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Using Simple DND to Create a Knave-based Funnel Character Sheet

A friend of mine reached out about doing a one-shot “training scenario” style introduction to Dungeons & Dragons for a small group, and I hit on the idea of using Portal Under the Stars, one of the most popular funnel-style adventures for Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Ever the tinkerer – and looking to get my money and time’s worth from a bunch of Knave purchases and hacking – I decided I’d convert Portal to Knave, further simplifying the player-facing side of things. Don’t get me wrong, I love DCC RPG! But it’s got a few (albeit minor) barriers to entry that seemed worth removing for this exercise.

The conversion work has been a breeze – I could probably do it on the fly, but I suspect I’ll re-use this setup again and again – but I wanted to make certain I had a cool character sheet to go with it. There’s a ton of great hand-drawn ones out there, even by the likes of map-maker extraordinaire Dyson, but when I stumbled upon Simple DND, I knew I was just a 5-minute Photoshop job away from perfection.

So here you go: my Knave-based funnel-optimized character sheet, tweaked only slightly from Simple DND‘s Mini Character Sheet (usage license here). You can fit four characters on here, you’ve got 20 inventory slots, and I tailored it to include Ancestry and Occupation sections. This could easily serve as an NPC or monster tracking sheet in just about any version of D&D: just use the inventory slots as a notes section! Similarly, you could use it to track familiars, pets, or hirelings in everything from OD&D up through 5th Edition.

Funnel Character Sheet snip

Funnel Character Sheet – Click to Download

Let me know how you use it at your gaming table in the comments!

Another Simple Cortex Prime Hack – Minimum Dice, Maximum Fun

The Core of Cortex posits a really simple version of the Cortex Prime system, one that’s great for off-the-cuff sessions. It’s also simple enough for fairly young players to understand, which is an added benefit. Gaming with little kids is always a fun exercise in game design: how do you make it simple and fun, with enough “meat” to teach the little tikes some basic game play strategy?

I’ve been toying around with a simple game system spawned from a specific circumstance: I’ve got a single die of each size – d4, d6, d8, d10, and d12 (and also a d20; more on that later!) – for myself (the GM) and another set for my player(s), and that’s it. I think it may work really well and leans into some Cortex-isms that The Core of Cortex actually avoids: different die sizes, and effect dice.

You be the judge! Here’s what I’ve got:

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Spells for Labyrinth The Adventure Game

Picking up from last time, here’s a very simple magic system for the Labyrinth Adventure Game. It’s heavily inspired by Ben Milton’s Knave, which is fitting since he wrote the adventure portions of Labyrinth. Effectively, spells are simply one-use scrolls (or whatever form you want them to appear as; I picture them etched on little stone tablets) that allow for a very specific instantaneous or short-duration special effect.

Check ’em out!

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New Traits and Human-Only Game Rules for Labyrinth The Adventure Game

Labyrinth: The Adventure Game is a neat ultra rules-lite dungeon crawler that doesn’t get nearly the accolades it deserves. The system is fun and simple: you roll 1d6 for all tests, there’s an advantage and disadvantage mechanic, and there’s a mechanic for helping on rolls. The adventure is incredible: it’s a puzzle dungeon setup that tracks your progress, forces you to progress through the labyrinth, and presents unique mechanics on an as-needed basis in order to reinforce the macabre, fairy tale rules the party operates under when facing off against the Goblin King and his minions.

Here’s a bunch of new traits, flaws, and tools for characters to use, as well as rules for Human-Only games, which might be particularly handy for getting inexperienced (or especially young) players into the game!

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The Super Simple Superhero Hack for Cortex Prime

In this post I’ll briefly outline a hack for Cortex Prime. This one’s best described as:

A streamlined take on four color comic book action in Cortex Prime that remains largely compatible with Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

These hacks are prone to change, so you’ll want to check out the Google Doc for the latest version. That said, it’s kind of neat to see how these hacks develop, so what you’ll get here is a very brief overview; only the bits needed to play, and none of the commentary. Compare and see what changed!

Without further ado, let’s check out the Super Simple Superhero Hack.

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