Saturday, March 11, 2023

The Ultimate Pseudo-Historical Fantasy Campaign


I'm planning on running a pseudo-historical fantasy campaign in the near future. I'm gonna set it in some far corner of Siberia, but from the player's perspective it will start as a traditional fantasy game using Swords & Wizardry (or LotFP) for character creation. They wont necessarily know they are on earth, at least not at first. 

I want to use certain old school tools, such as using the advice of starting small in a 100 x 60 mile region using Underworld & Wilderness Adventures to flesh out castles and rulers as we encounter them. if they leave the starting region we'll use the Outdoor Survival map and random encounters from U&WA. 

Dwarves and Halflings are allowed though they are rare and common people will be leery of  them. Elves are evil, I'm gonna use the Elves from Lion & Dragon and run them like Melniboneans, cruel and haughty Fae, stealing children, and luring men under Elf Hills and such.


Depending what the players do, and how long this runs, I have some ideas of what lies to the north and the south. If they go north they'll pass through Blackmoor, LotFP's Weird New World before reaching Mount Meru at the North Pole, where they could discover the openings to the Inner Earth. For that, if it ever happens, I'll use Grimm Aramil's Lexicon Geographicum Arcanum Vol. 1: Species of the Hollow Earth. If the go south they will discover China and the Silk Road (Sword & Caravan). 

I also plan on using a custom version of Jeff Reints' Random Campaign Advancement from Flame Princess Zine #6? Which will slowly move the campaign from high-magic fantasy to mundane low-magic historical. So, dwarves could fade away, or magic and magic-users, or even clerics could lose their abilities. It will all be random so, in classic old school fashion, I have no idea how this world will play out. 

I want to throw in the Lost Dungeons of Tonnisborg somewhere in there.  

I imagine this will be the ultimate campaign that plays out over several IRL years, but who knows, you know how these things go. Plan big, prep small. or something.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Having Fun is a Lot of Work

Wow, I haven't posted in 4 months. Well, we've been busy gaming, world-building and play-testing. I got some new RPG stuff this year; Swords & Wizardry box set, a bunch of new Lamentations of the Flame Princess books, and the Classic Call of Cthulhu box set that was recently kickstarted. So, we've been busy. 

I got my brother into White Star back in Jan. and we've been playing a weekly game and working on stuff for a White Star compatible project for the future. 

My uncle ran some TSR Marvel Super Heroes, which I had never played before.

And now that the Classic Cthulhu stuff arrived, we've started a Cthulhu campaign. 

So lots of gaming going on and more to be had. I plan to eventually publish a White Star compatible product with my brother at some point, and I have some vague plans for another LotFP compatible adventure. 

So, things are in the works. I'll update again at some point, until then I'm back to it. 

Happy Gaming

Friday, February 18, 2022

Privileged Doctor Class for White Star

This is a class I made just messing around, figured I'd share it. It's a combination of the Aristocrat and the Combat Medic.

Privileged Doctor

From the Core Worlds, a soft rich boy, in some kind of trouble, no doubt. Still has contacts among the Aristocrats, and commands respect from Combat Medics. They earn their keep on a ship by keeping the crew alive.

 Privileged Doctor Advancement

Level

XP

HD

BHB

ST

1

0

1

+0

14

2

1,500

1+1

+0

13

3

3,000

2

+1

12

4

6,000

2+1

+1

11

5

12,000

3

+2

10

6

24,000

3+1

+2

9

7

48,000

4

+3

8

8

96,000

4+1

+3

7

9

192,000

5

+4

6

10

384,400

5+1

+4

6


Privileged Doctor Features
 

Weapon/Armor Restrictions: Privileged Doctors may use clubs, daggers, firearms, laser pistols, mono-daggers, mono-swords, staffs, and swords. They can wear Light Armor, but do not use shields.

 Inspiring Speaker: Privileged Doctors are master orators. They are capable of performing a rousing speech before a crowd of listeners. Often this is used before a pitched battle or to hearten fearful friends. Using this ability requires one round to activate and any allies who hear the Privileged Doctor’s voice receive a +1 bonus to all To-Hit rolls and all Saving Throw rolls made for the next 6 turns.

 Med Kit Specialist: When a Privileged Doctor binds wounds (see White Star: White Box Science Fiction Roleplaying page 47) he heals an additional number of extra Hit Points equal to his Level. This bonus applies whether using a Med Kit or not. A Privileged Doctor may bind wounds at any time, though they must still wait until combat is over if they wish to use a Med Kit. They may only bind wounds once per character during a battle.

 Saving Throw: Privileged Doctors receive a +2 bonus to all Saving Throws made to resist attempts to influence them or cloud their mind.

 XP Bonus for Wisdom: Privileged Doctors with a Wisdom of 13 or 14 receive a 5% Experience Bonus, and those with 15 or higher get 10%.

 Back from the Brink (3rd): Upon reaching 3rd Level the Privileged Doctor is able to revive a character that has been reduced to zero (0) Hit Points within 1d6-3 rounds (minimum 1 round). By using a Trauma Pack and a Med Kit together, the Privileged Doctor brings the character to one (1) Hit Point, although they will remain unconscious for 1d6 hours, during which time no other mundane healing will be effective. Once the healed character wakes up, they must make a Saving Throw, which if successful results in no permanent injury from their brush with death. See Permanent Injury Results below to determine the effects of permanent injury from a failure. In some cases, these injuries can be compensated for with cybernetic enhancements.

 Permanent Injury Table

1d6

Permanent Injury

Effect

1

Lose an eye

-2 on all ranged To-Hit rolls

2

Permanent Limp

-3 to Movement

3

Mangled Arm

-2 on all To-Hit rolls made with a two-handed weapon

4

Shell Shocked

Reduce Wisdom by 1 point

5

Mangled or Lost Hand

Character cannot use two-handed weapons

6

Combat Paralysis

Character becomes paralyzed with fear when entering battle and must make a Saving Throw during the first round of combat or spend the first 1d6 rounds cowering in fear, unable to attack or act other than moving.

 Hospital Administrator (8th): When an Privileged Doctor reaches 8th level he can choose to establish a hospital on a planet or space station. He will need to raise the necessary resources to accomplish this by his own means, but if he is able to do so, followers will arrive to serve him loyally. The Privileged Doctor draws the service of several loyal individuals. Typically this includes a 1st or 2nd level Aristocrat or Combat Medic as well as an entourage of 2d6 normal humans who act as nurses and interns.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Wood Planet Gaming Lodge, Podcast Premiere


 
PREMIERE EPISODE!!! Join Jason and Mark as they briefly chat about OSR, and then explain what exactly is Wood Planet Gaming Lodge.
 
 
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Anchor fm, and more.

 

Saturday, January 1, 2022

Wood Planet Gaming Lodge

 

Wood Planet Gaming Lodge is a place to discuss table top RPGs. Me and my brother will be selling our wares, blogging about gaming and sharing gaming material. There will also be podcasts with interviews and/or reveiws, or just whatever we're inspired to talk about. 

We started this site a few years ago but schedules and life circumstances caused it to take a backseat, but now we're back! With the new year comes the new site and new opportunities for gaming goodness.

Come join us as we grow our site. Grab a seat at the table, fire up a pipe, warm yourself by the fire, and roll initiative!

Monday, December 20, 2021

LotFP Greyhawk Campaign

I wanted to run some old school Greyhawk. I thought, why not use the old 1e rules, I had OSRIC, so we made characters and started running Against the Slave Lords. We played the first 2 modules then the party split up, half went to Greyhawk City and half continued on. The ones who continued died in the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. 


Then we played a wild ass Lamentations campaign for the rest of the summer. Finally in the Fall we picked up Greyhawk again, but this time I converted everyone's characters to LotFP rules and off we went. 

Everyone had at least 2 characters, 3 to 5 players at the peak, then back to 3 players. We played a few adventures around Greyhawk from Treasures of Greyhawk, they found a Spelljammer vessel so we went into space and played a couple adventures from Skull and Crossbows. I never owned any of this stuff back in the day. These books were the reprints from drivethru. 

Finally they came back to Oerth and finished the Slavers modules. Then we started Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk. So I've run 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition modules with Lamentations of the Flame Princess and so far its been pretty smooth. 

I tied this new campaign in with my old Greyhawk game from 2001 in the 3e days. So my old high level character has made an appearance. My players are these young 20-something guys, so they are getting to discover Greyhawk for the first time.

Some people might wonder why Lamentations for the ruleset. Well, first I just love LotFP, it was my first retro-clone. And I like its skill system, the encumbrance, and there's very few class restrictions. For me as the DM, LotFP is just so smooth and easy to run.

Our highest level characters currently are around 8-10th level. 

It's been epic, we are wrapping up our last session by the end of the year. I enjoyed revisiting Greyhawk, not sure what our next campaign will be.

Until next time. Have fun, be cool. See ya next year.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

The Doom That Came to Chapman Farm - Available Now!


Available Now!

What happens when a ritual summoning goes wrong? A small town in Colonial Maryland is about to find out. Can your characters survive the coming doom? This short adventure is designed for characters to be dropped right into the action. There is little time to plan and lives hang in the balance, but a hasty attack could mean death. Or worse.

 

Get your PRINT copy here.

or PDF here.