Tag: Maezar

Spell part: Verb!!! Here’s a starting list based on 1E. What would you like to see added to this list?

Affect

Alter

Animate

Bless

Blur

Call

Change

Chant

Charm

Climb

Clone

Command

Commune

Comprehend

Confuse

Conjure

Control

Create

Cure

Dance

Detect

Disintegrate

Dispel

Enchant

Enlarge

Entangle

Erase

Exorcise

Feign

Find

Forget

Heal

Heat

Hold

Identify

Imprison

Jump

Kill

Knock

Know

Levitate

Locate

Lower

Mend

Misdirect

Move

Neutralize

Part

Pass

Polymorph

Predict

Produce

Project

Protect

Purify

Push

Read

Regenerate

Reincarnate

Remove

Resist

Restore

Reverse

Scare

Shatter

Shield

Sleep

Slow

Speak

Stop

Stun

Suggest

Summon

Teleport

Transform

Transmute

Transport

Turn

Vanish

Write

Hi All. Been a long time as I am so busy in my non-gaming life. Just a note here in case anyone is still interested in our “d12 World” Freebooters campaign.

Recently, we added a new type of DURATION. It is measured in MOVE ROLLS. Any roll for any move causes that duration to decrease by one. Examples of this type of duration include the STUNNED condition inflicted by some attacks, the effects of certain poisons, and temporary afflictions that take characters out of action. The GM may make a move to increase or decrease roll duration by 1. We track duration with white glass stones.

An example.

Ahasio the Mage is gripped by a ghoul and paralyzed for (d6) (rolls). 5! His first response is to try to make a saving throw. Futile but simply because the move is rolled, duration on the paralysis is reduced to 4. Success! Athasio reduces the duration of his paralysis again to 3 (had he failed, it may have gone back to 4 or the GM might have taken another move. On a split, duration would still be reduced but would be accompanied by the usual unwanted (lesser) cost. With Athasio still paralyzed (3) and at risk of being devoured, Another player steps in. Honarth the warrior pushes forward to drive the Ghouls away from Athasio. [Saving Throw (STR)]. Upon rolling, d(Paralyze) is reduced again to 2. Success! Athasio is out of harm’s way for the moment. Sleerth the thief backstabs, inflicting damage against one of the ghouls. Since backstab requires no roll to “inflict your damage” this just happens with no effect on duration. The ghouls press back upon Honarth as he is joined by Jukko the cleric. Holy symbol held aloft, Jukko calls out an Invocation (+WIS). Rolling reduces Athasio’s paralysis duration to 1. A split. Jukko takes +1 forward from the effect and tries to Turn Undead (+WIS). Failure!!! Athasio loses a white stone. Just one left! A GM move determines that Jukko has been attacked and is now also paralyzed for (d6) 2 rolls. Ug! Sleerth glides in, defying danger with a Saving Throw (+Dex) to “snap his friends out of it.” Merely making the roll has the desired effect! Athasio comes around and Jukko loses a stone… just one left! Rolling a Critical Success, Athasio also grants +1 forward to Honarth, whose swing of a broad axe (+STR+METTLE) not only kills a ghoul, but gives Jukko the time to snap himself out of it. As he successfully rolls TURN UNDEAD, the ghouls scurry away as the party recoups with healing potions.

In comparison, in my previous by-the-book GM style I would not have used duration at all for Ghoul paralysis. A single saving throw would have reversed the effect on a split or better. The method above draws danger along over longer lines of play. When used to describe the effects of PLAYER inflicted durations (sleep poison) for instance, it forces an economy of rolls that really invokes an old-school problem solving mentality.

See you all in a month or so when work lets up 🙂

My “Monday Knights” group has been playing Freebooters weekly for 15 months!

Tonight’s session was about “recovering from major setbacks” that had befallen the group in weeks past. First, they plied Queen Yijara of Hind with glories and gifts (a phoenix ransomed with the loot from a dragon’s horde, and a huge stalactite of magical darkness delivered to her court by a creature of living stone) until she finally returned to them the magical key that will allow them to continue exploring the depths of the dungeon below distant Kinlye. The key had been confiscated when the sorcerer Serso (PC) was thrown to rot in Yijara’s dungeons after he was caught attempting to spy magically upon her.

Next, the group finally put an end to the obstacles posed by the will (and agencies) of Akheenistradu, a suspicious and hot-tempered extra-planar noble who it turned out had been spying on them through their longest-held follower, the guide (and confidant) Wara. All were indeed delighted when it was revealed that tonight’s reward would be an alliance rather than fiery death.

Next time, it will be new magical research for Serso, “Lucky” Jakk’s return to Kobold-town, and new challenges as the toad-priest Kathug attempts to claim the arch-clericy of Thalangul while Raas the Dragonslayer awaits the product of his partner’s forge: a magical sword to wield against the Blight Dragon who waits beyond the final door!

Here are some sample spells from my “Advanced” Freebooters random generator for the ILLUSIONIST!

Iridescence of Ebon Fear

Daladred’s Sound

Sphere of Weaving Energy

Scintillating Revelation

Hecaxa’s Darkness

Chromatic Phantasm

Glamer of the Cerulean Veil

Rasaro’s Invisibility

Spray of the Befuddling Illusion

Yellow Geodesy

Daedriar’s Amethyst Radiance

Mercuasta’s Perfection

Strike of Chromatic Deceit

Inescapable Nightmare

Boro’s Terrible Derision

Turgad’s Folding Shimmer

Wave of Impossible Monsters

Ezphim’s Blinding Intricacy

Weird Circle of Silver

Oo’s Door

Rasamia’s Weaving Wave

Azaro’s Impossible Image

Asikaal’s Ray of Trances

Strange Disguise

Halo of Beauty

Haze of Visions

Elydriar’s Phantasm Shaft

Ward of Fluorescent Irridescence

Ziridor’s Excellent Projection

Illusion of Sparkling Voice

Pattern Blast

Vagmast’s Enlightening Globe

Void Glamer

Rune of Every-colored Flame

Floating Shadow

Elyraana’s Impossible Horror

Gailistus’s Dark Precision

Quelark’s Infinity

Gleam of the Prismatic Minim

Maharaela’s Invisible Alteration

Verdigris Gem of Magics

Zirijobulon’s Awe

Ghaitorr’s Guile

Lustrous Illusion

Gurgarna’s Invisibilty Veil

Glamer of the Vivid Sigil

Some of you know that I use Freebooters for long-term campaign style play. I’m over fifty sessions in with one group, and approaching 25 with another.

This gives me the chance to see the rules across many different scenarios. The game adapts and evolves. Today, I’m looking to discuss the mechanics of DURATION and INFLICTED CONDITIONS and how I find myself wanting to fine tune them.

As a FotF Fighter, you can spend one METTLE to “Inflict a condition–stunned, hindered, etc.–of your choice on your foe (subject to Judge approval), with a Duration equal to 1+INT (minimum 1).” Mage and Cleric players make the valid argument that their spells/invocations should be able to inflict conditions too. I buy it. I’ve seen thieves use poison to inflict conditions, and I’ve even been tempted to add it as one of the items in the list for “Backstab”.

The condition STUNNED–suggested in the move’s own language–is a powerful and effective one to inflict. A stunned creature is unable to react or respond in any way. I have no problem therefore, allowing conditions that mimic the same mechanic. We’ve used PARALYZED, BLINDED, BEWILDERED, DAZED, KNOCKED DOWN, etc. Spell conditions can be more creative: TERRIFIED may actually cause an opponent to flee, while CHARMED can change the course of an encounter altogether.

I’ve noticed, however, especially at DURATIONS of 2+, that the right condition can run away from you. When players inflict a condition and then subsequently avoid rolling, or roll moves against their best abilities, this can (mechanically) go too far in blocking the failures that deplete DURATION counters. This can be done artfully in the context of well-crafted fiction, or it can be done in a more exploitative way. In any case, DAZED, Duration 3, can turn a dragon to mincemeat while player misses and partial successes merely chip away at DURATION, even when–as described in a previous discussion of DURATION as a “shield”–you also make players MAKE A SAVING THROW to deal with the immediate fallout of the failures that also deplete duration.

Imagine a great protracted antagonist, the Dragon Agazbek, STUNNED by an intelligent fighter (Duration 3) and then lallygagging helplessly while players “take a moment to rest and catch [their] breath,” “brood and plot in silence,” drink some potions, cherrypick a treasure or two” then poison her nest and slip away. There is an implicit danger that she might snap out if it, but everyone rolls Defy Danger/Make a Saving Throw, and after a few successes and an keen eye on the duration counter?

I am therefore considering a house rule as follows:

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER

When you make any move that worsens the state or stakes of a creature whose instinct is suppressed by a condition or effect, reduce the duration of that condition by one.

For my Friday night FotF group, I’ve re-written the Dungeon World move “Turn Undead” as follows. We play with 2d12s, so scale move results accordingly.

TURN==============

Each time you take this move, choose a specific type of creature or and enemy of your faith that you can turn:

o Undead

o Demons/Devils

o Lycanthropes

o Elementals

o Paladins/Clerics of opposed alignment

o Heretics ____________

o Followers of the Deity __________________

When you hold your Diety’s symbol aloft and call upon Divine power to turn, roll +WIS:

24+ : Hold 5

20+ : Hold 3;

13-19 : Hold 1

12- : Mark XP; The GM makes a move. You may not attempt to turn this individual or group again until you level up.

2- : As above, but expect the worst.

Spend hold as follows:

1h: The turning is successful with duration 1.

1h: Increase duration by 1.

1h: Among those turned, the intelligent are momentarily dazed; the mindless flee.

1h: One intelligent or LEVEL mindless turned creatures are dealt damage equal to your current favor. Any creature that would be destroyed by this damage may instead be compelled by the cleric.

So long as you continue turning, no turned creature may come within reach of you. The turned may find ways to harry you from afar.

If you succeed with a split (13) or better, you may make this move again against the same opponent(s).