Crap on the Borderlands; The Gate

A quick random table for what's happening when the characters are at the gates.

Encounters at the Gate:

1	Caravan from Specularum (Horses, mules, wagons, men)
2	Courier dropping off messages
3	Patrol returning (1-5 routine, 6 Interesting tidbit)
4	Wagon of vegetables being searched upon entry by 3 guards and corporal/sgt.
5	Corporal of the guards and two guards chatting
6-8	Nothing interesting, 2 guards on duty
9	Stable boys playing; 1-3 Knights, 4-6 kick the ball, in the courtyard
10	Castellian, guards are being; 1-2 Disciplined, 3-6 Inspected
11	Adventuring group (always add to the tavern scene at night)
12	Caravan from Yavdlom (3d6 camels, 2d6 men)

B/X Skill System

A variant skill system for B/X based on the skill system created by Simrion over on the Dragonsfoot forum. http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15923

Player assigns the following points (3, 2, 1) to three categories to fill out their background knowledge. The other two categories the character has almost no knowledge of.

After gaining a level a player may choose to raise a subcategory of any skill, even one that the character does not have any previous skill. This represent the characters learning, either through contact with, conversations with others, or through study of the subject. They may never gain more than two raises in any given sub skill (which is always added to the main skill when making a check).

Roll a d6 to make a skill check, the skill total or less is a success.

Noble	ooo
		oo Heraldry, etiquette, law
		oo Court, fashion, fine art, dancing and faux pas
		oo Taxes, trade, bureaucracy
		oo Diplomacy, debate, oratory, plotting and scheming
		oo Warfare, strategy, engineering
Rural	ooo
		oo Animal Husbandry, herding
		oo Food processing, preservation, brewing
		oo Farming, plants, seasons
		oo Woodworking, crafting, repair, tanning
		oo Construction of houses, barns, fences etc
Urban	ooo
		oo Street smarts (spotting cons, traps, hucksters, thieves)
		oo Contacts
		oo Urban navigation, bureaucracy
		oo Professional craft, guilds, commerce
		oo Gambling, gaming, cheating
Esoterica	ooo
		oo Religious Philosophy, doctrine, scripture
		oo Arcane theory, philosophy
		oo Magical creatures, realms, astronomy
		oo Alchemy, magical items and substances
		oo History, ancient societies, mathematics
Wilderness	ooo
		oo Tracking, Hunting, stealth, skinning
		oo Foraging, trapping, water witching
		oo Shelters, fire starting
		oo Bush craft, camouflage, hiding
		oo Crafting

The Hedge Wizard

Hedge wizards are informally taught wizards who have learned the art of spellcasting from another untrained wizard, from observing a wizard cast spells, or are entirely self-taught. They are always looked down upon by other spell casters who hold them in contempt for their lack of training and basic understanding of magical theory. Never the less, these individuals, with only the rudimentary understanding of the art of magic are able at second level, to cast spells and use magical items the same as a fully trained magic-user. These individuals tend to be loners by choice or social outcasts. As such, they tend to stay on the move, travelling the world and finding adventure wherever they go regardless of whether they wanted too or not. They tend to be clever and charismatic people who live life to the fullest. The prime requisites for a hedge wizard are Wisdom and Charisma. Any hedge wizard character with a Prime Requisite with a 13 or greater will gain a +5% bonus on earned experience points. A character with a 13 or higher in both Prime requisites gains a +10% bonus on earned experience points.

Restrictions: Hedge wizards use a four-sided dice (d6) to determine their hit points. They may wear nothing more protective than leather armor, and a shield. They may use any one-handed melee weapon, sling or short bow.

Special Abilities: At first level hedge wizards may pick two Thieves Abilities, these abilities improve as they go up in level just as a thief’s would. At second level, and every level thereafter the character gains one 1st level spell, they can cast 1 spell per level, per day. They cannot learn to cast any spell above 1st level, and are not required to have a spell book as they may very well be illiterate.

XP: 2200

B/X House Rules: Pelts and Furs, Recovering Arrows, Jumping

Pelts and Furs

Pelts can be recovered from normal or exotic animals at the DM’s discretion. It takes 15 minutes (or more) of time per HD of the creature to skin it properly. Once recovered, it can be sold at market in this raw state and sells for a 1d6 sp for each HD of the creature (+/- 1 sp for each HD bonus). If the pelt is properly treated and tanned it can be turned into a luxury item. To determine a fair market value the DM first determines the furs value as a pelt. For each HD of the creature the pelt came from, roll a d6, the total of this roll is the value of the finished fur in gp. This total is also the number of days it took / will take to transform it into a finished project. 

Recovering Arrows

Roll a d6 for each arrow fired in the melee. Any result of a 1, means that the arrow was recovered and can be used again. Any other result means the arrow is broken beyond repair or lost (in the wilderness).

Jumping

The distance a character can jump is based on their encumbrance and Strength score. The more heavily weighed down the character the shorter their jumping distance. The quickest way to determine the number of feet a character can jump is to remove the last number (on the right) from their Exploration Speed. Then add that to the characters Strength score to this. This is the number of feet they can jump in a running jump. A standing jump is equal to Encounter Speed plus Strength bonus in feet. Characters with 18 Strength scores are at the level of Olympic athletes

Encumbrance / Running Jump / Standing Jump

120’ per turn      12’              4’

90’               9’              3’

60’               6’              2’

30’               3’              1’

The Fine Art of Haggling; Re-purposing the Moldvay Retainer Reaction Table

Haggling 

First, the use of the Haggling table requires that the DM inflate the prices of goods when the characters are shopping. In order to keep things easy, determine the rate at which a particular merchant overcharges his clients by simply rolling a d4 and multiply by 25%. As the DM you can adjust this number up or down at your discretion. Once the price is determined haggling can begin.

Once a character makes an offer on an item, the DM can determine the modifiers and the merchant’s reaction. To determine modifiers the DM determines the number % (in 25% increments) above or below the item’s market value (normal listed price) the character has offered. For each 25% in cost difference above market value add +1 to the merchant’s Reaction roll. Likewise for each 25% below the market value of an offer -1 from the merchant’s Reaction roll. If the player offers market value for the item, then there are no modifiers to the Reaction roll.

Haggling Reaction*

   2 - Offer refused, merchant is insulted and haggling is over**.

  3-5 - Price remains the same***.

  6-8 - Comes down 25% on overcharge price****.

 9-11 - Offer accepted.

12  - Offer accepted, and a small item thrown in for free.

* Add characters Charisma bonus to the Haggling Reaction roll.

** If character continues the merchant bans character from store and may call the guard.

*** If the character makes the same offer again, merchant refuses again, and adds -1 to all future reaction rolls.

**** If the price drop matches players offer, then it’s a deal.

Aging in Moldvay

All PC’s are assumed to be young adults just starting out on their adventuring life and in the prime of their lives. As characters age forward or backwards their stats begin to decline. When a characters ability scores hits 3, that ability stops declining and stays at that score since this is the lowest achievable score. A characters other scores continue to decline until they reach a score of 3. This usually means that while the character is alive, they have trouble functioning because of their low ability scores.

< 7     All scores are assumed to be 3 or 4.

8-11    -2 from all ability scores.

12-14   -2 from all ability scores.

15-18   -2 from all ability scores.

19-29   All ability scores are normal.

30-39   -1 from all ability scores.

40-49   -1 from all ability scores.

50-59   -1 from all ability scores.

60-69   -2 from all ability scores.

70-79   -2 from all ability scores.

80-89   -2 from all ability scores.

90-99   -3 from all ability scores.

100+   -3 from all ability scores.

The table can also be used in reverse by adding to the ability score of characters. For instance, a young beggar NPC will see his stats improve as he ages, or characters who travel back in time sixty years will find the old crone from the village to be a young, strong, charismatic and full of life.

Alternate Weapon Damage and Traits for B/X

Axes:	Damage	Size	Cost	Enc.	Properties
Battle Axe	d8	L	7	60	Cleave, Two-handed
Hand Axe	d6	S	4	30	Off-hand, Thrown
Bows:
Crossbow	2d6	L	60	80	Reload 5
Long Bow	d6	L	40	30	Reload 1, Ranged, Two-handed
Short Bow	d6	M	25	20	Reload 1, Ranged, Two-handed
Daggers:
Normal	d6	S	3	10	Off-hand, Thrown
Silver	d6	S	30	10	Off-hand, Thrown
Swords:
Long Sword	d6	M	10	60	Versatile
Short Sword	d6	M	7	30	Off-hand
Two-handed Sword	d8	L	15	100	Two-handed, Cleave
Other Weapons:
Mace*	d4	M	5	30	Blunt, Versatile
Club*	d4	M	3	50	Blunt, Versatile
Javelin	d6	M	1	20	Thrown
Lance	d6	L	5	180	Reach, Mounted
Pole Arm	d6	L	7	150	Reach, Two-handed
Sling*	d6	S	2	10	Reload 1, Ranged, Improvised Melee
Spear	d6	L	3	30	First Strike, Two-handed
Staff*	d4	L	2	40	Off-hand, Two-handed
War Hammer*	d6	M	5	50	Blunt, Versatile

*May be used by a Cleric

Cost in Gp

Wt. in Coins

Blunt: These weapon have no sharp edges and so do less damage than bladed weapons. One advantage that they do have is that on a Critical Hit the weapon does it’s max damage, but the additional damage roll is instead used to determine the number of rounds the target is stunned. Helmets, when worn on the head lessen the impact of stunning blows by a d4 or d6.

Cleave: Damage is applied to the target of the attack, if the target is killed by the attack any extra damage is applied to another target adjacent to the attacker. If no other target is close enough to attack the extra damage is lot.

Off-hand: This weapon can be used in either hand.

Improvised Melee: Can be used to make a melee attack as a club or garrote.

Thrown: May be used to make ranged attacks.

Two-handed: This weapon requires both hands to use properly for most wielders. Characters with a 17 or 18 Strength can use two-handed melee weapons one-handed but it does a stepwise decrease in damage, despite this it is totally bad-ass.

First Strike: This weapon can be used to make an attack on one enemy who moves adjacent to the wielder per round. The wielder must have an attack available otherwise this option is lost.

Reach: Can be used to make attacks over adjacent allies, but cannot be used to attack enemies adjacent to the wielder.

Ranged: This weapon may only be used to make Ranged attacks.

Versatile: May be wielded one or two-handed. If used one-handed it does the damage listed, if used two-handed it gains a step-wise damage increase. Cannot be used two-handed if the wielder is using a shield.

Mounted: This weapon is made to be used from horseback and does twice the normal damage on a charge attack. If used on foot it is treated as a Pole-arm.

Reload: The number of rounds it takes to load and fire the weapon.

Small and Large Weapons cannot be effectively used while mounted.

CREATURE FEATURE

I recently picked up the D&D CREATURE CATALOG (DMR2) from a used book store and it was in excellent condition and cheap. I was pretty excited about this as I have never owned or read the book and I was hoping it would have some good stuff I could add to my D&D games. 

Yep, this is the one.

After reading through it this week I was thinking to do one of those “let’s read” type projects with the book. Starting next week (hopefully) I will be posting a summary of a creature, and then giving an actually review of the creature with the following 1-5 scale.

The GRUBS Rating Scale (because who doesn’t love a totally forced and useless acronym?)

Genius: This thing is so awesome I must use it NOW or in an upcoming adventure.

Right On: This thing is good enough to see regular use

Uninspired: Meh, maybe if I got nothing better, average.

Brain-damage: Reading this made my brain hurt.

Shit: I want my time and money back, and if I were a lawyer I would send the creator a C&D letter.

So…this scale gentle reader, should give you an overall impression of what I thought of the book and its content.  Some good, and some…quite a bit actually, really bad. Though I would guess that most of it just falls in the Uninspired category to be honest.