Oz d20 - a world of Swashbuckling Adventure and High Weirdness

tsadkiel

Legend
I've mentioned the fact that I run an off-and-on homebrew campaign based on the Oz books from time to time, and a few people have expressed interest in it, so I've started a thread in order to explain how and why I put the campaign world together. It'll probably be a while before I get the whole thing up, but here's a start.

Why Oz? I like weird stuff in my games, and the Oz books start mildly strange and get weirder and weirder from there. I was also interested in getting away from strict medieval stuff, and indulging my own tastes for clockwork robots, flying monkeys, occasional satire, and terrible puns.

I use the 14 books actually written by Baum as "canon" for my game. My conceit is that Baum was, as he claimed, the Royal Historian of Oz, and was in fact in communication with Dorothy Gale. Baum's writings are based on actual Ozzy events, but became progressively more "child-friendly" as the years passed. For example, Baum claimed in later books that no one ever dies in Oz, and that's not the case in my game; similarly, while in Baum's books all animals are intelligent and capable of speech, in my game there's a minority of Awakened Anmimals, but most animals are simply animals.

I treid to avoid being too dark, though. "Like Oz, only eeeevil" seems a bit too cheesy.

More later!
 

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Well, they were children's books...

And I should point out, it might have been impossible to kill people, but Baum acknowledged that it was possible to chop them up into itty-bitty pieces...
 

Rhialto said:
Well, they were children's books...

And I should point out, it might have been impossible to kill people, but Baum acknowledged that it was possible to chop them up into itty-bitty pieces...

Yep. And drown, and all sorts of other nasty fates. Which would make for a very interesting gaming environment, actually, but it'd take a greater game designer than me to pull it off properly.

I don't want to be unfair to Baum - the books don't turn into "My Little Pony" as the series progresses, or anything like that. But there is a shift from death to no death, and for this game, I went with death.
 

The Rules.

I'm on version three of the rules for my Oz game. Version one was basically straight D&D, but the classes didn't really mesh with the world. Version two was based on the d20 Modern playtest rules, so I can't say much about it.

For version three, I use four main books - the three core rule books, and Swashbuckling Adventures. I also use the Web Enhancement for Mythic Races, but that's not a book, so I won't count it. ;) I have high hopes for the forthcoming (eventually) Mechanika book from Privateer, and am happy to raid any d20 monster book for suitably Ozzy beasties, but they aren't "core."

Available PC Races - Human (mostly to represent people from outside Oz proper), Half-Elf (the original settlers of Oz were elves IMC, but they've watered down the bloodline considerably; Ozma is the only purebred Elf in Oz at the moment), Munchkin (the PHB Halfling, but with a funny hat), Awakened Animal (only without the two bonus hit die from the spell, and I use the creature's hit dice as their ECL), and Mannikin (from the aforementioned web enhancement. To be honest, I'm not 100% happy with the Mannikin as written, but I'm too lazy to design and playtest and rebalance my own - it'll do until someone publishes something that works better.)

I'm open to other options, and the stranger the better, but no one has asked for any other races yet.
 


SO I take it that Jack Pumpkinhad and his Majesty the Scarecrow are Mannikins - what about the Saw-Horse?

Also how did you handle Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug, T. E. - an awakened Giant vermin? - eek!:)


Also I don't see any mention of Gnomes - from the Kingdom of the Nomes (Rinkitink In Oz) (ps I like gnomes)
 

Ryan Koppenhaver said:
What a cool concept!

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread!

Thanks!

When do we get to see classes?

In just a few minutes. Within a few days, I'll add the Oz monster palatte, then maybe some history and local color. I'm also open to requests, if there's anything else people want to see.
 

Tonguez said:
SO I take it that Jack Pumpkinhad and his Majesty the Scarecrow are Mannikins - what about the Saw-Horse?

Also how did you handle Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug, T. E. - an awakened Giant vermin? - eek!:)


Also I don't see any mention of Gnomes - from the Kingdom of the Nomes (Rinkitink In Oz) (ps I like gnomes)

The Saw-Horse is an example of why I'm not entirely satisfied with the Mannikin. ;) Awakened animated object, I guess. Despite the fact that you can't awaken an animated object.

The Wogglebug has yet to appear onstage, so I haven't finalized his race. Awakened giant cockroach would be sort of amusing - I'm also looking at Thri-Kreen and the big bug race from the Mythic Races web enhancement. (When I was a teenager, well before my interest in the Oz books, I read an Oz-Cthulhu Mythos crossover story, which hinted that the Wogglebug was actually a member of a race of eldritch bug-men from before Lurline's time. So my perspective on the character has always been a bit off.)

And there are Nomes - evil svirfneblin with big hair fit the bill nicely. I didn't mention them in the races section because they can't be PC's - I'm trying to preserve the mystique, if that makes any sense.
 

More rules.

Classes:

From the PHB:

Barbarian - While it doesn't seem like a very good fit for most Ozites, the barbarian class is a perfect fit for the Cowardly Lion. It's available for Animals (indeed, it's their favored class) but not anyone else.

Bard - Musically oriented characters don't turn up often in the Oz books, and when they do, they're generally figures of ridicule. (For example, the Musicker and Victor Columbia Edison.) Still, Polychrome's dancing could be considered bardic, and Bardic Knowledge fits the Wogglebug fairly well. The Thean Bard from Swashbuckling Adventures is available.

Cleric - cut. While there is religion in my Oz (Lurlinism, pretty much lifted wholesale from Wicked, by Gregory Maguire), you don't get cool powers from being religious. There is no Divine Magic in my Oz.

Druid - cut. For the same reason as the cleric, though I'm more likely to allow druids to sneak back in.

Fighter - Of course fighters are in. Tiktok and the Hungry Tiger are both fighters.

Monk - Doesn't really fit the campaign, so it's mostly cut. I've been toying with adding a street kid/martial arts prodigy from Pulp Shanghai as an NPC, though.

Paladin - cut. See Cleric.

Ranger - The Thean Ranger form Swashbuckling Adventures is in. Obviously, the Tin Woodsman is the example here.

Rogue - Yeah. Naturally. Even though there's no one all that roguish in the books. I'll use the Patchwork Girl as my example character here, 'cause she's cool. (And anyone has the Liber Beastarius, the Poppet was pretty directly inspired by her.)

Wizard/Sorcerer - Baum draws a clear distinction between wizards, sorcerers, and witches. So I've taken that fact and run with it. Both classes are in. The Wizard is a wizard (multi'd into wizard, actually), and Glinda is a sorcerer. A supah-dupah Epic level sorcerer.
 

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