I Sing the Dungeon Electric: Deities

I continue designing my new game, I Sing the Dungeon Electric. This is my introduction of the Priest class. I haven't finalized how I'm going to handle spellcasting, so let's just start with the basic deities.

Priests must roll for which deity they worship, which gives them certain powers and restrictions. Roll 1d10 for deity. If the priest disobeys any restrictions, he loses his priestly powers for 1 week.

1: Deddahoor, Who Sings Sweetly in the Night
Colors: Dark violet, black, dark blue
Powers:
(level 1) While the priest is singing, those who are asleep cannot wake up. The priest must sing at full volume.
(level 5) The priest makes no sound as he moves.
(level 10) The priest can see through walls up to half his level in feet thick when bathed in moonlight.
Restrictions: The priest cannot let his skin touch sunlight. During the day, he must be fully covered in cloth. The priest may not wear armor.

2: Kilbayath, Behind the Golden Veil
Colors: Red, Gold, Ochre
Powers:
(level 1) The priest can handle and deliver poisons without risk of poisoning himself.
(level 5) The priest can communicate silently with anyone he makes eye contact with. They cannot speak back.
(level 10) The priest may turn himself invisible 1 time/day for 1 minute per level. Any hostile actions immediately end this invisibility.
Restrictions: Priests of Kilbayath cannot enter private dwellings uninvited.

3: Yumnulla, the Vast Mother
Colors: Brown, Yellow, Dark Green
Powers:
(level 1) Priest may heal 2 hit points per level per day
(level 5) The priest can switch places with another being in sight 1 time/day.
(level 10) The priest can compel pacifism into a number of creatures whose total HD does not exceed the priest's level. Effect lasts for 1 week. Save against will negates.
Restrictions: Priests of Yumnulla must have sex with a new person at least once a month.

4: Hemnai, Who Builds and Destroys
Colors: White, Black
Powers:
(level 1) Priest may create 1 pound/level of a common material from thin air per day. Can only be roughly shaped.
(level 5) The priest can destroy 1 pound/level of any material once per day. Must be touching the material.
(level 10) The priest can forge magical artifacts.
Restrictions: Priests of Hemnai must always be touching a piece of metal.


5: The Wandering Man, Whose Strides Are Long
Colors: Gray, Blue
Powers:
(level 1) The priest has 1 more movement point.
(level 5) The priest can speak with trees, in a limited sense. They are favorably disposed to him.
(level 10) The priest can instantly move between two known locations 1/week.
Restrictions: The priest cannot remain in one place longer than a week.


6: Ruefursoth, Under the Broken Earth
Colors: Brown, Dull Orange, Teal
Powers
(level 1) The priest can speak with insects and grubs.
(level 5) The priest can burrow at 1/4 normal speed through dirt. Clothes still get dirty.
(level 10) The priest can summon the aid of the one of the great Maggots who swim through the flesh of the earth.
Restrictions: The priest cannot touch open water or running water, and consequently cannot swim. He may only be on a boat if he is meditating the entire time.


7: Klebk, the Dreaming One
Colors: Black, Yellow, Green trim
Powers:
(level 1) The priest can detect all magical items within 20 feet.
(level 5) The priest can make all sources of light within 100 feet suddenly go out. They cannot be relit for 1 hour. 1/day.
(level 10) The priest may switch two creatures minds 1/week. A will save negates from either, though if they are willing, no save is necessary. The change is permanent until switched back. Touch is required in both.
Restrictions: Priests of Klebk must sleep for 12 hours per day. All of them snore.


8: Biim, Of Four Faces
Colors: Blue, White, Violet
Powers: (level 1) The priest is surprised 3 in 6 instead of 4 in 6.
(level 5) The priest can make an illusory double of himself. This double cannot speak, and can only repeat a single simple action at a given interval. Illusion is visual only, and has no substance.
(level 10) The priest can see that which is invisible, and touch that which is ethereal.
Restrictions: Priests of Biim may not be within 20 feet of fire, and are discouraged from being in sight of it.


9: Garalt, Who Stands Atop Mountains
Colors: Saffron, White, Grey
Powers:
(level 1) The priest can summon light rain 1/week.
(level 5) The priest can cause rockslides, mudslides, or avalanches as appropriate given the surroundings.
(level 10) The priest can gain DR 4 and increase his unarmed damage die by 2 steps for a number of rounds per day equal to half his level (rounded down). It takes one round of pure concentration to activate this ability.
Restrictions: Priest may not kill a defenseless creature, nor allow them to be killed.


10: Ebbernet, the Swollen Heavens
Colors: Dull green, Grey, Red
Powers:
(level 1) The priest is immune to sickness.
(level 5) Priest can turn dead bodies into sacks of disease, which explode if touched. 1/day per level.
(level 10) Priest can transform into a cloud of flies 1/day. Transformation back is voluntary at any time until the next sunrise, when it happens automatically. If half the flies are killed, so is the priest. Cannot carry equipment while in this state.
Restrictions: Priest may only eat raw meat. No ill health effects come from this.


Add more to this list if you desire. Formula: strange fantasy name + evocative epithet; whatever colors you feel that epithet evokes; level 1 power should be weird and occasionally useful; level 5 power should be quite effective in a variety of situations; the level 10 power should be something cool that anyone would want; restrictions should be mildly annoying and exploitable.

I Sing the Dungeon Electric: Fighter

I've decided to write my own RPG, because RPG rules are all I think about in my free time. I'll be making a series of posts here for each section of said RPG. I'm calling it I Sing the Dungeon Electric. It should have a dungeons and dragon-y feel, but it won't necessarily overlay very well onto the D&D ruleset.

The combat system will be based on my post Killing the Armor Class. See that if you get confused.

First up, the Fighter Class. Each class has three d100 tables: the Metal table, the Weird table, and the Gritty table. At first level and every time you gain a level, choose two tables (or the same table twice) and roll on them. This is how advancement works (thank you Zak Smith).

Also, I'm utilizing the simple combat maneuvers system: when attempting a combat maneuver, declare it and roll damage as normal; the opponent can choose to take either the damage or suffer the effects of the maneuver.

Fighter

hit die: 1d8
Saves: Fortitude 13, Reflex 15, Will 17
Social Skill: Intimidate

Metal

1-35: increase the damage die by one step for one weapon

36-40: switch-hitter - when you deal a wound to an opponent, you may drop your weapon and grab theirs. If you do, you can immediately gain an extra attack using their weapon. If you roll this again, you don't drop your weapon, and are just holding both (you still have to attack with the taken one, though). If you roll this a third time, re-roll.

41-50: RAGE! - you can rage once per day for a number of rounds equal to your level. Increase your strength by 2, your constitution by 2, and all your damage dice by 1 step. If the increase in constitution would grant you more HP, gain them as a temporary bonus. You cannot dodge while raging. Afterwards, you are tuckered right out! You are at -1 movement and -2 strength. 1 more time per day for each time you roll this.

51-55: increase your constitution by 1 up to racial max. Extra points go to strength or dexterity.

56-60: increase your strength by 1 up to racial max. Extra points go to constitution or dexterity.

61-70: Weapons Shall be Broken - any time you don't want to take damage, you may instead have your weapon be broken in twain, as Shields Shall Be Splintered. You take no damage. If you re-roll this, your weapon only breaks 1 in 2 chance. Each re-roll increases this, to 1 in 3, then 1 in 4, etc.

71-75: Glorious Battle - you could kill this beast with one hand tied behind your back! If you handicap yourself in some meaningful way, you get double XP at the end of the fight. Only works against monsters with more hit dice than you. Examples of handicaps include no weapons, half HP, blindfolded, one hand tied behind back, etc. Re-rolling this result means you can take two handicaps for triple XP, and so on.

76-80: Beastrider - finally! You get to ride around on the back of a bitchin' beast. It has to be local to where you leveled up, it can't have more than 5 hit dice, and it has to have roughly animal intelligence. It is not particularly intelligent, but will let you ride it into battle (because what's the point otherwise!).

81-82: Hands of Steel - if you wound an opponent using bare hands, then succeed an opposed strength check, you literally tear off one of their limbs. Scary. Re-roll means you get +1 on the strength check, then +2, etc.

83-97: +1 to fortitude save.

98-00: Thick-Skinned - You get Damage Reduction 1 from your thick-ass hide. Second time you roll this, 2 DR. Re-roll if you get this a third time.


Weird

1-25: increase the damage die by one step for one weapon

26-30: Crowspeech - you can speak with birds, in a limited fashion. You sound like a crow though, and they don't all like that. Roll this again, and you're fluent, all birds like you. Re-roll after that.

31-35: Beastspeaker - you can grunt and bark like a beast. You can speak with non-bird animals, in a limited fashion. Roll this again, and you're fluent. After that, re-roll.

36: Old Crone's Quest - that thing you always wanted? The Storm Axe of Fronsold Giantbane? The Headband of Bloodlust? The Breastplate of Catrigga the Gnome? It's there. 4 sessions of play away or less. You must have a reasonable (but not guaranteed) chance of getting it. If you haven't gotten it within 4 sessions, you may switch it out with another macguffin, but the first one becomes unattainable (DM make up a reason).

37-40: Luck of the Gods - you can re-roll 1 die roll once per day. If you get this result again, twice per day, and so on.

41: Nice eyes - increase wisdom by 1 up to racial max.

42: Nice voice - increase charisma by 1 up to racial max

43-45: You gazed into something you shouldn't have. Take a random mutation.

46-47: Cowl of Ghosts - those you have murdered hover around your subconscious. If you sacrifice 1/10 of your current XP, you can ask a question of anyone you have killed, and you will receive a truthful answer. The answer will come to you in a dream, so you have to sleep. If you lose a level from the use of this ability, lose one level's worth of hit points, and two random class abilities you have acquired. You will level up again as normal. If you roll this a second time, you only lose 1/12 of your XP, then 1/14, and so on down.

48: Blood for the Blood God - You've made a deal with something dark and hungry, maybe by accident. At least once per week, you must mutilate yourself, dealing a quarter of your hit points to your own flesh, and consequently taking a wound. You must then spread your own blood out on a flat surface in a profane ritualistic circle. Every time you do this, roll a d%. On a 1-99, nothing happens. On a 00, however, a you are possessed by a demon for exactly one week. In return for this ritual being performed, you may shriek "Blood for the blood god!" once per week. After this, you and all allies within 30 feet all increase your damage dice by 1 step for a number of rounds equal to your level, and blood runs from all your eyes. If you miss any of your blood rituals, they are saved. The next time you take a wound, roll for all the missed ones at once, and you are possessed on a 99-00 for any of them.

49: Arcane Acquisition - holy shit, someone fit a spell into your brain. Any spell of your choice is sitting up there, waiting to be used. One time only. Acts as if cast by a 15th level mage.

50-64: +1 to all your saves

65-74: I Know These Lands - in terrain similar to the land you hail from, you may ask one yes/no question about the land per week. Increase by 1/week each time you re-roll.

75-81: You get around. You've picked up another language.

82-90: Know Level - You can spend 1 movement point to estimate a foe's level or hit dice. Roll 1d6 and add half your level (rounded down). If you rolled under their actual level, you believe them to be the rolled number. If your rolled over the actual number, you know their actual level (though not their class, if any). Roll this again, and you can add another d6, then another, etc.

91-94: Seen Too Much - immune to fear. On a re-roll, your allies get +2 to resist fear, then +4, etc.

95-96: Blub-blub: you can hold your breath twice as long as normal. On a re-roll, 3 times, then 4, etc.

97-98: Weatherbeaten - you gain a +2 bonus to resisting weather effects.

99: Things Fall Apart - you just don't get along with technology. Whenever you interact with a complicated mechanical device, it immediately ceases to work 1 in 6. Increase this chance with every re-roll (cannot be higher than 5 in 6).

00: The Wind Speaks a Warning - Lower your surprise by 1 (from 4 in 6, to 3 in 6, for example). Cannot be lower than 1 in 6.


Gritty

1-30: increase damage die of one weapon

31-40: increase reflex save by one

41-45: increase fortitude save by one

46-50: Persuasive Shove - when attempting a shove, increase damage dealt by 1

51-55: Persuasive Trip - when attempting a trip, increase damage dealt by 1

56-60: Persuasive Disarm - when attempting a disarm, increase damage dealt by 1

61-70: Battlefield Command - once per fight, you can give one of your allies an extra movement point. Each re-roll allows you to do this an additional time per fight.

71-75: Quick draw - pulling out an item or weapon takes 1 less movement point. You can fire ranged weapons 1 round more frequently than normal (bows every round, light crossbows every other round, heavy crossbows every 3 rounds). If you roll this again, just re-roll.

76-80: Cast Iron Stomach - +4 to saving against poison

81-82: +1 to dexterity, up to racial max. extra points go to strength or constitution

83-85: Battlefield Medic - You can heal 2 hit point per level per day, spread amongst characters as you please. Roll again, and it becomes 3 hit points per level, then 4, etc.

86-90: brutal life - you recover an additional number of hit points every night equal to half your level (rounded down). Each time you re-roll this, add 1 more hit point per night.

91-95: quick as a viper - increase your movement by 1

96-00: dual-wielding - you can use a weapon in each hand. Decrease the damage dice of both of them by 1. If you re-roll, the weapon in your main hand is at regular damage. If you roll this again, your off-hand gets normal damage. After that, re-roll.

Killing the Armor Class

Here are the bare-bones of an alternate combat system:
 - there is no armor class
 - all attacks hit; roll damage immediately
 - armor provides damage reduction (usually on a scale of 1-4)
 - dexterity bonuses provide that number of free "dodges" usable per fight
 - increase in fighting skill is represented by an increase in damage die

Think of hit points as representing combat endurance. It's your character's ability to keep ducking and weaving, ignoring small wounds, parrying blades, etc. Whenever someone swings a weapon, your hit points are reduced, because you had to put energy into evading that blow. Once your energy is exhausted, you start taking hits for real, and are debilitated by whatever rules you have for negative hit points.

Damage, then, is really a measure of how much energy you have forced someone else to expend, either through having a big fucking sword, or a lot of skill with it (or both).

Armor allows you to absorb some blows, so you don't expend as much energy. Dexterity gives you a couple "get out of jail free" cards, to evade damage you didn't want to take.

Shields Shall Be Splintered.

All weapons start out dealing either 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, or 1d10 damage. Gaining levels allows the character to pick specific weapons that deal more damage. Here's an example of the way damage would progress in various weapons:

1d4 --> 1d6 --> 1d8 --> 1d10 --> 2d6 --> 2d8 --> 3d6 --> 3d8, etc.

Fighters can pick a weapon to increase in damage every other level, starting at first. Clerics/Thieves can pick a weapon for damage increase every three levels, starting at second. Mages can pick a weapon for damage increase every four levels, starting at third.

I came up with this system out of a desire to both represent exhaustion wearing down on a character during battle, and to decrease the number of dice rolled per turn in combat. Let me know what you think.

Reactions to an Unconscious Foe

Short post today.

My players are knocked unconscious a lot. I consequently struggle with how a combatant, in the heat of battle, reacts to an enemy being thrown to the ground, apparently lifeless. I'd rather not make ad hoc decisions about whether or not a killing blow is delivered, so I'll make a random table instead.

First of all, I require a wisdom check from the combatant in question to know if a character is dead. If they think the character is dead, they will subsequently ignore them. Most of the following tables assume that death (not capture) is the goal of the combatants.

Mook (0-level human or demi-human combatant)

Still in the first six rounds of combat:
 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 20% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 70% chance of decision to kill
In the seventh round or later:

 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 5% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 50% chance of decision to kill

Humanoid

Still in the first six rounds of combat:
 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 30% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 80% chance of decision to kill
In the seventh round or later:

 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 15% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 60% chance of decision to kill

Monster (hungry, animal intelligence)

Will always start eating an unconscious character

Monster (pissed off, animal intelligence)
15% chance of decision to kill, out of dull spite

Leveled NPC/Intelligent Monster

Still in the first six rounds of combat:
 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 20% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 80% chance of decision to kill
In the seventh round or later:

 - more than 50% of opposing force remains: 10% chance of decision to kill
 - less than 50% of opposing force remains: 60% chance of decision to kill
[if the opposing party is known to have a cleric, increase above percentages by 15%]

I may edit this post later if I come up with different ways to handle this, or invent more situations.

Story from Statistics: Demographics

I like to generate plot ideas and stories from known statistics about my various worlds. I hope to make this a series of posts on how exactly to do this.

Your players are entering a town they know nothing about. Who is inside this town? What do they have to offer? This town was a living, breathing place before the PCs got there, and it should react to them arriving.

Let's start with some numbers. I like to say that 2% of the world at large is "leveled" (that is, has at least one level in a character class). You can choose whatever number you want, or have it vary from region to region. My frontier regions have 3 or 4% of the population being leveled.

The classes are not made equal. Certain classes are rarer, or more difficult to train in. I use ten classes: Assassin, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Mage, Monk, Mystic, Paladin, Scout, and Thief. I argue that the Monk is the rarest class, so we'll assign a relative frequency of 1. I'll say there are twice as many Mystics, Assassins, and Paladins as monks, so they get the value of 2, and so on up through to the most common classes, Fighter and Thief. Here are my numbers, and the consequent percentages:

Monk: 1 --> 3.226%

Assassin: 2 --> 6.452%

Mystic: 2 --> 6.452%

Paladin: 2 --> 6.452%

Bard: 3 --> 9.677%

Mage: 3 --> 9.677%

Scout: 4 --> 12.903%

Cleric: 4 --> 12.903%

Fighter: 5 --> 16.129%

Thief: 5 --> 16.129%

So, of a given population, 2% are leveled, and 16.129% are Fighters. Therefore, we have a good approximate number of Fighters for ANY given town, city, region, or country.

Let's get deeper. I would suggest that of a given pool of Fighters, 1/2 of them are level 1, 1/4 are level 2, 1/8 are level 3, 1/16 are level 4, and so on, each level containing about half the number of the previous level.

Let's create a large town of 10,000 people. There are 200 leveled people. There are 25.806 Clerics. There are 12.903 first level Clerics, 6.4515 second level Clerics, 3.22575 third level Clerics, 1.612875 fourth level Clerics, 0.8064375 fifth level Clerics, 0.40321875 sixth level Clerics, 0.201609375 seventh level Clerics, 0.1008046875 eighth level Clerics, 0.05040234375 ninth level Clerics, and 0.02520117187 tenth level Clerics.

Obviously, we can't have a .0252 of a person. So, read these decimals as chances of an additional member. 12.903 first level Clerics means there is a 90.3% chance of there being a thirteenth first level Cleric in the municipality. By the same stroke, .1008 eighth level Clerics means there is only a 10% chance of there being an eighth level Cleric at all.

Let's roll some dice and get exact numbers. We could roll for members of higher than tenth level, of course, but for the sake of demonstration I'll stop there.

1st: 13

2nd: 7

3rd: 3

4th: 2

5th: 0

6th: 1

7th: 0

8th: 1

9th: 0

10th: 0

We estimated in the beginning that there were 25.8 Clerics, and we got 27, a bit more than average. Furthermore, out town has the rare honor of hosting an 8th level cleric, which only 1 in 10 towns of its size can boast.

I have a google spreadsheet that calculates all of these instantly for me, but rolling a lot of d% will work just as well. After repeating this process for all the classes, we have definitive numbers of all the important players in the town. I like to say that anyone of 5th level or more is a "known" entity. They hold some sway in the community. From my excel sheet, I can make the following list of "important" people:

Assassins: One 5th level and one 8th level.

Bards: One 5th level and one 6th level.

Clerics: One 6th level and one 8th level.

Fighters: One 5th, one 7th, one 8th.

Mages: none (higher than 4th level, that is)

Monks: One 7th.

Mystics: One 5th.

Paladins: One 5th, one 6th.

Scouts: One 5th, one 7th.

Thieves: One 5th.

We now know have a list of the 16 most influential people in the town. Do you see the possibilities? Who are the PCs competing with? Which of these people are looking for recruits? Who hates who? This town has three 8th level NPCs! What does that mean? Were they once an adventuring party themselves? Monks are the rarest class, yet by chance we rolled a 7th level one. Who is this person?

This is where story lies. It is contained within a world that exists independently of the PCs, which has its own rhyme and reason that the players can tap into. These numbers scream tales to me, they whisper to me about adventure opportunities, they seem to invent histories for these people.

Don't shy away from numbers. They'll do so much work for you, they'll surprise you, and they'll hook together in ways that will withstand the closest scrutiny.

Craft Skills

Craft skills work just like regular skills. They are associated with intelligence and dexterity (and thus use the lower of those two ability scores). All craft skills function in basically the same way with regards to their standard effect and challenge percentage.

There are four qualities of items: poor, average, excellent, and masterwork.

Items have a quality, material, a complexity, and a time for completion. Complexity ranges from 1 to 10, and time is measured in days.

The following list describes the number of days required to complete an average item of a given complexity (it is indeed in the fibonacci sequence):

Complexity
1 --> 1 day
2 --> 1 day
3 --> 2 days
4 --> 3 days
5 --> 5 days
6 --> 8 days
7 --> 13 days
8 --> 21 days
9 --> 34 days
10 --> 55 days
(11) --> 89 days
(12) --> 144 days
(13) --> 233 days
(14) --> 377 days

Craft Skills, Standard Effects:

• A craftsman can complete an average quality item of a certain complexity in the above time frame with no chance of failure (assuming they are trained).
• If the craftsman wishes to make an excellent quality item, the time increases by two steps on the above table. Again, there is no risk of failure here.
• If the craftsman wishes to make a poor quality item, the time decreases by one step on the above table. There is no risk of failure. Decreasing below one on the table halves the time with each step.

Craft skills have challenge percentages like any other skill, used for more difficult projects. A project can be made more difficult by increasing quality without increasing time, or by decreasing time without decreasing quality.

Every upward step of time that a craftsman wishes to avoid requires one challenge roll. For example, if a craftsman wishes to make a complexity 5 item of excellent quality, this would ordinarily take 13 days. If he wishes to finish it in 8 days, he must succeed at a challenge roll. If
he wishes to finish it in 5 days (two steps below usual), he must succeed at two challenge rolls, etc.

Creating masterwork items increases the time by four steps, and always requires an additional challenge roll. Thus, attempting a masterwork complexity 7 item takes 89 days and a successful challenge roll to complete. Every step of time decrease requires an additional challenge roll, as usual.

Items cost [base material price] x [days] x [2 ^ number of challenge rolls]. Let's assume iron's base cost is 5 s.p (or .5 g.p).

Thus an average blacksmith's set of horseshoes costs [.5] x [1] x [1] = 5 s.p.
A poor quality set of horseshoes costs [.5] x [.5] x [1] = 2 s.p., 5 c.p.
An excellent set of horseshoes (normal time) costs [.5] x [2] x [1] = 1 g.p.
An excellent set of horseshoes (expedited one step) costs [.5] x [1] x [2] = 1 g.p. (same as above)
A masterwork set of horseshoes (normal time) costs [.5] x [5] x [2] = 5 g.p.
A masterwork set of horseshoes (expedited one step) costs [.5] x [3] x [4] = 6 g.p.

Some items, such as horseshoes or nails or cannonballs, obviously take less than one day to produce. In these cases, group them into sets of items that would take about 1 day to complete, and call that complexity 1. We'll say 50 nails can be made per day from scratch, for example.

This is not the simplest system in the world, but it gives me hard numbers to work with, and is rewarding to players who want to make things themselves.

A partial list of craft skills: woodworking, blacksmithing, whitesmithing, carpentry, instrument-making, metallurgy (more on this later), pottery, textiles, fletching.

I'm working on compiling lists of items and their relative complexities. I'm also working on a system of specializations within craft skills (such as weaponsmithing underneath blacksmithing).