OldSkull d100 NPC Generator

 I've been a fan of Kent Kelly's OSR Castle Oldskull gaming supplements for awhile now.  I recently picked up one of his newer releases the Oldskull d100 NPC Generator.  You can find it HERE

     The blurb from the Amazon description, " This book is dedicated solely to helping you to generate ideas which will allow you sketch out a unique, interesting and evocative Non-Player Character … either an enemy or ally to the Player Character party, depending on your needs... This is a compact guide which will give you only the core ideas to build your NPC from, in 5 minutes or less. (The initial read-through will take you longer.)..."

      After doing a quick read through of the book I decided to test out the " 5 minutes or less" theory.  The results are the NPC below.

 Belladonna the Terrible

female human, Fighter, Level 3   Neutral Evil

Str 14 Int 11 Wis 7 Dex 13 Con 12 Cha 5

Personality : Neurotic

Likes: Night & Darkness, due to her hideous scarring, she has a preference for operating at night and in the shadows. She views a bright sunny day as others would view a dark, cold and foggy night.

Loot/Valuables - any given time (depending on her recent  jobs or who she has murdered in an alleyway) she has up to 200 gp in valuables on her.

+1 Chainmail, Potion of Animal Control (in a pinch she will use the potion to control any nearby dogs, rats etc.  to attack her foes). 

      Guess what? The NPC Generator passed the 5 minute test.  Other than a couple of quick rolls in my OSE Treasure book to determine her magical armor and potion, I was able to get the above NPC just from a series of a few random rolls in the NPC Generator book.  It took me longer to find a picture of her that I liked than to roll up the NPC. All she needs is some hit points and a bit more gear and she is ready to unleash on my campaign!  Kent Kelly recommends using the book in between games rather than as an "at the table during sessions" resource, but it can work for that too.  I would have never come up with a NPC like Belladonna without this resource and I'm glad I picked it up!  

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and you are able to get some gaming in with your friends!  

-Good Gaming!  B.B.

Happy New Year!

What's this a post on my blog? 
Several people are doing posts reflecting on 2019 and speculation as to what they will be doing in 2020. I recently realized 2019 marked my 40 years of playing/running RPG's.  I started gaming back in 1979.  Believe it or not, the first game I GM'd was Gamma World (1st edition), and not D&D.  D&D (and D&D based games) has always been in the background these past 40 years, but I've played a ton of other games over the years.  A big helping of Sci Fi has always been there (Traveller, Rifts, Gamma World, etc..).  Gaming has been a kind of therapy for me all these years. When things were gloomy or bleak, I could channel my energies into creating interesting worlds and characters to help get through the rough spots of my life. Hardly the evil Satanic influence, that they tried to say it was back in the day. LOL

As for 2019...in 2019, I did a good bit of gaming, played (& DM'd) a lot of 5E.  Ran a really fun Stars Without Number Campaign, that unfortunately had to end due to work schedules and life stuff.  Played Call of Cthulhu for the first time in a mini-campaign. Worked in other OSR games as time permitted.  Played way too much Fallout. Later in 2019, I found myself in full blown Sci Fi mode.  I just can't seem to get enough of it. Shows like The Expanse, Mandalorian, and more, helped to feed my sci fi cravings... So here marks the first day of the year 2020...wow, for an old guy like me 2020 sounds very sci fi... growing up as a kid, we were all led to believe the world would have been nuked by now...Glad we are still here!

2019 also marked the 10 year anniversary of this blog! Wow a decade of Green Skeleton Gaming Guild. Something I started on a whim, back in the early OSR days.  I readily admit I have not posted nearly as much as I did in the early days. On more than one occasion I considered taking the blog down. I spent a good bit of time (too much time) on G+ when it was a thing, I poke around on MeWe a bit now.  But the blog is still here, I launched it when the Mutant Future RPG was a new thing, and that took me back to my P.A. gaming roots.  Heck even my online handle, Brutorz Bill, was inspired by my first Gamma World character, named after a mutant horse (Brutorz).  Haven't played any P.A. gaming in awhile, but I'm sure I will circle back around to it at some point. The Mutant Epoch has been on my shelf waiting to be played for far too long.

So where do I see things going in 2020?  I'm a fickle gamer, back in the early days of the hobby, we'd play all kinds of different things without thinking anything of switching when someone had bought a new game or adventure, always rotating back to D&D or Gamma World at some point. I think I will keep the blog up, for now anyways, I may not post much, but I kind of like having it around. For 2020, I'd like to get more Sci Fi gaming in, maybe revisit my Stars Without Number Campaign, or try something new. Cepheus Engine looks pretty cool, and a buddy just sent me Tiny Frontiers. As for fantasy gaming; 5E as much as I have tried to like it, just doesn't really wow me.  I'm an old school gamer at heart I think so that's likely where you will find me. There are so many awesome OSR games out there I still need to try; Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Adventurer Conqueror King, B/X Essentials, Blood and Treasure etc...

I hope this post finds you healthy and happy. I hope 2020 is a year of fun, laughs and lots of gaming. 
May The Force Be With You!  -B.B.

Game Store Bargain Treasures!

Went by the old Hobby Shop in town (one of the last ones these days). I haven't been there in awhile, and lo and behold found some cool stuff in the used RPG section.

The Night Below box is dinged up pretty badly, but all of the internal contents are there and are in excellent condition. I got all of this for under $15 bucks!
I had Night Below many years ago, but sold it off before I ever ran it.
Looking at this pile of coolness, I do believe I need to try to work all of these items together somehow into a cool campaign!  Night Below is a great Underdark Campaign, but using the Role Aids books to supplement it could make for an even more awesome setting.  Now to just decide what mechanic to use?  I'm leaning towards 5E, but Castles and Crusades has been calling out to me, and ACKS is a great system as well.  Decisions...decisions!
More to come!

Let the Christmas Vacation Begin!!! The Metal Gods of Dwimmermount!

Reading....

while listening to...

up next

and don't forget the...

Special Thanks to Kevin for the copy of Dwimmermount!
Special Thanks to Tormentor for the Helion Prime and Sabaton CD's!
Special Thanks to the Great State of Tennessee for the Jack Daniel's!  

ACKS : Let the Work Begin!

The kids aren't home, my paper has been submitted, my honey-do list is complete (for now), that means it is time for CAMPAIGN DEVELOPMENT!

After months of going back and forth as to which Fantasy RPG System I wanted to run, I find myself back in the OSR, and sitting down comfortably to work on and hopefully run a Campaign using the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS).  There are a ton of awesome Fantasy RPG's out there, my bookshelves are full of them, which was part of my issue, I kept chasing after that perfect system. Oftentimes to the detriment of my creativity and my players. The key thing I like about ACKS is that at it's core it is B/X D&D. The edition I grew up with and have arguably played the most over the years, yet ACKS has some fun new features and rules tweaks that allows players to customize their characters without me finding myself overwhelmed trying to keep up with all the different fiddly bits (like I experienced with Pathfinder). Given my hectic schedule this system really looks like it will meet my current gaming needs. While I haven't decided 100% on the campaign setting, I am leaning towards going with the official ACKS Campaign, set in and around the Auran Empire. The late Roman Empire feel to the setting seems like a refreshing break from the straight Tolkien Fantasy gaming that I grew up with, while keeping some of those elements familiar to D&D gamers (i.e. Dwarves and Elves).  Of course with all the cool stuff on my gaming shelves, I will be working in other material from my gaming library to use in my ACKS Campaign. Pictured above are a few of the books I'm planning on using. I've always liked Labyrinth Lord's Realms of Crawling Chaos, while I don't intend to go full-blown Cthulhu, this book is a great resource for Chaos elements to pull into my games. I'd also like to have some psionics in my game, not in a heavy handed way but having some out there, to make the game a bit more unusual and unique from things I have done in the past. And what campaign would be complete without monsters, but with ACKS even the traditional humanoid races have an interesting twist about them, so I'll be using my copy of the Monster Alphabet to put unusual spins on the monsters in the campaign. Well, that's all for now, I need to quit typing about the campaign and start working on it!  Have a great week and Good Gaming!

By This ACKS I Rule!

Here's a little something I worked up to kick-off my upcoming ACKS Campaign!


Original cover by Mike Ploog, from the Marvel Comics adaptation of R.E. Howard's Kull. No copyright infringement is intended. 

Weekend Reading: Conan, Kull and ACKS!

What an awesome day to go to the mailbox!

I know what I'll be doing this weekend! 

Moloids for ACKS

Thanks to Eric Fabiaschi's recents posts about the Adventurer Conqueror King System (ACKS), I started reading my ACKS books again. I have to say this is a great system. B/X at the core of the game, but with some great versatility and character options that don't overwhelm this busy DM. So for fun I converted an old Marvel Comic's race for adventurers to encounter while exploring the deep subterranean depths. 

 Moloids

% in lair:  50%

Dungeon Enc: Work Crew (4d4) / Work Gang(1 union)

Wilderness Enc: Union (1d6 work crews)/Lair (1d10 work gangs)

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 60' (20')

Armor Class: 0

Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points

Attacks: 1 (weapon)

Damage: 1d3 or weapon -1

Save: 0 level human

Morale: -2 (in numbers fewer than 10, their morale is -3)

Treasure Type: Special (Moloids, do not value gems, coins or jewelry, however, if encountered in their lairs, they could be working to maintain powerful machines of the ancients).

XP: 2

Description

     Moloids are short (4' tall average, advanced moloids can be up to 5' tall) yellow-skinned, emaciated humanoids. Males and females are almost indistinguishable from one another to non-moloids, in fact other than the rare advanced moloids, to outsiders every moloid looks exactly the same; short, thin, yellow skinned humanoids, with large pointed ears, no visible nose and large, heavy lidded eyes, with very small pupils.

     Moloids make terrible warriors, they are workers not warriors, and will flee danger at the first opportunity, as well as, the second and third opportunities. They don't have the drive or interest in making weapons, and if forced to fight will use clubs or staves or whatever other tools they have at hand.

     Moloids live exclusively underground, and will only venture onto the surface at the command of a powerful master,  if commanded to the surface during daylight and without some form of protective eye wear they will be at -3 to morale.  They suffer a -2 penalty to all attack throws when in full sunlight. However, they have superior infravision 90' and keen hearing. 

Moloids are believed to be descended from a slave race created by some ancient peoples (Atlanteans?) thousands of years ago.  They have lived in the deep earth for untold millennia, and whatever they once looked like, or whatever their full potential once was, countless generations of inbreeding has reduced the race to its current sad state.

     Moloids are not innovative or creative (other than the rare advanced moloids), they usually wear simple rags as clothing, and beyond their occasional use of protect eye goggles wear little clothing or gear. However, they are exceptionally skilled at maintaining existing equipment and machinery. Originally designed to service the great machines of the ancients, they are innately skilled at keeping such forgotten devices in working order, however, they cannot explain to others how they work or expand on what the machines already do.

Subterranean Giant Monster Training: The moloids have lived in their deep caverns underground for generations, and share their lairs with a variety of subterranean large monsters (perhaps also creations of the ancients). Somehow the non-creative moloids have found a way to train these various giant monsters, in a way equivalent to the Animal Training Proficiency. It takes many moloids working together to train just one beast, but they have the time and the numbers, so any given moloid work gang, and especially a moloid lair will have 1d6 such beasts. 

      Moloids are innately docile and subservient, a strong, and/or charismatic leader can seize control of a large group of these creatures and bend them to his will. They are still cowards and do better as workers and laborers rather than warriors. 

                                                 Advanced Moloid

      One in every  500 Moloids shows traits of the race's prior potential, and while still weakly and sensitive to sunlight, these rare advanced moloids can be highly intelligent (16-18), morale 0,  (for an added twist give them a chance to be a wild psionic, as per Richard LeBlanc's PX-1  Basic  Psionics Handbook , a great resource for B/X based games, I highly recommend it!). 

 

Adapted from the Moloids race found in Marvel Comics. First Appearance : Fantastic Four #22 (January, 1964) No copyright infringement is intended.

Special thanks to Mark Craddock for giving me the idea!  Cross Planes

Witchfinder Wolves

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  Today I thought I would share another beast from the recent pages of Dr. Strange, stat'd up for the ACKS system.  Enjoy!

Witchfinder Wolves % In Lair: 10% Dungeon Enc: Pack (1d4) / Den (2d4)  Wilderness Enc: Route (2d4) /  Den (2d4)  Alignment: Neutral  Movement: 120' (40')  Armor Class: 4 (boney plating, this plating has made them slower than normal Dire Wolves)  Hit Dice: 4 + 2 Attacks: 1 (bite) Damage: 2d4  Save: F2  Morale: 0  Treasure Type: None XP: 140 Witchfinder Wolves are a rare breed of Dire Wolf, believed to have been specially bred during ancient times to hunt down enemy spellcasters. Witchfinder Wolves have the Sensing Power ability. Like the proficiency they can detect spellcasters within 60', and can get a vague sense of the power level of the spellcaster. Sensing a high level spellcaster will cause them to send out a wide-ranging howl, summoning other packs of Witchfinder Wolves to join in on the hunt. Witchfinder Wolves can "smell" the recent use of arcane magic, within the last 24 hours within their vicinity. The wolves cannot determine if a specific item is magical, however, they will sense magic on the item if  it has been used within the past 24 hours. When they are actively sensing magic their eyes glow with an eerie green eldritch glow. Since the collapse of the Empire that first bred them, Witchfinder Wolves have found their way into the wilds and have spread to other regions. Certain brave (some would say foolhardy) individuals have relearned the means to tame and train these ferocious predators, although even in the hands of the best animal trainer a Witchfinder Wolf can be an unpredictable beast at best. Unlike Dire Wolves, Witchfinder Wolves will not tolerate a rider (goblin or otherwise). Witchfinder Wolves have the intelligence and viciousness of Dire Wolves but are even more cunning and display an almost malicious nature, especially when on the hunt for a spellcaster. They don't derive any special benefit or extra sustenance from preying upon spellcasters, but it is so ingrained into their nature to hunt mages, that even those living in the wild, engage in an almost vicious glee when they get the "scent" of an arcane spellcaster. In the wild they prefer to live in wooded and mountainous areas, but like Dire Wolves they are even more likely enter into caverns or dungeons in search of prey, especially spellcasters. When a Witchfinder wolf den is encountered, there is a 25% chance that 1d3 cubs are present. Witchfinder wolf cubs may be kept and trained in the same manner as dogs, but are difficult to train and control.  However, if cubs are present the pack will fight ferociously to protect the cubs (Morale +3). *If using these with the core ACKS Campaign, have them date back to the Empyrean War, possibly being bred by the Zaharans to hunt down enemy spellcasters. Based on the Witchfinder Wolves found in Dr. Strange, by Marvel Comics.  First Appearance Doctor Strange Vol 4 #1 (December, 2015) No copyright infringement is intended

Een'Gawori Slugs

Thought I would stat up a Slug in honor of Free RPG Day! Stats are for ACKS, but this critter should work for most OSR games.
Enjoy!

Een'Gawori Slugs

% In Lair: None

Dungeon Enc: Solitary or rout 1d8

Wilderness Enc: None

 Alignment: Neutral

 Movement: 10' (3')

 Armor Class:  (only harmed by magic)

Hit Dice: 1 hit point

Attacks: Only vs. Magic Items    Damage: Drains Magic

 Save: 0 level human

 Morale: 0

 Treasure Type: None (although enterprising souls have used them to find hidden magic items)

XP: 5

Drain magic: Een'Gawori Slugs feed on magic. They must be in direct contact with a magic item in order to feed off of it and drain its magical energy.

Een'Gawori Slugs are the bane of adventurers everywhere. These hand-sized bluish-grey slugs while being unable to harm living creatures actually feed off of magic. They move about in dungeons and dark places ever searching for magical energies to consume. They can Detect Magical auras, as the spell at will and will be drawn to the nearest magic item in order to feed. The slug will feed off of the magical energy found in enchanted weapons, armor and potions etc. Left undisturbed a slug will permanently drain the magical energies from a magic item. The more powerful the item the longer it takes for the slug to permanently drain it. Any permanent magic item being fed upon by one of these slugs must make a Save vs. Spell as a Mage (the "+" of the magic item indicates equivalent level of the Mage), a failed save indicate the item is no longer magical. Potions and scrolls being more temporary in nature do not get a saving throw. Although it takes a minimum of one round of feeding in order to cause an item to be forced to make a save. These slugs may feed off of artifacts, but are unable to permanently drain an artifact of its power, in fact some lost artifacts have been discovered with an entire rout of slugs feeding off of it. Due to the arcane diet of these creatures they may be only killed by magical weapons. However, they instinctively fear salt, and will avoid touching it at all costs. Moving in the opposite direction of it, even if a powerful magical item is nearby.

Dedicated to Free RPG Day, with a nod to the original Disenchanter created by Roger Musson from the original Fiend Folio.

Based on the Een'Gawori Slugs found in Dr. Strange, by Marvel Comics. First Appearance Doctor Strange Vol 4 #3 (February, 2016). No copyright infringement is intended