The new Cörpathium character sheet has a lot of new/tweaked house rules on it, so let’s collect them here for a little more clarification, and to make it easier to refer/link back to them.
First of all a few little tweaks to basic LotFP rules.
- For one thing I’m giving everyone access to Combat Options. Only Fighters know how to fight recklessly or defensively? I call ballshit.
…I meant to type bullshit but no, ballshit, that works. - The bonus for carrying a shield doesn’t vary between melee and ranged AC, it’s +1 for a small shield and +2 for a large shield, but only Fighters can actually attack while using a large shield.
- Straight -5 AC when surprised/attacked from behind instead of losing Dexterity bonuses then -2 blah blah blah.
- I’m using the new firearms rules (see Brendan’s quick reference here), but the whole ignoring 5 points of actual worn armour but not your Dexterity modifier figure it out every time or record it on your sheet is too damn fiddly and mostly redundant. If a firearm is in armour piercing range, it ignores all your armour, too bad full plate, your AC is now 12 + Dexterity modifier. And forget reloading times, I don’t play with anyone that is going to spend 5-10 rounds reloading, so firearms are basically one-shot high damage armour punchers that everything is going to hear. That works for me.
- I ditched Architecture as a skill because it’s useless for my game and replaced it with Lore (cults, government, magic), and replaced Bushcraft with the more catch-all Naturalis, because Natural Philosophy and Taxonomy are valid occupations in Cörpathium and if your character wants to read up on things to have a bit more of an idea of the horrors that lurk out in Malles Vermald they have my blessing.
- Fuck alignment.
GAMBIT
Just my own name for Called Shots, Stunts, whatever, built from one of Brendan’s posts.
If you want to make some kind of specific attack roll to-hit twice.
If both hit, it happens.
If one misses, it doesn’t.
If both miss you fail so badly that you can’t do anything next round.
It also means two chances to roll a fumble, and depending on how fancy/absurd the intended attack is I might increase fumble range. “You want to slide onto your knees beneath the spider with two daggers and slice its legs off? Okay that’s awesome, but you’re going to mess up super, really badly if either roll comes up 4 or less.”
The reason I like this about a thousand times more than Called Shot (pick a range on d20, say 13-20, if you roll that you succeed, but if you roll the inverse range, 1-8, you fumble), which is what I was using before, is that it doesn’t disregard the AC of the thing you’re attacking, and characters with better Attack Bonuses are better at doing them, instead of the sickly wizard decapitating the giant mutated boar just because he rolled the number he picked.
MELEE
After talks with Jeremy Duncan I switched melee combat to a contested roll, because why put all the variation on the attacker and not the defender?
Ranged attacks still target a static AC, but melee resolves as d20 +AB vs. d20 +DB, your Defence Bonus being AC -12. If the attacker fumbles you get to cut them.
For even more vicious combat you could rule that whoever rolls highest deals damage, regardless of who was attacking.
NOTCHES
Notches stay pretty much the same as they always were, with the added Quality rules that Smiler and I (mainly Smiler) came up with.
Basically, every weapon has a Quality rating from 1-5, and whenever you roll that number or less when attacking the weapon takes a Notch.
Weapons can take a number of Notches equal to their damage die, but once they have two Notches roll two of the weapon’s damage die after every attack, hit or miss. If the roll is equal or less than the number of Notches, it breaks. So you might embarrassingly break your axe with a wild swing against the wall, or you might snap your dagger off in the merchant priest’s chest.
If the weapon takes another Notch after it has reached its limit, it breaks.
And because I’m now having people roll for their defence in melee, I can use the same Quality range for armour.
When rolling for defence, if the d20 comes up as that number or less and the attacker hits you, decrease the AC of your armour by 1.
The standard rate for repair is a tenth of the item’s full cost per Notch or AC point (so one Notch on a Medium sword costs 2 silver groats to repair, and it will set you back 100 silver groats to repair the point of damage that drugged-up Nun of the Lotus caused to your Heavy armour).
Prices are still subject to review and gouging.
WEAPONS
The weapon properties I originally posted have been tweaked slightly.
Weapon damage is still determined by its size, but depending on what it is…
- Sword: If you haven’t been hit this Round roll twice for damage, take the best.
- Hammer: +1 to-hit vs. Medium or better, successful hit reduces Heavy AC by 1.
- Axe: Two damage dice vs. Light or less.
- Flail: +1 to-hit vs. Medium or better, ignores shields, successful hit reduces Heavy AC by 1, roll twice for damage and take the best. Can choose to attack weapon, Strength check to disarm on hit. On any miss roll under your AC or hit yourself.
- Dagger: Contested d20 + AB + Str/Dex bonus to grapple after hit, automatically hitting Flesh in subsequent rounds until they kick you off.
Make a contested Initiative roll to attack first when someone with a smaller weapon closes into melee.
Long/Great weapons automatically attack first and do double damage against charges.
HIT POINTS
Again, pretty much the same as they always were.
Flesh is the measure of how much physical punishment you can take before passing out, and caps out at your full class HD, plus anything gained from a Constitution bonus.
Grit is the rest of the hp you gain, and is a measure of ways you learn to avoid injury, plus glancing blows, exhaustion whatever.
- Attacks reduce Grit first, and when it’s gone you start taking Flesh wounds.
- You lose consciousness at 0 Flesh, and die at minus half your class HD.
- If someone rolls a Critical hit against you but you still have Grit left, roll your Defence again. If it’s higher than their attack roll the damage affects your Grit first, otherwise it cuts straight to Flesh.
- Being attacked from behind or by surprise bypasses Grit, and any attack against Flesh that deals maximum weapon damage or half of your maximum Flesh causes a serious wound and removes any Grit you had left. Lost arms, plucked eyeballs, and messed-up innards don’t lend themselves to finesse.
After any encounter where you take a Flesh wound roll under your Constitution or contract an Infection.
If you don’t have any Flesh wounds, you can spend a Turn resting to regain Grit, roll your class HD.
From Josie’s Hit Point Stopwatch, when below half your Flesh hp, you will be unable to act after that many Rounds of physical exertion such as combat, or that many Turns of simple movement until treated.
Lose another point of Flesh every Round/Turn you try to push on.
And some dying rules because I figure most adventurers would have some kind of idea about first aid, and because the Poison save matches up nicely with which classes would probably be better at it:
- Once reduced to 0hp save vs. Poison every 2 Rounds. If you fail you die, if you succeed lose another hp.
- Stop bleeding out if you roll a 1. If another character tries to stabilise you, both players save vs. Poison.
- If both succeed, you regain consciousness at 1hp (but will lose consciousness if you do anything strenuous).
- If they succeed but you fail, you stabilise at 0hp.
- If both fail you die in their arms and they’re all “CURSE YOOOOOUUU! WHHHHYYYYY?”
I figure for it to be successful you need to stay with them for Rounds equal to negative hp. That seems about right.
ENCUMBRANCE
Because yes, I use it, I think it can be interesting. But I also don’t want it to be confusing or constrictive, which my first attempt kind of was.
I started pondering this back in September and think it’s pretty much perfect for what I want from encumbrance, which is the freedom to carry a pretty reasonable amount of stuff without constantly tracking it, but having it matter when it should.
- You can carry an amount of Worn Items equal to half your Dexterity or Strength, whichever is highest, rounded up.
They can be strapped to you, in pouches, in orifices, just draw it on your sheet.
Every additional Worn Item adds a -1 penalty to physical rolls.
A quiver contains 20 arrows and counts as a single Worn Item.
Medium armour counts as 1 item and Heavy armour counts as 2, Fighters don’t count armour as a Worn Item. - Oversized items like two-handed weapons have to be on your person and count as 2 Worn Items. Ten foot poles don’t go in backpacks.
- When you wear a pack you are encumbered, move slower and take a -2 penalty to physical rolls. You can carry items in your pack equal to your Strength or Constitution, whichever is highest.
(Bundle amounts mostly taken from Arnold K) You can carry small items like daggers and flasks in bundles of 3 as a single pack item.
Even smaller things like iron spikes or sling bullets can be carried in bundles of 10 as a single pack item.
300 coins can be carried as a single pack item. - You can carry half that amount again, rounded up, but are even more encumbered, move at half speed and take -4 to physical rolls.
- Carrying any more than that means you can’t do anything other than shuffle around under the weight.
- Finding something in your pack during combat takes d3+1 per encumbrance level Rounds.
The immediate penalty for wearing a pack might seem harsh, but have you tried swinging your arms around while wearing a backpack? Awkward. If you want to fight as well as that other guy you’d better drop the bag.
THE FREAKS
Maleficar and Mystics remain intact, the only thing I changed is that being encumbered doesn’t make casting spells harder. If you want to risk more belongings transmuting into angry goo when you muck up a spell I’m not going to stop you. And Reading Magic is still a deathtrap.
Oh but hey Blood Magic/Sacrificial Lamb:
Maleficar can bleed themselves of hp for extra Cataclysm needed to cast. The cost is triple if the blood isn’t their own, and they need to smear themselves in it.
They can also will the void into taking a part of themselves for guaranteed casting of a spell of any level. Roll d6 and count down from the top of your Ability Scores. Permanently lose a point.
If a Mystic wants to heal a bled Maleficar, they have to make a Hand of God roll.
GIRLS ONLY WANT BOYFRIENDS WHO HAVE GREAT SKILLS
This one only occurred to me the other day so it needs to be tried out, but I don’t like Specialists being the only ones who can ever get better at skills ever.
So, if for some reason you needed to use a skill and succeeded, note it next to that skill. Note all of the times you successfully use that skill.
When you level up, roll a number of d6’s equal to your current skill level. If the result is equal or less than your number of successes, you gain a skill level.
Erase all your successes and start again.
For example:
Three Beard McGuigen, questionable Magic-User, found himself needing to find traps five times before he reached level 1, and only one of them blew off a body part. So that’s 4 successes.
He currently has a 1 in 6 skill level, so he rolls 1d6 and gets a 3. Hooray now he has a 2 in 6 chance of keeping his extremities when the Specialist isn’t around!