/osrg/ - Old School Renaissance General

I can't tell if you're saying 3d6 roll under is bad or 1d20 roll under is bad or both or something else.

If someone wants to refluff a Fighting-Man's crossbow to fireballs or a Thief's open locks to 'the magic touch," let them.

But the Magic-User's shtick is being highly effective, in exchange for usually being irrelevant.
If you take that away from them, you might as well remove the archetype all together.

Nah, I don't mean from the fluff side -- I'll use someone else's setting to have that covered.
I mean how to make a super-dungeon-focused game work well in a world where there's a hella lot of ocean, lots of talkie stuff, and very little space for underground murderhoboing.
And don't suggest underwater dungeons, everybody hates 'water levels'.

Ancient satellite stars already exist in the books.
Spells are already capped since widespread fire-religion can sense magic and will promptly BURN THE WITCH

In what way ?

>or something else
Thank you for catching that.

I'm mistyped:
*3d6 in order.

Extremely high density of dungeons on land.
You can't go half a hex past port without finding 3 or 4 of them.
Most cities are built on piers a short ways off the coast to get away from all the monsters.

A boat is just a floating dungeon you know.

That's an idea.
I was thinking about keeping the civilized world dungeon-free (but still have human encounters), and put a megadungeon in 2-3 ancient, forgotten places.
So basically there's mercantile/politics, navigation/naval combat and exploration/dungeons, each in its place -- players decide where to go and what to do.

True, some notSubmarines are described as having a full city-size and I'm expecting lots of piratery and boarding vessels.
I just noticed that the door rules in B/X make lots of sense in a scifi setting...

I fixed up TheManse game rules here to remove character building and make the game a bit easier to understand.

Any big issues that need clearing up before I can move on and try to get a game with it? I'd like your sage advice on this.

>Any big issues that need clearing up before I can move on and try to get a game with it?
Here's some sage advice: Just get a game with it. That's a great way to hear what does or doesn't work.

Not bad advice. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I want the game to be *good enough* that people will see it and not be put off by some glaring flaw that I missed.

By the way, is this interesting? I'll (hopefully) be running this weekly and if there's interest I'll clean up the adventures for others to use.

The new DnD online platform. Lots of stat tracking/online handbooks, etc.

posting best OSR definition;

A game or supplement is OSR if it's one or both of the following;

1.) an edition of D&D(or AD&D) published by TSR Inc(certain other games published by TSR are also counted)

2.) is broadly compatible with any TSR edition and/or anything else calling itself OSR

or to TLDR it;

>A game or supplement is OSR if interchangeable with OSR and TSR D&D.

Sounds cool.

You could also have some dungeons be archipelagos with strong tides like pic related but larger/deeper depending.

The players needing to figure out what the phases of the moons and how to get enough pumps/excavation equipment to the dungeon and setting it up, defending it, etc. could be part of the hex crawl. Like they come across a mostly sunken wreck and can't explore all of it at once, but have to come back with different gear, more experience, etc.

Could be a few floating/flying dungeons kicking around too.

Gimme some evocative character types to replace the standard classes.
In the genres of low fantasy and/or gothic fantasy.

Stuff like Conan, Solomon Kane, Warhammer/Mordheim, Darkest Dungeon, etc

You post this every thread. Why? Do you have nothing better to do than to try and start pointless arguments?

Vampire
Cultist
Rat-man
Witchfinder

It horrifies me to think it, but maybe that user actually believes that it's the best definition and hes doing everyone a favour by posting it.

I think he's trying to prevent pointless arguments. It might work, unless you count you and me talking about this right now. I wouldn't, though.

I don't mean to be a shill, but what do you guys think of Maze Rats? I've found the tables contained within surprisingly useful. I don't like the concept of only having 3 stats, but it actually seems to work pretty well.

Here's the PDF, I forgot to include it in my post

Hey, this pdf is neat. I like the Fencer, Kobold Keeper, and Follower of Icarus the most so far. Some of these need some playtesting or tweaking, but there's a ton of cool ideas.

they might do it if does well

maybe

for reals, time to think of another way to host besides Mega.

How often does the trove get updated. Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

It's not been updated in many months. TroveGuy's been incommunicado for a while now.

From what I've seen, Mega is no worse than other sites when it comes to responding to takedowns, though.

Time for a torrent or magnet link then. Esp if the content is static. Does anyone have a full archive or a partial?

Or is it time to start over?

Backing it up on Mega is pretty simple - make a free account with some throwaway email, import the whole thing, and you're good. Somebody's bound to have done it, we just have to wait for them to show up and link it.
The content isn't really static, though, it just became that way when updates stopped being processed and filed away.

As someone who grew up playing Advanced Fighting Fantasy, I'm totally cool with 3 stats.

This is a great ruleset for very quick pickup games. I wouldn't run a campaign with it, but i would use its tables for a campaign in some other ruleset.

I like it, but it's really a story-type game like Fate with some of the names swapped around to make it feel more OSR-like.

It does work though. It's got excellent ideas. The layout is extremely well done. The tables are worth stealing.

The Darkest Dungeon classes hit pretty nearly all the good archetypes, so I'd just use those.

Looking good. Now just run a game with it.

>I like the way you do your spells but I feel like knock is a shitty spell no matter what because how it overtakes the thieves purpose in the party.

>Or does Knock maybe open things really loud and sets off traps/alarms so maybe it's still useful to have a sneaky rogue after all?

So Rogues, in this system, a properly sneaky. They also get a weird ability that lets them retroactively declare what they've got in their pockets, so they can go "Aha, but of course I have a crowbar, a collapsible ladder, and a lady's skirt."

Also, knock /flings/ things open. It's a violent spell. It's going to attract wandering monsters and break delicate treasures and all that jazz.

And if you think it's boring or bad, you can generate a new spell from the d100 Orthodox Wizard Spells.

Rat-man as in "rat-catcher" or rat-man as in "skaven"?

I think it's interesting. I'm curious if you've every read Harry Harrison's West of Eden, or played the Geneforge series of games.

West of Eden is a "what if" science fiction novel where dinosaurs didn't go extinct, and eventually evolved into sapient beings who adapt living organisms to become tools. The central conflict is between the paleo/neolithic humans and the dinosaur people.

It's not what I'd call "up to date" with its science, but I've found it fun enough to re-read every couple of years.

The Geneforge series explores the ramifications of the creation of artificial living beings by wizards called "Shapers". It has some clear homages to West of Eden, and when I first played it, felt like I'd met the one other guy who was a fan of the Eden trilogy.

More thought-coal for the idea-forge: Large sea going animals with islands on their backs. Dungeons could be built onto these moving landmasses, and monsters could be the creature's parasites, extensions of the creature itself, or other organisms adapted to symbiosis with the creature - to say nothing of critters deliberately placed there as guardians of the artificial structures.

...

>Harry Harrison's West of Eden

Poor Harry. He spent so many years working on that series, planning it to be his magnum opus, and by the time he had it ready to go to the publisher, there had been several big changeups in the sciences, and dinosaurs weren't cold blooded anymore, and his whole trilogy looked dated before it even hit the shelf.
(Also, his portrayal of stone-age societies was a full-on early-20th century "Big Man Rule Tribe, Hit You With Stick!" theme, but that view had already been discarded as simplistic when he started, so that one's more his own fault)
Still pretty good books, I've read 'em twice. I really like how weird the dinosaur folk are.

it's actually supposed to prevent arguments as notes

I love some of the stuff in it, but it's also way too simplistic for me to run, if I want a super simplified OSR system I'll use either Microlite 74 or Whitehack

MEGA is the best site unfortunately, all the other ones are way too slow for either uploading or downloading and/or filled with popups and ads to be any good, and Torrenting is too reliant on other people seeding it to be any good for our purposes, just have to keep going with what we've got

In a way, it's endearing for its "time capsule" of incorrect ideas, and it takes those incorrect ideas in a grand and interesting direction, which is the goal of good speculative fiction.

...

Could be both.

Why is leprosy so ridiculously contagious? 5% chance per day?

Pretty sure most people can't even get leprosy IRL.

I get that, but we could update the torrent, idk, Monthly or something. It's just a good backup for when the trove (inevitably) goes back down.

Not as much anymore since it got cured and such.
Hope you weren't planning on writing a book or anything with leprosy as a major aspect of the main character that drives a lot of his psychology and beliefs because that'd be super awkward and kind of moot.

Getting rid of the bacteria that causes leprosy is easy. Fixing the nerve damage caused by the untreated leprosy is not.

Oh yeah, thought that went without saying.
Not like you can just graft an arm back on after it plops off.

I was thinking Skaven, since one of the prompts was mordheim. I was trying to think of classes from the video game adaptation that would work as OSR classes that werent already thief, cleric, fighting man, or MU. Those classes are surprisingly broad once you start to really apply them.

You'd really have to work at it.

It's not that, that happens when you hurt yourself and it gets infected with something else (and you didn't feel it because the bacteria that causes leprosy damages your nerves, among other things, making you unable to feel pain) and then eventually rots off due to necrosis.

Advanced leprosy is horrifying.

But has a point. A 5% chance per day is a little silly. It's not hugely contagious, though you're much more likely to get it by being around someone who does have it (transmitted through bodily fluids, by the way).

Unless they, say, wear a metal mask, deliberately isolate themselves, and wrap their body in bandages...

5% chance per day is a 30% chance per week or an 80% chance per month. Over a year, it's 99.99+%

Hell, let's assume the chance of getting leprosy is halved to 2.5% (because you still have to make a Save). That's a 16% chance per week, 53% chance per month, and a 99.99+% chance per year.

Damn. Harsh.

Now admittedly, I'd give PCs in my game a >5% chance of outright death per day (usually horrible, violent death).

But it's not one player inflicting this on the others by virtue of the character they chose. The party isn't "Fighter, Thief, Wizard, Exploding Death Man." Everyone has a more or less equal chance of ruining their own life and the lives of others.

>Harsh

Yep. Now, I don't exactly know what the wikipedia article means when it says:

>The greatest risk factor for developing leprosy is contact with another case of leprosy. Contacts of people with leprosy are five to eight times more likely to develop leprosy than members of the general population.[23] Other risk factors are poorly understood.

They don't exactly enlighten one on what the base risk chance is. However, these links are slightly more enlightening:

>leprosy.org/leprosy-faqs/
>cdc.gov/leprosy/transmission/

I think that bit in the second where it states that "Prolonged, close contact with someone with untreated leprosy over many months is needed" is pretty clear that 5% is probably too much.

Granted, we aren't trying to model or simulate reality in any way, and it might be more fitting to have the higher chance because people believed it was a spiritual corruption, and not a germ, and obviously, in a fantasy setting this could indeed be the truth.

>Exploding Death Man (EDM)
XP, HP and abilities as per rogue, but reverse saving throws. Start off insanely high and every level get worse.

Once the EDM has failed 2 Saving Throws in a single day of adventuring, he perishes and causes his Maximum HP in damage to everything nearby. The radius of this explosion in feet is equal to the EDM's level x3.

>Exploding Death Man.
I need stats for this archetype.

That's true. Deliberately associating with a leper, if it's a spiritual illness, and robbing tombs together seems like a great way to get infected.

But the whole "One PC's class punishes all the other PCs" shtick is lousy. It's asshole bait.

First, I'm delighted someone posted rules before they were even requested.

Second, yes, this is going in my Table of Hirelings.

The way I see it, the EDM is a gimmick character. It starts off moderately safe and even better than most classes. It progressively becomes more risky, and there comes a point where it's a pointless danger to everyone.

I imagine that somewhere in every setting that contains Exploding Death Men, there is a lone temple. A solitary refuge in the deep mountains where high-level Death Men sit in quiet contemplation of their life. They trade stories and tales and live the safest lifestyle they can manage.

They can pass quietly from this life without incidence, but if one perishes due to adventuring mishaps or extreme violence then the entire temple is destroyed in a massive chain reaction of Exploding Death Men.

Such is the fate of the Death Men.

Other ideas:

If traveling in a party, there is a 5% chance per day that a party member will wake up with unpleasantly damp socks.

If an EDM lights a fire or is dealt fire damage, they must make a Save. There is no penalty, other than exploding if 2 Saves are failed in the same day.

I agree with you there. Not even the 1e DMG is this harsh. Just going with the 1% base monthly chance, and the +10% for contact with a carrier, that's still only a base 11% chance per month as opposed to this kind user's 80% chance per month.

For a vast sum, you can hire a very old Exploding Death Man. He will travel in great secrecy in a covered and padded wagon. Then, he will walk into your enemy's city. He will go to a city square and, very carefully, drink two potions. The first is a biomancer brew that increases HP a hundredfold, but inevitably leads to death within hours. The second is a small vial of slow poison, the kind of poison that needs you to make a /lot/ of Saves.

There are craters all along the High Spine mountains where cities once stood.

ACTUALLY actually I'I FUC

i meant to only flip-flop the magic saves because i like them only blowing up on fire saving throws

fixd

What are the Marks and Signes of an Exploding Death Man?

Blood in the Chocolate When?

>wanting gimmicky weight-gain fetish material

wew lad

I'd say, 4 failed saves in a day with fire counting double.

Either way, keep all saves reserved. It's more flavorful.
Their shtick is supposed to be that they're really good at low levels, but less worth it at mid.
Also, maybe start them at 2 HD?

Also also, fixing the explosion range makes them less menacing to cities.

Fuck Blood in the Chocolate, Vacant Ritual Assembly When?

THIS BE THE ACCOUNT OF ONE JOSEF INGSGRIDDR

I, SCRIBE ASTORIL OF THE LUNAR TOWER GIVE TESTIMONY THAT THE WORDS CONTAINED IN THIS ACCOUNT ARE SIR INGSGRIDDR'S AND SIR INGSGRIDDR'S ALONE

T'was in the southern.. The far southern marshes that I first met one of those men. His skin was like ash fer it ne'er saw sun, and he applied a poultice to his hands and feet e'ery morning without exception. He said t'was to thwart errant embers about camp. At the time I couldn'a think of what ere he meant, but at a time that was later I came to appreciate such caution.

One night, when we scarce had an extra log to burn he came to sit by the dead remnants o' our cooking fire. We spoke at some length about his homeland and where precisely he was from. The man pulled back his long, matted hair and showed me something that, to this day I will'na e'er ferget. A glowing rune the size of a closed fist. It shimmered in the darkness, and e're I got a good look, he co'ered the thing once more. I learned that such is the sign of his kin. His cursed relatives. The Exploding Death Men.

All such creatures carry this mark somewhere on their body. A glowing sign that burns in the darkness, and that pulses with hunger e're the man grows close to flame. Some have it upon their hand where they keep it exposed so that they might be warned when danger approaches. Some are not so lucky, and tend not to live so long.

That first man was a courageous soul. He was mortally wounded by the poisoned arrow o' a Saurian in the wetlands, and staggered towards them with a sudden speed. I was pulled from the fray, screaming curses at the scaly bastards when I saw that dying man pull free somethin' from in his jacket. Sparks took catch on his clothin', and he burst into flames. A moment later, a deafening roar took my hearing for two days. Ten paces abreast was the crater he left behind.

Turbans and Kebabs.

>that creation

This is why I love you guys.

p sure it's been in the trove for ages
which doesn't help now admittedly, but it's around at least.

If bozos can start demanding stuff, did no one pick this up? Some countries don't have free rpg day.

Trove is down

Thank you for helping out the people who [check the replies to OP] but who [weren't in the last thread] and [don't check the OP].

Thanks m8.

I've got another hour to burn, I'll do another shitty class mspaint project or a 1d20 table if anyone has a request.

... the anthropothagi, with heads sunk into their chests. But to further south, one may find wandering men with grey skin. Some say they are a tribe cursed by all the gods. They rub their hands in cold grease that does not burn, and wear thick robes even in the sun's heat. Fire, above all else, they fear.

This tribe is cursed, it is said, to kindle in flame. They have cautious, solitary habits. They pray devoutly, but no god will hear them, they say. Should fire ever claim their skin, it is said, they shatter outwards like a wizard's fireball. An old man might claim a village on his death, or a city.

Many caravans hire such cursed men as guides, for they wander many strange paths. The desert tribes will not kill them, for it is said anyone who slays a cursed one will be himself afflicted, and all his children, and his children's children. Sorcerers of that region prize their blood, and hire them as servants.

If you travel to the east, you come to the land of the serpent-men, who...

Narcoleptics who can mess with die rolls as a class ability.

Ooh!

1d20 Minor Demon Servants of a Sorceror King

Also, I hope you don't mind if I write up this idea on my blog in a slightly different format.

vid.me/m8k8

I've kept an eye out, but I haven't seen a scan anywhere yet.

kay

I can do that

You got a blog where you post this nonsense?

Go for it, my dude.

You can throw me a mention if you want over at occultesque.com/ but I wasn't gonna post any weird class stuff there yet. I'm saving up all my little creations for a later compilation thing. Also, it's not even my idea,
had it first.

Yeah, but see, it was a throwaway line I had. I briefly debated between "Exploding Death Man" and "Constantly Shitting Man", but decided to take the highbrow route.

Anyway, bookmarked. I'll add it to the blog list on my blog... once I figure out how to do that.

I am hoping to run a Lotfp game in the future and looking over the game rules and have a question for those who have run this system. It says that a starting magic-user gets read-magic and several randomized spells.

Do you follow the randomized spell rule, or ignore it?

And how do you all handle the wizard needing to spend time studying spells, researching new ones, and crafting scrolls/potions.

and how can I handle that in a hexcrawl. Is it too dickish to stop them from doing these things until they reach a suitable settlement or city?

>Do you follow the randomized spell rule, or ignore it?
I don't play LotFP, but I think that a good approach to spell selection is to let a player roll twice and then pick the result he prefers. That way, he has some choice, but he can't just pick any spell he wants.

I guess it also depends on the campaign style and the expected death rate. If only an exceptional magic-user is going to survive 1st level, it's much less important to optimize spell choices, and much quicker to just roll and go with it.

As for the downtime thing, a decent rule is that for every 1 day in the thick of things, plan for 3 days of downtime, prep time, or rest "in town". An adventurer's life is short periods of deadly dungeon crawls or whatever followed by naps, hookers, and buying clean shirts.

>Table of Hirelings
Would you mind posting, or at least sourcing it?

It's pretty much the race table from earlier
With the career options from pages 3-5 of the attached PDF.

Hirelings have generic stats, start with Morale 8 (10 if they are paid a signing bonus), and start with their career's item and weapon unless otherwise equipped.

Done.

Yeah, not sure if you caught it but I usually post my nonsense over at occultesque.com/