Nightmare GLOG Hack Player's Guide & Ramblings

Here's my own GLOG hack. Pretty much a hack of Lungfungus's Valiant,  crossbred with The Nightmares Underneath(TNU), and stripped down in general.

EDIT FROM THE FUTURE

It's hot garbage, don't read this crap!

Or read it to steal choice ideas but take it all with a strong grain of salt, once I hit actual play there was very little I actually liked!

It's just a bunch of filters and scribbles in GIMP but I wanted something to make the file less words words words

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Yx1_Mw3o4Xv5L9a7ZY49Hqlo55becgL6MWbZiZvyUr4
Ended up going pretty simple on the mechanics, and leaving a lot of signposts around saying 'go read this' or intentional holes like 'so how long DOES a lantern burn.'


Hopefully this
1. Makes it easier to get into because there's not loadsa bloat
2. Emphasizes that the game exists between the GM and players, not so much in the text, creating a sense of wonder and mystery rather than the staid rehashes many simple OSR compatible retroclones fall into

Rulings not rollings, that sorta thing. I was gonna write about my grand game design manifesto and the roles of novelty and mystery, then realized I don't actually give a shit about explaining it and would rather just talk about the game.

MAJOR DEPARTURES FROM THE GLOG AND MORE STANDARD RETROCLONES
You have HD and roll for HP. You reroll them after rests though. So you have good days and bad days, but a rousing speech and a square meal can usually get you in better shape.

Once you run out of HP you start taking Con damage. Hits that deal over 1/2 your con maim you.
This is pretty much straight outta TNU, and gives a better sense that HP=/=meat points. TNU calls them disposition which was a mistake because that's like 9 more letters, but mechanically it makes it easier to describe hits from things that either aren't all that lethal sounding, or are absurdly lethal sounding, only having to worry about 'real' injury when the meat points of Con come into play.

You also deal damage based on HD. I mentioned in an earlier post why I like this.

No more vancian memorizing spells- you have your spells, you have your magic dice, you use your magic dice to cast spells, and that's all. There's already mishaps and dooms limiting wizard power, plus spells are a lot more weird and less powerful in general than in, say, D&D. Also this just means that anyone with a spell and some magic dice can cast the spell, which I like. The niche of the sage is great power at great cost, rather than the loathed niche of the D&D wizard which too often slips into 'the class that gets to do all the cool stuff and monopolize problem solving tools.' Also, the line between 'spell' and 'magic item' are blurrier than usual- Magic Missile could be a haunted lantern as easily as it could be a weird math formula in a book, usable by anyone willing- just not at the mighty levels of magic a sage commands.

Also, ~4-9 choices for templates (renamed to traits) that you can gain in any order, though you're still limited to 4. I hope the traits are all distinct and incomparable enough that there's no feeling of 'optimal builds, ' just picking what style you like best.

Some assumed setting stuff, but nothing too obtrusive apart from the specialist classes near the end.