The horrors...the horrors...

Well I finally got my "giant book" in the mail yesterday. After months of waiting and watching the mailbox, the Tome of Horrors has arrived. I got the Pathfinder version because I've been collecting the main books for that particular game. I've never played Swords & Wizardry. I'm sure it's cool and all, but I already have the original Monster Manual 1 and 2 and Fiend Folio. Besides that, I can always back fit any Pathfinder stats into an older school game if I need to.

Pepper is not impressed by the Tome of Horrors.

This book is huge. There are 799 pages including the open game content legal document in the back. And then there's about ten pages of ads in the back for both Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry products. I really don't mind the ads given the size of the rest of the book and the fact that about half of them feature art by Wayne Reynolds.
The first monster in the Pathfinder version of The Tome of Horrors is..The Tome of Horrors!
It is a chaotic evil construct worth 307,200 XP. An intelligent animated book that can fly, swallow victims whole and summon any monster within it's pages. It sounds kind of silly, but maybe just possible to use as a powerful arch enemy.

Bronson understands the scope and majesty of such a tome and is as enamoured with it as I.

With over 750 monsters there's enough to fill a solar system. Some of them are silly or redundant, but I like seeing the classics like the Forlarren and the Froghemoth. Plus there are several options for PC races.

I also bought the book as a collectible. I use to collect comic books, but in recent years I have tried to pick up various limited editions of games, especially Call of Cthulhu or older D&D stuff. Some for nostalgia some as investments.
Anybody else just buy stuff to collect? Sounds like an idea for future posts.


The horrors...the horrors...

 Over all I am very pleased and think it was worth the wait. This could make a lot of wandering monster tables!

Random Pulp Character Trait Tables

These tables are copied right out of the Danger Quest RPG, without the rules. I am just presenting the ideas to use as inspiration for a pulp game, or other genre with a little adaption. I personally would like to use these tables with either Spirit of the Century or the Mystery Men RPG. See the Land Of NOD blog for more information on the latter game.

The DM may allow the traits to give a bonus, a penalty or affect specific situations. They could be used as story hooks, plot ideas or even whole campaign themes in some cases.

Role two or three times on each table, writing the traits on scratch paper. Then choose one of the traits you rolled from each table. Use this combination of traits to inspire your character's background and description. This method allows for both randomisation and player choice.

Or just do whatever you want.

CHILDHOOD

01-04  Wild Child

05-09  Trained From Birth

10-14  End of Innocence

15-19  Life in the Circus

20-23  Book Worm

24-28  Wonder Kid

29-31  Animal Friend

32-34  Gadget Guy

35-37  Life at Sea

38-42  Kidnapped

43-45  Military Brat

46-49  World Traveler

50-53  Nose for Trouble

54-57  Golden Gloves

58-61  Drank a Lot of Milk

62-65  Wrong Side of the Tracks

66-69  Young Detective

70-73  Fish Out of Water

74-77  To The Manor Born

78-81  Daredevil

82-85  Cloistered Life

86-89  Eternal Oath

90-93  Mystical Child

94-97  Lost Love

98-00  Create Your Own

MOTIVATION

01-09  Avenger

10-15  Thrillseeker

16-23  Protector

24-32  On a Mission

33-36  Casanova

37-44  Hunter

45-49  Diplomat

50-53  Fame

54-60  Honor

61-64  Pacifist

65-70  Patriot

71-75  Good Thief

76-82  Mercenary

83-88  Explorer

89-95  Crimefighter

96-00  Something to Prove

SECRET

01-05  Alter Ego

06-10  Secret Quest

11-15  Adopted

16-20  Evil Twin

21-25  Criminal Record

26-30  Addiction

31-35  Hunted

36-40  Life Debt

41-45  Deal With the Devil

46-50  Blood Oath

51-55  Secret Love

56-60  Deadly Disease

61-65  Foreign/Alien Parents

66-70  Tormented

71-75  Shameful Memory

76-80  Flashbacks

81-85  Skeleton in the Closet

86-90  Exiled

91-95  Prophetic Birthmark

96-00  Create Your Own

WEAKNESS

01-02  Greed

03-04  Sap

05-06  Desperately In Love

07-08  Lecherous

09-10  Chip On Your Shoulder

11-16  Phobia

17-18  Scorned By Lover

19-22  Hatred

23-24  Physical Handicap

25-26  Curious

27-28  Cursed

29-30  Ball and Chain

31-32  Criminal Background

33-34  Uncouth

35-36  Practical Joker

37-38  Illiterate

39-40  Compulsive

41-43  Glory Hound

44-46  Honorable

47-48  Unusual Appearance

49-50  Berserk

51-53  Foolhardy

54-56  Shamed

57-59  By the Book

60-61  Wiseacre

62-64  Hot Headed

65-67  Blowhard

68-70  Goody-Goody

71-73  Rescuer

74-76  Arch Enemy

77-78  Prejudiced

79-80  Superstitious

81-82  Gullible

83-86  Hunted

87-88  High Profile

89-90  Family Reputation

91-92  Faint Hearted

93-94  Rum Head

95-96  Watched

97-98  Gambler

99-00  Stubborn

VOCATION

01-03  Star Athlete

04-06  Private Eye

07-09  Wealthy Dilettante

10-12  Ingenious Sleuth

13-15  Masked Vigilante

16-18  Romantic Swashbuckler

19-21  Ace Reporter

22-24  Honorable Martial Artist

25-26  Salty Sea Dog

27-30  Soldier of Fortune

31-33  Mysterious Spy

34-35  Exuberant Entertainer

36-38  Bold Explorer

39-40  Reformed Criminal

41-43  Wandering Gypsy

44-46  Modern Cowboy

47-49  Savvy Cabbie

50-53  Nutty Professor

54-56  Devastating Dame/Handsome Hunk

57-59  Two Fisted Scientist

60-62  Brilliant Inventor

63-65  Feisty Heroine/Gutsy Hero

66-68  Daredevil Flying Ace

69-71  Crusading G-Man

72-74  Honest Politician

75-77  Intrepid Attorney

78-80  Mystical Magician

81-83  Upstanding Citizen

84-85  Inspired Holy Man

86-88  Psychic Detective

89-91  Hopeless Playboy

92-93  Meddlesome Kid

94-96  Mental Master

97-98  Savage Wildman

99-00  Handy Mechanic

The Weird West Review!

First of all, I've been working twelve hour days and thus have fallen way behind on the September of Short Adventures challenge. I honestly don't know if I will be able to find the time to get back to it.
I don't want to just dump out crappy stuff. (Hopefully that hasn't been the case so far.)

Now to the good stuff.

Weird West is a small game with big potential. It is simple yet innovative and written straight to the point. It has to be. The rules are six pages long plus one page for the fighting chart.

Character creation is very easy. Assign four points between four attributes and choose a path. A path is basically a class and determines how the character's attributes will improve as they gain levels.
The paths are Adventurer, Gifted, Fighter and Magician.

The cool part is any of the character paths are also able to choose magic and weird abilities. The origin of these abilities are not defined in the rules themselves, so you could describe them as magic, psychic, weird science, exotic martial arts or whatever else you could imagine.

Fighting in the weird West is detailed in two pages. And that is just enough to explain initiative, typical combat options, defences, weapons and non-lethal combat.

The character's path determines how much maximum damage they could do with any weapon. For example, while an Adventurer could do 1D8 with a sword, a Magician could only do 1D4 with it.
I suppose this simulates combat training and it makes sense. It's balanced by the fact that the Magician gets a point for their Magic attribute and so can get those weird and magic abilities I mentioned earlier.
Pretty cool.

Dying! Your character may not be dying when they reach zero Stamina points. At that point you would roll a D6 and check a table to see whether they may be stunned, wounded to some degree or really kick the bucket.

Resolving non-combat actions is really easy. Notice a theme here?

Overall this game is very quick and fun to play. It would also be easy to add in stuff from other games or even adapt the genre to your own tastes.

For more information, please check out the Strange Magic blog.

[OSR Challenge Adventure #3] Desperate Measurements

Desperate Measurements
An adventure idea for the Weird West Roleplaying Game. See the Strange Magic blog for more information on this great game.
This is my attempt to write a mystery scenario. I apologize for not setting up a bunch of red herrings and plot twists, but hopefully it's enough to get started.

Get Ready: Things have settled down in Silver Gulch in the past year or so. But for a struggling undertaker, the good life can be bad for the death business.

Get Set: About a year ago people got so peaceable that the local undertaker was losing a lot of business. Deciding to take matters into his own hands he started setting up accidents, secretly goading men into duels with ugly rumors and occasionally poisoning folks. The undertaker is getting greedy. People start dropping like flies and the Sheriff is starting to smell low down dirty skunk, or some such wild west term.

Go!: Okay, this is where my idea gets sketchy. Sorry. Some clues:
1. The deceased mainly come from rich families who would spend the most on a fancy casket and funeral.
2. Physical evidence at the scene of the crime such as pinewood saw dust, a handkerchief reeking of formaldehyde or a particular brand of cigar butt stamped out.
3. The undertaker is known to be a high stakes gambler. It's rumored he owes some mighty dangerous people a heap of money.
4. The local doctor gets suspicious when he finds out the undertaker is ordering poisonous chemicals through the general store.
5. In his final act before trying to escape town, the undertaker is starting to kill anyone whom he thinks is romantic competition for the attentions of a local schoolmarm. If he realizes his crimes are close to being solved he will kidnap her and hit the trail. While twisting his pencil-thin black mustache.

Notable NPCs: Undertaker, sheriff, doctor, schoolmarm, townsfolk.

[OSR Challenge Adventure #2] The Sheriff of Naught in Ham

The Sheriff of Naught in Ham
A short low level adventure idea for AD&D or other fantasy game.


Get Ready:  Times are tough and the characters take a job in the vermin extermination industry. Little do the suspect they may be hunting someone's pets.


Get Set:What's an adventurer got to do to get a bowel of gruel around here? The adventurers are stopped on the road to the Hamlet of Ham by a man claiming to be the local sheriff. He tells them they must help them hunt down two bears before they will be allowed to enter the hamlet. The man is actually a poacher who wants the adventurers to do the dangerous work of killing someone's pets for their valuable skins. The two bears are actually pets of a local magic user.


Go!: Little clues may tip off the players about the poacher's scheme. He doesn't know anything about law. He seems a bit too adamant about not letting them go into the hamlet before the job is done. He will avoid other people on the road. When they get to the cave where the bears live, the bears are collared and chained to stakes in the rock. The poacher will make up some far out story about subduing them earlier that day. The bears are actually quite docile. The poacher will brag that they are cowed by his presence.
The bears are actually pets of a local magic user. Their collars give them an AC bonus making them hard to hit. If the PCs don't figure out the poacher is a fake and start attacking the bears, the magic user will arrive with a couple hirelings to feed the bears. (No, he's not feeding the hirelings to the bears.)
He will of course try to put a stop to the situation. The poacher will attempt to flee. If the characters stick around and don't put up a fight, the magic user will cast detect lies to figure out what's really going on. The magic user, in his wizardly wisdom, will forgive the characters but won't be very friendly with them in future encounters.


Notable NPCs: Fake sheriff/shady poacher, two semi-tame bears, a local magic user, two hirelings.

[OSR Challenge Adventure #1] Alice Down the Rat Hole

A September of Short Adventures at Asshat Paladins
Alice Down the Rat Hole
A short adventure idea for AD&D or other fantasy game.


Get Ready: Times are tough and the characters take a job in the food preparation industry. Little do they suspect they may be on someone else's menu.


Get Set: Debts need paid and stomachs need filled. Unfortunately there seems to be no oppurtunities at the moment for brave adventurers. So they take a job in a large kitchen that caters to the king/mayor/warlord/someone important.
A pack of wererats and their pet giant rats have been stealing food and local livestock.
The princess (or daughter of the important NPC), Alice, has fallen in love with one of the wererats in his human form. She doesn't know he's a wererat or that he's also courting other women in the city. Many other women.


Go!: The characters must find a way to warn the princess or her father of the danger and prevent the princess from being turned into a wererat. They must be delicate about this or they may be accused of actually helping the wererats. Or the princess could say that the characters are actually making it up to further some scheme. And of course if the characters cause too much of a stir they could lose their jobs and desperately needed income.


Notable NPCs: A King or Mayor, his daughter, a cook or two, some wererats, a wererat Don Juan, jealous women, giant rats.

PS: A very special thank you to Blogger for constantly screwing up the spacing on my posts. Thanks!