Welcome to the Old School Renaissance general discussion thread.
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What steps does your group go through when searching? Come up with a trap you would miss.
What is better:
Roll 1d20 +/- difficulty DC max is 20
The latter, there's only one modifier.
No? Your Attribute score is basically the DC.
They've both got different issues, and I can't say that I like either all that much.
>Roll 1d20 +/- difficulty
The former, attribute modifiers are fucking tiny compared to the rang of the d20.
Good level 1-3 dungeons that aren't goblins or kobolds?
Tomb of the Iron God was recommended to me, haven’t read all of it yet but might run it
Roll 1d20
oh, thats right
Sailors of the starless sea
The thing is that i am looking for a simple skill system for my game, i like the one in DCC but i dont like professions because then the argue between players and master starts
>The thing is that i am looking for a simple skill system for my game, i like the one in DCC but i dont like professions because then the argue between players and master starts
X-in-6, probably starting at 2-in-6. It's what the systems generally already use for trapfinding, secret doors, listening, surprise, encounter checks, checks for getting lost, trap activation chances, etc. etc. etc.
Retry as many times as you want, but failure takes time (and thus consumes torchlight and risks wandering monsters) and in some cases might result in taking damage.
For things that are particularly easy, have the 2-in-6 (or 1-in-6) be the chance to FAIL. (Or, from another perspective, the DM gets to roll 1-in-6 to fuck you over: how monster checks and trap activation already works, basically.)
see
Check out LotFP.
How do you turn clerics into sword and sorcery priests instead of the Van Helsing/Templar type?
Sword & Sorcery priests are just the Magic-User. Like, I'm pretty sure that some of their spells come from them.
Turn them into Magic-Users with a different spell list
MUs are Vancian wizard-scientists. They study magic, scavenge ruins for lost knowledge and fight each other to steal spells.
S&S priests are conjurers enthralled to some powerful entity. I don't think they should use Vancian magic and their patrons should play role in their use of spells. Very mysterious and oblique as compared to the straightforward MUs.
Ignore both of those other faggots.
Play with a d20 roll vs DC system for your skills. Add levels from the appropriate class (almost always thief) + stat or other modifiers.
It is far easier to referee then a d6 or roll under roll. You can also easily slide to adjust the difficulty; in a d6 roll under system a shitty lock and a master lock have the same difficulty since it's based on your skill, but with a DC you can increase it to keep the challenge relevant and interesting. It's never a question of almost always failing for low level characters or almost always succeeding for higher level ones.
>S&S priests are conjurers enthralled to some powerful entity.
Aren't S&S priests often just crazy guys with ritual daggers whose spells are suspiciously similar to parlor tricks (e.g. a "fireball" being some kind of incendiary grenade)? Lots of illusionism and pretending at being a god.
Just refluff vancian magic as them preparing various "spells" during downtime (much like Arneson's spell factories). Sleep is some kind of sleeping drug they throw at enemies, Charm Person is your stereotypical hypnotism, and Lightning Bolt has you rub catskin against an amber stave.
>a DC you can increase it to keep the challenge relevant and interesting
That has never been the case.
False OSR Enthusiast, get ye gone.
...
One of the thoughts I've been having for a while regarding worldbuilding is the idea that for most people a priest is just that, someone versed in the ritual and theology of a particular faith, and that most magic-users are actually deeply pious since magic is supposed to be the gods' gift to mortals.
Clerics did not exist until a couple of decades ago, and many magic users denounce them as heretics or charlatans for using magic that does not follow the divinely ordained rule. The clerics themselves believe that their power comes directly from the gods, of course. The established churches are ambivalent towards clerics - some welcome them due to their obvious exalted status and the power they can bring to bear, some side with the magic users and cast them out even if they claim to be faithful.
Mostly, I want the divine/arcane magic distinction to be gone.
What do you guys think of having LotFP styled skills modified by stats? If you have a positive modifier, you start off with a 2-in-6 chance, and if you have a negative modifier, you have a 0-in-6 chance (roll snake eyes to succeed).
>in a d6 roll under system a shitty lock and a master lock have the same difficulty since it's based on your skill
Nope
Explain. LotFP RAW explicitly has no modifiers for the roll based on difficulty. The only changes are when the Specialist is encumbered, trying to translate old languages, or deprived of proper tools.
"le it isn't in my old books so it's bad meme"
In a game about SCALING and LEVELING then there needs to be challenges that the players can OVERCOME through ADVANCEMENT. The smaller the modifier of the roll +1 in d20 compared to +1 in X in 6 chance rolls, means that the overall impact of having a rank increase is smaller; which fits to games with MULTIPLE INCREASING LEVELS and small modifiers can be handed out due to environmental modifiers like light, heat, or stat modifiers without fear of unbalancing the game.
Literally
KYS
>Think most modules are too generic fantasy
>Really want to homebrew an adventure/dungeon
>Can never come up with original ideas
>Steal ideas but then can't comprehensibly link them together
>Stare at a rough sketch of a map or dungeon for an hour
>Ask players for ideas of what kind of adventure they wanna play
>Crickets
>They flake on sessions at the last minute anyway
I just wanna be good at DnD brehs
>in a d6 roll under system a shitty lock and a master lock have the same difficulty since it's based on your skill
And in a d20 system a shitty lock and a master lock have the same difficulty since the number treadmill forces them to increase in difficulty at the same rate that players advance to keep them relevant.
Look at me, I can also make shitty generalizations.
For future reference, roll-under-stat is almost mathematically identical to 1d20+2*MOD>=DC 10. (It's messed up a bit by 3E's rounding of stat modifiers.)
Doesn't the NWP system have modifiers for different tasks? I could have sworn that was a thing, although since I wouldn't touch 2E with a ten-foot pole I wouldn't be surprised if I'm wrong.
So what you're saying is that the percentile thief skills are superior, got it.
NWPs are roll-under ability checks with a modifier (often a large minus) built into each one.
But the only advancement there is wasting an entire slot for a +1 to a NWP you already have.
*modifier to the ability score, not the roll
>user posts shitty idea
>nobody likes it
>user gets mad
I only posted because if you think "you have to roll two more" is interesting, then I ain't interested.
Define as "too generic fantasy". Also, remember, most people come to D&D wanting fantasy. You can put twists on it here and there but fantasy nonetheless.
People didn't like it because the idea was "shitty"
They didn't like it because it wasn't in their little brown book, so it's automatically bad.
Name your fucking idea. I will write that shit for you.
Are you trolling? We're not all /that/ groggy. Also, d6 skill systems are far from unique to the LBBs. Having scalable difficulties can be interesting, but the way you phrased your argument was sourcing directly from the DC treadmill from 3e. And that is a bad argument because it's not interesting, it's tedious and boring. If that's not what you were going for, then explain yourself.
In my opinion, I think if your non-d6 task resolution system isn't doing degrees of success, you're wasting the die. You might as well do something with the extra range a d20 gives you.
Same here, I can turn ideas into fully fledged things, but I can't come up with one to save my life.
Confirmed for total newfag to these generals.
Not him and it's probably been done, but I want a magical museum. Think Night at the Museum (although Zak S. did a decent zoo dungeon in Vornheim).
Bonus points if nature or an outside faction is using, interfering with, or destroying things in the dungeon. Just so it's not a straight up funhouse.
Aw shit, man, 10/10 idea, would buy a module based on it.
Too bad I got nothing to contribute, I'm exhausted and brain fried ATM.
This isn't really what you're describing, but this makes me want to include a Museum of Magical Artifacts in my campaign.
Just a bunch of very historically important, very valuable, and very powerful magical items on display in a heavily guarded building.
No monsters, and if the players want to go in and look around they can pay a nominal fee (the local nobles want to show off or whatever, and hence allow even the lowlies to catch a glimpse). Some areas are cordoned off (perhaps the museum is just a wing of a mansion?), guard patrols are detailed on a strict schedule, etc. etc.
If the players just look around, it's an interesting chance to show off some setting history or perhaps give some plot hooks (we would pay a lot if you were to find any artifacts relating to so and so period etc. etc.). Perhaps include various nonmagical artifacts as well, I guess.
If the players get more criminal aspirations from seeing the 6th Emperor's Vorpal Guisarme-Fauchard-Bohemian Earspoon, well, suddenly things become a bit less Night at the Museum and more National Treasure. Or, hell, you know how some people describe OSR play as being less like Lord of the Rings and more like Ocean's 11?
I'm growing fonder of the idea of dungeon crawls as heists rather than expeditions. The joint must be cased, the plan has to be made, and you don't end with stuff like the 15-minute workday because you only get one real shot at looting the place.
m8, 3e (which is almost 20 years old by the way) showed that DCs were utter trash. And this "it's easier to referee!" stuff is total bullshit because I can add penalties and bonuses for both d6 and ability checks.
Ravenloft/Fraternity of Shadows had ideas about creepy museum stuff.
rulings, not rules
Do you write in your books?
What ever happened to Occultesque? That was one of my favorite blogs.
Never. Writing in books is the worst kind of evil.
God no. I have a pocket book I reference
You can have fun with fantasy tropes as well as more gonzo stuff friend. The magic happens when you present things to the players at the table, and they interact with it.
Also, if you're stuck with ideas, why not take a ready made dungeon and modify tl fit your own ideas? Get straight to the fun part, without getting stuck on doing every detail from scratch.
god that crawls is kind of this
it's like the place the catholic church hides all of the "real" magic items that they find.
Wouldn't restocking the dungeon help giving the "you got one shot" feel?
I don't understand the joke in the OP pic. What does it mean?
>I don't understand the joke in the OP pic
lolwut
Look at this user and laugh at him everyone! He doesn't get the joke!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
It still amazes me when RPG players complain about their games being adjusted for normies with one hand and shit all over anyone who doesn't immediately get the inside jokes/history with the other.
sneed
This is Veeky Forums, I'm here for the bantz
Clerics in OD&D are only allowed to use maces. The Lucern Hammer is a polearm, which doesn't count as a weapon they can use despite having "hammer" in its name. It's just a tongue in cheek joke about the characters in the world understanding the somewhat silly game rules they are held by.
It's pretty fkin obvious dumbass.
>It's pretty fkin obvious dumbass.
It's not obvious if you don't play OD&D
t. buttblasted "DIY DND" arch-soyboy
Oh come on, that's a pop culture D&D trope.
why would you be in /osrg/ for bantz.
why would you be in Veeky Forums for the bantz.
>Implying I play shit homebrews
Ugh
It's not though
feck off back to >>>/googleplus/
>using soyboy unironically
We did it Reddit
That's the only lens through which I can appreciate Zak S. I have to tell myself he's being light-hearted and taking the piss. Otherwise he's a very sad, neurotic human being who just creates good stuff by accident.
>Using "feck"
>2000+18
We never finished those 100 cursed scroll curses from the last thread.
>He doesn't bring bantz to every conversation he has on a Mongolian origami site
Lucerne Hammers straight up aren't blunt weapons. The hammer head is spikes.
I write my books.
pic related
1. Scroll of the Cursed Word: This scroll has only one word written on it. If a person reads it, every time he or she speaks or even just think about the word written on the scroll, he or she will fart
Ei t'row 'oly wa'er at th' darkness
Why are clerics restricted to only maces/hammers?
Don't start with the map. Start with the ideas.
goblinpunch.blogspot.ca
Blob stuff together. Do multiple creative passes.
First pass: magical museum with artifacts
Second pass: wings. What's over here? What are some real-life museum wings?
Third: refine. Dwarven steam stuff in this wing. Skeletons in this wing. Why can't players just bust out of a window? Is the loot distributed?
Then, with each wing or zone, refine further.
Gary is rolling in his grave.
Good, I'll hook him up to some OSR blogs and a turbine, and then power the entire Eastern seaboard
Something something the bible
Not him but one of the stipulations seen in the "clerical" era was that weapons that drew blood were disallowed so instead they would use blunt weapons, hence the classic image of a crusader with a mace.
Because of some historical thing where a bishop carried a mace in order to not shed blood. I don't think it was even a thing that happened, but it passed into "common knowledge" and then was forever immortalized in D&D. Not to mention, death by bludgeoning's got to be a looot more painful.
Also 100% more effective vs the skeleton
Memes
Oh /osr/. So helpful. Covered every possible answer, and most of them are right too!
>That's the only lens through which I can appreciate Zak S
Zak has, in the past, produce solid content. But now he is a parody of nu-OSR. Artistry is not leadership. Contrarianism is not innovation.
>Bayeux Tapestry
The actual use of that always cracks me up.
>death by bludgeoning's got to be a looot more painful.
>implying they'd consider that a bad thing
Gotta beat the sin out of them, if they die too quickly and painlessly they won't have time to repent before their soul goes on to judgment.
>killing prisoners is a lawful act
>converting prisoners is a good act
>converting then killing prisoners is a lawful good act
Wouldn't make a difference. That's not really how medieval repentance worked. Without the sacrament of confession, your soul was in a lot of trouble. There were a loooot of steps for your average heretic/infidel/pagan to go through before dying "in good standing."
This is why some pagans accepted baptism only on their deathbeds. No chance to fall into sin and error between the perfect cleansing of baptism and death.
This is why some women were authorized to hear confessions during the Black Death. Too few priests to go around, but you couldn't skip confession.
This is why pre-battle confession and service was so important. Polish up the soul before potentially losing it.
That's what Gary said. Convert those humanoids to Good then kill 'em so they can't backslide into Evil.
dont forget the ars moriendi, an entire book written on the art of dying properly
And a decent loot item for any adventuring party.
If you're an ordained character, like a cleric, expect a lot of deathbed services in the dungeon.
...
Clerics/white mages using hammers and maces exclusively isn’t a familiar and widespread concept?
no
scott adams is insane
He's bigot
This is the part where I'm supposed to /pol/ it up and call you a soyboy, but really Scott Adams is a kooky loser. I can't believe I used to like Dilbert all those years ago.
>Scott Adams is a kooky loser.
heh