Search results

Would love to hear how you get on!

Multiple attacks and scaling critical hits Background I would like to do without mooks, elites and bosses if possible, relying on the game mechanics to make higher and lower level monster encounters satisfying instead. Two design elements from PF2e - the ability to make an attack with any...

Thanks for your thoughts, darkbard. You're right that I have competing gamist and simulationist priorities for Orcus (I think all tabletop RPGs do), but I don't think they're at loggerheads here. Introducing morale both makes the game run faster and simulates courage and fear in battle. At times...

Background Sometimes fights in Orcus drag on, even when it's clear who has the upper hand. Morale rules add a new tactical dimension to the game as well as encouraging battles to wrap up when the odds become overwhelming. Morale saving throws Morale is a fear effect, so creatures with a bonus or...

I haven't run a megadungeon in 4E, but I have adapted a few OSR/DCC adventures for 4E and what has worked best for me is compressing multiple encounters into one encounter. In 4E, even boss battles often work better with minions being added to the mix, or modelling the BBEG as an elite so...

Thanks for the feedback! The general assumption is that the time pressure is split into three, and PCs can each make one attempt in each of those thirds - so once a minute if the house is burning down in three minutes, for example. I've edited the example challenges to make that explicit. I...

During the development of Orcus, I had a lot of ideas for tweaking 4E - or changing it in more profound and radical ways. I (mostly) resisted the urge at the time, but I wanted to share some of these ideas now. I'd also love to hear about your 4E/Orcus house rules. I'm most interested in major...

The six magic items almost every high level character had to have: Magic weapon Magic armor & shield Ring of protection Cloak of resistance Amulet of natural armor Ability-score boosters Here's a contemporary discussion over on RPGNet, and here's the original article. 4E collapsed magic...

This has been a really interesting discussion to catch up on. Obviously there's a lot that I like about 4E, and I think modern gaming owes a lot to the innovations that 4E introduced - 4E in some ways paid the price for breaking from 3E/3.5, which let 5E and Pathfinder 2E do so to a lesser...

Good catch, submitting these to DriveThruRPG was my last step before officially launching version 1.0! There have been a bunch of changes since March, including a lot more flavour text for ancestries and monsters, fixing typos and other little errors, and removing references to material that...

In my experience, the classes in say 3e or 5e read differently, while the classes in 4e play differently. I've got more experience with 3e than 5e, but in 3e it was not unusual for a barbarian or fighter to be built differently, getting their bonuses to attack and damage from different sources...

Hi folks, I'm excited to share the release version of the Orcus Heroes' Handbook! Download the Orcus Heroes' Handbook PDF or buy a print copy on Lulu. Buy a print copy at your own risk -- I haven't (yet) ordered this version of the book from Lulu, so it's possible there's errors in there that...

As my 4e retroclone, Orcus has a lot of what I would change about 4e. Shared power lists, so classes with overlapping scopes can use the same powers. "Threats", the awkwardly named collection of hazards, traps and other terrain and encounter features, so GMs can quickly build thematic...

There's 62 sources of material for Orcus, including 14 for the core rules. But because I have to cite every source that those sources use, the Section 15 is much more than 62 entries long! A lot of the sources are only for one or two things. For example, Goodman Games had a handful of 4e...

All things considered, I've decided to release the Orcus Heroes' Handbook a little early. The proofreading is about 80% complete. I plan to officially launch it with more of a song and dance once that's happened -- including a print on demand option. But in the meantime I hope you enjoy! And...

Thanks for checking in! The process of proofreading and editing has taken a bit longer than I expected, but they're coming! Probably early in the new year.

Love this idea!

Hey folks -- I've completed the formatted/print version of Orcus, which involves two 150+ page books: the Hero's Handbook and the Game Master's Guide. Before the big launch I wanted to get some feedback, to pick up typos or other problems. If you'd be interested in getting early PDF copies...

Good question. I'm not planning to make any new content ... although occasionally I do anyway as the mood takes me. I do have a phrenic controller that I may polish off -- or may not. But it's basically all left for other content creators to play with. The phrenic stuff is actually only there...

Thanks for your questions. It means the former: if you have a Constitution modifier of +3 and a Strength modifier of +2, you add +3 to your Fortitude defense. Good catch on the typo -- I'll correct in the next version.