Knave 2nd Ed. (starting a Solo Campaign)

      Being a sucker for random tables and generators, I backed the Knave 2nd Edition Kickstarter, having a little downtime today, I took the tables for a spin.  Just using the plethora of random tables you can have a ton of fun with this!  I also recently watched a Youtube video about using Knave 2nd ed to develop a campaign (great video).        

     First, I need a character.  Fortunately creating characters in Knave is super quick.  A few rolls later and I had a character. First level characters are dubbed Wretches!  Love it! Behold Raze Harrow! Oh and I added a few things from Vaults of Vaarn, why not, its cool!

Raze Harrow

Background:  Trapper, Scout

Str 0  Dex 0  Con 2 Int 0 Wis 1 Cha 0

Armor : Shield 1 Ap       5 Hit Points

Shabby Hazard Wrap (Immunity from radiation and toxins, AC 12 for OSR games, Vaults of Vaarn)

Basher (Mace)   1d6 damage

Plinker (Short Bow)  1d6 damage  

Equipment: Quiver 20 arrows, 2 torches, 130 coins, 2 rations, 50’ rope, Bear trap, Bear pelt, 300’ twine, signal flags, black grease, dice

Additional Gear (Vaults of Vaarn): Cast Iron Skillet, Skin of Wine, 

Crystalline Knife (Vaults of Vaarn): 1d6+1 damage (razor sharp) +d6 damage on mineral-based creatures or automatons and on a critical hit inflicts an extra d6 damage and the blade snaps off into the wound and a new blade "grows" from the hilt 

Exotica (Vaults of Vaarn): Mirror Ring - Projects a hologram copy of the wearer that mimics their actions.

     So that took me to the next step... where would Raze be adventuring?  

     I rolled on the Wilderness Region table and was excited to roll Wasteland!  Long time blog readers will know that I LOVE wasteland settings!  So very cool.  I decided that given Raze's background as a Scout and Trapper he has been hired to scout out and explore the Wasteland! Maybe he may try to trap some of the exotic beasts he encounters during his explorations, rare pelts and strange beast partscould fetch a nice price in certain markets...markets like those found in Bethmoora! 

     I've become rather intrigued by Matt's Bethmoora Campaign idea. So maybe Raze is setting out from Bethmoora to scout the wastes near Bethmoora, 

     I'll expound more on this concept in future posts.. I've not really done "true" Solo play, so that's where the next book comes into play.  The Mythic Gamemaster Emulator Deluxe, 2nd Edition will be the next resource I use.  Matt Jackson has been posting about Solo play over on his blog,   I'm trying to decide if I want to go with the full Mythic GME, or maybe just the Mythic One Page option instead. More to come!

Update: added some additional gear and things using the random tables from Vaults of Vaarn, great game by the way! 

A Challenge!

 Happy Saturday everyone!

I was surprised to see how many hits I got on my recent Nightbane post.  More than double, maybe triple my usual traffic.  Nice to see folks are still interested in good ole Palladium Books games.  

     Today's post is a different bit of nostalgia, a good buddy of mine recently gifted me a huge collection of old Challenge Magazines from back in the day. 

Wow, remember when magazines were $3!! this was late 80's era or so.  Challenge was a gaming (rpg) magazine that featured articles for Traveller, Twilight 2000, Star Wars, etc.  I only had one or two issues for it when it actually came out, back then we mostly played D&D, Gamma World (a little Classic Traveller, and then later Rifts in early 90s) and the magazines weren't easily available in my neck of the woods (really I lived in the country so my backyard was woods, it was a 30 minute drive to get milk and if it was after 800 at night forget it). Anyways, I digress, My buddy gifted me with this stack and I started going through it, just skimming the pages and wow, these magazines are loaded with ideas and content, I've been on a sci fi kick for awhile now. D&D is fun and all, but I'm jonesing to play/run some Sci Fi gaming.  I've posted some solo stuff here,and done some sci fi solo gaming that I haven't posted about yet, but I want to run some sci fi for a group.  I think these Challenge magazines are going to be a wonderful resource. The Challenge, see what I did there? is I want to take adventures and ideas from different settings and systems in the magazines (say Twilight 2000 and Traveller, maybe some Star Wars without the obvious Star Wars) and mesh them into a series of adventures.  I think that would be fun. Mix and match and be creative. Hopefully my schedule will give me some time to make this happen.  More to come on this hopefully.  Meanwhile check out the image below by Tim Bradstreet from Challenge Magazine #37 fantastic Undead Space Marines for Warhammer 40K! WOW! The article was for having Undead Space marines in your 40K tabletop miniatures skirmish games, but I can see an awesome RPG encounter, wherein maybe a Marine ship goes through some radioactive/mutagenic cloud and turns the marines into undead horrors, the marines eventually crash onto a planet or space station or some such and now the players have a squad (or more) of Undead Space Marines to deal with!! FUN! 

  I hope you all have a blessed weekend and get to spend time with friends and family, try to get some gaming in if you can!  

5E Session Zero!

                 Yeah, my DM Dice box has gotten out of hand....

 
 This last Saturday was interesting on the gaming front for several reasons.  First and foremost a return to face to face gaming after a long hiatus. Second, I was asked to run a 5E game for a group of good friends.  I'm an OSR guy, but after discussion and thought I agreed to run 5E.  For me the most important thing is the people at the table, and this was a chance to run for a great group of folks.  The last, but not least item of interest was we met but did not actually play per se. Instead I had an official Session Zero. I've never actually organized or done a true Session Zero before.  I've done group campaign building, and variations of that, but we followed a pre-worked agenda/outline I worked up, asking players key questions about their gaming styles, preferences, likes and dislikes.  Even learned some new things about people I've known for years.  Then we worked in broad strokes on the starting campaign area, then we did character creation. Gaming schedules were hashed out, house rules, what to do in event of character death or player absence. Etc...

Bit of organized character creation

My Dice of Death & Dismemberment arrived that day, so we had a serious chat about using them or not...we worked out a compromise.

     By the end of the evening, everyone was excited about their characters and the campaign. Since Saturday,  I've received multiple messages from the players saying how much they enjoyed having a Session Zero and how it helped them better formulate their character and how to come together as a group.  Looking forward to this campaign!

- Good Gaming! B.B.

OldSkull d100 NPC Generator

 I've been a fan of Kent Kelly's OSR Castle Oldskull gaming supplements for awhile now.  I recently picked up one of his newer releases the Oldskull d100 NPC Generator.  You can find it HERE

     The blurb from the Amazon description, " This book is dedicated solely to helping you to generate ideas which will allow you sketch out a unique, interesting and evocative Non-Player Character … either an enemy or ally to the Player Character party, depending on your needs... This is a compact guide which will give you only the core ideas to build your NPC from, in 5 minutes or less. (The initial read-through will take you longer.)..."

      After doing a quick read through of the book I decided to test out the " 5 minutes or less" theory.  The results are the NPC below.

 Belladonna the Terrible

female human, Fighter, Level 3   Neutral Evil

Str 14 Int 11 Wis 7 Dex 13 Con 12 Cha 5

Personality : Neurotic

Likes: Night & Darkness, due to her hideous scarring, she has a preference for operating at night and in the shadows. She views a bright sunny day as others would view a dark, cold and foggy night.

Loot/Valuables - any given time (depending on her recent  jobs or who she has murdered in an alleyway) she has up to 200 gp in valuables on her.

+1 Chainmail, Potion of Animal Control (in a pinch she will use the potion to control any nearby dogs, rats etc.  to attack her foes). 

      Guess what? The NPC Generator passed the 5 minute test.  Other than a couple of quick rolls in my OSE Treasure book to determine her magical armor and potion, I was able to get the above NPC just from a series of a few random rolls in the NPC Generator book.  It took me longer to find a picture of her that I liked than to roll up the NPC. All she needs is some hit points and a bit more gear and she is ready to unleash on my campaign!  Kent Kelly recommends using the book in between games rather than as an "at the table during sessions" resource, but it can work for that too.  I would have never come up with a NPC like Belladonna without this resource and I'm glad I picked it up!  

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and you are able to get some gaming in with your friends!  

-Good Gaming!  B.B.

Hawk the Slayer and an Ode to Old School D&D

 I recently got to re-watch an old favorite movie of mine. A movie that some have labeled as the best D&D Movie ever!

I'm talking about Hawk the Slayer!

     I still remember the 11 year old me that was blown away by this movie when it released back in 1980. Yes, I am that old.  Anyways, watching it again, was a breath of fresh air.  With all the difficulties of 2020, it was nice to be taken back to the 1980s of my youth. I know the world was far from perfect back then, but with time you gloss over the bad and remember the good stuff. The cheesiness of this movie hit all the right spots for me, and also helped me remember the old school D&D of my youth.  Orcs were for fighting, dungeons were for exploring and dragons were for...well mostly running away from, this was basic D&D after all! 

     I've recently been enjoying reading posts by Needles over on the Swords & Stitchery blog, his OSR Moorcockian Frankenstein Campaign loosely based upon the Black Blade of the Demon Demon King has really sparked my interest.  This is exactly the kind of wildly cool and crazy campaign I'd love to play in and run, and bits of his posts reminded me of how my group used to play back in the day, and for some reason have gotten away from in recent years.  We combined fantasy and sci fi without any concerns. I'd read some comic book that gave me an idea and I would plug it into my campaign. I'd get a recent issue of Dragon Magazine (IN THE MAIL) and would loot it heavily for content to add to my games.  The first D&D book I ever purchased was Deities and Demigods, which had the Cthulhu and Melnibonean Mythos in it. 10 year old me, just took for granted that Arthurian Knights with their Native American Allies were supposed to be fighting Mi-Go and the minions of Set.  It formed the foundation of my DM style for years to come. 

     So moving forward I'd like to try harder to get back to that style of play and gaming. Needles has been doing it all along, and I know with the right group, I can too.  With the release of  Old School Essentials  I have the mechanical tool kit to run the style of games I want, and with the OSR library I now have, I can Frankenstein the heck out of it, to my hearts content.  

     With that said, I've backed a couple of recent kickstarters that I am looking forward to playing/running in this vein.

 Scourge of the Scorn Lords a "post-apocalyptic fantasy wastelands, psionics, AND madness-inducing monstrosities!", OSE based setting that sounds right up my alley!

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland an "Ultra-Violent and style matters RPG set in the ruins of Earth, after the Neon Wars of 1992. Half Fantasy half SCI-FI ALL RADNESS" So a OSE Gonzo PA setting, how can I not be all over this one! The pay what you want version of the rules can be found HERE

     Hopefully 2021 will be better than 2020, and with the vaccine roll out, we can all get back to having more normal lives, which will hopefully include face to face gaming again. I know online gaming is an option, but I prefer face to face. Both of these games seem like loads of fun, and heck with the OSR, I could even mash them together if I wanted too, in classic Needles Swords & Stitchery Frankenstein style! 

Oh and yeah Dr. Steele will definitely be making an appearance(s)! 

So, in order to make this post more than just an old grognard rambling about the good old days, and a commercial for upcoming OSR products, how about some actual gaming content? Since I started this post off talking about Hawk the Slayer, how about I stat up the Jack Palance villain Voltan the Dark for the OSR?  First set of stats are for FH&W, since that is what Needles is currently using for his Black Blade of the Demon King campaign . FH&W is an awesome comprehensive OSR product that doesn't get enough love. I've discussed FH&W briefly over the years, but need to revisit it in a future post.

 Voltan

Other Aliases: Dark One, The Devil’s Agent, Servant of evil.

Height: 6’3″ Weight: 170 lbs.

    Voltan is a power hungry, selfish tyrannical individual that feels a narcissistic sense of ownership over everything and everyone around him. He feels any downturns he experiences are caused by the actions of others and never as a result of his own doing. He especially relishes goading and tormenting his captives before eventually growing bored with them and murdering them. If he is short on captives, he may kill a member of his camp just to keep his men "on their toes".

     Voltan has a mobile military camp of mercenary soldiers, their numbers vary between 60-100 on any given week. He has been known to kill his underlings on occasion to display his power, or if he is just pissed off in general.  These men epitomize the meaning of the word scum. They are vile, murderous thugs that enjoy murdering innocents just to hear them scream. They prefer unfair fights, and in the face of strong resistance, especially if Voltan isn't around, they may flee.  Disadvantage on morale checks when half their number are taken out and Voltan is not present. Generally they are equipped with Leather armor, sword and dagger,  although a handful (1 in 10) also bear crossbows and a small number  (2 out of every 10 or so) wear chainmail armor.  They have enough light horses on hand to keep them mobile, but they are not effective horseback combatants. 

Weakness: Voltan hides the left side of his face under a war helm, the left side of his face is badly burned, an old wound that will never heal. If a foe hits him with a natural "20" his face has been struck, triggering waves of pain which will cause him to withdraw until he can receive magical aid to temporarily stop the pain.                                                                                  

FH&W Stats (Fantastic Heroes & Witchery)

Background: Villain - +4 bonus to rolls wherein his villainous background would be relevant (not applicable to attack rolls).

Alignment: Chaos

Class: Fighter

Level: 6

Hit Points: 49

AC: 15

Str  17 +2 to melee and damage rolls

Int 13 +1 to knowledge checks, saves against illusions and politician's lies

Wis 10

Dex 16 +2 to ranged attacks, +2 to AC, saves vs dodge based effects

Con 9 (used to be higher but his unhealing burn and sorcerous treatments have reduced his Con)

Cha 16 +2 (strong force of will, especially over the selfish and weak-minded) (disadvantage on Charisma checks when his helmet is off and his horrible facial burn is visible)

+8 to hit/+2 damage, (+9 to hit, +4 damage when wielding a Bastard Sword)

Saves 11

Battle Tricks +3/-3

Combat Specialties:  Mow the Rabble, Weapon Specialization (Bastard Sword) +1 to hit and +2 damage,  Armor Specialization (Leather) +1 to AC,

Talents:  Intimidation (+4 when threatening force or bullying beings with 5 HD or less) , Combat Reflexes (never hesitates in combat, +1 to surprise and initiative rolls), Ruthless (Cleave, when he drops an opponent with an attack, he gets an immediate attack against another foe in range).

Weapons & Equipment

Bastard Sword   w/ skull pommel   1d10/1d12 damage

Dagger (1d4 damage) 10' range when thrown

War Helm

Leather Armor-  black (of course) +2 to AC

Other gear as needed including a maximum hit points black riding horse.

 

Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland Stats

Class: Deathbringer

Level:  5

Hit Points:  48

Base Movement : 35'

AC 14

BUR 17 +2 to attack & Damage, 20% break down doors

PRO 16 +2 attack and damage with missiles, +2 AC, uses daggers to maim at distance, prefers to kill up close and personal

END 9 (was higher, but his facial burn and sorcerous treatments have weakened his endurance over the years)

ATT 8  -1 to reactions amongst decent , civilized people

BRA 13  Skilled in Leadership

Sleaze 16  He is a villain and hangs out with despicable thugs, said to be an Agent of the Devil

Fortune 5, he has pushed himself to attain his goals.

Attacks: +5 , +1d6+2 damage,  Grit 13, Agility 16, Resolve 14, Death 13

Rad Abilities: If it Bleeds, Its Too Dangerous to Go Alone, True Masters of the Quest, The Thrill of the Kill,

Weapons & Gear: Rucksack, Slasher - Long Sword (1d8 damage) , Dagger (1d4 damage), Leather Armor +2,(you can Metal up his gear if you want, this gear is more in tune with his character as seen in the movie).