Thursday, November 21, 2013

Went on a shopping spree...

I have procured Beyond The Wall and Other Stories (finally) and Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. Will have more to say as soon as done reading them. Mostly, though, I'm glad to be finally tasting the OSR's flavors of the month, the better to mine them for stuff.

ETA 11/26: Well, I was going to, but then I got distracted, because Doctor Who.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

They have a Cave Troll...

Troll, Cave



Armor Class: 18
Hit Dice: 7*
No. of Attacks: 2 claws/1 bite or 1 weapon/1 bite
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d10 or by weapon/1d10
Movement: 40'
No. Appearing: 1d8, Wild 1d8, Lair 1d8
Save As: Fighter: 7
Morale: 10 (8)
Treasure Type: D
XP: 735

Evolutionary cousins of the more widespread forest troll and scrag, or river troll, cave trolls, sometimes known as mountain trolls, are easily distinguished from their brethren by their grey, lumpy skin, bulkier frame, and diminished noses. Cave trolls lack the feral cunning of their cousins, though they have a somewhat greater aptitude for (extremely rough) speech and tool use, often brandishing heavy branches or even crude spears in battle. Although like all trolls they are fast healers, a cave troll's wounds mend in hours rather than minutes, and it has no affinity for regrowing lost appendages. Its primary means of defense instead lies in its extremely thick, rubbery skin, which is studded with rock-hard osteoderms like those of an Ankylosaur. So well-protected is a cave troll's hide that nothing short of a magic weapon can pierce it (though like all trolls, fire and acid have also proven deadly to them). Cave trolls also fear the sun, and are scrupulously nocturnal, for it is their greatest weakness. Exposing a cave troll to direct sunlight disorients it: It can act for only one round and is turned to stone in the next round if it cannot escape. Use the morale value in parentheses if a cave troll is confronted with fire, acid, or bright lights (at least the equivalent of a Continual Light spell). Cave trolls stand ten feet tall (when they manage to straighten up to their full height) and commonly reach a ton or more in weight.

Stats given are for BFRPG, but I'm sure you know how to convert the parts that need converting for your system of choice.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Aventures in the East Mark Explorer

So Adventures in the East Mark, which recently kickstarted its English release, offered a preview of its Explorer class, which I downloaded today. Rangers happen to have been my favorite class for as long as I've been playing D&D, but the AD&D interpretation of them never quite rubbed me right. But I remain fond of the concept and whenever I see that someone has a take on them, I like to give it a look. This time around, I think I like what I see and I may just use it next time I have need of a ranger. They don't seem to have included attack or save tables for it in the preview, though. I figure, just on eyeballing, that Cleric attack tables and Fighter saves would probably be fair. But if anyone's got it already (either the translation or the original Spanish release) and wants to correct my guess, that would be great too.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Back on the horse

Okay, so a few days ended up being more like... a month. So sue me, it's been kind of a difficult fall for me. What else is new?

I've been rolling around the idea of a Wizard Without Spells in the vein of Talysman's Cleric Without Spells for a while now, but the going is a little slow. For some reason spells as specific, repeatable programs with a single function is one of those D&Disms that does get tiresome for me now and then. I dunno, I'd like to try out something a little different when it comes to magic.If anyone still reads this and has suggestions for products or blog posts or whatever I should look at, let me know.