Dysons

Dodecahedron

Welcome Aboard!
Welcome to issue one of Dysons
Dodecahedron - an irregularly published zine of materials of interest to
myself for old school style gaming.
The assumption is that this material is written for B/X Dungeons &
Dragons or Labyrinth Lord games,
but most of it can be used with just
about any of the old school styled
dungeon-crawl RPGs on the market.
Within these twelve pages are creatures, magic items, optional rules
and adventures for Basic play.
Each issue of Dysons Dodecahedron
is available for dowload from
http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com
and may also be available in print
for a nominal fee through Lulu (just
follow the link from the website).
Feel free to print these out yourself,
of course. The format is basically
digest-sized for those printing at
home. I recommend using Acrobats
ability to print digest magazines to
make printing easier and to allow
you to fold the dodecahedron into
the proper dimensions.
Articles and artwork appearing in
Dyson`s Dodecahedron, unless otherwise indicated, are the exclusive
creations of Dyson Logos. Feel free
to use these materials as you see fit
in your own games, including any
modifications to make them fit your
game world or rules.

Table 1-1 : Contents

d12
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Result
Cover
Introduction & Contents
the Death Spiral
(the Death Spiral)
Obscene Eyes
(Obscene Eyes)
2d6 Thievery
Atarins Delve
(Atarins Delve)
(Atarins Delve)
(Atarins Delve)
Random Polearms!

About This Issue

The Death Spiral has always been a
favourite game mechanic of mine,
no matter how unrealistic it is - it
manages to be both unrealistic and
yet add a level of verisimilitude to
the game, by reducing the abstraction of hit points.
Obscene eyes are fun, and obscene.
My 2d6 Thievin rules have seen a lot
of play since I first posted them, in
my own games and in others. I even
ran into them in play at a convention
game with a DM I had never met.
Requests for later issues can of
course be posted to my blog.

Dysons Dodecahedron

Pain &
Wounds

the

Death Spiral

At the heart of this system is the belief

that a wound of sufficient severety should
cause pain that in turn affects the characters performance.
The Wound Point

Death Spiral?
The Death Spiral is a coloquialism
for game systems that have characters decrease in ability as they become wounded, thus making them
less effective, and more prone to
being hurt again, and more.

The first element of this rules addition is

While the realism of the death spithe Wound Point. This statistic is a percentage of the characters total hit points ral outside of mecha RPGs is barely
even debatable, there seems to be
that provides a measure of how much
a certain verisimilitude attached to
damage it takes from an attack for the it that makes some players (myself
attack to actually wound the character
included) fans of such subsystems.
instead of it tiring the character or representing a near miss that reduced hit points
without causing serious physical damage. If any one attack (or other source of
damage) does damage exceeding the characters threshold of pain, then the
character will likely suffer a painful wound.
The base wound point for a character is equal to the characters Constitution
score expressed as a percentage of his maximum hit points. All primary fighter type classes (Fighting Men, Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, Illriggers, Rangers, Cavaliers, Archers, Soldiers and so on) add their level in that class to this
percentage. This is taken as a percentage of the characters total hit points.
For example, Melinas the Half-Orc Fighter 4 / Assassin 3 has a Constitution
of 16 and 31 hit points. His wound point is 20% (16 Con + 4 Fighter), or 6.2 hit
points.
Wounds
Every time a character takes damage in excess of his wound point, he suffers
a wound. Record each wound and the amount of damage of the wound on the
record sheet. According to the number of wounds that a character has sustained, certain penalties apply to the characters performance.

Issue One - December 2010


Wounds To Hit

1
-1
2
-2
3
-2

4
-3

5+
-4

Damage AC
Movement
-0
-1
normal
-1
-1 2/3
-2
-2
1/2
-3
-3
1/3
-4
-5
1/6

These penalties remain in efffect as long as the wounds remain unhealed. At

5+ wounds, the character has lost the ability to stand without aid and is crawling at 1/6 his movement rate.
Healing Wounds
Wounds are temporary. Whenever healing (natural
or magical) occurs, spread the healing over the characters wounds (reducing the hit points of damage of
each wound), with remaining healing going to the older wounds if it doesnt divide evenly. When a wounds
damage total is reduced below the characters threshold of pain, then the wound is removed. Optionally
healing spells and laying on of hands abilities can target specific wounds, in which case the healing applies
to that one wound first, and any remaining healing (if
any) is spread around the remaining wounds as above.
Stunning (Optional Rule)
Whenever a character receives a wound, the character must make a saving
throw to avoid being stunned and unable to act that round. This is a saving
throw against petrification (or Constitution, depending on the game). If failed,
the character cannot attack, cast spells or take any action (but still defends
normally) for the remainder of the round. Each round thereafter the character makes the saving throw again until he succeeds and can act again.

Dysons Dodecahedron

Eye, Obscene
Obscene Eyes are a horror of the depths, fortunately rarely seen on the
surface or even in shallow catacombs. Malevolently intelligent in their
mature forms, their spawn are hostile and yet disarmingly unintelligent
aquatic predators.

Obscene Eye, Infant

Armour Class: 8
Hit Dice:
4
Move: 30 (10)
Swimming: 120 (40)
Attacks:
4 Tentacles
Damage:
1d6 (x4)

No. Appearing: 1-6 (2-24)

Save As:
Fighter 2
Morale:
11
Treasure Type: Nil
Alignment:
Chaotic

Infant eyes have a eyeball roughly a foot across and four tentacles reaching four to eight feet away from the mouth which is concealed opposite the
eyeball. While the mouth is harmless in combat, the infant eyes seemingly
exist purely to grab food and potential food, kill it, and then eat it. While
they occasionally appear in large numbers, they fortunately lack any
of the magical powers of the rest of their kin, as well as their malevolent intelligence.
Obscene eyes often plant their young in aquatic
environments far from their home turf. This
gives them greater access to food while also
encouraging the survival of the strongest among them to propagate new
obscene eye colonies far and
wide across the land.

Issue One - December 2010

Obscene Eye, Adult

Armour Class:
Hit Dice:
Move:
Swimming:
Attacks:
Damage:

5
8
90 (30)
150 (50)
4 Tentacles
1d8 (x4)

No. Appearing: 1-4 (1-8)

Save As:
Magic User 8
Morale:
9
Treasure Type: D, I
Alignment:
Chaotic

After consuming all they can see for a decade or so, juvenile obscene eyes
finally finish growing and become sentient, untapping their magical potential. As an adult, an obscene eye can move by a means of magical levitation
as well as by swimming (in an anti-magic environment, they can pull themselves along the ground at a rate of 30 (10)). They also become capable of
breathing in both air and water.
The adult obscene eye has a paralyzing cone magical attack that comes from
their eyeball. Anyone in the 30 wide cone, 60 long, must make a saving
throw versus paralysis or be paralyzed the next round. Typically a group of
adults will open by paralyzing the party and then attacking those who can
no longer defend themselves. Any creature struck by a tentacle attack becomes wrapped in the tentacle, suffering a -1 per tentacle on his own attack
rolls and the obscene eye no longer needs to roll to hit with that tentacle.

Obscene Eye, Elder

Armour Class: 2
Hit Dice:
12
Move:
60 (20)
Swimming: 90 (30)
Attacks:
4 Tentacles
Damage:
1d12 (x4)

No. Appearing: 1-6 (2-24)

Save As:
Magic User 12
Morale:
10
Treasure Type: D, I (x2)
Alignment:
Chaotic

Elder obscene eyes are identical to adults, albeit slower. Their paralyzing gaze lasts for 1d6 rounds, and they can charge their tentacles
with electricity once per hour, granting all their tentacle attacks 1d8
electricity damage in addition to the normal damage for 1d6 rounds.
While adult obscene eyes have the ability to converse with each other and
with elders telepathically (to a range of 1,000 feet), 25% of elder obscene
eyes can also converse with other life forms in the same manner.

Dysons Dodecahedron

2d6 Thievery
Robbing & Stealing without Percentiles
While I am a fan of the B/X D&D Thief, I am not as enamoured with the
percentile skill system. In general I dislike percentile systems because the
granularity is just too fine. I also tend to prefer die rolls with curved results. Finally, many players of thieves tend to have this idea that a high
Dexterity (or Intelligence in some cases) should be beneficial to the thief
for more than just XP.
Each thief picks one of the standard skills (Open Locks, Find Traps, Remove
Traps, Pick Pockets, Move Silently or Hide in Shadows) as his favoured skill.
Other skills except for Climb Walls and Hear Noise use the Other Skills
column. Because of the dead level at level 5, the thief ability to read languages has been moved there from level 4.

Table 1-2 : 2d6 Thievery

Thief
Level

Favoured
Skill

Other
Skills

Climb
Walls

Hear
Noise

10+

11+

5+

1-2

10+

10+

5+

1-2

9+

10+

5+

1-3

9+

9+

5+

1-3

9+

9+

5+

1-3

8+

9+

4+

1-3

8+

8+

4+

1-4

7+

8+

4+

1-4

6+

7+

4+

1-4

10

5+

6+

4+

1-4

11

4+

5+

3+

1-5

12

4+

4+

3+

1-5

13

3+

4+

3+

1-5

14

2+

3+

3+

1-5

Stat Modifiers
The other benefit of a 2d6 skill
system is it allows for stat modifiers to be applied to the skills
without overwhelming them as
in a 1d6 skill system.
Optionally you can grant a thief
his Personal Initiative Modifier
(from Dexterity) on both the Favoured Skills and Other Skills
checks.

Issue One - December 2010

Atarins
Delve
8

12

13

10
9
11

2
3
4

14

15
6

Attarins Delve can either be used as a dungeon on its own, or can be used
as a level in any megadungeon project or when you need a secret area for a
treasure map to lead to.
It is stocked here for level 4 characters (who will need some magic weapons),
but can be adjusted for higher or lower level parties by increasing or decreasing the number of monsters (or by mutating them - such as replacing the
giant crabs with mutant giant crabs with an extra 2 hit dice, -2 AC, and +2
damage and feral intelligence to make them more of a challenge for instance).
It was stocked with the B/X rules set in mind, but as such can obviously work
with any of the appropriate editions of the game or the many retro-clones
thereof.

Dysons Dodecahedron

If this dungeon is being used as a dungeon on its own right, then either remove the stairs north of area 14, or make them lead to a treasure room with
whatever MacGuffin you are using to get your party to adventure here.
Atarin Darkhunter is the lord of this dungeon level, having taken over control
along with his crew of murderous thugs. He uses the caverns here as a base of
operations and also to hold on to prisoners as he either ransoms them back to
someone who cares, or figures out how to make a profit from them as food for
other monsters, slaves, or from whatever information they may possess.

Wandering Monsters
(1 in 8, roll each turn - roll 2d4)

2. Special - roll on the level 3 wandering monster table in the rule book
3. 1d2 Giant Crabs (AC: 2, HD: 3, Mv: 60 (20), Att: 2d6/2d6, Morale 7)
4. 1d2 Wererats (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40), Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8)
5. 1d8 Brigands (AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8)
6. 1d2 Wererats (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40), Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8)
7. 1d2 Giant Crabs (AC:2, HD: 3, Mv: 60 (20), Att: 2d6 / 2d6, Morale 7)
8. Special - roll on the level 4 wandering monster table in the rule book

Encounter Areas

1. Entrance - This natural cavern is always guarded by 2 unlucky brigands

(AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8) and a wererat (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv:
120 (40), Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8). If they are engaged in combat they will make
sufficient noise to get the attention of the party in area 3, so best to kill them
quickly. If they can, they will try to escape, splitting up towards areas 3 & 5.
2. North Platform - this elevated cave area contains many old and split barrels and crates, leftovers from older raids and booty. Access to area 3 from
here is by ladder down 15 feet to the floor below. To the north is a finished
stone area with a low (4 1/2 foot) ceiling leading to a small chamber, 8 feet tall,
containing a stone statue of a lizard man with a very thin slot in the middle of
its back. The statue can be rotated clockwise to open a secret compatment under its feet, but doing so without inserting Atarins dagger will release a cloud
of a fiercely halluginogenic gas. Each person exposed to it must save versus
poison or suffer as confused (roll 2d6 each round: 2-5 - attack any enemies or
the lizard statue if no enemies are about, 6-8 - stand baffled and inactive, 9-12
attack your fellow adventurers). Within the secret compartment is a velvet
bag containing 3 pieces of jewelry (1,000 gp, 1,300 gp and 1,500 gp).

Issue One - December 2010

3. Lower Cave - This large cave contains a cooking fire and 12 brigands (AC: 4,
HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8) who are enjoying a meal of giant crab.
4. Pillared Chamber - This area is partially natural but has been enlarged
by workmen in ages past. The pillars are magical - anyone passing between
them must save verus magic or fall asleep (even elves) for 1d4 hours or until
smacked awake. The wererats are aware of this, but the brigands are not.
5. Atarins Kin - This room is home to 4 wererats (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40),
Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8). One has a 250 gp gem, butthe rest of their treasure is
in the possession of their leader, Atarin.
6. Brigands - The remainder of the brigands operating under Atarins control
live here (superior quarters to area 3). There are 8 brigands (AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv:
90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8) and their lieutenant (AC: 2, HD: 2, Mv: 60 (20), Att:
d8, Morale 8).
7. Pools - This sunken cavern has two pools in the southern end with limestone stalagtites hanging down above them. Within the pools are a pair of giant crabs (AC:2, HD: 3, Mv: 60 (20), Att: 2d6 / 2d6, Morale 7). Beyond the pools
is a statue of a dragon rampant with a small slot in its back (like the slot in
the lizard man statue in area 2. The statue can be moved identically to the one
in area 2, however the trap here is a poisonous gas that deals 1d4 damage to
each victim, or 2d12 damage if they fail their save versus poison. In addition,
the gas is hightly flamable and will explode for 1d20 damage (in addition to
the poisonous fumes) if there is a torch, lantern or similar fire source. In the
secret compartment is an unlocked coffer containing 200 pp and 4,000 ep.
8. The Hollow Priest - The only creature here who has been able to coexist with Atarins crew is the hollow priest, an ancient and twisted creature
that was once a hobgoblin. The passage leading to this room is decorated with
bones of all kinds, and close examination shows they have been gnawed clean
before being used here. The hollow priest (AC:5, HD: 4, hp: 21, Mv: 60 (30), Att:
1d8, Morale 11) looks like an ancient hobgoblin until he has been reduced to
10 or fewer hit points, when it becomes apparent that his dry skin is home to
some dark ooze that gives him his power and mobility. He can cast spells as a
level 4 cleric and has the following spells prepared: darkness, cause fear, hold
person. Deep within the goo that animates the hollow priest is an unholy symbol that grants the wearer protection from good once per day.
9. Split Passage - The passage splits to an upper and lower area here. The
lower area finishes at a clear source of good water, while the upper passage
leads to area 10 and the wooden causeway.

10

Dysons Dodecahedron

10. Guards - 4 brigands (AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8) and a
wererat (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40), Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8) are based here and
guard areas 11 and 13.
11. Atarins Base - These rooms and corridor are home to Atarin and his personal crew. Typically 1d4 brigands (AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8)
and 1d4 wererats (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40), Att: d4 or d8, Morale 8) are found
in the passage from area 10 acting as guards or dealing with minor tasks such
as cleaning up or arranging a kidnapping. The two rooms to the south house
Atarin Darkhunter and 5 wererats (AC:7, HD: 3*, Mv: 120 (40), Att: d4 or d8,
Morale 8). Atarin Darkhunter is a grizzled and mean wererat of considerable
size. He spends most of his time in his giant humanoid rat form, but can also
shift to rat or human forms. He receives +1 to hit and damage for his mighty
strength. (AC: 5, Hit Dice: 4*, Move: 120 (40), Att: bite or polearm, Dmg: 1d4+1
(+ lycanthropy) or 1d10+2, Save As: F4, Morale: 9). Any of his wererats have
their morale increased to 9 when in Atarins presence or when they can hear
his orders. He wields a rusted and serrated Barbed Eastern Poleaxe +1 that
deals +1 additional damage to anyone it has already dealt damage to. He also
wears the Iron Band of the Hunter, a black iron ring that gives him +1 AC
(like an inferior ring of protection). He has three 100 gp gems, a key (to the
coffer below) and a decorative knife (used to open the statues in areas 2 and 7)
on his person. Atarins distrust of his kin has him store his treasure in secret
(see areas 2 and 7 for more of his treasure), but for appearances he does keep
a locked coffer of 1,000 gp and 1,000 sp here.
12. Dark Recesses - This cave is 12 feet below the wooden causeway above
that leads from area 9 to area 13. This lower area is home to 5 giant crabs
(AC:2, HD: 3, Mv: 60 (20), Att: 2d6 / 2d6, Morale 7) who will remain hidden and
under cover unless people explore the lower area.
13. Prison - 2 small cells and a large cell are locked and hold prisoners. One
unlucky brigand (AC: 4, HD: 1, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d8, Morale 8) stands guard in
the open alcove, and has the keys to the cell doors. Time to rescue the townfolk - this is likely why the players are here.
14. Ancient Evils - This room is lit by a glowing blue orb. Within it are 9
ghouls (AC:6, HD: 2*, Mv: 90 (30), Att: d3/d3/d3 +paralysis, Morale 9) who are
very hungry. If the blue orb isnt shattered (AC:0, 20 hp), ghoul corpses left
here will re-animate in d12 hours.
15. Secret Spoils - This ancient secret chamber has been long forgotten andcontains 3 locked and poison-needled coffers. They contain 4,000 sp, 4,000 ep
and 1,000 gp respectively.

Issue One - December 2010

11

Random Polearm Generator

Why have a Polearm (1d10 damage, 7 gp, 2 handed) when you could have an Iron
Halfling Earspoon-Pike with Hilt-Hook (1d10 damage, 7 gp, 2 handed)?
Base Structure (d12)
1. [Polearm]
2. [Polearm]-[Polearm]
3. [Quality] [Polearm]
4. [Racial] [Polearm]
5. [Racial] [Quality] [Polearm]
6. [Polearm] with [Addition]
7. [Polearm]-[Polearm] with [Addition]
8. [Quality] [Polearm] with [Addition]
9. [Racial] [Polearm] with [Addition]
10. [Quality] [Racial] [Polearm] with
[Addition]
11. [Quality] [Polearm]-[Polearm]
12. [Racial] [Polearm]-[Polearm]

Quality
1. Barbed
2. Dark
3. Defenders
4. Double
5. Golden
6. Iron
7. Massive
8. Reticulated
9. Serrated
10. Vicious
11. Wicked
12. Roll Twice

Polearm (d12)
1. Bardiche
2. Glaive
3. Guisarme
4. Halberd
5. Longspear
6. Military Fork
7. Pike
8. Poleaxe
9. Ranseur
10. Voulge
11. Roll Again on Rare Polearms
12. Roll Again on Rare Polearms

Racial
1. Dwarven
2. Eastern
3. Elven
4. Gnomish
5. Goblin
6. Halfling
7. Kobold
8. Northern
9. Orcish
10. Southern
11. Treant
12. Western

Rare Polearm
1. Bill
2. Corseque
3. Earspoon
4. Fauchard
5. Fork
6. Hache
7. Partisan
8. Pronged Hammer
9. Sparth
10. Spetum
11. Spontoon
12. Svrdstav

Addition
1. Bill-Hook
2. Can-Opener
3. Fluke
4. Fork
5. Hilt
6. Hilt-Hook
7. Hook
8. Match-Holder
9. Spear
10. Spike
11. Roll d10 twice (with x and y)
12. Roll d10 twice (with x and y)

12

Dysons Dodecahedron