So most of my C&T house rules are gone

Gaming Tavern went down permanently taking about 75% of my C&T material with it, spells ,creatures,cleric and about a 1/3 of the houserules....all gone!! No back up/ Feel like crap right now for not backing them up!!!! CRAP!!!!!!! Link to whats left in comments

Blog News: Please pardon the coming Mess/many posts coming next couple of days!!!!!!!!

Ok for many reasons I'm going to back up my Crypts and Things creative work here. Many,many posts coming for next D3 days I'm not going to " +2" them, so a lot of you might not see them, Sorry about this but my other options are all bad and my google fu is weak so I don't think I can get them on to my G+ account. Pardon the MESS!

Crypts and Things review part 2- The setting in the rule book

Review part 2 A brief look at the setting provided by rule book

When I had the Beta version only to go by I was unimpressed, felt skimpy and lacking depth, but on closer inspection, the setting is a perfect representation of EXACTLY fitting the rules.

It is extremely distopian as you would expect from a game with out clerics, paladins and alignment(where all PCs get "back stab") Very little in way of bits of DECENT civilization exists.The characters can easily be anywhere on what would be the alignment scale, defending the last bits of hope or summoning the foul denizens of darker dimensions. as you know I'm not much of a guy for spoilers but I came away very satisfied that the Continent of Terror will be able to hold my and my players atentionts for the remaining years I have of gaming life. I run epic battles against Darkness and my over arching 10 year gaming plan will need a little adjustment but that will be far easier than writing up a whole new world. Actually you only need to add the continent to your existing world and the PCs will HAVE to come from it.

THE BAD The setting information is split into 3 different sections, 2 for the players and one for the Keeper. Extreme spoilers are in the Keepers section, you would have to rely on the players to NOT look at Keeper info. The information being spread into 3 diff places will make it a little hard to reference. The Keeper section is FILLED to the BRIM with GREAT adventure hooks and encounters, it has been designed as a sand box and will fill that role very well, it gives me plenty of room to ADD my own overarching EPIC plot.

For Over all usefulness and creativity , I give it an A-( I would have like to see a TINY bit more on "good" places, easy enough to add), but for organization the setting info gets a "D", It's going to be a little cumbersome in actual play

(there may or may not be a part 3, review of the contained adventures, which take up a lot of page count. I am NOT a fan of moduels, just a personal preference)

Some more Crypts and Things musings......

Been thinking about Luck and Sanity in actual play, thinking maybe static 10 for Luck and min 10 wisdom . Luck is kinda really important and a lower wisdom could be CRIPPLING with Sanity rules, as I'm not planning on switching for at LEAST four months(campaign has to EVOLVE) four months , I've got lot's of time to think about it.

Preview of Sundered Worlds Recap 2

Ok planning on some sort of divine intervention on Monday. Laying out destiny of PCs and an out line of things to come in the following years. Join me as my thought process evolves on this through out(sorry you know by now my spelling fu is weak) today will be updating this post continuously if you want to wait come visit This on Monday

So Remastered has caused me to re think Sundered Worlds/Stolen world.....

Ok Remastered's rules are VERY closely aligned with the provided setting. I've decided that I'm going to use the"canned" world instead of creating my own. I've got to CRAM setting into my plans, At least it's easier than making new world.

I'm 56 years old and have been playing D&D since I was 17, 90% of the time I have been the DM. I have never EVER used somebody else's setting before. Brand new territory for me!

Crypts and Things Review

OK ,do you like OSR Rules?
Conan?
Lovecraft?
Are you prepared for a game without Clerics?
Still with me?
Then boy Oh boy do I have the game for You!
From D101 Games, written by Newt Newport
PDF is $13 from Drive through/Hard copies available directly from D101 Games
Powered by Swords and Wizardry (OD&D Clone)

You've got your standard 6 stats, with the addition of sanity and Luck

Sanity is very simple and elegant , covered by the wisdom stat

Luck is used for pretty much everything from spell saves to doing maximum damage in combat, again simple and elegant

The Game uses 4 core character classes, Barbarian, fighter,thief and sorcerers,
The balance between Barbarian, Fighter and Thief is a little iffy and I think most Keepers are going to want to fiddle w/ this, but only minor fix is necessary. Prob as simple as giving the fighter a few more "specializations" (Feats) but the thief is a little tougher fixer upper.You see EVERYBODY gets backstab (A part of the basic flavor of the game) and should not be changed. I think the fighters could have used a bit more spec's to pick from but this is an INCREDIBLY easy fix.
The sorcerer can cast white, grey or black magic. White and Black have different drawbacks , grey has none but is the weakest of the three, any sorcerer carrying his share of the adventuring load is going to want White(Cure spells, cleric y) and Black(fireballs n such) Very Very Very Nice!

A further bunch of character classes are closely tied to the setting provided
Beast Hybrid(Lycanthropy)
Disciple(monk like with white, black and grey subtypes)
Elementalist ( a more standard sort of caster than the sorcerer with it's own spell kist)
Lizard People
Serpent Noble( classic REH Serpent man)

Character creation is rounded out with many life events charts that help with RPING but are COMPLETELY tied to core setting

A brief version  of the setting is provided for players with an expanded section for Keepers

Large sections on Others(the demons of the setting and Serpent men and cool NPCs are followed by a very cool bestiary including many cool new creatures and some old favorites

The book has many many extras including a bunch of adventures(don't use canned adventures so didn't read them)
The art is nice and very flavorful, didn't notice ANY typo's or grammatical mistakes

I can sum it all up with the following sentence:
50%Conan/50% HPL , all OSR D&D, Tough to use without their world(which is pretty good)
Despite my problems here and there 5 out of 5 stars

POST 200 !!!!!! Bat Cave 2 (megadungeon)

You should read Batcave one and The Better recap of Sundered worlds first

Ok I don't plan on the main Dungeon part of 8-10+ year plan for Sundered Worlds/Stolen World campaign until the end. But through time travel the players will visit briefly once in a while. As of this writing there are 5 or poss 6 different main sections each of which will use a different rule set and different character sheets except for option area 6 all of the side areas are actually in pocket dimensions attached to the Bat Cave

The whole point of it  to stop the destruction of the universe in the Dungeon.

Phase 1 of the Campaign is set in the Sundered Worlds, as the universe collapses our hero's search for the dungeon and what does the Chinese Parade Dragon artifact have to do with it. This is using Pathfinder rules ,5th L Huge stone monoliths will be placed in the Stolen Wold , anchoring and  stabilizing the fragments of the remains of the universe.

Phase 2 a is their stranding in The Stolen World and the ongoing hunt for the dungeon. From this point on the main rule set I will be using is Crypts and Things( sometime around 4 - 6/17 is start)

Phase 3 is the exploration of the dungeon and the gradual revealing of the main villains and true motivations of various NPCs

THE BAT CAVE ITSELF

Main Center Section

The original construction is goblin and the the Kuthrii Empire's lifeboat against the end, this is by far the biggest section of the dungeon. PC's will be using Crypts and Things rules
as of this writing I am going to modify The published(not by me) Stone Hell dungeon series as a time saver. It will have to be HEAVILY modified. Surrounding the main area are 4 smaller sections that each will use a diff rule set

Area 1 Sphinx
This is a parody of a true 1974 old school dungeon,egyptian themed, the pc's have already spent 8 games exploring the future. The rules are heavily modified Swords and Wizardrys, they started at first and are now second

Area 2 The Baron
this section is the home to a classic Dracula. The rules will will be using will be custom D&D with character classes such as farmer, maiden or prince, the pc's will be given character overlays of their true(IE Pathfinder) selves,they will be inhabiting the bodies of other peeps and their personalities will blurr, they will always be first L, eventually they will learn how to trade bodies. . This is the next area to be previewed in a flash forward and it will happen soon. slight poss will use 25 point GURPS char's. This area will contain a  twon and teh Baron's Castle, poss this will be the very very end as they will have to face The Baron w 1st l chars

Area 3 The Tsan Chen
These are extremely powerful sorcerers who have fled here from their extinct time ling(they are breifly mentioned in HPLs writings) They have contol  of a gug(also HPL giant) city that is also here, rules will be pathfinder w original char sheets

Area 4 The Witch
done the least work on this, rules will be D&D 1e with my original skill sheet that I just found(It is more like feats) from 1981.

Optional area 6 the Dragon
This is detailed in the "Diff way to Dungeon Crawl" post, really trying to push myself to this but right now it's a maybe, either Pathfinder or more likely C&T would be used

Crypts and Things: The problem!

Ok, my finances took a nice up turn, I brokered a deal for $14,500 in Magic cards and came away with a NICE commission! So I have plenty of money for C&T now!!!!!!!! Now comes the decision. PDF or Print< or MAYBE BOTH! I could almost def get my wife to go along w both but I don't wanna play that card. I would rather have the print but I can buy PDF directly from D101 and they get all the money AND I get INSTANT satisfaction? I think the lure of PDF is too STRONG.

My "cleric" for Crypts and Things

Secret Priest of Hope

The god Hope is the sole remaining truly good god of C&T He is an ascended artifact/holy sword and appears as a gold glowing great sword. He has survived because his ultimate power was true, unending and absolute invincibility and immortality.This is the result of his being a real manifestation of the concept of hope, a spark of good that can never be extinguished. He has lost the vast majority of his power and only a tiny few of his servants survived with him(a very few avatars of holy great swords)


The Others are at this time  are only suspicious that Hope exists, it's just a question of time. It is your ULTIMATE goal that knowledge of Hope be kept from general knowledge.


He uses his meager power to give life to a very few covert clerics, holding on to the possibility of good triumphing ultimately, prob a doomed philosophy. Although LG , he has become a stark realist in his methods.(He has acquired Neutral tenancies).With the weakness of hope in the world, he is far far more limited in his abilities but not his goals.
Priests of Hope have the following abilities and restictions

In all ways they are sorcerers except as follows.

Their patron is automatically Hope and they may have no other.

They do not have spellbooks but do have all the limitations of number of spells known
They may learn spells from spellbooks in any way a sorcerer could

They have use of both great sword and long sword but as the great sword is a dead give away of who they are Hope suggests that they have their companions carry these and only use them in the direst of emergency
Like wise they may wear chain but it does nothing to further their disguise and is strongly advised against.

All of their white spells are actually grey.
They MUST know exactly ONE black spell and only one.There are no restrictions as to what it may be and it MUST be changed(IE Known) once a month. They may not use this spell if they are carrying a great sword or wearing chain mail. Public use of this spell is strongly advised.

The priests are FORBIDDEN from associating with one another, there thus may only be one in a party. Any gathering of priests can only be undertaken at the direct order of Hope.
At NO time may they preach the faith except under direct orders of Hope.

They suffer a -1 on Luck tests vrs magic and successful saves result in the loss of 2 luck points

The following new spells are automatically known to priests

Superior Magic Weapon(all spell levels)
summons spell L +1 magic great sword, this spell is never memorized and can be substituted for an appropriate level spell 3/ a week.

Dreamsend
L2 white(registers as grey)
This spell can freely be cast in your sleep it allows the sending of a 25 word message to Hope or to any one who you have cast Receive Dreamsend on. Receive Dreamsend is a varient of this spell and the spell must be memorized separately

Crypts and Things is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO close now!

Really, Really EXCITED!!!!!1 If The idea of an OSR game 50% Conan/50% HPL and all British old school of a very dark fantasy variety appeals to you, this is the game for you. DETAILED review is forthcoming.
One thing you need to wrap your head around is NO clerics(but they easily can be added)

Crypts and Things House rules are DONE!!!!!!!!!

Follow link in comments below!

OK got the link to work... sort of

If you clik on my G+ profile I posted the link to my C&T rules there, it should work

Crypts and Things Houserules

Remastered is very close to here!!! heres a link to my houserules
http://www.gamingtavern.eu/phpBB3testTHZ/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=5061