Donjon - Planescape

While I participated in the early design for Donjon, it's really Clinton's baby. Now I'm back as the baby's terrible uncle (you know, taking the kid to R-rated movies and letting her stay up late). What follows is my own take on Donjon, some bits playtested, some not (well, none yet). I also adore Planescape, hence the extreme bias of monster conversions and what-not.

Contested vs. Uncontested Action (unplaytested!)

NOTE: There really isn't anything new here, just me ruminating.

Uncontested actions are [PC's Ability + Attribute] vs. [Donjon Level + Difficulty]. Contested actions are [PC's Ability + Attribute] vs. [Monster's Ability + Attribute]. Monster Level serves as a gauge on which monsters to place: Monsters appearing on the Donjon Level must be between [Donjon Level - 1] and [Donjon Level + 1]).

This diminishes the DM's ability to accomodate for a PC group. An nth-level PC is generally more powerful than an nth-level monster. So what's wrong with a party (combined levels of 6) on donjon level two facing off a single monster of 5th or 6th level?

I propose that instead of "donjon level" you use a "party level" gauge. As DM, you need to keep track of two things: Party Average and Party Total. The Party Average should be the number used as donjon level (for things like difficulty and so on). Party Total is your gauge for encounters. An easy encounter consists of 1/2 the Party Total in levels, while a tough encounter is double the Party Total. If you want the adventure's difficulty to increase, a donjon level should be a modifier to the Party Average. An easy level would be x1/2 or x2/3. A tough level would be x1.5 or even x2.

Alternate Magic Rules

After noticing that Magic as a primary ability is pretty damn strong, I'm going to make casting a medium-difficulty action (3 dice for the GM). After playtesting, I'm still finding that magic encourages more improvisation than non-magic. Which means that the system is rewarding mages over non-mages.

PC Experience (unplaytested!)

New Experience Table

I want to revisit the old-school experience charts, so here's the formula (save 1st level which requires 0 xp): 2 ^ (level - 2) * 1000, drop all but the first two digits.

Experience Awards

When awarding experience, Players get XP for monsters, treasure and roleplaying. Monsters are worth their XP Value, divided among the PCs involved in defeating it.

A PC looting a monster or finding a treasure cache (regardless of whether he is successful in finding any treasure) earns 2^{(level - 2)} * (Level of Cache/Monster) in XP.

Roleplaying awards are offered at 50-1000 points, depending on the whims of the GM.

Alternate Monster Stats

To hearken back to the primitive days of Basic D&D, I've decided to try out an alternate monster stat system. We'll see what happens. You pick a monster's Level, then assign the following:

Flesh Wounds

Operates like regular Donjon. Zero Flesh Wounds = dead monster.

Actions

How many dice per initiative round. Equal to either Combat or Saves.

Combat & Saves

Combat is used for attacking, counterattacking, parrying, dodging, damage and resisting damage. Saves is used for everything else.

Abilities (around five skills, one is Main)

These work just like standard Donjon. When you use an Ability, just add it's value to either Combat or Saves. For every monster, you should include at least one gag and/or seemingly non-effective skill that fleshes it out (like how the orc hermit can Ruminate). Remember that main abilities apply to all of one type of roll without limitations.
Each ability comes with a Focus and a Limit. Focus should be the primary roll this ability affects (like Attack, Dodge, Armor, Damage, Taunt, Blind). Limit should be any limitations (Main Ability has no limitations) such as Fire, Unholy, Airborne. If an ability is listed with the Limit, then that ability must put a success or fact towards this one before this ability can be performed.

Monsters

Creating a Monster

You decide on the Rank of the monster's Flesh Wounds, Combat, Saves and Abilities: Low, Medium, High. Then decide whether the monster uses Combat or Saves for its Actions. Finally, decide on the monster's normal level and calculate everything from there.

To calculate experience, you add up the costs of each score's strength and the abilities:

Add up all those costs and plug it into the equation:

Monster's XP Value = 2^{(level - 2)} * cost

Changing an Existing Monster

This is pretty easy. If a monster goes up or down a level, just refigure the Flesh Wounds, Combat and Saves (using the Easy, Medium, Hard) and Skill Points based on their Rank.

Monster Creation Worksheet

Rank: L/M/H = Low/Medium/High, * = Main Ability

Notes on Monster Experience

Monsters & Roleplaying rewards I consider all as "events." To go up a level, you use the above formula, which I'll call I (to stand for an increase in level). So we have I xp/level. I want to introduce about 30 player-level monsters & roleplaying awards per level, so we have (I xp/level) * (1/30 level/event) = (I / 30 xp/event). So a single monster should be worth (I / 30) or (2 ^ (monster level - 2) * 33) experience.

This "33" modifier should be different depending on the relative strength of the monster. I suggest that the generic "33" modifier provides the basic stats. So the point cost of a monster with all "M", three Combat and two Saves Abilities would be 33. The most insanely powerful combat monster would cost 53, and the weakest monster would cost 14.

Planescape Donjon

I've decided to combine the narration-friendly Donjon with the Planescape setting. Below will be any conversions or notes I've had to make. I expect running a module will go like this: Set-up, Players start improvising, I cope with more improvising, and module gets chucked out the window. When a monster's Abilities need to exceed five, just ignore some. No biggie. I also ignore a fiend's ability to gate in more buddies unless it seems overly appropriate (such as summoning lackeys or the fiend's real chummy with his buds).

So far, I've converted monsters from To Baator and Back, found in the Well of Worlds adventure anthology.

D&D and Planescape Monsters

Monsters are identified as playtested or not beside their name. Anything deemed "UNFINISHED" can also be safely considered untested.

The Giant Bloodworm may only use its Blood Drain damage with a successful Latching Maw attack.

Bear Hug: Bear Hug adds to damage only after a successful Bear Claws attack.
Treasure: An owlbear's loot is only found in its nest.