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.

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. 

 

 

 

Old School Treasure Troves: 1st edition PHB

 It has been a while since I did one of these. I'm trying to get back into a rhythm of regular posts and I figured this would be a good series to continue.

Original printing cover 

 

    So lets talk about the book in question, The 1st edition players handbook. Okay I know that technically this isn't the first edition, and that this is AD&D, and it is not exactly the actual first edition, but for the sake of this post, I'm just going to use 1st edition as short hand.

    The book itself is kinda hard to get these day but there was a re-print that might be easier to get. As with the last book I discussed there are free versions out there, stripped of formatting and pure text that you can find. This books is full of tables and other useful things to pull out on the fly or have as a reference no matter what edition or system you're playing. I wanted to highlight some useful things I really like about this book. I want to mention that this book was written a while ago, it has some dated takes and it is worth remembering how old this book is and the time it was written in. I just wanted to mention that because even something written a long time ago will have something you can take away and use at your table. I say this all the time here and to anyone who talks to me about games, it is always worth reading or playing other games because even if you hate it, you'll find something to take away. So lets hop into it!

 

Reprint cover

 The monk: starting on page 30 of the original printing, The monk from this edition has heavily influenced how I think of monks. They have such an interesting spread of abilities that includes some healing, thief skills, and are pretty good in combat. What I have always deeply loved about this monk is that their late level progression is tied to their ability to overcome other monks of higher level in honorable duels in order to claim their title and gain new mystic powers. I've always loved that and the version of the DCC monk I love the most has all these elements.

 

 Equipment section: Starting on page 35 of the original printing we have a smallish equipment section that covers kind of a lot of things that the DCC book doesn't. Things like cost of clothing, provisions, transport, and livestock. I still find myself referencing this often as I need costs for odds and ends that are not part of the usual equipment list I keep on hand.

 

The Adventure: a small section on page 101 of the original print, it talks about adventure in towns, underground, and in the wilderness. It is a short section with a short article on each of these. Talking about things that help with running in those environments, things to prep for, and how to run those types of adventures.

 

Psionics: this section starts on 110 of the original print. It lays out how you get psionic powers, the odds of having them, what powers you get. It is a little clunky, and these powers are rare, as they should be. It takes an act of god to end up with them and even then, you might not have much going on. I love psionics, one of my favorite supplements for DCC that I've never gotten to use is Mind Games. This section could, with some small effort, get rolled into the DCC rules at your table. I've thought about it many times but never really gotten to it, maybe in a future blog post.

 

Planes: This section starts on page 120 of the original print. I'll admit, I don't think this is immediately gameable but I've always loved this map of the planes.  It is simple but easy to take in. I just really wanted to talk about how much I like this section which gives a quick explanation of the planes.

 

Division of treasure: Starting on page 120, right after the planes, we have division of treasure. I really appreciate this section as a way of covering something that isn't often talked about at the table. Realistically, this is a non-issue, most people don't really need this. Most tables just talk to each other and distribute treasure however makes the most sense. However, this section does cover hirelings and henchmen who might want a cut of the treasure too.

 

This book, overall has some things I've always really liked. It has always been a reference tool I used in other games I ran, certainly through my 3.5 era and my time running 5e. I still use it as I run DCC these days and really do think that this book is a great example of an older book that still has useful in some way. As always, every book and system out there has something you can use, I hope that future posts in this series can share more books I've pulled things from over the years. I think in the future I will take the "Old School" title off this and open it up to other things I've found to be super useful like the Index Card RPG. Maybe that will be our next treasure trove we cover.

 

As always, thank you for reading I really appreciate that people want to read my stuff and see what I'm cooking up. I'm always eager to hear from you guys and know what you guys wanna see more of. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old School Treasure Troves: 1st edition DMG

 

If you’re here you’re probably at least passively aware of the 1st edition AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. It’s an old book that is kind of hard to get your hands on these days. There are some archived digital versions out there with the images and formatting removed to preserve them, and there was a reprint a while back. To me, this book has always been an important reference tool, even when playing other games. There is a lot here that can be useful. So I would like to talk less about this book as a whole, there are plenty of people who cover it in detail, and more just the parts that I find myself referencing often.

Plants

First up on this list is the herbs, spices and medicinal vegetables table. Found on page 220 we have a sizable list of plants and their uses or “powers”. This list is very hit or miss for accuracy, plenty of things listed here are correct and more than a few kill you if you consume them but are listed to have healing properties. Even with that, this is a good table to have on hand and reference in the moment. Yes, you could take a more comprehensive work and use that as a reference but why would you need to? At the table, in the moment of the game, not everything needs to be 100% accurate to real world equivalents and this table gives you something fast and easy to reference for this purpose. 

Gems

The next table I reference constantly, given the slightly magical nature of all gems in Hodas, Reputed Magical Properties of Gems. This one starts on page 26. It gives us a list of gemstones and minor magical properties affiliated with them. For example it claims agate grants restful and safe sleep, it claims a ruby brings good luck, and jade imparts skill with musical instruments. This table is a good leaping off point to decide the powers of a magical gem. In Hodas this table contributed heavily to a similar one that is used to reference the very real minor magical properties of the gems in the setting.

Potions

Another table I reference often is Potion Miscibility. This is a short section on page 119 that covers two scenarios: when two potions mingle, and when you drink a potion while under the effects of another potion. Especially for DCC this feels so right. A world where magic is chaotic and unpredictable and you just mingled two pieces of that unpredictable mess of magic? Be worried. This could result in an explosion that deals 6d10 damage, it could poison you, or it could make the effects of one of them permanent. There are some more robust versions of this table out there but this is the one I like, it’s short and it’s fast to move through.

NPCs

This next section is a whole lot of tables that start on page 237 and give you a whole lot of tables to generate an NPC. I typically use this one to make a character’s mentor or important NPC they might have picked up through the Tome of Levelup or declared they have from their time between levels 0 to 1. I have my own version of this on this very blog but I’m not entirely satisfied with it and have been working on a re-write. Until then, this section is a good reference point to give a whole lot of information about someone and it’s seen a lot of usage at my table over the years.

Alignment Tongue

Alignment Tongue is something that it’s possible for a character to roll as a language in the DCC rules. It would be a fair assumption to say that it is simply the secret language spoken by agents of that alignment and then move on. What is presented in this book is a pretty detailed description of what this actually is and at my table we go by this description. The short version of it is that it’s basically a sort of thieves cant for an alignment. And just like thieves cant, it is limited in it’s applications. You will not be having long, fully detailed conversations about anything and everything in your alignment tongue. You will be able to establish things like intent, ask about hunger, and health but not much more. Speaking this to someone who you are not sure of their alignment can be messy. 

Descriptions

Something that is common in this book are tables of descriptive words. Things you can read once or twice but every time you do read it you’ll come away with another word to help bring your games to life. I am not ashamed to admit these tables expanded my vocabulary. There are sections of descriptive words for, gemstones, potions, dragons, dungeon dressings, hirelings, castles, and many more. This isn’t found on any one page. Most of these are scattered through the book in somewhat random places and others are near similar information. 

Economics

This last one might sound boring but hear me out! On Page 90 there is a discussion about economics framed around the context of PCs. It touches down on the fact that PCs bringing an influx of gold will flood the economy. It speaks to things that don’t get talked about often, taxes and trade. Why wouldn’t the local lord demand a cut of the money you pull from the dungeon that is in his lands? Why wouldn’t the PCs be charged a toll to cross a bridge along the way? It talks about a silver and copper based economy. These are all things that can matter as much or as little as you want them to and if you do want them to, this gives you a good starting point.

I could go on about this book for a long time and talk about tons of sections, but I wanted to keep this post connected to the tables and parts I use the most. There are so many other helpful pieces in it that can really bring some new ideas, or old ones, into your games. It’s one of my most used reference tools over the years. Are there parts that I don’t bother with? Yes! Tons of them! Even so, this is a great piece of reference material for any table and I strongly recommend looking at one of those archive preservation versions of this book.