Sunday 25 August 2024

The Ape, race-as-class

 

And lo! From the ancient depths of misty primeval jungles and the murky, antediluvian, ruined worlds beneath our own, there emerged the Ape! Hirsute, thick-thewed and sullen-eyed, to humble mankind as it did in ancient days and shall again - now, to tread the jeweled thrones of the earth under its grasping, prehensile paws.

Thursday 1 August 2024

Words! Linguistics, Etymology and Onomatology - Blog Carnival Roundup

Throughout the entire RPG blogosphere in July 2024 this mysterious incantation was muttered, chanted, ululated unerringly and with great enrapt fervour: "Words! Linguistics, Etymology and Onomatology!" Below is an individualized account of those poor fellows who succame to the call and whose incredible verve and creative curiosity allowed them to create some pretty cool blogposts.

Once again my time hosting the Carnival has been rather rewarding. This month there was a total of thirteen entries which is pretty good. Find details about signing up here. Also check out the August 2024 Carnival 'It Came from Beyond Time'. Now, on with the roundup. Below is my roundup of all the entries received and a couple of entries I received late for my previous time hosting the Carnival; Anthropology and Archaeology. I'll do so through little micro-blurbs and sharing a thought or two on each post.  As for the etiquette of reading this roundup, take your time - there are a lot of blogposts to read, leave some comments on the author's blog, consider a follow, it's always appreciated - the Carnival is foremost about building blogger camaraderie after all.


Game Design Pattern: Concept Crafting by Maxcan7: 
- Maxcan7 of Weird and Wonderful Worlds brings us a post on Concept Crafting - a system that uses words as building blocks. Maxcan7 wants to spread the word for Concept Crafting through the RPG Carnival and I support it. Playing with and combining words is certainly something I really enjoy. My most successful blogpost by all metrics; Naively Simple Alchemy uses similar concepts as does its oft overlooked cousin Naively Simple Mad Science.
- I've long been intrigued by Maxcan's use of Concept Crafting for Mechs. One thinks of the components and armaments of giant robots to be these mechanical things rooted in technobabble, but when concept crafting is used for machines like Mecha, it gives them a quite surreal and dreamlike quality - which is wild and cool. 
- Check out Maxcan's post and deep dive some of those links. See if Concept Crafting tugs your creative strings, it might have given me an idea for a madlib-esque cooking minigame. 


Code Talking by Throne of Salt
- Throne of Salt reflects on using the cipher of the Navajo code talkers as a particularly successful puzzle in a  campaign of theirs as well as discussing its implementation, potential improvements, and suitability for games set in real-world-inspired settings.
- Using codes and ciphers is certainly a puzzle I had not actually considered up to this point and I'm interested in trying something going forward. In the comments of Throne of Salt's post Skerples makes a good point about book based codes, If you personally have any other code ideas, please leave a comment on Throne's post, I know we'd both like to read them. 

- It's conlang time! What fellow doesn't want to, or hasn't already tried to make their own language? I know I have. July's Carnival has given Sofinho the impetus to begin his own conlang journey and he begins with a syllabary
- It's an ambitious task but Sofinho is really going for it, check this out.  
- Watch this space, wherever there is an Entry #01 an Entry #02 is sure to follow 👀. 


RPG Linguistics by Benign Brown Beast
- Benign Brown Beast suggests streamlining language in D&D by reducing the number of languages characters have to learn by emphasizing the narrative function of a language over cultural/racial diversity.
- The list of languages suggested is a very fun and novel idea and can be fluffed out in many different directions and will generally make you go ðŸ¤”.

AND Saying Magic Words
- In this post (which is a good companion to the RPG Linguistics post above) we explore the potential of integrating language with magic in D&D. Could certain spells  grant the ability to speak specific languages?
- I'm used to Lotfp style languages that don't predetermine a player's languages at character creation which certainly helps with the problems Benign Brown Beast sees - after 6+ months of play my current character can speak 16 languages for instance. That said, the system doesn't really cater to magical of extra-planar languages which is where this post could really prove useful.  


"Planars got a lot of words for 'ethereal'" by Xaosseed
- This headying post pairs quite well with the above writing of Benign Brown Beast. It deals with Xaoseed's own feeling towards using languages in games that align somewhat with my own; "that names, words, places and the like are the outputs of generic fantasyland slush and not actually backed by anything meaningful and thus not worth digging deeply into". But what to do about this? Perhaps a setting's language could be influenced by extraplanar connections, inhuman perceptions or cultural contact? 

AND Your great-grand-elf's elvish: long lives slowing language change
- Xaoseed highlights how the presence of long-lived species, such as elves, dragons, and giants, in a fantasy setting can influence the stability of languages over time and how this might affect your world building. 
- The post makes me think of some slumbering dragon in a lost cave who is the last fluent speaker of a extinct human language, a lost tongue that the players have to learn in order to save the day or steal a blue jewel or whatever. 


The Onomasticon Quernorum by Beneath Foreign Planets
- A post in which I give some obvious and meandering tips that I did or did not follow when coming up with the names for the Onomasticon.
- Over 900 names for a setting you know little about!
- Might inspire something?


How to Make Your Game In Tense by Cryptic Keyway
- Do you know what the Prophetic Perfect Tense is? You should, It's cool. 
- Do you you want to know how to use it in your games? I'm going to. 
- Here is my prophecy rendered in Prophetic Perfect Tense; "You read this post and enjoyed it, it made you want to add some prophecies to your own game".  


On Names by Empedocles the Wizard
- Empedocles presents some very good and clear advice on the topic of writing and generating fantasy Names. The post is practical, useful and festooned with interesting links. I particularly liked Kate Monk’s Onomastikon which was valuable to me when creating my own Onomasticon (it has a great URL too). In fact, this post is so good I edited my own post down and referred to this one instead.
- Empedocles has also done a lot of the work for you having created this d100 Random Name Prompter
- I love the notion of 'nominative destiny', it's much classier and precise than my phrase of 'definitional baggage'. 


Languages of the Sea of Stars by Sean H
- Sean shares some detail on the linguistic landscape of their Sea of Stars setting and the languages spoken therein along with sharing some practical thoughts and experiences with using language in game.
- Sean highlights the benefits of having a lingua franca for your game but what really interested me was how this common tongue can impart so much setting info and tone so simply, the Sea of Stars Imperial Tongue's origins bely interesting historical implications.  
- The other languages referenced in the setting each sound intriguing and almost function as plot hooks or rumours in of themselves. 


The Cool, Coded Version of Name Generator: Morpheme+Word+Epithet' by Dozens
- Inspired by my very own post Morpheme+Word+Epithet, Dozens has coded it up in a way I could not. They have properly factored in honorifics as well as introducing more variety by using different combinations of the eponymous Morphemes, Words and Epithets. 
- I am very grateful my work could inspire others to build upon it, and wish to say a personal thanks to Dozens. 


- TRAIPSE solves his struggle with toponyms; Never run out of place names with this one clever trick!
- A good companion alongside the prosoponymic thinking of Empedocles' post and my own. 
- Generally check out this cool fellow's cool blog. 


Anthropology and Archaeology Latecomers
 
- Hex Brawler might just turn your perception of conflict on its head. 
- The academic snippet Hex Brawler has selected is just right. 
- I need more of this kind of violence in my setting. 


- Enrich your world and dungeons with archaeology!You might know of dungeon rooms as being either trap, treasure, monster, empty, special or any combination of the above but have you ever considered archaeological?
- Pity Crit proposes the begins for a true archaeological minigame of sorts wherein the players quite literally uncover abstracted 'fragments' of lost civilizations and use those fragments to uncover knowledge about said civilization. Pretty cool stuff. 
- Pity Crit also gives plenty of examples of finds from their own lost empire and they're all pretty cool. I particularly like the weird Lacunae Crest.

Wednesday 24 July 2024

The Onomasticon Quernorum

Or; On the Names of the Quernfolk

A Wennish penny pamphlet pithily titled 'an unbelievable account of the atrocious apparitional attack on a sleeping and sickly Miss Dyedred by the headless bear demon 'Old Bossbelow' and her noble defense by Mistress Sharpday, Miss Arena Palatine, Jonwith Middlestone, Harque the Younger, Master Winwalloe and the Magic-User Lakelie'  

Above is the Onomasticon Quernorum; On the Names of the Quernfolk. Contained within are over 900 names and they are presented without any expository information. 

Recently, I have had names on the brain. In my post morpheme+word+epithet, (which has proved quite popular) I shared the eponymous formula for making an interesting name. This specific method works well for individuals but what if I need a great many names to build out a specific culture? 

I have previously written how understanding of the cultures of your setting can be impressed on, and implied to, players via the personal trinkets and pocket loot of NPCs that belong to those cultures. I used my personal setting of The Querns to explore this idea and did some implied world-building by detailing several cultures in this way. In this post, I have given names to the owners of those pockets. With the names themselves and the contents of their pockets, the reader should have a good feeling for these cultures already. Implication builds interesting settings that engage the imagination.

In the Onomasticon Quernorum I have given names to six, mostly distinct, cultures. In addition to this list I had a whole spiel written explaining my thought processes and inspiration for each of the culture's naming styles. I cut it all down and it still wasn't 'working' so I have slung it in a doc you can find here. I also recommend this post by Empedocles the Wizard of Elemental Reductions for some more lucid and interesting commentary on their naming process.

But, what do you do? What are your thoughts on creating names for RPG characters? Please let me know in the comments as I really enjoy this stuff.

Another Wennish penny pamphlet titled 'The Mightily True Report of Sergeant Bov Pangweather's victory over the hulking Aldish Birch-Crone known as Jennie Snatchelflynda and her dread-familiar who some call Black Froggebighter'. 

This post was written for Words! Linguistics, Etymology and Onomatology for July's RPG Blog Carnival

Sunday 30 June 2024

'WORDS! Etymology, Onomatology and Linguistics' - A Blog Carnival Call-to-Arms!


Canto II, Tom Phillips, 1981

This July I will be stepping-in to host the RPG Blog Carnival. The premise is simple: create a piece of RPG content in-keeping with the month's theme by July 31st, 2024, link to it in the comments below, and at the end of the month I'll curate a spotlight post, linking to your site and writing about your content. Last year, I hosted the Carnival with the theme 'Anthropology and Archaeology' and it was rather successful, I'm hoping my second attempt will equal or surpass it. So, as July's host, I have chosen the theme 'WORDS! - Etymology, Onomatology & Linguistics'. Let's refresh our definitions via Merriam-Webster before getting to some prompts:

Linguistics: 
The study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language.

Onomatology (see Onomastics): 
- The science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places 

Etymology: 
- The history of a linguistic form (such as a word) shown by tracing its development since its earliest recorded occurrence in the language where it is found, by tracing its transmission from one language to another, by analyzing it into its component parts, by identifying its cognates in other languages, or by tracing it and its cognates to a common ancestral form in an ancestral language

Language families by Bosman Bos of the Border Baronies

As themes go, 'Etymology, Onomatology, Linguistics' is broad and can be summed up simply as 'WORDS!'. These themes lend themselves well to world-building and RPG theory. The central challenge running through these prompts is to consider what makes words in RPGs both 'interesting' and 'purposeful'. While many prompts ask you to detail words from your current or previous campaigns or worlds, you could also use them as a springboard to create a new setting or as inspiration for tables and generators, this what I find the prompt is leading me toward. 

Questions and Prompts:
Here are some potential topics to get you thinking before the carnival begins:

Toponyms
  • What makes for a good RPG toponym? A good place name? Have you thought etymologically about place names? What are the toponym's origins and how did the name shift and change over time? Are the best place names in roleplaying, clear and evocative, are they more fantastic with a weird verisimilitude or somewhere in between? Where do you fall on the spectrum of place names? Are your towns more 'White River' or 'Lililingburlingan of the Sacroline Spire'? and why?
  • Similarly, how do you name geographic features? What are the natural wonders of your world called? What about other planets, stars or fantastic celestial bodies? Is there a generator you could make for such names?
  • What of your setting's nations, communities or collectives? What are their names (endochoronyms)? Why? And what are the (formal and informal) demonyms of their inhabitants? What are their exonyms?

Names, Names, Names
  • How could you impart a sense of a particular culture via their personal names and naming conventions? A certain vibe is easy to achieve when creating names for a familiar culture with a familiar language (such as with hobbits) but can become trickier when dealing with deliberately foreign cultures.
  • Do you have a list of spare names for NPCs? What is your thinking behind the names? Are the names naturalistic, cultural, gonzo, aptronymic or charactonymic? Is your knight called Sir Spear, Sir Chivalrous, Sir Bob, Sir Fuck-Vampires Flyingburger or Sir Eldo Serindal?
  • Who are some of the mononyms of your world? People so famous, so iconic and with such a unique moniker, that they are known by a single name, such as Plato, Napoleon, Hitler, Jesus.
  • Likewise, what about eponyms? Are certain places, spells, monsters, animals, plants or peoples named after an individual?
  • What is the autoethnonym of orcs or any other 'monstrous' folk in your setting and what does that word mean?
  • What makes for good monster names? Which is the better name, Hideous Ropey Snatcher Beast or Spitzlgangler? Or will the players just call it a grabby guy?
  • If your game features political groups what are their politonyms and what are their origins?
  • What can you do if you know a demon's true name, or anyone's true name for that matter?
  • Make a zoonym generator for your setting focusing on the taxonomic name of the beast and from that extrapolating its stats and characteristics.
  • Chrononyms are the names of historic periods, what are the names of the historic periods in your setting and why do they have that name?
  • Epithets are great.
  • How could your players gain epithets? Would there be special rules around gaining an epithet?
  • Old school DnD classes gained a title each level, could you rewrite these titles to better reflect your game world or cultures within your game world?

Conlangs
  • Dare you descend into the conlang rabbit hole? Do you dare become the DM who says to their patient players; "no, no, no it's pronounced 'bhänüt' not banût"
  • Would you like to try designing your own alphabet or syllabry?
  • Toki Pona is an art project micro-language, it has 137 words, so it's not unimaginable that one could create their own micro-language in a month. Perhaps, to name just a few possibilities, your own thieves cant, druidic language, hermitic whisper-speech, arcane tongue or hyperborean slave creole. Additionally, how would you use your new language in game?
  • Can you provide an outline of the evolution of the different language groups in your setting? Such as how many modern languages spread from Proto-Indo-European?

Language
  • Does your setting have unique slang or phrases?
  • Have historic events in your setting shaped or influenced the language and sayings of its inhabitants?
  • Tell us about your setting's Lingua Franca and how it developed.
  • What are considered slurs, pejoratives, swear or taboo words in your setting? What is the consequence for saying them?
  • The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis suggests that language influences perception and thought. This can have some interesting implications for fictional settings that might want to push the idea. How does the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis interact with fantasy languages such as Elven or Black Speech and in turn how does speaking those languages affect a person?
  • The Himba people's perception of colour is supposedly influenced by their language. In a fantasy or science fiction world, we can push this notion much further: for example, what if a society's language has many words for magic?
  • What of non-human linguistics? How do non-human species in your setting communicate? What are the linguistic quirks and unique language structures of those species?
  • Let's not neglect science-fiction. What future words, personal names and slang have developed in your future world?

Miscellaneous, Meta and Theory
  • What are your thoughts on the language of RPGs on a meta, player facing level? What makes good vocabulary for the mechanics, rules and processes of a game? How do your players use language? How did they name the things they encounter?
  • How should rules for learning new languages work?
  • What happens if a character is not fluent in a language or only knows a few words?
  • What happens if you read aloud an unknown eldritch language rule such as Aklo or an extract from the Necronomicon?
  • Speaking of Aklo, could words themselves present a material threat? Sentient languages, memetic viruses, weaponized language and how would you rule those concepts in-game?
  • Do have have particular favorite names that your players have named their characters?
  • When world building, how do decide what deserves unique onymony? Does it benefit or confuse players whether their characters hear the peel of larks or of Velvety Spi spis? Or whether the tavern serves salted peanuts or salted jingandra seeds?
Your contributions are eagerly awaited and, thank you in advance for engaging in the RPG Blog Carnival.


The RPG Blog Carnival has been running since 2008 and helped to foster community and interconnectedness in RPG blogs. Check it out and consider participating in other months or even hosting yourself, it's not much of a commitment at all. 

Sunday 26 May 2024

Name Generator: Morpheme+Word+Epithet

Who are these fellas and what are their names? Groupe de sorciers by Lucas Roussel


Millions of names!


Each name is made of three parts. A made-up morpheme, an English word and an epithet or honorific. The names are drawn from lists I wrote; there are 335 morphemes, 345 words and 311 epithets/honorifics. I use words rather than another set of immediately meaningless morphemes for a few reasons: 

  • Words colour the name, if the name has ‘cruel’ in it, the name instantly gives a hint to the character (but sometimes it just gives an interesting sound) in a very pulpy way that should be embraced.  

  • Words make the name a little quicker to read, the brain picks out the second word; so ‘Zhongcried’ is that much quicker to read and then physically pronounce than a random collection of phonemes like ‘Ibquneche’.

  • Along with epithets, words add a touch more memorability to a name for your players. If you generate something alliterative or with some assonance, all the better!

Of course, not all characters should have a name that fits these conventions, though these  principles can be quite effective. If a name is generated and the 'epithet' is in brackets it is an honorific and should be read before the name, not after. For example 'Ozdog (Master)' should be read as Master Ozdog.


Thanks to Paper Elemental for their clever html generator generator which I used for this post and for the Archons March On blog whose many numerous generators inspired me to give it a go myself. 

Click Generate for your name:

Click for the raw lists






Wednesday 14 February 2024

Savage World Personality and Character Generation

This generator is based on my Simple Card-Driven Personality Generation post but repurposed for a solo game I am currently playing which is set in a tropey, savage and primeval land. All the gifs are from Fire and Ice.

The How
Draw two cards from a standard deck of playing cards (jokers removed) and consult the table below. The first card drawn indicates the adjective - the second indicates the noun. Combine the words to form the character's personality type. Depending on its use, this table go a little beyond the remit of the previous generator and can suggest things that veer beyond personality, therefore it is as much a generator of characters as it is of personalities. 

The Table

Card

♦️ Red 

♠️ Black ♣️

King

Feral/Savage

Stone-faced/Stoic

Queen

Lustful/Lecher

Messianic/Idolator

Jack

Vigorous/Meathead

Die-Hard/Survivor

Ten

Covetous/Snatcher

Superstitious/Spirit-Heeder

Nine

Wicked/Bully

Thrill-Seeking/Bravo

Eight

Kowtowed/Toady

Cunning/Cut-Throat

Seven

Superior/Tyrant

Hot-blooded/Trickster 

Six

Obnoxious/Clamourer

Cold-blooded/Killer

Five

Simpering/Simian 

Wolf-like/Recluse

Four

Smug/Posturer

Unclean/Wallower

Three

Stubborn/Grump

Unsuspecting/Oaf

Two

Treacherous/Snake

Obscure/Madman

Ace

Preening/Aesthete

Civilised/Eccentric

 


Tuesday 6 February 2024

Dumb Duels - a Reasonably Engaging Dueling Minigame


No party wants to sit and watch another player fight a duel. I have and after a point, it's no fun at all. This is the inherent problem with duels in RPGs. Here's a relatively dumb method that should up the engagement for duels enough for you to possibly attempt one every couple of real world years. It has a smidge of inspiration from 'Everyone is John'.

After the duel has been challenged and accepted, tell the players you've got this dumb gameplay twist to try, and then give them the following: 
  • A quick overview of the area in which the duel will take place.
  • A brief description of the player's opponent.
  • Allow the duelling player to list some of their character's strengths, abilities, items, etcetera, that they could bring to bear in the duel to their fellow party members. 
Once this is done move on to the coaching stage. 


Now the character that will be fighting the duel is coached by the rest of the party. All present players partake in this whether their characters are narratively able to or not. Each player, excluding the dueller, suggests two 'moves' each. These 'moves' can be anything that the duelling character could reasonably do in a combat turn during the duel such as 'try to cut his head off' or 'do a flying kick' or 'tip over the acid vat' or 'magic missile!!!' or 'do an erotic dance'. Once these moves are collated into a written list, the duel can begin. The duel then works as regular combat but with the caveat that the duelling player can only select their actions from the moves they have been provided by the party. The DM controls their opponent as they would normally. 

If the duelling character expends all of their moves and the duel isn't concluded - evaluate everyone's engagement level and act accordingly. If they're engaged, the duel takes a pause for another round of coaching, if ambivalent or less, then the duel has probably gone on long enough and the novelty has worn off - end it quickly, possibly in a high stakes final turn with the dueller deciding on their own final move. Remember with all things, pace is king. 


Tips and Tweaks
  • For extradramatic dueling (and to end the duel faster) allow two moves to be performed by the duller in a turn. 
  • If you suspect your players will overanalyze or derail the coaching stage have the players write down their two 'moves' in secret without interparty discussion. This method can yield a higher quantity of 'sensible' suggestions especially if paired with a reminder. 
  • Consider the HD of the NPC opponent, if they've low health consider allowing the party to provide only a single move each. 


Friday 26 January 2024

Hackjack - An Experimental System of Death, Dismemberment and Blackjack

Hackjack, like Blackjack only your character will be horribly maimed and then probably die.


The Swimmer, Sir Sidney Nolan, 1966

Basically; when your character enters negative HP (and each time your HP decreases thereafter) you have to draw a card from a standard deck. Each card has its value (which I term death-score, aces are worth 1, face cards are worth 10) and an injury with attached mechanics. For example, an Ace of Diamonds has a death-score of 1 and would see the character receive a cool scar. Death-score is analogous to negative HP. A player places their cards in a drawpile where all the card numbers can be seen and totalled easily. Once the total value/death-score of the cards you have drawn exceeds 21, the character dies. Some cards come with Trauma and Blood. Blood can increase the death-score of subsequent cards and Trauma dictates how long a player will have to spend recovering after their near-death experience. If the character’s death-score  hits 21 exactly, that character's death-score resets to 0 but their wounds, Trauma and Blood pool remain. Unless a character receives massive damage (13 or higher), the death-score value of the card they draw remains the same, this will be detailed shortly. You will find all of the wound results for each card at the end of this post.


No 'tis but a scratch' jokes for you

Blood

If a character draws a card that has a Blood value, for example ‘Blood 4’, give that player 4 tokens (red is preferred) or a piece of paper that says ‘4 blood’. Have the player place the tokens or note apart from their Hackjack draw pile, this creates a ‘Blood pool’. If the player already has a Blood pool, add those 4 Blood tokens to it. The player now has a choice, on their next and subsequent turns they can either prevent themselves from bleeding, or risk transferring their Blood tokens/note over into their drawpile. If a character with a Blood pool takes damage and is not preventing themselves from bleeding, they must move their entire Blood pool into their death-score draw pile. If they are preventing blood loss, their Blood pool will remain where it is. Players who are preventing themselves from bleeding in this way cannot do anything but walk or defend themselves, characters who are not defending themselves are free to act normally, save for other wounds they may have accrued thus far. Each point of Blood added to the drawpile increases the player’s death-score by 1. Death-score increases in this way do not provoke additional card draws. A player should declare at the start of each round whether they are preventing blood loss or not.     


Trauma:  

Trauma represents significant bodily harm, this value helps to calculate how long a character will take to recover from their injuries. Trauma does not accumulate like Blood, a character’s Trauma score will only increase if they draw a card with a higher Trauma score than they currently have. For example, if a character draws a card that has a Trauma value of 2, compare it to their current Trauma score, if the Trauma on the card is higher than their current Trauma score give that player 2 tokens (black is preferred) or have them make a note on their character sheet - if the Trauma on the card is lower than the player’s current Trauma score, make no change. Trauma does not increase a player’s death-score. A character's recovery time is rolled for when a character has their death-score healed (when they have 1 HP or greater) or they rest for the night/8 hours. Compare the Trauma score to the below table and roll the matching number of dice. For example, a character with a Trauma score of 3 would have a recovery time of 2d6 weeks. The recovery time begins when the character has reduced their Blood pool and death-score to 0, if healing via sleep alone this can take some time (depending on your system). 


Trauma 

Recovery Time 

0

Whatever recovery time/procedure is detailed for the wounds received.

1

1d6 days

2

1d6+6 days

3

2d6 weeks

4

2d6+6 weeks

5

2d6+1 months

6+ 

2d6+6 months

              


Removing Death-score, Blood and Trauma

As stated, a player's death-score (including Blood) is analogous to negative HP, as such it can be healed away in the same fashion with 1 HP of healing removing 1 point of death-score or Blood. A character's Blood pool is always healed first. For example, a player with a death-score of 13 and Blood pool of 3 is healed by a cleric for 6 HP, their death-score is now 10. This procedure works with all methods of healing. When a player reaches 1 HP they can roll to check their recovery time as detailed above. Practically, as a player’s death-score is healed, remove tokens first before dealing with the cards themselves. If any cards are ‘split’ by healing, i.e. a character whose draw pile has one card with a value of 4 and is healed by 2 HP, remove the card and give the player 2 tokens to represent the remaining death-score of 2. Otherwise, record the death-score as a number on the player’s character sheet and tally it off that way. Trauma can only be removed by undergoing recovery or with high level healing magic.



Massive Damage:

For some sources of damage a death-score of 10 just isn’t high enough. If a character receives damage higher than 13, then that damage value will override the card’s death-score value. For example, if a character with a death-score of 3 takes 17 points of damage from a giant's hurled boulder, and they draw an Ace, their death-score increases by 17, not 1, to an unenviable total of 20. In these instances, it is necessary to supplement the drawn card with an additional token (or tokens) to indicate the difference between the card and the actual death-score. For example, if the death-score exceeds the drawn card's value by 5, that player can be given 5 tokens or a note as with similar procedures around Blood.


If a character with positive HP recieves damage that would place their HP below -21, they die instantly. If a character with positive HP receives damage that would place them below -13 HP, they begin the Hackjack minigame by drawing a card and setting their death-score to the value of their negative HP. For example, a character with 7 HP is caught in a bomb blast for 22 damage. Their HP would be -15, this unfortunate character would draw a card, apply the wound and add the difference between the card and their negative HP to their death-score in the form of tokens or a note. 



But why? Why did I make this minigame? I wanted a system that took some of the meta aspects of death and dismemberment away and added others. I wanted to make things slightly less predictable and make that unpredictability fun in trying to predict. For example, when dealing in true negative HP, like regular HP, you can kind of guess how long it will take a series of d6 attacks to kill you. Therefore, the card based, blackjack gimmick. And it is a gimmick; I want players trying to count cards, weighing up their odds, hoping for a forgiving suite, cheering when they draw an Ace and gurning at the sight of a face card. That's fun to me. At the same time, I didn't want the system to allow players to absorb massive damage and just live. After all, the cards have a death-score value ranging from 1 to 10. Therefore the rule that if the damage a player would take exceeds 13, that damage is the death-score the player must take instead of the death-score on their drawn card. I chose 13 because this is higher than the largest common attack die, anything over 13 damage probably deserves the higher death-score. It also speeds up play, knowing you only have to roll damage if there is a possibility the result will be higher than 13.




Each suite has its own character. The following semi-mnemonic is my attempt at justifying these categories:

Clubs will leave you battered, they represent intermediate wounds.

Spades will bury you. This suite is made up of more severe wounds.  

♦️ Diamonds are pretty. Therefore diamond cards deal with more minor, aesthetic, hidden or psychological wounds. 

Obviously, Hearts mainly deal with internal damage, organs and blood.

Feel free to rewrite the wounds. They are far from exhaustive and can be catered to the kind of experience you want at your table. 

Clubs

Ace. Body blow. Get knocked back.

2. Head injury. Confused and disoriented. Roll over your current death-score with a d20 to regain your senses or remain dazed.

3. Damaged eyes, you are temporarily blinded until you have rested. 

4. Damaged arms, drop carried weapons, arms useless. Trauma 1 

5. Damaged legs, drop to the ground. Legs useless. Trauma 1

6. You are covered with dozens of small painful wounds. Blood 1.

7. You have a moment to prepare yourself. It's going to be bad but you will choose how. Take the 7 death-score from this card as usual but draw two cards and choose which wound will affect you. 

8. You are bleeding badly. Blood 2.

9. A chronic wound. Permanently, whenever your character enters negative HP you begin with a Blood pool of 2. 

10. You are bleeding profusely. +1d4 Blood. 

Jack. Your body utterly fails in defending itself. Take the Jack's 10 death-score and draw two more cards, taking both card's wounds, but not their death-scores and the lower Blood and/or Trauma value if any. .

Queen. Lingering wound. Permanently, whenever you hit 0 or negative HP add 2 death-score to the first card you draw. If this card is drawn again the wound grows worse, adding another 2 to your starting death-score.

King. You are near mutilated and covered in painful, grisly wounds. -3 to all rolls. Trauma 3, Blood 2


Spades

Ace. You are knocked to the floor.

2. Messy, bloody or dramatic wound leaves you prone, 1 Blood.

3. Broken arm, roll for which. Drop carried item. Arm is useless. - 2 Dexterity and Strength until recovered. Trauma 3. 

4. Major head injury, wisdom and intelligence drop by d4 each. -1 Intelligence and Wisdom until fully recovered, 1 Trauma.

5. Broken leg. Determine which. Fall prone. Move speed reduced to a slow walk. -3 Dexterity until recovered. 3 Trauma.

6. Many bones crack, -1 to all rolls. Trauma 3.

7. A large and savage wound. -1 to all rolls, Trauma 2. Maximum HP permanently reduced by 1d2 points. 

8. You are permanently blinded.

9. Something that should be inside your body is now outside. -4 to all stats. 2d6 Blood. Trauma 4. 

10. Maimed. -3 Strength and Constitution until recovered, -1 permanent Strength damage thereafter. Trauma 4.

Jack. Lost limb. Roll a D4 to determine which is lost. And a D4 to determine how much, 1 = just the hand/foot, 4 = the whole thing. 3 Blood. Trauma 2.

Queen. Gruesome mutilation. 4 Trauma. Draw another card instantly, take that card's death-score and wound but not Blood or Trauma. If alive, roll over your new death-score with a d20 or pass out.

King. Brutalised. You are prone and broken. You are incapable of doing anything. 5 Trauma. 6 Blood.


♦️ Diamonds ♦️

Ace. You receive a cool scar. 

2. You get blood or dirt in your eyes and cannot see until it is cleared.

3. Lose a finger, roll a d10 to determine which. Blood 1.

4. Hurt nose, can't smell until comfortably rested.

5. Jaw or mouth hurt leaving a scar. Unable to speak. Trauma 1, Blood 1. 

6. Minor disfigurement. -1 Charisma permanently.

7. Smashed leg. You will walk with a limp from now on.

8. That’s going to leave a mark! You are bruised, burnt or otherwise marked in a distinctive way for the next week.

9. Bad back. You can never rest peacefully again. When rolling to regain HP from rest you can never roll the maximum amount and must reroll. -1 to all stats until recovered, Trauma 1.

10. Ouch! If you live you'll have an impressive scar to show off. Trauma 1. -1 to Strength and Constitution until recovered. Blood 1.

Jack. Lose one eye, -2 on all to-hit rolls until recovered. Trauma 1, Blood 1. Permanent -2 to-hit on ranged attacks after recovery.

Queen. Fear. You are terribly hurt physically and mentally. You will take 1 point of Wisdom damage for each round you are in a situation that involves the thing that caused you to draw this card. 

King. Your face is destroyed. Unless wearing a mask your Charisma score is 1/2 its original value. Trauma 4.



Hearts

Ace. You avoid the worst of it but get a glimpse of what is to come. Look into the draw pile and see what the next card to be drawn is, even if it isn’t drawn for you.

2. Impacted throat, by some means you are unable to speak until you have rested.

3. Sickening stomach strike.  -3 Constitution and you can't eat or drink for d12 hours.

4. A low blow. Groin attack. Roll over your death-score with a d20 or stagger about in pain for a round. 

5. Excruciating pain. Roll a d20 over your current death-score or pass out. 

6. Not again! Take this card's 6 death-score but repeat the wound of your previously drawn card, all wound effects stack or are replicated including Blood and Trauma. If this is your first card, draw another card and apply it twice. 

7. A blow to the brain. -1 to all mental stats (INT, WIS, CHA) Trauma 1.

8. Internal organ damage. Blood 2, Trauma 3

9. Lung damage.  -2 Constitution. Trauma 2.

10. Multiple broken ribs, drawing red cards increases your Blood pool by an additional +1. -1 to all rolls. Trauma 3.

Jack. Opened vein, +1d6 Blood, woozy, -1 Intelligence and Wisdom, Trauma 1 

Queen. Damaged heart. Half constitution score. Blood 1. Trauma 4.

King. Severe internal organ damage. 6 Blood. 6 Trauma.



Tips, Suggestions & Optional Rules:  

  • Don’t return cards to the deck after they have been drawn, give them to the player. These cards will form the player’s draw pile and with the blood tokens help them to keep track of their death-score. The meta-game aspect of players card counting and guessing what injuries are left in the deck can be enjoyable and forms part of the ‘pushing one’s luck’ element of this Hackjack system. 

  • While a lot of thought has gone into each card, some results can still require a degree of quick thinking on the part of the DM. On occasion an incongruous card can be drawn for an attack or damage source that doesn’t quite match it - a house-cat’s scratch might see an unlucky character lose an arm or a lighting bolt may sever an artery. You are creative and will figure it out. Enough blows from a mace can sever a leg, a peasant pushing a character down a flight or stairs might see the character mutilate themselves on their own sword. 

  • If unsure how to describe a death, use the card that kills the player as inspiration. 

  • Get a cheap set of cards and write the Hackjack effects on them with a permanent pen. It saves a lot of time. 

  • Read the card carefully and have the player note the wound effects. If a wound doesn't have an associated trauma score it will have some other duration or cure listed, either a few rounds or until some other criteria is met. The effects of wounds with a trauma score, including stat damage, last until the character has undertaken their recovery time. Therefore it is completely possible to continue adventuring as a character with a broken leg, ribs, internal bleeding and a bruised brain. Permanent wounds are listed as such and will require a quest or high level magical healing to resolve. 

  • Poison can come in two varieties, death-score poison that does death-score damage and bleed poison that increases your Blood pool.

  • Thanks to Milk of the OSR discord server for the suggestion that certain types of opponents, particularly the undead, could directly attack a player’s death-score bypassing HP altogether. 

  • If you want to increase the brutality of your critical hits, consider adding a Hackjack card draw to your critical hit and possibly even critical miss tables.

  • This following mechanic is cut content: ‘The Trauma score is also used to determine if a character passes out from the pain of their wounds as well as how long the character will need to recover from their significant injuries. If a character has a Trauma score of 3 or more they must check to see if they pass out if they attempt to do anything other than walk or crawl away. To make this check the character must roll over their current Trauma score with their class Hit Dice. A character that passes out can be woken by another player.’ Include it if you like but I felt it was unnecessary, just an extra thing to remember, it limited play and it complicated how a character’s death-score, Blood, and Trauma were removed. This feature could be reintroduced using a new metric ‘Pain’ if you choose to do so. Or, you could have players roll over their death-score with a d20 or lose consciousness.

  • While death and dismemberment systems do increase the survival rates of players they often don’t decrease the rate of new characters. Players will often retire characters that become too injured or become attached to the new character they start while their old character recovers from their wounds. 

  • I chose not to include Jokers but you could use them as lucky breaks, with no attached wound or death-score.  

  • Rewrite anything and everything you like to fit your system of choice. You might change certain cards entirely, wound effects, stats or saves. 

  • Check out James Young's So It Looks Like You're Gonna Die as it was a big inspiration. 

  • If you want to get more use out of carrying a deck of cards to your sessions consider my Simple Card-Driven Personality Generation post.


This post is a update/rewrite of a messier system, you can find that post here