Saturday, May 30, 2020

Stygian Darkness

This is mostly just for my players. Its a document for my ruleset.
My personal ruleset is a combination of several versions of the GLOG, various b/x clones and my own stuff.
There's probably more influences that went into it but for now that's all i can recall.
(Obligatory link to Arnolds blog, he made the glog, and im using his rules for inventory, advancement and death and dismemberment. please check it out if you somehow haven't already and are interested in design philosophy)
The game is in silver standard, (1 gold = 100 silver = 1000 copper)

Character Creation
Roll 3d6 three times, recording each result. Apply each result to one of the following six ability scores. Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Ego, Strength and Willpower.
Charisma is how charming you are, your social poise and skill.
Constitution is how tough and healthy you are.
Dexterity is a combination of manual dexterity and agility.
Ego is your characters mental coherence and sense of identity.
Strength is your characters ability to enact physical change in the world via raw power.
Willpower is your characters mental strength and their ability to resist things that affect their mind.

Modifiers to rolls of that type are as follows.
3: -3
4-5: -2
6-8: -1
9-12: +0
13-15: +1
16-17: +2
18: +3

Following this, you choose a class. The currently written classes are Fighter, Expert and Magic User (clerics on standby until i can figure out how to make them interesting).

Then select your alignment. Certain classes require certain alignments. Alignments are not related to ones morality, personality or philosophy in any way. They merely determine the paranormal forces that your character is attuned to. They are Lawful (if the forces are axiomatic and maintain the ultimate inevitable truth of reality) Neutral (if there are no forces affecting you) and Chaotic (if the forces are discordant, howling beyond the veil of reality and defy all known laws of creation).

Finally, fill in the blanks on the character sheet with what your classes give you. You start at level one and if your class is human you may play as any variation thereof with no mechanical effects. All characters have a set of normal civilian clothes and a backpack in addition to what their class gives them. Characters also have 3d6*10 Silver pieces, which they can spend on items before play (just use this table, ignoring the alchemy section).

Inventory
You have inventory slots equal to your strength. A number of these slots equal to half your dexterity are fast slots (you can reach them at will) otherwise they are normal and require 1d6 rounds of shuffling about to get a hold of the item. This is only if you are wearing a backpack. If you dont have one you just have your hands/pockets, and some bags/packs might be better or worse. You cannot have more slots than your strength, though they may all be fast slots.

Doing shit and shit being done to you
The two main rolls you take are checks and saves. Checks are a roll of variable difficulty, typically (but not always) a 1d20 vs 5, 10 or 15 (meaning you have to roll higher than that). Ability checks are a standard roll as described in the previous sentence, adding the ability bonus as a modifier, as are ability saves. Contests are the same except you have to beat each others rolls.
Combat works a lot like an ability check, except you only add your attack bonus to the roll (0 for most characters) and have to roll over the opponents armor class (which is 10 for an unarmored human). If the character succeed on the combat roll, they roll for damage based on the weapon used. If they fail the opponent takes no damage.

Combat, But the fun part
You can do two major actions per round (a few seconds) in combat. Such as attacking and moving, attacking twice, moving twice (running), shoving someone, tripping someone etc.
Turns are different. Turns are 10 minute units of time used for exploration.
All of this happens at once, unless they directly affect someone else, in which case a dexterity contest is rolled for who goes first.
Death and dismemberment! When you take damage in excess of hp you usually gain wounds. When you gain wounds, you start dying.
Damage is only taken if the thing has a reasonable chance of killing you. A rat bite wont kill you (the disease might though).
HP stands for Hit Points, and are your ability to minimize any incoming damage.
Wounds subtract from your max HP, but never below zero.
While you have wounds you start dying. Make stabilization saves at DC 10+wounds (roll higher than 10). A natural 1 means you die, a failure means you gain another wound, a success means nothing happens and a roll of 20 or higher means you stabilize and wake up in 10 minutes with a scar and a shitty after-pain. If the wounds were from a critical hit, you roll on the dismemberment table (unless common sense tells you what would happen, like falling.)
Non lethal damage in excess of your hp will knock you out for 1d6+overflow rounds.
Emotional damage will give you stress and some additional effects based on the source.

Stress subtracts from your max hp but not below zero.
When you gain stress roll 1d20 vs a DC of 5. If you fail you have a breakdown. Roll a random one. All further breakdowns will be this. Also roll for a derangement which activates when you have stress and only de-activates when you're in a safe place.

Some things can bypass hp entirely. Being helpless while attacked will do so, as well as extremely personal emotional attacks or extremely lovecraftian things.
If wounds or stress is in excess of 10, you cease to be a playable character. For physical damage you die, for emotional damage you go insane.
Tables (adjusted for my games) will be provided at the end of this post.

If you and your adventuring party engage in fun activities (parties, carousing) you can become cheered, where you have a collective 3 temporary hit points.

Skills
Skills are broken into two types. Basic and Complex. Basic skills begin at a 1 in 6 chance of success and the skill done most often in a session may be improved by 1 if the character succeeds at a dc 10 ego check. Basic skills may go up to 6 in 6, the character must roll 2d6 and only if both come up 6 does the character fail. Basic skills are never social, perception, stealth or directly helpful in combat in any way.
Complex skills start at 0 in 6 (rolling a 2d6, and only succeeding at 2 ones.) Complex skills have unique mechanics for each one.
Theres no set list of skills, or a set list of what you can do with skills. Some things can reduce your chance of success, and some things can increase them (preparation and research for example)

Classes
Classes have a starter hp, a hit dice type that is rolled for hp beyond that level, and then hp gained at level 10.+ HP gained is modified by a characters constitution for every level except ten and up. Furthermore, the character can choose or randomly roll a title and skill, then choose or randomly roll a starter set from the title.

Fighter
Fighters are trained to be able to kill at a moments notice. Either through military training, natural environment or other factors, they know how to kill, and how to do it well. For this reason, many turn to a life of adventure, unable to settle down comfortably due to their experiences.
Starter HP: 8
Dice Type: 1d8
HP at level 10 and beyond: +3
Combat Training: Fighters have an attack bonus equal to their level. Attack bonuses higher than 10 add the bonus above 10 to damage (thus an attack bonus of 12 is +10 to attack rolls and +2 to damage.)

Expert
Magic users adventure because they are unwelcome anywhere else, fighters because they cannot settle comfortably due to their violent training. Experts may join for any number of reasons. Perhaps they desire treasure, fantastic adventure or more. Experts are somehow both the most and least normal of the core classes.
Starter HP: 4
Dice Type: 1d6
HP at level 10 and beyond: +2
Skillful: The expert gains 4 "skill points" at level one that they may spend to increase their characters skill chances (note this on their character sheet). They gain +2 each level.
Basic Combat training: The expert has an attack bonus equal to half their level (rounded down) up to a maximum of 5.
Arcane assistance: An expert may assist a magic user in arcane endeavors. (described in a future post)

Magic User
Magic Users are feared, as most of the world shuns magic and the power it brings. Most of humanity clings to their pockets of civilization, stability and comfort, unwilling to confront the supernatural truths that lie immediately outside their perception. The magic user, however, immerses themself in arcane secrets and forbidden knowledge, ruthlessly pursuing arcane might with wild abandon.
Magic users are rare, extremely so, due to their overwhelming power over the forces of reality.
Magic users are always chaotic
Starter HP: 4
Dice type: 1d4
HP at level 10 and beyond: +1
Spell-casting: The magic user can cast spells. To do this the caster chooses the level they wish to cast the spell at, and rolls a d20 against the spells d20. The caster adds their level to their roll and the spell adds the level its cast at to its roll. If the caster wins, a basic success occurs. If the caster wins by a great margin (5+the spells level) then a greater success happens. If the caster wins by a massive margin (19+, or twice a great margin if higher) then a grand success happens. Conversely, if the spell wins then a basic failure will occur. If the spell wins by a great margin, a greater failure will occur and if the spell wins by a massive margin a grand failure will occur.

A list of starter spells and magical activities will be provided in an upcoming post.

The rest of this post is just a copy of arnolds tables, altered to fit my campaign. Skip them if you have your own or prefer that version.
Dismemberment Table [d6]

1 Arm Missing/useless Lose 1 Strength
2 Hand Missing/useless Lose 1 Dexterity
3 Crushed Ribs Lose 1 constitution
4 Leg Missing/Useless Lose 1 strength. Movement reduced
5 Coma Assuming prompt medical attention, return in 1d20*1d20 days unless either comes up as a 1
50% chance of gaining an astral projection skill (complex) at 1 in 6
6 Missing Eye -2 to ranged attacks


Breakdown Table [d6] (these last 10 minutes)

1 Fight Attack the source of your stress until it is destroyed or removed
2 Flight Flee the source of stress until you are three rooms away or it is removed
3 Faint Fall unconscious. 1 in 6 chance to awake each round.
4 Vomit You vomit and fall to 0 hp.
5 Scream Scream until the source of stress is removed or destroyed. You cannot
stop yourself from screaming but others can try. Each round an encounter
check occurs.
6 Cling You grab a random adjacent pc and refuse to let go until the source of the
stress is removed.

Derangement Table

1-5 Proximal Phobia Phobia based on whatever gave you the stress
6 Claustrophobia Gain 1 stress when you end a round in small places
7 Acrophobia Panic when around a fall (within 5' of a 10' drop)
Gain 1 stress when you fall.
8 Thalassophobia You panic when above or in deep or murky water.
If you end a turn in deep or murky water, or fall in,
gain 1 stress
9 Nyctophobia You panic when without a light source. Each turn
ended in total darkness gives 1 stress.
10 Thanatophobia You panic when exposed to death, the dead or undead
Gain 1 stress each time you touch a corpse, are affected
by the undead or a party member dies.
11 Talking to Yourself Never surprise enemies. Enemies get a 1 in 6 chance of
surprise
12 Reluctant Whenever you're about to leave town or a campsite or a
similarly save environment there is a flat 50% chance you
refuse. You may try again a day later.
13 Escapism Always loose initiative.
14 Guilt Cannot gain levels
15 Self Hatred Each time you critically fail, take 2 emotional damage.
16 Pacifist Each time you attempt lethal harm, take 2 emotional damage
You can inconvenience opponents for your allies though.
17 Depression You cannot benefit from cheer, and have a 50% chance of
temporarily abandoning the party when they attempt to gain
cheer, due to distress.
18 Comfort Object Pick an item in your inventory. When its out of your possession
gain 1 stress and panic. This item doesn't change when this is
inactive
19 Sadist Once you attempt lethal harm, you may take no actions except
to attempt to kill the target.
20 Morbid Curiosity When encountering a weird and possibly dangerous thing the
GM can ask you to make a wil check in order to resist
investigating (such as reading the latin inscription out loud, or
touching the glowing rock etc)