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Basic Fantasy RPG Creative Pursuits D&D Poems

Spell Rhymes of the Third Level

Here’s another installment of my short poems mages and clerics can utter while casting spells, this time of the third level.

Clairvoyance

Precise direction and distance,
Over which my mind's arrow flies.
Vision reaches across expanse
To view the world through other's eyes.

Darkvision

Without the aid of any light
My eyes perceive the size and shape
Of forms that lurk in ebon night.
Beneath my gaze, let none escape.

Dispel Magic

Like weathered stone, like heavy rain,
Like ancient tree in forest felled,
End effects, so that none remain.
Let now this magic be dispelled!

Fireball

Where first there's smoke, soon is fire,
The element that consumes all.
My hand directs a threat most dire.
Emerge, explode and burn, fireball.

Fly

Without aid of avian wing
I drift into the azure sky.
Worry not. No chance of falling.
Where once I walked, I now can fly.

Haste

Quicken now each chosen being,
Powered by arcane promotion.
Strike twice swift. Let haste be freeing.
Double speed in fight and motion.

Hold Person

Hold in place. You've no defender.
My will is force, which I will prove.
Though mind is awake, surrender.
Limbs, be stiff, unable to move.

Invisibility 10′ radius

Descend yon darkened veil upon
Searching eyes now clouded, unclear.
Night's ebon womb expands anon. 
Let all within her disappear.

Lightning Bolt

Spark now flies from finger’s guiding,
Stretch and burst in lightning’s flashing,
Blast through foes with thunder’s riding,
Rend the air with power crashing.

Protection from Evil 10’ radius

Raise a veil of magic flowing.
Thwart the claws of evil pressing.
Steel our forms, their power slowing.
Circle holds, our will professing.

Protection from Normal Missiles

Ward my form from arrows flying.
Block the sting of bullets darting.
Turn aside all blades defying.
Missiles fall, their force departing.

Slow

Languish now each chosen being.
Halve their pace in fight and striding.
Strike but once where two were springing.
Time drags slow in dull abiding.

Water Breathing

Grant us gills, through water gliding.
Breathe as fish in depths unending.
Touch each soul, the gift dividing.
Air and sea, our lungs befriending.

The clerical spells follow.

Bestow Curse

By shadows deep, and ancient dread,
Your actions halt. Your true self dies.
Your strength fails. Your spirit, now bled,
By twisted fate, and whispered lies.

Cause Blindness

Let shadows fall, a world made dim.
The light denied, your vision lost.
No sight remains, on any whim,
By my lord's hand, a heavy cost.

Cause Disease

By tainted breath and sickness deep,
Your strength decays, your movements slow.
No healing comes, your secrets keep,
Till shadowed death, begins to grow.

Continual Darkness

Cast out light with god’s dark willing,
Shadow reigns, all brightness fading,
Holy void, a year fulfilling,
Blind the sight with gloom pervading.

Continual Light

Call forth light by god’s own shining.
Radiance spreads, dark defying.
Holy glow, a year aligning.
Bless the world with grace undying.

Cure Blindness

The darkened veil, I now dispel.
Let sight return, a world made clear.
No shadows hold, no magic fell,
But light reborn, and vision's cheer.

Cure Disease

The creeping rot, the fever's sting,
The hidden plague, the parasite's hold,
I banish now, on angel's wing.
Let health return, precious as gold.

Growth of Animals

By ancient root, and verdant might,
Let beast expand, with doubled frame.
Its strength increased, in sudden flight,
A titan's form, a wilder game.

Locate Object

By divine thread, and seeking gaze,
The hidden thing, I now pursue.
Through winding paths, and shadowed maze,
Its distant form, I bring to view.

Remove Curse

Break the chains with power holy.
Curses lift from flesh abiding.
Spirit cleaned by divine solely.
Untie binds with grace providing.

Speak with Dead

With sacred words, and hallowed rite,
Dead lips shall speak, a moment's grace.
The soul's last echo, brought to light,
Then silence falls, in death's embrace.

Striking

By sacred force, and righteous blow,
Let weapon strike, with added might.
A potent edge, where shadows grow,
And magic's strength, defeats the night.

See more Rhymes for Spells.

Categories
D&D

Potion of Fireball

In traditional fantasy RPGs, a wizard can pre-cast a spell into a magic item for one-time use, typically as a potion or a scroll. Only Magic-Users (and maybe Thieves) can cast spells from scrolls. Anyone can gulp down a potion. Based on tables of magic items from the original texts, there are certain spells that go on scrolls and others that go in potions.

One argument made is that potions are meant to produce an effect on the imbiber rather than some effect directed outward. This explanation thins a bit when it comes to potions of control, e.g. a Potion of Undead Control. In 3E, it’s possible to brew a potion of any spell 3rd level or lower, which means a Potion of Fireball is feasible. Drinking and spitting fire seems very natural and evocative, so I’m going with it. Here’s how it works.

We have a flask. It’s warm to the touch. If you pop the cork, a small flame dances out from the mouth of the flask. If you pour it out or break the flask, you just get some lamp oil. If you drink it, it burns going down, just link chugging a flask of whiskey. And it wants to come back up immediately, but you can try to keep it down. If you let it come right back up, a fireball bursts from your mouth, exactly as the spell cast by a Magic-User of level 5 – 20.

If you want to hold it down, make a save versus magic. If you make it, it stays in your belly for up to a turn. If you fail, it comes right back. When you want to produce a fireball, make another save versus magic. If you fail, the fireball projects from the other end of your digestive system, probably exploding at your feet.

If successfully belched up, a fireball shoots a stream of fire of a hundred feet or more until it explodes at the point where the potion drinker intends.

Yeah, yeah, game balance. This does not particularly concern me, especially since I’ve got three high-level fighters in my long-running campaign that each have girdles of giant strength which allow them to throw boulders every round. If one of them has an accident with a potion of fireball, it will be worth it.

Categories
D&D Games

Wooden Tokens Instead of Lead Figures

As a game master, I default to theater of the mind, but most of the other players like to see maps, especially during combat. We compromise by me only going to the battle mat if the fight’s going to be long or complicated. I don’t have a big collection of figures. I do have a bunch of glass beads of difference colors, which are fine for monsters. I wanted a solution for individual PCs that wasn’t going to cost a bunch of money. I tried using binder clips with a strip of paper inside with the PC name. They were unstable. My new solution is a wooden token with a picture glued to one side.

I bought a bag of wooden tokens on Amazon. They are 1″ across and 1/8″ thick. About $10 for 120 of them.

I also bought a hole punch that makes 1″ holes in paper. It’s a supersized version of the tool you’d use in school. It cost about $11.

When you flip it over, you can see through a window of what you’re about to cut out. That means you can cut out a disc of paper exactly around some picture you want to glue to the wooden token.

I looked over my drawings I make for my game log. I have faces for just about every active PC in the game. So, I put 1″ circles in an image in GIMP and pasted in faces from drawings. I scaled them down and trimmed them into a disc shape. Then, I printed out the whole sheet and started stamping out the discs.

The punch tool will reach a couple of inches into a sheet of paper, so I did the first row, then cut that line off the sheet so I could get to the second row. Finally, I glued each little disc of paper to a wooden token. That took about an hour for about 20 of them.

The paper was a tiny bit bigger than the wood. I solved this with a quick pass with sandpaper that shredded off the extra. I used a glue stick, the kind that’s “disappearing purple”.

Categories
Basic Fantasy RPG

Chrysogon’s Coterie

What is Chrysogon’s Coterie? It’s the latest supplement released by the Basic Fantasy RPG project. That’s the group of people led by Chris Gonnerman who collaborate on an open source version of D&D. The supplement collects 288 NPCs for you to drop into your campaign.

Who’s Chrysogon? He’s a 9th level dwarf with a penchant for snooping on everyone around him. Dwarves are known for being suspicious of others and dour of temper. This guy punches all the buttons. You’ll have to read the book to learn more. If you can trust him, that is. Chrysogon isn’t even his real name!

What’s a coterie? It’s an intimate group of associates, in this case a bunch of adventurers with various connections between them, the most prominent being that that a devious dwarf has revealed some of their darkest secrets. It would be scandalous if it weren’t all so imaginary.

Which is to say this book is the product of the fertile and verdant imagination of Todd Lyons. Fertile, because, well, look at the bounty of interesting characters. Verdant, because this is his first go at writing an RPG supplement. It’s appropriate to have bloomed in the Spring. It’s so full of fresh ideas, and not at all a bland rogue’s gallery.

I read through the text and provided feedback in November 2022. (It takes some time to assemble a printed book, especially when all the labor is volunteer). In one aspect, it’s a story. At more than a hundred 8.5″ x 11″ pages, the word count probably qualifies it as a novel. There are plenty of characters with backstories to dive into, but of course, there is little plot, which is exactly what you want from an RPG supplement. The story emerges from the play of game.

The primary aspect of the book is as an aid to the game master. On the fly, you can flip to any page and pull out one of the NPCs. Read a couple of paragraphs and start role-playing the random adventurer your players just met. The description will provide a few mysteries for the the PCs to wonder about as well as a few pointers to other NPCs in the book. You could do this for a long time because there are 288 entries: eight for the four primary classes (fighter, magic user, cleric, thief) over nine levels. That is, if you need a ninth level magic user, flip to the end of the book and there are eight to choose from.

The descriptions of the NPCs are wild. They do not present as thin frosting over a trope cake. These personalities are quirky and true to life. When I first started reading through the text, I had this weird feeling that one of two things was true–either Todd was possibly a little disturbed or else he had a background in psychology. Some of the NPCs have been through serious emotional trauma.

Some kids are exposed to the trade early. An orphan, Tycho was adopted by two thieves posing as a married couple and then sold at a slave auction for a profit. Thus, he has no faith in anyone’s intentions, regardless of how genuine they seem. He had many failed escapes and endured many more beatings before finally fleeing beyond his owner’s reach. Unusually resilient, Tycho learned how to be a successful thief the hard way—getting caught, surviving, and learning to do it better. He is an extreme risk-taker and is very comfortable with improvising on the job. Nothing ever goes as planned anyway.

Tycho Cruscellio, Chrysogon’s Coterie page 75

Yikes! But look at all the flavor packed into that one paragraph. Tycho had a tough life, and you can’t blame him for being pessimistic, but he’s a survivor. Your party would be lucky to have him picking locks and disarming traps hundreds of feet down in the underdark.

Unsurprisingly, Todd has a background in social work and adolescent mental health. The artist reveals a bit of his soul in crafting his work. Todd demonstrates an understanding of the human condition as well as a deep caring for the characters in the book.

These characters have depth. You can understand their motivations, which means they are easy to play. I suspect why we see such innovation in this work is due to a focus first on passion for the hobby rather than a cynical stab at meager profits in an over-saturated market. You can get this book in print for about five bucks. You can read it for free by downloading the PDF. This is the ethic of the BFRPG project.

Aside from the text, you’ll find plentiful illustrations from various artists, including an inspiring cover by Gabe Fua. The production of these works requires collaboration from many different roles. The level of editing poured into these books is phenomenal, ranging from copy editing to technical editing. Plus, a delicate dance must be done with Libre Office to get the typesetting to work. The BFRPG community is singular in its ability to cooperate and produce highly valuable works. Even if you use another flavor of D&D, the Coterie will provide great value. The meat is all in the characters and their relationships. The stats are easy enough to convert.

So, congratulations to Todd on the publication of Chrysogon’s Coterie! I’m grateful for his continuing contributions to the BFRPG project.

Categories
Basic Fantasy RPG Creative Pursuits D&D Poems

Spell Rhymes of the Second Level

Here’s another installment of my short poems mages and clerics can utter while casting spells, this time of the second level. I previously wrote rhymes for first level magic user spells and first level cleric spells.

Continual Darkness

Inky darkness, down you clamp.
Spread and stifle beacons all.
Let no candle, torch, nor lamp
Shine its light beyond this wall.

Continual Light

Now from star and sun comes light
That spreads and stays forever long.
A shining beacon, true and white,
Proclaims the virtue of the strong.

Detect Evil

Open I pry my eyes to see
Any evil threats to me.
Glow, you creatures from planes beyond.
Open, eyes! Respond! Respond!

Detect Invisible

Spirits hiding from naked eye
Reveal yourself by outline drawn
With silv'ry pen of open sky
That shines your shape with bolts of dawn.

Invisibility

Descend yon darkened veil upon
Searching eyes now clouded, unclear.
You once were here, but now you've gone.
And with this touch you disappear.

Knock

For sticky door or stubborn key
With gentle tap, I now unlock.
To raise the bar and gain entry
Three times on solid clasp I knock.

Levitate

Now, rise by unseen hand. Soar high!
Keep floating while I concentrate.
Drift up from earth and towards the sky.
Behold the one that levitates.

Locate Object

By hoary hosts and spirits strange,
Upon my thoughts be fixated.
If found it could be within range,
Let now the thing be located.

Mind Reading

Thoughts are waves that through ether ride
Into my probing mind to scan.
The secret consciousness resides
And fills the space. My mind expands.

Mirror Image

Swirling, twisting, false images
Mimic form of magic casters.
Every strike must hit visages
Until final figment falters.

Phantasmal Force

A vision projects from my mind.
A silent illusion appears.
Concentration keeps it confined.
By doubt or touch the image clears.

Web

Like spider silk but more secure,
Now sticky strands extend and bind.
If ignited, let flames endure.
Entrap my prey in threads entwined.

Wizard Lock

Magic lock hold this portal fast.
Let wizard's knock only through.  
Make a seal that forever lasts,
So secret treasure hide from view.

The clerical spells follow.

Bane

Oh lord on high, fill my body
With a spirit inspiring dread.
Attacks will fail, and foes will flee,
Who within fifty paces tread.

Bless

Bless my friends, oh holy father.
Let courage fill their very hearts.
Pang of fear can never bother
Those who honor thy holy art.

Charm Animal

Music calms the savage beast, and
So do words most gently spoken.
That same creator joins our hands.
Friendship ties are now awoken.

Find Traps

Any peril laid by evil
I pray to see out before me.
Traps by glowing will be seen full.
Trust have I in him most holy.

Hold Person

Let glory hold thee in splendor.
My will is force, which I will prove.
Though mind is awake, surrender.
Limbs, be stiff unable to move.

Resist Fire

Fire harms none who honor the name
Of precious lord whose prayer they spoke.
Like saints of old who walked through flame,
Let faith provide a cooling cloak.

Silence

A globe of silence honors most
The one who spoke the world's first word.
In this moment speak no boast
Nor let no arcane spell be heard.

Speak with Animals

Creature made by the same divine,
Listen and understand my voice.
Converse with me if you incline.
To speak with me remains your choice.

Spiritual Hammer

By fervent faith in holy might
I call forth his awesome clamor.
Let my enemies quake in fright
From my spiritual hammer.

Update: see more Rhymes for Spells.