Friday, October 9, 2020

Permissions

This is the license for anyone wishing to use, reuse, rewrite, share, or publish anything on this site.
 
I retain full and exclusive possession of all Basic Red RPG, Adder Entertainment, and Dungeon Mix articles that are found on their respective pages to the right (in desktop mode; if you're not sure what's what in mobile mode maybe wait until you get to a laptop or console). I do not grant blanket permission to use these in any form other than linking the original articles. However, feel free to ask.
 
The remainder of the articles on this site are to be considered the Available Material.

Anyone can reshare, modify, or use any of the Available Material as much as they want so long as you credit me, link this site when you credit me, and post a link to where you shared it.

Anyone wishing to include any of this Available Material or its derivatives in a truly free published product or a product for charity may do so with permission, so long as they credit me, link this site, and  provide me a copy of it.

Anyone wishing to include any of this Available Material or its derivatives in a pay-what-you-want or paid published product may do so with permission if they provide the following: credit, a link to this site, a copy, and compensation ($1 minimum for a PWYW product, $10 for zines/compilations, inclusion in larger or more expensive/expansive works must be negotiated case by case).
 
Compensation can be paid using the PayPal button to the right (again, on desktop); just comment what it pertains to at the time you make the transaction, please.
 
A "copy" here means either a PDF or a code for a free POD copy or something like that. If the only method of publication is physical then WEIRD but okay, please still send me a copy. I may also decide to take a physical copy in lieu of other compensation if we can work it out between us....
 
If there is ever some confusion as to what constitutes the Available Material you must reach out beforehand, not plow ahead and ask forgiveness later.
 
I'm no lawyer so some changes may occur to this license from time to time, but I will honor good faith attempts to abide by it; screenshot this page when you use the Available Material if you want to be able to shut my ass up later.
 
Within the bounds outlined above, this stuff is yours now. Thanks.

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

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.

Friday, September 13, 2019

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.