Skip to main content

Stonehell Houserules

 

ScaMort’s OSE Houserules

 

This game uses the Basic Fantasy Ruleset from Old School Essentials with the following

addendums, changes, and optional rules in place.

 

Classes:

The following classes are playable.

Cleric, Dwarf, Elf, Fighter, Halfling, Magic User, Thief.

 

Hit Point Advancement:

Max HP for 1st Level.

 

Encumbrance:

Detailed Encumbrance will be observed. (Pg. 203, Adv. Players Tome)

 

Morale:

Morale will be observed and rolled for. (Pg. 226, Adv Players Tome)

 

Spellcasting:

Clerics begin play with access to one 1st level spell.

Magic Users will be using Advanced Spell Book rules. (Pg. 112, Adv. Players Tome) Elves will

not use this optional rule.

 

Factions:

Dungeon factions will be tracked with Renown and Enmity. Doing good things for a faction,

helping it with its goals, will lead to improved relations and improved reaction rolls. Killing

members of a faction, actively hindering their goals, etc, will lead to negatives to the rolls.

 

Feats of Exploration:

Additional XP will be rewarded by completing Feats of Exploration.

The procedure: Total the sum of how much XP all PCs need to advance from the

start of the level at which they are currently to the next level. That number is constant until

a PC gains a level. When a PC achieves a feat, the entire party is awarded the percentage

listed of that total. Divide that number by the number of players present during the session

to arrive at the per-PC share.

Rumor: Confirm a rumor’s veracity - Minor 2%

Quest: Complete a quest - Major 5%, Extraordinary 10%

Settlement: Enter and rest in one of the 16 settlements - Major 5%

Floor: Discover and interact with a new floor of the dungeon - Major 5%

Section: Enter an unexplored section of a floor for the first time - Minor 2%

Trap: Overcome a trap - Minor 2%, Major 5%

Puzzle: Solve a puzzle - Minor 2%, Major 5%

Secret: Find a secret or interpret hidden lore - Minor 2%

Faction: Manipulating or crippling a faction to your benefit - Major 5%, Extraordinary 10%

NPC: Interact beneficially with an important NPC when stakes are at play - Major 5%

Lore: Apply in-world lore in a useful or flavorful manner - Minor 2%

Explore: Discover and interact with all features of a section of a floor - Major 5%, whole floor -

Extraordinary 10%

Skills: Use equipment or abilities in an unorthodox yet useful manner - Minor 2%, Major 5%

Hazards: Surmount an environmental obstacle or hazard - Minor 2%, Major 5%

 

Mapping

Mapping is the responsibility of the players. If detailed dimensions are required for

large/complex rooms, the mapper must take a commensurate amount of time to walk the

room. The map should be shared between sessions.

 

Roles and Bonus XP

The players should assign roles to individuals who wish to do a specific task. If

multiple players want to take on the same role, then turns should be taken between

sessions on a rotating basis.


Each role gains 2% of their XP to next level bonus XP per session. I.e. a fighter needs

2000xp to reach level 2. Each session where the player of the fighter acts as quartermaster,

they receive 40xp as a bonus. If their role is somehow crucial to the party’s goals or

survival, the bonus increases to 5%. (40xp becomes 100xp in above example.)


Mapper: Keeps a detailed map of the dungeon as the characters progress.

Quartermaster/Treasurer: Responsible for taking notes on treasure found, helps

keep track of party resources like torches, food.

Chronicler: Keeps detailed notes each session on information relevant to the party

and their exploits. E.G. factions encountered, key NPC names, location clues.

Caller: The player who tells the referee what the group is doing each turn of

exploration and potentially each round of combat. The players discuss as a group what

they’d like to do, then when consensus is reached the caller informs the referee.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Prepping for the next level of a Megadungeon!

  Running a pre-written megadungeon is a challenging undertaking. Combing through a setting built by another person that spans kingdoms and continents is in many ways easier. There are large swathes of terrain left undetailed in the latter. You can write up and plop in just about anything your devious mind can imagine, as the writers of campaign settings make sure to leave plenty of space in the margins for just such a thing.   In a megadungeon, it's very different. It has all the elements of a normal dungeon, sure. Rooms, corridors, encounters, NPCs. But in a normal dungeon, you're in and out in a few sessions. Then the space is left behind to molder and rot until you need it again, if you ever do. With a megadungeon, you're there for quite a long time. The goal is to have the dungeon be the campaign. So you sort of have to choose the right dungeon and then prepare to live and breathe that space.   I've been running Stonehell for only thr...

An Orc's Purpose

 We love orcs. They're our lovely little fighting monster featured in - one way or another - so many narratives. They can wear many different hats! The created as slaves to a dark master's army variety from Lord of the Rings. The noble shamanistic species corrupted by dark magics that we see in the Warcraft series. The brutal, fungal monsters created to be an army of insane football hooligans that we see in the Warhammer 40k universe. WAAAAGH! etc. A Face only a Mother could love. -- Orc mask, Grim Zombie. CC-by-SA. In all of these, they act as a narrative device. They're an antagonistic force that is meant to be battered against and survived. Or not, as the case may be. In TTRPG fantasy, the orc exists in an ecosystem of such forces. Demi-human or humanoid monsters are there in the various monster manuals to be faced as antagonists. But each one fits a distinct niche. Goblins are craven, sneaking thieves and murderers who make due on the fringes of society. Bugbears ar...

Session 1 of Stonehell - The Gates of Hell

  We didn't do a session 0. That's primarily because these aren't strangers but rather players that I've been gaming with for at least a couple of years now. I have some pretty consistent gaming rules, but they've never had to be enforced. No cheating No intolerant behaviors (homo or transphobia, no racism or sexism, etc) No sexual content Keep to a tone closer to LOTR than Monty Python. If you have an hard limits on content, let me know, and if you have a concern about something that’s happening in the session then ping me privately. I've typed them out so many times that my phone's auto-correct predicts them.   Instead of a session 0, I followed my game setup checklist to get ready. It’s a simple checklist that boils down about 6-8 hours of concentrated prep time. I'll post the whole checklist in another post.   In the first session, I introduced the town of Absolution and got the players to the box canyon tha...