Fresh off the presses!

36 rules-agnostic pages of mechanics, tables, hex-flowers, and other tools, to use in your fantasy role-playing campaign, including:

• Character Perks
• Wilderness Travel
• Camping
• Hunting & Foraging
• Searching
• Illness & Disease
• Herbs
• Strange beasts
• Sites
• Weather
• Terrain

Sample spread:

Links

• DTRPG
• Itch
• Website

I actually hit a wall in my own life path last year. I was stuck at level 1, my academic focus at university was failing and my results were dipping. I realized I was trying to follow the fighter > knight path when my internal stats were actually meant for something else.

To find my correct prestige requirements, I looked into the source code of my own life. I analyzed my 29/11 life path using numerology. It was a complete game-changer. Discovering that I carried a master Number frequency, it helped me realize the standard XP grind wasn’t working for me. Once I realigned my routine with that numerical blueprint, my productivity shot back up to its peak. It was like I finally unlocked the prerequisites for my next level.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and have started and stopped many attempts over the past year or so. I figured it might help me to just get some ideas out somewhere.

Caveats

• starting from b/x
• I’m not worried about balance relative to other classes because I intend to eventually rework all of them
• I’m not worried about balance relative to content— I know these will be significantly more powerful than base because it’s so easy to adjust for this on the referee side; when in doubt, add more orcs!
• Clerics as we know them are going away and some of their abilities are coming to fighters!
• Thinking of three different fighter archetypes: captain, champion, reaver; what they mean TBD.

Basics

Hit Dice: 1d8 per level
To Hit: +1 per level
Weapon Damage: equal to hit dice

Intimidate

A fighter can intimidate different creatures:

• animals and beasts if wielding fire
• intelligent creatures if wielding a weapon
• undead if presenting a holy symbol

To intimidate, the fighter rolls their hit dice and adds them up. That number of HD are intimidated/turned.

What intimidated means specifically TBD.

At fourth level, can destroy undead; some sort of slaying or super-intimidate.

Fanged Moon Dagger

A tall succulent plant made up of thorny blade shaped leaves surrounding a spear of small pale flowers. In the light of the moon the flowers open and release silver grains of sour smelling pollen.

If harvested and smeared onto a blade using the sticky gel from inside the leaves, this pollen effectively “silvers” the weapon for one attack.

Holy Sky Curse

A low crawling leafy plant of pure crimson. Difficult to cultivate, but a favorite of holy men, and often grown in the shady places of temple gardens or at the base of secretive windows.
If trod upon the pigment within the leaves dyes ones boots blood red, causing them to leave startling footprints. Usually concluding in a stern reprimand to whoever had been skulking where they should not be…

In some religious tomes this herb has been rumored to experience explosive growth in response to a corrupted clergy. Ultimately growing thickly over walls and forming a gloomy red haze over the building.

Day Rat Cap

Fuzzy brown and grey mushrooms that spring up suddenly near sewer entrances in rain soaked city streets.
Sporting long black anchoring roots, resembling rat tails.
If disturbed by curious animals or foot traffic these mushroom caps suddenly spring sideways and roll away, often down into the sewer proper, giving the appearance of a fleeing rat.

While harmless above ground, these mushrooms develop poisonous spores if able to find a wet and sunless environment. Morphing into the Night Rat Cap. A much more dangerous hazard, retaining their sudden explosive springiness, but with the added threat of spewing toxic fumes as they tumble.

Here’s a table of herb names that I’ve been messing with.

Let’s see what’s going on in Reddit!

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Read the CROWS announcement on Patreon.

I keep seeing this myth perpetrated about OSR and the deliberate lack of encounter balancing. I take a look at the old school D&D editions from which the OSR sprung to poke a hole or two in this myth and show you how to check your encounters for balance, if you so choose.

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Read the transcript

Some Photos from the Exhibit

After a gap of forty years, more or less, my cousins re-found their love for D&D, with the help of a strangely charismatic goblin, named “Priddy”, and the Caves of Chaos.

Let’s read some Reddit posts and talk about Questing Beast vs Goodman Games and DCC!

The One Ring Prep! | Hexed Press Behind the Screens Live!

I recreated my map area in Worldographer 2025…

It’s the end of the year and I managed to do one last, albeit small and insignificant thing, before the clock strikes twelve: an entry to the Onegeon Game Jam.

Pool of the Hydra

A fifty-headed hydra lives in the pool. It is hostile, except to the priestesses of Libuwho bear sacred water in silver evers to fill the pool.

Twice a year, the sun appears directly above the pool. At this time, the High Priestess performs a ceremony that allows a chosen, if any, to pass into the pool, unharmed by the hydra, and cross into the Underworld. They have until midnight of that night to return.

The accumulated litter at the bottom of the pool constitutes a significant hoard. However, the water is perilous— a strong current pulls downwards towards the center where, at the bottom of the pool, is a maelstrom that connects the pool to the elemental plane of water.

Tools

Spawn of the Hungering One - Fomoria TTRPG Quick-Start Adventure | Hexed Press Reads LIVE!

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Download the Fomoria Quickstart Rules

First up: Chainmail 3rd Edition

A familiar quote, but funny to find it included in the originator: “Follow the spirit of the rules rather than the letter.”

Combat-related:

• Rounds (called turns here) are 1 minute. Guess only AD&D stuck with that (iirc).
• There are two systems of handling movement. In the Move/Counter Move System (Initiative), there is split-moving, and missile fire from those troops takes effect immediately during movement. The same is true for pass-through fire. Other missile fire takes effect two steps later during the missile fire step. In the Simultaneous Movement System (Initiative), there is also unordered melee contact after half movement (not explained => opportunity attack?).
• Split-move & Fire: For horsemen armed with bows. Half move, fire (as missile step), then half move again. Can be fire upon by opponent’s missile troops during the firing pause.
• Pass-through Fire: Stationary missile troops can fire at any enemy troops within range at the half move portion.
• I guess anyone involved in those two maneuvers can still fire during the missile phase as well? => double bow fire rate.
• Crossbows fire every turn as bows, but bows fire twice if not moving. Half movement and missile fire is possible (but also if more than half of movement is moved and they beat the opponents die roll => attack roll, since missile phase is simultaneous?). Heavy crossbows fire every other turn (get a bonus to attack roll), but half move and reloading/firing is allowed + the same rule for more than half movement, but only for firing.
• Bows are pretty powerful!
• Indirect Fire: Bows can fire over other troops at 2/3rds range and higher armor category.
• Throwing weapons can always be fired against charging troops => pass-through fire?
• Soft cover reduces missile casualties by half, but is negated by indirect fire. Arrow slits make troops missile proof.
• Missiles cannot be fired into a melee.
• Missile troops mixed with melee troops can move a bit out of melee.
• Repeating crossbows exist and fire as bows at -1 hit probability and lower range.
• Charge is possible if movement (relatively straight line for cavalry) ends in melee contact. Doesn’t seem to do anything extra besides an increase in movement? There’s an impetus bonus when charging across level terrain or down moderate slopes, added to number on the combat table. Troops charged by cavalry must check morale.
• Cavalry can Charge if Charged (at half move & half charge => dmg?), either for themselves or in support of nearby friendly units. Charge Move adds a bit more movement, more for mounted troops.
• Flanking increases attack to next higher class.
• Morale checks are not indicated, as they can occur during the missile or melee steps.
• Fatigue is applied after certain rounds of moving and melee. Effects are attacking and defending at lower value, and morale drops as well. Restored by resting for one turn. Guess where that’s where the resting rule in BX comes from.
• Complex post melee morale rule and optional complex prisoners taken rule.
• Since melee step is simultaneous, long weapons (1st round only, then shorter weapons go first) or high ground attacks first.
• Lower weapon classes (= short/light) get double or triple attacks against higher weapon classes.
• Parrying subtracts 2 from the roll in exchange for no counter attack (parrying depends on weapon classes involved, can break weapons or get counter attack if successful). That’s a pretty fun rule, could easily be imported into other system after fiddling with the specifics a bit.
• Mounted combatants gain bonuses against unmounted combatants, and horse can attack as well. Mounted combatants can be dismounted by stating intent to do so and attacking successfully. Being dismounted possibly stuns 1 or 3 turns. Remounting/dismounting voluntarily requires a half turn (?). Pretty simple mounted combat rules, I like it.
• Combat tables of weapons vs armor.

Troop-Type-related:

• Knights are basically Cavaliers, charging automatically if in range (unless obedience roll is made) and have an order of precedence of troop types to charge.
• Mercenaries are basically permanently confused unless in melee, rolling each turn for what to do.
• Commander adds bonus to morale and other rolls of attached units, but morale is checked at malus if commander is killed.
• Leaders get a +1 to all dice and their armor is considered the best for their origin.
• Berserkers are treated as leather armored + shield, despite not wearing armor, and attack at +2, but will always attack and fight to the death. That’s a class right there, basically the barbarian iirc.
• Troop Point Values! Includes additional costs for extra weapons such as pikes, ranged or artillery weapons. You could make a simple system for hiring retainers/mercenaries out of this, which I suspect is what was done for later editions.

Misc.:

• Optional weather tables for clear, cloudy and rainy. Excess heat doubles fatigue, hard rain causes mud which reduces movement by half.
• Siege rules! Ladders are indestructible, oil is deadly. Also saves against rocks.
• Jousting is done by selecting an aiming point (attack) and a position in the saddle (defense). You could make a cool swashbuckling/martial arts system out of this.

Fantasy-related:
There’s some fun things here, especially when looking at how things changed in later editions.

• The fantasy supplement figure listing made me think of a cool rpg title: Wights & Wizards.
• Halflings shoot slings as far as bows fire and gain accuracy bonuses (guess you could call them Half-Slings).
• Sprites/Pixies are invisible even during battle, but after first round can be fought normally. Can fly for 3 turns before landing.
• Dwarves/Gnomes are good at day & night and suffer only half loses against larger creatures. Hate goblins/kobolds.
• Goblins/Kobolds see in dark, but suffer in bright light. Hate dwarves/gnomes.
• Elves/Fairies are armed with deadly bows and magical swords. Can perform split-move and fire on foot. Can’t be attacked while invisible (no ability to turn invisible mentioned, guess they can just do that), but turn visible when attacking. Magical weapons add an extra die in combat. Gain bonuses against other fantastic creatures (including hero and wizard types). Elves are pretty op!
• Orcs react to light as goblins. Must roll obedience to not fight other orcs in range. Giant orcs exist.
• Heroes/Superheroes never check morale and add +1 morale to friendly units. Kill dragons with bow if rolling well enough. Rangers are hero types with +1 to attack. Enemies must check morale if a superhero approaches.
• Wizards can handle magic weaponry, become invisible until attacking, see in darkness, affect friendly and enemy morale as heroes, throw deadly missiles and cast terrible spells! Immune to normal missile fire, but must save or die against missiles from enemy wizards. Wizard missiles are fireball or lightning bolt, which destroy anything they strike (except for some creatures that get saves, dragons/elementals are only driven back by 1 move). Those are some cool wizards.
• Spells: Wizard must be undisturbed and not move. Can be counter-spelled. Number of spells & spell distance depends on level of the wizard. There’s a system for spell complexity, essentially roll to cast, effects are immediate, delayed or negated. Spell complexity goes from 1 to 6, the higher the wizard’s level, the easier spells are to cast. I guess roll to cast is the original system.
• Listed spells: Phantasmal Forces, Darkness, Wizard Light, Detection, Concealment, Conjuration of Elemental, Moving Terrain, Protection from Evil, Levitate, Slowness, Haste, Polymorph, Confusion, Halucinatory Terrain, Cloudkill, Anti-Magic Shell.
• Wraiths can fly, see in darkness, affect morale as superheroes (friendly & enemy) and paralyze by touch (actual contact or short distance away, negated by elves, heroes or wizards). Only harmed by magical weapons.
• Lycanthropes/Shape Changer are either werebears or werewolves, each brings animals of its type along (double melee capability in woods). Can see in darkness. Require four simultaneous hits by normal weapons, or one hit by magical weapon.
• Trolls/Ogres can see in darkness. Elves kill them twice as fast, hero types or magical weapons in one hit. True trolls are much more dangerous (= D&D trolls I guess), can only be killed by heroes, elementals, giants or magical weapons. Always fight alone and never check morale.
• Giants get bonuses due to oversized weapons and throw rocks without minimum range. Never check morale.
• Treants call trees to assist in combat. Immune to normal combat and must instead be set alight.
• Dragons (red) see in darkness, cause morale checks, detect hidden or invisible enemies in range and can fly. Immune to normal combat (exception being heroes). Fire breath can be done while flying overhead and kills instantly, except superheroes, dragons, wizards (save or die) and elementals. After three fire breaths, one turn must be spent stationary to regain uses. Automatically attack, similar to cavaliers (both friendly and enemy), and never check morale. Purple dragons are flightless with a venomous stinger on its tail (so it really was purple wyrm all along).
• Rocs/Wyverns/Griffons cause morale checks as heroes and detect hidden enemies in range. Never check morale.
• Elementals/Djinn/Efrett must be conjured by a wizard. Immune to normal attacks and gain bonuses against airborne/earth-bound/fire-using/water-bound creatures. Attack summoner if uncontrolled.
• Basilisk/Cockatrice turn anyone to stone who looks at their face, but superheroes and wizards get a save. Anyone touched or touching them must save (or turn to stone/die?).
• Giant spiders are unkillable by normal men, which must save or die.
• Wights/Ghouls are immune to normal missile fire, can see in darkness and are negatively effected by full light. Paralyze by touch for one turn. Zombies are the same, but with lesser attack capabilities.
• Magical weapons can be wielded by elves, hero types and wizards. Magical arrows always hit normal targets and kill fantastic opponents on a hit. Magical swords add bonuses to attack rolls and shed light (dispels darkness, but doesn’t count as full light). Magic armor subtracts from enemy attack rolls. Magical swords and armor also have morale?
• Combination Figures: Elric would be a hero type with wizardry and magic sword.
• Some creatures are good at sieges!
• Wizards can be lawful or chaotic. Magic weapons are lawful. Elves are neutral, leaning towards law.

Lots of stuff to be inspired by. Especially the fantasy stuff, from which you can pull some cool monster concepts/variations. The spell system can serve as a base for a class or replace vancian magic entirely. Some good basic systems for mounted combat, sieges, weather and (a lot of) missile combat. Most stuff will be addressed in later editions (OD&D obviously), but it’s fun to the primordial incarnation of things!

Let's talk Mythic Bastionland with Jack Edward! | Hexed Press LIVE!

We managed (by the skin of our teeth!) to resolve the myth of The Boar. We also encountered the myth of The Bat.

Let's read Land of Eem, Part Two! | Hexed Press LIVE!

Let's read Land of Eem, Part One! | Hexed Press LIVE!

Smushing together Tolkien and the Muppets, Land of Eem won a bevy of 2025 ENNIE Awards.

Land of Eem is a game of whimsical, colorful characters exploring a wondrous world full of danger and discovery. Set in the fantasy world of the graphic novel series Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo, and the book series Dungeoneer Adventures, Land of Eem is easy to learn and packed with rules and resources that make playing and running the game a breeze.

Let’s check it out!

Show Notes:

• “Land of Eem” at DTRPG

If everything holds together, on Monday, I’m finally going to get a chance to play in a Mythic Bastionland game hosted by the incomparable Jack Edward! I rolled up my Knight this morning. I ended up with a Gazer Knight named Awren!

I’m really looking forward to taking my knight for a spin!

Can be found here: Explore: Beneath & Beyond: Original Scenarios Resurrected III: The Temple of Psaan (1980, Andrew Ravenscroft)

Continuing the journey of Thorn the barbarian. He used his new found wealth and gathered a party of fellow adventurers to make more daring expeditions for fat loot.

Characters:

Thorn, 2nd level barbarian, with middling stats except for STR. Equipped with leather armor, sword and two spears.

Grigor, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with plate mail, morning star, shield and crossbow.

Alyssa, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with splint mail, 2H axe and composite bow.

Seraphina, 1st level fighter, good stats all around. Equipped with plate armor, sword, shield and short bow.

Korgatha, 1st level MU, decent stats. Not quite human. Equipped with staff and daggers. Spells: Light, Magic Missile, ESP

Vaanar, 1st level illusionist, good stats all around. Equipped with staff and daggers. Spells: Detect Invisibility, Wall of Fog, Blind

Sythra: 1st level thief, good stats. Equipped with leather armor, sword, daggers and sling.

The party was attracted to a nearby village by rumors of strange lights and sounds originating from an old temple at night. Thinking that old temple and strange happenings can only mean riches waiting to be uncovered, the party sets out. They arrive at the old ruin, sitting on a hill near a cliff to the sea.

The roof and low walls of the building have long since collapsed, leaving only rubble and remnants of the pillars. The only intact thing is the altar. A few big rats scurry around nearby, but quickly flee from the party’s torchlight (no giant rats encounter). Sythra investigates the altar and finds it to be slide-able. The party pushes the altar back, revealing a flight of stairs going down.

The party descends and finds themselves in a hallway with three doors - one in front of them and one to the south and north each, also leading forward. The party listens at each door. The northern one betrays the sound of growling and claws scraping the floor. Behind the southern door, strange sounds, almost human but unintelligible, as well as heavy steps can be heard. The middle door is quiet, so the party chooses to open it.

The door, however, is locked and Sythra fails to pick the lock. Thorn breaks the door down, causing a loud noise, but nothing seems to react to it. There is another hallway ending a door behind it. Sythra also fails to pick the new lock, so Thorn bursts down the door again. The room behind the door is wider to the sides and ends in a set of double doors. The only feature in the room is a large plank set against the north-eastern wall, opposite of the party.

Thorn steps into the room and the floor gives way below him. He manages to swing his body back to avoid falling into the deep pit that opened up before him. The pit covers about half of the room, 15 ft. in width. Vaanar casts Light, revealing the pit to be 40 ft. deep and empty. The party discusses plans to proceed, which results in Seraphina taking off her armor to jump across the pit. She makes the jump and lays the plank across the pit, allowing the rest of the party to cross safely.

The two doors prove too difficult for Sythra to unlock, but are no match for Thorn and his newly honed door opening technique. The sound of wood splintering echoes down the long, torch-illuminated hallway stretching before the party. Two smaller hallways lead to the north and south, which the party presumes to connect to the other two doors near the entrance.

The group decides to double back to the south, thinking to deal with whatever lurks there, in the hopes of preventing a possible ambush later. The door is, of course, locked. The same sounds behind the door as before can also be heard from this side. Another door falls victim to Thorn’s boot and the party finds themselves face to face with two large apes. The apes attack in a frenzy of hunger, but are quickly dispatched by the party. Alyssa suffers a light wound, Grigor and Thorn a serious wound each. Thorn takes out three healing potions he bought before the expedition, which bring Alyssa back to perfect health and mostly patch up Thorn and Grigor.

The party return and decides to also deal with whatever lurks to the north. Another door is destroyed, revealing five war dogs. The barking beasts are dealt with in short order. Only Grigor suffers a nasty bite, but another healing potion cures him.

The party doubles back and continues down the long hallway. It ends in a T-section, going north and south. To the south, it disappears around a bend, while four doors are visible along the northern stretch, which ends in a set of double doors.

The party decides to go north. Listening at all the doors, they hear snarling and talking in a bestial tongue behind each one. No traps are found, so the party opens one of the eastern doors. A gnoll is inside, looking rather unfriendly. The gnoll barks something and the party quickly deals with the creatures, but the noise carries through the complex and more than 12 gnolls flood out from behind the other doors. Outnumbered but in good position, the party takes formation and an intense battle begins.

The battle ends with most the gnolls dead, Thorn unconscious, Sythra and Seraphina heavily wounded and Alyssa and Grigor lightly wounded. Two of the gnolls have surrendered, and the party finds about 100 gold pieces in the various rooms, as well as a key on the leader of the gnolls. The captured gnolls tell the group that the key is for the doors to the entrance rooms, and that they were hired by a sorcerer named Maldivius, who resides in an enchanted labyrinth deeper in the complex. They don’t know anything else, so the party releases them in direction of the entrance.

Grigor assumes the role of party leader and the party decides to explore a bit further, stashing Thorn in one of the rooms. They move down the southern path. An equally long corridor as the previous one stretches with before them, with three doors at the southern side. They spot a hooded figure disappearing through the far door and decide to follow.

The group enters a labyrinth of dead ends and pit traps (which they jump over). They find a door, which leads to a small room holding a carrion crawler. The creature strikes first and paralyzes Alyssa, before being killed. Finding only a small vial, which Korgatha identifies as a potion of healing, the party decides to return to the village. Blessed by good luck, they don’t encounter anything while carrying Thorn and Alyssa through the complex.

The party rests for a week, not enough to fully heal all wounded party members. During the week, Seraphina, Sythra and Alyssa ask around the village for priests or other means of healing, but find none (determined via oracle). The village elder informs them that there might be help in some of the other nearby villages, so the trio sets out to investigate. They tell the tale of what they encountered beneath the ancient temple, which does not sit well with the villagers, having a hostile force of monsters so close to them. Travelling from village to village, they are granted aid in the form of three healing potions, as the villagers want the threat gone as soon as possible (determined via oracle). Thorn drinks one of the potions and recovers greatly, though he still suffers a serious wound, which hampers his fighting ability.

With Thorn once again as the leader of the party and reasonably well rested, the group sets out toward the temple. Not encountering anything suspicious on the way or near the temple, the party carefully enters the underground complex. They find that the middle door they previously bashed down has been replaced. After some deliberation, the party inspects the door, which does not have a lock. Thorn pushes the door open and it falls down, apparently not having been hinged to the wall. As it lands on the floor, a burst of fire explodes in Thorn’s direction. He barely manages to dodge back in time to avoid the fiery blast.

The group proceeds back into the room with the pit, the long plank still covering it, and the double doors at the end also replaced. As Grigor is about to step on it, Vaanar shouts a warning. The illusionist pokes the plank with his staff, which passes through it. An illusion, he explains. Not finding the real plank anywhere, the party decides to pass the pit by jumping. A relatively easy task for the athletic members of the party, only Vaanar and Korgatha struggle a bit, but are caught and pulled over by the others.

Just as the party has cleared the pit, two bugbears and two gnolls rush at them, right through the new double doors – another illusion. One of the gnolls heavily wounds Alyssa and she stumbles back, leaving her dangling on the edge of the pit. A bloody battle ensues, with the party focused on saving Alyssa and not getting pushed into the pit. Thorn ends up bleeding out on the floor, while Alyssa and Sythra are seriously wounded.

The group hears shouting from behind the illusory doors, signalling incoming enemy reinforcements. Seraphina takes charge of the party and heals Thorn with the healing potion they found last time, but he remains unconscious. The party takes up position besides the illusory doors, reasoning that their enemies can’t see through it either. Vaanar casts Wall of Fog in front of the door. Two gnolls rush through the door and are confused by the fog, letting Alyssa and Sythra strike them down. Grigor and Seraphina rushes out through the illusion and catch three more gnolls off guard, striking them down. The last remaining gnoll proves to be quite the tough beast, bringing down Seraphina before being killed by Grigor.

(The traps are stuff that I invented, based on Maldivius’s spells and possessions. I also redistributed the sorcerer’s forces, setting up ambushes and choke points as makes sense.)

Not daring to face any more possible ambushes waiting deeper in the complex, Grigor takes charge of the party and they retreat through one of the other rooms. They arrive safely back at the village, where the villagers are preparing defenses in case anything from the dungeon follows the party. The party rests for two weeks, using two healing potions to help Thorn recover faster.

Then the party sets out once more toward the dungeon, determined to make Maldivius pay for his trickery. They descend into the dungeon, wary of new traps, tricks or ambushes. Not encountering anything, they reach the second long hallway with the three doors, where they entered the labyrinth last time. Again they spot a robed figure darting into the far door to the east and decide to follow it.

Back in the labyrinth they explored partially last time, the party is wary of traps and lurking monsters. Grigor almost falls into a pit trap, then finds a secret door at a dead end. The door opens to another empty stretch of hallway, at the end of which Thorn finds another secret door. Proceeding through it, the party find themselves in a well furnished bedroom. A man dressed in a wizard’s robe looks at them with surprise.

The party decides they want information, so they talk to the man. He introduces himself as Maldivius and praises them for finding their way through the labyrinth. The party cautiously questions the sorcerer about his purpose here, to which he states that he simply wants to conduct his experiments in peace. He offers to show them to the party, who accepts.

Maldivius leads the group into the next room, a sorcerous laboratory. An apprentice pours over books, whom Maldivius instructs to fetch the experiments. The party warily watches a tall, ape-like creature of blue scales, iron claws and spiked tail, which keeps watch over the western door. When questioned about the demonic creature, the sorcerer tells the party that it is a lesser demon from the 12th plane, summoned to do his bidding. Maldivius orders the demon, Zdim, to watch his guest, to which the creatures turns and observes the party.

The apprentice returns with two hulking, human-looking creatures with big lumps where their hands should be. Maldivius proudly presents the results of his experiments – the mutation of humans for specific purposes. The party is not impressed, or amused, and threatens Maldivius to stop his experiments and vacate the premise. The sorcerer cares little for the party’s threats and tells them to leave, now that they have found what they were looking for. Else they will face the overwhelming force of him, his apprentice, the demon and the two experiments. The party draws their weapons to put an end to the sorcerer and his unnatural creations.

Maldivius orders Zdim to “tear those over there apart”, then sics his creations on the party and prepares to cast a spell. The apprentice does the same. Thorn makes the first move and strikes a powerful cut across the demon’s body, supported by Seraphina. It retaliates and rends the barbarian with its powerful claw, nearly killing him instantly. Grigor exchanges blows with one of the hulking experiments, while Alyssa gets struck by the other one’s clubbing arms. The four magic-users unleash their spells upon each other simultaneously. Vaanar tries to blind Maldivius, but the more powerful sorcerer resists the spell and counters with a might magic missile, blasting the illusionist dead. Korgatha shoots her own magic missile at Maldivius, but is killed in return by the apprentice own magical projectile in return. Sythra wounds Maldivius with an arrow, who retaliates with another magic missile, killing the thief. Seconds later, Thorn and Grigor fall to the combined might of the demon and one of the experiments. The other creature strikes down Alyssa. Now all alone, Seraphina fires two last arrows, her likely final act of defiance, at the apprentice and Maldivius. They strike true and both of the men keel over dead. However, her fortune turns as the experiments march up to strike her down – Zdim now hacks its deadly claws into them, following its master’s last order to the letter. Heavily wounded, Seraphina flees while the monster fall upon each other.

She arrives at the village and tells the villagers what happened. They prepare for the worst while she rests. Fortunately, no demons, sorcerous experiments or other horrors attack the village. Seraphina rests until she is fully recovered, then manages to persuade a group of brave villagers to help her scout out the dungeon one final time (she has the highest CHA of the group). They encounter nothing while making their way through the complex. Most likely the rest of Maldivius forces fled after their master’s death. They find site, mostly as it was when Seraphina fled, except for the two torn apart bodies of the experiments. The demon is nowhere to be found, likely having returned to where ever it was summoned from. Seraphina takes whatever treasure she can find, then helps the villagers carry the bodies of her fallen companions back to the village.

Thorn, Grigor, Alyssa, Sythra, Vaanar and Korgatha are buried as heroes of the village. The villagers make plans to seal the underground of the temple for good, lest another evil make its lair there. Seraphina stays in the village for a while, then sets out for further adventures.

That’s end of this adventure (and Thorn’s journey). Really fun dungeon, I enjoyed creating the traps and ambushes for the party’s return. I also made up Maldivius’s purpose being the experiments, since there’s nothing given in the adventure for why he’s down there, but I thought it made sense, as he does have those creatures guarding the room before the study.

I rolled for the groups reaction upon encountering the sorcerer, which turned out to be friendly. Then I rolled neutral and hostile when they were waiting for the apprentice to return and for Maldivius offer of letting them leave. Guess the dice wanted a TPK :V. The fight was the level 8 demon, Maldivius and the two experiments all level 5, and the level 2 apprentice against six level 1 and one level 2 characters. Quite the challenge! Seraphina got lucky she won initiative and dealt enough damage to kill the two sorcerers. The adventure says that Zdim takes orders extremely literally, so I thought it made sense for it to attack the experiments, as they moved “over there” to attack Seraphina. The whole adventure is inspired by Sprague de Camp’s book “The Fallible Fiend”, so pretty fitting how it ended.

Seraphina managed to survive a few more adventures, eventually establishing a fortified city near a cleared dungeon. She also got payback on Zdim later, by first drawing the Flames card from a Deck of Many Things (earning its enmity again), then drawing the Moon card, enabling her to cast Wish, which she used to summon the demon and slay it with the help of her new, stronger party.

Stunt

A maneuver that, if successful, confers an effect that is not an attack.

• Static Difficulty: 15
• Roll: d20 +Mod +Level
  • Alternate Rule: d20 + Mod + Level if Mod is a Class Req (ie. STR for fighters)
• Levels of Success:
  • minor: win the roll
  • major: win the roll by 5
  • critical: win the roll by 10
• Failure: on a miss of more than five, become exposed, next attack against rolls 2 dice, choosing the better result.

Usage

A stunt replaces a move or an action.

Effects

• minor: a small, situational or positional gain
• major: on next action, roll two dice and take the greater result.
• critical: as major + next action against rolls two dice and takes lesser result.

Replace or bolster the above with contextual advantages as befits the situation.

Croco:

I wouldn’t put that limit on it myself, but good for an optional rule.

The concept I’m aiming for is a missile sharpshooter-- you don’t generally get to run and take a careful shot. I also don’t mind favoring melee combatants a bit since they inherently are taking on more risk than those fighting from distance.

Todd:

Increased Difficulty: AC + HD

Hmm, that works I think. Would need some testing to how satisfying it feels.

That’s a pretty neat way to address the wasted turn thing. Nice.

I wouldn’t put that limit on it myself, but good for an optional rule.

Those seem all fine to me, the sub-categorization into minor, major and critical is good. Though I usually let declared attacks do normal damage in addition to effects. The only thing missing would be maneuvers which don’t target an enemy (like Gimli hiding under the wyvern), but those can be ruled ad hoc, me thinks.

Todd:

Remind me: what’s the cost for the power attack? (From later, it seems you’re using -4 attack modifier-- is that correct?)

No additional cost apart from the declaration.

Yes, just the declaration.

Basically just a power attack, but flavoured differently. Dice rolls are pretty much just normal attack, damage & saves. In the first part I noted if a power attack was the deciding factor to killing something. But could have included them, true.

Normal head-shot was for 2x damage, this one stuns in addition to doing normal damage. Thinking back on it, I probably should only have allowed slings to stun, to demonstrate possible weapon selection differences.

It was quite fun!

Hmm, I would probably only codify the basic 2x damage, stun, disarm, knock back maneuvers. Everything else I would keep more open and depending on the situation, so it stays dynamic. Makes a nice contrasts to the more rigid spells.