Oh king, eh? Very nice!

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Imagine if D&D were created not by

but by

and you end up with

Even though the inhabitants of the swamp have seen off

they still have to contend with

It’s really good, in a Dark of Hot Springs Island and Frostbitten and Mutilated sort of way. And I think the intended feel is more like a combination of those two settings than that of the clips I’ve linked here. But I’ll be running it with dose of Shrek, so there it is.

Woodfall is a system-neutral drop-anywhere mini setting. Like the best of OSR books it’s bursting with good ideas that can be used all together as written or mined out for use piecemeal wherever you want.  And while its Renaissance Era lens typically gazes at D&D, Woodfall could just as easily be dropped into a RuneQuest, Tunnels & Trolls or WFRP campaign. I mean, it does have mutants and unique monsters (Chaos, I’m looking in your direction). I could go on about it but it’s easier if you just go check out the preview on DriveThru. And then buy it.

I’m glad I opted for the hardcover. It’s a tight, sturdy little number designed to be useful at the table. Game books aren’t novels, they’re tools; Lazy Litch clearly understands that.

[And because I hear Dennis narrating every time I read it, I’m taking the liberty of appending two titles to Woodfall’s Appendix N (pg 92):

and

It’s one helluva drug!]

Dungeon Crawler’s Grimoire, with a side of Madness. And, stuff …

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My “final” Schools of Magic for spells-without-level Lamentations. This is it. I “promise.”

 

This spell list comes from Dungeon Crawl Classics. One great thing about spells in DCC is their built-in success and Misfire tables, one per spell. You can just go with them as is and for successes — as a short hand — use the effect listed for rolling a 20. Twenty plus Intelligence bonus allows smarter Wizards to get a bit more oomph out of their spells. Or since all DCC spells have eight levels of success, you can roll a d8 and go with the result. This could make the effects of spells pretty swingy though, so you’ll have to give it some thought, based on the kind of game you’re after. Personally I prefer 20 + Int bonus; it keeps the range of effects fairly narrow and makes a Wizard’s Intelligence directly relevant to spell casting.

 

 

And Miscasts are easily handled by rolling a die on the spell’s Misfire table. Boccob’s yer uncle!

 

And here’s a School of magic I recently stumbled across on DriveThruRPG:

 

 

[Credit where due: I found the illo above HERE. Nice work there.]

 

Roll a d7 to determine which Circle of Madness was your alma mater:

  1. Book of Zantorf (30 spells)
  2. Book of Secondus (32 spells)
  3. Book of Trias (33 spells)
  4. Book of Forthus (30 spells)
  5. Book of Fivo (30 spells)*
  6. Book of Sixon (30 spells)
  7. Book of Sev (30 spells)

*: Child Mob reminds of How Many Five Year-olds Could You Beat in a Fight? So good.

 

A number of these spells are pretty cool; I suspect Joeskithedungeonbrawler [Praise Crom, he’s BACK!] was at least a contributing editor. Your opinion of him will probably colour your reaction to the seven volumes (so far?) of Magic Madness.

 

Finally, here are a few pointers to using all these Schools of Magic in spells-without-level Lamentations:

One spell can be memorized per level (per Vaginas are Magic).

A wizard starts with three spells (plus or minus Intelligence bonus; minimum one, maximum six) copied from his School’s precious tomes.

A wizard can choose either his School of Magic or his starting spells, but not both.

If he decides to choose his spells there are two caveats:

  • If the original source material for the school’s spells had them listed by levels, he cannot choose more than one spell from any given level. (e.g., let’s say the school is Libro Lamentati. He can’t pick Power Word Kill, Shape Change and Time Stop as they were all originally 9th Level spells. But he could select one 7th, one 8th and one 9th); and
  • He can’t choose more than one spell in a series with identical names (e.g., he can’t take The Hellwalk Spell II, III and IV.)

When rolling for School of Magic, roll 1d12 and a second d12 as a check die. If both dice are doubles of either 1 or 12, the “Wizard” is in fact a Sorcerer a la Wonder & Wickedness (12/XIV). If not, see the list below for the result of the main die:

Schools of Magic

  1. Libro Lamentati
  2. Eldritch Weirdness
  3. Magic Vaj, Eldritch Cock
  4. Illusio Primo
  5. Space-Age Sorcery
  6. The Necromican
  7. Better Than Any Man
  8. Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets
  9. White Dwarf’s Treasure Chest
  10. Unearthed Arcana
  11. Dungeon Crawl Classics
  12. Magic Madness

 

That is all.

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