Loot & Treasure Musings

 

Is that Magneto's helmet in the chest???

  O.k, so I've recently established that I have been too stingy with treasure in my ongoing campaign where 1 GP looted = 1 XP gained.

  I happen to like the guidelines from Lamentations of the Flame Princess when it comes to finding treasure. But then as I flip through the pages of my other OSR books I notice something about the monster stats: Treasure Type.

  'LotFP Grindhouse Edition' doesn't have a list of monsters, only a few examples of monsters. Thus, it doesn't bother with their treasure types and lets DMs define the amount of treasure according to the needs of their players and their campaign. It was the way I had decided on and intended to use the very useful book 'The Mother of All Treasure Tables'. (A book which, by the way, goes extremely well with LotFP since it has no magic treasure and some of it is not easy to carry, two things LotFP encourage. But I digress, especially since I'm not running a LotFP game but rather grabbing ideas and specific rules from it.) But yeah, I suppose using Treasure Types would be another way to do it...

  If I started mixing both, setting up a determined amount of treasure AND rolling the monsters' Treasure Types, then players would end up with way too much treasure.

  I think what I'll end up doing is using Treasure Types for random encounters and the LotFP method with prepared dungeons.

My D&D Campaign House Rules (Updated!) ERRATA

 

  There was one rule I forgot to include in my latest House Rules post:

- 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'.

  (I will be editing this rule into the previous post too just so I have it all in one place.)

OSR Leveling

 

  It occurs to me that I've been running my current D&D campaign for a few months and all my players are STILL Level 1!

  Our gaming sessions normally don't last more than 5 hours in the best-case scenario and we don't always manage to make it a weekly game. In practice, it's more like on average (by including the Holidays into the equation where we skipped a few weeks) we played once every two weeks or so. We started playing mid-September. That means about 10 sessions, give or take. One of my players even had a head start with a bit more XP than the others. He started playing in one-on-one games with me before the beginning of the current campaign (Rhovanor, a character mentioned in previous posts on this blog!) but since he's a multi-classed Fighter/Wizard he needs lots of XP to reach Level 2. (The character was initially an Elf from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Switching to Castles & Crusades turned him into an Elf Fighter/Wizard to keep with the original character concept.)

  OSR leveling is slow, but it shouldn't be THAT slow, I reckon. So I take a look at why my characters still haven't reached level 2. Oh, it's my fault. Let's see why.

  I don't use the XP rules for magic items from Castles & Crusades, but my players are too low-level for that to come into play. I do use the 1 GP = 1 XP rule though. The 'Lamentations of the Flame Princess' Referee book has some excellent advice on placing treasure and estimates that until the 4th or 5th level, players should level up in average every five to ten sessions. (And by placing the correct amount of treasure you don't need to bother with giving XP for magic items, really. Unless you like doing that, then go for it! Anyway.)

  We have reached the 10th session then. (Give or take!) My characters are midway to reaching their second level. Whoops.

  And that's when I look at the characters who have survived since the first session. In my games if your character dies, your next one has half the XP your deceased one had.

 

  Oh, and later on they might face monsters with Level Drain, setting them back if things go wrong for them...

 

  So how did this happen?  I... MIGHT have been a bit stingy with treasure! If treasure is the main source of XP for players, I really should take a bit more prep time for my games and include some of it, otherwise my players will continue to be XP-starved.

   I've recently been reading Bill Webb's Book of dirty Tricks, a very entertaining read filled with interesting ideas for any GM, some of which I'll be using. In the book, he posits that slow leveling makes for more skilled players, and I agree. But I must admit, the one skill my players have probably developed the most in my campaign is patience...

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.)