Author: Alessandro “Adam” Gianni

Speaking of spellbooks, this came to my mind. #wizardweek

Speaking of spellbooks, this came to my mind. #wizardweek

Speaking of spellbooks, this came to my mind. #wizardweek  

Spellfocus replaces spellbook

You prepare your spells from your focus. Spells are stored in this focus and you must spend time with it when preparing them. You start with 2 cantrips and 2 level 1 spells stored in your focus. Whenever you reach an odd numbered level, you learn one more spell of your level or lower and it’s stored in your focus. Choose one:

– An ancient magic tome of 1 weight. You learn one new spell also at even numbered levels, and you know one extra cantrip and level 1 spell right from the start.

– A tiny, supernatural familiar animal: describe it. It follows your orders, you can see through its eyes, and you may cast spells through it.

– A sorcerer’s staff of 2 weight and close range. You can prepare one extra spell level slot.

– A magic sword of 2 weight and close range. When you hold it, you deal +2 damage and have +2 armor.

– A dark lord’s crown. When you wear it, you can roll+Cha instead of +Int whenever you would roll for a wizard’s move and you have leverage against anyone as long as you have your highest level known spell prepared.

– A soulgem. It contains 3 mana holds. When you roll a 7-9 on a cast a spell roll, you can choose to loose one mana hold instead. You gain 3 mana holds when you prepare spells.

please, feel free to add to this list.

#wizardweek As I said, here to put an end to all this damage dealing spells by unleashing them out.

#wizardweek As I said, here to put an end to all this damage dealing spells by unleashing them out.

#wizardweek As I said, here to put an end to all this damage dealing spells by unleashing them out.

Chain Lightning (Level 5, Evocation)

Lightning bolts spring from your hands to strike any number of enemies each close to at least another one, inflicting 2d8 damage which ignores armor and stunning them for a bunch of seconds.

Cone of Cold (Level 7, Evocation)

You breath forth glacial winds that envelop anything in front of you, inflicting 2d10 damage which ignores armor, freezing and slowing down your targets for some moments, and leaving a long-lasting coat of ice in the area.

Meteor Swarm (Level 9, Evocation)

You evoke a rain of fireballs that devastate everything you can see, inflicting 2d12 damage which ignores armor, tearing down inanimate objects and buildings, digging craters the size of a house, and raising a fog of smoke and dust that obscures the view in the area for days.

After having tried the wonderful fate accelerated, I’m feeling the urge to come back to my beloved dungeon world.

After having tried the wonderful fate accelerated, I’m feeling the urge to come back to my beloved dungeon world.

After having tried the wonderful fate accelerated, I’m feeling the urge to come back to my beloved dungeon world. Actually, I think the stars are right for some world of dungeons! But I have a question and I don’t know where to ask. Is this the right place? Let’s see: the +1d6 damage you get at level 5 and 10 does apply also to the 2d6+level of magic damage? My guess it’s “nope”, but I’m not sure. Also, is it appropriate to tag the most eminent mr. John Harper ?

So, the cleric was in a sort of magical items and ingredients store and he said: “well while I’m here I use my…

So, the cleric was in a sort of magical items and ingredients store and he said: “well while I’m here I use my…

So, the cleric was in a sort of magical items and ingredients store and he said: “well while I’m here I use my remaining questions from discern realities to search for something useful for the wizard”

I turned myself to the wizard and said to him: “well, in what are you interested?”

The wizard replied: “why, ultimate knowledge of course! I guess the cleric finds some mystical tome or something…?”

Me: “gee I’m tired of tomes and books and whatnot. You, cleric, find a bottle full of big, pink pills which quadratically augment the user’s mental faculties, like they expand their mind to impossible, almost painful levels of intellect.”

BIG PINK PILLS

When you eat a BPP,  in the near future you can either trigger a spout lore roll about something you couldn’t possibly know or you can decide to add +int instead of +wis on a discern realities roll and then ask whatever question you like (you still can ask 1 or 3 questions depending on the result). If you miss one of those rolls, it’s considered a 10+ result for the effect of the move, but the GM can go crazy about the side effects of the pills. You can eat more pills at once, proportionally increasing the number of moves you can exploit in this way.

Hangout game!

Hangout game!

Hangout game! And guess what: first the wizard failed her roll to cast invisibility on the thief, making him permanently invisibile; then the cleric failed to cast cure light wounds on him, making the thief also incorporeal. He exploited this status in wonderful ways for a session and a half, then the wizard, after having gathered the right ingredients, ritualized a cure. Now the thief is totally eligible for some compendium class! We’re thinking more of a ghostly/spiritic path than a classic phantom ninja’s one. Is there anything out there we can build on? Someone with good ideas to share with us?

Hi guys!

Hi guys!

Hi guys! I know there was some discussion here about last breath, and the fact that you don’t always get to roll it: specifically, you roll it when you’re dying, not when you’re totally fucked up. You know, instantly decapitated, tossed in a river of lava, and so on. Can someone help me fetch it, or give me confirmation about this?

Hi, I can’t sleep, so I’m cranky, so I figured: why shouldn’t I be bring forth some polemic thoughts on the tavern?

Hi, I can’t sleep, so I’m cranky, so I figured: why shouldn’t I be bring forth some polemic thoughts on the tavern?

Hi, I can’t sleep, so I’m cranky, so I figured: why shouldn’t I be bring forth some polemic thoughts on the tavern?

I just read about something I already read before more than once and I really don’t understand: all the trouble people goes through when prepping for a first session. What I mean is: in the first session, you ask loads of questions that, in my experience, if properly managed, will build a dungeon all by themselves and unleash significant hints for the setting. Heck, more often than not I ask questions just for fun, I have everything I need on the character’s sheet. Last time, the paladin said that he was on a quest to discover the truth about the cult of the black hand; he was also immune to fire. The thief said he was of noble blood, escaped and fallen into a life of crime because his parents were involved in some sort of dark, if not evil, plot; he choose the goldenroot poison. Instant dungeon for me: a cathedral full of cultists and demons, the summoning ritual of a fire beast close to being completed, classic traps and a dining hall to apply the poison. I had also a plot twist at the end: the thief’s father was one of the most prominent cultists.

However, doing the opposite, I would have found myself in trouble. I mean, writing a dungeon before hand, without knowing what the characters cared about. I can easily write a good looking dungeon full of adventurous marvels, but it wouldn’t be the same because it wouldn’t be linked to the characters.

And it’s not like you can say “I build a dungeon, then I refine it during play linking it to the characters”. Because the very foundations of a dungeon like the one I described were rooted in the characters’ goals and backgrounds, and the game was better thanks to this.

So, back where I started: why going through all of this for a first session? I’m all for a good prep during sessions (because you know the characters and everything), but what do you get by a prepped first session that you can’t achieve by just following the rules?

Mind you, I’m not telling you how you should play your game. It’s just, I can’t realize what’s going on with all the buzz about first session prep and this bugs me.