Something I'm working on/Deep Carbon Observatory

well-behaved formostian children

DeepCarbon Observatory is really, really good. +Scrap Princess +Patrick Stuart +Alex Mayo made it.

Rather than review it, here is something I wrote because of it for an adventure/ setting/ hexcrawl on which I'm working, which feels like a better, more honest way to review it (and really, who gives a shit what I think).

Formost

the ceiling slung low, crowded with stalactites of enormous size, home of small, hirsute men and women of broad physique and wide mouth with wide, flat teeth and a diet consisting of fungi and a thin ale, Formost hangs above, and occasionally touches the Black Sea.

The stalactite stuff of Formost is hollow and of a crumbly, soft, porous stone and have been worked in great intricacy to depict the weird geometric figures the people of Formost revere as ancestors and deities. A large portion of the town is sealed up and the sealed webwork of caverns of the stalactites have only been half-worked or not at all and appear to have been scraped out by a thousand little beaked, scraping utensil or teeth or mouths.

Most of Formost is lit with bioluminescent moss that grows on fish from the Black Sea. This gives most of the lit part of the city a distinct smell of rotten fish. Old Moss is a delicacy and is used much in brewing and accounts for the frequently glowing teeth and facial hair of the Formostian.

At three of the points where the inverse towers of Formost thrust into the Black Sea, there are water-side markets and fishing vessels and docks, all of a ramshackle, stinking, and grimy nature.

if you want information, head to the docks and ask around the watering hole. for every rumor sought, you have to buy a round of foil, oily-black drinks (and drink yourself); costs 2d10 small coins and Save v Rot or lose 1 HP permanently as your insides turn to black bile (death from this causes you to weep and vomit a quivering, acidic black mass composed of blood and a malicious, alien, rudimentary sapience). Use the roll for coins to determine the rumor and the person mongering them.

	rumors	monger
1	never trust a Formostian	a Formostian official, distinguished by her majestic scarification in the shape of an ancestor glyph
2	the Formost seal up their heroes to fight some monster in the center of the town	a Halfling, broken-nosed and gap-toothed, weeping into ale (will try to stab anyone that thinks is condescending, shows pity)
3	there is scratching at the boards inside the sealed up part of Formost	a Flotsian, weirdly pale and blind, speaks loudly, spits all over
4	the barnacles just below the surface tell secrets if you put your ear to them	rosy-cheeked Formostian with a brace of throwing knives, missing three fingers
5	Formostians brains have a third lobe wherein they store the secrets of their ancestors	a grossly fat merchant whose fingers swell with lividity around many rings and torques. He desperately wants back home.
6	deep worms can be ridden if you’ve the right tools	a rot-mouthed human with a conspicuous flounce hat and incredibly good luck
7	certain rocks and gems, when eaten or crushed into a paste or poultice will fill your belly for weeks	a gilled human in a makeshift breathing apparatus, desperate for word of its people
8	the Formostian will some day soon become hungry and eat and eat and eat until no one is left	a beautiful Formostian woman with scrimshaw teeth depicting something… strange. She avoids smiling and talks in the Formostian fashion (hand over teeth)
9	the glyph-deities of Formost are part of an ancient word	a shifty-eyed, nervous looking Formostian man, covered in sheets of fungal growth
10	there is a city lost beneath the waves where the beautiful god-people that made the Formostians sleep in glass chambers	a tall, wan Anglian in furs of a clearly dying of a venomous drug (has a single dose in his purse full of 10d4 small coins)

note that a Formostian will never talk about the lost city and most won’t talk about problems in Formost

somewhere far below the waves, lies Formoria the terrible.

the red bishop of Formost

attributions: Hikari Shimoda, Twin Peaks

Knowledge and Problem Solving (Cleric/Fighter/Magic-User) Ramble

meat fighter badass solves problems by looking tough, being tough and having a badass follower that looks like a hyena

In my head there is this Platonic ideal D&D wherein players control characters and the characters all go off and explore and have adventures in strange and dangerous places. There are obstacles and players use resources (what's on the character sheet) and skill (cleverness, co-ordination, knowledge of the game, etc) to overcome the obstacles. It is fun in the way that games that are about resolving challenges and exploration are fun. 

Character knowledge is one of those fun black boxes whereby player and referee get to peel back the protective flaps covering the games auditory pits and gently whisper questions into the game or at one another and then get something weird and interesting back. This character was a mucker of Nuln before donning the wizarding tunic they now wear. What might a mucker know about a particular sort of mud? The arid plains of Nuln are known for their mushrooms and nuts, does that mean the mucker knows a bit about what's good to eat in this forest?

The OD&D classes represent radically different approaches to character knowledge and problem solving. (this post here at 9 and 30 kingdoms is related to this)

Clerics, like Fighters, solve problems in a similar sort of sphere, both types of problems being of a decidedly fleshy nature. Magic-Users can, theoretically solve any type of problem at all but they can only solve so many in "an adventure" (which I take to mean in a single session, but later D&D refines to once-a-game-day-so-long-as-you're-getting-in-a-good-rest) and they have to figure out how to solve that problem in their weird wizardy way or they have to steal that knowledge from someone else.

Fighters exist as meat. Their plans are meaty, their actions take place in the usual meat space. They get ignored a lot when people talk about classes and games because they are generally so unproblematic/understandable. "Can my Fighter do this?" can nearly always be resolved with, "if you had the stats your Fighter has, do you think you could do it?"

Clerics are hopeful meat. They hope their god(s) pay attention and help out. It is generally a fun rule to treat the Cleric's spell list as mostly a description of the outer boundaries of what the god(s) are interested in doing for the Cleric this session. The Cleric prays over some of the Fighter's mangled meat body and hopes that things turn out well. Maybe the god is a Troll and the ruined limb heals itself over the next few minutes; maybe the god is an Ent and the replacement parts are some kind of muscle-wood hybrid because Ents don't totally "get" human parts; maybe the Cleric spent last night getting drunk (you know, carousing tables) and the Cleric's judgey white male god decides that while the Fighter is healed, the Fighter's wound is passive-aggressively transposed to the Cleric.

A Cleric doesn't necessarily know anything new or special about the game world unless it's revealed to them. It's like they have these giant monsters riding on their backs. The monsters help them sometimes and sometimes they don't and they impose rules on when they help and the general idea is that really, the real stuff is going on at monster-view level and the monsters are calling the shots and you're just a really advanced horse. 

The life of a Cleric is someone's nightmare about religion.

Magic-Users, on the other hand, know special stuff. Maybe what they know is monster-view stuff which is why it's always so non-linear and knowing it is a vertiginous experience and why Clerics and Magic-Users aren't supposed to get along. Rote Vance (and pretty much rote D&D) is super boring here in practice, but the fundamental theory is interesting. Magic-Users traditionally get their magic by (a) being a little magical themselves and (b) cramming magical, weird, non-linear magic (which might be a monster or something like an invisible monster, maybe made out of dark matter, maybe an angel or aether a la John Dee) into what is probably some special lobe of the brain. (b) nearly always involves reading and being able to cast a spell is usually stated as knowing the spell (and/or having it memorized with the distinction being: can you cast this spell at all [know]? versus can you cast this spell now? [memorized]) and, since the start of the hobby, Intelligence is the core stat for the Magic-User (in OD&D INT also influences how many languages a character may know and in Greyhawk, even the number of spells they may know). All of which is to say that Magic-Users are and always have been about having that certain special information that turns what was an obstacle into an obstacle no longer. (Note also that Clerics in Greyhawk don't get extra spells for high INT as, Gygax notes, clerical magic is "given).

The whole spell-hunt meta game for Magic-Users is similarly about seeking out the knowledge you might want in the future to solve some other kind of problem.

This is kind of related to other posts (esp stuff on Magic-Users and Clerics and Deities) but mostly to stuff I'm working on.

attribution: Pieter Hugo

The Least Information (Maps, Keys)

This is because I realized I needed something like this to keep my brain less addled and because I realize that if it helps me, it might help others. Section 1 is maps. Section 2 is resources on maps. Suggest additions, please. Thanks to everyone on this G+ discussion who contributed/helped (no callouts here to preserve anonymity for those that might want it).

Mostly on dungeon maps. Wilderness stuff not as important for me right now.

1. Nonstandard Maps

REDC, RE2:

http://stebloke.co.uk/games-re.php

ADOM (also shows up in stocking):

http://www.adomgb.info/adomgb-0-13.html

ROA:

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEo0v7Y6V_xCk-FbIebUDfnLVg5FDoka9IdpLshyUQKlo21nM-vrcywPb3uUk4W1uObB44jpestvgvVOA7os9VjxvfJd7dwp8kT07CT4UL3obawQL0uF5xecdRc2Vctu_as5RjuoMS3Wup/s1280/Imirrhos+-+Edited.jpg

USABLE TOH:

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/237/roleplaying-games/the-tomb-of-horrors

SM:

http://jansenprice.com/metroid/met3_sm/sm_map_colored.jpg

http://www.snesmaps.com/maps/SuperMetroid/SuperMetroidMapSelect.html

CT(Wilderness)

http://www.snesmaps.com/maps/ChronoTrigger/ChronoTriggerMapSelect.html

2. On Maps

Keys:

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35180/roleplaying-games/the-art-of-the-key

http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35201/roleplaying-games/the-art-of-the-key-part-2-the-essential-key

http://bloodofprokopius.blogspot.com/2012/06/on-stocking-dungeon.html

http://carjackedseraphim.blogspot.com/2012/06/dungeon-stocking.html

http://carjackedseraphim.blogspot.com/2012/06/dungeon-stocking-2.html

http://www.necropraxis.com/2013/12/07/improved-area-keys/

Stocking:

http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/Treasure.pdf

http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/Tricks.pdf

(from http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-tricks-empty-rooms-and-basic-trap.html)

http://jrients.blogspot.com/2007/09/uncle-garys-dungeon-maps.html

http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2011/10/toybox-style-play.html?zx=9864556f8a969509

http://www.adomgb.info/adomgb-0-13.html

http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/02/die-roll-dungeons.html

Light Sources and Maps

http://strangemagic.robertsongames.com/2011/02/dungeon-design-light-distances.html

Drawing maps & Point/Nodecrawls:

http://www.kjd-imc.org/blog/node-based-megadungeon-design/

http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/

http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2012/05/pointcrawling-undercities.html

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.ca/2013/02/megadungeon-iv-nodal-dungeon-tourist-map.html
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13103/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-part-2-the-jaquays-techniques
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13113/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-part-3-the-philosophy-of-jaquaying
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13123/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-part-4-jaquaying-the-keep-on-the-shadowfell
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13132/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-part-5-jaquaying-for-fun-and-profit
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13141/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-addendum-dungeon-level-connections
http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13144/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon-addendum-part-2-tips-tricks

Megadungeons:

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21636&page=3

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com/2012/09/megadungeon-thoughts.html

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com/2012/10/more-mega-dungeon-thoughts.html

http://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.ca/2013/02/megadungeon-thoughts-part-iii.html

Adventures/Bryce/Learning by Reading Someone Else Reading Someone Else

http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?page_id=844

Not Free

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeon-Builders-Guidebook-AD-Accessory/dp/0786912073/ref=pd_sim_b_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=18JFBKHTB5EKPVFBC3Q2

http://www.amazon.com/Dungeoneers-Survival-Advanced-Dungeons-Dragons/dp/0880382724/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401229954&sr=1-1&keywords=D%26D+dungeoneer

attribution: Greyhawk map photos from RandomWizard

Q&A 1 Inventory, Encumbrance

This is the first one of these that I've done and it may be disastrously unsuccessful... The idea is I ask a question and try to get as many answers/discussions as possible from as wide a spectrum as I can. 

Question 1: Why is it that encumbrances and inventory management can be such an interesting element of tabletop roleplaying games and it's generally such a non-meaningful element of video (RP)games?

Like, this has meant a lot of fun and anxiety around the table:

And this has mostly meant I need to buy some more town portal scrolls:

attributions: OD&D (Volume 1), Diablo 2

Two Things I Stole from Someone Else (for use in (O)D&D)

Hi, My Name is Bert the Purple Worm

The OD&D reaction roll is a 2d6, with 2-5 being negative, 6-8 uncertain and 9-12 positive. That works fine a lot of the time but then sometimes you need more information or it's just preferable to not have to think of a new way for a Gnoll to be uncertain. B/X crams additional outcomes into the role based on the rolled value but it's still not always immediately clear to me how this Gnoll reacts. Which is to say that I'm not great at spur-of-the-moment characterization.

New Rule: Designate one of the reaction roll's 2d6 "dark" and the other “light” (obviously easiest if you've got a dark and a light die, but whatever). Use the color of the higher die to determine the creature's behavior in greater detail: "dark," denotes craftiness, calculation, stalking, underhanded behavior, subterfuge while, "light," denotes forthrightness and direct action. 

Light reactions pretty clearly telegraph intent to the party: the monster is clearly unhappy with you, or its not sure or its indifferent or maybe even gestures to you for help or in some friendly greeting. The Players, of course, can still read the monster wrong.

Intelligent, calculating, outnumbered or predatory monsters are more likely to act with caution/avoid telegraphing intent so ties break “dark” for more intelligent, calculating, outnumbered or predatory creatures (if you want an editable chart listing OD&D monsterintelligence, behavior, etc., see here).

For reference, here are the results of a very simple sort and copy/paste using the linked chart.*

More Intelligent, Calculating, or Predatory Monsters

Basilisks, Chimeras, Dragons, Gargoyles, Giants, Gnolls, Goblins, Hydras, Kobolds, Medusae, Men (Bandits, Buccaneers & Nomads), Minotaurs, Ogres, Purple Worms, Sea Monsters, Trolls, Unicorns, Vampires, Weretigers, Werewolves, Wyverns

Or, if you're working with the encounter type tables on pages 17 and 18 of Volume 3 and want to do this more simply: All Dragons (less the Cockatrice), All Chaotic Giants, All odd results on the Lycanthrope table, plus Unicorns, Gargoyles, Vampires and Purple Worms (standard or marine variant). Trim to suit.

Really, though, it ought to be pretty intuitive what constitutes a more intelligent, calculating or predatory monster.

Examples of Dark Reactions by broad type

More Intelligent creatures will act as calculating, but may also use the first opportunity to alert others or try to manipulate the party for creature's own gain (EX: Dragons, Unicorns)

Calculating creatures will try to assess party strengths and weaknesses, may use poison or drugs, may lead them into traps (EX: Giants)

Predatory creatures may slink away to stalk the party or assess strengths and weaknesses (EX: Chimerae, Goblins, Werewolves)

Domesticated creatures that don't ape predatory behaviors (like a hunting animal might) - ignore Dark reactions

Motifs/Landmarks/Asks

This is a tool to help Players remind GMs things they liked/were interested in seeing more of and GMs remember those things (I sometimes fail to communicate properly with my GMs and I know I've forgotten, misplaced and mis-remembered things Players wanted to see more of).

At the start of the first session, the GM hands out index cards to the Players, one for every three players (round up, so four Players get two cards). On the cards is the word “Motif” and three bullet points. During play, each Player writes down something “in the fiction” of which they'd like to see more and initials this note. Each player can contribute one thing to a card unless numbers dictate that a Player must contribute twice to fill in all three bullets. At the end of the second session, if not earlier, all cards should be handed back to the GM.

The GM endeavors to include the three motifs in an upcoming dungeon, hex or other major location/landmark. Once done, the GM hands the Players a new card.

____________________________________________________________________________

*Sort by the Behavior and Organization columns. I organized each of these columns intentionally, in an order I consider more important when creating encounters and running monsters (intelligence → hunting behavior → general disposition → lairing behavior → social structure, if any, etc).

_____________________________________________________________________________

+Epidiah Ravachol's Swords without Master does this thing where you roll 2d6, and the higher of the two rolls dictates the "tone" of the scene or next bit of the scene or whatever. I stole this from that. Motifs are used there to determine the pacing and end of the story/adventure. Here, they're much closer to an on-the-fly generator for what Necropraxis calls, "landmarks".

Kill Your Gods (part 2) and the Woman in the Woods (Deities in older D&D)

Somewhere in internet land is this forum post from back in November wherein Mr. Carcosa says he likes the idea of Gods being kill-able and others disagree. As someone who has a minor deity generator, and author of a "Kill Your Gods" post already, it's pretty clear where I fall on this.

Working on Dark Souls D&D, and stumbling across the forum post, this matter feels pertinent again.

Consider the woman in the woods

She eats locusts and grubs, the food she grows in her garden. Occasionally she snares a rabbit or squirrel. What education this woman has comes from oral history and gossip. She probably ran away from something bad that happened to her, or her people were nearby and have mostly died off, or she serves in a kind of spiritual capacity for the village along the forest fence - kept separate because of but also respected for her purported facility with things so other that the villagers consider it irredeemably supernatural. If that's the case then it's possible she may be a bit insane or suffer from some form of epilepsy or that she's a bit mentally challenged.

Deep in her forest is a swamp and among the things in that swamp is a troll. On a visit to their camp up the mountain, she has come upon the troll devouring some charcoal burners, shoving a sooty writhing torso into its mouth like Saturn devouring his young, she has seen it crush one of the lizards of the swamp to death, seen the wounds the big cats of the high mountains left knit shut, seen it bat away an elf scout like a flea as the elf's arrow wormed its way back out of its eye, the eye now whole.

She knows well the religious significance of the big cat and the large serpent and the weird elf and its changeling babies. Does not the Deceiver prowl in the night, roaring like a hungry lion? Does not the serpent devour the living even as it promises salvation? Does not the elf eat the human babies it replaces with its own?

And so she includes this terrible being in her prayers and, while she now sometimes stinks of the bog when she's not been there for weeks and while she's been growing prodigious warts, sometimes she can command the night to fall around her, sometimes her touch spoils any food or drink, sometimes she can borrow the troll's strength, causing the stray dog digging in her garden last week to open like a pansy pod at but a touch.

the woman in the woods

Chaotic Human Adept

3 HP, AC 9, 12", dagger, walking stick, a ragged and match patched dress of many pockets and hood, 1/session may cast darkness, ruin food and drink or cause light wounds

attribution: Hendrick Goltzius (detail from Cadmus)

Dark Souls D&D Guide (part 2? version 2?)

two former heroes of the continent who may train the party 

For Dark Souls D&D, as linked here. This goes into greater detail than the original post. Everything in the loot section subject to change.

CLASSES

Are Fighter, Cleric and Magic-User to start. You unlock your Class by finding, picking up and equipping an item imbued with the spirit and memories of a (fallen?) person of that Class (or are they your own memories?). Sample list of Class items here for the curious. In play, the list will be different.

Other Classes (see below list) may be taught by a hero still living somewhere on the lost continent. With the exception of Thieves, you'll need to both ask around and also seek out a rare and powerful class item once belonging to the hero-trainer. These rare items are likely locked away in deep and terrible places and/or wielded by the twisted former disciples of the trainer. Heroes are usually elves and their items usually of elvish masterwork.

The one exception to the above are Thieves. "Heroic" thieves are more plentiful than most of the other trainers and determination and inquisitiveness are likely enough to discover their location (no rare item necessary!). They will, however, want some kind of remuneration for their services.

Classes and Subclasses:

Thief (trained by _____________ or _______________ or ______________ or ______________) (locked)

Paladin (trained by _________ or _____________) (locked)

Assassin (trained by ______________) (locked)

Archer (trained by _________) (locked)

Witch (trained by _________ and _____________ or ____________ or _____________) (locked)

Journeymen-Exorcist (trained by ________________) (locked)

Necromancer (trained by ________________) (locked)

Some classes or trainers are likely mutually exclusive. If you choose to learn from one you'll likely make an enemy of the other (they may even treat you as "kill on sight").

"RACES" & HUMANITY

Are Human, Elf or "Halfling" to start. Elves are slimmer and shorter than humans with a slight point to the ear, and almond-shaped eyes. They are natives to the continent. "Halflings" are the poorest and least cared for humans among human society, treated as a caste apart, and many find their way to the lost continent. They show minor signs of in-breeding and major signs of early childhood malnutrition and a rough life. Most have few teeth.

As described earlier, CON is replaced by HUMANITY.

If, at any time, you have 13+ HUM, you may take a single racial ability from your race (roll to determine which). The ability is usable 1/session, until you've less than 13 HUM. If you've less than 13 HUM, the curse overwhelms your intrinsic nature and you've the Hollow Racial Ability.

Elves (d10) 1-3: Can read all alignment languages, 4-6: Split-move on foot, 7-8: Move Silently in Forests and Meadows (on a 14+), 9-10: Ignore the effects of a charm

Halflings (d10) 1-4: Hide in Shadows (a 14+), 5-6: +1 to a Surprise roll, 7-8: +1 to Attacks and Damage with ranged weapons, 9-10: Backstab from hiding (+2 attacks, Large Damage)

Hollow You need not food, drink or sleep.

Human (d10) 1-4: Re-roll a failed Save that would result in a loss of HUM (a successful Save affects only the loss of HUM, not other outcomes), 5-6: Roll for treasure as if one level higher, 7-8: May have +1 Henchmen, 9-10: Re-roll a failed Save v Death or Poison that would have killed you

There are three races of legend living out the remaining years of their now-cursed existence somewhere on the continent. Find, aid and thereby befriend them in order to play characters or recruit henchmen from their people. As with Class Trainers, befriending Children of one God will likely alienate you from others.

Child of Othin (Lightning Genasi?) abilities to be discovered (locked)

Child of the Coven (Chaos-Warped) abilities to be discovered (locked)

Child of the Abyss (Tiefling and/or Revenant) abilities to be discovered (locked)

There are at two other peoples living in secret of which you know nothing.

HENCHMEN

May be hired at level 2 should you be able to find one resting near a campfire and convince them to journey with you. They need not be paid, and take and earn half the XP the "controlling" character earns. Unless otherwise modified by the rules, no character may have more than one Henchmen. Beware too of the Henchmen who grows despondent, their face sallow and sagging, their eyes mistrustful, for Henchmen too may turn fully Hollow (you'll not know their starting or current HUM) and attack the group.

CAMPFIRES

are kindled by one of the Ash Maidens, tongueless priestess to an unknown deity, associated with the Sun (but not the missing Sun God Apollo). Resting by these fires heals as a full rest (re-roll HP using current HD and keep the larger number). By praying in front of the bonfire until you sleep you may wake up the next day at a different bonfire kindled by the same Ash Maiden so long as you've been there before. 

Incidentally, Flailsnails groups will likely start at whichever bonfire they have unlocked and then choosen at the start of a session..

praise be her name, Ixiander the New Dragon, First Witch

OTHER RESOURCES FOR PLAY

Flailsnails

At this point, I'd like people to start at 0-levels. Once more content is unlocked, higher-level characters will be welcome. I don't think this setting works if you introduce high levels for an early smash 'n grab (plus, I frankly feel myself a little underqualified to start running this at higher levels).

Monster stat blocks

You've no reason to want or need this know if you're interested in playing, but this is how I've been writing stat blocks and plan on running things. This is what that OD&D spreadsheet turns into after I adapt stuff for a setting/game. That said, this block gets referenced a few times below.

Hollow

(Guarding, Armed) or (Crazed) or (Non-Aggressive) Less Intelligent Humanoid

AC 9, 1-6 HP, Saves 17, Slowest, always attacks last; Guarding Hollow: hatchets, every 3^rd has a short sword or shield and every forth a bow with d4 arrows (every twelfth has a sword and bow, no shield); Loot 2, (Crazed 3, Guarding 4); unlike other monsters Hollow do not normally see in the dark

(Guarding) enemies patrol an area or stand watch, look for enemies, will chase and try to find fleeing opponents and usually get a bonus to Morale and are more likely to be aggressive after a reaction roll

(Crazed) enemies do not flee or break and may be very aggressive, not discriminating between friend and foe, similar to Berserkers (unless you get a friendly on the reaction roll, treat as aggressive)

(Non-Aggressive) do not attack and may not defend themselves (2 in 6 chance of the latter).

LOOT, TREASURE

XP, CURRENCY & TREASURE

There are a handful (less than five?) Hollow that collect trinkets, arms, armors, herbs, magic items and the like and will sell them. Once you discover them, you'll need to discover what they want in exchange. Ask around to discover their location.

Other cursed but-not-yet-Hollow non-player characters may have a choice item or two which they'd be willing to barter away.

Coin is worthless here.

XP is awarded by # HD of defeated creature and the relative value of an item (weapons and armor of good quality are valuable).

LOOT

The lack of a widely used currency complicates treasure tables. Furthermore, everything has fallen into disrepair and chests and the like are quite uncommon. Those that survive stash their treasure in secret places and watch their stores like spiders in a web.

NPCs and rooms or locations within room will have a Loot Value (LV). (see the Hollow stat block above)

Turning out a room or spot in a room or a corpse to look for loot takes a turn. Roll d10 and add your level. If you exceed the LV all you find is junk (which is still a thing and the GM will roll on that table for you) and on any subsequent searches in the same place you'll only ever find nothing or something useful. On each roll after the first, you also add 1. If your roll results in the LV or less than the LV, you get the corresponding loot from the loot table.

Looting corpses is functionally the same but the GM will add the characters HD to the roll rather than you adding your level.

Calculating Loot Value. 

For a corpse, LV=HD+1+#Specials (by the way, this is just the early Strategic Review, pre-Greyhawk method of calculating XP +100 and then /100).

For a Dungeon, LV =level of Dungeon +3

For treasure rooms in a Dungeon or Lairs, LV = level of Dungeon or Lair (Lairs are level 1 Dungeons if not otherwise determined by GM)+LV of "boss" to whom the treasure belongs.

(EX. See the Hollow Stat block above. Non-Aggressive Hollow have a LV of 2, Crazed Hollow have a LV of 3 and Guarding, Armed Hollow have a LV of 4. If a 2 HD "boss" Guarding, Armed Hollow (therefore, LV 5) were to have a treasure room on level 1 of a dungeon, that room's LV would be 9.)

WHY?

I want to dramatically re-orient the way looting works. The survival horror conventions of scarcity and limited inventory space control here. This thematic consideration, the lack of a merchant class in a largely depopulated area and the devaluation of all currency, makes some kind of alternative to GP necessary.

Also, I generally dislike reducing XP based on relative character and dungeon/creature level as per page 18 of Men & Magic as the higher level character already needs more XP to gain levels than the lower level character.  

Instead, where needing something useful can be a more operative concern, the LV system means to funnel higher level characters towards higher level locations and monsters as it is only there where they will find things useful to them (ie, in lower-level content, the likelihood of getting "junk" is much greater for the higher level character).

Also at play is the idea that looting a dungeon properly in many older D&D games is more a study in figuring out how to get the most cookies out of the cookie jar you can without getting your hand stuck and this mechanic is meant to re-inforce that (as you spend more time looking for loot, you risk wandering encounters and getting both better loot or nothing at all).

and along the far cliffs, a place of power and worship

attributions: Vania Zouravliov x3, _____ (help!), Anthony Scott Waters