Folklore and characters classes

The Good Friends of Jackson Elias podcast discussed how folklore can be used to present varied and often contradictory interpretations of creatures. We often apply this to monsters and mythos entities but I thought that it could be interesting to apply this to the player characters' professions, like how The Witcher and The Mandalorian depict common folks as having all kinds of stories and rumors about their professions, some trues and some false, sometime these rumors profit the characters but sometime they also complicate their live.

You could ask each player to roll and answer up to three rumors about their character class. Their answer are not necessarily trues, but some parts could be. With a small group of players, going around the table and letting each player roll and answer a question to establish a rumor about the other players profession can also be fun. An other option is to roll and answer one question by level. 

If you don't want these rumors to apply to all fighters, cleric and magic-users, make them about a specific character guild.

When the characters explore a new location or region, modify one of their answers to create a local variant.

Folks tell stories about their... (d10)

1. Origins (How their profession was funded? When? Where? By whom?)
2. Purpose (What is the official or secret purpose of their profession?)
3. Recruitment (Who do they recruit and how? What is their initiation?)
4. Interdictions (What does their coda prevent them to do?)
5. Obligations (What does their coda force them to do?)
6. Abilities (What special abilities they are rumored to have)
7. Gear (What special gear they are rumored to use?)
8. Affiliation (What secret alliances or grudges they are rumored to have?)
9. Payments (What they accept as payment? For which task?)
10. Exploits (What kind of exploits they are rumored to have done? Or which historical events they participated in?) 

Exemples

People tell stories about the Fighters Guild's...

• Gear: they only use weapons of defeated foes.
• Recruitment: they must recruit kids who survive raids or wars if they are holding a weapon when they find them.
• Payment: you must include a copper piece that tasted blood with their payment

People tell stories about the Thieves Guild's...

• Origins: the guild was funded by serpent men 600 years ago
• Abilities: they drink so much poison that their blood is poisonous
• Obligations: hang a snake skin on your belt or window and they will never rob you.

People tell stories about the Clerics Cult's...

• Affiliation: the cult has a secret alliance with dwarfs and they will always help them if they give them a piece of hematite as it represents their alliance.
• Origins: their prophet was petrified, each member of the cult bear a tiny piece of her petrified body.
• Exploits: during the Iron War, the cult's prayers animated a statue that saved the city.

Now if a cleric of the cult visit a distant village, you can imagine the villagers asking the character to animate their village statue to save them from the ogre that harasses them. Or a soldier asking the character to show them the petrified fragment of their prophet to prove who they are. Or someone giving them an hematite and expecting a service in return.

Spectral Hound Class

Spectral Hounds are warrior-mediums.
They can see ghost and can make alliance with them.
They manifest their soul as a ghost hound that shepherd the spirits of the deceased.

Requisite: STR 9, WIS 9, CHA 9
Prime requisite: WIS and CHA
Open to: human, elf, half-elf, half-orc
HD: as cleric
To Hit; as cleric
Saving Throw: as cleric
XP: as cleric
Weapons: short swords, staffs and spears
Armors: leather armors

Special abilities

Turn Ghosts
Can turn or command ghosts and non-corporeal undeads as a cleric of the same level.

Summon Ghosts
When near a grave or corpse, the medium can summon the spirits of the dead to speak with them. Use the turn undead table VS the HD of the deceased. On a turn result the medium can speak with the spirit of the dead. Make a reaction test to see how helpful the ghost is. On a destroyed result the medium receive 2 bonus points on their reaction test.

Ghost bounding.
The medium can bound a summoned ghost to herself. Use the cleric spell table to see how many ghost can be bound. Spell levels are ghost HD.
Exp a Labyrinth Lord level 3 Spectral Hound can bound two 1HD ghosts and one 2HD ghost.

Bound ghosts can be manifested for 1 turn (10 rounds) by HD.
Each round they can:

• Spook: force a moral test.
• Haunt: inflict a saving throw and to hit penalty equal to their HD.
• Poltergeist: work as a invisible servitor.
• Guard: fight other non-corporeal beings.
• Lore: give advice.

Ghosts can only be unbound through a psychopompe test (see below).

Honoring the dead
Once you manifest a ghost you can't manifest it again until you spend time to honor the dead just like a cleric would pray to prepare his spells. When the medium honor the dead she speak with the ghosts, telling their live stories and listening to their complains.

Extrude ectoplasm
At level 3 the medium can manifest their bound ghosts as ectoplasms.
The medium choose a type of ectoplasm manifestation at level 3 and a new one each time they level up.

To manifest a ghost eactoplasm, the medium make a saving-throw vs Death. On a success everything is ok. On a fail the medium loose as many HP as the ghost HD.

Ectoplasmic spends spend the ghost HD permanently, once a ghost reach 0 HD it become too weak to manifest itself. Ectoplasms remain for 1 turn by HD of the ghost (before spentding).

Ectoplasms can form:

• Armor: The ghost spend it HD to add to the medium's AC. The remaining HD of the ghost protect against level draining and are consumed instead of the medium's levels. 
• Weapons: The ghost form a weapon doing d4 dmg that can hurt magical beings. The ghost can spend their HD to add: +1 to hit or +1 to dmg or to raise the WP damage die by one die step (up to d10).
• Ectoplasmic bolts: the medium can vomit 1 ectoplasm bold for each HD of the ghost. Each ectoplasm bolt do 1d6 dmg and hit automatically, passing through materials.
• Creature: form a ectoplasm creature that have 1 HD, AC12 and do d4 dmg. The ghost can spend their HD to add +1HD, +2AC or to step up their damage die. 
• Veil: the ghost can veil the presence of the medium and grant it a stealth skill of 1 on a d6 plus 1 for each HD spend.

Shepherd the souls
Instead of resting or to honor the dead, the medium can act as a psychopompe and guide a spirit to their after life. To do so they must enter in a trance for four hours and make a reaction using their WIS bonus. The psychopompe journey will refresh the ghost HD, this is bad news if the test fail.

Psychopompe reaction (2d6 + WIS mod - how many HD the ghost have spent or lost)

• 2 or less - The soul is lost and become a angry ghost, it gain a extra HD and will come back for revenge in d6 nights.
• 3-4 - The ghost is trap in a delusion and will haunt the current location, trying to hinder the group. 
• 5-6 - The ghost is stuck here for now and it learned something negative about their past. The ghost remain in service of the medium but become uncooperative. A new attempt can be made when the medium level up. 
• 7-8 - The ghost is stuck here for now but it learned something positive about their past. The ghost remain in service of the medium. A new attempt can be made when the medium level up. 
• 9-10 - The ghost reach the afterlife. 
• 11 - The ghost reach the afterlife and reveal something important to the medium.
• 12+ - The ghost reach the afterlife, it reveal something important and bless the medium (the medium gain two extra levels to make their next turn undead test) 

A ghost that reach the afterlife grant 100xp per HD to the group. 

Spectral Hound 
At level 5 the medium can manifest her soul as a ghost hound.
The medium must take a turn to enter into a state of meditation, then she must make a saving throw against Death. On a success she manifest her soul as ghost hound that share her HP and AC and who do 2d4 of spectral biting damage. Non magical corporeal attacks do half damages to her spectral HP.  The medium can maintain this form for 1 turn (10 rounds) by level.

On a failed save the medium is stuck in her trance for d6 turns, harrowed by angry shades. She may receive a vision of despair that reveal a dangerous haunting or a future threat.

The medium can also manifest her ghost hound when she reach 0 hit points.

While in ectoplasmic form, a medium will usually leave a few of their ghosts in guard duty to protect their defenseless body.

If her ectoplasmic form is destroyed, the medium is violently projected back into her body, she is shaken and will receive a two levels penalty for her next turn undead test. 

If the medium's body die while she is manifesting her soul, she will fade away in a number of days equal to her level. If she is filled with negative emotions, she may remain as a dark hound.

Starting Ghost
A level one Spectral Hound start with a random bound ghost of 1 HD
This ghost is the spirit of ... (d6)

1. a ancestor (+1 to the reaction test) 
2. a family member (+1 to the reaction test) 
3. a friend or lover (+2 to the reaction test) 
4. a child (not related to the medium) 
5. a stranger 
6. a foe (-1 to the reaction test) 

Make a reaction test to establish the relation between the medium and the ghost.

Generic Ghosts
Simple stats for generic ghosts:

• They have AC as leather armor
• Non magical corporeal weapons are useless against their spectral form. 
• In spectral form they can inflict dice roll penalties equal to their HD. 
• Non magical corporeal weapons do half damages against their ectoplasmic form.
• In ectoplasmic form, ghosts can ignore armors and inflict d6 damage on a hit. 
• If their ectoplasmic form is destroyed, they reform d6 nights later. 

Dungeon Gatherers

These wise and old women know how to gather all kind of stuff from dungeons. When they settle near a dungeon, this is usually good news as they will tame the dungeon until they move to the next one.

They know the old language of all things and their favorite songs. These secrets let them navigate the dungeons, haggle with any of it denizen and negotiate with it traps. "Oh poor rusted lock, don't spit your needle, I will sing you the song that make you shiny again."

They never take gold or treasures from dungeon but they sometimes move it around or hide better to please the dungeon denizens. They collect instead all kind of useful and quirky objects that they will later trade with villagers.

They travel around in colorful caravans, they visit villages built near dungeons, asking questions about the dungeon and often receive gifts from villagers. They set up their camp near a dungeon and discuss with it main entrance and with nearby creatures to better know the dungeon history and it personality. "This is one is a sad and grumpy dungeon." They will befriend and harvest the dungeon for a whole season before moving on to the next one.

The Gatherers only fear bandits and other brutish humans but it is ill advised to menace or trouble them as they are in good relations with all sort of creatures and their caravans are often guarded by pet mimics.  

When they visit a village, the Dungeon Gatherers will accept any outcast women, cis or trans who want to join their caravan to become a apprentice. Sometime outcast men also join their caravan but they are rarely initiated.

XP as magic user
HD: d6
To hit: as magic user
Weapons: staff or walking stick only
Armors: none
Saves: as magic user

Abilities

The Old Tongue

This language let you speak with items, animal and monsters. When you speak with something it remember the language and forget it afterward. The only beings it have no effect on are humans. This let the dungeon gatherers speak and make reaction tests with nearly anything, including doors, traps, items, etc. 

The Ancient Etiquette

Learning the Ancient Etiquette take years of apprenticeship. It teach you how to properly address all things and grant a point bonus to reaction tests at level 3 and 7. It also let you test your Intelligence score to anticipate what a item or monster would require as a service to help you. 

The Songs of Mending 

These old songs let you mend things. To figure the proper words to sing you have to make a wisdom test. Some older and stubborn things are harder to mend and inflict a penalty. You can only use these song on something that is well disposed toward you.  

Listen! 

When things go badly you can strike the ground with your staff and everyone will stop fighting or arguing to listen to you. You can call upon this power once a day and once a night. Gatherers refer to these as the Midday Strike and the Midnight Strike. 

Bargaining 

You deal a hard bargain, especially when you trade with villagers and you roll with advantage when you make bargain related tests. You never bargain anything for gold or coins. 

Everything is of value

The whimsical things you gather in the dungeon award you experience points if your game system award XP for gold. Gold belong to the dungeon and should not be looted. Looted dungeons are angry and harder to discuss with. 

Mimic's affection

Wild mimics seem to be found of the Gatherers and on a good reaction they will follow them around for a day. After that they will get lazy and sleep. Mimics that venture out of their dungeon sometime join the caravan as a pet. 

A other take on the mimics companionship from the comments: "people would be absolutely frightened to know how many mundane objects they use almost on a daily basis are actually "inert" mimics. dungeon gatherers know how to gently sing them awake. once per day (or something like that) dg can awaken a mimic from its inert state. there must be suitable object nearby for this to work. awakened mimic will be grateful and will serve the dg that sung it into awareness for a day before wandering off to do mimicy things."

Hen character class

This hen started her career as a walking ration for a level 0 funnel character, her owner was exposed to some magical energies and did not survive the funnel but the hen did and she leveled up at the end!

HD: d6
To hit: as fighter
Saves: as fighter
XP: as fighter
Weapons: beak helmets and talons attachments.
Armor: any except shields

Abiilities

Growing larger
As the hen level up and gain more HD she grow larger.
LV 1: beak and talons damage do 1 dmg (chicken size)
LV 3: beak and talons damage step to 1d4 (large dog size)
LV 5: beak and talons damage step to 1d6 (ostrich size)
LV 7: beak and talons damage step to 1d8 (chocobo size)
LV 9: beak and talons damage step to 1d10 (terror bird size)

Beak helmet or talons attachments step up the damage die by one size.

Limited flight 

The hen can use her limited flight and talons to easily climb on nearly anything by making a DEX test at +2.  

Floating

While wearing non metal armor the hen can float on water like a duck. 

Lay magical eggs
Once per session the hen can lay a egg that have the effect of a random magical potion. To lay the egg the hen must rest while her hp are full. The magical properties of the egg only work if the hen gift the egg to someone.

Pomeranian Character Class

Pomeranian Character Class
XP as rogues
HD: d4
To hit: as fighters
Weapons: any (d4 dmg for one handed wp, d6 for two handed wp)
Armors: any
Saves: as halflings

• Small but vicious: +1 to hit and dmg and AC against larger creatures (human sized or larger).  
• Territorial: barking loudly at the start of a encounter force a foe to make a ML test. On a fail the foe back away and lose the initiative. 
• Alert: Sense trouble on 1-4 on a d6. They must bark loudly for d6 rounds on a pass.  
• Enthusiastic: when failing a attribute test they become over exited and reroll, on a fail they cause some extra trouble in their excitement. 
• Fluffy: they get a bonus point to reaction tests when they don't bark. 
• Spiteful around nobles: being often owned by nobles, free Pomeranian distrust them and get a point of reaction penalty against them or when one is part of the group as their mood get grumpy. 

Albino Penguin Character Class

The other day I was watching a documentary about extincts giant penguins and I thought that the albino penguins from At The Mountains of Madness could be a playable character class in a old school lovecraftian setting like Realms of Crawling Chaos.

I image them as some kinds of eldritch Skeksis.

They live in the north in the ruins of eldritch cities. They organize in households and have complex social codes and rules for everything, they are craven and are obsessed with scavenging eldritch lore. Their large size let them use any weapons but they are quite clumsy with them. They prefer to live underground away from the bright light of the sun.

Albinos Penguin Class (Realms of Crawling Chaos)
Requirements: none
Prime Requisite: INT
Hit Dice: d6
Maximum Level: 9
Armor: any
Weapon: any
To hit: as Magic-user
Saves: as Magic-user
Magic-user spell progression: as Magic-user
XP: as Sea Blood (3000xp for second level)
Special: half any darkness related penalties. +2 to save against cold.

Albinos Penguin Race (Realms of Crawling Chaos)
INT +1, CON+1, DEX-2
Class Level Limit:
Assassin 7
Cleric 8
Fighter 8
Illusionist 7
Magic-user 9
Special: half any darkness related penalties. +2 to save against cold.

Wanderstitches Character Class

Contributions by: Camilla Greer, Orb Experience, Michael T Lombardi, Sean Richer, Finn McCool, Mountain Foot, John Errwin, Anxiety Wizard, Trahan.

Instead of collectively keying a map we tried to key together a character class.
(This is not balanced, it probably require some jerry rigging to be fully playable)

Wanderstitches start with two abilities at level 01 and gain a new one each time they gain a level.

(1) Wanderstitch household hat - Traditionally hold two stitching needles gifted from your household. Wanderstitches trade these to make alliance between households. A household needle grant a advantage to craft a particular kind of item, like House Nest Maker are the best for crafting blankets.  

(2) Prismatic Buttons Lenses - Gives advantage to spot hidden. Once per day the wearer can see through normal or magical obscurement. These are crafted with buttons found in a dark place.

(3) Proving Buttons - While apprenticing, a wanderstitch takes only a button as payment. Once they have enough to finish a coat of their master's design, they may seek their own destiny. Wanderstitches can read each other's deeds in the buttons they collect. Spend as social currency (double or halve efficacy based on relevance of origin).

(4) Baubleshield - If the light is right it has a dazzling prismatic reflection, very disorienting. Can be repaired by adding baubles found during adventures. Select again to enchant the shield with a luck charm, each bubbles added while adventuring grant a one time lucky armor bonus of 1.

(5) Tethered Spears - Whenever you use throwing weapons for attacks and miss, you can always pull them back to you as long as it's not over the weapon's range. These spears can also be used as giant needles to stitches the clothes of giants (who have a hard time repairing their clothes with their clumsy fingers).

(6) Heartfelt Thread - This spool's thread can only be broken or cut by someone who has a true and abiding passion and only in the service of that passion. If the thread pierces someone's flesh, it winds through their veins deeper and deeper with every lie and mistruth they speak. This dangerous ability can only be selected after reaching level 03.

(7) Foot Training - Complex garments or spellweaves often require many hands. In a pinch, wanderstitches often train to use their feet. (Advancement: use feet as disadvantaged hands. Choose again to remove disadvantage)

(8) Cut the Weave - You can craft witch-scissors. With them in hand, forgo your attack to gain advantage on saves vs spells. If save succeeds, the spell is nullified. Spell-offcuts are volatile but make good barter. Witch-scissors lose their power if used to cut anything else.

(9) Animate Doll - Sometimes when children grow older and keep their childhood toys, their parents decide to get rid of them. By sewing the right button on a discarded doll a wanderstitch can animate it. Select again to create additional doll companions.

(10) Doll Weapon Needle - As literal toys the doll weapons aren't particularly lethal but they are very distracting and annoying. Certain unexpected creatures are said to be quite vulnerable to the weapons wielded by dolls, however. Any one poked by these weapons must pass a saving throw or cannot stop saying "OW!" until end of day.

...

Also check this older post for more exemples of whimsical super specific classes: Colorful Guilds

Galli Character Class (Black Hack version)

I made a Black Hack version of the Galli as a character class as Fiona presented them in her blog post about why she hate clerics.

They are priestesses who sometimes practice sacred prostitution. It is not the first time that I see a character built around sacred sex work in OSR publications. This is a subject that can easily be problematic but I guess that it can also be used in a mature and respectful way. In the case of the Galli, this is again associating trans characters with sex work, but at the same time sex work is a part of the history of trans people and sex workers are also part of our community, I don't think that they should be erased. I played Satareh, a houri custom character class (a sacred prostitute) up to level 4 in the Ultan's Door campaign and I really appreciated this character, her role as a sex worker did not really come up during play, as our adventuring mostly happened outside the city but playing her made me think about how sex work could be handled in play.

Some guidelines to handle sex worker characters in a campaign:

• Lines and veils should be discussed with the player (and the group). 
• The player should always be in charge of the sex work of their character, they need to be the one who decide to initiate it or not. 
• The character can be tied to a temple or a brothel but they also need to be autonomous and be able to leave when they want. Their temple or brothel should generally be a positive network of contacts. There can be issues or problems to deal with but they should be optional and the affiliation should not be used by the GM as a excuse to coerce or abuse the character or to impose things on them.
• Humanize the NPCs sex workers and patrons, give them quality, flaws and relationships. Some of them may have problems that the PC can decide to get involved with or not. 
• Be careful not to shame the character for their sex work or to gratuitously joke about it at the table. Some NPCs may have a bad opinion of sex workers but don't make it the default reaction.  
• If you use the trope of the troublesome client, be careful not to remove the agency of the character, give them opportunities to handle the situation in their own way and give them means of ending or exiting the scene if they wish. 
• Never use rape as a threat. There is so many other ways of depicting a troublesome client and other kinds of troubles to explore.  
• If for some reason pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections come into play, always warn the player when there is a risk so that they have a choice of taking that risk or not. I would personally advice to discuss these when you first talk about the player's lines to see if these risks should even be on the table. When they happen, give the character various options to handle the situation. 
• Try to avoid tropes like magical pregnancy, or again discuss them with the player and if you decide to explore them give various solutions and be careful with the character agency, don't impose this kind of tropes on the character, always present them as a choice. 

GALLI as character class (by Fiona)

Who are they: castrated individuals[1] who dress in luxurious robes, attractive headgear (crowns, laurel wreathes, or Phrygian caps) and excessive makeup. Their hair is long and their features feminine. They have knives, bronze shields, and tympanum and dance ecstatically. They are preceded by frenzied music and wafts of heady incense. They bear a representation of their goddess atop a donkey. They perform for money. Because of the edict against castration of a citizen, they are drawn from the ranks of low born and foreigners. Sometimes they practice sacred prostitution. The object of equal measures of scorn and religious awe.
Why are they: they wander around and perform blessings (a shield dance over newborns, blessing crops to be fertile as Attis represents the life-death-rebirth cycle of crops) and tell fortunes. The actual operations of the cult are opaque (it is, after all, a mystery cult).
Domains: the boundary between life and death, the wild (particularly birds of prey and lions), frenzied dancing, mountains and stones in general. In chthonic ritual practice can contact an ancient race of smiths/magicians who can work metal, teach the secrets of mathematics and literacy and bestow magic; they will also witness oaths and bind them.
How is one initiated: the only requirement is the devotion necessary to castrate oneself in a fit of divine madness during the 'Day of Blood' (March 24) in symbolic mourning for the temporary death of Attis. Then you become a mendicant priest and perform for the glory of Attis & Cybele.

[1] Galli are in various sources referred to with masculine pronouns, feminine pronouns and 3rd gender pronouns sometimes pegged to if they have castrated themselves.

GALLI (Black Hack version by Evlyn)
Starting HP: 1d6+4
HP per level / resting: d6
Weapons: daggers
Armor: bronze shields
Attack Damage: 1d6 / 1d4 unarmed or improvising

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Gain advantage to CHA tests while dancing or playing music.
• Gain advantage to INT tests while bestowing knowledge of metallurgy, mathematics, agriculture and literacy. 

Once by day they can:

• Sacred prostitution: when offering your service to a community test CHA, on a failure people avoid you (for different reasons), on a success you gain (level)d6x10 coins for the day, some rumors and a advantage for your next WIS test.
• Fortunes: name someone and test WIS, on a fail you bestow disadvantage to a random attribute, on a success you bestow advantage to a attribute of your choice. The disadvantage or advantage will trigger the next time this attribute is tested by that person.
• Shield Dance: while dancing you cannot attack but you gain advantage to defend against attacks, after d6 rounds of dancing you enter a battle frenzy and gain advantage to attack alongside a extra attack until the end of the fight.

Once by divine favor they can:

• Witnessing a Oath: when someone swear something you may declare that you witness the Oath, if the person break their Oath they will gain disadvantage to all their tests until they try to rectify their oath or ask you to “divine” their penance. (NPCs will simply fail at everything)
• Bless with fertility: take a turn to bless someone or something with fertility. Test WIS, on a natural 20 what will grow will be full of life but you must describe a monstruous feature that the gods bestow on them. On a failure you must declare that the gods do not approve the blessing. On a success you can divine a natural feature or trait of what will grow. On a natural 1 you must describe a divine feature that the gods bestow on them. (The blessing do not cause pregnancy, it only affect fertility) 
• Replace a random encounter roll with a encounter with a lion. This lion will be neutral toward the Galli, test CHA to befriend it, on a failure the lion will leave and the Galli gain disadvantage to her next CHA test, on a success the lion will remain with the Galli until he fight once for her.
• Commune with the dead: test CHA, on a failure the dead bestow a bad fortune upon you (like the fortune ability), on a success the dead will answer d6 of your questions. Undeads will return to their normal behaviors after chatting.
• Contact Cthonian beings: test CHA, on a natural 20 you awaken a grumpy cthonian monster, on a failure d6 ill intended bitter cthonians will meet you, on a success you summon d6 helpful cthonians, on a natural 1, d6 cthonians come to bestow a gift from below the earth. The cthonians take d6 turns to arrive.
• Summon the Ambrosia of Cybele: personally gather honey, grapes and sacred herbs, bless them to transform them into ambrosia. When blessing them chose a effect: heal 2d6HP OR restore lost charisma OR work as divine Hormone Replacement Therapy (changes still take time).

Ways of winning divine favors 

(You can accumulate one favor by level)  

• Being castrated (you can start play with one favor).
• Convert followers to worship.
• Observe the holy week of Attis being pledged to Cybele.
• Make a sacrifice of a ram to Attis (Criobolium) or a bull to Cybele (Taurbolium). 
• Ritually sacrifice the testicles of a potent animal.
• Observe minor holidays organized around the import of Cybele's worship. 
• Flagellation and frenzy demonstrating devotion. 
• Give solid agricultural advice in line with the religious calendar.
• Dying and being reborn (earn 1d6 favors)

LEVELING UP
Roll to see if attributes increase, roll twice for WIS and CHA.

Random Cthonians Table (d6) 

1. Dwarfs or Gnomes covered with dirt and roots. 
2. Armored molerats people (or other burrowing animals) 
3. Blind morlocks or troglodytes. 
4. A cyclop and the assistants they crafted.  
5. Fossilized nymphs. 
6. Mad Geomancers. 

Cthonian's Gifts (d10)

1. Knowledge
2. Gem or magical stone 
3. Petrified body part
4. Key to a secret passage
5. Helm or shield
6. Earth song dagger 
7. Statuette of a cthonian monster 
8. Crystallized bones or creature
9. Perfume or balm 
10. Jewelry or erotic item 

Swimming between dreams (Sharkman Black Hack version)

I wrote a Black Hack version of the excellent SHARKMAN Dreams... that Evey posted a while ago, also check out the Blogs On Tape interpretation, the reading is just perfect.

I appreciate how Sharkman is not really aware of her gender, she just swim through her dreams and reality. I wish that I could feel like that sometimes... Being able to forget about my gender or even who I am for a while. Well I am presently swimming through difficult emotions and I certainly feel like a fish out of the water, I am trying to post some stuff that relate to what I feel, it kind of help me to digest my emotions.

I wanted to craft a mini 8 pages zine with both Evey's version and mine but I need more material to fill up 3 more pages.

The Black Hack is becoming my favorite system to craft custom character classes.

"There may be more sharkman somewhere, but as far as anyone knows there is just this one sharkman. Sharkman can’t really say.
Sharkman looks a bit surprised all the time. That’s just shark eyes, though he? she? it? is usually surprised. Sharkman does not understand our dry world.
He? is gullible, easily confused, and utterly alien.
Her? big flipper feet are cumbersome. His? strangely still flipper hands couldn’t be dexterous, could they? It’s never unarmed, not with that big dopey, dangerous grin. It seems curious but this is difficult to discern. That frightening, inhuman, kind of goofy expression never changes.
It’s no wonder the possibly innocent or possibly bloodthirsty thing fell in with the worst sort of crowd…"
-Evey Lockhart

SHARKMAN (Black Hack version by Evlyn M)
Starting HP: 1d10+4
HP per level: d10 / resting: d10 (underwater) d6 (dry land)
Weapons: biting and more biting!
Armor: his cold, thick, unfeeling flesh count as leather armor
Attack Damage: 1d10 biting / 1d6 unarmed or improvising

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Sharkman roll with advantage when underwater, including her attacks.
• Sharkman is clumsy on the dryland and sometime roll DEX with disadvantage.
• Sharkman can smell blood from 100 yards away on land, 1 mile away in water.
• Once he taste blood, sharkman make 1 attack per level and she must devour what she kill (this take 1 round by HD).
• Sharkman regain d10 + the prey’s HD in lost HP when he devour a prey.
• Sharkman can sort of talk, in a gurgling, raspy, disconcerting way. Player must choose and abide by a 10 words speaking vocabulary for the character.
• Sharkman does not understand and roll with disadvantage when the dryland confuse her.

LEVELING UP
Roll to see if attributes increase, roll twice for STR and DEX. Sharkman also learn 1d4 new words.

SHARKMAN DREAMS (d20)

1. Mermaids sing underwater, make up a word and add it to your vocabulary without defining it.
2. Mating with a shark or a human (genders are blurry and never the same).
3. Vomiting humans and shark babies.
4. Taking bites off something gigantic.
5. A friend bleeding in the cold water.
6. Drowning on the dryland or gasping for air.
7. Being stuck in a infinite net, someone (or something) else is struggling too.
8. Having your fins being cut by a fisherman and being throw back into the water.
9. A underwater moon.
10. A sunken temple.
11. Being experimented on by deep ones.
12. Sunken ship.
13. Swimming freely with normal sharks.
14. Catching a glimpse of a other sharkman in the distance.
15. Being alone on a beach.
16. Being touched and calmed by a mute and scared mermaid.
17. Fighting a giant undead octopus, catching a glimpse of it milky eye.
18. Being captured by aquatic humanoids.
19. Walking in a empty city.
20. In the deepest abyss, Dagon slowly open his? (her?) maw and say a word, make up a word and add it to your vocabulary without defining it.

Moon Titans

Playable character race:

Moon Titans
Elven like giants who live on the moon

Attributes modifiers 

+2STR
-2CON

Classes: fighter, illusionist, cleric 

Multi class: fighter-illusionist 

If played as "race as class" use the elf template for XP and fighter-mage abilities.

Special attributes 

Strong but delicate: 
Being large creatures they start with a extra hit dice (only apply CON modifier once) and receive a bonus to STR but being used to the low gravity of the moon they receive a CON penalty and are easily exhausted. They can also receive penalties when their size handicap them.

Night vision: 
They can see perfectly under the night sky (but not underground).
They receive -1 to hit when fighting in sunlight or in a very bright environment.  

Moon metal weapons: 
New characters start with weapons that count as silver weapons. Moon metal weapons give +1 to hit when wield under the moon light. Moon metal slightly glow in the dark when exposed to the night sky. Moon weapons are bigger but lighter, this balance out and their damage die remain the same as normal weapons. When buying weapons and armors from man sized settlements, Moon Titans must pay double the price for their size. Non moon metal weapons and armor count as a extra encumbering item. 

Moon bridge: 
Once every moon phase a titan can sing for 1 turn while standing in the moonlight to open a moon bridge to the moon or to any location they already visited that can be reached by moonlight. The phase of the moon influence the travel:

• Full: being lost (none), random moon creature encounter (4/6) 
• Gibbous: being lost (1/6), random moon creature encounter (3/6) 
• Half: being lost (2/6), random moon creature encounter (2/6) 
• Crescent: being lost (3/6), random moon creature encounter (1/6)  
• New: being lost (4/6), random moon creature encounter (none) 

Duration: a gate remain open for both side for 1d6 + level turns. Travelling through the gate usually take 1d6 rounds.

Being lost: mean that the gate open to different place, roll a d6: 

1. Open into the shadow dimension or a alien sphere or plane.  
2. Open on the moon or the dark side of the moon (if the target was the moon) 
3. Open close to the target location but travelling took 1d6 days (that only felt like turns). 
4. Open 1d6 hours of walk away from the target location. 
5. Open close to the location but in a place that complicate things. 
6. Open close to target location but in a place that give interesting opportunities. 

Random moon creature encounter: mean that the travelers encounter something while traveling through the moon bridge, roll 1d6:

1. Major selenite predator (1) (4 to 8 HD, six legged) 
2. Minor selenite predators (1d6) (2 to 4HD, six legged) 
3. Moon pests or bugs (2d6) (1/2 or 1HD) 
4. Moonbeam or moonstone elemental (1d4) (HD change with the moon phases) 
5. Selenite humanoids (1d6, random alignment and dispositions) 
6. Dreamer (make a reaction test to see if they are generating a dream or a nightmare. To move on the group must kill the dreamer or find a exit from their dream or nightmare) 

Hagborn character class

Hagborn are the offsprings of a ancient curse that infected many bloodlines in the past. 

They usually start neutral and become chaotic or evil if they start murdering people to steal their life force.  

Requirement: CON 9 

Prime Requisite: CON, INT and WIS 

Starting age: 13+1d6 

Hit Dice: 1d6

Saving throws: as mages

To hit: as mages 

Weapons: as mages 

Armors: as mages

Maximum level: 10

Experience: as mages 

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Spell casting
Hagborns grow old to cast spells.

• They age by a 1d6 years by levels of the spell.
• The number of years they grow older is reduced by their class level. 
• Taking a extra turn to cast their spell reduce the years by 1.
• Recasting the same spell during the day add the spell level in years (by extra usages). 
• They can cast spells that are over their own level but while doing so they multiply the number of d6 rolled by 2
• If the total number of years rolled is equal to zero or less, they don't grow older. 

Spell list
Hagborns are born with a innate spell list (inherited by their bloodline).
But they don't know their innate powers until they try them.
When they cast a spell they can cast a know spell or try to discover a new random power (spell).
When they try to discover a new innate spell, they have to take cast for a number of turns equal to the spell level. Then they can roll a random spell on the magic-user list of the desired level. If they roll a spell they already know, they simply cast it instead of discovering a new spell.
They can choose not to cast the newly discovered spell but the spell will still make them grow older.

Each time they gain a level they learn more about their own powers and roll a new spell (starting with the lowest levels spells) (Roll one level 1 spell at level 1)

Their innate spell list is limited to:

• Level 01: 5 spells 
• Level 02: 4 spells 
• Level 03: 3 spells 
• Level 04: 2 spells 
• Level 05: 1 spell

Hagborns can reroll a know spells by drinking a special potion made with the blood of a hagborn or a true hag. While doing so they roll on the other hag spell list. 

Aging
Use the aging tables and effects in the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion (p.23). Except that hagborns add 3d10 to their dying age.

Leathery skin 
As hagborns grow older their skin become hard like leather or bark and they gain +1 to their AC for each 10 years above 50 (up to +5).

Life force collecting
Hagborns can collect the life force of living beings to brew rejuvenating potions. Brewing a potion take a number of turn equal to it number of life forces being brewed.

A hagborn can extract life-forces by capturing the breath of a living being. They can drink the life-force on the spot or bottle it to brew a potion later.

• Children: 5 life forces
• Adolescent: 4 life forces
• Adult: 3 life forces
• Middle age: 2 life forces
• Elderly: 1 life force
• Animal: 1 life force by HD (but add +2 to the mutation roll) 
• Rare magical plants: 1 life force (add -1 to the mutation roll) 

Living beings must freely accept to give their life forces, while doing so they grow older by a number of d6 equal to the taken life forces and will die if all their life forces are taken away. 

Children can't willingly give their life forces. 

It take one year or one level to regenerate a lost life force. 

Life forces can also be collected without consent by collecting the dying breath of a living being. 

When life forces are consumed on the spot, the hagborn grow younger by a number of years equal to the collected life forces.

A brewed life forces potion rejuvenate a d6 years by brewed life forces.

Life forces can also be collected from fresh meat if the meat is brewed into the potion. But this only add half the life force of the meat being cooked.

Brewing spell transfer potion
To gain the spell of a other hag, a hagborn can brew a special potion that require a number of brewing turns equal to the spell level and require the spell level in d4 point of damage from the donating hag.
Drinking this potion let the hagborn reroll one of her innate spells by rolling on the donating hag spell list of the brewed level.

Life force mutations
Life forces potions can create weird mutations. When a hagborn drink a life force potion, she must make a saving throw vs transformation (WIS bonus help).

On a failed save, they must roll on the hag mutation table:
Roll a d8 + life forces of the potion (lawful hags add -1, chaotic hags add +1)

1. Weird smell 
2. Warts or weird skin marks  
3. Reptilian or weird eyes 
4. Webbed fingers and ears 
5. Clawed fingers (d4 dmg) 
6. Elongated arms or feet 
7. Needle teeth 
8. Barbed tongue
9. Snake hairs
10. Beast wings  
11. Beast tail 
12. Beast skin
13. Beastly arms or legs 
14. Half beast body (like a centaur) (often a snake body) 
15. Full beast body (except for the head)
16. Beast mind and intelligence (1d4) 

Male hagborns

Male hagborns badly react to the life forces potions and have a penalty of 2 when making their saving throw and add 2 to the hag mutations table. But they can directly consume life forces from fresh meat (without the need to brew a potion). They often turn into ogres and manticores.

The Undercroft #9

I made the cover of The Undercroft #9 and I also illustrated the Skinned Moon Daughter, a new character class written by Benjamin B, inspired from my Great North illustrations!

You can get the zine on the Undercroft shop or on RPGNOW.

Dungeon Hacker (initial sketch)

Dungeon Hacker dealing with a ghost

Check out Arnold K's new character class: the dungeon hacker!

Trimorphic nomadic lizard tribe

Females: walk upright, craft tools, use weapons and armors. They are warriors & nurses. They like to smoke marshes herbs in pipes. Some of them leave the tribe to become lonely ronins.

Males: hound like, wear cloth, talk a lot, can smell the ancestral trails to guide the tribe during their migrations. They are good at tracking & charging. Some of them become lonely rangers if they loose their favorite mate.

Great Mothers: when females or males grow old they keep growing up and become bi-gendered great or grand mothers that remember the tribe's ancestors. They mate together and lay rare eggs that are reincarnations of their ancestors.

Re-hatched Ancestors: males or females born from the grand mothers, they remember their past lives and become shamans. They like to wear feathers.

Empty ones: when re-hatched ancestors grow old they forget everything and become mindless giant monster that the tribe must appease or kill. Re-hatched ancestors often leave the tribe or commit ritual suicide when they grow old and start to forget everything.

• Female breed with males to lay eggs.
• Grand Mothers breed with other tribes's grand mothers to lay ancestors eggs. 
• All of them are cannibals, they eat their fallen to eat and preserve their memories. 
• The tribe don't craft their swords, they value trading for them a lot. They have a lot of respect for swords holders and crafters. 

Windmill Maiden

Windmill Maiden - Traditional windmill protectors
Requirements: STR 9, DEX 9 (the class is also open for boys who want to wear the traditional costume)
HP: as fighter
Combat bonus: as cleric
Saving Throws: as fighter, +2 to save vs any wind effects.
Weapon training: spears, staffs & pole arms.

Abilities (don't work if wearing metal armor or shield): 

Windshield: up to your level by day, you can summon a windshield that give +1 AC vs Melee and +2 AC vs Ranged. When inside a building, the windshield can only protect yourself. When outside, the shield can protect your entire group (and a building). The shield last for d6+level rounds. 

Weather affect the windshield: (windy day or defending a windmill: +d6 rounds, +1 AC vs Ranged) (strong wind: +2d6 rounds, +1AC vs Melee, +1 AC vs Ranged) (storm: +3d6 rounds, +2 AC vs Melee, +2 AC vs Ranged, but you get -2 to hit anything). (not cumulative). 

Whirlwind: up to your level by day, you can use your weapon to create a whirlwind to push back your ennemies. Range: level x 10 feet. Push back one ennemie by level for 2d10+level feet (halved on a saving throw). Ennemies take 1 point of damage for each 10 feet of push back. The whirlwind can be maintained to keep the ennemies at distance: the ennemies must make a saving throw to advance at half their movement rate, on a failed save they can only move for 1d6 feet. Shooting at the ennemies suffer a -1 penalty or worst with stronger wind. 

Weather affect the whirlwind: (windy day or defending a windmill: +2d10 push back) (strong wind: +4d10 push back ) (storm: +6d10 push back). (not cumulative). 

Windward: once by day, a windmaiden can ward a building or a shelter again the wind and give +half their level to save again the wind. This apply to the building and to anyone touching it. The building or the maiden must be touching the ground (so this don't work at sea). Multiple maidens can add their level together to calculate the saving throw bonus) 

Tulip blessing: get + 1 to saving throw when wearing a fresh tulip (last for d6 days). Get +2 saving throw when standing in a tulip field. Give +1 saving throw for 1 day when giving a fresh tulip to a companion (only once by game session). 

Bird friendship: can understand and be understood by normal or magical birds (while speaking normally). Get +1 reaction with non predatory birds. Predatory birds snob them a little bit (but they still respect them) and crows don't like them. 

Traditional gear:
Peasant pole arms (include spears) and traditional padded armor (AC 15) (crafted by your grand-mother).

A windmill maiden suffer a penalty of one on her reaction tests if she is not wearing her traditional costume. They also usually get a bonus point to their reaction tests with millers, peasants and villagers.

Some colorful guilds

Fighter-Mage and Cataboon companion

Cataboon

a companion character class for B/X and similar D&Dalikes

text by Benjamin Baugh

The world is full of strange creatures, but few stranger than humanity and their comrade peoples of Dwarfish, Elvish, and Halflish extraction.  These peoples all seem as one to you, and from your perspective, the differences they claim to one another are far less significant than the differences between each individual.  They’re such a varied lot of fascinating strangers!  Among your own kind, minds are shared easily, thoughts sliding from one head to another, identities drifting, personalities changed with the fashion of the season.  Who are you?  It’s hard to say, or at least it was until you met your companion, and joined with them.  

You are sometimes called a cat-baboon, a treecat, or a ghost howler.  The human peoples tell stories about your kind, and some think you are spirits, others demons.  But you’re just another kind of thinking animal, only perhaps a bit better at the thinking.  Fascinatingly individual though they are, human people exchange their thoughts imperfectly, and only through the crudest methods - modulated sounds, gestures, and arcane marks made on surfaces.  It sounds bizarre, but rather than trade thoughts directly, a human will take the thoughts out of their mind, turn them into specially coded symbols, mark those symbols on an object, and then leave the object for another human to find, interpret, and - possibly, if the magic was made with skill - take the thoughts into their own head.  It really is terribly terribly inefficient.  

But who are you to judge strangeness?  Are you not yourself one of the oddities of your own people?  Fascinated with the mind-islands of humanity, so fascinated that you’d journey there and live almost alone with them, sharing thoughts almost exclusively with one other being, and not one of your own kind at that.  Rare among the tribe-minds of the skirted plain, you seek out the relative privacy of a human companion, and follow them on their endlessly amusing adventures.  

In appearance, you understand that you resemble something between a panther and a baboon, a long-limbed body, able to slink, climb, and pounce with ease.  Strong and quick, keen of sense.  You have clever paws, but they are not hands.  But what need you of hands, when your companion is so well endowed with manual manipulatory apparatus?  When your speed fails, you can fight with fang and claw, but most often resort to the howl that your kind is famous for - the crooning rolling scream that crawls down the ear canal into the spine, and claws at nerve and wit.  Many threats can be induced to simply run run away.  

The prime requisite for a cataboon is Charisma.  A Cataboon with a Charisma of 13 or greater gets a 10% bonus on earned experience and grants their companion a 5% bonus on earned experience.  

RESTRICTIONS.  Cataboons use 6-sided dice (d6) to determine hit points.  They may advance to a level equal to that of their companion.  Cataboons can not speak humanoid languages, and must rely on their companion to speak for them. They make saving throws and attack as their companion does.  They may not use any weapons and armor, and have poor manual dexterity making most tasks involving tools difficult.  Cataboons can never have ordinary retainers or followers.  Cataboons use the same XP progression table as their companion.  

SPECIAL ABILITIES.   Each cataboon character must be bonded to another player character, with whom it may freely share thoughts and feelings over shouting distances, and each may sense the location of the other over any distance.  Cataboons do not speak, but they do understand the intent of spoken language and so are able to translate any spoken language they can hear for their companion by listening to the thoughts of the speaker.  

Cataboons can make 2 claw attacks for d3 damage each, and if both hit may make a raking attack for d4 additional damage, or they may bite for a d6 damage.  

They have strong senses, and have infravision of 60 feet, and are only surprised on 1 in 6.  

Cataboons can hunt and forage easily, locating enough food for d6 individuals with a turn of hunting in areas with wildlife.  Foraging in more barren regions may require more time.  

Their skin and fur is quite tough, granting them -2 to AC.

Cataboons are quick, and have a movement rating of 40, and can Climb effortlessly at a speed of 10.  

When threatened, once per encounter, a cataboon can unleash a terrible howl that induces terror in most living things.  Enemies and a party’s retainers both must make Morale checks on hearing it.  The howl is so loud, however, that it can he heard for miles - alerting anyone in hearing distance.          

Cataboons gain a further special ability based on the class of their companion.  

• Clerics have Serene cataboons.  They are immune to all forms of fear, and their howl works on the undead which grants their cleric companion a +2 bonus on their turning.  Serene cataboons may also use their life to heal their companion, freely giving them hit points if they are injured, at the expense of the cataboon’s own life.  
• Fighters have Fierce cataboons.  They gain a further -2 to AC and their attacks do +2 damage, and when fighting beside their companion, choosing round to round to grant them -1 to their AC or +1 to hit with coordinated action.  
• Magic Users have Curious cataboons.  They can smell magic, recognizing the presence of magic and magical things freely, and can identify specific things about the magic on 3 in 6.  They help their companion learn magic, and allow an additional spell to be learned each level, though no additional spells may be cast in a day.  
• Thieves have Sneaky cataboons.  They can move silently, and hide in shadows as their companion does, and climb at their normal ground movement rate.  They can make their terrifying howl into a hiss, which has the same effect without alerting everyone in hearing distance.  When one provides a distraction, the other may immediately try and hide - even if in combat.  
• Dwarfs have Burrowing cataboons.  They lose the ability to perform a rake attack, but their claws each do d6 damage and are long and sharp, and able to easily excavate tunnels at the rate of 1 foot of earth per round, 1 foot of rubble or soft stone per turn, and 1 foot of harder materials (though not iron or most metals) per hour.  The howl of a burrowing cataboon grants their companion +1 to hit for the duration of an encounter.  
• Elves have Fabulous cataboons.  These fine creatures are elegant and quick, gaining +10 to speed, and imposing a -1 penalty to the Morale checks of enemies afflicted by their especially ululating howl.  Fabulous cataboons aid in finding hidden passages and secrets, granting a +2 bonus on this, and allow their elvish companion to locate hidden magic, like inactive portals, magical gates, and quiescent magic traps.  
• Halfings have Stout cataboons.  They’re stocky and well-fed, gaining +1 per hit die when hit points are rolled.  They may hide as well as their companion in natural and other surroundings, and their companion can ride upon their back if unencumbered, taking advantage of the cataboon’s greater speed.  

If a cataboon’s companion should die, the cataboon absorbs the essence of their thoughts, their soul perhaps, and keeps this within themselves, still alive and aware.  An opportunity may present itself to re-home this essence, or the companion may decide to slip away into whatever comes next, freeing their cataboon to find another companion.  If a new companion is found, and is of a different class than the first, then this changes the Cataboon’s special ability, saves, and attack bonuses and the cataboon won’t advance in level until their companion has caught up, so they can advance in step.