House Rules Summary page

Hey, folks. I just put together a new "page" on my web log:

House Rules

Wherein I summarize my house rules for table play.

This house rules summary compresses into brief form the house rules I suggest in my Perilous Realms supplement.

NOTE: I freely utilize DELTA's "Target 20" approach. Thank you, Delta and your D&D Hot Spot!

I look forward to any comments.

Fight on!

Ringmail

Rules for Medieval Toy Soldiers

Introduction

"Ringmail" was an improbable historical construct. So too these rules are an improbable match to anything historical. But they sure are fun!

Scale

Toy soldiers are 1:32 scale; that is 2&¼" or 54mm.

Field of Battle

Arrange a field of battle anywhere from 6' to 24' in dimensions. Determine battle line between opposing sides in roughly the middle of the field. Each side has a starting line set back from the battle line equivalent to that of their opponent's and no less than 24." Main stronghold, camp or pavilion of each side no more than 12" back from respective start-lines. Scale of play is such that terrain types and penalties make little sense. Distribute interesting obstacles for tactical use. Recommended: felt battle mat marked with 2" hexes; model trees, blue ribbon for rivers, etc.

Composition of Forces

Each side has one or two engines of war. Arrange each side with troop types falling roughly within the following ratio:

1 Archer : 3 Cavalry : 5 Infantry

Turn Sequence

1. Engine
2. Range
3. Melee
4. Move

All actions simultaneous. Alternatively, players determine initiative for movement by opposing check. First turn: move only. Second turn: move and melee (if any). Third turn adds range. Fourth and all subsequent turns: all four phases.

Movement

• Engine 3"
• Archers 6"
• Infantry 12"
• Cavalry 24"

Range & Melee

Range fire and melee resolved with modified rock-paper-scissors:

• Archer removes cavalry (24" range)
• Cavalry removes infantry
• Infantry removes archer

All other melee resolved on opposing check: loser removed; both remain on ties. Note the following exceptions:

• Cavalry and archer opposing check in melee
• Both archers remain when attacker losses opposing check against archer not returning fire
• Flank (side) or surprise (rear) attack of lesser to greater allows opposing check
• E.g., infantry flanking cavalry resolved by opposing check

Engine

• Redo misfires
• Remove any figure hit by projectile
• Remove engines hit by opposing engine fire
• Take engines with two or more troops of opposing side on successful opposing check

Morale

Check a force's morale at the top of every turn after reduced beyond half its original line-up: maintain morale on 2d6 = 7+ otherwise morale lost.

End

Battle ends when one or both sides:

• Losses morale
• Reduced to less than a third its original line-up
• Surrenders

Victory

Victory goes to the side that:

• Does not loose morale
• Is not reduced to less than a third its original line-up
• Does not surrender

Otherwise a draw. Alternatively, other end and victory conditions may be agreed upon; e.g., attaining some goal such as capturing an object or flag, etc.

Sieges

Make walls with gates and even some wall-portions that engine fire can topple. One additional engine to the defender but defender starts with one third the troops of the besieger. Imagine any foot soldier positions along a wall or upon a parapet as capable of range fire, whether depicted with range weapon or not.

Point Values

• Engine 5
• Cavalry 4
• Archer 3
• Infantry 2

Setting up a Medieval Toy Soldier Wargames Campaign

Each side starts with 50 points to acquire starting forces. Note guidelines to composition of force, above. After each battle, save for the return of removed troops on 2d6:

• Engine 6+
• Cavalry 6+
• Archer 7+
• Infantry 8+

Victor gets 20 points, looser 10. Capture of opposing "baggage" or some other such treasure, object or goal grants 5 points. Each side of a draw gets 15 points. Unused points accumulate. Use points to acquire new forces for subsequent battles.

Fantasy Supplement

For a fantasy scenario, use larger scales for large types (e.g., tall elves, trolls, ogres, etc.) and smaller scales for diminutive types (e.g., small elves, dwarves, hobbits, pixies, etc.).

For monsters, use appropriate toys (e.g., dragons, giants, animals). Most monsters move as cavalry. Flight grants 36" of movement. Monsters resolve melee with an opposing check: monster = 2d6 to normal figure = 1d6. Some monsters also have range or engine capacities, e.g., dragon fiery breath, giants hurling rocks, etc. Monsters cost 15 points; those removed in battle save for the next on 2d6: 9+.

Mark one or more figures per side to indicate special status as a hero, wizard, or knight (i.e., "Templar" or "cleric").

Hero = best of both cavalry and archer; removed by archery
Wizard = best of both archer and infantry; removed by infantry
Knight = best of both infantry and cavalry; removed by cavalry

Heroes melee and range monsters with equal opposing check; defeat monsters by flanking or surprise. Heroes and wizards range fire as archers (wizards by magic). In any given battle wizards may cast each of the following once per battle: fireball, lightning bolt, light (good wizard) or darkness (bad wizard) during the engine turn phase. Light spells cause fell and undead creatures to check morale with a penalty. Darkness spells cause normal troops to check morale with a penalty. Resolve fireball and lightning bolt as engine fire. Lobbing a colorful marble with the thumb usually does the trick. During the engine phase knights may do one of the following per battle: restore one removed figure upon a successful save (see above); cast light (Dark Knights cast darkness); dispel undead creature. Heroes, wizards and knights cost 10 points and those removed in battle save for the next on 2d6: 5+.

A Sort of Challenge

"How much better is the amiable miniature than the Real Thing! Here is a homeopathic remedy for the imaginative strategist. Here is the premeditation, the thrill, the strain of accumulating victory or disaster -- and no smashed nor sanguinary bodies, no shattered fine buildings nor devastated country sides, no petty cruelties, none of that awful universal boredom and embitterment, that tiresome delay or stoppage or embarrassment of every gracious, bold, sweet, charming thing, that we who . . . remember a real modern war know to be the reality of belligerence." H. G. Wells, Little Wars, 1913.

Fight on!

Skeletons In The Closet

MM01 
A Haunted House Mini-Module for Normal Characters (Levels 1-3)

Introduction

Use this mini-module for character levels 1-3; in conjunction with other mini-modules use to represent dungeon levels 1-4. For use with higher-level characters, see end notes.

Background

A powerful Lady, forlorn of her true love fell prey to a trickster medium. She became a Wight through repeated attempts to contact her dead lover. The medium traps the Wight of the Lady in her abandoned house.

Referee Notes

• Describe features and furnishings as a typical victorian mansion
• Characters looking through windows see a grey-blue twilight world of forlorn ghosts and shades (see "exit," below)
• Determine level-based treasure according to relative level of use

All Closets:
2d6 Skeletons: burn or pulverize to prevent magical reassembly in 3 rounds; silver coin in each mouth
AC7 MV6 HD1/2

Underneath all beds hide
Hobgoblin:
AC5 MV9 HD1+1

Link to Campaign NPC

The Wight is ancestor to a powerful Lord who keeps it secret. If PCs inform others, the powerful Lord will prosecute them and ban them from his territories. If PCs put the wight to rest, keep the secret and inform the Lord, he will reward them accordingly.

Rumor Table

1. T Lord Campaign NPC Name don't want nobody knowing about that old place
2. F Nothing in there but rats and roaches
3. T There's a crazy old witch (medium) what lives in there
4. F If you go in there, you'll turn into a ghost yourself!
5. T Legend has it if you put to rest the old lady's Wight you'll get a share in her inheritance!
6. F All the treasure belongs to wicked hobgoblins

Unique Monster

Haunted Rocking Chair
Rocks incessantly of its own; voices of crying baby and lullaby-singing mother
Attacks upon touch; folds in on itself if sat upon (2d6 damage)
All touched: Save vs. "Fear"
AC7 MV3 HD2

Unique Magic Item

Ouija Board of Speak with Dead: Chaotic in alignment: harms characters as per magic swords with each use. Use up to three times per day to ask single question of deceased familiar or for ESP

Entry

Characters who enter through either front or back porch areas see only a dilapidated house full of decaying furniture and cob-webs. Characters who enter from another mini-module enter directly through the chimney or to the stairwell of the second floor if going down to this mini-module from above, or into the fruit cellar beneath the kitchen if going up to this mini-module from below.

Time Element

If characters do not engage Medium in seance, wight appears above table to search for characters 1 turn from their departure from the chamber

Exit

Characters who exit through windows or doors find that the grey-blue twilight realm disappears and that they are in the setting where the referee has placed the house. Referee allows hatch in cellar and attic door when stacking further mini-modules above or below this mini module. Ignore otherwise.

Map

Ground Floor

Second Floor

Key

Ground Floor

Dining

Large dining table set with silver platters and candelabras; dining chairs move of their own
Blow out or snuff candles: save vs. curse
Clues: Guest book on stand has a reminder to the butler "it is rude to have unlighted candles at table;" mural on the wall depicts angels holding candles and demons with snuffers; snuffer on the table cannot be picked up until candles extinguished by other means
Treasure: 12 dining sets of silver and 2 silver candelabras: level treasure in value

Kitchen

2d6 Zombies preparing and serving "meal" of dust and ashes between kitchen and dining
Will eat brains of fallen victims, rendering them zombies
AC8 MV6 HD1

Morning

Room filled with flowers, wreaths and sprays of Lady's funeral: Touch turns to ash

Bathroom

Chanting "Bloody Mary" staring at the mirror in the dark will conjure the Wight through mirror
If Wight already dispatched, wraith appears

Utility

Sinks with ashen and charred remains of previously blasphemous seances

Parlor

Chimney may be used to move between stories; also between mini-modules at referee's discretion
Portrait of Lady above mantle; behind portrait: safe:
Treasure: per level + magic sword
Clues: Portrait slightly crooked; Lady pictured with jewels in her lap; folded note on mantle reads "true riches hide behind mere representations"
Monster: Haunted Rocking Chair (See Unique Monster, above)

Stairwell Up

Trap: Stairs turn to slide (d6: 1-2) per ascending character; may be stopped by jamming something between stairs
Clues: sign in magic above stairwell entry reads "some may not ascend;" marbles on floor in front of stairs; painting to the side depicting children on a slide

Hall

Gas lamps light hall with cool eerie blue: If characters address house, lamps answer yes/no questions dimming once or twice; also alphabet or morse code per referee ability
Skeletons in Hall Closet defend huge sapphire (1Kgp): rings like crystal glass upon touch

Second Floor

Bedroom Top Left

The Lady's Bedchamber: canopy bed
Vanity with chair and mirror flanked by candles that never burn out until removed
Lady appears in mirror when character sits in chair
Jewelry box, save vs. poison gas (clue: poison symbol on lid), inside:
Treasure: per level & 3 gems (large agate 500gp, medium diamond, 500gp and medium pearl 500gp)
One item of Jewelry: The Lady's Elegant Hairpin: (7Kgp) Solid gold with large agate that glows on touch; save vs. geas: character must wear hairpin and seek the admiration of others

Bathroom Top Middle

As per "bathroom," above
Also medicine cabinet contains 1d6 poisons and 1d3 potions, all unlabeled

Bedroom Top Right

The Lost Lord's Bedchamber
Portrait of Lady's lost love: Eyes follow characters movement
Skeletons in closet defend magic armor

Hall

As per "hall" on ground floor, above

Stairwell Down

Trick: Stairwell actually leads up (d6: 1-2) per descending character: Grants access to next mini-module upwards when used in connection with others; Otherwise leads to widow's peak surveying haunted lands
Clues: sign in magic above stairwell entry reads "sometimes you've got to get down to get up;" Picture in hallway of widow's peak above house; bird feathers on the floor

"Bedroom" Bottom Left: NOT BEDROOM but: Seance Chamber

Chimney may be used to move between stories
Round table in area shaped as partial octagon
Ouija Board of Speak with Dead (see Unique Magic Item, above) in middle of table
Chandelier above
Medium sits at table; greets characters; invites to seance
Seance conjures wight over table; Wight attacks
Medium charms characters who resist
If characters dispel or, upon defeat, pray the Wight to Rest in Peace: Wight disappears in exhausted sigh, full level treasure + magic weapon issues from chandalier onto seance table, covered in ectoplasm
Medium MU Lvl 1; Silver Dagger; Spell: Charm
AC9 MV12 HD1
Wight: impervious to normal range-fire: successful attack = 1 life-energy drain; renders killed victim wight
AC5 MV9 HD3

Bathroom Bottom Right

As per "bathroom," above. Also treasure:
Shiny Golden Toilet Seat (500gp) attached to wire triggering guillotine trap from ceiling

NOT DEPICTED

Large fruit cellar accessible through hatch in kitchen and down ladder
Used in connection with other mini-modules, characters find hatch to next level under treasure
Treasure by level
Monster: 1d6 Ghouls emerge from earthen floor
AC6 MV9 HD2

Tiny attic door with ladder above second floor hall grants access to next mini-module when used in connection with others

Modifications for Heroic Characters (Levels 4-7)

Haunted Rocking Chair: HD6 2d6 normal dmg., 3d6 folding bite
3d6 Skeletons in closets wield rusty shields (AC6)
1d6 Hobgoblins under beds
Zombies become ghouls
Ghouls become Wights
Wight becomes 1d3 Wraiths (sisters, perhaps?)
Medium becomes Witch (Warlock, Lvl 8)
Adjust all treasures per relative dungeon level

Modifications for Super-heroic Characters (Levels 8+)

Haunted Rocking Chair: HD12 2 attacks, 3d6 dmg., folding bite poisonous
4d6 Skeletons in closest wear rusty armor (AC3)
Troll under beds
Zombies become Wights
Ghouls become Wraiths
Wight becomes Spectre
Medium becomes Necromancer (Lvl 10)
Adjust all treasures per relative dungeon level

FIGHT ON!

Perilous Realms: Where the Mythic Underworld Meets Demon Haunted Lands

Image of Map by Dyson Logos, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

One of the directions my refereeing thinking has been traveling recently (and assumed in my proposal for "mini-modules" over at the Ruins of Murkhill forum) is something like the following for a setting:

I want to combine Wayne Rossi's account of the "Original D&D Setting" of The Outdoor Survival Board (or some equivalent wilderness) as a "Demon Haunted Land" with Philotomy's Musings about the "Dungeon as Mythic Underworld." I imagine doing so by filling up the wilderness with lairs and "dungeons." So, if literally using the OS board, the difference would be between standing deer (lairs = 20) and crouching deer (dungeons = 9).

The lairs and first levels of these dungeons would be "mini-modules" of 1 to 3, but preferably only 1 "level." Clear a lair, and they are cleansed. They are irruptions of chaos in what should be lawful, fay lands.

The "dungeons," on the other hand, would be a lair that also served as a portal to other dungeons and lairs - perhaps even rolled randomly at the table! (So there would need to be a lot of prep for all the different lairs - hence my desire to "crowd source" this one, see above.)

If one departed the entrance/exists of a deeper lair or dungeon one would exit at its actual location in the wilderness. If it were a lair, there would be no way back to that particular magical configuration of levels. If it were a dungeon, upon entrance, the ref would roll randomly again, giving another, more than likely quite different configuration of "levels." So long as one stayed in the dungeon, the current "stack" would remain intact. Dungeons could not be so easily cleared as independent lairs. Dungeons are irruptions of the underworld. The only way to "clear" a dungeon hot-spot would be after each possible random lair was cleansed. Then cleansing each dungeon. So there is a kind of "end-game" per wilderness: complete cleansing and restoration to wonder, fay and law.

The "mythic underworld" itself usually represents some odd, enchanted, diabolic "subsuming" of the various lairs and dungeons throughout the wilderness. Going on this, I would also assume that each dungeon and lair was really the chaotic corruption of some previously lawful or at least wonderful thing. So, for example, an orcan lair would probably be the defile of a previously beautiful elven stronghold. Goblins subsume something dwarven. Trolls something Entish, etc. This would explain why so many powerful and good lawful items are down in the underworld. Chaos herself is "eating up" all these good items in a mad babbling attempt at domination. The adventurers purge the bowels of the earth and reclaim the buried antiquities.

I love the way this contributes to a more fantastical dream-like encounter. Just as in dreams where you can walk from one familiar place and suddenly find yourself somewhere completely different. Imagine a "haunted house" level where, out the windows, one saw a grey-blue dim-lit land of wandering specters and forlorn ghosts. If the windows are opened or one walks out the doors - you are suddenly in the wilderness - somewhere else!

So I also feel motivated to key each lair or dungeon for normal, heroic and super heroic levels. That way one is ready to go for your given party, even if randomly rolling the next "level."

You could do this lots of different ways. I think I would put a limit on any given "stack." No more than 3 lairs. But I would probably just stick to the entrance and one other random lair or dungeon lining up beneath it.

But under any given dungeon configuration the "third level" would be a cavernous mushroom forest of clean-up crew and purple worms.

Then, once the hidden entrance was discovered, one would finally come, one more level down, to Hell itself: "Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here." The "Hell" level would be the main lair of Chaos' henchmen doing all the subversion of law and eruption of chaos throughout the good fay wilderlands. Some kind of giant's hall, like Dyson Logos has made, would be perfect. Here the highest level baddies would be met! This may be the best way finally to purge the dungeons themselves - clearing this local hell. The key or a very important campaign artifact may be necessary to bring down there and shut down operations - all foretold in some ancient, riddle-like oracle.

This would be a vast project. But it seems to me immensely rewarding both for the referee and the players.

Fight on!

A Supplement for Perilous Realms

After many conversations over many fora my first old school project is finally available!

A Supplement for Perilous Realms: Suggestions for Pick-up Sessions and Otherwise Rollicking Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Original Edition Rules and their Various Simulacra

The Lulu version is currently $4.15

If you buy it you will help contribute to my becoming a hundredaire through old school self-publication!

Otherwise, a free PDF is also available

Share, enjoy, let me know what you think!

Thanks!