Ruling from the supposedly impregnable Castle Brackenwold on the south-eastern verge of the forest, the Dukes of Brackenwold trace their line back to the earliest settlers in the region. All mortal folk within the Wood—from the humblest beggar to the highest lord—pay fealty to the duke. The whole forest is his property.
...or are you a vassal of the Unseelie Court?
The Nag-Lord A wicked, trickster figure of local folklore, said to keep unholy court in the twisted northern woods, where his corrupted minions lair. The Nag-Lord is known in folktales as the “King of the Woods,” and is portrayed as being part man, part unicorn, with nine legs (nine being regarded as an especially accursed number).
Are you a faithful Pluritine...
The monotheistic Pluritine Church dominates throughout Dolmenwood and beyond. While it holds much political clout, the Church's prominence in Dolmenwood is of late diminished in favour of heathen faiths. Many shrines and chapels that once saw regular worship have fallen into ruin and been reclaimed by the forest. Some within the Church seek to rediscover and re-sanctify these lost shrines.
...or do you cavort with the Drune?
A cabal of sorcerers who roam the Wood, cloaked in black. They claim the magical energies of Dolmenwood and what god they worship is a matter of conjecture, for they guard their secrets with their lives. In the eyes of the Church they are to be eradicated, for it is said they deal in devil worship and human sacrifice. Kidnap by the Drune is among the greatest fears of the simple folk of Dolmenwood, who refer to the cult as “the Hooded Men,” fearing to speak the word “Drune.”
House Rules
Optional Rules in Use
Optional Rules
Inheritance (Classic p38)
Advanced Combat (Advanced p49)
** Minor adjustment to Two Weapons: You cannot benefit from both attacking with two weapons and the Main Gauche combat talent at the same time (choose one).
Item-based Encumberance (Carcass Crawler)
House Rules
Action Points
can only be spent during combat. An AP can be used to…
▶ Reroll a save or check.
▶ Make another melee attack. This can happen only on your turn, and never during a surprise round.
▶ Gain an extra action that is not an attack: This may be one of the advanced/extra combat options, a minor action, moving (spatially) again, etc.
▶ Add +1 to hit for one turn.
▶ Regain HP equivalent to rolling 1 HD.
AP are consumed regardless of the success of the action. An AP is earned each time you earn XP. You cannot have more than 3 AP at any given time.
Class Adjustments
Magic-Users may begin with a number of known spells modified by their INT score (Advanced p50, right column). Detect Magic, Read Magic and Find Familiar considered innate to Magic-Users and Mages (ie they do not count against total spells known).
Fighters, Barbarians, Knights, Wardens, and Dwarves (the class, not the race) have access to combat talents (see Carcass Crawler and "House Rules > Even More Combat Talents"). These classes also each get +1 to to-hit/damage every 4 levels. Paladins and Rangers get combat talents at 1st and 5th levels only, as well as +1 to-hit/damage at 4th level only.
Thieves use the alternate skill probabilities presented in Carcass Crawler.
a. This also applies to CS/FA/HS/MS/TW for the Acrobat and CS/HN/HS/MS for the Assassin. These classes instead get 2 points to allocate at first level, then one point per level gained going forward.
b. Minor adjustment: You may raise skills to 6 in 6. Use 2d6 to roll; if both faces end up being 6, only then does the skill fail.
Bards may choose the Illusionist spell list instead of Druid. They also get Bard Songs (ask GM).
Halflings' Hiding ability has been improved to 3 in 6 in all non-wilderness environments as long as there is cover and they have not already been noticed.
Death
0 HP = KO (out for d6 hours). Dropping below zero requires a save vs Death. Failure = death/retirement. Success = you are temporarily injured. While injured, a PC cannot regain more than 1 HP until treated by another character.
Even More Combat Talents
Equestrian || A Fighter that has a mount gets +1 to AC while riding it in combat. The mount must be able to have ample space to move on the battlefield (ie no horses in the dungeon). If this talent is chosen at level one, you begin play with a mundane mount (horse, donkey, oe mule) for free.
Giant Killer || When fighting big opponents, use your action to cling onto and even climb them with a successful DEX roll, gaining +3 damage in the next and any subsequent round as long as they hang on. New DEX rolls may be required at the GM’s discretion, but do not require separate actions.
Impasse || Once per combat, a Fighter can completely negate a successful attack roll against themselves. They can choose to wait until after damage is rolled to use this ability.
Last Stand || If a Fighter is reduced to 0 HP, they can continue to act for up to 5 additional rounds of combat. Each time the Fighter takes further damage during this period, they must save versus Death or die. Magical healing is effective during this period, but the Fighter must still save versus Death when damaged, even if healed to above 0 HP.
Pugilist || Attacks made using your fists or improvised weapons do d8 before bonuses are applied. Additionally, you are granted a +2 any time you attempt to put the opposition at a disadvantage via a “called shot”, such as grappling, tripping, disarming, feinting, pushing, “I want to aim for the eye” etc.
Rage || Work up a frenzy that grants +3 damage, but also −3 AC. This requires 1 round of concentration but lasts the entire combat, blocking any other talents.
Riposte || Respond to an opponent’s missed melee attack against you with a melee action of your own. You must be aware of the attack and completely unimpeded to be able to respond. Any condition that affects your movement rate such as being over-encumbered, prone, etc., or negatively affects their mental state (e.g. a mind-affecting spell) impedes riposting. Reaction: The riposte can be either an attack with a melee weapon or a called shot. The first riposte in a round carries a –2 penalty to the attack roll. Further ripostes double the penalty (e.g. –4 for the second, –8 for the third, etc.). You cannot parry and riposte in the same round.
Sharpshooter || Choose a missile weapon type, e.g. bows, slings, throwing weapons, etc. Spend one round taking aim with your chosen missile weapon at a visible target. On the next round receive +3 to hit.
Tactician || Your tactical skill lets you bestow a +3 AC OR +3 damage bonus on an ally, once per battle and for a single attack made at any point in the same fight. This requires a related small verbal action, such as “strike when it raises its wings!”
Experience
XP bonuses are now given for having at least one low stat (5% for 8-6, 10% for 5 or lower), but not high prime requisites.
Also, rather than me trying to figure out how much XP punching 5 kobolds was worth, you instead earn a fixed amount of "milestone" XP (ask GM for XP table) per character for any of the following:
▶ Surviving a deadly situation (ex. lifting a curse, conquering or escaping a combat encounter, outsmarting a trap)
▶ Defeating a powerful enemy (ex. ‘boss’ monster, faction leader)
▶ Recovering a priceless artefact
▶ Taking out or taking over a faction
▶ Fully exploring a dungeon
▶ Completing a quest for an NPC
▶ Completing a major personal quest
▶ Discovering a major secret
▶ Spending 1k+ gold in a session
▶ Making connections in high places
…and potentially other situations.
Any unspent experience may be used on your next character in the event of character death.
Extra Combat Options
▶ Defence: Take −1 to-hit and −1 damage to get +2 AC for the round.
▶ Offence: Take −1 to-hit to get +1 damage for the round.
▶ Protect: Make a roll against your DEX. If you succeed, the next attack on an adjacent ally targets you instead. If the protector has a shield equipped, they may choose for it to negate all damage at the cost of the shield breaking. In the event of the latter, the DEX roll is not needed.
▶ Critical: Do max damage on a to-hit roll of 20. This is only available to PCs. NPCs may get a counter-attack when a to-hit roll made against them by a PC = 1.
Helmets
Any character that can wield plate armour may be protected from a crit by a helmet, by forcing the opposition to re-roll. This works only once. Then the helmet breaks.
Magick Points and Rituals
Spellcasters have a number of magick points equal to their current level. Casting a spell depletes MP by a number of points equal to the spell’s level. All MP are regained after a full night’s sleep.
When running low on MP, a spellcaster may attempt to cast a known spell by subtracting the MP deficit from their HP. They may also attempt to cast an unknown spell (of any level, provided it is on their spell list) using only HP. (This still observes the rule that Clerics know all spells on their list up to their current level while M-Us only know what's in their spellbook).
Unknown spells cast in this manner promptly disappear from the caster’s memory after usage (they often don’t know how they did it), thus they cannot be scribed as scrolls or added to their spellbook until actually studied. If the player is not willing to pay the HP cost or the spell would reduce their HP below zero, the spell cannot be cast.
The Cleric, M-U, Mage, and Druid may circumvent MP costs using a ritual. Rituals instead consume 50gp worth of reagents and one hour of time.
Resource Dice
Some consumable items (esp: ammo, rations, animal feed) don't count against encumbrance. Write “d10” after any of these objects. After each day of depleted rations/feed or after each encounter where ammunition is fired, the d10 is rolled. On a 1-3, the amount available is reduced to the next smallest die type (d8 > d6 > d4). If the d4 comes up on 1-3, you are out of stock and more needs to be purchased.
You may purchase additional stock before it runs out. However, each successive unit weighs one encumbrance slot and begins with a progressively lower countdown (d8 > d6 > etc).
This also applies to the number of charges on wands. This does not apply to potions or scrolls.
Styles
Styles are a bit like feats except, rather than choosing them from a menu, they are given to you after fufilling certain narrative requirements. Player characters have a number of style slots equal to half their character level. Styles can be replaced for better ones as they become irrelevant.
Character Creation
Picking Race and Class
Race is separate from class (see Adv p44).
Starting characters may only be human, halfling, half-elf, half-orc, or kobold and may only be one of the following classes:
(Basic) Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, Thief
(Adv) Acrobat, Assassin, Barbarian, Knight
(CC) Warden
Other races and classes will “unlock” as the party progresses. Be sure to check "House Rules > Class Adjustments", when picking your class.
Ignore stat requirements. You may choose a class that's restricted by your character's race with GM approval.
The race-classes are locked to their respective races except Elf, Half-Elf, and Dwarf. These lose any race-specific characteristics that are not congruent with actual character race (i.e. a human using the Elf class does not have infravision).
No dual-/multi-classing. However, some class features may be bought from another class with GM approval by spending XP.
You may have more than one character, but only one can be "active" (on a quest and earning XP) at any given time.
Determining Stats
Roll 3d6 twice and choose the better spread OR choose standard array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8). Assign the scores at will. Follow the rules on pages 14-17 of OSE: Classic to adjust your stats. Take max HP (before CON mods) at level 1.
All characters begin with 3d6*10 OR 150 (average) gold before buying equipment.
Use ascending AC (base is 10).
Languages and Alignment
Fuck alignment; join a faction.
Ignore the languages that come with class. Instead, your starting languages should include:
a) Common
b) + 1 relevant to either class, homeland, or career if applicable (see step #4)
c) + (x) additional languages from INT bonus
d) (optional) +1 from race if playing a half- or non-Human
If you have more language slots than languages, you may either trade a language slot for another career or style.
Alignment Language is being ignored for the most part. Occasionally, magic swords or extradimensional psychic beings will only be able to "speak" a certain alignment but this will be rare.
Literacy is being determined by career not by INT score.
Careers and Backstory
Choose a career(Adv p52). You may choose a career that's not on this list with GM approval (as long as your career makes sense with the rest of the party and isn't something that assumes too much about the world, it's probably fine. Examples: Friar, Actuary, Bastard Noble, etc...)
Lastly, while I don't require backstories, I will ask you to fill out the "goal" section of the character sheet with your character's short- or long-term peronal mission/motivation, as well as three ties to NPCs or other party members. You cannot complete character creation without these.
