Monster PCs pt 1

So a thing on Facebook got me thinking about a campaign where the PCs play monsters on the run after their last boss was killed by a group of murderhobos looking for loot. At its core it would be a reskin of the normal OSR classes and races, but I think the change in dynamic would be interesting to play, if only because it would allow some different RPing to happen (can't go to normal villages, you're a 'monster').

So what races should we be focusing on? Well, the first thought was gnolls. Gnolls would progress like specialists, get a +1 to spot or search or whatever because of their sense of smell, and would probably have a hard time being sneaky after being in water (-3 to stealth checks against anything with even a mediocre sense of smell). After that came the obvious choice of orcs. Orcs would progress like fighters, would get an automatic +1 to their STR stat, and literally cannot stop themselves from being rude/bullying to anything smaller than they are (resist with save vs magic/compulsion or on a 1-in-6, whichever your system uses). Then after orcs I thought, goblins? Or Ogres? Mind-flayers? Problem is that once you start down the avenue it's hard to know when to stop. Or let the players build their own from this same thought process: progress like X, one minor bonus, one minor negative.

So Mind-flayers would progress like magic-users, would get a +1 to their WIS, and have to eat a brain once every 12 hours or lose 1 point of CON, cumulative, for each meal missed. Each meal would cure 1 CON lost in this way up to the character's max.

Goblins? Goblins would progress like specialists, get +1 on their ability to be sneaky, and would have to roll morale like a hireling when in dangerous situations (average roll, though, 12).

Within the Tumultuous Giant

Moving around within the rampaging giant is no easy task: the gears and shafts, lack of OSHA standards, and its own stomping, juddering gait make all movement in haste, including combat, require an appropriate skill or save roll to avoid being thrown off your footing and, potentially (1 in 6), into the grinding gears.

Characters thrown to the gears get one save or skill roll to drag themselves out before they are torn into by the gnashing teeth, and may re-try their roll on their next turn, assuming they survive. The gears do d12 damage; after rolling damage consult the list below

1-3: minor damage from small gears. Lucky bastard.

4-6: a random hand or foot has been mangled, crushed beyond all functionality.

7-9: a random arm or leg has been crushed, rendered useless.

10: A huge wound in a vital area has been opened up: ribs are crushed, organs ruptured, whatever. Survival is unlikely, but possible. Bleed out as per your system's rules.

11: THE SPINE! Your spine has been broken. Total paralysis. At least you can't feel the pain, anymore. You can no longer act in any capacity except to scream.

12: Got your nose! Or your whole head. Whatever. Dead as a doornail.Squish.

To HP or not to HP

I've been seeing a lot of systems lately that reduce the importance of HP to pre-existing game engines by adding narrative-based damage systems (injuries cause wounds that compound instead of lowing a number) or by making the penalty for reaching 0 HP be almost unrelated to the concept (HP is 'luck', 0 HP means you're finally actually taking hits). It occurs to me that eliminating the numerial indicator compeltely and going straight to the narrative system would be... expedient.


However, then it starts to look like a rip-off of Shadowrun's wound system.

It's like this, though: Your weapon does its normal die worth of damage, but you're rolling against your target's HD. If you roll under you do a 'minor' wound, if you roll at or over you do a 'major' wound, and if you roll max and over you get a one-hit kill.

A character who takes minor wounds equal to HD  gets all their minor wounds upgraded to a major wound; a character with major wounds equal to their HD  dies. They can roll against their CON to hold their guts in and fight on until the end of the battle, and can roll against CON again to try to hold on until help can arrive for 1 turn, and again at -1 to the CON roll, cumulative.

PCs HD is equal to their CON / 3 rounded down.

Spacelaw #315

During a catastrophe or emergency, the captain of the ship rotates to the next crew-member by randomly-determined, static, order. They are the captain until the end of the event, at which point they return to their previous duties. Commonly known as "Bromide's Law".


This law is best enacted aboard a ship with no static captain, such as smaller frigates or cargo-vessels.

(Taken from the unfinished Escape from the Dimension of Insidulous Cruellitude by Ben Croshaw)

Momentum Disrupter

Originally designed to help reduce the effects of G-forces on astronauts, momentum redirectors apply ionic forces against momentum to reduce the chances of injury during an impact. They also provide a small amount of protection from incoming slow-moving projectiles, interpreting the ballistic the same as an incoming surface.

Anyone with a momentum disrupter can avoid most, if not all, damage from a fall, a thrown weapon, or from being thrown against a surface, acting as d6 armor against any damage that would be taken and adding 6 to any roll associated with such behavior.

Treasure Buried

An otherwise innocuous treasure chest in a random room of a random dungeon actually contains a small, sandy beach. Anyone who steps inside the chest is sent to said beach. Leaving is simple: find the chest on the beach, step inside, and be returned.

Roll a d4:

on a 1-2, the chest is a beach in miniature and anyone who gets in it is shrunk. They can see the rest of the world by looking up, they can be removed from the chest but will not return to normal size unless they take the recursive route.

on a 3-4, the chest is a teleporter to a sandy beach somewhere. The PC who enters is 'lost' and cannot be found within the chest.

If the beach is removed from the chest the link is broken and anyone within is stuck in their present state until otherwise saved.

Both chests (in the dungeon and on the beach) have false bottoms containing enough money to get the PC with the most XP to the next level and a random, fucked-up treasure item of the GM's choice OR the following items:

A medium-sized coin made up of many interlocked gears that are in constant motion. Allowing the coin to injure the carrier (getting a bit of skin stuck between the gears, for example) will summon a small horde of slavering rats (d12+6) that will obey one basic command to the best of their ability before dispersing. The coin is from another realm, another place beyond, and will slowly kill whomever holds it (-1 CON every month of possession, heals like normal if disposed of).

A small trinket chest containing a quantity of coal (d6+3) that will either explode when thrown (d12, ignore armor) or will provide a +2 armor bonus to whomever eats a piece for one combat.