abandoned ttrpg

I’ve been spending my free time the past few weeks working on what it might look like if Maze Rats got the AD&D treatment, and while the first playtest was fun, I’m not sure if I’m going to revisit the project. I always hate for things to become abandoned in secrecy, so I’m gonna just dump all the rules and the character sheet here. The rules are really just more notes than anything actually well laid out, so if anything is confusing, feel free to reach out on Mastodon.

Rolling dice

Roll 2d6 and add the relevant ability modifier. Advantage grants bonus dice and disadvantage grants penalty dice, but you still only keep two (with some exceptions). Rolls with advantage may choose which dice to keep. Rolls with disadvantage must take the lowest two. Each roll is made against a difficulty and a threshold.

The highest kept die is your sun die, while the second highest kept die is your moon die. Some rules and abilities require determining your celestial die:

Roll result Celestial die
Less than difficulty New moon! Your celestial die value is half your moon die, rounded up
Equals or beats difficulty by lower than threshold Full moon! Your celestial die value is your moon die
Equals or beats by at least the threshold Radiant! Your celestial die value is your sun die
Special (triggered by abilities) Eclipse! Your celestial die value is your sun die plus half your moon die

Some rolls are best effort. If you roll below the difficulty target in a best effort roll, you still succeed. The primary purpose of best effort rolls is usually to determine your celestial die.

Playtest notes

Celestial dice were, unsurprisingly, a little confusing during the playtest. I might remove them. The original celestial dice blog post is here.

Critical success

If both kept dice are their highest possible value, increase the amount of dice kept to three. If that die is also its maximum value, add another dice kept, and if that one is also its maximum value… and so on. If your amount of kept dice exceeds the number of dice you originally rolled, add a d4 to the roll. d4s never increase dice kept, even if they roll a 4.

Taking damage

Damage goes to hit points first. After hit points are gone, damage becomes a penalty to all stats. When one stat goes below 3, you’re unconscious. When all stats go below 3, you’re dead.

NPCs are dead at 0 hp.

Playtest notes

Updating scores every time you took damage was a big pain. If I revisit this project, I’ll probably just have post-HP wounds count up from 0, and make you unconscious/dying/dead at the stat-related thresholds. I could even do ability scores, modifiers, and wounds as one big column in the middle of the character sheet. That might look cool.

Combat

Initiative is side-based and rolled by a d6 plus that side’s highest DEX modifier. Activations alternate between one creature at a time on each side, starting with the side that won initiative.

Playtest notes

Doing initiative as the only single-d6 roll felt weird. I’d probably just have each side make a normal DEX roll.

To attack a target, make a STR (melee) or DEX (ranged) check against a difficulty of the target’s defense (7 + DEX, min 7) and a threshold of their armor value. Damage is your celestial die, plus the new moon die if using a two-handed melee weapon or dual-wielding melee weapons. If you exceed the threshold, you deal bonus damage equal to the difference. If unarmed, lower celestial die by one step.

There’s no disengage penalty for starting a combat turn adjacent to an enemy.

Playtest notes

If I do get rid of celestial dice, I’ll use the same defense values and combat system as from Maze Rats (rather than starting armor at 2 and having two tiers of hits), and just have one-handed melee weapons and ranged weapons get bonus damage equivalent to the lower of the two dice, and have two-handed melee and dual-wielding get bonus damage equivalent to the higher. Last time I ran a Maze Rats campaign, combat was a lot of ‘miss, miss, miss, miss, one damage, miss…’ and I want to make it a bit faster for this.

Hit points

Hit points are rolled at character creation, then again every time the character gains a level (as the last step, after anything that could change the number/size of hit dice).

If the rolled value is higher than the character’s current hit point value, the rolled value becomes their new hit point total.

If the rolled value is equal to or lower than the current hit point total, and the current total is not the maximum possible that could be rolled, increase the character’s current hit point value by one.

Playtest notes

In an earlier version, instead of hit dice, you’d get two bonus HP for every bloodthirsty boon, and one bonus HP for every cunning and faithful boon. The problem with that is that it makes dips a lot less enticing, and I wanted this system to support dips.

Characters

Level Benefits
1 Hit die: 1d4, all weapons proficiency, shield proficiency, gain 1 skill point and two starting boons
2 Gain a hit die (2d4 total), increase an ability score by 1
3 Gain a class boon
4 Gain a hit die (3d4 total), increase an ability score by 1
5 Gain a utility boon
6 Gain a hit die (4d4 total), increase an ability score by 1
7 Gain a class boon
8 Gain a hit die (5d4 total), increase an ability score by 1
9 Gain a utility boon
10 Gain a hit die (6d4 total), increase an ability score by 1, gain a capstone boon

Character creation

Character sheet

  1. Roll your ability scores.
  2. Gain the level 1 benefits and roll hit points.
  3. Name and pronouns!

Ability scores

Roll 3d6 for each, in order. You may reroll your ability scores until you have a 13 in at least one ability, but if you reroll any of them you must reroll all of them. Once you have your final ability scores, you may swap any two.

Playtest notes

I initially tried both ‘reroll until you get a 13’ and ‘reroll until your total mod is non-negative,’ but I ended up going with the former because your highest ability score determines your death threshold, and I also wanted each character to have something they were properly good at.

Strength

Raw physical prowess, toughness.

If your STR modifier is at least +1, gain it as a bonus on every hit die.

Dexterity

Grace, agility.

If your DEX modifier is at least +1, gain it as a bonus on defense.

Willpower

Smarts, perception, force of personality.

If your WIL modifier is at least +1, gain it as bonus skill points.

Modifiers

Score Modifier
3 -3
4-5 -2
6-8 -1
9-12 0
13-15 +1
16-17 +2
18 +3
Playtest notes

I really love the BD&D stat spread. I love how it’s not just +1/-1 for every two points. You can also use this to roll FUDGE dice! I think in that version you update the thresholds a smidge, though, since 4dF technically goes down to -4 and up to +4.

Skill points

Each skill point lets you take a new skill package, or increase the bonus of an existing skill package. Skill packages are freeform and fairly broad, like “thievery” or “wilderness traveller”

When rolling a non-combat check where your skill could apply, add one die of advantage for every tier of the skill. If you have more than one skill that could apply, add the full value of the most applicable skill, then add one additional die of advantage for each other skill that could help.

There’s no limit on how many points you can put into a single skill, but be aware of diminishing returns, since more points don’t increase the number of dice you can keep.

Playtest notes

If I dust this project back off, I’ll make skill points give a +1 instead of advantage, so that they use the same system as attacks. I’ll leave the cunning utility boon that grants advantage on skill checks, though. That should help make proper differentiation for rogue-style characters.

Proficiencies

Armor

No armor (2) -> light armor (3) -> medium armor (4) -> heavy armor (5)

Shield (+1)

Playtest notes

If I remove celestial dice, armor values will be reduced by 2 (except shields).

Spellcasting

Untrained -> adept -> practitioner

Casting level 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
1 2 - - - -
2 3 - - - -
3 3 1 - - -
4 4 2 - - -
5 4 3 - - -
6 4 3 1 - -
7 5 4 2 - -
8 5 4 3 - -
9 5 4 3 1 -
10 5 5 4 2 -
11 6 5 4 3 -
12 6 5 4 3 1
13 6 5 5 4 2

Untrained

You can’t cast any spells!

Adept

Your casting level is equal to your number of hit dice or your casting level cap, whichever is lower.

Playtest notes

In other words, you get 3rd level spells at 10th level, since that’s when you hit 6 HD.

Practitioner

Your casting level is equal to your character level or your casting level cap, whichever is lower.

Playtest notes

In other words, you get 4th level spells at 9th level. There are certain class boons that increase your caster level beyond your character level, which is how you get 5th level spells.

Multiple kinds of spellcasting

If you have multiple kinds of spellcasting, use your highest casting level among them to determine spells per day, but use each kinds’s individual casting level to determine the highest level of spell of that kind that you can prepare.

Boons

Unless otherwise specified, each boon can only be taken once.

Kinds

  • Bloodthirsty
  • Cunning
  • Faithful
  • Wizened

Categories

Starting boons

Starting boons are powerful and foundational, and usually mix features of utility boons and class boons.

Class boons

Class boons have requirements, can be taken twice, and have levels.

If you’ve taken a class boon once, your level in it is equal to your hit dice. If you’ve taken it twice, your level in it is equal to your character level. Class boon levels update as you gain hit dice/levels.

Class boons also grant bonuses the first and second time you take a class boon of its kind. Taking the same class boon twice does grant the second boon bonus.

Playtest notes

This game was originally class-based, where you had mandatory multiclassing at levels 3 and 7 (although you could multiclass back into your base class for special bonuses). Subclassing/class boons was easily one of the most difficult parts to migrate to the current classless system, and is why levels in class boons are measured so oddly.

Spellcasting was probably the single hardest one to migrate, though.

Utility boons

Utility boons can each only be taken once, but don’t have requirements.

Capstone boons

Capstone boons are incredibly powerful, but have requirements and can only be taken at level 10.

Bonus boons

Some boons grant a bonus boon. Bonus boons do not count towards requirements, nor do they grant the universal bonuses for their type, such as +1 to-hit from bloodthirsty boons or +1 skill from cunning boons. They provide only their listed benefits, and no more.

Bloodthirsty boons

Gain a +1 to-hit bonus whenever you take a bloodthirsty boon.

Playtest notes

The idea with bloodthirsty boons was to let you stack a bunch of hit bonuses, which you can then either hold onto for bonus damage, or use to lessen the penalty of taking disadvantage to add special effects to your attacks.

Starting

Warrior

Limit: 2

Increase armor proficiency and hit die size by one step.

Skirmisher

Gain a bonus bloodthirsty utility boon.

Playtest notes

If I dust this off again, I’ll remove the ability to take Warrior twice, and just add two new bloodthirsty starting boons, one of which adds two steps to your hit die, and the other which adds two steps to your armor proficiency. Warrior is the only starting boon that’s not limited to one, and also it would make it easier to make barbarian-style characters, with lots of HP but poor armor.

Class

The first time you take a bloodthirsty class boon, increase your armor proficiency and hit die size by one step. The second time you take a bloodthirsty class boon, gain a bonus bloodthirsty utility boon.

Knight

Requires: 1 bloodthirsty boon

You may challenge a foe to single combat, lasting until you strike a foe other than the one challenged (attacks that target multiple foes are exempt from this as long as at least one foe is the one you challenged) or take any rest.
Whenever the challenged foe strikes one of your allies and is within melee range of you, you may immediately attack it (limit once per turn).

Additionally, reduce the damage you take from your challenged foe by half your Knight level.

If you take this boon a second time, you may now challenge two foes at once, and your attacks against a challenged foe step up their celestial die by one rank.

Playtest notes

Probably just add your Knight level to damage if I get rid of celestial dice. The player who ended up rolling a Knight seemed to enjoy it though, so that was nice. This was the first subclass (back when they were subclasses instead of class feats) I added for the game.

Enforcer

Requires: 1 cunning boon

TO-DO

Sanctifier

Requires: 1 faithful boon

You’ve sworn to destroy that which your sect abhors. Choose one enemy when you take this subclass:

  1. Undead
  2. Androids
  3. Beasts
  4. Or make one up!

You can channel holy energy against your chosen enemy to force them to cower before you. Make a best effort WIL check with a difficulty of 7 and a threshold of 4. A total number of hit dice of chosen enemies equal to your celestial die plus your Sanctifier level must flee, starting with the lowest hit dice ones.

Chosen enemies with more hit dice than your Sanctifier level are not affected.

This can be done a number of times equal to your Sanctifier level per long rest.

If you take this boon a second time, any chosen enemies with fewer hit dice than half your Sanctifier levels are destroyed instead of turned, and you increase your celestial die by one rank when turning.

Warmage

Requires: 1 wizened boon

TO-DO

Utility

Combat Momentum

Once per turn, when you reduce an opponent to zero hit points using a martial attack, you may immediately make an attack against another foe within range.

Overpower

Make a melee attack with disadvantage. If you hit, deal damage and trip your opponent. Particularly large or stable opponents might get a save versus your attack roll to resist.

Playtest notes

You can, of course, always choose to trip someone in combat. The purpose of this boon is to allow you to deal damage at the same time.

Hamstring Shot

Make a ranged attack with disadvantage. If you hit, deal damage and slow your target by 50% for the next minute or until they receive magical healing.

Reckless Swing

Make a melee attack with disadvantage. If you hit, deal bonus damage equal to your number of bloodthirsty boons.

Flashing Steel

Limit: unlimited

Gain an additional +1 to-hit.

Capstone: Lord of War

Requires: 2 bloodthirsty boons

You have a number of war dice equal in size and quantity to your hit dice, which refresh at the end of every long rest.

Once per turn, you may discard a war die for one of the following effects:

  • Second wind: roll the die and regain that many hit points. If you spend your action catching your breath, gain the maximum value of the die
  • Precise strike: before making an attack roll, roll the war die and add it as a bonus to the attack
  • Brutal strike: after making an attack roll, roll the war die and add it to the celestial die
  • Combat expert: count as having an additional bloodthirsty boon of your choice until the start of your next turn
Playtest notes

Can you tell I really loved the fighter from the first 5e playtest?

Cunning boons

Gain one skill point whenever you take a cunning boon.

Starting

Scrapper

Increase your hit die size and armor proficiency by one step.

Playtest notes

This boon and the faithful equivalent below were how I handled migrating over rogues and priests from the original classful version of these rules (and in those rules, I had rogues as 1d6 instead of their BD&D 1d4). The key differentiator is in their secondary boon effects, such as +1 skill point from this one or +1 casting proficiency step in the faithful equivalent.

Expert

Gain a bonus cunning utility boon.

Class

Gain a bonus cunning utility boon whenever you take a cunning class boon.

Scout

Requires: 1 bloodthirsty boon

You may attack at any point during your movement instead of at the end, and you become untrackable.

If you take this boon a second time, you gain the ability to move twice and still attack, at the cost of reducing the attack’s celestial die by one step.

Shade

Requires: 1 cunning boon

TO-DO

Friar

Requires: 1 faithful boon

TO-DO

Witch

Requires: 1 wizened boon

You’ve gained a familiar, which takes the form of a small animal and has hit points equal to your Witch level. If it dies, you may perform a ritual during the next long rest to reform it.

You may speak with your familiar (which has roughly human intelligence), and while within about a hundred yards you may perceive the world through its senses.

If you take this boon a second time, you gain the ability to cast spells through your familiar when within 60 feet of it.

Utility

Finesse

You may use DEX instead of STR when attacking with one-handed melee weapons and unarmed attacks.

Sneak Attack

Keep an additional die when you attack an opponent with a martial attack that has advantage.

Street Fighter

Your unarmed and improvised weapon attacks count as dual-wielding attacks.

The Slow Blade

You still deal your off-hand bonus damage when you miss a dual-wield melee attack. This damage can trigger weapon effects (such as poison), but not abilities that require a hit.

Skilled

Limit: unlimited

Gain a skill point.

Playtest notes

If I change skill points to a flat bonus, I’d also change this feat to explicitly grant advantage on a single non-combat skill. It’ll stay unlimited though.

Capstone: Savant’s Touch

Requires: 2 cunning boons

You gain a floating skill point that can be reassigned once per short rest to any skill, existing or new. In addition to the usual benefits of a skill point, you may keep an additional die when rolling the affected skill.

Playtest notes

I’d also have to change this one to grant advantage.

Faithful Boons

Starting

Playtest notes

Math from the classful to classless conversion: taking both faithful starting boons, plus both faithful utility boons, gives a casting cap of 10, which is the equivalent of taking cleric as your base class in the classful system.

Bulwark

Increase your hit die, armor proficiency, and divine spellcasting proficiency by one step. Increase your divine spellcasting level cap by 2.

Priest

Increase your divine spellcasting proficiency by one step, and your divine spellcasting level cap by 4.

Class

The first time you take a faithful class boon, increase your divine spellcasting proficiency by one step and your divine spellcasting level cap by 4. The second time you take a faithful class boon, increase your divine spellcasting level cap by 4.

Paladin

Requires: 1 bloodthirsty boon

Increase your armor proficiency by one step and gain an aura of magical calm that gives you and allies within 30 feet advantage on WIL saves.

If you take this boon a second time, your aura’s protection becomes more tangible, and grants advantage on all saves.

Playtest notes

It was really tough deciding between the aura, smite, and lay on hands for paladins.

Ranger

Requires: 1 cunning boon

You’ve formed a bond with nature strong enough to attract the companionship of a nature spirit that takes the form of an animal companion, which can take on the form of a non-magical animal at the end of each long rest. If it reaches zero hit points, it dissipates, but reforms the next day.

If you take this boon a second time, your animal companion may take the form of a magical creature.

Your animal companion is limited to forms with fewer hit dice than your Ranger level. Special movement modes, abilities, and features count as an additional hit die each.

Devoted

Requires: 1 faithful boon

Your divine spellcasting level is now 2 levels higher. If you take this boon a second time, that bonus increases to 3. This increase counts against your divine spellcasting level cap.

Thaumaturge

Requires: 1 wizened boon

TO-DO

Utility

Deepening Faith

Limit: unlimited

Increase your divine spellcasting level cap by 2.

Capstone: Avatar of Faith

Requires: 2 faithful boons

Once per long rest, when you forego your movement and pray, you may choose to take on the avatar form of your faith. You may take an action on the same turn you pray, as long as it is after your movement.

While in the avatar form, you gain the following benefits:

  • All damage you take is delayed until the avatar form ends, and you automatically pass all saving throws
  • Your martial attacks have advantage
  • You may cast one third level or lower spell without expending a slot
  • All allies within 60’ receive 5 temporary hit points at the start of their turn and become immune to fear

Avatar of Faith lasts for three turns, including the turn where it was activated.

Wizened Boons

Starting

Playtest notes

Math from the classful to classless conversion: taking both wizened starting boons, plus both wizened utility boons, gives a casting cap of 10, which is the equivalent of taking wizard as your base class in the classful system.

Adept

Increase your arcane spellcasting proficiency by one step and your arcane spellcasting level cap by 4.

Student

Increase your arcane spellcasting proficiency by one step and your arcane spellcasting level cap by 2. Gain 1 skill point.

Class

The first time you take a wizened class boon, increase your arcane spellcasting proficiency by one step and your arcane level cap by 4. The second time you take a wizened class boon, increase your arcane spellcasting level cap by 4.

Spellblade

Requires: 1 bloodthirsty boon

You’ve learned to cast even in the thick of battle. You may cast a spell as part of an attack action, at the cost of lowering the attack’s celestial die by one step. You may do this a number of times per long rest equal to your Spellblade level.

Bard

Requires: 1 cunning boon

There’s magic in everything we do, and you’ve set out to use it to aid those who matter most. Gain the Bardic Inspiration ability. Taking this boon a second time grants the Bardic Epiphany ability.

Bardic Inspiration

During downtime periods, you may inspire your comrades using song, speech, or likewise. You have a number of inspiration dice equal to your Bard level, refreshing at the end of each long rest.

You may discard an inspiration die to inspire an ally who was present for your performance with one of the following effects:

  • Discard it before a check to add it as an advantage die
  • Discard it after a check to increase the celestial die by one step
  • Roll it and restore that many hit points

Your inspiration dice are d6s.

Bardic Epiphany

Refresh your inspiration dice to half your bard level at the end of each short rest (unless it’s already higher), your inspiration dice become d8s, and you can now spend inspiration dice on yourself.

Sage

Requires: 1 faithful boon

TO-DO

Magus

Requires: 1 wizened boon

Your arcane spellcasting level is now 2 levels higher. If you take this boon a second time, that bonus increases to 3. This increase counts against your arcane spellcasting level cap.

Utility

Lifelong Scholar

Limit: unlimited

Increase your arcane spellcasting level cap by 2.

Capstone: Esoteric Wisdom

Requires: 2 wizened boons

You have seen the true face of reality, and can use the arcane energy built up in your body over the years to change it.

At the end of each long rest, roll a Maze Rats spell. This spell counts as prepared for every spell level you can cast, and you get one bonus spell slot of each level that can be used to cast it. When you cast this spell, the effects are roughly equivalent with the level of the spell slot used at casting time.

Converting from other OSR games

Converting combat characteristics

Hit dice

Normal.

AC

Subtract AC from 9, divide by 2, round down, add 7.

AC 9/8 7/6 5/4 3/2 1/0 -1/-2 -3/-4 -5/-6 -7/-8 -9/-10
Defense 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Saves

For players, use the following table:

Save Ability
Death Ray or Poison STR
Magic Wands WIL
Paralysis or Turn to Stone STR
Dragon Breath DEX
Rod, Staff, or Spell WIL

For monsters, subtract their save from 20, divide by 4, and that’s their bonus.

Attacks and damage

For weapon attacks, just attack as normal. For natural attacks, add all damage dice after the first one to each attack’s roll. Monsters get +1 to-hit for every 2 hit dice, rounding down.

For example, a monster with a 1d6 attack and a 3d10 attack would make one normal attack, then a second attack with 2d10s added to the die roll.

Converting spells

When converting spells, base any per-level effects on the casting level, not character level.

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