The Zealot

Mariusz Lewandowski

You who worship the star lords with tithes and quiet prayers are worth less even than your meagre pittances, less than the silence that the star lords return to you as retribution. Pathetic wretches, open your eyes! Obliterate your pitiful hopes, your horribly banal strivings! For you — for any of us — there is nothing to reap but noise, cankers, darkness.

Only paludal Ydoth, the terrestrial god of murk and mire, will bring the future we deserve: vain architecture crumbled, bodies churned into humus, until the earth is nothing more than a barren landscape of slag, buzzing with cicadas.

We petition Ydoth not for succour nor guidance. The god cares not for our wretched forms; nay, we are merely vessels for its abhorrent desires. Ydoth consumes all; to be the consumed is but abject bliss. 

When doing something that carries risk, Ydoth will decide our fate. We roll as many d6s as you wish, tempting the god's wrath more with each added die.

If we roll a six, we succeed — Ydoth has empowered us, even if only briefly.

For every one we roll, the fate Ydoth has chosen for us draws nearer.

# of ones          potential fallout

1                       A finger lost or broken. An emotional wound. Destitution.

2                       Mangled limbs. A broken mind. Disease, degenerative and unsightly.

3+                     Death by terrible means; perhaps a fate worse than death.

Maze-Travellers of the Unknown

Hey world, it's my first hack!

awesome art by someone I don't know! drop a comment if you know and I'll credit accordingly!

A snatch of conversation over on the NSR Discord, ignited by this recent Flintlocks and Witchery post, revealed to me an essential and heretofore overlooked link in the OSR timeline: Searchers of the Unknown.

What is this sorcery? Released in 2012, it's the perfect distillation of a minimalist d20 system, providing a character "stat block" equivalent to those listed for monsters in the original OD&D and B/X modules. If it's enough for the GM to run, it's enough for the players. It's inspired many hacks (also available via the link above) but it seems interest in the system has cooled a bit in recent years.

Now previously I hadn't been much inspired to pen my own hack (my Anydice history notwithstanding) but something about this weird streamlined one-page game with an ultra-basic layout that shouts "do it with Google Docs!" — something about this special little treasure just got my ink flowing.

Of course I have a soft spot for the old 2d6 knucklebones — maybe it's the long hours camping in the Pacific Northwest rain, huddled under the tarp with a backgammon board, smoking far too many cigarettes — but that pure simplicity of tossing a couple normal dice onto the table, that gentle cozy bell curve; it just sits right with me.

Flavour-wise it's Yet Another Unnecessary Fantasy Game, nothing revolutionary. However, there are a few moves here that I think are worthy of note:

- Optional Mix-n-Match Classes: inspired by World of Dungeons, of which I've been playing loads lately.

- Spellcasting: the classic list has been condensed into a d66 table, containing 18 Wizard-flavoured and 18 Cleric/Druid-flavoured spells. Power effects are based around Level + Move, so a Fireball at L1 looks quite different from one at L10.

- Advancement: Maze Rats-style, where you select a bonus each level.

Check it out over here! Feedback is always welcome and appreciated.