New Approach to LotFP Saves

My LotFP saving throw houserules:

There are three kinds of saving throws: Reflex, Resistance, and Refusal.

Reflex saves require you to take physical action against a physical threat or attack of some kind (breath weapon, falling from a great height).

Resistance saves require you to withstand toxins and disesase (such as poisons or plagues)

Refusal saves allow you to withstand illusions and magic and trickery.

Each saving throw is against a difficulty. Difficulty ranges from 12 to 20, and you roll over it just like a "to-hit" roll against ascending armor class. A breath weapon attack would have a difficulty of 12 is some minor-league 2 hit dice creature, and a difficulty of 20 is for an ancient black dragon.

You roll your d20 and try to equal or beat the difficulty. In each case, you add any bonuses for high attributes.

• For a Reflex save, you add any Dexterity and/or Intelligence bonuses to your roll.
• For a Resistances save, add Strength and/or Constitution.
• For Refusal, add Wisdom and/or Charisma.

For example, a character with a Strength of 13 and a Dexterity of 16 must dodge falling boulders. The Referee says that the difficulty is 15. The player rolls a d20 and hopes for a 15 or higher. The roll is a 13. However, because of the high Strength and Dexterity scores, we add 3 to the roll, making it a 16. Saved! The character dodges out of the way.

Black Metal Adventures

 

This would be a fun approach:

The player characters are like a black metal band. One of those crazy outfits from Scandinavia who burn churches and worship Satan.

The villagers hate these guys. They want them dead. So every chance they get, they tell the adventurers, "I heard there's gold in that cavern. Ogres? Easy killing for a bunch of warriors like you."

And they hope that this is it, that this is the end of those violent bastards. Always talking about treasure and magic weapons, delving into ancient crypts, stirring up long-forgotten ghosts and demons, making trouble for all the hard-working people who do what they're supposed to do, who sweat and toil and pray like decent folk.

Because the adventurers have skills. They have swords and armor and they can curse you or blind you or throw magic fire at you or put you to sleep. They can make you like them and obey them -- against your will. They are witches and fiends, and they are to be shunned and feared. In a world with very little magic, people who can practice sorcery aren't admired, they're freaking horrible and scary.

They also need to die, because if they become powerful, they could kill the village elders and take over -- or even raise an army against the royals and take over the country!

Thus, the villagers are very helpful. "Here's some torches, and some rope. What? No, no, your money's no good here, you take it. Go on, have fun exploring those catacombs. I hope you find some gold!"

The Granite Princess

THE GRANITE PRINCESS

On the island of Ros Chepada, only a few miles from the pastures where shepherds munch olives while watching their flocks, the Granite Princess gazes over the water.

Hundreds of years ago, the statue was chipped into shape with stone tools, but no one knows why. Some say that the statue was created by a grief-stricken widower who missed his wife fiercely. Others claim that this statue is cursed, and that to gaze upon it brings misfortune.

A few minutes ago...

1. The statue blinked. All the seagulls fell, dead, upon the rocky shore.

2. Several stones from the statue's base rattled, shook, and then floated up; they arranged themselves overhead in the position of nighttime stars.

3. A deep rumble emanated from below, and the statue began to rotate slowly.

4. Anybody who looked at it started to hear whispering in their head.

5. Viscous, black liquid began to drip from the statue's eye sockets. Anyone who meets the statue's gaze is compelled to taste the black tears of despair.

6. A deep crack appeared in the statue, and a woman's hand reached out, pale and wasted.

7. The grass around the base began to brown and wither at a rapid pace while animals, and even insects, begin to flee the area.

8. The statue began to emit a low moan, growing in intensity. All those who hear it will lose someone or something dear to them within the next day.

9. The statue dissapeared (to be found in a church by local nuns 8 hours later).

10. Cold mists spread out from the statue and across the waters it watches. The first of the dark and silent ships can now been seen moving through the fog.

11. The stone of the statue began to turn into pulsating white flesh.

12. Tears of blood began to roll from the eyes as every male on the island was suddenly overcome with an unknown illness.

13. A tremblor knocked the statue over, revealing the hole in the base, carefully sealed with a mixture of resin-coated agave pulp and fired clay.

14. Huge stone arms erupted for the ground as the statue pulled herself from the ground to stand at her full colossal height. Echoes of a long-forgotten lament whisper in the breeze as the monolith slowly lumbers towards the nearest village, the earth trembling beneath her every step...

15. A sirens call emitted from the mouth; local men jostled to fornicate with the empty eye sockets grating their members and leaving behind salty tears of streaked coppery blood. These "tears" are collected by barren crones to birth familiars or worse. 

16. The villagers, animals, buildings, birds, all fell to the Earth as the statue pulled at a passing stellar body... and it pulls back.  Soon begins the feverish attempt to dig up the statue and loosen the planet from its grip.

17. The stone around the face began to crumble and fall, revealing the body of the creature beneath, awakening from its millennia-long slumber.

18. The earth rumbled as a second statue erupted from the ground a few feet from the original one. The heads of a third and fourth statue are already emerging while the first and second are beginning to form limbs. The shepherds are trying to escape the area before the stone golem army is legion.

19. A flock of undead pigeons shat upon it, turning the once proud monolith into a speleothem of fecal matter.

20. The mouth opened, wreleasing swarms of giant centipedes that devoured everything in their path.

Contributors:
Peter Amthor
Scott Dorward
Luis Velasco
Jason Morningstar
Darien Mason
Gary Bowerbank
Arnold Cassell
Jürgen Mayer
Rober Nolan