I finally got to play test my 3E "dungeon crawl" rules that utilize the "d20 mechanic". I've got them to fit in a nice 20 page booklet, which I might make available if it's legal to do so (I need to recheck if any of it was lifted wholesale). Classes are extremely simple, as are races, and I've included a much simplified skill set.
There are glaring differences in play style from old school, however I'm not sure if it is due to mechanics, or my new play group. I've finally started going to my local gaming store, and a couple of the guys in my group are mainly 3.5/Pathfinder players. The good news is they love my rules, I'm not sure if they like them more than 3E, but they are extremely enthusiastic about them. The best part is they aren't asking to play 3E instead, and I've allowed them the use of any 3E books with my rules.
One of the players has really used that ability, and is using a class from Pathfinder (Oracle), and several feats from 3E.
As I said it's a very different style of gaming, it's much easier than strait old school, and characters are much more powerful. Furthermore because of it's similarities to 3rd Edition the 3E players are definitely focused on builds, and manipulating the rules for character creation. The system is definitely handling it well, and it's still no where as complicated or time consuming as 3rd or 4th Edition D&D. Overall I'd say I was successful in my goals, as it definitely feels like playing a video game, but it's still rules-lite and fast to play like OD&D.
Something that I love about my game is that anyone can play and have a good time. Whether that's because of rules, or despite them I don't know, but I do know that we're having fun. We've got old school players in our group that have never touched 3rd, we've got almost completely new players that played 4th once, and we've got experienced 3.5 players, and all of them are having a blast. More importantly, they are all getting to play D&D in a way they like; some are playing simple characters and role playing heavily, others are focusing on "builds" and using the rules to their advantage, and others still are just killing monsters and looting dungeons.
I may seem egotistical, and I'm sure I'm simply jealous because I've been working on this before D&D Next came out; but from what I've seen so far, this really is a game for everyone to enjoy. The biggest support to my idea is that at the table so far, I've been using a mix of OD&D, 1E, and 3E books to DM with; some of my players have been using 3E books; and yet another player is using a 2E book. We're taking what material and rules we like from those books, and getting the play the same game, at the same table together. Like I said, maybe we're having fun despite the rules, but I'd like to think that maybe there really is an essence to D&D, and we've managed to capture it.
Of course it's not news to me that there are gaming groups that have been doing this for ages. I'm simply codifying my methods for using all of that material together, and frankly I think WOTC is failing to do so. I've looked at next, and it doesn't look like it's going to accomplish any of the goals they're setting out to do.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Editionless Gaming...Also Why I Won't Write a Retroclone
I haven't wanted to keep posting what I'm doing lately, because I keep changing my mind, going back on myself. Tonight though my wife gave me a great idea, that Greyhawk Grognard says he does too: develop a mantra. I need to remember why I'm making Arcane Adventures, and not get distracted by nostalgia glasses (I never even wore...). So here it is:
Arcane Adventures will be Simple and Efficient.
Arcane Adventures will be Modular; Ignoring rules and House-Ruling will not break the game.
Arcane Adventures will be an Edition-Less game.
Abovea all Arcane Adventures will make sense.
Edition-less gaming? I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, and I can't be bother to check, but that's what I want. I want a game, and supplements that can be used with ANY form of D&D ever. It shouldn't matter what skill system you use, or whether its descending or ascending armor class, etc. My monsters should work for any edition, with minimal tweaking; my classes should be able to fit easily in another game. My optional rules for skills, combat, etc. should all be just that; optional.
Now onto why I'm not going to write a retroclone, and why I'm probably not going to publish Arcane Adventures. Read this:
http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2011/01/wheres-our-ept-and-blackmoor-is-osr.html
This sums up pretty much everything I feel. Now go and read a million other blogs, and forum posts about how the OSR is essentially restating, and stealing other people's works and ideas, and making money at it. While I'm not quite so hostile, and not so negative, I can appreciate the sentiment; Retroclones are just that, restatements of other people's works and ideas.
I don't want to retread what everyone has already done to death, but if I want to make a stand alone game system I'll have to. I'd have to write down my, slightly different, version of the Orc again. More so than that I'd have to re-explain what strength is, what an attack roll is, what armor class is; all things that have been explained thousands of times. You can only re-write the definition of strength so many times.
I'm not very good at writing, and I'll admit that. I have no ability to sit there and essentially plagiarize, and make it seem like my own work, I'm not going to even attempt it. If someone, one day wants to release my rules collection (that's what it is), in a nice shiny book for everyone to buy, I'll work with them to get that done. As it stands, I don't see anyone having interest in my game but me. So for right now I'm happy copying and pasting rules into my own house rules document.
What do I foresee happening? Writing down, and keeping track of all my original ideas, and possibly releasing those as edition-less supplements for any D&D style game.
I'll probably keep writing on here because it's fun, and who knows, maybe one day I'll get that interest from people I keep talking about. It's all about supply and demand; I have no demand, so why create the supply?
Arcane Adventures will be Simple and Efficient.
Arcane Adventures will be Modular; Ignoring rules and House-Ruling will not break the game.
Arcane Adventures will be an Edition-Less game.
Abovea all Arcane Adventures will make sense.
Edition-less gaming? I don't remember if I've mentioned this before, and I can't be bother to check, but that's what I want. I want a game, and supplements that can be used with ANY form of D&D ever. It shouldn't matter what skill system you use, or whether its descending or ascending armor class, etc. My monsters should work for any edition, with minimal tweaking; my classes should be able to fit easily in another game. My optional rules for skills, combat, etc. should all be just that; optional.
Now onto why I'm not going to write a retroclone, and why I'm probably not going to publish Arcane Adventures. Read this:
http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2011/01/wheres-our-ept-and-blackmoor-is-osr.html
This sums up pretty much everything I feel. Now go and read a million other blogs, and forum posts about how the OSR is essentially restating, and stealing other people's works and ideas, and making money at it. While I'm not quite so hostile, and not so negative, I can appreciate the sentiment; Retroclones are just that, restatements of other people's works and ideas.
I don't want to retread what everyone has already done to death, but if I want to make a stand alone game system I'll have to. I'd have to write down my, slightly different, version of the Orc again. More so than that I'd have to re-explain what strength is, what an attack roll is, what armor class is; all things that have been explained thousands of times. You can only re-write the definition of strength so many times.
I'm not very good at writing, and I'll admit that. I have no ability to sit there and essentially plagiarize, and make it seem like my own work, I'm not going to even attempt it. If someone, one day wants to release my rules collection (that's what it is), in a nice shiny book for everyone to buy, I'll work with them to get that done. As it stands, I don't see anyone having interest in my game but me. So for right now I'm happy copying and pasting rules into my own house rules document.
What do I foresee happening? Writing down, and keeping track of all my original ideas, and possibly releasing those as edition-less supplements for any D&D style game.
I'll probably keep writing on here because it's fun, and who knows, maybe one day I'll get that interest from people I keep talking about. It's all about supply and demand; I have no demand, so why create the supply?
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Scope and Time
This four year old discussion really explains why I've changed my mind so much, or at least provides a goodly amount of insight.
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2009/04/ad-3rd-edition.html
A fellow by the name of Chris did almost exactly what I'm doing, but to his taste. He took AD&D 1E and 2E, mixed them with 3E and Castles and Crusades, to make his perfect D&D. He copied text wholesale like I intend to, and even went so far as to use the original artwork and covers.
A lot of people gave him flack because he didn't make it OGL friendly, and isn't sharing it the "right way". Now this was four years ago, and it's still up surprisingly. At the time though, a few people were concerned it would make the OSR look bad, and WOTC would hunt him down, etc. What these people fail to realize is Scope and Time.
See with other retroclones they have one, maybe three source documents they're working from. They just have to rewrite a single, or maybe a few books, and that's that. Myself, on the other hand, am going to be referencing dozens, if not hundreds of sources for my project. Copying out the information is going to take long enough, imagine taking the time to reword it. Especially since you can only rewrite the definition of strength so many times.
This is partly why I've given up on making something legally publishable. Not only do I know I'll have little to know interest (I've checked a few forums, and only 1 person has played Chris' game), but the amount of work that will go into making an OGL friendly document would be ridiculous on my part.
Of course this isn't anything I haven't said before, and I've known about AD&D3, but it's interesting to view a similar situation. Definitely solidifies my decision in all of this. However just like Chris', I'll be more than willing to share my work, with anyone that can look past the "blatant plagiarism", and see it for the laborious work it is.
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2009/04/ad-3rd-edition.html
A fellow by the name of Chris did almost exactly what I'm doing, but to his taste. He took AD&D 1E and 2E, mixed them with 3E and Castles and Crusades, to make his perfect D&D. He copied text wholesale like I intend to, and even went so far as to use the original artwork and covers.
A lot of people gave him flack because he didn't make it OGL friendly, and isn't sharing it the "right way". Now this was four years ago, and it's still up surprisingly. At the time though, a few people were concerned it would make the OSR look bad, and WOTC would hunt him down, etc. What these people fail to realize is Scope and Time.
See with other retroclones they have one, maybe three source documents they're working from. They just have to rewrite a single, or maybe a few books, and that's that. Myself, on the other hand, am going to be referencing dozens, if not hundreds of sources for my project. Copying out the information is going to take long enough, imagine taking the time to reword it. Especially since you can only rewrite the definition of strength so many times.
This is partly why I've given up on making something legally publishable. Not only do I know I'll have little to know interest (I've checked a few forums, and only 1 person has played Chris' game), but the amount of work that will go into making an OGL friendly document would be ridiculous on my part.
Of course this isn't anything I haven't said before, and I've known about AD&D3, but it's interesting to view a similar situation. Definitely solidifies my decision in all of this. However just like Chris', I'll be more than willing to share my work, with anyone that can look past the "blatant plagiarism", and see it for the laborious work it is.
BRP is a Better D&D
If any of you are really into RPGs, and particularly BRP, you'll know there's a cool project called Classic Fantasy. The author converted D&D to Basic Role Playing, a percentile based role playing system. A lot of guys in the BRP community are claiming it does classic dungeon crawling better than current D&D, and I'm starting to see why.
Something I've noticed while going through all of the 1st Edition stuff, is almost every other mechanic or stat in the game has a percentage equivalent marked out next to it. Chances for surprise, disease mechanics, reaction rolls, etc... Even Arneson, who really came up with the role playing aspect of D&D came out with Adventures in Fantasy, in which he converted the attack tables to percentage based.
The skill system my wife convinced me to include was essentially that of BRP, you have a percentage chance for the skills, and you roll under your stat to succeed. What does this sound like? Rogue skills. Gygax, with the creation of the thief, essentially created the underlying system for BRP. In my game I differentiate between class skills that Rogues, Rangers, etc.. have, and mundane general skills. However what makes most sense to me, is simply extending the Thief skill system, to the more mundane skills of D&D, like non-weapon proficiencies.
I already intended to include non D&D sources in my game like Chivalry & Sorcery and Runequest for some ideas, but now it seems more clear then ever, that D&D is really every RPG.
Of course if I'm including a skill system, possibly including something like feats, having all of the extra classes, and using ascending armor class, why not play 3rd Edition? Because AD&D does it better. That's for another post, and idea I have, but suffice it to say; the d20 mechanic that's supposed to simplify the game, really doesn't.
From experience it's easier to have a bunch of unrelated, simple sub-systems, than trying to make one mechanic cover every possible situation. When you do that, you end up having to have a million special circumstances, and spot rules, that really end up being different sub-systems.
Something I've noticed while going through all of the 1st Edition stuff, is almost every other mechanic or stat in the game has a percentage equivalent marked out next to it. Chances for surprise, disease mechanics, reaction rolls, etc... Even Arneson, who really came up with the role playing aspect of D&D came out with Adventures in Fantasy, in which he converted the attack tables to percentage based.
The skill system my wife convinced me to include was essentially that of BRP, you have a percentage chance for the skills, and you roll under your stat to succeed. What does this sound like? Rogue skills. Gygax, with the creation of the thief, essentially created the underlying system for BRP. In my game I differentiate between class skills that Rogues, Rangers, etc.. have, and mundane general skills. However what makes most sense to me, is simply extending the Thief skill system, to the more mundane skills of D&D, like non-weapon proficiencies.
I already intended to include non D&D sources in my game like Chivalry & Sorcery and Runequest for some ideas, but now it seems more clear then ever, that D&D is really every RPG.
Of course if I'm including a skill system, possibly including something like feats, having all of the extra classes, and using ascending armor class, why not play 3rd Edition? Because AD&D does it better. That's for another post, and idea I have, but suffice it to say; the d20 mechanic that's supposed to simplify the game, really doesn't.
From experience it's easier to have a bunch of unrelated, simple sub-systems, than trying to make one mechanic cover every possible situation. When you do that, you end up having to have a million special circumstances, and spot rules, that really end up being different sub-systems.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
A Couple Genuine RetroClone Ideas
When I first got into D&D I was completely clueless about everything. I had no clue what editions were, or how retroclones worked. I just know there was an "Original" and that's what we played. When I discovered OSRIC I was amazed! Old School Rules Index & Compendium (IIRC). Of course I thought to myself "Oh how wonderful! Someone has taken all of the rules from all the old school versions of D&D and put them in one place!". Of course I was sadly wrong, not to say OSRIC isn't great, because it is, but I just didn't know back then.
Every once in a while, during my work on Arcane Adventures, I still think back to that idea. What if someone did collect all of the "old school rules" and put them in one place. Well this isn't really possible because there's so much of a difference between every edition, particularly with small rules, but that doesn't stop me from thinking up horrible ideas.
First what about an Advanced Dungeons & Dragon clone that took the rules from both 1E and 2E and put them in one spot. There would be some differences, for sure, but so much of it is similar and works together, it wouldn't be too far off.
You could do the same for Basic D&D. Of course that's even worse, because some editions give bonuses where others don't, etc. However if I did take somewhat of an Arcane Adventures approach to the task, you'd simply pick the best, most developed, and sensible rule perhaps.
For OD&D I'd love to stick all of the information from the Little Brown Books in one place. Several people have done this. I'd like to reorganize, however I don't want to change any of it. Then I could take the Swords & Wizardry approach and make a second book that includes either all of the OD&D stuff, or just an expansion with all of the supplement material.
Why bother? Well perhaps not to make RetroClones or games that can be played, but to make an actual Rules Index & Compendium. It's an interesting thought at least to me. With Arcane Adventures I'm already somewhat doing this, however I do acknowledge I'm changing a lot of the rules, big and small. It'd be nice, if I'm on a retro-kick to play some unaltered D&D, but have all the rules for whatever I want to play in one place.
Thoughts anyone?
Every once in a while, during my work on Arcane Adventures, I still think back to that idea. What if someone did collect all of the "old school rules" and put them in one place. Well this isn't really possible because there's so much of a difference between every edition, particularly with small rules, but that doesn't stop me from thinking up horrible ideas.
First what about an Advanced Dungeons & Dragon clone that took the rules from both 1E and 2E and put them in one spot. There would be some differences, for sure, but so much of it is similar and works together, it wouldn't be too far off.
You could do the same for Basic D&D. Of course that's even worse, because some editions give bonuses where others don't, etc. However if I did take somewhat of an Arcane Adventures approach to the task, you'd simply pick the best, most developed, and sensible rule perhaps.
For OD&D I'd love to stick all of the information from the Little Brown Books in one place. Several people have done this. I'd like to reorganize, however I don't want to change any of it. Then I could take the Swords & Wizardry approach and make a second book that includes either all of the OD&D stuff, or just an expansion with all of the supplement material.
Why bother? Well perhaps not to make RetroClones or games that can be played, but to make an actual Rules Index & Compendium. It's an interesting thought at least to me. With Arcane Adventures I'm already somewhat doing this, however I do acknowledge I'm changing a lot of the rules, big and small. It'd be nice, if I'm on a retro-kick to play some unaltered D&D, but have all the rules for whatever I want to play in one place.
Thoughts anyone?
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
One-On-One and Non-D&D Resources
I haven't played D&D, Arcane Adventures, or really any role playing or tabletop game in a while. My wife and I tried to play some Axis & Allies, but the cats decided that wasn't allowed, and knocked it on to the ground. (As a note for any old schoolers who know what Axis & Allies is, I actually have an original copy from 1984 my dad gave me. Probably not really that cool, but definitely cool to me when I was growing up).
Now I've written about my wife a lot, and that's really because she's my partner in all of this. Honestly I feel I might have down played her contributions, in an effort to be self conscious, and not come off as that sort of John Lennon-like guy. Quite frankly I married my best friend, who happens to be just as obsessed with tabletop games as I am. With that said, today she brought up the idea of one-on-one tabletop games. Of course we've played D&D with just the two of us before, and we've played card games, and board games; but she wanted something different.
Specifically she wanted a game where we could both play, and neither of us had to strictly DM or referee. Now we've actually done this before. As I've read other lonely nerds, DM's, and wargamers oft do, I've setup and played games by myself for hypothetical purposes, or to test game mechanics. Naturally when I got into old school D&D via Swords & Wizardry, I wanted to run a test game to really understand the rules before I attempted to referee a game.
Watching me tinker with the new game, my wife asked if she could join in. We made a four character party, and proceeded to raid the dungeon. I'd simply roll on the random charts to determine what was in each room, and I handled the monsters. Obviously this style of play precludes certain elements of mystery, and having to play the monsters, I'd have to read their description and know their weaknesses. My wife's solution is to have a "party leader" and "referee player"; the party leader makes tactical decisions, and the referee player handles the monsters. With this dual role system, one player is free to "play dumb", but still gets to roll for his characters, gain xp, and actually fight monsters; while the other player gets to think out the situation, and actually have the mental challenge. Obviously players would trade roles frequently, or at least every other session.
This was all retrospective thought, as we thought back and remembered we'd already done this. Before reminiscing however, I recalled another game I had looked at that was touted as "GM-less". The Mythic role playing game has a Game Master Emulator (which is available by itself). I went ahead and grabbed a copy of both, as I no longer had them. What I found out was great, the Game Master Emulator can be used with any role playing game.
All of this leads me to how I play and run D&D; pillaging everything. Whether it's other games like Runequest, or TV shows like Hercules, I steal what I can from everything. I'm sure most gamers do this, but I'll outline some of the places I go to, or at least plan on going to to for ideas.
Just as some examples of what I've been tossing around in my mind as sources that aren't actually D&D related, or D20:
-Mythic, obviously, as I've already stated, and particularly for the GM emulator.
-Runequest, which I've been told has some very interesting monsters and environment.
-Elder Scrolls for monsters, environment ideas, and possibly even some mechanics
Now this one is going to be a bit far off for most old schoolers. I know most guys in the OSR, and who play 2E back are usually at least in their 30's, and some are even older. As a rather young guy, I have some fond memories of Pokemon, though just the TV show. I never got into the card games, or videos games, and only watched for a little bit. However everyone from generation is into it, so I'm constantly being bombarded by images of the series. One thing that really sticks out to me, at least with the early Pokemon, is how they'd make great D&D monsters.
A lot of the art for Pokemon is actually pretty good, and while some of the monster concepts are pretty generic or simple, I think they fit the D&D generic. Electric rats, serpent like rock golems, heck there is even a Pokemon that's basically black ooze. With an endless list of monsters, I don't see why it couldn't be pillaged for some interesting, and novel additions to a monster manual. Even some of the other modern shows and games like Yugioh could be used.
Now I've written about my wife a lot, and that's really because she's my partner in all of this. Honestly I feel I might have down played her contributions, in an effort to be self conscious, and not come off as that sort of John Lennon-like guy. Quite frankly I married my best friend, who happens to be just as obsessed with tabletop games as I am. With that said, today she brought up the idea of one-on-one tabletop games. Of course we've played D&D with just the two of us before, and we've played card games, and board games; but she wanted something different.
Specifically she wanted a game where we could both play, and neither of us had to strictly DM or referee. Now we've actually done this before. As I've read other lonely nerds, DM's, and wargamers oft do, I've setup and played games by myself for hypothetical purposes, or to test game mechanics. Naturally when I got into old school D&D via Swords & Wizardry, I wanted to run a test game to really understand the rules before I attempted to referee a game.
Watching me tinker with the new game, my wife asked if she could join in. We made a four character party, and proceeded to raid the dungeon. I'd simply roll on the random charts to determine what was in each room, and I handled the monsters. Obviously this style of play precludes certain elements of mystery, and having to play the monsters, I'd have to read their description and know their weaknesses. My wife's solution is to have a "party leader" and "referee player"; the party leader makes tactical decisions, and the referee player handles the monsters. With this dual role system, one player is free to "play dumb", but still gets to roll for his characters, gain xp, and actually fight monsters; while the other player gets to think out the situation, and actually have the mental challenge. Obviously players would trade roles frequently, or at least every other session.
This was all retrospective thought, as we thought back and remembered we'd already done this. Before reminiscing however, I recalled another game I had looked at that was touted as "GM-less". The Mythic role playing game has a Game Master Emulator (which is available by itself). I went ahead and grabbed a copy of both, as I no longer had them. What I found out was great, the Game Master Emulator can be used with any role playing game.
All of this leads me to how I play and run D&D; pillaging everything. Whether it's other games like Runequest, or TV shows like Hercules, I steal what I can from everything. I'm sure most gamers do this, but I'll outline some of the places I go to, or at least plan on going to to for ideas.
Just as some examples of what I've been tossing around in my mind as sources that aren't actually D&D related, or D20:
-Mythic, obviously, as I've already stated, and particularly for the GM emulator.
-Runequest, which I've been told has some very interesting monsters and environment.
-Elder Scrolls for monsters, environment ideas, and possibly even some mechanics
Now this one is going to be a bit far off for most old schoolers. I know most guys in the OSR, and who play 2E back are usually at least in their 30's, and some are even older. As a rather young guy, I have some fond memories of Pokemon, though just the TV show. I never got into the card games, or videos games, and only watched for a little bit. However everyone from generation is into it, so I'm constantly being bombarded by images of the series. One thing that really sticks out to me, at least with the early Pokemon, is how they'd make great D&D monsters.
A lot of the art for Pokemon is actually pretty good, and while some of the monster concepts are pretty generic or simple, I think they fit the D&D generic. Electric rats, serpent like rock golems, heck there is even a Pokemon that's basically black ooze. With an endless list of monsters, I don't see why it couldn't be pillaged for some interesting, and novel additions to a monster manual. Even some of the other modern shows and games like Yugioh could be used.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Spell and Monster Ideas
Today I'm going to take the time to post some new material, that is hopefully inspirational or at least interesting. The monsters I'll be posting don't have stats yet, and are just vague ideas; but I really wanted to get them out there, and make a fresh blog post. Expect proper versions soon, hopefully after I get a chance to research them more, and reference some similar monsters.
First off is a modified cantrip one of my players came up with. I'm not entirely sure what rules or edition cantrips first showed up in, but I personally enjoy using them in my games, and spell caster players feel more useful. I don't begrudge my players the ability to create a small light at will. On to the spell:
Cederic's Deadly Dagger
If the character has the ability cast Mage Hand, or a similar spell (telepathic lifting and movement), the character may throw a dagger (or similar allowed weapon) up to 15ft, and hit automatically with a +1 damage.
You could of course modify this as you see fit. Of course the question is raised as to why anyone would want to do this? Well immediately obvious is that the dagger is one of only two weapons the Magic-User/Wizard class has available to them. Furthermore at lower levels, and even higher ones, the character can only cast Magic-Missile so many times. Consider also that there are a plethora of level one spells, that are often far more useful than Magic-Missile. Finally that towards later levels the Magic-User usually has plenty of money, and can thus buy a large amount of 5gp daggers easily enough.
With all of the above in mind, a character could buy a hand full daggers for 50gp, instead of 100gp (the original rules) per scroll of Magic-Missile, or however much a Rod of Magic-Missile might cost. This is an excellent option for low magic campaigns as well, because it simply looks like the character is throwing a dagger. Hopefully spells like this encourage creative cantrip use.
On to some monsters. I know I don't have any readers yet, but hopefully one day someone will see these and go: "I see what you did there...", and that's kind of my goal with this. Creative and imaginative monster design, from unlikely sources. Hopefully in the near future I'll actually get these statted out, and maybe place some art to them. Of course the eventual goal is to include these in a monster book, or make enough to have a supplement dedicated to them.
Rattlelhead
An undead skeleton type monster which embodies the phrase "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil". It as an evil creature, that practices black magic, and has the following forms of attack: A blinding flash of colors that can stun or blind opponents; a terrifying scream that can deafen attackers; and finally a form of silence attack. All attacks are against appropriate saving throws. The Rattlhead would be an excellent leader for Skeleton and Zombies.
Head Hunter
An undead zombie type monster which functions similar to a bard. The Head will usually play music backwards, at loud volumes, in a very distorted and screeching manner. Generally the head would have similar abilities and spells to the bard; demoralization, charm, etc...
Static-Mouse, Giant
Similar to the Giant Rat, but slightly smaller, the Static-Mouse has the ability to perform an electric shock attack, similar to shocking grasp. It is neutral good, very friendly, and reacts well to kind individuals or groups. The Static-Mouse is very tenacious, and will usually fight till exhaustion, or near death.
Blue Oyster
A sentient underwater creature, with a very powerful psychic ability. They have the ability to influence those nearby, and can perform psychic attacks. If one is the immediate vicinity of a Blue Oyster they must make an appropriate saving throw or go insane. Blue Oysters are know to be communal, and can develop a hive mind. Some rumor these hive minds can even influence people miles away. Furthermore they have been known to cause nightmares on those nearby as well. There have been cases of cults who worship these creatures, and even act on their bidding.
A relatively short post, but hopefully some food for thought.
First off is a modified cantrip one of my players came up with. I'm not entirely sure what rules or edition cantrips first showed up in, but I personally enjoy using them in my games, and spell caster players feel more useful. I don't begrudge my players the ability to create a small light at will. On to the spell:
Cederic's Deadly Dagger
If the character has the ability cast Mage Hand, or a similar spell (telepathic lifting and movement), the character may throw a dagger (or similar allowed weapon) up to 15ft, and hit automatically with a +1 damage.
You could of course modify this as you see fit. Of course the question is raised as to why anyone would want to do this? Well immediately obvious is that the dagger is one of only two weapons the Magic-User/Wizard class has available to them. Furthermore at lower levels, and even higher ones, the character can only cast Magic-Missile so many times. Consider also that there are a plethora of level one spells, that are often far more useful than Magic-Missile. Finally that towards later levels the Magic-User usually has plenty of money, and can thus buy a large amount of 5gp daggers easily enough.
With all of the above in mind, a character could buy a hand full daggers for 50gp, instead of 100gp (the original rules) per scroll of Magic-Missile, or however much a Rod of Magic-Missile might cost. This is an excellent option for low magic campaigns as well, because it simply looks like the character is throwing a dagger. Hopefully spells like this encourage creative cantrip use.
On to some monsters. I know I don't have any readers yet, but hopefully one day someone will see these and go: "I see what you did there...", and that's kind of my goal with this. Creative and imaginative monster design, from unlikely sources. Hopefully in the near future I'll actually get these statted out, and maybe place some art to them. Of course the eventual goal is to include these in a monster book, or make enough to have a supplement dedicated to them.
Rattlelhead
An undead skeleton type monster which embodies the phrase "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil". It as an evil creature, that practices black magic, and has the following forms of attack: A blinding flash of colors that can stun or blind opponents; a terrifying scream that can deafen attackers; and finally a form of silence attack. All attacks are against appropriate saving throws. The Rattlhead would be an excellent leader for Skeleton and Zombies.
Head Hunter
An undead zombie type monster which functions similar to a bard. The Head will usually play music backwards, at loud volumes, in a very distorted and screeching manner. Generally the head would have similar abilities and spells to the bard; demoralization, charm, etc...
Static-Mouse, Giant
Similar to the Giant Rat, but slightly smaller, the Static-Mouse has the ability to perform an electric shock attack, similar to shocking grasp. It is neutral good, very friendly, and reacts well to kind individuals or groups. The Static-Mouse is very tenacious, and will usually fight till exhaustion, or near death.
Blue Oyster
A sentient underwater creature, with a very powerful psychic ability. They have the ability to influence those nearby, and can perform psychic attacks. If one is the immediate vicinity of a Blue Oyster they must make an appropriate saving throw or go insane. Blue Oysters are know to be communal, and can develop a hive mind. Some rumor these hive minds can even influence people miles away. Furthermore they have been known to cause nightmares on those nearby as well. There have been cases of cults who worship these creatures, and even act on their bidding.
A relatively short post, but hopefully some food for thought.
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