Cephalon Dusp's Archives

     I have been plugging away in preparation for Dungeon23, and come up with a pretty cool location for the megadungeon. The location has enough going for it that I think it could be used on its own, but I probably won't be fleshing it out much more until the dungeon comes together more. Enjoy! The Hissing Delta      Originally expanded (created actually, but people don't remember that) as part of a "royal conservation" effort, this delta is now filled with a wide variety of rare plants and fauna not normally found elsewhere. It is dangerous, but the possibility of rare finds always brings people to explore the waters.     The delta is overseen by the College of Wings, which has existed in its current location (or there-about) since before the delta was formed. Legally and practically, the college has near total control of the delta but this is tempered by the college's historic faction struggles and regular coups. This has in fact caused much of...

    For those who are not a reader of All Dead Generations , not too long ago there was a post about creating an "alternate, alternate" combat system for D&D by thinking about what might have evolved from a different set of wargames (specifically, Strategos ). I found it an interesting read and absolutely love theoretical alternate histories about how D&D could have developed.     So, to keep this idea developing, I am taking it into the next stage: refinement for actual use with OD&D by someone unfamiliar with the original source material.      As a warning, the refined system I am presenting here is just my interpretation of it and it certainly doesn't include everything you could possibly need (it doesn't even include everything from the original post!). Still, I think this is a productive exercise and useful to improve the system and hopefully create something that I can use in my own home game! The Concept      This new ...

     Recently, prompted by the Wandering DMs podcast, I have been thinking about the trade of magic in all of its forms. My own setting is still incomplete, but I also have enough detail to it that I can start thinking about how magic currently works in it. So, I will be doing a small case study on some fictional average wizard's apprentice. Background Information     There are several important pieces of information to know about my setting, but I will be quick. The single largest change I have made is transitioning off of vancian spell slots to a Magic Points (MP) system with spell costs equal to the spell's level and odds of failure depending on the caster's level. As casters gain more experience, they will even get chances to cast spells for free, though it is very unlikely for an apprentice. A caster will have MP equal to Level + Arc, and they will recover 1d3 + Arc for every week of recovery time (no creating magical items, primarily focused on meditation ...

    Learning more about historical realities can have some surprising applications for RPGs. For example, it is often a semi-intuitive fact that people in the past didn't tend to have secondary/family/last names. In Europe at least, if you needed one you would just go with a profession (John Smith), a physical trait (John Tallman), or even where they lived (John Hill).      That as a fact is a bit overlooked, but doesn't seem unreasonable. I would wager many people would have a moment of realization about hearing about something like that before. In terms of RPGs, this means that for most people, you shouldn't bother coming up with a last name for them. If you need one, go with what pops into your head first.     (On a secondary note, people were sometimes very opposed to the idea  of having a set secondary name, due to how it was perceived as a tool of authority to make taxation, enforcing laws, and so on easier. People didn't lack family names b...