/osrg/ Old School Renaissance General: Forboding Doom Edition

>An embassy to a now-defunct nation. Nobody outside the embassy speaks the language, so nobody realizes they don't matter.
Wouldn't the fact that no-one speaks their language imply that they're not important?

youtube.com/watch?v=96NrIz_khQM

>Wouldn't the fact that no-one speaks their language imply that they're not important?
Their translator was kidnapped and roasted over a fire.

wat

And there are no travelers from that area(other than the diplomats)? No-one ever goes there? SOMEONE would know at least some of their language if they were relevant.

Someone else probably knows tge language. Either way, it's not my job.

Is there some kind of secret to lining up map grids in Roll20? I can never get it right.

No, see, the embassy used a secret magical language designed to be incomprehensible to the uninitiated. It's a perfect magical code. It /can't/ be translated. The words shift unless you've been initiated.

After a few generations, everyone speaks the magic coded language, and since learning outside languages is tricky given the state of the city, they get by on their own.

If the PCs ever learn it (by looting the embassy), they'll have an untraceable code language and also possibly some sort of memetic Babel weapon.

Pulleys a fixed to clouds for wells running the depth of the city. A circle of heretical druids atop the city dredges up sewage so they can practice agree-cult-chur.

If you're planning on having the majority of a country about the size of India laid down with tram lines ran by thousands of centaurs, what major paths would they take and prioritize? Which ones seem unlikely?

youtube.com/watch?v=2YdqWzsLI9I

How am I supposed to answer this without a map?

>but you don't have the right paperwork
Unless you buy some sketchy papers from the orcs?

I fucking love James Gurney but the fact that Waterfall City has the opposite problem to most fantasy cities (too small instead of too big) really weirds me out. He seems so good at dimensions and scales and just every part of artistic realism that it's super odd to me that he didn't at any point realize that his alleged city is about three blocks' worth of Venice, not counting the ziggurats.

>I fucking love James Gurney but the fact that Waterfall City has the opposite problem to most fantasy cities (too small instead of too big) really weirds me out.
It's for a children's book series.
>Unless you buy some sketchy papers from the orcs?
Yup! Attacks your gold and inventory slots.

Heh.
What's going on in the clouds then?

Clouds are just more reliable than the city walls is all.

>It's for a children's book series.
Well, everything else in Dinotopia is too, and it's nevertheless made to an extremely high standard -- including everything else to do with Waterfall City.

But also, maybe it's just because I'm spergier than the global average, but I noticed the scale thing already when I first read the book as a kid.

That centaur looks fucked.

>What's going on in the clouds then?
Wrecked spaceships held up by balloons.
The space ships are 60's B movie decor, see how long it takes for your players to catch on.
There's more city built inside the balloons, but none in the wrecks.

What makes BX more popular than Holmes or BECMI?

Holmes is weird and shares the rudimentary nature of OD&D, along with a few really odd editing gaffes notably the rule that daggers attack twice per round and two-handed swords once every other round, yet not using either variable damage or a weapon vs. armor table, so that daggers do 4x the damage of two-handers. You have to address these things before you can play. In consequence it's not very user-friendly or pedagogical.

BECMI goes exactly the opposite way; it's *too* pedagogical. The Basic box walks you through everything step-by-step and even has a CYOA to teach you what playing is like. However, this means it presents each rule as it comes up, making Basic especially a nightmare to reference; this maddens the grog. Also, the CMI box sets are considered bloated-to-superfluous by many players, who like the compaction and simplicity of B/X.

It's ironic that it should turn out to be the most popular in the long run, really, because B/X is IIRC the shortest-lasting of all D&D editions (with the possible exception of the first Classic D&D Game box), existing for slightly over one year before it was supplanted by BECMI.

Thanks, that's a great summary.

Holmes also only goes to level 3, which severely limits your ability to play an extended campaign.

>The Basic box walks you through everything step-by-step and even has a CYOA to teach you what playing is like. However, this means it presents each rule as it comes up, making Basic especially a nightmare to reference; this maddens the grog.
Not only that, but it runs counter to the way I learn. Normally, I'll be reading along and I'll come upon a reference or something that piques my interest, and I'll flip ahead and read over related stuff to it. Like if I'm reading the description of dwarves and something in there makes me wonder about how other races compare -- maybe I'm curious how well other races see in the dark or something. The problem with the Basic Set of BECMI is that it isn't clear where to flip to. Instead of presenting complete aspects of the game in successive steps, it just teases you with some very specific details without "burdening" you with all the related stuff until some random later page. So in trying to baby you through the rules, it actually makes it harder to learn, or at least it does to me.

Also maddening is the fact that BECMI splits all but one of the sets into two different books, and since there are more sets in it than B/X, you end up with 9 different books compared to 2. But more than that, I swear the layout is carefully designed to be as unintuitive as possible. In B/X, for instance, you have all the class tables (XP, hit dice, spells per day) together, making that section of the book very easy to find. In BECMI, you have the cleric class table, followed by a full listing and description of all the cleric spells... and only then do you get to fighter. And then onto magic-user, right? Well, no. Then there's a summary on creating a character complete with an equipment list, then a class info sheet, then a sample character sheet, then a piece of graph paper, sample characters, a spell synopsis page, a page on combat...

>In BECMI, you have the cleric class table, followed by a full listing and description of all the cleric spells... and only then do you get to fighter. And then onto magic-user, right? Well, no. Then there's a summary on creating a character complete with an equipment list, then a class info sheet, then a sample character sheet, then a piece of graph paper, sample characters, a spell synopsis page, a page on combat...
...and ability adjustments, with saving throws and shit, and only *then* do you get to magic-user and magic-user spells. And by the time you get to halfling, you're on page 47, 23 pages after you started on cleric (and that's only because the Basic Set only goes through level 3, which limits the number of spells there are to detail). BECMI makes me want to scream every time I open one of the books.

>reposting
If that happened I would look at the spell level for remove curse, then look at how much getting that level spell cast from an NPC costs and give them that much XP.

Woops I meant

Maps with square spaces should have said spaces be 70 pixels across, and the map image's size should likewise be in increments of 70 pixels. That will line it up with roll20's overlay.

Hex maps, though, I have no earthly idea.

>>>How do you recuperate/deal with a session that went badly/poorly?
I just feel like that's the case with almost any session i GM. The players are usually satisfied and having fun, but for days after, it's just nagging in my head what i could have done better, where i could have provided a better experience etc. etc.
really depressing sometimes.

I feel you man. That's good though. That pressure means that you truly want to give them a good game.

Which rules is the Rules Cyclopedia missing? In what Set can I find them?

What do you mean? Why would it be "missing" something?

I guess you mean the Immortals part of BECMI?

>tfw Zak drama

youtube.com/watch?v=NXvEfzxz-hQ

Also part of the Master set.
All of Companion is there, IIRC.

How do you determine starting gold in Labyrinth Lord/BX? Not seeing it in either rulebook.

3d6 * 100. It's the same as pretty much all editions of D&D.

Shit, I meant 3d6 * 10. That was a stupid typo.

Who all are the regulars who post content in /osr/? I know there's skerples and mspaint user but I feel like there's more people than that.

No one cares about personalities.

Demonstrably false.

I think the Melancholies and Mirth guy pops up to shill his blog every so often.

There's ACKS campaign guy. Occultesque guy used to shill his blog here but I haven't seen him in a while.

Anyone with a blog who you could imagine posting stuff here.

Do you have a link to the adventure?

Not him, but here.

I'm just trying to find where some of the content comes from since I can't find all of it on blogs.
Thanks man.

Depends on what content you're talking about, really. I've been working on a homebrew here, but I don't blog about it (at least, not yet). But I don't see the need to attach a name to it here. I'm sure that there's others who are the same. Better to just call out the specific content you're interested in.

Thanks user. Sadly I have not had the chance to run it yet, but once I do I'll be making some revisions.

Sorry for askin' that Zak S. question last thread and starting all that drama. I'm kinda new to this whole thing.

I recently picked up the LotFP Bundle on Bundle of Holding. Did I fuck up?

No. LotFP adventure modules are genuinely good, flavorful and cleverly made. The rules themselves are just your basic run of the mill B/X D&D clone.

It's missing virtually all of I, the jousting rules from M, and... honestly I'm not sure if there is anything else. Or wait, no, the majority of the artifact rules, right?

How does GP for XP work for gemstones/artwork/non-standard objects that are worth a lot of money? Do PCs get the XP if they manage to sell it to someone?

In fact, in general, do characters just get the XP for picking up the gold/valuable items, or what?

Depends on how you want to run it. You might give the XP after the goods have been exchanged for gold. In any case XP should be given only after the loot is out of the dungeon and in a safe place.

Do most people think it's better to gain XP when you take treasure out of the dungeon like normal, or when you spend it?

There's not much to spend it on after a very short while, and I'd rather not constantly be forcing players to spend their money like some kind of bizarro fantasy Brewster's Millions.

If it's obviously valuable, get it when you take it out of the dungeon. That way you can get the extra mileage out of the treasure by trying to sell it for even more money that it might be worth in XP in case the real world value is a crazy amount of XP.

So I've got Elric and Conan books lined up to give me a taste of swords and sorcery to inspire my games. What can you guys recommend for high fantasy? Light vs darkness, heroism and optimism, all that good shit.

Cavegirl used to post here.

This is just me personally, not a judgment on how others like to play, but I always feel like I'm being an annoying faggot if I fuck with the players over treasure like that. To me, all treasure with a GP value is just fungible; they can put it in their heap and just spend it as if it was coin.

The only time I'd bother about selling and so on is if they tried to haul out furniture, instruments, supplies, a statue, something like that that could be valuable but isn't obvious treasure.

>In fact, in general, do characters just get the XP for picking up the gold/valuable items, or what?
No, you have to bring them out of the dungeon, back to safety. I think that's the official rule in every edition.

I think it's missing the gazetteer specific rules from Mystara. I know that it doesn't have the dope storytelling rules from Ylaurum for instance.

Both ways have ups and downs. If you get XP for money spent, then people might actually waste some of their money, which is good. On the other hand, they won't be as likely to save up for large purchases like castles.

Personally, I use XP for treasure earned (in any manner with the possible exception of theft, thus encouraging investments, trade, and arbitrage), but I also give bonus XP for money wasted (particularly for charity, I think).

>In fact, in general, do characters just get the XP for picking up the gold/valuable items, or what?
The standard rule in A/D&D is that you just get the XP whenever you come back to civilization. If you drop it in the dungeon so you can escape, you don't get the treasure.

Also, they probably want to hang on to them since it's a hell of a lot easier to pay with one 100gp gemstone than it is to lug around 100gp. Not to mention swag that you can wear or just pretty up the place with.

Three Hearts and Three Lions is a good choice that'll probably help inform you about how the alignments may or may not have been meant.

The Lord of the Rings is also a good choice for, well, obvious reasons. It's very heroic fantasy, but Tolkien's a good writer and there's plenty of stuff to nick.

When did she leave?

bettermyths.com/category/mythos/silmarillion/page/3
bettermyths.com/category/mythos/silmarillion/page/2
bettermyths.com/category/mythos/silmarillion/page/1

Read them bottom to top on account of blogs not accommodating archival use well.

Sorry for askin' that Zak S. question last thread and starting all that drama. I'm kinda new to this whole thing.
No worries! The stakes are very low here.
>I recently picked up the LotFP Bundle on Bundle of Holding. Did I fuck up?
Depends on your personal ethics. I'd say nah. It's just a game. It's not really my favorite, because the book is fairly user-unfriendly for silly reasons, but it's an OK title to own, read, and adapt. Some of the adventures are decent, but some are utter garbage.

>Wrecked spaceships held up by balloons.
It explains why the thunder makes that weird noise.youtube.com/watch?v=L-S15IDcQgE

October 7th
yeah, the ethics thing is why I only take his stuff from the Trove. Well, him and a few other people I don't feel comfortable supporting monetarily (not the guy you're responding to)

>or gemstones/artwork/non-standard objects that are worth a lot of money

I've basically houseruled that the item is worth XP when it becomes exchangeable currency or evaluated.

So if you pull a ruby out of a chest and the thief goes, "that's worth about 10gp on the open market", sure, mark it as 10xp too (once you get to safety).

But if it's a huge gold chair that flies, and nobody can evaluate the cost without selling it, then you need to sell it to get money to get the XP.

XP "counts" when you get to safety. Doesn't have to be civilization, but you need to be able to sleep or eat or read a book. XP spent on purely frivolous things (fancy baking, prostitutes, hats) gives a +10% bonus.

What's this ethics deal?

BFRPG: Best B/X retroclone. Great supplements.
DCC: Best magic system, by far. Great spins on classes.
LotFP: Best encumbrance tracking & solid modules.

ASE: Best megadungeon.
World of the Lost: Best hexcrawl.

>October 7th
But why?
>yeah, the ethics thing is why I only take his stuff from the Trove.
The signal-to-noise ratio of OSR is so low that the trove is the only reasonable way to sample all products before buying them.

Plus, everyone ends up running a mashed-together mess of rules, so it doesn't matter /that/ much.

See last thread. Some people are assholes. If you don't feel like it, don't give assholes money. That's about it, really. The stakes are pretty goddamn low. On the other hand, there are lots of assholes out there, and some of them are secret, so it's going to happen no matter what you do. Best not too worry too much about it.

Since you mention Elric and Conan but not Lankhmar: for Christ's sake, Fritz Leiber! Run, don't walk.

I like the spend it. I even like to add in a rule that if you spend it on something totally useless/decadent, you get +10% experience bonus.

I want my players to spend all their money and live like medieval rockstars- and once they spend all their money they'll have no choice but to hop back into the dungeon to get the debt collectors and tax men off their back. I think that desperation is great for roleplay.

I want to write a table, describe a dungeon, make some encounters, something like that. Give me some suggestions.

Oh, I thought you were alluding to something bigger.

A monastery taken over by beings from another plane of existence.

A titan's beard.

Best OSR supplement: An Echo Resounding.

A fortress full of lizard men who have captured a young dragon, and who intend to engage in a campaign to claim a local human settlement.

A cave full of evil ratfolk who have been taming bears to maul travelers with the use of a magical “Tamer’s Glove”.

She still posts here.

I've never heard of it.
I looked it up and it seems to be about domain management and war.
How does it compare to the ACKs supplements?

It's more than just being a ass. It's trying to ruin people's professional lives, doing people, and encouraging his nuthuggers to stalk them. There's a line you don't cross, and he's crossed it.

And that's why someone needs to break his nose.

She posts as Anonymous when she's not advertising hwe game.

Hey, we already had an entire thread about this. It's worth discussing once in a while, but we don't need to rehash out the entire argument all over again.

I support this concept.

>A cave full of evil ratfolk who have been taming bears to maul travelers with the use of a magical “Tamer’s Glove”.
>"taming" bears with a magic "glove"

This is some fetish shit, isn't it? You want me to write about rats jerking off giant bears, don't you? What is the name for this fetish?

Doxing, excuse me

...

Horrific creatures in the Vivimancer's vats.

No, actually, I just wanted to see what someone else would do with the adventure I just put my players through. There was just a bunch of jerkass rats who trained bears to kill people, cuz it was better than painting a target onto their own backs.
>bandit rats rob and murder people
Vs
>bear kills wanderer near forest

I'd vote Vornheim. It's one of the most useful things I own.

Since you got dubadubs, you should make a d66 table of twins, doppelgängers, mirrors, and other strange reduplications.