Sunsetting This Place

I started this as sort of an R&D space and ready source document for games I was running using Basic and Expert over Skype. In time I started reading more, writing more, playing and running more, and as I started sharing things on G+ I started kind of writing to a specific audience and voice. I was never as active on Hangouts as I wanted to be but being in those wild world-hopping games that grew out of Hangouts cross-play meant that I started to prioritize different things in what I designed. I think most of this was innocuous enough and I don't really regret the people I met and the opportunities the Work afforded me. But it's a pattern I'd fallen into before, where unconsciously I was holding myself to an impossible standard of a character. Holding my potential future against my present, and holding some perception of how I thought people thought of me against how I was actually feeling at any given time.

When I had to quit my job and lose my house and move and lose my autonomy it caused a lot of pain and I handled it so badly that I damaged pretty much every relationship over it. Like when my grandfather died I suddenly had this unhealthy drive to make the time I spent making and enjoying my pastimes "count," "matter." This sucked a lot of the joy out of it and made it harder than ever to persevere to finish something, which meant I'd never really achieve a goal I didn't fully realize that I'd set for myself.

In the, what, five or six years? since then I've tried to rally and get back to recapturing the feeling of the Work from before I let things sour. There have been times when I've rallied, maybe even made some decent stuff. But it's not coming from a place of heart, discipline, or inspiration. As I've played less, run less, read less, bought less, as the social webbing I took part in for this hobby disintegrated for one reason or another, I have gotten myself pretty thoroughly removed from everything.

It's been rewarding to get into this hobby right before it was set to explode into a global phenomenon eclipsing even the early 80s, with more diverse creators, products, and viewpoints than ever. I can only imagine what it must be like for those of you who were into this shit since you were young. But I don't think my voice has value in this conversation. I won't claim a place in that transformation.

You could argue that I "left" years ago, to be sure, so yes I do feel stupid writing this now. I'm not walking away entirely, or forever, and in fact I'm actively creating material and running a game on a consistent basis for the first time in about a century. But without wishing to annoy anyone reading this, this just doesn't entirely feel like me any more. I'll be taking the best of it with me - or at least, the stuff I care about most. The Adder Entertainment and Dungeon Mix articles may find a place if I start a new blog, probably on a different platform. A few articles might go away. Someone else will have to host the linklist I collected for the FRACAs, probably someone from the Discord. This place won't go anywhere, though. Not until Google takes it down. I'll put the rest of it under one of the CC licenses which I'll post here next, and finally. I'll also organize and streamline this site a little whenever I get drunk.

Comments won't do much good but you can shoot me an email, my address to the right doesn't show up in mobile mode but that's....good. This should be the place on Discord I hang out in. Questions, comments, concerns, requests, hit me up. And if I have a new place to show off I'll mention it here.

The Superhero Game

Leftover notes from a game I was going to make for some friends. I don't know that this fully works but it works enough, as well as a lot of those one-page rpgs do at least.....

Origin Story: This grounds you in a place and background, and the attendant connections, experiences, and knowledge you possessed before becoming a super-person. This is also how well you can relate to your friends, enemies, and strangers, like a normal person.
Secret Identity: This number represents your real-world "job" and lifestyle; the kind of skills you could reasonably study up without super-abilities; and your ability to balance your private life and your public life, even if your "private life" is "Billionaire playboy who is Iron Man sometimes." It comes with a suite of job contacts.
Alter Ego: These are your powers and abilities beyond mortal men. Name something you can't do. This is that, as well as your general standing and connections in the super-world.

You give each of these a descriptive name/trait like Over The Edge or Risus so we know what capabilities are or aren't implied.

Rate one at d10, one at d12, and one at d20, in order of how important each of these is to your hero concept. The name of the game is to roll low. When you're rolling against an opposing character/force, the DM will roll whatever die assigned to that baddie. The lower the die, the badder the dude. When rolling against a modeled difficulty the DM rolls the same die as the player.

Low roll wins. The DM always has the option of trying to roll the next highest die and try to roll a lower number on a larger die. The player and DM can go back and forth like that until one side fails, upt to 1d20+1d10. The Players on the other hand always have the option to roll against any challenge - even ones normally outside of their skillset - using a d100, as a sort of Luck mechanic. The DM can't try to one-up a successful d100 roll.

Every time a player rolls the max number on one of their die actions, they take a point of Struggle. As long as you can roll over your Struggle on your Hero Dice you're still up and fighting. If you fail a Hero roll you might be temporarily taken out of the fight from harmless incapacitation, injury, or mortal peril. Don't worry about that too much, mortal peril is always relative with superheroes and isn't the obstacle to overcome it would be for us normal dudes. Hero Dice increase by level:

Level 1: 1d6
Level 2-3: 2d6
Level 4-6: 3d6
Level 7-11: 5d6
Level 12: 6d6

The DM rolls 1d100 and gives that out as XP at the end of a session but can give out XP for other things. Every 2000XP you can Advance and take one of your three attributes down a die size. If this happens mid-session then everyone is awarded some kind of inspiration/rallying bonus by the DM. Call every "level" after 5000XP from here on and add another Hero Die for every two levels

At level 12 you've gotten every trait down to a d4 so every "level" after that you can start generally making permanent improvements in the world (Domain play in a super game?) starting at d20+d10 (instituting a global teleportation network for example).

(Alternatively, use the TSR Marvel Super-Hero Universal Chart and rate one at Remarkable, one at Excellent, and one at Good. Use your Alter-Ego for HP, Origin Story for Karma Points, and Secret Identity for Resources and Popularity. DM has the option to use built-in Karma mechanics to allow rewards but because that game hatttttes advancement your characters will be pretty stable, so allowance should be made for improvements in-fiction)

SUPER POWERS STUFF

For super powers do one of three things:

1) Just say "Like Iron Man" and your character's strengths and abilities will be assumed from whatever the DM knows about Iron Man. Not what you know, what the DM knows.
2) Do a random roll on the Ultimate Powers Book from TSR's MSH at classicmarvelforever.com and figure out coverage and limitations as we go
3) Name an obscure or obtuse Grant Morrisony superpower and define it with three things it CAN do and three things it CAN'T do

For feeling out the range of your abilities you can try a stunt and depending on how much of a reach the DM may either let it happen or make you do a harder roll starting with d20+10/d30. Next time you attempt it it's an easier roll, and it keeps getting easier until you're making your normal roll. If you make it there before three failures then this is something your guy Can Do. If you fail three times before you lock in a stunt this is something you Can't Do and those times it worked must have been one in a million chances. You can develop any number of things you Can Do until you've developed a list of five things you Can't Do. Feeling out "stunts" for your Secret Identity and Origin Story are up for grabs too I guess? DMs won't make you work for something that should be obvious gets, though, so you can rack up Can Dos quickly.

Also, you can earn a POW! Point by voluntarily attempting a harder roll than you have to. You get the PP (heh) whether you fail or succeed, and you can spend the PP to let a fellow hero have an easier roll. You can't have more PP at once than your level number.

Tossers

WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT?!

So Tossers are also called Hucksters, Fastballers, Throwmeos, and Motherchuckers. And they are in all respects FIGHTERS with one step better HD than normal in your game. In all other respects they are Fighters.

EXCEPT

They are proficient with no conventional weapons. They are proficient exclusively in found, hurled weapons, which they can hurl their Strength-plus-Level in feet. This includes enemies. This includes fellow PCs.

When throwing an unattended object..... 

Treat it as a 1d3 item and use the higher of your Strength or Dex bonus to determine a hit. If it isn't something you could conceivably shove with your same Strength score, like a wall or an obelisk, you can't throw it.

When throwing an enemy....... 

You may attempt an unarmed attack roll plus your Strength bonus (if any) to grab an enemy on a hit. You can elect to keep the enemy grappled/held as per normal rules or you may throw them as part of the same action. At 1st level you may hurl any enemy with 1HD or less. At 2nd you may hurl any enemy 2HD or less, and so on, up to 9HD. Enemies of roughly humanoid/demihuman size and shape with more than 9HD may also be hurled as long as 1) their total HD is lower than your level and 2) they get a saving throw vs Paralyze/Petrify to land safely.

Enemies who take fall damage this way are treated to have fallen an additional 20'. An enemy making contact with a solid object take 1d8 damage plus your Strength bonus (and if the solid object is like spikes or a trap or on fire they may suffer other effects).

An enemy colliding with one or more enemies means you roll 1d10 damage plus your Strength bonus, and then the DM distributes the damage among the victims as she sees fit.

When throwing a Party Member.......

You may use the higher attack value between you and the thrown PC, and the higher damage between the two of you, and the PC gets a Death save to land safely. This effectively uses the thrown PC's turn in concert with yours so ask for consent and Throw Responsibly(tm). If the PC gets any bonus to a successful hit like Sneak Attack or a magic weapon effect it can go off thanks to your roll. This by definition moves the thrown PC. You cannot throw a PC with more HD than you.

Summing up the main rules of this class are:
No Weapons
Throw anything you can move normally through Strength
Throw any enemy or PC with HD equal to/less than yours
Throw high level enemies if they are basically people of a lower level than you who fail their save
Throwing distance is your Strength+Level in feet.

Tossers may wield no magic weapons unless they are specifically meant to be thrown, like Thor's hammer, and may only wear magic rings and gloves that improve their throwing power or accuracy. Also potions and uh....capes. Magic capes.

At level 9 they do not establish a kingdom or attract a bunch of acolytes but they become proficient in all weapons. They also become famous for throwing things, and can earn lots of money throwing things for people for fun and show, and signing autographs.

The Pokemon Sword (and Sword)

First let's break enemies down into 14 types a la Pokemon. This will be at least as sensible and at least as arbitrary as the way D&D currently does things.

Dude- Dude Types are women and men who can blend in with 90% of the population but could really bring anything to the table. Orcs and halflings also go here, neat!

Goblin- Gob-Hogbog-Bugbear is the most natural pokevolution parallel in D&D but this tree also includes kobolds, gremlins, quicklings, anything gob-adjacent.

Fae- Elfs, pixies, sprites, pucks, wisps, so on.

Yucky- Cubes, oozes, puddings, Dragon Quest guys with faces, mimics

Bug- Carrion crawlers, umber hulks, rust monsters, stuff that crunches.

Arcane- All Magic-Users but also animate brooms and familiars and so on, or chimeras like the owlbear.

Rocky- Dwarfs, gnomes, piercers, ropers, neanderthals.

Elemental- The specific element doesn't matter, you're just infused with primordial power or made only of that.

Psionic- Berbalangs and all that stupid shit but also like whatever the Battlemind is supposed to have been...

Spooky- Skeletons, Vampires, Liches, Mummies, Witches, Werewolves, ghoulsghostsghasts anything very Halloweeny.

Mythic- Medusa, Coatls, Minotaurs, Goliaths, Angels, Demons, world religion and mythology creatures.

Zoo- For like regular animals and giant versions of the same.

Ninja- Shadows, invisible stalkers, and other things you can't see.

Lizard- Pretty much all reptile stuff, from yuanti to dragons, because D&D has a lot of lizard shit.

So we see how application of these principles to existing enemies is easy. Drow are Night Fae, Acererak is Spooky Arcane, Vecna is Spooky Mythic, Shadowfax is Zoo Mythic, Conan is Rocky Dude, Lava Children are Yucky Elemental, Venom is Bug Dude,dragons can be Arcane Lizards but Tiamat is obviously a Mythic Lizard, while regular old drakes are Zoo Lizards.

We'll arrange these on a diagram. That's right, this magic item requires a diagram. That's right, I'm doing all this for the sake of a single magic item. A Type is Weak (1/2 dmage) against the two types adjacent to it, and Strong (2x damage) against the two Types across from it that it can draw a straight line to on the star. Arrange these howeeeever it makes sense to you: in my example here, Rocky Types are Weak against Arcane and Elemental but Strong against Fae and Ninja. Our needs aren't as complicated as Pokemon's, though, so we can still have Arcane be Weak to Rocky without making things too complicated. I'll include a blank diagram I ganked from Google so you can lay out your own typings. Your actual layout doesn't matter a ton so long as everyone is on the same page about it.

OKAY SO HAVING DONE ALL THIS SHIT, this weapon is a magic sword that does +1 and overcomes magic resistance bla blah. ALSO it absorbs the essence of those it wounds. Write down two blanks and number them 1 and 2. Whenever you roll the highest number on this sword's damage die - be that a d6 d8 d12 whatever your DM decides - your sword will absorb the Typing of the creature you inflicted that damage on. You can decide not to take a target's Typing but you have five seconds to make up your mind or the effect fails.

Whenever you roll 20/d20 with this sword, you pick up a SECOND Type. This only changes when you roll a crit to hit and you don't get a choice in whether this Type changes or not, it just does. These modifiers stack and combine to mitigate or multiply bonuses.

If you have a player who spends all their time looking up obscure errata or arguing the wording of spells, give them one of these instead and it will take up all that time. Just try to be firm and consistent with what categories you sort things into. If you want this sword to work for existing dnd monster types or even alignment then I guess that works too..... I think if I were going to modify it any I'd just use this same concept but affecting what language if any the targets spoke.

............god DAMN it that's such a better iDEA i made this whole GRAPHic mother FUCKer....

The Man In The Way

Impossibly tall does not mean that he disappears into the clouds like the peak of a mountain. It means that the man you see in the doorway is taller than a man can be. By far. Taller than a man should be? I mean I don't make those kind of judgments. One love. But the wrong outline. No mere hormone is at play here. Nor is he a funhouse man stretched out like a badly poured mirror. He is too fucking tall. It's no laughing matter.

He is also too old. He is older than the building he guards. The door that was built behind him has rotted away into moldy mulch. It has been replaced with something like the ghost of the door, what the door had always intended to be. This new door is the shadow of the too-tall-man. He fills the space the way horizons fill your vision. He blocks the way like the forest blocks wildflower fields. He is not gaunt with time or wrinkled with age. He simply lived longer than a man can live. His face betrays a day when the stones were all different shapes but he is not an old man. Only his laugh lines are deep, deep like the cracks in a volcano. His brow knits steeply, as steep as the cliffs at the sea.

Too damn big too damn old. Too stubborn, too quiet, too distant, too secret, too strong, too fearsome, too kind. Too kind by far. As gentle as a brook, as careful as a spider. His hands are great ceramic pillows, tattooed in whorls around the knots of a tight fist closed too long.

He smells like cellar door says. Right, and satisfying, the perfect unwashed scent of the world. He is dressed like a good graveyard.

You cannot fight the man in the way. You could try to scale the walls but the man is taller than the walls, somehow, though he barely fits in the door. You could tear down the walls but the man can hold them together. You could dig beneath but any ground the man stands on must be incredibly firm indeed. Steel-hard shovel-eating gloaming loam rich with life and an ingredient to life.

There is a wall around a home. You are welcome in this home. You are not allowed in this home. It is not a home for you. The man is in the way with his back to the home. It is not his home either. No one lives there, so he does not guard them. He does not keep them from coming out. He is there for your protection.

Don't make him protect you.