I made a game!

 Recently I took screenshots of the Fighter, Thief, Cleric and Magic-User/Wizard from Shadowdark, Labyrinth Lord, Swords and Wizardry, and Hundred Dungeons. I sent them to my players to see which classes excited them. Then I was drawn to Knave's spell list. Then I got to thinking about not just what I liked about my favorite rule systems but why. 

Then I had an idea, instead of printing different classes/spells/monsters/rules from various rule-systems and frankenstein-ing a rule book to use, why not just write my own!

Thus, Into the Wild and Dangerous was born.

Anyone who is familiar with d20 Fantasy RPGs will see plenty of familiar elements. 

- 4 Ancestries: Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human

- 20 Backgrounds: 1 sentence descriptions for what your character did before picking up adventuring

- 4 Classes: Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic-User

- Feats: 8 for each class, over the course of your career you gain 3 from your class list and 2 from any list, building your own "subclass"

- Spells: Roll to cast spells similar to Shadowdark.

(If you want a random character, every aspect of character creation is able to be rolled with a dice!)

What makes this different?

- Omens: Instead of just handing out inspiration, the Game Master can portent the future of the characters by narrating an ominous natural phenomena happening around them. 

    "As you are packing your horse’s saddlebags with all your gear for your journey you see a raven perched on a nearby signpost, picking at the bones of some poor critter.”

    The player notes this on their character sheet and when they feel their omen coming to fruition in game, they can cash in on it and reroll any d20. This is a more fiction-forward approach to 5e's Inspiration.

- Oaths: Players can make swear long term promises that are continuously tested over the course of their life. When these oaths are tested and the players prove themselves stalwart, they are granted XP.

 - On a Scale of... This mechanic is similar to the Oracle die used in many games. This is a simple way to resolve details that GMs might not have a quick answer for like "how loud was the skeleton falling down the well?" or "How hard is it raining outside?" 

    The GM rolls a d10, and the 1-10 scale determines the severity (1 being least and 10 being most severe outcome). I think Gandalf rolled a 10 when Pippin goofed in Moria.

- Practical Game Master advice: The GM section is inspired Sly Flourish's Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master but taken with an OSR game in mind.

 - Easy to Run Monsters: Everything you need to run a monsters fits in 1 sentence.  

 

 - 100% Human-Made: I made use of wonderful art that is accessible in the Public Domain instead of anything AI-Generated.  

Link to the itch.io page, link to the drivethrurpg page.

 

Session 7 Recap

    The session kicked off with the party war-tabling with the leaders of Coalfell. Having scouted the Tower of Onyx, the party knew what they were up against. The plan was this: the main forces were going to sneak around to the back entrance of the tower while the party, along with some assistance was going to get dropped off at the top of the tower to face off against the mage by our flying friends, the Silent People. Sounds familiar... 

They landed on the rooftop of the tower where the Thool mage was performing the demon calling ritual. After a tense battle, and a few fireballs, the party realized they were outmatched. They jumped off the side, feather-falled and caught their breath. Here I allowed them to take a short rest in 1 minute, however as soon they leave initiative, they will suffer one level of exhaustion. With a burst of energy, and an enemy at half power they went back up to finish the job.

After a brutal Cone of Cold and a few rough rounds of rolling low, Sajin died frozen in a block of ice.

However, the assault on the Tower of Onyx was successful! The Gnoll army was defeated, the Mage was killed and the ritual stopped. When the ritual was stopped, the giant obsidian orb fell from the sky, and the demon spirits were ripped from the gnolls bodies. 

Cody quickly rolled up a new character, Jhoras the elven Ranger. With the new party and 300 members of Coalfell in tow, they set out East to go take down Rolnar. Along the way they stopped by the site of the Toxic Alchemical Sump, where Rolnar has now created an entire factory powered by demon labor. 

When the party arrived to Tradetown, they were expecting to see a war torn shell of what was, but they found a newly fortified, clean, peaceful place where they were welcomed. They made their way over to the Residential Distribution Center to talk to their friend Arbellon. He was shocked to see them alive and walked them through what all has happened. Yes the place has been revamped, but they are under the upmost of authoritarian rule that is being propped up on the back of slave labor. No bueno. 

They left town to reconnect with their Fellowship friends who had left town voluntarily and they devised a plan. Jhoras is to volunteer and join up with Rolnar's forces, rise up high enough to get on the Keep's guard and open the gates when the time comes. Dredd is going to go back to the City of MAN and try and gather any resources that might help. With a few great rolls and a time skip of 3 months, the plan is in motion and the time for assassination is nigh. 

That is where we will begin next session.