Blog Reboot

How starting over feels...

After the disaster that was 2020 I decided it would be best to start over on a new blog. Wipe the state clean as they say. It'll still be OSR focused but not hyper-so on one system like this one was. Also the URL for this blog was REALLY starting to bother me. Anyways if you like my stuff please follow me over on my new blog down below and add it to your blogroll. Thank you again for your support!

NEW BLOG: BRINEHOUSE, CLICK HERE TO SEE. 

(I'll keep this blog up for those who like it.)

Rogues to Riches Series Finale

This year I played in the greatest longest running LotFP campaign on the internets called Rogues to Riches (RtR). Run by youtuber and amigo Fantastic Dimensions, RtR is one of the best campaigns I've played in and it's bittersweet to see it end. The Referee managed to weave together the best aspects of LotFP with great improv work after dealing with our sickening hijinks. Some of my favorite sessions include: the time the pcs met the dreaded Love Slug *shivers*, when characters all died from horrid explosive diarrhea or that one time my Magic-User sacrificed some orphans to Summon a demon. Classic LotFP. 

If you want to see someone run LotFP the right way with great players, check out Fantastic Dimensions and the Rogues to Riches campaign. Thanks again.

Rogues to Riches Finale

B/X Houserules

Always more house rules lurking.

Everybody house rules B/X. It's like chicken soup, you season to taste. Here's the house rules I'm thinking of using for my budding vanilla fantasy campaign.

GENERAL

1. HIT POINTS--Max at 1st Level.
   
   
2. DEATH--When 0 or Less HP is reached a character may make a save vs death to instead be knocked unconscious for 2d6 turns with 1HP. 
   
   
3. SECOND WIND--Characters may spend a turn immediately after combat to regain 1d3+1 hit points. This represents bandaging, rest, food/water intake, weapon upkeep, etc.
   
   
4. CRITICALS--Max damage is dealt on a natural 20, 1’s are an auto-miss.
   
   
5. AAC-- Ascending AC because descending AC is very meh.
   
   
6. SEARCH CHECKS--May be reattempted but takes another turn.
   
   
7. HELMETS--Grant +1 AC.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CLASSES

FIGHTER:

• CLEAVE--Whenever a Fighter eliminates an enemy in melee, they can make another melee attack. If this attack also kills an enemy, they can attack again, and so on.
  
  

• SHIELDS SHALL BE SPLINTERED--The fighter may sacrifice their shield to negate an attack. Make a Save vs Death to succeed, a fail means damage is taken as normal.

CLERIC:

• TURN UNDEAD--Can only be attempted once per combat encounter.
  
  
• SCROLL PRODUCTION-- As seen here.
  
  
• WEAPON RESTRICTION-- based on in-game religion.

MAGIC-USER:

• DETECT MAGIC--Magic-users can spend a turn to detect magic. 2-in-6 chance of success.
  
  
• SCROLL PRODUCTION-- As seen here.
  
  
• STARTING SPELLS-- M-Us begin play with 1x 1st level spell + Read Magic.
  
  
• WEAPON RESTRICTION-- +Crossbow.
  
  

THIEF:

• THIEF SKILLS--Changed to d20 target number as seen here.
  
  

HALFLING

• NAME CHANGE-- Halflings called Rheas in-game. 

I'll update this page as I add or remove rules. 

Blog Retrospective/2021 Goals

Looking back on my blog I feel like I've accomplished very little. Most of my highest viewed posts are Lamentations stuff. And especially now that I'm closing the book on my LotFP fanboying I'm feeling a little, lost? Idk. I'm dead-set on doing the fantasy vanilla campaign but then what? I eventually want to publish something, a zine? adventure book? I'm not sure I have the patience to pour my blood and sweat into something like that. Or the funds. 

I think writing out some simple goals should help point me in a some kind of direction.

Alright here's my current rpg goals for 2021.

• Run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign with weird toppings. 
• Write about said campaign. 
• Write minimum one blog post a month. Ideally one per week.
• Publish something. Very vague but probably for the best.
  

We'll see how it goes. Good luck me.

Why I Quit LotFP

LotFP is great/terrible! But/And...

(Roll 1d20 to finish what people are saying about LotFP today!)

1. raggi is an X.
2. the art is X and makes me Y.
3. I can't support X-ers.
4. D&D sucks.
5. raggi did X. 
6. raggi said Y.
7. fUcK Zak S.
8. someone told me X.
9. nipples scare me.
10. vaginas and/or penises scare me. BONUS, the words vagina and penis scare me.
11. zak S said I sucked one time. (probably multiple times tbh, wat an asshole)
12. raggi said I sucked one time.
13. The social media guy said I sucked one time. (Lies lol)
14. the social media guy is shady AF.
15. Fuck for SATAN?!
16. a rival competitor says they suck and to buy their sucky book(s) instead.
    
17. ZAK SHIT IN SOMETHING THAT ONE TIME!
18. it's just house ruled b/x (no shit).
    
19. they are transphobic, anti-gay, right winged-Trump supporters.
    
20. they suck so buy my book instead!
    

And this is pretty much what I saw almost everyday while free lancing for LotFP. If I wasn't getting paid I would have quit way, way sooner.

If you're unaware I used to free lance as LotFP's social media manager. I was offered the job cause I fanboyed hard on the facebook group. I accepted because I needed the money and it was(is?) my favorite ttrpg game, what could go wrong?  I was only in charge of the official FB page, the FB group, twitter and Instagram. Surprisingly, I think I was decent at it, perfect? Hell no but decent. 

But yeah I was in charge of the social media listed above, ANYTHING ELSE WAS PURELY ME STANING FOR Lamentations. I also somehow managed to claw my way up to admin of the unofficial LotFP discord (unofficial you fucks). Unofficial since Raggi, much like the god of Abraham, abandoned his people to the flood (of nazi scum trolling the server in this case). I immediately demoded Zak cause wtf, who thought that was a good idea and tried casting Raise Dead on the server. Unfortunately the server's spirit decided to stay dead. It still haunts the moors with the occasional wight of Zak s. moaning in the wind. "Cube World, buy my cancelled LotFP stuff"... it says. I did attempt to remove Zak a couple a times but he never really broke any rules so, eh. I may be removing myself from there as well soon.

The last straw however was when Jeff Rients decided to do a LotFP fanzine. A great idea. I submitted my Familiar spell from my blog and was stoked that my writing was accepted by someone cool. When I got my copy I opened it up and fucking Zak was in it. Well, there went any hope of my writing getting seen by anyone outside the LotFP sphere (still love you guys tho). I posted it anyways on the OSR subreddit (with the mods approval/blessing even after I told them Zak was in it). I still got shit on. Never mind all the other people in the zine who were chill, HOW DARE YOU POST ZAK IN HERE. HOW DARE YOU ASSOCIATE WITH THE ZAK-DEVIL. HOW DARE YOU POST LOTFP ON YOUR PERSONAL ACCOUNT EVEN THOUGH YOUR PERSONAL CONTENT GOT IN A UNOFFICAL FANZINE. Fuck this I thought, I ate an edible walked my dog and came back and trolled the thread high as fuck. No regrets. I told Raggi I was quitting the next day and that I would announce it after his save LotFP sale. I took an almost 6 month break away from writing and social media stuff to survive the fucking pandemic. A welcome break. I announced my departure from LotFP last week. 

Me now.

Other than shit-heads online and their emotional abuse and psychic vampirisms, working for Raggi was pretty ok. He always paid on time, he was never unprofessional and was just a decent guy to work for. Nothing bad to say about him other than he probably made some bad decisions along the way but no one is mistake free. I wish him and LotFP the best in the future and hope he continues to be successful in whatever life brings his way. Also quick thank you to the LotFP sphere for being supportive and generally cool peeps. I will be working on my vanilla fantasy campaign using b/x for the foreseeable future and I may or may not make LotFP homebrew stuff again. 

P.S. I hate dictator Trump (and his cronies) and believe every human being has the right to Food, Water, Shelter, Internet and physical/mental health. But since I like LotFP stuff I'm automatically a right-winger Trump supporter, right? Fuck you.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Pandemic Haul

2020 has been so surreal, terrifying and utterly chaotic BUT the gaming life never ends. If there is no game then there is always planning games.

Here's some of the notable ttrpg books I picked up during lockdown. Dead wood only, I downloaded so many PDFs I don't even remember what I have now. 

OSE

I bought the the Rules Tome version of Old School Essentials over the summer and it was a nightmare to actually get. This was back when Trump was trying to sabotage the election by messing with the post office and mail-in ballots. Naturally getting packages was just as disastrous as it sounds. The package went from the east coast to the west, back to the east coast and then finally to my door in LA. Truly a shit show. Thanks Trump voters.

Not sure I'm happy with the physical quality of the book. As you can see the black is already starting to fade, the bookmarks are fraying and it makes a really weird creaking sound whenever I open it. I swear I've only opened the damn thing like 10 times. I'm regretting not getting the leather one, might hold up better than this one is. Other than that OSE is damn good layout wise. The definitive b/x clone. I'll be using it when I run my vanilla fantasy campaign after the pandemic. 

Castle Xyntillan & Echoes From Fomalhault

After reading A Distant Chime's recap of Castle Xyntillan I was hooked. I immediately went out and bought it and then the shitshow happened with the post office lol. After finally getting my sausage fingers on it I fell in love. The book is the fun house dungeon IMO. It's a masterpiece, if you don't have it buy it now. I ran it over discord for my group and everyone TPK'd, twice. So good. Everything Lux writes is gold.

Fever-Dreaming Marlinko

I love the idea of City States, they just feel like old d&d. So I bought this after doing some research on OSR city adventures. Fever-dream is exactly what it's title implies, a fever dream of city flavor goodness. Everything in here is gameable and I especially like the mechanic where the city erupts into chaos based on the PC's actions. Good stuff. 

AND the LotFP stuff. WARNING if LotFP triggers you close this post now. 

Blood Anthology

The Deck Of Weird Things

Big Puppet

Fermentvm

The Octo-Blade

Ugh if only all ttrpg books could as high quality as LotFP, getting there though check out Neverland. Not gonna go into all the new releases but my favorite of them is Big Puppet. The art by Aeron Alfrey is so good. All in all if you like LotFP stuff you won't be disappointed picking these up.

And yes my Steins;Gate playmat is sweet, I know.

Vanilla Fantasy Campaign with 1d4 Toppings

Enter the campaign

During the COVID-19 Pandemic I've become obsessed with the idea of running a "vanilla" fantasy campaign. The seed was probably planted when I tried and failed to complete the Gygax 75 Challenge earlier this year. Since then I've been reading old b/x focused blogs, old game recaps from the 70s/80s and anything else I could devour. I'm pretty excited to start but I'm gonna have to wait for the pandemic to pass to bring back the ol' home game. 

Here's some stuff I want to see out of this campaign I'm brewing:

• A small homely town my players will get attached too. Then they (I) burn it down.
• A Tent-pole (mega?)Dungeon.
• A vast City-State in the background, maybe at war with another city.
• A revolving roster of different characters as seen in Darkest Dungeons.
• A OD&Desque wilderness. Low populations, vast wilderness, waring strongholds. 
• A homebrew world that comes alive through play. 

Holiday Mail Card

I got a sweet TTRPG themed holiday card from cool guy Samwise Seven.

Doge not included

So cool, thanks again Tim!

Flame Prïncess Cult Issue #1

So, if you're not in the LotFP Facebook group and you like LotFP stuff you should be. It's the most active and chill(no drama) LotFP forum right now and has a lot of cool fan stuff being churned out from it.

For example...

Blogger/Author Jeff Rients is making a FREE 3 issue (for now) Lamentations of the Flame Princess fanzine called Flame Prïncess Cult and Issue #1 is out!

If you want it all you have to do is join the group (or might not even need to join, idk FB is weird) to get a copy. Also you can submit art/writing to Jeff by following the guidelines in the post.

P.S. my Familiar Binding spell got into the zine (pg.11).   :D

The Night Alarm: the Advance!

LotFP Amiable Media

Over on the LotFP FB group author/blogger Jeff Rients made a very cool google doc listing all the blogs/youtubers/podcasts that are openly supportive of LotFP.

If you make or talk about LotPF stuff let me know or head on over to the LotFP FB and let Jeff know and we'll add you to the list!

LotFP GOOGLE DOC HERE

Art by Journeyman1029

GYGAX 75 CHALLENGE: WEEK 2

Continued from here. 

Download the Gygax Challenge here.

Week 2:

So far I'm really enjoying the challenge. Making a setting from scratch really forces me to think outside the box to make things interesting. The world took on a more "prehistoric" feel after I added Ice Age American megafauna to the random encounter table for the Sancana Steppe. I also decided to add enormous deadly tar pits to the map. Since all my players and myself are from LA we all know the stench of tar from the La Brea Tar Pits, a cool touch to to describe the landscape with.

THE TASKS:

1. Get a sheet of hex paper. Draw the following on it, one item per hex (or more if indicated). Name anything worthy of a name.

The tasks also asks you to name multiple settlements and landmarks. I named the bigger city-state Evangelos and the smaller one Cappadocia. There's a small town between named Mun. The forest north of the Zane river is the Blackmagne Forest, south of the river is the Sancana Steppe. I was heavily inspired by the map in the challenge zine so I stole it's style.

CENTRAL LIMURIA 1 Hex=6 miles.

After drawing the map I put it in a plastic sleeve which lets me draw the dungeons and stuff over with a wet-erase marker. This has the dungeon entrance that the task ask you to do. Oh and the "mysterious site" is Devil's Rend, a deep canyon located south of Evangelos. A horrible devil is rumored to reside there.

2.  Extra Credit: Write a Random Encounter Table

The random encounter table was really fun to make and helped the setting take on a prehistoric flavor. Also I managed to write in my hatred of elves by killing them off in an extinction event. Their bones still walk the land though. Also no horses, moa are this world's horses, Final Fantasy chocobo style.

CONCLUSION
I'm getting a little worried about Week 3 since I've never done a "traditional dungeon" but it should be interesting. Also might update this post with random encounter tables for the Blackmagne Forest and the old main road between the cities. All in all a very cool challenge, thanks for reading!

GYGAX 75 CHALLENGE: WEEK 1

Over on the blog Verbum Ex Nihilo, author xmoonxhowlerx is doing the Gygax 75 Challenge (found here). In short the challenge asks you to make a small campaign setting and everything you would need to get a campaign going in 5 weeks. Including a stocked 3-level dungeon, which is hella old school.
I've been wanting to run a "vanilla" fantasy campaign anyway and thought this challenge would be the perfect opportunity to get one rolling.

Note: I assume you downloaded and read the challenge going forward.

WEEK 1: THE CONCEPT

1." Get/Create a notebook:"

Got a really cool leather notebook for my birthday last year, now's the perfect time to use it. 

2. "Develop Your Pitch: Write down 3-7 (no more!) well-crafted bullet points that will “sell” the world to your players."

I'm calling this campaign RE; LAMENT (heh) and will be using the LotFP Rules & Magic for the base rules. I thought about using Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials for a more "classic" d&d game but I remembered b/x only gives Magic-Users 1 spell at Level 1. Clerics don't get spells until lvl. 2 and it's possible to have 1HP fighters. Hilarious but also kinda lame. LotFP fits my tastes better anyway.

Onto the pitches!

• Forces of Chaos lie beyond these walls, stay inside and alive! Or, venture beyond them to a world filled with dungeons, monsters, and treasure!
• The City-State of Evangelos is the main "hub", anything outside the City is frontier land with towns and villages dotting the map. A points of light campaign with dungeons galore!
• Humans only, demi-humans were hunted to extinction by the other worldly Dread Emperor.
• Setting is low-magic, but the city is filled with strange modern-esque structures like skyscrapers and sprawling apartments in the "slums".
• Heavy anime/manga vibe.
  
  
  

3."Sources of Inspiration: List them as an annotated bibliography – citing the name, author, etc. and a sentence or two explaining what each source brings to, or supports within the setting"

• JAPANESE D&D RULES ENCYCLOPEDIA ART
  The art is so sweet for this and if I could draw this would be the style this campaign would be drawn in. Just my head canon for the campaign aesthetic. 
• The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask.
  This game shaped my lifelong love of weird kinda horror(?) stuff. The surreal tone is something I would love to emulate with some of the frontier towns.
• Berserk(manga) by Kentaro Miura
  The monsters are unique and top-notch, and show how to do monsters right. Also the writing is amazing. I want this campaign's monsters to emulate the ones in Berserk.
• KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Beautiful World! by Natsume Akatsuki 
  See, I'm not a complete edge-lord (I am however guilty of being a huge weeb). Konosuba is pure comedy and I would love to use classic fantasy tropes as a source of comic relief in this campaign. Also making the BBE an isekai'd character. lol
• Adventure Time
  I love everything about Adventure Time and have good memories of watching new episodes with my son. Hopefully I can pull on some of the players heartstrings just like the show yanked on mine.
• City State Of The Invincible Overlord by Judges Guild
  While it's a little more "high fantasy" than I like, I love how it feels like a real breathing city. Hopefully I can get my city state to be a quarter as good as it.
• Dorohedoro by Q Hayashida More inspiration for the City State. I want my slums district to be similar to The Hole in Dorohedoro. Also the satanic imagery in the manga is just awesome. 

I'll be posting these each week on Sunday until the challenge is complete. Stay tuned next week for Week 2!

WEEK 2 HERE!

TERPSICHORA MASK

TERPSICHORA MASK

A white domino mask with elaborate gold and black inlays carved around the eyes. Black laces made of silk hang from the mask’s eyes like tears. It changes from pale white to blood red once activated. Said to be possessed by the spirit of a dancer murdered by an obsessive fan.

What's It Do?
When the command word (TERPSICHORA!) is spoken the mask removes the wearer's subconscious strength limiters allowing them to fight at peak performance at the cost of damage to their body. The wearer's STR & DEX score becomes 18 (+3) and they fight as a Fighter twice their level for the duration of the ability. However the human body has limiters to protect itself, each round the ability is used the wearer's muscles become shredded & their bones riddled with hairline fractures causing 1d2 points of temporarily CON damage. The wearer may end the ability early before combat ends by asserting their will and passing a save vs magic. A failure means the wearer will fight until combat ends regardless of any CON damage received.

Updated the Body Over Mind Spells here btw.

Additionally if the wearer's HP or CON is reduced to 0 or less the user’s body (corpse) rises and eloquently fights unarmed as a Fighter twice their level with their STR & DEX becoming 20 (+5). The body fights (anyone, including allies) for 1d4 plus level rounds or until the body takes damage equal to 8 plus level.

Influence:

My favorite video game of all time is The Legend Of Zelda: Majora's Mask. One of the things the game tasks you to do is collect an assortment of weird masks scattered throughout the world map. All the masks are unique and have different properties and abilities. Now I tend to throw in weird magical masks in my games as an homage to Majora's Mask. This particular mask's ability is from the anime/manga Hunter x Hunter and was used by the sinister royal guard Pitou.
Anime and manga are a gold mine for RPGS btw.

Like this magic item? Let me know in the comments and definitely let me know if you throw it in your games.

Body Over Mind, Limiter Release

I wrote these homebrew spells for LotFP based on the stories of people using superhuman strength in times of duress.

Body Over Mind I
Magic-User Level 1
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 Round per level
This spell removes a person’s subconscious strength limiters allowing them to temporarily fight at peak performance at a cost of damage to their body. The target of this spell’s STR & DEX score becomes 18 (+3) and they fight as a Fighter twice their level for the duration of the ability. However the human body has limiters to protect itself, each round the ability is used the wearer's muscles become shredded & their bones riddled with hairline fractures causing 1d2 points of temporarily CON damage.

Body Over Mind II
Magic-User Level 2
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 Round per level
This spell removes a person’s subconscious strength limiters allowing them to temporarily fight at peak performance at a cost of damage to their body. The target of this spell’s STR & DEX score becomes 19 (+4) and they fight as a Fighter twice their level for the duration of the ability. However the human body has limiters to protect itself, each round the ability is used the wearer's muscles become shredded & their bones riddled with hairline fractures causing 1d2 points of temporarily CON damage.

Body Over Mind III
Magic-User Level 3
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 Round per level
This spell removes a person’s subconscious strength limiters allowing them to temporarily fight at peak performance at a cost of damage to their body. The target of this spell’s STR & DEX score becomes 20 (+5) and they fight as a Fighter twice their level for the duration of the ability. However the human body has limiters to protect itself, each round the ability is used the wearer's muscles become shredded & their bones riddled with hairline fractures causing 1d2 points of temporarily CON damage.

LotFP Equipment Kits

Happy Easter/Bunny Day!

I made some Equipment Kits for my players since they're lazy as shit when it comes to buying equipment...

Check'em out here.

Probably some mistakes but it should be usable.

eXPerience

The following are some alternative ways I want to try out in my home LotFP game. I already use Session Attendance & Carousing but I want to try the others.

SESSION ATTENDANCE

+500xp
Let’s face it life gets in the way of gaming. If you take the time to come hang out with me I’m gonna give your character a bonus. Simple as that.

MAUSOLEUM FOR THE DAMNED

+100xp per previous dead character (capped at 2nd level)
For each character you’ve had die this campaign your next character gains +100xp for each, up to 2nd level. Better keep track! Idea from Bernie the Flumph.

FUNERAL RITES

+1xp per 1sp spent (see description)
Characters are going to die but all that precious XP needn't go to waste. As long as you have the deceased character’s body (or piece of it) or a memento (the family sword for example) you may hold a funeral for them once you are back at civilization.
Each silver piece spent on the funeral allows you to buy back the deceased character’s XP at 1:1 ratio. The XP can only be bought back during the first funeral, no double dipping. Idea from TenFootPolemic.

NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

+50xp x level for each time your HP dropped below 0 or you almost died (Ref discretion). Almost dying changes a person, in this case for the better.

STAY WEIRD

+100xp for surviving an encounter with the Weird or Supernatural (Ref discretion).
This one is heavily dependent on your game. If you’re playing a typical elf or a gonzo themed game then this probably won’t be relevant.. However if you’re playing LotFP using the default 17th century Earth then seeing a monster and living is a big deal. This represents that.

Transylvanian Encounters

HAPPY NEW YEAR ANYONE READING THIS.

I've been neglecting the blog but unfortunately life has once again gotten in the way of gaming. The day job and side job (I freelance for LotFP now btw) have been keeping me very busy as well as the normal stuff at home. My gaming group's holiday hiatus ended and one of my players wants to run 5e for a bit before we go back to me running the ol love LotFP. BUT ANYWAYS I wrote a random encounter table for my future continuation of Transylvania Nights (my discord LotFP campaign). I wrote this because I was heavily inspired by Bernie the Flumph's Bleak European Encounters found here and wanted my own for Transylvania.

Check out the link below and let me know what you think:

Transylvanian Encounters