rootring
rooted in blogs, linked in a ring52 Monsters
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On the ring since 2026-04-24
Latest activity 11mo ago
326 posts
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Magic items: the toys every PC and player wants! Doesn’t matter that their very cool nature is as contingent on conversation and imagination as the rest of the game. When you...
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Stuff I read and thought worth passing on! That’s pretty much it. People write stuff, other people read it. Don’t take much effort to share. Folkloristics of Playing RPGs at...
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Quick one, a follow-up to thoughts on using combat advantage to your… own benefit. I concluded that a melee fighter effectively giving up their attack to grant an ally double...
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Sometimes, the vast and endless caverns of ephemera we know as “the Internet” serve up something weird and oddly perfect. Those who’ve been around here before have probably...
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Part eight, adapting the B/X spell list to Whitehack. Magic-User / Elf, 2nd level. Lots of ground covered, still much more ahead! Invisibility Possible wording: Veil of...
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Quick undead side exploration: the mummy. Classic, pillar of pop culture monster-dom, and maybe we can make them workable? Mummies? If you need linen-wrapped shambling horrors...
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“Combat Advantage” is the Whitehack term for a tactical advantage over a foe which deserves a mechanical boost. Flanking, attacking from higher ground, restrained opponent,...
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Stuff I read and thought worth passing on! That’s pretty much it. People write stuff, other people read it. Don’t take much effort to share. A hearty thank-you to Seed of...
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My educational background is in architecture and engineering. Life has a funny way of taking you in strange directions, but you never forget that early training. So when Travis...
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Lucky part seven, adapting the B/X spell list to Whitehack. Magic-User / Elf, now at 2nd level. Continual Light Possible wording: Burn Eternal Candle Typical use: Enchant an...
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The weather. That most tedious of small talk subjects. Somewhere between who cares? and why should I care? in terms of set dressing. Right? Unless you make it matter. I thought...
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Part six of our ever-growing adaptation of the B/X spell list to Whitehack. More 1st-level Cleric spells. These are weird fun for me, as my table has no clerics. Purify Food...
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Stuff I read and thought worth passing on! That’s pretty much it. People write stuff, other people read it. Don’t take much effort to share. Of note: the photo above is from...
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To clarify: magic which proves lethal to the caster, not the intended victims of death spell. Channeling the raw energies of Chaos through a frail, mortal body is a risk, one...
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In advance of a Halloween one-shot, I wanted to give my players a few example PCs for them to generate their own. Might as well post ’em up publicly while I’m at it, right? The...
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More undead! Now we’re getting to the you-stab-me-I-stab-you-back variety. More than shambling automatons, wights are the corporeal sort with unpleasant side effects from...
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Part five of our continuing adaptation of the B/X spell list to Whitehack. Moving into new territory, at least where we don’t see overlap with the Magic-User. This is also...
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Short one today, focused on mechanics. I’m a fan of the Usage Die mechanic from The Black Hack, at least as it’s intended. It offers my players less to track directly, being...
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I don’t know why you all keep at this blog thing, but I’m grateful that you do. Having interesting writing and ideas and opinions that aren’t necessarily mine keeps me...
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Part four of our continuing adaptation of the B/X spell list to Whitehack. Taking the classics and extending them outward. Here we continue with the last of the 1st-level...
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Important question: do you care about the tides of your fantasy world? Almost certainly not, even if you’re running that rarest of campaigns, the seafaring adventure. But,...
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Returning to the topic of the undead, and getting a little more interesting with each iteration. Lost spirits, encompassing the ghosts and specters and poltergeists and other...
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Part three of our continuing adaptation of the B/X spell list to Whitehack. A pair of alternate suggestions, potential wordings which hover near the classic spells yet forge...
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This is going to get weird and possibly deep into the weeds. Just a heads-up before we get started. I’m going to discuss the merits of tracking lunar phases, including of...
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Post two in our survey of the undead, and we’re still not breaking much new ground. Why mess with the basics? Skeletons are simple, and useful in that simplicity. In all...
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Part two of our continuing adaptation of the B/X spell list to Whitehack. What follow are suggestions to reduce the wide-open magic-scape of Whitehack, but to allow its...
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I realized that I made a mistake previously when discussing harm from falling. It’s minor, and took some mathy exploration to figure out by how much, but I do rather enjoy the...
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In the wild grasslands west of the walking city of Boru Dzeh, the death’s eye watches and the wind and earth sing in strange tones. These are the Ivory Flag Hills. Among the...
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One of the reasons I use Whitehack rules for my game is that it has my favorite system for magic, one which grants the players great leeway in creativity to make the impossible...
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Heads up, now: we’re not treading new ground today. I have little intention of reinventing the zombie. I’m just beginning a long-term exploration of the undead and what it...