The Circlet of Fungal Power

A new magic item for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

The Circlet of Fungal Power presents itself as a typical golden crown with a velvet lining colored purple with white spots. If worn, it transforms the wearer into an Amazon warrior woman with the following attributes:

Height: 6'2, Weight: 170
STR: 9, DEX: 17, CON: 11, INT: 11, WIS: 11, CHA: 18

All other characteristics, including class, remain the same. Upon removing the crown the wearer reverts to his previous appearance and attributes, but there is a cumulative 1% chance the wearer must make a Save Vs. Transformation or have one attribute (rolled on a d6) permanently altered. The accumulated chance resets with each save, but the seventh failure results in the wearer completely transforming into Amazon form (as per the Polymorph Other spell), in addition to gaining the firm conviction that they are the heir to the throne of a far-off kingdom of intelligent toadstool people.

Inspired, of course, by this. I'm not even sorry.

Retro-clone Read-through: Character Creation Part IIa

And, it's time for another exciting episode of the Great 2014 Retro-Clone Read-Through, where we calculate HP, note alignment and saving throws, and go on equipment-buying sprees! Actually, in terms of equipment my plan is to outfit each character with approximately the same items, arms and armor of course excepted. These will be:

• A backpack
• A lantern, oil, and tinderbox
• Two week's worth of rations
• A hat (for use with the legendary B/X Blackrazor Random Headgear Chart)
• A ten-foot pole

. . . What? It's traditional.

Anyway, once completed the full character sheets can be seen on my new index page for the Readthrough, which also has links to all the posts in the series, and maybe a hint or two at what's ahead . . .

Retro-clone Read-through - Character Creation, Part I

Today, as I understand it, is the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons, and thus in a way the entire RPG hobby. What better day, then to continue my series examining ten of the games that have been closely inspired by it?

Possibly the most important part of the rules, it's no surprise that all of the retro-clones I'm reading through have the character creation rules right up front. For the next few read-through posts, I'll be creating a character for each game, following the processes of each as closely as possible.

While many of them suggest various ways to generate it, all of them use the general "Six stats in the 3-18 range" mechanic. In order to test the rules as scientifically as possible, I'll be rolling one set of stats the traditional way - 3d6 In Order, of course - and applying them to each. So, without further ado, here are the numbers:

10, 15, 9, 9, 13, 9, 9

Not a bad spread, altogether, though the number of nines seems a bit of an anomaly - and yes, there's an extra at the end, I got a bit carried away with the dice-rolling and decided to keep it around in case any of the rulesets have an oddball stat or something. Anyway, let's take a look at what we can do with these numbers:

The Great 2014 Retroclone Readthrough

Over the past few years, a great many different versions of Dungeons & Dragons have been produced, several officially, but the vast majority being retroclones or house rule collections of one sort or another. The author of one of them (Grey Six) has assembled a vast and possibly even comprehensive list of variations, the scope of which underscores the creativity of the OSR community.

It also underscores the difficulty of keeping up with them all. For some time, I've had a bunch of different rulesets sitting around waiting to be read, and so I figured - hey, it's a new year, why not read the whole stack at once and do a comparison?

Monstrous Mushroom Kingdom Monday - The Finale

Art by JoshSummana

C'mon, was this really going to end any other way?

Bowser, the King Koopa: A massively over-sized Koopa warrior, Bowser claims kingship over the Mushroom Kingdom, and controls a vast army of Koopas, Goombas, and other creatures to make the claim stick. He's also not above kidnapping the family of the previous rulers to magnify his claim.

Art by Davidleonluis

Encountered: 1
Alignment: Evil
Size: Large
Movement: 30
Dexterity: 7
Armor Class: 3 (16)
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 3 (bite/claw/jump)
Damage: 2d8/1d6/1d20
Saving Throw: 13
Morale: 7
Experience Points: 1000
Treasure Class: Y
Special: Once per turn, Bowser can breathe a Fireball as an 8th-level magician.

Monstrous Mushroom Kingdom Monday - Part The Third

In addition to the standard flora and fauna of the Mushroom Kingdom, there are a great many artificial creatures that pose a threat to any wandering adventurers. Oftentimes their origin is unknown, and any intelligence they might have possessed has long been worn away by time.

Chain Chomp: A dense, metal ball with a toothy mouth at the end of a chain, which is typically secured to a wall or post. Often used as guardians, and therefore found just outside structures of strategic or financial importance.

Art by darkly-shaded-shadow

Encountered: 1-2
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: Small
Movement: 0 (See Special)
Dexterity: 10
Armor Class: 3 (16)
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d8
Saving Throw: 15
Morale: 13
Experience Points: 35
Treasure Class: M
Special: After three rounds, roll a d6 each round. On a 1, the chain breaks and the Chain Chomp gains MV 60.

Bob-omb: A metallic ball on mechanical legs, which it uses to walk up to its target before exploding. The turn before the explosion, it throws several harmless sparks from its top.

Art by Deimos-Remus

Encountered: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small
Movement: 40
Dexterity: 8
Armor Class: 3 (16)
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1 (explode)
Damage: 3d6
Saving Throw: 16
Morale: 10
Experience Points: 24
Treasure Class: M
Special: If the Bob-omb is reduced to 0HP before setting itself off, it explodes for 2d6 damage to whatever struck the killing blow.

Thwomp: An enormous, spiky block of living stone that camouflages itself against stone ceilings, then drops on the unwary.

Art by BrendanCorris

Encountered: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: Large
Movement: 10
Dexterity: 9
Armor Class: 5 (14)
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1 (smash)
Damage: 1d12
Saving Throw: 15
Morale: 11
Experience Points: 75
Treasure Class: M

Monstrous Mushroom Kingdom Monday - Part II

Nearly as ubiquitous in the Mushroom Kingdom as Koopas and Goombas are the Piranha Plants. These carnivorous plants range in size from the height of a man to the height of a tree, and while (usually) immobile can reach a surprising distance. Each individual plant consists of one toothy pod on a stalk, although groups of Piranha Plants have been found growing in tangled clumps.

Art by RottaC

Encountered: 1 (1d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Size: Medium/Large
Movement: 0
Dexterity: 7
Armor Class: 8 (11)
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d6
Saving Throw: 16
Morale: 12
Experience Points: 24
Treasure Class: M
Special: Once per turn, the Piranha Plant can shoot a Fireball as a 3rd-level magician.

The Return of Monstrous Monday - Mushroom Kingdom Edition

Some of you may recall that last year about this time there was a big blogfest organized by Tim Brannan to post a bunch of monsters on October 29, as well as on the Mondays leading up to that date. Well, Tim's too busy to host a sequel this year, but when I came up with the idea to do Mushroom Kingdom Monsters I couldn't pass it up.

Art Via AdamsPinto

The genesis of this idea was a thread on RPG.Net titled "Hyboria + Mushroom Kingdom = IT WON'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"  True to the title, the idea has stuck with me ever since, occasionally inflamed by finding a neat piece of artwork to go with it. All sorts of different rulesets and play-styles have been suggested - there's a particularly nice Savage Worlds netbook by Jeremy Puckett that plays things fairly straight, for example - but the mode that most interests me is the slightly gritty, D&Dified sword-and-sorcery take on it. What, after all, is the difference between Mario and John Carter except that one landed on Barsoom and the other in the Mushroom Kingdom?

OK, that might be a bit of a stretch. Still, the setting has the idea of extra-dimensional visitors built right into it, and they might as well be a motley band of fighters, barbarians, and wizards as a family of ethnic handymen. Either way, they're going to need something to fight, which brings us back to Monstrous Mondays. Each Monday this month I plan to stat up a few iconic Mushroom Kingdom Monsters for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria, that being the particular flavor of OSR I think fits this take on the setting best.

To begin, then, we'll start with the Goomba and the Koopa - not very impressive individually, to be sure, but a hoard of them is perhaps a different matter.

Goomba: An intelligent, ambulatory fungus at home in many environments, from deep caverns to scorching deserts.

Art Via D-MAC

Encountered: 1d4 (1d6+3)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Small
Move ment: 10
Dexterity: 5
Armor Class: 10 (9)
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d6
Saving Throw: 16
Morale: 11
Experience Points: 10
Treasure Class: M
Special: 1-in-12 chance per encounter that one Goomba will be piloting a Goomba Shoe (see below).

Koopa: This humanoid turtle is often found serving as the main trooper in the armies of the King Koopa.

Encountered: 1d4 (1d8)
Alignment: Neutral
Size: Medium
Movement: 30 (Swim 20)
Dexterity: 9
Armor Class: 6 (13)
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 2 (bite/claw)
Damage: 1d6/2d4
Saving Throw: 16
Morale: 8
Experience Points: 20
Treasure Class: M
Special: When reduced to 50% Hit Points, the Koopa must pass a morale check or retreat into his shell for 2d6 rounds. Once killed, the Koopa's shell can be fashioned into a suit of AC 7 (12) armor or an AC -1 (+1) shield.

Goomba Shoe: This strange device of unknown origin resembles nothing so much as a giant green boot with a windup key. If piloted by a Small or Medium creature, it provides an AC of 8 (11) and a 1d8 Jumping attack within their standard movement range. All known examples were originally discovered being piloted by Goombas - where they got them from remains a mystery.

The Cheap, The Free, and The Winnable

In a confluence of a few different events, it looks like a pretty good week for OSR fans in general, and Swords & Wizardry fans in particular.

First off, DriveThruRPG is spotlighting the OSR all this week, and is offering 15% off the dozen best-selling titles with the use of the following coupon code: OSRF711F2 . The available titles range from the classic D&D Basic rulebook to recent interpretations such as Adventures Dark & Deep, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria, and yes, Swords & Wizardry Complete and its Sword-&-Sorcery spinoff, Crypts and Things. There's also a smattering of non-D&D-derived products, such as Classic Fantasy for BRP (for all your Lovecraft/Tolkien mashup needs!).

Not to be outdone, Frog God Games has put their entire Swords & Wizardry line on a similar 15% off sale - most interestingly including their recently released Razor Coast setting books. Swords & Wizardry Complete is, of course, on their list, too - no word on whether the two discounts stack, but if they did Complete would come out to just a hair over $7. A real bargain, if you need that book, but both sales end next Sunday.

While I was reading up on the various retro-clones affected by the above, I happened across the website for North Wind Adventures, the publishers of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria. On it, they offer a number of free downloads to support the game, and while some seem to be specific to the Hyperborian setting, others - particularly the "Random Sword & Sorcery Adventure Generator" - look useful for any game in the genre.

Finally, for the next couple of days Tenkar's Tavern is hosting a "Favorite Character Death" contest, with various OSR-compatible publications from Neoplastic Press up for grabs. Not only that, but the company's most well-known product, Teratic Tome, will be put on a bigger and bigger sale the more people enter - and if enough people enter it, too, could become free.