These Bygone Words (Ritual Magic for GLOG)

One of the most interesting features of Beyond the Wall is its magic system. Specifically, all magic in the game is divided into Cantrips (small and flexible, but risky), Spells (reliable, but limited), and Rituals (big, slow, and with potential side effects). Here is my attempt at adapting the latter for GLOG.

Mechanically, it draws heavily and combines elements from both Sam Sorensen's Ritual Elements in GLOG Magic and Xeno's Ritual Magic rules.

InkYami

What is a Ritual? 

A Ritual is a type of magic separate (but not too dissimilar) from a regular Spell. Rituals are defined by the following:

• They are slow to perform, requiring hours at a time to be completed, making them better suited for periods of downtime. 
• They are big, able to create long-lasting or even permanent effects, or affect a large area.
• They are powerful (which is different from just being big), having a higher [sum] on average and a lesser chance of Mishaps or Dooms if performed with more [dice].

Rituals cannot be performed using MD. Instead, they use Ritual Dice, or RD:

• Unlike MD, RD are d8s, and are always spent upon casting a ritual (since they don't belong to anyone in particular, more on that later).
• Like MD, RD can still cause Mishaps and Dooms*, which affect everyone who takes part in a Ritual.

* personally, I'd recommend using Practitioner's Backfires instead, appropriately scaled up for the Ritual

Note: Since RD are d8s and not d6s, the chance to roll doubles or triples is lower compared to MD. This should make the idea of performing a Ritual with more [dice] more enticing.  

Each Ritual requires certain Components to be performed at 1 RD. It is assumed that all listed Components are consumed by the Ritual unless stated otherwise, in which case the Component will have "(reusable)" next to it.

Additionally, each Ritual requires [dice] hours to be performed, and at least one person to conduct it. While multiple people may take part in a Ritual, only one of them is considered to be the main ritualist.

Note: These rules assume that anyone is able to perform a Ritual as long as they know it and have the required Components, whether they have spellcasting abilities or not. In fact, this can be the only type of magic available in a low-magic setting. On the other side of the spectrum, you may restrict conducting Rituals to only spellcasters, providing them with an extra tool at their disposal outside of MD.

Finally, while Rituals don't accept extra MD like Spells do, their power can be increased by completing certain ritual Preparations. 

Ritual Preparations

 For each of the following that's true, +1/2 RD may be added to the Ritual:

• A ritual participant has spellcaster templates** (+1/2 RD per template, applies for all participants)
• The ritual is conducted on hallowed or desecrated ground (e.g. temple, graveyard)
• The ritual is conducted under the light of a full moon, or the dark of a new moon
• The ritual is conducted at a significant natural landmark (e.g. mountaintop, heart of the forest)
• The ritual is performed as part of an important festival or holy day
• Candles, incense, or other ceremonial fires are lit and maintained around the ritual site
• Glyphs and runes are etched into the floor or drawn in chalk or charcoal
• At least 5 people other than the ritualist are present and take active part in the ritual
• At least 1 slot of silver arcane implements is set up (e.g. bell, dagger, mirror)
• At least 1 slot of mystically significant animal parts is set up (e.g. tiger skin, bat wings, newt eyes)
• At least 1 slot of ritually preserved body parts is set up (e.g. human skull, heart in a jar, severed hand)
• The ritualist dons purpose-made and elaborate ritual garb (e.g. robe, mask, ceremonial paint)

** to account for half-caster classes, let's consider any template that grants +1 MD a spellcaster template 

For each of the following that's true, +1 RD may be added to the Ritual:

• The ritual is conducted during a solstice, equinox, eclipse or other major astronomical event
• The ritual is conducted at a place of power, like a circle of standing stones
• A living animal of mystical significance is present (e.g. white raven, horned hare, three-eyed toad)
• At least one entire skeleton belonging to a human, monster, or large animal is set up
• A truly rare and genuine arcane implement is set up (e.g. crystal ball, scrying mirror, cast iron cauldron)
• At least 1 slot of unique natural material is set up (e.g. chunk of meteoric iron, ancient fossil) 
• At least 20 people other than the ritualist are present and take active part in the ritual
• The name of a powerful being you've established contact with before is invoked, like that of a demonic patron (the being might refuse to contribute unless an agreement is reached first)

Multiples of any specific Preparation don't count unless mentioned explicitly. A single ritual Preparation cannot count for multiple entries (e.g. a skeleton and its skull, a living animal and its parts).

Neither of the above lists is exhaustive and other ways to gain RD may exist in the world.

Conducting a Ritual

Firstly, the ritualist must have access to the Ritual itself, by either having it in written form or by learning it like you would a Spell. In fact, Rituals can be found in most places you'd expect to find a Spell, like dusty old grimoires and ancient clay tablets.

Then, all required Components must be gathered and desired Preparations made to determine the number of available RD (rounded down). It should then be decided how the available RD will be used.

Instead of adding RD directly to the Ritual, you may instead do the following per 1 RD left unused:

• Stabilize the Ritual, ignoring 1 potential Mishap (but never a Doom)
• Decrease the time required to perform the Ritual by 1 hour (to a minimum of 1 hour)

At last, once the Ritual is completed, all added RD are rolled like you would roll MD, determining [dice] and [sum] and causing Mishaps on doubles and Dooms on triples as usual.

If a Ritual is interrupted before completion, it harmlessly fizzles out, its Components still consumed. 

*** 

sarcoma 

Example Rituals

All of the below Rituals are adapted from Beyond the Wall.

Mage Armor
Components: blood of one tortoise, [dice] * 5 silver coins.
Protective runes are drawn upon a willing target's skin in tortoise blood and molten silver coins are poured on it, harmlessly evaporating into smoke upon contact. While the target remains unarmored, it has +[dice] * 2 AC for 1 month or until it takes [sum] total damage, whichever comes first.  

Gather Mists
Components: incense, the tail feather of a bird of prey.
As the incense is burned, the ritualist chants and performs elaborate gestures, completing the ritual by swallowing the feather. After that, dense, billowing fog rolls into the area of a [dice] mile radius centered at the ritual site. The mist obscures the vision of anyone caught inside, preventing them from seeing further than an arm's reach. This mist lasts for [sum] hours and is unaffected by weather.

Goodberry
Components: [dice]d4 fresh berries, pure spring water, unused leather pouch stitched by the ritualist.
The ritualist imbues the berries with powerful curative magic by washing them with pure water and storing them in the leather pouch. Anyone who eats one immediately heals 1 HP. If left uneaten, the berries spoil after [sum] days.

Staff of Might
Components: an ordinary cudgel/staff/walking stick, a length of oak, ram horn, mortar and pestle (reusable).
The ritualist crushes the horn with mortar and pestle, sprinkles the dust onto the provided piece of wooden equipment, blessing it with names of power. Then, a length of oak is burned, the smoke imbuing the weapon with the tree's strength. 

For the next [sum] days, the weapon gains a +[dice] to-hit, deals +1 damage, and counts as magical for all intents and purposes.

Steed of the Sorcerer
Components: never-before-used harness and saddle of black leather.
The ritualist repeatedly utters the name of the steed, beckoning it. At the end of the ritual, a ghostly 3 HD horse with a black coat and eyes like fire arrives at the ritual site, and is then equipped with the harness and saddle. 

The steed is faster than any ordinary horse, moves in complete silence, and is utterly fearless and loyal to the ritualist, allowing no other to ride it. It fades into the mist together with its harness and saddle after [dice] days or if it's brought to 0 HP, whichever comes first.

Unseen Servant
Components: a piece of wood/bundle of sticks/straw, pure spring water, ritual knife (reusable).
The ritualist crafts a small humanoid figure out of the provided material, etches runes into it with a knife, and then plunges it in pure spring water. Finally, the figure is consigned to the fire, and the servant is summoned. 

An unseen servant is an invisible and incorporeal spirit that mindlessly obeys the ritualist. It can lift and carry up to [dice] slots, open doors, and do simple menial tasks like cleaning. It cannot fight or move more than [sum] * 5 feet away from the ritualist, and disappears after [dice] days.

 

8 Thieves from Beyond the Wall

More Beyond the Wall playbooks converted into Archetypes, this time focusing on the Thieves (or Rogues, as they are called in Beyond the Wall, although Specialist would suit some of them much better). 

These ones are intended for Vayra's Ultimate Thief, but should be compatible with niosis' Hunter as well.

Ben McEntee

1. Adventurous Trader
Starting Equipment: nice clothes (+1 reaction), crossbow (heavy), stiletto (light), merchant's scales, ledger and writing supplies, 200 silvers' worth of common trade goods, cart drawn by a mule (1 HD). 
Skill: Haggling
Benefit: You have 2 extra inventory slots. Items stored in these slots are perfectly concealed on you. In addition, you usually can tell what it would take to bribe a guard or official. 
Drawback: You owe 1d6 × 1000 silvers to a powerful and dangerous lender. They expect regular payments of 10% each week, and if you fall behind, they'll send collectors. Or worse.

Note: Ultimate Thief already has Hidden Pockets as a template ability, but I usually remove it as I prefer the class to be on the lighter side, especially combined with an Archetype.
    
2. Untested Thief
Starting Equipment: dark clothing, blackjack (light), forearm dagger (light), boot knife (light), set of lockpicks, rough rope (10m) with grappling hook, chalk. 
Skill: Streetwise
Benefit: You are proficient in thieves' cant, a secret language of symbols, signs, and coded speech used by criminals. This allows you to disguise anything you say as mundane conversation, identify fellow thieves, and leave and recognize hidden marks and warnings of the criminal underworld. 
Drawback: Your first job went bad and you were made the scapegoat of a crime you may or may not have committed. When you arrive at a settlement, there's a chance the local authorities have your description: 1-in-6 in villages, 2-in-6 in towns, and 3-in-6 in big cities and capitals.
    
3. Local Performer
Starting Equipment: colorful clothes (+1 reaction), shortsword (medium), musical instrument of your choice, hat with a feather, make-up kit, small mirror, deck of cards. 
Skill: Performance (specify type)
Benefit: When you perform, you can captivate listeners within earshot for up to [templates × 10] minutes, causing them to ignore most other things. If you work your recent adventures or some gossip into the performance, people in nearby settlements will have heard about it within a week. 
Drawback: You crave the spotlight. Whenever there's an opportunity to perform or someone asks you to, you must save to resist, even when it's dangerous, inconvenient, or would blow your cover.
    
4. Dungeon Delver
Starting Equipment: scavenged armor (+2 AC), war pick (medium), bullwhip (light), 3-meter pole, shovel, oil lantern, thick sturdy rope (20m). 
Skill: Architecture
Benefit: You are utterly at home in dungeons and ruins, and suffer no combat penalties from rough terrain, cramped spaces, or dim light. By knocking on a wall, you can tell if there is an open space or any hazards behind it, like water, creatures, mechanisms built into the wall etc. 
Drawback: After your time spent underground, the open sky feels vast and oppressive. When fighting outdoors with no cover above your head, you always act last in the initiative order.
    
5. Young Woodsman
Starting Equipment: hard leather vest (+2 AC), trusty hatchet (medium), whittling knife (light), 1d4 jaw traps, hooded cloak, net big enough for a large boar. 
Skill: Trapping
Benefit: While in the wilderness, you can spend 10 minutes to camouflage yourself, another person, or an object (most likely a trap) in dirt, mud, and surrounding foliage. Camouflaged targets are functionally invisible in the current environment as long as they're not moving. 
Drawback: You have -2 reaction with predatory animals like bears and wolves, as they recognize you as potential competition. In combat, such beasts will prioritize attacking you.
    
6. Gifted Dilettante
Starting Equipment: fine clothes (+1 reaction), cane-sword (medium), letter opener (light), 1d6 books on random topics, golden pocket watch, writing supplies, a winning smile. 
Skill: Etiquette
Benefit: You can read and write at triple speed. When faced with a task requiring a specific skill or knowledge, there is a [templates]-in-6 chance that you recall enough from your studies to act as if you have that skill (for this instance only) or know the relevant factoid. 
Drawback: Most things come naturally to you, until they don't. You must save to ask for help, admit your ignorance, or let someone else take the lead, even when it's clearly the wisest choice.
    
7. Learned Tutor
Starting Equipment: scholarly robes, walking stick (medium), ornate dagger (light), reference tome, educational charts and diagrams, smoking pipe, heirloom memento. 
Skill: Logic
Benefit:  You can teach any skill you know (including its special ability) to up to [templates] people during a rest. Each following day, they must save or forget it. Additionally, by spending 10 minutes examining something, you uncover one useful fact about it, but only once per target. 
Drawback: When you encounter a new curiosity, like an inscription, device, creature, or some other mystery, you must save or waste 10 minutes fussing over it. This doesn't activate your Benefit.
    
8. Assistant Beast Keeper
Starting Equipment: leather apron, wide-brimmed hat, shepherd's crook (medium), skinning knife (light), sack of animal feed, comb and shears, loyal beast of your choosing (1 HD). 
Skill: Animal Ken
Benefit: Animals will never attack you unless you provoke them first. You can pacify an angry, scared, or hostile animal with a touch on a [templates]-in-6 chance, and command a pacified animal to perform a non-dangerous action on another [templates]-in-6 chance.
Drawback: You smell like the barn, which most folk find unpleasant and which tends to betray your presence, making hiding difficult. If you manage to wash the stench off or mask it with perfume, you lose your Benefit until it returns to you.

*** 

Bonus!  

Since Ultimate Thief's skills are mainly suited for a real rat bastard, which is not exactly the vibe for Beyond the Wall, I've expanded the original list to a d30 and added some new, mostly wholesome skills into the mix. Most of them are adapted from Lexi's Scholar and Gokun's Craftsman (for those in the know).

1d10 (more) Thief Skills

1. Stealth
   You can do loud things (running, fighting, breaking stuff) very quietly, and do quiet things (walking, climbing, pulling a knife, rummaging around in a backpack) in absolute silence.
   
   Note: This is just Ultimate Thief's capstone turned into a skill, since I had a different capstone for it in mind. There are only 9 actually new skills, sorry for false advertising 😔
   
   
2. Astronomy
   When in view of the night sky, you can navigate by stars, accurately forecast weather for a week, and make predictions about the future (receiving one accurate, but cryptic detail on a 1-in-6 chance).
   
   
3. Physiology
   Gain a second save against disease. With 10 minutes of examination, you can determine all mundane ailments a living body is suffering from or the exact cause of death of a dead one.
   
   
4. Art
   You have perfect visual recall, and never forget faces, scenes, symbols etc. With proper materials and an hour of work, you can reproduce anything you've seen in a lifelike painting.
   
   
5. Esoterica
   You can read magical scripts and identify whether a specific item or phenomenon is magical in nature, with a 2-in-6 chance to accurately determine the exact magical effect.
   
   
6. Escape Artistry
   You can undo any knot and slip out of shackles and other bindings. Your body is able to contort through any hole no smaller than your head.
   
   
7. Law
   You can write legally-binding contracts, and slip hidden clauses into them with a 3-in-6 chance (causing unintended loopholes on a failure). You also have a 2-in-6 chance to argue someone out of legal charges.
   
   
8. Gambling
   When playing games of chance, you can choose to cheat by rolling twice and picking which result to use. You have a 4-in-6 chance to spot when someone is bluffing or cheating, in or out of the game.
   
   
9. Theology
   By looking into someone's eyes, you can tell if they are burdened by shame, guilt, sin, or true devotion. You count as an ordained cleric for the purposes of officiating marriages and funeral rites.
   
   
10. Mathematics
    You can estimate distance, weight, trajectory, and time with unsettling precision. You may automatically catch anything thrown to you, or snatch projectiles out of thin air that were aimed at you but missed.
    
    

8 Fighters from Beyond the Wall

I feel that Beyond the Wall is treated by the OSR community very similarly to how Hellboy comics are treated by the comic community: whenever it gets brought up, people's thoughts on it usually range from "it's pretty good" to "one of my favorite things ever", but subsequent discussion rarely lasts beyond that.

Because of that, as someone who considers Beyond the Wall their OSR system of choice, I was quite excited to learn that Vivanter of Mediums and Messages decided to try it out. Even though the system ended up not quite working for him, the resulting overview (which I found to be quite agreeable for the most part) made me reconsider my own issues with the game. 

Inspired by Vivanter's playbook conversions, I decided to try something similar and convert 8 select playbooks into Archetypes for Vayra's Ultimate Fighter, although they would probably work just as fine for niosis' Warrior too.

As is tradition, most of the mechanics were shamelessly stolen from other, much more talented people.

Ben McEntee

1. Would-Be Knight
Starting Equipment: chainmail and tabard (+4 AC), shield (+1 AC), arming sword (medium), fine rope (20 m), silver flask, your own horse (2 HD). 
Skill: Heraldry
Benefit: When you challenge someone to single combat, they must save or be compelled to accept. Once the combat starts, they will continue to fight you until one of you yields, falls, or if someone else intervenes. 
Drawback: You must follow a code of honor. You are forbidden from attacking helpless foes, breaking your word, refusing combat challenges, and using underhanded tactics like poison. If you violate the code, you lose all Fighter templates until you complete an act of penance.
    
2. Last of a Fallen House
Starting Equipment: nobleman's clothes (+1 reaction), rapier (medium), parrying dagger (light), bottle of expensive wine, threadworn but kingly cloak, signet ring with your House's sigil. 
Skill: Leadership 
Benefit: When unarmored, you add [templates × 2] to your AC, representing your poise and graceful footwork. If you're hobbled, humiliated, or visibly disheveled, you lose this benefit until you restore your composure and appearance. 
Drawback: If someone slights or insults your noble standing, your House's legacy, or you personally, you must save to resist violently lashing out in response.
    
3. New Watchman
Starting Equipment: gambeson (+2 AC), spear (medium), bow (medium), loud horn, hooded lantern, iron keyring with unlabeled keys, loyal watchdog (1 HD). 
Skill: Alertness 
Benefit: You cannot be ambushed, meaning that you always get to act during a surprise round. Additionally, you add [templates] to your initiative rolls. 
Drawback: You suffer -2 reaction with thieves, con artists, and other criminal types, and they instinctively distrust you. If you speak while disguised, you always betray your identity somehow.
    
4. Village Hero
Starting Equipment: patchwork leathers (+2 AC), sturdiest shield in the village (+2 AC), hardy club (medium), simple knife (light), lucky trophy from the threat you defeated, gnarly scar. 
Skill: Folklore 
Benefit: You have +2 reaction with peasants and other commoners, and can easily find food, shelter, or information in any village you visit. In addition, you are immune to fear. 
Drawback: The threat you once defeated survived, and is now your nemesis. Determine with your GM who or what it is. At the worst possible moment, your nemesis will return to finish the job, heralded only by the aching of your scar.
    
5. Retired Veteran
Starting Equipment: worn brigandine (+4 AC), notched halberd (heavy), old dagger (light), waterskin, set of 10 iron spikes, really good boots, faded sash with your company's colors, old wounds. 
Skill: Tactics 
Benefit: Whenever you arrive at a new place, there is a 3-in-6 chance you've visited it in the past. If you have, the GM will tell you three things you remember about it: one danger to watch out for, one point of interest, and one useful old contact that's not necessarily friendly. 
Drawback: Your old wounds slow you down, halving your effective movement. You can push yourself to move at full speed for one round, but take 1 nonlethal damage as your wounds act up.
    
6. Failed Ranger
Starting Equipment: waxed hide (+2 AC), longbow (heavy), hunting knife (light), heavy cloak, flint and tinder, bird call whistle, tarnished mark of your order. 
Skill: Hunting 
Benefit: While in untamed wilderness, you can forage enough food for up to [templates] people and track trails left by creatures up to [templates] days ago without fail. 
Drawback: You abandoned the safety of hearth and home and grew too accustomed to the wild. You gain no rest benefits when resting in civilized places such as towns, villages, or inns.
    
7. Lost Barbarian
Starting Equipment: fur garb (+2 AC), blade of unseen make (medium), bow of unseen make (medium), bottle of alcohol unique to your culture (intoxicating to any constitution), token of your home. 
Skill: Survival 
Benefit: You have devised a patchwork tongue of words and phrases borrowed from many cultures and people you have encountered. When you speak it to someone, there is a 2-in-6 chance they still grasp your meaning. This also applies to animals. 
Drawback: You suffer -2 reaction with nobles and other city-dwellers, as your foreign ways scare and confuse them. There is a 2-in-6 chance any paid service will refuse you, unless you pay double.
    
8. Nobleman's Wild Daughter
Starting Equipment: oversized chainmail (+4 AC), heirloom greatsword (heavy), concealed dagger (light), stashed dress, vial of perfume, handkerchief embroidered with your family crest, personal journal. 
Skill: History 
Benefit: When you hear someone voice doubt in your abilities or dismiss you for your birth, you gain advantage on rolls made to prove them wrong. This also applies to attack rolls against them. 
Drawback: You are being pursued by 1d4 scorned suitors who sought to marry into your family. Whenever you invoke your family name or are recognized as nobility while in a settlement, there is a 3-in-6 chance one of them tracks you down within a day.

 

GLOGllow Knight: Build-a-Bug

This is a part 2 of my personal attempt to make a TTRPG suitable for the world of Hollow Knight.

In addition to just dry rules text, I will also be providing some designer commentary for specific parts, which will be done in red text like so. I also went back and added commentary to part 1 of the series, so check it out even if you have already read it and especially if you haven't.

In this one, we'll continue exploring character creation and do a deep dive into the Trait system.

Sinsin

HKRPG: Bug Bones Edition

Traits
There are many different species of bugs, all of which have their own unique Traits that define them.

Like I mentioned in part 1, the idea of not using a set list of species came up extremely early in the development of the original Hollow Knight RPG, pretty much before the actual development had even begun. While there are explicitly named species of bugs in Hollow Knight (snails, bees, mantises), the majority of the characters you encounter in the game only have a passing resemblance to real-life insects, and even the ones that are named are heavily anthropomorphized.

Instead of restricting players to select few species, we decided it would be much more appropriate and "OC-friendly" (which we considered to be a big draw of the system) if the theoretical representation of any potential bug species could be made quite literally out of insect parts. Those parts ended up being called Traits.

Unfortunately, the end product ended up being more flawed than I expected. Physical Traits like Mandibles and Pincers, used to represent the actual anatomy, had to battle for attention with mental Traits, like Civilized or Feral (which probably shouldn't have been a Trait in the first place). However, the worst mistake was making Attribute Increases into Traits.

Traits had two limiting factors: the bug's Hunger score (the more Traits you had, the more food you had to eat every day) and the hard limit of 7 Traits max. In most cases, for most characters, Attribute Traits ended up being simply too good not to take, so they started taking up real estate that could've been used for more interesting and flavorful options. Worst of all, PCs of players who didn't take an Attribute Trait ended up being visibly weaker that the PCs of those who did. All in all, taking an attribute Trait was essentially mandatory, and not taking one was a trap option that wasn't always clear to a new player.

Pick 1 to 3 Traits from the following list for your bug. If you pick less than 3, you gain an extra skill rank for every Trait you skipped.

The original Trait system had Traits with different Hunger costs (essentially point-buy). Something as powerful as Flight would cost 4 Hunger, while Luminous, the ability to emit light akin to a firefly's, would only cost 1, and a drawback Trait like Carnivore (which prevented the PC from eating plant matter) would cost -4 Hunger, providing more points to pick pricier Traits with.

In addition, some Traits also had sub-Traits, which modified their parent Traits and could be taken at an extra cost, but didn't count towards the 7 Trait limit. For example, the 1 Hunger Camouflage Trait had a much pricier 3 Hunger sub-Trait called Active Camouflage, allowing the bug to adapt their natural camouflage to the current environment instead of being limited to a single one.

Now, combine this with the fact that we had over 100 Traits to pick from and you can see how this could create confusion and choice paralysis in a new player. A part of it was fun, sure, but ultimately it lead to players treating their characters less like characters and more like (eugh) builds.

So, in order to address my issues with the original system, I decided on the following:

• Traits will be used to represent specific, mostly physical insect qualities of the whole species and not of a particular character (i.e. no more attribute increases or mental Traits).
• The Trait limit will be significantly lowered to avoid players creating total monstrosities, ensuring that any potential combination of Traits could plausibly represent a character in the world of Hollow Knight (less choices, more impactful choices).
• There will be no negative Traits.
• There will be no differently priced Traits, each Trait should be as desirable as any other Trait (very much echoing Arnold's sentiment about incomparables).
• Each Trait should strive to be equally useful to most PCs, no matter their Size, Skills, Path ranks or any other chosen building blocks (again, echoing Arnold). 

(Note: as an artist, I tend to think design-first of potential characters, and believe that drawing a bug first and THEN trying to represent that drawing with Traits is the best approach to making PCs in this game).

Boiling down 100+ Traits to only 36 was very much an iterative process, which you can tell by my Miro board:

Most of the initial list of Traits

 

Second iteration, note some of the more sauceless/niche Traits being put to the side

 

 

 

And here's the final Trait list (or, "final" until I decide that I actually dislike some of them, that is):

• 11. Acid Spit – You can spit globs of boiling acid at your enemies. This is a 1Q light ranged (4″) weapon that ignores all DR.
• 12. Ancient Blood – Lifeblood courses through your veins. As a major action, you may heal another bug by feeding it your blood. Spend HD and restore [sum] Hearts to it, while taking [sum]/2 (rounded up) damage yourself.
• 13. Aquatic – Your body is especially adapted for living underwater. You may breathe water and swim at full Speed.
• 14. Bloodsucker – You may feed on the blood of other bugs. 1 HD worth of fresh blood counts as a ration for you, and your bite is a 1Q light weapon that heals 1 Heart when you deal damage. If your bite is already a weapon, it becomes medium and gains that ability.
• 15. Burrower – You can burrow through loose earth and other soft materials at half Speed. In addition, you also have 6″ of tremorsense to help you navigate.
• 16. Camouflage – Your appearance allows you to blend in in a certain natural environment (pick one at the start), granting Advantage to any stealth rolls as long as you stand still. You may also gain 1 Fatigue to adapt to the natural environment you’re currently in.

Ancient Blood might be the only Trait in the list that is truly Hollow Knight-specific, the rest are much more generic.

• 21. Climbing – You can crawl across walls and ceilings at full Speed, as if you were walking on the ground. If you're interrupted while climbing, you must make a GRACE roll or fall.
• 22. Darkvision – Your eyes pierce the darkness, allowing you to see when there is no light. However, they glow faintly, making you stand out against the shadows.
• 23. Extra Arms – You have an additional pair of arms to hold things with, with all that entails.
• 24. Extra Legs – You have more than one pair of legs, which provide you superior stability. You ignore difficult terrain and cannot be forcibly moved against your will.
• 25. Flight – You can take to the air for up to 10 minutes at the cost of 1 Fatigue. However, if you're disrupted mid-flight, you must make a GRACE roll or fall.
• 26. Fluffy Coat – Your fluff is especially thick and insulating, allowing you to suffer no negative consequences from extreme temperatures. Additionally, you can stash up to 1 Slot of items within your fluff.

My attempt at "balancing" Darkvision was by introducing a drawback in the form of glowing eyes, which also matches nicely with some the character designs in Hollow Knight.

Since I decided to remove Trait prices, one of the challenges was making sure that the Traits are roughly equally interesting and somewhat comparable in perceived power (although I doubt I really achieved that here). Usually game-breaking Flight was thus changed to not only cost Fatigue (I stole that from someone's blogpost that had a birdfolk race that could fly at the cost of a ration, but I can't seem to find which blog it was, so please let me know if you know!), but also to last for the equivalent of a dungeon turn.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some flavorful, but less exciting Trait options, like Fluffy Coat, were given an extra mechanical benefit to balance things out.  

• 31. Hibernation – At will, you can slow your bodily functions to a near-death state, allowing you to convincingly appear dead. While in this state, you require no sustenance as long as you remain still.
• 32. Horn – You have an imposing horn (or multiple) to charge with. It is a 1Q heavy weapon that attacks with Disadvantage unless used after moving.
• 33. Iron Guts – You can consume rotten food, and venoms and poisons affect you like alcohol – intoxicating but otherwise harmless.
• 34. Leaping – Your powerful legs allow you to jump a distance up to your full Speed.
• 35. Luminous – You can emit a steady glow, illuminating a 4″ radius around you at will.
• 36. Mandibles – Your bite is a 1Q light weapon that inflicts venom (roll MIGHT (2) or move at half Speed for 1 round).

Like with Fluffy Coat, Hibernation needed an extra benefit to justify taking it, so it also became the Play Dead Trait. I'm actually kinda proud of this one!

Iron Guts seems like a more interesting and fun take on poison resistance/immunity, if you ask me.

• 41. Molting – You can painlessly detach your limbs. When you spend HD to heal, you molt, regrowing all missing limbs and leaving a hollow exoskeleton behind.
• 42. Obscuring Cloud – As a major action, for 1 Fatigue you can release a static cloud of dense particles around yourself with a 2″ radius, making it difficult to see through.
• 43. Panoramic Vision – The construction of your eyes grants you 360-degree vision and the ability to see twice as far as most bugs. You are also immune to being ambushed, and may act as usual during a surprise round.
• 44. Pheromones – You release subtle chemical signals that those around you can sense. You gain +1 to reaction rolls and can send simple, wordless messages to nearby bugs.
• 45. Pincers – You have powerful pincers instead of hands. Each pincer is a 1Q medium weapon that ignores 1 point of DR. However, you suffer Disadvantage on rolls requiring fine manipulation.
• 46. Poisonous – You are poisonous. Any creature that makes direct contact with you on a successful attack is afflicted with a poison (roll MIGHT (2) or lose 1 MIGHT for a day). Most wild predators will avoid attacking you if possible.

Note how Panoramic Vision has a pretty generic name instead of being a specific insect part. Naming it something like Compound Eyes would mean that a character that would have compound eyes now MUST take this Trait to be properly represented, which is a pretty big choice considering the amount of Traits you get. A more generic name means that it could represent not only compound eyes, but also something like eyestalks, without requiring separate Traits for each, while characters who don't have the Trait could still have those body parts as flavor.

(This is the same reason why Flight is not called Wings, by the way.) 

As for Obscuring Cloud, I decided that most of the active Traits should cost Fatigue (which takes up an inventory slot) instead being limited to X/day like they usually are in OSR games. This seemed like a more organic approach, and would let more "bestial" characters that don't use bulky armor or weapons to benefit from them more.

• 51. Prehensile Tongue – You have a long, flexible tongue that can extend up to 4 inches to grab objects. In combat, it's a 1Q medium reach weapon.
• 52. Proboscis – Your proboscis is especially sharp. Your bite is a 1Q light weapon that counts as being in your hand for the purposes of dual-wielding.
• 53. Scent – Your sense of smell is exceptionally sharp. After meeting a bug, you can recognize their scent and track where they’ve been, as well as detect their presence on objects or other creatures.
• 54. Scythe Arms – You have sharp blades instead of hands. Each scythe is a 1Q medium weapon that can be used as a shield for Parries, but you suffer Disadvantage on rolls requiring fine manipulation.
• 55. Slime Trail – As a minor action, you can move up to your Speed while secreting a trail of sticky slime (difficult terrain) wherever you step for 1 Fatigue.
• 56. Song – You communicate through high-pitched sounds that carry over long distances. Only bugs who have been taught your song can understand its meaning.

Prehensile Tongue is more "frog" than "bug", but at this point I was running out of new Trait ideas to fill out all 36 of them.

• 61. Spinneret – As a major action, you can produce 6″ of silk rope or cover a 2×2″ area with sticky webs (difficult terrain) for 1 Fatigue.
• 62. Squishy – Your body is soft and flexible, allowing you to squeeze through gaps as small as an average bug’s head.
• 63. Tough Shell – Your shell is especially tough, providing 1 DR. However, this doesn’t stack with armor, and armor you would still choose to wear must be tailored to your shell.
• 64. Venomous Stinger – You have a stinger. It is a 1Q medium weapon that inflicts the target with venom (roll MIGHT (2) or get staggered, only being able to make one action next round).
• 65. Vocal Mimicry – You can perfectly mimic the voices of bugs you’ve heard before, as well as other sounds.
• 66. Water Treading – You can walk across the surface of water at full Speed as easily as walking on solid ground.

Example Bug Species

I potentially might expand this list in the future, but for now the idea was to showcase that you could represent pretty much any insect you want with only two Traits, potentially taking a third one if you wish. 

• Bee: Flight, Venomous Stinger
• Snail: Tough Shell, Slime Trail
• Beetle: Tough Shell, Horn
• Mantis: Scythe Arms, Climbing
• Spider: Spinneret, Climbing
• Moth: Flight, Fluffy Coat
• Flea: Bloodsucker, Leaping
• Crab: Pincers, Aquatic
• Ant: Pheromones, Scent
• Cicada: Burrower, Hibernation

 

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In the next part, I'll show my take on character advancement and explain the supposed gameplay loop of the system.

If I manage to do that before disappearing forever into the Silksong mines, that is.

GLOGllow Knight: Prelude and Core Rules

Considering that Silksong is coming to us in a week or so, I think this would be a good time to talk about a related project of mine.

But first, a little context is needed.

Let's talk about the Unofficial Hollow Knight RPG 

In the distant year of 2018, a thread appeared on 4chan's /tg/ board discussing a potential TTRPG based in the world of Hollow Knight (a Metroidvania set in a dying kingdom of bugs released the year before). Theory was crafted, worlds were built, art was drawn, many aspects of this theoretical game decided seemingly unanimously early on (let's make the players build their bugs out of parts instead of having a set number of playable species, let's have dice pools because they're fun to roll etc.). Seeing the traction the idea has gained, the OP decided to coordinate the efforts further and made a Discord server, which some of the chucklefucks in the thread actually joined.

I was one of those chucklefucks.

In the less distant year of 2021, after some years of productive discussion mixed with less than productive bickering, old people leaving, new people joining, and games that were supposed to be playtests turning out to be sprawling campaigns lasting for actual years, the process of constant unorganized changes to the ruleset came to a halt. Noticing that loss of momentum, one of the project members (and you could certainly call it a project by now) decided to take matters into their own hands and assemble the raw, unedited google doc containing all of the core rules together with some of the original art produced during that time and assemble something resembling a proper rulebook (or a "Pretty PDF", as it has been known internally).

I was thi- eh you get the idea. In the following two weeks, I forced myself to learn the bare minimum of layout that could be applied to a Google Doc and began working on the rulebook. Then I decided to do some basic marketing, made a post on Reddit and set up an itch.io page.

In conclusion, the result was this: The Unofficial Hollow Knight RPG.

Azor of Branchaven, the one PC I actually got to play for non-insignificant amount of time

Why?

Some personal grief that I had at the moment aside, my primary motivation for actually getting the game out was to get as many eyes on it as possible, and make sure none of our efforts were in vain.

Because, honestly, I didn't really like the final product much.

Yes, there were good ideas here and there, and the resulting system I would call at least "okay" in terms of quality and playability, but ultimately, I had too many grievances with it. 

Character creation (aka "Build-a-Bug", aka everyone's favorite part of the system) used what essentially is a point-buy system, except the points spent determined the amount of food the bug required to consume every day, which in practice turned out to be way too GM fiat-dependent. Combat used an Action Point-like Stamina system, which, combined with active defense, made single turns last for way too long, and a basic attack action could require 2-3 rolls to resolve (attack roll - defense roll - soak roll). We also provided virtually no GM support, which meant that NPCs had to function by player rules, which bogged down the flow of combat even further. Absorption, one of the mechanics, used modulo for Christ's sake.

So, as I was working on the layout and making Reddit posts and setting up the public Discord server, I figured that my best chance to eventually fix all the problems that I had was to make the game as visible as possible, in the hopes that someone, sometime in the future will find the system, recognize its issues, and make something better while being inspired by it. I wanted to fling a light into the future, so to speak.

(For context, almost none of my grievances were with the other people who worked on the system. In fact, I consider most of them to be my good friends to this very day, and they were the exact people I watched the Silksong release announcement with a mere week ago.)

Did my idea work out? Not really, there was a hack of the system by a fellow team member (which happened to not align with my personal tastes even further), and some occasional house rules proposed by players to fix some of the more glaring issues, but ultimately, nothing that would really appeal to me.

The idea of "fixing" HKRPG never really left me. Over the years, I tried many times to formulate my own changes, or even make everything from scratch, but I would always stumble upon some problem I didn't have an answer ready.

But I think my last attempt is the furthest I've gotten yet.

A leech witchdoctor, a leechdoctor if you will

GLOGllow Knight

During the development of HKRPG I got really into the OSR and soon was consuming blogposts and reading heartbreakers left and right. I don't remember the exact time I stumbled onto GLOG, but soon I began absorbing that content as well.

This heavily informed all my future game design and TTRPG-related decisions, now that I actually knew what I liked in TTRPGs. Funnily enough, HKRPG had already experienced some form of convergent evolution with GLOG: while GLOG had classes consisting of 4 templates, HKRPG had "paths" with 3 "ranks" each,  the main difference being that the maximum number of path ranks a PC could have was 6, with "multiclassing" being encouraged and expected (which seems to be the reverse expectation for GLOG).

Naturally, my attempts to make a Hollow Knight TTRPG myself over time warped to be more and more OSR-esque and GLOG-like, to the point where I consider the latest one to be essentially a honorary GLOGhack. Still, I try to preserve the elements of HKRPG that I found to be important to the experience, like the d6 dice pools and the "build-a-bug" character creation.

While some of the things are still WiP, here are the core rules.

Edit: After some thinking, I decided that simply posting the rules is not that interesting, so I will also try to accompany them with some designer commentary, which will look like this.

Theo the Mantis, one of the first PCs ever made for HKRPG

HKRPG: Bug Bones Edition

Base Stats 
Pick one of the following stat arrays:
[1, 2, 2, 4]    [1, 2, 3, 3]    [2, 2, 2, 3]

Then, assign each of the numbers to a stat: 

• MIGHT: Toughness, strength, and brawn. Roll MIGHT to break doors, move boulders, resist illness, etcetera. MIGHT applies to Hearts, melee attacks and Inventory Slots. 
• GRACE: Agility, coordination, and reflexes. Roll GRACE to jump, roll, tumble, sneak, pick pockets, and perform other delicate tasks. GRACE applies to ranged and melee attacks. 
• CRAFT: Skill, ingenuity, and expertise. Roll CRAFT to forge, mend, cook, pick locks, and perform skilled labor. CRAFT applies to starting Skills and Inventory Slots. 
• SENSE: Perception, intuition, and knowledge. Roll SENSE to search, identify, recall information, keep your cool, and read emotions. SENSE applies to initiative and ranged attacks.

Original HKRPG had Shell and Insight instead of CRAFT and SENSE. 

Shell was the CON equivalent, and you would roll it whenever you'd take damage to lower the damage by the amount of successes (the infamous "soak" roll). If you think "wow, that's a lot of rolling, surely you could replace it with a flat damage reduction instead", you're totally right! Combine this with the fact that high Shell was way too useful in combat, but virtually useless outside of it, and you can see why it was one of the first features on the chopping block.

Insight had a bit of the opposite problem, being the single mental attribute, which meant that almost every single skill roll was done using Insight. I decided to split it into CRAFT and SENSE instead. 

The final attribute spread was heavily influenced by Anne's post on Ability Scores (MIGHT is physical force, GRACE is physical grace, CRAFT is mental attack, SENSE is mental defense) and Dan's Lighthouse post, which mentions the "Tough / Fast / Booksmart / Emotional Intelligence quartet".

Oh yeah, and OF COURSE each attribute must be exactly 5 letters long. For reasons. 

Other Stats

• Hearts: Represent a bug’s vigor and will to live. Bugs start with 6 + MIGHT Hearts. 
• Heart Dice (HD): Represent a bug’s natural healing capabilities. HD are used to heal Hearts. Bugs start with 1 Heart Die.
• Soul Dice (SD): Represents a bug’s spiritual power. SD are used to power Spells and Weapon Arts. Bugs start with 2 Soul Dice.
• Speed: Measured in inches (1 inch is equivalent to 5 feet in games with human-sized creatures). 
• Bugs start with a Speed of 6″. 
• Inventory Slots: Represent the bug’s carrying capacity. Bugs start with 5 + (highest of MIGHT/CRAFT) Slots.

In HKRPG, like in the original game, Soul was used to heal damage. While this wasn't really an issue back then, I decided to make Weapon Arts cost Soul as well (which originally only required Stamina), and now using Soul for healing had to compete with using Soul for cool shit like Arts and Spells.

The less exciting choice being the more useful one doesn't seem like great design to me. Don't you want the players to actually USE their cool abilities? So, I delegated healing to HD instead, which, as a consequence, also gave me a new resource to play around with.

Now, if you didn't notice, this game uses inches instead of the more traditional feet. There's been a lot of discussion in the Hollow Knight community on whether the bugs in the game are supposed to be bug-sized or human-sized, but personally, I don't really care about it that much. In my opinion, while Hollow Knight is somber and beautiful, it can also be quite silly at times. Those are bugs! They call swords "nails"! I think it's fun to imagine that, if you're using a battle mat, the things are happening in 1:1 scale.

How To Roll 
“Roll” means rolling a pool of d6 dice, the number of which is determined by one of the Base Stats and then modified by things like Weapon Quality or Skill ranks. Each die that rolls a 5 or a 6 is counted as a success.

A pool may never be reduced below 1 die.

Advantage and Disadvantage
Advantage means that rolls of 4, 5 and 6 count as successes.
Disadvantage means that only rolls of 6 count as successes.
Instances of Advantage and Disadvantage cancel each other out.

It’s up to the GM to decide if Advantage or Disadvantage would apply to any specific roll.

Advantage and Disadvantage were originally introduced in the hack by another team member. I honestly don't know how we missed them the first time, they're such a useful roll modifier in a system where you could only add or subtract dice from a pool.

In my design philosophy, extra dice represent solid, more permanent bonuses and drawbacks, while Advantage/Disadvantage are much more situational.

You could also argue that, while extra dice are more useful when you don't have a lot of them (going from 2 dice to 3 dice is HUGE, but going from 6 to 7 is closer to diminishing returns), Advantage/Disadvantage are more impactful the more dice there are, with both not being entirely useless on the opposite ends. 

Difficulty
Most actions should require only 1 success, but some especially difficult ones might require 2 or even 3. 
In those cases, the amount of successes is specified in brackets, like MIGHT (2).

Unfortunately, there is a disadvantage that comes with dice pools. Unlike a d20, which maps nicely to percentile odds, the odds in dice pools are never as apparent. One could probably figure out that there is at least 1 success on average in a 3d6 roll, but for multiple successes you'd probably need to bring out Excel.

I might include a probability table in here eventually, as a potential player/GM aid. 

Opposed Rolls
In other cases, when two characters try to compete with each other, they both make a roll, which is called an Opposed Roll.

The one who rolls more successes is the one who beats their opponent. 
If both rolled the same number of successes, it’s a draw and nothing happens.

Group Rolls
If a whole group of bugs needs to perform an action together, every bug in the group makes a roll and the total number of successes rolled is counted.

The action counts as successful if the total number of successes is equal to or higher than the number of participants. Like for non-group rolls, more difficult actions might require more successes.

This is an example of how using a dice pool as the main conflict resolution mechanic could lead to exciting new design space. In my playtests, it was fun to come up with rulings when every single roll comes with a built-in number that stays fairly small.

For example, a player wanted to distract the enemies right before the combat starts. While this clearly wasn't the situation for a proper surprise round, I ended up ruling that the enemy initiative would be lowered by the amount of successes rolled for the distraction attempt.

Skills
Skills represent a bug’s abilities in a certain field. Skills are ranked from 1 to 3, with 1 representing apprentice-level abilities and 3 equaling being an expert in the field. Bugs start with (highest of CRAFT/SENSE) - 1 worth of skill ranks to distribute as they see fit.

Whenever a skill can be applied to a roll, add the number of dice equal to its rank to it.

Tiered Skills were born out of necessity, really. I needed a bonus I could provide for both picking an Average-sized bug and skipping on a Trait. Originally Skills were intended to be binary, but the final approach matches nicely with how Paths are also divided into 3 Ranks. 

Size
Bugs come in many different sizes, all of which affect how they interact with the world. 
Pick your bug’s size:

• Large - you are big and burly, being twice the size of an average bug. You have +3 Hearts.
• Average - you share the size with most bugs, which makes it easier to adapt. You have an extra skill rank. 
• Small - you are small and nimble, being half the size of an average bug. You have +2″ Speed.

I had many questions about how size should be implemented. Should being small/big be a Trait? It could be, but that means that small/big bugs couldn't be as freaky Trait-wise, which doesn't seem right. Should the size just be fluff? I considered that, but it didn't feel "real" to me without any hard mechanical significance. Ultimately, I decided that providing small mechanical benefits maintained a good balance. 

Traits
There are many different species of bugs, all of which have their own unique Traits that define them.

Pick 1 to 3 Traits from the following list for your bug. If you pick less than 3, you gain an extra skill rank for every Trait you skipped.

Three might not seem like a lot, especially if you're coming from HKRPG, where 7 was the limit and some Traits also had Sub-Traits that didn't count towards it. But if you actually take a look at Hollow Knight characters, you'll see that they're actually fairly simple design-wise, especially compared to real-life bugs. I think it's an important part of the feel that most characters don't resemble realistic insectoid monstrosities.   

Example Traits:

• Ancient Blood – Lifeblood courses through your veins. As a major action, you may heal another bug by feeding it your blood. Spend HD and restore [sum] Hearts to it, while taking [sum]/2 (rounded up) damage yourself.
• Burrower – You can burrow through loose earth and other soft materials at half Speed. In addition, you also have 6″ of tremorsense to help you navigate.
• Flight – You can take to the air for up to 10 minutes at the cost of 1 Fatigue. However, if you're disrupted mid-flight, you must make a GRACE roll or fall.
• Iron Guts – You can consume rotten food, and venoms and poisons affect you like alcohol – intoxicating but otherwise harmless.
• Molting – You can painlessly detach your limbs. When you spend HD to heal, you molt, regrowing all missing limbs and leaving a hollow exoskeleton behind.
• Spinneret – As a major action, you can produce 6″ of silk rope or cover a 2×2″ area with sticky webs (difficult terrain) for 1 Fatigue.

 

----------------- 
The full list consists of 36 traits (because the system is d6-only, so it needs to be a d66 table, duh), but this post is getting pretty big already, so they and the rest of the rules will probably require their own posts.

Which means, part 2 coming eventually???

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