/osr/ - Old School Revival General

The little symbol in the lower left indicates it's from 2002.

Lower right, you mean. Even better!

Has /osrg/ made any dungeons together? I think we're a wide group of GMs so we must be able to make something wild and/or fun.

Would anyone be interested in doing so?

>©2002
It's not that long ago that we were still free, user.

15 years is a generation. This upcoming generation sure is determined to destroy their own freedoms as fast as they can.

Sure. Where do we start? Take a Dyson map, number it, then let anons make suggestions for each room?

Y'all ignored the last collab, so I don't have great hopes for this one.

>Has /osrg/ made any dungeons together?
As mentioned a couple threads ago, dungeons are harder to do collaboratively than hexmaps due to the increased need for some kind of cohesion if it's to come out meaningfully better than a random-generated map.

I think a possible solution might be to key something like Dyson's huge Jakalla map, the concept of that makes it only credible that there would be a great deal of heterogeneity. We'd still have to decide whether we were doing Tekumel, generic Sword & Planet or standard fantasy, though.

I vote Sword & Planet

/osrg/ not the best place to interactively design things. Separate threads might be better to find dedicated workers.

or maybe... some kind of discord... hmm...

wonder where that link went...

I like this idea, attached the connections map, Jakala is huge! If it's too big, I'll upload the map for Fuck Mountain

Any hope is better than no hope

I don't think it needs cohesion per say, I'm just sure it would be better that one of the robot maps

Let's not work, work on it, people shit post and then we add said shit into the dungeon, if anyone runs it, then they deserve at least one (you) of your choice

Can't do discord, but will happily post from here

Also, uploaded Fuck Mountain, feel free to shop if it interests you

Why is 9th level the 'name' level?
Why is 9th level when you get your cool shit?
Why is 9 the maximum number of hit dice?

It's so strange. Surely making it level 10 would have been much better and instantly recognizable. Nice round number and going to a big boy 2 digit level number conveys the feeling of the big leagues.

>Why is 9th level the 'name' level?
Because it's when you get the cool shit

>Why is 9th level when you get your cool shit?
It's the PC peak of power, where they get maximum number of hit dice

>Why is 9 the maximum number of hit dice?
Because PC can't have more than one digit of hit dice, 9 is the max

Wasn't 10th level spells like wazzy Rain of Colourless Fire etc? Like apocalyptic spells?

>Why is 9th level the 'name' level?
It's just residual, from standardizing OD&D. In OD&D each class' name level is different; 9 for Fighting-Men, 8 for Clerics and 11 for Magic-Users.

Is that the infamous Dildo Dungeon?

I've added numbers to the map,goes 1,2,3,etc

Please excuse the shitness

Look at all the cock-teasing Frank Mentzer is doing:

enworld.org/forum/content.php?4454-Frank-Mentzer-Reveals-More-About-World-of-Empyrea

It's beautiful isn't it?

If you guys want, I could draw up a custom map for you to fill out. I've been doing a lot of pen and ink dungeons recently, and need the practice. Pic related; is some of my work.

user, I can only be so erect...

7. Nursery. 2d6 hexagonal alcoves, 1 meter in diameter, sealed by wax. Each contains :
1d8
1 - A gigantic larva hungry for flesh (HD1, CA9[12], Bite 1d6, ML 5).
2 - Pupation sludge (2d6 acid damage, save for half).
3 - Fully formed giant bee, happy to meet new faces. Wishes to discover the outside world.
4 - 1d4 cubic meter of honey, stashed by a worker for personal use.
5 - Mummified remains of a previous adventurer. A random +1 weapon can be salvaged.
6 - 100 GP in semi-precious stones, covered in sticky mucus.
7 - Insane malformed bee, needs to graft itself onto a sentient being to become complete.
8 - Tunnel to the plane of wax.

Yes, please!

That would be great!

Alright, some questions before I start. One, do you guys want to choose the map layout itself, or just the monsters inside? Two, should I start a new thread so we don't clog this general up? And finally, I've only made these maps for 5E play before, so if I need to adapt something to your system, let me know.

Yes, we know you are retarded.

This is awesome, thank you user
10. Giant bee queen, with 2d6 worker bees. Is currently interested in hexagonal architecture and will pay PC's in honey for hexmaps

One. Just the monsters inside for me, you're the Map user, you have control of the map
Two. If it stays OSR, then I think it can work here, if someone gets mad, then maybe move it?
Three. Go wild user, you're awesome

I'm finishing off my "feudalism for people in a hurry" series with a very simple land and investment system.

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/09/osr-land-and-investments.html

It's tied into the Estates post here: coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-three-estates.html
And my system for generating baronies. It's /not/ tied into my post on taxes because those taxes apply to found treasure and loot, not revenue.

So in Streets of Marienburg or World of Dungeons, how exactly does the +6 Health attribute work when recovering HP?

Gonna be running Streets for a monthly one-shot group I go to in a couple weeks.

Alright, this is the last sort of custom ACKs races, cloven beastmen. This one includes the likes of sheep, deer, cows, and horses, with centaurs being a special case. I think that instead of creating classes for each race value, I'll just have them be fighters with the additional racial perks. Any sort of feedback would be appreciated.

Racial Skills: 0
-Infravision (1)
-Wilderness Evasion (1)
-Healer (1)
-Running (1)

4-1=3 3x40=120xp
*Each point in ability either increases a given trait or adds an additional one.

Racial Skills: 1
-Infravision (1)
-Wilderness Evasion (1)
-Climbing (1)
-Healing (2)
-Alertness (1)
-Running (1)
-Hooves (1)* [*Gain a 1d4/1d4 lethal attack with hooves]
-Horns (1)* [*1d4 headbutt attack, 2d4 if charging/Only optional for horned cloven animals]
-Inhumanity

Horns: 7-1=6 6x40=240xp
Hornless: 8-1=7 7x40=280xp

Racial Skills: 2
-Infravision (1)
-Wilderness Evasion (1)
-Climbing (1)* [*Not available for light centaurs]
-Healing (2)
-Alertness (1)
-Running (1) OR Running (4)* [*Light centaur creatures gain 240' movement a turn, 80' movement a round/Only optional for light horse centaurs]
-Hooves (1)* [*Gain a 1d4/1d4 lethal attack with hooves]
-Horns (2)* [*1d6 headbutt attack, 2d6 if charging/Only optional for horned cloven animals]
-Encumbrance (4)* [Light horse centaurs are built for speed and long-distance
travel. Light horse centaurs can carry up to 20 stone (200lb) and move
at full movement, or they can carry a maximum of 40 stone
(400lb) and have movement halved.]
-Inhumanity

Horns: 10-1=9 9x40=360xp
Centaurs: 14-1=13 13x40=520xp

Interesting. Will probably borrow parts of this. Although it seems to work better for a more "realistic" world generation system like the one you use.

Racial Skills: 3
-Infravision (1)
-Wilderness Evasion (1)
-Climbing (1)* [*Not available for light centaurs]
-Healing (2)
-Alertness (1)
-Running (1) OR Running (3)* [*Medium horse centaur creatures gain 180' movement a turn, 60' movement a round/Only optional for medium horse centaurs]
-Hooves (2)* [*Gain a 1d6/1d6 lethal attack with hooves]
-Horns (3)* [*1d8 headbutt attack, 2d8 if charging/Only optional for horned cloven animals]
-Encumbrance (5)* [Medium horse centaurs are built for speed and long-distance
travel. have been bred to be fast, strong
and sturdy, but are meant for shorter distance travel. Medium horse centaurs can carry up to 30 stone (300lb) and move at full movement, or they can carry a maximum of 60 stone (600lb) and have movement halved.]
-Inhumanity

Horns: 12-1=11 11x40=440xp
Centaurs: 15-1=14 14x40=560xp

Racial Skills: 4
-Infravision (1)
-Wilderness Evasion (1)
-Climbing (1)* [*Not available for light centaurs]
-Healing (2)
-Alertness (1)
-Running (1) OR Running (2)* [*Heavy horse centaur creatures gain 120' movement a turn, 40' movement a round/Only optional for medium horse centaurs]
-Hooves (3)* [*Gain a 1d8/1d8 lethal attack with hooves]
-Horns (3)* [*1d8 headbutt attack, 2d8 if charging/Only optional for horned cloven animals]
-Encumbrance (6)* [ Heavy horse centaurs are the largest of all, bred
to be big, strong laborers. Heavy horse centaurs can carry up to 40 stone (400lb) and move at full movement, or they can carry a
maximum of 80 stone (800lb) and have movement halved.]
-Inhumanity

13-1=12 12x40=480xp
16-1=15 15x40=600xp

>Interesting. Will probably borrow parts of this. Although it seems to work better for a more "realistic" world generation system like the one you use.
It works fairly well if you have large baronies full of wasteland/mountains/orc territory or whatever too. In some cases a Baron might be literally unable to afford to be a Baron, and might start thinking of other ways to raise money...

But yeah, it's designed to be fairly realistic. Can't make a system that works for everyone.

I mostly play/DM B/X and BECMI and its clones
I might be setting up a white box game
any hints or notes?

don't kill your PCs

Hey /osr/, I'm the guy that wrote up all these classes. Now I need some advice.

How would I go about actually letting my players pick them? Instead of just saying "oh you can play as a fighter, rogue, cleric, magic user, etc" like in most games, my game would have a huge amount of classes to choose from. So how would I actually let people do it? Show them a list of 100? Just tell them to pick whatever they wanted and I'd fit them in the closest class? What do you think?

a dragoon is a dragon knight
a highway man is a bandit

so... 95 classes

Have them roll for it. Either as 1d100 or as something where they roll each dimension separately or something like that.

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/09/osr-building-castles.html

Here are rules for building castles. They're very, very simple and fairly clever, I think. You'll probably look at your dungeon maps in a different way after this.

Why don't you start your own general, that way you can discuss your ideas and link your own material in more detail without derailing this thread? Thank you.

It's entirely relevant to osr, you drooling moron. It doesn't need its own thread, especially when this one is going so slowly.

How do you deal with the death of PC?

Do your players have henchmen?

Should I let players start with max HP at first level?

How do you run modules with huge maps? I was looking at In Search of the Unknown but I don't think I can run it properly...

Don't feed the troll, user. Hes' been doing this for days. No idea why.

Have a charming and useful video instead: youtube.com/watch?v=JGbPShUpjpg

I sure wouldn't want a thread on /tg to ever get derailed, that would be the worst thing ever

>How do you deal with the death of PC?
Reroll.
>Should I let players start with max HP at first level?
Only if you already let them do that with their first character.

>How do you deal with the death of PC?
Reroll a new character at level 1. The system I use is pretty flat, so it's not a major power downgrade to go from level 5 to level 1.

Get introduced whenever convenient: coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/03/osr-table-of-replacement-pcs.html

>Do your players have henchmen?
Yup. Lots of them. Mostly noncombatants working on side-projects, but they've currently got

10 soliders
1 sergeant
1 sharpener
1 squire
3 civilians (who are hanging out with and paid by the soldiers)
1 herdsman and stablekeeper
4 carpenters
and they're hiring a butler.

Use cue cards and simplified stats.
>Should I let players start with max HP at first level?
Depends on the system and the swingyness of HP. I don't, but some people do, and I can see arguments either way. If you are worried about PCs dying a lot, it's not a bad idea.
>How do you run modules with huge maps?
Photocopies and subsections cut out with labels on them. Or frantic improvisation to fix mistakes and add new content.

>How do you deal with the death of PC?
Not a big deal until the party is around 3rd level or higher. By that point I let them prepare a lvl1 protege in case of death. Eventually the protege level up and stay some 2 levels below their main. Ensures that there's more continuation and connection when a character death happens.

>Do your players have henchmen?
Nope. They hire hirelings on a case by case basis, but it's always temporary. I have 7 players (and 1 npc follower who has sworn a lifedebt to 2 of the player characters) and they hardly need any more help.

>Should I let players start with max HP at first level?
I don't. Sometimes the dice favor you, sometimes they don't.

>How do you run modules with huge maps?
Requires a bit more preparation. Sometimes I'm lazy and don't want to do it, but anything can be handled with enough time.

Oh, this is actually something I'd been thinking about for a while.

>Oh, this is actually something I'd been thinking about for a while.
Thanks, dub dubs.

I was struggling with the ideas for days, doing all kinds of math to get the numbers "right". This way - the dungeon way - is much more fun and convenient, both from a realism POV and a gameplay POV.

Plus, I'm excited to see some classic dungeons converted into castles, if this catches on.

>Reroll
But when? What if the group is inside a dungeon? The guy just appear from nowhere?

>Reroll a new character at level 1
This seems a bit too extreme

>GLOG
I don't like it, I want the true D&D experience

>Mostly noncombatants working on side-projects
>10 soliders
Doesn't this make combat too slow?

>Photocopies and subsections cut out with labels on them
This might work

>Not a big deal until the party is around 3rd level...
Interesting!

> I have 7 players
Wow, this is a lot of players

>I'm lazy
I have this problem too

>But when? What if the group is inside a dungeon? The guy just appear from nowhere?
Have them just be an adventurer who was the last surviving member of the previous group who attempted to raid the dungeon.

>This seems a bit too extreme
Your mileage may vary. Are you going with a level penalty at all? What's the disincentive for death?
>GLOG
Fair enough, I suppose. I will point out that my group o' noobs don't seem to notice the difference, except that they keep converting 5E players to the GLOG (or B/X) after trying to explain why their GM has a big stack of paper in instead of a book and their character is a Frog Knight who wants to get a castle via feudal taxes and lies.

>Doesn't this make combat too slow?
Nah. They all have the same Attack, and I usually group their initiatives, so I can just chuck down 5 d20s, see which ones come up with the right numbers, and then roll damage. It's barely slower than any other turn. Sometimes I need to test for panic and stuff like: blessingsofthedicegods.blogspot.ca/2014/01/hireling-orientation.html

Roll for it. 1d100.
But beforehand, ask if they have something specific in mind. If they don't (they never do), then roll. If they really hate the idea, they get 1 reroll.

I just can't bring myself to work on my dungeon.

I have a neat idea and a solid feeling of what I want it to be but whenever I put pencil to paper I write like 5 words, give up, and get frustrated.

The friends I want to play with tell me they can't wait to see what I've made but I literally have fucking nothing and I feel awful.

Why can't I just do it?

because you are,afraid of disappointing your friends.

Try approaching it from a different direction. Do something you normally don't to build the dungeon. Or,go looking for inspiration.

Any benefits or drawbacks the race should get?

...

As large-size creatures, they incur the damage a weapon inflicts upon large-size opponents, which is usually a fair amount greater.

I won't let you be the only shill in this thread any more!

melancholiesandmirth.blogspot.com/2017/09/blessings-fall-like-rain-system-for.html

>So this post describes how one could potentially use the reaction roll in order to determine the weather.
Sold. Although I do like whatwouldconando.blogspot.ca/2017/04/five-dimensional-weather.html

And I do like the moon setup. There should be more stuff based on that kind of thing. "Oh shit, we can't go out. It's a red moon tonight. Time to fortify camp and panic."

It's also why almanacs or a good astrologer are worth bringing along on a hexcrawl.

The 80's were truly a glorious time, friend user. Were you aware that in the 80's, there was no such thing as autism? It's true! We only had easily avoided tards and the occasional spaz.

What are you working on today, /osr/?

I'm trying to figure out how I want to handle random encounters.

I think I want to steal from Goblin Punch's ranger rules.

So the players roll to see if they encounter wandering monsters. In a dungeon, they roll every ten minutes and whenever they make noise or otherwise draw attention. During wilderness travel, they roll twice for a days journey.

Roll is a d10. 1 or 2 is the base rate for random encounters. Increase the base rate:
1 for each encumbered character in the party
1 for each party character in plate
2 if the PC:s carry light in a dark environment
1 for pack animals
* random GM bonuses

If the party has a ranger, they encounter tracks of monsters (per Goblin Punch rules) on a roll of 10. This doesn't stack (diversify!). Tracks are super useful and can show you often-traveled paths, likely traps etc.

Then, the palyers roll on the encounter table itself. If it is not prewritten, I build it using these rules: paperspencils.com/2017/01/01/structuring-encounter-tables/ (basically 2d6, 2 always dragon, 12 always wizard, 7 always recurring characters). Some prewritten tables have "nothing" option, which must be rerolled since this is handled by the previous roll.

Then we roll reaction if appropriate (e.g. cave-ins, oozes or zombies are always hostile).

Then i would like to roll on a "what is the monster doing"-table, but that causes to many roll. The monster is always hunting the PC:s (if unintelligent) or checking out the armed party (if intelligent), unless i as a GM improvises something. Here i try to make the monster interact with the local environment (goblins in the rope-bridge room? They are setting up traps!).

cont.

Then we roll for surprise (if appropriate). Actually we don't because I'm exhausted after all the rolling and just want to get started. And the PC:s are almost always carrying light and shouldn't be able to surprise anyone unless they explicitly try to. By the same reasoning, the monsters should always get the drop on the PC:s unless something prevents this.

Am I missing something? I feel like the entire process is to complicated. I'm thinking about writing some arcane script that handles this but the players like to roll dice...

Keeping up with the namefag blogs being shilled on /osrg.

>why is the AC so low? should be more like 15-17
Those ACs literally don't exist in Basic. Unarmored AC is 9 and it counts down from there. An AC of 4 is midway between that of chain mail (AC 5) and plate mail (AC 3). Some clones like Basic Fantasy convert the original descending armor class system to an ascending one that uses attack bonuses, similar to modern D&D, but if you're asking somebody for B/X stats, that means the lower the better when it comes to AC.

I've updated this again, to add in hostage negotiation rules.

Anything else you think I need to add, or is this game about finished?

what on earth is a sharpener?

...

Drawing out the hexmap from Into the Abyss and setting some encounters for it

Whoops, I mean In the Abyss
scribd.com/mobile/document/117655441/Planescape-D-D-2nd-In-the-Abyss-OCR

This is the hexmap, it needs more "something" though?

>But when? What if the group is inside a dungeon? The guy just appear from nowhere?
Found bound in the next room is a useful trope.

>This seems a bit too extreme
One variation I have seen is 1/2 the XP of the highest player. 1st does work in a lot of cases.

OSR combat is quite quick.

>Why is 9th level the 'name' level?
>Why is 9th level when you get your cool shit?
>Why is 9 the maximum number of hit dice?
That your max hit dice.

Also gives you 5 levels till you max out (in stuff that not BECMI)

I have good players and they generally have avoided TPKs.

Building out a small city for the base of a a campaign.

> Margaret (Weis) came in and started crying. It literally destroyed her. She was like, "Oh my god. That's not Goldmoon. She looks like a whore." She cried, and I went and talked to her.

One of my players keep bringing his mule with him everytime he goes inside a dungeon. Usually leaving it a room or two behind or outside meaning he can quickly dump off anything valuable he finds.

What is a good way to goof him for doing this?

The mule should make separate encounter rolls.

rocks fall mule dies

Make it so he shares xp with mule. Or have mule acquire a taste for expensive relics, not letting anyone touch them without a fight, including PC of course.

Mules are very OSR.

Now mules might be tasty to someone

I'm a bit stuck, so I'm throwing this question to y'all: what are some good alternate spells for a cleric of a fertility/mother-of-monsters goddess? I'd like to make them feel distinct from your average cleric, as well as weird enough that they don't just feel like an off-brand druid.

have them find some apples. they are magical. when eaten the players just don't see a benefit. so they dump them on the mule. The mule eats them and becomes sentient. Ea apple gives .5 pt of intelligence boost. So unless a player ate a few of them they wouldn't notice any benefit.

Now intelligent have it complain about cold and lack of armor and it being dark etc. Once you are done with the fun have the apple wear off.

If you want to have some completely bizaar fun have the mule get int of 20 and begins to loose 1 pt a day or so and let the players go on a quest to figure out how to save the mule from becoming an animal again. Silly but you can play it for as long as you want or the players reaction to it.

Create food and water spell makes cleric lactate with high-nutrition milk.

>Usually leaving it a room or two behind or outside
Make rooms with many entrances. Instead of monsters appearing to the characters when rolling for encounters, make the monsters appear in the mule's room.

His non-cheesecake stuff is pretty good though.

...