Investments and Business Ventures: Yahtzee Edition!

You've been adventuring for months. You're on that sigma grindset. You want to make your money work for you.

Wine, women and song? Loser talk! 

Real winners have a system that works for them. It's not gambling, it's entrepreneurship!

The only way to lose is not to play!

Get in on the ground floor!

State your business, declare your stake, and choose your investment risk.

Stable: 1d6
Risky: 2d6
Wild: 5d6

At the start of every session you are at the table, roll your dice.

Odds decrease, evens increase. Sum them up and your stake changes by the percentage.

Example:
I have a stake in a Risky business. I roll a 3 and a 6. My stake increases by (-3+6) = 3%.

Market Forces!

Take a risk and reap the rewards! 

You're not a gambler! You're a market enabler! You're a job creator!

Doubles:

Roll doubles to gain a special extra effect. Obviously this is only possible at Risky or Wild levels!

1s: Bankrupt! Get ready to cast Sorrowful Zoom Call. Your business has been wound up as a going concern. Sackville-Baggins & Associates is ripping the copper wire out of the walls as we speak. Return to the business location within a reasonable timeframe and you can get half your stake back from the liquidation.

2s: Franchised! There's a branch or outpost of your business in the local area! If not right here then in a conveniently nearby town of your choice! Next time you may reroll one die.

3s: Financial Turbulence: The financial gods declare you to be more risky than hoped. Next time you roll at +1 risk level. If already at Wild, roll an extra d6.

4s: Surprise Merger! Your business and another player at the table's business have merged against the advice of the CMA! Each business affects the other, so if you're not there you get the result of their roll. If you're both at the table, decide whether you roll separately (affecting each other) or together (at a risk level you decide). PLUS your next roll has "roll 1 extra, drop 1".

5s: Local Disruption: -10% value you say? At least, you say?? The DM places a nominally single-session dungeon nearby (monster lair, 5 room dungeon, etc) which has caused this terrible turn of events. Clear the dungeon within a reasonable timeframe and you get to make it up with an extra business roll at the end of the session.
6s: Huge Profits! To the moon baby! Infinite profit is possible in a finite system! Your stake gains an additional +1d100% value!

Yahtzee(tm) Dice(tm)

This isn't a mere startup, it's a moonshot! Your employees are NPCs and those 20 hour days are the price of success! Let's go CEO! Let's become a centicorn!

Yahtzee Hands:

Roll yahtzee dice sets to get extra special extra effects. Yahtzee hands are only possible at Wild level, but you already knew that because you are a seasoned investor!

None: 

Chance. All dice and doubles apply as normal.

3 of a Kind: 

Critical Hit! Double your percentage gain/loss. Double effect is doubled too (ie. bankruptcy grants quarter value on return, huge profits return 1d200% value, etc)

4 of a Kind: 

Brand Power! Everyone in the local area knows the business by name. There’s a significant amount of merch and you’re basically a living colonel sanders. Your business roll adds a permanent additional 6.

Full House: 

Blessed by the Invisible Hand! You got a triple AND a double! Choose to ignore or double the effects of each dice set.

Small Straight (4 in a row): 

Capitalist Questing Beast. The DM places a monster out there which will give you a permanent additional 6 if you kill it. Go forth!

Large Straight (5 in a row): 

Anointed by the Invisible Hand! Every time you roll for your business, you can reroll any number of them and take the new result.

Yahtzee (5 of a Kind): 

Global Domination! 10x value! There is a branch of the business in every large town you come across! Bankruptcy is now impossible - treat a Bankrupt result as +0% value.

PS. Imagine updating your investment rules and realising that they were last created a decade ago.

Wizard Rework Finale: The Death of Spell Levels + 500 Levelless Spells

Last year I reworked wizards so that they used Mana instead of spell slots.

In that very post I said the following -

This is part of my soft move towards all spells becoming scaling Level 1 spells, a la Wonders & Wickedness. This way I can still use the regular spells in the book while any new spells can be introduced at Level 1.

Time to make that soft move a HARD MOVE BABYYYYYY.

A Whole Load of Spells

First off, here's my big list of 500 levelless spells (and counting!) culled from many sources.


Ten Foot Polemic Spell List


If you look at the sources you'll notice there's lots GLOG-adjacent stuff because translating "[dice]" to caster level is a pretty easy shift!
I'm still adding stuff (next is to scavenge spells from individual GLOG wizards..) but biggest thanks to Isaak Hill, Skerples, Lost Pages, and this imminentchurchengine person who posted a massive d200 spell list on reddit.

Spells are hash-marked because it's sometimes useful to be like "You find scroll #154" and then look up the hash later when they finally identify it.


Quick rundown of what's in this sheet -

Generator:
Generates random MU and Necromancer spells and random spell mishaps for each.

Magic-User:
One big list of all the wizard spells I've got so far!

Magic-User Mishaps:
Automated version of Aura's wild magic table. Pulls through to the Generator tab, but useful if you need a specific table result.

Necromancer: Big list of Necromancer spells. Currently fairly short, but more to come!

Spellbook Generator: Generates 6 MU spellbooks and 6 Necromancer grimoires.
The MU one is designed to give starting wizards mostly standard LotFP L1 starter spells with 1-2 fun ones from the whole list. Got to make sure new Wizards mostly get the classics!
Necromancers get their archetypical spell Subjugate Dead and 3 random spells from the whole list. I might change that if the Necromancer spell list gets anywhere near as big as the MU one, but it's fine for now! Raising and controlling the Dead is the main one, after all.

The layout is meant for copy-pasting into a doc for printing, which is why it looks a bit janky, and it doesn't update if you refresh the page, sorry!

Wizard spells should spit out into this document if I've got it right - Beginner MU Spellbooks.
And Necromancer spells should come out here - Beginner Necromancer Spellbooks.

Get on my Level

So - the obvious. All spells are now "Levelless", or effectively first level spells that scale with caster level.

This means I can tighten up the spellcasting rules as follows:

Mana: You have 1 Mana per level. This powers your spells.
You can still cast spells when you’re out of Mana, it’s just significantly more dangerous.
Your Mana Pool refills after 8 hours of rest.

Casting: You have two ways of casting spells.
Bound: Bind spells in advance. For those who plan ahead.
Wild: Cast instantly and spontaneously. For those who live in the moment.

Spellbinding: Spend 1 Mana and 10 minutes meditating with a spellbook to create a Bound Spell.
It takes a round to cast a Bound Spell - declare casting as an Action, it goes off at the start of your next turn. If you get hurt mid-cast, Save vs Chaos. On success you maintain casting, on failure the spell goes off immediately as a Chaos Burst

Wild Magic: Roll 2d6 on this table plus:

Skill: Your Intelligence modifier.
Bulk: -1 per Encumbrance level
Mana: For each Mana you spend, roll an extra 1d6.
Blood: For each HP you sacrifice, add +1.

Wild Magic is cast instantly as an Action.

Caster Differentiation

I had a few ideas about caster differentiation on one of the initial posts, but I've had a couple of slight changes of heart since!
Most significantly I'm making Necromancers have the same casting rules as others. This has necessitated separate spooky-themed Chaos Burst and Cosmic Horror tables, but that's part of the fun!
A smaller change is to move back to Magic-Users having one Familiar. I liked the idea of a powerful wizard being surrounded by a cloud of animals and people being able to guess what they've got prepped, but having a single Familiar (or two, in one notable case) is pretty iconic in my game now.

In short -

• Magic-Users get a Familiar and the most flexibility.
• Necromancers get a separate spooky spell list and need bodily fluids and stuff to cast spells at full power.
• Muscle Wizards trade range for close-combat capability.
• Elves get themed superpowers but can only cast Wild Magic.

Each caster class also gets a unique Vengeance when they die, which I thought would be a fun way to make the chaotic casters inject even more chaos into a situation!

Full player facing stuff is in the Quick Class Breakdowns, but here's the rundown using the casting rules above as the baseline.

Magic-User

Starting Spells: 
Start with a Spellbook containing four random spells.

Familiar:

Choose a smallish animal to be your Familiar at character creation. Familiars obey orders, communicate telepathically, and cannot die. If ever somehow destroyed, your Familiar reforms next to you.
Spells can be cast through your Familiar - counting it as the origin point of the spell.

Cantrips:
When you bind a spell, you can bind it into your own head or into your Familiar.
Spells bound in your head grant you access to Cantrips - minor magical effects on the general theme of the bound spell, eg. Sleep could make someone yawn or Magic Missile might give you a bonus to Aim actions.
Spells bound to your Familiar grant it useful mutations. Shield might give it a tough shell or Spider-Climb could give it spider legs to climb up walls.
These effects last until you cast the spell.

Wizard Vengeance:
When you die your Familiar mutates into a horrifying demon and takes revenge.
Unspent Mana gives it more power. Uncast Bound Spells give it more abilities.
Roll it up with this generator: Saker's Summon Hack.
It's base HD is your level +1 for each unspent Mana you had.
It can cast any remaining Bound Spells you had at-will.



Notes:
Moving to levelless spells really streamlines this class.
Familiars are the only change to before - back to a single creature.
Familiars are good for signal-boosting spells, delivering Touch or Area attacks at range, and mutating into useful forms for shenanigans.
Oh also I'm so glad I was linked to that Summon hack! Great stuff!

Necromancer

Starting Spells:
Start with a Grimoire containing Subjugate Dead and 3 random spells.

Vials:
Also start with a bandolier of glass vials. You fill these with the ritual components of your spells.
The bandolier is non-encumbering, but when you fill a vial it is added to your inventory.
You can stack up to 5 identical vials to an encumbrance slot.

Components:
You require vials of ritual components to cast spells at full power. The components are listed in the spell descriptions.
Sacrifice the required components when you cast the spell, otherwise the spell is cast as though you're a level 1 caster.

Last Breath:
The Dead will only obey those who speak with their voice, and so the most important ritual component is Last Breath - the final gasp of a sapient creature.
Breathing this in grants you the Voice of the Dead - crucial for raising, subjugating and controlling your Dead minions. A single vial lasts 10 minutes, after which your minions will simply obey the last order they were given.

Death Resistance:
Bound spells are ghosts that live in your bones and help hold your soul in.
Each Bound Spell grants you +1 when you roll to Tempt Fate.

Necromancer Vengeance:
When you die you release a wave of death magic and vengeful ghosts.
This deals 1d6 damage per unspent Mana and uncast Bound Spell to every living thing within 10'/level.



Notes:
Streamlining the Necromancer to be in line with other casters is good for newbies.
While in the previous version I envisaged the Necromancer as the mirror of an Elf - ie. can't do Wild Magic while an Elf can only do Wild Magic - it turns out every newbie finds "Necromancer" more evocative than "Magic-User"!

They've still got a "prepare in advance" vibe through their need to have vials of stuff ready in their bandolier, but you'll notice this doesn't matter at Level 1.
It would suck to be a new player or new character starting in the middle of a dungeon and find out you're unable to cast your spells because you don't have any salt or eye jelly on hand!
The components are loosely themed - like salt is for warding spells and blood is for affecting living things. I'll be building up the Necromancer spell list over the next little while, so more to come!
Having a bandolier of stuff for Necromancy is, naturally, inspired by Abhorsen. Albeit those were bells not vials of phlegm and bone dust.

The exception is Last Breath for their signature spell, as you'll see in the Subjugate Dead spell description in the starter grimoires.
Last Breath is evocative and also pretty readily available in any delve - just do a murder!
I also dig the idea that intelligent Dead are powerful because they don't need Last Breath to control minions - they're already speaking with the Voice of the Dead.
The ten minute limit on Last Breath is so you can micromanage your minions in a combat situation, but outside of combat you'll need to put them on autopilot.

Oh yea, and if you bind your spells in advance it makes it harder for you to die! Cool huh?
And then if you do die, you pull every motherfucker in the room into hell with you.

If you've got any rad Chaos Bursts or Cosmic Horrors for Necromancers, hit me up. I need more entries!

Muscle Wizard

Starting Spells:

Start with a Spellbook containing 4 random spells.

Muscle Magic:
Your fists deal 1d4 magical damage and count as Shanky weapons.
All spells have a maximum range of 10' - punching distance - and casting your spells must be combined with an unarmed attack.
You choose whether a spell you cast affects you, your target, or both.

Core Power:
Mana suffuses your core, increasing your resilience.
You gain +2 HP for each unspent Mana in your Mana Pool.

Bound Strength:
Binding spells moves them into your muscles to grant yourself physical power.
Each Bound Spell grants your unarmed attacks +1 to hit and +1 to damage.

Final Impact:
When you die you can flash-step to somewhere in the scene, utter a final line, and unleash your ultimate move.
Deal 1d6 damage per unspent Mana and uncast Bound Spell to a creature in the vicinity.


Notes:
I still laugh at that ridiculous Wide Kylo Ren meme. Anyway...
No big changes to the previous version, except they've got to choose between +HP and +attack with their Mana.
Do you keep it in Mana form so you're tough? Or turn it into Bound Spells so you're buff?
Remember - there's no penalty to casting Bound Spells in armour, so you can mitigate the HP tradeoff with better AC.

Affecting yourself and someone else with a single spell is very intended. Being able to go two-for-one on a buff spell at the cost of punching your mate in the face makes me laugh.

Elf

Heartspell:
Elves start with a single random spell from this list. This is their Heartspell.
It defines what powers they will receive and the monster they will become.

Wild Mage:
Elves cannot Bind spells.
They can cast their Heartspell instantly as an Action. Other spells require a Wild Magic roll to twist their Heartspell into a new shape.

Changeling:
The more Mana an Elf has, the more powers and mutations they manifest.
Mutations and powers can be found here - Elf Mutation List.
These power tiers are based on Mana, not character level, so they lose their gifts as they use up Mana.
If an Elf runs out of Mana they can no longer cast spells - they are human once more.

Moondancer:
Elves do not sleep, but they do disappear for hours at night to dance beneath the moon.
They are gone for an hour per level at some point during the night. When they return, their Mana is back to full.
Their powers wax as the moon wanes.
They get +1 Mana during a Crescent Moon, and double Mana during the New Moon.
They get -1 Mana during a Gibbous Moon, and half Mana during a Full Moon.

Cold Iron:
Cold iron weapons deal maximum damage to Elves.
Cold iron is simply iron that is cold - not a special type of metal.
Sustained contact with cold iron locks the Elf off from their powers, reverting them to human form until the cold iron is removed.

Wild Vengeance:
When an Elf dies it releases a Chaos Burst of its Heartspell per unspent Mana, each randomly targeted at any creature within 50'.

Notes: No big changes here, other than to give them their own special Vengeance thing.
That'll be great fun if my players face enemy Elves...

There's another minor difference to other casters - Elves technically can run out of spells! If you want to cast that dangerous 2d6 Wild Magic you'll need to keep a Mana back so you stay an Elf rather than some measly human.

original muscle wizard pic before I remembered about Ben Swolo

Finale Worde

So there you have it! What I always kind of wanted to do with the caster classes but was too lazy to follow through with!
Big big thanks to KingPenta who was the main person to nudge me into de-levelling the lotfp spells, and another big thanks to the GLOGosphere who I will continue to mine for levelless spells.
Turns out I find it kind of relaxing to translate content into my game's own idiom? I figure I'll just keep building it up over time.

Part of the fun is going to be adding my players' spells to the list over time as they research them, and in fact there are already a few in there from Sophia's brief but shining run as an Elf.

Conveniently enough one of my players has rolled up a Necromancer and another just rolled up a Wizard after his previous character united with his god and ascended ever so slowly to heaven, so I'll actually be able to see how they go in play!

Apocalypse Dragon Ninhursag

players pls don't read


--

NINHURSAG

Its Rune is Earth.
Its Breath is Poison.
Its Aspects are of Size, Plants, Crystal and Magma.
Its Plan is to destroy Shub-Niggurath by destroying all cellular life.

To worship Ninhursag is to worship the Dragon of Earth, of Poison, and of Secrets.



The Cults of Ninhursag

The Verdigrised Drakencult worship Ninhursag Undivided.
The Gogamogic Drakencult worship the Aspect of Size.
The Tangled Drakencult worship the Aspect of Plants.
The Fracted Drakencult worship the Aspect of Crystal.
The Magman Drakencult worship the Aspect of Magma.



The Taboos of Ninhursag

Never allow a curse or disease to be removed from somebody.
Never destroy a plant or fungus unless it is a threat to you or your allies.
Only ever allow yourself to heal by natural means.
Never advance the cause of another Dragon.

The Observances of Ninhursag

+1	Catching or infecting someone with a disease
+1	Being poisoned, including by narcotic substances
+1	Hitting 0HP and surviving
+1	Uncovering a secret that could damage someone or their reputation if known
+1	Allowing someone to live who you have at your mercy
+1	Destroying something that lives but does not breathe
-1	Revealing a secret
-1	Allowing a living creature to be killed that is no threat to your or your allies
-1	Attacking a fellow minion of Ninhursag, or thwarting their plans
-2	Harming yourself or, through inaction, allowing yourself to come to harm

The Boons of Ninhursag

2	Favour of Ninhursag -  Power any glyph containing the Earth rune with a single action
3	Eyes of Ninhursag -  at will hear strength and direction of beating hearts within 50', even through stone - if in field of view, see whole circulatory system and dark patches where disease lies in their body
4	Scales of Ninhursag -  +1 AC and +2 to saves, improve overnight heal rate by one step (Vagrant -> Comfortable -> Splendid -> Splendid+)
5	Heart of Ninhursag -  Choose the Aspect of Ninhursag you will worship; gain an ability based on that Aspect: Undivided - convert poison entering your body into any other type Size - increase size and power of muscles at will (+4 strength mod, rip tight clothing, grow a foot or so) Plants - exude soporific pollen at will (-2 to hit for those nearby, +1 Pain Poison if breathed for 10 minutes, you are immune) Crystal - encase self in crystal coccoon at will, you are immobile and take only 1 damage from non-smashy weapons, coccoon shatters if you take more than 5 points of damage in one blow. If smashed you are stunned until you pass a Save vs Stun to recover Magma - grow incredibly hot at will, glow orange, deal 1d6 fire damage to anyone touching your bare skin, take half damage from heat
6	Devotion of Ninhursag -  You gain influence over the effect of any glyph containing the Earth rune, allowing you to bend its power to your intent and control its manifestation. New effects must be at least somewhat plausible.
7	Breath of Ninhursag -  gain 30' breath weapon 1/day according to Aspect which deals your current HP as damage (Save vs Blast for half); Undivided - chlorine gas, blinds and chokes all affected until they pass a Save vs Stun (separate for each effect) Size - shrinks everything in radius to half its size for 10 minutes. Plants - Everything in AoE difficult terrain and everyone within entangled by grasping coat of vines until they can slice them off or Wrestle out of them Crystal - Jagged shards of crystal coat the area, creating difficult terrain and dealing 1d6 damage to anyone stepping or falling on it without suitable protection Magma - ball of magma rolls along at 20' per round, breaks into a 10' burning puddle of magma when it hits someone or an object. 1d6 damage/round to anyone standing in it. Rolls to hit vs unarmoured AC against things that could dodge out of the way.
8	Claws of Ninhursag -  Unleash the latent power of Ninhursag 1/day for 10 minutes, taking on shades of the Aspect chosen and granting you a 1d6 unarmed attack with an additional ability; Undivided - Extending claws grants immunity to poison and allows you to tear up rock and earth easily, throwing boulders for 1d6 damage or throwing up a cloud of choking dust that obscures normal vision Size - Extending claws makes you grow twice as big! Shreds anything you're wearing, double damage. Plants - Extending claws grants you 1d6 natural regeneration per round up to half max hp Crystal - Extending claws covers you in shimmering crystal and grants your claws brutally sharp crystal edges, 1d10 unarmed damage and you count as having a Shield which can be broken as normal (shattering your crystal shell) Magma - Extend claws and become immune to heat. Anyone dealing 4 or more points of damage to you in one hit causes magma to pour out of the wound and pool at your feet, anyone standing in it takes 1d6 damage per round.
9	Wings of Ninhursag -  grow dragon wings! Take on a bunch of cosmetic attributes based on your chosen Aspect. Fly at your normal movement speed and glide at double.
10	Apotheosis Protocol -  with a week of preparation, permanently transform into an Elemental Dragon of Aspect, control it until the end of the session at which point lose individuality but protect fellow drakencultists OR for Undivided worshippers become immune to all poisons and diseases and at will (or on death) explode into a cloud of chlorine gas of incredible toxicity
11	Apotheosis Acceleration - With a day of preparation, Apotheosise.
12	Apotheosis Ultimate - At will, Apotheosise as an action

The Elemental Dragons of Ninhursag

Base stats:

HD10 AC14 ML12
- Vision: No eyes, but have always-on Eyes of Ninhursag - see circulatory systems in line of sight and detect heartbeats within 50'

- Breath: HP as damage, Save vs Blast for half. Recharge on 5-6. - Claws: 1d10/1d10, pin to the ground or bat away to send enemy flying. - Bite: 3d10, pick up and swing around wildly on hit - Wrestle to escape - Tail: 1d10 sweep, those hit are sent flying back. Save vs Blast to avoid. - Death Throes: Triggered when the Dragon is destroyed.

Size:

Huge dragon carved of stone, spits enormous rocks, practically invulnerable
+ AC20 + Fucking enormous - three storeys tall + Bite picks up anyone within a 20' diameter (so like, anyone close to anyone else). Keeps you inside its cage of a mouth while smashing its head around. + Breath weapon is huge boulder that bounces and rolls like a cannonball + Death Throes: Collapses into rocks that collapse down into earth.

Anyone within 20' must Save vs Blast or take 2d20 damage from fallen chunks of dragon. Dust swirls up from the bursting rocks, sending up a great obscuring plume of dust and grit 50' wide

Plants:
Rocks and greenery swirling in vague dragon shape, regenerates, poisonous fumes
+ Regenerates 1d10 HP/round + Exudes soporific pollen in 30' radius - gain 1 Pain Poison every round you're in the cloud + Breath weapon is a tearing roil of vines and thorns and greenery + Death Throes: Soporific pollen cloud bursts out in a great 50' diameter cloud. Anyone inside must Save vs Stun or fall asleep. Plus take 1 Pain Poison per round breathed.

Crystal:

Crystal dragon growing around rocky core, real spiky, any spikes that break off become sharp minions whether it's hit or it just scrapes them off
+ Each hit by it or against it creates a swarm of crystal minions equal to damage. Pool into swarms of 10. + Breath a blast of piercing crystal shards. Getting hit grows heavy crystal on you and through you - +1 encumbrance tier per hit + Death Throes: Cracks and shatters into 2d10 swarms of 10 crystal minions that take immediate revenge

Magma:

Red-veined rock, a moving volcano, leaves devastation in its wake, sets forests alight and spits lava
+ Those in melee range catch alight at the start of their turn as if hit by an oil bomb. + Trails magma and fire dealing 1d10 to all who cross its trail. Constantly moving to spread more magma.

+ Breath a stream of magma that leaves 30' magma patch. Magma magma magma all day long. + Death Throes: Collapses into a pool of magma 50' diameter, frying everything nearby for 1d10 damage per round

Design Notes:

As with all the Apocalypse Dragons, Ninhursag is a synthesis of three things - the trad D&D chromatic dragon, one of the five Runes, and one of some shithead's Tiamat cults.

So Ninhursag is a mix of:
- The poisonous Green chromatic dragon

- The Earth rune and its related rune-combo Aspects

- The secretive knowledge-gathering Jade Fang of Tiamat

All fairly disparate elements, so I feel like together they form a pretty interesting and non-trad melange.
At the time I made this (and this is still broadly true) the only Dragons the players knew about were this big green boi and the black Gravity Dragon Ereshkigal, so there's also an element of making them two rival and contradictory worldviews. Ninhursag is about keeping things alive, Ereshkigal is about letting things die.

So, design notes on the different bits.


Observances and Taboos.

Ninhursag's cultists are intended to be based on spreading disease and keeping living things alive.
After all, if everyone's dead a disease won't spread.
This is also why, for instance, you get a bonus for killing non-living things. Automatons tend to be disease resistant. Even the undead, which you'd expect to be vectors of disease, can't catch a cold themselves.
When Ninhursag unleashes the final ur-poison that will wipe out all cellular life, it wants there to be as many vectors as possible to infect Shub-Niggurath.

There's also a little bit of secret-finding and secret-keeping to encourage some of the sneakier Jade Fang stuff. A little insidious bit of extra spice.



Boons

Dragon boons follow the same format from dragon to dragon. They're always real good.

Bond 2 is when you the Favour, the ability to fast-cast any glyph containing the associated Rune. In this case, the Earth rune.

Bond 3 is the Eyes. Since Ninhursag is all about life, you can detect heartbeats and see circulatory systems (and disease) in field of vision. Real good unless you're fighting zombies or golems or whatever, but that's why you have to kill them.

Bond 4 is the Scales. All dragons give a +1 to AC and +2 to Saves, but Ninhursag also improves overnight healing rates. You're not allowed to heal magically during the day, but as a counterbalance you do heal more quickly with rest.

Bond 5 is the Heart and where things get interesting - your choice of Aspect here is your choice forever and grants you an always-on or at-will passive ability. So far we've only had one PC reach the Heart and they went for Size, which is fitting for POWERLAD the Muscle Wizard superhero.

Bond 6 is the Devotion which upgrades your rune abilities again. Essentially this means players tell me what happens when they activate rune magic, rather than me telling them.
It's potent and near game-breaking, but it's the apocalypse so they need all the help they can get really!

Bond 7 is the when you get the Breath and shit gets real. Dragon breath! A big ticket item! And different kickers depending on Aspect too.
One of the real cool self-limiting things for dragon breath in old school D&D is that it deals the dragon's current HP as damage, so it's the same here. As you level up in your class you do more damage with your breath weapon. Mechanically elegant!
We have a Goblin player with a whole gaggle of Goblin minions, each of whom he (until recently) had managed to set up worshipping a different Dragon each. That way he'd get access to all the cool powers without paying the exp penalty for Dragon Bond! Clever...
Unfortunately since his Goblins only have 1d6 HP, they can only do a few points of damage with their breath weapon. And also they die(d) really easily.

Bond 8 is the Claws. Another Aspect-based power. Unsheathe your Claws 1/day to get an unarmed attack and some monstrous Aspect-related extra ability. This is the combat monster perk where you turn into a humanoid dragon and wreck shit.
You can dual wield both claws, naturally. Remember in my game dual wielding means you roll twice for damage and take the best, and deal double damage if you roll doubles. A d6 unarmed strike is pretty beast!

Bond 9 is the Wings and they are the same mechanically for everyone because you can fucking fly baby!
At-will flight is weird because it's one of those things you think will break the game, but it really doesn't. Overland encounters are way different because you can just fly over them, but normal dungeons aren't changed so much.

Bond 10 is the final ability - Apotheosis. The capstone ability that essentially means you sacrifice your character forever in order to control an overpowered Elemental Dragon for a session.
What a choice!

The Elemental Dragons are player-scale, by which I mean they're the size of a truck and thus the sort of dragon that players might actually be able to fight against and the sort of dragon that will be effective against player-scale threats.
This as opposed to the Apocalypse Dragons which are the size of mountains and will just destroy you and shrug off any wound your measly sword can inflict.
Elemental Dragons are huge compared to a man, but still small enough to have an HP pool.

Anyway, sacrifice your character in order to do something crazy awesome. Since it takes at least 10 sessions to get to Bond 10 (you can test Bond once per week max), at my weekly game you've gone at least a couple of months with your character before you can blow their Draconic Apotheosis.
That's a lot of work to get to this point, which means sacrificing your character is meaningful.
It should be a hard choice, but then you do get to be a 10HD insanely powerful dragon which should be a hell of a good time.

Unless you're an Undivided worshipper of course, in which case you get ultimate immunities to poison and disease - you'll be guaranteed to survive Ninhursag's world-ending plagues at the very least.
You should probably Apotheosise as soon as you get a chance if you're an Undivided cultist, it's a permanent perk.
Plus if you die you'll take every motherfucker in the room down with you. Let's hope your friends are also Undivided so they can turn that deadly poison into a nap...

Bond 11 and Bond 12 speed up the Apotheosis.
Bond 10 takes a whole week which means you need a lot of planning ahead. It's unlikely you'll be able to do this in response to a threat unless it's got a long lead time. Since I've got a ticking clock of the Apocalypse bearing down on my game, a week is actually quite a big time penalty too.
Bond 11 only takes a day, so you're more responsive. That demon threatened you? Come back the next day as a motherfucking DRAGON and show him who's boss.
Bond 12 is at-will apotheosis which is definitely OP. If you're fighting your ultimate enemy and they knock you down to near-death and you wipe the blood off your lips with your sleeve and gloat about how "this isn't even my final form!" and transform into an Elemental Dragon and bite off their head with your mighty jaws as they cower... you have truly used this ability correctly. I really hope this happens.

A Note on Aspects

You'll notice that the Aspect powers are fitting for the element they relate to, but the Undivided bonus is a bit of a curveball. Combining Earth-Earth creates Rock in the rune system after all, not Poison.

I justify this because the Undivided option is about bringing you closer to the powers of the Dragon Itself, not just its rune combo.
Ninhursag has a trad Green Dragon's poison breath and theme, so you get poison-related abilities.
The Undivided options for Ninhursag involve the Poison mechanics a bunch. Like the Heart lets you convert deadly Trauma Poison into less deadly Pain Poison, so you just pass out for a while rather than dying.

The other abilities mostly just fit the spec. Size makes you bigger and stronger, Magma makes you hotter and heat-resistant, etc etc.

There's another wrinkle in that Aspects are a combo of two Runes, so every Dragon Aspect is shared with one other Dragon. Size is an Earth-Mass combo, for instance, so both the Earth and Mass Dragons will have an Aspect of Size available.
To make these shared Aspects unique, the element is sort of flavoured by the Apocalypse Dragon you're worshipping.
The Earth Dragon makes its Size cultists get bigger and more muscular, while the Mass Dragon gives its Size cultists non-euclidean space-distorting abilities - changing the Size of distances.

This applies to the Elemental Dragons too. The Earth-flavoured Size Dragon is a huge stony beast that breathes huge boulders and crushes all before it, the Mass-flavoured Size Dragon is a roiling mass of darkness and spacial distortions whose breath smears you across space-time.

Elemental Dragons

I went into Elemental Dragons a bit under Apotheosis above.
Elemental Dragons are player-scale threats, in that they're a size that players could potentially interact with in a meaningful sense - the equivalent of Adult Dragons.
Yea they'll kill you, but they'll have to roll for it.

Elemental Dragons are on my encounter tables. Usually they roll around with a retinue of Aspect-aligned drakencultists who try to control it. Nobody's fought one yet, although they did have a very scary run-in with a Crystal Elemental Dragon. That was a stealth mission.

All Elemental Dragons share the same base stats and attacks, modified based on Aspect.
So stat wise these things are beasts. Big HD, a ton of attacks, a breath weapon, the works.
If you're clever and lucky only some of you will die.
And if you get to control one of these bad boys with Apotheosis, welcome to God Mode. This is your session now baby. The spotlight is for you!

The one little potential weakness - like their Apocalypse Dragon sire these guys don't have eyes and have to rely on heartbeat vision. Fighting creatures without heartbeats means you have to guess where they are, but that's why you have your fellow drakencultists around to help!
It's also why killing non-living creatures is encouraged by Ninhursag, see?

Really the only big and interesting idea here is Death Throes.
I swear I got the idea of these from someone's blog or maybe someone in the OSR Discord, but I can't remember for the life of me. If you know, let me know so I can attribute properly!
Anyway, rather than Lair Actions or having triggered responses to attacks, killing an Elemental Dragon triggers its Death Throes - in general these will fuck up whoever and whatever killed it. Fun!

Individually:
Size is massive and tough and eats multiple people at a time. The big stompy one that goes around stepping on people and shooting boulders from its stony mouth. Bonus points if it breathes its boulder while people are in its mouth already. Combo!
Plants regenerates while slowing melee attackers and putting them to sleep. Real annoying to fight I imagine. You can't do shit because the pollen makes you dopey, and the few hits you get in before falling asleep are regenerated quickly. What a bastard.
Crystal creates sharp splintery minions wherever it goes. Hitting it knocks off sharp minions. Getting hit knocks off sharp minions. You want to run? Oh but its breath loads you up with encumbering crystal, preventing escape and probably spellcasting. The sharp minions do Choppy damage which means more damage to less armoured characters too. Good luck.
Magma trails magma, breathes magma, sets melee attackers on fire with magma, endless fucking magma. A living terrain hazard. Good luck with this fucker too, especially if you're wearing flammable clothes or carrying explosives.


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More on the Apocalypse Dragons

Apocalypse Dragon Resources
Learn to Kneel
Ninhursag
Atrahasis
Ereshkigal
Shamash
Mardūk

Kneel Before the Apocalypse Dragons!

The Apocalypse Dragons!

Five are they.

Ninhursag, Clathrate Dragon. It is of Earth, of Poison, of Secrets.
Atrahasis, Deluvial Dragon. It is of Cold, of Ice, of Stasis.
Ereshkigal, Singularity Dragon. It is of Mass, of Gravity, of Despair.
Shamash, Bolide Dragon. It is of Heat, of Fire, of Rage.
Mardūk, Gamma Burst Dragon. It is of Light, of Electricity, of Power.

Each is the size of mountains.
Each has upon its eyeless face a Rune.
They have tried, in their own ways, to prevent the emergence of Shub-Niggurath.
Each attempt has caused an extinction event.
Each attempt has failed.

The Beast in the Core of the Earth is still here.

Why Worship Such Atrocities?

Why indeed? These Apocalypse Dragons care not for man. They care not for life itself. 

Their only goal, the only goal that matters, is to prevent Shub-Niggurath from cracking the world like an egg and spreading its star-seed to infest other planets.
Terrestrial life is nothing to them. Sacrificing the earth to save the universe is a akin to us sacrificing an ant to save a city.
They do not speak. They do not care. They live and think on timescales too vast for us to comprehend, and far too vast for them to comprehend the short non-events of human lives.

So why, then? Why worship them?

Dragon powers! 

Those who obey the whims of a Dragon gain access to potent abilities. 

Claws, breath, scales, wings, Rune control, a whole host of fantastical abilities.

And the price? Merely abide by the Observances that you must obey or avoid to gain favour, and avoid breaking Taboos.

Are these things the dragon actually wants from its followers? Or are they merely a shallow surface reading of the echoes of the thoughts of a creature far too powerful and ancient to comprehend, justified post-facto by desperate adherents clinging to a foolish hope that their Dragon will save them from the end of the world?

Either way, it seems to work.

How to Worship Such Atrocities.

These rules are basically cribbed and slightly adjusted from Perdition.
If you want a bunch of rad demon lords to worship instead of dragons, check it out!

In brief:
Your Bond to a dragon is a number between 1 and 12.
Each Bond level grants an ability, but applies a cumulative 5% penalty to earned exp.
New adherents start at Bond 2.
Maintaining your bond with a Dragon requires you to avoid breaking its Taboos.
Improving your bond with a Dragon requires you to abide by its Observances.

Initially bonding yourself to a Dragon is remarkably simple.
All you need to do is kneel before an Apocalypse Dragon, or be baptised with its Rune by someone who is already Bonded to the Dragon.
Strengthening your Bond is where it gets interesting.



Here's an example of the Taboos and Observances of one of the Dragons - Ninhursag.

Taboos must not be broken. Break a Taboo and you lose 1 Bond level.
So if you're at Bond 4 and break a taboo by letting someone cast Cure Disease on your friend, you drop down to Bond 3.

Observances are important for when you attempt to increase your Bond level with a Dragon.
You want to collect the positive modifiers while avoiding the negative modifiers.
Whenever you trigger an Observance, mark it.
You can attempt to improve your Bond level once per session.

Improving your Bond:
- Either kneel before your Dragon or listen to a sermon from a someone who has a higher Bond Level than you.
- Roll 2d6 and apply any modifiers from your Observances.
- If you roll over your current Bond Level, it increases by 1.
- Whether you succeed or fail your Observances reset, erase all marks.

Ninhursag's bond abilities

The abilities follow the track above for all Dragons, ie. you always get Eyes at Bond 3 and Wings at Bond 9. What the actual effects of those are differ by Dragon though.

The abilities remain unknown until someone unlocks them. I'll reveal the abilities in subsequent posts about the Dragons, but to illustrate, here's what my players have seen so far.
At the moment our current highest Bond character is POWERLAD.
He's at Bond 10 with Ninhursag so has unlocked the following abilities:

click to expand

You'll notice that at Bond 5 you have to choose one of the Dragon's Aspects.
These are based on Rune combinations. That's all over here if you're interested, but not directly relevant. All you need to know is that you can choose to worship the Dragon Undivided or one of its four derivative Aspects.

In this case, POWERLAD chose to worship the Aspect of Size, granting him a bunch of size-related abilities.
Coupled with his potent Muscle Wizard abilities, he's a real superhero!


It's possible to worship multiple dragons at once but it's hard to maintain since you've got to juggle a bunch of different and often mutually contradictory Taboos and Observances.
It's technically possible though!

Discussion

This is part worldbuilding, part faction play, part optional sub-quest, and part alternate leveling system.

Alternate Leveling

Characters in my campaign peak at the soft cap of Level 7.
Getting there is hard enough, the work of maybe a year of play, and after that exp requirements are so vast that they're practically unattainable.

This means alternate methods of gaining power and abilities are welcome. This is one result, a means of gaining cool new powers and abilities that isn't tied to class or level.

The players quickly grasped that optimal thing to do is to get to a high level then get into a dragon cult as a sort of prestige class thing. Hence why the Level 7 Muscle Wizard POWERLAD is the main Drakencultist in the group.
Since you're probably not going to level up anyway the exp penalty isn't such a big deal, and since you're not going to level up anyway you might as well go hard into Bonds!

Sub-Quest

It's kinda cool to have an optional extra thing you can be doing that doesn't disrupt the party's goals.
Sure, you might be incentivised by Taboos or Observances to do certain things or act in a certain way, but you're not trying to persuade your friends to come with you on some random sidequest that's got nothing to do with their actual goals.

It does make things interesting though.
There was a time when POWERLAD's player was frantically telling someone "don't come near me with that fucking healing!" so they didn't break their taboo against healing unnaturally. That was great.

Faction Play

Factions are a great way to drive player action, and since you've got to go back to the Dragon or one of its Drakencultists to level up your Bond it means you've got to deal with that faction a bunch.

If you piss off everyone in the cult, the only way you can strengthen your Bond is to fight or sneak your way to the Dragon itself. Dragon don't care about petty human squabbles.

Plus, since there are 5 different Aspects of each dragon that means there are going to be at least 5 sub-cults in each Drakencult, and that's ripe for faction play too!
We've just come off a month or so of gameplay involving internecine strife within Ninhursag's Drakencult, it went great. POWERLAD is a high priest now and everything.

Worldbuilding

Is there a better way to get my players in contact with the campaign lore around Apocalypse Dragons?
Dragon powers! Who could resist!
Now there's a fair amount of theorising around what the Dragons are, what they do, and how one might be exploited to juuuust about stop the end of the world without them kicking on to destroy the world in a whole other way.

Power Level

There's one more thing tied up in this - the power level of the abilities.

You might notice in that POWERLAD ability sheet thing further up the page that these abilities are actually real fucking strong. +4 Strength at will? Breath weapon deals your HP as damage?? Bond 10 lets you turn into an elemental dragon??? What the fuck?

This is a symptom of me letting go of that "low level play" dial as we get into the Apocalypse.

The world's totally fucked and there's a ton of stuff that's too big to be solved by stabbing it with sharp sticks, even dragon-powered sharp sticks. Might as well kick it into high gear!