ADCC: Deed-Based Warrior Subclasses

That’s Advanced Dungeon Crawl Classics (ADCC) – credit for the acronym goes to Ryan Colby.

by InferalFinn

A while back I posted my take on the Ranger for DCC, inspired by Crawl! Fanzine #6, which also featured DCC versions of the paladin, bard, and gnome. I’ve actually had someone just start playing a ranger in my game, and I’m already seeing some problems. I’m not sure that the problems are with my own design (though they could be). The thing is, the ranger as a separate class is really dependent on the style of play to have value at the table. If there’s lots of dungeon crawling going on and the monsters don’t fit the favored enemy, then the class seems like it kind of sucks compared to the others.

More than that, though, DCC has really brought me around to seeing the simple elegance of the four basic classes for humans (it’s also really brought me around on race as class, as I’ve mentioned before). And it occurred to me last Friday morning, as I was pouring my coffee and about to leave for work, that there’s a simpler way to add rangers, paladins, barbarians and the like to DCC with more mechanics than just role-playing but less than a separate class. And that way is through my most favorite of DCC rules, the Mighty Deed of Arms.

When I was a Fighting-man… Part One

deviantART by Tensen01

Originally posted by Brianna Heine on the other (now defunct) version of this site.

Today I’d like to discuss the classes that should be available to player characters. So how do we begin? Well let’s start with my “keep it simple” concept.

The simplest way to do that is to just allow all the classes available to a d20 Pathfinder campaign. “All the classes?” I hear you ask. “Even the Gunslinger?!” you quickly follow. Well… No. We can’t allow all the classes. Some just flat-out don’t work. Not if we’re trying to create the atmosphere presented in REH’s stories.

I first looked at the Hyborian Age d20 Campaign Site for inspiration. It seems like they’re using standard 3E D&D (not Pathfinder) as a base. Apparently they chose the “Everyone gets to play whatever they want” method. Thankfully they left out the Paladin (because in absolutely no possible way does that belong in the Hyborian Age) as an option but they did add a few other classes to the mix.

The Blog-iversary

I missed it when I put up last Wednesday’s art post, but that was the 1-year anniversary for the Age of Ruins blog! Looks like I’ll be celebrating by not really posting this week. But despite the slightly more difficult time I’ve had keeping the schedule regular lately, I must say I’m pretty proud that I stayed on track as well as I did this past year. I built up a solid library of back-posts, some of which I’m really happy with. And adding Brianna’s posts to the mix has added to the overall quality of the blog immensely.

I don’t have any plans on quitting, but I’ll probably be less strict with myself on posting than I was in the past. Still, I’m digging the Hex Crawl Alphabet and want to keep going as time permits, and there’s a few other things I’ve been meaning to write on for a few weeks now.

Hex Crawl Alphabet: D is for Dwarves

Viking Myke has some wonderful stuff

OK, we know that next hex over has a dwarven settlement of some sort in it. First off, what’s the general purpose of that settlement?

Dwarf Settlement Purpose (d6)
1-3: Mining
4-5: Military
6: Mercantile

D is for … Diabetes?

No, that’s not the next entry for the Hex Crawl Alphabet. I normally don’t post things that aren’t game-related, but given that it’s been about two weeks since I did anything but art posts, I just wanted to give a little context. Three weeks ago I started a new position at work, which so far has involved a lot of shadowing and cross-training with departments I hadn’t previously worked with. When Labor Day weekend came rolling around, I just wanted to space out, so I did.

A Change of Pace

Creative Commons photo by ankakay

Originally posted by Brianna Heine on the other (now defunct) version of this site.

So I’ve been discussing Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age and how it might be successfully translated into a d20 Campaign Setting. I want to switch things up this time. I’m going to do that occasionally because there is only so many times a gal can type the name Conan before she gets sick of seeing it.

I’ve decided to start running my first RPG in eight years. Actually it’s probably closer to ten. I’m sure some of you understand. You get older, you work overtime, or the kids keep you busy, or you get married, or you move away. All your friends have the same issues so getting together for game night unfortunately falls to the wayside. Ask my closest friends and they’ll tell you that I’ve been promising to run something for so long now that they probably think it’s not actually going to happen.

Well I’ve already set a date and invited some friends to play. No it’s not a Hyborian Age game. The rules aren’t ready for that yet but when they are I’m going to need my best friends to playtest because only the people closest to you will put up with rolling a new character every other session.

Hex Crawl Alphabet: C is for Castle

Sand castle by Sue McGrew

The PCs have stumbled across a castle in their travels. Who lives there? What are they up to? Well, I took a slightly different approach with this, and I thought the best ideas for what they are up to might come from the judge just thinking about what certain combinations of results below mean. For example, an overcrowded ruin might be home to a military force in need of a makeshift shelter. Interested to see if anyone finds these helpful or if there should be a bit more to this entry.

A Barbarian of Barbarians …

Darren Goodacre

Originally posted by Brianna Heine on the other (now defunct) version of this site.

… a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs… his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire…

… he moved with the ease of a great tiger…

… the vitality and endurance of the wild were his…

… he was naturally intelligent, jealous of his rights, and as dangerous as a hungry tiger…

When reading any story involving Conan of Cimmeria it would be easy to over exaggerate his game statistics. Something like the following might be a casual reader’s impression:

Conan, Cimmerian, Barbarian 20, Thief 20, HP 520, Str 18, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 18

Hex Crawl Alphabet: B is for Bandits

deviantART by Robedirobrob

Fantasy wilderlands are downright infested by bandits, brigands, and burglars of all stripes. Here are a couple of tables to help generate bandit camps. I’ve only concerned myself with the hit dice of the bandit’s leader, but bigger camps will surely have a few intermediaries with extra HD as well.

1d20: Bandit Leader HD / # of Bandits

1-8: 2 HD / 10 bandits
9-14: 3 HD / 20 bandits
15-18: 4 HD / 40 bandits
19-20: 5 HD / 80 bandits

Grisly Incantations

Originally posted by Brianna Heine on the other (now defunct) version of this site.

Since I plan on writing a post concerning magic in the Hyborian Age at a much later time I want to start collecting some opinions on the topic. I’m going to save my opinion on how the system should work until later but in the meantime I want to discuss some of my thoughts on magic.

deviantART by Benito Gallego

In “The Tower of the Elephant” the being Yag-kosha explained to Conan that he “…came to this planet (Earth) with others of my world from the green planet Yag, which circles for ever in the outer fringe of this universe.”

Yag-kosha further explains that the sorcerer Yara captured him and used him to do his bidding. “But he [Yara] was not satisfied with what I taught him, for it was white magic, and he wished evil lore…”

Yara is described as “… versed in dark knowledge… with guile gotten among the dusky tomes of dark Stygia…”

This one story reveals some pretty interesting possibilities. In fact I didn’t really pick up on this until I started looking at it from a position of game development. Yag-kosha makes reference to “White Magic”.  In the context of the story it implies that magic is not all “evil lore”. Therefore I would conclude that magic exists that is not evil.