Spes Magna Games

The holy man called Babur the Solicitous travels the spaceways, seldom in luxury but often for little or no cost to himself. Babur is an adherent to a tiny Buddhist sect, and the faithful believe Babur has been shown special favor due to his sacred lineage. Wealthy members of the sect provide Babur with generous stipends that permit him to wander the cosmos, spreading the message of enlightenment and aiding the oppressed, including those who are oppressed by their own selfish attachments.

Due to his martial arts training and unusual psychic powers, Babur is remarkably agile and quick-footed. His graceful punches, kicks, and walking stick moves can inflict damage even against targets that would otherwise be immune to low-tech attacks. A victim reduced to 0 hit points by such attacks is either unconscious for 1d4 minutes or helplessly restrained by the holy man, at the Babur’s discretion. Babur has an intuitive ability to communicate via psychic empathy with animal-intelligence xenobeasts. Such creatures seldom menace or attack Babur, and he can often influence them to follow simple mental instructions.

Stars Without Number Data

Babur the Solicitous
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4
Attack Bonus: +4
Damage: 1d6+2 walking stick, or 1d8 weaponless
Skill Bonus: +3 (+6 for anything related to athleticism or perception)
Saving Throw: 13+
Movement: 45 ft.
Morale: 10

Tags: NPCs, Stars Without Number

I’m going off-topic again today. I have to. My favorite NPC of all time isn’t a D&D NPC. (Yeah, yeah. I know I could write about my favorite D&D NPC instead of my favorite NPC, but I don’t feel like it.)

Way back when, we played a lot of TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game. Pretty much from the get-go we decided we’d play our own heroes rather than established comic book heroes (although such heroes did make cameos once in a while). Established comic book villains were used more often, but we also enjoyed facing our own villains.

Which brings me to Volt.

When I first introduced Volt, he was an electrical martial artist loosely patterned after the Shang-Chi villain Shockwave. Volt was one of a baker’s dozen of street-level bad guys who figured what they lacked in individual power they’d make up for in numbers. This gang of villains initiated a city-wide crime wave intent on overwhelming first responders in order to bring the metropolis to its knees.

Their plan didn’t work. The heroes captured all of the villains except Volt.

A couple of adventures later, I decided Volt needed to show up again. I reworked his powers a little, making him a bit tougher. I also made him the leader of a group called the Sinister Six: Mastermind (wicked mentalist), the Clown (high-tech prankster), Ogre (mentally challenged muscle), Blindside (mute speedster), and Raven (bird-winged feral woman, who later reformed and became an ally of the heroes). The Sinister Six staged a daring public abduction of the U.S. President, snatching him from his motorcade en route to a conference. Again, the heroes defeated the villains, and Volt escaped once more.

More adventures passed, and then Volt came back again, rebuilt to be more formidable and with a richer background and personality. He’d morphed from a small-time villain to a mercenary with an international reputation for ruthlessness and a warped sense of honor related to his current contract. He had a new Sinister Six. The Clown was replaced by Gravity’s Angel (gravity manipulator) and Raven was replaced by Machine (psychopathic technopath). The Sinister Six had been hired by an evil wizard known as the Evoker. Evoker was attempting to assemble the fractured pieces of an ancient artifact, and the Sinister Six were doing his heavy lifting, robbing museums, et cetera.

What Volt didn’t know was the Evoker’s real plan was to assemble the artifact and then sacrifice the Sinister Six in order to achieve god-like power and rule the Earth after it had been transformed into a hellscape. The heroes uncovered this plan, and they confronted Volt and the Sinister Six with the full truth. Volt did not take kindly to being hoodwinked by his employer, so he joined forces with the heroes in an epic smackdown against the wizard and his demon horde. During the fight, the Evoker and Volt were both sucked through an interdimensional vortex, and the Earth was saved.

More adventures passed, and Volt returned again, mutated by his exposure to alien worlds so that he was powerful enough to no longer need a team for back-up. At this time, Volt entered semi-retirement, but the damage to the heroes’ psyche remained. The mere hint that Volt might be up to something was enough to put the heroes on high alert.

Volt made appearances in other game systems as well. I had a Champions version. Volt tore up parts of the DC universe in Mayfair Games’ DC Heroes when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. No matter what the game system, Volt remained the villain who was never caught.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, NPCs, superhero games

First up, the 30-Day D&D Challenge about my favorite class!

Thief. Hands down. No contest. I enjoy the dichotomoy between the thief’s obvious role (the one who steals stuff) and the heroic role that I prefer the game to focus on. My thieves have often been people who want to be out for numero uno, to get rich off the sweat of other folk’s brows, et cetera, but cannot escape the nagging persistence of conscience. This has resulted in some unusual in-play situations.

Back in the day, my friend Fred and I would take turns DMing little solo adventures for each other’s characters. Most often, these involved something happening in a town, and the sessions were often ad-libbed. During one such session with Fred as DM, my most-used PC, Lord Jon Korbok, dwarven fighter/thief, stumbled past a dark alley wherein a youth was being mugged by a gang of ruffians. Korbok loudly scoffed at the ruffians’ technique. He then thrashed the lot of them to show them how a real ruffian takes care of business. After the fight, the exchange went something like this:

Fred as the Rescued Youth: Gosh! Thanks for saving me!

Me as Korbok: Shut up, and give me your gold.

Ah, good times.

And now, a dangerous quartet of alluring villains!

The Seekers of the Eternal Flame seek to cleanse the world of all forms of injustice. Unfortunately, the only way this can be accomplished is to eliminate injustice at its source, which lies within the hearts and minds of people. Those who are not perfectly just must be forced to be just. Those who cannot be forced to act justly must be destroyed. When the time is right, the Eternal Flame will reveal itself. The faithful will be rewarded. The unfaithful will be converted or killed.

There can be no other way.

Protective Aura: A magical aura constantly protects all four Seekers. This aura grants protection against attacks, which explains the Seekers’ Armor Class. It also renders them invulnerable to normal missiles (as protection from normal missiles).

Swords & Wizardry

Bahar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Fiery touch 2d8
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Ignite materials, immune to fire, protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Bahar controls the fires of purification. Her fiery touch inflicts horrible burns and causes flammable materials to ignite if the material fails a saving throw (as determined by the Referee).

Gulzar
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Scimitar (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Charming gaze, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Gulzar’s gaze subjects any living creature who meets it to a powerful charm effect (-2 penalty to saving throw, works as charm monster). Gulzar can never have more than 18 Hit Dice worth of creatures charmed at a time.

Minu
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Battle axe (1d8)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Magic resistance (35%), protective aura, shriek
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Once every 1d6 rounds, Minu can unleash a shriek of terrible power. All creatures (except for the other Seekers, whose auras protect them from Minu’s shriek) within 50 feet Minu when she shrieks must make a saving throw. Those that fail are stunned for 2d6 rounds and suffer 2d8 points of damage.

Shokufeh
Hit Dice: 10
Armor Class: 4 [15] (vs. melee attacks) or 2 [17] (vs. missile attacks)
Attacks: Quarterstaff (1d6)
Saving Throw: 5
Special: Catch spell, magic resistance (35%), protective aura
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaos
Challenge Level/XP: 13/2,300

Shokufeh has the ability to “catch” spells that target her. If Shokufeh’s magic resistance would protect her from the spell, she “catches” the spell and can immediately “throw” it (even if it isn’t her turn to act). A “thrown” spell takes effect just as if the original caster had targeted whomever Shokufeh chooses as her target.

Tags: 30 Day D&D Challenge, monsters, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry

I adore the Ichi (more accurately, the Zatoichi) movies. Shintaro Katsu was amazing in the role as the blind swordsman. Takeshi Kitano’s take on this hero was also pretty spiffy. Since time really got the better of me today, I pillaged ancient content to come up with this build I did for second edition Mutants & Masterminds.

THE BLIND SWORDSMAN
Quote: “Those dice sound different. Are you sure you didn’t switch them?”
Power Level: 10
Concept: Blind swordsman
Occupation: Masseur, gambler, adventurer
Real Name: Ichi
Legal Status: Ichi has a good claim to Japanese citizenship, but being a character fictionally born in the 19th century makes this determination problematic.
Identity: Public
Place of Birth: Somewhere in Japan. His place of birth is identified in the ninth Zatoichi film, but I forget the name.
Marital Status: Single
Living Relatives: None that he knows of
Height: 5 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 180 lb.
Eyes: Dark brown
Hair: Dark brown, but graying

Notes: Here’s my riff on Shintaro Katsu’s Zatoichi. With sword in hand, he is deadly. I simulated his mastery of iaido via a Container power. When armed with any sword or sword-like weapon, the Blind Swordsman exhibits superhuman skill. He uses Deflect against slow projectiles as well as for melee blocks. A successful Deflect triggers his Defensive Attack. (Thus, he Quick Draws his sword, blocks the attack, and slices into one or more nearby targets.) Even when not consciously using his swordsmanship skills to block attacks, he is a slippery target (which explains the Shield power). His basic attack is the Rapid Attack, an Autofire Mighty Strike with a reach of 10 feet. The Blind Swordsman has two alternate powers to Rapid Strike: a Blindingly Fast Attack (Mighty, Subtle Strike) and a Powerful Attack (Mighty, Split Attack Penetrating Strike).

Despite his blindness, the Blind Swordsman is very hard to take by surprise. His other senses, especially his sense of hearing, are exceptionally sharp, and he has an almost preternatural intuition about impending danger.

The Blind Swordsman’s signature weapon is a shikomi-tzue (or cane sword). This piece of equipment has normal statistics for a sword.

STR 14 (+2); DEX 14 (+2); CON 14 (+2); INT 12 (+1); WIS 18 (+4); CHA 13 (+1)

TOU +5 (+2 without Defensive Roll); FORT +7; REF +7; WILL +9; INIT +10; KNOCKBACK -2 (-1 without Defensive Roll)

MELEE +4 (+10 with sword); RANGE +4; GRAPPLE +6; DAMAGE +2 unarmed; DEFENSE +8 (+10 with sword)

Skills (Ranks): Concentration +10 (6), Diplomacy +5 (4), Gather Information +5 (4), Intimidate +12 (11), Knowledge (theology & philosophy) +5 (4), Medicine +5 (1), Notice +15 (11), Profession (masseur) +5 (1), Sense Motive +8 (3), Stealth +5 (3)

Feats: Accurate Attack, Assessment, Attack Specialization (sword) 3, Blind-Fight, Defensive Roll 3, Distract (Intimidate), Elusive Target, Equipment 2, Fascinate (Intimidate), Improved Critical (sword), Improved Initiative 2, Improved Throw, Improved Trip, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Quick Draw 2, Startle, Takedown Attack, Weapon Break

Powers:
Iaido Mastery (Container 11) (Flaw: Must have sword or sword-like weapon [-1])
* Cutting the Arrow – Deflect 15 (Effect: Slow Projectiles; Power Feat: Interpose; Extra: Move Action [+1])
* Defensive Posture – Shield 2
* Defensive Attack – Strike 6 (Effect: Damage +8 (crit 18-20); Power Feats: Mighty, Split Attack 2, Triggered [by successful Deflect])
* Rapid Attack – Strike 4 (Effect: Damage +6 (crit 18-20); Power Feats: Extended Reach, Mighty; Extra: Autofire [+1])
* Blindingly Fast Attack – Strike 8 (Effect: Damage +10 (crit 18-20); Power Feats: Mighty, Subtle; Note: This is an AP of Rapid Attack.)
* Powerful Attack – Strike 4 (Effect: Damage +6 (crit 18-20); Power Feats: Mighty, Split Attack; Extra: Penetrating [+1]; Note: This is an AP of Rapid Attack.)

Super-Senses 5 (Effect: Accurate Hearing, Danger Sense, Extended Hearing 2)

Drawback: Blind (uncommon, moderate, 1 point)

Attack/Damage Tradeoff: -0/+0
Defense/Toughness Tradeoff: +5/-5

Abilities 25 + Skills 12 (48 ranks) + Feats 26 + Powers 49 + Combat 24 + Saves 15 – Drawback 1 = 150

Tags: A to Z 2013, Mutants & Masterminds, NPCs, Zatoichi

This week, after wheedling for more than a year, I’m finally getting to teach Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha to my 5th graders. At the same time, as part of Latin class, we’re studying Penelope Lively’s In Search of a Homeland, a retelling of Virgil’s The Aeneid. We are so epic! Today I take a break from Tiamat’s Throne to provide quick Swords & Wizardry stats for two of Hiawatha’s friends.

Two good friends had Hiawatha,
Singled out from all the others,
Bound to him in closet union,
And to whom he gave the right hand
Of his heart, in joy and sorrow;
Chibiabos, the musician,
And the very strong man, Kwasind.

Chibiabos
Hit Dice: 7+7
Armor Class: 5 [14] (9 [10] unarmored)
Attacks: By weapon
Saving Throw: 9
Special: Amazing powers of song
Move: 12
Alignment: Law
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1,400

Chibiabos possesses amazing powers of song. When he sings, even normal animals — both domestic and wild — will stop what they’re doing in order to listen to his beautiful music. Of course, this desire to hear Chibiabos’s pleasing melodies won’t cause an animal to endanger itself or passively tolerate hostile action. With a happy song, Chibiabos can cause all humanoids who hear him to feel at peace. With a sad song, he causes the same to become sorrowful. Again, these feelings cannot cause anyone to endanger themselves or ignore obvious threats. As if these powers aren’t enough, Chibiabos can “cast” these spells, one at a time, once per day each, through his music: charm monster, charm plants, and mass charm.

Kwasind
Hit Dice: 8+14
Armor Class: 3 [16] (7 [12] unarmored)
Attacks: By weapon (double damage)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Amazing strength
Move: 15
Alignment: Law
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1,400

Kwasind possesses amazing strength. His melee and thrown weapons inflict double normal damage, and even his unarmed attacks inflict 1d6 points of damage. He can hurl boulders as a stone giant (3d6 points of damage). Kwasind is powerful enough to tear apart stone structures with his bare hands as a half-strength earth elemental.

Tags: A to Z 2013, NPCs, Swords & Wizardry, The Song of Hiawatha