Old School Hack: In Your Face!

Okay, so Old School Hack doesn't have "critical hits" it has "Face Hits", which is a much more evocative term: you've been hit "in the face".  Now, a lot of games have tables for additional special effects after a character suffers a critical hit.  I thought a quick, simple table of that type for OSH would be fun.

Roll 1d12

• 1 -4 = Limp: For the next hour, your movement speed is half normal walking speed; no running or jumping allowed.
• 5 - 8 = Stunned: For the next three rounds, for all rolls, roll twice and take the worse result.
• 9 - 10 = Concussion: For the next hour, for all rolls, roll twice and take the worse result.
• 11 - 12 = Bleeding: You suffer a wound from bleeding each round until healed or bandaged.

Dungeony Door Rules for Old School Hack

One thing you "need" for a D&D sytle game, particularly if it will involve dungeons, is rules for doors and other obstacles which need bashing.  Below are some guidelines for that sort of thing for Old School Hack.  There are lots of kinds of doors, etc. but most doors cannot be significantly damaged by light weapons (wooden quarterstaff, dagger, etc.) or most stabby weapons (spear, arrow).  Just imagine trying to break through your front door by shooting arrows at it.  Therefore light and stabby weapons cannot be used on doors (unless, maybe, they're magic).  Directly applying Brawn works, but may take quite a bit of effort, measured here by how many successful checks you need to finally bash/bend/lift/bust the object in question.  Bashing with Brawn doesn't mean you totally destroy the object, just damage/unseat it enough to allow convenient passage.

• Ordinary Wooden Door: AC 8//1 HP//Brawn successes: 1
• Heavy Wooden Door: AC 8//2 HP//Brawn successes: 2
• Bronze Door: AC 12//3 HP//Brawn successes: 3
• Iron Door: AC 14//4 HP//Brawn successes: 4
• Mythril or Adamantite Door: AC 16//5 HP//Brawn successes: 5
• Bend Bars: AC 12//3 HP//Brawn successes: 1
• Lift Gates: AC 12//3 HP//Brawn successes: 2
• Bust Chains/Manacles : AC 12//3 HP//Brawn successes: 2

Neo School Hack - Charr (player race)

Here is the Charr (big horned cat people) race for Neo School Hack, as adapted from the Guild Wars 2 computer game.  According to the game: "The charr race was forged in the merciless crucible of war. It is all they know. War defines them, and their quest for dominion drives them ever onward. The weakling and the fool have no place among the charr. Victory is all that matters, and it must be achieved by any means and at any cost."  The Charr worship a fire god and are particularly fond of setting things on fire.  They are also known for their use of a semi-magical rocket launcher called the Charzooka.

charr_berserker_by_unsmoking_cigarette (deviantart.com)

 Charr Racial Talents
Engineer-Alchemist (constant): You know how to make and use the famous charrzooka weapon of your people.  Crafting it and keeping it charged is part mundane craftsmanship and part alchemy. [Charrzooka (ranged, extra heavy); the charzooka is huge and counts as two heavy things.]

Charr Cannon by Kekai

Charr Battle Roar (encounter): Throwing back your horned head, you blast out the mighty roar of the Charr!  All enemies nearby must pass a Commitment save or cower for a round.

viktoria_glyphjaw____charr_mesmer____ash_legion_by_crmeyer (deviantart.com)

 Swiftpaws (constant): If empty-handed and not burdened with bulky gear, you may run on all fours like your savage ancestors.  You can run three times faster than two-legged humanoids.

spurting_charr_by_bloodhound_omega (deviantart.com)

Also, download a fun papercraft mini charr by Matt Duerst here.

Doing FFTA Jobs (Classes) Old School Hack Style

Okay, so having done the White Mage I'm ready to jump in and OSH-erize more job classes and races from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.  I liked the game well enough to play (albeit rather repetitive after a while), but as an RPG GM I really liked the non-D&D races and the jobs/classes.  I actually ran a game using the Big Eyes, Small Mouth rules for a while with race and class templates built based on FFTA.

In that game I had the races and classes separate so the players could mix and match.  But FFTA has most of its jobs race-specific, rather like how the Old School Hack and the original D&D had race-as-class.  So I have to decide whether  or not to go with the set race/job combos as presented in FFTA.  The set combos are true to the original and in keeping with OD&D.

However, FFTA was able to code in racial bonuses/handicaps by varying factors for gains in attack, defense, hit points, etc.  Those factors were very fine grained.  For instance a human Black Mage gained 4.4 Magic Points per level, while the Nu Mou version gained 5.4 points per level.   But OSH is specifically designed to be "low rez" rather than fine grained.  So at a minimum I would have to decide how to design the multi-racial classes: Thief, Archer, Black Mage, Illusionist, Time Mage, and White Mage (happily, only 6 out of 35 jobs).  Well, actually, I'm not planning to do every single one of the those jobs.  There are a couple which I just plain don't like or don't care enough to work on and a couple which seem too similar to bother with.

But I figure that means I have to either:
1.  rework the job charts so that all jobs are uni-racial (all jobs are race-as-class);
2. have no racial modifiers of any kind for any job (so there's no effect in multi-racials);
3. or separate race and class, as in later D&D and Pathfinder.

With option 1, I have to take a hammer to the existing job tree and make quite a few arbitrary decisions on which race is the only one to get a particular multi, such as White Mage.  There is also the question of what to do with the jobs which use those as pre-requisites which would be "orphaned".  For instance, the human Black Mage leads later to the human-only Blue Mage and the nu mou Black Mage leads to the nu mou-only Alchemist.  I really would have to totally gut the entire job chart.  That sounds like a lot of work for little gain.

With option 2, things are a lot easier.  Each can be built without any worry about the races.  But in FFTA the races did make a difference--they were supposed to make a difference so that choosing a particular race/job combo mattered tactically in game play.  Then again, if the races don't have any features which influence the class then you avoid power-gaming.  People won't make selections based on which one provides the most bonuses to a class "build".  I like that idea.

Finally, with option 3, I'm on familiar ground--split class and race as in Pathfinder, etc.  This option allows me to make separate races which, this being OSH, would also be usable outside of "Final Fantasy School Hack".

After some reflection I've decided to go with option 3.  I prefer to give players a wide range of options, because to me that is a big part of what makes RPGs fun, and so race-as-class is out.  However, to keep the overall task reasonable I will convert only my favorites from the game rather than trying to do all of them.  For the races I will do just the viera and nu mou.  For the jobs I will do just the White Mage (done), Black Mage, Red Mage, White Monk, Dragoon, Templar, and maybe Sage.

Merry Christmas!

Okay so since today is actually Christmas I want to wish you all a great day and offer my best wishes for the entire holiday season.  I know not everyone celebrates Christmas but whatever you're celebrating I hope it's great for you!

Neo School Hack: Fire Dragons (Scarlet Dragons)

...and now the last of my five elemental-based dragons for Neo School Hack/Old School Hack, the fire dragons.

• Quenched/innate, constant: fire dragons are vulnerable to elemental water and take an extra wound from this type of magic
• Saurian Soaring/innate, constant: dragons have large, powerful wings which give them the power of flight.
• Flame Doom/innate, focus, encounter: a flame breath weapon; covers a 45 degree cone out to 60 feet; damage of 4 wounds, halved if make a Daring save; victims and objects catch fire and take an extra wound of damage the next round unless the flames are quenched immediately

• Foul Fumes/encounter: taking a deep breath, the dragon blows out a huge cloud of thick sulphurous smoke, which spreads out to a radius of 100 feet; vision is obstructed anyone but fire creatures in the cloud must make a Brawn save each round or be incapacitated with coughing and watering eyes; it remains for 5 minutes or one action scene
• Lava Field/encounter: placing one claw on the ground, you create a sheet of steaming lava out to a 100 foot radius; creatures not immune to fire or wearing heavy footwear must make a Cunning save each round they are on the field or suffer 1 wound; it remains for 5 minutes or one action scene
• Wall of Fire/focus, encounter: with a bit of concentration, you create a wall of fire up to 600 square feet in height and length and 6 inches in thickness; it remains for 10 minutes or one action scene; anyone touching the fire must pass a Daring save or take 1 wound of damage; it remains for 5 minutes or one action scene
• Spark Blast/focus, encounter: the dragon throws out a blast of hot sparks in a 30 foot radius; all in that area must pass a Daring save or suffer 2 wounds
• Furnace Aura/encounter: the dragon generates a blast of furnace-like heat in a 30 foot radius; creatures not immune to fire must pass a Brawn save each round in the aura or stand dizzy ; it remains for 5 minutes or one action scene
• Scaly Sorcery: the dragon has studied a wizard grimoire and can cast one spell from it; dragons only become fascinated with one grimoire and will learn only spells from that one tome; this talent may be taken once for every spell in that grimoire.

Neo School Hack: Giants

Okay, so I was looking at the upcoming adventure path from Paizo for Pathfinder and saw that it was all about giants.  I've only used giants once in a game and the players wiped them out so handily with their bows that I never went back.  But giants are one of those classic fantasy monters which one expects in a D&D type game.  So here are the basics from D&D done up in Old School Hack style. (Most of the magical talents are borrowed from the dragons I did earlier.)

Hill Giant
AC 12
HP 10
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Greatclub (heavy) 2 wounds

Stone Giant
AC 14
HP 12
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Greatclub (very heavy) 2 wounds

Frost Giant
AC 14
HP 14
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Greataxe (very heavy) 2 wounds
Elemental Immunity (ice)/constant
Black Ice/encounter: placing one hand on the ground, you create a sheet of slick ice out to a 60 foot radius; creatures without claws or other serious form of traction must make a Cunning save each round or slip and fall down, and another such save to stand back up if they do fall

Fire Giant
AC 15
HP 15
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Greatsword (very heavy) 2 wounds
Elemental Immunity (fire)/constant
Foul Fumes/encounter: taking a deep breath, the giant blows out a huge cloud of thick sulphurous smoke, which spreads out to a radius of 60 feet; vision is obstructed anyone but fire creatures in the cloud must make a Brawn save each round or be incapacitated with coughing and watering eyes
Hot Handed/focus: the giant can channel heat into a held rock, heating it to add 1 wound of damage when thrown

Cloud Giant
AC 15
HP 16
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Giant Morningstar (very heavy) 2 wounds
Light as a Feather/focus: cloud giants can make themselves as light as a cloud, allowing them to float downward gently or rise slowly in the air
Cloud Chill/encounter: magically create a dense cloud of cold fog out to a 100 foot radius from you which blocks sight for anyone but cloud giants and other elemental water creatures; it remains for 10 minutes or one action scene

Storm Giant
AC 16
HP 19
Attack: 2d10
Fist Smash or Stomp (heavy): 2 wounds
Thrown Rock: 1 wound
Greatsword (very heavy) 2 wounds
Giant Longbow (heavy) 2 wounds
Elemental Immunity (lightning)/constant
Forked Lightning/focus,encounter
- Blast of magical forked lightning strikes three targets in a 60 foot long, 45-degree cone, doing 2 wounds to each; a Daring save dodges 1 wound of damage.
Tornado/focus, rested
- Unleash a magical ocean tornado at a spot up to 90 feet away; raging wind and salt water toss everyone with in a 30 foot radius up 30 feet into the air and brutally buffet them; creatures take 3 wounds per round for two rounds, but a Brawn save each round will reduce the damage by 1 wound; objects in the tornado's radius also take similar damage but get no save; on the third round all creatures and objects in the tornado fall to the ground, suffering a further wound but get a Daring save to land safely.