Find Your Path: Brawn

"More fools. I am done speaking, witch. Witness" - Karsa Orlong

In this post, I'll be going over the Path of Brawn for my in-development game, Miasma and Monsters. If you are unfamiliar with the game, please read my post introducing it here.

So you wanna be a bruiser? A formidable wall able to shrug off hits and deliver them right back? Be a blood-thirsty berserker that counts their kills by the score? Then Brawn is the Path for you. Home to Traits and Passive Bonuses that focus on dealing damage in melee, weathering physical damage, and adding tactical choices to any combat encounter, Brawn is meant for players who wish to emulate the classic archetypes of the Fighter, Battlemaster, Barbarian, and anything in between.

Let's start off with the Passive Brawn Bonuses. Your three choices in the Path of Brawn are:

1. +1 to Brawn Saves
2. +1 to melee damage rolls
3. Add a D10 to your Hit Dice pool instead of a D8 for this level

Starting off, we can choose a bonus to Brawn saves. For characters wishing to reliably pull of Stunts, Called Shots, or withstand being subject to the effects of those same Actions from their foes, this is a great PBB. If you combine it with the Shield Master Trait, then at level 1 you can perform Stunts using a shield with advantage AND get a +1 bonus. You'll be knocking your opponents prone left and right, setting up an ally with the Backstab Trait to fish for a juicy critical hit or even reliably pushing enemies off cliffs and bridges frequently.

Next we've got old faithful: +1 to melee damage rolls. It may seem boring at first, but it can really make the difference between an encounter dragging out and maiming party members to wiping the floor with the Flyguys you're fighting at the start of your journey in the first Round of Actions. It really works well with any of the Traits, but stand outs would include Brutal, Frenzy, Furious Retaliation, and Weapon Master. Even with an average Brawn score you could more than likely "one shot" most 1 HD creatures.

Now here's a real recipe for a bruiser of a character. Increasing your average HP gained per level from 4.5 to 5.5 is pretty great. Remember that you get to reroll your entire HD pool at each level up, so not only does this help you out when you first take it, but it definitely increases your max HP potential in the future. Consider pairing it with Bloodlust, Guardian, and Too Dumb to Die if you want to increase your chances of surviving every time you enter the fray.

Traits

Onto the real meat and potatoes of every Path: the Traits! Brawn really has some fun ones.

• Barbarian
• "While not wearing armor, your AC is equal to your Brawn score." 
• Wanna play as a Conan-esque character, charging into battle wielding nothing but your steel and some animal fur? Hell yeah! Note that as your Brawn score increases, so does your AC! Make sure to keep buffing that ability up and not be caught without some Restore Brawn potions in your pocket. Never worry about your armor breaking or weighing you down, but be wary of the undead and their ability draining powers!
• Bloodlust 
• "When you kill a creature, you gain temporary HP equal to your BB. This does not stack and replaces any temporary hit points you may have. Temporary hit points last 6 Turns (1 hour) or until you rest." 
• Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne! Milk for the Khorne Flakes! Make sure to take the biggest weapon you can wield and go wild, focusing on those puny creatures first so you can soak up the blows from their bigger comrades. Works well with many of the other Brawn Traits 
• Brutal
• "Reroll 1s and 2s on damage dice, but you must take the second result." 
• One of my play testers got a lot of mileage out of an ability like this during a Curse of Strahd 5E campaign a few years ago, and it became an "in-joke" among our group. It really ups the reliability of doing good damage and players love rolling dice. 
• Cleave
• "When you kill a foe in melee combat you can use your Reaction to immediately make an attack on an adjacent foe." 
• The classic! Cut down an enemy and get some Action economy advantage in the process, what's not to love? 
• Feats of Strength
• "You have Advantage on Brawn Saves to perform feats of strength such as breaking down doors, bending bars, lifting gates, and picking up and throwing objects. Unless encumbered, double your Brawn when calculating jump distances. " 
• Something that's not focused on just combat, the player can use this to help mitigate environmental hazards or brute force themselves through a dungeon or a craven baron's defenses. Plus who couldn't love the idea of a player being able to leap chasms that no average person dare attempt? 
• Frenzy
• "HL times per day, you may enter a rage. When in a rage you can survive down to -L HP instead of 0 before needing to make a death Save and you deal an additional L damage on each successful melee attack. A rage ends when combat does."  
• Turn on Jomsviking by Amon Amarth and charge into battle!
• Furious Retaliation
• "Every time an opponent damages you, you gain a +1 to hit and a +1 on damage rolls until the end of the combat. This caps at +10."
• High risk, high reward play-style coming through. If you can manage to stay alive while taking a beating (hint: combine with Bloodlust!) you can eventually hit like a truck.
• Guardian
• "When an adjacent ally is hit with an attack, you may use a Reaction to take the damage for them. You may make a Brawn Save to reduce the damage you take by your BB, to a minimum of 1. The difficulty is 10 + HD of the attacker."
• Be a big damn hero and block attacks for your allies! Plus the good karma lets you attempt to reduce the damage by your Brawn Bonus. Helps keep the Skill-focused melee characters alive, or protects a squishy Magus from a killing blow. 
• Riposte
• "When a creature misses you with a melee attack, you can use your Reaction to roll a D8. On a 5+, deal that much damage to them."
• If you choose to focus more on withstanding large amounts of damage then dishing it out yourself, then this will allow you to give your foes a taste of their own medicine. Giving yourself a 50% chance to deal 5-8 damage every time a melee attack misses you is pretty powerful, and if you are missed by more than 2 attacks per Round, you'll get a lot of value out of this Trait.
• Shield Master
• "When wielding a shield, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC and have Advantage on any attempt to perform a Stunt that involves your shield."
• Great to take if you have allies who fight alongside you in melee and pairs well with Guardian. Use it to knock enemies prone, push them off high places, or bash them into environmental hazards. 
• Too Dumb to Die
• "When you would roll on the death table, you may instead lose d4 points from an ability score of your choosing and regain d4 HP."
• Really embrace the stereotype of the Fighter being a brick wall. You regain 1 lost point in each ability score that is below its max value every time you get a night's rest, so don't worry too much about the permanent effects of this. Have your other allies brew Restore Ability potions to keep yourself in the fight for even longer!
• Weapon Master 
• "Pick a weapon type (light, medium, etc.) to become a master in. Increase the damage die size for that weapon type (d6 > d8, d10 > d12, d12 > d14, etc.) and you gain a +1 to hit it."
• "By this axe I rule!" Devote yourself to a weapon type and become even more powerful with it. Also yeah, you read that right. Get a d14 for damage dice with a heavy weapon! Worth considering for Skill-focused characters too, as they can master their trusty bow.

Capstone Traits

When a character reaches 9th level, they get to choose a Capstone Trait. To choose one of these, one must have at least three Traits from the same Path, demonstrating their devotion to it. 

• Combat Veteran
• "When you consume rations, you gain 1d6+BB HP. When you roll the maximum amount on your damage dice (two 6s on 2d6, 12 on d12, etc.), you can roll your damage dice again and add it to the result. Repeat this process until you stop rolling the maximum amount. When using an Action to attack, you can perform a Stunt for free."
• Exploding damage dice, more HP regained when resting, and a free Stunt every time you Attack! You'll feel comfortable fighting multiple enemies at once and you'll be performing Stunts and Called Shots left and right! As a Combat Veteran, your experience fighting has helped you identify weak points, causing you to dish out even more damage than before.
  

• Dreadnought
• "All your hit dice become D12. Reroll your entire HP pool. If you upgraded any of your hit dice to D10s, they now become D16s. When wearing armor, you take less damage from melee and ranged attacks equal to half its Quality, rounded down, to a minimum of 1."
• Become a veritable lump of iron. You'll likely forget how to roll a Death save, due to your HP shooting up upon taking this Capstone Trait. Make sure to keep your armor well upgraded with Quality improvements and that you Field Repair it often to make good use of the Damage Reduction!

•  Meat Dabbler

• "Your melee attacks deal an additional HL damage. HL times per day, when you miss with a melee attack, you can make a melee basic attack against the same target as a free action. If you miss with this bonus attack, you may use this trait again, provided you have uses of it remaining."
• Hit like a freight train, and if you miss, try to hit again for free! With the right combination of PBBs and Traits, you can easily get your damage bonus over 10 when you qualify for this Capstone Trait.

Stronghold 

So, you've made it to level 12? You actually survived the front lines? You deserve to make a permanent mark upon the world. You now have the ability to retire your character and convert all their wealth and resources into constructing a Stronghold. You'll have to first clear out an area on the map or use an existing safe area to do so. You hold will attract followers and you'll be able to muster up your own army. Maybe your next character will be a pupil of your former one, or perhaps someone who aims to usurp the newfound throne and take the stronghold for themselves? Regardless, your character will bear the burden of leadership upon a troubled brow. 

Sample Character Progress

Below is a sample character progressing from 1st to 12th level. Each ability score increase was put into Brawn and Skill and they were able to reach the cap of 25 in Brawn by level 12. 

 

• Level 1 
• HP 3, Brawn 14, Skill 10, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage rolls Trait: Bloodlust
• Level 2
• HP 11, Brawn 15, Skill 11, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage rolls Trait: Weapon Master
  
• Level 3
• HP 18, Brawn 16, Skill 12, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage rolls Trait: Cleave
• Level 4
• HP 25, Brawn 17, Skill 13, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage rolls Trait: Too Dumb to Die
  
• Level 5
• HP 40, Brawn 18, Skill 14, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage rolls Trait: Furious Retaliation
  
• Level 6
• HP 55, Brawn 19, Skill 15, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to melee damage roll
• Level 7
• HP 56, Brawn 20, Skill 16, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves
  
• Level 8
  
• HP 76, Brawn 21, Skill 17, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves
• Level 9
• HP 99, Brawn 22, Skill 18, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves Capstone Trait: Meat Dabbler
  
• Level 10
• HP 132, Brawn 23, Skill 19, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves
• Level 11
• HP 133, Brawn 24, Skill 20, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves
• Level 12
  
• HP 134, Brawn 25, Skill 21, Mind 7, Charm 8 PBB: +1 to Brawn Saves

You've read up on how the Path of Brawn works, so now go forth and conquer! 

Miasma and Monsters 1.2.2 Released

Version 1.2.2

 

Added

• Price for getting a meal in town
• Clarifications for travel distances and "carrying over" miles from the previous day
• Rules for cooking and eating Flesh
• Clarification on Advantage and Stunts
• Added section on destroying Sources of Evil
  

Changed

• HP calculation is clarified. You gain LD8 + (L * BB) HP at every level, and L caps at 9.
• Capitalizations to be consistent (advantage > Advantage, stunt > Stunt, etc.)
• Grammar updates
• Clarified that Light weapons can be thrown (throwing hand axes for example)
• Terrain movement costs
• Clarified Raise Dead spell 
• Minor updates to the intro text for Sources of Evil
  

Removed

• Called Shot for Hand, use Arm/Wing instead
  

Creature Feature: Caratorks!

 

The sun rises over a field of ripened vegetables. Two men are working the fields, trying to get the work done before the sweltering heat cooks them. "*sniffs*...you smell that, Francis? It's like...wet dirt and...blood?" the old farmer asked to his farmhand. Francis looks around, sniffs the air, spits, and replies "Yeah...yeah I believe I do, Graham. Also, hold on. Do you hear that? Sounds like...people yelling? We're not missing Father Leopold's sermon are we?" Both workers stare towards the sun, befuddled at these bizarre sensations. The two men begin to see figures moving swiftly over the ridge between them and the sun. A few figures turn into several, and then into a dozen, and suddenly scores of human-sized figures are now descending upon the farmlands. The farmers start to panic, realizing these orange monstrosities are carrying crude, wicked-looking weapons, have begun tearing up the farmland, and seem to be charging towards the farmers. The largest of them wields a two-handed sword and makes a beeline for the men. Francis drops his tools and makes a run for it, while Graham stares dumb-founded. The stunned man becomes the stuck man, as several of the carrot-men run him through with their weapons, which causes Francis to redouble his efforts to escape. Unfortunately for him, he trips over a large watermelon and lands face first into the dirt. He suddenly feels a rough hand grip tightly around one of his ankles and lift him up. The alpha belts out a spittle-filled roar into the poor farmer's face and throws him into the crazed swarm of carrot-men.

The carrots are rising up! What brought these monstrosities to mutate and rise up from the soil? A mad mage looking to create a personal army? The corrupting effects of the Miasma? Or perhaps a cruel god looking for entertainment through ironic slaughter? Whatever the cause, vegetarians and pastoral communities must now be wary of their meals rising up and subjecting them to barbarism and slavery.

More information on them from the Menagerie:

Bipedal plants in the shape of humanoids. They grow underground until their “hair” sprouts up, after which they can be pulled out or they will dig themselves out naturally. Their weapons grow in the same fields from which they sprout and are made of a similar material to wood. They are crude, and lose Quality on a 1-3. Masterwork Caratorkan weapons (the magic ones from Referee Rules) are only wielded by Kings and Berserkers (1-6 chance of a Berserker carrying one). All take an extra die of fire damage. If they are in sunlight or on damp soil, they regen 1 HP/round. All have an additional Action that can only be used to perform stunts or move 30’. All are Plant type.

Caratorks are Miasma and Monster's take on Orcs, with some flavor and mechanical changes to make them more interesting and less predictable than the monsters we all love to fight. Enough of the fluff, what the fuck are these things and how can I run them in my games now? 

Here's some stat blocks for the various types of Caratorks. 

Berserker
4 HD, AC 15 (no armor), weapon (long or heavy, + 4 damage when raging), mv 40’, morale 9 (13 when raging), initiative 10
Brute Template
Barbarian and Frenzy traits
# Appearing 1d6 (2d8 planted in the ground/in a lair)

King
Large sized Caratork with a growth above its eyes that resembles a crown
7 HD, AC 18 (Full Plate), Dire Flail (heavy, +10 to damage), MV 40’, Morale 10, initiative 10

Brute Template

Inspiring, Try Again!, and Meat Dabbler traits

# Appearing 1 (1 planted in ground/in a lair)

Shaman
Caratorks with innate spell-casting and riddled with tumors
5 (d4s) HD, AC 14, staff (d8), mv 35’, Morale 9, initiative 9

Caster Template
Magus, Spell Thief and Steel Trap Mind
4 random spells
2 Permanent Mutations
# Appearing 1d4 (2d6 planted in ground/in a lair)

Sprout
2 HD, AC 13 (or as armored), 1 attack (weapon, usually spear or axe for d8), MV 40’, Morale 8, initiative 10
# Appearing 1d8 (3d10 planted in the ground/in a lair)

Either sprinkle these guys into your random encounter tables, plop a field of them into one of your hexes, or perhaps set up a mad Agrimancer in your world animating farmer's fields into their personal army!

Some Skin in the Game

"With the Miasma Men dead, the criminal executed by The Deadnight Warrior, and the Miasma receding from the area, you all are now safe to rest. What do you do?"

"I wanna skin all 20 of the mutants and use their flesh to fix our equipment. Plus, can I harvest their prophet's brain?" - Player of Jedediah Krunch

"...most definitely! Make some Saves."

With this act of post-combat barbarism, the Crafting system of Miasma and Monsters was born! Inspired by the rules for gathering monster essences from Perdition by Courtney Campbell (very interesting game, I recommend checking it out), this system has three parts to it:

- Harvesting materials

- Performing Field Repairs

- Upgrading equipment

Let's first talk about Harvesting. In order to harvest materials from a dead creature, a successful Save with an Ability and Difficulty dependent upon the material type is required. A harvest attempt requires 1 Turn. The number of HD the creature has determines how many times it can be harvested and each success provides d3 components (except for Brains!). Each material type has its own value in silver (again based on HD). For some materials, if the creature took damage from a particular source, the difficulty of the Save is increased. If you killed a Flyguy with a maul and wanted to harvest bones from it, the Difficulty of the required Skill save would be 16. If you wanted to try and harvest poison sacs from a creature, you can do so with a harvest attempt for Viscera. Like an attempt to harvest a brain, this requires a Mind Save instead of Skill. A success for Brain and Viscera harvests only provides 1 component. If you fail your attempt to harvest Viscera, you may turn that failure into a success by succumbing to a Condition for d6 Turns (based on the viscera's properties). For example, you punctured an acid gland and got it into a cut on your hand, but you managed to scoop it into a jar.

The Crafting system also has a means to mitigate the continual degradation of weapons and armor through the Field Repairs rules. As long as a player has the materials, time, and is uninterrupted, they can repair their gear using materials. Flesh can be used to make repairs to armor Quality, bone can be used to increase the Quality of weapons at the price of increasing the range they lose Quality at, and brains can be eaten or made into ink. Flesh and bone should be self explanatory, but brains are a bit more interesting. If you consume a brain you can gain advantage on the next Save you make against a magical effect and if you mash a brain into ink you can then write over every marking in a single spell book to give it another usage. This requires a Mind save that gets more difficult every time you perform this act and it can be done no more than 5 times in a day.

Finally, we move onto Upgrades. These provide semi-permanent to permanent improvements to equipment such as improving Quality, reduction in movement penalties from armor, providing damage reduction (DR), and improving the efficacy of potions brewed (more on that in a later post!).

All of these rules have been made with considerations for a balance between fun game-play and a semblance of realism. Obviously just tying bone to a sword wouldn't prevent it from breaking, but I didn't want to have my players carry around sharpening wheels or have to go mining for ore, that's not very fun. 

There will probably be some changes to the rules eventually, we still haven't rigorously play-tested crafting yet, so expect some possible shake-ups!

 

All these rules can be checked out in the Core Rules for Miasma and Monsters here! 

Miasma and Monsters 1.2.1 Released!

Going forward, I will be posting Release Notes similar to that of a software project's. As a developer, this is a natural process for me and it helps demonstrate how the system has evolved overtime and allows "snapshots" of the game in the event that fans of a particular version can choose that set of rules over any others. Without further blabbing, here's what changed since my first time posting the rules!

Link to 1.2

Added

• Playtesters section
• Rules for updating stats when you roll badly
• Magus trait and rules for shaping Energy Blast
• Strike Fear into their Hearts! Trait
• Alchemy Equipment to Adventuring Gear
• Rules for restoring drained abilities
• More rules for brewing potions and poisons
• Bit about how magic weapons add a D6 per + (minimum of 1) to critical damage
• Rules for Counter Charge
• Rules for swapping held items
• Added rules for creating Sources of Evil
  

Changed

• Grammar and typos throughout
• Barbarian trait now sets your AC to your Brawn score
• Guardian no longer rounds down the damage
• Too Dumb to Die lets you lose d4 points from any Ability score
• +1 to crit range PSB changed to +20% range on ranged weapons
• Block Missile can now be used as a Reaction every Round
• Pack Tactics can only be used once per Round
• Dual Wielder clarified that when you perform a Stunt you can make an offhand attack for free
• PMB regarding cantrips changed to +1 to Energy Blasts or +1 to Prayers
• Alert lets you add your MB to initiative rolls ON TOP OF SB
• Familiar has MB HP and you can cast spells through it
• Identifier reworked
• Spell Thief reworked to say it uses a Reaction
• Steel Trap Mind lets you attempt to save a spell book usage after using Energy Blast.
• Turn Undead lasts HLd4 rounds
• Imposing Presence now can be used as an Action instead of L times
• Alphabetized Charm traits
• Cunning Planner adds CB to allies attacks when they use your Actions
• Bear Traps have a 50% chance to capture animals
• Holy water affects Demons and Undead now
• Lockpicks reworked
• Sacks clarified to not use a slot
• Chain, Half, and Full plate mail now have a cap to the SB provided to AC
• Childhood Friend retainer clarified to be free
• Clearing Hexes tracking clarified to take 1 hour
• Moved Brewing Potions and Crafting to their own sections
• Initial rules for Crafting completed
• Advantage in Combat says you can perform a Stunt/Called Shot for free instead of having advantage on an attack
• Called shots updated to not give strict disadvantage
• Updated XP values
• Clarified Energy Blasts and Prayers
• Liquid Air re-worded
• Clarified Permanent Mutations
• Rules for Brewing Potions, not finalized
  

Removed

• Text that claimed the game is rules-light 
• Cantrips. They sucked
• Spellsword
• Twinned Fates
• Irrelevant rules about acquiring new spells

Quick Monster Generation

"You're walking through the misty woods. The canopy blocks out the light from the sun but its heat still oppresses you. The Elf stops the party and listens to the wind. 'We are not alone, my friends.', he murmurs as his eyes scan the environs. The party steels themselves for a fight, when out from the shadows leap three large monsters with sharp claws and even sharper teeth! One of them lands two strikes upon the Halfling, grapples her, and then proceeds to bite down!-

"Ah man! Another bear? Why do we keep fighting these things? They just are bruisers, no finesse! C'mon Steve, can't we deal with weirder stuff?" - The Elf

"Shuddup, dood! You try running at game at the last minute with zero prep! You guys wanted to go off the rails and not follow the map to the dungeon! I couldn't think of a cooler monster in time to throw at you." - Beleaguered DM

One complaint I hear and read about in fantasy TTRPGs is that most monsters just feel like "sacks of HP" and aren't mechanically interesting. One symptom of this is Jack Guignol's excellent article "Just Use Bears". Instead of spending a chunk of time and creativity on new monster stats, just reskin any of the Bear creatures from your favorite collection of monsters and throw it at the players. While this is great when you need a creature quickly, I found that it doesn't create compelling enough scenarios to fill more then that occasional encounter.

That's why, with the inspiration from this post on /r/osr, I created a D50 table of unique abilities for creatures.

Show Me the Table!

Here's two examples of creatures created with rules from the table. First up, Flyguys! Miasma and Monster's equivalent to goblins. These guys are 3-5' tall, bipedal flies that can fly up to 5' off the ground. They all prefer to use blunt weapons because they like to exact revenge on humans for swatting and squishing their ancestors for eons.
 

One thing to note before reading these stat blocks: in Miasma and Monsters for every 3HD a monster has it gains an additional Action, while PCs get an additional Action every 4 levels.

Lesser Flyguy

1 HD, AC 11, They wield extra light weapons and slings, mv 40 (35' flying), morale 7 (9 with Flyguy King), initiative 10
# Appearing 2d4 (6d10 in lair)

Flyguys can use their limited flight to their advantage to stay out of melee range of the players and when in their lairs, they will make the players subject to many traps that the flies are all but immune to. They are a very simple example, so let's look at two that are more interesting.

Juggernaut

Bipedal rhino with a near impenetrable shell. Has a single weak point, its neck.
HD 6 + 1, AC 23 (Back of head AC 16), slam (1d12), Mv 30’, darkvision 60’, morale 8, initiative 10
To target its neck, you must do a Called Shot (outside of Miasma and Monsters, up to DM's discretion)
# Appearing 1d4 (2d6 in lair)

These tough guys have really thick hides necessitating some strategy to find their weak point and exploit it! The usage of two Actions allow them to knock the players around, throw them, and generally clobber them effectively. Get enough of these Juggernauts faced against the players, and they'll be running scared to rethink their strategy.

Hanging Tree

A large, old tree that was used so much for hangings that it become possessed by the spirits of the executed and now roams the wilderness looking for new creatures to hang from its many vines
HD 7, AC 13, bite (d12 damage, advantage on creatures that are grappled), vine whip (15’ range, 2d6 damage, 17 Skill save or become grappled), mv 30’, morale 10, initiative 9
When motionless, it looks like an ordinary tree inundated with vines. 17 Mind save to notice that its awakened.
Has 2d6 vines it can use to grasp creatures.
Each vine is AC 15 and has 1 HP
Grappled creatures take ongoing 2d6 damage at the beginning of the Hanging Tree’s turn.
Takes double damage from fire. Morale becomes 7 when it is near fire, and must make a morale check if hurt by fire.
# Appearing 1d2

Now we're talking! A tough creature (though low AC and a clear weakness to fire), it's got 2 Actions, increased range with the vine whips, and can disguise itself as a tree with ease. It normally has good morale, but when it sees fire it will likely run for its life!

Please feel free to use this table in your own games and let me know what you think! I'd love to see what kinds of horrible monsters you are able to create.

What is Miasma and Monsters?

 Starting off quick, here's the PDF of the current version. 

As the Intro section suggests, this is a game based on Knave and Glaive offering a class-less system allowing the players to customize their character as they level up while still doing its best to maintain the "feel" of an OSR game. Starting with AD&D style role playing, myself and most of the friends I play with are used to progressing our characters through mechanical options as it is easier to become invested in a character as you play them. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy games that are in the style of B/X where you can create a character from nothing in a few minutes, but they are meant for a different style of play.

With MaM, I'm trying to strike the perfect (in my eyes) balance between B/X and AD&D gameplay. Players should have high levels of agency not only in how they interact with the world, but with advancing their characters.

For example, there are no Skills and Skill Checks. Non-trivial actions are resolved through Saves based on the relevant Ability Score. I don't want players staring at their sheets for an answer to a problem!

Let's dive into making a character in this system.

Character Generation

Same basic steps as most games, with a few twists that make it stand out:

• Roll Ability Scores
• Roll Starting Health
• Pick a Trait
• Generate Starting Wealth and Gear
• Record AC
• Choose a name, physical traits, etc.

Roll Ability Scores 

We should all be familiar with this, roll 3D6 four times and assign each...wait, four times? Yes, MaM only has 4 Abilities: Brawn, Skill, Mind, and Charm. As a part of the class-less system, having more scores than Paths made no sense so I consolidated Strength and Constitution into Brawn, Intelligence and Wisdom into Mind, and renamed Dexterity and Charisma to Skill and Charm, respectively. Pretty simple and it works out well.

 

Scores and bonuses for these abilities is also a bit different, but subject to change right now. My long-time friend, former roommate, and editor/idea-haver, and I are debating making some radical changes to how scores relate to bonuses, so don't get too attached to these values.

Roll Starting Health

Like Knave, each PC starts with D8 HP, but in this you add your BB (Brawn Bonus).

Pick a Trait

Here's the real meat and potatoes of the class-less system. Starting at level 1 and every level after, choose from one of the 4 Paths a Passive Bonus and a Trait. Note that you can only have a maximum of 5 Traits at a time, but at level 6 and beyond you can exchange a Trait for another one. At level 9, you can pick 1 Capstone Trait. These cannot be exchanged.

Each Path is tied to an Ability Score and the PBs and Traits therein reflect what that Ability focuses on. Big, beefy, bopper use the Brawn Path. Fast glass cannon? Skill. Magic? Mind. Charismatic commander cheering on comrades? Pick Charm. Or mix it up and make something of your own design! Most RPG class archetypes can be built using a combination of Paths.

Generate Starting Wealth and Gear

Pretty standard. Roll 3D6 for starting silver coins, pick an equipment pack, then roll for some miscellaneous gear. One addition is that instead of having little to no description for Adventuring Gear, MaM has a few lines for each suggesting a standard use.

Record AC

AC = AC value from armor worn (if any) + SB (Skill Bonus). Shield adds 1. Some Traits may affect this.

Choose a name, physical traits, etc.

Hooked nose? Double-chin? One eye? All your choice.

That's just a quick taste of the system so far. I'll write future posts on nearly every section of the game, and more as I develop it.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing you feedback.

Hello, World!

 Welcome to the Role for Reaction blog, yet another blog revolving around the OSR and its related pursuits!

I have been playing TTRPGs on and off since elementary school and in the last few months I've been working on creating my own gaming system, Miasma and Monsters, using Knave and Glaive as a starting point.

Among my posts regarding the ongoing development of the game, I will sprinkle in posts here and there going over previous sessions, my creative process, how I run a game, and what I've been painting (Warhammer 40k)!

I look forward to seeing feedback of my game and hopefully it can be released in a more serious fashion soon!