itch.io

The document is fully bookmarked with relevant page references linked. I will see if I can squeeze in a simple Table of Contents, but I may not be able to without breaking the page layout and document size (right now it prints to booklet pretty easily).

Really glad you're enjoying it though! I am always open to hear more suggestions as well

If you are taking Witchery you can choose your starting spells. It's only if you find random spells that you can't choose them

Yes, you read the dice separately. So with 1 unmarked progress, your target number is 2+, meaning each die must read 2 or higher to count as a success. So yes, a 1 and a 4 is a partial with a 3 and a 5 being full. Double 1s is just bad luck.

Yes, any attribute+skill combo you can reasonably argue as relevant (players choice) can be used to make a check. So if you have Swim, and need to argue your ability, you could use your knowledge of how to swim (i.e. the Swim skill) to argue it. Skills are not tied to any specific attribute. 

Thanks for the shout-out! It has been a delight to see this project develop. I've really enjoyed playing it

Not to worry, I took it as one. Glad you like it! I have a Dragonbane toolkit, Just One Dragon, more geared towards Dragonbane specifically if you're interested. Has some of the same tables, but many specific to Dragonbane

Maybe, depending on what you are after! I am very pleased with it, and unless I come up with a truly brilliant plan, will not be updating it further.

It's on my to-do list!

Lore is actually 3 separate skills: Religious, Sorcerous, and Local. If you want the Lore skill, you have to pick one of the subcategories. That brings it up to 29+Background, or 30

Hotlinks are now included!

Sure! Glad you're enjoying the game!

Let's take an 8 room dungeon. So when we get to half size (4 waypoints explored), we start rolling a d8 on room 5. If we roll an 8 while exploring waypoints 5, 6, 7, or 8, we will find our goal and can leave the dungeon.

However, let's say we don't find it. So we look at all our unexplored waypoints (places where there were exits we did not take) to search last. At this point, the dungeon can no longer expand. All those waypoints have to either connect to each other, or exist as a dead-end. Let's say we have 3 unexplored waypoints.

1. So we move to the first one and roll d8+1 (one room above size) looking for an 8 or 9 (7+1 or 8+1). We don't roll that so we move on.
2. In the second one we roll d8+2 (2 rooms above size) looking for an 8 or 9 or 10 (6+2, 7+2, 8+2). We don't roll any of those again so we move on
3. The third room doesn't require a roll because it is the last possible waypoint. The dungeon has been fully explored, and so this room must contain our goal. There is nowhere else to explore

This might mean your dungeon goal was right beside the entrance (it has happened to me), but that's a fun "I should've taken the right at Albuquerque" situation that does exist in real dungeon crawls.

Absolutely! Glad you like it

I had to print it and trim it. I think that is just a consequence of booklet printing with Adobe. 

This was a 'rulings over rules' situation in the game so I didn't want to make a specific list as it could get quite long, and I run the risk of forgetting things.  "Does it make sense my character can do X while maintaining focus?" If yes, then you can. If not, then MIND save. 

I would rule walking doesn't break focus as humans are quite literally built to walk. However, walking over terrain that would require your attention (rubble, steep hill, etc) would require a MIND save.

Unlocked Door? No. Stuck/Locked Door? Yes

Mostly just maintain internal consistency. Don't rule it one way one time, then another way another time.

Both of my games are currently de-indexed. I have notified support (306472) on Sept 1st but the issue persists (I waited 2 weeks first just in case). I understand that updating a documents content can cause this type of issue, but I don't understand why it has taken so long. 

If you die from pushing yourself well beyond your Fatigue limits, there was likely a reason you pushed yourself so hard. The tension and buildup as you slowly wear yourself down hoping to survive just a little longer (like Pheidippides dying after getting the message of victory to Athens) can be a very dramatic, and satisfying end, or a result of spiraling bad decisions. Either way, it can feel earned.

Death in Combat can instead feel like rotten luck, and so I wanted to have the mechanics reflect that. At Level 1, it is possible to roll up an Encounter of 5 Levels, which could be a Dragon Warrior and 2 Footsoldiers (3+1+1). All 3 hitting and rolling average for dmg rolls would be 6 damage, which could kill a level 1 PC before they even got an action. Therefore, combat inflicts permanent wounds instead of death.

All this is to say: Kill (or retire) your PC when it feels right. You would have to drop to 0 several times, rolling poorly each time, before you had to worry about dropping an attribute down to 0, and by that point you may decide your character is just too scarred to keep going. Pass the torch to a new PC who became embroiled in your budding conflict and keep the story going. 

If I don't specify Score, it is safe to assume bonuses. So Starting HP would be 5 (An 8 CON score is a -1 Bonus, so 6-1=5).

Same thing for your Saves. If your Strength is +2, and your Con is -1, then its +1.

Later on I will specify things like 2d6+WIS or something that like; that is always the bonus. 

I figured this one out. The document won't print as-is for 2 reasons:

1. A number of pages are not flattened, meaning there is slight bleed from the cover page
2. The bonus dressing tables were originally printed as Landscape and flipped, causing them to still be tagged as Landscape rather than portrait.

To print it on Lulu, you have to print the PDF to another PDF with the option to remove bleed selected and to convert the landscape to portrait.

Thanks! Glad you like it.

There is a quick summary on Page 2, details on recovering Fatigue on page 14, and 41 has details on Camping.

In short: a night of uninterrupted rest recovers 1 Fatigue. In the wilds you need a bedroll, in town you need an inn (or friendly home). If you successfully Camp, you can recover at least 1 FP per watch without a bedroll. 

Montserrat

Thanks! I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

There are two encounter types in the Encounter Design (pg45): Placed, and Wandering. Placed are much tougher encounters and tend to be fixed to locations. Wandering can happen anywhere. If you review the Encounter Modifier table you'll see what I mean.

To make it work for 2-3 players:

• Remove the Incoming Damage modifier (pg 28) and have all damage coming in unmodified 
• You only get 1 initiative roll, and not two (pg 27). Both players act on the same round
• CAROUSING (pg 35): Players can either roll individually, or pool their funds, but they have to share in the consequences.
• ENCOUNTER DESIGN (pg 45): Player Level (PL) becomes Average Player Level rounded to the nearest whole number. Base Strength is calculated by multiplying that by the Number of Players rather than just 2 (steps 1 and 2)
• TREASURE (page 53): Treasure Mod is based on the Average Player Level. 

Other than that, I think everything else will translate pretty well. Most of the mechanics and procedures should allow it to handle GM-less play pretty well, or GM'd if one of you wants to take the reigns. Good luck!

Yes, each side is the collective. You and your allies are one side, your enemies are another side. You do not roll for each individual enemy.

Yes, a round of combat includes all player actions and enemy actions. Everybody gets to do their thing per round. Roll Initiative. Side A acts in full. Side B acts in full. Roll Initiative. etc. Obviously the player character gets to Act twice, so that may be AAB, ABA, BAA

You are making it too complicated. One side does 1-5, then the other side does 1-5. 

The specificity of the attacks is to help you determine the attack order for the enemies, as well as to help guide your own character's actions. Avoiding archer fire while engaged in melee has a very different feel if the Melee acts first vs the Ranged, especially if you take into account the reaction penalties to avoid multiple attacks during combat. 

I recommend To-Hit bonus and Damage bonus since as you gain new levels and gear, those may change

Yes, that is your Attribute Score / Attribute Bonus so you can track them. There may be times when your Attribute Score or Bonus will be impacted (sometimes permanently) so you need to know both. 

Melee and Ranged are your Melee and Ranged Combat Bonuses provided by your STR and DEX bonus (Combat Skills, Page 7).These are impacted by leveling up, as well as magical weapons. 

It is! Keep the AC the same, and AS = 11 + 1/2HD rounded down.  Everything else stays the same, and use HD for the Encounter generator 

I originally tried to make it a pure d20 game and it just didn't work. The bell curve provided by 2d6 means you trend towards success, with each bonus making you noticeably better in your ability, and thus chance to succeed. The d20 was too swingy, making it so that, even with bonuses, your chance of success or failure felt random and divorced from your actual abilities. 

This was great for the swingyness of combat, but felt bad for your skill rolls. 

The d20 is for all saves and combat rolls, while 2d6 is for all skill rolls.  This is explained on page 15, with relevant chapters giving more details.

For conversions: all B/X, 0D&D, ShadowDark, or related OSR games can have their monsters ported in at 1-to-1.  Attack Scores are equal to 11+1/2 HD or LVL rounded down. 

Thanks, and glad you enjoy it!

The Three Musketeers if it was a dark-fantasy/horror. The world presented here is not just one of "how deep does the rabbit hole go," but instead, "how deep do the players want it to go?" 

Completely overflowing with atmosphere that allows you to play anything from a darker, swashbuckling fantasy, to a full on investigative horror where a sword seems but a thin barrier between yourself and the horrors beyond. 

Very good work. Excited to see the full release!

You did this! I almost named you on the dev update but chose not to.

For real this time though, I think I am done. I do appreciate the enthusiasm though!

Absolutely! I am really glad to hear that people are enjoying the game. I am completely blown away by the amount of interest it has gathered, so thank you for giving it a try!

Don't you tempt me with your siren songs. I can stop any time I want. 

But in seriousness, unless someone else points out something glaring or broken, I'm not sure what else I can refine? Still happy to hear problems though! 

I'm doing my best

Thanks! I had been reading some stuff about "dungeon continuity" and feel and realized that I didn't have that with my dungeon generator. Each history put all the weight on the player to sort out the specifics, so I worked up these

I left the price ambiguous. Whatever feels right for your game, and your character's relationship with the witch.

Two columns may be the right choice. I had stuck with one because it felt easier to read, but maybe I am just biased. I can look and see how two columns feel. Mostly I wanted to specify that a Mage's "special" roll of 6 had no cap. They can stab as much as they want.

Not being annoying at all! Thank you for the deep dive into the editing of the book. As the writer, editor, and playtester, I am glad someone else is picking up my slack!

That is a good point on magic. There used to be a Casting roll, but I didn't like it much so I tossed it. Reading through it again though, I think it should swap crafting to +INT. I may make it +DEX or +INT, whichever is higher. Thanks for pointing that out. 

Sorry, but all magic is crafted. Low fantasy setting. However, it does often require runes, ritual phrases, or actions. They don't just happen.

Curses last kind of whatever you feel is appropriate. I had just been rolling on the potions table for duration.

I had considered the transcribing so you could use it to learn the spell later, but it's up to you.

Thanks for pointing all this out!

I think you need to find a method to expand the margins. The cover was placed on a sheet the same size as the rest of the book; it is not a unique size separate from the rest. 

You are correct. You need to roll a 20 on your d20. I should fix that

Room really is the big issue. I really want a desert/scrubland/savannah type column but I'm struggling with getting it in there without breaking the whole page. Working on figuring out how though! Fingers crossed!

While I appreciate the sentiment and logic, right now I have no intentions of setting it to PWYW. Maybe when I finally get some more artwork in there I will.

Yes. Fatigue and Strain are the same thing. I had originally intended on calling it Fatigue, then decided to just go with what Crawford called it since this is just a toolkit.  Seems I never updated the character sheet for that. I will look into it. Thanks!

This is simply to make combat more survivable. If the enemy dealt damage at the same rate you did, you wouldn't survive your first encounter most likely

Good catch! Saves and combat are both d20's, which I mention on Page 13. I should definitely edit that to be more clear. I wanted them both to have that OSR swing to them while skills were on the bell-curve.

Absolutely! I will message you on Discord