Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

Telecanter's blog post today about psionics, and especially the  older one  he references, got me thinking about the details of my own ad hoc psionic system. Not sure if this would end up Crude Simulation Engine or not. I'm thinking more of a snap-on attachment to any pre-4E systems. I go back and forth about whether to represent characters as classes or just have a single character path where abilities are chosen a la carte. This leans a little in the class-based direction, but is pretty flexible. Aside from a liberal dose of "middle of the road" attack, save and hit point progression for the psionic class, the class would have the following qualities: Disciplines ≈ Spells Trained "disciplines" and wild "talents" are represented by borrowing or slightly re-skinning divine and arcane spells of similar effect. There are a few caveats to this: Psionic powers never consume material components and rarely require words or gestures to work. ...

Looking at how various old school derived and inspired games treat classes, I go back and forth about how I should structure these things in CSE.  There seem two be two basic philosophies:  Few (2-5) well defined and relatively unmixable classes, or 1 class that fights and maybe casts spells through items or difficult rituals but typically have no "race" distinctions (elves, dwarves, etc.). The issue that I run into is that neither of these easily allows the kind of customization I'm looking to allow.  Even the Warrior vs. Mage dichotomy I'd proposed earlier seems like it complicates some things (why have a separate class for magic except in the name of "balance"?), and oversimplifies others (so your magical ability, based on class level helps you both to draw forth your natural physical strength, and prepare learn rote procedures better?). So after more hemming and hawing, I'm leaning toward a single-class system (tip o' the hat to Bandits &...

These are the basic components of the Crude Roleplaying Engine skill use and advancement system: Competent Characters, Competent Players Player creativity and thoughtful investigation trump skill.  If a player suggests a course of action that is well within the character's ability then just let them do it, even if you think their Intelligence score isn't up to thinking it up.  If the player figures out something based on evidence that their character could possibly have seen then let them use that insight, even if the character's Wisdom score is abysmal.  If the player comes up with a well thought out way of socially engineering a social encounter, then let them succeed if it possibly could despite low Charisma. In short:  Given any typical situation, if the character has even a marginal chance of success then just let them get away with it. Think of it this way:  Don't make your players' attempts fail just because you think there should be a chan...

A character's base initiative modifier is determined by:  Dexterity modifier + Wisdom modifier At the beginning of combat this total is added to the roll of 1d20 to determine the order that each character's actions take place during combat, with higher initiatives going first followed by lower rolls.  Any ties are either assumed to take place at exactly the same time or, if such a simultaneous action would be impossible, then each party rolls 1d20 again as a tiebreaker. Characters with higher initiatives may hold their actions until later in the round. Option:  Round-by-Round Initiative Instead of rolling initiative once at the beginning of combat, and using the same initiative order every round, you may choose instead to re-roll each round.  This gives characters a chance to do better if they've gotten stuck with a bad initiative on the first roll. Option:  Speed Modifier This alternation is intended for use with round-by-round initiative.  With ...

I'm finding some great inspiration in the Old School Renaissance (OSR) movement.  A few things I've seen stressed here and there that are great include: Kludge it until it's right - Don't just stick with the rules as written if the don't get what you're going for, mess with it a bit. World first, mechanics later (if necessary) - The mechanics provided are just to give a Player creativity first, character skills later (if necessary) - If the players have interesting ideas, don't force them to be constrained to their character's mental stats and training.  If it seems remotely plausible, let it happen.  If they're looking for something in a reasonable manner, let them find it.  Let them solve puzzles rather than rolling to overcome them.  A roll might notice something, but thorough searching can do the same, and actual thought will be necessary to overcome the problem. Skills later (if necessary) - Skill rolls can be saved for dramatically ...

It appears that although Regenerate is a spell in D&D edition 3.5, the corresponding "Wither" spell has been excluded. So although there's a convenient way to attach limbs, there's no specific magical way to remove them. Hence the entry below. Wither Limb Necromancy Level : Clr 7, Drd 7, Sorcerer/Wizard 7 Components : V, S Casting Time : 1 standard action Range : Touch Target : Living creature touched Duration : Instantaneous Saving Throw : Fortitude negates (harmless) Spell Resistance : Yes (harmless) The subject’s bodily extremities (arms, legs, tails, or even extra heads on multi-headed creatures) shrivel and fall off. After the spell is cast, the physical degeneration is complete at the end of 1d4 rounds. Withering also causes 4d8 points of damage +1 point per caster level (maximum +35). It is equally effective on all creatures which have bodily extremities including nonli...

This feat allows a character to do increased damage when using their body en lieu of other weapons to attack an opponent.  Through increased combat training the character becomes more effective as follows: Combat Ability Damage 1-3 1d6 4-7 1d8 8-11 1d10 12-15 2d6 16-19 2d8 20 2d10 Characters using claws, horns or other innate, physical melee attacks are treated as using either the damage from their innate attack form or the barehanded technique damage, whichever is higher.

As usual Jeff put up another post that stirred a disused corner of my imagination: Cave man days, through the lens of a D&D fork. This is something I used to give a lot of thought to back in the day.  GURPS Ice Age seemed like such a neat idea, but I didn't love the system and couldn't figure out what to do for adventures (Fighting wolves and tribes all the time?  Hunting a lot?).  Acquisition of non-subsistence stuff isn't typically a big part of the caveman way of life. One possibility would be tribesmen stumbling across Lovecraftian horrors, but I had doubts about losing player interest while trying to build a backdrop of normalcy before contrasting it with the first unnatural discovery. Another thought was contrasting current neolithic era with finds of lost pre-existing civilizations of human or inhuman origin.  It's an idea I like, and I think it could work well used appropriately. The Lithic setting wouldn't really work as a part of the same...

Some of the discussions of "buffing" (i.e. combat preparation effects) for non-magic users in this thread led to the inspiration for this warrior feat: Foreseen Eventuality - Before a combat or, as a free action on a warrior's turn, the character may state a situation they expect to take place during the coming conflict and the action they wish to take if it does occur.  The warrior then spends a point of reserves to keep a piece of their attention focused on this possible outcome.  However, if the stated outcome does take place then the warrior is able to respond in an instant taking a standard action as a free reflex action. The warrior's contingent, free reflex action comes at the same time as, or immediately after, the triggering situation (at the warrior's option), but before any other actions in the round.  If the triggering situation occurs at the same time, then neither the warrior nor the trigger interrupt each other.  Both have their normal chances...

The D&D convention of inflating hit dice has always stuck in my craw.  That is:  hit point totals which increase in proportion to creature level. As a representation of bodily health it seems absurd that a character who could be killed at first level would be able to take a direct, full damage hit from a two-handed sword, or fall off a cliff, or even a direct hit by a missile (in some sci-fi offshoots), and survive unscathed. Over the years it's been put forward repeatedly, apparently even by the game's author, that hit points are not a measure of the character's physical integrity alone.  They instead represent a nebulous sort of luck, internal energy and survivability. But while I can understand this idea, and it would make some sense in certain games, it still doesn't sit well for two reasons: Although the immunity caused by hit points builds over levels, the damage done by a typical melee attack increases very little, especially in early editions of the ...

Combat is a significant part of D&D, and perhaps more so with recent iterations.  It may not be the defining aspect of the game, but physical conflict is a core element and it's presence generally much anticipated.  Further I'd put forward the idea that an adventuring class that has less useful in combat the ability to contribute feels a little lame while the combat monsters are dragging out the big guns. But at the same time combat is not all there is to the game.  Some games focus also on exploration, investigation, realm building, social interaction, magical research, social interaction and other areas.  These aspects of course could simply be abstracted and left handled without direct rules support, but why not make some attempt to force characters a little bit to expand in other areas? Adventuring Classes:  Warrior & Mage All characters gain one general feat (not warrior or mage specific) each level. There are only two classes which adventu...

Reading the recent Alexandrian post on saving throws and following -C's comment link to a previous Hack & Slash post , has me thinking about saving throws again. (For further related reading Hack & Slash: On New Old School saves is also of interest.) I have to admit I'm a big fan of the 3E breakdown of saving throws.  I played a year or so under 2E and the abstraction -C finds so useful, I viewed as an incomprehensible mess with little rhyme or reason. The applications of these saves aren't intuitively obvious to everyone.  I remember looking at the save tables in 2E baffled as to why characters got the saves they did.  And even in cases where it was easy to intuitively grasp why a character might have one given save better than another, I was still puzzled as to which save would best cover any given effect if it fell under the aegis of multiple categories. When Fortitude/Reflex/Will came along in 3E it seemed like a breath of fresh air. It may be that ...

Since this is a place to collect and annotate the various projects I have in the works, and maybe give them some focus, now seems like a good time to actually outline what the cellars currently include. But first a little background as to where this stuff will be coming from: Old School D&D - I'd always liked the aesthetic of old school D&D related games,  for most of my life generally chalking it up to nostalgia and a love for low-brow fantasy art. Gamma World 4th Edition - (no, not Gamma World D&D 4th Ed., which is actually Gamma World's 7th Edition) is my favorite iteration of the post-apocalyptic genre, though several of the others have their moments (e.g. 7th Edition's two-background system). 3E - I liked a lot of things about how 3E and it's relatives cleaned up and standardized things.  Also my little freeloading communist* heart finds the open game movement a thing of joy. 4E - D&D 4th Edition may have a few interesting elements he...