Monster: Vampires of New Amur

Vampires of New Amur
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120’ (40’)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 3 (weapon of choice)
Damage: weapon +3
Save: F5
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: XVII
XP: 283

Vampires originated from a sect of Chaotic Necromancer Elves deep in the continent of New Amur. After a series of dark rituals they inadvertently opened a portal through which a hive of vampires entered and promptly assumed control of their bodies. The true vampire organism is a powerful parasitic creature resembling a large maggot residing around the heart. All host memories are retained, but the mind is forever destroyed and replaced by the vampire. Outward symptoms intensify over time and include paleness, sensitivity to sunlight, quickened reflexes, increased strength, and the increasing need to consume blood. Their numbers dwindled over time as various groups of heroic parties campaigned to destroy them. This has changed with the recent decimation of the Elf population; vampire knowledge has quickly reduced to stories and myth. Most vampires live in decaying castles or underground keeps.

Monster: Edu

Edu

No. Enc.: 1 (rare)
Alignment: Lawful
Movement: 150’ (50’)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: Animate Objects, Charm, Control Weather, Dispel Evil, Fly, Invisibility, Purify Food & Drink, Speak with Animals, Speak with Plants, True Seeing
Damage: 0
Save: F10
Morale: 16
Hoard Class: XIX
XP: 929

Edu are beautiful and magically powerful forest spirits similar to Dryads. They are rarely seen, but their presence is felt through a surge of positive emotions. Edu live in the forest, causing the entire environment within three miles of the mystical creature to grow increasingly verdant year after year. Edu always flee violence, using all of their abilities to escape. Edu die within 2d4 days of captivity. Edu are often hunted by beings of Chaos for sacrifice in powerful magic rituals.

"What exactly are we dealing with here?"

Martin Thomas recently published a post about science-fiction elements in fantasy by citing the S3 adventure Expedition to the Barrier Peaks in which fantasy characters, perhaps unknowingly, investigate a magical mountain which is, in reality, a crashed starship (Thomas, 2011). Dyson Logos published a recent post in which he referenced the movie Aliens and posted a series of awesome and detailed alien creation tables (Logos, 2011). Inspired by these fellow gamers, I give you my own take on Xenomorph stats.

I subjectively referenced other monsters in Labyrinth Lord and used my own XP algorithm in creating this dangerous monster. Perhaps I will create queen, facehugger, and egg stats another day. It would be cool to run Expedition to the Barrier Peaks with these Xenomorphs as the primary monsters.

Xenomorph
No. Enc.: 2d4
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150’ (50’)
Armor Class: 4
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 2 (bite, tail, or claw)
Damage: 1d8, 2d4, or 1d6
Save: F2
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: IV
XP: 213

Vaguely humanoid with elongated heads and two sets of razor sharp teeth, the Xenomorph is covered in black chitonous armor. Exceptionally fast and deadly in close-quarters combat, their ant-like hive mentality is driven by a need to serve a single queen. When exposed to the air, Xenomorph blood become a highly corrosive acid, dealing 1d6 damage per round for 3 rounds with anything, including metal or leather, in which it comes in contact. Any character within 10 feet of a Xenomorph when it takes damage has a 25% change of acid contact. Any weapon which deals said damage is immediately rendered useless.

Resources
Logos, Dyson. (2011, April 28). [random thursday] a xenomorph may be involved [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/random-thursday-a-xenomorph-may-be-involved/

Thomas, M. (2011, April 27). Is science-fantasy "laser sharking"? [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://daddyrolleda1.blogspot.com/2011/04/is-science-fantasy-laser-sharking.html

Magical Weapon: The Gorskard

The Gorskard or “Quick Sword”, long thought to be myth, was recently unearthed by a party of adventureres who stumbled into an unknown crypt on a well-known ancient burial ground. The long sword deals 1d6 damage, but allows the wielder to do two strikes. The strikes occur immediately after one another and each require a successful attack roll.

New XP System for Labyrinth Lord (part 2)

A comment on my recent post suggested I use a central tendency rather than maximum damage value in my formula for calculating a monster’s experience points value. I decided to change “maximum damage” to “median damage” (MD) in my formula, but left the importance factor the same. I took the first two pages of Labyrinth Lord basic and entered the monsters in my spreadsheet and compared my experience points with the published versions.

This activity illuminated certain monster data quirks. For example, the statistical difference between cave and polar bears is relatively small; only one armor class point. However, the experience point difference is significant at 120. Additionally, the cave bear is also a higher hoard class, which likely results in even more experience points.

I can also use this spreadsheet to determine the experience value relative to advancement. Here, I use the difference between a first and second level fighter. Labyrinth Lord basic establishes the goblin experience point value at five. This is less than a third of a percent of the necessary experience for first level fighter to reach the second level; 5/2035*100. Using my method, goblins have an experience point value of 56, or 2.75% of the necessary experience for a first level fighter to reach the second; 56/2035*100. First level fighters would have to kill 407 goblins to advance to the second level, discounting treasure, using the established values. The same fighter would advance to the second level after destroying 36 goblins using my method.

Game Masters might also find a spreadsheet like this useful when they want to modify monsters, either mid-game or during preparation. For example, if I want my goblin to pick up a magic sword, or drop a shield, I can recalculate an XP value.

My goal, then, is to complete this spreadsheet with all monsters in basic for a future post. If you see any flaws in my logic or math, please let me know. I’m doing this out of curiosity and enjoyment rather than disapproval of the established system.

More Important Factors	Formula
Armor Class (AC)	(10-AC)*4
Hit Dice (HD)	HD^2*10
Special Abilities (SA)	SA*100
Number of Attacks (AT)	AT*4
Less Important Factors	Formula
Maximum Movement (MM)	(MM/120)*10
Save (S)	S*2
Median Damage (MD)	MD*2
Morale (M)	ME*2

New XP System for Labyrinth Lord

My goal: create a consistent system for creating monster experience points that does two things. First, it increases the value of low-level monsters and decreases the value of high-level monsters as measured by their hit dice (HD). Second, it provides a consistent method accounting for factors in addition to special abilities and starting HD. To do this, I start with a question: What are the important qualities of a monster in terms of play mechanics? The answer to this question determines the factors that I include in the determination of experience points if such experience is a significant factor, i.e., reward, of a game system (and it is). I use Labyrinth Lord basic information for this activity.

The important qualities include armor class (AC), maximum movement (MM), hit dice (HD), number of attacks (AT), maximum damage (MD), morale (M), save (S), and special abilities (SA). The qualities were organized into two categories based on how important they were in combat mechanics. Values for each quality are written as a formula.

I’m still tweaking the formulas, but the end result is what I wanted; higher XP for low-HD creatures and lower for high-HD monsters and a system that accounts for more than specials and hit dice. I input the sums of each formula above into a single cell in my spreadsheet program. In this way, when I create an original monster, it is easy to create an XP value that is consistent within my world.

Monster: River Snake of New Amur

River Snakes of New Amur

No Enc.: 1d2

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 90’ (30’)

Armor Class: 4

Hit Dice: 4

Attacks: 2 (bite, constrict)

Damage: 1d4 (poison), 2d8

Save: F3

Morale: 8

Hoard Class: VI

XP: 95

River Snakes are massive, some growing as long as 30 feet, and capable of subtle color shifts enhancing a natural camouflage. They are equally at home in the forest, where they tend to live in sub-canopies, or the numerous rivers of New Amur. If bitten, a character must save versus poison or become paralyzed for 2d12 rounds. The River Snake tracks targets through vibrations and heat because its eyes are bioluminescent for petrifying prey instead of providing accurate vision. River Snake prey falls into an immobile trance if they see the eyes and fail a save versus petrify or paralyze. The River Snake has two external poison glands which can be successfully extracted 25% of the time. Most Elf tribes will trade or purchase extracted poison glands.

New Amur Module 1(NA1): Map & Introduction

As Humans, Dwarves, and Halflings push further West into the New World continent of New Amur, they increasingly come upon abandoned Elf settlements. In many cases, the buildings are only a few decades old and structurally sound. Most are composed of wood, but occasionally, exploratory parties find magnificent marble structures thought to be churches, though the precise function is unknown. Three years ago, just such a structure was discovered a couple weeks journey from Ahrjento, the westernmost settlement along the Ree River.

Working together, the church and village council funded and sent a team of clerics, archaeologists, construction workers, and colonist farmer families to settle in and around what was named “Big Church Area” or Surkala. They left fourteen months ago, and several weeks after their departure sent word they had arrived safely and in time to plow and seed for fall harvest. Several weeks after that, two archaeologists returned because of growing disagreement regarding the use of the church; the clerics directed the construction crew to demolish and redesign significant aspects of the structure and the archaeologist wanted the building left intact for research.

New Amur Module 1(NA1): Teaser

As Humans, Dwarves, and Halflings push further West into the New World continent of New Amur, they increasingly come upon abandoned Elf settlements. In many cases, the buildings are only a few decades old and structurally sound. Most are composed of wood, but occasionally, exploratory parties find magnificent marble structures thought to be churches, though the precise function is unknown.

New Amur Soundtrack: 1

I have worked and am working on a fantasy setting labeled "New Amur". I hope to build a soundtrack to accompany my thoughts and designs. Below is the first of what I hope become several songs that create, in my mind at least, the appropriate mood for the New Amur setting.

One Page Module 5: Calderone's Demise

Author's Note: Below is the post form of my most recent one page module series, labeled "OPM". You can find the PDF version by clicking here or by going to the right side of my blog under the "What I've Made" section. Enjoy!

Calderone’s Demise

Recently, a small band of Goblins encroaching from the West surprised a Dryad bathing in a spring. They killed her and, in a Chaotic Goblinoid ritual, used her extracted heart in a powerful curse spell on the town of Calderone. As a result, the prosperous Human and Dwarf town experiences mounting misfortune. The Calderone council has raised 3d6x1, 000 GP to hire a band of adventures to discover and fix the cause of the recent problems. The town, however, is truly doomed and the situation will only continue to worsen until the entire town is desecrated and left open to Goblin inhabitants who wait anxiously on the wood’s edge.

Each day the conditions worsen with strange weather and monsters wandering ever closer to town borders. Many inhabitants either barricade themselves in their homes or take their family and leave for the nearest town. The town population will reach zero at the end of the third day.

Calderon’s Demise is set in New Amur, a large “New World” continent currently being colonized on the Eastern side by “Old World” Human and Dwarf groups. Ancient Elf ruins are numerous, but Elves themselves are rare and at risk of extinction. Goblins and other chaotic creature attacks and sightings seem to be increasing as colonists push further West. You can find additional information about New Amur by clicking on the label "New Amur".

One Page Module 2: With Miniatures!

A few weeks ago I finished my second One Page Module called “Rites of Passage”. I had a hankering to try it out with some miniatures. Below is a brief outline of what I did.

Once my map was finished using a GIMP-like program, I used Block Posters online to enlarge and print the map to six pages laid out horizontally. This took less than five minutes. Block Posters is also cool because the finished product is not only printable, but can be saved as a PDF. I thought six pages was manageable and yet big enough to nearly cover a card table. That is, placed in the center of a typical kitchen table, all players can easily access and there is still plenty of room for dice, snacks, books, etc.

I trimmed the margins and laid it out on the table in about five minutes. It would be just as easy to tape or glue to cardboard, each individual piece, or the table itself for greater stability.

I arbitrarily decided to make each square ten feet per side, then set up an open proportion to determine a circle with a thirty foot radius. I cut this circle out of an empty (sniff) case of Yuengling because it’s durable. This becomes a simple but effective Game Master tool to slide the proportionally correct circle around as miniatures wander about the cave. This took less than five minutes.

So, less than fifteen minutes after getting the idea, a map with cutout was lying on my table, just begging someone to come along and ask to play. Maybe next time I’ll use poster-sized paper for the circle cutout so that the game master can obscure the entire map and not give anything away. Or, during game play, the Game Master can lay down sheets as the characters explore.

One Page Module 4: Golden Triangle (Table Patch)

Above is the fixed table for my latest One Page Module, Golden Triangle.

One Page Module 4: Golden Triangle

Author's Note: This module is inspired from several sources including Mad Max and Spartacus. I wrote it with Labyrinth Lord in mind, but it will easily convert to nearly any system you'd like. I also published it as a PDF. You can find it linked here or by clicking on the link found under my "What I've Created" list to the right of my blog. If you play it, let me know how it went, OK? Enjoy.

Kill or Die!

The last thing you remember is a new found friend at a tavern buying you another round of Goblinoid Pale Ale. Now your head is pounding, you’re clothed in nothing but a filthy loincloth, and you’re about to die in what appears to be an underground fighting arena. A wooden door rises and you step from an iron holding cell into a triangular open-air wooden arena painted a fading gold. Six tiers of seating hold a full capacity crowd who half-heartedly cheer your arrival shouting, “Kill or die!” Unlocked wooden chests lay at each corner. Adjacent to your position, two other bleary-eyed opponents stumble onto the triangular sandy floor, which you notice is strangely pink in areas. Apparently, you’re the opening bout.

Initiative determines who gets to a chest first if two select the same chest (50% chance). Each bout, random objects are stocked in each of the wooden arena chests and new opponents emerge. If a character refuses to fight, armed guards appear and kill the reluctant fighter. In between bouts, guards reduce the character to loincloth only and a haggard wizard applies a bitter potion of healing for 1d6 hit points. If the character survives three bouts, a potion of forgetfulness is forcibly applied. The character awakens disoriented in an ally with a terrible hangover, fresh bruises and cuts, and no memory of the past 1d4 days. Guard: Roll 1d6, 1-4 – Human Fighter, 5 - Orc, 6 - Bugbear.

Artwork by Dylan Hartwell. Written by Dylan Hartwell at www.digitalorc.blogspot.com and released under the Creative Common License.