Post by Lost Wolf on Dec 20, 2018 15:50:56 GMT
Hello fellow Kai!
For a time I thinkered about what I call the Magnamund Mod, which is my take for playing tabletop RPG in the Lone Wolf universe using the 5e edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game.
I'm searching for feedback and to see if there are some people interested. And future playtesters of course.
My reasons (you can skip this)
I like the Lone Wolf rpg published by cubicle7, both because they're great lore-wise and it's a simple and fast ruleset. Me and my friends really enjoyed it, and I Game Mastered three of them through the first five gamebooks played as rpg adventures (they never read the books). It was quite an experience, mostly because the ruleset is fast and those books are the greatest from a playable adventure side.
But my current groups and me really really enjoy 5e, mostly because it's a very good middle point between a crunchy ruleset and a streamlined one.
So I'm currently trying to make something that captures the feels of the Lone Wolf gamebooks but uses the 5e ruleset, changing as little core rules as possible.
Main reason is that if players have experience with 5e then they have to learn very few new rules.
Core rules modifications
I really don't know if enough people here play D&D 5e, but the core rules are downloadable for free at the official website.
For those already in the know, here's the Magnamund Mod changes to the core rules.
Limited HP
Lone Wolf while becoming rather superheroic, still feels as a much more human hero than your average D&D character, mostly because damage is serious stuff and his reserve of Endurance isn't unlimited. Falling from a tower is a big deal, falling into lava is death, starvation and stress can hit him hard often.
To give this feeling into the Magnamund Mod, characters add their Constitution modifier only once at first level and never again (so NOT each level).
A human character starts at first level with 10 HP.
Leveling adds only 1 single HP per level to the character's maximum Hit Points.
Limited HP recovery (but still functioning mostly the same as per core rules)
Works as per normal core rules with short and long rests BUT
You only have one Hit Dice but you can roll it at the end of any short rest (basically you have unlimited reserve of dices but you are limited to rolling only one per short rest).
At the end of a long rest you do NOT recover HP or Hit Dices; instead you roll two Hit Dices, add two times your constitution modifier and recover the resulting HP.
Short rests can be taken only two times. You recover availability of short rests when you complete a long rest.
This modification of the rules uses a similar logic of the rule "you can benefit from long rests only one time every 24 hours" (unmodified core rules).
The idea is that it's still easy to recover HP on the short run (but a bit more limited), but it's much more difficult to recover all your "endurance" on the long run. To give the feeling that long journeys of perilous adventuring are real ordeals wearing out your characters up to their limits.
If you want to enhance this idea of "more fun in the next combat, but stay sharp for the long run" further, my suggestion is that the GM should be much more permissive with characters taking short rests (even a "we take our breath and try to gather our strenghts for 15 minutes" will suffice), but less permissive with long rests (sometimes Lone Wolf tries to sleep outdoors but the weather is so bad that not even a Kai Lord is able to recover at all).
Starvation
If your character does not feed for a whole day, you lose 3 HP and your HP maximum is lowered by 3 points.
Your HP maximum returns normal the first time you're able to eat a meal.
Simple to manage inventory
A very interesting thing that came out playing the Lone Wolf RPG is that managing the gamebooks inventory is fun and rewarding.
There is fun and satisfaction in having to choose what to carry with you as you progress in the adventure and what you (sadly) have to leave behind (yeah that shovel would have been useful, too bad).
Plus it adds a layer of gameplay to managing your food supplies, so that it isn't nothing more than a trivial or even annoying thing to keep track of.
Also avoiding weight calculations is very very good; it slows down gameplay for no fun, it doesn't stop a character from carrying 8 weapons or 5 quivers or a lot (a lot!) of stuff. And most players stop doing it anyway.
Model the inventory around the gamebooks inventory, but with a bit more reasoning.
BACKPACK
If you have a backpack you can stow into it items as per gamebooks (either 8 or 10).
Some big items take 2 or more backpack slots (a list of items can be made if enough people are interested)
It takes an Action to search and take out an item from within the backpack.
ARMOUR
You can don one armour at a time.
You can carry other armours but each takes four slots in the backpack.
Other things that might come up, such as pair of boots, pair of gauntlets and helmets can be don only one at a time. You can stow extra pairs within the backpack.
WEAPONS
You have four weapon slots.
Big weapons and shields take two slots.
A ready-to-use quiver takes a weapon slot.
You can carry an extra dagger (or similarly small weapon) for free.
Short weapons (such as shortswords and maces) can be stowed into the backpack as items.
Extra quivers can too be carried as backpack items.
Other weapons (and shields) can't be carried within the backpack.
MONEY
You can carry up to 50 coins in belt bags and such.
Extra coins take slots from your backpack (up to 50 per slot).
TRINKETS AND OTHER STUFF
You can carry as many little objects as you wish (within reason). Such things are rings, tickets, maps, a fork, a little stone, a few fire seeds, etc etc.
Within reason means that if a player starts to accumulate more than around ten of the same thing for whatever micromanaging reason within their heads, such little things should start taking away space from their backpack. But lets try to be a bit relaxed about such small things.
NO SPECIAL ITEMS
There is no special items category. Things are considered within the intuitive category. A ring is a trinket, an amulet is a trinket, a special sword is a weapon, a special armour is an armour.
Lets be specific only about potions: they're backpack items and accomodated within it in a way that makes very difficult to break vials and such by accident.
ENCUMBRANCE
You are not limited by your inventory slot about what you can carry. It's not a videogame. As with real life you can exert yourself. But for each 20/30 minutes carrying stuff exceeding your inventory limitations (example: you're transporting four swords or another armour with your arms for whatever reason) you suffer from fatigue.
Fatigue
I'm quite indecisive about using the exhaustion rules of D&D or instead make up something similar to starvation (damage to HP, which is simpler to keep track of and very Lone Wolf). Need feedback on this.
Character creation
Character creation and leveling is the main difference with D&D rules.
Your proficiency bonus starts as +1 and increases by 1 each five levels (at 15 you'll have +4)
There is no proficiency on saving throws without special stuff (disciplines and such).
You have a class and a role.
The class is the broad archetype your character fits in (like warrior, magician, adventurer). Think of them as the generic archetypes you can find in Heroes of Magnamund.
The role is the rather rare and quite elite kind of hero you'll role (Kai Lord, Knight of the White Mountain, Border Ranger, etc).
You can either take levels in the talents list given by your class (similar to the generic archetype's disciplines from Heroes of Magnamund) or in the Disciplines allowed by your role.
You start the game at first level with three Disciplines at level 1.
Each Discipline has 5 levels.
Each time you gain a level you can increase your Disciplines' levels three times in any combination you prefer (three Disciplines increased by 1 level, or one by 3 levels, or one by 2 and another by 1).
A Discipline level can't exceed your character level. You need to be at least of character level 5 to have Disciplines at level 5.
Your rank in your role is given by the number of Disciplines you have developed to the fullest (level 5).
So a Kai Lord of character level 8, with 4 Kai Disciplines developed at level 5 and two talents developed at level 2 is a rank 4 Kai Lord.
Once you hit rank 10 in your role (meaning you perfected all your role Disciplines to level 5) you gain access to the superior role and the superior Disciplines (example: Kai Master gets access to Magnakai Disciplines).
Advancement is meant to be very fast, because leveling up is great fun.
A single adventure should have two or three milestones and when reaching them the characters should gain a level.
So if an adventure is made up of three or four sessions you can have a little advancement basically every session.
It seems big but take notice that a single level is not meant to be as big an advancement as in D&D, and that progress of your character is addictive and fun. So the more the merrier.
Here's an example of a level 9 character using rules mentioned up to now.
Lone Wolf used up all his youth to develop Kai Disciplines to the fullest.
Let's say he has DEX 15 (+2) and COS 15 (+2) and he is proficient with bows.
As a level 9 character Lone Wolf has 20 Hit Points, a +4 to hit with a bow, 5 Kai Disciplines fully developed at level 5 and other two Disciplines at level 1. He is a Rank 5 Kai Lord.
When I'll have time I'll make order of my notes and post the Kai Disciplines rules.
Hoping someone is interested in this personal project. 
