Lo Scrigno d'Avorio un gdr vecchia scuola tutto italiano prime impressioni

Segnalo "Lo Scrigno d'Avorio" un bel clone tutto italiano recentemente pubblicato da Luigi Castellani, gioco bello e scorrevole che trasuda l'amore dell'autore per il gioco Old-School. Ci sono piccole modifiche stilose e i bellissimi disegni dell'autore. Nel complesso un lavoro di grande artigianato, impaginazione pulita e disegni splendidi (l'ho già detto?) :-) Nel regolamento basato su sword & wizardry abbiamo:

• Nani (ladri, guerrieri o chierici runici - interessante variante nanica del chierico)
• Elfi(guerrieri elfi o ladri elfi, in pratica guerrieri/stregoni o ladri/stregoni)
• Gnomi (ladri, druidi o guerrieri)
• Umani (chierici, druidi, guerrieri, ladri o maghi)

Quindi di fatto razze e classi separate tranne che per gli elfi :-)

Bella la regola sugli elmetti e i tanti consigli sparsi nel manuale. Molto gradevole e ben curata l'ambientazione contenuta nel manuale. Una recensione più in là... magari dopo aver giocato l'avventura contenuta nel manuale.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/307020/Lo-Scrigno-dAvorio

Inner book a repertoire of spells for old school spell-users

Art by Earl Geier
from Scarlet Heroes free Art Pack

The Inner Book is a small list of spell that the spell-user can memorize even without a physical copy of her spell-books, it is a spell book existing in the spell-user mind, a sort of specialized form of photographic memory.

Use of the Inner Book
The spell impressed in the Inner Book can be memorized as if the mage had a spell book, the time to memorize a spell is double the normal time of memorization.

Max number of spell in the Inner Book
The number of spell that can be impressed in the Inner book is 5 plus Intelligence bonus (Or half Intelligence value rounded down).

Cost of impressing a spell in the Inner Book
The cost to impress a spell in the Inner Book is 100 gp per level of spell and the use of the same spell from memory, the procedure will take 1 day per level of spell.

Cost of erasing a spell in the Inner Book
To free space on the book the cost is much higher, to erase a spell the mage need 1 week per level of spell to be erased plus 1000 gp per level of spell.

Problems from having spells in the Inner Book
To have even a single spell in the Inner Book means that the character is obviously a spell-user, he will have magical markings moving on his skin, an eerie demeanor and a general -2 to reactions from mundane people.

This article give a way to create a repertoire of spell that can be used for the polyspells presented here: Polyspell an option for spontaneous casting, a middle step between classic vancian and sorcery

Furthermore this article works well with the Recharging Spells a Vancian optional system for AD&D and OSR

Health Dice a different use of Hit Dice for OSR and 5th edition

Art by Luigi Castellani
from the Spears of the Dawn free art pack

Health Dice
The basic idea behind this article is that Health Dice (HD) are fixed (10+Constitution bonus) and the type of die (d4, d6, d8) is determined by the character class.

Hit Points (HP) are, as before, just based on class and level.

In this system HP will better represent the ability to avoid fatal damage, while HD will represent the capacity of the character to recover HP.
Furthermore HD are recovered slowly and so they will represent the overall status of Health and Stamina of the character.

Number and type of Health Die (HD)
Each character will have HD equal to 10+Constitution bonus (-3 to +3) and the type of dice will be based on their class (in an OSR game we will have: Magic-Users d4, Hybrids d6, Warriors d8).
So a Fighter (d8 HD) with Constitution 13 will have 11d10 HD, a Mage (d4 HD) with Constitution 7 will have 9d4 HD.

HP recovery
As for 5th edition rules you can recover one or more (HD+Con bonus) during a "short rest" (anything from 10 minutes to one hour of rest).

HD recovery
As in 5th edition you will recover half maximum HD for each "long rest" (a full night of sleep) .

Cure Wounds
Cure spells (and  cure spell from wands, scroll and the like, potions and elixirs could make exception) should work in a slightly different manner (specially when this rules are used with the Recharging Spells rules).

Each Cure spell when used on a character will work by instantly giving the effects of a powered up "short rest", a cure spell will consume 1 HD from the receiving character that will recover (1+level of the cure spell)*(HD).

EG: a character with d8 HD will recover 2d8 from a 1st level Cure light Wounds and 5d8 from a 4th level Cure Critical Wounds, while a character with d4 HD will recover 2d4 from a 1st level spell and 5d4 from a 4th level spell.

Wounds, Fatigue, disease and other ailments
Optionally such rules can add a simple way of tracking various long term ailments of the character.

The recovery of some or all the HD can be blocked by specific conditions that can be removed by specific remedies.

Wounds
Wounds are long term damage that the character will get when he goes to 0 HP, at 0 HP a character is Knocked Out and is wounded or dead.

The severity of wounds can be rolled with various systems. The use of a Death and Dismemberment table is a good option (here an example and some link to other tables: Morte e Mutilazione).

Another very quick system could be this one: calculate the number of hp beyond zero and roll as many HD as needed to match that numbers of points, the number of needed HD represent the severity of the wound. To get back the ability to recover that HP you must first fully heal that wounds. 1HD need 1 day, 2 HD 1 week, 3 HD 1 month, 4 HD 1 season, 5 HD 1 year (heal), 6 HD permanent (regeneration), 7+ HD death.

Diseases and Poisons
A disease will block the recovery of 1 or more HD, each disease will have it's special effects.

E.G.: The red death: who gets this disease will have to do one saving vs death (or a Constitution save) each day for 15 days in a row, for each failed save he will lose one HD (zero HD means death). If the character don't die after 15 days he will recover one HD each day of full rest.

Energy Drain
Energy Drain will take away HDs (instead of levels) at 0 HD the character will die and possibly come back as an undead, such HD will be recovered only by the use of "restoration" or "wish" spells.

Designer's Notes
The idea of this rule come from the necessity to synchronize the rules for magic (presentend in the article Recharging Spells a Vancian optional system for AD&D and OSR)  with the rules for HP.

The overall guiding idea is to change the economy of innate character resources by giving more resources to low level characters and lesser resources to high level character and at the same time without changing the economy of the resources that the characters can use in a single encounter.

The net effect hoped for is to have a more homogeneous feel when playing low level characters (1-6) and high level characters (14+).

Enjoy!

Polyspell an option for spontaneous casting, a middle step between classic vancian and sorcery

Art by Luigi Castellani, from the Scarlet Heroes Art Pack

Polyspell is a spell that when casted enable the wizard to use a spell of lesser level than the polyspell from his repertoire (a short list of known spells).

So there will be Polyspell I (a 2nd level spell) to Polyspell VIII (a 9th level spell), differently from a lesser wish or wish spell the Polyspell can be used only to cast spells from the mage repertoire and only using the required components (you cannot cast a Fireball w/out bat guano for example) and paying the requested penalty from the spell (if for example you use a Polyspell VII to cast a Limited Wish).

In short you sacrifice an higher level spell slot for the flexibility of being able to decide which spell to use at the moment of casting.

Repertoire

The repertoire of a spell-caster is equal to 3+number of spell slot. So a 3rd level magic user (2 1st level spell slot and 1 2nd level spell slot) will have a repertoire of 5 1st level spell and 3 2nd level spells).

A spell repertoire is permanent until changed, to put a spell in his repertoire the mage must take 1 week per spell level and spend 1000 gp in various materials, furthermore the mage needs his spell book with the spell to be put in the repertoire on it.

Once in a repertoire spells can be memorized (or locked see: Recharging Spell a Vancian optional system) without the spell book, this is a good reason to have a repertoire even without a polyspell ready. (this option can be ignored by the DM).

I have a longer article on repertoire here: Inner book a repertoire of spells for old school spell-users

Polyspell I (2nd level) Conjuration/Summoning

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of 1st level.

Polyspell II (3rd level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of 2nd level or less.

Polyspell III (4th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of 3rd level or less.

Polyspell IV (5th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of  4th level or less.

Polyspell V (6th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of  5th level or less.

Polyspell VI (7th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of  6th level or less.

Polyspell VII (8th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of  7th level or less.

Polyspell VIII (9th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1+spell casting time
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V, S

Description: When the spell-caster cast this spell the effect is to be able to cast another repertoire (see before) spell of  8th level or less.

Art by Nikola Avramovic, from the Silent Legion Art Pack

Designer's Notes

It's been a few years since a lot of system have incorporated the "sorcery" spell system, a sorcery system is a spell-casting mechanic where spell-casters have a short list of ready spells, a repertoire in ACKS terms, and they have spell-slots to cast them.

First seen as the special feature of the Sorcerer class in the third edition (A)D&D (hence the name) it is now the standard system of the 5th edition of D&D and the system of choice of one of the best OSR game out there, the Adventurer Conqueror King System.

The philosophy behind my rules is to keep changes at minimum and to have them ready to be used in any old school D&D inspired games.

Here I wanted the possibility to cast spontaneous spell as a resource but not as the normal casting method, and without resorting to rituals or other system that give ulterior resources to casters.

Furthermore I wanted it to be as Vancian as possible (but as discussed in Recharging Spells a Vancian optional system with some difference).

Curiosity: this is a variation of a system I first published on rec.games.frp.dnd on 1996/09/23 here the link: https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.games.frp.dnd/7jMpLKyf77U/PsxoML8kqg8J

there I used two spell of the same level for a similar effect, and I didn't give a repertoire out of the box, following the previous link you will find also other useful spells :-) have fun!

Armor optional rule for D&D and OSR games

This simple rule gives more value to armor since it adds Damage Reduction when the character would go to less than 0 hp.

RULE

Armor works normally (give AC bonus) until the character goes to 0 hp then Armor absorb excess damage from that hit.

Note: This damage reduction works only on the hit that would take the character below 0hp, if the character is already out of combat the damage reduction doesn't work, so if attacked again you apply the normal rules against helpless target.

The Damage Reduction given by armors will be equal to their armor bonus. Let's call this damage reduction (DR) a DR at Zero hp (or DRZhp).

Example: Rodrick a 3rd level fighter with 21 hp and a chain mail has +5 bonus to AC (and so also 5 DRZhp), in a long fight is reduced to 4 hp, then he is it for another 8 points of damage. Normally this would take Rodrick to -4 hp and on his way to Walhalla, but with this rule Rodrick will go to 0 hp since the additional 4 hp of damage will be absorbed by his chain mail.

NOTE: for 5th edition and 0th edition
If the rule system don't makes big distinction between 0hp and dying this rule must be modified. The damage reduction (if sufficient) puts the character at 0hp unconscious and stable (and out of the fight unless healed) but not dying. Further attacks ignore DRZhp.

Armor table

Armor	AC bonus	DRZhp
Padded	+1	1
Leather	+2	2
Studded	+3	3
Scale	+4	4
Chain	+5	5
Banded	+6	6
Half Plate	+7	7
Full Plate	+8	8

Note: Wearing an helmet will add to the DRZhp as follow
Leather cap +1 (-1 to perception)
Metal cap +2 (-2 to perception)
Full Helmet +3 (-3 to perception)

Option: if the armor reduction is used the armor is damaged and needs repairs.

Compatibility: this rule works with every edition of D&D (original, b/x, becm, rc, AD&D 1st, AD&D 2nd, D&D 3rd, D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, D&D 4th and D&D 5th) and with all retroclones that use normal AC as originally presented in D&D games (Adventurer Conqueror King System, Swords and Wizardry, Basic Fantasy RPG, Adventures Dark and Deep, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Dark Dungeons, Darker Dungeons, Dangers & Dweomers... and countless others). 

Design Notes

It's some time that I keep thinking about modifying how armor works, last time I took the route of critical hits ranges based on armor type OSR critical hit based on armor, this time I want to take a different approach.
The approach is to take a little further the basic idea that Hit Points are not Body Points (argument touched with the article on Death and Dismemberement article Morte & Mutilazione un nuovo significato dei punti ferita) as pointed out in so many description of hit points, read for example the explanation found in the Injury and Death in 3.5 SRD

What Hit Points Represent
Hit points mean two things in the game world: the ability to take physical punishment and keep going, and the ability to turn a serious blow into a less serious one. 

Effects of Hit Point Damage
Damage doesn’t slow you down until your current hit points reach 0 or lower. At 0 hit points, you’re disabled.
At from -1 to -9 hit points, you’re dying.
At -10 or lower, you’re dead.

Which is perfectly compatible with what Gary Gygax wrote in the Ad&d 1st edition Dungeon Master's Guide (and using the Hovering on Death's Door optional rule):

So I thought to mix the Armor Class bonus of Armor with Damage Reduction (something already suggested in the d20 3.5 srd Armor as Damage Reduction and also in the Pathfinder SRD Armor as Damage Reduction), my original addition to this is to use such reduction ONLY when the character would go to less than 0 hp.

Obviously the minimum for this system to work is that at 0 HP the character is out of combat and at -1 or worse the character is dying or dead, this means that until that last blow the character was not really hit but somehow managed to deflect or dodge the blunt of the blow, while the killing blow is somewhat reduced by the armor worn.


Why all of this?

Well there are at least two reasons:

1. I wanted to give more importance to armor without changing the way combat and damage normally works
2. I wanted to give reasons to wear armor even if the AC is naturally better (since I am thinking of adding AC bonus based on class and level)

Did I make it? Hope so!

Any comment will be appreciated.

NOTE: I'am flattened. I posted this around 13.15 local time (on August the 11th 2017), at 15.57 local time I am at 3246 visualizations... and counting... this is going to be my best blog post ever. And indeed at 16.25 local time (3h and 10 minutes it became the most viewed post of this blog ever! Surpassing post that are here since a long time ago).

NOTE2: 4343 views in 4h... this is awesome!

24 hours update: 8960 hits <3

10'000+: in less than one week (today is 16/08/2017 and we are beyond 10'000) :-)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Six "20" between 19 and 21 an old school take on d20 to hit mechanics

Some retro-clones keep using to hit tables, one the reason is to respect the presence of repeated 20s in that tables.

The clones that respect the 6 20s in a row are OSRIC and Adventures Dark & Deep (although the second is much more than a clone) the two games most faithful to AD&D 1st edition (the one with 6 20 in a row). Labyrinth Lord has the row of 20 but the tables don't show any number greater of 20 and in the advanced edition we have even 7 20. The Rules Cyclopedia and D&D BECM instead has 5 20 in a row (so I don't understand why Labyrinth Lord don't emulate this).

Classic Table with the six "20"
attack value is dependent on class, Fighters get +1/level, Clerics +2/3level, Thieves +1/2 levels, Magic-Users +1/5 levels

Since Ad&d 2nd edition which adopted THAC0 and the d20 system the 6 (or 5) 20 in a row are no more.

Can the 6 20 in a row be implemented in games without tables?

The answer is yes.

Simulating the 6 20 in the "d20+bonus greater then AC" system

It can be done by considering the bonus from strength and magic (BoStMA for short) and adding 5 (or 4) to the roll if the d20 roll+BostMa is equal or greater of 20 or more simply it can be calculated the d20 range for which the +5 (or +4) bonus can be added.

The "threshold" is the number to roll on the d20 to get the +5 bonus

Example: Igor has a +2 for strength and +1 for magic the +5 bonus range would be 17-20.
Using normal rules of d20 (and all system that don't use tables) if Igor has a total bonus of +5 (+2 for level +2 for strength and +1 for magic) when he rolls to hit he will hit up to AC 20 with a roll of 15 (15+5=20), AC 21 with a 16, AC 27 with 17 (17+5+5), AC 28 with 18 and so on.....

As can be seen with such a bonus you will get the same effect of the 6 (or 5) 20 in a row

More tricks from this system

A few things can be noticed:
1) this system (and the original tables) gave more importance to strength/dexterity, specialization and magic bonuses than newer system/editions (since with a +5 to hit from strength and specialization a 1st level fighter would hit up to AC -5/25 25% of the times)
2) since such low/high AC are not so common in old school game the advantage from this system goes out of the window quite soon.

So why not use the threshold from the above table for more effects?

Here some possibilities:
a) +5 to hit
b) +5 to damage
c) disarm
d) stun
e) additional attack

New spells for the OSRic 1st edition game

Ashes Spellbook by fdasuarez

Sometimes a wizard can't go in lenghty rituals, maybe he can just make a short gesture or utter a single word.... it's in this conundrums that this rare "power" spells can save the wizard both life and books.

Power word, Spell (9th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V

Description: When the wizard cast this powerful spell the effect is to cast another memorized spell of 1st trough 6th level without any other components (up to 100 gp material components or focus) beyond the V components of this spell. The spell cast is not forgotten because the power to cast it come from this power word which is normally forgotten.

Power sign, Spell (9th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: S

Description: When the wizard cast this powerful spell the effect is to cast another memorized spell of 1st trough 6th level without any other components (up to 100 gp material components or focus) beyond the S components of this spell. The spell cast is not forgotten because the power to cast it come from this power sign which is normally forgotten.

Lesser Power word, Spell (6th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: V

Description: When the wizard cast this powerful spell the effect is to cast another memorized spell of 1st trough 3rd level without any other components (up to 100 gp material components or focus) beyond the V components of this spell. The spell cast is not forgotten because the power to cast it come from this power word which is normally forgotten.

Lesser Power sign, Spell (6th level)

Duration: Istantaneous	Casting Time: 1
Saving Throw: none	Area of Effect: self
Range: self	Components: S

Description: When the wizard cast this powerful spell the effect is to can cast another memorized spell of 1st trough 3rd level without any other components (up to 100 gp material components or focus) beyond the S components of this spell. The spell cast is not forgotten because the power to cast it come from this power sign which is normally forgotten.

This spells were my own creation and were published, in a slightly different form, for the first time on rec.games.frp.dnd about 20 years ago.

Castelli e Chimere il sistema magico, variazioni su Vance

Questo sistema magico è un sistema magico facilmente utilizzabile con i giochi vecchia scuola (come Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Adventurer Conqueror King System, Sword & Wizardry, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, Basic Fantasy RPG, OSRIC, Blood & Treasure, Ambition & Avarice, Iron Falcon tanti altri, per quelli italiani rimando alla Panoramica GdR vecchia scuola) e praticamente qualsiasi sistema utilizzi un sistema memorizza e dimentica o a spell slot (come lo stregone di dnd 3.x o il sistema magico di D&D 5th edition o il suo clone italiano D&D Next). 

Cosa più importante questo sistema sarà il sistema magico del mio retro-clone Castelli & Chimere.

Il sistema magico in breve

Come ho più volte detto le regole che prediligo sono quelle che introducono una piccola variante meccanica facilmente implementabile ma che allo stesso tempo impatta profondamente il sapore del sistema.

Il sistema magico funziona come lo stregone di D&D 3.X con le seguenti varianti:

• Gli incantesimi "conosciuti" (da ora in poi PREPARATI) si possono cambiare con lo studio 1 giorno per livello dell'incanto da modificare, il loro numero è pari al numero di incantesimi utilizzabili +2 (in pratica si può usare la tabella del mago delle vecchie edizioni per il numero d'incantesimi utilizzabili e aumentarlo di 2 per conoscere il numero di incantesimi PREPARABILI. Gli incantesimi preparati non si dimenticano mai se non quando si cambiano o per effetti magici o traumi specifici.
• Gli incantesimi utilizzabili funzionano come per lo stregone, con l'energia di un incantesimo di 3' livello si può lanciare un incantesimo preparato di 3' livello o livello inferiore. Si parla di Livelli d'Energia Magica Disponibili (LEMD).
• IMPORTANTE gli incantesimi utilizzabili (o meglio i livelli d'energia magica disponibile) non si recuperano tutti in una notte a prescindere dal livello, gli incantesimi di basso livello si recuperano rapidamente, mentre quelli di livello più alto richiedono tempi significativamente più lunghi. inoltre non si possono recuperare livelli di energia di livello superiore se non si sono recuperati tutti i livelli d'energia inferiori, ed l'energia si recupera solo quando si è svegli (le 8 ore di riposo non valgono ai fini del recupero dell'energia magica, in quanto la mente del mago vaga in altre lande e non riesce a trattenere l'energia... alcuni saggi ipotizzano che sognare equivalga a lanciare un incantesimo naturale...).
• Tempo di recupero si veda la tabella allegata.
• RIASSUMENDO: il mago per recuperare l'energia magica non deve lanciare incantesimi altrimenti il conto ricomincia dal principio; esempio: Mirmillo un mago di 5' livello ha lanciato un incantesimo di 1' ed uno di 3' livello per cui se evita di usare incantesimi per 1 ora e 15 minuti (75 minuti) recupererà entrambi, ma se dopo 65 minuti lancia un trucchetto (o qualsiasi altro incantesimo) avrà recuperato solo l'incantesimo di 1' livello (dopo i primi 15 minuti) mentre dovrà ricominciare il conto del tempo per recuperare quello di 3' livello.

Come si vede il nucleo di questo sistema è molto simile alle regole degli stregoni della d20 SRD o del sistema magico del Adventurer Conqueror King System e della stesso D&D 5th edition (o il suo clone italiano D&D Next), ma la similitudine è solo superficiale, infatti la possibilità di cambiare gli incantesimi preparati e la diversa velocità di recupero degli incantesimi produce effetti interessanti.

In particolare il mago raramente resterà senza incantesimi di basso livello perché come si vede dalla tabella l'energia magica dei trucchetti (cantrips) e degli incantesimi di primo livello si recupera molto rapidamente (basta evitare di lanciare incantesimi per pochi turni) mentre un mago di alto livello per recuperare tutti gli incantesimi di alto livello dovrà impiegare diverse settimane, con il non banale effetto di rendere importanti gli oggetti magici e sopratutto gli apprendisti oltre ad aggiungere una ragione "meccanica" per cui i maghi di alto livello non vanno in giro a lanciare incantesimi ultrapotenti in continuazione.

Per il mio retro-clone si userà la seguente tabella che rappresenta l'energia magica disponibile al mago in base al livello, il numero di incantesimi preparabili è lo stesso +2 (la tabella è la stessa presente nella versione inglese di quest articolo Beyond Vance, a magic system (che presente una diversa meccanica e tempistica per il recupero degli incantesimi che ho deciso di semplificare in questa versione).

Tabella dei Livelli d'Energia Magica disponibili

Come detto precedentemente in questo sistema con lo studio e l'uso di risorse si possono modificare gli incantesimi preparati (1 giorno per livello dell'incantesimo e 100 mo per livello della spell da consumarsi in materiale magico e preparativi se il libro degli incantesimi è disponibili, altrimenti il tempo diventa 1 settimana per livello e il costo 1000 mo per livello dell'incantesimo). Un sistema per certi versi simile all'eccellente Adventurer Conqueror King System seppur meno punitivo nel caso si abbia il proprio libro d'incantesimi sotto mano.

Come già detto una volta preparato un incantesimo resta preparato a meno che qualcosa di molto brutto (morte e resurrezione, o traumi alla testa o magie che specificano la perdita d'incantesimi preparati), in questi casi si suggerisce un tiro salvezza contro incantesimi per ogni incantesimo preparato o questo verrà perso e dovrà essere preparato nuovamente.

Come anticipato una delle principali differenze con altri sistemi simili è il modo in cui i Livelli di Energia Disponibili vengono recuperati. L'idea avvicina il sistema dello stregone a quello dei sistemi a punti magici, che prevedono un recupero lento ma costante. 

Dando un occhiata ai tempi ci si rende conto che il sistema spinge i maghi (specie quelli di livello più alto) ad essere avari nel lanciare incantesimi dato che i tempi di recupero sono lenti e si rischia di restare senza incantesimi nei momenti più critici (che è un punto fermo della narrativa fantastica). 

I tempi di recupero strizzano l'occhio alla prima edizione di AD&D (o al suo eccellente clone OSRIC).

I tempi di recupero dell'energia magica sono quelli indicati in tabella, mentre il mago non deve fare nulla di particolare per recuperare gli incantesimi l'energia si recupera solo se il mago è sveglio, inoltre se lancia un incantesimo il tempo si azzera e si ricomincia daccapo, inoltre bisogna prima recuperare tutta l'energia dei livelli più bassi e solo dopo si può cominciare a recuperare l'energia dei livelli superiori. Ecco la tabella:

Livello incanto da recuperare	Tempo per recuperare l'energia per 1 incanto
0'	5'
1°	15'
2°	30'
3°	1 ora
4°	2 ore
5°	3 ore
6°	4 ore
7°	5 ore
8°	7 ore
9°	10 ore

Come si vede chiaramente dalle due tabelle, un'altra differenza rispetto a molti dei cloni indicati (ma non OSRIC) è la presenza di incantesimi di livello 0' (i cosidetti trucchetti), i trucchetti in questo sistema funzionano come tutti gli altri incantesimi, se ne può preparare un numero limitato ed hanno un numero di usi limitato (per preparare un trucchetto il tempo è di 10' ed il costo di 10 gp se si ha il proprio libro a portata di mano o 1h40' e 100 gp senza il libro.

Appare evidente che questo sistema magico si può utilizzare in qualsiasi gioco vecchia scuola.

Ad esempio un mago di 1' livello sarà in grado di preparare 5 trucchetti (incanti di livello 0) e 3 incanti di 1' livello ed avrà energia per lanciare di seguito 3 trucchetti ed 1 incantesimo di 1' livello. Se evita di lanciare incantesimi per 30' recupererà l'energia per lanciare 3 trucchetti ed 1 incanto di 1' livello.

Una "specie" di magia

Un'altra particolarità del sistema magico di Castelli & Chimere è che mentre il sistema magico è lo stesso per tutti i maghi, esistono diverse specializzazioni ed un mago deve scegliere il "tipo" di magia che può utilizzare:

Magia bianca: protezioni, esorcismi, distruzione dei non morti, guarigione, resurrezione, recupero (lista dei chierici con modifiche - è un tipo di magia "platonico" funziona in quanto riporta ad un modello di riferimento ideale il soggetto).

Magia Grigia/Elementale: incantesimi elementali, trasformazioni, alterazioni (lista dei maghi rivista - è un tipo di magia formulistico che evoca energie, crea passaggi)

Magia nera: morte, decadimente, veleni, maledizioni, evocazioni di demoni e altri orrori (un buon esempio è la magia nera presente nell'eccelso Fantastic Heroes & Witchery e altri supplementi OSR come ad esempio l'ottimo Silent Legions)

Magia della natura: lista dei druidi (controllo del clima, terremoti, comunicazione con gli animali e con le piante - trasformazioni limitate al mondo naturale - animali e piante - rigenerazione, reincarnazione ecc).

Magia del corpo: trasformazioni del corpo, rigenerazione (un tipo diverso di guarigione, si veda il Medico Occulto su questo blog).

Magia Prismatica: illusioni, ombre, fantasmi (lista degli illusionisti rivista e corretta)

Altri tipi: incantamento, mentalismo, ki....

Ovviamente ci sono delle sovrapposizioni ma ogni tipo di magia è superiore nel suo campo di specializzazione rispetto alle altre magie, altri tipi di effetti sono a volte utilizzabili ma come incantesimi di livello superiore.

Quindi ogni mago necessiterà dei libri per cambiare rapidamente gli incantesimi preparati e dovrà astenersi dall'utilizzare l'energia magica disponibile per recuperarla.

Come possibili opzioni nella versione avanzata ci sarà la possibilità (al costo di maggiori punti esperienza) di utilizzare più di un tipo di magia, di avere maghi che non possono cambiare le magie preparate (stregoni) e altri maghi che invece dei libri per cambiare gli incantesimi preparati devono rivolgersi ad entità extraplanari (cultisti).

Un gioco che propone qualcosa di simile (tutti maghi per quanto con progressioni diverse ed un sistema per la magia divina completamente diverso) è l'ottimo e già citato Fantastic Heroes & Witchery.

Teleport Cowards a new OSR instant adventure spell

The "Teleport Cowards" or "CowardPort" spell is considered a chaotic and criminal spell in almost all known kingdoms. This 4th level spell is a powerful yet seldom cast arcane spell. It is a last resort spell since using it means to lose all equipment and treasure because the spell will teleport only the subjects without even their clothes, in fact teleported subjects will switch clothes (or armor) with innocent and unsuspecting people present within 1 mile of the target destination, the spell will switch with people of the same height, weight and general frame of the teleported subjects.

For example Zaran the Wizard and his one eyed accomplice the fighter Yongar found themselves cornered deep in a dungeon. They block the door of the room in which they barely managed to escape and Zaran with tears in his eyes tell Yongar that they must leave all their ill-gotten belonging here to save their lives, Yongar give a sad nod and put his hand on the shoulder of Zaran (not new to this mean of escape) and waits. Zaran take a dried tongue from his component sack and cast the arcane formula targetting the sprawling metropolis of Creontia (where they have several hideouts and contacts).... ZAP .... after a moment Yongar found himself walking a young lady all dressed in white toward a priest and Zaran is the market square with an unknow person yelling in his face.... at the same moment two puzzled persons find themselves dressed in wizard robe and warrior armor in an unknown room.....

This nefarious spell is notorious to have trasported group of happy city dwellers in the most dangerous part of dungeons or other unsafe place sometimes while under siege of powerful or numerous monsters.


Teleport Cowards
Arcane Transmutation/Alteration

Level:  Magic user 4th
Range:  Touch
Duration:  Instantaneous
Area of Effect: Caster + another M sized creature each 3 levels
Components: V, S, M (the tongue of a dead because sentenced to death liar, perjurer or vow-breaker)
Casting Time: 3 segments
Saving Throw: None (see below)

The Teleport Cowards spell instantly transports you to a designated destination, which may be as distant as 100 miles per caster level. Interplanar travel is not possible, and at the same times transports the same number type and size of creatures to your standing location. You cannot bring along objects, in fact you will also switch clothes (the incoming character will be equipped with your clothes, weapons, armor while you will be equipped with their clothes, weapons and whatever). You may also bring one additional willing Medium or smaller creature or its equivalent per three caster levels. A Large creature counts as two Medium creatures, a Huge creature counts as four Medium creatures, and so forth. All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you. You and other willing target don't make a saving throw BUT who is to be transported in your location make a Saving Throw to evade the spell. The spell work only if the exact number of creature of the specified size will fail the ST (if there are more creature of that size the spell has greater chance of success, see table below).

The GameMaster will decide who will switch place with the characters, thus the GameMaster can use this spell to let a new party start an adventure in the middle of nowhere (or in the deep of a dungeon) with some equipment and treasure (if he want, the caster and his party of cut-throats could hide equipment and treasure before teleporting). Notice also that the caster and his companion will appear in the clothes and equipment of the switched creatures.

Population density	All teleported	Mage and half teleported*	Mage only**	Mishap***
Very high (metropolis)	01–97	98–99	100	—
high (city)	01–94	95–97	98–99	100
average (small town)	01–88	89–94	95–98	99–100
sparse (hamlet)	01–76	77–88	89–96	97–100
deserted (wild area)	—	—	81–92	93–100

* The caster and half of the other creature (nearest to caster) are teleported
** Only the caster is teleported
*** each of the intended target take 1d6 damage per caster level

Beyond Vance, a magic system

This is a variant magic system for old school games (like Dungeons & Dragons, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Adventurer Conqueror King System, Sword & Wizardry, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, Basic Fantasy RPG, OSRIC, Blood & Treasure, Ambition & Avarice, Iron Falcon and so many others) and more or less any game who use a fire and forget or spell slot system. Most important for me this will be the magic system of my retro-clone project Castles & Chimeras.

A variation of sorcery

The nucleus of this system is similar to the sorcerer rules of the d20 OSR or the magic system of Adventurer Conqueror King System and D&D 5th edition, in brief each spell-caster has a reserve of stored Magical Energy Slots that can be used to cast Ready Spells. The number of Magical Energy Slots and of Ready Spell is dependent by the Spell-Caster level, for number of spells consult "Energy Slots Table", or your normal memorization table (ready spells are 2 more of the slots usable).

Energy Slots Table

Differently from other system Ready Spells can be changed with time, money and effort (1 day per spell level + 100 gp per spell level to be consumed in spell preparation if the spell book is at hand, otherwise the time is 1 week * spell level and 1000 gp per spell level, somehow similar to the egregious Adventurer Conqueror King System), once readied spells stay readied unless something bad happen to the spell-caster (death and resurrection, head trauma, brought to 0hp with head injuries and the like), in which case for each spell the spell caster must make a saving throw or lose the spell that will have to be readied again.

The biggest difference with other systems is the way Magical Energy Slots are recovered, the idea is that like in spell point system as time passes spell slots slowly recharge, the time can be counted only from the last time a spell was used (even a lowly cantrip), so spell-caster should try to not use magic when is not necessary (unless they don't need to recover higher level spells); this method will give spell-caster almost always a little number of cantrips and low level spells energy slots during the day but they will need to rest and don't use magic to recover high level spell slots, this is a mix of OSRIC/AD&D 1st time to memorize spells and more recent games that with 1 night of sleep give back all energy slots to a spell-caster, for times consult "Energy Slots Recovery Table".

Energy Slots Recovery Table

Another difference is the presence of 0th level spells that works like other spells (they have not infinite uses and which cantrip are Ready can be changed as with spells), this is more similar to the original idea of cantrips, you can ready a cantrip in 1h and 10 gp if you have a spell book at hand, double that w/out a spell book.

This variations can be freely adopted in any old school game.

So for example a 1st level Mage will be able to ready 5 cantrips and 3 1st level spells and he will have 3 0th and 1 1st level energy slots. If he don't cast any spell for 15' minutes he will recover 2 cantrips energy slots, after 30' 3 cantrips and 1 1st level energy slots, after 1h 3 cantrip and 2 1st but since he only have 1 1st level it can use the 2nd 1st level to recover another cantrip.


It's a kind of magic

Another particularity of the Castles & Chimeras magic system is that there is only one kind of full spell-caster, but he must chose which kind of magic he will use:

White magic: good at protection, banishment, destroyng undead, healing, recovery, strenghtening, divination, resurrection (cleric spell list revised with additions)
Elemental/Gray magic: good at elemental manipulation, transformation (mage spell list revised with additions)
Black magic: summoning, death and decay, poisoning, cursing (must be selected but the idea is clear)
Nature magic:  druid spell list revised with additions (weather control, earthquakes, animal friend/speak, tree control and so on; some polymorphing - mostly animals, some regeneration, reincarnation)
Body Magic: polymorphing, regeneration (different kind of healing, see the Occult Physician on this blog)
Prismatic magic: illusions, shadows (illusionist spell list revised with additions)
Others: (Charm, Mind, Ki.......)

there is some overlapping but each kind of magic is way better in its area of specialization, other kind of effect are usable but only as higher level spells (such as +1 to +3 level for the same effect).

thus each spell-caster will need books to quickly change its readied spells and will have limits on the number of spells she can know, furthermore each kind of magic will give to the caster specific ability and organizations (to be further developed).

A game with a similar approach, no divine magic with spells, is the excellent Fantastic Heroes & Witchery.

Morte & Mutilazione un nuovo significato ai Punti Ferita

E' dalla prima lettura di Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play nel lontano 1987 che ho voglia d'implementare l'idea che i Punti Ferita valgono fino a 0 e poi si tira su qualche tabella per stabilire le ferite vere e proprie. Purtroppo nelle tante sperimentazioni fatte in questi anni per un motivo o per l'altro ho sempre rimandato, se non usando le fin troppo complesse regole di ACKS (Adventurer Conqueror King System) un retroclone che riprende il sistema di regole basic/expert con alcune modifiche (sistema magico stregonesco tra le altre).

Di recente avevo cominciato a pensarci di nuovo e cercando in rete mi sono imbattuto nel blog Death & Dismemberement e mi sono rallegrato nel vedere che l'idea era stata già ampiamente trattata con tante considerazioni e varianti, in particolare per moltissime varianti un articolo dello stesso blog On Death & Dismemberment Tables. E non posso non citare la tabella elaborata dall'autore del blog The One Death & Dismemberment Table to Rule Them All (molto interessante e applicabile anche alla 5a edizione ma forse un po' troppo elaborata).

Questa ricchezza di contenuti mi ha aiutato a capire cosa volevo esattamente da una tabella di questo genere e che tipo di gioco, o filosofia di gioco, supporta questo tipo di tabella.

E sopratutto a confermare che è quello che voglio nel mio retro-clone (più di un eventuale punteggio di Ferite da affiancare ai Punti Ferita, per me Punti Danno).

Eliminare i Punti Ferita negativi e la morte automatica a 0PF o meno come in molti giochi OSR e invece tirare su una tabella di Morte e Mutilazione quando si arriva a 0 PF (e ogni volta che si subisce un colpo quando si è a 0 PF) serve a due scopi principali:
1) rendere meno binaria la condizione dei personaggi (in salute/morto), e quindi introducendo ferite permanenti e mutilazioni si dà maggior possibilità di sopravvivere ai personaggi senza per questo togliere pericolo ai combattimenti)
2) sottolineare la natura astratta dei Punti Ferita e anzi il loro essere sostanzialmente Punti Difesa (Adrenalina, resistenza, abilità mondana o magica, fortuna)

Questo comporta che i PD/PF si possono recuperare molto più velocemente rispetto allo standard delle prime edizioni. Può essere cioè accettabile un recupero completo dopo una notte di riposo, 1/8 del massimo dei PF dopo un riposo momentaneo (10' per recuperare il fiato), 1/4 del massimo degli PF dopo un riposo breve (1h di riposo), tutti i PF dopo un riposo lungo (1 notte di sonno, 8h). Questo se non si sono subite ferite, nel qual caso le cose si complicano.

Andiamo dunque a vedere la tabella di Morte e Mutilazione che intendiamo cominciare ad utilizzare, ci ispiriamo maggiormente alla tabella originale di Robert Fischer che modifichiamo nel dado usato (1d12 invece di 2d6) per ora restano gli effetti, inoltre si tira 1d12 per ogni 10 punti di danno o frazione subiti e si prende il risultato più basso:

Risultato d12	effetto
1	morte istantanea (decapitazione o altra ferita devastante ecc)
2	ferita fatale (sventrato, perforazione organo vitale ecc, morte in 1d12+3 rounds
3	amputazione di arto (gamba, braccio) morte in 2d12+4 rounds a meno di cura ferite serie o intervento chirurgico
4	costole rotte impossibile muoversi (1d12+10 settimane per guarire)
5	osso di arto frantumato (1d12+10 settimane per guarire) ma non guarirà mai del tutto salvo magia
6	amputazione mano/piede (morte in 3d12+6 rounds a meno di cura ferite gravi o intervento medico)
7	perdita di occhio/orecchio (sfigurato)
8	osso di arto rotto (1d12+8 settimane per guarire)
9	ferita moderata (cicatrice) 3d12 giorni per guarire
10	ferita leggere 2d12 giorni per guarire
11	svenuto
12	stordito

Si osservi che le magie curative accelerano la guarigione per ogni livello d'incantesimo al giorno si guarisce di quel numero di giorni (si considera livello più alto di magia curativa), Quando si sta in convalescenza per una ferita così grave non si possono recuperare hp oltre 1 e non si possono svolgere attività faticose. Quando si subiscono queste ferite così gravi si è in stato di shock e non si possono svolgere azioni se non con un tiro salvezza su costituzione (contro morte).