The Wyzard Runs OD&D

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Introduction

This is the main page for my infamous campaign...but it is not quite as-labeled. For quite some time I ran an OD&D game on the RPG.net play-by-post forums. However, the campaign has evolved to run under The Fantasy Trip, another charmingly retro RPG from way back when.

Castor-dungeon.jpg

The Slayers

Here you can find character record sheets for all of the currently active PCs.
The Wyzard Runs TFT: The Adventurers
And here are the PCs for the Platemail subcampaign: The_Slayers_II.

Maps

From time to time, the players may map wilderness or dungeon areas. Links to maps and descriptions of those areas should be placed here.
The Wyzard's Maps

Languages

Every PC knows the common tongue as their native language. Below I will list some possible languages; ask if you have other nominations.

  • Goblin (Works with any of the goblinoid races)
  • Fey (For fairy and forest type creatures)
  • Draconic (The tongue of dragons - 15 IQ Minimum. Comprehension of the written form requires the Apprentice talent.)
  • Giantish
  • Old Amaranthian (Dead language, was spoken in a widespread sorcerous empire)
  • Thracian (Originally Spoken by a widely-traveled group of seafaring kingdoms. Still spoken in some isolated colonies.)
  • Elven
  • Dwarven (The written form can only be understood by PCs with the Mathematics talent in addition to literacy)
  • Primalingua (Spoken most frequently by angels, demons, and other powerful spirits. Useful in incantations, ambitious players may use Latin to indicate it in IC posts. Cost as a dead language, minimum IQ 12, Hieroglyphics required in addition to literacy to understand written form)
  • Elemental (the various elemental types speak slightly different dialects, but this will allow communication - the PC should pick which dialect they have greatest familiarity with)
  • The Moon Tongue (The common speech of the lands across the great ocean)
  • Reptilian (Language of the degenerate lizardfolk. They had an advanced and powerful civilization in the mists of history, but the tribes still living can no longer even read the writing on the walls of the great ziggurats their ancestors raised. The written form is incomprehensible to humans, but PCs with the Hieroglyphics skill and proficiency with the spoken form might be able to extract some meaning.)
  • Necrosian, being the common language of the dead. Not considered a dead language.

The Style Guide

The Campaign's Style Guide is a page subject to further modification and clarification. I absolutely encourage players to bring up any issue related to the game's style either in the OOC thread, or with me personally via PM. These guidelines are designed to make the game fun, comfortable for the players, dramatic, and fast-moving. If the game is failing in any of those respects, I encourage you to bring it to my attention. Obviously, we've all been playing the game together long enough that we should all be on roughly the same page. This is more a codification of things I've already been encouraging rather than a completely new creation.

An Introduction to The Fantasy Trip

The Fantasy Trip is an early rpg/tactical combat game. It was designed in large part by Steve Jackson, and illustrates many core concepts that would later become the foundation for GURPS. It is, however, much less complex and more focused than GURPS.

In very general terms, a character in The Fantasy Trip is defined by three statistics, some number of Talents (and possibly spells), and the equipment they carry. The three attributes are Strength, Dexterity, and IQ. Almost everything you can attempt in the game is controlled by rolling some number of six-sided dice (usually 3) and attempting to get under one of your attribute scores.

  • Strength represents your physical power and toughness. You can take an amount of damage up to your Strength before being defeated (and possibly killed) in combat. It also controls how much you can carry without being encumbered and what weapons you can wield properly. Further, it measures the maximum amount of Exhaustion you can take, which is very important for those who wish to cast spells.
  • Dexterity is used to determine in what order you act, and is also rolled against to hit in combat or cast spells successfully. Armor and other factors can Adjust your DX, usually downward. This is known as your Adjusted Dexterity. Whenever something calls for your DX, you use your current adjusted figure. Keep a high Adjusted Dexterity is very important! Without it, you will not successfully attack or cast spells.
  • IQ is a measure of your character's intellect, willpower, and ability to effectively master social situations. It also controls what Talents and Spells you have access to, since all Talents and Spells have a minimum IQ to learn.
  • Talents and Spells are purchased with Talent Points. A starting PC will have Talent Points equal to their IQ+2. They can purchase talents that let them use weapons, have advanced skills, or gain the ability to learn spells. Every Talent has a minimum IQ, a cost in Talent Points, and may have prerequisites.
  • Spells are purchased like Talents, except that they all cost only one Talent Point apiece. A character must gain access to a spell through a talent, and they can then learn it. A character casts a spell they know by declaring the action, rolling under their AdjDX on 3d6, and then spending the Strength Cost in Exhaustion (this doesn't affect carrying capacity or other Strength-based matters in any, other than potentially making the character unconscious.) A character who fails the spellcasting roll still expends 1 Exhaustion. A character cannot spend more Exhaustion on a spell than it would take to reduce them to 0 Strength, including however much damage they have taken.
  • Weapons have a minimum Strength to use, and usually do damage in proportion to how much strength it takes to wield them. Armor lets you resist a certain amount of damage from each hit, but adjust DX downward in compensation.


Characters gain XP as they adventure. XP can be used to purchase attribute points and talent points. XP should generally be spent during downtime.

Current House Rules

This section is also subject to modification and clarification. I'm going to start out using less than the entire body of rules, and may introduce them slowly over time. In some cases I will be simplifying, disallowing, or otherwise expanding on the RAW. I will generally put notice in the OOC thread before instituting any substantial change.

  • Characters become unconscious at 0 Strength, and can go negative to an amount equal to their Strength divided by three, rounding down. So, a character with twelve strength can go to -4. This does not generally apply to NPCs.
  • A character's Exhaustion effectively adds to his current damage to determine whether he is unconscious. A spellcaster cannot "overcast" and take himself to negative strength. Exhaustion can't kill you, but it can sure get you killed.
  • At the current time, we are not using Grievous wounds or any other special damage effects, weapon damage types, or similar.
  • There is something like a system for critical hits and misses in the book. Ignore critical miss type effects. A double damage result adds a D6 to your damage roll, a triple damage result adds 2d6 to your damage roll.
  • A character's monthly upkeep cost equals 1 gold crown for each 100 XP it would cost for them to buy an attribute point. In the case of PCs at the current time, this is 2 Gold Crowns per month.
  • For ease of reference, the monetary system is as follows: One Gold Crown (c) is 20 silver shillings (s.) One silver shilling is 12 copper pence (p.) One pence is worth four farthings (f.) A gold crown is a really substantial amount of money. Many people in the setting might never have two of these to rub together, or even a single one. A shilling is a pretty good amount of money. A few silver shillings would be a quite a bit of money to most people. Copper pence are normal pocket money, what you'd use to pay for meals and drinks and basic services. If you need really serious money, you can carry around a gold Mark (worth six crowns) or jewels (prices as per page 15 of In The Labyrinth.)
  • We will be maintaining the use of tokens. I will, from time to time, hand these out to the players. One token may be spent to force a reroll of any die roll in the game, but the new result must be taken (unless you want to keep spending tokens.) Two tokens may be spent to gain a Talent Point. Four may be spent to gain an attribute point. This may only be done during the normal times for spending XP, e.g., downtime.

New and Modified Talents

Setting Essays

Here will be posted the occasional essay that I write about the setting. If it seems piecemeal, that's intentional. I don't want to define too much.

I want to read the essays.

Items of Historical Interest

Here are maintained an archive of material from the earlier incarnation of the game, when it was being run under OD&D rules.

Links to the game-related threads

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