Making plans...

 Right before I left the old country, we finished playing through the first book of the old Dragonlance campaign. 

The Playing D&D In Ukraine gang are cool. They're always eager to try out new stuff (as long as it's not FATAL), they're thinking that rolling badly and losing in a game can be as much fun as folling well and winning, they're diverse (now that I've left, the straight white guys are actually a minority), they're good playtesters (which is why I mentioned them on the first page of All Dogs Go To Hell).

Also they like their characters and their adventures. They're cool with one-shots, but they like to get XP and level up their characters and keep on exploring and adventuring.

And Dragonlance is a long campaign. Book One is barely the beginning. 

So we're going to play online, and we're going to play this. 

Hello again, Douglas Niles. Long time no play. 

 

 

And this needs some hacking. A) We're using LotFP rules, so that's something to adjust for, B) it was funny to get through the five-feet staff hidden in the barbarian girl's clothes and libraries without any books and treasuries where the only treasure was a draconian captain (very drunk). But it's been done. We want treasuries with treasure, we want libraries with books, we want crumbling scrolls with new spells written by mad wizards.

 And C) in our campaign, the Innfellows are not the heroes, they're doing something else, the heroes are a kender bardess, an elven mage, and a dwarven cleric. Putting Laurana and her brothers into this trio's adventures was fun, so I need to think of ways to bring in more NPCs and make a bigger mess out of their relationships. Did I mention that the kenderess transformed into a fireshadow and went to explore the Abyss in the end of our last session? I have no idea what new friends and enemies she made on the way. Neither do the players, yet. 

So, the adventure starts in Tarsis. Tarsis is a big city. If we're in a city, I want to use the city, I don't want just "The inn, the palace, and a couple NPCs with plot hooks", I want stores and sewers and nobles and intrigues and the whole shebang. 

So I'm taking this, and I'm hacking Tarsis with it. 

 

 Praise Vorn, y'all. 

I'm not telling just what I'm going to do because the players don't necessary need to know just yet. But I got plans. Oh, yes. 

And now for something completely different. 

What people say about All Dogs Go To Hell?

Thank you, person from Reddit. It did get a release somehow. 

Still available for whatever you're willing to pay in here.

It has been a busy week

There's a lot I wanted to write about, but I didn't. Because a) real life demands some action, It's nicer and more fun than what I did in my old life, but still time-consuming. 

And b) some of my favourite people in the hobby asked me to do some work, and when this happens, you don't say "But I want to write something for my blog". 

Can't say what's it going to be but it should be good, if I manage to finish it. 

But meanwhile, some nice things. 

I've thought about making a table for LotFP that's all about drugs, magical drugs, creepy drugs, drugs that make you stronger, drugs that make you weird, etc. While I was thinking about it, Zak went and made one. 

I think using it for side effects of magic potions will be interesting. Instead of a d6, roll a d100 and use Zak's table for the specific effect. 

Going to playtest it with the Playing D&D In Ukraine gang as soon as we get together and roll some dice.

Simple side effects of magic potions

 If just glugging liquid hit points and bottled spells begins to feel boring, here's one way to spice it up. Thanks to Becami Cusack at Systematica for inspiration.

The potions that you find in a dungeon and were made by some freak who knows where and probably under strong influence of some underground-grown hallucinogen have 3 in 6 chance to have random side effects. Every found batch of potions shares the same side effect, including 1-potion batches. 

There's also a 1 in 6 chance that the potion is actually more effective than it should've been - roll twice and pick the best result when determining its effect. 

City-based alchemists sometimes make potions that have a known side effect, and sell them to common folk, lowering the price compared to basic potions - a practice made famous by an opportunistic alchemist named Generico.  

The side effects start if the characters fail a saving roll versus poison when drinking the potion.

Possible side effects: 

1. Allergy. The character's body itches viciously. This is annoying, and causes a -1 penalty to all rolls. What's worse, unless treated, this condition returns every time the character drinks a potion of the same type as the one that caused allergy. 

2. Intoxication. Whenever the character tries to do something important, or whenever it might provide funny results, make them roll twice and pick the worse result. It's cumulative and gets worse if the character drinks more than one potion - after failing the roll versus poison twice, it's "roll thrice and pick the worst", etc. Don't apply it to the actual saving roll. 

3. Bliss. The character is happy about the world and their place in it. Whenever someone - anyone - makes a suggestion, make the player roll against magic. On a failure, the character thinks the suggestion's an excellent idea, and should be implemented immediately - treat it like Suggestion spell. 

4. Hallucinations. In combat, make the character roll twice and pick the worse "to hit" result, on a failure, the character strikes down a hallucinatory enemy. Out of combat, play it out as you like it. 

5. Sleep. Roll to save versus magic, on a failure, treat it as a succesful Sleep spell. Reroll for elves. 

6. Roll twice and combine.  

I'll need to test it out but so far I like it. 

If you still haven't read All Dogs Go to Hell, the latest LotFP adventure by, well, me, you can still get it at DTRPG for whatever you want to pay for it. Hurry before they run out of PDFs.