Try a Shift at the Dead Letters Office (GLOG Class: Postal Worker)

In which you run around the world delivering important things to dangerous people. This class wouldn't work very well for a normal game; it's not super friendly to regular adventurer shenanigans. Since it's basically just a quest generator, you could probably run a single-class party of these going around and making deliveries, or one Postal Worker and their companions doing the same.

 

Starting Equipment: A fancy uniform, a mailbag, a heavy club, a bottle of port wine, an unerring sense of direction, and three deliveries to make (roll on tables at end of class).

Skills: Navigation and 1d3: 1. Carriage-Driving, 2. Sailing, 3. Friendly Banter

For every template of Postal Worker you possess, gain 5' of movement per round and +1 inventory slot.

A: At Any Cost, Dead Letters

B: To Whom It May Concern, +1 Save

C: Epistolary Immunity, +1 Stealth

D: Untiring Devotion, Walking Map

At Any Cost:

You gain +1 HP for every piece of significant mail you're carrying. If any of your mail would be damaged, you can instead take the damage or other consequence on yourself. Significant mail means something that has some level of difficulty involved in the delivery; it can't just be a letter between two towns 20 flat and civilized miles apart.

 

Dead Letters: You don't level up the normal way. Instead, you level up when you've delivered a number of pieces of significant mail equal to your next level (2 pieces of mail for level 2, 3 for level 3, etc) to a maximum of 5. You get +1 on reaction rolls with those who recognize your uniform, and an additional +2 with the recipients of your deliveries. If you ever initiate violence against a recipient or open a package not your own, you lose all templates in this class.

To Whom It May Concern: You always know who a package or letter is intended to be delivered to and where they can be found, even if you can't read the address. You don't necessarily know how to get there.

Epistolary Immunity: If anyone who can understand the significance of your uniform attacks you while you're on a delivery, they become a pariah to anyone else who learns of it.

Untiring Devotion: You can walk, ride, and stay awake for thrice as long as an ordinary person without tiring, and can hold your breath for four times the usual duration. Whenever you are reduced to 0 HP or below, after you roll Death and Dismemberment (if necessary), roll a Constitution check. On a success, gain 1d6 HP. 

 

Walking Map: You know the fastest, most direct route to the location of your delivery. This route may be incredibly dangerous or extremely impractical. 

d12 Significant Mail:

1. Letter of extreme urgency. Must be delivered in a week or less.
   
2. Jingling bag of coins. Contains 300 sp if you succumb to temptation. 1 slot, loud.
   
3. Box marked "Fragile". The contents shatter if you take 5 or more damage in one round. 50% chance it's something dangerous (bottles of acid, explosives, etc). 1 slot.
   
4. Random magic item. You have permission to use it during the delivery.
5. Random cursed magic item. Best not to touch it.
6. A flame. Currently on a torch. Don't let it go out.
   
7. Baby monster. Overly friendly, prone to getting into trouble, might try to bite your finger off. 3 slots if carried, can walk.
   
8. Adult monster. Semi-tame, aggressive if scared, hungry, or just in a bad mood. Too big to carry, can walk.
9. Actual baby. Dies at the slightest provocation, cries all the time for no evident reason. Probably the heir to a throne or something. 2 slots.
10. Really, really big box. Not even that heavy, just awkward. 4 slots, must be carried in both arms.
    
11. Marble statue. Gorgeous, quite fragile. 20 slots.
    
12. Just a normal letter. Perfectly normal. Nothing weird here, nope. Ignore the weird sounds it makes. Eats your other mail if left unattended.

d12 Recipients:

1. The nearest significant dignitary.
2. The farthest significant dignitary still part of the same polity you're in.
   
3. Someone really important: king, high priest, etc.
   
4. The lich or dragon at the bottom of that one dungeon.
5. The hermit on top of that one really tall mountain.
6. The nearest mad wizard.
7. The nearest coven of spooky witches.
   
8. The teenaged true heir to the throne hidden away with a family of farmers, not yet aware of their heritage. 
9. A completely normal farmer in the middle of nowhere.
10. A completely normal whale.
    
11. The person you, personally, hate most in the world.
    
12. Someone who was human. A hundred years ago. They're a mindless zombie now. Good luck getting them to sign for it.
    

A Soft Magical Campaign

 

by AndrejZT

by AndrejZT

 

Like many of my posts, just about everything here has been stolen directly or indirectly from the Annals of the Western Shore or the Earthsea Cycle. 

by Nimphradora

I've been thinking a lot about a specific sort of game that I want to run. The player characters are all sorcerers of some kind, and they travel around a region solving problems for people. These problems won't typically be solvable by violence, or if they are, that'll be discouraged. I'm sure it will remain an option, but hopefully it won't be the first and most convenient solution.

 

The Setting

First and foremost, I think I want the setting to generally be a nice place to live. I'm rather tired of miserable worlds where everything sucks all the time, although that can of course be plenty of fun. Let's say it's an agrarian and pastoralist society, with a very distributed populace, so there are very few cities and not many big towns either. Manufacturing is mostly small-scale and distributed as well, except for the goods which do really have to be made in towns. Long-distance trade is mostly distributing regional specialties. Polities are largely loosely organized and not governed autocratically, although the variety in such systems is wide. Religion and spirituality are polytheistic and somewhat animist, with local deities minor and major alike abounding. Magic is also widespread at a low level, with abilities natural, learned, and dealt for being not uncommon, if not too common either, and generally increasing quality of life in the world.

 

Some Places

by Nele-Diel

Seian

 

The proud city of a thousand gods, where gulls wheel about red granite towers rising high above the bright river Sata wending down from the mountains and sunlight shatters to pieces on the waves of the shining harbor. The white peak of tall Mount Halden, cradle of the revolution, is visible on clear days, far across the bay. The salt-laden air of the docks is bursting with the sounds of a dozen languages, speakers borne there by ships from every known land, near and far, and any good one might desire can be purchased in the crowded markets. Seian had walls, once, and a king, but the walls were torn down to build houses and granaries and libraries, while the king fled rebellion to become a hermit in the wilderness. Since then the city has been ruled by a council of the chosen of the six great families and seven citizens chosen at random. Throughout the year there are festivals great and small for all of the thousand gods, some of whom are worshiped in many and broad lands, while others are only known by the family in whose home their shrine resides or the members of the tallow-renderer's guild. Commonly, these festivals feature intricate dances in the streets, songs and tales of yore, and special foods cooked for the occasion.

The Marshes

 

A vast expanse of wetlands at the junction of the rivers Slowcourse and Asjen, stretching fifty miles inland from the sea. Cranes soar over great mirrored lakes and stoop to land in shallow reed-choked marshes to partake of the bounty of fish, while canoes and brown-sailed catamarans slice the waters dragging their nets. Towards the sea the marshes turn brackish and estuarine, and the Slowcourse fractures into dozens of little winding passages. Even a small village might be distributed over several miles, as the folk tend to reclusiveness and quiet, their open-walled stilt-houses rising either from what passes for solid land or from the water itself. Most worship is directed to Ehai, the Cat Who Stalks Fate, who is said to take the form of a marsh lynx to help the lost, drowning, and unlucky.

 

by ErikTaberman

Vogurton

 

The jewel of the north, and the second of the two true cities of the land, Vogurton is a rustic and sedate yet prosperous and close-knit community, built of stone, pine, and spruce shipped down the river Anni-Fljot from the mountains. In the center of the city's main square there is a circle of thirty-seven huge statues carved from great spruces, each more than ten feet in diameter. These statues represent the legendary company that founded the city, with Queen Varde sitting at their head. The city is still nominally ruled by her descendant, but in truth the Queen has little to do with the regular doings of the city, only interfering in exceptional cases. Many gods are given great faith and ceremony, but the ones above them all are Aia, the Sun, Odial, the Moon, and Giset, the Stars.

Acoma Pueblo Sky City, credit Wikipedia

Heieth

Heieth is that land which lies in the Gap between Oldroot Peak and Norbils Peak, as well as the land to the east even past the great round mountain known as the Onion. As the Great Steppes lie to the south and it is bordered by mountains west and north, it is arid and watered mostly by snowmelt from the mountains, covered in firs and aspens in the mountains while the lower lands are dominated by juniper, pines, and scrubland. The austere communities are mostly clustered in the uplands or on the small rivers, and are primarily single large complexes built of mud brick. The spirits of the underworld are sacred and said to hold power over the rains, while most other common deities are anthropomorphized animals, such as Coyote the clever and Doe the fruitful.

by kriskeleris

 

The Norrens

 

The Norrens are the broad land east of the Fjallai Mountains and north of Norbil Peak and the Langtaus Mountains. They are sparsely inhabited, being high and steep, covered in great spruce forests and high meadows and moors, which are themselves loosely dotted with stone and wood holds and compounds. The insular people stick mostly to their own families and clans, as each carries the gift of witchcraft in their blood and strives to maintain it purely. As a result, witches are much more common in the Norrens than elsewhere. Ancestor worship is the majority of the religious ceremony, but the spirits of the mountains and streams are quietly revered as the true sovereigns of the land.

 

The Great Steppes

 

Vast arid plains separated from the wet sea-winds by the mountains of their northern border, the Great Steppe is the home of a vast variety of nomadic pastoralists and semi-sedentary peoples. Their practices and traditions are far too numerous to enumerate here. The stereotype held of them by northerners and settled peoples characterizes them as violent and dissipated, but in reality, although low-mortality raiding to protect pastureland is common among some groups, they are no more commonly warlike than any of the other folk of the world.

 

Oldroot Peak 

 

The tallest mountain of all the lands enumerated herein, Oldroot Peak towers above the various ranges which combine to form its base. Oldroot is but a euphemism for the true name of the peak, which is sacred and not spoken openly. The eponymous deity associated with the peak, often called the Mother of Ice and Wind, is in many traditions held to be the progenitor of a    ll the deities, lands, and peoples of the world. Climbing the peak is an act of holy devotion, but it is not often attempted, as it is a perilously difficult journey and it is said that only the Wise will be granted passage to the upper reaches of the mountain by the winds and snows. Rumor holds that at the very top of Oldroot is a cave which holds a pool fed by the spring from which the world was born, but none who have gone so far and returned have spoken of what they found.

System and Magic

by ashpwright

My preference for systems is still light d20 systems, so that'll probably be the base. Roll vs DC 10, modifiers for ability scores (Strength, Coordination, Endurance, Willpower maybe?) and skills (freeform, of course). Probably no hitpoints or anything, and maybe not even a formalized combat system. I still do like levels/HD as a system for representing metaphysical power, so maybe that'll stick around. The real question is which magic system to use. I've got two in mind, and they both seem almost equally fun, so maybe (maybe) I'll write them both. 

by Mischievouslittleelf

Option A: Limited and Specific

 

With this option, every PC starts with one specific magical power. These would be in three broad types: the gifts of witchcraft, which are innate and heritable, the learned, being things such as brewing potions and having great knowledge of songs of lore (these powers are not necessarily things which would be considered magical in our world), and the dealt for, powers which are contingent on services rendered to or trades made with strange beings.

Some Gifts:

• The Unmaking: Unmake structure and order, physical or otherwise, with a word and a gesture.
• The Calling: Call beasts to you without a sound, quell their rages, understand their desires, and convey your own.
• The Knife: Cut across distance with a gesture, more precisely and cleanly than any blade wielded by hand ever could.
• The Changing: Change your form into a kestrel, a jackal, or a pike (the fish). If you stay transformed for too long, you may never change back.

Some Learned Powers:

• Knowledge of how to brew a potion for any ailment, given the requisite materials.
• Haruspicy, palm reading, dowsing, or other forms of divination.
• Great knowledge of the tales, mythology, and history of your people, plus an excellent singing voice.
  
• Knowledge of drawn wards and magical circles.

Some Deals:

• The presence in the back of the cave gave you a book, in which you can write questions and answers will be written. In return, you must seek out new tales, truths, and secrets, and write them in the book.
• The monolith high on the mountain gave you the ability to see moods and emotions, but every time you use this, you must make an offering of burning cinnamon and rabbit meat.
• The lady made of bees gave you the ability to produce spreads of cream and honey, but you must collect every flower you've never seen the like of before and return them to her.
• The boggart from your childhood home gave you the ability to pronounce blessings and protection on houses and boats. In return, you must paint his name in large lurid letters on the subject of the blessing.

 

by ashpwright

Option B: Freeform and Wide

This option is inspired by the various iterations of WoD Mage games, which I find very inspiring but incredibly cumbersome, passed through the filter of GLOG-style Magic Dice. Basically, there's a list of various basic and specific magical types. You add a die, probably a d6, to your pool for each point you have in the relevant basic and specific types (and maybe another if you have a relevant mundane skill, are using a pre-defined spell, etc), and you probably start with one point in two of the base types and three to distribute as you will in the specific. The sum of the roll of all these dice informs the relative success of the spell. Using magic too overtly and rolling doubles or triples might add to your Imbalance, which can generally cause ill effects in the world at large, and the amount of Imbalance you can safely cause is reduced the more powerful you become.

Base Magical Types:

• Changing
• Channeling
• Controlling
  
• Creating
  

Specific Magical Types:

• Brewing (Changing)
  
• Healing (Changing)
• Mending (Changing)
  
• Shaping (Changing)
  
• Illusion (Channeling)
• Perceiving (Channeling)
• Binding (Controlling)
• Charmweaving (Controlling)
• Summoning (Controlling)
• Weatherworking (Controlling)

 

Gameplay Loop and Campaign Structure

by Mischievouslittleelf

The way I envision this campaign going is that the party simply wanders around, looking for interesting things, and solving problems for people along the way. They might have a destination or not, but it would probably be for the best if they did - a pilgrimage, maybe, or some other quest. Since I expect a lot of the problems will be domestic and fairly quickly dealt with, I think the key to success in this sort of game will be really lingering on the flavor and the texture of the world: beautiful natural and cultivated environments, comfy little villages, hospitality, casual spirituality and ubiquitous religion, weather, little pleasures. Of course, I've never actually run a game like this before, so take this all with a grain of salt.

Some Problems to Solve:

• The spirits of the wood are angry because someone cut more wood than they should have
• Several children have been struck low by a mysterious disease
• There's a property dispute between two sisters and no one's been able to help them resolve it
• The local chanter died unexpectedly without teaching anyone their songs and tales
  
• Drought or too much rain
  
• A leopard has caught a taste for human flesh
• A peaceful giant has been trampling fields unknowingly
• A shrine has fallen into disrepair and the villagers don't know the respectful ways to restore it

by Rijkje

Home Bases

 

I expect that this is the sort of game where the party will eventually settle down in a place they particularly like, and they may well want to start with a home base to return to. This will especially make sense if one of the party has made a deal for their powers, as these will tend to be location-based. The emphasis for this sort of play should be community building and becoming respected and trusted authority figures, not any sort of dominance. 

Influences/Appendix N

Soft-Ass D&D  (False Machine)

A World Without Violence (False Machine)

Who, Whom, Why (As They Must) (I played in deus' playtest of this and it was both excellent and more in this vein than you might imagine)

The Sage (Caput Caprae)

The Far Traveler (Blasted, Cratered Land)

Everything Ursula Le Guin ever wrote, but especially: the Earthsea Cycle, the Annals of the Western Shore, and Always Coming Home

Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Mage: the Ascension 

Mage: the Awakening

 

Don't You Know the Way of Men? (Class: Wizard)

Credit Wikipedia

 

I asked for blogpost ideas, and Locheil said I should make a winter wizard. Ulimately it turned out to be more of an ice wizard and only a little bit of a winter wizard, but so be it.

 

Starting Equipment: A single long pole, a pair of old-fashioned cross-country skis, one weapon of your choice (with 20 ammunition if ranged), a snow globe (explodes into a 30' x 30' x 20' snowbank if shattered).

Skills: Skiing and 1d3: 1. Ice Skating , 2. Ice Fishing, 3. Ice Climbing

A: Hypothermic, Winter's Gift

B: Chillbringer, +1 MD

C: Warding Wind, +1 MD

D: Winter's Harbinger, +1 MD

Hypothermic: Your resting body temperature is 0° C. You are immune to cold weather and magical cold effects unless it's absurdly, unreasonably cold (maybe in the region of -100° C), but you suffer double the effect of heat-related ailments (heat exhaustion, heatstroke, etc). You have resistance to both cold damage and fire damage.

Winter's Gift: You have a pool of d6s known as Microclimate Dice, which function in the exact same manner as Magic Dice. You know 2 spells from your list, rolled on a d6. Roll again with a d8 at B template, a d10 at C template, and a d12 at D template.

Chillbringer: The area within 30' of you is always noticeably colder than the ambient temperature, unless it's already below freezing. If you want, everyone within 5' of you takes 1 damage per round from the cold unless they're wearing winter clothing and extinguishes small flames within the same area. Your touch deals 1d4 damage if it touches flesh or metal armor.

Warding Wind: A chill wind constantly blows around you. Missile attacks against you or targets adjacent to you have -2 to hit. Your aura of cold now deals 1d3 damage per round and can be extended up to 30' away from you. You can move through snow as though it were no obstacle at all.

Winter's Harbinger: The weather in the hex you occupy is always unseasonably cold - summer feels like spring or fall, spring and fall feel like winter, and winter feels like that one winter seventy years your great-grandma told you about. If it's near or below freezing, there's a 3-in-6 chance beyond the usual of snow, hail, or freezing rain (whichever the DM decides is most appropriate). Water freezes at your touch and below your feet.

Spells:  

1. Snow Cave
   Casting Time: 10 minutes
   Duration: 8 hours/days/weeks/months
   Range: Touch
   A snow cave that can hold [sum] people appears, either in already existent snow or a snowbank that appears when you cast the spell. The inside of the cave feels like the perfect comfortable temperature for everyone inside. It cannot be entered by any who the caster does not want to allow in, although it can be collapsed or otherwise destroyed. No harmful magical effects can penetrate the cave.
   
2. Control Water
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: 0
   Range: 30'
   You can waterbend control any water within range that is not inside a creature. You can freeze, melt, or move up to [dice] ^ 3 cubic feet of water or ice (hitting somebody with this water is Save vs Magic or [sum] damage, freezing them in place is a Save vs Magic to avoid getting trapped and a Save vs Magic each round to escape), or turn [dice] ^ 3 cubic feet of water into ([dice] ^ 3) * 5 cubic feet of fog.
3. Winter Storm
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: [sum] rounds
   Range: 60'
   Choose [dice] of the following options to apply to the area within range:
   - Golf-ball hail pours down, dealing 1 damage to everyone not under cover each round.
   - Thick fog fills the air, restricting every creature's sight to a 10' range.
   - Waist-deep snow appears, cutting walking speeds in half.
   - Winds howl, making missile attacks impossible, forcing all creatures to Save or be knocked prone each round, and making hearing impossible beyond 10' away.
   - Black ice covers the ground, making all creatures who move Save or be knocked prone and take 1d6 damage.
   - All flames are immediately extinguished.
   
4. Protection from Elements
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: [sum] hours
   Range: 30'
   For the duration, [sum] creatures within range take [dice] less damage from heat and cold, and are immune to negative effects from temperature.
5. Speak With Ice
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: [sum] minutes
   Range: Self
   For the duration, you can speak with ice in any of its incarnations. It will remember everything that has transpired since it was frozen. Snow is flighty and cheerful, melting ice is grumpy and resentful, glaciers are solemn and wise.
   
6. Mulled Cider
   Casting Time: 10 minutes
   Duration: [dice] hours
   Range: Touch
   [dice] slots worth of liquid are transformed into spiced and mulled cider, as hot as possible while not burning your throat. No matter the conditions, it will remain hot for the duration, and will persist after that but will cool down. Drinking a slot's-worth (which takes 1 action) heals 1d8 hitpoints if hot and 1d6 if cold. No one can benefit from this healing more than once per day.
   
7. Hoarfrost Hauberk
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: [dice] hours
   Range: 0
   You sheathe yourself in a spiked cuirass of ice. This cuirass has [sum] hitpoints, which take damage that would otherwise have damaged you. If an enemy hits you with a melee attack while any of these hitpoints still remain, they take [dice] damage.
8. Wall of Ice
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: -
   Range: 60'
   You create a thick wall of ice within range. This wall can be in any shape with an area of [dice] * [dice] * 200 square feet, and it is [dice] * 5' thick. It cannot intersect any creature. If you enclose a creature, they can Save vs Magic to escape. Each 5' by 5' pillar of ice has 5 HD. The wall lasts until it melts.
9. Cryogenesis
   Casting Time: 1 action
   Duration: [dice] hours
   Range: 30'
   Ice within range transforms into animate human forms under your command for the duration. You can create either [dice] 1 HD constructs or 1 construct with [sum] HD. They deal 1d4 damage or the damage of a weapon if they have one. There must be sufficient ice or snow present to create the constructs, and it continues to melt at the normal rate during the spell.
   
10. Cone of Cold
    Casting Time: 1 action
    Duration: [dice] minutes
    Range: 30' cone
    All creatures in range must Save vs Magic or take [sum] damage and be slowed by [dice] * 5' for the duration. All water in the area is frozen over.
11. Flesh to Stone
    Casting Time: 1 action
    Duration: -
    Range: 60'
    A creature within range that you can see must Save vs Magic. If they have [dice] or fewer HD, they are turned to stone on a failure. On a success, they instead gain [dice] AC and have their speed halved as they are partially petrified. If the spell is cast on them a second time, they will be petrified with no save. If they have more than [dice], they are unaffected on a success and partially petrified as above on a failure.
    
12. Midwinter Knight
    Casting Time: 1 action
    Duration: [sum] hours
    Range: Self
    For the duration, you are clothed in red and white and gain a long bushy white beard, granting you +[dice] AC from the friendliness of your appearance. At will, you can summon a flying sleigh pulled by reindeer. The sleigh can fly at up to [dice] * 100 miles per hour and is invisible to those who bear you ill will. It also contains a list of who's been naughty and who's been nice, and if you arrive at the home of someone on the nice list, it contains a present of elfin manufacture made specifically for them. The present's nature should be agreed upon by yourself and the DM.

Mishaps (d6):

1. Take 1d6 damage
2. Take +1 damage from all sources for the next hour
3. Become deafened for the next 1d4 hours
   
4. Catch a nasty cold (1d4 Con disease)
5. All creatures within 30' must Save or slip on ice and take 1d4 damage
   
6. Become frozen inside a huge block of ice for the next 1d4 hours

Dooms:

1. Your fingers become stiff and necrotic with frostbite. Lose 4 Dex.
2. Your eyes become clouded with icy cataracts. You cannot see anything farther than 30' away, or 60' with a successful Wis check.
3. At the start of every week and every time you cast a spell, Save vs Magic. On a success, your speed is halved as you grow stiff and cold. On a failure, turn into a beautiful statue of crystal-clear, pure, sparkling ice.
   

You Will Return With a Steel Mask Instead of a Face (GLOG Class: Specialist)

Starting Equipment: Any four items from the mundane equipment list, a double-action revolver with 6 rounds or a sword (probably a smallsword, backsword, or saber) and a parrying dagger, and a minor magical item (see the table at the end of the class).

Skills: Any two of your choice.

A: +2 Specializations

B: +1 Specialization, +1 Expertise

C: +1 Specialization, +1 Expertise

D: +2 Specializations, +1 Expertise

 

Specialization: At A template, you gain two Specializations. You gain a further one at B and C templates, and two more at D template. When you gain a Specialization, you gain it as a skill with all that implies in addition to gaining the first ability listed for that Specialization below.

 

Expertise: You gain Expertise in one Specialization at B, C, and D templates. When you gain Expertise in a Specialization, you gain the improved ability for that Specialization listed below. You also increase your score for that skill by 2.

Specializations:

• Acrobat:
• Ability: Treat any falls you take as 20 feet shorter. You can jump twice as far or high as you normally could, or can wall-run four times as far. Gain +1 Defense if your inventory is less than half full.
  
• Improved: You can escape from any bonds or imprisonment given ten minutes, or any grapple given one round. Gain +1 Defense if your inventory is less than half full.
  
• Archaeology:
• Ability: You have a 3-in-6 chance of detecting traps immediately before activating them, although the nature and exact location of the trap is not revealed to you. You get a general sense of the meaning of any art you see.
  
• Improved: If you see a ruined product of artifice, you know what it looked like when intact. When you enter an abandoned building or other construction, the DM gives you a flow diagram* of it (assuming it is of sufficient size to justify the effort).
• Crime: 
• Ability: You always know someone in the criminal underworld for a certain task. Depending on the difficulty and danger involved, they may hate you, they may require exorbitant payment, and they may be a hundred miles away, but they always exist. They have a 2-in-6 chance of owning you a favor, and there is an additional 1-in-6 chance that you owe them a favor.
  
• Improved: 2d4+2 level 0 criminals (thieves, thugs, and the like) have heard of your prowess and enter your service. Any local crime bosses will probably take offense to this. Alluding to your criminal empire will intimidate people in proportion to how impressive it is (not very, to start).
  
• Dueling:  
• Ability: You have 2 weapon skill with melee weapons. When dueling a single foe, your melee attacks have +1 wound modifier and you gain +1 Defense.
  
• Improved: If you win initiative in the first round of combat, you have +2 attack during that round. Gain +1 (unconditional) Defense.
  
• Espionage:
• Ability: As long as your face is covered by at least a mask covering the eyes or mouth, you cannot be recognized. If you talk with someone in polite company for ten minutes, you can ask 1d4 questions which they must answer truthfully and will not realize they have answered, and can automatically insinuate yourself into a stranger's good graces with a one minute conversation.
  
• Improved: No one will ever suspect that you are lying or deceiving them unless presented with incontrovertible evidence, nor will they question any false identity you assume, as long as you apply more than a minimum of effort.
  
• Exploration: 
• Ability: Your group is slowed by natural obstacles half as much as they would otherwise be while traveling over land or water. You can see to the horizon with a telescope regardless of the air quality. Gain +1 inventory slot.
  
• Improved: You know the location of all significant features within a mile of your location, and can remember precisely the locations of all major landmarks relative to yourself. Gain +1 inventory slot.
• Forgery:
• Ability: Your forgeries are so perfect as to count metaphysically and magically as the original. They cannot be detected as forgeries by any means.
  
• Improved: You have a 2-in-6 chance (rolled secretly) of being able to forge things without seeing the original, improving by +1 for each of the following: you've met the creator, you know the creator personally and well, you possess bodily matter (hair, fingernail clippings, blood, flesh, etc) of the creator, you've seen other objects made by the creator.
  
• Linguistics: 
• Ability: You speak an additional two languages, and can gain working knowledge of any spoken or written language in a week of intensive study.
• Improved: You have a 3-in-6 chance of knowing the meaning of any given short phrase of speech or writing in any language.
  
• Medicine:
• Ability: Given the proper supplies, those under your care regain lost Strength at twice the usual rate. With 50 sp of chemicals, a hypodermic needle, and an hour of preparatory time, you can prepare a serum that, when injected, restores 1d4+1 lost Strength. Each time after the first that it is injected per week, the chemicals also cause a permanent loss of 1 Coordination and 1 Observation.
• Improved: Your serum now restores 1d6+1 Strength. If you tend to a character who was instantly killed within one round of their death for one minute, there is a 1-in-10 chance you can revive them, unconscious and with a permanent serious wound of the DM's choice.
  
• Natural Philosophy: 
• Ability: You can identify any creature, mineral, or other natural object or phenomenon that might plausibly have been written about in a scientific journal, and know one fact about it. If you catalogue new creatures, minerals, or other natural objects or phenomena and publish the information, you'll be paid 10 sp per fact published and will gain reputation among other natural philosophers quickly.
• Improved: You can collect the body parts of magical creatures, then expend them to create a magical effect based on that creature. See table at end of class.
  
• Thievery:
• Ability: Gain +2 Stealth. Gain +2 inventory slots, the contents of which cannot be found by even the most thorough search. When you leave a room, you can choose to do so with up to 1d4 small items that won't be immediately missed in your pockets. You can climb any artificial structures without difficulty.
  
• Improved: Gain +2 Stealth. If pretending to belong in a location, you will never be suspected of being out of place.  If in the dark and wearing dark clothing or are hiding in other concealment, you cannot be seen while standing still.
  
• Tinkering: 
• Ability: Provided the requisite materials, you can create small mechanical devices that do exactly what they are preset to do (i.e. a spring, 10 small gears, 6 small sticks, a compass, and a revolver can create a little device that walks 30 feet forwards, 20 feet left, and then fires all the chambers due north).
• Improved: You always have a small supply of springs and gears on your person, regardless of whether you've been searched or anything else that might prevent you from carrying them. Upon touching a mechanical device, you intuitively know how to operate it, render it inoperable, and subvert its functioning to your purposes.

*More commonly known as a Melan diagram, but Melan is a gross bigot so fuck that.

Minor Magical Items (d6):

1. Treasure Map: A sheet of worn paper that shows the location of all precious metals within 50 feet but nothing else. (Credit to CyberChronometer.)
   
2. Magic Bag: Roll on this table. (Stolen shamelessly from Udan-Adan.)
3. Bound Spirit: A small near-invisible spirit (can carry at most 5 lbs) bound inside a cigarette case; will perform one task you request before being unbound. (Credit to Gorinich.)
4. Master Key: Will open any lock, but breaks and jams the lock upon opening it.
5. Black Box: A little black box that can take any piece of soft metal less than 5 inches across and reshape it into whatever shape you want.
6. Alden's Gift: A gilded midshipman's dirk (as a shortsword), can cut through 6 inches of any material once per day.

Magical Animal Parts (d6):

1. Fairy's Wings: Gain a flight speed of 60 feet per round for 10 minutes, as long as you are carrying no more than 3 slots of gear.
2. Phase Spider's Book-Lungs: Phase out of existence for 1d6 rounds, during which you cannot interact with the physical world and it cannot interact with you (allows you to walk through walls, etc.)
3. Wyvern's Tooth: Stab a creature with the tooth; in addition to wounding as a knife it instantly deals 3d6 Strength damage.
4. Giant Bat's Tongue: Gain (very loud) echolocation for an hour.
   
5. Dragon's Heart: Permanently learn the language of the birds.
   
6. Cockatrice Eye: One target who can see the eye must make a Luck check or die instantly.
   

The Thunder of the Guns, the Thunder of the Hooves (GLOG Class: Soldier)

You were once a servant of the great states of the exiled west, fighting in their wars and killing their foes. Now, for whatever reason, you've left that service, whether retired in honor and glory, wounded too badly to be of further use, expelled in ignominy, deserted in disillusionment or the heat of the moment, or even simply abandoned now that the need for bodies is past. With a tide of other rejects and drifters, you journey to the distant east to begin a new life away from that overpowering thumb of banners, uniforms, and bugles.

 

Starting Equipment: A leather duster and a bandanna or an old uniform, a bottle of whiskey, 50 "silver" pieces (counterfeit), and a tattoo with a minor magical effect (see table at end of class or make up your own along those lines), as well as whatever equipment your Archetype grants.

 

Skills: Marching and 1d3: 1. Digging, 2. Escaping Notice, 3. Logistics

For each template of Soldier you take, gain +1 weapon skill and +1 inventory slot. (Weapon skills are basically +1 to-hit for a certain type of weapon, i.e. Pistols or Swords.)

A: Archetype

B: Seasoned Campaigner

C: Take No Shit

D: Indomitable

Archetype: Pick an Archetype from the list at the end of the class, and gain its ability as well as its starting equipment.

Seasoned Campaigner: You can fall asleep anywhere at any time, and will always awake instantly any time a conscious person on watch would notice something awry, but only if it's actually dangerous. Once per day, taking a nap of at least 30 minutes reduces the healing time of a wound by one day.

Take No Shit: Your force of personality, when unleashed, is utterly overwhelming. You can cut through bureaucracy, snap raw recruits out of shock, and scare the hell out of just about anyone by yelling at them for a minute.

Indomitable: If reduced to 0 Strength by wounds, you can Save to remain conscious rather than being knocked unconscious. If you do so, you take another persistent wound and must Save again every time you take a wound while still at 0 Strength.

 

Archetypes:

• Artillerist: 
• Starting Equipment: A single-action revolver with 6 rounds, a shortsword or a hatchet, a Gatling gun with 100 rounds and a horse to pull it, a bag of oats.
• Ability: You get a Gatling gun, I think that's plenty.
  
• Brawler:
• Starting Equipment: Brass knuckles, a big-ass knife and a broken table leg or a break-action shotgun with 2 rounds, a two-shot derringer with 4 rounds.
• Ability: You have 2 skill with Improvised Weapons (not otherwise a weapon skill you can take) and can improve it as usual. Your unarmed attacks can be as deadly and effective as a knife, if you choose, and any melee weapon you use can be as deadly and effective as a sword.
  
• Cavalry:
• Starting Equipment: A cavalry saber, a trapdoor carbine or a single-action revolver (12 rounds for either), a horse with tackle, a bag of oats.
• Ability: You have the Horsemanship skill and can train horses to do simple tricks with a week of training, and your penalties for firing from horseback are reduced by two.
  
• Grenadier:
• Starting Equipment: 3 black powder grenades, a rifled musket with 10 rounds and a bayonet.
• Ability: When you throw explosives, they always go exactly where you wanted them to.
  
• Gunslinger:
• Starting Equipment: Two single-action revolvers and a quick-draw revolver, each with 6 rounds.
• Ability: You don't need to roll to perform regular trick shots (throwing a card in the air, drawing a gun, and shooting it before it comes down; shooting through a noose) without a roll and absurd, impossible trick shots (shooting a coin dead center at a hundred yards between your legs) with a roll. You have advantage on Quickdraw rolls and your first attack roll with a gun in a fight.
• Infantry:
• Starting Equipment: A trapdoor rifle with 30 rounds and a bayonet, a portable moonshine still.
• Ability: You can fit your entire body behind any piece of cover bigger than a small dog.
  
• Officer:
• Starting Equipment: A saber, a single-action revolver with 12 rounds, a horse with tackle, a bag of oats.
• Ability: People will always listen to you unless they have a very good reason not to, and soldiers will follow your orders by reflex. Your side has a +1 to initiative rolls.
  
• Pioneer:
• Starting Equipment: A shovel, a pickaxe, a lever-action carbine with 12 rounds.
• Ability: You and anyone working under your direction can dig trenches and tunnels, build earthen ramparts, lay or cut barbed wire, set or destroy stakes or abatis, and otherwise fortify the landscape three times as fast as usual. You can see normally within 10 feet of you in the darkness even with no light at all.
  
• Scout:
• Starting Equipment: A lever-action rifle with 12 rounds, a tomahawk, a compass, a telescope.
• Ability: You have the Scouting and Stealth skills, and have advantage on all rolls to search, hide, or conceal in the wilderness. If traveling alone, you aren't impeded by any natural obstacles.
  
• Sharpshooter:
• Starting Equipment: A falling-block rifle with 10 rounds, a knife, a telescope.
  
• Ability: You suffer no penalties for range up to the absolute maximum range of your gun.

d20 Magical Tattoos:

1. Campfire: If you would be on fire, burns instead of you. After 5 cumulative minutes of being on fire, it burns up completely, leaving a permanent red scar.
2. Anchor: You cannot be moved against your will.
3. Pinup: You become more attractive to people you are attracted to the more intoxicated you are.
4. Mug of Beer: You can't overdose or suffer injury as a result of overindulging in drugs. Does not prevent you from passing out, blacking out, or making terrible, horrible, awful decisions.
5. Eye: Commanding officers and others with authority over you won't notice you incidentally. They'll still see you if you're attracting attention or if they're actively searching for you specifically.
6. Ex's Name: Gives you a tingly feeling when you're about to do something really fucking stupid (read: once per session, your DM will warn you if they think something you're about to do is a catastrophically bad idea).
7. Scripture: If a wound to the body part this tattoo is on would instantly kill you, you make your Luck check against instant death with advantage.
8. Barbed Wire: Small stabby objects (barbed wire, thorns, needles) don't hurt you, although they can still catch your clothes.
   
9. The Sun: Hostile supernatural creatures will attack you last, after any and all of your allies.
10. The Moon: You can see in starlight as in moonlight and in moonlight as in torchlight.
11. Teapot: You can heat liquid-containing vessels (and only those) in your hands, all the way to boiling if desired.
12. Skull and Crossbones: You know the most valuable thing in the room you're currently in, but not necessarily its location or its actual worth.
13. Tree: You can climb trees like a squirrel if carrying nothing heavy, or like a leopard carrying a dead impala if laden. 
14. Raven: You have a perfect memory for faces.
15. Cat: Your attacks have +1 to their wound severity rolls if your target is surprised.
    
16. Dolphin: You can hold your breath for five minutes.
17. Raccoon: You have an extra inventory slot which can only hold non-preserved food.
18. Map: Provides a constantly shifting map of the area within two miles, poorly detailed and without labels or key.
19. Cattle Brand: You can tell how any scar on any person or other creature you can see was caused.
20. Occult Symbol: Once ever, summon an otherworldly being of 2d4 HD. This being rolls reaction as normal (not automatically friendly or hostile). Once used, turns into a permanent red scar. Will probably get you run out of town if seen.
    

The Dragon of Umbros: a Short OSR Adventure

The great hundred-headed dragon Ladon was the protector of the Grove of the Golden Apples, where the nymphs known as the Hesperides tend the golden apple trees of the gods. Now, however, he has begun to assail the people of the island of Umbros, on which the grove stands, and none know why. The Tyrant of Umbros and the High Priestess of Theia are offering a high bounty for his death.Will you take on the ferocious dragon, or will you try to resolve the situation peacefully? Perhaps there is more going on than meets the eye...

 

I wrote an adventure! It's based on Ancient Greek myth, and should work with any system that has hitpoints, spells, ability scores, and Hit Dice without any adaptation. Fair warning, I never got around to playtesting it, but it should take 1-3 sessions. If you do end up using it, please let me know how it goes!

The adventure

 

The keyed map

 

The unkeyed map

I Come From the North and the Sea, From the Land Behind the Sun (GLOG Class: Mage)

This class draws heavily from the Mage class in the Old School Essentials zine "Carcass Crawler Volume 1", as well as, you know, Gandalf. 

Magic has long been tamed. Gone are the days of binding unruly spirits to your will, of spell failure and horrible accidents, of Doomed sorcerers laying waste to entire nations. You weren't apprenticed to a tower-bound recluse; you studied for years in a state-sponsored school designed to produce high-functioning servants of the empire. Now your allegiance has faltered, for whatever reason, and that reliable, standard magic you were taught may prove essential in your journey. Perhaps you'll unearth older, freer arts of magic along the way, and bring them to light.

 

Starting Equipment: A staff inlaid with runes in bronze wire or a bronze ritual dagger, fancy robes, a two-shot derringer with 4 rounds, a notebook, a pen that writes in your blood without requiring an open wound (just takes it straight from your veins), and an addiction to nicotine or laudanum.

Skills: Arcana and 1d3: 1. Research, 2. Occultism, 3. Tinkering

A: Dependable Magic

B: +1 Magical Talent, +1 Improved Talent

C: +1 Magical Talent, +1 Improved Talent

D: State Truth, +1 Magical Talent, +1 Improved Talent

Dependable Magic: You are possessed of various magical abilities, which you can perform reliably and at will. Gain 3 Magical Talents from the list below. To use these abilities, you must have a magical implement in your hand (your staff or ritual dagger, for example) and the ability to speak freely. You gain one additional talent and can improve one talent you already possess for each template of Wizard you take.

State Truth: You have a pool of 15 words, with which you can make statements that will become absolute truth. Every word you use in these statements is subtracted from your pool, which can never be refilled. The DM should be charitable with their interpretation of the truths and consider your intent. The truths you create do not necessarily persist indefinitely or apply universally, depending on the magnitude: if you say "The Sun is gone," the Sun will only disappear for a few minutes and the effect will be confined to your local area, but if you say, "I am holding a magical sword," the materialized sword may well be permanent. Exceptionally powerful creatures and sorcerers may attempt to defy your truths. You and they both roll a Charisma check, and the winner's view of reality prevails.

Magical Talents

First, a digression: many of the below abilities refer to more and less powerful magic than your own. Generally, the power of any given magic is the level of the caster plus the number of MD used, if any. If the DM doesn't have any clue what that might be, they can roll (probably on 1d3 or 1d4, maybe higher for particularly powerful effects). If there's a tie, unless there's a specific edge case (as with Antimagic below), the casters should roll opposed Charisma checks to see who is more powerful.

 

1. Detect Magic: 10 minutes of searching allow you to detect any magic within a room or a 50' x 50' area, whichever is smaller. You can see invisible spirits and creatures as indistinct shades. 

Improved Detect Magic: You can see magic and spirits with the naked eye.

 

2. Hold: You can seal any door, lid, or other object that can be opened and closed for [template] minutes. For this duration, it can only be opened with magic more powerful than your own or by completely destroying the affected object. 

Improved Hold: If you choose, the duration of your Hold on objects is indefinite. You can also Hold creatures with less HD than your templates in this class for [template] rounds, and they can Save to escape every round.

3. Open: You can instantly open any door, lid, restraint, or other object that can be opened, even if it is locked or sealed. Magic more powerful than your own can prevent this. 

Improved Open: You can attempt to open creatures. They must Save, taking 2d6+[templates] damage on a failure and half as much on a success.

4. Mantle: Your allies have +2 to Saves and Morale when within 30' of you. When you want to, you bring a sense of lightness and purity wherever you go. When you are cloaked, you are unidentifiable to anyone who doesn't succeed a Save. 

Improved Mantle: You may take 2d6 damage to cause [template]*2 creatures you can see with no more HD than [template] must Save or become terrified of you for 1d6 minutes.You may also attempt to use this on a single creature with more HD than [template].

5. Antimagic: You may attempt to cancel any magic you are aware of. You have a 5-in-6 chance of defeating magic weaker than your own, a 3-in-6 chance against magic roughly equal in power to your own, and a 1-in-6 chance against magic stronger than your own. This takes an instant for immediate effects, or an hour for permanent enchantments. Temporary effects are immediately ended, while permanent effects are suppressed for 10 minutes. 

Improved Antimagic: You may take 1 damage to automatically succeed on Antimagic rolls against weaker magic, 1d6 against equal magic, and 3d6 against stronger magic.

6. Staff: If using a staff created specifically for your use as a mage's tool (the one from your starting equipment counts), it deals magical damage. It can also radiate light in a 30' radius for [template] hours per day. 

Improved Staff: Your staff has +2 to hit and +1 damage. Supernatural creatures that bear you ill will take 1d6+[template] damage and must check Morale when they enter the light of your staff.

7. Fire: You may light fires by touching your magical implement to flammable objects. This fire is unnaturally virulent, spreading quickly and easily lighting things not usually easily burned (such as creatures). 

Improved Fire: You can take 1d8 damage in order to light an area as large as 20' x 20' on fire. 

8. Suggestion: You may give a creature who can understand you a command, which they must Save against or follow for [template] rounds. They have a bonus to this Save equal to the number of words in the command. This command cannot be directly harmful to them. Regardless of whether they Save or not, they are aware that you attempted or succeeded to magically compel them. 

Improved Suggestion: When you use your Suggestion on a creature with less HD than [template], they either do not get a Save or must obey your command for [template] hours (your choice).

9. Locate: If you have a map of an area, you may perform a 1 hour ritual to pinpoint a specifically named object or creature on that map. Magic more powerful than your own may hide your target, unless you possess a fragment or bodily material from it. 

Improved Locate: The regular Locate ritual only takes you 10 minutes. You may perform the full hour-long ritual to also highlight the fastest (but not necessarily safest or most practical) route to your target.

10. Obscure: You can create thick fog banks that block all sight around anything you can currently see, which dissipate in [template]*10 minutes, or faster in strong wind. Any creature you do not specifically exempt has a 2-in-6 of becoming lost inside the fog, unless they know the terrain well or it would be an impossibility to get lost. 

Improved Obscure: You can perform a ritual to protect a person, place, or object from detection. Performing it on a person or object takes 10 minutes, and they are either unable to be detected by magical means for [template] days or have a 4-in-6 chance to avoid unwanted notice for [template] hours (your choice). Performing it on a place protects it from magical detection for [template]^2   years, and anyone who seeks it or would stumble upon it have a 5-in-6 chance of getting lost and missing it, unless they are specifically exempted by name during the ritual.

One-Roll Mass Combat, and Some Other Warfare Rules

I've been wanting to write mass combat/warfare rules for a while, and here they are!

Link to the document

 

They include a mostly one-roll system for resolving battles and various rules for marching, feeding your troops, paying your troops, and attrition. They also include maybe more percentages than would be strictly desirable from a math front, but it's an easy solution.

And She Was a Radiant Blaze Flooding All of the Void (GLOG Classes: Paladin and Thief)

This post steals heavily from Vayra and Vulnavia's paladins.

 

You have been blessed by the valorous Sun or the all-seeing Moon. It was evident from the very moment your eyes first opened and scintillated as radiantly as light pouring through a bright topaz or pale aquamarine. Why, then, being holy to the G-ds who govern us all, are you not perched on a mahogany throne in a cathedral being fed sweetmeats and grapes by silken-robed attendants? Indeed, many Sun-Kissed and Moon-Kissed are doing so at this very moment, but you are stronger than they, and braver. The Church claims to be the source of all moral authority. You know better. Go forth into the world, and shed light where e'er you go.

The Sun-Kissed

Starting Equipment: Two gilded double-action revolvers with 6 rounds each or a gilded greatsword, a brass gorget in the shape of the sun's rays, a vial of laudanum, 3 gauze bandages, and an amber lens through which souls can be seen.

 

Skills: Passionate Heroism and 1d3: 1. Theology, 2. Horsemanship, 3. Wrestling

For every template of Sun-Kissed you have, gain +1 Save.

 

A: Her Chosen Soul

B: Beloved of the Innocent, +1 to-hit

C: Healing Tears, Molten Blood

D: Mantled With Divine Flame, +1 to-hit

Her Chosen Soul: You were selected and marked by the divine Sun, She Whose Light Burns Evil. While you are conscious, your golden eyes glow unless you actively suppress it, providing light in a 10' cone. You can choose to extend this to a 60' cone at the cost of 1 Fatigue per hour. Your Charisma score is 16 if it wasn't already higher. If you truly believe that an action is right and perform it in the coolest, most badass way possible, you can choose to use Charisma for the roll (if any is required) rather than whatever the relevant skill or ability score would have been.

Beloved of the Innocent: Children and animals adore you and will not attack you under any circumstances. The truly pure-hearted will always recognize you, and you can recognize them.

Healing Tears: If you weep on a wound, illness, curse, or other affliction, it will be healed instantly. If you don't think you have the emotional connection to justify natural tears, you can make a Charisma check to cry at will.

Molten Blood: Literal molten gold flows through your veins. If you are wounded in a way that would draw blood, the cause of the wound must Save or be sprayed (1 wound at -1 severity, automatic blindness if it hits the face). If you deliberately draw your own blood, every coin's worth of gold acts as a wound of 1 severity.

Mantled With Divine Flame: You can, at will, summon a crown of flames to grace your brow. This provides light in a 30' radius and gives +2 to reaction rolls, -2 to enemy morale rolls, and +2 to allied morale rolls and Saves.

The Moon-Kissed

Starting Equipment: Three silvered throwing knives or a silvered sword-cane, a two-shot derringer with 4 rounds, a grappling hook and 60' of rope, a pouch of lockpicks, a silver-gray cloak that's only shiny when you want it to be, and a glass orb filled with shadows that will fill a 50' by 50' area when the orb is smashed.

Skills: Thievery and 1d3: 1. Theology, 2. Climbing, 3. Arcana

For every template of Moon-Kissed you have, gain +1 Stealth.

A: His Chosen Soul

B: Hands of a Tinker, +1 to-hit

C: All-Knowing Eye

D: Cloaked in Divine Shadow, +1 to-hit

His Chosen Soul: You were selected and marked by the divine Moon, He Whose Light Reveals Truth. Your silver-blue eyes glow at will, providing light in a 10' cone. You can choose to extend this to a 60' cone at the cost of 1 Fatigue per hour. Your Charisma score is 16 if it wasn't already higher. If you truly believe that an action requiring subterfuge, finesse, or cunning is right, you can choose to use Charisma for the roll (if any is required) rather than whatever the relevant skill or ability score would have been.

 

Hands of a Tinker: Upon touching a mechanical or magical device, you intuitively know how to operate it, render it inoperable, and subvert its functioning to your purposes. You can do any of the above expertly.

 

All-Knowing Eye: When your eyes cast light on an object or person, you know the following: 

• Whether it is magical or not.
  
• The nature, effect, and function of any magic affecting it.
• The meaning of any text on it, regardless of language and script.
• The cultural significance of any relevant symbolism.

Cloaked in Divine Shadow: You can, at will, summon a cloak woven of shadow from the æther. While in this cloak, you are completely invisible except for your shadow, even to effects which detect magic. Anyone other than you who touches this cloak must Save vs Magic. On a failure, if they have less HD than your level, they fall asleep for 1d4 hours or until roused. If they have more HD than your level or HD equal to your level, they instead become drowsy and disorientated for 1d6 rounds.

Magic Weapons as Poems

THREE WORD NAMES for swords have become quite the fashion (the original post, although there have been quite a few since). As people have been experimenting with similar topics, I thought that it might be interesting to try magic weapons as short verses in meter, rather than with pithy names. As the poems aren't the most informative beyond the broad strokes, I've also included prose descriptions. However, in-game, identifying the weapons might only yield the poem, not the full description.

 

Three scores and more
Her long blade cuts;
Of forgéd ore
With gem at butt.

 

A sword-staff with a diamond set at the butt of the haft. She may cut out to a range of 60' or may attack three times, each dealing one half of regular damage on a hit.

 

Revolving barrels spin,
and forth jet bullets bold,
his sights a precise fin,
each shot a bite of cold. 

 

An ebony-handled revolver chambered in .44-40. His precise sights grant a +1 to hit at ranges greater than 50', and the bullets freeze and shatter objects and armor they hit.

Flourishing flashing and whirling bright,
Their cuts will set your wounds all aright.
Confident thrusts are another matter,
They will your foes' chests break and shatter.

 

A gold-chased late medieval arming sword. Their cuts heal 1d8 damage in addition to dealing their regular damage (assuming 1d6 for a one-handed sword), while their thrusts shatter the target on a modified attack roll of 20 or above for an additional 1d8 damage.

NONE SHALL PASS,
So her THREE WORD NAME titles her;
END OF DAYS,
Such doom will her baring confer.

 

Drawing this bronze estoc from her scabbard will begin an apocalypse that destroys the world (1d6):

1. By fire
2. By water
3. By disease
4. By earthquake
5. By cold
6. By jaguars
   

A broad dao flashes below the cold moon,
His silvery sheen should not shine so soon.
For when his blade cleaves foes asunder
They need not be buried six feet under.

 

A plain, undecorated dadao that glows faintly in the moonlight. When he slays a foe, there is a 50% chance the body is finely splattered across all nearby surfaces and a 50% chance they rise as a zombie or other undead (hostile to everyone, including the wielder).

Mothers scream to hear their cursed name,
Fathers wail at the whirring blade.
What causes such dismay? A fame
So dire, their weight in the fray.
The cause is this: there's no reason.
Magic lends a fear sans treason.

 

A butterfly knife of gold with ivory and copper handle scales. Despite being completely useless as an actual weapon, when opened and whirled around, every nearby creature (including the wielder) must Save vs Fear or flee screaming.