House Rule Mixtape: Featuring Climbing on The Biggerest, Organ Damage and more

Print PDF  (re)MUXTUPE: rules old and new, fixed, remixed or repeated
 1
.SCaling MOnsters With Violent Intents
I keep getting track backs about the climbing on big monsters rules. And I'm like "man those, what was I thinking? Why do I think additionally mechanics are a good idea? Also damage reduction , while stimulatitionistly appropriate , in actual game play I have been hating. Wait what did I just think? "Stimulationistly" buuu.."
Also Monster Johnston makes some of that sense with skeletons and getting bonuses is more fun than avoiding penalties. Also the Zak Smith version that was +1 to hit and damage for every round of climbing. But I think that giving up an attack is worth more than +1 so:
                     PRINCESS CLIMBING ON RULES REVISED:
ignore all that damage reduction noise. You get +1 to hit and +5 to damage for every round you spend climbing up on something. ( up to a maximum of 1 round per 2 hit dice. OR something )The climbed-on can take an attack or move action to make you make a dexterity check (it's trying to flick you off) or a strength check (it's trying to shake you off) if you fail you lose a round of climbing and have to make another check. If you fail that you fall off. Initiating climbing with an attack I guess if the creature is paying attention to you (ie actively targeting you for attacks) or a climb check if it's not.




                    The cool thing about this is it works for small creatures climbing on the players. If that pixie spend 3 rounds climbing up to the fighters face , it will get +15 to damage.


ARMOUR PIERCING: 2
An idea for making the interactions between armour and anti armour weapons more impactful in game. Rolling a critical means also a roll on a injury table..
 Unless
you are using "non-lethal attacks", ie punchs and kicks.

 you are heavily armoured (full chain and better). However Maces , lucern hammers, and horsemans picks ignore this and can inflict injury table results on critical hits.


 HUMAN3: WHAT ARE THEY NOT GOOD AT HUH?
So you want a drawback to being human  so you can make all the race modifers One good Thing , One Bad thing. Humans, They just haven't had time to adapt to all this magic floating around. Their bodies just aren't meant for it. If a human being is subject to 3 ongoing magic effects at once they must con save or develop a random mutation.

[4]
 CHASE MECHANIC  
this is still good.


BOWELCHMY:      (5)
 Buried in a long post with old school hack classes, emerge into the light, strange child;
Bowelchemy : You drink all kinds of bizarre stuff and bizarrer stuff happens, for your body is a laboratory, a temple, a brothel, a kitchen and a battle ground. Anything you drink, other than water, evokes strange reactions.
Water no longer counts as water if it has more than 5% of something added to it, unless that thing has a noticeable effect on biological stuff. So water with a drop of poison would need a roll on the table, but water with a drop of lemon juice would not. A glass of water with a tenth of juice in it would however.

You can open throat scull up to 3 litres in one go. Lets say that's about 20 cups.
 
The normal effects of the liquid do not apply , unless they are instantly dangerous to touch (like the strongest of poisons, molten metals, boiling water or strong acids). 

What happens is you flip a coin to choose if you or the d.m picks a verb. In either case the d.m has to determine what mechanical effect that verb has. Say you pick "fly" , the d.m will most likely let you fly briefly , (roll a d6 to determine how many rounds the duration is), "burn" might make you catch fire, "suddenly" might give you an initiative bonus, or make a random monster attack, suddenly.
IF you drink 2 liquids at once, you pick a verb and the d.m picks a noun. (so "Shining Dogs") If you drink 3 liquids at once , you pick a verb, the d.m picks a noun and a random other player picks an adjective. ("Hurt Ghostly Pudding")
 
        6666 ----->  SHIT, CAN THEY BUY THAT?<---------------
1. no, but they can buy this dangerous unstable version
2.yes, but its stolen and the owner has a fix on its location
3.yeah but that was last seen boarding themselves up in a haunted tower
4.no , but this guy will try and scam them
5.no, but this guy will try and scam them OH WAIT actually yes , it does work, surprise to everyone , the guy running the con will try and get it back
6. Sure , but it will become bonded to you. It breaks , so do you
7.yes , but the seller wants to borrow your body for a week
8. Yes, at the No-Moon market, under the ruined bridge, accessible only with dire patronage
9.No, but this guy reckons they can make one, if funded adequately
10. Yes, but sometimes it does the exact opposite.
11. Yes but it requires dark feedings
12.No , and asking about such a thing has set 1d4 cults/ inquisitions after you.

                         7EVEN
                      all purpose encounter table
1. A typical member of the nearest settlement
2. An atypical member of the nearest settlement
3. Medium sized herbivore(s), the base of a healthy food chain
4. Scavenger
5.Predator
6. Apex Predator
7. The thing that sucks about this area happens (sandstorm, blizzard, knife storm)
8. Something actually good about this area is found


             8              
QUICK CRITICALS:
Roll differently coloured d6. One of them the severity: 1. graze  2-3 gash 4-5 broken 6 gone
 Other one 1 head 2 torso 3 leg (right) 4 leg (left) 5 arm (right) 6 arm (left).

                                 NINEQuick Fumbles: 2 dice , d6 and a d4
1.You                                   1 Drop
2.them (friend)                   2 Flung (at)
3.them (foe)                       3 Target
4. Object (held)                  4  Entangle
5. Object (equipped)            
6. Surroundings                     

Resolving Wizard projects with the tarot

Print PDF SO

"My wizard spends the month installing lasers in undead. So that is a thing in your campaign now"

here is a little subsystem the makes use of unwieldy chart and tarot cards.
Well you can use any cards really, just assign them to the various rows in the chart.
Chart is here:
CHART!
It won't make any sense yet(..).
So a wizard wants to make up a new spell or slime or duck hybrid or wand of broiling hair.
You , the g.m and the player shoot the shit about how the mechanics work and that.
I'm not going to try and write a system that does that job. That would be GURPS or rolemaster companions. Also, madness.
Then the g.m picks a large number of moneys and the player blathers on about various monster parts that are cluttering up their character sheet that they are throwing in or exactly what they are sewing to what and how drunk and things are crossed off and this is so campaign variable I will not attempt to write a system for it (also I don't want to)

This is for the next bit , where you want something to happen that will surprise you both, involves an element of risk, chance and meaningful player choices. Also gimmicks!

The player draws 5 cards from the major arcana of the tarot (or pokemon cards if you re-skin the chart) .
 They then play 5 rounds.
The first round is for the cost or resource requirements of the project. A card is drawn from the deck and then the player chooses a card to play against it.
Cards have suits Soul, World, Sun, Night.

 Soul beats Sun, Sun beats Night, Night beats World, World beats Soul.

 In the case of Same vs Same or Sun vs World or Night vs soul, the highest value card wins (the major arcana cards have a value from the Fool with Zero , to the World with 21).

The chart result for that card explains what that means for the project. If you lose against a drawn card , the second "inauspicious"  result (after the / ) is applied.

You then continue to round 2 in which the Potency of the project is determined,
 round 3 the convenience or useability ,
round 4 the danger the project puts you in (if any)
and finally 5 , repeatability , ie if an item can you attempt to make another one? If a spell, is it "worked true"? (ie it may be copied into your spell book and be cast and memorized rather than just a one off ritual) and if the project is a creature will it breed or can you even glue another one together ever?

Alternate1 :all 5 opposing cards can be drawn at once and the player then decides which of their cards to play where ( I would think you want to make the chart results have more arbitrary and nasty results)
Alternate 2: The player has only 3 cards and must randomly draw a card for to play 2 of the rounds

CHART IS HERE

I tried to make the chart results general , yet interesting and somehow applicable to making monsters , new spells and items. Which might of been a mistake. Also 22 fucking cards took me so long I really stopped caring a couple of times.
 I hope if it sees use it your campaign you hack the shit out of it. The 5 rounds thing I feel coulda been simplified down but sometimes an idea is too big to manage to grasp correctly on the first go and you need to just let it go and hope someone sees a better way for it.