Bunnies and Burrows: Risus Edition

 

Bunnies and Burrows was a game that came out in the 80's from Fantasy Flight Games and was actually revolutionary for its time. It was one of the first games to have a skill system. Anyway, I did a conversion of it using Risus awhile back and I figured I would share.

Character Creation

Standard Character Creation: 10 dice per core rules

Special Character Creation Bonus: Due to the very fortunate nature of rabbits, they all begin play with three Lucky Shots at no cost.

New Clichés:

• Warren Watch (being big and tough, protecting the Warren)
• Hoplite (being Swift, scouting ahead)
• Engineer (inventing simple contraptions, understanding human machinery)
• Seer* (using ESP, having scary dreams)
• Empathetic Healer* (healing other rabbits wounds)
• Herbalist* (identifying plants, preparing snuffballs)
• Storyteller* (telling entertaining tales, enthralling whoever is listening)
• Bun Fu Martial Artist* (doing cool moves, beating up enemies)
• Maverick (living alone, wondering around)
• Bunny King (ruling all other rabbits, eating a lot of food)
• General (head of the Efrafa, militant, strong)
• Captain ( answers only to the General of the Efrafa, brave, loyal)
• Rabbit (being fast, skittish, and generally rabbit like)

* Can be Double Bumped

Encounters

Wondering Encounters: The wilderness is a scary place and other animals besides rabbits occupy it. When a rabbit(s) is outside, above ground, and unhidden wondering encounters are more frequent and could possibly be encounters with predators. When a rabbit(s) is concealed and above ground encounters happen less frequent and when the rabbit(s) are safely tucked in their burrows at night wondering encounters are very rare. The GM makes the roll in secret and the implements the effects in game. (This is a GM tool and can be used as needed). This is accomplished in the following order;

Occupant Encounters As rabbits explore the world they come across traps, manmade structures, and other environmental features. As rabbits go exploring the GM can make a roll on the following table to cause a random environmental encounter of some kind (again, this is an optional GM tool). The GM rolls secretly the following table;

The Predatory Critters All predatory critters should have something along these stat lines.

Random Predator

- Random Predator Name [1-6]

- Secondary Cliché [1-4] (Optional)

- Third Cliché [1-3] (Optional)

Random Predator Swarms/Packs

- Random Predator Swarms/Pack Name [1-12]

- Secondary Cliché [1-6] (Optional)

- Third Cliché [1-4] (Optional)

Examples of Predators: Wild Dogs, Fox, Coyote, Dog, Wolf, House Cat, Bobcat, Cougar, Weasel, Ferret, Badger, Wolverine, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Mongoose, Flying Wolves, Crow, Raven, Falcon, Harrier, Rough-Legged Hawk, Red-Tailed Hawk, Burrowing Owl, Great Horned Howl, Eagle, Rattlesnake, Cottonmouth, Snapping Turtle, Scorpion, Tarantula, Black Widow, Water Spider, and Wasp Nest.

The Neutral Critters: The Neutral Critters follow the same rules as Predatory creatures except these creatures are not going to try to automatically harm the rabbits.
Examples of Neutral Animals: Vulture, Pheasant, Pigeon, Robin, Sparrow, Killdeer, Blackbird, Squirrel, Cow, Horse, Jackrabbit, Marmot, Armadillo, Mole, Garter Snake, Hog-Noses Snake, Tortoise, Lizard, Grasshopper, Beetle, Butterfly, Ant Nest, Dragonfly, Earthworm, Blue Jay, Grouse, Starling, Deer Mouse, Quail, Pack Rat, Porcupine, Opossum, Raccoon, Skunk, Salamander, Cicada, Moth/Caterpillar, Termite Nest, Honey Bee, Earthworm, Wild Pig, Centipede, Spider, Cockroach, Goose, Sea Gull, Heron, Duck, Beaver, Bull Frog, and Elk.

The Humans: Humans are usually big and scary and rabbits really do not understand them. Human stats should be tailored around the following example;

Farmer John

This human owns a lot of land and farms produce as well as own cows as well as chickens. He carries around a gun for foxes and other predators but has a soft spot for the rabbits as long as they stay out of the miss’s garden.

- Human [1-6]

- Old Quirky Farmer [1-5]

- Rusty Tractor Maker/Fixer [1-4]

Advanced Options

With these options in play, players can spend their character creation on something other than Clichés. Players can receive 3 Lucky Dice or 5 Questing Dice per 1 die of character creation die spent. Due to the lucky nature of rabbits, only one character creation dice can be spent on Lucky Shots, for a Maximum of 6.

Lucky Shot: Using a Lucky Shot boosts one of your Clichés by one die per Lucky Shot used. This can give you just the amount of edge or the “luck” on an important roll. Your Lucky Shots recharge between game sessions but cannot be hoarded.

Questing Dice: Questing Dice are Lucky Shots with a focus. They are less flexible because they are tired to a character personal quest, a specific mission, a burning passion or hatred, and a love that defines them. Characters that are not on a specific quest should not be allowed to use questing dice and cannot be used for something broad. They can only be used to boost in anything standing in the way to the characters personal quest.

With Hooks and Tales in play, the player can bargain with the GM for extra character creation dice after giving his character a Hook and/or a Tale.

Hooks: A hook is some significant character flaw - an obsession, a weakness, a sworn vow, a permanent crippling injury - that the GM finds so juicy and will use it to make the characters life more interesting or more difficult. This is worth one extra die.

Tales: A “tale” is a written biography describing his/her life before the events of the start of the game. The tale does not need to be long, a few pages or so. This is worth one extra die.

Lupine Glossrry

Bob-Stones: A traditional game among rabbits.
The Crixa: The center of Efrafa, at the crossing point of two bridle paths
Efrafa: The name of the warren founded by General Woundwort
El-Ahrairah: The rabbit folk hero. The name (Elil-hrair-rah) means “Enemies-Thousand-Prince” = The Prince of a Thousand Enemies.
Elil: Enemies of Rabbits
Embleer: Stinking (Ex. The smell of fox)
Flay: Food (Ex. Grass or other fodder)
Flayrah: Usually good food such a lettuce or carrots.
Frith: The sun, personified as a God by rabbits. Frithrah! = The Lord Sun, used as an exclamation.
Fu Inle: After Moonrise
Hlao: Any dimple or depression in the glass, such that as that formed by a daisy plant or thistle, which can also hold moisture. Also the name of a rabbit.
Hlao-roo: “Little Hlao”. An affectionate diminutive of the name Hlao.
Hlessi: A rabbit living above ground, without a regular hole or warren. A wondering rabbit living in the open. (Plural, Hlessil).
Homba: A fox. (Plural, hombil).
Hrair: A great many, an uncountable number, any number above 4. U Hrair = The Thousand Enemies.
Hrairoo: “Little Thousand”. The name of Fiver in Lapine
Hraka: Droppings, excreta
Hrududu: A tractor, car, or any other motor vehicle.
Hyzenthlay: Literally, “Shine-dew-fur” = fur shining like dew. The name of a doe.
Inle: Literally, the moon; also moonrise. But a second meaning carries the idea of darkness, fear, and death.
Lendri: A Badger
Marli: A doe, also carries the meaning mother.
M’saion: “We meet them”
Narn: Nice, pleasant (to eat).
Ni-Frith: Noon.
Nildro-hain: “Blackbirds Song.” A name of a doe.
Owsla: The strongest rabbits in the warren, the ruling cliché.
Owslafa: The council police. (A word found only in the Efrafa).
Pfeffa: A cat.
Rah: A prince, leader, or chief rabbit. Usually used as a suffix. (Ex. Threarah = Lord Threar).
Roo: Used as a suffix to donate diminutive. (Ex. Hrairoo).
Sayn: Groundsel
Silf: Outside, that is, not underground.
Silflay: To go above ground and feed. Literally, to feed outside. Also used as a noun.
Tharn: Stupefied, distraught, hypnotized with fear. But can also, in certain contexts, mean “looking foolish” or again “heart-broken” or forlorn.
Thethuthinnang: “Movement of Leaves”. The name of a doe.
Thlay: Fur.
Thlayli: “Fur-headed”. A nick name.
Threar: A rowan tree, or mountain ash.
Vair: To excrete, pass droppings.
Yona: A hedgehog.
Zorn: Destroyed, murdered. Denotes a catastrophe.

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT BUNNIES...

• Rabbits can only count to 4, anything higher than that is simply “a lot”.
• Rabbits hands are different than yours and mine.
• Rabbits have a lot of enemies and they all should have a lot of dice.
• Rabbits cannot understand human language. 
• Rabbits can make small backpacks or “side” bags to hold small items in.

Here is the fancy pdf with all of the above organized and put together.

This also includes tables (for GM and Player use), sample characters, and cliche descriptions.

Some additional resources and references;

1. The Original Fantasy Flight Games Bunnies and Burrows
2. Bunnies and Burrows GURPS
3. Third Edition of Bunnies and Burrows (This looks really amazing but I do not know anything about it). There is also a "lite" version.
4. Red of Tooth (A rules lite bunnies game)
5. The Warren (A powered by the apocalypse bunnies game)

I cannot forget to mention that these games were probably inspired by Watership Down by Richard Adams and this is basically required reading for anyone wanting to run a game like Bunnies and Burrows. To be honest, it is a great book in general and well worth a read regardless of your gaming preferences.

I will also recommend reading Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. This book does a great job at depicting the world of cats (all the characters are cats, etc.) and would help with the mindset of a Bunnies ans Burrows style of game.

Chronicles of Neverwhere: Rules of the House

As I continue work on my upcoming campaign that will be using The Black Hack Second Edition I have been working on some rules of the house. The Black Hack Second Edition is something I have had to tweak the least so that has been really nice. 

Anyway, without further ado, here is the rules of the house:

I have also decided to use a predetermined item cost list as this game is going to be run online and character creation has happened at different times with players and I losing the price lists I have rolled up. I basically took the price list from Old School Essentials and added black powder weapons. 

Skittering Horrors of Terror

We have all encountered countless monsters and NPS's that have been truly the stuff of nightmares. There are a few that stand out to me that truly make me which makes me want to make my PC's run away. I have created a top five list of the most terrifying monsters to encounter.

This list is going to be focused on the fantasy genre of monsters and does not include situations, NPCs, and monsters or characters from World of Darkness or other games.

1. The Illithid - A.K.A. Mind Flayer

The Illithid is an very intelligent foe that posses various mental powers and has a complex society in the Underdark and other places. They are rarely if ever encountered by accident and they always are flanked by various slaves and mind controlled monsters for brute strength.

Their true horror is in their own natural abilities. The main being they can stun a foe and then extract its brain with their tentacled mouth and eat it. Though to be honest, it an encounter you either want try to appeal to their intellect (as they are hyper intelligent), win the fight, or retreat. My first encounter with Illithid's ended up with the party being captures and forced into their slave ranks. The party spent a lot of time planning their escape and creating allies (even with one of the Illithids) before a mostly successful escape was possible (there was one causality and the rest of the party was in bad shape). With that being said, that RP experience was a lot of fun. The Illithid have a pretty evocative ecology and sociology, I would highly recommend getting a copy of Lords of Madness.

2. The Gelatinous Cube

The cube has caused my TPK's then any other monster I have ever come across. It is basically invisible, does a solid amount of acid damage, and engulfs those who fight it. Once engulfed the victim can't breath, is considered restrained, and takes acid damage every turn as they are basically being digested. Others can attempt to pull the person out but they are subject to damage when doing this. The 3.x and older versions had a paralysis effect to make them even more deadly. In 5th edition of Dungeons an Dragons they lost their paralysis ability but it does not make them any less deadly. This is a great breakdown of the Gelatinous Cube through the ages.

3. The Rust Monster

The Rust Monsters ability to eat any metal is more terrifying then its bite. With a mere touch of its feelers it can turn armor, weapons, etc. to rust which it will then devour. Even enchanted metals are not safe. I have lost some great weapons and armor to this scourge of the realms. 

4. The Carrion Crawler

The stench of death follows this monster around and that alone in the dark is enough to set anyone on edge. If that was not enough alone, they possess the ability to climb and are perfect ambush predators. What makes them truly horrifying is their poisonous bite that causes paralysis and the purpose for this makes it worse as they want bodies to lay their eggs in. For me, what adds the additional "nope" factor is that they remind me of the creatures in Star Wars that negate and eat the force around them (I cannot remember what they are called but they are in the book Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter for sure. 

5. Tucker's Kobolds

These are not a specific creature but a DM named Tucker ran an encounter with a tribe of Kobolds the took up resident on the first level of a dungeon. This tribe was not the usual cannon fodder of monsters just standing there waiting to be murdered, they were actually prepared! This made them a living and breathing aspect of the dungeon which gave the dungeon and the kobolds personality with dimension (because lets face it, all kinds of things happen in the dark places of the world when the players are not around). These kobolds laid traps, snipped them with crossbows through murder holes with planned escaped routes, through molotav cocktails over burning barricades that they pushed around with pikes, they wore armor, used gorilla warfare tactics, locked doors, etc. The level of preparedness can cause sheer panic in players who fear for their characters life and who have never encountered monsters that used terrain  to their advantage (and other tactics).

Detroit Suck City: Episode 3

As the crew slept and rotated guard the night passed without incident. The morning light found everyone looking through the Black Star lair again and dividing up the loot. 

The crew then headed out and cautiously made their way down the stairs, expecting an ambush at every turn. Surprisingly enough, the track out of the bridge was uneventful. As they made landfall their noses were assaulted by a foul smelling stench that could not be mistaken for anything else except rotting bodies. Ladmar made the suggestion of following their noses and the crew was in agreement. The smell seemed to be coming from inland and the easiest root would be to follow the rail road tracks. 

After some time traveling while eyeballing the treeline for any signs of aggression the smell got stronger and become almost unbearable as they approached a couple of rail cars. Jiminy took lead as crickets do not have noses and quickly discovered a rail car full of rotting bloated corpses that appeared to be half eaten.

Jiminy noticed that on top of this heap was a freshly dead body of a bald man that appeared to be well dressed. Jiminy pulled him out of the rail car for the rest of the crew to inspect. As Parrot, Gren, and Wilhelm were searching the body Jiminy and Ladmar stood by on guard. Wilhelm (and is the only one that can read) discovered a note on the body the preached about how mutants were an abomination and they need to enslaved and/or purged from this land. As Wilhelm shared this information with everyone conversation ensued about what this could mean and how wide spread this ideology is. 

During this conversation no one noticed the sounds of dirt moving and in an instant a giant six armed crab armed with two assault rifles erupted from the ground. 

Before anyone could act, the entire crew got caught in a hail of bullets and chaos ensued. Ladmar, Jiminey, and Wilhelm charged the crab as Gren and Parrot took cover behind the rail cars to take shots at it from a distance. They close encounter members of the crew dodged legs, claws, and random assault rifle fire as trying to hack off the crabs legs with the backup of their ranged support. The crab lost a few legs and flailed knocking over one of the rail cars the Parrot and Gren where using as cover - in a split second they both realized that it is safer to be in melee range of the crab and during the charge Gren took a face full of automatic rifle fire and dropped unceremoniously in the dirt. 

Wilhelm, Ladmar, and Jiminy where able to get under the lopsided crab (hard to walk with missing legs) and deliver deadly blows to the softer underside of the crab. The crew continued to pummel the crabs body in mulch until it stopped twitching. 

In the aftermath, the crew were able to burn the rail of bodies and added Gren to the pile. Then they pushed one of the rail cars as far away from the site of the carnage they could manage and took shelter in it to rest and recover from their wounds. 

It is just another day in Detroit Suck City...

Disclaimer: The player who is portraying Auron did not make it to this session due to a previous engagement. 

Mythbusters: OSR Edition Ch. 2

My post Regarding Character Death led me to write the post titled Mythbusters: OSR Edition which mostly focused on attributes at character creation and hit points. This latter post led to a lot of traffic and garnered a lot of feedback. Most of the feedback was positive but there were to common points that some people tried to make with me. 

The first point was that I was told to go look at OD&D and B/X as my book examples where from AD&D 1e. I stated in my original post that same game in the OSR are retro-clones that stay close to their source material outside of some minor re-organization, better clarifications, and maybe some sidebars for optional rules. There is nothing wrong with these games and they can be fun. 

The second point is what made me dive back into some research because it just made some things click. Anyway, there was some people that told me that starting characters were not meant to be heroic but they will become heroic at later levels.  

So after following the bouncy ball I realized that there is a third myth that permeates the OSR. This being the myth of...starting characters not being heroic because of rules as written.

Going back to the source material...

1. When David Arneson started his initial "Fantasy Game" using the Chainmail Fantasy rules, the players started as Heroes (equivalent to 4 normal men, or 4th level in D&D), and being able to progress up to Superheroes (as 8 men, or 8th level). With that ruleset, there simply weren't any other options for him to start with. (See: Gygax, Dragon #7, "The Origins of D&D".)

2. In 2002, Gary posted about some additional rules he used when he ran OD&D;

"Just a quick note to say I still DM some using the three booklets sans any of the additional supplements :wink: It is very much an exercise in free-wheeling game-mastering and roleplay, that. 

I do allow elven PCs to operate in both classes, F/MU, but Clerics don't get any spells at 1st level, just as the book says. 

As for skills, I just ask for a reasonable background for the character, then decide if the capacity is logical for that. then I use the closest stat likely for the skill, have the check made against that with 3d6. Old fashioned, yes, but it fits"

3. Then we can turn to the interview Robert Fisher did with Gary Gygax in 2005 about some games he ran. When Gary Gygax ran a games with OD&D he did not run them as written. It is extremely plausable that most of the games from the beginning were house ruled. His style of running games has become know as Gygaxian OD&D. These house rules were taken from Q&A's with Gary Gygax on Dragon's Foot and on En World.

• Not using the supplements. Only the three little books.
• Ability scores rolled as best 3 out of 4d6. Arrange scores to taste.
• All PCs get 1d6 hp/level. HP rolls are rerolled on a 1.
• Fighters get +1 HP/die. All PCs get +1 HP/die if Con > 14.
• Fighters do +1 damage if Str > 14.
• Dex doesn’t affect AC. (It does affect missile attack “to hit” rolls.)
• PCs started at 3rd level.
• PCs are unconscious at 0 hp. They can go as low as level +1 before death. (A 4th level fighter can be brought as low as -5 hp & just be unconscious.) A healing potion or cure spell restores them immediately.
• 1d6 for surprise. 1=1 round. 2=2 rounds. 3 or more=no surprise.
• PCs must declare actions before initiative. Casters must declare the specific spell being cast.
• 1d6 for initiative. A tie means simultaneous.
• A casting caster whose side loses initiative will lose his spell if hit.
• No training necessary to gain a level.
• To acquire new spells: Casters must find scrolls, spellbooks, or a friendly higher-level caster.
• Clerics don’t need spellbooks. (The original books can be read to imply that they do.)
• Gary IDs most magic items immediately (charging large sums of money when they return to town to rest & recuperate for this service). (This is because the players are anxious to get back into the dungeon & don’t want to bother with in-town adventures.) Potions must still be tasted to ID, though. Unusual items require a trip to the striped mage.

4. On en EN world post in early July 2007, Gary clarified that MUs with a 15 or better Int or Clerics with a 15 or better Wis a bonus 1st level spell slot. Thus, a Cleric can have one 1st level spell at 1st level.

 Dave Arneson’s Basement circa 1971. Dave Arneson’s role-playing group, consisting of Bill Hoyt, Duane Jenkins, Pete Gaylord, David Megarry et al. Photo by Arneson. (Photo: Dave Arneson, Dave Arneson Archive, curated by Paul Stormberg)

 5. Circa 2007, Gary talked about some of these rules (some of them overlap with above);

• STR > 14: +1 to hit and +1 to damage if a Fighter
• INT > 14: +1 1st level m-u spell
• WIS > 14: +1 1st level cleric spell
• DEX > 14: +1 to AC, and +1 to move silently
• CON > 14: +1 HP per HD (same as a Fighter class gets, +2 if a Fighter)
• CHA > 14: +1 (positive) on reaction checks
• HPs: Characters are only unconscious at 0 HPs. For each level a character may have a minus HP total equal to the level, so a 1st level PC is dead at -2, a 2nd level at -3, etc.
• When taking damage allow -1 HP per character level 

It is interesting to note that a lot of both Arneson and Gygax's house rules and/or play style revolved around character livability (especially at early levels). Another point to this was that because the capacity to take more hits for PCs; they get to assess whether they're in trouble/over their heads, flee, and fight another day. These rules also can make the game more fun, create more variations between characters, more chance to really get into the immersion of your character, so there is more stuff to do, less messing around in town recovering from wounds, researching spells, and id'ing items. Gary Gygax spent a lot of time iterating these points in articles in the first twenty issues or so of Dragon Magazine. In these articles he also spent a lot of time harping against critical hits and things of that nature. 

All of this really comes down to the letter of the law vs. the spirit of the law. If there are DM's and/or players out there that are convinced that the only way to game for them is rules as written (RAW) then they can play what they want and it does not bother me a bit. As long as they do not turn preachy about the "one true way". Though, I am pretty sure every time someone quotes RAW, a players dice betrays them. I can imagine these DM's quoting Judge Lex;

"Save that sh*t for the rookies. 20 years I've been gaming. You know what rules as written is, Dredd? It's a f***ing meat grinder. People go in one end, and meat comes out the other. All we do is turn the handle."

To further illustrate that I do not think the authors ever intended them to be played rules as written (with the caveat that people should understand the base rules before altering), I will turn to the three little brown books themselves.

"These rules are as complete as possible within the limitations imposed by the space of three booklets. That is, they cover the major aspects of fantasy campaigns but still remain flexible. As with any other set of miniatures rules they are guidelines to follow in designing your own fantastic-medieval campaign. They provide the framework around which you will build a game of simplicity or tremendous complexity — your time and imagination are about the only limiting factors, and the fact that you have purchased these rules tends to indicate that there is no lack of imagination — the fascination of the game will tend to make participants find more and more time. We advise, however, that a campaign be begun slowly, following the steps outlined herein, so as to avoid becoming too bogged down with unfamiliar details at first. That way your campaign will build naturally, at the pace best suited to the referee and players, smoothing the way for all concerned. New details can be added and old "laws" altered so as to provide continually new and different situations. In addition, the players themselves will interact in such a way as to make the campaign variable and unique, and this is quite desirable. If you are a player purchasing the DUNGEONS and DRAGONS rules in order to improve your situation in an existing campaign, you will find that there is a great advantage in knowing what is herein. If your referee has made changes in the rules and/or tables, simply note them in pencil (for who knows when some flux of the cosmos will make things shift once again!), and keep the rules nearby as you play. A quick check of some rule or table may bring hidden treasure or save your game "life".

Men & Magic (Vol. 1) details what characters can be played, potentials, limitations, and various magical spells. Monsters & Treasure (Vol. II) describes the beasts and creatures which will be encountered, as well as the kind and amount of treasure they are likely to guard, including magical items. Finally, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Vol. Ill) tells how to set up and actually play the campaign. It is presented last in order to allow the reader to gain the perspective necessary — the understanding of the two preceding booklets. Read through the entire work in the order presented before you attempt to play."

My final thoughts are going to revolve around Dungeon Crawl Classics, as it was also brought up as an example. This game has really took the deadly angle and myths of the OSR and made it really fun. The game starts out with all players creating four 0 level commoners and then they go adventuring which is known as the death funnel. Anyone who survives gets to become heroic and level up to a real character. I have personally had a lot of fun with this and some great stories have been recorded. An experience like this is mostly enjoyable from players from all different backgrounds but the death funnel is a short and fleeting part of the campaign. After it is over, the characters have proven themselves to be more then average men and deserve to have a fighting chance.