LOW FANTASY/HIGH GRIT RULES, or, D&D meets Call of Cthulhu d20!

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Here are my character creation rules for a low fantasy (Harn) flavored setting (a work in progress). I basically converted Call of Cthulhu d20 to D&D and added in some material from the d20 Harn Guide available online. Feedback requested! Thanks...
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KAPTAIN KANTRIP'S LOW FANTASY/HIGH GRIT RULES
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Ability Scores:
All abilities begin at 8 points each. You
now have 22 ability score points to spend
any way you wish using the
“challenging” Point Buy method of
character generation (see DMG, p. 20).
All scores between 9-14 points may be
bought on a 1-1 basis; scores between
15-16 cost 2-1, and scores of 17-18 cost
3-1.

HIT POINTS [CoC Version]:
At level one, you have 6 hit points + CON
mod + any Toughness feats. At level two
and every level thereafter, you receive
1d6 hit points + CON mod.

DEATH FROM MASSIVE DAMAGE [CoC version]:
If a human takes 10 hit points of damage
from a single injury, he must make a Fort save
(DC 15) or die immediately. If it is subdual
damage, he must make the same Fort save but
failure results in 2d6 minutes of unconsciousness.
Creatures (Demons, Ivashu, etc.) only check for
death from massive damage if they take 50 hit
points of damage from a single injury.

Sanity Score:
Your Sanity score = Wis score x 5.

Base Save and Attack
Bonuses:
Pick either the Defense or Offense
option.
* Defense Option: Pick two saving
throws;
these each receive a +2 bonus, but the
third saving throw receives +0. Your
Base Attack Bonus is also +0.
* Offense Option: Pick one saving
throw;
it receives a +2 bonus but the other two
receive a +0 bonus. Your Base Attack
Bonus is +1.

Defense Bonus:
Pick the Defense or Offense Option.
* Defense Option: +2 AC bonus (scales
with level)
* Offense Option: +0 AC bonus (scales
with level), but you get to pick one
fighter bonus feat.

Feats:
Pick any three. If you chose the “Offense
Option” for your Defense Bonus, you
receive a fourth feat taken from the list
of fighter bonus feats.

Skill Points at 1st level:
8 + Int mod x 4.

Skill Points at 2nd level
and beyond:
8 + Int mod.

Skills:
Choose an Occupation Template below
or create your own template by
modifying an existing one or designing a
new one with the DM’s permission. In
this case, pick any twelve skills as your
core skills. All other skills are non-core
skills and cost two skill points to raise
one rank.

Occupation Templates:
Each template gives the ten core skills
for each occupation and allows room for
minor customization by leaving two core
skill slots empty, to be filled with skills of
the player’s choice.

Remember that most
characters not of the clergy or nobility
are illiterate and do not possess the
Script (literacy) skill.
------
Barbarian:
Craft (any)
Craft (any)
Hide
Knowledge: Local
Knowledge: Nature
Knowledge: Weather Sense
Listen
Move Silently
Spot
Wilderness Lore
+any two of player's choice
------
Clergy:
Concentration
Diplomacy
Knowledge: Religion
Knowledge (any one)
Listen
Script (native)
Script (temple tongue)
Sense Motive
Speak Other Language
Spot
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Criminal (Bandit):
Appraise
Bluff
Gather Information
Hide
Knowledge: Underworld
Move Silently
Open Lock
Pick Pockets
Profession: Gambler
Wilderness Lore
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Freeman:
Craft or Profession (any one)
Craft or Profession (any one)
Craft or Profession (any one)
Knowledge: Folklore
Knowledge: Law
Knowledge: Local
Knowledge: Weather Sense
Listen
Spot
Wilderness Lore
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Mercenary:
Climb
Hide
Jump
Knowledge: Mercenary
Knowledge: Military
Listen
Move Silently
Spot
Use Rope
Wilderness Lore
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Merchant (Guilder):
Appraise
Bluff
Craft (any one)
Diplomacy
Gather Information
Knowledge: Trade
Knowledge (any one)
Listen
Profession (any one)
Spot
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Noble (Knight):
Diplomacy
Gather Information
Knowledge: Administration
Knowledge: Heraldry
Knowledge: History
Knowledge: Law
Knowledge: Military
Perform (dance)
Perform (any musical instrument)
Ride
Script (native)
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Serf, Male (Cottar, Villein):
Craft (any one)
Handle Animal
Heal (First Aid)
Knowledge: Folklore
Knowledge: Local
Knowledge: Weather Sense
Listen
Profession: Farmer
Spot
Wilderness Lore
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Serf, Female:
Craft: Cooking (includes salting)
Craft: Textilecraft
Heal (First Aid)
Knowledge: Folklore
Knowledge: Local
Listen
Nursemaid
Profession: Farmer
Spot
Wilderness Lore
+ two skills of player’s choice
------
Slave:
Craft or Profession (any one)
Craft or Profession (any one)
Craft or Profession (any one)
Diplomacy
Hide
Listen
Move Silently
Profession: Servant
Sense Motive
Spot
+ two skills of player’s choice
__________________________________

CHARACTER CLASSES:
There is only one character class:
"Adventurer." No one begins play knowing
any magic or having any non-mundane
abilities except by special DM
permission. Those interested in magic must seek out their destiny (doom) during the course of play.

MAGIC:
The only way to learn magic is to locate
forbidden books or consort with
demons/dark gods, who may either
impart the knowledge directly into the
character's mind (dark gods) or teach
them the necessary requirements over
time (demons). Each spell takes 1-3
weeks to learn. Every time a spell is cast,
the caster must pay the cost: either in
sanity points, temporary ability score
damage, or both. Practicing magic is
punishable by death in all nations without
exception; no nation (knowingly)
worships any dark deities or (willingly)
consorts with demons.

CULT SORCERER ("PRIEST"):
If a character sacrifices all their
remaining sanity points when summoning
or contacting a dark god and agrees to
become its priest (witch, cultist, grand
magus, sorcerer, or whatever title you
want to use), the "cult sorcerer" template
from CoC d20 is applied to the character.

CULT SORCERER TEMPLATE:
As base creature, except for the
following additional abilities:

Clarity of Madness (Su): Although
irrevocably evil and dangerously insane,
the cult sorcerer does not appear so to
others. The cult sorcerer receives a +2
profane bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy
checks. He knows the “expected”
answers to questions, how to deal
normally with the outside world, etc., so
long as he is not cut off from his deity
(such as in an anti-magic field or
protection circle, or if his god is
banished, temporarily destroyed or
permanently slain).

Divine Denial (Su): Cult sorcerers
cannot cast spells that call upon rival
deities (such as a Cthulhu worshipper
trying to cast song of Hastur).

Divine Link (Su): When cut off from his
deity (as outlined above), the cult
sorcerer is affected as by a confusion
spell until contact can be successfully
reestablished. While cut off from his
deity and not able to act normally, the
cult sorcerer will alternately babble,
gibber, curse, cry, scream and beg, in
addition to any other random activities
dictated by the confusion spell.

While the link is in effect, the cult
sorcerer casts all spells of his deity as if
he had the Spell Focus and Greater Spell
Focus feats (total +4 bonus to the DC).
Spells of his deity are limited to those
that actually have the deity’s name
included in the title, such as grasp of
Cthulhu or song of Hastur.

Gift of Power (Sp): Each deity imparts
one or two spells to the cult sorcerer’s
mind directly (no roll or time to learn
necessary). These spells are those
favored by that deity (in its CoC d20
description), though it may substitute any
spells it knows at a whim.

Gift of Purpose (Sp): The cult sorcerer
is expected to lead a cult in the worship
of his chosen deity. At 6th level, he
receives the Leadership feat for free.

Indomitable Spirit (Ex): Iron Will feat.

DARK PACT:
An alternative to becoming a cult
sorcerer is to make a Pact with a dark
deity, which requires you to cast a spell
to contact or summon the being in
question and bargain with it. In exchange
for some gruesome promise (such as
your soul, your first born, or your body
and mind to turn into a loathesome
mindless servitor a few years down the
road), the being will grant you one
immediate boon that may be all at once
or scale over time (or by level). Typical
boons are +1 to Intelligence every year
or every level (whichever comes first),
immortality (immunity to aging, not to
violent death), a copy of a forbidden
book containing spells, or something you
desire (such as another's love, or fame, or
money). These boons generally do not
just magically appear, but arrive in a
timely but possibly unexpected manner
(wishing for money results in your family
dying and you gaining an inheritance, for
example). The Unspeakable Oath (from
Call of Cthulhu d20) is an example of
one type of dark pact offered. Others
exist.

WIZARD:
A wizard is one who uses his spells and
forbidden knowledge for good or ill but
avoids bargaining with dark deities as
outlined above. Wizards are typically
loners and hermits, using their mysterious
powers to further their own goals but
always weighing the risk of going too far
and sacrificing too much. Most
eventually slip into madness and death.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

This is still in the early stages of development... I intend on using HarnWorld as the setting, though I haven't narrowed it down to the exact location yet. I am considering using the village and area from Columbia Games Harn adventure "100 Bushels of Rye" (SPOILERS AHEAD RE: 100 BUSHELS), as well as that adventure itself as the introduction to the campaign, though I will probably replace the Nolah (Harnic Troll, actually similar to the Ghaunadan from monsters of Faerun but with charm powers) with something else even more hideous, the Taelda sun god with Shub-Niggurath, and the hidden Khazdul forge with some kind of crazed human cultist's lair, perhaps with a crumbling old "forbidden book" or two.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS BEGINS HERE: I'll probably also toss in a wicked old "wise woman" in the woods who can serve as a source of info, herbs and perhaps as a patron for those interested in unlocking the secrets of "black magic." In a pinch, she could serve as an instigator for sending the PCs out to recover her "dear, departed husband's humble library" from the cultist's lair, which "holds sentimental value" to her. The body of her husband could replace the dead dwarf in the forge, and the books replace the magical sword Trueheart. Perhaps the witch and her husband had a cult going in the area decades ago but the Taelda tribe moved in and wiped them out... but then kept sacrificing one of their own to the monster in the pit of skulls to keep it away from them. The village could then have sprung up nearby many years later, driven off the Taelda and caused the creature from the pit to go roaming for its food (sacrifices) into the village... The witch could have been waiting all these years for the village to spring up and give her the chance at revenge against the Taelda "when the stars are right" (LOL)---perhaps she somehow was able to instigate the conflict between the village and the Taelda---and now she hopes to reclaim her husband's eldritch tomes and start her cult again using the villagers as converts and sacrifices! Or maybe the husband wasn't really her husband but some guy who usurped control of the cult from her and then she arranged for the Taelda to massacre the cult but then couldn't get to her books. She received an insane vision to wait for the PCs (or one in particular she sees as a protege) to retrieve her books and renew the cult with her at its head. The vision told her only when that PC has come of age can the cult be renewed in earnest.

I am thinking of replacing the existing pantheon with the Catholic Church (LOL). Everything not of the church is the work of the Devil and his demons. Unfortunately, Catholicism will have no real power to save anyone from the gibbering madness that Lurks Beyond... No offense intended.

I was partially inspired by a HarnCthulhu document on Columbia Games site. The new d20 Cthulhu filled in the rest of the blanks. Plus, I paid $40 for it, so we're going to use it or else, LOL.

 

[WSmith]

Very interesting. Have you had a chance to use this yet? I am curious how it turns out.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Haven't had a chance to use it yet. Hopefully this summer (after current campaign ends).

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Somebody please give me some feedback... See any glaring problems with the new rules?

 

[Anabstercorian]

No GLARING errors. No little ones either, as far as I can see. I should warn you, however, that this will be a VERY different beasty from DnD and your players should expect that. Keep them aforewarned and prepare for some serious skill-monkey characters.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Thanks! Wow, no errors!

Yes, it will be a completely different feel than regular D&D 3e... I may relent a bit on some of the harsher elements, I don't know. I can't decide whether I want to use the Cthulhu Mythos deities or the Harnic deities, or some combination of gods.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Gee, I thought for sure this thread would get more feedback than this. Could I please get some more opinions on the new rules I plan on using? Thanks!!!

 

[Doc_Subtlety]

I'd use the CoC hp method and massive damage rules, instead of what you have.

The rest looks fine to me.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

It looks interesting--not having played CoC, I can't say this for certain, but it looks like this will basically be CoC in medieval Europe. That could be interesting but I think it might be more interesting if you actually did allow your pseudo-catholicism a few real powers (perhaps more around the level of a D&D paladin than a D&D cleric) to combat the horrors of evil. That might allow your game to gain some of the epic good vs. evil feel that D&D often capitalizes on without sacrificing the feel that the powers of darkness vastly outmatch the PCs and that each encounter could be their last. The PCs wouldn't be as doomed as the characters in Wicht's Confessions of Sarai Mochesley story hour, but they wouldn't mow through evil like Conan either--they'd probably be more like Dr. Van Richten and the characters in Dracula.