OSR General - Troll Gods Soon Edition?

22-year-old here. On the other hand, Swede here. Also, no active games and I'm in a bit of an antisocial rut right now.

I've been hammering on and off with a short article explaining how the fuck OD&D Psionics works, but I'm pretty sure that's not exactly what Troveguy is looking for. Also, it's not exactly ready and would be for next month at the very earliest.

Maybe I'll end up with some tangential plug-and-play system for psionic combat that could end up in the zine or something, I dunno. Probably based on BECMI, since Immortals did it the best - the answer, as it turns out, is rock paper scissors. Add in some of the effects from the standard system (insanity. Id Insinuation's mind control, Psychic Crush's instant death) and you're good to go.
Also a table with random powers, 'cause why not. Maybe figure out some fancy stuff to make it actually work like it's supposed to, so you end up getting related stuff.

I'm under 30, and I have 4 regular players and two once-in-a-while players. One is in his early 30s, the other four are in their early 20s.

> the other four are in their early 20s.
other FIVE

Nearing 40 = old men?

I'm 36 and hardly feel like I am some greybeard old grognard. I've been playing since 1989. Cut my teeth on AD&D 2nd Ed.

My weekly group is ages 45, 38, 36, 34, 25, 23.

Just posted this in the last thread, but that was right before this one started, so please excuse my copypaste.

Okay, so, an idea I've been bouncing around in my head for a hacked version of OD&D-

A sort of Red Dawn/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/ Recently Stranger Things-inspired campaign set somewhere in Middle America.
Basically, there's a Hellmouth-type portal somewhere under your average smallish town, that leads into a fantasy world's Mythic Underworld. Somehow, the characters (High-school students, probably, to use the cliche) find one of the entrances (steam tunnels under school? Manholes in the cul-de-sac?)

Ideally, I'd wind up using the rules from the 3LBBs plus some houserules, using d6 damage/hit dice. Everyone would start as 0-level, and any teenager who survives their first foray into the Underworld becomes first-level.
I think out-of-dungeon roleplaying would be really interesting, due to the characters having to figure out how to deal with loot, supplies, and character injuries (the hardware store probably won't take gold pieces, and the school nurse is gonna call the cops once students start showing up with ghoul bites).

So, does this sound good to anyone? Any ideas?
I've got no idea how an adventure hook would work, which would be the biggest obstacle in actually running the game.

It kinda sounds like you're building the whole game around the DCC funnel, which is pretty cool. You'd have to do some tinkering to make classes work properly with the setup. The concept is interesting, it'd just need some fleshing out. It'll make or break based on the execution.

I forgot to mention the DCC influence! My other idea was to reskin it into the game, but that would be much, much harder than OD&D.

Yeah, classes are easily going to be the hardest part. I was thinking either standard high-school archetypes (Athletes as fighters, nerds as M-Us, Punks as Specialists or Thieves, maybe Hippies/Jesus kids as Druids/Clerics?), but that just feels kind of gross and overly cliche in a bad way.
The other option would be to have each player have a Highlander-type magical awakening after surviving the funnel, where they either choose or roll for a class, but that sounds pretty janky.

>Squirrel isn't Rakkety Tam MacBurl

The drums aren't beating braw....

I'm 24 and OSR-style D&D is my favorite playstyle. Shame none of my friends really share that same sentiment.

Woodland Warriors was recommended in the last thread, which is fairly Redwall-esque.

>I've been hammering on and off with a short article explaining how the fuck OD&D Psionics works, but I'm pretty sure that's not exactly what Troveguy is looking for. Also, it's not exactly ready and would be for next month at the very earliest.

I'd like to see that.

Fuck my life DCC didn't invent the character funnel. It goes back to at least AD&D N4 Treasure Hunt module.

What is motoviation for teenage children to keep journeying into certain death?

Will you allow modern firearms?

>Woodland Warriors was recommended in the last thread, which is fairly Redwall-esque.

I heard of that, but I'm a pretty huge faggot about homebrew, as in I'm usually only going to play my own.

Mostly though I more interested in Ghost of a Tale- which is a game where you play as a sneaky mouse bard in a fortress full of rat guards. Reminded me of Redwall a lot so I guess I've been in that mood.

Still in the market for OSR samurai material. I have Shinobi and Samurai printed and ring-bound, I just need more adventures and the like.

I like the aesthetics in that picture overall(feels like a good compromise between Anthro and Realism), but the scale seems all screwed up, Badgers, Foxes, and Wildcats all seem too small for one thing, and Moles, Hedgehogs, and Squirrels all seem too big, also I figure Rats are all over the place size wise, ranging from only slightly bigger than your average Mouse at the small end, to Hare sizes at the biggest

also I would love a Redwall style OSR game, have thought about making one by modifying ACKS(although rather than it being a straight port of Redwall, it'd be more Redwall meets D&D in terms of setting, so there'd be more explicit magic than Redwall normally has, also the "Vermin" races would be treated more fairly than the Redwall books tended to do)

>Woodland Warriors was recommended in the last thread, which is fairly Redwall-esque.
that game is okay, but at the same time I think we could do better

Have you met teenage children?
Sorry, I work around teenagers and had to toss that in, please continue your conversation

28 here, my group has one old man and a bunch of early 20s

>that game is okay, but at the same time I think we could do better
I agree, there are some good ideas but you'd probably do better by porting the races to B/X, S&W or BFRPG and going from there.

>What is motivation for teenage children to keep journeying into certain death?

There could be lots of reasons.

>chased by bullies, make a wrong turn to escape them and fall through the Hellmouth
>goth kids/metalheads think it's cool
>artsy kids are called in a Siren-esque fashion to the Hellmouth
>gremlins kidnap Johnny Football's girlfriend

etc

It's not my idea, but I certainly wouldn't allow a new character to bring a gun with them. It's kinda in poor taste; the only reason a kid would have a gun with him at school BEFORE going in the Hellmouth is like a school shooting scenario.

Likewise, someone that survived going into the Hellmouth and became a level 1 character probably doesn't want to be caught with a gun at school, but I'd be more willing to make an exception like "stole my dad's gun, gonna go in the Hellmouth now".

Golems and shit don't really care about firearms though.

have you looked at Ruins & Ronin;

drivethrurpg.com/product/146256/Ruins--Ronin?manufacturers_id=7124

as for adventures, probably wouldn't be too hard to reskin existing adventures for your needs

>What is motoviation for teenage children to keep journeying into certain death?

That's my big problem. Maybe saving their town from certain doom? But that feels a little too generic/forceful. That's the main reason I'm asking for advice.

>Will you allow modern firearms?

Definitely! They'd use d6 damage, but would have bonuses in combat, LotFP style. I'd probably keep it simple at handgun/shotgun/rifle (the hardware store and the pawn shop taking the place of the blacksmith/trader),
Like OD&D, the combat would be pretty simple, and I wouldn't have to stat the terrestrial weapons with d6 damage.

Since it'll be a long while until I can actually post that, I'll just give you these psionic combat reference tables I made for some analysis work ages ago.

Comeliness - why aren't you using it?
> Area not really defined by any other ability score that would provide instant and useful information about the character's appearance
> Ends the argument about whether or not charisma makes you hot
> Shuts the fuck up players who demand their female characters be unrealistically attractive

if it's set in the 80's like several of it's inspirations, could just have the kid be into hunting if they live in a rural enough area

AD&D 2e Kara-Tur Monstrous Compendium Appendix

>Comeliness - why aren't you using it?
besides the fact that Comeliness is an incredibly awkward term to use, attaching physical appearance to a Stat just seems like a bad idea in my opinion

Most kids don't give a fuck about their town.

There's a shitload of hooks available though.

>kid has a sick mom or dad with something like cancer or turbo aids, and modern medicine can't cure it. The possibility of getting some super cure magic item from the Hellmouth, on the other hand...
>student lives with an abusive step-dad or some shit, has no money, bad grades, willingly goes into the Hellmouth
>PC's dog runs into the Hellmouth and they chase after it
>nerd obsessed with the occult is super stoked to just go in it

I took a gun to high school ever single day of deer season growing up in the 1980s in SW Missouri. I certainly wasn't the only one.

>It's kinda in poor taste; the only reason a kid would have a gun with him at school BEFORE going in the Hellmouth is like a school shooting scenario.

Original guy here-
Yeah, I've thought about that a lot. I think as a DM I'd have to take that really seriously, and bring up the real consequences of that scenario. Having to deal with cops/parents/other authority figures might make for interesting role-play. Alternative entrances to the Underworld would allow for sneaking around with more heavy-duty equipment, too.

On the other hand, one if my big influences here is the Reagan-era Red Dawn-esque visual of strong-willed, big-haired teenagers valiantly facing down all manner of foul creatures. I'm tempted to go for that idea and handwave that whole aspect.
Knowing players, though, I'll probably have to take things pretty seriously to keep people in line at the table.

Stats already cover how brawny, fast, agile, intelligent, wise, tough, healthy, cunning, and knowledgable you are. Why would "how attractive are you?" be sacred ground?

I do use it.

>having physical appearance be tied to stat is a bad idea
>having intelligence, nimbleness, strength, wisdom, constitution, etc, tied to a stat is a good idea

HMMMM

>Swede here
>no active games
vilken stad bor du i?

Yeah, that's exactly why that hook wouldn't really work. The whole "save mankind from e v i l" doesn't work with a loot-heavy dungeon crawl. I want to avoid plot railroading as much as possible, but there'd of course need to be a narrative at some point.

Well, like I said, it makes sense, ala Red Dawn, for them to grab the guns and go BACK into the portal after they already survived being in it, but not much sense for them to just have guns on them sitting in class when the portal opens (depending on where the entrance is and how they go through it).

How's about just limiting the races to Rats and mice then? That way the races are more focused.

Definitely. I think it'd be great for them to have to go to the town pawn shop to trade their treasure and gold for better equipment, since the Dick's at the mall isn't going to take dubloons.

You pretty much want this. I mean, not exactly what you said, but it's good for ideas.

It's late 70s/early 80s. You're a teenager/YA of some sort (roll occupation table) and you see a kidnapping in a movie theater, run after the kidnapper and find a stoner van in a parking-lot with a tunnel to an underground lair with cultists. They're sacrificing women. At the end you discover an opening to a DCC Fantasy World. You can wind up with Rockabilly Wizards or Skateboarding Thieves or a Babysitter Warrior. Whatever. It's pretty fun.

>05-06 Cook (Chinese) Chopsticks, hairnet, eggroll
>07-08 Cook (Mexican) Spatula, hairnet, tortilla
>09-10 Cook (“American”) Spatula, hairnet, tater tots
>11-12 Cook (Italian) Spatula, hairnet, dried pasta

My fucking sides.

That's exactly what reminded me in the last thread! I think I'm gonna nab that character generator table, for sure.
If you're the user who posted it last thread, thanks a ton!

Were you the one who posted this pdf last thread too? I think I'm going to use this to introduce my players to DCC before I switch rules for my campaign. I really like it.

everything else covered by a stat is gameplay relevant, what you look like on the other hand shouldn't be handled through RNG, should be up to the player, so a Stat for appearance is counter-intuitive

nah that's just boring, might as well just play Mouse Guard in that situation, one of the primary appeals of Redwall as a setting is how diverse in races it is, and a OSR game modeled after it should reflect that too

It was me. I just got it a few days ago and I thought it seemed like a fun introduction to DCC besides the standard fantasy-peasant funnels. It could lead to some pretty cool back and forth too: Characters becoming fantasy classes in the DCC world and then heading back to 80's suburbia to battle Spielberg shit going down.

R&R is just Swords and Wizardry Whitebox with the same monster list that Shinobi and Samurai uses. S&S has more classes and they fit better in fantasy Japan.

It's a small town in the midwest, what the fuck else would they do?

Seriously all the dumb shit kids do anyway is basically the same thing. Especially when you consider the average level of supervision a kid in the 80's is going to get.

>nah that's just boring, might as well just play Mouse Guard in that situation, one of the primary appeals of Redwall as a setting is how diverse in races it is, and a OSR game modeled after it should reflect that too

Well how do you suggest you keep everyone balanced which such a range of sizes and races?

honestly I'd take a note from FantasyCraft and have it so while the larger races do have some advantages to being bigger, it isn't enough to invalidate the smaller races, also since I'd be modifying ACKS for this, and as such be using Racial Classes, Mice would basically count as human in most regards and thus have a wide array of classes, while the other races are more limited in what they can choose

> in a game about player skill, how smart the character is should be determined by RNG over role play
> in a game about player skill, how wise the character is should be determined by RNG over role play
> in a game about player skill, your characters ability to influence and motivate NPCs should be determined by RNG over role play.

I'm not seeing how comeliness is different.

I'm starting to dig into the old school style of play, where most of the non-combat stuff is handled by "common sense" rulings. However, I'm questioning the lack of rules for things like sneaking and diplomacy. Why have rules for things like "attack rolls" but not "stealth rolls"?

depends on what you're playing. When I run B/x, it basically boils down to the following:

Ambush:
Get somewhere where you can't be seen. When your target comes out, force a surprise check on them. If you win, you get a free round. If they were particularly clever, you get it for free.

Sneaking up on an opponent
> Are you coming up behind them? No? proceed to the next.
> Are you wearing anything that would make a lot of noise? armor heavier than leather, absurd amounts of shit on you, etc. If no, you can make a Dex check. Thieves get their move silently as a saving throw if this fails. Success means you sneak up on the target. If you're noisy, you auto fail.
> If they are looking in your direction AND you would have qualified for the above, BUT you have enough obscured line of sight (heavy brush, whatever) then you can go ahead and make the dex check, but at half your dex. Thieves can use Hide in Shadows as a saving throw for this if there is sufficient shadow.
> If they are looking in your direction and there is nothing obscuring line of sight, you aren't going to succeed at stealth. The best you can hope for as a thief is a Hide in Shadows roll.

Diplomacy is handled by an initial reaction roll to determine the other side's mood, and then role played. If something is particularly squirrely, I'll throw a Charisma roll in there.

I'm thinking on making some small adventure sites that can be dropped into a campaign to be used as-is. They'd more than likely have a couple random encounters associated with them as well as one or two plot hooks. Since I'm kind of a bad DM when it comes to creating anything, what are some good guidelines for designing old-school adventures?

I'm a bit of a noob myself but I think how it works is like this;

anyone can attempt to sneak past enemies. The GM will probably just assign a random value based on how tough it would be to sneak past the guards (really easy for sleeping guards, easy for dumb guards, hard for smart guards, bonus if dark, etc.) that the player must then roll on a d20.

Then you have thieves, who always get the value of their sneaking skill before the random value on the dice, so the GM can't fuck them out of it and say its really hard, the thief can deal with it anyway because they are a thief.

Personally I don't know how well this rule actually works in practice, I would probably give thieves a different form of resource to work around it.

I don't know what system in particular yer looking at, but every OSR I've ever played has sneak rules.

>DCC has skill modifiers to d20 DC rolls for thieves & halflings; d10 for others.
>LotFP has a d6 skill dice for everyone that benefit specialists and halflings for Stealth.
>Black Hack has roll-under DEX.
>B/X has % increase for thieves and halflings

Anyone can attempt sneaking as long as the effort is logical, but the rogueish types have better odds.
No plate-mail clanging Warrior is gonna be sneaky.

Charisma [Diplomacy] is typically settled by the players actual roleplaying, not an arbitrary stat. If you need a set number and dice roll, you'd either opt for a CHA roll-under or some sort of DC check.

>However, I'm questioning the lack of rules for things like sneaking and diplomacy.
Depends on which OSR ruleset you're talking about.

B/X already handles stealth via the surprise rules (the X in 6 chance to surprise), and handles diplomacy by using the reaction roll, which indicates the monster's disposition towards PC requests.

I'm 30. I'm one of the oldest in the group, but not THE oldest. Everyone is younger, mid 20s-ish. So no, it's not a meme. There's a lot of appeal to OSR over other forms of RPGs.

Speaking of DCC, does anyone have the new 'reprint' PDF? I know they added a few things.

It isn't. He's just one of those people who can't stand the thought of their snowflake OC being ugly because they didn't roll high enough or are unwilling to dump something else to pump their comeliness stat.

I'm curious about what a Comeliness ability score would provide mechanics wise.

Modifier to NPC reaction rolls? Charisma already does this.

Modifier to NPC (henchmen/retainer) morale rolls? Charisma already does this.

Would it prompt a roll against certain monsters? They might target the beautiful out of spite (hags), or lust (ogres?), or jealousy (fae)? Would the ugly be hated by fae? Suspected of being a witch if the PC is female and a spellcaster?

Okay. Let's take this from the other end. What would a comeliness stat be used for, and how would it interact with Charisma? How do you set up the actual uses of it in such a way that it isn't a second charisma stat?

Charisma is leadership and Comeliness is attractiveness. If nothing else, it would simply provide a mechanical weight to a character's looks. You could do a few fun things with it, like random distinguishing marks.

-3: three negative distinguishing marks.
-2: two negative distinguishing marks (or three negative, one positive).
-1: one negative distinguishing mark (or two negative, one positive).
0: one negative distinguishing mark, one positive (or two negative, one positive).
1: one positive distinguishing mark (or two positive, one negative).
2: two positive distinguishing marks (or three positive, one negative).
3: three positive distinguishing marks.

You could have stuff like "bright eyes" and "broad shoulders" vs. "paunch" and "slouches."

What is the gamiest OSR?

wat

More inclined o the game aspect

I still don't understand. They're all role playing GAMES. Are you looking for a D&D boardgame or something?

An osr with aspects of a boardgame something like that

you should play the online game Card Hunter.

non online option?

Okay, so I was working on some rules for automatic weapons in an OSR game, and I came up with this-

So, the theoretical weapon would have magazines with, say, 30 rounds. Each time the weapon is fired, the player could choose an amount of attempted hits to make. For each additional attempt to hit, the player would receive a progressively higher penalty to hit (say -1 for each), and would then roll a higher die for the amount of expended ammo (assuming they're firing short bursts. One attempt would warrant a roll of a d4, two would warrant a d6, etc.

Is this just pointless, or do I have something here? Any suggestions?

This all came up because I was thinking about having a secret enclave of time-travelling Nazi defectors stranded in the fantasy world in my game, with all their gear (and stolen Nazi gold!) transported with them.

Realistically, full auto isn't used to target specific dudes. It's used for suppressive fire. My house rules for it presently are:
Single shot - normal attack roll.
3 round burst - 3 attack rolls at -3 to hit each.
Full auto - targets in area make a saving throw or take d4/d6/d10 hits depending on how much ammo was spent.

Dearest Troveguy,
Please delete all the older versions of Ruinations of the Dust Princess from the Trove whenever you have a moment and add this current one. Thanks!

Dearest RotDP,
The attached is a .png. Do you have a current link?
Xoxo,
TroveGuy

Dearest Troveguy, I am an idiot.

docdroid.net/WjLZISs/rotdp.pdf.html

We all have our moments. I'll get it taken care of in a few.

Ooh, that's really good. That was what I was going for with my system, but with mine being more abstract and less succinct.

You mind if I steal that?

Sure. Have at. Some pistols can also double-tap, 2 attack rolls at -2 each.

Awesome. How do you handle shotgun spread? I'm also the guy who posted about the Red Dawn-type game earlier in the thread, so hunting shotguns and rifles will be pretty common in the dungeons under Middle America.
Also, reloading? I was thinking one-shot per round for single-fire weapons like bolt-action rifles and shotguns, and one round for reloading guns with stripper clips, and maybe two rounds/round with shotgun shells/individual bullets.
Am I over-complicating at the sake of fun, at this point?

...

You're a gentleman and a scholar, man. Thank you so much.

> Shotgun spread
I had shotguns doing 2d6 damage. At close range, this was 3d6. At long range, it was 1d6. If you're using a slug it's 2d6 regardless.

> RoF
Bolt action, pump action, lever action, etc - one shot per round.

Semi-automatic, single shot or double-tap.

Select fire uses the rules above.

> Reloading:
In the system I was using for it (a hybrid LotFP hack) I gave people an attack and a movement option. Magazines could be replaced as either your movement action or your attack (so you can shoot and reload or move and reload, but not both.)

Clips (and speedloaders for revolvers) are a full-round action to replace.

Loading bullets by hand lets you reload d3 bullets in a round. If you were the combat class, you get 2d3. (If i were doing it again, I'd make it d6+1)

Do you have an open Google Doc or something? I meant to paste my contribution to a pastebin, but I realized it would kill a bunch of basic formatting and you'd have to put it back in by hand, which might be an unnecessary pain in the ass.

For a submission? I've had people either sending me docs at the email (now [email protected] ) or just sending me a link to a google doc of their own here or otherwise.

21 here, I like OSR. Feels like ... well, old school RP. Like when I used to get comfy and listen to my dad DM for his friends.

What is your most fun experience with osr?

Yeah, for a sub. My problem is I'm a shithead and can't be bothered with making a throwaway Google account.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.
Thanks for answering all these questions, man. I don't know of anyone else besides Flame Princess fans who's using guns in their OSR games.

Can I ask what context you used them in? Just curious how other people are implementing similar rules to mine.

In most games, HD improves every level until 9 or so.

XP requirements go up every level.

Spells per level, thief abilities, and some other class-specific abilities seem to improve every level.

Saves and combat bonuses (THAC0, AB, whatever) seem to advance in groups. For fighters, this is usually ever 2 levels. Clerics are usually ever 3, and others will often be every 4.

Should saves and combat ability increase every level like other class features? Or do you prefer bigger jumps less often?

I played an osr when i was 19 now i am 20 and still like it

I have a half-finished cyberpunk game built on LotFP. I should really do something with it.
Augmentations of the Chrome Princess

> I'm a shithead and can't be bothered with making a throwaway Google account.
Save it as a word doc or an RTF or whatever and just email it to me. I'm not going to publish your email account or whatever. I won't even give you a byline unless you ask for one.

Is the reprint stuff for Against the Slavelords and Dungeons of Dread available in PDF? What about castle zagyg?

What are some of the best third party delves/modules for OSR stuff based on b/x rules?

Damn, that sounds really good. Go for it, dude! Put it in Troll Gods or something, at least. Make us proud!

Cyberpunk RPGs aren't really my thing (I'm boring and just like fantasy and horror), but I'd read it just for all the firearm rules in one place.

> Damn, that sounds really good. Go for it, dude! Put it in Troll Gods or something, at least. Make us proud!
I might go back and actually finish it after I finish my current project.

If all of your players know whats up with a module is it okay for them to use that knowledge with new characters?