Cards for Into the Odd and OSR Duels

Follow-up to my previous post on dueling rules for Into the Odd.

If you're using Emmy Allen's excellent rules for OSR duels or my modification of those rules to work with Into the Odd, it's useful to have a set of playing cards for each duelist to select their actions with. So I made some. Credit for the text to Emmy Allen.

Click here for the Into the Odd version:

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1X9q_c8FAT6m_BQ3KOy0Kdh29tqFAoyHv-KQXYez7pt8/edit?usp=sharing

Or here for the generic OSR / D&D version:

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1jZQpKeZSMmwCeOuWrVAnnN5wxsvoz_2sVBdCjYXAa6A/edit?usp=sharing

For either of these, you'll want to do File > Download as > PDF Document (.pdf), print them out at 100% scaling (i.e. "Actual Size"), and cut along the lines to make your cards. I'd recommend printing them onto some heavy cardstock, blackening the cut edge with a Sharpie, and putting them in standard-size card sleeves like these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8CJHTH. Doing so will give the illusion of a professional card with nicely rounded corners.

If you'd like to customize the art or text, do File > Make a copy... and edit away.

Comments

Skull Rabbits and The Pale Lion

A silly kitbash I did ( "What if _______, but skull??" ) that felt afterwords like it needed lore: Skull Rabbits appear much like regular white rabbits -- aside from the antlers and red eyes. They are little threat on their own. They flee quickly at sign of danger like any rabbit would. Even the antlers are about as ineffective as you'd expect on an animal of such small size. But better for you that it should flee than you should approach one quietly or see one accidentally. Lock eyes with one, and it will stare right back. Then the rabbit's head will take the shape of a bare human skull. Your skull. And your thoughts will fill with the fear and certainty that "That is my skull. It shares my skull." The Skull Rabbit will hop away. From that point onwards, you can no longer sleep. Because the Skull Rabbit does not sleep. Whenever the Skull Rabbit feels terror -- at the low level that's constant for rabbits or overwhelming at the sight of predators -- you ...

A Simple Resource Management System for Into the Odd

Rules without the commentary available here . My mind is still on resource management systems. Into the Odd ( ItO ) doesn't have one and, to be honest, doesn't need one. Plenty of tension to be found via description rather than tracking individual rations. ItO is lightweight, fast, and runs great if you simply assume that, as written, the expedition always has food, water, light, camping & climbing equipment. So why bother with managing resources? Character customization Like with Ben Milton's new Knave ( http://questingblog.com/knave/ ), I like the idea of a character's role being determined by what kind of equipment they are carrying. Want to be a "fighter" in a classless system like ItO ? Carry large, powerful weapons and wear armor. Want to be a "magic user"? Carry lots of Arcana ( or spellbooks ). A "specialist" (to use the LotFP term)? Carry lots of tools, poison vials, flashbangs, etc. But customization like th...

Dragon Warrior and How I Discovered Into the Odd

Continuation from Part 1 . So I already talked about my quest to run dungeons for my players that feel as tense to them as Dragon Warrior 's dungeons did to me. I talked about trying a game, Torchbearer , that had systems built around emphasizing the things I thought that tension was about: the importance of light, limited resources, dwindling life. And about how I eventually found more of my mental energy going to managing those systems than to my campaign. Let's take a detour back to Dragon Warrior / Dragon Quest . More specifically, let's look at combat in Dragon Warrior . It's pretty basic. Only 4 actions to choose from: FIGHT, RUN, SPELL, ITEM. Seemingly worlds apart from the "free to try anything, and your referee will come up with a ruling" land of OSR and other tabletop RPGs. Even by comparison to other JRPGs, it looks like a limited and kind of boring list of choices. Compare it to, say, Final Fantasy 5 , with its huge system of jobs, skill...

The Scones Alone

Search This Blog