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Rolang's Creeping Doom

Tag Archives: Labyrinth Lord

Dungeon Dogs: Ask and Ye Shall Receive

March 29, 2011 7:36 pm / 6 Comments / Chris

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.

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Posted in: legacy D&D, product recommendations, review / Tagged: dogs, labyrinth lord

Best of the Creeping Doom Part 1

December 30, 2010 4:43 pm / Leave a Comment / Chris

The last two posts of 2010 will be my favorite posts and your favorite posts. This isn’t a popular blog by most any standard, and most of you have started reading or subscribed in the last few months. I’ll point to my favorites and hopefully you’ll enjoy those as well.

Rethinking the Ettin and its companion post with some examples was fun to write. I think the possibilities for this sort of creature are endless and if I could use one in every adventure, I would.  Zak S. even used the basic idea for a session.

Junkie Medusa is something I wrote when I was reading through my boxed set of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy RPG. This is the third part of the Rethinking Medusa series. Looking back at it now, I am even more determined to work her into an adventure.

My first series of posts on monsters, the Hydrae posts, remains a favorite. I will definitely make the Lernean Hydra and some of its former heads a powerful agent in a campaign world.

My first attempt at creating a setting involved mashing up the Norse Mythos with the Medieval Church. It’s still clumsy and needs detail, but I’m short on time to research and update it until late spring. Still, I used it as part of my background for running Death Frost Doom and it seemed to work pretty well. That setting is also a favorite.

How could you not pick this as your favorite?

My all-time favorite post to date remains the Create Familiar spell. With a face like that, it’s a shoo-in.

So, navel gazing halfway done.

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Posted in: content, house rules, legacy D&D, monsters, spells, Uncategorized / Tagged: best of, ettin, familiar, labyrinth lord, lotfp wf rpg, Medusa, navel gazing, Norse, swords and wizardry

Rethinking Giants: These Are Actually Giant

October 20, 2010 7:41 am / Leave a Comment / Chris

Why are the 1st edition Monster Manual giants so small? Did Gary want to make sure that everything was killable? In the AD&D Monster Manual, a Storm Giant had 15 HD, three less than a T-rex. And they were only 21 feet tall.

Let’s embiggen these guys.

Take the giants from your favorite monster manual and multiply their hit dice and height by a factor of eight to twenty, depending on your tastes. Me, I’d make them maybe ten to fifty times taller (Storm Giant would be 210 – 1050 feet tall).

The bigger you make them, the easier it would be to sneak up on them. It would also be harder for the giant to hear them. And they need more to eat when they eat.

Give them attacks that do tremendous area of effect damage with fists or thrown objects (trees, boulders, the tops of small hills…). Armor class should be ten, but any attack doing less than HD/10 HP isn’t felt and has no effect (unless you stab them in the eye).

Movement is trickier. If there is no significant obstacles, then a running giant would have a stride of about 1.14 times his height. So each step would be .507 his height. So for six second rounds, you could say he moves height x 1.14 if you assume that it would take six seconds for one stride. Which seems slow to us, but remember the terrain isn’t likely to be flat and giants would need to be careful not to fall. A one minute round would mean they move height x 1.14 x 10. A ten-minute turn would be height x 1.14 x 100.  I am guessing that the opportunities and need for the largest of giants to run are few and far between, so you can cap it if you want.

Sample size/HD/movement rates:

Labyrinth Lord Hill Giant, XL (x5)

60 feet tall, 40 HD, Moves 68 feet/six seconds, 115/ ten seconds, 685 feet/minute

Labyrinth Lord Fire Giant, XXL (x 10)

160 feet tall, 110 HD (+20 HP), Moves 182 feet/six seconds, 304 feet/ten seconds, 1828 feet/minute and 18280 feet/ten minute turn. So in ten minutes, over three miles.

One more.

Labyrinth Lord Storm Giant XXL (x20)

420 feet tall, 300 HD, Moves 478 feet/six seconds, 800 feet/ten seconds, 4800 feet/minute and 48000 feet/ten minute turn. Nine miles in ten minutes!  If he could run nonstop, he could circle the Earth in less than 19 days.

So what’s the point, really? At this point, these are forces of nature. They are tougher than the divine beings of Deities and Demigods–Why stat these guys in the first place?

Two words: Monster fights. More soon.

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Posted in: legacy D&D, monsters / Tagged: giants, labyrinth lord, monsters, rethinking

Create Familiar – A B/X Spell

August 26, 2010 12:56 am / 2 Comments / Chris

What if familiars weren’t joined to mages but came from them instead? With this spell, the caster coughs up a familiar that is far more loyal than a rabbit, but at a much greater risk than the familiar spell I posted before. This is the “weirdness turned to 11” version for WFRP, but you can of course use it in any retroclone.

Spawn Familiar

Level 2, M-U

Duration: Up to 1 day/level of caster

The chaotic forces a mage channels when casting spells make his body more pliable to his whims. When he casts this spell, various parts of his insides are sculpted by chaos into a small creature that separates from the body by budding or exiting it (your campaign’s tone can decide where). The caster may choose to donate a spell slot and spell that will “go” with the familiar and can be cast by it at his level.

The familiar will have the general shape and texture of one of the animal/organ pairs on the table below. This does not mean the mage is without any of the organ used–some of it has just been borrowed. The familiar has eyes, ears, mouth and so forth.

The creature has 1d3+1 hit points, which are subtracted from the caster’s total. Its saving throws are at the caster’s level. It can understand any orders given and knows the locations, people and things the caster has knowledge of. It can speak any language the caster knows and can read. It cannot communicate with the caster from afar, as more standard familiars can.

As mentioned above, the familiar can cast one spell if a slot if given it at the time of creation. Once it has cast its spell, it can put another spell of equal or lower level in that spot, provided the caster (or another mage) reads to it from a spell book or scroll. It can manipulate small objects and “carry” up to five pounds. It can write and imbibe potions. While it is away, the DM is in control of its actions and fate, although it will under no circumstances betray or abandon its master. When its mission is accomplished, or when the spell duration is almost up, it will rejoin the caster, who will get his hit points and spell slot back, and remember everything the familiar experienced as if it happened to him.

If the familiar is killed, the hit points the mage invested in it are lost. The spell slot can be recovered by the caster if he can find and eat the familiar’s corpse. If the familiar is unable to make it back to the caster in time, or is abandoned, it will stalk the caster and attempt to kill him. If it succeeds, or the caster dies for other reasons before it returns, the familiar will then eat the corpse and grow a full body (with its own twisted mind).

Mages 6th level and higher can control which creature results from the spell. If the spell is cast again before the first spell ends, or the familiar is lost, then the same familiar cannot be made.

Creature/Source Organs (roll 1d6)

  1. Frog-like – kidney
  2. Snake-like – intestine
  3. Spider-like – arteries, veins and part of the heart
  4. Bat-like – fatty tissue wings and muscle body
  5. Lungfish-like – lung
  6. Crab-like – bone
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Posted in: legacy D&D, spells / Tagged: familiar, labyrinth lord, lotfp wf rpg, magic-users, spells, swords and wizardry

Bind Familiar Spell for B/X and Retroclones

August 25, 2010 2:55 am / Leave a Comment / Chris
California Condor U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A familiar spell for LL/ S&W / LotFP:WFRP / Basic & Expert D&D…

California Condor U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Bind Familiar

Level 1 M-U

Duration: Permanent

This is used to bind a creature to the caster. No creature will be bound willingly by this spell, for even the most domesticated animals will be afraid.

The kinds of creatures allowed will vary by campaign. What is important is to remember that the higher the HD of the creature, the more difficult it will be to keep bound.

Once a type of animal is agreed upon by both player and GM, a gift to the targeted creature must be made. The more exotic, wild or magical the creature is, the more costly and rare the tribute. Once the creature has been lured into the caster’s proximity, the spell is cast.

The targeted creature is allowed a saving throw, adjusted at +1 or -1 for each level/HD of difference between the HD of the creature and the caster. Thus, a 1HD Toothsome Bunny would be at a -3 save vs. spells against a level 4 mage. The HD of the creature is adjusted upward by one for each special attack or spell-like ability the creature has. If the creature saves, it immediately attacks the caster or runs.

If the creature fails its save, it is bound to the caster. The caster permanently sacrifices 2 HP for each HD of the familiar. These HP are permanently added to the new familiar’s total. Familiars take on some of their master’s personality and a bit of their intelligence, so they gain +2 to saving throws and will generally not be caught or harmed due to general animal ignorance.

A familiar can perform small tasks, such as carrying written messages, guarding spellbooks or “retrieving” items from other players. It can whisper information to its master and can be given simple commands, including commands to go places where its master has been or find people he knows.

It can telepathically send along what it sees, hears and smells and hears from up to 200 feet distant. Its master must concentrate to receive the message. It cannot receive telepathic commands or impressions.

Some familiars are willing to engage in combat, particularly wilder animals. When attacking much larger/powerful enemies, they must pass a loyalty check (see below).

No matter their intelligence, familiars can be trained to perform  tricks beyond what others of their species can learn.

Small familiars may be kept in the sleeves of a robe or under a hat. Others might require a cage or to be allowed to roam or fly freely.

If a familiar somehow ends up in combat against its master, it gets +4 to hit and does double damage.

Loyalty Check

Once per week, and in certain situations, familiars will make a loyalty check.  2d6 is rolled and modifiers are added or subtracted. The following table is then consulted.

Loyalty Check Result:

12+   The familiar is fanatically loyal (or powerfully bound) and would follow its master to the end of the world. Add +1 on next loyalty check.

10-11  Familiar is quite happy with (or resigned to) the relationship and will willingly do what it can, short of self-sacrifice.

7-9  Familiar is well-disposed toward (or afraid of) its master.

5-6   Familiar will do what it is told, although it may be stubborn or ornery about it.

3-4  Familiar is unwilling to do as told, but if threatened, will comply (although the job might not be thorough).

2  Familiar has disappeared for a week (at least). -1 to next loyalty Check

Below 2 Familiar will attempt to betray its master, get him killed or otherwise break free of magical bond (Choose one, make a saving throw vs. spells, no modifiers). Penalty of -2 on next loyalty check.

Familiars are best kept loyal through humane treatment and/or disciplined treatment. But because of the power of the binding spell, they are more easily swayed into loyalty by improved or more disciplined treatment.

A lap cat or a well-trained hellhound are equally loyal. Likewise, an animal kept in fear might remain loyal to a point. Level difference and other modifiers make the most difference.

The DM should of course determine which modifiers apply in each case and even which animals are effected by which sort of treatment. A cat, for example, might respond well to indulgence, whereas a horse might not.

Loyalty Roll modifiers

For Casters level – Familiar’s HD: + or – 1/2

Daily Training: +3

Stern but humane treatment: +3

Affectionate Treatment: +3

Inhumane or Cruel Treatment: -2

Well-fed by hand: +2

Given freedom to hunt and roam: +1

Per HP Damage taken in combat: -1/2

Per combat where familiar is attacked but not hit: -1

For each other familiar master has: -3

Per month left behind or with someone else: -1

Per day in extremely hostile climate or environment: -1

Per year with master: +1

This something I’m throwing out there for comment. I have no idea when I’ll be able to test it in a campaign. Probably 2011…

[Note: edited for typo and clarity.]

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Posted in: legacy D&D, spells / Tagged: familiar, labyrinth lord, lotfp wf rpg, magic-users, spells, swords and wizardry
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