Month: May 2011

Ten Uncommon Coins

/ jstater / 6 Comments

1. Compacted Cubits: A compacted cubit is a full ton (2,000 lb) of silver dust stuffed into an extra-dimensional space sealed inside a tiny cylinder (coin shaped) of force. They look like grainy, silvery coins but feel perfectly smooth. God forbid you have a few of these in your backpack when somebody casts dispel magic. Depending on how you value coinage, a compacted cubit is worth 20,000 sp or 200,000 sp. And yeah, I know a cubit isn’t a measure of weight. You can blame Battlestar Galactica.

2. Soultaker: Appears as a blank, gold coin. When pressed on the forehead of a recently dead body, it absorbs the person’s soul and their image appears on the coin.

3. Dragon Tokens: Dragon tokens are wooden coins that are steeped in the blood of a freshly slain dragon and then coated with wax to keep the draconic goodness locked inside. Value depends on how much you value dragon blood, but probably not more than 10 gp.

4. Token of Friendship: A tarnished brass coin. Creates a vague emotional connection between you and the person who presented it to you – i.e., you know when they are frightened, happy, etc. The coin can summon the person bodily to you if you call out their name while holding it.

5. Platinum Cone: A small platinum cone, worth 2 pp. When the tiny end is held to the ear it implants a random magic-user spell (level 1d3) in your head, making you capable of casting it if not wearing armor. There is a 1 in 6 chance that the spell is actually reversed, or just not what you thought it was.

6. Pennywise: A copper coin bearing the image of an owl. It increases one’s Wisdom score by +3 (to a maximum of 18), but makes that person very tight with money.

7. Golden Rad: Radioactive gold coinage, with all that radiation brings (poison, mutation – depends on your campaign). Each coin has a 1 in 20 chance per month of transmuting back to lead.

8. Silver Sylph: A silver coin with a hole in the center. If one blows through the hole, the coin produces bubbles of perfume, with a 1% chance of instead producing a sylph. You have no control over the sylph, and if you dragged her away from something important, she might be quite cross with you.

9. Gold Spiral: Gold coin with a spiral design, it can absorb one lightning bolt (no save needed) and then discharges it one hour later. While holding the charge, the holder is immune to electricity.

10. Corpse Coins: Copper coins. If placed on the eyes of a corpse, they completely stop decay. If held over a single eye of a living creature, it makes them invisible to corporeal undead. Of course, one could hold coins over both eyes, but they’d probably run into things.

RPGs in Iran? Maybe so …

/ jstater / 12 Comments

I was checking out my audience today, and came across a visitor from Iran.

I’ve never seen Iran show up there, so it really stood out to me. That either means there is somebody in that nation that plays RPGs and came looking for the Land of Nod, or that they got here accidentally. Perusing my traffic sources, all the search terms were blog related, and the google images people had found me with were RPG-ish, so I’m going to hope that there’s some cool RPG scene in Iran that I know nothing about – but would love to learn more about. If you’re an RPG’r from Iran and you’ve visited this blog, drop me a line or leave a comment.

That’s it for now. Megacrawl update coming later.

The Next Time the Adventurers Step Through a Portal …

/ jstater / 6 Comments

… maybe they step into this.

Roll – Destination
1 – Alien city (see above) during an important ritual. There is a 50% chance the visitors are welcomed as emissaries from the gods and imprisoned in a palace of alien pleasures (if only the PCs could digest the alien food) and a 50% chance they are treated as intruders and put to death by a thousand searing rays.
2 – Step into a cellar at the moment Aleister Crowley is summoning a demon; Crowley must pass a system shock test or suffer a heart attack. His patrons may not take kindly to the intrusion.
3 – Pass through an atomic feedback flux loop onto the starship Warden. Everyone must pass a saving throw (vs. poison) or suffer a mutation.
4 – Find themselves in a cluttered wardrobe that leads into wartime England. They are welcomed by a man in a natty suit (Merlin) and pressed into a mission to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
5 – Walk into the lowest level of Castle Greyhawk with no memories (though spellcasters retain their memorized or prepared spells) of how they got there.
6 – Step into a massive submerged cavern and the grand council of dolphins. A dolphin mage will work fast to summon up airy water.
7 – Awaken in a brilliant woodland on Midsummer Night; cavort with fey both good and evil.
8 – Find themselves on a barren world as the representatives of Law in a gladiatorial combat with their opposites from another universe as the representatives of Chaos.
9 – Enter a padded cell of Bedlam asylum, where they must save a mad woman from the machinations of Fraz-urb’luu, for she alone can open the portal back to their world.
10 – Step onto a solar barque making its way across the skies of a mythic earth, moments before it passes into Hades.

—

Image (top) from Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

What Better Way to Say Happy Mother’s Day …

/ jstater / 1 Comment

… than with the Mother of Chaos. Happy Mother’s Day to all mom’s everywhere. 
A special thanks to my mom who played that weird D&D thing with me when I couldn’t find anyone else to do it, slaying orcs with me in between vacuuming and dusting.

Tiamat
Hit Dice: 20 (100 hp)
Armor Class: -2 [21]
Attacks: 5 bites (3d6)
Move: 12/18 (Flying)
Special: Breath weapons (see below), +1 or better weapon to hit, resistance to acid, cold, electricity and fire (50%), immune to poison, spells
Save: 3
CL/XP: 26/5200

Tiamat is the Queen of Primordial Chaos, rival of the Demogorgon and mother of all monsters, but especially dragons, serpents, merfolk and scorpion men. Defeated by Marduk, her corpse (i.e. unadulterated chaos) became the building blocks for the lawful cosmos. When she appears, Tiamat takes the form of a five headed dragon with the breath weapons of an ancient blue, red, white, black and green dragon. She can cast spells as a 12th level magic-user and 15th level cleric and can control undead and demons as a 15th level cleric.

The Jack-of-all-Trades

/ jstater

I was having a drink at Tenkar’s Tavern, when I overheard his musing about making a bard-ier bard than I did in NOD 1. I commented that one possibility for a different bard would be one that can sort of “fake” the class abilities of other classes. The idea lodged in my head, and so I whipped up this goofy class.

Oh, and this baby is Open Game Content …

JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES
The jack-of-all-trades (and yes, there are female jacks – just adjust the verbiage as you see fit, maybe jill-of-all-trades) is a wandering ne’er-do-well that has seen it all and done it all – at least, that’s the way he tells it. Truthfully, he is an observant fellow always on the look for an opportunity, and that includes a bit of tomb robbing and dungeon delving when the pickings have been slim. The jack has the enviable ability to play at all the different classes of fantasy adventurer, though they do best at emulating the thief. But, in a sticky situation, he might recall the way that wizard once levitated himself out of a pit – he said something like “Abra Kadabra” and then set a feather atop his head – or maybe when presented by a clutch of angry kobolds, he recalls the way that fighting-man held off a whole gang by himself using only the pieces of a broken chair.

Prime Requisite: Charisma, 13+ gives a +5% bonus to earned XP.

Hit Dice: 1d8 per level to level 9, +2 hit points per level thereafter.

Weapons: Any.

Armor: Leather and shield.

Jack-of-all-Trades Abilities
The Jack-of-all-Trades uses the cleric’s combat matrix.

Everybody’s Pal: The jack-of-all-trades gets around, and he knows how to work a crowd. Most jack’s can play an instrument, dance, sing, tell stories and do minor tricks. They receive a +1 (or +5%) on reaction checks (double with dragons) and always leave a tavern with at least one rumor.

Background: Even a first level jack-of-all-trades has a bit of history under his belt. Choose one of the following backgrounds for your little scoundrel.

Acolyte: He was thrown out of the seminary/temple school for unworthy behavior, possibly with women of ill repute or for stealing the holy wine. He has a +5% chance to emulate cleric abilities and is literate.

Apprentice: He was dropped by his eldritch master for something referred to only as “the incident” – brooms might have been involved. He has a +5% chance to emulate magic-user and is literate.

Soldier: He deserted from the army on the eve of a major battle, possibly with his fellows’ pay. He has a +5% chance to emulate fighting-man abilities and can wear chainmail (though doing so spoils his use of magic-user and thief abilities).

Bits and Pieces: The jack-of-all-trades wanders widely and rubs elbows with a diverse crowd. As he walks through life, he learns bits and pieces from others, and he is always observing and making notes. This gives the jack-of-all-trades a percentage chance to use the abilities of the other classes (see advancement table below).

Cleric abilities usable by the jack-of-all-trades include turning undead, casting cleric spells and using cleric scrolls. When attempting to cast a cleric spell, divide the jack’s percentage chance of success by the level. Fouling up a cleric ability carries with it a 1% chance of divine retribution, the exact form of which is up to the Referee.

Fighting-Man abilities include making multiple attacks against creatures with less than 1 Hit Dice (the jack need only make the roll once per fight) and using magic items only usable by fighting-men.

Magic-User abilities include casting magic-user spells and the use of staves, wands and magic-user scrolls. As with casting cleric spells, you must divide the jack’s chance of success by the level of the magic-user spell he is attempting. Fouling up a magic-user ability carries with it a 1% chance of ill consequences (roll 1d6 on the table below).

Thief abilities include speaking the cant and back stabbing. The jack-of-all-trades also has a percentage chance to use a thief’s other abilities (climb walls, pick pockets, etc) equal to half that of a true thief of the same level.

Whether the jack’s ability to ape these classes applies to “sub-classes” (the monk, druid, etc), is up to the Referee. Perhaps the jack’s player might have to choose whether he can emulate the class or one of the sub-classes, just to keep things even.

Superheroes from the Inkwell

/ jstater

To begin with – Inkwell Ideas, the creation of Joe Wetzel, is awesome. Period. Hexographer and the Coat of Arms Designer are my best friends when it comes to writing NOD and Hex Crawl Classics, and I need to delve more deeply into his Dungeonographer.

He also has a keen superhero generator as well as a superhero sketcher. So, being a random kind of guy who happens to be writing a superhero game, I played around a bit, generated a completely random superhero and then used to sketcher to bring him to life. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Powersource.

POWERSOURCE
As a top Shore City University research scientist about to run out of funding, Richard Beam was desperate for a breakthrough. His genetic modification experiment had worked on hamsters, cats and dogs, but not on chimps. He believed, however, that that wouldn’t be an issue on humans because humans didn’t have the same complications as chimpanzees. So the man who would become Powersource became the experiment’s first and only human subject. Unfortunately, the experiment skewed Powersource’s worldview and now he sometimes fights for what is right and sometimes sees what is right differently than most folks.

Simply Smashing!

/ jstater / 1 Comment

Tank Turlington, also known as the British Bombshell, is a professional wrestler known for his John Bull-inspired costume and the endless parade of arm candy he shows off in the tabloids. The Secret Service believes him to be not only a meta-human, born with super powers, but also the director of SMASH, the Secret Mobilization Against Super Heroes, a criminal organization dedicated to removing the super heroic threat to their way of life.

Unfortunately, the Secret Service has missed the mark. The British Bombshell is merely the bodyguard of the organization’s leader, a woman with the ability to change her appearance at will. This woman, called Prima Donna by those few who know of her, masquerades as Turlington’s “endless parade of arm candy” while overseeing the many cells of SMASH that have been set up all over the world.

No post tomorrow – my company is hosting our annual golf tournament for children’s charities here in Southern Nevada. We’ve raised over $2 million over the past decade. It’s always fun, but I’ll be far from the computer most of the day (which is not a bad thing) and dead on my feet when I get home.

NOD 8 On Sale Now!

/ jstater / 8 Comments

Finally finally finally!

Enter the land of the Dragon Chans! This issue presents a sandbox hex crawl inspired by the folklore and literature of Asia, as well as a new class, the wushen, options for warriors, many new monsters and a pantheon based on Lord Dunsany’s Gods of Pegana. 104 pages.

Articles are:

A Bevy of Bujin – options for customizing the bujin class

The Wushen – a sohei sub-class for Ruins & Ronin
 
Land of the Dragon Chans – the hex crawl, Asia-style

Monsters of Mu-Pan – 42 new monsters for your favorite old school game

Gods of Mu-Pan – a pantheon based on Lord Dunsany’s Gods of Pegana.

Print version is $10 (apparently Lulu failed its save vs. inflation)

E-Book is $3.50

I haven’t received my print version yet, so buyer beware.

Requiem for a B-Movie Actress

/ jstater / 2 Comments

News came today that the body of actress and model Yvette Vickers, who played the floozy in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958), was found dead in her home. She also starred in Attack of the Giant Leeches, which is as creepy a movie as you’ll ever see – in a multitude of ways. In her memory and in honor of all the hard working actors and actresses that don’t hit the big time, the 50 Foot Woman for Mystery Men!

The plot, from Wikipedia …

A television announcer (Dale Tate) tells of people around the globe spotting a floating red ball. Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) is a wealthy but highly troubled woman. She has been speeding along the desert roads at night, fleeing her problems. A glowing ball settles on the highway in front of her. A giant reaches for her, but she runs back to town. No one believes in her story because of her drinking problem and having been institutionalized before. Her shifty husband (William Hudson) is more interested in his floozy (Yvette Vickers). Nonetheless, he pretends to be the good husband in hopes that Nancy will ‘snap’ and return to the ‘booby hatch’. She convinces him to search the desert with her, looking for the “satellite”. Eventually, they find it, and as the giant emerges Harry flees, leaving Nancy behind. Later, Nancy is found on the roof of her pool house. She has been sedated by her doctor. Harry thinks to give her a lethal injection of sedative, but when he goes up to her room, he finds she has grown into a giant.

The sheriff and Nancy’s butler find and explore the alien’s spherical ship. Seems the giant alien needs diamonds, perhaps fuel. The giant alien interrupts, wrecking their car, so they walk back. Nancy awakens and breaks free. Determined to find her wayward husband, she breaks through the roof of her house, and stomps off to town. In town, she takes the roof off the bar. A beam falls on the floozy, killing her. Nancy picks up Harry and walks away, The sheriff shoots at her to no apparent effect, but accidentally hits a power line transformer. The transformer blows up near Nancy and kills her, with Harry lying crushed in her hand.