d6 fantasy materials

Had these gathering dust in a text file somewhere, but The Alexandrian's post on fantasy materials (like "elfin gold" and "liquid light") finally got me to translate, develop and post what I had.

Some of these get pretty in-depth. Some... don't. For now, at least.

For some reason this was "reported as spam" and Blogger took down the article. Not sure why. I've edited the post so that image/blog post credits no longer link back to the creators.

1. Magewater

A slightly opaque liquid, seeming to be red, green and blue all at once, shining like motor oil.

It is arcane residue, found in concentrated form in natural reservoirs below the earth (from when the world was young and charged with magic), and in diluted but still useful form in ancient spell-scarred battlefields. It can also be created on purpose, by an exhausting, demanding, years-long process involving spell-infusions.
Magewater is of great value as ink for magical scrolls, rune or glyphs, as fuel for arcane machinery, and (most of all) as a highly flexible potion ingredient.

Touching magewater with your bare hands is a one-way ticket to mutation town. Touch it with a staff, or a quill, drag it up and out, and it will become viscous. Drag viscous magewater outward, and it will hover in the air like a tube of shifting jelly, following your instrument into the air, the tendril bending at sharp angles and making loops with no regard for gravity. A tendril of magewater may grow for a dozen feet if drawn from a diluted potion, a dozen yard from a diluted pool, and a good half-mile from a pure vein.

Magewater tendrils sometimes form by themselves. Do not approach natural magewater tendrils near large pools, especially the pure reservoirs found underground. The last few who've been grabbed off and dragged into the pools were never seen again. Not in any recognizable form, at least.

Video by David Ridlen.

2. Meteoric bronze

An alloy of bronze and sky-fallen iron, it could be mistaken for ordinary metal if not for the way it sparkles an iridescent blue.

Meteoric bronze is bound to the heavens and intensifies any star- and moon-light it reflects. Any respectable mage-astronomer's telescope will make heavy use of meteoric bronze.

Elves sometime use meteoric bronze to create lanterns, which bathe their gardens in refracted star- and moonlight. A sufficiently powerful set of bronze reflectors can also concentrate such light into blinding beams, but if such a strange weapon has already been considered, it has yet to be forged.

(In my game, meteoric bronze can also be used as a portal to the Night World, an alternate dimension where no sun shines. I might talk about it in a future post.)

3. Scalesteel

Steel, blurry and indistinct to mortal eyes.

Dragons are sanguine creatures in more ways than one. A dragon's feelings flow not through its head, but through its blood. Few people know this.

Dragons are creatures of fate, inextricably tied to it. Only the most erudite sages know this.

A dragon's disgust and hatred carries magical power. As its claws and fangs tear through flesh, its grudges can tear through a soul and sever its fate-strands. One who miraculously survives a dragon's true anger thus becomes a walking, living, breathing ghost, unaffected by gods and prophecy. No mortal knows this, though certainly dragons do.

It is not uncommon for oracles to foresee the rise of a dragon-slayer. When the news reach the dragon, its obedient followers are given gifts of scalesteel - weapons bathed in the dragon's grudge-bearing blood, and consecrated in white-hot fire.

To strike such a prophecized hero with scalesteel is to tear at the hero's future as if you were the dragon itself, as long as the dragon's anger holds true. 

If the dragon's high priest's downfall is, too, prophecized, that devout, trusted follower could receive a shield or armor of scalesteel, which will protect them against fate as if it were the dragon's own scales, as long as the dragon's trust holds true.

And a dragon's feelings hold true even in death, as long as its spirit lingers.

4. Saint Orthon's stone

White marble. Pink veins intensify in color and become hot to the touch as nearby creatures fall deep in thought or meditation.

Saint Orthon's stone is used by many to reach a trance-like state. Its only other property, other than its soothing, fluctuating shade of pink, is its ability to jog memory. If you've forgotten something, if you've lost your way, if you left your possessions somewhere just minutes ago and can't remember where, Saint Orthon's stone will help.

Many easily-distracted wizards, troubled friars, and elves would pay good money for a head-sized chunk of Saint Orthon's stone, let alone a beautiful statue carved in it.

Reduced to a fine powder, Saint Orthon's stone is an overly expensive but effective treatment for headaches, and serves as an ingredient to cure amnesia and madness.

   

Edit of "Blue marble", by Dawn Hudson, CC0

5. True ice

Like aurora borealis, frozen solid.

Anything kept inside a block of true ice is perfectly, cryogenically preserved - certain to last millennia, for true ice melts under nothing but the heat of volcanoes, flaming swords, and dragonfire, releasing the trapped, benevolent aurora-light spirit within in the process.

True ice is a vista into the era it was originally formed in. Gaze into true ice, and you will see what stood behind it thousands, if not millions of years into the past. A slab of true ice is a historian's dream come true.

True ice can be worked into weapons; wounds inflicted by such a weapon do not heal, unless the victim is bathed in the heat of fire strong enough to melt it.

6. Chrysomele

(Okay, this one isn't really a material. Sue me.)

A golden scarab-fruit. Chrysomeles grow in far-off, forgotten jungles, and those who bite through the egg-like shell and into the soft, sticky, sour flesh underneath find themselves blessed with the gift of tongues for a day and a night.

Chrysomeles, properly dried and preserved, are of interest to many, including scholars and mages. They are also rarely served in banquets foreign nations hold with each other. More than one peace treaty has been brokered with the help of chrysomele juice, liquor, puree or sorbet, earning it the name of "diplomat's delight".

Edit of hand vectors by freepik

House rules

In handy "changes from B/X" format because you all already know what B/X is.

CHARGEN
-No stat restrictions or prime requisite XP bonuses, but you don't get to adjust your stats.

COMBAT
-Gridless, often full ToTM, I want to get away from wargamey skirmishes. (I use metric measurements, so this also removes the need for 1.5 meter squares.)
-30' move speed for everybody. Your move speed bonus/penalties are now "move roll modifiers" (1 per 5 feet, so someone with 40' move speed gets +2).
"Move rolls" are d20 checks, called for when a character tries to "move far in combat" (deliberately vague) or tries to flee/chase another (beat your opponent by 10+ and you escape/catch up, assuming no head start).

WEAPONS
-Weapon list has been cut down into four general types (barring exceptions and weird weapons like riding lances or holy water):
Small (forearm size or less) = d4, often throwable.
Medium (arm size) = d6.
Large (leg size) = d8.
Huge (man size or more) = d10, often with reach.
-Range penalties are granular, not tier-based. Weapons get -1 to hit per 3/6/9/12 feet (1/2/3/4 meters), beginning at 6 feet, up 1 category per size, down 1 category if throwable.
-No penalties or bonuses for firing at point blank, but then you automatically lose initiative.

INVENTORY
-Slot based inventory. All objects take up 1 space barring exceptions. Some objects are trinkets, which stack up to 10 before taking up a space.
Common exceptions include: weapons (d4 = trinket, d6 = 1 space, d8 = 2 spaces, d10 = 3 spaces), armor (light/medium/heavy take 1/2/3 spaces when worn), coins (10 coins = 1 trinket), people (15 spaces).
A slot is approx. 10 lbs but don't look too hard into it.
-Slot limit = Strength score. Each item above your limit imposes -1 on attack rolls, saves, some skills, and movement rolls.
-You get 3 quick slots. If you pull an item from a quick slot in combat, you can use it and still take your turn. You can get more quick slots by encumbering yourself with quivers, pouches, bandoliers...

SAVES
-Single save.
-Roll 14+ to save. Default +0 bonus for all, except Dwarves and Hobbits who get +4. Everyone gets +2 to avoid death.

DEATH
-If you hit 0 HP, Save or die.
-If you survive, Save or get some kind of permanent damage. (I want to encourage retiring characters.)
-Currently experimenting with two further saves downed but surviving players must make: Save not to slowly bleed to death, and Save to stay conscious and able to (barely) act for a moment.
It's nice to have some dice to roll when you can't do anything else, for sure.

SPELLCASTING
-Recovering spells takes a week. A day always seemed too short to me.

EXPERIENCE
-In addition to the usual methods:
100*(dungeon level) xp per dungeon level discovered, trap found, trap disarmed or secret door found.
10*(dungeon level) xp per room discovered.
5 xp to the group's cartographer for each room drawn.
10 xp per session for time-keeping, for handling hirelings and the likes, or for keeping track of the session's events.
100 xp per character level, to your next character, if your current character retires rich or otherwise gets a wholesome ending.
XP for downtime activities (numbers are a WIP):
1 xp per gp spent on a PC funeral (capped to the dead PC's xp).
1 xp per 2 gp spent on feasts and luxury (may have good or bad consequences).
1 xp per 4 gp spent on charity (generally good consequences).
1 xp per 10 gp spent on Great Projects (building a castle, restoring a road, generally useful stuff).

LEVELING UP
Save and to-hit progression has been smoothed the fuck out. (It gets wonky at higher levels but I'm not running high level stuff.)
-All get +1 to save at odd levels.
-Fast to-hit progression classes (fighter and demihumans) get +1 to hit at even levels.
-Everybody else gets +1 to hit at odd levels (since it kicks in at level 3, they're always trailing 1 level behind). Even MUs (might change this).

FIGHTERS
-Monopoly on heavy armor (might change this) and d10 weapons.
-Start with +2 to hit and Chop 'til you drop
-+1 damage every odd level

THIEF
-d6 hit dice
-Get stronger variants of common skills e.g. "Perfect silence" instead of "Move silently" but no bonuses, they're still 1 in 6 (might change this).
-On level up, put 2 skill points in 2 different skills, but they can't get higher than your current level (so no maxing out stuff at 5 in 6 until you're level 5).
-Ranger variant. Exactly as Thief but swaps some skills for others, and backstabbing becomes +2 to hit and +1 to damage vs last type of creature you've studied (e.g. bears, bandits).

MU
-No changes.

CLERIC
-No changes.

DWARF
-Start with +1 to hit
-Infravision becomes cavern-song. Works like echolocation. Only useful underground. Risk of random encounter upon use. More flavorful and no longer trivializes darkness IMO.
-+1 HP every level

ELF
-Start with +1 to hit
-Infravision becomes forest-song. Works like echolocation. Only useful in forests. Risk of random encounter upon use. Same reasoning as cavern-song.

HOBBIT
-I don't use individual initiative so instead, at the beginning of a round, a hobbit can try for a 1 in 6 chance to ignore group initiative and go before everyone, even when surprised.
-+1 to said chance at odd levels
-+1 to AC bonus vs large foes at even levels.