Mission: The Long Way Around

Here's another Stargrave scenario to try out, maybe for fun, probably not for profit.

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THE LONG WAY AROUND

Ion storms make descent to the surface difficult. If we get separated, rendezvous at the target location as soon as possible. Be careful.

SET-UP

Set up the table as normal. Place terrain, select board edges, and place loot tokens just as in a standard game. Select a Target Point as normal.

Do NOT deploy crews as normal. What? Read on, MacDuff.

SPECIAL RULES

Where the heck ARE they?!? Each player randomly selects half (round down) of their crew members. These models are deployed at the start of the game as normal. The remainder are "missing" and are set aside.

At the start of the second turn, and every turn therafter, each player's initiative roll also determines when their missing crew turns up. On turn two the remainder of the crew appears on 1-5, on turn three they turn up on a roll of 1-10, on turn four they arrive on 1-15, and from turn five onwards they turn up on a roll of 1-19. Set up newly arrived crew members as per the normal deployment rules.

If a half-strength crew is wiped out before the remainder arrives, then the other half will arrive at the start of the next turn, regardless of the initiative roll.

Option 1 - Lost Patrol: When missing crew arrive they enter at the centre of a random table edge, which may not be their own!

Option 2 - This feels like more than just bad luck... Rather than choosing missing crew members randomly, each player selects an opponent's missing models.

Option 3 - Dribs and drabs: The missing crew arrive, but not all at once. Instead of the system above, a variable number of missing crew turn up depending on the initative roll:

• 1: Four crew members arrive.
• 2-10: Two missing crew turn up.
• 11-15: One crew member arrives.
• 16-20: No missing crew turn up!

(Thanks to Calvin for this option. I shouldn't have to specify this, but you can't have more crew members turning up than went missing in the first place!)

LOOT AND EXPERIENCE

Loot and experience are scored as normal, with the following additions:
+25xp to a half-strength crew that eliminates a full-strength crew.
+50xp to a half-strength crew that finishes the game without the rest of the crew appearing.

FUTURE JUICE

Fancy alchemists call this concoction "The Potential of Futures Yet to Come" but everyone calls it "Future Juice" so there it is. The magic in this potion pulls success from the future to the present, granting an advantage now at the cost of losing that advantage later. Most adventurers consider this a fair trade-off, as they live, and often die, in the moment.

The potion is ice-blue and has a faint glow, and tastes a bit like blueberries.

Most bottles of this ice-blue potion have three doses; roll 1d3 if found in a random hoard.

A dose grants the drinker a free critical and/or guaranteed success on their next roll, with the caveat that the next natural critical and/or guaranteed success they roll is wooshed away to be used by their past self, and so must be re-rolled.

Ingredients: a cup of water from the fastest river in the land, two tears from an optimist, and two tablespoons of sugar.

13th Age: Can also be used to get a specific roll, for example the Fighter's Precision Attack, which normally triggers on a "natural 16+ hit".

Source: There's a potion with a similar effect in Adrian Tchaikovsky's City of Last Chances. I liked the idea so I pinched it, like a common thief.

Don't Lose Your Head(s)

The other day Stuart asked me for some ideas on tracking damage in fights in RuneQuest. Well, I think it might have been OpenQuest rather than RQ proper. Some fantasy variant of Chaosium's d100 system, anyway. Here's what fell out of my brain after about five minutes. Completely untested, as per.

This assumes RQ style damage output and average hit points of about 11 for humanoid enemies.

The basic idea is using coins as markers. At full health the coin will be heads up, but when they take more than 5 points of damage from a single attack, they flip over to tails. If they take another 6+ hit then the coin is removed. Or you could give it to the player that struck the killing blow, as a monetary reward.

The idea is that we're not tracking the exact damage, just if it beats the 6+ threshold.

Here we have the idea illustrated by Shotgun Cultist Guy I Found in a Box, and his shiny friends.

SCGIFB faces four uninjured opponents.

BLAM! BLAM! Two of the opponents have taken 8 and 9 damage, so are flipped over to their tails side.

BLAM! One blast for 4 damage is not enough to take out one of the enemies. BLAM! But the second is for 12 and takes out the second closest opponent, so that coin is removed.

You could use stacks of coins to represent tougher foes with more health, I suppose, but this was designed for tracking low level cannon fodder, a step up from 1HP mooks. I would probably run bigger, tougher, foes as normal. Or maybe not. As I said above, untested.

Give it a try! See what you think!

Kriegshacker II

(I know.)

This is part two of a modification of Gregor Vuga's excellent sort-of-WFRP Kriegsmesser. You will need a copy of Kriegsmesser.

Part one covered general rules. Part two is all about Sorcery!

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Sorcery!

Sorcery! -- yes, the exclamation point is essential -- is a special skill that does anything the player wants it to do. It can open doors, cause blindness, hit orcs with bolts of energy, cause the dead to speak. It is general purpose and very powerful. Sorcerers are however distrusted at best and hunted and exterminated at worst. Also, sorcery! can go wrong.

Sorcery! rolls are made as normal Kriegsmesser skill rolls. LUCK and Corruption dice can be added as normal. If any dice results match, whether the roll succeeds or not, then a Chaotic Manifestation occurs!

If there is a double it is a Minor Manifestation, if it is a triple it is a Major Manifestation, and if it is a quadruple -- or worse! -- it is a Catastrophic Manifestation. The sorcerer takes a point of Corruption and then rolls on the relevant table, below.

Sorcerous Careers

Of the existing Kriegsmesser careers, Alchemist, Initiate, and Witch may have a point of Sorcery! in place of one of their normal skills.

But let's also add an Apprentice Wizard. This can be an extra career, perhaps one that can only be entered by choice rather than a random roll, or you could replace one of the random Kriegsmesser careers; I suggest replacing one of the double results, as that's a nice thematic tie in with the Chaotic Manifestation rules.

Apprentice Wizard
Skills

• Sorcery! 2
• Sense Sorcery! 2
• Read/Write 2
• Sleight of Hand 2
• Flee! 1
• Notice 1

Possessions

• Staff
• Pouch
• "Spellbook" (more a collection of scribbled formulas and notes, really.)
• Some minor prop for illusions. Cups and ball, a pack of cards, a set of rings, that sort of thing.

Chaotic Manifestation Tables!

(Most effect durations are given as real-world, rather than in-game, times because it feels like magic should break the "rules" somehow. Feel free to swap them for in-game times if you prefer.)

2d6	Minor Manifestation
2	You got away with it! Except for the Corruption point, obviously.
3	A flash of sorcerous energy shoots through your body, giving you a nasty shock and a Wound.
4	Food in the immediate area spoils, milk curdles, and so on.
5	You get a terrible nosebleed that just won't stop. At least for a real world hour.
6-8	A cold and mysterious wind blows through the local area.
9	Spectral voices whisper in everyone's ears.
10	All animals in the local area flee from you in terror. Characters with animal handling skills may be able to keep them at heel.
11	Your hair stands on end and crackles with magical energy. If you had no hair, you do now.
12	Roll on the Major Manifestation table!

2d6	Major Manifestation
2	You got lucky! Roll on the Minor Manifestation table.
3	You are burned by sorcerous flames! Take a Terrible Injury (see part one).
4	Your bones twist and pop. Take two Wounds (see part one).
5	Some sort of minor daemon pops into existence and tries to eat your face. You will probably have to fight it.
6	Your eyes turn into little glowing balls of flame. You can still see as normal, but it looks very odd. They return to normal at dawn. Dawn in the real world.
7	You are drained of vitality and are left enfeebled! -1d to all rolls for the next real world hour.
8	Your tongue vanishes. After a real world hour it returns, but it doesn't just reappear. No, it grows back over a few icky moments.
9	Terrifying Chaotic visions assail you. You gain +1 Chaos Lore as a new skill.
10	You are shocked and numbed as the power travels through you. You are at -1d to all rolls for 24 real world hours.
11	You are possessed by a Chaotic spirit for the next five real world minutes. Your character is controlled by the Referee until then. I hope you bought them pizza!
12	Oh dear. Roll on the Catastrophic Manifestation table.

2d6	Catastrophic Manifestation
2	You got really lucky. Roll on the Major Manifestation table, and thank your ancestors.
3	Your sorcery almost tears you apart! You are Maimed (see part one).
4	Your sorcery blows back and gives you a Terrible Injury (see part one).
5	Everyone in the immediate area, friends and foes, takes a Wound (see part one) as your magical energies burst out like a post-2005 Doctor Who regeneration.
6-8	You are utterly drained of all sorcerous power. Your Sorcery! drops to 0 -- and Corruption and LUCK cannot be used either -- but returns at one point per full real world day.
9	You receive a Mark of Chaos, which is quite visible, difficult to disguise, and impossible to remove. It also counts as a Terrible Injury. If you receive a certain number of Marks, a Chaos God comes to claim you as its Champion; make a Corruption test (Kriegsmesser p29) and if this is a "failure" you are claimed, probably to return as a villain later on. Slaanesh claims characters with six Marks, Nurgle claims those with seven, Khorne those with eight, and Tzeentch claims characters with nine. Characters with ten or more Marks go on to be generic non-denominational Chaos Warriors. If the Horned Rat existed, he would claim those with 13 Marks, but he doesn't so he doesn't.
10	Every time you close your eyes you see visions of the Realms of Chaos. Sleeping is difficult. +1 Dark Lore.
11	You are blasted by your own out-of-control powers and are knocked unconscious for an in-game hour. Mundane medicine cannot wake you but maybe magical healing can. Maybe.
12	With a sucking, popping sound, you are sucked into the Realm of Chaos, never to be seen again, probably.

---

I may expand this at some point to include the Colleges of Magic, dwarf, elf, and goblin magic, hedge wizards, and so on. This will do for now.

Kriegshacker I

(I know.)

This is a two-part modification of Gregor Vuga's excellent sort-of-WFRP Kriegsmesser. You will need a copy of Kriegsmesser.

Part one covers general rules. Part two will cover Sorcery!

(Also note: Kriegsmesser is itself a hack of Troika! but does also come with its own basic standalone system. Kriegshacker is a hack of this standalone system.)

---

Players Roll Everything

I think this is sort of implied by Kriegsmesser anyway, but let's state it for Kriegshacker: players make all rolls, even if a non-player-character or monster or other hazard is acting against them; in these cases the players will roll to "resist" the action.

Fighting

Players can use any appropriate skill in a combat situation. This need not be an actual fighting skill. A character could Flee! to escape the fight, Sneak to hide until the coast is clear, or even Provoke to cause infighting amongst the opponents. As long as it makes sense, it can be used. If no skill applies, then the player can use LUCK as normal.

All players involved in the fight roll dice. If anyone gets a success (4+) then the fight is avoided or won or otherwise resolved in the players' favour, although there may be complications. Anyone who fails (1-3) or succeeds with a complication (4-5) suffers those consequences, even if the fight is won.

If no player rolls higher than a 3 then the fight is not resolved, and may even continue, if the Referee decides.

Difficult Fights

The Referee may decide that some fights are more challenging, perhaps because of tougher opposition, an environmental effect, non-combatants getting in the way, and so on. In these cases all involved players have a -1 dice (-1d) or higher penalty.

Generous Referees may allow players to receive a +1d bonus for superior equipment, numbers, position, tactics, and so on. This seems very un-WFRPish, but it's your game.

Damage

Anyone who rolls 4-5 as their highest dice takes a Wound. Mark this on the character sheet in pencil so it can be erased later. For each wound, the player has a -1d penalty. If a player receives a third Wound, then they also take a Terrible Injury (see below).

Anyone who rolls 1-3 as their highest dice takes a Terrible Injury; they should roll on the tables on Kriegsmesser pp30-31. They also suffer a Wound. Terrible Injuries should be noted in ink as they are permanent. If a player takes a sixth Terrible Injury then they are Maimed and take a permanent -1d penalty. Write "Maimed!" on the character sheet, in big red letters if you can. If they are Maimed again, they take an additional -1d permanent penalty, and so on. I recommend adding an extra exclamation point for every Maimed result.

Healing

One wound is healed after a rest period, which should probably be at least a day. When a Wound is healed, the -1d penalty is removed.

Terrible Injuries and Maiming probably shouldn't be able to be healed, except perhaps by sorcery, and in that case I'd probably say that the injuries are hidden rather than healed. Seems more WFRPish.

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Kriegsmesser is very robust and elegant as is, so these are just tweaks to make it more to my liking. Next: Sorcery!

Mission: The Enemy Within

Another untested and probably insanely unbalanced Stargrave scenario with which you can ruin friendships!

(Inspired by our unfortunate miscounting of crew members in a previous mission...)

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THE ENEMY WITHIN

Alien shapeshifters operate in this sector. Keep your eyes peeled, Mac, they could be disguised as anything.

Why are you looking at me like that, Mac?

Mac?

Mac?

SET-UP

Set up the table as normal. Place terrain, select board edges, and place loot tokens just as in a standard game. Select a Target Point as normal.

Everything is normal.

Except...

SPECIAL RULES

You've got to be flarkin' kidding! On an initiative roll of 8 or 2, the opponent picks one of your crew, who immediately changes into their true form of some nasty gribbly alien thing. Replace the crew figure with a suitable alien model, which will act as normal in the Creature Phase. Any model other than the Captain (and maybe the Mate; see comments for discussion) can be replaced. Any effects or injuries received prior to the change are discarded.

Treat the shapechanger as a Bounty Hunter (p143). In the Creature Phase the alien will act as normal, with one exception; if they were carrying a loot token before they changed, they will attempt to get off the table with it by the fastest and shortest route.

The actual crew member will be found after the game, tied up, gagged, and stuffed in a supply locker back on the ship, but otherwise alive and well. Any special gear they were carrying will be found with them; assume that the shapechanger's strange physiology mimicked any special abilities or gear.

Option 1 - Trust no one! There is more than one shapeshifter in each crew! One will reveal itself each time a 8 or 2 is rolled for initiative. You should probably limit it to only about three per crew, but I can imagine a wild game in which there are a lot more!

Option 2 - I knew this would happen... Each player selects the opponent's hidden alien before the game begins, and in secret. Writing it down on a piece of folded paper for a suitably dramatic reveal seems appropriate.

Option 3 - Eyes on the (bigger) prize! Any Bounty Hunters on the table when the shapechanger appears (not including the shapechanger itself; it counts as a Bounty Hunter for statistic purposes only) will target the alien over player crew members.

Option 4 - They're everywhere! Shapechangers appear on intiative rolls of 1, 9, 8, or 2.

LOOT AND EXPERIENCE

Loot and experience are scored as normal, with the following additions:
+10xp to the controlling crew when one of its members changes.
+5xp for eliminating the shapechanger if it is was part of the opposing crew.
+25xp for eliminating the shapechanger if it is was part of your crew.

Dragonlance: Thirteenth Age

Here's an idea, combining two of my favourite role-playing games.

It's completely untested; we're learning as we're doing. Let's go!

Let's first of all generate the Icons we're going to use for this hypothetical campaign. We'll arrange them in the traditional three-by-three "alignment" grid, and for this purpose nine Icons work well, but there's no reason you can't have fewer or more.

Then we'll draw our Icons from the Fate Deck, like so:

I like the idea of drawing "in order" rather than shuffling them around to fit, but that's the Old-Schooler in me; if a "good" character is sitting in the Chaotic Evil spot, then that's interesting and worth exploring. The Icons don't necessarily map to those alignments, because neither 13th Age nor Dragonlance: Fifth Age really have alignment in the exact same way D&D has, but if it's useful to think of them, um, aligning in that way, then go ahead.

(The DL5A cards have black, red, or white icons that map to the good, neutral, or evil factions/moons/wizards; you can use these as a guide.)

The characters on the cards can be the actual Icons if you want -- which would make for an interesting alternate Dragonlance setting -- or they could be an example -- eg, Chot stands in for a generic Minotaur Warlord Icon, or Goldmoon is the Barbarian Priestess or something -- or it can be someone completely different that just shares those personality traits, or it can be any combination of the preceding. Go wild.

Make a note of this Icon grid. Maybe take a photo. Those cards need to now go back into the Fate Deck.

Icon Relationships

Now we have our Icons, player-characters can define their relationships with them. This can be done as normal, with starting PCs spending up to three points on positive, conflicted, or negative relationships with Icons of their choice. Those definitions should be obvious, but if not have a look at the 13A Icon rules.

(13A has limits on how to spend the points, depending on the alignments of the Icon and the PC, but I'm ignoring those as I don't like them. If you want to put all three points into a negative relationship with an "evil" Icon, go for it. The 13A limits can be seen at the above link if you want to use them.)

"Rolling Relationship Dice"

As a GM, use a PC's icon relationships three different ways, just as in 13A:

• At the start of a session to generate ideas about which Icons will be involved in that session's events.
• During a specific important event or moment, to determine if an Icon is involved, or if the PCs can get an advantage or assistance from an Icon.
• As a "sting" to see if an Icon is somehow involved with a "random" plot event.

Each player draws cards equal to their points with the relevant Icon:

• If the suit matches that of the Icon, then it provides an umambiguous advantage or benefit, the 13A equivalent of a 6. Unless it is a Dragon card.
• If the card is a Dragon, then it is advantageous as above, except there is also a complication, like an obligation to a "good" Icon, or unwanted attention from an "evil" Icon. The equivalent of a 13A 5 result.
• If the card drawn is the Icon card itself, then the Icon makes a personal intervention! Let's call it a 7; in 13A the Icons are not really supposed to appear in person, but drawing the Icon's actual card seems like it should warrant a special effect.

(The probabilities are a bit lower here than in 13A but they are not massively off, and the addition of the third, "7", result feels like it balances things. A bit. Ish.)

Combinations of results are allowed and encouraged! A 5 and a 6 is interesting, a 5 and a 7 even more so!

I think cards should be shuffled back into the Fate Deck after each Icon "roll", or at least after each player has had a go, except perhaps with the exception of any direct interventions, but this probably requires testing.

Changing Relationships

When a PC gets to Hero reputation -- 16 to 21 Quests -- they get an extra relationship point to spend. They can also switch an existing relationship point to a different or new Icon, as long as it makes sense within the context of the campaign.

At Archetype -- 29 Quests! -- reputation a PC again gains a new relationship point and can again switch one point around. At this stage a single relationship can be increased to a new maximum of four, to reflect the PC becoming a VIPI.

(A Very Important Person Indeed!)

Mission: Danger Zone!

Here's another untested and probably insanely unbalanced Stargrave scenario.

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DANGER ZONE!

Sector Periculosum is a terrible place. Some say it's full of toxins from the Last War. Some say it's been reclaimed by a hostile biosphere. Some even say it's haunted by vengeful ghosts. Almost no one comes back from there alive. But those that do come back, come back rich.

SET-UP

Divide the table into 16 equal parts, making sure that the boundaries between each section are clear to all players. Each section should be numbered, although not necessarily on the table itself; a diagram is fine, as long as all players can see it.

Place terrain and select board edges as normal. There is no central loot token in this scenario, but each player should place three loot tokens, generating the third token's type as normal. You should try to avoid putting loot tokens on section boundaries.

There is no Target Point for this scenario.

SPECIAL RULES

Danger! Each turn after the first, before rolling for initiative, roll 1d20; the number rolled is the table section that will become a Danger Zone at the end of this turn, after the Creature Phase. Rolls of 17-20, or that correspond to a section that is already a Danger Zone, have no effect.
At the end of the current turn, that section becomes inaccessible for the rest of the game and all figures within it are treated as being killed. Loot tokens in that section are destroyed.
If a figure is on the boundary between a Danger Zone and a safe section use common sense; if over half of the model is in a safe area then they are safe. If in any doubt, roll a dice to decide.
Danger Zones ignore terrain; being inside a building is no safer than being in the open!
Figures can be pushed, teleported, or otherwise manipulated into Danger Zones.
Abilities or effects that protect a figure from being killed work against Danger Zones. In these cases, move the figure to the nearest safe edge, rolling for a random edge if there is any doubt.
Danger Zones do not block line of sight and can be travelled through by means of teleportation or similar abilities, but cannot be flown or jumped over (usually; see Option 1, below).

Option 1 - Role-playing? For the sake of simplicity the Danger Zones are just big killer squares of generic sci-fi death, but you may decide that they are flooded with water, in which case they are treated like normal areas of water, after the initial fatal flooding. Or they are filled with thick gas, in which case they cannot be seen through. Or they are clouds of murderous nanotech, blocking line of sight and flight. Whatever you decide, make sure all players agree to any exceptions before you start.

LOOT AND EXPERIENCE

Loot and experience are scored as normal, with the following additions:
+10xp whenever a crew member starts a turn in an imminent Danger Zone and escapes (up to 30xp).
+10xp whenever a crew member extracts a loot token from an imminent Danger Zone (up to 30xp).
+10xp whenever a crew member is killed by a Danger Zone (up to 30xp).
Experience awards stack, for example if a crew member escapes a Danger Zone with a loot token.

Mission: The Hermit

Here's another Stargrave scenario, completely untested, as per usual.

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THE HERMIT

Pagurus Titanicus is known for grabbing bits of debris to build itself a tough outer shell, and there's plenty of debris among the dead stars. There's loot too, and rumour has it this monster is carrying treasure on its back.

SET-UP

Place terrain as normal. Multi-level terrain is handy for jumping down on the Hermit in dramatic action movie style.

Each player places two loot tokens according to the normal rules, rolling for type as usual.

Place a large crab-like monster in the dead centre of the table. This is the Hermit, and it has the third loot token on its back. Determine whether this is data or physical loot as normal. This is considered the central loot token for any relevant effects.

SPECIAL RULES

The Hermit: The Hermit starts in the centre of the table and makes a single random move in the Creature Phase. It is so large and strong that it can never be pinned in combat.
If an attack beats the Hermit's Armour, or if it is the target of a successful psychic power, it panics, and immediately -- yes, out of sequence -- makes two moves in random directions.
If the Hermit's move would take it off the table edge, it moves along the edge instead.
The Hermit never attacks but if it panics and moves through a figure then that figure suffers a normal Fight attack as the Hermit tramples over it. If that figure wins the "combat" they take no damage but also do no damage in return.
If the Hermit is killed it will make two last random panicked moves before it keels over. Leave the model where it is; crew must still climb its corpse to get at the loot.

Climbing the Hermit: To access the loot token a figure must climb up -- half movement -- or jump to it as per the normal movement rules.
When the Hermit moves any figure "riding" the beast should roll 1d20; if the result is higher than the inches moved by the Hermit then the figure has held on. Otherwise they fall -- at the end of the move -- and take damage as per the normal falling rules.
The loot token is embedded in the Hermit's shell and never falls.

(If may be safer to mark which figures are on the Hermit's back rather than try to balance figures, especially when it starts moving. Perhaps you can use counters, or even have a little off-table "map" of the creature's back on which you place the figures. I leave it up to you.)

Option 1 - Interested Parties: Each crew should -- secretly -- roll a dice to determine if they have been employed by:
Odd: Friends of the Planets: 100Cr if the Hermit survives the scenario.
Even: Galactic Hunting Club: 100Cr if the Hermit is killed.

Option 2 - Seeing Double: Place two Hermits! It is impossible to know which of the beasts has the loot token until a crew member is on top. Roll a dice: if even the loot token is on this Hermit, on an odd result it's on the other.

LOOT AND EXPERIENCE

Loot and experience are scored as normal, with the following additions:
+10xp whenever a crew member falls off the Hermit (up to 30xp).
+10xp whenever a crew member is trampled by a panicked Hermit (up to 30xp).
+30xp for killing the Hermit (unless Option 1 is in play).
The Hermit loot token is worth two rolls on the relevant table.

THE HERMIT
MV 6
FT +6
SH +0
AR 15
WL +1
HL 22
Notes: Amphibious, Animal, Immune to Control Animal (sorry!), Immune to Critical Hits, Large, Strong

Strict Location Records Must Be Kept II

Oops.

It seems that my last post on this subject was the result of a misunderstanding. Apparently what was wanted was a list of all possible locations for antidote vials for the Doctor's poison, rather than my suggested locations.

Oops.

The Attic:

I don't think the Doctor would hide any vials in the attic, mainly because of the risk of the ELEPHANTOM getting out.

First Floor:

• Abaddon (p37)
• Mammon (p37)

(If one of the above rooms has a vial, the other does not.)

• A; the suit of armour (p41).
• Apollyon (p41)
• Eblis (p42)
• Mephisto (p42)
• Shaitan (p43); as written, I suggest this antidote be a fake.
• Erasmus (p43)

Ground Floor:

• E: the library (p49); hidden inside The Common Almanacke.
• F: the gallery (p53); behind the painting of the raven woman.
• G: the surgery (p53); inside the "patient".
• I: the storeroom (p53-54); in the medicine cabinet, although it's suggested that you don't put a vial here.
• K: the barbed wire trap (p54); as written there isn't a vial in here, but I don't see why there couldn't be.

The Cellar:

• C: the laboratory (p53); there are no antidotes here, but the players can make one, if they have the recipe.
• J: the vault (p60); this seems like an obvious place to keep a vial, and it's tricky enough to access that it seems fair to include one.

The Caves:
The Doctor doesn't come down here often enough to hide any antidotes, I think. I am inclined to suggest that ADAM (p54) could brew an antidote easily enough.

Peter Hook Spambot Carnival EX Plus α

The Acorn Afloats, and so I must answer, albeit a month later.

PETER HOOK, aka PETER THE HOOK, aka HOOKY PETE, aka the SOUL FISHER: Armour 14 (as leather), Move 150’, 2* Hit Dice, 9hp, Big Chuffing Hook 1d10, Morale 6, Number Appearing 1. Immune to non-magical damage and weapons.

PETER HOOK may have been a man once, in the distant past, or perhaps was some sort of pixie or sprite, but is now a cruel and predatory spirit. He sneaks into your home at night and, if you sleep with your mouth open, he reaches in with his big shiny fish hook and snatches out your soul! You live, but as a cold, flat, emotionless robot-shark person, perfect for a job in the financial sector.

PETER HOOK keeps the souls in jars and then trades them for trinkets, the sort of garish junk you find in seaside shops; the tackier, the better for PETER HOOK.

• Very quiet: effective Stealth of 3 in 6 (LotFP rules) and surprises on 1-4.
• Immune to non-magical damage and weapons.
• Sees perfectly well in the dark.
• Can open any door or window using his hook (see below).
• Cannot cross a line of salt.
• Cowardly, and must make a Morale check if discovered sneaking about, or if attacked.
• Knows all the entities that desire souls, and how to contact and find them.

The Soulless: Those with their souls taken by PETER HOOK have Charisma and Wisdom scores of 0, or the lowest possible value, if your game doesn't like 0 statistics. If the soul is recovered, it can be "drunk" to restore the original values. Can you drink someone else's soul and get their statistics? Try it and find out!

Peter's House: A green wooden door you don't notice unless you concentrate. Perhaps it's down an alley, perhaps it's in the corner of a garden wall, perhaps it's in your house! The door leads through interdimensional space to a cramped grotto packed full of soul jars and PETER HOOK's assorted trinkets, few of which have any value; there is a 1 in 12 chance of finding a single normal treasure item, generated as you like.

Peter Hook's Hook: A huge, shiny fish hook. It's an Oversized item, a two-handed weapon, and counts as magical for the purposes of damage immunities. Anyone but PETER HOOK finds it unwieldy and has a -2 penalty to attack rolls, and only PETER HOOK can use it for fishing souls. The hook also picks any door or window, even magical locks.

And for Troika! and similar games of fantasy fighting:

SKILL 8 (10 for sneaking purposes)
STAMINA 8
Initiative 1
Armour 0 (but immune to non-magical damage)
Damage as Greatsword

The Soulless: Victims have a LUCK of 0 and can never regain LUCK by normal means, although a generous Referee may allow magic items to provide a boost.

Peter Hook's Hook: Two-handed; counts as magical for purposes of damage immunities; imposes a -2 Attack Skill penalty to anyone but PETER HOOK; unlocks any door or window, even those sealed with magic.

SAINT SEVURDAPOY'S ARROW

This is an arrow made of some sort of lightweight but strong metal. The name "Saint Sevurdapoy" is carved along the shaft.

• Feels icy cold -- almost painful -- to the touch.
• Counts as enchanted for purposes of immunity to normal weapons.
• Bursts into cold black and blue flame when fired.
• Flames do not start fires, but do provide dim blue light.
• Vanishes after use, but reappears at midnight. At the point it disappeared. I hope you remember where you shot it!
• No special effect versus red dragons.

13th Age:

• Standard bow damage +1d4 cold damage (+2d4 at Champion, +3d4 at Epic).
• Does 1d4 cold damage to the archer when fired.
• When hit, the target must make a normal (11+) save or one random magical effect or spell affecting them is suppressed until the next noon.

Quirk: Your manner is abrupt, brusque, and curt. To-the-point, one might say.

B/X:

• Standard bow damage +1d4 cold damage.
• Does 1d4 cold damage to the archer when fired.
• When hit, the target is affected as if Dispel Magic has been cast on them, with the archer's level standing in for casting level.

Fighting Fantasy:

• Standard bow damage + 1 cold damage.
• 2 STAMINA damage to archer when fired.
• AFF: When hit, the target is subject to Counter Spell; assume the archer has a Magic skill equal to her SKILL, modified by the STAMINA cost of the original spell.
• Troika: When hit, the target is subject to the Undo spell; roll versus the original casting, using the archer's SKILL.

Mission: Starfall

Here's a scenario for Stargrave. Fresh out of my brain and untested. I'll see if I can get Stuart to play it with me.

I may return to this with conversion notes for other systems. Frostgrave should be easy enough.

---

STARFALL

Intel says the cog-sat is going to crash out of orbit somewhere in this rough location. The people that ran the sat network are long gone, but the data in the pod should still be worth something, if we can get to it first. That's why we're going to be there when it lands.

SET-UP

Place terrain as normal. Note the centre of the play area and then depending on the size of the play area, mark the following points in a diagonal line from one corner to the other:

2' x 2' - Mark two points each 8" away from the centre. Including the central point, number the points 1 to 3 from one corner to the other.
3' x 3' - Mark two points each 8" away from the centre, then two further points each 16" away from the centre (ie 8" away from the previous points). Including the central point, number the points 1 to 5 from one corner to the other.
4' x 4' (or larger) - Mark two points each 10" away from the centre, then two further points each 20" away from the centre (ie 10" away from the previous points). Including the central point, number the points 1 to 5 from one corner to the other.

The numbers don't have to be visible on the table as long as they are noted somewhere, but the points should be marked. Some sort of radar or sensor "ping" token would be appropriate and cool.

No loot tokens are used for this scenario.

Crews should deploy in the corners opposite those used for the diagonal line. If more than two crews are involved, then there should be a deployment point halfway along each table edge.

Setup example for a 3'x3' or larger play area. The shaded areas marked A are for deployment in a two player game, while the areas marked B are suggested deployment points for games if you have lots of friends.

SPECIAL RULES

On an Initiative roll of 01-04, generate a random encounter as normal. Use the centre of the table as the Target Point, until the satellite falls, in which case use its landing point.

At the end of turn three's intiative phase -- and every turn from then on -- the Primary player should roll 1d20 to see if the satellite falls this turn, and if so where:

2' x 2' play area:
01-05	The satellite does not crash this turn.
06-10	The satellite crashes at point 1.
11-15	The satellite crashes at point 2.
16-20	The satellite crashes at point 3.

3' x 3' or 4' x 4' (or larger) play areas:
01-05	The satellite does not crash this turn.
06-08	The satellite crashes at point 1.
09-11	The satellite crashes at point 2.
12-14	The satellite crashes at point 3.
15-17	The satellite crashes at point 4.
18-20	The satellite crashes at point 5.

(I prefer a 1d4 or 1d6 here with the satellite not showing up on a 4 or 6 but Stargrave is a d20-only system. I can't imagine any player of Stargrave doesn't have access to other dice, so I leave it up to your conscience.)

Crash!
The satellite crashes at the end of the turn. Place a suitable satellite data pod type model at the landing point. The force of the crash causes a +4 Shooting attack on any models within a 3" radius, and creates a crater of the same size, which counts as rough ground for the rest of the game. If you have a nice 6" crater terrain piece, now is the time to use it!

Structures within the crater are probably destroyed, although you may decide that durable buildings like bunkers or vaults remain intact, in which case the crater is on the roof or something. Whatever works for you.

The satellite data pod is sealed and must be unlocked just like a physical loot token before the data can be downloaded. Yes, this means it requires two actions to access the data pod.

Option - Data Security: When the data pod is unlocked, the pod's automated security activates and a Sentrabot armed with a shotgun spawns adjacent to the pod. It follows and targets any models carrying the data, or in contact with the pod if the data has not yet been accessed. If no models qualify, it acts as normal except it will never move further than 3" from the pod.

LOOT AND XP

The data in the satellite is valuable and is worth three rolls on the data-loot table to the crew that secures it.

Experience is earned as normal, with the following additions:
+10xp for the crew that destroys the Sentrabot.
+10xp for the crew that unlocks the satellite.
+10xp for the crew that downloads the data.
+25xp for "catching" the satellite (ie, being on the landing point when it crashes, and surviving the impact; just being in the radius isn't enough, it has to be a bullseye!).

If you try this mission then please let me know how it goes. You can read my thoughs on playing it here, and Stuart's summary here.

Carry On Carrying On

A very long time ago I played through the CARRION CROWN campaign for Pathfinder, and good fun it was too.

Also a long time ago but not quite as long ago a time as when I played Carrion Crown, I pondered rewriting the campaign. I never did get around to that rewrite, but when clearing up some old blog posts last week I uncovered my preliminary notes for what I was planning. I don't know if I'll go any further with it -- time has moved on, I have moved on -- but in the hope that it may be useful or at least interesting, here it is.

(Please bear in mind this is all based on decade-old memories and also that I was a player, so I didn't get to read the adventures. I also won't be going into rewrites of the individual adventures here, although most of them were fine. It's the campaign as a whole that needs work.)

Carrion Crown has a great central concept: each of the adventures is based on a classic horror monster, so there's a werewolf adventure, a Frankenstein adventure, a ghost adventure, and so on. It's a bit artificial but otherwise a very strong hook for the campaign, so we're absolutely keeping that.

The general plot is functional: a conspiracy of cultists wants to resurrect an ancient lich king, they need a bunch of items to do so; get the quest tokens before they do! A multi-part fetch quest isn't the most innovative setup but it is tried and tested, and anyway it's the classic monsters concept that's the selling point.

Except...

art by Kurt Jakobi

None of it matters. The cultists do the ritual anyway, whether the players have seized the "essential" items or not. They don't summon the big world-ending lich king, but they do summon a big end-of-campaign lich boss, and there's very little practical difference.

(I don't know if, as written, there's any possibility for the original ritual to succeed, but I'm fairly confident in guessing that there is not.)

Carrion Crown gives the impression of flexibility and an open quest, but it's an illusion. At the beginning of the campaign, the players are given clues about the ritual and the items needed, but it's only possible to make sense of the clues -- and go to find the next piece -- when the campaign says so. The cultists are always already there waiting, so the race against time is just as illusory.

In short, despite appearances, there's no meaningful choice and no real control over the outcome. And that's terrible.

So, how would I fix Carrion Crown?

Well, as mentioned above I'd keep the classic monster theme, and the lich resurrection quest is acceptable and easy to comprehend. I would invert the ritual; rather than needing the items to complete the resurrection, I would say rather that the items can be used to weaken the lich if he does return. In fact, they were used to defeat him last time, which is why there is a legend/prophecy written about them. This may require some rejigging of the items; again it's been a long time since I played and I don't remember what all the quest tokens were.

I would give the players the full set of clues right at the beginning, and let them decide where to start. The clues can be partial and require visiting a person or location to fully understand, but in general the players will have all the information they need to find the items.

(I would also chuck some alternative "solutions" in there. One thing Eternal Lies did well was provide different options for resolving the campaign. From Eternal Lies I'd pinch the possibility of recruiting a Lesser of Two Evils type entity to deal with or distract the lich king. Enlisting allies to help out is another "item" the players could find.)

Right away, the players are faced with a choice: they can go straight to the ritual site right now to stop the cultists, or they can try to find some or all of the items to make it easier. It should be difficult for a bunch of level one characters to stop the ritual, but it also should be possible in theory. Think of Frodo and Sam in Mordor; it's a different sort of campaign, but the, er, path is there if the players want to, um, find it.

In my version of the campaign the cultists would not be everywhere, mere minutes from claiming the plot tokens just as the players arrive, because that's rank nonsense. Instead, the main bulk of the cultists will be where they should be, preparing the ritual, with a couple of "strike teams" out and about, searching for the prophesied items. I would probably also randomise their destinations, at least at the beginning, so maybe the cultists are where the player-characters are, or maybe they meet on the road as they head to different locations.

There's potential here for the players to lose quest items as the cultists get there first, but this is good and interesting as it creates tension, and as the items have gone from essential to useful, it doesn't tank the campaign. It also encourages recurring baddies, if the same cultists keep turning up.

art by Dave Rapoza

In terms of levels and balancing, I think there are probably two main approaches. One is OSR-ey, setting up the Frankenstein adventure -- for example -- to be suitable for -- for example -- level four characters, letting players go in over-or-underpowered, and seeing what happens. I favour this approach, although it wouldn't work well for Pathfinder and some players may find it frustraing. The other option is more Quantum Ogreish, scaling the individual adventures to be an appropriate challenge -- eight Frankensteins instead of one, or whatever -- for the player-characters. I like this less and it would probably be more work for the GM.

One last, but important, thought. It's vital for me that the campaign feels like it is -- ironically -- alive. The cultist strike teams should be moving around, causing trouble. The ritual should be in progress from session one, and should complete at a certain time. The players should feel like they are not only racing against time, but literally racing against the cultists. If the players miss the ritual, the lich king returns and starts stomping about, and the players will have to decide what to do. One final big battle against the lich king and his followers, with whatever allies and items the players have managed to gather? Or do we finish and consider it a loss, because a bad ending is still an ending?

Of course if you're playing in a more old school style, or with an ongoing campaign, then a resurrected lich king is just a new element for your campaign setting. Enjoy!

That's about it for what I found in my ancient notes. Specifics are beyond me at this point, and I feel a bit of a fraud because it seems like anyone could have come up with these vague suggestions -- except for Paizo's editors, obviously, ha ha -- but I hope there's something useful in there.

Maybe I will find time to delve deeper and do a full rewrite at some point -- the vampire adventure is a complete mess -- but for now there is much to do.

Lost in Paris

Oooooooooooooooooops.

It has come to my attention that the pdf versions of Terror in the Streets -- both the DriveThru version and the one you get with a physical purchase from LotFP in Europe or North America -- are missing the player map. I'll see if I can get the pdf updated, but in the mean time here are some download links:

Greyscale map (about 1mb)

Colour map (about 1.8mb)

If the links don't work, please let me know.

REDBOX MUSCLE WIZARD

Muscle Wizards are ace. Redbox Hack is ace. So here's a Muscle Wizard for Redbox Hack.

The Muscle Wizard was, I think, first birthed by Monstrous Television and then further developed and remixed by Basic Red, Ten Foot Polemic, and Goblin Punch.

Basically, I am very late to the party.

MUSCLE WIZARD

You are a wizard, but instead of learning magic through arcane study, your awesome power derives from your extreme muscularity. Books are for nerds. Armour is for nerds. Even weapons are for nerds. All you need is confidence, muscles, and lots of oil.

LIMITATION: PUMPING IRON

---

Maintaining your physique requires constant exercise. While others rest you work out, which keeps you nice and fit but the combination of increased endorphins and sleep deprivation makes you a bit erratic and strange.

"BONUS" LIMITATION: (POSING) OIL AND WATER DON'T MIX

---

You may never borrow a Cross-Class Talent from the Magus, nor may they borrow from you, but don't worry, you can still be friends.

FIVE TALENTS

---

ALWAYS AWESOME: You are flamboyant and impressive and you treat Showing Off rolls of 7 or less as 8.

CUTTING A PROMO: You have a knack for rambling and borderline nonsensical monologues that can nonetheless entertain and entrance a crowd for a scene, or minutes equal to your Eloquence score if you need a more exact duration.

MAGICO PUUUUUUNCH: You channel your sorcerous power through an unarmed strike, which doesn't have to be a punch! You always cause normal damage, plus anything from Awesome Tokens, and the target must roll Stubbornness versus TN7 or lose their next action as they are swept up in a swirl of magical energy. You must speak the name of the spell as you attack -- and please come up with your own evocative names! -- otherwise your punch is just a normal punch.

PHYSICALLY FIT, PHYSICALLY FIT, PHYSICALLY, PHYSICALLY, PHYSICALLY FIT: You gain a +2 bonus to Armour, Size rolls, and any other rolls involving feats of physical might, except attacks.

QUITE THE FLEX: You flex your mighty thews and in doing so warp reality in your immediate vicinity. You define what is true within a bubble of a radius roughly an arm's length from you, for as long as you gurn and strain. To maintain the flex for an extended length of time -- longer than a short scene, say -- or if you are somehow distracted, you can take a point of damage or roll Stubbornness vs TN 9, your choice.

---

Appendix MW:

I did have a few more punch spells in my original draft and allowed the Muscle Wizard player to choose which spell was "cast" when they attacked. I realised that this was both making the class more complex than the other RBH classes, and it was making the Muscle Wizard more versatile than the Magus, when they should be more or less equal. So I stripped the other spells out, but I also didn't want to lose them as an option, so here they are:

• Blast: 2 Damage. A Magus will consider this a grotesque bastardisation of their Talent of the same name. You probably don't care what they think.
• Confusion: the target rolls Stubbornness versus TN7 or loses their action.
• Darkness: The target's vision is obscured until they Move.
• Dispel: A single magical effect or spell is negated for a turn. Permanent effects can be dispelled if you sacrifice an attribute point.

Strict Location Records Must Be Kept

I've had a handful of questions -- or rather what is more or less the same question restated in slightly different terms -- about my adventure Strict Time Records Must Be Kept. Before I try to answer it/them, I should explain the context.

In Strict Time Records Must Be Kept -- henceforth STRMBK -- the player-characters are dosed with a slow-acting poison and are given the task of finding an antidote hidden somewhere in a mansion, before they die a messy death. There are some "dials" that the Referee can use to adjust the difficulty and fairness of the adventure -- whether the antidote exists at all, whether there's one antidote or many, the speed of the poison, and so on -- but for today's purposes we are assuming that it's being played straight and there are enough doses of antidote available for all the player-characters.

(A brief aside here to answer another question that so far I have been asked only once. Yes, the antidotes can be scattered throughout the house; they do not have to all be found in the same place. In fact, I recommend that multiple doses are not found in the same location. That's far too easy.)

The idea is that the Referee looks through the description of the house and picks the locations of the antidote bottles based on their knowledge of their own players, but also -- and most important -- based on what seems most fun to them. As such, no specific locations are defined, and this is quite deliberate. The decision, Oh Referee, is yours.

That said, the question I've been asked a few times since release is something along the lines of: where should the antidotes go? I can see how that would be useful for the time-starved -- ha ha -- Referee, so here are my "suggested" antidote locations:

• p18: Inside one mannequin, but only one! I would perhaps indicate a glint of something glass -- a bottle? -- in the folds of a mannequin's clothing, just to give the players the idea. Taking a whole Turn to search a mannequin seems a bit long, but it's consistent with other activities, and no one wants to be dicking around with Half-Turns or some other arcane nonsense. There are 26 mannequins and they should be everywhere around the ground and first floors, but I suggest putting the one with the antidote in the corridor outside the dining room (p49).
• p37: The Abaddon or Mammon rooms -- but not both! -- with the blunderbuss traps. A relatively easy one, to give the players some hope.
• p41: The Apollyon room, in the puzzle box. Another somewhat easy one, or at least an obvious one. There's potential for damage and wasted time here, so it seems only fair to reward those risks with an antidote.
• p42: The Eblis room, among all the threads. I like this one because the bottle is visible but difficult to approach. I would consider making it more tricky even; maybe making it a five Turn task, with a saving throw each Turn.
• p43: The Erasmus room, in one of hundreds of bottles. I like that this one isn't difficult, and isn't really a puzzle as such, but wastes time.
• p53: Room F, inside the "corpse". Assuming the players work out that there's a bottle inside the victim, they then have to make a choice to cut them open, and that choice has serious consequences. This is one of the first puzzles I wrote for the adventure and I adore the gruesomeness.
• p54: K, the barbed wire room. I would put the bottle in plain sight in the middle of the tangle. The bastard in me suggests a chance of smashing the bottle if someone falls in from above (p43); perhaps by rolling an even result on the Paralysation save.

That's seven doses; when writing these blasted things, I assume a party of four player-characters but I know that's a bit on the light side for many OSR groups. If you're running with more than seven player-characters then bear in mind that there are 10 puzzle rooms, plus 26 mannequins so there are plenty of places to hide bottles.

I hope that helps! If anyone has any more questions or thoughts then let me know in the comments. You could email or message me too, but I'll probably want to add any answers here. Also, if anyone needs any tech support for any of my other adventures, then I'd be happy to do more posts of this sort.

If you're reading this and thinking "I'd like to give Strict Time Records Must Be Kept a try" then that's a bit weird because the post is for people who already have the book, but stranger things have happened and you can buy it in print here and in pdf here.

Huh. I didn't need to shorten Strict Time Records Must Be Kept to STRMBK again after all. Except just there.

Update: I've written a brief follow-up to this post here.

PINKROBES

PINKROBES, not fluffy: Armour 14 (as leather), Move 120', 3+1* Hit Dice, 14hp, two-handed sword 1d10, Morale 9, Number Appearing 1 or 2. Half damage from bludgeoning or crushing weapons.

PINKROBES are pink, malevolent -- possibly fey -- spirits that take the form of floating, ragged monk-like robes. Cruel and mischievous, they delight in capturing and murdering sentient beings. They favour large two-handed swords, as they think they look cool. They have no physical form beyond the robes themselves; as such they are very quiet -- they surprise unaware opponents on 1-3 -- except when they communicate with each other, which they do in howls and moans.

Once per day a PINKROBE can go into a berzerk fury and attack 1d6 times in a Round.

PINKROBES are not undead, although they seem similar, and are intelligent and spiteful enough to pretend to be in order to trick, for example, clerics into wasting their turning abilities. Bastards.

PINKROBES obey the howling, moany, commands of higher-ranked *ROBES, and can order REDROBES, YELLOWROBES, GREENROBES, BROWNROBES, and BLUEROBES about.

BROWNROBES

BROWNROBES, but fire isn't brown: Armour 14 (as leather), Move 120', 2+1* Hit Dice, 10hp, two-handed sword 1d10, Morale 9, Number Appearing 1 or 2. Half damage from bludgeoning or crushing weapons.

BROWNROBES are -- you will find this surprising -- malevolent -- possibly fey -- spirits that take the form of floating, ragged monk-like robes. Cruel and mischievous, they delight in capturing and murdering sentient beings. They favour large two-handed swords, as they think they look cool. They have no physical form beyond the robes themselves; as such they are very quiet -- they surprise unaware opponents on 1-3 -- except when they communicate with each other, which they do in howls and moans.

Once per day a BROWNROBE can, instead of attacking, produce a fireball with a range of 240' that causes 3d6 damage to anyone in a 20' area.

BROWNROBES are not undead, although they seem similar, and are intelligent and spiteful enough to pretend to be in order to trick, for example, clerics into wasting their turning abilities. Bastards.

BROWNROBES obey the howling, moany, commands of higher-ranked *ROBES, and can order REDROBES, YELLOWROBES, and GREENROBES about.

Hoard of the Rings

Here's an idea that popped into my head and won't exit until I've written it down, so lucky for you.

ALL MAGIC ITEMS ARE RINGS.

So instead of a Cursed Shield, AC10, it's a Cursed Ring, AC10. Instead of a Sword +1/+2 vs Lycanthropes, it's a ring that provides the same bonus to all of the character's attacks.

You may want to keep some fun unique items, like the Deck of Horrible Things, as they are, as well as anything that really doesn't work as a ring. On the other hand -- ha ha -- it might be fun to have woefully inappropriate items shoved into a ring; a ring that is somehow a treasure map could be interesting. Perhaps the map is literally carved into the ring -- only visible in fire perhaps, what a clever idea I've just had -- or perhaps the map can be seen in the mind's eye of the wearer, like a cyberpunk HUD. Maybe potions are one-use rings, but I quite like potions, so probably not. I'd love to see what a Folding Boat would be like as a ring.

Most games have a limit of two rings per character, one per hand. When all magic items are rings, that puts a nice hard limit on magic item proliferation.