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Incline OSR Games - Official thread

Sammy

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Feb 12, 2019
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6
HumbleBundle sale. $18 for over 1GB of content, including Rappan Athuk, Hex Crawl Chronicles, and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/old-school-fantasy-roleplaying-books
That's a pretty good deal. Frog God makes some decent supplements, but the best of the bunch is probably Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (FWIW, the Castles & Crusades stuff will make your eyes bleed if bad grammar and poor editing bother you).

The "Friendly Local Tabletop Gaming Store" I frequent runs a lot of Castles and Crusades (and occaisonally ASSH but), and we've become very familiar with the C&C's editing. The store owner was on good terms with Chenault and sent him a list of some of the things we noticed. The one I remember best was Prismatic Wall, which I think didn't have distance or length listed. I wonder if they ever corrected that.
 
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Ok, I know I've been out of touch for a while, but for whatever it's worth, I've been working on my homebrew quite extensively, playtesting included. This is probably my last post before I grab everything listed below and start working on a functional .pdf, blog, and graphics. As usual, input and questions are more than welcome.

1. General mechanics
  • everything is solved by rolling d20 (attack rolls and saving throws) and 2d6 (skill rolls, initiative, and certain Cleric-like ability);
  • skills: by definition, the game doesn't have a fixed number of skills - if you want to, you can throw in, cut, and replace everything you may deem unnecessary. Still, I wanted to have some amount of skills, mostly outside of players' knowledge: navigation, lore, hacking, feats of strength (basically everything athletic, including bashing doors open), arcane knowledge, mechanics, academics, survival/bushcraft, hiding in shadows, medicine, electronics. I can't expect my players to know how to fix and use some long-forgotten, pseudo-vampiric aircraft, but I can expect them to craft a coherent argument (or at least take notes as they go along) - that means there's, by definition, no search skill, no spot, no diplomacy or manipulation. Roleplay that shit, or make it a skill if you're
    decline.png
    . Modifiers to skills go from 0 to +5, and starting characters can't distribute more than 3 points per skill;
  • difficulty: I absolutely hate (for no reason, mind you, it worked for so long and is, imo, a valid approach) the idea of "fixed" skill rolls done by most retroclones. Difficulty checks go from 3 (being almost a non-issue) to 15 (a true specialist's territory). Anything above that is basically impossible. I won't list different descriptions of difficulties equal to 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15, you can easily imagine what the are like;
  • stats: this is one of biggest changes from usual OSR stuff, I think, and the reason I no longer have compatibility in mind. STR, DEX, CHA, and CON work pretty much the same way, with CON now controlling (on top of HP gains/level) the maximum amount of augmentations your character can have installed. Wits replaces Intelligence and is now related only to skills and languages - your starting Wits score determines the amount of skill points you can distribute among various skills (1 to 7, similarly to languages). Resolve replaces Wisdom and becomes the go-to stat for spellcasting characters, determining the amount of spells you can memorize, and something called "Integrity" - basically, a sort of "mental health bar". Dealing with otherwordly stuff is a pretty big deal in my setting, and you can't really expect to survive the encounter by stacking hit points and bashing it with a sledgehammer;
  • magic: no level requirements to learn a spell and I discarded the idea of "save vs. spells or forget it". The amount of spells you can memorize is equal to level + Resolve modifier (for Arcanist, the equivalent of "pure" mage) and half of your level (rounded down) + Resolve modifier for other spellcasters. It might seem quite gamebreaking (what, fireballs on level one?! :retarded:), but it's really not the case - magic is closer to neural control, organ manipulation, psycho-reflective shields, that sort of thing (think OSA agent mixed with Castaka family, and you wouldn't be too far off). Naturally, different spellcasters focus on different things - Chanter, an in-universe equivalent of Bard is closer to warrior-poet archetype and deals with buffs, charms, and ways to amplify his damage, while Tracer deals mainly with AI and malicious software, making him an anti-electronics specialist;
  • saving throws: I went with a single saving throw, with different classes gaining a +2 bonus against one or two different effects. I can't stress enough how elegant of a solution that is and I'm surprised why almost nobody talks about it. That's about it;
  • experience: your usual gold-as-experience is still here as a core rule, but with different ways of gaining XP added in - exploration, solving problems, combat, unearthing forgotten pieces of technology, dealing with remnants of pre-apocalyptic AI. More of a guide for the Referee than anything set in stone ("here's what I think you should reward your players with" vs. "gain 100XP for finding a redware cupboard");
  • crits!: I like the idea of natural 20. It's fun, fight me. Various things happen when you attack your enemy and roll high, including instant deaths, throwing enemies off the cliff, making the rest of enemy group shit their pants, and so on. I can't make my mind when it comes to critical 1s, but I like the idea of critical failures even more, since the days I've played Arcanum for the first time, I think. Grab an elephant gun, decapitate yourself with it, what's not to love?
2. Classes

Well, fuck me if designing classes isn't HARD, especially if you want to have some semblance of integrity. Cleric is gone for a couple of reasons: Wisdom being cut out, (re)organized religion becoming their own factions, and the idea I had in mind of everyone being capable of becoming an agent of "god", whatever that may be. Still, there's one cleric-like ability I'll describe below. (Numbers in parentheses) show hit points (modified by CON)/integrity points (modified by Resolve) ratio.
  • Basher (d8/d4): your standard warrior, focused on big guns, big armor, and big damage. Gains an option similar to good ol' Ranger's "favored enemy", allowing him to focus on one or more types of equipment weapons to further deal more damage and gaining exclusive options on critical rolls. No limitations when it comes to items;
  • Delver (d6/d4 or d8/d4, I can't really make my mind, help me): another combat specialist, this time focused on going into unexplored places, grabbing shit unnoticed, killing various bizarre things, and so on. Can take the "favored enemy" ability, granting him +2 to hit and +1 to hit against particular enemy type (and there's A LOT of those). Naturally, can be taken more than once. Limited to most weapons and medium armor;
  • Scoundrel (d6/d4): quite similar to old-school Thief, but is something closer to the idea of Profiteer I had in mind a while ago than your typical burglar. On top of your usual picking locks and pockets, hiding in shadows, and backstabbing, can increase the value of a market by 1 as long as he visited it at least once (giving him access to items normally unavailable), can contact any "shadowy" group operating in any given place, and estimate the value of previously-unencountered items. Limited to light weapons and light armor;
  • Arcanist (d4/d8): the mage of the setting, with general feel I already described before. Can specialize in one school - this is a huge deal since specialization modifies any given spell in various ways (more damage, more range, both, greater duration, and so on). Limited to light weapons, can't use any armor;
  • Tracer (d6/d6): a turbohacker on PCP, basically. Can project his mind into various mechanical and electrical devices to banish evil spirits (programs/breakages) lying within ("Banishment" ability, which works the same way "Turn undead" works, but with numbers slightly tweaked). His spells focus on going invisible, mental projection, travel, and disabling targets. Limited to light weapons and light armor;
  • Chanter (d6/d6): my take on the Bard class, closer to loremaster and warrior-poet. I explained his spells above. Limited to medium armor, can use most weapons.
3. The setting

I won't really go into too much details. All I can say is: just wait. It's inspired by things like more esoteric parts of Morrowind, c0da, Metabarons, Planescape, and, as much as I hate to admit it, Numenera. I like to call it "technognostic Fallout" - it's a post-apocalyptic setting, but in a world where humanity reached its highest potential, only to turn everything to shit in a single stroke (mostly likely due to some unknown dwemer experiment). A world full of factions (which include everything from my take on what Rome-larpers might look like, to a church dedicated to commercials [apply today! only 19.99 for absolution!]), bizarre technology, AIs pretending to be gods, and religious syncretism. With that juicy, juicy "old world blues" feel thrown in for good measure. Oh, and it takes place on Earth, Mars, Venus, and Moon.
 
Joined
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I forgot to mention Alpha Centauri in my last post. So I'm doing it now.

That being said, which do you guys prefer: larger (A4) format, with all the chapters in one place or bunch of smaller (A5) docs, with each chapter being a separate .pdf (B/X essentials-like)?
 

nikolokolus

Arcane
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May 8, 2013
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nyjsu

Educated
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Oct 3, 2019
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76
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I helped put crap in Monomyth
If I already own LL & AEC is there any point purchasing OSE? Rules tome looks really nice but I'm wondering if I'd have any use for it, just including ascending AC doesn't really justify buying it.
 

Morblot

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So I finally received my Old-School Essentials Black Box last week. Been reading it a bit over the weekend and it seems to be pretty gud. The layout is really well done and I like how clear and to the point the text is. It wouldn't hurt to have more pictures of the monsters but I guess that's easy to solve by googling. Also, since I've never actually played B/X or any OSR game before, I would have liked to have some more examples on how to DM this, but I understand that wasn't the point of this project, so I won't complain about that further. Time to hit some forums and blogs I guess.

Now if I can just somehow get my players interested in playing this...
 
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Oh, boy, I haven't been posting anything in this thread (or on forums, for that matter) for... 3-4 months, I believe. Lots of changes. This is probably my last post here, unless someone has any questions - after that, I'm going back to codify all this shit into a functional .pdf, start up a blog, and try to publish everything I came up with. In general, the system/houserules/homebrew is as far from regular OSR stuff as you can get without going into storytelling or rules-lite territory.

a) classes: went back to basics, with 4 human classes (fighter, scoundrel, wizard, and cleric), with 3 race-as-class options (Harmakhi, a race of shapeshifting lizard-folk from Mars, Galileans, a race locked in a perpetual holy war between moons of Jupiter, and Innani, warrior-hunters from Venus). The general gist of things is as follows:
- not much changes when it comes to fighters and thieves scoundrels. Fighters can become these close-combat monstrosities they always were in my brain;
- clerics. Oh, boy. First off, I completely removed their spells per level progression. Depending on your chosen god, you now gain access to a couple (no more than 6) miracles you can perform at any point, using turn undead tables - roll 2d6+Resolve modifier, if the outcome is equal to or higher than required number, you can freely perform the miracle; roll less, you can't perform it again until you meditate for straight 8 hours. Target number starts at 13, and progressively caps at 5 (9th level), so there's still a chance you'll fail even as an experienced cleric;
- wizards. No spell levels, which is actually kinda huge - magic needed to be redesigned from scratch, since there's no more room for fireballs, mass charms, sleep, stuff like that. Your maximum number of spells is equal to your level + intelligence modifier;
- race-as-class options. These are, basically, hybrids of existing classes or some minor spins. Harmakhi share the same mechanics as clerics, but they gain more "miracles" and are focused on quasi-vicissitude: fleshcrafting, boneshaping, manipulation of metabolism. Probably the closest you'll get to a group's healer, although you can freely go for combat route and become a close-combat behemoth. Galileans are, no more, no less, fighter-wizards, with less spells but more combat options compared to wizards. Innani are closer to rangers, with their favored enemies, tracking, called shots, and ability to cannibalize parts of their enemies to gain temporary buffs.

b) general mechanics: everything finally narrowed down to d20 (attack rolls, saving throws) and d6 rolls (skills and cleric's/Harmakhi's abilities). Couple of things:
- stat modifiers needed to be adjusted from +3 to -3 to +2 to -2 in order to not fuck up cleric's abilities;
- single saving throw, modified by Resolve modifier. Each class gain a +2 bonus against a particular type of danger (e.g. Scoundrels against traps, Innani against poisons and radiation, Harmakhi against random mutations, and so on). Again, this is such an elegant solution, I'm honestly quite surprised almost no one uses it;
- I tried to make every stat useful in some way or another to every class (yeah, I know, this goes against general idea of OSR, but I don't really care if playing a 3 STR wizard is "fun"). Intelligence and Wisdom Resolve were the biggest pain in the butt. I've already mentioned what Resolve does, so here's Intelligence: maximum amount of languages known and starting skill points. On that note...
- skill points: one thing I absolutely hate about older systems is their esoteric way of explaining skills and I'm honestly not surprised folks getting into OSR are confused by this shit. In my homebrew, each class gains 3+Intelligence modifier (1 to 5) skill points they can distribute among various skills. Don't worry, there's no spot, diplomacy, or search skills, everything is related to either in-universe lore or stuff that can't be easily recreated at the table, like hacking, picking locks, or trying to pilot some old-ass anti-grav junk. Skills use LotFP mechanics, I really couldn't find something more fitting, outside of going with +3 to -3 stat mods and making them d10 based. Anyway, feel free to be a fighter than dabbles in hacking or can patch you up if you start bleeding on the ground.

c) setting: a numeneran-metabaronian game of space exploration and getting rich while doing it, all wrapped up in retrofuturistic aesthetic, with soundtrack by Vangelis, and focused on Earth, Moon, Venus, Mars, and Galilean moons of Jupiter. I ain't gonna say more.
 

Morblot

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So what are you guys playing ? OSR retroclones or TSR era D&D ?
Currently Old-School Essentials, although we've had only one session so far. I'm running, or at least trying to run, The Keep on the Borderlands. I made my own outdoors map to replace the one in the module, though; seems a bit silly to me that the caves would be only about one hour away from the keep and right next to a road...

Before that we played Stars Without Number for a few months, but it didn't go too well. I just couldn't come up with anything interesting even though scifi is supposedly my favorite genre, and my players were also rather lukewarm about it. Not blaming the system, though; it seems to work well enough. I'm just not the right man to run it.
 

Stormcrowfleet

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So what are you guys playing ? OSR retroclones or TSR era D&D ?
Currently Old-School Essentials, although we've had only one session so far. I'm running, or at least trying to run, The Keep on the Borderlands. I made my own outdoors map to replace the one in the module, though; seems a bit silly to me that the caves would be only about one hour away from the keep and right next to a road...

Before that we played Stars Without Number for a few months, but it didn't go too well. I just couldn't come up with anything interesting even though scifi is supposedly my favorite genre, and my players were also rather lukewarm about it. Not blaming the system, though; it seems to work well enough. I'm just not the right man to run it.
I feel Sci-Fi is more difficult to run for many reasons. Having too big a universe is not helping. In a normal fantasy setting, if you start in a village, you only have so much you can go to (I'm speaking from the perspective of a sandbox). In space with ships ? Damn. You are courageous. Is SWN the game by Kevin Crawford ?

Personally I'm an OD&D guy through and through.
 

Stormcrowfleet

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Is SWN the game by Kevin Crawford ?
Indeed it is. It's worth a read even if you're not planning on ever running it as it contains some neat ideas and good GM advice. The free PDF version can be found at DriveThruRPG.
Yeah I'm sure of it. Everything I read by Crawford is golden. He's really one of the best OSR content creator out there (if not the best). Never been disappointed, even if sometimes I don't agree. At the very least, all his stuff is super useful for DM to steal from.
 

Alex

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I like a lot of stuff from OSR. I just wished they weren't so focused on simplicity. GURPS and old Shadowrun are some of my favourite systems... :(
 

Morblot

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There are varying degrees of simplicity. For example, ACKS and SWN both have skill systems, unlike old D&D. I'm sure there are even more mechanically complex OSR games around.

Besides, if those are the games you like, why not just play them? There's enough stuff for GURPS alone to last several lifetimes.
 

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