The Tower of Visions #2 - The Stairs of Mortality

Continuing my Tower of Visions dungeoncrawl posts (#1 is here). I’m posting one encounter each time and later I hope to make some sense of the whole thing.

Actually this encounter here is based on my friend’s first idea for the dungeon: The Stairs of Mortality.

There is no room, just an infinity of darkness, an eternal abyss. The only path through it is a set of stairs wide enough that can allow two people side by side (but not fighting). The stairs appear to climb forever but there is a light above. When the party enters it seems more like a star, as it is pretty far. After climbing for a long time (enough for a long rest or 4d4 hours) the characters start to see things coming from the Abyss (from all directions). Mirrors, floating and rotating in the dark, each one man-sized and diamond-shaped.

The mirrors start at long range (60-100 ft.) where it is practically impossible to see their surfaces. When within medium range (0-60 ft.) the Judge can allow a Perception/Luck so that a character can try to see details in one of the mirrors (if the character succeeds roll on the table below and describe it). Basically each mirror shows a possible reflection of a character. Each mirror has AC 15 and 3 hit points. There are 1d2+1 mirrors per character. The mirrors take 1d2 rounds to get really close to the party.

Once within medium range, ask for initiative (each mirror rolls initiative on a d10). The action of each mirror is to cut a character, dealing 3d6 points of damage (but can’t reduce a character below 0). The target can avoid this with an Agility/Dexterity check or any other crazy idea. If the target tries to shatter or attack the mirror they also must roll on the table below (although using a shield or some other protection could allow the character a saving throw or Luck roll). Why that? Because breaking (magic) mirrors is unlucky.

If a character falls to 0 hit points because of a mirror attack, roll on the table. If a character drops to 0 (i.e. is affected by a mirror), the other mirrors pass by and won’t attack that character that round. The mirrors will fly around the party for just 1d3 rounds then fly back to the darkness.

Finally, after the encounter, if the party keeps climbing the stairs they reach the next door after more 4d4 hours of walking. If someone falls in the darkness or rolls the ‘8’ result, consider that they appear again when the party leaves the room (but again for them on the table ignoring any ‘8’ result).

Each effect below tries to describe first what the character sees in the reflection.  If brought to 0 hit points by that mirror, that reflection becomes the reality.

The Mirrors of Mortality Table (Roll a d8):

1 - The character sees herself as a youth, almost a child. Reduce your age to something around 10-14 years old (or the equivalent of your race). If you have a positive modifier (or 0) in Str, Con or Per/Wis, reduce it by 1 (and adjust the Stat). For example: in DCC RPG, if you had Str 12 (+1), you Str is now 9 (mod 0). On the bright side, your Luck mod increases by 1 (if you don’t use Luck, as in 5E, just give the PC a free Inspiration after each long rost… the gods seem to favor the young).

2 - The character sees herself as old and decrepit. Increase your age to something around 80-100 years old (or the equivalent of your race). If you have a positive modifier (or 0) in ANY Stat reduce it by 1 (and adjust the Stat). Check the example above. Your Speed is reduced by half. If you’re playing DCC RPG, double your Luck points. That is how much Luck you have before you die of old age. You don’t recover Luck points anymore. If you’re playing something else, like 5E, you gain a number of Inspiration (yeah, I know it doesn’t accumulate and I hate that rule) or Advantages equal to 7+1d6... after that the Grim Reaper is coming for you.

3 - The character change sex and, because of that, one random stat increases by 1d4 and another decreases by the same amount (no maximum and a minimum of 3). If you like craziness, the Judge will select a secret trigger (like “getting drenched” or “falling below 0 hit points”). When that trigger happens change your sex again. If your character is for any reason sexless (like a golem) you now have a sex (and the entire package), live with that!

4 - The character becomes his opposite. In most parties this means inverting Alignment, god, philosophy, maybe appearance (for some reason Chaos loves spikes and piercings) and general behavior. If playing the DCC RPG, the Judge can choose a very different Birth Augur (or just roll again). The character is still the party’s friend (this isn’t a free card to be a jerk). If this is too much hassle then the reflection represents a different path in the life of the character, one where a single and very important event played out differently, according to the Judge’s call (for example: one monster or enemy wasn't killed by the character or perhaps the character’s brother didn’t become a villain etc.).

5 - The character sees herself as she is and is emboldened by that, recovering either 2d3 Luck or 2 Hit Dice of hit points (Judge’s choice). If rolled a second time, your reflection is actually more confident than you and will come out of the mirror to begrudge you for not living to your fullest potential. This reflection is now a real NPC, a better and bossy version of the character (+1 to all Stats and maximum hit points) and will probably become an enemy in the log time (or a very weird patron for the party).

6 - The character sees herself as a very young child (anything between 5-8) years old. Reduce her physical stats by half and add +2d3 to her Luck (Stat and points!). Either the character is a 0-level PC or (my favorite option) change her class to an Alice/Fool of the same level (the awesome class from A Red and Pleasant Land).

7 - The character sees just a dusty skeleton. She was dead a long time ago!***

8 - A black surface without any reflection. The character is trapped inside the mirror and if not free (give the party 1d3 rounds), disappear into the Abyss.

Bye and thanks for playing!

***[OPTIONAL] Believe it or not the entire “Rock falls everyone dies” thing has its place in the game when used right. Adventyring (and dungeoncrawling) is an extreme hazard prone career. In this particular adventure it happens when the character is brought to 0 hit points by a crazy magic mirror and then rolls a ‘7’ on a table. Not bad in my opinion but, as they say, YMMV. So, if you don’t like this change the idea (or just remove the entry and roll a d7). An option could be that for the ENTIRE world the character died a long time (if you must roll a dice to know how many years ago… like 1d4 or 3d6, depending on your campaign). This means that probably most of the last adventures and deeds of the character never happened. Because the party is inside the Tower of Visions they don’t know that and the entire new timelines doesn't catch up with them. When (if…) they leave the dungeon they will see a place where probably some things happened differently. The “dead” character is now a living paradox, a weird clone of the original, the “true character” which died some years ago. The Judge is encouraged to come up with all kinds of weird and esoteric consequences: maybe divination magic can’t find her anymore (remember, she is dead!), or she can’t be raised from the dead (no soul?) or maybe she can’t burn Luck anymore (the Fates don’t know her) etc.

OR, if you don’t want to remove the character from the game and want something crazy but more simple, just pick one of the cool un-dead classes from the Gongfarmer Almanac and bring the character back.

[OPTIONAL] Place a NPC here to spice things up. He appears to be an old goblin but is an immortal and cursed human called Dokab. Give him stats roughly equivalent to a 5th level fighter (or similar monster of your choice). He is seeking “the Mirror of Dust” (i.e. any mirror on the table that ages or kills you) to remove his “undying curse”. The fact is that the mirrors of the Stairs actually avoid Dokab, because he was cursed by a deity. Dokab did titanic atrocities (and a few really good things) through the ages, usually with different names and aliases. He just wants to die. He does not trust anyone and so tells that he is looking “for a loved one trapped in a mirror”. If pressed he’ll attack (he is pretty reckless as he can’t really die). His curse? Basically, you can’t bring Dokab below 1 hit point unless you use something like a Wish. Oh, if the party pushes him off the Stairs, roll a d6. There is a 1 in 6 chance that he hits the right mirror and the party (unwillingly) releases him from the curse. However, if that does not happen, well, the party will probably meet an angry immortal waiting for them outside the Stairs. The Judge is encouraged to use Dokab as a recurring and really dangerous enemy. An observation: if this guy is an immortal of legend why the “low level”? (although in DCC RPG a 5th level Warrior is really something.) Well, he is immortal and nothing can really hurt him, so he got a bit rusty with his skills. Although if the party really rekindles his anger, he’ll train for a few months and “recover” his lost levels (imagine if Alexander the Great was cursed not only with undying and a goblin form, but also with never again rebuilding his empire… imagine how pissed off he would be. That is Dokab. If you have ever read the Malazan Book of the Fallen, this dude is Kallor but he looks like a lowly goblin, which doesn't help). Oh, and removing Dokab’s curse will anger the deity that cursed him. Use that to maximum enjoyment (of the Judge of course) and start by removing a few Luck points.

Art by Amelia Plant.

The Tower of Visions #1 - The Room of the Eyeless Ogre

A long time ago I promised a friend I would write a dungeon crawl for him based on the themes of mirrors, visions, age and self-image... (Sorry Luciano, it has been 2 years already?)

I’m terrible with promises as you can see. I’m not sure if this is still useful but I’m gonna try to post this dungeon crawl in small encounters. I’m calling it the Tower of Visions so far. Although I intended this to be used with DCC RPG I’ll try to be as generic as possible with rules terms (hopefully you can adapt it to your favorite d20 Fantasy). After posting a few of them I’ll try to organize the entire thing and any feedback until there would be appreciated. The idea is that this is an adventure for PCs of levels 2-3.

Here is one of the encounters: The Room of the Eyeless Ogre.

The door opens to magical darkness (not even darkvision works) in what seems to be a large circular room of stone, the ceiling the height of two men. After all the party gets in (and only after that), the door disappears and everything is covered by the hungry darkness. A mere moment later a sphere of light, slightly bigger than a human head, starts shining in the middle of the room atop a stone pedestal, half the height of a man (there was nothing there when the party got in). The walls of the room, the floor and the top are now covered in crystal clear mirror-like surfaces.

There are two things of importance in the now bright room. The first is a door made of what appears to be ice. The second is an apish creature made of stone, eyeless, squatting between the party and the door. It takes a moment to realize that both the door and its guardian are actually just reflexes in the mirror wall. There is nothing in the room itself. The guardians promptly stare at the party and charge.

That is the basic premise of the room. A few things to consider:

• Give the monster the stats of an Ogre, but double the damage, give it the AC of a stone golem and maximize its hit points. The idea is to make the monster scary and make the party flee. Give it two attacks per round or, better, a Grapple/Slam sequence. The creature usually grapples a character then throws her at another character. If damaged it react with a slam against the poor victim.
• The monster is not invisible. It is just not there. It “exists” solely in the magical mirror wall. However it can affect the party’s reflections. If it hits a character’s reflection, it can hurt him/her. Defending is hard because there is nothing there in the real room and the character must react based on their reflections (give the monster Advantage to attack rolls). 
• Attacking the wall to hit the creature is a terrible idea: each hit against the wall (AC 10) cracks it and a lot of crystals shards explode from it, dealing automatic 1d6 damage to all characters in a 5 feet range (no save, although if someone is really careful and is maybe using a shield give them a Refl/Dex/Luck/whatever chance to suffer half damage… maybe a better idea is using a reach weapon). Remember, hitting the wall is not enough, to “hurt” the creature you must hit its reflection and overcome its AC (i.e. a stone golem’s AC).
• At any time, any character can cover the source of light in the middle of the room. This covers the place in darkness, effectively “stops” the guardians, giving the characters a chance to rest, talk and plan. Unfortunately, it also “resets” the guardian’s hit points. The encounter literally starts again.
• There is (the reflection of) an ice-like door behind the monster. It can be opened by the character’s reflection. This is really weird, because the reflections can affect the door but the real characters don’t feel a thing. In game terms, to open the door the party must rol 3 successful Dexterity/Agility or Intelligence checks (standard difficulty). Two characters can cooperate to get it faster. Yes, the guardian will try to stop them. After the door is opened, any character can “cross it” if they close their eyes and jump through in the mirror wall.
• Breaking the mirror wall where the door is could be another option. Give that section of the wall a total of 20 hit points and let the party smash hit (remember that each hit deals 1d6 damage to all characters in a 5 feet burst).
• One crazy idea to defeat the eyeless ogre (if the Judge want of course) is if the party is carrying any small mirror with them. If they catch the ogre's reflection in the mirror (an Agility/Dex check?) and them smash that item, let them the ogre fall in the ground in pain for 1 full round, filled with cracks, and remove  1/2 or 1/4 of its total hit points.
• [OPTIONAL] There is some loot in the ground. Place a jewel or gem. Also one weapon of your choice. The catch? They’re just reflections. To get the items the character must succeed at a Agility/Dexterity check (maybe with Disadvantage). Using the weapon in the room always has Disadvantage (remember, there is nothing in the character’s real hands). If you’re feeling lucky maybe the weapon is magical and can hurt the eyeless ogre. If the party manages to leave the room they can take the loot with them. What does the weapon do? Well, maybe it is a +1 magical weapon that is in fact invisible and can only be seen in reflections (out of the room, with a little bit of training, the character can wield the weapon without Disadvantage).
• [OPTIONAL] Remember the source of light? It is a (very heavy) stone orb that shines. It can be lifted with a hard Strength check and carried out (the PC is probably with half Speed and without his Dex bonus to AC due to the weight). If carried outside the orb becomes a crystal ball (use your favorite crystal ball, if in doubt, just let a wizardly PC use it once per day to see, but not hear, someplace that he was before… with all the normal divination limitations of your campaign).

I BECOME THE VOID - my first spell for DCC RPG!

I'm currently having a blast with my first DCC RPG table. We returned to our first campaign (started in 2013!). Right now we're playing a heavily modified version of Intrigue at the Court of Chaos, pumped up to 3rd level and using a hack based on Godbound, so my players can feel what is like to be "special agents" for the Court of Chaos and (literally) sacking the Heavens. 

So, our Warlock just got his first familiar. My favorite rules for familiars these days are those that focus on the familiar's role in the adventure instead of keeping my time managing stats (good examples are the familiar rules for 13th Age and Trailblazer). For this DCC RPG I'm using Goblin Punch's awesome faustian familiar rules. Rolling on Arnold's crazy tables we discovered that the Warlock's familiar main goal is "destruction of the self through dissolution, dissociative drugs, anomie, and constant exposure to danger". When I got that result I instantly thought about Kill Six Billion Demons' great black flame devils. So I proposed such demon as the familiar and the player loved it. After one game session, the Warlock was already negotiating with his familiar for a new spell and decided to offer some that is more in line with the spirit's agenda. The result is below. No, this spell is not playtested (and it is my first DCC RPG spell! Yey!) and I'm still waiting to see how it goes on the table. I hope you like it!

I BECOME THE VOID

Wizard/Elf Level: 2         

Range: Varies

Duration: Varies

Casting Time: Varies

Save: Will

General: This dangerous dweomer, offered by the Demons of the Black Flame, allows the caster to briefly cease her own existence for a brief period. By carefully manipulating the Void the caster can affect other targets.

Playing with the Void is not safe and there is always the chance that a part of the caster is lost forever. Many just disappear forever. There is some debate if Demons of the Black Flames are former casters of this spell. This is represented by the Void Number. When you first learn this spell, choose a number between 2 and 19. This becomes your Void Number. See below for more information.

If you succeed in your spellcasting roll, you can always choose a lower result.

Manifestation: Roll 1d4. (1) The caster’s eye becomes orbs of darkness and dark stars. (2) Light and sound dims, with temperature around the caster dropping suddenly. Everyone’s ear pops as if from the lack of pressure (no damage). (3) Ghostly blue flames leave the caster’s mouth and dance around him. (4) The caster flicks in and out of existence while casting.

Corruption: Roll 1d7. (1) The caster’s skin become deadly cold and covered in frost. When the caster moves it constantly cracks as if frozen. (2) The caster’s eyes are replaced by empty sockets from which blue flames sometimes flicker. (3) Gravity is just wrong around the caster. His clothes and hair sometimes float to unseen winds and small objects are constantly ejected from him. (4) Caster’s grows black veins around hands and feet, and small vestigial claws. Caster can now be wounded by holy water and turned as a demon. (5) Caster pops in and out of reality when nervous, constantly letting any hand item or weapon to fall. (6) Caster will slowly levitate up unless chained with something heavy to the ground. (7) major.

Misfire: Roll 1d4. (1) Caster falls prone in pain after being destroyed and recreated. Select an additional Void Number. (2) Caster comes back wrong from the Void, reroll his Agility or Stamina using 2d6. This represents a stunted demonic arm or leg. (3) Caster opens a rift to the Void, suffering 2d4 points of damage. The caster and everyone at 30 ft. must roll Refl save (DC 15) or they will be caught by the rift and suffer 2d4 points of damage. (4) The caster starts ingleak magic to the Void. For the next 1d4 hours all his spellcasting requires 1d6 points of spellburn.

Spellcasting:

1 Lost, failure, and worse! Roll 1d6 modified by Luck: (0 or less) corruption + patron taint + misfire; (1-3) corruption; (4) patron taint (or corruption if no patron); (5+) misfire.

2-11 Lost. Failure.

12-13 Failure, but spell is not lost.  

14-15 You cease to exist for 1d3 rounds. You can cast this spell as a reaction to an attack (to completely evade it).

16-19 You cease to exist for 1d6 minutes or you can make a touched target cease to exist for 1d6 rounds (Will negates). This last option cost you an action. The target can make a new Will save to try to return every round.

20-21 You or a touched target cease to exist for 1d6 hours (Will negates). This level of the spell always requires an action. The target can make a new Will save to try to return every hour. When you return, any spell with a duration affecting you is cancelled. Roll a Fort save and a Will save (both DC 20). If you succeed at the Fort save you heal 2d4 of damage but the healed wounds look strange (black veins, white cold scars etc.). If you succeed at the Will save you recover 1d2 Luck points but a white cold and harmless flame follows your head for the next 1d3 days, shinning as a torch and bringing unwanted attention.

22-25 You or a touched target cease to exist for 2d6 hours and this level of the spell always requires an action (Will negates). The target can make a new Will save to try to return every hour. When you return, roll a Fort save and a Will save (both DC 15). If you succeed at the Fort save you heal 4d4 of damage but the healed wounds look wrong (black veins, white cold scars etc.). If you succeed at the Will save you recover 1d3 Luck points or remove a minor curse, but you return with a mask covering your face. You must keep the mask for 7 days and 7 nights, never letting it be removed or you will be dragged back to the Void for 1d6 hours (and must roll just to see if a Void Number comes up).

26-29 You or a target on sight cease to exist for 1d4 days and this level of the spell always requires an action (Will negates). When you return, roll a Fort save and a Will save (both DC 15). If you succeed at the Fort save you heal 6d4 of damage but the healed wounds look wrong (black veins, white cold scars etc.) or you regenerate a lost member (but it looks inhuman). If you succeed at the Will save you recover 1d4 Luck points or remove a middle curse, but you're faceless. Your face is now a flat void, as if your skull was empty (your senses and voice are the same). You remain thus for 7 days and 7 nights. Every time someone uncovers your face you lose 1 Luck (usually 1 per minute if exposed). 

30-31 As above, but everyone who saw your disappear must roll a Will save or forget that you were there (if it is the first time they saw, they usually completely forget about you). Also, if not cast on you, you can now choose 1d3 targets.

32-33 As above, but choose 2d3 targets. Any target sent to the Void must roll a second Will save when their time of return comes. If they fail, they never return.

34+ As an action you can cease to exist. No one remember your deeds, which remain a mystery. Nor even the gods can reach you. You become the Void. If that sublime fate is not your goal, choose one target one sight to become the Void (Will negates). If the target fails the save they disappear forever. Select one action made by the target. That action never happened and its consequences are undone (Judge's call, but usually this can be used to "undone", for example, that one strike that killed a member of the party). Every time this result is cast, the caster must select a new Void number.

Void Number (between 2 and 19). If you roll that number on the die the Void takes something from you. The first time it take something minor, like the color of your eyes (you might also lose the capacity to see that color or just your eye sockets) or your hair might now be white and float to the winds of the Void, or you might lose your voice (just whispers) or emotions (if your emotion left is humor, you might laugh when said or angry). The second time, it takes your Name (no coming back from the dead), Alignment (roll another one) or even one of your deeds (chose a previous adventure, you didn't take part on it... you still remember it, but reality rewrites itself and another adventurer accomplished your deeds). The third time, you disappear, one with the glorious Void.

A wizard playing with the Void.

What if metagaming is part of the setting?

In many ways metagaming is just the players letting you know that they love the setting and know everything about it. The bad news, of course, is when that behavior disrupts the game. There are tons of ways to deal with metagaming and you can find excellent advice online (the best one still is: “Don’t play with jerks”). Some RPGs in my opinion actually reward metagaming: take for example some approaches to OSR/Old School where what counts is player skill, not character skill. Following that premise, it makes sense that a player can use everything that he knows to beat the adversary.

I think one of the best metagaming examples in D&D (and F20 in general) is the troll. When PCs see a troll they all run to find fire or acid so that the creature can’t regenerate, even if they never saw a troll before. It became common knowledge. How to deal with that? (That is, if metagaming is a problem to you)

From where do you think Fire Trolls came from?
From the Metagaming Hell!

Modern F20 games like Pathfinder try to restrict monster knowledge to certain skills. I personally don’t enjoy that approach, I believe instead that “monster lore” should give some concrete mechanic benefit. Things like lore or pure information should be a result of the game and the interaction at the table, not just a mere skill roll.

Most tables that I know simply link “monster knowledge” with encounter experience (i.e. if you faced a troll and discovered its weakness, you can use it in future encounters). The bad news is that D&D (especially the latest editions) is all about beating monsters, so facing a monster like a troll, where you know you can use fire, but being denied it because it would be considered “metagaming” just doesn’t feel right. The players can feel that they’re being punished for being prepared.

In the end I believe that common sense is the best option: talk with your players and see what they think about this. In most of my tables I like to let them know that it is OK to use a certain degree of metagaming if they check first to see if they characters would know that. Now, if I find a player that wants to abuse that trust “to win the adventure”, disregarding the table and the fun, I don’t punish him. No sir, I do something worse: I change the critter. Trolls are my favorite example because in one of my Forgotten Realms campaigns I decided that they weren’t vulnerable to fire. That was actually a rumor. Trolls there were actually flammable! Setting them on fire leaves them in a crazy berserker state. If you can survive a flaming and berserker troll long enough until it “burns out” and becomes fatigued, then you can chop him to pieces but it is a crazy tactic (and one that professional troll slayers only use in desperation, when facing packs of trolls, because while berserker they will attack anything on sight, including other trolls). If, after that funny (for me) lesson, the player still wanted to abuse metagaming knowledge, I would just invite them to leave the table.

However, I found a new option recently that I really like. I believe it came from John Wick, from Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea fame. For someone who doesn’t like d20 games, John certainly has a lot of cool ideas for it (check Santa Vaca, his latest bundle of rules for F20).

Basically: make the metagaming a part of the setting (OSR/Old School make it a part of the game, but not the setting). Give adventurer parties a social place in the society.

I really like campaign settings where “adventurers” are integrated into the culture. It is not only a clever twist but it actually makes sense (besides giving the PCs a stronger link to the world). After all, adventurers are powerful and resourceful, so why not use it? That was one of the benchmarks of my campaign setting - Chronicles of the 7th Moon. If you like it, check the excellent OSR-inspired hack for 13th Age - The King of Dungeons. It follows the same idea and it has some cool mechanics for that.

OK, adventurers in this approach could be the young sons and daughters of nobility. They can’t inherit land or power, but they have the right education, resources and training. Instead of staying in civilization, these Scions are sent out to destroy monsters that threaten the borders of the “World of Light”.

The “World of Light” is how “civilized” races (Humans, Elves, Dwarves… your choice) call their realms. The rest of the entire setting is “The Dark” or the “World of the Dark”, where disorder, beasts and Chaos reign. Scions have the job of getting rid of the Dark. That is the excuse for adventuring here: to purge the “monsters” and the “Chaos” worshiper.

The Scions of Light ride to destroy the Dark!

 

That is where the metagaming comes in. While they were trained, the Scions had access to tomes of lore regarding the Dark, all the accumulated knowledge of the civilized races against “the Enemy”. In other words, the PCs through their Scions basically have access to the Monster Manual. They KNOW that trolls can be wounded by fire and acid, and that they must burn and kill ALL trolls!

Now the catch: did you notice all the “ ” above? That is because the World of Light is not a black-and-white setting, there are shades of gray here. The civilized realms label anything they don’t like as belonging to the Dark. So, while PCs have metagame knowledge, some of those tomes might be wrong. Usually, it is not about the mechanics (i.e. trolls are still vulnerable to fire and acid, but maybe there some mistaken information, DM’s call), but about the lore (maybe trolls are actually a race of giant curse by the Elves after they killed the original troll gods, maybe trolls actually were once more beautiful than Elves). The idea is that after a few sessions slaying monsters, the Scions (the PCs) will start to see that not all monsters are actually monsters. Maybe the “true” monsters are the haughty and unbending rulers of the World of Light (the Scions’ own families). What will the PCs do with that information? That is the true question for this campaign.

While I’m having a blast running my current DCC RPG campaign, where the PCs are a bunch of raiders and Chaos worshippers in the most classic Warhammer Fantasy fashion, I still want to try the World of Light with them in the future.

World of Light

Twilight of Elves and Dwarves for DCC RPG

I tried to do something different with the Luck stat for my Cyclops class, based on the awesome Krull movie. Basically, Cyclopes in fiction know when they are going to die, so instead of Luck they have something closer to Doom. When a Cyclops' Luck runs out is time to meet their Doom (and because of that they can have some extra tricks with the Luck rules).

A friend of mine read that article and gave me the idea of using Luck to modulate the fall or fading of Elder Races. In a more Tolkin-like campaign setting, races like Dwarves and Elves are disappearing from the world, while the Dominion of Man grows. Why not use Luck to reflect that flavor? That is, if you want a mechanic for that in the first place and if you want a different take than the DCC Core Rulebook. I always like to change stuff, so here is madness to reflect that.

Following that premise, only Humans and Halflings have Luck. Man is on the rise and Halflings are considered lucky, things that already work great for a Tolkien-like setting. Now, let's change Dwarves and Elves. The idea in settings that follow these rules is that both Dwarves and Elves are extremely rare creatures. You can probably see one or two in the biggest cities, but they don’t have cultures of their own, their realms faded away centuries ago. Probably in a generation or two there won’t be any more Dwarves or Elves.

Both variant Luck rules below use what I call Thresholds. You have 2 Thresholds, the 1st is when you reach half your Luck score, the 2nd is when you burn your last point of Luck. Also, by using these rules both Dwarves and Elves can’t use Luck to gain bonus to checks, like Humans and Halflings (the good news is that they can’t have their Luck reduced, unless they want, that includes things like curses and spells).

DWARVES

Dwarves here are like Ents. In the same way that Ents are going to sleep and become more tree-like with each Age, Dwarves were beings originally awakened from Stone. Actually, they believe that their creator, the Forger, placed in their hearts True Fire, awakening them. When that flame is finally spent, a Dwarf goes back to Stone, literally. Dwarves here have cold and grey skin, almost rock like. They are very heavy for their height and can’t swim. The good news is that they suffer half damage for bludgeoning or crushing attacks. When a Dwarves dies (i.e. their True Flame burns out), their flesh is instantaneously fossilized (usually trapping the enemy’s weapon within, although the Judge can allow a Refl save or Agility check).

Today, that original magic is being unraveled by Time itself (or maybe something those damn Humans did) and the few Dwarves still around are slowly going back to Stone. Usually a Dwarf could hope to live a few centuries, sometimes more if they lived underground. These days they are lucky if they reach a bit more than 100 winters. Dwarves know that they are their last generation.

If you want, go ahead and change Luck to Fire. Dwarves don’t count on Luck, that is for Humans and Halflings that live and see so little. Dwarves burn inside like Fire. When their Fire goes out, they die and go back to Stone. Here are rules for Fire (i.e. Luck) if you’re a Dwarf:

• Dwarves can burn 1 Luck to suffer half damage from magical fire or ignore non magical fire for 1 minute.
• They can burn 1 Luck to automatically ignore a petrifying attack or poison.
• Dwarves can burn 1 Luck to transform a critical hit in a normal hit.
• Dwarves reduced to 0 hit points can burn 1 Luck to automatically stabilize and survive (they still fall unconscious at the mercy of their enemies until healed and the Judge has the final say when this ability can be used; for example, it probably won't save you from a disintegration attack).
• When a Dwarves hits his 1st Threshold his AC is increased by +1d4 and his speed is reduced by half.
• When Dwarves burn his last point of Fire, they are invulnerable to all damage and effects for 1d4 rounds. That roll can explode (i.e., if you roll a 4, roll that again and add it). Effects include things like charm person for example. In other words, your Dwarf can’t be cut, smashed, pierced or controlled, but he can still be pinned, thrown far away or buried. Use your last point of Fire to go full heavy metal in a blaze of glory!
• Dwarves recover 1d3 Luck when they gain a new level. At the Judge’s choice, a Dwarf that reaches level 10th turns to stone after 7 days and 7 nights, unless he goes down to the underworld and never returns to the surface.

ELVES

Elves never belong to the mortal realm. Older than sun and moon, children of an eternal starlit kingdom, Time was always anathema to this Folk. It is remarkable that Elves remained in these realms for so long. Most of their people left eons ago, back to those timeless shores between Night and the Void, Dream and Madness.

Because they were born literally before Time, Elves never understood the linear way of thinking of Humans and Halflings. These always accused Elves of being aloof or even cruel, and they are probably right. Elves think that Humans and Halflings should live intensively and strongly, because they have so little time left, always so little time.

Even those Elves born in Time have minds and souls that stretch back to the original Night and Void. They see things no one sees and think in ways no one understands. But all Elves know they can’t defeat the Enemy - Time - without breaking the world. Oh, they tried, long ago and failed. That is why they are now fading. The few left are those that still believe they can break Time, or those that want to see the amazingly fast vicissitudes (for an Elf) of these constantly decaying mortal realms.

Elves don’t die of age but only through violence or when they can’t hold against Time. In the later case they Fade. Some still linger as maddened or sad spirits, most just remain as flavors or weirdly beautiful hauntings. Elves also don’t sleep or dream. For them Dream is a place, close to their original home. They need no rest and very little food or water in fact. Sometimes they seem to know things before they happen.

Because Elves came before Time, change is something hard for them. An Elf today is probably the same Elf a thousand years later. Those that change usually fade faster. That is why an Elf’s word is binding.

Elves are disturbed by the very old and the very young between Humans and Halflings. Such concepts are alien to them, although Elves seem to have lineages, families and to marriage. 

If you like this take, change Luck to Fading. The world has changed and your kind’s war, the Greatest War, against Time itself, was lost. You sought to end Death, to bring to Humans, Halflings and all those miserable mortals something greater but you failed. You’re Fading. 

• Elves can burn 1 Luck to treat spirits, ghosts and incorporeal beings (in the ethereal or astral planes) as physical entities that can be touched and hurt. He can see such beings too if they are invisible. This lasts for 1 minute.
• They can burn 1 Luck to ignore fear, illusions, mind control or madness for 1 minute.
• Elves can burn 1 Luck to go without food or water for the rest of that game session or adventure (Judge’s call).
• Elves gazed at the Void, on the shores of Night. They can burn 1 Luck to ignore Corruption or Patron Taint until the end of the game session. They can also burn 1 Luck to recover a lost spell, although most Elves only use this in desperation.
• Sometimes you can still see through Time. Burn 1 Luck to have a small item with you that you could have bought or taken.
• If an Elf gave his word, that is binding. Breaking an oath or outright lying cost an Elf 1 point of Luck. However, Elves always know when someone lies.
• When an Elf hits his 1st Threshold, he is more There than Here. The Elf does not need to eat, drink or even breath. He can move to any place that he can see without crossing the distance, but he must finish his move on a surface (consider that the Elf still has the same speed, but instead of moving he can disappear in one spot and reappear in the end of the movement). He can’t do this if shackled with pure iron. Under direct sunlight the Elf seems pale and weak, and sometimes you have the impression you can see through him.
• When an Elf hits his 2nd Threshold, he finally Fades away. He can touch in person, enemy or item of his size or less in melee range and automatically take that with him to the Shores of Night, never to be seen again (unless the Judge has a new Quest for the Impossible in mind).

Your wizards are losers!

Everyone, after reading enough D&D, will eventually ask why do wizards (or magic-users) adventure at all? Their magic is derived from their knowledge, from their grimoires… from books! So, if they read and study more, they should be more powerful. I can’t count how many times a player told me that he would like to use downtime to study magic (i.e. level up).

One of my favorite RPGs (and in fact one of the best ones) is Ars Magica. Wizards in Ars Magica follow almost the same flavor as traditional D&D Wizards: they’re bookworms who learn magic from experiment and ancient texts. They are “medieval scientists” if you prefer. Ars Magica’s wizards spent most of their time locked away in their towers and covenants studying and perfecting their Art. You can say that one of the awesome things about Ars Magica is how every wizard trope makes sense in the setting and in the system (there are a lot of other awesome things regarding Ars Magica and you should definitely take a look if you don’t know it yet: the 4th Edition is free!).

Still one the best RPGs out there!

Anyway, as I said, D&D Wizards work (in terms of setting and lore) almost like Ars Magica mages. They should indeed get more powerful by spending less time adventuring and more time researching. Of course, that is a rather boring way of playing D&D if you ask me. So why does it not happen?

Basically: your wizards are losers!

Yes, losers. Wizard PCs are the failures, rejects, heretics, the unorthodox, the mad and those who for same reason couldn’t stay locked in the tower studying. Maybe they disgraced their masters, or betrayed them or discovered the dark about them. I don’t know. That is the funny part and the players (and the table) should figure that out.

Without access to a master and powerful knowledge, your wizard is forced to crawl in the mud with other pariahs, doing lowly things like treasure hunt or (worst) living side by side with sorcerers and warlocks. What a shame! That is literally rock bottom!

Arcane scum! That is who you are!

OK, now you have something to work for your Wizard PC the entire trope of “book mage” makes more sense maybe***. Lets move to the second aspect of this post, what I’m calling at the moment the Tower Wizard.

Illusionist's Tower... don't trust anything you see, hear, touch etc. Also don't trust your party.

Tower Wizards never failed their master (or just killed and took their place). They never lost time with such stupid things such as adventuring and carousing. No sir, they remained locked in their sanctums and demesnes, devling in forbidden and powerful arcane knowledge nonstop. They are the real deal. Most are mad and too much removed from mortal life or reality itself. Practically all of them are dangerous and uncaring (even the rare good ones, actually I would say especially the good ones… they are almost as dangerous as your usual holier-than-thou saint).

Necromancer's Lair and its guardians: lots of dead trees.

Thankfully, Tower Wizards are completely uninterested (most of the time) in the affairs of the world - or if they are interested it is because they need a charmed minion, dominated slave or bound demon to fetch something for them (or those misfits known as adventurers). Or maybe they need to place an entire city sleeping, so they can harvest the perfect 11.111 nightmares provoked by a Far Realm abomination as a component for that one ritual that will prove that the Demiplane of Shadows and the Nightmare Dimension are one and the same. You see, that kind of “academic” stuff.

Yup, that is an Evoker Tower (of course, it is also a volcano).

Tower Wizards are the bogeyman of the arcane world and their domains are filled with treasure, monsters, traps and grimoires. In other words: the perfect place to raid (and die).

Abjurer's Fortress and its scary arcane defenses.

I would treat a Tower Wizard as a boss monster. A thematic one. Forget the spells that Wizard PCs use. That is the “player side” of the game. Create new stuff. After all, Wizard PCs are losers that play with just a shard of true arcane magic. Create a dungeon for each Tower Wizard around the chosen theme. For example: if facing a Necromancer, fill the place not only with undeads, but also with a nexus between the Positive and Negative Places, machines powered by ghosts etc. Instead of a spellbook, the Necromancer keeps his arcane knowledge locked in skulls of dead wizards. Create a Transmuter obsessed with teletransportation and space, his dungeon filled with non-euclidian rooms, gates, creatures that play with space and time etc. You see, Tower Wizards are like “small Saurons” - a great part of their mojo is invested in their domains. That is why they don’t adventure and why they are so powerful. But destroying those places and picking together part of the rubbles, your PC Wizard can discover new spells and stuff.

Transmuter's Tower... hidden behind that gate/trap/monster/thing.

***Actually, older editions of D&D came up with all kinds of interesting stuff to explain why wizards adventure. I remember fondly how D&D BECMI defined the relation between a low level wizard and his master, and how you would always return to your master between adventures to learn more. Other campaign settings, like AD&D Dragonlance, also created good excuses for the Wizards of the High Orders to travel and adventure. I just wanted to create something different.

That is some cool wizardly real estate!

The Guardian, a (martial controller and) new class for 13th Age

The idea for this class came from years ago, still during D&D 4E, when everybody was debating how a martial controller would look like. For those of you that never played 4E, the game had different sources of power (Martial, Divine, Arcane, Primal etc.) and roles (Striker, Defender, Leader and Controller). While I was still reading 4E it seems that most or all combinations were accounted for (Martial Striker, Arcane Controller etc.) but we never saw a Martial Controller. That is when I started thinking on this class.

Now, the funny thing is that I never intended to use the 4E rules and the original design was for Pathfinder 1E. However, I never managed to do it (I created a Warlord class for Pathfinder though). Then 13th Age came along and I started thinkering again.

An important warning: this is my first 13th Age class and is probably grossly unbalanced/overpowered or even unplayable. The fact is that 13th Age is one of those RPGs where I’m sincerely intimidated/afraid of writing a class (I love to write races, powers, feats etc. but not classes). It took more than a year for me to finish this first draft. Now it is the time to test it. I still have one or two other classes that I want to create for 13th Age, but let's see how this one here fares.

The idea of the Guardian is, as I said, that of a Martial Controller. Unlike the Commander, which theoretically would be a Martial Leader, the Guardian seeks to control battlefield movement and excels against Minions (instead of directing his allies like the Commander). While everybody likes the Cleric, the party as a team should LOVE to have a Guardian around. Guardians should not inflict much damage (except against Mooks) but Conditions. They should change the tactics and dynamics of an encounter. I’m not sure that the tradeoff of “half damage” for Conditions is a good one, but I can’t think of anything else now.

Here is the Guardian!

On Guardians and Rangers

In portuguese Aragorn and the Dúnedain aren’t called Rangers but Guardians (and for the record, in my opinion the best translation for “ranger” in Portuguese would would be “patrulheiro”, which was the actual name used by one of the first editions of a Lord of the Rings RPG in Brazil back in the 90s. Strictly speaking “patrulheiro” means patrolman, but it sounds right as a “ranger” equivalent).

The flavor of the Guardian class is that of a dedicated warrior, an exotic duelist, a ritual fighter - maybe one who follows a martial school, tradition or a legacy, either by blood or heart. The names of the Stances, Strikes and Maneuvers are all “kind of” Eastern-style and suggest something different from a “common” Dragon Empire fighter. Inspiration came from a lot of unrelated sources, from Arcana Unearthed, to Exalted, Wheel of Time, KSBD and a lot of other mashup craziness. Guardians see more in common with Monks and behave usually in a more civilized or ritualistic way. And yes, Aragorn’s role in a battle - for me at least - is that of a Guardian. In fact, if I wanted to play Aragorn in 13^th Age, I would build a Guardian with, perhaps, the Sacred Warrior talent to represent the royal Dúnedain bloodline.

A Guardian facing a Fighter (or probably a Barbarian if you're really facing the Mountain That Rides)