Aldarien's Magic Tome

Something new is coming!

I'm working on a new book - this time about magic. Items, mostly. Not spells - the community is already full of amazing spells (here?). Of course, it will be 99% made of random tables. Because I fucking love them.

And about 90% of the book's written content is already done! Almost 11k words (already more than Ashen Void). I'm still working on some magic-related rumors - I want to include lots of them. Plus, of course, something additional might be added virtually at any time. For example, the Ten Magical Steeds (see below) were added today.

Here is the list of the book's contents. Of course, the list is not final.

• Ten Magical Jars
• Twelve Magical Flutes
• Thirty Transmutation Mishaps
• Demonic Messengers
• Holy Tracts
• Unholy Tracts
• Gibberish Tome Names
• Twelve Useless Elixirs
• Six Magical Chalices
• Eight Unusual Magical Tools
• Twelve Magical Ropes
• Magical Droplets
• Six Magical Cubes
• Potion Alternatives
• Six Magical Crowns
• Eight Nasty Magical Keys
• Ten Cursed Blades
• Six Enchanted Rods
• Twenty Places of Power
• Twenty Pocket Dimensions
• Magical Chess Pieces
• Ten magical Steeds
• Spell names (Good/Neutral/Evil)
• Twelve Magical Wands
• Six Luck Talismans
  
• One hundred magic-related rumors!

More info coming soon!

Story about hitting the wall and filling the void

I knew it would look like that. It's like playing games with my mental issues - and cheating to win, haha!

I plopped into a creative abyss with Void Blade. I managed to write several pages of text and random tables and made two full pages of laid out artwork and text. And created half of a map. And then I hit a wall, again. 

Guess what happened next... 

After half a day spent in brawling with depression (played ADOM, had an amazing run, got torn into shreds by Cat Lord), my brain was immediately filled with an urge to work on Pain instead. And it actually worked - currently I'm filling the gaps in the descriptions.

Also, I realized that there is a significant flaw in my mindset - it's like a clearly visible pit in front of me, and it's filled with manure. And I still hop into it, each time. 

I often thing "I must do this", "I must do that". And that's okay. Life forces us to do things all the time. And in many cases, it's rather wise to do some things. But - at least in this case - the problem is not that I must design some less-fun stuff, like equipment lists and monster stat blocks. The problem is that it took me DECADES to figure out that it depends solely on me HOW I will make these things. How I will design them and how I will present them in the rulebook.

What does it mean for the game? From your perspective - not much. From my point of view - everything has changed. And I must hack out the significant portions of the manuscript, and rework it. But it will be fun.

Two posts in a row? I must be outta my mind!

Void Blade

 

I knew that I will need to take a rest from writing Pain. But it seems that it will be longer than two months - I'm still quite burned out and overwhelmed by the work that still must be done (writing-wise - I'm not even thinking about the artwork yet!). Luckily, I feel much better nowadays.

I think there's something seriously wrong with me - even when I feel burned out, I still MUST create something. Always. It's bigger than me, and much more powerful than my laziness, haha.

I was thinking about making some third-party Mörk Borg stuff (thanks, guys, for the amazing license! I think I will add something very similar to Pain, once it's done) for the last few months. And now, when I hit the wall with my own game, it is time to make it.

So, welcome to Void Blade - a Dead World hidden inside the Dying World.

There will be six new classes, six new monstrosities, tasty random tables and a map, even more convoluted than the map in the MB rulebook!

I don't want to share too much info for now, as it's always possible that I'll hit yet another wall or that my depression will kick in once again and delay everything. Maybe I should apologize for it in advance? :D

Okay, that's it for now, maybe except one more mockup (this time I work both on images and text simultaneously) - please ignore the fact that it is slightly cut on the bottom edge - it is just a mockup after all.

700th post! PAIN Character Classes

 

For the last two days we were working hard to figure out what Character Classes we want to include in the game. So, after almost boiling our brains due to the overheat, we came up with the following list. They both fit the game world perfectly and also are full of its dark atmosphere.

I think it's a pretty good post for the 700th blog entry!

CHAOS WARRIOR [to embrace the Machine's corruption] 

DEATH CULTIST [follower of the Assassin's philosophy]

DOOMED SENTRY [I've seem too much on the surface, time to delve down]

ENLIGHTENED PILGRIM [in a search of Wisdom of the Depths]

FORLORN AVENGER [going to the Depths Below to avenge his fallen ones]

INSPIRED ARTISAN [and inspiration lies deep under the City of Pain]

LOST MOON SAGE [the Crimson Ones must be punished for the Moon's destruction]

LUCID DREAMER [they need my ability to dream]

MASTERLESS GUARDIAN [looking for a purpose, down there]

REPENTANT SINNER [salvation thru service for the Seekers]

RESTLESS CHRONICLER [someone have to write it down]

ROGUE TINKERER [in a search for the Artifacts]

SHADOW ARCANIST [not all magic is demonic, although all magic is destructive]

VERMIN SPY [servant of the deity known as the Chaos Rat]

XENOLOGIST [not all life is extinct... but all life is dangerous]

Pain progress report 2/2021

 

I started working on the current iteration of the game in May 2018, while the first concepts began to appear in... 2005. But for the first time in countless millenia, I feel really full of energy for the game.

So, today I have a big announcement!

I've finished working on the setting! 99% of the world's descriptions are now ready. I worked on it on a daily basis and even reduced my roaming thru the local forests to focus on Pain ;)

Of course, there's still much to do, namely:

• The game mechanics (based on even more streamlined Perilous Ages ruleset) - as I absolutely love working on game rules, I think I will do it in the following weeks. I must playtest it ASAP!
• At least 20 random Artifacts (it won't be easy, as so far I created over a hundred such items for my previous projects, haha);
• Circa 30 maps of various size and detail;
• About 100 pieces of artwork. It will be pretty time-consuming, as I decided to release this game in full color!

Also, this time I will do a proper proofreading of the game. I want to release it in physical form (as premium as possible!), so I want to make it as perfect as I am able to.

More info really soon!

Oh, and I think you'll be interested in seeing the list of actual content made so far! Here it is:

INTRODUCTION

• Welcome to the Nightmare
• Modular game, modular setting

THE UNLIFE

• General appearance of the Unliving Ones
• Feeding
• Healing and body augmentations
• Connection ports and interface

THE SEEKERS

PAIN IS ETERNAL

• Layers of the City
• What Lies Below
• The Outside

THOUSAND SECTS

THE HOLLOW ONES

• The Black Dust

THE FALL

• The Machine 

THE ARCHONS

• Blood of the Gods
• Asccension
• The Architect
• The Alchemist
• The Assassin

IMMORTALS

• The Grey Wanderer
• The Silent Observer
• The Masked One
• The Watcher
• The Hunter

THE BOOK OF KEYS

• What do we know about the Book
• The Abyss
• The Archives
• The Altered Ones
• Awakened Ones
• The Arena
• The Ashen Spirits
• The Black Druid
• The Bone Forest
• The Book of Names
• The Chaos Rat
• The Chimney Towers
• Chronicles of the Lost
• Cosmology
• Dark Iron
• The Dead Tree
• Death Pits
• The Dust Sword
• Excavation Station
• The Fossilized God
• The Furnaces
• The Gatekeeper
• The Great Father
• The Guarded Passage
• Human Skulls
• The Inverted City
• The King
• The Knights
• The Lake
• The Last Star
• Lower City
• The Lower Outpost
• The Map Room
• The Mines
• The Moons
• The Necropolis
• The Portal Fortress
• Portals
• The Prison
• The Resurrection Monolith
• The Rift
• Rust
• Sorrow
• The Sunken Spires
• Thorns
• Tower of Mirrors
• The Trophy Room
• The Unknown One
• Upper City
• The Void Moth
• Warding Pillars
• Watcher's Outpost
• The Waterfall Cave
• The Waterfall Passage
• THE FOOTNOTES COMPILED

MOST IMPORTANT INDIVIDUALS FROM THE CITY

COGNITION CARDS

• Origins
• Card Suits
• Known Cards
• The Moon

THE CRIMSON ONES

• The Red Moon
• Ritual of the Seven
• Demonic Flesh

UNSORTED TEXTS

 

Pain is Eternal

 

still WIP, needs rework

Uh oh. Blogging is weak in me! But I am still working on my game, which I mentioned several times before under this tag (and several other tags as well, as my RPG-related settings and projects intermingled and devoured themselves over and over). But even the name of the game was changed.

PAIN IS ETERNAL.

Yup, that's a saying from the game's world - Pain is name of the city. The only city that survived the Fall (click but bear in mind that this info be quite outdated). And as you can see on the map above - there's quite a lot of things happening under it. So - maybe you should expect some solid underworld-crawling.

Next thing - there will be only one playable race - the Unliving Ones. Humans are now extinct and only the "amalgamations of biological flesh and arcane technology" remain. More info soon (ha, fucking ha... expect to read about them in the next 4d6 months).

Also - game will most likely use my percentile mechanics, a derivative of an engine used in Perilous Ages. But it will be even more streamlined and gritty. Why the d% engine, instead of more standard OSRish approach? There are two main reasons. First - I dislike asymmetrical combat (passive defense and binja armor paradox - the more heavy armor you have, the smaller the chance to hit you is). Second - percentile mechanics are really, REALLY easy to convert them to any other existing ruleset. And they are extremely easy to hack / modify. At least IMO.

However - this time things will be soo fucking different from my previous releases...

Let's be honest - I fell in love with MÖRK BORG. Absolutely, both in terms of aesthetics and content. What is even more interesting (at least from my point of view), I planned to do something similar two years ago - but still had no clue how to start (or finish). Artpunky rulebook is a way for me to go. And - as I already have like ~70 A4-sized pages full of text (not counting the rules) - it will be quite big.

I will try to update the blog with some Pain-related news. Also, check out my Instagram profile and add me on MeWe.

Tombs of Krshal contents preview

Well, what can you expect from the newest Krshal expansion? Let's find out!

• Ten Magical Skulls;
• Shape of the Crypt;
• Six Bizarre Vampires;
• Rumors About the Labyrinth;
• Rumors About Rats;
• Features of the Ghoul Mothers;
• Mysterious Coffins;
• Crypt Entrances;
• Strange Undead Creatures;
• Undead Magic Items;
• Inhabitants of the Crypt;
• Lost Souls;
• Gravediggers;
• Grave Robbers; 
• Magical Flowers;
• Magical Birds;
• Pillories;
• Funeral Processions;
• Tombstones;
• Mad Poets;
• Mourners;
• Magical Tools;

And probably something more. I'm still working on the actual contents so things might change!

If you still don't possess your copy of Towers of Krshal, you may grab it HERE! Also, Legends of Krshal may be obtained by following THIS link.

[whY] General mood of the setting

Well, this time I will try hard to provide you with something more than gibberish quotes and cryptic random tables. However, I prefer to create stuff in a form that will be easy for you to cherry pick the parts that should suit the best your campaigns. So, it can still be a bit confusing and unclear. But I like it as it is.

• Almost exactly one thousand years ago some unspeakable cataclysm shredded the world to pieces. The old order is shattered.
• Space-time was ripped apart, the remains are now called the Shards. Moving between them is complicated and dangerous.
• Humans are not the only inhabitants of the Shards. There are the Unliving - hideous mix of flesh and machine, the Demonic - hybrids of men and extra-dimensional entities and the Inhuman - various generations of mutants. Most of them are hostile towards mankind.
• The Guild controls the world. They are old, very old. Perhaps predecessing the Fall. Their oppresive rule stretches over most of the Shards.
• The Hollow Ones were the masters of the world before the Fall. Now they are gone (here you can read the old post about them - however, you should bear in mind that many things may change).
• Number of Shards is hard to determine - some may appear for the first time, some can vanish without a trace. Only few of them are explored, even smaller numbers are inhabited.
• World is a dangerous place, full of anomalies, monsters and other perils. But people still want to delve into the unknown, looking for knowledge of the past and artifacts of old.

Slaughter of ideas, stitching parts back together

Still here. Still working on some shit, although due to the amazing weather it's extremely hard to sit behind the desk and write some stuff. But some changes are coming.

I decided to butcher some of my unfinished projects - namely the Charon Prime one, Battlestation Omega and other stuff, which became obscure even for me (to be honest, I had to dig through my tag cloud on the blog to even remember some of their names!). They originated from the very old idea, started in 2005. That year I gathered a bunch of my friends and started to create a setting. Unfortunately, there were too many of us and the game stuck in the development hell. It was virtually dead.

I've lost contact with most of the guys involved in the project but the ones I still got in touch with poked me with a "do it" stick from time to time, usually once in two years. But I was sure that for me the whY (that was the name of the game) is deceased for good. But somewhere in 2017 I came to an idea to revive the project and I knew how to do it.

So, back to the present time. I've restarted the project in March 2018. Since then, not much was done. But the vision is clear and this time I started from the right angle - I'm avoiding dragging too many people into this pit and try to focus on the larger image than over-developing the tiny portions of the setting.

How will it end? I don't know, as nothing is certain with my ability to focus and create games (or supplements, or anything that isn't a spoon carved from firewood lol).

Tomorrow (or somewhere in the dark future hahah) I will try to post some more ideas about the game. Wish me luck!

Lunation - something more about the game

Time to reveal something new about the Lunation Board Game :)

It's the first time I'm working on the BIG project - with the whole team (artists, testers etc). And despite the fact that some things are absolutely new for me, the creative process remained the same as in case of my previous publications. But things are really exciting, both for me and the rest of the team!

Without further ado, I'll try to share with you some basic aspects of the game.

Lunation is a rather fast-paced game with elements of exploration, trade and resource gathering. And lots of combat. Game lasts seven turns, during which players gather Victory Points, either by capturing opponent's characters during combat, fulfilling the Secret Objectives or simply purchasing VP with Energy and Resources.

Game will feature custom Combat Dice, using to determine the outcome of each battle, as well as Jump actions. In addition, players can modify almost each action by using the Action Cards.

Game's goal is to gather the most Victory Points during the seven turns of the game.

More info soon!

Prototype of the one of the most trickiest Secret Objective card :)

Prototyping...

Typical day at work - making the prototype of my space-themed game.

Fuck, I love my job.

My quick WFRP hacks

Quick and easy rules hacks I use in my current WFRP games (The Enemy Within!). Of course WFRP 1e 'cause second edition sucks balls so badly...

• S 2d10+20, 2d10+10 for halflings
• T 2d10 +20 for humans and elves, 2d10+10 halflings, 2d10+30 dwarves
• Leather armor: 1 armor point, chain armor 2, plate 3.
• Bows S4, xbows S5.
• Max fate points. You'll need them in my games.
• 10 IPs until you get your first mental disorder, 8 for second, 6 for each next one.
• EDIT: forgot about this one: Dark Heresy-style initiative. d10 + number of tens from I. Checked each round of combat. 
• EDIT2: +5 advances, exactly like in 2e.
• EDIT2: 100xp for skill +10, 200xp more for skill +20. Of course not every skill can be improved.

Questions? :D

Underworld Kingdom.

As you probably know, I'm struggling with writing the Underworld Kingdom for quite a few years. Yesterday a new idea came to my mind - probably I will not release it as one big book / PDF but several smaller pieces. There are several reasons why I want to release it in such form:

• Modular design - books containing only particular information (such as spells or monsters or hex maps w/ descriptions) should be much easier to plug into ongoing campaigns. And of course if someone doesn't want to buy my maps and descriptions (or spells, or monsters...), he will be not forced to do so.
• Price - quite obvious factor - it should be much cheaper to obtain than one big book. I think that they will be available for something about the price set for my Towers of Krshal ($3,50). In addition, some of them will be available for free!
• Ease of writing - this one is extremely important for me. Thinking "okay, six more pages should be enough" is much better than "okay, sixty more pages should be enough", much easier to complete.
• Ease of adding new stuff - I may add new booklet at any moment, without need of reworking entire chapters. Another factor that may have great impact on my writing ability :-)

At the moment, I can announce some basic booklets:

• Explorers of the Unknown - basic information about creating the character and commentaries about it. NOTE: this one will be available for free and I'll try to release it in February (or maybe even this month!)
• Dark Gods, Dark Magic - spells, deities and demonic entities. This one is complete but I want to add some more goodies - rumor tables, keywords and commentaries.
• Untold Monstrosities and Eldritch Artifacts - monsters and magic items. Same as above - I want to add more!

Aaand some ideas about further ones. I can't promise anything about them yet, not even the titles and content:

• Kradia Caves - two layers of human caves. Not very safe (my games were in the Lower Kradia) but not as murderous as the...
• ...Jungle Caves - dinosaur-infested stuff!
• Palace of the Black Emperor - bizarre and enormous palatial complex ruled by some mysterious, demonic being.
• Deeper Caves - darkest, most obscure and most deadly caverns (incl. the Green Light Caves and so on).
• Ho-ru - booklet about the Black Lizardmen.

Tell me what you think about it.

About game writing...

...because I can't describe it as a game design. At least not in my case.

Why? It's simple - during the last eight or nine years I've created TONS of "rpg design stuff". Hundreds of pages full of notes, loose thoughts, partially-filled random tables, lists and so on. And I thought "cool, I'm great at this!"

But I wasn't.

During all these years I started shitloads of projects. Complete games, campaign settings, supplements great and small. Really, really lots of them - I think that over twenty. And how many I managed to finish? Three. Fucking three. Terminal Space, Towers of Krshal and Bandits & Battlecruisers (I don't count Bandits & Basilisks because it took me about five hours to complete it). And you must know that they weren't complilation of my previous notes. I just sat down and wrote them. From scratch (or almost from scratch). And what is even more funny - all these hundreds of pages of notes were almost useless.

Quick summary:

• Towers of Krshal - three days of work, from beginning to end. Nothing more, nothing less. Released, one negative review, two ultra-positive (or maybe more? I don't remember).
• My Big Hard SF (not OSR-related) - six years of work. Status - about 0% of rulebook is done.
• Underworld Kingdom - I don't know - three years? Four? Status - 80% of rulebook is done but it took me about one month to write it*!
• Bandits & Battlecruisers - one year or more. Status - complete but it took me about one month to write it*!
• Terminal Space - three months of work? I sat down and wrote it within seven days (with two month-long gap between them :D). Status? Ask the guy behind the Stars Without Number :D

So, it's not about the game design. Apparently I suck at game design. But I'm not that bad about game writing. I guess I should sit down and fucking write rest of my stuff. Space Alphabet, mapbook, Charon Prime - but now I'm working on Project P. Instead of fucking around, I'm just writing the rulebook. That's what I can do.

______

*) excluding very long gaps between given time - I count only days of active work.

A little "Project P" preview

Extremely ugly, isn't it? Well, it's done purposely.

Here you can find something more about this project.

Darkest Hour

So, we have the Dying Earth. Now try to think about making similar setting / some world inspired by it. Or even try to push it little further.

This is my rather chaotic list of things that may be the most interesting and / or challenging parts of designing worlds during their Darkest Hours:

• World is Incredibly Old. It means that its moon probably flew away or was ripped apart by planet's gravity, which can cause dramatic and unpredictable climate changes, planet's tectonic activity has stopped and thus world is generally much, much flatter than now - mountains were reduced to hills. No earthquakes may mean that planet is holed by incredible number of caves, rifts and ancient, artificially created tunnels. Spelunker's heaven!
• Not Only Sun is Dying. Fabric of reality is weakened and torn in many places. Demons infested the world, magic is strong, probably much stronger than technology. But everything has a price - magic is generally evil / unpredictable / dangerous to use.
• Technology has Failed - why not? We want the fantasy / science fantasy setting, not some ultra-tech rubbish! :D
• Most of the Species has Died. Climate changes, fucked light wavelength and demons roaming the earth has major impact on planet's fauna. This is the part I like the most - try to design all animal life still known by humans! Moreover, limit the number to several dozens :D I fucking love game design.
• There are Surprisingly Many Sentient Beings. Kinda obvious - they were smart enough to survive. And they were evil enough to survive.
• Most of the World is Uninhabited. Humans retreated to one region. Travelling from town to town within the borders of these "1d6 Kingdoms" is still dangerous but try to imagine how deadly the environment must be outside that safespot. Of course, there are 1d1000x27 reasons for adventurers why they should go and explore those unknown, forgotten lands.

Any questions and / or ideas?

Charon Prime - Dying World

Third (and last) post about some basic features of the Charon Prime. This one will be even more general - these ideas aren't mandatory and each Referee may freely pick the ones that best fit into his vision of the campaign.

• Charon, planet's sun, is dying. It may be a reason why the Hollow Ones disappeared from the Unnamed World. Or maybe some ancient machinery hidden inside the Charon Prime is slowly killing the sun, draining its energy?
• Planet is dying. Its internal machines are slowly running out of energy or otherwise stop working. It may lead to some really nasty effects. Or maybe Charon Prime was built like a prison (or laboratory)? Maybe something really evil is trapped inside the stasis cells deep inside planet's guts and if it awakes universe will be doomed?
• Hollow Ones will return and clean their creation from the pest called mankind. Or maybe they never left and just let humans flourish to use them in their experiments?
• There are some really strange and nasty plagues ravaging the outer surface. Maybe things like monster-breeding crustacean plague (soon I will describe it) will spit out something bigger, big enough to destroy mankind?
• Or finally, maybe mankind will destroy themselves? There are many strange and powerful artifacts left by the Hollow Ones but even if humans can use them in some way, their real purposes remains unknown. Of course, it may lead to disaster.

Charon Prime - Artificial World

Inner Surface.

Yesterday I told you about reasons why Unnamed World is unnamed. Today I want to reveal something more. As I'm writing this post in the middle of the night, it will have rather loose, modular form.

• As I mentioned before, humans are rather young race on Charon Prime. Its original rulers, now called the Hollow Ones, disappeared without a trace long before the first humans landed on the planet (about eight thousand years before it) and ruled for maybe 100000 years.
• Hollow Ones weren't the first visitors of Charon Prime. In fact, there was no Charon Prime before their arrival. Hollow Ones created the Charon Prime.
• Charon Prime fits into the Hollow Earth model, but there is no sun inside it - there is only darkness. Inner layer of the world seems to be dead and abandoned but who knows what nightmares lurk there...
• Almost no one knows about the "inner world".
• Some of the ancient machinery of the Hollow Ones are still active, buried deep inside the planet. At least one of them is used by humans (power core of the City of Rust) but it's almost certain that no one knows a shit about the origin and nature of this machinery.
• Several megadungeons (or even something like gigadungeon) may be placed between the outer and inner surfaces of the planet. It's highly possible that they are really dangerous places.
• Even the outer surface of the Charon Prime is not very similar to our Earth. It's barren and dead, landscapes have surreal shapes and it's dotted by immense ruins of strange buildings of unknown purpose. Inner surface is even more alien and hard to describe. Generally, some regions of the "regular surface" were inspired by landscapes by Zdzisław Beksiński (especially from 80s), while the inner one was greatly inspired by bio-mechanical landscapes of H.R. Giger. Kinda obvious, eh?

Charon Prime - Unnamed World

He Was The Man.

Do you remember this post by Blair? It has a really big impact on me, especially that I've used his "method" in 1997-1999 and later forgotten about it. Now I plan to use it in Charon Prime.

Unnamed World is very old, much older than human civilization. Probably there is only one human city, the Citadel of Rust. Except this metropolis, there are only few inhabited outposts, which farthest is about 200km away from the city. Rest of the world remains unexplored, unknown and unmapped and fact that humans live on Charon Prime for over 2000 years means nothing.

As Blair stated in his post - PCs will be the ones who will name the places. In addition, if there will be other groups of adventurers (NPCs), it's highly possible that their names will be totally different from the names given by player characters.

Finally, something more creative - fate of NPC adventurers. If Referee has no ideas for handling groups of non-player expeditions in the dangerous world of Charon Prime, he may roll a dice and pick appropriate result from below:

1-5: They disappeared without a trace. No one knows what happened to them.

6-8: They are all dead. Someone has found shattered bones and tattered clothes.

9-10: Only one member of expedition has returned. He is now half-mad and constantly babbles about "crustacean nightmares".

11-13: Some of them returned but they are somehow "changed" - they became grim, silent and generally strange. I'm tellin' ya, things will get really ugly if they don't disappear...

14-17: Some of them returned but they haven't found anything.

18: They returned with some strange alien artifact. I hope that it will not bring destruction to the city.

19: They returned without any treasures, but I've heard that they have mapped solid portion of the world (direction dice) of the Citadel.

20: They returned with lots of treasure!

Classless Old School RPG

For all those who are not familliar with my Bandits & Basilisks rules. 

In my games, there are no such thing as character class. No fighters, thieves, wizards, clerics. Why?

Conan was a pirate, mercenary, thief, king. Kane was a warrior, pirate, sorcerer, "priest" of the Bloodstone, explorer. Fafhrd ang Gray Mouser were... yeah. They all were just adventurers. They were not limited to blunt weapons, no-armor or no-spells. They all can steal and backstab. So - fuck character classes!

Here are some basic ideas:

One HD per level. You start with 1 HD and gain one Hit Die per experience level. It's up to you what dice you should use. I prefer old, good d6. No need to use different dice.

Simple XP table. 2000 experience points is needed to advance to 2nd level. Double needed XP for each next level:

Untrained: -

Novice: 2000

Beginner: 4000

Advanced: 8000

Specialist: 16000

Expert: 32000

Master: 64000

Grand Master: 128000

Hero: 256000

Legend: 512000

Attack tables. I have my own attack table but you may use OD&D fighting men instead. My version is very similar.

Spell access. Every PC can gain access to magical spells but it may be expensive (see below). Maximum spell level is limited by character's experience level:

Untrained: -

Novice: -

Beginner: 1

Advanced: 2

Specialist: 3

Expert: 3

Master: 4

Grand Master: 4

Hero: 5

Legend: 6

Spell preparation. Access to the spells depends on the level of the character, but their number is not limited. However, the preparation of a spell is not simply memorizing it – it must be “made” in the form of a magic scroll, potion, powder or even a wand or enchanted item. Cost of the components and time needed to prepare a spell is shown in the table below. In case of particularly powerful and / or rare spells Referee may decide to impose additional requirements, such as a special place where the ritual must be celebrated, special equipment or very rare (and not necessarily expensive) components.

In the case of Mystic / Cleric / other character associated with a deity, the method of preparing / obtaining a spell should be changed. Enchantment of an object (scroll, powder etc.) would require adequate time for praying / meditation and a sacrifice for the deity (and it’s not about throwing some gold pieces to the temple treasury, but about a more or less bloody offering).
Arcane Lore check is not required (if you use the percentile skills in your game) if the spell is prepared in appropriate circumstances – a character has time to prepare himself and the place to create a “spell container”. He (or she) has access to necessary equipment and he / she is not doing it under pressure (such as stressful working conditions, limited time etc.).

Any questions? :D