http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussions/feed.rss Thu, 17 May 12 20:00:43 -0400 All Discussions - Old School Hack Forums en-CA http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/138/new-book-fictives-talents-and-templates-released Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:49:03 -0400 fictivefantasies 138@/discussions
This book has been fine-tuned from previous blog entries; they are drafts, this is the finished product. There is a lot here!

Grimores expand magic user talents.
Canticles give expression to individual gods for clerics.
A list of open and restricted talents.
28 templates, so you can randomize on 3d10 if you want.
Streamlined character creation including how to learn languages and musical instruments–everything you need to make a character here.
An advancement system so you can play your character as long as you want to.
Different format character sheet and reference page.
Blackpowder, poison, gambling, picking locks, and explosive rules.
More!

On my site: http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-resources/
The file iteself: http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/fictives-talents-and-templates.pdf

So... what do you think?]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/222/behold-new-content-smosh-phase-i Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:22:42 -0400 greatfrito 222@/discussions
Right now, we're just done (finally) with the main set of classes. Most of these are just our personal attempts to bring "modern" D&D classes into the OSH ruleset, and thus you'll see some overlap with what other folks on the web have done (though the actual mechanics are distinct). The classes include:
Barbarian
Bard
Druid
Gunslinger
Marshal
Monk
Psychic
Tinkerer
Warlock

And also:
Automaton

You can find all of these here: SMOSH Google Docs Folder


We have plans for the future - a lot of optional supplemental stuff, as well as our own take on further OSH advancement and levels - and, eventually, we'll compile that and release it as well, alongside this, in an actual "supplement".

For now though, enjoy!
]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/163/new-book-fictives-portable-pantheon-2012-released Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:05:17 -0500 fictivefantasies 163@/discussions
Also included is a way to make religious organizations, and even a way to pit those organizations against each other to provide interesting background conflicts. You can make non-human clerics, and assign divine energies to non-clerics or to clerics of gods not included in the list.

Finally, a history of the Breathing World so you have a backdrop for the ideology and theology of the game world–flexible enough for you to do your own thing, but providing enough structure that players can get a sense they’re part of something bigger.

We have 6 male gods, 6 female gods, and 6 gods that are neither; of those 6, 3 are androgynous and 3 are sexless. Anyway, there are 100 new talents provided, so if you want to make your own pantheon you should have plenty of inspiration for mixing and matching divine magics.

The gods are presented as not focused on good or evil, but instead focused on subjects of interest; it is their organizations in the world that can be good or evil depending on their interpretation and implementation of what they think their god wants. This should provide a far deeper depth of play, and endless possibility for conflicts and alliances.

Here is the resource page with all the good stuff. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-resources/

Here is the book itself. http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/osh-portable-pantheon-2012.pdf]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/126/modern-osh-and-zombies Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:37:39 -0400 fictivefantasies 126@/discussions
http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-modern-slash/

For character generation, I'm going to have a "Background" instead of an inherent ability at generation, to represent a lifetime of whatever they did before. Then I'll have big groups of talents to draw from as the game goes on. Should work out fine.

So: any thoughts on other modern weapons I should note here? Other systems you'd like to see for how to do something in the modern world? Other comments generally?

I will also continue to work up monster traits and a background for various plug-and-play approaches for a zombie apocalypse as well as a game of modern horror investigation. Good times.]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/267/kirin-i-have-an-idea Sun, 13 May 2012 08:37:32 -0400 MacLeod 267@/discussions
Here is an idea.

You could outsource the writing to us (the fans).

Your next news post would be a call to any and all to submit a draft of what they feel the next tier of OSH should read like.

Underlining all of this would be the intention of utilizing these drafts in an editing and clarification process that produces a rough draft.

You get to kick out the next tier, keep it within your vision, do it with perhaps minimal pressure on your creative powers and really involve the community (and maybe even interest some new folks).

Something to think about. :)]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/21/a-full-on-old-school-hack-campaign Wed, 22 Sep 2010 20:49:03 -0400 kiznit 21@/discussions
The directed design towards pick-up-and-playability along with, er, the flavor of the game being infected by my own somewhat goofy DMing style leads me to think that most people probably imagine the game as being ideal for one-shots but maybe not quite nuanced for long-term play. Which is probably a legit assumption but I like to think that most of the time nuance is something that anyone can bring to a game, right?

One of the things that led me down the design path in the first place was a growing library of published and homebrewed campaign ideas that I just didn't see myself ever getting a chance of running - I'm sure we've all felt that way. So I wanted a system that was fast - like Basic D&D fast, a system where you could have 4 or 5 encounters in a three-hour session once everyone got a handle on it. I ran a short campaign of Red Box Hack and I was amazed at the speed, at the ability to really have a well-rounded story arc in a single evening's play, which I realized was something I'd been after for a long time.

So far the game encompasses the first four levels of play - a fairly arbitrary limitation, and merely one in which I felt naturally created characters could maintain reasonable individuality against others of their type. Sure, you can play beyond that with the current leveling up rules, but I don't quite feel like you'd be getting a satisfying "ramp up in power", seeing as how your hit points would remain the same and all your talents would be of reasonably equivalent power.

So let's talk about the Heroic Game - the next tier of Old School Hack, the "middle" one.

Some basic ideas:

• A Quest! I'm fine with the idea that leveling up just happens, sans training, but I feel like graduating to the next game level (and the presumably greater power) should involve some investment on the part of the players. Not only would making it to fifth level involve completing some sort of task given by the DM, but I would love to hard-wire something in there where the PC gets hit with some sort of resulting obligation that hangs over them - my metathinking on this being that as PCs grow in power, have greater options, and become less killable, there needs to be a similar increase in the DMs ability to keep pulling their strings, so to speak.
• More Hit Points - Upon completing the Quest and achieving fifth level, PCs would not only receive access to the Heroic Game talents for their class, but also finally get a bit more cushion from death: Two more hit points. Yup, the Heroic Game would probably come with a whole new character sheet you would copy over to.
• The Next Tier of Talents - Well, duh. I haven't even begun brainstorming what these might be. If you have any cool ideas, let me know!
• Rituals and Retainers - For the magic-using side of things, I want to "open up" the system in order to give players some limited narrative control over their magical powers. I don't expect I'll ever put together some massive spell list like regular D&D has, so I'd rather figure out some simplicity-based system to allow PCs to come up with their own spells. I was trying to think of some sort of complementary system for the warrior/specialist types and I like the idea of similarly broadening the "use awesome points to buy an NPC" system that reflects a non-magic-using character's growing prowess and reknown, and his ability to summon and call on hireling and followers to help him hold the line and kick ass.

More to come, hopefully.]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/266/great-monster-inspirations Tue, 08 May 2012 20:46:51 -0400 OFTHEHILLPEOPLE 266@/discussions
Take a look: http://savevsdragon.blogspot.com/

Also, I realize there isn't a lot of activity going on here now, but if those of us that are still hanging around want to give it a go perhaps we could take up the challenge ourselves and roll through A-to-Z and make some monsters. If they're good enough we can add them into the Bestiary!]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/256/a-cool-setting-fallen-moon- Sat, 28 Apr 2012 09:04:01 -0400 fictivefantasies 256@/discussions http://roll1d12.blogspot.com/2012/04/in-blasted-lands-of-fallen-moon.html?showComment=1335618125916#c7194145931171432905

The Dungeon Dozen provides many awesome d12 lists that are system neutral. I think this one is stand-out as something that an enterprising Old School Hack DM could take and prep; a moon has crashed into the planet, and now it is an adventuring environment. Bizarre, clever, alien, good time. Take a look!]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/166/my-game-master-game-prep-sheet Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:13:15 -0400 OFTHEHILLPEOPLE 166@/discussions
Below I've posted my rough draft game preparation sheet that I would use to plan out a location my players would be going to. It uses the Arena Template idea that the location where everything taking place has constant Arenas or Arenas that will show up more than once in an adventure while still allowing for improvised Arenas (by the person running the game and the players) to be added for temporary use. The form has areas where the person running the game can write in the stats of any creature(s) that would be encountered more than once or more often in the area. At the bottom there is a Loot table that can be randomly rolled to determine treasure found by the players.

Goal:
1: Making game planning easier through use of a quick, one page, tool.
2: Creating a tool for "spur of the moment" location creation and tracking.

Please feel free to suggest any changes or edit it yourself. Like I said, this is a rough draft and more changes will be coming down the pipeline where I'd eventually like to get this converted to a PDF with graphics to fit the OSH theme.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OFTHEHILLPEOPLE’s Game - Master Location Sheet

Location: _____________________________

Description: _________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

Arena Template: _________________________ | Improvised Arenas:
1: _____________________________________ | 1: _____________________________________
2: _____________________________________ | 2: _____________________________________
3: _____________________________________ | 3: _____________________________________

Monsters/Enemies:
Name: ____________________ | Name: ____________________ | Name: ____________________
Description: ________________ | Description: ________________ | Description: _______________
_________________________ | _________________________ | _________________________
AC: _____ | HP: ______ | AC: _____ | HP: ______ | AC: _____ | HP: ______
Weapon Type: (L)(RE)(RA)(H)(VH) | Weapon Type: (L)(RE)(RA)(H)(VH) |Weapon Type: (L)(RE)(RA)(H)(VH)
Weapon:_________________ | Weapon:_________________ | Weapon:_________________
Talents: | Talents: | Talents:
[ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP:
[ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP:
[ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP: | [ ]___________________AP:

Loot: Roll 1d10
1: ______________________ 4: ______________________ 7: ______________________ | 10:
2: ______________________ 5: ______________________ 8: ______________________ | Roll
3:______________________ 6: ______________________ 9: ______________________ | Twice

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: Of course the editing doesn't allow for spacing and correct alignment. If I can send this to someone for hosting it would probably look much better.
EDIT2: Changed name from "Hack-Master" to "Game-Master" to avoid confusion.]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/90/actual-play Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:28:10 -0400 Snikle 90@/discussions
http://snikle.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/old-school-hack-first-session/
http://snikle.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/old-school-hack-session-two/
http://snikle.wordpress.com/2011/04/18/old-school-hack-session-three/]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/159/is-the-admin-here Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:58:37 -0500 artikid 159@/discussions stopped the spam invasion...
artikid]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/234/thoughts-after-two-sessions Sat, 21 Apr 2012 16:13:58 -0400 LobsterEntropy 234@/discussions
I thought I'd share some feelings on OSH that have come to the surface after two sessions of play. I'm not a novice to RPGs but I am a new GM and found OSH to be a perfect starting point for a new GM.

1. Low prep
Unlike a lot of the other RPGs in my collection (I read more RPGs than I play, that's for sure) OSH is completely non-intimidating in terms of prep work. I'm a great improviser but a huge procrastinator, so being able to run a game with only a few plot points sketched out and have awesome fights arise out of them that I don't have to plan out in advance is really cool. The fact that I can add abilities to my monsters and even decide their HP, AC and weapons in 10 seconds is totally awesome. I was even able to give the players an NPC follower that they could command for a fight, complete with talents and weapons, in less time than it took me to find the paper to write out his stats.

2. High awesomeness
The AP system is brilliant. I love that my players are encouraged to narrate neat stuff and fight in ways that are way more exciting than "I hit this guy". That said, I find myself awarding the lion's share of AP in combat and not during RP- I'm not sure if that is a function of my players being good at cool fights but not other stuff, or a failing on my part, or maybe just a sign that the system could be improved (maybe award them for completing plot beats? Dunno.) I forgot the rule about the limited bowl APs and just dumped out a ton in the middle, which made pumping the bowl (for extra damage, etc.) irrelevant to the AP economy. Is running out of APs in the bowl a large part of the game? I kind of liked having an unending stream of APs.

3. Combat
Combat is fun, full stop. Kirin's advice in the GM section on creating set-piece battles is fantastic, and so far we've only had one fight per session, but the fights have been really climactic. (In the most recent one, the tavern they were staying at was torn apart by a fire spirit and the rooms broke off and starting floating around, leaving them jumping from room to room trying to track down their possessed friend). The arenas system does a good job at mixing the tactical aspects of a map with the free-form aspects of pure narration.

4. Advancement
They were really excited to level up, since the talents are all really fun. Some seem like they might be a bit unbalanced (Charger, I'm looking at you) but on the whole they're all pretty sweet. Since I only have two players and our sessions are relatively short, I thought it would be OK to just have their APs contribute to both advancement tracks (ie, when one of them spends it, they both get a checkmark) but that turned out to speed things up way too much. I really hope Kirin gets the next tier out sometime soon because at the rate we're going, we're gonna start having to house rule advancement stuff pretty soon.

5. Simplicity
I loved that there is such a low barrier to entry, and that I can sit my non-tabletop-gaming girlfriend down and have her create a cool character that she understands the mechanics of in 30 minutes. More experienced gamers finished their characters in 15 minutes, tops, and I think the whole ruleset straddles depth and accessibility very nicely. I'll be interested to see if combat remains interesting as the game continues (it seems it might be a bit simple in the long run) but that's probably mostly on me to keep it interesting. I also enjoyed that RP could happen with some occasional dice rolls, but I never had to worry about what skills players had or any weird modifiers- just tell them to roll and go from there.

On the whole, the sessions have been awesome and my players are already talking about their plans for next time. Thanks Kirin for putting out this amazing RPG for free!]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/235/curses-and-gypsy-magic Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:17:14 -0400 fictivefantasies 235@/discussions
Curses.
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/curses.pdf

Gypsy magic.
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/the-vistanti-fate-tradition.pdf]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/233/wizard-familiars-gothic-old-school-hack Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:46:07 -0400 fictivefantasies 233@/discussions
Check this out: not only rules for a wizard getting a familiar, but ONE HUNDRED familiars to choose from, each with a unique advantage! So you can randomize, if you are feeling lucky... http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/100-familiars/

For more resources related to The World Between, check out my resource page. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-resources/

I won't link to everything, but I've got witch hunters, berserkers, and illusionists up with templates. There is a map, and a 7,000 year history. Also, a new system for horror and terror and madness, if you want to do a Gothic game. (I explain why I think Jack Shear's world and Gothic vibe will work well in OSH here. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/old-school-hack-and-the-world-between-a-strange-but-fitting-match/)

I am using his material to inspire further system offerings for Old School Hack, with the eventual goal of converting some of it enough to give you resources so you can play in the World Between and not have to make it all up as you go. He provided a sketch and prospectus with his compendium, and I want to give you all what you need to actually play there--Gothic Old School Hack, with a seriously gonzo twist. (Berserkers riding polar bears?!)

Anyway, if you check all this out, please let me know what you think.

Also--today only, my site is up for "Site of the Year" and if you'd vote for me I'd appreciate it. http://stuffershack.com/reader-voting-day-5-of-5-for-the-2012-rpg-soty/]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/169/fictive-adjustments-to-base-classes Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:36:43 -0400 fictivefantasies 169@/discussions
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fighter-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/thief-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/dwarf-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/elf-template-update.pdf
http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/goblin-template-update.pdf
(The Magic User/Wizard and the Cleric were previously adjusted. You can find that in "Fictive's Talents and Templates" for the Wizard and Cleric, also "Fictive's Portable Pantheon".)

These are all posted on my Old School Hack Resources page, here:

http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/old-school-hack-resources/

Lots of other stuff there, you are welcome to check it out if you haven't seen it.

Anyway, I've played quite a bit of Old School Hack, and designed a lot of templates for it, so I wanted to bring the original inspirations in line with my later work. I wanted inherent abilities so tasty that players would be tempted to multi-class. I wanted to adjust the level of disassociated mechanics in some of the talents, and make some of the book keeping a bit easier in some cases.

Since Kirin is taking a look at all the base system right now, this seemed the time to offer my suggestions!]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/41/monster-stat-blocks Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:01:53 -0500 Nareau 41@/discussions Goblins tunnels - tight
Worm stables - dense, open
Cavern bridges - open, hazardous
Central landing - open (TRAP! Hidden webs, Cunning/Brawn DC 8 or Awareness DC 10, or cannot play move/push cards until a successful focus)
3 purple battle worms - AC 10, 5HP, light weapons
6 goblin guards - AC 14, 1HP, halbards
4 goblin scouts - AC 10, 1HP, ranged and light

Whenever I needed to make an attribute check for a bad guy, I'd make up something that sounded reasonable and just roll with it. For things like traps, I went ahead and set a firm DC just to keep things moving along (and so I could decide ahead of time how hard it should be to avoid).

I recently wrote up a few of these scenes for someone else, and realized that it might be helpful to have a standard format and language for this kind of thing. That got me into thinking about how a stat block would look in OSH; how it should be precise where it needs to be, but flexible enough that scaling/tweaking the monster wouldn't require any real math.

That led me into the idea of providing descriptors. Basically, if I think a monster has either a bonus or a penalty to a stat, I'll add in a one or two-word descriptor like "charming" or "very scrawny". I don't think this needs to be codified, but if it were, it would look something like:

Monsters can have a range of +4 to -4 in each stat. Use one of the following terms to describe a +2 or -2, and add "very" to double that. If you want to scale the monster up in power, you can add the current tier to the final result.
Committed/Fickle
Daring/Cowardly
Cunning/Foolish
Brawny/Scrawny
Charming/Creepy
Aware/Clueless

Throw in the AC, HP, and weapon(s), and you have a basic monster. So a tiger might be:
Tiger - AC 10, 5HP, light (claws), fickle, very cunning, very aware
Which translates to -2 Commitment, +4 Cunning, +4 Awareness for a tier one adventure.

I don't know that it really makes it easier, but I kinda like having some shorthand for saying "This bad guy should be really strong, that one should be really clever".]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/168/why-are-characters-together-find-out Thu, 22 Mar 2012 08:59:12 -0400 fictivefantasies 168@/discussions
If you get one that just doesn't work, you can re-roll or come up with a parent, sibling, or child who is in that relationship with the other character (affecting your relationship to the other character because you care about your family member.)

This is pretty bare bones; the players are encouraged to elaborate and explain.

It is based on a table by JB at B/X Blackrazor. Also, it's a draft; I plan on adding to it later. For now, it's quite usable. What do you think?

http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/why-are-characters-together.pdf]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/167/old-school-hack-headgear Sat, 17 Mar 2012 22:46:50 -0400 fictivefantasies 167@/discussions
JB organized his chart by class (not ideal for Old School Hack: the Fictive Way, with 40 templates and counting.) After using the table and sort of bending and hammering it to make it work, I knew I'd do one for Old School Hack to focus in on how I want to use the chart. Even though it was not a perfect fit, the idea was so great and the results so entertaining the players clamored to get a fancy hat when they made their characters.

Anyway, it'll post next week, but it's on my resource page. I encourage you to take a look at Old School Hack Headgear and consider letting players earn their characters some Awesome Points during character generation by agreeing to abide by the random result of some rolls to whip up a magnificent hat!

http://fictivefantasies.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/old-school-hack-headgear.pdf]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/84/arena-tips Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:13:27 -0400 barsoomcore 84@/discussions
So I'm loving the game but I just don't feel like I have command of the arenas concept. RI suggested I just need to focus more on the players' ability to create arenas in play, but in general, when you're running combats, how many arenas do you have defined?

Just that our final combat at PAX had only one arena, and I feel like I cheated players who weren't able to use their arena-focused powers.

What's worked for you?]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/131/grimores-books-of-power-books-of-spells Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:07:25 -0400 fictivefantasies 131@/discussions
Perhaps they start with a different tradition than the one in the base template. The inherent ability remains the same. One of the most evocative shifts in the Magic User template concept is the “Book of Power” so I used that base notion to add a kind of information to the grimore as well.

Here you are. Five new spells, and a book geared for a kind of research. It is not a template, but it greatly expands options for the magic users. What do you think of this concept?

http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/osh-aglatch-grimore-a-new-format-for-a-template/]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/165/osh-in-french Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:36:58 -0400 Erestor 165@/discussions
I would like to know if there is a translation of OSH in french. I am ready to do it if there is none but i dont think it would look that great... Cause i really dont want to change the awsome looking of this game. Can i give someone the texts to put them at the right place ?]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/164/mass-effect-rpg-aka-hack-effect Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:10:02 -0500 Drugancius 164@/discussions
I have made Hack Effect, playing Mass Effect using the OSH rule set. I mostly just made because I like OSH as a platform to play some simple, dungeon crawling RPG stuff and have recently upgraded to a computer capable of playing ME and ME2. So I have in the end a 32 page PDF. I was just going to print it out and play at home but decided to spruce it up for sharing. But I don't have a personal website.

So basically I joined the forum to see if there was a place here to upload it to, if anyone wanted to host it, or see if there is a recomended "isle of lost toys" from the OSH crowd.

Thanks
Aaron Kavli]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/162/overlay-templates Wed, 29 Feb 2012 08:43:32 -0500 fictivefantasies 162@/discussions
Anyway, check it out!

Overlay template. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/osh-overlay-templates/

Immortal. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/osh-there-can-be-only-one-immortals/

Vampire. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/osh-overlay-template-vampire/

Werewolf. http://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/osh-overlay-template-werewolf/]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/19/faq Thu, 16 Sep 2010 08:46:20 -0400 nerfherder 19@/discussions http://srd.oldschoolhack.net/index.php?n=Main.FAQ

Feel free to ask questions in this thread, and I will update the document whenever Kiznit gives an answer.

Of course, with it being a wiki, anyone can edit it, reformat it, or do whatever they like :)]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/161/first-game Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:42:16 -0500 Virgil 161@/discussions
One of the first things they did when the game started was take the 10 starting Awesome Points in the bowl and evenly distribute it amongst each other, with a couple passing mentions of what cool thing they said during character creation.]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/160/osh-play-test-review Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:39:44 -0500 jeffmoore 160@/discussions
http://dreamsanddragons.blogspot.com/2012/01/old-school-hack-playtest-review.html

Thank you for a wonderful RPG!]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/148/osh-in-italian Sat, 17 Dec 2011 10:34:54 -0500 artikid 148@/discussions I'm trying to get an italian translation of OSH off the ground at theroaringoldschool.freeforum.it
I'll keep you updated
Best regards
artikid]]> http://forums.oldschoolhack.net/discussion/46/loot Fri, 24 Dec 2010 12:45:01 -0500 Nareau 46@/discussions
So I had a couple ideas. My first idea was to include a much-simplified price list, and leave the rest up to the DM. Something like:
1GP - Cheap adventuring stuff: rope, 10' pole, fishing gear, torches, rations, staves, slings, a meal, an ale, and night at the tavern)
5GP - Basic (thieves tools, lanterns, tents, carts, donkeys, swords, axes, a night at the brothel, a night of drinking)
25GP - Cool (horses, most light armor, elven wine, holy water, spyglass, bribing a crooked guard)
100GP - Expensive (warhorses, most heavy armor, an exotic animal, a carriage)
1000GP - Really expensive (a boat, a house, something magic)
10000GP - Super expensive (equipping an army, a castle, a dragon's hoard)

My second idea was to adopt this to a "wealth system" like you see in d20 modern. Personally, I hate hate hate wealth systems. They're confusing for the players and they're incredibly easy to abuse. But in a rules-light system like OSH, where the DM has a lot of veto power, I think this could work.

PC wealth is measured like this:
A little (1)
Some (5)
A lot (25)
A whole lot (100)
Tons (1000)
I'M RICH BITCH! (10000)

When they get money, the DM tells them (for example) "You each get A Lot of money". So each PC checks off the first three boxes on their sheet.

Later, when they spend money, they might need to erase one or two boxes.
*if something is two categories below what you've got, don't sweat it
*if something is one category below, you need to erase your top box
*if it's equal to your current level, you gotta erase two boxes

I think this will work out with the PC's typically getting Some or A Lot of gold in their early adventures, and spending it when they get to town. They'll have incentive to do so, since getting Some money when you already have Some or A Lot doesn't do you any good. So you may as well spend it every time you get it.

If they really want to pool their resources, the DM can let them combine 5 or more (typically, the whole party should throw in) of one category to buy something from the next category. But that probably shouldn't happen often, especially when bumping up A Whole Lot and Tons. When pooling resources in this way, everybody has to erase one box.

Similarly, if one PC wants to pay for the party's night at the Inn--well, that's costs Some gold instead of them being able to pay for it A Little at a time.

Finally, PC's always have the option to get a "fancy" version of anything. Fancy versions of things are always one category more expensive than normal.]]>