Map: The Dragon Spire

One of the things I did a lot with my last campaign, the one using the Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) rules, was use artwork as inspiration for me and visual aid for the players.  At one point they were on their way to meet with a dragon.  I found a fantastic castle painting by the famous Ted Nasmith to use for the dragon's current hideout.  Then I made up maps of the interior.

Background: this is an old frontier watch tower built by the kingdom of the black (water) dragons many centuries ago.  The dragon statues are of heroes of the kingdom who fell defending it.  It had a small lighthouse to warn river traffic away from the rocks and a small village where the humans and other small servant races lived.  Because the tower was meant for dragons all of its architecture is dragon-sized.  Huge doors and windows, huge rooms, and soaring ceilings are common throughout.  There is also a landing balcony so the dragons can fly in and out.

Today it is the lair or hideout of Ragecloud, the brother of the last dragon king.  The king, Ragewave, is in suspended animation on the verge of death in another massive old complex.  The brother seeks ways to finish off his brother once and for all in order to lift the curse and finally rule the kingdom himself.  Ragewave has several dragonkin (15' tall bipedal draconic humanoids) as his elite bodyguards and leaders, fifty or so human guards, dragonpriests, and scouts, and a dozen or more demon-dogs which roam the tower and areas along the river banks.

The painting:

The maps:

Overview and Courtyard
Below the main keep is a small courtyard which covers the steep winding trail which leads up from the small village below.  In the courtyard is a guard barracks with storage, bunkrooms, mess hall, and armory.  There is also a small stable with a few horses for scouts and messengers.  A tall statue of a dragon overlooks the courtyard from the northeast wall.

Keep Ground Floor
The massive main gates lead into a wide entrance hall with huge wooden double doors on the sides and an archway ahead.  Pools of water stand on either side of the entrance so that travelers may refresh themselves.  The rooms are mostly empty of furnishings except the kitchen in the back on the west.  The central room has an artistic statue in the middle, a deep pool stocked with live fish from the river as snacks for the dragon and dragonkin, and a staircase leading up.  At the very back is a large refuge room with secret doors concealed by carved scenes on the wall.

Keep 2nd Floor

Keep Landing Balcony
This floor has the landing balcony for the tower.  Several demon-dogs roam here to protect against any landing by intruders (the local mountain troll tribes fly on bat-winged opossums, or oppossobats).  In the main chamber a large teleportation disc is set into the floor.

Tower 1st Floor
The floor has huge windows on the east and west sides and huge wooden double doors to the north and south.  The south doorway leads out onto a balcony with a large dragon statue on the ledge.  The north doorway leads to a wide, open walkway ending in a small ancestor shrine with a traditional black stone stele with gold leaf dragonscript on it.  The walls of the main room are hung with massive tapestries.  A teleportation disc is set into the floor; it connects with the landing balcony floor down below.

Tower 2nd & 3rd (top) Floors

The 2nd floor contains two tall bronze lanterns on 15-foot tall stands flanking a teleportation disc set in the stone floor.  There is also a huge carpet.

The Roof is open to the sky except for four stone arches meeting above the center.  There is a teleportation disc connecting to the 2nd floor and a huge black ancestor stele (40' wide by 60' high).  the stele has lines of dragonscript in gold leaf.  On the floor in front of the stele are several huge candles.

It's fairly simple, but with lots of room (literally) to add what ever you need for an adventure.

7 RPGs, My 2 Cents

Okay, so I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.  Mine was nice and I got snow today!  Currently there is a theme bouncing around various sits about posting seven RPGs you've played and seven you've run.  So, here are mine, listed roughly in chronological order:

Seven RPGs Played

1. Chivalry & Sorcery: introduced to the entire concept of RPGs with this game in boarding school in 1977-1978 by a fascinating fellow called Gib; for a hard-core historical wargamer only interested in "serious" games, this was like some psychedelic, mind-altering drug--and I was hooked immediately and forever.
2. AD&D (1E): in college I finally found some gamers; I ran a C&S game and played in George's AD&D game with the monk Cressa (still one of my favorite characters of all time); bought a lot of the AD&D books to expand my knowledge of RPGs but found it awkward and clunky.
3. AD&D (2E): played in an interesting high-level campaign for a while with my buddy Rob in England; played a monk again, but didn't like the 2E rules; didn't buy any of the books
4. D&D 3E: joined a campaign a couple years ago run by my buddy Steve; a high-level game so I jumped in with a 14th level cleric; between this game and Rob's I've decided that I don't want to jump into high-level games anymore; the 3.5 rules are good, but very rules heavy--playing a spell caster is a pain, what with choosing spells all the darn time.
5. Castles & Crusades: an on again/off again campaign by my buddy Kaiser; we're not sure what's going on but we're constantly running into some sort of situation; C&C is simpler than 3E/Pathfinder but not simple enough for a really clean break from them
6. Mutants & Masterminds: my buddy Dan started a game for us; cool campaign concept of all "mutants" being sent to a new quarantine city, and then of course the real trouble starts; lots of interesting plot lines going on; M&M very complicated, too much math; also, seems like I'm the only one in our group who doesn't actually like the superhero genre.
7. Old School Hack: my buddy Mike has run a couple games for us now and it's proving again to be a really innovative set of rules.

Seven RPGs Run

1. Chivalry & Sorcery: when my first DM transferred to another school I was the only one with the rules and desire to DM; I quickly whipped up a simple campaign world and started a game based on the party coming into possession of a large crystal which was to be part of the villain's magical superweapon.
2.  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (in a homebrew setting): I came across this game and was intrigued by ideas for mutant animals as player races, but didn't care for the rest of it; I tossed together a near-future setting in Neo Tokyo and ran my group into a maze of X-Files wierdness with cultists, aliens, mobsters, and a secret army of mecha.
3. Paranoia: I picked this up with some trepidation, never having seen a good humorous game before, but immediately saw the potential; I've run several one-shot or short-run games for various groups; I love this game; still have the original boxed version.
4. Big Eyes, Small Mouth d20: I was looking for a new set of rules, just having been burned buying the D&D 3.0 books about three weeks before 3.5 came out (which I refused to buy); very cool mix of D&D 3E and point-buy based Big Eyes, Small Mouth; made up a set of classes based on the "jobs" in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance which I was playing at the time and repopulated my old C&S game map with Final Fantasy elements.
5. Big Eyes, Small Mouth 3E: I pre-ordered this based on my experiences with BESM d20 and reviews of earlier editions, and the publisher went bankrupt; luckily it got published; again made up a set of classes based on the "jobs" in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and re-launched my campaign; very simple rules, but suffers from lack of source books to save DMs time designing everything (at least for fantasy campaigns).
6. Pathfinder: Looking for something d20 with the support of D&D (but still bitter about my 3.0 experience) I finally bought Paizo's offering; love this game and using it for my current game in the Shackled City adventure path, but it's very rules heavy.
7. Old School Hack: randomly came across this game while looking for gaming stuff and was immediately impressed; an entire game, including game aids, in 28 pages; it's the feel of old school D&D but with "modern technology" from D&D 4E and the talented author; have turned my new group onto it and will be running short (3-4 hour) scenarios with it.

BESM Again! WoW Style Moonkin

Okay, so those of you who've played D&D/Pathfinder probably know about the creature called the owlbear.  The creative people at Blizzard took this creature and bumped it up a notch to a semi-intelligent species, calling it the Moonkin.  An intelligent "monster" or even a semi-intelligent one is much more interesting that one of mere animal intelligence.  They can have more complex motives.  The players can communicate with them, negotiate with them, befriend them, etc.

When I started my BESM 3rd Edition campaign I was still playing World of Warcraft.  I rather liked the Moonkin--especially when my Tauren druid finally gained the ability to shapechange into one.  So I made up some Moonkin using BESM for my campaign.  There are two types, the common Moonkin and the druids who guide them.  Note that the druid can cast spells using the "Power Flux (Minor--Wood)" attribute.  This allows access to the list of Wood element spells which I designed.  I'll be posting my elemental spell lists by and by to help out the five or so other people out there still playing BESM.  One thing that should be clear even from these two examples is that while you can probably design anything with BESM, you will still need to put in the design work (unless you can find a friendly blogger dude who has already done it for you).

Moonkin (common) [270 CP]
Body    10                            [100]
Mind      3                            [30]
Soul       6                            [60]

ACV          6 (10 with claws)
DCV          6 (10 with claws)
DamMult    6
HP         110 (shock 32)
EP           45

Attributes:
    Armour 5                                                          [10]    10 armor
    Combat Technique (Brutal 1, Hardboiled 2)        [6]
    Features                                                             [4]    antlers, talons, feathers, beak
    Melee Attack (Unarmed) 4                              [12]
    Melee Defense (Unarmed) 4                            [12]
    Superstrength 1                                                 [8]
    Tough 6                                                           [12]    +30 HP
    Weapon (Claw) 4                                             [8]
        Muscle [1]
        Incapacitating [1] Body save vs. 9 or stunned 1 round

    Area Knowledge 3                                          [3]
    Wilderness Survival 3                                       [6]

    Awkward Size 1                                             [-4]
    Impaired Manipulation                                    [-3]
    Impaired Speech                                            [-6]


Moonkin (druid) [270 CP]
Body    9                            [90]
Mind    3                            [30]
Soul     7                            [70]

ACV           6 (9 with claws)
DCV           6 (9 with claws)
DamMult     6
HP            95 (shock 24)
EP            60

Attributes:
    Armour 5                                                     [10]    10 armor
    Combat Technique (Brutal 1, Hardboiled 1)    [4]
    Energy Bonus 2                                             [2]    +10 EP
    Features                                                        [4]    antlers, talons, feathers, beak
    Melee Attack (Unarmed) 3                            [9]
    Melee Defense (Unarmed) 3                          [9]
Power Flux (Minor--Wood)                              [5]
    Superstrength 1                                             [8]
    Tough 3                                                        [6]    +15 HP
    Weapon (Claw) 4                                         [8]
        Muscle [1]
        Incapacitating [1]   Body save vs. 9 or stunned 1 round

    Area Knowledge 2                                      [2]
    Occult 2                                                      [6]
    Wilderness Survival 3                                   [6]

    Awkward Size 1                                        [-4]
    Impaired Manipulation                               [-3]
    Impaired Speech                                       [-6]

BESM White Monk

Okay, so what the heck, I guess if I'm posting the chakra jutsus for the White Monk class I should put the class itself out there too.  As with all my BESM classes, it's built with 40 character points (CP) at the starting Novice level.

White Monk

    The White Monk comes from the Bangaa culture.  Few non-Bangaa are allowed to study at a White Monk Dojo.  The Bangaa religious tradition has only White Monks, Templars (a type of Paladin), and Bishops (White Mage).  To become a Templar or Bishop, one must first become a White Monk and then prove oneself worthy of the honor.  The White Monks use a unique class of fist weapons, from some like hardened gloves up to gauntlets with short blades or spikes.

Novice Kit [40 CP]

Attributes:
    Armour 1 [2 CP]
    Combat Techniques (Brutal, Critical Strike, Deflection, Hardboiled,
        Lethal Blow) [10 CP]
    Divine Relationship, Level 1 [2 CP]
    Energy Bonus, Level 1 [2 CP]
    Environmental Influence (Light), Level 1 [2 CP]
    Healing, Level 1 [4 CP]
    Heightened Awareness, Level 1 [2 CP]
    Massive Damage (Focused—Unarmed), Level 1 [4 CP]
    Melee Attack (unarmed), Level 1 [3 CP]
    Melee Defense (unarmed), Level 1 [3 CP]
    Organizational Ties, Level 1 [2 CP]
    Tough, Level 1 [2 CP]

Skills:
    Acrobatics, Level 1 [2 CP]
    Controlled Breathing, Level 1 [1 CP]
    Occult, Level 1 [3 CP]

Defects:
    Special Requirement (Faith) [-4 CP]

Chakra Jutsu, for my BESM White Monk class

Okay, so today I'm offering some more cool stuff for the five other people on the planet still playing Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM).  My last campaign world (may it rest in peace) ripped off a lot of stuff from the Final Fantasy series of video games--mostly from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  One class I was particularly interested in was the White Monk, which is a monk with cool fist weapons and some chakra energy abilities.  So, I put together a set of chakra abilities for my White Monks.  They also had some stuff stolen from the paladins, since I saw them as a sort of martial arts paladin.

Chakra Jutsu

    The White Monks have developed many techniques, called jutsu, which allow them to concentrate their innate chakra energy and then channel it.  To use a jutsu, a monk assumes the special summoning posture and focuses the required chakra energy (Activation -2: takes 1 round).  Once the jutsu is activated it will remain powered for use for one minute (Duration +3).  However, after the duration is passed, the chakra energy will be expended (Depete 1: -10 EP).

Chakra Sight
    Allows the monk to use melee, unarmed, and ranged attacks and defenses even when totally unable to see. (Combat Techniques: Blind Fighting and Blind Shooting).

Chakra Power
    The monks attacks are boosted with chakra energy, doing more damage (+2 to damage multiplier).

Chakra Strike
    The monk adds chakra energy to hit vital points (Critical Strike 1; critical damage is x3)

Chakra Shield
    Chakra energy is channeled to form a spherical energy shield around the monk, and anyone holding or being held by the channeler.  (Force Field 2; Armor +8; 5 times per day)

Chakra Immunity
    Chakra energy shields the monk from attack by elemental or divine forces. (Resistance 2; +2 to resist attacks by a specified element)

Chakra Quake
    The monk punches the ground (or any hard surface), sending a shock wave against a target. (Quake effect added to normal punch damage; target need Body save vs. 15 or knocked down and stunned)

BESM 40K! White Witch Sister

Okay, so I've decided that BESM 3rd Edition isn't dead 'til I say it is.  So I thought I'd follow up on my early posting on the blog about the Valkyrie sister with an alternate class for my version of the Warhammer 40,000 Sisters of Battle called the White Witch.

The White Witch is the Sisters' counterpart to the Psyker types.  The source of the Witch's power is their inner divine spirit and it is usually manifested as arcane powers which include healing, a force field, exorcism of demons, a sixth sense, and a spiritual aura.  Few indeed have the innate ability to connect with these powers.  However, this connection to the divine comes with a price: the connection remains open even in dreams, which the Witch cannot control.  In battle the White Witch wears the standard Sisters light power armor and fights with a force mace and bolt pistol.

Cost = 218 CP (147 without equipment)

ACV = 5 (6 with Power Mace)
DCV = 5 (6 with Power Mace)
HP =  60 (shock =12; +22 in armor)
EP = 70

Stat Modifiers:
Body:    -            (Body = 4)                    -
Mind:    -            (Mind = 4)                    -
Soul:    +4            (Soul = 8)                    +40

Attributes                              Notes                                                         CP
Attack Combat Mastery 1    +1 to ACV on all attacks                            +10
Aura of Inspiration 2             comrades get +2 on will saves                      +4
Defense Combat Mastery 1   +1 to DCV vs. all attacks                          +10
Divine Relationship 2                                                                                +4
Energy Bonus 2                    +10 EP                                                        +4
Exorcism 4                             +4 to Exorcism rolls                                   +8
Force Field 6                        (see Holy Shield spell description below)    +14
Healing 3                              Heal 30 HP                                                +12
Melee Attack 1                   +1 to Power Mace attacks                             +3
Melee Defense 1                 +1 defending with Power Mace                      +3       
Mind Shield 2                     +4 to mental/psychic defense rolls                   +8
Organizational Ties 2           Member of a Sororitas Order                         +4
Sixth Sense 2                      +4 to rolls to sense Chaos energy nearby        +8
Telepathy 1                          Minor: only with other Sisters                        +2

Skills:
Interrogation 1                                                                                         +2
Languages 2                                                                                            +4
Occult 4                                                                                                  +8

Disadvantages:
Marked 2                           Full-body Sororitas cult tattoos                      -2
Recurring Nightmares          Frequent, moderate effect on lifestyle             -4

Equipment:
Power Armor                                                                                       +56 CP
Bolt Pistol                                                                                              +5
Force Mace                                                                                         +10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sororitas Light Power Armor (56 CP)
Armor 9                 18 pts. armor                                                           +18 CP
Cbt. Tech. (Far Shot, Hardboiled 1)                                                         +2
Features (radio)                                                                                       +2
Heightened Senses (vision)    telescopic viewer                                         +2
Special Defense (flare) 1    +6 to resist flare blinding                                 +2
Special Defense (freezing) 2    immune to freezing cold                             +4
Special Defense (lack of air) 2    has own air supply                                 +4
Special Defense (low press.) 2    pressurized against vacuum                    +4
Special Defense (high press.) 2    pressurized                                           +4
Special Defense (overheating) 1insulated; only suffer -1EP per day           +2
Special Defense (toxins) 2    pressurized; outside contaminants blocked    +4       
Superstrength 1            carry 1 ton; damage multiplier +1                         +8

Holy Shield (force field spell; 14 CP)
Force Field 6    (24 pts. armor)                                                                18 CP
Blocks Incorporeal                                                                                  +1
Blocks Teleport                                                                                       +1
Regenerating                                                                                           +1
Concentration (slight concentration required)                                            -1
Detectable                                                                                               -3
Deplete (-1 EP per minute to maintain)                                                    -3

Force Mace (10 CP)
Weapon 4                                                                                             +8 CP
Incapacitating 2 (KO'd if not make Body vs 11)                                     +2
Muscle (Superstrength bonuses allowed)                                                +1
Penetrating 6 (ignores 24 pts of Armor)                                                  +6
Piercing 3 (ignores 24 pts of Force Fields)                                              +3

BESM, The Game With No Class

Okay, so I've probably let slip that I have a fondness for BESM 3rd Edition and, to a lesser extent. BESM d20.  It really is a nice rules-light system...well the rules of play are simple but the design work can be work.  But as I've mentioned before it needs campaign sourcebooks, bestiaries, detailed equipment lists, etc.  Now, when I started my last fantasy campaign using BESM 3rd I had just been playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Gameboy Advance (yes, it was that long ago) and I really liked the classes and races.  I'd never really been exposed to the Final Fantasy series, since I really don't play console video games (the controllers are too fiddly for me), so the content was quite fresh to me.

So, I decided to freshen up my fantasy game by combining my favorite D&D classes with some jobs taken from the Final Fantasy line.  In addition I added a couple of my own.  For each class (job) I made up a template of attributes.  I deliberately kept all class templates at a cost of 40 Character Points (CP) so that players would not be using cost a a factor in choosing a template.  I selected 40 CP because I planned to start characters with 180 to 190 CP.  Thus a PC with human average stats of 4 Body, 4 Mind, and 4 Soul plus a template would cost 160 CP, leaving 20 to 30 CP for buying skills, equipment, etc.  The final 18 classes were:

• Archer/Musketeer [a ranged attack type fighter with bow, musket, or crossbow]
• Black Mage [an elemental magic wizard, starting with meta/lightning, water/ice, and fire]
• (Clockwork Knight)* [pilots a small mechanical "power suit"]
• Dancer [a magical dancer, spy, thief, lover, and assassin]
• (Dark Rose)* [gothic lolita badgirl with magic, daggers, a whip, bat wings, and dark attitude]
• (Dragon Priest)* [follower of the divine dragon gods, their own race matters not]
• Dragoon [an acrobatic lance fighter specializing in fighting dragons]
• Kensai [a melee attack master]
• (Ninja)* [a thief/assassin/spy with acrobatics and illusion magic]
• Paladin
• Red Mage [a light melee fighter with one school of elemental magic and a bit of holy healing]
• (Shadow Knight)* [dark counterpart to the Paladin, the shadow of evil is strong with this one]
• (Shadow Mage)* [dark counterpart to the White Mage; a wielder of unholy shadow magic]
• Summoner [summons and commands creatures from other dimensions, or this one]
• Thief
• Valkyrie [the female-only counterpart to the paladin]
• White Mage [a cleric of the Light, bringing the holy light to push back the shadow]
• White Monk [martial arts meets the power of the Light; a monk-paladin]

    *NPC classes

Magic Item Creation for BESM 3rd Edition

Okay, so I have posted some information previously on BESM but I probably haven't fully bared my soul on how much I like this particular system.  Now, I generally have a fascination with deep, rules-heavy systems such as D&D 3rd Edition and Pathfinder.  (I attribute this to the Lawful side of my alignment.)  However I find that play with rules light systems runs much faster and with more roleplay input by both players and GMs.  I attribute this "better" play to the theory that the less time you have to spend at the table digging through rules and re-checking character sheets the more energy you can put into the creative aspects of play.  I find this is particularly true of combat situations, where ideally the action at the table will be as fast and furious as in an action movie.

BESM 3rd Edition suffers, however, from the fact that it is a toolbox of the core rules with only very basic information on NPCs, world settings, equipment, etc.  Personally I find this scarcity of examples to be a serious barrier to running the types of games I want to use it for because so much has to be designed from scratch.  The main type of game I'd like to use BESM for is a swords-and-sorcery type of fantasy campaign.  But there is pretty much nothing in the actual book for this other than an equipment list and one or two NPC/critter examples.

One particular area is magic item creation.  My first fantasy rules set as the old Chivalry and Sorcery (C&S) by Fantasy Games Unlimited.  Really the best part of the rules, far and away, was the magic item creation rules.  It was deep, complex, and very flavorful (yes, we're back to "I like rules-heavy systems because I'm Lawful aligned").  So I want any game I play to have a reasonably flavorful magic item creation process which actually affects play.  I don't want something where you spend X amount of gold pieces and experience points or you spend X amount of CP build points.  I want character to seek out exotic components, go through rituals, etc. in game time.

This led me to come up with a simple set of magic item creation rules for BESM using ideas from the old C&S.  It is based on an attribute called Enchant which is a variation on the Transmutation attribute.  Note that Enchant contains important specifics regarding backlash on failure and a delay to the enchantment taking full effect.

Enchantment Magic (for BESM 3rd Edition)

Enchant (4 CP)
Transmutation - Unlimited 1                                                           12 CP
Unique Attribute (extendable beyond 1 minute duration)                1
Unique Attribute (only transmutes for item enchants)                     1
Activation -2                                                                                    -2
Backlash -2 (if fail by 4 or more; see below for modifiers)             -2
Concentration -6 (requires full concentration)                               -6
Delay -2 (takes 2-12 hours to take effect)                                      -2

- Soul is the Relevant Stat for using Enchant

- The caster may enhance chance of  casting and Enchant by meditation, fasting, chanting, ritual dancing or other types of preparation to gain the a temporary casting modifier (see below).  The  If the casting is not successful the preparation bonus is lost and must be started all over again.
+1    1 hour
+2    2 hours
+3    4 hours
+4    8 hours
+5    12 hours
+6    1 day
+7    2 days
+8    4 days
+9    7 days
+10    14 days

- Enchanting involves altering the basic magical nature of the material being enchanted.  Some materials are naturally enchanted and thus easier to work with:

Arcane Materials (+1 to base difficulty to enchant)
 - Body parts from dragons, elementals, fey, magical beasts, and outsiders
 - Special magical materials, such as magicite and auracite
Challenging Materials (+3 to base difficulty to enchant)
- Body parts from aberrations, oozes, shapechangers, and greater undead
- Rare or precious materials, such as gems, gold, purest steel.

Common Materials (+6 to base difficulty to enchant)
- Body parts from animals, beasts, giants, humanoids, monstrous humanoids, plants, and vermin
- Ordinary materials, such as stone, water, dirt, wood, iron

- A roll is required to cast an enchantment:

(Base difficulty 12) + (material difficulty modifier) vs. 2d6 + (Soul stat) + (levels of Enchant attribute taken) + (enhancement modifier)

- If an enchantment attempt results in a Backlash then the caster is drained of all EP and the material loses one level of enchantment (if it has any yet).

- The number of separate materials and number of successful Enchant casts per material needed to make a magic item is equal to the CP of the item (prior to halving the final value for it being an item).  For instance an enchantment to give a sword a +1 to hit would require enchanting "Melee Attack (sword) 1" into it, costing 3 CP.  This would require three separate materials and three successful Enchant casts on each material, for a total of nine successful Enchants.

- Enchant can be cast in reverse, so to speak, in order to de-Enchant an enchanted item.

My BESM d20 version of the Final Fantasy Dancer class

 Okay, so in an earlier post I threatened to post some of the character classes I built for my BESM d20 game.  Here is the Dancer, a Final Fantasy class which doesn't have a direct counterpart in D&D/Pathfinder.  Note that my classes not only have a Hit Die but also a Mana Die to determine how many mana points you get per level; for the Dancer the Mana Die gets a bonus at each level equal to the dancer's Charisma bonus.

Dancer (BESM/FF)

    The Dancer is an unusual type of mage who creates magical effects with her (only females may become Dancers) special dancing forms.  The complex, fascinating dance movements generate magical power which the performer can use to affect her audience.  With their deftness, grace, charm, and balance, Dancers also make great spies.

Abilities: Dexterity and Charisma are important for the Dancer.
Alignment: any
Hit Die: d6
Mana Die: d8
Skill Points: (8 + Int bonus) x 4
Skill Points at new level: 8 + Int bonus
Class Skills: Balance, Diplomacy, Disguise, Dive, Escape Artist, Gather Info, Jump, Knowledge (Cultural Arts), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Pick Pocket, Seduction, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Speak Languages, Tumble; Special Ranged Attack, Ranged Defense, Melee Defense, Thrown Weapons, Unarmed Attack, Unarmed Defense
.
                               Fort     Ref    Will
Level    BAB          Save    Save    Save    Special                                                              
1    +0                        +2    +2    +0          Flunkies 1; Art of Distraction 1
2    +1                        +3    +3    +0          Heart magic level (MKL) 1*
13    +1                      +3    +3    +1          Divine Relationship 1; +1 Character Point (CP)
4    +2                       +4    +4    +1          Special Attack 1**
5    +2                        +4    +4    +1          Special Movement (Cat-like)
6    +3                       +5    +5    +2          Heart MKL 2
7    +3                       +5    +5    +2          Art of Distraction 2; Aura of Command 1; +1 CP
8    +4                       +6    +6    +2          Rejuvenation 1; Jumping 1
9    +4                       +6    +6    +3          Art of Distraction 3; +1 CP
10    +5                      +7    +7    +3         Special Attack 2
11    +5                      +7    +7    +3         Special Movement (Light-footed)
12    +6/+1                +8    +8    +4          Heart MKL 3
13    +6/+1                +8    +8    +4         Art of Distraction 4, +1 CP
14    +7/+2                +9    +9    +4         Special Attack 3
15    +7/+2                +9    +9    +5         Mana Bonus +10; +1 CP
16    +8/+3              +10    +10    +5        Special Movement (Wall-bouncing); +1 CP
17    +8/+3              +10    +10    +5        Art of Distraction 5; +1 CP
18    +9/+4              +11    +11    +6        Mind Control (6 pts.) 1, Aura of Command 2
19    +9/+4              +11    +11    +6        Special Attack 4; +1 CP
20    +10/+5            +12    +12    +6         Speed 1; +1 CP


* Here, Heart is a class of magic spells I built with BESM which affect mental/emotional states.  For D&D/Pathfinder you could replace this with a spell-casting level but of only Enchantment spells or (better yet) even make up a custom Dancer spell list.
**consult with DM about developing your character's customized Special Attack.

Using BESM d20 to Build Pathfinder/3.x Classes

Okay, so I've noted earlier that in Pathfinder/3.x, the creation of new character classes is as much art as science.  The existing rules out there don't really provide a proper toolkit for building new classes from scratch.  Given the wide variety of class level abilities which could be included, that is not too surprising.  However, Big Eyes, Small Mouth d20 (BESM d20) had a lot of basic class elements broken down by point values, to which the class abilities could be added with the usual BESM point-buy rules.  With a bit of tinkering, I came up with this Listing of Points for Building Classes by Point Value

Per each +1 to Base Attack Bonus (BAB): +3 CP
    Fighter-type progression (+1 to +20/15/10/5) = 150 CP
    Cleric-type progression (+0 to +15/10/5) = 60 CP
    Wizard-type progression (+0 to +10/5) = 45 CP

Per each +1 to Fort, Ref, or Wil save: +1 CP
    - for a 0 to +6 save progression = 6 CP
    - for a +2 to +12 save progression = 12 CP

Skill gain of:
    2 + Int/level            0.5 per level              = 10 CP
    3 + Int/level            0.75 per level            = 15 CP
    4 + Int/level            1 per level                 = 20 CP
    5 + Int/level            1.25 per level            = 25 CP
    6 + Int/level            1.50 per level            = 30 CP
    7 + Int/level            1.75 per level            = 35 CP
    8 + Int/level            2 per level                 = 40 CP

d4 Hit or Mana die per level             1 per level            = 20 CP
d6 Hit or Mana die per level          1.5 per level            = 30 CP
d8 Hit or Mana die per level             2 per level            = 40 CP
d10 Hit or Mana die per level        2.5 per level            = 50 CP
d12 Hit or Mana die per level           3 per level            = 60 CP

Per +1 of attribute score = 2 CP

Per Feat gained = 3 CP

     My BESM d20 (and later BESM 3rd Edition) campaign used mainly classes and races drawn from Final Fantasy, particularly Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  So I used these two editions of BESM to build a big set of classes.  The BESM d20 classes were:
Black Mage
Blue Mage
Clockwork Knight
Covener (prestige class)
Dancer
Dark Mage
Dragoon
Hunter
Paladin
Red Mage
Scarlet Paladin
Shadow Knight
Shaman
Valkyrie
White Mage
White Monk

Later on I'll post a couple to show what these classes look like.

BESM 40K! An Alternate Approach to a Warhammer 40K RPG

     Okay, so a few years ago I pre-ordered Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM) 3rd Edition from Guardians of Order.  Almost immediately after that GoO announced that it was going bankrupt (totally a coincidence?).  Happily, the books were already ordered from the printers and White Wolf took over the rights.  After receiving both the printed and pdf versions I happily dived in and began enjoying this rather nice rules-light system.  The only problem I have with it is that it is a point-buy toolbox.  That's fine if you're running a game in a relatively modern period, but for other periods it's time to hit the design studio--hard.
     Now, I wanted to run some Warhammer 40,000 scenarios for my gamers but didn't like what I'd seen from Games Workshop (plus their reputation for over-priced merchandise).  So, I whipped out BESM and started designing away.  I decided that I would add a few of my own ideas to the basic WH40K world.  It would be "BESM 40K" instead.  Below is a class template for the Sisters of Battle Valkyrie (cool armored battle chicks with jump packs to enable maximum mayhem):

BESM40K Valkyrie Sister (Adeptes Sororitas)

Cost = 182 CP (106 without equipment)

ACV = 6 (7 ranged)
DCV = 6 (7 vs ranged)
HP =  55 (shock = 11; 21 in armor)
EP = 65

Stat Modifiers:
Body:    +1            (Body = 5)                                                              +10
Mind:    -            (Mind = 4)                                                                     -
Soul:    +2            (Soul = 6)                                                                  +20

Attributes                                 Notes                                                      CP
Attack Combat Mastery 1       +1 to ACV on all attacks                        +10
Aura of Inspiration 1                comrades get +1 on will saves                  +2
Combat Technique 2                Diving Attack, Two Weapons                   +4
Defense Combat Mastery 1    +1 to DCV vs. all attacks                         +10
Divine Relationship 2                                                                                +4
Energy Bonus 3                      +15 EP                                                      +6
Exorcism 2                             +2 to Exorcism rolls                                    +4
Healing 1                                 Heal 10 HP                                               +4
Ranged Attack (pistol) 3          +3 to all ranged attacks                              +9
Ranged Defense 3                   +3 to defense rolls vs. ranged                     +9
Massive Damage (pistols) 1    +1 damage multiplier with handgun shots     +4
Melee Attack (chainsword) 3    +3 to chainsword attacks                          +9
Melee Defense (chainsword) 3   +3 defending with chainsword                  +9
Mind Shield 2                          +2 to mental/psychic defense rolls              +4
Organizational Ties 2               Member of a Valkyrie Order                        +4
Sixth Sense 2                          +2 to rolls to sense Chaos energy nearby    +4
Special Movement (cat-like)                                                                     +2
Special Movement (wall bounce)                                                              +2
Telepathy 1                            Minor: only with other Valkyries                 +2

Skills:
Acrobatics 4                                                                                           +8
Military Sciences 1                                                                                  +2
Occult 2                                                                                                  +4

Disadvantages:
Marked 2                              full-body Valkyrie cult tattoos                     -2
Recurring Nightmares            frequent, moderate effect on lifestyle           -4

Equipment:
Power Armor                       (Sororitas Light Power Armor)               +56 CP
Jump Pack                          (Jump 4/item; 100m jumps                        +4
Bolt Pistols (2)                                                                                    +10
Chainsword                                                                                         +6

BTW, if you're not familiar with the Sisters of Battle (Adeptes Sororitas) then just go to YouTube and search on "sisters of battle tribute" for some cool videos.