Bunker & Caves teaser cover (Mutant Future dungeon)

I started to write this bunker with a dungeon for Mutant Future for my player to explore. Thought, why not Google Drive it so others can also use it if they want to. I am 55% done now.

This is a teaser cover for Bunker & Caves!

And here's the map:

Stay tuned for the final product! It will be free!

In comments you could say what you would like to see here. If it fits my plans, I'll include it with your name in credits! YEY!

Planning to create core retro-clone mechanics

I am thinkin to create this booklet for my use where are only the basic d20 rules (retro) including both ascending and descending AC (for maximum compability). There would be no classes, spells, items, monsters or anything else. Those would be sourcebooks or taken from a game I run that time.

The point is to create small booklet with all the rules and easy to add own houserules. So every time I take another OSR game I can use my own rules booklet and just take the fluff and material (those spells, classes and whatnot).

I think the rules would be based on a hybrid of Labyrinth Lord and LoTFP, because LL is clear dealing with descending AC and LotFP is clear with ascending AC.

The base of these rules would be from BLUEHOLME (Holmes edition clone) because it's super clear and simple and it would be easy to add all those additional rules. Also BLUEHOLME is a small book, so the core of this universal retro system would be fast to create.

It would be also easy to add my house rules there. Just write rules BTB but add little boxes of alternative rules. That way I can easily see how the rules are BTB and the other options I invent or gather all around the internet. If I find something superior I can replace official rules altogether (although I think I keep the old one just in case and reference).

Also when I read "yet another retro-clone" rules most of it is the same basic mechanics, some things are better but some things are better in another game. So it would be painless to just add the parts to my game what I like as optional rules. That way my booklet could have several different optional rules for the same thing to choose from.

This would be kinda my personal rules Cyclopedia.

When I look at OSR games I find that actual rules don't take that much space. Character creation (without classes) and core mechanics (adventuring, combat, task resolution) take only a small portion when classes, spells, items, monsters etc. take the biggest part of the page count. How much are the core rules in pages? 20 maximum? Own additions and house rules don't add that much.

The process would be:
1. Take rules material from BLUEHOLME
2. Add and modify rules from LL
3. Add and modify rules from LoTFP
4. Add and modify house-rules when necessary

Also if there are rules variants I can easily do this:

To-hit-roll
Labyrinth Lord roll d20 and check the table
LoTFP roll d20 over AC
House-rule open fortune cookie and improvise

So basically when I need a rule I just find it from the booklet and choose what suits best for the game I am running. One book three set of rules for (almost) everything?

Also this core retro rules booklet would be faithful for its sources and my house-rules would only be grey boxes.

Currently I am running to different systems and I got house-rules literally everywhere (G+, blog, notepad, in my head, napkins) so it would be super convenient to put all this information in one place. Also it wouldn't matter what game I run when all the rules are in the same booklet. Only thing I need from different games is fluff rules and material (those classes, spells, mutations, items, monsters etc.).

So basically it doesn't matter do I run Mutant Future or LotFP, the rules can be found for these slightly different games from the same place. Only thing where I need the actual game's rule book is the setting mechanics (again classes, spells etc.).

It would work like GURPS. When you run GURPS (I use my rules booklet) the core book has the rules. All the additional material, genre, setting etc. I want to run is in GURPS sourcebooks (in my case Labyrinth Lord, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, LotFP, Mutant Future, Mutants&Masterminds etc.).

Also if I like feats I could easily add a section how feats work and use D&D3 list for available feats. Only make the rules simplier.

Also own setting material would be easy to work with. I already have core rules written down, so I can just write what I want. I can write a booklet about Wild West, take my booklet to run it and choose whether I use LotFP or LL for it (or house rules).

Also creating core classes would be easy for fantasy. Write class fluff and take rules to work with LL and LotFP. For scifi, wild west, post-apo, 20's gangsters I just need to rename and re-skin those classes.

Oddities in the Darkest Space - seriously?

In my last post I wrote how I had this dream I created a scifi rpg. Now I cannot get the idea out of my mind. Here's something I've been thinking.

- It uses modified LotFP rules
- Character classes are from LotFP with some tweaks. Re-naming them and changing a little the rules
- There is no magic but psionics instead. Basically it's M-U spells re-skinned
- There is no Cleric class but a "Medic" (or something). Cleric spells modified so it's this weird computer thingie what has these "powers" like Clerical spells
- Psionics don't learn spells. When they level up they find new abilities rather than learning those
- "Medic" can find chips (scrolls) to use or upload to their computer thingie like M-U spellbook
- Weapons have two values for damage. First is what dice you use and second for firearms when the clip is empty. For example weapon with damage 2/d8 shows that it does d8 points of damage and there is 2 in 8 change the clip must be reloaded
- Mass Effect video game doesn't count ammunition, I won't either. You just need to spend one turn changing the clip/recharging the weapon/let the heat go down
- Demi-humans are actually aliens. Those are based in Halfling, Dwarf and Elf character builds with modifications
- d6 skill system propably where "Tech" class is most advanced in skill usage
- Stances are aggressive, normal and defensive where there are slight modifications for AC/AB like in LotFP
- Encumbrance is from LotFP but CON modifier affects the first encumbrance point. (CON bonus 0 is 5 items, CON bonus +2 is 7 items before first encumbrance point)
- There are powershields what can nullify damage if damage result is in right range

Now I am thinking will I write whole thingie from a scratch or make a small add-on for LotFP explaining the modifications used. So basically you would need LotFP + OitDS to run it. It would save a lot of work writing for me saving time for fluff.

The greatest question is will I write this at all? I like Fading Suns a lot but the rules I'd like to use would be more LotFP like for simplicity. In the other hand I could just use Mutant Future but I want to keep it as its own game/setting/feeling. Also I prefer ascending AC over descending.

So, now the big questions are:
1) Will I write this?
2) Should I use LotFP but only write all the modifications?
3) Should I re-skin LotFP?

Hacking Fallout

I have played Fallout 3 a lot. I love the game. I love the setting and atmosphere. Quests are generally interesting. Exploring the world is fun. Collecting items and scrap has a new meaning when you sell those to vendors to get more items to survive.

I love Fallout 3.

I like playing it so much I constantly was thinking while playing how much I'd like to play it as a tabletop roleplaying game. There are some Fallout fan-made rpg's already and there are other post-apocalyptic games. But I wanted to play Fallout 3.

My first sketch was basically translating Fallout 3 into a p&p system. It worked ok when I tweaked some aspects of the Fallout 3 "rules" into more playable form. It was ok but there was so much work to do to build a new system. So I forgot it.

But playing Fallout 3 I kept thinking about Fallout-ish p&p rpg. Then I started my current project I have already almost written.

I took something from Fallout 3 and started to use D20 system as a basic. This is what I got:

Character creation is familiar. Roll 3d6 in a row (alternatives are 3d6 swap two and 4d6, drop lowest, assign as you like). I just renamed Dexterity to Agility and replaced Wisdom with Perception.

Other characteristics like Hit points, Carry Capacity etc. are based on attributes.

Skill system is different. Skills are in percentile, but every 10% is +1 to d20 roll. So you have d20 mechanics with percentile skills. Point is you share points to skills at character creation and leveling up. And by reading skill books of course. So +1% can get you +1 to roll if you are at x9 currently. Small touch you could do with just giving +1's and so on, but I wanted to include the Fallout 0-100 skill scale.

Carry Capacity I ripped from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Instead of calculating every little stone in your inventory you got three categories of items: unencumbering, normal and heavy. The weight/size of item affects how many you can carry.

Combat is a bit like Dungeonslayers. You roll d20 + skill + damage + modifiers (Attack Value or AV) against d20 + defense + armor + modifiers (Defense Value or DV). The difference of results is damage. So if AV is 25 and DV is 15 target suffers 10 points of damage (25-15=10).

Weapons have damage x/dx. Solid number what basically is bonus to attack roll and dice to roll to attack. So with a weapon 2/d6 you add +2 and d6 result to your d20+skill+modifiers.

I think the system is simple and easy.

There are also saves for radiation, explosives, poison, enviromental hazards etc. what work similarly to d20 games.

Armor are simply +x to DV.

Items do break and they need to be repaired. That is one big point of Fallout 3. Stuff breaks. But I haven't included the penalty to damage and armor value depending on condition. At the moment it feels a bit too complicated for me.

There are also some advanced combat rules like shooting enemies behind a cover, sneak attacks, attacking from a back etc. little tweaks. Not too complicated though.

Explosive rules are something I have written but am not sure are they satisfying. The area-of-effect and undirect fire makes them different from shooting guns.

This far I am quite happy with this. Need to write (copy-paste) stuff to make it whole and then start to play it and tweak the rules if I am not happy with them. Testing is they key to master this. There are few problems I already know but I won't fix them before testing them in action. Sometimes it is waste of time to write theory without experience.

Anyways, it can be found here (not ready yet):
https://sites.google.com/site/fallouthack/

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.

Finished Fallout 3, finishing Fallout inspired RPG

Finished playing Fallout 3 yesterday. I had four weeks break playing it and only played it for two hours yesterday and got ending credits. What a bummer! It felt like it ended suddenly. That's what I get having a break playing a game. Anyways, wanted to continue so I bought and downloaded Broken Steel. Broken Steel continues two weeks after main game and new level gap is 30. Back to exploring and avoiding main quest for now.

Anyways, playing Fallout 3 inspired me a lot. I wanted to create! So I decided I'd make a roleplaying game inspired by Fallout 3. My first draft was too complicated. It used Fallout 3 rules but there is a difference. Where Fallout 3 is a video game and computer makes all the calculation it was too complicated to use as a pen and paper roleplaying game. So I started over.

Here's an overview of my post-apocalyptic game:

- Focus of the game is to survive. Collecting resources and doing quests in a sandbox world.
- Game is inspired by traditional roleplaying games (OSR d20) but is modified.
- There are six characteristics similar but slightly different to traditional rpg's (some have different names, wisdom is perception).
- It uses skill system. Skills are in range of 1-100 and every tenth skill point gives +1 to task (Attack Bonus for combat, bonus for stealth roll).
- Game uses DC (called Difficulty Value or DV) what you roll against. For example if DV is 15 to sneak past guard you roll d20 + agility modifier + sneak skill modifier (if sneak is 53 you get +5).
- No character classes. You roll your stats, add points to skills and that's it. No restrictions. There will be backgrounds but they don't affect character creation.
- Experience is gained from defeating enemies and completing quests. Loot doesn't qualify as experience as it has its own important function in surviving. Some special items could be rewarded with xp though (lost data etc. but those usually are quest related items or otherwise mentioned to be worth xp).
- Combat damage is included in combat roll. Roll to hit, opponent rolls for defense. Difference is damage dealt. Weapons affect to hit roll instead of rolling separate dice for damage.
- Opponents have morality. They might flee the combat.
- Inventory uses slots instead of book keeping of weights.
- Equipment must be maintained or they break. That's why scavenging is important.
- Characters gain advantages each level gaining special bonuses. These are what make a difference between player character's (heroes) and others.
- Most of the opponents are human, but there are mutants, robots and monsters to be fight also.
- Traps, environmental hazards and radiation are included.

Rules are basically retro style with skill system. Goal is to make rules work smoothly and easily and the focus is in adventuring. I will write this for my own use, but if it's ok enough I'll share it. I am working on understanding OGL and will include it. At the moment rules are 90% written.

Created To hit table inspired by old Finnish RPG ANKH

ANKH (Adventures of the North Kalevala Heroes) is old Finnish roleplaying game. Unfortunately my copy of ANKH has suffered major damage over the years and I am not sure where it is located. It was a boxed set but my box is long destroyed. ANKH came with three books. One for Game Master, another for players and third was adventure module.

ANKH was the first game I played, bought and Game Mastered so it has very special place in my roleplaying history and heart.

ANKH had this to hit system similar to Dungeons & Dragons' Thac0. Character had three combat values:

Taisteluluokka (TL for short) what is Combat class.

Jousiluokka (JL for short) what is Ranged class.

Suojaluokka (SL for short) what is Armor class.

To attack and determine attack's success you compare your TL or JL (depending do you melee or ranged attack) against opponents SL and see from a chart what is your change to hit.

A-Z challenge: G for Grimworld and game worlds and settings(oh the schedule)

I think that this blog challenge for me is a failure. Still, even though I don't keep up like the rest of participants, I decided to hang on. For my own amusement.

So, G for Grimworld. Grimworld was basically a fantasy setting/project, but when I thought about it I found that it's mere a toolbox. Or a synonym for my own fantasy toolbox.

I mean, I won't ever write any detailed information about Grimworld. It grows and advances when I add items, or when I Game master it (if I ever will, that is). So, what's the point about this Grimworld, what is a fantasy setting but isn't?

Here are key points, I think make Grimworld what it is and make it useful for myself.

If player knows, that his character is in this mysterious fantasy world and you tell the player, that it is a mysterious place to be, even for an inhabitant (character). You can easily explain this by making character someone, who has been only in one place for his entire life. Farmer's son whose fate lies in heroism, city guard who has to venture to unknown lands to rescue his lord, mage's apprantise who has to show his worthiness to his master...
So, when player starts the game, he knows the location where his character is from. Actually, as Grimworld is a toolbox, player character could if he wanted write his own past including his village or tribe he lived in. It's Game masters job to approve or fix the background story.
But the point is, even players can make additions to the world via their characters and I can take notes thus making the world and setting larger.

Same goes with me as GM. I need a forbidden swamp? Yep, there it is and someone from game world knows where it is, so it has always been there. Tribe of cannibal hobbits, done.
The world has as many aspects, adventures, races, tribes, monsters, magical items as I want. That's the key of Grimworld. My ideas are not restricted in any way by setting, nor my ideas kill canon or logic of any particular game world/setting.

That is the reason why I usually like my own settings. I can do what ever I want to do, without actually changing pre written setting. I know, that games are made for you for your amusement, and no one is telling you that you cannot change settings. But somehow I feel like violating the original author if I make too many changes (that is the reason, for example, why I always in Vampire: the Masquerade games use fictional city, not city based on real life or city which is presented in V:tM sourcebooks).

A-Z: Combo for combat

Ooops, I did it again... posted yesterday Saturday's post but forgot to post yesterday's, so today I am posting yesterday's and now I wont stand up from this PC before I have written also today's so I can catch up the schedule.

Sheez, so much trouble.

Yesterday's Letter C Today Stands For...

Combo for combat. In many video games there are combo meters, what grow or gain points when you do special feats giving your character access to higher and more powerful actions and attacks. I have do admit, that I am not sure if there is roleplaying game system using some combo system already, so this is just a quick idea how I would do it.

So, if you know there is some system or mechanics that uses linked actions to access more powerful actions or similar, let me know!

Simple Way To Do It

Some actions, for example feats or similar have combo value. You do that feat, you get tick in your combo meter.

When you have ticked these feats enough you can perform a powerful attack or action. These might need different values of feat ticks to perform.

Easy way to keep account is simply using pen and scrap paper. You can of course make it more fancy, but it doesn't need more complicated method than tracking down magic points, health points or what ever.

Second method is using die. Just turn die to show how many ticks you have at that moment.

How Did It Work Again?

Special moves, actions, feats or what ever grow your special action or attack meter. Basically doing special moves, you get points or ticks to use on more special moves. But there are different variations.

Combo attacks are attacks you get to link or chain together to perform long multi-part-attack.

Special actions are what need to build power doing other actions before can be triggered.

Limit attack is when you build your ticks enough and perform really powerful, character specific attack (oh well, this I ripped from Final Fantasy series...).

Combo Attacks

There could be two ways to do combo attacks, but I use one method. It is easy to modificate for your own needs though.

With each attack, you get ticks. Ticks are points used to do combo attacks. You need fixed amount of ticks to start your combo, called trigger, then after that amount you need ticks left for combo.

For example character Spike trigger might be 5. Spike needs to build ticks to 5 to launch, or trigger, his combo, but he needs points to perform combo attacks also.

Combo attacks might be special moves you gain ticks from, or specific combo moves. If you use moves what grow ticks, performing them should use 1 - 1½ or even 2 times more ticks than they are building thicks up.

For example, Spike has attacks:

Swirl building 1 ticks,

Thrust building 1 ticks and

Thunderblade building 2 ticks.

Spike's trigger is 5, what means he has to perform 5 times Swirl and/or Thrust to even trigger combo (but he has no ticks left to perform combo) or two times Thunderblade and Swirl or Thrust, or any combination of those attacks to build trigger.

But 5 is not enough. It works this way. Spike has used 3 times Swirl (worth 3 trigger points), 2 times Thunderblade (4 trigger points) and Thrust once. Spike has 8 points to use for his combo. He triggers the combo costing 5 points (what his trigger is) and has 3 points left for combo.

3 left over points from triggering combo can be used to perform multiple actions. For example, if performing combo actions costs as much as they build ticks, 8 trigger points equal triggering combo and leaving 3 points to perform combo attack. If combo attacks are same as normal attacks (let's keep it that way for this example) Spike can perform Swirl three times, combine Swirl and Thrust 2 to 1, or perform Thunderblade with Swirl or Thrust.

Special Actions

Special actions are some powerful actions what character can access getting ticks. For example, healer's special action could be that he can heal more than an individual of party members. Or spell damage or effect can be doubled, even damage could be automatically critical.

These are really specific actions.

How Characters Access Combos And Special Actions?

It must be included in game, of course. It needs small special game related rules to be made. But these are easy steps. They could be made more easy as character specific personal powers, what characters can access during play via experience (similar to Dungeons & Dragons feats).

GM should only basically determine how ticks are accessed and how much it should cost to trigger combo or special action.

And After Combat?

If there are any ticks left, you could decide that they are lost. Combat heat is over, adrenaline is not rushing, action seized. So all ticks are gone and must be build up in next action paced action scene.

Project: J-Tacchi

Yes, I might write this down, with Final Fantasy-ish limit strikes (what basically are just Special Actions, sounding just more... eh... special).

How to make JRPG to PNP RPG?

I am playing Chrono Trigger, and it is awesome. Great example of JRPG. Awesome story, sense of humour, turn based combat system, items what make you a bit better, skills and spells. Similar to earlier Final Fantasy series.
While playing Chrono Trigger I started to think, what kind of pen and paper roleplaying game would be, and what elements it must include to be JRPG style. Here are some points.

Deep Characters


Player characters are deep. And unique. There is not necessarily race restrictions, but almost anything is possible. Even though there are only one or two main races in the game, your player character (or some NPC) could be of rare or unknown race.

Characters have background, but usually player characters just happen to be there. They might be normal persons who just happened to be in the wrong (or right) place at a time when the adventure starts. Still, they know how to fight or use spells. Or they learn it easily during the experience they gain.

Outlooks can be whacky. Red pointy hair is more a rule than exception. Player characters are individual, even strange or crazy looking.

Weapon of Choice


Player characters are good with one weapon, and they like to use similar weapons from the beginning. Some use swords, some bows, some javelins, some fists. They usually stick to this one type of weaponry, because they are good using it.

Special Skills, Spells


Everyone has special skills. Mostly special attacks. They use some kind of power similar to magic points or mana. They can learn better and more powerful skills during the adventure. With experience levels they might unlock new skills, buy new skills or even gain access to special skills from items.
Same way with spells. Usually spell users know more spells, as fighters know special attacks. In some conditions also non-mages can learn spells, but spellcasters have wider access to them.

(Similar to D&D feats.)

Attributes and Skills


Attributes raise after every level. They have no limit and numbers must be big. First level character might have attribute of 10-40 but at level 30 these values might be hundreds. Bigger the skill number, better the character is. Usually there are no skills at all, but everything is attribute based (I'd make some kind of different system for this though).
Attributes are usually combat, defence, initiative based, dexterity for dodge, maybe change for critical hit, and resistance. Also some other attributes may be present.
Attributes are what determine how well character can perform.

Problem here is, that JRPG use character Attributes only to determine character's power in combat, but in PnP roleplaying games attributes and skills are used in many other things.


Levels


No limit to levels. Every level grands bonuses to Attributes. It might be +X every lvl. Usually in JRPG you cannot choose what Attributes you develop as it is automated.

In PnP JRPG I'd give an amount of points player can divide to his character's Attributes.


Weapons, Armor and Items


Weapons are bonus to Attributes to deal damage, hit better etc. Same goes with Armor. Some equipment give better bonus overall, some give specific bonus but are not as good overall. Also, there is no limit to how good bonuses from equipment can be.

In JRPG items are usually affecting to character's status. Healing, MP restore, poison or other effect remove etc. Potions and magic scrolls are everywhere.

For PnP RPG use there could be also other items, what give other bonuses. Like a scope might give bonus for sniping, map and compass for traveling etc. JRPG items are designed usually just to buff character, not to help him in tasks.


Monsters


Many of them. Different kinds of roam the world. Also variety of races can be diverse. Monsters are easy to create, just use your imagination. Huge blue chicken with bombs? Four handed monkey with wings? Aracnoid robot? All possible.

Combat


Combat should be tactical but fast. Different powers, special attacks and spells to use, also normal attacks. Items of course to use.
In one turn you can choose one action to do. No multiple actions (well, maybe if you got special power for that).

Initiative is a hard one. You might want to use basic initiative concept from other games, as usually there's initiative bar growing in games. Just roll initiative in the beginning of the battle. Or you can make pre-made initiative what determines the course of battle, which could be better in my opinion.

Setting World


History is important. Make it. Usually they mix up fantasy, science fiction and steam- and cyberscifi. There might be samurai warriors, robots shooting lasers, elven with bows and sniper rifles. Be creative. Nothing is impossible.

J-Tacchi, Concept For My JRPG Style PnP Rules


I was thinking, that I'd like to do quick and simple JRPG rules to fit PnP gaming. Just for fun, not so seriously.

Character creation:
Choose or pick up ready made concept. It determines your starting Attributes, Powers, Magic, Skills, Equipment. I might add some points to add and share for a customization effect.
Calculate HP, MP (or other "power points"), resistance etc. based on Attributes.
Write character personality, history etc. and describe his appearance.

Task rolls:
Trying to perform something? Roll dice equal to your every 10th of attribute value (and possible bonus from skill?). Dicepool system. There might be target number to gain success (similar to Storyteller system). Different tasks need different amount of successes to be successful. For example easy would be 3, hard 5 etc. or what ever would be balanced.

Another possibility could be fixed D20 system. For every 10 points of attribute (or skill bonus or similar) you get +1 to your D20 roll against DC.

Which would be better? Remember, there can be "Attack value" of 300! Dicepool of 30 is ridiculous, but similarly is D20+30. Though "Attack value" of 300 might be über-tough anyways ;)


Combat goes similarly to Task rolls... but how to emulate big amounts of damage here? We are talking about JRPG, not 1D8 for a sword attack. Sword can do 5-50 damage at lower levels! It's not same to just downgrade damage values if we want to do JRPG, isn't it?
If enemy has 300 HP and character does 30 damage average, it's same as 30 HP vs. 3 damage... Easier to calculate though with smaller numbers. This is something I must think harder. How to make damage work.

One way could be, that damage has multiplier based on character. So, this normal sword has damage of 1D8 what is rolled, character's multiplier is x3 so final damage is 3-24. How to make sword better?
Rusty old sword is 1D8-2 when Sharp sword is 1D8+1.

Critical hits are 2x damage. Plain and easy.

Before damage is decreased from opponent's HP, you decrease defense from it. Different defense values could be for example:
- Physical (cutting, slashing, piercing, smashing)
- Fire (magical fire, firebreath, torch)
- Water (magical water spells)
- Air (magical air spells)
- Earth (magical earth spells)
- Natural (poisons, sleep, paralyzis)

And of course special defenses for example Thunder Turtle halves damage of lightning weapons.

Character might have 1D8+2 Silver Sword of Thunder with x1 damage multiplier. He is fighting Infant Thunder Turtle, what's defense values are:
Phy: 6
Fir: -
Wat: 12
Air: 6
Earth: 7
Natural: 6
½ to thunder attacks.

So character rolls damage against physical - Phy defense and remaining damage is halved. Fire based attacks are best against Infant Thunder Turtle. But when monsters are stronger, they need stronger weapons to fight. If Defense values are high, damage is hardly dealt without great multipliers. So here's another option:
Another possibility is, that Defense value is reduced from attack value. So if character has Attack of 31 he could roll 3D OR get +3 attack bonus. If Defense is off from Attack value, it's 25 what means 2D OR +2...

If the rules are fixed D20 system, against what is attack rolled to success? DC/AC of an opponent? Are defense values separate from DC/AC? Is there some fixed number to roll against and opponent doesn't affect it but only defenses against it?

So many questions with rules system still. Must write down to paper, and start to manipulate dice and numbers.

Sankarten Polku - Heroes' Path charactersheet

So, yesterday I started to do prg just for fun, as I was bored. I made also character sheet for it. It's in finnish, but I thought I'd share it still.

I write this first in finnish and then poorly try to attempt to translate it in english. But, here's the character sheet:

Quick and simple idea for Grimworld

Lankhemaar, City of High, Dungeons of Forgotten Ages

Reasons might be many for adventurers to ventrue in dungeons below the city of Lankhemaar. Lankhemaar is a city what has grown over generations and generations. When old generations are passed and new kings have come, the city has just been growing. Not by width, but height.

The whole city of Lankhemaar is like a huge mountain the current city with it's current king on top of it all. The city is so high, in few generations it will reach the clouds. Below current citystreets are underground layers, all from previous installments. The deeper you go underground, the further you travel from civilication. The lower the levels are, the more forgotten technology and arts there are amongst strange monsters what dwell there.

Few levels below the current city there are thugs, guilds of prophited black magic, hideouts of master thieves, blackmarkets, outlaws, outcasts, everyone and -thing that doesn't fit for the upper society.

Below these parts there are forgotten dungeons with monsters, treasures, forgotten manuscripts and areas of wild magic in wizards' havens when wizard's been long dead. The deeper you go, more dangers and rewards there are.

Society Around Dungeons

Many find underground levels what are former parts of city their home, as they don't find place where rich and proper people live. Under the street levels of Lankhemaar there are no laws or rules. You can get almost what ever you want there, for a proper price of course, but there is a high risk to loose it all - including your life.
Most of low society, as they are called, just try to survive and live their lifes as good as they can. But not all. Some of them try to make their living stealing or selling goods prophited or hard to obtain. Even some sirs, dukes and earls are rumored to send their agents to buy long forgotten powerful items for a high price.

Thieves are also known to live there. Not petty little pickpockets but rutheless backstabbers and professionals who even can gain access to notable people's homes to steal what they own.

Blackmarketeers sell items what are obtained from lower levels. Some also sell slaves for upper class from the poor living in the dungeons. Also exotic monsters are known to be sold for arenas to use as combatants for the amusement of the upper class or for exotic but dangerous pets to brag about.

Then there are those who travel deep to find what ever is in demand. Ancient scrolls and books, beautiful crafted jewerly, magical items and so on. They usually sell these items for blackmarketeers who proceed to deliver or sell them onwards. They are called graverobbers. They don't rob graves, but dwell deep down the Lankhemaar to obtain what ever valuable or specific item they find.

Mappers are ones who travel usually with a group of graverobbers. They draw maps to sell with high price for those who want to travel deep, but aren't experienced enough to do so. Unfortunaly, usually in mapped areas only less valuable items are left as most precious items are long ago taken.

 Sometimes from higher class wizards or noblemen travel with their own group or anonymously with graverobbers for what ever reason they are after. Sometimes to learn, sometimes to personally ensure they gain a certain item or sometimes just out of boredom for an advenure of their life.

Character

Character has his reasons to go for an expedition ventruing to lower levels of Lankhemaar. Maybe he is poor and wants wealth to support his family, or he owns money for some powerful facet. He might be bored duke's son who wants some action into his life. Or he might be a scholar who wants to find something forgotten to gain power or to claim as his invention.

What ever the reasons are, the journey is dangerous equally. And if you survive, the prize can be rewarding. Some go back, out of greed and some don't know any other way of living than put their life on a stake.

Two setting ideas

I tried to write YDIN as whole and found, that it is quite hard task to do. I have ideas from here and there, and putting them together in write (program) can be hard. Then I figured out, that I can write separate rules within this blog in any order I feel. Easily.
Ofcourse I could do the same with notepad for example, and just copypaste them together in the end. But still, somehow writing rules in parts to this blog is so much easier and more inspiring work.

Basic rules are almost done. I need to write combat rules, do some weapons lists and write wounding and death rules and that's about it. Anything beyond that will be written in settings. Like for example rules for magic, insanity etc. setting specific.

So, as I am writing the rules down I have come up with two settings. Another is After Destruction I have written here, and also started to write it down otherwise. I found out the same problem as with rules, it's quite hard for me to write whole setting down "at once", so I decided, that after I have written the rules down in whole I can start to write this setting similarly; piece by piece. I could start post titled: Wastelands and write it down, then Equipment, then Wastelands Monsters, then Living in After Destruction, then Mutants, then Character classes etc. etc.
I don't have to worry about ideas, or in what order I try to write them, or about layout. I can write stuff as they come up to me. Piece by piece.

Another setting I want to write is called Grimworld. Dark high-fantasy with humour. Kind of like Discworld. There are so many great and popular fantasy settings, that it would be total waste of time to write yet another tolkien-ish fantasy setting. Who would be interested about it? No one. This will be the one I can put on all the stupid and funny ideas I come up with. It can be ridiculous and crazy, as it's the settings idea. To be dark fantasy with humour.

Why won't I just put this stuff in my homebrew (and growing during game) D&D setting Lankhemaar? Because I want my D&D to be kind of genre-serious swords and wizardry high-fantasy with flavour of D&D corebooks. Even though we are playing in my homebrew setting, I don't want to include Death with hobby to farm bees getting headache about the buzz when one bee gets lost inside his skull (Discworld Eric - Faust book actually has this description!!!). But in my own Grimworld I can do something similar. Flying and laughing stealing batmonkies, Gremlins like goblins (Pathfinder has those I think), cannibal tribe of elves, Grimreapers botching familiar slaves, aircrafts what are powered with magical bananas, talking mountains (ents and treants, you are challenged!), senile dragon etc, upside down dimensions, lollipop forest with evil witches who have bad teeth from sugar etc.

I also want to write this spy-thingie I have talked about earlier. Psychic investigators, commandos and spies. Not sure is there a game about those, but I can make it for my own fun. Not sure will I do it, as After Destruction is my primary setting to write and Grimworld is for laughs and random ideas. Another one I'd like to write would be wild west pulp with monsters, but there are games about it already. Not sure could I write it any better, and would I take the effort to write down something already created. Well, I know there are post-apocalyptic stuff already out there, and many play homebrew or fan-made Fallout, so writing post-apocalypse isn't that new idea. I just want my post-apo to be with hope and re-building the world instead of living in a shithole.

This post makes no sense... Too much energy drink I quess.

Time travelling Squirrels - almost done, need something

Wow, this is actually almost done! Need to polish it here and there and read it and try to translate it in english so it would be even semi-understable. And then good readers, you can enjoy it also!

This game will be like awesome. Well worth of Ennie and your granny.

If there are people who would like to draw cartoonish squirrels with cool gadgets made of junk, contact me! I won't pay you, but you'll see your artwork in this piece of cr... mastery.

So, soon, I will post this asesomely layouted PDF of squirrels trying to save their home forest here.

Stay tuned.

And it's a kids game by the way.