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World of Dungeons Resource Compendium
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The World of Dungeons Resource Compendium
Book of the Players
Human Classes
Cleric
Thief
Barbarian
Paladin
Vagabond
Druid
Demihuman Classes
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling
Monster Classes
Gnoll Warrior
Stats
Hit Dice and Hit Points
Healing
Skills and Failures
Special Abilities
Replacement Skirmish Rule
Users of Magic
Quicksilver
Spirits
Cantrips
Hirelings
Combat
Fighting Multiple Opponents
Hirelings in Combat
World of Dungeon Master
Experience Points
Character Advancement
Character Death
Magic Items
Masterwork Weapons
Types of Treasures
Regency Random Wilderness Encounter Table
Advanced WoD
Extra Skills
The Rule of 12
Manual of Monsters
Large Spiders
2
Goblins
Swamp Lizardmen
Lake Monster
Mushroom Men
Skeletons
The Mud Dragon Inn
Mist, F Thief
Valavanora, F Druid
Andromeda, F Necromancer
Andromeda’s Father, M UberNecromancer
Arselan, F Paladin
xxxxx, F Ranger
Eupendra, F Wizard
Lyra, F Cleric
Artemis, F Ranger
Ponyo, M Cleric
Eldritch Enchantment
Rituals
Wards and Circles
Enchantments
Ritual Rotes
Cult of Khathu
World of Wizards
Unchained Arcana
Classes of Characters
Travelling Scholar / Bard
Assassin
Necromancer
Warlock
Noble
Cursed Swordsman
Goblin
Orc
Catfolk
Fiendish Portfolio
Fire Salamanders
Dust Demons
Dryads
Water Snakes
Minor Outsider
Hell Vassal
Night Breed
Oak
3
Willow
Night Mare
Outer Knight
Seven Crows
World of Dungeons Expert Edition
Custom Class Moves
Spirit Maker
Bonds, Secrets, Oaths and Promises
Bonds
World of Dungeon Crawls
World Dungeoneer's Codex
End of the World of Dungeons
Stone & Shadow Magazine
Stone & Shadow #2
Rounding out the Classes
Psychic Knight
Mountebank
Archaeologist
Archer
Mysteries and Magic fanzine
Mysteries and Magic fanzine #1
Bone and Blood
Depths of the Dungeon fanzine
Quest Sheets Collection
Quest 3: Unsavory Deeds
Quest 4: Dirty Dealers
Tito Cevrisar's Fourth Page Collection
Monster
Nature
Role
Artifacts
Origin
Power
CITY
Feature
Population
Society
Trouble
Dungeon
History
Denizen
Trial
Secret
4
An NPC Worth A Damn
Moves that Hurt
Marienburg Moves
World of Dungeons Reimagined
Impulses Maps
The Pain of Defeat
World of Heroes
World of Street
World of Vampires
World of Exalted
World of Knives and Candles
World of Chainmail
The Bureau
The Bureau is an Apocalypse World hack (really more of a World of Dungeons hack, as
it has no playbooks) suitable for kids. You play secret Agents protecting humanity from
supernatural threats: it's basically Men in Black meets Ghostbusters.
World of Shadows
Warcraft World
World of Mutants
DEADWORLDS: The Wasted West Playset.
The Doomsayer Character Class
http://sentientgames.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/thedoomsayer.pdf
World of Gunmen
World of Dusters
The World Sequences
The Eye of Chaos
World of Warhammer: Streets of Marienburg
Creatures
Skaven
Dungeon Girls (and Dungeon Kids)
AWESOME POINTS
LUCK
PETS
NARROW SKILLS
THE PENTAGRAM
SPIRITS
SPIRIT TELLS
SPIRIT LIKES
STEALTH
CONDITIONS
GRASP OF DEATH
LIGHT
5
RATIONS
DUNGEON DELVING
ENCUMBRANCE
World of Star Wars
FarFarAway
Star Worlds The Streets of Mos Eisley
THE DROID
Kingdoms of Ooo
World of Apocalypse
End of the World
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Book of the Players
published in 1979
Human Classes
Cleric
Q: "Choose one skill in addition to any granted by your class." + "CLERICS get decipher and heal." Does
that mean that clerics get three skills?
A:
One of my fundamental assumptions about WoD is that everybody gets two skills; the way I see it, the
Cleric gets *only* those two. That's how I'd play though no one's been a cleric yet.
Thief
Thieves skill "Tinker (you can attempt to quickly pick a lock, pick a pocket, or disarm a trap)." Seems a bit
weak to me. Couldn't any character do that?
You can use one of two possible rules: the Soft Tinker and the
Hard Tinker rules.
Soft Tinker, a Bonus to Tinker
I'd revise it into something like "Tinker (+2 on attempts to quickly pick a lock, pick Tinker lets you do that stuff
quickly and without fuss, with a simple roll. Otherwise, it's a project that takes considerable time and effort to
understand how the thing works, what it does, and how to neutralize it. Tinkers can do so quickly.
Hard Tinker, or Only Thieves can Tinker
Couldn't any character do that? Apparently not! When I see that kind verbiage, I take to be saying something
fundamental about the world. "Someone with this ability/thing/whatever can perform this feat" means that
someone without the ability/thing/whatever can't.
Barbarian
Barbarian of the Panther Clan
Barbarians get Perseverance.
Choose two special abilities: Berserk
(+2 melee damage, +2 armor, needs to make a CON check to stop
fighting once activated),
Brawny (+1 melee and thrown weapons damage, can reroll damage once per
attack), (can reroll DEX when reacting to dangerous situations),
Instinct Rugged
(+1 Hit Die, +3 HP).
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Barbarian of the Spirit Walkers Clan
Barbarian :: Survival :: Skirmish, Scout, Hardy, Ritual
Barbarian of the Wolf Clan
Barbarians are wild people, often clad in animal skins and wielding axes. They start with the skill
Survival
.
Choose two special abilities: Tough (Fighter), (Fighter),
Slay (Fighter),
Hardy Scout
(Ranger).
Paladin
Paladin the Sword of God
Paladins get Leadership skill and two of these four abilities: Tough, Slay, Turn and Vision.
Paladin the Shield of God
Paladins are holy warriors, smiting in the name of their religion. They start with the skills
Leadership
and
Heal
.
Choose two special abilities:
Tough (Warrior),
Hardy (Warrior), (Cleric),
Turn Vision (Cleric).
Vagabond
One of my players made a Survivalist class with the Reflexes and Scout powers and the Survival and
Awareness skills.
Druid
Druid 1
Druid :: Heal :: Pet, Wild, Cure, Summon
Druid 2
Druids are priests of the Old Religion. They start with the skill . Choose two special abilities:
Survival Cure
(Cleric), (Ranger),
Pet Wild (Ranger),
Ritual
(Wizard).
Demihuman Classes
Not all adventurers are human in the Outer Lands. When playing a nonhuman adventurer, use their race as
their adventuring class.
Elf
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Wood Elf Archer
Elf :: Lore :: Cantrips, Volley, Wild, Reflexes
High Elf Spellsword
Elves are slight, quick, and as good with magic as they are with swords. They start with the skill
Awareness . Choose two special abilities: (Fighter),
Slay (Thief),
Reflexes (Wizard),
Ritual Cantrips
(Wizard).
Dwarf
Dwarven Priest
Dwarf :: Decipher :: Tinker, Hardy, Skirmish, Vision
Dwarf Warrior
Dwarves are stodgy warriors with a knack for the mechanical and an excellent oral tradition. They start with
the skill
_Lore_ . Choose two special abilities: (Fighter),
_Tough_ (Fighter),
_Slay_ _Hardy_
(Fighter),
_Tinker_ (Thief).
Halfling
Halfling Guard
Halfling :: Stealth :: Lucky, Volley, Hardy, Reflexes
Halfling Scout
Halflings are short and easily underestimated. They start with the skill
_Stealth_
. Choose two special
abilities:
_Lucky_ (Thief),
_Reflexes_ (Thief), (Ranger),
_Scout_ _Volley_
(Ranger).
Monster Classes
Gnoll Warrior
Gnoll (dog person based on the illustration from the AD&D Monster Manual)
Take the awareness skill and any two of the following four abilities:
Hardy (Fighter),
Alpha (when you lead a group in a fight, on a success, you can hand out 3 +1 forwards to
your teammates during the fight),
Patient
Hunter (When you're following a group, if you're patient enough,
you'll be able to get at any one member of the group while they're all alone),
Track (follow any person,
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animal or group across any terrain).
Stats
Q: What's everyone's procedures for stat rolls? Are you supposed to roll them in order, or roll your scores
and assign them?
Rolling in Order
Of course we're rolling them in order! No reassigning, no rerolls! It's the only true way!
There's a semblance of poetry to the organic characters you get, but I know there are some people out there
who really want to play X class.
Swapping Two Stats
I was thinking of houseruling it so you rolled in order, but got to switch any two scores once. You can still
function in your "preferred" class if you get a zero or something in the "key attribute", so you get some
instead of all of what you want.
Reassign Rolls
Of course you can reassign rolls. If you're weak. ^^
Hit Dice and Hit Points
Q: I read it that you roll (potentially) several dice and keep the highest n of them, added together where n is
your level. But aren't many second level characters going to roll one and keep the highest two? …
A: Roll 1+Con+Level Bonus d6s, keep one per Level with the highest results, and total them together. So,
for example, a first level PC with +1 Con would roll 2d6, lets say he gets a 4 and 6, so he'd keep the 6. At
second level, he'd roll again, this time 3d6 (because at 2nd level you get +1 hit dice), resulting in 3, 4, and 6,
so he'd keep the 4 and 6 for a total of 10 HP.
One should weep for the weakling with NO Con bonus at third level, for they only get to roll two Hit Dice,
when potentially they could keep three results!
Q: Just to see if I understand Hit Dice correctly: "You have 1 Hit Die (d6) + extra hit dice equal to your CON.
Roll all your hit dice and keep a number equal to your level to determine your hp." Assuming a character has
a 0 CON, on level 9 he can potentially keep 9 hit dice, but only gets to roll 5 (because you only get +1 HD
every even level)?
A: That, to me, becomes the advantage of having a character with a higher CON. Plus, depending on the
healing rules you use, if you rest in comfort and safety, you could get +1 HD when healing, and another +1
HD when tended by a healer. So, a Level 9 Fighter with CON+3 could, at minimum, roll 8 Hit Dice, 9 Hit Dice
when in safety and comfort or when tended by a healer, 10 Hit Dice if in safety and comfort and tended by a
healer.
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Healing
When you rest, your hit points can't decrease.
John Harper says:
Here's a tweak we're considering in our local game:
When you rest , you can reroll your HP if you want to.
If you rest in comfort and safety, set one of your HD to six (don't roll it).
If you are attended to by a healer , set one of your HD to six (don't roll it).
This means, at level 1 and 2, if you rest in comfort and safety with a healer, you get max HP. Seems pretty
good.
Here's another tweak to healing. (Our local rules calls are always in flux. :)
When you rest in comfort and safety , roll +1HD. If you are attended to by a healer (with bandages, and
they make their roll if they're a PC or you pay them if they're an NPC), set one of your HD to six.
Resting at a sacred magical place consecrated to healing (like a temple or sacred ancient Elf grove)
lets you set another HD to six.
Skills and Failures
By the World of Dungeons rules, you get no penalties if you do something risky without a matching skill. All a
skill does is make sure that the character never completely fails a check for something he is skilled in, i.e.
even if you end up with a result of 16, you still get a partial success (as if you rolled 79).
No Hard Moves on Skill Failure
Another way to look at the skill rule is not so much as "no fail" but just "no hard move" for failure, which
eases the creative pressure on the GM.
I've heard somewhere a while back (I think on the AW forums) that Han Solo 79'd the entire Star Wars
trilogy. Things didn't come down hard on him pretty much ever (well, except for that whole carbonite thing),
but he always seemed to find trouble due to near misses in crazy circumstances. (Okay, you got past this,
but here's some new problems you've stirred up. What're you going to do about them, hotshot?)
"Uhoh, Han, you rolled a 4! But, with your Pilot Skill, you manage to outmaneuver those TIEfighters and
found a nice hiding spot in a cave on this one asteroid..."
"Well, Han, you rolled a 2 with your Deception Skill. Yeah, you chase those Stormtroopers down the hall like
a maniac on fire...but when you turn the corner, there's like twenty of 'em facing you! Time to run!"
"You rolled an 8? Yeah, so you manage to avoid getting shot out of the void by the Imperials, but you had to
dump your load of spice to avoid their scanners. Man, is Jabba gonna be angry..."
Hard Moves on Skill Failure
It's really interesting to me that some of the people playing WoD here interpret missing on a Skill as a no
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hard move situation. The "success but with a greater compromise than a 79" thing always screamed "They
succeed, but make a hard move also!" at me.
Special Abilities
Replacement Skirmish Rule
Skirmish gives +1 damage and makes armour count as 1 level lighter (for movement?). IMO this armour is
having the opposite effect of military skirmishers which should be wearing lighter armour as it encourages
skirmishers to wear the heavy stuff.
+1 damage and +1 armour to light or no armour might be better.
John_Harper says : I like the skirmish rule adjustment. Cool.
Users of Magic
Character advancement can be "prescriptive" or "descriptive".
If a Wizard encounters and tames a new spirit , he can then subsequently summon it.
If he encounters a new cantrip either via the arcane writings of a spellbook, training, or other benefit, he
would then be able to use them.
I play the way you've described summoning and commands and rituals. Except that I think rituals are maybe
not stuff "other" than summoning, but maybe more complicated summonings, etc.
Summoning a spirit that you know isn't risky.
Unless a goblin is trying to stab you at the same time. Or you're inside a temple consecrated to a powerful
demon. Or...
Commanding a spirit that you know isn't risky.
Unless the command goes against its nature, or its particular appetites, or its arcane restrictions. Or
you've recently bound it against its will. Or...
Generally, the first few summonings and commands are fairly safe and simple. But that rarely lasts. Then
there's that pesky quicksilver addiction to deal with...
Quicksilver
Q: How do you handle the effects of quicksilver? Is it deliberately left completely openended, or did I miss
something?
A:
Quicksilver is moderately openended. I mean, you have to make that con roll to avoid negative effects. I
haven't had a player actually use more quicksilver than their level yet, so I can't tell you what risks I have
imposed. But I think hitdie loss would certainly be in the mix.
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I just had that happen yesterday, the using quicksilver in excess of level, I mean. She failed her roll, so I
ruled she successfully summoned the ice spirit and gave it the instructions (don't want to deprotagonize!),
but that the instructions weren't entirely clear to the spirit, so that the wizard was also covered with a layer of
ice (a couple of HP worth of damage and temporary incapacitation). I could have made a harder move, but
these are 12year old girls I'm playing with, and I wanted to wallop her gently. The ice fox spirit, who we've
established is a bit of a showoff and doesn't always pay close attention, was very apologetic.
Spirits
Wizards initially "know" two spirits/demons/elementals. They can summon them with an hourlong ritual or a
dose of quicksilver for one (1) magical effect of their domains.
You can automatically command a spirit you "know" without the Command skill that one is for spirits you
encounter.
The skill Ritual is not needed to perform a spirit summoning Ritual this is covered by the Summon skill,
right? With the skill Ritual, you can perform other occult rituals that have a magical effect other than
summoning a spirit?
John Harper said:
The demon power thing is a trade off.
"So you command a really powerful demon, huh? And you just order it around whenever you feel like it?
Okay then."
You roll when you do something risky... bossing around the uberdemon certainly counts. They won't
succeed at all of them. :)
Of course, you're also allowed as GM to establish the capabilities of the spirit however you like.
"Forgiveness master, but such a feat is beyond my power." And maybe make them an offer, "Shall I call to
my sisters in the netherrealm to assist us in our journey?"
Play spirits and demons like other NPCs. In short: they want stuff . Based on how the players roll, they
may get what they want in the short term, but there may very well be a price. (Demon: "Hello again!
Remember the last time we talked and you wanted that band of orcs destroyed? Well, now this time I want
something...")
"to summon a spirit you know , you require one of the following: [...] a magic item containing a bound
spirit." Since most magic is spirit based, I assume that most magic items contain a bound spirit, i.e. a wizard
has a lot of options of summoning different spirits after the first couple of hauls. Is anyone
playing it this way? I find it interesting but maybe a bit powerful.
Cantrips
Cantrips INT Bonus
How can a wizard gain more Cantrips? What about giving bonus starting cantrips based on INT?
Gaining bonus cantrips based on starting INT is a house rule, and not an unreasonable one, though I don't
use it.
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Cantrips Come from Spirits
Most magic requires summoning a spirit, demon, or elemental to perform supernatural effects. I take that
pretty seriously and until I think of a good reason, in my game, where that rule says most, I think all.
I've decided that cantrips come from really simple spiritthings that can be bound right into the wizard as if
she were a magic item. You can do that with 'real' spirits too, but maybe not a great idea, yeah? So in my
game, I suppose if you find or make or whatever more spirits of that level of sophistication, and figure out
how to bind them, you can. Because of how that looks in my game, int doesn't play a role (though it might
make finding and binding easier!).
Hirelings
Hireling CHA Bonus
On the subject of PCs/followers I was rereading "D&D Campaigns" by Lewis Pulsipher from the best of
White Dwarf vol 1. It was written c'79. It offers this advice on the subject of "Single Character vs Multiple
Characters":
"According to the rules, each D&D player receives one character plus a number of followers determined by
the charisma of the leader. A few campaigns are played without followers, one character per player. In either
case the player must use this character every adventure until it dies permanently, whereapon he must start
a new character (or, preferably, adopt one of his followers as his new character). The majority of D&D
campaigns, however, permit a large number of characters, without followers, for each player. "
Interesting stuff! (Additionally it sounds like it is risky to have more hirelings than your charisma!)
Hirelings and Skills
Q: The hireling "expert" says "skill 4". Is that a typo, or does it mean something?
A:
I assumed the expert has four skills.
Hirelings and XP
How are you people handling longtime hirelings? Do they gain XP? Do they level up?
Full XP
My gut ruling would be to give them their normal part of XPs from overcoming monsters if they actively
participated somehow (other than holding a torch), and give them a fraction from XP gained by found
treasure and coins (maybe about half of what a PC is gaining).
Level 0 hireling level up to level 1 at 1000XP, afterwards they use the standard level table. Of course,
experienced hirelings will demand better pay.
Half XP
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The 1981 version of World of Dungeons talks about hirelings earning about 1/2 the XP of the character that
hires them. Not sure how that actually plays out...
The halfXP for companions is a good idea. My player has befriended an orc and is extremely invested in
keeping it around. I'm trying to think of some other neat ways of representing its assistance. Perhaps it
through its help can grant her some extra skills or an extra ability. I'll have to think about it.
No XP
I think they shouldn't gain XP until they are played by a player (when his main character dies) less
bookkeeping, plus only heros can gain XP.
Combat
Combat, here's how I handle it:
16: Enemy rolls damage.
79: PC rolls damage. Enemy also rolls damage or preferably gains some other situational advantage, e.g.
enemy blocks the exit, PC loses weapon or other equipment, PCs falls to the ground, enemy gets past the
fighter and can damage wizard next round etc.
1011: PC rolls damage.
12+: PC rolls damage and gains an additional advantage, e.g. does +1d6 damage, disarms opponent,
outright kills opponent if plausible, gets blade at opponents throat and can decide to kill him or let him live, or
I just give narrative control over what happens to the player.
Fighting Multiple Opponents
How do you guys do combat? Say two PCs are facing down four orcs. Does a miss mean all the orcs roll
damage on the PCs? Or one orc's damage on each PC?
Damage when Missing
If the PC was protecting another one, maybe, but it'd probably be nice to let each PC suffer the effects of
their own miss, instead of punishing both each time. I'd only have the one that missed (or partial hit) get hurt.
In your example, 4 orcs vs 2 PCs, and one player misses, I'd have two orcs deal damage to the player who
missed his roll. Of course, this is depending on the current situation I'm assuming they are split 2:1 in the
fight.
Highest Damage
Dungeon World has a fairly elegant solution for multiple enemies attacking the same PC roll the highest
damage once per monster, and have the PC take the highest. Like, if each PC is being attacked by two orcs,
and their damage is d6+1 (for a battle axe or something), roll d6+1 twice and take the higher, so if you get 4
and 6, he takes 6 damage.
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Hirelings in Combat
How do you have damage inflicted on hirelings since they never roll?
Fiction First
Play everything by ear based on the situation.
I've inflicted harm on the hirelings when it just seemed appropriate or had them trade harm for harm.
The obvious answer is to follow the fiction, right? If the PCs order the hirelings to do something that puts
them in danger, or the GM makes a move that threatens the hirelings, then a mixed result or a failure or
inaction are all great excuses to harm hirelings, yeah? And, sometimes, if the situation is especially rough
(you're trapped in the middle of the Thieves Guild), you can probably make a move to straight up harm
people without any setup, due to the constant threat of danger.
Hirelings as a Weapon
I've also had a PC make leadership rolls to fight with his gang hirelings as a weapon and then the damage to
both sides just shakes out in pretty easy to envision ways based on the roll. But I haven't run enough
combats to have really settled into a this is how I do it.
On GM Rolling
I also have trouble reconciling the GM style with the fact that hirelings have explicit stats; presuming the GM
never rolls dice except the Die of Fate (which the rules *imply* but don't outright state don't ya love the
70s?), what happens when a hireling engages an enemy? Do they just trade harm for harm, is there a
standard roll for the fight, etc.? Is it based on a player action (say, a Cha or Wis roll for for giving orders?)
On GM rolling: Yeah, it's interesting. I'm not going to roll any moves for my NPCs that's a thing I like about
AW, but I roll their HD > HP and also Die of Fate type stuff. I'm not sure why, when I'm designing critters to
fight, I give them static damage but HD to roll instead of just static HP. That's kind of weird, but it feels right.
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World of Dungeon Master
published in 1979
Experience Points
For purposes of XP, loot includes your expenses when you're being reimbursed during a quest.
Character Advancement
Similarly, the abilities characters gain when gaining levels have to come from somewhere, and it's often
fruitful to
ask the player how his character came into their possession .
Character Death
I'd say I would give them a last chance of a CON check:
On 16 they die,
79 and they might endure a few more moments where they can be healed,
make it a bit longer for 1011
and maybe only a unconsciousness/coma on a 12+.
However, if they don't get healed soon on a CON check below 12 , or they take any further damage
while on 0hp, let them die...
...unless they try something risky, like trying to cheat death or make a deal with a powerful demon .
John Harper says : We've been using last breath from Dungeon World, but I'll probably throw yours into the
mix, too.
Magic Items
John_Harper says : There are two types of magic items:
1. An "enchanted" item, with an elemental bound to perform a specific function (make the blade alight with
fire, produce a cloud of dark mist, etc.)
2. "Summoning" items, that contain a spirit that a wizard can call forth and command.
In our setting, the knowledge needed to bind an elemental to an object was lost when the Elves and
Dwarves died out, so magic items cannot be made anymore.
Masterwork Weapons
So here is how I use masterwork weapons in my World of Dungeons games. They do normal damage and
don't give any attack bonuses, but when the player rolls a 1 on a damage roll
, it counts as a 5. (This
way, rolling a six is still something special.)
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I might add an "Unbreakable" Tag (I have broken two normal weapons on Misses against an Earth
Elemental)
I haven't made up hard rules for costs, but I guess in the range of 5 to 10 times of a standard weapon? I
think master smiths should be fairly rare and only specialized in one certain type of weapon. I agree on the
unbreakable tag in my campaign, they are nearly indestructible be normal means, only by magic.
Types of Treasures
POTION OF CLEAR VISION . When this clear, tarttasting liquid is imbibed, the drinker can use the special
ability Scout once before the magical effects wear off. GM will secretly roll the die of fate to see how many
doses are in the potion.
BELT OF FACILITY : This rare belt is made with leather crafted from a special breed of horse that has
traces of pegasus blood in their veins. Grants the ability to lift and carry heavy objects with ease (not to
throw them), and worn armor counts as one type lighter. If worn without at least light armor or something of
equivalent weight, the wearer floats straight up into the air. The magic of the belt stops working 30 feet
above ground, until its wearer touches the ground again. (200s)
RING OF THE TRAITOR SERPENT : Ring cast in the form of a silver snake holds a red jewel in its jaws.
Bestows the skill Resist Poison on the wearer. Side effect is that the wearer's speech becomes markedly
sibilant, and the wearer tends to express his or her anger with a hiss.
Potion of Invisibility: 1 dose +Stealth until Die of Fate comes up bad
Elven Boots : boots made by Elven hands. +Stealth
Cloak Fine : cloak woven by Elven hands. +Scout
Ring of Animal Control: +Wild Die of Fate uses
Ring of Protection: Worn armor counts as one class lighter
Gauntlets of Ogre Power: +Slay
Rope of Climbing: +Athletics when attempting to climb stuff
Deck of Many Things: Draw a card, roll a Die of Fate to see what card you drew. Gain a tag. Some
suggestions: +Tough, +Weak, +Slay, +Lucky, +Unlucky, +Reflexes, +Slow, +Cantrip, +Summon,
+Unsummon, +Cure, +Harm, +Bless, +Curse, +Vision, +Blind.
Bone Crushing Mace: It looks like three bones bound together with a skull for a head. When wielded by a
cleric on a 10+ it causes an enemy´s bone to break great vs skeletons!
Regency Random Wilderness Encounter Table
Roll a die of fate for each 5 mile hex.
The GM is encouraged to adjust this according to the likelihood of
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an encounter in the current region. If the PCs stay in one hex for a longer time, e.g. when camping out
overnight, the GM may opt to roll a second time.
13 Encounter (roll on following table)
46 No encounter
If there is an encounter, roll 2d6 and consult the following table for the encounter type. The GM can either
choose one of the options of the rolled encounter type freely or roll a d6 and use the numbers in square
brackets to determine the encounter. Decide on the number of appearing monsters or the level of
encountered NPCs according to the power level of your party.
2 Agent of the Sorcerer's Queen [13] or other hostile NPC [45] or tax collector [6]
3 Guardian of the Forest [13], merchant [45] or other friendly NPC [6]
4 Travelling mercenaries [12], bounty hunters [34] or adventurers [56] (roll die of fate for friendliness,
might be hired)
5 Giant Black Widows [13] or other giant sized monster(s) [46]
6 spirit [12], elemental [34] or demon [56] (roll a die of fate for hostility; a "friendly" demon will offer a
pact)
7 Kobolds [1] or goblins [2] or hobgoblins [3] or dire hounds [4] or bone ghouls [5] or mischievous faeries
[6]
8 Bandits [14] or thieves [56]
9 Undead ogre [13] or other undead monster(s) [46]
10 Lucky coincidence: place to rest [13] (e.g. roadside tavern, spring, glade, healing circle) or treasure
[46] (e.g. magical artifact/weapon, coins, scrolls, equipment)
11 Travelling Monk [13] (can Cure and Bless, takes donations), merchant [45] or other friendly NPC [6]
12 Agent of the Necromancer [13] or other hostile NPC [45] or tax collector [6]
19
Advanced WoD
published in 1984
As it is, my friends and I were kind of purists. When Advanced WoD came out in '84 and added those new
skillsEntertain, Linguist, and Seafaringwe treated it with scorn. Had more than a few arguments about
rules bloat that seem pretty damned silly now. Man, the nostalgia...
Extra Skills
Entertain, Linguist, and Seafaring
The Rule of 12
I will say in my experience, nobody is really disappointed if you "just" give them a solid success on a 12+.
Maybe give them what they would get on a 1011 and a +1 forward to their next roll that follows through?
20
Manual of Monsters
published in 1979
John Harper says: I like to stick with d6s, so I just gauge monster damage based on the weapon types, then
add +1d6 or +2d6 if they're big or magical or something . You're spoton for how to play the monsters
and make GM moves. It's just like DW that way.
Large Spiders
HD 1 | bite 2hp, spout web, drag into web
My large spiders are very mechanically simple. 1 HD and they bite for two points. But they were quick and
the encounter was in a big webfilled pit so there was homecourt advantage.
Goblins
HD 1+1 | Dex+1 | Awareness, Darkvision | attack as a group, command goblins, charge on a Worg |
15 XP, 4d6 coins
GOBLINS get Awareness and Darkvision.
Choose one special ability:
Band (when within sight of at least 3 other Goblins they add +1 to Morale),
Commander (they can attempt to command other Goblins),
Rider (they can attempt to ride Worgs as cavalry).
Choose two items:
Light Armor,
Javelin (as Shortbow),
Morningstar (as Martial Weapon),
Shield.
Goblins have Dex+1 and 1 Hit Die+1, are worth 15XP and typically carry 4d6 coins each.
Swamp Lizardmen
HP 8 | amphibious | attack 1d8, hide in water, hide in mud
Lizardmen live in swamps and are amphibious. They hit for d8 damage and have 8 hit points. They are
excellent at hiding under water and mud.
Lake Monster
HP 160 | Armor 3 | amphibious | maw 3d6+4, tail 2d6+2, hide, seek
LAKE MONSTER: hp 160, damage: maw 3d6+4, tail 2d6+2, skills: Hide, Seek, Dive, special abilities:
Camouflage (cannot be spotted on sea bed), Dragonkinskin (+3 armor), Healing of Water (can sleep for
21
extended periods of time and regenerates 1d6 hp per day while sleeping).
Mushroom Men
Skeletons
22
The Mud Dragon Inn
published in 1983
The Mud Dragon Inn is an accessory designed for the Word of Dungeons roleplaying game. The Mud
Dragon Inn as a supplement is used to help dungeon masters introduce fully designed characters into any
scenario.
Mist, F Thief
Mist, a dark, tough thief girl who wields twin curved shortswords "like Zuko from Avatar." She also carries
caltrops, a rope and grappling hook, two smoke bombs, special climbing claws, and a handful of darts with
sleeping venom. After adding rations and a pocketsized candlelantern, she was operating on a silver
deficit, so she asked if she could steal some of her gear. I said yes, and she rolled a 7 for a burglary effort,
meaning she succeeded in pilfering her stuff, but someone in the city is mad at her. Nice story hook for later.
Mist doesn't wear armor, but has Athletics and Stealth, plus the special abilities of Reflexes and Tinker.
Valavanora, F Druid
Valavanora, a mysterious, greenclad druid with her peregrine falcon familiar Dera, and two nature spirits
she knows how to summon: Mir (domains of water and secrets) and Koriander (fire and birds). We decided
that Druidic spirits had to have an element as one domain, and couldn't embody domains that didn't have
some connection with nature. Valavanora carries a bronze dagger and a short bow, wears light armor, and
carries a collapsible pole, chalk, and other druidy ritual stuff (rocks, feathers, crystals). Her skills are Heal
and Lore, special abilities Summon and Pet.
Andromeda, F Necromancer
Andromeda’s Father, M UberNecromancer
As the DG get up to speed on the Obsidian Portal site, they're essentially making their own Bonds via
backstory connections among the characters. For instance, Andromeda's uberNecromancer father appears
to be the candidate for Dark Boss, and he was responsible for the death of Valavanora's character,
Arselan, F Paladin
Arselan's paladin Order has the task of monitoring the daughter (Andromeda).
xxxxx, F Ranger
My daughter (7) took a ranger and wanted a blink dog as a pet because she said she wanted something that
could go through walls! I said OK but it won´t be there all the time (trust to the die of fate!). She rolled 1HP
for that ranger so he is going to need all the help he can get.
Eupendra, F Wizard
23
She chose to play a wizard, so that she could cast magic spells. We rolled stats in order, but she still wound
up with decent stats for a wizard: +1 or +2 in Int, Cha and Con. She picked a spirit of shadow named
DarkAsNight and a spirit of fire named Bonfire. Some equipment was bought and she picked the name
Eupendra off the list because it sounded nice.
She summoned a spirit of shadow to make her unseen by a skeleton.
She made a Wizard named Eupendra with Shadow and Fire spirits at her command. .
Eupendra lived as the local hedge wizard for a tiny fantasy town. Farmers would come to her for help with
stuff that they didn't understand.
She summoned DarkAsNight and she asked it to hide herself and the mushroom men. The mushroom
men still didn't want to go, though, so just Eupendra turned invisible and moved on down the cave. Around a
bend, she found the skeleton as described, guarding a doorway through which chanting could be heard. She
snuck behind the skeleton just as planned and then launched an ambush with her Blessed club. Surprise
plus Blessing meant that she took out the skeleton in one hit.
After looting a scimitar from the skeleton, Eupendra decided to be prepared. She had already learned via
Lore that the skeleton had been made by a wizard or necromancer or something. And so beyond the door
must be the skeleton's creator, who must have the missing sheep. She summoned Bonfire and asked to be
able to shoot fire from her hands. I rolled the die of fate and determined that Bonfire could let her fire 4
blasts. She then burst through the door, ready for battle.
Lyra, F Cleric
She was briefly joined by her younger sister as a Cleric named Lyra, but she lost interest quickly
Artemis, F Ranger
Equipment was the basic stuff, but the youngster had a great deal of fun describing armor. This player
insisted that the ranger (named Artemis for skill with the bow) would wear a light armor that looked like a
woven golden dress. Artemis's pet was a big fluffy white snow leopard named Zeus. Four pluses into typical
ranger statistics, leaving charisma and intelligence at 0.
Ponyo, M Cleric
I lucked out with three +1, one +3 (into WIS of course), and two +0 (STR and DEX).
24
Eldritch Enchantment
published in 1980
Rituals
Rituals encompassed a number of different rote form effects:
Wards and Circles
Wards and Circles:
Creation of wards,
circles of protection,
circles of entrapment,
circles of banishment.
These could affect spirits or something specific and material, like arrows or fire.
Enchantments
Enchantment: Binding spirit forces into objects for very specific, fixed effectsthis included creation of all
manner of magical items and even scrolls, I think. Something about scrolls containing precast summonings
ready to go except for the trigger phrase. Does this sound right?
Ritual Rotes
Complex "Spells": These included larger spelleffects that required detailed binding and instruction of the
spirit to create the precise effect. More than one could reasonably pull off with a fast summoning.
Cult of Khathu
Cultist of great Khathu
(Specials: Vision + Ritual, Skills: Lore + Deception) can open the mind to the glory of their god and be
possessed.
Spawn of Khathu
Undead octopus creature that is manipulating a deceased corpse (Specials: Hardy + Reflexes, Skills:
Athletics + Awareness).
25
World of Wizards
published in 1981
In addition to the methods listed in the basic rules for summoning their known spirits (hourlong ritual,
quicksilver, etc), wizards may do so by opening their minds directly to the otherworld . When you do,
add a madness pentagram to your character sheet with one of the points filled in or fill in another point if this
isn't your first time.
The number of points you have filled in your madness pentagram can be used by the GM as a (usually
negative) modifier against you when your sanity might affect a roll.
When you fill in a madness pentagram , the GM will give you an impairment and you may empty the
pentagram's points.
Example madness impairments (these may be more or less appropriate for different games):
You are unable to tell when someone is lying to you . (No such rolls may be undertaken.)
Whenever you plan how to deal with a problem situation , hold 1. Your GM may spend that hold to
introduce a problem to which you were oblivious.
Any time you are making use of an expendable resource , there is a risk that you've lost some or used
up more than you thought you had.
You hear voices . Sometimes the GM will tell you their source and tell you what they say. Sometimes
you'll tell the GM their source and the GM will tell you what they say. If they advise you on a course of action
and you follow it, take +1 ongoing while acting on the advice.
Whenever you've just 'come back' after blacking out for a week or so , roll+Wis. The risk is that you
did something awful while you were out of it.
When you are injured in combat , there is a risk that you'll flee the danger instead of standing your
ground.
26
Unchained Arcana
published in 1983
Classes of Characters
Travelling Scholar / Bard
::
Lore ,
Cantrips Tinker , ,
Cure Slay
NB: The jackofalltrades concept could use a better name than "Bard" if anyone has any ideas.
Assassin
::
Stealth ,
Slay ,
Backstab ,
Scout Volley
Necromancer
::
Lore ,
Summon ,
Command ,
Ritual Turn
Warlock
One group had a warlock class that used blood instead of quicksilver and bone dust instead of holy
water. The warlock had as a skill plus
Lore ,
Ritual Command, and
Vision Bane . Bane was sort of like
Bless: with an hour and a pouch of bone dust, the Warlock could name a type of creature or a single
individual and increase a weapon's damage by +3 for one attack against that creature.
Noble
skill and
leadership and
lucky pet
for abilities
Cursed Swordsman
skill and
athletics and
slay command
for abilities
Goblin
::
Deception ,
Backstab ,
Scout ,
Tinker Volley
Orc
::
Leadership ,
Ritual ,
Slay ,
Tough Lucky
Catfolk
::
Awareness ,
Reflexes ,
Wild ,
Slay Scout
27
Fiendish Portfolio
published in 1984
Fire Salamanders
Dust Demons
Dryads
Water Snakes
Minor Outsider
Hell Vassal
Night Breed
Oak
Willow
Night Mare
Outer Knight
Seven Crows
DarkAsNight
hide
She summoned DarkAsNight and she asked it to hide herself and the mushroom men. The mushroom
men still didn't want to go, though, so just Eupendra turned invisible and moved on down the cave. Around a
bend, she found the skeleton as described, guarding a doorway through which chanting could be heard. She
snuck behind the skeleton just as planned and then launched an ambush with her Blessed club. Surprise
plus Blessing meant that she took out the skeleton in one hit.
Bonfire
gift of blasting fire
28
After looting a scimitar from the skeleton, Eupendra decided to be prepared. She had already learned via
Lore that the skeleton had been made by a wizard or necromancer or something. And so beyond the door
must be the skeleton's creator, who must have the missing sheep. She summoned Bonfire and asked to be
able to shoot fire from her hands. I rolled the die of fate and determined that Bonfire could let her fire 4
blasts. She then burst through the door, ready for battle.
29
World of Dungeons Expert Edition
published in xxxx
Custom Class Moves
Maybe you are looking for World of Dungeons: Expert Edition. I believe it had a set of custom moves for
each class.
Fighter Moves
When you...
STR Hack and slash
STR Perform a feat of strength
CON Shrug off harm
DEX Fire a Volley
INT Assess the situation
WIS Are caught unawares
CHA Impress or intimidate
Thief Moves
When you...
STR Make a melee attack
CON Shrug off harm
DEX Defy danger
DEX Fire a Volley
INT Come up with a plan
WIS Check for traps
CHA Manipulate or seduce
Cleric Moves
When you...
STR Make a melee attack
CON Shrug off harm
DEX Fire a Volley
INT Call upon your religious training
WIS Try to detect evil
WIS Perform a miracle
CHA Negotiate or reason with
Wizard Moves
When you...
STR Make a melee attack
CON Shrug off harm
DEX Fire a Volley
INT Spout forth esoterica
INT Unleash a magical spell
WIS Try to sense magic
30
CHA Confuse or terrify
Spirit Maker
I believe it had a Spirit generator
Bonds, Secrets, Oaths and Promises
It also described a system of bonds and promises handling the relationship between wizards and spirits,
thieves and guilds, fighters and their lords, clerics and the celestial hierarchy.
Bonds
This describes the bonds between PCs and between PCs and NPCs
http://f.cl.ly/items/3M1b0W091H162A1U1w1R/wodbonds.pdf
31
World of Dungeon Crawls
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zGpFQZVIVT9qpSIEHbtTvtTt1cgHZPD4Qp8OGYrOaU/edit
Rules for 0Level Characters
32
World Dungeoneer's Codex
published in 1979
Finally, I rolled out a bunch of house rules on backpacks and encumbrance that turned out to be
overcomplicated. I should have stuck with the more streamlined subsystem outlined in World
Dungeoneer's Codex (1979), but my copy is missing that whole section. I'll talk quite a bit about
this and would welcome suggestions and feedback.
33
End of the World of Dungeons
published in 1982
I could never find a copy of that manual on eBay. Instead I went with a variant on " Remind the
players of the consequences of their actions " and "
Invoke the disadvantages of their gear
choices " from End of the World of Dungeons (1982). Gut feel, mostly.
If their gear becomes a problem , call roll+DEX to see if they make it in time despite their gear,
or +CON to see if they tire. Or tell them, sure, you can climb that cliff wall, but you'll have to drop
X item to do it. (X item may well be their heavy armor, too.)
34
Stone & Shadow Magazine
Stone & Shadow #2
I typed up an article from the second issue of Stone & Shadow. I dunno if you ever subscribed to it, but they
had some good stuff.
Rounding out the Classes
The original World of Dungeons presented nine skills and just five classes. Even with the Cleric doubling up
with Heal and Decipher, that leaves three skills without a class to accompany them. If you follow the
recommendation in this issue’s Harper’s Bizarre [to remove the Decipher skill from the Cleric. —CS], that’s
another skill that should be the chosen skill of a class.
This article corrects this fault by presenting the Mountebank (trained in
Deception), the Psychic Knight
(trained in
Awareness ), the
Archer (trained in
Leadership ) and the Archaeologist (trained in
Decipher
).
These four classes rounds out the skill list; there is no need for any more classes to be written and Stone &
Shadow will not publish any more. [This proved a little ambitious. By my count, S&S had published over a
hundred classes by the end of its run. —CS]
Psychic Knight
The Psychic Knight is in tune with the universe. [Guess which popular scifi movie had recently been
released. —CS]
Skill:
Awareness .
Abilities (choose two):
Soulblade : You can summon a martial weapon using the power of your mind. It ignores Armour.
Deflect Attacks : You have a forcefield that takes damage equal to 2d6 before dissipating until you next
rest.
Suggestion : You can change people’s memories.
Telekinesis : You can move and throw objects with your mind.
Mountebank
The Mountebank is a trickster and a charlatan who profits immensely from his or her frauds.
Skill: Deception .
Abilities (choose two):
Feign Ability : Roll +CHA. On a full hit, you gain the ability of another class for a whole day. On a partial hit,
it fails you at an inopportune time.
Snakeoil : When you apply snakeoil to an unwitting target, it has the effect the target believes that it
has—but only for a short time. (In the case of a death effect, the target sleeps and cannot be awoken during
the time).
Escape Notice : If there is anything else of equal or greater interest around you, you cannot be detected.
Gambit : Roll +CHA. On a full hit, you have perfectly prepared for this situation.
The Greater Fool : You always recognise the deceptions and schemes of others.
Archaeologist
The Archaeologist investigates the past.
35
Skill:
Decipher .
Abilities (choose two):
Use Magic Item : When you use Decipher to use a magic item or ritual you have discovered, you learn one
fact about its history or creation.
Outta the Library : When you roll 6 or lower on a Lore or Decipher roll, you learn one entirely unrelated fact.
Orbis : You ignore the presence of the divine and the profane in any circumstances where they would cause
you difficulties.
Odd Weapons : Any time you roll full damage, your enemy suffers another effect, like being knocked prone,
entangled or knocked back a few feet.
Is that archaeologist's Odd Weapon correct? I'm sure we played (back in the day, you understand) that the
weapon's special happened when the damage roll was 1. But I don't know if we were right or wrong...
Archer
The Archer has a mysterious power over the world. [I believe Diana Wynne Jones' 1984 novel Archer's
Goon was the inspiration here. —CS]
Skill:
Leadership .
Abilities (choose two):
Goon : You are twice the size of a normal person. When you roll HD, roll an extra 1d6. If you roll a 1 on
damage, reroll.
Domain : Choose an area of the world, like the sky, or plants, or the future. You have natural power over
that area.
Command : You can order creatures related to your domain to do your bidding. Requires: Domain.
Iron Will : You never suffer from mindaffecting effects.
36
Mysteries and Magic fanzine
Back in the day, I never cared for the raceasclass setup. We always used the optional rules for race
published in Mysteries and Magic fanzine. I might reintroduce those into our game, if I play WoD with my
daughter again.
Here's how I remember the Mysteries and Magic race rules working: Each race gives you one class's
special ability, even if you're a member of a different class.
This meant that, say, high elves always felt a bit like a wizard, even when they were a thief. And if a high elf
was a wizard, then it was better at being a wizard than most other races would be.
It also made the characters slightly more powerful. As 12 year old power gamers, this didn't bother us any at
all.
Let me see if I can remember which races gave which special ability:
Dwarf Tough (Fighter)
Gnome Cantrips (Wizard)
HalfOrc Slay (Fighter)
Halfling Lucky (Thief)
High Elf Ritual (Wizard)
Human Skirmish (Fighter)
Wood Elf Scout (Ranger)
Later issues kept adding new races, pretty much so that every ability would have a race that granted it:
Angelblooded Turn (Cleric)
Catfolk Wild (Ranger)
Demonblooded Command (Wizard)
Djinnkin Summon (Wizard) These were blue skinned who traveled as merchants selling access to spirits.
Deathless Pet (Ranger) They had put a piece of their soul into an animal, like a witch's familiar. The article
had an option where the character couldn't die unless their pet did also, but we never played that way.
Dryad Cure (Cleric)
Goblin Reflexes (Thief)
37
Hawkmen Volley (Ranger). Nonflying birdpeople. Everyone was always trying to houserule in a way to
make them actually fly. Trade a hit die for flight? Gain it instead of a skill or special ability? Fly, but it always
counts as 'something risky'? I don't remember if we ever found a houserule that we actually liked.
Kobold Backstab (Thief)
Minotaur Hardy (Fighter)
Spiritborn Bless (Cleric) These were children of elven and human blood whose births were accompanied
by great omens and attracted the attention of spirits. The spirits foretold great destinies for these people.
Technognomes Tinker (Thief)
If I'm a halforc fighter, I get Slay automatically. Thus, I don't need choose Slay as one of my two special
abilities as a Fighter. I could wind up a Fighter with Slay, Tough and Skirmish. You don't get to take an ability
twice, but you can get three of the four abilities for a class if you pick an appropriate race/class pairing.
Right, right. So when you play, if you want "normal" power level you only get 1 from your class at 1st level.
I loved that Humans got Skirmish. Humans: "We're right, and we can prove it."
Mysteries and Magic fanzine #1
Bone and Blood
Am I right that Mysteries & Magic is the zine that got its first issue reprinted? WoD had Pouch of Bone Dust
and Vial of Blood in the equipment list, but didn't explain what they could be used for. M&M had a disturbing,
adultsonly article which had several vile uses for the substances.
The 1&7 Tactical Design Institute kicked up a fuss, and the zine was reprinted with much tamer uses.
Does anyone remember what the uses were, either before or after the bowdlerisation?
I never saw the original, but after the revision, Vial of Blood was pretty lame but also kind of awesome. You
could use it to throw off creatures with scent, and maybe bribe vampires and the like with it. Plus, obviously,
if you became a vampire you could drink it.
I *heard* the original was used as part of a defiling ritual, but I haven't seen firsthand.
My collection of Mysteries and Magic only goes back to issue #2, unfortunately, so I can't quote the article
directly. But the article was much discussed in the letters column (as you might imagine) and many WoD
GMs wrote in with the uses that their players had come up with for the vials of blood or bone dust.
Suggestions for the vial of blood included:
38
A)
be drunk to foil divination attempts against you (all spells would identify you as someone else for a
time after drinking)
B)
desecrate holy shrines and relics . Blood of the innocent smeared on their altars would turn the gods
against a place of worship.
C)
be mixed with quicksilver and then drunk in a ritual to gain the skills or abilities of the blood's
originator. The important question for this ritual was "whose blood is it?" and some sort of random chart for
whose it was (assuming you were just buying anonymous blood off the equipment list instead of harvesting
your own). There was some sort of addiction subsystem involved here (possibly just the quicksilver rules)
and anyone who drank too much blood wound up becoming a vampire.
D)
Some spirits required blood for particularly powerful spells . So it was better to give the spirit
someone else's blood than it was to injure yourself in payment. Depending on the spell, it might cost 1 to 20
HP worth of blood. A vial was worth 2d6 HPs worth of blood to a spirit. Live sacrifices of animals (1d6 worth
of blood) or people (Hit Die worth of blood, plus 1d6 extra if they are a virgin) also worked.
The vial of bone dust had some mentioned uses as well:
One group let you pour it on the ground to make a line that spirits wouldn't cross .
Another GM let her players apply bone dust to their weapons to interfere with a hydra's regenerating
heads.
A different group had bone dust attract undead like candy. They'd gobble the stuff up, and so bone dust
was useful to distract them or lure them away from guard positions.
39
Depths of the Dungeon fanzine
Oooooooooh. Wasn't that in one of the old Halloween editions of Depths of the Dungeon fanzine? Like,
about the time those college kids went delving in the sewers in that illfated liveaction dungeon crawl?
40
Quest Sheets Collection
Quest 3: Unsavory Deeds
Quest 4: Dirty Dealers
This is a list of awful patrons that you might work for and what they'll do to you if you don't come through.
ODD JOBS
Job Type
1. ACQUIRE
2. DELIVER
3. EXPLORE
4. GUARD
5. MURDER
6. RAID
Patron
02. CULT
03. GUILD
04. LIBRARY
05. MONSTER
06. OUTLAWS
07. REFUGEES
08. SPIES
09. SPIRITS
10. TEMPLE
11. WIZARD
12. XENOS
You can also roll on the patron table again for the target of the job. Plus, I want to make a third piece that
tells you where the job takes place: on your current plane, on a nearby plane, on a distant plane, in the
darkness between the planes, etc.
My thinking is that it'll work something like the mission structure in Mouse Guard and Bliss Stage, in that play
starts with the characters working jobs but then over time moves to more and more "off the ranch" stuff
where you're setting your own missions and goals and playing the "faction war" (as your build your own guild
or other institutions). Is that what you mean, or something different?
I was just thinking that an Rmapping exercise seems like the starting point, rather than the 2factor random
table. The followup coming off of the mission is supposed to wrap back on itself, right? Like, the 'loth that
hired us to sack the sarcophagus is the same 'loth at the party and it turned out he had the antidote we
needed later to purify the river spirit. What I'm saying is: That kind of looping back requires a more
selfreferential procedure (i.e. dogs towns) than the table can provide.
41
By far my favorite "tangled web" generator is the Court Site rules from Red Tide (by the guy who wrote Stars
Without Number). Highly recommend that as a model/food for thought.
OPPOSITION
2d6 in order, or 3d6 in order if you add a die to determine how many individuals you can / must deal with.
13 Domestics
1 cult
2 guild
3 library
4 rebels
5 temple
6 wizard
45 Outsiders
1 ambassador
2 infiltrators
3 merchant traders
4 petitioners
5 pilgrims
6 refugees
6 Weirdos
1 alien god
2 monster
3 outlaws
4 philosopher
5 spies
6 spirits
NOTE: These tables are also expanded in “Dark Heart of the Dreamer”
42
Tito Cevrisar's Fourth Page Collection
published in xxxx
by
MikeRiverso
references:
http://simp.ly/publish/gQYWt2
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1821838/wod%20layouts/wod_artefactAndMonster.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1821838/wod%20layouts/wod_FourthPages.pdf
http://www.randomgenerator.com/index.php?title=Fourth_Page__Artifacts
LIVE VERSION: http://simp.ly/publish/gQYWt2
Any of you guys have a copy of Tito Cevrisar's Fourth Page, the one that details monsters? It appeared in
the reprints. Had all those great type / class combinations like Humanoid: You have offended them and
Brute: they wreck the place.
Monster
Nature
1. Animal and Plant
1. Its barbs are filled with poison.
2. You're entangled in its web.
3. They travel in packs.
4. It's hunting you.
5. Teeth and claws rend and tear.
6. The place is swarming with them.
2. Construct
1. They fight with mindless perseverance.
2. They repair their own injuries.
3. It's disguised as a mundane object.
4. You're walking through it's hallways.
5. It's immune to your usual tricks.
6. Its patterns are predictable.
3. Elemental
1. Fire burns your flesh.
2. You're blown away by air.
3. The earth shakes, rocks fall.
4. Water freezes and drowns you.
5. You're seared by blinding light.
6. Your world is plunged into darkness.
4. Humanoid
1. Their traps and nets ensnare you.
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2. Their primitive magic is surprisingly effective.
3. They're simply misunderstood.
4. You've offended them.
5. They wield strange devices.
6. They're a motley crew.
5. Mythical Beast
1. Its breath is worse than its bite.
2. It's greater than the sum of its parts.
3. You've encroached on its lair.
4. Its hide is worth a fortune.
5. Its appearance is an ill omen.
6. Its magics are beyond your ken.
6. Undead
1. Their howls make you tremble in fear.
2. They remember their former lives.
3. Their touch drains your life force.
4. They just won't stay down.
5. They carry terrible disease.
6. They phase through solid objects.
Role
1. Artillery
1. They shoot at you from cover.
2. You're caught in the blast radius.
3. They're aware of your approach.
4. They fall back when threatened.
5. You're trapped by suppressing fire.
6. They use unusual ammunition.
2. Brute
1. It knocks you down.
2. It gets in your way.
3. It goes berserk.
4. It tramples you.
5. It wrecks the place.
6. It cuts a wide swath.
3. Controller
1. Their charms confuse you.
2. The terrain turns treacherous.
3. It counters your magic.
4. It's all an illusion.
5. They surround you from all sides.
6. It disarms you.
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4. Leader
1. He heals his allies.
2. She inspires her minions to fight.
3. His extended monologues are tedious.
4. It's master plan is inscrutable.
5. There is method to his madness.
6. She leads the charge.
5. Lurker
1. You don't see the sneak attack coming.
2. It blends in with the surroundings.
3. They dart just out of reach.
4. It's literally invisible.
5. They're actually enjoying this.
6. It waits for just the right moment.
6. Soldier
1. They're careful in their approach.
2. They're wellarmed and wellarmoured.
3. Their teamwork puts yours to shame.
4. They've been forced to fight.
5. They defend their weaker allies.
6. They outnumber you.
Artifacts
I distinctly remember there being a whole bunch of these "fourth pages". There was definitely Town, Artifact,
and Quest, and a Monster 2 that had additional natures like Outsider, Abomination, and Ooze. I'll have to dig
into some old boxes to see if I can find them. If anyone else has a copy, though, feel free to post them.
So I managed to find Artifact in a folder of my old campaign notes. Still looking for the others, though.
Should find them sooner or later.
Origin
1. Holy
1. It's been lost for centuries.
2. It once belonged to a dark god.
3. It was made for a holy quest.
4. It's faithful to you and your cause.
5. You must prove yourself to it.
6. They want it back.
2. Magic
1. It's covered in mysterious runes.
2. It's powered by a trapped soul.
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3. You must speak the proper words.
4. It's charges are running low.
5. It's a piece of something bigger.
6. The focus crystal needs replacing.
3. Masterwork
1. It was forged by dwarven blacksmiths.
2. Elven weavers put years into its making.
3. No demon lord fights without one.
4. It's infused with a drop of dragon blood.
5. It's in mint condition.
6. It's the best a human could do.
4. Natural
1. It breathes and pulses in your hand.
2. It requires sustenance.
3. It bonds to your flesh.
4. It's starting its metamorphosis.
5. It glows in the dark.
6. It followed you home.
5. Otherworldly
1. It's decidedly noneuclidean.
2. It's siliconbased life.
3. It hurts to look at it.
4. It's goopy.
5. It's bigger on the inside.
6. It's made from meteoric iron.
6. Technological
1. Its gears click and whiz.
2. It jams at the worst times.
3. Sparks fly in all directions.
4. It's a oneofakind prototype.
5. It leaks acid all over you.
6. It needs reloading after every use.
Power
1. Blessing
1. You see visions of the future.
2. You move unseen.
3. You've had fantastic luck lately.
4. You sense lies and deception.
5. Disease cannot touch you.
6. Dark entities fear you.
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2. Curse
1. You're plagued by terrible nightmares.
2. You've been polymorphed.
3. Your thoughts are not your own.
4. You've lost your voice.
5. You're aging rapidly.
6. The stink just won't wash off.
3. Enhancement
1. You have the might of the giants.
2. You're as agile as the wind.
3. You feel healthier than ever.
4. Your mind is filled with knowledge.
5. Your senses are heightened.
6. Your charm is irresistible.
4. Force
1. It shoots gouts of flame.
2. You shock your foes with lightning.
3. The wind obeys your call.
4. Thunderous sound blasts your enemies.
5. You control illusory phantasms.
6. You freeze your target in place.
5. Protection
1. You are immune to the elements.
2. You skin is as hard as stone.
3. It cloaks you in shadow.
4. It fights at your side.
5. You're as steady as a mountain.
6. It heals your wounds.
6. Utility
1. It provides a brilliant light.
2. You can command simple beasts.
3. You breathe water as if it were air.
4. You can teleport short distances.
5. You understand foreign languages.
6. You see and hear over vast distances.
CITY
I found City in box full of receipts in my closet.
Feature
12. District
1. The garrison is a welloiled machine.
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2. The docks are bustling at all hours.
3. The smell of garbage permeates the slums.
4. The merchants don't take kindly to loiterers.
5. No one goes into the abandoned quarter.
6. The university is accepting new students.
34. Resource
1. The ore has almost run out.
2. There's good hunting here.
3. The soil is rich and fertile.
4. The river water is crystal clear.
5. You can buy hearty slaves here.
6. The air is charged with magic.
56. Terrain
1. The saltwater rusts everything.
2. The buildings are in the treetops.
3. The canyon provides much protection.
4. There's nothing around for miles.
5. There are more canals than roads.
6. It's a long walk up the smokey mountain.
Population
12. Attitude
1. They want you gone as soon as possible.
2. They've learned to fear adventurers.
3. It's just another brawl between friends.
4. Your reputation precedes you.
5. Your old friend can't wait to see you.
6. They're curious to hear your stories.
34. Caste
1. The nobles are meddling in your affairs.
2. You never know what the mages are up to.
3. The farmers have a job for you.
4. There's not enough work for the tradesmen.
5. The prisoners have been unruly lately.
6. The clergy watches your every move.
56. Race
1. The elves barely hide their disdain.
2. Dwarven custom calls for hospitality.
3. The humans don't serve your kind here.
4. Lizardmen are rare in this part of the world.
5. The golems outnumber the people.
6. Uh oh. Gnomes.
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Society
12. Faith
1. Your heathen ways will not be tolerated.
2. There's a different temple on every corner.
3. They're the last followers of a dead god.
4. There's yet another festival today.
5. The paladin has returned, bearing bad news.
6. Their god demands a sacrifice.
34. Guild
1. The alchemists' services are in high demand.
2. There's no honour amongst these thieves.
3. Everyone has a favourite gladiator.
4. The adventurers' guild demands their share.
5. The blacksmiths make the finest weapons.
6. There's a sickness amongst the miners.
56. Ruler
1. The young queen is stronger than she looks.
2. The despot's grasp is tenuous, at best.
3. The people are the creature's thralls.
4. Someone's paying off the mayor.
5. The mad wizard needs more test subjects.
6. No one's quite sure who's in charge.
Trouble
12. Rumour
1. "There's treasure in those caves!"
2. "The sewer's crawling with ratmen!"
3. "There's a killer on the loose!"
4. "He's been brainwashed, I tell you!"
5. "The tournament was rigged!"
6. "This is all your fault!"
34. Threat
1. The city can't survive this siege for long.
2. The sick have been quarantined.
3. A storm is coming. A very big one.
4. The dead are getting restless again.
5. The migration happens this year.
6. Something's disturbed the natives.
56. Unrest
1. The workers are on strike.
2. The resistance needs your help.
3. The famine has hit some harder than others.
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4. The balance of power has shifted.
5. They're preparing to go to war.
6. Racial tensions are running high.
Dungeon
History
12. Builder
1. The walls show signs of dwarven craftsmanship.
2. They were far more advanced than you.
3. These tunnels weren't cut. They were burrowed.
4. It must have taken thousands of slaves.
5. They tunnelled up from below.
6. Most elves wouldn't live underground.
34. Downfall
1. Their hubris angered the gods.
2. The war left the land in ruins.
3. The walls crumbled against the forces of nature.
4. This place was simply forgotten.
5. The experiment went terribly wrong.
6. The flood has only now receded.
56. Purpose
1. The vault held the kingdom's riches.
2. Murderers were imprisoned here.
3. The mine may still hold riches.
4. They sought protection from the storms.
5. This was once a hero's tomb.
6. The hatchery was carefully guarded.
Denizen
12. Community
1. It's a perfect hideout for the outlaws.
2. The cult must perform their rituals.
3. One of the local clans has settled here.
4. The refugees have no other home.
5. The monks require peace and solitude.
6. You've just stepped in goblin dung.
34. Creature
1. The hive never ceases its work.
2. A dragon has made this its lair.
3. They're in hibernation. For now.
4. An abomination lurks below.
5. The dead still guard this place.
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6. The ooze spreads from a dark heart.
56. Hermit
1. An exiled king rules this place.
2. The mad adventurer has lost his way.
3. The wraith wants only release.
4. She is the last of the giants.
5. The oracle would like a word with you.
6. The necromancer's soul is bound here.
Trial
12. Dilemma
1. She's just a child.
2. You can only save one.
3. You must negotiate with them.
4. You're running out of time.
5. To proceed, you must solve the puzzle.
6. Your freedom comes with a price.
34. Hazard
1. Crossing the raging river won't be easy.
2. The air is filled with poison spores.
3. You must navigate the labyrinth.
4. The bridge has seen much better days.
5. There are very few handholds on the cliff face.
6. The floor is lava.
56. Trap
1. The water is rising fast.
2. You feel unnaturally weak.
3. Your lights are extinguished.
4. This gauntlet was designed by a mad man.
5. The way out is blocked by a cave in.
6. That statue just moved.
Secret
12. Cache
1. The library is full of ancient texts.
2. There's more gold here than you can carry.
3. The relic has been here all along.
4. There's something gleaming in the armoury.
5. The eggs won't survive on their own.
6. They've been keeping hostages.
34. Lore
1. The scroll describes an object of great power.
2. There's something strange about this map.
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3. The prophecy is coming true.
4. History was written by the victors.
5. These plans are incomplete.
6. The portal leads to undiscovered lands.
56. Revelation
1. You weren't meant to find these documents.
2. They're the victims, here.
3. This shipment never went out.
4. You're too late to stop the invasion.
5. The duke's been involved for years.
6. Something terrible has returned
An NPC Worth A Damn
Also, does anyone have a copy of the "Fourth Page" titled "An NPC Worth A Damn" ?
They were always powerful or interesting enough that the PCs could want something from them, but they
also had a need for something that the PCs could help them with.
Moves that Hurt
Fourth Page with example Hard Moves?
Soft Move / Hard Move
They prepare to execute a prisoner / They execute a prisoner.
The ceiling is cracking / you're hit by stones
The ceiling is cracking / you're separated
You hear a friend cry for help / you hear a friend screaming in pain
The geckomen scream and trill at your party / you're hit with a hail of pellets
The geckomen throw little javelins at you / you're hit by geckomen javelins
The gelatinous cubes quivers forward / the gelatinous cube engulfs you.
The demon scowls, and you feel troubled / The demon curses you
(Some 79/misses)
Your attack strikes true, but throws you slightly off balance / the geckoman gladiator disarms you, and your
weapon flies off
Your attack strikes true but gives the other geckomen the opportunity to position themselves advantageously
/ you miss, and are suddenly surrounded
The king frowns slightly, but nods his head / The king throws down his goblet and shouts "YOU DARE?!"
Marienburg Moves
Here's the list of GM moves I used in Streets of Marienburg:
Soft Moves
Counter their action with another – the enemy attacks them simultaneously, a socialite throws a fit when
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they try to confront her.
Delay their next action – they are stunned from a sharp blow to the head, they have to gather the coins that
have fallen to the ground.
Distract them – they don’t immediately notice the tripwire up ahead, a dancer draws their attention away
from an assassin.
Disturb their sensibilities – reveal the horror or insanity of the world around them, expose them to terrible
truths.
Escalate the situation – a fire spreads to a neighboring building, a crowd starts to run in panic.
Exaggerate what they experience – make things seem more terrible than they are or, conversely, safer.
Impair their thoughts or actions – give them a general 1 penalty for a short time, knock away a useful tool
or weapon.
Impede their movements or progress – block their escape route, trip them with vines or loose stones.
Impose a compromise on their success – they can only succeed IF they allow something else to happen,
too.
Provoke them into action – taunt them into attacking, introduce some danger and ask “What do you do?”
Hard Moves
Capture them – kidnap them, drop them in a pit, have a giant grab one of them.
Conceal something important – they find nothing of interest in the room...because it was hidden!
Control their actions, directly or indirectly – an ally is mistaken for an enemy, they are blackmailed into
inaction.
Corrupt their minds or bodies – exposure to Warpstone causes a sudden mutation, a cursed amulet makes
them dream of horrible things.
Defame their actions or intent – they are mistaken for thugs, their words are misconstrued by the court
magistrate.
Inflict harm or effects – they are attacked, a spell makes them vomit uncontrollably.
Destroy something important to them – a sword is broken in the middle of a fight, a loved one is murdered
during the night.
Overwhelm them with great force, while leaving an opportunity – a strike hits them for great damage but
leaves the attacker vulnerable, a mob rushes at them but makes it easier to slip away in the fray.
Prevent them from doing something – a spell keeps a door locked and sturdy, an orc destroys the bridge
they want to cross.
Reinforce the enemy – the enemy goblins are joined by orc raiders, a Sigmarite is infused with godly power.
Separate the characters – a cavein splits them into two smaller groups, constables put them into different
rooms for questioning.
Surprise them and force them to react – a volley of arrows is fired from afar, a mirror disgorges shadow
beasts when they aren’t looking.
World of Dungeons Reimagined
published in 2011
Impulses Maps
I was in the lunchroom today and there was this girl scribbling away in a notebook, with the fancy new ipad
PDF of that fandangled Dungeon World game being flicked back and forth between bookmarks. She was
chuckling evily to herself. 'Whatcha doin'?' I asked curiously. 'Oh prep for tonight's game.' 'Sweet,' I replied
'Do you mind if I have a look?'. Fully expecting to see a wicked dungeon map with notes in the margins and
53
cool World of Dungeon monster stat lines.... But there was just this list of 'Antagonists'. 'Fronts' and
'Dangers'. No map at all. Well that's not true; there was an interesting mind map looking diagram of factions
and their impulses. Rad man, so out there. I'll have to give this new version a spin methinks.
The Pain of Defeat
by
Paul_T
You know, I remember that during the 80's push towards more "realistic" rules, people got really angry about
the "hit points", which they felt didn't represent anything real. My group came up with this rule, and
eventually got it published in Dragon Teeth, Infections, & SwordSharpening (a magazine that never saw
much distribution, sadly).
When your character suffers a horrible injury or wound, you may choose to resist harm . Roll+number
of hit points you'd like to spend. One a hit, choose options. On a 13+, all of them. On a 10+, choose 2. On a
79, choose 1.
* This injury doesn't hamper you, you can ignore it for now
* You got lucky: you'll find later that the injury's not as big a deal as it seemed
* You maintain your position or advantage, and can react immediately (if you do, take +1 forward)
On a miss, whatever else the DM says happens, you suffer the injury in full, right now.
The editors liked how our move highlighted the "unreal" function of hit points as metaresource, but hated
the "player's choice" aspect of this rule. (I'm pretty sure they changed it in their version to combine it with
some kind of keeptrackofbloodlosstoken design, but I still like the original better).
Getting your hit points back, though, that was tough, and generally took a long time or some weird magic.
Later, in the 90's, a game club in Edinburgh rediscovered World of Dungeons , but they chose to embrace
the game as "heroic adventure" kind of roller coaster. I guess the times had changed! They didn't want
people to die very often, they didn't want nasty wounds, they just wanted to see who won and what the next
adventure would be like. They used this rather clunky (by modern standards) rule for characters who lost all
their hit points:
The Pain of Defeat
When you reach 0 hit points, roll.
On a 10+, you've lost the fight and taken a real beating, but no worse than that. You're captured, the bad
guys get away, the unholy ritual reaches completion, and so on. You'll be back to normal soon enough.
On a 79, choose one:
* You fall, unconscious, at the mercy of your enemies. Also, you'll need serious care to get back on your
feet: you've got a scar or wound (whether physical or psychological), which reduces one of your stats by 1
until cured.
* You fall, mortally wounded. But you may rise one last time, fueled by the rage of righteousness. You go out
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in a blaze of glory: temporarily return to full hit points and, from now on, you can choose to roll a d8 instead
of a d6 in any roll you make. When your righteous rage ebbs, you lose all those temporary hit points and
succumb to your wounds. Speak your last words as Death takes you.
On a miss, you've bought it. Your soul is sent on to the Underworld. However, legend has it that Death
sometimes strikes bargains with the soul of a hero who has unfinished business...
You should note that, the way those guys played it, in the case of the first 79 option, there was the
unwritten agreement that "at the mercy of your enemies" meant "they don't just kill you." [Me, from my
notes]
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World of Heroes
World of Heroes, the one with the Brick, Energy Controller, Mystic, Psychic, Paragon and Speedster
classes. Though they called them 'Archetypes', I recall. I played it back in University, I think
World of Street
The 94 sourcebook, World of Street, with the Vigilante, Caped Detective, Martial Artist and superpopular
Trenchcoat Katana and Lone Wolf classes.
World of Vampires
the early90's World of Dark... I mean World of Vampires, the one with ,
Punk Goth, ,
Narcissist Lunatic
and Blueblood classes. You know, the skills were ,
Athletics Brawl,
Charm,
Computers ,
Manipulate ,
Firearms (monster with the
Celerity power) and so on. Feeding on your Herd or in your Haven was safe,
anything else was pretty risky. As was going without blood. Kept the game grounded, we'd just bring out
World of Street if we wanted the angsty dark superheroes. How did everyone else play it?
World of Exalted
World of Exalted! Borrow the idea from the quickstart of just using the castes as your attributes (Dawn+2,
Twilight+1, etc). Maybe Charms replacing skills/special abilities?
World of Knives and Candles
You started with the four obvious stats ( watchful, ,
persuasive dangerous ,
shadowy ) and two
"Connecteds" of your choice (except Masters).
Instead of skills you have qualities like " " or "
merciful hedonistic
", when acting on said qualities your 6 is a
very partial success like a normal skill. No classes, and the damage/hp was replaced with the simplified
menaces system (wounds, scandal, suspicion, nightmares).
World of Chainmail
My Dungeon Master back in the day was harsh. He laughed at Harper's 1979 WoD soft approach to making
characters, said they would pry his tattered World of Chainmail out of his cold, dead fingers. He had us roll
up characters with defects and play them where they landed. More meat for the grinder. "You're not 12 so
wipe your eyes and play him. When he dies, you'll appreciate his replacement. And maybe if you play him
smart, he'll even level up and show these other losers how to crawl a dungeon."
Attributes: Roll 2d6 for each. On a 23, the value is 1. On a 46, the value is 0. On a 79, the value is +1. On
a 1011, the value is +2. On a 12, the value is +3.
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The Bureau
by
Paul_T
http://www.storygames.com/forums/discussion/17652/apocalypseworldforkidsthebureauanawhackwit
hdifferentdietypes/p1
from the original thread:
http://storygames.com/forums/discussion/16688/worldofdungeonsanyoneplaying
The Bureau is an Apocalypse World hack (really more of a World of
Dungeons hack, as it has no playbooks) suitable for kids. You play secret
Agents protecting humanity from supernatural threats: it's basically Men in
Black meets Ghostbusters.
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World of Shadows
by
Zachary_Wolf
A ShadowrunThemed Hack for World of Dungeons by Zack Wolf
http://sentientgames.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/worldofshadows/
I ran across my old copy of World of Shadows from '89.
Warcraft World
http://youonlyrolltwice.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wowd.pdf
World of Mutants
by John Harper
http://www.onesevendesign.com/dw/world_of_mutants_2up.pdf
Metamorphica
http://www.lulu.com/shop/johnstonemetzger/themetamorphica/ebook/product20134312.html
DEADWORLDS: The Wasted West Playset.
by
Zachary_Wolf
I'm going to do it. I can't help it. If for no one other than myself, I'm going to recreate the Deadlands: Hell on
Earth game with the World of Dungeons engine as near complete game and it's going to be bad ass. None
of my players are all that familiar with the IP, but it's not for them, it's for me. I want it at least to sit on my
shelf and look flippin' sweet. It won't be for public consumption, however, because I don't want to get sued.
That said, I wouldn't mind sharing it with colleagues.
The Doomsayer Character Class
http://sentientgames.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/thedoomsayer.pdf
World of Gunmen
If anyone's wanting to run a moderntimes gunsandsorcery game, I kinda crapped together the beginnings
of a modernera miniexpansion called World of Gunmen. It's a living doc right now, and I might update it
with classes or some more special abilities. It's loosely based some work I was doing toward a superspy
hack.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5b_J5N25qw7VC1HTW1iWHFRa2c
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World of Dusters
by AlfredR
Before I drop the link, a few things. I'm going to go back through this thing soon and retweak the character
sheet... right not its basically a giant unattractive ripoff of Harper's World of Dungeon's sheet and if I can't
make an attractive ripoff, then I should make something ugly that's all my own. So, that'll get a tweaking.
The PDF is laid out for printing and folding like a little booklet. My layout is okay, I think, but nothing great.
Again, seeing what Harper did and trying to learn from it.
I have a couple pictures from Boot Hill in there to fill out a couple pages. I really need to remove those, given
that they're not mine but I'm not selling this, so neither should you.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6E4gdYqvyMTGZITVFSU2syazg
The World Sequences
https://www.box.com/s/c17a415b669de5a265de
The Eye of Chaos
http://mightyatom.blogspot.it/2010/11/eyeofchaos.html
World of Warhammer: Streets of Marienburg
by Gremlin
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5K_Bqfr0dqcVUFZeWpsa0E5T0k
Creatures
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Skaven
At the beginning of each session or when you invoke the power of the Horned God (however you do that),
roll+Wis. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 79, hold 1. Spend this hold 1for1 to gnaw your way through something,
like a length of chain, a wall, or someone's face.
I do love pitting the party against skaven and then having no one believe them. "I mean, look, I'm sure there
are mutants down there in the sewers, and it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch had rat faces. And I know that
Emperor Manfred was known as the "ratslayer" and supposedly he fought a great army of ratmen beneath
marienberg. But come on. That's just an allegory for his efforts in combatting the spread of the plague via
devermination and proper hygeine. I may be illiterate, but I still know a metaphor when I see one. Orcs, Dark
Elves, dragons, lizardmen, magic, mutants, chaos gods, that's all to be expected. But a subterranean army
of ratpeople plotting the downfall of the surface world? Psh! Now that's just crazytalk!
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Dungeon Girls (and Dungeon Kids)
by Hexabolic
In the meantime, I reworked some new, expanded WoD character sheets to reflect feedback
and my observations of the challenges the Dungeon Girls and Kids are encountering. They've
hit some organizational snags in keeping track of all their kewl new abilities, loot, magical items,
spirits, spirit marks, allies, etc. John Harper has kindly given his blessing for me to share the
sheets with y'all.
Gear, Magic and Character Sheets: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ee7zskwqf4l4s19/FtyvopZtDW
AWESOME POINTS
We're using Awesome Points from Old School Hack, offered pretty much whenever someone
rolls a crit or does something awesome.
I tried the Other Worlds approach of handing everyone two chips to offer to other players as Fan
Mail, so we'll see how that goes.
One Awesome Point can be used to
heal 1 HP,
grant a +1 bonus to a roll, or
Shake off the effects of a Condition for the round
make a small narrative statement about the immediate scene, such as "there's a lantern
hanging from a pole at the edge of the plaza" or "these chains have a lot of rust and might have
some weaker parts."
So far, nobody's used them for this last bit. They've effectively been using their Awesome Points
as a pool, so long as the holder can narrate some way in which they're helping the person who
needs the points. You can spend as many AweP as you like in a round.
The players have been sharing their points as a pool with portions controlled by the points'
owners. I just ask that they narrate how the player sharing a point is helping the recipient in the
fiction.
LUCK
I'm basically interpreting the Lucky Special Ability to give that player bonuses on the Die of Fate
and the benefit of the doubt in luckdominated situations. A single reroll per session seems too
weak for a Special Ability. Mist took Lucky, though, and I need to remember it.
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Another possible way to reinterpret Luck would be to allow a player to roll for things they
wouldn't normally get to roll for, but with no bonus. (For instance, maybe you could roll for how
well an allied NPC's attack works against your enemies.)
PETS
So far, I've been letting the player roll with a +2 bonus for something in the Pet's domain. The
Ranger's lion is good at Mauling the Beans out of someone, for instance. The Druid's peregrine
falcon is good at getting all flappytalony in your face. I may end up statting them up a little more
to grant Skills and Special Abilities like Roar and Fly, letting the players run them directly as
secondary characters.
NARROW SKILLS
Magical items in the game or other special gear can grant narrow skills like Resist Fire or Climb
Sheer Surface. These work like any other skill in the game for die rolling purposes, but within a
more specific fictional domain. So you can't fail to Resist Fire when the dragon breathes on
youunless you need Resist Dragon's Firebut you might be dazzled or have a hard time
breathing if you roll a failure.
THE PENTAGRAM
I just started this with Dungeon Kids. The original suggestion was to draw a fivepoint star on
the mage's character sheet and allow the wizard to open his or her mind to the otherworld as an
alternative to the other ways of summoning a spirit (e.g., quicksilver dose, hourlong ritual,
magical contain).
The cost is that if you fill up all five points of the star, you gain a Madness debility as a
permanent feature of the character. Since Madness doesn't necessarily play too well with this
age set, I'm opting for the magical warps or tells you'd see in Ars Magica. These would include
things like eyes glowing when you get angry, a powerful smell of wet dog rising from you
whenever you enter someone's home, a cool breeze following the direction of your gaze, your
voice takes on a brassy echo, your fingernails grow superfast, and so on. The challenge is to
keep the warp something fun and interesting that a thirdgrader (especially) can keep in mind.
Not totally sold on it yet, though. It may make Wizardly types too powerful.
SPIRITS
I've basically adjudicated the summoning of spirits you don't already have as Allies (like a magic
user's two starting spirits) to require you have one of the desired spirit's Domains at hand.
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Alternatively, you need that Spirit's True Name.
Otherwise, to summon a Fire Spirit, you need some kind of fire. The more you have, the
stronger a spirit you can summon.
Once the spirit arrives, you either have to bargain with it or Command it. If you don't have the
Command Special Ability, you better be a good negotiator. The nature of the spirit determines
how the bargain goes. My experience playing Werewolf: The Apocalypse gave me a lot of great
ideas on how to play spirits (I remember our Glass Walker Theurge calling the spirit of
Helicopter for an evac, using two torches to wave the spirit down to the LZ).
I'll generally give more latitude and scope for spirit domain effects that aren't direct damage, but
change the environment in some fashion. That's more interesting and rewards clever magic
users.
SPIRIT TELLS
If a wizard fills the fivepoint star on the character sheet from opening to the Otherworld as a
summoning method (and maybe different types of mage play different versions of magical
Hangman), he or she gains a Spirit Tell, a magical mutation or consequence. Early tells are
minor and relatively subtle, but if a mage keeps accumulating them, they become more drastic,
even draconian. If the process continues long enough, the magic user may even become a spirit
and could be removed from play. (This last bit is ripped from BW's Magic Burner.)
SPIRIT LIKES
Spirits have innate things they like based on their domains and how they're used in play. For
example, a Fire spirit commonly likes to burn things. A spirit is predisposed to do something it
likes, and willingly makes bargains toward that end. If a spirit is summoned and successfully
used for certain tasks often enough, it may gain a liking for that task, in which case it gets a
extra die of effect bonus when asked to do that thing.
This is a way for longtime spirits to evolve both personality and distinctive spirit skills over time.
One of the reasons I like this is because if you use a spirit for negative tasks, like killing people,
it starts to like doing that and will bend itself toward doing more, which could lead to interesting
problems. It sort of builds in karma for how you use your magic, and makes Necromancers even
scarier depending on what they do.
Amber could Command it, but she's decided she likes bargaining, and wonders if Commanding
spirits is mean.
Yes! A good insight from Amber. That very thing ultimately led to the destruction of the world in
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our WoDu game. :)
...the HP will heal only when she completes her bargain.
This is a great mechanic! I assume it's okay if I include it in the full(er) version of the game,
Blake (with credit, of course).
STEALTH
I'm curious how you're doing group stealth rolls, since you seem to mention them a few times.
It's one of those common problem areas in games if everyone rolls and it just takes one fail for
the group to fail, the odds of failure are super high.
WoD's multiple success levels would lend itself to a good way to handle it, I'd think:
Everyone rolls and counts successes. 6 = 0 79 = 1 1011 = 2 12 = 3
If, as a group, you don't get at least as many successes as the number of people rolling, it's a
hard move against everyone who rolled 6.
This way, those who roll better can help balance out those who rolled worse and help even out
the otherwise horrible odds of failure in a group roll.
(It's sort of the opposite problem of the group Perception / Spot roll, where you want to have as
many people rolling as possible because 1 success = total success.)
CONDITIONS
I assign a Condition as a consequence. They're a nice alternative to HP loss, especially where
the circumstances point toward a nondamaging result. I use them as soft moves if they're of
very short duration, like when a player becomes momentarily Blinded. For hard moves, they
work great for longerlasting penalties. The restriction is either really clear from the fiction (e.g.,
Blinded) or I might assign a penalty of 1 or maaaaybe 2 depending on the severity of the
fictional context. I also might just ramp up the fictional consequences of a miss (essentially what
you reminded me is another axis to work on). I have told players that the particular Condition
meant no modifier to the die roll, but would make failure way more complicated. As I think about
it, that's my preferred method: to use Conditions less as mechanical modifiers and more as
modifiers of the fictional stakes.
I started out with a list of a dozen Conditions, and the players came up with a bunch more, so
now I have the basic set and a bunch of blank ones on the character sheets. Live and learn.
GRASP OF DEATH
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When you die before your time and defy the icy grasp of Death, roll+CON. On a 10+, you break
free and return to life. On a 79, Death demands an oath of service before you are released. On
a miss, yes, you live, but you do not return from Death's embrace unchanged.
LIGHT
This has been fun. I posted these on a previous page, but basically, a torch lights up the space
in a 1 person radius around the torch, beyond that it's Dim (sight awareness penalties),
Shadowy (murky glimpses of movement), and Dark. Lanterns give more light, Bullseye Lanterns
give more light in one direction. Torches and Lanterns also have burn times I can't remember
here. These rules seem pretty intuitive, and the players have picked them up quickly.
Illumination was easy. I started with the idea that a torch provided light for three people, or a
circle with a threeperson diameter.
Beyond that, light was ((dim)) for another threeperson distance, giving a 1 penalty to
perception.
Beyond that, it was ((shadowy)) for a 3.
Beyond that it was ((dark)) for 5, if you even got to roll at all.
Different light sources had different distances. A candle gave light for one person, a lantern for
five. A bullseye lantern projected in one direction only in a cone five persons long. A candle stub
provided light only for examination of something up close. A torch stub worked like a candle. I
assigned durations to each light source as well, using "turns" as an abstract, flexible unit of time.
The girls took to these rules quickly, so there wasn't a problem.
RATIONS
For rations, I just played that by telling them now and then they had to consume a ration or
become Hungry. Ditto with water, which I'm tracking separately along with the Thirsty condition
because they're in a desert realm.
DUNGEON DELVING
Finally, I rolled out a bunch of house rules on backpacks and encumbrance that turned out to be
overcomplicated. I should have stuck with the more streamlined subsystem outlined in World
Dungeoneer's Codex (1979), but my copy is missing that whole section. I'll talk quite a bit about
this and would welcome suggestions and feedback.
I could never find a copy of that manual on eBay. Instead I went with a variant on "Remind the
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players of the consequences of their actions" and "Invoke the disadvantages of their gear
choices" from End of the World of Dungeons (1982). Gut feel, mostly. If their gear becomes a
problem, call roll+DEX to see if they make it in time despite their gear, or +CON to see if they
tire. Or tell them, sure, you can climb that cliff wall, but you'll have to drop X item to do it. (X item
may well be their heavy armor, too.)
ENCUMBRANCE
I reworked the pack sheet to simplify things. Basically, you can carry whatever you can write in
the pack space so long as it would make sense to fit into your pack (so no halberds, for
example). The actual writing space constraints impose the limit. This isn't a group that needs to
do extensive bean counting, and I got the feeling that a close tracking of encumbrance would
prove a funkiller. This isn't a huge deal with the Dungeon Girls because Valavanora has a
Satchel of Holding.
Taking inspiration from the BW thread, I started with the idea of a "thing" as the basic unit of
"stuff" and "slot" as the basic unit of space.
One thing takes up one slot unless ((tags)) change the relationship. So basically, you can add
((tags)) to either things or slots to change their space or add Conditionlike aspects.
The ((long)) tag, for example, basically means you can't carry it in an interior slot of a pack, bag,
or satchel, but you can carry it in something ((large)) or ((unlimited)). The latter, incidentally,
applies to the Satchel of Holding the Druid carries.
The ((bundle)) tag means you can pack X units of the item as one "thing," so rations ((bundle 7))
would mean seven uses of your rations take up one slot. Coin would be too, but I pretty much
just said a thousand silvers equal 1 thing and left it at that.
Examples of Thing Tags: ((large)) ((small)) ((long)) ((bulky)) ((bundle X)) ((compact)) ((soft))
((heavy)) ((fragile))
Examples of Slot Tags: ((spacious)) ((hard)) ((cramped)) ((stretchy)) ((outside)) ((unlimited))
((secure)) ((large)) ((scabbard))
I went with each character having three torso slots and a Belt slot. A Pack has six slots and
takes two Torso slots, Armor takes one Torso slot, a Satchel has two slots and takes one Torso
slot. A Belt has two ((scabbard)) slots and can hold 10 ((small)) items in pouches.
Then for Encumbrance, I started with the idea that each character can carry Things equal to
5+STR+CON without being encumbered...anyway, here it is.
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LESS THAN/equal to RATING = NO PROBLEM!
MORE THAN ENC = 1 STEP SLOWER
MORE THAN ENC +3 = 2 STEPS SLOWER +TIRED
MORE THAN 2X ENC = VERY SLOW +HUNGRY
As I said, it was too much and too fiddly, requiring lots of attention to tagging damn near
everything in the game. M, who is an enthusiastic, attentive player and totally candid,
commented that she found the encumbrance rules confusing, so I pretty much dropped them on
the spot.
For the Dungeon Kids, I reworked the sheet to simply say, here's how much space you have to
carry your stuff. The rules are:
(1) if you can write it in there, you have room (this is a real limitation for third graders, I have to
point out); and
(2) if a thing obviously wouldn't fit in a spacelike a spear in a satchelyou can't keep it there;
(3) outside slots can hold those long, awkward things;
(4) if you're carrying a ton of stuff, you will be one or two steps slower, and you might get Tired
and Hungry.
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World of Star Wars
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5K_Bqfr0dqcRkZFRF9yb2ktZjQ
FarFarAway
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5K_Bqfr0dqcRkZFRF9yb2ktZjQ
Star Worlds The Streets of Mos Eisley
by Zwolfa the Hutt
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…
It is the height of the galactic civil war and a dark time for the galaxy. The tension between the
Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance continues to escalate into the year.
..
http://sentientgames.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/starworlds/
http://www.storygames.com/forums/discussion/17759#Item_43
THE DROID
by
Keith
But here's something I noticed was missing from the Classes!
As defined in the Cybot Galactica Design Team Operations Manual, droids are "a mechanical being with a
selfaware consciousness, as distinguished from a computer by having a selfcontained method of
locomotion." They could be designed for labor, battle, science or service. Droids begin by choosing two
abilities from the list below, as well as choosing one of the Droid Classes in lieu of a Species.
Designed to Kill: You are outfitted with two concealed weapons and cannot be disarmed except by
someone intimately familiar with your model’s blueprints.
Protocol: You are familiar with nearly every language and custom in the known galaxy and do not suffer
penalties for being an outsider.
Database: You are able to roll to access almost any information. The GM will add a modifier to the roll
depending on the availability of the information (e.g. something known by most Twi’lek traders might be
rolled with a +2, but something known only to the Empire’s upper echelon might be rolled at 3).
Dallorian Alloy Plating: You are made of strong stuff; take +2 natural armor.
Reboot: Sometimes you have to run the numbers twice. Once per day, you can reroll any check relating to
your programming or systems.
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Does Not Compute: Your well programmed circuitry is immune to attempts at manipulation and deceit that
is emotionally based (e.g. pleading for help, playing off greed, evoking pity).
Interface:
You are designed to work well with other technology and can attempt to use, hack, manipulate or
reprogram any piece of tech with enough effort and time.
DROID CLASSES
Class Two (Science): Daring max +1, Acuity min +2 Pick Academics or Tech
Class Three (Service): Menace max +1, Acuity min +2 Pick Influence or Treatment
Class Four (Battle): Presence max +1, Menace min +2 Special Skill (Assault)
Class Five (Labor): Guile max +1, Spirit min +2 Special Skill (Strength)
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Kingdoms of Ooo
by stupidgremlin
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5K_Bqfr0dqcX2hMdE16RmcxSEk/edit?usp=sharing
also refer to this D&D 4E hack for reference material:
http://bloodghost.tumblr.com/post/18428312836/theadventuretimeroleplayinggameisheres
ort
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World of Apocalypse
I've heard somewhere around Story Games of a World of Dungeon hack to play... humm...
Apocalypse World. I'm currious, but I cannot find it anywhere. Can somebody help ?
I think what you are looking for is World of Apocalypse. Their decision to cap the number of hit
points was quite controversial at the time.
Yeah, they sold out and went mainstream when their hack of _World of Dungeons_ went viral.
It's rulebook got so bloated with all this extra stuff, like playbooks and Moves and Fronts and
stylized images of halfnaked people. Sad.
E
nd of the World
by stupidgremlin
If it helps, I've been piecing together its sister game from various old articles that were in a
_World of Dungeons_ fanzine from Germany, about the beginning of the apocalypse. Still trying
to translate everything, and I've been told that I made some errors here and there...but you
might want to look at the pocketmod so far.
I'll probably finish compiling the GM's section soon (the Germans called it the "Overseer"...not
sure what kind of connotation they were going for...)
https://docs.google.com/a/earlymorning.com/file/d/0B5K_Bqfr0dqcWDQtMVhYX1dkWEE/edit?pl
i=1
https://docs.google.com/a/earlymorning.com/file/d/0B5K_Bqfr0dqcVzJ1VjVQUkJyS2s/edit?pli=1
TO BE SORTED
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● Hey, that's a great find, good work on the translation!
●
● A couple of things are unclear, though I heard they were cleared up in the second issue of the short
Weltschmerz
lived fanzine dedicated to this hack do you have it?
●
● I want to say I recall Weapons and Armour cost one point of Arms per Harm they could inflict or soak,
but I can't remember if there were other modifiers for tags and ranged weapons. Or was it just a straight
one point of Arms per weapon?
●
● I am sure that they had to errata the Advancement rules in that issue, after someone wrote in
complaining his players tried to gain 5 Favour by advancing a skill from 2 to 1! Then advance it to 0 for
free. Heh, what would we do without power gaming rules lawyers, eh?! I think they said the minimum
cost was 5 Favour to improve any skill, no matter how low.
● stupidgremlin
January 1Quote
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● I believe the Arms tags were merely for the sake of description. Yes, they kinda balance themselves it
looks like.
●
● And indeed, I do believe the minimum Favor for any sort of advancement was 5. I'll have to
doublecheck the wikis later.
Reading this thread helped me remember that i might have something in my miscelania pile collected from
sale offerings in FLGSs around Hamburg.
And indeed i found among some curiosities of the d20 wave, amateur publications from the late 80's: an old
translation of World of Dungeons called "Welt der Verliese", bundled along with two supplements and a
shortlived zine, given away probably by an convert to the simulation fad happening on the forums of "the
smithy". The translation hails from 1982 and must have enjoyed modest success, since in 1983 the
supplements and the zine called "bibliothek der verliese"came out. In the bundle are 4 of the 5 issues
present. The zines are a (micro) testament to the rpg trend of accumulation procedures and rulings,
backgrounds and extensions to make the game more "real". Eventually someone tires of the complexity and
calls for reviving the old style (ROS).
Anyway, your mention of the fanzine interests me greatly. Whats the name of the zine? Might it be the
missing number of the "bibliothek"? Although it does not look like something the "Bibliothek" would have
done ... So i am exited to find out that there is even more Germn stuff for WoD around. maybe we can trade
content?
NickWedig
4:24PMQuote
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Over the weekend, I found a torn up copy of Mountain of the White Plume. You know, the module with the
insane wizards that steals some magic swords and hides them in a dungeon full of giant crabs and inverted
pyramids?
I was reminded of the weird mechanics they had for each weapon. The magic trident Tide
replaces one of
the d6s you normally use. If you're out of the water and wielding Tide, you roll a d4 (plus another d6). If
you're underwater or fighting aquatic creatures, you roll a d10. (The ambiguous wording often led to
arguments about what 'wielding' meant I believe, as it wasn't clear if it was all roll or just all rolls in combat.)
Soulbrand is even weirder. Soulsaber is, you'll recall, a malevolent extraplanar being trapped in sword
form. When you first start wielding Soulsaber, you take the biggest, blackest, evillest looking d6 you can find
and set it to "1". Any time you roll the dice while wielding the Soulsaber, you can swap Soulsaber's current
die value for one of your dice (and that die's value becomes Soulsaber's new value). So if I roll a 4 and a 5
and get 9, I may want to downgrade to a 1 and a 5 and rely on my stat to pass the check (or my skill to keep
from failing on a 6). So you have to suffer a few setbacks to power Soulsaber up, but then you'll have a 5 or
6 stored in the sword, waiting for a crucial roll to use it. The GM was encouraged to use Soulsaber's die
value for the die of fate for things related to the wielder (without swapping it!). That tidbit encouraged players
to actually use Soulsaber's power.
It's a cool module overall. I'd run it, if the last bit of the module wasn't missing. I don't have the stats for the
third weapon any more! Can anyone provide some info on the missing weapon?
Teataine
January 2Quote
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At some point I should dig out my copy of World of Kalesh, an eclectic campaign setting for WoD from the
early eighties. I remember it had some weird rules for weapons, a few new classes, a npc generator and
other odd things.
I remember the rule for dying was something like...When they turn your body over, roll +0. On 12+ you were
only briefly knocked out, on 1011 you are unconscious but alive, on 79 you're bleeding to death and on a
miss you're irrevocably dead.
When your corpse is brought to a city's Necromanteion and the necessary fees are paid, you become a
citizen of the local netherworld, and a subject of the Death Lords.
Hexabolic
January 3Quote
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Thanks. We haven't played the Shaman or Warlock yet, but the ideas for those came out of the way spirit
bargaining is emerging to be a cool feature in actual play. The notion is that the Shaman has to find the
spirits before she can command them, and the Warlock has to do some heavy negotiation and possibly take
on more burdensome obligations and spirit marks.
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It may be the Shaman's +2 bonus to Command is too much. That may bear adjusting.
Hexabolic
4:12AMQuote
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Whew. Two DG sessions to catch up on.
One: Out of the Dungeon at Last!
When we last left the Dungeon Girls, they had just survived an ambush by the remaining cultists of
Klaash'Tuu. The players for Niff and Sklarah couldn't make it, so we had A, G, M, and Elder Moppet.
It is the middle of the night, and though most of them have come through and been healed, their friend and
charge Nunk lies bleeding from a half dozen arrow wounds. The group immediately starts stressing over
him, expressing the hope he won't die.
Rolls by the cleric Lucius and by Arselan the Paladin (partial successes) stabilize Nunk but not enough to
save him, just buy time. After a quick discussion, they decide Arian the Ranger and her lion Hodori will race
ahead to the inn and get help. Meanwhile, the rest of the group will carry Nunk to the inn.
Arian (partial success on Survival) finds the way to the Inn successfully, though doing so takes her longer
than anticipated because the city is pitch dark and its streets unfamiliar. Once there, she (partial success on
a CHA roll) discovers the innkeepers (it's a high class place) will certainly call for a doctor who lived nearby,
but won't risk its people venturing deeper into the dangerous city at night.
Meanwhile, Niff and Arselan attempt to carry Nunk to the inn, but (failure on CON roll) find out he is too
heavy and everyone too wiped out to bear him much more than halfway. Nunk lies in the street while the
party catches its breath and tries to figure out how to get the big guy the rest of the way.
Valavanora decides to summon an air spirit to make Nunk lighter. After some discussion, she (crit!)
summons a spirit with the Domains Wind and Burdens. It manifests as a cricket formed of softly shifting
sand, and she decides its name is Bercalion, the Desert Breeze at the Back That Eases Burdens. She
doesn't have Command, so she bargains with it, helped by the critical success. She appeals to its better
nature, stressing how she wants to help a friend. She (critical CHA roll)
impresses the spirit with her kind
heart, and it replies that it has been long since a human has called upon it to assist in an act of mercy. Not
only will it grant her petition to lighten the burden of Nunk, but it would be willing to travel with Valavanora as
her ally if she would pact with it. She agrees, and the spirit dissolves into a sandy breeze, and swirls up her
forearm, its sand particles scratching a graceful spiraling mark of fine, pale lines upon her skin for 1HP to
seal the agreement. The marks glitter faintly under light. Everyone is impressed, and Bercalion causes a
breeze to blow that seems to make Nunk lighter and everyone refreshed enough to bear him all the way
back to the inn.
At this point, the nonmagic user members of the party are starting to feel like alsorans. The mages are just
SO COOL! M and G look a little crestfallen. I am sure the tide will turn when the group gets into a situation
that leverages the talents of the others. M asks if nonmages can get spirit powers.
I think about it a second and answer, "Sure. You can't summon or command spirits, but if you meet one and
can bargain with it, you can make a pact and gain powers. Why not?"
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She seems reassured. I point out to G that Arselan could think of his goddess as a giant spirit he's already in
a relationship with. He needs to build that relationship.
I think they're reassured, anyway.
Back at the inn, the doctor arrives, Nunk is treated, there's a brief talk about what to do next, and after
seeing Nunk tucked into a feather bed stained with blood and grime from his dirtencrusted body (to the
innkeeper's delight), the party finally sleeps.
Next: SHOPPING! and the dark rituals of summoning
jrmariano
January 4Quote
Flag
As a curiosity we've adapted/translated "World of Dungeons" into portuguese using a lot of different sources
like the stupidgremlin's "Streets of Marienburg" playset and other stuff from the compendium. I hope you like
it. :)
NickWedig
10:12PMQuote
Flag
We played World of Dungeons on Friday. (The party played through a third of White Plume Mountain , with
one PC cursed to be a face trapped in a wall, one killed on a spiked pit, one eaten by a giant crab and one
killed by the ogre mage. You'd be amazed how much trouble a frictionless room can cause for the PCs.)
Since then I haven't been able to stop writing additional stuff for the game. Here's a bunch of stuff.
Flaws
If you choose, you can take a Flaw when you make your character. If you do, roll a d6 and underline one
stat (1=Str, 2=Dex, 3=Con, etc.). When rolling that stat, you can never get a full success. Partial success just
extends upward from 79 to 711. 12+ is still a critical success, though. In exchange, though, you get training
in an additional skill (or new ability?).
(Alternate rule: If you roll a 23 when rolling for a stat, it's Flawed. You're still at +0, but you you can't get a
complete success with that stat.)
Pixie
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Skill: Stealth
Abilities :
Invisible (works basically like the Ranger's Scout)
Wild (as Ranger)
Minor Fairy Magic (lift small things with Mage Hand, Shrink items to fairy size, and use Color Swap to
recolor objects)
Fly
(lets the fairy fly).
Golem
Skill: Survival
Abilities :
Elemental (Choose one material you're made of, you can command its spirits)
Unliving (your hit dice are d10s instead of d6s)
Obedient Servant (Choose a character to be your master. When you directly follow their commands, you get
+1 to your roll)
Modular (when you have time to rest, you can swap your attribute values from one attribute to another)
Psion
Skill: Decipher
Abilities :
Telepathy (transmit your thoughts directly to others)
Precognition (roll two dice now. That roll will be used for the next time you have to roll for anything. When it
happens, roll again.)
Mind Scan (You can try to see what nearby people are thinking. If they try to resist, it's a risky roll.)
Cloud Men's Minds (you can create illusions and false imagery in one person's mind at a time)
Soulblade (a mystic ninja type)
Skill: Stealth
Abilities:
Mindblade (you can create a d6+1 sword out of mental energy)
Shadow Walk (you can enter one shadow and emerge from a nearby one*)
Unseen (you cannot be detected by scrying magic, magic wards, spirits or other magical techniques)
Certain Strike (once per combat, you can change a miss on your attack roll into a partial success but with a
bigger complication or compromise, just as you do with skills).
*Staying in the shadow world for too long will attract the attention of dangerous shadow creatures.
Avenger (zealous religious warriors)
Skill: Awareness
Abilities:
Strength of Thor (When you roll damage against an enemy of your faith, roll a d10 instead of a d6)
Skin of Achilles (they get armor 2 when wearing no armor),
Eye of Horus (Choose a person. You always know the shortest route to get to that person. You can only
choose a new target when the old target dies.)
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Martyrdom of Tammuz (whenever a nearby ally suffers damage or a negative effect, you can choose to take
it yourself).
Time Traveler (clearly inspired by a certain British television series that was popular in the late 70s)
Skill: Lore
Abilities:
Past Lives (Choose three additional skills)
Alien Technology (You have two artifacts with unusual abilities unknown to modern scholars. Ask your GM
what they do.)
Run (when you flee a situation, you always move before the attacker can harm you or your allies)
Applied Phlebotinum (When you try to apply your alien knowledge to accomplish a task, ask the GM what is
needed to do it. The GM will tell you what items, time and circumstances you need to build a device that
would do that.)
Exiled Demon
Skill: Deception
Abilities:
You get Faustian Bargain (you can trade or gamble for intangibles like memories, skills, emotions or souls)
and one more:
Lost Souls (When you whisper someone's true name to the shadow spirits, they are delivered to you shortly,
with or without an explanation why they are there.)
Speak in Tongues (you can be understood by anyone and can understand any sentient speaker)
Leverage (When you meet someone, you immediately know the one thing that they most desire. They can
try to hide their true desire, making you have to roll +Int for it.)
Witch
Skill: Lore
Abilities:
You get Diabolical Pact (you can trade for intangibles like memories, skills, emotions or souls)
and one more:
Dreamwalk (you may visit the dreams of those sleeping. Reaching a sleeper who is far away can be risky,
as you may attract the attention of the nightmare creatures.)
Brew Potion (You can make magical potions, brews and elixirs. You start the game knowing two recipes,
and can discover more in play.)
Hex (By drinking a vial of quicksilver, you may place a hex upon someone. A hexed PC is treated as Flawed
in all their stats. For an NPC, the GM determines what negative effect the hex has.)
Vampire
Skill: Stealth
Abilities:
Vampires get Blood Drain (drinking blood from the living gives you 2d6+level temporary hit points, drinking
stored blood gives you 1d6 temporary hit points)
and one other ability:
Animal Form (choose an animal you can turn into)
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Mesmerize (If you lock eyes on someone they cannot look away from you)
Undead (You rise unharmed every morning. Only sunlight, a stake through the heart or a divine force could
kill you permanently.)
Bard
Skill:
Leadership
Abilities:
Reputation (Everyone has heard of you. When you meet someone important, roll +Cha to see if they've
heard good or bad things about you)
Legend Lore (When you first encounter an item or location of historical interest, the GM must answer two of
your questions about it)
Aiding Song (While someone hears your song, they get +1)
Zone of Truth (Each time you answer someone's question straightforwardly and truthfully, then they must
answer one of your questions similarly)
Warlord
Skill:
Leadership
Abilities:
Follow My Lead (When you fight side by side with your allies, they each do +1 damage),
Get up, Soldier (When you shout encouragement at your allies, they can add your Cha to their Con rolls),
Leader of Men (all Hirelings cost half as much for you)
Tactical Defense (When your allies follow your commands in battle, you can choose which ally or allies are
hit by enemy attacks by careful maneuvering and clever tactics)
The Deck of Many Things
When you draw from The Deck of Many Things, draw a card from an actual Tarot deck (or the printed deck
that WotC had in the module not too long ago) and then roll +nothing at all. On a 10+ you describe the
magical boon granted by the card.
On a 79, you interpret the card's magical benefit but the GM adds a cost, complication or limitation to the
effect.
On a 6 or less, the GM interprets the card in the most negative way possible.
Each subsequent draw, you get +1 to your roll, but if you reach +4 then the Deck does something really
horrible and disappears to somewhere else in the campaign world.
Hexabolic
8:03AMQuote
Flag
In our first session, the party had gone to the great bazaar of the city of Shardeej, but except for Valavanora,
nobody had any bank outside of the starting first level character budget. Now things were different, and the
girls were eager to spend their hardwon silvers.
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The first thing they decided on was horses for their trip. They had some discussion about next steps and
concluded after looking at the map that they wanted to head toward the Regency and the Druid Lands. (I'll
get around to posting a scan of the initial map. I have plans to do it up in more detail and style.) G wanted to
cross the inner sea toward Ankhyra, since Arselan's goddess Ceridwen was the Lady of Waters, and
Andromeda wanted to go to Ankhyra as well, but the rest of the group argued for an overland route to the
Regency. After some back and forth, they voted for overland, but with the compromise that they would travel
along the coast.
Hence the horses. Everyone was quite specific about what they wanted, and spent some time detailing their
horses' appearance. I told Arselan he owned his own horse already, since he was a paladin, and a trained
war horse at that. This was sort of a gimme, but I thought it reasonable given how much leadership G had
shown, and I was looking for ways to show how the nonmage characters were awesome.
So...the party proceeds to the bazaar, where they split up. I let the horse purchase happen offstage without
a roll, since each of the subgroups had different agendas, and I wanted to focus on those.
Valavanora and Andromeda want fancy dresses, masterwork quality. I name a price basically twenty times
that of a standard dress, and they each buy one with a little haggling but no roll. That meant Elder Moppet
would (and did) spend a good deal of the session drawing and coloring her dress. I suggest pearls sewn into
the silk, and EM enthusiastically agrees. A draws Andromeda's dress as well, which is much less
flamboyant, as befits the necromancer daughter of one of the setting's big bads. They ooh and ahh over how
awesome their fancy dresses are, and how they'll be able to use them to make CHA rolls at special parties
and court events.
M wants her ranger Arian to have a new bow, but a really good one. She decides her Level 3 Special Ability
will be Volley Wild
instead of . She really wants to talk to Hodori, but concludes that maximizing damage is
more important at this stage. She asks about a composite bow, and I name a price ten times that of the
heaviest bow in the equipment list. She (success on CHA) counterbids and gets the price lowered by over
ten percent. Done. She happily describes her wood and horn bow, and I add some verbal filigree about
decorative carving on the horn part so it has personality. We have some discussion about how she would
carry it on her person along with sword and spear and quiver and so on.
Haggling is fun.
Next up, Arian and Arselan go to an alchemist's shop to sell a few of the lightning guns taken from the
skitterlings. I make sure to describe the shop in some detail and introduce the shopkeeper as Kassai the
Clever, Alchemist of the Fifth Star. These could go for a decent price, but the group only agreed to sell a few
of the guns, since they have more guns than charge vials. After some haggling with Kassai, who points out
that the guns alone are mere curiosities, but a working gun with a charge vial would command a much better
price, they (crit)
negotiate the sale of three guns and one halffull vial. I use the success accumulation rules
for this exchange. Because of the crit, Kassai gives them a decent price and tells them to come to him first
with such interesting things, as he would be their friend in future.
Meanwhile, Andromeda and Valavanora go to an occult shop to purchase a special ritual dagger for
Andromeda. This does not go well, as the shopkeeper (failure on CHA) recognizes Andromeda as a
necromancer and immediately ejects her from the shop, refusing service.
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I should point out the girls have been using Awesome Points like crazy, so some of these successes and
crits result from them throwing their points down to boost results. When the points are plentiful, they don't
give this decision much thought. I expect them to be more parsimonious when they get thin. As I may have
said before, I've been using plastic crystals (MTG mana trackers) to denote Awesome Points, and the group
seems to enjoy them.
Andromeda decides to summon a powerful spirit using ritual to empower one of her daggers into a magical
item. After proceeding to a necropolis in the city, she uses Ritual to create a special summoning circle and
what I take to be a containment circle for the dark spirit she wants to summon. She crits on the summoning
roll (!) and gets a really powerful spirit whom she names Nagrasagiel the Judge. I draw upon the sheaves of
random crap I've printed off from various oracles and generators and decide Nagrasagiel is a chief servant
of one of the Gods of the Dead. So yeah, powerful as hell
.
Valavanora is watching from a (hopefully) safe distance.
I describe how the scene goes gray, color drawing back from the area around the necromancer as the
Judge manifests in the form of a gaunt man with pale skin and a stained gauze bandage over his eyes, clad
in a ragged shroud with strips that ripple up around him in jagged patterns. The paving stones of the
necropolis bend beneath his feet. I'm thinking a Brom moment here. His domains are Strength and The
Dead.
Negotiation commences. What is Andromeda willing to give up for the pact? This is a serious deal, as she
describes what she wants for the dagger. She wants it to damage wraiths and the undead, and to give her
some ability to protect the party other than melee capability. Truth be told, she doesn't have a super detailed
picture of what she wants, but she's down for a cool story. I love it, and we bargain back and forth as the rest
of the players chime in. Problem is, Nagrasagiel ain't no puny little spirit; he's a demigod. His ask is for
something big and permanent, like an inability to lie or to feel love and affection. He says he'll grant power
commensurate with what he takes.
A decides Andromeda isn't willing to give up love, as it turns out. The players throw out suggestions and
perch on the edge of their seats as A thinks about it. Finally, Andromeda decides.
"My eye," she declares. "I will give my eye."
I'm not rolling for this. Come on.
"A fitting price for a judge," the spirit responds. Andromeda feels a terrible pain in her left eye and it's gone,
leaving only a shadowy eye socket. The whole eye socket, mind you, like a freakin' skull. Filled with
inexplicable darkness. The gray of the world around them retreats into the dagger, and Nagrasagiel points
out that she can only use the dagger "to bring justice to the dead."
Andromeda slumps to her knees as the spirit departs, leaving the dagger glinting blackly in the sunlight.
The table is silent and appreciative for a moment, though A is beside herself with excitement. She
immediately begins erasing her character picture to make the adjustment and then draws her long black hair
so it falls dramatically over the socket.
M says, "I can't believe you gave up your eye
."
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I'm a bit amused at how the girls aren't into their characters sporting facial scars, but tearing out a whole eye
badass
is awesome. These girls are , fancy dresses and all.
Hexabolic
6:36AMQuote
Flag
philaros said:
Did she get that name from somewhere, or just come up with it all on her own? Because that's fantastic.
Thanks. I think it's fantastic too. :)
We have the Story Games Names book on hand as our name bible, and A chose it from there. She and all
the DG have great taste in names. Honestly, one thing about this game is that I'm pulling in a ton of extra
resources: the Names book, free maps downloaded from the net, dollar dungeons, oracles, the Harrow
Deck, a random D&D treasure generator. But the Names book is our goto for all things namerelated. I've
pushed John's WoD (WoDu) list from p.3 as well, and it's getting some traction, but all the kids think the
Names book is the bomb. I should just graft a bookmark on the Elvish lists, because all the girls go there
first. Maybe the Arthurian one as well.
One thing I should mention: we do all our rolling in a die tray, a wooden candle holder I found at Goodwill.
It's just a round, sixinch diameter, inchdeep tray, but it works great as a showcase for die rolls. I use it in
my 1492 Other Worlds game too. It has the bonus of keeping dice on the table, esp. for the little ones. The
Dungeon Kids have rolled outside the tray a few times, and the dice go all over the place.
Hexabolic
6:41AMQuote
Flag
And here's the writeup of Thorn. I did this, embellishing on A's description of what she wanted. With this
and another weapon coming up in the next writeups, I started experimenting a bit, shamelessly ripping from
the other awesome ideas folks are putting up in other threads. A did name the dagger herself.
The dagger THORN has four powers granted to it by the Judge Nagrasagiel.
1) It replaces one of the d6s the player normally uses. When wielded against the living or using it merely in
selfdefense, the player rolls a d4 (plus another d6) instead of 2d6. If it is used against the Dead with the
intent of staying in the battle until the Dead are put to rest, the wielder rolls a d10. If it is wielded in a battle
against Dead that are not put to rest (i.e., the wielder flees or the Dead escape), then the dagger user only
rolls 2d4 with it until it is successfully used to put Dead to rest, at which time it resumes its former power. Its
other powers will not function until it is “reconsecrated in judgment.”
2) Thorn grows cold in the presence of Undead.
3) Thorn can strike any manner of Dead, Undead, or ghosts regardless of whether they are material.
4) When the wielder sacrifices 1 HP of damage and uses the Turn Special Ability, Thorn adds +2 to the roll.
This HP may not be healed until the next new moon. If the wielder does not possess the Turn special ability,
she may invoke Nagrasagiel and sacrifice 1d6 HP to gain the ability for one immediate use. These HP may
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not be healed until the next new moon.
Mark_Causey
January 10Quote
Flag
After reading and rereading this thread a few times, I had to get this doc made. It has some original content,
and a lot of stolen content. I made a different kind of Shadowrun World of Dungeons/Apocalypse World
hack, using Eye of Chaos, Planarch Codex, World of Shadows, and some stuff in my brain. It has a basic
character sheet, chargen with different "companies" to buy from, and a lot of moves. Check it out, if you'd
like.
World of Dungeons/AW Mashup Shadowrun
Mike_Sands
January 21Quote
Flag
I found half a photocopied class description yesterday. I think it was from an issue of Black Dwarrow from
about 1982?
Here's what I have, I'd appreciate it if anyone could find the whole article and fill in the details:
The Bard.
Bards get
Lore .
You begin with Song of Inspiration (your song fills the hearts of allies with fervour: they get +1 forward).
Choose one more special ability:
Song of Healing (your song refreshes your allies: they gain 1 HP).
Song of
That's where the paper is torn I can't remember what the other ability(s) were.
Cneph
Luckily, I found an old character sheet from a Planarch Codex game from around 1987. HalfDrow,
halfCacodemon Bard, if you can believe it. Ah, youth. The other class abilities I had were:
Song of Wonder your song creates an impressive but transitory illusory display.
Reputation when you meet someone significant, roll +Cha to see what they have heard of you.
I think there was some discussion about just how long the illusions lasted, but we favoured having them stick
around at least while the Bard kept the Song going on a strong hit, anyway...
Cneph
January 21Quote
Flag
I wasn't always happy with that phrasing for Reputation, however it didn't really sit with the WoD resolution
mechanic, feeling more like a modified Die of Fate roll. It seemed to imply there were lots of wild stories out
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there, one of which the NPC happened to have heard. In a later campaign, for a character with a more
onmessage PR staff, we rewrote it to be something like:
Reputation when you meet someone significant, roll +Cha to see whether your reputation impresses them.
This did allow the reputation to be more consistent and true to what emerges in play, what varied was how
people reacted to it. Sometimes (i.e. on a 79) they might need the reputation backed up or demonstrated.
Quite a different feel to the move, really depends what you're looking for. PT Barnum or Wild Bill Hickok?
J_Walton
January 21Quote
Flag
That's cool, Cneph. Though there's nothing wrong with a WoD move that reminds you to roll the Die of Fate
in specific situations. Here's one for a chaos magician:
Sower of Misfortune : Your powers have a ripple effect on the minds of those around you. When you
involve yourself in a social situation, invited or not, roll the Die of Fate. When you would normally roll+CHA,
roll the Die of Fate instead.
Moves don't always have to be consistently beneficial to characters that have them. Sometimes they merely
demonstrate things that are true about them.
GHOST LINES
http://mightyatom.blogspot.it/2013/01/ghostlinesminigameawhackthing.html
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