spirit masters

Being psionics rules, because I've been reading the Saga of the Pliocene Exile and realized some specific debts that the 3e Psionics Handbook owes to it.

These assume you're using a standard six-attribute score array and that modifiers are on the "one-third score minus 3" schedule, and might need adjusted if you're using the WotC "half score minus 5" schedule.

Artist: Stephen Fabian, cover of The Adversary by Julian May

The human spirit is capable of marvelous things when properly disciplined. Masters speak of five awakened faculties, each of which has several modes.

• Spirit Manifestation of energy, illusions and even substance. Associated with Dexterity.
• Spirit Transportation of creatures and objects. Associated with Constitution.
• Spirit Probing of other minds and spirits. Associated with Intelligence.
• Spirit Discernment beings, surroundings or thoughts without the use of the senses. Associated with Wisdom.
• Spirit Binding the bodily and spiritual faculties of others. Associated with Charisma.

Spirit Masters (HP, saves & advancement as magic-users) are always awakened, but any character has a chance to be equal to the sum of their attribute penalties in 20. Awakened characters start with two modes they are able to use. Masters learn an additional mode for every odd-numbered level they have.

Using spirit powers is taxing. Each use of a power costs energy (= encumbrance slots until next night's rest, or 1d4HP if no slots remain); however Spirit Masters have reserves of energy equal to their level to use each day without fatiguing themselves. Characters can only use modes in faculties if they have a positive bonus in its associated attribute. Furthermore, they cannot spend more energy in any mode than their their bonus in its associated attribute or half their Spirit Master level, whichever is higher.

Mental Contact

A spirit or awakened character can make mental contact with an intelligent being by touching it, making eye contact or speaking its name in its hearing. Characters in mental contact may bespeak one another, mind-to-mind, even if they do not share a language. Most creatures cannot bespeak anything that they believe to be false.

Being in mental contact is not without risks. All binding and probing modes require mental contact. Awakened characters with these modes are aware of all attempts to make contact with them while they are conscious, and can use them to refuse contact. 

To force contact, an awakened character must roll 1d20 + the attribute bonus of their mode + energy used on it and reach a target number based on the type of mode they are using and the mode of defense chosen:

• Defensive binding walls off the mind behind a fortress-like wall. A probe must beat a 9, binding a 12 and discernment a 15.
• Defensive discernment allows the mind to drift on the wind, evading contact. A binding must beat a 9, discernment a 12 and probe a 15.
• Defensive probing leaves nothing to hold on to in an empty mind. A discernment must beat a 9, probe a 12 and binding a 15.

The aggressor always spends their energy, but the defender only does if they repel contact. 

If contact is made, characters still get a will save (vs spells) to resist the effect of a hostile mode. Awakened characters who make the roll may break contact.

Mode Descriptions

Unless otherwise noted, modes last for minutes equal to the associated attribute.

Binding Modes

• Disable (1) — target cannot use a language, limb or sense of your choice for a few minutes.
• Coerce (2, requires Disable) — target cannot take any action or speak any words (your choice which) except the one you designate as long as you maintain concentration. They may choose to remain still/silent.
• Lock (2, requires Disable) — target cannot use any awakened faculties.
  
• Puppet (2/3, requires Coerce) — your spirit enters an otherwise inanimate/living body which you control as if it were your own. Until you return to your own body by touching it, it will lose 1HP every sunset or sunrise.
• Drain (*) — the target loses 2d4 HP and you gain the total, minus one, in energy until sunset or sunrise. If the target saves or fends off contact, you lose 2 energy instead.

Discernment Modes

• Mass Sense (1) — extends through a few dozen yards through open air, a yard of earth a or an inch of stone or wood. As long as you concentrate, you are aware of the placement, shapes and sizes of all solid bodies therein.
  
• Every additional point of energy you are able to spend on discernment powers doubles these ranges.
• Mind Sense (1) — as mass sense, but instead gives awareness of minds and whatever most occupies their attention. Mental contact may be made with all, some or none of them, at your discretion.
  
• Project (1/2/3, requires Mass or Mind Sense) — your sense of presence travels from your body as a disembodied spirit, up to 2/5/18 miles. Until you find and return to your body, you may travel through open air at the speed of thought, but 
• your body lies unconscious at takes 1 point of damage with every sunrise and sunset.
• you do not regain any energy.
• may only pass a threshold if the house is abandoned or you have slept within.
• Consult (2) — you reveal whether a single question can be definitely answered. 
• Divine (2d4) — finds a short, true answer to a single question. If the question has no definite answer, you instead take the energy cost in damage.

Manifestation Modes 

• Bolt (1+) — throws an arc of energy at one nearby target, dealing 2d6 damage for each point of energy. A reflex save [vs breath] halves the damage.
  
• Glamor (1) — creates sense-displays for anyone in mental contact with you. While you concentrate, these otherworldly sensations are limited only by your imagination.
  
• Radiance (1/2/3) — a soft glow provides light (as twilight) and heat for 5/10/20 nearby people until the next sunrise or sunset. You may gather it together into a bright blaze that cooks food for (or deals 1d6 damage/round to) that many people over 2d4 rounds, though this ends the effect.
• Figment (2, requires Glamor) — creates an independent phantom for any two senses of your choice. Unlike a Glamor, this mode does not require mental contact or concentration, and the phantom can be detected by ordinary recording equipment.
  
• Substance (3+, requires Figment and a transport mode) — creates up to sixteen pounds of earth, stone or water, four pounds of horn, leather or wood, one pound of base metal or four ounces of precious metal for every point of energy spent, which evaporates with sunrise or sunset. Creatures who consume the substance take no ill effect but their hunger or thirst returns when it disappears.
  
• Construct (3, requires Figment and a probing mode) — you create a phantom, perceptible to all senses and recording devices. Until sunrise or sunset, it will follow up to three instructions you give it, which can be conditional or to be carried out in sequence. The phantom can move as fast as a bird through the open air, but cannot cross a threshold unless the house is abandoned or you have slept therein. 

Artist: Sam Wood, Manifesting a Metacreativity Power

Probing Modes

• Search (1/2) — if a a particular conscious/unconscious memory that you describe exists within the target's mind, you may re-experience it together.
• Publish (1) — you place a memory or set of memories at the forefront of your mind, so that anyone who could make mental contact with you (even if they have not) can examine it.
• Redact (2, requires Search) — submerges a conscious memory into the target's unconscious. When given a strong trigger of the memory, they may make a will save (vs spells) to regain it.
• Balance (1/2/3) — neutralizes one emotion/wound/disease affecting the character. Balancing emotions calms the target and may allow a reaction to be rerolled. Balancing a wound or disease allows recovery as an additional day of rest would.
• Program (+1 to any a binding mode) — you program up to three triggering situations to activate in those situations. For a number of days equal to your Intelligence, if those situations occur, the target is affected by the mode.
• Subtlety (+1) — the target of your mode believes its effects are natural or come from within, rather than being a foreign influence, if they fail their save.

Transportation Modes

• Float (1+) — makes a total mass you designate of about your bodyweight float lazily through the air at your command within a few dozen yards as long as you concentrate on it. Each additional point of energy doubles the range and increases the mass eightfold.
• Impulse (1+) — something up to an eighth of your bodyweight a few dozen yards (and half as high into the air). Each additional point of energy increases the mass you can move eightfold; smaller masses fly commensurately farther, but take (and deal, to whatever they strike) damage as from a Bolt of the excess energy.
• Atmosphere (1/2) — stills/creates winds for a few dozen yards around you as long as you concentrate on it. Keeps the rain off, if you wish to.
• As with Mass/Mind Sense, every additional point of energy that you are able to spend on this power doubles its range for the same cost.
• Support (Float +1) — rather than floating through the air, creatures in mental contact with you can run through the air as though solid ground existed wherever they wished to step.
• Forceful (+1) — the target loses 1 (more) energy whether or not they make their save or fend off contact.

Artist: Michael Whelan, cover of The Golden Torc by Julian May

Mental Concert

Awakened characters may pool their faculties and act in concert. To form a concert, the characters must between them use the Mind Sense discernment, Drain binding and Balance probing modes. Everyone in mental contact with them may pool all the energy they have to contribute and place it in the hands of one character who acts as conductor. Then increase that pool by one-third. After the concert, reduce the pool by a quarter and redistribute remaining energy to the characters as the conductor wishes.

Total up the maximum energy each character in the concert could spend on each faculty; for every time that this doubles the conductor's allowance (or if the conductor has none for that faculty), increase their allowance by 1 for the duration of the concert.

Artist: Wayne Reynolds, Metaconcert

talent, time and tools

Being a universal 2d6 resolution mechanic and some extra bits.

An attempt succeeds if a roll of 2d6 is at least equal to the required target number:

• You have an appropriate talent, time and tool: 5
• You are missing one of those: 6
• You are missing two of those: 7
• You have none of those: 8

A roll of 10+ (regardless of target number) is a clean success. A particularly stressful situation may require a clean success to avoid costs or complications.

Talents

Create a character by giving them 2-3 traits or skills and however many talents your Referee finds appropriate. 

If you don't start with a talent you must:

• Practice for a season with a skilled teacher or three seasons on your own for the archery, climbing, thievery or any weaponry talents.
• Slay three armed foes by your own hand for the fighting talent.
• Become initiated into the inner mysteries of a cult for its ritual talent.
• Survive ten days in the bush without aid or supplies for the wilderness talent for those environs.

Combat

Talent. The fighting talent is for hand-to-hand or hand weapons and the archery talent for bows. No talent is required for crossbows or guns. Weaponry talents do not affect the target number of attacks, but they allow the attacker to use any special properties of the weapon.

Time. You have time if the target is surprised. 

Tools. Close weapons for hand-to-hand and non-close weapons otherwise.

An armed attacker gets +1 to their roll if their target is unarmed. A character with a longer weapon than their opponent starts with a +1 advantage to their attacks, but a clean success seizes the advantage from one's target (or seizes it back).

In hand-to-hand, a clean success damages, disarms, pins or throws one's target. Otherwise, success merely holds them. A held character may do any of those to their opponent with a clean success. Otherwise, success reverses the hold. Any success by the holding character may damage, disarm, pin or throw the other.

Magic Rituals

Magic rituals are done with one roll but involve a sequence of steps. Some might require all of the following, and some only one or two:

1. Guarding the space
2. Guarding the magician
3. Opening the way
4. Fixing the terms
5. Closing the way
6. Purifying the magician
7. Purifying the space

Talent. Each cult has its own path of rituals, any its ritual magic talent counts for any ritual on that path. Anyone with such a talent is aware of the presence of other talented magicians and of powerful spirits, and may address them mind-to-mind.

Time. Rituals of 1-2 steps take 10 minutes, minus one for every time the size of the group of magicians doubles. Each additional step doubles the time required.

Tools. Guarding or purifying magicians requires oils or potions for each. Guarding or purifying the space require candles, diagrams or smoke to fill it. Opening the way requires an arcane connection to the recipient of the power. Fixing the terms requires a symbol of what is to be done. Closing the way requires a symbolic weapon.

If the power invoked by a ritual is an intelligent spirit, a clean success is needed to avoid some additional price being demanded. Offering a sacrifice adds +1 to a ritual roll to deal with a spirit, or +2 if the sacrifice is extremely dear.

one roll, one choice

 FMC Basic does away with ability scores (quite rightly!), but you might still want something of the sort. But we're doing one roll, one choice. 

Roll 1d20:

1. strong, fast, tough
2. strong, fast, smart
3. strong, fast, wise
4. strong, fast, charming
5. strong, tough, smart
6. strong, tough, wise
7. strong, tough, charming
8. strong, smart, wise
9. strong, smart, charming
10. strong, wise, charming
11. fast, tough, smart
12. fast, tough, wise
13. fast, tough, charming
14. fast, smart, wise
15. fast, smart, charming
16. fast, wise, charming
17. tough, smart, wise
18. tough, smart, charming
19. tough, wise, charming
20. smart, wise, charming

Keep two; the other becomes a flaw. 

• Strong characters deal +1 physical damage. Weak characters can't tempt fate to force doors, jump gaps, or the like.
• Fast characters get +1 on attack rolls. Clumsy characters can't tempt fate to go before their foes.
• Tough characters get +2 HP. Sickly characters can't tempt fate to resist poison, avoid disease or the like.
• Smart characters get +1 capacity. Dull characters have -1 capacity.
• Wise characters get +1 defense if they are not surprised. Foolish characters are still surprised if their party tempted fate to avoid it.
• Charming characters can re-roll a negotiation roll; if it changes from negative to affirmative there will be some additional quid pro quo. Off-putting characters must tempt fate to avoid making a bad impression when meeting someone new.

heralds and little guys for FMC basic

 

I absolutely love FMC Basic by Marcia B. It's as beautiful for everything it leaves on the cutting room floor as everything that it includes. That said, here's a cleric and two demi-humans it intentionally omitted.

fantastic journeys, powered by BIRG

This is a hack of TFT and, to a lesser extent, GURPS. The main novelties are in the readiness/experience rules and in the injury and recovery rules. It's not quite complete, there's no list of skills or special abilities, but I think it's enough to share. Use your favorite list of skills and make up abilities if you want.

Characters have three attributes:

• Dexterity (DX), used for physical rolls
• Strength (ST), used for endurance and overpowering
• Wits (WT), used for mental rolls.

Human characters have a minimum of 8 in each attribute.

Characters succeed at difficult tasks if a roll of 4d is less than or equal to their adjusted attribute. If they have a skill specific to the task, they roll 3d instead. A roll of 4 or less always succeeds, even if the attribute is adjusted to lower than this.

If two characters are directly opposed, they both make rolls. If both would succeed, the character with the higher roll does. On an exact tie, or if both fail, they are in a deadlock.

a brief "history" of d&d, 1980-2000

(This post is fiction and not history.)

Dave Arneson's 1980 lawsuit goes to court, and Arneson is awarded not only great deal of back royalties but some damages as well. The legal battle and debt compound TSR's other financial problems and and the fledgeling company go bankrupt in late 1982. Moldvay's Basic Set is published late, and Cook's Expert Set never is.

Gygax and the Blumes spend 1983 unsuccessfully shopping the company around for a buyout. Arneson, as one of TSR's creditors, negotiates for Cook and his unpublished expert materials to be released to his company, Adventure Games.

When the "Dungeons and Dragons" trademark lapses in 1984, grimoire games, desperate to sell to a wider audience, republishes its Arduin material as Grimoire Dungeons and Dragons, not as "the Arduin Adventure." The game is a success and saves the company from bankruptcy.

towards a medieval "brown stone" game

Note: this is not an earnest attempt to recreate any game that was played in the Twin Cities in 1971. It is just something that I threw together based on one explanation I have seen of the (poor quality and contradictory) evidence of how combat in that game worked.

These are incomplete, I basically just wrote and edited until I ran out of steam but I think it'd be enough to start playing. 

I didn't include any Referee's guidance for timekeeping or reactions or things like that, just do your best I guess.

Rules Brief for Players

The game is about a companies of adventurers going on expeditions into strange mazes and uncanny places to find their secrets and treasures. These expeditions are dangerous; adventurers may well die. If they survive, however, their fame and power will grow...

Advice:

• If you don't know what to do, ask questions.
• Tell the others what you want to do.
• The Referee won't lie to you, but they may not tell you everything.
• There aren't rules for everything. If you make a good play, you won't need to roll any dice.
• If you fight, someone will get hurt. It could very well be you.

Adventurers usually go on expedition in large companies, to have the advantage of numbers. Each player can have a few different characters in the company.

digression: ICBWS

I have a bee in my bonnet to run a kind of high school isekai game, and this set of rules just kind of came together. The HD/saving throw rules, if you're interested, are based on this thread speculating about the combat system used in the original Blackmoor game.

Working Title: I Can't Believe My Whole School Got Transported to a Fantasy Dimension Just Before Summer Break

Just assume that anything not covered here you don't have to worry about until I say you do.

Character Creation

The stats represent what kind of high school kid you are. For each, roll 3d. Half that roll, rounded down, is your Defense for things related to that stat. You have one-third the roll, rounded down, advances to divide between its skills:

• ARTS, craftiness and matters of taste. Skills: cooking, mending, nuts-and-bolts, taste.
• GOTH, self-reliance and dedication to the bit. Skills: animals, literature, mending, stealth.
• JOCK, morale and physical condition. Skills: animals, cooking, scouting, sports.
• NERD, analysis and specialized knowledge. Skills: book smarts, literature, nuts-and-bolts, scouting.

Skills with no advance have no rating. One advance for a 5th-Rate, two for a 4th-Rate, three for a 3rd-Rate, four for a 2nd-Rate and five for a 1st-Rate skill.

Then, give your character

• A name and class year.
• One or more named people you care about at school. These can be other players' characters but don't have to be.
• What they have on their person and in their bag. This can be whatever you want, within the bounds of teen stuff.

Harm and Saves

In circumstances of peril, roll harm dice (HD) appropriate to the danger. A normal adult trying to do you harm is 1HD, while you'd roll 2HD for every 3 normal teens.

When rolling HD, discard all 6s and add up the other dice to determine the harm. Teens are taken out if they take 3 points of harm, and adults if they take 4.

When the character is able to do something to defend themselves, make a saving roll of 2d; if the roll is less than the appropriate Defense, reduce the harm taken by up to the amount rolled. Protective gear improve a Defense by 1 or 2, but the gear is damaged if that difference saves you. A risky plan and space to try it can also add 1 to Defense.

Skill Checks

When presented with a challenge, a skilled character may make a skill check. Their chance of failure is their Rate in the skill plus 1-3 if they lack each of information, time or tools. If this chance is 1-5, they pass if a roll of 1d is greater than it.

An unskilled character doesn't usually get to make a check. A lack of the appropriate information, time or tools can each increase the chance of failure.

If the chance of failure is 6 or higher, the roll fails unless a roll of 2d is 12 or higher. A character with a stat of 6+ adds 1 to this roll, and one with a stat of 8+ adds 2.

• Animals. Check to calm or handle an animal.
• Book Smarts. Check to diagnose a problem or follow a procedure.
• Cooking. Check to preserve or stretch supplies.
• Literature. Check to find or know relevant information.
• Mending. Check to repair clothing or gear.
• Nuts and Bolts. Check to make or repair simple structures and machines.. 
• Scouting. Check to find food, paths, shelter or water.
• Sports. Check to perform athletic feats.
• Stealth. Check to avoid notice or hide something.
• Taste. Check to color reactions to your art, music or presence with a feeling.

3eish draft - action sequences

My 3eish concept has been through a lot of drafts, but I recently arrived at the following rules for action sequences (combat) and I think they're quite close to what I'll use in the final thing. Who knows, maybe I'll even use the same words.

rule

Encounters take place over rounds, representing a few seconds each.

Actions

Each character may act once per round. Characters act in order from highest initiative (aka adrenaline) to lowest and then from highest Wisdom to lowest. Changes to initiative affect the next round's sequence, not the current round.

A character may make only one reaction between one action and the next. They may only react a second time by forfeiting their next action.

Actions that take a few seconds require a character to commit to them; a committed character can't react until after their next action.

Movement

A character may move up to their Move score as part of their action; if they take no action, they may move twice that amount.

Careful movement---such as balancing or leaping---requires a check; a failed check occupies the character's action. A failure by 5 or more means they fall.

Contested movement---such as climbing, parting tangles or swimming---requires an action, at least one free hand and a check; a failed check takes a few seconds (committing the character). A failure by 5 or more means they fall, become entangled or sink. 

Feel The Knives...Flowing Through You (GLOG Class: Psychic Rogue)

(I posted something rather like this in the GLOG discord but here it is in a less ephemeral format. "Skill" is here, what most GLOGs call "template." Characters start with two skills and learn one per level.)

The Soulknife

The initiates of Soulknife orders hone their mental and physical talents until they become uncanny masters of intrigue and infiltration. Soulknife skills have the are psychic and rogue types.

Psychic — when you make a bad impression you may make a psychic roll ([psychic skills]-in-6 chance to succeed; if the roll is 1 you may not make another psychic roll until you collect your thoughts) to reroll the reaction roll.

Rogue — whenever you fail an ability check/saving throw to do sneaky stuff, you have a [rogue skills]-in-6 chance to succeed anyway.

Soulknife skills:

• Can instantly create a knife in your hand, any time your psychic roll is not spent, which fades to nothing a few seconds after it leaves your person.
• You may make a psychic roll to make an implausibly long or high jump. On a failure you know better than to attempt it.
• You may make a psychic roll to make one creature who noticed you forget about you. When next they notice you, they remember the first time.
• You you hit someone with a hand-to-hand attack but deal [psychic skills] damage or less, you stun them.

Related skills:

• (Psychic, requires 2 psychic skills.) You can collect your thoughts in a few minutes instead of a few hours.
• (Rogue) Whenever you hit an enemy who is surprised, deal a minimum of [rogue skills]d6 damage.