The White Sword of Izar

Many years into his studies of the arcane arts, King Izar of Everfall found his borders being threatened by hostile forces.  He had sent expeditions into the wilds to retrieve artifacts for study, and learn the ways of other cultures, but during this, he had stumbled upon things forbidden to human eyes.  The wars with the Storm King had begun.

At first, Izar's forces fared poorly against the titans of the mountains, who seemed to use the lightning of their war gods as his used arrows.  Izar's focus upon the mystical arts left his kingdom in a precarious position.  They had knowledge and wealth, but the people were more scholars than warriors, and when the Storm King arrived, things went badly.  Thousands had died, and many towns were laid to ruin before Izar could rally his forces around the city to hold the Storm King at bay.

For one thousand nights, they defended against the siege, Izar frantically seeking a remedy to the certain doom of his kingdom.  His people turned to cannibalism, and Izar to necromancy.  He discovered the secrets of trapping souls during that siege.  Many of his subjects fell victim to his experiments as Izar's focus became more and more narrow.  His generals pleaded with him to divert his attentions to the war, but Izar's strategy was beyond them, they just couldn't understand what his end goal was, he had locked himself away in his castle with orders to defend the city until the last.

As day turned to an eternal night under thick clouds summoned by the Storm King, Izar finally sent word down to his blacksmiths.  To forge a sword under his supervision, using a unique metal he'd found during one of his adventures.  When it was finally complete, he had commanded his generals to bring the enemy host to the city.  The Storm King arrived, and saw King Izar.  Seeking to end the wars for ever, the Storm King summoned the strength of his war god to smite the arrogant king.

There, upon the highest tower of  Mount Everfall, King Izar held the sword above his head and recited the words.  As the bolt from the heavens came down upon him, he was protected.  The heat from the lighting welded arcane shapes into the blade and infused it with the power of the Storm King's mightiest god, trapping the deity within the now living weapon, and taking the powers from the Storm King's host.

With a fury none had seen before, King Izar descended from his tower, and tore through the Storm King's host.  His own army watched in horror as the fields churned with the blood of giants, the scholar king seemed possessed by the weapon, and raged until dawn, striking down all of his enemies, pulled from one to the next by the will of the sword.

When he was found, he was exhausted.  Naked in a field, surrounded by the ruins of giant warriors.  He was taken back to his keep and spent the next ten years recovering from the experience before he would emerge again to be seen, an old man, aged beyond his years, unable to relate how he had done what he had done on the field of battle that day.

I've been cheating

The group made a wiki, which is where I've been mostly posting this sort of stuff for the last couple of years.  Now that the third age campaign is over, I'll see if I can move some of it to here.

Currently, I'm running a black ops GURPs campaign, trying out some of the cinematic rules in that system.  The characters are 600pts and amazingly, they still seem to be threatened by mooks.

While starting as a one off while our other GM is away for a month, it's likely going to be my next longer term going campaign.

The basic premise is very Xcom influence, as is the Black Ops source book.  I also recently picked up the GURPS Illuminati book, which I think is great fun, and has me going with certain factions for this campaign.  One twist that I'm putting on this campaign is that the earth is actually flat, and there's a great conspiracy to keep people thinking it's round.  This is mostly done via Grey Psychic Beacons.  It turns out mathmaticians and physicists are all Ghouls who are in on the conspiracy.  It makes so much sense now!!


They're not set in stone, but here are the factions I have so far:

The GREYS!!!!

Home Planet Zeta Reticuli.

What they do: Abductions for genetic experiments.   

They have slave Hybrid Ghouls are disguised by psychic beacons, they try to infiltrate other groups.  They tend to be republicans.

Obviously, these are based on They Live, mixed with the generic Grey Alien/sectoids from Xcom UFO defense.

Reptilians

Baylonian Brotherhood.

Tall, blood drinking, shape shifting lizards from Alpha Draconis.  Hide in underground cavernous bases, impersonating world leaders.  David Icke eat your heart out.

Enemies to the Greys.  They run the democrat party.

Vampires

Vampires working ancient evil.  The Greys claim they are failed experiments from long ago. They have no overarching agenda, each seems to want to run their own petty kingdom.  Pineal glands are gone, which makes them soulless.  They also wish to spread floridation to protect their teeth, as well as calcify the pineal glands of humans, making them easier to manipulate.

The Cabal

The Cabal are magicians from another dimension(see Infinite Worlds).  They seek to enslave Earth for their nefarious purposes.  They like to do magical experiments on Earth because of the low magic, which makes  things safer if things go wrong.

Illuminati

A human group of shifting alliances looking to control the world.  They are paranoid and hate the Reptilians above all else.  They run through several different organizations, from Masons and Shriners, to Newspaper moguls and movie stars.

Flat Earthers

An anti-psychic group who has discovered that the Earth Is Really Flat.  THey have a genetic variation which protects them from the psychic rays of the Greys.  They are enemies to the Greys, who control the psychic beacons.

CHUDS

Creatures from the Underside of the earth.  Demonic in appearance, they wish to sew discord amongst the ‘heavens’.

The Church

The pope’s enemy is the CHUDS.  Some speculate that many of the cardinals are actually a mixture of  Reptilians and Ghouls using the church as a puppet organization.  They have a militant faction that is comprised of deadly CHUD hunters.

Murderhobo

So last year I was working on a homebrew mashup of a few of my favourite systems.  It turns out great for one shots with beer and pretzels, but is kind of deadly so it might make for difficult long term campaigns. 

I think it might also benefit from the use of some props to track what dice and bonuses people are using. like this:

The skill level is described with the basic skill roll.  Beneath it, is how many steps up or down your opponent goes for their skill roll.

I should also get on making a character sheet that doesn't murder eyeballs.

Murderhobo II:  Best for low fantasy realm oneshots.

Ability Scores:

Agility

Perception

Strength

*Intelligence

*Charisma

*These should really be role played, but many players prefer them as stats.  Totally optional.

Skills:

Riding(Ag)(broken down into Bareback, Saddled, Chariots, Wagons)   

Crafting (usually broken down into different crafts and trades)

Swimming(St)(can be broken down: diving, rescuing, holding breath)

Balance(Ag)(add to climb?)

Climbing(Ag)(broken down: freeclimbing, equipment)   

Running(St)

Fighting (St)(can be broken down: unarmed[striking, grappling], armed[spears, axes, swords, mace, chain, light, great])

Shooting (Ag)(can be broken down: muscle[thrown, slings], bows[short, longbow], shouldered[crossbows, rifles])

    Sense(Pr) (can be broken down: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, Smell)

    Pick Locks(Pr)(can be broken down: combination, key)

    Pick Pockets(Ag)

    Sneak(Ag) (can be broken down: Hide, Silent Move)

    Healing(int)(can be broken down: first aid, surgery, long term care)

    Heraldry(Chr)

    Convince(Chr) (can be broken down: Persuade, Lie, Intimidate(Use Str if higher), Impersonate)

    Codes(Int)(each specific codes and cyphers, Code breaking)

Armour(St) (Can be broken down: light, medium, heavy, shields)   

For each subdivision each skill is trained separately.

Unskilled: Roll 2d20H

Novice: 1d20

Familiar: 2d20L

Skilled: 3d20L

Expert: 4d20L

Master: 4d20L+1 (Masters who level up add 1 to their skill for rolls)

Character Generation.

To generate your character, roll their statistics.  For humans, this will be 2d6 for each ability.  Other races are listed down in the creatures section.  For the non-humans, when an ability isn’t listed, assume they’re the same as humans.

For skills, your character will be Skilled in one area, Familiar in another, Novice in one more, and unskilled in everything else.  Every skill under a selected area will be the same as the master skill in character generation by default.  You can choose to specialize one skill in an area and raise it up one level, but sacrifice the rest of the group down one level.

Example:  A player decides they wish to make a boxer, so they choose Fighting as their skilled selection.  A boxer doesn’t need to use weapons, so the player downgrades the rest of fighting to familiar, to become an expert in Unarmed,.  The player decides that the character will be a master of boxing, and chooses to downgrade everything else, leaving the Character with Unarmed: Striking-Master.  Unarmed-Grappling-Skilled, Fighting-Novice.  Satisfied with this, the player may choose the other selections to get going with the game.

Keep in mind that wearing armour is a valuable skill, and that Murderhobos are often better off being generalists, rather than specialists, since they might not be able to afford that choice gear out of character generation.  Their financial plight is a major reason for becoming a murderhobo!

Doing things

Trying to roll below the associated attribute score.

Difficulties modify how many dice you get for the attempt.  If you get below 0, you start adding dice again but choose the Highest instead of lowest:

    Easy         +1         Unskilled    Point blank

Normal      0         Novice        Short range

Challenging     -1        Familiar    Medium Range

Difficult     -2        Skilled        Long Range

HARD!     -3        Expert      Maximum Range

Impossible!!     -4        Master     Extreme Range

Examples:

A novice trying an impossible check would roll 2d20H-3

A master trying an easy check would roll 4d20L+2.

Someone skilled trying a difficult task would roll 1d20

Someone Familiar trying an impossible task would roll 2d20H

For fighting and other opposed tasks, look up opponent’s skill levels for associated penalties.  A master fighting someone completely untrained would have an easy time of it(4d20L+2), while the untrained victim would have an impossible check (2d20H-5)

For silent move, have the sneaking character roll their silent move check(modified by the other character’s hearing skill).  If successful, they get the drop on the other character.  If they fail, the unsuspecting character can make a senses roll modified by the sneaker’s silent move ability.

Active, attentive guards will get to roll their sense.  Compare margin of success to see if the sneaker is spotted.  Keep in mind this is for alert guards only--Some schmuck reading a newspaper at a desk doesn’t get to roll.  Guard dogs and other animals are usually attentive.

For hiding, roll the searcher’s sense modified by the hider’s hide skill and circumstances.  If the person isn’t actively looking for someone who is attempting to hide, then count the hide as a success.  For creatures with developed senses of smell, count them as always searching.

For PvP, have each roll their appropriate skill and compare successes.  If tied, go by the best margin. If they are tied again, have the players play knuckles to punish them for doing shitty PvP.

2 masters fighting each other would be rolling 1d20 because they are on equal footing.

Quality of Equipment:

Shoddy        -3

Poor            -2

Low            -1

Average        0

High            +1

Castle            +2

Masterwork        +3

Magical        +4

The range of equipment qualities will affect the attribute governing a check.

Damage

Combat damage

You hurt your opponent’s strength attribute.

If you roll a 1 on your attack, you do an extra damage point.  

Every net  1 success=+1 damage.

Damage affects your strength score.  once you’re at 0 or below, you’re incapacitated and may be killed!

Weapon damage: Look under Items.

Surprise! If you catch an opponent by surprise, they will have to succeed on a Sense check(Using the Manipulate! action) to come to their senses and be able to retaliate. The difficulty will be easy for hand to hand, and will depend on the range and visibility of the attacker for ranged attacks.

Fire does 1d6.  If someone is dressed suitably, their clothing will stop some of this, look up the armour value of their clothing.   Falling on a fire pit will do 1d6 damage with full armour taken into account.  If the fire die rolls 6 damage, the person is ON fire (their hair/clothes etc). People who are on fire only get ½ their armour for soaking damage.  A successful first aid check can be made to put it out.  Oil will automatically light people on fire.  For every unit of oil used, it will require a first aid success to put out.  Jumping in water will extinguish a fire immediately the following round.

Drowning does 1d6 damage per round of drowning.  If someone is incapacitated, they can still be rescued with first aid as long as they do not go to their strength in negatives.

Poison

Poison will attack an attribute depending on purpose.  Depending on the potency, it will disable/kill someone fast or slow.  A poison that does 1d6 damage will do 1 point of damage per round until the total damage is done.  A poison that does 3d4 damage, will do 3 damage per round until the damage is done.  A tranquilizer poison that you might use on a horse might do 1d100 damage and gently put it to sleep, while a deadly blowdart venom might do 5d4 damage to take effect quickly.

Disease

Disease operates like poison, but will only damage once per day, instead of once per round.  Damage from a disease cannot be healed until it is cured by a healer, who needs as many successes as it’s potency.

If a character is hit by a slashing or piercing weapon and is not successfully treated that day, they risk infection.  Make a roll, the strength is the number of wounds(if someone is hit once, then roll 1 die, if they are hit 4 times, then roll 4).  The dice used is based on the conditions of the fight.  The worse the conditions the more likely it is there is an infection (Fighting in a dojo would be clean, so use d4s.  Fighting in a sewer would be filthy, so use d12s).  To see if they are infected, roll the disease’s strength against remaining character strength.

*Bleeding

Optional.  Cutting and stabbing weapons will cause someone to bleed.  Go for 1 point per round.  This will make Murderhobo very deadly and may not be fun to use unless you’re bow hunting.

Once incapacitated, a character can be killed automatically by anyone who wishes to spend an action.  Poison and disease will kill once a character’s attribute reaches the their negative.  If you are using tranquilizers, be careful with your dosages!

Healing

Healing strength(and attribute) damage occurs at a rate of 1 point per day of comfortable rest.  If under the care of a healer, the number of successes they get on their heal skill will add to this.  

Roll each day. The difficulty for the healing check is based on the damage sustained.  For every 3 points of damage sustained, raise the difficulty by one category.

First Aid is used to mitigate infection, put out fires, resuscitate drowning victims and heal slashing damage.

Surgery is used to remove arrowheads, and heal piercing damage.

Long term care is used for nursing someone back to health once a wound has been tended to.

Hit points are healed after a night of rest.

Actions

Actions are declared simultaneously. For PvP battles have the players decide in secret (use a die to represent the move they wish to do) then reveal at the same time.  If both choose to defend or riposte, then nothing happens that round, they just stare each other down.

For NPCs, roll a die and adjust for aggression.  If something doesn’t make sense, GM Fiat it.

-3 Aggressive  -2 Hostile -1 Angry 0 cautious +1 Initmidated +2 Cowardly    +3 Panicked

1.Attack!      Attack your enemy/take aggressive action.

2.Riposte!    Defend then attack your enemy.  This is difficult(-2), but trumps an attack.

3.Defend!    Defend yourself from attack.  Successfully done, this trumps an attack. Can be used against gang-ups.

4.Flee!        Turn tail and run away.  Anyone attacking you will resolve their attack before you leave their reach.

5.Move!    Move somewhere else.  If you are engaged, this means you’re changing positions somehow, not leaving the combat (that’s the Flee! option). If you are not engaged you can move how you like up to your strength score in yards.  The run skill will add 1 yard per success.  If you move to engage, you can declare it a charge! Raise your damage die by one category. Sorry if you get hit, btw, if anyone hits you while you are charging, they bump their damage as well.  If someone involved with a charge is using a spear or lance against someone who is not, their successful attack will trump the opponent with the shorter weapon.

6.Manipulate!    Use equipment, ready equipment, open a door, quaff a potion, assess the situation, this sort of thing.  Some things like reloading crossbows or digging through a pack  take a few rounds of manipulation.

Grappling/Wrestling.  If someone attacks you to grapple/wrestle you, they can get in your grill and hold you, though your attack may have damaged them.  The person who initiated the grapple is considered in control for the first round.  The defender can then defend or riposte.   A successful riposte will give them control of the grapple.  The person in control of the grapple can then attack if they choose.  You can damage people in a grapple normally, with light weapons or using your hands to pin/break limbs.  To pin/break a limb, you must successfully attack twice.  The first will pin a limb, the second will break it.

If someone is grappled, attacks on them are easy.  Only the person in control of the grapple can deal with outsiders, though doing so is difficult.

For mounted combat, use the character’s riding skill, or combat skill, whichever is lowest.  Mounted fighters attacking foot soldiers get a +1.  Foot soldiers attacking mounted soldiers with hand weapons or lighter get a -1.

Ganging up:  If you have friends ganging up with you, the ratio is bonus/penalty applied to each side.

   

Other situational things will be done on the fly to be determined by the DM.

Experience.

When you use a skill in an adventure important way, tick it off.  After the adventure, roll on your current skill level.  If you fail your check, it improves one level.

You can do this if you take damage as well.  Roll against your strength.  If you roll over your strength you become tougher by gaining a HP. (extra strength to soak damage)

Optional

Going unconscious is bad.  If you are knocked out, roll against your intelligence.  If you roll over your intelligence it goes down one point from brain damage.

Items:

Action ready characters can hold an item in each hand and carry one on their belt in addition to worn armour.  If they’re going into battle as pack mules, then everything is difficult (-2)  that’s why people hire squires and buy mules.

Item quality affect the stat that someone rolls against.  It also affects the costs.  If someone has a craft skill, they can spend time to upgrade a piece of equipment for an encounter with a successful skill check.

Quality of Equipment:

Quality            Modifier    Condition        Price

Shoddy        -3        Mangled        1/4

Poor            -2        Rusty            1/3

Low            -1        Neglected        1/2

Average        0        Average        0

High            +1        Tended to        x2

Castle            +2        Doted over        x4

Masterwork        +3                    x8

Magical        +4                    x16

Armour will soak damage:

Light armour 2        (Leather, studded leather, furs)

Medium armour 4        (Mail armour. Laminate armour.  Breastplate and helmet)

Heavy armour  6        (Full suit of plate and mail armour.)

Until one is skilled in the use of armour, wearing it will penalize the wearer’s strength score by its soak value (before quality adjustment) as the wearer gets accustomed to the bulk and weight.  Each skill level will mitigate 1 level of this penalty.

    Unskilled:     Full penalty.

Novice: -1

Familiar: -2    Can wear light armour with no penalty.

Skilled: -3

Expert: -4    Can wear medium armour with no penalty.

Master: -5

    Master+1: -6    Can wear heavy armour with no penalty.

Shields make you harder to hit:

Buckler -1

Small shield -2

    Large Shield -3 (requires strength 8)

    Tower Shield -4 (requires strength 9, also makes it difficult for you to attack (-2))

Shields can be used as hand weapons as well.

Weapons will add to damage with quality as bonus/penalty to hit.  The better quality items will give a higher chance to hit, generating more net successes, which will translate into more +1s.

 

Characters with 10+ strength do +1.

    Weapon type:            Example weapons:

Light 1d4            Dagger, rattan stick, thrown axe, sap

Hand 1d6            Sword, hand axe, mace, spear

Two hand 1d8            Sword in 2 hands, crossbow, heavy draw bow.

Heavy 1d10 (need strength 9+) Great sword, large axe, maul, arbalest crossbow

Crafting Items:

Skill Ratings.                Top Possible Quality:

Unskilled: Roll 2d20H        Poor

Novice: 1d20            Low

Familiar: 2d20L        Average

Skilled: 3d20L            High

Expert: 4d20L            Castle

Master: 4d20L+1         Masterwork

To craft an item, roll your applicable craft skill, adjusted by the quality you wish to craft at, use the inverse of the quality modifiers (crafting Masterwork items is -3, crafting shoddy items is +3).

The time it takes is determined by how many successes you roll.  Starting at 1 period, roll the crafting test, then multiply by successes. Complete failure indicates a wasted period as flaws are discovered and need to be corrected. Each quality step requires 1 period of work.

The period of work will vary by task.  Creating a sword might have a base of 1 week, banging out a suit of plate might be a month.  Building a home would have a base of 1 month and a castle 1 year.

Example.  

A master swordsmith is commissioned to pump out broadswords for the Count’s Conscripts.  The count doesn’t care about conscripts, he just wants them armed as quickly as possible, so the swordsmith decides not to put his mark on them and pump out shoddy swords.  Working solo, the sword smith could likely pump out 4 completed shoddy quality swords a week. (4d20L+4).

Later on, to celebrate the victory, the Count commissions the swordsmith to create a Masterwork Sword to give to a general.  Again, working solo, the sword smith will get to work.  Because it is a masterwork piece, the Master Swordsmith will only be rolling 1d20 and the projected time to craft it is 7 weeks, provided the Master Swordsmith rolls well.

The Master smith could buy expensive tools to help with his tasks, or hire help to speed up the process.  A supervisor can supervise their dice pool in apprentices, and the quality is based on the average skill level.  The Master Smith could supervise 4 apprentices.  If they were all unskilled then things would be greatly hampered, but if he had skilled apprentices, then he could pump out 16 shoddy swords a week, but because they are not masters, or even experts, they cannot assist in a meaningful way with the creation of the masterwork gift.

Combat Examples:

Examples:

Example 1:

Sir Skilled has a strength of 8 and is wielding a castle quality(+2) sword.  Sir Skilled would use 3d20L against a modified strength of 10.

Darby Dirtfarmer has a strength of 9 and has been drafted into Duke Digby’s army.  Armed with only his grandfather’s rusty sword(-2), Darby Dirtfarmer will be fighting with 2d20H against a modified strength of 7.  Darby will hope to not see Sir Skilled on the field of battle!

Unfortunately, Sir Skilled singles out Darby Dirtfarmer for a duel.  Because Darby is unskilled, Sir Skilled will enjoy a bonus to his attacks, and will be rolling 4d20L10 for the fight.  Poor Darby is outmatched and will be suffering with a 2d20H5  for the match.  It’s very likely that Sir Skilled will cut Darby down quickly.  Darby’s best bet is to go defensive, and hope more of Duke Digby’s conscripts help him out!

Example 2

Heath Horsefighter (Skilled with a castle quality lance, St 9+2) is charging Frederick footsoldier (Novice with a longsword and large shield, St 8) because that’s the Murderhobo way.

They start out a ways away and Heath chooses the Move!(Charge!) action, and Frederick chooses Riposte! action, trusting in his shield.

Heath gets to roll 3d20L10 (strength 9 + 0 novice opponent + 2 castle quality lance +1 mounted vs foot -3 opponent has large shield) for his charge, and will get a +1 damage for charging.

Frederick rolls 2d20H5 (strength 8 -1 fighting a skilled opponent -2 Riposte maneuver)

Heath rolls a 6, 8, 11 That’s 2 successes!  Heath will roll 1d6+3 damage (+2 for successes + 1 for charging)

Frederick rolls a 4 and a 13.  Because he has to select the high die, his 4 is tossed aside and he fails to riposte, and his struck by Frederick’s lance.  The wound will likely take him out of the fight, if not kill him.  Rolling a 3 + 3, Frederick is left with 2 Strength left from a piercing wound.  If he does not escape to find a monk with the first aid skill, he may die of infection after the battle.  Fortunately, Heath sees that he struck a telling blow and moves on to harvest more peasants.

After the battle, Frederick is unable to get to a monk before the next day, so he risks infection.  The potency of his infection is 1d8(1 wound, dirty fighting conditions).  Fortunately, he rolls a 1 on the first day after the wound, which is below his current strength of 2, so his body resists the infection!  If he had rolled a 3, he would have become infected and the following day would have taken 1d8 disease damage.

Example:

It would take 5 peasants ganging up on a master to even the odds (difficulty level of the fight).  If the master had an ally, it would take 10.

    Unskilled peasants are taking on a master swordsman.  Normally, one on one, the unskilled peasants would roll 2d20H-4 against the master, and the master would roll 4d20L+2.  A master swordsman can harvest peasants in duels all day long and not break a sweat.

    Figuring this out, the peasants gather en masse to take out the Master Swordsman.  Gathering their torches and pitchforks, 5 of them engage him in melee.  Because they outnumber the Master Swordsman by 5:1 they have enough numbers to bring their 2d20H-4 up to 1d20.  The Master Swordsman, severely outnumbered loses his 4d20L+2 and is now fighting at 1d20!  While they are both rolling the same die, the Master Swordsman will need luck and armour to survive this fight since there are 5 peasants engaged with him!

Shopping

The currency is as follows:

Talent        1pp=     60mp                A platinum coin.

Mina        1mp=    60gp    (1 lbs of gold)        A small rectangular bar of gold

Shekels    1gp=    100sp (~1lbs of silver)    A small square coin.

Drachma    1sp=    10cp                A small round coin.

Oboli        1cp=    8tp                A copper coin.               

Chalkoi    1tp lowest denomination.        A piece of a copper coin.

Example costs:

Bread(1lbs loaf)    14cp

Wheat    1lbs        13cp    60lb bushels (78sp)

Barley 1lbs        12cp    50lb bushels (60sp)

Lentils    32oz        11cp

Beans    32oz        7cp

Meat 1lbs        14cp

Oil 32oz        35cp

Wine (cheap)        36cp

Wine(good)        94cp

Salt 32oz        11cp

Honey 32oz        16cp

Ale (gallon)        3-7sp

Spices lb        96cp

Tools            12sp

Warhorse        55gp

Cow            542sp

Pig            115sp

Fowl            48cp

Chicken        24cp

Eggs 1doz        24cp

Adult slave        725-1090sp

Adult slave(skilled)    1447-2173sp

Peasant tunic        40sp

Cloak            14sp

Shirt/dress        50sp

Wool clothing        170sp

Fur lined coat        300sp

Leather armour    400sp

Suit of Chainmail    188gp

Suit of Platemail    1186gp

Hand weapon        174sp

Heavy weapon    250sp

Bow            300sp

Longbow        500sp

Wages:

Labourer        6sp/day

Archer            14sp/day

Light Infantry        9sp/day

Mounted archer    29sp/day

Armoured Infantry    29sp/day

Mercenary knight    115sp/day

Knight Bannerman    230sp/day

Master carpenter    14sp/day

Master Mason        19sp/day

Kitchen servant    5cp/day

Page            1cp/day

Honour + Cred + Karma

Instead of alignment, Murderhobo uses Honour, Cred and Karma

Honour is a score kept of how trustworthy a character has been witnessed as being. You could also call it Face, since it is how the outside world perceives the character, not what they really are internally.   When in a difficult situation when telling the truth may be detrimental and the character does so anyways, their honour score goes up.  If they routinely lie, cheat and steal, and get caught, their honour score goes down.   Someone with high honour is more likely to be believed than someone with low honour.  If it gets out that someone murders someone else, they take an honour penalty equal to the honour of the victim.  If it is a betrayal, then penalty is doubled.  If they defeat them in honourable combat, there is no repercussion.

Spending:

    You don’t really spend your Honour.  It is a measure of how the community sees you and fluctuates based on your actions.

Cred is how badass a character is.  IF they perform amazing feats that would impress the locals, their cred score goes up.  Likewise, being coddled, bumbling and screwing up will lower their cred, and people will be less impressed with them.   Cred can be spent in the community, getting favours and freebies without appearing as a mooch (someone with negative cred).  People with negative cred may have people turn them away when they need help, or have shopkeepers suddenly have higher prices.

Spending:

    1 Cred.  Getting someone to do something that they wouldn’t otherwise do.

    2 Cred.  Someone might face consequences if they do it.

    3 Cred.  Someone will face consequences if they do it, or the possible consequences are life threatening.

Karma is measure of one’s standing with the gods.  Psychics can detect one’s karma, it is a tally of deeds done in the name of their faith. Often a DM will keep this score secret if it is used at all.  To have negative karma is a dangerous thing as karmic debt collectors may soon show up.

You can gain Karma by performing actions that align with a deity/spirit’s goals.  Doing things counter to your patron spirit will result in negative karma.

Spending:

    When you have positive Karma, you can spend it 1:1 for successes on a roll.

    When you have negative Karma, you may find your successes going away--A GM can spend your negative karma to foil you.  GM’s shouldn’t get carried away with this, it works best in situations where a failure would lead to an interesting story.  Abusive foiling of player efforts will keep players from wanting to continue worshiping the gods.

A character can have low honour and high cred. These would be dangerous criminals that nobody in their right mind would trust.  Ideally, successful criminals would want high Honour and high Cred.  That way, everyone will take them seriously, it’s also good for business if everyone believes you’ll follow through with what you say you will.  

Magic

Magic is somewhat low key in Murderhobo, and almost never very flashy.  

Priests can exchange karma for successes on rolls, be it healing, attacks, convincing people to do things whatever.  When they are at 0 karma, they have run out of mojo with their gods and must do more good work.  If they do things that furthers their faith while using karma, there’s a chance that it will not cost the priest anything.  Evil priests and witches must spend negative karma to power their mojo.

Magicians have a harder time with things since they rely more on intelligence and wisdom than invoking the spirits.  They can summon creatures by using arcane rites that they discover and have them do their bidding.  This works in a similar way to the priests, except they’re getting lesser creatures to guide their hands.  It costs double Karma because the gods don’t enjoy it when magicians overstep their bounds by doing such things in their own name.  Magicians often specialize in the convince skill to pull off hoaxes, and make the peasants think that they’ve performed amazing feats in order to build up their Cred.

Social Class + Family

In the realm of Murderhobos, this facet of life is often forgotten, but it can be important if a character wishes to live longer than the first or second village they encounter.

You can roll for your social class, or choose if you have a particular concept in mind.

1 Slaves/Serfs    -Peasants bound to a manor working for a Lord.

2 Peasants        -Peasants who labour on farms.  Often uneducated and boorish.

3 Commoner        -Low class, but free.  Not of noble stock, but able to own land.

4 Cottager        -A commoner who owns their cottage, but little to no land.

5 Landholder        -A middle class peasant who owns their cottage and 10-20 acres.

6 Freeman        -A middle class freeman who often knows a trade.

7 Soldier        -Though lower class, they are tied to a Lord in a way that gives them some priviledge and power.

8 Knight        -Lowset of the upperclass. Works on retainer to a Lord.

9 Baronet        -Lowest tier of nobility.  Titles sold to Freemen, but have no say in Court.

10 Baron        -Highest rank that might turn Murderhobo, such a move is scandalous!

Family:

Families are usually a Murderhobo’s best friend.  As long as they don’t disgrace their family, they will offer safe refuge in times of need (and healing!)  this does not cost cred.  Families stick together unless someone is dishonourable.

The lower classes usually have families tied to specific areas.  

Middle class will have their families spread out, as they usually all practice the same trade and multiple specialists are rarely needed in the same area.

Higher Classes have families very spread out, and are usually related to others in high classes.  

The Clergy are somewhat independent of the social classes, but follow their own internal ranks according to their faiths.

Creatures

When making a creature or generic NPC, make them skilled in the area of their purpose and novice in secondary statistics.  IE Bandits would be skilled in fighting. Don’t worry about fully fleshing them out according to player character generation rules, give them skill levels appropriate to the story.

When running enemies, try to make large groups generic with the same skill and equipment for ease of play.  Having several enemies with wildly different abilities will bog down the pace.  Usually a group of mooks should all be cloned and have one or two unique named enemies for spice.

Named characters should be on equal footing, or slightly better than new characters.

Very tough creatures should be given extra HP and/or armour ratings.

Creature name:

Agility:

Perception:

Strength:

Special:

Creature name: Horse

Agility: 1d8

Perception: 3d4

Strength: 4d6

Special: Horses are Masters at running.

Creature name:Goblin

Agility:3d4

Perception:1d8

Strength:1d6

Special: Goblins are small and will attack in packs.  Their equipment is usually shoddy.

Creature name: Orcs

Agility:2d6

Perception:1d12

Strength:3d4

Special:Orcs are aggressive and warlike, but are bullies and often back down from challenges if someone has enough Cred.  Their equipment is often low quality or neglected.

Creature name:Elves

Agility:3d4

Perception:3d4

Strength:1d10

Special:Elves are arrogant and secretive and are weaker than humans.  They claim an innate ability to use magic.

Creature name:Dwarves

Agility:1d10

Perception:2d6

Strength:3d4

Special:Dwarves are stonger but more clumsy than humans.  They are very greedy, but place a high value on honour which tempers that greed.

Creature name: Ogre

Agility:1d6

Perception: 1d6

Strength: 4d6

Special: The smallest of the giants, Ogres are very strong.  Fortunately, they’re not very bright or perceptive and are rather clumsy.  They care nothing for honour, but are easily held in awe of people with great cred.

Creature name:Troll

Agility: 2d6

Perception: 1d8

Strength:4d6

Special:Trolls are able to regenerate, and are often rife with disease which flourishes on their bodies.

Creature name: Dragon

Agility: 1d12

Perception: 3d6

Strength: 5d6 +20HP

Special: Dragons have Armour 5.  Dragons can breathe fire equal to their strength score in units of oil per day.  Dragons are masters of stealth and are skilled at fighting and shooting (breath weapon)

Character Sheet

Name:                Class:            Honour:        Karma:

Origin:                Family:        Cred:    

Agility:        Perception:        Strength:        Intelligence:        Charisma:

                    Hit Points:        Damage Soak:

Skills:

Riding(Ag)(     )   

Crafting (Int)(     )

Swimming(St)(diving(     ), rescuing(     ), holding breath(     ))

Balance(Ag)(     )

Climbing(Ag)(     )   

Running(St)(     )

Fighting (St)(Unarmed[striking(     ), grappling(     )], armed[spears(     ), axes(     ), swords(     ), mace(     ), chain(     ), light(     ), great(     ), mounted(     )])

Shooting (Ag)(muscle[thrown(     ), slings(     )], bows[short(     ), longbow(     )], shouldered[crossbows(     ), rifles(     )])

    Sense(Pr) (Sight(     ), Hearing(     ), Touch(     ), Taste(     ), Smell(     ))

    Pick Locks(Pr)(     )

    Pick Pockets(Ag)(     )

    Sneak(Ag) (Hide(     ), Silent Move(     ))

    Heal(int)(First Aid(   ), Surgery(   ), Long Term Care(   ))

    Heraldry(Chr)(By Kingdom(Province))

    Convince(Chr) (Persuade(     ), Lie(     ), Intimidate(     ), Impersonate(     ), Haggle(     ))

    Codes(Int)(Each codes or cyphers(     ),Code breaking(     ))

    Armour(St)(Light(     ), Medium(      ), Heavy(     ), Shields(     ))

Skill Ratings.                Enemy skill modifier

Unskilled: Roll 2d20H        +1

Novice: 1d20            0

Familiar: 2d20L        -1

Skilled: 3d20L            -2

Expert: 4d20L            -3

Master: 4d20L         -4   (Masters who level up add 1 to their skill for rolls)

    Difficulty track

U3(2d20H-3)-U2(2d20H-2)-U1(2d20H-1)-U(2d20H)-N(1d20)-F(2d20L)-S(3d20L)-E(4d20L)-M(4d20L+1)-M2(4d20L+2)

Games Murderhobo is based on:

Most of this is done from memory but these are the big influences:

Twilight 2013-d20 dice pool system

Recon -Simultaneous combat system

Call of Cthulu - Ticking skills for experience system

Savage Worlds - Mounted combat using lowest of ride or combat skill.