/osrg/ - Halfling Edition

>anyone have a favorite they'd like to suggest?
No Stone Unturned (AD&D 2e Dungeon mag), Three Faces of Evil (D&D 3.5 Dungeon mag), The Lichway (White Dwarf mag)

Everybody likes to do The Short Folk different. Some want talking animals, some want goblins (sadness optional), some strange bastards actually want kender, and so on.
I almost see the inclusion of both Gnome and Halfling as a way to be like 'there. Two different approaches to your Short People. Pick whichever's closest, and reskin to your heart's content.'

Goliaths? Tohr-Kreen?

I honestly hate most Gnomes.
The underground/crafty aspect infringes on the Dwarf's niche.
The magical/friend of nature aspect infringes on the Elf's niche.
The short/jolly aspect infringes on the Halfling's niche.

The only time they're moderately interesting is either when they go full Fey (which doesn't happen) or full Tinker (which alters the whole feel of the setting)

tl;dr remove gnome

>dat pic
Takes me back, man.

Oh, I get you. They're definitely niche, there to create a specific feel. Like, Pathfinder went an interesting route by making their Elves full-on Vulcans, leaving the Faerie Folk stuff entirely to Gnomes. (Like, the only time I've ever seen them go full Fey. Granted, I prefer my Elves to be in that niche, so it don't do a lot for me.)
That's kinda why I say you only need one out of Gnomes and Halflings. Most of the time, the Short Folk you want are gonna be a Halfling reskin, but there *are* some corner cases where you'd want the Gnome instead. (Tinkers being the big one here, obviously.)

>I'm looking for a dungeon crawl to run, anyone have a favorite they'd like to suggest?
B4 The Lost City and B2 Keep on the Borderlands are pretty good.

>Also, ruleset suggestions?
Dark Dungeons for the free version of BECMI (i.e. Fighter Edition), perhaps?

I have a Spelljammer question for you people: How are ships that can't land on land or water supposed to get people on an off? Some of the larger ones can have a ship's boat obviously, but what about something like a Tradesman? Especially one being used for its eponymous purpose- how do you load and unload cargo? Can they only dock at spaceports like the Rock of Bral? That sound like a totally unnecessary limitation and risk and for something that's supposed to be ubiquitous and utilitarian.

Is it bad to say I'm doing both?

Basically I want to have the semi-fae style animal people, all small forest critters like foxes, stouts, weasels, rabbits, badgers, squirrels, rats, otters, and so forth as one race.

THEN you have a wee-folk race that is a combination of gnomes, elves, dwarves, and halflings all in one.

You could even say they are like a lighthearted or mirror version of humans and the vile beastfolk, who are obviously much bigger and much more edgy.

Please help me decide what setting to run an OSR game with in the next few weeks when I finally get my free time back.

I'll also probably recruit a little in the /osr/ general too, so help me out!

strawpoll.me/10762838

In my homebrew, halflings are sort of fighter/thieves. Really, they're jacks of all trades. Thieves have thief skills. Halflings get a lesser boost to pretty much everything. They are typified by curiosity, and are kind of like Bilbo, if he wasn't reluctant and fully and enthusiastically embraced his adventure from the beginning.

Gnomes, meanwhile, are essentially wizard/thieves, and as such are a lot squishier than halflings (and obviously, a lot more magic-focused). They're a bit more contemplative than halflings are, often lost in thought about some esoteric matter with little relevance to the adventure at hand, though this is counterbalanced somewhat by a mischievous streak that prompts them to play more than their fair share of practical jokes. Halflings get in at least as many scrapes as gnomes, but that's just because they're poking their noses into everything. Often, gnomes get in trouble for gleefully poking trouble with a stick.

Dwarves also have some skills of their own, being basically fighter/engineers. They're good with traps and locks and constructions and so forth, but are warriors more than anything else. Unsurprisingly, they're a good deal more durable than halflings, and they tend to be the pragmatists of the three. Halflings fly by the seats of their pants, and gnomes walk through life with their heads in the clouds, but dwarves are much more calculated in their endeavors. Dwarves tend to be conservative by nature and only deviate from the familiar path if there is a clear and considered reason to do so. If a dwarf gets in a scrape, it's normally because there is a goal lying on the other side of that scrape, and they've chosen to go right at it, full bore.

Let halflings be halflings.

Gnomes are the wierd slightly fae talking to animal ones, make them into the "Critter-folk."

What ruleset are you going to use?

Homebrew.

What's wrong with
Joyful yet hardy , old English country folk who lime good mead , fine stews , rambling, stories and songs by the hearth.

Everything has to be grimdark edgy shit these days.

>Joyful yet hardy , old English country folk who lime good mead , fine stews , rambling, stories and songs by the hearth.
So, Peter Rabbit? Also, don't forget living underground with large families and lots of farms.

Naw.

>tfw you will NEVER EVER get a chance to play a Thri-Kreen in an OSR game

IMHO bug people don't really fit in high fantasy themes. Bug people and really weird races like that are a better fit for science fiction stuff.

Not all OSR games are high fantasy, user

You don't seem to understand that the reason why they have grimdark edgy shit is to defend that jolly goodness from the rest of the world.

That was literally the plot of LotR. If we don't stop the bad guys then our perfect little pastoral life will be over.

Almost lost it anyway. Saruman was trying to start the fucking industrial revolution in the Shire before Frodo and Sam showed back up to enforce late medieval gentryism back into place

What are the best dungeon crawl modules to run for new players? The kind that don't mind a good challenge?

it's your world, so the fluff is what you want it to be.
Nothing's stopping you from saying 'in this world ogres are dumb but basically lawful'. Think of warhammer ogres, who are sorta civilized and work as mercenaries.

I run the little people as goblins. Sneaky, thieving, cunning little assholes. Physically weak and frail, but with a talent for stealth and ruthlessness.
Halflings are half-goblin-half-human crossbreeds. They even have 'half' in the name!

Any system or level requirements?

I have Delving Deeper and Labyrinth Lord, for either works, I'm interested in trying Delving Deeper, or maybe cutting thieves out of LL.

For people who play Dungeon Crawl Classics, how does misfire and corruptions works? Do both happen when the wizard rolls a 1, or does one happen? Or is possible that none of them happen? The rules are kind of unclear.

I personally like the way LoL did their Midget Race.

Usually from rolling a 1.

Look at this spell. If you roll a 1, you then roll a d6 modified by your LCK mod.
0 or less (from a negative LCK mod) causes both, plus a patron taint.
1-2 causes corruption.
4+ causes a misfire.

Oh fuck, that was right in front of me and I missed it. Disregard all I wrote, the rules aren't unclear and I suck cocks.

Give me some spells that are pretty standard and useful for dungeon crawling without using a core rulebook.

Candlefist
Makes all lights in a 20 feet radius teleport into the wizard's closed fist. He can either open his fist to relight the area at any point or he can throw the light at an enemy, blinding it.

Where's that from? That's fucking great.

Floating Disk
Have it form over a ledge and have an ally bait the enemy to the disk. As they step foot on it, end it and watch said foe plummet to their doom.

Frastidar's Tap
The walls, floor and ceiling of a single room (or 10' square per level if you're the guy who has to be anal about it) are rapidly tapped all over as though by sharp blows from the end of a pole. Any hollow places (e.g. trap doors, roof hatches, secret doors) are detected and located at once, but the loud noise provokes a random monster check.

Effectively, this one just saves you torchlight/spell duration time, since the roll goes in as normal -- if it's a large room I guess you might spare yourself a wandering monster roll or two as well, though.

Hand of Glory
Five lights spring from its fingertips and cast a pale blue light which lights like a torch, but seems less bright. Valuable or magical objects within the radius of this light glow softly when its rays fall on them; the glow shows through drawers, chests and the like.

Optionally, this requires the mummified hand of a hanged murderer or thief, as a material component that isn't consumed.

I love the look on that elf's face. 'Oh, dear, not this nonsense again'.

Emblem of Lightness
A rune scribed in cockatrice blood on a backpack lightens the wearer's burden. Things carried in it cause two points less of encumbrance (or equivalent if not playing LotFP). Lasts an hour per level, say.

Skeleton Key:
Cast on self or another. Melts flesh from a single finger and sculpts the visible bone into one door's proper key, permanently.

Timed Flash
A flash of blinding light goes off, either right away or at any point within [level] turns. Can be used either to blind in combat (but will affect friends and foes alike) or as a distraction by creeping away from the area of effect and hoping to draw a monster out to investigate.

Oh, that's a good one. In a similar vein, how about:

Arcane Lens
The caster can remove one eye, without injury to himself, and still see out of it. He can handle it more or less with impunity, but it's still an eye, so anything that would normally be painful remains so. The spell has no set duration, but ends when the eye is replaced or destroyed. While the spell is in effect, the caster isn't disoriented, but does get -2 to hit with ranged weapons due to his lack of functional depth vision.

Paste
Target (one creature or object) becomes immensely sticky and clings to anything touched, strongly enough to e.g. cling to a ceiling without falling. A Strength check is necessary to detach the target from any given object it's stuck to (or vice versa).

Good point, user, good point indeed.

HOWEVER

Thri-kreen canonically exist in Toril and Oerth.

reminds me of the scouting orbs in Thief II. I like it.

Invisibridge
A bridge of 10' area per level materializes between two points (spell fails if two suitable anchoring points with a gap between them are not available). It's perfectly invisible and lasts for one turn, plus 2d6 rounds.

Delver's Skein
A 3" wide glowing line appears, leading from the caster's location to where he entered the dungeon, cave or building he's in. The spell fails if outdoors or if there is no unbroken floor path to the specific entrance used (referee's adjudication necessary for slopes and such, of course). It lasts for 3 turns per level, is visible to everyone, and thus conveniently points right at the caster, in the other direction.

Sense Proprietor
Makes the caster aware of any being that consider the target object its property, and how they will probably react should they lose it. Doesn't give any clue as to the actual power of the owner, but an educated guess may be possible.

What Has It Got In Its Pocketses?
The caster pulls one ordinary nonmagical and nonvaluable object, like a sandwich, fishing rod, hammer or line of rope from his pocket. The caster must be wearing something with a pocket for this to work, but can draw forth something that wouldn't fit in the pocket, as long as it can be pulled through the pocket's opening.

somebody ought to put all these spells together into a PDF.

Panic Button
This spell materializes whatever is best suited to distract a creature presently in pursuit of the caster (use the OD&D monster distraction rules if you don't have any), which must be thrown behind the caster at once lest it vanish again. This spell can be cast while running hell for leather.

I came up with it on the spot.

Create Crate
A hollow wooden crate with no lid appears, 4' on a side. It persists for one hour (or indefinitely if the referee prefers).

Bungle
Everything the target attempts for the next [caster's level] rounds fails. Not disastrously as in a crit fumble or similar, it merely doesn't succeed, whatever (and however simple) it is. Saving throws are not affected, only things the character actively attempts.

Soak
One object becomes saturated with water.

Nightingale
One wooden door, floor or lidded box creaks loudly every time it's opened/stepped on (as appropriate) for 1 hour/level. The spell can be cast reversed as "Muffle", which prevents a target of the same types from creaking.

Summon Dog
A tame Labrador retriever appears to serve the caster; it totally wants to help. If it dies, this will strike the caster and all his allies as unbearably tragic, as he was a good dog. This may or may not be part of the magical effect.

OSR-ish question here:

I know Microlite 20 is built on the 3.5 but how hard is it to convert AD&D stuff for it? Is it just a matter of THAC0 to AC? Does damage scale well?

Common Fucking Sense:
Cast upon your murderhobo ally, it makes them realize the decision to senselessly attack that NPC is, in fact, stupid and unnecessary. Their mind is changed for 1d4 Turns.

If they actively attempt to miss a blow, do they hit instead?

No. No trying to weasel out with verbal trickery. Magic isn't susceptible to that shit. Also, the Inevitables track such malfeasance, and repeat offenders are cursed with receiving a wish from an angry Efreet.

This sounds like the reversed version of Not The Droids You're Looking For.

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awesome :D

Neat!

Kinda makes me wish Troll Gods was still happening.

I play ACKS and am quite content without halflings. Everything in their niche can be done with gnomes while the gnomes still fill their own niche.

>late medieval
You mean early modern.

Looking a gift horse in the mouth here, I know, but would it be possible to get the spell names set in another font or bolded or something, so they're set off a bit from the text? Nice work, either way!

...

Fuckin' great looking, user. Thanks!

He reminds me of Neil from the Young Ones.

Rolled 1 (1d20)

I cast Raise Thread.

kek

I just realized DD has no modules, shame.

How hard would it be to convert DCC adventures or something? would I be ruining the module without playing it with DCC?

separate question, has anyone ever tried this? is it any good?

DCC modules are mostly doable in other systems, but you're going to have some trouble with the fact that they have arbitrary DC checks for stuff, all over the place, like a 3e+ D&D.
I'd say just skip most of those and let the players succeed at whatever, and give the players a saving throw on any that seem really important.

I'd like to run a setting focusing around the more uncommon races, where gnomes basically fill the roles of both elves, as the magically inclined race, and dwarves, as the short, earth-dwelling craftsmen race. The problem is finding other races to fill the gaps.

I think the DC checks could basically convert to tell the DM whether something is simply Doable, is Skill-Use-Doable, or Roll-Under-Ability-Doable.

I just started playing the PC game Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Shit's old-school as fuck.

it really really is, most people don't realize this, the resource management, not just being able to stay out in the wilderness for as long as you want, the enemies, omg, that game is the best

it's right up there with Dark Souls as one of the most old school DnD games

Sneaky little evil men could be ratfolk. Maybe Minotaurs for the brutish semi-human tribesman.

Have you been reading the thread? Because your gnome race there is eerily similar to mine.
I'm not sure if this will help you- but in my campaign setting I'm working on I'm using-
>Weefolk- Combination of dwarves, elves, halflings with the asthetic of gnomes. Have magic powers tied to their hat- take away their hat and they can't use racial powers. I'm thinking of some kind of nature bending power for them.
>Vanara- sneaky/agility race. Smaller then humans but bigger then wee folk. Age with experience but not age- some of them are immortal idiots running around. Add Wisdom mod to AC.
>Humans, middle size. Interesting cultures.
>Herpetons- Lizard folk with honorabu theme. Poison bite, cold blooded. Worship dragons, usually. Bigger then humans.
>Big guys-

The last category is unfilled for now. I can't think of a good one besides trolls.

What about Golems?

Nice trips. But the reason I don't like playable golems is the same I don't like playable undead; they eliminate too many of the human weaknesses. Players should be worried about freezing to death, having to breath underwater, needing to eat and sleep. These construct and undead creatures do not fear these things. It's the same reason why giving races that can fly are usually overpowered; it elements too many challenges.

Why is that rabbit hung

You sound boring.

I mean I'm all for making werido alien races, beastfolk, or make things like hobgoblins and trolls and orcs and shit playable, I just want something biological and ALIVE so the player can avoid and actually care about BEING DEAD.

I agree with you, I think it's important that the players retains a sense of humanity so they fear what they meet. I mostly suggested golem just because, but I suppose you could make them into some sort of frankenstein-like golem race to retain the human aspect.

>I can't think of a good one besides trolls.
Well, you've already used lizardmen, but that still leaves you with ogres, minotaurs, modest-size giants (goliaths or whatnot), and maybe some sort of neanderthal-esque cave dweller.

So I've been really feeling the idea of making the basic currency in a dungeon Porcelain coins. Partially to keep players more interested in non-money treasures more and to make players think more carefully about fighting with their treasure so they don't shatter and break it.

How stupid is this idea?

I guess I should start by saying that IIRC that's how Dark Sun did it.

But yeah, that would probably work alright - as long as you have very strict and obvious-to-the-players rules about when exactly they're vulnerable to breaking.

Kind of like how OD&D has fire and lightning destroy treasure. Ain't nothing quite like a Lightning Bolt destroying tens of thousands without even allowing a spell.
(Coins aren't destroyed, but they're melted together - hope you weren't planning on replacing those copper coins with higher-value treasure!)