Philly on Fire #3

The party heads back to Mike’s to find Mike isn’t there. A cryptic note says he went to the bank.

After the day they’ve had, they raid Mike’s fridge, drink all his beer, and eat what little food he has. Alvin tries to work Mike’s computer, but in his drunken state, he sets off the security designed to wipe the computers clean. Fearing it’s a bomb, the drunken party trashed the computers and some furniture trying to escape the blast radius. In her fear, Kara ends up accidentally hexing most of the electronics in the apartment.

While the group was out, Mike finished his patch to fix the economy collapse. But, he needs to run it on a computer hooked up to the secure financial servers. He heads to the Federal Reserve and fast talks his way in.

As he’s working on uploading the code, two building guards tell him he’s not supposed to be there and to get out. He tries to fast talk again, but they tell him they’re working for his aunt, the White Court vampire maven who told him to fix the problem in the first place. And they’re here to stop him.

A battle ensues and Mike kills the two guards, but not before they raise an alarm. When mortal guards find Mike, he’s hiding under a desk in the server room, feigning fear. They take him into a conference room for protection and lock him in there. He tries to force the door, but it won’t budge. He calls his aunt, who says she’ll send someone to take care of this.

Alvin’s police radio (which escaped hexing because it’s older and simpler) chirps news of the slayings at the Federal Reserve, and that it’s being blamed on James. Since James is in the room with everyone, they figure it’s Mike and head over to help.

James and Maeve stay in the car because they’re wanted. Alvin sees six FBI guys heading over to the building and Kara IDs them as White Court vampires. Alvin heads over to stop them and they get into an argument. One of the FBI goes and talks to the office in charge of the scene. The officer comes over and tells Alvin to let the FBI in. Alvin says no. The office smells beer on Alvin’s breath, tells him to go home, and threatens to have him fired. Alvin threatens to tear his arms and legs off.

The officer in charge leaves to get reinforcements. Kara casts a veil and she and Sean head inside to help Mike. Maeve creates a distraction by getting several cops to chase her. About a third of them do.

When the reinforcements arrive, Alvin tears the doors off the entrance to use as a shield/barricade, but accidentally shatters them. The cops taze him, but he only feigns incapacitation. As the FBI try to step past him, he grabs as many as possible and world walks to the NeverNever.

Three FBI and five cops all appear in a snow covered clearing where Alvin meets some dire wolf friends. The dire wolves are happy Alvin brought them some mortals to eat. Alvin offers them the vampires instead. They don’t like that trade, but Alvin’s bigger and meaner.

James, sensing that things aren’t going well and needing time to think, takes Alvin’s cop car and drives off unnoticed into the night.

Sean and Kara find Mike and break him out of the conference room. Mike needs to go back to the servers to finish up. Kara keeps watch while Sean stays with Mike. The FBI shows up and Kara blows them back down the hall with a blast of air. She raises the alarm to let Sean and Mike know trouble is here.

The vampires threaten Kara with their speed and strength, so she flees. Sean tries to hold them off, but they manage to start feeding on him. Since they’re phobophages, he’s scared into a moderate and severe consequence.

Mike finishes his fix and joins the fight, transforming and shredding his clothes. He kills one vampire and drives off the other with Sean’s help. But Sean isn’t in any shape to get out of there, since he just want to hide from the vampires. Mike tazes him, hides his sword in the drop ceiling of a conference room, and carries Sean out. Somehow the naked man, carrying another man, manage to sneak past a bunch of cops.

Mike steals a cop car and throws Sean in the back. Kara follows them and takes shotgun. Maeve circles back and hops in the car as Mike drives away. The cops follow in hot pursuit.

Philly on Fire #1

The morning after, Mike was in the process of setting up a new residence. His old place had been ransacked, so he couldn’t go back. There was a knock at the door and his aunt, a white court vampire, and 3 of her friends wanted to talk. Before he could bolt, they kicked the door in and told him to have a seat. She wanted her money back, with interest. And while he was working on that, she wanted him to take out a pack of lycanthropes, called the Rax, that was in her way.

Alvin heads into the police station and is called into a meeting with all of the other cops. They’re told that with all of the banking systems cleared out, they won’t be receiving a paycheck this week. They also called in all available officers to keep the peace in case people riot.

Kara is woken by her man-servant and given the newspaper, which clearly notes the global collapse. She’s loaded, so she’s got some cash laying around. But her fortunes are gone. She makes some inquiries, but no one’s got any answers yet. She decides to head into town to volunteer her time. As she’s leaving, 3 winter court soldiers stop her and declare the winter queen’s displeasure that she’s working with sorcerers. Kara’s involvement clearly means the white council is involved as well, jeopardizing any relations she’s been trying to foster between them. Though she disavows any involvement with the sorcerers, the soldiers don’t care. They’re following orders and the winter queen is not known for her mercy. Kara manages to buy herself some time before she has to turn herself in to the winter queen for punishment.

Maeve gives her report about the Denarian to church officials and then heads out to help people. She happens upon a man stealing money from a woman and her 3 children in their apartment. Maeve quickly subdues him and takes his gun. She lets him go, but as he leaves, a shen demon coming in the front door sets him on fire and attacks Maeve.

Sean is passing by, looking to help people, when he sees a shen demon land on the roof of an apartment building. He climbs the fire escape to investigate and finds Maeve fighting another. The hallway catches fire as Sean dispatches one of the demons with a single blow.

James is finally released from police custody (he was implicated in the chemical plant explosion) and learns that Reg, one of his team, is missing. He also hears of the economy collapse. But more importantly, a member of Charon has been implicated in the assassination of several Pennsylvanian politicians. Just then, the FBL come knocking on his door. James grabs his gun and heads out the fire escape as the FBI agents pursue. It takes considerable effort for him to lose them.

Mike, who was a pawn in the plot to collapse the economy, does some research and uncovers the news about Charon. He also finds that similar assassinations, occurring in every city with a U.S mint, and perpetrated by Charon, have occurred this morning. When Mike fails to get in touch with James, he takes matters into his own hands and begins erasing James’ identity from every database he can get access to.

Alvin and 2 other officers are assigned to protect a block with 3 banks. When people start congregating at one of the closed banks, Alvin knocks some heads together and sparks wave of terrified people (those knocks were pretty scary). As the panicked populace threatens to trample each other, a small, jesterly man gets Alvin’s attention and tells him the winter queen wants to speak with him. Alvin has no time and wades into the sea of people to rescue some children who were being trampled, He tosses the unconscious man (who got knocked), the children, and the jester into a bus to protect them. With the crowd dispersed, the jester offers Alvin some money to go with him to see the queen. Alvin agrees and soon the winter queen is offering to reward him if he seeks out some criminals and makes an example out of them. He agrees, she sends him after Kara and the sorcerers, and hands him a fat stack of cash to help him out, with the promise of a more reward when he is successful.

Maeve defeats the other shen as a bunch of small shen come down the stairs to face Sean. Sean tries to intimidate the smaller foes, but they merge together to form a much larger demon. Sean struggles to hurt it. Maeve works to put the fire out before it spreads throughout the apartment building. As Sean and the shen fight, the floor collapses, leaving Maeve stranded. The shen grabs Maeve and tries to leave with her, but she breaks free. Before they’re able to destroy the demon, it flees. They get the fire out and help the people evacuate. As the cops and fire department begin to arrive, Maeve flees and is immediately arrested for possession of a sword and firearm. Sean ponders whether he’s going to have to break her out of jail.

James gets in touch with Mike for help. They meet in Rittenhouse Park at dusk. Mike tells James the bad news about the other Charon attacks. He then comes clean about the hacking plot. Mike also gives James the intel on the Rax, who James has a history with (and has been tracking for years). They’ll need to work together to take care of the lycanthropes.

Session Report #12 & 13

It actually took us 2 sessions to finish up, since there was some real life stuff that cropped up. No biggie. And the conclusion was, I think, rather epic.

Pavel, Arkady, Felix and Olie (a soldier from a similar team) hunkered down in an old French castle while the rebels deciphered the books. As a week passed, they remembered their real lives, the horrible things Rocard had done, and the pitiful state of the world. They knew he had to be stopped.

They also still had lifetimes of memories from other people. They quickly found they had the skills and class abilities of all previous characters. 

The rebels learned where R'lyeh was sunken and that Rocard would be able to complete the ritual in 2 days time (when the stars were right). The PCs would be dropped into the ocean, swim to the city as it rose, and stop Rocard (and his wife, Maria) once and for all. The rebel forces would attack Rocard's forces in the ocean around the city and hopefully buy them time before they were overrun. 

In the fly over, Olie noticed a heat shimmer and Rocard and a strange lizard-woman appeared from nowhere. The team splashed down and hit the shore.

They encountered a patrol of lizardmen and confronted them, but at great cost. The majority were injured and Pavel gravely so. They opted for stealth to circumvent a shoggoth patrol, and that served them well.

When they made it to the city center, they found a ziggurat with Rocard and his wife atop it, already engaged in the ritual. There was resolve loss in seeing them both for the first time, as well as resolve loss from Maria's hauntingly alien song during the ritual. 

The party's plan was thus: split into two groups, approach by stealth, and use their skills as vicars to try to incapacitate Maria. They hoped that what would bolster the resolve of the mortal would be enough to shatter the resolve of the unknown. This they did with surprising effect, including an apology and promise from Pavel, aka Pepe, that while he was unable to save her 700 years ago, he wouldn't fail her now. 

As Maria fainted, Rocard spit a curse at Arkady that caused flesh-eating crabs to burst from his skin. The others wrested the idol and the book from Rocard with their attacks and severely injured him, but Pavel was mortally wounded. 

Rocard fled between dimensions, but Arkady grabbed hold and was able to follow. Through the formless twilight the two fled until they entered a columned gate into another realm. Arkady stuck swiftly, but Rocard struck truer. Arkady died on an unnamed alien planet.

So in the end, they apprehended Maria, drove off Rocard, recovered the book and idol, and stopped the end of the world. Their success was mixed with failure, but in the end, they won out.

The players surprised me with their tactics. I hadn't planned on them striking at Maria's resolve, but I thought it was such a good idea I let it work. They dropped her resolve to the point, without a physical attack being sent her way.

The dice were definitely against them again that night, and that least to some mishaps. But I had fun, and I think they had fun too. I really liked the idea behind the adventure and I loved the revelations given to the players in pieces. It was neat seeing them question and begin to realize the situation.

Next week is a new system (one I'm writing) and a new adventure. More fun to come!

Session Report #10 & 11

Pavel, Arkady, and Felix searched Chauvet to little effect, though they discovered that the people knew about Lord Rocard, they just weren’t talking.

While Arkady worked the inn, blessing each table and trying to suss out what was going on, Felix noticed some townsfolk who were watching them. When the townsfolk left, Felix followed them. Pavel headed up to his room to try to search the rest of the inn.

The townsfolk went to a well-appointed house. Felix was able to climb up to a window to overhear a discussion between the townsfolk and Lord Rocard. They told him that the inn keeper had done his job and the snooping outsiders would be dealt with tonight.

Felix headed back to report his findings. Arkady confronted the inn keeper while Felix went to check on Pavel. Arkady learned that the group had been poisoned. He puked up his food to minimize his exposure.

Felix found Pavel asleep in his room and was unable to rouse him. After several attempts, Felix grew tired and sat down. Arkady checked on them and forced them both to puke up the poisoned food. Felix was drowsy, but ok, and Pavel was roused with difficulty.

They all raced to the well-appointed house to find it empty, except for two caretakers. While Pavel and Arkady went upstairs to search, the caretakers attacked Felix. They inflicted some serious wounds on him before he received backup and the party dispatched their attackers.

While searching, Arkady found some books describing where the lost city of R’lyeh might be and what was required to summon the dark god. Pavel found a map of underground tunnels with a hidden chamber under the inn and a scrap of paper serving as a diary to a woman named Maria.

As a girl, she was hiding from the town monsters in the woods when she met some travelers who offered to help her. They took her to the church in Desport for safe keeping, but the priest there handed her over to Rocard (she’s convinced the travelers were working for Rocard and betrayed her). Rocard has been victimizing her since, slowly turning her into a monster. She is scheduled to become Rocard’s bride soon, and that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea anymore.

As the party left the building, they recognized the off-tune piping of a shoggoth. They chose to flee with the books, hoping to bury them for the future to find. They stole some horses and rode off. It became clear that the shoggoth was following them, and it seemed to be calling to another shoggoth in the distance (in Desport).

They wrapped the books in oil cloth, searched for a cave, found one, and rigged it to blow, hopefully burying the books. They left Felix to detonate the cave while Arkady and Pavel went to distract the shoggoth. The cave failed to detonate, Pavel fell in combat, and Arkady returned to the cave. Arkady was able to collapse the cave and he and Felix rode out to fight the second shoggoth. Felix fell in that combat, leaving only Arkady.

As he was disposing of the bodies, the ground shook in an earthquake.

*  *  *

The party woke in the traditional white room, though they could hear explosions outside. Dust filtered through the ceiling and an annoying, constant, high-pitched whine filled the room. Three other people were laying on beds, all of them were unresponsive.

The left the room, found that Rocard’s men were assaulting the base, and General McLaughlin’s soldiers were being routed. The remaining soldiers and the party were able to escape the base, located deep within a blasted, barren mountain, via aircraft. They were barely able to escape the enemy aircraft, some of which seemed to be airdropping shoggoths onto the base.

They gave the general their news and flew to France, where met up with more rebels. They were able to find the books. After two weeks of the rebels studying the books, they believe they know Lord Rocard’s plan. During this time, the party’s memories slowly came back and they remembered their true identities for the first time since this began.

Lord Rocard plans to raise the sunken lost city from the ocean and perform the ritual in 3 days’ time. The rebels will airdrop the party onto the city where they must stop Rocard. The rest of the rebel army will face Rocard’s army, hopefully buying them time to end the war.

Tonight should be the epic finale of the adventure arc.

Philly on Fire #2

Mike and James head back to Mike's place, knowing it's not really safe. But James needs to change his appearance and make some calls. He talks to one of his Charon peeps and finds out there's a "Mr. Stone" who wants to talk to him about the "situation." James wants some guns before any meetings.

Alvin hears about the manhunt for James and hops in the cop car with his 2 cop buddies. He also hears about Maeve being arrested. He convinces the cops to intercept the car with Maeve and offers to take her back to the station so the other cops can head back to the super exciting hunt for the terrorist (James). Alvin heads to the manhunt instead, with Maeve in tow.

He lets Maeve go while he joins the search. Maeve takes her sword and the gun and smashes the back window of the cop car before she leaves. She doesn't want Alvin to get in trouble for letting her go.

Alvin is told to search every building in an area. As he does, he finds Kara working in a soup kitchen trying to help the needy. He assumes she knows what's going on and where the book is. He convinces her that they need to find James and he's not letting her out of his sight. She suggests the best place to look for clues is James' apartment.

They head off and find Maeve trying very hard not to be noticed. They pick her up and then head over. On the way, they find Sean, so most of the band is back together (it's nice to have 2 players with "guide my hand").

James' place is swarming with FBI agents, who all outrank Alvin. But Maeve has an old friend with the FBI and he gets them inside. Kara finds some hair in James' bathroom and figures that'll make a good spell component. Alvin sees one of the FBI guys using a torch to cut into a safe. He manages to snatch some of the papers (client lists and personnel files) without drawing too much attention. But he tries for a larger distraction and ends up getting the lot of them escorted off the premise.

Kara casts her tracking spell and they find James and Mike still at Mike's place. NOW the band's back together.

They decide to split up. Mike does some internet research while everyone else heads to the local monster club for some ammo and then a meeting with Mr. Stone.

Mike gets a patch for the financial issues, but has to upload it into a secure banking system. Which is problematic.

James finds some heavy duty ammo for the lycanthropes, as well as some special "anti-fairy" rounds. He's good to go.

They head to the coffee shop where Mr. Stone is and Maeve is surprised to find it's the Denarian. He cordially offers them some coffee, which Alvin is happy to accept. Maeve and Sean take defensive stances with their backs to the wall as Mr. Stone calmly tells James he has evidence as to who set him up, where they are, and how he can get out of this whole mess without too much damage. In exchange he wants the last page of this book with 7 locks.

Suspicious, they ask him what's up with this book. He tells them that it's a history of everything that has and will come. He wants to know how the story ends. He doesn't want to know how to change it, just who wins the war. They're still suspicious, but it sounds like they may be able to appease Mr. Stone and the Winter Queen at the same time.

Before they leave, Mr. Stone tells James that when he finds the book, call a number written on the side of the pay phone on 22nd and Chestnut. Stone flips James a coin for the call. Alvin makes a lunge for it, but misses. James deftly catches it. But it's not a quarter. It's a silver coin...

Feats Only: What's a feat worth?

So as this "feats only" RPG thing takes root in my mind, I'm forced to wonder what a feat is worth. My first inclination is to say something like "+1" or "+2". But it's more complex than that.

My basic idea for progression is this:
1st level: Gain 1 class feat, 1 racial feat, and 1 "misc" feat.
2nd level: Gain 1 class feat.
3rd level: Gain 1 racial feat.
4th level: Gain 1 misc feat.
5th level: Gain 1 class feat.
Etc.

So the answer to the question of "what's a feat worth" is "1 level".

So far, here's what I've got, with no play testing or data to back it up other than my thumb in the wind.

Pick 2:

• +1 bonus
• 1 divine spell
• 2 arcane spells
• +1 level of hit points
• Fill a prerequisite
• +1 die of damage

or

Pick 1:

• 3 arcane spells
• A special ability
• An additional attack
• +1 level of hit points (stepped up twice)

So a typical fighter feat may be something like "+1 to hit and +1d8 hit points". A typical wizard feat may look like "+1 to casting and +2 spells". 

Feats Only: An Overview

Someone around here talked about making race just a feat you took at first level. After all, humans get an extra feat at 1st level (in 3rd and 4th eds). It makes sense that race is the equivalent of a feat.

This got me thinking about taking the idea further. In some editions, there are racial classes (whether they're racial kits that make elven knights different from dwarven knights or you actually take a level in "elf"). I really like this, since it kind of fleshes out the "typical" member of a race without making them all 0 level or what have you. It also sets PCs apart from typical members.

So what if you could take your "race" as a feat at 1st level. This includes the basics: elf, dwarf, hafling, human, etc. At subsequent levels, you could take other racial feats that have the "core" racial feat as a prerequisite. So at first level you take "elf" which gives you infravision and maybe something else. Then, when you get another feat, you could take a feat to make you a grey elf, or a drow, or whatever. But you'd have to have "elf" first. So you couldn't be a dwarf and take "drow". Your race would come first, followed by any subrace/culture/environmental stuff. And you could build some type of feat tree if you really wanted.

Taking this further, why not make class a feat as well? What if everyone gets 1d4 hit points per level. But if at 1st level you took "fighter" as a class feat and it gave you 1d10 instead of 1d4. Then you could take other feats that have fighter as a prereq (like weapon training, armor training, more attacks per round, higher damage, etc.)

If you took wizard instead, you get the ability to cast spells, but not any HP bump. Further feats could include better casting, the ability to create magic items, school specialization, etc.

If we combine them, we could potentially link the old "favored" class with a core racial feat ability like, "As an elf, when you gain a new racial feat, you may choose from the elf or wizard feats."

Progression then becomes just a series of feats:

1st level - choose 1 racial feat and 1 class feat
2nd level - choose 1 class feat
3rd level - choose 1 racial feat
4th level - choose 1 "free" feat (something like skill training, movement related feats, improved initiative, multiclass, etc.)
5th level - choose 1 class feat
6th level - choose 1 racial feat
etc...

I want to do some more thinking about this. But I think it might be neat to do. It could draw on the player's option stuff from 2nd ed, 3rd ed stuff, 4th ed stuff as a base and then take things further.

Philly on Fire - A Dresden Files Adventure

We started a new Dresden Files adventure on Saturday. The characters are recurring from an adventure I ran maybe 2 years ago. The characters are:

• Alvin – A half-ogre Philly cop trying to balance his responsibilities to two worlds.

• James – A mortal who heads up a mercenary outfit called Charon. He’s new to all of this insanity regarding fairies and magic.

• Kara – A winter court changeling who is grudgingly accepted as a wizard of the white council. She operates an underground railroad for those supernatural in need.

• Maeve – Scion of the archangel Michael. She’s got a bad reputation with the law and is stubbornly independent.

• Mike – A were-panther hacker who used to work for the government. He’s incredibly paranoid and lives as far off the grid as possible for a hacker.

• Sean – A holy warrior chosen as God’s right hand. He’s related to Maeve, swings a mean sword, and is reviled by the church.

I started the adventure by running everyone through what I call a “short story”. Basically, I put each of the PCs in a bad situation. We go around the table and each player tells me how they got into the situation. We go around the table again and they tell me how things get worse. Every bad thing they tell me, they get a fate point. We go around the table again, and they tell me how things get even worse. More fate points. Finally, they tell me how they get out of the mess. Every unresolved hook garners them another fate point. There are no dice involved. It's all narration for short stories. Players can get as wacky or epic as they want.

At the end of the short stories (the player ended up threading them together so they all happened at the same time), we had the Comcast building lying in ruins, a Denarian running free, sorcerers plotting to take over Philadelphia (and potentially the world), a chemical plant explosion, a bounty hunter possessed by an Outsider, the collapse of the global economy due to a mysterious plot, and a member of Charon kidnapped. All in 1 night.

With as crazy as things were, I had to start the next adventure immediately afterwards, so we could resolve all of those great hooks! And so the adventure started…

Session Report #9

It’s been a while, mostly because it’s been a while since we’ve last gamed. We’ve all been busy with RealLife™. Anyway, when we last met our fateful heroes:

Pavel and Arkady, our two Russian soldiers, found themselves on a road headed to the mountains. After being told by General McLaughlin that they’d have no control in the past, would merely be observing, and would have all of the working knowledge of their hosts, they found this was definitely not the case. In fact, they had complete control over their hosts’ bodies, no clear knowledge of what their hosts were doing, and only vague and indistinct memories from their hosts. Additionally, they still looked like themselves, which begs the question, are they really in hosts?

They found some personal affects in their packs and were able to roughly hash out their new identities, in so far as Arkady appeared to be a priest named Phillip and Pavel a knight named Bovier.
Trusting their hosts were doing the right thing, they continued in the direction they appeared in, traveling several hours towards the mountains before arriving at the town of Chauvet. The bustling town seemed inviting and friendly to Arkady, but Pavel had a bad feeling about it. As they passed through town, Pavel found his fears concentrated mainly on the town square, the inn, and a random house.

Arkady, curious about Pavel’s strange déjà vu about this town, made some inquiries among the townsfolk. He found that while they professed to have no knowledge of a man named Rocard, they were clearly hiding something. The more questioned he asked, the more townsfolk began discretely watching him.

Pavel skirted the area and tried to learn more of the town’s layout while also identifying those places he professed an aversion to. When they met up again, they were approached by a knight named Felix who seemed to know Pavel. He inquired about Pavel’s family and life before noticing Pavel didn’t recognize him. He explained that he was sent by the church to meet with Boivier and Phillip to investigate missing caravans. Though it was rare for caravans to go missing, the church wanted to root out the source and lay to rest any apprehension merchants may have about the dangers of travelling to such a prosperous town.

It was a short session and we didn’t get much done. But we did get the intro and exposition completed.

I also started statting up monsters, giving them levels with level benefits like the player classes. That should make things more interesting when they start encountering higher level adversaries.

Session Report #8

The game’s not over, I’m just lazy and haven’t updated. That said, we did take 2 weeks off to prep for the next game. 

When last we met our fateful heroes, they were Russian soldiers in Nazi occupied Poland. They were sent on a mission to find out why the Nazis were so hell bent on defending this small town. They ventured into the mountains and found soldiers pulling dismembered bodies out of an old mine. 

The PCs made their plan and started to take position. Unfortunately, the scholar slipped and fell down the hillside – right into the middle of the soldiers. The other PCs opened fire while the scholar leapt into a mine cart and sped off into the mine (followed by 2 workers). 

The battle was bloody, and of the 5 men the PCs had with them, only 2 survived (and one was unconscious). Even the PCs were badly injured. 

Meanwhile, in the mine, the scholar follows the tracks to a cavern filled with people partially encased in the walls, floor, and ceiling. In the center was an ancient step pyramid. 

The people appeared to be in pain, though only vaguely aware of their surroundings. The workers here were chipping away at the stone and then cutting the bodies up. Much resolve was lost hearing their cries, seeing the carnage, and crossing the sometimes hard, sometimes soft cavern to the pyramid.

Inside the pyramid were painting that seemed to predate known history. They showed priests of some kind creating strange amorphous creatures. These creatures heralded the arrival of some horrible, tentacled deity. When the deity arrived, the people in the walls would be sacrificed to it.

The scholar snuck out of the pyramid and the cavern and rigged it to blow, just as the other PCs were coming to his rescue. They made it out and back to their company to report. The Germans stuck with preternatural strength that night, pushing the Russians back and inflicting heavy losses. 

On the 3rd night after the attack, the PCs woke to find themselves in a white room. A man speaking English asked them several questions about themselves and the mission. A stern woman in a blue uniform asked many more questions and the PCs provided what information they could.

The PCs learned that the year was not 1945, but in fact 2015. They were soldiers fighting a war against horrible creatures, and they were losing. Several major cities had fallen – London, D.C., Moscow, Paris. Humanity was on the brink of annihilation. 

Their mission was to be attached to a machine that would send their minds back in time to observe the past and hopefully learn about what their enemies were planning. While attached to the machine, they couldn’t change anything – they were merely watching. 

An unfortunate side effect of the machine is that people often got confused as to who they were when they got out. Being in another person’s mind, with access to all of their memories, overpowered their own sense of identity. They were assured that their memories would come back. But there were suspicions that too much exposure to the machine could kill you.

Rules Update

I wanted to post the updated rules for the game I'm running on Tuesday. So far they're fairly light. One thing I did was try to make the class abilities thematic to how I wanted the players to act. This may or may not work out as I expected. However, the idea is that:

Alchemists are tempted by the things from beyond.
Knaves end up in trouble.
Knights sacrifice to protect people.
Vicars compete with the things from beyond over control of people's souls.
Explorers spread the knowledge of beyond.
Medics discover the taint of things from beyond in others.
Scholars are the heralds of the things from beyond.
Snipers illustrate what the things from beyond are capable.

So here's what we have so far:

Attributes

Roll 6d6. Assign each attribute 1 die result.

Medieval
· Strength – Damage Bonus. Offsets AC penalty from Armor
· Dexterity – AC Bonus (10+AC Bonus = AC)
· Constitution – Determines HP
· Intelligence – Determines number of discretionary skills as well as bonus
· Perception – Initiative Bonus
· Willpower – Determines Resolve

Modern
· Muscle – Brawling Damage Bonus.
· Agility – AC Bonus (10+AC Bonus = AC)
· Health – Determines HP
· Education – Determines number of discretionary skills as well as bonus
· Senses – Initiative Bonus
· Steel – Determines Resolve

Hit Points/Resolve
· +1 = 1d6+1
· +2 = 1d8+2
· +3 = 1d10+3
· +4 = 1d12+4
· +5 = 2d8+5
· +6 = 2d10+6

Roll the dice listed for each level (i.e. if you have +3 constitution and you’re third level, you roll 3d10 +9 for your hit points).

Hit points track physical damage. At half your total hit points, you are bloodied and suffer -1 to all actions. When your hit points fall to 0, you die.

Resolve tracks emotional stress, from horror, gore, and lack of sleep. When you have less than 5 Resolve, you must make a Willpower check when faced with stress or run away for 1d20 minutes. When your resolve falls to 0, you faint for 1d6 hours.

Attribute Checks

When you make an attribute check, roll 1d20 + Attribute + ½ Level.

Classes

Medieval Classes

Alchemist
Level 1
· Damage = 1d4 + Damage Bonus
· May gain some special, occult knowledge about the unnatural with a Perception check. This will often expose you to more resolve damage.
· Starts with a weapon of your choice (usually a knife)

Level 2
· Takes 1 less Resolve damage when faced with stress or the unknown

Level 3
· Damage = 2d4 + Damage Bonus
· If you see a rite of the unknown performed, you may, with a successful Willpower check, perform the rite yourself. Resolve loss for doing so is usually 2d6.

Level 4
· Takes 2 less Resolve damage when faced with stress or the unknown

Knave
Level 1
· Damage = 1d6 + Damage Bonus
· +3 to Stealth (you may select Stealth as a skill normally, and this bonus is cumulative)
· Starts with Brigantine or lighter armor
· Starts with a weapon of your choice

Level 2
· When an attack against you misses, you may make an immediate action as long as that action ends up placing you in a more dangerous position. You may do this once per round.

Level 3
· Damage = 2d6 + Damage Bonus
· When you successfully hit a creature tainted by the unknown, you may press your luck and deal double damage. If you do so, the creature may make a free attack against one of your allies (an NPC or PC of your choice.)

Level 4
· When struck by a creature tainted by the unknown, you may choose to instead take 1d6 damage to HP and resolve. If you do, everyone who sees the attack takes 1d4 resolve.

Knight
Level 1
· Damage = 1d8 + Damage Bonus
· Starts with Chainmail or lighter armor
· Starts with a weapon of your choice

Level 2
· May interrupt an attack against an ally and take the blow yourself with a Constitution check. You may do this once per round.

Level 3
· Damage = 2d8 + Damage Bonus
· If you win initiative against an adversary, you may choose to inflict double damage against them in exchange for letting them hit you (they don't need an attack roll, you do. This counts as both your and their action.)

Level 4
· When struck by a creature tainted by the unknown, you may choose to take the damage to resolve instead of HP.

Vicar
Level 1
· Damage = 1d4 + Damage Bonus
· Faith = Roll Resolve dice based on your Willpower. You may restore this many points of resolve. To affect multiple allies, divide the points evenly. You may do this once.
· Starts with a weapon of your choice (usually a knife)

Level 2
· May provoke the unnatural or unholy to attack you, rather than your allies with a Willpower check.

Level 3
· Damage = 2d4 + Damage Bonus
· Faith = Roll 2x Resolve dice based on your Willpower. You may restore this many points of resolve. To affect multiple allies, divide the points evenly. You may do this once.

Level 4
· A vicar may bolster the morale of those they command. PCs and NPCs do not flee when reduced to 5 fewer Resolve. However, if forced to remain, they may go mad.

Modern Classes

Explorer
Level 1
· Brawling Damage = 1d6+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 2d6
· +1 to all untrained skill checks
· Starts with a gun (pistol or rifle)

Level 2
· When presented with a chance to get physically closer to a creature tainted by the unknown, if you take it you may learn something significant about its actions or motivations.

Level 3
· Brawling Damage = 2d6+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 3d6
· During combat with the unknown, you may choose an ally to become tainted by the unknown. If you do, you gain an immediate additional action. Allies include both PCs and NPCs.

Level 4
· When you help a creature tainted by the unknown escape destruction, you may immediately recover 3d6 HP.

Medic
Level 1
· Brawling Damage = 1d4+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 2d4
· Bind Wounds = Once per day per person, the medic can restore 1d4 hit points.
· Starts with a gun (usually a pistol)

Level 2
· By examining a creature tainted by the unknown and making an Education check, you may discover facts about its abilities and origins. This often results in Resolve loss.

Level 3
· Brawling Damage = 2d4+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 3d4
· Bind Wounds = Once per day per person, the medic can restore 2d4 hit points.

Level 4
· If an ally is in danger, you may choose to safely extract that ally from danger by putting yourself in that danger instead. Allies include both PCs and NPCs.

Scholar
Level 1
· Brawling Damage = 1d4+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 2d4
· Gadget = Once per point of Intelligence you may have a single piece of equipment that you need. It doesn’t have to be in your inventory.
· Starts with a gun (usually a pistol)

Level 2
· By examining an item tainted by the unknown and making an Education check, you may discover facts about its uses and origin. This often results in Resolve loss.

Level 3
· Brawling Damage = 2d4+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 3d4
· +1 Skill. Also, all skills get +1

Level 4
· When you encounter a creature or item tainted by the unknown, you may voice a terrible prediction about the unknown. If you do, that prediction eventually comes true and you gain +2 to all checks for the rest of the session. This can only be done once per session.

Sniper
Level 1
· Brawling Damage = 1d6+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 2d8
· Starts with a gun (usually a rifle)

Level 2
· When you are attacked by the unknown, you may choose one of your allies in range to instead suffer the attack. Allies include NPCs and PCs working with you.

Level 3
· Brawling Damage = 2d6+Damage Bonus
· Gun Damage = 3d8
· With a successful Agility check, you may immediately reduce a creature tainted by the unknown to 0 HP. However, doing so brings a more dangerous threat from the unknown into play.

Level 4
· When you make a successful attack against a creature tainted by the unknown, you may choose to deal no damage to it. If you do, you learn if the creature has any special vulnerabilities.

Skills

You have a number of skills equal to your Intelligence and the skill bonus is equal to your Intelligence. These skills may be selected before play or during play. If selected during play, briefly describe where you learned the skill. You may select a skill after you roll a skill check, but before the results are revealed.

When you make a skill check, roll 1d20 + Skill Bonus + ½ Level.

Skill check difficulties are:

· Standard = 10
· Difficult = 15
· Very Difficult = 20
· Impossible = 25

Medieval Skills
· Aide
· Archery
· Athletics
· Language (Choose one)
· Lie
· Heraldry
· Melee
· Read
· Religion
· Riding
· Stealth
· Survival
· Thievery

Modern Skills
· Athletics
· Brawling
· Engineering
· Guns
· History
· Language (Choose one)
· Lie
· Medicine
· Occult
· Pilot
· Stealth
· Survival
· Thievery

Medicine restores 1 hit point on a successful difficult check or 2 hit points on a very difficult check. This can be attempted once per day per person.

Equipment

Medieval Equipment

Armor reduces damage by a flat amount, based on the armor type. The heavier and more protective the armor, the harder it is to move. Hence, the damage reduction also serves as a penalty to armor class. This penalty is offset by your Strength. For example, if you have +2 Strength and wear Chainmail (-3 damage reduction), your AC suffers a -1 penalty.

· Damage Reduction -0 = No Armor
· Damage Reduction -1 = Leather Armor
· Damage Reduction -2 = Brigantine Armor
· Damage Reduction -3 = Chainmail Armor
· Damage Reduction -4 = Scalemail Armor
· Damage Reduction -5 = Platemail Armor
· Damage Reduction -6 = Full Plate Armor

Weapons don’t define your damage, your class and Strength do. It doesn’t matter if you wield a knife or a long sword, use your class damage die.

Modern Equipment

Melee weapons don’t define your damage, your class and Strength do. It doesn’t matter if you wield a knife or a long sword, use your class damage die.

Guns deal 2 damage dice, based on your class, but don’t get a damage bonus.

Session Report #7

 The PCs were Russian military in WWII, sent to help liberate a Polish town from Nazi occupation. They’d encountered substantial resistance and seen far more Nazi forces than they expected to encounter in such a small town. They were sent in for reconnaissance to determine why the Nazis were protecting the town and how to get rid of them.

The PCs, along with 7 other soldiers, snuck into town under cover of night and surveyed the area. They found trucks heading into the mountain pass every hour or so, with another truck returning half an hour later. 

Keeping to the hillsides, out of view of the road, they came to an intersection. Taking the right path, they found a mine entrance with people loading trucks with sacks. The scholar snuck down to investigate the sacks and discovered they were full of bloodless, dismembered bodies. 

Why were they transporting dismembered bodies? What were the bodies doing in the mine? Why were there so many of them? Where was all the blood? These answers were left unanswered as we stopped for the night. 

The PCs were 3rd level this time. I also expanded the class abilities, plotting out the benefits up to level 4. I also merged the medieval and modern rules into a single document for them and gave abbreviated character sheets to track their former characters. I’ll post the combined rules tomorrow.

Session Report #6

How did I miss an update?

The PCs continued in Languedoc. After failing to expel the devil from the old woman during an exorcism, the PCs dispatched her, burnt her body, and burnt her house to cleanse the evil from the area.

When they went to check on the old man, who was also in league with the devil (or Lord Rocard) they found he has escaped. They decided to set out in the morning to get help from the church in the town a week out. 

That night, they heard the strange, out-of-tune organ and sensed that it was drawing nearer. Initially barricading themselves in their meager cottage as the sounds entered the village, the knave and knight changed their minds and ventured out into the darkness to face whatever they may find. 

The knight encountered it first, a dark form of shifting eyes and mouths that piped tunelessly (resolve damage occurred). He engaged it and found it was more than a match for him. The knave assisted, only to see the knight’s head bitten off by the horrible creature. Though he fought bravely, the knave was swallowed whole by the creature. One of the alchemists stayed behind to give the other alchemist time to escape, and he, too, met an untimely end. 

The PCs woke in a strange, white room without windows or source of light. A strange man dressed in green was speaking English, which 2 PCs had picked up in their travels. He asked them their names, and seemed disappointed by their answers. He asked them to count to 10, and when they did in French, he asked them to do it again in English. 

A woman in blue came into the room and asked for an update. She seemed hard and irate. She only got more irate when she was told the PCs needed time to recover. Time was a luxury they didn’t have, she told him. If they didn’t have anything to report, he was to send them back. 

This didn’t sit well with the PCs, who became much more willing to answer questions. 

We stopped there. 

Options

One thing I forgot to mention in the last session report was that the options I offered the players started to see some use. I hope this starts a trend.

The knight used his intercept option when the knave was taking a beating, allowing the knight to take the damage instead of the knave. I like that option because it comes with a choice, which may be tough (he chose not to do it later because he was running low on HP too). 

So far the knave hasn't used his extra action option, which will allow him to take another option if he ends up in a worse predicament. Should I quantify that? I don't think I need to at this point. We'll figure that out later.

Also, the alchemist hasn't used his occult investigation option to look into the unnatural. I'm thinking maybe I should associate a resolve loss with use of the option, but I think that the revelation of new knowledge (along with its resolve loss) is enough. I was just thinking that I may be somehow able to roll the two together somehow. 

Regardless, I need to come up with some other options, since I think they may things a little more interesting. 

Session Report #5

The players continued their stint in 1230 Languedoc, serving as inquisitors for the church. As the alchemist took Marie to the next village, the knight and knave scouted the mountains again so as to not raise the suspicions of the possibly monstrous townsfolk.

In the mountains, they encountered half a dozen strange lizardmen (resulting in resolve damage) and a battle ensued. They killed four before the last two fled. The knight and knave decided not to pursue because of their substantial injuries. They headed back to town to wait for the alchemist, who may have some talent as a healer.

In town and after dark, the knave set out again to seek out evidence of the townsfolk’s evil. He stopped by the old woman’s house and found her nervously waiting, but had trouble seeing through her closed shutters. He circled around to the old man’s house and the lights were out. He couldn’t tell if anyone was home. He stopped briefly at the inn to observe the other townsfolk, but all seemed calm. Back to the old woman’s house he went and found she had a visitor – someone named Lord Rocard (his voice was inhuman enough to cause resolve damage). She apprised Rocard of the PCs’ injuries and he confirmed that they had killed some of the “others”. He told her not to worry and that he would take care of things. He asked the old woman if she was “ready to begin” and the knave took that as a sign to leave.

He went back to the old man’s house, found he was sleeping, broke in, and questioned him roughly. He learned that Lord Rocard was the devil, that the old man and woman were the only ones in town that were allied with him, though the others would join soon enough, that the old woman was currently engaging in a rite that would allow her to join the others, and that Rocard had created a monster that would surely kill them.

He tied up the old man, woke up the knight, and the two went to the old woman’s house. Since questioning took several hours, the old woman was in bed alone when they kicked in her door. However, she appeared weak and in pain. They questioned her, but got little information. The knight attempted an exorcism, and during the course of it (and their questioning of her) found that she had some kind of orifice/wound on her back, along her spine, and that it seemed wet with what they guessed was semen (ew, and more resolve damage).

In the meantime, the alchemist arrived at the next village and took Marie to the church. The priest there didn’t want anything to do with Marie, as he was convinced she carried the her village’s evil with her. Only by suggesting that the priest lock Marie up was he able to convince him to keep her for a few days. He then returned to the village to rejoin with the knight and knave.

We ended the session just before the alchemist returned. We still haven’t completed the adventure, though the players have learned a lot of information. I find it interesting that at times they seem to be actively avoiding learning more information, because they’re afraid of the resolve loss involved (not only did the knave leave before he found out what the old woman and Rocard were up to, but they specifically didn’t investigate the old woman’s condition afterward.)

The only social skill I included in the game was lying, though it looks like I may have to add more, at least to account for interrogations. So far I’ve been allowing the players to write in skills of their own as they come up, which has worked fairly well. I may just continue along with that.

We’ll see how far we get next week. While I assumed that they would just go take care of the problem, they’ve launched an investigation that I wasn’t expecting (though I was prepared for). This is good, since they seem engaged. However, this is no longer a “one shot” adventure.

Session Report #4

Last night saw a return to Languedoc 1230, the year after their first failed expedition. The PCs were a new set of inquisitors sent to stamp out witchcraft and demonic activity. The core of their information was derived not only from the rumors from the area, but from the sole surviving member of the failed expedition. They went in knowing that something evil lived in the mountains and that strange lizard-like demons prowled the forest.

The knight woke to strange dreams filled with fear, sadness, and fevered activity. Strange turns of phrase echoed in his waking mind, like "defib", "clear", and "we're losing him". A pall of dread was cast over the day.

The town had suffered during the winter since the last party had arrived. There were no children, not anyone under 30. Only the elderly remained, with the exception of a single able-bodied man. All others had been kidnapped, starved, or fled.

The PCs sent that only able-bodied man to the nearest town for supplies (a 1 week trip). Their letter to the church there explained the situation and authorized help to be sent immediately.

The PCs then scouted out the forest and encountered a little girl, Marie. She seemed scared and hungry, but they were able to befriend her. She told them that monsters wandered the forest. But there were monsters in town as well. The monsters in town looked like normal people, but you could tell they were monsters at night when their eyes flashed silver in reflected firelight.

They were split as to whether they should take Marie to the nearest village for safety (1 day trip), continue exploring the mountains, or head back to town to investigate these hidden monsters. Doubt was cast on the reliability of Marie's information and whether she was in congress with the devil. The decision was made to split the party, with the alchemist taking Marie to safety while the knight and knave investigated the town.

That night, the alchemist and Marie encountered a strange monster that sounded like a horribly tuned organ. They hid and it passed them by, but not without some resolve loss. The knave scouted the town after dark and saw some one's eyes flash silver. He followed him to a rendezvous with an older woman where they argued about what to do with the party. One wanted to "do something" while the other wanted to "let the devil's servant finish them off". In the end, the conspirators decided to wait it out and let the devil take care of them.

The PCs were 2nd level again. I added some options to give them bonuses at the cost of putting themselves in more danger. I'm hoping that will help offset the higher hp and resolve totals they have. They're still placing higher emphasis on constitution and willpower, even though they're playing "smarter".

This was the first adventure where we didn't hit a natural conclusion, either through TPK or completing the adventure. We'll pick it up again next week and see how far they progress.

Session Report #3

New game again, this time with fewer TPKs. They made 2^nd level characters this time.

The PCs were American explorers in 1091 on an expedition to the South Pacific to study the indigenous peoples. End route, they hit a storm that crippled their ship. After spending several days trying to make repairs, they finally cobbled together their shattered mast.

They awoke to shouts on deck. The intrepid Jack Dawson woke from his slumber with the feeling someone close to him had just died. He chalked it up to an unremembered dream and went to see what the commotion was all about.

Land was sighted and as they approached, indigenous people came out to meet them in boats. Their accents were strange and the PCs had trouble understanding them. The gist was that the natives were happy to see them, because the PCs were clearly some kind of divine agents sent to deliver them from evil. Apparently the volcano god was eating their women, sending his children to the village once a year to collect the women folk. Tonight was the night they would come, and it surely couldn’t be a coincidence.

As George Anderson and Cletus Hogg organized the other crewmen, Jack tried sketching the volcano god’s children from the villager’s descriptions. While he couldn’t get it right, the villagers seemed to keep pushing his art towards darker and more vile depictions.

Finally they set off into the jungle to see what these superstitious natives were up in arms about. Obviously there was a logical explanation. The sun went down and things started getting spooky. A strange shriek emanated from the volcano top – the volcano god calling his children to battle. An hour later, they encountered those same children as they came down to the village – strange and hideous lizardmen (they lost some resolve). A battle ensued, many crewmen fled into the jungle, Cletus, their doctor, fell to the monstrous creatures, and the lizardmen tried to abscond with the fallen crewmen’s bodies.

Jack and George pursued and chased the lizardmen back to a lava tube, killing the last one as it entered. Within the tube, strange tribal drums could be heard. They scaled the volcano to peer into the caldera and found 2 drummers and someone dancing in front of a strange idol – all lizardmen. Jack and George exterminated them quickly, their guns and distance granting them advantage.

Jack inspected the fallen dancer and found it was not a lizardman, but a lizardwoman. Inspection of the drummers revealed the same (as did the inspection of all the other fallen creatures). The drums turned out to be built in the native style, though out of human flesh (more resolve loss). The rough idol represented some kind of fish god.

Second level, which allowed them another HP/Resolve roll (if you got 1d8+3 at first level, you got 2d8+6 at second) resulted in a substantial increase in number and survival. Possibly too much. But, the first 2 sessions have led to the players favoring constitution and willpower over most other attributes, so the difference was even more visible. This was unforeseen, but not a problem.

Combat took substantially longer and I found it repetitive and boring. The higher HP meant that there was less threat of death and the lack of options in combat really showed to me. I’ll have to fix that.

Fools Rush In

We played the new game last night again. Again, I was expecting things to go differently.

 The PCs were Polish rebels in Nazi occupied Poland. Their convoy of weapons had been hit and they'd run through the night to evade their pursuers. While they managed to secure food, they were unable to start a fire in the cold, wet forest. As they pushed forward on little sleep, they stumbled upon two Nazi tanks and a cargo truck stopped in the road (both sides surprised each other). The "explorer" opened fire without taking any kind of cover and shot one of the tank drivers. The Nazi's opened fire and killed the explorer. The "sniper" took a few steps back into the forest (I gave him a +1 to AC) and shot two of the other Nazis. The Nazis then killed him.

 My first response to this was to change things up and give more hit points. I considered 1d6 per point of constitution (or hp die based on class).

 But upon second thought, they're only 1st level and they're not "playing smart". In this session they opened fire without taking cover and knowing they were outnumbered. In the last game, they got separated and still charged into combat. While it wasn't completely their fault last time, this time it definitely was. That's not a good test.

So I'm going to keep things as they are and forge onward. I have a few more things to try with this system and I don't consider these tests failures. Time will tell.

New Adventures

We played the new game I came up with and ran through the adventure I wrote. I was planning on it being a single session and it was, though not for the reason I expected.

The PCs were inquisitors in 1229 Languedoc (France) investigating reports of witchcraft. Several people have gone missing and the townsfolk have found mutilated cattle in their fields. The villagers say the devil lives in the mountains and he once visited town in the guise of a man.

The PCs investigate and head into the mountains. They're ambushed by some lizardmen and lose some resolve, but dispatch them with ease. They track the lizardmen back to a cave. As they approach, a scream issues forth from inside. They lose more resolve, their vicar faints, and their knave flees in terror.

The knight rushes in, only to encounter more lizardmen. Though he fights valiantly, he is outnumbered and luck is not on his side. He falls to the lizardmen's ferocity.

The knave eventually finds his way back to town. The villagers have not seen his companions, though they heard the frightful screams from the mountains and feared the worst.

The game played quickly and the players seemed to have fun. Since it was a one shot, they didn't mind losing characters and they all kind of bit it at the same time. I was surprised that only 1 player assigned 1 skill. I figured there'd be more of that going on. But in most cases, when they missed a roll, assigning a skill wouldn't have helped.

Start of a New System

Tomorrow I'm running a new game for the crew. I have a pretty solid idea for an adventure, so I'll probably start doing session recaps here each Wednesday. I won't give any spoilers though, since some of my players may read this.

The adventure is a little different, so I needed to find a system that would do what I wanted, namely have quick character generation, support multiple genres, treat death as a real possibility, and deal with horror/sanity loss. I decided to make my own, since it's just easier that way. So here's the basics. I'll add on as things progress.


Attributes

Roll 6d6. Assign each attribute 1 die result.

• Strength – Damage Bonus. Offsets AC penalty from Armor
• Dexterity – AC Bonus (10+AC Bonus = AC)
• Constitution – Determines HP
• Intelligence – Determines number of discretionary skills as well as skill bonus
• Perception – Initiative Bonus
• Willpower – Determines Resolve

Hit Points/Resolve

• +1 = 1d6+1 
• +2 = 1d8+2
• +3 = 1d10+3
• +4 = 1d12+4
• +5 = 2d8+5
• +6 = 2d10+6

Hit points track physical damage. At half your total hit points, you are bloodied and suffer -1 to all actions. When your hit points fall to 0, you die.

Resolve tracks emotional stress from horror, gore, and lack of sleep. When you have less than 5 Resolve, you must make a Willpower check when faced with stress or run away. When your resolve falls to 0, you faint.

When you make an attribute check, roll 1d20 + attribute.

Classes

Knave

• Damage = 1d6 + Damage Bonus
• +3 to Stealth (you may select Stealth as a skill normally, and this bonus is cumulative)

Knight

• Damage = 1d8 + Damage Bonus

Vicar

• Damage = 1d4 + Damage Bonus
• Faith = Roll Resolve dice based on your Willpower. You may restore this many points of resolve. To affect multiple allies, divide the points evenly. You may do this once. 

Skills
Initially, you have a number of skills equal to your Intelligence and the skill bonus is equal to your Intelligence. These skills may be selected before play or during play. If selected during play, briefly describe where you learned the skill. You may select a skill after you roll a skill check, but before the results are revealed.

When you make a skill check, roll 1d20 + skill bonus

Skill check difficulties are:

• Standard = 10
• Difficult = 15
• Very Difficult = 20
• Impossible = 25

Skills

• Aide (Healing)
• Archery
• Athletics
• Language (Choose one)
• Lie
• Heraldry
• Melee
• Read
• Religion
• Riding
• Stealth
• Survival
• Thievery

Equipment

Armor reduces damage by a flat amount, based on the armor type. The heavier and more protective the armor, the harder it is to move. Hence, the damage reduction also serves as a penalty to armor class. This penalty is offset by your Strength. For example, if you have +2 Strength and wear Chainmail (-3 damage reduction), your AC suffers a -1 penalty.

• Damage Reduction -0 = No Armor
• Damage Reduction -1 = Leather Armor
• Damage Reduction -2 = Brigantine Armor
• Damage Reduction -3 = Chainmail Armor
• Damage Reduction -4 = Scalemail Armor
• Damage Reduction -5 = Platemail Armor
• Damage Reduction -6 = Full Plate Armor

Weapons don’t define your damage, your class and Strength do. It doesn't matter if you wield a knife or a long sword, use your class damage die.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

How do you deal with hearing and noticing in games that don’t have general rules for it?

For instance, D&D and AD&D both have a thief skill called hear (or detect) noise. Obviously this gives them an advantage when listening. But how to other characters hear things? What if a fighter listens at a door. How do you determine if he hears the guards talking on the other side*?

Sure, you could just hand wave it and say, “yeah, that’s loud enough that anyone could hear it.” But where do you draw that line?

Do you have another mechanic that you use? Give non-thieves a 1 in 6 chance to hear? Give them the base, 1st level thief chance? An intelligence check?

I'm curious how other people handle this. 

*It looks like AD&D uses the base thief chance (I never knew this, I just looked it up). I don’t see anything for Basic D&D. 

Followers

In several games (particularly D&D and it's clones), as you advance in levels, you obtain followers.

This, I think, is a great idea. It gives you a new "toy" to play with, ties you explicitly to the setting, and is literally a game changer. You're no longer a schmuck delving dungeons, you're a lord or lady with new problems and new abilities. The rules are telling you, "Good job! Let's change it up!"

The problem with this is that it's just not supported in the materials. How many 9th+ level published adventures have you seen where you're already established in a keep, have followers, and are expected to use them to complete the module? I haven't seen any. I'm sure they exist, but I doubt that WotC (or TSR before them) or even the more prominent 3rd publishers wrote them.

Instead, what you get are bigger monsters, harder puzzles, and save or die traps.

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a time and place for that. But I think those types of adventures should be saved to change up the domain style adventures, not the other way around.

I get that it may be tough to write something like this. You've already (theoretically) carved your place out in the world. You may have resources (or not) that make it hard to plan for.

But you get the same thing with lower levels and dungeon delves. Who cares where the adventure takes place? You're all just hanging out in an inn anyway. And the adventure can't know that you got that ring of wishes (or staff of the Magi or vorpal sword) 3 adventures ago and it's going to give you a shortcut to the end (or a magical tool that renders the adventure moot).

Surely there's a domain equivalent of "so you're all in a bar when..." Can't we just say "as you're feasting on owlbear quiche for the third time today, you receive word of a..." and get on with it? Can't we provide threats to a domain (or group of domains) that are generic enough that they could be set anywhere? Treason? Invasion? Rebellion? Disease? Famine? The dead rising from the grave? Something that you can't face alone, or as a party?

Yes, there are occasionally large scale battle rules. And these are nice when needed. But what about problem solving? What about wizard spells that explicitly reshape the world around you? Or cleric spells that protect the masses from widespread disease, sin, and possession?

So here's my question, folks. It's in three parts. A) Have you ever seen a published module/adventure written with followers in mind? B) Have you ever played or run an adventure (published or otherwise) where you used your followers. C) How did/do you use them?

Adventures for Parties (of any levels)

I was going through my old D&D Expert book today and I ran across page 40 and the "Adventures for Parties (of any levels)" section. Man, I loved that section. And I used it often. It's probably one of the top 10 things that shaped me as a DM. 

If you're not familiar with it, it's basically a set of 12 adventure hooks. Each one is a paragraph of maybe 5-7 sentences that gives you a place to start an adventure. It sets you up with a situation and occasionally some immediate action. You could easily write a whole adventure around each one, but I'm a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy when it comes to running games, so I'd just take one and run with it. 

My favorite involved the well known blind beggar who suddenly wants to meet with the PCs at a posh hotel. Turns out he's a polymorphed gold dragon with a problem. 

I used a variation of this decades later when the PCs had befriended a powerful noble. Said noble sent them on missions, offered them rewards, and helped them out a few times. She ended up foisting her rebellious nephew on them, hoping that the PCs could teach him some respect. What they didn't know was that he was a polymorphed gold dragon (and so was his aunt). This was made more pertinent by the fact that dragons had been hunted nearly to extinction by the kingdom, putting the PCs and the noble in a difficult situation. 

So what are your favorite adventure hooks? What's something you've always wanted to run? And what's your favorite source for hooks?