Spes Magna Games

Well, I’ve spent the first few days of Spring Break on a combination of being lazy and resting from being sick while not being able to take any time off from work. I’m finally starting to feel better, so it’s time to start doing things I’ve been putting off. First up, this post featuring two new mutant plants for Mutant Future.

Bloodcap

Bloodcap, a mutant fungus, resembles a pale blob that produces thick, crimson jelly from cavities in its irregularly shaped cap. A single bloodcap grows to about two yards across almost always on the ground near some larger plant. While the bloodcap itself is immobile, its jelly oozes slowly. A bloodcap feeds on the carbon found in adipose tissue, the connective tissue in which fat is stored in animals. A bloodcap’s body acts much like an auditory organ. By rapidly expanding and contracting its blobs of jelly, a bloodcap produces sucking noises which it uses as a form of echolocation.

When a bloodcap detects a potential source of food, it spews a glob of acidic jelly out to a range of 45 feet as a ranged attack with a +2 bonus to hit. If the jelly misses or falls short, it oozes toward the nearest. A blob of jelly inflicts 3d6 points of damage from its highly caustic acid that rapidly breaks down the bonds of molecules containing carbon, attacks as a 4-HD monster, and has a 9 AC and 4 hit points. A successful bare-hand or similar attack against a blob of jelly exposes the attacker to the blob’s acid. The blob absorbs adipose tissue from its victim and then oozes back to the bloodcap to deliver the nutrients.

No. Enc.: 1d8
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: None, or 30′ (10′) for jelly
Armor Class: 9
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1
Damage: 3d6 (acidic jelly)
Save: L2
Morale: None
Hoard Class: None
XP: 245

Mutations: Dermal Acid Sap; Full Senses (Echolocation, Hearing); Unique (Acidic Jelly)

Flying Drosera

The flying drosera is an intelligent, carnivorous plant. It resembles a fleshy vine covered with stems that excrete a viscous, clear fluid from their tips. This fluid is a paralytic poison used by the flying drosera to disable its prey. The monster follows up a successful poison sap attack by constricting its prey like a python (regardless of whether the prey is paralyzed by the initial attack). Most of the time, this monster moves by slithering, but via mental power it can fly at a speed equal to its Will times 10 feet per round.

Flying droseras live in small packs, usually high up in the boughs of the larger trees in their forested hunting grounds. These monsters communicate with each other via clicking and body posture. While they have no need for treasure, they understand the bargaining power of coins and technological artifacts. Communication with flying droseras is difficult, but it is not unknown for these monsters to offer treasure to appease powerful, intelligent creatures.

No. Enc.: 1d4 (2d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (40′), or fly (3d6 x 10′)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 2 (poison sap, constrict)
Damage: Class 11 poison/2d8
Save: L6
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 1,320

Mutations: Dermal Poison Sap (Class 11); Free Movement; Full Senses (Hearing, Sight); Psionic Flight

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future

Spooky Alert: I usually have music playing via Pandora when I do these writing exercises. As I prepared to write on the prompt “We’re Wolves/Werewolves”, I had a basic idea in mind. I clicked Pandora on my toolbar. The first song? “The Killing Moon” by Echo and the Bunnymen. Cue theremin music. Anyhoo, today’s exercise comes in at 288 words in the usual eight minutes. After the exercise, some game content.

Hunting Lesson

Father growled low in his throat. A warning sound. I slowed my approach. The man we stalked heard the rumble. He whirled left, then right, eyes wide, the scent of fear thick around him. The silver tip of Father’s spear glinted in the moonlight as the farmer clenched its haft in trembling hands. Father always armed our prey for these hunting lessons.

“Never underestimate humans,” he had told us with his human throat. “Their weakness is deceptive.”

Mother twitched her tail and flicked her ears. Sister and Younger Brother dashed to the left, deliberately making noise, shuffling leaves, snapping twigs. The man turned in the direction of their sound. His eyes squinted, trying to pierce the darkness that provided us cover but could not veil our eyes. Father snuffed gently, almost like a small sneeze. I hunkered down, creeping forward, my haunches higher than my shoulders, tensing, building energy for the charge.

Father had taken the man from the nearby village, ambushing him in the barley field. The man had snuck away from his home with a bottle of wine. He put up little fight. Father had taken dozens of humans over the years, both for us and for his earlier litters. I had once met some of my older siblings, but we seldom saw them. They had their own packs now.

Father’s howl ripped the night. Sister and Younger Brother rushed forward, but it was a feint. The man screamed, jabbing as he retreated. My siblings came nowhere near the deadly silver, but instead bounded to a halt and then split up, racing back into the darkness in two directions. Then Mother rushed the man. She was so silent. Only her deliberate growl warned him of her approach.

Lycanthroid for Mutant Future

No. Enc.: 1d6 (2d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 180′ (60′) (wolf form); 120′ (40′) (human form)
Armor Class: 7 (wolf form); armor type (human form)
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1 (bite) (wolf form); 1 (weapon) (human form)
Damage: 2d4 (wolf form); weapon type (human form)
Save: L8
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: XIX
XP: 300

Lycanthroids are mutant wolves with near human intelligence and exceptional cunning. They are pack hunters regardless of which form they currently have, those forms being either a large wolf or a seemingly normal human. Lycanthroids roam in packs, moving between human settlements and the wilderness as circumstances require. These mutants prefer to fight in wolf form.

Mutations: Combat Empathy, Epidermal Susceptibility (silver), Increased Smell, Metamorph (Pure Human), Regenerative Capability

Tags: #8MWH, monsters, Mutant Future

Tempus fugit, often when I’m not paying attention. It’s been way too long since I posted anything here.

So, what’s new hereabouts?

Well, I sort of started working more on the final draft of Boogie Knights of the Round Table, my epic RPG about bold heroes singing and dancing against the machinations of the Man. I’ll not mention any sort of release date. I am tired of making promises regarding Spes Magna Games products that don’t get kept. If missed deadlines were wishes, frogs wouldn’t bump their butts when they hop.

I also found a great deal on Amazon.com for a 1E AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. I lost mine years ago. For years, I’ve been saying to myself, “Self, you should get a replacement.” (I’m sensing a leitmotif of procrastination in my life.) My new DMG is in really good condition. There’s not a single bit of highlighting, underlining, or what not on any of the pages. Even the blanks for the artifacts are still blank.

To celebrate my new DMG, I’ve made up a few 1E monsters. You can find them by clicking on this sentence.

Enjoy!

Tags: 1E AD&D, Boogie Knights, monsters

The Bellicose Sisters of Saint Sebastian live in well-fortified abbeys wherein they practice the arts of war in addition to devoting their time to prayer and service to the poor and the orphaned.

When the first packs of varulfs invaded the Commonwealth’s northern frontiers, the Papal Legate’s soldiers proved barely adequate to the task of repelling the lycanthropic threat. Saint Sebastian of Narbonne appeared to Abbatissa Elisabet via locution. The martyr pulled an arrow from his body and fired it at a charging varulf, piercing its heart and killing it instantly. He then handed his bow to Elisabet, at which time she awoke from the vision intent on forming a martial order of nuns to protect the Commonwealth’s marches.

At first, the Papal Legate opposed Elisabet, but after several years of prayer and penance, her request was granted by Pope Hadrian IX. The first company of Bellicose Sisters established an abbey at Haguenau. Within a year, the nuns met a varulf company near the banks of La Moder. The bloodshed was horrific. Most of the nuns died, but the varulf company met with total annihilation. The order’s fame spread, and young women rushed to join the Bellicose Sisters.

Today, the Bellicose Sisters command nearly a dozen fortified abbeys, and they number in the hundreds. Varulf packs still hunt the frontiers, but the ravaging packs that once threatened entire communities have been either destroyed or driven back into the savage wilderness beyond the Commonwealth’s reach.

The stats below are for the Bellicose Sisters’ rank-and-file. Senior nuns have more Hit Dice and cast Cleric spells.

Bellicose Sister of St. Sebastian: HD 2+2; AC 7 [12]; Atk 1 melee weapon (1d6), or 2 arrows (1d6); Move 12; Save 16; AL L; CL/XP 3/60; Special: +2 saving throws against paralysis and poisoned, blessed arrows

Blessed Arrows: Against the forces of Chaos, a Bellicose Sister’s arrows are especially effective. Treat a Bellicose Sister’s missiles as +1 arrows, modifying attack rolls and damage appropriately. Against Chaotic lycanthropes, a Bellicose Sister’s arrows also inflict double damage.

Tags: Catholic, monsters, Swords & Wizardry

One of the great things about Swords & Wizardry (and the original fantasy RPGs that inspire it) is the lack of pages and pages of detailed rules about how monsters function and are built. S&W embraces my favorite paradigm, which is that the rules for the players and their characters are not the same rules for Referees and their characters.

This paradigm facilitates introducing new monsters and variations of old monsters to adventures. The players probably know the stats for, say, a zombie. They’re right there in the book and are available on-line. What the players don’t know, however, is that this time the zombies their characters face should be handled with a little bit more care.

The Walking Dead

Zombies are mindless creatures. Their origins are uncertain. Some blame evil magic commanded by necromancers. Others hold a disease responsible. Another theory posits that Hell is full, and the souls of the damned are being released to make room. Whatever the truth, zombies pose a serious threat to any community.

A zombie attacks by grabbing, twisting, and tearing at flesh. If both hands hit a single victim, the zombie grabs hold and attempts to bite, requiring an attack roll with a +2 bonus and inflicting 1d4+1 points of damage if successful. Anyone bit by a zombie must make a saving throw to avoid suffering 2d4 points of damage per round until dead as flesh begins to corrupt, starting at the wound and spreading out from there. One who dies from a zombie’s bite rises as a new zombie 1d6 rounds later.

Zombies are most often unarmored, but they are typically encountered wearing whatever they wore at the moment of death.

Zombie: HD 2; AC 9 [10]; Atk 2 strikes (1d4); Move 6; Save 16; AL N; CL/XP 3/60; Special: deadly bite, grab (open doors check to break grapple), undead.

Tags: horror, monsters, Swords & Wizardry, undead