Ruminanti per Into the Odd

I ruminanti di Pedro Celeste mi sono piaciuti parecchio,  soprattutto perché sono mostri di grande impatto. Detto ciò, farei alcune modifiche per incoraggiare i PG maledetti a mangiare qualunque cosa capiti loro a tiro.

Ruminanti
d6 hp, zappa (1d6, bulky), Danno critico: Sei maledetto con una fame insaziabile. Se non mangi ogni ora sei deperito. Allo stesso tempo guadagni l'abilità di mangiare quantità di cibo impossibili per un essere umano.
-Non si scomodano a coltivare la terra, tanto il raccolto viene mangiato tutto in pochi minuti. Piuttosto vanno in giro giorno e notte e mangiano quello che trovano.
-Chiedono se hai qualcosa da mangiare, mostrando gratitudine se viene dato loro qualcosa.
-La fame li rende estremamente irritabili.

La maledizione è senz'altro punitiva, però un giocatore scaltro potrebbe fare uso dell'abilità che ne deriva, ad esempio sfidando un gigante ad una gara di mangiate.

Per tenere traccia delle ore che passano si può usare un dado incontri sovraccarico.

L'urgenza di mangiare il più possibile sicuramente spingerebbe a mangiare i mostri sconfitti, un'ottima occasione per usare Monster Menu-all.

Raiders of Wolfsea - maritime adventure play report

Yesterday I played a maritime adventure, Raiders of the Wolfsea, published by Ben Milton on Reddit a while ago.

My system of choice was Into the Odd/Electric Bastionland.

We generated ships and crews for PCs with these random tables. 

I used the procedures for Deep Water travel described in Electric Bastionland, drawing the currents on the map. I didn't follow them precisely, handwaved, and forgot a lot of stuff, but it worked, it's a solid structure. I didn't think about complications since there was already a random encounter table, and didn't give the currents any visual cue, I simply told the players how long would the travel take to get to any point, and what islands they encountered on the journey. Didn't bother about weather at all, honestly, I forgot about it.

For every day of travel, I rolled on these random tables. This, along with the random encounters, really caused a lot of trouble to the PCs, such as the rudder breaking and the crew trying to sacrifice the PCs to the Sea serpent, making them walk the plank. (One of the PCs used her hover-plate, frozen in midair, to jump back on the plank, headbutting the mutineer out of the ship, and thus satiating the Serpent)

Other highlights of the game:
- PC Rocco left the crew under his command, and one of the ships, on a deserted island to collect fruit.
- Claude Kellog's, the engineer who possessed a small submarine, was hired to gather the treasure chests on the seabed @ the Harpies' teeth. A successful CHA Save from the PCs' part meant that he trusted them and didn't try to run away with the treasure. 2 chests were retrieved, but the submarine got damaged due to a luck roll. Claude was murdered in his sleep that night.
- The ship, drifting along the currents with a broken rudder, was boarded by the pirate crew riding the giant turtle, but the PCs' crew, who in the meantime decided to mutiny, was victorious. PCs' crew then decided to steal that ship and abandon the PCs but were convinced to at least leave them on the island where the other crew was left to collect fruit. 
- Since they reached the island at night, the whole crew landed to rest. The crew left on the island had lost their ship, but the PCs managed to make a deal with them, steal the chest, survive the fire of the enraged mutineers, and run away on the turtle ship.

With everything happening to them, the PCs surprisingly succeeded and went home with a treasure worth 16,000£, able to repay their debt, and I had tons of fun at every turn.

If I run it again I might add some random weather tables (probably not, there's a lot going on already), and I'm probably fleshing out all those little islands, probably using these from Hack&Slash blog cause they're so simple.

Here are the monster stats I used, along with the procedures for ship/crew generation and maintenance, in a docx file, if you want to use them.

Overland Travel for Knave

This post. specifically the part about movement costs, made me reflect on something.

In Knave, a PC can carry items equal to their Constitution Defense, minimum 11, maximum 20. These numbers look like the maximum Movement rate per travelling day (120') and the maximum if the PCs go for a forced march (180') in B/X.

These numbers are also close to B/X's maximum load of 1,600 coins, if we assume 100 coins/slot. 

If we combine these rules with the post on Movement Cost above, plus another common rule of Fatigue taking slot space, we can devise a system where each hex travelled weighs you down with Fatigue, that respects B/X movement rates, simplifying them.

How is this simpler? You won't have to ask who is the slowest in the party. PCs will simply fill their inventory slots each hex until someone claims they can't go on anymore. You won't have to write the movement rate on the character sheet, nor lose time tracking when it's raised or lowered. because all these information will be covered by the inventory.

Rules:

Fatigue cost:

[Terrain type, Example Terrain, Fatigue (per hex, per PC)]

Easy: Roads etc, 2 Fatigue
Average: Clear, Grasslands, Trail, etc., 3 Fatigue
Moderate: Forest, Hills, Desert, etc., 4 Fatigue
Difficult: Mountains, Jungle, Swamp, etc., 6 Fatigue  

Rest:

Every 2h of rest removes 3 Fatigue. All Fatigue is removed after a week spent at a safe haven.

Optional rules:

Mounts:

Mounts can carry a big load, but the Fatigue Cost is multiplied.

[Animal type, Slots, Fatigue modfier]

Camel, 60 slots, x3 Fatigue (x1 in deserts)
Riding horse, 60 slots, x2 Fatigue (Horses suffer 1d6 damage per Fatigue Point after 12)
Draft Horse, 90 slots, x6 Fatigue
War horse, 80 slots, x4 Fatigue
Mule, 40 slots, x2 Fatigue

A human being weighs as much as their Constitution Defense, or 10+HD if it's an NPC.

Vehicles can only travel on roads.

Cart (minimum 2 mules or 1 draft horse ), 90 slots, +20 Fatigue
Wagon (minimum 4 mules or 2 draft horses), 300 slots, +70 Fatigue

Dungeon exploration:

Instead of counting the squares, use an overloaded encounter die, rolled every time the PCs change location, spend time in a location or make noise.
You can increase the chances of an encounter if the PCs are wearing heavy armour or if they're transporting treasure.

Evasion and pursuit:

In chase situations, the PCs can reach or shake the enemy off by taking more Fatigue Points than the enemy's Movement Rate.

Example: An Ogre, with Movement 90', is chasing the party. If they want to shake it off, they'll have to take on 10 Fatigue each, or think of something else. If they take 9 they can lead the Ogre somewhere. If they don't take any, the Ogre will reach them.

A short Rest of 10 minutes has a 1in4 chance of removing 1 Fatigue.

I'm really ctious about your thoughts, please leave a comment.

Setting di 10 mostri + Condisci le tue idee

 Cosa succederebbe se unissimo la 10 monster setting challenge con il metodo Season your ideaas proposto da Chris McDowall (inizia con qualcosa di mondano e aggiungii dettagli fino a che non diventa qualcosa di unico)? Vediamo:

1. Goblin

1. Hanno l’aspetto di lemuri (quelli di Madagscar)

2. Arma preferita è la cerbottana

3. A volte prendono fuoco (combustione spontanea)

2. Scheletri:

1. Sono fatti di metallo. I metalli più preziosi stanno più in alto nella gerarchia.

2. Piovono dal cielo ogni 1000 anni. Cacciano una specie animale fino a farla estinguere e poi si gettano nell’oceano.

3. Giganti:

1. Possono volare

2. Sono loro che creano le Montagne

3. Vivono sulle nuvole

4. Seppellendo un loro dente nascerà una pianta di fagiolo gigante.

4. Draghi:

1. Hanno l’aspetto di grossi insetti a strisce arancio e nere, simili a vespe.

2. Iniettano le loro uova in altri grandi animali, le larve sono parassiti.

3. Le armi a soffio sono come le 7 piaghe d’Egitto:

1. Locuste

2. Rane

3. Palle di fuoco

4. Malattia

5. Veleno

6. Cacciatori invisibili (Invisible Stalkers)

7. Oscurità

5. Arpie: 

1. Possono mordere qualsiasi cosa

2. Le loro lacrime sono acide

3. Non muoiono neanche se fatte a pezzi

6. Sirene:

1. In realtà dei pesci mangiatori di uomini con una lingua che imita le sembianze umane.

2. Toccare la lingua causa paralisi.

7. Beholders:

1. Soffrono tutti di Alzeheimer raggiunta una certa età

2. Non resistono a ballare se c’é della musica

8. Elfi:

1. Cavalcano dei grandi axolotl volanti

2. Attaccano gli accampamenti umani a vista

3. Possono modificare liberamente la propria età, per questo non muoiono di vecchiaia

9. Medusae:

1. Se vieni pietrificato covano la tua statua. Quando si schiude ne esci mutato in gorgone. E’ così che si riproducono

2. Possono passare attraverso la roccia

10. Fauni:

1. I loro sogni prendono vita fintanto che i fauni dormono

2. Assomigliano ad un tronco abbattuto mentre dormono

11. Ragni giganti:

1. Fabbricano i migliori strumenti a corda del mondo

2. Possono dividersi ed unirsi in ragni più piccoli o più grossi

3. Il loro veleno funziona come un incantesimo di ammaliamento.