ORACLE

6/04/2010

Lovecraftian Obsession Podcast

Are you obsessed with the works of H.P. Lovecraft? I know I am. No surprise there, huh?! A new podcast that will appeal to folks like myself is Lovecraftian Obsession, and the first episode is available to listen to. This podcast is hosted by Rick Dakan, who recently published his book The Cthulhu Cult: A Novel of Lovecraftian Obsession. Kenneth Hite, author and award winning game designer, is the first guest on the show, and as you can imagine there is a lot of interesting Lovecraftian banter and insight throughout the podcast. Go ahead, grab Lovecraftian Obsession Episode One now.

6/03/2010

[LL Supplemental] Critical Hits and Fumbles

As written the rules for combat in Labyrinth Lord are very simple and straight forward, which is a big reason I enjoy the game so much. Normally, when making an attack roll, if a 1 is rolled it is considered an automatic miss, and a natural 20 is considered an automatic hit. There is a lot of potential here to spice things up during combat without making these rules noticeably more complicated than they were to begin with. In my own Labyrinth Lord games these rolls have a bit more significance, and can dramatically affect what happens during a round of combat, for better or for worse.

If a natural 20 is rolled it is considered an automatic hit and also deals out maximum damage to the opponent. In addition to this, another d20 roll is made to see if there are any additional effects that might occur. If the second roll is not good enough to be considered a hit then the natural 20 is handled as explained before. If the second roll is a successful hit then a Critical Hit has been landed and an additional roll is required to see how it has affected the opponent. Also, if the second roll is successful and the roll is an 18 or 19, add an additional +25% when rolling on the Critical Hit chart. If another natural 20 is rolled add +50% to the roll.

Critical Hit Chart
Roll % Effect:
01-10 Knocked back, Attack last next round
11-20 Disarmed, 1d4 Rounds to retrieve weapon
21-30 Stunned, 1d4 Rounds
31-40 Confused, Take -4 on next Initiative roll
41-50 Winded, Move at half speed and -4 Initiative for 1d4 rounds
51-60 Knocked down, Prone for 1d4 rounds
61-70 Weapon damaged, Half damage until repaired
71-80 Armor damaged, 1d4 points lost from armor rating
81-90 Weapon damaged, Unusable
91-99 Grievous wound, Double max damage
00 Roll again, Keep results of both rolls

If a natural 1 is rolled then a Fumble has occurred. Roll on the chart below to see how the attacker has been affected due to the bad roll.

Fumble Chart
Roll % Effect:
01-10 Lose footing, No movement next round
11-20 Lose footing, No attack next round
21-30 Weapon goes flying, 1d4 rounds to retrieve
31-40 Bad tactics, Opponent gets free Attack
41-50 Knocked in the head, Dazed for 1d4 rounds
51-60 Weapon becomes lodged, 1d4 Rounds to free
61-70 Weapon damaged, Deals out half damage until repaired
71-80 Weapon damaged, Unusable
81-90 Friendly fire, Closest ally hit
91-99 Friendly fire, Closest ally hit for max damage
00 Roll again, Keep results of both rolls

5/30/2010

Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen Hosted on MediaFire

I received a request to host my Advanced Labyrinth Lord Screen on MediaFire, because it seems that Scribd requires too many hoops to be jumped through before it will allow a download from someone not wishing to register with them. I aim to please, so here it is hosted on MediaFire.