This idea combines nicely with something I used to run into a lot back in the early 80′s. The number of hit dice a creature had was often referred to as it’s level. So an 11HD dragon would be a level 11 Dragon, and we had several encounters in one campaign with a level 20 Semi truck.

Combine these two things together, and you can replace most monsters in the core books with a set of monster “classes”. In some ways as I worked through this idea, it reminded me of the method by which monsters are leveled in the d20 instances of D&D – except I want to include XP tables in this mess too so players can level up as monsters.

Since old-school D&D didn’t give monsters ability scores, it gives us a significant advantage over d20 monsters when converting them into classes that players can play too. This means we don’t have to balance the stat increases of said monster with the piddly stats of standard PCs, nor do we have to balance their special abilities against standard class abilities because we can actually increase the XP cost to level up as our balancing guide instead for special abilities. Further, this is assisted by the pre-AD&D rule sets that don’t give the different races stat bonuses. Instead of getting a boost to Strength for being an Ogre, just give Ogres a minimum required Strength.

One of the “big” decisions to deal with is the value of a better AC for these critters, and when it comes to PCs, the value of their natural AC is basically zero, since players will want to stick armor on their characters that is probably better than the AC listed in the rules… and a lizard man in plate mail is AC 3 just like a human in plate mail.

Of course, it’s all a lot easier when you stick to the real easy monsters.

Let’s take goblins for instance. We can roll Goblin, Hobgoblin and Bugbear into one creature class and call them Goblinoids. Goblins have a 1d8-1 base hit die (average: 3.5), hobgoblins are 1d8+1 (average 5.5), and bugbears have 3d8+1 (average 14.5). Based on this I’ll switch them to a 1d6 Hit Die instead of a 1d8, and make the bugbear a level 4 goblin.

Centaurs must have Strength 13+, Dexterity 9+ and Constitution 13+

They can use any weapon, armour or shield, however their armour costs twice as much as normal.

Centaurs attack and save as a Fighter of their level.

Later on this week or next I’ll provide some more examples of non-standard character classes.

(both these class tables are “prototypes” that I’ve already changed in my work-in-progress document – I’ll post finished versions of these classes when I’m done).

So this past Monday I drew the following map for micromapmonday:

Micro-Map 1

The quarter is there for scale, so you realize that the map is significantly larger on most monitors than it is on paper (unless you have a really tiny monitor and quite high resolution).

The map was a real challenge to draw. I’ve never worked at that scale before, and close-ups show how rough the lines really are. My hand was totally cramped up by the time I was done. Then I realized the actually scary part – there isn’t much less detail on this map than on most of my maps drawn in my 4 x 6 mapping book. But I could put 6-8 of these on a single page in my little mapping book. Oi!

But then I realized there were two problems with the map that I posted above.

Mainly, it didn’t stick to the theme of this week’s micromaps – “habitat”.

So I drew a second map – the habitat of Lacedons – watery caves beneath an evil fortress. Within the caves the dead of the fortress inhabitants are dumped unceremoniously, and most become food for a few that turned out to be too evil to just decompose down here after their death.

Oh, the second problem with the earlier map?

It was too big.

Level 2 of the Darkling Depths is broken up into three distinct areas.  The main complex of level 2 has two access points to map 1A, and contains a complex of rooms, hallways and an actual dungeon. Disconnected from this complex are a pair of rooms sitting between levels 1 and 3, and a natural temple to some underworld goddess with attached constructions.

There are four access stairs from Map 1A, and a further four leading down to Level 3 – the two on the north side of the map lead to Map 3A, while the two in the main dungeon complex on the south side lead to Map 3B.

Darkling Depths Map 2A

Swords & Skulduggery

The companion volume to Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is a book of optional material for primarily non-spellcasting classes. In it so far is a complete rebuild and expansion on magic weapon generation and my reworking of the Wounds and Pain rules. Of course, the simplified 2d6 thief will be in there too. My goal is to have a bunch of non-spellcasting classes in here, possibly including a bunch of fighter and thief focused special crafts in the style of the Principalities of Glantri  ”Prestige Classes” that I wrote up a couple of years ago.

I would say this project is about 5% done.

The Valley of the Red Apes

I wrote up the first adventure in the Valley of the Red Apes a while back – the Ziggurat of Rhissel the Morning Lord. But the adventures in the valley don’t end there. I’ve drawn up a map of the valley proper (to be posted in a month or two) and am half-way done working on a second adventure using another map I posted previously (Jen’s Hall). When this is done, it should be a small regional map with wandering monster tables and encounters, as well as a set of 4 site-based adventures to take place in the valley.

This project is about 40% done.

Challenge of the Frog Idol

Yeah, I released Challenge of the Frog Idol for that B/X Blackrazor challenge (which it won) some time ago. I then received some crazy accolades for the whole thing from a variety of awesome folk in the OSR. But at heart it is still something I threw together in two days, and I’m not happy with it. I’m not planning on re-writing any of the material already in the adventure, but I want to expand it, include more material for the dwarven citadel of Kuln, actually write up the other locations I have marked in the Black Mire, and maybe tie the whole thing together a bit more tightly. Some minor re-workings of the existing material are pretty much unavoidable (some details on dealing with the party trudging through deep swamps and so on), but overall it would just be me smoothing out the corners of this adventure and adding some new material.

So far this is just stuff floating around in my noggin’, no new work has been done, so this project is 0% done (although physically it’s at least 50% done).

Dyson’s Delves II

The big kahuna. Dyson’s Delves was a pretty solid seller and seems to scratch the itch that the majority of my blog readership have. I have more than enough maps in my portfolio to put together chapter 2 of this book in a day or so of scanning and layout. Chapter 1 of Dyson’s Delves was almost 60 pages of material covering 5 adventures.

So far I’ve got Cavanaugh’s Hall, The Burial Mound of Esur the Red, Atarin’s Delve, Ochre Rock, the Treasure Map to the Red Cave, and the Ruins of Corvel on the Mount. I’ve also got Goblin Gully and By Esophagus Brood which are complete, but unstatted, so I have to go into both of those and add full game stats.

But that’s not nearly the 60 pages of material to bring it up to the standard set by Delves I, so I’ll throw in the full Valley of the Red Apes material that I have up there near the top of this list of pending projects and I hope to be good to go.

So all-in-all this project is about 40% done, and can be brought up to 75% with just a couple days of dedicated scanning and layout.

Necropolis: Ottawa

This is not for publication (except on the blog obviously – I intend to post everything RPG-related that I write or draw on here in some manner). This is my ultimate “swine” project (fuck I hate that term, but at the same time, I want to reclaim it, to point out that serious deep introspective roleplaying games can ALSO be fun, and that just because I’m an old-school D&D fanatic doesn’t mean I can’t also love my immersive storytelling games.)

I finally have a small group that want to play my darkest desire in RPGs. I have assembled a small Wraith: the Oblivion troupe. And it is now time to build up an environment to play in. A dark and twisted version of Ottawa & Gatineau, along with the wraiths and spectres that inhabit it.

This is going to suck up a bunch of my time for the next two to three weeks. And it’s only about 2% complete (and I want it done soon, so I can actually run this awesome game finally!)

Bar Fight!

This is a simple card-based sub-system for OSR fantasy games to make bar-room brawls fun, hectic, fast-paced and above all else, non-deadly. Basically each turn each character can grab something to throw or hit someone else with. They draw a card and the card tells them the carnage and bonuses or penalties that using said item provides – either towards accomplishing their goal or towards creating greater chaos and carnage if that is their goal. Cards like “bowl of stew”, “flagon of ale”, “mug”, “chair”, “annoyed halfling”, “local priest” and “flaming mess”. You get the idea.

So far this is just a list of card names and a general idea. So 10% done.

OSM-1

Yeah… about this one. I started in on a Labyrinth Lord based modern mercenary RPG called Old School Mercenaries almost exactly two years ago and never went back to it. It’s not 100% dead, and I don’t want to declare it officially dead, but I don’t think I’ll be investing much time into this any time soon (no matter how much it appeals to me). Part of me thinks I might go back and tweak it to Swords & Wizardry based rules because they handle saving throws a bit better for this kind of game and it might be the push I need to finish off the whole thing, but I honestly don’t know. As it stands, this is remaining on the back burner.

I’ve got the page layout done and about 25% of the text done.

Espionage ’88

While I’m not willing to pull the plug on OSM, I’m a lot more likely to say that Espionage ’88 has been consigned to File 13. So far it’s just a few house rules for classic Top Secret with the advantages / disadvantages from TS/SI thrown in. I don’t think it will ever go any further than this

File 13.

So there we go, a rough overview of my projects as they stand. Of course, I’ll still be posting maps once or twice a week for the foreseeable future (I still have at least 40 maps in my various mapping books that I haven’t posted yet), and the occasional other post of material outside the purview of these projects… But I find that if I actually list all my projects off, it is a lot easier to put my energy into them effectively.

*Something that is almost, but not quite, the exact opposite of hotcakes.

Within was the awesome.

An awesome hand-made module in a craft-paper greeting card format with a single card insert. In all it contains three pages of material (including a chunk of new magic items) and three gorgeous hand-drawn maps.

Not only was I amazed, but it inspired my girlfriend to put pen to paper and work on her own first adventure.

I’ll post a map she made soon (or better, she’ll set up her account on here and post it!)

Cavanaugh’s Hall is a short site-based encounter for Labyrinth Lord characters of levels 7-8.

Rumours

Characters can each hear one rumour while nearby (in a nearby town at the inn, talking to wandering gypsy, stealing people’s mail, etc). This typically requires a positive reaction roll or some amount of larceny. Roll 1d12 on the rumour table.

1. [F] A mysterious elven sorceress has claimed Cavanaugh’s Hall as her domain, and her oracular visions extend into other worlds. She has the knowledge you seek…
2. [T] The sorceress at Cavanaugh’s Hall is held prisoner by a mighty and secretive creature.
3. [T] Massive hunting beasts live around the hill where Cavanaugh’s Hall once stood and attempt to bring down just about anything that travels the area.
4. [F] An evil warlord has taken over Cavanaugh’s Hall, his laughter can be heard ringing through the surrounding valleys. [Actually the sound of the giant hyenas)
5. [F] A vast beast made of vines and other plantlife rules the hill. Beware and bring flame wherever you go!
6. [T] Cavanaugh himself was a sorcerer who is said to have worked hand-in-hand with celestial powers of incredible might. And somewhere along the way he insulted one or perhaps a few of them and they took the opportunity to show off exactly how mighty they are. The ruins are all that remain to attest to this.
7. [T] There’s a tower on the hillside that is magically locked and probably not as heavily looted as the rest of the ruins.
8. [T] Perhaps clearing the ruins of Cavanaugh’s Hall would appease some celestial beings and work as penance for those who have allowed their faith to slip. [Like paladins and clerics]
9. [F] The laughter from the hill isn’t a foul warlord, but a tribe of bloodthirsty gnolls.
10. [F] Cavanaugh was not slain, but still haunts the ruins, casting strange magics on those who tresspass.
11. [T] The ruins themselves can turn on explorers, so be cautious, particularly in the excavations.
12. [F] The signet ring of Cavanaugh can open a secret door from the deepest recesses of the ruins into an entire subterranean city.

Wandering Monsters

The region is of course subject to the typical encounters with hostile forces, however most animals have learned to steer clear of a place overrun by giant hyenas. Roll for a wandering monster once every hour.

2 – 1d4x10 Brigands (Men)
3 – 1d3 Giant Hyenas
4 – 2d6 Wolves
5 – 1d2 Giant Hyenas
6 – 1d6+1 Ogres
7 – 1d3 Giant Hyenas
8 – 1d4+1 Dire Wolves

Cavanaugh’s Hall, Keyed

Locations

1 – Corpse of Trees

The giant hyenas from area 2 used to lair here on occasion, but one of their kills got… infected. Now they keep clear of this bush. In the middle of the copse are the rotting corpses of a giant hyena, a wyvern, and the bones of many prior kills. The hyena and wyvern are both in an advanced state of decomposition and both corpses as well as the tree they are propped against are infested with rot grubs (a total of 18 grubs, seven in each of the corpses and a further four seeking food in the rotting bark of the tree). There is nothing of value in the corpses or the trees.

2 – More Trees!

5 Giant Hyenas (AC: 7, Mv: 120 (40), HD: 5, hp: 25, 20, 22, 33, 22, Att: 1, Dmg: 3d4, Sv: F5, M: 9) make their lair here among the trees and bushes, keeping out of the mid-day sun, and dragging larger kills back here for later consumption. There is a 60% chance that 1d6 (max 5) of the Hyenas are not here when this area is explored, and are instead out hunting, returning in 1d4 hours.

The remains of a few horses and two owlbears are in the copse, along with the bones of many more animals. There’s nothing of actual value here, but it will take a few turns of digging through the grisly remains to determine this.

3 – Something on the Rocks

Vines cover the rocky face of the hill here, just west of the excavated ruins of the hall. The vines themselves are motile but harmless, and slowly slither and clamber their way back and forth across the rock face. Hacking them with slashing weapons will eventually kill them, but it will take time and effort. They can be destroyed more quickly with an area effect attack, and have 20 hit points against such spells and attacks.

4 – Sealed Tower

This 30 foot tall tower is the last “standing” remains of Cavanaugh’s Hall. The walls are pitted and weather-worn and a fairly easy climb for anyone with the skills. The rusty iron-reinforced oak door is held to this day by a powerful wizard lock (caster level 14). The wooden roof of the tower is long gone, and the floor is earthen with a few dried weeds. The skeletal remains of a minotaur thief lies in the middle of the tower, dead after falling from the wall above. His equipment is all ruined except for a Battle Axe +2, +3 vs Elementals that is unfortunately cursed – the bearer of the axe must spend the first round of any fight screaming and yelling and posturing before he can engage the enemy, even if attacked first.

5 – Foundations

The crumbling foundations of the great hall stick out of the grass here like many broken teeth. No animal ever enters in past the ruins of the walls, and the grass within is long, lush and trackless. A minor enchantment remains from the original hall, keeping animals out. Any trained animal ordered to enter must pass a save vs spells in order to do so.

6 – Kitchen

These last four rooms were cut into the stony hill itself and have been half-excavated by a previous group of explorers seeking the treasure of Cavanaugh’s Hall. The remnants of the kitchen are currently home to a pair of frightened halflings (AC: 7, Mv: 90 (30), HD:1-1, hp: 5, 6, Att: 1, Dmg: 1d6, Sv: H1, M: 6) who are hiding from the hyenas who ate the other two they were traveling with. One has 23 pp in his belt pouch, the other has 76 sp. They aren’t brave enough to even consider going deeper into the hill, and are jumpy and likely to run as soon as anyone shows up, probably luring out a wandering monster as they run for their little furry lives.

7 – Secret Pantry

Once hidden behind a secret door, this was a cold room and pantry where valuable wines and cheeses were kept. The door to area 8 is actually a quite intelligent and cunning mimic (AC: 7, Mv: 30 (10), HD: 8, hp: 46, Att: 1, Dmg: 3d4, Sv: F8, M: 8 – special: gluey!) who is holding the lamia in area 8 hostage until she reveals where her kin live so it can find them and reclaim a magic locket that it once owned.

8 – Chamber of Secrets

The mimic’s hostage, Deria Mohll, is a bear-bodied lamia with the fore legs of an eagle (AC: 3, Mv: 240 (80), HD: 9, hp: 49, Att: 1 (+2 to hit), Dmg: 1d6+2, Sv: F9, M: 9, Special: phantasmal force 1/day, charm person 1/day, mirror image 1/day, suggestion 1/day, touch drains 1 WIS). She is cunning and evil and when the mimic leaves the doorframe she will attempt to charm one of the party. If the party seems to be in trouble fighting the mimic, she will take the opportunity to kill them off too in order to steal their loot. She will create a very loud phantasmal force effect in order to draw in whatever creatures are in the area (if the hyenas in area 2 are still there, they will come running, otherwise roll for wandering monsters) before using mirror image and engaging the party. She has a potion of extra-healing and a shortsword +2 that can cast light three times per day. She wears a harness over her bear body that has a collection of large sacks containing 2,000 ep, 200 pp, and 16 gems (totaling in value at 2,450 gp).

9 – Storage

The final room of the excavations contains a collection of foodstuffs and supplies belonging to the lamia. Mixed in with the food and drink is a small cask of blood brandy. When poured into a small brazier and lit during spell preparation by magic users, the blood brandy allows them to prepare 3 extra spell levels of spells that day. There is enough blood brandy in the cask for 12 uses.

This chunk of my lost maps flood is a series of maps designed to be one very large dungeon. Perhaps not true megadungeon-sized, but a lot bigger than most dungeons I run or draw.

Darkling Depths is a set of eight maps that link together to form a pretty massive understructure. I’ll post a map or two each map posting to get the whole thing up for your enjoyment.

Darkling Depths 1A

Stairs leading up from this map lead to the surface ruins above the Darkling Depths (there are two entrances indicated thusly). Stairs leading down (of which there are four) lead down to map 2A of the Darkling Depths.

Unlike most of my maps, the Darkling Depths is pretty grid-centric. They were drawn in pencil on plain white paper with an underlying grid sheet to work as a guide. Like all the maps in these “Lost Maps” posts, I put them away in a folder for later use and then lost them for about four years. They’ve been rediscovered, scanned, and contrast-enhanced.

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is a 159-page book of material for Labyrinth Lord and classic 1981-era OSR spellcasters.

I’ve been talking about Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts for many years now. I started working on it in Open Office on my linux system back in 2009 and finally took the steps to make it into a book in the spring of 2013.

At heart, Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is my revised rule book for Labyrinth Lord spellcasters. Emphasis on the word “my”. It reprints the Magic-User and Cleric (well, with a few minor tweaks that are hardly worth mentioning except the revised clerical turning undead table), and then piles on a bunch of other spellcasting classes along with their spell lists and spells. I also end up renaming the Magic-User as the Wizard because I use the term Magic-User as an umbrella for all arcane spellcasting classes.

Chapter 1 – Classes

• Cleric (warrior-priests)
• Wizard (classic magic-users with 10 levels of spells)
• Elven Swordmage (elves from the core rules – arcane warriors)
• Elven Warder (wilderness elves, guardians of their kin)
• Enchanter (artists, con-men, and masters of… duh… enchantments)
• Fleshcrafter (twisted magic-users that work with flesh)
• Healer (compassionate and tough hearth-healers)
• Inquisitor (ecclesiastic investigators and master intimidators)
• Merchant Prince (elite merchants with spellcasting support)
• Necromancer (you know exactly what these guys do)
• Pact-Bound (magic-users who sell their souls for power)
• Theurge (divine casters who learn from liturgical texts)
• Unseen (thieves with an innate knack for magic)

Chapter 2 – Spells

All the spells for all these classes are included in the book – including reprinting all the core spells from Labyrinth Lord because just about every one of them can be cast by one or more of the new classes. But overall there is roughly a 100% increase in the number of spells available in this tome.

Chapter 3 – Magic Items

28 pages of new magic items generally aimed towards spellcasters (with a few sneak ones thrown in for the Unseen). I specifically avoided weapons and armour and put them into another file for a second book aimed towards fighters and thieves and other non spellcasting classes.

Chapter 4 – Creatures

Just a few monsters in this short chapter – one referenced earlier in the book and my rules for summoning / conjuring alternate types of elementals (wind, crystal, dungeon, wave, moss, thorn, smoke, zephyr and so on).

Finally there’s a short section on using this book with the Advanced Edition Companion. 99% of this book was written using only the core Labyrinth Lord rules without referencing the AEC at all, and therefore there are some suggestions for mixing these rules with the AEC ones – primarily adding AEC spells to the existing spell lists, and the revised hit dice for the various classes if using the optional AEC hit dice.

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts is available through the ZERO/barrier Lulu storefront.

LABYRINTH LORDTM IS COPYRIGHT 2007-2011, DANIEL PROCTOR. LABYRINTH LORDTM AND ADVANCED LABYRINTH LORDTM ARE TRADEMARKS OF DANIEL PROCTOR. THESE TRADEMARKS ARE USED UNDER THE LABYRINTH LORDTM TRADEMARK LICENSE 1.2 AVAILABLE AT WWW.GOBLINOIDGAMES.COM

- Credit to John M. Ford, Oc.D.

Now strange machineries and clockworks adorn the walls and even patrol the halls. But surely they guard more than themselves, and Ul-Vir would not have invested so much time and effort into these passages if he hadn’t hidden something of import beyond them.

There are two stairs entering and leaving this map – the one at the top of the map leads to the surface, while those on the upper left hand corner lead down further into the tunnels beneath the city.

The Machineries of Ul-Vir the Mad

The Machineries of Ul-Vir the Mad was drawn with funky little gear-like structures at many corners mostly as a visual cue to remind me to use it for something with a mechanical or steampunk theme.

The map was drawn in pencil some four years ago, and was then lost until now, when it was scanned and mangled in contrast enhancement to make it visible (if not pretty).