Not Dead! Just meh.

Been feeling kinda meh lately. I had a horrible stomach flu a couple weeks ago and I'm just now starting to feel ok physically. As for writing I haven't felt inspired to write anything, guess I'm in a slump right now. I'm still running my LotFP game over hangouts which has been going great. The players own a brothel now. I'm gonna write up the recaps soon, just been super lazy. However Ive had two ideas get stuck in my head for future games. The first is a kinda heist but instead of breaking into a bank or equivalent, your denizens of hell who have to break into Heaven to steal a mcguffin. Also heaven is a megadungeon. Might write about that in the future. The second is a more traditional short adventure LotFP game involving a shark, that may or may not be a ghost shark. Oh and I managed to test out that Gambler monster I made awhile back, someone lost their name lol. I also want to do another episode of Lamentations of the YouTube Princess.

Anyways I'm feeling better now so hopefully I'll be getting in the groove of writing again. Thanks again for reading!

Supernatural Magnetism

I've been watching Jojo part 5 religiously since it came out and I’ve been fascinated with the idea that stand users attract other stand users. If you don't watch/read Jojo, all you need to know is it's weird as shit and stand-users are pretty much just magic-users that only know one spell. I wanted to take that attraction and use it in my games.

Supernatural Magnetism

I’ve been testing it with two methods:

The first is by increasing the random encounter chance when a magic-user is in the party.
Normally I check for random encounters on the road once for the day and once at night with a base 1-in-6 chance of something happening.
However, when a magic-user is in the party the base chance increases to 2-in-6. Multiple M-Us don’t increase it anymore than one would. For dungeons I use the same numbers.

The second is by increasing the chance that a random NPC is a magic-user. 

For example in OSR2 one of the NPCs stole a page from a wizard's spellbook but is not a caster himself. Because my PCs have a magic-user I rolled my trusty d6 and BAM! he's a Magic-User now. A lot LotFP modules have small chances of normal people actually being Magic-Users, in those cases I would up the percentage or just flat out make them M-Us. Obviously not every NPC is gonna be some hidden witch but if it seems like a possibility, roll that die! This might be a bit unfair to the non-spellcasting characters but eh, if they don't want weird shit happening to them they should be a farmer or something, or ditch the M-U.

Conclusion

So far I've been pretty happy with the results. Stuff happens more often and I get to suffocate the players with strange happenings. I might fiddle with the numbers some more but I'll update this post if I do. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Honestly I think I just want to see a wizard duel in game.

Three Decades Old

I turned 30 this last monday and I gotta say I feel pretty alright. I thought I would have some existential crisis and over dramatize the event but no I had a pretty good day. I got up early and played in Youtuber getrealroleplaying's LotFP one shot using "Forgive Us". Surprisingly I've never actually read "Forgive Us" so it was a treat to actually play something you don't know about. If your interested in actual plays check out that link and forgive my terrible radio voice, the referee is great however so I recommend it. Later I saw John Wick 3 and loved it. Then I went out to dinner, came home and chilled out with some rum & coke. All in all a nice chill way to celebrate my 30th rotation around the sun. Also If you're reading this I just wanted to say thanks for checking out my blog! I've been in a small rut lately but I'm gonna try and get back on my weekly schedule! So stay tuned.

My Rum of Choice

Sobek's Children//Werecrocs

Lycanthropy-Werecrocodile

One of the greatest blessings bestowed by the god Sobek is the ability to change into a human-crocodile hybrid, a werecrocodile. This strain of lycanthropy is only found in Egypt due to the transformation’s dependence on the Nile river. An unusual strain since the ability is not passed by the usual vector, a bite, but is passdowned hereditarily. Scribes believe this restriction may be connected to Sobek’s association with fertility, others say it was done to prevent enemies from contracting the strain. Werecrocodiles do not undergo their first transformation until after puberty is reached and only during Akhet, the Season of Inundation when the nile floods, which happens from June to September. As per my generic lycanthropy rules I’ll be using LotFP’s RAW disease rules as a base for this strain of lycanthropy.

• Incubation- The incubation time is from birth to the first Akhet after puberty.
• Infection- During Akhet, the Season of Inundation.
• Interval- Whenever human blood is detected. A Save vs. Magic may be made to resist the transformation with a +4 due to Sobek's Blessing.
• Effect- Transform into a werecrocodile(see below). Takes 2 minutes and is excruciatingly painful. Reverting back to human takes a round.

This strain was created to be a combat boon for Sobek's most devout followers and thus is dependent on detecting human blood to transform. Unlike the werewolf, werecrocs are fully in control of themselves until a kill is made, only then does the lure to devour take hold. 

Werecrocodile Stats

Armor 16, Move 120’(Swim speed 160'), 5 Hit Dice, 30hp, 1x Bite 1d12 damage 1x Tail Slap 1d6 damage, Morale 10. Whenever a kill is made a Save vs. Magic must be made to resist wasting a round devouring the corpse. Double damage from Silver Weapons(triggers a immediate morale check when hit, will flee on a fail)

Appearance & Traits

When transformed werecrocs stand over 6 feet tall and have a huge snout and rows of jagged teeth as well as an equally deadly serrated tail. Werecrocs have an excellent sense of smell, especially when it comes to blood. Those infected are able to differentiate the blood types and can even tell which pool or spray belongs to which victim. Any wounds received from non-silver, non-magic weapons while transformed heal at a rate of 1hp per hour.

The Cure

There is no known cure for this strain of Lycanthropy, mostly due to the small number of recorded infected.

Context

If you've been following my blog you'll know I'm planning on running a LotFP game set in 17th century Egypt. One of the bullet points I wanted was for the players to act as one of the many factions running around gathering treasure and macguffins. My players decided on playing as a forgotten cult of Sobek worshipers that are werecrocodiles. Yup.

I've never actually run a "monster" game so I'm interested to see how they handle a little power at the start of the campaign. The goal I gave them is to find a way to revive their dead god Sobek to reign over Egypt like the good old days. Should be pretty interesting. I'll probably come back here and update this strain after I've seen it in action.

Death Masks

"L'Inconnue de la Seine"

Death Masks

have been been used to preserve a person's likeness from the time of the pharaohs to relatively recently when photography became prevalent. However a hidden family of morticians in Egypt known as the Coin Eaters(the process is very expensive) have passed down an ancient ritual to imbue death masks with the deceased's personality and memories. This allows one to continue existing on the material plane using a surrogate body after death.

Ritual of Transference

The following components are required to begin the ritual:

• The deceased's head(with/without body) which is cleaned, sutured, and painted to the look alive to the best of the mortician's ability*. This done to ease the transference of the deceased's persona and to shape the mold of the face with wax. Requires a successful Cosmetology Skill roll to complete. A failed roll means the process must be redone from scratch wasting 1d10 x 10sp worth of materials. The client of course foots the bill.
• Offerings of precious metals equal to 1000sp x the character's level that is smelted down to construct the mask. The stronger the personality the more expensive the mask to house it. Requires a Successful Mask Making Skill roll to complete. A failure means the mask must be melted down and recast again, costing the family 1d10 x 25sp worth of materials. The client of courses foots the bill.
• A whole corpse to wear the mask. The family will provide the body for an additional charge of 100sp or will work with whatever the client provides. When the ritual is completed and the mask worn, the corpse takes the physical appearance of the character the mask was made for.

*Mortician Skills- Usually the family requires a substantial donation to allow one of their more experience members to forge the mask. In lieu of coin, the family may also ask for an errand(of varying difficulty) to be completed at their behest. 

1. Novice Mortician- 250sp, 3-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 3-in-6 Mask Making Skill
2. Experienced Mortician-  500sp 4-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 4-in-6 Mask Making Skill
3. Expert Mortician-  1000sp 5-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 5-in-6 Mask Making Skill
4. Master Mortician- 2000sp 6-in-6 Cosmetology Skill, 6-in-6 Mask Making Skill

Once the mask has been forged(and the fees paid) the Ritual of Transference may commence. The family allows the clients to view the forging of the mask but the actual magic is done behind closed doors. Its a family secret after all. In my game the process involves a certain piece of music...and takes three days to complete.

Once completed the mask holds the deceased's Class Level/XP, Mental Stats(INT,WIS,CHA), personality, and memories. The body procured earlier provides the Physical Stats(STR,CON,DEX) and holds any gained XP. As long as the mask stays intact(the mask has 50hp), the character only needs a new body upon death to continue. Though they begin with the stats they had when the mask was constructed and any new xp or levels are lost. I'll let you decided if they get to keep memories or not.