GLoGtober Day 1: Shooty Shooties

 On the first day of GLoGtober, the bloggers gave to me…

Some gun rules for you and me

There’s a sense of playful glee you get from inspiring terrified awe in medieval peasants by using anachronistic technology, be it a flintlock, AK, or even a laser pistol. The theme for the first day of GLoGtober is “guns”, so here are rules for pew pews.

Gun damage explodes. Don’t use the tables in the back- a smaller gun deals a d6, a medium gun uses a d8, a large gun uses a d10, and the truly remarkable guns like laser pistols and machine guns use 2d6. (MARROW revision: Guns dead 1d4+(Slots occupied - 2) damage, no exploding the die.) If you roll a 1 while using a gun, roll on the Gun Misfire table below:

1 Kaboom. Roll damage as normal. You take that much.

2 Jammed. Make 3 successful INT rolls with tinker’s/gunsmith’s tools to repair. Until then, the gun is unusable.

3 Out of Ammo. Spend 20g and a long rest doing nothing else (gaining no benefits) to make sufficient ammo to keep using the gun unhindered.

4 Catastrophic Miss. The attack hits the nearest ally to you.

5 Preemptive Ignition. The gun bursts into flame. Not only is it now a useless hunk of scrap metal, i has started a fire right in front of you that is swiftly spreading.

6 Packed the Wrong One! The gun was actually a decoy! It actually fires (and will continue to fire):

1 water

2 rat piss

3 apple juice

4 ball bearings

5 very tiny nets

6 verses of scripture, in fortune-cookie format

7 healing needles

8 gasoline...

7 Smoke Signal. The gun starts pouring out smoke. Roll a random encounter. It will arrive in d4 rounds.

8 Blast so loud it wakes the dead. Roll damage. That many skeletons rise from the earth, hostile to all living things they can see.

GUNSMITH

Gunsmith SKILLS: Pew pew! Kabloosh! Nyoooom, pow!

A You don’t actually have a gun, it’s a vaguely gun-shaped stick. The stick is unbreakable. You perceive it as an unbreakable gun that without fail seems to miss.

B Somehow, against all odds, the stick actually functions exactly like a gun.

C You are very good at shooting with the stick. You can shoot it twice in an action.

D You can share your powerful imagination. Once a day, imagine something, and it is there until you imagine something else. In addition, any stick you touch you can make into a gun.

LOOT: Totally A Gun, Like, A Really Good Gun (Like One With A Scope And Bullets And Everything)

Guns aren’t my area of expertise, so I’m excited to see everyone else’s take on guns and revise my rules appropriately! Happy GLoGtober, here’s to 30 more days of fun content.

The Lover Saints, or, when the City went mad

 They met in the shadow of the night, passionately embracing under the flickering electric lights of the Tower District. She was a woman of nobility, married by circumstance to an odious, corpulent fellow who thought of her much the same way he thought of his left shoe. He was, naturally, a penniless street-caller, counting ha'copper scraps won from message deliveries and rumors he overheard in the darkest of allies. They asked Jehu for the night to cloak them, and so Jehu did, for a time.

    But the corpulent noble grew suspicious of his wife's nightly nights on the town. How many balls can she attend, how many trips to the market can she take, how often must she meet with her tailor about that new dress, how long goes she intend to evade him and his needs? He grow wrathful, and hired a man known as Slim Jack, with fingers like knives and a smile that curdled milk, to follow her through the night. Slim Jack writhed across the cobbles like a snake, tailing her unerringly through Jehu's streets. When the spy finally stumbled upon her meeting place, he was shocked to find his quarry in the arms of a penniless rumormonger. Like an eel, he slithered back to his master, reporting of the depravity he saw.

    The noble stroked his many chins and happened upon a devious plan. On his own, he was simply a filthy rich bastard, but the Church was one of the largest organizations in the City. If he could appeal to them, he could get a massive rally against the two. He wanted them to suffer, so he called upon a friend of a friend of a friend to summon the Cardinal of Jehu. He told the cardinal of his wife's sin with the pauper, and the cardinal, shocked to hear of such vile and flagrant adultery, began to froth the City itself into a mob. Across the Districts, torches were lit and weapons were grabbed, whispers of purging sin echoing across the brick tenements. 

    They ran as they met, in each other's arms. No matter how many corners they dove into, no matter how many shops they ducked behind, no matter how hard they tried to shake their pursuers, there were more every turn, always led by the cardinal, spouting forth war-chants in Jehu's name. They wound their way through the streets, across bridges, under overpasses, and through winding and ever-narrower passages undisturbed in years by any save rats. It was never enough.

    They collapsed, breathless and exhausted, onto the steps of the Basilica of Jehu. The cardinal and the mob slowly surrounded them, the heat from their torches rippling the air. The scent of sweat and war mixed in the air. As the cardinal stepped forth to issue their execution statement, the pair made one last prayer to Jehu, asking to be reunited on the other side, and kissed as the Basilica went up in flames.

    The marble of the Basilica is scorched grey now, an eternal monument to their suffering. Their names are lost, whispered in the dark as the Lover Saints- those who pursue amorous intent in the dark of night pray to them so their secrets never see the light. Some say the streets of the City warped themselves into the shape of a man and woman, hands entwined at steps of the Basilica...

Image source (originally from the OSR Discord's brain fuel thread): https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/11/impossible-cityscapes-by-benjamin-sack/

    A short piece of fiction concerning my entry to the Charcuterie Board submission that you'll be seeing soon, the City. I hope you enjoyed, please tell me if you like the flash fiction or want me to go back to more traditional game content! Thanks, and happy gaming.

GLoGtober!

    GLoG challenge! Write 31 small, GLoG-related things over the course of October. Or not even GLoG-related, if you’re running a BFRPG campaign and need a new monster and it’s the 22nd you can do a post on how you design monsters, or if you need a new Troika! background on the 11th you can write about the Slug Astronauts of Zzan. You can even do multiple days at once- I plan on chunking about 5 days at a time into one post. Just a fun little series of prompts to help keep GLoG, and the spirit of community, going. At the end of the month, you can make a post linking to all your GLoGtober posts, and I’ll make a post here to collect all the entries. I might even make them into a PDF or something.

Have fun, and happy gaming.

1 Guns

2 Blood

3 Goblins

4 Swirling rainbow vortices

5 Map

6 Food

7 Adventure

8 Mystery

9 Region

10 Mechanic

11 Space

12 Armor

13 Tribe

14 Table

15 Orb

16 Country

17 Bird

18 Biome

19 Quirky Magic Item

20 Dice

21 Artifact

22 GM tip

23 Hell

24 Disease

25 Myth

26 City

27 Villains

28 Orb, again

29 Gods

30 Crime

31 Candy

My House Rules for Rime of the Frostmaiden

    WotC has stolen my imagination, and my money. I will be running a bastardized hexcrawl lore-smeared version of Rime of the Frostmaiden soon, starting off with my version of the Koden Crypt. I'll be sure to have campaign reports up when it happens, as well as some glimpses into my campaign prep and how I reworked the lore to fit my odd vision. Below is the home rules doc I'm giving my PCs. Tell me what you think! Would you use any of these in your own games? Would you tweak any of these? What do you think of Rime of the Frostmaiden, and how would you run it?

CAMPAIGN PREMISE

   A small, huddled camp of grim-faced expeditioneers turn their frostbitten heads farther north. The icy expanse of the Karzan Empire, a declining dwarvish hold in the bitterly frigid north, meets their gaze with the intensity of nature’s fury. Somewhere out there is the Temple you must pay pilgrimage to. Will you brave the cold, and the things that lurk behind the ice?

When making your character, please answer the following question. “Why am I making this pilgrimage? What do I seek at the Temple?” If that’s too broad for your tastes, try “What did the winter take from me, or what am I afraid it will take?” Please ask me if you have any other questions about the world, but I’m more than happy to work with you to make something new.

STAT GENERATION

4d6 drop the lowest IN ORDER (STR, then DEX, then CON...). Then you can switch two, if you so desire. If your total bonus is less than +1, reroll.

CHARACTER OPTIONS

You can use any published ancestry or subclass option. You can use any class, save Artificer- I don’t like how it works in 5e, so if you want to make an Artificer, talk to me and we can work something out.

In addition, you can bring homebrew classes and subclasses to me, though don’t expect me to automatically say yes. No homebrew ancestries, please. In addition, you can take the Warrior class from DCC (a simplified, more flexible fighter) if you would like.

If you ever find yourself making decisions from a mechanical standpoint and not a character standpoint (i.e. maximizing damage output/AC), please step back and reconsider. I have random tables handy if you want to escape the min-maxing mindset, or if you need a burst of inspiration.

EQUIPMENT

Silver standard. Silver essentially replaces gold in this world. Any starting gold you get, you instead have the equivalent in silver, and prices are knocked down a coin type. One silver shilling is enough to buy one torch or two mugs of cheap ale. Also, electrum isn't a thing.

If you roll a 1 while using equipment, it breaks and becomes unusable. If you’re using a magic item, it instead breaks on a 1 on a d6.

Each character has a number of inventory slots equal to their STR score. If you carry more than that, you’re encumbered. Large things, like heavy weapons and massive objects, can occupy multiple slots.

Count torches. Don’t count ammo or rations. You can expend a HEX of supply to have a day’s worth of rations (if necessary) or a torch, perhaps more useful items with more HEXES of expense. The party starts with Haggard supplies. A bundle of supplies takes up 1 slot.

SPELLCASTING

This rule replaces the entire current spell system. No more spell lists, no more slots, no more preparing, instead increased flexibility and choice at the cost of more chaos.

You know a number of Spells equal to your casting stat, minimum of your PB (no minimum for half or third casters). Make up your own Spells! A Spell is a catchy name and a sentence description of what it does. When you want to cast one of your Spells, roll Arcana, Religion, or Nature, as appropriate to the Spell. If you succeed, the Spell happens. If you fail, it doesn’t. If you roll a 1, Spell Chaos is unleashed. Every Spell you attempt to cast in a day means a -1 to the d20 roll of the next attempt (thus increasing the chance of a fumble).

THE BITTER COLD

You have disadvantage on Death Saves if you’re outside and not camped out. In addition, if you don’t have a source of heat, you can’t take a rest.

ROOM DC

There will always be a room DC. Each city has one, the wilderness has one, each room in a dungeon has one. Every roll you make will be against that DC. A roll might also be EASY or HARD: an EASY roll subtracts 3 from the room DC, and a HARD roll adds 3.

EXPLORATION RULES

The map is divided into 6-mile chunks called HEXES. In a standard day of exploration, you can take 2 actions. Going into a new HEX takes an action, and investigating the HEX you’re in is an action. You can take more actions than this, but for every additional action, roll CON or take a level of exhaustion. Prices are listed for 15 HEXES worth of supplies.

Cost	Quality	Calm (30%)	Twilight (40%)	Dark (20%)	Storm (10%)
1000s	Fortified	8	10	12	14
500s	Prepared	9	11	13	15
100s	Meager	9	12	14	16
50s	Haggard	10	12	14	17
10s	Barebones	10	12	15	19
0s	Vulnerable	12	14	16	20

STORM EFFECTS (d4): Knock supply down, only take 1 action, CON vs. exhaustion, get lost

WILDERNESS PROCEDURE (Break procedure when necessary)

1 Roll for weather

2 Decide first action

3 Resolve first action

4 Decide second action

5 Resolve second action

6 If more actions, roll CON vs. exhaustion

7 Camp for the night: expend supplies

Using Dungeon World on the DM's Side

    One of the things I love about PbtA systems is how a 2d6 roll has the potential to give out so much information. Especially if you frame it in a Move with a lot of choice built into it (like a "pick 2 out of these 3 options on a 7-9"), you can get a lot of complexity and nuance from this sort of resolution mechanic, as opposed to a more typical arbitrary d20 pass-fail. However, this mechanic is often utilized in a player-facing manner, and I think that's an under-utilization. I could think of many times where I would want to roll 2d6 and instantly get an indicator of how well things are going from the DM's side of things, and while there are some mechanics that emulate this, I wanted to create a body of DM-facing DW-style Moves.

ATTITUDE ROLL (The lowest-hanging fruit)

Monster/NPC Attitude: Roll 2d6 every time the PC's encounter something whose initial disposition is unknown, adding the party's INNOCENCE. On a 6-, it is belligerent and uncooperative, perhaps even hostile. On a 7-9, it is overall neutral, and will respond in kind to how the PCs initially treat it. On a 10+, it begins as inclined to learn more about the PCs, moderately friendly and non-hostile.

DOWNTIME

Downtime: When the PCs want to pursue some downtime activity, have them roll a relevant ability score while you roll 3d6. If they succeed, take the highest 2, and if they fail, take the lowest. On a 10+, choose two, on a 7-9, choose one:

    -You complete what you set out to achieve in full (If not chosen: you only have moderate success)

    -You become well-known and well-loved (If not chosen: you remain as you were)

    -You avoid making any enemies in the process (If not chosen: you anger a rival or group)

A NIGHT'S REST

Resting: When you bunker down for the night, roll 2d6, with a bonus for every person who voluntarily sacrifices the benefits of their rest to keep watch. On a 10+, choose three of the following. On a 7-9, choose 2. On a 6-, choose 1.

    -You remain well-supplied and well-stocked.

    -You gain the healing and resting benefits as normal.

    -Nothing interferes with your rest.

(Side note: This one might have some unintended consequences. Since one of the fail-states is "whoops all your supplies are gone", that changes the risk-reward nature of supplies, and makes it into more of a binary state, well-stocked or in need of new supplies. Why would you bother tracking each ration if they all might vanish all of a sudden for no reason? I'll need to think more about this one.)

EXPLORING

Entering a HEX: When the party enters a new HEX, roll 2d6. On a 10+, the party finds some significant, permanent structure, or something that is of great use to them. On a 7-9, the party finds something that isn't permanent, but is rather significant. On a 6-, the party finds something that is impermanent and not terribly significant, like tracks or a small bevy of monstrous patrols.

(This could also be made into a 2d6 chart per region, which makes for exploration that surprises even the DM, which is nice- also reduces planning. You could really expand on this quite a bit, and I plan on doing that in the future, but for now, I'll leave it like this)

I've got a game in a couple hours, so I'll be starting to use some of these, I'll let you all know how it goes. Happy gaming.

Lovecraftian ICRPG Loot + Classes

So has seen Tha'Haar the Mad:

    From hellish womb crawl'd the piscine uncouth

        So churned and froth'd that brackish water

    The warp'd mind forth brings blasphemous truth

        And from the sea comes the unholy father

SANITY RULES

    In the same way you start with a HEART of HP, you start with two EYES of SANITY. An EYE is 10 points of SAN. Between adventures, your EYES refresh just like Hearts. When your SAN reaches certain low threshholds, negative effects start to take hold.

    10 SAN: What's that behind you? No mechanical effects yet, but you're definitely feeling the impact of the horror you've seen.

    9 SAN: You're temporarily rattled. Make your next roll with DISADVANTAGE.

    8 SAN: Truth begins to unravel before your eyes. All rolls to discern reality from falsehood are HARD.

    7 SAN: You're getting in over your head now. You begin to hallucinate, grow paranoid and aggressive, or show other signs of hysteria.

    6 SAN: Madness grips your perception. INT, WIS and CHA rolls are HARD.

    5 SAN: You've undergone terrors from which you will never fully recover. You can't regain SAN.

    4 SAN: You become a tremor-ridden mess. All STATS -1.

    3 SAN: Your flight or flight instinct overrides universally to flight. You cannot make attack rolls.

    2 SAN: Your competency degrades in the face of that which you cannot comprehend. All rolls are HARD.

    1 SAN: Your apathy is overwhelming. You cannot move without assistance.

    0 SAN: Your mind is permanently shattered. You become a vegetable, or a villain under DM control. 

CLASSES

    MOBSTER. "I know a guy who knows a guy."

Address Book. All CHA rolls that deal effort do ULTIMATE, and you have ADVANTAGE on all rolls concerning gang politics.

    CULTIST. "I've seen some weird shit."

Tattered Robes. +1 ARMOR. All rolls to stay sane are EASY.

    INVESTIGATOR. "I've got to get to the bottom of this."

Astrologist's Journal. All rolls to know occult lore are EASY. 

    CIVILIAN. "None of this is real, it all must be a bad dream..."

Lucky Charm. You can choose to reroll 1's on any dice. You have to take the new result.

    BRAWLER. "I don't believe in anything I can't touch. Or punch."

Brass Knuckles. Use STR or DEX for unarmed attacks, and they deal MAGICAL EFFORT.

    MALCONVOKER. "Stand back, who knows what might happen!"

Eldritch Grimoire. Learn 2 INT SPELLS that you don't lose SAN from casting (miscasting still deals SAN damage). You can make new SPELLS.

    DOCTOR. "Hold still, this'll only hurt for a moment."

Industrial Bandage. Rolls to heal or stabilize allies are always EASY, and can be INT, WIS or CHA rolls.

    HARDHEAD. "Eat lead, fishface!"

Hardy Helmet. STR and CON are interchangeable for you.

SPELLS

    *Warp the Flesh. Make a HARD roll to painfully mutate for double SPELL EFFORT.

    Gibber. Roll to reduce someone to gibbering. Deal SPELL EFFORT in SAN.

    Bolt. Cast harmful energy towards a target. Deal SPELL EFFORT in HP.

    Eldritch Armor. +3 ARMOR for d6 rounds.

    *Rebuke. Make a HARD roll to un-summon or frighten a horror.

    Foresight. Touch a target, they add a d4 to all d20 rolls for d6 rounds.

    *Summon Horror. Roll to invoke a nightmare.

    Unveil. Roll to see past illusion or simulacra, or detect duplicity.

    Whisper. Roll CHA to insinuate one request/command.

    *Lore-Scrying. All INT, WIS, and CHA rolls are EASY for d6 rounds.

    *Unbind. Roll INT to remove or destroy LOOT.

    Visions of the Past. Touch something and roll. You know its history.

    Dream Eyes. You can sense magic for d6 rounds.

When you cast a SPELL, take d6 SAN damage. If it's marked with an asterisk, instead take a d12. If you fail on any rolls a SPELL requires, take the damage again.

CTHULHU LOOT

1 Silver Ring. You're never forced to flee.

2 Moldy Muffin. Gain d4 HP.

3 Aged Bourbon. Gain d6 SAN.

4 Abandoned Wallet. 3d10 $.

5 Occult Jewel. Worth 1d10 x 10$.

6 Bolt Cutters. Deal ULTIMATE EFFORT when snipping metal.

7 Fishing rod. All rolls to fish are EASY.

8 Signal Flair. Call for help, or blow 'em up!

9 Ball Bearings. Roll DEX to move without eating shit.

10 Alien Crystal. If you die, return... but not quite right

11 Chemist's Kit. Brewing and alchemy rolls are EASY.

12 Voodoo Doll. Take 5 SAN to ask a question. It will answer truthfully, if not cryptically.

13 Bag of Fingers. Food- take 1d20 SAN to heal 1d12 HP.

14 Skeleton Key. Open one lock.

15 Bombilating Banjo. Make a CHA check. Every point you succeed by is a $ earned.

16 Spell Tattoo. Choose a SPELL. You take HP instead of SAN when you use it.

17 Great Old One Blood. Food- -1 EYE, +2 to one Stat.

18 Truth. Take 2d12 SAN. Say something, and it will be true.

19 Aeloth's Eye. Take 1 SAN to see through this glass eye.

20 Smelling Salts. Ignore 1 point of SAN loss.

21 Shitty Moonshine. Heal d6 HP, but you're drunk. Flammable.

22 Horror in a Box. Deal SAN damage with Weapon Effort.

23 Silencer Mod. Gun damage rolls explode.

24 Antonio's Hat. You both know Antonio, no exceptions.

25 Hypnotist's Ring. Cast Whisper (a SPELL) without losing SAN.

26 Cultist Journal. Learn 3 SPELLS.

27 Brain in a Jar. Succeed on one INT roll.

28 Wrench. If you hit, you can deal a HEART of nonlethal damage.

29 Rigged Dice. Roll with ADVANTAGE, d6 round cooldown.

30 Silver Flask. Always contains holy "water".

31 Mechanical Critter. This automaton pet follows your commands.

32 Grimoire of the Hunt. Deal ULTIMATE EFFORT for damage.

33 Necronomicon. You know all SPELLS, but roll double the dice any time you would lose SAN from casting.

34 Cheap Beer. ADVANTAGE on SAN rolls for d6 rounds.

35 Hungry Parasite. All rolls to gain HP are max.

36 Spectacles of P'Teros. You can read any language.

37 Menacing Aura. Sane people with no business with you cannot bother you.

38 Keys to the Hot Rod. A smuggling vehicle, yours for the taking.

39 Devouring Wand. Take 5 SAN to disintegrate an object, or deal double MAGIC EFFORT damage.

40 Psych Textbook. Expend to regain all SAN.

41 Green Torch. All insane fear the flames. Burs for d6 hours.

42 Gold Bullet. Auto-hit for ULTIMATE EFFORT once.

43 Curved Dagger. Add CHA to damage.

44 Favor. Who owes you what?

45 Extra Tentacle. Hold 3 things simultaneously.

46 Fake Fake Book. Counterfeit and impersonation are EASY.

47 Vendor’s Map. Find anything nonmagical for half $, but it’s out of the way.

48 Eye of the Storm. Take 1 SAN to control the weather.

49 Police Radio. Summon 1d4 cops, but you’ll have to repay them later.

50 Stale Baklava. It’s good stuff! Heal 2d8 HP.

51 Cutpurse Pin. Stealth rolls are EASY.

52 Old Badge. Commandeer vehicles and scare criminals.

53 Phrenology Manual. Gain 1 EYE.

54 Heart Stone Hard Hat. Gain 1 HEART.

55 Pathogen Pills. Negate one disease or poison, d6 doses.

56 Engineer’s Kit. All tech rolls are EASY.

57 Soothing Radio. Reduce all SAN damage by 1.

58 Silk Hanky. Add CHA to INT rolls.

59 Coffin Stake. Stab at what was once human with ULTIMATE effort.

60 Swarm of Bees in a Jar. You can command them.

61 Ringmaster’s Glove. +1 CHA.

62 Crystal Monocle. +1 WIS.

63 Snake Oil Pills. +1 INT.

64 Lucky Shot Glass. +1 CON.

65 Urchin’s Vest. +1 DEX.

66 Oversized Crowbar. +1 STR.

67 Worn Bugle. Makes a good distraction- while playing, all allies remain unnoticed.

68 Trusty Flashlight. All rolls to spot things are EASY.

69 Filthy Novel. Seduction is EASY.

70 Plasmic Symbiote. This creature can morph into anything the size of a cantaloupe or smaller.

71 Codex Anim Cosmis. Know the name and HEARTS of any creature you see.

72 Ruby Shard. Regain 1 HP each round.

73 Silver Crucifix. Attacks from cultists and monsters are HARD.

74 Stethoscope and Syringe. Once, automatically save against death.

75 Emerald Slug. 6 MAGIC EFFORT bullets.

76 Undertaker’s Shovel. A natural 20 instantly kills.

77 Fat Wallet. d6 x 100 $. The owner wants it back...

78 Ivory Broach. Break it while making an oath. The oath will be seen through, or both parties die.

79 Sturdy Coat. +2 ARMOR.

80 Lucky Fez. Roll BASIC EFFORT twice.

81 WW1 Snare. Supernatural entities and veterans of war fear its sound.

82 Broken Police Watch. d4 times, skip the GM’s turn, or halt a timer for a turn.

83 Waterlogged Shoes. Shift into or out of the Drowned City at will.

84 Santa’s Post. Send a letter to Santa. He will reply in his own time.

85 Flying Letter. Express delivery!

86 Monkey Paw. It moves. Roll CHA to make it listen.

87 Bathtub Gin. Cure a condition, but roll CON or take d6 damage.

88 Cooked Fish. Regain d10 HP.

89 Final Word. Point to someone- they will die in 13 days.

90 Chatty Skull. It won’t shut up!

91 Fireplace Poker. Always burning hot. +3 EFFORT.

92 Mobster’s MG. Spray bullets- automatic 1d4 to all targets.

93 Two Dollar Bill. Treat all 1’s you roll as 2’s.

94 Eldritch Acid. Destroy one LOOT.

95 Parasite. -1 EYE.

96 Cursed Ring. When you roll a 1, the specter of the bride returns.

97 Iron Hand. It grips on, -2 STR.

98 Eyes of the Goat. Take a d4 of SAN damage to see into the Drowned City.

99 Mask of Nyarlathotep. +3 CHA as long as you are doing something evil or cruel.

100 Cursed Icosahedron. Take a -1 to all d20 rolls. You can’t get rid of it normally…