Crit: Roll Double or Double Roll

I tried this out last night, and players seemed to like it a lot:

On a natural 20 a player must make a quick decision before rolling damage:
1. Double the result of the roll, or
2. Roll double damage dice

The player is choosing between a flat distribution and a bell curve. This has very real strategic implications, and there are definitely situations where one would be preferred over the other. This is a nice little way to introduce some abstract strategy without bogging things down.

What I Want in a D&D / Clone Rule Set

Tomorrow night I'll be running my first session of D&D since moving to NY. Six players have RSVPed - a mix of friends, internet acquaintances, and listserv respondees. It will be an interesting mix of newbs and experienced players.

I've been struggling for some time with what ruleset to use. Hands down, my personal favorite flavor is original D&D. It's easy to learn, play, run, and customize. It also has an undeniably attractive weird mojo. Materially, the game itself is like an artifact from another world. OD&D is part utility, part enigma, part oral tradition. AD&D has similar characteristics, but it's impractically heavy for me. Right now I'm facing the prospect of refereeing mainstream gamers who may come to the table with certain expectations and may want to peruse rulebooks between sessions. So I'm thinking OD&D may be pretty much out, because the books themselves may be too confusing for normal players, and, most importantly, they're difficult to get copies of.


So maybe it's retro-clone time. Here are some of the features I would want, and why:

Separate race and class
This makes homebrewing easier because you don't have to reinvent both race and class to do something new. I also like the bizarre non-canonical combinations some players pick, but that I probably wouldn't consider myself.

Ascending AC
In my experience, this is simply easier to play at the table. After much thought and experimentation, I can't think of any compelling reason to stick with descending AC once the decision is made to stray from primary gygaxoarnesonian sources.

Concise and separate player's handbook
Separating player and referee material into separate books is ideal. I want monsters, spells, and magic items to all be new and mysterious - I don't want to encourage players to meta-game off of this type of referee material. Physically, a simple digest-sized player's reference < 24 pages is just plain practical. Character generation, advancement tables, and the basic rules of play. That's all. This is one of the things I love abut OD&D and AD&D - self contained player's handbooks.

Streamlined encumbrance system 
...like Delta's stones. This is simply better and more playable, and doesn't detract from OD&D mojo in my opinion.

Free or cheap
Obvious... I can point prospective players to a website so they can download the rules.

Parsimonius ability modifiers
Over time I've developed a severe, and probably irrational, allergy to extreme ability modifiers. Anything more than +1 annoys me. Conversely, negative modifiers annoy players. I love OD&D because it really holds back on modifiers, and makes any + something special. After experimenting with various approaches, I've found this stingy approach to modifiers makes for a more intense and fun game. Players quickly get jaded to piling up + modifiers. And for players it just sucks to have to always take -1 or -2 off your rolls if you have a low Str or Dex score. OD&D is king of modifier parsimony.

Digest size books
Just an aesthetic preference, I guess. It can't be denied, however, that small books are more practical.

No specific setting, but definite flavor
Another aesthetic preference. Early TSR editions are a perfect model.


Lacking any one or two of these wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker, but it would be nice to have all these features in one place. The best option, in my opinion, would be to make customized player handbooks for each campaign world. LIKE THIS. I'm working on this for my Myceaxe setting, but it's not quite ready yet.

So what to do for tomorrow night? I emailed the players to recommend downloading S&W Whitebox, but this still lacks many of the above features. Additionally, I have been extremely frustrated with S&W in general because of the constant rule changes between printings. I bought some of the physical books a while back, but the most recent printings have lots of little rule changes (in the wrong direction) that make them incompatible with my physical books. It's driving me crazy, and has lessened my interested in S&W, even though I think it's basically a great game.

Instead of blogging right now I should be working on my Myceaxe PHB.

A Perfect "Retroclone"?

Jimm Johnson, propietor of the Contemptible Cube of Quazar, passed along a copy of his home campaign D&D rulebook to me:

This thing is beautiful. It's exactly what I wish I had the time to do for my own game. It is a lovely single-booklet distillation of classic D&D. It has everything players need to know, all tailored specifically for Jimm's Planet Eris campaign setting. I wish I had the same thing to hand out to players in my own games. It's a perfect way to summarize core rules, house rules, and lay out new campaign-specific classes, spells, items, etc. It's also great if, like me, most of your players aren't gamers who own their own rulebooks.

Best of all, the cover doesn't beat around the bush. It's DUNGEONS & DRAGONS dude!

I love the idea of personalized "retroclones" at every table. We all make our own houserules no matter what edition or clone we play, so why use a retroclone that is simply a collection of some other DM's houserules? DIY like Jimm. Each gaming group could have its own perfect "retroclone".

The art in Jimm's book is fantastic. It is reminiscent of OD&D and just oozes fear, whimsey, and pure dungeon mojo. Yes, I love the OD&D art style - it looks exactly like something you'd see scrawled in an explorer's notebook. It's as far away from Final Fantasy and Easley as you can get while still being representational.

You can download a PDF of Jimm's rules HERE.

3d6 Ability Checks in 1977 (Underworld Oracle #1)

I rely heavily on d6 ability checks in my games. I like them because I can adjust the number of dice rolled to reflect the difficulty of a check, yet the rolls still maintain a bell-curved probability (SEE HERE for my previous description of this approach).

To be honest with you, I don't recall where I first heard about this method, but I think I initially read about it in an online forum a long time ago. At conventions I've seen a few other people use the method, but it doesn't seem to be common. Chris Kutalik mentioned that Rob Kuntz uses this method in his games, which got me to wondering how long this method has been around.

Well, now I know the answer is at least 34 years. I was browsing through some issues of the 70s U.K. fanzine Underworld Oracle the other night and I noticed in the first issue, from 1977, that there is a 3d6 Intelligence check described. Specifically, it is called for as a defense against a PC viewing an Apparition. I also recall seeing similar checks in later issues of UO as well.

Great! So d6 ability checks officially get the Old School Stamp of Approval and I won't have to worry about tearing up my OSR membership card anymore. Whew...

Here's the evidence:

OD&D Origin of THAC0 in 1978

Believe it or not the UCLA Computer Club had a D&D 'zine in the late 1970s called ANYONE WANT TO BUY A COAT OF MITHRIL? Here's an interesting excerpt I found in issue #4 from April 1978:

"One of the devices we use is THAC0 (To Hit AC 0). This is a composite of the character's type, level, strength, weapon, and other bonuses. THAC0 must be recomputed when any of this changes. THAC0 itself greatly speeds things up all by itself".

I guess this settles it. THAC0 is totally old school!

Oh yeah, the last line of the 'zine says: "THE UCLA COMPUTER CLUB MEETS FOR D&D SATURDAYS AT 2:00 IN 3514 BOELTER"! Cool!

This is probably the nerdiest blog post I've ever made. I think like 4 people might be interested in this...

Declaring Before Initiative? Maybe Not...

For years I've run classic D&D combat like this:

1. Players declare intentions.
2. Each side rolls 1d6 initiative. Tie = simultaneous effects.
3. Initiative winners do movement, spells, and attacks in whatever order they choose.
4. Initiative losers do movement, spells, and attacks in whatever order they choose.
5. Morale checks and other bookkeeping, if needed.
6. Repeat.

I know there are tons of variations on this combat sequence, many of them more complex than this, and that's fine... I settled on this sequence for my own games because it's fast and easy and the heavy drama of the group initiative roll is really really fun.

Recently, though, I've been experimenting with making things even simpler by dropping the player declaration step. I've been trying this for two reasons:

1. I want to speed combat up even more. Sometimes I'll referee for adventure parties with 8-12 characters, including NPCs and hirelings. It can take a few minutes for the party to decide on what their strategy is going to be - who's acting first, who's going to attack, who's going to hide, etc. Then they have to tell me what they decide. THEN I have to remember it all when the players' turn comes up. Of course I can never remember what all 10 characters all want to do, so they all have to tell it me all over again... Often this all feels like a drag at a game moment that should be fast, threatening, and exciting.

2. The primary outcome of declaring actions it is to penalize players even more for losing an initiative roll. While declaration might add a tough "realism" to D&D combat, in essence all it does is prevent players from reacting wisely to their opponents' actions. I am a firm believer in awesoming up my players, so I don't see anything wrong with giving players some consolation for losing initiative.

Anyway, the last couple sessions of D&D and Gamma World that I've run without declarations have gone great. With big groups the difference is obvious - everything plays way smoother and faster. For me quick abstract combat is a major attraction of old school D&D, and things just got even better.

Download: Fillable Henchman Card PDFs

I spent an exciting Friday evening learning the mysteries of making fillable PDF forms! Feel free to download and use these fillable Henchman Card PDF files.

File 1 seems to work best in Apple Preview: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

File 2 seems to work best in Adobe Acrobat: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Please let me know which version works best for you with your software and operating system. For some reason I get slightly different application-dependent formatting results with some of the multi-line text boxes. I simply optimized two versions of the form for the two applications I use most frequently.

I did not include Alignment or Morale on the cards because I keep this information secret from players. I also did not make AC fillable because it can change frequently during play and should be recorded in pencil.

Any ideas for improvement welcomed!

Henchman Cards For OD&D

For the Blackmoor Dungeons session on Monday I wanted to make the henchman hiring process more quick, fun, and efficient while retaining some of the randomness befitting the spirit of early D&D. Before the game I made up a deck of henchman cards from which I drew randomly when the players were recruiting at the Blackmoor Castle elf fair. After I determined the number of potential recruits attracted to a specific PC, I spread out the appropriate number of drawn cards (i.e. the line up of foolhardy and desperate souls) and played a little hiring bidding game. Keeping high and low recruitment offers in mind, I then used the OD&D Loyalty table to determine morale for the hirelings who ended up tagging along with the party. One torch-bearer who was low-balled during hiring ended up with a morale of 3 (unbeknownst to the players) and ditched the party at the beginning of the first combat!

I think the cards worked out quite well and I'll definitely use them again (a new batch, though). The players were able to get together a nice entourage fairly quickly, and each hireling had enough personality to make the group colorful. I should mention that the wonderful Meatshields henchman generator was a big influence on this micro-project, and that I borrowed a couple traits from Meatshield-generated characters.

(News Flash: CLICK HERE to check out fillable PDF documents I made of these cards.)

Here is a sample sheet of the cards (CLICK TO ENLARGE):

 

The Fates of Some Henchmen in Monday's Blackmoor (as far as I can remember):

Yanus: Ran away screaming

Janis: Poor little hobbit got both her legs cut off by goblins

Filby: Rejected by the party for being too wimpy

Garwin: Carried off by a giant spider 

Terrin: Died after getting his arm cut off by a goblin

Freckles: Made a brave last stand against the goblins, but to no avail

The Arduin Hit Point System

There was a recent post at The Tao of D&D about how low-level humans are unrealistically wimpy in D&D. Well, David Hargave proposed a solution for this way back in 1978 in The Arduin Grimoire Vol. 3. In fact, he devised a whole new hit point system with the goal of more realistically balancing hit points across levels, races, and classes. Said Hargrave:

"People now have a chance to run any character or characters on any expedition they choose without regard to difference in levels of experience. They can have their 1st level warrior stand shoulder to should [sic] with a 10th level lord and hold the gate together! Just as in real life young and inexperienced Warriors accompanied older, more experienced fighters. They fought and died together.
   Yet the higher levels have their own rewards, more (but not grossly so) hit points, better fighting ability and the like."

Here's a simplified distillation of Hargrave's system:

STARTING HP:
Base HP by Race:
  Dwarf:     18
  Elf:          20
  Hobbit:    11
  Human:   14

Base HP Modifiers by Class:
  Fighting classes: +5
  Clerics, elves, and dual classes: +3
  (No modifier for magic users)

Base HP Constitution Modifier:
   +1 HP for every point of Constitution
   +1 HP for every point of Constitution over 12 (= the revised CON bonus)

HP ADVANCEMENT:
  Fighters, thieves, and similar classes:     +1 HP every level
  Clerics and dual classes (including elf):  +1 HP every 2 levels
  Magic users and similar classes:             +1 HP every 3 levels

NOTE: Hargrave originally presented more extensive lists of obscure races, classes, and gender differences. I have simplified things here to be more easily compatible with classic D&D.

Austin Jimm's Simple Grappling Rules

 
Austin Jimm, proprietor of the fantabulous Contemptible Cube of Quazar, posted his simple house rules for grappling over at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse. Jimm's rules are based on a combat example published in the Summer 1975 issue of The Strategic Review. Thanks Jimm for rewriting these rules in such a clear way. I think I like this better than what I've been doing (i.e. a to hit roll followed by a dex check) because it allows for dog piling!

Grappling:
Any character, or group of characters, may attempt to grapple and subdue an opponent. This is accomplished by having the attacking character, or characters, roll a normal “to hit” roll against the target. The hit dice of all attackers who successfully hit the target is totaled, and a number of d6 equal to this total is rolled. The target must then roll a number of d6 equal to his own hit dice. If the attackers' roll is greater than that of the defender, the target is considered pinned and may be disarmed, shackled, bound, knocked-out, or otherwise subdued. If the defender's roll prevails, he has thrown off all of his attackers and they must spend one combat round recovering as if from a fumble. If the dice are tied, they are struggling, with the defender still on his feet, and another set of grappling rolls will be made on the next round. Any additional attackers who score a hit may add their dice to the roll.

Simple Spell Casting in Gamma World / Mutant Future

A POWERFUL GAMMA WIZARD

In our last Gamma World session two people played a new Gamma Wizard "character class" I whipped up. These Gamma Wizards only start with 1d4 mutations, but they have the advantage of being able to temporarily expend their Mental Strength (or Willpower, if you play Mutant Future) to cast magical wing-ding-zingers. Mental Strength is then regained 1pt per turn (assuming 1 turn = 10min in game time). Super easy! It seemed to work great!

There are many ways for a Gamma Wizard to learn a new spell: studying with a master, finding an old manuscript, receiving an anal microchip implant from aliens, etc. Radioactive cocaine and similar substances can give temporary or permanent boosts to a Gamma Wizard's magical powers!

Here's the "known spell" list I handed out at our last session. Just the basic D&D-type stuff this time around. Of course cooler spells may be found scattered amongst the wonders and wastes of the Gamma World:

Simple Multi-Ability Checks in Classic D&D

Over at The Eiglophian Press G. Benedicto made a nice post on ability checks in Classic D&D. It turns out that we both use the same general method - rolling handfuls of 6-siders, where a success occurs if one rolls the target ability score or under. For lack of a better name, the algebratron in me has always called this the “xd6” method, while Mr. Benedicto calls it “ESDVAN” for:

Easy: 2d6
Standard: 3d6
Difficult: 4d6
Very Difficult: 5d6
Arduous: 6d6
Nigh-Impossible: 7d6

For instance, if a character wants to break down an average door I’ll have her throw 3d6 to see if she can roll her Strength or under. Really heavy door? 4d6. Iron-braced door? 5d6. Works great! I particularly like this method because of its scalability and bell-curved probabilities. It’s much more useful than rolling a d20, which is another common method for D&D ability checks.

In most situations it’s pretty obvious which ability score is appropriate for the problem at hand, although sometimes I wish I could combine two abilities for a check. For instance a few sessions ago someone wanted to do a complex long jump / oil flask toss move. I had them check against Dexterity, which was fine, but I was kind of wishing I could include a Strength component as well. After thinking about it a bit yesterday, this simple solution came to mind: Roll against the sum of the two abilities using d12s:

Easy: 2d12
Standard: 3d12
Difficult: 4d12
Very Difficult: 5d12
Arduous: 6d12
Nigh-Impossible: 7d12

The maximum possible value for the sum of two ability scores is 36, which is also the maximum possible roll for 3d12. Anyway, I need a use for all those dodecahedrons in my dice horde…

How Do I Fix Slow Leveling?

In the last year or so I’ve run around 20 sessions of old school D&D using the OD&D, Labyrinth Lord, and Sword & Wizardry rules. These systems are all basically the same game, differing only in fairly minor ways. They all share the basic experience / leveling system, where characters gain experience points (XP) by killing monsters and getting treasure, and the resulting XP then lead to level advancement. As a DM I have been doling out XP by-the-book.

My steady campaigns are having problems with this system, however. It’s taking a really long time for my players to level-up. Much longer than average, based on this discussion at Dragonsfoot. In fact, it took over ten ~4hr sessions for the players in my Labyrinth Lord game to get to 2nd level. Ideally, I’d like to aim for the optimal-fun target of leveling up every four sessions or so. I think the characters deserve it, really. After 15 sessions the LL game has seen three major locality-based “chapters”. They’ve been through a lot and rocked real hard. I feel they should at least be 3rd level by now. It would also be more fun for me as a DM if they got tougher faster, so I could start throwing different kinds of challenges at them besides wheezing goblins and diseased monkeys.

Leveling is happening slowly because:

1. My players are showing minimal enthusiasm for killing monsters and finding gold for its own sake. They like achieving goals, roleplaying, and exploring. So do I, for that matter.

2. I’m stocking treasures based on recommendations in Moldvay’s Basic Set book. I am even being more generous than the book. Still, the pickings are meager.

3. There’s still a lot of monster murder going on, but by-the-book monster XP values are low and the party size is big enough that very little XP result from slaughtering gaggles of giant rats and mumbling stink-eyed psychopaths.

First of all, I should say that I really like the old school concept of experience leading to leveling. It’s clean and simple and fun for players. I think “levels” are cool for both aesthetic and practical reasons, and I have no desire to house-rule a more modern and sensible character customization system. Given this, I am now considering these possible methods of speeding up leveling in my campaigns:

1. Give out more treasure. I’ve been trying this, and it’s working. But now the players are loaded with more cash than they know what to do with. The sweet little angels have actually started donating their gold to charity because they can’t carry it all! It’s kind of ridiculous, actually. To get to 4th or 5th level they’ll start needing wheelbarrows of holding for all the treasure.

2. Give out more XP for gold and monsters. This could be a good solution, but it still doesn’t address the fact that my players, bless their tender hearts, aren’t highly motivated by burglary and murder.

3. Use something like the 4e system where players advance after a certain number of combat encounters. This is appealing for its simplicity, but again, the focus on killing to advance doesn’t jive with the atmosphere of our exploration- and RP-heavy games.

4. Use Lord Kilgore’s roll-to-advance rules. Read them HERE. With this system each player gets 1 XP per session. After each session each player rolls against a class-specific value, modifying the role with their total XP - make a good roll, you level! Nice and clean. Pretty appealing actually.

5. Allow characters to level based on the number of hours they’ve been playing. For instance, maybe characters could level for every 12 hours of gaming. I’ve never heard of anyone doing this, but it seems like it might work pretty well. Has anyone tried this before?

This is one of the oldest and most worn-out topics in D&D, but it’s still highly relevant to anyone running an old school D&D campaign. It would be a big midstream switch for us to move to a new level advancement system. I’d be curious to get input from anyone else who has confronted this. What have you tried? How has it worked? What would you recommend?

Sanity in D&D

P.S. Mangus’ cthuloid approach to D&D got me to thinking about how in the world D&D characters maintain their sanity through all the gore and weirdness and terror they experience. I would certainly have some sort of PTSD after seeing my buddy’s face getting chewed off by a ghoul. While D&D characters are usually considered to be hardier than average peasants, it would be an interesting shift in the dynamics of D&D if there were some sort of psychological fallout from strolling through a supernatural meatgrinder every week.

One option for including a sanity metric in D&D is to simply add a Sanity attribute like in Call of Cthulhu. But, in order to preserve the simplicity and spirit of old school D&D, I might argue for using Wisdom as a measure of sanity. Wisdom is a sadly underutilized attribute anyway, why not do something fun with it? Potentially madness-inducing situations could call for a roll against Wisdom -  roll your Wisdom or under using a typical bell-curve d6 attribute check:

Somewhat creepy: 2d6
Pretty freaking nasty: 3d6
Brain meltingly horrific: 4d6

Rolling over your Wisdom would result in losing a point of Wisdom. To adjust for experiential adventure-hardiness, a character's level can be subtracted from the dice roll.

Once a PC goes below 4 Wisdom stressful situations would induce side effects similar to a Confusion spell. If Wisdom gets to 0 the PC goes permanently insane. To soften the effects a bit, Wisdom lost in the dungeons could be regained through some DM-determined period of R&R after the adventure.

There are a lot of ways DMs could house rule the effects of horror-induced Wisdom decay. Fear? Confusion? Paralysis? A psychotic reaction each time a Wisdom point is lost, or maybe only when certain lower Wisdom thresholds are crossed...? Interesting to think about.

Of course this would all change the flavor of the game tremendously, and bring it more in line with the nihilistic tone of Call of Cthulhu where most PCs end up dead or insane. I'll be the first to say this would not be to the taste of many traditional D&D players. It would make sandbox-type "elective adventuring" very difficult - PCs would have to be on life-threatening do-or-die missions to justify the risk of madness. For this reason it would probably not be desirable to include a sanity mechanic into my own campaigns at this time - it would make the players too timid I think.

Or maybe D&D PCs should be assumed to be insane from the start? Who else would wander into a place like The Tomb of Horrors?

 

MEAN TEACHER PLAYS WITH MADNESS, GETS LOST IN DUNGEON, WATCHES MTV

Why Gamma World Wizards Love Radioactive Cocaine

For the last few weeks I’ve been working to better incorporate heavy metal music into Gamma World. I’ve settled on creating a series of episodic adventures where the players are a mutated heavy metal band on tour. In each episode the band faces different challenges like fighting other rock bands or space aliens, or questing for better instruments (they start out with broken Ovation electro-acoustics and can work their way up to fusion-powered keytar synthesizers), radioactive drugs, mutated groupies, and/or receptive audiences. I’ve actually put a bit of work into this, and the first episode is now ready to roll!

HEAVILY MUTATED METAL

It’s important to mention that in this game heavy metal musicians may be wizards. Specifically, they may be magic point-based Oranjian Wizards like I described a few posts ago. The problem with this, of course, is how deal with the level/spell-casting advancement issue when there are no levels in Gamma World. Well…. heavy metal wizards can increase their magic power by snorting that rare rock n’ roll ambrosia: radioactive cocaine.

Whenever a wizard does a few lines of glow-in-the-dark coke they immediately experience dope magic and permanently gain 1d6 magic points. Why work hard for experience points to level up your magic when you can taste the magic through a tightly rolled confederate dollar? This is seriously powerful magic, yessss!

Any rockers, including wizards, that get high on radioactive cocaine must dust off their d12 and roll for an effect:

1. Overdose! Make constitution check or go unconscious for 1d4 hours!
2. It’s cut with Clorox! 1d6 damage!
3. My body heaves! Gain one new randomly selected physical mutation.
4. My brain burns! Gain one new randomly selected mental mutation.
5. Stand up for Exciter! Voice gains heavy metal falsetto ability.
6. Rock on! All damage for the next 3 hours is cut in half (round down).
7. Instant moustache! Rapid hair growth for one day.
8. Neogenetic glamor! Skin gains sparkling luster like sequins or metallic spandex.
9. Hard core! Skin becomes black leather. AC reduced by 1. Resistance to road rash.
10. Halfordian awakening! Sexual orientation changes.
11. Transex transmutation! Physical gender changes.
12. I am now ready to party! +2d6 HP for 1 day.

HALFORDIAN METAL WIZARD CONTROLS ROBOT

A Simple Spell Point System for OD&D

After playing Tunnels & Trolls a few weeks ago I was inspired to draw up a simple spell point system for spell-casting in D&D. In T&T spell casters spend and slowly regain spell-casting points as the game progresses.

First of all I want to say that I love the Vancian Magic paradigm of classic D&D, and I have no desire to alter the original system. Therefore, I present this homebrew spell point system as a new magic user character class - The Oranjian Wizard - which can be played alongside by-the-book Vancian magic users:

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WHITEBOX / SWORDS & WIZARDRY VERSION

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD REDBOX / LABYRINTH LORD VERSION

The basic idea is that Oranjian Wizards have a seventh Magic Points (MP) attribute which is determined by the character's level. MPs are spent to cast spells. The cost of casting a spell is determined by the spell's level. MPs are recharged every turn at a rate determined by the wizard's level:

So, consider... Given that a first-level spell costs 6 MPs, after an hour of in-game time (i.e. six 10-minute turns),  the MPs will be recharged enough to cast another first-level spell. Obviously, it takes longer to recharge for high-level spells. Hit points may be spent in place of MPs to cast spells. As well, extra MPs may be generated by permanently spending 1 point of Intelligence for 10 MPs.

Also, the normal rule applies that any spells cast MUST be in the wizard's spellbook.

Further options:

•    MPs may be used for other non-spell casting purposes like ability checks and/or saves or operating certain magical devices.

•    Some magic items may affect spell casting costs, alter MP recharge rates, etc.

•    Ability scores may modify MPs (eg. high intelligence might increase number of MPs).

•    The DM may define unique casting costs for specific spells. There may even be versions of spells that have identical effects, but different casting costs. For example, a version of Sleep that costs 4 instead of 6 would be highly sought after.

•    Some spell effects may be scaled up when more magic points are spent.

•    Additional armor types may be allowed, resulting in a penalty in maximum MPs or MP recharge rate.

•    The MP recharge rate may be increased while the wizard sleeps.

•    Some environments may block, retard, or enhance MP recharging.

•    MP recharge rate does not increase in wizards of advanced level. This would significantly decrease the power of high-level wizards.

Digest Sized Character Sheets for Gamma World

In case anyone might be interested, here is a pdf for some no-frills digest-sized Gamma World character sheets I cooked up. These should work for both first and second edition. There are two character sheets per page. Here's what they look like:

Also, if you're bothering to read this post you might be interested that TOR.COM just posted two separate retrospectives regarding original edition Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World, respectively. I think it's pretty amazing these obsolete games would get mainstream attention like this.

Have a lovely and colorful weekend - hopefully I'll see a couple of you at Gamex on Sunday!

Culinary Guide to Wizard Entrails

Many adventurous forays reach their climax with the death of an evil, unloved, or otherwise unappreciated wizard. Once said wizard transforms into a corpse, the wide-eyed murderers will quite invariably leap into the activity of looting the body and/or homeplace of the slain magician. Not so fast, adventurers! Don’t you realize that by ignoring that wizard gristle you are passing up on an opportunity for some extraordinarily good eats? Don’t be shy! Get it while it’s fresh!

 As wizards age and become more magically powerful, they also become more magically delicious. Prolonged exposure to magic results in internal, and sometimes external, changes in a wizard’s physiology. The five growths of greatest interest are:

Generic Torma Growth 

These growths are always found in the central lobes of old wizard brains. They are dense clusters of neurons used to memorize spells and forumlae - biologic flash drives, if you will. Inhaling a freshly extracted torma growth into one's sinus will increase Intelligence by 1d4 for 2d6 days.

Marple Gland

A gland that forms within the nape of the neck in wizards who have done a good deal of interdimensional travel. Consumption of a whole, dried Marple Gland will allow Astral Projection for 2d4 hours.

Nodes of Sincture

These resinous globules form inside the vitreous humours of the eyeballs of master wizzes. The swallower of one of these eye pearls will be able to Detect Magic for 1d4 days.

Glabba Sac

This black greasy sac may be found located near the liver of evil wizards. A small volume (never more than 1 milliliter) of glistening black oil may be extracted from the sac by disruption and pressing. The volume of oil extracted is dependent on the degree of heinousness of the wizard. A drop of this oil placed upon the tongue will act as a Protection From Good spell for 2d4 turns.

The Downy Pinkus

This growth manifests as a rod-like organ that floats freely in the abdominal cavities of wizards. A wizard’s Downy Pinkus grows one inch per level, so a seventh–level wizard will have a seven inch Downy Pinkus. The rubbery alabaster rod of the Downy Pinkus is covered with a smooth layer of cilia, which is where the name comes from. This organ serves as an ultraphysical antenna for transmitting magical energy. Cooking a Downy Pinkus will give it a texture much like a fuzz-covered sausage, although the organ has an odd metallic flavor. Consumption of a whole cooked Downy Pinkus will imbue the masticator with ESP abilities for a number of hours equal to organ’s length in inches.

Recycling Human Heads Into Magical Items

A mind is truly a terrible thing to waste. In fact, many centuries ago it was common, even fashionable, for magicians to recycle unused or unneeded brains into handy little fellows known variously as “chi-chi friends”, “scholars’ helpers”, or “homunculons”. These homunculons, as we will call them here, typically consist of a human head with a few extra appendages or features added – fingers, eyes, ears, toes, etc. Players can gain a great deal of pleasure and utility from owning and caring for a homunculon. One of these little guys can truly be a magician’s best friend!

Care and feeding of homunculons is fairly simply. Because they can go into a hibernation-like torpor between moments of activity, they do not require much in the way of food or drink. After each use, just make sure your homunculon gets a bite or two of grub and a sip of something to wet its tongue. A dormant homunculon can sit for centuries between uses. Be sure to keep your homunculon clean! Because they lack gastrointestinal tracts, they tend to relieve themselves rather quickly after a meal. They have little buttocks at their napes, you see. Some homunculons may tend to have strong appetites, which can lead to a bit of a mess.

If a Dungeon Master wishes, she may randomly determine the nature of any homunculon her players may make acquaintance with:

Type of Homunculon (1d6):

1. Reminder – Once per day a Reminder can read and memorize a single magic user spell of level 1-3 and “remind”, or recharge, a magic user’s memory of that spell. This assumes the magic user has the ability and a memory slot available, either through having recently cast a spell or by not having previously filled the memory slot for that day.

2. Reciter – Can read, memorize, and verbally recite up to 50,000 words of normal text.

3. Reader – Can read and verbally translate normal text. Knows 2d6 languages.

4. Transcriber – Usually in the form of a large hand / head fusion. Can read, memorize, and transcribe up to 50,000 words of normal text.

5. Translator – Can verbally translate up to 2d6 spoken languages.

6. Analyzer – Once per week an Analyzer can observe a spell being cast and has chance of learning the spell, which it can then transcribe into writing. Analyzers always have a hand and/or several fingers attached to aid in transcription. To learn a spell, the Analyzer must be able to clearly see and hear the spell being cast from no more than 15’ away. To determine if the attempted spell learning is successful you must roll the spell’s level or higher on a 1d4 (for example, for the homunculon to learn a 3rd level spell you must roll a 3 or 4 on a 1d4). Some rare and valuable Analyzers, fashioned from the brains of once-powerful magicians, can roll 1d6 or even 1d8 for this purpose

Roll for Two Extra Characteristics (1d6 twice):

1. 1d8 extra fingers
2. 1d4 extra eyes
3. 1d4 extra ears
4. 1d4 toes
5. Head attached to a foot
6. Head attached to a hand (required for Transcribers and Analyzers)

Size: 2d4 pounds

Intelligence Level (1d4):

1. Animal
2. Toddler
3. Average
4. Genius

Personality Trait (1d20):

1. Giggly
2. Surly
3. Enthusiastically helpful
4. Snobby
5. Poetic
6. Manic depressive
7. Co-dependent
8. Cowardly
9. Pretentious
10. Likes to sing
11. Problem with hiccups, farting, or burping
12. Overly hirsute
13. A beautiful face
14. Desires fine clothing
15. Dope addict
16. Amorous
17. Loves fine wine
18. Awesome moustache
19. Charming personality
20. Only a child