D&D 4.5 Edition - Goods & Services preview

By popular demand, I'm uploading my current list of general items and services available in my "4.5E" revision of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Asides from the inclusion of equipment and large investments from later supplements, the one pervasive change I have made is re-scaling the value of silver and gold coins. 

Traditionally, a silver coin or 'piece' is only work 10 copper pieces (cp), and a gold piece (gp) is 10 silver pieces (sp). This creates an environment where the players' characters regularly walk around with literal pounds of gold in their pockets, tipping innkeepers and informants with coins which would have ben a *generous* month's pay (at least in Roman times, though according to my amateur historical studies its value didn't waivered too much across the Iron Age).

For the sake of resembling history, I've recast silver as 'the new gold', thus silver is worth 100cp and gold is 100sp. All equipment prices reflect this change. I'm also more explicit about the term 'pieces' referring to an general measure of weight rather than a strict coin count; after all, one kingdom's silver ducat and another's silver florin might be drastically different in appearance, weight, and denomination (and likely some annoying fraction of a gold coin like 1/12 or 1/20), but half a pound of silver is half a pound of silver. For the simplicity of the game rules, 50 pieces of any currency is one pound.

How much is 1sp worth, in our frame of reference? A dollar? A hundred dollars? Value is difficult to compare between a largely medieval fantasy economy and the modern one. Given how little labor was valued yet so much labor was required for any finished goods, it creates some incongruities with our expectations. After all, if an apprentice blacksmith makes 2sp a day, but he works all day to forge 100 nails by hand and sell them for that same amount, is one silver piece more comparable to a day's wages or a small bag of nails? 

My rule of thumb is copper coins are for trivial expenses like sundry items; a handful can cover a small meal, a tip, or incidental tools that barely need to be tracked beyond their use in skill challenges. Silver is more in the range of dedicated services and tools; a couple silver makes for a modest day's wage and 10-20sp can buy you a weapon that may take all week to craft. Gold is reserved for storing large sums of wealth, measuring an entire month's wages, a house or a boat. An adventuring party will probably only obtain 10gp by the time they hit level 2.

I wanted to include large investments like buildings and ships not only for context but to give players long terms goals pillaging and plundering for its own sake, which is a bit of a throwback to earlier editions. Characters will eventually need to retire and presumably need to own something that generates its own income or at least provides what is needed to live self-sufficiently. Plus, my players like to steal big and I need a frame of reference to track how much treasure they're obtaining.

A more detailed write-up of individual items is on hold, as most are simply carry-overs from the standard 4th Edition versions, including the ones that were oddly left without any description or in-game function.

D&D 4.5 Edition - Class preview

 Long story short (until I sit down and write up an explanation of my design goals and motives behind this project), I'm creating my own major revision of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, my preferred edition of the roleplaying game. Some elements from the later 4th Edition Essentials and 5th Edition are incorporated into my version by for the most part this is largely based on my own preferences and a system overhaul I've had in mind around 2010.

I'll start by showcasing the eight initial classes: Fighter, Wizard, Barbarian, Cleric, Ranger, Bard, Druid, and Paladin. 4E made the transparent effort to categorize classes as a combination of a combat role plus a source of the character's fantastical powers: essentially, all these classic archetypes are exemplified by their martial training, arcane magic, divine influence, or primal spiritualism, while their combat abilities primarily fill the role of either defender, striker, leader, or controller. 

I've thematically renamed the roles (Warrior, Raider, Champion, Agent) and taken the further steps towards separating Role and Power Source into steps of character creation, at least to the degree that Class mostly defines just a player character's special features and choices of powers, leaving a player to focus on three general questions for a new character: "what is my role in the party?", "what is the source of my powers?", and "what should my backstory consist of?

FIGHTER

Fighters are the Martial Warrior, the culmination of arms and armor proficiencies focused on dominating one-one-one combat with any enemy. As per the Warrior role, Fighters gain a class feature allowing them to Mark an enemy combatant, literally putting their target at a disadvantage if they don't focus their attacks on the Fighter. On top of that, the Fighter has more features hindering their target from doing anything but keep fighting the Fighter, which given the Fighter's weapon bonuses and high defenses is a losing strategy for most monsters.

One small change I'm making from original 4E is bundle all the later build options into 'sub-classes', which really just categorizes alternate feature options into distinct build bundles tied together with their ideal power options. In the Fighter's case, with all the potential for different armor and weapon techniques, I opted to let the Versatile Fighter gain both one and two-handed weapon bonuses; I figure you're probably going to be sticking to one or the other as you find your preferred equipment so why lock you in before the game begins?

If you've seen 4E in action before you'll notice a lack of powers in the Fighter's roster. A major change in 4.5E is each Power Source gets a unique mix of the standard At-Will / Encounter / Daily power options, helping classes feel more unique even if they share a combat Role. Martial characters use the more straight-forward Stances to apply to their basic attacks each turn, while they can unleash powerful attacks when they use one of their daily action points.

WIZARD

The Arcane Agent. Wizards have access to the widest array of powers; from the types of elemental damage and status effects applied, special defenses targeted, and automatic hits from Magic Missile, it's difficult to find a monster that isn't vulnerable to at least one of their spells. A Wizard also gains access to numerous non-combat utilities through Cantrips and Rituals.

Of course the amount of spells a Wizard has prepared at any given time still keeps them on par with the other classes' combat competency, but the sheer variety of options may be daunting for some and enticing for others.

BARBARIAN

Despite the tendency for most Primal classes to express subtlety and neutrality, the Barbarian leans heavily into the Raider role which results a powerhouse for damage delivered to the enemy. The Raider role typically provides a class feature that add bonus damage to a target, but in the Barbarian's case multiple features include some form of extra attack.

The Rage daily evocations are powers that let the Barbarian drop a ton of damage in a single hit and continue to add extra damage for the rest of the fight. Similar to Martial characters, Primal classes normally receive stances in lieu of overt at-will powers.

CLERIC

The Divine Champion. Champions are the go-to healers, the de facto party leaders and support role. Even with its emphasis on healing powers, the Cleric has a lot of options in combat. Its Healing Word can be used alongside a standard attack action. 

I'm showing off the Battle Cleric subclass here, but keep in mind the unarmored Priest subclass with even an greater healing focus is also written up. A last-minute change to Divine classes was to convert their Daily powers into Action Surges. This leaves Arcane with the original full power lineup, as Divine classes tend less towards magical casters with more combat-oriented options.

RANGER

Our second Martial class falls under the Raider role. Rangers largely eschew the heavy armor and a wide selection of weapons of most Martial classes for an emphasis on dealing extra hits, either with a bow or dual weapon strikes.

Like the Fighter it will have access to a lot of variant subclasses but for now many of their Stances, Encounter Exploits and Action Surges accommodate either melee, ranged or either kinds of attacks.

BARD

Often left in the dust in other Editions as a master-of-none class, 4E Bard really shined when given the specific power source and role of an Arcane Champion. Like the Cleric, Bards enable their party members to heal without using their standard action per turn. 

The Skill Versatility class feature has been filled up with bonus proficiencies to give them some Agent-like utility. But overall the Bard's intuition-based spell casting is focused on providing the party with positive enhancements.

DRUID

Druids express the most overt use of Primal spiritual power through their Agent role, their ability to switch between animal forms being the main example.

While not as game-breakingly versatile as in other editions (wherein you could simply cast your choice of bonuses and turn into a dinosaur to out-fight the fighter), beast forms still allow the Druid to rapidly switch from spell-caster to melee combatant and back to fill in immediate tactical gaps.

PALADIN

The Divine version of the Defender dons the best armor and some of the highest health stats available. Like the fighter, the Paladin is able to compel the enemy to face them instead of their allies, although in this case both the requirements and the penalties for not heeding the Paladin's challenge are stricter.

The Paladin also brings an emphasis on healing as a secondary Champion role, more so in its Charisma-based Cavalier subclass.

For now these are the classes in use with my revision on 4th Edition D&D. I am focusing on writing up instructions for creating Level 1 characters using these eight but I will be rapidly expanding their power options to enable additional subclasses all the way to Level 3. After that we should be seeing the next 8 to round out all combinations of the four roles over all four power sources (eventually five powers with Psionic). 

Until then you know where to reach me, if not I'm not sure how you found any of this... it's not exactly viral material.

Dungeon World Notes: Project ORI

Dungeon World Notes: Project ORI

So, due to pandemic-related social isolation, I had to unfortunately put my Dungeon World campaign on long-term hiatus and essentially halted work on my homebrewed far-future setting six months ago.

At this point it has effectively ended on a cliffhanger, with the party creeping outside their abandoned home settlement of Ori, having returned to find the machine-intellects in the ruins underneath. To recap, Ori was a large village of hundreds of humans, mutants, biological androids, and the odd man-machine hybrid, cobbled together among the ruins of civilizations from past epochs. Underneath these shacks of metal and concrete rubble lay a labyrinthine technological complex, deteriorated to nearly unrecognizable ruin. In those ruins, Ori's settlers were able to scrounge the occasional powerful artifacts and speak with a collective of machine-intellects. Despite the machines' odd perspectives and lack of a clear concept of individual identity, Ori came to rely upon them for wisdom and leadership.

Two of the most pressing questions since the start of the campaign following the destruction of Ori have been the nature of the machine-intellect overlords beneath the settlement and the status of the massive machine-beast known commonly as 'Bahamut Zero', the most overt threat in the region (before the calamity that was the sudden outpouring of deadly caustic gas, killing nearly everyone in Ori).

Since I can't expect to resume the campaign in the foreseeable future, I will detail my notes on these two subjects here.

The ORI Facility

Part of the awkwardness of pursuing the backstory of this far-future dying earth setting in 2020 is that, even back when I first began drafting it in 2018 based on a series of nightmares, its history has always been steeped in what I consider the most under-sung silencer of civilizations: plagues.

The structures in the Ori settlement date before the post-civilization time frame of the game by perhaps tens of thousands of years, during an extended period of protracted total war scenarios known as the Last War Era. Following the complete urbanization of the Earth's landmasses and a breakdown of the Hi-Tek Era's techno-magical infrastructure, civilization began to experience further ecological collapse and population drops pressured by resource scarcity. The atmosphere was heavily regulated by oxygen generators and sea levels had dropped by two miles due to evaporation. Civilization had fallen into isolated societies of techno-barbarism, focused on maintaining the hubs of the pinnacles of technology which included priceless wonders such as endless supplies of materials, energy, hubs of knowledge, and immortality. Such machines exploited the very limits of reality and as such were primarily maintained by artificial intellects which processed data and taught themselves calculations and theories of science beyond normal human understanding; in most cases these machine-intellects were the only bridge between harnessed magic and pre-industrial scavenging.

Given their inscrutable tasks these machine-intellects in turn gave out inscrutable demands. As humanity increasingly turned to the machines for decision-making their orders grew increasing obtuse and violent, directing hostilities towards other centers of civilization to either capture or eliminate their hoards of technomagic.

The Ori region was situated in the center of a peninsula on the western end of the European continent. Towards the end of the Last War Era, this peninsula was populated by over a million inhabitants, largely under control of a machine-intellect collective known as the Ebiran Coalition. In response to anti-Coalition rebellions, the machines had engineered a biological-mimetic hybrid weapon known as a metavirus. With both genetic and digitized elements encapsulated in a techno-magical form, this metavirus was strategically deployed to target the rebels' own machine-intellects and human leadership, progressively disrupting thought processes to inhibit short-term memory, train of thought, and reallocating mental processing towards generating further avenues for the metavirus to adapt. The development of symptoms were gradual but in all known cases resulted in complete mental debilitation in a matter of months. It was designed to cross man-machine interfaces to infect biological, synthetic, and virtual entities equally. The metavirus was capable of spreading to virtual 'dreamscape' environs and even across remote resurrection technology.

In response, Project ORI was assembled within a substructure facility in the rebel-controlled urban wastelands.

Project ORI

Project ORI had two goals: Develop a cure to the metavirus and re-purpose the metavirus to use against the Ebiran Coalition. Four specialized machine-intellects were spawned from existing environmental and epidemiological machine-intellects (through a process known as 'heuristic budding') to analyze the metavirus:

BM8-0: Collect infected and uninfected samples and isolate their biomass/inert matter, neurological data and dream-intellect patterns into physical, pseudo-physical, and digital containment

CLA: Analyze isolated samples, generate potential solutions for altering or eliminating elements of the metavirus

^DS: Replicate samples for testing stock, test solutions and prepare abnormal samples for further analysis

LI-A10: Implementation of viable treatments into subject stock, reconstituting cured/immune entities, and distribution of cures/immunizations/counter-Coalition metavirus into environment

(Yes, they're named after great sea monsters of revelation/mythology: Bahamut/Behemoth, Leviathan. Scylla and Charybdis). Don't judge me, Nate started it by naming Bahamut Zero as a local threat and it was too fun not to roll with it).

ORI found limited success in breaking down infected subjects into base materials and reconstituting them after purging all traces of the metavirus, but continuation of consciousness would be lost. Some forms of bio-mechanical hybrids were found to be highly resistant to the metavirus but LI-A10 never found a fabrication method that consistently produced ones viable for mind-transference. But by most appearances the machine-intellects' procedures involved BM8-0 disintegrating test subjects en masse and LI-A10 converting them into a menagerie of failed grotesques, adding to the mutants and simulacra from previous eras already roaming the wastelands. Anti-Coalition forces began to refer to the machines collectively as 'the heralds of the apocalypse', waiting helplessly for a solution to be found.

Project ORI never completed. Eventually, a variation of the metavirus (whether produced by Project ORI, the Coalition, or an unrelated strain engineered by a third party) emerged in the wild which somehow bore a bacterial infection within the encapsulated biological elements. This variant was highly infectious and carried across the same vectors, and though did not effect purely mechanical or non-physical entities it produced high fatality rates among biological lifeforms and synthetic-based life. The Plague of Staves, as it became known, flared across centuries as isolated human populations would encounter the infection in dormant machines, wandering simulacra, or within dreamscapes. 

Ninety percent of humanity died off before the Plague of Staves subsided, by this point the survivors were effectively immune and had isolated themselves into the self-sufficient rigid Cenobium societies that defined the last vestiges of civilization of the Cenobitic Era.

. . .

So with that in mind, I had a rough outline for what the machine-intellects of Ori were doing the campaign and how they were going to still achieve their original goals. I'll save that briefer story for whomever asks, but here's a hint for my campaign's players in the form a a little riddle: What sleeps before sunrise, flies before noon, and limps before sunset?

Crusader Kings II - Duck Empire randomized kingdoms 02

I ended up recording several episodes and uploaded them for scheduled release. For now it's twice-weekly Mondays & Fridays at 11:00am CST.

Still looking for other games to play and record but so far CK2 is letting me find a good groove.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Urdroid

As opposed to the Warlock's inspiration from other media, the initial concept behind the Urdroid stemmed entirely from the original setting of my campaign. I had an early discussion with my players about the differences between the Demiurgic tribes of androids and the intelligent machine races unavailable for player characters. I ended up summarizing the distinction:

-Demiurge encompassed groups of synthetic people that are both physiologically equivalent to human requirements as well as psychologically and sociologically compatible. Other machine races do not share these qualifications.

From there, I concluded that in order for an intelligent machine to be both distinct from Humans & Demiurge and still be playable, it would have to be an example of one with physical requirements that are comparable to living people (but not equivalent), and be psychologically and sociologically equivalent (but not necessarily compatible).

In short, a playable mechanical creature should have different ways for needing to restore hit points and staying fit/rested as well as different rules to represent their motivations. Otherwise it's just "a human that looks like a robot".

That goal brought me to the Urdroid: an ancient type of self-sufficient machine that adhered to strict rules of thought and behavior, which brought its goals parallel enough to living people to exist along side them, and directly with them in situations of peril or shared threats to survival.

 My first priority was plotting their repair and recharge abilities to the point a player character was free from 'organic needs'. This gave the class a hardy and defensive feel. After that, I wanted them to have a unique sense of morality and mysticism that would come into frequent play.

That that end, I have for now heavily borrowed from the Compendium's Monk player class, particularly by using a separate set of options (here dubbed 'Ethos') instead of simple end-of-session motivations. A few of these have been tweaked more than others, and I'll likely replace Ethos of Shadow once I come up with a more setting-appropriate option. but for now it'll suffice for playtesting.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Warlock

Once my Dungeon world campaign started it meant I needed to focus a good chunk of my free time on further developing the setting, writing more monsters down with solid rules, and planning future adventures using plot hooks and antagonists.

Which of course meant I went ahead and came up with six more character classes. The first of these is the Umbral Witch-inspired gun user, the Warlock

The concept struck me while thinking about Bayonetta in the shower (which doesn't happen nearly as often as one would think?). I realized that her preternatural acrobatics & ranged combat bestowed by  supernatural patrons would be totally on-brand for this hellish future setting.

And once my wife said it was the first of all my custom classes that caught her attention I knew I had to make it my campaign's 19th class option.

The initial placeholder name of the Class was simply Bayonetta's title of Umbral Witch. Later name ideas included The Dream-Scryer, The Thaumaturge, and simply The Wytch. Warlock seemed the least obtuse and more indicative of the source of her powers.

Bayonetta has a lot going for her, so I knew going in that this class would need several broad abilities pinned down to a few signature moves. She would demand a natural affinity for using guns and multiple weapons, thus letting her use them all with her Dexterity stat and ignore slow reload times enabled the player to focus on more dynamic decisions. The Spiritual Energy move allowed for powerful extra actions without bogging down their turn using complicated math or multiple rolls per turn, and to avoid spamming it I tied the moves to a hold resource, which was further obtained by fulfilling challenging demands by their patron tech-spirit. The other move I felt was needed to provide the class with utility and not just hit-hit-bang-bang skills was the passive immunity to illusions. This ensured some level of agency over otherworldly potential enemies/allies.

Luckily I could leave some of remaining more over-the-top powers for advanced moves as she leveled up. Her essentials felt summarized in these four starting moves

This was the first Class playbook I worked on from scratch. The initial 'Umbral Witch' concept was laid out on a blank Class template (from John Shea's superb design) and drafted using purely narrative descriptions of what their abilities should accomplish. Though I ended up borrowing definitions from equivalent moves once again from Compendium classes (namely the Monk and the Warlock), all four starting moves had some kind of function.

My wife played it exactly once for a group playtest, but by the time I made further revisions for the campaign proper she concluded tabletop RPGs just weren't fast-paced or enough for her. It'll have to wait for someone else to take up the mantle and let the witch-hunts continue, so stay tuned.

Duck Empire 01 - Crusader Kings II fully randomized Animal Kingdoms

Bad news is I slipped on the ice and fell right on my pelvis today, good news is I might spend the extra time sitting to record a bunch of videos?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phAEjOGhElA&t=3s

Stay tuned for the next installment Monday afternoon.

Duck Empire introduction - Crusader Kings II fully randomized Animal Kingdoms

I made a YouTube Let's Play video: Presenting my current Crusader Kings 2 randomized campaign due to request from several friends

Other than renaming my dynasty and the primary realm name of Calisota, I only changed a couple of Kingdom/Duchy names for the sake of readability or my own amusement; all the Howards, Donalds, Daffys and the Dog Pope were generated by the game.

The Ballad of Bagga the Singer

I had another set of videos from Middle Earth Shadow of War, but they're not liking the transition from my PS4 to PC, so here's a much later encounter with another oddball Orc captain, Bagga the Singer.

I already knew of the existence of Orcs who sings - I had already exerted my dominance over a poet who rhymes after all. So I presumed this Orc was much the same: Just a captain who does his usual Orc business with some quirky taunts.

I was not prepared for just how devoted he was to his craft.  He doesn't just sing, he siiiiiiiiiings!

Check it out for yourself below:

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Sarcotech

Finally, the 18th and final (for the original 'core' set) of my custom Dungeon World classes for my dying earth urban nightmare setting. I felt it necessary to include so many options for each kind of warrior/spell-caster/rogue archetype to ensure my players had enough choices. Particularly because Dungeon World is designed with the intention that no two players could pick the same class for their characters.

That, and narrative focus of the moves combined with the simplicity of their math meant it was just too fun to write new classes.  In this case, I took the opportunity to reintroduce spells and abilities left out by the lack of a Cleric or traditional Paladin, and specifically melded the Compendium's 'dark' versions: the Reaper and the Death Knight.

The results are a hybrid weapon-wielding tek-magik user, focused on restoration spell-codes and tapping into the life energy of their fallen enemies. They may be known in some places as necromancers or death-paladins, but I fell upon the poetic bluntness of Sarcotech: literally 'flesh technician'.

Most of the Advanced moves come from the Cleric/Reaper playbook but the result is a mostly even distribution of advancement options between the Mordant Weapon, death/healing-specific moves, and general spell-casting.

The Sarcotech's spellbook heavily cribs from the Cleric, as most Reaper spells were already covered by the Death Knight's ability to simply hold uses of spells such as Cause Fear, Darkness, and Consult Spirits. I took the opportunity to reintroduce dedicated healing and resurrection spells otherwise inappropriate for generalist tek-magik users.

This was also a good opportunity to write up a spell for creating a Revenant: a simulacra based on a specific dead person. This concept came from a short story I had been outlining before I started planing a Dungeon World campaign for this setting, where the protagonist's bodyguard was a near-indestructible replica of a person who only existed with a limited purpose and timeframe. I may have to reword the 'indestructible' part to avoid absurd exploitation.

So what next? I've actually got a lot of setting notes I want to write up for the prologue session, which will be introduced in a piecemeal way as they plan their PC and home settlement. In addition to that there's a bunch of minis and terrain pieces I'm 3D printing, as I want to help ground my campaign with visual references and DW is a light enough ruleset to throw them around without getting bogged down by range, line of sight, initiative, direction, and so on.

Finally, you could browse my collection of art I pulled from Pinterest that serves as a style guide for this setting. Think of it as a 300-image collage triangulating what look and feel I'm going for (there's a bit of body horror in the monsters, I should warn you).  I'll make a separate post soon for what's in the works, so stay tuned as usual.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: the Simulant

The Simulant is an Eidolon, a type of techno-magical creature summoned by machines out of elementary particles to perform specific tasks. Ages ago they served humans but most have broken their bonds or simply gone insane. the Simulant represents a rare example that has remained civilized only by siphoning off the sanity of other creatures.

The Phantom's playbook was something I churned out only in the last couple days while trying to tidy up the Cambion's potentially-limitless abilities, though the idea behind it was around while drafting the original list of classes earlier this summer. I actually had a lucid dream about its abilities the other morning, which is the official stamp of approval in this homebrew setting's core concepts (Along with planet-wide ruins, troll-mutants, mobile atmosphere processors, skin-wearers, and zombie fertilizer. They always called me an imaginative child).

In a nutshell, the Simulant can spend Sanity to deal damage or resist weaknesses, but also needs it to rest and heal, otherwise they generate Horror which can be used to make them do bad things. The weaknesses listed under the Simulated Person move are still a work in progress as I narrow down what thematically fits a hologrammatic mind-stealer.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Cambion

The Cambion, like its namesake, is an amalgam of two utterly different origins. In this case, 50% human, 50% machine, 100% shunned by everybody. Beyond the various physical forms to choose from at character creation, the Cambion's sheer power and versatility comes from its ability to select multiple 'cybernetic' moves and unleash them with automatic success. No roll needed; just leap, fly, tear something to pieces, or shoot a freaking laser beam from their mouth.

The caveat to these machine-form powers is the character's built-in drive to understand and come to terms with their human side. In order to re-gain use of their Cybernetic moves after the beginning of a game session, they must willingly practice acts of empathy and kindness for others. Thus, the Cambion maintains a trade-off between never becoming a truly rogue machine nor a truly civil human.

Finally, I lied about this being the last custom class. In fact I drafted two more during the process of writing up the Cambion's Forms and Cybernetic move options.  I'm pretty enthusiastic about what variety they add for player characters. Keep an eye out for the Phantom and the Sarcotech.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Chameleon

I may have given the wrong impression when I said the final character class would be 'weirder' than the rest. It's definitely an unusual and complicated one to redesign. But the second to last one, presented here, might be more bizarre and creepy.

The Chameleon is a skin-changer. Who they are and how they learned to craft technomagical disguises is a complete mystery. Their abilities are defined by which 'skin' they are currently wearing, and even their identity is attributed to the skin itself, rather than the wearer. The Chameleon can even craft skins to pass as other people, or briefly mimic their powers.

Most of the nightmare-fuel was provided by the original Compendium version of this class, the Mask Master. I primarily altered the theme to involve tek-magik circuitry suits that stretch to fit only the exact proportions of its creator. A few mask's functions were altered for the available situation types and I may add more during the game, as the player can make additional skins.

"Ok, so what's the last character class?" It's based on another Compendium class known as the Beast, which is some kind of monster-blooded human that can literally pick monster moves to use during play. This is especially powerful as monster moves are narrative descriptions like 'tear flesh apart', disappear into the shadows', 'attack from the air', 'or 'summon a frenzied horde'.

In my version, the Cambion is a machine-human hybrid, a seamless blend of metal and flesh. They come in several forms which helps guide the options for monster powers. I'm still working on which powers to provide and what base abilities to assign each form so it might be a while before it's ready to show off. But this covers the majority of the 'regular' player classes to choose from.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Artificer and the Berserker

Not too much to say about these two classes. The Artificer opened up a logical option for tinkering upon and improving the technological enhancements present on equipment. Really didn't have to change much, although perhaps the encoded weapon entechments could probably use some snazzier themes between now and session 1.

Even with all the other warrior options, Berserker seemed like a perfect fit for bizarre talents that only have a place this far past civilized society. No need for armor, tremendous ability to shrug damage and injury, terrify their opponents, and straight-up break everything and everyone. Berserkers are people of pure destruction. Much more of a loner than the Savage or the Fighter, they don't belong anywhere outside of combat.

I'll make sure to show off one more character class this week: The enigmatic shape-shifting Chameleon. After that however I'll need more time to finalize the last one that has made it to a playbook, as it is unique enough to need some careful planning. Stay tuned.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Charlatan and the Nomad

The Charlatan was a bit of a late addition to my customized class, before I narrowed down the really weird classes to the two monstrous types I'll be showcasing last.

To increase their distinction from the Scavenger, I kept all the roguish social abilities from the Trickster and them some, resulting in a lying, swindling conman. Even with the Advanced moves pulled from other classes like the the Spy and Ranger it's not a strong class in combat, but a very strong manipulator once back in whatever settlements pass for civilization.

Update: After four play sessions with the Charlatan, we conceded that the Smoke Bomb was just too situational, had partial success consequences that hindered strategic usage, and was just too creatively narrow for what the player wanted to do. Distracting Lure was the result of

The Nomad, like the classic Barbarian it was lifted from, is an in-your-face reckless alternative to the Fighter or Cavalier. They're built to be more aggressive and hit harder, essentially rolling +1 towards any action while 'pursuing impulses'; the impulses mostly involve crushing skulls but that's mostly what you want the party savage to pursue in the first place. There's not a lot of pretense to this archetype, but it's right at home in the urban wastelands.

And as promised, here's a bit of an info dump to identity some key points of contexts to know about my custom-made setting:

-This world is set thousands of years- if not hundreds of thousands of years- in the future. How much time as passed or even if this is Earth itself is not clear.

-Human societies have regressed to a perpetual dark age. Civilization no longer exists outside of a few isolated city-states. Written language, civil institutions, centralized governments, even money and trade is uncommon among the scattered settlements of humanity.

-The entire world was urbanized before civilization collapsed. Entire continents were effectively paved over with a network of water/power infrastructure and a layer of transit lines and foundations. Many regions have been razed down to this level but there are still numerous abandoned cityscapes, tens of thousands of square miles in size. In fact only truly bare landscapes are mountain peaks, some exposed continental sea shelves, and recent or artificially-created deserts.

-Earth’s oceans have been partially evaporated/extracted, leaving sea levels around 3500m lower than modern levels and most continental shelves exposed.

-Green plants are extinct in the wild. There are no trees and most traditional flora consists of red/purple mosses and vines. Agriculture still exists due to massive hydroponic blocks still in existence; many settlements are centered around maintaining these. The atmosphere is kept regulated by mile-high atmospheric processors, ceaselessly pulling carbon out of the air and reintroducing other gasses and temperature balances.

-Now fragmented and malfunctioning, past civilizations’ pinnacle of technology was an augmented reality network. Interconnected with hologram projectors, matter converters, powerful Artificial Intelligences (Machine Intellects), and vast knowledge banks delivered directly into the brain, it is still largely powered by self-maintaining renewable energy generation. The system is still partially controllable using mental commands and gestures, via artificial genetic code found in the human genome.

-The majority of surviving species of biological megafauna are descended from genetically-altered human stock. The rest are mostly biomechanical hybrids, autonomous machines, and artificial creatures designed and replicated by machine-intellects. Also, lots of niches filled out by rats and roaches.

-The largest ecumenopolitan landscapes are habitation blocks and hydroponics farms, in various states of compromise and decay. Many are capped with wind/solar farms, radio towers, terraforming machines, and other forms of power collection and resource storage, where additional levels of civilization have built their cities. The most dangerous parts of the ecumenopolis are the partially-intact substructures; major infrastructural faults result in flooding, hazardous gasses, and erratic tech-magic aberrations.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Gunslinger and the Warlord

I finally get to showcase the Gunslinger, which I'm glad was present in the Dungeon World Compendium as so many fantasy RPGs are allergic to firearms. In my setting's case, they're still available but are either slow and expensive (in the case of recently-made crude guns) or extremely expensive ancient weapon. A class centered around the possession of a unique gun is a good way to get around the medieval motif of firearms being powerful but very rare. In the case of the Gunslinger, their gun is an atypical artifact with several special features that nobody else knows how to use.

The class is obviously a take on the wild west outlaw, but here it ends up feeling like a ranged version of the Fighter (the standard weapon-focused one from the rulebook) with a set of personal edicts that also gives it a strong Paladin feel. I just wish I could find artwork examples that weren't either straight-up cowboys, post-apocalyptic raiders, or just tacky steampunk cosplay.

I ended up including the Warlord mostly on a whim, partly due to how little needed to be redesigned and partly for another combat-focused player option but one focused around hirelings, which is often overlooked in most campaigns. Despite the low populations in most settlements, being able to rally them together for a common cause should make for climactic battles.

While i'm at it, I should go over some of the items I revised for this setting, especially the armor options. A lot of characters included fantasy-specific racial food items, which inspired me to rename them:

Bluesmoke: Also known as magik smoke, or tek smoke (or tek-magik smoke?), it's made using self-igniting mechanical components within a metal pipe. You get a bonus to Parley with when you share some bluesmoke with someone.

Hulder Mead: The wild Hulder tribes are skilled in brewing strong drinks meant for all-night festivities. You can open a keg and share it to celebrate your recent victories for a Carousing bonus. Or you can keep it all for yourself and get extremely drunk.

Demiurge Hardtack: Easy-to-carry, difficult-to-chew travel rations, containing all the nutrition of human food without any of the flavor.

For some reason, lighting options were left out of the rulebook; I assume the Adventuring Gear isn't meant for this as you'd be expending uses just to pull a candle or torch each time you enter an underground ruin.  I may modify the starting equipment to include torches, candles, lamps and electric lanterns, or just provide some for free when the players first set out.

Since I felt the original armor options were too derivative of modern RPGs, I revised them with a flair of verisimilitude, while keeping in line with the light ruleset. The most common armors that are still produced and traded in the wastelands:

Padded, Leather: This mainly includes gambesons woven from various linens and wool (some settlements maintain hydroponic gardens which produce hemp or flax-like materials, otherwise animal or even human hair is a common material). For hunter-gatherers, rawhides are typical while  padded leather vests and coats are often made in communities living off of tended animals (or plain old cannibalism!). Hardened leather and full suits of leather are an expensive and very rare use for such material. Armor value: 1

Scale Mail: Scrap metal plates linked together into various armor components. This is a cheap option for solid full-body protection, as steel is an easy material to find and shape. It is not so easy to move around in and can be exhausting to wear over time. Armor value: 2

Chain Mail: A more expensive improvement over scale mail, chain links are crimped together into a tightly-woven mesh. Typically made into a knee-length long-sleeved vest known as a hauberk. It is less clumsy than scale armor. Armor value: 2

Plate Mail: A full suit of metal carefully shaped and fitted to the wearer's body. The best protection and most expensive option. Armor value: 3

Next time I'll try to share share some more general world information to hopefully pinpoint down what kind of setting I'm going for by making this an urban dying earth fantasy.

Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: the Cavalier and the Technomancer

As a consequence of civilization not existing in this setting (outside of a few insular despotically-ruled cities), organized religion is not a prominent aspect in the world. It didn't make sense to include Cleric or Paladin character classes without divine powers, so I intended to simply leave them out of the original six or seven core classes I was converting.

Once I was pointed towards the Dungeon World Compendium, and all its classes designed by Peter Johansen, I set about re-integrating those roles under the guise of techno-magical and preternatural talents.

The Cavalier is a skilled guardian and well-trained steward, most likely to have previously been in the service of a town's elite guard, or now protecting the last survivor of an ruling family. Whereas the Fighter reflects more of a lone mercenary or isolationist warrior. I salvaged the Paladin's move Quest in order to give the Cavalier a proactive goal in addition to the designation of one party member as their protected 'ward'. In a way it made the Cavalier feel more like a wandering Samurai to me than a strictly medieval knight; I adjusted the starting chose of weaponry a bit to reflect this isn't a world of one traditional culture.

The Technomancer is the other big spell-caster of this setting, based upon the Shaman class and a good chunk from the Cleric too. Although greatly similar to the Spell-Coder, I would summarize their differences in two key ways:

1) Stylistically speaking, the Technomancer learns to call upon technology in a very ritualized and impassioned manner, relying upon totems and material components just as much as the specific phrases and gestures Spell-Coders memorize. They're more of a primitive tech-spirit medium counterpart to the Spell-Coder's austere armchair studies.

2) To reflect the above in game mechanics, Technomancers use their Wisdom stat when rolling to perform spells; Spell-Coders use Intelligence. They also gain new spells at different rates; while both prepare one spell plus an additional spell per level at a time, the Technomancer can chose from any in the entire list according to their level bracket. Spell-Coders only start off with three in their book, but gain a new one each level (in addition to any they acquire and copy during their adventures).

The default appearance options are meant to exemplify these difference, which should help paint the image of Technomancers as machine-idolizing shamans apart from the eccentric scholarly Spell-Coders.

"Just how many classes did you customize," you ask? Good question. The total is sixteen, so I have another eight to show off. Stay tuned.