Virtual Mayhem

Here's a new scenario for Vehicle Mayhem: Virtual Mayhem! Virtual Mayhem is intended to simulate a car race in a virtual world. The race should move much quicker and be more dangerous than straight Vehicle Mayhem- perfect for a quick game. Mike Bolam came up with the concept as part of a very special 0-level funnel tournament he's running.

Virtual Mayhem Rules
For best results, print out this PDF double-sided and cut down the middle for two copies sized perfectly to fit in your Vehicle Mayhem rules.

I recommend giving identical cars to each player. When the game is so much more deadly, minor advantages in armor & weaponry can be greatly magnified. This character sheet includes two blank sheets & two of the identical cars I'm using for Virtual Mayhem.
Virtual Mayhem Pregens

And, just for fun, here's a bonus play aid for when you roll 1 or 12 on the Virtual Mayhem events table
Virtual Insanity

New DCC Stats: Perception & Credit

In developing Star Crawl for my home campaign (and putting it to paper for eventual release), I've added two statistics: Perception and Credit.

When running and playing DCC, I (and other judges) seem to be inconsistent with how they handle characters noticing things within the current rules.  Some use Intelligence, some use Luck; some say Int for seeing and Luck for hearing (and my memory just isn't good enough to be consistent). Perception is a catch all for these. This derived stat is the sum of the ability modifiers for Intelligence and Luck. Some classes (DCC Thief and SC Scoundrel) add their levels to this score. 

Credit is a fairly complex stat, and one I'm still working to refine, but the idea is to have a way to simulate the complexities of a modern/futuristic character's financial state without just saying "you have X dollars". Each occupation has a starting Credit Die: major changes in life situation may raise or lower that die, but otherwise it's fairly static. Resource windfalls add a transient bonus to Credit, which will help the character buy stuff now but not necessarily have a permanent impact. 

Here's how Credit would work:

Blutark the Particle Harvester has d6 Credit. During his latest adventure, he obtained a frigate loaded with illicit goods. The judge rules that keeping the frigate will increase his credit die (to d8) and selling the cargo will give him a short term bonus (+2). So Blutark heads to the local market with d8+2 Credit for making purchases. There would be a certain threshold for "automatic" purchases (say something with a value less than half your max Credit roll); otherwise, you need to make a Credit roll to afford that item right now. After a month or so, that bonus will be gone but Blutark will still have a d8 Credit die. 

Critical Hit Table

Critical hits are great. I love the idea that any character, no matter how great or small, can deal tremendous damage with a lucky blow. Every player has stories about "that one crit"- folks I played with 20 years ago still remember Three, the kobold who felled a stone giant with a natural 20 using a Javelin of Lightning. Even when behind the screen, I love the players getting that big crit at the right time.

Do any experienced DMs not have house rules for critical hits? Unless you're playing something like DCC, with a deep and robust crit system, I think it's a must. 

Here's how I handle them in my Labyrinth Lord campaign. On a natural 20, the number of damage dice is doubled (so a sword that normally does 1d8 damage does 2d8 on a natural 20: note that bonuses from strength/magic are not doubled). The player rolls a second d20 on my homebrew table to determine location. Each location has some special effects, such as further penalties which will persist until the critical hit is healed. Most locations can be severed and some can cause instant death. In these cases, the attacking player rolls d100. If the result is equal to or under the total amount of damage inflicted by the hit, sever or death results. 

*Full disclosure: as I’ve gotten older and my taste in play has grown steadily simpler, I’ve used less and less of the options on this table. Nowadays? We just roll the 20 to find location & make the % check for sever/death. I kill enough characters without adding hit penalties from a crit to the thumb. That being said, I’ve had a blast in the past with these extra flavorful crit results. It’s up to you what you use- never a wrong way to play.  

I’ve modified this table from one my high school GM created. It's evolved quite a bit over the years, but I still keep his name on it in honor of George’s original creation. I present to you, the Wakulik Critical Hit Table.