The Minor Magic of Mohney

Dragon #57 (January 1982) includes an one-page article by Pete Mohney entitled "Random magic items".  It's little more than four short percentage charts designed explicitly for dicing up inconspicuous lesser items that might be found on random NPCs.  Below are six examples I just rolled up.  The raw results are Mr. Mohney's, while the flavor text is mine.

Exchequer's Sword - The small sword-shaped tin charm hangs from a cheap chain of small length.  Anyone placing this cursed charm around their wrist instantly loses 10% of all monetary wealth.

Macaroni of Melchak - A plain chapeau of the kind worn by peasants, decorated with a sizable but rather drab feather.  While worn the owner of this item is granted one additional hit point per level.

Juju Box - A tiny box (2" x 1" x 1/2" deep) of plain wood, with it's unhinged lid attached via a bee's-wax seal.  A nonsense word (e.g. "arglebargle")  is painted on the lid.  If shook shifting sand or powder can be heard and felt within.  Saying the word while holding the box in either hand raises the wielder's prime requisite to 18 for one turn.  The Juju Box has d10 charges.  Opening the box ruins the magic.

Fiona's Fibula - A plain bronze brooch of the classic circle-and-pin type.  While used to affix a cloak and displayed prominently the owner gains +2 to all saving throws.

Phial of the Perverse Polyglot - A small (1/2 oz) container of some unknown purplish liquid on a lanyard.  When worn around the neck the owner may speak the language of any evil humanoid race.  If the container is opened the liquid instantly vaporizes and the magic is lost.

Triple Charm of St. Nezrat - These three intricately carved ivory sticks have the same dimensions as a chopstick.  Any cleric or druid possessing all three will have a random ability score increased by one point while worn.  Separated the sticks radiate magic but have no function.

I don't recall seeing the name Pete Mohney in any other game product.  A quick search of the net turns up a couple of hits for a computer programmer in Alabama named Pete Mohney who happens to be an Admiral in the Starfleet, the official type Star Trek fanclub.  I'd say the chance of him and the author of this article being the same dude is roughly one zillion percent.

an exemplary campaign hand-out

The History of Britannia as told by Kyle the Younger is one of the goodies included in the original boxed set for Ultima IV, one of my favorite computer games from the 80s.  In 36 digest-sized pages it tells a newbie pretty much everything they need to know about the setting.  Here's how it breaks down:

Chapter I: Political History - 2 pages - an overview of the action of the previous installments in the series and brief outline of the current status quo.

Chapter II: Geography - 4 pages - describes some of the key places on the map (a separate handout) and what you might encounter at them

Chapter III: Fellowship - 4 pages - outlines each of the eight player character classes in a paragraph or so each

Chapter IV: Mercantile - 4 pages - where to go to spend your gold and what you can buy

Chapter V: Transportation - 3 pages - talks about the usage of horses, ships and moongate transportation, describes the kind of terrains to be traversed

Chapter VI: Weapons and Armor of the Realm - 3 pages - a paragraph for each item of offense and defense available for purchase

Chapter VII: Magical Arts - 2 pages - brief description of the magic system, there's more in a separate booklet just for magic

Chapter VIII: Bestiary - 8 pages - a paragraph describing monsters from Bat to Zorn, with a separate page for those extra wicked dudes, the Balrons and Devils.

Chapter IX: The Skills of Combat - 2 pages - some of this is mechanical (e.g. advising the user to put the armor on before rushing into a fight) but there's also some good stuff on fight-or-flight and the ethics of combat.

Chapter X: Modern Civilization and Our Universe - 3 pages - a discussion of the themes and goals of the game

Afterword - 1 page - put the central quest of the game square on the shoulders of the reader

Not a bad model to follow for a tabletop game, I think.  For many systems you could probably squeeze in a chargen section and not run over 48 pages total.  Add a map in the center of the book and you're good to go with new players.

Something I can't really share via the internet is the appeal of the tactile experience of handling and paging through this book.  The cover is done in a faux leather sort of finish and the interior pages are heavy and with a pebbly feel not completely unlike an original Judges Guild map overland. 

And the brown-on-cream color scheme of the insides is pleasing on the eye as well.  Here's the first interior page:

Nowadays these sorts of booklets aren't hard to make.  All you need is a long arm stapler and a PDF program that will Print to Booklet.  Or just take you manuscript to Kinkos and they'll do it for you.  I have yet to walk into an office supply store and see paper as awesome as used in The History of Britannia, but it's gotta be out there somewhere.

Sin and Sin Points draft

Here are my first unrefined thoughts, morning shower inspired, on how to use some mechanics to get into the Western medieval mindset.

Sin Points - These work just like Hit Points.  You have a bunch of them.  When you sin you lose d6 of them, unless it is a minor sin (-1 point) or a giant-sized one (2d6).  When your character dies, their soul goes to heaven (no SP damage), hell (0 SP) or purgatory (anything in between). 

Only PCs in Purgatory are subject to Raise Dead type effects.  PCs in Heaven may occasionally help out their living pals through some miraculous intervention rule and PCs in Hell may mess with them at the DMs discretion.  Those in Purgatory might haunt the party from time to time, especially if PCs don't give them a proper burial and insure their estate is disposed of properly.  Perhaps a PC can be moved from purgatory to heaven if the surviving party members build churches and establish monasteries in the deceased's name.

How does SP damage heal?  Does it come back like HP if one says ones prayers?  Maybe communion is worth 1d6, confession and penance 2d6, absolution restores all SP?
Sinning isn't just the DM yelling 'gotcha!' at bad behavior and docking SPs.  PCs can opt to sin to score more XP.  Maybe 100xp times level once per session for a Deadly Sin.  At chargen each PC rolls a d8 to determine their key sin:

1) Lust
2) Gluttony
3) Greed
4) Sloth
5) Wrath
6) Envy
7) Pride
8) Roll again twice, rerolling further rolls of 8, but both sins at half XP value.

In order to earn the XP bonus the sin committed must cause actual havoc in play.  For example, a Slothful PC could doze off on guard duty, allowing the wandering monster to attack the party's camp by surprise.

No XP may be earned in this way by folks who are already hellbound (0SP).

Whaddya think?

Happy Life Day!

It's Mr. T's day!

I don't believe I've ever seen this movie all the way through.

self-indulgent meta-update

Howdy, folks!

New posts have dropped off around here and I thought I'd let all y'all know why.  I just got accepted into grad school, which at least initially I am going to attend part time while working full time.  It has been almost 15 years since I participated in the ritual appreciation of Important Literature™ as observed in the Orthodox Church of Academia, so I'm trying to bone up on my main man John Milton before class starts in January.  I still plan on continuing with my game group, but I'm not sure if I'll have time enough to do that and yammer about gaming on the internet.  Going back to school may not turn out to be the life-altering disruption that it seems right on the cusp of the operation, but I wanted to make sure that anyone who cared was in the loop.

Wish me luck.

this blessed plot

When I close my eyes and imagine an overhead view of Britain in my head, this is what I see:

Britannia is a fun game, but the detail is a bit lacking as a basis for a campaign map.  So I went over to boardgamegeek.com and did some judicious searching.  Turns out issue #11 of Wargamer Magazine included a game about Simon de Montfort and the unpleasantness between him and Henry III.  Someone was kind enough to scan in the map, which cropped to the area I care about ends up looking more like this:

Click to get a better view.  There's a little more Wales than I wanted on this map, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I wouldn't have minded a large area that incorporated more of the English Channel, the Channel Islands, a little Normandy and the Isles of Scilly but there absolutely nothing preventing the occasional venture off-map.  Sea travel should be mysterious and perilous anyway.

Things I have yet to do to get this map fully operational:

• Finish re-labeling stuff to fit Thomas Hardy's Wessex stories and/or new made-up names.
• Figure out a labeling scheme for the hexes.  I'm thinking the bottom left hex is N1 and the upper right partial hex is A20.
• Stock hexes.  Given that they're obviously bigger than 5 miles across I may have to develop a new format.
• Figure out what the crap the scale is.