D&D 5E Lamp's Light Sanitarium: A Horror Sourcebook & Adventure for 5th Edition

matthewdcorley · Oct 31, 2018

Check out Lamp's Light Sanitarium:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th

Lamp’s Light is a fully realized horror sourcebook for the 5th edition of the world’s most famous roleplaying game. This black and white campaign guide has an expected page count of 130+ pages. As stretch goals are met additional content will be added and the book expanded to accommodate.

Lamp’s Light Sanitarium is a sprawling estate beautifully detailed in hand drawn maps by Toby Lancaster of Dark Realm Maps. The asylum is charted with six individual maps each of which has dozens of fully described rooms. The asylum is equally at home as an oasis in an urban environment or as an idyllic country estate. The characters, themes, and setting are distinctly Victorian with Gothic and steampunk elements.
Lamp’s Light is a fully realized horror sourcebook for the 5th edition of the world’s most famous roleplaying game. This black and white campaign guide has an expected page count of 130+ pages. As stretch goals are met additional content will be added and the book expanded to accommodate.

Lamp’s Light Sanitarium is a sprawling estate beautifully detailed in hand drawn maps by Toby Lancaster of Dark Realm Maps. The asylum is charted with six individual maps each of which has dozens of fully described rooms. The asylum is equally at home as an oasis in an urban environment or as an idyllic country estate. The characters, themes, and setting are distinctly Victorian with Gothic and steampunk elements.

Lamp's Light in Your Campaign: How to incorporate Lamp's Light into an existing campaign such as those available Wizards of the Coast, Kobold Press, and other publishers.

A new adventure: Discordant Scriptures (a Lamp's Light adventure for mid-level PCs). An alien intelligence has been drawn to the confluence of dissonant minds contained within Lamp’s Light. Administrator Rose, at the behest of her patron, has urged the residents of the facility to record their mad dreams within the pages of a dream journal. Rose believes that the collected journals contain within them the knowledge needed to release her patron from its imprisonment on another plane.

Story frameworks: In additional to Discordant Scriptures there will be half a dozen 2-3 page story frameworks ready for you to customize and build upon for your individual campaigns.
Key staff, patients and other inhabitants of Lamp’s Light are detailed with statblocks, backgrounds, illustrations, and everything needed to incorporate them into your sessions. Dr. Renwick, Administrator Rose, and the man known as Patient 11 are but a few of the NPCs walking the halls of Lamp’s Light. Orderlies, Patients, and other creatures are covered in the same level of detail.

New Rules for Managing Sanity

The sanity and madness rules presented enhance role-playing, create challenges for the players, and bring more color to your game. 5th edition characters are, above all else, exceptional. They are capable of winning virtually any fight, overcoming epic challenges, and creating miracles. These rules keep that spirit in mind.
The 20 pages of new rules build upon the framework provided by the DMG. There are expansive tables for transient, short-term, long-term, and indefinite madness, with nearly 50 different entries describing the narrative and mechanical effects on the character.
For DMs looking for more color without the added mechanical crunch the narrative descriptions provide ample fodder for you and your players to role-play.

matthewdcorley · Nov 1, 2018

We're a shade under 20% funded and I thought I'd share an update from the Kickstarter

Sanity and Madness Rules Part 1

The first question that many of you will have about a campaign that takes place in an asylum is, “how will we incorporate sanity and madness rules within our games?”

To that end Lamp's Light contains an appendix to discuss that very question. The appendix offers two complementary approaches to adding this mechanic into your game. Over the next few updates I’ll be delving into the new optional rules for Sanity and Madness. First things first, how do you determine your sanity score and Sanity checks?

SANITY SCORE
Your character’s Sanity score is equal to her Charisma score plus her Wisdom modifier. The maximum Sanity score a character can achieve is 25. The character’s maximum Sanity and her current Sanity should be recorded separately. The character’s Sanity can change based on Sanity checks. In most cases, the character can recover lost Sanity through either magic or the expenditure of downtime days. The character’s Sanity score cannot exceed her maximum as determined by her Charisma and Wisdom scores.

SANITY CHECKS
To make a Sanity check roll a d20 and apply your current (not maximum) Sanity score modifier. If the roll is equal to or higher than the DC the character succeeds the check and is able to maintain her mental coherence. If the roll is less than the DC she fails the check. With a failed check she loses a portion of her Sanity and rolls on the madness table. Any madness that a character develops is transient unless otherwise noted. A roll of a natural 1 is considered a fumble and always fails. A specific encounter and/or named NPC/creature can only incite a single Sanity check.

In our next update I’ll be going over the different types of madness and how they come in to play.

Thank you all for your support. Please help to continue to support this project with shares, likes, and retweets across you social media. We have a lot of amazing stretch goals that I know we can get to.

-Matt

matthewdcorley · Nov 3, 2018

Full Kickstarter Details:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th

Day 3 is coming to an end and we're at 25% funding.

Updated tiers include:

$1 – Visitor’s Pass: Thank you and access to backer only updates
$5 – Curious Observer: You get a copy of the Sanity Rules written for Lamp’s Light and a custom form-fillable PDF character sheet for 5e
$15 – Frenetic Patient: as above, you also get a PDF of Lamp’s Light Sanitarium, and your name in the book
$21 – Devoted Alienist: as above, and POD (backer pays for print cost + shipping) through DriveThruRPG
$40 – Faculty Consultation: As above, and Dr. Renwick will write a psychiatric evaluation for you on one of your characters or one of your player's character. The evaluation will be written on Lamp's Light letterhead delivered electronically (ANY locations) and mailed to you (US backers only)
$50 – Taste of Madness: As DEVOTED ALIENIST, a Lamp's Light session run by Lamp's Light Creator, Matt Corley, on Roll20, and credit as a playtester.
$150 – Lamp’s Light Inner Circle: as above, and you get to design an NPC (alienist, staff member, or patient) with Matt for inclusion in the book. This will include a full stat-block, background, and portrait. (Limit 8)

Part II of the Sanity Rules Updates

Thanks
-Matt

matthewdcorley · Nov 5, 2018

We're sitting right at $1,198 and making steady progress. Two more updates:

Sanity Rules Part III
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th/posts/2333898

and

Just What's in this book anway?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th/posts/2335014

matthewdcorley · Nov 7, 2018

In today's update we look at one of the adventures from Lamp's Light: Tabula Rosa

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th

A LAMP’S LIGHT SANITARIUM INVESTIGATIVE ADVENTURE FOR 4 TO 5 CHARACTERS OF LEVELS 1-3

SYNOPSIS: By chance or design the characters have become unwilling patients at Lamp’s Light Sanitarium. They have all been marked as future test subjects of Dr. Renwick’s as he continues to experiment with and fine tune the juxta personalis (see Appendix $$). The physical changes wrought by the device are minimal, but mentally and emotionally they are forever changed. They may lose memories, portions of their personalities, and possibly change alignments. In the midst of the confusion a friend appears and an offer of aid is made.

ADVENTURE HOOKS:
• There are worse things than a TPK. Your last session with the big bad ended not end with a victory but with a fade to black. Your players expect to roll new characters to begin their journey a new. Instead, they find familiar characters in a situation worse than death.
• A campaign centered on Lamp’s Light begins, most appropriately, as a patient within those hallowed halls. The player’s backgrounds should reflect why they ended up in Dr. Renwick’s tender care and this adventure is best suited for those whose backgrounds reflect a lower station in life or one lived on the fringes of polite society.

SETTING THE SCENE:
Prior to beginning the player’s first session in Lamp’s Light it is recommended that the DM explain to the players that this is an adventure in which the characters’ actions may have long lasting repercussions. Indiscriminate violence may earn the characters the enmity of powerful personages within and without the walls of Lamp’s Light. A few possible consequences:
• The character is bound, gagged, and relegated to existence as a test subject until his/her mind is broken.
• A scion of an important personage in the city is harmed (or killed) due to the actions of the characters. This influential figure will dog the heroes from the shadows until revenge is exacted.
• The staff of Lamp’s Light brand the character(s) as criminally insane and untreatable. They are transferred to the stockades to face punishment for their crimes.

SCENE ONE
Awakening in an unfamiliar room the first thing you notice is that your back is aching from the gentle caress of the bed. It is much softer than the ground you normally sleep on. Trying to turn to your side you realize that you cannot move freely. Heavy leather buckle restraints bind your hands to the side of the bed and your feet to its base.
You are clothed in a simple cotton shift and from your vantage you are able to see a small, barred window opposite a heavy wooden door. Heart racing, you hear the struggles of others in the room and realize that are not alone. There other beds in the room and in each those beds a figure is bound to the frame. From the sounds of their struggling they are in the same predicament as you are.

matthewdcorley · Nov 7, 2018

We're a shade under 60% funded. Let's get this funded!!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th

matthewdcorley · Nov 8, 2018

Every little bit helps! Thank you for your support

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37222410/lamps-light-sanitarium-a-horror-sourcebook-for-5th

I'm heading off to GameHole and may not be able to update for a few days so I wanted to make sure that this was a good one. For your gaming pleasure, I introduce you to the juxta personalis. Guaranteed to make even the most battle-hardened adventurer shudder in their armor.

Full stats are in the DropBox link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o091pit9q3ojp26/juxta-personalis.pdf?dl=0

matthewdcorley · Nov 12, 2018

Just $1,500 to go before funding!

In today's update we meet Otto Keller (of Encounter Roleplay's Tomes and Tentacles podcast/stream) and see what he's up to now. The update includes Otto's full statblock and stats!