Posted on Mar 22, 2013 under BareBones Fantasy, General |
Witcher
This skill represents years of intense physical and mental training along with exposure to dangerous concoctions that forever change the Witcher and mark him as something other than human. Witchers are professional monsters hunters. Most Witchers have unsightly scars; badges of their dangerous trade.
Score: half LOG +10 per enchanter level. Cannot be attempted unskilled.
Trial of Herbs and Grasses Survivor – longer life span, eyes look like a cat’s and can see up to 12 paces in the dark, +10% per Witcher Level resistance to disease and poison.
Monster Lore – make skill roll to recall a creature’s strengths and weaknesses.
Signs – a Witcher may choose one of the following signs each level: Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, Axii and Heliotrop
Tools of the Trade – a Witcher is given two swords, one meteoric iron, the other silvered to combat the evil monsters of the world. He is also given a magical amulet that lets him know of danger (+1 Initiative die). If lost, they may be replaced at any Witcher school.
Witcher Signs
Though they are not warrior mages who employ powerful magic, Witchers can cast simple magic spells that can prove effective when used properly. Witchers call these spells Signs and usually use them against monsters, though they also have non-combat applications. Witchers prefer single-handed weaponry because it leaves their other hand free to cast Signs.
Aard
Range: 5 spaces
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: Until encounter ends
Resistance: None
Aard produces a telekinetic wave that can throw back, knock down or stun an opponent. This sign affects 1 target per even skill level of Witcher. It knocks the target(s) back 1D spaces. Targets take 1D of damage if they hit something such as a wall. If the rank of a target is less than half the Witcher level, they take stunned and are knocked prone. If the rank of an enemy is more than the Witcher level, the enemy is unaffected.
Igni
Range: 5 spaces
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: Instant
Resistance: DEX
Effect: a gush of flames that causes fire damage to one target equal to 1D +1D per Witcher level. Normal armor will not absorb damage.
Yrden
Range: touch
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: 1 day
Resistance: DEX
Effect: Causes damage equal to 1D +1D/2 per Witcher level, to all within 3 spaces of a target space. Target space needs to be stepped on to trigger Yrden. Normal armor will not absorb damage from Yrden. A witcher may place one Yrden per even Witcher level.
Quen
Range: self
Usage: 1/encounter
Duration: 1D turns
Resistance: None
Effect: a protective shield. At Witcher level 1 this spell can be cast to provide DR5 to any existing armor until encounter ends. At Witcher level 3 it can be cast to add DR10. At Witcher level 5 it reflects 50% of damage back on any melee opponent.
Axii
Range: 5 spaces
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: 1D turns
Resistance: WIL + 10 per rank
Effect: Cause target to become friendly, flee, confused, fall into a deep slumber, etc. (exact effect decided by the Witcher). Cannot charm a target whose rank is more than double the Witcher’s level. Some targets cannot be charmed such as golems, consult your GM. Charming an already charmed target is resolved as a skill contest with the spellcaster who cast the initial charm spell. Consult your GM if you are re-charming targets already under your own charm spell. Friendly targets will fight for you.
Heliotrope
Range: self
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: Until encounter ends
Resistance: None
Effect: Constructs a field of magical protection around the Witcher. The Witcher receives +10 per Witcher level to resistance checks against spells or other magical attacks.
Here is Yrden as reflected in the books.
YRDEN
Range: touch
Usage: 1/turn
Duration: 1 day
Resistance: DEX
Effect: Causes one door, window etc to be magically locked. This sign imposes a -20 to STR rolls to open per level in Witcher. It alos increases their BP to the next strongest materal. See page 32 of BBF.
Dryads as a player race
DRYAD
Dryads, Aen Woedbeanna in Elder Speech, are the female inhabitants and guardians of the Brokilon forest.
>>Add 10 to starting DEX
>>Immune to adverse seasonal weather
>>+10 to any check to hide or sneak in the forest
>>+10 Ranged combat with bows
>>Move 8 spaces
>>Speak elder speech and common
Other Races include: Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings and Humans. I don’t see any reason that the races in BBF couldn’t be used. I don’t know about Gnomes. Have to see when Flesh and Blood comes out if that would be appropriate.
Posted on Mar 22, 2013 under BareBones Fantasy, General |
I’ve come to enjoy BareBones Fantasy RPG alot! I’ve also created some items that you can download to hopefully make your game even more enjoyable.
BBF Excel Character Sheet
2-Sided Easy to Read Character Sheet
PocketMod Development Point Record
Development Point Checklist
Posted on Mar 22, 2013 under General, Space |
I’ve discovered that a favorite light rules rpg has disappeared from it’s hosting site. I’ve uploaded it here on Explodingdice.com. You can find Nanolite6 on the Downloads page and while you are there, download Operation Viper and take it for a spin. You’ll have a fun time.
Posted on Nov 19, 2012 under BareBones Fantasy, For Game Masters, For Players, General |
This is a play report contains some spoilers for the Maidens of Moordoth adventure that comes with the BareBones FRPG by DWD Studios. I will avoid most spoilers directly but if you read this you will figure out the plot of the adventure.
The Characters
Devojian – Human Leader, upbeat brother of Idra
Idra – Human Cleric, negative Nancy, brother of Davojian
Karak – Dwarf Warrior Thief
Magryn – Halfling Scout
CharGen took longer than I expected as we settled in then got up for bowls of steaming chili. While spooning mouthfuls of yummy chili we got the the characters created and equipped. We had a mix of beginner and longtime gamers at the table. It took a bit for everyone to grasp the chargen process but once that clicked everything went smoothly.
I heard lots of comments about how the rules let you create the character you want and that the rules didn’t hinder but helped create fun characters to play. The two playing humans were wondering about what kind of advantage getting an additional descriptor was. More about that later. Equipping the characters was a breeze. The players were shocked that they could easily equip theier character the way they wanted and still had the necessary adventuring gear. Put another way, how many games do you know of that allow you to get a horse, armor, weapons and all your delving gear you need right from the get-go.
The players quickly got into their roles. The descriptors helped and I think everyone had demonstrated one or more descriptors before I read the first introductory text. Being the brave and do-right souls they were, they headed out on a quest to Maiden’s hill to a) destroy the ghouls terrorizing the countryside and to find out how to put the spirits of the ghostly maidens to rest. Right from the start the Karak and Magryn smelled foul play and were very suspicious of the village elders. As they rode their horses (Devojian & Idra), Mule (Karak), and Pony (Magryn), Idra told the group of the nature of ghouls and the danger such an evil could spread.
To give the players a taste of the rules I ran Encounter 1: An Unfortunate Victim. After a few bad rolls the group got it together and working as a team defeated the band of ghouls and laid to rest the dead traveler the ghouls had been feasting on. Devojian took the dead man’s longsword as the tip of his had been broken off in the fight (critical failure on a downward swing lead to hitting a stone on the trail and snapping the tip off (-1 damage)). The halfing tore it up by slipping of his pony in the confusion and circling around to pepper the ghouls with arrows. The dwarf gave a lot of damage with his two handed sword.
Back on the trail the group came across a frontiersman driving a wagon and in the back of a wagon was a cage with his former wife, now a ghoul, Encounter 4: Ghoul in a Cage. Some tense role-playing saved this situation from going south and the party was able to console the grief stricken man and destroy the ghoul. From what they learned, their suspicions rose as to what was really going on.
Finally the group made it to Maiden’s hill. Here they got their gear ready for dungeon delving and Karak, the dwarf scouted ahead of the party so he could take advantage of his dark vision since it far exceeded what could be seen via torchlight. With blood on the flagstones where bodies had been dragged into the hill and muffled screams coming from inside the mood was very properly set.
I did not use the map and dungeon layout provided in the adventure. I had a new large set of Dungeonstone product that I wanted to use. So I created a new dungeon layout and then reassigned the rooms to the ones I created. It was easy to do make this minor change.
Encounter 2: Crypt was a great reinforcement of the creepiness of this setting and followed nicely on the descriptions of Encounter 1: Entrance.
Encounter 3: common Room. The dwarf made good use of his dark vision and crossbow to take out most of the dire rats in this room before they noticed him and the rest of the team got involved. They quickly mopped up the dire rats and moved on.
Encounter 4: Pottery Room and Encounter 5: Art room were near each other in my dungeon setup. I knew the dwarf was scouting so I made a secret roll to notice the pit trap in this area. It was a failure. Once a player is aware that there might be traps in an area or specifically states they watching for them I simply stop them when they are about to trigger a trap and have them roll to notice it. I find this method greatly speeds up play and prevents the whole “I crawl down the hallway inch by inch checking for traps” silliness.
When the rest of the party with torches heard the pit trap doors slam into the sides of the pit and heard the dwarf yell out “trap!” as he fell, they came running and quickly extracted Karak while watching for opponents. Fortunately for them at this point in the dungeon there were no opponents within hearing distance.
While Karak and Magryn looked for a way to close and lock the pit, the brothers inspected the pottery room and both quickly spotted the secret room and prizes within. One of them began to don the platemail he found. Karak and Magryn got the pit closed and locked and were disappointed at finding the remnants of works of art in the art room.
I skipped Encounter 6: Trophy Room as the adventure was very creepy and my players would have found that room either silly or weird. We were pressed for time so I didn’t use this room.
Encounter 7: Garrison Room scared the players so much they let fear rule over greed so this became merely a scary room to avoid. The party moved on.
For Enctounter 8: Vanity room, I left out the room and put the magic mirror further along in an alcove near the final treasure room.
The group used great group tactics by having the dwarf creep up and shoot one of the ghouls in the room (Encounter 9: Dress Room) then rushing back to the group where they formed ranks and defeated all the ghouls. The dwarf was paralyzed by the touch of one for a short time. Otherwise they were unharmed.
I skipped Encounter 10: Alter Room as we were running late and It didn’t really add much to the adventure as I was running it.
The ritual room portrayed in Encounter 11: Second Chance Room really helped the group figure out that there were two things going in, the ghoul outbreak and the haunting of the maidens. The dwarf sampled each potion found here to determine what they were. And he survived! The cleric helped remove the ritual trappings of the room so hopefully has stopped this ritual from having any future effects. Time will tell.
I should mention at this point that the Leader skill of Devojian was making a HUGE difference and the players were loving it. The halfing was making incredible shots with major penalties by firing arrows over the head of the dwarf and into ghoul faces during close combat. The group did a good job of remembering where torches were and what they could see. The player of Idra was getting disappointed that he couldn’t show off the trappings of his healing power he had developed. Even though Karak the dwarf was a little wounded he was saving the healing he had for bad wounds.
By this time the players were really working well together and while most of their skill checks were just over 50% they found they were succeeding more often than failing and finding the dynamic combat very fun.
With careful scouting the party was able to set up a kill zone with some oil they could quickly light. The final ghouls were coaxed out of the treasure room via crossbow bolt and then met a firey, arrow and sword slashing death at the hands of the steadfast dungeon delvers!
While exploring the treasure room the ghosts made their appearance and the group learned the whole story of their demise and what they needed to do to put them to rest. They burned any bodies the ghouls had been feasting on with extra oil they had brought and quickly left the ancient crypts with treasure in hand.
The party determinedly headed back to town where they found the townsfolk and elders in the town hall having a meeting on what to do about the ghouls should the adventurer’s fail. It was a perfect opportunity to bring out the truth. The players were successful and the shame of the town elders was laid bare. The party took their reward and moved on letting events in the town settle down on it’s own.
End Notes
This was a fun adventure. Players stayed way past our quitting time. There were lots of comments about how fun it was. Even one player who had only played another system and compared both at the beginning found BareBones Fantasy so fun she asked me if my next campaign was going to use these rules. Hah, now that is an endorsement. Players liked the way they could develop their characters and the players of the human characters now understood that the extra descriptor got them an extra development point to add to their character.
I ran this as a pickup game when one of our regularly scheduled games was cancelled. We’ll see if they want another taste of it. I hope so as it was a joy to run and the characters were very fun and the players had fun. What more can I say?
If you haven’t tried BareBones Fantasy RPG, go get it and run this adventure. You and your players will have a good time.
http://www.dwdstudios.com/barebones
http://www.dungeonstone.com
Posted on Nov 07, 2012 under BareBones Fantasy, For Game Masters, For Players, General |
Punitive vs Beneficial/Rewarding
The thing that makes me like or dislike a RPG is whether it goes to an effort of corralling a player in at every step to play a certain kind of game or way, or whether it blows the hinges off the doors to give the player freedom to play the way they want.
I also look at how the rules hinder or help the character actually adventure.
I’m happy to say that BareBones Fantasy RPG (BBF) inspires creativity and is full of nice touches that make a character really fun to play in a no-nonsense straight up style that doesn’t try to hold your hand around every corner. This game assumes you know something about RPGs and basic level of intelligence of the reader. Thank you! And if not, what are doing with this anyway?
Let’s look closer.
BBF starts right off with Character Creation and the first 1/3 of the book is devoted to what the player needs to know to create and play their character.
There are four Attributes Strength, Dexterity, Logic and Will. These attributes set the baseline for everything you can do and how well you do it.
All of the rules are presented as generic fantasy. Which is great for home brewers. The races presented with a once sentence description followed by game mechanics. Races in the book are Elf, Dwarf, Halfling and Human.
Next you select a starting skill. This skill will be at level one. You must have a level in the following skills in order to use them: Cleric, Enchanter, Leader, Scholar and Spellcaster. The other three skills, Scout, Thief and Warrior can be used without having a level in them. Putting levels in skills makes you better at them of course.
You choose what to be good in right from the get go. And if you later on want to put levels in other skills, no one says you can’t! Make the character you want to play. See them grow the way you wish.
A note on skills. Skills are a catch all for all the things you’d expect them to be good at or able to do. Each has game mechanics associated with them. I also must note at this point that things such as Low Magic which lets a spellcaster do all those minor things a wizard should be able to do is fantastic! No more shackles of intricate rules for simple everyday things you’d expect a wizard to do.
Next you choose a beneficial and a hindering descriptor for your character. This not only helps you develop your character but you get points you can use to improve your character by bringing them up in play. Note: the PLAYER decides if a negative descriptor comes up during play or not. And it they do bring it up in play they get a development point for their efforts. Development points work much like experience points in other systems.
Next you define your character’s moral code. This is really smart. A few helpful descriptors that you circle and check off whether they are strong or weak aspects is easy, informative and can really help the player decide how they’re character would act in typical gaming situations.
Starting equipment is handled better than I’ve ever seen. You get to pick 6 items from the equipment list costing 100 GP or less and yes your bow does come with 20 arrows and your horse does come with a saddle, bag, tack and harness. A few examples of the well detailed and thought out equipment list: each 10’ of rope costs 1 gp, each day of rations costs 1 gp.
A Survival pack is a terrific single purchase every adventurer needs, and at a discount. I was really pleased seeing something like this that lets a player get his character actually ready to adventure.
10’ pole – yep, got that too.
The next part of the rulebook contains Game Guidelines. Not rules, guidelines. With GM fiat stated as a major part of the design of the game, there is no pandering to rules-lawyers. Period. The rules make every effort to give you what you need to play but don’t box you in by trying to predict everything that could happen in a game. This saves on page count, needless looking things up in the book during play and so very much headache.
Movement is FREE! I say that really loud. Every game that makes movement an action favors the person who stands still and waits for others to come to them. BBF doesn’t make that mistake.
Help for the GM is astounding. Two thirds of the book are devoted to the GM with helpful tips on using Ad-hoc modifiers, resistance checks (which are half of the meat and potatoes of action in this system), typical hazards and conditions. With magic item creation tools, an adventure idea generator, a dungeon generator, a sample setting (complete with maps), and rules for making unimportant NPCs, and monsters BBF really helps the GM launch their game with well thought out tools. There are over 45 sample monsters to play with.
Travel time is done quite well. Even though your dwarf might be slow during combat, that won’t stop your group from travelling one hex per day. Oh, yes travel on the sample campaign map can be done in hexes since so many of the travel rates match up to 1 or more hexes per day. Again, smart smart design.
There are a few places in the rules where suggestions are given if you don’t want to do things a certain way. I found this very helpful when I was trying to price out a basic healing potion and found it could cost anywhere from 11gp to 110gp. Then in the next paragraph there was a quicker method presented that solved the issue nicely. It is touches like this that show the designers haven’t slapped this together in a few weeks’ time.
The Good
All in all I’m very happy with BBF. It’s strengths lie in it’s simple rules system but it has longevity because it is based on percentiles. This gives it a lot of granularity that other rules-light games lack. And I should mention that while this game touts itself as rules-light, and it is. Don’t let that fool you. There is a lot under the hood and you should get several years of gaming before you see it all in play.
The Bad
With all of the tools in BBF, it makes you wonder if they couldn’t have put just a little more. And that is a positive thing. Any game that makes me want more out of it’s great potential rather than lack of covering things is a good thing. I’d like to see simple chase rules. These are becoming more popular and really add to dramatic tension in RPGs.
More to Come
There is a campaign setting book called the Keranak Kingdoms coming out in a week. There is also talk of an expansion book. It is rumored to contain mass battles rules. Along with that I really hope they go the extra mile to create a simple rule set for running small kingdoms. BBF just seems to have everything leading up to characters becoming great heroes. Let’s hope that is included as well.
Final
Don’t miss this excellent game.
BareBones Fantasy Role-playing Game by DWD Studios.
Posted on Aug 09, 2012 under For Game Masters, For Players, Savage Worlds |
A Savage Worlds character creator that imports your purchased Savage Worlds PDF books for free? And easily lets you add your home brew material?
Wow!
PDF 
