LootLootLore

I was thinking recently about how games struggle with "Why are we Dungeoning? Are we even Dragoning?". Often times the reason to go down there is there's treasure or someone needs "Heroic warriors to clear out the savage barbarians". These aren't great as one is very colonialist which isn't morally good. Gold is fine but at higher level gold starts to have less meaning as you need thousands of gp to level up. Furthermore, I find that player want to pursue their own goals once they are higher level once they better slot into the setting.  The Goal with a Dungeon job is to find a way to integrate the players into the setting faster and gives better for motivation. Below are 2 examples of a Job. What makes a Job is this: The Job must have a goal that is relevant to the setting and it has to take multiple sessions.  The job results in a level up or foreground growth if you don't use levels.  People react to your Job. Some despise you, Some love you and m...

I played Wastoid a while back as a playtest. I am a big Fallout fan and Wastoid fit my ttrpg tastes and has some strong Fallout flavor. I did an exploration section, a section with NPCs and a combat. Combat was using some OSR I found that closest fit the Fallout vibe. First they had to fix a lighthouse, which was fine, I used the faction tables and exploration I liked along with the players. Then, they turned on a power station and combat was quick and brutal, 2 players went down but they fixed the power station. The table was so happy when the new characters both had hacking, which made the robot infested station much easier and interesting. One character that was rolled was a robot and they liked how there was risk and reward. Go in head first and you can get junk to heal yourself and you are immune to radiation making rushing in a good idea. But if you got hurt you lose valuable junk to healing yourself.  From Bethesda   Slots were something my players were mindful of and t...

You may know me for being an OSR (Open Strategic Resources) blogger, a section of the TTRPG hobby that focuses on games that call back to earlier editions of Dungeons and Dragons. Recently I found an Ebay listing (costing around $2000) on for a copy of an old game from my childhood.  This game came in a box set, unfortunately I lost the box while moving. It has some things that are sorely missed in an age of Dr Who Artilocks and Spongebob omni classes. It was more grounded, being a game of heroic fantasy. It had no crit chains and success percentages. Instead it had "Advantage" and "Disadvantage". It only had 20 levels and you had much less choice in abilities. Kids today would be bored out of their minds! Character creation was so simple. In an hour you could create a complete character. Pick your species, background, class and equipment. Maybe a subclass and spells depending on your choices.    The old lady gave me a set of her physical dice You had so much contro...

I couldn't post to my blog due to life being a lot and various tech issues. I did however back the newest Shadowdark Kickstarter so now I feel it is time for a theory post, as I didn't post one in a while.  From The Arcane Library In OSR games, you die often. There are often around 4 to 7 classes (if the game sticks to the B/X model) and it doesn't take too long to play them all, at least each class's early levels. In shadowdark's newest kickstarter, there is plans for 20 classes to be in the one book. I like this. In modern games, having a lot of classes feels overwhelming as I am playing each class for a long period of time due to the lower lethality in those games so my choice matters a lot. In shadowdark, this isn't the case. Death is not only around the corner but right behind you and should your plans go south, that's the end of the character. It is unlikely I will be playing a character for a significant amount of time in shadowdark.  The 24 classes t...

I am Currently creating a ruleset for my next game when ever it is. I was also revisiting the game Backpack Hero developed by Jaspel. In it, you play as a mouse with a magic backpack. Inside this backpack you store items that have abilities that help you throughout the run. All your magic, healing items, armour and weapons have to fit in (at first) a 3x3 grid. I found it quite interesting but I realised I could apply this to TTRPGs. See, I don't like classes as they feel too constrained to their archetype. If my fighter wants to cast a spell then tough luck. I put this idea on the backburner until I bought the starter set for Warhammer 40k: Wrath and Glory. Now, they use a point buy system for every thing and now I present a basic prototype.  The Prototype   The blue item is a feature while the red is a different feature. Size not final   The two classes I plan to have are Steel and Spell. Steel can move features at a moment's notice to fit a new technique. For example, S...

Here's a us buff for every item in the periodic table for your elfgame fighter. It is assumed your fighter can create Lvl kgs of all of these over a day's rest.  Keywords  Scaling - adds 1d6 damage per fighter level you have. level [lvl] - it is your current level 1d20 Perks  From Yale environment 360 Hydrogen : It's explosive, created in slurry pits and coal mines (Next delve, how about bringing a gas mask?) and is a incredible source of energy. You start with a cow as hydrogen comes from the stomach of ruminants. Recommended for an intelligent fighter as they can use a carefully placed bucket as a impromptu mortar (dealing 2d6 to any poor soul hit with the projectile). Bonus points if firearms or hydrogen cars from a by-gone age are a thing. Helium : It is incredibly light, makes you high-pitched and genies are made out it. You can use this with some canvas to make a balloon. This can allow you to jump up to (level x 5) ft high with enough helium strapped to them. Flig...

Shop Policy I worked in a charity shop (thrift store for Americans and opportunity shop for Australians) last summer and while I was there, the post office would regularly give us any items that no-one picked up. Most of the time it was normal things like IKEA Furniture, Clothing and jewelry. Sometimes there would be items sent in that felt like magic items. I have adapted some of these unique items to be more suitable for your favorite elfgame. While I was there I realized that magic item shops and people willing to buy them should either not exist or be exceptionally rare. 1. Thimbleby's Tall Thumb Ring  It is a small, crudely crafted ring made of jade. The ring adjusts in size to fit the wearer. It feels unusually warm. When worn, the ring will glow blue, a sign that it has recharged. Once the wearer takes off the ring, place it on a surface and once the ring moves, a large, green, spectral thumb shaped like the wearer's will pop out from the center of the ring. once the rin...