Ruprechts RPG Blog: November 2019

Best of the Web - Dungeon Drawing Tutorial, Landmarks

Niklas Wistedt has a nice tutorial called Tutorial: How to draw a basic dungeon map. I found the article while looking for drawings of dungeon dressing and was really captivated by the simple style and readability of his maps. I'm not sure if I like it better than Tony Dowler's maps but it's a close run thing.
Niklas Wistedt has a nice tutorial called Tutorial: How to draw a fantasy village map. Found it exploring his other tutorials and liked what I saw. Think I might have to buy some of his listed equipment soon.
Lungfungus at Melancholies and Mirth has a post called 4d10 + 2d8 Natural Landmarks for Each Terrain Type / 56 Cosmetic Hex Fillings which has some nice bits to help with making a hex less boring. Oh yeah, I'll be borrowing some of this. It's an older post, but it checks out.
Melancholies and Mirth also has a similar post called 36 Hidden Hex Landmarks that has more unique landmarks to drop in your game. These are a bit wilder than the natural landmarks as one would expect.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Animals Part 2

Narrowing down what beasts to use and what not to use is important, but it is mind-numbing to say the least. I can't believe how many horribly dull and poorly thought out monsters Pathfinder has. I believe this will be the last post in the project for awhile. I've got to rethink how I handle this.

Badger
Bat

Bird

Falcon, Giant
Hawk/Eagle
Ostrich/Emu
Owl
Parrot
Roc
Swan
Vulture

Canine (Dog)

Dog, Common
Dog, Guard
Dog, Ratter
Jackal
Fox
Wolf

Crocodile

Alligator
Caiman, Dwarf
Crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile

Equine (Horse)

Light
Mule
Riding
War
Pony

Feline (Cat)

Cat
Cheetah (Cat, Great)
Jaguar (Cat, Great)
Leopard (Cat, Great)
Lion (Cat, Great)
Lion, Mountain (Cat, Great)
Lynx (Cat, Great)
Tiger (Cat, Great)

Frog, Giant

Herd Animal

Antelope
Bison
Camel
Deer/Elk
Giraffe
Goat/Ram/Sheep
Llama
Moose

Hyena

Lizard

Giant Frilled
Giant Gecko
Giant Rock-Horned
Monitor
Horned

Marsupial

Kangaroo
Koala

Pachyderm

Elephant, Common
Hippopotamus
Rhinoceros

Porcupine

Primate

Baboon
Chimpanzee
Gorilla
Mandrill
Monkey
Orangutan

Raccoon

Snake

Adder
Anaconda
Constrictor

Seal

Elephant
Sea Lion

Skunk
Sloth

Swine

Boar
Boar, Common
Pig

Toad
Tortoise, Giant

Ursine (Bear)

Bear, Black
Bear, Grizzly
Bear, Polar

Walrus
Wolverine

Bestiary - Thoughts on Animals Part 1

Animals fall into that weird place where they are boring and nobody wants to read about them in a bestiary but they are useful to fill out a campaign. Because of this I think they work best lumped into larger categories that contain simple explanations but multiple statblocks. This is especially true for "Summoned Creatures" and for Dire versions which are just larger versions of the same beast.

Dinosaurs

I'm still trying to figure out if it's best to list a bunch of Theropods or just have statblocks for big, medium, and little under the Theropod heading. It's not as if characters will know the latin names, or that the different theropods are all that different or lived at the same time.
I've loved dinosaurs since I was a kid, but they have changed since then and the super-quick type that are favored by modern paleontologists are probably more than most adventurers can manage, yet they seem necessary for lost worlds, and dinotopia type scenerios so they must be included.

Ankylosaurus (Armored Dino)

Ankylosaurus

Ceratopsian (horned faces)

Triceratops

Hadriosaurus (Duck Billed)
Ornithomiimosaurs (Bird Mimic)
Pachycephalosaurus (Bone-headed)
Plesiosaurus
Prosauropods (Small soropauds)
Pterandon

Raptors

Deinonychus
Megaraptor
Utahraptor
Velociraptor

Sauropods

Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus)
Brachiosaurus
Diplodocus

Stegosaurs (Spiked)

Stegosaurus

Theropods (excluding Tyrannosaur and Rapters)

Ceratosaurus
Gigantosaurus
Spinosaurus

Tyrnanosaurs

Allosaurus
Tyrannosaurus Rex

Megafauna

Megafauna are the super-sized animals that lived between the time of the dinosaurs and recorded history. In many cases their ancestors survive in a smaller more recognizable form.
Auroch
Bear, Cave
Daeodon
Deinosuchus
Dire Wolf
Glyptodon
Ground Sloth
Hyaenodon
Lion, Cave
Mammoth
Mastodon
Megalania
Paraceratherium
Rhino, Wooly
Smilodon
Terror Bird

AQUATIC

Cephalopod

Octopus
Octopus, Giant
Squid
Squid, Giant

Cetacean (Whale)

Blue Whale
Crimson Whale
Dolphin
Killer Whale
Narwhale
Whale (Common)
Dolphin

Eel

Electric
Moray

Fish

Barracuda/Gar
Piranha
Quipper

Seahorse, Giant

Shark

Bull
Great White
Hammerhead
Tiger

Stingray
Turtle, Snapping

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 3

Lich

A lich is created when the spirit (or a portion of a spirit) is separated from a body by use of a Magic Jar spell. The separation allows the spirit (or portion) to remain in the mundane world after the body has died.

Demi-Lich - An extremely old Lich whose body has decade to the point only a skull remains.
Hag - A witch that has transformed into a type of lich with a bit of demonic aid.
Lich - A lich is a Necromancer that has used their own body as a Magic Jar to hold their own spirit (or portion of their spirit) giving it near eternal life.
Mummy - Similar to a lich except the Mummy was made into a lich by another and is therefore not necessarily a powerful Necromancer in their own right.
Pharaonic Guardian - Lesser Mummies created to serve a Mummy in their undead state.
Wight - Similar to a Mummy but created by a different process and somewhat weaker. Wights are restricted to the area around the barrow in which they were buried.

Vampires

Berbalang - Winged Nosferatu thing that wasn't undead in Fiend Folio but was some kind of ghoul in Filipino legends.
Manananggal - Female torso with bat wings.
Nosferatu - An ancient vampire.
Vampire - Vampires are well enough known to not require detail here.
Vampire Spawn - A vampire under the control of another (the one that turned them).

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who draws incredibly creepy undead that may or may not be vampires but certainly look scary enough. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 2

Flesh Constructs

Flesh constructs are a corpses that have had a spirit re-attached to provide animation. In some cases the spirit is the bodies original, in others it is not.

Golem, Blood - An animated pool of blood, it can congeal to strike and very much acts like an ooze.
Golem, Bone - A more powerful skeleton.
Golem, Carrion - Flesh golem horse
Golem, Flesh - One or more corpses sewed together to form a single humanoid. Being a golem it is covered in glyphs.
Golem, Mummy - Dead that are animated to act as guards for an actual mummy.
Living Wall - Bodies mortored together. The wall can talk in many voices but cannot cast spells. it may cause insanity. Often found in tombs.
Skeleton/Zombie, Giant
Skeleton/Zombie, Humanoid
Skeleton/Zombie, Halfing
Zombie, Ju Ju - A freshly animated corpse that retains some of its previous skills.

Minor Undead

Minor Undead are spirits that have possessed a body on their own, and thus have physical form and semi-free will.

Carrion Birds - Carrion birds that have died and gone undead because of feasting upon undead.
Daughter of the Dead - Fanatical worshiper of a deity of the dead (Hades for example), a devotion that allows them to stay behind and become the foci to cults for their deity.
Kurobozu - Dead Chaos Priest whose dedication to their patron/deity enabled them to remain as undead to hunt Clerics and feed on their breathe.
Mohrg - A body possessed by a demon that will kill everything possible. Mohrg do not talk, and heal 1d6 damage per turn even after death so they are nearly impossible to truly kill short of spirit combat. Jason and Michael Meyers could be considered Mohrg.
Yellow Musk Zombie - Zombie created by the spores of the yellow musk plant.

Ghoul

In my mind ghouls are similar to zombies. Zombies that form during a Chaos Outbreak (I'll talk about that during Abominations) in which spirits are unable to move on. Just zombies is a bit dull though, so I modeled Ghouls on the Zombies from the game Left4Dead. All of the types below will be represented in a typical horde. Those killed by ghouls soon join the horde and the horde becomes something you don't stand up and fight, at least not for long.

Cinder - A ghoul with excessive body heat that will result in an explosion when struck.
Corpulent - Fat ghoul filled with bile that will explode when hit.
Darakhul Ogre - A super-strong ghoul.
Ghast - A smart ghoul that will eventually lead the horde.
Imperial - Run of the mill, fairly quick ghoul
Lacedon - Partially drowned, pretty slow moving ghoul.
Rage Ghoul - A particularly violent ghoul capable of leaping long distances onto prey.

Note - The art above is copyright Russ Nicholson who draws the best skeletons and zombies ever (his Coffer Corpse, and Revenant were highlights in the old Fiend Folio). I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Best of the Web - Paralysis, Micro-Sandboxes, and Dungeons as Theater of Operations

Goblin Punch has a post called Scraps of Undeath about paralysis and making ghouls more interesting. I have to agree, I've never liked paralysis much, and losing a level is even worse, yet both make undead different and pretty horrific, so what can replace them? I'll try his solutions but my own is keeping paralysis but instead of having it suddenly occur, adding a new Disadvantage each round until the character is helpless. This should act like a horrific count-down to. I'm also a fan of having booze be the cure for a number of things as this forces the players to counter a deadly rehabilitating effect with a temporary one.
Came across an old Gothridge Manor post (2015) called Micro-Sandbox. It's a 3 page hex-crawl island location It's the first time I've heard the term and I really, really like it. Seems everyone is creating worlds, or really large wildernesses when it would be easier, and more useful to create multiple micro-sandboxes. If they are islands or small continents, or someone sets up a standard of how to handle the edges they could be assembled like square geomorphs which would be ideal for a beginning campaign.
The Alexandrian has an intrigue post on Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Dungeon as a Theater of Operations. It's about expanding combats beyond the one room in which they occur. he warns against going to formal but it seems this one could easily work. Treat a series of room as a single encounter area. A single theater of operations to use Alexandrian's term. Give that area a number on your key and the rooms within that region letters. Describe the content of the lettered rooms and give the whole a number of encounters that work together. Characters would run into an encounter in certain spots if they aren't super-careful (and any combat will draw the rest of the roster into the fight).
Also a note or two about possible defensive plans the locals might have: Seal the door between A and B, use the table to create a barricade across the archway to C, snuff out the lights and drop the tapestry over the window to make the place pitch black could make the encounter come alive in a way the standard toe-to-toe combat in a static location never has.
Lastly this ensures the Dungeon has more than a few empty rooms and the rooms become a bit scarier as who knows it sounds will act as a trip-wire to draw a dozen Orcs onto your head or not.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Undead Part 1

Undead in Pathfinder and D&D seem completely wrong. Strict categorization steels the mystery of the undead, at least of ghosts. And despite the strict categorization there is zero consistency behind any of it. Lastly some undead are created by such unlikely combinations events it would seem unlikely that more than one such undead would ever appear. So many undead in Pathfinders long list of Undead are entirely pointless and stupid and I'd be surprised if anybody every used them. Having said that, here are my thoughts on different Undead in the Pathfinder.

One thing Pathfinder does have is a wonderful variety of feats for the undead. In time I'll peace through them and put together tables for Ghosts to provide a nice unpredictable variety of effects that occur. I think the unpredictability is a big part of making Ghosts scary.

Undead

Undead are spirits in the mundane world. They may be free floating ghosts or animated flesh of some sort. A spirit that animates other things (statues for example) are known as constructs. As spirits they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. The intelligence of the undead depends upon the spirit but the older undead should become a bit more insane as far as mortals judge such things.

The idea of undead is to create truly scarey areas in tombs, with guardians that can defend a location forever without food or even air.

Ghosts

Ghosts are spirits of the dead. They linger back and forth between the spirit world and the mundane world unable to move on to their final destination. There are two main types but these are each defined by a number of tables.

Haunt - An incorporeal spirit.
Remainer - A spirit given physical form (made of ectoplasm although that doesn't matter) so that the Remainer can touch and interact with things as if they were alive although they can't be killed like a normal mortal. Clint Eastwood's unnamed character in High Plains Drifter would be an example

Table 1: Cause of Death

1d6	Cause
01	Accident
02	Drowning
03	Hanging
04	Murder
05	Neglect
06	Suicide

Table 2: Can't Move On

1d6	Until
01	Forgiveness
02	Buried Properly
03	Debt Repaid
04	Expose Truth
05	Return Item
06	Vengeance

Table 3: Haunt Type

1d6	Until
01	Human, Former Identity Clear
02	Human, Former Identity Unclear
03	Humanish
04	Spirit, Ectoplasmic human form
05	Spirit, Ectoplasmic non-human form
06	Spirit, Insubstantial

Table 4: Other Details (roll twice)

1d6	Until
01	Covered in Gore/Worms
02	Floats above ground/Lacks legs/feet
03	Headless/Faceless
04	Insatiably Hungry
05	White Clothes, Hair, or skin
06	Screaming

Note - The art above is copyright Don Kenn who is one of the only people to draw truly creepy looking ghosts. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Constructs Part 2

Metal Constructs

Metal statues that have been animated. Possibly a suit of animated plate armor. They typically have the construction glyphs on the inside. the statues are typically humanoid or beast but the effect is the same as they rarely use weapons and if they do it will be made of the same material as the construct itself.

Golem, Bronze - Statue made of bronze. Common in classic age societies, often painted. Was brass but why? The Greeks actually made bronze statues and that weathered greening bronze looks really cool.

Golem, Gold - Statue made of gold. Typically found in tombs and crypts where large amounts of gold won't draw undo attention. Gold is soft as far as metals go so its limbs can be cut off even if the thing is hard to kill. Also gold has a lower melting point that most other metals so gold golems are vulnerable to fire.
Golem, Iron - Statue made of iron. Iron is expensive and useful for making armor and weapons so statues of iron are rare except to decorate tombs but an iron golem would be very difficult to fight and i can imagine weapons getting blunt and breaking.
Gorgon - An iron bull is used in many chaos executions. Sacrifices are put inside and a fire is then started beneath. Occasionally this causes the spirit of the dead to possess the bull to prevent it from being dragged into the afterlife. I think the iron bull Gorgon from D&D fits as a construct better than some magical beast roaming the world.
Serpent, Iron - Statue of a serpent made of iron. Created primarily by snake worshipers and Naga.

Plant/Wood Constructs

Naturally constructs made of wood and plants are very vulnerable to fire. Still they are popular among the Fey and nearly invisible to see in a forest when they are not moving.

Feyward Tree - A tree occupied by the spirit of an Elf.
Golem, Wood - A statue carved out of wood, assembled together out of wood pieces, or a dead tree with a spirit inside to animate. This is the kind of thing Druids might make to defend their groves.
Haunted Construct Scarecrow - Hoping to avoid the afterword occasionally a spirit will possess a person or body, in this case the silly beast animated a scarecrow.
Serpent - A spirit trapped in a stick. The stick may be carved like a serpent or not but it will act like one and quickly break off any branches that inhibit it's slithering.
Wyrwood - Tiny wood golem used as a spy or messenger by Elves.

Stone Constructs

Stone Constructs are made of stone, and thus very difficult to damage. They can be made in humanoid or beast shape. They don't use weapons so any damage would be bashing damage. Typically they are statues but not necessarily.

Golem, Rubble - A pile of flagstones, masonry, bricks, boulders, or even stones animated so as to act as a single golem. Because they are not truly united any piercing or slashing damage just slips between the pieces and any blunt weapon damage is doubled as pieces are knocked clear.
Golem, Stone - An animated stone statue, usually marble but stone is not unheard of. A statue that looks/acts like a structural column is known as a caryatid column, one dedicated to protecting a city is known as a cephalophore, a gargoyle on a building so animated is known as a gargoyle. Sometimes a stone golem will just be a head animated to watch over a location.

Science Fiction/Steampunk Constructs

Aballonian - Aballonians are intelligent, self-modifying constructs. I don't know what Aballonian means and it reminds me too much of abalone so the name has to change.
Brain Cylinder - A brain in a jar. I love brains and/or heads in jars that can communicate to players. The undead version I call a semi-lich.
Golem, Alchemical - Primitve clockwork.
Golem, Clockwork Golum - Steam and/or gear powered robots animated by a spirit.
Octopod Mechanic Drone - Octopus-like repair robot.
Robot - Not a construct with an animating spirit so much as a robot with artificial intelligence. Robots come in a multitude of sizes and shapes as they are usually created with a specific task in mind. Many are not even humanoid as treads are often more appropriate for certain tasks.

Note - The art above is copyright Stefan Poag. I make no claims to it beyond loving his work and will remove it if asked.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Constructs Part 1

Constructs are the perfect monster as they can sit around waiting patiently for the characters to arrive yet I rarely use them in my campaigns because they are so bland. So I decided to work up how things work and go over the constructs in Pathfinder only to find nearly half were repetitions of other constructs, overly specific, or just terrible. I trimmed and trimmed and organized primarily by the material of the construct.

My idea is constructs are animated by placing/trapping a portion of spirit into an object and as such they are effected by a Cleric's Banish ability. Also this gives the thing personality. if the thing being animated has anything even remotely resembling a mouth or eyes the process of animating it will also give it site, hearing, and speech. Constructs should be more like the teapot and plates in Beauty and the Beast then some mindless automatons. The intelligence of the construct depends upon the spirit and the mobility and attack depend upon the item used to create the construct.

The idea of constructs is to create truly magical areas in tombs and Wizarding schools with mundane items that are never caught sleeping, live virtually forever, and which can move, converse, or attack. Also constructs might make a nice place to store the spirit of a dead character until their body can be brought back, giving a player or two a very unique change of pace after a defeat.

I'll figure out the details on creating Constructs later.

Animated Objects

Animated object are any object that a wizard has trapped a spirit within. If there is anything remotely resembling eyes or a mouth they will take on that function. Because of this animated objects are often used as spies or to pass along messages. The ability to attack is also highly dependent upon the object that has been animated.

Abandoned Armory - Not just one item but a pile of armor and weapons animated as a single construct. The abandoned armory moves and attacks in a wave, like water, battering targets in a wave of weapons and mail. Typically an Abandoned Armory is found on a battlefield.
Amalgamation - Similar to an Abandoned Armory except the pile is chairs or tools or clothes and other mundane item animated into a single construct.
Animated Object, Colossal - An object the size of a ship.
Animated Object, Gargantuan - An object the size of a catapult.
Animated Object, Huge - An object the size of a wagon or rowboat.
Animated Object, Large - An object the size of a large table.
Animated Object, Medium - An object the size of a barrel.
Animated Object, Small - An object the size of a chair.
Animated Object, Tiny - An object the size of a plate, book, coin, or silverware.
Guardian Doll - A doll turned into a Construct, generally for use as a spy.
Tattoo Guardian - Animated tattoo, not sure what to do with this but I like the idea of moving tattoo.

Earth Constructs

Earth constructs can be sculpted by or founded by the wizard and as such come in a near infinite variety of forms. What marks them is they disintegrate when they take damage.

Golem, Clay - Large or medium sized clay construct. It could be humanoid or beast in shape, doesn't matter as the damage will be the same bashing blows of clay. Clay absorbs most damage particularly well as piercing and slicing weapons cut it but don't really damage it unless they slice a chunk off or something. A clay golem can become 100% invisible if it lies down in a bed of clay or river bottom.
Golem, Sand - Large or medium sized sand construct. It could be humanoid or beast in shape, doesn't matter as the damage will be the same bashing blows of sand. Cutting and stabbing weapons slice through the sand without causing damage while crushing weapons send the sand flying, reducing the golem in the process. A sand golem can become 100% invisible if it lies down in normal sand.
Homunculus - Tiny humanoid figure created from ash and blood and then animated to serve the creator. Usually the spirit of a dead minion is used to ensure loyalty.
Terra-cotta Warrior - Statues made of dried clay. The Warrior may be armed with normal weapons. Such golems are easily broken and shattered and are primarily used as skirmishers, to keep watch, or for cermonial reasons.
Terra-cotta Animal - An animal statue that is otherwise the same as a terra-cotta warrior.

Flesh Constructs

Flesh constructs are too similar to undead and will be categorized along with them.

Holy Constructs

The other constructs are divided by their material, Holy Constructs can be made of different materials but are given their own heading because of their nature. Holy Constructs use volunteer spirits to fight on behalf of Law they cannot be Banished.

Angelic Guardian - A bronze, animated statue of an angel. The wings aren't enough to lift the heavy body but they are sharp and can serve as weapons.
Argent Warden - Animated armor and weapon covered in Holy Writings and animated.
Charnel God - A statue to a powerful servant of a Deity that has been possessed by that servant after death. Such statues often sit in temples for centuries with no sign of their status.
Cryptguard - A statue with a particularly anti-undead bent often placed in crypts to keep the dead down and living out.

Fantasy Heartbreaker - Beasts

If you make a rule-set you need monsters to make it feel complete. At least that's how I feel. Folks can choose to play in a monster free world, but they should at least have the option and telling them to use other game bestiaries is kind of lame.

I love bestiaries. I don't think I'm alone in that. I buy bestiaries I know I'll never use because I love flipping through them. I think I primarily love the art. Monster Manual had a ton of useful monsters so you pretty much needed it but I never liked most of the art. I appreciate how many beasts were illustrated, but the line weights were too light for my tastes and the cover was a confused mess. The AD&D Fiend Folio gets a lot of grief but the Russ Nicholson art was perfect, it was evocative, it had me using monsters that were otherwise a bit bland or gamey.

Then there is RuneQuest. The game I went to after AD&D. In RuneQuest 2 they only had a small selection of beasts and a lot of them weren't really illustrated. RuneQuest 3 barely tried in their Bestiary. They had the line weight problem and dumped multiple beasts into a single image which was made the book design cleaner but ensured every creature was tiny. The British version had a nice Bestiary but I didn't see that for decades, long after Chaosium and Games Workshop split up.

Beyond nice illustrations I've recently fallen for useful tables that help the GM use the beasts. I fell in love with a post by Tom Fitzgerald at Middenmurk called Bestiary of the Fabled Occident and can't wait until the book is available. Just take a look at one of the samples, nice image of the creature, lots of useful tables. It's just perfect. My only problem is the Header fonts are hard to read but that's a small thing.

I bought Peterson's Field Guide to Lovecraftian Horrors based on the images alone but the useful little bits and comparisons made the book fun. I've never played Call of Cthulhu but I certainly wanted to use a few of those monsters. Beautiful image, size comparisons, and details on the beast. It's a beauty.

The beautiful images and page color of the 5E monster manual apes this style. They have a nice division between mechanics (boxed off) and background that I like, but they don't really have the nice extra tables and info that elevate the info a bit beyond an encyclopedia entry that I'm talking about.

It also annoys me how most bestiaries are sort of cobbled together. I'm talking about older D&D (not sure about 5E) and Pathfinder 1 that seem to put the must have monsters in the first volume, then things get progressively worse as each additional bestiary comes out and they claw around for enough content with a few really solid monsters to ensure sales. I mean AD&D already provided the vast bulk of these monsters, look them over and come up with some organization. Maybe by CR so the books are very useful (yeah that'll cost some of the high end sales but I think they'd find most gamers are completes and would buy the books anyway); maybe by genre (Sword & Sorcery monsters vs Vanilla Fantasy Tolkien vs Earth Mythology).

So I came across Skerples Monster Overhaul. He included some of those useful tables. One article led to another and then another then to one called OSR: The Monster Overhaul - Planning
and another called OSR: Sharpening the Axe - How I Plan and Write RPG Books

and I realized I really needed to plan out my Bestiary. I need to merge similar beasts together to reduce the vast numbers and categorize the beasts. Categorizing is important as I believe undead should have a certain feel and it is easier to create that feel when they are all written as a group. Same with Constructs or Chaos or whatever. Then when I'm putting my bestiary together I can chop categories to get the right length and theme to a volume instead of chopping out individual beasts. I think the whole will be better that way. I might even put together an appendix or two of oddball stuff such as Pathfinders Clockwork Golems and Robots which don't really fit in most settings but might make for a really unique setting and/or Barrier Peaks style adventure.

So that's the idea anyway. Go over the Pathfinder beasts as the list there is so super-large and online in a useful way, and decide what I like and don't and group things together.

Bestiary - Thoughts on Beastiaries

Another thing that has always bugged me about various RPG beastiaries is that they are all do-it-yourself. Here are the dice to role to determine this and that. RuneQuest 2 at least provided the average number so that you could quickly create an average creature but nobody else has followed suit.

A beastiary should have stat-blocks ready to go. Not just for the average but for big and small versions. If done correctly a GM could just transcribe or copy/paste the info and populate an adventure quickly, or just use the book on the fly.

As I've been thinking about the beastiary(s) I'd create it occured to me that i've grouped beasts together in two situations. (1) When the beasts were behaviorally the same even if they were drastically different. An example would be Canines. A Chihauha and a German Shepard behave basically the same except one can back up the threat more than the other so they'd need different statblocks. (2) When the beasts are basically the same but behave differently. My example here would be Elves. From a Statblock point of view the Wood Elf and Dark Elf are basically the same, but culturally (the part required when putting an adventure or campaign together) they are night and day. Still their weapon, armor, & spell choices would be different so a partial stat-block of that info for each type is probably warranted. Same with humans, Desert Nomads have a different culture from Civilized or Feudal humans, they'll have different weapons and armor and all that, but both will have the same 3d6 for every attribute when it comes to their stats.

Anyway that's been on my mind so I thought I'd write it out specifically before I go on.

Best of the Web - Adding History

Gundobad Games has a nice series of posts on making a campign world with a bit of history in four parts (with a followup). The basic idea is to use locations to better cement in a world's history which helps bring out the history and give the locations depth.

Some thoughts on Charisma

Everybody treats CHA as a dump stat and I doubt anything I'll say here will change that but hopefully I'll provide a few nuggets worth considering. In my own fantasy heartbreaker I think CHA becomes a bit more important but its still gonna be a dump stat to some extent.

Back in the day CHA was good for determining how many hirelings a character could have and their morale, but few people delve constantly into dungeons these days and even fewer do so with small armies of hirings. Now, folks are running around the countryside or in urban settings playing politics and these are exactly the sort of places where CHA can shine.

CHA is not appearance
I'd like to get this out of the way straight on. CHA is not comeliness. We don't need a stat for appearance. Let every character be as beautiful or ugly as the player wants.

CHA as Social Network
NPCs are the lifeblood of any campaign. They are the interface the characters use to engage with the world and the GM has to create a metric shit ton of NPCs over the course of a campaign. Instead the GM should assign players the task of generating an NPC for each point of CHAr. If they have a 5 CHA they create 5 NPC, if they have an 18 CHA they create 18 NPC. These NPC don't need stats, just a name, maybe a basic personality, and how they know the character (family, same town, co-workers, etc).

The catch is that the players don't determine if the NPCs like their character or hate them. That's the GMs job (and that should be kept secret) and the lower the CHA the higher percentage of the NPC will dislike the character. Round down.

Table 1: NPC Table

CHA	Like/Dislike
03-05	1/2 hate, 1/2 dislike
06-10	1/2 dislike, 1/2 neutral
11-14	1/4 dislike, 1/2 neutral, 1/4 like
15-18	1/2 neutral, 1/2 actively like
21+	Every likes

Hate - NPCs that hate will make a hobby out of planning the characters demise, spreading gossip, and generally being a shit.
Dislike - NPCs that dislike are mostly indifferent but will grab a pitch-fork and join the mob going after the character if the opportunity came up.
Neutral - NPCs that are neutral will probably remember the character if they are brought up in conversation.
Like - NPCs that like the character are folks that will volunteer to help and will never have to check morale if accompanying the character.

The GM can then use this network of player created NPCs to have a friendlier helpful vibe for those with higher CHA and to have folks actively spitting on the shoes of those with low CHA.

CHA as Social Class
Nobles have high Charisma. They might be total fools but growing up giving orders to servants and such fills one with the confidence that is the core of Charisma. So instead of rolling social class separately (as in some games) we can simply state that anyone with a high CHA (say 15+) is of the noble class. Perhaps their father is a knight and they have no claims themselves, or they are a bastard, whatever. Medium CHA (10-14) are most likely townsmen. The upper end probably come from wealthy merchant families, the lower end are at least independent craftsmen that aren't constantly trampled by the system. Anyone below 10 CHA comes from poor or serf/slave background. They must kow-tow to survive on a daily basis and it is rare for a leader to appear among this lot.

If you break down the numbers you'll find this way out of whack compared to actual medieval social class percentages but it'll work in a game in which nearly everybody dumps their worst numbers into CHA.

CHA and Fame
CHA can also be used as a bellwether for fame. Unless one keep moving around the tales of ones accomplishments will spread and folks will start to recognize the character based on their appearance. A GM might consider making a CHA check (including level) each time a band of adventurers enters a new town. If the check succeeds someone in the town recognizes them. When that happens before long everyone will recognize them.

At this point the GM must determine the reaction. It is one thing to be recognized for a career of saving villages and stopping trouble, and another altogether for being known as the folks that nearly killed the king but slipped away before being caught.

Also any magical items should be added to the CHA score for this roll. Typically just a 1 or 2 is sufficient, you don't want to tally up and judge every magical item. Only the flashy ones need be counted.

Fantasy Hearbreaker - Rethinking Initiative & Armor

I began role playing using 1d6 per side for Initiative. I liked the way this worked and adopted it to Harnmaster and RuneQuest and OpenQuest in turn. Then I read Black Hack and loved the way that system handled Initiative. It was an INT test. If you passed you went before the enemy, if you failed you went after. This worked nicely with my Damage per attribute idea, if you take a concussion your initiative roll will suffer.

But what about two attacks a round? Black Hack doesn't have that and I wanted it. That will be one of the advantages of increasing your INT high enough, you think faster and can gain that second attack. I finally decided if you have two attacks you don't roll initiative, you attack before the enemy and again after the enemy.

Wizards are all going to have high INT, I didn't want them firing off two spells a round though. I had the choice of making spells different or having each spell take two attacks to cast, thus ensuring they'd go off at the end of the round. Slow thinking Wizards might take two rounds to cast a spell, sucks to be them. I liked the way the Initiative system played out.

And enemies? What if they attacked two times? They got to attack twice on their turn. Back to back attacks is brutal, but it was better than stretching the round out further.

OpenQuest uses Armor Points. That is you swing to hit. If you hit you hit the armor and may or may not actually cause injury. You have to roll damage and subtract that armor value to determine how much damage goes through to the fleshy bits and how much bounces off harmlessly. These feels more realistic but has the negative in that it steals the victory in away I don't particularly like. I Hit! no you didn't, it just impacted on the surface, it didn't go in. From glory to fail in seconds.

D&D uses AC. Armor Class is binary, either you damaged the fleshy bits beneath the armor or you did not. The system doesn't care about hits hit the armor and bounce off. A swing and a miss just means banging the weapon harmlessly against the armor, not that the you actually whiffed. This means you miss more often but when you do you are doing damage. It's more satisfying.

Black Hack uses some nonsense with the usage die that I knew right away I wasn't going to use. Also Black Hack does this thing where the bad guys are assumed to hit and the players have to dodge, which has the players making all the rolls (yeah) and the stolen thunder is all the enemies problem (yeah). This removes the chance the GM can cheat the attack rolls which is also nice, but it treats the creatures and the players mechanically different and I didn't like that.

So I discarded the idea. I like the simple Black Hack initiative but otherwise combat will be like D&D. You attack and the enemies defenses are all stylized to speed things up. No stolen glory. If you hit you hit, if you whiff you whiff. That and fumble rolls because I love fumble rolls.

Enemies on the other hand don't roll. The player rolls to dodge with the enemies level added to the roll. If they succeed the attack missed. If they fail the enemy rolls damage and the damage still has to overwhelm the players armor points giving the players one last desperate chance to avoid or at least minimize incoming damage.

I like treating players and NPCs the same but I think this dynamic makes it more exciting. Will have to play test to be sure of course.

Fantasy Heartbreaker - Thoughts on Statblocks

As mentioned in the last post, I like the way things work from the players getting damaged point of view, and on being able to describe damage to the enemy. But a game is more than that. A game is the prep that goes into it before everyone is sitting around the table.

Okay, some creatures might not have all the same attributes. A golem may not have INT for example. An ooze may not have anything but CON. I'll probably figure it out on a case by case basis but it could be that if you do CHA damage to a grey ooze you simply don't damage it, or it could be that damage against an attribute the beast doesn't have equals CON damage. This will require more thinking but I'm leaning towards the former.

Along similar lines I can see a rule in which different armors protect against different types of damage although that would be a lot of bookkeeping to track so it would have to be an OPTIONAL rule.

So our statblock will look like the following:

DEX; STR; CON; CHA; INT; WIS; AC; Weapon Damage
Defence; Damage Adj; ENC; Mod; #Attacks;

I like the minimalism of that. It's not as clean as the minimalist style of early AD&D and OSR stablocks which don't include the attribute info but it is far better than the 4E statblocks I've seen. I'll have to consider some formula, average attribute values with HP/Level added to spike CON and DEX or something like that.

Fantasy Heartbreaker - Rethinking Skills and Hit Points

When I read the Black Hack it was eye opening. I liked most of what I read but one thing didn't really sit right, that was the idea that all 'skill tests' were pick an approprate attribute and roll under. Then as part of experience your attributes go up so all DEX related skills go up at the same time. You don't have wilderness skills and urban skills, if you have high INT you figure it out.

Everything in an RPG are abstracted a bit but for some reason I had a hangup on this. I refused to give up skills. I'd inherited a love for skills from my days playing RuneQuest. I liked the limited set of skills in OpenQuest so I was moving in the right direction but I still wasn't really ready to give up on the idea. Why not take the next step and abstract skills one step further, down to the basic attributes. I had already decided to use OpenQuests single Close Combat skill to apply to all weapons. That is somewhat of a step in the same direction, but getting better at picking someones pocket should not make you better at shooting a bow, they just seemed too different. Just because they were both DEX skills didn't mean they were the same.

But I thought about it a bit, and let the idea ferment a bit.

I'd taken the Crypts & Things way of using CON as blood & bone damage while HP were the dodging and fatigue.

If you reduce CON potentially different skills should drop as well. That was a nightmare of paperwork because the skills weren't directly related, but if you used the CON test directly those drops would be represented in every skill test with minimal fuss. As CON went down ENC went down. I liked that.

Then I took the next step. What if we dumped Hit Points had had DEX reduced instead. Then my brain went wild and I thought, what if you had different types of damage that matched the attributes. INT = Concussion, STR = Muscle tears & Twists, CHA = Flesh wounds. You could model all sorts of wound types beyond the simple live/die binary of HP. To make this work I wanted to give each Attribute some value that can be degraded.

, I decided unlike Black Hack I'd use DEX for Melee combat. Also I decided DEX was fleshwounds. The old joke of action movies, it's just a fleshwound written into the rules. After a few fleshwounds one will start to look like Rocky at the end of a fight. Because DEX is used for Melee and Missile combat Fleshwounds reduce your ability to fight, so they are serious, just not life threatening.

CON is blood and guts. I linked CON to ENC as a bodybuilder can lift a ton but may not have the stamina to carry it around a long time. It felt different, and this was as your CON drops your ENC load drops as well. Take a wound and you're gonna have to dump your backpack if you can't find healing. I liked that. The other types of damage leave you unconscious if they drop to zero, but CON leaves you dead. There is no other effect, but because it's life and death you don't want CON damage.

STR is fractures and pulled muscles. Things that won't kill you, but as your STR goes down so does your damage adjustment which plays out nice. You can still hit as well as before but you simply can't hit as hard as before, and take enough STR damage to and suddenly your damage adjustment goes into negatives.

INT is an underused attribute, almost a dump stat, and I wanted it to have some usefulness, so I decided it was quick thinking. Instead of having Number of Attacks and Initiative based on DEX (which made DEX way too important) they were linked to quick decision making. If someone rings your bell and you get a concussion suddenly your losing initiative and attacking only once. A instantly noticeable effect. I liked that.

CHA took a while for me to figure out but I finally decided fire damage. It doesn't heal naturally. It's also horrible to behold. There is no way to model pain but that's just as well.

WIS doesn't really work so I made WIS damage be more spirit/soul damage. You take WIS damage from some magic, and from undead and that sort of thing.

What did I want to do when folks hit 0 DEX, or 0 INT damage? I didn't want instant death or save for death. In some versions of D&D and a lot of house rules you can survive into negative hit points? I decided for some (CON and CHA specifically) reaching 0 is death. For others 0 means you start to take CON damage until the wound is fixed. This seems to work out nicely, we'll see how it works in tests.

So you can raise attributes as part of going up a level, now there is one more factor to consider. You don't want a super-low CHA because then a burn to CHA might knock you out, but you do want a high INT because winning initiative and multiple attacks are very nice perks.

So then I went down the weapons list. Black Hack has damage by level or class or something I didn't really like. I prefer different weapons to have different damage and tactical options. I could have had a different table for each but that would have been too much so I decided some weapons were pointed and some were edged and some were blundgeon and created a short table for each type indicating if they did STR, CON, INT, or CHA damage. Pointed weapons didn't really do INT or STR damage for example. An arrow isn't gonna ring your bell, it's gonna hit a vital (CON damage) or the meat (CHA damage). A mace on the other hand is more likely to do STR and CHA damage than CON damage.

Lastly I wanted to give the Fighter a perk, since everyone with a high DEX will hit the same and everyone with a high STR will do the same damage. So I decided that as part of their training they can choose which type of damage they take from incoming damage (of the possibilities available to that weapon). Incoming Mace blow, they can take STR damage instead of risking the roll that might result in INT damage for example. Sacrificing your arm to protect your head so to speak. Taking a fleshwound in the side instead of blow into the guts from the incoming spear, that sort of thing. This will allow a fighter to stay in the fight and take more hits with the exact same stats as the other classes.

I really liked the way this was panning out. The whole fight becomes far more visceral than simply hit points. Folks start able to take more hits but a really good blow can put them in danger quicker. This will take some play testing to see if it works as well as I imagine.

Historical Events - Building Level

Building events are events that occurred within the last 1d6 days. It is what the building occupants are gabbing about. The GM shouldn't bother pre-rolling them, just roll when the characters enter the building in question.

Mundane Buildings

Table 1: Generic Building Events

1d6	Event
01	Criminal Activity
02	Famous Visitor
03	Fire
04	Infestation
05	Sickness
06	Tax Collector

Table 2: Merchant Guildhall

1d6	Event
01	Increased Taxes
02	Infighting
03	Prosperity
04	Renovations
05	Rival Guild problems
06	Unfair Practices

Table 3: Mundane House Events

1d6	Event
01	Buried treasure/relic
02	Fight with neighbor
03	Fire
04	Foundation Shifting
05	Haunting
06	Vandalism

Table 4: Inn Events

1d6	Event
01	Famous Visitor
02	Fighting
03	Food/Drink shortage
04	Strange Guest
05	Suddenly Popular
06	Thefts

Table 5: Player's Guild Events

1d6

Event

Fire

Empty performances

Fire

Packed performances

Prima Donna

Visiting Troupe

Table 6: Shop Events

1d6	Event
01	Busy Day
02	Embezzler
03	Protection Racket
04	Robbery/Burglary
05	Slow Day
06	Shoplifter

Table 7: Smithy Events

1d6	Event
01	Deadly Accident
02	Exotic Metal
03	Forced Commission
04	Supply Problem
05	Special request
06	Valuable Ore

Table 8: Stable Events

1d6	Event
01	Crazed horse
02	Emergency request
03	Famous Visitor
04	Horse Thieves
05	Predators
06	Stable Fire

Table 9: Tavern Events

1d6	Event
01	Brawl
02	Contest
03	Notorious Visitor
04	Protection Racket
05	Rousing Performance
06	Taproom trouble

Table 10: Thieves Guild Events

1d6	Event
01	Big Heist
02	Crackdown
03	Crime Spree
04	Entrapment
05	Mutiny
06	Rivalry

Religious Building Events

Table 11: Lawful Temple Events

1d6	Event
01	Ceremony Request
02	Healing Request
03	Important Visitor
04	Minor Miracle
05	Sacred Ritual
06	Scandal

Table 12: Militaristic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Competition
02	Duel
03	Famous Alumnus
04	Scandal
05	Spoiled Student
06	Unexpected Guest

Table 13: Monastic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Holy Day
02	Inquisitor
03	Productive Day
04	Scandal
05	Travelling Priest
06	Visiting Relic

Table 14: Scholastic Order Events

1d6	Event
01	Bookworm Infestation
02	Famous Scholar
03	Fire
04	Strange Visitor
05	Rotten/Burned Books
06	Stolen Books

Magical Building Events

Table 15: Alchemist Events

1d6

Event

Accidental Poisoning

Affliction

Astrological Problems

Discovery

Explosion

Poisoning

Table 16: Caster Tower Events

1d6

Event

Arcane Breakthrough

Catastrophic Mishap

Concerned Citizens

Dangerous Surge

Desperate Visitor

Mysterious Item

Table 17: Magical Academy Events

1d6	Event
01	Bitter Student
02	Experiment Awry
03	Explosion
04	Hazing Incident
05	Magical Backfire
06	Unexpected Grant

Government Events

Table 18: Castle Events

1d6	Event
01	Grand Feast
02	Inadequate Defenses
03	New Servant
04	Offensive Jester
05	Training Drill
06	Uprising/Mutiny

Table 19: Mercenary Company Events

1d6	Event
01	Brawl
02	Duel
03	Mutiny
04	Rivalry
05	Scandal
06	Schism

Festival Events

Table 20: Secular Festival Events

1d6	Event
01	Competition
02	Dancing
03	Skilled Musicians
04	Stage Collapse
05	Sweaty Pox
06	Wild night

Table 21: Religious Festival Events

1d6	Event
01	Apostate punished
02	Blasphemy committed
03	Image problem
04	Portent
05	Popular Ritual
06	Schism