Monday, May 23, 2016

Back to the Dungeon V 2.0 Preview



A bit of BRAINSTORMING on what was sucking about BttDRPG as I tried to make an NPC.


It takes to long with all the damn features.





Time to burn it down!


Much of BttDRPG has been a failure.


Why? Well I went away from the roots of the original RPG and made a clunky game for the players.


While playtesting I noticed than most if not ALL of the features of the races and classes were ignored.


By the players and myself.


SO why even have them in the rules? Why not strip them down to their most basic presentation?


SO here I present to you the new STRIPPED down version of the Races in Book I.





2.0 RACES






There are many races some fantastic and some terrible that dwell upon these worlds other than humans. A few of the nonhuman races available for use as player characters are detailed in these rules. The details included in the racial descriptions below is kept to a minimum so that the players and the Game Master can come up with their own versions of the races. Most other details of the character are entirely the decision of the player.






Dwarf


Dwarves are a subterranean race that lives in homes carved deep into the mountains. They are slightly shorter than mankind but wider and stocky. They are know for their long beards (even a few of the Dwarf women), fine drinks, mining, music, art, and warfare against foul humanoids of the underworld.





Halfling


A race of small folk, half the size of mankind, with large hairy feet, that live on comfortable burrow homes. Halflings are know for their love of music, feasting, drinking, and smoking. Haflings tend to dress very well and be quite civilized.






Human


This is exactly like you are and they are considered the base race to create other races from.









Wood Elf





Deep within the ancient primordial forest live the rare wood elves. Elves are the same size as mankind but usually thinner and delicate framed and have pointed ears. They are skilled in warfare, art, magic, and music.






So there you go. Got rid of all of the modifiers, clunky rules, and the BS and just made it a few sentences of description. So what do you think?






So here now are the four basic classes...














3.0 CLASSES






The class descriptions are formatted in the following manner detailed below. There are many more possible classes and players and game masters alike should make up new character classes. These are the four most common classes: Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard






Name: The name of the class being described.


Description: A short description of the character class in question.


Hit Points: The Base Hit Points granted by class plus your Constitution modifier. Each additional level it's only the #D roll plus your Con modifier.






CLERIC


A holy warrior and priest who can use all armor and weapons approved by their god. They also cast divine spells.


Hit Points: 8 + 1d8 per level.






FIGHTER


A person skilled in the arts of combat who can use all armors and all weapons.


Hit Points: 10 + 1d10 per level.






ROGUE


Anyone who practices stealth and thievery as well as sneak attacks. Prefers to use lighter Dexterity weapons.


Hit Points: 6 + 1d6 per level.





WIZARD


Anyone who has learned the ways of Magic and how to harness it's power. Armor is not normally worn by Wizards because it interferes with the casting of magic. Wizards prefer to use a dagger, staff, and sword as these can be tools in rituals but can poorly use any weapon.


Hit Points: 6 + 1d6 per level.










Do you really need anymore description? Of course this is the rough draft but compare these descriptions to my 1.7 versions.


Much more simple and much more to the heart and root of what you need in an RPG.






Roll attributes


Just pick a race and class


Roll gold


Buy stuff


Start playing in less than 5 minutes!






Much of the Game Master's sections will stay the same.






WHAT DO YOU THINK?




Monday, May 16, 2016

Musings of a Mad Wizard Gamer.

Not going to shelve the game. GM burnout with bouts of creativity THEN bouts of doubt. Version 1.7 is going to stay for awhile longer as I just want to make modules and maps. Not as organized as I would like , but was the original game not a total mess? I fixed and streamlined the problems with magic (see document) on spells per day and such. In earlier version casters could cast so many spells that it made it hard to keep track of. That has been fixed. It is the game that I have always wanted to run. It has that simplicity of rules that allow one just to create with a few of the modern options pegged on. 



Was greatly inspired by stories of how they were first forming Blackmoor and then Greyhawk. Have also been inspired by Ed Greenwood's stories of his forgotten realms. The Ryth Chronicles also has made creative juices flow. Stories of the West Marches of Ars Lundi. The Dark Ages Campaign of Chogowiz. The Watchfires and Thrones campaign of Micheal Curtis in The Archive of the Rotted Moon. Philotomy's Musings of the Mythic Underworld. I want to create really cool worlds. Starting small and then continuing on. My Little Barony, Raven's Keep, and the megadungeon The Black Stairs is going on 7-8 years old now. I have ran it using Swords and Wizardry, OSRIC, LL/AEC, Pathfinder (too much work!), and finally Back to the Dungeon RPG!

The maps and the stories are about to expand! I have decided to flesh out my world a little bit more. 

Friday, May 6, 2016

THE MEAT GRINDER TOO! A free 1st level adventure Zine for Dungeon Crawl Classics

Bad art, bad editing, bad guys that need to DIE! It's also FREE!







THE MEAT GRINDER TOO!