Grimworld - what it is now

Over a year ago I started creating my own fantasy setting Grimworld inspired by Zak Sabbat's Vornheim, Discworld, Ravenloft, gothic horror fantasy, mega-dungeons and so on. Later when I got Lamentations of the Flameprincess Grindhouse edition I found out it would also suit my Grimworld. Also I found two great PDF files called Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque Compendium and Flavors of Fear: 13 Weird Fantasy Setting Sketches at Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque blog.

I found out there are enough great settings so instead of creating a new one I decided to write sourcebook with additional rules and material to use in settings and games mentioned above. I realized that creating a new setting is too much work and making small details for existing settings would be more wise way to work this out.

I haven't published anything yet but I will use Google Documents for this. It is a good tool to share files and it can be edited easily.

What Is It?

It is a collection of my campaign ideas, places, monsters, NPCs, optional rules etc. to be used in my own campaigns and also to be used for everyone who wants to.

Where Is Grimworld?

Great thing in Dungeons & Dragons is that there are thousands of planes. Like Ravenloft you can get accidentally getting lost in mist or by purpose from special places players could get to some places of Grimworld (city example) from a portal or other disturbance between planes. Or GM could simply just include them in his campaign where ever he sees they fit best.

How To Use It?

There are optional rules (based on LotFP but fully compatible with other OSR and other fantasy games with small modification) GM can choose to use. There are also other setting things GM can grab and use in his own campaigns. Like NPCs, places etc.

What I Already Got?

Writing City of Nurmberg and adventure hooks there. Some additional races and character classes (less rules more details), optional magic rules for Elven and totally new magic rules what use power words instead of learned list of spells. Also I will include stuff from this blog in there.

PDF Publish?

Well, I will "publish" it freely at Google Documents when there are more material and will continue to edit it when I get more ideas. I don't know when it will be finished or will it be finished at all. It is a downloadable and viewable collection of my ideas and what I use in my campaign.

God who answers

In some devastating situations or long periods of misery one might fall apart and yell: "God, why me!" But does he know what god does that for him? The one he worships or one of the other gods? And what the God who has caused all the agony wants in exchange for things to turn change better?

This random table tells who is the god who answers.

Roll d20 For The God Who Answers

1 - Krockquar, the Frog God of gluttony and greed. Krockquar looks like a giant bloated frog with greasy foodstains all over its chin. In the other small hand he has golden trident and in the other hand a roast. It does speak with croaking voice. Krockquar wants sacrifice of 200 lbs of food of great quality (something Emperors would enjoy).

2 - Emerald King, the God of prisoners and lost hope. Emerald King is wearing ragged clothes under his many chains. His skin is pale and bald head faceless. Numerous scars cross his body. Emerald King wants ten slaves for character to enslave to his temple to serve.

3 - Lady of the Leaf, the Natural God of trees, grass and joy. She is nymph-like beautiful creature covered in green fresh leaves. Lady of the Leaf wants character to stop orcs (or orc like barbarian humans) from hacking his sacred forest.

4 - Aethateinos, the God of hidden secrets and forbidden knowledge. Aethateinos manifests as a huge silver key surrounded by a black hole. Aethateinos wants 10 unique books of knowledge to be added into his library-temple.

5 - Daron Morden, the God of forsaken Elves. Daron is twisted chaos tainted elf staning 10 feet long wearing purple rope with black laces. He holds scythe of eternal hate. Daron Morden wants character to help forsaken Elves to revenge those who forsake them.

6 - Harshow, the God of those fallen in a battle. Harshow manifests as a crow with bright red eyes. Hahrshow wants character to build a shrine to an ancient battlefield.

7 - Todd Silverstring, the God of laughs and music. Todd looks like a jester with four faces in each direction of head. Every face has it's own permanent expression of different moods. Tod Silverstring wants character to arrange a great festival in honor of him.

8 - Mara Shar, the God of sharks and mantis'. Mara Shar manifests in a dream where character feels like drowning but before death a great shark appears speaking. Mara Shar wants character to feed predators of the sea with 10 people.

9 - Duruk the Dark One, God of darkness and secrets. Duruk manifests as a darkness surrounding character. Duruk the Dark One wants one great and dangerous secrets to be revealed and a big city to be darkened for one night.

10 - Grey Hare, the God of quarry. Grey Hare looks like big grey hare with intelligent blue eyes. Grey Hare wants character to catch 10 different spieces of game and sacrifice them ritualistically in the honor of him.

11 - Elzara, the God of paintings and memories. Elzara is a beautiful lady in light blue nightgown. Elzara wants character to paint 10 paintings in honor of her.

12 - Termereas, the God of sleepless nights and sunrises. Termereas manifests as a black horse with hooves and mane in blue fire. Termereas wants character to stay awake for 7 nights in a row.

13 - Magaro, the God of worms and maggots. Magaro is humanoid shape of squirming worms and maggots. Magaro wants 10 fresh corpses for flies to lay eggs.

14 - Shilieth, the God of great sacrifices. Shilieth is old one-handed man with ragged clothes and sad looking face. Shilieth wants character to sacrifice something of his body; an eye, nose, ear, hand what ever character sacrifices.

15 - God of No Gods. The God of no Gods is God who doesn't believe in gods. He has no physical appearance and he communicates as a voice in head. Character must destroy 3 shrines, temples or other similar of three different gods.

16 - Lord Barakkus, the God of wealth and betrayal. Lord Barakkus is bearded comely man with a decorated armor and jewelry. He has dagger in his belt dripping blood eternally. Lord Barakkus wants character to gain 1000 GP by betrayal, fraud and by cheating.

17 - Tserappio, the God of traps and snares. Tserappio looks like craftman with twinkle in his eye. His fingers are like different tools. Tserappio want character to build traps where 10 different people step.

18 - Alcros, the God of bloodsuckers and parasites. Alcros is a pale gentleman with dark clothing and a marble walking cane. Alcros wants character to feed himself to near death for various bloodsuckers (vampires, vampire bats, leeches, mosquito etc.)

19 - Lay Ilsa, the God of good deeds and compassion. Lady Ilsa wears white gown and her face is friendly even though she constantly cries small tears of pearl. Lady Ilsa wants character to show ultimate compassion for 10 people.

20 - Ogrimac the Slayer, Dwarven God of giant slaying. Ogrimarc looks like dwarven warrior with silver armor and huge two-handed warhammer. Ogrimac wants character to slay a giant in his name.

Great lie - Spell

This spell is used with LotFP or other fantasy games.

The spell is a preparation for a great lie which might give huge benefices if successful or horrible outcome if failed. The spellcaster must be level 2 Magic-User and needs 10 toad tongues, tears from a nasty kid and one finger from a person in stocks or pillory. The potion is boiled from these ingredients and after drinking it the Great Lie must be told within a hour.

If the lie is successful and people believe it the caster gets all the benefices involving the lie. But if the people don't believe the lie the caster is turned into a mutated blob of flesh and tissue with his twisted face. All other Attributes except Wisdom and Intelligence are reduced to 1.

Result of failed spell.

Fallen, Forsaken and Foul - Addition to creatures

Definitions:

Fallen: degraded or immoral
Forsaken: deserted; abandoned
Foul: grossly offensive to the senses; disgustingly loathsome


To make normal creatures more vile and dangerous, just simply add adjective fallen, forsaken or foul in it. These creatures are more dangerous than normally would. You can add some HD or other powers to this type of creatures to make them different. But remember, if every creature characters encounter are fallen, forsaken or foul they become normal. Fallen, forsaken or foul creatures should be beyond normal and really nasty. Here are few examples to use with your fantasy game. Be free to create your own fallen, forsaken and foul variations of normal monsters.

Fallen Villagers


The villagers were in desperate need in their poorness what has lasted over an decade so they decided to make a pack with a demon. Demon gave them their normal living conditions back in the exchange of worship. Human sacrifices, eldrich rites and other horrible customs are practiced in the name of the demon. Usually villagers try to use cunning to get travelers sacrificed to their demon lord.

Fallen Angel


When an angel looses his faith he is cast away from good and thus will be fallen. He might be alone, try to become a demon to be worshipped or might join legions of evil. Fallen angel replaces divine powers with evil powers equal - or worse.

Forsaken Paladin


Paladin committed a crime against his faith so bad he was cast away by his god. But he was not left again as evil god saw a possibility. Forsaken by good became cherished by evil. The paladin's armor became one with him growing chaotic forms like spikes and faces of tortured spirits on. Now the paladin is one with his armor and his quest is to do what ever his new lord needs.
HD+2, AC+5, Turn Undead replaced with similar power Turn Good. Causes fear.

Forsaken Orc Tribe Of Bloodbrothers


Bloodbrothers is a warrior tribe of orcs. They are really strict in their customs and organized fierce warriors. In their last big battle some didn't perform as expected thus were forsaken from the tribe. Worse destiny than death for Bloodbrothers. Forsaken bloodbrothers became their own pack to survive. The tribe was everything they knew so they had to learn ways to survive without their tribe. They are more aggressive, fierce and strong than other orcs.
+2 HD, +1 AB and AC. Special power: Rage of the forsaken: When rolling results 19 or 20 with d20 in to-hit gain additional attack. When HP reach 0 or below regain 2d6 HP.


Foul Skeletons Of Necromantic Death Worshippers


Necromantic Death Worhsippers are a cult who worship god of death by mass sacrifices. Their guardians are skeletons made of the remainings of their victims. There are still parts of flesh and other tissue hanging on the bones.
Cause Fear. -1 AB to attackers.

Foul Dragon


Sometimes dragons when age start to die physically and become half rotten. These dragons are insane for their physical change. But because there is so much dead tissue they are harder to wound.
All damage taken is halved. AC +4.

[OSR/D&D/Fantasy] Finder's keeper - table for chest

Sometimes when travelling roads your party might find a chest fallen from a cart. But what is inside this chest?

Locked Or Not?


Roll d6 to see if chest is locked.
1 - No lock, easy to open
2 - No lock but stuck, needs to be forced to open (25% chest will break and cannot be used any more.)
3 - Really simple lock. Easy to lockpick with some tools.
4 - Normal lock. Lockpick as normal.
5 - Hard lock. Lockpicking is 50% harder than normally.
6 - Extremely complicated to lockpick. Other means than lockpicking is needed.



What's Inside


Roll d20 to see what is inside the chest.
1 - Small random items with no value
2 - 2d10 x 10 goldpieces
3 - Mummified familiar (roll randomly). Revived if sprinked with holy water and will follow who revived
4 - 2d6 portitions of random mushrooms (roll Random mushroom table to see what kind of mushrooms)
5 - 1d6 Healing potions healing 1d6 HP per potion. 25% change when drinking potion is poisoned and deals 1d6 damage instead
6 - Treasure map for dungeon/crypt/deserted castle or other similar location
7 - Denture with nametag of eminent person in area. Reward 1d10 x 100 goldpieces
8 - Fertilizers. Growth 200% faster
9 - Portable alchemist's laboratory
10 - Valuable and really fine clothing (50% for men or women)
11 - Skeletal remainings of a halfling
12 - 2d6 fake diamonds. Roll needed to notice (by rules or for example roll under INT with d20)
13 - Secondary crown of a king. Extremely valuable (1000 GP) but also extremely hard to sell. Also if someone finds out possibility to be in danger of being accused of royal thievery
14 - 1d6 random spell scrolls
15 - 2d6 illustrated children's books (worth 1d10 GP per book)
16 - Empty but with successful appropriate roll under fake base there is map to king's treasury
17 - Smellbomb triggers when opened. Save versus or CHA -10 for 2d6 hours. Also a diamond worth of 100 GP. It is smelly and extremely hard to sell
18 - Spare parts for some mechanical thing
19 - Ghost in a bottle
20 - Roll again two times.

[LotFP] Foul Lord

Foul Lord


Good looks and wealth is not always enough. Femel Farragan had it all. But he wanted more. He had power over people in his area but he wanted more power. He wanted to be immortal and feared.

In his late 30's he started to learn magick but he knew he was too old to be a powerful wizard anymore. It takes years of study and he knew he would die of old age before he was strong enough for his desire.

That time he made a pack with a demon. Demon promised he would have powers beyond normal human and immortality. And he only needed to sacrifice his soul. Femel was not worried. Being immortal, he thought, his soul would be safe.

Demon granting powers in a short time affected his looks twisting his figure. Waist up he looks as he looked 300 years ago but his lower body was twisted into a horrific mutated lump.

The demon let him enjoy his powers for a  couple of decades but then decided that it is time to take his soul. Femel didn't want to die so he made a new agreement with this demon. Demon decided that with his immortality and powers Femel was worth of 100 souls every year in exchange for his soul. Femel agreed.

Femel must ritually kill 100 people in every year to maintain his immortality and powers.

Foul Lord Femel's stats are as 15th level wizard with AC of 18.

Encumbreance

Encumbreance and carry capability are important in roleplaying games. But it can be handled really differently from detailed and precise where every 0.1 pound counts to rougher systems.

Even though some games could need more detailed encumbreance system I prefer lighter ones.

[b]Size matters[/b]

Bigger is harder to carry than smaller. Golden statue might weight more than big painting but you can put that statue in a bag or packback when you must handle the painting more carefully.

It is not always the weight that matters. I think more abstract encumbreance is better as it leaves space for various types of items.

One good example of good carry capacity is in Lamentations of the Flame Princess. There are three types of items:

- unencumbering. These don't generally affect encumbreance.
- normal. There items count as encumbering items. Every 5 of beyond normal carry capability gives 1 penalty to task rolls.
- heavy. There you don't carry too many.

I also like the concept in Resident Evil games where items take slots from your inventory. Extra slots you can get from special equipment.