Troika, Jojo & Superpowers - RPG Blog Carnival

 Troika is a game that has long interested me. I find the art enthralling, the prose absolutely excellent, and the mechanics both lite and crunchy in interesting places. (Like some of the best peanut butter) Troika is a skill-based system but NOT like you might be thinking. It isn’t descended from the Chaosium lines like Call of Cthulhu or Elfquest, it comes from its own whole hereditary family that I think is called the Fighting Fantasy books? I’m not 100% certain on that but the point is its unique, and the main bulk of your characters are their Advanced Skills. Spells in this system are treated much like skills in that they’re Roll-Under and have set effects when cast successfully, but what if they were even more like the normal Advanced Skills; Broadly applicable, vaguely applied, and designed to encourage their creative use?

I recently put out a game jam entry called The Second Sun. Its really bad, but an idea I had was to use Spells as Skills. This game is based on the Rat System SRD so the skills aren’t actually the same as Troika, but for the sake of this blog post you can assume they work like Advanced Skills in Troika!

The reason I wanted to make spells into skills is to shift the narrative surrounding them. I love the way magic is treated in the OSR, as this mercurial chaotic force that cannot be tamed! For Second Sun, though, (which is mostly inspired by Adventure Time and other gonzo settings soaked to the bone in magic) I wanted the magic to feel more friendly and accessible. Is that silly? Yes, for sure, but that’s the goal. Using Magic at will with no serious negative consequences changes it from a loaded gun into a screwdriver. I think the GLOG does chaotic magic the best, tied with DCC, and casting a spell in these games feels like a child raising a pistol up shakily. Things are very very likely to go wrong. Adventure Time treats magic more lackadaisically, easy to learn in an afternoon and very reliable. I wanted that sort of feeling, so I said players can just name a spell and keep it as a skill.

This puts the magic firmly in a thiefy sort of Climb Sheer Surfaces space. Can I climb the tarrasque? I want players to be creative and feel very safe doing so, and I also want most characters to be a little magical. Finn is definitely a fighter, but he learns magic all the time!

I like the idea that a character sheet will have Climb, Plumbing, and Mornhorn’s Sonorous Yap in the same list of skills. What an odd sort of person! It sets the tone just right for this game. The world is weird and problems aren’t necessarily gonna be designed around making loud sounds but if you’re clever you can make it useful! Of course, the fun has to be moderated a little bit by the Referee in a system that relies on making compromises and negotiating the powers of a spell every time it's used.

So why not just use spell slots? 5e is a system that has a huge amount of magic, but its all cleanly codified. It feels more like pulling out the Hideous Laughter shaped key for the Hideous Laughter shaped keyhole, and less like spells can be uniquely applied to all sorts of situations. They can of course, but the way something is presented to the players shapes the way it will be thought of and used. I want the system to funnel players, ref included, into the thought processes I envision. That’s game design baby! Baby’s first game design, maybe, but I am a baby and be nice to me please.

So, on paper, all a wizard would have to do in Second Sun to cast fireball is to have some kind of spell that could conceivably form one. I like this because it leaves the door open for all sorts of avenues. Shape Flame, Summon Jim the Ifrit, literally just the word FIRE in all caps could all be argued to be capable of lobbing a lump of flame around the place. This makes spells more like superpowered innate abilities that can do whatever the writer (Players and Referee) need it to do, which makes a lot of sense. I’ve always been inspired by anime powers especially narrow little abilities that get used in unusual circumstances to awe and shock. My very first roleplaying game experience was a homebrewed Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure system, and the ingenuity on display was always the hook that kept me in those adventures. 

I think the major risk with a system like this is that every character will covet powers like this, and it will be the major focus of a campaign, but honestly? I love things shaking out like that! Getting a wizard player hooked on finding more magic during character creation sounds like a success to me. Wizards are greedy, myopic things that center their worlds around their personal power, so giving them lots of little pocket-knives that can do a lot makes sense to me.

Mazes and Monsters

 Hello all! It's been quite a while. Frankly, I've not had the time, discipline not to get obsessed and sink all my time into blogging and RPGs, or inspiration to blog in a long time. But here I am!

I made this


Mazes and Monsters

Well, I is a strong word. Its essentially a pastiche of Into the Odd and Die Trying, two of my favorite systems. I'm probably gonna be introducing some new players to the Adventure Game tradition, so I wanted something that captured the spirit without a lot to learn. This is nothing new for anyone who has somehow seen my blog, as you've likely also seen the infinitely better content made by my inspirations. This is mostly just so I can put it up somewhere.

Anyway, its nice to be back! Maybe I'll be blogging more often now, but we shall see.

EDIT: Forgot to mention the "Who is my Character?" tables are ripped from Knave, they're some of my go-to for players who have never touched a die before and need some juice.

A Brace of Bards: Steely Dan and Currents

Two more Bard genres for Lexi's Bard! These have languished in my drafts for over half a year now, and now I can finally evangelize some of my favorite music to all of you!

 🎵🔫
(This also happily overlaps with Tame Impala announcing their fourth LP, mostly! Yay!! Thanks to my dad, the OSR Discord, and my friends for helping fill some songs out.)

Steely Dan

To quote a small exchange with my dad;
Me: "Yeah, she and I were just hanging out and listening to Steely Dan vinyls."
Dad: "Oh gotcha, and you did Cocaine too, right?"

Perk

You're especially resistant to addiction. If you roll to become addicted to a substance, you can ignore the first failure. This is on a per drug basis. If your system does it different, you can blunt the negative penalties of substances. You always detect the presence of drugs in food and drink.

Songs

1. Reelin' In The Years: You can age something up to 15 years over the course of this song. The effects last (Ints 1: until the song ends, Ints 2: 1 minute after the song ends, Ints 3: 1 hour after the song ends, Ints 4: Permanently.) Once you reach an Intensity, even if it would be decreased, that becomes the duration of the effects.

2. Do It Again: While playing this song, you can see other potential outcomes of an action you took today. If you are able to reach [Ints] 4 while playing this song, you are able to choose another outcome for said event than the one that has actually occurred.

3. Dirty Work: While this song is played, the listeners must Save each round or perform a task that you assign to them. One successful save makes them immune to this rendition of the song. This task cannot be changed once assigned. The task can be, at most, (Ints 1: Menial, Ints 2: Standard Labor, Ints 3: Risky, Ints 4: Life Threatening.)

4. Rikki Don't Lose That Number: A small version of your head appears on the back of each listener, and lasts for [Ints] days after the song ends. Once you reach an Intensity, even if it would be decreased, that becomes the duration of the effects. You can communicate with each person psychically while this lasts, and can perceive through each head.

5. Hey Nineteen: You conjure forth a younger version of yourself and any willing party members. They'll try to listen to your suggestions, but you don't see eye to eye at all. You summon (Ints 1: you from a week ago, Ints 2: you from a year ago, Inst 3: You from 10 years ago, Ints 4: you as a child.)

6. Any Major Dude Will Tell You: While this song plays, dice results are inverted. Successes are failures, opposite positions on a table are selected, etc. This applies to (Ints 1: attack/defense rolls, Ints 2: all physical actions, Ints 3: all actions, Ints 4: literally any dice rolled at all.) 

7. Turn That Heartbeat Over Again: Every person in earshot of this song that you choose is under the effects of a drug you have consumed before at [Ints] doses.

8. Babylon Sisters: An ephemeral woman forms from the displaced air of this song, and will walk around the audience charmingly. Each round, she will whisper into your mind [Ints] secrets from the audience. This can be divided among any number of listeners, or drawn from the collective consciousness of the audience. (Their guild, city, religion, etc.)

9. Peg: You can select someone to make the audience of this song infatuated with, as though they were a major celebrity. They will do the types of things die-hard kpop fans would do, including all the worst bits, for (Ints 1: the duration of this song, Ints 2: 1 hour after the song, Ints 3: 1 day after the song, Ints 4: for one week.)

10. My Old School: The (Ints 1: local law enforcement, Ints 2: country's military, Ints 3: largest power in the world, Ints 4: supernatural authority.) appears and investigates the audience for something illegal that you determine. Drug possession, murder, dissenting thoughts, etc.

Currents

Maybe this is a little self indulgent, but its my favorite album from my favorite band soshutup.

Perk

You gain a bonus to seduction/persuasion equal to your Bard Level. You can expend Music Dice to gain a [sum] bonus to the roll, in addition to your Level.

Songs

1. Let It Happen: The audience of this song has difficulty resisting actions taken against them. This applies to (Ints 1: being persuaded, Ints 2: being persuaded and moved, Ints 3: being persuaded, moved, and hurt, Ints: being affected by anything.) They take a penalty to their resistance equal to your bard level.

2. Nangs: You can project your soul out of your body out to a certain range. Your body goes completely catatonic (except for continuing the song) as your soul walks about. You are treated as a ghost, if that's ever relevant. If your soul dies, your body is liable to become possessed. Your soul can travel (Ints 1: In the immediate area, Ints 2: In the country, Ints 3: On the planet, Ints 4: Into an adjacent dimension.)

3. The Moment: Anything you choose in earshot is stricken with waves of intense anxiety. This increases their fumble range by 2, and may prompt a morale check. This song can affect up to (Ints 1: 5 beings, Ints 2: 10 beings, Ints 3: 50 beings, Ints 4: 200 beings.)

4. Yes I'm Changing: You can prompt a reroll of the listeners Reaction/Morale. You can affect [Ints] listeners, with a bonus to the roll equal to your Bard level.

5. Eventually: As the Slow spell, at [Dice] = [Ints]. The duration is however long the song lasts for. If sum needs to come up for the Slow spell you use, each [Ints] is 2.

6. Gossip: As Nangs, except this only affects people apart from you. This can be used offensively, and the target gets a penalty to Save equal to [Ints.]

7. The Less I Know the Better: You can delete a memory from a person's mind, which will evaporate into smoke in the following minutes. This takes all of the memory's effects with it (if Memory Slots or Sanity are in use.) You can affect up to [Ints] persons, and unwilling people get a Save.

8. Past Life: You call forth the spirit of an ancestor, previous life, or genetic predecessor. They can gift you and up to bard level others (Ints 1: advice, Ints 2: a skillset, Ints 3: a minor trait of theirs, Ints 4: all previous entries while physically manifesting to assist.)

9. Disciples: You summon [Ints] tamed impala antelopes, and they will follow your commands to the T. (as well as antelopes can be expected to.) These antelopes revive if they die while this song is played.

10. Cause I'm a Man: Each round, you deal [Ints]d4 Psychic damage to a target of your choice. These d4s become d8s if the target felt proud about themselves when you began this song. This damage is not lethal. They gibber to themselves about their insecurities while taking damage from this song.

11. Reality in Motion: While this song is played, you can mentally control the environment around you, causing hills to appear, walls to distort, stuff like that. This applies only to what is non-living environment. The effect extends (Ints 1: 20 feet, Ints 2: 50 feet, Ints 3: 100 feet, Ints 4: earshot.) around you.

12. Love/Paranoia: Everyone in earshot no longer has any emotional feeling or attachment to (Ints 1: their closest love, Ints 2: their family, Ints 3: their friends, Ints 4: everyone they know.)

13. New Person, Same Old Mistakes: You can select one person in earshot to grant another Class Template in a class of your choice. This can become a 5th if they already have 4. At the end of the song, the target must Save or fall unconscious for 3 days at an [Ints] penalty.

14. List of People (To Try and Forget About): The audience of this song has no recollection or memory of [Ints] entities that you determine.

15. Powerlines: For the duration of the song, as many people as you like in earshot get [Ints] Magic Dice to spend as they like. These do not return once spent, no matter the sum, and if the listener has no spells, they can channel the MD into a rough and amorphous effect, which is very likely to backfire in any way the GM likes.

16. Taxi's Here: While this song is playing, time stops. You and your party are able to (Ints 1: talk to each other, Ints 2: move around, Ints 3: interact with non-living objects, Ints 4: affect anything.), the effects of which will be felt after the song ends. Think The World from JoJo

The Biocon: Parasite Race-as-Class

A purple humanoid from Warspace, covered nearly entirely in his Biocon.

Be sure to check out Oblidisideryptch, Micah, Type1Ninja, James Young, Coalfiber, Lexi, Isaak Hill, Ambnz, Chuffer, Martin O,and Wizards' interpretations of the idea of a "Parasite Race-as-class"!

In space, there are effectively infinite forms of life if you look long and far enough. Herbivores, Carnivores, Psychevores, and of course, Parasites.

The parasite form we will be discussing today is the Biocon, which is to say a Biological Conjoint Organism. Much debate has been had over whether they're more accurately referred to as a sleeve, suit, or other synonym for a piece of clothing OR as a disease, affliction, or condition that creatures suffer from. At the end of the day, everyone recognizes them as an organism.

Biocons are a species of parasite that was recently discovered in the core of a dead star on the outer reaches of the Colonized Systems. After a frightening first encounter, the crew of fuel miners credited with the discovery had become Joined, as it is called. Biocons are capable of sapient thought, and are very committed to the survival of themselves and their host. This doesn't extend to describing the host's new lifespan, however. They are capable shapeshifters, and can produce any biological or thaumaturgical effect their host can describe to them.

Very little formal research has been conducted on the effects of Joining, for a couple of reasons:

1. The superhuman feats capable when Joined make it unlikely for most folks to willingly lay down and be studied. If you could suddenly leap tall buildings in a single bound, would you want to get studied in invasive, possibly lethal ways, for the benefit of science?

2. At the end of its currently perceivable lifespan, Biocons kill their host. Resurrection of the original Joined soul is presently impossible. Research in this vector is underway.

There are no known cases of a Joined lifeform surviving longer than 2 years, and that person had an extremely sedentary lifestyle. The many cases of.. enterprising Joined lead much shorter lives. Adventurers certainly won't make it longer than a little while.

Biocon

Biocon 1. Joined, Manifestation, Fatal Maturation

Biocon 2. +1 Manifestation, + 1 HD

Biocon 3. +1 Manifestation, + 1 HD

Biocon 4. The Brightest Candle, +1 Manifestation, + 1 HD

Starting Equipment: Biocon Manifestation ([level]*2 slots), dagger
Skills (d3): 1. Mining, 2. Diplomacy, 3. Wanderer

Hit Die: d8

A blood elf woman, admiring her newly progressed Biocon.

Joined: You share your body with a parasitic lifeform known as a Biocon. It's something like dolphin flesh with a thin layer of chitin over the top, sans the hairs. It feeds on your biological processes, and on the very essence of your soul. In turn, it grants you many abilities.
It is a sapient, living creature, and you can communicate with it telepathically. Its personality, goals, and other details are at the GM's discretion. Roll mental stats for the Biocon, and record them separately from your own. Effects that would normally target you are allowed to choose between you and the Biocon. When you gain this level, you can reroll an ability score of your choice and take the higher, as the Biocon naturally shores up your weaknesses.

Manifestation: Your Biocon is malleable, and dedicated to assisting your combined survival. Choose one monster's ability, such as an attack, movement, special ability, size, or other feature. GM has final say. The Biocon can produce this effect at will. It may need to make morale checks, to avoid being stressed out and activating this Manifestation on its own.
Onlookers will certainly need to make morale checks if you do something horrible, like manifest an Illithid's brain eating or a Mind Flayer's eye beam. You suffer a [level] penalty to reaction rolls.

Fatal Maturation: The GM will roll 1d12 secretly. This is your maximum lifespan in months, and unless you find a way to separate the Biocon from you, you will die. You cannot be brought back from this death in any known ways. You may be able to convince your Biocon to divulge this info, but it makes a concentrated effort to encourage you to live your best life. They often see this as information that will be a problem for you.

The Brightest Candle: You are at the end of your rope. Your Biocon has reached maturity, and you are now considered one entity for the purposes of targeting and such. At your whim, you can set the other end of the candle alight. You turn over the last shreds of your control to your Biocon. Your ability scores become 20, and you reduce all damage taken by 5. Your HP also increases to 50. You lose 1 HP each minute, and cannot restore it. When it reaches 0, you die. Irrevocably.
Your body and soul have been burnt up by the Biocon, and it... disappears. Where to? Who knows.

A birdfolk, possessed by a Biocon that makes them much faster.

Commentary

I was going for something like Baoh, Infamous, and other kinds of dangerously powerful parasites. I liked the idea of being able to do cool transformations (and visually, I drew on my favorite pokemon Deoxys' transformations) but didn't want the implementation to be clunky. So, I tossed around the idea of "schools" like wizards, with Manifestation Dice. But, ultimately, I think just stealing stuff from monsters is a lot simpler. But if someone does something like manifestation dice, please tell me. I think that'd be awesome.

The Pugilist: Champion/Punchfighter Adaptation

Kinnikuman!

I just saw Bernie the Flumph's Champion in my blogroll, and have adapted it to the Glog! Hooray!

Pugilist

Starting Equipment: Revealing outfit, 3 days of training supplies (if you require any), 5 days hearty rations

Skills (d4): 1. Showmanship, 2. Survival, 3. Chivalry 4. Scoundrelry

Hit Die: d10

1. Punches as Strong as Kicks, Rigorous Training, 1 Random Stance, 1 Chosen Stance

2. Skin Conditioning, +HD, +1 Chosen Stance

3. Now its Serious!, +1 Random Stance

4. Peak Performance, Mentor of Muscle, +2 Chosen Stances

Stances: At the start of combat, announce which stance you start in. You need not have a stance, if you wish. It takes your movement to switch between stances on your turn. Maintaining a fighting stance outside of combat is useful, but is tantamount to having a drawn sword in public. Be careful! Each stance takes up a memory slot. You must have unimpeded movement to maintain a Stance.

Punches as Strong as Kicks: You may use STR or DEX for your unarmed attack rolls. Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6+CON damage.

Rigorous Training: Each day, you have some ritual you must complete to be in tip-top shape. Whether that's an hour of calisthenics in the morning, or a gallon of milk with breakfast, or a line of Wizard Tooth Powder. For each day you don't do this, you gain Exhaustion (which takes up an inventory slot). This could also be something you never do, as opposed to a ritual. Maybe you're a strict vegan, or you abstain from alcohol or sex.

Skin Conditioning: You can add your CON to your AC.

Now its Serious!: You're not messing around anymore! When you deal unarmed damage, you may destroy an item you are wearing to gain advantage on the damage roll.

Peak Performance: You have ascended to the top of human ability! Add your CON to all saves, and reduce all incoming damage by your CON.

Mentor of Muscle: You may start a school of unarmed combat! [level]d4 students will come to you each time you are at your school to learn under you. 1d4 of them will be serious enough to come with you! They each know 1 Stance, and gain their first Pugilist level when their learn their second Stance.

Muscle Woman! (Name not found?)

Commentary

I really immediately connected with the class for LotFP, and wanted to have it in my future games. Its so easily expanded, so evocative of those cartoonish wrestlers and strongmen we can all picture. I needed one more ability for the third template, so I looked at the Glog Class List and yoinked Imma take my shirt off from To Distant Land's Brawler. It seemed appropriate (also, I was sooo stumped. That slot took up the most time, bar none.)! Otherwise, the abilities and stances are direct ports to the Glog, with some minor simplification to my tastes. Also, I gave it the Dojo ability from Lexi's Adept, because its awesome!

Stances

1. Bat Stance - You focus your attention on the motion and sound around you. You are able to sense the motion of things (enemies mainly) that you cannot see if they are within your movement range. This is kind of like echolocation, but not quite.

2. Break Stance - You put more energy into single points of contact in your strikes. You can harm constructs, even if they would be immune to you normally. You also deal double damage to inanimate objects, and are capable of breaking stone with effort and time.

3. Buddy Stance - You are able to anticipate the motions of your allies. You have advantage on attacks against someone in melee with an ally. This ally also gains +2 AC from your spotting.

4. Flash Stance - You take to breakneck pace, moving twice as fast as the average person. You can add +2 to your Move.

5. Flurry Stance - You trade your focused strikes for more flexibility and speed. You may make two attacks per turn, but do not add STR or DEX to either roll.

6. Ghost Stance - You meditate and pull your awareness just outside of your body. Your unarmed damage becomes 1d4, but you are able to affect the incorporeal.

7. Hornet Stance - You sharpen your sight, to strike with precision! You can use small projectiles at 1d4+CON damage, and may make two attacks per turn with them. They use DEX for their attack rolls.

8. Hot Stance - You focus your energy on being as attractive and appealing as possible. You add your CHA to your AC.

9. Lion Stance - Your regality, brutality, and power intimidate those around you. Enemies must make Morale checks anytime you crit or deal maximum damage. They suffer a penalty to this check equal to your CON.

10. Rowdy Stance - You abandon any composed attacks and fight with survival on your mind. You may use any mundane items not meant to be weapons as 1d8+CON weapons, breaking on damage rolls of 1 or 8.

11. Turtle Stance - You hunker down, shrinking closer to your center of gravity. You AC is as full plate, but you move about as fast as a turtle. Subtract -4 from your Move. This slowness doesn't impede your Stance.

12. Wonder Stance - You heighten your reflexes, and are capable of knocking projectiles out of the air with a successful DEX check.

Fighters in the Voids of Space

A daring and eccentric space captain

Fighters are, at their core, idealists. This ideal is different from what others may consider an ideal; Fighters believe that everything can be solved violently.
They might tell you otherwise, and in fact many will. "Oh, I only train so that I can defend others. Its not the solution to everything." "Look, I grew up in a harsh place! You don't get out of a scrape without throwing a punch or two when you're young."
Liars, all of them. They even lie to themselves. They tell you that fighting isn't all they live for, show you where violence is wrong and harmful. That doesn't change the look in their eyes, though, does it? The way their expression unravels, their facade erodes. They love this. And they aren't too bad at it either. In the back of their minds, they want nothing more than to tear into whoever opposes them.

They know that violence can solve anything.


Many thanks to Lexi, Skerples and Type1Ninja for the pieces I stapled together to form this class and system!

Bard Genre: Vaporwave

Running a Science-Fantasy game where this is appropriate, and also not giving a shit about anachronisms, I have decided to make this genre for Lexi's GLOG Bard! More to come, most definitely.

Robert Beatty

Vaporwave

We can just explain the editing and ghostly voices as magic.

Perk

Cheap Editing Software: Anything you could reasonably make pleasant noise with counts as an instrument for you. Additionally, you can choose not to have the effects of a song happen as you play, and instead store them inside of an instrument. Expend MD as normal, and they do not refresh until the song is played. You may release the song at any time, and it will play exactly as you played it. Intensities change at the same times over the song's duration, and any Bad Vibes occur when they did. You may store [bard level] songs at a time.

Songs

Important Note: Imagine these spells look like cutting through the film of a tape, and then playing it. (The tape is reality.) Uncomfortable warping, strange colors, flares of light..

1. Enjoy Yourself: Everyone in earshot jives and enjoys the song you play. Creatures of Intensity HD or more get a save. You may also reroll reaction rolls for anyone you talk to while playing this song at a +Intensity bonus.

2. Buy Milk: You create Intensity*5 buyers, who emerge from cracks in the ground and from dark alleys while you play. They are ravenous for purchases, and will buy just about anything offered to them. Their wealth varies.

3. Snake Way: You conjure the spirits of those you once knew who have died, and they dance down from the Snake Way to speak with you while you play. They'll answer Intensity questions before departing. People in earshot (including you) must save vs sadness as they arrive.

4. 82.99 FM: For the duration of this song, you are transported up to a maximum of Intensity*10 years into the future or the past. When you choose to end this song (not when it is ended otherwise) you may return to the time you began in. If it is ended prematurely, you remain then until you can return with this song or some other means.

5. Monogon: Intensity inorganic objects near you become 2-dimensional, flat versions of themselves while you play. While playing, you can mentally move them anywhere in earshot of the song. They return to normal when you end the song.

6. リサフランク420: Reality bends around your music. Intensity of the following effects can be applied to anything or anyone in earshot. Creatures get a save. At 2 Intensity, you get to pick one of them: (d4) 1. The target is looped in time, repeating whatever they did before this effect was applied to them; 2. The target erupts into jagged, polygonal edges. Objects are dangerous, creatures are thorny and weighted down by the mass; 3. An object swaps uses with a nearby object (a chair becomes a weapon, or a weapon becomes a chair), a creature will switch minds with another nearby creature (except the party); 4. The target is slowed to an absolute crawl. If they move at all, 1/10 of the usual speed should suffice. Their reaction time adjusts accordingly.

7. Private Caller: For as long as you play this song, you enter a mental realm with one other person of your choice. You control the way this realm looks and behaves with just a thought. At 1 Intensity, the person must be visible and in earshot. At 2, they need only be in earshot of the song. At 3, so long as you know where they are, they will come. At 4, all you need to do is think of the person. Both you and the person you call are unaware of the actual world during this song.

8. Summer Night: Everyone near you must save vs reliving their most painful memories. They suffer Intensity d4 damage each round from the torment, unless someone tries to touch them while they sit silently, crying. Those touched will retaliate violently until the song is over, but they no longer suffer from the damage each round while attacking.

9. Selfish High Heels: After this song ends, you transform into a Magical Girl! The exact details are up to your GM, but you will likely be able to do cool magical attacks, feats of acrobatics/flight, etc. I recommend rolling for Intensity Advancements on that class. This form last for Intensity minutes.

10. Virtually Alone 20xx: You and Intensity other people are shunted to an embryonic world of gray stone, cyan seas and magenta skies for the duration of this song. The only other creature in this world is a hostile and insane construct resembling you with Intensity*3 HD. It hates you and will try to kill you and anyone else here. It may not be near you initially, but it senses your presence and will come.
11. 火野 レイ : Everyone in earshot of this song must save vs. having their inhibitions removed for Intensity(1 Intns. Minutes 2 Intns. Hours 3 Intns. Days 4 Intns. Weeks) or a smaller unit of time, at your desire. They will run through the streets nude, chasing after their lover, they will join you by banging rudimentary instruments, they will fly to the hills for wherever they have always wanted to go, etc.

Wordsmith Wizards: Practitioners of Paronym Follow-up

Recently, I've become very taken with the OSR (and +Arnold K's GLOG in particular) and I started to compile some homebrew rules and classes and whatnot for my future use.

My table took a look at the doc I was working on, and found +Type1 Ninja's Cleric rendition to be very fun! The very first spell they made was Annihilate Baby, so of course they fucking liked it.

They desperately wanted an equivalently random school for the wizard, and so I obliged.

(Thanks so much to +Martin O and his Paronym wizard order, which I shamelessly riffed off of, my players for their feedback, and to +Ben Milton for his fantastic magic tables in Maze Rats that I happily stole.)

Wordsmith Wizard

Status: Chartered

The world was spoken into being, many say. The Wordsmiths are obsessed with language, and seek to unravel its secrets to reshape reality. The current state of affairs is.. grim, but the pursuit goes on.

Perk: You remember everything you read exactly as it is written. Gain the Law skill.

Drawback: To cast spells, you must be able to speak and hear yourself clearly. The words don’t come out right otherwise.

Cantrips

1. You can touch paper and some form of pigmented fluid, instantly creating a full page’s worth of words from your thoughts OR editing words on the paper.

2. You can burn a Magic Die to change, remove, or add a letter to one word of a spell you cast.

3. You can create enough ink to fill a teacup once a day.

Spells

	Effect	Element	Form
Ethereal	Unobservable Forces	High Concepts & Metaphysics	Intangible Manifestations
Physical	Observable Forces	Classical Elements & Flora/Fauna	Tangible Reality

For this wizard’s spell list, you will pick any two categories below and roll to generate each spell.

Generally, any two of the categories explained above will produce sensible spells. (Excluding Form and Form, because Loop of Trap doesn't exactly seem cool, but you do you. Although, Loop of TrapS sounds kinda awesome...)

When rolling, use 2d6; one for the individual block and one for the numbered entry therein.

EX: I get a 3 and a 5 for my Physical Effects roll, so I get Illuminating.

1. Physical Effects
1.Animating 2.Attracting 3.Binding 4.Blossoming 5.Consuming 6.Creeping	1.Crushing 2.Diminishing 3.Dividing 4.Duplicating 5.Enveloping 6.Expanding	1.Fusing 2.Grasping 3.Hastening 4.Hindering 5.Illuminating 6.Imprisoning
1.Levitating 2.Opening 3.Petrifying 4.Phasing 5.Piercing 6.Pursuing	1.Reflecting 2.Regenerating 3.Rending 4.Repelling 5.Resurrecting 6.Screaming	1.Sealing 2.Shapeshifting 3.Shielding 4.Spawning 5.Transmuting 6.Transporting

2. Physical Elements
1.Acid 2.Amber 3.Bark 4.Blood 5.Bone 6.Brine	1.Clay 2.Crow 3.Crystal 4.Ember 5 Flesh 6.Fungus	1.Glass 2.Honey 3.Ice 4.Insect 5.Iron 6.Lava
1.Moss 2.Obsidian 3.Oil 4.Poison 5.Rat 6.Salt	1.Sand 2.Sap 3.Serpent 4.Slime 5.Stone 6.Tar	1.Thorn 2.Vine 3.Water 4.Wine 5.Wood 6.Worm

3. Physical Forms
1.Altar 2.Armor 3.Arrow 4.Beast 5.Blade 6.Cauldron	1.Chain 2.Chariot 3.Claw 4.Cloak 5.Colossus 6.Crown	1.Elemental 2.Eye 3.Fountain 4.Gate 5.Golem 6.Hammer
1.Horn 2.Key 3.Mask 4.Monolith 5.Pit 6.Prison	1.Sentinel 2.Servant 3.Shield 4.Spear 5.Stead 6.Swarm	1.Tentacle 2.Throne 3.Torch 4.Trap 5.Wall 6.Web

4. Ethereal Effects
1.Avenging 2.Banishing 3.Bewildering 4.Blinding 5.Charming 6.Communicating	1.Compelling 2.Concealing 3.Deafening 4.Deceiving 5.Deciphering 6.Disguising	1.Dispelling 2.Emboldening 3.Encoding 4.Energizing 5.Enlightening 6.Enraging
1.Excruciating 2.Foreseeing 3.Intoxicating 4.Maddening 5.Mesmerizing 6.Mindreading	1.Nullifying 2.Paralyzing 3.Revealing 4.Revolting 5.Scrying 6.Silencing	1.Soothing 2.Summoning 3.Terrifying 4.Warding 5.Wearying 6.Withering

5. Ethereal Elements
1.Ash 2.Chaos 3.Distortion 4.Dream 5.Dust 6.Echo	1.Ectoplasm 2.Fire 3.Fog 4.Ghost 5.Harmony 6.Heat	1.Law 2.Lightning 3.Memory 4.Mind 5.Mutation 6.Negation
1.Plague 2.Plasma 3.Probability 4.Rain 5.Rot 6.Shadow	1.Smoke 2.Snow 3.Soul 4.Star 5.Stasis 6.Steam	1.Thunder 2.Time 3.Void 4.Warp 5.Whisper 6.Wind

6. Ethereal Forms
1.Aura 2.Beacon 3.Beam 4.Blast 5.Blob 6.Bolt	1.Bubble 2.Call 3.Cascade 4.Circle 5.Cloud 6.Coil	1.Cone 2.Cube 3.Dance 4.Disk 5.Field 6.Form
1.Gaze 2.Loop 3.Moment 4.Nexus 5.Portal 6.Pulse	1.Pyramid 2.Ray 3.Shard 4.Sphere 5.Spray 6.Storm	1.Swarm 2.Torrent 3.Touch 4.Vortex 5.Wave 6.Word

Emblem Spells

11. Paronym

You speak amendments unto reality’s laws with authority. You can take any two words from the spells on your list and smush those into a new spell upon casting. For each MD invested, the effect is strengthened (whatever that means) and you may change 1 letter in either word. The exact effects are debated upon by you and the GM.

12. Tongues

R: touch T: [dice] creatures D: [sum] days

Eyes turn a worn beige, and whatever words are read or heard scroll over them in inky print. The affected are able to interpret any attempt at communication with utter accuracy. Improvised hand gestures, symbology in dying blood, and the Language of Gods are all fair game.

Mishaps

1. MD only return to your pool on a 1-2 for 24 hours
2. Take 1d6 damage.
3. Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then Save. Permanent if you fail.

4. Blinded for 1d6 rounds.

5. Spell targets you (if harmful) or enemy (if beneficial) or fizzles (if neutral)

6. Deafened for 1d6 rounds.

Dooms

1. You are unable to understand written or nonverbal communication for 1 day, and must save or misunderstand spoken communication for the duration.

2. You are unable to understand any language or form of communication for 3 days. Words actively flee from you.

3. You lose the gift of communication permanently, locked inside of your mind and body without escape or reprieve. The quiet will likely drive you insane immediately.

This doom can be avoided by seamlessly assimilating two different cultures (with different languages) into one, or by inventing a complete language from the ground up.

Design Notes

This school's cantrips and dooms are my primary attempt to deliver the flavor of this class. I imagine them, in my world at least, to be the most anal-retentive of all the schools. They have all the skills necessary to create incredibly rich and decisive treatises on the world, and their biggest power and temptation is to alter the world through their words. (Not unlike the Sorcerer from Skerples.) I hope that comes across in this class.

That's my first blog post, everybody. There it is. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.