Special Ability: Level Level Drain - HELL YEA

I love it. I said it. Level drain the the SINGLER MOST TERRIFYING THING to old school players (Turn to Stone being a close #2). It probably doesn't kill you, but it makes you less than you were before. It is awesomely frightening. Players don't like it? too bad - they also don't like creatures that do 3d6 damage per hit or vomit gouts of acid that do 50hp of damage, but they don't whine about those as much.

However ... it never seems to make sense in the setting. Player characters have levels, but Zoff the Thief is only as good as his reputation and most recent score. Players know that vampires drain levels, but Helena is terrified of them because ... well .. because they drain levels?

I also am not a huge fan of the level loss itself as an actual game mechanic. It can be a huge pain in the ass from a book keeping standpoint in any edition, really.

My Solution, Part I

Monsters don't drain levels, they drain experience points. 

For OSR games, a monster drains 500XP per HD (or 1000 if they drain 2 levels). Using BECMI a vampire would drain 7000 - 9000 XP (based on HD), while a wraith would drain 2000 per hit.

For Sorrow in Haven, they drain some amount of XP - the more dangerous they are the more they drain. A Degenerate Wight sucks out 10x the XP as it does damage on a hit (1d6 damage). A shard mite eats 1d100 XP each day.

In any case, characters do NOT lose a level, it is now just that much harder to get to the next level. If a character is dropped to 0XP, they are just dead ass dead as the last of their life is drained out.

My Solution, Part II

When XP is drained, the character makes a Save (Death for OSR, monster-specific for Sorrow in Haven). If they fail, the GM makes a note. Do this each time they lose XP.

Once everything is said and done with the current encounter the GM rolls once on the Memories of the Past Table for each failed save. Then a little flashback happens between the player and the GM ... in the scene their character must learn something. When the flashback is over, that something is gone. The memory is has been dragged out of them. Loss of XP represents a loss of self, and what is the self if not memories? Or maybe they don't get a save - up to the GM.

I've had characters lose their fear of the unknown - making them wildly overconfident; lose their trust - making them turn on their own crew members; lose their ability to understand love - that one got really dark...

When the character next gains a level, or after some worthwhile session where the PC learned a valuable life lesson (the more you know!) they can choose to lose the problem they've picked up.

Summary

So Level Drain still rules, just replaced with XP Drain.

Something awful is still awful, but now opens an opportunity for more role playing (if you are into that sort of thing).

Monsters that suck out your memories and sense self now feel more like actual monsters and less shitty. Also: verisimilitude!

Cults ... always with the cults

Why Cults?

Nameless mooks worshiping a demon god bent on destruction? How is this NOT a fun thing to have as your enemy - especially if they've got some NPCs with names backing them mup or an actual chance to summon the Pure Evil Whoever. Everyone loves cults for background material. They are always up to something and seem to attract members out of nowhere. And you rarely feel bad sticking them with a sword or blasting them to pieces with a fireball. Seriously - they are the nazis of the medieval fantasy world - fantasy Castle Wolfenstein.

But they can be more - so much more! They are an organization like all others - the individuals have motivations, the gods have motivations, allies, enemies, and all that good stuff. Cults in the Sorrow in Haven setting are always particularly dangerous because they could invite evil, actual evil, into the city. Even if they don't mean to. Corrupt one Templar and now the entire neighborhood might start getting weird. Summon some minions from the Gloom? Oh shit - Gloom Portals in every semi-abandoned alleyway.

The Tables

Roll 4d10 and read up on the Cult Basics table. With a generated Origin, Ideal, Lure, and Rites you have a framework. Now roll 1d10 on the Worship & Veneration table - but if the roll is higher than any rolled on the Cult Basics table, reroll it until it isn't.

Roll	Origins	Ideals	Lure	Rites
1	Desperate Searching for Hope	Free Thinkers	Refuge	Chanting
2	Shadow-Corrupt Clergy	Pleasure Seekers	Purpose	Devotions
3	Adepts of the Old Ways	Destroy the Dome	Indulgence	Communion
4	A Prophet has Arisen	Doomspeakers	Power	Offerings
5	Influence from Outside the Dome	Forbidden Knowledge	Entrapment	Blood Sacrifice
6	Signs and Omens of the Sea	Apocalypse	Mystery	Mutilation
7	Decadent Lesser Nobility	Immortality	Faith	Wizardry
8	Tradition of Bloodline	Blessed Lands	Truth	Technomancy
9	Offerings from the Gloom	Superiority	Salvation	Chaos
10	Dreamvisions of the Underworld	Ascension	Oblivion	Demagoguery

Roll	Worship & Veneration
1	A complete fabrication - this cult is based on lies of the leader for their own purposes
2	The Cult Leader - perhaps delusional, perhaps not; has unwavering loyalty of the faithful
3	The Ephemeral - love, hate, joy, death, birth, or any concept beyond physical manifestation
4	An Ancient Idol - discovered in the Undercity or recovered from the Underworld
5	A Broken Saint - a twisted aspect of the Church of Eternal Light, driven by the Shadow
6	One of the Dead Gods - Followers of the Old Ways worship a god thought long gone
7	Unclean Spirit - a lich, vampire, ghost, or something much worse with influence in Haven
8	Patchwork Demon - an unimaginable horror that may only partially exist in this reality
9	Gloom Entity - some powerful being of the Gloom has made contact and demands worship
10	The Underworld - the whole of the Underworld, each dungeon bloom is a sacred place

What's with the limited d10 for the last table? 

Good question. The higher the roll, the more seriously dangerous the cult is, so a little dice magic makes sure not every cult can bring about the end of the world when there are literally dozens of the things running around. Don't like that Rule? Ignore It. I don't care.

Why are some things so vague?

Because I don't know your game. I don't know what exactly you get up to or what gods or demons you have. Also, vague allows for creativity. Is that just lazy? No. Reading everything from a table and saying "Yes - this is exactly correct" is lazy. As I'm writing this I'm clearly not over some bullshit I read on Reddit and people whining about "incomplete" settings. Homebrew isn't a dirty word, it is the only word and everything else is just fodder for your homebrew game. Fuck those guys. Anyway...

Example

This isn't going to be well thought out - just stream of consciousness so you can see how I putter around with these tables and results.

The Rolls

Origins [6]: Signs and Omens of the Sea

Ideals [7]: Immortality

Lure [2]: Purpose

Rites [10]: Demagoguery

Focus [7]: Powerful Unclean Spirit

Let's see here ... Unclean spirit that offers immortality to the followers. Vampire jumps to mind, so let's go with that to start things off. The lure is Purpose ... improving Haven - bringing it back the a golden age through ... demagoguery. OK. Politics. Some sort of vampire that offers immortality to those that show their purpose in the guild politics of Haven. But what about Signs and Omens of the Sea. Got it!

Soulgivers of Atosh

When the galleon Bonsuire was seen slowly drifting into the dome just past Elig Murr, there wasn't much stir. Things drift into Haven's waters all the time. But this ship was different. The tattered remains of the sails bore the symbol of the sun as king, the symbol Haven Nobility from ancient times. When the ship was approached a thousand crows took flight and spent 3 days in the air. Not a single body was found on board. No living thing except a baby lamb. The sea had dropped a big pile of omens into Haven's waters and to ignore them was folly.

When Atosh stepped off the ship, he didn't even need to use his ability to mezmerise the dock workers who saw him, they knew he was something special. A few years went by and Atosh had gone slowly been working his way off the docks and into some more respectable parts of society. He had a following. And he knew what to do.

Now, the Soulgivers of Atosh do their master's bidding of their own free will. The promise of not only making Haven a better place by re-establishing the noble rule of the city, but in doing so they can attain immortality and serve at the side of the their Immortal King Atosh. The Soulgivers have made their way into numerous guilds and act as pawns for Atosh. He has some plan that may take another decade to come to fruition - inciting riots, setting up alliances and trade deals, even brokering with some of the minor noble houses - inspiring them to "take back what is theirs".

How the party gets involved (d6)

1. a guild asks them to investigate their political rival
2. overhear the term while heisting some goods
3. stumble across the murder of a splinter group - in progress
4. suddenly a lot of goats are missing - get asked to help
5. they are on the shit end of a seemingly mindless political guild maneuver 
6. one of them gets asked to join

Mix it up

Throw in some stuff from the gang generator! If the Focus d10 is 1-4, they are "petty", 5-6 is "minor", 7-8 is "major" and 9-10 would be "serious". So in the example above 7 would be "Major", so I'll roll 1d8 for the goal and get a 1 ... survival. Leadhership produces Ruthless & Charlatan.

What does this mean? Atosh knows that if discovered he will be destroyed. He has no actual plans for the rise of nobility, he is just trying to get a secure place to spend his time while he figures out what to do. There is no grand plan - just a handful of ideas. Atosh lives in constant fear of discovery but will do anything to ensure his safety.

Fun!

Wandering Monsters

Before I get into this, WTF happened with blogger? The auto-formatting sucks. May be time to fuck off to another platform. 

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Wandering monster have been a staple of D&D from the beginning, but the some time (3e era i think) people started complaining they didn't make sense or they screwed up carefully balanced encounters or something along those lines. If you don't like wnadering monsters don't use them, but I personally think they add some fun for both the GM and the players. They are mysterious forces, a bit of random mayhem to cause some fucking havoc. Linger too long and you might get a wandering monster ... try to rest in the dungeon? oh good luck - wandering monsters.

Here is how I'm doing wandering monsters these days.

Chance of Encounter

• Active Dungeon: 1 in 8 every Turn/10 minutes
• Normal Dungeon: 1 in 6 chance every 2 Turns/20 minutes
• Quiet Dungeon: 1 in 6 every 3 Turns/30 minutes
• Passive Dungeon: 1 in 6 every 6 Turns/ 1 hour

Other Times to Check

If the party makes a big noise - like bashing open a door, a combat, or anything else, immediate check. Wait - every time they have a combat? Oh hell yes. Sometimes other monsters join the battle, sometimes they think they'll have a moment to recover but them BLAM. Combat isn't a goal in my games, it is a challenge to overcome. It doesn't provide shit for XP and depletes resources.

Resting in the Dungeon

If the party managed to create a safe/secure location somehow, I bump the check die up 2 times (d6 becomes a d10, d8 becomes a d12). If it is really secure, like they've locked themselves in between two secret doors and cast Safe Haven, then I'll also double the time between checks. 

In the last session, the crew was wandering about a "standard" dungeon - 1 in 6 every 20 minutes. They decided to do a long rest as they'd been exploring around for quite and were tired, but didn't want to leave. They found a secure location (the secret door think I mentioned above) and the templar dropped a Safe Haven. So the checks went from 1 in 6 every 20 minutes to 1 in 10 every 40 minutes. Over a 6 hour rest period

What Gets Encountered

Rather than have a wandering monster table for every dungeon level, I roll 1d10.

• 1 - 3: Nearest Monster
• 4 - 6: Nearest Lair Monster
• 7 - 8: Dungeon Monster
• 9: Regional  Monster 
• 10: Creatures of Dust

Nearest Monster: 1d6 monsters, but never more than half of those set to be encountered, have wandered over to investigate whatever bullshit the crew is up to.

Nearest Lair Monster: With each stocked monster in a dungeon there is a chance that  this is the creature's lair. There are always a lot more monsters here than you would like. When this comes up, the standard number appearing for a wandering encounter is used - they are from the lair and continuing to assert their dungeon dominance.

Dungeon Monster: Encounter a random monster that is specific to this dungeon. these are always monsters that are unique to the dungeon - if there are goblins, fine, but they won't show up on this roll. If for some reason there are no unique monsters, then go with Creatures of Dust.

Regional Monsters: Roll on the random table for monsters of this type. In a Gorehaven dungeon, roll on the gorehaven tables, and so on. If in a Dust dungeon, roll on the Dust table. This is the long-form ecosystem of the dungeons circling into this reality.

Creatures of Dust: These are the common dungeon monsters that you find all over the goddamn place.

The Good Old Danger Level

Regional Monsters are broken down into 5 grades (A-E). A is the least dangerous for that region, E is pretty rough no matter what dungeon region you are in. The threat level of the dungeon determines what grade of critter gets rolled up based on this chart:

Threat	A	B	C	D	E
1	1-5	6	-	-	-
2	1-4	5-6	-	-	-
3	1-3	4-5	6	-	-
4	1-2	3-5	6	-	-
5	1-2	3-4	5-6	-	-
6	1	2-3	4-5	6	-
7	1	2	3-4	5-6	-
8	1	2	3	4-5	6
9	1	2	3	4	5-6
10	-	1	2	3-4	5-6

Then to make sure things don't go entirely out of control or are far to simple, the number encountered is multiplied by this sweet table. Mind you, I only use this math when I'm automating the population of a dungeon. When I'm doing it by hand I just eyeball the numbers.

Threat	A	B	C	D	E
1	x1	x0.5	-	-	-
2	x1.1	x0.75	-	-	-
3	x1.2	x1	x0.5	-	-
4	x1.3	x1.1	x0.75	-	-
5	x1.4	x1.2	x1	-	-
6	x1.5	x1.3	x1.1	x0.5	-
7	x1.6	x1.4	x1.2	x0.75	-
8	x1.8	x1.5	x1.3	x1	x0.5
9	x2	x1.6	x1.4	x1.1	x0.75
10	-	x1.8	x1.5	x1.2	x1

Example: the crew is puttering around a threat level 5 Gardens dungeon. Time for a regional encounter! First I roll 1d6 to determine the grade of monsters. I rolled a 3 so it is "grade B" monsters. I roll 1d100 on the Gardens-B table and get Eelheads, 1d6 of them. I roll 1d6, get a 6, then multiple that by 1.2 for a total of 7 Eelheads. How these large plants fit into the situation is a different matter - I'll like have them clogging up the next unexplored corridor the party wanders into.

This method works for me, but it might be too many tables for some folks. If I get around to it I'll just make tables for each regional threat level that includes number encountered. In any case, I always roll up a bunch of random encounters BEFORE the game starts. Nearest and Lair I leave as notes, because i don't know where folks will be. I roll to see if there is an encounter, then just grab the next one on the list. Easy. anyone who fully rolls up random encounters AS THEY HAPPEN is a GM that doesn't understand pacing.

What Are the Monsters Doing? 

I make this a super simple 1d6 roll.

• 1-3: checking out whatever the PC Crew is up to
• 4-5: just wandering around
• 6: weird monster-specific behavior

That seems like a pretty weak list, but it really covers all the things I need. Checking out the PCs? If they are intelligent then based on their demeanor and ferocity that will be watching, stalking, hunting, ambushing, or whatever. Beasts might be hunting them. Or mayeb they just heard a weird noise and are checking things out. Like it says. Just wandering around might be exploring, pushing into new terrain, hunting for food, things like that. They are doing what they do, just not expecting the PCs in particular. The last one is the most fun - monsters are weird. That is the entire point of monsters - to be terrifying and strange. This one lets the PCs wander across (or vice versa) the monsters doing something that makes them monsters. 

Examples? Fine. Some shell horrors pulling the skeleton out of a corpse to make a shell from it. Harbingad animated and arguing over a scrap of rotten fruit. A Red Hunter bubbling out from a crack in the wall and another crack nearby disgorging the undigested remains of it's last meal. Option 6 is all about some improv - and GMs - take notes!