Sunday, December 22, 2019

Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 7

Meanwhile, back at Bebbanburg Keep . . .

Waiting at the edge of the small village outside the keep’s walls was a weather worn old farmer who was nervously ringing the brim of his cap. He was the father of the peasant girl the party had hired to carry their lanterns. The girl was in shock after the monsters and violence she’d witnessed. A basilisk, a black pudding, a 15’ tall skeleton that brutally killed several people right in front of her. The kid was messed up. The party claimed not to be concerned but paid her a handsome tip anyway and told her they would be in touch.

[DM Note: The players were extremely unconcerned a few sessions back when Marvolo the magic-user and Kit the linkboy failed their morale checks and ran off. That is probably my fault. I basically said, “Here, you’re level 2 now, you can hire someone and this NPC wants to tag along.” There wasn’t a lot of RPing to build bonds or anything.

My fault or not, it doesn’t mean there aren't any consequences. If Kit had not been recovered I was going to ham it up with the old farmer and lay on a real guilt trip for leaving his only surviving child in the dungeon.

The Witch of Bebbanburg is PISSED that one of her apprentices was killed while moonlighting with the PCs. I’m going to have fun with that soon.]

Approaching the gatehouse the party ran into Sister Amelia and her two mute and unblinking acolytes. They were leaving the keep for a time. One of the acolytes lead a donkey laden with provisions. Amelia had shown a bit too much interest in the party’s comings and goings since news of the lost Serpent-folk dungeon became public. Rumors that the party had found a crown that drove men mad were floating through the keep (they had) and Amelia was extra curious about it. She then said several things that made the party feel perhaps she was the unknown witness who knew that they had accidentally burned down the Slumbering Giant.

[DM Note: Amelia is basically the evil cleric out of Keep on The Borderlands. I’ve been dropping a few rumors about strange goings on in one of the Baron’s outlying villages (Orlane) and if the party investigates that it’s Against The Cult of The Reptile God time, and I will slot Amelia in as the evil cleric in that situation too. Orlane is actually where she and her acolytes are headed right now.]

On the heels of Sister Amelia the party ran into the Bailiff who was supervising the clean up of the Slumbering Giant site. He was just as concerned as the cleric about finding out who was responsible for burning down the only inn in Bebbanburg, but in a manner that did not strike everybody as extremely suspicious. They then spoke a bit with the owners of the inn who lamented that lacking the funds to rebuild they would have to leave the keep and become sharecroppers. 

Claiming it was for the greater good of the community the party made a 500sp donation to the family. The Bailiff was so impressed that he helped them rent an empty row house inside the keep (since they had been living at the inn they destroyed). Keeping what they thought was enough silver to live on for a month the party then sank all their remaining funds into carousing and making donations to the church. They love that XP from spending silver on dumb stuff.

This time nothing burned to the ground. In fact, now the entire keep knows who they are (perhaps the Baron will take note soon?). The party gave Haco a fitting send off into Valhalla and got matching, if embarrassing, tattoos to commemorate the event. 


Then everyone split up for a few weeks. Cletus disappeared into the temple archives and deciphered what she could from scrolls she had recovered -mostly the writings of insane mummies but the name “Baltoplat” appeared more than once and something about a summoning. While there, Cletus spoke again with Curate Halden who was worried by troubling reports of lizardfolk from several of the villages to the south of the keep. He also let slip that he did not like the nosy Sister Amelia very much.

JD the magic user took the party’s unidentified magic ring to the witch to have it identified. The rest set about making the row house livable. 

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Knave: A Modern Basic Dungeons & Dragons?

I recently had the opportunity to run a one-shot using Ben Milton’s KNAVE. During the course of the game I repeatedly found myself thinking; “This is what Basic D&D would be if it were written today with 40+ years of game design to draw upon.”

I don’t feel like that’s a particularly controversial statement. I’m sure some folks will disagree. Knave takes the mechanical assumptions of D&D and streamlines them in such a way that makes the mechanics receded into the background but the whole experience still “feel” like Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve tried this with other systems in the past and they have always come up short.

TSR’s Basic Dungeons & Dragons detailed the essential concepts of the D&D game, trying to frame it for an audience that did not have a background in Napolionic wargaming. However, at the time Basic was created D&D was still a game that was in flux. Still defining exactly what it was.

What does Knave do here in the 21st Century that makes it more accessible to new RPG players that B/X or a retro-clone does not? Quite simple it addresses all the oddities of D&D that someone new to the hobby would rightfully question and find unintuitive. 

Ability Scores. “Abilities are king” in Knave. Roll 3d6 down the line. Rather than adding them together, take the lowest die result and this is your Ability Bonus. For example, you roll 2, 2, and 6 for Strength. Your strength bonus is +2. Add 10 to this and your Strength Ability is 12 (called your Strength Defense in Knave, but truely the same thing).Swap out the values of one set of Abilities if desired. Every time a character levels up they can increase three Ability Bonuses (and thus Defense) by +1. Easy!

Your Ability Score does what it says on the tin. Bumping three of them each level adequately mirrors character progression in other OSR D&D games. 

Saving Throws. All saves are against a target difficulty of 15. Roll a d20, add the relevant Ability Bonus and beat 15. The many versions of D&D and their OSR offspring have a host of strange saving throw mechanics. All are understandable given enough time to adapt to them but none of them simply relate directly back to the Ability Scores of a character. Some versions of them are downright unintuitive. There’s an unnecessary learning curve.

Slot based inventory. Your Constitution Ability (Defense) is how many inventory slots you have. Knave is a classless system and what you carry largely defines what sort of Knave you are. Modern D&D doesn’t care about inventory or encumbrance. You can carry ludacris amounts of gear with no penalty. But what you carry and how much is a central tenet of old school dungeon crawling D&D. It’s also usually more work than players are interested in doing. The Bag of Holding wasn’t invented in a void. It was spawned by countless whining players. 

In a very video game way, Knave’s slot based Inventory turns tracking your gear into a fun game within the game. Do you load up on spell books or armor and weapons? How you fill your backpack determines who you are to a large degree, and you can change it up adventure to adventure.

And that’s it in a nutshell. Roll high on a d20, Armor Class (Defense in Knave), Hit Points, and delving dark dungeons. It sounds like D&D to me, but a version that only takes minutes to learn.

As a parting thought, what I also like about Knave is how easy it has been to tack my own house rules onto it. As someone who likes a little more fidelity in my games it was very easy to just adjust the dials to get exactly the play experience that I wanted out of Knave. I tried a similar thing with 5e a while back and the smallest hacks ended up sending ripples through the rest of the game that I was unprepared for.

Check out Ben Milton’s Knave here. And his excellent blog. And consider supporting his Patreon

Monday, December 16, 2019

Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 6

When last we met our heroes . . .

Those dummies were trying to stuff a Black Pudding back in it’s crypt after they woke it up by poking at it with a ten foot pole. It was going exactly as well as you would imagine. 

DM Note: As I feared when we freeze-framed the game at this moment six weeks ago, by the time we were finally able to get together again one of the players had to bow out at the last minute for some perfectly valid reasons. So now Ramen, whose player was absent, was demoted to “glowing magic sword holder” for the session. Every party needs a torch bearer I guess. 

All attempts at spiking the door shut or jamming it closed with the previously mentioned ten foot pole were not working out. The heavy stone door shook in its frame as the massive pudding threw itself against the thing standing between it and its first meal in 4,000 years. 

DM Note: In fairness (?) my players don’t know what a Black Pudding is and have no context for how easily it could destroy a party of 2nd level adventurers. But they would definitely understand that once the session was over.

Wisely they decided to choose the better part of valor and book it out of there. The only question was in which direction should they run. To the west there was the hammer trap, as Marvolo reminded them when he fled at first sight of the Black Pudding, but not knowing about the trap got himself good and pasted by it. 

DM Note: Probably he could have worked out how to avoid it, but I wanted to remind the players that it was there incase it sparked any clever ideas about how they might deal with the 12HD pudding. I thought shaking the entire dungeon when it went off was a huge hint. But I’m just a dumb DM, what do I know? In truth, two hours later they WOULD come up with a plan to hit the pudding with it. Thought they were very worried that this would lead to them being attacks by dozen of tiny puddings.

To the south was the secret passage leading back to the Basilisk Hall (where the party knew they still had a bit of exploring to do but also a scary monster to deal with), and to the east was the trapped staircase that lead who-knew-where and there were sounds of a commotion coming from down there. So basically it was danger, danger, or danger.

The party opted for the danger they didn’t know and ran for the stairs. 

DM Note: Without their Specialist to search for traps I decided to wing it. I’ve become a little dissatisfied with the X-in-6 Skills of LoTFP and similar OSR games. They are definitely a HUGE improvement over the original thief abilities and badly defined skills of B/X, but I’m finding that I really dislike single d6 rolls for anything. In fact, one would lead to another fatality later on. So with Ramen acting only in her capacity as a light source I asked the player with the highest Wisdom to make an Ability check. In this case it was Sister Cletus and she spotted the false step that triggered the slide trap.

As the party moved down the stairs the indistinct sounds of a moment ago quickly resolved themselves into the clash of blades and the shouts of combat. They couldn’t see very far into the chamber ahead from the stairs, but they could see their linkboy, Kit, huddling behind an armored fellow in a white tabard. Kit let out a shriek as the man bellowed a prayer and somehow managed to deflect a rusty blade almost as long as he was tall. The parried blade threw sparks off the stone around the staircase and after a brief pause the PCs surged forward to see WTF was going on.

An area very similar to the Tomb Atrium they had just left was before them. Instead of a reeking pool of filth at its center the Stone Cobra Guardian Arena (19) had a massive stone skeleton warrior. Lining the walls were a dozen shields that gave the room the feeling of a trophy hall. And battling this stone skeleton was another adventuring party!

DM Note: I swapped out the stone snake-person statue for a giant skeleton. Because I just happen to own a giant skeleton and when else would I ever get a chance to use it?

As the PCs watched a wizard in blue robes and an old fashioned hat spoke in a black tongue that made everyone’s vision dim for a moment. Bolts of eldritch fire crashed into the giant skeleton’s ribs and blew off fist-sized chunks. The skeleton replied by smashing the wizard into jelly with its massive club. A human fighter and a dwarf berzerker hacked at its legs before it delivered a sweeping attack with the club that threw them both back. A nimble rogue avoided the attack and threw a dagger that stuck in the giant’s eye socket.

Enraged, it dropped the man-sized blade it carried in it’s off-hand and magically summoned a shield off the wall. As it flew across the room at great speed it decapitated the rogue. The giant turned to face the dwarf and human fighter.

DM Note: I really wanted to telegraph what this monster could do and how easily it could wreck an adventuring party. Eefje’s player wisely suggested simply running past it and out the doorway on the far side of the room. Unfortunately no one commented on this plan and it was not followed through on. Haco’s player pondered tripping the giant somehow with all the rope they carried and then either subduing it or killing it while it was down. I thought these were both excellent plans but said nothing. 

Stunned, but deciding to lend what aid they could the party devised a plan to shelter in the arch of the staircase and use their crossbows to attack from range. If the giant turned on them they would retreat back up the stairs (hoping that the Black Pudding was not slithering down after them). Maul, Haco, and Eefje stepped into the room to either side of the stairs, acknowledged Kit and the cleric who was warding her, and took aim. 

Or at least that was the plan. Inspired by who-knew-what Eefje drew his mace and charged the giant stone skeleton. Always looking for a good way to die (like all right thinking dwarves) Maul dropped his crossbow and unslung his battle axe. As the dwarf charged after Eefje, Sister Cletus cast Bless on him. Rolling his eyes Haco followed suit and abandoned his crossbow for his sword.

With surprise on their side the three warriors delivered a massive amount of damage -almost enough to take the stone giant out! 

DM Note: Eefje rolled a Nat 20 and Maul’s player asked if it would be reasonable to use his Architecture skill and dwarven knowledge of stone to figure out a weak spot on the monster. I said no, but that I admired her creativity, so yes anyway, gave them advantage on their first attack. He rolled badly anyway, but Cletus’ Bless prayer helped enough for him to land a solid blow on the giant skeleton.




Initiative roll. The PCs win! Then they all miss their next attacks. :( Skeleton time. IT lashed out with it’s AOE sweeping blow.

DM Note: As I had telegraphed earlier, I gave the giant stone skeleton a sweeping attack that forced all adjacent enemies to save vs Breath Weapon or suffer 2d8 damage. Save for half. I definitely don’t like the old unintuitive Saves. Even the slightly modernized version that LoTFP uses are still kind of goofy. I thought they were fun at first, but now they are just starting to annoy me. I mean, sure, you can make sense out of them. But its extremely antiquated and there are better ways to do it. Like a simple DEX check -roll under your Ability to dodge. Way easier/intuitive and suddenly your Ability scores actually mean something.

Maul avoided the wild swing of the giant skeleton’s club, but his two human companions were not so lucky. Haco effectively exploded from the force of the blow and Eefje was hurled across the room.

DM Note: This was the point at which everyone suddenly remembered that in game time they had fought a basilisk just twenty minutes earlier and tussled with a black pudding only moments ago. Those big gaps between sessions are a killer! I did my due diligence reminding everyone of what had happened last time. I can’t be expected to remember who lost hit points though.

Haco went to -12 HP. Very dead. Eefje dropped to -1 HP.

There was some debate about whether or not he had used the Shields Shall Be Broken! Option last session or not. None of us could remember. Haco’s player suggested rolling a single d6 to decide if he had already shattered his shield or not. That dang die decided he was dead as heck.

Seeing her friends dashed to the ground Sister Cletus charged forward with her mace and together with Maul and the survivors of the other adventuring party took down the giant stone skeleton.

The party agreed to tell everyone back at the keep that it was Haco who delivered the killing blow and that he was the real hero of this fight. Also, probably, if anyone asked, that iT was Haco who burned down the inn the last time they were in town. As Cletus and Eefje spoke with the NPC adventurers Maul hacked off the stone skull from the skeleton and decided to have it hollowed out so he could wear it as a helmet. I declared this would give him Advantage on all intimidation checks when he was wearing it.


Deciding that they had definitely had enough fun for one day, the party opted to return to the keep. But how to get out? Whether by the False Tomb or the secret passage under the tree, they would have to go back through the Tomb Atrium. A plan was needed to bypass the Black Pudding.

DM Note: Haco’s player took his second character death in stride and decided to play a magic user. The other players wanted to find him in the dungeon so that Haco's player would not be left out of the fun. So I declared that the NPC fighter unzipped his skinsuit to reveal the wizard who had apparently been pulped by the giant skeleton. Everyone was very pleased with this decision. Maaaaaagic!

Eventually the survivors of the brawl decided that oozes probably weren’t very fast, and if they veered south of the black licorice pool they could probably just dodge around the monster. The door to the Black Pudding’s crypt exploded into several pieces just as the survivors reached the top of the stairs and began running for the Statue Hall and the relative safety of the False Tomb above. 

DM Note: I had the group make a simple opposed roll adding the DEX bonus of the most nimble PC. Unfortunately their player was not there. So it defaulted to the terrible DEX bonus of the next best PC. The Black Pudding rolled much higher. I rolled randomly to see who it got.

The screams of Brother Felix, the non-denominational Unitarian Universalist cleric of Everybody Just Cool Out, quickly turned to a frothing gurgle as he was engulfed and digested by the Black Pudding. With a group scream the survivors pelted onward and upward.

Then came to a dead stop at the hammer trap. Marvolo had definitely set it off and some of him had come oozing through the gap in the doors to the False King’s Tomb. There was a big obvious level in the room for resetting the hammer trap but the party was concerned about setting it off on themselves as soon as they stepped through the doors. JD, the new wizard, checked to see if Marvolo had anything of value on him. He found a very wet belt pouch. 

The Black Pudding gushing up from the False Temple lit a fire under them. Wrapping a rope around the level controlling the hammer trap the group hustled out into the Entrance Hall. As the pudding hove into the doorway Eefje pulled on the rope. Nothing happened. Maul gave it a pull. Nothing Happened! The pulled together!!!

The hammer trap swung down into the Black Pudding with enough force to turn it into a fine mist of slop which hit the party like they had front row seats at a Gallagher show. 

Relieved and exhausted the party began the two day journey back to Bebbanburg Keep.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

GLAIVE: A Knave Hack & Collection of House Rules

The holidays have really been messing with my gaming. I thought I would take the time to organize my various house rules and combine them with Ben Milton’s (Questing Beast) incredible OSR game, Knave. These are rules for my home game only and where I have used or adapted rules from other games or creators I have linked to their work. To the best of my knowledge, the Non-Knave work is not covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

EDIT: I continue to update the source file here.

The text colors and table borders did not like translating to Blogger. Apologies for some of the wonky formatting.

KNAVE is a rules toolkit created by Ben Milton for running old school fantasy RPGs without classes. The GLAIVE hack brings in concepts from other compatible OSR RPGs and optional Talents. 


Adding, subtracting, and modifying rules is both expected and encouraged. Knave’s features include:


Abilities are king. All d20 rolls use the six standard abilities. The way that ability scores and bonuses work has also been cleaned up, rationalized, and made consistent with how other systems like armor work.


Optional player-facing rolls. Knave easily accommodates referees who want the players to do all the rolling. Switching between the traditional shared-rolling model and players-only rolling can be done effortlessly on the fly.


Optional Talents. Talents are a hybrid of class descriptors and the feats or perks found in many other games. The game is still classless, but Talents allow Players to define their Characters with more specificity than the contents of their pack.


Silver Standard. Glaive assumes that the common unit of currency is the silver penny. Replacing the word “gold” or “copper” with “silver” when using other OSR materials usually works just fine. Use the equipment list from your favorite OSR game. 


Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: You are free to share and adapt this material for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you give attribution.


Designer commentary. The rules include designer comments explaining why each rule was written the way it was, to aid in hacking the game.


CHARACTER CREATION
1 PCs have six abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Each ability has two related values: a defense and a bonus. When creating a PC, roll 3d6 for each of their abilities, in order. The lowest of the three dice on each roll is that ability’s bonus. Add 10 to find its defense.


After you’ve finished rolling, you may optionally swap the scores of two abilities.


Example: You roll a 2, 2, and 6 for Strength. The lowest die is a 2, so your PC’s Strength has a bonus of +2 and a defense of 12. Repeat this process for the rest of the abilities.


Designer’s Note: “Ability defense” is Milton’s term for what is normally called ability scores. Knave/Glaive refers to them this way to make it clearer how they work during opposed saves, explained later. 


The rolling mechanic will make most abilities start at 11/+1. The bonus and defense of three abilities will rise by 1 point each time the PC gains a level, up to a maximum of 20/+10 by level 10. This puts everything on an intuitive ten point scale, and is intended to mirror the way that attack bonuses, hit dice, and saving throws in most OSR games increase by about one point per level.


2 PCs start with 2 days of rations and one weapon of their player’s choice. Roll on the Starting Gear tables on the following page to determine starting armor and equipment.


Designer’s Note:  Rolling for starting equipment dramatically speeds up the character creation process, which is important if you’re playing a high-lethality game like Knave. If you want to permit shopping for equipment, however, have players roll 3d6x20 to find their starting copper pieces. Note that spell books are not normally available to new PCs, but you could always add “random spellbook” to the Dungeoneering Gear table, or simply allow new PCs to roll a random spell in exchange for not starting with any armor.


PCs have a number of item slots equal to their Constitution defense, and items they carry must fit into the available slots. Most items take up one slot, but some take up more. Some small items can be bundled together into a single slot. Ask the referee if you are unsure. Carrying more items than you have slots for results in all Ability rolls being made with disadvantage.


Designer’s Note: Item slots make tracking encumbrance very fast and easy, which is important since resource management is an important aspect of the game. They also represent character customization slots, since what a Knave is carrying goes a long way towards determining their playstyle and role in the party.


Armor comes with an armor defense value. Note that value on your character sheet with its corresponding Armor bonus (always 10 less than the defense). If the PC is not wearing any armor, their armor defense is 11 and their armor bonus is +1.


Designer’s Note: “Armor defense” is essentially the same concept as armor class in most OSR games. It’s been renamed to emphasize the connection between the way it and ability defenses work. The armor bonus exists in order to allow combat to be run entirely player-facing, as explained in the combat section.


3 Roll 1d8+ Constitution bonus to determine your PC’s starting hit points. A PC’s healing rate is 1d8+ Constitution bonus. 


Designer’s Note: All hit dice are assumed to be d8s in Knave, for PCs, NPCs, and monsters. This simplifies the game and keeps things compatible with the stats in most OSR books. Referees who don’t want starting PCs to be too frail might want to allow starting HP to be rerolled if it is below 5 or consider starting with 8+ Charisma bonus.


4 Invent or roll the rest of your PC’s traits, such as their physique, face, skin, hair, clothing, virtue, vice, speech, background, and alignment, using the random tables on the following page. Choose a gender and a name for your PC, but don’t get too attached. It’s a dangerous world out there.


Designer’s Note: Randomizing most of a PC’s traits speeds up character creation, but it also has the effect of creating surprising, unique characters that most players wouldn’t think to invent or play. (Unfortunately I can’t import that table into Google Docs.)


5 Select an Ancestry from the table at the end of this document.


6 New Knaves begin play with two free Talents chosen from the lists below.


PLAYING THE GAME
ABILITIES
Each of the six abilities are used in different circumstances.


Strength: Used for melee attacks and saves requiring physical power, like lifting gates, bending bars, etc.


Dexterity: Used for saves requiring poise, speed, and reflexes, like dodging, climbing, sneaking, balancing, etc.


Constitution: Used for saves to resist poison, sickness, cold, etc. The Constitution bonus is added to healing rolls. A PC’s number of item slots is always equal to their Constitution defense.


Intelligence: Used for saves requiring concentration and precision, such as wielding magic, resisting magical effects, recalling lore, crafting objects, tinkering with machinery, picking pockets, etc.


Wisdom: Used for ranged attacks and saves requiring perception and intuition, such as tracking, navigating, searching for secret doors, detecting illusions, etc.


Charisma: Used for saves to persuade, deceive, interrogate, intimidate, charm, provoke, etc. PCs may employ a number of henchmen equal to their Charisma bonus.


Designer’s Note:  In a system that relies so heavily on the six abilities, it’s important for each of them to play an important role, to discourage dump stats. Non-magical characters tend to dump the mental abilities, for example, so I increased their usefulness. 


ITEM SLOTS
PCs have a number of item slots equal to their Constitution defense. Most items, including spellbooks, potions, a day’s rations, light weapons, tools and so on take up 1 slot, but particularly heavy or bulky items like armor or medium to heavy weapons may take up more slots. Groups of small, identical items may be bundled into the same slot, at the referee’s discretion. 200 coins can fit in a slot. As a general guideline, a slot holds around 5 pounds of weight.


Designer’s Note: Using item slots makes encumbrance simple enough that players will be willing to track it. Slots are also the key to character customization, as a PC’s gear helps determine who they are. Raising Constitution, therefore, will probably be a priority for most characters.


SAVING THROWS
If a character attempts something where the outcome is uncertain and failure has consequences, they make a saving throw, or “save”. To make a save, add the bonus of the relevant ability to a d20 roll. If the total is greater than 15, the character succeeds. If not, they fail.


Designer’s Note: Requiring saves to exceed 15 means that new PCs have around a 25% chance of success, while level 10 characters have around a 75% chance of success, since ability bonuses can get up to +10 by level 10. This reflects the general pattern found in the save mechanics of early D&D.


If the save is opposed by another character, then instead of aiming to exceed 15, the side doing the rolling must get a total greater than the opposing character’s relevant defense score in order to succeed. If they fail, the opposing side succeeds. This type of save is called an opposed save. Note that it doesn’t matter which side does the rolling, since the odds of success remain the same. 


Example: A wizard casts a fireball spell at a goblin, who gets a saving throw to avoid. This is resolved as an opposed save using the wizard’s Intelligence versus the goblin’s Dexterity. The goblin may roll plus their Dexterity bonus, hoping to exceed the wizard’s Intelligence defense or the wizard may roll plus their Intelligence bonus, hoping to exceed the goblin’s Dexterity defense.


Designer’s Note: An ability’s defense score is essentially its average roll. Requiring the rolling side to beat the opposing defense allows contests to be settled more quickly, eliminates the possibility of ties, and allows the game to be run with players doing all of the rolling if they so choose, since the odds of success are the same no matter which side rolls.


If there are situational factors that make a save significantly easier or harder, the referee may grant the roll advantage or disadvantage. If a roll has advantage, roll 2d20 and use the better of the two dice. If it has disadvantage, roll 2d20 and use the worse of the two dice.


Designer’s Note:  The referee is of course free to impose positive or negative modifiers rather than use the advantage system, but most players seem to enjoy it and it simplifies the math.


TURN STRUCTURE (10 Minutes)
1
Roll Encounter Die.
2
Party Moves & Maps.
Enters Room, Listens, Searches.
3
Resolve Encounters
Distance, Surprise, Reaction, Resolve
4
Roll Usage Die For Light & Ammunition.
5
Turn Ends.


OVERLOADING THE ENCOUNTER DIE (Nexcropraxis)
When the party moves into a new area or spends time on an exploration activity, roll the encounter die and interpret the results as follows.


1D6 ENCOUNTER DIE
1
Encounter
2
Percept (clue, spoor)
3
Locality (context-dependent timer)
4
Exhaustion (rest or take penalties)
5
Lantern (roll usage die)
6
Torch (roll usage die)


REACTIONS
When the PCs encounter an NPC whose reaction to the party is not obvious, roll 2d6 and consult the following table.


REACTION TABLE
2
Hostile. Immediate attack.
3-5
Unfriendly. Possible attack. 
6-8
Neutral.
9-11
Friendly. Monster leaves or considers offers.
12
Helpful. Enthusiastic friendship.


COMBAT
CHALLENGE DIE (Index Card RPG)
Use a single target number for a given room, encounter, or combat. This target represents the average difficulty of everything in that encounter and boils it down to a single number. Use a d20 to note the TN. If something in an encounter is significantly easier or more challenging to deal with, adjust the TN of that creature by +3/-3. 


Designer’s Note: Having a single number that the entire table can see makes the game run faster and more smoothly. Hit the orc? Roll a 14. Pick the lock on the treasure chest? Target 14. Was the chest magically trapped? Adjust the Target by +1 to +3. In a linear dungeon this number would start low and rise with every new challenge, culminating in a “Boss fight”. A good dungeon is never linear.


ESCALATION DIE (Index Card RPG)
At the start of an encounter roll 1d4 and place it on the table with the Encounter Die. In the number of rounds rolled something exciting happens, (more goblins, flood waters rise, the lantern goes out, etc.). Reroll the die and do so until the encounter ends. 


Designer’s Note: The escalation die is great for staggering waves of monsters, introducing a twist, and keeping a ticking clock on the Players and their actions.


INITIATIVE (The Black Hack)
At the start of every Round each Player rolls a Dexterity save for their Character. Those that succeed, take their Turn before their NPC opponents. They must then discuss as a group to decide their own order for individual Character actions. 


Designer’s Note: Those that fail their Dexterity save, act after their opponents. Rerolling initiative every round makes combat more dangerous, since it’s possible for one side to go twice in a row.


A PC can move from one range to an adjacent range and perform a single action on their turn. This action may be casting a spell, making a second move, making an attack, using a Talent, attempting a stunt, or any other action deemed reasonable by the referee.


ATTACKING
Melee weapons can strike Close foes, but ranged weapons cannot be used if the shooting character is engaged in melee combat. To make an attack, roll a d20 and add the character’s Strength or Wisdom bonus, depending on whether they are using a melee or ranged weapon, respectively. If the attack total is greater than the defender’s armor defense, the attack hits. If not, the attack misses.


Alternatively, an attack roll can also be resolved by the defender rolling a d20 and adding their armor bonus, hoping to roll a total greater than the defense of the ability the attacker is using. If they succeed, the attack misses. If they fail, the attack hits.


Designer’s Note: In other words, attacks are resolved the same way as opposed saves, just using Armor in place of an ability.


On a hit, the attacker rolls their weapon’s damage die to determine how many Hit Points (HP) the defender loses. 


MOVEMENT & DISTANCE 
GLAIVE  uses four range bands for measuring relative positions of Characters, other Creatures, and things in the world. From nearest to farthest: Close, Nearby, Faraway, & Distant. 


A PC can move from one range to an adjacent range and perform a single action on their Turn or they can choose to move twice and do nothing else.
Close
Hand-to-hand combat. Ranged weapons cannot be used. Most spells also unusable.
Near
Ranged weapons, most spells, polearms with reach.
Far
Ranged weapons and most spells.
Distant
Longbows, muskets, and siege weapons.


SHIELDS WILL BE BROKEN!
A Player may choose to soak a hit no matter how much damage it does by sacrificing their shield. Obviously, they must be wielding a shield at the time. 


STUNTS
Stunts are combat maneuvers such as stunning, shoving, disarming, tripping, sundering armor, and so on. They are resolved with a versus save. They may not cause damage directly, but may do so indirectly (for example, pushing an enemy off of a ledge). The referee is the final arbiter as to what stunts can be attempted in a given situation.


ADVANTAGE IN COMBAT
Characters can gain advantage in combat by attacking a target that is unaware, on lower ground, off balance, disarmed, distracted, or tactically disadvantaged in any significant way. The referee, as usual, has the final say.


When a character has advantage against an opponent on their combat turn, they may either A.) Apply advantage to their attack roll or stunt against that opponent or B.) Make an attack and a stunt attempt in the same round against that opponent, without advantage.


CRITICAL HITS
During an attack roll, if the attacker rolls a natural 20 or the defender rolls a natural 1, they take an additional d12 of damage (regardless of the weapon’s type). 


OUT OF ACTION TABLE (The Black Hack)
When a character reaches 0 HP, they are Out of Action. When the danger passes or the Player recieved aid roll on the Out of Action (OofA) Table.


1
KO’d -Just knocked out.
2
Fat Head -Disadvantage on all rolls for the next 3 Turns (30 min in-game time).
3
Cracked Bones - Disadvantage on all STR, DEX, and CON Tests for the remainder of the session.
4
Disfigured -CHA reduced by 1d4
5
Maimed -either STR, or DEX, is permanently reduced by 2.
6
Dead! -The Character dies!


MORALE
Monsters and NPCs all have a morale rating, usually between 5 and 9. When they face more danger than they were expecting, the referee will make a morale roll by rolling 2d6 and comparing the result to the NPC’s morale rating. If the roll is higher than the rating, the NPC will attempt to flee, retreat, or parley. 


Morale rolls can be triggered by defeating half of an enemy group, defeating a group’s leader, or reducing a lone enemy to half HP. Other effects may trigger a morale roll at the referee’s discretion.


Hirelings also make morale rolls when they aren’t paid, their employer dies, or they face extraordinary danger. Morale may also be improved by paying hirelings more and treating them well.


HEALING
After a meal and a full night’s rest, PCs regain lost hit points equal to a d8 plus their Constitution bonus. Resting at a safe haven restores all lost HP.


RESTFUL LUNCH (Skerples & Ten Foot Polemic)
You can consume a ration to heal 1d6 HP (or more for Meals). This takes ten minutes and involves generally chilling out, adjusting your bags, and pumping yourself up.


Taking the time to prepare a Meal heals even more, (d8+ Constitution bonus). Preparing a meal takes 1 hour minimum.


Designer’s Note: Constitution bonus is a big help when it comes to healing.


Did the party not pack enough food? Consider hunting and eating monsters. Monster Menu All.


LIGHT SOURCES, AMMUNITION, & THE USAGE DIE (The Black Hack)
Light Sources and Ammunition depletes according to die rolls. Each Turn, or when the appropriate Encounter Die result comes up, roll. If the result is less than four, use a lower die. If anything less than a four is rolled on a D4, the light source is depleted. 


Use these steps: D20 >D12 >D10 >D8 >D6 >D4 >gone.


A single quiver of arrows or case of bolts uses a d12 Usage Die.


Candle
d10
10’r/Close. 10 per inventory slot.
Lantern
d20
30’r/Nearby. 3 flasks of oil per slot.
Torch
d8
30’r/Nearby. 5 per inventory slot.
Flint and tinder requires 1D4 rounds to ignite a light source.


CROSSBOWS (LoTFP)
Light crossbows. Ignore 2 points of AC and take a round to reload.
Heavy crossbows. Ignore 4 points of AC and take two rounds to reload.


CAROUSING & OTHER WAYS TO KEEP MY PLAYERS POOR
James Young’s excellent Unified House Rules Document. 


ADVANCEMENT
When a PC acquires 1000 XP they gain an Experience Level. PCs receive 1 XP per silver piece recovered from a dungeon, earned from a job, or stolen from some git who deserved it. They do not get XP for silver found or earned through honest means. 


Additionally they receive 50 XP for low-risk accomplishments, 100 XP for moderate-risk accomplishments, and 200 XP for high-risk accomplishments. The referee should freely notify the PCs of how much XP different objectives are worth when asked.


PCs can double-dip the XP they receive for silver by carousing, becoming philanthropists, etc. Details in the Unified House Rules Document linked above.


When a PC gains a level, they roll a number of d8s equal to their new level + Constitution bonus to find their new HP maximum. If the result is less than their previous maximum, their maximum HP increases by 2. They also raise the defense and bonus scores of 3 different Abilities of their choice by 1 point, or increase the defense and bonus scores of 2 Abilities and select a new Talent. Abilities may never be raised higher than 20/+10.


Example: A Player rolled 1 d8, resulting in 4 for their starting Hit Points, and added their +3 Constitution bonus, for a total of 7 starting HP. Upon reaching Level 2 the player rolls 2d8+3 (2 eight-sided dice plus their Constitution bonus). If the result is more than 7 this is their new Maximum HP. If the result is less than 7 their new Maximum HP is 8 (6+2).


TALENTS FOR KNAVE
A classless game in its original inception, these optional rules are intended to bring some character customization to Knave. At the cost of one ability score increase, a Player may choose a single talent from any of the categories below every time their Knave levels up. 


Designer’s Note:Though grouped by theme, players are encouraged to mix and match ideas to create their own unique characters. 


Some of these ideas are my own. Others are inspired by or adapted from other such lists in the OSR blog-o-sphere or adapted from D&D Feats. (The Man WIth The Hammer, Marshal BrengleBuildings Are People)


This list is in no way comprehensive. Players and Referees are encouraged to create their own Talents. 


BARBARIAN
Berzerker. When reduced to zero Hit Points but not killed outright, become frenzied and continue fighting for a number of turns equal to your Level. Attacks that hit cause maximum damage. You always attack the nearest creature whether friend or foe.
Great Weapon Fighter. Reroll damage less than 3 (not including STR bonus) when wielding a two-handed weapon. You must use the new roll, even if it is less than 3.
Favor of the Gods (requires Berzerker). 11+ CHA bonus is your Armor Defense when you wear no other armor. May wield a shield.
Savage Fighter. When you strike and kill a foe in melee combat immediately make another attack on an additional adjacent foe. 


CLERIC
Banish. Force up to 1d6+WIS+Lvl worth of undead to make a morale check. Apply a negative modifier equal to your WIS+Lvl bonus to the check. If you have more HD than the undead, any who fail the morale check are destroyed.
Hammer of The Gods. Grant advantage to any morale checks your retainers/hirlings/acolytes/allies make as your below a holy litany and lay waste with your warhammer.
Hospitaller. Out of combat and with a healer’s kit/proper herbs you can heal a target for 1d6+WIS+Lvl hit points. <See foraging/using herbs for Cleric abilities.>
Keeper of Relics. You have been entrusted with the safekeeping of 3 holy relics. You may pray over each relic once per day  to cast Cleric spells.
Witch Hunter. You can smell the foul taint of sorcerers, warlocks and evil clerics. You are able to track them as a Ranger tracks a dangerous animal.
DRUID
Forest Walker (requires The Old Tongue). You gain the ability to leave mystical messages on trees, rocks, ponds, or any natural object. Only others with the Forest Walker knack can read these messages and you must communicate with mental images rather than written words or runes.
The Old Tongue. You speak the secret language of rocks, trees, and animals. You have advantage on reaction rolls when speaking to an animal, copse of trees, mushroom colony, or mountain for the first time. 
Skin Walker. Using a fetish or totem, take on the form and abilities of a natural beast that you are familiar with. Demons, elementals, aberrations, etc. do not count. The beast may be up to 1HD level greater than you. The effects last for one game Turn per Lvl. You may do this a number of times per day equal to your Lvl. Fetishes must be mystically recharged with ritual, sacrifice, and material components. Fetishes typically occupy one inventory slot each. Larger creatures require multiple slots -Referee’s discretion.


MAGIC USER
Arcane Researcher.  You have a nose for research. You have advantage on saves to discover hidden secrets in tombs, scrolls, and manuscripts.
Familiar. Gain a mystical cat (darkvision) , mouse (burrow), sparrow (fly), squirrel (climb) or toad (swim) companion with Level HP. You can communicate with it telepathically as long as you can see it. If it dies it can be re-summoned spending a night’s work.
Scholar of The Unseen University. You begin the next session with 3 spellbooks. Determine the spells randomly or with the help of your Referee. 
Sword Wizard. You can cast spells while wielding a weapon in one or both of your hands. You still need to have the spell book and components in your inventory.
The Manifold Cerebrum. You have trained your mind to retain the pattern of a spell once you have cast it. After a spell has been cast and its effects applied, make an INT save. If you pass you may cast the spell again that day. If you have already recovered it that day, make the save with disadvantage. Lost spells are replenished the next day as usual.
The Thrice Divided Intellect. You have advantage on saves vs magical attacks/effects that affect your mind and sense.
Eldritch Feast. You have consumed the essence of a spell which you may cast once per day. No spell book/inventory slot is required. The effort of containing raw magic within your physical body manifests in some strange and possibly upsetting way. You may take this Talent once per Level. (Reskin as Patron Domains for Clerics.)


RANGER
Beast Companion. No.
Hunter’s Mark. As a free action, mark your target as living on borrowed time. You have advantage on your next attack against them. You may apply this mark a number of times per day equal to your Level.
Sharpshooter. Note the crosswind and lead your target. Reroll a ranged attack. You must accept the new roll. You may do this a number of times per day equal to your Level.
Survivalist. You thrive in the Wilds protecting the realm from the horrors that lurk in dark wood and deep cave. You have advantage on saves to track, navigate, hunt, and forage in the wilderness.
Trick-Shot (requires Sharpshooter). Targets only receive ½ of their normal cover bonus. When you shoot into melee enemy combatants count as two combatants for the purposes of randomly determining who you hit.
Two-Weapon Fighting. When you hit a foe while wielding two weapons, roll damage for both and apply the higher.


ROGUE
Acrobat. You gain advantage on saves to balance, climb, leap, and tumble.
Thief. You gain advantage on saves to hide in shadows, move silently, and pick locks assuming you have the proper tools.
Backstab! When you attack a foe with a melee weapon who is already engaged by an ally inflict an addition 1d6/Lvl damage. You attack with advantage if you attack from hiding.
Devil’s Luck. Reroll a Critical Fail or force a foe to reroll a Critical Success. You may do this a number of times per day equal to your Level.
Dungeoneer. You have advantage on saves to spot/disable traps, find hidden doors, and to navigate in dungeons. 
Hard to Hit. Once per round you can reduce damage taken by your DEX bonus, if you can see its source.


WARRIOR
Dogged March. You have advantage on saves to resist fatigue. Armor occupies two fewer inventory slots for you. 
Girded Loins. You have advantage on saves made to resist fear effects and intimidation.
Hack-n-Slash! You have a pool of damage dice (d6s) equal to your HD. When making an attack apply any number of these dice to any number of Nearby foes. Roll to hit for each die. Apply damage if you are successful. You regain the dice at the start of your next turn.
Riposte. When a creature hits you with an attack, make an immediate counter-attack. This does not cost you your normal Action.
Shield Bash. When wielding a shield make a second attack each round. If the attack is successful inflict damage equal to your Level and you have advantage on your next attack against that foe.
Shield Master (requires Shield Bash). When an effect allows a DEX Save for ½ damage take no damage if you save -your shield absorbs the blow.
Slings & Spears. When an ally is hit, you may choose to take the damage for them. You must be wielding a shield. Not possible against mental attacks.STR save for ½ damage.


WITCH
Alter Ego. Choose a second persona of your same Ancestry, regardless of features, sex and age. You can shapeshift to that persona a number of hours equal your CHA bonus per day.
Devil's Contract. If someone makes a bargain with you and breaks it you instantly know about it. If you have their signature on the bargain you know how to locate them by general location (North, East, up down, etc.)
Familiar. You gain a mouthless humanoid, magically created with mud and sticks. d8 + Level HP. Doesn't eat or drink, but needs to breathe. Follows all your commands, although it's extremely incompetent in combat. You can resummon your familiar 1/day.
Hint/Jinx. Once per turn make a CHA save when another creature you can see attempts an action that requires a d20 roll. On success, add(hint)/subtract(jinx) your CHA bonus to the roll. On a failure, you lose Level# HP. You do this after learning the roll, but before knowing the outcome.
Read Leaves. Assuming you have water, a pot, and tea, you can spend 1 turn every morning performing this ritual. Roll two d20s and store the numbers. You can replace a result on a d20 from a creature you can see (yourself, allies, or foes) once that day with one of the stored numbers. You do this after learning the roll, but before knowing the outcome.
Spell Eater. 1/day when a spell is targeted at you, you negate the spell's effects. Make a CHA save. On success, you absorb the spell and can cast it once as if it were your own. On a fail you need to eat double the rations for one day. You can only have one eaten spell at any time.


ANCESTRY 
Dwarf. Low light vision, advantage on saves to resist poison and disease, +5 Inventory slots.
Elf. Low light vision, advantage on saves to be stealthy, resist being charmed, and see through illusions.
Halfling. Begin play with the Devil’s Luck Talent. You are always ignored in favor of a larger target in combat until your first attack.
Half-Orc. Low light vision, advantage on saves to be intimidating, begin play w/the Berzerker knack.
Human. +1 to any Ability Score. Swap any two pairs of Ability Scores.
Tortle. Shell as chain+helmet -does not require inventory slots. Hold breath for up to 1 hour, advantage on swim checks.

Sorcerers of Uln

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