Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Littlest Brown Book - Fighters & Auspices

At the end of the Libra campaign and the start of summer, I'm planning to run something Normal™. Wizards and suchlike. In the pursuit of Normal™, I'm going to run Idraluna's Littlest Brown Book, which I chose over other 0e retroclones (or the original white box) completely at random (and because I'm a fan of Idraluna's blog). 

The campaign structure should also be pretty Normal™: town, wilderness, dungeon (100 rooms, perhaps). I'm ripping off Sean F. Smith's Westen Isles for the wilderness - not the exact map, but the general shape of "big island 1 with town, big island 2 with main dungeon, scattered mini-islands". Get some use out of those naval encounters.

To be a little less Normal™, I'm also using Idraluna's Supplement א, which splits the Magic-User into 5 color-coded subclasses (and, in doing so, replaces the Cleric with the M-U's White School). 

Since this, along with showing the non-humans the door, means the class choices would be 1 fighting-type and 5 wizardoids, I'm also adding subclasses to the Fighter (since players avoid doubling up unless necessary, and I know otherwise they'd scatter to the various M-Us):

  1. Corsair - you swim at 6" (twice as fast as normal) and your drowning chances are halved. 
  2. Thief - others must roll their listen at doors chance to notice you when you creep.
  3. Knight - you begin play with a free, unclassed, perfectly loyal squire. They will enter combat if necessary. 
  4. Inquisitor - you recognize demons, spirits, heretical wizards, et cetera on sight, and your attacks count as magical for the purposes of damaging them. If you attack them with a magical weapon, roll 2d6 for damage. 
  5. Champion - your target numbers for attack rolls are 1 lower. 

Along with that, I've always had a fascination with Eldritch Wizardry-era psionics - in particular, the random chance of them... ever coming up or mattering at all. So, characters in this campaign will have a chance to be august. 

At the end of character creation, roll a d20. If you roll a 7, (or, if your INT, WIS, and CHA are all above 15, if you roll a 7 or 13) you were born under favorable stars and were taught by those distant intelligences. If you pass this roll, repeat it until you fail.

You have points of Favor with the stars equal to thrice your level, and regain one of those points each day of rest.

For each success on the auspice roll, choose a constellation and associated skill below:

  1. Libra - the stars take the measure of the world. Your listen at doors chance increases to 4-in-6, your secret passages chance to 4-in-6, and with a point of Favor and a minute of unbroken focus you can read minds.
  2. Sagittarius - the stars reach down to earth. You can lift objects weighing up to 50 coin-weights per level via telekinesis, costing one Favor per minute. 
  3. Pisces - the stars swim through the upper air. With concerted effort you can slowly (6" per turn) levitate vertically for a point of Favor per minute.
  4. Leo - the stars speak with the voices of kings. For a point of Favor, you may control the mind of a target with lower level than you. 
  5. Scorpio - the stars shine with impossible colors. For a point of Favor, you become invisible for a minute. This ends early if you attack - even the tiny scorpion is noticed when it strikes.
  6. Aquarius - the stars pour water from above. You can spend a point of Favor to ignore your need for water, sleep, and food for a day. You do not regain Favor during these days. 

There were more stars, once. Now they are gone, replaced by boiling black in the firmament.  

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