Embedding Lore in your Classes

A while back, I wrote about the tensions between wanting no homework and settings with rich lore (and some potential solutions). Today, I'll write about another solution: embedding your lore into your classes.

Brief summary of the problem I'm trying to solve

There is fun to be had when everybody at the table deeply understands the setting and the lore. Getting mastery of these elements requires solo prep time and can be pretty boring; contradictory to the purpose of roleplaying, which is getting together with your friends to have fun.

People have come up with different solutions to this problem. One often cited one is collaborative worldbuilding. You and your friends come up with the lore together, thus moving it from solo and boring back into the core premise.

Creativity is fun. But it's not the fun of discovery.

Discovery requires prep. The more you want to have the feeling of exploration at the table, the more your prep must adhere to blorb principles.

Embed Lore Everywhere

The point of my Dark Souls-esque Worldbuilding post (referenced above) is that you can embed lore into unlikely places, like your equipment lists. 

To build on that, you can embed lore everywhere. In this way, you feed the lore of your setting to your players like feeding your dog a pill wrapped in a piece of bologna. 

Embed Lore in your Classes

One strong way to embed lore is to put it into your classes. 

Players love reading classes. They love imagining characters. They love seeing powers and abilities. 

If your game comes with a setting and isn't a generic game, this is a huge opportunity for you. And not having weird ass classes is a missed opportunity.

A fighter is boring. Even something like a druid or a bard is boring at this point.

A sword-lord just sounds cooler. And gives you an opportunity to talk about how sword-lords fit into the social structures of your setting. 

The Ichabod class from Spiceomancy is probably my favorite example of a weird class. Goddamn, it's so cool.

+++

Sidebar

One of D&D's weirdest features at this point is its half embedded setting and half generic. Half of the game begs you to think about your warlock's patron, revoke your paladin's powers for breaking their oath, consider the organization of druids. The other asks you to consider each class as a bundle of mechanics with no representation: do you want to make a clumsy oaf who blunders their way into success? Just use monk stats, it doesn't mean anything. The tension in the contrast between these two points is a huge weakness in the game. 

+++

GLoG classes are cool and easy to make. People like making them because its pretty easy to think about a class's essential gimmick as four chunks of mechanics. 

One of the things I noticed about GLoG classes is that people are embedding some essential setting elements in the template A of a class. I think this is great (this is what gave me the idea for this post). For example, for a Princess class, you might add a template ability called Noble that says "You're a member of the nobility. Everyone treats you with respect. Also, you're worth more alive than dead. You'll be ransomed instead of killed, if possible."

These abilities might be called "Ribbon abilities" in 5E. They don't have a lot of crunch, but they're fun to have. 

You might ask: Shouldn't roleplaying and GM fiat just add these? (Yes, and...) Are these abilities really necessary? (Yes! They're the difference between a monk being someone who studies the Way of the Iron Palm versus a lucky oaf flavored with monk character abilities.)

And, crucially, they're a really good opportunity to hide nuggets of lore into the actual text of your game in a way that's fun to consume and easy to remember.

Here's an example of what I mean from CanFormerIncelsBePunk:

Joesky Tax:  False Shepherd

Here's an example class to further show how you might go about this:

When the signs were right - the daystar burned in the sky, the lambs gave forth bloody young, the olive trees bloomed in winter, the dead sang hymns of welcome - everyone knew the Shepherd was soon at hand. The Wheel of Fortune spun out many would-be Shepherds in those days, doling out many miracles in anticipation of his coming. 

There was a Conclave. All the would-be Shepherds gathered and discussed among themselves who amongst them would be most worthy. All then beheld the True Shepherd, and knew him, and rejoiced. 

You were one of the False Shepherds. Perhaps you even believed in yourself, at that time. But now there's no doubt. Yet, you still have your miracles.

Start with: hair shirt, shepherd's crook, and a musical instrument (pan pipes, a lyre, or a horn)

A - Penance of Humility, Gesture of the Wheel 

B - Signs and Wonders

C - Prophecy

D - Minor Sainthood

Penance of Humility

You were ordered to renounce the world by the true Shepherd. You are forbidden from carrying money as penance for your false claim. 

When you beg for charity, make a reaction roll; on favorable result, you get food, shelter, and reasonable aid.

Gain +1 to all reaction rolls; people remember how you served the land when you falsely proclaimed.

Gesture of the Wheel

The Wheel of Fortune weaves as it will, but you are at a confluence of threads--important to fate.

Once per session for each False Shepherd template you have, you may reroll any dice.

Signs and Wonders

Once per session for each False Shepherd template you have, you may invoke a Sign and Wonder. Once a Sign and Wonder has been used, you cannot use the same one again until you go to a conclave and confess.

1. Gesture of Command

You can issue a one-word command to anything the Creator made (except for humans, who have free will). Nature will obey implicitly: trees will fruit, rain will fall, embers will kindle into a blaze. Creatures like angels and demons and undead are allowed a save. If the command lasts more than a single round, the target gets a new save at the beginning of each of its rounds.

2. Song of Reincarnation

Used at funerals. A dead body will sing the praises of the Creator, then the Wheel will accept their soul. They will enter the cycle of reincarnation. This deals 2d6 damage to a corporeal undead.

3. Miracle of the Moving Moon

The Wheel turns. You may select a different time of day, different position of the heavens, and different time of year. For the next day, the world exists in this new time. The flow of time is restored at the dawning of the next day.

4. Gesture of Learning

You are given a memory of a past life. Ask a question of the GM. 50% that your past life knows a relevant and true answer.

5. Miracle of the Maker

A natural feature, such as a standing stone, old pine tree, or hillside will be spontaneously carved into the shape of a religious icon. This effect is permanent. Sleeping at this site heals an additional +1 hp.

6. Miracle of the Burning Building

When you use this Sign, remove one worldly impediment from one target:

• The need of food for one day
• Pain from fire or cold
• Exhaustion from toil in the sun
• The drowning of waters

This miracle will only benefit those who have never taken an innocent life.

7. Gesture of the Thunderbolt

The Creator will throw a thunderbolt at your behest. 2d6 damage to anyone visible to the open sky, the target can save for half.

Prophecy 

You have one prophecy inside you. This is what the Wheel wove you for. 

You can feel the prophecy in the back of your throat. When you choose to let it out, it's as if someone else is speaking through your mouth. Something everyone intuitively understands is true.

A prophecy has this format:

This will come to pass: ________________________ (anything you want to happen)
When ________________________ (condition spoken by the GM)

You will say the first part of the prophecy, and the GM will stipulate the second. For your section, you can say anything that you want to happen in your game world: the king will be reborn, the evil empire will fall, the broken sword will be remade. The GM also has free range to impose difficult conditions that are necessary to achieve this. 

By achieving template C, your prophecy will be spoken. If you die before you have a chance to utter it, it will issue forth from your corpse. 

Minor Sainthood

You gain 1 MD and learn one magic spell from the Elementalist spell list. You can cast this spell intuitively as a miracle. Your MD is a d4.

You no longer need to confess your sins to re-invoke a certain Sign and Wonder.

If and when you die, your body will be uncorrupted and never rot. Your spirit will ascend to Heaven. The site of your grave will become a holy site, and your miracle will manifest here upon occasion. 

By the way: Knock! #5 is now crowdfunding

While I have you, I wanted to mention that Knock #5 is currently on Kickstarter! Knock! is that hoary and honored old mainstay of OSR theorycraft and gameability: a bric-a-brac of adventure gaming for the true grognard connoisseur and curious D&D-heads alike.

We have surpassed 1158% of our funding goals! If you haven't backed yet, do so now! You don't want to miss this addition to your adventure gaming shelf. 

The Giant - A Monstrous OSR Class

This post continues the series of incomparable classes (such as the Truespeaker, the Knight, the Trickster, the Loremaster, and the Jester). As before, I've framed the rules here into a GLoG milieu because I wanted the abilities to cap out quickly, but you can steal the basic concepts pretty easily. 

The Giant

Giants are not born. They are made. They are made by eating other giants.

This class has special leveling rules. You only gain levels in Giant when you eat the heart of a giant. 

Becoming a giant is a fearsome thing. You did it to become strong. So strong you no longer had to worry about the casual cruelties of common men. 

But then, you fended off your first giant-slaying band--men who were intent to eat your heart. And then you had to fend off another giant, who sought to grow even larger. 

Now, every footfall is a potential cannibal, longing to pull out your engorged heart and roast it on a spit. You do not have any peers. You only have rivals. 

In the end, there can be only one..

Δ Giant A - Big, Bully

Δ Giant B - Huge

Δ Giant C - Gigantic, Cancerous

Δ Giant D - Titanic 

Big - You are now 9 feet tall. Your Strength is 8 (unless it was already higher). 

• You gain +1d4 HP. 
• You gain +1 Move. 
• Armor and clothing has to be made special for you. It costs 2x the normal rate.

Bully - You automatically pass Strength-based Combat Maneuver saves against creatures smaller than you.

Huge - You are now 14 feet tall. 

• You can wield two-handed weapons in one hand (dealing 1d10 damage). 
• You can use other two-slot items with one hand, too, when it makes sense. 
• Your unarmed attacks deal 1d6 damage. 
• You gain +1d4 HP. 
• You gain +1 Move.
• Armor and clothing has to be made special for you. It costs 3x the normal rate.

Gigantic - You are now 19 feet tall. Your Strength is 9 (unless it was already higher). 

• Your unarmed attacks are made at -2 Attack but deal 1d8 damage. 
• You can pick up and use improvised weapons like tree trunks or boulders that deal 1d12 damage, but can only be used once. 
• You gain +1d6 HP. 
• You gain +1 Move.
• Armor and clothing has to be made special for you. It costs 5x the normal rate.

Cancerous - Tumors begin to grow on your body. Every time you roll a 1, you cough up blood. Roll a 1d100. If you roll under your maximum HP, the cancer has spread too far. You will die at the end of this season.

Titanic - You are now 31 feet tall. Your Strength is 12 (unless it was already higher). 

• Your unarmed attacks are made at -2 Attack but deal 1d12 damage. 
• You can pick up and use improvised weapons like tree trunks or boulders that deal 1d20 damage, but can only be used once. 
• You cannot use normal weapons anymore. 
• You gain +1d6 HP. 
• You gain +1 Move.
• It is practically impossible to make armor for you. Clothes can be made to fit you for the price of a lady's dowry. 

Analysis

I was thinking that, in contrast to the knight, the giant is the simplest, most basic fighter type. In real life combat, having a few inches on your opponent matters a lot. It's easier for you to do the dance of "hit but not be hit."

So take that to its logical extreme. A fighter type whose only strategy is just getting bigger and bigger. Each stride takes you farther. Your weapons get better because they stop being weapons and start being columns. 

Also, he who lives by the giant dies by the giant - both because you join a community of enemies (other would-be titans who want to eat you), and because of...cancer? I don't know why that's there, actually. but I like it. 

Truespeaker - Freeform Magic for OSRish games

The quadratic wizard and the linear fighter is an old "problem." I also see RPG forum posts at least once a month asking for recommendations for freeform magic use, and Mage and Ars Magica are always ready at hand to recommend. I wanted to offer an alternative.

Truespeaking is a magic system that is freeform but also pretty dirt simple. No spell lists, no looking up rules, no spell slots. Magic relies on free Kriegsspiel rules, give or take. Fighters and wizards become incomparable - they do not use the same rules to do the same things. 

I've framed this class in GLoG terms because 1) the GLoG keeps HP low, which is important and 2) I wanted the abilities to cap out quickly. Reframe the basic idea into your game of choice. 

The Ouroboros Eats Itself: A lot of ideas for this class came from @ericbabe3's DCC homebrew rules. Many thanks to him for sharing those with me! 

A Caveat: Having control over everything and everyone is...weird! Inappropriate! Bad! LeGuin handles this material incredibly thoughtfully. Before using this magic system for murder-hoboing, set expectations at your table about what is kosher within these rules for you. Fun should be fun. Don't take the open-ended nature of this system to make gameplay not fun.

The Truespeaker

"That is the language dragons speak, and the language Segoy spoke who made the islands of the world, and the language of our lays and songs, spells, enchantments, and invocations. … Any witch knows a few of these words in the Old Speech, and a mage knows many. But there are many more, and some have been lost over the ages, and some have been hidden, and some are known only to dragons and to the Old Powers of Earth, and some are known to no living creature; and no man could learn them all. For there is no end to that language."

- Wizard of Earthsea

You know the truespeech - the words of command, the old tongue, the language of creation. What you say in the truespeech cannot be a lie, therefore it is true. By speaking, you reshape reality to fit your words. 

Truespeaker A - Detect Spells, One Syllable Truewords

Truespeaker B - Two Syllable Truewords

Truespeaker C - Three Syllable Truewords

Truespeaker D - Four Syllable Truewords

Detect Spells

Speaking the truespeech resonates throughout the world. You can sense any truespeech within [template] miles of a spell being cast. 

Truewords

You may cast truespeech spells (see below). You may speak truewords a number of syllables long as templates in this class. You may speak spells with as many truewords as templates in this class + Cha modifier. 

Casting Spells

Sank the braggart, Youkahainen,
Deeper in his slough of torment,
To his chin in mud and water,
Ever praying, thus beseeching:
“O thou ancient Wainamoinen,
Greatest of the old magicians,
Lift me from this pit of horror

- The Kalevala

A spell is a sentence in truespeech. 

(Think about the terms here. A spell is a word. That's why you enter a spelling bee. To cast something is to throw it away. To cast a spell is to throw a word.)

Anything or anyone who hears a spell must obey it to the best of their ability. 

For example:

• OPEN will cause a door to open.
• KNEEL will force a particular person to kneel before you.
• GIVE IT TO ME will oblige a dog to give you whatever it has in its mouth or a thief to return what they've stolen.
• DROP will cause a fig tree to drop its figs for you. It could also cause a fighter to fall prone or perhaps drop their weapon (at their own interpretation, see Rule of Plausible Deniability below).

How long do spells last?

A person is compelled to obey the spell until the earliest instance they have fulfilled it. Someone commanded to KNEEL may get up at any time afterwards. 

A spell commands a person instantly. (Clever truespeakers can use their "turn" to give their allies extra actions by commanding them with spells.) 

The commanded creature does not have to spend their action on a later turn to obey unless the spell specifies continuous or prolonged action.

If a creature ever starts their turn under the effects of a spell, they may make a saving throw to break the spell's hold on them.

That is to say:

Step 1: The target acts immediately on the truespeaker's turn. 

Step 2: If the spell has not been resolved, the target may make a saving throw at the beginning of their turn until they break the spell or the spell is complete.  

Game Design Sidebar: Effects should never not do anything. If you are bitten by a snake and get poisoned something bad should happen. Can you make a saving throw to avoid the worst of it? Sure. But if a wizard casts a spell on you, something bad should happen. Only by an act of defiance and will can you eventually shrug off an effect. 

How many spells can you cast?

You may cast spells with as many truewords as [number of templates] + [Cha modifier]. 

Each trueword in a spell can only be as many syllables long as your [number of templates]. 

For example:

• A Truespeaker A character with +2 Cha can speak a sentence 3 words long, with any 1 word being only 1 syllable. 
• A Truespeaker C character with +1 Cha can speak a sentence 4 words long, with any 1 word being 3 syllables. 
• A Truespeaker D character with +3 Cha can speak a character 7 words long, with any 1 word being 4 syllables.

Whenever you cast a spell, you accumulate spellburn equal to the number of truewords spoken in the spell. 

Spellburn

Truespeech is the tongue of dragons. Mortals are not designed to speak it. It burns their throats and saps their spirits.

Each point of spellburn lowers your maximum hit points by 1. For example, if you speak a 5 word spell your maximum HP is lowered by 5. 

If spellburn would ever reduce your HP to 0 and someone administers first aid to you so you don't die, you gain a random mutation when you recover. Use your favorite random mutation table. 

(These mutations called "brands" if you're a good little truespeaker from the Isle of Roke. These are called "blights" if you're an evil necromancer who knows the Lore of Paln.) 

You can bleed off spellburn by sleeping. You reduce your spellburn 1 + Cha per night. 

You can also bleed off spellburn at places of magical importance, like places where leylines cross. This  requires you to perform a ritual 1 day long and reduces your spellburn by [1d6 + Cha + number of templates].

The Rules and Limits of the Truespeech 

'What it was I cannot guess, but I have never felt such a challenge. The counter-spell was terrible. It nearly broke me. For an instant the door left my control and began to open! I had to speak a word of Command. That proved too great a strain. The door burst in pieces. Something dark as a cloud was blocking out all the light inside, and I was thrown backwards down the stairs. All the wall gave way, and the roof of the chamber as well, I think.

- The Fellowship of the Ring, Jolkien Rolkien Rolkien Tolkien

Alright, I lied when I said you didn't have to memorize a lot of rules. There are limits to casting spells with the truespeech. These rules define what is and isn't possible with this system. They're pretty easy though, so consult them only when needed. 

Side Note: It is rumored that Truesinging controls not the present - but the future. (This is how the world was made.) They also say that the dwarves' Truerunes control the past. 

The Rule of Sub-Creation

A spell can only work within the natural bounds of creation itself. Snow cannot BURN. Apple trees cannot GROW PUMPKINS. A dog cannot TRANSFORM INTO A MAN (or vice versa). You can only command objects, things, people, etc. to do things they can reasonably accomplish. These actions can be foolish - even dangerous - but they cannot be unnatural.

The Animist's First Exception - Movement

Most people don't know this, but almost everything can move. They just choose not to. Spells can command something to move - rocks to stack themselves, arrows to fly without a bow, flames to leap from their logs. 

Spells can command anything to move and it will obey.

The Animist's Second Exception - Speech

The little spirit in almost anything can also speak. Spells can command anything - rocks, books, dead bodies, living people - to speak and it will obey. Unless the spell is cleverly constructed, most things will not say anything meaningful (see Plausible Deniability below).

The Necromancer's First Exception - Time

Time isn't real. It's a tacit lie that makes people comfortable. You can speed up natural processes (but not work) through spells. For example, milk can instantly CURDLE. Fruit can instantly RIPEN. A man can instantly GROW A BEARD.  

The Rule of Iron

Iron is the act of the Demiurge. Men use iron to kill each other, thus fulfilling the evil will of the Demiurge. The True Creator has never touched iron and thus cannot affect it. 

If you are carrying a significant portion of iron, truespeaking cannot affect you.

If you are carrying a significant portion of iron, you cannot speak the truespeech. 

Game Design Sidebar: For stuff as nasty as this subsystem, you should give players an out. Someone carrying iron can neither benefit from (by getting extra actions from) nor be harmed by truespeaking. They tap out. 

The Rule of the Listener

Spells only affect something that can hear you. You cannot affect the moon, for instance, because it is too far away. 

Rule of Plausible Deniability

(This is an important rule.) Someone who hears the truespeech must immediately obey the spell to the best of their ability. 

They are allowed to find loopholes. 

A person commanded to do a single thing will do it - and can then resume whatever they were doing previously. A person commanded to KNEEL will bend the knee for a moment then get back up. A person commanded to DROP YOUR SWORD will drop it - but can recover it at the earliest opportunity. 

The truespeech is especially ruinous when a moment's action would spell their doom. WALK FORWARD can make even a strong-willed person step off of a cliff. (But then again - so could a strong fighter bullrushing them to their doom.) 

Clever spells can entrap a person for a length of time. COUNT EVERY GRAIN OF SAND on a beach could potentially occupy a victim indefinitely. If a creature ever starts their turn under the effects of a spell, they may make a saving throw to break the spell's hold on them.

The Rule of Naming

Anything that hears you will obey you for a moment. Given time, a creature's own will can overcome your spell. However, if you speak a true name as part of the spell, the target cannot make a saving throw to overcome continuous action.

The Exception of Counter-Naming

The Rule of Naming is sublimated by this exception: If the target also knows your true name, their knowledge of your name allows them to ignore the use of their true name. They are allowed a saving throw as normal.

The Rule of Mortal's Limitation

Outside of the Sub-Creation Exceptions (time, etc.), a spell cannot do much more than the truespeaker could with free hands and tools. 

Most spells do as much damage as a normal weapon (say, 1d6). This includes thrown stones, tongues of fire, or entangling thorns. 

Some cleverly worded spells may do more (fire may continue burning, a collapsed bridge might drown someone, etc.). 

The most grievous part of this limitation is the inability to affect life itself. Spells may not directly affect the life force of any creature, positively or negatively. 

The Rule of Right and Left Hand

Speaking the truespeech can be very vague and context is all important. A truespeaker can provide context through vigorous gestures. 

Anything gestured to with the left hand is the commanded one.

Anything gestured to with the right hand is the target of the command. 

For example: The truespeaker says ATTACK, gesturing at one orc with the left hand and a human bandit with the right hand. The orc is compelled to attack the human bandit.

You can only gesture with hands that are completely empty. Being more eloquent with your spells removes the needs to use gestures altogether.

The Rule of Specificity 

Gestures can only get you so far. The more specific a spell, the better in accordance with the caster's wishes. For example ALL ORCS STOP would target every orc within hearing. 

The Rule of Cumulation 

Spells only command, they do not create. You must have a valid target for your spells. 

There is a saying: It must be raining before it storms. 

You cannot call lightning from nothing. First, the spirits of the air must make it rain. Then, it must storm. Then, you can call the lightening. 

The Rule of Countering

Anything that truespeech does can be undone by truespeech again. 

(The most dangerous spells compel changes that cannot be undone, for example, an ensorcelled brother putting his sword through his brother's face.)

The Exception of the Sorcerer

Spellburn cannot be healed by the truespeech or by any magic. 

Classic Fantasy Races for the GLoG

I'm a goddamn sucker for classic fantasy and this post is for my basic bitch predilections.

One of the things I like so much about the GLoG is its class system. It has a nice sweet spot for "defining character traits" and "no character building 1-20 synergy bullshit."

Another thing I like are race-as-class. Most people run GLoG as having races providing one, small optional weird perk. Like, you can be a slugman and climb up walls on a trail of slime, or whatever. But that lacks the essential good juju of race-as-class.

The idea of having races as classes being optional tickles me. You can be a dwarf cleric if you want by taking cleric levels, and just "also be a dwarf." But with the GLoG, you can mix and match. Dwarf A, B and Cleric A, B would be pretty cool.

Here are five GLoG classes that exemplify classic fantasy races. You can't mix and match unless you're a half-race. If you don't at least have the A level of your race, you're perceived as a racial outcast and misfit.

From Dungeon Meshi, different race options

Human

Humans are not as hardy as the immortal elves, being given to sickness and age. Nor are they as crafty as the underfolk, being slow to develop the crafts of alchemy and lore of natural philosophy. Yet mankind has one gift that surpasses every other: war.

Mankind is built for war. The crafts they have learned from dwarves and elves have been turned ingeniously to this purpose. They breed and maturely quickly to resupply their cities with men and women lost to hardship. They are fierce, doughty, and brave. Using their arts of war, mankind has conquered much of the Wide World. They are the conquering kings, proud and terrible.

Every human template grants 1 Mastery and +1 HP.

Starting Equipment: an heirloom tool, a one-handed weapon, a mundane pet: a cat, a dog, a horse, a goat, a rat, a chicken, whatever
Bonus Language: The Common Tongue is one of the human's cleverest inventions: a magical language that can always be understood by other speaking peoples. 
Not everybody can speak Common, just understand it. It freaks certain things out to hear it spoken ("How do I understand you? Are you in my brain? Get out!"). 

A - Master of Horses
B - Tall, Hateful
C - Communal
D - Proud

Master of Horses 

You grew up around animals and can handle them pretty well. When trained, they do incredibly improbable things.

Essentially, you can treat trained animals you keep and feed as henchmen. If it's like a war dog or war horse, they can fight beside you like a low-level fighter. 

Unless something very, very unfortunate happens, this ability ensures your favorite pet will survive even when knocked out of the fight. 

Tall

You gain either a +1 to your Strength or Constitution stat, to a maximum of 9.

Hateful

Humans use one dice step higher when rolling damage: d3 -> d4 -> d6 -> d8, etc. For most weapons, this will be a d8.

Communal

Your Mastery points give a +2 bonus per point spent, instead of +1. 

Proud 

A remote uncle dies and leaves you a great inheritance; the local lord notices your rising fame and bribes you; whatever happens, you gain a minor noble title. Name your new noble house, select heraldry and house words. 

When you fight under your own banner or wear your own heraldry, you gain +1 Attack and Defense. 

Hirelings now have a starting Loyalty of 10 instead of 6.

Anybody sworn to your service may choose to fill one of their empty Save slots with one of your Saves. Tales of your near demise are very popular, and everybody benefits from your experience. 

Dwarf

A dwarf is an obsessive creature. He loves to create. When he discovers what craft most interests him, he dedicates himself completely to it. His hours are spent perfecting his craft, innovating in his craft, critiquing examples of his craft, and tearing it all down so he can start again and do it right this time. Really, drinking is the only thing that keeps a dwarf steady. It evens him out, mellows him down, lets his mind work on problems that aren't exclusively about his craftwork.

All this obsessiveness pays off. Dwarf-craft is both practical and beautiful. It is highly sought after, which makes them rich. This is important for dwarves, who know the purpose of life: construct your tomb, because that's where you're going to spend the rest of eternity. Woe to the dwarf whose ghost goes into the afterlife bored. 

Every dwarf template grants 1 inventory slot. This slot is inside the dwarf's beard. Nobody can find it unless they shave the dwarf. 

Starting equipment: mattock, tinker's kit, half-filled book of grudges

Bonus language: Iglishmek - The dwarves teach Iglishmek to no one. It cannot be translated by someone who does not know it. It is altogether secret. It cannot be decoded. Comprehend Language spells fail. 

A - Goldnose, Crafty

B - Handy if Not Handsome, Stout

C - Obsessive

D - Stubborn

Goldnose

You can smell gold, jewels, gems, silver--minerals and crystals of value. If you stand at a crossroads and sniff, the GM will tell you which direction has the most treasure. If you sniff in an empty room, the GM will tell you if you smell the faint odor of potentially buried treasure. 

Crafty

You can identify works of craft: you have a good idea of who created it, its origins, its purposes, its powers, and its curses.

Handy if Not Handsome

As long as you have basic tools you can make significant repairs to a single object overnight. If a shield has been sundered or spear shaken, you can repair them with a single night of work. You don't even need sleep when you work: your obsession is refreshing.

Stout

You gain either a +1 bonus to your Constitution or Wisdom stat, to a maximum of 9.

Obsessive

Once in his life, a dwarf descends into a hole and comes out with his life's work: some magic item of excellent craft. 

During downtime, you can declare that you are using this ability. Work with your GM to design an appropriate magic item that exemplifies your "life story." You can only create one magic item in this way, ever. 

Stubborn

You get so stubborn even spells stop affecting you. You are now a magic null zone. Magic of any kind, both good and bad, cannot work on you. Shaving your beard cancels this ability.

Elf

Elves are at home in the wilds of the world. They are renowned for their wood-craft, and can move silently when stalking through the forest, disturbing neither twig nor leaf. They are also renowned for their great beauty, being called the fairest of all people. Many mortals hold them in awe. At times they are merry, and take great delight in dances and parties, which they will hold in the middle of forests, enwrapped in multi-colored lights. Other times, they are grim as aged kings. They keep their own laws, which are ancient and unknown to mortal men. Their ways are strange. In truth, the Elves are like a force of nature – they embody the gentle spring rain, the summer’s thunderstorm, the calm of autumn and the bleakness of winter.

Each elf template grants a +2 bonus to Stealth while in the wilderness. 

Starting equipment: a musical instrument, a phial of luminous starlight, hunting bow
Bonus language: Osanwe Kenta - If two speakers of this language stare at each other in the eyes, they can communicate by mind speech. You cannot lie in the psychic speech of Osanwe Kenta.

A - Star Eyed, Immortal

B - Glamorous, Enchanted

C - Wood-weird, +1 Magic Dice

D - Uncanny, +1 Magic Dice

Star Eyed

Elves treat starlight as sunlight. If they can see the stars, they can see as well as they can during the day. This doesn't help in dark, underground dungeons, but is helpful in the wilderness.

Immortal

Each elf keeps a tree as a home. If the elf dies, the tree dies, and vice versa. As long as this tree is alive, the elf will not die from old age. 

Practically, this means that elves cannot be magically aged. They do not suffer either mundane or magical disease. If severely wounded, the elf never looks gross. His scars look cool and beautiful.

Glamorous
You gain either a +1 bonus to your Dexterity or Intelligence stat, to a maximum of 9.

Enchanted
Elves cast spells by singing. One spell is called their "heartspell." The heartspell is drawn from the elementalist wizard list. Elves derive their "type" from their heartspell, e.g., mist elves cast feather fall, dark elves cast light, etc. 

Elves may wear elfy robes and gain 1 Magic Dice with which to cast this spell. If they do not have Magic Dice from robes or wizard levels, they may always cast their heartspell by taking 1d6 damage. The value of the damage dice is treated as the spell's [value], if relevant.

Wood-weird
Each great forest, tall mountain, and deep lake has a spell hidden in it. If you spend the night sleeping in a new, significant, natural location, you can learn this hidden spell. Make an Intelligence check. If you succeed, the GM will give you of a new elementalist spell appropriate to the place of power. You'll have to travel to different biomes to learn the whole breadth of the elementalist's spell list.

Uncanny
You permanently gain the effects of the spell Wizard's Vision, without any attribute loss. You call this spell "Elf Vision," and claim that wizards stole it from your people--that's why it drives them insane to use.

Gnome

Gnomes are what becomes of the children that elves steal. When elves get a wild hair to raise a child (elves  don't procreate normally), they sneak into human lands and steal a baby. In their place they leave a changeling--a log of alder wood or a goblin wrapped in a glamour of a human child. The glamour never lasts very long. Then they take the human baby back to Elfland and turn it into a gnome.

A gnome has the blessing of immortality but not agelessness. A gnome grows old but never dies. They never grow much larger than human children, but soon grow liver spots, long beards, bee-sting noses, yellowed nails, hunched backs. Eventually, they might grow into trees. 

By the time this happens, their elven "parents" have long since lost interest. 

Each gnome template grants +1 skill slot.  

Starting equipment: hallucinogenic mushrooms (1 dose), lantern, 30' length of scarves tied together (as silk rope), nine-pound hammer

A - Clever Eared, Tongue of Beast and Birds

B - Gnarled, Wise 

C - Foresighted

D - Deep Memory

Clever Eared
You hear would-be ambushers moments before they attack. When surprised, you have a 3-in-6 chance to act anyway.

Tongue of Beast and Birds

Gnomes make study of the languages of animals. When encountering a new type of natural animal, you can make an Intelligence check to see if they have studied that animal's tongue. Different beast languages are somewhat narrow: Mouse and Rat languages are different, for example (but perhaps in the same language family). Keep a list of all the animals you can speak to. Animal languages take up a skill slot.

Gnarled
You gain either a +1 bonus to your Intelligence or Wisdom stat, to a maximum of 9.

Wise

When you sleep at night, you may ask the GM one question of something in the akashic record.

Foresighted
Once per day, you can ask the GM: "If I do X, will Y happen?". The GM will honestly answer "yes," "no," or "maybe."

Deep Memory
When you ask a question using Wise, you can immediately ask a follow-up question after the GM has given you an answer. 

Halfling

Halflings are a peaceable people, good-natured, and inclined to be friendly. When dwarves make stuff, it's the halflings who turn that stuff into gold. Of course, they take a little commission for their trouble. This is generally agreed upon to be a good relationship, because dwarves and humans don't always see eye to eye. Besides, dwarves would rather be making.

Halflings also fill in the gaps in domestic work. Dwarves might not notice that their workshops fill up with old scraps, empty oil cans, and soot, but the halflings certainly do. Halflings like the finer things in life. They like things to be clean, put together, and respectable. Therefore, if something needs cleaning, fixing, mending, and put-right, halflings often do that job themselves.

If halflings have one failing, it’s their love of their comforts. Few people like eating as much as halflings enjoy their auntie's mushroom pie. Few people like drinking as much as halflings enjoy the pint of bitter from the Bird and Baby Tavern. Few people like smoking as much as halflings enjoy a pipe full of Old Toby from the summer harvest of '45. 

Each halfling template grants a +1 bonus to Save rolls.

Starting equipment: cooking gear, walking staff, pipe and pipeweed

Bonus language: Halfling Argot - Whatever the local language is, halflings speak a clever little variant of it. The argot is designed to sound like normal conversation from an outside, but is full of hidden meaning, rhyming words, and ironies that are apparent only to those fluent in halfling argot. "By mercy, two birds went flying over my head in the blue of this summer's morning," might actually mean "Say, do you want to rob that stupid looking human over there? Very good, let's use the lost violin grift."

A - Gourmand, Love of Comfort

B - Jolly, Small

C - Common Sense (critical dodge threshhold goes up)

D - Damned Little Buggers

Gourmand
You have exceptional taste. With just a tiny taste of food, you can tell what the ingredients are (e.g., if there's a little extra poison in there). This lets you backwards engineer most potions.

Love of Comfort
Whenever you gain a drunkenness point, you can heal 1d4 HP. You can do this a number of times equal to the number of your halfling templates until you sleep it off.

Jolly
When you encounter a creature for the first time, you have a 3-in-6 chance to change their Disposition to "Curious" or "Friendly." People just seem to like you.

Small
You gain either a +1 bonus to your Dexterity or Charisma stat, to a maximum of 9.

Common Sense
You critically succeed dodge attempts on an 18, 19, or 20. This lets you make an attack or combat maneuver in retribution.

Damned Little Buggers

Whenever a larger enemy misses you with a melee attack, you may force them to make another melee attack against a target within range. It's possible to make enemies hit themselves with this ability.

GLoG: Rat-kebab Edition

Goblin Laws of Gaming

Rat-Kebab Edition

Sources Cited:

• The Goblin Laws of Gaming, Original Flavor - Arnold K, goblinpunch
• Overloaded Encounter Dice - Necropraxis
• Dungeon Menu All - Skerples, Coins and Scrolls
• Eating Good in the Dungeonhood - Occultesque
• All the images are from Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui

Delicious in Dungeon

A hack about eating monsters, in case you like stupid shit like this

The Rat-Kebab Edition is a ruleset explicitly about trying to scavenge food in the mythic underworld. It's mostly an homage to Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui. The main gimmick is that nutrients = experience points. The rules assume GLoG as your base (since it's so hackable), but you can probably port this onto whatever your D&D flavor of choice is. Include this with something like Veins of the Earth if laying it on thick is your cup of tea. Blend it with Gardens of Ynn or similar if you wanna get weird with it.

Ability Checks

Root for the trapsmith's success...from a distance!

As with core GLoG, almost everything uses a d20 rolled against a target number. If the outcome of an attempt is uncertain, the GM determines what ability score most suits the test at hand. The player rolls a d20. If you roll equal to or less than the tested ability score, but above your Fatigue, you succeed. 

Everybody starts with the similar stats.

• Ability scores are determined by 4d4 in order, swap 2. Abilities cap out at 18.
• Everybody starts with Attack 11 and Save 6 (modified by Cha) per core GLoG. Attack and Save scores cap out at 15. 
• You begin with a template A class. You gain more templates when your ability scores increase, to a maximum of four templates.
• Calculate Defense, Stealth, Move, and Initiative as normal. 

Skills

If you have a relevant skill to the task at hand, treat the tested ability as being +2. If you have a mastered skill relevant to the task at hand, treated the tested ability as being +4.

Mastered skills take up two skill slots and must be learned from a master trainer. For example, you learn master lockpicking from the head of the Thief's Guild.

Fatigue

Adventurers must be careful to balance their resources and their fatigue

Fatigue is a measure of how tired you are on a 1-20 scale. When you make a test, you must roll above your current Fatigue score but under or equal to your attribute test to succeed. 

Fatigue is gained from the Encounter Dice and from taking heavy damage (see below). The GM may also deal out Fatigue for strenuous or unhealthy situations, like wading through a fetid swamp or climbing a mountain during a blizzard.

You lose all of your fatigue when you eat a decent meal. See "Cooking" below.

The Encounter Dice

As the PCs explore the dungeon, the GM rolls the Overloaded Encounter Die. On a roll of 2 (Fatigue), each PC gains 1 point of Fatigue. 

Hit Points - Grit and Flesh

Look the fuck out

Grit is "don't get hit" points. It represents your ability to mitigate actual harm. You use these up first.

Flesh represents damage to your precious body. When you take damage to your Flesh, your blood is flowing. You take Flesh damage after you've used up all your Grit--or take damage in such a way that you can't get out of the way, e.g., falling onto spikes totally bypasses your Grit and goes straight onto your Flesh.

Characters have a number of Flesh points equal to 1/2 their Constitution, rounded up. Characters have a variable amount of Grit based on what they eat (see "Leveling" below).

You die when you're at - [Constitution] Flesh points.

If you're in the negatives Flesh-wise but not dead, a character can perform first aid. This is a Wisdom check (with a bonus if you have a skill like Leechcraft or Doctor or something). If successful, the character is restored to 1 Flesh and gains a number of Fatigue points equal to the negative value that was healed.

For example, a wounded character at -5 Flesh who is healed through first aid gains 5 Fatigue points.

You can also heal wounded characters through magic, as per usual. Healing magic adds Flesh points, even if in negative totals.

Cooking

Cooking brings a brief moment of rest and respite in the dangers of the dungeon

When the party stops to rest in the deep dark dungeon, they have to eat. 

Eating rations and preserved food heals all Fatigue accumulated. It stops you from starving. This is the end of their benefits. 

A feast is a moment of actual rest in the middle of hostile and hungry darkness. All characters eating a feast heal all Flesh and Fatigue as feasts warm the heart and strengthen the body. Additionally, depending on the make up of the feast, characters might gain Grit, Magic Dice, and temporary or permanent bonuses to their abilities. See "Leveling" below.

To create a feast, you require:

• Two unique ingredients
• One portion per character

In addition, you must fulfill two of the following five criteria:

• Fire
• Water
• Utensils
• Cooking gear
• Spices

A feast must be prepared and then immediately consumed. Leftovers don't count as a feast. 

Each monster eaten provides a certain amount of portions. A rat yields about one portion. A minotaur yields about eight. A dragon could feast upwards of fifty adventurers. 

If you eat something sentient, you gain a point of The Hunger (see below).

The GM should add together any nutritional benefits from the two ingredients used to make a feast and tell the players the totals for each nutrient category (see below). Decimal totals are rounded as normal; .5 is rounded up to 1, .4 is rounded down to 0.

A nutrient has a maximum score of 5. No matter the combination of ingredients, a nutrient can't go above 5 for any one particular feast.

The GM does not need to elaborate about which ingredient provided which benefit.

Example: After a battle with a basilisk, the party cooks an omelette out of the basilisk's eggs, basilisk bacon, and sliced shambling mound. They cook the omelette in Senshi's wok (cooking gear), flavor it with salt, pepper, and ketchup (spices), over a fire. This fulfills 3 out of 5 of the cooking requirements.

Leveling Up - Eat Your Way to Glory

Levels are a useless concept. Abandon them.

Characters grow and become stronger if they eat well-balanced, healthful, and magical meals. 

Each feast has five stats, called nutrients. 

• Flavor determines how delicious the feast is. This nutrient reinforces a character's Save stat. 
• Energy determines how many calories a feast has. This nutrient reinforces a character's Grit.
• Minerals provide needed magical energy. This nutrient refills a spell-casting character's Magic Dice. 
• Vitamins are good for your brain. This nutrient reinforces a character's mental abilities. 
• Protein builds strong bones and muscles. This nutrient reinforces a character's physical abilities.

Each character eating a feast may choose to gain the benefits of two nutrients per feast. 

Example: The basilisk and shambling mound omelette both contribute their nutritional merits to the meal.

The shambling mound contributes 0.4 Flavor, 2.6 Energy, 1 Minerals, 2.5 Vitamins, and 2 Protein.

The basilisk contributes 2 Flavor, 1.5 Energy, 2 Minerals, 2 Vitamins, and 2 Protein.

In total, that's 2 Flavor, 4 Energy, 3 Minerals, 4 Vitamins, and 4 Protein. The feast is entirely of exotic foods so the Food Dice equals d6.

• Laius the fighter and Senshi the dwarf were both injured in the battle, so they both dedicate one-half of the feast to energy to get back some Grit. 
• Laius is training with Marcille to learn magic, so he dedicates the other half of his feast to vitamins, hoping to buff his mental stats. 
• Senshi dedicates the other half of his feast to flavor, hoping to get a bonus to his Save stat. 
• Marcille used magic during the last battle so she dedicates half of her feast to minerals to recover magic dice. She chooses vitamins for the other half of her feast hoping to gain a bonus to her Wisdom stat. 
• Chilchak chooses flavor and protein for his benefits, hoping to gain some benefit to his Save or Dexterity stats.

Food Dice

When the rules call for it, the players may roll Food Dice (FD). Food Dice are either d4s, d6s or d8s. 

• If the feast contained mundane animals or plants, the Food Dice are equal to d4s. 
• If the feast contained no mundane animals or plants, only exotic ingredients, the Food Dice are equal to d6s. 
• If the feast contained extraordinarily magical ingredients, like a dragon or an angel, the Food Dice are equal to d8s. 

Checks and Increasing Stats

If a player accumulates three checks on any stat except for Attack, they may immediately increase that stat by 1. Adjust derived stats accordingly.

Attack requires five checks to increase.

When you gain a physical stat increase (Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity), you gain a template in a class of predominantly physical prowess (e.g., Acrobat, Fighter, Thief, Ranger, etc.).

When you gain a mental stat increase (Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma), you gain a template in a magical, academic, or weird class (e.g., Wizard, Cleric, Rat Master, etc.). 

The GM will make a call for templates that seem to straddle the physical/mental divide (e.g., Muscle Wizard). Maybe you need alternating stat increases, or maybe the GM will set up prime requisites that trigger template gain.

Flavor

The more delicious the meal, the better disposition the character has. The better a character's disposition, the stronger their willpower and more stalwart their heart.

If the players benefit from flavor: Characters may roll as many FD as the feast's flavor rank.

• If the total of the roll exceeds the character's Save, the Save stat gains a check.
• If any FD show the same face, the character gains a temporary bonus to their Save score equal to the amount of faces shown. This bonus lasts until the next time you rest.
• For example, a roll of 3, 2, 2, 2, 4 would give a bonus of +3. 

Energy

The more energy a character has, the more resilient they are in the face of adversity.

If the players benefit from energy: After the feast, characters may roll as many FD as the feast's energy rank.

• The character's current Grit score is immediately replaced with the new total. 

Minerals

Minerals connect a character to the natural world and the ebb of mana. As a magic-user casts spells, their internal reserves of minerals becomes quickly depleted. In fact, magic-users are at great risk for hypokalemia and hypocalcaemia. 

If the players benefit from minerals: Characters gain magic dice (MD) of the same die type and number as the feast's mineral rank. A character can hold as maximum amount of magic dice as they have spell-casting templates. These MD are held until spent and expended through casting spells.

Example: Marsille (Wizard 3, Necromancer 1) currently has 3 MD. She eats basilisk and slime soup, which has a mineral rating of 2. This would yield two d6 MD, to be used whenever she wants to cast a spell. However, since her maximum is 4 magic dice, she only gains one d6 MD from the meal.

Vitamins

Vitamins produce a healthful effect on one's metabolism, reasoning, and cognitive capabilities. By eating foods rich in vitamins, characters benefit from increased memory and logical reasoning capabilities.

If the players benefit from vitamins: Characters may roll as many FD as the feast's vitamin rank.

• Select one of your mental abilities: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. If the total of the roll exceeds the character's ability, that ability gains a check.
• A player may choose to "split" the FD between different mental abilities. For example, after eating a 4FD feast, you may put 2FD towards Wisdom and 2FD towards Charisma.
• If any FD rolled against the same ability show the same face, the character gains a temporary bonus to their selected score equal to the amount of faces shown. This bonus lasts until the next time you rest.
• For example, a roll of 4, 4 towards Charisma and 1, 3 towards Wisdom would give a bonus of +2 to Charisma. 

Proteins

Proteins are important for building muscle and reducing soreness after exertion. Eating foods rich in proteins promotes physical development. 

If the players benefit from proteins: Characters may roll as many FD as the feast's proteins rank.

• Select one of your physical abilities (Strength, Constitution, or Dexterity) or Attack stat. If the total of the roll exceeds the character's ability, that ability gains a check.
• A player may choose to "split" the FD between different stats. For example, after eating a 5FD feast, you may put 2FD towards Attack and 3FD towards Constitution.
• If any FD rolled against the same ability show the same face, the character gains a temporary bonus to their selected score equal to the amount of faces shown. This bonus lasts until the next time you rest.
• For example, a roll of 4, 4 towards Attack and 1, 3, 3 towards Constitution would give a temporary bonus of +2 to both Attack and Constitution. 

Example: Following our example above, let's zoom in on each member of the party and see how the feast impacted them. 

• In total, that's 2 Flavor, 4 Energy, 3 Minerals, 4 Vitamins, and 4 Protein. The feast is entirely of exotic foods so the Food Dice equals d6.
  
  
  • Laius the fighter rolls 4d6 for Energy and 4d6 for Vitamins. He dedicates all 4d6 to his Intelligence, hoping to raise that stat (currently a 12). 
  • Laius rolls a 15 for his Energy. He sets his current Grit total to 15. 
  • Laius rolls a 13 for his Vitamins. Since this is above his current Intelligence score, he gives this ability one check.
  • Senshi the dwarf rolls 4d6 for Energy and 2d6 for Flavor. Senshi's Save stat is currently 11
  • Senshi rolls a 7 for his Energy. He sets his current Grit total to 7. 
  • Senshi rolls a 5 for his Flavor. This is lower than his current Save score so he gains no checks.
  • Marcille the elf rolls 3d6 for her Minerals and 4d6 for her Vitamins. She currently has 1 Magic Die and a maximum of 4. Her Wisdom stat is currently 15.
  • Marcille gains 3 Magic Dice. This sets her total back to 4, her maximum. 
  • Marcille rolls an 8 for her Vitamins. Since this is lower than her current Wisdom score she gains no checks.
  • Chilchak the halfling rolls 2d6 for Flavor. Chilchak's Save stat is currently 10. He wants to raise both his Strength score (currently 8) and Constitution score (currently 10). Because the feast provides 4d6 Protein, he puts 2d6 towards Strength and 2d6 towards Constitution. 
  • Chilchak rolls 10 for his Flavor. Because this meets but does not exceed his Save stat, he gains no checks.
  • Chilchak rolls 4 for his Proteins vs Strength. Since this is lower than his current Strength score he gains no checks.
  • Chilchak rolls 11 for his Proteins vs Constitution. Since this is above his current Constitution score, he gives this ability one check.

The Hunger

The Hunger is always thrilling

Only the very desperate or the very wicked eat the flesh of sentient races.

If you succumb to the temptation, you gain 1 point of The Hunger.

At the end of each feast where you gained a point of The Hunger, you make a The Hunger check. Roll a d20.

If you "succeed" on The Hunger check, you become a ghoul. You no longer can return to the surface--the mana up there cannot sustain you. You can no longer eat normal food. You can only digest the flesh of the dead or sentient races.

The Hunger never decreases. Once you're on this dark path, you're on the dark path for the rest of your life.

There may be some wiggle room here. Eating harpies might illicit The Hunger whereas eating harpy eggs might not.

The GM is the ultimate arbiter of what's sentient and what isn't, but they must be forthcoming about this up front. No fair saying, "Ha ha actually slimes are like, super intelligent and secretly altruistic. You just ate the Mother Theresa of slimes" after the fact.

Example: Senshi the dwarf, starving and delirious, is served a stew of dwarf flesh after a desperate and failed delving. He partakes and gains 1 point of The Hunger. At the end of the feast, he makes a The Hunger check. His player rolls a d20 and gets a 15--well above the 1 needed to "succeed" on the check. As such, Senshi remains a dwarf but maintains a permanent point of The Hunger.

Finding Food

Each floor of the dungeon has an ecology that makes a perverse amount of sense.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet that has the nutritional details of everything in the 1st Edition Monstrous Manual.

Cross-reference this with the Monster Menu-All from Skerples for full-blown info on everything you want to devour (see Sources Cited).