FLAY AND RESKIN: GNOLLS BE BEASTMAN

Now that's badass

Gnolls are stupid. Like kobold-stupid. On the other hand, I am lazy. Like, Italian-lazy. So instead of coming up with a new monster, I will just use the Gnolls stats to represent Beastman in my games from here on. I like to call this process flay and reskin: same old stats, new exciting flavor.

Now, for your edification and enjoyment, I would like to point you to this Wikipedia entry for the Broo, the monsters that inspired the Warhammer Fantasy Beastman:

"Broo or Goatkin are creatures with the body of a man and the head of a goat, or some other animal. Broos are filthy creatures, always carriers of disease. They worship Malia, the Mother of Disease, in addition to their patroness, Thed, the goddess of rape and mother of Chaos. Broo have the ability to mate with any other species, with the child eating its way out of the host at full gestation. The newborn would distribute traits of parent and host. Within Dragon Pass (where most players set their adventures), goats are generally considered ritually unclean animals (perhaps because of their association with Broo) and are rarely herded."

Now that's fucking badass.

SKILLS

I often wonder why D&D always failed in putting together a nice and elegant skill system, especially since the seeds for such system where present in the game since 1974. So I decided to extrapolate the skill system from the LBBs, and merge it to the BX edition (or Labyrinth Lord). You may find this simple little system to work perfectly with Swords & Wizardry, if the universal attribute modifiers house rule is used (see Ability Modifiers moreover).

Categories
There are six categories for skills:

• Breaking doors
• Listening at doors
• Locating mechanical traps
• Locating secret doors
• Hiding
• Surprise

As a general rule, characters succeed at a skill check with a 2 in 6 chance. Since the basic assumption of D&D when it comes to dice is that you better roll high, characters succeed in a skill check if they roll 5 or more on a six-sided die. (From here on, 5+.)

Racial Modifiers
The skill check is modified according to the character race:

• Elves get a +1 at Locating secret doors
• Dwarves get a +1 at Locating mechanical traps
• Halflings get a +1 at Hiding
• Humans get a -1 at Listening at doors

Armor Modifiers
The skill check is modified according the character's armor:

• Chain mail: -1 at Hiding and Surprise, +1 at Breaking Doors
• Plate mail: -2 at Hiding and Surprise, +2 at Breaking Doors

(Optional) Ability Modifiers
Every skill refers to a particular Ability and is modified accordingly:

• Breaking Doors: Strength
• Listening at doors: Wisdom
• Locating mechanical traps: Wisdom
• Locating secret doors: Intelligence
• Hiding: Wisdom
• Surprise: Dexterity

INTRODUCING

Hello. My name is Il Male™ and I'm playing Dungeons & Dragons since I was 8-years old, starting with the 2nd Advanced edition of the game and never really moving on until discovering Labyrinth Lord a few years ago. Since then I played Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, Swords & Wizardry, the original 1974 edition, the 1st Advanced edition, Pathfinder and the 1981 B/X edition. I worked on a few projects, most remarkably the Doomed Wastelands campaign (an "anything goes" science fantasy sandbox game that lasted some 30 sessions or so), the Yaqqothl Grimoire (another science fantasy, more Carcosa/Gamma World oriented sandbox campaign that was played but once), a Middle Earth supplement for OD&D that never saw the light, the OD&D Single Volume publication, and a few megadungeons (the Tower of Zordaz, in which I ran a few G+ hangout games, Castle Vorndrang and the Dungeon of Doom). So yes, I'm yet another DM that always fails his saving throw against GADD. (The so-called Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder, FYI.) And yes, this is yet another blog on some projects that may or may not ever see the light.

In this blog I will collect House Rules and new content in form of random tables, monsters, and treasure for my (hopefully) upcoming campaign set in my yet-to-be-named One Page Dungeon Megadungeon. Such content will be loosely compatible with Labyrinth Lord, at least until I manage to merge the text of the Basic and Expert books from the 1981 edition into some kind of BX Rules Cyclopedia of my own. And that's it.