The Dragon Tonic

 So, in the late 90s, I was on a Dragonlance listserv. If you were on one, you know that they could just be a firehose of emails, especially if something controversial was going on, and moderator emails would be buried somewhere in the flow. So, if there was a controversial subject, and you were sufficiently hot-headed, you would not see "drop this now" messages from the mods until you'd fired off a response, and, because it was email, you couldn't say "oops" and delete the message.

I don't recall what I was right about, but I ran afoul of this, and, as punishment, I was required to write a short story, about two con-men trying to sell dragon parts as medicine. I decided that it was too much homework for a listserv, and didn't do it. And, so, for about 26 years, I've had this assignment in the back of my head. And, with the 40th anniversary of Dragonlance, I decided to do it. Maybe a bit different than the moderator wanted, but it is, at least, recompense for being right when I'd been told to stop.

The Dragon Tonic

Tirolian Space: Destroid Tomahawk Chassis

  Soon after the crash of the Robotech battle fortress on Aelois III, the human inhabitants of that planet began to reverse engineer and experiment with the technology. One of the first devices they produced was the Tomahawk frame of what became known as “Destroids”; large, bipedal, walkers designed to engage the gigantic Zentraedi on their own terms. In Aeolian fashion, this basic frame was outfitted with different weapon systems and accessories to serve different functions, and then given distinct names… the Anti-Aircraft platform known as the “Defender”, the missile boat referred to as “Phalanx”, and the multi-function assault platform, the eponymous “Tomahawk.”

As with the later battloids of the Southern Cross army, while these Destroids used a common frame, they were not capable of rapidly changing between roles; one could not easily turn a Defender into a Tomahawk, or a Tomahawk into a Phalanx. Doing so required significant engineering and sensor upgrades.
While largely humanoid in shape, the Tomahawk frame has one critical feature lacked by the more maneuverable Valkyrie battloids: the torso can turn 360 degrees easily and rapidly; thus, while the weapons may appear to be limited to the front arc, they are, in fact, all turret-mounted.

 

Destroid Tomahawk Frame

Craft: Various Designations depending on specific design

Type: Non-Transformable Battloid

Scale: Starfighter

Skill: Walker Operation

Crew: 1

Crew Skill: All skills typically at 4D

Cargo Capacity: 60 kilograms

Consumables: 1 day

Cost: 180,000 (new), 145,000 (used), both prices are black market value

Move: Depends on the loadout; the Phalanx is 25, the Tomahawk is 30, and the Defender is 35

Body Strength: 3D

 

Weapons and Equipment:

Defender:

M-996 78mm Anti-Aircraft Auto-Cannons (2)

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 10-300m/8km/16 Km
Space Range: 1/10/25
Damage: 5D per weapon; can be combined in groups of two or four, for 6D or 7D damage, respectively
Ammo: Each cannon can fire 60 times without reloading; reloading takes significant time and crew support.

 

Some versions have their auto-cannons replaced with the primitive laser weapons of Tirolian Space; those do not have an ammo rating, but reduce the damage to 3D per weapon (3D+1 or 4D+1 when fire-linked), and the range to half.

 

 

 

Tomahawk

HPC-155 Heavy Particle Acceleration Cannons (2)
The Heavy Particle Cannons are mounted in place of forearms or hands.

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 10-300m/4km/8 Km
Space Range: 1/5/15
Damage: 3D+1 per weapon; can be fire-linked to do 4D damage

 

TZ-IV Gun Cluster

The gun cluster  combines several anti-personell and anti-armor weapons into a single package. Unlike the other weapons, these are all Walker-scale weapons, rather than Starfighter-scale. Each Tomahawk has two such clusters, mounted on each shoulder.

25mm autocannon   

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/400m/600m
Damage: 3D+1
Ammo: 20 shots (each)

14.5mm laser
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/800m/1200m
Damage: 2D

Flame-thrower

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Range: 5-50m/600m/180m
Damage: 2D+1
Ammo: 10 shots (each)

Grenade Launcher
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Range: 5-100m/250m/500m
Damage: 8D+1
Ammo: 8 shots (each)

 

MDS-L-12 Multiple Launch Missile Pod (2)
Like the Gun clusters, the MDS Multiple Launch pods are Walker-scale weapons, designed for engaging tanks and speeders. One is mounted on each shoulder, near the chest.
Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 5-100m/250m/500m
Space Range: 1/3/5
Damage: 7D
Ammo: 10 shots (each)

 

 

MDS-M-6 Air Defense Missile Launcher
Mounted in a pod above the right shoulder, the MDS-M-6 is designed as an anti-starfighter weapon.

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 30-100m/300m/700m
Space Range: 1/3/5
Damage: 8D
Ammo: 6 shots

 

Phalanx

The Phalanx mounts only one weapon system; massive barrels of long-range missiles, designed as anti-starfighter weapons. This variant is rarely used; it is often more efficient to mount smaller numbers of missiles on more platforms, but in the early days of the First Contact War between the Aeolians and the Zentraedi, limited numbers of pilots and platforms, faced with massive numbers of Zentraedi soldiers, made Phalanx-style large capacity launchers an effective use of resources.
The Phalanx has another advantage, and that is of multiple actions. Each round, up to four actions may be made, two per missile pod. These may be used to target one or multiple targets. Additionally, the parallel arrangement of missiles allows the Phalanx to fire a large amount of missiles at once; they may fire up to ten missiles per action.

MDS-H-22 Long range missile launchers (2)

Fire Arc: Turret
Skill: Starship Gunnery

Fire Control: 2D
Range: 30-100m/300m/1000m
Space Range: 1/5/10
Damage: 9D
Ammo: 22 shots

 

Savage Dark Sun Bestiary

 Ok, here it is, the bestiary. The last bit I have, unless I chase a wild hare and come up with more. I focused on, first, the common animals like kank, inix, and mekillot, but then other ones with a strong Dark Sun flavor, including dwarven banshees, drakes, and weird Athasian golems.

Something that may annoy people is how useful I found the 4e Creature catalog in doing this; not infrequently, a good attribute set was had by taking the 4e attribute and halving it; a 24 became a d12, a 12 became a d6. Worked really well for a lot of things.

Psionics in Savage Dark Sun

Ok, here we are, psionics. Only thing left after this is the bestiary, which I might post tomorrow, and might post on Sunday, depending on my mood.

 

Psychic powers are very common on Athas; the Way, as it is known, is ancient, respected, and studied, in one form or another, among every species capable of study. Many creatures have and use psychic powers in their daily lives to hunt prey or escape predators, and many humanoids will develop a Wild Talent, even without formal study of the Way.

Psychic powers in Savage Dark Sun use the "No Power Points" rule from SWADE, p. 140. Accomplished psychics may be able to do many things, but they find it easiest when they take a moment to consider their actions. The psionics arcane background is slightly altered from SWADE, however, into The Way. Followers of The Way are often called Psionicists.

Priests in Savage Dark Sun

 I think I've reached my limit with this project, at least for now. I'll post what I have, of course, but I don't know if I'll work on more monsters (the bestiary is at 35, now). Ascended beings will also have to wait. However, here's Athasian Priests... Elemental Clerics, Templars, and Druids.

Wizards in Savage Dark Sun

 I added 8 more monsters to the Bestiary today (Hej-kin, Hunting Cactus, and 6 different golems), and decided to stop there. The Bestiary is already 33 monsters (and creatures) long. Also, if you're eagerly checking, I'm going to take a few days off posting or converting more; I'll do it on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday next week. Then I have to get to work putting Mutant Rise into a printable state! If you like my Dark Sun, check out my cyberpunk mutant animals when it comes out (and my modern mutant animals, already out).

Gear in Savage Dark Sun

 I've spent a good chunk of today adding to the bestiary, converting monsters out of the 2e Terrors of the Desert, mostly using the stats from 4e's Creature Catalog as a guide.  But, since it is more explicitly a work in progress (as opposed to a work that's getting fiddled with as I go along), here's the Gear chapter. 

Ancestries in Savage Dark Sun

 So, while I consider my Savage Dark Sun to be functional, I don't necessarily consider it "finished"... since I *can't* publish it without extraordinary circumstances, it'll get fiddled with until the Age changes.

Most of this is the standard races; I included the aarakocra from the Revised boxed set, but not the pterrans, because I hate them. I also included dray (1st and 2nd generation), but I think I might need to tweak them a bit, and my versions of gith, githyanki, and githzerai.

I am lazy, so I won't do the long descriptions, just the absolute basic mechanics. Point values are (Value of feature)/(Running Total of all Features). I've reprinted the ancestral Edges from the previous post, as well.

Savage Dark Sun

 So, a side project I've been working on (and kind of using to work out thoughts about Mutant War) is a Savage Worlds conversion of Dark Sun. Having converted all the monsters in the first boxed set (except the Dragon of Tyr), I consider it playable... you can have all the adventures you could have with that first boxed set, except "I wanna kill The Dragon."

I'll post some over the next few days. For now, enjoy the Basics

Warlord class [2e]

 Created using my CP D&D rules

 Updated on 2024-10-29

The warlord is designed to be a non-magical combatant, whose primary purpose is supporting other characters; giving them extra attacks, and bonuses to attack and defense. This can be hard to model in 2e, where such abilities are usually the domain of spells... a cleric can Bless you, or cast Prayer, or a Wizard can use Haste, but let's see what we can build.

Warlord
A warlord is a warrior subclass who, while capable combatants themselves, are highly skilled in the leading of troops into battle. As Warriors, they have a d10 HD, can use any weapons or armor, and receives the warrior bonuses for exceptional Strength or Constitution. Beginning at 7th level, they may make additional attacks per round, as other warriors. They may use general or warrior magic items, and pay standard cost for non-weapon proficiencies of the General, Warrior, and Priest groups. Their XP table is as follows:

Level Experience
2 2000
3 4000
4 8000
5 20000
6 40000
7 80000
8 150000
9 280000
10+ 300000/ additional level
(Suggestion: Just use fighter table)

At 1st level, they may Alter Moods, Read Languages, and know History (including magic items) like a bard.
*Twice per day, they may quickly bind wounds, healing 2hp/level/day
*They may also Inspire their allies within 10 feet; after spending three rounds exhorting and directing their allies, they receive a +1 to attack rolls and saving throws, and +2 to Morale. The bonuses continue so long as the warlord continues to exhort them, and for 1d3 rounds after. The Warlord can walk while Inspiring their allies, but no other action.

At 3rd level, a Warlord begins to expand their skills
*At 3rd level, and every level thereafter, the Warlord learns the language of one human, demi-human, or humanoid creature that they have joined in battle, either as allies or as enemies.
*Also at 3rd level, when a warlord joins battle (leading from the front, or in the melee), their allies gain a +1 to attack rolls and suffer no morale penalties.
*They may train allies in the use of weapons that they, themselves, are proficient with. They may train a number of student equal to their level, and training requires 8 hours of practice a day for a month. At the end of training, the students make an intelligence check; if they succeed, they receive the weapon as a bonus proficiency, without spending slots or character points.

At 4th level, a warlord expands their martial skills; they may choose one tight group of weapons; thereafter, they gain a +1 to hit and damage with those weapons.

At 5th level, they gain the services of a loyal squire. This squire is a fighter of one-half the experience of the Warlord, and will remain in the Warlord's service. Most often, this will be a single-classed fighter of the warlord's race, but, depending on the campaign, other characters may be appropriate.

At 6th level, a Warlord can, three times a day, let out a thunderous battle cry that affects all beings in front of them within 20'. Beings whose hit dice are less than or equal to theirs must save vs. spells or be stunned for 1 d4 rounds from the force of the yell.. A victim who saves is deafened for 1d4 rounds. Beings whose Hit Dice are higher than the character's are unaffected.

At 7th level, they are able leaders, able to effectively direct up to 100 troops/level.

At 10th level, a warlord becomes a warlord, in truth. Their loyal squire becomes the captain of a troop of soldiers (as a fighter's), and they also gain the services of 10d6 0th level warriors. The troop of soldiers comes prepared, but the warlord will need to find arms and armor for 0th level warriors.

There you have it. A Warlord can do well in small-group setting, being a capable combatant... not quite as good as a fighter, but good, getting better at 4th and great at fighting mooks at level 6. They eventually get a sizable army, and they have some basic ability to heal. Access to priest group NWPs means they can learn things like Healing, Engineering, and Literacy.

Gnome Alchemist [RC]

Again, thanks to Erin Smale's Creating a More Perfect Class https://breeyark.org/building-a-more-perfect-class/

Gnome Alchemist

HD: d4 (100/100)
Saving Throw: Dwarf (400/500)
Attack: Magic-User (100/600)
Armor: Restricted (100/700) (Leather)
Weapons: Restricted (0/700) (Knife, Dagger, Sling, Crossbow, Club)
Spells: Cleric, Magic-User 1/4 (400 + 400/1500)
Skills: Speak Gnome, Dwarf, Kobold, Goblin; Alchemy (General Skill); Science: Chemistry (General Skill) (300/1800)
Racial Abilities: Infravision 90'; Detection Abilities (as dwarves); Saving Throw Bonus as dwarves against poison and spells (300/2100)
Weapon Mastery: Non-fighter (0/2100)
Level Limit: 8th; Name level (-100/2000)

Gnomish Alchemists have studied the art of alchemy to a degree amazing to non-gnomes; far beyond simply brewing antidotes, they may use their arts to create short-lived potions on the spot, by mixing reagents to form an immediate reaction. When they reach 7th level, they may create magical potions of longer duration, as any magician might.

Like magic-users, gnome alchemists must maintain a "spellbook"; in their case, it is quite literally a book of recipes. Their alchemical concoctions are usually the mix of two or more ingredients; stable individually, but causing a reaction once mixed. Commonly, these will be powders placed into a liquid, though they may be two liquids combined, or a powder set on fire.

Alchemists are not limited by "spells per day"; rather, they are limited by the depths of their purses. In consumed components, alchemist concoctions cost one gold piece per level of the spell, and components for a single concoction weigh 10 cns per spell level. An adventuring alchemist must carry these with them, though they may gather 1 gold piece per level worth of ingredients each day with a successful alchemy skill check. Such gathered ingredients will not survive more than the day. At 1st level, they may create concoctions that mimic 1st level spells. At 4th, they may make 2nd level concoctions, 3rd at 6th, and 4th at 8th.

Available Concoctions
1st: Cure Light Wounds, Detect Magic, Light, Protection from Evil, Purify Food and Drink, Remove Fear, Resist Cold, Sleep*, Faerie Fire**
2nd: Bless, Hold Person, Resist Fire, Silence 15' Radius, Speak with Animal, Entangle*, ESP*, Invisibility*, Web*, Heat Metal**, Produce Fire**
3rd: Continual Light, Cure Blindness, Cure Disease, Growth of Animal, Remove Curse, Speak with Dead, Striking, Create Air*, Fireball*, Fly*, Haste*, Protection from Normal Missiles*, Water Breathing*, Protection from Poison**
4th: Animate Dead, Create Water, Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic, Neutralize Poison, Speak with Plants, Polymorph Self*, Protection from Lightning**

Most concoctions are as Cleric spells; those marked with an asterisk (*) are as equivalent magic-user spells. Those with two asterisk (**) are as druid spells.

Duneright [2e]

Duneright

 Duneright is an attempt to integrate the domain rules from Birthright into Dark Sun. As Dark Sun does not have Birthright's assumed "divine right", nor Cerillia's "basic ability to sustain life", some changes had to be made. This was hashed out on the message boards of The Piazza, and can't be considered my work alone; Stephen Kissinger helped refine the product, and converted the many different Dark Sun units from Battlesystem to Birthright's War Cards. It should also be noted that this is all thorr-kan's fault; he asked if it had been done, and it got in my head.

TL;DR: Some Key Differences

Assuming you are familiar with Birthright, here are some key differences between the domain rules as laid out in the Birthright Boxed Set, and as implemented in Duneright.

1) No blood score. You are not a divinely ordained scion of a dead god; you are an ex-gladiator trying to survive in a desert. Your Regency doesn't come from your blood, but from your blood, sweat, and tears, and from your time and treasure.

2) "Gold Bars" don't make sense as a currency for Dark Sun. They are instead slightly abstracted into "Trade Units", or TU. All references to GB should be in TU. For the purposes of the Finances action, 1 TU is equal to 2000cp, just as 1 GB is equal to 2000gp.

3) No Temple holdings. Dark Sun priestly magic doesn't work off belief, so being able to muster a lot of people praying doesn't aid one magically. Priests and wizards both make use of Source holdings.

4) Subsistence ratings. In Dark Sun, there's no guarantee that your province will be able to support the number of people you have on the land. Not having total Subsistence ratings equal to your Province level will cost TU or RP.

5) No limit to how many people can control holdings of a certain type in a province. Your level 3 province may have three different level 1 Guild Holdings, and several 0 level Guild Holdings that are contesting those.

Red Card!

 Red Card, a Savage Worlds supplement for playing semi-pro football, is now live!

 

The Savage Scrolls: Werewolves

 So, I missed that back in December, someone asked me to work up a version of the Vampire and Werewolf for Savage Scrolls (I am REALLY bad about checking comments, I am sorry). As I am actively avoiding other projects and pretending not to, let's play with it!

Note that I have never done the vampire run. I'll do werewolf (one of my favorite things is "rage across skyrim", where you turn into a werewolf and run from bandit hold to bandit hold, killing everyone), but I am incapable of playing a bad guy, so I never do vampire. I'll be borrowing this from UESP, rather than personal experience. Which is why I'm starting with werewolf. This can, of course, be used as a template for any sort of werewolf in Savage Worlds or the Fantasy Companion.

 

Mystic Powers: Werewolf

Tamriel has many types of lycanthropes, and each with different features and means of transmission. Skyrim is home to werewolves, and Solstheim has werebears, while Daggerfall have a varieties of werewolf and wereboar that are passed through semi-magical diseases. The werewolves of Skyrim (discussed here) largely do not spread their condition via a bite, and also have a larger degree of control than the ravening monsters of Iliac Bay.

To become this type of werewolf, one must either be born into a werewolf clan (as seen in Frostmoon Crag on Solstheim), or inducted via ceremony (such as seen among secret groups who would not appreciate my revealing of their ways). Werewolves are universally hated by non-werewolves in Skyrim, as their beast forms are compelled to devour the hearts of their foes. However, it is little known that most werewolves have full control over the transformation; it is a rare circumstance that can compel them to assume the beast form against their will.

A character with this edge acquires 10 Power points, separate from other power points they may have. At will, they may use the Shapechange power to assume the form of a werewolf; seven feet tall, with long arms, digitigrade legs, and vicious teeth. This transformation requires all 10 power points, and requires an exclusive action; you can do nothing else the round you change shape. The shapechange will subsume worn weapons and equipment; these become unavailable, but are not destroyed or left behind. It will last for ten minutes, unless the werewolf feeds.

While a werewolf, the character gains a claw attack for Str+d6 damage. They receive a one die bonus to Strength, Vigor, Fighting, and Intimidate, +2 to Armor and +1 to Size; between the Size and Vigor boosts, their effective Toughness is raised by 2, as well. Their pace increases by 2, and their running die increases by one size.

On the downside, the transformation reduces Persuasion by two die types, and applies a -2 penalty to all Persuasion checks. Manual dexterity is limited, so they are unable to use weapons, or anything more complicated than a door handle. The character cannot use spells, and potions must be used on them. Furthermore, they gain an Environmental Weakness to Silver; weapons made of silver do double damage in their beast forms. Being known as a werewolf will impose the Outsider (Major) flaw upon the character.

Feasting

The werewolf transformation lasts for ten minutes, unless the werewolf feasts. To feast, they must eat upon the heart of a Human, Mer (including Orsimer), Khajjit, or Argonian. The heart does not need to be beating, but it must be warm; in Skyrim, this is usually no more than an hour, or even less in the depths of winter. Such feasting takes two rounds, and while eating, the werewolf is Vulnerable. Each heart so devoured extends the transformation for ten minutes. When finished feasting, the werewolf immediately makes a Natural Healing roll.

Werewolf Power Points return slowly; only one point per two hours. Feasting restores one of these power points with each heart consumed. Werewolves cannot exceed their maximum (10, plus others granted by advanced powers Edges).

Advanced Powers:

Once a werewolf has adjusted to their new form (gained another advance), they may choose Werewolf Edges to bolster their power while in their wolf form. Some Edges provide supernatural powers; others improve the beast form itself.

Howl of Terror:

The werewolf gains 5 werewolf Power Points. While in beast form, they may use Intimidate to activate the Fear power in a Large Blast Template surrounding them. This use requires 5 power points.

Howl of the Pack:

The werewolf gains 5 Werewolf power points. While in beast form, they may summon wolves. The first wolf is 2 power points, and each additional wolf is 1 additional power point. For 6 power points, they may instead summon a single werewolf; additional werewolves are 3 power points each. Mixed groups may be summoned, requiring 6 power points for the werewolf, and 1 per wolf or 3 per additional werewolves. (Summoned werewolves should use the Werewolf stat block in SWADE, p. 191, but remove Fast Healing, Fear, and Infection). As with the Summon Ally/Animal/Monster powers, the duration of the summons is 5, and may be maintained for 1 power point.

Bestial Strength (requires Seasoned)

While in beast form, your claws do Str + 1d8 damage, and you gain a +1 to Toughness.

Improved Bestial Strength (requires Veteran)

While in beast form, your strength increases by one additional die, and you gain an additional die in Fighting.

Bestial Feeding (requires Seasoned)

Your targets no longer must be men or Mer; you may feed upon animals, monsters; any corporeal creature with a heart. However, when feeding from these creatures, the transformation only lasts for 5 additional minutes, and the werewolf must choose between regaining a power point or making a Natural Healing roll.

 

Curing Lycanthropy

It is possible, though various means, to be cured of lycanthropy. Rumors tell of potions, passing the curse to those whose generational lycanthropy is latent, or killing those who originated your curse; each curse will have its own means. Being cured of lycanthropy, however, does not undo that which has been done; you can no longer use your lycanthropic Edges, but they are not replaced with new Edges.