CLASSIC

Dungeoneering Rules for Percentile Roleplaying By Rodney Leary

With

Pete Nash, Lawrence Whitaker & Carol Johnson

Classic Fantasy © 2016 by The Design Mechanism Mythras is a Trademark of The Design Mechanism. RuneQuest and Basic Roleplaying are trademarks of Moon Design Publications LLC and Inc. All rights reserved. This edition of Classic Fantasy is copyright © 2016.

ISBN 978-0-9947589-2-7

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without permission from The Design Mechanism, except as quoted for purposes of illustration, discussion and game play. Reproduction of the material in this book for the purposes of Samplepersonal or corporate profit, by photographic, electronic, or other methods of retrieval isfile strictly prohibited. Classic Fantasy

Credits Created, Developed and Written By Playtesters Rodney Leary Ed Arneson, Jody Arneson, John Arneson, Justin Arneson, Mario Artiga, Stuart Bailey, Mat Beasley, Lucas de Beer, Additional Material By Laurie Bernier, Sam Bernier, Hendrik Beukes, Wickus Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash Booyse, Christopher J E Brann, Rhus Diversiloba, Jeremy Brooks, Justin Brooks, Jason Durall, Mario Gomez, John Huber, Lindsay Johnson, Jeffery Keown, Sverre Larne, Editing Carmen Leary, Mark Leary, Stacy Leary, Vanessa Leary, Carol Johnson Charles Leonard, Stephen MacGillivray, Johan van Mollen- dorf, Sarah Newton, Arthur Reyes, Alan Rowell, Proof Reading Alyssa Shifflet, Justin Shifflet, Matthew Skipper, Divan Stark, Carol Johnson, Alexandra James, Pete Nash Reynaud Stark, James Wightwick, Jason Vasche, and Greg Wood Design and Layout Alexandra James

Artists Mythras and RuneQuest Jacob E Blackmon, Simon Bray, Toby Gregory, Classic Fantasy was developed for use with the RuneQuest Eric Lofgren, Dan MacKinnon, William McAusland, Aaron (RQ6) rules. The system has since been renamed Mythras, Palsmeier, Lee Smith, Chris Yarborough although the game rules remain the same. Classic Fantasy is therefore fully compatible with both RQ6 and Mythras. For Eric Lofgren, Aaron Palsmeier and Chris Yarborough appear courtesy simplicity we use Mythras throughout this book, but if you of Outland Creative Entertainment own RQ6 and are using Classic Fantasy with that edition of the core rules, you have everything you need to gain the most Special Thanks from this supplement. Anthony Lewis for providing editorial feedback for almost every incarnation of these rules. He had to start over almost as many times as I did. Thanks for sticking with me. Christopher J E Brann for running one of the most thor- ough playtests I have ever had the fortune of benefiting Strike Rank & Initiative from. Mythras has renamed Strike Rank, a RuneQuest term, to Initiative. It still works in precisely the same way; it is sim- Dedication ply the name that has changed to better reflect the mechanic. I would like to dedicate this book to my wife Carmen Leary, Initiative is used throughout this book in place of Strike Rank. whose weekly mantra of… ‘is it done yet?’ kept me going for the last 8 years. Thanks, dear.

I would also like to dedicate this book to my best friend Sam Bernier, who is responsible for getting me involved in role playing games almost 40 years ago. All his talk of killing and rescuing princesses finally prompted me to ask, ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ and changed what I do with my free-timeSample forever. file

2 Contents

Contents Introduction 4 1: Characters 6 2: Race & Culture 16 3: Classes 32 4: Skills 69 5: Equipment 74 6: Game System 84 7: Combat 99 8: 114 9: Arcane Spells 132 10: Divine Spells 163 11. Monsters! 187 12: Treasure! 263 Sample13: Cosmology file306 Appendix 319

3 Classic Fantasy

Introduction

lassic Fantasy is a return to the golden age of roleplaying, to acknowledge The Design Mechanism and its fantastic game sys- a period between the late 1970s through the 1980s. During tem, particularly authors Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash, with- this time, the concept of roleplaying was relatively new and out whose excellent work, this game would not be possible. Cit had an almost magical feel. There were only a handful of popu- Without the aforementioned games and their creators, Classic Fan- lar fantasy games on the market during this time, with Advanced tasy would be but a shadow of the game I hope it will become. Dungeons and Dragons and RuneQuest being two of the biggest. Classic Fantasy takes us back to a time when we would gather with Rip open the Cheetos and pass out the Mountain Dew. It’s our friends and spend countless hours bashing down doors, slaying time to play some Classic Fantasy! hordes of orcs and goblins, and throwing another +1 Ring of Pro- Rodney Leary, April 2016 tection into our Bag of Holding. Those were the “classic” adven- tures that my friends and I still talk about to this day. Those were the days of Classic Fantasy.

This is not the first iteration of Classic Fantasy, which had its Which Rules? start as a Monograph for Chaosium’s versatile Basic Roleplaying This is not a standalone game. Games Masters and players will need system. However, when playing Classic Fantasy using that system, access to either the Mythras or RQ6 rules to play Classic Fantasy I found myself always choosing the options that best mimicked my (although other d100 rule systems may suffice). Aside from rules, then favourite version of RuneQuest, third edition by Chaosium you need only this book, your imagination (and the imaginations of and Avalon Hill published in 1984. Now with the release of Myth- some friends), some dice, and a desire to adventure in the exciting ras, something that did not exist when I wrote the original Classic high fantasy worlds of Classic Fantasy. Fantasy, I have a set of rules that captures all the things that made RuneQuest great, while modernising and streamlining them. Back in the early 1980s, I spent many a night converting my “lev- Using Classic Fantasy el-based” fantasy campaigns over to RuneQuest 3rd Edition. Now, Not everything in Mythras is necessary nor appropriate for a Clas- almost 40 years later, I have the opportunity and privilege to do sic Fantasy campaign, and quite simply much of the core system it again, but this time in a professional capacity and for what has won’t be used; specifically the other magic. This includes Chapters become my all-time favourite set of roleplaying rules. With this 8-14. in mind, my aim was to capture the feel of two completely differ- ent games and merge them into a workable whole. I do not claim To avoid incorporating elements of Mythras that are unnecessary for Classic Fantasy, it is preferable to reference this book first, and Classic Fantasy to be original; Classic Fantasy echoes many great games and I walk humbly in the footsteps of their designers who are refer to Mythras when needed or directed. For this reason, many the inspiration for all that follows. This is an homage to the classic elements of the core rules are duplicated here, sometimes with little dungeon delve and earliest fantasy roleplaying games. The following modification, to facilitate play. games were inspirational: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st and Experienced Games Masters should feel free to add additional core 2nd Edition, The Fantasy Trip, and of course, the various editions elements as they become more comfortable with Classic Fantasy of RuneQuest. The following authors helped to define the way I on a case-by-case basis. have spent my weekends for almost 40 years: Bob Bledsaw, Warren James, Steve Jackson, Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Ray Turney, and of courseSample and . Finally, I would like file

4 Introduction

a Classic Fantasy campaign; create spell scrolls; and gain, manage, Organisation and restore Magic Points. Classic Fantasy is divided into 13 chapters and a set of appendices. Chapter 9: Arcane Spells Full descriptions of a myriad of Arcane spells. Chapter 1: Everything you need to create a , referring to chap- ters 2 and 3 as needed for additional rules on races and classes. Chapter 10: Divine Spells Full descriptions of a myriad of Divine spells. Chapter 2: Race and Culture In Classic Fantasy, players have the option of creating characters Chapter 11: Monsters! of several different races, and where humans are concerned, cul- Over 80 monsters and creatures native to the World of Greymoor tures. This chapter details them in full. are the focus of this chapter.

Chapter 3: Character Classes Chapter 12: Treasure! and Development You killed them, here’s their stuff. Here are introduced the various classes of Classic Fantasy. Classes differ from Careers as found in the game, in that they come with Chapter 13: Cosmology several special abilities. Many of these abilities are acquired during Cosmology details the universe and the deities and demigods of the character creation; others become available in play as characters World of Greymoor. increase their rank. The available classes are Bard, Berserker, Cav- alier, , Druid, Fighter, Magic-User, Monk, Paladin, , Thief, and Thief-Acrobat. Appendix This section contains Wandering Monster tables, Master Spell List, a guide to weights and measures, and a character sheet. Chapter 4: Skills This chapter details several new skills unique to Classic Fantasy or pre-existing skills that are needed but are not included in the Myth- ras rules.

Chapter 5: Economics and Equipment Imperial Weights & Measures For convenience, this chapter summarises much of the information In a departure from other Design Mechanism supplements, detailed in the Mythras rules. Classic Fantasy attempts to facilitate the use of both impe- rial and metric units. Where possible, both are provided; how- ever, exact conversions are ignored in favour of gameplay. For Chapter 6: Game Mechanics example, 10 metres is converted to 30 feet, not 32.8 feet. This The introduction of several new rules unique to Classic Fantasy as is an exception to the normal rounding methods previously set per chapter 4. down in Mythras. Weights can be exact conversions, such as the weight of a character, or approximate conversions, such as Chapter 7: Combat the weight of a rock, as determined when needed. Chapter 7 looks at combat from a slightly different angle than either Most miniatures combat assumes the use of 1.5 metre (5 foot) the Mythras rules, that of the miniatures gamer. It includes a basic squares. Simply divide all movement rates, weapon ranges, miniatures combat system for playing out your engagements on the etc., by 1.5 to determine the actual number of squares. table top.

Chapter 8: Magic SampleThis is the introductory chapter for Classic Fantasy’s magic sys- file tem. It explores the fundamentals of magic in its various forms. The chapter offers suggestions and advice on how to structure magic in

5 Classic Fantasy

1: Characters

lassic Fantasy characters follow a very similar creation more than 15%. Customs, Language (Common tongue) (a new skill process to core Mythras characters. When creating a representing a common language spoken by humans and others), character, just follow the steps laid out in the Character and Native Tongue gain +40% each. CCreation Summary detailed below, referring to other chapters as Decide on the race/cultural Passions: Typically one Morality (or well as Mythras, as needed. A Classic Fantasy character sheet is Alignment) Passion and one of Loyalty, Love, or Hate. included in the appendix of this book and can also be downloaded from The Design Mechanism website. 6: Background Create a detailed backstory, if desired; this step as detailed in Myth- Character ras is optional. Creation Summary 7: Class Choose a character class from those available to your character’s 1: Character Concept culture or race. Decide generally on the kind of character to play. Keep it simple for Distribute 100 points amongst the class’s listed Standard Skills and now. More will come. whatever Professional Skills were chosen. Not all of the available skills need to be improved, but no individual skill can receive more 2: Characteristics than 15%. Choose a method to determine characteristics and calculate your Identify if the class uses magic and consult the Magic chapter as well character’s STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT, POW, and CHA based on as the appropriate spell chapter, Arcane or Divine, for the relevant the desired race. information.

3: Calculate Attributes 8: Bonus Skill Points Use the characteristics to determine Action Points, Damage Mod- The number of Skills Points depends on previous experience level, ifier, Experience Modifier, Healing Rate, Hit Points, Luck Points, but default characters have 100 points, with a limit of assigning no Movement, and Initiative, as described on pages 8 to 11. more than 10 points per skill. Choose one additional Professional Skill as a hobby speciality. 4: Standard Skills Calculate the Standard Skills by adding together the appropriate 9: Money and Equipment characteristics. Determine starting money and equipment based on class. Buy any additional equipment needed using starting money, refer- 5: Race and Culture ring to the Equipment chapter starting on page 74. If human, decide on a cultural background: Barbarian, Civilised, Nomadic, or Primitive. If demi-human, choose a race: dwarf, , gnome, half-elf,Sample half-, or . Allocate 100 points amongst 10: Finally... file the listed Standard Skills and selected Professional Skills for the cho- Don’t forget to give your character a name. Also, look for ways to sen culture. Skills must have a minimum of 5% and cannot receive establish connections with other characters.

6 1: Characters

Valamir’s Tale Step 1: Character Throughout Classic Fantasy, we will be following the adven- tures of the human paladin Valamir Drake as an example Concept character along with his closest friends and companions. His A good place to start is to have some idea of what sort of character exploits will demonstrate how the Classic Fantasy rules work. you want to play, a hardened fighter, for example, or a cunning thief. His adventures begin here, at character creation. Mark, the Your character concept does not need to be elaborate at this stage; player, is creating his first character and decides on the name it is simply an idea that will help guide certain choices such as race Valamir Drake. Mark’s Games Master, Gary, has informed (human or demi-human) and class (your profession). A few character each player that his Classic Fantasy campaign will be set in ideas are listed to provoke your imagination: the World of Greymoor, a traditional high fantasy medieval setting very reminiscent of medieval Europe, though overflow- ҉҉ Fierce barbarian berserker ing with ruins, monsters, dungeons, and dragons. This gives ҉҉ Young, naïve magic-user Mark and his fellow players, Carmen, Sam, Laurie, Stacy, and Greg, a better picture of the world. ҉҉ Bad-tempered half-orc fighter ҉҉ Chivalrous and honourable paladin ҉҉ Overconfident halfling thief ҉҉ Pious dwarf cleric Step 2: ҉҉ Stealthy elf ranger Characteristics and Attributes Human vs. Non-Human Races These follow the same steps described in Chapter 1: Characteris- Humans are the easiest characters to play and are the most common tics and Attributes of Mythras. choice in Classic Fantasy campaigns, but one need not be confined to playing just humans. Chapter 2: Race and Culture includes Calculating Characteristics information on playing either humans or one of the other common The following two methods for calculating characteristics are sug- demi-human races (dwarves, elves, gnomes, half-elves, half-orcs, and gested in place of those mentioned in Mythras rules. These meth- ). As the detailed write-ups in Chapter 2 show, it is possible ods have been chosen to aid the player in creating a more hero- to play just about any sapient race in Classic Fantasy, because all ic-level adventurer. Refer to the Racial Characteristics Table for the creatures, regardless of type, are defined in a consistent and compat- average characteristics of each race. ible way. As such, Chapter 11: Monsters! offers a number of other possibilities for challenging character concepts. However, if this is your first Classic Fantasy character, stick with the rules for human Dice Roll and demi-human characters as given in Chapter 2 before branching Roll one extra die as indicated for STR, CON, SIZ, DEX, INT, out into something more exotic. POW, and CHA as detailed in the Racial Characteristics Table. The player may exchange values among characteristics with the same For ease of reference, the Racial Characteristics are summarised in dice range. For example, when rolling up a human, the player could the Racial Characteristics Table below. swap values amongst STR, CON, DEX, POW, and CHA, as they share a 3d6 range, or between SIZ and INT, which share the 2d6+6

Racial Characteristics Table

Species STR CON SIZ DEX INT POW CHA Dwarf 2d6+9 (16) 2d6+9 (16) 1d3+9 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) Elf 2d6+3 (10) 3d6 (11) 1d6+6 (10) 2d6+9 (16) 2d6+7 (14) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)

Gnome 2d6+1 (8) 2d6+6 (13) 1d3+6 (8) 3d6+2 (13) 2d6+8 (15) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) Half-Elf 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5 (12) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) SampleHalf-Orc 2d6+7 (14) 2d6+6 (13) 2d6+7 (14) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5file (12) 3d6 (11) 2d6+1 (8) Halfling 2d6 (7) 2d6+7 (14) 1d3+6 (8) 3d6+3 (14) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 2d6+5 (12)

Human 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 2d6+6 (13) 3d6 (11) 3d6 (11)

7 Classic Fantasy

range — but they must always be from the same dice range group; you cannot switch rolls from one group to the other. The number in Valamir’s Tale parentheses after each dice score is the racial average and is used as Mark prepares to create Valamir Drake, an honourable a gauge to rate your character’s results. human paladin. The Games Master has decided that charac- ters in his campaign will use the points-build method. Mark must therefore note the averages for the seven characteristics Points Build on a sheet of scrap paper and spend an additional 10 points to Instead of rolling dice to determine characteristics, players can build raise them, at the same time meeting the prerequisite charac- their character from a pre-set pool of points. Certain rules apply to teristics for a paladin. the points build option: As a human, Valamir starts with the following average char- ҉҉ Begin with the racial average for each of the seven charac- acteristics: STR 11, CON 11, SIZ 13, DEX 11, and INT 13, teristics as noted in parentheses after each characteristic’s die POW 11, CHA 11. range. This information is noted on the Racial Characteris- He checks the prerequisites for a paladin and records the tics Table on the previous page. following: STR 11, CON 12, INT 13, POW 12, and CHA ҉҉ Spend 10 points to increase characteristics. 14. He can safely ignore STR and INT, as his racial averages already equal the minimums. So he need only concentrate on ҉҉ You may also lower a characteristic to gain extra points. For the required CON 12, POW 12, and CHA 14 to meet the example, reduce STR 11 to 9 to gain 2 points you can then prerequisite requirements. apply to other characteristics. To start, Mark adds 1 point each to CON and POW, and 3 ҉҉ Characteristics cannot be lower than the minimum possible points to CHA to get the prerequisites out of the way. This or greater than maximum possible for that characteristic, as leaves him with 5 points to spend. determined by its potential dice roll. He adds 2 points to STR, 1 to CON, 1 to SIZ, and 1 to DEX, as they are all very important to any combatant. Step 3: Calculate Valamir’s final characteristic scores are STR 13, CON 13, SIZ 14, DEX 12, INT 13, POW 12, and CHA 14. Attributes Valamir possesses a slightly above average strength, and is both Each character also has a set of attributes. These are particular reasonably healthy and energetic. He is a little above average capabilities derived from the characteristics, or determined by them, in size, of average intelligence, and strong of spirit. Valamir which are used to govern certain factors of game play. While most shows a slightly above average agility and coordination. He of this information is found in Mythras, some are reprinted here is also especially personable; he is generally noticed when he to highlight the differences between Classic Fantasy and the core walks into a room. system. The following attributes contain new or additional infor- mation; attributes such as Healing Rate, Hit Points, and Initiative remain as per Mythras. Experience Modifier Humans gain 1 additional Experience Roll over and above any Age acquired from CHA. Most campaigns are human centric, making it Determine your character’s starting age according to race as follows: easier to find other humans to train with or be trained by.

Age Table Race Age Height and Weight Dwarf 40+5d6 The table on page 9 has been reproduced from Mythras to facil- Elf 100+5d6 itate imperial weights and measures for those that prefer that sys- tem. Demi-human characters typically have heights that differ from Gnome 60+3d12 the basic human results outlined in Mythras. As such, apply the Half-Elf 15+1d6 size modifications for demi-human characters found on the table Half-Orc 14+1d4 opposite. Halfling Sample20+3d4 file Human 15+1d4

8