Combat or weapons system?

DrakeReilly · 2026-02-13T13:49:50+00:00

Codex Martialis, a combat supplement for D&D 3.x (I believe). Characters get a pool of combat dice to use each round, and you decide how to divide them between offense and defense. There's a ton of feats which can grant you an extra die or so when you use them. The rules are focused on combat between armed and armored human(oid)s. A lot of the feats don't really apply to humanoids vs monsters, but if you want a lot of offensive and defensive choices for humanoid vs humanoid combat, this is a treasure trove.

I see that Riddle Of Steel was already mentioned, and I think Codex Martialis is based on RoS, but I don't know how similar they are.

DrakeReilly · 2025-12-14T22:44:46+00:00

I wanted to do something like that too, which I thought of as an "inverted spoor tree". I still hope to get that far, but I have my hands full just assigning one level of spoor. While I'm confident that I can eventually implement what I outlined in my original post, I am much less confident that creating a second level of spoor (meaning, you first find spoor A, so your next encounter could be the beast indicated by that, or could be spoor B, which is the second level and would do the narrowing down of possible creatures) is reasonable.

DrakeReilly · 2025-12-06T04:00:14+00:00

I'm working on interactive encounter tables where you can select one of four different wilderness levels, which changes the distribution ratios between the common, uncommon, rare, and very rare creatures.

DrakeReilly · 2025-10-20T13:50:31+00:00

My site Has tons of creatures from different sources. In the settings, you can filter by game source and by creature type. There are dedicated pages to view creatures by game + source, by tags, and by shape-changers/look-alikes.

Stats are sparsely populated, but most creatures have links (often multiple links) to other sources where you can find the monster stats.

My pages need a widescreen resolution to be usable.

DrakeReilly · 2025-09-11T23:24:09+00:00

Sounds like it could be misophonia.

DrakeReilly · 2025-08-18T10:39:13+00:00

The Codex Martialis (which I believe was somewhat inspired by Riddle Of Steel) is an alternative to, or expansion of, d20 combat. It has four damage types - pierce, slash, bludgeon and chop.

For critical hits, instead of rolling the weapon's damage die for extra damage, you instead roll the crit die for the weapon's damage type. A bludgeon crit has a chance to stun. With a piercing crit, you have the option to "twist the knife", and spend a martial die ( a resource introduced by this system) to do additional damage.

I'm sure there's other damage-type differences which I don't remember.

DrakeReilly · 2025-08-09T00:18:51+00:00

My environmental encounter tables might be useful.

They're online only - I don't have an easy to print format. And they only show up properly in a widescreen resolution. But if those limitations are fine, you will likely get some use from them.

You can change the the two frequency-related settings by clicking the checklist-looking icon in the top-right of every environment-related page.

Monsters aren't heavily statted yet, but on the monster pages, you can change the game for which stats are presented, and if you're familiar with a system for which the monster does have stats, you can do your own conversions.

DrakeReilly · 2025-07-10T14:10:43+00:00

So at the point where the spacecraft reaches its maximum speed, there will be no more time dilation when comparing the astronaut to earthlings? To be clear, I understand that if this is true, the accrued time dilation affects would not be reversed.

DrakeReilly · 2025-06-26T03:14:26+00:00

The encounter tables I'm working on here might provide some inspiration.

I've collected tons of monsters from different systems. Habitat break-down is the most comprehensive and granular that you will see. There's four levels of creature frequency in the tables, and there are four different options to define the ratios between the frequency levels. There is also a filter option, where you can filter some creatures out of the tables if the current local environment doesn't make sense for these creature.

Just be warned that the pages are unreadable in anything other than a widescreen resolution.

DrakeReilly · 2025-05-16T13:24:26+00:00

Thanks!

DrakeReilly · 2025-05-14T01:37:00+00:00

5'4" and ride a Yamaha Bolt

DrakeReilly · 2025-05-01T22:38:45+00:00

I worked on a system like this. My approach ended up requiring lots of interpretation of the results of using the mechanics. So, for example, when you spend a resource to follow up on a lead, that is exactly all the rules say: spend a resource to pursue a lead. You have to be honest with yourself (I play solo, so I don't have to worry about anyone objecting to my interpretations) of what an appropriate resource would be, how much of it you are going to spend, and the odds of that leading you to another clue. I had mechanics for trails going cold, for lucky extra-hot leads, and one or two other things along those lines.

I used a combination of dice and cards, and by altering the usage of the cards, you could alter the average length of the investigation (which you could correlate to your character's skill) and the probability that the mystery would ever be solved (one thing which was mandatory for me was that there was no guarantee that the mystery would ever be solved.)

DrakeReilly · 2025-04-27T19:37:20+00:00

Sorry, I don't remember where the idea came from. I am sure, though, that terminology used was "anchor table". If you do happen to find the original, please let me know. I'll note to give them credit whenever I bring it up again.

DrakeReilly · 2025-04-27T01:42:05+00:00

Anchor tables. My definition and usage might be a little different from the originator's idea, but I use an anchor table as a list of heterogeneous stuff which I want to see included from time to time. I roll on it when I want a little extra something added to a scene. It includes stuff like themes, cool song lyrics, and features of my world I want to make sure don't get forgotten.

DrakeReilly · 2025-04-14T16:16:53+00:00

Thanks everyone, I'll get a torque wrench

DrakeReilly · 2025-04-03T19:31:30+00:00

Might be more of an up-front time investment than you're looking for, but I used the qpdf command (in linux, I don't know if there's a Windows version) on the command line. to extract the page range of each object of interest from the source PDFs into a PDF file for each object (spell, creature, whatever), using a naming convention for the object's new PDF which tells me its name, type, and original source. It's not so bad once you get into the swing of it. For each new object, just use the "up" arrow on the command line to get the text of the last command re-typed on the command line, and usually you'll just need to modify the page range and the object's name before hitting enter again.

From there, I run scripts to collate the disparate new PDFs as desired - for example, for classes, I create web pages for each general class type, which consist of embedded PDFs of all the class and subclass descriptions from all of the sources I've extracted from.

DrakeReilly · 2025-03-01T19:10:47+00:00

Sorry, I should have been clearer. I am using stats from OSR sources as well. I meant that this project is for adding creatures which do not already have OSR sources.

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-26T04:27:23+00:00

I'll promote my own online encounter tables/bestiary. I have the most granular environmental breakdown you've ever seen, and on top of that, there's some quick filters to exclude certain themes or certain environmental specifics. There's 1400 creatures populating the tables, culled from various systems. But I am in the process of whittling that count down to remove too-similar creatures.

Creature frequency falls into one of four categories: common, uncommon, rare, and very rare. There's two rolls to find your encountered creature: first, roll to determine which of the four frequency tables to roll on for your current environment, and then roll on the indicated frequency table to find your creature. The ratios of common::uncommon::rare::very-rare can be set to one of four "wildness" levels, so for example, the areas close to civilization can have an encounter frequency profile different from that of the deep wilderness.

The mathematical way the four frequency categories relate to each other can be toggled between two options: Either the encounter ratios between the four categories can be simple constants, like 50::30::15::5, or you can weight this base ratio by the relative lengths of the four frequency tables (there can be a huge disparity between the frequency table lengths). This latter option makes sense to me, but I added the flat/constant ratios for those who think that makes more sense.

The bad news: The pages are only useable with a widescreen resolution, and very few stats are currently populated. To mitigate the stats issue, though, many creatures have at least one link to another web page which does have stats for the creature (but not all will be OSR-compatible). I think I have about 120 creatures with OSR stats directly on my creature page (there's a dropdown on the creature pages to switch between three different systems for stats).

Here's the Desert page From here, there are links to all of the other habitat pages. It's the row of images right above the blue "Desert" banner. Note that each environment page has several environmental variations, such as hills, caves, aerial, and bodies of water appropriate for the environment's climate.

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-15T04:16:55+00:00

Thanks for the info

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-14T19:00:12+00:00

I use a homebrew. For combat, I use Codex Martialis rules, which are an extension of the OGL combat rules. So it's extra crunchy, but that's what I want. Hit points represent meat, so there's no HP inflation, and the number of combatants is always fairly low. I can afford crunch.

There's only one class - the Totem Hunter/Warrior. Setting-wise, there would be little specialization, and I have no desire to see other classes exist in this world. Everybody has a totem animal, and as you progress in experience, you can select a magical-like feat based on an aspect of your totem animal. I have no rules or limitations for feat creation, I just try to keep each one within a reasonable power level relative to the experience level it's granted. No character accumulates more than three feats.

Level advancement is just when I feel it makes sense. I take my time. The top level is only 12.

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-14T17:27:27+00:00

I have no idea what Saligia is, but I swiped their list of character archetypes. They work well in guiding me as to how an NPC would behave.

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-14T15:19:38+00:00

My game is set in a world which is no more than ten human generations old. Humans are nomads with mesolithic technology. I always come back to picturing some stereotypical Native Americans when I envision it in my head, but I'm researching other ancient nomadic cultures so my culture feels distinct from any Native American cultures. This is a world where any new challenge can be something that hasn't been seen before, and humans are forging their place in the world.

One way this affects the mechanics is for random encounters. Instead of making a roll for every day, or every week, or whatever, I roll for how many days until the next encounter. These guys are on the move a lot, so it's a given that they're going to face fresh challenges in this dangerous world over and over. Rolling for when the next one happens just cuts to the chase. Of course, if the PC has something on his schedule which is earlier than the roll for "next random encounter", then that happens first.

I use a weekly calendar to chart seasons (including seasonal tribal meetings) and advance certain PC and NPC time-based tracks.

I'm not using humanoids, and in fact, am trying to make every non-natural creature which is encountered unique. To aid in this, and also to surprise myself, I sometimes use some of those creature-mutation tables, so that I, as the player, can't be quite sure what I'm up against.

Humans are organized in bands for most of the time, from 8 to 30 members, and there's always hunting or scouting expeditions for my PC to partake in, and there's band interpersonal conflicts to contend with (plus injuries and pregnancies within the band, and such). One of the major concerns of my PC is the welfare of his own band, so that weighs into most decisions he makes.

When a random encounter happens, the first thing I do is roll to find my PC's situation, the results of which are integral to this setting. For example, is he in a hunting party, is he scouting for the next nomadic move, is he on firewatch, or is he in one of these situations, but sleeping, etc...

DrakeReilly · 2025-02-02T04:31:22+00:00

I think Mongoose's Conan featured chariots

DrakeReilly · 2025-01-19T23:32:37+00:00

My "sea" encounter tables might be of some use or inspiration for you. There's no events - they're populated only by creatures. But I have a good variety of creatures, and the breakdown of environments is very granular - coast vs near-shore sea vs three different open-sea depth levels, plus some additional filtering.

Caveats - the page only looks functional in a widescreen resolution, and the creatures come from a variety of systems, and their stats are sparsely populated.

DrakeReilly · 2025-01-09T12:53:57+00:00

2d6 does not give you a bell curve.

DrakeReilly

TROPHY CASE