Treasure Trove: Palladium Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles

This one started as a talk about the Palladium Book of Weapons and Assassins. As I was writing it I found it was a little too short and covering it wouldn't make an article I would really be happy with. That said, that book was deeply influential to how I play a Thief so it's coming but it will probably be covered along with the Legend of 5 Rings: Courts of Stone.

 So this week we're gonna talk about a couple of books from palladium, The Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles along with a book that is technically already a part of the first, Weapons, Armor, and Castles of the Orient. I think these two should be together because the first book has very little in the way of Chinese or Japanese fortifications. 

This book is a bit of a product of its time and isn't entirely historically accurate. As always with Palladium we're gonna keep in mind that it's a little dated in some of its claims and we're looking at this not for historical accuracy or correct claims about certain groups, but for the toys within.  

Boy howdy, do these books give you a lot of toys. Despite the book only containing really 3 things, weapons, armor, and castles, there are quite a few things I wanna talk about, so enough rambling, its time to dive in!

Weapons: Okay this is gonna feel like kind of a no brainier but bear with me. This section of either book shows a lot of illustrations of weapons. An important part of the game we all love, flavor is free, so use it! your short sword can take on a hundred different appearances, same with your axe! Your hand ax is a thrusting axe! Your club is an ornate New Zealander style club! your two-handed sword is an executioner sword! As a player, the weapons of DCC are generic for a reason, here is that reason! As a Judge, I would be elated if a player wanted to tell me their short sword was a gladius style sword or their dagger was a krambit. Hell, I would even offer little bonuses for adding a little flavor. I will say, I wish the section on swords was a little longer or had more illustrations in it but we get plenty of illustrations later. 

 Exotic Weapons:  Technically under "weapons" but I really wanted to highlight this section because it offers good illustrations and a chance to pull something out of here and surprise your players a bit. Give them a weapon they can't pick up and use right away but if they spend time training they might have that same surprise later. 

 Polearms: Okay, I know, another one covered under "weapons" already but hear me out! the polearm in DCC is a single entry in the book, one line of text. Say it with me: Flavor is free. That single line of text with a price tag gives you so much freedom, polearms are such a diverse branch of weapons, why not take a moment to pick one and have some fun with it? 

Armor: This section is less detailed in explanation that the weapons section but makes up for it with a huge number of illustrations. It really gives you a lot of room to explore what "half plate" could mean. Maybe your "chain mail" is actually sewn into cloth and padded to lessen noise like a ninja? Maybe you wear an armored coat instead of scale? My favorite part of the lack of descriptions of equipment in DCC is that it gives your freedom to describe things how you want to, so use that freedom and say your character is wearing a set of lamellar plates on soft leather as scale mail, that distinction might save your life later! This section also has a small section on shields that I wish was a little longer. I love shields, I just think they are neat, and just think maybe more attention should have been given here.

Castles: The fortifications covered are diverse and range from simple to complex. These have real potential to be something a Judge might see as inspiration for the local lord's keep, a dungeon, or something else. As a player, if you're interested in building a fort or get some land as a quest reward, look to some of the simpler fortifications. This is full of illustrations but I will say that some really interesting looking castles are spared only a single picture and I really think we should have seen more of some of these. 

Now the second book, Weapons, Armor, and Castles of the Orient, we're gonna just cover this one quick because it is a short little book. 

Weapons: Much like the other book, this one shows you a good selection of weapons from across many parts of asia, not just Japan and China. It has plenty of illustrations and has a little more room to talk than the crowding of the other book.

Armor: Just glad to see that we get more coverage of eastern styles of armor in the form of illustrations and details of how it works. It was lacking in the other book and I'm glad to see it covered better here.

Castles: This is a great section! Completely left out of the other book, we get details of Chinese and Japanese fortifications showing off castle towns and other things. I would have liked to see something from outside of these two regions but it is a short book so we'll try to be forgiving. A lot of great illustrations and short blurbs to inspire. 

 

While writing this I went back and changed it several times, picking and choosing which books to write this about. Palladium is a system I have a lot of love for but talking about it can be hard. They are older books, they come with some problems, and are written in a way that it is hard to talk about one without including others. I'm probably gonna bring it up a few more times in future articles, I have a long history with it. It was my home system for decades until DCC and all its derivatives came along. There are real gems in there. Just like I often say, look at other games and find the pieces to bring back to your home system.

 If you're here at all, thank you for reading! I'm grateful that I have readers to share this kind of thing with. I hope you got something from this and are interested in finding these books to dig through, my suggestion would be to start with a google search for the pdf with the book title, I'm sure it is out there, I believe that Uncle Kevin makes them available.

Freeform spells

     About this time last year I saw a post over on 19 Sided Die about freeform magic and building spells with lists of words. At the time I recall seeing a few people talking about doing that. In the past I've used Knave 2e to roll out names of spells and write them as DCC spells, like Animate Lump and Honey Cage. It's a pretty good exercise to get used to writing your own spells and if you home brew, I think you should give it a shot!

    Something else that post did was make me realize what I wanted to do for one of the Hodas Classes. One of my goals for the Hodas Zines is to make 3 class options for every race that still feel like they belong to that race, just different parts of it. The Fury, at the time, only had one version. So I home brewed out something with one of my players and we rolled some things on the Knave 2e table. The basic idea of the class was that you knew a few words in the language of the scribes who created the universe. This sort of "true speech" allowed you to tap into the leftover threads of creation and create magical effects. So a Fury Speaker became a class who traded the martial power of the fury for something more abstract, a system of magic that was a little more free form but much more consistent. They gained a limited number of words and I worked with the player to make the magical effects of each of their words. To give you an idea of what we did with our rolled words I'll share the player's list and what we decided together each of the effects would be!

 The Fury Speaker Niobe had the following words in her arsenal: Star, Sizzling, Thorn, Knot, Fish, Ox, Dazzling, & Leaf.

Niobe was only 2nd level and could only string together a maximum of  2 words for her magical effect.

 Sizzling: This was a short range attack that dealt a small amount of damage and burnt the target a little bit.

Knot: Tongue ties the target, making casting and speaking a little more difficult.

Thorn: Conjured a small weapon, comparable to a short sword

Star: Created a light source similar to a torch for a short time, could be carried and handed off.

Sizzling Star: A brand is placed on a target that deals damage each round, touch required.

Thorn Ox: Conjured a beast of burden measured in turns. small amount of HP, not able to fight.

Star Knot: Created a star shaped knot on bindings or rope, needs an int check to untie.

Dazzling Star: Creates a bright point of light that blinds and distracts.

Ox Leaf: creates a herb that, when consumed, adds +2d to a single strength check.

 

These are only a few examples of what Niobe's player came up with and I can only imagine what would happen when she got her ability to string together a third word. Maybe she would have had "Fish Leaf" create a coat of scales. Maybe she would have created "Sizzling Ox Knot" as a form of strong binding that deals damage while tying up foes. 

 

It turned out to be a class that required a lot of working directly with the player who had the class and I personally would be a little careful with allowing or make it clear with the player that they need to have a good number of chains worked out before the game starts. Running it made me realize that freeform spells like this should come with a disclaimer about how to manage this type of casting. I think when the Fury Zine comes out this is gonna be a section that has a lot of that zine is gonna be a little long with it's list of words and disclaimer. 

Blog Graveyard Vol 4: Dead Cyclops

     This time on the Blog Graveyard we're gonna talk about Dead Cyclops! MadMoses ran this blog from 2014 all the way until 2020! The blog isn't entirely in English and I won't lie, I can't tell if my translator is working or if the blog uses more than one language. Either way there is a LOT of content here. They cover DCC and Dungeon World stuff but any OSR stuff is always transferable or at least good for inspiration. 

    Something he did that I kinda dig is guest posts. Not every post is from MadMoses himself! Some are from other writers and creators who came and did posts. Something I think is really cool and maybe might think about in the future. 

 

    Dead Cyclops brings us monsters, dungeons, tables, and more! As always with these entries, I'm gonna share a few things I liked over there and hopefully get you to check them out! We're 4 issues deep on this series, you know what I'm gonna do next!

 

Last Resort Menu: This is a d30 table for a tavern or inn's food that can get a little weird. It provides some really weird things that will make any tavern table feel just a little off. He includes effects and side effects of the food when appropriate.  Fun table to whip out on occasion just to keep your players on their toes.

 

Crystal Crypt of Zhool: Possibly fitting because this is the last post on the blog. This is a short adventure that includes excellent art and not a ton of prep. It suggests characters of levels 3-4 and I would probably use a third level party if I ran it. It can probably be hammered out in an evening, maybe a short 3-4 hour sessions depending on the party. Its free, the link to dropbox still works at the writing of this post, check it out! 

 

Twisted and Bloated Ghosts: This one is just a simple monster entry. I love unique monsters. I should really roll up a few more to share... but here are a couple of unique ghosts that could throw your players through a loop, not just A ghost but unique ghosts. I really like that he doesn't just cover the stats but a bit about them, how to adjust them, and weaknesses.  

 

Soul of The Serpent King: Another adventure, this one also pretty short and meant for level 2 characters. You could beef up the level and have less characters pretty comfortably. What I really love about the adventures is the art! this one makes use of black and white illustrations that use a single color for accenting that really make them pop. The adventure itself is good, another one where you can run it in an evening and place it as needed. The encounters feel dangerous but interesting. 

 

Absorber Imp: Okay, it's another monster. I know it's not the most creative name but sometimes monsters are hard to name. I mean, look no further than my own blog and you'll see names like Steam-Blood of the Sandbars, Bones of balance, or The Red Promise. The name is not always the most important part and really, should your players even learn the monster's name in the first place? What I'm saying is look deeper than the name and you see this is a cool little monster that has a real chance to be annoying and interesting to encounter. As a bonus you have a rules for how they behave as familiars!

 

    Overall Dead Cyclops feels like a genuine fan sharing the things they made out of love for the games they play. The content is varied and a lot of it feels like another Judge sharing the stuff they made to use at their table. This one has been on my list for a while but I don't go back to it very often, not because I don't like the content but because I just forget it is there. This post was a nice trip back through some stuff I really enjoyed discovering back in the day. I really think you should go check them out!

 

As always, thanks for reading my stuff! I hope you find something here you can take back to your table, even if it is just as inspiration! 

Magic Staff: Saint Aldrin's Crook

 

Via Heromachine

Saint Aldrin’s Crook

Body: Rose wood

Core: Holy water

Binding: silver rods inserted

Runes: Necromantic

Odd Feature: signs of resistance, force etchings

Cosmetic effect: Always looks pristine and polished

Length: 70 inches

Rosewood: Attacks from undead or other sources of negative energy deal half damage to the bearer and saves against such sources are at +1d

Holy water: Staff may be used to consecrate area around itself by planting it into the ground and praying over it. No undead of 5hd or less may approach. Undead of greater than 5HD must make a DC 20 Morale Check

Silver: when wielded as a melee weapon against undead and creatures effected by silver damage is at +2d

Necromantic runes: disruptive to undead, may make a ranged attack up to 90’ that deals 2d5 to undead

70 inches: Staff always detects as lawful, higher planar creatures see the bearer as ally (law) or enemy (chaotic)

    
The man who would later go on to become “Saint Aldrin” started his life as a shepherd. He lived simply in a small village with her herd and his family. Unfortunately this came to an abrupt end when a vampire count and his undead hoard swept through the village, consuming and slaying his friends, family, and neighbors to the last. He alone escaped being slain when a lone adventurer in the village, a silvered knight dedicated to the temple gave his life for Aldrin’s. This event seeded the rest of his life, Aldrin dedicated himself to the same temple and grew to not hate the undead but pity them, recognizing that they are cursed and wretched things, denied the gift of a proper end. In his adult life Aldrin grew into a holy man who would lead many crusades against powerful undead who had grown their armies a little too large and claimed a little too much. His death came naturally, he died old and in his own bed, surrounded by holy men, crusaders, and friends he had made in life. When he was laid to rest in a tome it is said that the heavens themselves watched over him.

Champions of Tibault vol 10

     The Big Tussle is one of my favorite NPCs who came as a result of a PC playing a villain. Way back in the first campaign I ran a one shot to have the PCs be the villains of the battle for the druid grove, to let me feel out how the villains would be fighting and handling the PCs. The Big Tussle was from the prototype of the Pit Fighter class. She was played as a blood thirsty brawler who sought out bigger and bigger fights. The player had a potion that turned the imbiber into a dire bear, she shoved that into the mouth of a bear, hoping it would turn the bear into something more manageable. Then she killed the direbear. after that game I kept that one in my back pocket as a villain for later.

    I also got to play around with some multiverse stuff. Silver Star is actually a character from an old Heroes Unlimited game, the house of legacy is the result of a player basically making her own version of justice league unlimited. I have long since tabled that system and setting but I still like to use it in the event of multiverse stuff.  

 

 

Session 10:

Egrat hired some people to go harvest the wood from the talking tree, determining that it was time for him to start to make a wizard’s staff. While this was happening Pheadrus summoned the party to his office in the arena. They answered quickly to remain in the wealthy minotaur’s good graces. Pheadrus wanted them to rob Wounded Animal. They accepted before even hearing the terms. They would need to find where his secret stash is and steal it, keeping it for themselves and leaving him with nothing to cover his debts, which the rest of the city’s high rollers could then call and bankrupt the evil Featherfolk.

The party sought out a former body guard of Wounded Animal, The Big Tussle, and found her in a bar known as the broken sword. She demanded Egrat as her price. Him as her slave. Naturally the party refused and employed every trick they could think of to battle her. The Big Tussle seemed to be ready to fight mages, having featherfolk on hand with guns to wake her up if put to sleep. A one woman wrecking crew, she smashed her way through the party, even when magic was used to grow Witherbone to make him more dangerous she didn’t even flinch as she stabbed a table leg into his now massive eye. Talshu, always ready with an ace, called on the architect and spent luck to push the limits of her invoke patron roll. She was whisked away along with those members of the party who were still conscious and The Big Tussle, to the house of legacy. In the house of legacy they met this woman of silver who may have been a fury known as Silver Star. She was instantly casual and friendly until Big Tussle threatened her. Silver Star laughed it off until Big Tussle broke her nose and made Silver Star question how that happened before using unnatural powers to drain the energy from Big Tussle and send her off to unconsciousness. Finally, The Architect arrived and explained he would be keeping Big Tussle in the house of Legacy and giving her something called “Therapy” which he assured them was a fitting punishment. They were sent back to Tibault where they had been taken from, healed and whole. 

Meanwhile Egrat has been unconscious and the featherfolk working for Big Tussle had put him in chains and dragged him off to her tent, assuming that she would still want him as a slave. In no condition to resist or free himself, Egrat accepted his fate for now, hoping to regain his strength and find a way out. Fortunately this was not needed as the party showed up and broke him free before anyone was any the wiser.

 

Monster: Dhakaron's Scourge

     I love rolling up some details about a monster and just letting it tell its own story as I work out how all these pieces fit together. I love doing this with a friend even more. Usually I drag my partner into that and we have a great time doing that. there is something nice about sitting down and doing a die drop town or working out a monster or story together at the table. This time, I dragged another person into it! Going by the handle Wargles, he's a great writer and this time we sat down, rolled out the monster, and discussed the details of how the pieces fit together. Then we both took our notes back to our home systems and wrote this thing out, him in D&D 5e and myself in DCC. That is how we got this week's post. I really recommend this, it's fun to work out the details with someone else and have someone to bounce stuff off of. 

I'm actually relieved to get one of these shorter posts out this week, I've been working on a project lately that is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Good news in the direction of the Hodas Zines, keep an eye out for more news on that front. For now, here is my version of the monster I rolled up with a friend. 

 

Dhakaron's Scourge 

Treasure Trove: The Index Card RPG

 Okay, I know I just did one of these but there has been a bit of talk about rules from other systems lately and it got me digging through other games for see what I've plundered over the years for the games I run, so forgive me for making two treasure trove posts in a row.

 

The Index Card RPG from Runehammer is a really simple, really good system that has a lot of pieces and parts that can be used in other games, it even expects you to borrow and steal from it's rules. I personally have never actually played it but I have read through the rulebook dozens of times and thought about how clean this game is, how much good stuff is built into it. So without any further babble, my pilfered treasures from The Index Card RPG!

 

Weapon Tags:

In the equipment section there is a small list of weapon tags. Its short but it comes across really clean. I've used this to apply directly to DCC weapons, Heroes Unlimited Weapons, and even ninjas and super-Spies. I think it is a really good table to consult to just have something ready to make some weapons feel unique without making them outright magical or even just apply across all weapons to add a little bit of nuance back into weapon choices. Some people, myself included, really liked that older editions of D&D or Pathfinder did this and had weapons with different properties and this is a great way to include them in a more rules light way than some systems.

 

The Oath:

This is a sort of Judge/GM/DM/Storyteller/Admin's code. It says some good things, and other parts I don't really agree with. 

• I will let the torrent flow basically encourages you to write down anything and everything that you think is interesting, and run with your own version of it. I love this dearly and think it is great advice.  
• I will remember everything, I have beef with. The Judge should know the rules well and be able to make calls in the moment, the DCC book says "rulings not rules" which means that the game isn't about knowing everything flawlessly, it's about knowing enough to make a ruling in the moment and keep gameplay flowing. this book would have you making bullet points, memorizing sections and sources, which I really don't click with.  
• A world from their actions covers the world building around the players and their actions. It tells you to build very little world until the PCs do something, which I love deeply. I run a setting that breathes and lives and moves on without the players but none of that is ever seen by the players unless they interact with it, which is the heart of the matter. The only stuff that really matters in the moment of play is what is around the PCs or what they interact with, which can still be far reaching, even if they cant see it.
• I will be poetic is basically saying that you will feel for the actions of the players. Your world will react appropriately to the party's actions, their failures, their successes, the crimes they commit, the deeds they complete. Love this. A world should react realistically to the players actions. If the PCs roll through every town threatening people and demanding the small folk kiss their boots, then the world should appropriately react, not everyone is going to kneel and say "yes sir". This is deeply important to the storytelling integrity, in my opinion.
• I will be energetic covers saying you need to come to the table with some fire. You are where the story flows from and everyone's energy feeds off yours. I couldn't agree more. The Judge is the source of the story's flow and the source of energy everyone at the table is looking at, the game dies if you come to the table with no energy.
• I will lift them up and vanish is an excellent section, it tells us that the story isn't about you and the things you have carefully crafted, it's about the PCs. The heroes of the story, or at least the protagonists if they aren't really heroic. You should be invested in their success, your NPCs, locations, dangers, villains, all exist as stepping stones for the PCs to tell their story, a story you very much are a part of and get to have little twists and bends in.
•  A beacon of camaraderie mentions that sitting around the table with mugs and telling a story is one of the oldest hobbies on earth and you are part of a tradition now that stretches back as far as human language. We are here for friendship, teamwork, love, and togetherness. Always remember that. I often say one of the most important parts of the game to me, isn't even the game. It is breaking bread with friends. I love that the games bring me and the people I care about together. This ties back into my feelings of disconnect from playing online but even without the act of breaking bread, we are here for each other, to tell a story, to come together.
• I will be a terror to behold is possibly my favorite part of the oath. You want the PCs to succeed, yes, but you also want them to earn it. You are rooting for them but you will lay deadly traps at their feet, scheme, and plot their downfall, hoping they will overcome and triumph. This sections tells you to be a brutal teacher but forgiving and a little sadistic at the same time. Remember though, this is about how you treat the characters, not your friends... well maybe your friends a little. At the table I like to prod and maybe influence things a little, encouraging people to maybe make questionable choices from my position as Judge to stir up a little drama in the story we're telling. Sometimes they fall for it, sometimes they see through my schemes. 

 

Ending a Session, The Tribunal:

The end of a session is something near and dear to my heart. I am used to games in person, where we would hang out for another maybe hour or two after the game had ended to just talk, catch up on things, discuss our other hobbies, and talk about what just happened in the game. I have a very important post game ritual that signals the end of a the night and something similar to what they talk about in this book. It is important to me to hang around after the session and shoot the shit. This is one of those things that I feel is a little lost in this era of games played online, the session ends and people dip quickly. Maybe I'm just struggling to keep up with the times but I wish with all my heart that I could run games in person again.

Honorable mention in this section: Improv details, plan big stuff. I really run by this and think it is super important, have your big city with its named sections but don't bring it to life until the players interact with it and improv in the moment for that.

 

Dynamic Dice:

I'll admit this one is a little harder to implement in a digital format, my partner has had some ideas about this I'm going to bring into the next game I run. The idea behind this one is great and what I love about it is that, really it only matters at lower levels, so it helps mitigate some of that lower level time spent doing nothing on your turn. It introduces Battle Fury, Spellburn (which i call Arcane Feedback), & Dogpile. The idea behind these is that you place a die in front of you with the 1 up. each round, based on what your die represents, you gain a benefit. Battle Fury sees you placing a d6 in front of your character sheet. each time you miss you move the die up one facing and add that to your attack and damage rolls. Love this because there is nothing more boring than showing up to play and doing nothing all night because you can only miss. Magical Feedback I don't run as the book says at all. Instead I have a caster place a d4 in front of them with the 1 up. they add that to their spell checks. each time they succeed in casting a spell, increase it by 1. when it reaches 4, they have to make a roll under check on their spellcasting ability score or lose access to spellcasting for 1d4 rounds. Dogpile I run as Second Wind, Allowing a character in melee to regain some hitpoints over rounds of combat when their d4 reaches a 4, increased each round they take some damage.

 

Timers, Threats, and Treats:

To me, this section is just good Judge philosophy. Timers talks about the use of dangers as a timer, things like rising lava, goblins arriving in X rounds, or similar dangers to put the pressure on. Threats talks about the danger that they face in a given moment, the trap, the monster, the puzzle. Treats isn't about treasure but talks instead about solutions to challenges, things like a dragon missing a single scale, a boulder that makes for a devastating hazard the players could push down on an enemy, things of this nature. Together you have a really good guide for encounter and dungeon design that is laid out in an easy to understand way and really will improve how encounters feel to you and your players.

 

 

Tables:

If you have been here a while you know I love a good table to reference or roll on. The back of this book collects many of the tables in the book to one convenient place for your use but also has some that aren't present elsewhere in the book. It makes for a good section to open to and roll things quickly. Locations & Goals are great little tables for pulling something up as a quest for it moment. Monster Roller is a collection of tables that will give you something you can work with to make a monster and have its general attitude. I have things I prefer for actually making a monster but I really like this table for on the fly. Loot is a collection of tables divided into Ancient, Shabby, Cursed, Sci-Fi, Epic, & Bizarre. I find this section is good for on the fly loot the rules for items are in Index Card RPG terms but it is such a rules light system it is easy enough to convert on the fly with only minimal understanding of what the rules are.

 

    I want to close this one out by saying that I really love the ICRPG. In my hands it is a toolkit to bring to other games. But realistically that is every game to me, I am always saying on this blog to try other games and find pieces to take away. The system of ICRPG itself is really simple, really clean, and honestly looks like a lot of fun. I've seen people playing it in one of the game stores I used to frequent. It lends itself well to storytelling over crunch while still keeping good stakes. If you are interested to see what else this book might have for you, i encourage you to check them out. They even have a quick start rules for free on their website!

 

As always, thank you for reading my stuff. I'm always hoping to hear back from people and hear about their experiences and ideas. I really appreciate those of you who swing by for any reason. Hopefully next week we will be back with another monster, magic item, short story, or more of our regular content.