A to Z Blogging Challenge - I'm in!

So finally I decided to participate in A to Z Blogging Challenge. I have almost complete list of entries, but I'm worried about one thing. As my level of English is very low, I often ask my friends to correct my text. Now I feel that they may be tired of this, and I have no guts to post long, uncorrected texts. It may lead to very nasty events, including death of this blog :/

Meanwhile - if you hadn't alredy done it - check my newest creation - Bandits and Basilisks :-)

Bandits & Basilisks is out now!

Bandits & Basilisks - my (very) rules-lite old school gaming system is now available for download. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any suggestions - feel free to comment. More about its features can be found here (there are not too many of them because the entire game has 8 pages!).

LINK

It's also available via Box widget on Terminal  Space blog.

Underworld Wilderness

As the Ortix is completely tectonically inactive (this causes the absence of earthquakes an on the whole surface of the planet there is only one active volcano; moreover - it was artificially created), its interior is full of huge cave complexes. One of them is the Underworld Kingdom - an indefinitly vast network of underground caves, so large that traveling through them takes days if not weeks. In some of these caves, often covered with phosphorescent mushrooms and other strange strange vegetation, one can find old and new traces of humans existence (and other races, such as goblins and Ho-Ru the Black Lizardmen). Moreover - inhabited settlements can also be found there.

I called these places simply the "underworld wilderness". They will be mapped on standard wilderness hexagonal maps and travel through them is no different from the surface travels (except the fact that most of the underworld is much more dangerous than even the worst areas beneath the light of the Cold Star). In addition to the great caves, the underworld is dotted with smaller caves and tunnels sometimes connected into a real labirynthe of structures.

Of course, in addition to the great caves, the underworld is dotted with smaller caves and tunnels, sometimes connected into a real labyrinthine structures. this type of space can be regarded asa typical dungeon and their maps - mainly due to an entirely diffrenet scale - will be classic dungeon maps.

Sample (most important) areas of the Underworld Wilderness:

• Great Cave of Ghohk – part of the Underworld that is inhabited by humans;
• Underground Sea – forgotten and (almost) dead place, once inhabited by Ho-Ru;
• Jungle Caves – lightened by mysterious glowing crystals, still populated by prehistoric beasts and monsters;
• Silver Dome – very big, deeply situated cavern, guarded by Portal Fortress. Beware the dragons!

Thirteen Gods of Ortix

1. The Cockroach King - god of unsatiable hunger and thirst;
2. Resh-Eiar, the Spider-squid of the Deep - god of darkness and bottomless pits, probably associated with Atlach-Nacha;
3. Rust, the Desert Godess - godess of broken bones, desert wind and sand dragons;
4. Ibost, God Behind the Wall - walled up in the Shadeless Tower in the city of Ibost;
5. Lanakhoi, the Drowned God - corpse-god of bottomless seas;
6. Ctuar - god of keys;
7. Ghaig - god of weaklings and cowards, keeper of doorless chambers;
8. Ddakr - "slayer of the monsters, father of the slain";
9. Thugya, The Serpent Worm - god of unrest;
10. Ysail - god of boredom and forgotten places;
11. Rnoist - keeper of The Number Thirteen, god of the Pale Fishes;
12. Iathacla - three-handed god of slumber, coma and unexpected circumstances;
13. Zsakrn - keeper of the dead, deliverer of bad news, cheater at cards. Maybe he is associated with the Crimson King.

20 drunkards

Forgive me a lack of more creative content, but I'm busy with preparing Bandits & Basilisks.

Roll d20 (there will be 100 of them in the PDF! :D)

1. Hroth. 3 HP. Stinks horribly.

2. Gunthar the Lame. 5 HP. Lame, carries a club.

3. Iorika the Hag. 1 HP. Old and ugly. Reads the palm in exchange for booze.

4. The Fisherman. 5 HP. Bearded and fat. Stinks of fishes.

5. Yngrik the Cursed. 6 HP. Cursed by the gods – never gets sober.

6. Robun. 3 HP. Tall, thin and warty.

7. Red Gretha. 2 HP. Resident of the Dead Rooster Inn.

8. Tradolf the One-handed. 2 HP. Former pickpocket.

9. Silent Tom. 4 HP. Mute cutthroat.

10. Sailor Boond. 1 HP. Very old, long haired, with wooden leg.

11. Artik. 6 HP. Sings and howls when drunk.

12. Grist. 2 HP. Former gravedigger.

13. Onthack. 5 HP. Shoplifter who exchanges stolen goods for alcohol.

14. Fertha. 3 HP. Former prostitute, she claims that she origins from the royal family.

15. Boris the Pale. 4 HP. One eyed mugger.

16. Hrud. 3 HP. Former city guard. Still wears his moldy leather armor.

17. Fiery Faye. 5 HP. Horribly disfigured by burn scars.

18. Drakis. 5 HP. Former mercenary, has lost his legs during his last campaign. Carries two daggers.

19. Crith. 4 HP. Coward and backstabber.

20. Unglip. 2 HP. Drunk and charlatan, selling fake magical potions.

20 Lovecraftian names

Part of my big Lovecraftian names list. Roll 1d20:

1. Xshogg
2. Zhugg-Nthat
3. Pha’tho
4. Rroth’rok
5. Iathacla
6. Rnoist
7. Llar
8. Chthua’Nor
9. Shh-ggh
10. Cthig’yik
11. Khrtho-Raa
12. N’ssaugh’nac
13. Th’nath
14. Kr’shosh
15. Nyiguth
16. Mmml’natkh
17. Ibost
18. Ctuar
19. Cthotheus
20. Ddakr

Coming soon!

My rules - lite (lighter than Microlite74!) old-school roleplaying system, based on 0e. Some of its features:

• No character class - PCs are just adventurers;
• No example spells - internet is full of them (I encourage you to drop all standard spells and switch to i.e. Ancient Vaults and Eldritch Secrets spellbook);
• Only two example monsters (bandit and basilisk :D).

File will be available for free, but I'd be grateful if you buy me a drink :-)

Important quote (and its aftermath)

Mages generally do not need to carry weapons other than daggers, but those of fifth level and above can use magic swords, and those of tenth level and above may use all magic weapons. However they may never carry more than one at a time, for the use of weapon requires a mental discipline alien to the philosophy of magic, and so will interfere with a mage’s concentration if he relies on them too much.

- David A. Hargrave

I like it very much and I based some of my house rules are based on it:

• Temple Assassins (one version of Mystic) are allowed to use only daggers, but from sixth level they can use any type of one handed swords. 
• Eremites (as above - Mystic) are allowed to use only blunt weapons (as ordinary Clerics), but from sixth level they can use bows (mainly in order to hunt and survive).
• Priests of the "evil" gods (such as Cockroach King or Spider-Squid god Rresh-Eiar) are allowed to use daggers instead of bashing weapons.
• I think that I'll use Hargrave's rule for magic-users of Ortix.

Hex map preview

Very unfinished version of map of the Ortix's surface. It will be fucking huge (app. 42x48 cm) and I have no idea how to put it into a PDF :D

If you have some comments / ideas about its dimensions (imperial metric system is killing me and I don't know anything about your big print formats! :D) - please help me to optimize it.

Ancient town-planning

 

Do you have a problem with creating a convincing-looking city for your own campaign? Did your towns looks unrealalistic? Maybe I have a solution for you.

Ancient Town-planning is a PDF file, created by a Francis Haverfield. It contains very useful information about several ancient cities. It may be very useful in designing a RPG-oriented agglomerations.

Here is a link; also it can be found in the other sources section on a sidebar.

[old stuff] So, how many mutations do you have?

This is the old version of additional tables, helpful in determining number of mutations posessed by the natives from Ortix. It will be unused / heavily modified in my current game.

1. Born on the one of the moons

01 - 90	Not mutated!
91 - 98	One mutation
99	Two mutations
00	Three mutations

2. Born in the City of Gods

01 - 98	No mutations
99 - 00	One mutation(outcast)

3. Born on the Central Wastelands

01 - 10	Not mutated
11 - 40	One mutation
41 - 70	Two mutations
71 - 90	Three mutations
91 - 98	Four mutations
99 - 00	Five mutations

4. Born in the Last Kingdom, Khaal or similar place

01 - 25	Not mutated
26 - 85	One mutation
86 - 00	Two mutations
00	Three mutations

5. Born in the Underworld Kingdom

01 - 75	No mutations
76 - 00	One mutation

6. Born in the Tomb of the Exiled

01 - 85	Not mutated
86 - 95	One mutation
96 - 98	Two mutations
99	Three mutations
00	Four mutations

Skills - overview

As I don't like useless (roleplay killing) skills in old school D&D games, I use only two of them in my campaign. Both of these skills are the reflection of knowledge possessed by a character. Note: I don't know if I will use both of them in my current game - perhaps I'll drop Knowledge and stay only with Arcane Lore.

Knowledge - skill about science, forgotten technologies and lore of the past. Can be used to identify the purpose of ancient machinery (if it's possible at all), repair and maintain technological devices, or even more advanced tasks, like biological research, scientific experiments and so on.

Arcane Lore is a skill about almost every aspect of occult, magical or even demonic knowledge. It can be used to perform magical research, rituals, summon demons (if the appropriate ritual is known) and even - under several circumstances - to create potions or identify magic items.

At the end - an important word about skills (from Terminal Space):

Despite that, if a player sees a solution to a problem that can be accepted by the Referee even though the character does not possess the appropriate skill or its level is too low then the skill check can be omitted. Any solutions created by the players should have a priority over the game mechanics but the final decision is up to the Referee.
The maximum level of the skills below is 95% to mark the fact that even the best can make mistakes.