Review: The Black Hack

To say that I'm late to the party with this review is a bit of an understatement. When The Black Hack Kickstarter funded back in February is was a mere blip on my social-media radar. I looked at it briefly, thought, "Ugh, a roll-under mechanic," and "Do I really need another retro clone?" then moved on. What I can say now with no reservation is it deserved a closer look.

As the year progressed multiple genre-Hacks using David Black's "The Black Hack" as a base cropped up. It wasn't until I saw what Mike Evans over at DIY RPG Productions was doing with his own sword, sorcery and super-science genre hack called Barbarians of the Ruined Earth that I decided I had to pay the Two US Dollars to get the PDF and find out what all the fuss was about.

I get it now! I understand not only why people love this version of tabletop fantasy role-playing, but also why it has spawned so many of its own hacks!

It is described as: "The most straightforward modern OSR compatible clone available."

It's a bold claim, but it has merit. The game fits comfortably into twenty A5 (half-letter-sized) pages, including the cover, acknowledgements page, Open Game Licence and character sheet. That means the game only uses sixteen pages to explain how to play.

With a core mechanic based on rolling under character statistics, the rules are clear and for the most part easy to understand. The writing is straightforward and economical. As a former journalist and a parent with little time to read rulebooks, I appreciate David Black's tight writing.

There is no art beyond the cover, but the layout and design is clean, with good use of white space and easy-to-use tables. It has two columns per page for most of the book. The typeface used for the body text is a standard serif font, offering no distractions or obstructions to reading. The headings and titles all use the distressed sans serif typeface you see on the cover. I like this particular choice as it embraces the "quick and dirty" nature of the rule system. The effective headings, bolded text and good use of white space makes it easy to reference the book for specific information despite the lack of page numbers.

The best use of white space is on the four pages of character class descriptions where each class gets its own page with a single column running down the middle of the page. This gives a special emphasis to these pages and leaves room to make notes around the text in the huge margins. It also allowed me to print out a few character sheets with the rules for each class on the back.

The rules themselves surprised me in their simplicity and flexibility. The core mechanic involves rolling under the relevant stat for any given action on a twenty-sided die (D20). Since stats are rolled on three, six-sided dice (3D6) player characters all start with a good level of competency. The balance of power from the difference between the levels of the player characters and the Hit Dice of their opponents (monsters) creates bonuses and penalties to combat rolls. The advantage/disadvantage mechanic that is a big part of the success of 5th edition D&D is also used to maintain the power balance and protect the specialisation of the different classes.

The rules are a solid blend of old school simplicity with modern improvements. The system simplifies resource tracking with the usage dice that also creates an unpredictable element to resource management. There is a six-item death-and-dismemberment style table for characters who are knocked "Out of Action." The sundered shield option to sacrifice a shield to escape damage is included as well. Encumbrance is streamlined with obvious penalties.

One interesting mechanic is how the players do almost all of the rolling, similar to Monte Cook's Cypher System. The player rolls under their relevant stat to attack and again to avoid attack. Because of this change, armour provides extra hit points instead of making it more difficult to be hit.

I didn't like it the first time I came across the idea of class-based weapon damage, but here it serves to eliminate the pages of weapon lists that you see in other clones while still having some variability in damage. I like how it assumes that fighters are more dangerous with weapons than other classes. It certainly makes sense when you look at fantasy fiction. Conan is just a deadly with whatever weapon he picks up and Fahfrd names all his swords "Greywand" because they do the same thing. The addition of the unarmed/improvised damage by class is smart. It means a balanced weapon of war like a spear or sword is going to be more effective than a chair leg or shield bash.

Spells are handled in a way I think will see more use of utility spells at lower levels. The player starts with the spell slots you see in most OSR clones, but the slot only expires during casting if the player fails an Intelligence roll. The total of spells memorised is restricted by level so players need to decide what they want to have prepared for fast casting and what they'll be pulling out their spellbooks for. It feels like the ritual casting option in 5e D&D without being so finicky. Also, this design choice creates uncertainty in the resource management of spells. If anything should be uncertain, it's magic!

The spell lists themselves are short, with single line descriptions filling one page each for divine and arcane spells. This is another good choice. Reading the spells I find the shorter descriptions far harder to misinterpret and stretch to irrelevant purposes than the longer ones of other clones and editions of D&D.

The monster entries are also almost always one-line per creature. Since they only roll damage, that, their hit dice and any special attack or defence is all you need. The list is two pages long and has creatures from one hit die up to twelve. With these examples, conversion of any other monsters should be no problem.

Player character progression by level is a nice innovation that works with the core mechanic. The player rolls a D20 for each stat and raises any stat they roll over by one. Each class has at least one stat which they roll twice for. Besides that each class also has a hit die that they roll for more hit points.

The game only has four classes including Warrior, Thief, Cleric and Conjurer. These four cover the basics and leave plenty of room for meaningful differences between party members. There are no rules for different fantasy races, but if you need them in your game it's not difficult to add them. With such a simple system, bolting on extras will be half of the fun!

That is why we see so many genre-based hacks of this system out there. The system is so straightforward and simple it would take some serious effort to break it. While reading the rules I came up with three genre hacks I'd like to do with it myself!

The example of play is one of the better ones I've seen. A player could read that one page and grasp almost the entire system.

I'm not surprised the game is picking up momentum. The Kickstarter had 604 backers. I don't know how many PDFs have sold since then, but The Black Hack community on Google Plus has 810 members as I write this review, implying it is only gathering more fans.

Still, the game is not quite perfect. I would change a few things that I don't like.

The cleric has a spellbook. This choice is not terrible mechanically, but for the sake of flavour I would call it a prayer book and refer to casting divine spells as performing miracles. It would create better separation between the cleric and conjurer.

The conjurer spells have "read languages/magic" as a third level spell. I'd put that back into the first level list and add "fly" to the third level list. Before I run this system I might come up with a streamlined version of the "summon" spell from Lamentations of the Flame Princess as well. If I can get it down to two A5 pages I think I'll slip it into my copy.

Armour points are used up during combat, but return after a short rest. Shields are included in this rule. I think shields should be persistent in their effect. I would give a character a bonus to their level for the purpose of defending against attacks from monsters of plus one for a small shield and plus two for a large shield. That way a first level character attacked by three hit dice monster could roll without any penalty to avoid getting hit instead of the plus two penalty for fighting a more powerful monster. The persistence would make shields particularly useful and would make the choice to "sunder a shield" to avoid damage a harder one to make.

Fighters get one attack per level every round. That is way too much rolling in combat for my taste. I like the speed provided by this system and after third level the fighter player would grind every round to a halt during his or her turn while rolling hits and damage. I'd replace this ability with the ability to use shields offensively against more powerful monsters so they get the bonus levels when attacking as well. I'd also allow fighters to roll to hit with two-handed weapons without the plus-two penalty. Those two changes should protect them as the most effective characters in any combat without putting the rest of the party to sleep every round.

Overall, these are small things and likely have as much to do with my gaming taste as anything else.

For two bucks this game is a steal! I printed my PDF out as a booklet on five sheets of paper. This thing will go into my bag for every face-to-face game I play. I'll probably put a small notebook in with it with some quick adventure generation tables and class-based equipment lists so I can use this game as a quick replacement if some players cancel at the last minute.

I think the best use of The Black Hack is probably introducing new people to fantasy RPGs. Its blend of old-school flavour with modern mechanics is a great doorway into the possibilities of tabletop role-playing. Its simplicity means no one is left behind and there's way less of the, "What am I rolling now?" and more, "I do X!"

Well done David Black!

Dangerous Magic in Fantasy Gaming

I started reading the Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock just before Christmas. The magic in the stories and some other things that have come up while gaming has me re-evaluating magic in fantasy RPGs.

Back in the days of 1e and 2e D&D, when I played a magic user I would bend spells until they broke. I found ways to use spells that had little to do with their original intent but worked within their description. I drove GMs nuts with my descriptions of how my characters were using the spells because they'd would constantly need to make a ruling on whether it would work out the way I wanted or not. Things like casting an Enlarge spell on a wooden door in a stone frame so it would shatter as it grew too big for the space it was in, or casting a Knock spell to unlatch all the buckles on the enemy's platemail.

The newer games have either nerfed the spells or created far more explicit descriptions that don't allow for these interpretations of effects. That's progress I suppose.

I recently found myself exercising those old creative muscles again in a Fifth Edition game I'm playing. We're well into our second year of play and my Warlock hit 9th level. That means she can summon Elementals now. When I saw that ability as one of many on the menu to choose from at 9th level I thought about the Elric stories and all the things I could get an Elemental to do during the one-hour duration.

Now I look at the abilities of the different elementals and figure out what kind of things I can do with them. The reaction of horror from the other players when my character commanded an Earth Elemental to drag an opponent into the ground and leave him there was something of a surprise. I figure a Warlock has the moral flexibility necessary to bury imaginary bad guys alive.

Between the four kinds of elementals my character can solve a lot of problems. Combat and movement are two common ones. For instance, Air Elementals can carry your character through the air and blast your enemies. So much more fun than a regular Fly spell!

I've mentioned before that I'm working on my own fantasy game system and one of the priorities I have is to make the magic system more open. To design it to reward creativity and unconventional thinking. As wonderful as that is, it's taking a long time for me to test everything and make certain the game does all the things I want it to do (like be fun to play). Not to mention that a lot of people don't want to change their game even though they might like to bring what I'm talking about to their table.

The pulps that influenced the creation of the first RPGs leave their marks on the magic systems we take for granted now but the structure keeps magic safe and largely predictable. Magic was always a bit scary in those old stories. A good example of something that they brought into the structure is the creature from Robert Howard's first Conan story, "The Phoenix on the Sword," inspiring the Invisible Stalker spell. When you read Michael Moorcock's Elric stories though, they summon water elementals to create a fog to hide their navy or fire elementals to set fire to a town when attacking. They summon terrible creatures of chaos to get secret knowledge or help navigating the different dimensions. These creatures have their own agendas and goals. Sometimes negotiation is necessary and sometimes they simply oblige.

I know that Stormbringer has a magic system that works like this, but I don't play Stormbringer nor do I know anyone that does. What I think I need is an OSR/5e D&D compatible character class that uses magic from other creatures and does no magic other than summoning and binding them to the caster's will.

Using the Magic User/Wizard class as a base, we could get there pretty quickly. For whatever system you are playing in simply adopt all the hit dice, skills, weapon and armour restrictions, etc of the Magic User/Wizard class and swap out the spellcasting for summoning and binding magic that can be used any time.

"Summoner"
This piece is actually my own attempt at drawing. I'm hugely jealous of people who can illustrate their own blogs so I'm going to try to learn to do this. If you are interested in my journey in that department or you want to see the links to the reference model you can see it at DeviantArt

This makes it easy to drop the class into whatever game you are playing without disrupting the game balance as it exists. If you are playing LotFP you get a character that can use any weapons and armour, like the rest of them but the lower hit points and lack of martial manoeuvres balances out the magic abilities. In 5e, the proficiencies and characteristics fit the flavour created by that system and its assumptions about setting.

Although for 5e, it might make more sense to use the warlock as a base for a summoner class. Once I've tested it out it would be nice to see if it would work for an Eldritch Knight. Elric was a warrior first. He only summoned elementals for large scale effects or to save him from drowning. He fought for himself.

The magic of summoning should be accessible but dangerous. Since the entities often want to get to our world for whatever reason summoning them should be easy while the real challenge comes when trying to control the creature. I also like the idea that it gets more difficult to control new entities throughout a single day. That way there's a good reason to conserve the magic and use it only when it's needed. That escalating danger is a good reason for characters using this kind of magic to be universally feared by ally and foe alike.

I already have summoning magic baked into my own game and tests are going well so far. I'll be putting together an OSR Class for summoning soon, but since I'm playing mostly 5e and playtesting my original game I'll probably do one for 5e D&D first. If you beat me to it, send me a link!

The Game Master Player Character, or Why I Broke My Own Rule

I don't like Game Master Player Characters. They make me uncomfortable as a player and as a GM. I don't mean Non-Player Characters, but party-members controlled by the GM that get a share of treasure/experience and act as protagonists in the game.

The dangers of a GM PC are huge! The moment they do too much it stops being a game. Once the GM is controlling both sides of the action in the game it's just a story. That means the other people in the group go from players to spectators and that isn't fun for anyone. As a GM, a lot of the excitement for me comes from not knowing what the players will come up with in any scenario. I do my best to anticipate them so they are challenged and enjoy the game, but the surprises are where the magic happens. A GM PC threatens that.

An evocative image from the late Dave Trampier

There are some terrible reasons to add a GM PC to the party. Some of the worst are things like, "guiding the story," or, "protecting the plot." If you want alpha readers for your novel it will go better if you are honest about it. Don't trick your players into doing that for you. "So the GM can play too," leads to some terrible wankery as well. Even if you have the best of intentions as the GM, you know what is coming, the deck is always stacked in your favour. It's not a challenge and it's definitely not much of a role playing game if the only variable is the dice.

Sometimes people will want a GM PC if a "critical" character class is missing from the party. This sort of thing often happens in D&D when no one wants to play a cleric. GM controlled clerics that are essentially just walking heal-bots ("OK, Kolbar casts Sanctuary and prepares to heal you guys") can always be replaced with a cache of healing potions. Solid play can solve a lot of these problems too. Hit points are a resource that are spent during the course of an adventure. Clerics are one way to extend that resource but solid strategy and magic items can do the same.

Fifth Edition D&D doesn't have the same niche problems. Between the backgrounds and the feats it's not hard to cover off all the skills and abilities that are useful during an adventure. For example, I play a Warlock in one game with the Healer feat who does an excellent job as the party healer even though we have a cleric, because the cleric player would rather cast battle spells and fight.

GM PCs are a good way to mess up a game. I don't like them and I don't use them. You can imagine my horror when I realized I needed one for a game I'm running.

I'm running a game for a couple of new players who didn't want to play with experienced players even though there are a tonne of amazing, supportive players who are great to new people in the hobby. It's only them and a party of two people is a problem. It's too small to challenge without risking a Total Party Kill in every encounter. One bad round is the end of them. Creative play can allow a party of two to dish out plenty of damage in an encounter but they still only have so many hit points. The players chose to make stealthy characters which helps but there are times where even the most clever players end up with their characters in a pitched battle. They need at least one more character there to divide the attention of the opposing forces.

I didn't want this added character to overshadow the PCs but I wanted a character that could draw fire and have the hit points to stay in the fight. My players also didn't create characters that could cast magic, which is pretty common for new players. That's why I also wanted the character to have some casting ability to help show the players the possibilities and get them comfortable with the magic rules.

I thought at first a fighter or paladin who went with a protector martial role would be good. Add in the Sage background, the Magic Initiate feat and we have a wizard's apprentice who took up arms after his/her master was killed in the field.

As cool as that sounded, I decided to go with a straight up wizard. I knew I wasn't introducing her until they got closer to their destination so I could start her at 2nd level with a School of Wizardry already established. I made her an Abjurer. The defensive magic and extra hit points make her extremely hard to kill. I decided that a Rock Gnome with their extra knowledge of magical devices would be handy because she could not only identify the function of magic items, but also their names and history which makes them more interesting. Even a +1 sword is special if it has a history. The Rock Gnomes also have a bonus to constitution which adds some more hit points.

I decided the only fair way to make the character is with the standard statistics (15, 14, 13, 12, 10 and 8) and standard hit points. I'm fairly lucky when it comes to rolling so this keeps the character in balance with the party, stat wise. I used the standard HP per level instead of rolling as well. It's high enough to hit my objective without giving them the wrong expectation for what a Wizard can be. Either of them could have made this character. Also, if one of the PCs dies the player might want to take over this character rather than roll up a new one so I need to keep it all fair and balanced.

In our second session it worked out well. The players had a forbidden book, the Malleus Deus from the Tales of the Scarecrow adventure they did in the first session. This forbidden item allows a wizard to cast a selection of cleric spells. After their new party member explained how dangerous it was to even know the location of this dreaded item they wrapped it up and locked it away at the Keep's vault. After some play they decided they trusted the wizard enough to let her transcribe a couple of spells into her book before locking it up again so she could cast Cure Light Wounds.

Another one of Dave Trampier's images

After railing against NPCs covering traditional party roles I have a little wizard who can take some serious damage, cast some useful wizard magic and healing spells. Still, she has no serious offensive spells, with only Sleep and Hold Person she is strictly support. No chance of overshadowing the rest of the party or becoming some kind of mobile weapon. So far, when in melee she casts Blade Ward or Shield to keep herself in the fight since she doesn't actually have an offensive cantrip.

We're several sessions in and the players like her, considering her a part of the team. They say she is useful without being in the way of anyone's fun. Jeff is more reckless than Megan so he tries to get the NPC to break standoffs with a third vote. The first time it happened I was surprised but should have realized that they would get the third member of the team to cast a vote. I'm not comfortable with that because I don't want to guide the party, but I do my best to keep my GM ideas out of it and rely of the character's back story and experience to make those calls.

Now that they are closing in on fourth level and have a third player starting next session I'm looking forward to transitioning the wizard out of the party and into a friendly NPC living at the Keep.

First Session Report: Journey to the Keep

Last Monday we kicked off our first real session of our new 5e D&D campaign set in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos and the Known World of the BECMI D&D era. A historic night here in Canada for all sorts of reasons but for my players it was their first game ever.

All the good stuff for the first session!

For two people who had never played an RPG before they dove right in and played well. During character generation last time they chose to link their bonds. The Tiefling Monk with the Hermit background learned his monk skills while on his hermitage and it completely changed how he interacted with the world for the better. His hermitage started because he was implicated in one of the scams run by the Elven Rogue with the Charlatan background. The Rogue's bond is guilt over burning the Monk by shifting the blame to him. Thrilled with his new worldview, Traorin (Tray) feels grateful to the Rogue, Ano, for setting him on the right path and he returned to Specularum to help her see the light too. Sadly his return caused problems for Ano, who was in the middle of a Scam at the time and they had to leave the city in a hurry. These background choices helped us get the party moving and give a reason for them to adventure. The party headed north to the Barony of Kelvin but didn't stay long because of the harsh rule of law attitude of the place. They continued north along the Duke's Road to the Barony of Penhaglihon in the Wufwolde Hills. That's where they heard about the Keep on the Borderlands which seemed like a good place to lay low for a while and scam the odd merchant from Darokin.

The pair made friends with a halfing trader named Bobberto Farstrider, who was taking a wagon load of dry goods up to the keep. Bobber was pleasant company who was flattered to be travelling in the company of an exiled elven prince from Alfhiem (Ano's default persona - she's actually a Vyalia wood elf). He happily gave up his tent to make Ano more comfortable while he and Tray slept under the wagon.

Tales of the Scarecrow cover image by Jason Rainville

The magic started when they came upon a ripe cornfield by the side of the road. They knew something was fishy right away since it was early spring and there's no way corn was going to be ready for harvest at that time of year.

Megan, who plays Ano, was not down with the cornfield. She felt her character would see no profit in exploring it and she thought it was a pretty obvious trap.

"This is a frickin people-hunting alien cornfield and it's going to eat us!"

They argued in and out of character with great reasons on both sides. Jeff, playing Tray, wants to explore and check out the strange things and Megan, playing Ano, doesn't want their characters to die in the first session. To break the deadlock, Tray asked the NPC, Bobber, what he thought. Of course the NPC wants you to go down the trail through the unnatural cornfield to the strange farmhouse! Bobber felt adding a few bushels of ripe corn to the wagon would definitely make this a more profitable trip for him and wanted to inquire at the farmhouse they could just barely see from the road.

I'm impressed with these two. Once inside the clearing in the centre of cornfield they did well. They investigated the interior and exterior of the cottage with care. They worked under the assumption that everything would kill them but were still open to possibilities. They were compassionate with the lone survivor in the house and managed to get quite a bit of information out of him because of it. They tried to save him even though they figured out he was cannibalizing his friend.

They lost all the NPCs but managed to come up with a great plan that saved themselves involving the harpsichord and the wagon. They also lost the oxen though, so they left the wagon by the side of the road with a sign warning others away from the field. I was a little worried about inflicting a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure on brand new gamers, but as scary as they are there is always a way to think yourself out of them. I had been through the Tales of the Scarecrow once before as a player and my character came out of it well ahead. It's just a matter of figuring out how to use what you have. Besides, I gave them extra resources with the merchant and everything in his wagon (that they dumped on the ground for their plan). Turns out I didn't need to worry. They have the natural paranoia necessary to navigate an LotFP adventure.

They took the two books even though they discussed the option of just leaving them there. Both books now link them back to Specularum and I'm hoping I can use them to pull the party into B6 The Veiled Society or some other kind of shenanigans in the big city. They are hoping to sell the books since the receipt they found says they are so valuable.

They kept the Sword Which Is Uncertain, a beautifully crafted magical rapier. The rapier treats all targeted ACs as 14 no matter what armour they have. It also strikes a random target on a modified roll of 16 or 17. I'm thinking of simplifying it to an unmodified roll of 13 or 1. Ano is using it despite the curse because Megan thinks Jeff deserves to get a few random stabbings for dragging them into that cornfield.

The Keep on the Borderlands by Erol Otus

After that they hiked the rest of the way to the Keep, travelling safely and sleeping comfortably in Bobber's tent (one of the few things they were able to keep and still escape).

Once at the Keep they got a room and made friends with a Gnomish Wizard (Abjuration Tradition) who was able to identify and put a value on their loot. Their new friend managed to get close to the Caves of Chaos once, before her party was slaughtered by goblins. She knows vaguely where the Caves are and has agreed to join the party to provide some magic support.

The Tales of the Scarecrow turned out to be a great encounter adventure for the road. They could have driven past with no consequence, but I'm glad they played it out. For new players I wanted them to play a modern adventure before they got stuck into the Caves at the Keep so they'd realize there are all kinds of possibilities and more than one way to play any situation. I was also glad to see they were willing to talk and investigate since that will help them in the Caves of Chaos. They are a small party so they need to be smart.

I enjoyed seeing them get a little more sense of the world as well. Talking to the NPC they learned he was travelling out of the Duchy into the Republic of Darokin and specifically to his home city of Vornheim.

This version is WAY better! Go get one at RPG Cartography!

Next session will be the Caves of Chaos. I'm using the DnD Next conversion from the playtest for the Caves while using B2 for the Keep. I have a beautiful, colour coded map of the Caves of Chaos with the monsters listed in their locations I downloaded from RPG Cartography here. I'll be converting anyone from the Keep on the fly as needed.

It will be interesting to see how they approach the Caves of Chaos. There is a lot going on there, and they could definitely play the different factions off against each other. With a Rogue, a Monk and a Wizard, the party is also light and stealthy. They might be able to do a lot in the Caves with hit and fade tactics. I can't wait to see how they play it!

The gear for the first session:
B2 Keep on the Borderlands, GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos,
LotFP's Tales of the Scarecrow, the map of the Known World from X1 The Isle of Dread,
 and my little black book of campaign notes.

Starting my new 5e D&D campaign...

"I've always wanted to play D&D and never had the chance."

This phrase implies a barrier to play that I have never known. Based on what I've heard from others I was lucky that no one stopped me because I was too young or doing it wrong or whatever. I don't understand the wall that keeps someone from our silly little hobby but I am happy to cut a hole in it and wave them on through.

Last Monday was full of firsts. It was the first session for my new group. It was my first time running Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. More importantly, it was also the first time ever that my new group played an RPG.

We went with fifth because they have copies of the 5e Players Handbook and wanted to play the latest, greatest version of the world's most popular role playing game. As far as the editions go, fifth edition is probably my favourite. It has a good balance of streamlined rules and extra parts that can be used or not without breaking anything. If I have to run D&D (and for these guys I did) I'd rather run 5e than any of the older versions.

The character building system for 5e really shines with new players. It presents solid choices and each choice leads to another. I found the background section particularly useful. It allowed them to quickly flesh out their characters, giving them a grounding in the world. We ended up using the suggested bonds as inspiration, creating a shared history that bound them together.

(The Gazetteers and old adventures print up into a nice A5 booklet!)

After we got the characters all done I asked them about what they wanted out of the world. For people steeped in the genre like we are, the possibilities are virtually endless. As newcomers they were looking for a "Traditional D&D" experience. They wanted all the D&D stuff like elves, goblins, dwarves and dragons. Intrepid heroes pushing into the uncivilized wilderness to explore forgotten temples in search of adventure and treasure!

As we talked I got a feel for what they wanted and suggested we play in the "Known World" that was used as a backdrop fro the "B" and "X" D&D modules. The Grand Duchy of Karameikos was my introduction to the world of D&D so it's a joy for me to share it with them. It features pockets of civilization stretched across a vast expanse of untamed wilderness full of monsters, ancient ruins and mystery. The open nature of the original setting fits the modern style of sandbox play I prefer and it will give them control over their characters' fates. It also gives me plenty of room to place some of my favourite locations and adventures from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. To give them a balanced experience, I plan to use the better classic adventures like (B2) Keep on the Borderlands along side the best the OSR has to offer like Death Frost Doom. Other play will be stuff of my own and the things that develop out of their decisions. I'm wicked excited about this campaign! I don't know how long it's going to last, but I can keep us going for years!

The group is excited to play the Keep on the Borderlands. Our next game will start with them heading up the Duke's Road from the Barony of Kelvin. Perhaps on the way they'll come across a cornfield that is suspiciously lush for the time of year and investigate. Maybe they won't investigate and I won't get to use Tales of the Scarecrow after all. Who knows?

(Some of the stuff my players could stumble into over the course of the campaign.)

I'm looking forward to leaving trails of rumours and other breadcrumbs to all the corners of the sandbox. The classic modules already have their place in the Duchy so I just need to dust them off (or print them out) and read through them before they get there. That's settled, but the stuff I have from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, especially the older adventures that don't fit the new assumed real-world historical setting, can be placed anywhere.

Some of them are obvious choices. The town of Pembrooktonshire is crying out to be placed on the edge of the Black Peak Mountains north of Threshold. The hidden country of Voivodja (A Red & Pleasant Land) needs to be cradled in the Altan Tepes mountain range. Nestled between the Duchy, the Empire of Thyatis, the Emirate of Ylaruam and the Republic of Darokin, it is well positioned to secretly influence the many countries of the Known World. Rumours of the ruins of the great palace of the vampire lords that ruled Karameikos during the dark age point toward those mountains. There might be stories of gardens full of treasure for anyone brave enough to follow the Volaga river to its source.

Speaking of the Republic of Darokin, Vornheim needs a home. Corunglain, the northernmost city, seems a natural spot. Foreboding and dreary, next to the Broken Lands while sitting astride important trade routes. That's the locale that mixes melancholy and wealth together to produce Vornheim! The mountains that border Darokin and Rockhome is probably the best place for The Hammers of the Gods, an old LotFP adventure centred on the Dwarves. I bought it strictly to find out the big, bad secret of the dwarves. Maybe I'll get to use it and my players will find out too.

The Grinding Gear is another old one, with its goblins and stirges, that could be used as is anywhere around Threshold. Likewise the Black Peak Mountains could hold the little cottage from Death Frost Doom. I think I'll place it near the Lost Valley of the Hutaaka and weave into that story. Still, it might be better in the Altan Tepes Mountains, near the frost giants and Castellan Keep. I have time before I spring that one on them and I can put it pretty much anywhere if I wait until play delivers us a macguffin worth the effort.

The horror-show adventure Forgive Us could fit in any town in the Duchy on a trade route (nearly all of them). The same could be said for Death Love Doom, bu if I use that one it will be on the outskirts of Specularum. That adventure would be a good impetus to get the players to leave the Duchy for a while and head south to the Thanegioth Archipelago and the Isle of Dread (X4) or the Isle of the Unknown. Perhaps they would even go as far as the southern continent to find Qelong. I was going to put Qelong on the western edge of the map, on the other side of the Malpheggi Swamp where the Atruaghin Clans are supposed to be, but I'm thinking that's a better spot for the Slumbering Ursine Dunes (by Chris Kutalik and the Hydra Cooperative).

What I'm really going to have fun with is the God that Crawls. It can be placed in any remote location but instead of St. Augustine of Cantebury as the cursed monster prowling the maze it could be Halav, the first king and saviour of Traladara. Gnoll warlocks could have captured him after their defeat and used a ritual to transform him into the crawling monster. Zirchev would have captured him and placed him in the holding place for the cursed Blackmoor artefacts for everyone's safety. Petra built the original Traladaran temple on top of the maze so Halav could be cared for. That's probably the easiest way to work the adventure into the setting. The secret would not undermine the Church of Traladara if it got out because it only increases the suffering of Halav for his people, but it would completely destroy the Cult of Halav who depend on the idea of the Duke as the reincarnation of Halav. Halav can't be the Duke and a monster at the same time. But if he can be restored he could lead the Traladar back into a golden age. That's something the Thyatian ruling class might want to keep a lid on.

(Inside foldout image from The God That Crawls by Jason Rainville)

I'm hoping to get that one in right after they are done with the Keep on the Borderlands. It would be nice to do it earlier but I'm not sure they will take the bait and head off the Duke's road to some remote village while they have a goal in mind. It will likely depend on how things go in the first encounter.

I'm excited about this hybrid setting! All this material blends well and gives me a lot to work with before we add the influence of the players who may change things as they go knocking bout the world and looking for trouble and making assumptions about how things work. There's no better source for material than the paranoid musings of the players after all.

The rush of ideas came after I printed out the old Gazetteer for the Grand Duchy of Karameikos. I wanted to read through it to give the Keep a world to have a place in. The more of these old Gazetteer PDFs I read the more I am impressed with the Known World setting. It has its own rich history and intrigues but nothing is so important that it can't be tweaked or changed to taste.

My big challenge will be adapting the experience awards in the adventures to suit 5e. I'm reading through my new DMG in the hopes that I can figure out a fair way to assign experience since the adventures I'm using where designed to use treasure as the main source of XP rather than the conflict. I'm hoping there's something in there like the old Palladium System had or the 2e optional experience system that rewarded good ideas, RP and problem solving. If not, I'll come up with something based on what I've done in the past, test it out and we'll have an exciting blog post about experience points in 5e D&D!

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend here in Canada we won't have another session for a week-and-a-half. You can expect a session report sometime after that. Good or bad, I'll be talking about it.

Religious Magic in RPGs

This post was inspired in part by the contest Zak S is running over at his blog: Playing D&D With Pornstars. The Thought Eater Tournament is a series of match-ups of two writers per topic to encourage better, deeper writing about RPG topics. The first one is about religion in fantasy role playing games and is something I've thought about a lot myself. More specifically, I've thought about the source of religious magic in RPGs while designing my own fantasy RPG.

We don't need to have actual gods to have religious magic in a game. D&D and other fantasy games have a long history of making gods characters in the setting. Certainly there was plenty of inspiration for meddling gods from the stories of Greek and Norse myth. Some of the fantasy stories that inspired the original Dungeons and Dragons had extra-dimensional beings locked in a war between the forces of law and chaos that spilled over into the fantasy world. It was often expressed as a kind of dimensional cold war fought through proxies who were champions and spellcasters given extra powers by their extraplanar backers. It also mixed in the crusaders, saints and biblical stories. D&D, especially the older editions, calls back to the legends of the middle ages and invokes the Arthurian tales of chivalry and knighthood.

With such material informing the setting it's no surprise you end up with gods granting spells to clerics and special powers given to paladins. For me it's never quite sat right though.  The idea of gods showing up, messing about with human affairs and having the odd affair of their own to create demigods has a certain quality to it, but it's more like the brat pack era of Hollywood than a group coming together over a common belief. Fantasy religions are less about faith and devotion to the idea than they are hierarchies with a supreme being at the top. They are more like corporations with clearly defined goals based on the godly portfolio coming down from head office.

With freelancers like adventuring player characters it's often a kind of contract. There's give and take with the godlike creature. Some characters who deal with extra-dimensional beings, performing sacrifices, other services and advancing their patron's goals in exchange for powers are called Warlocks/Witches/Cultists and others are called Paladins/Clerics even though at the core they are doing the same thing.

There's no reason why the existence of a god needs to be settled to account for religious magic. In a world where magic exists, reality is already disrupted. It can be bent and even broken with the correct pressure. In such a world a large enough group could form a kind of psychic pressure that could be used to disrupt reality in the form of miracles and other faith-based abilities.

A large enough group of people believing in an idea gives that idea power. The more people that believe, the more power that builds behind the idea. This power might manifest randomly in miracles and other unexplained phenomena. They could be mysterious like burning bushes, epic like earthquakes and thunder, or ridiculous like the visage of the god appearing in common food items like toast. Where it becomes interesting and gameable is when there are individuals who can tap into this power provided by the belief of faithful. People who can shape the will of others into particular effects like healing or even a plague.

These conduits of the faith would be as rare or common as is needed by the setting. They could be found leading a faith, drawing on the power of the faithful to perform miracles and gather more to their religion through these demonstrations of godly "intervention." They could even begin as charlatans who are suddenly surprised by their ability to perform real miracles thanks to the faith of their flock, despite having no belief of their own. The idea that a religious leader could fake it until they make it has all kinds of possibilities. They could also be individuals operating outside of a hierarchy as chosen champions, druids leading their communities, or even hermits serving in remote shrines.

It's the champions of the faith that are the most likely to become adventuring characters and played. Powerful missionaries carrying their message into the wide world or passionate believers living as examples in the dark times. Certainly a player character might want to build their own religion or religious faction of an established church. Depending on the campaign your group is into, the intrigue and challenge of creating a new religious order might provide the best adventure hooks.

When the characters get their power in the form of spells from some deity or demon prince there's not much incentive for them to do much in the way of religious boosting. If the character's power is tied to the faith of those following the same religion there is a good reason to spread the good word.

In game terms it could break down to numbers and distance. The larger the group the more power that would be available to an individual able to tap into it. How much of that power they could access would depend on the talent and experience of a particular character though. There would need to be some critical mass to get the minimum required to perform the most basic of miracles, the cantrip in D&D for example. It could be a number with some kind of meaning or completely arbitrary. Each level of power could require a different number of believers, growing exponentially from a single village to the population of a country or empire.

The distance would come into play as the champion moved away from the centre of religious belief. As they move farther away from the faithful the harder it is to tap into the psychic power provided by the belief of the masses. This could be overcome by setting up missions and chapels as outposts of the faith to form a kind of psychic corridor back to the power base of the faithful.

The idea that the smaller groups of worshippers could connect to the larger faith and carry the signal forward to the conduit of that faith like radio relay towers. If war or change disrupted the reach of the original religious organization the new churches could provide their own faith for the character to draw on. Regardless, there's an incentive for them to convert new followers and set up churches wherever they go. Also giving them something on which to spend any treasure they happen to find. The rest of the party might be keen to chip in since the one character's ability to access the power of faith affects their fortunes as well. The amount of available power would drop by one level for a particular distance so the faith of a theocracy might be felt and used on the far side of a continent or even ocean while a village of believers might only provide useful power out to a day's ride away.

As a factor of belief the faith magic becomes more dependant on religion and the religious instead of the terms of a contract with a god-like creature. This changes the game and creates some new incentives for players of religious characters to play their role as proponents of their religion or religious order. These are the reasons I chose this direction for the system and setting I'm working on for my own game but I don't see why the concept couldn't be used for any other fantasy RPG. It's just a matter of tweaking the setting a little.

In this model of using the common belief of the group as a source of magic rather than a god or group of gods gives the GM quite a bit of latitude in defining the place of gods in the game world. Their existence could be a question that is not answered, which is my favourite but certainly not the best. They could be remote and uncaring like Conan's Crom with the worship of lesser beings passing unnoticed. They might be like Terry Prachett's Small Gods that draw power from the devotion of mortals and are even created by it. They could need the worship to allow them power in the world. Perhaps with enough believers they could even enter it. That makes the Cthulhu cults a little more dangerous if they can frighten or bribe or fool enough people into devoting themselves to the great old one it might show up!

NOTE: This is an updated version of the original blog post. The original had an unnecessary definition of faith that people were stumbling over. I'd rather people engage the premise than debate my use of an overly simplistic definition, so I took it out.

The Replacement D&D - Part the Second! or Fantastic Fantasy Setting for 5e D&D!

I'm not a fan of Tolkien.

It's true.

Sure, he created an elaborate world full of detail and a rich history. He also created some cool languages that are spoken only on film and at Cons. But his writing is slow and bogged down with irrelevant detail and the pacing of the storytelling suffers from his inability to make editing choices. The enduring popularity of the stories of Middle Earth is tied up in its influence on the original and subsequent versions of Dungeons and Dragons. The playable races and character classes are straight out of the fellowship (party) that came together to destroy the terrible ring.

Because D&D went on to influence and inspire a generation of writers, game designers and other entertainers, fantasy including elves, dwarves and hobbits became the the norm. We get a standard fantasy with these archetypes and it seems like we can't escape it. I understand that D&D has to keep these things as it renews itself because it's part of the expectation set 40 years ago. I don't expect D&D to abandon a part of the foundation it's built on. I am constantly surprised though when I see new games and settings that hold to these expectations and include these archetypes with one or two additions. Why are elves and dwarves crammed into every new thing, even when they don't fit?

I'm not invested in the generic brand of fantasy that grew out of this situation. Tolkien was not my first fantasy. I didn't read the Lord of the Rings until my 20s and I never even finished the first book because I didn't have the patience for it. My first experiences with a fantasy novel was Ursula K. LeGuin's A Wizard of Earthsea. My fantasy experience before D&D included the myths and legends of the Norse and Celts where elves were monsters that stole people and the Greek myths full of meddling gods, monsters and magic. So when I first read the D&D descriptions of the "demi-humans" back in 1983 it was all new and completely original to me.

It's all wearing a little thin now.

In my last post I was talking about the first of two things I wanted to have ready in case my regular game had a cancellation. This post is the one I promised last time that is all about taking 5e D&D in a different direction from the minimalist approach I went with before. Fantasy should be fantastic! The players should have their expectations challenged! The world they explore should be new and exciting!

It is important to note that at the time I write this the Dungeon Masters' Guide is not yet available and I haven't purchased the Monster Manual yet. Both of those, especially the DMG, will likely give me some news ideas. That just means there's another post in this idea.

Fantasy Setting for 5e D&D: the Last World

I like how the early D&D was shaken up every once in a while with injections of super-science and ancient crashed spaceships. I also love the flavour of Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories so I set my world into a far future where a human, interplanetary empire has collapsed and the self-induced cataclysm that caused it has led to the rise of magic. This world is the survivor, the Last World.

The Last World has dragons but they have a few differences from what the players may be expecting. The main thing is there are no adult dragons. All the dragons on the Last World are juveniles. By the time a dragon grows to adulthood it loses it's wings and leaves the world to travel the stars as a celestial dragon. Such a dragon is ancient and colossal. When it first reaches adulthood a dragon is the size of a city (like Manhattan) and will continue to grow. All the dragons on the Last World are from the same spawning, but they hatch at different times, even thousands of years apart so they are all different ages. There is currently only one dragon close to adulthood lairing in the large desert in the east. He may even be within a couple of hundred years of moulting his wings and ascending. The colour of a dragon has no bearing on its abilities and it is as likely to have one breath weapon or alignment as any other. As they age, dragons sometimes manifest extra breath weapons when they approach maturity.

The empire of humanity made the closest dimension, the one used for interplanetary travel, impossible to enter cutting its far-flung empire of planets off from each other and their enemies. The destruction of warpspace forced a long-running galactic war into stalemate. A desperate but effective way to keep them from losing. The gambit had some unfortunate side effects though. The worst and most obvious was the rush of dimensional energy that entered the universe through the warp gates. This energy engulfed many planets, rolling across the worlds like massive storms, mutating the inhabitants and twisting reality.

On the Last World the dimensional energy is held back from the inhabited areas by a mountain range circling an area approximately the size of North America. Even contained, it still allows people inside the ring to access the energy to cast magical spells. The  massive conflagration of warpspace also thinned the veil separating the Last World from the feywild. The feywild wasn't damaged but this circumstance is what makes natural magic used by druids and rangers so potent and the reason curious fey creatures were able to cross-over.

Playable Races

Humans

The humans of the last world are a strange mixture of features and cultures offering almost limitless variety for play. They are pretty much as they are in the Players Handbook. Players can use the +1 for all stats but it is more fitting to use the two +1s, feat and additional skill to help fit them into the Last World.

It was the policy of the Empire to place colonies of a single culture on a planet, but the Last World was colonized in the final days of the empire and several cultural colonies were seeded onto this world out of expedience. In the unnumbered millennia since the Collapse these cultures have grown, mixed, risen and fallen. The result is the current mosaic of humanity living in various technology levels from the bronze age to the early modern era.

There is no common language for humanity and all player character humans start with one human dialect and any other one language.

[Image by Koutanagamouri - DeviantArt]

The Dragonkin

The reptilians lived on the Last World before the humans colonised it. It was the policy of the empire never to colonise planets inhabited with sentient creatures, but in the final days of the empire they were desperate to spread the seed of humanity as far as possible and certain reports were overlooked in the name of expedience. The lizard people, who refer to themselves as the dragonkin, believe they were taught the language of magic by the Celestial Dragon that spawned the Last World with dragon eggs in exchange for their word that they would not destroy any of the eggs and do their best to help her children once they hatched. All dragons are born knowing this is true and will not attack a dragonkin without provocation, although dragons are alien creatures with alien values and easily provoked.

Dragonkin live in clan groups where all tasks are given to the most qualified. This organisation means child-rearing and teaching is usually done by the elders while the younger dragonkin tend to the more physical tasks.

Dragonkin have two fingers and one opposable thumb on each hand. Feet have two toes and a dewclaw.

Ability Score Increase: Dexterity and Constitution are increased by 1.

Age: Dragonkin mature into adults around age 35 and can live to be 800-900 years old before dying of old age. Their scales start to lose their colour after 700 so an ancient dragonkin (around 1000 years old) would be completely grey or even bleached bone white.

Sex: Dragonkin can be both male and female during their lifetime and are only a particular sex when part of a mated group (usually a pair). The rest of the time the sex of a dragonkin translates as: "potential."

Size: Dragonkin range in height from 1.5 to 2 metres or 5 to 6-and-a-half feet and have slim, wiry builds. Their tales are typically as long as they are tall.

Speed: Base walking speed is 35 feet.

Reptile Brain: Dragonkin have advantage on saving throws against charm and cannot be put to sleep.

Dreamtime: Dragonkin do not sleep. Instead they enter a meditative state where they share dreams with all the people of their clan no matter how far away they might be. This allows the clan to share in each others' experiences, learn and heal together as a community. The majority of dragonkin only enter dreamtime for 4 hours in a day but the elders will slide into it for 8-12 hours. This circumstance means adventuring dragonkin and those entrusted with protecting the community at night will not enter dreamtime alone.

Scaly Hide: Dragonkin have a base Armour Class of 12.

Claws: As an action they can make a single claw attack for 1d4 slashing damage.

Magical Background: All dragonkin learn the basics of magic and can cast two cantrips from the Wizard spell list. Intelligence is used for spellcasting. Wizards, Eldritch Knights and Arcane tricksters also start knowing one extra first level Wizard spell.

Languages: Dragonkin, Draconic and one human dialect

Subgroups:

The dragonkin live in two distinct groups on the Last World. There are the plains dragonkin of the grassy hills and plains of the central savannah and the mountain dragonkin of the northwestern Worldspine Mountains. they have lived separately for almost as long as their recorded history and share a common language. They do not know why they parted ways.

Mountain, or High Dragonkin:

Mountain Dragonkin live in the coastal cities of the Worldspine Mountains. They range throughout the mountains and are skilled metalworkers although the mines are usually manned by human slaves. These dragonkin tend to be dark green to almost black in colour.

Ability Score Increase: Intelligence score increases by 1.

Weapon Training: Proficiency with Scimitars, Light Crossbows and Heavy Crossbows.

Extra Languages: Any one bonus language.

Plains or Natural Dragonkin:

The dragonkin of the plains build ziggurats for the protection of their communities. These great earthen terraces rise out of the plains and the larger ones can be seen from great distances. These are often used by merchants to guild themselves safely across the plains. Plains dragonkin tend to be lighter green, brown and tan in colour. They don't work any metal of their own but often trade for it. They make their tools out of bone, ceramic, glass and wood.

Ability Score Increase: Wisdom score is increased by 1 and dexterity score is increased by and additional 1 (for a total of 2).

Weapon Training: Proficiency in Spear, Shortbow and Longbow.

Fleet of Foot: Base walking speed is 40.

Extra Languages: Any two human dialects. The merchant caravans flowing through the plains brings these dragonkin into contact with many people.

Kobold

The Koboldi Grand Federation was the enemy humanity burned warpspace to avoid since surrender meant enslavement. A Koboldi battlecruiser was approaching the Last World for an attack run that would destroy all life when the dimensional energy ripped out of the local warpgate during the Collapse and crippled the ship. They were forced to crash land and were lucky enough to end up within the protection of the ring of mountains. They crashed in the northern mountains and it was hundreds of years before they expanded their population enough to come into contact with the local human and dragonkin peoples. They spent that time reworking their technology to work on the now corrupted, yet plentiful dimensional energy.  They had limited success but also learned many secrets that allowed them to begin arcane spellcasting.

Contact with other races led to new experiments in biomancy in the ship's biovats. Among other things, they created the warrior races of goblins and hobgoblins. When the humans and dragonkin learned the secret of the origin of these abominations a war of extermination began. The kobolds lost under the the weight of numbers despite their superior technology. Some escaped into the tunnels and caverns beneath the mountains while others piled what they could into the ship's escape pods and fired them into the southern jungles where they gathered and formed a new empire. That empire eventually shattered. The details on why are lost to history but what is known is the flying city that served as its capitol is ruined, lost and said to be overrun with demons.

Kobolds are short, hairless humanoids with a crown of horns on their heads. Their skin tends to be a light tan to dark brown colour with a reddish tinge. They have three fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand. Their feet have four toes each. They have no noses and smell with scent glands inside their large mouths.

Ability Score Increase: Constitution score is increased by 1.

Age: They mature by age 20 and usually live 300 years before succumbing to old age.

Sex: Kobolds have four sexes: male, female, shaper and carrier. All kobolds have the potential to be a carrier and this trait can be awaked by a shaper. The majority of kobold sexual organs are in the mouth and neck so they are nearly impossible for other races to recognize. They are also a bit horrified by how casually the humans kiss each other as it closely resembles their reproductive rituals.

Speed: Base walking speed of 25.

Darkvision: The horns on their heads are actually hearing cones and the kobolds can use them to see in the dark (including magical darkness) up to 120 feet using sonar. They can use ambient sound but also whistle to get sharp clarity. Obviously, they cannot use this ability to see colour.

Languages: Koboldi, Goblin and any one other language.

Subgroups:

Koboldan, or Low Kobolds

The low kobolds are the descendants of the group that fled underground. They were hunted relentlessly by the dragonkin, who eventually killed all of their adult shapers, biomancers and spellcasters. Even now they distrust magic and fear it brings bad luck. They live in family-based clans in underground strongholds and trade metals and crafted metal items with the humans on the surface of the western mountains.

Size: Usually 4-5 feet tall and approximately 150 pounds with a stout, muscled build. They are medium creatures.

Ability Score Modifier: Strength is increased by 2.

Resilience: Advantage on saving throws against poison damage.

Weapon Training: Proficiency with Battleaxe, Handaxe, Throwing Hammers and Warhammer.

Armour Training: Proficiency with light and medium armour.

Koboldin, or High Kobolds

The high kobolds are descended from the ones that travelled to the southern jungles in the escape pods. Their great empire shattered, they now live in small communities in great spires that tower out of the jungle or cling to the cliffs of the southern mountains. They are smaller than their cousins and rely on magic, skill and cunning to maintain their scattered domains. They are still served by some of the ferl and feraline they originally created.

Size: 3-4 feet tall with builds running from wiry to pudgy (40-90 pounds). They are small creatures.

Ability Score Modifier: Intelligence is increased by 2.

Artificer's Lore: Double proficiency bonus on history checks related to alchemical objects, magic items and technology.

Crafters: Proficiency with any one set of artisan's tools.

Cunning: Advantage on charisma, intelligence and wisdom saving throws against magic.

Rudimentary Biomancy: Know 2 cantrips from the druid list. Use intelligence for casting these spells.

Extra Languages: Any two other languages.

[Image by Koutanagamouri - DeviantArt]

Ferl:

The ferl are the creation of ancient kobold biomancers. The higher arts of biomancy are lost now so it is unlikely that new races of creatures will emerge. The ferl are furry humanoids with wolflike heads. They are cooperative and fierce. They were bread as warriors to enforce the will of the Koboldi empire that once stretched from the southern mountains through the jungles and all the way to the Werewood and Middle Sea. Now the majority of them roam free in packs, concentrated in the vast darkness of the Werewood. The free ferl refer to themselves as Ferlak.

Ferl have four-fingered hands with an opposable thumb and feet with four toes and a dew claw.

Ability Score Modifier: Strength score is increased by 2 and constitution score is increased by 1.

Age: Ferl mature quickly, growing to adulthood in only 12 years. They rarely live to see much more than 60 years old though.

Sex: They are born as male or female. Females develop six mammaries when they are nursing pups which they tend to have in litters of four to eight. Sexual organs are mostly retracted when not in use.

Size: Larger than humans, but still medium creatures, ferl are typically well over 6 feet tall. They have an athletic build and tend to be heavier than a human of the same height.

Speed: They are fleet of foot and have a base walking speed of 35 feet.

Natural Weapons: As an action, a ferl can make a single claw attack for 1d4 slashing damage. If they hit with a claw attack they can make a bite attack as a bonus action for 1d6 piercing damage but cannot add any positive ability modifier to that damage.

Darkvision: Their keen night vision gives them the ability to see in dim light up to 60 feet as if it were bright light and the same distance in total darkness as though it were dim light. They cannot differentiate colours while using night vision.

Keen Senses: Proficient in Perception.

Fearsome: Proficient in Intimidation.

Ferocious Endurance: When reduced to 0 hit points but not killed outright, ferl can drop to 1 hit point instead, provided they make a successful constitution save.

Languages: Ferl know the goblin and ferl languages.

[Image by Koutanagamouri - DeviantArt]

Feraline:

The feraline are also the creation of ancient kobold biomancers. They were created to oversee the ferl. They were gifted with increased intelligence, independence and natural leadership ability. The feraline are a race of short-furred humanoids with catlike heads and long manes. Few still serve the kobolds. The free feraline now live small treetop villages in the southern jungles, although many also live alone and in mated pairs. Their natural grace and beauty also makes them excellent entertainers and those that make their way north often join travelling troupes of performers or circuses.

They have four fingers and an opposable thumb with retractable claws on each hand. Their feet have five toes with retractable claws as well.

Ability Score Modifier: Dexterity score is increased by 2 and charisma score is increased by 1.

Age: Feraline mature and age at a pace similar to humans, growing into adulthood around 16 and capable of living to be more than 100 years old.

Sex: Here feraline are closely matched to humans as well with the development of males and females.

Size: Anywhere from 5 to 6 feet tall with a lithe, athletic build.

Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.

Claws: Feraline can make a claw attack for 1d3 slashing damage as an action. Extending retracted claws is a bonus action.

Darkvision: Their keen night vision gives them the ability to see in dim light up to 60 feet as if it were bright light and the same distance in total darkness as though it were dim light. They cannot differentiate colours while using night vision.

Keen Senses: Proficient in Perception.

Lucky: Feraline have an additional 1 hit point added to their maximum total per level.

Catlike Reflexes: Proficient with Acrobatics, also rolls acrobatics for climbing checks.

Languages: Feraline know goblin, feraline and any one additional language.

Dragonkind:

Dragonkind are not a race but more of a particular abomination. They cannot reproduce themselves and would not choose to do so even if they could. They are cursed.

Some cultures believe there is a celestial dragon sleeping under the mountain range that circles the inhabited lands and that is what is really protecting life on the Last World from the dimensional energy. The Dragon Cult in particular believes this and has built a temple in the east where they believe the dragon's head is. The temple is designed to cause the singing in the temple to resonate deep into the rock and they sing praise and inducements to sleep to the great dragon lest she wake and destroy the world.

An extreme offshoot of the Dragon Cult called the Keepers believes the dragon will only stay as long as its children are on the world. As soon as the last one moults its wings and ascends into space, the original celestial dragon will shake off the mountains and follow her children back into space. To stop them from aging and to make them easier to control the Keepers created a magical ritual that binds the dragons into a new form. One that does not age and cannot mature into a celestial dragon.

Dragon blood is used to seal the ritual and it cannot be dispelled or reversed. The dragonkind are forced into the shape of an ordinary human while retaining the essence of their draconic nature. They still bleed the black blood of a dragon, their eyes do not change colour and their nails tend to be the colour of the their former scales. They are restricted to their mundane human capabilities. They still have the genetic knowledge of a dragon but have trouble accessing it with their human brains. They are still innately magical but need to relearn how to harness that power.

They appear to be fully grown young adults but are juvenile dragons and as such are not fertile. They are exotic, graceful and strangely compelling. They appear to be normal, albeit slightly weird humans.

Ability Score Modifier: Charisma score is increased by 2, dexterity score is increased by 1 and intelligence score is increased by 1.

Age: Immune to all aging effects and functionally immortal. Appears as young adult human.

Sex: As adult human but sterile.

Size: As human.

Speed: Base walking speed is 30 feet.

Keen Senses: Proficient in Perception and able to detect magic at will.

Innate Magic: Choose two cantrips from the Sorcerer list. Use Charisma as casting ability. These are extra cantrips if the character is a sorcerer. Dragonkind sorcerers also start knowing one extra first level spell.

Draconic Knowledge: Proficient in Arcana, History and Religion.

Draconic Nature: Is the only race that can take the draconic origin for the Sorcerer Class. The draconic abilities that come with increased levels are manifestations of the character's draconic nature that comes from focussing on learning to use draconic abilities in human form.

Languages: Draconic and any three other languages.

Resilient: Even in this fragile form, dragons are hard to kill. Maximum hit points are increased by 1 hit point per level.

Hunted: The character has escaped from the Keepers. They will never forget and will always continue to search for all dragonkind so they can lock them away and keep them safe. Harvesting small amounts of blood for their magical rituals.

Tieflings:

When humanity collapsed warpspace they burned the reality of that dimension and transformed it into hell. Only the most powerful and terrible entities survived. They understood where the attack originated from and are bent on destroying the universe of the Last World out of vengeance. These fiends gained a foothold on the Last World by promising power to a small group of foolish humans. These humans and all who came after them were changed by that pact and the fiends of hell are one step closer to realizing their ultimate goal.

All features of the Tiefling race are unchanged in the Last World.

Character Classes:

Most of the character classes are unchanged but there are some tweaks and clarifications. I think I might leave that for another post since it's all tied up in the setting material.


There it is. The #LastWorld that has existed only in a scattered collection of notes for three different gaming systems in composition books and electronic documents. These are the basics my group needs to make characters and get going in an adventure. If there's interest, I'll include more posts and I'll probably write about what I learn from playing it out with the group regardless.

The chains of standard fantasy are broken.