gun rules

No one asked for this, but here we are.

stop me if you've heard this before

Sometimes, the Ref may ask for a roll of the dice. The most common type of roll is a d20 roll.
The \gm sets a difficulty class (DC) and whoever is making the choice rolls the die and adds a modifier. If the total is at least equal to the DC, the actor gets what they want. Otherwise, they may fail or need to pay some price to succeed.

If a roll is a contest between two characters, the DC is equal 9+ the total modifier of the target. Otherwise, see below for guidelines on setting DCs.

What is this?

Basically I'm pretty set on a lot of the specific mechanics for my 3e-derived game. Here I'm trying to stretch myself and present only the stuff that's not about character creation, on account of that being the section of the ruleset I have a tendency to work too hard on without drawing the rest of the owl.

The form of what follows, presenting DCs by task rather than by skill (haven't included a skill list in here, but it will be much less granular than these categories) follows the first D&D Next playtest packet. The actual numbers are largely based on a d20ification of this analysis of the hidden d6 skill system of OSE/BX.

ADEPT: a modest proposal

Are you reinventing RuneQuest or Traveller this time? You fool. You rube. You absolute buffoon. I am reinventing HârnMaster.

xkcd: Standards

Listen. Everyone hates the six-score array. It sucks, and the history of non-D&D RPGs is practically a history of variants of the array and its uses. There are plenty of theoretical issues to raise with the standard six. However, here are three problems only the worst pedant would have with it:

• The canonical order of the abilities is not alphabetical.
• Two abilities share an initial letter.
• There is no mnemonic device for the abilities.

I propose to solve these (and really, only these) problems with the ADEPT array:

3eish: what's a level

Theoryposting, maybe I'll get to the point of concrete details by the end of this post, maybe I won't.

Artist: Tennis Cramer

So, my goal of 3eish is to make something that feels like 3e to me, while also keeping it light enough to hold the whole thing in mind and play fast and easy. Can't get rid of levels without it starting to feel like something else entirely so it's worth asking: what's a level. In 3e there are a couple clear answers:

• One HD.
• 1, 3/4 or 1/2 a point of BAB
• 8, 6, 4, 2 + Int skill points
• 1/2 or 1/3 a point of each saving throw
• 1/4 of an one-point improvement to an ability score (1/8 of a one-point improvement to its modifier)
• 1/3 of a feat and some class features
• various scaling on spells you cast

There are some rationalizations that suggest themselves, like making attack bonus or saving throws a part of the skill system, but I've been down most of those design roads at this point and most of them wind up reinventing RuneQuest. So instead I'm going to reinvent True20; a level is a feat and one HD and everything else falls out of that.

Let's nail that down somewhat:

• As in the base rules, the benchmark for a boring feat is that it applies +2 on two different kinds of rolls. 
• Boring feats (that only add bonuses to rolls) are now called skills and can be taken multiple times. This replace the skill list and save progressions; if a character does not have any skills that apply to a saving roll, they use 1/3 their level as a bonus.
• Obviously not all feats are boring ones. The ones that grant more interesting abilities can generally only be taken once.
• Each feat specifies an amount of HP (2, 3 or 4) gained when you take it. If you're proficient with it, add +1 to an attack roll for every 4HP you currently have. If you're not proficient, apply a -3 penalty.
• Abilities for combat add 4HP.
• Skills and miscellaneous abilities add 3HP.
• Magic abilities adds 2HP.

You may notice there's no real purpose left for classes. That's probably for the best, let's lose them. Carve out their interesting bits into feats and leave the rest.

One-feat character creation is probably too bare to be fun. Instead we'll have two-feat character creation (truly, I have a dizzying intellect). There's a special set of feats called backgrounds, and you pick two of them to start. Your starting HP is 4 if both of them have experience with violence, 3 if one does and 2 otherwise.

The 3e PHB had 7 races and 11 classes, so for parity with its 77 combinations a pool of backgrounds would need...a pool of 14 backgrounds (14 choose 2 is 91, fourteen more combinations for a pool with three fewer elements). Now that's of course not the full range of customization of a 1st level 3e character but it's close enough for my purposes.

talent, time and tools

Being a universal 2d6 resolution mechanic and some extra bits.

An attempt succeeds if a roll of 2d6 is at least equal to the required target number:

• You have an appropriate talent, time and tool: 5
• You are missing one of those: 6
• You are missing two of those: 7
• You have none of those: 8

A roll of 10+ (regardless of target number) is a clean success. A particularly stressful situation may require a clean success to avoid costs or complications.

Talents

Create a character by giving them 2-3 traits or skills and however many talents your Referee finds appropriate. 

If you don't start with a talent you must:

• Practice for a season with a skilled teacher or three seasons on your own for the archery, climbing, thievery or any weaponry talents.
• Slay three armed foes by your own hand for the fighting talent.
• Become initiated into the inner mysteries of a cult for its ritual talent.
• Survive ten days in the bush without aid or supplies for the wilderness talent for those environs.

Combat

Talent. The fighting talent is for hand-to-hand or hand weapons and the archery talent for bows. No talent is required for crossbows or guns. Weaponry talents do not affect the target number of attacks, but they allow the attacker to use any special properties of the weapon.

Time. You have time if the target is surprised. 

Tools. Close weapons for hand-to-hand and non-close weapons otherwise.

An armed attacker gets +1 to their roll if their target is unarmed. A character with a longer weapon than their opponent starts with a +1 advantage to their attacks, but a clean success seizes the advantage from one's target (or seizes it back).

In hand-to-hand, a clean success damages, disarms, pins or throws one's target. Otherwise, success merely holds them. A held character may do any of those to their opponent with a clean success. Otherwise, success reverses the hold. Any success by the holding character may damage, disarm, pin or throw the other.

Magic Rituals

Magic rituals are done with one roll but involve a sequence of steps. Some might require all of the following, and some only one or two:

1. Guarding the space
2. Guarding the magician
3. Opening the way
4. Fixing the terms
5. Closing the way
6. Purifying the magician
7. Purifying the space

Talent. Each cult has its own path of rituals, any its ritual magic talent counts for any ritual on that path. Anyone with such a talent is aware of the presence of other talented magicians and of powerful spirits, and may address them mind-to-mind.

Time. Rituals of 1-2 steps take 10 minutes, minus one for every time the size of the group of magicians doubles. Each additional step doubles the time required.

Tools. Guarding or purifying magicians requires oils or potions for each. Guarding or purifying the space require candles, diagrams or smoke to fill it. Opening the way requires an arcane connection to the recipient of the power. Fixing the terms requires a symbol of what is to be done. Closing the way requires a symbolic weapon.

If the power invoked by a ritual is an intelligent spirit, a clean success is needed to avoid some additional price being demanded. Offering a sacrifice adds +1 to a ritual roll to deal with a spirit, or +2 if the sacrifice is extremely dear.

one roll, one choice

 FMC Basic does away with ability scores (quite rightly!), but you might still want something of the sort. But we're doing one roll, one choice. 

Roll 1d20:

1. strong, fast, tough
2. strong, fast, smart
3. strong, fast, wise
4. strong, fast, charming
5. strong, tough, smart
6. strong, tough, wise
7. strong, tough, charming
8. strong, smart, wise
9. strong, smart, charming
10. strong, wise, charming
11. fast, tough, smart
12. fast, tough, wise
13. fast, tough, charming
14. fast, smart, wise
15. fast, smart, charming
16. fast, wise, charming
17. tough, smart, wise
18. tough, smart, charming
19. tough, wise, charming
20. smart, wise, charming

Keep two; the other becomes a flaw. 

• Strong characters deal +1 physical damage. Weak characters can't tempt fate to force doors, jump gaps, or the like.
• Fast characters get +1 on attack rolls. Clumsy characters can't tempt fate to go before their foes.
• Tough characters get +2 HP. Sickly characters can't tempt fate to resist poison, avoid disease or the like.
• Smart characters get +1 capacity. Dull characters have -1 capacity.
• Wise characters get +1 defense if they are not surprised. Foolish characters are still surprised if their party tempted fate to avoid it.
• Charming characters can re-roll a negotiation roll; if it changes from negative to affirmative there will be some additional quid pro quo. Off-putting characters must tempt fate to avoid making a bad impression when meeting someone new.

fantastic journeys, powered by BIRG

This is a hack of TFT and, to a lesser extent, GURPS. The main novelties are in the readiness/experience rules and in the injury and recovery rules. It's not quite complete, there's no list of skills or special abilities, but I think it's enough to share. Use your favorite list of skills and make up abilities if you want.

Characters have three attributes:

• Dexterity (DX), used for physical rolls
• Strength (ST), used for endurance and overpowering
• Wits (WT), used for mental rolls.

Human characters have a minimum of 8 in each attribute.

Characters succeed at difficult tasks if a roll of 4d is less than or equal to their adjusted attribute. If they have a skill specific to the task, they roll 3d instead. A roll of 4 or less always succeeds, even if the attribute is adjusted to lower than this.

If two characters are directly opposed, they both make rolls. If both would succeed, the character with the higher roll does. On an exact tie, or if both fail, they are in a deadlock.

3eish draft - action sequences

My 3eish concept has been through a lot of drafts, but I recently arrived at the following rules for action sequences (combat) and I think they're quite close to what I'll use in the final thing. Who knows, maybe I'll even use the same words.

rule

Encounters take place over rounds, representing a few seconds each.

Actions

Each character may act once per round. Characters act in order from highest initiative (aka adrenaline) to lowest and then from highest Wisdom to lowest. Changes to initiative affect the next round's sequence, not the current round.

A character may make only one reaction between one action and the next. They may only react a second time by forfeiting their next action.

Actions that take a few seconds require a character to commit to them; a committed character can't react until after their next action.

Movement

A character may move up to their Move score as part of their action; if they take no action, they may move twice that amount.

Careful movement---such as balancing or leaping---requires a check; a failed check occupies the character's action. A failure by 5 or more means they fall.

Contested movement---such as climbing, parting tangles or swimming---requires an action, at least one free hand and a check; a failed check takes a few seconds (committing the character). A failure by 5 or more means they fall, become entangled or sink. 

it's a small (domain level) world

So, domain play rules tend to turn games into different games. I like playing Smallworld, so here's campaign rules that kind of turna campaign into that.

if our lives be short - the gloghack

Being an excerpt of the beating mechanical heart of Hulk Rats, themselves being a light revision of Maze Rats.

HP as adrenaline (also initiative, I guess)

rule

In the general course of events, characters have Stamina which is depleted by strenous activity or injury. Every time they become injured, roll (an appropriate type of roll) under your stamina or take Critical Damage. However, when a crisis that needs to be resolved moment-to-moment breaks out, they can rely on a Rush of strength and agility to protect them instead.

Once a character becomes aware of danger, the player may spend points of their stamina up to your level (if your game has variable hit dice per class, two-thirds level for clerics/thieves and one-third level for mages [rounded up]) and roll that many dice. The total is your Rush, which is used for several things:

• Each round, action proceeds from highest Rush to lowest Rush and then from highest Stamina to lowest Stamina for characters that do not have the benefit of a Rush.
• When a character takes damage, they may spend points of Rush to reduce the damage by that amount (to a minimum of zero).
• If you have a Rush, taking any careful or deliberate action while being menaced by a danger (for example, within reach of a foe) costs 1 point of Rush.

A player may only roll for a Rush when their character becomes aware of a new source of danger. An encumbered character can't roll up a Rush.

If they have a chance to rest after a crisis is resolved, characters may exchange Rush for Stamina at a rate of three to one. If there is no opportunity to rest, or if there are excess points of Rush after exchanging the rest for Stamina, they are lost.

why?

Joke: everyone can backstab.

Woke: everyone can rage.

Listen, there are a lot of different interpretations of HP. This is another one, clearly. Probably someone's thought of it before. A lot of different ideas are coming together to form this: hit dice as a resource to replenish hit point pools (sort of reversed), hit dice being rolled at the start of an encounter, Into the Odd-style critical damage rolls, and (weirdly enough) an example consequence for failing a 4e-style Skill Challenge being the loss of a healing surge (out of combat) or damage (in combat).

Oh, and the rule about spending Rush to take actions while you're being menaced is taken from the Pressure mechanic from OLOG, an extremely cool replacement for Attacks of Opportunity which is (as far as I know) only described in the parenthetical note to the Arsenal ability of the Marine class in this post.

One thing I like about this is that the consequences of surprise/backstabbing sort of comes for free. I also think the Electric Bastionland rule about burdened characters having zero HP fits in very naturally. Not sure what else to say, I just kind of like it.

witchcraft

(Being a magic system for the marginal and desparate, to be used with these 3e-like rules.)

The world is a cruel and capricious place, over which we have very little power. The power we do have hurts us, it seems, almost as often as it helps. Witchcraft is an attempt to seize control of your own fate by whatever means necessary.

You can use witchcraft to try to make something happen even if it is totally outside of your control. To do so, you need to be able to see, hear, smell, touch or name whatever you want to bewitch, at least in part. You also need one or more of the following:

• Will. You are willing to burn for this. This is automatic if you're using witchcraft to save your own life or that of someone you love, but otherwise this calls for a Will roll. This is what the Witching skill is; it is the skill of making yourself want something badly enough.
• Words. You know powerful words to say, specifically for this purpose. Words are usually fairly specific, but it's simply a matter of learning them, either from a teacher or from magical writings.
• Ways. You have an efficacious ingredient (usually some animal part, herb or mineral, but sometimes a more complex preparation) and know that is suited to the task at hand.

Roll 1d6 for each of these that you have. If the highest die is a 6, the witching works immediately and completely. If it is a 4 or 5, choose one of those. Otherwise, it accomplishes nothing.

When bewitching beings sensible to speech, witchcraft can accomplish one of two things. It can either curse their body and mind with some sort of disease, or it can mesmerize them for as long as the witch is able to continue muttering the witching under their breath. One mesmerized will take no action other than those commanded by the witch, but each command requires the witch to succeed in a Will attack against their mental resistence.

There are prices to be paid for witchcraft. If doubles were rolled, the Referee interprets the stated intent of a witching in bad faith, if possible. For every 1 rolled, the witch loses nerve or takes damage equal to the number of dice rolled. If triples were rolled, the witching lets something demonic into the world:

Triple	Demon
1s	1d6 wisps. If the damage from the witching critically injures you, one of them seizes your body as a ketev.
2s	2d6 mournful shades of the dead.
3s	An unbound imp, cruel and evil-tempered.
4s	A wraith that knows your name and can wear your likeness as it rides away, intent on mischief.
5s	A wraith whose name you hear as it slips into the world, to bind them with if you catch them again.
6s	A bound familiar, unquestioningly loyal to you til death.

reverse dragonball stew

(With apologies and indeptedness to Spwack's Reverse Owlbear Stew and Phlox's Orbseeker.)

For each stat, roll 3d6 and write down half the total (rounded down) for the stat and the lowest die as the defense (using the highest lowest die for each pair of stats).

• Strength and Constitution -> the FORT defense (blocking).
• Dexterity and Wits -> the REF defense (dodging).
• Intellect and Charm -> the WILL defense (resisting).

Your max HP is equal to the sum of your three defense ratings. Resting a few minutes and taking refreshment restores 1 lost HP after a fight. Taking a night's rest in a safe place restores 1d6 HP. Regular attacks do 1d6 damage, awkward or unarmed ones do the lower of two d6, dangerous ones do the higher of two d6 and things you wouldn't expect someone to survive do 2d6 or more.

To succeed on something that needs a roll, you must roll a d20 under or equal to the relevant stat (Ref's decision) plus all ranks in relevant skills. If this is a roll against an obstacle (like a foe's defense), your roll must be higher [not equal to] the relevant obstacle or defense rating. If this is an opposed roll and your opponent rolled under or equal to their total, you must roll under or equal to your total but higher than their roll.

When you create your character, split 10 ranks between the following skills. You may not start with more than 4 ranks in any skill.

Acrobatics Attraction Engineering Fencing Hypnosis Intimidation

Medicine Naturalism Navigation Physics Riding Skullduggery

Sailing Shooting Stealth Striking Swimming Wrestling

After an adventure or a season of training, you may roll 2d6 for up to three different skills you exercised. If the result is more than your current ranks in the skill, gain a rank. You can never gain more than ten ranks in a skill.

Characters who carry more things than their Constitution can't have reduce all their defenses by the excess (gear never affects HP). Bulky items count as two things, thrown weapons and similar small stuff can be bundled.

Characters start as fighter B, orbseeker B or fighter A/orbseeker A.

fighter type characters

Fighters cultivate their qi in order to perform amazing martial arts. For each template, fighters increase one of their defenses (and therefore their max HP) by 1. Gain a fighter template whenever you defeat a foe that is stronger than you.

• A Bronze Body. If you take no action other than resisting an attack, reduce damage you take from it by your relevant defense.
• B Golden Core. You have a pool of qi dice (QD) equal to the number of fighter templates you have. You may roll any number of QD from your pool instead of normal damage dice for an attack. Whenever a 6 is rolled on a QD, add 5 to the sum of the dice and reroll the die (repeating this for subsequent 6s). After rolling QD, your pool is diminished by 1QD for every reroll. Your pool is restored by spending a suitable amount of time eating, resting or meditating.
• C+. +1 technique.

A list of sample techniques follows. Don't roll QD for an attack unless it hits.

1. One Hundred Blows. Deals [sum]x2 damage, divided between all the targets you can hit with (separate) Strength attacks. There is no upper limit on the number of targets.
2. Concussion. A Constitution attack that deals [sum] damage to everyone within [dice]x2 paces of you and 1 damage to you.
3. Monkey Arms. You may make up to [dice] Dexterity attacks at targets up to [sum] paces away.
4. Owl Eyes. Whenever your REFLEX saves you from an attack, you may immediately use this technique to make a Wits attack dealing [sum] damage to your attacker.
5. Feint. An Intellect attack that paralyzes the foe for [dice] turns (or until they take damage) instead of damaging them.
6. Demon Beam. A Charm attack that deals [sum] damage that cannot be reduced to a target up to [dice]x5 paces away.
7. Many Shadows. Creates [dice] duplicates of you, dividing your current HP between them (round down). Any duplicates that clasp hands re-unite add their HP together. Otherwise, all duplicates (and their HP) except your choice of one dissolve after 60 minus [sum] minutes.
8. Light Body. You can fly, faster than anyone with a lower [sum].
9. Iron Body. [sum] body parts become indestructible for [dice] rounds.
10. Devil Feint. Calls for an opposed roll with one foe (you get +[dice] to your total), the loser of which takes [sum] damage.
11. Fierce Aura. You glow brightly for [sum] minutes. During this time, your HP is increased by [dice]. When this ends, lose half your current HP (rounded down).
12. Double Strength. For 30 minus [sum] turns, increase all your stats and defenses by [dice]. After the effect ends, lose half your maximum HP.
13. Fusion. Using this technique requires two fighters who know it to each select the same number of QD (without consulting each other beforehand); if they fail to do so, the fusion fails.
    A fusion adds together the stats, defenses and HP of the fighters who formed it, uses the better of either of their skill ranks for each skill and has QD equal to however many dice were not exhausted in the fusion. After [the lower of the two sums] turns, the fusion ends and the two fighters each get half the fusion's HP, rounded down.

orbseeker type characters

Orbseekers roam the earth, seeking communion with mystic orbs. For each template, orbseekers gain one rank in each of two different skills (no skill can have more than ten ranks). Gain an orbseeker template whenever you awaken a new orb.

• A Orb Waker. You can smell dormant orbs when they are nearby. If you hold one in your hand, you can awaken it (roll for a random power below) or return it to dormancy.
• B Domain. You may take a few minutes to commune with an awakened orb and ask it a question that can be answered in no more than three words. If the question is within the orb's domain, it will answer. There is a 1-in-20 chance of the orbseeker contracting Orb Madness (see below) from this consultation.
• C+. Invention. Every week that you bear an awakened orb, you have a [orbseeker templates] plus [awakened orbs] minus [current inventions] in 20 chance to create a prototype of an invention (random arcanum). These all have a [uses] in 6 chance to stop working ofter each use.

Anyone who holds an awakened orb may invoke its power, although there is a 1-in-6 chance that an orb falls dormant for a week after being invoked in this way. Awakened orbs call their bearers to one another, even from far away. A list of some sample orbs follows.

1. Orb of the Ram. The bearer of this orb may conjure a tremendous force that smashes a hole in barriers up to a foot thick. If it strikes a being, it deals damage like 2QD. Domain: anger, locks and keys, unexpected acts of violence.
2. Orb of the Ox. The bearer of this orb may transform into a large, monstrous form that is inconveniently large and extremely strong. Double their Strength, Constitution, FORTITUDE and HP for 3d6 minutes, at the end of which they lose half their current HP. Domain: growth, strength, ironic reversals.
3. Orb of the Twins. The bearer of this orb may cause two similar things to experience what the other experiences, with the potency of the effect increasing the more similar the things are. Domain: disguises, substitutions, things that come in pairs.
4. Orb of the Crab. The bearer of this orb may surround it with a magical sphere shell up to ten paces in diameter. Though transparent, nothing can pass in or out of the boundary of the sphere until the bearer lets go of the orb or one hour passes, whichever comes first. Domain: shells, walls, things that are buried.
5. Orb of the Lion. The bearer of this orb may create an unbearable thunder-like rumbling, making an Intellect attacks against anyone within shouting distance. Those successfully attacked take no damage but cannot approach the orb until the thundering subsides in thirty seconds. Domain: fears, thunder and lightning, things that are heard but not seen.
6. Orb of the Maid. The bearer of this orb may, in any place where things are stored, retrieve any object other than another orb that they have stored away since they first awakened the orb. It does not matter how long ago they stored the object in question or how far away it is, but this effect will not retrieve anything that has been removed by another person since it was deposited. Domain: storage, neglect, things that have been kept safe.
7. Orb of the Sting. The bearer of this orb may render any amount of food or drink in their presence poisonous, resolved as an Intellect attack dealing up to 7QD of damage, divided (before rolling) between all consumers. The names of any creature slain in this way become permanently tattooed on the body of the bearer. Domain: poisons and venoms, betrayal, things that creep upon the earth.
8. Orb of the Scales. The bearer of this orb may solemnize any promise or agreement between at least two people. If any one of them breaks the agreement, the others may (at their option) either transport the offender to their presence or immediately transport themselves to the offender. Domain: agreements, punishments, things that are deserved.
9. Orb of the Arrow. The bearer of this orb may name any thing other than another orb that has a name and know the direction and distance to that thing. Domain: weapons, targets, things that have missed the mark.
10. Orb of the Crocodile. The bearer of this orb may call forth a tremendous terrifying beast from the shadows. It obeys your commands slowly but implacably for thirteen minutes, and can only be turned away or banished by extremely bright light. Domain: darkness, deep water, unusual hybrids.
11. Orb of the Jar. The bearer of this orb may make Intellect attacks that, though they deal no damage, cause the being so attacked to become imprisoned within an available, prepared vessel if two such attacks are successful before the orb falls dormant. Anyone who either opens the vessel or invokes the orb to do so may free a prisoner. Domain: prisons, traps, the contents of containers.
12. Orb of the Fish. The bearer of this or may, with a touch, cause an air-breathing creature immersed in water to become a water-breathing creature or a water-breathing creature on dry land to become an air-breathing creature. This transformation is permanent and also adapts the creatures skin and limbs to their new environment. Domain: abundance, migration, novelties.

Anyone who rests with more awakened orbs than they have orbseeker templates has an [orbs]-in-20 chance to contract Orb Madness from one of them. Only returning the orb that causes madness to dormancy will stop and Orb Madmen from raving portentious nonsense related to that orb's domain. They will fight without restraint to stop anyone who attempts to remove the orb from their possession.

Anyone who gathers seven awakened orbs together and shouts, "eternal dragon, grant my wish!" Causes a terrifying mystical dragon to appear. The dragon will grant one wish (although it has been known to refuse wishes for seemingly arbitrary reasons) before disappearing. The orbs used to summon it fall dormant for one year and are scattered to the ends of the earth.

money and equipment

The various nations of the Major Continent all use the same currency, the zorkmid. It has many boring uses, but its interesting use is prize money. The All Earth Martial Arts Tournament is hosted once every four years. This is a double elimination tournament with sixteen competitors. A competitor loses their match if they concede, touch the ground outside the ring, lose consciousness or attempt to kill or permanently injure their opponent. The first place winner at the Continental Martial Arts Tournament takes home 7,500,000zm, the second place finisher, 2,500,000zm and anyone who wins three matches 1,000,000zm. At a local martial arts tournament, the prize money is usually much smaller.

Some boring things to spend money on:

Thing Price (zm) Candy 99 Sunglasses 199 Soft drink 199 Fried snack 249 Box lunch 299 Sandals 349 Liqour (glass) 399 Colorful Hat 499

Thing Price (zm) Hotel (hourly) 699 Sit-down entree 799 Liqour (bottle) 999 Shirt 1,499 Pants 1,999 Shoes 2,199 Hotel (nightly) 2,499 Hotel (weekly) 15,999

Ordinary clothes do not matter in combat. Here is some gear that does:

Thing	Price (zm)	Effect
Martial arts uniform	2,499	Martial artists recognize your school.
Hard helmet	4,499	+1 defense against all physical attacks.
Gun	9,999	Damage die explodes like QD. Lose all martial arts credibility.
Body armor	19,999	Minimum defense 7 against physical attacks, reduce damage taken by 1.
Sword	49,999	Deal dangerous damage, look baddass.

Characters start with no more than 10,000 zorkmids worth of stuff, and one-tenth of the remainder in cash.

more flip weapons

Three more flip weapons, in order from least to most cursed.

1. The SAW // BILL
• SAW. A circular saw-blade, fixed to a length of chain that can be whipped as a thrown axe, out to spear range, and pulled back at the end of your action. When you deal minimum damage, the chain locks into a bar, flipping the weapon to BILL.
• BILL. A polearm with a surprising light, hollow steel haft, ending in a cruelly serrated blade. As pike. When a foe misses you with a hand-to-hand attack that does not have a long reach, you may immediately make a backstab attack against them and flip the weapon to SAW.
2. The PIPE // WRENCH
• PIPE. A large, silver musician's pipe (only an awkward weapon). When you play it, any creature that can hear the music but does not understand speech must save or fall into a sleep. If any creature makes its save, flip the weapon to WRENCH.
• WRENCH. A silver wrench, as a silver mace. When you next walk in the moonlight with the weapon, flip it to PIPE.
3. The BLADE // WRAITH 
• BLADE. A long, thin thrusting sword. As a rapier, but those wounded roll a d6 for every wound at the end of their actions. On 5-6, the wound stops bleeding, but otherwise each bleeding wound deals an additional point of damage. When you kill a living person with it they and the weapon are consumed in a crimson flash, flipping the weapon to WRAITH.
• WRAITH. An indistinct pale figure, cloaked in a once-fine pall, now faded and stained. They obey any command you give, and otherwise follow you, lurking nearby. The WRAITH will not do violence, but anyone who locks eyes with it must save against fear. When you reach beneath the cloak, seize the hilt and pull the BLADE free, all that is left of the menacing figure are some burnt bones.

Come Out // Fight Me

This one's kind of a snippet, but I wanted to write a class that uses the flip mechanic before the rest of the gretchsphere moves on from the idea.

Come Out // Fight Me: The Monster Slayer (GLOG Class: Fighter)

Monsters can't be fought with ordinary weapons. Well, I mean, they can, but it's a mistake. Monsters don't fight in ordinary ways, and if you want to match them you can't either.

+1 HP and Save per template.

1. You have a flip weapon of some kind (such as the CRASH // LASH, below), are proficient with it. You can use the abilities that cause it to flip from one state to another.
2. You never mistake the signs of a monster's presence for something a natural creature would leave.
3. You can rescue someone within reach from an attack by throwing yourself in its way. You always take half damage (no roll or save) from the attack and can't do this again until after you flip your weapon.
4. Whenever you're fighting a creature that will hurt someone else if you don't stop it, your weapon damage explodes.

The CRASH // LASH

• CRASH. An iron rod with an iron fist at the end. As a mace, but when you deal maximum damage your foe is knocked down or back a few steps (their choice) and the weapon flips to LASH.
• LASH. A chain whip ending in an iron claw shaped like a human hand. As a whip (an awkward weapon), but if you successfully disarm, entangle or trip a foe with it you pull them to you or you to them (their choice), deal the higher of two d6s of damage, and the weapon flips to CRASH.

hazarding a tale

rule

Whenever a rogue is in dire enough straights, they can hazard a tale appropriate to their current peril. You may not hazard the same tale that someone else has already proved for themselves. After naming your tale, throw two dice:

• A throw of 2,7 or 12 proves the tale is true. It becomes a permanent part of your character (retroactively if necessary) and they escape the peril.
• A throw of 3 or 11 calls out your character for a liar and they'll just have to deal with the situation like everyone else.
• Otherwise, the tale remains to be proven; record the throw next to the tale. The peril remains

While a tale remains to be proven, the Referee can occasionally put it to the test by rolling again; the tale is proven when the original throw is thrown again, but a throw of 7 before then calls it out for a lie.

why?

I have a great love for the way the Far Traveler and the Zouave inject a checkered past into a character. If I could find a fault with those classes it's that I'd like to have that sort of thing continue throughout their adventuring career. I wrote the mechanic for specifically roguish characters (it's what I'd use for the core mechanic of a rogue class), but in a more generally picaresque game it may make sense to have it open to all characters.

A list of example tall tales follows. It's not meant to be exhaustive, players are certainly welcome to make up new tales, but this should do to prime the pump and all these options would I think be interesting at the table:

Target 20 "Modern"

 This is by way of a companion post to my earlier post about "Target 20" Modern, since I've been chewing over some thinks about TTRPGs set in the "modern" era. The most direct way I can put the problem that's been eating at me is thus:

Now, one can probably argue the point that fantasy settings don't have capitalism; they certainly have much larger and more universal cash economies than were present in the historical periods they tend to be based on. However the players' characters are not generally expected to work for wages and pay rents. In a modern setting it would be extremely strange if the players' characters did not do these things.

d20 Modern's method of dealing with this problem was...not to? The d20 system's abstract mechanic of Wealth checks has very little to do with the actual mechanics of wage work and paying bills. WotC either didn't give the question much thought or they thought that representing capitalism with more fidelity would take away from the cinematic mood of the game. So, in cinematic fashion, our actual economic system is more or less not represented.

The same can be said for modern or universal games like GURPS that, in an effort not to bog down play with fiduciary details or require players to take up double-entry accounting, abstract everything away to fixed lifestyle costs that are deducted from your income.

I felt that a financial mechanic could make the game feel more grounded in the modern day. So, I've endeavored to create a mechanic to use wages and rents to mark the passage of in-game time, somewhat after the fashion of what is described in this excellent blog post, but with an emphasis on finances instead of noteworthy events. What follows is an economics system with only the bookkeeping elements (and those greatly simplified); you won't find any price lists for consumer goods and services.

GLOG/echo

This is a GLOGhack, I guess, or the first part of one. The original GLOG is from Arnold K but it seems that the real GLOG is the GLOG you had inside you all along.

The most gloggy feature of this is the class structure, since rather than more traditional dice mechanics, this uses the an only slightly modiefied version of ghost/echo. I drew from a lot of GLOG classes from different bloggers, but particularly from Finders Keepers for the backgrounds and Vain the Sword for a couple of the classes.

Dice

Before rolling dice, identify dangers, edges and goals. Roll one die for each and assign one roll to each danger and one to each goal (discarding any left overs):

Roll	Danger	Goal
1-2	Comes true.	Failed, opportunity may be lost.
3-4	Mixed, danger remains.	Mixed, opportunity remains.
5-6	Avoided.	Achieved.

Nothing extremely good or bad should happen on a mixed result, but it may make those outcomes more likely; mixed results should maintain or increase tension, not resolve it.

Roll dice in the following situations and pick the appropriate goals (including ones not listed) and use the given danger (in addition to others the situation may call for).

• Act under pressure. Goals: complete a task, get out of harm's way, rescue someone in peril. Danger: you suffer harm.
• Sneak. Goals: move without being noticed, plant an item, remove and item, defeat a lock. Danger: you are caught in the act.
• Close combat. Goals: cut down a foe, dodge past a foe. Danger: you suffer harm.
• Fire missiles. Goals: stop a foe short, cover an ally, destroy something. Dangers: you cause unwanted harm or get unwanted attention.
• Suffer harm. Goals: shake it off, fight through the pain, impress with your toughness. Danger: you are incapacitated.
• Make an impression. Goals: they believe your story, they remember you later, they answer your question, they agree to a bargain. Danger: they distrust or dismiss you.

Characters

Characters are defined by lots ("templates" if you prefer). You set out with four lots: the Adventurer rank, two backgrounds, and the first of a class of your choice. 

"target 20" modern

This is an idea I've had for some time. It's a silly idea, but that's rarely stopped me before. Back in high school I played a lot of d20 Modern, at least until my friends and I collectively realized that the game was kind of a mess and d20-system combat and character creation was majorly in the way of the way we actually wanted to play.

This is an attempt to strip as much of the cruft from that game while leaving parts of it recognizable. A lot of the mechanical inspiration here is due to the Target 20 system on the one hand and UVG's SEACAT system on the other. Revisiting d20 Modern I was struck by how many fiddly mechanical choices there are, in the forms of talents and feats and skills and advanced classes, and how little most of that stuff matters. Most abilities boil down to a small modifier on certain saving throws or skills checks. I only bothered importing interesting rules as Target 20 Modern's talents.

exploding statline

rule

to generate a standard six-stat line with each stat ranging from 0 to 5:

1. roll six d6; for each die that shows a 1, mark one stat down as 0 and set those dice aside.
2. re-roll the remaining dice; for each die that shows a 1 or a 2, mark a remaining stat down as 1 and set those dice aside.
3. re-roll the remaining dice; for each die that shows a 1, 2 or 3, mark a remaining stat down as 2 and set those dice aside.
4. ...and so on.

repeat, increasing the threshold, until either no dice remain or it is impossible to keep going (that is, if you would have to roll higher than a 6).

why?

if bonuses from skill range from 0 (unskilled) to 5 (expert) and bonuses from circumstance range from 8 (easiest task that could be failed) to 0 (hardest task that could succeed), then a Target-20-style core mechanic of d20 + stat + skill + circumstance such that a roll of 1 always fails and a roll of 20 alwasy succeeds.

to my mind this is a pretty good balance of character ability and circumstance. also, this kind of exploding roll is fun.

but...what are the probabilities?

the most likely stat values to be generated are 1 or 2, followed by 3, 0, 4 and distantly by 5. the exact frequencies are:

0	16.67%
1	27.78%
2	27.78%
3	18.52%
4	15.43%
5	3.09%

75.5% of six-stat lines rolled with this method will total 9 or more, and 72% will total 12 or less. the probability that the highest score rolled will be the given number is given in the following table

0	46,656 to 1 ≈ 0%
1	0.77%
2	13.42%
3	41.63%
4	35.27%
5	8.91%