Saturday 30 January 2021

Sorcery: Food Spells V

Sorcery: Food Spells V

Let's make some new Food spells, because there's quite few of them.

Thursday 28 January 2021

Monsters: Bats

Monsters: Bats

I wrote a rat post, so why not a bat post? Fire bat is a pest from the Elemental Plane of Fire. Giant bat,
vampire bat,
and inferno bat are weak monsters from Might and Magic VII. Hunting bat, guard bat, and war bat are specialized bats bred by the desmodu.

Wednesday 27 January 2021

Monsters/Racial Templates: Sidhe and the Others

Monsters/Racial Templates: Sidhe and the Others

Dominions has several "elven" races based on the Irish folklore. Fir Bolg are only slightly elvish. Sidhe are elvish. Tuatha are even more elvish. There's also Nemedians who are identical to the tuatha in terms of mechanics, and Partholonians who do not need a racial templates, because there's only one left. I've also included the sidhe from D&D. I know that there's firbolgs in D&D too, but they are spelled differently, so I will include them in a separate post. And they are giants, not elves.

Tuesday 26 January 2021

NPCs: More Goblin Combatants

NPCs: More Goblin Combatants

I am currently GMing a goblin-focused game. Why not post some of the enemy statblocks for later use?

Monday 25 January 2021

Monster/Racial Template: Pale One

Monster/Racial Template: Pale One

In the Dominions video game series, there is a race of pale ones. They are large, long-lived, pale, one-eyed humanoids with gills. They grow larger and stronger with age, reaching sizes up to SM+3.

Sunday 24 January 2021

Monsters: Rats II

 Monsters: Rats II

One of the first posts I wrote on this blog was a post with various rats. Let's make/convert some more!
Ash rat is a magical pest that feeds on fire and constantly emits heat and smoke. Moonrats are just normal rats that become extra strong and intelligent depending on the presence of moonlight. Giant rat, lightning rat, and fire rat are monsters from Might and Magic VII. Bone rat swarm and corpse rat swarm are undead rat swarms from Libris Mortis. The giant Zakharan rat is basically a slightly bigger dire rat with acute smell. Gigantic rats are truly immense rats with a revolting stench.

Saturday 23 January 2021

Monster: Uinuja

 Monster: Uinuja

Uinujas are psychic azatas (eladrins, for D&D players) that roam the Region of Dreams. Nice.

Friday 22 January 2021

Monster: Psionic Elemental

Monster: Psionic Elemental

While this is a 3rd-party monster, I've used it in both D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder games. And in GURPS games too. A purplish mist creature with innate psionic abilities.

Thursday 21 January 2021

Monsters: Giant Dragonfly and Giant Firefly

 Monsters: Giant Dragonfly and Giant Firefly

Two simple creatures that can be used as low-level enemies or as flying mounts.

Wednesday 20 January 2021

Pyramid Kickstarter

 Pyramid Kickstarter

You probably already know that there's a new SJGames kickstarter up - Pyramid Scheme. Three brand new issues of Pyramid for only $6! That's a very good deal, in my opinion. The article I'm most excited for is Tactical Looting by Sean Punch. As for myself, I wrote two of the articles for these issues - Toxic Grimoire (with some additional material by Peter Dell'Orto) and Mind Over Time.


Tuesday 19 January 2021

Monsters: Boggarts

 Monsters: Boggarts

There's two monsters that are named "boggart" in D&D. One of them is the immature form of the will-
Pathfinder Boggart

o'-wisp, and one of them is a domestic fey that was renamed to "bogey" to avoid confusion. Pathfinder also has its own version of the boggart.

Monday 18 January 2021

Monster: Beetle Buckler

Monster: Beetle Buckler

This is a weird D&D creature - a beetle that can be attached to your forearm to act as a shield.

Sunday 17 January 2021

Monster: Omnipath

Monster: Omnipath

In this installment of GURPSifying the Bestiary, I’d like to cover a Pathfinder monster that I really like. I remember opening up the Occult Bestiary pdf for the first time and upon seeing this image, I thought that there’s no way this monster is boring, and I was right. It is very interesting both in terms of lore, abilities, and looks, so this is a perfect candidate for a post.

Friday 15 January 2021

Ultra-Tech: Grappling with Hacking

Ultra-Tech: Grappling with Hacking

I've heard many people complain about hacking in GURPS. The Basic Set gives us the cinematic Computer Hacking/TL (IQ/VH) skill and gives some ideas about realistic hacking. Console Cowboys and Cyberspace Kung Fu from Pyramid #3-21 gives us an enitre hacking subsystem. I never really managed to wrap my head around it, as it seemed too complex to me. You could also use Mind Control, Mind Probe, Mind Reading, and Possession with the Cybernetic modifier to represent hacking, but that would imply that hacking is a special power and not a skill anyone may learn. Possessions Under Control from Pyramid #3-85 gives us a system to use Technical Grappling for magical/spiritual possessions. But what if you are not very familiar with Technical Grappling and want something simpler? Let's try to write this thing up using normal grappling rules. I'm sure that the result you are seeing here is not the final one - it probably will be corrected and adjusted many times.

Thursday 14 January 2021

Monster: Vayuphak

Monster: Vayuphak

Pathfinder introduces a new type of fiends - asuras, who are all about desecrating holy places. I find
them to be an interesting addition to the bestiary and cosmology. Since in my games I prefer using the D&D cosmology, and it already has outsiders called asuras (who are celestials, not fiends), I'd rename Pathfinder asuras to something else. Ahuras or daevas, perhaps?

Wednesday 13 January 2021

Lens/Monster: Animus Shade

Lens/Monster: Animus Shade

Animus shades are incorporeal undead creatures created when the subconscious mind of a creature that died from psychic trauma shears away.

Tuesday 12 January 2021

Lens/Monster: Alter Ego

Lens/Monster: Alter Ego

Some time ago, I promised to convert some psychic monsters from Pathfinder's Occult Bestiary. Let's continue with that. Alter egos are ectoplasmic constructs that are formed due to psychological trauma.

Saturday 9 January 2021

Powers: Mad Science Empowerment

Powers: Mad Science Empowerment

One patron of mine sent me this interesting question: "How would you adapt the “Mad Science as Realm Magic” Idea from the last issue of Pyramid to use Sorcery instead? Particulary if there are “mad psychologists” or “mad economists” who use mad social sciences that don’t really leave a lot of room for Gadget Limitations?" This is quite the conundrum, but I will post my thoughts here, maybe other people will find them useful. The end result is quite pricy and far from Sorcery. But that's the best I could do.

Friday 1 January 2021

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Let's continue the journey of Alas Miraya, the still not-very-healthy fire elf bloodrager.
Session #1 - link.
Session #2 - link.