Sundered's Orb 18

To grant myself reprieve from making classes for the Action 50 (only five to go!), I would like to check out another list, a group of 18 class ideas from the blog Sundered Shields and Silver Shillings. Since the author has neglected to give them a catchy term, I will call them the Orb 18, in honor of two very good ideas:

• "Orbseeker: orbs are cool and there aren’t enough of them so make a cool Class to have people find things that are spherical and do cool things with them"
• "Hell, a Class where you are the orb. Rolling and crushing people, detecting slopes in dungeon floors, floating away like a balloon…"

I'm not committing to take a swing at all 18 classes, but here's a handful. See the full list in the link above.

1. Orbseeker (start with no orbs ;( , a bronze mirror, rough robes, and a hunting sword)
1. +1 MD but you cannot have more MD than you have orbs. +1d6 damage with weapons while holding a magical item in your other hand.
2. +1 MD. Every orb has a domain. Take 1 HP to commune with an orb to see clear visions of the present in its domain or cryptic visions of the future or past in its domain. Magical orbs have domains like "doom" or "valor," mundane orbs have domains like "the forest I came from" or "men with beards and glasses."
3. +1 MD. When you defeat a foe, you may make opposed intelligence tests, If you win, place them in an orb and specify the conditions that will release them.
4. +1 MD. While wielding two orbs, you may cast two spells per turn as long as the spells correspond with each orb's domain.
2. Mysterious Orb (start with your choice of sheen, cracks, flecks, or imperfections.)
1. You can double your speed, but sacrifice turning power. Colliding with someone damages them like a slingstone. Automatically detect slopes. Take minimum damage from slashing weapons.
2. You can float up to ten feet off the ground. Telepathically interact with items as though you have hands.
3. Colliding with someone damages them like a cannonball.
4. dominate anyone who willingly touches you.
3. Ghostbuster (or Vampire Hunter) (start with ghost shackles, a ghost shield, a backpack containing an over-sized holy symbol, a wooden stake, and 1d4 rations worth of holy wafers)
1. Get +1 per template to fleeing monsters. Turn undead like a cleric double your level.
2. People know to call you when there's something strange. Automatically learn spooky gossip.
3. Spend 5 gp in a town to fashion a totem that detects magic and death.
4. You may shatter your over-sized holy symbol to summon all undead that you have turned with it.
4. Plumber (start with denim armor, plumber's tools, and a pipe wrench)
1. With an hour's work, flood a room adjacent to a water source or un-flood a room. Get +2 AC if you were late to the session.
2. Automatically detect secret mechanisms, doors, and the like. Once per day, reroll a random encounter roll incurred for staying in the same place.
3. With a week's work and access to a midden, afflict nearby areas with disease. Random encounters in the area have half health and -2 physical stats.
4. With a day's work, you can be hired to work in a dungeon of your choice. Get 1d4 gold every day you adventure there, and get a letter from the dungeonlord granting you permission to be there.
5. Sigilbound (start with a strange black tablet, covered in inscrutable symbols, a jack-of-plates doublet, a shortbow, and 25 arrows)
1. +2 random emoji, Invoke an emoji to get a bonus to related attribute or skill test. Can only invoke one emoji at a time.
2. +1 random emoji. Invoke an emoji to summon a related creature.
3. +1 random emoji, invoke up to two emoji at a time.
4. +1 random emoji, Draw your own emoji.

Parabola's Action 50: Part 3

Trying to keep a brisk pace.

Continued from here and here. The last class listed here is by Thorø larsen, the illustrator for Vain the Sword.

See also here and here.

I have five classes left after this, plus a little treat.

1. Avenger's Doom (start with a net, a lily, a dopey dog, and a shield)
1. 3/day, make another person charming to someone else, as charm person
2. When you spare someone’s life, make opposed charisma tests. If you win, they become friendly
3. Until you’ve discussed your differences with someone, they deal nonlethal damage to you.
4. You may officiate ceremonies where oaths of vengeance become oaths of friendship.
2. Western Warrior (start with a flintlock pistol and a chevy OR a revolver and wheelless ox cart, with oxen)
1. You find 2d4 bullets in your stool every day.
2. Alpacas, bison, alligators, and other American fauna are friendly to you.
3. All wood you carry can become redwood, hickory, or boojum wood, making it soft, hard, or flexible, respectively.
4. You get +1d8 to rolls if you are west of your target.
3. Phantom Voice (start with a hood, a hand axe, ten GP, and a dummy)
1. You can throw your voice perfectly
2. You can become translucent (but not invisible) at will.
3. You can speak with a voice that matches that it’s hearer most expects
4. You are visible only to fools and schmucks.
4. Doomed One (start with a longsword, medium armor, and a picture of a loved one)
1. You get 10 xp whenever you roll dice, but if you ever roll a 1 you explode.
2. Once per day, reroll any die.
3. Your next character starts at level 2
4. Instead of making an attack roll, you may instead have an opponent make a defense roll, whatever that means.
5. Spirit of the Night (start with half of a mask, a heavy robe, a kopis, and a rosary)
1. During the night, you have all the abilities of a first-level thief and a first-level fighter. During the day, you have no abilities or are a first-level bard.
2. During the night, do maximum damage when you punch ghosts, the undead, or vigilantes.
3. Once per day, call an eclipse overhead. It is night for the next ten minutes.
4. Moonlight heals you 1 hp every ten minutes.
6. Specter of the Hall (start with a hammer, a spanner, a banner, and the tools of a tanner)
1. You may enter a poltergeistic rage. For ten minutes, float through walls but get really pissy about it. Afterwards, take 1d4 fatigue.
2. In your hall, weapons go right through you, dealing 1d6 less damage
3. You are so spooky that you can bankrupt any business simply by haunting it for 2d4 days.
4. Your poltergeistic rages may last as long as you like.
7. Sea-Fiend (start with baubles made of a strange metal, a trident, and an upside-down crucifix. Definitely no clothes.)
1. You can hold your breath for an hour. Perform a seaside bacchanal to summon another sea-fiend.
2. While wet, get advantage on constitution tests.
3. 3/day, summon a massive tendril from any water source.
4. Water is flammable to you.
8. Skeleton Lover (start with a rose, a sword, leather armor, a burlap sack, and a boombox)
1. You are always treated as the more convenient option between a skeleton and a living person.
2. When you dance, people you have not harmed must test their charisma or join you for at least a little while.
3. When disassembled, you can fit in a sack. Those touching you or carrying you get advantage on constitution tests.
4. When defending what you love, get +1 attack and +2 defense.
9. Wild Witch of the Heath (start with dirty robes, a flower crown, and an overworked vole)
1. Plants keep watch for you and tell you what they see.
2. +1 MD, you may always seem young.
3. +1 MD, by giving a gift worth 10 gp to an animal you may give birth to a hybrid creature.
4. +1 MD, you may turn into a hobwolf at will.
10. Demon of the Glen (start with a fox pelt, a fishing pole, and a marmot soul)
1. Gain horns and claws as natural weapons. When nude, move 50% faster.
2. People who meet you at night will always hear you out, no matter how terrifying you are.
3. When in brush, you always sneak up on your targets but you must announce yourself, typically by saying “boo!”
4. Once a month, grant a wish, but only if it will do no one any good.
11. Witch of the Wave (start with a waterproof bookcase, a spellbook, thick cloth armor, and a duck)
1. +1 MD, when soaking wet you count as wearing medium armor. When you die your body turns to sea foam.
2. +1 MD, spit ink like a squid
3. +1 MD, you can grow gills and a tail for 1 hour, during which you cannot breath air.
4. +1 MD, control the tides
12. Two Dead Bodies (start with olde timey clothes, a cutlass, and a riding crop)
1. You are two walking dead folk. One is tall and thin, and has long reach. One is short and fat, and cannot be pushed from where they stand.
2. When you argue about something among yourselves, one target must test their wisdom or shout the answer.
3. Working together, you may roll with advantage on attacks. If you fail, you fumble.
4. A wandering angel gives you the ability to levitate and glow. Depending on your morality, you may begin advancement as a Dead Man Come to Life Again or as an Accursed Skeleton.
13. Bride of Mystery (start with a domino mask, a silver sword, a burning passion, and ∞ absynthe)
1. You always have absynthe handy. When you would kill a foe, you can force it to tell you who sent it instead.
2. You can inexplicable possess the sentimental items of your party members.
3. If you are wronged, you can implore with a masked benefactor for aid out by the old crossroads.
4. Throw a leaf of fine paper into the wind with a message inscribed on it. An intended recipient finds the message in the next alley they encounter and can send a reply.
14. Lady of the Fell House (start with a mansion, literally obscene wealth, a fan, dozens of portraits of deceased family members)
1. You are the matriarch of your ancestral home. Each level, learn a family secret you can use to blackmail your family with.
2. Over the course of a week, you can feed rumor and mystery to anyone whose whereabouts you know. They will try to enter your ancestral home and investigate it.
3. You can enter portraits and use them to spy on people.
4. You now own a home in all major cities, a bunk in all minor thorps, and a room in all dungeons.
15. Man with the Huge Umbrella (start with an umbrella, a suit, sunglasses, and a houseplant)
1. Umbrella Sword: like a cane sword, but an umbrella! You can brandish your otherwise-hidden sword in one hand. It is rather long, dapper, and gentlemanly to behold, regardless of your gender. Un Garde.
2. Afterthought: After combat concludes, and if conscious, feel free to make a quip or other sarcastically dry comment. You heal 1d4 points of damage if you do so
3. Perfect Minions: you have 1d4 minions around you on any given day, to fetch your dry cleaning, shine your shoes, run messages to people, and shoot things if you request it. They are loyal, very qualified and thoroughly dapper.
4. Through the Mist: spend an round to gaze at something/someone in a distant and foreboding manner. You can see their true intentions or, if an object, its true purpose or intended use.

How I GLOG

GLOG is easy once you start. I wrote this amid requests for people to explain their GLOG process. This further exists in a context where, for ideological reasons, some people have recently fled D&D(TM), and GLOG has been offered as an alternative.

I would say that my priorities in most games go in this order:

1. interesting setting
2. interesting system
3. interesting PCs

Notably, GLOG is a system. Since that makes it our #2 concern, we want it to serve the needs of the setting. This is why many wise and fun people make their own GLOG.

Making an Interesting Setting

Interesting game settings are not like settings for novels or movies. You need to make engaging with things accessible, make options obvious, and allow for people to improvise with what you've already established. I typically enjoy loading all sorts of one-off oddities in a setting but giving them a common origin. So maybe there are hundreds of weird animals that all fall under the purview of "chimera." This maximizes variety while still keeping things sensical, and allows me to draw from other people's GLOG and D&D content more easily.

The setting as you craft it will imply different kinds of stories that can easily be told in it. Don't set the table for a wargame then try to serve a dungeoncrawl game.

There is a lot that can be said about creating settings, but these points are worth keeping in mind for GLOG settings. 

Making an Interesting System

Again, a lot can be said about making game systems, but if you're attracted to the GLOG it's because you appreciate a system that is flexible and tries not to write rules when GM improvisation or common sense does just as well. There are plenty of very good RPGs with minutiae. GLOG aspires to be a good RPG with no minutiae.

We avoid small bonuses and penalties. We try to roll dice as infrequently as possible. So if I have a random encounter procedure that says "there is a 50% chance of an encounter. If there is one, roll a d10 and consult this chart to see what the players find," I shouldn't flip a coin and on a heads roll a d10. I should just roll a d20 and on an 11+ say there is no encounter.

A great GLOG word is "Always." Another great GLOG word is "Never." The ability to jump 20 feet horizontally fits better in GLOG than getting +4 to jump checks. 

Just make sure that the advantages and disadvantages that people get in your game do not obviate interesting challenges. For many GLOG players, managing light, inventory, and food are interesting challenges. To them, darkvision is not interesting. Do you agree? What is an interesting challenge to you? Many of the challenges I find interesting are made worse by forcing people to roll dice. Convincing people of things, investigating a potential trap, understanding an odd mechanism, figuring out the culprit in a mystery, should be something all player characters, regardless of build, get to engage with. Rolling a d20 is not engaging. Letting players turn one kind of challenge into another kind can be engaging. Replacing the challenge of figuring out who murdered the duke's son with figuring out how to convince the duke that you really did speak with his son's ghost is totally engaging to me.

This is why I like GLOG, and it's why I made my GLOGhack the way I did. I want to create interesting problems for PCs to tackle by creating new interesting problems. I don't want to gate things behind dice rolls.

Making Interesting PCs

First, you need to find good people who want to play games with you. Admittedly, using a homebrew system can be a liability in convincing your friends to play your game in particular.

However, if you can get people on board GLOG PCs are some of the most enjoyable to play. You don't really need to worry about doing it right, and it's easy if you've played any edition of D&D to figure out how they work. Because GLOG classes are (usually) only 4 levels long, you get to the good stuff right away, with dramatic, defining abilities. No slow, incremental development of abilities here. No sir. GLOG PCs are flexible, because the system doesn't prevent you from doing things just so other classes can be best at them, and because it takes about ten minutes to write a GLOG class.

Conclusion

Writing your own GLOGhack can admittedly be a little daunting. How are you supposed to know what parts of the game you like, or what subtly influences other parts? I suggest you play a game with someone else's hack, even a one or two session game. Consider looking around on the OSR discord; they're quite friendly there. And remember that as long as you are willing to change the rules of a game to suit your needs, as long as you wish to delight as much as you bedevil, the gretchlings and GLOGlins of the GLOG will smile upon you.

Here is a link to my GLOGhack.

And to Skerples's GLOGhack, considered by many the default complete hack.

Tavern Ballads as Rumors, Examples, Background

I am constantly looking for ways to give players useful information and embed them in the society of the game. To do this, I create expectations. Players quickly learn what the government structure of one city is, and can use that information for the similarly-structured neighboring city. They can likewise learn simple methods to know what is going on in the surrounding area. The classic method is to walk into the local bar and ask for rumors. I am a fan of asking children what the custom of their country is. Someone wrote a great article about job boards found at local shrines.

For Mesomergos, I have decided to go with songs. Ballads are used to convey news and tales across the country, and the songs of children are seen as prophetic. Thus when PCs spend a night drinking at the tavern, they might hear a handful of songs. The songs below are set on a d8/8 table; you roll a d8 for the tens place and another d8 for the ones place. The first sixteen songs are tailored to the present or adjacent hex. The next eight give warnings specific to my traveling encounter table. The next twenty-four hit on themes and setting history. The next eight serve as hooks for existing dungeons. The final eight are simply good examples for an OSR PC to follow.

d8/8 Songs

• 11."The Duel," describing the circumstances that led to a treasure being hidden somewhere in this hex.
• 12. "The Low Lowlands," which warns of the nearest dungeon or monster lair.
• 13. "Whom the Priest Decried," a somewhat mean-spirited jig warning about the most dangerous person in this hex.
• 14. "The Honest Words," which immortalizes the most trustworthy and helpful person in this hex.
• 15. "Hoary Words," listing the purported abilities of the greatest spellcaster in this hex.
• 16. "North of the Pique," naming the wealthiest person in the area.
• 17. "Li's Descent", hinting at a secondary entrance to the local dungeon.
• 18. "A Drink at the Table," praising the best place in this hex to acquire drugs.
• 21. "Perils Encountered," telling of how a treasure came to be hidden in a neighboring hex.
• 22. "A Shepherd Vexed," describing a dungeon in a neighboring hex.
• 23. "Verona," describing someone to watch out for in a neighboring hex.
• 24. "Disaster Averted," which immortalizes the most trustworthy and helpful person in a neighboring hex.
• 25. "Blood from the Walls," fearfully describing the most powerful spell-caster in a neighboring hex.
• 26. "Ducats Enough, describing the wealthiest person in a neighboring hex.
• 27. "Under the Hill," hinting at a secondary dungeon entrance in a neighboring hex.
• 28. "A Feast for Two," praising the best place in a neighboring hex to acquire drugs.
• 31. "For Gold," which describes three wicked men who sold their voices to a demon. Now each can only say one phrase.
• 32. "The Cruel Bride," a cautionary tale where a man is warned not to let his new bride have too much freedom. She turns into a giant fox and eats his liver. Just goes to show.
• 33. "The Rash Stroke," in which an ogre is smote with one blow and revived by the finishing blow.
• 34. "Qilin," a half-nonsense song that described a mythical creature with gem-encrusted skin and a voice like chimes in the wind.
• 35. "Riddles Wisely Fled," describing a cruel game in which a pack of granouses force a man to answer riddles or lose his fingers and toes. In the end, he escapes by posing them an impossible riddle.
• 36. "The Widow's Silver," about a man who is given a gift of money by a stranger and told you use it for charity. Instead he wastes the money, but all that he spends it on disappears.
• 37. "Wen Sworn and the Rogue," about a sworn who is challenged to hit a man as hard as he can with a club, receiving an equivalent blow after. Wen swings to kill, but the man is revealed to be made of rubber, easily absorbing the blow before gloating of how Wen will surely perish when the attack is returned to him.
• 38. "Li the Giant-killer," a tale set in modernized antiquity describing the first emperor outsmarting a giant.
• 41. "The Pitcher," about two men who sit down to dine. After drinking from his companion's wine pitcher, he sees that it is fine and kills its owner to steal it. The victim's ghost tells his sister of this inhospitable deed, and she hunts him with twenty-one slingstones in her pack.
• 42. "The Burnaway Man," about a misogynistic fey who marries women after promising to burn them in ten years.
• 43. "The Lady's Disguise," a surprisingly queer song about a woman wearing a face covering to reach her lover in an area where women are forbidden.
• 44. "Brenton's Bride," about how an Oathkeeper almost killed his fiance for infidelity, only to learn that he was his own cuckold.
• 45. "The Supper," in which two Oathkeepers believe that they cannot leave until the other has done so, so they offer more and more lavish gifts to convince the other to lead the way out of the feast hall.
• 46. "Sons and Garments," a dark tale about a chieftain who wants to kill his son for impregnating his daughter but cannot because he promised him safety before the crime was revealed.
• 47. "A Good Gold Rod," about a concubine trying to bribe a harem guard to let her out for the night to visit her illicit lover.
• 48. "Leery Light," warning about how dangerous fire is.
• 51. "Good Bu," describing a pilgrim of Xapt who lives in his own soapbox and does good deeds.
• 52. "Xemin," about two lovers who are reunited in the afterlife.
• 53. "Conzhoua Sworn,"about a hero who is betrayed and stabbed with iron, destroying his soul.
• 54. "For Want of a Boat," which warns men away from the distant island of Nuf, said to house an army of warring orcs bringing the wrath of Gnon, unable to threaten us only because they do not know how to sail.
• 55. "Thin and Icy," which speculates about what the Apocalypse shall be like.
• 56. "Twenty-Seven Inscrutibles," a somewhat dry description of the laws of the god Sedyf, whose followers know his will inerringly.
• 57. "Selmat's Banks," describing how the Prophet Elijah is supposed to have drowned the Priests of Iron in the distant land of Holy Selmat.
• 58. "The Color God's Bride," which tells of how the god Kulwosyf created gremlins in mourning for his human wife.
• 61. "Enwarc Thul," a nonsense verse about a foolish man who sought the city of Uzay, but was turned away and perished in a bog.
• 62. "Raindrop or Ember," a romantic tale about a member of the postal brotherhood undergoing many trials to bring news of a lover's death.
• 63. "Seeds to Flower," about an ancient emperor choosing an heir by giving each member of his family a seed and commanding them to cultivate them. In the end, all have beautiful plants except his youngest son, who has grown nothing. The emperor reveals the seeds were all baked and incapable of growing, showing that his son alone was honest and appointing him as heir.
• 64. "The Beast Overturned," describing the thrilling slaying of the great aurochs by a the god Pigudix. This event is said to be the start of Mesomergan history.
• 65. "The Mandate," telling the sorrowful tale of how three imperial artifacts, the Dolorous Regalia, were lost. This is said to be the reason that the land is cursed, that men are fools, and that evil is stronger than honor.
• 66. "The Taming of the Donkey," a ribald song about how barbarians tamed onagers through marriage.
• 67. "The Foreign Spear," about a jolly mercenary gnoll who misunderstands local customs but acts with impunity due to his puissance.
• 68. "Marmud Sworn,"about the three hosts a serset infests to be with his lover. Contains unacknowledged but obvious queer subtext.
• 71. "Goblin Market," warning of a forested moot where gremlins buy and sell all manner of things in western Mesomergos.
• 72. "Sun and Snow," describing the idyllic scene of a palace where the emperor wintered in better days along the southern edge of the Ceyannac mountains.
• 73. "The Three Sisters," describing a terrible tower in the northern Annac mountains where three demons, disguised as beautiful women, torture would-be saviors until a bold sworn banishes them with a sign of Mithras.
• 74. "In Jushun Orchards," describing the rescue of a maiden trapped in a fortress which encircles evil fruit trees outside Otogdam.
• 75. "The Cretin's Tower," alleging an artificer lives in a strange tower nestled atop the Ceyannacs.
• 76. "The Long Road," telling of a towering city of dreams in the far southwest of Mesomergos, where marvels and horrors are performed.
• 77. "Stone by Stone," which reports an ancient bailey north of Lischon, frequently torn apart to harvest its worked stones.
• 78. "On Sendem's Fields," describing a victory by a historical emperor against greater forces on the plains of Sendem, outside of Lischon.
• 81. "Xeuin," telling of a clever adventurer who always knows what items to carry on the road and which to leave home.
• 82. "The Swagman," about an ambler who won a fight with two strong soldiers through trickery.
• 83. "Amur Weir," about a travelling sworn who is mocked for cowardice. She flees a giant by running around a waterfall, and when the giant follows it trips and bashes its head on the rocks.
• 84. "The Stones," about how a man finds his son's killer by carefully inspecting the killer's home and finding a secret space where he is hidden.
• 85. "Young Hu," about a traveling priest who asks the locals about the nature of their lord. They tell him that he burns priests alive. So forewarned, he flees.
• 86. "The Byway Treacherous," about a pair of lovers walking through a mountain pass. A hermit warns that the local bandit wears the face of your greatest love, so they create a password and use it to tell when the bandit impersonates them. For killing the bandit, they are given twenty gold coins.
• 87. "What Saw I," about a band of travelers who each take a watch during the night and thereby fend off disaster.
• 88. "Good Voss's Gold," about a cunning heroine who bribed first a guard, then a robber, then a priest, and thereby secured great wealth for herself.

Parabola's Action 50: Part 2 + Play Report

First, the classes, then a quick play report. The next 15 classes continued from here. See also here. Another 50 have been made on the discord. Those I will leave for my own sanity.

1. Hour of Retribution (start with a rapier, a buckler, a pocketwatch)
1. You only need three hours of sleep. When you challenge someone to cross swords, they always comply.
2. When someone deals damage to you, your next attack against them deals at least as much damage.
3. You receive strange omens of danger, and are never surprised.
4. Once per day, go back in time by 1 hour.
2. Black Mantle (start with a black mantle, a pike, a bear trap, a grappling hook and rope)
1. You always count as at least lightly armored. It is impossible to tell if you are armed until you brandish a weapon.
2. Until you show otherwise, people always assume you have the same alignment as them, plus or minus some ennui.
3. You may enter an acrobatic rage, during which your attacks are based on dexterity instead of strength and you get +1d6 to dexterity tests. However, during this rage you must do things in the most over-the-top way possible, and take 1d4 fatigue afterwards.
4. You are invisible in near-darkness and can swim like a manta ray.
3. Secret Monk (start with a black robe, a crucifix hidden in a dagger, a bell)
1. You can make noises so that only allies hear it. You automatically recognize the signs of another secret monk.
2. In each dungeon or similar environ, there is always one “foe” who is actually a secret monk and potential ally.
3. During every combat in which you have not attacked anyone, heal an ally for 1d4 and grant them another attack that you dictate and roll.
4. Birds deliver messages for you.
4. Phantom Ship (start with ghost clothes, a journal, and a bow and arrows)
1. In every dungeon or similar environ there are always two potential lovers you must matchmake for. If you get them together, you heal all your HP and gain bonus XP. Also, you can take 1 damage to pass through a solid object, floor, or wall.
2. 3/day, charm someone. If you do, you are charmed by them.
3. Passing through solid objects, floors, and walls now takes 0 damage.
4. When someone who loves you (romantically or otherwise) is touching you, you cannot die.
5. Castle Fiend (start with a spellbook in blueprint form, a broom, and brass shoulderpads)
1. +1 MD. Cast architecture spells
2. +1 MD. Use magic dice to summon grotesques.
3. +1 MD. Use magic dice to summon gargoyles (grotesques with water class features)
4. +1 MD. May animate siege engines, ladders, and polearms.
6. Companion of Silence (start with sandals, a staff, a candelabra)
1. You may enter a trance that allows you to hear the nearest non-language noises in all directions.
2. While you carry a candle, nothing the candlelight touches can create sound.
3. Anyone sneaking up on you catches fire.
4. Whenever you harm someone, they cannot speak for 1 day per point of damage.
7. Demon Huntsman (start with a bow, arrows, lincoln green attire, and a brimstone)
1. You can speak with all game animals, but can only convince them to do things with a bargain
2. Whenever someone or something flees, you may make a free attack against it.
3. While tracking something, footsteps within 30’ of you burst into flames.
4. Whenever you win an animal’s soul, you learn anything it knew.
8. Destroying Sorcerer (start with a conical cap, a glass orb, your inventory's-worth of weapons)
1. +1 MD, you may reroll magic dice used for vandalism
2. +1 MD, you have DR 1 against people with less garish clothing than you.
3. +1 MD, you may take 1d4 fatigue to spread a harmful magical effect the following turn.
4. +1 MD, when you hurt someone’s feelings, get 10 XP.
9. Dice of Death (start with a spear, a pair of dice, three hand grenades you do not understand)
1. Once per day, your DM can make you reroll an action that is not harmful to someone. Once per day, you may choose to reroll an action that is harmful to someone.
2. When you damage someone, you can roll 2d6 damage instead; if you roll doubles, get some kind of wizard mishap.
3. When you damage someone, you can roll 3d6 damage instead; if you roll triples, get some kind of wizard doom. Whenever you roll a 6 on any die, take note. Every third six counts as a critical success.
4. At the start of combat, roll a d20 ten times. These are the results of the next ten d20 rolls you would make this combat. If you run out of numbers before the combat ends, you die.
10. Fatal Mystic (start with a dowsing rod that doesn't work, a morningstar that does, a heavy cloak)
1. You always know when someone nearby is dying. See death and life as glowing non-colors within 30 feet.
2. +1 MD, your grim pronouncements are always taken seriously.
3. +1 MD, when you ask questions through divination, you get one more.
4. +1 MD, You may foretell an apocalypse. Within a week, it will begin. Only true heroes can avert it.
11. Secret Assassin of the Old Stone Cross (start with a shovel, a sling and slingstones, black leather outfit)
1. Sneak attack as thief. Also, you have a perfect disguise as a gravedigger, night watchman, or skeleton.
2. Every Sunday, you can commune with some ghosts in a cemetery for clues about local or personal histories. Also, if you would sustain a fatal wound, this is represented by skeletal arms pulling you into the earth.
3. You get +1 to skill checks opposed by someone who does not know you are secretive, +1 if they do not know you are an assassin, and +1 if they do not know you are of the old stone cross.
4. When you lay a soul to rest or have a funeral, your party heals 2d6 hp.
12. Invisible Husband (start with a hat and monocle, a dirk, and an apron that says 'kiss the cook')
1. Your body is invisible. You always have bandages handy.
2. Those you smooch can fly for 1 minute. You cannot get the benefit from smooching yourself.
3. Choose one party member. They can see you, both literally and for who you are. Also, get +1d4 to attacks made while beside them.
4. You grill a killer steak. All lunches you help prepare heal +1 HP. Also, for ten minutes a day you may make your possessions invisible.
13. Invisible Assassin (start with a peasant hat and rags, a bow and arrow, and an apron that says 'kiss the cook')
1. Your body is invisible. You always have blowdarts handy.
2. Those you injure cannot make loud noises for 1 minute. You cannot get the effect from harming yourself.
3. Choose one party member. They can see you and spot for you, granting you advantage on stealth and ranged attacks as long as they do nothing else but assist you.
4. You grill a killer steak. You may prepare a meal that deals 1d6 damage to all who eat it. They must save vs. poison to avoid becoming incapacitated with nausea.
14. Dead Man Come to Life Again (start with two copper pieces, incense, your Sunday best, and a ceremonial dagger)
1. Learn an alignment language. Also, once per day,  tell a tale of the afterlife to heal yourself and others bound for the same destination 1d6 damage.
2. Remain conscious even after receiving a fatal wound. You can always get spirits, undead, angels, or demons to at least listen to you.
3. You can freely trade fatigue, trauma, and other inventory intangibles.
4. If you die, designate someone else to return to life.
15. Black Rider (start with a horse, a black cloak, and a named sword)
1. Use amazing scent to detect life within 50’ and track. Your mount has DR 2.
2. Those you stab save vs curses to avoid becoming a Black Rider.
3. +4 to hit while charging. You know the approximate direction of your quarry if they are on a road.
4. You attain the service of a fell and flighted drake.

-

Play Report

Using the classes found here, I ran a two-hour session for Deus Ex parabola and an in-person player, represented by a Dead Man Come to Life Again (Gorlias Jones) and a Mysterious Dagger (Xen), respectively.

They met to discuss their vengeance against the Lady Artemis McQuarry and her pirate son, Cap'n Corey McQuarry, in the old church-turned-tavern, the "Open Cask," the spookiest gin joint in the decrepit town of Heathport.

Each had been wronged by one of the McQuarrys, and each had learned that magic prevented one from permanently dying unless the other soon followed them. So after some discussion, Xen led them in finding a chicken to sacrifice. After finding a coop, they woke up a nearby farmer to bargain for the chicken. Noticing several ghosts flying out of the old McQuarry House, Gorlias offered to banish them for the farmer in exchange for the chicken. After some haggling, the farmer agreed.

So, the Dead Man Come to Life Again has this ability which says "You can call the lingering soul of the dead to possess its corpse and answer one question." The intention of this ability was surely not to banish ghosts to their bodies and forgo asking them questions, but that is precisely what Gorlias did, banishing a variety of very spooky old-timey ghosts. This satisfied the farmer, who gave them a chicken.

So, the Mysterious Dagger has this ability which says "If used to sacrifice a chicken, you can summon a random demon to this location." They immediately sacrificed the chicken. I happen to have an old set of rules for demons separated into then classes, from worm all the way up to Satan himself. Rolling a d10, they summoned the most minor of demons, an imp named Gobelthrane the Chicken-born. They offered a third of a soul if he would fly to Cap'n Corey's ship, the Black Krak'n, and tell him that his mother desperately needed him.

Meanwhile, the party proceeded to Lady McQuarry's home. The butler answered the door, but could not let them up to see the lady of the house because her band of drug-addled ruffians made further egress impossible. They circled around to the back of the house, bound Xen's original shmuck, and climbed up, where they encountered a spooky spectre. Gorlias pretended to be a ghost himself to attract Lady McQuarry, to no avail. Eventually, a different woman appeared, and Gorlias tricked her into taking the dagger, possessing her. Inspecting the spectre, they realized it was a prop, simply the work of a Scooby-Doo villain.

Coming into the Lady's bedchamber, Gorlias woke both her and her trained ape with his ghost impression. He convinced her to take the dagger, at which point Xen possessed her and threw the Scooby-Doo villain to the ape. She ordered the drug-addled ruffians to accompany her in an unspecified vengeance against her son.

Her son's crew, roused by the imp Gobelthrane, met the ruffians at the edge of town, where a skirmish began. Cap'n Corey McQuarry wept for the cruelty of fate, for as an Avenger's Doom, he detected that she was motivated by vengeance, and knew he must defeat her. Over the course of the battle, Gorlias drew the attention of the citizens of the city. Xen changed hands frequently, throwing himself into the neck of a pirate before being stolen by the ship's monkey. After leaving Lady McQuarry, her son realized something had changed and began to escort her back to the Black Krak'n. When Xen attempted to stab him again, the Corey realized the dagger's nature and cut it out of his crewmate's hand.

But Gorlias had already begun running in that direction. He quickly found Gobelthrane and convinced the imp to get Xen into a pirate's hands, offering three-thirds of a soul in exchange. Then, Gorlias boarded the ship and found the ship's powder reserve...

The imp got Xen into a pirate's hands easily enough. When the dagger climbed aboard the ship, the boatswain ordered his current shmuck to his station, which Xen angled into convincing the boatswain to grab the dagger, possessing him.  He knocked on the captain's door and cut Corey as he answered, only for the Avenger's Doom to kick him away and bar the door. The remaining crew cut down Xen's shmuck, with orders from the captain not to touch the dagger. Gorlias set a fuse belowdecks to ignite a mighty blast and destroy the vessel, with just enough time set to hurry topside, grab the dagger before it was thrown overboard, and flee down the docks.

Most pirates died in the explosion, or drowned, joined by Lady McQuarry. Her son managed to make it to shore, his waterlogged pistols unable to fire at Gorlias where he stood clutching the dagger. The Dead Man Come to Life Again throttled him with his deceptively strong funeral wrappings, dodging the swings the Cap'n made with a distressed crab he had found on the beach. And with that, Cap'n Corey McQuarry followed his mother into death.

Their vengeances fulfilled, Gorlias helped Xen to find a new schmuck, then returned to a comfortable unlife of gold prospecting. And they both lived happily ever after...

Parabola's 50 GLOG Classes: Part 1

So Deus Ex Parabola of Discord fame posted a list of 50 potential GLOG classes. These class names were hacked out of Penny Dreadful titles. Tickled by this list, I have undertaken to outline what some of these classes might be.

[EDIT: since posting this, Deus Ex parabola has compiled these and others into a full list of 50. My own project continues, but it has already been completed here.

Here's the first 15. They are quite rough. That's fine.

1. Betrayed (start with a sword, a shield, and a keepsake)
1. +1d6 damage against those whom you have sworn vengeance against; random encounters automatically include agents of those whom you have failed to bring vengeance against.
2. Automatically succeed when interrogating servants of your foes, so long as they have less HD than you.
3. Self-sabotage. You can always cause someone to slight you. Also, get 1 DR against environmental damage; it won’t be this that kills you.
4. When a spell reduces you to 0 or less hp, you learn it. +1 MD.
2. Forsaken Grave (start with outdated licenses, seals, and writs, as well as a roundel dagger)
1. Convince commoners and animals you are nobility with authority.
2. You can enter an indignant rage, giving you +4 charisma for ten minutes. However, you must attempt to convince rather than physically attack, and get 1d4 fatigue afterwards.
3. You can always successfully flee nobles and legal enforcers. Also, learn +1 rumor when investigating ancient constructions in your nation of origin.
4. You learn what, if anything, can restore you to your original office. Also, once per foe per combat, you can spend your turn telling them to do something and they will do it.
3. Blighted One (start with a bell, a staff, a bucket, and leprosy or something)
1. Intelligent enemies do their best to avoid touching you.
2. You and an opponent you touch both test constitution. Anyone who fails takes 1d6 attribute damage of your choice.
3. Reattach dismembered limbs with mud. Also, charm vermin and insects.
4. Throw a limb at a foe. They save vs. fear or flee.
4. Stone Druid (start with a stone sickle, a homesick raccoon, and a geode)
1. Spend Stone Dice to ask small favors of stone, +1 Stone Die
2. Spend Stone Dice to move stone walls, floors, and ceilings, +1 Stone Die
3. Spend Stone Dice to become animate stone, +1 Stone Die
4. You can create permanent stonehenge golems, +1 Stone Die
5. Black Towerer (start with very stretchy shorts and a sling)
1. Allies can climb you as easily as a ladder. They get +2 to attacks against foes lower than them,
2. +1 story in height, take half damage from projectiles.
3. +1 story in height, see all potential random encounters far in advance.
4. +1 story in height, carry twice as much but you cannot reach these new inventory slots yourself.
6. Bandit Monk (start with a pair of tonfa, a rustic hat, and a burlap sack)
1. While carrying rural or no weapons and wearing light or no armor, leap 15 feet (horizontal or vertical)
2. When you hit someone while unarmed, take a random item from them. (Not their wielded weapon or worn armor.)
3. +2d6 to dexterity tests while unobserved.
4. If you have mostly cleared out a dungeon or hidden wilderness outpost, automatically gain bandit followers each month.
7. Accursed Skeleton (start with a flesh prison, a cutlass, and a breastplate)
1. Your bones regrow at 4 AM every day. This heals bone-related injuries. Also, dogs hate you.
2. Break off a finger in a lock to unlock it. Also, you can attack twice and deal half damage with each attack.
3. You can cause your ribcage to explode, damaging everyone in front of you for 2d6, save halves.
4. Take half damage from slashing and piercing weapons. Crack your skull to negate fall damage.
8. Wizard of the Sea (start with an air bladder, a monkey, and a gold armband)
1. Throw gusts of air at will.
2. +1 MD. Cast sea-related spells
3. +1 MD. Can now become a crab or sea creature at will.
4. +1 MD. Charon will do you favors now, preventing foes from resurrecting.
9. Knight of the Iron Ring (Start with bronze panoply and a dagger)
1. You may take 1 point of fatigue to barrel through a substance that is softer than your armor. When overburdened, you do not take penalties to attack.
2. +1 attack per round.
3. If your armor is harder than a foe’s, get +2 to maneuvers against them. You receive no penalty to swimming for wearing armor.
4. Your flesh is as hard as bronze when you want it to be.
10. Pirate's Bride (start with a knife, an apron, a glass eye, and ∞ grog)
1. You always have grog handy. When you would kill a foe, you can automatically make it flee instead.
2. When an ally really should have brought a mundane item with them, you remembered to pack it.
3. If you are wronged, you can head to port and call in an angry pirate crew.
4. Throw a piece of gold into a fountain, well, or river with a message inscribed on it. An intended recipient finds the message in the next saltwater they encounter and can send a reply.
11. Maniac of the Deep (start with a loosened straightjacket, a fishing spear, and a waterlogged book)
1. Drowning does not cause you to die. Anyone who witnesses your dreams takes 1d8 wisdom damage.
2. You may glow in the dark
3. You may destroy a spellbook or other important piece of information to reroll a save against an ongoing effect. 
4. Whenever you fail a roll, the water level rises by 1 foot, receding at a rate of 1 foot every hour.
12. Demon Dwarf (start with a mattock, lockpicks, 4 troll-fat candles, and a helmet)
1. Fires you start cast light only you can see.
2. Those who break agreements with you, knowing your nature, save vs. death.
3. You can crawl into a recently deceased corpse and pilot it around.
4. When you carouse, you may spend 500 gp to wake from a fugue having crafted a terrible magic weapon, with unique capabilities but harsh drawbacks.
13. Headless (start with off-color cloth armor, a mace, and a fancy hat)
1. Immune to head-based disfigurements. Can swing wildly to attack everyone adjacent, friend or foe.
2. Once per day, trip over some desired item that would make sense in the area.
3. Put a small item or animal on your neck-stump. It grants a minor related ability.
4. When a beneficial effect can only effect a certain number of people, you can get the benefit without counting against the limit.
14. Mountain Fiend (start with 10 stones, a loincloth, and 66' of rope)
1. When you hit someone with a rock from a distance, make a free maneuver
2. You may drop 1d4 items to reroll attempts to climb, sneak, or harass.
3. Stone is flammable for you.
4. You can dig a 5x5x5 cube in five minutes.
15. Vampire Pirate (start with a cutlass, cloth armor, an umbrella, and charms purported to ward off the undead)
1. You can’t cross fresh water or touch sunlight, but heal when you inflict biting damage and get +2 to brawling rolls. Bites do 1d4 damage.
2. You can turn into a bat or parrot, and roll over ground or water as fog. You are as vulnerable as ever in these forms.
3. When you lock eyes with a crewmate, you may dictate their actions instead of taking a turn of your own.
4. Those you kill with your bites rise the following midnight as buccaneers.

Generating a Mesomergos Village

Oblidisideryptch of discord fame has requested tools to generate a common Mesomergos town. When I write generators for my games, I don't just want details. I want something that will be useful for creating story at the table. This was the focus of my writing on inherent conflict in Mesomergos, a setting in which social forces exist in constant conflict, on a scale small enough that the representatives of those social forces can create problems and opportunities for players.

I want generic locations to be interesting.

An average village in Mesomergos should have some of the same inherent conflict from the city it orbits, but it also exists on the periphery. A village is usually led by a chieftain, who has to deal with trouble from the local partisan group. It has obligations and industry facing the city, and some kind of danger encroaching from the wilderness. It has a god that people can petition or be smote by. It probably also has other things, but if they do not create tension or opportunity I don't need to generate them until they come up.

Something, or ideally several somethings, should be going wrong everywhere. The right way to use these tables is to first decided if they are necessary, or if the current situation (or random encounter) suggests other tensions. If they are useful, roll on these and ask "why might this be a problem the PCs come into contact with?"

What does the Chieftain want?

1. to cheat strangers out of their wealth
2. to marry off their offspring to a good match
3. to punish their offspring with a bad marriage
4. to use reputable strangers as an alibi for some wrongdoing
5. to take the neighboring village down a peg
6. to demonstrate hospitality and honor (for once)
7. to destroy the village's connection to the wilderness
8. to make a lasting peace with the village's connection to the wilderness
9. to reform the local partisan group
10. to destroy the local partisan group

What does the partisan group want?

1. to burn scrolls and literate folk
2. to militarize everything
3. to bureaucratize everything
4. to profane the gods and the godly
5. to only do things the Mesomergan way
6. to gather donations to reinstate the emperor
7. whatever the chieftain doesn't want
8. to be clannish and boorish to strangers
9. to win the favor of a god other than the one with the biggest shrine
10. to do like the city folk do

What is the village's tie to civilization?

1. The village mines reefstone, slowing bleaching and dying.
2. The village chops lumber, with tough lumberjacks clogging the river.
3. The village supports a monastery, hermitage, or leper colony.
4. The village is home to a retired figure of renown.
5. The village is home to an uncommon clade of mortal folk or monstrous humanoid.
6. The village is the center of local festivals.
7. The village maintains a memorial to a historical tragedy.
8. The village is a trading post.
9. The village maintains a rare orchard.
10. The village is responsible for an aging dam or lock.

What is the village's connection to the wilderness?

1. The village visits the local goblin market.
2. The village has a tenuous relationship with a local chimera.
3. The village is a favorite hunting ground for a murderous suitor.
4. The village is visited during solstices by strange and fey creatures.
5. Skeletons hatch from all who die here, and carry themselves away.
6. The village performs strange and animal bacchanals.
7. The village does the work of talking animals.
8. The village shares familial ties with talking animals.
9. The village prevents all logistical developments from changing the landscape.
10. The village serves as bait for some monstrous humanoids.

What god has the biggest shrine?

1. The god Noryawes, whose mechanisms, flames, and plows signify vengeance, law, and cunning.
2. The god Rektrine, whose obelisks, orange shades, and terns signify valor, tradition, and magic.
3. The god Sedyf, whose roosters signify tranquility, order, and society.
4. The god Mithras, whose mithraeums, chains, and birds signify virtue, the greater good, and history.
5. The god Fisochol, whose foxes, bands, and gells signify law, mercy, and straightforwardness.
6. The god Iron, whose wavy daggers, falling stars, and dowsing rods signify cruelty, sacrifice, and excess. 
7. The god Pigudix, whose braids, aurochs skulls, and horseflies signify heroes, vainglory, and pestilence.
8. The goddess Tilunel, whose vines, water wheels, and crossed staves signify growth, chaos, and conservation.
9. The goddess Xapt, whose boxes, bells and tea signify utopianism, universalism, and harmony. 
10. The stars themselves, their shrines worn and devoid of power.