/osrg/: Old Surly Grognard General – Fritz Leiber Edition

For real, what kind of moron would suggest that the Lankhmar stories aren't swords and sorcery? Stat the ridiculous creature.

Previously: Trove: pastebin.com/QWyBuJxd
Game finder?: discord.gg/qaku8y9
Blogosphere: pastebin.com/ZwUBVq8L
In-Browser Tools: pastebin.com/KKeE3etp

Other urls found in this thread:

boccobsblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/storm-kings-thunder-reviewed/
youtube.com/watch?v=HEt2XdN_TbQ
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>once again putting more effort into an EPIC XD edition name and a incestuous quip

I bet you're one of the fucks who uses the discord too.

So for the past like, year, I've been using a very simple no spell level idea for magic system. I originally intended for this to avoid the problems of quadratic casters, but in the end I had to use a linear growth of spell power alongside spell slots, meaning the same effect still happened. Plus, it made spells more boring then in normal D&D since every spell is the same.

With this being said; can anyone give suggestions of how to add in spell slots to a linear, even/odd leveling system that doesn't require a table or too much math? For the record, I want leveling to be something that can keep happening potentially forever, up until epic level adventures and beyond since the rules are simple enough to support it. But I also want them to be simple and intuitive.

For the record, the current system is this;
>Ever EVEN level get +1 spell slot
>Ever ODD level starting at 3rd level get +1 spellpower

How would you include getting more powerful spell slots instead of more spell power in this method?

Don't make me post the castle pasta.

You ought to post these as images or PDFs so I can save them for later instead of reading them at work, thinking they're neat, but probably never incorporating them into my game.

Have any of you used OSR systems for story games?

I'll second that. I like these a lot, but it would be a lot easier to use if they were compiled. You know, by someone else.

Given your objectives (dead-set on avoiding tables, unlimited scalability) you may want to consider a spellcheck system or an MP system instead of spell slots.

Probably. What do you mean by story games?

Alright, my food rules are mostly complete. I've done 4 sessions testing it out in both S&W and low-level 5e and it seems to work out fairly well, so I figure it's versatile enough not to completely fall apart.

I figure I'll post food tables, charts and descriptions once I've had a chance to polish that some more, but here's the rules themselves if anyone wants to take a look and crib ideas. Been reading a lot of Dungeon Meshi and playing Breath of the Wild, so my mind keeps wandering towards food and rudimentary dungeon fare as of late.

Bits of this seem worth cannibalizing.

Quick, need some help, /osrg/! My younger brother has been serious about wanting to try to play tabletop RPG again and I'm aware he's too serious about it and for that I am proud. However, he's had a bit of a surprise moment for me when he basically begged me for a solo game. Since my D&D 3e is rusty (and its a terrible system anyway, but im mentioning it because its the only one he's tried yet) I have decided to "go OSR" for the sake of having something both simpler, sleeker and easier to remember and eventually I settled on Scarlet Heroes, which is intended for solo play anyway.

However, I have no idea what to even do. Neither does he have a character concept yet, as this was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment game. Ideally, I'd personally love to channel oldschool Sword & Sorcery (it fits the solo hero thing, obviously) but he has no character concept and at the same time there is no wish for me to pigeonhole him as he already seem a bit sad by how oldschool RPG lack the more granular classes. So what should I do: let him come up with some concept and roll with it? For all I know there is just as much a chance as he'd make some noble, heroic knight-errant as a cutthroat sellsword to some edgelord price like Elric and oddly I'm...fine with it.

Oooh, I'm looking forward to this!

You guys kept pestering us about it, so here is what we think about Storm King Thunder:

boccobsblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/02/storm-kings-thunder-reviewed/

We suppose you also want to know what we think about Tomb of Annihilation. It's a lot of work to prepare these posts. Deep insight and literary analysis packaged for quick and easily digested consumption isn't as effortless to write as we make it seem.

Yes please! Write the Tomb of Annihilation review yesterday already! I'm so excited I peed my pants!

Is there an in-depth review or is it just the 7 bullet points, half a paragraph and some shilling for stuff on the DM's guild?

I like the fluff of spell slots though. Perperation is pretty key to OSR dungeon crawling, and I was pretty set on having unlimited daily casts minus preperation time for the weak spells.

Maybe once per adventure cast an Empowered version of a basic spell, scaling every other level? Maybe you can stack them on one spell?

...

>but he has no character concept
Randomize it. Have him roll stats first, then figure out a concept that fits those stats. Heck, if he's willing to try something different, have him roll for race or class or whatever too. Roll on some tables of random background elements like the ones on Skerples' blog to generate additional inspiration.

>what should I do: let him come up with some concept and roll with it?
Homebrewing classes is pretty fun & straightforward in OSR games. Folks have been talking a lot about the GLOG here lately, and it's a great example of how easy it is to personalize D&D to your tastes / the interests of your players.

So yeah, honestly, that wouldn't be a bad idea if you're willing to put in a little extra legwork. Help him figure out what he wants to play, then sketch out a personalized class with a few evocative abilities.

I can't make my fucking PCs leave this fucking castle alone. They've spent 130k gold on it so far and they keep trying to turn DCC into ACKS and won't even play ACKS. I actually reduced the entire thing to ruins with a massive giant attack and they were like "Oh man this must have something really valuable in the catacombs if a giant army wanted it." And rebuilt it. Dragons blow up towers and they have them rebuilt. They've been doing this so long they're on their third set of PCs, with around 19 level 10 pcs that just sort of wander the fuck around being walking demigods. I have this entire world built and all they want to do is hang out in this castle and "investigate the mysteries." I made the fucking mistake of having one of them, after 10 sessions of digging into the god damn ground, actually find a hidden chamber with a shitty +1 sword and now they've got armies of craftsmen in there, tunneling, holing out and making a small subterranean city. Had them bump into a dwarven thaig or whatever and get invaded, ruining all of their progress. Fuck it, we got lots of gold let's build it all again but this time with more shit. I can't fucking handle this anymore. My players. Will not. Leave. This castle.

>lack the more granular classes
You can be finely-grained or coarsely-grained, but you can't be more granular or less granular.
OSR classes /are/ coarser. They /are not/ more confining. If anything the lack of mechanics makes them less confining, since you have to marry less aspects of your character to their mechanics.

>he has no character concept and at the same time there is no wish for me to pigeonhole him as he already seem a bit sad by how oldschool RPG lack the more granular classes
Your bro sounds kinda dumb to be quite honest.
If Customization is a must then you could use AD&D 2e with kits - just give them a close look so he doesn't end up being that OP triple-classed elf. And Black Streams/Scarlet Heroes solo rules are a must.

>posting 5e on /osr/
What did he mean by this?

>posting 5e on /osr/
I'm almost more offended by the fact that it's less substantial than the reviews you can read on the amazon product page.

This looks very mechanically strong and replicates the mood of eating monsters in Dungeon Meshi, a few questions though. Do you use this alongside death and dismemberment tables or do characters die at 0 hp? In Rule The Third you use the term gourmand, this refers to someone who would eat the meal correct?

Honestly, I think the rules in the pdf are robust enough to stand on their own. Food tables, charts, and descriptions seem cool and all but I think the mechanics you present are what's valuable rather than what the meat of basilisk taste like.

>I think the mechanics you present are what's valuable rather than what the meat of basilisk taste like.
Agreed, and this is coming from someone who is literally writing a Monster Menu-All right now. This is a solid, compressed, and very useful little PDF.

>Your bro sounds kinda dumb to be quite honest.
He's 16 and cut him so slack having grown up on videogames. The fact he's even entirely willing (and still excited) to give a chance to tabletop RPG, let alone OSR games is by itself good enough for me. He's used to looking at my books of older editions, with splatbooks and feats and row upon row of character options.

There's no need to call him 'dumb'. If anything he's much more smarter than anyone give him credit for, its just that he has some expectations about character creation being more complex and involved, that's all.

>Death and dismemberment tables
I don't use them myself, but I have some experience with the tables used in ACKs and I could see them working just fine alongside those rules.

My S&W group uses the 'less harsh rules' from S&W - White Box. Unconscious at 0, die when the player hits negative HP equal to their level, bleed out at 1hp/round.

>this refers to someone who would eat the meal correct?
I was going to just say 'adventurer' but in my playtesting the party kept feeding their hirelings, as if they were real people or something. Toying with 'gourmand.' You intuited the meaning without any explanation, so hopefully the context is strong enough to get the key points across.

I appreciate the feedback. I'm working on 90-ish food sources found in dungeons (50% animal, 50% plant and fungus) but it's slow going and the editing process for that is going to be a bit nastier. I ended up just sitting down and trying to polish the rules themselves, and hopefully it's concise enough to be of use and interesting enough to hold people's attention.

Thanks! Feel free to make use of it however you like, and be sure to share any food-related stuff on /osrg/ so that I can snag it for my own use.

> Stat the ridiculous creature.
It's been done, see Gygax Apologist ()

He has no idea what he wants to play and he's already complaining about not having enough options. That is literally dumb, and you are also literally dumb for defending your brother's literal dumbness, dumbo.

Dude we came up with a game on the spot when he returned from vacation. Excuse him for not being an enlightened pile of mold like you are. It's not like he bitched on a level of 'game ruined' it was more 'Only FOUR classes?'.

You're judging someone and calling them dumb and a lost cause rather than even bothering to see the potential in them becoming better players. This is the kind of retarded mentality which turn people off OSR. Yes, young people are retarded the question is how much effort one is willing to put in redeeming those that can be unfucked.

>'Only FOUR classes?
but Real D&D only has three classes

Don't worry. is just being a cantankerous piece of shit.

Back in his day, I imagine THAT GUYS did not exist. Everything was perfect until those damn fangled kids invented character sheets or something.

It all went downhill when dice were invented.

>we only had 2 alignments
>and they were up hill both ways!

If can't take a little bit of banter then you really shouldn't be on Veeky Forums. It's not like I called him a retard.

>You're judging someone and calling them dumb
Yes, an I've got a feeling I'm accurate or you wouldn't be so defensive.

>and a lost cause
Never said that.

>see the potential in them becoming better players
With you as the GM? Unlikely.

I gave him advice, which was to use 2e. Not my fault he got triggered.

>but in the end I had to use a linear growth of spell power alongside spell slots,
No. You didn't have to do that. You /decided/ to do.

You're perfectly capable of saying (a) spells slots increase, but spell potency doesn't or (b) spell potency increase, but spell slots don't.
Normally, the latter would be really screwy in long sessions. But I know you let Wizards prepare spells in turns, so it works out.

The former means powerful Wizards are more effective against large groups than large individuals.
That latter gives powerful Wizards a larger range of things to be good at, but also means they do less each combat.


If you insist on that even/odd thing, give wizards something else?
They have a limited amount of counterspelling throughout the day.
They you stick a limit on their spells known.
They're known for keeping stupid amounts of trained hounds.
They have infallible recall out some number of turns.
They just get better saves.

I don't know man, you do you.
If you clearly want to do other things, then do other things.

>can't handle teh bantz like me cuz I'm tough on the internet

Not either of those two, but....

Boy, can you be more of a dribbling cocksleeve?

t. dumbo

Not either of those two, but....

Dude he came up with a post on the spot when he returned from funposting. Excuse him for not being an enlightened pile of mold like you are. It's not like he bitched on a level of 'thread ruined' it was more 'ur dumb'.

You're judging someone and calling them a dribbling cocksleeve and a lost cause rather than even bothering to see the potential in them becoming better players. This is the kind of retarded mentality which turn people off OSR. Yes, young people are retarded the question is how much effort one is willing to put in redeeming those that can be unfucked.

All right, clearly the thread is done producing anything productive.

And it's barely started...

This might be the worst /osrg/ I've seen in a while.

Even this is starting to look like an attractive alternative.

Well good news, I suppose. v1.999 of Tomb of the Serpent Kings is almost done, ready to usher in a fresh wave of shitposts and bile (and possibly some helpful commentary).

...

>Stat the ridiculous creature
Isn't that just a Water Weird?

>what kind of moron would suggest that the Lankhmar stories aren't swords and sorcery?

Where's that blog post about using bullet points to list dungeon rooms in modules?

Room Name
-Thing
-Thing
-Thing
----Smell
-Thing
----Treasure value

Something like that? I know I've seen it...

Bryce on tenfootpole kinda champions that except it's
>room name
>things party will notice at a glance
>things party will notice after some examination
>misc. info

That might be it. But whereeeeere? I cannot find it.

Also, this map. 5' squares or 10' squares? Cast your votes now.

I ran it with 5' squares, but 10' might be... better? Idk.

That's tough, dude. I'm partial to 5' squares, but someone (I think the user who put together that map?) made a good point that 10' squares turn the Basilisk room into this dark, cavernous chamber that totally enhances the feel of the encounter.

I cast my lot for 3 meters.


Apropos of nothing,
00, 11, 22, 33, 34, 35, 44, 55, 66, 73, 77, 88, or 99
wins an MS Paint class of their choice.

Get it within the next hour, or you'll have to wait like 17.

>an MS Paint class of their choice.
Japanese Elf Waifu

>Get it within the next hour,
...that was quick.

Even with 10' squares, it's 50' wide and 110' long. That's not as big as you think.

>I cast my lot for 3 meters.
I wish more stuff was written in the metric system. I'd switch all my stuff over in a heartbeat, but the American OSR audience really loves their furlongs and hogsheads.

To be fair, 3m is almost 10ft - it's like 9.9ft. You could swap the two without any issues whatsoever.

>that's the joke
More or less. But saying "your torch illuminates 9 meters" and "your lamp consumes 200mL of oil per hour" is going to mean fuck-all to an american audience, tragically. Ah well.

To be fair though, there was once a joke question on our version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" that went "what is your weight... in kilograms?"

I'm still gunning for the abstract

"Your torch illuminates 8 squares" and "your lamp burns 1/3 of its oil"

I'm considering giving GLOG wizards 2 magic dice per template instead of one.
How bad of an idea is this?

...

Not good, I think. It would make a fireball spell do 2d6 at 1st level and 8d6!!! at 4th level. I have no idea how that would interact with the spells I've written, but at a glance, I'd say "badly."

What are you worried about? Underpowered wizards?

The potential angle I could sympathize with is that a GLOG wizard might run out of magic too fast for some DMs' tastes—but then there's probably a better solution to that problem, like making dice return to your pool on a roll of 1-4 or something.

Or changing the GM's tastes? But yes, the dice return thing is still good. Leveling up helps a lot though.

>GLOG

Honestly, I would limit a singular spell's MD input to 4.
The GLOG does it nicely and all, but I feel the wizards lag behind a tiny bit compared to b/x ones.

>The GLOG does it nicely and all, but I feel the wizards lag behind a tiny bit compared to b/x ones.
I guess the followup question is "and is that a bad thing?" Unfog those nostalgia goggles and give it a good critical look, especially when balanced against the other GLOG classes.

What I personally went ahead and did was to give Wizards an ability that lets them roll a d4 instead of a d6. Just a single d4. Spells needs to have a sum component for this to work. Return chance is increased, but the power output is much smaller.

youtube.com/watch?v=HEt2XdN_TbQ

>

We've been on the metric system since 1893.
The trouble is the schools refuse to teach it.

*fixed a typo

Anyway, while I'm finishing the document, how does these formats look for a "system-less" stat block:

Black Pudding
Found In: Room (14)
Stats: as a black pudding
Appearance: 200lbs of black slime, thick as treacle
Wants: food, fears fire
Armor: leather
Hit Dice: 5
Move: ¼ normal
Morale: 12
Damage: 1d6. If prolonged contact (cornered or absorbed), 3d6.
Takes no damage from bludgeoning weapons. The black pudding can target any number of PCs adjacent to it each round, making a normal attack roll for each. If it corners a PC, it begins to absorb them, dealing 3d6 damage per round. Metal or wood weapons used to strike the black pudding have a 10% chance to dissolve. If killed, the black pudding will regenerate in 1d20 hours unless burned. If it is free, add it to the Wandering Monster Table (replacing one of the Omen results).

And my "Quick Reference" sheet, a 1/2 page list of useful info for the end of the document that briefly describes each room, the treasure inside, and monsters?

3, 4. Tombs
2x1 - 20’x10’x8’ high
Smells like dust, rotted fabric
Crude stonework, paintings of leaping snakes.
One wooden coffin painted with abstract scenes.
Statue - > gold amulet (1gp), poison gas trap.

5. Door/Hammer Trap
Stone door, opens inwards, barred. Lifting bar activates trap.

6. False King’s Tomb
4x7 – 40’x70’x10’ high
Smells like dust, bone, mildew
Crude stonework, crumbling paintings of landscapes.
Three wooden coffins along the north wall, one larger than the others, painted with sleeping snake-men. Coffins contain skeletons (pg. 8)

7. False Temple
2x2 – 20’x20’x10’ high
Smells strongly of mildew
Trickle of water down the wall, and a trail of water on the floor. Incredibly ugly stone idol with a dark gap underneath.

Here's what I would do:

Wizards can vacate spell slots for the day to get +1 MD on the unprepared spell's cast.
The extra die returns to their pool as normal, provided they stay within their MD limit.
I'd also nix MD replenishing through sleep.

This is satisfactory.

Black Pudding (Room 14): as a black pudding
Wants food, Wants cornered food, Fears fire
200lbs of black slime, thick as treacle
>color the words Armor, Hit Dice, Move, Moralr, and Damage differently for each other
Armor: leather Hit Dice: 5
Move: ¼ normal Morale: 12
Damage: 1d6, 3d6 for prolonged contact
Notes: No damage from bludgeoning weapons. Attacks each adjacent PC each round. 10% chance to dissolve weapons. Regrows in 1d20 hours unless burned.
>If it is free, add it to the Wandering Monster Table (replacing one of the Omen results).
>Only matters once (when they modify the table). Belongs in the room notes, not the quick ref.

3, 4. Tombs
2x1 - 20’x10’x8’ high
Smell dust, rotten fabric.
Crude stone, paint of leaping snakes.
Wood coffin painted abstract.
Statue - > gold amulet (1gp), poison gas.

5. Trap That is Impossible to Describe
Barred stone door, opens inward. Bar is trapped.

6. False King’s Tomb
4x7 – 40’x70’x10’ high
Smell mildew, dust, bone.
Crude stone, crumbling paint landscapes.
Three wood coffins N, painted sleeping snake-men. Contain 3 skeletons (pg. 8).

7. False Temple
2x2 – 20’x20’x10’ high
Smell mildew, mildew, mildew.
Wall trickles water, trail on floor. Very ugly stone idol, dark gap underneath.


And maybe Patrick Stuart it up a little?
Does room 6 smell like whispers? Of course it does!

Didn't show up because Veeky Forums doesn't support the characters (what were the odds?), but
>200lbs of black slime, thick as treacle
was meant to be bracketed by WHITE RIGHT POINTING INDEX and WHITE LEFT POINTING INDEX.

Really appreciate you answering my question, minus the pedantic rant at the start.

But seriously, I'm all for giving Wizards something strong and useful to grow as they level, but without keeping them as one trick ponies.

One solution may be to let Wizards prepare a certain number of great spells per adventure. Not daily, just for the whole adventure session or at least until they get downtime. Or it could be that some of the Wizards spell slots get upgraded- from first level to second to third. It's just hard to convey that information as a short blurb like how I do it.

I'm kinda miffed by the Marcille in the bottom right.
I was trying to make a joke about those overpriced figures, but I don't think it conveyed properly.

Probably should have used the elf from Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo Dorei Majutsu for that slot...

Burn multiple slots of the same spell to cast it once at higher potency?

I feel like OSR general is the only non cancer general that dosen't consist of retards, le ebin memes and furries...

We're all pretty deep in the first two and our resident avatarfag is the third.

What died in your cereal? And no, I've never even touched the Discord. I made the thread because nobody had made the thread.

That would probably be the best solution. Make them prepare a bunch of spells for a regular big burst. Limited based on spell slots and time to prepare.

If this is the case though, and Wizards get more slots at even levels, what should they get at odd levels?

Have you seen the other generals?

Jesus Christ. What the fuck happened to /osrg/? Sorry about the newfag, .

>Stat the ridiculous creature.
Oaf: HD 2, AC 9, MV 30', ATK 1, DMG 1d4, Save F2, ML 12, AL C.
The Oaf is a mindless creature which will attack anything good, uttering bellows of rage. It isn't really that dangerous a combatant, however; the threat it poses comes mainly from its unbreakable morale and the fact that it is permanently under the effects of the non-magical equivalent of a Mind Blank.

>will attack anything good
Doy, that was meant to say "anything Lawful", actually. Just forgot to switch it.

You're forgetting about Magic Robes, Wands and Staves in GLOG. Those items give extra MD.

Is crawling under a broken moon basically a zine to enable Thundarr the barbarian using DCC?

If you release v2 before I run the dungeon on Saturday I'll love you forever

Looking for systems for non-magical diseases if anyone knows of any.

I just have diseases deal a certain amount of ability score damage a day and require 3 successful saves to over come. Every day you get to make a new save, if successful then you do not take the ability score damage. If you get to 0 in an ability score that's the disease being lethal. Modest medicine allows a new save with no penalty for failure while potent medicine cures disease. The different rates of ability score damage lets you make differing diseases with different levels of severity. For example Flu 1d2 Strength damage, Hemorrhagic Fever 1d4+1 Constitution damage, Shilling-Your-Blog-in-OSRitis 1d4 Charisma and Intelligence damage. I hope this helps.

I've seen Skerples mentioned in passing a few times, not always favorably. I've read a few of his posts, and found them entertaining and educational. Is there some reason that he seems to be a skub topic?

He posted quite a lot a few weeks back and I think that started to annoy people. There was also a lot of linking to blogs (not just his) and things got a lot less user than usual. He also uses the GLOG system which I don't think everyone here likes too much.

>I don't think everyone here likes too much.
It's a fourth wave system () so any "conversion" to or from the GLoG is actually (effort intensive) rebuilding from scratch.
I'm fairly certain that's the /only/ reason we care.

He makes good stuff for the most part, don't get me wrong, but if someone asked a question that even tangentially related to one of his blog posts he would shill his blog. It got to be a bit much. Personally I'm glad he and others are making content, that's the great thing about this general, but he was really aggressive about it. Fortunately it seems to have calmed down at least marginally.

Also some of his ideas and such are... controversial. Like taxes.

I mean, that works, but I was thinking more so that I don't have to make stuff up about diseases which I know next to nothing about because I live in a first-world country.

Ideally I'd want something which had a way to actually use it in a game. Like ideas on how to handle catching diseases when there's an outbreak of plague in the area, rather than just rules for what happens once you've caught the disease.

I see. That makes a good deal more sense. I can definitely see how he'd be a skubby topic with that behavior. Any other controversial work he's done, if you don't mind my asking? I really liked the work he did about taxes, the sources he linked, and the follow-up post about three estates. I have half a mind to use it in the next game, assuming there is to be any amount of RPing and eventual fief or kingdom management. Definitely not ideal for a lot of dungeon-crawl-y games, though.

If we're going to shill blogs, I read a recent post on Basic Red since everyone since it was taken down (actually back up). The idea was Dungeons = XP.

What is considered a 'completed' dungeon?

>Like taxes.
That made sense to me when I though he gave treasure in gold and advancement by copper.
But apparently one of his GLoG houserules is advancement on the gold standard, so I can't quite grok his tax obsession.