Belated Second Post – Tweaks N’ Reskinnings

Welcome back, in this albeit belated second post concerning my upcoming BECM D&D campaign. In this post I’m going to focus on the few Tweaks N’ Reskins I am doing to the rules. These are mainly focused on the “races” and monsters found in the BECM D&D box sets to better fit the kind of campaign that I prefer to run. That said, the only truly mechanical tweak that has been made is to the languages and how they are implemented in the campaign. Lastly, before I move on to the bulk of the post, I did want to mention one other mechanical tweak I am making – how ability scores are represented.

First up is Ability Scores – in standard practice Ability Scores were interpreted as how Intelligent, Strong or Wise a character is, which doesn’t make any sense for the exceptional beings that become adventurers. In my campaigns (as well as my own personal RPG system that I am developing) Ability Scores merely represent how well your characters can manage stress and complete a given task under extremely stressful, if not terrifying situations.

As a character levels up, their player Rolls vs. their Ability Score – if they roll under their Score, they can then bump that Ability Score up one point. They can only do so for three Ability Scores and can only roll once per individual Ability Score per level. The highest an Ability Score can be boosted is 18, once an Ability Score hits this level it cannot be raised UNLESS it has been reduced below 18 for some reason.

Now onto Races N’ Monsters. Let’s just say I am not a fan of Halflings and how some monsters are presented in D&D – ALL of their editions. First up – Halflings…these Tolkien based bastards are gone, they are replaced by Hobs, not to be confused by Hobgoblins. Hobs are the Elfin touched humans who were magical transformed by Dark Elves (NOT Drow) as youths and banded together once released from the Fey Realms and developed into their own true-bred race over several centuries.

Hobs are inspired by the following pieces of art by Forest Box:

Next concerns Goblinoids N’ Ogres –

The only real change to Ogres is that they are now called Ettins and instead of sacks of Gold, they are carrying or leading 100-600gp in stolen cattle, humanoid captives, and or casks of alcohol.

Bugbears are giant hairy Goblins with insectile heads and patches of chitinous armour plating covering their front torso from their loins to their heads. Unlike Goblins and Hobgoblins, Bugbears use Giant insects as both mounts and hunting companions.

Both Goblins N’ Hobgoblins are basically the same as listed in the game, except Hobgoblins are Lawful and highly militaristic by nature – though they skew towards Evil and the more tyrannous aspects of Law. They loathe all other Goblin-kin as they are loathed by them.

Kobolds are pretty much as described above, though in my campaigns their flesh is cobalt blue with rust-orange scales. Like all Goblin-kind they also loathe Hobgoblins.

Orcs are beastmen, combining a human body with a head (and other physical features) of various types of animals like – Boars, Wolves, Goats, and Rats (who dwell in Urban regions, and unlike most orcs they are fairly mechanically inclined).

In D&D there’s types of spells or spell-like abilities that can drain/lower a character’s Ability Scores, usually they are temporary or require a Wish to recover. As mentioned above I have a House-Rule in my upcoming BECM D&D campaigns is that these losses in Ability Scores can be recovered slowly as the character levels and their player successfully rolls under their Character’s Ability Score. This leads to the combat House-Rules that I will be using in these campaigns.

In combat unlike in Standard BECM D&D, in my campaigns when Characters (and occasional NPCs) reach zero Hit Points (HP) they do not die (at least not immediately) they are stunned or knocked unconscious, at which time they are considered helpless and prone. There are three possibilities that arise in these situations:

• If surrounded by multiple enemy NPCs they can choose to capture the prone character and pulled behind enemy lines as a captive.
• If a enemy is of such nature they can choose to kill the prone character on its next initiative activation if able to do so.
• Be defended and taken to safety by their fellow party members to be potentially healed when such an opportunity arises and depending on the severity of the wound. Note some wounds ARE instantly lethal, but this won’t be known until the combat is over so the prone and injured character can be properly checked for wounds and their severity.

If the third option occurs, then the injured character’s player rolls two sets of dice – one to locate the where the character was injured and the second set whose sum is checked against the wounding chart. The DM rolls a d6 and first checks on the severity of the wound inflicted – a 1-2 = a minor wound, a 3-4 = a moderate wound, while a 5-6 = a severe wound. Then the sum of the Player’s second roll is checked by the DM. Wounds can range from severe concussion – taking up to a week to recover or up to instant fatality.

Certain wounds can lower a Character’s Ability Scores either temporarily or permanently unless a way to heal them can be found. Once such a means is found, a Player can roll vs. Ability Score once per level advanced. There should always be some way for a Character to heal such Ability Score losses, even if only via use of a Wish to do so.

Tis time to close up this post and get it published. I will endeavor to post again in a weeks’ time and not miss another post as I have the last week or two. Fin.