YAY! HOUSERULES!

So we’ll be using Sword and Wizardry as a system for the Ashenvale mega-dungeon game.

I figured it would make me a decent human being if I actually published my house-rules (and the most gleefully stolen house-rules I have deemed worthy of my interest, of course) to the general public (IE, my players) a bit before the game (in this case, 2 months before the first one, I believe in early prep).

 Enough with the overuse of glorious parentheses! On to the meat of the subject! The house-rules!

 Weapon damage per class

Credits to Akratia for this one, you can find his exact wording  on his blog.

 To be brief (and to force you to give the man a hit or three), all three classes, based on their expertise, cause different damage depending on the type of weapon they use. For example, a fighter with a two handed sword is going to be much lethal than a cleric or magic-user would. As such, they make different dice of damage. If you want the number, check out the creator of the houserule!

 Note : The magic-user does not take a -1 penalty to attack using two-handers.

 Weapon proficiency change

This affects only the cleric and the magic-user. At character creation, the player of a non-fighter must choose a certain number of “weapon groups” he can wield with ease. The cleric chooses 2 and the wizard selects one. Fighters can easily use any weapons.

 The weapon groups are the same as in 4E, with the addition of the following weapon “packs”.

 Wizard’s pack : Dagger, quarterstaff, sickle, club

 Knight’s pack : Longsword, Maces, Lances, Two-handed swords

Gladiator’s pack : Short swords, Flails, two exotic weapons of choice

Assassin pack : Dagger, short sword, crossbow, darts/blowgun

(Other packs can be created by the players if they make sense, the rule is “4 weapons per pack”)

Everyone can backstab!

Again, thanks to Akratia!

The idea is simple. If somebody sneaks in behind a bad guy, carefully positions herself and stabs said evildoer in the squishies with a non-two-handed weapon, she deals more damage. Check out the blog post on Akraticwizardry

Special people get special abilities

Anyone who rolls 17 or 18 on an ability score gets a special ability. It’s decided by both the DM and the player, here are a few examples.

Strength : Player can play an ogre (custom make a race), Player gains cleave (as in 3.X), Once per day, the player may deal max damage.

Constitution: Player may have a berserker rage ability, player gains 1 AC for thick skin, player gets +4 to saves against poison.

Dexterity: Player can make a called shot without penalty (1/day), may cancel a trap or an attack (1/day), may roll her own initiative and act either on her own turn, or with the party.

Intelligence: Player gets a hint when stuck (1/day), may provoke a saving throw to an opponent or said opponent loses 2 AC for the rest of the encounter (Outsmart opponent, 1/day)

Ascending AC

Simple enough.

Magic swords are special

Magic swords don’t give bonuses to damage like other magic weapons. On the plus side, every magic sword is unique and has special abilities. Magic weapons are cool, but magic swords are legendary. There might be other special weapons, of course (Gaebolg was a spear, was it not?) but swords are ALWAYS special.

Guild house system

The party begins play with a crap, shack-like guild-house on a tiny parcel of land. They can invest money in the guild house to make it grow, get special areas that will give the players various bonuses. At every guild level, the guild-leader chooses one new add-on for the house.

 Note: The guild house can only host 8 characters before upgrade.

The add-ons and their effects

Gear locker: The players may purchase miscellaneous adventuring gear at a 25% discount.

Armoury: The players may purchase non-magical, non-exotic weapons at a 25% discount.

Forge: The players can have any non-magical weapon and armour repaired for free.

Laboratory: The laboratory creates one random minor potion per week.

Barracks: The house may hold 5 more characters. This upgrade is repeatable.

Expansion: Add a pointless room; the guild gains a reputation point. This upgrade is repeatable.

Shrine: At any given session in which at least one cleric participates, roll a 2D6 (+1 if the cleric has 15+ of wisdom)

2-5: Nothing happens

6-8: Divine favour: One cleric in the party gains a bonus spell for the day at which she visits the shrine before the adventure. That spell may be of any level.

9-10: Smite evil: The cleric deals 1 more damage with every attack on evil NPCs

11-12: Divine protection: Roll 2d6. The result is a pool of collective HP that may soak damage from any attack until depleted. The cleric is the final administrator of that collective pool of HP.

13: Roll twice, if the cleric scores the same result twice, it stacks (2 Divine protection results would be a pool of 4d6 HP)

Stash: A safe place for the players to place their personal loot if they do not wish to carry it them. It’s safer then leaving it lying around.

Trophy room: Allows a single reputation reroll per trophies considered “noteworthy” by the DM. The head of a dragon is noteworthy, the head of a kobold his not.

Fortifications: Add a decent fence to your guild house, additional level makes the fortification bigger.

Servants: Grants a small number of servants to the guild house. They keep it clean, make the food, etc.

Guards: Provides a group of 5 men-at-arms and one veteran to keep the guild house safe. They will not follow the players on an adventure. Addition purchase of this upgrade gives the guild house another squad of 5 men-at-arms and a veteran.

Library: Here magic-users may research spells of up to their maximum levels. No more then 1 spell per magic-user, per month, may be researched. The player adds the spell to his book.

Training room: Fighters of the guild get once per day +2 to an attack or damage roll, they may declare it after the actual attack or damage roll.

Stables: Provides free horses.

 Reputation system

The guild has a reputation and must maintain it, the guild’s reputation starts at 15, and is modified by the following factors:

Guild leader as 13+ of charisma: -1

Guild leader as 13+ of strength: -1

Guild house gains a level: -1

Leader gains a level: -1

Major achievement: -1

A hireling or a player character dies: +1

Major social blunder by any guild member: +1

Guild leader dies: +leader’s level, +leader’s ability bonuses, -new leader’s ability bonuses

To succeed at a reputation roll, the leader must roll over the guild’s reputation score, modifiers may be applied.

The reputation system will be mostly used to find hirelings.

That is all for now! Love, happiness and joy to all of you

Didn’t you hear? ‘Parently, there’s this town built on top of ancient ruins, from way back, from the Age of Peace before the Magewar scarred the world. And ‘parently, the adventurer’s guild, you know the one, from Nyevim, is opening a venue down there. ‘parently, the whole area as a vast underground network, leading to gods know how far. One thing’s for sure, there’s old magik there, from when magic was written with a « K » at the end. I wouldn’t risk me arse down there, but lesser minds jus’ might. Can’t think of a better way to make quick gold if you be troll- kissing stupid.

 Here’s the premise to my megadungeon campaign.

 I wanted to make something part-Saltmash, part-megadungeon, with a few funny inside jokes to keep things hillarious. I felt like doing a more light-hearted game, for this time (no worries drama-whores, I’ve got a bucketload of deeper roleplaying ideas for you in the near future!)

 The players are members of a well known adventurer’s guild (they get to name it themselves) who decide, at some point, based on a few unfounded rumors, to open up a base in the fortified town of Ashenvale. With that premise, the players have a decent excuse for being able to join the party right after losing a character, and a decent reputation from the start. It will allow for new players to come and go as they please, too, and given the physical setting of the game (most likely the Ottawa U Gaming Club, or just hanging out around the most beloved UfO),  the risks of having a new player join only for one or two session is rather high.

 So the players come to this quaint little town in the middle of antedilluvian ruins, they have the same problems as any other quaint little town in the middle of antedilluvian ruins (goblins in the forest, apparently, there’s a man-eating ghoul in the old tower on the hill, Little Timmy said he saw giant bugs in his father’s field  the other day, but he was drunk etc.) and will have to try and find the lovely underground network (around 50 zones spread on about 20 levels up until now) and loot the shit out of it. Loot it old-school.

 Potential players, don’t forget to check out http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/ for the system we will be using, and read the most famous Old School Primer (it’s a mandatory read, you will be thankful)

 Also, if you guys have any cool ideas of neat stuff to stick in a dungeon, lemme know!

Stay tuned tomorow for the houserules!

I’ve been ’round since this town was built, when your father was naught but a thought of his own father’s loins. The ruins have always been there, they protect our village better than the strongest walls, ye get used to them gloomily shinin’ at night after a while, I tell ye.

Ashenvale is a “fortified” town of a few thousand souls, having gained it’s independance mainly by being more or less forgotten. It was founded some fifty years ago by a low-ranking noble who thought he could use the ruins as cheap fortification instead of actually paying for walls from his treasury. He was not wrong.

The town his built on top of the ruins of an ancient, devastated and nameless city, long forgotten by even the oldest, most knowledgeable of sages. The walls scattered all over the areas are made of a strange stone that glows under moonlight. The locals have dubbed it “Moonsilver”, and claim it’s nigh-indestructable.

To the east is the last standing building of this civilization, a small tower on top of a hill, an old and crazy hermit lives there.

A forest covers much of the old ruins to north-east, rumor goes that evil lives there. Some claim tribes of goblins fight for the groves, others that man-eating ghouls stalk the night, but many tales were heard.

About a week’s worth of riding to the south will bring one to the towering city of Nyevim, jewel of the region and known to be one of the greatest hubs of commerce in the world.

The roads to the west lead the The Wildlands, filled with ruins of old, terrifying magic and even more terrifying magic.

I’ve been slowly brainstorming about the different factions of my dungeon, different entry points, I should start working on the first few levels in a few short days. Thou shalt be kept updated.