Captain (OSR Class)

A while back, I posted my Captain class to the ACKS forums (where I posted under the name "luftmensch"). The captain is an inspiring warrior and a leader of men. The class is inspired by the marshal and warlord classes from D&D, and the captain class from Lord of the Rings Online. As I'm starting to gather material together for an upcoming FLAILSNAILS game, I thought I'd dust the class off, tweak it a bit for Labyrinth Lord and share it with y'all.

The beastmen hordes had pounded our forces all day. Me and the other boys from the Forsaken Sons hunkered in the shelter of a broken wall, catching a few minutes of respite while the other forces of Law fought and died in the ruins of the city. Maiden's Tower would soon fall, and the Chalice of Silver Tears would be in the clutches of evil.

We each looked to each other and nodded, no words needed. It was time to turn and run. There was no shame in it. All was lost.

Then a thunder of hooves, and Captain Belwyn rode up on his exhausted horse. He leaped from his saddle and strode towards us. His armor was rent in a dozen places. The left side of his helmet was dented, and his face was covered in blood with one eye swollen shut. Still, his voice was clear as a bell as he stood over us.

“Up! Get up, lads! We have them right were we want them! See? Soon the sun will rise and burn away these black clouds. With Bramahn's light behind us we'll send these beasts back to their pits!” He grabbed my by the shoulder roughly and lifted me to my feet, then turned and did likewise to the other Sons. “Up! Up and fight, I say! Fight on for the fate of Law and the kingdoms of men!” Our hearts stirred, and strength came back to our arms as we picked up our spears and shields once more.

Suddenly, a black shadow fell across the battlefield, and Therrovaux, the Dread Wyrm landed in the shattered city square. Black waves of terror washed from the beast like a palpable force. Elves and dwarves dropped their arms and fled in fear, but we did not falter. The beast spotted us, turned its serpentine eyes to us, and bellowed its defiance. Acidic death sizzled on its lips.

Captain Belwyn just grinned. He spat a wad of blood and broken teeth from his mouth and gripped his massive two-handed warblade. “C'mon, lads. Let's show these curs what human courage looks like!” The Captain bellowed a wordless warcry and charged the dragon.

And we followed.

Captain

The captain is a fighting man trained in leading and inspiring others. He may be a beloved commander who earns his troops' love and respect, or a tyrannical bully whose men follow him out of fear. While not as sturdy as a pure fighter, he is competent in all weapons and armor. His most powerful ability, though, his his skill in instilling courage and confidence in the men and women that follow him. With an few rallying words he can remove fear and bring strength to his fellows' arms. An experienced captain is so commanding, that even kings and emperors might pause and follow his orders.

Requirements: CON 9, CHA 13

Prime Requisites: CON and CHA

Hit Die: d6 (+2 HP after 9th level)

Fights as: Fighter 

Saves as: Fighter

Weapons: All

Armor: All

Special Abilities

Master Commander: The captain has mastered the art of command. His authority inspires men to follow him into danger. The captain’s henchmen and hirelings receive a +2 bonus to morale.

“But it is not this day…”: The captain can improve the morale of troops. Inspiring courage requires a few moments of oration before a battle (one round), and grants all allies within a 50' radius a +1 bonus to attack throws, damage rolls, morale rolls (for monsters or NPCs allied with the captain), and saving throws against magical fear. The bonus lasts for 10 minutes (1 turn). The captain can inspire courage in any given character once per day per class level. He cannot inspire courage on characters who are already engaged in combat.

At Fifth Level:
Bravery: The captainis immune to all natural and magical fear effects.

At Ninth Level:
Commanding Voice: The captain gains a +2 bonus to reaction rolls with creatures he speaks to. If this bonus results in a total of 12 or more, the subjects act as if charmed while in his presence. Creatures with a WIS greater than the captain’s CHA are immune to this power (and the captain will know they are immune).

At ninth level (General), a captain can build a castle. His legendary leadership abilities will attract 5d10 0-level warriors looking for training under his leadership, as well as 1d6 low-level captains (level 1-3) rallying to his banner.

Experience	Title	Level	Hit Dice
0	Bannerman	1	1d6
1,700	Standard Bearer	2	2d6
3,400	Rallier	3	3d6
6,800	Sergeant	4	4d6
13,600	Officer	5	5d6
27,200	Lieutenant	6	6d6
55,000	Commander	7	7d6
110,000	Captain	8	8d6
210,000	General	9	9d6
310,000	General, Level 10	10	9d6+2*
410,000	General, Level 11	11	9d6+4*
510,000	General, Level 12	12	9d6+6*
610,000	General, Level 13	13	9d6+8*
710,000	Lord Marshal	14	9d6+10*

*Hit Point modifiers from Constitution no longer apply.

Labyrinth of the Minotaur King [Mini-Map Monday]

So back in second-or-third grade, years before I started gaming, the cool thing to do in my class was to make maps. My friends and I spent so many hours drawing maps on regular notebook paper (when Morris brought graph paper to school one day IT BLEW OUR MINDS), then trading them with each other. Each of us tried to make the most confusing and difficult map we could. I never suspected that my preadolescent map fascination would lead to a hobby as a semi-pro dungeoneer. Who knew?

So... Labyrinth of the Minotaur King. This is the home of Crook-Horn, the mighty, black-furred king of the minotaurs who wields the flaming green greataxe, Hell-Harrower. The Labyrinth lies beneath the Obsidian Mesa, east of the Madlands, and was supposedly crafted by a race of hideous dwarf/minotaur hybrids ("mini-taurs"). Crook-Horn supposedly died centuries ago. I'm sure it's perfectly safe now.

Mooooo!

Middens of the Morlocks [Mini-Map Monday]

Today's map really is mini. As you can see in the photo, this map was drawn on the back of a little card I got from work. This is how I spend my lunch breaks.

A tribe of cannibal morlocks have made their home in the sludge-filled ruins of an ancient sewer. Recently a pod of magical mushroom men have also wandered into the dungeon, taking several rooms as their own middens. The two factions now clash over the limited space and resources. Can a band of adventurers recover the treasures from the ruined overcity without falling prey to either faction?

Click it to big it!

Do Not Piss Off My Players [Stars Without Number]

BOOM!

So, my Stars Without Number players set off a nuke.

My players got their hands on a nuclear device and used it to destroy their enemies and a large chunk of the surrounding city and residents.

Serious.

It's easily the most destructive event to ever happen to me in 25 years of gaming. 

It wasn't a quick thing, either. They spent several sessions plotting and planning this thing, then took sneaky action to execute it. I'm not going to even try to fully relate several sessions of action and intent, but I want to go over the highlights. It's neat how a bunch of different elements from the entire campaign fell together.

Player “Heroes”

Dr. Donna Danger (Jackie Montana's new identity) (Expert, xeoarcheologist)

Pete Stevens (Warrior, assassin) 

Hana Sola (Expert, pilot)

NPC Hangers-On
Dr. Henry Chase (morally-suspect old professor)
Gluglich Sheboygen (Yurgling Psychic)
So very many robots.

Our heroes' started their careers by doing the occasional freelance mission for Oroborus Industries, the most powerful megacorp in Persephone Sector. After a few adventures, the players figured out that Oroborus Inc isn't just vaguely sinister, but actively evil. This didn't really bother them that much, truth be told.

Eventually the PCs struck out on their own, discovered a pre-tech garden and got their hands on a space ship.  

While exploring the pre-Scream ruins on Las Diablas, they discovered the coordinates to Darsalam, a system the PCs had never heard of. Excited, our heroes restocked their new ship (rechristened Wild Hunt) and headed out to Darsalam, full of exploratory spirit.

Imagine their surprise when the PCs discover that Oroborus is already in the Darsalam system. Not only that, but the evil megcorp has interdicted the entire system! Patrol ships keep out any interlopers, like Wild Hunt.

As soon as Wild Hunt enters the Darsalam system, the Oroborus ship Invisible Hand accosts them and orders their surrender. 

This doesn't go over well. Wild Hunt is boarded. The PCs repel the boarding crew and kill the enemy captain. Invisible Hand blasts them good. The PCs realize that they are heavily out-gunned but manage to spike out of system before they are destroyed. 

The PCs are pissed.  Not only in this interdiction illegal, but the PCs are mortally offended that Oroborus had the audacity to try and keep them out!

Thus begins the long plan. The PCs have an enemy now, and they want to hit them hard.

Do not piss off my players.

The PCs nurse their wounds on Cedar, the the native, forest-covered planet of the Naga. Oroborus has a small presence here. Hana and Pete use their criminal contacts to try and find other people with a grudge against Oroborus. 

The PCs hook up with a small terrorist faction known as The Native Clutch. This radical Naga group wants to remove all human presence from Cedar. Their current target is Robofactorum-14, an Oroborus commercial robot factory on a small island. They give the PCs a small quantum detonator. This device itself isn't actually a bomb, but if the PC attach it to the side of a reactor, it will cause the reactor to overload and explode once they hit the timer. It's a dumb man's bomb. 

The PCs blast their way into Robofactorium-14, with Hana gleefully using her new rocket launcher. They decide that they don't really need to use the quantum detonator to explode the factory's reactor. Instead, they use Donna's technical skills to cause a meltdown, and the factory goes up in a massive explosion. During the raid, they were also able to make off with over a dozen commercial robot chassis (mostly nemesis and echo frames).

Do not piss off my players.

The PCs leave Cedar, letting The Native Clutch take the blame for the attack. They now have a quantum detonator. They can attach it to any reactor (in a factory, city, starship, whatever) and make it explode. Or, if they get their hands on some fissionable materials, they figure can make a nuclear bomb.

Now they have a plan. They want to blow up Oroborus's corporate headquarters on Croesus.

They need to get their hands on some fissionable materials. The PCs set up a meeting with a representative from Titanomachy Technologies, the largest military tech corporation in the sector and Oroborus's most bitter rival. In a secret meeting on Las Diablas, the PCs broker the deal. In exchange for the pre-tech lab they discovered (complete with the highly valuable fruit garden), the PCs get 3 million credits in Titan Tech "gift certificates" and a small quantity of cobalt-X (a powerful explosive). 

As I expected, the vast majority of the Titanomachy credits go to re-outfitting their ship--better weapons, more armor, repair materials. Since cobalt-X is a controlled, tracked material, Titan Tech just can't give them the explosive. However, the Titan rep slips them the coordinates to a small, automated research station, out in the wilds of Netherpool. "The robots and equipment there might have some cobalt-X there. It'd be a damn shame if a bunch of miscreants stumbled in and took off with it."

This is, of course, just what the PCs do, although they do have to fight a giant cryo-wyrm that (unknown to all) had made the research station its new nest.

The PCs have cobalt-X. The PCs have a quantum detonator. Any tech worth her salt can make a nuke out of this. 

Donna uses one of the stolen echo frames to build Bob, a robot that looks exactly like human and will pass all but the most evasive medical tests. She puts the bomb inside his stomach and links them into with Hana's new ghost-talker cybernetics systems. They now have a robot suicide bomber (Bob Ba-Bomb).

Once a year, all the major stockholders, CEOs, and other corporate captains hold a shareholders' meeting/Roman bacchanal. The worst kind of excesses--the kind of stuff Enron only wishes they could have done. The PCs have been doing all this in the three months leading up to the party, and that party is almost here.

The meeting/retreat/bacchanal is going to be held on Oroborus's private pleasure airship. All the guests will board the ship at Oroborus tower. The president of Oroborus, Draconis Suresh, is even supposed to be in attendance.

This is the PCs' target.

Using the vintage Hawaiian shirts they originally found on their ship, they disguise Bob as an eccentric billionaire. Donna programs him with a loud and boisterous personality. Pete and the Wild Hunt are wanted in the Croesus system, so he and Donna hid the Wild Hunt in an asteroid field while Hana loads Bob into their shuttle. Hana uses some fancy flying to slip onto the planet undetected. She uses a good chunk of their dwindling cash to rent Bob a top-end grav-limo and send him off to Oroborus tower. Hana heads back into orbit.

Bob gets to the tower, but he has no invitation, and security is tight. However, Donna programmed him well, and he is able to bluster his way inside. Bob comes to another security check-point, right outside the boarding area. This check-point includes powerful medical scanners that will detect his robot nature.

The PCs trigger the bomb.

It's a nuke, a Hiroshima-sized nuke. It takes out Oroborus tower. It takes out the pleasure ship. It takes out a massive chunk of city and all the residents therein.

Do not piss off my players.

The Croesus system is now in lockdown by the planetary government, but the Wild Hunt sneaks out of system before patrol ships can stop them.

In the following weeks, Croesus falls into civil war. The legit planetary government looks weak, and the megacorps take this opportunity to stage coups to grab total control of the system. Titan Tech already had warships in the system (since they were aware of the PCs' plans). Oroborus is hurt bad and has to pull its fleet from Darsalam in order to keep the Titan ships in check and prevent its utter destruction. The entire planet is a war-zone as megacorp fights megacorp with the planetary governemnt stuck in the middle. The death toll continues to grow.

But at least now our heroes can use this distraction to slip into the Darsalam system.

Do not piss off my players.

And do not ever tell them that they aren't allowed to go somewhere.

Goblin Grotto [Mini-Map Monday]

The Goblin Grotto includes a bridge over an subterranean river, where the local goblins (and the occasional dungeon robber) like to fish.

Click it to big it!

Five Pits of Mordiggan [Mini-Map Monday]

Way in the Deep Down Bellow, one may stumble across the Five Pits of Mordiggan. This collection of vile cauldrons of evil are dedicated to the hidden god of the dead. The Pit of Bile, the Pit of Bone, the Pit of Blood, the Pit of Shadow, and the Pit of Fire.

Click it to big it!

Mini-Mega-Dungeon [Mini-Map Monday]

That's right it's another mini-mega-dungeon. These things are really fun to make and strangely relaxing. This sprawling complex of caverns and chamber includes three entrances, several bridges over underground rivers, and a lake with ancient docks.

Click to biggify!

Drawn all free-hand with illustration pens on board.

Some day I'll get up the gumption to key these things...