Alternatives to the Vancian magic system

In a previous post, Better spells at level one, I tried to present a few options to make Level 1 Magic Users slightly more powerful or versatile, to make them more usable at the start of the game.

Here, though, I want to review a few alternatives to the traditional Vancian system (prepare spells by slots, followed by cast and forget). It's a common topic among OSR house-rules, but it should be treated with care.
How magic works, in fact, has a profound impact both on the setting (a powerful magic system implies, usually, a society heavily influenced by wizards), and on the game-play (why play a Fighter if the Magic User is tremendously more powerful, even at the first levels?).


The first post is by Diogo Nogueira, and presents a different way to handle the Vancian system, but still remains Vancian... or actually, tries to make the system less DnD-like, and more Vancian-like, in the spirit of the books.
The system is simple enough and requires just a table of incidents that trigger whenever the character tries to memorize too many spells.
I guess I would try to improve the system, if I'd use it, to include a rule on how to cast a spell that the Magic User knows, but has not prepared.

Alternate Vancian Magic System for OSR Games
by Diogo Nogueira
[...] I’ve come up with an alternate Vancian Magic System that makes spellcasting more flexible, leveless (even though you can still use the standard spell list in your game of choice) and insert some risk in the sorcery art (which I think is essential, as we are dealing with unnatural forces).
In the stories I’ve read, magicians, when they were imparting the spell energies in their minds to cast them later, would make increasingly greater effort to put as many spells as they could in their memory. There was not definite limit. Some could impart more, some less, and this could vary. They could risk filling their minds with spells, but if they pushed too hard, they could lose and release all that energy uncontrollably. Of course some of you might see this differently, but that’s what my imagination has captured out of those stories.
[...]
Magic-Users can safely prepare a number of spell levels equal to their own character level plus their Intelligence modifier.
[...]
A character may attempt to prepare additional spells beyond his level limit, but that is risky. Each additional spell prepare triggers a Saving Throw with a penalty equal to the additional levels of spells prepared beyond the safety level.
[...]
Success means the spell is prepared normally and can be cast as if safely prepared. Failure however prevents the spell from being prepared and triggers a backlash. The character than rolls 1d6 and adds the total amount of spells levels prepared beyond his safe limit and consults the table below.
[...]
The penalty to the Saving Throws to prepare additional spells beyond the safe limit can be offset by sacrifices as the referee deems fair. A character may burn points of abilities scores to offset these penalties as 1 per 1. 
[...]
The Saving Throw penalty resets after a full day of rest. However, if there are still levels of spells prepared beyond the safe limit, that number of levels is immediately applied as penalty to prepare any new spells.

[...]

1d6+ Spell Levels --- Backlash
2 --- Forces a Saving Throw to keep the lowest prepared spell still memorized.
3 --- The character suffers a number of points of damage equal to the number of additional spells levels he has attempted to prepare this day.
4 --- The character must make a Saving Throw not to release a offensive spell on himself he has prepared right away.
[...]
15 --- The Void drains the life energy of the caster and their allies within 30 ft range to power their spells. Everyone affected suffers a points of damage distributed between their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution for each additional spell level the character tried to prepare.
16+ --- The character accidentally summons an entity from the planes, possessing a number of HD equal to the total number of additional levels of spells he tried to prepare. The entity is determined to devour them and their allies.
http://oldskulling.blogspot.com/2018/06/alternate-vancian-magic-system-for-osr.html


The next post is by d4 Caltrops, and really goes further away from the traditional rules.
First of all, in this post the author gets rid of spell lists, which should speed up play (less time spent studying the spells, the effects, the best cominations for using slots to memorize them, etc.).
Spells are replaced by words, by powerful keywords, and effects are negotiated at the table.

Putting the User back in Magic-User

by d4 Caltrops

[...] I’ve always been intrigued by eliminating/reducing spell lists (less to look up/remember or record).
The central conceit is that instead of learning spells from a list, Magic-Users learn “words” that are used to create new spells. I believe the old GURPS Magic had a Rune-Based system for noun/verb pairs for on-the-fly casting, and it always looked relatively tricky to judge without a ton of negotiation.
[...]
I do enjoy the idea of using the Magic-User’s initial spell outlay to determine the initial words known. The post postulates that new Spell Creation could be handled on a one-per-session basis, I’m inclined to agree, as adjudicating this kind of system on the fly may introduce inconsistent rulings. But spell creation by word combination “on-the-fly” is still somewhat interesting to me. I like the idea of making magic somewhat unpredictable and mysterious.

[...]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B18gUV3KYFQmQ2JIa3NheDFnOEk/view

How would I use them? Well, I’d go ahead and follow the general advice outlined in the inspiring post and grant an initial outlay of two, standard, Vancian spells from the 1st Level Spell List for initial tinkering and combination. Maybe an extra word per point of Intelligence bonus to keep things interesting and encourage system-use from the start. Articles like “of” and “the” and targets like an implied “(self)” should probably be free.

[...]

http://blog.d4caltrops.com/2015/09/putting-user-back-in-magic-user.html


Following the spirit of the magic by keywords, this third article by Martin O presents another interesting alternative, as long as your players enjoy the challenge.
As the previous system, it requires coming up with effects and details on the fly, negotiating between players and GM.
This system is particular in the sense that a spell can be cast only once, but then slowly changed into something else by replacing its letters.
At the same time, the challenge of coming up with something original each time, is definitely going to bring at the table the sense of challenge of magic, and of its infinite possibilities.

The Practitioners of Paronym

by Martin O

This is an insane subclass. Only a masochistic person would play it.

Or maybe someone who's very good at Scrabble and crossword puzzles.

The idea is that you take a magic class: Magic-User, Wizard, Bard, whatever.

You give them access to every single spell of a spell level they could cast.

You only allow them to cast any particular spell only exactly once. For the entire campaign.

You give them to ability to change the effect of a spell by changing the name of the spell...

[...]

There are a couple of ways to do this. I think I prefer a point system. Give them a certain number of points per long rest/day. Maybe caster level x 2 or something. For each point they spend they may perform one alteration on a spell.

Each point spent will either add a letter, subtract a letter, or substitute a letter for another. Spaces and removing spaces are free.

For example: Paromancer Bob wants to cast Shocking Grasp, but oh! That's boring. Instead he's going to spend 1 point and cast Shocking Grass. Or perhaps the less-effective sounding Shocking Gasp. Maybe he wants to spend 2 points and cast Shocking Grate, or Shocking Ass.

Yes, this means coming up with effects and damage on the fly. I warned you earlier. 

[...]

I think a good way to go about it is this rule of thumb: the more useless the spell sounds like it would be except in this specific scenario, the more powerful the effect is. The more effective the spell sounds like it would be for most scenarios, the less powerful it is.

http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-practitioners-of-paronym.html

If I'd ever use this system, I would also like to understand how to deal with changing a letter then NOT using the spell... Can I change another letter another day, and slowly replace them and change the spell into what I need? Or do I NEED to cast a changed spell before I can change it again? (this would make for some silly moments for sure)


In the last post for today, we're looking at a short article by Patrick Mallah, with a simple and effective system. It uses magic points, which is the easiest alternative to introduce some limits to the ability to cast, if you don't use cast and forget.

Escape from Vancian magic
by Patrick Mallah
What do I dislike about Vancian magic?
Memorization.
What do my players dislike about Vancian magic?
Memorization. 

[...]

The idea I have now is to give wizards Magic Points that they use to cast spells. 
Earning Magic Points by leveling up (this is a rough draft):
Level 1 = +1mp
Level 2 = +1mp
Level 3 = +1mp
Level 4 = +2mp

[...]

Wizards add their best bonus between Intelligence and Constitution to their Magic Point total at each level. [...]
Spells also cost an equal amount to cast so a Level 1 spell costs 1 Magic Point to cast. There is no roll and no memorization, if the Magic-User knows the spell then they cast it. Magic Points recover completely after resting/sleeping for 8 hours. [...]
Spellburn: if a wizard "burns" their Constitution they can create an uber-effect with a spell. Burned Con points recover at 1 per week, magical healing doesn't increase the amount healed or reduce the time needed to heal. Maybe a purple lotus flower could recover burnt Con. [...]
https://nerdwerds.blogspot.com/2019/01/escape-from-vancian-magic.html


Design notes:

- Alternatives to the traditional Vancian system: treat this with care as it impacts both the setting and the game-play (a system too powerful changes the setting into one shaped forcefully by magic, and makes Magic User the only viable, reasonable class to choose)

- Possible tuning includes the option to prepare spell beyond the traditional limit

- This might be handled with a Saving Throw: a fail results in not having the spell prepared, plus some penalties (i.e. from a table of incidents)

- In this case, keep track of what's prepared beyond the limit, so that multiple penalties would stack together

- An alternative system may use for example combinations of keywords: they require a negotiation on the effects, but could lead to interesting, original combinations and effects

- Using keywords and coming up with effects on the fly could be challenging, but there is also the possibility to mutate spells by changing, removing or replacing a single letter at the time 

- Easiest solution to replace cast and forget, is to use magic points

- If you do, use a simple method: start with the cost per spell (usually 1 point per spell level) and then grant points to wizards according to their level (i.e. use a table, or they add their level to the total plus some bonus)

Hirelings: generators and lists

First of all, let's get to the useful tool.
Who wants to generate hirelings "wasting" precious time at the table?

So let's take advantage of this simple, fast and useful hireling generator: it allows you to select even basic options such as 3d6 vs 4d6-drop-lowest for stats, Auto-Equip versus rolling for starting money, minimum HP, and level.
Clicking on the name gives you a printable character sheet.
The only drawbacks:
- A single saving throw (so OK for S&W, less for other OSR games with multiple saves, but these are disposable hirelings... so I guess even with other rulesets a single Save is ok)
- No list of spells for magic users or clerics

Complete Hireling generator.
A hireling generator designed with Swords & Wizardry Complete in mind, but also suitable for other Old School RPGs
http://gregfarrell.org/hire/


Same problem - no spells lists, at this other link. Here there is no Save at all, but I guess for random OSR you can just refer to the default level one table for fighters.
This generator, though, includes a few traits/backstories and an alignment (I didn't test if they make sense when generating a lot of them or if perhaps they're too much over the edge, gonzo, or meaningless).

Fifty Random Hirelings for Your OSR-Style Campaign World
https://hirelings.hexed.press/

Last generator, from barrowmaze, includes a variable selection for recruiting in a village or in a larger city, and additionl recruits in case you're willing to pay more for a town crier.
It gives a handy list which includes everything (Name, Type, Race, HP, Sex, Weapon, Armor, Alignment, Background, Possessions & Knowledge, Notable Features) except... again, spells.
But you may get a war dog.

Meatshields
This generator is intended for introductory level play using the OE, Basic, or 1E gamesystems and their retroclones.

http://www.barrowmaze.com/meatshields

In any case, with all randomly generated hirelings in need for a spell, we can easily work with this:

http://paperelemental.blogspot.com/p/list-to-html-generator.html

Click the button for a random spell.

Having said that, remember to give a little life to your hirelings... Don't push it too far, but a trait or two, or a line of a backstory, a quirk, a funny habit, a strange fear or weakness, something odd, will make any meaningless set of stats into a person.
If you want, you can start with what I already listed for characters:

• Name your character 
• Traits for characters 
• Backstories 
• Careers 
• Bonds (put characters together) 

If you want a simple table with additional traits, you can use also the simple and handy pdf linked below, on city-of-brass.org, which uses a roll of all your dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) to generate a few meaningful traits for a hireling:
http://city-of-brass.org/TelecantersHirelingSpurG.pdf


If you feel like pushing it a bit further, consider the next two lists, with a list of random followers, adding color to your party.

Who/what has followed the party?
by V. A.
As the party travels, they may pick up a hanger-on or two - perhaps they have gained some notoriety, or some opportunistic individual(s) hope to join for fortune or easy pickings, or just something following you for reasons of its own... Some may be almost helpful. Regardless, they're at least one more mouth to feed... [...]

1. Farm boy/girl with adventuresome aspirations.  50% chance to be carrying a random weapon in disrepair, 20% chance to be wearing poorly fitted and mis-matched armor.

2. Dog(s) 1d4.  25% of some useful training (herding, guard, hunting), 2% chance blink dog, 5% chance Really Good Dog, otherwise just begging cur.

3. Cat.  Of no use whatsoever.  Gloms onto the party member most likely to dislike cats and/or be allergic.

4. Half-wit:  Strong, at least.  Can lift/carry heavy things.  Doesn't complain.  Obsessively happy.  No matter what you tell them your name is, they call you Seymour.

5. A goblin.  Cloyingly sycophantic. 25% chance to have useful info on next subterranean dungeon entered.  33% chance that they'll betray you.

[...]
http://leicestersramble.blogspot.com/2018/07/whowhat-has-followed-party.html

OSR: Table of Camp Followers

by Skerples

Most OSR, D&D-type games have rules for hirelings and mercenaries. This table is for all the people one step lower on the adventuring ladder. Camp followers won't go into the dungeon for  you. They won't fight for you. In fact, they barely work for you at all. They tend to follow soldiers to and from wars. Most armies were outnumbered by their followers. You can recruit them at the edge of wars or in disorderly cities and villages. Sometimes they turn up unannounced.

Each camp follower costs 5cp per day (35 cp per week, 15 sp per month). If you can't or won't pay them, some might leave, some might starve, and some might steal your purse and run into the forest. 

[...]

Roll (1d100) Camp Follower

1- Infant - noisy. If this is your only camp follower, you may roll again.

2- Urchin - follows you around and assists with minor tasks. 

3- Brawler Urchin - will fight and bite anyone and anything, including horses, dogs, and other party members.

4- Wild Urchin - doesn't speak, runs around, finds animals and sticks and puts them in your tent.

5- Cunning Urchin - watches and waits. Has a hoard of 1d10sp, a dagger, and a plan.

6- Militant Urchin - plays at being a solider. Marches around, guards things, challenges passersby.

7- Your Child - resembles you. 1d10 years old. Might vary by race. Unless you have a Spouse, the child is illegitimate.

8- Orphan - you knew at least one of the parents. 1d10  years old, thinks of you as an important figure.

9- Blind Man - navigates with a reed, can see ghosts and spells clearly, refuses to admit this. Twitchy.

10- Blind Man - navigates with a stick, swears like a sailor, can hear changes in the weather.

[...]

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/06/osr-table-of-camp-followers.html


Note that while most hirelings are assumed to be low-level, sometimes you want something more, someone more powerful, who can bring more to the party (and, I guess, more headaches to the players!).
This is a handy list of mid-level hirelings, with different classes.

Strange Mid-Level Hirelings Table
by Cacklecharm
If you want a hireling of a specific class, roll 1d6 for that class in its category. [...] If you want a totally random hireling, roll 1d20. All non-specified stats modifiers are randomly generated.
[...]
Fighters
[1] Haggrath the Giant-Handed – Level 4
Stats- +1 Str, -1 Dex, +2 Con
Average looking man with hands that belong on someone much taller and twice his age. Well known for getting exiled from his home city after a young woman was found strangled to death; he swears he didn't do it.
Haggrath can strangle anything that has to breath through a windpipe; deals 1d8+1 damage per round with his massive, clenching hands. Count his strength as +3 for grip strength.

[2] “Ramsy” the Lionheart – Level 5
Stats- -2 Dex, +2 Con, -2 Wis
Large male buck ram sheep. Talks. Walks on all fours and holds his sword in his mouth. Claims his mother was thrown in a lion's pit for food, but they ended up falling in love instead, hence he has the body of a sheep but the warrior's heart of a lion.
Cannot manipulate tools and doesn't have hands, but can use his mouth similar to a hand and counts his Dexterity as +2 for climbing. Has to wear custom armor, but his fleece also grants +2 AC when fully grown out. If he fails a save vs a fiery spell or breath attack, it will burn up and have to grow back next summer. Has -1 to morale and a bad attitude until he has a squire to groom him. Could serve as a mount for a halfling.

[...]

Rogues
[7] Gottsan Arrowcatcher – Level 5
Stats- +1 Str, +2 Dex, -2 Int
Lean, wiry youth whose features seem to hint at a half orc heritage. Worked with a travelling circus as a juggler and with sleight of hand. Well known for his most famous trick; catching arrows. Isn't very talkative, notoriously bad with money.
He can catch up to one arrow fired at him per free hand per round on a successful save. If he fails the save, the arrow does 1 damage to his hand and delivers any poison it may be coated in. He can also roll a save at -2 to try to catch an arrow shot at an ally if he's adjacent.

[8] Minervii – Level 4
Stats- +1 Dex, +1 Con, +2 Int, -2 Cha
Found abandoned in a swamp as an infant. Very sharp, but of an ugly and unkept appearance. Has gray hair that looks green in the sunlight. Worked as a guide in the bog and sometimes lead her customers to their deaths in quicksand if she thought they'd take advantage or wouldn't pay.
Can boil strands of her hair in a pot to create stale, foul tasting water that is poisonous to drink or if a weapon is dipped in it. A dozen strands makes the drinker have an upset stomach, a few large clippings deal 1d6 poison damage, and shaving all of her head into a pot would deal 3d6 damage.

[...]

Mages

[13] Salvo – Level 5

Stats- -1 Dex, -1 Con, +1 Int

Mysterious, foreign mage with a lisp. His fingers are each decorated with tattooed rings of symbols in both red and black ink. Doesn't remember how he got the tattoos.

Can expend any spell slot to fire that many 1 damage, screaming, glowing red magic missiles from his fingertips. Doing this more then once per day makes his fingers even more numb and clumsy, -1 to Dex modifier for a day for each barrage past the first.

[14] Berinon “Deathwraps” – Level 6

Stats- -2 Strength, +1 Dex, +2 Int, -1 Wis

Once used a mummy's wrappings to bind up his own injuries while he was bleeding to death. He was cursed with a fragility of the dead but somehow survived. Still carries mummy bandages that he washes and cleans to wrap up his diseased sores and wounds.

Every time this character rolls their HD to determine hit points each level, it is always treated as a roll of 1. He only has 6 + Con modifier HP. Every time he casts a Necromancy spell, or spells aligned with the powers of death, he treats it as thought it was 1 caster level lower to prepare.

[...]

http://themansegaming.blogspot.com/2018/07/strange-mid-level-hirelings-table.html


Next time, though, I would like to discuss alternative rules and other approaches to the standard, when it comes to hirelings.
It makes sense of course to treat them as characters, or as simpler characters... but is there a way to maintain their usefulness, their color, and make them much lighter in terms of rules?
How can we get the most out of hirelings without too many rules, without too much work?

Traps, part two: example traps

We gave a look at traps, here: Traps - a first review and this topic is definitely too big for a single post. So let's see a few additional points about the subject, but this time let's be very practical, let's see a few examples of traps.


Traps in a spellbook are a great way to target the spellcaster in the group... a mysterious spellbook is a serious temptation for any wizard.
Traps in spellbooks might be hidden or could be quite visible and yet remain interesting and challenging (i.e. the spellcaster might easily spot the ink golem traps protecting every spell - do they risk to trigger it every time to learn new spells?), or could also be in the form of twisted spells (i.e. without the correct code, the learned spell is actually harmful instead of useful).
Obviouly, traps in a spellbook are magical ones, and your spellcaster will soon learn to cast Detect Magic or similar before opening a new spellbook... but does the aura of the spellbook disturb Detect Magic? And what about that wizard who smartly predicted that other spellcasters would disarm magical traps and used instead a simple, poisoned needle or poisoned dust?

Spellbook Traps
by Hack & Slash
Here is my list of ways a spell book can be trapped. It's system neutral. I am not the originator of most of these, you may thank Anonymous. Enjoy. I should come up with a list of specific magical books later. . .
1. Alarm
2. Explosive Runes
3. Contingency (To trigger any spell)
4. Symbol
5. Dusty pages (spores, disease)
6. Contact poison
7. Twisted spells (harmful spells unless the caster knows the code or key)
8. Ink Golems
9. Cloud of a million papercuts (Targeting eyes, nose, and mouth.)
10. Something that looks like a linking book, but actually triggers an Imprisoment spell
11. Mimics
12. A book with the same words on every page, with the spells coded into ink, or texture / material of the pages
13. Beartraps
14. Cursed (Polymorph for anyone reading the book who isn't the caster
15. Superglue [...]
http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2010/08/spellbook-traps.html


This is an example of how to use giant block of stone in some original ways. There are a few interesting ideas, and also a few questions which could be useful as inspiration of how to design your traps.
- Take something simple, and think of all the ways this could be used; what could be an unexpected or original use? with and/or without magic?
- Take inspiration from the real world: toys, tools, hardware, scenarios; think about traps but also about secrets

TRAP IDEA – TAKE ONE THING AND EXPAND ON IT
by Follow Me, And Die
Take something simple, and think of all the ways this could be used, it could all be in the same dungeon, or series of dungeons/tombs. Perhaps all the tomb builders of a certain epoch used them. [...]
Have a giant rock or cube the shape of the corridor fill up the space.
It doesn’t have to kill. Use it to stop entrance or exit and otherwise direct the adventurers along the path most favorable to the kobolds.
Think of all the ways you can use a giant block of stone to impede and frustrate their efforts. Be sure to think in 3 dimensions.

Examples with a 10X10X10 dungeon corridor.

- The block that falls can’t be pushed or pulled as it is a tight fit and there is a slight lip in the floor around its base.
- The block falls just in front to make them turn back or aside at an intersection.
- The block falls after they enter a room and exit on opposite wall has one that will fall before they can leave the room.
- - There can be no exit and the party waits for rescue or attack, or figures a way out.
- - There can appear to be no exit, but there is a secret door or trap door in the flor/ceiling.

[...]

- A stone block actually is a secret room but the players have to find it in the portion facing them.

[...]

I started with a stone block and added in pits, moving walls, floors, and ceilings, and so forth. In the same way, start with something simple and look at it just a bit differently.

- What can you do with it that you or a player wouldn’t expect?

- What can you do with it with and without magic? (Technology for other genres.)

- Find one of your child’s or grandchild’s toys or other household item.  What can you do with that?

- Pay attention to the things you see at the big box stores or hardware store.

- What overheard conversation from public places sparks an idea?

- Don’t limit yourself to traps. You can do this with secret doors, hidden compartments, etc.[...]

https://followmeanddie.com/2017/01/30/trap-idea-take-one-thing-and-expand-on-it/

If you're ready for a longer read, you can also refer to this series of posts by Talysman. The previous post about traps already had links to the first two articles, but the list contains also a series of posts about different types of traps... Springs, Levers, Pressure Plates, etc. are all analyzed in details and can provide inspiration for your own new, original traps.

Traps Series
by Talysman
[...]Springs
Shutters/Valves
Compression Triggers
Levers
Pressure Plates
Equilibrium (Balance) Plates
Delays
Wheels/Axles [...]

http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2011/12/traps-series.html

To conclude this post, let's look at four links by Martin O, on traps, guards, alarms and locks.
Some of these are interesting, others a little bit nasty.

For example I like the idea of reducing the speed to paralysis in a progressive manner or preventing turning left or right because they pose a challenge.
I don't like too much the "accelerate to death" or "radiation" traps, in their simplicity, because they require just a dispell magic or a cure, or they cause a fast/slow death with not too much of challenge or interesting content...
In this sense, I prefer a trap to make damage than to kill because a weakened character becomes a challenge for the player... more than a dead one. As you might have guessed, rather than just killing characters with one blow, I'd rather grind them slowly to death because players don't know when to turn back and return to safety instead of pushing forward with greed.

20 Traps for Wizards and Assholes
by Martin O
1. Xeno Hallway - Person moves half the speed they did last round, every round. If not sprinting at the start they’ll effectively be stuck [...]
3. Turn Rune - Trigger-activated rune prevents all affected from turning left or right on their own accord. Visual or area activation common. Typically last a day [...]
5. Acceleration Rune - Target starts accelerating at rate of 5ft/round(squared). No effective upper speed limit. Distance required to turn 90 degrees also increases at 5ft/round (starting at 0ft). Unless eventually dispelled, your pieces will almost certainly end up ricocheting into space. [...]
13. Radioactive Loot - Hope you enjoy having cancer, thief! Whatever is worth stealing is radioactive. Direct prolonged contact is sure to produce dire health effects. [...]

http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2018/07/20-traps-for-wizards-and-assholes.html

Guards are basically like a visibile trap. There might be a way to deactivate a trap before it triggers or to circumvent it, and there might be a way to distract or incapacitate a guard instead of fighting it.
They offer interesting options as well as traps.

20 Magical Guards
by Martin O

[...] 8. Beeeeeeeeeeeeees! - A lot of bees. Like, a heck of a lot of bees. Like, an incomprehensible number of bees... Release the bees!

9. Mirror Golem - Two-faceted silver nitrate coated machine. Deflects direct-target spells. Front facet shows a false future - anyone who looks in it gains disadvantage on their next roll. Rear facet shows a true future with opposite effect. [...] 

16. Party Mirror - Alignment-reflected vengeful clones of every party member. Same capabilities, same stats, same equipment. [...] 

http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2018/06/20-magical-guards.html

And if guards are traps, what about alarms? (I guess they're just some sort of traps)

The first is a classic, but have a look at the post linked below for more inspiration. I copied another three: I like the distraction caused by "Flies in Your Eyes" and the options opened by "Open Bounty" (though I fear it might result just in endless combats with bounty-hunters).

But it's number 17, Past Assassin, that is quite interesting...

It should be guarding something important because it seems to me like a powerful spell to use as a protection... How would you play that out? Perhaps digg out the adventure you played a few sessions earlier and try to recreate the events but with the Past Assassin in the game? Would you re-play the events just with a combat in the middle? I am not sure how the players would take it... but if my character was severely wounded (or died) in a fight that occurred a week or a month before the current adventure, I would find it quite cool!

Alarms?

by Martin O

1. Screaming Mouth - Classic Magic Mouth alarm. Screams very very loud in caster’s voice. This version has noted effect of spreading to any surface that touches it (i.e. hands, clothes, the back of Frank’s head). [...]

15. Flies in Your Eyes - Illusory flies start appearing in the visions of intruders. Impossible to swat, impossible to avoid, incredibly distracting. Accompanied by loud buzzing sound.

16. Open Bounty - Alarm triggers instant bounty, five pounds of unicorn flesh per head, on any and all unlawful intruders. Announces this loudy on street and triggers Sending to the fiercest bounty hunters around.

17. Past Assassin - Message sent to past detailing current intruders to an assassin, who will then try and cut them off and change past events so that intrusion does not occur. [...]

http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2018/07/alarms.html

Finally, locks; note that these are simply hard to bypass or force, they are not really about causing harm but preventing or slow down or discourage entry, a little like alarms.

Weird Locks

by Martin O

[...] I am deliberately avoiding the "there is a spell on this lock that triggers when it's messed with", or the "assemble the pieces of the Master Key", because those are quite common and kind of dull.
So, what's the purpose of Locks? For the purposes of a Wizard City campaign, a lock is designed to slow down, discourage, or otherwise prevent entry. It is expected that any wizard, given enough time, will be able to crack any lock, so they're not designed to be impenetrable. [...]
3. Crocodile Maw - Shaped as crocodile head. Requires feeding specific kind of meat to open lock [...]

6. My Hole - Lock contains person-sized outline of owner. Only someone of exactly their dimensions may enter. Popular with amputee wizards [...]

15. 1000 Year Lock - Metal lock “blooms” (opens) once only every 1000 years for exactly one day. If you miss your chance that’s it… Or maybe time travel [...]

http://goodberrymonthly.blogspot.com/2018/06/weird-locks.html

Traps - a first review

Almost every OSR ruleset contains a skill related to traps. It might be Find and Remove Traps, or some generic Search + generic Tinkering or similar, dividing the actions of finding and disarming or removing the trap.

In fact, when it comes to traps, there are often these two controversial topics to address:
- Finding a trap: is it a roll? is it restricted to thieves? can it be done "in fiction" by just talking with the GM? does it require just asking for something odd or looking for specific clues?
- Disarming a trap: is it a roll? is it restricted to thieves? can it be done "in fiction" by just talking with the GM? does it require just some generic ideas or a precise understanding of the mechanism?

I think the above could be broken down into:

Finding a trap
1. Is it hidden? (totally hidden or it can be seen but just when paying attention?)
2. Is it partially visible? (perhaps there are more or less obvious clues, or at least something odd about it)
3. Is it plainly visible? (in this case the challenge becomes disarming it, or bypassing it in some way, or even deciding if to give up...)

Disarming a trap

1. Is it impossible to determine how it works? (totally hidden mechanism or too small or concealed for example behind a wall?)
2. Is it partially understandable? (some pieces of the mechanism may be visible, or it might be possible to try to disarm it or at least jam its mechanism?)
3. Is it clear how it works? (in this case the challenge might be that the mechanism requires something special to be disarmed, something huge or something very precise or someone with a very precise set of skills...)

How do you rule all of the above? Do you use a skill? (and is it restricted to a single class?)
Or do you use only the conversation between players and GM?
Or do you use both, with the conversation between players and GM taking precedence over the skill roll? (this seems to be somehow the best practice, nowadays, especially with visible traps)

A lot of the above topics are presented nicely also in the following post, which seems to favor a mixed approach: descriptive (and open to all classes) for visible/simpler traps, while rolling (skill roll and restricted to specialists/thieves) for small, delicate or complicate hidden traps.

Thief dilemma: traps

by waywardwayfarer

[...] I come now to Find and Remove Traps, and find myself in a bit of a quandary.

In the first place, I really, really like the idea of player agency in finding traps. [...] It's much more interesting and provides greater immersion for the players to use the DM's descriptions to find traps. [...] Consider:

DM:  Just ahead, on the left side of the corridor a skeleton is slumped against the wall.

Thief:  I check for traps.

DM:  (rolling)  You don't find anything.

or 

DM:  Just ahead, on the left side of the corridor a skeleton is slumped against the wall. 

Thief:  Without getting too close, I look at the walls and ceiling in that section of the corridor.

DM:  You see a pattern of holes in the right wall, and a set of shallow gouges in the left wall that seem to match.  There's nothing unusual about the ceiling.

Thief:  I examine the floor, looking for a trip wire or pressure plate.

DM:  One of the floor blocks is very slightly elevated above the level of the rest of the floor.

In my opinion, the second scenario is far more fun and interesting.  The "problem," if it can be called such, is that it renders the thief's Find Traps and Remove Traps skills irrelevant (or at least less relevant,) because it relies entirely on player (and DM) skill. 

[...] 

What good, then, are the Find and Remove Traps abilities?  Should they be dropped entirely, or is there still a unique niche for the thief as trap finder?  I can see a strong argument in favor of keeping and using them in certain circumstances.

Dealing with traps as in the second example above requires that the DM be able to visualize the trap (else how could he describe it?) and have a basic understanding of its component parts and how it works.  It requires also that some aspects of the trap are visible to the player characters and discernible as something potentially hazardous.  Those conditions lend themselves best to area traps - those that affect a room or a stretch of corridor, for example - as opposed to item traps, such as a poison needle in the latch of a chest.  

[...] 

I, for one, am hard-pressed to describe just what the trigger for a poison needle or a gas trap protecting a treasure chest would look like.  Besides making it difficult to describe such a thing, that also makes me skeptical of the ability of a cautious but untrained person to notice it.[...] 

You can probably assume that the designer of the trap has taken great pains to make the external trigger of the trap both as small and as indistinguishable from the rest of the item as possible.  A specialist, someone who knows what he's looking for, has a chance to see it for what it is, but anyone else won't.  It's probably also a safe bet that most of the trap mechanism is housed within the chest, out of sight and out of reach, thus making disarming it difficult and delicate work. [...] 

http://thedragonsflagon.blogspot.com/2012/04/thief-dilemma-traps.html

If you want a little more about this approach, with a distinction between small traps and the rest, see also this post by Brendan.

Find Traps as Saving Throw
by Brendan

I was reading about traps over at The Dragon’s Flagon, and that got me to thinking about find traps as a saving throw, which is an idea I first came across over at Courtney’s blog (see his set of answers to the 20 quick rules questions). To quote:

Finding traps is a saving throw, and works as such.

Thus, anyone can interact with the fictional world and discover or avoid traps purely by investigation and reason. Note that this doesn’t necessarily require any particular mechanical knowledge on the part of the referee or players (though you can go there if you want), it just requires determining trigger mechanism, effect, and clues. Remember, traps don’t need to be mechanical, or even explainable. Traps can be driven by magic, ancient technology, or incomprehensible clockwork.

[...]

http://www.necropraxis.com/2012/04/15/find-traps-as-saving-throw/

In this third post, we see a more mechanical analysis, with some other useful inputs.

For example, when designing (and playing in-game) with traps, there is a clear distinction between trigger and effect.

Note also that sometimes searching for a trap might trigger it (or cause some other effect) and likewise, trying to disarm or avoid the trap might still result in some effect.

Traps and Triggers

by Talysman

There's a thread on Dragonsfoot about using the old school approach to detecting and disabling traps; in other words, having players describe how they search for traps and what they do to disable or avoid triggering the trap. The person who started the thread wasn't sure how to handle this: what possible ways could a player use to search? How do you enable people with no special knowledge of traps in the real world to role-play a knowledgeable character in a fantasy world? What if the player just creates a huge list of actions to search for traps and says "I do all this" every time? [...]

The important things to remember are:

- A trap has two parts: the trigger and the result.

- Each part must be detected separately, and may require different search methods.

- Search order is important; one method may find a trigger, another method may trigger it.

[...] 

Results can be pretty varied, but they can all be simplified to an action delivered along a particular path, from Origin Point A to Target Point B. A character standing at the target point or along the path between the origin and the target is in danger of being caught in the trap. Examining Point A may locate a trap, but not its trigger; examining Point B may offer clues to what kind of result to expect (scorch marks on a wall are a clue to a flame thrower trap, debris on the floor may be a clue to a deadfall.) 

Some results, like releasing a gas, might not be obvious from any kind of clue.

When constructing a trap, you should consider both obvious actions (walking over a trapped floor, opening a trapped door) and search methods (touching or moving a trapped chest.) Sometimes, a particular search method will trigger the trap, which might not be a good idea based on whether you are standing in the path of the result or not.

[...] 

http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2011/11/traps-and-triggers.html

From the same author, let's look at some additional input about the first part of the topic: finding/detecting a trap.

I Search For Traps

by Talysman

[...] I don't like the idea of a simple skill roll to search for traps, but that doesn't mean I like or use the extreme pixel-bitching approach to traps, either. I'm probably just a little more detailed than Brendan describes for his own technique. If someone says "I search the room", I ask "how", but all I'm expecting is general details: Do you enter the room, or stay outside? If you enter the room, do you just blunder on in, walk normally, or creep along slowly? Are you just searching visually, or are you touching things (with or without a 10-foot pole?) And if you're touching things, are you actually tapping or knocking, or are you moving things around?

So, basically, it breaks down to speed and direction, stance, senses and tools used, and any changes to the environment made. I assume, unless told, that you do everything that could be included in the general description of what you tell me, without going too far. You stand in the doorway and do a visual search? Then anything that *could* be seen from where you are standing is seen, no roll necessary, and no weaseling out by saying "you didn't say you were also looking at the ceiling". I figure that these are the basic search procedures:

- Blundering In: You enter the room without searching. This always applies for those fleeing monsters, unless you say otherwise.

- Careful Entrance: You enter, but not necessarily quickly, and look at stuff as you enter. This action stops as soon as you spot anything out of the ordinary (no roll needed, as long as it's visible and not hidden.)

- Stop, Look and Listen: You don't enter the room, so no traps triggered by movement or pressure will go off. Anything visible or audible -- or smellable, or detectable by any other sense that works over distance -- is automatically detected.

- Cautious Test: You use a ten-foot pole or similar technique to test from a distance. Discovers a few things you'd miss by the previous techniques. If you also add tapping with the pole, you discover hollow spaces as well.

- Thorough Test: You touch what you're searching, everywhere. Discovers hidden catches, buttons, and the like.

All of these assume you are standing up, bending and crouching only as needed, and make no changes (nothing is moved or opened.) A careful entrance assumes you look under things, on top of anything you can see the top of, behind anything you can see behind, and around every corner you can look around. The first time you would notice something out of place or out of the ordinary, I describe that, and assume you stop until you tell me what you do next. If you have to move something or open something to continue a search, I ask if that's what you want to do. [...] 

http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/2011/11/i-search-for-traps.html

Note that we can desume a method from the list above, which presents 5 different approaches from the characters to an environment/object:
- Careless: enter without searching, run through an area, open a door or chest
- Careful: enter and see the obvious, pass through an area, slowly open a door or chest (anything obvious and out of the ordinary should be revealed and stop the character before anything triggers; I would add also that something carefully hidden or concealed would instead trigger in this case)
- Very Careful: do not enter, do not pass, do not open, but check with your senses (reveal anything out of the ordinary even if not obvious, nothing triggers because nothing is touched; I would add that this takes time)
- Cautious: keep a distance and check with tools or skills (reveal anything even if out of sight but not really "secret"; I would add that this process though involves touching and prodding so something might trigger, although probably there is a certain safety in distance)
- Very Cautious: first keep a distance and if nothing happens, move closer and inspect more carefully so that everything is revealed, even secrets

The important thing, to me, seems to be the time that it takes to perform such actions. For example, if you are running you are always careless, but if you are not saying anything else, you are just careful (reveal anything which is in plain sight).
If the group wants to be very careful, I would say it takes less than a turn for a small area, but a turn for a large room or a long corridor (so, encounter check?).
If instead you go up to cautious it must take a turn (encounter check at the end), and I would say an additional turn for very cautious (it can be a second turn after a cautious approach - like saying "I search more carefully").
In other words, the more careful you are with your exploration (so more likely to detect and avoid traps, and discover secrets), the greater the chances for an encounter.

Encounters: overload your encounter dice

If the standard encounter occurs on a roll of 1 on a d6 by rolling every two turns, you might as well roll a d12 every turn (the encounter still happens on a roll of 1). I don't recall where I've read this first, but of course it's not my idea.
Rolling a d12 allows you to roll every turn, thus it becomes common practice to always roll, every turn, and we never forget (or question if we rolled in the last turn, or the one before).
Having a d12 and rolling every turn seems like a good option to me, also because it increases the range of available results if we want to use the encounter die also as something more.

This started - as far as I know - in the post below.
Originally it included only the concept of encounter and timer.

Overloading the encounter die

by Brendan

The nature of the random encounter check is that of a timer. While it is not a literal countdown (since random results are mathematically independent), it simulates one. It is the danger clock, always ticking [...]
Why not put all these things together systematically? Consider the following rule:
When the party moves into a new area or spends time on an exploration activity, roll the encounter die and interpret the results as follows.
1. Encounter
2. Percept (clue, spoor)
3. Locality (context-dependent timer)
4. Exhaustion (rest or take penalties)
5. Lantern
6. Torch
[...]
http://www.necropraxis.com/2014/02/03/overloading-the-encounter-die/

It seems (and it is! that's the beauty of it!) a simple rule, but it ties together several different themes: Encounters (the encounter itself on a one, the clues leading to it, the dangers or difficulties or peculiarities of the location), Exhaustion (need to rest or consume food), Light (duration).
Rolling for encounters is fun (or at least, thrilling   )


To me, the rule above is already a perfect balance of simplicity and inspiration, but you can take it and tune it and improve it as you wish.
Brendan of course tuned and refined this system, which became the Hazard System - really a thing of beauty. It's an ongoing project, so make sure to check sometimes for a new version.

In the one below (0.3 at the time of this writing) the system included:
- A unified system. with higher roll=better result
- 3 tables, for Haven, Wilderness and Dungeon
- A 4th table for Combat, if you wish to use it

Hazard System v0.3

by Brendan

The Hazard System is a gameplay engine for traditional roleplaying games designed to facilitate fictional consequences of player decision-making while minimizing bookkeeping. [...]
There is also a PDF version (see Downloads).
[...]
Hazard die results now follow higher = better principle
Generalized hazard die:
1 setback, 2 fatigue, 3 expiration, 4 locality, 5 percept, 6 advantage

[...]

Wilderness Turn Interpretation

D6	RESULT	INTERPRETATION
1	Setback	Encounter (use regional table) or road/bridge out
2	Fatigue	Rest and consume rations (1/person) or suffer minor harm (1 HP)
3	Expiration	Expire transient wilderness condition
4	Locality	Shift weather (or other local change)
5	Percept	Spoor or clue regarding next encounter
6	Advantage	Free wilderness turn

Dungeon Turn Interpretation

D6	RESULT	INTERPRETATION
1	Setback	Encounter (use zone table)
2	Fatigue	Rest and consume rations (1/party) or suffer minor harm (1 HP)
3	Expiration	Expire transient dungeon conditions (light, spell, etc)
4	Locality	Shift dungeon state (or other local change)
5	Percept	Spoor or clue regarding next encounter
6	Advantage	Free dungeon turn

[...]
Wilderness turns represent travel and making camp, approximately one day and night. Making a wilderness move requires consuming a ration or taking the exhausted condition in addition to rolling the hazard die. If already exhausted, at the start of a wilderness turn suffer minor harm (1 HP). Determine randomly whether setbacks occur during day or night.
Free wilderness moves: access known landmark in current area, survey adjacent areas
Full wilderness moves: travel to adjacent area, search, explore, hunt, track
Wilderness conditions: exhausted, lost
Lost: Travel is no longer an option. Use search to locate a landmark, removing the lost condition on success.
[...]
Dungeon turns represent exploration at architectural scale, approximately tens of minutes or a few hours, assuming careful advance into hostile places.
Free dungeon moves: look under a rug, open unstuck door, pull lever
Full dungeon moves: climb, force a door, move to adjacent area, pick a lock, search
Dungeon conditions: candlelight, torchlight, overburdened
[...]

http://www.necropraxis.com/2017/11/22/hazard-system-v0-3/

Note that Fatigue now includes also rations, and light/duration becomes Expiration: Expire transient dungeon conditions (light, spell, etc). See how it includes now spells?
A single die and you no longer need to track time between rest, rations, lights, spells' duration, other effects... basically, time becomes a fluid entity, with a simple rule.
This is what makes it great.
A simple rule, a simple table (you could do with just one, but here there are more so that you have enough inspiration for different cases and environments), and there is no need to track time anymore and all resources using it.


This is the OSR, so you are supposed to change and tune the system as you wish. See in this article the simple approach by James, for dungeons...
But the article actually contains also an analysis on outdoor encounters and city encounters, and some useful tables and tips for using excel to automate the process of determining an ancounter.

Improving Your Encounter Tables With Gimmicks!
by James Young
[...] Dungeon Encounters
This is based on Brendan Necropraxis' Overloaded Encounter Die aka the Hazard System.
I assume you know how to stock a dungeon encounter table - just put whatever you'd find on this dungeon level in the table, plus maybe a homeless wandering beast or two and some scouts from the next level of the dungeon.
Roll the Encounter Die every 10 minute turn. In my game I track this fairly loosely. Down long hallways I might start eyeing up squares and movement rates, but this usually gets rolled any time the party stops to investigate a room, messes around with the scenery, or they Take a Break to eat and heal.
"Are you guys aware that this will take long enough to need an encounter roll?" is something I say whenever somebody wants to spend time poking around a room.
Anyway, the Encounter Die results are as follows:

1. Encounter

2. Encounter Clue

3. Dungeon-Specific Effect

4. Dungeon-Specific Effect

5. Torch Burnout

6. Torch and Lantern Burnout

[...]

3 & 4. Dungeon-Specific Effect

This is the big one. Effects are on a per-dungeon basis and supposed to give some unique character to the locale. A more dangerous area will have more directly dangerous results, while a safer area might simply be set dressing.

[...]

Light Source Burnout

Torches have two checkboxes. Lanterns have 4 checkboxes.

On a 5 or 6, tick off a torch checkbox. On a 6, tick off a lantern checkbox.

This means that, on average, torches last 6 turns (1 hour) and lanterns last 24 turns (4 hours). Just like they're meant to! Plus there's some variance in how long they last. How lovely. [...]

http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2017/08/improving-your-encounter-tables-with.html

There is another overloaded encouter dice, this time by Angus, and again with the familiar events on a dungeon roll, but also with some examples for wilderness travel/hex travel and city encounters.

The thing is, as we've seen already, that the encounter dice can be tuned for diffents uses (dungeon vs outdoor vs city) and might be tied also to a specific location (a certain dungeon, a certain city, etc.).

OVERLOAD YOUR ENCOUNTER DICE - Fear the Passage of Time, Meet New People, Kill Them

by Angus Warman

[...] Dungeon Delving
Every three rooms, or when the PCs spend time putzing around doing things, roll 1d6:
1. Encounter
2. Glint
3. Terrain Effect
4. Hazard/Trap
5. Torch decreases (1/2)
6. Torch and lantern (1/3) decreases
[...]
Hexploring
Roll 1/day while on a road or in settled lands, 2/day off the beaten track, and 3/day in truly untamed wilds. Any more than that, and you are probably in an actual dungeon:
1. Encounter
2. Traces
3. Weather (I gave this a whirl and it was interesting, for me at least, and who says the DM can't have a little fun?)
4. Hazard
5. Fatigue (each point fills an Inventory Slot)
6. Hidden Feature

Foraging: At the end of the day, everyone rolls Wisdom (with disadvantage/at -4 if you were moving at Normal speed). If you succeed, you collected enough food along the way to not need a ration. If everyone failed the check, then everyone is out of water as well.

[...]

City Crawling

Roll once per day, and a second time if the party is "looking for trouble":
1. Pointed Encounter
2. Encounter Pointed at someone else/a crowd
3. Recurring Character
4. City Actions
5. Faction Actions
6. Advantageous Situation
[...]

http://meanderingbanter.blogspot.com/2018/10/OVERLOAD-YOUR-ENCOUNTER-DICE.html

Well, before we close, let's look at something from Chris McDowall, the author of Into The Odd.
What I'd like you to focus on is the very last part (although the entire article, nicely brief and to the point like everything else in Into The Odd): making six great entries, rather than spending your whole prep time filling up a d20 table with just-okay entries.
Whether you're working on the overloaded encounter dice, or making a random table for encounters (or another random table), keep it short. And special.
Don't make a redundant d20 or d30 or d100 list... make it short, to the point, and special.

Keep encounter tables short and simple
by Chris McDowall
Sometimes you need to put something together for a game tonight and none of the modules on your shelf feel like the right fit. Throwing together a Route Map is relatively fast, but you're also going to want some random tables, most obviously some Encounters.
I've gone from using d20 to d6 and everything in between. My list of needs for a random encounter table is:
- Make an area feel alive and non-static.
- Project the character of an area.
- Have at least one really dangerous entry to encourage the players to keep moving. 
- Be better than something I can just make up on the fly.

[...]

Roll d6
1-3: Common. Three variations on a single encounter either carrying out different actions or varying slightly in composition.
4-5: Uncommon. Two variations of a more unusual encounter, again varying in behaviour or composition.
6: Rare. Something weird and likely dangerous. 
[...]
Now you can really dig down into making six great entries, rather than spending your whole prep time filling up a d20 table with just-okay entries. [...]

http://www.bastionland.com/2018/06/small-tables.html

Design Notes:
- Instead of rolling a d6 for encounters every other turn, roll a d12 every turn (the encounter still occurs on a 1)
- The encounter roll may be transformed into a timer, a clock, and be tied to other concepts such as the expiration of lights or the need for rations or rest
- This becomes the well known Hazard System e Overloaded Encounter Die; it might include any sort of setback (from encounters to fatigue), timers (lights, spells duration), perception (sign of encouter), special events (something tied to the location), etc.
- Just make sure to balance out the odds when you replace a rule with the Hazard System (i.e. certain spells might last less, other more, or for example if rations are tied to fatigue, then you don't ask the characters to consume rations in other cases)
- The table might become a generic one, for diffent uses, using templates such as Setback, Fatigue, Expiration, Locality, Percept, Advantage
- Different tables may be used for Dungeons, Indoor or Outdoor exploration or hexcrawling, city crawling; and specific places may have their own very specific table
- A note inspired by Into The Odd author, Chris McDowall: keep encounter tables (and other random tables) short but meaningful. Write special, great, short tables, instead of boring long ones

Retirement and Funerals

The inspiration for this article came from Funerals for the Fallen by James Young.

It's just a simple, easy rule, with the potential for a tremendous impact on the game, in case of character's death.

Funerals for the Fallen
by James Young
In essence:
Take a dead character's remains to a safe place with a church (or cultural equivalent) and you can buy their experience points on a 1:1 silver-for-exp basis.
This represents money spent on funeral rites and memorials and bar tabs and other things purchased in their memory. The player spending the money does, of course, say what they're spending it on.

[...]

It encourages the retrieval of your buddy's corpse from whatever horrific death consumed them, accomplishing my favourite little trick of merging the intentions of player and character together.

[...]

On that note, higher level characters "deserve" more lavish send-offs than their lower level brethren. Nobody's going to do much for a level 2 Thief, but that seventh level Cleric is getting a whole damn church raised in his honour.

Getting a corpse back out of the dungeon is interesting logistically, especially if you didn't manage to kill the thing that killed them. I had players venture, against their better judgement, into a spider lair to retrieve a corpse. A corpse! Usually I only see rescue missions to retrieve still-living hostages!

[...]

https://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2015/09/funerals-for-fallen.html

As you can see, a simple rule brings to the table a couple of very important topics:
- The challenge of bringing your friend's dead body back to civilization, with all that implies (managing resources and weight, deciding to go back instead of pushing forward)
- Expending a certain amount of money (a lot if possible), proportional to the level of the dead and, presumably, proportional to the strength of the friendship and bonds with the deceased

This is done by granting XP for gold spent on the funeral, but while the rule is clearly in the "gaming" space of the players' mind, it achieves something which has a powerful "story" impact: taking risks to bring back to civilization the dead body of a fallen comrade, and spending money to give it proper burial and a funeral service.
In other words, it reinforces a certain behavior by the characters, using XP as a leverage.
This approach is described already in the Gaining XP (number 1) post.


While death signifies the end of the game for a certain character, there is also the topic of Retirement mentioned in the title.
This is a slightly different topic, but it still means that the character is out of the game.

So let's see a traumatic option first: what happens when the character is forced to retire, not because it ended a successful career as tomb-robber, but when retirement is used as a replacement for death.
The first post makes use of a Death and Dismemberment table, as in the link below.

MY FAVORITE MONTH IS DISMEMBER

by Arnold K.

[...]
>CLICK HERE TO GET IT<
[...]
http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-favorite-month-is-dismember.html

This is instead the actual post; as you can see Arnold is using retirement as a substitution for death. Combat with the above rules is harder, nasty wounds may bring a character to retirement.
I find these rules a bit overcomplicated, but the main point is actually using retirement as a way to give characters a way out (a forced way out, in this case) which is not just get-rich-or-die.

Death, Trauma, and Retirement: I'm Gettin' Too Old For This Shit
by Arnold K.
[...] Trauma
PC retirement is a replacement for PC death, not an additional risk.  I'm making death less likely in order to make retirement more likely.  Retired characters are more interesting and more useful than dead ones.  (And a lot less demoralizing.)
For example, ". . . and then he bought a turnip farm and swore never to leave it" is more satisfying end to a character's story than ". . . and then he died in a filthy hole, and the rats nibbled his eyes until he was quite dead".
And of course, forcibly retiring a character still accomplishes the primary punitive aspect of dying: you lose the opportunity to play your character.
So here's my first draft:
Whenever you have a near-death experience (roll higher than a 10 on the Death and Dismemberment Table) and survive, you gain a point of Trauma and put a question mark next to it (if a question mark isn't there already).
Whenever you return to place where your character could conceivably retire, erase the question mark and roll a d20.  If you roll equal-or-less than your Trauma score, your character decides to retire.  You cannot stop them.

[...]

Retirement

[...] Retirement is just retirement from adventuring.  It can be literally anything they way, as long as it's not adventuring and they do not continue on as a player character.  They become a friendly NPC instead.  If they retire with enough loot, they can become a friendly and powerful NPC.  You can retire at any time, not just when Trauma forces them.

Inform the players about everything in the last paragraph.  This rule needs to be mostly transparent.

1. When a player retires, ask them what sort of retirement they intend, and how much wealth they are retiring with.

2. Multiply the wealth by the character's level, and look up the result on the table below.  Adjudicate the details of the new NPC using your vast prowess, using the numbers below as a guide.

Level x Wealth = Retirement Points (RP)

Less than 100 RP - Probably going to die in a nearby gutter.

100 RP - A chance at a normal life.  Apartment, job, loans, loyal dog, relationship problems, taxes.  Just a citizen. [...]

[...]

A Softer Death Table

[...] And anyway, I think the forced retirement thing (see below) will help drive them away from adventuring without gimping them towards the end.

Because one of the reasons why I liked the idea of players losing arms and legs, is because it would (a) motivate them to go find a cool new hand, or (b) encourage them to retire their character and roll up a new one.  In practice however, I find that players tend to just drive their characters until they fall apart like an unlubricated Corolla.

So why not create a mechanic that takes a straight path route to that goal, and forces characters to retire directly?

[...]

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2017/04/death-trauma-and-retirement-im-gettin.html


Skerples does the same thing here, which is actually the original post which inspired Arnold.
Note that Skerples encourages even to re-roll and follow-up on the retired character(s) relevant or interesting, or when the players ask.

OSR: Death and Dismemberment Table + Early Retirement Tables

by Skerples
[...] At Level 5, and every time you level up past Level 5, you can retire your character to safety. This means I won't torment them anymore. If they can afford it, they can buy a or rent some land, set up a shop, teach at a wizard college, or beg in the gutter. They won't affect the plot anymore, but the plot won't specifically affect them. General disasters (fire, plagues, war, demonic invasions) will still affect their lives, but they are safe from almost anything else. Feel free to organize your character's retirement ahead of time. You can try and buy a castle, a tavern, or a political position.

[...]
Whenever it feels relevant or interesting, or when the PCs ask, I've been rolling on Tito's Retirement Table to see what Tito's got himself into now. Spoiler alert: it's not going well. 

[...]

Generic Farmer Retirement Table [...]
1. Prosperity. Extra food, good weather, or good luck.
2. Rumour. May have 1 interesting rumour for the PCs.
3-7. Stability. Just on the edge of starvation.

[...]

Generic Monastic Retirement Table [...]

1. Tranquility. The PCs hear a distant rumour of their former companion. They are doing well.

[...]

Generic Criminal Retirement Table [...]

1. Escape. Stole enough to start again. The ex-PC vanishes. One day, in a distant land, they might see their old companions and nod slyly.

2-6. Edge of Starvation. No change, but the outlook is bleak.

[...]

Generic Beggar Retirement Table [...]

1. Head Above Water. Food, a warm corner, a position in the local hierarchy of beggars, the favour of the local Church. Might even lead to some minor position out of the rain.

2. Minor Improvement. New pants, a hat, a few more coins than last week.

3-6. Edge of Starvation. No change.

[...]

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/osr-death-and-dismemberment-table-early.html


Actually, retirement from adventuring is somehow the goal of the adventuring itself. It would be its most logical conclusion in OSR games, where also high-level characters might risk a sudden death in an unbalanced encounter, because of a deadly trap, a bad decision, or an unlucky turn of events.

A successful OSR character does not have to reach a very high level and keep risking its life...
A successful OSR character earned enough money to retire, in safety and wealth - adventuring is like accumulating your pension funds when you have no skills for a decent (safer) job.

So, what rules do you use for retirement? Do you have rules or a random table for characters making enough money or that are better off with a new, less risky life, which you want share?


Design notes:
- Bring the body of a fallen character back to civilization, earn XP for gold spent on the funeral rites
- It reinforces the fiction and risk taking (care for the fallen, effort to save the body, expenses on the funeral) with an XP reward
- About retirement: retirement from adventuring is somehow the goal of the adventuring itself
- Make enough money and retire from taking all these risks; retire in safety and wealth
- But another option is using retirement as a substitution for death; it gives shades of grey in the outcome of a character's life, it's not just rich or dead any more
- Mix nasty wounds, death and dismemberment tables and early retirement tables
- Perhaps allow subsequent re-rolls for retired characters when it feels necessary or when there is a request from players or circumstances change

How Abilities or Attributes define your character

As stated previously, the six core abilities are often one of the first elements in the game to be house-ruled somehow, whenever a GM feels like tinkering with the rules.
See this previous post - Ability Scores (3d6 in order) - for some alternatives to the classic 3d6-in-order method, and for some additional options, adding Luck, Talent and Saving Throws to the mix, from my own rules.

This time, though, we're looking at what's behind those abilities - as a concept, and as linked rules, and what they mean at the table at the moment of char-gen.


The first link is to a long post by Anne, with an interesting approach to reduce the number of abilities. The post is long but takes in consideration several games - not just OSR - to reach the interesting conclusion of reducing the number of Abilities to four: Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will, which combine physical and mental in different ways, for attacks/defense and by force/by grace.

8 Abilities - 6, 3, or 4 Ability Scores?
by Anne
D&D-style games traditionally have 6 ability scores, but those 6 scores actually represent 8 different abilities. Those 8 abilities, in turn, are simply the combination of three different dichotomies - physical vs mental,  force vs grace, and attack vs defend. [...]
Recognizing the 8 underlying abilities does a couple things. First, it points to the direct parallels between D&D's mental and physical ability scores - Charisma, for example, is mental Strength; Intelligence is mental Dexterity. Second, seeing the underlying abilities gives us some insight into the ways the can be re-combined to make a smaller number of scores. (Jack argues, and I agree with him, that it's more interesting to have a smaller number of important scores than to have a larger number of unimportant scores - which is why I wouldn't suggest expanding out to 8 ability scores, although you certainly could if you want to.)
[...]
The Classic 6-Ability Division
D&D's 6 ability scores mostly take these abilities individually, but a couple of them double up. Strength represents physical force attack. Dexterity combines physical grace attack and physical grace defense. Constitution is the physical force defense. D&D's mental attributes are basically mirrors of the physical ones, but there's a slight asymmetry. Charisma combines both mental force attack and mental grace attack. Intelligence is mental grace defense. Wisdom is mental force defense. The broken symmetry, I think, is the result of the organic nature of the way D&D has grown over the years. Yes, in some moments it has been designed, but in-between those moments, it has simply grown by accretion.
[...]

Two Possible 3-Ability Divisions 

In the 3.0 ruleset, D&D introduced new Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower saving throws, representing essentially the physical force defense, physical grace defense, and mental force defense. When other people have tried to simplify the D&D rules by reducing the number of ability scores, the most common reduction mirrors these saving throws.
[...]
Possible 4-Part Ability Scores ... and Beyond
Of the two possible 3-part ability scores, my own preference leans toward 2 physical, 1 mental - but if I were planning to write a set of rules with fewer ability scores, I think I might want 4. My current preference would be for a physical force ability (combining attack and defense), a physical grace ability (combining attack and defense), a mental attack ability (combining force and grace), and a mental defense ability (combining force and grace). [...]
https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2019/01/8-abilities-6-3-or-4-ability-scores.html


A good example of ability reduction is also found in Into The Odd, by Chris McDowall: Strength, Dexterity and Willpower.
In Into The Odd, abilities are used in the most simple way: roll a d20 under the score to succeed in your action. But abilities are also used as a measure of the damage you take. You have a few Hit Points but after you've run out, damage reduces your ability score.
Having a few abilities, there, is functional to fast character creation and having a buffer to absorb damage (with 6 or more abilities, you would have a buffer too large).
The character creation process in Into The Odd is as simple as rolling those score, the HP, and then getting a starter package of equipment which should inspire you to characterize your new character. It's dead simple, but effective.


This other post, by Marquis, again insists on four abilities/attributes, instead of the sacred six.
Note three important elements here: first is how attributes are simplified even further but tied closely to the rules in use (read the original article to see how for example Athletic and Savvy are used in different context). Second is that there is an attribute for body and one for mind or skills, and a third for everything weird, supernatural, magical, etc. Third, make a fourth ability which depends on the setting you want to run.
What I like about these points is that they stress several concepts which somehow are sometimes forgotten when house-ruling abilities:
- Don't just build your abilities to "simulate" a character, but build them with a specific usage in mind (rules tied to abilities)
- Supernatural or magical matters may have their own attribute
- Make sure the setting matters: make an ability or score tied to rule(s) specific to the setting

Exploring Characters pt. 3: Replacing Attributes and Rolling Under
by Mastered by Marquis
Attributes are a sacred cow, which means for me they're good beef to eat.
First off, I'm a big believer that only 4 attributes are needed for a character and that one of these four should always be setting dependent. This means I have a standard 3 + 1 special. I'm a bit afraid that this might make things seem super rules-lite or straight forward, but to be honest, 6 attributes causes confusion both from # and how much overlap they have amongst each other.

[...]

The three standard attributes are:

Athletic - This replaces strength, dexterity, and constitution. In a real world situation, most people who are strong are fit, and are usually good with their hands [...] Athletics governs three things: Encumbrance, To-Hit Accuracy, and Damage. [...]

Savvy - This replace Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. Essentially, the more savvy you are, the craftier and more skilled you are, both signs of intellect. [...] Savvy governs three things as well: Delicate Matters, Knowledge, and Languages. [...]

Weird - This doesn't replace anything specifically. This is what you use both for dealing with anything supernatural. [...] Weird covers a single thing: your knowledge of Esoteries. [...]

So then, on to the special 4th stat. Again, this depends on setting, but I'll give some archetypal ones.

Corruption/Taint/Radiance - Roll under this whenever you would suffer any of the above. On a success, you only suffer 1 point. On a fail, you suffer however many points are being given. If you have more points than your score, you lose your character or get a mutation or something.

Honor/Glory/Reputation - Roll under this whenever you enter into a scene with NPCs or monsters. On a success, they are awed or cowed by you without you having to do anything. The higher this is, the more well-known you are, the more doors open up for you in terms of exploring a world. Can be increased as rewards for clearing dungeons or helping kings or something.

Alignment [Ambition vs. Harmony/Chaos vs. Order/Light vs. Shadow] - Divide this attribute into 2, but choose one to be higher than the other (so a 12 in Alignment can be a 8 in Chaos and a 4 in order). Refer to this otherwise, though I might update this for the new method.

[...]

https://hmmmarquis.blogspot.com/2018/12/exploring-characters-pt-3-replacing.html

I don't find the Corruption/Taint/Radiance/Honor/Glory/Reputation/Alignment examples so compelling, but I guess they'll do for now, and possibly you already have your own ideas and inspiration about this.
But I would say that this is interesting especially if you think to change to attribute with regard to the adventure, or even the session's content... I don't know exactly how I would do it, but in a dark dungeon adventure a rule about remaining calm and in control while underground would be cool, while the same characters when facing an adventure in the city might enjoy forgetting that score, and having instead another for social connections and interactions and so on, depending on the content of the adventure.


This last link is a little different... enough with all the theory and reasoning about attributes and how to assign scores, house-rules, changes to the list of attributes... In the end, this is just a game.
Regardless of what you choose as attributes, 4 or 6 or 8 of them, Jeff came up with a simple but entertaining way to generate characters and have fun in the process.

D&D chargen as a party game

by Jeff Rients
Everyone writes down the usual six stats numbered 1 to 6, like so: 
1. Str
2. Dex
[...]
Or whatever order you normally use.  The numbers are the key part.  Next just one player rolls 3d6.  Everyone then cheers if it's a good number or boos if it's low.  Then all players (including the player who just threw 3d6) write that number down next to a randomly generated stat.  I.e. roll 1d6 to determine where to plug the number Bob just saddled you with.  Go around the table repeating the process until all stats are full.  [...] 
And more importantly, chargen now involves everyone paying attention to each other for a bit, instead of a room full of silent people rolling dice at the same time and staring down at their own charsheets. [...]
http://jrients.blogspot.com/2011/07/d-chargen-as-party-game.html

As Jeff points out in his blog post, this process gives the same numbers but on different attributes to every player (so no one has a "better" character) but more importantly, it makes the whole process a group activity, a table activity, instead of a lonely activity.
This is very important and helps create the right atmosphere at the table - we don't play just with rules, but we play with people.

If you want to connect the characters, and not just the players, look at Bonds (put characters together).


Design notes:
- Determine what each ability means and its usage
- Consider reducing the number of abilities, rather than increasing it; a simpler matrix is more effective than a complex one
- Consider how physical and mental are organized, what's used to attack and to defend, what's by force or by grace
- An example is to use just four: Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will
- Into The Odd uses Strength, Dexterity and Willpower: roll a d20 under the score for actions, and use abilities also as a buffer for damage
- You may simplify even more with Athletic, Savvy and Weird
- Don't just build your abilities to "simulate" a character, but build them with a specific usage in mind (rules tied to abilities)
- Supernatural or magical matters may have their own attribute
- Make sure the setting matters: make an ability or score tied to rule(s) specific to the setting/adventure/session
- Consider how rolling attributes/abilities is the start of your game: make it a group activity and not a solitary procedure
- This can be done by sharing the same numbers for attributes, for example, but assigning them to different attributes randomly
- And/or you can use Bonds, to connect the characters together...
- In general, it's important to be paying attention to what other players are doing at char-gen