dungeon doll

unified resolution systems are a big thing in modern rpg design. generally, the question i see a lot comes down to this: "why have multiple different [dice] tools for different things when you could have one system that handles everything." i used to feel this way, but since od&d has become my preferred system to a pretty strong degree, i've kind of changed my mind on it. why use multiple tools when you could just have one system? because sometimes different tools are better suited to different jobs. as i see it, od&d has three basic tools: binary checks: roll 1d6 and compare to an x-in-6 chance to check if shit happens, otherwise shit doesn't happen. usually, the chance of shit happening is a 2-in-6. use this for things you check constantly, and only want to "work" sometimes (forcing doors, listening at doors, finding secret doors, wandering monsters). your stats don't really effect how good you are at putting your ear against a door. spe...

Got to run more Palace of the Vampire Queen, with a slightly shorter session this weekend. I've been loving playing one-on-one, its been a really great change of pace! While Vampire Queen  (1976) was written post Greyhawk (1975), and expects its use, we have been playing with flat od&d, only converting stats backwards as needed. This also means we are using od&d's XP for monsters slain, which is far more generous then in Greyhawk. I think this has been working well, since treasures on the first floor are rather sparse. 

Last night I dreamt there were wolves about my city in the night. I asked someone why, and they told me where werewolves come from. Not from a bite, before that. *** They choose you. The wolves, they speak to you in dreams, from beyond the threshold of haven's home: We are the princes of the night-forest. Run with us, dance with us. Kill what you eat with your own teeth. Down the road, the farmer, you know him, but not well. Unlatch the fence. Open the door to the chicken coop. In the deepest hour, a butchering. A flock reduced to ruby feathers. The wolves, of course, keep their word. You dance with them in the night. You learn to take their shape. From here, it spreads with violence, it spreads with blood and it spreads with teeth. But where it starts, at patient zero, it is born of an act of love. wolf -- by alice

I got to run  Palace of the Vampire Queen (1976) for a dear friend today! I think it went extremely well overall, and its fun to hopefully have a game going which requires significantly less scheduling to make happen. She played multiple characters, mostly a mechanical conceit to make the dungeon work, but I loved to see the life she gave these characters (each written on a space the size of a cue card).

As often happens with this blog, I intended to post this in late September, then had to put it off because of school. I'm really pleased with this two-line combat matrix . I had a couple other ideas for how I might use it with od&d. Mages Mortals and Monsters vocabulary can also be adapted to spells, as follows: Charm Person only applies to Mortals. Charm Monster  effects both Mortals and Monsters. Same logic applies to  Hold Person  and  Hold Monster . Protection from Evil  provides its defensive bonuses against Monsters but not Mortals. Hold Portal  prevents the passage of Mortals, but not Monsters.  Wizard Lock  blocks both. Sleep  ignores hit dice and effects 2d8 (or 2d6, whatever your preference) Mortals or 1 Monster. Monsters can cross a Wall of Fire (taking damage), but Mortals can't. Heroes One could add a Heroes tier between Mortals and ...

This was inspired by my recent read-through of Holmes Basic. When I've played older versions of d&d previously, I've tended towards converting to ascending AC. To mix it up, I wanted to try an approach to the classic combat matrix that appealed to me a bit more. Yes, this could all still be done with Ascending AC and attack bonuses, but I wanted to play around with how tables/vocabulary can effect game feel.

I've had this on the back burner for a while, but reading this  post about Fighters from Evie Willems of Spider Queen finally gave me the energy to finish it! Presented here is one possible way to make fighters a bit more exciting. Inspired very heavily from a Strong ability in WhiteHack 2e. I love how this ability enables a type of diegetic advancement for fighters. The flavor I've applied to it is inspired by boss souls in Dark Souls and eating monsters in Nethack. This also doubles as my take on eating monsters. *** (For fighters) When you slay a monster and consume its flesh (or its soul), you may take on an aspect of its power. Gain bonus Hit Points equal to the monster's total number of Hit Dice, and a property associated with that monster, negotiated between you and your referee. All bonuses last until you do this again. Example:  A fighter kills an ogre and consumes its soul. She gains 4 bonus Hit Points and +2 to her attack damage (the thing ogres do). She later do...

Dungeon Doll is a year old today (at least, my first post is). I'm honestly still really excited/surprised by how positive the reception has been. If you're someone who's been on the fence about making a ttrpg blog for a while, I highly recommend going for it. I also want to thank everyone in the blog space who's corresponded with or about this blog, its been very encouraging!

If you play an elf at my table, you're actually playing a Cribswap.  They get all the same traits of Elves in od&d. Edit 2025/12/14: added Lunar and Solar aspects, based on how I've been running cribswaps in Palace of the Vampire Queen .   *** 1,000 years ago, faeries ruled the earth, draped in leaves of gold. They crossed the skies in wild hunts, slaying beasts and men with blade of glass and helm of bronze. The faeries were driven from the surface with fire and iron. The Queen of Faeries now holds her court beneath the hills, within the Underworld. It is said that faeries cannot create life, and so must reshape it. A child was snatched from its home, taken to be made an elf, and you were left in its place. You were made to die. But you didn't. Rejected by your family, cast out by your community. Under unknowable stars you quested for meaning. You lived. You learned. You wondered. Bled and cried and scratched and screamed. What could be more human then that? Aspects...

A great curved sword, hiltless. Wavy blue patterns permeate its dark steel. +1 to hit. Long ago a mighty warrior cut the Bale-Worm Sleeer in two, and a great river sprung forth from the gashed earth. +2 to hit and damage Dragons, Basilisks, and other legless creatures. Rivermouth speaks in dreams and echos. More than anything, it wants its wielder to change the lay of the land, to reorder the earth in the pattern of heaven. Second most, it wants to cut slinking things in twain and watch them wriggle in despair. When you slay a Dragon with Rivermouth, it gains a charge. These may be spent at any time to cast Move Earth, Part Water, or Lower Water. A Lawful weapon. 9 Intelligence, 8 Egoism. *** In The Caverns of Thracia there is a +2 lawful Red Dragon slaying sword. This is loosely based on a rewrite I did of that sword for a game some years back. Further Reading:  I highly recommend this recent post from Warren D. of I Cast Light! , which provides a table of demands for sentient we...

A grand construction of marble, more sepulcher then castle. Standing stark against rocky peaks, it gleams in the sunlight. The surrounding earth is dry and cracked. Nothing grows for miles around. Supply wagons arrive monthly, laden with plunder, sustaining the castle's men.

A slender youth stands before two horsemen, armed and armoured. Her hair is dark and matted. Behind her stand a labourer and a coward. " We are free people. I am Jackdaw. I spilled the blood of Magnus Threefinger. "

A dungeon god . For a zine I'm working on.

In esoteric circles, it is well-documented that the title of Arch-Druid must be earned in blood. Witches have their own practices. In order to attain the title of Crone, a witch must acquire the wisdom of ages. This must be taken from one who is already a Crone. Once a Crone is found, a reaction roll must be be made, a positive reaction dictating that they will part with their wisdom freely. On a neutral roll, you must prove your worth by completing a momentous task. On a negative reaction, you must kill them and take it. In any case, to gain a Crone's wisdom, you must drink it. The old Crone is killed, and you will ascend to Cronehood. This process is extremely painful, requiring the drinker to live the lives of all previous Crones in their line. The new Crone's flesh will age rapidly, turning wrinkled and sinewy. She will carry herself with newfound strength. Ascension increases wisdom to 18, as well as the usual increases from advancing a level. Regardless of how this power...

Variant reaction roll for when you arrive at a settlement in an 'iron age' type game. I'm not a historian, this is primarily inspired by Beowulf , when he and his company come across Hrothgar's men.

A while ago I had a dream about a giant bear made out of wood, filled with books. This is my attempt to expand on that.

Speak: "I am the thief of fate the stoat that drinks gold from the hen's empty nest no lock will go un-broken no hoard will go un-plundered I am trespasser and transgressor I will take everything from you."

This is my contribution to the 'Elements' Blog Bandwagon from the Prismatic Wasteland Discord server! [Edit: all the posts from the Blog Bandwagon can be found collected here! ] I've never been the biggest fan of the elemental planes, and I wanted to re-imagine them as something that excited me. For a while I've been interested in the idea of mapping them onto planets.

I'm not gonna cross-post this anywhere because I don't really consider it polished/finished/whatever, but if you're reading this it can be our little secret :)

In case you missed it, tomorrow (Jan 18), I'm up for the Debut Blog category in the #BLOGGIES24. If you've been enjoying Dungeon Doll, I would love it if you considered me for this! Without further ado, our fifth delve into my od&d dungeon: Hagfish Hall! Dandelion's Map The Party Daevon, a Veteran, armed with a polearm. Isabella, an Acolyte, armed with a pike. Dandelion, a Medium, armed with a sword. Hirelings Vanessa , a monk of the lawful faith, sporting a tonsure.   The Delve Date: January 13th. Cold wind, mild flurries. "A" Entry Hall-- The party returned to Hagfish Hall in the usual fashion. In the entry hall, the painted lady seemed to be ignoring them. "B" Cage Trap Room-- They headed east to the T-junction, then north. Since their last time here, the cage had been re-covered with another white sheet. Creeping in, they surrounded it, stabbing in with pike and polearm. The cage turned out to be empty. The party carried on to the north. List...

[i originally wrote this as an intro to the Saints post, but ended up cutting it. i decided to put it up as its own post because i got a couple questions about it on blogger and discord] *** At the beginning of time, the Voice of Fire spoke over a black universe. The dragons were the first to inherit the flame. They ruled a sea of cold planets, as the sole source of fire. Either by force of will or a deliberate usurpation, fire came into the possession of the gods. They began to slay the dragons, in attempt to keep the fire for themselves alone. In a Promethean act, the goddess Learia granted a spark of divine fire to the beasts who would become humanity. In doing so, she was cast out from the home of the gods, which mortals call Jupiter. She is now worshiped as God by the Church of Law. *** The Voice of Fire is known only to a select few: monks and sages. Angels, the machines of creation, work in the service of the Voice. Only a small number of mortals, called Vocists, would se...

Since I've now been running Hagfish Hall for a few sessions, I wanted to have an answer when players ask who their clerics follow. Stats are for od&d, with some Saint spells being brought in from B/X. Declaring Alignment Clerics are learned folk. Often they have spent considerable time sequestered away in abbeys, in pursuit of truths. This can lead to indecisiveness. Clerics need not declare for a particular alignment until they reach 7th level, however doing so earlier has its benefits. When a Cleric declares for an alignment, they must choose a Saint to follow. Each Saint grants access to a particular spell or ability. You don't need to be able to cast a Saint's spell yet to declare for them. Once you have declared for a particular Saint, you are bound to them. Switching to a different Saint is time consuming, switching across alignment is dangerous. Clerics of Chaos are able to reverse their spells, in order to cause harm. A Good Monk by Wilhelm Von Kaulback, re-clou...

While I was happy with the last two session logs, I felt like the signal-to-noise ratio was sort of low, so I'm trying to change that this time around. We did two delves this week, with a little downtime turn in-between.   The Party Daevon , a Veteran. Polearm, chain + shield. Isabella , an Acolyte. Pike, chain. Usually carries the lantern. Dandelion , a Medium. Sword, chain + shield. Dandelion's Map Delve I Date: January 2nd. Gross weather; low visibility, alternating between rain and flurries. The party return to the dungeon! Venturing inside, they are greeted by a mocking smile from the painting hanging overhead. Her expression suggests: "How have you not made it deeper?" In the interest of caution, attempts are made to listen at the eastern and western doors. The dungeon rebukes them, [with clock starting at 20, a 6 explodes into another 6, and then into a 5] for a flash moment, the lady in the painting seems to laugh. Fearing an approaching encounter, the party ...