D&D 4E Introducing Orcus -- a 4E retroclone

[Sanglorian]

Last year, I launched a 4E retroclone called Orcus. I've posted about it in a few other places, but never shared it here -- which I wanted to correct now.

I'm very open to contributions from others, whether that's homebrew material you've created or proposing balance/gameplay fixes to the material that's already here. Would love to know what you think of it.

The intention is to stay true to the core rules of the source material as much as possible, as I've seen other retroclones derailed by trying to "fix" the original game.

You can view all the files as a website on Github Pages.

 

[Sanglorian]

Hi folks,

Another big update. This is now version 0.6 -- all of the main files have been updated. See the Pages site for all downloads and webpages.

• There is now a character sheet, in Excel spreadsheet format. It does some calculations for you, and prints out on one page. You'd want to print power cards separately.
• Shorter Section 15: I know a pain point has been the huge Section 15 in the Open Game License. I have reworked the Rulebook section to have all the core rules, and a much shorter (though still hefty) Section 15. That way, people who are creating fresh content or spin-off games can use the shorter Rulebook Section 15. Those using the classes, monsters, powers, feats, bonds, magic items, etc., will still have to use the full Section 15.
• All content has been read-through and tweaked.
• New content: Includes a new discipline for the Harlequin, a new discipline for the Reaper, new poisons (consumable items), new kits (Brews Poisons and Eats Monster Hearts), rules for buying hirelings and mounts, expanding the incantation rules to include non-magical practices as well, vehicle rules and a handful of new vehicles, ancestry rules (moved from the Outlaw Kingdoms separate document into the main SRD).
• Class changes: The Jester has become the Harlequin, and gotten a total rework of its class features since they previously weren't very controllery. The Swashbuckler has become the Exemplar to represent a broader archetype (e.g. gladiators). The Guard became the Guardian because it sounded a bit grander.
• Archetypes: I'm quite proud of the examples of how you could model fantasy archetypes in Orcus. Everything from assassins who brew their own poisons, demonologists, lazylords, enchanters, mounted knights (with a horse that keeps pace with power levels), blue mages, martial artists, psionicists and archers are covered, among many others.

The next update will be two printable PDFs, the Hero's Handbook and the Game Master's Guide, which collate everything in the one place (well, two places) for easy printing and reference at the game table. That will be the "playtest edition", and mark the end of any major changes for some time.

 

[JarooAshstaff]

I think this is pretty cool. I think eventually you need to put it together into a book with some art work, in order to appeal to the old codgers.

One html page is a little overwhelming.

 

[JarooAshstaff]

One other thing that I was confused by, I looked to see what kind of license stuff you had, and it listed almost every games name, from 13th age to enworld publishing, that seems just strange, you can't possibly be borrowing from all those sources, and that just makes it ambiguous as to the legality of the SRD for anything more than casual personal fun.

Open Game License

Orcus is a retro-clone of 4th Edition

sanglorian.github.io

 

[Sanglorian]

One other thing that I was confused by, I looked to see what kind of license stuff you had, and it listed almost every games name, from 13th age to enworld publishing, that seems just strange, you can't possibly be borrowing from all those sources, and that just makes it ambiguous as to the legality of the SRD for anything more than casual personal fun.

Open Game License

Orcus is a retro-clone of 4th Edition

sanglorian.github.io

Everything listed in Section 15 is either a source, or appears in the Section 15 of a source. Most of the sources are for the game content - the classes, powers, monsters, feats and so on - rather than the core rules.

 

[MoonSong]

Hi.

I've seen your clone. It looks good, though I haven't been able to find the magician class despite being mentioned a few times.

 

[Sanglorian]

Hi.

I've seen your clone. It looks good, though I haven't been able to find the magician class despite being mentioned a few times.

Good catch! It was there but the heading wasn't formatted so it didn't show up in the table of contents. Fixed now.

 

[WaffleSyrup]

Reading through the rulebook and I have some questions.

Underneath "Using Your Ability Scores", it states to add "the higher of your [Ability Score A] modifier and your [Ability Score B] modifier to your [Fortitude/Reflex/Will] defense." What does it mean by the "higher?" Do you choose which ability score to use depending on which one is the highest, or do you use both to calculate those defenses?

Also, underneath "Will," I think there's a typo?

Add the higher of your Wisdom modifier and your Charisma modifier to your Reflex defense.

 

[Sanglorian]

Reading through the rulebook and I have some questions.

Underneath "Using Your Ability Scores", it states to add "the higher of your [Ability Score A] modifier and your [Ability Score B] modifier to your [Fortitude/Reflex/Will] defense." What does it mean by the "higher?" Do you choose which ability score to use depending on which one is the highest, or do you use both to calculate those defenses?

Also, underneath "Will," I think there's a typo?

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.

 

[jeffh]

Underneath "Using Your Ability Scores", it states to add "the higher of your [Ability Score A] modifier and your [Ability Score B] modifier to your [Fortitude/Reflex/Will] defense." What does it mean by the "higher?" Do you choose which ability score to use depending on which one is the highest, or do you use both to calculate those defenses?

I'm always curious when people find stuff like this confusing, as it's always good to have clearer ways of conveying this kind of information when writing rules. Writing these somewhat mathematical bits has a lot of pitfalls. A wording that is completely clear to me will often just confuse my more math-phobic friends, while wordings that they actually find helpful often strike me as ambiguous or incomplete. (Maybe they give a clear answer 98% of the time but the 2% where they don't really bothers me.) So I hope you'll indulge me in asking a few questions.

(It is quite possible I'm massively overthinking this, all my questions have the same obvious-once-you-see-it answer, and this is a lot simpler than it looks to me. That would be kind of nice, actually!)

• I'm a bit unclear on what the source of confusion was here. If you can articulate it, what made this wording confusing to you? (I know, I know, "why are you confused about _______" can be a difficult and even aggressive-sounding question. To be able to answer that question would, in some cases, require being no longer confused! If it's hard to say, it's hard to say.)
• What, to you, would be a clearer way to say the same thing?
• What made you think it might mean you used both scores? (And, used them how, exactly)?
• You yourself used the word "higher" in the first (correct) one of your two options. To me this makes your question seem almost the same as "does 'higher' mean 'higher'?". Obviously, to you it didn't seem that way, or you wouldn't have asked! What makes the two "higher"s seem to you like they might mean different things?

I hope this comes off as genuine curiosity and desire to improve my own explanations, and not as badgering. That's an awful lot of text for such a small point! I'm somewhat sorry about that .