Hog Man.

Yeah, this picture is a bit disturbing. The codpiece is the skull of Simon’s wizard that died in Devilmount on Friday; this may well be a portrait of his killer.

Thank Jack Shear for the idea of putting hog men in Devilmount!

Into Devilmount!

Last night I had a couple friends over, they ran 2 characters each, and the understrength party took on the challenges of Devilmount.

After being sealed for 200 years, the doors to Devilmount just… drifted open. The government is worried. They posted soldiers “on maneuvers” to cover the entrance, and scooped up some local riff raff who is expendable to map the thing for them so when they get some real adventurers they can focus their efforts.

The party was a fighter, a martial artist, a gray man, and a wizard. They headed down, cautiously poked around, and mapped quite a bit. They clashed with a few  blackened skeletons, defeated a pack of big rats, and dispatched a number of hog men. They mapped, a new activity for one of the players, but he was delighted when his map matched what I portrayed on the white board.

They got out while they could, and decided after a rest and some healing to focus on one quadrant, guessing the level was divided into quarters. This time they got some more exploring done, but they got cocky when they faced off with more hogmen–especially when even more reinforced them during the fight.

They tried to run, but when not everyone could get away they stuck it out to save their friends–until three of them fell and the fighter was the only one to make it out.

Last night was the first live test of my new Crumbling Epoch system. I like how it went. One of my players would try it again, the other prefers systems with more options for building and growing characters than what the simplicity of Crumbling Epoch offers.

I think it would go better with a stronger party. Ironically, as a corner game at my game table it is unlikely to GET a big group going in. I will likely need to continue testing it on my own. Still, a great test and experience.

One player said it reintroduced fear of monsters in dungeons, something that fades when you have tough characters from level one. So that’s something! =)

Devilmount Thirster

So I’ve continued work on my cool party group shot for Devilmount. Here is my thirster, a weak-blooded unliving vampiric type.

The picture is based on Sarah Michelle Geller, from Buffy. She’s holding a delicious bottle of blood.

Lumpen-Ones

So Jack Shear made Devilmount, and put “lumpen-ones” in the place of halflings.

I have not put more thought into their ecology yet, but I’m going to. In the meantime, here’s an awesome picture of one possible interpretation. Here is the art from the actual Devilmount book, posted here.

By Wayne Snyder

Reskinning B/X Classes.

This is lots of fun. I’m inspired by Jack Shear’s Devilmount class re-skins. No need for mechanical adjustments. Encourages constructs, undead, and furries. Roll once for each, and you’ll have a pretty distinct setting. Here you go!

Halfling: 1d6

1. Anthropomorphic koala bear.
2. Anthropomorphic skink with chromataphores.
3. Anthropomorphic rat.
4. Animated puppet.
5. Part sand elemental.
6. Undead street urchin child.

Dwarf: 1d6

1. Terra Cotta soldier.
2. Anthropomorphic badger.
3. Anthropomorphic wolverine.
4. Anthropomorphic beaver.
5. Skull golem (made of skulls)
6. Anthropomorphic psychic mole.

Elf: 1d4

1. Weak lich.
2. Unicorn centaur.
3. Orialchum construct.
4. Anthropomorphic cat people.

Fighter: 1d4

1. Anthropomorphic bull.
2. Spirit that bonds with armor (can transfer).
3. Revenant.
4. Animated statue.

Thief:

1. Anthropomorphic frog.
2. Wire golem.
3. Anthropomorphic raccoon.
4. Anthropomorphic octopus.

Have some fun with this.

Gray Man Fun Facts

While Jack Shear detailed the gray men in his Devilmount book, there are a few details of their wider lifestyles that were not included. Here is your chance to be smarter than your friends and know some of the more esoteric lore on these odd creatures.

• As they grow more powerful, their heads swell. By the time they reach “name level” they barely touch the ground; their swelling head has odd powers of levitation and increased resilience (reflected in higher saving throws of all kinds.) They tend to spend more and more time in esoteric mathematical reflection, until when their head reaches a certain size they become something like a prized trophy of their clan. They are hidden away, and their reflections become something like scripture in complex equations.

• Their thin limbs contain the strength of creatures at least twice their size, because of the strange composition of their flesh. Their entire meat can serve as muscle, and also as fat; their strange gray skin has a peculiar anti-gravity property that focuses in the head, so even though they appear spindly they can trundle along as fast as creatures with four times the stride and carry impossible loads on their thin legs and backs.

• Their bones are an organic form of layered composite ceramic. This is not possible, yet it is true.

• Those who have tried to make leather from gray men, or take advantage of their strange physiology for anti-gravity or strength, have found that the material decays immediately after the death of the gray man. Within three hours, all properties are compromised. Experiments with vivisection have not had much more success; apparently gray men can die at will. Imaginative scholars suggest the long-lost arts of psionics may be the key, and experimentation continues.

• Gray men have hard black eyes with no inner structures. The eyes crumble to fine powder when they die. Vivisection has revealed the eyes are actually hollow, their interior covered by shifting and dancing equations of physics rubbing space-time against energy. Scholars are desperate to figure out the perceptual filters that allow gray men to detect anomalies that others completely miss, and even give them the ability to see where there is no light. The mystery remains. These extra senses are credited with their ability to make such fine metalwork, detailed with unknown alloys, and their ability to work mystic materials humans cannot shape (like mithril, adamantium, vibranium, orialchum, etc.)

• Gray men are actually grown in pods about the size of a human, over the course of about a year. They come out fully formed, and go through a process that they call the printing. Outsiders cannot discover much about this, except to suspect one of two possibilities.
  • Maybe a gray man inherits the mental print of one who came before, living out several iterations before changing identity and starting over.
  • Maybe batches come out and are given the same base print from their originating culture. That base print then shifts as they print their experience in the code.

• Gray men are widely understood to be the lonely expression of a shattered hive mind. They were once like an immune system, or a communication and repair system, on some star-faring vessels. Now they are cursed to be individuals, and they have never stopped grieving the loss of the Overmind. This can make them good team players, but not always.

• The psychic communication protocals are still printed in some of the gray men; they often start, end, or idle in communicating with a key word identifying a shade of their frequency. They do not always realize they do this.

Here are some randomizers to help you make a gray man for play.

Generate a name. No particular conventions, save that it should sound vaguely alien and space-like. Here are some sample syllables, roll 2 or 3. You can use them in the order they were rolled, or arrange to taste. Name first, number second. (There are many possible outcomes that sound like swearing, or other amusing and similar words. You can embrace this, or rearrange the syllables.) Roll on 1d20.

1. za
2. brox
3. nif
4. lin
5. tak
6. xen
7. ru
8. fex
9. cin
10. da
11. ke
12. ro
13. em
14. ur
15. lek
16. dur
17. so
18. zee
19. fok
20. vis

Generate a number. Roll 1d8. For some reason, that’s the range that tends to adventure. Roll 1d4 for technicians, 1d6 for leaders, 1d8 for independent thinkers, 1d10 for crafters, 1d12 for laborers. High numbers mean your type was mass produced and lower quality.

Optional “um” word. Many gray men have a word they use to initiate communication, close communication, and idle during communication. They usually use this a lot when they first meet outsiders, and it tapers off as they interact more with others. However, it is like an accent; some keep theirs, others lose them. In general, gray men use a monotone or modulated voice, usually nasal, and they favor understatement and deadpan delivery once they grasp the concept of humor. (Before then, they do it without irony.) These sounds are more like a collection of noises than a word. They do not say “zabble.” Instead, they warm up the vocal apparatus, and to outsiders it sounds like “zzabble what do you think?” Roll on 1d6.

1. Zabble
2. Grzzt
3. Meeble
4. Teebee
5. Leetleleet
6. Nnebbet

Now you have a head start on making a more flavorful portrayal of a gray man in your game.

Gray Man in Plate

Here is my rendition of +Jack Shear Gray Men from Devilmount, armored in plate. I’ve been doing some experimental play in Crumbling Epoch, which will eventually be illustrated by yours truly, and this is an illustration that will go in.

Armor class and damage reduction.

I’m working on my next itiration of Crumbling Epoch. After doing some playtesting, I’ve got some new ideas. Here are a couple that I’m messing with.

• Use a d12 to hit instead of a d20. 8+ is a hit.
• You can use your combat ability as a bonus to hit, or a penalty to be hit, in any combination. Combat ability is equal to class level for most classes except poor fighters like wizards.

• ASCENDING AC: Your “armor class” is a pool of damage reduction points you have available each round.
• DESCENDING AC: Your “armor class” represents the most damage you can take from a single hit (that is affected by armor; some magic, and falling, and drowning etc. are not affected.)
• TYPE AC: Your kind of armor is the size die you roll to reduce damage when you’re hit, +1 die size for a shield. Leather 1, Leather + 1d4, chainmail 1d6, chain + 1d8, plate 1d10. Whatever you roll is reduced from the incoming attack.

Fun, right?!

Dungeon Date 2! Death Slaver’s Crypt

Kristy and I have a new tradition on date night. We take my molskine pocket book, a d20 and d12, a pen, and Risus Monkey’s DungeonWords. Then, while we wait for our food, I sketch a dungeon and she randomizes words. After the date, I turn it into a 1 page dungeon. The previous and first Dungeon Date is here.

So, polish up that ole ball and chain! It’s time for DUNGEON DATE!

Death Slaver’s Crypt

That’s how it’s done. A B/X D&D adventure for a pretty tough group, probably 5-7 th level. Best used by attaching it to something else. Enjoy!

Sting Hounds of Hucwind Isle

You know what is awesome? Fr. Dave‘s reimagining of the Slave Pits. I have not bought a module that was better laid out and thought through than this one.

One interesting creature he adds to the setting is a “sting hound.” I really was not sure what one would look like. So, I decided to draw it so I could see. =)

If Fr. Dave wants to add this into a document or use it for anything, he has my permission and gratitude.

Stinghound

No. Enc.: 1d6+1Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 150’
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 2
Attacks: 1
Damage: 1d4+Paralysis
Save: F2
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: none
XP: 29
Stinghounds are one of the successful genetic experiments
of the Abhothians. From a distance, they appear to be
bloodhounds. Up close, however, it is obvious that they are
a cross between a dog and a stingray, with the head and tail
of the latter. They attack with the stinger in the tail, which
has a paralytic poison which lasts for 2d4 turns.