7 should be able to take on the dungeon, and this module could be run with a lower level party, allowing them to pick up leads and smaller missions in town and get to the appropriate level before attacking the dungeon.

This module is based on our small free project "Dakar's Dungeon", found on the Azorynian Post Blog RIGHT HERE. What started as a simple overzealous response to a prompt, is now being turned into a full-fledged, ready-to-run adventure module.

What Additions to Expect

• A nearby town fleshed out with NPCs who have personalities and needs that could lead to further adventure

• A surrounding area with points of interest

• Expanded Dungeon levels and maps - more rooms on each level!

• More fleshed-out factions and descriptions of their leaders

• Professional formatting

• Art!

Take a look at the kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/azorynianpost/the-false-temple-an-osr-mini-mega-dungeon

And take a look at a more in-depth description of the plans for this project here:

The expanded module will not only expand the dungeon by over 50 rooms, but also add a surrounding area, with overland factions and hooks, but also a town filled with NPCs who are completely fleshed out, and offer their own hooks and conflicts.

Now, let’s take a look at what I have planned so Far

The Adventure Premise

As stated in the original blog post, this dungeon centers around an individual who was evil, and eventually was granted something akin to demigod status by the goddess of chaos. He went insane, and was eventually magically sealed in his dungeon. His name is Dakar.

The general area surrounding the dungeon is somewhat chaotic as well, due to the nature of the evil emanating from the dungeon. It affects the life in the forest around it, the crops grown nearby, and even has an effect on the town nearest it.

The Dungeon

If you look at the PDF for Dakar’s dungeon, you will see that it is a complete dungeon that could be run as is. However, it leaves a bit to be desired. Room descriptions could be better, factions could be more detailed, and NPCs could be more fleshed out.

I will also be adding quite a few rooms to the dungeon in order to make it a bit more “mega” but I want to actively avoid making it unwieldy. I don’t want this module to be too big.

Here is a list of dungeon features to expect:

• New rooms

• At least one new faction

• Improved faction descriptions

• More information about NPCs, their motives, and their personalities

• Better map drawings

• Improved (but still concise) room descriptions

The Surrounding Area

Now, this is not in the original adventure. But it will be. There will be an area around the dungeon and town that has multiple points of interest, and a couple smaller, easier dungeons.

The idea behind including this in the module is that by giving some smaller hooks, treasures, and adventures to throw in, a GM could confidently bring this module to the table for a lower 4th, or even 3rd level party without worrying about the dungeon being too difficult and having nothing to run.

For example, if the players reach a part of the dungeon that is too difficult, they can approach another hook they found and gain some experience, or even find some magic items to buff themselves a bit.

This also serves to keep the players from getting bored of the dungeon, while hopefully allowing them to maintain their overall focus on the dungeon itself.

What to expect from the surrounding area:

• about 500 square miles of terrain

• Multiple overland points of interest

• Factions to interact with and manipulate

• Multiple dungeons/structures to explore and find treasure in

The Town

Every good adventure needs a town, and this is no different a situation.

The town of Swancairn oozes ambiance, and the chaotic effect of the Dakar, though it hasn’t spelled the end of the town yet, can be felt in its underbelly. Swancairn is chock full of NPCs, locations for the players to spend time, and hooks for them to follow.

The town is designed to accomplish multiple objectives:

1. Set the tone of the module itself

2. Provide hooks that get the characters into the dungeon

3. Provide hooks that encourage exploration of the surrounding area

4. Provide hooks to encourage interaction within the town itself, allowing the characters to have a profound impact on the community itself

This design of this town in terms of the game and OSR systems, is something I am very proud of. Your players will be able to interact quite a bit, and build bonds with NPCs that drive them to clear the dungeon and save the sanity of the town itself.

What to expect from the town:

• Leads and plot hooks galore

• A minimum of 18 NPCs for players to interact with

• Internal factions

Conclusions

So, that’s what I’ve got for you. the framework for the entire module is already laid out, the dungeon is of course already one-third finished. The town and surrounding area are also fleshed out to a fair degree already. I am also working on some art.

All said, I expect the finished product to be completed no later than June, but probably around May or even as early as late April.

The follow page is up on kickstarter, and I expect to fully launch it in the next week or so!

Here’s the link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/azorynianpost/the-false-temple-an-osr-mini-mega-dungeon

Thank you for your time!

There are valid reasons to have some areas of realistic population and population density, and valid reasons that there should be areas where the realism of population distribution should be (mostly) thrown out the window.

What are points of light?

A point of light is a place that you could generally consider to be safe, at least safe from the horrors of the wilderness and the world beyond. This could be a variety of things - a fortified village, a town under the protection of a powerful lord, or a walled city. It could even be an inn. Whatever it is, it simply isn’t a dungeon, tomb, or wilderness filled with things that go bump in the night.

First, let’s start with the general assumptions of the world itself, and how it differs from the actual medieval world:

• Magic exists. Even if magic is uncommon, it still exists, and this changes things. Based on the rules as written in BX, this will have a profound and lasting effect that makes civilized life thrive just about anywhere that there isn’t an evil magic guy to ruin things. The magic system in my game, Old Castle, is revised to create the implication that, although magic exists, the art of using it is so difficult that it kills or maims most who try to learn. This helps give the balance required to create a believable world that is conducive to the idea of a dangerous, mysterious world full of monsters, but still has “unrealistic” population patterns in many regions.

• Monsters are real. More importantly, monsters are abundant. And most importantly, many monsters are sentient or even intelligent. Sure, monsters exist in our world. We have bears, lions, jaguars, wolves, and more. But they aren’t everywhere, and they aren’t very strong if you have a group of guys with even simple weapons. In your fantasy world, the monsters are stronger. Giants live in the mountains, undead lurk in ruins, dragons can control entire swaths of sky, and gangs of goblins, orcs, and more battle in the forest and raid towns in their constant grapple for power.

Taking these points into account helps paint the picture of why it is a mistake to attempt to replicate the demographics of medieval Europe. Now, that isn’t to say you can’t capture the vibe you want. You can always do that. You can have cheerful towns, and rough back alleys in cities, and humble lakeside hamlets. But they won’t be reliably scattered every 5-10 miles like they often were in real life. They won’t be as safe as they were in our world, either.

More realistically, there will be a single safe path between areas (or none at all in some instances). If the area is critical to trade, there may be soldier patrols. But towns that branch from the established trail will likely be completely on their own unless they provide something of very high value to the dominant power in the area. Townsfolk may have patrols that keep a road safe in order to maintain trade routes.

An Example Using My Setting, Azorynia

I’ll be using an example of one of the regions in my home setting that I have deeply fleshed out. This region is a good example of ways to mix some “realistic” demographics, with something more fantastical that allows exploration of unknown territory.

One of the most prosperous kingdoms is basically two cities 50 miles apart, with some towns along the river that connects them. These towns mainly exist to farm the surrounding land in order to feed the cities. The total population of these two cities and handful of towns is about 50k. Keeping this relatively small area safe from monsters and bandits requires a vast amount of security and resources from the king. It is an uncommonly large undertaking, and one that really only works because of some vague treaties with nearby orc and goblin factions, as well as some demihuman societies who benefit and live in some areas nearby.

Here is a largely incomplete map of the area, using 8-ish mile hexes. I have already planned many revisions, but it gives you an idea of what I mean. These hexes come from 2-Minute Tabletop, but the map is my own creation.

This map highlights the extent of potential safety in the region. As you can see, it is minuscule, and there is really only one big chunk of space where you could be mostly safe.

Aside from this, the kingdom consists of a handful of medium-sized villages and towns that have specific industries (mining, logging, etc) that exist on a single, well-traveled road. Despite the fact that this road recieves patrols, it is still dengerous to travel without guards. What this amounts to is about 150 cumulative square miles of safe space, of which 148 of those miles are in the same general area. The rest of the 30,000 square miles are mostly dangerous, and completely out of the minds of civilized people.

Some of it hasn’t been touched by humans in hundreds of years. Crossing one of the nearby forests would take days, and information on what might lurk in there is impossible or nearly impossible to find. In most instances, there isn’t any reason to ever bother anywhere through woods unless you were specifically looking for something of legend. Such as a dungeon, ruined temple, fort, or fae creatures to make deals with.

My Point…

At the end of the day, my advice is not to put too much effort into realism. Save that for where it makes sense. In regions that are largely devoid of the threats of fantasy creatures, you may want to be more realistic. But there is no need to over-do it.

It is also important that you make sure you have points of light in your setting, if you want it to feel lived-in. Sure, having a “frontier” that humanity hasn’t touched in thousands of years can be great. But I prefer having these areas thrown about the world, creating a (mostly) constant threat, allowing you to have diverse “safe havens” and allow the players to smoothly transition between overland adventuring, and city intrigue.

What are your opinions?

I’ll preface the thing with this - this isn’t an officially published thing for sale, so there may be typos, and there may be issues. Please, if you see any let me know, and I will gladly update the document.

I’m gonna post the introduction, the background of the adventure, and the pictures of the maps here. However, if you just want to download the damn thing and have a look at it, I have linked a PDF, here. In an effort to make the dungeon dead simple to run, I managed to keep it down to about 15 pages total.

The PDF link, again.

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So, heres the introduction and the pitch.

Introduction

Meant for 4-5 characters of levels 4-6. I haven’t play tested this yet but I plan to lodge it into my campaign, and will be running it solo with a “party” of four character soon. I imagine there are some things that need to be modified, such as numbers of monsters in some location, and treasure amounts, but I will work on that as I go, and try to post frequent updates.

This module is designed for use with the upcoming RPG called Old Castle, but is completely compatible with B/X D&D, OSE, and other OSR games. Nothing here should seem particularly new or unusual. The only change you would have to make, is to make Dakar basically a magic-user with the spells in his stat block prepared. It also assumes that the silver standard is used. If using a gold standard, step up each coin type by 1 (i.e. silver pieces are now gold, gold pieces are now platinum, etc.)

The premise behind this module is built around my home fantasy setting, Azorynia. However, this module can comfortably be slotted into any world. Just drop it into a dark forest a few miles away from civilization and your you’re good. Simply use your own versions of the goddesses of life, nature, chaos, etc.

In Azorynia, there are a type of people called “ascended” which are essentially saints that have been granted immortality by the goddesses, and are more or less demigods. They are usually given a task in immortality that reflects on what they achieved as mortal. For example, someone who dedicated their entire life to feeding young children in the name of Kivelia, might have been tasked with wandering the world saving young children from starvation in exchange for their immortality.

The Ascended are not truly immortal - they can be killed by violence. However, they are generally extremely powerful and hard to kill. Something like 15-20 HD, and their murder will often result in the wrath of the goddesses coming down on your head.

This particular module centers around an evil “ascended” who was gifted immortality by the goddess of chaos. You could use your world’s equivalent of these types of individuals, or refit the module to use a lich as the Big Bad. Either way, you need a super fucked up evil dude who is immortal.

I have designed this module to be extremely usable. Room descriptions are simple, and each level only takes 2-3 pages of text. You could realistically run this entire dungeon by just taking 10-15 minutes to read the level and room descriptions before you start your session.

The characters know about the origin of the dungeon, and the mechanism by which Dakar is locked in his prison. The biggest motivation for entering the dungeon, aside from getting rich as hell, should be that the nearby town is starting the see the beginning effects of his potent evil. Crops are dying, animals are being attacked by wolves, goblins, and orcs, and the water supply is making people sick.

Background

Dakar’s Origin

Dakar was never a good person. When he was a mortal over 700 years ago, he was horrible, just as he is horrible now as an immortal. As a young man, Dakar became extremely scared of the prospect of death. He spent years pleading to the goddess of life, Kivelia, and the goddess of death Phalarys. He got nothing from them. Eventually, something snapped in his head and he turned his attention to the shunned goddess of Chaos, Fomoira. He decided he would do anything to get her attention.

Dakar started a cult using some unknown dark magic, building his numbers over a few years, and found a hill in the woods about 8 miles from town. He begun construction on a temple. People from the town began to question the strange goings on in the woods, so he concocted a plan to keep things secret. The first thing he did was dedicate his new temple to the goddess Kivelia, in order to quell any suspicions. Then, He had his cultists capture creatures from within the surrounding woods - goblins, kobolds, orcs, ogres, etc. - and force them to start work on the true project. A bigger, grander temple dedicated to his true muse, Fomoira, in an elaborate dungeon directly under the false temple.

Dakar then spent decades conducting strange, evil experiments on monsters, woodland creatures, even people who wandered into his cultists patrols. He acted with sociopathic cruelty, and no concern for the pain and suffering he caused. His only focus was finding a way to immortality. As he aged and grew more insane and more cruel, he finally earned Fomoira’s attention.

Without the consent of her sisters, she made Dakar an ascended, and granted him immortality. With his only fear in life gone, and his only goal achieved, Dakar had no idea what to do. He only spiraled further into insanity, shutting himself in his dungeon and continuing to cause needless suffering.

Even Fomoira realized her mistake, and all but abandoned him just after granting him Ascended status. Instead of becoming the extremely powerful demigod he envisioned, he withered into a shell of himself. Eventually his evil temperament began to leak into the very air around him, and infect the dungeon itself.

Locking Dakar Away

Around four hundred years ago, a legendary adventuring party braved the dungeon to put an end to the evil of Dakar. Their wizard had procured an item that can permanently lock a single door from one side. If the door is opened, the spell is diffused forever. The party scrawled a message outside his lair saying “do not open the door.”

The party were unable to fully defeat him. When all hope seemed lost, the wizard ran to the door, locked it using the enchantment, and left his friends behind. He had no choice.

The remaining members of the party were slaughtered, and turned to enslaved undead. Dakar has been alone with them in a single room for nearly years now.

Although still magically adept, Dakar is completely insane and not nearly as strong as an ascended should be. A clever party of about 5th to 6th level should be able to handle him, though they may not all survive.

And Here are Some Pictures of the Maps

And again for good measure, here’s the PDF on google drive.

This setting is specifically designed to mesh well with the OSR system I am making, including the rules for magic. I intend to have a zine-sized gazetteer as a stretch goal in the kickstarter. However, it should work well with any fantasy RPG that isn’t insanely high-powered.

While quite a bit of it has been fleshed out, very little of it is actually put down on paper and organized. Here is a good little chunk of what I do have organized, and I would like to share some of it with you. I eventually plan to have this world fleshed out enough to release a setting book detailing most major regions, their history, cultures, and politics.

For now, we have a simple breakdown of the pantheon, the creation of the world, a very zoomed-out timeline of the history of the world of Azorynia. My next post will likely detail some civilizations and kingdoms.

Introduction

The world of Azorynia is a fantastical world, full of magic, mysteries, and thousands of years of history. It has undergone many changes, and many catastrophes. There is much to explore, and much to learn. Magic flows through the veins of the earth, and there are many magical creatures and occurences that happen. However, the at-will command of magic has been detiorated heavily by the goddesses in recent millenia. Magic, in the sense of its manipulation and use, is incredibly difficult and dangerous. And, therefore, it is extremely rare for mortal humans and demi-humans to wield it.

The Origin of the world dates nearly twelve thousand years before the current year. Before Azorynia existed, there was much else in the universe. None of that matters, though, because we are here for Azorynia.

There is one true creator of the universe in which Azorynia exists. You may liken him to the christian God from our world. He did not, however, create Azorynia. This, and this alone, is what distinguishes that world from the mundane world with which the reader is likely familiar. This world is different, because it was not created by God, but by God’s Daughters, of which there are five. The ultimate creator’s daughters were not as wise as him. They made many mistakes, and over time learned from them.

The Goddesses, commonly referred to as "The Mothers" or “The Sisters” (or "The Daughters" depending on who you ask) by the residents of the world, created the world of Azorynia with the permission of their father.

The Five Goddesses

Kivelia, the goddess of life, is the goddess who represents the ethereal essence which all beings wish to hold onto. She is responsible for the manifestation of sentient life on Azorynia, and the methods by which people may be healed.

Phalarys is the goddess of death. Not many wish to meet her, but all trust her to carry their soul faithfully into the Next Stage. Her presence is felt among the fungi, and the memories which thrive among the dead. Undead monsters are a symptom of her existence that she reluctantly accepts as necessary to the balance of the world.

Dryona, matron of nature, is responsible for all of the plants, fungi, and many of the other things that make sustaining life on Azorynia possible. She understands that her role can often be underappreciated, but she protects what is hers fiercely.

Edrena, goddess of mind, can be indirectly credited with nearly every advancement that the people of Azorynia have ever made. She is the spark of imagination, the momentum that turns the cogs in the machine, the wall upon which good ideas stick.

Fomoira… is a different story. While all the other goddesses bring a sense of balance to the world, she represents chaos. Against her best intentions, she has always found a way to make things more extreme, more painful, more chaotic. It is generally understood that her existence is necessary to drive progress and encourage extending balance as things change. But her sisters rarely approve of it.

These 5 goddesses reign supreme over the world of Azorynia.

Goddesses Working Together

• Kivelia, phalarys, and dryona all worked closely to develop the overall cycle of life and biology as it is understood. Edrena spawned genuine consciousness into the sentient beings. Fomoira, with strict moderation from her sisters, injected chaos into the world in order to add an element of unpredictability to the world.

• When it comes to fungi, Dryona was originally the mastermind. But, Phalarys plays a significant role in the ability of fungus to thrive, for many types of fungus thrive on dying things. They had to work closely together to create fungi, and this was one of the last pieces necessary to complete the circle of life. Edrena’s powers were recruited to help create the Myconids - a species of sentient fungal beings who can communicate, ambulate, and think coherent thoughts.

• Edrena and Kivelia worked closely together to develop the primary races of the world, both civilized and uncivilized.

• Although fomoira isn’t often cited as a main collaborator, she played a massive role with all of her sisters in creating demons. She was also very clearly involved when Phalarys and Dryona created the undead together. Her influence is also spread throughout all of creation, driving the general uncertainty within which the world and its inhabitants reside.

• Phalarys and Dryona worked together to create ghosts and undead, though sometimes the workings of Fomoira have become apparent in some truly chaotic monstrous spirits.

Creation

The existence of the Goddesses has been proven indisputably, through the mere existence of magic, and a handful of legendary appearances that have been passed down through the ages.

Their father, however, has never been observed by those who inhabit Azorynia, and some even question his very existence. The only referencs to him in ancient times were from rumors that the Sisters mentioned a “father” during one of their legendary appearances. Those who choose to include him in their religion refer to him as "The Great Father." The choice of whether or not to include him has often been a point of contention throughout history.

In the greater scheme of things, The Sisters Kivelia, Phalrys, Dryona, and Edrena represent Law, or the natural order. Fomoira, however, represents pure, unbridled chaos. But Fomoira is not evil. She is simply the opposite of order. Fomoira does not often get along with her sisters.

The first creatures created were the humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and gnomes. Of these, the humans made up the majority, spawning over much of the world. The elves originated in the great forest, the dwarves deep in the mountains of the Azorynian Ridge, the halflings along peaceful, grassy, rolling hills, and the gnomes in the cave complexes on the fringes of mountain ranges, near bountiful forests. Next came many of the other common creatures; orcs, goblins, ogres, kobolds, giants, bears, deer, lions, dogs, and cats.

In the beginning, The Sisters were not the most interventionist of deities. Eventually, they decided they should care for the world they created. Nobody knows what caused this, but some speculate that their father punished them for their lack of caring, others say that they simply came to terms with the fact that mortals could not always solve their own problems, and the challenges placed in their world were insurmountable. Their intervention started with small ethereal nudges in one direction or another, but they had little effect on the world as a whole. This eventually led to the creation of the "Ascended", godlike mortals-turned-demigod who do the goddesses bidding and help maintain order throughout Azorynia.

Geography

The geography of Azorynia is diverse, but likely unfamiliar to those who aren’t from there. The world is flat. Not completely flat, more of a slightly curved disc. You see, the Sisters understood that they were new at this “worldbuilding” thing. They didn’t want to bite off more than they could chew. So, they made a world using fundamentals from that of one of their father’s creations.

They hadn’t quite thought the entire ordeal through, and ended up with about one-tenth of a respectably sized planet. That’s fine, they decided. They could use their godly abilities to make it work. And so they did.

In Azorynia, the north is cold, and the south is hot. In the East, at least. And in the west, it is mostly hot, except in furthest parts of the north, where it can get very cold.

The Ascended

The ascended are individuals of great character, willpower, or skill, who The Sisters determined were worthy of immortality. They usually leave their mortal body behind, and their soul is carried to The Sisters, where they gain immortality. These extraordinary individuals have commonly been given a task which they dutifully undertake for the rest of time. Others roam the world looking for those who need them for their particular patronage.

The Legend of the First Ascended

Two of the most iconic Ascended are the low-born brother and sister, Armanius and Patronia, known as the "Great Liberators." They were unfortunate enough to be born in the infancy of the world of Azorynia, and are the first example of the ascended. Before the common sun and moon, day and night cycle, the sun and moon existed in a chaotic state of unpredictability. The sun would sometimes shine for days, or disappear for days. It would sometimes only come up partially, leaving the world in a prolonged twilight that could take weeks to end. The moon had similarly unpredictable habits. Crops could not be grown reliably, and creatures of the night would sometimes be able to run amuck for days on end, terrorizing peaceful villages.

The more malicious of the dragons saw this chaos and decided they could take advantage of the situation. It is important to note that dragons are not inherently evil. They are simply compulsively lawful. They crave order, and cannot stand chaos. While most are not interested in hurting others when not necessary, some will do whatever it takes to establish order. They came together to form a cabal, enslaving much of humanity, (and humanoid creatures) relishing the power and the order which they established among people who they saw as inferior.

This was actually one of the few instances where all five of the Sisters agreed on something. While Kivelia, Phalrys, Dryona, and Edrena saw the establishment of order as a good thing, Fomoira also saw the chaos lying underneath as a good thing. The lack of any law beyond that which was enforced by the dragons, resulted in a highly chaotic underbelly to humanoid society, with very little peace to be found.

Armanius and Patronia brought down the cabal of oppressive dragons by rising through the ranks of their servants and gaining their trust, often committing horrible acts in the dragons' names, just to maintain the facade of fealty. Their perseverance eventually led to the opportunity to steal a magical artifact which enabled them to bend two of the lead dragons to their will, and liberate millions of people condemned to slavery under the dragon cabal. Rich tapestries have been created depicting Armanius, on the back of a Gold Dragon, and Patronia, on a Silver dragon, raining fire on the many evil dragons that ruined the lives of generations.

This resulted in the first Ascension. In the aftermath, The Sisters came down and offered Armanius and Patronia immortality for their deeds. They proudly accepted a position of service to their world and their people, and chose to ascend. If one looks at the moon or sun through the telescope of a Wizard or Astronomer, they may be able to vaguely make out the shape of a human riding a dragon, pulling the sun or moon steadily across the sky, right on schedule.

Fomoira was the only one of the Sisters who lost in this story. Her bitterness led her to create a handful of Ascended who thrive on chaos. This spawned the opposite of dragons, demons. Fomoira is no longer on good terms with her sisters, and actively attempts to undermine them.

Timeline

0

Azorynia is created by the daughters. The first beings were dragons, inspired by the fictions of the world which their father created. Many wild animals were inserted along the way.

500

The goddesses got bored and created halflings and fairies. The vast majority of halflings dwelt in the fields and hills, while others dwelt in the mountains. The mountain dwellers eventually differentiated and became what are known as gnomes. The fairies spread throughout the world, some becoming corrupted by Fomoira and becoming creatures such as goblins, orcs, and hobgoblins.

1,200

The goddesses eventually became bored with the peaceful nature of the world, and Fomoira was allowed to make a creation. She created demons, who spread absolute havoc over the world for two millennia. The dragons were often able to keep them at bay, but this age was one of fear and chaos.

1,800

The goddesses create a world below Azorynia, to contain the demons. They are successful at subtly encouraging heroes to herd most of them in.

2,400

Again, bored and dissatisfied with the state of the world, the sisters added Elves and Dwarves to the world. Fomoira was allowed a small amount of influence, giving the races a bit of chaos, and also allowing the creation of a variety of less sophisticated creatures, including orcs and goblins.

4,500

Phalrys was eventually able to convince her sisters that giving elves eternal life may have been a mistake, as they have been breeding and filling up much of the world, and could not die except from violence. Phalrys and Fomoira worked together to create a famine, which significantly decreased the population of elves. Phalrys also was allowed to give elves Elves aging and death of disease and old age, with the exception that the change be gradual. Elf lifespans slowly dwindled to about 600 years.

To this day there are sects of elves who fervently worship Phalrys out of fear of her wrath, and those who have completely written her off as someone unworthy of worship.

6,200

This begins, in record, the experimentation of the goddesses of their perfectly balanced being. Humans began to show up in extremely small numbers, rarely more than one at a time, and with many years between occurrences. It is unknown if any of these early examples had any offspring, but many suspect it may be possible.

7,000

The goddesses, having figured their formula out, began populating the world with humans. This began slowly at first, and over the course of a thousand years, they planted seeds of the human race throughout the world.

7,800

The first Calamity. The first Ascended, Armanius and Patronia, are born shortly after.

9,200

The second Calamity

11,000 (Year Zero)

The third Calamity. The goddesses are sure they got it right this time.

832 (11,832 years after the beginning of Azorynia)

The current year.

This session was broken into two posts due to the simple fact that quite a lot happened. This is part 2.

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't played The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, obviously.

The Stolen booze

With Marsden refreshed, the group heads to the Golden Egg Tavern and sets up a plan to catch this beer thief. Quinn is sent upstairs and is told to pretend to sleep.

They set Nahual across the street, watching the front (and only) door, Marsden hides in the cellar behind a couple barrels, and Artorias hides behind the bar. They also put some caltrops by the front door.

The tavern door gently swings open, but Nahual sees nothing (the invisible offender also avoids stepping on the caltrops). The hatch in the floor that leads to the cellar swings open, but Artorias sees nothing. A small cask of beer begins to levitate a foot or so off the ground, but Marsden cannot tell how. Artorias decides to pounce down the stairs to the cellar, and tackle the floating cask.

The clurichaun holding the cask of beer becomes visible, and Marsden immediately casts Influence on it. Marsden, pretending to know the Clurichaun personally, puts on a show they are old friends, and asks him who hired him to steal this beer. The clurichaun replies that he works for nobody, and that he just loves the free booze he gets here.

After a minute, the cantrip wears off and he begins to freak out. He offers them a reward of 500 gold, and tells them he can give them directions, if they just let him go. He tells them that it is buried inside of the ruins of a temple in the woods. At this, the party lets him go. As he begins to run away, he yells “good luck with the goblins who live there!! HAHA!!” before booking it to the front door. He trips on the caltrops, and Nahual, who had moved in closer from his hiding area, grabs him and picks him up, asking what he means.

Right around now, footsteps can be heard from the floor above. Quinn hears the commotion and is coming down. He is half way down the stairs when Marsden cleverly casts Influence on him. “Look, he’s dead. It was a fairy, and we killed him.” Due to the effects of the cantrip, Quinn believes he is looking at a dead body. Immediately, Nahual says “I’ll go dispose of the corpse” and runs off with the still-very-much-alive clurichaun, and hides around the corner.

Quinn is extremely grateful, and pays the group for their efforts.

After

Once outside, the group begins debating about what they should do with the clurichaun. Artorias wants to kill it, the others want to show mercy. Marsden comes up with the idea of bringing the clurichaun to the location of the stash, in exchange for letting it keep some of it’s money.

The group agrees, and begins making plans to head to the stash in the abandoned temple… For now, their new friend will remain in his restraints.

Note: Marsden expressed interest in attempting to earn the trust of the clurichaun, and maybe even turn him into an ally eventually. I am very interested to see where this goes.

This is a recap of the second session of a play-through of The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, using the system I am developing, called Old Castle. The system is based primarily on B/X D&D, with a significant amount of changes that lean into a lower-magic level feel, such as new classes/class abilities, and a completely rebuilt magic system.

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This session will be broken into two posts due to the simple fact that quite a lot happened. This is part 1

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't played The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, obviously.

A New Introduction

We got one new player for this session:

• Marsden Sandton, a Human Spellsword (A new class I made for Old Castle)

Marsden is a former gravedigger, whose goal is to amass enough wealth to build his own stronghold and spellsword training academy.

Because the last session ended with the characters going to bed, it was easy enough to have them meet Marsden in the tavern the next day, and add him to the party as an official member.

To the Witch’s Lake

The party wants to investigate the missing beer at the Golden Egg tavern, but will not be able to do that until night time. They decide to spend the day going to the witch’s hut, to see if they can’t get to the treasure at the bottom of the lake. Ingrid gave them explicit directions on a map, and this is the map they are using:

After a couple hours of travel, they reach the pond and hut and stop at the edge of the woodline. As soon as they leave the woodline and expose themselves to the open area, three nixies who are sitting at the shoreline of the lake beckon them forward. The group approaches, and talks cautiously with them, avoiding any hasty action. The nixies ask that they leave their weapons on the shoreline if they want to approach the witch’s hut, and the group reluctantly does so.

Artorias does most of the talking, and manages to squeeze a lot of information out of her, and land in her good graces. He learns that the witch was great friends with one of the dwarves who disappeared, and that she desperately wants this dragon nonsense taken care of. In exchange for their word that they would pursue the dragon, she allowed them to take the treasure from the bottom of the lake and told them about a place in the woods where the tree sap is extremely potent and can make any being extremely drunk (it is guarded by satyrs, however, she warns them).

In order to make them keep their word, she cast a latent “curse” on the party.

In the bottom of the lake, they find some various treasure and gold coins, totaling a value of nearly 800 Silver Pieces (we use silver standard in Old Castle RPG).

The First Combat

On the walk back to town through the woods, the party hears a buzzing sound. On a failed DEX save while trying to observe where the sound was coming from (I know, I probably should have rolled surprise, but I forgot at the time and this felt like a reasonable solution) the characters were heard by 2 (on a d10 - they got lucky) Stirges who had been merrily feasting upon a deer corpse, one of which attacks immediately.

Round 1 - Party wins initiative

Our heroes win initiative. Nahual hits with his bow, but does not kill the stirge. Marsden attempts to run up and blast fire at the creature but fails his casting roll. Artorias misses with his swords.

The stirge flies to Marsden and lodges it’s proboscis into his neck, causing 2 points of damage. By now, the second stirge has finished it’s meal and begins flying over.

Round 2 - Party wins initiative

Marsden hacks at the thing on his neck, killing it. Nahual uses healing hands on Marsden to give him back one Hit Point. Artorias is too far to attack in melee so he throws one of his swords at the stirge, and misses

The stirge swoops down on Marsden and misses.

Round 3 - Party wins initiative (somehow)

Artorias runs up and one-hits the stirge with his other sword.

Back to Brandonsford

The party arrives back at Brandonsford at around 2pm, and Marsden decided to sleep off his wounds since it is still quite a while until nightfall.

The rest of this session will be recounted in another post in the next few days.

Note: this class uses my Magic System, which is 100% compatible with OSR and B/X. If you haven’t read it, some of the magic described here could be a bit confusing, though the system itself is dead simple.

Another note: While this class has a d8 Hit Die, it is the B/X equivelant to a d6 Hit Die. I have stepped up the HD of all classes in my game (fighters have a d10).

Cantrips

Here is the Cantrip list for the Spellsword class. This will likely be expanded upon.

Enchant Weapon - Difficulty: 10

Touch a melee weapon or missile (such as an arrow or quarrel), and it effectively becomes a +1 magical weapon for 1 turn per caster level. This grants +1 to attack and damage rolls, and makes the weapon effective against creatures resistant to mundane weapons.

Fire Stream - Difficulty: 10

Shoot a stream of fire from your hand, to a distance of 15 feet, with an additional 5 feet per caster level. Does 1d6 damage per round for 1d4 rounds.

Flick - Difficulty: 9

Fling a small item you can see within 30’ (a weight of 2 or less) 2d10 feet away. If the item is being held, the creature holding the item must make a STR save to hang on to the item.

Healing - Difficulty: 8

Touch an individual and heal one HP per caster level, or force one willing individual to succeed on a saving throw.

Influence - Difficulty: 9

On a failed WIS save, intelligent beings can be convinced of just about anything. The affected individual is not forced to follow commands from the caster. Effect lasts one minute per caster level. Unintelligent creatures fail their save automatically. Can be used to calm (natural) wild animals.

Sense Magic - Difficulty: 8

Concentrate on a small area within 30’ for one turn, magic objects, areas, or creatures will begin to glow in a way only visible to the Mystic, for one turn. Failed checks may be reattempted, but will take another turn of focus.

Utter Quiet - Difficulty: 9

You or a willing individual you can touch, are incapable of making noise for 1 round per caster level. This effect applies to anything being held, such as coins or a weapon.

Some Design Decision Explanations

• I know that Witchers are good with potions and whatnot, but I decided to leave it out for a couple reasons. 1) potion building systems can get bulky and I am not the biggest fan as of right now, 2) for the sake of balancing against other classes, I can’t make the spellsword good at EVERYTHING.

• Armor restrictions: Making casting harder with stronger armor simply makes sense to me. The spellsword is trained to be a nimble and capable fighter that uses magic, and I wanted the class to reflect that.

• Reaction time: I have had this ability floating around in my head for a bit, and I really think that this a good class to use it on. It isn’t overpowered because the use comes at a cost (loss of an action) but can be extremely useful in dangerous situations.

• Monster Lore: I feel that this is a good way to use the education of the spellsword, and a 2-in-6 chance makes it so that not all monsters are just gonna be easy to already have information on

  .

Spoilers ahead for those who haven't played The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford, obviously.

Introductions

This campaign begind with only two characters, played by two of my friends who have nearly zero TTRPG experience (they did an amazing job, though):

• Artorias, a Male Elf Fighter

• Nahual, a Male Human Mystic

The two came up with a quick story about how they each separately heard rumors of the dragon near brandonsford, decided to go to the town and investigate, met at the tavern, quickly became friends, and decided to work together. Nice and simple, I like it.

The Beginning

It’s the first day of the seventh month of the year, and the weather is pleasant and slightly cloudy.

At character creation, I kept the players from buying equipment so that they could roleplay going to the general store and the blacksmith to buy equipment, while being able to investigate the rumors of the dragon and pick up some adventure hooks.

From the blacksmith, Warwick, they learned about his “Phantom Fairy” visitor who stares into his window at night and leaves “cursed talismans” under his door, and agreed to investigate for a discount on their equipment, and a free night’s stay at his place. He referred them to Cedric (General Store) and Ingrid (Alchemist) to get more adventuring gear.

From Ingrid, Nahual bought a vial filled witch 3 doses of Witch Powder, a blue powder that glows when touching magical objects. When asked about Warwick, she said she had no idea what he was talking about but that she was worried he’s slowly going insane. She also told them to talk to George the Hunter about the dragon.

When the party met George, they didn’t learn much. But his missing arm confirmed that the dragon is, in fact, real.

They went back to the Clumsy Fox Tavern, and took a look around for retainers they could hire, and met Hilda (Female Human fighter), Malzazerick (Male Human Wizard), Drop Dead Ned (Male Human Rogue), and Squints (Male Elf Fighter). After some contemplation, and realizing they spent nearly every silver piece they had, they decided they should follow up on Warwick’s job, and asked Squints if he’d seen or heard anything suspicious. Squints recommended they talk to Quinn (owner of the Golden Egg Tavern) but warned that he’s kinda weird so people haven’t been taking him up on his job offer.

Quinn tells the party that he has heard nothing of a “Fairy Phantom” or “cursed talismans”, but that suspects Bentley (owner of the Clumsy Fox Tavern) has hired someone to steal his beer, because it keeps disappearing. The party agrees to investigate this later.

The Fairy Visitor

Running out of leads, broke, and with nightfall approaching, the party decided to head to Warwick’s place and make a plan. After some contemplation, they settled on this: Warwick would go about his night as usual, while Artorias would hide in his bedroom and attempt to get an eye on the visitor. Meanwhile, Nahual would wait on a nearby rooftop to see the approach of the Fairy, and get the jump on it if necessary.

After hours of waiting, Nahual eventually notices a hooded figure approaching from the south.

The figure approaches Warwick’s bedroom window as usual, but Artorias cannot make out any facial features behind the black mask the figure is wearing. Succeeding on a Listening check, Artorias is able to identify some unintelligible muttering coming from the figure, and identifies the voice as distinctly female. While this is happening, Nahual decides to get onto Warwick’s roof silently. After rolling a DEX check (with disadvantage!), he succeeds (somehow!) and is able to make it over to the roof using his grappling hook, somehow avoiding making any noise.

As Warwick had observed many times, the figure eventually leaves the window, and makes her way toward the front door of the smithy. Nahual quietly stalks along the the roof, toward the area where the front door is. Artorias moves to the back door of the smithy that leads to the living quarters. He waits behind the closed door for a piece of parchment to be slid under it.

Nahual hears The Phantom open the door with a key and make it’s way in. A note slips under the back door of the smithy. Nahual hops off the roof to block the front door. Artorius springs to action—

Roll initiative. The Phantom wins.

She runs out the front door, shoving Nahual out of the way (STR save) and uses the rest of her movement to keep running. Nahual gives chase, and makes a shoestring tackle while Artorius runs after them and restrains her. He pulls the hood off to reveal Ingrids face. Before either of the party members can say anything, she begs them to take her behind a building, out of sight, where they can talk.

The party obliges, and they begin to talk. After some back and forth, they discover that she is in love with Warwick and only wants him to be happy. The “cursed talismans” she slips under his door at night are just letters with words of encouragement. She doesn’t want Warwick to find out about this, and after some negotiation, she agrees to pay 100 silver pieces to the party and give them directions to a pond with treasure at the bottom, guarded by nixies.

The party agrees to this deal, and leaves her at her house after asking her to draw a map to the pond.

Conclusion

Nahual and Artorias make their way back to Warwick’s house. They find him still in bed, frozen with fear. They tell him that they chased the “fairy” and defeated it, and that it can’t bother him anymore. Liars, dirty liars. But Warwick believes them. Also, he’s illiterate

Because of the party’s (false) bravery, Warwick decides to ask them if they can go to the dwarven mine and gather ore for him, since it has been months since they have made a regular delivery. He offers them 200 sp, with 100 paid up front. The party accepts.

End

Now, the party has made a solid connection with the blacksmith, and they also know the alchemist’s dirty secret. They currently have 4 solid quest leads:

• The dwarven mine

• The pond near the witch’s hut

• The booze Thief, and of course,

• The Dragon

A common compromise is to simply limit the classes that certain races can use, but that is a method I am not fond of, because it implies that the restricted race/class combos don’t exist in the game world, and players could feel a certain way if they encounter NPCs with these combos.

I spent literal weeks thinking about the best way to do character building in the game I am making (and will hopefully kickstart soon), and came up with a solution that feels satisfying to me, and will hopefully contain the right compromises for people who fall on either side of the debate.

Pros and Cons of Race-as-Class

Pros

• Strictly defined roles for each class

• In most Race-as-Class systems, the non-human races are a mixture of multiple classes, allowing a pseudo-multiclass

• Artificially creates a humano-centric worldview because most classes are human

Cons

• Races become tied to one specific archetype

• Having to explain how the Drawven Cleric NPC can exist if there isn’t any way to create one

• Some players may feel restricted by their options

Pros and Cons of Race-and-Class

Pros

• Interesting race/class combinations that allow unique roleplaying opportunities

• More freedom for players

• Opportunity for unique backgrounds

Cons

• Unrealistic race and class combinations, which are hard to explain in the fiction

• Opens the window for min-maxing

• In many settings, a party comprised entirely of demi-humans is unusual

How Do We Balance Both Sides? My Solution…

Both sides have merit, and they are both completely valid ways to play. My solution to the problem involves allowing freedom to choose both race and class, while imposing limitations on certain ability scores for each race, as well as each class.

My system results in more humans on average, and encourages certain sets of ability scores to be paired with certain races and classes (i.e. elves naturally have high INT, and Wizards require a high INT). This doesn’t actually make it impossible to play certain classes as certain races, but uses to ability score to make it make sense.

Races

Human: No restrictions whatsoever

• Humans are the baseline race, and have no restrictions

Dwarves: Minimum CON: 10, Minimum STR: 11

• Dwarves are naturally tough and strong, it wouldn’t make sense for a dwarf to ever be weaker than the average human.

Elves: Minimum INT: 11, Maximum STR: 16

• Elves are naturally intelligent, and due to their build, they simply cannot be stronger than the strongest humans and elves

Halflings: Minimum DEX: 11, Maximum STR: 13

• Halflings are naturally nimble due to their small size, and have no hope of being much stronger than a slightly stronger than average man

Classes

Fighter: No restrictions

• Fighters are the basic class, and have no distinct specialized skills that justify a stat requirement (STR already modifies attacks AND damage, anyway)

Mystic (my version of a cleric/druid) : Minimum WIS 10

• Mystics are wise, pretty simple. Their magic a bit more intuitive in nature than a Wizard’s magic

Rogue: Minumum DEX 10, Minimum INT 8

• Rogues need to be dextrous. A rogue with low DEX simply wouldn’t make sense, because most of their abilities aren’t even tied to DEX. They also need to be not completely stupid in order to execute some fo the trickery they can do

Wizard: Minimum INT 10

• Wizards gotta be smart. They read a lot. We know this.

Some Examples of How This Works

Let’s throw a few scenarios out, to show examples of how this system works to create a believable narrative.

First Scenario: You roll a 12 STR, 11 CON, and 15 INT. You absolutely can play a dwarven Wizard. As opposed to being a human wizard, you are simply a regularly built dwarf, who happens to be very smart an interested in magic. This makes sense. You aren’t a weak nerd dwarf (do those even exist?), you’re just a slightly smarter dwarf with peculiar interests.

Second Scenario: You roll an 11 INT, 9 STR, and 14 DEX. You could be a human rogue, sure, but you could also choose to be an elf rogue, which comes with some racial perks. You also have a cool opportunity to think about how maybe you were cast out from your elven tribe and forced to live in squalor in a human city until you learned to thieve.

Third Scenario: You roll 13 STR, and 11 DEX. You’d be a perfectly fine human fighter. But you like the idea of a halfling who may be one of the strongest halflings who ever lived. You can duck, dodge, and dive, but also surprise enemies with your strength.

So…

I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve done here, what do you think?

This class will be in the game for which I plan to launch a kickstarter in the next 3-5 months.

This class is designed for use with my OSR Compatible Magic System.

Here, we have a few decisions I made that I can explain:

1. D8 Hit dice. This is simply because all of my HD for PCs are one step higher than in B/X. Not a relative power bump.

2. Armor. Armor can be worn, but the AC increase is deducted from cantrip casting rolls. I think this is a completely fair penalty. Most cantrips have a 30-40% chance of success at low levels, but eventually become nearly guaranteed to succeed. Using armor and taking this penalty make the character more powerful, but limits their magical capabilities. This is a variable that the player has to choose to balance, and is in spirit with the OSR “resource management” philosophy.

3. Healing hands. With my magic system, the only healing magic is really available in scroll form, which is extremely rare compared to “pray for Cure Light Wounds” every single morning. I think a small healing ability is not overpowered at all in this context, and falls in line with the cleric/druid aesthetic.

And here is the class in it’s complete form!

Mystical Cantrips

Entanglement - Difficulty: 10

With a range of 40’, all plants in a 10’ radius will animate to entangle creatures in that area for one minute per level of the Mystic. Creatures can free themselves with a DEX save, once per turn. They move through the entangled area at half speed.

Favor - Difficulty: 7

Allies get +1 to attack and damage rolls or AC (ally’s choice) for a number of rounds equal to the Mystic’s level. Alternatively, may be used to purify rotten or poisoned food or water for up to 12 people. May be used once per turn.

Hush - Difficulty: 10

A 10’ radius within a range of 30’ + Mystic level x 5 is rendered silent for 1 Turn per Mystic level. There is no sound inside of the area, making verbal communication and spell casting impossible. However, outside noise can be heard. Hush can be cast on an object or person, and the silence follows them.

Light - Difficulty: 7

An object of the Mystic’s choosing will radiate soft light the same as a torch, for 1 turn per level. Can be ended at-will.

Protection from Evil - Difficulty: 9

Against a creature of evil nature, the Mystic gains a +1 bonus to saving throws, and the affected creature's attacks against the Mystic are made at a -1 penalty. Enchanted, constructed, or summoned creatures cannot engage in melee with the Mystic. Lasts 1 turn per level of the Mystic.

Rally - Difficulty: 8

Counters magical fear effects for the Mystic and allies within 20’ + another 10’ per Mystic level. Cannot be used more than once per turn.

Read Magic - Difficulty: 7

Enables the Wizard to interpret scrolls, magical inscriptions or runes, and magic items within 10’. After successfully casting on an object, the Wizard is always able to read the magic of that particular object. May only be used once per turn.

Sense Magic - Difficulty: 8

Concentrate on a small area within 30’ for one turn, magic objects, areas, or creatures will begin to glow in a way only visible to the Mystic, for one turn. Failed checks may be reattempted, but will take another turn of focus.

Turn Undead - Difficulty: 10

Instantly destroy or scare away 2d6 HD worth of undead creatures (ascending HD order, max HD of 4 for a single monster) according to the table below. Turned undead will run away for 1 turn. If INT is under 6, they will forget about the incident, otherwise they may attack. Upon failure, may be reattempted without a break

While designing Wilderness exploration rules for my OSR game (which I hope to kickstart soon), I was thinking of ways to allow characters to hunt, gather and fish. I wanted to use a d20, as that is the die roll I am generally trying to use as much as possible while designing this game, and d20 adds enough granularity to adjust the probability based on terrain and time dedicated to the task.

While it isn’t easy to actually simulate hunting, fishing, and foraging without creating an entire separate system that would be cumbersome, I wanted to have a simple procedure that allows players to acquire sustenance in exchange for precious time and travel distance. Hunting and foraging can feed a whole party, but come at the cost of reduced travel for the day.

This is what I came up with:

Hunting, Foraging & Trapping

When traveling, you may want to hunt, forage, or set traps to catch food. This will take time out of your traveling day, of course.

Decide whether you will hunt or forage. Then, decide how long you will spend on the activity, measured in hours. For every hour spent, the maximum traveling distance for the day is reduced by 1/8th. Using the chart below, roll a d20 and reference the chart below for the target number for success. Roll once for each hour dedicated to the task (unless noted otherwise):

For trapping, use the hunting procedure, only roll once per day in the morning, with advantage if in Grassland, Woods, or Lush Forest. Trapping requires a trap, which is listed in the equipment section (of my game, at least). If a character has a relevant background, and there are resources available, they may try to make a trap on their own.

The amount of meat hunted or trapped on a successful roll is 1d6 rations. The amount of plants or mushrooms foraged on a successful roll is always equal to 1 ration.

Fishing

When near a water source, there is a good chance of finding fish or other waterborne food sources. Fishing requires fishing equipment (listed in the equipment section

). First, decide how much time you will spend looking for a fishing spot, in turns. Then, roll on the following table to find the quality of the spot, which will have a target number for success:

Next, roll 1d20 for each turn spent fishing. Each time the target number (in parentheses) is hit or exceeded, you caught something! Roll 1d4 per success to see how many rations you harvested.

There are a few things I want to address.

The first is that healing is kind of unrealistic. That is accepted among all fantasy TTPRG players. It’s hard to emulate the effects of a tension pneumothorax and two pints of blood loss. Also, nobody would really think that you could fully recover from a near-death experience in one night (ahem, X edition.) However, nobody wants to track every single injury, and the time it takes to heal.

The second is that death rules in BX are too harsh. Everybody knows it. We all upvote the dudes on Reddit who say they kill at 0HP, not necessarily because we do the same, but because they are braver than we are.

Opinions on Healing

My idea of healing is that it should take time, but there is no way to measure that in a seriously accurate manner. I think the classic interpretation of 1HP per day of rest is reasonable. You gotta get 6-7 hours of sleep. BUT, it must happen over an 8 hour period, allowing time for relaxing activities, taking watch shifts, and whatnot.

As far as a complete day of rest goes, I am not particularly fond of the typical 1d3 HP per day. Giving 1 HD per day of complete rest makes more sense to me, and feels a lot more elegant. You roll this every day of rest. You also have the chance to recover full HP ahead of schedule by rolling high, enabling the game to move on, and the character to make a fortuitous but not unreasonable recovery. It makes sense to me that a fighter would recover lost HP faster than a Wizard, as well.

What Does HP Represent

To me, HP represents a character’s ability to carry on. Not necessarily the level of injury they’ve taken. I save the bloddy injuries for when a Character gets downed completely. Until then, its a nick here, knocked the wind out there. You get the idea. I think most people like to interpret it this way as well in order to add Some verisimilitude.

My goal here is to make it so that characters can save each other, and that higher level characters are harder to kill (higher save values), but to definitely avoid the idea that anybody is immune to death.

Here’s What I’ve Come Up With

None of it is revolutionary, but it seems reasonably balanced to me, and enables me to make it more believable narratively.

Death Rules

When you reach 0 HP or below, you are at risk of dying, but not dead yet. You are downed, unconscious, and unable to move. One minute after going down, make a CON save*. If the injury is of a physical nature, someone can choose to provide aid within the minute, giving advantage to the save. If failed, you are dead. If you succeed, you are stabilized, but still unconscious.   

You then have CON hours to receive magical healing or medical aid in a safe haven, otherwise you die. If any damage taken brings you to negative HP equal to your CON value, you die automatically.

When at or below 0 HP, magical healing always brings you to 1 HP regardless of the spell or described level of healing.

Healing Rules

Natural healing happens at a rate of 1 HP per full night’s rest. This rest must include 6-7 hours of sleep over an 8 hour period. If the environment is particularly harsh, such as camping in a heavy winter without  proper supplies, or inside a dungeon without making a proper camp, then a CON save may be required to recover HP that night.

24 hours of rest recovers 1 HD worth of HP. This die is rolled by the player. In a 24 hour day of rest, no travel may be done, and no intense work may be done, such as studying/transcribing magic, training, or combat. Typical activities in this time are sleeping, chatting with locals in the inn, and maybe going to a nearby shop, depending on the injuries sustained by the character in the narrative of the game.

*A note on CON save: I have eliminated the typical saves, instead opting for a unified saving throw. If you use the old school saves, I would use a save against death, or paralysis.

Typically, the advice of OSR games is to give a +4 or -4 for circumstances where a character has a significant chance of succeeding or failing. This might work perfectly well for most, and it really is a fine way to resolve things. Mechanically it isn’t much different.

Saying “that’s gonna be pretty tough, you have a -4 penalty to your roll” is not much different than saying “that’s gonna be pretty tough, you have disadvantage on this roll.” It has a similar effect on the result, telling the player that their odds are much lower, and it has nearly the same mechanical effect.

But, I can’t get away from the fact that something is missing from the -4 penalty. The excitement just isn’t quite there. There is a certain feeling to rolling two dice, and taking a second to check them, and potentially being amazed by the result.

Advantage/disadvantage is superior when it comes to player experience, and I think that anyone who nixes it based on the fact that it “isn’t old school” should consider the effect it has on the game and how much it can lend to the suspense and excitement of their game.

You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Or, at the very least, nothing to gain. Which, really, is the same as nothing to lose. Give it a shot.

One of my biggest issues with the B/X fighter is that people have a predisposed notion of what a fighter is in fantasy. Usually either a knight, or some sort of armored mercenary. And that’s cool, don’t get me wrong. But it can be so much more than that. Part of what the class lacks is flavor. It is such a broad class, that it can be just about anything, and this can sometimes be a little restrictive.

When I set out to improve the fighter class, I had two objectives:

1. The obvious objective was to give the fighter a little more ability than “strong and wears heavy shit.” People often complain the class can be boring. This is typically solved with magic items, but those obviously take some time to get.

2. The second, and more important, objective was to open the player’s mind to what their fighter could be. I wanted to give them abilities that would invoke certain flavors, give ideas for where the character came from, and provide a place to start for the player.

Regarding my second point. Yes, I understand that we don’t generally want a character background. However, I would be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t agree that at least a one-sentence “who the fuck are you” would make things easier.

Here are a couple examples of how this could be useful:

• Player A wants to play a fighter, and is thinking maybe he has a short temper. Instead of just being a knight who needs counseling, he can look at the abilities, take “berserk” and decide to flavor himself as a sort of Viking raider, or a barbarian war machine.

• Player B wants to play a fighter who is extremely loyal to those he cares about. Instead of just being a knight who puts himself in dangerous situations to save his friends, he can take the “loyal ally” ability, and be a retired soldier who lost his family, and often strategically places himself to take pressure off of his friends without needing to recklessly jump to the front line

  s all the time.

• Player C wants to play a fighter who is very brave and afraid of nothing. Instead of just being a knight who walks into hopeless fights to die in the first session, he can be a knight who takes the “focused resolve” ability to give himself advantages against fear and whatnot.

As you can see, we just went from a party of three slightly different knights, who were variations on “completely reckless idiot,” and we ended up with a fierce barbarian, a retired soldier who might be considered the caring uncle of the party, and a chivalrous and brave knight who does not falter in the face of evil. This required NO EXTRA PLANNING, and added an immense amount of flavor to the campaign. The party went from bland to sick as fuck.

Concise and non-specific character backgrounds are important to me. I sometimes just tell my players they have one minute to give me a simple and realistic background, which usually results in a single sentence on a Word Doc for me. This is perfect. I can now explain things in the context of the character, account for potential cultural interpretations, and not have to worry about accommodating some elaborate backstory.

This was the entire design philosophy behind the class. In my opinion, the player will likely pick up abilities more strategically as they progress, but that’s fine. Because by then, all of the players and the GM will have a feel for who that character really is, and they will have less of an impact on role play.

Avoiding the “Skill” Trap

I wanted to avoid the common trap of giving skills to players that inadvertently restrict the other classes from using those skills. Usually when you see a homebrewed race or class, their benefits amount to “roll dice to do this unique thing.” Because most of these are combat related, and generally not allowed by B/X rules as written, I feel very confident when I say that these skills will help avoid making any character feel “less-than.”

Here It Is

And here is the drive link: New Fighter