Oedipussy Rex's blog

There are three types of magical items in Ə (so far). We've seen complementary magic items like Wands and Staves that provide their power in conjunction with spell casting, or magic weapons that provide a boost to combat. We've also seen innate magic items where their power is either always "on", such as Boots of Joyous Comfort, or activated, such as the Potion of Tasty Numminess which must be consumed to receive any benefit.

(Most likely needs some cleaning up, but here's a new magic item.)

Bag of Luck

This gauze when wrapped around the head, covering the eyes, (i.e. blind beggar) provides a complete awareness of everything around the wearer within a combat turn's distance. The Gauze does not confer sight, just awareness, so one would know that there is a book on the table but not be able to read the book.

The effects of the Gauze are quite disconcerting to sighted people. All actions that require an Aspect roll are made at a -2 penalty. Blind people using the Gauze are able to do so without penalty and get a +2 bonus to non-mental Resists (e.g. Sleep and Charm spells).

"If you were to compare starting SCHWA characters to AD&D1e characters, what level would they transfer to? 3rd? 2nd?"

Short answer: I wouldn't compare them to AD&D characters. Mostly because of the math.

In any iteration of D&D, even those games that are only nominally D&D, only a single die is used to determine success or failure, the d20. Bonuses and penalties are added to the result of the roll and the range of possible results is only 20 wide. It may be 1-20 or 17-36, but always only 20 wide.

New monsters added at the forum, here. See stats for the Rhinoceros, Pygmy Rhino, War Rhino, Pygmy War Rhino, and the rare Gnomish Pygmy War Rhino. Trample and Charge see some use.

Charge: A Charge is a specific type of attack made by horned and tusked monsters, like minotaurs, elephants, and Giant Wild Boars. When Charged, the opponent receives d1 Damage per Point of Success of the attack and must make a Warrior Resist vs. the Degree of Success of the Charge or be tossed into the air, whereupon the Charge continues, gaining a cumulative +1 bonus to the attack and damage. As long as the attack continues to be successful and the victim keeps failing the Resist, the damage continues. All attacks on a Charge are part of a single Turn.

This kerchief, when worn to cover the lower portion of the face, confers the Surprise ability at a +3 bonus to Adventure for initiative. (See Surprise, pg 32) To receive any benefit, the victim must be unaware of an imminent attack and the character cannot be wearing any armor greater than Leather.

Some weapons are more unwieldy than others. Weapon Speed modifiers are a means of reflecting this within an abstract system. Apply the weapon's modifier to the Adventure die when rolling for initiative for the Turn. Yes, the "larger" the weapon, the worse the modifier. What did you expect? Fret not, though. The number of attacks is still dependent on the Warrior Rank, not the speed of the weapon, so just because the Dagger is more likely to strike sooner, the Great Battle Axe will still strike harder (and likely more often).