Magifacts

Berserker Stone (unknown quantity, assumed very large)
In the 7th Aeon, two conflicting kings warred over inconsequential matters, and fired arcing cannonades of these stones into the ranks of each-others standing forces. Composed of a chalky soft stone, they cleave easily, and from that break springs a warrior fully equipped, with no interests but attacking all others not cut from the same stone. The warrior (or the organic and inorganic remains thereof) will persist for d3 days. If found in great quantity, the GM might wish to roll percentile to see how many of the stones still retain their enchantment.

Pegarine Folio (unique)
This spellbook is known to have an enduring enchantment upon it which bars it from being opened and read by those of inadequate abilities. In the four-hundred years since it was discovered, it has been owned by six and used by five. There are eight pages, upon which any spell may be written. Any spell in this book can be memorized by the reader, regardless of different or conflicting realm or school of magic, class or alignment difference. (T&T SR Level(20-opener's level) on CH, DX & LK) (D&D I 15 W 15 D 16 C 15 required to use, and Save vs Wand on initial opening attempt)

Spool of Prison String (unique)
This thin string that unwinds from this spool can be used in two ways.
1. A single loop joined around one individual being will prevent it making any voluntary movement.
2. A thread tracked out on the ground around an area will confine those enclosed to that area, but only those present when the loop is joined (i.e. others may enter and leave as they wish). Consider that it has no ceiling for aerial purposes, but maintains its form beyond the atmosphere. Spells and powers of teleportation within the area are foiled, though those able to travel to other dimensions and planes may thusly escape.

In either application, the string cannot be touched or otherwise targeted by actions of those effected.

AD&D Soothsayer

The Soothsayer

Soothsayers are a sub-class of magic user, though they have some qualities of illusionists and clerics also. To be a soothsayer, a character must have a minimum intelligence of 12, wisdom of 9, dexterity of 11, and a charisma of 9 or more. Soothsayers do not gain bonuses to earned experience by dint of high ability scores. Soothsayers can be of any alignment, and may or may not be affiliated with a religious organization, cult, or church, but should not be considered as necessarily representative of this organization as the cleric generally is.

Soothsayers gain levels and follow the spell schedule of the illusionist. Hit dice are d6. Soothsayers can wear no armor heavier than leather and cannot use a shield. They may arm themselves as per illusionists, and choose one other weapon to be allowed to use. Soothsayers attack and save as clerics.

They may use magic items available to magic users, illusionists, and clerics (though some deities/religious organizations might disallow the functions of clerical items for a particular Soothsayer whose alignment, outlook or purpose is antithetical).

Soothsayers are more inclined toward information gathering and influence than acts of grandiose magic. They are more likely found as fortune tellers, hermetic seers, advisors, adventurers, iconoclasts and zealots or charlatans and mountebancs than leaders of a flock, crusaders or academic thaumaturges. Some cultivate an aura of mystery about themselves, others use their abilities in the service of others.

The particular methods of soothsayers allow them to cast Read Magic 1 time a day for each level they have attained. Additionally, soothsayers may cast the reversed form of any spell currently memorized, where such reversed forms exist.
Spells available to soothsayers

--	Level One	Level Two	Level Three	Level Four
1	Change Self	Augury	Blink	Charm Monster
2	Charm Person	Detect Charm	Clairaudience	Confusion
3	Command	ESP	Clairvoyance	Cure Serious Wounds
4	Comprehend Languages	Find Traps	Illusionary Script	Detect Lie
5	Cure Light Wounds	Forget	Spectral Force	Divination
6	Detect Evil	Hold Person	Non-detection	Emotion
7	Detect Illusion	Hypnotic Pattern	Remove Curse	Exorcise
8	Detect Magic	Speak with Animals	Slow	Phantasmal Killer
9	Hypnotism	Imp. Phantasmal Force	Speak with Dead	Polymorph Self
10	Identify	Know Alignment	Suggestion	Wizard Eye
11	Phantasmal Force	Locate Object	Tongues	Plane Shift
12	Audible Glammer	Misdirection	Dispel Magic	Contact Other Plane

--	Level Five	Level Six	Level Seven
1	Atonement	Find the Path	Astral Spell
2	Chaos	Vision	Antipathy/Sympathy
3	Commune	Invisible Stalker	Cacodemon
4	Speak with Monsters	Legend Lore	Instant Summons
5	Feeblemind	Mass Suggestion	Mind Blank
6	Magic Jar	Reinacarnation	Trap the Soul
7	Maze	Repulsion	Mass Charm
8	Polymorph Other	Spiritwrack	Heal
9	Quest	Veil	Imprisonment
10	True Seeing	Word of Recall	Alter Reality

Life w/o net

Man! No internet! After the first few days I got used to it, and started reading books again. Made me feel like I could quit smoking! And confined to localhost, managed to dribble assortments and some gaming things that I'll have to prettify and put up eventually...
But now, to absorb the last few weeks of OSReality.
Thanks for keeping the camp clear, everything appears to be in order...
Oh yeah - BOOKS! Vance The Last Castle and the Dying Earth quartet (finally), and Blackwater, the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill. (general conclusion: we're fucked (unless 'we' are committed right-wing crusaders with deep links into the military-industrial complex)). Of course, this book in particular got me to thinking on matters of D&D endgame...
Now to jump back into the PBP games...it may take a few days for some emails to get sent out of here, but I do have the next few days off...
Glad to see the S&W quick-start (though I feel compelled to steer clear of it until Nico and I have the E&S project done) and the Three Headed Monster is pretty exciting too. Glad that BHP has softened up a little.
Pretty glad that I was gone while the Tweet episode flared too.
Ugh.

gone for a few weeks at worst

lost internet connection and it looks like it'll be a minute before I'm back.
Take care.

Identity and Rolemaster "Classic"

Classic refers to the first version of the game.

1. 'Universal' game material. Supplements to add-in to other systems to give a greater amount of detail. Arms/Claw Law for combat, Spell Law for magic, and then Character Law for character development. I wonder how many people used these products in their D&D games...I'm sure the critical hit tables were fused into games in various ways if nothing else...

2. With the "main-points" of RPGs covered, this then is a system of its own, internally coherent. Iron Crown stopped printing information about converting Rolemaster data to the number-scales of other games, and began packaging the books together as a stand-alone system.

3. Middle Earth. Pre-MERP - Iron Crown got a license to publish works detailing settings in Middle Earth. What a coup! With time, a spin-off game is developed, 'Rolemaster-lite' (*heh*) in the form of MERP (along with other products). Rolemaster itself continues to be supplemented by Companion products, and also a campaign setting called Shadow World. New character classes are introduced, spell lists after spell lists are elucidated, the effects of unique herbs with strange names are detailed, more skills, more skills, more options...

4. Tolkien License revoked. Bummer. Can no longer publish the stats of the Steward of Gondor...Good thing they'd been thorough while the license held. One thing you can say about Rolemaster - thorough! They'd already detailed Moria, the Woses, the Court of Ardor, etcetera.

5. A continuation of #3 above. The numbered general supplements come to number seven. Companions are produced for each realm of magic, for two 'new' realms of magic, for alchemy, and for spell-users in general. Three compendiums of creatures and treasures. A companion book for character talents and skills, for warriors and arms-use in general, for war, for sea, castles, for constructs, golems and autoamta (I'm bouncing around the editions at this point...Rolemaster is still being published). The Shadow World setting never did much for me - but detailed settings have always been thought-experiments for me, I've never run a game with much of a mind to remaining true to a setting...but I liked reading Greyhawk, Earthdawn - Shadow World never jumped out and pulled me in.

Here's the thing. I tend toward 'low-powered' gaming. Limited information, limited scope. With the amount of detail in this game, I found it difficult to put on the blinders, and focus only on the aspects of the game that supported a low-powered campaign. If the characters were playing dumb grunts in the middle of nowhere (trust me, they weren't...), I was nevertheless aware that there were world-spanning organizations - there was magic that would allow amazing feats of communication and co-ordination - and this was distracting. (The fault here I lay at my own feet).

Ugh.
Yes, I'm going to have to go through the numbered companions next.
:)

Rolemaster vs Tunnels & Trolls

T&T wins again!

But really, this is more on Rolemaster.
I apologize that my writings here tend to be somewhat meandering.

One thing about Rolemaster I always found interesting was that it was something of a toolbox right from the get-go. It was acknowledged in the books that there was so much being presented that most referees would want to not-include everything (sort of reverse house-ruling...sort of). Then, once the Companion books started coming out and the options proliferated, this observation took on new weight - for example, there were three or four systems presented to deal with initiative in combat, and you really couldn't use ALL four of them.

When it come to kit-bashing, house-ruling, etc, the idea of building complexity to a desired level from a simple foundation has great merit. My early experiences with Rolemaster, however, may have really developed in me a tendency toward the opposite - to begin with complexity and pare it down to desired level of simplicity. Or rather, to begin with comprehensiveness and reduce reduce reduce.

Both approaches have their pros and cons. I feel that I am at odds with general OSR-ness when my yang side of overdevelop-then-reduce comes out. Oh well. Different strokes for different orcs.

Now, I have a hard time imagining two RPGs farther from each-other on the dirt-simple <-> over-blowed-out number line than T&T and Rolemaster - the two games that have had the most telling influences on my 'gaming philosophy'. (This may have produced a certain schizophrenic
tendency in my gaming...I refer to the orcs mentioned above). In the privacy of my notebooks and hard drive, I still attempt to write over-arching structures, comprehensive systems, exhaustive lists, rational categorizations and such - but in play, I am coming more and more to appreciate beginning with simplicity, and generally staying there.

I think though, that there's a lot of grey-area between the two extremes. And I think also that I will not be able to stop this series until I've plucked the various gems out of Rolemaster to put them here on display.

Oh yeah - the Castles & Ruins supplement for Rolemaster is magnificent!

Crude PDFS

I posted a link to some small PDF files that I've made and thought I should offer an explanation.
They're beside the top post of this page.

First off, a set of tables for hex-occupant generation. I went through Holmes D&D and extracted those creatures listed with treasure types, put in a dash of personal bias, and made tables for lair generation. Each table is rolled with 2 20-siders. There's two tables, the first contains races, the second, monsters.

The second is a list of the spells I've recently been posting here. Yay! More spells!

Anyway - coming to understand how easy PDFs are - albeit, crude ones.

Belskod's Bubbuckle

A brass belt buckle with a simple setting supporting a tourmaline. This gemstone can be depressed
twice a day, whereupon the wearer is surrounded by an invisible barrier. Within the barrier the temperature, air quality and purity, pressure, etc are maintained - environmental conditions inimical to continuance of life do not pass. The barrier makes the wearer immune to airborne poisons and diseases, improves the wearer's armor class by 1, does not interfere with the manipulation of objects and will persist for up to 4 hours.

Further researches of Ghanto Manuscript...

Curse of Cowardice
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 1 day/level
Target gets initial saving throw. If failed, target must save vs spells to enter melee, or to undertake other actions that call for an excessive bravery.

Curse of Hiltbite
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 1 day/level
Target gets initial saving throw. If failed, target takes 1 damage each round for each hand holding a weapon.

Enduring Symbol
Casting Time 1 hour
After casting this spell, caster places gold ingots or bars on the symbol, of a worth no less than 14,000 coins, which suffuses into the pre-existing symbol and vanishes. The symbol from then on must be dispelled twice in one hour to be removed.

Liquefy Metal
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 10 seconds/level
Range 5'/level
The caster can effect one non-magical object composed of metal (1 pound/level). If the item is heavier than the caster can effect, the spell fails. If the metal object is held or worn, a save vs spells is allowed. Otherwise, the metal becomes a liquid without changing temperature. If not contained it will spill to the floor. At the end of the spell's duration, the metal returns to its natural hardness.
(*should probably allow normal metal things a save too...)

Rolemaster and Alignment

Fortuitous Bandwagoneering!

Rolemaster, at first, had little to say about alignment. The book dedicated to character development actually has no use of the word in it! Regular Garden of Eden...

Evil showed up in Spell Law, where there were lists of spells that were supposed to be available to evil magicians, clerics, and mentalists. Spell Law provided the game's 'take' on Good vs Evil - which was essentially a small blurb that left it up to the Referee to decide what the terms meant in their game-world! How about that!

Enter the Companion products (of course!). Early companions were essentially fan-projects - optional rules and sub-systems submitted from players across the world - of course someone out there would submit their version of alignment for Rolemaster. It was inevitable.

Now, the latest version of Rolemaster has two pages dedicated to it, with three tables occupying one of them. It gives a variety of binary pairs (good vs evil, law/government vs anarchy/rebels/opposing government, law/principle vs opportunism, religion vs atheism/other religion, free enterprise vs cartel/guild/monopoly/socialism, asceticism vs hedonism, altruism vs egoism, spiritual vs materialist, metaphorical vs literalistic). This table, while interesting, is a simplification of an earlier table, which contains 'Personality Traits' set up in the same fashion (as pairs of extreme traits). A character was to roll on this table. Lets say this roll is 58 (yes, I rolled!). 58 gives us "Valorous, Brave, Bold, Audacious vs Timid, Cowardly, Craven".

OK. We roll again to determine where the character stands in this abstract scale (where low rolls are closer to the Valorous, Brave, etc end, and high rolls cleave to the Timid, Cowardly and Craven heights) - and get 50!. Really (again - I rolled!) How appropriate. So this particular character stands exactly midway between Valor and Timidity, as Brave and as Cowardly as the average Josef.

How about a roll on the alignment table? 71 - this will determine the character's alignment on the scale of "Metaphorical vs Literalism". OK - 32 puts him much closer to the metaphorical than the literal. A man, then, of average bravery, prone to metaphorical interpretations and understanding of the self and world.

Alignment? Apparently this character does not acknowledge a struggle between universal good and evil. Nor is the importance of individuality defined - or the value of whatever groups he associates with. Granted, with different rolls on the table, a closer approximation of AD&D alignment could have happened. And dispensing with the die-rolls altogether would simply that further...

I didn't grow-up gaming with this approach, though - it's AD&D alignment that has that honor. Honor? Anyway - ZZARCHOV has posted his approach, and it is similar to mine (though I do use Neutrality - in fact, variations on Neutrality comprise 75% of alignments). The important part is that alignment defines the positions an individual takes on the issues of self/group and selfish/altruistic - in a purely social sense. This is where I prefer alignment - as definitions of relations of self/group and then relations of groups to other groups. At this point I would have a hard time demanding that a player choose an alignment (unless the class dictated it). Alignment is something I use generally just to generate conflicts between individuals and groups.

Let's populate hex #5437 with two dwarf tribes, both Neutral Good. What stories are there in this hex? Two Dwarf tribes co-exist because of similar temperaments and mine high quality iron ores, etc. Great. Sounds like a decent place to rest and recuperate while wandering the wilds.

Why are there two Dwarf tribes fighting over in hex #7853? Because one was randomly generated Chaotic Evil and the other Neutral Good. So an antagonistic relationship between them is not hard to imagine here, the details of which could be left to development until such a time as the area is entered: which tribe is encountered first? How do they cast their differences with the other tribe?

These kinds of things could be modelled anyway you wanted - give each hex a Conflict score or something... the point of this ramble has become pretty much lost to me. Oh yeah - just that alignment has become shorthand for hex map filling, city populace factions, etc. I kind of cringe when players try to bring alignment into play...

Now. Universal powers in unending struggle...There's a wonderful thread on OD&D that is probably what got me hooked on the boards.

Epées & Sorcellerie

REPOST - To simplify matters, please email me at address shown to the right if you are interested in looking over this rough - any help is appreciated!

I've put up a rough PDF of character creation and combat for the translation of Epées & Sorcellerie and I am hoping that someone could read it and tell me if there's howling errors I am missing or if there some aspects of the game are not explained very well. The quick start version of the rules are close to finished state. It's a good game, not a strict cloning of OD&D - more a variation (and a good one!) with the author's imprint on it. This is something I miss in reading games more often than not - the author's personality, and is something I'm really nervous about preserving (though it is less an issue in the 'quick start' version we're getting together). At some point I''ll pore over Grognardia to link to the review James gave it. Anyway - these two sections total about 16 pages - if anyone could look them over, and tell me what's wrong or not right enough, I'd appreciate it!

In Clarification of Rolemaster

Well, strictly speaking, Andreas, they could populate empty spell lists from scratch, so it wasn't so much spell invention as it was stitching together pre-existing spells to form new groups. The class was called an an Arcanist - it was actually in Rolemaster Companion II methinks (maybe III). What they did present in the first Companion was 'Arcane' magic, a new uber-realm of magic which allowed its practitioners to learn lists from any realm (called an Archmage). At first, Arcane magic was an escape route from the division of magic into discrete realms. Later versions of the game changed Arcane magic into 'just another realm', with it's own professions and their base lists, etc. The Arcanist, then, was a spell-user of the arcane realm that could build lists of spells from all of the pre-existing spells.

Lucky guys!

Ok. Godsdamn* this spell system! I love it - but whew! Too much! Anyway, non spell-using characters had to choose a realm of magic, even the grunts, sages and swashbucklers. This decision could have some in-game consequences for them, but was largely superfluous. Spell-using classes had their realm (or realms) pre-determined. Here was the first clash - the Monk. By-the-book, a Monk is a semi-spell user of the Essence realm ('essence' is a term analagous to 'ambient magic', 'the force', it's practitioners those who learned formulae and methods to coerce specific effects into being). Early on, a player wanted to make a Monk, and saw them as belonging squarely in the Mentalism camp (mentalism: remember the magical field of the Essence? Yes. Well, it is uneven. Living beings form nodes in this field, and Mentalist casters tap this personal allotment of magic). I agreed. These realm divisions are semantic, or at best/worst, settling elements - and so in my game, the Monks were Mentalists.

*

In Praise of Rolemaster

Spell suites.

1. Spell Lists
Rolemaster magic is love/hate, but one thing that stuck from its spell system was the mechanical exposition of increasing spell effects at greater levels. Where AD&D used spell name and then Improved spell name, this was more obvious. AD&D also had a lot of spells in which increased caster level provided better results. Again - nothing new in a revolutionary sense, it was really just the exposition. Spells were presented in lists of levels, with (usually) 23 elements - these lists being a few related spell effects stretched and stepped out. Oh yeah - when a character 'learns a spell', they really learn 3-5 spells...yeesh - OK, I am trying not to explain the magic system wholesale here - the important point is that it got me thinking about scaling spells of similar effect (and has since contributed to my desire to dismiss spell levels entirely).

2. Lists of Spell Lists
There was a body of common spell-craft, but each class (profession in Rolemasterese) that could cast spells had 6 lists of spells (base lists in Rolmasterish) that were generally considered unavailable to other professions.

Reading through Kellri's Greyhawk Spells got me thinking about this - particularly the grouping of the 'named' spells from Greyhawk. I am assuming that at least some of the lists of named spells came from the actual negotiation of the originial players and Gygax, and not so much 'after the fact' padding put in by TSR (I may be wrong) - but the lists are generally themed. The spell inventors weren't trying to make toolkit magic, they were creating spells that fit their characters (though not without utility). (Link to Kellri if you need it - read the CDD's, and everything else too!)

X. An early publication after Rolemaster caught on was the Rolemaster Companion I. This contained a new profession that could build his spell lists from scratch. Oh yeah, and a new realm of magic that basically allowed you to ignore the division of magic into three 'realms'. Have I not mentioned the 3 realms of magic yet? Good! It's a fine concept, an evocative organization tool,
but as soon as they could, they published a supplement that included a way to 'unify' the divergent realms. Rolemaster had a vast profusion of ideas and options, simultaneously publishing ways to simplify and complicate...I feel like Rolemaster is a great game for NPCs.

& more trickeries

Aery Vantage
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 1 minute/level
Caster must close eyes and stand still for duration of spell or it is broken. Caster's vision is centered at a point up to 100'/level directly above his position. The view can rotate in all directions, and be repositioned on the vertical axis at will.

Feral Spell
Casting Time 10 seconds
Range 10'/level
Duration 1 minute/level
Target domesticated animal must save or revert to a wild or non-domesticated state. The animal's rider or handler may make this saving roll if present and of higher level. Some particularly well-trained animals may gain a bonus to the saving roll. The animal returns to its normal condition when the spell ends. This spell has no effect on creatures of greater than animal intelligence.

Ferrous Charm
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 10 minutes/level
Cast on an iron object, the object then protects the holder/wielder/wearer, granting a +1 to saving throws/3 levels of caster.

Namelessness
Casting Time 10 seconds
Range 10'
Duration 10 minutes/level
Target saves or cannot remember own name. Nothing else about target's memory is altered.

Riddle
Casting Time 30 seconds
Duration Varies
With this spell, the caster presents a riddle to 1 target/3 levels within hearing range. The caster must use a language the targets understand – but the spell has the peculiar quality of transmitting the voice through ambient noise of volumes that would normally impair the communication. Targets are allowed a saving roll. Those that fail suffer a -1 to all rolls for a number of rounds equal to their intelligence score divided by 2.

Symbol/Ward of Passivity
Casting Time S: 1 hr/lvl, W: 1 min/lvl
AOE S: 30'R/level, W: 10'R/level
Duration S: Permanent, W: 1 hour/level
All who enter the AOE (except caster) must save or suffer a reduction of 1 on to hit rolls, damage and armor class while in AOE.

Symbol/Ward of Weaponlessness
Casting Time S: 1 hr/lvl, W: 1 min/lvl
AOE S: 30'R/level, W: 10'R/level
Duration S: Permanent, W: 1 hour/level
Any who enter the AOE must save vs spells or immediately sheathe, sling, or stow any weapons in hand. All within area of effect must save vs spells to draw a weapon. These effects do not apply to the caster of the Symbol or Ward

Magic Items

Crown of Glass: +20% to all reaction rolls. All henchmen and important retainers within 100' at +2 to hit and morale. It is made of glass and fits narrow heads best.

Potion of Birdsong: imbiber may perfectly sing like any variety of bird known to them, and can communicate in a pan-avian language.

In Praise of Rolemaster

I'd already moved on to Rolemaster by the time AD&D 2nd edition came out, early converted by MERP – converted through sheer force of will really, my friend Ernie foisted it upon me, and we both being thorough Tolkien geeks...it was important to us. But I had read Arms Law, Spell Law, Character Law during their early printings (plastic bags, no glossy covers). I can't say that I could grok the system as a whole until very much later, not until MERP made me do it. It was not presented as a system at first, more as sub-systems (big ones) to tack on to your AD&D game. Very big ones – replacements really. I cannot help but think that Fenlon & Co. were designing a full system from the get-go.

Rolemaster is the only game that I know of that started off complex and has throughout the course of it's recent lifetime (through various iterations) sought to reduce its complexity to a more manageable level. It is to the point that the differences in organization do not form a pair of worse-organized to better-organized - they're both just as fiddly, just differently so...

1. The Resistance Roll Table – a matrix, comparing level of attack to level of resister. 1st level resistance provided 50% chance against 1st level attack. Smoothed out over 20 levels. This could be the only table ever used in a game – this table really is a very even-handed 'core mechanic'. Nothing unknown beforehand, mathematically – essentially the same concept as the magic resistance some creatures in AD&D had.

2. The division of character classes into three categories: Non Spell-User, Semi Spell-User and Pure Spell-User. This is not specifically accurate – there was a fourth category initially - the Hybrid Spell-User. This was essentially the same thing as a Pure Spell-User, the difference having to do with the categories of magic in the game. What I have retained from this, reinforced by my early playing of Tunnels and Trolls, was the division of character classes into no-magic, some-magic, all-magic.

3. Illusions. There was no disbelief a la AD&D. The caster of illusions manipulated the elements (even if that element were only 'light') and created effects that were real physical effects. Disbelieving illusions had always been a pet peeve of mine about AD&D. Broke the wall, as it were.

4. The Mentalism Companion is one of my favorite RPG books. It has some kinda bleh parts, (it's got 158 pages...) - but it has some very organized thoughts on some more outre fantasy role-playing accoutrements: time travel, 'the philosophies of illusion', natural languages, divination (of past, present, and future, each with their own treatment – jeez!), astrology, tarot, dreams...

Games I can't run? Rolemaster. As a referee, I, if not the players too, shied away from combat! It was too much to bear. In the end, character creation in Rolemaster is as far as I can go. It's kinda like Traveller that way – where character creation is itself a rewarding pastime. I even got to the point that I had 3 players create their characters in Rolemaster, and then I took their character sheets and converted them to my home-brew T&T for play! Gug!

Anyway, I'm sure I'll return to this later, one of those things. And it's given me an idea for a series of adventurous posts – Games I Can't Run!

Antimagics & other trickeries

Ethereal Room
Casting Time 1 second
Duration 1 hour/level
Transports caster to an extra-dimensional space. Caster may touch others to bring 1 target/3 levels – magic resistant targets may resist. Every hour that the Ethereal Room is occupied by a sentient being, there is a 1% chance that an Ethereal encounter will occur. The spell leaves a magical anchor point where the spell was cast, and this point is where the caster will be returned at the end of the spell. Casting an Ethereal Room spell while in an Ethereal Room serves to add an hour to its duration. Note that duration applies to the amount of time the Ethereal Room can be inhabited – the room itself is persistent and unique to each caster. The room is a cube, 10' a side/caster level. The caster (and any other targets of caster's choosing) may leave the room before the duration expires.

Hidden Mind
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 1 hour/level
Caster does not register as sentient, intelligent, conscious, or possessing an identity for purposes of senses and detections that discriminate such points of perception. Empathy, ESP, and mind-affecting spells/abilities cannot target the caster of Hidden Mind.

Hindrance, Countercast, Foilspell
Casting Time 1 second
Range 20' + 10'/level
Duration 1 round/3 levels
Target saves or is at -1 to hit & damage, armor class is worsened one step, and attempts to cast spells fail.

Pact
Casting Time 1 minute
Duration 1 week/level
This spell targets at least two individuals – the caster may include an additional target for each level above the second. The caster need not necessarily be one of the targets. Unwilling targets may save to not be bound by the pact. It enforces an agreement between the targets. Either party that breaks the terms of the agreement suffers a negative modifier all rolls made for a full month after the pact is broken. This modifier is -1/3 levels the caster has attained.

Suppress Magic
Casting Time 1 minute
Range 10'/level
Duration 1 min/level
Target spell or magical effect must resist or be suppressed and inactive for duration of this spell. Resistance is based on caster level and the target's level. The spell has a 50% base chance of success, modified by +5% per level if the caster's level is higher than the target's, and -5% per level if the opposite is true.

Symbol/Ward of Exclusion (Minor)
Casting Time S: 1 hr/lvl, W: 1 min/lvl
AOE S: 30'R/level, W: 10'R/level
Duration S: Permanent, W: 1 hour/level
All magic items brought into AOE by anyone other than caster must resist or have their powers suppressed while in the AOE. All spells cast by anyone other than the caster of the Symbol or Ward (in AOE) must save vs. spells or the spell fails and is wasted.

Reading vs Writing

DAMMIT! READING WINS AGAIN!

Zulgyan of the boards started up his blog and it is as much a doozy as pretty much everything
else he presents to us! Avail yourselves - prepare for heavy reading - a trip back to the recent
past and his considered views (and many worthy others!). I have nothing but admiration for this fellow!

Goodbye Word of Thool

You will be missed. I don't know what else to say.

Blogs vs Boards

Boards win again!

I've had consistent internet for 6 months now, after about as many years without. The RPG blogs caught me quick and really blew my mind - looks like I got connected at a good time. But there was a lot going on in the years that I was not on the net (consult prior post for some examples).

Before the blogs, there were the boards. My journey has been backwards - stumbling into ODDD, K&K, Trollbridge, Doomsday, Alternate History, etc after finding out about them through the blogosphere.

I've never been much for monologue. The boards are dialog. Blogs are good, but really - the exchange, the community - the boards are where it's at for conversation.