New Mutant Future Monster: Observer

Here's a new mysterious mutation for your Mutant Future adventures.

Observer

No. Enc.:  1d2 (1d3+1)

Alignment:  Neutral

Movement:  120' (40')

Armor Class:  5

Hit Dice:  8

Attacks:  1

Damage:  by weapon

Save:  L8

Morale:  9

Hoard Class:  III, IV, IX, XXI

XP:  4060

Observers are alien humanoids from some other strange dimension. They appear to be visiting Earth to perform scientific and behavioral experiments on any seemingly random various lifeform that may pique their interest.

Often they will simply appear via teleport and silently watch events unfolding before them.

At other times they will use their empathy mutation to manipulate emotions to instigate fights or other situations they find interesting.

If two or more observers are encountered, they may attempt to possess other lifeforms bodies from a hidden location while using their damage turning mutation simultaneously.

They will then join in combat using the possessed bodies, testing their physical capabilities and limits, but always relinquishing control before death.

Observers rarely communicate with what they consider to be lesser beings. If they do, they never speak, preferring to use their neural telepathy instead.

Mutations: Damage Turning (Only during Possession use), Empathy, Force Screen, Neural Telepathy, Plane Shift, Possession, Teleport

New Labyrinth Lord Monster: Web Witch

Here's a new monster for your Labyrinth Lord or other OSR adventures!

Web Witch

No. Enc.:  1d4 (2d12)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  60' (20')

       Climb:   120' (40')

Armor Class:  5

Hit Dice:  3+2

Attacks:  1

Damage:  1d6 or weapon

Save:  E3

Morale:  8

Hoard Class:  XVIII

XP:  135

Web witches are evil female elves that have made soul binding pacts with infernal powers.

In addition to all the normal abilities of an elf, they can also climb any surface like a spider and cast a web spell every four rounds.

Many web witches keep giant black widow spiders as pets.

Monstrous Mutated Monday: Noose Golem, Gundroid

Two new monsters presented for your approval:
the Noose Golem for Labyrinth Lord and the Gundroid for Mutant Future.

Please see The Other Side Blog for details on Monstrous Mondays
and The Savage After World Blog for Mutated Mondays.

Noose Golem

No. Enc.:  1d4 (1d4)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  60' (20')

Armor Class:  3

Hit Dice:  5

Attacks:  5 (nooses)

Damage:  1d4 (per noose)

Save:  F5

Morale:  12

Hoard Class:  None

XP:  800           

Noose Golems are often created as assassins by evil magic-users. They have all the special attributes of both golems and undead, meaning they may move silently and are immune to mind effecting spells such as hold, charm or sleep. They can be turned as undead, however.

They may attack five separate victims up to ten feet away. Their nooses choke victims when they successfully attack, and deal 1d4 hit points of damage each per successive round. For each noose that is choking a victim, the victim suffers a cumulative attack penalty of -1.

A noose can be cut off if a total of 6 hit points or more is dealt with one blow.

Blunt weapons will only do half damage to a noose golem.

Gundroid

Hit Dice:  50

Frame:  Armature

Locomotion:  Treads

Manipulators:  None

Armor:  Reactive (AC 1)

Sensors:  Class VI

Mental Programming:  Programming

Accessories:  Weapon Mounts (7), X-Ray Sensors, Self-destruct System

Weaponry:  Arm Mounted Maser Rifles (4), Arm Mounted Stun Pistols (2), Head Mounted X-Laser Rifle

DIY. Reskinning. Gameshaping.

As usual, I'm late in joining the conversation. Which conversation?
The Glories of Incoherence by James Maliszewski back in 2008 B.G. (Before Grognardia)

I found this topic while doing research on an adventure I'm writing. Basically I was looking for ways to describe D&D as sort of a recipe that that DM can use as a basis while still being able to throw in their own flavors from their genre of choice. But how far do you go with alterations?

Specifically, at what point do you need to make up a whole new class or monster?
Would it be easier to take an existing idea and just tweak one or two things?

Here are some quotes from Mr. Maliszewski:

"...1E never attempted to explain the Ranger and its jumble of abilities. Why are Rangers spellcasters at all? Why are they good at scrying (besides the Aragorn/Palantir thing)? As a kid, I found the Ranger simultaneously intriguing and baffling. He clearly wasn't Aragorn but neither was he Robin Hood. Who the heck was the Ranger? Like the Monk, the Ranger seemed odd and so I was forced to find a way to make sense of its seeming incoherence. I eventually came to some conclusions and ran with them and had a lot of fun doing so. Rangers, to this day, remain one of my favorite classes, despite -- or perhaps because of -- their weird mish-mash of abilities."

So how about this scenario: A player is making up a thief character. He tells the DM he wants the character to be a sort of aborigine, a member of a primitive society somewhere.
So he won't have the lock-picking skill because he has had no exposure to that kind of technology.
Should it be left at that? Does a whole new class have to be created?
Perhaps the DM could compensate the lack of that skill with another appropriate skill like survival or something.

When you read about the fighter class, what do you imagine? A ruthless mercenary? A knight in shining armor? Depending on what movies you've seen or books you've read recently, maybe you'll imagine a samurai, a cowboy or a soldier.
That's one of the strengths of the D&D rules. Because of the simplicity and universality of the core abilities and saving throws and such, they work with a wide variety of descriptions for the type of character you have in mind.
Whole other games were based on the core D&D rules, even before the whole D20/OGL explosion.
Gamma World. Buck Rogers. Masque of the Red Death.
AD&D 2nd edition Player's Option: Skills & Powers provided even more choices for character creation.

James again:
"RPGs need rough edges and elements of incoherence. Creativity thrives on the tension between rationality and lunacy and D&D has always been right smack in the middle of that tension. Shove it too far one way or the other and it either becomes boring or unbelievable. I want the game to exist in the eye of a storm; that's where it's the most fun and that's where pulp fantasy D&D exists."

"The eye of a storm." In the middle of something. Not necessarily a statement about "rules balance."
But in the middle of what? The middle ground between light and shadow.
People talk about rule mechanics or the game engine. These are just the odds of something happening according to the dice. So that's one side of an RPG.
The other side is the descriptive part of what is going on in the imaginary world. A continuing series of choices and consequences.
Where the two factors meet in character creation or during play is "the eye of the storm", I think.

Without rules, the game is just sort of a conversation that could potentially turn into an argument or just not be fair and fun.
And without the description, you would be just rolling dice and doing some math.

The "rough edges and elements of incoherence" are the nuts and bolts of the mechanics, the gears of the game engine.
This is where the fictional description has to describe what's happening with all those die rolls.

One gear in the thief description is the lock-picking skill example mentioned earlier. What consequence if a player wants to alter some things? Well, when is a thief not a thief?
If the DM agrees to this kind of player input, let the experiment proceed fairly.

If a player wants to describe their fighter character as a barbarian, assuming that class isn't normally available, why not roll with it. If the player and DM can collaboratively hash out what advantages and disadvantages come from being a barbarian, play it up and have some fun.

How you describe the results of all those dice rolls and math is going to depend on what type of entertainment you are trying to create and imagine. This can be as broad as genre type, but it can also focus on a certain mood or theme. 

And finally:
"What D&D desperately needs is to be generic again and it hasn't been in 20 years (at least). I have no interest in doing anything that adds unnecessary specificity to the game."

"What I want to see is a game that's very specific about its inspirations but without catering to the ready-made campaign setting crowd. I want D&D to be a do-it-yourself game again."

So where was I going with this?

1. Don't change the player, shape the game.
2. Rules should facilitate imagination.
3. Be cool to each other.
4. ???
5. Optional complexity. Functional simplicity.

Gamma Red Death World: Image Overload

What survivors might see on a journey...

 

Gamma Red Death World: FLAILSNAILS on G+

Character creation document available here.

INTRODUCTION

Everyone thought the Martians had died. In a sense they had. 

But they left behind seeds that grew into even more horrible monsters and caused waves of genetic mutations. It seemed the Earth would be overgrown by this new alien ecosystem.

Humans with knowledge of ancient magic and weird science desperately tried to use the salvaged Martian technologies to  fight back this new threat.

Legends from every culture throughout the ages say there is another world.

An alternate world that is connected to Earth like a shadow.

A hidden realm made from the stuff of dreams and nightmares.

Most of the paths and gates to this world have been obscured or locked for millennia.

Now strange magic and arcane energies unleashed on Earth have spoiled  and eroded many forgotten portals to this mystic world.

Creatures thought to exist only in folklore are stepping through...

Gamma Red Death World is a game set on Earth in the late 1800's after an alien invasion. It uses Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future as the core rules.

The main reason being the game will be available for FLAILSNAILS crossover play on Google+. 

Another great reason is the fact that these games are available as free pdf downloads on Goblinoid Games website:

Labyrinth Lord PDF

Mutant Future PDF

CHARACTER CREATION

STEP ONE - Abilities

Roll 3d6 for each ability and write them down in the order rolled.

STEP TWO - Character Class

Pick a character class.

Humans

Cleric (LL pg. 8)

Fighter (LL pg. 11)

Magic-User (LL pg. 12)

Mutant (MF pg. 14)

Thief (LL pg. 12)

Non-Humans

Basic Android (MF pg. 12)

Dwarf (LL pg. 10)

Elf (LL pg. 10)

Halfling (LL pg. 11)

Mutant Animal (MF pg. 13)

Mutant Plant (MF pg. 13)

STEP THREE - Skills

Refer to the skill lists at the bottom of this post.
All characters roll two random General skills, then choose an additional General skill.

Clerics, Magic-Users, Androids, Dwarves and Elves also get to roll one random Scholar skill, then choose one additional Scholar skill.

Any character may trade two General skills to choose one Scholar skill.

Skills can only be rolled or chosen once. Re-roll duplicates.

STEP FOUR - Saving Throws

Record Saving Throws.

All characters use Wisdom as Willpower for mental combat.

STEP FIVE - Power Points

Choose spells or roll for mutations as appropriate for character class.
The following rules replace the normal rules for spell memorization and mutation use:

Power Throws 
Classes with powers, spells, mutations or psionics have a new score called power points, based on one of their attributes.

Cleric Points = WIS
Magic Points = INT
Mutant Points (Physical Mutations)  = CON
Psionic Points (Mental Mutations) = CHA

When using a spell, mutation or psionic, roll a power throw with 2d10.

Success: If the power throw is equal to or less than current power points then the power works as written in the rules. Subtract 1 point from power points.

Failure: If the power throw is greater than current power points then power fails to work. Subtract 2 points from power points.

Backfire: If current power points are 8 or less, each time a power throw fails something bad happens.

Characters recover 1d4 power points per level every 12 hours.
Total power points cannot be greater than the ability score they are based upon.

STEP SIX - Hit Points

All first level characters roll Hit Points for their class and add their full Constitution score.
Any Constitution score modifiers to Hit Points are not factored in to this initial roll.
At each subsequent level characters roll additional Hit Points as usual for their class, including Constitution modifiers.

STEP SEVEN - Starting Funds

All characters roll 3d8x10 for starting gold pieces with which to buy equipment.

SKILLS

Lazy Post, Random Drawings.

More random drawings. Enjoy.

SPEED DEMON!

A super villain character I'm playing in a Marvel FASERIP campaign run by Mr. Zak Smith.

This is me trying to learn how to draw digitally.

Information on, and an invitation to the series of G+ games can be found here.

SATHAR!

This is a drawing I did for a contest for Mr. Jeff Rients involving re-illustrating pages from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess RPG. I think I did okay and it was received well, but it didn't really fit the criteria of the contest. Here's some details on the first wave of entries.

DOOM!

 What else needs to be said? Dr. Doom vs. the Fantastic Four. Should have drawn the dice bigger. Oh well.

Marvel FASERIP Feat Table On It's Edge!

This is just the Feat Table for the Advanced Marvel RPG turned on it's side.
I find it easier to read this way.
*HERE IS -->THE PDF FILE<-- IS HERE*

1. Find the Rank of the Ability or Power you are rolling for.
2. Adjust up or down for any Column Shifts.
3. Roll percentile dice to see what color result you get.
The number in the color column is the maximum number in the range for that color.
      Example: Rolling percentile for a Typical Abillity.
                        01-50 =  White
                        51-80 =  Green
                        81-97 =  Yellow
                        98-100 = Red

Kamandi Ka-Monday: The Tiger Army

When we last saw Kamandi he had figured out how to drive a jeep like vehicle and was just beginning his journey of exploration.

Now, on the road, he sees something coming fast behind him. How does he see it, exactly?

Rear-view video!   BAM!!   Jack Kirby just saw the future!

 Ditching the vehicle in favor of stealth, Kamandi sneaks around to get a better view of the group that was behind him on the road.
After already seeing talking, bipedal wolves, he's not too surprised to see an army of man-like tigers dressed in Romanesque armor.
Kamandi seems to be adapting quickly to this strange new world.

Kamandi spots a sniper about to take a shot at the tiger's leader. Acting quickly, the young human takes out the would-be assassin with a clean shot from his trusty pistol.
He is then snatched up and onto the back of the tiger-man's horse.

 Turns out Kamandi has stumbled into the middle of a battle between the tigers and the leopards.
He has just saved the life of the tiger's leader, Caesar, and is being carried straight into a war zone!
Notice the leopard-man in the foreground looking straight out of the panel as if the reader were looking through a window at the action. Classic Kirby.

Overwhelmed by the superior numbers of enemy, Caesar reveals that his mace is actually an artifact weapon that seems to shoot either a flame or a kind of laser.
This could make a neat goal for a quest or maybe just on a random loot table.

The tiger leader seems to think Kamandi is just a dumb animal. He roughly hands him to one of his henchmen to be taken to the "Royal City".
So far the tiger society seems pretty complex. Armies. Cities. Royalty. Access to ancient artifacts.
Definately needs to be written up in Gamma World or Mutant Future.

And so Kamandi is "rail roaded" to the next set piece, the Royal City of the Tigers.
Captured and transported to the next scene.
Better that than dead.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Some Drawing Tips

Here's a few pages I made in an attempt at a basic drawing lesson. These are inspired by "How to Draw the Marvel Way" as well as variuos other books and articles.
Sorry for the crappy scan quality. I'll have to work on that.

1. Draw the stick figure very lightly.

2. Remember to express action and body language.

3. Start to lightly shape in the muscle masses.

4. Draw through the figure to keep perspective and proportion.

5. Select the lines that look right or cool to go over and detail.

6. Remember: Draw light at first. Select the lines that look right.

Erasing is just as important as drawing a line.

It doesn't have to mean you made a mistake, just that your are selecting the best lines.

THE ERASER IS YOUR FRIEND!

HAVE FUN IS RULE ONE!