My D&D Campaign House Rules (Updated!)

  I've done a similar post fairly recently, but this is my more up-to-date version!

- I use Castles & Crusades as the basis for the rules.
- All Target Numbers start at 15. No Primes and Non-Primes at 12 or 18 and levels are not added to rolls. With each level gained, the TN goes down by 1 (Replacing the 'Level as bonus' method). Modifiers to rolls and/or TN otherwise apply the same way as written. (I still have not decided at what point the TN stops dropping, probably somewhere between 4 to 2. My players are far from being there yet anyway.)
- I will not be using the rule from 'Castles & Crusades' where a monster's number of HD becomes a penalty to Saving Throws. If I include a monster with an attack that players have to save against with a penalty, I will consider it a monster of higher HD than it is for the purposes of handing out XP for killing it, as per the guidelines in 'Crypts & Things'.
- To compensate for the lack of Primes, Humans gain a +10% bonus to XP. (I grabbed the idea from Basic Fantasy Roleplaying.) Half-Elves raised by Humans gain +5% as a bonus to XP.
- I use the encumbrance rules from Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
- For the Wizards and Illusionists, I use the spellcasting rules from Lamentations of the Flame Princess (except for the time it takes to prepare spells each day) but use the spell list from Castles & Crusades as the 'default' spell list. That said, I freely grab spells from all over the OSR and OGL.
- For the Barbarian class, the version from Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque is used instead.
- Experience Points: 1 GP = 1 XP if it's successfully brought back to civilization (as in LotFP), XP for Monsters from Crypts & Things (The main rule for monster XP, not the optional one I thought of using in my previous house rules post, although I am using those for a limited time during a gladiator-themed adventure. Seems appropriate.), XP for Traps as in Machinations of the Space Princess, Story and RP XP rewards from Castles & Crusades.
- Class Skills are rolled at +3 and any class can attempt any skill as in Crypts & Things. That said, I've added that skills that are not Class Skills are rolled at -3. (Ironically, we end up with a modifier difference of 6, the same difference Castles & Crusades normally has between Primes and Non-Primes! Just a fun fact.  -If you're a total geek like me.-)
- I have decided not to use Class-and-a-Half but I apply some of its rules to Multi-Classed characters:

- Wizards and Illusionists with an armor proficient class can cast in armor but their armor's AC bonus also becomes a save bonus for the target's Saving Throw. (Magical bonuses on an armor do not apply to this.)

- I use the Class-and-a-Half rule for Monks, Rangers, Rogues and Assassins aligned with armor proficient classes.

  That's all for now! I'll also use some more specific rules from a variety of sourcebooks depending on the current adventure but the above are the main ones. I'd love some feedback from fellow players and GMs to see what you guys think.

House-Ruled Castles & Crusades

  Just a quick post about how I house-rule Castles & Crusades in my new ongoing campaign.

  I got rid of Primes and different Target Numbers. All TNs are at 15 by default. Players no longer add their level to their rolls, instead the TN goes down by 1 every level. (So at level 2 the TNs would be 14, etc) Apply the same modifiers you normally would. (Constitution modifier v.s poison, etc) Monster/enemy HD no longer applies as a penalty to rolls. The lower a TN can go is 4. (That last one I might tweak over time, but as my players are level 1 still, I'm in no hurry to ponder that.)
  To make up for the lack of Primes, Humans get a +10% XP bonus (This idea was taken from Basic Fantasy Role-Playing) and Half-Elves of Human Lineage get a +5% XP bonus.

  Also, while gold for XP is a fun way to gain XP for treasure hunters and such, it's not exactly the best way to handle things for truly heroic characters. Thus, after they complete the next dungeon I'll be applying the following rules to reward XP: http://akraticwizardry.blogspot.ca/2009/07/are-you-experienced.html

Cruel D&D Idea: The Fire-Breathing Potion

  Imagine the following; Your players have defeated the evil wizard and have access to his treasure. They find magical items, scrolls, spellbooks, potions... Indeed, there is even an awesome FIRE-BREATHING POTION. It is labelled and it even says "duration of 10 minutes".

  A pretty useful potion, correct? Well, here's the thing; If someone drinks the potion, it means that for the next ten minutes they need to breathe fire instead of oxygen to survive. (Treat a character who drank the potion and is not breathing in fire as drowning per the rules of your system of choice.)

  Of course while the person's body has been changed to inhale fire safely, it does not protect the outside of the body in any way from fire, so unless the players get creative, a character who manages to breathe fire will probably be burning their face every round they do so too. (Normal fire damage applies.)

  Whether they instinctively realize that they need to breathe fire to survive is up to you as a GM. Maybe a Wisdom check?

Montreal in RPGs

  I live in Montreal, so just for fun I did a very quick search for Montreal-based RPG books. Here's what I've found.




Montreal by Night for Vampire the Masquerade



Horror's Heart for Call of Cthulhu





Montreal 2074 for Shadowrun



An honorable mention goes to Free Quebec for Rifts, which deals with the general province. (No idea if Montreal is actually mentioned in it.)

'The Tale of Rhovanor' Interlude

 Artist source HERE

  So much for posting Rhovanor's tale often as I initially claimed! I'll get back to it in the days to come... In the meantime, I thought I'd post Rhovanor's stats and tell you guys where I'm going with this game, assuming he survives long enough. (For those who are first reading about Rhovanor, he's the character in a one-DM and one-PC game I'm running for a friend.)

 Elf Level 1
Cha 14, Con 13, Dex 15, Int 10, Str 12, Wis 11
HP: 7

  And now to my 'master plan'. In my campaign, elves don't age. My idea is that the character will go through many eras. He's currently in traditional medieval fantasy. But as the game goes on we'll move on to the Fantasy equivalents of...

- Rennaissance
- Victorian
- 30's Pulp Adventuring
- Modern Times
- Cyberpunk
- Space Opera
And finally...
- Post-Apocalypse

  I'll be cannibalizing the following books to serve my campaign when it comes to playing in other time periods/tech levels: Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque I-III, Machinations of the Space Princess, Abnomalous Subsurface Environment Vol.1 and Mutant Future.

GM Screens for Adventures

As you can see on the left, Zangief has become a vampire.

   So I have no idea if this has been done before, but White Wolf has released a GM Screen for their adventure scenario 'Blood and Smoke'. (Check it out HERE)

  Now, I haven't read the adventure so I have no idea how good it is and this probably isn't the first time they do something like this. Heck, for all I know another company did it before White Wolf did. (If anyone knows, feel free to comment as I'm genuinely curious.) Maybe it's been done for those adventures made for conventions or for things like Living Grehawk or Pathfinder Society? It seems like something they'd do in the era of PDFs. (Keep in mind that I'm just speculating at this point.) But honestly, this is the first time I find out about such a screen and I think it's genius.

  A screen made for a specific adventure where you don't always have to flip through your book for details about the adventure, that will help you run it more smoothly.

  There's many tips on the internet on how to make your own home-made GM screen. Instead of having scattered notes and constantly flipping through an adventure book to find this bit of information or that one, I think this is an elegant alternative; Make your own GM Screen for the next adventure you'll be running.

Dungeons Falling from the Sky...

  I've noticed that the OSR seems to be heading in a very Gonzo-esque direction lately. Browsing online, I can find countless dungeons that are actually fallen spaceships for your typical Fantasy characters to bravely explore. Many of them are quite good. But how many can you really insert in your campaign? How often can you really get away with it before it becomes unlikely enough to suspend disbelief? I can think of two ways. The thing that must be kept in mind is that there are two types of such sci-fi dungeons; Those that crashed on the campaign world long ago and the recently crashed. So let's go ahead with the two ideas...

  1- Have a map or a NPC with information of many 'castles that fell from the sky' over the centuries. It can start with a recently crashed spaceship, which the PCs explore as they would any other dungeon. During or after said exploration, they meet someone interested in these 'fallen sky castles' with a map he's gathered over the years from rumors and travels. If they so wish, players can now go find even more alien artifacts within these mysterious 'sky castles'. Once they are asking around about these things, it's not hard for PCs to also find newly crashed ships.
  If they ever get to speak with an alien who can explain it (Thanks to a Comprehend Languages spell, telepathy or because the alien stayed long enough to learn Common or any other local language), perhaps far away in space there is a black hole fairly close to a trading route, and sometimes a ship will fall through it and come out over the campaign's main planet, crashing down on the PCs' world.

  2- Drop 'em all around the same place! That's right! You have a hex map of your campaign? (If not, you should.) Perfect, then grab a bunch of hexes near each other and place the ships there. Either it's from a long-ago space battle... Or one that is happening right now! No matter which one you choose, you might have to tweak some spaceship dungeons to fit with the idea that it has crashed recently, or vice-versa.
  If they have crashed long-ago, I would probably recommend you go with idea #1 instead unless you want the PCs to do a few of these but don't want to make it last too long with them having to explore and search for the next ship. And idea #1 incorporates better the mix of recently crashed v.s crashed long ago, which would mean less work for the DM.
  I think idea #2 is better suited for a battle that is still going on over the planet... Because it offers the possibility for the PCs to take the fight to those idiots who keep dropping those massive sky-castles over their heads!!! All it takes is a working shuttle with a coerced alien, a teleportation spell or teleportation tech somewhere, and the PCs can go fight it out in the stars!

  Oh and PCs could have access to some shiny new spells too! Check out the FREE PDF of Space-Age Sorcery!