Gun Blessing Day! (An OGL Modern Game Aid)

There's a local pastor (or witch doctor or sorcerer, or druid--whatever fits the setting) who is offering to bless the party's firearms. Roll 1d12 against the chart below to see what benefit is gained, aside from each one blessed becoming an enchanted weapon.

1. +1 bonus to hit.

2. +1 bonus to damage.

3. +1 bonus to hit and damage.

4. Maximum damage against vampires.

5. Maximum damage against werewolves.

6. Maximum damage against dragons.

7. Maximum damage against mummies.

8. Damage dealt is converted to fire damage.

9. Person carrying or wielding the firemarm has a +2 bonus to Hide and Move Silently skill checks.

10. Person weilding the firearm has a -6 penalty to hit unarmed or non-threatening targets.

11. Person wielding the firearm bursts into flames (1d12+2 points of damage per round for 3 rounds) if it used against unarmed or non-threatening targets.

12. +4 to hit and damage against hostile creatures.

OPTIONAL COMPLICATION (Contributed by Craig Dixon)

There is one little problem with these blessed weapons...
   If a person one is reduced to zero or fewer hit points while carrying or firing one of these blessed weapons, they must make an immediate Fort save (DC12) [save versus death in OSR versions of D&D].
   If the saving throw succeeds, proceed with the normal stabalization rules to see if the character lives or dies.
   If the saving throw fails, the character's soul is prevented from moving onto the afterlife. Instead, it is torn from te body and drawn to where the weapon was blessed, together with the magic placed on it, to feed the sponsoring deity. The character's soul is lost forever within 13 hours.

   The weapon reverts to normal at this time and must be returned to the temple to be re-blessed.

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The text in this post is released under the Open Game License and may be reproduced in accordance with it. Copyright Steve Miller 2018.

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A Valentine's Day feat!

A little something in the spirit of Valentine's Day for your d20 System games!

TRUE LOVE [General]
The character has found the love of his or her life. This gives the character something to live for, even when things seem at their most dire and hopeless.
   Benefit: When the character is reduced to less than 10 hit points, a fond memory about his or her beloved flashes into his or her mind. As a free action, you may roll a Will save (DC12). If successful, the character immediately regain 1d10+2 hit points.
   This feat can be used once per game session. You must choose to invoke the feat or not as soon as the character is reduced to less than 10 hit points, and if you choose not to, you may do so again during the following combat round if the character suffers additional damage.
   If a character with this feat is reduced to less than 0 hit points, you may immediately invoke this feat in order to attempt to regain hit points. If the character is returned to above 0 hit points, he or she does not fall unconscious or have to worry about making stabilization rolls.
   Special: If you write a description and a history for your character's true love (who the true love is, how the characters met, and so on), and the GM approves it, your character gains a permanent +1 bonus to Will saves to resist fear and mind-affecting magic and spell-like effects. This bonus increases to +2 if you generate stats for the true love and give the character to the GM for possible use in the game. (The true love must be at least two character levels lower than the lowest-level PC in the campaign, or 1st level.)

Photo by Gavin Hoey

Two Feats of Questionable Quality (but we like 'em!)

We hope these get your February off to a fun start.

BABY ROLL [Combat]
You may use babies as distractions in combat.
   Benefit: When fighting, you may roll or throw a baby per round at opponents with a standard attack action. Any lawful good character must give up a combat action in order to either dodge or attempt to catch the baby by making a Reflex save (DC equals your attack roll). If the target fails to avoid or catch the baby, he or she and the baby both take 1d2 points of damage. If your attack roll misses, the baby still takes 1d2 points of damage.
   Special: If you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, you may roll or throw two babies each round.

BAD IDEA [General, Metagame]
You knew it was a bad idea, but you did it anyway.
   Prerequisite: One talent from the Too Dumb to Die tree.
   Benefit: Whenever you fail an attack roll or skill check that had a DC of 22 or higher, the GM must let you roll 2d6 and add the result to your check total. If the new total means a successful check, that's exactly what it is. If it fails, you deserve what you get for being overconfident and stupid.

(This material is released under the Open Game License and may be reproduced in accordance with it. Copyright 2018 Steve Miller.)

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Random Adventure Seeds: Are the Kids All Right?

The kids somehow seem off. Why? Are they just kids being kids (and therefore weird) or is there something more sinister going on? That's the question that this latest random adventure seed generator asks--and there may be a problem with the kids that only the player characters in your campaign can solve!

Are the Kids All Right? (Roll 1d8)
   1. Yes. They're fine. They're 1) toddlers; 2-3) tweens; 4-5) teens; 6) college-aged and they should have found jobs and moved the hell out of the house; but they're fine. They'll grow out of it (and into who-knows-what!)
   2. No. They're dabbling in the occult and are planning to sacrifice their parents in dark rituals.
   3. No. They've been replaced with alien replicants.
   4. No. They played in that abandoned house down the street and have been possessed by evil spirits.
   5. No. They've been kidnapped by the Russian Hackers and only the player characters (or perhaps Liam Neeson) can save them.
   6. No. They have become vessels for the 1-2) Norse; 3-4) Babylonian; 5-6) Chinese; 7-8) Greek; gods and are trying to bring about the end of the universe!
   7.  No.. They are experimenting with 1-2) newly found mutant powers; 3-4) a time displacement device they sent to themselves from the future 5-6) a board game that makes them play it out in real life 4) eating Tide pods,
   8. No. They committed a crime and 1-2) they didn't do and now the party must prove their innosence and how it ws committed and who it. 3-4) they were framed by the CIA to recruit the parents. 5-6) were sent to Guantanamo Bay 7-8) are calling for bail money.

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(By Steve Miller, with contributions from Dave Mendez. If you had fun with this, check out one of the NUELOW Games releases that Dave has also contributed to!)

Hardboiled Space Detectives!

Here's a random adventure generator for any sci-fi RPG campaign that features interstellar space travel and hard-talking heroes for hire.

HARDBOILED SPACE DETECTIVES!
What's the latest case? (Roll 1d8 against the following tables to generate it.)

WHO'S THE CLIENT?
1. A grieving Martian Widow
2. A smarmy Venusian businessman
3. A mysterious person in a body- and face-concealing environmental suit.
4. A robot that has gained sentience.
5. An immigrant from the Alpha Centauri system.
6. A high-powered, multi-star system law firm.

7. A government official.

8. An exiled noble from 1. Asgaard, 2. Atlantis, 3. the Catian Dominion, 4. Mars, 5. Venus, 6. an obscure, nearly forgotten Earth colony, 7. an alternate universe, 8. "Does it matter? I'm in exile, but my money's good." (If it matters, roll again on the sub-table.)

WHAT'S THE JOB?
1. Find and ID a killer the police say doesn't exist.
2. Find a missing fortune in Tasari crystals.
3. Prove an accused murderer innocent.
4. Find the missing formula for a new radiation vaccine.
5. Get the client safely to the Alpha Centauri system.

6. Infiltrate a galactic megacorp and find proof of an executive's corruption.

7. Prove that the Ansaati Grays and not the Tugahri were behind a failed abduction.
6. Locate 1. a runaway bride/groom, 2. a runaway teenager, 3. the heir to controlling interest in an intersteallar business combine, 4. a corrupt cop that's gone into hiding, 5. a witness that's gone into hiding, 6. the client's loved one whom everyone believes is dead (except the client), 7-8. the famous Mecurian Deathbat.

WHAT EXOTIC LOCATION WILL THE CASE TAKE THE DETECTIVE TO?
1. The Slave Markets of Jupiter
2. The seedy undercity of New Osaka
3. Moon Colony Theta
4. The exclusive spas at the Martian Hot Springs
5. The Radium Mines of Mercury
6. The penal colony on Jupiter Station VII

7. The fortress of the Tugahri Monarch

8. The Royal Spaceyards of Atlantis

WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON?
1-3. The client is hiring the Hardboiled Space Detectives for exactly the reason stated.
4. The client is fronting for an old enemy of the Hardboiled Space Detectives, and it's all a frame-up!
5. The client intends to murder the Space Detective and eliminate the target once it is located.

6. The client is seeking a cache of treasure and weapons of mass destruction that have remained hidden since the last war between Asgaard and Atlantis.

7. The client is hoping to restore his or her reputation and gain revenge of those who ruined it.
8. The client is a criminal mastermind seeking to eliminate 1. a rival, 2. an ex-lover, 3. the one other person who knows all about the secret criminal empire, 4. the one person who can unravel the interstellar slave trade, 5. the child that's been hidden away by the other parent, 6. a government official who took a bribe but never delivered, 7. a retired law enforcement official, 8. Roll again on "WHO'S THE CLIENT?"

RPG Adventure Seeds--US Government Shutdown!

Use this table to randomly generate how the player characters will be impacted by the US Federal Government Shutdown! (Roll 1d10.)

1. Lax security at Area 51 allows 1d4+2 alien captives to escape, and they come to the PCs for help.
2. North Korean operatives bribe cash-hungry non-essential DoD employees for access to a secret base and take it over.
3. The true nature of the "11 Secret Herbs and Spices" will be revealed when a cash-hungry CIA contractor goes to sell it--unless the PCs stop him!
4. Nicholas Cage resumes his quest to discover secrets hidden within US historical landmarks... and he invites the PCs along to take advantage of the lax security.
5. Nancy Pelosi's true nature as a Reptilian space alien will be revealed... unless the PCs can get her to a special hospital where she can receive treatment for an illnes unique to her species. The medication shipments were delayed due to the postal service shutting down.
6. The Martians resume their stealth invasion.
7. The Secret Werewolf Army move to take over Yosimite National Park.
8. Donald Trump's hair (an alien symbiote) gets tired of the chaos, and it has him declare Martial Law. The campaign transitions into a "Cyberpunk 2020"-type setting.

9. The sonic waves that were keeping Godzilla, Mothra, and Monster dormant in various locations around the world cease when they are shut down due to lack of operators. The monsters begin rampaging!

10. The ectoplasmic containment unit hidden in a disused subway tunnel under Manhattan fails due to lack of maintainace. The thousands of ghosts and evil spirits that have been trapped their over the decades of the secret anti-ghost program are unleashed upon the unsuspecting city.

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It's our first release of 2018!

Nothing can throw a campaign off-kilter quicker than a TPK... and that's where the latest release from us here at NUELOW Games comes in!

Cover art by Dick Giordano

Hard to Kill: Feats and Talents for the d20 System provides character abilities and mechanics that will allow PCs to stare Death in the face and laugh. Even if Death shoves that laughter right back down their throats and causes them to explode in a fine mist of gore and bone shards, this booklet provides the means for the character with the right combination of feat to literally come back from the dead.

Hard to Kill contains five feats, four talent trees, and an add-on to the character generation system that gives a newly created character a random reason for why enemies shout, "Why won't you die?!" Although designed with d20 Modern in mind, this material is easily adapted to popular d20 System variants such as StarFinder, or any d20 System variant that uses feats and talents.

As an added bonus for those of you who have been following our comics/rpg hybrid products. Hard to Kill also expands further on the d20 Supers System that was introduced in Madden's Boys. (The material stands perfectly fine on its own, like the various game sections in the aforementioned comics/rpg hybrid books.)

Hard to Kill is available for download at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG.

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Speaking of our comics/rpg hybrid releases, in Ghost Woman... Also Featuring Spooks, we included d20 System rules for keeping a player character active and in the hands of its player even AFTER death. Such a character isn't just hard to kill... because how do you kill someone who's already dead? (The rules also include a way to give a "second life" to a major villain who falls at the hands of the player characters.