Just Abyss Business

The strange setting of our final battle

Continuing our adventure, Cyclops hauls the battered Magneto out of the office building only to be accosted by a curious police officer. Cyclops, believing that he has convinced the officer to depart, turns his back only to be shot from behind. It is no police officer after all, but the evil mutant Mystique? In a flash of brilliance, Talia conjures a shield of water from a nearby cafe in order to create a shield. While this is effective, it is revealed that Mystique is not alone. A building crumbles, revealing Avalanche. During the commotion, the Blob and Pyro approach from behind. Destiny steps out of the shadows to join Mystique. Our heroes are surrounded.

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants make their demands clear. Our heroes can forfeit Magneto... or their lives! During the discussions, Destiny is mysteriously yanked away. Our heroes refuse to yield, and all chaos breaks loose. Avalanche is knocked into a nearby store, Pyro attempts to gain the advantage of high ground but is dispatched just as easily, and the Blob rolls incredible poorly.

Mystique finds herself wrapped in webbing. Of course the one who neutralized Destiny is non other than your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. The Blob is happy to continue fighting, but when Titania puts her claws to Mystique's neck he agrees to a mutual retreat.

Upon returning to the mansion, the Professor admits that he has released War-Weeb and Edgelord as they were under minor mind-control, trapped in a mental construct that forced their obsessions into action. Jellyburn, however, is under considerably more mental stress that is proving much harder to undo. He opts to beam everyone aboard the Starjammer where their physicia Sikarsky will be able to provide better care.

Our heroes are shocked to have been so casually whisked into space. They tell their parents all about it when they get the chance. Eventually, the girls are returned to Earth where their attempts to relax are interrupted by Beast, who advises that they could take the oppertunity to act like real superheroes.

Reluctantly, they agree to patrol around the city solving problems. These problems include a baker who is suspious of a recent croissant cart that has popped up, a burger bandit, a senior citizen medicine heist, as well as an anti-mutant protest-slash-festival going on in the park. Exhausted and damaged (Talia having been smashed by a truck weilded by a super-powered senior) they return to the mansion only to be beamed up by Xavier once more.


You will recall in the last issue that the X-Men had left on a secret mission. It is revealed only now that they are being held captive by Doctor Doom. With nobody else to aid them, Lilandra recruits her estranged step-son Prince Delita (an original character) to assist. You may think Prince Delita looks familiar, in which case you are correct. He is loosely based on Kid Gladiator.

Delita, Proud Shi'Ar Prince

The party crashes Doom's temporary castle (for his own has been taken from him at this time), and faces off against the Doom Squad. These four soldiers are equipped with powerful suits of armor designed to take on the Fantastic Four. The fight is a challenge, but our heroes pull through due to their ferocity.

Traveling the floors of Doom's castle, they free the X-Men from their trapped prisons, as well as steal a large amount of Doctor Doom branded merchandise. The only hero they are unable to free is Storm, who appears to have been turned into metal somehow. The party decides to infiltrate Doom's secret lab in order to find a device that may reverse this affliction. Unfortunately, this route passes through Doom's bedroom where he lies in wait. While haphazardly following a robot built in Storm's likeness, Titania comes face to face with doom and a batle for the ages begins.

Only a few of the many floors of Doom's castle

Titania is instantly trapped in a Doom Bubble, and Wolverine is sent flying out of the building due to a massive roll on Doom's part. Nightcrawler struggles to save a Wolverine who has been flung into the ocean, all while Colossus grabs hold of Doom to create an opening. Delita uses this opening to use his final attack which is a massive energy beam. Doom is damaged but standing, while the attack knocks Colossus through the wall. Delita has used all of his energy and slumps to the ground. "All that work for a drop of Doom's blood," says the Tyrant, as he kicks Delita to the ground. During this time, Talia has been running all of the faucets in Doom's bathroom, while Titania has managed to free herself and is fending him off. With one final coordinated team-up attack, they smash Doom hard enough to do some real lasting damage.

In fact, he is so smashed he comes apart. It is, of course, a Doombot.

They hear the ding of the elevator and brace for another battle. Doom, however, does not wish to fight. He explains he merely wished to test the might of the X-Men. With uncharacteristic cooperation, he cures Storm and coordinates their exit.

Upon returning to the Starjammer, the Professor is happy to see the X-Men but is frantic. It appears that Jellyburn and Magneto are trapped in the same mental prison. How such a thing is possible is unknown, but with his powers he transports our heroes into this mindscape to free them. Almost immediately they are harassed by a gang of ruffians, who flee at the first sign of mutant ability. They scream of sentinels, and is if being summoned, one appears. The girls hide out until the sentinel is gone, and are discovered by a much older Logan who is surprised to see them alive. He offers to bring them to safety. Who is this old man Logan, and why is he surprised to see two girls he saw just moments ago? Find out next time on X-Men.

When I started the campaign I just ran the introductory adventure from the X-Men box set. It was fun enough, but kind of all over the place. This time, however, I decided to come up with something on my own.

Talia

The player characters are Titania (aka Lurk) with the power to become a shadow creature and manipulate shadows, and Talia (aka Flash-Flood) who can run super fast and manipulate water.

Titania

I had to do some retconning because I wanted the game to take place during Claremont X-Men some time  after Dark Phoenix Saga with the players taking the place of Kitty Pryde, but with some elements from before then for storytelling purposes. This meant that the Beast who was in X-Factor in the intro adventure is now an Avenger. In addition, Professor X is still suffering from the nightmares from before the whole Shiar situation, so his powers aren't what they used to be. The players, along with an NPC mutant named Jellybean, are invited to the X-Men Mansion where they get the full tour and meet the team. In order to show them what the X-Men are all about, Xavier sets up a demonstration in the Danger Room. Unfortunately, somebody has sabotaged the control panel and the room goes out of control and the situation gets heated inside. When Xavier attempts to shut it down, the panel explodes knocking him unconscious. The confused and scared players rush to the power room only to discover it has been booby trapped with trip wires and a pretty shoddily made bomb.

Titania uses her powers to cut the massive cable between the generator and the danger room, however spends too much time arguing about how to interpret the results of a d100 and the bomb goes off, seriously damaging her.

After some time of recovery, they deduce a repairman that had entered the mansion earlier must be the culprit. The team splits into two: one to investigate the repairman's storefront in town, and the other to check on Moira McTaggart who also had an appointment with the same guy. The players elected to join Wolverine and Nightcrawler in visiting Moira only to find out that the guy who visited her home did not match the physical description of the one who went to the manor.

Wolverine suddenly demands everyone get into the Jeep, as Storm has called in over comms saying there was a scrap sentinel waiting in the building that burst out once they got near. The players rush into the city to face it. Because Talia can run faster than a car, she takes Jellybean on her back and rushes into battle. Nightcrawler teleports Titania, however poor Wolverine must simply drive.

An epic battle takes place

The battle is long and hard fought, but by the end the sentinel is armless, headless, and stunned for an incredibly long amount of turns. Ironically, the killing blow is dealt by Jellybean, the seemingly useless mutant who only moments ago was blasted off of Talia's back by a variable beam. Her mutant ability is to generate an aura of heat and light, and she delivers a wicked bearhug that melts into the helpless sentinel's leg causing it to topple over. They get out of there right as the cops are showing up.

After a few days of rest and investigation, the X-Men are sent off on an unrelated mission that is too dangerous for the PC's. Xavier gives them the run of the mansion while they wait for the X-Men to return. Jellybean seems oddly obsessed with being alone with Professor X, and the players do not pick up on this. Talia messes around in the pool, and Titania makes smores.

Jellyburn

A crash is heard from the library, and Talia makes it there first. Jellybean reveals herself to be an enemy actually known as Jellyburn. She also introduces her two allies Edgelord (supposedly a master assassin) and War-Weeb (a supposedly genetically perfect ninja). They have knocked the professor unconscious. Talia manages to evade the would-be kidnappers, and grabs the professor by his wheelchair and brings him upstairs. Despite being a teenage girl, Talia can lift 800lbs because a certain Judge did not look over the character sheets closely enough.

Titania, realizing that something is amiss, approaches the foyer only to see Talia zooming upstairs being followed by some strange fellows. She springs into action, going into her shadow form, but Jellyburn reveals that her powers are much stronger than she had ever let on. She glows brightly like a star, pushing the shadows away from her. With no course of action, Titania races upstairs. As it turns out, these invaders are not very physically fit and struggle to keep up.

Talia attempts to use water attacks to keep the enemies at bay, however they merely become steam in the presence of Jellyburn's aura. Talia performs the incredible stunt of throwing Professor X out of the window, and using her water abilities to catch him using the swimming pool. She gets a Red result, and the professor avoids being murdered by this incredibly reckless act.

War-Weeb

While this is happening, Titania maneuvers around the two lackeys. She hits War-Weeb so hard he flies through the wall, out of the mansion, into the courtyard. A one-hit KO. Edgelord's fate is similar, as she cuts him with her claws. As it turns out, these two are clearly being carried by Jellyburn, the only one with any real ability.

Edgelord

 Jellyburn, furious about the loss of her comrades, attacks Titania as they swing back and forth at each other. Each round, Titania takes damage due to the aura and even when her attacks connect. Eventually, the strain is too much and she must retreat. Fortunately, Talia has scrounged around Beast's former laboratory and locates a crossbow. She does not know that it is only a tranquilizer when she fires it at Jellyburn. The bolt explodes due to the tremendous heat however the tranquilizing vapors knock the villain out cold. Using more water from the pool, Talia cools off the now smoldering form.

A booming void is heard from downstairs. The heroes prepare for more combat, when suddenly Cyclops appears, carrying the limp body of War-Weeb over his shoulder. The players are concerned about this stranger (at this time he is not a member of the X-Men), but are set at ease by his strange aura of authority. They explain the circumstances, and Cyclops revealed that Professor X sent him a distress signal shortly before being attacked.

They interrogate the villains who reveal that their strange leader showed them each a vision of the future they wish to change. They gladly reveal the location of their master, and goad the crew into seeking them out.

Investigation

Cyclops takes the players to the address, kicking in the door. It is a cold office full of lockers and file cabinets. One of the lockers is shaking. Cyclops opens it to reveal a battered and bruised man. He falls to the floor, shivering and moaning. He looks up. It is Magneto.

Next time on X-Men.

After plowing through about a dozen superhero RPG books and testing a few of them, I was pretty disappointed until I decided to just play MSHRPG. I was originally put off by the massive amount of material to go through (Do I play Basic, Advanced, or Basic Revised?) but after running through an intro scenario I'm seeing why people feel it so hard.

We played with Canon characters first to test the system out and then started making our own. Almost immediately we were incredibly confused. The Basic, Advanced, and Ultimate Powers Rules have different rules for character creation (albeit with similar bases). If you use Ultimate Power you can end up with like 7 million powers, and I couldn't determine if that was the intended way to play the game or not. I ended up rolling the below character using a combination of the three books.

I think for our upcoming campaign we'll use the With Great Power point-buy system. Using it, Euclid comes out to a little less than 300 points. I think. I don't know man, I just roll dice.

Name	Euclid
Public Identiy	Tommy Zenith
Age	15
Origin	Mutant
Fighting	Good [10]	Health	74
Agility	Incredible [40]	Karma	46
Strength	Poor [4]	Popularity	Shift 0 [0]
Endurance	Excellent [20]	Resources	Poor [4]
Reason	Typical [6]
Intuition	Excellent [20]
Psyche	Excellent [20]
Powers
Extra Eyes	Good [10]
Euclid has an extra eye on his forehead, as well as one in each palm. Each eye is responsible for a specific type of Beam.
Enhanced Sight	Typical [6]
Due to having extra eyes, Euclid is able to notice things Normal people wouldn't. This ability is currently weak, as he as only discovered his mutant powers.
Force Beam	Incredible [40]
Fired from the forehead. Limitation: Power cannot inflict less than power rank damage
Ensnarement Beam	Remarkable [30]
Fired from the left hand. Limitation: Requires left hand be free and uncovered
Stun Beam	Incredible [40]
Fired from right hand. Limitation: Requires right hand be free and uncovered
Talents	Thrown Weapons, Acrobatics, Escape Artist

Introduction
I know I'm late to the party, but I've been playing Final Fantasy XV and thought I'd adapt the magic system to Into the Odd. It's not even really a great system because every spell is just a zap, but I like idea of modifying spells even if it's never really used in a clever way. I'm still thinking about a way to make it more interesting, but for now this is a pretty straightforward adaptation.

The system revolves around pulling magical elements (which I'll call mana) from sources (which I'll call springs), and combining them into exploding flasks. In the game, the flasks are permanent however I'd have them be single use, if only because I'm always looking for more ways to spend the players' money. This essentially makes them the same as bombs, but with added effects. I'd put the cost of elemancy flasks at between 5 and 10 shillings. This makes them more expensive than your typical tool, but much less than a bomb (which deals d12 damage on its own). Even then you still have to find springs and components. Canonically, this ability is restricted to royalty. You can decide yourself who has access to elemancy and who doesn't in your game.

Elemancy
There are three elements: fire, ice and thunder. Magic-users will need to keep track of how much mana they have stored of each of the elements. I'd recommend a hard cap of 10 per element, just so the numbers don't get out of control. When pulling mana from a spring, roll 1d10 to determine how much of that element you are provided with.
Fire and lightning spells ignore armor (as Heat Ray/charge monsters from Supercapacitor). Ice spells freeze the target in place until they pass a STR save (as Chilling Cloud). Certain enemies may be resistant or weak to certain elements.
When crafting a spell, you spend mana equal to the level of the spell you want to cast. You may mix elements, however only the majority element counts as the spell type. For example, a spell composed of 4 Fire and 3 Ice would be a fire spell. If there is every a majority tie, flip a coin to determine the spell type. 

You cannot craft Level 4 spells, as they can only be created with special components outlined below.

LEVEL	MANA	DAMAGE
1	3	d6
2	7	d8
3	11	d10
4	NA	d12

The following was made for Into the Odd but you could apply it to any kind of dungeon game. Roll for the weapon type, and then for the description.

Weapon Type
1 Sling (d4)
2 Dagger (d4)
3 Spear (d6)
4 Staff (d6)
5 Mace (d6)
6 Bow (d6)
7 Short Sword (d6)
8 Hand Axe (d6)
9 Longsword (d8)
10 Battle Axe (d8)
11 Longbow (d8)
12 Polearm (d8)

Weapon Description
1 Inscribed
2 Practice
3 Crude
4 Sinister
5 Worn-Out
6 Foreign
7 Fancy
8 Ancient
9 Gigantic
10 Mediocre

Inscribed
The weapon has some kind of inscription on it. It could be meaningful, or total nonsense.

Practice
The weapon is for training purposes and is not meant to be lethal. The damage becomes d4 regardless of what kind of weapon it is.

Crude
The weapon appears to be crafted in a rush or by primitive methods. While it works just fine, it looks like a piece of junk.

Sinister
The weapon is scary looking, or has some kind of creepy decoration. You will spook commoners carrying something like this around.

Worn-Out
The weapon is a hand-me-down, was scavenged, or is otherwise very old and battered and it shows.

Foreign
The weapon came from another place, and looks kind of weird.

Fancy
The weapon is elaborately decorated. Worth double the asking price, but makes you a target of pick-pockets.

Ancient
The weapon is from another age, dug out of the ground of pilfered from ruins. Is of great interested to historians and collectors.

Gigantic
The weapon was crafted for a humongous person. Damage is considered to be die step higher, but only if you have 12 or more STR. Otherwise, all attacks are impaired.

Mediocre
Nothing special about this weapon at all.

I was putting together a list of magical gun effects, when I decided it was much more interesting to have gun curses. Listed below are the kind of afflictions a witch might place on your gun. Guns can usually be cured by a gun doctor if treated within 1 to 2 weeks, but after that the curse may become permanent.

1 Humphrey's Snack Attack
Regardless of what kind of ammunition you load, the gun continues to shoot peanuts. These peanuts deal no damage, but they kind of sting at close range.

2 Skyward Sniper
Bullets fired seem normal, but after about a foot will start flying straight into the air, far off into space. Shots fired are impaired unless your target is directly above you.

3 Guntongue
The gun no longer fires bullets, but instead fires out a string or profane insults. Luckily, this hex is easy to remedy. You just need to clean the gun's mouth out with soap.

4 Isolda's Eternal Gunman
The gun is stuck in your hand by an unrelenting force. You can still use it, of course, but try using anything else with that hand of yours.

5 Thirsty Man's Madness
Your gun now squirts water. Also it's salt water so you can't even drink it.

6 The Friendly Assassin
Each time you intend to pull the trigger, you are compelled to shout a warning out to whoever may be around. It's usually something like, "GET DOWN," or "WATCH OUT."

7 Action Hero Hex
You are unable to pull the trigger without saying a witty one-liner. If the one-liner is terrible, the attack is considered impaired.

8 Lacracia's Turnabout Bullets
Bullets fired loop around and fly at whoever fired the gun. Particularly dangerous, unless you you're shooting people behind you.

9 Garden Gun
The gun fires seeds, which after a few months (with enough sunlight and water) will sprout a bullet flower.

10 Gunman's Impotent Rage
Bullets fired always peter out and fall to the ground after a few feet. The gun's still lethal within a yard or two, but outside of that even the peanut curse is better.

11 The Insatiable Monster Mouth
The gun fires normal bullets and operates fine, however you have no idea where these bullets come from because the chamber has been replaced with a mouth that constantly begs for water. No water, no bullets.

12 Pervert's Only Shot
The gun ejects a strange sticky substances that latches on the target and will attempt to reel them in like a fish. Certain particular weirdos don't even consider this one a curse.

13 Queen's Curse
The gun fires bees, which could be a useful method of attack if the bees weren't impartial and just as eager to sting you as anyone else.

14 Lacracia's Coward Bullets
Bullets fired only hit people who aren't looking at you. For anyone who can see you, the bullets pass cleanly through them.

15 Slippery Hand Hex
Every time this gun is fired, it falls out of your hands. It doesn't matter if you nail the damn thing to your wrist--it will find a way to wrestle itself loose and fall to the ground.

16 Underwear Snare
The gun will only work if you are stripped down to your underwear. You have no idea how the gun knows this, and for whatever reason it doesn't work if you're naked.

17 Poet's Curse
Everytime you fire the gun, you must recite the phrase, "I shoot the gun," and then follow it with a line that rhymes. It has to be a different line every time, or the gun misfires.

18 Beuracracy Bullets
Each time the trigger is pulled, a small contract ejects from the barrel that must be read, signed, and returned to the barrel. After this has been done, a bullet will fire within 3-6 minutes.

19 Nosey Neighbor's Nightmare
Each time the gun is fired, your nose gets longer.

20 Elzandra's Metronome
This gun sends out a never-ending clicking sound that repeates infinitely, and can only be fired to the beat.

Here is your starting equipment table for Into the Old West.

It occurs to me that making Into the Odd work in the old west basically only requires messing around with the equipment and starter tables. You could argue this is true with almost any setting. However, I've decided to go a step further and create rules for Mexican Standoffs and Duels. I tried to keep them as simple as possible to keep in the spirit of ItO.

Please note, these aren't a replacement for normal combat and shouldn't be used all the time. Standoffs can be a good way to start off a fight, but only when it makes sense. Duels are more involved affairs, and either incredibly deadly or hilariously awkward depending on the skill of the duelists.

Mexican Standoff
Each person involved secretly designates a target. Do this by writing them on an index card or something.

Each combatant then makes a DEX save and records the difference between their roll and their DEX ability score. We'll call this the DRAW. Anyone who fails their DEX save either hesitates or misses their shot.

Starting from the highest DRAW, the player reveals their target and rolls damage as normal. Anyone shot this way forfeits their ability to fire during the standoff, regardless of whether they were rendered unconscious or not.

This continues until everyone has fired or been shot.

Here is an example.

Four gunfighters stand in a circle: Lil Bob, Big Bob, Bobbina, and Dog Horseman. Each of them secretly designates a target, and makes their DEX save. 

Lil Bob fails his DEX save right away, so he hesitates. Big Bob rolls a 4 vs a 10 DEX, so his DRAW is 6 (10 minus 4). Bobbina's DRAW is 8, and Dog Horseman's DRAW is 11.

Starting with Dog Horseman who scored the highest DRAW, he reveals his target which is Bobbina. He rolls damage, and Bobbina is shot. Normally, Bobbina would shoot next since she has the 2nd highest DRAW, but she can't because she was shot. Next, Big Bob reveals his target was Lil Bob and rolls damage. Lil Bob is shot, and never got to fire in the first place because he flinched. 

From here on, combat would continue as it normally would, favoring the party of the person with the highest DRAW. 

Duels
Duels use the concept of DRAW but in a different way. In a duel, two slingers face off until some external force compels them to shoot one another.

We do this in rounds. During the first round, both players simultaneously make a DEX save and record their DRAW. We continue doing this until either player fails their DEX save, recording their DRAW each time they roll.

After the first failed DEX save, both players build a dice pool. For each DRAW value that was recorded, find the closest die value that it exceeds, and add it to the pool. For example, if you have a 5, you would add a d4. If you have an 8, you would add a d8. Anything less than 4 is disregarded, and anything higher than 12 is considered a d12.

Both players roll their dice pool, and the highest scorer wins the duel and deals damage equal to the sum of the dice.

Here is an example. 

Loose McGoose is facing off against Lucky O'Ducky. In three rounds, they get DRAW values as outlined below. 

Loose McGoose: 4, 9, FAIL
Lucky O'Ducky: 2, 8, 7

McGoose's dice pool looks like this: d4, d8. 
O'Ducky's looks like this: d8, d6

One die is missing from O'Ducky, because any DRAW lower than 4 disregarded, since there is (for our purposes) no die smaller than d4. 

Both roll their dice pools. 

McGoose rolls a 7, and O'Ducky rolls a 12. O'Ducky scores fortune's favor and shoots McGoose, dealing 12 damage. 


Typically, a duel ends after the first shot, but a less honorable person may choose to continue firing. I leave that up to you.

FAQ
Q. What happens if both duelists roll the same amount?
A. They both take damage

Q. What happens if neither duelists scores a DRAW higher than 3?
A. They fumble around ineffectually or fire into the air.

Q. What if my character only has 3 DEX?
A. Try shooting people in the back instead.

I am alive. I've been out of commission due to illness and our campaign pseudo-ended after we had trouble getting together a few weeks in a row. I've mostly been messing around with Tabletop Simulator making dumb board games and stuff.

Into the Odd lazy character sheets

See screencap for some ITO NPCs. Torah from Heaven, and a Suicide Elf (elves that live recklessly as an affront to the immortality of their fathers).

I think we may be trying FATE pretty soon just to see what it's like, but I really just want Bastionland.

• Miles and Poco opened up a sandwich shop in the Temple District of Veztm called Sandwich Shrine.
• They battled one of Barnabold’s lieutenants in an abandoned building and nearly managed to beat him before he escaped. He got away with 1 HP.
• Poco, immediately after the previously mentioned battle, was challenged by a bottom-feeding duelist and managed to strangle the guy with a garrote while still bleeding out from his earlier wounds.
• Made enemies of some local monks.
• Escaped from corrupt privatized police-men by causing a massive explosion.
• Poco was brought down to 0 Willpower while setting up a bank account, ending up temporarily brain-dead due to bureaucracy.
• The party established a network of messenger pigeons.

Merchant Prince Desideratus

Art by Me

Name: Raganhar the Padling
STR 12 DEX 16 WIL 9 HP 11
Items: Ancient Sword (d8), Archaic Armor (Armor 1), Tattered Cape, Lots of Scars

Raganhar is old. Really old. In fact, his full name contains so many titles and honorifics that he's forgotten most of them. He can tell you stories about a time before Bastion, but you probably wouldn't understand him because he uses weird words like 'dost' and 'thou'. If you really press him, he might tell you about how he was a knight in a sacred order in a kingdom far away who was turned into a frog by a witch along with his knight companions.

Due to his nature he is capable of superhuman agility, often leaping from buildings like more of a man-bat than a man-frog. He is also capable of snatching distant objects with his tongue.

You will find Raganhar on the fringes of civilization, hunting massive beasts and protecting lost travelers.

Art by me via MS Paint

Name: Junot
STR 8 DEX 11 WIL 16 HP 4
Items: Pistol (d6), Knife (d6), Shovel, Crowbar

Some people do bad things for money, so maybe they can afford not to have to do bad things anymore. Junot, on the other hand, robs grave because he wants to finance bigger and better grave robberies. It's a sport for him, like boxing or chess.

He is a smooth talker who always has a lie queued up, and is especially adept at appearing innocent in scenarios where he's very obviously the villain.

You will find him in graveyards at night, or deep in tombs. Despite Junot's shady characteristics, he will not betray or otherwise try to screw over anyone who helps him out. Though, most of the time you won't even realize you're what you're helping him do. Sometimes grave-robbing is a team sport.

Name: Mussold Schwanpfalz, Occupation: Shipwright, Traits: strong, healer, Psychology: fetishizes sitting down, Age: 69, Hair: shaved red, Eyes: blue, Social Ties: sister (healer, openly despised by Mussold), spouse (enduring, openly despised by Mussold), History: became chronically ill at 18, had a minor accident at 20, witnessed a murder at 26, got away with a major crime at 35, was exiled at 62

“I like big butts and I cannot lie.”

1. An Adventure
Victorious the Venturesome Academic and Jib Duiggys (dwig-iss) the Monkeymonger are drawn to city of Wimborne by a common dream. Each time they sleep, they see images reassuring them of their absolutely unique place in the universe and their DESTINY, but only if they come to the city.

The city is bustling with travelers with the same thoughts. The tourists are corralled into a town square, and watch a presentation about the type of chronic foot pain that plagues travelers and adventurers. Of course, the point if it all is to sell shoes.

Victorious determines that the shoes reek of a low-grade enchantment, but is fascinated by the type of technology that could transmit images to dreams. Jib Duiggys sees this as an opportunity to sell monkeys.

The next day, they make their way to the abandoned baron's manor to seize this technology only to find out that it has been occupied by a terrorist theater troupe. City guards hide behind sacks and low walls while a talented archer (and soprano singer) fires at them with obnoxious precision.

One such guard sees the spindly magic student and derelict monkey-handler and, for whatever reason, decides that they are fit to infiltrate the premises. There is a rusted window on the prison tower that could easily be smashed, but to reach it you'd have to be some kind of MASTER CLIMBER.

2. Not a Review
I liked Troika almost right away. Getting Cake to play was easy. For Christmas, I got him Sorcery! on Steam and he kept making references to its signature monosyllabic spells. He is currently on New Game+. Sophia will play anything, but gets anxious with any system that has random or semi-random character creation.

The physical book itself is unimpressive, but cute. The cover features BOOB and WANG which makes it unacceptable for God's America, and prevents me from waving it in the face of small children which I do with all of my other books. It came with a bag of adorable, colorful dice used for initiative. Functional. Useful. Fashionable. But I would love a hardcover.

Both players were immediately captivated by the backgrounds, as I was. I immediately found myself theorizing backgrounds based on Dark Souls (something I had previously done with the Dragon Age RPG)--but for game one, at least, we would play RAW.

I'm a particular fan of RPGs with less than 64 pages, but I found myself wanting more. More books. A bigger book?

3. A Literal Troika
There is me, Cake, and Sophia. That's my group. Not much OSR content is great for small groups without the addition of hirelings or familiars, but Troika works for a few reasons.

NPCs will have Stamina and Skill, and that's pretty much it. Any NPC encountered is a potential ally, because all I need to do is pin them with a couple of arbitrary numbers and they suddenly become full-fledged party members.

Almost every time a sword is swung in Troika, somebody is going to get hurt. We've had entire enemy parties wiped out before the players ever had their own turn. In the few cases where we had tied rolls, it was thematic--swords clashing together, or tense stand-offs. Things were always moving forward.

I tend to judge systems based on how little they get in my way, and I am a very pushy person. Troika never got in the way. It actually pulled me ahead a few times.

4. Not an Adventure
I created the first adventure myself. The second game was Inn of Lost Heroes by Small Niche Games. It was a mistake? It was fine. I wanted to see how easily content for other games could be converted over. Without a monster book for Troika, I used some monsters from Advanced Fighting Fantasy and just eyeballed the rest.

IoLH is very much rooted in D&D, making specific references to classes and being a kind of commentary on the dangerous nature of the traditional RPG party. Not a good fit for Troika, but weirdly poignant as I find myself moving away from traditional dungeon crawls to more character oriented games.

5. Not an Adventurer
The crazed ex-cleric points at Sonny the Vengeful Child and says, "Her children were killed by adventurers like you!"

Sonny responds, "I'm not an adventurer," before asking me what the old man's name is so he can add him to the revenge list.

Language of Loathing
The common language spoken by most people.

Language of Love
Spoken only by duelists and monks. While normal people cannot speak it, they can understand it inexplicably.

Duelists
People who have ascended to a higher form and live solely to kill each other in order to dictacte the fate of mankind. They speak the language of Love. Duelists very rarely interfere with normal people. Physically, they resemble clowns.

Monks
They devote their lives to the needs of duelists, while promoting peace. Any monk is obligated to help a duelist that needs them. Monks are explicitly banned from using any modern weapons, thus they use ancient wave spadas and luminous cannons when their hands are forced to violence.

Luminous Cannons
Very large guns usually worn on the back. They are powered by various energies given off by the user, thus monks often train in order to perfect their luminous beam.

Wave Spada 
Essentially cup hilt rapiers. The blades themselves phase in and out of the Bend thus cutting through most normal materials. Extremely rare, as they are often passed down from monks to pupils or taken off the corpses of dead duelists by monks. Also every duelist has one. Wave spadas will always match the phase of another wave entity it encounters thus it can parry other spadas or even wave rounds. When wielded by a person without sufficient SYMPATHY is is just a normal sword.

Laughless (Clown)
Soldiers cybernetically and surgically modified to look like duelists, though they use knives and rifles as opposed to wave spadas. Each clown has a chip implanted in their head with large amounts of knowledge which is only accessible via a split personality they've developed as a sort of operator. Clowns must work alone, and it is forbidden for them to come into contact with one another.

Wave Rounds
Certain rifles can fire a wave round which will phase through targets and pierce any armor. These are forbidden to use on spacecraft. A rifle can typically only fire a single wave round every few minutes or otherwise break down or melt.

Awakening
AKA: Sword of Awakening
Type: Sword +3

Supposedly crafted by a mad magician who wanted to be awake at all times to guard his secrets.

The wielder of Awakening has a 1 in 6 chance of actually being able to sleep or get the benefit of a long rest. 5 out of 6 times the weapon will unleash an otherworldly shriek directly into the wielder's mind in order to stir them awake. They suffer sleep deprivation as normal. If the wielder manages to go 11 days without sleep they simply die.

The sword has a bizarre effect against the undead who are typically immune to sleep spells. If at least one damage is dealt to an undead by Awakening, the undead must succeed in a saving throw or fall asleep.

Frozen Heart Slayer
Type: Sword +3

The original wielder died heroically, stabbing a frost giant from the inside after having their upper torso swallowed by the beast.

The wielder of Frozen Heart Slayer is always cold. Really really cold. While the cold is technically an illusion, the feeling is very real and can lead to sickness or death. If no attempt is made to ward off the cold (wearing multiple jackets, being near fire, etc.), every hour the wielder has a 1 in 6 chance of developing frostbite. This cold feeling will never leave, regardless of whether the user moves to a tropical island or falls into a volcano.

Attacks made by the Frozen Heart Slayer do not cause pain, and many will not even realize they have been harmed. If the wielder misses an attack with this weapon, the defender must succeed in a saving throw or suffer 1d6 cold damage as the breeze caused by the swing creates a deadly chill.

The Knives from Nowhere
Type: Knife +1

Nobody knows where these knives come from, because nobody knows where nowhere is.

If the wielder of this weapon is in need of a knife, they will find one--in their pocket, under a flower pot, behind somebody's ear. It doesn't really seem to matter. The knives eventually disappear after a minute or two if not being held. Supposedly they go back to nowhere.

When the wielder draws (summons/conjures??) a knife, there is a 1 in 6 chance that it will not be a knife. Roll on the table below to determine what appears.

1. A fish (type of fish decided by referee)
2. A fork or spoon (50/50 chance of either)
3. A scroll with an encouraging message.
4. A scroll with a disparaging message.
5. Any type of long slender vegetable (carrot, celery, etc.)
6. Literally just a handful of sticky honey.