New Year's Eve in Holystone

I haven't done a Holystone entry in over a year, but I thought a "Dick Clark" lich would be cool and the city provides a great backdrop for him.

New Year's Eve in Holystone

On the last night of the year, the 30th of Icemoon, everyone in the city celebrates the coming New Year. A large party is held outside the castle for the nobles of the city. All of the other districts hold their own parties, as well. Even the tent city holds special performances, featuring the elderly giving gifts to young children. 

The High Church holds services on this day, focusing on their followers renewing their relationship with the gods. After services, a large feast is held in honor of the gods. The Archbishop knows that the food and wine will bring in otherwise absent congregation members.

Followers of the Seelie Court meet in hidden glens and dance the night away. Most of the participants are more interested in drinking and sex than worship, though. The Fae are happy with this, as it shows that nature is more important than rites.

Devotees of Mabb have services, as well. Her followers have orgies, with some duels occurring between followers vying for her favor.

The Demon Lords have feasts punctuated by duels or human sacrifices. The priests of Orcus hold a ritual featuring the raising of an undead through magic. They often feed an enemy of their church to the undead. The Cult of Asmodeus holds duels and torture sessions. Lilith's cult has orgies, often featuring unwilling participants.

Near midnight, a lich named Rickard uses magic to appear in the sky over the city. He does a countdown during the last 10 seconds of the year, and his voice reaches even into the caves below the city. As he counts down, a bright light appears in the east, traveling towards the city. Just as Rickard reaches zero, the fireball that was approaching explodes far above the city. It creates a number of smaller explosions, which range in color from orange to red to purple and even blue. 

The sky shakes and it gets as bright as a clear sunny day for a almost a minute, as thundering blasts shake the walls. Everyone cheers and toasts the lich. He then disappears until the following year.

The Count has tried to find this creature, but with no success. Since Rickard causes no actual harm to the city, and even provides a great diversion for the masses, the Count isn’t really sure if he should do anything about the undead mage.  

Of course, some thieves use this distraction to pull off otherwise impossible heists, since their targets are distracted. Most of the wealthy have guards ready for these attempts, but there are always a few who get robbed.

Lightsabers (final)

This is my final version of the lightsaber for BFRPG. Feel free to use it or not. I personally like it.

Lightsaber
Cost: Artifact
Weight: 1
Damage: 2d6

Lightsabers are artifact weapons which can only be used by Force-wielders such as the Sith and Jedi.

Lightsabers have a thrown range of 10/20/30.

Lightsabers ignore non-magical armor and also ignore 5 points of Hardness when used against objects.

If a natural 6 is rolled for damage, immediately roll an additional 1d6 for damage. Continue rolling for each additional natural 6.

(For example: if your initial damage roll is a natural 12, you would roll another 2d6 and add that to the damage. If either of these dice is also a 6, you would roll another 1d6 and add that to the damage, as well.)

Lightsabers count as magical artifacts for the purposes of hitting creatures immune to non-magical weapons. They are very valuable.

Each Jedi or Sith usually creates his own lightsaber, from items either given to him by his master or by acquiring the items through quests. To make a lightsaber, the Force-wielder requires a hilt, a guard, and a crystal imbued with magic. He then uses the Force to combine these items into one weapon.

A master can gift his apprentice with a lightsaber if he so chooses, though this is rare. Jedi usually require their Padawans to craft a lightsaber as their final test to become a Jedi. Some Sith require their apprentices to defeat some monster or a Jedi, after which the apprentice will be either granted a lightsaber by his Master or he gets to keep and use the lightsaber of the Jedi he killed.

OSR - still no Swords and Sorcery game

There has yet to be a swords and sorcery game published through the OSR. I'm really surprised by this.

Some games claim to be S&S, but are really just D&D with some S&S trappings. Seriously, if your "Swords and Sorcery" game has PC clerics and requires a group, then it's not S&S. You may pretend it is, but you are lying to yourself and your customers.

What an S&S game needs:
1. One or maybe two players. No more than that.
2. Fighters and rogues are normal, and they should have a good chance of defeating a powerful NPC mage.
3. Fighters and rogues "heal" between encounters. They don't have to stop just because they've been in a big swordfight and got stabbed a couple times. 
4. No clerics!
5. No paladins!
6. You can have a mage as your character, but he should be a fighter-mage, in armor and wielding a sword, NOT a robe-wearing wimp with a spellbook.
7. Magic should be evil and corrupting. There may be some "good" magic, but the vast majority of it requires the mage to be evil as heck.
8. Humans are the majority race, by a long shot. If an elf is seen, he's going to be the only elf the locals see in their entire lifetimes, and legends will arise about him, even if all he did was ride through town and not even stop.
9. Lots of giant toads, giant snakes, and other giant critters. Many of whom will be worshiped as gods, even though they are just dumb animals.

Three Year Anniversary

Three years ago, I started this blog. My first two posts on that day included my own HOMEBREW rpg and a BARD for Swords & Wizardry: White Box. Seems like just yesterday I posted those entries. Anyways, I'm sorta surprised I'm still going with this thing, but it has been fun.

D&D Magic: So much fire, so little ice

One thing that has always bugged me about most D&D editions is that ice magic is so limited, when compared to fire magic. Same with air and earth. I guess they aren't as exciting as fireballs blasting everywhere.

There are some very nice non-fire spells, but they are few and far between. The old 2nd edition Wizard Compendium addressed this quite nicely, but I haven't seen most of that stuff in print since then.

Ideas for a Sith campaign

I'd like to run a Star Wars campaign set on Korriban during the Old Republic era. The Sith Academy is in full swing. The players would be acolytes grouped together with other NPC acolytes. They'd train, but also be sent on various quests to test their abilities and weed out the weak.

I think this would only work with a small number of players (and would be great for a solo campaign). Any more than three players makes it too much of a group effort to really fit the concept of the campaign.

Not sure what system I'd use. Possibly D6, but I've been thinking about making a Sith class to fit into the BFRPG system. Naturally, Sith would be better than "normal" classes, so that would likely limit their utility in any standard game. But for a Sith-focussed campaign, it should work fine.

Obligatory end of the world post!

If you are reading this, the world didn't blow up! Unless you are in a time zone where it's still Friday, so you might just die a little after reading this.

Lightsabers for OSR games (Revised)

Lightsaber
Cost: Artifact (Gift from master)
Weight: 1
Damage: 1d10


Lightsabers are artifact weapons used by Sith and Jedi.

Range: Lightsabers can be thrown by jedi and sith only. They have a range of 10/20/30.

Lightsabers ignore 3 points of non-magical armor and also ignore 3 points of Hardness when used against objects.

If a natural 10 is rolled for damage, immediately roll an additional 1d10 for damage. Continue for each additional 10.

Creatures with 3 HD or less must Save vs. Death or die if struck by a lightsaber.

Lightsabers count as magical for the purposes of hitting creatures immune to non-magical weapons.

Lightsabers for an OSR style game

I'm thinking of doing a conversion of BFRPG to Star Wars. At least for the classes and some of the weapons. Here's a first shot at lightsabers.

Lightsaber
Cost: 10,000 credits (or as a gift from your master)
Weight: 1
Damage: 1d10

Range: Lightsabers can be thrown by jedi and sith only. They have a range of 10/20/30.

Lightsabers ignore 3 points of non-magical armor and also ignore 3 points of Hardness when used against objects.