Equipment for Necromancers

The Necromancer requires a ready supply of mortal remains as subjects for their dark magic. Keeping fresh (or not so fresh) body parts can be difficult however, especially in large quantities. These items are essential for any serious practitioner of the Necromantic arts.

Body Bag
Although you could just stuff a body in any old sack the Body Bag is a vastly superior choice. This huge leather bag has a thick double lining and is waterproof. It can shut air-tight when drawn closed. A Body Bag can hold up to ten hit dice worth of body parts and weighs 1ENR if empty ( it can fold up fairly small when not in use). If in use the Body Bag weighs 1ENR + 1ENR per hit dice worth of body parts contained within. A Body Bag can be used by non-necromancers as well as a means of transporting the body parts of exotic creatures to market, or even to safely transport the remains of a fallen comrade. A Body Bag costs 10gp.

Preservative Agents
These alchemical potions help greatly to stave off the effects of rot and decay. If a single dose if poured into a Body Bag and left overnight all the remains inside the bag will stay "fresh".  If a Body Bag receives daily applications of  Preservative Agents and is kept in a cold and vermin-free environment it will continue to preserve the remains nearly indefinitely. The alchemical ingredients required to make Preservative Agents are expensive and rare however, thus each dose costs 5gp.

Flesh Scarabs
These vile little creatures are of invaluable help to Necromancers who prefer to work with skeletal remains. Each Scarab is only slightly larger than a coin and they are typically sold in small colony groups of a few dozen individuals. A colony of Flesh Scarabs comes in a small sealed iron box which contains a small quantity of sand. If the open box is placed inside a Body Bag which contains "fleshy" remains and left overnight by morning the bones will be stripped nearly clean of flesh and the scarabs will have retreated back into their sandy home. A colony of Scarabs which are given a steady supply of flesh to eat will be able to reproduce and replenish their numbers indefinitely but it is impossible to breed additional colonies. Each colony of Flesh Scarabs must be imported from distant lands and thus each box costs 50gp, The iron box they are housed in weighs 1ENR.  

Peddler's Bag
A Peddler's Bag is a small cloth bag which contains simple supplies of the sort usually used by peddlers to mend shabby clothes. Each bag usually contains a random assortment of soiled rags, strips of leather, wooden sticks, nails, small twisted bits of metal, pins, needles, string and twine. Each bag weighs 1ENR and contains 20 uses. You could scrounge up the materials that make a Peddler's Bag by paying any shopkeeper 3 copper pieces for the privilege of searching through their waste-bin.

( Note: Many Necromancer spells such as "Create Skeletal Wretch" require 1d6 uses from a Peddler's Bag, as well as many of the spells used by Animators.)

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!

Adventuring Equipment

 Some adventurers bring "healer's kits" with them into the dungeon and rely on herbs and bandages to keep them going. The more rough and tumble brand of adventurers bring strong drink.

Fortified Wine

A swig of strong fortified wine can keep even a gravely injured warrior on his feet. Fortified wine is laced with tonics and restorative medicines plus the biting flavor will shock the drinker into wakefulness while the liquor dulls pain.

• 25gp for a canteen, 5 uses - 1lb. same effect as a healer's kit.

Hard Liquor
The most foolhardy adventurers are fond of carrying small "handcasks" of powerful liquor such as moonshine or the dreaded dwarven fire whisky.  In contrast to fortified wine these drinks have very little medicinal value aside from occasionally being poured into wounds as disinfectant.

• 25gp for a handcask ,10 uses - 2lb. same effect as a healer's kit*.
• 50gp for a pony-keg ,20 uses - 5lb. same effect as a healer's kit*.

*If you expend more uses than your CON ability score modifier during the same rest you suffer from the Intoxicated condition for a full hour.

Sturdy Steel-shod Boots
These tough steel and leather boots are the absolute best protection available for an adventurers' feet. The toughened leather exterior has been treated with several coats of protective varnish and wax, making them both water proof and extremely durable. Although padded and comfortable on the inside these boots have a reinforced steel toe and a thick steel sole, as well as several small metal plates to protect the heel and sides of the feet.  The drawbacks that come with these boots are that they tend to make a loud clanging sound when walking across stone and they are obviously very dangerous to wear while attempting to swim.

• 10gp for pair (must be worn as pair), 4lbs. as pair, +1 to wearer AC.
• At the end of your turn if the wearer is in melee combat and hasn't moved they may make a extra kick attack using only their basic strength modifier. If it hits the attack does 1d4 bludgeoning damage.
• At the DM's discretion these sturdy boots can protect the wearer's feet from nearly any damaging effect that would target feet specifically.
• Anytime the wearer attempts to climb, jump, swim, or move stealthily   the DM should impose severe penalties.

Sturdy Gauntlet
Most of the heavier types of armor come with a set of gauntlets but sometimes even lightly armored warriors choose to wear them. Although it may not be the most heroic tactic, a well timed punch can be very effective.

• 5gp each, 10gp for pair. 1lb. each, 2lb. as pair, +1 to wearer AC if a pair is worn.
• If the wearer is in melee combat and has a free gauntleted hand they may make a extra punching attack using only their basic strength modifier. If it hits the attack does 1d4 bludgeoning damage.
• A gauntleted hand cannot cast arcane spells or preform delicate tasks.

Just some ideas I had, Cheers!

Why I love the 5E Playtest

I know alot of people are not very keen on the playtest materials but I personally couldn't be happier. The playtest seems to support exactly the type of game I want to play. I have seen all kinds of comparisons on blogs and forums saying the playtest is everything from "just 4th edition with 3rd edition stuff mixed in",  "a pile of crap" to "mostly 2nd edition with a little 3rd"- to me though the whole thing is extremely oldschool. Not just because of the Caves of Chaos either. Although there are quite a few "modernisms" in the rules, namely the "Core Mechanic" (the roll a d20, add and subtract modifiers, try to beat a DC) these 3+ edition rules really form a pretty simple frame work.

I really like the core mechanic approach, it is really easy for new players to grasp and leads to a much more unified game experience. It gives you a very stable baseline to improvise with, and helps to keep the game moving. Compare for instance the complicated unarmed combat rules from AD&D to a easily improvised set of opposed strength checks from the playtest.

-lazy notes:

ASCENDING AC

Basic stats (ability scores) are everything now.

Simple (and totally optional) skill system.- skills are now bonuses that modify your ability score check to use the skill instead of skills being their whole own thing that ability scores modify (a subtle but important change).

I've seen quite a few guffaws about fire beetles having 7 charisma, but this consistent approach is good and also is necessary now that ability scores = saving throws and such.

Backgrounds and Themes are good.They mostly seem pretty minor but add a little evocative customization to character creation (presumably).

Hit point inflation doesn't seem too bad to me. Sure the Ogre has alot of hit points but the Dwarf fighter deals a MINIMUM 9 damage on a hit with his greataxe- and deals 3 damage even if he misses. Hit points are up all across the board- but so is damage, so overall it doesn't seem too out of whack to me.

Advantage, Disadvantage and Hazard rules are pretty freaking awesome and I'm going to be using them always now.

Really would have liked to see monster HD listed in the bestiary.

- Oh yeah, the download process was terrible. I hated it.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm going to try to get back into a routine.

-Cheers!

Type V sounds Great!

Now I'm not one for the edition warring. Never really saw the point of it. I understand some people hold very strong convictions, but honestly I am just happy to see people playing pen and paper rpgs at all. I like the good old purple box best truth be told, it is the version I started with and it is where my heart still rests. Over the years I've dabbled with AD&D, 2Ed, and  3.5, - currently I run Pathfinder for my group. Although I never really got taken in by 4th, there are many things to be admired from that system- heck, I really like the 4th edition alignment rules (of all things).

I wasn't planning on talking about TypeV at all, or at least until there really was something concrete to talk about. I've been really struck by all the negativity and nay-saying which has been resounding around the community. This genuinely bothers me. Although I may be naive the Cook column really resonated with me, particularly this paragraph:

   "Second—and this sounds so crazy that you probably won't believe it right now—we're designing the game so that not every player has to choose from the same set of options. Again, imagine a game where one player has a simple character sheet that has just a few things noted on it, and the player next to him has all sorts of skills, feats, and special abilities. And yet they can still play the game together and everything remains relatively balanced. Your 1E-loving friend can play in your 3E-style game and not have to deal with all the options he or she doesn't want or need. Or vice versa. It's all up to you to decide."

That actually sounds great.

A couple of things-

Cook is NOT saying that they are going to try to smash 1E and 4E together for simultaneous play (as I have heard many people loudly bemoaning). They are very obviously creating a new edition and a new ruleset. To me it appears they are trying to support many different playstyles which in fact Transcend the Very Editions Themselves.

This is really cool when you really look at the rules for what they are- constructs and guidelines- they are there to help you have fun and play an awesome game. Look at the excellent A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming by Matthew J. Finch - it does an excellent job of explaining why oldschool style gaming is cool and fun but also makes a good case of explaining the virtues of newschool style gaming. Take this example of the contrasts from the Primer:

The Pit Trap (Modern Style)

GM: A ten-foot wide corridor leads north into the darkness. John the Rogue: I check for traps.
GM: What's your target number for checking?
John the Rogue:  15.
GM: Decides that the pit trap in front of the party is standard, so all John has to do is roll a 15 or better. Roll a d20.
John the Rogue: 16.
GM: Probing ahead of you, you find a thin crack in the floor  it looks like there's a pit trap.
John the Rogue: Can I disarm it?
GM: What's your target number for that?
John the Rogue: 12. I rolled a 14.
GM: Okay, moving carefully, you're able to jam the mechanism so the trap won't open.
John the Rogue: We walk across. I go first.

The Pit Trap (Old Style)

GM: A ten-foot wide corridor leads north into the darkness.
John the Rogue: We move forward, poking the floor ahead with our ten foot pole.
GM: Is about to say that the pole pushes open a pit trap, when he remembers something. Wait, you don't have the ten foot pole any more. You fed it to the stone idol. [if the party still had the pole, John would have detected the trap automatically]
John the Rogue: I didn't feed it to the idol, the idol ate it when I poked its head.
GM: That doesn't mean you have the pole back. Do you go into the corridor?
John the Rogue: No. I'm suspicious. Can I see any cracks in the floor, maybe shaped in a square?
GM: Mulls this over, because there's a pit trap right where John is looking. But it's dark, so -No, there are about a million cracks in the floor. You wouldn't see a pit trap that easily, anyway. [A different referee might absolutely decide that John sees the trap, since he's looking in the right place for the right thing].
John the Rogue: Okay. I take out my waterskin from my backpack. And I'm going to pour some water onto the floor. Does it trickle through the floor anywhere, or reveal some kind of pattern?
GM: Yeah, the water seems to be puddling a little bit around a square shape in the floor where the square is a little higher than the rest of the floor.
John the Rogue: Like there's a covered pit trap?
GM: Could be.
John the Rogue: Can I disarm it?
GM: How?
John the Rogue: I don't know, maybe make a die roll to jam the mechanism?
GM: You can't see a mechanism. You step on it, there's a hinge, you fall. What are you going to jam?
John the Rogue: I don't know. Okay, let's just walk around it.
GM: You walk around it, then. There's about a two-foot clearance on each side.

So we can see that old style is creative, imaginative, and spontaneous.

New style is more reliable and gives the player a solid guideline (plus in this case played out alot faster, which could be a boon to some).

Despite the obvious differences in style I don't see any reason both of these styles couldn't be compatible, with each player working in his or her preferred style.

Lets talk about characters creation. I imagine the at its most basic a character made only using the "core system" Cook writes about will have alot in common with B/X or AD&D made characters.

• Class name
• Simple restrictions
• Hp and starting stuff/ gold 
• A rule or exception that makes that class distinct (the basic class feature)
• Simple saving throw rules

And the beauty of TypeV is it is perfectly viable to just leave your character like that and start playing.

Or you could Choose to get more specific and add in a few more rules, to further define your character. Such as:

• Simple "Feats"
• Simple Skill system

And if you really want to get really in-depth you can add in such stuff as:

• More guidelines in general
• Class Powers 
• More class options

They key to all this, as I see it, is that  A player using the Oldstyle is not any more or less powerful than a character using the Newstyle. Newschool fighter Tim chooses "cleave" as a character power and so often chooses to use that move. He likes the structure of having very well defined powers. Oldschool barbarian Eric doesn't have any powers noted on his sheet but will often describe effects similar to the "cleave" power when he attacks, and his DM gives him that license. He likes the imaginative and creative power this gives him. Fair treatment regardless of the method you choose is the key. Tim shouldn't be penalized for using narrow rules just as Eric shouldn't be penalized for using very broad rules.  

One way I just thought of incorporating both styles in the same combat is to make a common way for something special to happen- like rolling a natural 20. Ethier player could choose to just roll the regular x2 damage for a crit.

-OR-

Newschool Tim could activate one of his allotted character powers / Oldschool Eric could describe an cool effect which he makes up on the spot.

I guess the real difference is how strict are the guidelines you want to impose on yourself via the playstyle you choose?

Anyway, I hope some of this makes sense. I will probably talk more about this in the future. Comments and questions are welcome.