Simpler Treasure Codes

So, I did all that stuff about mnemonic treasure codes, and then I decided there was a way to make the mnemonics much easier to read and more compact: (1) Fewer primary treasure prefixes, and (2) Ditching table lookups for base values.

Explaining the New Codes

First, the prefixes. We only need three:

• A = Arcane Artifact or Magic Item
• B = Bulk Treasure (coins of various types)
• E = Extra (or Expensive) Treasure, for gems and jewelry

The suffixes remain the same, but come immediately after this prefix, and only when necessary: Bc specifies copper as the default instead of silver. Eg specifies gems only, if jewelry is absent or less/more abundant.

Artifacts (A) only need a numerical prefix and optionally a suffix: 3 A means 30% chance for three items and 4 A+s means 40% chance for any four items + one scroll. For Bulk treasure and Extra treasure, though, use a roman numeral, which is easier to use than the vowel system I came up with earlier.

• V = 5 coins value
• X = 10 coins value
• L = 50 coins value
• C = 100 coins value
• D = 500 coins value
• M = 1000 coins value

To shorten things a bit, though, we can mix in arabic numerals instead of using more than one roman numeral (so, B3X instead of BXXX.)

Most of the time, coins will be in small bags (BL,) large sacks (B3C,) or chests (BM.) 5 BgM means 50% chance of 5d6 chests with 1,000 gold coins each. For gems and jewelry, that roman numeral refers to the base value of each gem or piece of jewelry, not the quantity. The most common value will be EC (base value of 100 coins.) In general, all gems and jewelry can fit into a single container.

How to Check for Treasure

For arcane artifacts, only one roll is necessary: a Chance Roll to see if there are any magic items at all. There may be additional rolls to decide which items are present, but this is optional; you could just pick whatever you want, any way you want.

For coins, you can handle all treasure checks with three rolls.

1. Chance Roll (d10 roll under prefixed number, or whatever you prefer) to see if any coins are present at all.
2. Default Coin Amount Roll (prefixed number = number of d6s to roll.) Total this, then set aside highest d6 rolled; call this the secondary coin amount.
3. Secondary Coin Amount Roll (secondary coin amount = number of d6s to roll as a dice pool.) Every 1 rolled is an extra container of lower-value treasure and every 6 rolled is an extra container of higher-value treasure.

So, if the code is 5 BsM:

1. Roll d10. If result <= 5 (50% chance,) there are coins in the treasure trove.
2. Roll 5d6, get {1, 3, 3, 4, 4}. Total is 16 chests of silver, 1,000 coins each.
3. Since highest d6 in Step 2 was “4”, roll 4d6 and get {1, 1, 2, 6}. Result is two chests of copper and one chest of gold, 1,000 coins in each chest.

If a prefix has two suffixes (Bsg,) roll Step 2 twice, but only set aside one d6 as the secondary coin amount for Step 3. The lower-value treasure is below the lowest value listed as a suffix, while the higher-value treasure is above the highest value listed. In the case of Bsg, this means there would be copper and platinum.

For gems and jewelry, either roll the same as you would for coins, using the third roll for gems or jewelry of higher and lower value mixed in with the rest, or just roll for chance and quantity, then follow the procedure in Monsters & Treasure, p. 40.

Using Treasure Codes for New Monsters

When designing new monsters, you would want to follow a more rational pattern than the original treasure types:

• Don’t worry about minimum quantities, only max quantities.
• Don’t use the plus or minus modifiers.
• Don’t split probability and quantity. Just use one number. If you want the treasure amount to be higher or lower than the probability would indicate, adjust the roman numeral instead (poor monsters might have small bags instead of chests, for example.)
• Only record the most common type of coin, letting the rules above handle other types.
• To make treasures fit better with each monster, focus on exclusions and bonuses. 4 A+2s no w as a magic-using monster’s artifact treasure is a much better customization than randomly raising and lowering coin amounts. 3 BgM no s might make sense for custom lycanthrope treasure.

Instead of assigning numbers to treasure probability and amount at random, work out a formula tying this to monster level. I think this is a good start:

Hit Dice	Quantity X	Base Value	G/J	Magic
up to 1+2	max hp/2	X BL	x1	1 A
2 to 10+	HD/2	X BM	x1	X/2 A
11+	HD/4+1	X B2M	x10	X+1 A

Replace the X in columns 3 and 5 with the value from column 2 (round up) to get the coin and magic treasure codes for a monster. For gems and jewelry, use X EC, replacing X with the value from column 2, then add the multiplier from column 4 as necessary. So, for example:

• For a 1+1 HD hobgoblin lair: 4 BL 4 EC 1 A.
• For a 6 HD troll lair: 3 BM 3 EC 2 A
• For a 10 HD hydra: 5 BM 5 EC 3 A.
• For a 12 HD dragon: 3 B2M 3 ECx10 4 A.

This starter code could then be customized, shifting some low-HD monsters to copper instead of silver, for example, or adding a x10 multiplier to gems for a gnome lair, or adding bonus magic items to mid-level monsters that have more powers than usual.

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Treasure Codes and the Treasure Table

I wrote a lot of posts over the past couple weeks about a new mnemonic way to mark treasure in monster descriptions:

• Part One: treasure codes
• Part Two: coins
• Part Three: gems and jewelry
• Part Four: maps and magic items
• Part Five: dice and probabilities

I promised translations for the existing treasure types, although I will warn you right now that they look pretty ugly. This is mainly due to the treasure types not being very well thought out. Aside from scattered patterns I've already mentioned (higher treasure amounts for hoards and active treasure collectors, for example,) there's no real rhyme or reason behind assigning probabilities and quantities. This means you have to record lots of info for each type and can't compress it down to something simple.

And I confess: after I finished writing up the conversion table, I decided I wanted to improve the mnemonic system even more, and maybe do a complete overhaul of the treasure types, which really are quite bad. But for now, here's the conversion table.

Type	... Converts to This Code
A1	2:1 Coyc 3:1 Coys, 3:2 Coyg, 5:6 Gee/Jee, 4:3 Xu
A2	2:1 Coyc/s-1, 2:1 Coyg, 5:1 Gee/Jee-1 x10, 6:3 Xu
A3	6:5 Coyg (no cs), 6:1 Gee/Jee x10, 5:1 Mu
B	5:1 Coyc+1, 2:1 Coys, 2:1 Cyog-3, 2:1 Gee/Jee, 1 Xuw
C	2 Coyc, 3:1 Coys-1 (no g), 2:1 Gee/Jee-1, 1:1 Xu
D	1 Coyc+1, 2 Coys, 6:1 Coyg, 3:1 Gee/Jee+1, 2 Xu+p
E	(1/2):2 Coyc-2, 3:2 Coys, 2:1 Coyg+1,1:2 Gee/Jee-2, 3 Xu+s
F	1:4 Coys-4, 4:2 Coyg, 2:4 Gee/Jee, 3 Xu+ps (no w)
G	7:1 Coyg-1, 3 Gee, 3:2 Jee-2, 4 Xu+s
H	3:4 Coyc, 5:2 Coys-2 x10, 7:1 Coyg x10, 5:2 Gee-2 x10, 5:1 Jee-1 x10, 2:4 Xu+ps
I	5:2 Gee+2, 5:2 Jee+2, 2:1 Xu

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Treasure Types, or Treasure Codes?

The treasure types table in OD&D’s Monsters & Treasure booklet has slightly obscure design goals, which carry over into B/X, BECM, and AD&D. As a result, it gets tweaked or completely replaced in most retroclones and many house rules. It’s tricky to figure out which type to assign to completely new monsters, or which old monsters can have their types swapped, since it’s not entirely clearly what the differences between most of the types really are.

But there are a couple distinctions worth noting:

• Most treasure types have all three coin varieties, but a few have no copper or silver, and one has no coins at all.
• The max number of gems is the same as the max number of jewelry items in all but two cases.
• Most types can have any kind of magic item or map, but three of them limit this to one variety, while some other have 2 to 4 items of any type plus one potion or scroll (or both,) guaranteed.

Having coins, gems, jewelry, magic items, and maps all specified for any given treasure type confuses the design and reduces usefulness. What we could do instead is use treasure codes made from more than one letter. Something like:

Code	Treasure Type
B	Basic Treasure
C	Common Coins (sack)
Cr	Rare Coins (sack)
Cl	Low Value Coins (sack)
G	Gems
J	Jewelry
L	Loose Coins
M	Maps
P	Potions
S	Scrolls
W	Weapons and Armor
X	Other Magic Items

Coins are separated into Common, Rare, and Low Value, corresponding to your standard coin used for prices in your campaign, a rarer coin, and a “junk” coin that’s less convenient to haul out of the dungeon. By default, these are in the proportion 1 rare : 10 common : 100 low-value, but you can change this to fit your campaign. The way you’d most likely use these codes in a monster description is to assume every treasure type is potentially present in standard quantities at standard chances, then specify anything that’s different. (That’s what Basic Treasure is for: a catch-all for any treasure type not otherwise specified, so that you can note a monster has ten times normal gold, no silver, and everything else is standard.)

Quantities for coins are assumed to be measured in “sacks” (300 coins each.) Other items like Gems and Jewelry are counted individually. This base number is multiplied by a dice roll, which we could choose to link to vowel codes like this:

Code	Size Modifier
a	Abundant (5d6x10)
e	Extra (3d6x10)
o	Ordinary (2d6x5)
i	Individual (1d6)
u	Undefined

So that we can specify treasure types like:

CaBo no S

Which would mean “this monster has abundant common coins like gold, ordinary quantities of other treasure types, but no scrolls.”

Undefined by default means “unique” (only one of this item,) but can also be redefined each time it is used.

Additional notes:

• Coins are broken down the way they are because you might want to set standard chances for each type, like “25% chance for common coins, 10% chance each for low-value and rare coins”.
• Magic items are broken down the way they are partly because that’s the way they are broken down in the original treasure type table, but mostly because those types have special restrictions: armor and weapons probably won’t be in an evil wizard’s lair, potions and scrolls won’t be underwater.
• If you want to specify absolute coin type instead of relative coin type, for example because you don’t want lycanthropes to have silver coins, you can follow the vowel with a lowercase letter (Cos = silver coins, Cog = gold coins.) This is especially useful for the “loose coins” type.
• You can do the same for other treasure types, like magic items (Wis = magic shields, Sic = cursed scrolls.) Some of these might wind up pretty cryptic, though, so adding an actual word after the code (Si (cursed)) might be a better choice.
• You can also use the “rare”/“low-value” modifier to breakdown gems into different values, for example, or to show that a magic item is fancier than normal or appears like a cheap common tool or weapon. (Gri = rare gems, Wlow = wooden magic weapon.)

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Divine Moods and Personalities

Someone brought up Gods, Demigods, and Heroes on the OD&D forums, wanting to talk about who has actually used it and how. For myself, I like the monsters, hero, and artifact entries. But the gods?

Let’s start with the kind of gods I want in my game:

1. Ambiguous desires, plans, and even existence.
2. Ambiguous source of “divine” displays of power.
3. Enigmatic miracles and manifestations.
4. Both player and GM-created religions.

These guidelines are based on two principles:

Create as much as possible through play rather than before play.

Keep the players front in center, not NPCs (including gods, the ultimate NPCs.)

So what kind of “god mechanics” would work for me?

No monster stats for gods. They may or may not be real. Any monster may be a divine incarnation, sending, minion, or hoax.

Start with a zone of divine control, what some versions of the game might call a Sphere. If using a god from mythology, this is the common interpretation of what that god is the “god” of (war, sky, death, life.)

Add a second unrelated zone of control, possibly a narrower one.

Add a profession or social role, if one isn’t obvious. Less likely professions or roles will be more evocative.

Add at least one object or behavior associated with the god. This can be turned into a myth about the god (summarize a story in one or two sentences.)

Examples

• Tut-Tut, the Warrior-Smith of the Coast, cries as he creates turtle-shell armor and shields in a sea-cave forge on the western shores. (Summary: War, Coastal Areas, Smithing, Turtles, Tears)
• Lyraine, the Huntress of the Celestial Choir, leads her chorus in battle-songs as she rides a parrot across the night sky. (Summary: Hunting, Stars, Music, Parrot.)

The first time during an adventure where the PCs do anything on grounds sacred to a god, or in the presence of a priest of that god, or involving one of the keywords that “define” the god, make a reaction roll for the god. Only do this once per adventure.

• Shift Results Down one step (Bad becomes Very Bad) if PCs harm a priest, defile a temple, or otherwise unwittingly “offend” the god.
• Shift Results Up one step (Good becomes Very Good) if performing rituals or otherwise serving the god.

On a Very Bad result (2 on 2d6) or a Very Good result (12 on 2d6), it seems as if the god is “paying attention”. This might mean the god is real, it might mean someone who worships the god noticed and is acting on the god’s behalf, or it might be the PC’s unconscious guilt or confidence. If the first result roll indicates no divine interest, this will not change for the rest of the adventure.

For the rest of the adventure, track the PCs on the Divine Mood table below, starting at (Dis)favor unless the adjusted roll is 1 or 13, in which case jump to Bad/Good Omen.

Bad /	Good Mood	Effects
(Dis)	Favor	Flip near miss or hit
Cursed /	Blessed	+/-2 on rolls
Doomed /	Chosen	Next result becomes critical or fumble. Reset.
Enemy /	Ally	Extra wandering monster roll, seeks vengeance on/alliance with PCs. Reset.
(Bad)	Omen	Minor spell (half dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. Reset.
(Evil)	Sending	Wandering monster magically appears to attack/serve PCs. Reset.
Judgment /	Miracle	Major spell (twice dungeon level) cast against/for PCs. Reset.
(Wrathful)	Avatar	Monster representing the god magically appears to attack/serve PCs. Reset.

Favors, Blessings, Disfavor, and Curses stay in effect for the rest of the adventure or until the next time the PCs “interact” with the god in some way (break a taboo, perform a ritual, help or harm a divine servant, trigger one of the other key words.) Everything else happens once.

In either case, roll 2d6 and consult the Divine Mood Reset Table. If the result is anything below Cursed/Blessed, delay the new effect until the next interaction with the god.

2d6	Divine Mood Reset Effect
2	Flip Mood (bad to good or vice versa)
3-5	Mood Wanes (shift up one line)
6-8	Reset to (Dis)Favor
9-11	Mood Strengthens (shift down one line)
12	Extreme Shift (down two lines)
13+	Flip Bad Mood to Good, otherwise shift down two lines)

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How Many Miracles Will Your God Grant?

Here’s an expansion of Clerics Without Spells. my rules for using reaction rolls for clerics casting spells on the fly. These days, I assume spells prepared beforehand (“memorized”) can be cast without risk of spell failure. But there’s a couple situations where a cleric prays for spells:

• When preparing/memorizing those spells,
• When casting a spell that hasn’t been memorized,
• When praying for a miracle (higher spell level than they can memorize.)

Religious characters who aren’t clerics can also pray for miracles.

So what if you don’t want to use a crude “all spells granted/no spells granted” approach?

This table should take care of it.

2d6 Roll	Reaction	Detailed Explanation
2	Fall from Grace	No spells granted until character atones at a shrine or temple.
3-4	Divine Wrath	If any spells are granted, they are at least two levels below max level.
5-6	Divine Impatience	Some spells may be granted, but not those at max level or those one level lower.
7-8	Divine Disfavor	Most spells granted, but not those at max level.
9-10	Divine Favor	All spells up to max level are approved.
11-12	A Miracle Is Granted	Spell one level higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.
13+	A Great Miracle Is Granted	Spell two levels higher than normal granted on one-time basis. Does not apply to prepared spells.

Max Level refers to the maximum spell level a cleric can prepare beforehand. For example, a 2nd level cleric’s max level is 1, a 4th level cleric’s max level is 2. Max level is half cleric level, rounded down. (officially, OD&D diverges from that after 5th level, and other D&D versions tinker with it, but this is the quick and dirty replacement I use.)

Miracles here are spells that the cleric or worshipper doesn’t cast themselves, but ask to be cast. Any spell above max level is a miracle.

The table is basically the standard reaction roll with the 2 x (cleric level - spell level) formula built into the results already, so no calculation is necessary.

Despite the wording (Favor, Disfavor, Impatience, Wrath,) spells and miracles granted are not considered absolute proof that the cleric or worshipper’s belief in their god is justified. It’s all a matter of faith, not objective truth.

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In Lair, Or Not?

There’s been a big discussion about how to use the “% In Lair” stat from Monsters & Treasure (table on pages 3-4) and in other books. A lot of it is a series of very detailed arguments, some points being based on references in other sources like Arneson’s First Fantasy Campaign, which in my opinion is not official rules, but Arneson’s “Here’s how I do it” book. There are no official rules on how to place and stock lairs, because it’s up to GM taste and the needs of the group.

So, I don’t think “% In Lair” is meant to be anymore complicated than “Are the PCs exploring the lair of the monster? Is the monster home right now, or out hunting?” But I have some ideas on how to handle random lair placement, which I thought I’d repeat here.

First: If you have a special lair to place on a map, place it first. It’s like placing special rooms in a dungeon vs. randomly stocking other rooms. You want to figure out where Castle Greyhawk and the Tomb of Horrors are before you decide where the den of a random wolfpack is. I don’t even count typical dungeons as “lairs”, even though they technically are the lairs of the monsters that live in them.

Second: How many lairs are in the area? Assuming you’re rolling up the contents of a hex or wilderness area, you’d want at least a few lairs, but no need to go crazy. I’d set the base number of lairs as d6/2, dropping fractions, to get a range of 0 to 3, with 1 or 2 being the most common result.

I’d actually roll two dice. In rural areas or anything else close to civilization, I’d pick the lowest roll. In true wilderness, I’d pick the highest.

Third: Where are the lairs? Any place that looks usable, actually. Since I consider lairs to be smallish, not necessarily worthy of a map, it’s more a matter of terrain and monster preferences. Basic lair types are:

Dice Roll		Lair Type
0 to 1		Natural Shelter
2 to 3		Modified Shelter
4 to 5		Cave (1-4 “rooms”)
6+		Structure

Natural Shelter could just be a shallow hole inside a thicket, a spot between two boulders, or a hollow tree. The modified form is basically a multi-chamber burrow, a nest, or a campsite for bandits or other intelligent groups. Structures may be newly made, abandoned and repurposed by wild animals, or just the ruined remnants.

Either pick a suitable area on the map that matches the monster type or roll: d6/2 for plains, desert, swamp, or forest, d6 for hills/mountains (+/- 1 based on closeness to civilization, current or historic.)

Fourth: Is the encounter in the lair? If it’s a wandering monster, no, but you could roll a d6: on 5+, it has a lair nearby. Otherwise, it’s looking for a new lair. If the party finds the lair first, rather than the monster, that’s when I’d make the “% In Lair” roll to see if it’s home or out hunting. I’d roll again periodically as the PCs explore the lair, to see if it returns.

How do PCs find lairs? Usually by tracking creatures, or backtracking where a dead creature came from, if they encounter the monster first. If there are people living nearby, they might have clues as to where to look. There’s always magic, too. But if we’re not talking about wandering monsters, it’s mostly a matter of dumb luck: PCs see something they want to explore, perhaps to set up camp, and it turns out to be occupied. If it’s the lair of bandits or the like, PCs might see smoke from a campfire and head towards it. If the PCs are following a treasure map, the map destination may now be occupied.

Finally: What happens when PCs clear a lair? Monsters pick lairs because they need shelter or a place to store their stuff. If the monsters are killed, any other creatures looking for a lair may move in. I’d use the same 5+ on 1d6 chance to determine if a lair has a new occupant when PCs revisit it later. If the new occupant gathers treasure, it probably won’t have much of anything when it first claims the lair. A good guess: after one month, a monster will have acquired 10% of the usual treasure for its type, plus 10% per month. If you want a roll, use either a flat d10x10% or 2d6x10% roll (treating 6s as zero,) but cap the result based on the number of months.

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Attack Severity and Special Effects

Previously, I introduced the idea of a severity roll that can be integrated with Delta’s Target 20 System, a d20 roll-under system, or even standard D&D (with a little bit more math than the first two.) The basic idea is that any attack with a Severity rating of 4+ is a critical hit with a special effect.

Severity effects can be expanded into a table:

Rating	Severity	Detailed Explanation
0-1	Almost Missed	Attacker’s weapon is weakened if damage = 5+.
2-3	Solid Hit	No special effect, just deduct damage from hit points.
4-6	Critical Hit	Look up damage roll on Special Effect table.
7-8	Super Critical	As critical hit, but apply max damage to hit points.
9+	Ultra Critical	As critical hit, but add max damage to damage rolled.

All results assume the attack is successful, dealing standard damage at a minimum: 1d6 for most weapons, 2d6 for a spear when charging or setting spear for a charge, 3d6 for spear set for a charge against a fast and heavy monster, or other damage results for things like cannon or firearms. Always roll the damage, even if applying max damage to hit points. The damage roll is used in three ways:

1. As a deduction from hit points (Standard damage rules.)
2. As a test for whether a weapon is weakened (5 or more points of damage weakens weapon.)
3. As an index when looking up results on the Special Effect table. (Use the unmodified roll for this.)

Weakened Weapons and Armor

On an Almost Missed result, there is a chance the attacker’s weapon is weakened. This has no immediate effect, just note somewhere that it is a weakened weapon. You can disregard this result if the opponent is wearing light armor (leather, cloth, heavy furs) or is not wearing armor, unless the opponent used a shield to block or a weapon to parry. Any damage roll of 5 or more weakens the weapon.

Weapons and armor can also be weakened when struck by a ferocious blow. Check this the same way (damage of 5 or more = weakened,) but only if the attack is Super Critical or Ultra Critical. Again, you can ignore the weakened test for Light armor or if the attacker’s weapon is a soft, non-rigid material (bullwhip, bare fists, garrote.) If blocking or parrying, only the shield or weapon is tested, not the armor worn.

Any weapon or armor that is already weakened will break if weakened again. Or, to put it another way, it takes two Almost Missed results with damage 5+ to break a weapon, or two Super Critical/Ultra Critical results to break armor.

Cheap weapons and armor, if available for sale, count as weakened, as do rusty weapons and armor. A curse can also count as a weakened effect on either the cursed piece of equipment or on all equipment, if the curse is on the person or location. Weakened equipment can be repaired, but not cheap equipment.

Special Effects for Critical Hits

Consult this table for the base special effect caused by a critical, super critical, or ultra critical hit.

d6		Special Effect
1-2		Painful Blow, injured next action.
3-4		Injured for rest of combat.
5-6		Crippled until healed.
7+		Permanent Injury.

Being injured reduces Move to 3 and reduces effective level to 1 for the duration (next action, rest of combat, until healed, or permanently.) The reduction of level normally only applies to attacks, but if a blow is aimed, the injury will affect that body part. Injured limbs can affect physical skills, an injured head can affect mental skills or spell casting.

In addition to this base effect, each weapon may have a unique special effect based on form of attack.

• Slashing with Sharp Weapons causes bleeding (treat as a mild poison that does 1d6 additional damage every turn after combat unless bandaged.)
• Hacking with Sharp Weapons causes bleeding, but also any permanent injury means a body part is severed.
• Piercing with Sharp Points causes bleeding. If the attack was not aimed at a limb, permanent injury means immediate incapacitation and eventual death.
• Smashing with Heavy Weapons stuns weaker or smaller opponents for 1 to 4 rounds, knocking them prone on 5+. Also, on an Almost Missed result, an attacker using a heavy weapon can be pushed back or knocked prone if they themselves are weaker or smaller than their opponent.

Design Notes

This is basically a redesign of the weapon damage tables replacing multiple tables (one for each weapon type) with a unified Special Effects table and adding more variety via the severity levels. I should in the future revisit that material, especially the unarmed combat material, and update it to this format.

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Emergency Spell Casting

A recent conversation on Twitter got me thinking again about casting spells from spell books. Some people treat spell books as big, expensive magic scrolls, allowing casters to cast spells from them, but with the spell disappearing from the book when cast. I don’t treat them that way. I won’t go into all the details, because it’s something I’ve talked about many times.

But… I do like the idea of casting spells with spell books, an emergency spell-casting procedure that takes longer than a normal prepped spell to cast. Only spells the caster knows and could prep for casting can be cast this way. Here is my current thinking on rules for handling this.

Step I: Ingredients

If spell prep for spells in your campaign involves burning things, pouring libations, ritual sacrifices, or any other physical components, the caster needs to have these handy, or scavenge around for them. The easiest way to handle this, to me, would be to set a monetary value of ingredients needed and materials available. For example, spells might require 20 coins worth of common ingredients per spell level, and casters can spend a turn in any non-empty room to scavenge: roll 1d6, 5+ means 20 coins value has been found, otherwise add 1 to result for number of coins worth found. Inhabited rooms might double or triple the value found, magic labs will multiply by 10.

Step II: Casting Time

GM rolls casting time in secret: 1d6 x Spell Level, in turns. Players say how long they chant and perform rituals. If they don’t meet the necessary time, the spell is a miscast If they meet or exceed it, it is a success.

Step III: Spell Effect

GM makes a reaction roll: 2d6 on Spell Effect Table for a successful cast, but only 1d6 for a miscast. If the caster would not be able to prep the spell (in other words, doesn’t have an empty spell slot for the spell being cast,) shift the result up one line, making the spell effect one category worse. A blessed caster shifts the result down one line, making the spell effect one category better.

2d6 Roll	Effect	Detailed Explanation
0	Major Backfire	Random spell and random target.
1	Backfire	Random target, benefits are reversed.
2	Minor Backfire	Random target.
3-5	Fizzle	Half normal strength.
6-8	Weak	1 point weaker.
9-11	Normal	Standard spell effect.
12	Strong	1 point better.
13+	Fantastic	Double normal strength.

I’ve talked before about randomizing spell targets: everyone rolls a d6, and the GM rolls a d6 for the spell. Anyone whose roll matches the spell’s roll is affected. On this table, a major backfire randomizes the spell as well; easiest way to do this is to roll 2d6 and subtract 7 from the result, then count backwards or forwards on the list of spells to get the replacement.

A fizzled spell does half damage, lasts half as long, travels half as far, and is otherwise half strength in every way. A fantastic spell effect is the opposite, doubling strength in every way. A weak or strong spell decreases or increases damage, duration, distance, and so on by a tiny degree, but never as low as half the minimum or more than the 1.5 x maximum effect.

Notes on Time and Cost

Time above is given in turns, so that whether you use ten-minute turns, one-minute-turns, or something else, the rules will automatically scale to whatever you use… as long as normally a prepared spell requires one turn or less to cast. If you have adjusted either casting time or prep time so that it is not based on this assumption, you may have to throw in an extra multiplier to make sure emergency casting takes longer than standard spell casting or spell prep.

Costs are given in coins, which will be copper, silver, or gold, depending on whatever standard you are using for common equipment prices in your campaign. The assumption is that “material components” are used during spell prep, but not spell casting, and most spells have unnamed commonly available components.

If some spell levels have much higher ingredient costs, you can add a multiplier for different spell level ranges, for example:

• Spell Levels 1-3: Standard cost (20 coins per level)
• Spell Levels 4-6: High cost (100 coins per level)
• Spell Levels 7-9: Very High cost (500 coins per level)

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Magic Item Charges and Reaction Rolls

This is an update to an idea in Wands Without Charges, eliminating the need to track charges in wands or other magic items. I’ve prettied things up in this nice little reaction table, which you roll the first time an item is used and on future uses.

2d6 Roll	Charge	When to Check Again
2	Drained	Last use. No further rolls.
3-5	Weak	Roll again before each use.
6-8	Normal	Roll again another day.
9-11	Strong	Roll again next week.
12	Full	Roll again next month.
13+	Endless	Never check normally.

Explanations

A weak or drained magic item glows feebly, sputters, or otherwise indicates it’s about fail. If drained, the item will work that one time, but won’t work again. If weak, it can be used at least once more, but from now on, a roll must be made every time the item is used, ignoring Normal or higher results.

A normal, strong, or full charge does not have a feeble glow, sputtering, or other low charge indication. Because there are plenty of charges left, there’s no need for a new roll if the item is used again on the same day, week, or month, as indicated by the result. Ignore results higher than previous rolls; items never increase in charge, only decrease.

Players can tell the difference between low-charge (weak or drained) and high-charge (normal, strong or full) by observation or by casting something like Detect Magic, which will reveal either a weak or strong magic aura. They can’t distinguish anything more detailed without using Contact Other Plane or similar spell.

After rolling for the item once, make a note of the item name with a d, w, or m in parentheses after the first roll to indicate whether to check daily, weekly, or monthly.

Curses and Blessings

If a cursed character uses a magic item, or any character uses it in a cursed area, a Drained result becomes a magical backfire. Beneficial effects (Wand of Healing) are reversed. Harmful effects affect random targets, possibly even the caster. The item is also drained as normal, unless it is a blessed (Endless) item.

If a magic item is used in a blessed area, the charge level doesn’t decrease as quickly. The first time a lower charge result is rolled, ignore it. If the item is used again in the area and a lower charge result is rolled on that attempt, the item depletes as normal.

The same applies to a blessed character except when an item is used for the very first time. In that case, add +1 to the 2d6 roll. This prevents a blessed character from draining an item on the first try and also allows the possible Endless result. A magic item with endless charges is basically an artifact and will never be drained under normal circumstances. Curses can force a reroll, and artifact items might have mysterious demands that must be met to continue uninterrupted use.

Wands

Magic wands typically have more charges than other charged items. When a wand is first used, a Normal result is treated as a Strong result (check again in a week.)

Optionally, if a spell-caster has a spell prepared that duplicates the wand’s effects, the Drained result is treated as Weak instead. Once that spell is used, however, the wand loses that benefit.

Cantrip Wands

Cantrip Wands cast very low level magical effects, but have weaker magic. Shift all results one category worse: Fully-Charged cantrip wands check every week, Strong cantrip wands check every day, Normal cantrip wands check each time they are used, and any Weak result means the wand is drained.

Magic Staff

A magic staff is more powerful than a wand. The first time a staff is used, shift the results one category better: Drained is treated as Weak, Weak is treated as Normal, and so on. A Fully-Charged result is still treated as “Roll again next month”, however, unless the player is blessed as noted above.

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Support and Upkeep

Here’s a weekly support and upkeep system that fits with Liber Zero, OD&D, and almost any D&D compatible ruleset.

Level	Weekly Upkeep	Residence Cost	Servants
1	15 coins	N/A	0
2	45 coins	150 coins	1
3	90 coins	450 coins	1
4	180 coins	900 coins	2
5	360 coins	1800 coins	2
6	720 coins	3600 coins	3
7	1400 coins	7200 coins	4
8	2800 coins	14000 coins	5
9	5600 coins	28000 coins	6
10	11,000 coins	56000 coins	8
	+10,000/level	+50,000/level

Explanation

Weekly Upkeep is how much an adventurer has to pay for room, board, equipment repairs, and the occasional minor tax (gate tolls, market fees.)

Residence Cost is how much an adventurer has to pay for a permanent residence in town if they want to reduce the weekly upkeep costs. If a character has a level-appropriate permanent residence, shift up one row for the weekly upkeep costs (minimum 15 coins/week.) HOWEVER…

Servants is the minimum number required to maintain both the residence and one’s own social standing. If a character doesn’t have enough servants, there should be a weekly chance of some kind of minor disaster: rodent infestations, bed bugs, water or smoke damage, and so on. Roll 1d6 for every missing servant, with something bad happening if any die rolled is 5+. Multiply the total of all the dice rolled by 10 for replacement or repair costs.

If either the residence value or number of servants is below what is indicated for the character’s level, the character will be seen as being a lower level. For example, a 4th-level hero with a single-floor residence worth 150 coins is seen as a 2nd level character. Shift reaction results down one category (Good reactions become Average, etc.) Or, roll 1d6 for every level of difference to check for social catastrophes, similar to the way you would check for minor disasters at an understaffed residence.

    

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Power Sources for Spell Prep

We’ve been talking in a couple places about how the old school magic system works. That reminded me that I had this table squirreled away somewhere. It’s a list of sources of magical power.

d6	Source of Power	on Doubles	on Triples
1	Astrology	Limited Time	Planetary Rays
2	Words of Power	Chanting	Long Song
3	Invocation	Worship	Sacrifice
4	Occult Forces	Rare Reagent	Magical Reagent
5	Psychic Powers	Meditation	Trance State
6	Spirit Binding	Pacts	Sacrifice

Purpose: Randomly determining what a magic system requires a spell caster to do in order to prep a spell, as opposed to actually casting it. Not necessarily for your main form of spell casting, which most GMs or groups would probably want to discuss rather than randomize… But if a GM needed a topic for a random obscure magical tome, or if a strange new adventuring area needs a custom form of magic to make it feel distinct, this table could help with that.

Concept: The table sorts the potential sources of magical power into six categories: astrological forces, occult forces, words of power, invocation of divine power, binding of lesser spirits, and innate psychic power. Each source of power can also have different degrees of effort required:

• The second column is in general just “fluff”, but may have potential minor effects (pissing off a god might cause a penalty if magic requires invocation, for example.)
• The third column either takes longer or requires more resources.
• The fourth column is even more extreme.

Usage: Roll either 2d6 or 3d6, depending on how elaborate you want the magic system to be. With three dice, your magic system may have:

1. three different required sources of power, or
2. two sources, one of which is more limiting than the other, or
3. one very limiting source.

Spell casters would have to follow the indicated procedure to prepare their spells, after which they are either cast immediately or set to trigger when specific mnemonic phrases and gestures are used.

I’m still thinking over the process. I might ditch the third degree of difficulty. I might think of another source of power. Each of the power sources probably deserves more explanation in another post.

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Speeding Up, Taking Time

So, for a couple reasons, some of which will be made clear at various points of time in the future, I’ve been tackling abilities, training, and situation rolls. Mostly, how to avoid them, as explained in the Ability Checks Are the Devil post, which turned into a series of posts (summary here) ending with:

So what if we stop rolling to see if characters succeed at a task, but instead roll to see if they can complete the task quickly under pressure? And ability scores don’t adjust the chances of completing the task, but adjust the time? Or, in the case of non-time-critical tasks, they limit the quality?

I’ve mentioned in a couple places the idea of rolling a d6 to see if you are able to do something on time. On 5+, you do. On 1-4, the roll = how much extra time you need. You also need to roll if the situation isn’t perfect and something could go wrong, regardless of how skillful you are. Ability scores, training, and backgrounds affect the time or eliminate the need to roll.
’
Here’s the rough draft of a table I’m working on to get this all unified.

The idea: Tasks that are easy for trained professionals are Difficult for the untrained. Difficult tasks are Unlikely for the untrained. Taking extra time – moving up one or more rows in the Base Time Period columns – can eliminate the need for a roll (move down the same number of rows in the Chance column.) Speeding things up works the opposite.

Ability scores also affect the time needed:

• Good scores (13-15) shift the time of Difficult tasks down one row
• Very Good scores (16-17) shift the time of Unlikely tasks down one row
• Bad scores (6-8) shift the time of Unlikely tasks up one row
• Very Bad scores (4-5) shift the time of Difficult tasks up one row
• Extremely Bad and Extremely Good scores (3 and 18) shift the time of any task up or down two rows, although no task becomes impossible unless there are other negative aspects in play, and no task becomes automatic if there are other negative aspects in play.

Characters with a relevant professional background can substitute years of training for an ability score, if desired. Classes can substitute double their Level, if it seems appropriate.
It will need more work, but I wanted to see where this was going before I worked on a certain other project.

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Simplified XP Bonus Table

Who wants an experience point table for Liber Zero?

I’ve tinkered with the earned experience before, especially the bonus for primary ability scores. Because who wants to subtract percentages, really? My solution in the past has been to “zero out” the bonuses: instead of -20% for Fighters with a Strength of 6 or less, give Fighters with average Strength a bonus.

That’s the thinking behind this latest version of the XP Bonus Table, which I had to work on … for reasons. This not only assumes that characters with scores of 3 or 4 get no bonus, it also assumes that there is a unified XP advancement table with the magic-using class as the default. All other classes get a bonus. I also included a tweak to the by-the-book bonuses to make the progression smooth.

The table assumes:

• Standard unit of treasure is 1 coin pouch, or 20 coins. A small bag holds two and a half pouches (50 coins,) while a large sack holds 15 pouches or six bags (300 coins.)
• Monster experience is per person for a team of four or five adventurers. A smaller team earns double XP, while a solo adventurer earns triple XP.
• Adventurers who fight a monster that has fewer hit dice or levels than they do earn half XP and no XP bonus. If the adventurer has twice the hit dice or levels that the monster has, they earn no experience.

The monster XP rules are greatly simplified compared to the by-the-book formula (monster level/character level * base XP.) As a result, sometimes characters will earn a little more XP than in OD&D, but a lot of the times they will earn less.

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Dice-Neutral Attack/Saving Throw Table, Adjusted

Almost immediately after I posted the Saving Throw table last Thursday, I realized I screwed up. Oh, sure, the table entries are correct and the table is usable – if you use the table a specific way. A non-intuitive way. But it can be improved.

The way I was expecting the table to be used:

1. Use the header to equate a saving throw category to an armor type, if necessary.
2. Find your dice rating or level title in the columns on the left.
3. Read across the row until you find the armor class you are attacking/saving against.
4. Move down the column to find the target number for the dice you are rolling.

This all works, but the headers are barely getting any use, and aren’t being used in the traditional way. Plus, you have to do some weird math adjustments if you are attacking a weaker armor class at higher levels. I made several attempts at explaining how to make the adjustments, but none of them sounded very clear, and I was not satisfied.

Simply reversing the entries on each row and changing the way you read the table fixes that. So, I made a new table. Here’s how to use it:

1. Look in the header for the column for your target armor type or saving throw category.
2. Move down the column to the row for your dice rating or level title.
3. Read the adjusted armor type (for example, Heroes attack opponents in Medium armor as if they were wearing Light armor.)
4. Find the adjusted armor type in the Suggested Dice Rolls section and use the listed target number.

If the adjusted armor type in Step 3 is blank, count how many columns you have to move to the right to get to an adjusted armor type of None. Subtract that from the target number for Armor Type None, if rolling 1d6 or 2d6. Double this modifier if rolling 1d20 or 4d6-4. This is easier to explain than the adjustments for the previous version of this table.

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Spell Spat Table

OOPS! You ticked off one or more magicians and then let them escape. Your new enemy plans to harass you magically until the very end. Until you do something about it, the GM rolls once a week on the Magic Spat table to see what the latest nuisance is.
Roll 4d6 and set aside any 6s rolled, then look up the total.

4d6 Roll	Magic Spat Activity
0	I Came to Gloat! Rival sends illusion of self to personally confront you.
1	Bite Me! Conjured attack dog appears.
2	Bring Waders! Area floods to knee height for 1 hour.
3	Good Job! Next door you see/pass through does 1d6 non-lethal damage as it hits you.
4	Scary Visage! NPCs flee you 1d6 times.
5	Pantsed! Trousers or robes fall off in 1d6 chases.
6	Flat-footed! Footwear falls off in 1d6 chases.
7	Pop! Next 1d6 bottles/vials held break.
8	Hiss! Backpack fills with 1d6 snakes.
9	The Eagle Has Landed! Birds take the next 1d6 small objects from your hands.
10	On a Roll! 1d6 barrels roll rapidly toward you.
11	UFO Flap! Conjures 1d6 bats around you.
12	Wine Tasting! 1d6 drinks near you spill.
13	Wart Pack! Backpack fills with 1d6 toads.
14	Duck Hunt! 1d6 ducks chase you, quacking loudly.
15	Heckler! Tiny face calls you a liar in next 1d6 NPC conversations.
16+	A Breather. Rival had something else to do this week.

If one or more 6s were rolled and set aside, each 6 rolled adds 1d6 to any dice roll mentioned in the results above.

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Spell Stat Table

Wait, did I not do a table for spell stats? I’m finding some, but none seem complete.

Level	Range	Missile	Duration	Diameter
1	10 ft	120 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
2	20 ft	120 feet	2d6 turns	30 feet
3	30 ft	240 feet	4d6 turns	30 feet
4	40 ft	240 feet	4d6 turns	60 feet
5	50 ft	360 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet
6	60 ft	360 feet	6d6 turns	60 feet

First two columns are for range. For missile spells, use the second column, obviously. Also use this for feet/turn for movement spells like Fly, or for the distance limit for a spell already in effect (Levitation thus has a 20 foot range, but target can be levitated 120 feet above the caster.)

Duration time units depend on nature of spell. Turns are combat turns (rounds) or ten-minute turns, depending on whether spell is intended for combat. Some effects that make more sense if they last hours or days would use those time units instead.

Diameter is used for area of effect, for example Fireball.

You can use this plus a basic concept of what the spell is supposed to do to improvise the vast majority of spells.

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Zombie Corpse Conditions

So the PCs stumble on a crypt full of zombies. But zombies rot. How intact are these zombies? Roll 2d6.

Roll	Result	Result Details
2	Nearly Skeletal	Patches of flesh cling to to their bones
3-5	Badly Rotted	Most of one side is skeletal
6-8	Somewhat Rotted	One arm or half the face is missing flesh
9-11	Slightly Rotted	Bone shows through in spots
12	Fresh Corpse	Pallid, but still appears human

Slightly rotted corpses are standard zombies.

Appearance affects two things: surprise and fear. A zombie in relatively good condition can walk the streets of a town, tricking victims into believing they are just ordinary citizens until it’s too late, allowing them to get closer before attacking. Halve the encounter distance in these conditions for the listed zombie varieties.

Conditions	Allows Surprise by…
No Light	Any zombie variety
Dim Light Silhouette	Badly Rotted
Shadows or Fog	Somewhat Rotted
Dim Light	Slightly Rotted
Cloudy Day	Fresh Corpse

A Fresh Corpse zombie also doubles its chance of surprise in any dim light or fog situation (except for No Light, where all chances are standard.)

Hirelings will generally only check morale after a fight has begun, but they will automatically flee if surprised by any zombie, or even when not surprised if they can see a Badly or Somewhat Rotted zombie clearly (dim light or better.) They will also immediately flee a Nearly Skeletal zombie if there is any light at all.

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Improved Situations

The Set-Up:
Long-time readers will remember that I settled on a universal mechanic to resolve situations: roll 1d6, and if the result is 5+, the situation changes, for good or ill.

• Surprised on 5+
• Drop item on 5+
• Slip over edge of pit on 5+

Also, instead of rolling ability checks (1d20 or 3d6 under Str, Int, etc.,) I let PCs with high ability scores skip a situation roll where relevant, or allow a roll when normally failure is automatic.

The Problem:
I also don’t use skill lists. I use backgrounds. If a character used to be a chef before becoming an adventurer and is served poison stew, they get a chance to notice the stew smells funny, like no stew they would have made. And backgrounds are rated in years of experience. PCs can use whichever is higher: an ability score, or years of experience in a relevant background.
I want to integrate these two things better, and also allow some distinctions for things like “untrained” vs. “just started training (0 years experience)”.

The Solution:
A table, of course.

Odds	Success Roll
Extreme	automatic
High	3+ on 1d6
Med	5+ on 1d6
Low	6 on 1d6
Impossible	auto failure

You don’t record dice rolls for most situations, since players will always come up with ones you don’t expect. They will either be auto success (something anyone can do, typically, like open an ordinary unlocked door) or auto failure (non-spell caster trying to improvise a spell.) Other times, you record that something has High, Medium, or Low odds of success. The table gives the appropriate dice roll.

If something would improve those odds, look up the base roll on the table and shift up one line. So, if a fighter starts training in magic (using the research rules ,) the odds of successfully casting a known spell from a scroll shift up from Impossible to 6 on 1d6.

If something would lower those odds – PCs deliberately spilling a barrel of oil on a ledge to foil pursuit – the base roll shifts down one line: auto success (Extremely High odds) becomes 3+ on 1d6. This can include doing something anyone with training could normally do, but under extremely difficult conditions, or with improvised, substandard tools.

The ability score table also uses similar ratings for different ranges: less than 8 is Low, 9 to 12 is Normal, 13+ is High, and so on. (See the mechanics neutral table for an example of this.) Having the same rating or better as the listed odds shifts them up one level. So, if the odds of crossing a rickety bridge successfully are normally High (3+ on 1d6,) a character with High Dex of 13 would succeed automatically.

An Extremely High ability score shifts the odds up two lines. An Extremely Low ability score shifts the odds down one line. For the sake of fairness, only shift auto success down if there are also bad circumstances. Don’t make Str 3 characters roll to open ordinary doors. This will also help those still in training for a skill or profession: someone who just started training in lockpicking (less than a year of experience) can pick ordinary locks without a roll, same as any locksmith, unless the lock is extremely old (dungeon lock) or complicated. Even then, they can use Dex or Int if either is higher than 0 to determine if the roll shifts up or down.

I’ll probably be tweaking this process and the wording some more over the next several months, but this is something I’m considering for the upcoming talents and abilities PDF.

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Last-Minute Keys and Locks: 4d6 Lockpicking

I’ve been thinking a little more about last-minute keys and locks. First, there was a brief discussion in the comments about whether the process was too convoluted. Ynas Midgard suggested going back to the idea of d4+d8 instead of 2d6 for the reaction roll, because then it’s easier to specify that the d4 can be used for the number of keys that must match for a Close Match result. But there’s also the possibility of just changing a Close Match to mean “at least half the keywords match”. At first, I thought this was a viable optional rule and that I’d stick to 1-4 matches for my personal use… but the more I thought about it, I think “half the keywords match” is just a better rule.

But I have also been thinking of adapting this to the" 4d6 drop 6s" idea. Specifically, the approach mentioned in reaction rolls with four dice. It’s not just for the fun of playing with an alternate table, as you’ll soon see. First, though, the table.

4d6 drop 6	Reaction	Detailed Explanation
Up to 1	Broken!	Key snaps off and jams lock.
2-3	Wrong Key	Lock jammed on 5+ (1d6).
4-7	Might Fit	All keywords must match.
8-12	Close Match	At least half must match.
13-16	Fits	Lock opens if any keywords match.
17-18	Lucky Fit!	1st letter of a keyword must match.
19-20	I Made It Fit!	No matches necessary.

Table should be self-explanatory now. Curses shift the result one category worse. Blessings shift the result one category better.

Now here’s the tricky part: when adapting this keyword trick to other situations that involve skills, you need to distinguish unskilled people from skilled people. For example, you could have a set of lockpicks instead of a single lockpick, each with a different keyword. Anyone trained as a thief rolls 4d6, dropping 6s. The thief class would add their level to the roll. Anyone who’s still in training would only roll 2d6, though, again dropping 6s, for a range of 0 to 10. So:

• An untrained character picking a lock requires one lockpick for every keyword on the lock (two picks for a green copper lock, for example.)
• A trained lockpick must use at least half as many picks as there are keywords on the lock.
• A true thief (class) never worries about jamming the lock.
• A 5th level thief has a good chance of opening any lock with one pick, but two picks are still a safer bet.
• An 8th level thief can open any two-keyword locks with only one matching pick.

It will probably get more interesting when adapted to “metaphorical keys and locks”, but that’s for later. The important point, here, is that I used to talk about dividing the reaction roll by two if a person was untrained, but rolling half as many dice is a lot easier.

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Last-Minute Keys and Locks: Reaction Roll Table

Not sure why this didn’t occur to me when I was working on keys and locks before… but here’s the well-known reaction table, repurposed yet again…

Every key (literal or metaphoric) has one or more keywords describing it: brass key, iron dragon key, crystal goblin key. Doors, chests, and other locked items also have key words.
When attempting to use a key to unlock a lock, count the number of keywords that are identical (match,) note whether any keywords start with the same letter (near match,) and make a 2d6 reaction roll using this table.

2d6	Results
2	Wrong Key, might break in lock.
3-5	Might Fit, all keywords must match.
6-8	Close Match, need 1-4 matches.
9-11	Fits, lock opens if any words match.
12	Lucky Fit! lock opens for near match.

On a wrong key result, the key breaks in the lock, jamming it, unless there is at least one match. If the character is cursed, the key breaks no matter what. The lock can’t be opened anymore.

On a close match, the lowest individual d6 result is the number of matches needed to open the lock.

On a lucky fit, the lock opens even if there are no exact matches, as long as at least one pair of keywords start with the same letter (the rusty key opens the red lock.) If the character is blessed, the lock opens no matter what.

For metaphoric keys and locks, what counts as a match may be expanded. For example, keywords for herbal remedies might only need to start with the same letter as a keyword for a disease, or might only need to be logically related in some way, for example through the medieval four humours system or doctrine of signatures. On a lucky fit result, a keyword matches if it comes first alphabetically when compared to the keywords for the disease.

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