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Sunday, June 27, 2010

New Magic Items

A couple of the new/old magic items being added to the 2nd print of the Core Rules I thought I'd share (and compatible with Swords & Wizardry as well):

Prayerbeads of the Ages: This string of prayer beads contains a bead with the symbol of each deity inscribed on it (though some may be incomplete if found already used). If the prayer beads are used during 30 consecutive days when a divine spellcaster prays or worships to his deity and a bead dedicated to the deity is on the string, the bead disappears and the character’s Wisdom is raised by 1 point permanently. Usable by: Divine spellcasters.

Circlet of Power (-1, -2 or -3): This electrum band is worn about the head and possess a black pearl flanked by twin diamonds. While worn by a spellcaster, victims of his magic save with the penalty indicated. Usable by: Spellcaster classes.

Amulet of Magic Resistance (10%, 20% or 30%): Wearing this amulet grants the stated magic resistance to the wearer against all spells used on him. Usable by: All Classes.

Monday, June 21, 2010

The Oldguy is back!

After a months-long absence Chgowiz, of the 'Old Guy RPG Blog' has made a return. His many thoughtful posts, ideas and insights have spurred some of my own takes and ideas into fruition in the past and I'm glad to see his return.

The link to the Chgowiz Old Guy RPG Blog is now active again.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day

For all of you gamers out there who have started growing the next generation and those that still have the parents that brought you into this world, Happy Father's Day!

For myself, finished up the second printing of Onn Supplement I for Swords & Wizardry this morning. Later this week, after I recieve the proof and have a chance to review it, it will go on sale (maybe by Friday). The second printing incorporates the errata for the first printing as well as updated information for Onn itself and Ossus (the lands featured on the Supplement).

Thanks to everyone for their support and Happy Father's Day!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Core Rules 2nd Print Progress III

With the family events going on, I've had little time to post or work on projects. I did manage to get through the Monsters section and only increase the page count by 8 for monster descriptions. Currently when there is time, I've been adding the new monsters to and reworking the encounter tables. I'm still polishing up the Lairs and Tribal Spellcasters sections (still about a page long).

Then it's on to the Treasure section. There are only minimal changes planned for there, so hopefully there are no suprises. I plan on adding minimal information to the Atlas, mostly things like national exports, dominion type for kingdoms, and the ruler's name. If there is something you (the readers) want to know or think is useful, let me know in the comments or email me.

With everything going on, the only other project I've touched is Onn Supplement II for the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules. This has been shaping up extremely nicely and I hope it's a worthy follow up expansion to Onn Supplement I for your Swords & Wizardry games.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Core Rules, 2nd Printing Progress II

Over the last few days I've gone through the Referee Section. There wasn't so much clairifying of the previous rules, as they were heavy enough to work on their own without turning them into a railroad, but remain more like guidelines and advice (as they should be). Several sections were added or added to with additional information. This information took the page count from that section from 8 pages up to 15, and included additional things like:

General Guidelines on new condition types (like being dazed, stunned, diseased, etc)
Rules for spells that rely on Concentration to maintain their effect
Dungeoneering Skills have been expanded (but not really clairified so they remain loose guidelines)
Some notes on environmental effects (like underwater combat)
The appendix for Strongholds and Fiefdoms has been expanded upon and added to this section as well
Reputation Rules, Item Saving throws and much more!

Next up I'm tackling the Monster Section. It's 54 pages of Monsters that will need reformatted and I plan to add about 30 additional monsters (hopefully only about 10 pages additional) and some guidelines for lairs and monster spellcasters (about a page worth). We'll see how it goes!

Friday, June 04, 2010

Ethereal Barrier

Ethereal Barrier
Spell Level: Magic-user, 5th Level
Range: 60 ft
Duration: 1 turn / level

Ethereal Barrier causes a bit of Ether to be drawn into the caster’s presence and formed into a wall, cage or sphere. The barrier is indestructible to any means short of a disintegrate, wand of negation, limited wish or a full wish or an etherite weapon inflicting a total of 10 points per caster level on the wall. Magic cannot be cast through the wall or sphere versions of the Ethereal Barrier. The barrier also extends into the Ethereal Plane, thus creatures such as shifter cats can be trapped and even teleport-type magics are useless to escape the sphere version. The wall is 1 inch thick, and has a surface area of 200 feet (usually 10 ft x 20 ft); the cage can affect up to a 20 ft cube while the sphere affects roughly a 10 ft radius.

Ray of Weakness

Ray of Weakness
Spell Level: Magic-user, 2nd Level
Range: 90 ft
Duration: 1 turn

When cast, this spell creates a grey beam from the caster’s hand that receives a +2 bonus on the ‘to hit’ roll. If a successful hit is made, the victim receives a -1 penalty on all melee ‘to hit’ rolls and damage rolls per 6 levels of the Magic-user and has his encumbrance limit halved.

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Gaming Limbo

Lots has been going on lately, forcing me to cancel my normally-running Thursday-night Onn game last week and this week and to miss the 1st session (and probably 2nd session as well) of a new 3.5-with-a-retro-feel campaign being run by my buddy Bart (which I am so looking forward to because his last campaign was something us old-times still talk about and it's been something like over a decade).

The Thursday group Sirac Point campaign has been put on indefinite hiatus, running a higher level game has opened a door I was waiting for those characters to level up high enough for me to do: Run some Expert-level D&D modules that I've had forever with World of Onn. Eventually when I get back to gaming, hopefully next week, we're going to be playing the Desert Nomad series X4 and X5. I'm not sure about running X10 since it contains all elements Mystara and may take too much to convert to Onn.

Man am I looking forward to this!

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Energy Drain Poll!

It's come up in several forums, blogs and emails I get from people. Energy Draining is one of the deadliest forms of non-kill (outright at least) attack forms a monster possesses. As a Referee, I see it as a debilitating attack form that should be rightly feared (and one that there are few avenues of recourse for). I've heard from others that simply slam the ability as 'nerfing' a character, 'crippling' a character, that it's a Referee's way to 'beat' a party that is too powerful for him to handle (I think this one comes from someone disgruntled with his Referee, but I'm not sure as it's not from anyone in my own group).

Energy Draining has been a staple of D&D and it's clones and is something a select few creatures in Onn possess. I'm curious now what others think of the ability and how they handle it.

The Scorn

Scorn (L)
Armor Class:0[19]
Hit Dice:6+6 to 9+9
Attacks:great spear (1d6+4) + tail (1d6+poison)
Saving Throw:11 (6HD), 9 (7HD), 8 (8HD), 6 (9HD)
Morale:8 (6-8HD), 9 (9HD)
Magic Resistance:Nil
Special:Strong poison
Move:150 ft (50 ft)
Challenge Level/XP:7 / 600 (6HD), 8 / 800 (7HD), 9 / 1,100 (8HD), 10 / 1,400 (9HD)

Once long ago the Scorn were natives to the midlands of Var-Ultar, before the Fire in the Sky. When the Fire carved its path of destruction through Ossus and Var-Ultar, the land and people that dwelt there were changed horribly - the land became a dry desert where only the hardiest plants could survive. Of the people, the few not killed outright by the event were horribly mutated. Most of these died off as well, but those who call themselves the Scorn are a tauric combination of man and giant scorpion that thrive in the dry wastelands. Scorn combine the body of a giant scorpion, but where the ‘face’ should be sprouts a bloated humanoid torso. Occasionally a slight mutation leaves a newborn scorn with the claws of the giant scorpion as well, granting 2 additional attacks for 1d6+1 damage each. The scorn are divided into tribes that criss-cross the Ironsands Desert. For the right price, they can be hired out as guides...but most enjoy the life of desert raiders.