Runehack RPG 0.1: Pivoting in a New Direction

It's time for the truth to be revealed. Maybe I never really wanted a game that's action-filled in the first place. I have always dreamed of a D&D game with an all-bards party, where they'd go on a world tour. Or something similar for another system. I lost this dream of mine somewhere along the way to Game Dev years ago and have forgotten about it... until today.

It's time to showcase how the musical pillar will work for the Runehack RPG!

A quick musician doodle redeemed from Mishroomarts

Music Pillar

There are four qualities that the music can have:

• Intensity can range from Calm to Strong, describing how loud the music's loudest tones are. It utilizes Muscle.
• Tempo can range from Slow to Fast, describing the general speed at which the music is played. It utilizes Agility.
• Authenticity can range from Bright to Dark, describing whether the music is more upbeat or emotional. It utilizes Comprehension.
• Creativity can range from Stock to Fresh, describing whether the music is predictable or if it's unafraid to experiment outside of the music theory's range. It utilizes Hunch.

Training isn't represented as a musical genre because it defines your expertise with musical instruments. You can play a number of musical instruments equal to 1 + your Training, and they can have a total number of unique properties equal to your Training.

Note: You can select a musical instrument in place of one of the expert areas that your Training gives you in the Core Pillar. If you do so, you will have expertly knowledge in how this instrument works, its history, maintenance, and significant artists who primarily played this instrument.

The musical instruments can have the following properties:

• Pedaled. Advantage on rolls for Intensity.
• Two-handed. Advantage on rolls for Tempo.
• Multi-tonal. Advantage on rolls for Authenticity.
• Contiunuous. Advantage on rolls for Creativity.
• Static. Advantage on rolls for both Intensity and Tempo.
• Custom-made. Choose one of the musical qualities. You can use Training in place of the original stat when rolling for that quality using this instrument. You can take this property multiple times.

Musical Performance

When performing, it is important to appease the crowd's demands. The GM begins by secretly rolling 4d6 and dividing the numbers between the qualities. The highest roll stands for a preference for high rolls in that quality, the lowest roll stands for a preference for low rolls in that quality, and anything in between begins neutral. If multiple numbers are the highest/lowest, it's applied to multiple qualities. If all four numbers are the same, they correspond to low (1-3) or high (4-6) rolls. The GM keeps them in the order of Intensity, Tempo, Authenticity, and Creativity behind the screen.

At the start of every round, the GM rolls 2d12 without adding them together to see which preferences flip. If they were neutral so far, they get tipped either way at GM's discretion.

• 1-3: Intensity
• 4-6: Tempo
• 7-9: Authenticity
• 10-12: Creativity

These preferences can be represented in crowd actions. These are, on purpose, ambiguous to keep the band guessing. For convenience, each is listed twice to be easier to reference. The GM should mention ideally two of them (one if there aren't two) at the start of each round to clue the players in on what the audience demands.

• Intensity (low)
• or Tempo (low): swaying
• or Creativity (low): whistling
• Intensity (high)
• or Tempo (high): head-banging
• or Authenticity (high): stomping
• Tempo (low)
• or Intensity (low): swaying
• or Authenticity (high): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
• Tempo (high)
• or Intensity (high): head-banging
• or Creativity (high): playing air instruments
• Authenticity (low)
• or Creativity (low): screams
• or Creativity (high): crowd wave
• Authenticity (high)
• or Intensity (high): stomping
• or Tempo (low): lights above heads (e.g. lighters)
• Creativity (low)
• or Intensity (low): whistling
• or Authenticity (low): screams
• Creativity (high)
• or Tempo (high): playing air instruments
• or Authenticity (low): crowd wave

The DC for all music-making rolls is 8 unless said otherwise. However, the players must either roll above the DC as usual, or under if the audience demands low for some musical quality. Whether a player is trying to roll over or under 8 should be announced before the roll along with the musical quality (e.g. "I'm trying to go for low Tempo). Due to this, any musician can choose to roll with a disadvantage at will, and they can choose whether their stat is ignored, added to, or subtracted from a roll after it is made. The goal is to play according to the crowd's preferences, confirmed by the reactions described by the GM. If a musician succeeds in playing according to the crowd's preferences two times in a turn, or when they roll exactly 8, they get a Starpower Point.

Starpower Points are a way of performing extra actions while keeping up the performance. The pillar will feature some special actions that can be performed by spending an act or a number of Starpower Points. The details aren't worked out yet, but for now, examples could include:

• getting the crowd to sing in your place,
• dance moves,
• musical instrument tricks,
• activating special effects such as fireworks,
• jumping onto the crowd and letting it carry you,
• tossing a keepsake into the crowd.

Each would have its effect, but right now I don't have any further details worked out. Maybe some could coordinate their preferences or something like that.

---

That's about it for now. Of course, once finished the pillar would feature its own roles, their features, and so on, but that all should be done on another day. All that being said, ... it should be obvious this isn't what I want my game to be about, but I do want it to be an actual part of the game. It's not on my priorities list, but I had some time to spare during Easter and thought of working this out before I get to the final details of the core system I want to release this year as a way of relaxing. It might not come off as all that funny of an April Fools joke, but I came up with it not too long ago. The article was written in about 2 hours, most of this isn't set in stone yet. Obviously, it borrows some ideas from Play It by Cheer!, and that's because I really liked the foundation I've laid out there. Its stats map nicely onto this system's stats, Training is an awesome "ace in a sleeve" stat that'd work universally elsewhere, and... I think when I get to making the roles for this system, I'll make it so that the roles are named differently. Writing all this out made me realize that the roles probably should have different names in every pillar.

Anyway, writing the Core Pillar article took me too long, I wrote like 5 or 6 articles since I mentioned it last time it, so I can't promise I'll publish it before I begin the playtests. I'll see what I can do though. I like the way the game's development is going, and my 12 good games resolution is going to be finished soon enough. Or, it would be, if Witcher 3 wasn't still ahead of me.

That's about it! Thank you for reading, and happy beginning of April, everyone!

Villainous Mookbook: The Necrodancer

Howdy! I'm feeling kind of emotional as I write this. The final installment of my Villainous Cookbook. I'm kind of afraid, truth to be told. Can I ever start writing these articles again? Will they ever be of such high quality? What if my well of creativity has run dry completely?

Well, while I'll search for these answers, it's time to do this. While I was working out this one, I've come to realize that it's... actually resembling a boss fight from a videogame I really enjoy, Crypt of the Necrodancer. In order to honor this game, I decided to name this villain after its boss, the Necrodancer. The series has gone full circle, beginning just the way it ended... with a necromancer.

Preface

• My goal is to make an interesting villain using the player options found in the official and homebrew rules of D&D 5th edition.
• The goal is not to make a villain who deals the highest amount of damage. This is not the right place for that discussion.
• I will leave some details out to let the DMs adjust the villain to their preferences. Ability scores are one of them.
• To emulate character development, I will only make character builds at levels 4, 10, 16, and 20. Players should be at best equal to the villain's tier, optimally at a lower tier.
• Limitations breed creativity. But I will bend the rules if it makes the villain more interesting.
• If it seems overpowered, it could be because of rulebending (see the point above), or because I'm mixing homebrews that were not balanced with each other in mind.

The Necrodancer

"My pulse is beating like a drum, but my blood is running cold. I came here with a question and I'm going to find the answer."

― Cadence, Crypt of the Necrodancer

"You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who's a friend."

― Truman Capote

Ingredients List

• Magnis race (Travelers' Homebrew Original)
• Bard 15: College of Whispers (Xanathar's Guide to Everything)
• Cleric 1: Civilization Domain (CaelReader Homebrew)
• Sorcerer 1: Imperial Birthright (CaelReader Homebrew)
• Warlock 3: Perfect Chord (CoFS:A)

Race

Since I haven't had the time to write out lore for this race in order to publish it properly, I'll write out the racial traits as part of this article. Consider it a sneak-peek into one of my possible future projects. The concept for this race is that it's an Alfallen race one could become during their life, based on idolizing another person for a long time. You are now an echo of what you used to be. When it comes to the original race, you can choose to go with anything. My personal bias says elf because then this could be a possible elvish impersonator.

Magnis Traits

Each magnis is unique, but they generally share these traits.

Ability Score Increase. Choose either Dexterity or Charisma. That ability score increases by two, while the other score increases by one.

Age. Magnis can live as long as others of their origin race.

Size. Your size is determined by your origin race.

Speed. Your speed is determined by your origin race.

Languages. Magnis are fluent in Common and in the language of their racial origin.

Booming Voice. You have a great amount of control over your voice. You can choose to make your voice up to three times as loud as normal requiring no action. Additionally, you can use your action or bonus action to throw your voice, making it seem like it originates from a point of your choice within 30 feet of you that you can see.

Thunder Adapted. You are immune to the deafened condition, and you gain resistance to thunder damage. If you would also gain this resistance from a class feature, your inner power awakens, granting you the ability to cast the thunderclap cantrip. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for this cantrip.

Yestermuse. You can use your bonus action to create an illusion of yourself. This illusion moves and produces the same sounds as you did last turn. Doing this will also recreate all of the illusions of yourself you've created using this feature in your previous turn.

Tier 1

First, we need to make them loud and annoying fast. We begin by investing three levels into warlock, and one level into the cleric. The warlock might seem fitting, considering it's a perfect chord, the most musically-themed warlock I know of, but you might wonder why do we need the civilization cleric. Let me resolve that first.

Bonus Proficiencies
(1st-level Civilization Domain feature)
At 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons, as well as two tools of your choice. You also gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: History, Investigation, or Persuasion.

Divine Consul
(1st-level Civilization Domain feature)
Starting at 1st level, you are able to sense the presence of civilization itself. By spending 1 minute in meditation, you can discern the direction, distance, and name of the nearest settlement within 100 miles. You also learn the name and title of the ruler of that settlement, as well as the name and title of their liege, if they have one. Additionally, you learn the majority race and culture, as well as the general size and description of the settlement, such as "port city" or "farming town".

Now, martial weapons are just a neat thing to have, and the tool proficiencies could be used for literally anything that's not a musical instrument. Extra skill is a nice thing that we could use, but the most important part is Divine Consul. If our Necrodancer ever gets lost in the wilderness, they can focus for one minute to find where the biggest nearby cities are. That means audience, and audience means potential undead servants.

Now then, from the warlock we'll want multiple things, so let's have a look at those. We're assuming Pact of the Tome here, by the way, but I won't talk much about spell choices in this article since I believe you guys can figure them out yourselves. For now, what we need a lot is thaumaturgy.

Seeker of the Sound
(1st-level Perfect Chord feature)
At 1st level, your heartbeat is tuned to the Perfect Chord. You gain proficiency in the Performance skill and with all musical instruments. You can use a musical instrument as a spellcasting focus for your warlock spells, and can play it in place of using a verbal spellcasting component.
When you cast a spell that has only a verbal and somatic component, you can choose to cast it as though it only had a verbal component.
When you cast a spell of 1st level or higher that only has a verbal component, including those modified by this feature, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier that last for one minute.

Composition of the Masters
Prerequisites: Perfect Chord patron, Pact of the Tome feature
You can ignore the effects of the silence spell and of magical effects that would produce a similar area of magical silence, enabling you to speak and cast spells normally. You also become immune to the deafened condition. 

Barred Mind
Whenever you make a Wisdom saving throw and succeed, your mind locks shut. If the same creature or effect forces you to make another Wisdom saving throw before the end of your next turn, that saving throw is made with advantage.

So what does this mean? We have an outspoken musician who can sing really loudly and play any instrument too. I think we could have them sing and play instruments instead of just playing an instrument, but whatever floats your boats. Onto the next Tier!

Tier 2

Six levels of bard. I mean, we did want them to be a necromancer too, right? May as well start getting to that. Now you might be thinking "what, are we gonna add animate dead to the bardic spell list? Of course not, silly! Bards get magical secrets. At... level 10. Well, be patient. We'll get there when the time is right. In the meantime, check out this neat feature!

Mantle of Whispers
(6th-level College of Whispers feature)
At 6th level, you gain the ability to adopt a humanoid's persona. When a humanoid dies within 30 feet of you, you can magically capture its shadow using your reaction. You retain this shadow until you use it or you finish a long rest.
You can use the shadow as an action. When you do so, it vanishes, magically transforming into a disguise that appears on you. You now look like the dead person, but healthy and alive. This disguise lasts for 1 hour or until you end it as a bonus action.
While you're in the disguise, you gain access to all information that the humanoid would freely share with a casual acquaintance. Such information includes general details on its background and personal life, but doesn't include secrets. The information is enough that you can pass yourself off as the person by drawing on its memories.
Another creature can see through this disguise by succeeding on a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check. You gain a +5 bonus to your check.
Once you capture a shadow with this feature, you can't capture another one with it until you finish a short or long rest..

With this, our Necrodancer will be capable of impersonating people they get rid of, which is just absolutely lovely to have for infiltrating big cities and collecting bodies secretly. Let's get to Tier 3 right away!

Tier 3

Five levels of bard will get us the animate dead that we've wanted for so long. I'm pretty sure you've by now noticed what's been going on here. We get them expertise with Performance, which you should have picked up by now, they get proficiency in all musical instruments, they can make themselves three times as loud using thaumaturgy, and three times more thanks to Booming Voice from the Magnis race. We're making someone who's annoyingly loud. Who can always find themselves a place to perform. And who keeps gathering bodies while pretending to be this extraordinarily charming redheaded musician. Or was the hair brown? Who can tell.

Anyways, with that out of the way, let's add some juice to this with one level of sorcerer for this cool ability.

Commanding Voice
(1st-level Imperial Birthright feature)
Your bloodline has granted you a voice fit for a ruler, one that makes your enemies tremble and puts fire into the hearts of your allies. At 1st level, you gain proficiency in your choice of Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion.

Additionally you learn the command spell, which counts as a sorcerer spell for you, and does not count against your number of spells known. You can cast command without expending a spell slot. Once you cast the spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest, though you can still cast it normally using an available spell slot.

Also, whenever you cast a spell of 1st level or higher that has verbal components, you can grant temporary hitpoints equal to your Charisma modifier to a friendly creature within 30 feet of you, which last for 1 minute.

... what's that? Feats? Look, you can put there whatever you want, okay? Yes, I am taking this seriously, stop asking me silly questions and let me get to Tier 4 without looking like I'm rushing to some imaginary punchline.

Tier 4

Four levels of bard. Yep, it's that simple.

Shadow Lore
(17th-level Soulknife feature) 

At 14th level, you gain the ability to weave dark magic into your words and tap into a creature's deepest fears.

As an action, you magically whisper a phrase that only one creature of your choice within 30 feet of you can hear. The target must make a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC. It automatically succeeds if it doesn't share a language with you or if it can't hear you. On a successful saving throw, your whisper sounds like unintelligible mumbling and has no effect.

On a failed saving throw, the target is charmed by you for the next 8 hours or until you or your allies attack it, damage it, or force it to make a saving throw. It interprets the whispers as a description of its most mortifying secret. You gain no knowledge of this secret, but the target is convinced you know it.

The charmed creature obeys your commands for fear that you will reveal its secret. It won't risk its life for you or fight for you, unless it was already inclined to do so. It grants you favors and gifts it would offer to a close friend.

When the effect ends, the creature has no understanding of why it held you in such fear.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Oh wow, would you look at that! Now the bard can, uh... go into a city. And manipulate a person. To get them to lead people to the bard so that he could kill them secretly to convert them for his necromantic army or something.

Sigh.

Alright, no way to evade it anymore. It's time for... the Truth.

The Truth

That's right, all of this was just an elaborate Rick Roll!

Alright, now that the cat is out of the bag, it's time to tell the truth. This isn't the final Villainous Cookbook I'll ever write. In fact, I have the actual final article planned and in the works, I hope I'll be done with it by the end of April, but I can't promise it. Seeing how it's way more elaborate than a standard Villainous Cookbook, I feel like it would be fine if I published it by the end of May, or possibly later (but at that point even I would feel bad about delaying it so much). In the meantime, I have a bunch of article ideas that I hope I'll have time to publish too, either about Runehack or about random game-mastering advice. I even think I'm on my way towards breaking through my D&D burnout at last! Before that comes about though, I hope you've enjoyed reading my April Fools' article, and I wish you a nice day! :)

Theory: Is this show actually about a post-scarcity society?? (also goodbye homebrewing)

It has been done. Today, I released by Magnum Opus. The greatest 5e homebrew to ever see the light of day. I can do no more but bask in my glory, as I move on to more superior forms of activity. Like making complicated theories about animated shows for my own entertainment and upvotes on /r/fantheories.

HELLO INTERNET, WELCOME TO ANIME THEORY!

You know, ever since my young years, there's been this one show that I used to follow where a couple of cool characters wordlessly did funny stuff. And lately, these memories have resurfaced. I looked them up on youtube, and sure enough they're there. Seeing them though made me ask so many questions...

• What are they?
• Where are they?
• Are they the only ones?
• When are they?

All of these questions and much more will be answered in today's article. So sit back, bring popcorn, and let's see where this goes.