Delving Wolf

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with Black Powder and Brimstone by Benjamin Tobitt , a Borg game full of gunpowder and witchery set in a fantasy version of Renaissance Germany. Reading online I've heard people complain about the editing of the book and some rules inconsistencies, but I'll be using the Italian version to create this character. Without further ado, let's get into it! 1. First of all we roll for our  CLASS AND SUBCLASS . This game has 5 classes with 3 subclasses each, so I'll roll a d5+d3: -Class , d5: 5, Practitioner (a Paladin-style character) - Subclass , d3: 3, Vow of Sustenance, who can prepare abundant meals for themselves and their party members (which give ...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with  Points of Light by Dayle Grixti , a Borg hack that is even closer than Mork Manual to the B/X origins of Mork Borg, with less doomed world and more classic fantasy; I find this to be a very interesting and inspiring take. Without further ado, let's get into it! 1. First of all we roll for our  ABILITIES , using the traditional 3d6 in order method: - Strength : 14 => +1 - Agility : 13 => +1 - Toughness : 14 => +1 - Presence : 10 => 0 - Intelligence : 8 => -1 Not a bad series of rolls! The game allows us to then swap to if we want, but I think I'll leave mine as they were rolled; 2. Next we pick our  ANCESTRY  and  CLASS . I...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with  Mork Manual by Rodney Rickrode , a Borg hack that keeps the iconic Mork Borg style but is closer to the classic fantasy of games like B/X, of which it retains the race-as-class. Without further ado, let's get into it! 1. First of all let's roll for our CLASS , d10: 3, Fallen  (basically an Elf), a character who has a bonus on reaction rolls made against creatures you haven't met before and is immune to diseases, poisons and old age (among other things); 2. Next let's determine our ABILITIES , for which this game offers an alternative to the usual Borgs: d4-d4 x4, to be assigned as you wish and then modified by the class (in our ca...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with  Dukk Borg  by Gem Room Games, a Ducktales-inspired Borg game. Once I found out about it, I  had  to try it, so...let's begin! 1. First of all, let's roll for our  CLASS , d4: 4,  The Devotee  (a young member of the clan with a passion for adventure...basically the nephews); 2. Next we roll for our  ABILITIES , 3d6 each in order (as usual) adjusted by our class' modifier: - Agility : 12+1=13 => +1 - Presence  8 => -1 (but the DR for all PRES tests is reduced by 2) - Strength  10-2=8 => -1 - Tuffness  12 => 0; 3. Our class gives us a few  EXTRA rolls to make: - Favorite color , d4: 4, Pink; -...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with  Orc Borg  by Grant Howitt, a Borg hack set in a spaceship full of orcs whose dungeons are floating in space and sometimes randomly crash into said spaceship. The concept alone sold me on it! As it has happened other times, I'll be using the Italian version of the game for this character creation, so some table results may vary here and there. Now, without further ado, let's begin! 1. First of all, let's pick our  CLASS : in this game you can only be an Orc or an Orcborg, so I chose to go  Orc Borg  to see more of what the game has to offer; 2. Now it's time to roll our  ABILITIES , which this game allows to assign after rolling (as ...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with MÖRK DÖD by Sunzenaut , a "Brutal Death Metal Chainsaw & Sorcery TTRPG" set in the same Dying Lands as Mork Borg, but with oil, industry and a lot of brutality! The horde rules are one of my favorite things of this game, something I'll probably port into other Borg games. Anyway, without further ado, let's begin! 1. Let's start by rolling our  CLASS , d6: 2,  Bonesaw Surgeon , which gives us  Bonesaw Surgery : Heal d6 HP to yourself or someone else. On a 6 you heal 6 HP, on a 1, the injured limb is amputated dealing d6 damage instead (if the surgery is to repair a vital organ or critical wound, the result of 1 is instant death instea...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with a new Pirate Borg character (since the first one I created, Samuel Robert Thomas , is already busy in his own adventure ), but to give it a twist it'll be a character from one of the optional classes, Tall Tale! These can range from a Merfolk (with a fish-like lower half), an Aquatic Mutant ("an abominable union between man and the sea") or a Sentient Animal (which is self-explanatory). Without further ado, let's begin!  1. Let's start with finding our  CLASS , d6: 6,  Sentient Animal , so we have another roll to determine which animal we are, d6: 1,  Foul Fowl : a demonic chicken with the ability of one random relic and one random ritua...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with Ronin, a Borg hack set in an alternate reality version of feudal Japan, of which you can find a Barebones version for free here . Let's begin! 1. We start by rolling our  CLASS , d10: 10,  Sword Saint , a master of duels; 2. Then we roll our  ABILITIES , incorporating the class modifiers: -   Swiftness : 12+2=14, +1; -  Spirit : 13-1=12, +0; -  Vigor : 13+2=15, +2; -  Resilience : 14+1=15, +2; 3. The last ability is  HONOUR , but it works a bit differently: we roll 3d6 (modified by the class, in our case +1) and we keep this score as is; under 10 our character is considered  Dishonourable , while a result above 10...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, continuing the series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. This time we're going with the (diseased) mother of all Borg game, Mork Borg itself. For this one I'll refer to the  Barebones edition  of the game, which is just the same as the full game, just without art and downloadable for free. Kudos to Johan Nohr! Let's begin! 1. We start by rolling for our  EQUIPMENT : - d6: 5, A small wagon or smaller item (after seeing the rest of the rolls I opted for a sack which can hold up to 10 items); - d12, 8:  A metal file and lockpicks ; - d12, 6:  A toolbox with 10 nails, tongs, hammer, a small saw and a drill . 2. Next we pick our  CLASS , d6: 4,  Wretched Royalty ; 3. It's now time to roll our  ABILITIES : -...

This week I'll continue my character creation series, marking the beginning (like I said in my year recap post ) of a series of Borg-like games characters made for a future project of mine. These will be alternating with other kinds of posts, like my solo campaigns recaps and some gameable content coming from my Duet Pirate Borg home game. For the first one, we'll start with Cy_Borg , the cyberpunk version of Mork Borg created by Christian Sahlén and Johan Nohr of Stockholm Kartell. As any Borg game, character creation (and the game itself) is fast and dripping with style. As with other games before, I'll be using the Italian version of the game, so some tables might be translated slightly differently. Let's begin! 1. We start by rolling a d6 for our  CLASS : 6,  Forsaken Gang-goon , someone who used to be part of a gang but is not anymore. Why? The dice will tell us soon! We roll 3d6-2 for our Strength and get a reduced difficulty to all Presence and Agility tests. Not...

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make an Old-School Essential character, specifically an Advanced Fantasy one. This system is one of the most famous of the OSR movement, a faithful retroclone of B/X. Unlike the other character I created in this series, this one is not made with the idea of using it in a solo campaign, but rather to join an open table megadungeon game I recently joined. Exciting! 1. First of all I rolled the ABILITY SCORES , 3d6 down the line. I used a Discord bot to do this, following the campaign guidelines, and I got: -  Strength  14; -  Intelligence  10; -  Wisdom 10; - Dexterity  11; -  Constitution 9; -  Charisma 10. The campaign rules allowed to swap 2 scores after rolling, but I decided to keep what I got. 2. Next I chose a  RACE  and a  CLASS . I read through the possibilities, both of the Basic and of the Advanced ...

As I mentioned in last week's post , I have been eyeing Pirate Borg for a while, but I never pulled the trigger on it. Now that I have, though, I'm very happy that I did! It reignited my passion for TTRPGs like no other game before, so much so that not only I immediately made a character for it, but I also started to set up a solo campaign for it! I also hope to play in or run games with other people if possible, obviously, both in person and online (and for that I already joined their Discord server), but in the meantime, and to get a feeling for the game, a solo campaign is a good place to start. I've already run a few sessions of solo gaming before, namely in Basic Fantasy and Labyrinth Lord  (I still have a couple of sessions of that to post, they'll come in the near future), but I wanted to try my hand at something bigger in scope. I have started a journaling game of Apothecaria , which is for now being preceded by Creation Myths  to flesh out my character for it,...

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make a Pirate Borg  character. This game is one of the countless Borg games that sprouted from Mork Borg, and recently had a wildly successful Kickstarter  for its expansion Down Among the Dead and its Starter Set. I've wanted it for a while, and finally got it last weekend at the release event of its Italian version. Other than the character sheet, it has a very useful guided PC creation sheet that shows the various steps in a single A4 sheet. Let's create a pirate!  1. First we roll for our starting  GEAR : - d6 for the  container : 5, a large sea chest (can contain 20 items); - d12 for  cheap gear : 2, d4 (2) candles (1 hours each); - d12 for  fancy gear : 3, fishing rod. 2. Next we roll for our  ABILITY SCORES . We roll 3d6 in order for the 5 abilities, but then we convert the total into a modifier between -3 and +3: -...

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make a Vaults of Vaarn 1e  character. This game, which recently had a hugely successful crowdfunding campaign  for its 2nd edition, originally came out as a series of zines which detail a bizarre sci-fantasy setting, which can be adapted to most OSR games. Issue 1, though, also contains a ruleset inspired by Knave and a character creation process. Let's go through it! 1. First we roll 3d6 in order for the 6  ABILITIES :  Strength ,  Dexterity ,  Constitution ,  Intellect ,  Psyche  and  Ego . We can then swap two of them, if we want (I'll keep them in order, as I don't have any character in mind). The peculiarity of this system is that we don't add up the dice, but instead the value of the lowest die in each set becomes the ability's BONUS, to which we add 10 to find its DEFENCE value. Let's roll: - 5, 2, 2 for Stre...

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make a Mausritter  character. This is a game derived from Into the Odd like Cairn, with which it shares some similarities. The main difference from it (and most other OSR or D&D TTRPG) is that in this game we play as mice, and all adventures are mouse-sized; therefore, where in a traditional game a fearsome enemy might be a dragon, Mausritter would have a cat for example. It's been praised for being very good for kids and for first time players, because it's easier to imagine a mouse facing a cat than it is to picture a man facing a floating eyeball monster full of tentacles; I can see that, honestly.  1. First let's generate the ATTRIBUTES ( STR , DEX and WIL , just like Cairn) by rolling 3d6 and keeping the highest 2, which will usually mean a lower score than Cairn: - 6, 3, 1 for 9; - 5, 3, 3 for 8; - 6, 4, 1 for 10. The attributes are rol...

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make a Fabula Ultima  character. This game, which is presented as a TTJRPG, takes inspiration from Japanese RPG videogames such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Xenoblade Chronicles (among others). It is quite a different system from D&D or any other in the OSR sphere, but I encourage you to check it out if you like the games it takes as inspiration.   I've been intrigued by this game for a while now, but always held back on trying it. The standard party in this game is made of 4 PCs, which is what I'll probably use if I ever get around to play it solo, but for now I'll create the first character. Unlike other entries in this series, this time I start with a character idea already in mind; the rulebook has some tables to roll on, and even some "classic characters" templates to give you ideas in case you need them. Note: I have the It...

This week's post will be a trip down  memory lane for me. Let's go back to November 2021. The world was doing its best to come out of the pandemic which had dramatically changed the way we see and value things for many of us. Many people approached the world of TTRPGs  during  the lockdown, as a way to escape the boredom and keep our sanity, but I didn't; instead, I started  after  I was finally able to go back to work. As I explained in my first entry in this blog , I had started watching D&D related shows but had not pull the trigger yet. But my birthday was approaching, I had no ideas on what to ask as a gift, and I found the D&D 5e Essential Kit, which promised to be a good entry point, for quite cheap on Amazon, so...why not give it a try? I'd like to point out that at that point I had no one to play with; I did start with a friend who was interested in trying it out as a player with me DMing, but I asked him only  after  ordering my gift....

This week, to add to my series of character creation posts (which started a few weeks ago with a Cairn 2e character ), I'll make a Maze Rats character. This book, created by Ben Milton (Questing Beast), is known mostly for its  many  random tables, usable for NPCs and monster creation, dungeon stocking, worldbuilding and much more, but it's also a game system. It has some similarities with the Into the Odd family of games, although with some major differences. First of all, it uses 2d6 (or 3d6 keeping the highest 2 if you have advantage) for its saves, instead of 1d20, and instead of rolling under your ability score you aim at beating a set difficulty of 10 (or the enemy's armor in combat) by adding your attribute (which start between 0 and 2 and can't get higher than 4) to what you roll on the 2d6. It also has levels, up to level 7, after which you're encouraged to "retire" your character and start a new one at level 1, but even at level 7 characters are...

This week I want to write about my first experience creating a Cairn 2e character and my opinions on how interesting a character can be in this system from the very beginning. I decided to make it as random as possible, rolling for everything, name and physical traits included. The first thing to roll is the background, on a d20: 7, Fletchwind. A ranger-like character. I like it. Next, choosing a name. There are 10 options for each background, so I roll a d10: 4, Thunder. A bit anime, but evocative. Can be a name given by the sound his bow makes when shooting arrows or something. Starting items: we get 3d6 gold pieces (rolling a 9, pretty average), rations (3 uses), torch (3 uses), a bow (for which we'll get details in a moment), a serrated knife that does d6 damage, boiled leather armor (which gives 1 armor, pretty light, it makes sense for this type of character) and 1 use of Heartroot Salve, an item which restores 1d4 STR. This one can be  very  useful. Let's put it in the...

This week I'll bring you a recap of my first successful solo RPG adventure, unlike my first attempt .   This time I decided to use Labyrinth Lord as my system of choice, because it's currently the most likely ruleset I'd like to use in my own sandbox/open table game, if I ever get to have one - although my preference in this regard changes pretty frequently.   For the adventure, since I decided to keep using a single character following Black Streams: Solo Heroes 's rules, I chose the small dungeon included in that pdf, The Yellow Toad God's Well . It took me about three sessions of 1 to 2 hours each to complete it, mostly because I discovered I like to write down everything that happens almost as if it was a journaling game, as you're about to read, and I didn't want to rush it, I wanted to use this as a chance to relax and unwind.   I'll start by writing down character creation, and then proceed with the recap of the three sessions: good read!...