Dice Roll Zine #1 in Print and PDF!

Dice Roll Zine #1 is now available in print and PDF!

Dice Roll Zine is a 36-page old-fashioned zine for OSR RPG games written by me and illustrated by some of the best OSR-influenced artists around.

Contents of the premiere issue include a barbarian class for B/X games, a different way to turn undead in B/X games, a trippy sci-fantasy adventure location called The Purple Mushroom Inn, a chaos mutation die drop table, random dungeon stuff tables, and more!

PRINT: Please look over on the right-hand column to buy the print-on-demand version at Lulu. A5 size, 36 pages, perfect bound. $5.50 USD ($7 CAD).

PDF: The PDF version of the zine is now available at Tabletop Library, DriveThru RPG, and RPGNow. $4 USD. For four measly bucks you get the zine PDF as well as all of the map files (.png format) for the issue: 7 maps!

Zine sample photos below.

How To Resolve Anything That Comes Up...

I'm sure you all have your own version of this. Here's mine...

HOW TO RESOLVE ANYTHING THAT COMES UP

AKA, what are those Damn Ability Scores for anyway?

NPCs and monsters can be bargained with, not just slain. They have bills and ex-wives too. Hired guards sometimes flee suddenly when smacked upside the head with a real flail that actually hurts. Go figure. Your enemies may pay your torch-bearer to stick his torch up your ass. When the Hell did Oddwick accidentally sell your spare chest with Blackrazor and The Necronomicon in it? Why is that weird jade monkey statue looking only at you? Did that tavern owner's potboy leave you fidgeting with an itch? Scratch scratch.

When situations like these happen or, more accurately, when they are about to happen, either you roll or the referee rolls (guess whose choice?) 2d6 and adjust the result by one of your PC's ability score modifiers, whichever one seems right for the situation.

This table is meant to quickly resolve any minor issues and avoid messing about with obscure situational rules you never recall and probably have to look up during play. It's not meant to be taken seriously, rather used as inspiration. This is just a game. If you decide that a ruling is noteworthy or valuable to your game play, try to stick with it again in the future to be consistent. No doubt because you're an old hat at it you already do this. Good, we're all on the same page, then? Keep calm and carry on with the slaughter ... er, fun.

GENERAL NEED TO RESOLVE SOMETHING TABLE

Roll 2d6 +/- Ability Score Modifier	Reaction
2 or less	Catastrophically bad. It attacks, hurts, steals, hates, maims, attempts to eat, uses its worst, or otherwise fucks you up. Seriously. No chance of negotiating or fixing. Hope you got a sharp sword.
3-5	Hostile or very bad. You're attacked or otherwise thwarted or hindered or harmed or cleverly made to look like a chump. Too bad for you. If you want to recover, get creative or make some really good rolls. Maybe get the ref a beer.
6-8	Cautious or uncertain. Make another offer cheapskate, negotiate more enthusiastically, ponder the situation some more, have a good dump, etc. Roll again if the referee feels generous. Ref, you had a beer lately?
9-11	Friendly or good. Things go your way, your offer is accepted, or the NPC dude is willing to comply/discuss/help you out. Otherwise, it (or he or she or whatever) thinks you rock on toast and likes your sexy smell and smarts.
12 or more	Enthusiastic or extremely good. Monster or NPC dude goes above and beyond to provide assistance or information you weren't expecting. You glean arcane or (virtually?) divine insight about something, whether real or imagined. Can you translate hieroglyphs into three languages without a Rosetta Stone? Easy peasy!

Bigger Even More Honking Random Monster Table [Wastelands]

Just a quick update to share today. I've expanded my Wastelands random creature encounter table to include more monsters (mostly from the Fiend Folio) and I folded the sublists (humanoids, giantkin, oozes, undead, and the like) into the main table.

I've also added in my other wilderness random encounter tables up front, which use some house rules like "scatter" dice as well as the excellent d30 Sandbox Companion (by Richard J. LeBlanc Jr. of New Big Dragon Games) for wilderness travel.

As with the previous version, the tables can be downloaded here (.pdf) should you good readers wish to use it as-is, or here (.docx) if you'd like to tinker and customize it.

Heroic Dice! [House Rule]

Heroic Dice in action!

HEROIC DICE

Heroic dice are extra dice you may use in place of poor or undesirable dice rolls. They represent a well of inner resolve, an unrelenting drive, a will to succeed, or simply sheer blind luck that distinguishes adventurers from everyone else.

When you make a bad roll, you may declare to the referee you are spending a Heroic Die to re-roll a single die. A Heroic Die may be any die type and may be spent in any situation—attack roll, damage roll, saving throw, proficiency (or skill) check, and so forth.

You may only spend one Heroic Die on any single bad die roll—you cannot keep spending Heroic Dice to re-roll until you get a favorable result. If a Heroic Die roll is equal to or worse than your original roll, use the original roll. However, that Heroic Die is still spent.

You gain more Heroic Dice to spend as you gain levels. Heroic Dice refresh at the start of each day.

HEROIC DICE TABLE

Character Level	Heroic Dice per Day
1-3	1
4-7	2
8-12	3
13+	4

This is a pretty straightforward house rule I've encountered in many variations over the years. Some referees divvy them up into specific pools for spellcasting or combat, and others call them luck dice, drama dice, fate points and such.

Throw Down! [House Rule]

Back in April, Chris at the Aspiring Lich blog wrote about a Save vs Awesome option for use in old-school games. I liked it.

His option started me thinking (uh-oh!) about other ways to inject awesomeness into combats a little more frequently, and I came up with this little idea: the Throw Down.

Basically, the Throw Down is used when you (or a referee's big NPC baddie) want to single-out an opponent and gain a bonus against that opponent. Think of it like the proverbial "throwing down the gauntlet" and calling out a foe. It's also meant as a means to encourage roleplaying and add drama to a combat encounter.

While thinking about it, I recalled that 4th edition D&D had a fighter class feature called mark or challenge (or something like that). Throw Down works along those lines, but provides you the bonus; it does not impose a penalty on your foe.

Eowyn throws down against the Witch King!

THROW DOWN
You single out a foe with a clever insult, flash of steel, guttural roar, or some act of derring-do. You choose one of your ability scores (appropriate to the way you call out your foe) and roll a contest against your foe, who must use the same ability score. (Depending on the game system you are using, this could be a d20 + ability modifier contest or a "roll under" ability score contest. Either way the result is the same.)

If you beat your foe on the contest roll, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and ability checks directly involving that foe for the rest of the encounter. If you attack or try to harm any other foe (other than casting an area spell which includes the designated foe) after you have won a throw down, you immediately lose your bonus.

If you lose the contest roll, nothing good or bad happens to you. You throw down but your foe has better moxie.

The foe you thrown down against must have equal or greater hit dice than you. It's not very heroic to throw down against an inferior foe! There is no limit to the number of times you can throw down in an encounter, but you can only ever have one throw down bonus active and an ally cannot attack (or otherwise harm) or throw down against the same foe while your throw down is active. If an ally does either, you immediately lose your throw down bonus.

Plenty of Options: The throw down bonus doesn't need to be a simple +1 to numerous rolls. A referee might allow an extra damage die on attacks, maximized spell effects, an improved initiative bonus, temporary hit points, or other similar benefits.

The Madcap Sorcerer's Paste [Magic Item]

MADCAP SORCERER’S PASTE
This magical treasure is an unpredictable and dangerous paste, typically found in exquisitely wrought phials studded with tiny glittering crystals. Sages tell its creator was the insane dweomercrafter Dyst Terrab, who was known in his lifetime as the Madcap Sorcerer.

Fitting with Dyst's quixotic and imaginative persona, the thick paste must be worked into the user's hair (or beard!) to be effective. Bald users may smear the paste on their heads (thereby using it up) but are not affected by it. Once applied, the user gains the use of one of the following spells once per day (roll d6):

1) Amnesia (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user and his allies)
2) ESP
3) Suggestion
4) Confusion (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user and his allies)
5) Feeblemind (when cast there is a 2-in-6 chance the spell affects the user)
6) Mnemonic Enhancer

Regardless of the user's actual level, the daily spell gained from the paste is cast as if by a 9th level magic-user.

The enchantment of the paste lasts for 1d6 days and cannot be negated except by a limited wish or wish spell. A dispel magic spell will nullify the effects of spells cast by the user normally, but has no effect on the paste itself. If the user chooses not to cast the spell gained from the paste on any given day, he loses 1d6 points of Intelligence and Wisdom as the paste eats away at his sanity.

If the user's Intelligence or Wisdom reach sufficiently low scores (or if the user is victim of his own feeblemind), the only spell available each day to the user is the lone daily spell from the paste. This spell still functions regardless of the mental acuity remaining in the user's wrecked mind.

Lost Intelligence and Wisdom recover at 1 point per day. If the user is reduced to 0 in either ability (or both), he goes insane, raves and drools, becomes a vegetable man, and so forth. Alternately, if the referee chooses, the user instead develops a permanent mental illness but is otherwise capable of regaining some or all of his former Intelligence and Wisdom scores with sufficient rest.

Usable by: Magic-users (and elves, if race as class is used in game).

This item could lead to an interesting, or completely nuts, cycle of feeblemindedness on the part of the spellcaster. Have at it!

Update: I've also added the racial secondary skills tables previously posted on the blog to the downloads page (or click here to get the PDF). The tables now include gnome and half-orc, in addition to dwarf, elf, halfling and human.

Fortnight of Chaos Booklet PDF

One last note before I'm off ... I've added the Fortnight of Chaos series of posts as a booklet-sized PDF called Chaos Hordes to the blog. You can download it from the Borderlands Downloads page (link up near top) or directly here. Cheers!

Racial Secondary Skills Tables

The Borderlands blog will be going dark for the next couple of weeks while my wife and I take a holiday down in the Caribbean. This past winter was particularly long and cold, so this vacation is long overdue and we will definitely enjoy soaking up the sun. And rum. :-)

Today I'm posting my goofy little racial secondary skills tables for Labyrinth Lord (or any old-school games). Basically, I've taken the secondary skills/professions and rather arbitrarily broken them out and added some additional ones based on the stereotypical notions of the "basic four" fantasy races. It's pretty vanilla stuff and its origin goes way back to my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay days in the late 80s.

Enjoy, and see you all soon!


SECONDARY SKILLS

Roll on the appropriate racial table below to determine your profession or occupation before you became an adventurer. You know how to do the things associated with your profession and the referee will determine when your knowledge is helpful or beneficial to adventuring situations.

SECONDARY SKILLS TABLE: DWARF

Roll d20	Profession	Roll d20	Profession
1	Archivist	11	Locksmith
2	Armorer	12	Man-at-arms
3	Artisan	13	Mapmaker
4	Blacksmith	14	Merchant
5	Cook	15	Miner
6	Engineer	16	Runescribe
7	Gemcutter	17	Slave
8	Initiate	18	Soldier
9	Jailer	19	Stonemason
10	Jeweler	20	Weaponsmith

SECONDARY SKILLS TABLE: ELF

Roll d20	Profession	Roll d20	Profession
1	Animal trainer	11	Hunter
2	Artisan	12	Initiate
3	Astrologer	13	Jeweler
4	Blacksmith	14	Merchant
5	Bowyer/Fletcher	15	Minstrel
6	Cook	16	Sage
7	Furrier	17	Smuggler
8	Gambler	18	Soldier
9	Guide	19	Vintner
10	Herbalist	20	Weaponsmith

SECONDARY SKILLS TABLE: HALFLING

Roll d20	Profession	Roll d20	Profession
1	Animal trainer	11	Herder
2	Artisan	12	Jeweler
3	Blacksmith	13	Locksmith
4	Brewer	14	Merchant
5	Butcher	15	Militiaman
6	Cook	16	Miller
7	Farmer	17	Scribe
8	Gardiner	18	Smuggler
9	Gypsy	19	Tailor
10	Herbalist	20	Woodsman

SECONDARY SKILLS TABLE: HUMAN

Roll d20	Profession A	Roll d20	Profession B
1	Animal trainer	1	Locksmith
2	Artisan	2	Longshoreman
3	Baker	3	Man-at-arms
4	Blacksmith	4	Mapmaker
5	Bowyer/Fletcher	5	Mercenary
6	Brewer	6	Merchant
7	Butcher	7	Miner
8	Cook	8	Scribe
9	Farmer	9	Slave
10	Gambler	10	Smuggler
11	Gardiner	11	Soldier
12	Guide	12	Squire
13	Herbalist	13	Stonemason
14	Herder	14	Street thug
15	Hunter	15	Tailor
16	Initiate	16	Tax collector
17	Jailer	17	Torch bearer
18	Jester	18	Vintner
19	Jeweler	19	Woodsman
20	Leatherworker	20	Weaponsmith

Note: Roll d6. On a result of 1-3, roll d20 on Profession A column. On a result of 4-6, roll d20 on Profession B column.