/osrg/ OSR General - Problem Solvers Edition

ascalon.jpg

I think he meant that that's a static ability, i.e. "Whenever you attack, on a 19-20, you can also do something cool," but that with every level-up the range off rolls that trigger the ability increases. So, a second level fighter has "Whenever you attack, on an 18-20, you can also do something cool."

Really, the sizes in that pic are a pretty good range for me. 50' long is already starting to push it when it comes to being able to reach the thing with hand-to-hand weapons, so it makes a nice upper end.

oh neat. Would you get to pick before hand, or is it decided by the gm?

No you pick when it happens.

I'm also wishy-washy on including other 'special moves' one could just learn in play, similar to how a Wizard might find a new spell. So you could talk to a mountain guru and maybe he'll teach a move that lets you do a flame slash attack when you roll your special move, but that's just a campaign thing not a game rules thing.

this kind of sounds like feats

Not even close baeB

Can I get a d6/8 "Cool shit going on in the Wasteland" from you guys? Maybe some Wasteland encounters?

...

In a system without magic, how is Wisdom relevant? Should it just be lumped into intelligence?

Some systems use wisdom for other stuff. Which one are you using?

>A blast crater that has been filled with broken tvs, all facing inward, wired together. They occasionally flicker and broadcast ancient signals interpreted by the commercial oracle.
>Massive submarine that has been sealed for generations, the crew's descendents becoming horrific mutant things who obey command chains and chant launch codes in the darkness.
>The local tribal contest of leadership is to construct the best gliding wings from scrap. The contestants battle elements to the top of the 'scraper and see who can glide the furthest.
>A line of ancient wayposts set in the roads wanderers use through deadly sandstorms attached by chains, rope, anything that can be grasped. It is customary to deposit coins at each post for luck.
>Still functioning radio transmission tower with two way communicator. On one side there is a flattened coke can rattling in the wind, on the other are survivors who think its communicating in morse code.
>Adherents of the emancipating blade. Death cultists who attain enlightenment through disfigurement, injury and death. (+1 attack/dmg for each hit/killed, reroll failed moral checks)

Dude, these are fantastic

You know what? I'm pissed, that's it. This is the last straw. Every single time I try to give fighters cool shit people say they are like feats even when they aren't.

So you know what? Fuck you, I'm doing feats now. Get rekt.

enjoy your 3.pf

Just don't ask /osrg/ about anything you homebrew. They'll hate it for straying away from B/X.

Go, man, go!

But seriously,"Feats" aren't bad, so long as they aren't done badly. Hell, the Warlock thief praised in the last thread is basically "thief feats: the class." And its feats aren't even all that well done, either, they're just not as terrible as 3rd edition, or as over-the-top as 4th.

(I'm not sure what a "Boneteria" is, but it sounds like something Bender would take out a business loan for)

Since we're already being heretical, I'd like to see an OSR game use 4e's approach to powers.

OSRG Dream Game:

Only 2 Classes: Fighter & Wizard.
No skills cause everyone should be good at everything.
Can cast a spell once a week.
D20 for THAC0. Strictly d6 after.
Excel Spreadsheets when noting time, ammo and rations.
If you even mention the Thief you need to leave right now.
No demihumans cause Gygax something something.

The Gray Hack (Veeky Forumshack) when?

Can you guys for real stop being so damn easily trolled? user didn't even say feats are bad, just that something reminded him of one. I think that's dumb too, but if people achieve full shitloss over little things like that this thread'll be troll central before long.

TL;DR don't take bait that's barely even dipped in the water

>I only included demihumans because players begged me!
>I only included half-orc because a player begged me!
>I only included psionics because some random dudes begged me!
>I only included the thief because a fan begged me!
>I only included weapon speed factors because an associate begged me!

Really Gygax?

I stole most of them. The sub is from an Ian Watson short story (he writes oddball scifi), the wayposts are from that sicfi movie Soldier (bad but just the right kind of bad), the coke can is from Nevil Shute's On The Beach (depressing but good) and the Adherents of the emancipating blade are from the zen stuff last thread.

meanwhile in my game
>DCC mighty deed of arms
>max hp at level 1
>fighters have d10, clerics d8, thieves d6, wizards d4 hd
>everybody has an extra HD of hp called "Fatigue" that takes damage first before it going to hp, and can fully recover that endurance whenever out of combat at a rate of 1 per round, because the constant retreats from dungeons due to lack of healing pissed me off when I played back in the day
>weapon skills AND common non-weapon skills
>Luck from DCC

>hired mercenaries will totally go into the dungeon even if they're not henchmen so every dungeon run is more of a vidya RTS style base invasion
>with gunpowder and cannons pulled by horse carriages

on the other hand
>all monsters have max HP for their HD
>every monster has at least one extremely powerful special ability

and the most haram part
I use anime pictures for all my npcs

>Massive submarine that has been sealed for generations, the crew's descendents becoming horrific mutant things who obey command chains and chant launch codes in the darkness.

youtu.be/t2KnRfW0Qn0

The one so down is alive, it is part of my plight
The one inside makes a sign, and keeps an eye to the light

I sense panic overboard - obscure, viscid, sprawling fog
I hear a sonar rumor that says I'm far from the shore
...
Across the ocean of sheer compromise
There is no matrix, not even a guide

The last wave of sanity rolls over my frequency
Skyline under water field - the depths above the high seas

A twilight house keeper, dim-on, dim-off now
A concrete cyclops blinking down his dull eye
Does this code signal something somewhere somehow?
...
Mute island, fish-eye view - circling the border line
No resource, no rescue - stranded, I'm otherwise

The error is perfect, like this sub-effect of my kind
My mind...My Mind!

P good desu.

as notes what's in your pic is a good size range, above that things can get a little awkward, especially if you don't have black powder weapons or certain kinds of magic available

Forsake your false editions and embrace True AD&D™ or the trolls shall fall upon you like locusts and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Need help with creating an Encounter Table for a sort of warp space between the spheres of my Space Fantasy campaign.

Maybe take an encounter table for sea adventures and convert to warp?

Pic is the current starting map of spheres for the game.

20d20 space goblins with space short swords, space leather armor, space shields, and 3d10 space copper pieces.

Warp space like warhammer or warp space like star trek? Warp space like something else?

Warp space like Warhammer.

20d20 daemonic goblins with daemonic short swords, daemonic leather armor, daemonic shields, and 3d10 daemonic copper pieces.

If its daemony and fucked up you could make a D%chance of demon incursion based on how much magical/psionic equipment, players, etc. the travelling vessel has. The idea being that demons are attracted to more magical stuff as it is more interesting to play with/eat.

I've got to go to bed, but I want to keep thinking about this. Sort of like a game of chicken, balancing the amount of powerful gear/characters travel, how fast they do so, and how well prepared they'll be for demonic encounters all effecting how powerful/what type the demons are. Probably something with totally HD.

Maybe use the N'Gathau from Swords and Wizardry's Tome of Horrors. They're kind of not-Cenobites, and I figure they're a pretty good stand-in for extraplanar horrors IMO.

>with total hd
yep bed

I'm looking for something that can suit all levels, so things from weird occurances to actual encounters. I look forward to your thoughts, have a good sleep user.

>N'Gathau
I fucking love cenobites. I right now basically depict my chain devils and erinyes like it.

Between 1-3 out of 5. Any larger, and I feel like you are getting into a creature that can't reasonably be fought. If I'm playing Dungeons and Dragons, I would actually like to see Dungeons and Dragons in my games.

Do you mind if people put in more then one article?

The "Random Guest" tables in Red and Pleasant Land (ppg 47-51) also work well as demons/aliens/Cenobites. Unholy Guests work better as Cenobites, Uncreated ones are more "vile alien terrors".

No, but it deviates from our dogma, and you should probably leave the general just for considering it.

Those look really good, but im looking for more encounters during travel.

Vanilla DCC XP rules are complete shit and opposed to old school though.

1d3 Demons of Type 1d6 (roll for each)

/osrg/ has dogma on DCC? I haven't seen it discussed in any sense for several threads now.

What are some good complications or features for a character who manages to avoids vampirism? I want my players to have a chance to get out of becoming vamps, but I'd like there to still be some lasting scar to their cahracters.

>/osrg/ has dogma on DCC?
No, but /osrg/ has dogma in general.

Occasional insomnia. Loss of focus when seeing blood. Heart stops beating for a minute, sometimes. Having fluttering, out of body experiences. Waking up atop cold soil after sleepwalking. Dizziness in hours of prolonged sunlight.

I'd rather see heresy and experimentation rather than bitching about what is and isn't OSR like the past few threads, and I'm the kind of person who likes running vanilla games with little to no houserules.

>What are some good complications or features for a character who manages to avoids vampirism? I want my players to have a chance to get out of becoming vamps, but I'd like there to still be some lasting scar to their cahracters.
Bad:
Rashes when exposed to sunlight or touching silver. Rising gorge around holy symbols. Susceptibility to charm and control spells from Chaotic entities, especially other Vamps or greater Undead. Aversion to mirrors and sunlight. Hunger for raw/rare meat. Some animals (especially cats/dogs and other domestic animals) suffer a minor reaction penalty. Anemia. Lassitude or drowsiness in the day

Good:
Mild immunity or resistance to the effects of other Undead's touch. Better night vision. Slight hypnotic gaze, better reactions from wolves/bats/rats

All effects are cleared with a Remove Curse or Remove Disease. If the character dies while under the effects of the "averted" Vampirism, make a Save Vs. Death or rise as a Vampire Thrall or minor Undead with HD as the character's/

>that pic

What the hell, 1950s?

Well, I don't see how going closer to gp-to-xp deviates from the /osrg/ dogma then.

>Would this break the game too much?
I don't play DCC, but I think you'd have to tweak XP pretty severely to break things. Hell, half the time I've played, the GM just sort of decides when folks should go up a level, and things still run okay. Sure, there's the balance between fighting encounters and avoiding them in favor of just looting to consider, and those can lead to substantially different approaches and game experiences, but even a "kill everything you can" hack-and-slash game plays okay, even if it's not necessarily my favorite way of going about things.

>The experience points in DCC is boring and it's making my players bored.
What specifically do your players find boring about the system?

>What the hell, 1950s?
I've got weirder, especially from the Victorian era, but a lot of those are porn. Pic hopefully not related.

So last thread we were mentioning books to take inspiration from, and I know this great harlequin novel...

Throw some space alien dicks, an Apocalypse Button, and a couple magic-user spells in with some of your house rules and see if Jim Raggi will publish it, then.

...

1 for low level
2 for mid-tier
3 for upper tier
4 would be a massive high level fight
5 is basically a dragon demi-god

2 for small time dragons that church types make a show of killing every few years.
4 or 5 for the one big/clever dragon that high level characters can barely deal with.

So Canadian.

Help me, OSRG, you're my only hope.

Stars Without Number has a kind of neat mech system, but it's a little anemic for my tastes. Have there been any expansions to it, official or fan made? Otherwise what are some good fairly simple OSR-style games with mech rules?

Here's a thought: write your own homebrew

Not out of the question, but I wanted to see what my options were first.

>Otherwise what are some good fairly simple OSR-style games with mech rules?
>Fairly simple
>OSR-style
> 'Mech rules
Um..

I mean, we're not ALL insane numbercrunchers all the time, but mecha games kinda tend to attract construction rules and fiddly combat scaling. I suppose you could go with the Xenogears-style "The mecha are just really big versions of the characters with different guns", but if you want to do something like Escaflowne (where PCs and mecha interact on a pretty regular basis, and a Name-level fighter manages to kill several in a handful of rounds of melee combat) you're probably going to have to write your own.

Well, considering the aforementioned Stars Without Number system fits the bill and is really only lacking in options, acting like what's being asked is some kind of impossibility is just silly.

Actually fuck it, I'mma just expand the SWN system and see what happens. Seeing as how the mechs are built almost exactly the same as vehicles and starships in that system it should be a breeze to hack the expansions yeah like anything is ever as easy as it looks for vehicles and starships over to mechs.

...

Just had a flash of insight and oh my god THAC0 makes so much sense now.
Lets say a character has an Attribute of 12. Instead of saying "your attacks have a modifier of +x", you just say on a roll of 12 or less you hit. Literally your THAC0. Now, then comes the question of "but what if the target is particularly armored or evasive" so now you get a penalty to your D20 roll to represent they are relatively more difficult to hit/damage.
Now instead of giving every enemy stat block some arbitrary AC you only have to give a stat in the special case where the enemy is especially defensive, easing the burden on the DM.
Probably getting this wrong with the specifics but at least I understand the value of it now.

>Since we're already being heretical, I'd like to see an OSR game use 4e's approach to powers.
This is a great idea, maybe I'll do this

>Actually fuck it, I'mma just expand the SWN system and see what happens.
That's the spirit, user! You have to playtest to find out if something works anyway, so don't sweat it too much at the desktop construction stage, that's always been my thinking.

Should you only roll for hit points once?

Reroll all HD each level and take bigger result?

Reroll your HP each adventure? Or maybe after a long rest?

>Flashbacks to Car Wars 1/10th second phases
Also Champions SPD

>Should you only roll for hit points once?
I hate this.

>Reroll all HD each level and take bigger result?
I do either this (usually "bigger" result bit, but sometimes just being a straight reroll that could end up being lower) or fixed hit points per die.

>Reroll your HP each adventure? Or maybe after a long rest?
I've never done this, but I could see it working. The only weird bit is if you roll shockingly low or high and suddenly your character's behavior changes with no real fluff basis.

Speaking of hit points in OSR, do people actually like playing a character, a Wizard usually but any class this can happen, with 1 starting hit point? Seems kind of lame.

I like the Carcosa model (this is the only good part of the dice conventions though, the rest is shit) where you roll your HD before each encounter, leave them on the table, and any damage that fails to take a hit die off you is effectively temporary.

It's a surprisingly big change, though, it affects healing, traps and all kinds of little stuff like that.

That's...

Not bad? As long as it's not a continually scaling sort of thing. Maybe just at-wills for Fighting-Men?

Thanks for the advice. I can never quite figure out experience in these games it seems.

>What specifically do your players find boring about the system?
The system itself is fine, but I notice that when we played LotFP my players would get a much stronger and more positive reaction to hundreds and thousands of experience points after successful crawls. With DCC you get 1 to 4 experience points per encounter based on the danger of the encounter, and it's not very fun for them to hear either "well you guys didn't get hit at all so that's just 1 xp" or "well you guys almost died and barely escaped with your lives so that's a whooping 4 xp". There's just so many of these encounters that the players have to theoretically slog through to get to a new level, and it doesn't feel rewarding at all, even if the DCC classes generally have a greater power curve than other retroclones.

I doubt anybody *likes* their character being weak, but a wizard only has 1d4 anyway (or in the case of OD&D, 1d6, same as anybody) so it's not much improved anyway. The average sword blow will always shave a wizard too close. You take the fragility in stride, or as a challenge. (This is one of those places where increased distance from the character helps -- instead of being annoying that 1 HP is funny.)

That being said, it's disliked enough that various forms of "max HP at level 1" is one of the most common house rules.

Personally, I like everybody getting a hit point boost at 1st level. The jump from 1 HD at 1st level to 2 HD at 2nd level is ridiculously large anyway. So I might give everybody half of their maximum roll to add to their hit points at 1st level (thus a magic-user gets 1d4+2). A common method, of course, is just to give folks a maximum result on their hit point roll at 1st level (people had been doing this long before 3e came out). Or maybe you just let people roll twice and take the higher result (maybe with doubles indicating face value +1, so that the lowest you could roll would be 2).

Done it once. Rolled on a random table for my start spell and, well, Identify is not the absolute best spell to start with...

That's not real heresy. Try this shit on for size: Make an OSR game out of the Player's/DM's Option series.

While we're on the topic; my current homebrew HD table

Please give fighters just a +1 at level 10, nobody should have two decimal hitdice

Why? What's the frigging difference?

>Why?
It looks better imo

>What's the frigging difference?
Two decimal hitdice isn't OSR seems to "break" the limits, it's my pet peeve really

What happens if a magician rolls 1 at first level?

Well my pet peeve is ruining as something as smooth and simple as 'the fighter gets +1 HD every level because they are strong' because some fag can't have a 1 next to a 0 on a table.

1 HP.

I am considering a houserule that makes the minimum HP you can have is 2, that way if you ever get hit you can at least pray for a 1. That way Magicians would have a 50% chance to start with just 2 HP, which I think works alright.

I just wasn't sure if giving thieves and clerics the same HD was good, but I kind of like the idea now to encourage thieves to actually fight.

They actually do by the book in LBB OD&D, though. Advancement slows but the book specifies as far as 11 +3 dice and gives a clear progression after that. All user's doing is sticking to that, really.

I don't know why you peeled off the bonus hit points from the Fighter table relative to the LBB one though, this is strictly worse advancement.

>can't have a 1 next to a 0 on a table
yeah, I can't. It's something that makes me drop the game, really. I only play retroclones with 9 hitdice limits. But, I prefer different dice for different classes instead of "everyone rolls d6", so every class has that limit, in your case, I can see the reason to use two decimal

So is progression slower or is it just that the numbers are lower and thus seem less impressive? Because if it's the latter, you could just video game-ize it. Instead of giving them 4 XP, given them 400. And then it just takes 100 times as many XP to go up a level. It's a little silly, as there is no practical difference (the extra two digits are just window-dressing), but maybe it would have a psychological effect.

>With DCC you get 1 to 4 experience points per encounter based on the danger of the encounter, and it's not very fun for them to hear either "well you guys didn't get hit at all so that's just 1 xp"
I don't know what the DCC rules say, but I've given out XP by encounter difficulty before, but the PCs don't get fewer XP if they get lucky or play it smart and take little to no damage. The encounter was just as powerful either way; they just did a better job with it. (Granted, on a long-term basis, I might adjust my assessment of what constitutes a difficult encounter, but not on a case-by-case basis.)

>"well you guys almost died and barely escaped with your lives so that's a whooping 4 xp"
Maybe it's just me, but 4 XP in a system where it takes 40 to gain a level is every bit as impressive as 4,000 XP in a system where it takes 40,000. The important bit is how much purchasing power are you getting--what fraction of the way to the next level have you just closed? I'm not disappointed if I get a twenty-dollar bill rather than twenty one-dollar bills, even though I'm only holding one bill rather than twenty.

>There's just so many of these encounters that the players have to theoretically slog through to get to a new level, and it doesn't feel rewarding at all
Are you saying that level-progression is slower? Because you could always reduce the XP requirements to gain levels. Halve them, if you want to be drastic about it (or simply double the XP earned from an encounter).