Barbarians of Lemuria and the Great Campaign

I've been extolling the virtues of Barbarians of Lemuria, or BoL, for quite a long time now. It's a fantastic rules light game system that handles pulp incredibly well. While the main rule-set is for some Conan-esque swords and sorcery fun, it's been ported to handle 1980s action movies, pirates and the high seas, traditional high fantasy, Greek myths and tales, noir pulp, and the post apocalypse. Essentially, it's a very versatile system. This forum post, describes the game and system in pretty great detail.

Now that I've talked about the system and its flexibility and versatility, let's jump into the meat and bones of it.

I've recently picked up an old campaign setting I created with 4e D&D in mind. It's been about two years since I last touched it, but I really dug it then and still do. I'd say if it's held up for two years then it is worth exploring further. And so I have.

The most basic premise of the game is that it is incredibly low-magic. The only casters in the setting are largely NPCs, though the PCs might occasionally have the option to learn some lesser magics themselves. BoL as a base system is very swords and sorcery, so it does stay fitting in that regard, despite being jumped into mid-to-high fantasy.

Magic in BoL is very flexible. There are no spell lists (though one may create them if they so choose,) instead you can create just about any spell and go through a short checklist to see how much a spell costs you in Arcane Power. Spellcasters have a pool of Arcane Power that recharges once per day either at midnight or noon, their choice. That's just for simple spells, or Cantrips and First Magnitude spells. Second Magnitude spells are essentially magical rituals that can take hours or even days. Third Magnitude spells are the focus of whole campaigns. Finding the right ingredients, waiting for the moon to be in the exact position needed, things like that. Usually these spells require great sacrifice, too. Magic and power come at a cost, which is something that I love and definitely harkens back to the swords and sorcery roots of the BoL system.

Magic is really cool, basically. But the focus of my campaign is on the martial aspect of it. The physical endeavors of mankind in a world that is at war with itself and is extremely dangerous. The point of this is exposition is that Arcane Power is great for focusing on the cost and the weird of magic, but there is nothing similar for melee, or even ranged, combat with martial weaponry.

My solution is the creation of Stamina Points. What SP do, without bogging down too much with crunchy mechanics, is allow players to perform physical stunts and maneuvers at the cost of SP. For certain actions this might have a physical cost as well of the PC's Lifeblood (think hit points) to quickly and easily model exhaustion. These Stamina Points would refresh after the PCs rest, similar to Arcane Power. 

While the list is far from comprehensive and the exact Stamina Point costs have not been worked out, here is a rough idea of what I'm thinking:

• Shield Bash: knock an opponent away from you and deal some minor damage
• Kick: stagger an adjacent foe and cause them to take a penalty on their next attack
• Sweep the Leg: knock an opponent to the ground before you

I should note that BoL isn't a very tactical system, and it does follow a fairly pulpy narrative. So while these physical stunts, for lack of a better term, don't impose a necessarily crunchy penalty, the narrative penalty is still there.

As I said, this is still a work in progress.

A second idea I had for the "Great Campaign" dealt with magic items. I had stated that this setting is low-magic but still midish-fantasy. In the historical past there was a lot of magic in the world. A very high-fantasy setting but two ages prior to where the campaign starts off. So there are ruins of the old kingdoms and enchanted items, though they are admittedly rare.

I got to thinking about how to model this. BoL has a great system of Boons and Flaws that let you roll and extra die and take the higher die in the case of Boons, and with Flaws it is the same save you take the lower die. D&D Next (or 5e or whatever) does something similar with Advantage and Disadvantage here, as well. And while I think the Boons and Flaws system is pretty elegant and would work in most cases, it's not true for all. I was actually thinking of Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, and how to model it in the BoL system.

Here are a few magic items I was thinking about. The first three showcase the Boons and Flaws system of BoL, and the fourth shows how I would model Mjolnir and perhaps other artifacts in this "Great Campaign."

• Elven-Forged Sabre: Boon: Roll an extra die when attacking with this blade. You may add Agility instead of Brawn to your damage die.
• Stone-Forged Claymore: Boon: Roll an extra die when rolling for damage, take the higher of the two. You may attack with Brawn instead of Agility with this sword.
• Cursed Blade: Flaw: Roll an extra die when attack with this blade, take the lower two dice rolled. Additionally roll an extra die when calculating damage and take the lower of the two.
• The Stormbringer's Hammer: Boon: You may shoot lightning at a range of 30 feet when wielding this hammer. The lightning bypasses the enemy's armor and deals 1d6 damage on a hit, but costs 3 Arcane Power.

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I plan on posting here more this coming year as I talk about the games I am planning, running, and playing. Occasionally I'll put out a pdf of stuff I've discussed here, such as the aforementioned Stamina Points system for BoL-type games. Additionally I plan on putting out a lot of system-agnostic items, traps, monsters, and more over the coming months. So keep an eye for it!

It's good to be back.

Until next time,

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