Iron Sky...A New Khazan Adventure?

Maybe it is just the whisky and port I drank while watching this talking, but I thought this was brilliant.  Great parody on American politics, and what a great setting for a T&T variant.  This seems like the perfect thing for Peryton Publishing to do as an adventure for New Khazan....

Happy Birthday, HPL

A Return to Purple Mountain or a New Journey into an Elder Tunnel?

The title really says it all.  While we are waiting for dT&T and the reboot of our main campaign, the boys have decided they would possibly like to revisit Purple Mountain.  I see Purple Duck now has levels 1-5 up for sale.  This seemed reasonable so I started to do some initial intelligence gathering.

On the other hand, as I do try to learn from my past experience*, there are plenty of other made-for-T&T products that I have acquired and not yet used - Trollszines, Elder Tunnels and other Peryton products, Oaky Wood, and a bunch of stuff from Drivethru.  These won't require any long hours of conversion and rewrites.  As I write this I think I have sold myself.  They could be used to create an interesting mini-setting.

In any case, I hope to post play reports.  I will have to recruit my oldest son(s) to do some of the write-ups....


* As I reread some of the old posts about PM and the PDF I started to recall why I stopped playing this after a few sessions in the first place....

Lightning Bug

The Lightning Bug - Just a quick little write up on an example from the rulebook...

MR:  8 (level one); 16 (level two); 32 (level 3); 64 (level 4); 128 (level 5); 256 (level 6); 512 (level 7); et cetera....
         
Hits Off: Equal to a quarter of its MR in the form of its carapace.

Appearing in flights of 1-20, these look like giant-sized versions of a firefly, flashing bioluminescence in blue, green, red, orange, yellow, and the ultra rare hot pink.

Any spite damage they generate takes the form of a lightning bolt of 1d6 damage for each 6 rolled.  This bolt hits the opponent that is most heavily armored in iron or steel.  The bolt's color is the same as its bioluminescent flash.

Some New Spells

Below are some new spells my son made up (he's 14).  Again, we use eight schools of magick based on Stackpole's 8 Cs of Magick, so if you use these with regular T&T you will have to fiddle with them some.  We haven't used them in play yet, so some mechanics may need to be tweaked.

2^nd Level Spells

Drop it Like it’s Hot [Conjuration]

 WIZ Cost: 8

Range: 50 feet

Duration: 1 combat round

Power Up?: Yes. Double targets for each level.

Description: Target metal rapidly heat up and are dropped by holders. If un-droppable (such as a breast plate or plate mail) they deal 1D6 damage a round.

Panicking Pyre [Communication]

WIZ Cost: 13

Range: 5 feet

 Duration: See text

Power Up?: No.

 Description: This spell causes any who enter the fire light to flee in terror if their INT, WIZ, and CHR (or MR) are less than the caster’s. This spell requires a fire to be cast on and lasts indefinitely until the fire is extinguished at which point it is dispelled.

3^rd Level Spells

Devilish Dancing Blade [Combat]

WIZ Cost: 10

Duration: 1 combat round

Range: Touch

 Power up?: Yes. Double duration for each level increase.  

Description:  This spell causes a weapon to fight on its own using the caster’s adds. 

Burning Questions [Clairvoyant]

WIZ Cost: 15

Duration: Instant

Range: Touch

Power Up?: No.

Description: The caster inscribes a yes/no question on a piece of paper then lights it on fire.  If it doesn’t catch, the answer is no and if it instantly burns, it is yes.

4^th Level Spells

Phantom Steed [Conjuration]

WIZ Cost: 20

Range: Touch

 Duration: 1 hour

Power Up?: Yes. Double duration for each level increase.

Description: This spell summons a spectral horse that can be ridden tirelessly until the duration expires.

  

Ach! Delver Run! [Clairvoyant]

WIZ Cost: 15

Range:  See text

 Duration: 1 combat round for each caster level

Power Up?: No.

Description:  An arrow of light shoots through the dungeon showing the quickest round to the exit from this level.

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls - Bad News

Just a quick update (I tried to post this several days ago but stupid Blogger was broken or something).  Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls - expected this summer - has now been pushed back to Samhain or later due to Liz Danforth's illness.  While I would rather have it sooner than later, as we're all eager to start a new campaign with the new edition, I really want this to be done well and not rushed.  Guess I will just have to be patient and have faith.

Deluxe T&T Kickstarter

Deluxe T&T Kickstarter

I'm sure this isn't news to anyone who would read this raggedy old blog, but the T&T kickstarter is already funded.  I was confident it would get funded, but I didn't imagine that it would happen in less than a day-and-a-half!

Nostalgic High Level Play

Over the holiday break, despite being sick, we were able to squeeze in a few sessions of high level play using character that haven't seen action in many years.  This is mostly because they have few adventuring peers and play tends to focus more on low or mid-level characters coming up through the ranks.  Still, it is nice to break out the old leviathans from time to time.

My eldest son, 14, was able to take over the GMing reins so that I could play Lord Grimslade Flamewalker, a 16th level elf.  I made Grimslade on 2.8.87 and he is the most successful character I have ever developed.  When I first made him he was a member of an adventuring party, and the weakest one at that.  He had either -3 or -5 combat adds to start with.  Strangely, the rest of his party all died within an adventure or two, despite being "superior" to him in every way.  Yet Grimslade, who in his early days went by Airwalker after obtaining the eponymous cloak from the Treasure Vault* in an early game, survived many adventurers through the years (even though I GM 90+% of the time).  At this point he rarely does more than put on cameo appearances, but we thought an actual adventure would be the way to go.

My wife played Grimslade's wife - Starlight, a 14th level human wizard, a family friend played Zoey the hobb(it) rogue, and my third oldest son (10) played Captain Firebeard, a 7th level dwarven warrior with powers vastly beyond his level due to a trip through Jason Mill's awesome adventure, Something in the Wind (see The Vital Spot website).  For the second session, my second oldest son joined us with a 9th level imp rogue created from Michael Eidson's freshly revived 5.5e character generator at the Troll Mystic website (having no suitable PCs of the desired power of his own).

I will have to ask my son to post a brief synopsis of the setting and adventure here, as it is far richer than I can convey.  It was an adventure/dungeon he created to provide what he thought would be a suitable challenge for us.  The delvers traveled to another world of extremes to defeat ice trolls and isocroms (magic eating monsters) in a mountain fortress.  The isocroms forced us to abandon all spells and magical items save for those of the highest levels.  I was a little concerned because I didn't know how well high level T&T play would hold up, not having done so in almost a decade - we were facing monsters with 5,000 MRs on this adventure, after all, with 20th level saving rolls being nothing special.  I have to say that the sessions went very well and T&T can handle high level, creative play no problem.  Yes, the MRs and SRs were through the roof, but they are scalable for a reason, and they worked well.

We have probably one more session to finish off this adventure.  We've already decided that at least a handful of times a year the Great Old Ones will get to come out to play.



*A Catalyst product by Flying Buffalo.  It was a staple in my early games, along with all of the other great Catalyst products like the CityBooks, Grimtooth's Traps, Lejentia, Wilderness Encounters, et al.