Hello, hello, all the spooks to ye!
So, I haven't been posting here for a long time because of personal reasons. Nobody gives a fuck, so I'll just say: I scrapped the whole thing I was working on and am currently rebuilding it from the very bottom. I needed to do this because I finally know what the hell I want to create.
tl;dr: an OSR gazetteer focused entirely on undead characters. Major changes and ideas are included below.
1. There are no regular character classes (so no Fighters and Magic Users), instead, there's half a dozen or so of race-as-class options. These are: Skeleton, Zombie*, Ghoul, Spook**, Mummy, and Vampire. Currently, I'm working on Wight, since I think having some kind of Draugr-inspired character fits the theme of the game.
* Zombies in D&D are fucking
boring. I'm giving them abilities like Spit Bile 3/day, which works as supernatural poison, and the ability to consume corpses in order to replenish lost hp. Or, if that won't work, I'll simply combine them with Wights, since they're really similar. Or natural toughness, reducing physical damage taken?
** these guys lump together all the incorporeal undead: Wraiths, Spectres, Apparitions, Shades, and so on, with various abilities gained as you go along. The downside is they can't use most -- if any -- items.
2. Characters use Fighter's HD, to-hit progression, and saving throws. There are minor exceptions to this rule, mainly if you wish to become a spellcaster.
3. All characters can become spellcasters, but to balance things I'm arbitrarily capping progression for certain classes. For example, Zombies and Ghouls, being the absolute simpletons of undead society, are limited to 4th level of Cleric and 2nd level of Wizard, while Mummies and Vampires have no limits to Cleric and Wizard levels, respectively. This is balanced by XP penalties. To give you an example, your 2nd level Skeleton needs 4000XP to reach 3rd level. If you want to learn some spells (so, essentially, become a 1st level Wizard on top of that), you'll need additional 1000XP. Becoming 2nd level Wizard requires additional 2000XP, 3rd level 4000XP, and so on, and so on. Your character CAN gain levels in both Cleric and Wizard class, but
not simultaneously. On top of that, to become a Cleric you need 9 Wisdom, and 9 Int for Wizard (Mummies and Vampires circumvent this by requiring 9 Wis and 9 Int to become playable).
And no, Clerics don't gain Turn Undead, come on, but there's at least half a dozen of gods, which grant you and your followers a set of juicy -- if somewhat minimalistic -- bonuses.
4. Because spellcasting is limited (don't expect to become a powerhouse able to cast 81 spells/day very soon, if ever), I can freely add more setting-exclusive spells and focus on more thematic stuff. Wizards throwing swarms of flies instead of fireballs? Yes, please.
5. There's not many fundamental changes when it comes to Attributes/Abilities.
Strength and Dexterity work as usual.
Constitution, outside of modifying hp gain, modifies your character's chances of surviving Death's Embrace -- essentially, a System Shock mechanic from AD&D, but limited to the moment your character reaches 0hp, with a % chance to get up with 1hp, but somewhat... off (roll on a table to discover what happened: missing limb, teeth, additional scars, temporary madness, you know, the usual stuff). For the purposes of resisting Death's Embrace, your Constitution is lowered by 1 every time you reach 0hp. As of now, it ranges from 30% at Con 3 to 75% at Con 18.
Intelligence and Wisdom work as usual.
Charisma takes a hit with creativity stick (not really). Now, works differently for dungeoneering stuff and commanding hordes of retainers, and influences the maximum
HD total of creatures you can command, which increases as you level up. I'll explain this with an example.
A 1st level Skeleton with 18 Charisma is capable of employing 7 followers for a 7HD total. The same Skeleton, at 2nd level, can still employ 7 followers, but with 14HD total; 7 followers with 21HD total, and so on. Followers' limit applies only to dungeoneering stuff -- for horde play, it's a bit different. To keep an example of our Skeleton, if he was to command a horde, he'd be able to direct up to 21x 1HD skeletons at 3rd level. Of course, you can mix and match things - there's nothing stopping you from commanding 10x 2HD skellies, for example.
Employing more powerful followers is somewhat more difficult, of course. If your character was a 3rd level Mummy, he'd be able to command only 3x 5HD Mummies in total, assuming these reclusive fucks would even join you.
6. I'm intending to add a ton of tables for random equipment failures: Undead characters aren't exactly known for their craft, so most of their stuff is either looted or stolen.
7. Factions! Because this stuff is finally somewhat homogeneous (all of you are dead; not somewhat dead, not "on the other site", just dead), I can limit the number of factions to ~8, with each providing different abilities. I guess I just like the idea of faction antagonisms.
The adventure does sound cool though from what you told, as do the other books. Thanks, wishlisting the whole bunch.
