Mini-Review: Mazes & Minotaurs

This one is, I believe, the last mini-review I originally wrote for EN World but never got around to publish, slightly edited.

Disclaimer: The article includes affiliate links.

Back in 2002, Pault Elliot wrote an article about how different D&D (and the whole TTRPG scene) could have been if its inspirations were different; say, Jason and the Argonauts and the Odyssey instead of Conan and the Lord of the Rings. Olivier Legrand became fascinated with the concept and soon began working on such a game that could have existed back in the 70s, first on his own, and then collaborating with Paul himself. Eventually, the fruit of their collaboration was the design of Mazes & Minotaurs.

Mazes & Minotaurs was not just a design experiment, however. It was minimalistic, amateurish, and even parodistic, but it was a game to be played, nonetheless. Soon the original version received numerous supplements, and then a major revision, bringing us the advanced versioní of the game, which is now available on DriveThruRPG.

A shtick of M&M is that every product is written as if it were a re-release of something from the 70s or 80s, and a whole fake history of role-playing games is constantly referenced (like MAZECON and the Griffin magazine), which makes it a hilarious read on its own. As noted above, however, M&M is not merely a parody; it is a fully functional game with a simple but powerful core.

M&M has a slightly tweaked list of Attributes (Might, Skill, Wits, Luck, Will, Grace), whose modifiers are used extensively to calculate various secondary statistics (such as melee and missile attack bonuses, and saving rolls like Danger Sense and Mystic Fortitude). There is no standard resolution mechanic per se, even though every test is made using the familiar mechanic of "d20 + modifiers vs. target number". There is no skill system either (just like in the early editions of D&D), but there are various Background Talents detailed in the Companion.

The Players Manual describes twelve classes (such as Centaur, Lyrist, Spearman, and Thief). They differ in their starting Hits (the equivalent of hit points), primary attributes, and special abilities (everyone gets two or three of these, except for casters who only have their spells). Combat is very straightforward, but the supplements detail a fair amount of special maneuvers. Magic uses spell points (called Power Points), and every caster class has access to six unique spells.

The Maze Masters Guide provides information regarding the setting (called Mythika), whose bare-bones descriptions are further detailed in a series of articles (cf. Atlas of Mythika). It also has a handful of random generators (adventure plots, city states, temples, mysterious islands), and an easy-to-use monster creation system (the actual monsters are presented in the Creature Compendium; circa 200 opponents of various types and power levels).

Mazes & Minotaurs is an amazing work of love. It retains the simplicity and familiarity of old-school D&D, while improving upon it at the same time. There are a lot of supplements covering a wild range of topics (new monsters, mythic items, classes, and adventures), yet the game remains simple and elegant. And the best part is that the entire product line is completely free.

Kazamaták és Kompániák - Advanced Classes

The second edition of the Hungarian retro-clone, Kamazaták és Kompániák is imminent, and even though it won't be available in English, I've decided to make certain key elements of it available for an international audience - partially because if I ever decide to run something B/X-like in English, I'll most certainly pick KéK over OSE (after years of extensive playtesting and fine-tuning, I just prefer it to B/X).

Below you will find the six "advanced" classes for the Hungarian retro-clone, Kamazaták és Kompániák (abbreviated, for it is but a reference work) - next time we look at the spell lists for magic-using classes (and as before, the devil's in the details).

Kazamaták és Kompániák - Basic Classes

The second edition of the Hungarian retro-clone, Kamazaták és Kompániák (Dungeons & Companies) is imminent, and even though it won't be published in English (as there are already enough B/X-like games), I've decided to make certain key elements of it available for an international audience - partially because if I ever decide to run something B/X-like in English, I'll most certainly pick KéK over OSE (after years of extensive playtesting and fine-tuning, I just prefer it to B/X).

Below you will find the seven basic classes (abbreviated, for it is but a reference work) - next time we look at the "advanced" classes (described as "classes for wilderness and city campaigns" in KéK), and finally, spell lists for both "basic" and "advanced" classes (and as before, the devil's in the details).

A few notes:

• Level limit is 6 by default (for player characters at least).
• Attack rolls are 1d20 + attacker's to-hit bonuses + defenders's AC vs. 20.
• Morale and hireling rules are roughly as in B/X (see either Echoes from Fomalhaut #01 or Castle Xyntillan for details).
• On D6 rolls (such as class abilities or random encounter rolls) it is assumed that high rolls favour the party, while low rolls hinder them.
• XP is awareded for defeating enemies (based on HD and special abilities), recovering teasure (1 XP per 1 gp), and carousing (1 XP per 1 gp).
• Spellcasting requires memorisation.
• The default mode of play is dungeon exploration, and hit points are rerolled at the beginning of each expedition.
• Small weapons deal 1d4 damage, one-handed weapons 1d6, and two-handed weapons 1d8.
• Helmets may be sacrificed to negate a mortal blow (a variant of shields shall be splintered).

Review: Kuf

Disclaimer: I was provided a review copy of the game free of charge.

Kuf is an occult investigative game with a system based on Knave. The player characters are aware that something is fundamentally wrong with "reality", and thus they are drawn into a frantic search for knowledge and power. In the postscript it is explained that the author intended to match seemingly opposite styles of gaming: modern day gnostic horror (like Kult) and old-school D&D (even if some would argue that Knave isn't exactly that, I guess it's close enough).

Thinking About Spells per Level for Clerics

While finalizing the text of the upcoming 2nd edition of the Hungarian retro-clone Kazamaták és Kompániák, we took a look at clerics. Here's a simple table that sums up XP requirements and spells/day by edition (note that it's an incomplete table; Rules Cyclopedia, although up until level 14 matches Mentzer, grows way beyond that, and so does AD&D). I'm specifically looking at 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spells to gauge power levels. For reference, among others, consider the following spells:

• 3rd level: Continual Light, Cure Disease, Locate Object, Remove Curse
• 4th level: Neutralize Poison, Protection from Evil 10' radius
• 5th level: Commune, Quest, Raise Dead

When you consider that clerics gain access to all the spells on their list (except in AD&D, where 5th spell level and up are provided directly by the cleric's deity), and the fact that the spell list grows a little bit in each edition (for instance, Mentzer adds Cure Blindness as a 3rd level spell and Dispel Magic as a 4th level spell to the cleric's repertoire), you can see the power discrepancy between the editions.

As noted on the summary sheet, a Cook/Marsh cleric gets access to 4th and 5th level spells at level 6 (i.e. 25,000 XP), whereas a magic-user in the same edition only gains 3rd level spells at level 5 (i.e. 20,000 XP). By the time the magic-user gets their first 4th level spell at level 7 (i.e. 80,000 XP), the cleric has already got access to 5th level spells (from 50,000 XP, actually).

In Mentzer (and the Rules Cyclopedia), however, the clerics' power curve is steeper. They only get their hands on 4th level spells at level 8 (i.e. 100,000 XP) and 5th level spells at level 10 (i.e. 300,000 XP), which is comparable to magic-users in this edition (level 7 and 9, i.e. 80,000 XP and 300,000 XP, respectively). Furthermore, for an extra set of 6th level spells, clerics in Mentzer can cast fewer low level spells at the highest levels (although in the Rules Cyclopedia they make up for it as they advance beyond level 14).

AD&D is somewhere between the two B/X editions, with the caveat that clerics have access to 1st levels spells from level 1. They get their 3rd level spells the quickest (at level 3, i.e. 13,001 XP). They receive 4th level spells at level 7 (i.e. 55,001 XP), which is comparable to magic-users (level 7, i.e. 60,001 XP). In fact, magic-users get access to 5th level spells sooner than clerics (135,001 XP vs. 225,001 XP).

Even though the cleric's spell per level table in Cook/Marsh hurts my sense of symmetry, it allows the proliferation of save or die effects. If you think about it, if a party of six acquires a total of 300,000 gp during their adventures (and that's without XP for killing monsters!), their cleric gets access to raise dead - for the same to happen in Mentzer, those 300,000 gold pieces must have been acquired by the cleric alone.

Excellence from the Blogosphere (July-August)

Finally, here's the latest Excellence in the Blogosphere post, this time looking at posts from July and August (with a few outliers as usual).

• Melan from Beyond Fomalhaut celebrated his third bloggaversary (not his word), and talked about the past and the future of his zine and other publications (Castle Xyntillan and Helvéczia, yay!), while also discussing the "the end of the OSR". Here are some responses (in good old-fashioned blog posts) from Anthony Huso and EOTB.
• It's hard to pick favourites posted by Konsumterra, but this short piece about monstrous snails spoke to me. It is exactly the kind of article you can easily save, print out, and add to your dungeon design folder. Also make sure you check out these d100 mission tables for fighters, thieves, clerics, and wizards.
• Speaking of simple tables, Tristan Tanner from The Bogeyman's Cave shared this simple d66 table for generating inspiring dungeon names.
• Another simple table is from Pride and Parchment by Sir Paperweight the Third concerning religious rituals.
• Rober Conley of Bat in the Attic briefly discussed the histories and problems of the RuneQuest and Traveller OGL (with a deeper look into other d100 games here).
• waywardwayfarer from The Dragon's Flagon talked about transparency from the DM's side, its benefits and how to achieve it.
• Arnold K of Goblin Punch introduces two terms when talking about adventures and situations: generic optimum and dynamism, and - using these neat terms - discusses ways to improve encounters (and thus adventures). Also check out this overhaul of encounter checks and this simple and fairly unintrusive meta currency.
• Pilgrim Procession From the Pilgrim's Temple shares a snippet of procedural hex description inspired by Lungfungus.
• Speaking of Lungfungus, he shared two dungeons (Lair of the Old Sorceror and The Ancient Winery), quickly followed by a third (Burial Temple of the Tridobatrakus).
• Courtney Campbell of Hack & Slash discusses why most published high level adventures fail, and what high level actually means in different editions of D&D.
• Wizard Lizard from Underground Adventures shares a gonzo science fantasy hack of Into the Odd and a mashup of OD&D and ODD.
• GraphitePrime talks about running a succubus as a demonic spirit that actually haunts the characters-
• Delta discusses the benefits of starting at 3rd level instead of 1st. The comment section is definitely worth checking out.
• Homebrew Homunculus shares a random table to generate random perfumes (made by Duryan the Gardener), and also discusses inversing the relationship of background and stats (i.e. the worse your stats, the better your background).
• Type 1 Ninja of Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat shares the writeup of the starting town of HELLWALKERS.
• John of The Wandering Gamist discusses his recent experiences climbing Mount Fuji and how it is modelled in OSR games.
• Scott Anderson from Treasure Hunters HQ shares an essay concerning emergent narratives.
• Martin O of Goodberry Monthly is creating a "kilodungeon". Here is the latest instalment (with links to the previous posts).
• Michael Kennedy from Sheep and Sorcery shares a pointcrawl system hack for LotFP.
• ravencrowking responds to an old discussion concerning player agency and gives advice to beginning judges (of the DCC kind).
• David B. of Psionic Blast from the Past shared his massive OD&D West Marches overland rules (with several addenda, like his campsite rules, weather/event rules, downtime rules, and setting description). There's also a slightly more detailed reaction table, a tweaked version of Vancian magic with a spell list, and advice and procedures for creating hex contents, designing traps and tricks, stocking dungeons, and creating treasure hoards.
• Inkheart from Iron & Ink further discusses their Yoon-Suin house rules, specifically downtime rules and disease/poison/death.
• Eric Diaz from Methods & Madness talks about the weight of gold in OD&D and 5E, and its implications.
• Michael Raston from The Lizard Man Diaries shares an index to his most important posts on Infinigrad and Guild Dogs.
• Justin Stewart of Dragons Gonna Drag talks about the kind of tasks/skills characters in his campaign are assumed to be competent at (because they are adventurers).
• maxcan7 from Weird & Wonderful Worlds automated all the tables from Chapter 6 of Hubris.
• Yora from Spriggan's Den talks about a very different cosmology than AD&D or Planescape.
• Joseph Manola of Against the Wicked City shares some very interesting (and authentic!) 19th century urban folklore, and another condensation of a Pathfinder AP: Mummy's Mask.
• noisms from Monsters and Manuals, as usual, talked about various interesting things, including two ways to classify monsters (the classicist-Linnaean and the romantic-Glaurungian), a list of forgotten gems upon celebrating his 1500th post, some cool dungeon entrances, and the pricing of RPG books (it's part of a longer discussion: part 1, part 2, and part 3).
• Daniel J. Hanley from The Engine of Oracles shared a bunch of fairy dragons: Ttrefolic and Urtician, Lotosic and Orchidic, Quercic and Corylic, and the Rosy Dragon.
• Allandros from Legacy of the Bieth talks about a community-based advancement system with lots of links to other cool stuff.
• If you wondered what SWORDDREAM is, there's this interview that might help.
• The official Encounter Critical webpage may appear defunct, but red_kangaroo from Library of Attnam has you covered.
• John Large from Red Dice Diaries is sharing details of Campaign Kludge piece by piece.
• Jones Smith from Was It Likely? shared his current version of the Peril System and discussed various topics (incremental modifiers, jenga towers, and to-hit rolls) from a design perspective.

Kickstarter: Downtime and Vermillion

I'd like to direct your attention to two ongoing Kickstarter campaigns (and something else):

1. On Downtime & Demesnes is Courtney Campbell's next book. It contains great advice and procedures for handling downtime activities, as well as multiple ways for PCs to spend their hard-earned cash (which, in most OSR games, is often thousands of gold pieces): arena fights, theft and assassination, orgies and philanthropy, sages, hirelings, mercenaries, spell research, magic item creation, purchasing land, building castles and strongholds, crossbreeding magical creatures and more, with separate releases for B/X and 5E. Disclaimer: I'm a paid copy-editor on the project.
2. The City of Vermilion is a mega adventure cooked in the magical kitchen of The Merciless Merchants. It describes a sword & sorcery city ripe with adventure potential with multiple locations in, around, under, and above the streets of Vermilion. Disclaimer: I have received a review copy of a different module from the Merchants earlier this year.
3. Back when their project was on Kickstarter, I was contacted by Knight Owl Games to help promote their Kickstarter for Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood - which I totally meant to talk about here, but then I completely forgot about it... Fortunately, they gathered the necessary funds to make this book a reality, so the least I can do is review it once it hits the virtual shelves of DriveThruRPG.

Review: Vigilante City (Chargen Examples)

I did everything in the order the book explained: (1) rolled and assigned attributes, (2) determined hit points and saving throws, (3) rolled twice on the background table, (4) chose a class, (5) determined starting possessions, (6) wrote down combat stats (here I made a single deviation: by the book, attack bonuses are noted before equipment is finalised).

M&M Session #1 - Isle of the Red Minotaur

"Lanike, the only daughter of King Neokles, has suddenly fallen into a deep magical slumber. Youguys, brave and foolhardy and expendable heroes, have been tasked with finding Xenon the Sage, currently imprisoned on the Isle of the Red Minotaur out of divine punishment. Captain Boros and his crew of thirteen are ordered to take you to the island, wait until your return, and sail towards wherever the magical cure is according to Xenon." - my verbatim introduction to the players

The party:

• Kitipos son of Karipos, Noble 1
• Orion, Spearman 1

Arriving at the rocky island, the party wagered 20sp each against a total of 100 of the crew that they would bring back the Red Minotaur's horns.

Following a trail inland they heard a melancholy tune. Orion decided to play harmony, and soon they met the source of the music: a childlike spirit of fortune and prosperity. He shared a lot of information about the island, and tasked the adventurers with retrieving his cornucopia from a pair of mischievous lemures.

The duo advanced forth, literally cutting their way in the forest, when suddenly vines of malicious intent grabbed Kitipos. The plant-creature was quickly dispatched, and the adventurers marched on.

They arrived at a log, inside from which they heard laughter. With their fierce looks and powerful words they pressed the lemures into handing over the cornucopia, which they then returned to the good spirit, who gave them a flask of oil that would protect them from the Red Minotaur. They feasted and rested, and in the morning they headed towards the Ursid village.

The bearmen were skeptical of the adventurers' plan to rid them of both the minotaur and the griffin, but nonetheless they gave them two goats, and the old Murbo concocted a sleeping drought.

The duo applied the sleeping potion to the goats' skin and headed towards the minotaur's cave. On their way they discovered a scorched grove of trees, one of them, beneath a thick layer of ash, appearing calcified.

They lured the minotaur's pet bicephalous dogs out, who quickly fell asleep as they ate from the poisoned goats. With but a thrust the adventurers executed the slumbering creatures.

Soon the minotaur became agitated as its dogs weren't responding. The adventurers barely had enough time to apply the oil to their bodies and dress themselves in armour - the minotaur came charging. Its fiery breath indeed proved ineffective against the ointed skin of Kitipos and Orion, and withing a minute they decapitated the Red Minotaur.

They took its Girdle of Strength and Bridle of Taming, skinned the dogs, and cut the minotaur's horns. When they returned, the Ursids rejoiced.

Then Kitipos put on a goat's skin to lure the hunting griffin close enough to Orion to put force on the bridle. The griffin did show up, Kitipos escaped its claws, but Orion only managed to jump on its back. With both adventurers hanging onto the creature, the griffin flew away, trying to run poor Kitipos into a cliff or treetop. Fortunately Orion was soon able to put on the bridle.

Once they both climbed on its back, they flew towards the tower where Xenon was kept prisoner. The landed on a balcony and entered. They saw broken mirrors and an emaciated man of unkempt hair and with empty eye sockets.

Xenon regaled his tale of tragic love: the dryad he fell in love with now dead because she chose a mortal, and himself imprisoned and unable to die or leave. Upon mentioning the calcified remains of the woman-shaped tree, Xenon realised there still might be a chance.

The adventurers were directed towards an island where the Temple of Doom is built on top of many springs where waters from the Underworld enter the mortal realms. In exchange for a flask of such water, Xenon would tell them about the cure to wake the sleeping Lanike.

And so, they set the fast Okeai's sail towards the Temple of Doom - with a bridled griffin on board, nonetheless!

Referee's note: A session of three hours, including character generation and a generous amount of joking around. I slightly tweaked the number of enemies (as I was originally expecting four players), but even starting characters are fairly strong anyways. Healing is very slow, however, so the lack of a magician (and thus access to curative or area-of-effect spells) might become a problem later.

Excellence from the Blogosphere (May-June)

Below you may find a list of greatness that the blogosphere (particularly of the OSR side) has produced lately (chiefly in May and June). It is nowhere near complete - I'm definitely going monthly with this, otherwise I won't be able to keep up.

• Wizzzargh from DMiurgy shared further playtest notes of a hexcrawl, and a detailed cosmology of the Sunset Realm campaign setting, along with a setting-specific calendar (something that more campaign settings should have, IMHO!).
• Dreaming Dragonslayer describes an open table Maze Rat campaign comprised of two distinct phases each session (a city phase and a wilderness phase); all relevant posts are available on the blog's incomplete index. You might also be interested in the author's other open table campaign pitches.
• Gundobad talked of a WIP bronze age setting, tentatively called Brazen Princes: here's an overview, and here are thoughts on background tables and funerals.
• Yami Bakura from Remixes and Revelations has a very good collection of tables to generate Sorcerer-Kings, as well as Households of Handsome Men (which are the elf-equivalents in the author's campaign). Over here, minions of dark powers and a hack of fighters for GLOG. Don't forget to check out the backlog; the posts on Eldritch Americana and adapting Apocalypse Prevention Inc. to D&D have some serious potential.
• Andy of Swords and Storytellers revealed an interesting project called The Lighthouse at the Threshold with the premise that a town in Michigan stands on the verge of two worlds. A custom system is being built: here you can read about the ability scores and the core mechanics.
• Bob Something of The Amateur Dungeoneers shared a list of YouTube channels that provide useful information for worldbuilding. Bob also continued discussing inhabitants of an urban fantasy setting (this time: demons and the undead). You may also want to keep an eye on Tellus, a fantasy setting (partially) inspired by JRPG titles.
• Monsieur Le Battlier from The Bottomless Sarcophagus wrote about locations and creatures in the Thawing Kingdom setting (here you may find an incomplete index of the blog). This, unrelated, take on elven parthenogenesis I found very stimulating and utterly creepy. There's also a second post, providing an alternative way of reproduction by the, ahem, traditional means. Here are also some diseases that may afflict these beautiful and tragic creatures. Do yourself a favour and check out this take on The Jungle as well.
• D. G. Chapman of The Graverobber's Guide posted a proper English weather table.
• Jason Vey from The Wasted Lands posted a hilarious piece about toxic fandoms.
• Inheart of Iron & Ink talked about royal forests and how majesty shapes their inhabitants. A rules variation of LotFP + Yoon-Suin, tentatively titled Lamentations of the Purple Princess, is also shared piece by piece: rules summary, character generation, and classes - so far.
• ravencrowking discusses telegraphing traps by analysing a published adventure of his own design.
• Brendan of Necropraxis here shares an interesting take on level drain.
• Meridian Miller of Wyrdspeak has a simple system for miracles (and three sample deities), suitable for campaigns without a dedicated cleric class. But there are other cool things as well, like this article on how to add races to Into the Odd (with five example races), how to use D6s to map small dungeons quickly, and an introduction to the author's homebrew setting, the Ashen Age and rules.
• GraphitePrime of (surprise!) Graphite Prime here talks about clerics attaining sainthood and, eventually, ascension.
• Dan from Throne of Salt lists a bunch of items/enemies for a roguelite-inspired pointcrawl. Also a PDF of Discape.
• Cackleharm from The Manse recently presented a really interesting take on spell components.
• Nick S. from Down in the Chthonic Deeps talks about rumours in his sandbox/megadungeon campaign, going into detail based on actual experiences and possible solutions. From the same campaign, here are the (unformatted) downtime rules.
• Martin O of Goodberry Monthly shared some Abjuration spells (a continuation of a series; links in the post), as well as this d30 table of Who's waiting just outside the dungeon door?
• Here's a shout-out for Ian Yusem from Uncanny Spheres talking about tourists and profiteers. Stats are for Troika! (so are these two batches of backgrounds from last year).
• waywardwayfarer from The Dragon's Flagon talks about search checks.
• Type1Ninja of Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat talks about Hellwalkers, a hexcrawl sandbox campaign.
• Daniel James Hanley from Engine of Oracles has shared a set of random tables to generate 18th century villages for a gothic sandbox. But if you want classic fantasy, then classic fantasy you shall have. Further posts on the setting can be found in the Panzoasia category (check out these maps!).
• noisms here shared 8 sample hex locations for the Fixed World setting. Also, here's some historical slang.
• Joe Fatula of Signs in the Wilderness compiled a short list of reference material pertaining to wilderness adventures.
• Evan from In Places Deep posted a list of rumours/hooks for the Wilderlands (CSIO in particular).
• Joseph Manola of Against The Wicked City talks about his takeaways from his long-running B/X campaign (here's a campaign map with explanations). Here's an unrelated but cool d100 encounters with onrushing modernity table.
• T AKW of Dreams and Fevers shared 20 exquisite organs (i.e. fantasy bioware), as well as an investigative folklore game, Beyond the Fence, Below the Grave.
• Velexiraptor from A Blasted, Cratered Land shared reconstructed (character brought back to life crafted from various materials), a psion class for GLOG, and rules for cybernetics.
• JasonT of Pretendo shared some preliminary notes on a Knave/Numenera hack.
• Christopher Willett started a blog to detail a megadungeon, the eponymous Temple of the Bat-Faced God.
• Michael Kennedy from Sheep and Sorcery here discusses the functions of a player character. For people interested in less theory, here's a very Moorcockian magic system.
• John B of The Retired Adventurer summarised a good way to design NPCs with regards to usability at the table.
• Malcolm Svensson from Tales of Scheherazade (following the footsteps of Joseph Manola) wrote up 30 encounters and 2 mini-dungeons based on a song's lyrics.
• Anne of DIY & Dragons posted part 3 in her series on resource management (here are part 1 and part 2, for reference), along with a follow up post. There's also a short post about hallways and dungeon maps that sparked a lively discussion. Another short post here is concerned with gridcrawl and pointcrawl overland maps. Here's a detailed look at investigations (specifically written for DCC but thought-provoking for other systems as well), and finally a list of links to lists of DCC occupations.
• Daniel Dean of Basic Red posted an interesting alternate take on HP (note that it uses a metacurrency).
• Cavegirl released a new game: Deep Morphean Transmissions.
• Matt Halton from I Don't Remember That Move shared some simple but solid background-generating tables from an upcoming publication.
• Lungfungus from Melancholies and Mirth talks about description procedures, streamlined weapons and armour rules (particularly suitable for the "city-state/king arthur/vikingr/mycenean greece/sengoku japan/conan the barbarian" type of settings), and jaquaying the dungeon (which, of course, reminded me of Melan's old article). Also, here's some random encounter tables that look cool.
• Skerples of Coins & Scrolls released Magical Murder Mansion.
• Talysman from The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms links to a few articles that summarise his views of ability checks (and to JB's rant that inspired the series).
• Here you can find a bunch of archived G+ community posts and comments.
• ktrey from d4 Caltrops shared a few critters (following his "just use goblins" principle): storkfolk, masked ones, and batrachians. There's also a giant table of 300 smells and scents.
• Here's the OSRIC wiki and index (also Dangerous Dungeons!).
• Not OSR in particular but still awesome: here's an unofficial and completely free and really cool Zelda RPG, Reclaiming the Wild.
• After having shown the processes behind the scenes for Hex, the amazingly baroque citycrawl, here are the writeups for a handful of rival city-states.
• Thor Takes D&D talks about non-classes where advancement is linked to a society/club/cult, somewhat like in RuneQuest (part 1 and part 2). And here are the basics for a gonzo mythic Greece in space setting.
• Screwhead from Was It Likely? shared a thought-provoking article about the impermanence of magic (and the opposite of proper physical means and swordplay). There's also an Into the Odd hack for the bullet hell dungeon crawl genre (with online generators here).
• Nathan Treme from the Highland Paranormal Society shared a city block generator (for the upcoming The Stolen City setting) and a weird name-and-title generator.

News from Khromarium #1

I'm terribly sorry for the lack of posts; first I was preoccupied with moving, and now I'm gearing up for our summer gaming getaway with my friends (and, having already finished the new Peru chapter, the start of Masks of Nyarlathotep proper). Nevertheless, I'm more than halfway through with compiling the next post in the "excellence from the blogosphere" series.

But to make sure there's something of value in this post as well, I present to you a list of news I shared with my players in my AS&SH game (inspired by Chris Kutalik's news posts over at Hill Cantons).

• The rise of Phlianos the Cruel among the city-state's oligarchs is a grim portent, aver many sages. The sorcerer, formerly known as Phlianos the Glum, has miraculously recovered from a severe case of saturnine fever (an affliction associated with prolonged exposure to arcane metals), and has already made a number of drastic propositions, including the forbiddance of vermilion and carmine (except for the highest social stratum) and the reinstatement of the archaic punishment of skeletal calcification.
• The Order of the Flaming Yak has declared Arkadios the Silver-Tongued, former advisor to Chancellor Moebius, persona non grata. The advisor was revealed to have played a crucial role in losing exclusive privileges regarding a handful of theurgic tomes penned by Saur the Spectral, kept in the private collection of the eccentric Vilkina Uttrem.
• A delegation from Erikssgard recently arrived with intentions to clarify their position on unsanctioned raids orchestrated by the Sons of Green. They are reputedly staying in the Tower of Serenity, a private club dedicated to humble delights.
• The Lapidaries' Guild has voiced their concern regarding the increased taxation of gem imports. They immediately formed an alliance with the Jewellers' Guild. Rumour has it that their leadership may even attempt a formal merger of the two guilds, much to the chagrin of the Jale Triarchy.
• Only two weeks from now, Hrabnab's Tongue, a constellation associated with adroitness and savoir faire, will become visible to the naked eye for three consecutive nights. The festive events include gladiatorial combat between man and beast (thanks to the generosity of Euthymios and his collection of foreign creatures), archery contests, and midnight theatre (this year's programme features the celebrated plays The Sordid Hero, By Xathoqqua's Tentacle!, and The Mermaiden).

Actual Play Musing: A recent semi-TPK

Last night I killed two player characters. Well, I technically didn't kill them: one of them was left behind, polymorphed into a frog, while the other accepted the anger of their wizardly patron.

It was a campaign that originally began as repeated explorations into the city's necropolis (I reskinned parts of Barrowmaze for it). We had four player characters, but two of them (an assassin and a barbarian) only showed up infrequently: the other two (a monk and a berserker) sat firmly in the driver's seat.

For the last two sessions we've been taking a break from the undead-infested necropolis and participated in some good old urban investigation. A slave escaped from an eccentric noble's palace and kidnapped his daughter. The players quickly realised that the daughter and the slave were lovers, and through some colourful interactions found them hiding in the Lunar Garden. Before confronting them, though, they returned a diamond ring to the noble (which the couple stole and sold to cover their expenses).

The initial "I'm giving you this quest" scene and this one surely have communicated that Phlianos wasn't a simple noble: he was hiding in a completely covered sedan chair carried by 8 bald servants with visible incision marks on their craniums. Also, the spokesperson conversed with the lord, not willing to show his visage, through a serpentine thread (like a thin plastic tube or something) that entered his brain through the ear. At any rate, they were paid for a job well done - apparently, the diamond ring was of greater importance than the daughter or the slave.

Still, the party learned that the noble-sorcerer would use the gem as a phylactery to achieve immortality: something they thought they should stop. So they learned of a rival sorceress, contacted her, and told her of the news. The sorcereress told them to steal it for her, and gave them an amulet ("When you have the gem, think of this place, and call my name out loud").

The players went back to the sorcerer with a terrible excuse to sniff around. A terrible reaction roll followed, and the players - instead of chancing an escape (which, for the matter, would totally have been possible) - went for an all-out assault. Sadly, the opposition won initiative, and the berserker failed his saving throw: he was instantly transformed into a frog. The monk threw a flask of oil, but it had little effect. In the next round, he decided to call out the sorcerer's name - so he was instantly teleported back to a safe place, leaving the polymorphed berserker behind (it was apparent that the player actually wanted to grab the frog immediately after activating the amulet; its power wasn't known, after all).

Since polymorph lasts indefinitely and the polymorphed creature assumes the behaviour and mannerisms of the new form, the berserker was assumed dead, unless a rescue mission would be attempted with haste. The sorceress was also greatly displeased. I informed the player that grovelling would surely convince her to spare his life, but he refused and accepted an off-screen death.

I don't think my portrayal of the sorcerer patron/villain was insufficient: the servants and especially the wire-tube were surely enough that it wasn't normal. Also, if a wizard is about to achieve immortality, one can assume it isn't some lucky novice but one with levels and items to back it up.

My players might have misinterpreted the poor reaction roll (result 2). The spokesperson was just yelling a solid get-the-fuck-out (had they complied, they would've let them leave the premises unharmed, although followed by watchful eyes), but of course they had to reach for the flasks of incendiary oil. I even gave the enemy a surprise check (I figured the spokesperson was furious enough to miss subtle movements), but they made it, and... the rest you already know.

The last bit I wanted to mention (truth be told, it was the first thing I wanted to, but I needed some context) is that after the monk's player accepted an off-screen punishment of his character, he offered an alternative ending: one in which the monk didn't use the amulet, and instead he was also polymorphed into a frog - and so the two frogs lived happily ever after in the sorcerer's garden of fountains.

Even though it totally could've happened (had the player not activated the amulet, the sorcerer would definitely have used his wand another time), the important thing is it didn't. Even though I am totally into negotiating fitting epilogues, I am firmly against changing events, even those of little consequence, that have already been established.

As I have already said it, we aren't crafting a story together: we are recognising a story as we look back at the events that unfolded.