ARMED (D&D LOTFP Fighter hack for ROT)

ARMED

posthuman weapon fetishist

xp	level	feats	HP: d8+1 dam: d8+1                   feats  used to: treat a failed Saving Throw as a  success,  add another die to a damage roll, figure  out how to use a weapon you can normally carry,     gain an extra attack  recharge feats 1/long rest; all: the first time you   fall to 1 or less HP this session.  1 XP:  fail a Save, kill an enemy,  survive a session  your level in XP : Fill the War Chest,  defeat a  Mighty Hero or  Great Monster
0	1	2
2	2	2
4	3	2
8	4	3
16	5	3
32	6	3
64	7	4
128	8	4
256	9	5
384	10	5

SAVING THROWS
stone	death/psn	breath	device	magic
15	13	16	14	17

advantages

-Strength Crits (Successful melee attack rolls under your Str score Crit): add as many die as you’ve extra (ie, more than 4) limbs

-Carry [your level + 1] many weapons without being encumbered by them

sidekick one hired merc becomes your sidekick, a Weapons Expert

STACK

roll d100 twice per level advance, including first. You can pick any of the first 00-45 values instead of rolling a die. You can re-pick anything you’ve already rolled if re-rolls are mentioned.  Once maxed, subsequent rolls of the value should be re-rolled.

roll thing

00-20 +1 Hit

21-30 +1 Saves

41-50 +d8 HP

41-45 +1 AC (max +2), then treat as a roll of 46-50

46-50 +d8 damage with ranged weapons (max  +2d8), then Dex Crits

55-60 +d8 damage with melee weapons (max  +2d8), then treat any

standard melee weapon as a throwing weapon

60-70 +1 Str, Dex or Con, then  Wis Int or Cha. 18 max score.

70-80 +limb (leg adds + to move, arm can wield another weapon)

81-85 one hand can wield a 2her (re-roll, 2-2hers, etc. then treat as a roll

of 70-80 until you’ve two more new arms)

86-90 + targeting gain +2 to hit at range 1/session (re-roll, +4, etc +10

max). disregard standard environmental effects (strong wind, rain,

etc)

91-92 +infravision or x-ray vision or Cerebrymn shielding 1/session

(2/session on re/roll, up to 4 times total) (can choose 2 of 3

options)

93-94 + aerial bombardment (organs on your back dilate and spit missiles  

auto hit (save v Breath halves, any target within range 1/session)

95-96 +hidden holster (hide a weapon or anything standard weapon-

sized on your person,  and it’s undetectable, doesn’t encumber)

97-98 +Prayer of the Prince of Gears (restore a synth bathed brain to

life)

99-00 +1 Great Map Fragment (Great Map: roll d6, add your fragments.

At a 6 or more, you’ve found the Treasure of your choice, GM has

to make some place for you to find it)

MONSTRUM 2

I started talking about this here. Zak then talked about Monsters here, which overlaps quite a bit with what I wanted to say, though I'm really talking about a method of doing this sort of thing, of using monsters to build a mythology and a sense of place and history into a game.

Solution One (already covered): change how you talk about monsters when you run a game.

Solution Two: change what "monster" means. Move it beyond or outside of D&D (or most other roleplaying games I've encountered).

A THING, A SIGN OF A THING

As discussed already, a monster is not just a rupture in the natural order, it is also a sign of the same. It is the beast and it is its call in the night, and it is the prophecy that foretold its coming and it is the calf born with two heads when it sidles by the barn to pluck a young farmhand from asleep in the hay.

Here is what hearing about monsters does to you: you are nervous, worried, the world feels unsafe, you jump at loud noises, avoid shadows, mistrust everyone, all of which takes its toll. In Monsterparts (and the thing on which I'm working) I called these Secrets, but the name is secondary. They deplete your health. If you have x HP, now you have x-1 HP just for the thing existing. Being around the monster, being in its lair is worse, more depletion.

Because the thing about a lot of monsters is that they're not actually, themselves, mechanically all that terrible. They're terrible because you never face them in full fetter, because getting to them means wading through unsettling things, sleepless nights, etc, so that you're already half-crazy when they show up, in the dark. If this were a book or movie or something, the monster, itself, should be the denouement.

ALONE, HUNGRY, IN THE DARK
Here is a monster description:

scrambling eaters

Dextrous Monstrous Halfling HD6, 4 Endurance

-small, between a child and a really big house cat

-night vision: eyes reflect light like a dog's

-heals injuries in a few minutes in the dark or when eating

-hunts in threes, nests in 6s; nest has d2 Treasures

-1XP

Here are signs of the scrambling eater (treat these like rumors and wandering encounters):

-missing children or children and animals with missing limbs, digits, eyes

-bright eyes under sewer grates, scrabbling or tapping under cobble stones

-little statues in home shrines to a wide mouthed little god, similar signs scratched newer sewer entrances, but no one says what god to which they prey

-general starvation, crop failure, horribly skinny people eye you from rags, slowly chewing or sucking on a bone or what must be a strip of leather

-lethargic governance, no one does anything to help, pretends there is no problem, men meant to watch in the night stay inside and hide, fearful

-scratching in the walls of your room, holes in the walls much too large for a rat

-people leave bowls of blood out on their stoop, in the morning, the bowls are empty

And here's something you might discover in the lair of a scrambling eater:

-crude maps of the insides of houses, with much more attention paid to where people sleep and to the spaces between walls

-its corpse is marked with a brand on its forehead, knife-shaped, though its children have no such mark

-the nest will invariably have a parody of a cozy home with rotten and raggedy beds, tea in chipped teakettles, probably a well-worn chap book with the prayers crossed out and re-written ("blessed are the meek for they shall devour the earth," etc)

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Here are excerpts from something on which I'm working (note: XP requirements for a level are much lower than in trad D&D than here [possible conversion: multiply the XP by 100]):

"Roll a d6 and add your level of renown. The Referee should move up the list if the result has been rolled previously, returning to the lowest value of the list is exhausted. Resolution of the Secret rewards XP equal to its number less your level of renown but is always worth at least 2 XP. Anyone that contributed gets the reward and regains all lost Endurance. There are usually at least a few weeks, if not months between Secrets.

When reading aloud the italicized text, contextualize it for each character. One of them heard scratching under the cobble stones, another saw eyes like saucers in the sewers, another heard chewing behind the walls or under a manhole cover."

"2. IN THE SEWERS

scratching under cobble stones and flashing eyes like saucers in the sewer grate, children are disappearing. If you put your ear to a manhole cover, there are whispers or chewing noises

3. IN THE TEMPLE IN THE VAST, DARK FOREST a burning white god in the temple heals the injuries of some, leaving them increasingly pale, bright and beautiful. These “new saints” are widely respected in the Village, but you've seen them beating beggars, pulling wings from a pigeon.

etc."

"2. IN THE SEWERS Faction the horde Monster scrambling eaters For Later a pit into the terrible underground, a maze of the spaces inside walls

3. IN THE TEMPLE IN THE VAST, DARK FOREST

Monster        ascended ghoul, pupal ghouls

For Later       a means into the land of the elves

etc."

attributions: Sankai Jutsu, Sam Wolfe Connelly

MONSTRUM

THE BEAST AND ITS SIGNS
The word "monster" comes from the latin monstrum where it means both a thing which is not of the natural order but also a sign, omen or portent of the same. It is both the thing in the dark, but also the claw marks it leaves on the door, the way animals walk backward when it is near, an eclipse heralding its birth. 

Also, we've got internal/safe spaces and external/potentially dangerous spaces. Horror has monsters lurking on the outside, trying to get into the safe spaces or it has a revelation that there is no internal/safe space, that the whole world is monstrous (or it has some combination of the two). In both cases, we're talking about ontological rupture of the first order, of the truest essence: something that makes being human as we understand "human" deeply problematic if not impossible (or at least, I feel like good horror should do that).

YOU CAST YOUR EYES BEYOND THE VEIL, ON THE HORIZON... SOMETHING
Where you put magic-users is up to you, but:

1. When you make a Magic-User, tell the GM what is out beyond the veil, chasing you, trying to get in. You might be wrong, you might have seen it incorrectly. It might have changed its form.

2. Whenever you cast a spell, roll a d20 and tell the GM the result. The GM keeps a record of the results. It's always getting closer.

THEY ARE EVERYWHERE, THEY ARE HIDING
D&D provides two approaches to this. On the one hand, you've got points of light in a howling wasteland populated by the monstrous (Greyhawk, the encounter tables in the first edition of D&D and the map it suggest you use for your game world all are of this order); on the other hand, you've got relatively civilized, late medieval peoples living their lives and then tucked away in a few dark corners is an alternate world of monsters (B/X and most of the Basic modules have this more Beowulf feel to them). The former seems to often be the end result of a campaign, the latter its starting point.

Both can work as a kind of horror game. Where D&D really falls down on the horror front is the monotony of dungeons and the way it deploys monsters.

EXCERPT
A part of the solution that I've found has to do with how you talk about things. Here's an excerpt from something on which I'm working:

"DENY CLOSURE
Give Players however much information they want; their characters still have to dig around for it, they'll still have to spend Turns and actions poking around into thing, but they get the information. They get information, but no explanations:

they are in a dark tunnel and they see eyes in the dark, reflecting like a dog's, and they hear oncoming steps, quick breathing, the sound of metal hitting stone.

one of the magic-users throws a torch forward and they see something human shaped, clothed in rags, moving towards them at a run.

two fighters move forward, jabbing into the dark with their spears.

in the aftermath, they find a body, mangled.

Players: What was it?

You: Do you want to look at it? How are you going to inspect it?

Players: We'll poke it. If it's lying face down, we roll it over.

You: (because rolling it over sounds good and because you want to be verbose) it's human-shaped but small, maybe like a teenager or a malnourished teenager. It's bony and its skin is sort of grey, but it's also very dirty so you'd need to wash it off to tell its skin color for sure. Maybe the proportions are a little off? Maybe it's legs are a little short? It's wearing rags that look like they might have been clothes once. It's not holding anything. It has stringy hair. It doesn't respond when you poke it, it's like poking a raw turkey or chicken. You roll it over with a pole, which one of you is doing that? How close are you getting?

Players: I'm rolling it over and I guess I'll put a torch down by it and get close, but I'll have a shield up, in case. I'll have my spear like, on it.

You: OK. You roll it over with a pole and its arm flops to the side. It's nose is bloody and its face looks mostly human, though its mouth looks too big, maybe? There's something weird about its mouth. Anyone want to put their hand in its mouth?

Players: Nope. So is it like a human?

You: It's like a human, sure. It looks a lot like a human."

What they've just fought, in terms of stats, is a goblin. When they find more goblins later, they all look like the first one. There are also children like this goblin, and they're just as dangerous. Some don't speak, others speak in a language no one recognizes.

It's possible that in another bolthole there are goblins that look like this first one. There are certainly other goblins that look the same but who work differently. One can only be harmed in the light. Another heals whenever it's in the dark. A third heals any injury, even fatal ones, if buried in the earth. Others make elaborate traps. Some worship something made of blood and fire and it is their king and it gives them great strength and sight beyond the veil.

That's part of the puzzle anyway. The other part has to do with mechanics.

attribution: Sam Wolfe Connelly (who is amazing)

Blanchehammer (5e D&D's proficiency system, the game)

RESOLUTION DICE
I have played D&D so long that the die scale feels second nature.

OD&D treats some broad checks (listening, opening doors) as a 1 or 2 in 6 chance. I believe Talysman uses it for general resolution of non-combat procedures as well (but can't find it on the blog). It's simple, elegant and respects both the GM to adjudicate well and the player to make clever, calculated risks.

This is maybe D&D sans the wargaming roots.

THEME
You're adventurers, out to make money, out to colonize, discover, map, get famous, get lucky and do the sort of thing that excess and heretofore unlucky people might do in a world with too many unlucky people and not enough food, housing and compassion.

Jeff's Middenheim hack is probably the only city on the map.

DOING STUFF
If you are good at something  you get a +1 to rolls related to doing that thing, increased by 1 every 4 levels (so 5e's proficiency bonus, but starting at 1 less). The bonus doesn't change relative to the die rolled.

x is the highest value of the die. Success is any roll resulting in an x-1. So, success on a d6 is 5+ (33% chance) and on a d4 is 3+ (50% chance), etc.

You roll when it's important to roll.
d4 Simple
d6 Average
d8 Little Tricky
d10 Complex
d12 Difficult
d20 Very Difficult
d100 Chaos

If your proficiency bonus+1 equals success (ie equals "x"), you automatically succeed. (But may still need to roll if the GM is using margins of success).

No critical success or failure.

IN PLAY
Armor is either armored or heavily armored. Particularly agile characters are treated as armored for defense. Heavy armor makes doing anything that isn't moving around as normal, riding or attacking more difficulty (increase die size of difficulty). Armor increases the die rolled to land a die by one or two (heavy armor) sizes.

players do pretty much all the rolling and so roll to both attack and defend

attacking someone defending themselves is difficult (d12) but wounding someone with a sword is simple (d4) killing someone already wounded is likewise simple, but killing someone in a single blow is at least a little tricky (d8).

convincing someone to help you against their perceived best interests is very difficult (d20), but convincing someone that their best interests align with yours is only a little tricky (d8).

Healing a wound in an hour of game time is Very Difficult, decreasing in difficulty each subsequent hour.

Not dying or going insane in the face of terrible wounds or cosmic horrors is usually at least complex (d10) but may become harder to do given the scale of the opposition.

CLASSES
Classes reduce the difficulty of Class-related die rolls by 1 die size:

Fighters do a better job of landing blows and not dying, are always at least armored and can wear heavy armor without difficulty
Assassins kill and wound with great ease
Sorcerers find understanding the magical and the insane only very difficult and casting spells only complex
Rogues are quite adept at locks, mechanisms, slight of hand and lying
Clerics find basking in the radiance of the many great and powerful beings without losing one's mind or composure only very difficult
Explorers are adept at navigation, survival and ancient architecture
Bards are good at debauching, lying, music and heraldry
Sages are knowledgeable about languages, ancient history and lore
Protagonists are quite skilled at intimidation, shakedowns and general brutality
Dukes are quite skilled at throwing money around and wearing heavy armor and persuasion

COMPLICATIONS
caveat
a player can only roll a die ONCE during any given turn

interpretation 1
can roll a die of a given size once during any given turn (ie, each player has a d4-100 and may roll each of those die once during a turn) and "turn" means one go-round the table

interpretation 2
can only do one thing requiring a die roll during a given turn and each player takes a "turn" during a single go-round the table (with only the speaking player's character acting in that turn, other characters reacting)

BACKUP
Troupe play is the norm and there are a number of henchmen types:

Fighters, Dukes and Explorers get Footmen (proficient in landing blows, gaming, following orders and are always at least armored)

Assassins, Rogues, Bards and Protagonists get Lackeys (proficient in drinking, hiding, stealing and following orders)

Sorcerers, Clerics and Sages get Pupils (proficient in languages, research and whose obsessiveness and cowardice makes them relatively resistant to insanity and dying)

CHARACTER CREATION
This is the first turn and interpretation 2 controls (where a range is given you can either roll the corresponding die or pick the lowest number. If you roll, you cannot roll for anything else and should just pick the lowest ranges. If you roll a one, re-roll the die and add 1 for each time you've re-rolled until you don't roll a 1 anymore). Everyone has a bag of basic adventuring gear, any given proficiency and a class and:

you begin with 1-4 characters

and 1-6 pupils, footmen or lackeys

and 1-8 acquaintances on whom you may call for succor once (name at least 1)

and 1-10 weeks of food and drink

and 1-12 ducats

BUYING THINGS
The most valuable things a peasant and the very poor might have cost a pence (about 250/ducat)
The most valuable things  the lower class but not penurious might have cost a quarter
The most valuable things  the middle class might have cost half a ducat
The merchant class walks around with at least a ducat, usually much more in good
The aristocracy usually has about the same, but their ransom is enormous

This goes for things "fit" for each social class. Food for a peasant costs a penny and is pretty terrible (turnip-flavored water), etc.

Obscure things are eyeballed to fit the social class and are expensive for each syllable (a la Vornheim, I think) (so: human fat candle is 5 syllables, but is probably something anyone in the lower class might have (being of some religious significance) so it costs (5 syllables * quarter ducats means it costs 1 and a quarter ducats).

(a "syllable" is also the ducat-equivalent used by thieves and disreputable types as bank notes and are purportedly written in a mix of demon blood and the blood of some local strong man [and is issued by the local strong man] but are probably often fakes)

IMPROVEMENT
Levels are gained at a rate of 1/hour of play for any character exposed to real mortal peril for the majority of the hour in the pursuit of money, fame, power and the exploration of lost places and other of the gentler colonial pursuits (this is eyeballed, but characters wounded while adventuring are pretty much guaranteed a level).

Proficiency may be had in half as many things as your level +1. You must find a trainer to teach proficiency and they'll likely ask quiet a bit of money (current # proficiencies x level x 5 ducats, half that if you've 2 or more related proficiencies already). Learning a new proficiency takes a month of game time, give or take. Play another character in the meantime.

Attribution: John Blanche

you are in a field of tall green grass - more 5e setting stuff (lots of monsters)

more on that 5e starting area hexcrawl thing.

let me know if the links don't work.

there are probably some typos/math errors in the monsters. Nothing major. Building 5e monsters seemed pretty easy, which probably means I've screwed them up.

In the text, the italicized text is meant to call out mechanics, die rolls or GM-significant stuff.

“in a field of green grass that reaches to the shoulders”

"grass varies from 3-6’ tall. d4+2

the grass is untouched and sways in the wind, and is just really, really long grass that somehow is able to stand upright like corn without being wider, etc.

grass moving in a pattern or against the wind or bird flight is the likeliest sign of something incoming. Surprise is rolled with an advantage by all parties that are using the grass to their advantage (locals always do).

The grass is slow to burn without an accelerant. mass burn-offs using accelerant are likely to disturb large, hunting myriapodia, confusing the sudden flash of heat for a nearby food source."

"The ground is uneven, rich, black, lumpy but soft, full of holes and strange rises. It writhes with an overabundance of life, especially with annelids and myriapoda.

when all-out running, the ground should be treated as a falling hazard,  requiring a DC 20 DEX Save to avoid being knocked prone. horses and similar destriers may break a leg when they fail this Save.

when rolling a 5 or less on this Save, the character falls 10’ below into a roiling horror of enormous biting myriapoda and venom and blind hunger and madness. Climbing out without help takes a round and a DC 15 check. First round of exposure is 9 (d20) damage, second is 19 (2d20), etc."

daytime encounters (wandering encounters are rolled twice, once for day and once for night)

d20	encounter	second roll	notes
1	2-5 red birds	d4+1
2	3-30 gazelle	3d10
3	2-8 young lithobius	2d4
4	1-2 lithobius	any die/2
5	an archispirostreptus	any die/2 (see note)	50% chance it's startled, being chased by 1-2 lithobius
6 - 8	3-30 bin warblers	3d10
9 - 12	spider	see entry(4d10)
13 - 15	30-300 oracle swallow	"a lot" or 30d10
16	5-8 swamp people	d4+4
17	30-300 swamp people	30d10
18	an evangelist of torment	one	see the names of the evangelists
19	1-2 giant hunting spiders	any die/2 (see note)	50% chance for each that it is accompanied by d10 host
20	1-2 Oji Scarab	any die/2

attribution: John Hallmen