hglog

[hglog]

Knights of Knaru

Many people say that the Knights of Knaru are flying, whirling, creatures of death, that because of their terrific violence Earth has forsaken them and no longer recognizes them as Her children, that She no longer wishes to hold them close to Her body. Through carefully regimented meditation, exercise, prayer and philosophy, any creature may have its gravitic polarity inverted so that it falls up instead of down. Each Knight of Knaru wears a heavy piece of armor and wields a long sword, both intricately crafted and balanced, their weights combining to match her own exactly. Thus, she hovers in perfect equilibrium, and when her sword is drawn from the sheath on the front of her torso, the sword-tip will tend to point down towards Earth and her body will tilt towards Sky. With skilled enough gestures of the sword, she can manipulate the position of her sword and body with perfect accuracy. Knights of Knaru are trained in a specialized martial art which takes advantage of the nearly frictionless air to spin rapidly in place and strike with the force of a tornado. Knights of Knaru travel light, because even a small extra weight requires a large hydrogen ballast (which could be crafted by an alchemist through electrolysis of water). Knights of Knaru are regarded as strange and difficult to get along with, they're required to maintain some odd points of view and patterns of thinking to remain inverted. Sometimes they're even feared or loathed, due to the perception of being rejected by Earth.

Skill: 1-2 Ballet 3-4 Manuscript Illumination 5-6 Mechanical Engineering Equipment: Knarune armor and sword (as heavy armor and long sword), lead emblem (eaten), inflatable bladder (fill with hydrogen to offset up to 3 inventory slots of weight, -1 dex per slot)

Use the rules of your favorite Knight, Paladin, Monk or Fighter class. If you weigh yourself down to circumvent the zero-gravity, your martial art (including magic you might get from a Paladin class or etc.) is useless and you lose all class templates until you rebalance.

In addition, here are notable elements of the Knarune regimen that must be maintained:

You may not answer a "yes" or "no" question with an affirmative or negative.

Debts are inverted. Anything owed to you, you must pay. Anything you owe, you must extract payment. (A debt is only a long-term thing. Immediate transactions can be made normally.)

Anyone else who touches your sword must be killed. (Anyone you kill with your sword almost certainly touched your sword in the process of being killed, so you cannot feel guilt for any murders done by its blade. Most people would disagree with this outlook, though.)

You must never remove your armor outside a Knarune Temple, which is furnished equally on the ceiling and floor.

If absolutely necessary, a bonfire burning on the ceiling may be established as a Temple temporarily if it exists opposing an ordinary floor-bonfire. How do you build a bonfire on the ceiling? You figure it out.

It can be assumed that you're doing all of the other bits of exercise and prayer and stuff as part of your long rests.

If you break one of these rules, not only do you lose your templates, but you can't get them back until you return to a Knarune Temple and spend a week training.

Finally,

A small emblem of lead is held in the digestive tract. This prevents your weight from increasing when you consume food or drink, and prevents it from decreasing when you evacuate it. When you shit the emblem out, you must thoroughly sanitize it and then eat it again with your next meal.

Failure to use this emblem causes you to lose 1 template each week (coinflip to drift upward or downward) until you get an entirely new sword and suit of armor forged and balanced for you. This is incredibly expensive and the Temple could just decide you're not worth it and excommunicate you. You can use sandbags or hydrogen ballasts to offset this penalty.

…It is said that on the opposite face of Earth there exists an Anti-Knaru whose knights wear invert metal plate to much the same effect.

#glog #ttrpg #glog classes #osr #worldbuilding

[hglog]

Hilariously Late

Back in 2022, after I finished my first Secret Jackalope prompt, I signed up to be given a second one to make sure everybody got their prompts finished.

Ironically and shamefully, I never finished it, because I couldn't get it to a state where I was satisfied with it.

Here it is.

Discord user TheManWithAHammer#5621 asked for "Hub growth rules and random tables for downtime and between adventures. E.g. carousing, rumor procedures, upgrading the smithy/apothecary/library grants better armor/potions/scrolls, etc"

I never run this stuff with super well-defined rules, so I don't know if any of what I'm making here is good or not.

Important

To guarantee a good experience using these rules, ignore anything that's bad and add everything that's missing.

Hub Resources

Depending on the size of the hub, these start at level 1d2-1, 1d4-1, or 1d6-1.

Tavern: improves carousing

Library: improves study

Market: improves resupply

Church: improves image

Each resource costs 1,000 gold and one week to establish if it's not present (level 0 -> level 1), then 1,000 and a week to take it to level 2, 2,000 and two weeks to go from level 2 to 3, 3,000 and three weeks for level 4 and so on. Once you reach 10,000 start incrementing gold (but not time) by 10,000 instead and so on for each further power of 10.

These scores are for the whole hub, not individual establishments. For example, a town may have multiple libraries, but its library level represents the value provided to adventurers by all the town's libraries, schools, and similar establishments. Similarly, a library level of 0 doesn't necessarily mean there's no library, just that it's not useful for the purposes of these mechanics.

Downtime activities

Carousing costs 100 times the tavern's level each week.

Research costs 50 per week, but rare items and materials may be required.

Community service costs nothing, although a donation to the church is "encouraged."

Rumors

Roll 1 rumor about a random nearby location per tavern level for each week a party member spends carousing.

If the PCs want a information about a specific place and the hub has a library, come up with an appropriate research difficulty, then have them roll 1d20 + library level + number of weeks spent researching that location.

At the end of each week of downtime, there's a 1-in-6 chance the church will give the party a quest. These are things like retrieving a saint's body part, destroying an evil artifact, carrying a secret parcel to another church location, etc. The party has [church level] weeks to complete the quest, or else they fall out of favor with the church. Complete the quest and donate a bunch of money to get the church's favor back.

Selling Treasure

Selling rare treasure is difficult, mainly because you have to actually find a buyer that's interested. The larger the market, the easier that is. The price you can sell treasure items for is multiplied by the level of the market.

When you sell something extremely valuable, the buyer also has a market-level-in-20 chance of providing a rumor about another item they want. (A painting collector may provide a hint about the potential location of a famous lost work, for instance.)

Spells + Potions

For each market level, 1 random scroll or potion or magic item (d3 to determine which, then go to the Big Fucking Table of your choice) is available to purchase each week.

If you have a library, you can create a specific spell or potion. Roll 2d6, add the spell level, and subtract the library level:

0-. All the resources needed are readily available and it can be created within a week

1. 100 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created within a week

2. 100 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in two weeks

3. 200 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in two weeks

4. 200 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in three weeks

5. 300 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in three weeks

6. 400 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in three weeks

7. 500 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in four weeks

8. 750 gold worth of resources are needed and it can be created in five weeks

9. Specialized equipment needs to be purchased for 1000 gold, roll 1d8 on this table with no modifiers to find out time required

10+. It can't be created with the resources available to the hub at the moment, come back later with this ultra-rare gem or intricate piece of equipment or whatever and roll again (plot hook)

Hirelings

The maximum number of people willing to accompany the party as hirelings is equal to the tavern level.

If the party has the church's favor, add the church's level as well.

+2 per dragon slain (or similar deed).

+1 per party member who did community service during the last downtime.

-1 for each hireling that didn't come back from last time.

-2 for each hireling that did come back from last time, but experienced something horrific.

For each market level, you need not pay for one hireling's food and equipment. (You still must pay for their service, of course.)

The maximum total HD and/or class levels of your hirelings is equal to the library level plus your number of dragons slain (or similar deeds).

#ttrpg #glog

[hglog]

Storm-Chosen

You are a champion of a great god of storm.

Skills (d4): 1. Mystery cultist 2. Meteorologist 3. Gladiator 4. Preacher Starting items: Divine Weapon, jar of rainwater, telescope, lightning rod, 60ft of copper wire

A: Thunder and Lightning, Divine Weapon B: +1 Bolt, +1 Boon C: +1 Bolt, +1 Boon D: +1 Bolt, +1 Boon, +1 Boon from any god Δ: Perkwunos

Thunder and Lightning: You have 2 Bolts. Throw one directly at a creature to deal 1d12 lightning (electric) damage and paralyze it for a round. Throw one at a creature's feet to deal 1d12 thunder (sonic) damage and deafen it unless it saves. Throwing a Bolt is very, very loud. When a god casts down lightning from the sky, if you're there to catch it, you replenish all your Bolts. You still take all the damage and ill effects of being struck by lightning. Each god has their own safer way of giving you Bolts, too.

Divine Weapon: Choose a god. Your god grants you a Divine Weapon. When you strike with it, you may choose to deal lightning (electric) or thunder (sonic) damage instead the weapon's normal damage type.

Boons: Each god has 4 Boons which you can take in any order.

DODOLA, bringer of fertile storms in the dry summer: Divine Weapon: Longbow You regain 1 Bolt each sunrise as long as you remain in Dodola's favor. Dodola wants you to seek out and help farmers in need.

Instead of relying on your throwing arm, you can fire Bolts with any ranged weapon.

When you hear thunder strike, you learn everything about the storm it came from and can see from a bird's-eye view underneath its clouds for the duration of the sound.

You may strike the earth with a Bolt to cleanse it of any poisons or impurities and fill it with nutrients ideal for growing a crop of your choice.

Learn a thunder, lightning, or water themed spell. You may spend your Bolts as d12 magic dice to cast it. On doubles and triples, you're struck by lightning.

SUMMANUS, secret god of nighttime thunder: Divine Weapon: Axe You regain 1 Bolt each sunset as long as you haven't told anyone of Summanus's gifts to you. In addition, Summanus may speak to you in your dreams and give you quests - completing one of these restores all your Bolts.

You can pass yourself off as a follower of the much more socially acceptable Jupiter to those who hate and/or fear your god.

If you touch a creature who doesn't see you, you may spend a Bolt to silently inflict its effects upon that creature.

Creeping slowly in pitch blackness, your senses of touch and hearing allow you to tell if anything around you moves.

Did you know people's brains are full of lightning? Touch someone's forehead and spend a Bolt to make them forget the last hour.

RAIJIN, wild warrior born from the underworld: Divine Weapon: Drum (club + shield) Regain all your Bolts by eating from the corpse of a creature killed by lightning.

By beating your Divine Weapon in a 30-minute ritual, you can summon a storm.

If you would deal lightning or thunder damage to a creature weak to that damage type, you may immediately strike it with a Bolt.

Spend a Bolt to call up a great gust of wind that pushes any creatures you can see 10 feet in one direction.

When you die, your god's lightning courses through your veins and nervous system, returning you to life. Permanently lose all class features, all your remaining Bolts become d12 hit dice.

THOR, protector of the gods and slayer of giants: Divine Weapon: Hammer Regain 1d4 Bolts by accepting a one-on-one combat challenge and winning it. A simple wrestling match with a party member is sufficient, but your opponent has to actually be trying to win - no cheating.

You may spend a Bolt to roll a d12 and add its result to your Strength or Charisma for a turn.

You can grapple a creature of any size as though it was the same size as you.

You can see through any illusion or glamour, and tell if a creature is shapeshifted or polymorphed.

When you score a critical hit with your Divine Weapon, one ally you can see gains a temporary Bolt which they can use in the next hour any way you could.

PERKWUNOS, the first storm-god, he who impregnated the primordial soup Δ Prerequisites: A, B, C, and D templates, you must have sustained 1,728 lightning damage without dying, you must have killed your god (killing a god is impossible) Divine Weapon: Spear You receive 1 Bolt each midnight and have no maximum number of Bolts. (Being struck by lightning gives you 5 Bolts.) You recieve ALL of Perkwunos's Boons:

Gain all the Boons of your original god, and one Boon from each other storm god.

You are immune to lightning and thunder damage.

Your Bolts instantly kill creatures with fewer HD than you.

Whenever you see lightning strike (including your own Bolts) you may teleport to the point where it struck.

#GLOG

[hglog]

Yeah, a lot of what bothers me about fantasy settings (especially D&D) is that people try to run wizards like they're academics, but their only exposure to academics is authoritative professors telling them The Truth, so they don't realize that all academics are always 5 seconds away from trying to strangle each other over questions like 'does time really pass or does it just seem to pass'

[hglog]

GLOG class: Escaped Anchorite

Serlen was a mild-mannered monk of the Tall Abbey. Perhaps it was because he was so mild-mannered that he was chosen. After the autumn of the year 483, the monk Serlen was never seen again.

An hour's walk from Tall Abbey there was a chapel in the woods. Within the chapel's basement there was a narrow hallway which turned a corner just too late, and a room with a closet just too shallow. In the wall at the back of the closet was, if you knew to look closely, a single loose brick.

In the new year of 484, many monks started reporting a sense of uneasiness whenever they had to visit the chapel. Even on a bright morning with the sun shining directly through the stained glass windows the space felt dim and claustrophobic.

The High Priestess of Tall Abbey could often be seen standing in the corner that turned too late, leaning her head back against the wall, murmuring to herself with a look of anguish.

Throughout all of 484, 485, and 486, in the nearby village, the reports of curses, hauntings, and witches fell to nearly zero.

In the spring of 487, the High Priestess abruptly left Tall Abbey to join a different monastery.

The next week, the Abbot was found dead in the room beneath the chapel, suffocated by smoke. The too-shallow closet was wide open, and its back wall was missing a brick. The hole was too narrow to see much through, but it revealed a small, dark chamber.

The day after that, every resident of Tall Abbey was murdered.

Escaped Anchorite

You're telepathically linked with a demon. It's not really a warlock-patron situation - the real pact was made between your monastery and some high-ranking devil in the underworld. The demon is locked in a room in Hell like you were in the real world. They have no loyalty to Hell and in fact hold a pretty big grudge. They have no loyalty to you, either, they only helped you because they hold just as big of a grudge against your monastery.

Swap your Charisma with your lowest attribute - you spent years in isolation.

A: Hell's insight, Cloister, Poltergeist B: Evil Face, Hit Hard C: Kindred Spirit D: PSYCHOpomp

Hell's insight: This is the pact made on your behalf, for which you were bound against your will. If another player asks you a question you don't know the answer to, you can let the GM answer instead, with the worst possible truthful answer they can think of.

Cloister: You can hear voices and communicate clearly through walls. You can always tell people apart by their voice. If you press your ear against a wall you can tell how many people are in the space on the other side.

Poltergeist: Your demon has given you 1 MD with which you can cast Knock. It replenishes with a long rest. This is how you escaped.

Evil Face: You may use the demon's Charisma instead of your own in ways that cause confusion, despair, or anger, or in ways that undermine authority. The demon's Charisma is 1 higher than your highest attribute.

Hit Hard: Your unarmed strikes deal damage like a club. You can't make them nonlethal.

Kindred Spirit: You've come to an understanding with your demon. You allow the demon to turn undead and smite fiends. This will certainly let them escape. (From their cell, not Hell in general, though they're likely to be a menace down there.) In return, you may spend four hours meditating to swap your Poltergeist ability's spell with another spell from the demon's spell list. In addition to Knock, it probably contains things like Protection from Good, Disguise, Fear, Brimstone Bolt, etc.

PSYCHOpomp: As long as you are in the real world and the demon is in the underworld, the two of you form a dread psychic conduit of souls. Your unarmed strikes now deal damage like a hammer. Whenever you kill a creature with an unarmed strike, you replenish your MD if it was depleted.

#glog classes #glog #ttrpg

[hglog]

GLOG Class Mod: Ritual Caster

Play as any GLOG class (wizard schools etc) that uses d6 Magic Dice to cast spells. Chaos Dice probably work too.

You can't cast spells except as rituals:

it takes 10 minutes (one dungeon turn)

any targets must be present for the full duration of the casting of the spell

MD are only expended (or only generate Chaos Dice) on 5s or 6s

you may reroll one die after looking at the results (you have to take the new result if you do)

Additionally, for each level in the class, roll 2 dice (d4s at level 1, d6s at level 2, d8s at level 3, d10s at level 4) on the list of Ritual Benefits and learn those RBs. If you roll one you already know, bump it up to the next one.

When you cast a spell as a ritual, choose one Ritual Benefit you know to apply, plus one more for every two MD you use to cast it.

Ritual Benefits

Reroll up to one die (in addition to the first reroll you already get for casting as a ritual).

The first mishap you roll has no effect.

Other party members can pitch in their own casting dice, and you can cast spells they know (if they spend the 10 minutes with you).

Instead of taking effect immediately when you finish the ritual, choose a condition upon which the spell will activate. (The restriction that the target must be present for the full duration of the casting no longer applies.)

The first die that would get expended, or generate a Chaos Die, doesn't.

Roll d8s instead. They still get expended or generate CD on a 5 or higher.

Double [DICE]. (Not the amount of dice you roll, just the raw value as it pertains to the spell effect.)

Double [SUM].

You may sacrifice an appropriate creature when casting the spell and roll all its hit dice as MD. These don't go towards adding more Ritual Benefits though.

Cast a second spell using the exact same dice pool ([SUM] and [DICE] are the same, mishaps and dooms only happen once, etc)

When you learn a spell, roll a d12 on the Ritual Drawbacks table and write it down on the spell card or whatever you're using to track it. That drawback applies whenever you cast that spell as a ritual.

Ritual Drawbacks

The proceedings of this ritual are a closely-guarded mystery. You must perform it in total isolation; no sentient creature besides yourself may witness it. If you accidentally violate this rule (for example if you're spied upon) the ritual has no effect; if you violate it on purpose it has no effect and you incur a doom!

This ritual involves chanting, singing, or speaking that can't be performed quietly: if you're not in a safe area, roll to see if you attract attention.

For whatever reason, you can't use your Ritual Benefits for this spell.

This ritual requires blood: 1d4 damage with a cutting implement to one willing creature that bleeds (can be yourself).

You need to use expensive materials, they cost about 10 gold per MD used in casting.

It's a very lengthy ritual: one whole hour (six dungeon turns). You can rush the ritual to perform it in 1d4*10 minutes; if you do, all MD you spend on it are expended.

Pick two random days of the week, or whatever similar division of time you have in your weird fantasy calendar. On one of these days you get an extra free MD for the purposes of casting this spell. On the other day this ritual can't be properly performed at all.

This ritual requires a 12 hour fasting period before performing it.

9-12. No Drawback

Additional notes

This is a case of me writing something purely to get it out of my brain so I can think about other things. I have no idea how it'll play, I haven't tested or balanced it. Compared to a standard wizard this class has basically nothing to do during combat so if there's a lot of that happening in your campaigns the ritual caster might not be fun to play. On the other hand if your campaign is very combat light the power of the ritual benefits might greatly outweigh the reduced flexibility, in this case I might change the ritual drawback roll to a d10 or even a d8 to put even more restraints on the magic.

I'm kind of sad I ran out of ideas for ritual benefits, as it is now you'll learn all but 2 which feels kind of weird. If you use this for your own purposes I highly encourage you to expand the tables with your own benefits and drawbacks.

#glog #ttrpg #crosspost from cohost a while ago

[hglog]

Weird languages your rogues could know

Besides the usual thieves' cant.

Hole Pidgin Dwarf strongholds and gnome warrens can both expand outward very rapidly. When one inevitably bursts through the walls of another by mistake, they will make haste in beginning commerce between the two settlements. Hole Pidgin is how they communicate with each other; a mishmash of Dwarven and Gnomish vocabulary with very inconsistent grammar and no set word order. It can be difficult to understand even to people who can speak both languages fluently - being immersed in one of these "collision points" for an extended period of time is the only sure way to properly learn it.

Low Magic This is a cryptolect that can originate from some sort of society ruled by wizards, where those without magic have the least power. Low Magic is a way for those at the bottom of this society to communicate in safety from their cruel wizard overlords. Formed by replacing words from the lexicon of the dominant language with unrelated magic words, anyone with the ability to cast spells even attempting to comprehend it will produce unpredictable and possibly dangerous magic effects. (Use your favorite wild magic table, or roll up a random spell and cast it on a random target.) To those without magic, it's perfectly safe to speak.

The Secret Shanties These shanties have sections between the chorus and verses for a solo singer to improvise within a strict set of rules. The particular notes and cadences they choose can convey a great deal of information to the members of the crew who are in on the ship's less "above the board" business, while leaving those who don't know what to listen for able to just go about their normal jobs and claim ignorance. There are three popular songs, each with their own rules and code, but any good smuggler or pirate captain will have also cooked up their own bespoke one. Learning to interpret Secret Shanties is about the same difficulty as any other code or secret language; learning to speak it yourself also requires a great deal of musical improvisational skill on top of that.

#dnd #ttrpg #thieves cant #crosspost from cohost a while ago #worldbuilding #linguistics

[hglog]

i used to think the brain was the most important part of the body. then I thought, look who’s telling me that…

[hglog]

so in D&D the gelatinous cube is an explicit in-setting ecological representation of the fact that "dungeons with ten-foot-wide corridors" are a common enough feature that there are creatures adapted or designed specifically for them. but dragons aren't adapted for that design at all, nor are a lot of the other big guys; they either need separate exits or to use magic or shapeshift into a human form to go throguh the tunnels

but this is a problem that has been solved in real-life! the problem of "large animal that needs to get into a fairly consistently-sized tunnel that's significantly smaller" is solved by snakes, and, crucially, by mustelids, animals that are very long relative to their size. so I think D&D needs more of that. there should be giant ten-foot-wide dungeon weasels and stuff.

#ten foot wide dungeon weasels

[hglog]

Botober 2022: Draw, human, draw!

After all the drawing prompts humans have been giving to text-to-image models like dalle and stable Diffusion, it's time to turn the tables.

GPT-3 has generated prompts for humans to draw!

Once I explained that it would be generating animal-themed prompts for humans to draw, the largest model, DaVinci, generated this list. Good luck, humans

I had a bit more trouble getting the smallest model, Ada to generate this Halloween-themed list of prompts. Many of its prompts didn't seem obviously Halloween-related to me, but when questioned Ada would express confusion. Here's Ada's list.

Not to leave the middle-sized GPT-3 models out, I decided to let Babbage choose its own theme. This turned out to be a mistake.

Interviewer: DaVinci generated some animal-themed drawing prompts, and your little sibling Ada generated some Halloween-themed prompts. Babbage, as the second-littlest, what kind of thing would you like to make the humans draw?

Babbage: I would like to make them draw meat!

And for the final list of AI-generated drawing prompts, the Curie model chose "clockwork" as its theme. And insisted on doing the list in all-caps.

The full interviews with DaVinci, Ada, Babbage, and Curie along with bonus content

If you draw any of these, use the hashtags #botober or #botober2022 so I can see how they come out! Excited to see humans doing AI drawing prompts again.

#might do this

[hglog]

SECRET JACKALOPE 2022

Secret Jackalope is an event in the OSR discord server where we each write a prompt, and then are randomly assigned each other's prompts to write a full blog post about.

My prompt came from discord user Dread Pirate Swagmaster#2135, who asked for 5 classic magical items, and twists/curses for each of them.

I was a little unsure about how to select my items, since if you're running an OSR game then most "classic" dnd items will already have compatible rules for them. Instead, I pulled magical items and artifacts from a variety of non-ttrpg sources.

These cursed items range from strict downgrades to perfectly usable items in their own right (that could hopefully still mess an unsuspecting adventurer up if they're expecting it to work like the original). I wrote 4 variants of each item, for a total of 25 magic items. I did my best to make them system neutral.

---

1. Ancient Elven Dagger

Same stats as a +1 dagger, or a +1 short sword if wielded by a small creature such as a halfling, goblin or gnome.

The dagger glows when near goblins. Starting with a barely perceptible light at about half a mile away, it can get as bright as a torch when within a few feet.

1d4 twists/curses:

The maximum brightness of the dagger is greatly increased, getting as bright as a torch 100 feet away and being so bright within 25 feet as to cause disadvantage on all rolls that rely on vision (including attack rolls).

Instead of glowing, the dagger causes nearby goblins to glow.

The dagger is actually an ancient Goblin sword, which glows to signify a worthy wielder. Goblins will want to steal it from its wielder, and the sword grants them advantage when rolling to do so. (Or gives the wielder disadvantage when trying to stop them.) Roll an additional magical sword effect (on whatever table you can find) which can only be accessed by goblins.

Casts a field of magical darkness instead of light.

---

2. Black Lotus

An incredibly rare flower that can be consumed when casting a spell to increase the result of every die rolled for it by 3 (even past the usual maximum face of the die).

1d4 twists/curses:

When consumed, it expends all spell slots/spells/MD/mana/whatever. Basically once consumed the caster can't use any more magic until they do whatever it is in your system that replenishes spent magic.

When consumed, it appears to have no effect. Instead, the bonus is applied to the first spell its user casts tomorrow.

Releases a cloud of pollen which sends anyone who inhales it into a death-like sleep for 2d12 hours.

Reduces the result of every die rolled by 3 instead.

---

3. Green Sash

The person wearing this sash is unable to be killed by direct violence - they can be reduced to zero hit points (or whatever the moment before death is in your system) but will not die. Limbs and heads can be reattached if necessary.

1d4 twists/curses:

Any physical harm or wounds caused by the wearer will be dealt back to them in exactly a year and one day. This can kill them even if they're still wearing the sash.

The wearer must agree when challenged to a contest or duel.

The wearer must keep the sash a secret, and loses its effects of anyone finds out about it.

Instead, the sash protects the wearer from death by any cause other than direct violence.

---

4. Blinker Stone

A gemstone that fits in the palm of a hand. Allows its owner to close their eyes and look at at the stone's immediate surroundings at any time, though inanimate objects appear hazy and colorless. The stone's owner can teleport it back to their hand at any time.

1d4 twists/curses:

The stone's owner can cast spells from the location of the stone, however they can't retrieve it as they could a normal Blinker Stone.

Instead of revealing its surroundings in the same plane, the stone is tied to another plane.

The stone is cracked. If its owner attempts to retrieve it, there's a 50% chance they teleport to its location instead.

Something is watching you through it.

---

5. Compliant Staff

This staff can expand to the size of a pillar, approximately one foot in diameter. Its height (maximum 50 feet) stays proportional to its width when out in the open but otherwise won't exceed the space available to it (so no punching through ceilings).

1d4 twists and curses:

Instead of growing, the staff shrinks down to the size of a needle.

Its weight hardly increases with it, leaving it extremely light and easy to be knocked over or broken in its larger state.

The staff's default state is its larger one, and it will grow to that size if left unattended.

The staff only grows in diameter, staying the same length.

---

The Ancient Elven Dagger is based on Sting from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. The Black Lotus is based on the one from Magic: the Gathering, with curse #3 being the Black Lotus from Conan the Barbarian. The Green Sash is based on the sash/girdle Sir Gawain gets in the story of Gawain and the Green Knight. The Blinker Stone is from Gunnerkrigg Court. The Compliant Staff is based on the one Sun Wukong had (and the one Goku had in Dragon Ball).

I was a little worried about the Blinker Stone being too powerful - it’s basically like a 5e familiar (you can see through its eyes and cast spells from its location, two things ad&d familiars couldn’t do) with the downside of it being a rock. If you need a downside, I didn’t include this in its description, but in the source material the user creates sort of a projection of themselves when looking through it that can be seen or even “physically” attacked by ghosts and magical creatures and such. 

#magic items #secret jackalope #osr #dnd #glog

[hglog]

5E WITH GLOG SPELLCASTING TACKED ON: A BLASPHEMOUS GUIDE

Read first: GLOG Magic Dice Primer by Spwack

Magic Dice vs. Spell Slots

In the GLOG, a magic user scales in power based on the number of MD they have. In 5e, a magic user scales both with their number of spell slots and the levels of spells they're able to cast. While they get an average of 1.1 spell slots per level, they only get access to a new spell level every other level. So, to stick more closely to a 5e magic user's power curve, they should only be able to spend up to half their MD on a spell at once. Rounded up, of course.

It's up to you whether MD=level or MD=spell slots. I'd go with the second, because the number of spell slots gained is generally tailored so that magic users gain more at levels where they don't get new class features or ASIs.

Converting Spells

First, if you see (n)d6, you can probably replace it with [sum]. Especially if it has that clause at the end about adding a d6 for each additional level you cast it at. Easy.

If you see (n)d8, you can probably just do [sum] still, or [sum]+[dice] if you think reducing it to d6s is underpowered. Still pretty easy.

What do we do about (n)d12? A d12 is a very different probability spread than 2 d6s, right? Well, yes, but 2*1d6 isn't 2d6 - in fact, it's exactly the curve of 1d12 without any odd-numbered results. Therefore, (n)d12 can be replaced with 2*[sum].

As far as other dice go, d4s can basically just be [sum], I think, and d10s can be either [sum]+[dice] or 2*[sum] depending on how strong the spell's additional effects are.

For constant numbers, context matters. I'll evaluate two spells from the SRD here, Aid and Alarm, chosen because they're alphabetically the first spells that have only constant numbers and I don't want to scroll in this pdf any more.

Aid gives three creatures 5 temporary hit points, plus 5 more for each additional level it's cast at. However, its base level is 2, so 5*[dice] isn't an accurate conversion. Remember, GLOG spells don't have levels, so they can all be cast with a single MD, the rough equivalent of a first level spell slot. Instead, I would tie [dice] to the number of creatures targeted, and let the HP granted be equal to [sum].

Alarm has a lot of things to consider - the duration is 8 hours, the trigger area can be a 20-foot cube, you become alerted mentally as long as you're within 1 mile, and the audible noise can be heard 60 feet away. (The ringing lasting 10 seconds doesn't really have a reason to scale.)

This is a good time to bring up an important aspect of spell design. When casting a spell, [dice] is always under a player's control, while [sum] is random. If the party's wizard sets an alarm, it would kind of suck if they rolled a 1 when they cast it, and that meant any of these values were super low, right? Alarm is a spell that rewards careful planning, so its effects should all be either predetermined or under the player's control. The results of the MD will simply determine how many get used up.

What I would do for Alarm would be to multiply the duration and alert radius by [dice], and let the caster set [dice] different triggers for it at once.

Cantrips

5e cantrips come in two broad categories: ones that could be changed to standard spells under GLOG rules (usually those that deal damage) and ones that can just stay as they are. Use your best judgement, or just leave them all alone because they don't really interact with the rest of the spellcasting system anyway.

Additionally, I usually run GLOG with the rule that any spell can be cast as a cantrip with [dice] and [sum] set to zero. This results in a lot of spells that technically have no effect, in which case I (or ideally the player) will think of a minor aesthetic and/or utility effect that it might have. For example, Alarm as a cantrip might simply trigger instantly. The purpose of this is to reward players for clever and strategic thinking - don't make the effects completely wimpy, but don't make their uses too obvious either.

If an effect or ability would let you cast a non-cantrip spell without using spell slots, just create temporary dice equal to its level. They don't go back in your pool.

Class Dice Variants

Traditionally in the GLOG, sorcerers have Chaos Dice (as described in Spwack's post). You can use these if you want, maybe for sorcerers and druids, or for everybody if you like the chaos dice systembetter.

Additionally, Clerics might use Faith Dice as described here by Arnold K. Basically, they never have mishaps, but if they roll higher than 6 (they're d8s by default) they go back in your pool and don't contribute to the spell at all. FD can grow in size if you anger your deity and shrink if you please them. If using these, they could be reskinned as Favour Dice and given to warlocks as well. (Actually, warlocks should always roll all their dice for their spells if we're sticking to how their 5e casting works, so these non-mishapping dice are probably a necessity.)

For half caster classes and subclasses, it's usually pretty obvious which kind of dice they should have - just look at the closest full caster class.

In addition to the kinds of dice I describe here, take a look through the GLOG blogs out there and see if you like any other variants! You can include whatever you want in your game.

If you're using multiple dice variants for different classes and you multiclass, you get wizard dice from your wizard levels, sorcerer dice from your sorcerer levels, cleric dice from your cleric levels, etc. You can spend any of them on spells from any class, in any combination (though I'd rule that you need at least 1 cleric die for cleric spells and so forth). If you have warlock dice, you either roll all of them or none of them. Don't include FD when looking for doubles and triples, and only roll CD along with dice from a class that uses CD. I hope you have a lot of different colors of d6s.

Magic Words

If you use magic words, don't worry about converting spells, because if a player would learn a spell, they instead learn each word that's in the spell's name! (Minus proper nouns, probably, but do what you want.) These can be put together and cast on the fly, so you should probably be pretty good at making up GLOG spells if you decide to do this.

Alternatively, if you want to be more sensible, do what Spwack describes and only let players get magic words from exploration, treasure, and by breaking down their known spells under certain circumstances. Doing this removes the base spell from their spell list.

Mishaps and Dooms

What I do is just steal borrow from other people's already written GLOG classes.

The nice thing about mishaps is if you make a list of 6, you don't need to roll the dice again! You just look at the matched number and take the corresponding item on the list. I usually make my table something like this:

Mishap general to all wizards(/sorcerers/etc.)

Mishap general to all wizards(/sorcerers/etc.)

Mishap specific to subclass

Mishap specific to subclass

If appropriate, copy the spell at 1 MD targeted/centered on a random target (otherwise come up with a spell-specific mishap)

If appropriate, copy the spell at 1 MD targeted/centered on you (otherwise come up with a slightly worse spell-specific mishap)

Dooms aren't rolled, they happen sequentially. Undoing the third Doom is a major undertaking that should probably require the whole party to go on a quest. I'd actually shy away from straight up killing them as most players would just want to roll up a fresh character at that point. Good for OSR/GLOG, maybe not the best for 5e.

#glog #dnd #spellcasting #5e

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