300 Word Hack: EVIL FUCKING TRAIN

For GLOGtober '24, based on other peoples' thoughts on Mothership, deus' review(? retrospective?) of Abandon All Hope, and my own fear and fascination with public transportation.

Unplaytested, probably unplayable. I haven't watched any Twilight Zone but I suspect I'm ripping it off by proxy.

Here's some train ambience.

Potion Brewing (ech, agh, bleh)

For GLOGtober '23, per SunderedWorldDM's challenge:

Potions and how to brew them.

...

Potions are spells for non-casters. They're more or less identical to scrolls, depending on your ruleset.

Potions are more interesting than scrolls as treasure because they usually don't come with instructions. Instead, you have to take a whiff/sip to figure out what it does: "if a whiff gave me vertigo and blew bubbles out my ears, what would chugging the bottle do?" it's fun, it's cute, 10/10 good rpg mechanic

[You can cast from illegible scrolls, but they don't have the same "take a sip" gameplay that potions do. They're still interesting, but in a different way.]

Anyway.

...

I think the appeal of brewing a potion is that it's Kinda Like Cooking™. Creating a scroll is very abstract, but anyone can throw shit into a cauldron and turn on the heat.

So, first proposal for a potion brewing system: Throw a Feast. Magical ingredients like dragon toes and acid jelly and unicorn tears give you a spell for the day you can cast from your belly. The more you spend on the feast, the longer the effect lasts/the more MD you get.

pros: gathering numinous ingredients is Cool Gameplay; i have yet to meet a player who doesn't want to eat a monster; before (and sometimes during) a delve you get to rp having dinner with your hirelings and camp followers and Unlikely Allies; piggybacks onto existing magic system, is otherwise extremely mechanics-light

cons: can't "chug a pot" mid-combat; low chance of cauldron blowing up in your face; no opportunity to play a "mad alchemist" character, which is the whole point of adding a potion brewing subsystem, i guess

Here's an alternative:

...

If you're an alchemist, or a witch, you start with a cauldron (big enough to fit a human body, just in case). Good cauldrons are expensive; like, 100g.

It's made of cast iron (get it? cast?)

The cauldron is the most important part of potion-making. If you don't have a cauldron, you're shit out of luck.

• If you know a spell, you can make a potion of that spell for 50g. This is trivially easy.

• If you have a recipe of a spell, you can make that potion using its primary ingredients. This is stuff like troll heartstring and gypsum: things that are difficult to get your hands on but ludicrously effective once you've got them. You can still substitute generic ingredients (eye of newt, etc etc) for 50g.

[note: if you have a reliable source of primary ingredients, you can make a lot of potions. enough to flood the market, or reliably breathe water all the goddamn time. This is what makes potion recipes Very Good Loot]

• If you don't know a spell, you can experiment. Drop 10g basic reagents + other ingredients into your cauldron. Roll 2d6 + 1d6 for each sufficiently numinous and hard-to-acquire ingredient:
• No multiples: inert sludge
• Doubles: explosion, noxious smoke; 1 vial of poison, effect scaling with the number rolled (see below)
  
• Triples: you get a potion! now figure out what it does :dmthink:

[optional rule: no smoke cloud on doubles, DM rolls secretly; players must determine experimentally whether the result is sludge, poison, or potion]

Write down the result of the experiment: it is now a defined in-universe recipe

No matter how big your cauldron is, you only get one dose at a time. (As everyone knows, the first few drops hold all the potency; the rest is just broth)

Doubles Value	Poison
1	1d6. Odorless, colorless.
2	Induces weakness.
3	Induces vomiting.
4	Induces sleep.
5	Induces mutation.
6	Slow, certain death. Can be delayed, but never evaded.

And Then We Feast

dungeon meshi via inktho (pixiv)

My submission to Char2terie (RIP) was a full hack based on Lexi's SAWN-OFF. With seven months' hindsight, the only pieces of the submission I still like are Spell Scaling and Feasting. Here's the latter:

-=~*~=-

Whenever you rest, you have the opportunity to throw a Feast. For each item slot of food or drink spent on the Feast, add its Hit Die to a pool in the middle of the table (“the spread”). Add another d6 for each of the following: pleasant music, new friends, an appropriate toast. Then, roll the spread and split the sum between all PCs as Health.

Before digging in, roll for omens and encounters. If a stranger (or monster) stumbles upon the feast, you must invite them to join peaceably or forfeit the spread. (They’ll most likely accept.)

If the edibility of the food is suspect and you lack the skill to prepare it, Save vs food poisoning.

If the food is magical (i.e. cockatrice omelet), add an appropriate spell (DM’s choice, +1 MD to cast) to your inventory for the day. The spell is in your stomach.

If the Feast is a hit, you can name the recipe. Record the ingredients and spread value. You can’t roll below the spread value of a recipe you’re following. (Ex. Graveyard Gourd [1d6] + Giant Crab Claw [1d8] + Dragon Milk [1d12] = Pump-King Claw Soup, Spread = 10)

1d20 Peasant Food [1d6]

1. Graveyard Gourd

2. Mixed Wild Berries

3. Dubious Mushrooms

4. Wildflower Bouquet

5. Bag of Flour

6. Sacrificial Goat

7. Butter Cube

8. Brandy Barrel

9. Spaghetti Quiver

10. Rock Salt Lick

11. Tortilla Ream

12. Scarecrow Corn

13. Eggs, Goose

14. Throwing Tomatoes

15. Wheel of Cheese

16. Seaweed Wreath

17. Sprig of Herbs

18. Potato Knot

19. Two-Headed Cabbage

20. Milk, Rat

1d20 Regional Delicacies [1d8]

1. Honeycomb

2. Buoy Watermelon

3. Locust-on-Stick

4. Giant Crab Claw

5. Tiger Flank

6. Greatswordfish

7. Desert Peppers

8. Royal Wine

9. Pinch of Omnispice

10. Electric Eel

11. Milk, Bear

12. Rat King Kebab

13. Berserker Mead

14. Eggs, Newt

15. Eggs, Spider

16. Foreign Fruit

17. Ancient Pickles

18. Charcuterie

19. Frying Oil

20. Scorpion Tail

 

1d20 Exotic Eats/Quest Food [1d12]

1. Unicornucopia

2. Gargoyle Steak

3. Psychic Tentacle

4. Pickled Enigma

5. Chimeric Loin

6. Abyssal Roe

7. Eggs, Angel

8. Flame Sac

9. Fresh Winter Strawberries

10. Cockatrice Legs

11. Buffalo Wings

12. Antimeat

13. Golden Apples

14. Silvered Pears

15. Mandrake Leaves

16. Root of all Evil

17. Extinction Boullion

18. Milk, Dragon

19. Whale Bone Marrow

20. Helvetica Oats
    

 

ah, dungeon food

Bonus GLOG classes:

Berserker-Knight. Start with a locked suit of armor, a wax seal stamp, and a book of prayers.
A. You always have 6 Defense, no more, no less. While At Death’s Door, you cannot tell friend from foe.
B. You can wield over-sized weapons. If you do, you act after enemies but deal d12 damage.
C. You’re married to your weapon. You have advantage on all tests involving it. If you lose it, Save vs. heartbreak.
D. Your house extends a pardon, on the condition you defeat an invincible foe.

Orpheme. Start with an instrument, a pair of drachma, and a map to Hell.
A. Someone you love is dead and in Hell. You are invisible to psychopomps.
B. If you cry on someone’s shoulder, they must Save or find you very attractive.
C. Anything that is or was dead is moved to tears by your singing.
D. Your tears can raise the dead, at a cost.

Milksop. Start with a nice shirt, a silver flask, and a telescope.
A: You and your allies Dodge with advantage while running screaming from the enemy.
B: When you push someone into danger, they take half damage from it for a turn.
C: When you play dead, you are indistinguishable from a corpse.
D: You receive the deed to your ancestral manor in grandmother’s will. It’s definitely haunted.

The Homebrew Honeypot

Elden Ring babyyyyyyihaventplayedit

(Disclaimer: I just want to play with my dudes, and they all know 5e, so that's what we're playing.)

So you want to homebrew 5e. There's 2 basic ways to do it:

Ignoring rules is easy; just ignore the rules for item weight, rations, encumbrance, exhaustion, hit dice, ammunition, etc. etc. I ask my players to ignore unconsciousness at 0 HP and it works out fairly well. Even the RAWest of RAW groups do this all the time, and most tables won't bat an eye.

Adding rules is harder; everyone needs to buy in, and then everyone needs to remember the new shit. 5e has quite a few rules already, the mental burden of which is spread thin between players and DMs. Getting folks to remember whole new subsystems at the start of a campaign is daunting.

The approach I'm taking for my new project (a Soulsborne boss rush, get @ me lichesgetstitches) is to sprinkle NPCs and items around the map that add homebrew to the game, piecemeal. Introducing them one at a time, as well as tying them to concrete items and NPCs, will hopefully improve long-term retention for the new subsystems. Essentially, "tricking" my players into playtesting my homebrew.

[note: this doesn't work with "nerfs"; you need to start the campaign with those in mind]

Some ideas:

• The furtive ruin-runner teaches the party to dodgeroll (use your reaction to move up to your base movement speed - 20ft). This doesn't replace AC-based combat, but it adds an additional defense to heavy area of effect attacks. The added versatility comes at the expense of a limited resource.
• Pretty much any NPC can teach a combat technique to the party and introduce another layer to 5e combat. You can use this for shields will be splintered, among other things.
• The scarred veteran teaches the party to lean in (use your reaction when attacked; set your AC to 0 until your turn to attack back immediately). Additionally, if the sum of your attack exceeds theirs, you may parry.
• A surefire way to get a mechanic to stick in a party's mind is to make it a primary tactic of one of the monsters. I want more modules to pull that trick, the "oh, now I get to do the thing!" It's fun.
  
• Drink the immortal water in the empty palace. You don't fall unconscious at 0 HP.
• Alternatively, you can "spend" a death saving throw (doesn't recover until combat ends) to remain at 1 HP and not go to 0.
  

[I hope you see the theme here; pretty much all the combat-related abilities are traps that let me ramp up the lethality of my boss monsters.]

• The Socketer's tools, bestowed by (or stolen from) the grumpy blacksmith. Unlocks socketing and re-socketing of item enchantments, allowing for fun mix-and-matching between boss rush attempts (as well as silly stuff like horned helmets that deal +2d6 fire damage on hit).
• Metamorphose Seeds: Eat one to replace any of your RAW class abilities with a random one. Just let the party take as many as they want. (One weird pill doctors won't tell you about! Smuggling GLOG templates into 5e has never been easier!)

Oh, btw: if you allow long rests all the time (wherever there is a bonfire), you won't have to waste your time modding the short rest system. Yes, the adventuring day is broken and no one knows how to design around it. My philosophy for 5e is this: only 1 combat per rest, so make it a good one.

BOSSRUSH: The Basics

timofey stepanov

You are a Hound.
Your objective is to kill bosses and take their souls.
Your secondary objective is to piece together your lost memories.
You start with a weapon, a random item, and a flask (heals you fully, refills at camp)
You have 3 primary tools at your disposal: VIOLENCE, WIT, and the ever-important DODGEROLL

VIOLENCE

VIOLENCE is measured in hits.
If you take 3 hits, you’ll die. Your team will have to find another Hound.
A Boss can take as many as 20 hits. You won’t beat them in a fair fight.
Hits don’t scale linearly: A standard hack, slash, or stab deals 1 hit. Firearms and explosives deal 2. Lightning and falling buildings deal 3.
Some enemies have physical or supernatural weaknesses, like fire or kindness or women. VIOLENCE from these sources deals +1 hit to them.

VIOLENCE can be emotional; the death of a loved one can hit as hard as a cannonball.

Attacks always land, but they don’t always “hit”.
Each enemy has a VIOLENCE threshold. This describes the minimum magnitude of harm that will inflict a hit on them. (i.e. fists, swords, cannonballs)
You can bypass the VIOLENCE threshold with WIT. A dagger won’t pierce plate armor in a stand-up fight, but if you describe wrestling them to the ground and stabbing them in the eyes, that’s going to count for a few hits.
You can raise your own VIOLENCE threshold with armor.

Example: Rudimentary Angel
6H; VT=Dagger; Paper-wax feathers weak to fire.
Airborne. Guards gates/VIPs. Imperious. Grovels if wings are lost.
After players act (d6):
1-4: Fly-by khopesh slash (1H)
5-6: Nurses fireball, winding up. Next action, hurl (2H, ignites area)

sam dutter

DODGEROLL

You can avoid attacks, ignore magic, evade notice, or abrogate responsibility with a well-timed DODGEROLL.

Each player has 5 six-sided dice. To DODGEROLL, roll any number of these.
If the sum equals or exceeds 6, you are safe. Otherwise, you take the hit.
Each die you roll is spent until you fail a DODGEROLL or take a breather.

If you have an edge, roll an additional die from outside your pool and add it to the sum.

This is the only roll players make, analogous to saves. Everything else is adjudicated via facts and logic(tm)

MIRACLES

To perform a miracle, sacrifice something important. Write down your sacrifice; each must be greater than the last.

DODGEROLL to determine your [sum] and [dice]. (So it really was a GLoGhack!)

MEMORIES

A magical lady follows your journey, always a safe distance from danger. She is mysterious, eccentric, and often refers to you in the past tense. She gives good advice, can point you toward the next Boss, and trades souls for memories.

Besides acquiring memories, all other advancement is diegetic; you don’t have stats or a “build”.
Your memories define you; each adds to your backstory and grants an ability. You start with two.
It’s not clear whether these are actually your memories or someone else’s, but does it really matter?

Example 1: The Frozen. The cold of winter creeping down your throat. Peace. You can’t feel cold.
Example 2: The Glutton. A porcine squeal rouses you from rest. Regret. Nothing in your stomach can harm you.
Example 3: The Beaten. The throb of lashes across your back. Hatred. You have an edge against whips and chains.

You can also use RATGLoG, adapt your own templates, or stick around for a more comprehensive list.

"sword collector"
michael macrae

Inspired by Dark Souls and all its descendants, particularly Iron Gates and Through the Veil, as well as VaatiVidya. I guess you could call this my love letter to a game I've never played.

Thanks for your patience as I procrastinated over and over on posting this project. Procedures, setting, and bosses to come, hopefully in a timely manner.

Random Advancement Templates (aka RATGLoG)

by Eksafael

Tired of prostrating yourself before the false idol of well-written, structured classes? Try RATGLoG: toss all your favorite templates into a random table, blend for 30sec, and watch your PCs grow into burly, pseudo-magical, mutant freaks! (Made with Spwack's generator generator, as always)

Whenever you advance, roll 3 options for your next template and pick one.