Although I doubt it had anything to do with my post about dogs in the dungeon, Goblinoid Games recently released Dogs in the Dungeon, a four-page supplement to Labyrinth Lord that can easily be adapted to any of the OSR flavors of D&D. It is available at RPGNOW for a buck fitty or you can get an art-less free download. I recommend the art-free version, unless like me you want to toss a buck to Goblinoid.
Update: There is no free version of the Dogs in the Dungeon supplement. I misread Don’s post. It’s the Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion rulesbooks that have art-free versions at no cost. Rolled a 1 on my reading check.
The four pages include breeds of:
- Guard or Fighting Dog
- Scenthounds
- Sighthouds
- Waterhounds
- Exotic Hounds
To my uneducated eye, it seems Dan has researched historical breeds as much as would satisfy me as a DM. After the breeds are described, there are some rules for dogs such as:
Dominance
Dogs are pack animals, and as such they require a dominance structure to achieve harmony in a group. It is assumed that all of the dogs presented here are very well trained. They do not challenge the dominance of their masters. In any group where two or more dogs are present there will be struggles for dominance between the dogs. This will not occur during an encounter, due to the quality of their training, but the referee must roll 1d6 every four turns in the dungeon, or once per day in the wilderness. A roll of 1-2 on 1d6 indicates a dominance struggle, and the dogs get into a physical scuffle.
I’d be interested in hearing of anyone using these rules. I would have liked a few more exotic hounds (there are two), but I think the variety of mundane hounds is more than sufficient to add something to the game without breaking it.
Notes from the Bardo [fluff post]
This bardo is the one between having no time at all to post and lots of time. Just a little maybe once a week if I can steal it.
Just some thoughts:
LotFP Grindhouse pre-orders start next week. You don’t need to tell me that. Let me tell you what excites me about this one: Not the art, although that will be great (and completely high-shelf material at my house). Not the perfect binding and larger fonts, although that is also a BIG plus.
It’s these four rules modifications: Spells have been realigned to pit priests against mages on a law vs. chaos axis, elves are as alien as they can be for a PC race, demi-humans advance in their racial abilities and the silver standard replaces the gold standard.
The first and second are similar to thoughts I have posted here in the past (not original thoughts on my part, so no, I am not claiming any credit or influence). The last I have done before and will continue because gold should mean something. The third I think will make demihumans more fun to play.
I went by the HBO Store in Manhattan and got to take a gander at the Game of Thrones costumes and props on display.
Alex started a wiki to let us list our favorite stuff. I am very much behind this. I think the OSR is past the point where it needs a hub for the best of our content, rules and articles. As I finish up school, I hope to be able to help establish some aids for collecting this material and archiving it (with permission of course). I’m thinking of metadata standards and other stuff that we have (rightly) felt was too complicated and unnecessary in the past but that we need to consider. I’ll be posting about that in May.
It seems like it’s about time for another internet blowup.
I played my first >1e D&D game tonight. It was Pathfinder. I was the only person there who had not only not played Pathfinder, but the only one without a complete character. A couple of fortunate dice rolls put my monk out of commission for the first combat, which game me time to figure out my feats, equipment, languages and learn the skill system. I definitely sat back and watched but next session I’ll be much more active (although still pretty closed mouth, in-game). I am trying to be very aware of my own biases going into this game.
Two cool ideas I saw in Pathfinder (that might exist elsewhere, what do I know?). They have a god much like two-face, with worshippers who create and worshippers who destroy. And gnomes start to fade into nothingness unless they manage to entertain themselves. Love that.
Still thinking about elves, dungeon dogs and a few gods. Looking forward to getting a Flame Princess campaign going this summer.
Thanks for bearing with me through these ‘fluff’ posts.