/osrg/ Old School Revival general

Welcome to the Old School Revival general.

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How much rope is too much rope?

Other urls found in this thread:

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/tag/hexcrawl
tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2013/07/easy-familiars-that-are-actually-good.html
coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/05/osr-creature-paradox-angels.html
youtube.com/watch?v=iq9DLJfpHd0
angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html
purpleworm.org/rules/
thingiverse.com/thing:1664087
thingiverse.com/thing:1930665
lulzbot.com/store/printers/lulzbot-mini
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

>How much rope is too much rope?
Does your GM actually pay attention to encumberance rules?

>Jesus Christ, all those cannibals everywhere

If the rope is preventing you from wearing armor, carrying weapons, or any useful item your character should have, it's too much.

this is the dungeon in hex M43

Hey /osrg/, is there a copy of the full 60 Minutes D&D special out there anywhere?

Any other contemporary D&D news/documentary videos would also be appreciated.

How do you design a good setting?

Which hexcrawl rules is that a cheat sheet for?

thealexandrian.net/wordpress/tag/hexcrawl

Question. If I'm planning an underwater adventure (retrieving treasure from a sunken ship) using magical means to breathe underwater, would it be a good idea to introduce rules for the bends? Or would that be a complication too far?

Personally, I am all for making underwater hard. It should be. My underwater rules are particularly devastating.

Granted, I'm running a hexcrawl. If the players want to go underwater, that's their choice. If you're doing a specifically underwater adventure, that might be another thing entirely.

Alternatively I could see it the other way around --- Make underwater easier in hexcrawls so that people actually go there, make it harder in specifically underwater adventures to provide atmosphere and difficulty.

...

Start with the immediate area the PCs are in and work outwards on an as-needed basis.

Think about the future and past consequences of things in your setting (especially magic).

Don't spend your time on continents the players will never visit and noble politics they'll never see. Start small and detailed, then expand as needed.

Someone made a post once where they talked about giving all M-Us the option of having a Familiar, with the secret modifier being that if the M-U dies or falls unconscious (?) then the Familiar turns into a monster with some number of HD and something-something?

It's hard to remember the details exactly.

Anyone know where I can find this?

I remember this. They said that if the MU died or fell unconscious the familiar would explode into an LotFP Summon spell.

Yeah, that'd be tenfootpolemic
tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2013/07/easy-familiars-that-are-actually-good.html

It depends on how the magical underwater breathing works. Decompression sickness is caused by inert gasses, so if the magical breathing allowed them to filter only oxygen from the water or something like that, the bends would probably be a non-issue.

Hey /osrg/, has anybody else noticed now much the City-State of the invincible Overlord really is just an attempt to make Lankhmar but with the name removed? Right down to street names and that one tailor mentioned in Ill Met in Lankhmar being on the map.

I'd also like to know where user with the spiffy Starless Sea setup last thread got his longship.

What OSR game has the best spell list?

...

Chthonic Codex

How long do you think a spell should take to cast? 1 action, 1 round, 1 round per spell level...?

1 round (minute).

I wish I had the time, Lego collection, and players to run a LQ type dungeon crawl

...

Just one combat round, but it should certainly go at the end of the initiative order.

>throw all the legos on the floor
>tell DM you want to create a black hole

>a portable hole appears
>"user, why in the hell would you expect cosmic physics to work like the real world's? The sun and stars are literally holes pricked in the shield between Earth and the Elemental Plane of Fire"

Well shit, time to do experiments then.

>place down one of those really small dot bricks
>tell DM you want to cast "create atom"

>a dust mote appears

>smash brick with hammer
>tell DM you want to cast "split atom"

This is why I love Arnold. This idea is weird. It's possible unworkable. But it's absolutely amazing and it gets you thinking and it's completely original.

Done. It's got a total mass of 5kg and it evaporate in a few seconds with a loud pop.

The atom splits in half. You now have a paradox angel on your hands: coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/05/osr-creature-paradox-angels.html

>a few seconds
That seems unrealistically slow.

>build Resolution Demon
>cast summon spell

>Done. It's got a total mass of 5kg and it evaporate in a few seconds with a loud pop.
Wouldn't it also spray an utterly ludicrous amount of gamma rays around in the process?

>atomos = indivisible
>Lebuf flag is formed

Compared to the wizard? Man, if a special effect doesn't stick around for a few seconds it wasn't worth putting in the film. Got to bend reality.

It truly is remarkable how closely that resembles my own campaign map.

Probably don't have the resources. Better start prancing around with a ranger and a dwarf, because your ass is legolas.

youtube.com/watch?v=iq9DLJfpHd0

>not enough resources
But I was given this whole box of legos!

Wanting to get my group into 2e but they've been coddled by d20pfsrd and having everything at their fingertips at any time. Is there anything similar for 2e?

>But I was given this whole box of legos!
Well you used 'em all! Remember all the "sexy bitches" you tried to build that turned into horrifying flesh-devouring abominations and attacked the townsfolk, and then you built a cannon to kill them, and then you build a bucket to put out the cannon. You're only a level 1 legomancer. You are out of lego.

How many angels does it take to make one of your bucket-bin chore angels anyways?

*legos

*legii

yes, yes it would

>attempt to build sexy bitches
>they turn into cannibal monstrosities
This is going too far desu, now I feel like the DM's just fucking me over

>DM's just fucking me
Doesn't work that way.
He'd just turn into a cannibal monstrosity.

>Better start prancing around with a ranger and a dwarf, because your ass is legolas.
can we all take a moment to appreciate this pun.

really it depends on how shit your lego models were.

It's been done to death.

>This is going too far desu, now I feel like the DM's just fucking me over
Look, we took a vote. The other players thought it was a horrible cannibal monstrosity too. Why you thought putting legs, a joint piece, and two domes (yeah, I know you thought they looked like tits) on a shark was going to get you a sexy bitch was going to work, I can't really say.

>it's absolutely amazing and it gets you thinking and it's completely original
Yeesh, tone down the ass-kissing, Skerp.

How's jaded sneering working out for you, in a long-term sense?

angelfire.com/trek/caver/page1.html

TL:DR spooky cave, interesting spelunking, claustrophobia, extra spook, trippy shit, ambiguous ending.
Could be some good inspiration.

Skerples... Arnold is great... but you need to see other people.


t h i s i s g e t t i n g


c r e a p y

Beyond the Wall.

>the moral high ground (uninhabited)
top kek

yeah, this. I fuckin' love how BtW does magic.

DCC

Which of of those cults do you think was the one in charge of South Korea?

Why the hell haven't skills in OSR games been solved yet?

This is my current system:
>At first level, a Rogue/Specialist gains 10+INT modifier ranks to distribute among the following adventuring skills. Roll when you attempt something beyond the means of a typical adventurer. Each rank is a 1 in 6 chance of succeeding at a relevant task. Ranks beyond 5 offer a 1 in 6 chance to succeed on a second roll if the first fails. The maximum rank is 5+5.
>Acrobatics
>Appraisal
>Backstab
>Detect Secret Doors
>Disable Devices
>Free Climb
>Hear Noises
>Hide in Shadows
>Read Languages
>Sleight of Hand
>Surgery
>Survivalism
>Use Poison

I gotta say, I don't feel totally happy with it, but I've yet to see a more appealing solution. inb4 "hurf durf faggot keep ur skills out of my osr"

I know this topic has come up a million times, but seriously: there has got to be a better way.

I'm trying to decide between Castle Whiterock and Stonehell, has anyone run both and could compare? Or honestly, any tips on running either would be appreciated.

either the snake cult or the rival snake cult

NK is the other one

>Why the hell haven't skills in OSR games been solved yet?
Because people want them to do different things and use them in different ways?
I mean, why haven't cars been solved yet? Everyone wants to commute.

As a general rule of thumb, skill does not rely on luck.
The ref has a *pretty good* idea of what you can just do.

Is this the OSR version of Golarion?

Rolled 100, 65, 31, 96, 62, 4, 49, 49, 100, 25 = 581 (10d100)

Odd numbers are Stonehell rooms.
Even numbers are Whiterock rooms.

Add a door between each pair of numbers.

To be honest I think stars without number handles skills the best of all OSR games. A version of the same thing would work really well for an adventure game.

>inb4 sci fi isn't OSR

No. It's the most generic Swords&Sorcery map Joseph Manola could come up with.

>room 49 connects to room 49

Ever heard of a double door?

Stonehell's 49 connects to Whiterock's 49.

No kidding? I've never checked out SWN before. Guess I'll have to give it a look.

Touché.

I understand. Skills (at least as I see them), though, are there to represent the chance of succeeding at the exceptional, the risky, and the exceptionally risky. Situations that go beyond what can be adjudicated as "reasonably likely to succeed".

All adventurers are reasonably capable climbers, but when you want to free-climb a sheer wall with no tools, that's where the Specialist shines. Any adventurer might be able to do basic first aide, but when you're bleeding out on the dungeon floor from a near-fatal wound, that's where the Specialist shines.

Ideally, anyway. Somehow no skill system ever feels quite right, though.

>but when you want to free-climb a sheer wall with no tools,
Then you're an up-down magicman from up-down magicland.

Thoughts for my modern day occult-crime project. Hacking LotFP and Wolfpacks, 'cos I like familiar things. Here's how the classes are looking right now.

Fighter and Specialist get some fluff about being violent and non-violent criminal types. The weapons list is modern day stuff. Skills for the specialist are: athletics, charm, contacts, driving, forensics, medicine, perception, stealth, technology, translation, vandalism. Since status in the occult underground is based off level (as is wealth) the way these guys level faster is a BIG social advantage compared to the weirdo classes.
Magicians work like you'd expect. They can try to things other than 'standard vancian' spells, and if they do here's a big table of WEIRD CONSEQUENCES. They work a lot like Wolfpacks magicians.
Mystics are the cleric equivallent. No spells-per-day, they just ask their weird deity for magic and maybe the deity grants them the use of a spell, or maybe there are FUN RELIGIOUS CONSEQUENCES. These are pretty much a direct port from wolfpacks, 'cos they work fine there.
Elves are heavilly reworked. All non-human PCs use the Spook class, which is built on the chasis of the elf and is a sort of template toolbox affair to build all sorts of monsters. Vampires and Innesmouth People and Golems and Bridge Fairies and Spiders In Human Skin and Zombies and Mud-Men and so on. Rather than spells, they get an additional 'power' each level (like darkvision or a bite attack or whatever) that's always on.
Dwarves are re-statted as mad doctors. It's a bit of a kludge, but I wanted a doctor class. They get good medicine skills and are really fucking hard to kill.
Halflings are redone as urban explorers: kids with hoodies and gasmasks who go spelunking in the undercity for fun and profit. Pretty much the halfling class as is, but rather than weapon restrictions they just do less damage (reduced dice size) 'cos they're not trained fighters.

Thoughts, y'all?

It is like a mix of 1e and Traveler.

Works very well

>athletics
No.
>charm
Justify it over charisma.
Possibly redundant with contacts?
>forensics
Redundant with medicine?
>perception
No.
>translation
Possibly redundant with vandalism

>It's a bit of a kludge, but I wanted a doctor class. They get good medicine skills and are really fucking hard to kill.
You already have medicine as a type of skill and cleric as a type of shmuck.
If you REALLY wanna force it, make the clerics doctors haunted by mafiosi they were paid to malpractice.

Athletics is your 'climb sheer walls, leap over big gaps' roll. I'm not sure about it myself, either, desu.

so, on charm and contacts.
Charm is the chance that the encounter you just found is hostile. It's there instead of the reaction table. Contacts is 'do you know a guy who can get you this thing'; it's for downtime.

Forensics is basically following tracks, working out where bullets were shot from, examining corpses, that sort of thing. Again, I could probably just fold it into medicine.
Perception is odd. I only really use it to see if PCs are surprised. I'm pretty much on board with the osr 'don't roll perception if you can possibly help it', but this is more the same mechanic as 'elves are only ambushed on a 1, not 1-2'.

These are all things you /could/ resolve with roll-under-stat when they come up. But I want the specialist to be better at this shit than other PCs, so do the LotFP thing where you have 1-in-6 unless you're a specialist who's put points into it.

I'm interested why you think translation and vandalism have overlap. One is being good at reading things, and one is breaking things with a sledgehammer.

>You already have medicine as a type of skill and cleric as a type of shmuck.
nah, man, nah. These are franken-fran 'things in vats and grafting on limbs' doctors. Like, the reason they've got badass saves and loads of HP is because they've /already improved themselves/. I'm working on a 'grafting bits of dead monster onto your allies' thing for them, too.

>I'm not sure about it myself, either, desu.
I'd just treat that as a property of levels.
>Charm is [...] Contacts is [...]
Still describes the same skillset.
>I only really use it to see if PCs are surprised.
I usually handle that as roll under morale.
Though I give lots of morale penalty for shitty conditions.

>translation and vandalism have overlap
Unless your source material came from the bottom of the barrel, something is lost in translation.

Which class is a detective?

I came here just to say how cheesy and fun to play that map looks. It has that je ne sais quoi that modern D&D lacks.

In their defense, handedness is voodoo.

HE IS A FROG CULTIST

>56243211

I like how you refluffed all the basic classes, especially the Spook, though I think the Halflings are a bit unnecessary with thieves. Also I just dislike the way skills are done in general in older games.

Maybe you'd consider making the cleric/mystic more about new age yoga and Chakra shit then praying to weird Gods? I personally think that it fits better then a modern day cultist, which anyone could be murdering kittens to summon them then just one class.

purpleworm.org/rules/
It's an online copy of the books that came with the Core Rules disk.

What about the Obscene Serpent Religion and Just Another Snake Cult?

City State is an obvious one yeah, hopefully the new DCC Lankhmar books will live up to it.
The picture in the last thread is from some guy on the DCC RPG G+ group.
No clue where the minis are from, probably some boardgame or other going by the colour. The maps are apparently Staples printed.

Looking at the G+ group again I found this:

Hey all! Thanks for the love! I am a recent convert, but definitely all in. To address a few questions.. 1) The maps are from Staples - engineering prints at 4-8$ a pop. I just couldn't imagine running the game and denying players the glorious artwork. I love maps and believe they really amp up the exploration element in RPGs. 2) Clearly I am also a props addict as well, and love 3d terrain. I recently purchased a Lulzbot Mini and opened up the wild world of 3d printing. The viking ship is part of a series of historical recreation models that are freely available. I printed it as large as I could for the 6" print bed on the Lulzbot Mini. The ziggurat as well - thats as big as I could get it! The minis were really just for visual reference on occasion as needed. I would have loved to paint them but hey, time is limited. I have 5 kids, so the models were headed to the play table anyway...
A few links:
thingiverse.com - The Drakkar by MakerBot
thingiverse.com/thing:1664087
thingiverse.com/thing:1930665
lulzbot.com/store/printers/lulzbot-mini
Also, regarding minis - printing at this size sets the scale to 1/72 or 25 mm, with the squares at ~½”. I had to pillage my War of the Ring boardgame for monsters and found a nifty set of 1/72 scale pirates for PCs. Also, tentacles...

Eh, not too long ago they were just another snake cult.

What could I use for Arabian Nights monsters? I have read Al-Quadim, but it is not enough.

Imagination.

Making a new hex map in hexographer. Quick! Give me lists of things that every great hex map should have!

For more info, it's going to be a 50x50 hex map using the 6 mile per hex parameters (larger than Minnesota but smaller than Michigan by total area).

Someone here posted a guide on how to prep a session and make a good map key by some Chris guy. Sadly, my PC crashed before I could bookmark it and the thread is now gone.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

is this, maybe?

>cult cult

Are these worth checking out? What kind of neat things do they contain?