Fantasy Heartbreak Workshop

Someone on Quora had inquired if there were a Star Trek RPG like AD&D (not sure if they meant AD&D in particular, or just used that as a generic stand-in for RPG). In response this was just a roundup of all the Star Trek RPGs I could think of.

This is inspired by, if not probably the most direct response to, Catty Big's inquiry regarding a 5th edition review.  It's also heavily rambling, so hold on to your hats. My tastes in D&D and it's ilk are pretty eclectic.  As with music I rarely like all of one thing, but tend to find certain things I really like in most products.  Below are general impressions of several editions and related products.  Keep in mind these are all subjective feelings and not deep analyses.  Your mileage may vary. Caveat:  Sometimes I like to build for lots of damage or one thing or another. But usually I'm not too fussy about balance, as long as I feel my character's abilities haves something interesting to contribute both inside and outside of combat. Swords & Wizardry (0th edition retroclone) Advantages:  Small and pretty straightforward.  Pared down and easy to tinker with. Disadvantages:  Some bits still feel a bit cobbled together an...

Wyrms & Warrens is the primary fantasy heartbreaker I've been working on for awhile now, based largely on the Swords & Wizardry SRD with significant modifications. I've broken it into a Player's Handbook (PHB) and a Warren Keeper's Guide (WKG).  Altough the WKG is still in its infancy, the PHB is more ore less complete and available for download at the links below. This project is a labor of love, available for free to all for use, modification and critique. Player's Handbook v0.451 ( pdf ) ( odt ) - 8/14/16 Player's Handbook v0.41 ( pdf ) ( odt ) Player's Handbook v0.4 ( pdf ) ( odt ) Player's Handbook v0.3 ( pdf ) ( odt ) Player's Handbook v0.2 ( pdf ) ( odt ) Player's Handbook v0.1 ( pdf ) ( odt ) 8/14/16 - Edit:  Table of Contents fixes, typos, formatting, etc. 8/13/16 - Edit:  Major changes to magic systems. Addition of illustrations, etc. 8/10/15 - Edit:  Updated Hurl power to include information about small anim...

Interested in a simplified psychic rules for early edition D&D? Based on the Swords & Wizardry rules, and drawing inspiration from Microlite20 magic system, it may not be the Complete Psionics Handbook , but its the: Partial Psionics Pamphlet This has actually been created for awhile, but never got around to posting it up before. For completists, an older and simply more poorly edited version can be found here .

Standard spell slot casting never sat right with me: too little magic at low level, too much at high level.  And why fire and forget everything for the rest of the day? After playing the D&D 5th Edition Warlock class a bit, the magic system there seems like a good start as to how to go about things:  Only a couple spell options during a crisis, but more ability to make other choices when things aren't going nuts. This was what I had in mind while cobbling together the following hack: --=-- Spell Availability Casters from standard classes obtain spells through the normal means (books or divine inspiration), and may learn spells of spell level equal to 1/2 their character level (rounded up). Spell Retention However, keeping multiple spells prepared and "left hanging" at the same time, ready to cast at a moment's notice, is a precarious balancing act and demands a certain amount of constant attention to keep from screwing things up.  As a result,...

In a recent G+ post , Eric Fabiaschi pointed out a few interesting things in a Lithic vein recently: The above picture. Random caveman mutations . OD&D Setting map and terrain description , much of which could be used directly for a dawn of humanity game.

Apparently St. Patrick was involved in the writing of Swords & Wizardry, since there seems to be a paucity of snakes in the product.  As Andy Vann pointed out this is sort of a problem when casting the Sticks to Snakes spell. As a remedy to this oversight, please examine the inscriptions on the Stele of Yig .