ORACLE

8/27/2010

[Poll] Dice Used To Resolve the Use of Thieving Skills

I have posted a new poll. I am curious to see what dice the Labyrinth Lord players out there use to resolve the use of thieving skills. As written the game uses a percentile system for thieving. I know it has become popular to replace this system with the use of a d6. And I am sure there are those out there that have implemented the use of a d20. My guess is that this is a holdover from 3rd Edition D&D or some other d20 based system, like Castles & Crusades. I look forward to seeing the results.

8/25/2010

Chapter and Verse

I am busy working on the first few chapters of my upcoming Swords Against the Outer Dark Labyrinth Lord Supplement, and I thought it would be interesting to go ahead and share a tentative table of contents for the book. Here is what I have so far:
0 - Statement
1 - System
2 - Sword
3 - Sorcery
4 - Sanity
5 - Secrets
6 - Servitors
7 - Setting
And now for a quick breakdown of what each chapter will have to offer:
  • Statement - this is your basic introductory chapter. I discuss a few personal things, like why I wrote the book in the first place. I also discuss what exactly Sword & Sanity style roleplaying is. There will be explanations about compatibility with Labyrinth Lord, and also what is considered Open Game Content and what is not.
  • System - obviously this chapter will deal with the game system itself. As stated before, I am keeping things as close to Advanced Labyrinth Lord as possible, but there will be quite a few options I will include that should help capture a true Sword & Sorcery feel in the game. Character creation and changes made to the core Labyrinth Lord game mechanics are dealt with in this chapter.
  • Sword - this chapter deals with combat. I will include combat variations such as fighting styles, damage per weapon type and critical hit rules.
  • Sorcery - obviously this is the magic chapter in the book. I will be leaning heavily on my interpretation of Aklo for the design of what I feel is a very genuine Lovecraftian style magic system. I will also cover magic items, tome and scroll use and making pacts with alien entities.
  • Sanity - this chapter will deal with insanity, fear and the supernatural, and how to use these effects during gameplay.
  • Secrets - this chapter will speak directly to the game master (Labyrinth Lord) with what I hope will be helpful advice and direction on how to run a Sword & Sanity campaign.
  • Servitors - this is the monster chapter for the book. Nuff said...
  • Setting - this chapter will take everything I have presented in previous chapters and pull it all together in a sample setting. More than likely this will be structured to something very much like The Keep on the Borderlands, so it can be used as an introductory adventure and also built upon for further campaigning if needed.

8/23/2010

Personal Announcement

I am proud to announce that over the weekend I became engaged to my longtime girlfriend, Stephanie McNally. We have set our wedding date for 10/10/2010. This year had proven to be interesting to say the least. Moving to a new city, leaving family and friends behind, the death of my grandfather and now I am getting married! It has been a whirlwind of events and emotions, and ultimately it has all been bittersweet. Life is beautiful chaos...

The Polls Have Closed

Voting has closed on the first two polls I posted that will help me make a few decisions on how to proceed with the Swords Against the Outer Dark Labyrinth Lord Supplement I am working on. Here are the results:
I am not too surprised by the results, though I expected US Letter to get a lot more votes than this. As I stated before, I am using Lulu to publish this book, which will allow a wide variety of bindings and sizes, so do not be surprised if the book is offered as such.

Stay tuned for more polls and news on this project as they break here on the 24 hour Sword & Sanity Network...