Spes Magna Games

The 2021-2022 school year is over. This month, I’m running two one-week summer camps for students. The first starts on 6 June, and the happy campers shall spend 15 hours learning the basics of Latin grammar, some history of the Romans, and the fundamentals of anti-javelin defense. Later in June, I’m looking to spend another 15 hours teaching a group of middle schoolers how to play 5E D&D. Best of all, I get paid for the camps. Huzzah.

A few days before the end of the school year, I killed my Facebook accounts after the fifth time in a month of ending up in Facebook jail. Too often in too short a period of time I was penalized and admonished about violating Facebook’s community standards, which is absurd since Facebook isn’t a community and the enforcement of its “standards” is arbitrary at best.

The first straw was me getting incarcerated for pointing out to another poster that their opinions bore more than a passing resemblance to the eugenic racism and classism of the early 20th century. The final straw was a longer incarceration for commenting in a D&D game forum about how the players’ first response to an encounter often involves violence.

But on to other things!

I at long last purchased Mutant Crawl Classics (MCC) from Goodman Games. I’ve read most of the rulebook. I love this game, and it’s given me an excuse to dust off an idea I had many years ago. That’s right. It’s the return of Venusian Amazons Rule the Earth (VARE).

MCC fits VARE well enough. Both are post-apoc science fantasy inspired in part by TSR’s classic Gamma World (about which I’ve written before). My ideas for VARE also draw on Marvel’s awesome Killraven and DC’s even more awesome Kamandi, as well as Thundarr, the Planet of the Apes films, and a variety of pulp stories, perhaps most especially those involving Buck Rogers and John Carter.

(Nota Bene: Links to DriveThruRPG in this post are affiliate links; if you clink and buy, I get a few pennies.)

Some of MCC’s setting assumptions don’t work with VARE. Most significantly, the heroes of VARE do not live in a quasi-Neolithic world built on the remnants of an ancient civilization that commanded technology so advanced that it blurred the lines between science and magic. When the end that was nigh arrived, it was brought not by nuclear war (for example), but instead arrived when Venusian Amazons left their homeworld to conquer our world.

The Venusians Amazons have established military colonies after subjugating humanity via vastly superior Venusian technology. Massive veneriformers work around the clock to alter Earth’s ecosystems to be more comfortable for the Venusian Amazons. Countless humans and native flora and fauna have died. Others have mutated into new, often frightening forms. Human collaborators live in domed communities, protected from the veneriformers’ effects in exchange for unquestioning loyalty to Earth’s alien conquerors.

When planning how to use MCC as the engine for VARE, the first thing that changes regarding character creation relates to level-zero occupations. VARE’s cultures extend beyond MCC’s default Terra A.D. setting. Therefore, my VARE-friendly version of Table 1-2: Character Occupations:

Tags: Gamma World, MCC, VARE

Today I take a break from B/X D&D class creation and leap back over to 5E D&D with an idea about how to introduce some wuxia-inspired martial arts mayhem into the game. Here’re my initial, rough-drafty thoughts.

Step One: Remove the monk as a character class option. No, seriously.

Step Two: Every character class gets proficiency in Strength saving throws and Dexterity saving throws. If a character class already has proficiency in Strength and/or Dexterity saving throws, the character gains Expertise in the saving throw.

Step Three: Choose two skills from Acrobatics, Athletics, History, Insight, Religion, and Stealth. These are additional skills.

Step Four: Add the monk class features listed below to every character class. “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.” Each monk class feature is gained at the normal level as if the character were a monk.

• Unarmored Defense
• Martial Arts
• Ki
• Flurry of Blows
• Patient Defense
• Step of the Wind
• Unarmored Movement
• Deflect Missiles
• Slow Fall
• Extra Attack (unless the character class already has this feature)
• Stunning Strike
• Ki-Empowered Strikes
• Stillness of Mind
• Evasion (unless the character class already has this feature)
• Purity of Body
• Tongue of the Sun and Moon
• Diamond Soul
• Timeless Body
• Empty Body
• Perfect Soul

Step Five: Classes that get to choose a subclass may choose a monk subclass. I guess you could do this for other classes, replacing, for example, a wizard’s Arcane Tradition with a monk subclass.

Step Six: Add Wuxia Movement to the game.

Wuxia Movement: When you take the Move or Dash action, up to half of your movement (round down to nearest 5 feet) ignores difficult terrain or other obstacles so long as you can describe the cool acrobatic moves you make while moving. You can leap over things (no Strength [Athletics] required), run up walls, skip across water, et cetera. When your movement ends, you suffer any negative effects related to terrain, environment, or gravity deemed appropriate. You may also suffer negative effects for doing things like dancing across lava, et cetera. Your Wuxia Movement does not provoke opportunity attacks when you move out of an enemy’s reach (assuming you describe why).

Tags: 5E D&D, Character Classes

Back in June 2021, I mused about how to take OSRIC‘s magic-user and tweak it into the wu jen from TSR’s Oriental Adventures. That effort (which you can read here) focused on alternative class features rather than putting in the time needed to create a new list of spells for a new type of magic-user.

Today, I’m once more whipping out Erin D. Smale’s BX Options: Class Builder and crafting an entire wu jen class. Since the wu jen has some quirks that didn’t quite fit the BXO:CB’s parameters, I had to make educated guesses at some of the XP costs for certain class abilities.

Nota Bene: Those previous links are affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I get a few coppers. Also, much of the class description below comes from Oriental Adventures after some minor editing.

Wu Jen

Wu jen are sorcerers, people of mysterious of powers, who command the elemental forces of magic. They seldom live with the rest of human society, preferring to be hermits who live in wild places where they can purify their bodies and minds. Wu jen learn spells from spirits and other supernatural powers.

Requirements: Minimum Intelligence 13, cannot be Lawful
Prime Requisite: INT
Hit Dice: 1d4+1
Maximum Level: 14
Armor and Shields: None
Weapons: Club, blowpipe, dagger, short bow, short sword, shuriken, sling
Languages: Alignment, Oni, Tengu, Trade Tongue

Restrictions

Stronghold: When wu jen reach 11th level, they may build strongholds.

Taboos: Since wu jen draw their power from supernatural sources, they must operate under special taboos which might seem silly to others. These taboos are important to wu jen, for wu jen who violate their taboos (willingly or otherwise) lose the ability to cast the highest level of spell they have access to for each violated taboo. So, a 6th-level wu jen (able to cast up to 3rd-level spells) who violates two taboos can cast only 1st-level spells. The typical period of spell ability loss is one day per violated taboo. A wu jen has one taboo at 1st-level and gains one more taboo at levels 5 and 10. Some possible taboos are suggested below:

• Cannot eat meat
• Cannot have more treasure than can be carried
• Must make a daily offering (of food, flowers, incense, et cetera) to the spirits
• Cannot bathe
• Cannot cut one’s hair
• Cannot drink alcohol
• Cannot wear a certain color
• Cannot light a fire
• Cannot sit facing a particular cardinal direction

Abilities

Combat: Wu jen make attacks and saving throws as magic-users. At 1st level, wu jen select one weapon from the list above. The wu jen gains a +1 “to hit” bonus with the chosen weapon.

Elemental Spells: The elements are earth (including metal), water, fire, air, and wood. A wu jen’s spells do not have defined sources related to their effects. In other words, a magic missile is not “a magical energy dart”. A lightning bolt is not “a bolt of lightning” nor is a stinking cloud “a nauseating cloud of vapors”. Wu jen determine the elemental manifestation of their spells when they casts them. This might modify the effects of the spell, as determined by the DM, but much of the time the effects are cosmetic.

At 1st level, a wu jen selects one element to become keyed with, but he has knowledge of the other four. When wu jen memorize their spells, they assign an element to each spell. This helps determine the effects of the spell when it is cast. Once per day at 1st level, a wu jen may invest a spell with additional power if that spell has a keyed element. Doing so has one of the following effects (chosen by the wu jen):

• The wu jen may cast the spell without having to speak or gesture.
• The spell’s range and duration are increased by 25%. This does not apply to a range of 0 or to durations of instantaneous or permanent.
• Saving throws against the spell are made with a -1 penalty.
• For effects not related to range and duration, the spell takes effect as if the wu jen’s caster level were one higher.

When wu jen gain access to a new level of spells, they gain another daily use of this keyed element ability. At 3rd, 5th, 8th, and 11th levels, wu jen add another key element to their repretoire. Thus, by 11th level, a wu jen has mastered all five elements.

Ki: Wu jen practice strict mental training. Once per day at 1st level, wu jen may tap into their ki to gain a +3 bonus to initiative. This may be declared after initiative has been rolled. Once per day at 4th level, wu jen may tap into their ki when casting a spell that is three or more levels lower than the wu jen’s level. The wu jen does not lose memorization of the spell after casting it.

Magical Research: Wu jen may research new spells. At 9th level, wu jen may create magic items and research magical effects.

Meditation: Meditation is a deep state of concentration. One hour of uninterrupted meditation is as restful as two hours of sleep. While meditating, wu jen are oblivious to hunger, thirst, and weather. They are still conscious while meditating, aware of their surroundings, and thus are not any easier to surprise or slower to react to danger.

Spell Casting: Wu jen learn and prepare spells like magic-users, to include keeping spellbooks. They have the same spells per day as magic-users.

Unnatural Commerce: Wu jen often have dealings with tengu and oni. They gain a +1 reaction modifier when dealing with such creatures.

Tags: B/X D&D, Character Classes, Oriental Adventures

After being away for a bit, it’s time for another installment using Erin D. Smale’s BX Options: Class Builder and TSR’s Oriental Adventures. The hengeyokai is a race-as-class option for B/X D&D. As before, much of the descriptive text for the class comes from the latter source (albeit with some editing).

Nota Bene: Those previous links are affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I get a few coppers.

Hengeyokai

Hengeyokai, intelligent creatures who can shape change, often live on the fringes of human-settled lands. Several subraces exist, each a different type of animal. They are found throughout the world, usually on the fringes of human-settled lands. The ability to change shape is natural to hengeyokai. They are not lycanthropes. A player who decides to have a hengeyokai player character must have the minimum and maximum required scores for the race depending on the character’s animal form. The traditional forms are carp, cat, crab, crane, dog, drake, fox, hare, monkey, raccoon dog, rat, and sparrow. A hengeyokai can assume any one of three shapes: its animal form, its human form, and a hybrid form that combines both animal and human features. The latter form is the hengeyokai’s natural form.

Requirements: See Hengeyokai Animal Forms table.
Prime Requisite: See Hengeyokai Animal Forms table.
Hit Dice: 1d6
Maximum Level: 12
Armor: None, but may use shields
Weapons: Any
Languages: Hengeyokai, Trade Tongue

Restrictions

Stronghold: When hengeyokai reach 9th level, they may build strongholds.

Abilities

Change Form: Hengeyokai can change from animal form to hybrid form to human form. This ability is limited, however. The number of times a hengeyokai’s level equals the number of times a hengeyokai can change forms in one day. For example, a 1st-level hengeyokai can change from human to animal form once in a day. The 1st-level hengeyokai then has to remain in animal form until the next day. A 3rd-level hengeyokai can change form three times in one day, et cetera.

Changing form requires one complete round during which the character can do nothing else. Clothing and equipment do not change form along with the hengeyokai. In each form, the hengeyokai has certain advantages and disadvantages. In all cases, however, the character’s level and ability scores are unchanged.

Damage taken in one form carries over to other forms. So too with ongoing effects, such those of certain spells.

Form – Animal: While in animal form, hengeyokai have the AC and movement shown on the Hengeyokai Animal Forms table below. Hengeyokai are small-sized creatures in animal form, and they are almost indistinguishable from a normal animal, at least in terms of appearance. In animal form, hengeyokai have 90-foot range infravision, and they can speak with animals (including other hengeyokai in animal form) at will. Of course, in animal form, hengeyokai have limited to no ability to use equipment. They cannot cast spells in animal form, nor can they speak normal languages.

Also, in animal form, hengeyokai have half as many hit points maximum as normal. Thus, a 1st-level hengeyokai with 6 hit points has at most 3 hit points in animal form. Since damage carries over from one form to the other, a hengeyokai damaged in hybrid form or human form might not be able to assume animal form without becoming unconscious or even dying.

Form – Human: Hengeyokai in human form are indistinguishable from normal humans except for some tell-tale distinctive feature carried over from animal form. For example, a monkey hengeyokai might have long arms. In human form, hengeyokai can cast spells, use equipment, et cetera, but they do not have infravision and lose the ability to speak with animals at will.

Form – Hybrid: This is the natural form of hengeyokai, being a humanoid with animal features and characteristics. For example, a crane hengeyokai has feathers and a beak. In hybrid form, hengeyokai have no special movement rates. They can speak with animals (including animal-form hengeyokai) at will as well as speak languages normally. They have infravision with a 60-foot range. Hengeyokai in hybrid form can use equipment normally as well as cast spells.

Combat: Hengeyokai make attacks as clerics and make saving throws as magic-users.

Spells: Hengeyokai are attuned to the clerical and magic-user spells. They receive cleric spells from their innate connection to the spirit world. They learn magic-user spells the same way as a magic-user, to include keeping a spellbook.

Tags: B/X D&D, Character Classes, Oriental Adventures