Welcome, adventurer.


What we are playing:

        We will be playing Dungeons and Dragons with an ensemble cast of players and characters adventuring in strange and dangerous locales in search of fame, glory, treasure, or whatever your weird heart desires. Most of this will take place online but some in person sessions may take place in Chicago or wherever I am at the moment. I expect sessions to run no more than two or three hours and they will usually be held in the evenings.
 
         Initially, much of the adventuring will be focused on exploring the depths of dungeons and caverns around Urbo Ĉielarko, The last city of splendor. Urbo Ĉielarko will serve as a hub for the adventurers activities providing goods, recuperation, and most importantly, a place to carouse in between adventures whilst spending their plundered wealth.

A Stranger Walks Into a Bar...  

        Last week you were drinking and and making merry at the local inn, The Black Cony, blowing off steam after another long day of mundane labor. Near the end of the evening when most of the decent folk had long since vacated, the last customer of the night came stumbling in the door. The barman briefly stood with his mouth agape in disbelief before shouting out the name "Jerb Skerryman!"
        After a short reunion, the barman explains that Jerb Skerryman was once a regular here, 10 years ago when the inn was a popular hang for a adventuring groups; the good old days, he says.Skerryman and his group had been missing and presumed dead for those last ten years.
        Skerryman, shaking, begins to explain his absence with an extraordinary tale of exploration, adventure, and riches peppered with loss and defeats. "it was supposed to be a short excursion...then we were ensnared in some trap and it all went to shit." Skerryman's story goes long into the night with tales of long lost dungeons rife with monsters, traps and treasure for the taking. Ancient secrets and mysterious artifacts are right under our noses! "I barely made it out alive though." he sighs... "Just last week I had been taken by a group of thugs, probably as ransom, when I recognized my surroundings. I was in an old bandit hideout not far from here, just at the foot of the mountains."It's all true. I swear!" he exclaims as he hands the barman a ruby the size of an eyeball. "let that settle my tab" he says as he slaps the barman on the back before disappearing into the night.
        The prospect of treasure, glory, and an end to your quotidian existence still lingers in the thoughts of the Black Cony's patrons that night. do you count yourself among those brave enough to risk it all for the thrill of adventure?

The System:

        We will be using Old School Essentials with some of the alternate rules and a fair amount of home brewed material; nothing that changes the fundamental rules of the game though.  

        The greatest deviation will likely be using the alternate rules that divide class and race as per the Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules book. We will be using these select races from that book: Elf, Human (with optional human bonus), Dwarf, Halfling, and Gnome. Also, We will be including some home-made races. Namely, these will be the native Mongrel-Folk and the enigmatic Brasslings. Other races may be available upon request or developed based on in-game revelations.   

        All of the basic classes (cleric,fighter, magic-user, and thief) will be used as well as these from the Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules: Assassin, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Paladin, Ranger. Also, I will be including some home brewed classes such as the Courtier and my home-brewed version of the Witch. Some multi-classing will be available based on race. Other classes will be considered upon request.
 
General house rules include:
  • We will use the ascending armor class option in OSE.
  • An attack roll of a natural 20 will always hit and may include a bonus effect.
  • An attack roll of a natural 1 will always miss and the attacker may suffer a fumble effect.
  • We will use an alternate version of the Thief class, note the changes on the class page.
  • We will use a slightly modified experience track that allows for casting classes to access 7th level spells and other classes to potentially reach higher level. This won't materialize for quite a while (if ever) and changes nothing for lower level game play so use the OSE progression table for now.
  • I will post links to the classes from the books for convenience. Most will be identical but some will be modified to keep in line with the changes to thief skills or high level spell progression. Check carefully 
  • In addition to standard EXP rewards, I will give bonus rewards for session write-ups or artwork once per session, post session. The EXP bonus will be equal to your character level x 100. Keep in mind that the majority of standard EXP rewards come from recovered treasure
  • Ability checks and similar randomly determined outcomes will be decided as such: Roll 2d6 and apply your ability modifier, if any.  A result of 6 or less is a failure and will likely carry a cost or have a negative result. 7-9 is a success, but at a price. 10-12 is a complete success. In some cases, rolling over 12 may have some bonus result. 
  • If during the course of a session you receive enough EXP to level more than once, you will instead level once and gain enough EXP to place yourself 1 EXP under what is needed for the second level.   
  • Encumbrance:   I will flesh this out later. I will not be using the bog-standard encumbrance rules in the book, that is more book keeping then anyone deserves. I will post a simplified, per-item style encumbrance rules set once I settle on one. Until then, just use common sense and don't try to pull a canoe out of your backpack.

 

Character Creation Method:

         Character creation will remain simple and, more or less, follow the steps in the OSE books. Simply follow these directions in order:
 
        1. roll 3d6 in order for strength, intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma.
 
        2. you may adjust the scores afterwards by reducing one score by two points to increase another by one. Only strength, intelligence, and wisdom may be lowered this way and no score may be lowered beyond 9.    
         
        3. choose a race and modify your ability scores if applicable. Races are described in detail HERE
 
        4. choose a class and an alignment. Note that some classes have restrictions on alignment. Also note any experience modifiers based on ability scores for your class.
 
        5. starting hit points for each class will be the maximum per hit die and modified by your constitution.
 
        6. Roll a d 20 (or select them, if you like) for any bonus languages if granted by intelligence modifier.
 
        Bonus languages: 1. Dwarven 2. Elvin 3. Half-ish 4. Gnomish 5. Mix-speak (mongrel common) 6. ogreish 7. harpy 8. sylvan 9. ancient giant 10. ancient ophidian 11. Goblin 12.common sign 13. common braille 14. Aurum lingua 15. Honk-konk 16. Yipyap (Kobald) 17. Calculingua 18. Doppleganger 19. Scurry 20. Other
 
        7. Roll 3d6x10 for starting GP total and spend your money on weapons/armor and basic gear. These items can be found here & here. If there are some mundane items that are missing from the list, feel free to add them and use your best judgement until an official price is set.
        
        8. be sure to Give your character a name and have an idea about their identity, but leave room for development.
             
 

 

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