Black Pudding #8 is now live on DTRPG and itch.io!
This moist issue features new classes (death witch, feral knight, goon royal, among others), spells, magic swords, adventures, and weirdo monsters such as the troglozyte. Glorp your copy today!
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| Hymla the Horn vs. the Eye Am cult |
While drawing in this wee sketchbook I just decided to do a very simple OSR sheet. No room for extras, dammit! This game is about the basics, you losers. Go play 5e if you want squishy drama and backstories, you pieces of shit. If it doesn't fit on an index card you don't need it, you rubes!
Ok, that's enough of my sarcasm. Play your games the way you want, you're valid, etc. Blah blah. And artful character sheets RULE!
Crits or DIE!
In this post, I bemoan the suckiness of Magic-Users as presented in original editions of D&D such as B/X and 1e and I offer some ideas for house rules to give those poor bastards a kick in the ass. Some folks thought I was being too harsh or obtuse. Fair enough. I wasn't, but I get it.
Here I'd like to revisit that topic and attempt to save the ole MU without any house rules. I know, right? How in the world can you possibly do it?
First, please understand I'm not shitting on a beloved class because I hate it. I do love a good Magic-User. But one thing I never did or do is run them without house rules. Because I simply find the original rules for most classes to be limiting and obtuse in ways that annoy me and don't mesh with my play style.
Anyhow, here are some ways that I would personally want to run a B/X MU, for example, without necessarily needing house rules. Most of these ideas came from reading or hearing about similar ideas in other games, blogs, and social media over the past decade or so.
I love this one. In B/X it doesn't say you can memorize the same spell twice, nor does it prohibit it (as far as I remember). This leaves the GM to decide which way to go. For this mode of play, go with "no you can't". Each spell occupies the wizard's mind as a single entity and will not or cannot tolerate another version of itself in the same brainspace.
But take that idea to another level. Make a setting in which a spell can only exist in a single book, scroll, or crystal, or wherever you like to put spells. If it is copied to another place, it disappears from the original. If it is read out loud to cast it... the damn thing is gone forever.
Also, make MUs very rare. Within the PC party, you don't have to limit folks. If you wanna be a MU, be one. But in the setting itself just don't include MUs on your wandering monster tables or as NPCs in towns. They just don't exist very frequently. Consider a small world and there are like a dozen wizards in it, period. One of the PCs is an up-and-coming member of the elite.
In that kind of setting, each spell is extremely valuable and precious. You can't just go to another MU and learn a new spell. You have to find spells in abandoned spellbooks, negotiate the purchase of spells, or steal them.
This kind of campaign, though it seems low magic, might be very wizard-centric because so much time would be taken up with your MU seeking power and playing 5d chess with other wizards who are doing the same thing. Could be fun.
2. MIX EDITIONS
Not technically a house rule, I guess. Use B/X and Holmes combined to allow your lowly wimp wizard to make scrolls. I don't believe Holmes explicitly limits when a MU can make a potion, so just lump that in with scrolls. Then the party's riches at lower levels could be poured into the wizard's laboratory so they can make plenty of Sleep and Magic Missile scrolls and Gaseous Form potions. Make extra and sell 'em to other parties. Clean out that ruined tower, set up a shop, defend it from marauders, discover the hidden dungeon that lies beneath. That's some fuckin' fun right there.
3. MAGIC SCHOOLS/GANGS
Typically, a D&D party has no real ties to anything other than each other and the dungeon at hand. But maybe create a rich tapestry of wizard orders and fit the PCs into that framework. Now the PC MUs have in-world goals related to the setting. Perhaps more potent spells can be had by working your way into a coven or cabal. Perhaps secret powers can be offered, magic items bestowed. Now the lowly 3rd level MU with three spells also has a talking skull necklace that spits acid and knows the names of 3 demons and can call on them for favors (dangerous but that's magic, baby).
4. CREATIVE GMING
The players can be creative as hell, trying all kinds of cool things. The MU is out of spells, but the player says they want to use their arcane connections and lore to cause some magical effect anyway. A shitty GM would say "No, you're out of spells. Can't do it." But a clever GM who actually enjoys playing the fucking game could say "Neat idea. Tell me what you're doing and what you hope to accomplish".
So the player, jazzed at having to work for it, works for it. They describe how they call on the names of several imps they knew during apprenticeship in order to barter for a boon. They sacrifice some tiny portion of sanity and the imps cause something freaky to happen, such as a swarm of flies to appear. Hell yeah. The GM decides what percentage chance the PC has of succeeding, based on the Magical Research rules. A roll is made. SUCCESS!
"Now reduce your Wisdom score by 3. You're not doing too well, emotionally. You'll gain 1 point back each day you pass a Save vs. Spells."
I like this because it re-purposes Magical Research to accomplish on-the-fly magical effects. Unlike casting a spell from memory, this type of magic has a price.
And so on.
A first level M-U gets one god damn spell per motherfucking day. They can't even create magic scrolls to store spells until level 7 (if you use general 1e wisdom). In B/X, a M-U must be level 9 to create a scroll or magic item.
Let's drive home this point a little bit more. A M-U cannot even read a magic scroll without casting the spell Read Magic. Which means, as a first level caster, if you don't take Read Magic as your one and only spell, then you can't read scrolls.
"I'm glad I didn't choose Magic Missile instead of Read Magic. I was able to cast Read Magic so I could read that Magic Missile scroll and save the party from that one orc!"
The pushback is obvious and widely-screamed: If you can't think of anything else to do other than cast spells then you suck at this game.
That's fine. Except it's a fantasy game and I came on my Friday night with but one dream: to be a motherfuckin' wizard. And here you got me casting Read Magic and hiding behind the dwarf.
I beseech you, my OSR friends: don't visit this hell upon players. Unless you know for a fact that the person who wants to be a wizard both understands these limitations and LIKES IT, you gotta house rule that shit. And there's a lot of fine, fine house rules out there you can use to fix this broken-ass setup. For example, Magic-Users in your game can...
• Read any scroll.
• Create scrolls and magic items, per the Magical Research rules, starting at first level.
• Cast 3 additional first level spells per day in addition to what's on the spell slot table. Call it baseline training.
• Use any weapon they care to pick up, but if it's not allowed by the rules-as-written, then they get a -3 to hit. No biggie.
• Detect the presence of magic in a device or an area, perhaps by making a simple Intelligence check. You don't have to tell them what the magic is, just that they "get a vibe" off it.
• Possess one trivial magic item at character creation. It's their signature thing, like a hat that returns to them or an unseen hand that carries their sack. I promise you it will not break your fragile dungeon ecosystem.
Ok, this is all just a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But it's also true. If you can't save the Thief class at least pull the Magic-User up from the darkness.
THREE RULES FOR OSR GAMES
Just a quick set of house rules that sound fun and useful for OSR games. The idea is you can keep the rules as written as much as you like, but just add these as a final layer on top for players to use. These are all situation-driven, so there's no record keeping.
Let's call this set of three the SCL (Solid Crit Luck), for shorthand. Or maybe A-SEAL because it sounds like that when you say it. Doesn't matter.
1. Solid Hits.
This comes from GOZR. If you succeed on an attack by 5 or more, you get Adv on damage roll.
Fighters can choose to divide their damage between up to 3 adjacent targets, even though they only technically hit one of them. Example would be hitting a goblin and getting 10 damage. You could give 3, 3, and 4 damage to three of the gobbos.
If it is a saving throw, and if making the save still deals some kind of damage to you, then a Solid Hit on the save halves the already reduced damage.
If it is any other roll and you succeed by 5+ or by 25% or more, the GM may grant a small boon in some cases. Maybe just name a trivial benefit (see item 3 below).
2. Double Crit.
If you crit and then roll max damage, you have a double crit. Whatever effects your crit normally has, you double them. Obvious example is damage x2 then x2 again. But if you get a benefit, such as an extra attack on a crit, then you get another extra attack.
This one assumes you use crits, of course. If you don't... I cannot help you.
3. Lucky Number.
Roll 1d20. Whatever the result, this is your character’s lucky number. Any time you roll this number on any attack roll or save, you get to name a trivial benefit. The GM can veto or tweak it, of course.
Example: Your number is 11. You roll 11 on an attack. Not enough to hit! But you say “My attack throws him off balance.” The GM agrees and either grants you +1 to the next roll or penalizes the enemy by -1 on their next attack.
This one was inspired by Neoclassical Geek Revival, which I haven't played. So I don't know how it works in that game, I just know it has a similar rule.
At long last, the Rock Hardy Book of Dwarfs is in the hands of a mighty layout artist known as Matt the Hildebrand.
I decided this book would be part of my Doomslakers Adventures series, which started in 2014 with Howler. I've long neglected doing modules and it's high time I got back to it. This isn't an adventure, but more of a setting, though it does include a short adventure at the end of the book. It's a book that outlines life in the Rock Hardy Mountains among the dwarfs (see Black Pudding #7 gazetteer).
It'll be something like 24-28 pages, 8.5x11 module size. Whereas the first two in the DSA series are specifically Labyrinth Lord compatible, I think this one will fly solo. I could slap an OSE label on it, but I'm kind of leaning toward just a general "BX" vibe. Obviously it is fully compatible with OSE, LL, BFRPG, etc.
This is the cover art, but not the final cover layout.
Random tables are one of the great pillars of OSR gaming. I will die on that hill. Even if random tables were less widely used in D&D historically, they were fully embraced with the OSR. Hell, many classic OSR books are nothing but random tables. There are settings that are entirely composed of random tables. And I am a huge fan.
Of course you can't possibly use them all. You might be tempted to say there are "too many" random tables. You would be wrong. There cannot be too many. It is not possible.
Because the purpose and effect of random tables is... random. Stochastic, as the nerds say. It's a shotgun effect. No one expects you to use every random table that finds its way in front of your face. You use the ones that are either required by the game's rules or the ones that inspire you. The rest can sit quietly. They demand nothing of you, so let them be.
Here are some random tables I created in December, inspired by the #dicember challenge, which I learned about through Dyson Logos. I did not stick with any prompts.
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I haven't been using the OSR label in a long time. I don't recall taking a stance on it in any particularly strong way at any point. I just sort of moved away from it a couple years ago because let's face it... so many shit shows.
But I'll probably start using it again as a hashtag because let's face it... so god damn useful.
I remember this fanzine coming out a few years ago and I was super impressed by the great cover art by Matthew Ray. It's nice to see this collection includes all of Matthew's covers plus a new one for the main book cover.
I didn't pick this zine up or read it before now. I MIGHT have it in PDF and just never got around to looking at it?
Anyway, it's a very nice looking book. The cover is hard and heavy and the whole book feels weighty and substantial in your hand. This is probably because the paper stock is decent and it's on glossy paper... kind of like a glossy magazine but heavier.
The binding is glue, so that's a downside. I feel like some of these pages are eventually going to come loose. Plus it means the book doesn't lay open. It wants to close when you open it up. Not a huge downside - I'm just spoiled by all these mega deluxe boutique hardbacks I've seen over the years. Still, even really nice, solid hardbacks don't always lay open flat. Old School Essentials Rules Tome is very nice and sewn-bound but it won't lay open, generally.
The title on the spine is not aligned so it's hovering close to the bottom edge. I suspect either a mistake in layout of in printing. Of course, duh. But it's really not a big deal unless you are super OCD about that stuff. Which is fine.
The layout is uber-basic and Thom Wilson, the publisher and author, uses the classic B/X Souvenir font (or perhaps Soutane, a similar knock-off?). This two-column look is immediately nostalgic. I do like that quite a bit in a "let's watch Andy Griffith" sort of way. But the full justification of the paragraphs is a bit jarring - not much use of kearning or adjusting the space between words. A bit awkward, which is kind of lovely in fact. I'm kind of a fan.
Of course none of that matters if the content is no good. In this case that's not a problem. Again, if you're into old school RPGs and B/X D&D in particular, this is a tasty dish of yummy. Each of these short 10 issues is chock full of adventures, monsters, NPCs, magic items, spells, maps! And an interview in each issue with some old guard of the hobby.
And it is a zine. Like... proper zine. It has ads and want ads and product spotlights.
Here's my takeaway: If you like B/X D&D, you will enjoy this book and you will get some use out of it. There are plenty of little adventures to run in here and lots of simple new magic stuff to play with. If you like small press TTRPG books you will dig this. It's got a lot of cool bits.
So don't let any of my criticisms of the physical book or layout deter you. I do kind of adore this book. I honestly wouldn't want it to be any other way! This is in my wheelhouse.
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| Tramp! |
I like how the class gives the character hoof attack damage that isn't fantastic at first and never becomes overpowered. This means you won't have to make a painful choice between "hoofing it" all the or using that awesome two-handed sword you got your eye on. But with a d6 damage as you level up, you'll be eager to stomp a goblin or two.
If you love BX D&D, this is pure gold right here. If you're running a game set in a forest, woodsy area, or maybe some plains, toss this class into the mix of player choices.
This is the Rat Bastard, a class I scribbled long ago in the early days of Black Pudding. I honestly don't remember why this class wasn't in any issue of the zine so far but I assure you this bastard will be in issue #7.
And what else will be in issue #7, you ask? Well that's a good question. My process for this zine is fairly organic, meaning I tend not to play too much of it ahead. What tends to happen is I do little bits here and there and then I'll chew into something bigger (such as an adventure like Vault of the Whisperer from issue #2, using a sweet map from skullfungus). Once I get something significant finished it's as if I hit critical mass and I just continue to hammer away until I have an entire issue completed. That's pretty much how all my projects go, honestly.
So for #7 I have a few finished pages, such as the Rat Bastard and a character sheet or two, plus a metric ton of notes. Which of those notes will become parts of the zine I am not sure. I've got my eye on this mini-setting called Low Downs (welcome to the Days of Low Adventure!). But also there's a lot of material that I have created for GOZR that, honestly speaking, is absolutely BX compatible and could be presented in Black Pudding. So I might go that route since GOZR is coming along so damn slowly and I really have no idea when I'll be ready to publish it.
Translation: Be ready for some random tables!
Here are ten islands of Rone. I named them and gave them each a small description for the game. Eventually, if luck holds, I'll produce a nice little RPG book out of this and expand on each, with some cool maps and such.
In this post I presented a Wizard class for BX that I'm using in a current campaign. I tweaked it a little and added my own art in this updated version. It is compatible with BX but definitely has more bells and whistles. Still... it's all on one page, with art and an XP table. So it's not too crunchy. I like it. I think this would make the beginning spellcaster more interesting to play. And yes, this class does in fact replace Magic-Users and Clerics in my current BX game.
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| Art © Glen Michael Angus, R.I.P. |
We had session zero of Lesser Gods of Rone Monday night. We spent most of it making characters, discussing the setting, and sort of figuring things out. We got into the adventure for about half an hour - long enough that all the PCs are now in the same boat. Literally. Except the Lake Thing swimming near it.
We do have a Wizard in the party, so here's that character class. It's essentially the BX Magic-User with a few tweaks. Unless we run into any serious issues, this class will replace the MU in all my D&D games.
What's different about the Wizard vs. the BX Magic-User?
-Penalty to reaction rolls. Because wizards are weird and nobody should trust them.
-Fewer weapon restrictions. Because it's silly to limit them to a dagger. Just silly.
-You can wear armor, but it makes casting hard. Because it's more interesting that way. Most PCs will avoid it because of the difficulty. But hey... maybe you want to put some on because you're out of spell slots and you need to make it through this risky pass.
-MU and Cleric spells. This is just because I am not using Clerics in this campaign. Cult leaders can be Wizards. Or a special class. I never liked the basic Cleric anyway. (I'm also disallowing the memorization of the same spell more than once. So even if you do have a Cure Light Wounds spell you only have one of them.)
-Potion brewing. With an adequate lab, of course.
-Magical research emphasized (X51 needs love). And no need to wait until level 9 to create magic items.
-You begin play with a cool item. Because it's more fun that way. Show up on day one with a hat that sings.
-Disregard for spell level slots. This is just a house rule that I prefer. You just add up all spell slots and that's how many spells per day you can cast. You can't cast any spell level higher than your class level. Done.
This class was an amalgam of how I tend to treat MUs anyway + some inspiration from Stuart Robertson's BX Witch - one of the most elegant BX classes I found in the OSR circles. I was gonna have Wizard and Witch but decided there's really no need for both when a Wizard class with enough wiggle room can serve nearly all your wizarding needs.
If you dislike this kind of thing because it makes the fighter less interesting to play, you could just give the fighter some love. I love the barebones BX game as much as anyone, but all of us house rule it. Nobody runs it truly RAW.
So... The party includes a Wizard (Jayne X Praxis), Lake Thing, Medusa (modified Black Pudding version, Dyson Logos), Nightkind (a piece of the night that woke up), and a Mariner (Andy Solberg). I'll post up all the classes eventually.
The Wizard is searching for their lost dad and the Nightkind is accompanying them, perhaps to understand a weird dream power they seem to be manifesting. They got a ride from the Mariner and picked up the Medusa as her island sank into the drink (related to the campaign? hmmmm...). The Lake Thing approaches because someone has been poaching gators from his swamp island and maybe it's this weird bunch in the rowboat.
The session ended with the PCs approaching the island of Knobbybones where a huge harpoon ballista was pointed at their rowboat by some unknown entities.
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| R.I.P. Steve Z |
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| Blood in the Controversy |
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| This got me started, honestly. |
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| A very tasty jam |
