Advancement in Into the Odd

I really dig the "achievement"-style advancement of Into the Odd. You do what you're good in (expore) and get better along the way. The "apprentice"-condition is a nice twist on the otherwise a bit monotonous "go on more expeditions".

But during my thoughts-experiments with "Into Carcosa" I came to the conclusion that this way of advancing probably isn't the best. Of course, classic advancement (get more gold) isn't really "Carcosa" either.

So what to do? I hereby present the Way of the Sorcerer

NOVICE
You are ready to taint your soul (you must have achieved at least one ritual, for example during character cration).

PROFESSIONAL
You have gained knowledge of one additional ritual since Novice level.

EXPERT
You have gained knowledge of two additional rituals since Professional level.

VETERAN
You have gained knowledge of three rituals and completed at least one ritual since Expert level and obtained an apprentice.

MASTER
Your apprentice has obtained Expert level* and you've completed at least two rituals since Veteran level.
*The apprentice may not use your known rituals for advancement!


And, since sorcery is vile and evil and such...

Way of the Fighter

NOVCE
You are ready to get hurt.

PROFESSIONAL
You have battled at least one enemy stronger* then you one-on-one - and survived.
*more hp AND higher Strength

EXPERT
You have battled at least three dangerous combats* since Novice level - and left the battlefield victorious!
*outnumbered 2:1 or very dangerous opponent (dm has last word)

VETERAN
You have battled at least five dangerous combats since Expert level - and left the battlefield victorious! Further you must accept at least one sword-disciple you will train from now on.

MASTER
Your disciple needs to be at Expert level. You need to erect a fort/monastery/settlement and declare yourself leader (obviously in need of a weird name).



More ideas
Way of the Diplomat
Way of the Xenoartificer
Way of the Broken DNA
Way of the Dinosaur-wrangler...

Comments, please!

F

Musings about weirdness

Ah, I love weird adventures and settings! I've got Carcosa, Many Gates of the Gann, Vornheim, Red and Pleasant Land, Systema Tartarobasis, Gus Ls free Adventures, Beneath the Ruins (Kihago)... they are all wonderful!

If you follow my blog, you'll know that I try to mix Into the Odd with Carcosa; these are mostly ramblings about game mechanics but deep in my head rests the hope to one day dm a full-fledged "Into Carcosa" campaign... and then? How the hell has an adventure in Carcosa to look like? Especially if I want to make sure it's weird? How much weird is too much? When will my players be disappointed because the plot is too "normal"?

These questions are highly theoretical by now but interesting nonetheless. What defines "weirdness"? Don't get me wrong, I don't want a cast iron proof definition of "weird" - I just don't have no idea.

Let's look at some examples; first, some "non-weird" things:

1. A paladin on his horse rescues an abducted princess from the claws of an evil dragon.

or

2. An elven archer shoots an orc fighter in a wild dungeon-fight.

or

3. A bunch of investigators find clues about a murder series in 1920s London.

or

4. A group of space rebels fight the evil imperial army in an epic spacefight.

Sounds all pretty "normal" - I think we agree here.



Ok, let's change some things...

1v1. A paladin on his horse rescues an abducted princess from the evil scientist who tries to model an obedient robot slave after her example.

or

2v1. An elven archer shoots a space orc in a derelict space hulk.

or

3v1. A group of investigators find clues of the involvement of an alien entity in a murder series in 1920s London.

Weird? I mean the plot did not change, the protagonists did not change, heck, even the basic nature of the enemy did not change.



What about...

1v2. A lawful insectoid on his symbiont bug rescues an abducted slime-princess from the claws of mother winter.

or

3v2. A group of 0-level turnip-farmers, haberdashers and thugs armed with sticks and pitchforks find clues about the activities of a beastmen killer-cult involved in the abduction of local townfolks ("Sailors of the Starless Sea").

Too much weird? Gonzo even? Again, the plot didn't change. Pretty basic stuff, one might think...



Then, some plot tweaking...

2v3. An elven archer shoots an orc in a dungeon after travelling back in time to hinder said orc from killing his mother 200 yrs. later.

4v3. A group of space rebels fire re-programm-rays on their evil imperialist counterparts to ally with them to find a way to cure the parasitic infection that will destroy the whole universe.

Weird?



And, last but not least - normal plot and motivation, weird protagonists:

5. A sentient mushroom-monk (conversing via pheromone-like spore clouds), a sentient swarm of colibris, capable of summoning whirlwinds and a depressive three headed animated statue of cerberus go forth to collect gold and experience to become famous (I'm pretty sure some DnD 3.5 games ended up like this).

Again: Weird protagonists with pretty standard motivations.

My point: What constitutes weird? Weird characters? A weird setting (say Carcosa)? A weird plot (time travel, dreamlands, insanity)? Is it enough to play pretty basic adventures if the background is weird enough (Carcosa)?

Feel free to comment!

F



EDIT: as +trey causey points out, all my examples are more "gonzo" then "weird"; he has an excellent post on "Weird and Wonder" on his blog. The question remains... what defines how weird a game is - characters? Story? Background? Obstacles? Setting? Plot? Or, strongly worded, is it enough to say "we're playing Carcosa tonight", to be on the weird side of gaming?

Thoughts on the d[Carcosa]

Mh, the d[Carcosa]. One of the really, really weird ideas from our beloved little Supplement VI. For all those who do not know what I'm talking about: Mr. McKinney takes the idea of randomisation ad absurdum by randomizing the die to roll the moment when it is to be rolled... so: CTHUGAH does 4 dice of damage to all creatures within 300' via heat radiation. Which kind of dice, you ask? Roll on the table on page 5 of Carcosa (or have a look here)!

This might be funny, but... nothing I want to port to "Into Carcosa", to be honest. But we have an idea of damage scaling, though: A simple attack will most often deal 1d[Carcosa] (1-20 damage) while some Great Old Ones will do as much as 20+d[Carcosa] (equaling some 20-400 damage)! I suggest porting this to Into the Odd the following way:

1d[Carcosa] = 1d6 damage
2-3d[Carcosa] = 1d8 damage
4-6d[Carcosa] = 1d10 damage
7-10d[Carcosa] = 1d12 damage
11+d[Carcosa] = 1d20 damage.

This is for monsters, only. Weapons deal damage as per ItO. If this method seems a bit too "granulated" - you have other ways to modify damage with ItO (without ruining anything, you know):

1. Attacks can't be impaired by xyz
2. damage is not reduced by armour
3. damage is dealt to ability scores, not to hit points
4. damage can't be healed the normal way!
5. when dealing critical damage, some effect occurs (tripping, pushing, swallowing)
6. and, if you use my house rules: attacks can't be parried or evaded.

As you see, there should be no shortage of rules mechanics to individualize your monsters attacks!

And - you really should consider playtesting my combat house rules - since I don't actually play ItO right now, I've had no good opportunity, yet! Right now they are only available in german, but Google translates them acceptable enough :-)

F

Into Carcosa - stating the Old Ones

One thing I find quite amusing is the existence of a stat block for the Great Old Ones in +Geoffrey McKinneys Carcosa. Not that it is that special, heck even Chaosium did it in their Call of Cthulhu supplements and though I don't know for sure, I'm guess the newer Incarnations of Lovecraftian gaming (Savage World-powered, for example) go the same way.

I never really understood why mundane human investigators should be even able to fight "gods" - and stats imply that! But with Carcosa it's another thing... first, all characters have some kind of combat ability; second, they will have access to some weird things, probably enhancing their combat abilities (like alien artifacts & such). Third, they might have allies - either mundane, as in henchmen, or supernatural, perhaps via some vile ritual. So, while unlikely, they could stand a chance in a fight against the old ones.

While I did not intend to do a full conversion of all the monsters in Carcosa and think many things could be done on-the-fly, I guess statting the Old Ones would be a nice test of flexibility for Into the Odd.

Luckily, +Chris McDowell did a short conversion guide (it's 5e to ItO... close enough).

Let's start with CTHULHU himself; not much information given, as usual:

• 57HD
• AC 13
• move 150' (land), 360' (water)
• Alignment: Chaotic (surprise!)
• Psionics: each 10/day
• regenerates 2HD/round
• can summon 1-100 Deep Ones
• save vs. paralyze or die on sight
• does 25 dice of damage each round.

Not bad, not bad! Many things can be ported without too much hassle: Psionics, which should go up to "at will" for simplicities sake, summon Deep Ones, WIL save or die.
Some things need more attention: HD 57 pretty much outbids ItOs scale, Chris McDowell suggests 1 hp/HD with a hard cap at 30hp; why not. Regeneration should be 2 hp/round then. STR, DEX, and WIL are not given in Carcosa, but STR and WIL should not be lower then 18-20. DEX is probably much lower, say 8.
Armor should be 3, as far as I understand. Multiattacks do not exist in ItO and as much as one would expect they would for tentac-ly monsters in Carcosa, only a single attack value is given - and it is ridiculously high! Since I did not find any monster entrances with more than d12 damage, I'd suggest d20 is totally fair. Attacks from Cthulhu should never be impaired, save for some weird ritual perhaps. Characters swinging their sword against Cthulhu are probably doomed, their mundane attacks are impaired. Lasers, alien-artifacts and shit do not count as mundane for that matter. Critical hits should devour characters without any saves (auto-kill), their fate to be horribly described by the dm.

Ok, now it looks like this:

Odd CTHULHU
STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 18. 30hp, Armour 3, Tentacles and Maws (1d20).
Sleeps and sits, waiting for the right constellation of stars...
Attacks by CTHULHU are never impaired.
Critical hits from CTHULHU kill instantly, characters dying an irreversible, horrible death.
Mundane physical attacks against CTHULHU are always impaired.
The sight of CTHULHU kills characters on a failed WIL save.
CTHULHU regenerates 2 hp/round until reduced to 0 STR.
CTHULHU may use every psionic power at will.
CTHULHU can summon 1d100 Deep Ones.

Phew, a bit long for my taste.

So, we need to define a "template", let's call it "Old One" for now.
Attacks of Old Ones are never impaired. Critical hits from Old Ones kill instantly. Mundane physical attacks against Old Ones are always impaired. Old Ones may use every psionic power at will.

Cool. Now let's have a look:

Odd CTHULHU v2
STR 20, DEX 10, WIL 18. 30hp, Armour 3, Tentacles and Maws (1d20).
Sleeps and sits and waits and sleeps, waiting for the right constellation of stars...
CTHULHU uses the Old One template.
The sight of CTHULHU kills characters on a failed WIL save.
CTHULHU regenerates 2 hp/round until reduced to 0 STR.
CTHULHU can summon 1d100 Deep Ones.

Still a bit long for ItO, but hey.

Ah, if you use my ItO combat options (german post), attacks from Old Ones can't be parried, though one may sacrifice his shield. Of course, Old Ones don't care to evade or parry attacks.

What do you think?

F

2015 slows down a bit...

March '15 passed and no post yet... why? Well, RL pretty much occupies me at the moment - my toddler needs much attention (which I'm happy to give since he continues to become the most awesome person on the planet), my work is very demanding (plus I'm learning for my board certification as a radiolgist), and I'm ill quite often these days - nothing spectacular, only very annoying things like common colds et. al. (probably day-care center/toddler-associated)

This means my year of awesome slows down a bit... but, hey: I will play more 5e soon, pushing my fighter a bit closer to level 4 (and playtest some maneuvers!). I will paint my frickin' 6mm minis and playtest some skirmish systems. I will further my attempts to modify Into the Odd, hopefully playing Into Carcosa.

Funny enough my only contact to gaming these days is Google+, which is really fun and sometimes plain awesome. Unfortunately it is very time consuming! Perhaps I need to take a step back from following social media and focus my sparse free time on more productive tasks.

F

p. s.: Sophias blog travelled through space and time and is now located at http://dieheart.net/. Read it!