The Scones Alone

There was a discussion today on the Into the Odd Discord about how to describe "generic" Critical Damage and recovery. What do you tell players happened to their characters when they fail a STR save? What exactly do their allies do to get them back on their feet? My response was that I describe it in a very " Left 4 Dead -like" manner. "Generic" Critical Damage knocks you to the ground like in L4D . Later on, your friends pick you up, slap you awake, give you some water and quick bandaging. Not too worried about detail or realism in my descriptions. Yes, this Left 4 Dead My mind immediately went further down this path. The design of Into the Odd really is like Left 4 Dead in a lot of ways. Critical Damage Into the Odd: Knocked out of action, will bleed out in an hour if not assisted by someone. Left 4 Dead: Knocked to the ground and largely out of the action. Will eventually die if not assisted by someone. Recovery from Critical Damage...

Earlier today, I answered a similar, Into the Odd  related question asked on both G+ and /r/osr . The question was, basically, how to go about converting old school, B/X style creatures to ItO . My answer echoed earlier advice I'd heard from Chris McDowall -- don't sweat the numbers. Make your creatures interesting in other ways. This got me thinking about one of the things I really like in ItO  that I don't exploit enough -- unique consequences for Critical Damage. Usually, Critical Damage (a failed save after taking damage to your Strength) knocks you unconscious until your allies can assist you. However, some of the example creatures in ItO  have special consequences if you take Critical Damage against them. One creature might swallow you whole. Another might crawl down your throat and lay eggs. This is a really powerful way to make a creature memorable. And requires little thinking over math, mechanics, or balance. The player has already failed their Saving Th...

A simple resource management system for Into the Odd Inventory Each character has 8 slots to carry items. All items are either normal or Bulky (per Electric Bastionland ). Normal items take 1 slot. Bulky items take 2 slots. Note, there is no "X quantity of this item fits in 1 slot". e.g. If you have 4 vials of poison, it takes 4 slots to carry them. Encumbrance Per my magic rules , carrying 1 or more Bulky items makes spell casting risky. Per Electric Bastionland , carrying 2 or more Bulky items puts you at risk of becoming Deprived from fatigue. (In EB , Deprived  means you can no longer regain HP during Short Rests .) Treasure A single treasure is treated as a single, indivisible item. Most treasures are Bulky . Some treasures are Unwieldy -- they cannot be carried in your inventory. You must come up with a plan, equipment, personnel, etc. to transport them. Wealth Aside from treasures, all other monies -- small amount of coins you loot from b...

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...