CLASSIC FANTASY - A Return to the Dawn of Roleplaying

[Verderer]

Sounds exciting, please hurry up!

[Agentorange]

Sounds good, and remember you can never have too many monsters

[Trollman]

How has using D&D style traps been handled? With less HP for everyone, its seems like that'd be tricky to balance.

[threedeesix]

How has using D&D style traps been handled? With less HP for everyone, its seems like that'd be tricky to balance.

Not really. Using the Total Hit Point method gives the players a pretty good chance of surviving most average traps. I cover this in the game master spot rules section and offer quite a few examples.

Here is the write-up covering pit traps to give you a taste of what I've been doing...

The following traps only serve as examples and are not the only possible trap variations. The GM is free to change any listed skill difficulties as the following only serve as general examples.

Pit Trap (3 meters/10 feet deep): Spot roll to detect; Traps roll to disarm; Dodge roll or Difficult Agility roll avoids; no Attack roll; 1d6 damage (crushing). Description: The floor in the area depicted on the map is actually a pressure plate, that when stepped on by a combined SIZ+ENC total of 25 or more causes the floor to drop out from under anyone on it. Once sprung, there is a small ledge against each wall that may be negotiated with a successful Difficult Agility roll, unless some precaution, like roping the characters together is taken, then a failed roll results in the character falling into the pit. A GM feeling generous may allow an Agility roll to grab the ledge on the way down, in this case, a successful Effort roll is required to pull yourself out, or an ally may pull you out by comparing his or her STR vs. your SIZ on the Resistance Table.

Variation (Deep Pit): Each additional 3 meters (10 feet) increases the damage by a further 1D6 points.

Variation (Spiked Pit): Typical spikes will do 1D4 (dagger sized), 1D6+1 (short spear sized) or 1D10+1 (long spear sized) points of damage each, in addition to falling damage. The good thing about spear-sized spikes, it is that they tend to break your fall. If you land on even a single spear-sized spike, you may ignore the falling damage and you come to rest about 1 meter above the floor for a short spear and 2 meters for a long spear. Yippee! A character falling into such a pit can expect to land on 1D4-1 (minimum of 0, you missed them all) such spikes for a pit with but a few, to as many as 2D3 for a pit with the floor covered with them. Roll for each hit location separately.

Variation (Water-filled Pit): This pit is either filled halfway with water through design, or natural means. A character unexpectedly falling into such a pit must make a Swim roll or start to drown. See Choking, Drowning, and Asphyxiation on page 218 of Basic Roleplaying, and Sinking on page XX of Classic Fantasy: Volume I, for additional information.

Variation (Vermin Pit): This pit has been filled with anything from swarms of insects or rats to snakes or even slimes and molds. The GM should consult Basic Roleplaying Chapter 11: Creatures, and Monsters in Chapter 3 of this volume for the write-up of the chosen critter.

Variation (Greased Pit): This is a normal pit in all cases except the walls are covered with grease or some other lubricant making Climb rolls Difficult or Impossible, as are any Agility rolls to grab the edge.

Variation (Acid Pit): One of the nastiest of pit traps is the Acid Pit. Unless the GM has determined beforehand, assume the pit is filled with 3D6 Depth of acid. Any character of a smaller SIZ then the Depth of the acid will need to swim to keep his or her head above it. Weak acid will do 1D3-1 points of damage, strong 1D4 points of damage, and very strong 1D6+1 points of damage every round. The GM will need to determine which hit locations are effected on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the situation. For example, a SIZ 13 character in acid 6 depth points deep could be assumed to be up to his waist, therefore, he would take damage to both legs and the abdomen, while a character of SIZ 5 in the same acid must make repeated Swim rolls just to keep his or her head above it. This character would take damage to every hit location every round; including the head on any failed Swim roll. The GM should really know the capabilities of his or her party before springing this trap on them. See Acid on page 211 of Basic Roleplaying for further effects.

Variation (Bottomless Pit): Depending on the campaign, this may be a pit dropping kilometers deep into the bowels of the earth, or due to arcane sorceries, may actually be the proverbial bottomless pit. Either way, falling into this pit will mean death, though not instant death, for any adventurer so unlucky. Because of this, the GM is encouraged to know the capabilities of his party and not use this on the inexperienced adventurer.

Variation (Combo Pit): This is any combination of the above, from a spike-filled water pit to a deep acid pit. Common sense will dictate which combinations are possible; after all, an acid-filled vermin pit will revert to an acid pit in just a few rounds and a spike-filled bottomless pit, well that’s just plain silly.

In addition to pit traps, I give examples of quite a few other staples of the genre.

Hope that helps.

Rod

Edit: None of the above has been edited yet, so be gentle.

Edited August 1, 2010 by threedeesix

[Greymagius]

I've down-loaded and been using it for about two months now. Excellently done! I'm used a larger pastiche of system tools, but I'm very pleased with this excellent product. I'm eagerly looking forward to additional materials.

[threedeesix]

There were a couple of typos that appeared in the character sheet in the downloads section. I had fixed them quite a while ago, but forgot to upload it. For those that are interested it can be located at the following link.

http://basicroleplaying.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=357

[threedeesix]

For those interested, I just created a Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group.

Follow the link to join http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/brpclassicfantasy/

There are already a few files there, including part of my Against the Giants adaption. Also included is the write-up for the Cave Bear and Hill giant to be included in Classic Fantasy II. More will be uploaded as my group gets further into the adventure.

I will be spending no less time on the BRP Forum, this just gives me an additional way to get information to those interested while retaining a little more control over who gets it.

Feel free to join if your interested.

I decided to require those joining to have to tell me why you want to join to avoid spammers, but for you guys, when you get to that part just put "BRP Central" and you'll be accepted.

Rod

[DamonJynx]

For someone who is new to BRP (only ever having played a little AD&D 2nd Ed. and D&D in its later incarnations) I think the product captures the feel and flavour of the older version of D&D really well. Look forward to subsequent volumes, particularly critters and nasty ooglies. Keep up the good work Rod.

[Agentorange]

Got a question about a spell. On page 145 'Speak to plants and animals' has range 100 metres, but the text says: " This spell allows the druid to understand, and be understood by, one natural animal or plant within 3 metres" . So....is the range 100 metres or 3 metres ?

[threedeesix]

Got a question about a spell. On page 145 'Speak to plants and animals' has range 100 metres, but the text says: " This spell allows the druid to understand, and be understood by, one natural animal or plant within 3 metres" . So....is the range 100 metres or 3 metres ?

Both, sort of. The spell can be cast on an animal up to 100 meters away. But the animal has to be within 3 meters to be understood. Thats the way I'm going to explain it so that it isn't a mistake. But if it were a mistake, then I would lean toward the 3 meters part of the description as being the correct one. But it's not a mistake, really it isnt.

Rod

[Agentorange]

Sounds convincing enough to me

As an aside how many monsters are you looking at for Vol 2 ?

[threedeesix]

This many...

Ant, Giant

Basilisk

Bat

• Large
  
• Giant
  
• Swarm
  

Bear, Cave

Beetle, Giant

• Bombardier
  
• Boring
  

Boar

• Normal
  
• Giant
  

Bugbear

Cat, House

Carrion Creeper

Centipede, Giant

Creeping Cube

Displacer Cat

Doppelganger

Dragon

• Black
  
• Blue
  
• Brass
  
• Bronze
  
• Copper
  
• Gold
  
• Green
  
• Red
  
• White
  

Dryad

Elf, Dark

Ettin

Gargoyle

Gnoll

Giant

• Hill
  
• Fire
  
• Stone
  
• Cloud
  
• Storm
  

Goblin

Harpy

Hobgoblin

Hyena

Kobold

Lich

Lizard, Giant

Lizard Man

Lurker

Medusa

Mimic

Mind Slayer

Mold, Yellow

Mule

Naga

• Dark
  
• Guardian
  
• Spirit
  
• Water
  

Nightmare

Nymph

Ocular Tyrant

Ogre

Ogre Mage

Ooze, Grey

Orc

Owlbear

Pixie

Piercer

Pseudo-dragon

Purple Worm

Rat, Giant

Rust Monster

Saber-tooth Tiger

Shadow

Shrieking Mushroom

Skeleton

Slime, Green

Small Animal

Snake, Giant

Spider, Giant

Stirge

Thought Devourer

Wererat

Wereboar

Weretiger

Werebear

Wight

Wolverine

Wolf, Dire

Zombie

Unless I have to cut some out for space reasons. We'll see, I have about 2/3 of them done at this time.

Rod

[Agentorange]

You can never have too many monsters. I'm curious how did you decide which ones were ok to use without name changes and which ones needed a name change for...whatever reason

Edited August 17, 2010 by Agentorange

[threedeesix]

You can never have too many monsters. I'm curious how did you decide which ones were ok to use without name changes and which ones needed a name change for...whatever reason

I found a list of what WOTC considers "IP". Surprisingly, many that I figured would be on it were not. Beholder was, but Owlbear was not for instance. I'm still not 100% sure how legal it is, so some are subject to change. But I may let Chaosium make that call. As of right now, the list represents the final names.

Rod

[frogspawner]

Might I suggest one more name-change? Medusa to Gorgon

[b-dog]

How about some Deep Ones instead of the sahuagin?

[Agentorange]

Because Deep Ones exist within Call of Cthulhu which is already a BRP game in publication...and don't exist in D'n'D which Classic fantasy is an emulation of. Sahuagin on t'other hand do exist within that game. So unless there is a copyright issue Sahuagin it is.

[threedeesix]

Might I suggest one more name-change? Medusa to Gorgon

Nah, has to be medusa. I agree, it should be gorgon, and should have always been gorgon. But D&D decided to make a gorgon a large bull type creature with a stone-like hide that could turn you to stone with it's breath. Medusa they made a whole race. So while I prefer my gorgons to be what Medusa was but one of, to remain true to D&D, I will have medusas and gorgons.

Rod

[threedeesix]

Because Deep Ones exist within Call of Cthulhu which is already a BRP game in publication...and don't exist in D'n'D which Classic fantasy is an emulation of. Sahuagin on t'other hand do exist within that game. So unless there is a copyright issue Sahuagin it is.

There may be a copyright issue with Sahuagin, but if so I can always rename them. Then again, Deep One is a nice name substitute. And on my Deities and Demigods of the Realm Table I listed Cthulhu, so there is no reason they can't exist in The Realm as well. It's kind of just too, my earliest version of AD&D's Deities and Demigods has the Cthulhu Mythos, now The Realm can as well... and legally too.

Rod

[frogspawner]

Nah, has to be medusa. I agree, it should be gorgon, and should have always been gorgon. But D&D decided...

Fine. I just thought you were fixing D&D's mistakes, that's all...

(PS: I didn't see gorgon on the list).

[Agentorange]

Not saying you shouldn't call them Deep Ones. It's just I've always thought of Sahuagin as being different from Deep Ones, there's that whole 4 arm thing going on with the Sahuagin for a start, and it goes without saying that there's much less squamous batrachian rugosity as well

Also for me they conjure up two very different genres as well. Deep ones are lovecraftian horror, but Sahuagin are old school fantasy.... always liked 'em as a monster. If you're going to call them Deep Ones then why bother to stat them up, you could just nick the Deep One stats from CoC.

But if you have Cthulhu in your game...why not have both sahuagin and Deep Ones. maybe they're related, or better still maybe they're bitter enemies. two brutal races locked in eternal undersea warfare. Deep Ones and kraken vs Sahuagin and Sharks....

Damn ,but there's an epic movie in there somewhere, somebody fetch me a Hollywood script writer.

[threedeesix]

Fine. I just thought you were fixing D&D's mistakes, that's all...

I can't fix them all... i'm only one man.

(PS: I didn't see gorgon on the list).

Gotta have something for Classic Fantasy III

Rod

[threedeesix]

To be honest, I didn't read about the Sahuagin until right now. Well, I'm sure I did years ago but forgot most everything about them. Your right, they need a place in Classic Fantasy. Maybe volume III.

Rod

Not saying you shouldn't call them Deep Ones. It's just I've always thought of Sahuagin as being different from Deep Ones, there's that whole 4 arm thing going on with the Sahuagin for a start, and it goes without saying that there's much less squamous batrachian rugosity as well

Also for me they conjure up two very different genres as well. Deep ones are lovecraftian horror, but Sahuagin are old school fantasy.... always liked 'em as a monster. If you're going to call them Deep Ones then why bother to stat them up, you could just nick the Deep One stats from CoC.

But if you have Cthulhu in your game...why not have both sahuagin and Deep Ones. maybe they're related, or better still maybe they're bitter enemies. two brutal races locked in eternal undersea warfare. Deep Ones and kraken vs Sahuagin and Sharks....

Damn ,but there's an epic movie in there somewhere, somebody fetch me a Hollywood script writer.

[Agentorange]

Well, you've got 86 monsters on your list. Now Monster Manual had about what....450 odd monsters ? Then of course you've got all of MM2 and the underwhelming Fiend Folio plus the monsters from individual modules....

Now, once upon a time Chaosium had their own equivalent called All the world's monsters Vol I, II and III so there's a potential gold mine there as well. No pressure...

[wbcreighton]

The volumes are still available as pdfs.