New Monster/Illustration of the Week: Liger

Inspired by this past week's Napoleon Dynamite episode, I've statted up the liger for Oe/1e and BX.

Liger (Standard)

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very Rare NO. APPEARING: 1 ARMOR CLASS: 4 MOVE: 12"/24" HIT DICE: 8 % IN LAIR: 15% TREASURE TYPE: C NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-8/2-8/2-12 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: See below INTELLIGENCE: Very ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil

BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 4 HIT DICE: 8** MOVE: 120'/240' ATTACKS: 2 claws/1 bite or special DAMAGE: 2-8/2-8/2-12 or special NO. APPEARING: 1 SAVE AS: Fighter: 8 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: U ALIGNMENT: Neutral

DESCRIPTION

Ligers are a lion and tiger mixed, bred for its skills in magic.

Ligers are fearsome beasts, easily the size of its two parents combined. Liger bones are also completely indestructible, often used (after its death) for defensive structures and the like. The liger's commanding physical prowess provides it with a deadly standard attack (2 claws each doing 2-8 points of damage, and 1 bite doing 2-12 points of damage.)

As magical creatures tied to the elements, ligers are immune to all cold-, flame- and electrical-based attacks and, reciprocally, are able to breathe (cone-shaped, 50' long and 20' wide at far end) fire, cold and lightning (each for 3-18 points of damage.) Additionally, the roar of a liger is a magical breath attack that causes paralysis. All creatures standing in the direct path of a liger's roar (a cone extending from the liger's mouth to a distance of 50' and a width of 20') must save vs. breath weapon or be paralyzed for 1-6 turns. Ligers are also capable of flight.

Free Dungeon Crawl Worksheet!

On the inside back cover of the d30 DM Companion, I've included this "Dungeon Crawl Worksheet." It's set up to allow DMs to detail each room from a larger (or ever-expanding) dungeon map, with all the details for the room on one page, including a grid for a detailed map of the room, and spaces to detail: a general description of the room, notes on entries/exits, details for 2 monsters (including HD, HP, AC, AL, THAC0, move, save, XP, attack/damage, special attacks/defenses/notes info), 2 traps (incl. triggers and effects), 2 "specials," and complete treasure hordes (incl. all coin denominations, potions/scrolls, wands/staves/rings, weapons/armor, and miscellaneous.) It's been laid out to allow you to 3-hole punch the left side to put in a ring binder or duo-tang folder. (Holes in image above are only a "serving suggestion." Actual file does not include black spots in those locations.)

Click here to download the PDF of the Dungeon Crawl Worksheet!

New (Classic Greek) Monster: Ophiotaurus

DESCRIPTION Ophiotauri are most often encountered hiding in their lairs, as they are constantly being hunted for the boon that killing one provides. Any character who kills an ophiotaurus will gain 1 experience level. This benefit is given only to the character who deals the final blow that actually kills the ophiotarus, and only after the entirety of the ophiotaurus's body has been burned and reduced to ash. Should any portion of the body remain unburned, no boon will be granted. The level grant will put the character at the minimum experience points for the next level up, based on the character's cumulative experience point total up to the point at which the entirety of the ophiotaurus has been burned, including any experience points gained for actually killing the ophiotarus. While an ophiotaurus's main form of attack is to gore with his horns, he is able to cast the following spells three times per day each (as a 5th level cleric): cure light wounds, detect evil, bless, hold person, and prayer.

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Very Rare NO. APPEARING: 1-3 ARMOR CLASS: 4 MOVE: 12" HIT DICE: 9 % IN LAIR: 85% TREASURE TYPE: D NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 3-12 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: .........Saves as 5th level cleric INTELLIGENCE: Average ALIGNMENT: Lawful good SIZE: L (15-20' long) PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 4 HIT DICE: 9* MOVE: 120' ATTACKS: 1 gore DAMAGE: 3-12 NO. APPEARING: 1-3 SAVE AS: Cleric: 5 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: D ALIGNMENT: Lawful

Another Really Old Old-School Artist: Frank C. Papé

Today's old old-school artist is Frank C. Papé, an English-born artist and illustrator, better known around these OSR-blog parts as the guy who illustrated a version of The Odyssey as well as Siegfried and Kriemhild. While the illustrations from both those books are absolutely beatiful, they are a bit too extravagant (many in color) and detailed to give them that "old-school" RPG feel that I dig so much.

One of the reasons I like to look through the children's portion of the "vintage/nostalgia" section of Half-price Books, is because most of the books have lots of pictures. Now, you can either assume that's because I'm an artist looking for reference/inspiration, or because I'm looking for pictures because I ain't so good with words. In truth, it's because I stumble upon cool images from the likes of Frank C. Papé. The illustrations below are from Uncle Ray's Story of the Stone-age People, an account of the European caveman. And these illustrations seem moderately reminiscent (though a precursor to) Alan Hunter's Fiend Folio illustrations.

d30 Feature of the Week: Road Encounters

Some of you may remember the "humanoid remains generator" portion of this page from an earlier post. In working on the d30 Wilderness Companion, it seemed to fit well on this page, so it's included with the newer portions of the page.

To download a free PDF of today's chart from MediaFire, click here.

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d3 DM Companion Update: The d30 DM Companion is still in the proofing stages, but it's coming along. Soon. I promise. Soon.

PurplePawn's Interview with Kickstarter Founder Yancey Strickler

While PurplePawn is a news site devoted to gaming as a whole (but particularly board gaming), they are still a great daily news source for what's happening in the gaming world (including RPG stuff.)

They recently interviewed Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler regarding the way Kickstarter has shaken up the board game industry. He also discussed the sense of community that develops around certain projects or types of projects.

Click here to read that interview.

Also, here are a couple of new/recent RPG Kickstarter projects you might find interesting:

Flatpack: Fix the Future! Optimistic Apocalyptic RPG
With 17 days left to do, it's already reached 425% of its goal.
Here's the free demo from DriveThru RPG.

Tephra: Steampunk RPG
With 9 days left to do, it's already reached $11k+! I was in Austin earlier this year and was going to try to sit in on a playtest session of this, but my schedule/timing didn't allow it. And for those players who like to give the d12 the love it deserves, Tephra uses only 1d12!
Here's an introduction to their game engine (The Clockwork System) at their comapny (Cracked Monocle) web site.

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At top: illustration from the introduction to Punch magazine volume 1, published in London in 1841.

Magic Positions Chart

This is based on something I found in an old computer folder from mid-1997 for a game concept I was developing at the time. I think my thought was, this would drive the magic system in the game (essentially determining something to the effect of a "sphere of influence.") So imagine that necromancers would fall somewhere between destruction/death and spiritual, druids would fall somewhere over by natural and existance/life, and conjurers/summoners would fall over by creation/birth. All that being said, I'm not sure if I developed it on my own from the way I thought magic should work (at the time), or if I "borrowed heavily" from an outside influence. Does this look familiar to anyone?