Class: Were-Cursed

Not all curses are curses at all.

 

by Vetkhiy Barsuk

 

This is a curse class, meaning that if you satisfy its Quest with no template slots left, you lose your latest template and gain Were A instead.

Quest: Survive being injured by the bite of a Were.

Hit point loss does not count, only an actual Wound. As my players are already all too aware by now, even getting injured by the tooth from a long-dead Were's skull does count.

Items: nothing but bloodied rags

Skills: Animal Senses and one of Man-Hunting, Intimidating Growl, Scent-Tracking, Wilderness Survival

Per template: +3 hp

A: Slave to the Silver Moon, Moon-Maddened Metabolism

B: The Beast Unchained, The Moon Painted In Blood

You may advance to further templates only once you gain moon-silver tattoos to bind you protean powers.

C: choose two Moon-Gifts

Δ: gain another Gift when you devour the heart of a Were who possessed such a Gift

Slave to the Silver Moon

You are poisoned by silver. Silvered weapons deal +d8 damage to you and prolonged touch of silver negates all effects of this class except for Slave to the Silver Moon, plus causes disadvantage on all tests due to searing pain.

Please keep in mind that silver coins are quite common. Wear gloves.

You are bound to the Silver Moon. During the three nights around a full moon, make a Will save with a -1 penalty for each month that you have successfully staved off the transformation, or transform into a rabid beast until dawn. During this time, you are an NPC controlled by the GM.

Moon-Maddened Metabolism

All of your bodily processes are on fast forward. Gain:

• +2×[templates] to saves against poison and disease, and
• DR [templates], pierced by silver.

Human food can no longer fully satisfy you; gain no Comfort from it, no matter how tasty it might be. However, each day you may gain Comfort equal to the highest HD of a creature whose flesh you have eaten raw and still warm with their fading life.

The Beast Unchained

You have tangled with your beastly urges and came up on top.

Sidebar: Willpower (wp) is basically mental hp or sanity, decreased by stress rather than damage. Once you run out of wp, you start freaking out and may gain Vice if you take further stress. I should post the full rules one day.

As a full-round action, you can take d4 stress and transform into your beast form. As long as your stress is lower than or equal to your Will, you retain control even in animal shape and can return to human form at will as a full-round action. Otherwise, you become a rabid beast. You still must transform for the full night of the full moon, but may retain control.

While in your beast form, you gain unarmed attacks based on your animal shape and may have other abilities such a creature would possess. There are Were-variants of most mammals, many reptiles or birds, and few other animals.

For example:

1. Wolf or Fox: bite 2d4
2. Bear or Tiger: claw/claw 2d6, bite d8
3. Boar: tusks d12
4. Horse or Doe: kick d8, fast
5. Cat or Rat: scratch d2, sneaky
6. Raven: peck d2, flight
7. Crocodile: bite d12, swim
8. Serpent: bite d4 poison

Your hit points and characteristics do not change when you transform, but your actions are limited by your new form. You cannot speak, use items or wear armour, unless your form has the vocal chords, opposable thumbs or armour fitted to do so. You also drop your equipment and inventory when you transform.

You can pass as a totally mundane animal in your beast form, unsuspicious in its natural habitat, and can communicate with other animals of its kind.

The Moon Painted In Blood

When you transform into beast form while in moonlight, regain full hp.

When you transform back into human form, all Wounds you have suffered while in beast form get better. This even lets you reattach lost limbs, if they can be held to the stump during transformation.

Should you still lose a limb, you can consume one week's worth of food (or a large, fresh corpse) to regrow it over the course of a day. This does not apply to body parts lost to silver or mutation.

This is my replacement for the commonly used per-round regeneration, which I have always found too fiddly and aggravating to track.

Moon-Silver Tattoos

Intricate designs inked with an addition of pure powdered moon-silver, a badge of status and an anchor of your identity against the maddening tides of your ever-changing flesh. Creating such tattoos is an arduous process, and painful for the subject. This delicate and dangerous work requires permanently poisoning a Were with just enough silver to subdue their curse, but not enough to cause life-threatening complications.

The tattoos seem to shift or flow when viewed closely. How do yours look?

You may not gain any Moon-Gifts unless you have a set of moon-silver tattoos. Or rather, if you gain any Moon-Gifts without them, you will permanently transform into a ravenous moon-behemoth on the next full moon.

At will, you may hide your tattoos or make them shine with faint moonlight. They will always flare up when you transform, though.

Note: Your beast form can be no more than one size category larger or smaller than your human form, unless you have Mouse-or-Mountain Technique, and must be a living animal or person, unless you have Taste of Divinity Method. You only gain the natural abilities of your form, not any learned abilities.

 

Mild-Mannered Librarian
from Magic the Gathering

 

And now for the d20 Moon-Gifts:

1. The Sacred Blood-Hunt

Under the light of a full moon, you can embark on a ritualistic hunt. Choose one animal or person. If you can kill the target yourself (indirect attacks like poison are acceptable) and devour their heart before the sun rises, you will learn how to assume their form. There is no limit to how many forms you can learn in this fashion, but you can only hunt one creature per night.

Your forms are specific. You do not gain the form of a horse, but rather of the horse that you have hunted.

2. Lifeblood of the Hummingbird

When you devour a freshly slain creature, you may assume its shape. You lose access to the form once you transform back.

3. Mouse-or-Mountain Technique

You can transform into creatures of any size, if you can gain such a form.

You also permanently learn any forms that you are polymorphed into.

4. Taste of Divinity Method

You can transform into creatures of any type, if you can gain such a form.

You also no longer age.

5. Changing Plumage Mastery

You can choose to hide your equipment and inventory Elsewhere while in beast form, rather than having it fall to the ground.

When you return to human form, you may transform your mundane clothing into any style of your choice. Armour, winter garb or other clothes with mechanical effects cannot be affected.

6. Red Ran the Rivers

As you transform into beast form, you may choose any die from d4 to d12. You and all nearby combatants deal that die of extra melee damage until the end of the encounter.

7. Red Rage Rebirth

When you would die in human form, instead transform into your beast form and go on a mindless rampage, unable to distinguish between friend and foe.

When you would die in beast form, instead transform into an unconscious and bleeding (but still barely alive) human form.

Remember that you may not transform while poisoned by silver.

8. Red in Teeth and Terror

No one can remember you transforming or link your human and beast forms together. This does not apply to creatures immune to fear or protected by magic.

When you would strike a killing blow, you may instead scar the target. Such target will forever feel overwhelming fear towards you, no matter your current form. Any intimidation you would attempt against them counts as a critical success.

9. Flesh Like Quicksilver Practice

You can transform as a half action.

You can also transform into any smaller form you possess as a reaction when attacked, avoiding the blow.

10. Inconspicuous Feral Lifestyle

While in beast form, your mind reads as that of a normal animal and you do not detect as magical in any way. In addition, transforming grants you a bonus save against any mental effects currently affecting you.

11. Beast-Man-Beast Method

You only take 1 stress to transform. In addition, you can take d4 stress to ignore any transformation-like effect - polymorph, petrification, etc.

12. Mudra of the Half Moon

You can stop your transformation mid-way, assuming a hybrid form. You will have access to all your beast form's abilities while retaining your vocal chords, opposable thumbs, etc.

13. Mudra of the Ever-Changing Moon

While in moonlight, gain a swim and climb speed equal to your normal speed, take half falling damage and leap up to your speed with a running start. Your body is always slightly shifting to facilitate your movements.

14. Inexorable Wolf's Pace

You can run really fast (+4 Movement Speed), no matter your form. While in beast form, you also always move slightly faster than someone who is running away from you.

15. Blood Moon Medicine

When you feed your blood to others, you may also transfer your hp to them. Any hp over their maximum become temporary.

16. Mind-Shattering Howl

As you transform into beast form, you may let out a terrifying howl, screech, etc. All enemies that hear it test Morale.

17. Pet-on-Lap Misdirection

Once per session when you are not present in a scene, you may reveal yourself to have been one of the animals or non-named background NPCs "all along", as long as you have a fitting form.

18. Blessed Moon-Silver Inoculation

While your moon-silver tattoos are not hidden, silver no longer affects you in any way. In addition, your bonus to saves also applies against mutations.

19. Invulnerable Skin of Moon-Silver

While your moon-silver tattoos are not hidden, resist all non-silver damage.

20. Choose any appropriate canine Gift.

GLOG: Familiars

A magic-user may persuade any creature to perform a ritual with them and enter into a contract of familiarhood. This replaces one class ability of the caster's choice and the creature will likely have wants and stipulations. More powerful familiars require more complex rituals (and XP) to bind, and the caster should take care that the would-be familiar is not too powerful, lest the caster risks being bound instead and becoming the familiar. Each caster may only have one familiar and the binding lasts until death does them part - and sometimes even beyond that.

 

Wizard's Familiar by Cassie Hunter

 

When you perform the familiar ritual, choose two Familiar Gifts that your familiar will be imbued with:

1. Aid(e). While your familiar is assisting you, gain a +2 bonus to one attribute or +4 to one skill of your choice. This Gift may be chosen multiple times for different attributes or skills.
2. Bound by name. Your familiar can now be summoned by anyone who performs a ritual that requires the familiar's name, a magic circle and a source of power.
3. Change shape. Your familiar gains an alternate form. If the form is roughly comparable - a mouse into a dove and a horse into a human - they can transform at will, otherwise they need to consume a rare and expensive ingredient to transform. This Gift may be chosen multiple times.
4. Familiar pocket. Your familiar may disappear Elsewhere while not needed and reappear when you call it. 
5. Familiar token. Your familiar may transform into a small-ish item (a ring, a shawl, a sword) and back at your command.
6. Mutated. Your familiar gains a mutation - choose one basic mutation from here, or 1 point of Evolution from here. This Gift may be chosen multiple times. If you use rare and expensive ingredients in the familiar ritual, you may choose a war mutation instead, or gain +1 point of Evolution.
7. Share concentration. Your familiar can maintain concentration on a spell you cast, as long as you stay nearby or share a mind. This lets you either concentrate on two spells at once, or roll twice for concentration on a single spell.
8. Share mind. You may communicate telepathically with your familiar, as long as you stay within a mile of each other and in the same dimension.
9. Share soul. You can cast spells through your familiar, as long as you stay nearby or share a mind.
10. Spark of magic. Your familiar gains a cantrip. This Gift may be chosen multiple times.

Heavily inspired by these rules.

Class: Wizard of the God-Serpent

You were anointed by the blood of the forever dying God-Serpent, the beheaded Ouroboros. You were given a mission:

Survive, scavenge, study and spread.

Subvert, subsume, supersede.

Save me.

Go forth, little snake, and ease your sire's suffering.

This is half a stolen snake wizard, revised and reflavoured for my setting, and half a snake mutant race.

 

from a player of mine

 

You are an Outsider, but bound to become an Outlaw unless you are careful with your machinations. Do not fail the God-Serpent.

Items: d20 pet snakes

Skills: Herpetology

Perks & Flaws:

Your body is partially covered in scales, however much you choose. You can speak with snakes.

You are cold-blooded. You may never gain resistance or immunity to cold and cannot rest while cold.

Cantrips:

1. Your eyes are slitted. You may switch between normal vision and infravision.
2. Your tongue is forked. If you can smell something, you can taste it too, and all magical things taste weird.
3. You can unhinge your jaws and swallow anything that is less than the circumference of your neck without difficulty. You can regurgitate anything you have eaten (and not digested or passed) at will.

from Dark Souls

 

Spells:

1. Coiled Strike

When you cast this spell, choose one:

• One or both of your arms transform into serpents until dismissed, and can be used as melee weapons dealing d6+[dice] damage, with a 10ft reach. If you transform both of your arms, you can attack twice per action, but cannot grasp or gesture.
• Your head transforms into a viper's head on an elongated neck and makes a single attack for [sum]+[dice] damage with a 30ft reach.

2. Shed Skin

Pull off your own skin. This takes d6-[dice] full rounds (min 1) and leaves you naked. Afterwards, choose one of the following:

• Restore [sum] hp.
• Restore [dice] points to a damaged attribute.
• Your body changes according to your wishes - your hair or eye or skin changes colour, your height or gender or apparent species adjusts - but no more than a professional prosthetic makeup could manage and with no mechanical effects. You may dismiss this effect at will, returning to your natural appearance, but if you do not do this before [sum] hours elapse, your new form becomes your natural one. You may never use this spell to create the same appearance twice.

Your shed skin is whole, similar to that of a snake, and can be kept.

3. Gift of God's Fangs

Up to [dice] touched weapons or [sum] projectiles become envenomed, dealing +d4 poison damage for 1 hour.

While you have this spell memorised, also grow fangs (d4 poison).

4. Gift of God's Tail

Your legs merge and transform into a massive serpent's tail, shunting everything you have worn on your lower body Elsewhere. You cannot be knocked prone and can grapple with your tail while keeping your hands free. This lasts until dismissed.

For every [die] after the first, choose one of the following:

• Make grappling tests with advantage.
• Swim at full running speed.
• Your body can twist, contort and squeeze into any shape without suffering harm, except for your skull. You can wriggle free from mundane manacles nigh-instantly, and from being hogtied in a minute.
• As an action, you can coil your tail tightly as a spring and then jump triple your normal distance.

5. Serpent's Charm

As you lock eyes with a nearby creature, it must save vs charm. On success, choose for it to be unable to move closer to, or further away from you. On failure, it is unable to move from its place at all. It can still perform any action except for moving. As an action, it can save again to negate the effect. Creatures of HD [dice]×2 or more are immune to this effect.

6. Charm Serpents

Up to [sum] total HD of snakes or snake-like creatures within 60ft are lulled into a peaceful daze. This lasts for [dice] hours or permanently with 4+ [dice], but breaks when any of the targets is attacked or otherwise endangered.

7. Snake Ball

A massive illusory sphere of serpentine mating orgy springs from your outstretched palm and starts rolling, up to 30ft per round for [dice]×2 rounds. Any creature struck by it must save vs fear, and flee or fall prone on failure.

8. Sticks to Snakes

R: touch; D: [dice]×2 minutes

A bit of a misnomer, as this spell can target sticks, staffs, snake tattoos or snakes.

Sticks or snake tattoos are transformed into actual snakes, up to [sum] of them. Each has 1 hp and bites for 1 poison damage, but more importantly is clever enough to follow complex commands. If a tattoo snake is killed, it discorporates into ink and flows back onto its owner's skin.

Staff (only one) becomes a large snake with [dice] HD, [dice]×2 armour and a bite dealing d6 damage. If the staff was magical, you may choose the bite's damage type and may originate your spells from the snake. If the snake is killed, it reverts back to a staff, cracked.

Snakes, up to [sum] total HD of them, are transformed into sticks or staves, save negates. Huge or magical snakes may become staves with special properties.

9. Snakes to Stairs

Stomp on the ground and a [dice]×50ft long snake will emerge to anchor itself between you and a point within its reach. It will serve as narrow stairs or walkway, but will not move from its place nor take part in combat. It has [sum] hp and disappears after [sum] minutes if not destroyed.

10. Snake Cache

R: self; T: swallowed item

If you cast this spell while swallowing (or regurgitating) an item, it is stored in (or retrieved from) an extradimensional space rather than your stomach. You can access up to [sum]×[dice]th Slot in this virtual "inventory" and store or retrieve as many items as you wish with a single casting.

The target must fit within your mouth and the accessible Slots, or the spell fails. Time basically doesn't pass in the pocket dimension, so items will be retrieved in exactly the same condition as when stored.

Kabuto from Naruto

 

Emblem Spells:

11. Shape of the God-Serpent

Call upon the God-Serpent and transform yourself into its likeness. You are now a man-sized snake with steel-like scales that grant you DR [dice]. Gain [sum] temporary hp; the transformation lasts until you lose them. In addition:

• You do not need gestures and incantations to cast your spells, and snake-related spells you cast do not trigger Mishaps and Dooms.
• You are immune to all special powers and abilities of snake-like creatures. For example their venom, hypnotic or petrifying gaze, etc.

12. Avatar of the God-Serpent

Call upon the God-Serpent and its avatar slithers into existence somewhere near you. The avatar is not under your control, but is not immediately hostile to you. It remains for a day/hour/minute/round, based on [dice], while its power is based on [sum]:

[1-6] ball python-sized, HD 2, bite/crush 1d6

[7-11] anaconda-sized, HD 4, bite/crush/poison spit 2d8

[12-19] dragon-sized, HD 8, bite/crush/poison breath 3d10 area

[20+] castle-sized, HD 16, bite/crush/poison breath 4d12 area, flying, spell-casting

Nagini
from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

 

Dooms:

1. Lose one of your cantrips at random for a day.
2. You can no longer speak with snakes and most become hostile to you.
3. You permanently become a small, common snake. Your human mind will leave you in d6 days.

Your Dooms can be reverted by consuming the God-Serpent's raw flesh, though they can happen again. They can be forestalled completely by raising a large temple to the God-Serpent, as long as you venerate it there daily.

Class: Really Good Pedigree

Based on the other dogs, but with Incunabuli's idea of dog breeds as abilities mixed in.

 

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
from Magic the Gathering

 

This is a racial class, so its template A can only be gained during character creation.

Items: collar or a similar trinket

Skills: Hunting, Guarding, Burrowing, Scent-Marking, Pleading Eyes, Emotional Support

Age: You are adult at one year and will live to about twelve years.

Per template: +2 hp

A: Canine, +1 Gift

B: Really Good Nose, +1 Gift

C: +2 Gifts

D: Epic Nose, +1 Gift

Canine

You are a dog. You cannot speak, but can communicate with those you know well.

You have great senses of smell and hearing. Test Awareness to get an olfactory image of every creature and object that has recently passed through the nearby area.

You have no hands, but can run really fast (+2 Movement Speed).

Your bite deals 2d4 damage. You can safely consume raw or slightly spoiled food and murky water.

Really Good Nose

You can smell the weird stuff - poison, disease, magic, undeath - though you rarely get any specifics.

Epic Nose

If it is at all possible to track something by scent, you can do it - even incredibly old or well-concealed smells.

When you sniff something, you can ask one abstract question about it. Another question is possible after 10 minutes/hour/day/week/month/year of sniffing. For example: Does it work for a druid? Is it having an affair? What is its favourite colour?

 

One of the PCs in my campaign right now
is a three hundred years old dog (long story)
currently learning surgery to give himself
human hands and posture.

 

d12 Gifts of Good Pedigree

1. Really Good Eyes: You can see clearly in minimal light. You can see invisible things as a slight lensing in the air.
2. Best Friend: Choose one character as your Best Friend. When cooperating against a threat, you both have an advantage.
3. Medicinal Slobber: You can lick an injury to stop bleeding, no test necessary. In addition, if the injury might be infected, poisoned or diseased, the victim gets an advantage on their save.
4. Takedown: When you use a combat manoeuvre on a human-sized or smaller foe, you may also automatically grapple them. Your grapple tests have an advantage.
5. Go for the Throat: Your attacks against a grappled or prone target add an extra die of damage.
6. Street-Raised: You can swallow anything that fits into your mouth and regurgitate anything you have eaten (but not digested or passed) at will. You are immune to non-magical poisons and diseases.
7. Sighthound: You are as fast as a horse. Gain further +4 Movement Speed.
8. Snarling: While you spend the whole round yapping, growling and dancing menacingly in place, enemies must save vs fear or be unable to approach or attack you.
9. Shaggy: You are immune to cold weather and resistant to cold damage.
10. Watchful: Unless explicitly distracted, you cannot be ambushed or surprised, even while asleep. You can control and guide a group of animals with strict precision. They will not wander or get lost without your knowledge.
11. War-Trained: You are one of the big dogs. Your bite deals 2d6 damage. Gain further +1 hp per template.
12. Guide Dog: You cannot be tracked except by magical means and can always find a path to any place you have been to.

Class: Nightmare

One of the players in my just-finished D&D 5e campaign rides a nightmare. In preparation for switching to GLOG, I want to let them play as the nightmare.

from D&D 5e

 

A: Nightmarish, Fiery, Horse That Leaps Over Land And Sea And Sky

B: choose one of Dream Travel or Dimensional Travel

C: Fiery Steed, Trample

D: Fiery Breath and the other Travel ability

Nightmarish

You are a horse, but scary. You cannot speak, but can communicate with those you know well.

You have no hands, but can run really fast (double standard Movement Speed) and count your Strength Might twice for the purposes of Inventory Slots.

Your teeth are razor-sharp and your hooves smoulder - deal d10 damage "unarmed". You can only eat meat.

Fiery

Your mane and tail are on fire. You have fire resistance and shed light as a lantern.

Horse That Leaps Over Land And Sea And Sky

You can walk on water. You can also run on air, but must end each movement action on a solid ground, or fall.

Fiery Steed

You are now immune to fire and may confer fire resistance to one rider.

Trample

You can move through the space of any creature smaller than you and test Might. On success, they are knocked prone and get no attacks of opportunity against you.

You may trample multiple creatures in a single movement, as long as you fail no Might test. On a failed Might test, you lose the rest of your movement.

Fiery Breath

Deal 2d8 fire damage in a 15 feet cone. You can breathe again once you devour a ration's worth of raw flesh.

Dream Travel

Instead of a long rest, you and your rider may dive into the Dreamlands. You can follow the scent of anyone whose blood you have ever tasted and enter their dreaming, if they are currently asleep. Dreamers will remember their interactions with you as strange nightmares.

Sidebar: Willpower (wp) is basically mental hp or sanity, decreased by stress rather than damage. Once you run out of wp, you start freaking out and may gain Vice if you take further stress. I should post the full rules one day.

In a dream, your attacks deal stress rather than damage. If your target is reduced to 0 wp, they wake up covered in cold sweat, their rest forestalled, and gain a Vice of phobia towards you.

Should your dreaming form be reduced to 0 hp or wp, you wake up. This may strand your rider, if they were not riding you at the moment of your return to the waking world.

Dimensional Travel

You can smell dimensional intersections - fey crossings, thin places, inactive portals, etc. Take 1 Fatigue to kick open a rift in such a weak location. It stays open for d6 minutes.

In most of Creation, Twilight is close enough that you can always open a portal there.

Twilight

Just beyond the first veil, where the living heartbeat of Creation fades into stillborn silence, lies Twilight, also known to different people as the Shadow Realm, Darklands, World-Shade, Penumbra, Upside-Down, Abyss, Stíny, or the Other Side. It is a dark and decaying mirror-realm, an uncanny echo that clings to the living world like a black mould. A shadow that hungers.

Indeed, Twilight shadows and mirrors Creation, but imperfectly and slowly, always struggling and failing to catch up to the endless changes of the real world. Twilight cities are hollow, their streets silent and broken. Permanent structures - mountains, temples, great trees - are always present, yet everything ephemeral is fragile, or missing, or found in states of ruin. Shattered cups, torn banners, books whose pages crumble to dust at the lightest touch and whose ink spells only madness-muddled nonsense.

Some say that Twilight lies at the very edge of Creation, where it meets the Dead Dimensions and the endless Void Beyond. That this uncanny mirroring is a universe's defence mechanism, a thin layer of corrupted reality that, just like tarnish, seals and protects the healthy reality beneath it.

Upside Down concept art from Stranger Things

 

There is little light in Twilight. No sun, no stars, nothing but the suffocating blackness of perfect night. Torches sputter and even magical flames grow dim. Only occasionally is the realm's cimmerian firmament punctured by thunderstorms of red lightning, or contaminated by creeping clouds of bioluminescent, carcinogenic spores. Sunlight, if somehow cast into this realm, does not illuminate - it burns and scours away creatures and matter of Twilight, leaving behind only drifting motes of soot.

There is no water in Twilight, at all. While blood will remain in the veins and liquids in their bottles, any spilled drop or free-flowing stream rapidly dissipates into nothingness. Attempts to conjure water end in failure and water elementals perish screaming.

The vegetation of Twilight is sparse and terrible. The only things that truly grow there are black mould and wrixling vines, which feed on warmth and magic, respectively, rather than light. Trees stand as pale ghosts of their counterparts in Creation - dead and petrified, their branches twisted skyward in eternal agony. Leaves or grass collapse into ash when touched.

Yet Twilight's ashen bedrock bears one treasure the living world cannot produce - black iron ore that, once smelted with captured souls, can be forged into spectre-slaying soulsteel weaponry.

And rarely, strange monuments can be found in Twilight that are not a reflection of the mortal realm. Obsidian monoliths, inhuman statues, sprawling complexes of bleak geometry. Necromancers claim that these mark the entrances into the Labyrinth, a vast under-realm of impossible angles and shifting gravity. The Labyrinth is said to touch most worlds - including the Land of the Dead, the Dreamlands, and perhaps realms even older and odder.

Class: Fashion Wizard

No orb-fondling tower-dweller, you are not. Halfway between an artificer and a socialite, you have the correct attire, taste, but most importantly, opinions.

 

by sundae_jck

 

You are Chartered and likely from a good family.

Items:

• lavish clothes of your own design,
• another set of clothes of your own design,
• yet another set of clothes of your own design,
• needles and thread,
• a pre-approved business loan from a local bank, though at a truly draconian interest rate.

Skills: Fashionista and two topics of trivia that you can keep talking for hours about

Perks & Flaws:

While wearing a fancy and expensive clothes, cape or hat, you can destroy it to reduce an incoming attack's damage or spell's [sum] by 2d6.

Moaning and raging about the irreplaceability of the lost piece of apparel is optional, but highly encouraged.

You cannot use magic while dirty or badly clothed.

For example, falling into water will prevent spellcasting until you can dry off, unless you were already wearing a fancy swimming wear.

Cantrips:

• Interesting: With concentration, you can prevent others from leaving a conversation with you. There is no save, but remember that concentration can be broken by punching you in the face.
• Important: Make your clothes billow dramatically or a faint, pleasant music follow you.
• Inspired: Telekinetically control needles and thread within 30 feet, though your control is not forceful enough to cause damage.

 

Spells:

This spell list draws heavily on the elf wizard, handsome wizard and silk wizard traditions.

1. Flying Needles

R: touch; T: [dice] needles; D: concentration

Enchant [dice] needles, connecting them to your fingertips by invisible, ethereal thread. Enchanted needles can be used as throwing knives and they will attach the thread to anything they strike. Save negates, but only if the target could see the thread. You count as touching anything connected to you by a thread.

The thread can be stretched effectively infinitely and can only be severed by effects that can harm ghosts. At will, you can make the thread visible and tangible, but also only as strong and stretchy as a silken rope. It cannot be changed back and disappears when your concentration is broken.

2. Clean

Up to [highest] touched creatures or objects no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon are instantly cleaned, groomed and perfumed.

One may specify the grooming, e.g. shaving, shaping or trimming of the beard; type of perfume, etc. This does not destroy the filth, merely puts it into a neat pile on the side.

3. Mend

R: touch; T: object or construct

Fix a target with [dice] or less Cracks. This does not affect a target with more than [dice] Cracks at all (no "partial fixes") and cannot replace missing pieces. Alternately, instantly remove up to [dice] malfunctions. Complex objects (clockworks, magic contraptions) might require a skill test to be properly mended.

4. Beautify

Touched creature or object no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon is altered into a more beautiful form of the same type (e.g. humanoid, chair). The new form must be considered more beautiful by either the caster or the target.

This also restores [sum] points of damaged Charisma Presence, or grants +[dice] Presence bonus if it was undamaged. No other characteristics or abilities are affected.

The effect lasts for [sum] hours and can be made permanent at 4 [dice], but is always broken when the target is killed or shattered.

5. Feather Fall

R: 30'; T: [dice] creatures or objects; D: until each touches the ground

Rather than falling, the target slowly (possibly alarmingly so) descends, their clothes beauteously billowing around them. Can be cast as a reaction.

6. Choose one of:

Silk to Steel

D: [sum] minutes

Touched silk object becomes as steel. Silk clothes grant armour as leather/chain/plate/plate and shield, silk thread can serve as wire, silk rope works as a steel rod, etc.

Works on other fabrics as well, but only for [sum] rounds. With 4 [dice], you can make the effect permanent.

Steel to Silk

D: [sum] minutes

Touched steel object becomes as silk. This makes weapons fairly useless, steel bars as silk ropes, armour as clothing, etc.

Works on other metals as well, but only for [sum] rounds. With 4 [dice], you can make the effect permanent.

7. Speak with Fabrics

Talk to clothes and cloth for [sum] minutes, or ask [dice] questions they must answer, save negates. Textiles only know about things that touched them, but they can tell a lot from a simple touch.

8. Powerful Presence

T: self; D: [sum] hours

You project an aura of magnificence and poise. Gain +2×[dice] to saves against charm, domination and fear. Easily impressed creatures (peasants, lesser fairies and petty nobles) must test Morale or fawn and grovel.

9. Silken Servant

R: touch; D: [sum] hours

Enchant a set of clothes or a fabric doll no larger than a child/man/horse/dragon to serve you. It can follow complex instructions, but cannot fight and will collapse after a single blow.

10. Mirror Mirror

D: 10 minutes

Reach into a mirror-like surface and pull out [dice] illusory copies of a creature mirrored on the surface. The mirror must be large enough for them to pass through. The mirror clones behave as you wish. They can walk and talk, but cannot pick anything up and burst like a bubble if struck. You can alter their clothing, grooming and styling at will.

If you mirror yourself with 3+ [dice], you can see through your clones' eyes and hear through their ears, cast your spells through them, and switch places with your mirror twin as a half action.

 

Shadows of Arezzo Giulia Ferraro
by Bruce Luan

 

Emblem Spells:

You have access to a powerful crowd control and a single-target save-or-die emblems, but both are tools of art and admiration, not crude and callow murder.

11. I Expect You To Dine

R: 30'; D: concentration

Up to [sum] total HD of creatures find themselves unable to move, no save. If sitting, they will be tied to the chair with ribbons; if standing, their shoes will be sewed to the carpet, etc. As an action, they can attempt to tear themselves free with -[dice] penalty, and any hostile action against a target also breaks the spell.

12. My Lovely Doll

Touched creature of 2×[dice] or less HD is turned into a tiny puppet of themselves, save negates. They are helpless but fully aware. Lasts for a minute/hour/day/eternity, but any damage suffered by the doll reverts the transformation.

by Chelsea Boy

 

Dooms:

1. Your eyes turn into buttons for 10 minutes, leaving you blind.
2. Your skin turns into skin-coloured silk, permanently. Take double fire and slashing damage.
3. You transform into a tiny, beauteous doll. You are helpless but fully aware, forever.

You can prevent (but not revert) all your Dooms by discarding and forswearing all your worldly possessions. Once you take this vow, you may only own and use simple, mundane clothes and tools; and may not own, use, or even carry money and valuables, properties and deeds, or magical and masterwork items of any kind. On the bright side, as a mendicant ascetic you are no longer bound by your Flaw and may keep your magic no matter your appearance and apparel. On the bleak side, this is considered a fate worse than death by many a fashion wizard.

Should you ever break this vow, you immediately suffer your final Doom. Maybe finding a way to animate your doll-body or transmigrate your soul into a more suitable vessel is the better solution.

 

Miniature Ranni from Elden Ring

RadMans

So, deadEarth... Such an incredible marvel of insane game design. Reading this thread, I fell in love with the idea that if you just completely reworked the main resolution mechanic, removed the sexism, reworded most of the rules so that they made a semblance of sense, replaced... Yeah, I started to hack it, because the characters that survive character generation are incredibly amusing and worthy of being played, just not in the deadEarth engine.

I have regained my sanity before getting too far, but I still have this automated character generator with a revised list of skills and no rules to accompany it. If ever a strange mood compels me to refine the nearly two thousand radiation manipulations (i.e. reality-warping mutations) into a format and content I would be happy with, I will let you know. But don't hold your breath.

The Last Stand: Diceless Pseudo-Wargame

Caput Caprae has reminded me of a game we used to play with my brothers when I was about twelve years old, which could be considered an extremely rudimentary kind of wargame. Maybe. We have built many a fortress from LEGO and wanted to have a nice siege, but knew nothing about wargames. So we made our own. These are the rules reimagined from what I remember, because of course there were no written rules.

You only need LEGO blocks to play this game. I will refer to the block names from here.

Units:

• Soldier (1x1 Brick or 1x1 Brick, Round) is the basic unit.
• Rider is a soldier on a horse (1×2 Plate). They are better in melee.
• Hero is a soldier with a coloured cap (1×1 Plate, Round). They get superpowers.
• Catapult (1x2 Brick) allows you to use the Missile action.
• Siege tower (2+ stacked 1x2 Bricks) allows soldiers to move over bulwarks.
• Dragon (2×2 Brick) is a bit overpowered.

The rest of the blocks should be used to build forts and fortifications.

Setup:
Prepare your terrain. We usually had a carpet as the dry land, with the floor around standing for the sea. Books and boxes and whatever else you have at hand can make for nice cliffs and mountains. And of course, don't forget to prepare your LEGO castle.

Decide how many units of which kind each player will get. There were no unit prices in our game, we made up a scenario and each player would take whatever units seemed appropriate. The Last Stand actually refers to a popular scenario of ours - one player gets the castle, the other player gets a much bigger army besieging it.

On the other hand, the number of caps for heroes and mages should be about the same for all players. If you don't have enough caps for everyone to have the same choice of hero powers, then the player who will go last in turn order picks one cap, then go in reverse turn order until the desired number of caps is chosen.

The players then deploy their units at will. Once again, in a pre-made scenario, this didn't matter that much. Units cannot be attached to the bulwarks they stand on - either cover the walls in smooth tiles or put the units across the pins. We want not-so-stable, free-standing units for the Missile action.

Turns:
Determine who goes first, then players alternate turns. On your turn, take one action chosen from the following types:

1. Missile
2. Move & Melee
3. Magic

Missile

You can only take a Missile action if you have a catapult on the battlefield. You also have limited ammo per turn - we played with 2 or 3 shots, I think.

Put your hand over any of your catapults, then throw a projectile. Any unit, friend or foe, that gets knocked over is killed. If a unit is knocked back but not over, it survived. Note that units that are harder to kill in melee get no such protection against missiles, and fortifications can also be knocked down by missile fire.

Our projectiles were usually 2×2 Brick or 1×3 Brick, but sometimes we also had glass marbles or bearing balls. We never did this, but you could have several kinds of siege engines with different ammo, like making a ballista by shooting a rubber band. Or use dice as missiles.

Move & Melee

Move one group of units across the battlefield. They cannot pass through enemy units, bulwarks or castle walls, or other impassable terrain. Otherwise, you are the judge of what counts as "too far to move in a single turn". Forts and fortifications should have some access point that you can conquer. Or you can move a siege tower next to a wall, then on your next turn move your units inside. Riders and catapults, however, cannot use siege towers.

Castle gates, by the way, can only be destroyed by missile fire (don't attach the gate firmly), a Shatter spell, or by a hero with Might. We didn't use any battering rams.

When (groups of) units end up adjacent, a melee ensues. Sum up the number of kills each side achieves, then remove that many units - the resolution is simultaneous and the sides can achieve mutual wipe out.

• Each soldier causes one kill.
• Each rider kills two and takes two hits to kill. One hit alone does not cause them lasting harm.
• Heroes cause [1 + number of caps] kills and take the same number of simultaneous hits to kill. This can be further modified by their powers.
• Dragons are a bit of a special case, see below.
• Catapults and siege towers cannot attack in melee, and get "killed" in a single hit.

For example, Alice moved 2 riders and 8 soldiers next to Bob's group of 10 soldiers and a catapult. Alice gets 12 kills, Bob gets 10 kills. Bob's group is completely wiped out, while Alice keeps 1 rider.

The active player decides which units from a group (both their own and enemy) are killed, but should start from the closest units. Especially if a group of soldiers is guarding a hero or a siege tower, you cannot kill the protected unit before removing its guardians.

Magic

You can cast one spell per action by removing one cap from any of your heroes. This may cause them to become a normal soldier.

• Berserk: The hero's group deals double damage until the end of your next turn.
• Protection: The hero's group cannot be harmed until the start of your next turn. If the units are knocked down by a missile, they must be restored to their original positions.
• Curse: Choose a player to curse. If the cursed player wants to use a Missile action on their next turn, they have to do so blind.
• Brambles: Choose a player; their units cannot Move & Melee on their next turn.
• Fear: Move an enemy group of units.
• Construct: Build and place a new structure somewhere near the hero. For example, a ramp to the castle walls.
• Shatter: Remove (a part of) a structure.
• Summon: Deploy a new group of units. The group is placed around the hero. You may not add more units than you had at the start of the game, so either you have kept some in reserve, or you are summoning the reanimated bodies of your dead soldiers.

Heroes:
Heroes get superpowers (in addition to the Magic action), denoted by the colour or shape of their cap.

• Might: Counts as a catapult and may destroy structures by attacking them.
• Shield: Cannot be killed by missiles or magic. If the unit is knocked down by a missile, it must be restored to its original position.
• Immortal: When killed, remove one of their caps and re-deploy them at the end of your next turn.
• Assassin: Can scale walls and terrain, so can Move pretty much anywhere on the table.

By the way, you can put a hero on horseback for that extra bit of power.

You can also make fun hero combination like an immortal assassin - move them behind enemy lines to kill a valuable unit in melee, and though as a lone unit they will be killed, they will just come back for another assassination.

Dragons:
Dragons are like heroes on magical steroids. They can fly (as Assassin) and use fire breath (as Might). They also kill 10 units in melee and have to be hit by 10 units simultaneously to die*. They can also be ridden by a hero.

*) I think. I don't remember the exact number, but it was something like this.
 

The Square Kingdom of South America prepares for battle...

 

...with the hundred heroes of the Round Realm...

  

...who serve the accursed Skull Titan...

 

...while the immortal Dragon Queen of Africa
watches from afar, ready to pounce on the weakened winner.

The Orb of Wishing

This might be one of the most fun magic items I have ever given to my players:

A larger crystal orb (1 Slot) that glows with strong inner light.

When you first touch the orb, you are flooded by strange visions that paralyse you until you succeed on a Will save. Once you pass, you gain control of the orb and may channel a sliver of its power - you have three wishes. It is not possible to wish alternatingly; once somebody else gains control of the orb, you lose any of your remaining wishes and may never again control the orb.

Zuran Orb from MtG

 

So far, the players have wished to:

1. Destroy the orb's guardian, averting a looming TPK.
2. Cure 50 years of unnatural ageing.
3. Regrow both hands of one unlucky companion.
4. Be cured of all ills. (Said character was severely injured and double-cursed.)
5. Become rich. (Wish pending completion, wait for the next session.)
6. Be young forever.
7. Grant human speech to their dog companion.
8. Resurrect a long-dead scientist for his lost knowledge.
9. Cure a fatal anaphylactic shock. (On the same character who had previously lost both of his hands...)

These wishes are in no way a monkey's paw. They follow the spirit of the request and sometimes even go a bit further, when the wording of the wish would needlessly weaken its beneficial effect. And yet my players are already paranoid, carefully planning on what to do with their effectively unlimited wishes. But are they truly unlimited? Who can they trust with the power of the orb, once everyone in the party has had their wishes granted? How can they compel anybody to wish for them? What if a word gets out? The schemes are piling up and up and up.

I must thank Skerples and Archon for the idea of giving the players a campaign-wrecking item early on and letting them loose. It is working gloriously.

Mythic Weapons

I love the idea of specialist weapons and how this is used in Mythic Bastionland. Here are d100 such weapons.

 

by Wayne Reynolds

 

This weapon is...

1. a sword
2. an axe
3. a bludgeon
4. a polearm
5. flexible
6. unusual
7. ranged
8. tricked-out

...and deals +d10 damage...

1. in a duel
2. in a battle formation
3. in a cramped space
4. in a wide-open space
5. in the first round of combat
6. in defence of (d4) innocents/the ruling class/secrets and lies/your home
7. in pursuit of (d4) knowledge/forgiveness/renown/revenge
8. in untamed wilderness
9. in water
10. in pitch darkness
11. at night
12. while in (d4) candle/sun/moon/twilight (+2d10 in Twilight)
13. while at full hp
14. while at 0 hp
15. while bleeding or injured
16. while leaping or falling
17. while above your foe
18. while below your foe
19. while the foe is in their home
20. while the foe has attacked you first
21. while lavishly clad
22. while near-naked
23. while masked
24. while mounted
25. while music is playing
26. while singing
27. while praying, loudly
28. while leading a charge
29. while mocking your foe
30. while already dead
31. while possessed
32. while (d4) hungry/filthy/drunk/blinded
33. when outnumbered
34. when also using a shield
35. vs people with a shield
36. vs people with no shield
37. vs people with no helmet
38. vs people wielding a one-handed weapon
39. vs people wielding a two-handed weapon
40. vs people wielding no weapon
41. vs mounts
42. vs mounted
43. vs armoured
44. vs unarmoured
45. vs known liars
46. vs known debtors
47. vs oath-brakers
48. vs law-breakers
49. vs law-enforcers
50. vs warriors by trade
51. vs magic-users
52. vs sword-wielders
53. vs virgins
54. vs nobles (+2d10 vs royalty)
55. vs women and children
56. vs friends and family
57. vs wild animals
58. vs animal people and talking animals
59. vs humans (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
60. vs demi-humans (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
61. vs greenskins (50% chance of only a specific ethnic)
62. vs elves and plants
63. vs dwarves and fungi
64. vs creatures smaller than you are
65. vs creatures larger than you are
66. vs creatures of magic
67. vs creatures of darkness
68. vs the Dark Ones
69. vs celestial spirits
70. vs terrestrial spirits
71. vs chthonic spirits
72. vs infernal spirits
73. vs undead
74. vs dragons
75. vs constructs
76. vs man-made monstrosities
77. vs extradimensional horrors
78. vs unseen foes
79. vs prone foes
80. vs poisoned foes
81. vs disarmed foes
82. vs fleeing foes
83. vs superior foes
84. vs uninjured foes
85. vs bleeding or injured foes
86. vs the sick and the deformed
87. vs flying creatures
88. vs aquatic creatures
89. vs summoned creatures
90. vs scaled creatures
91. vs horned or antlered creatures
92. vs shelled or boney creatures
93. vs poisonous or venomous creatures
94. vs many-limbed creatures
95. vs a foe you have already battled before
96. vs a foe that has wronged you
97. vs one specific nemesis from your backstory
98. vs those whose full name you know
99. vs those you have broken bread with
100. vs your employer