A Life Full of Adventure

(Reference Jason Hobbs' Random Screed: Shorter Screed 9/6/2018 ) To encourage use of two handed weapons in a game where a shield can be sundered to negate damage from one attack, Jason created advantage on his damage dice (roll twice the damage dice and keep the best result). On the one hand, this sounds like a cool bonus. On the other hand, it seems to really increase the average damage from a two handed weapon. For some reason I’m hesitant to minimize the lower rolls. I’m sure I’d love it as a player. It’s only when thinking about it from a meta perspective do I wonder. Another option: Two handed weapons get initiative bonus or able to go first in the round due to assumed reach. Implications: With the advantage rule, a character is more likely to do more damage per hit and thereby has a higher chance for one hit kills. Regular initiative is kept, so I’d expect the enemy to strike first half the time and the character to strike first half the time. With initiative rule, a ch...

The group was adventuring in Dwimmermount, using the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1e rules. They had just fought a large group (three rooms worth) of lizardmen (substituted for orcs) on level 2A. They were tired and wounded and needed to head back to base camp to heal and rest. The expedition's surgeon sewed wounds and applied poultices. He asked if there was anything else they needed. One player spoke up: "Do you have anything that can give me more Wounds (hit points)?" I paused, not wanting to just say no and move on. My mind raced:  energy...adrenaline...adrenal gland... "Well, other surgeons don't know this, but I've been doing a little research on my own. I'm pretty sure if you eat a lizardman kidney, it will give you more energy. You have to do it right before your fight, but I can preserve one of the ones you brought back...I'll have to do it quickly before the energy is all gone. What do you think?" The play just stared at me, shocke...

Someone on Google+ did the math and figured out that an average Warhammer 1e character shouldn't be able to carry another character out of harm's way, using the encumbrance rules as written. Let's consider someone with Movement (M) 4 Strength (S) 3 Toughness (T) 3. According to the book (p.75 HH ed.), he weighs S+Tx100=600 encumbrance (enc). He can carry Tx100=300 enc before he becomes encumbered. [When he goes over his encumbrance limit, he loses 1 point of M. He loses another point for every 50 points on top of that.] 301-350 enc brings him to M3. 351-400 enc to M2, and 401-450 enc at M1 Therefore he is 150 enc points of 'capacity' short of being able to carry an equivalent wounded comrade. I think it's realistic that you couldn't carry your buddy very far without needing to rest. Other options would be dragging, a horse, and/or a travois.  However, I would allow a player to 'fireman' carry another player off a battlefield. But I'd measur...

I was rereading the history of the Known World in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1e book (seriously, if you need inspiration for your game/adventure/campaign, look there) when an idea hit me. Chaos dwarves were regular dwarves who were warped by chaos because they live too far north. In their heart, though, they are still dwarves. In my game, chaos dwarves are shamed by and will not fight regular dwarves. Chaos dwarves will happily fight everyone else, humans, goblins, and especially elves, but they will not raise a hand against regular dwarves. This is due to a lingering sense of honor. Perhaps this only applies to chaos dwarves who were alive and were regular dwarves themselves before chaos tainted them. Perhaps new generations of chaos dwarves never knew anything other than their current situation and therefore have no problem slaughtering their normal kin. Or maybe chaos dwarves don't procreate and every new "generation" is another wave of chaos corrupting anoth...

I added this rule to my 1e game: 1) To backstab a creature, you must Sneak up behind it. (Sometimes beside it is appropriate.) 2) The character/creature being backstabbed is treated as being Surprised and may do nothing to the backstabbing character that round, including Dodging, Parrying, or Attacking. 3) The backstabber gets +20% to Weapon Skill. It is not an automatic hit unless the victim is prone. 4) The backstabbing player rolls double dice damage (2d6)+S and other modifiers. 5) [In testing phase] Backstabbing player may use multiple attacks, per current profile.

I find there is a fine line between a PC hiring a retainer and a player just playing two PCs. This is probably due to reasons I've mentioned previously where I give the retainers to the players to play because I have more than enough on my GM plate. The players run the retainers, and for the most part they are fair. A lot of my players are either GMs themselves or are fair, level-headed people to begin with. When I hand out retainer NPCs to the players, I rarely have to take back anything the players says that the retainer does. With this in mind, I'm wondering...wouldn't it just be better to let the player have two PCs? One can be the regular character, and one can be the lower-level character hired for a specific purpose (torch-bearer, loot-hauler, animal-caretaker, etc.) The player shouldn't expect a lot of the game tailored for the lower-level character to shine. However, the retainer is there, and it being controlled fairly, and is out of the GM's hands, le...

This is a setting my friend used for our AD&D 2e game. I wanted to get it down to save it. History: All races were slaves to dragons at one point. The "lesser" races revolted and gained their freedom. The dragons still ruled a section of the continent. He modified/created dragon lords using the Council Of Wyrms boxed set. These dragons were nasty! Magic was very prevalent across all nations. There was one nation ruled by an oligarchy council. There was a religion of were-priests . They gained their transformation through their god. (I had a were-priestess named Shallya [stolen from WarHammer] who could change into a panther.) He created his own pantheons, basing a lot of skills and powers from the Skills & Powers book. (He let me co-create the were-priest religion.) There was a region ruled by a college of wizards. There were Ice Elves who lived in seclusion. Dwarves were strongly prevalent. He ran an entire Dwarven campaign across deserts to reclaim some...

The skill Dodge Blow may be purchased multiple times if it is on the skill list for your current career. Each time you purchase it, you may attempt to dodge one more blow per round of combat. The total number of times you can purchase Dodge Blow may not exceed the number of attacks your have per round.