PC Events: BARD

Go here to check out the series I'm continuing by Grim from Beyond the Black Gate. 

Go here to check out how I'm using these charts.

PC EVENTS: BARD (1d12)

1- You have fallen into an artistic funk.  Your performances suffer until you somehow get your groove back. You are in desperate need of some inspiration.

2- You receive a mysterious package containing an expensive masterwork instrument. It is the most beautiful instrument you have ever held.

3- Some competition moves in nearby.  As much as you hate to admit it- you know in your heart that they are better than you.

4- Your popularity absolutely explodes overnight.  Everyone knows you.  I hope you don't need to lay low anytime soon...

5- Your artistic idol is coming through the area!  Maybe you can get a jam session going! You HAVE to get an autograph!

6- Someone has been spreading rumors that you are inciting rebellion with your "subversive" lyrics.  You better get to the bottom of this before you get thrown in jail for treason.

7- The church is starting to crack down on "indulgent entertainment".

8- A new and popular upstart is ripping off your songs.  Nobody else seems to notice.  Something has to be done - or are you just losing your grip on reality?

9- Another bard or important critic starts a campaign against you.

10- Your lifestyle is starting to catch up with you.  You might start to suffer from a substance addiction.

11- You have attracted a very small but hardcore group of fans. They aren't planning on leaving anytime soon. (Roll 1d4 and add your charisma modifier, that is how many groupies you get)

12- A local person of importance firmly requests you play at an event they are hosting.  This could make or break you. (the event is to be held in 2d6 days) 

Next up: BARBARIANS

Cheers!

Random Events and Monthly Weather

I'm running my own version of the classic adventure 'B2: The Keep on the Border Lands'. One of the things I did to set up the game world is roll up weather and random events for the next 2 months of game time.

I want to share with you how I'm doing it.

Set yourself up a calendar page on a piece of paper. Leave lots of room for entries under each day. Next go here:  http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/weather/ and generate yourself a month or more of weather in advance (note: light wind is the default so you might want to ignore it).

Next we determine if any special events occur. Roll 1d8 for each day. On a roll of 1 something interesting has happened. 

Now roll 1d6;

On a 1-3 a personal PC event happens that day. Randomly determine which PC it will effect. Then go here: http://beyondtheblackgate.blogspot.ca/2010/01/random-chart-pc-events.html and roll on the correct table for that character's class.

On a 4-6 go here: http://poleandrope.blogspot.ca/2010/09/meanwhile-back-in-town.html and roll on the excellent town event tables.

You obviously have last say on what is happening in your world and in your game. I just find it is particularly comforting knowing when it is going to rain ahead of time in my world instead of just deciding on the fly mid-game. This is a simple way to give a world a semblance of it's own life - and to keep those pesky players on their toes!

Grim from Beyond the Black Gate has alot of excellent random PC event tables. He didn't cover a few of the classes that are available to my players though, so I am going to post tables for these classes to fill the gaps.

- Next time: PC Bard Events! Cheers!

The state of B?X

Well it has been a while since my last post., I guess that's how it goes sometimes. I suppose I would rather post sporadically when I want to then push myself to post frequently just for the sake of it and end up burning myself out.

Anyway, here is a bit of an update on my B?X project:

The release of the 5th ed playtest materials really re-ignited my interest in the project. People will tell you that 5th ed looks like 2nd or 4th ed but honestly it looks to me mostly like B/X, or at least how my group used to play B/X back in junior high.

Right now my core rules are basically very similar to the rules from the playtest with a few major changes.

Experience and leveling
I am having the characters start out at lvl 0- heavily inspired by the DDC beta rules. First they will roll stats in order, and then roll on a separate occupation table depending on what their highest stat was. So a character who rolled strength as their highest stat would roll on the strength based occupation table.

The 0lvl characters start with no class and virtually no money or equipment, just what their occupation gives them. They will start with a "background trait" just like in 5ed, but they will have to wait till they hit level 1 to choose a theme for their class.

I am probably not using standard experience points for leveling. Instead the characters will stay at their current level until the complete a big level appropriate quest. The players and I will discuss what a worthy quest would be and come to an agreement about it. Increasing in level gives a hp increase and increases the character's ingame prestige and renown. In between tackling the big "level up" quests the players can engage in any number of smaller quests or adventures to gain money and supplies or possibly unlock and improve abilities. - So you wont become a better swordsman just by leveling up; you need to go on a specific quest to find a sword-master to train you.

Race as class. Also some weird changes to some of the races.

Alignment: there will be Lawful, Chaotic and Neutral. There are no real gods in my setting per se but there is an absolute force of good and an absolute force of evil fighting it out.

I am thinking about setting a flat level cap at lvl 6. I think a low level cap will be overall more manageable, and I hope that it will encourage players to get involved in creating a legacy with their characters- when a fighter hits lvl 6 and settles down to become a ruler, the player can make a new character from a  former follower they had.

I am completely overhauling magic. Going to be using mana pools and piety dice and getting rid of Vancian spellcasting entirely. I made up new types of wizards with their own new schools of magic. Magic will be learnt from found spellbooks and there will be no such thing as spell lvl or spells per day.

I could get more into specifics but I'm going to bed now.

Comments and questions are welcome.

-Cheers!

House Rules for Barbarian Prince

Ok, so Evan from In Places Deep posted a link here where you can get some cool old game materials ( I was very disappointed by "Goblin!")

Barbarian Prince is one of the games. It is pretty cool. You can get the rulebook and game board downloaded for free. Upon downloading and reading through the rules I imediately printed out a small copy of the game board and called up a buddy to play.

The game went fairly well but here are some changes I would make to the rules:

1- Although it is advertised as a solo game I heartily recommend a GamesMaster to run the game, and I think some additional starting characters run by other players could join the Barbarian Prince's party without too much trouble (maybe increase the amount of gold needed to win the game by 100 for each additional player). The more the merrier!

2- The combat system is kinda a mess. Here is my quick (and not playtested) fix to combat without totally overhauling the game: Combat Skill (CS) = the number of die you roll whenever attacking or defending in combat. Both combatants roll their CS # of dice, remove any dice rolled which are not a 5 or 6. Dice that come up 5+ have been successful (either attacking or blocking), successful block dice cancel successful  attack dice on a 1to1 basis. Successful and unblocked attack dice each cause 1 wound to the defender.

Example: 

the Prince (CS 8) vrs Dragon (CS 10)
Prince goes first -attacking he rolls 8 dice 

The Dragon rolls his 10 dice in defense

The Prince rolls well and gets 5 successes (5+ results)

The Dragon rolls 4 successes and thus manages to block 4 of the Prince's strikes.

The Dragon takes 1 wound.

Choosing targets and stuff remains the same as do CS modifiers due to wounds.

3-  +1 CS to anything that is mounted.

4- Your wit and wiles number is subtracted from your chance to get lost - the 2d6 dice roll. (SPENT WAYYY TOO MUCH TIME LOST IN THE SWAMP/ MOUNTAINS)

So those are my proposed changes, if anyone uses them please let me know how it went. I might come back to this. I am thinking about making some really simple character creation rules and maybe rules for leveling up and increasing your statistics.

Also custom encounters would be cool.