Gathox updates and new player-made optional rules!

Hello, folks! It's been a while sussing out what I'm going to do with the Gathox blog and communities since the announcement that G+ is getting shut down. It's a shame, a lot of my close friends and a large chunk of my career came from G+, and the dust hasn't yet settled on where everyone is going. You can find me a couple of places:

1) Here, at the Gathox blog.

2) Over on MeWe, as D.L. Johnson and with a fresh Gathox gaming group: https://mewe.com/group/5bbe73faa5f4e54433c5447a

3) On Facebook, although I only show up there about once a week, again as D.L. Johnson.

4) Very soon, you can find excellent Gathox gaming content on Patreon. I'm starting a regular Gathox zine called The Mutant Insurrectionist, and it features weekly in-game news from all three neighborhoods, new adventure hooks, new classes and monsters, custom spells, and a new detailed location each issue! I plan to make the zine for at least a year, and release the zines to the general public through DrivethruRPG. I'l post links to that when it starts up!

Next, I'm stoked to announce that GVS1: Gathox Vertical Slum and GVS2: Quake Alley Mayhem! have gone Electrum and Copper bestsellers on DrivethruRPG.com accordingly! Thank y'all so much for interest in my gonzo science fantasy game, I cannot thank you guys enough!

Next, I'd like to share with you a player creation for Gathox. Paul Thompson has been a regular Gathox player and playtester since 2015, and he recently dreamed up some optional rules for gang management that I think a lot of Gathox Referees would be interested in seeing. It's so cool to see people create things for Gathox totally independent of what I have planned, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to share his work with you! Paul wanted me to stress that this is a rough draft, and has granted me permission to share them here. Here it is:

"Chief Mastermind”: Gang Business Game

Description

This mini-game will simulate limited contact with a chief mastermind/Brainiac overseeing the entirety of the gang’s businesses. The DM will roll on two tables at the beginning of the week; the News/ Threat Avenue table generates the nature of a news item the chief mastermind will deliver to the PCs at the week’s start, the Actual Value table determines the percentage of the gang’s profits the chief is destined to deliver at week’s end. If disastrous profits are looming, the DM then rolls the chief’s savvy stats to see if he or his staff will take care of the impending problem and avert disaster on their own (report of this triumph becomes that week’s news tidbit). If staff fail to avert disaster, then they’ve failed to uncover it at all. That week’s news item may now be a clue as to the impending disaster, which savvy and intuitive PCs may follow up on diegetically to avert disaster themselves.

Chief’s Savvy Stats (1-10) *currently this is an arbitrary DM assignation:

• Internal Savvy: The chief excels at training personnel, creating protocols, and is adept at monitoring internal discord and adherence to policy.
• Larger Market Savvy: The chief keeps a passive eye on larger market trends and larger news items.
• Local Market Savvy: The chief keeps a watchful eye on neighbors’ competing businesses, especially for nonviolent but cutthroat practices.
• Security Savvy: The chief orchestrates a lively and ever-ready security apparatus.

Procedure

At the beginning of the week, roll on both Actual Value and News/ Threat Avenue tables. The News Avenue roll indicates the nature of that week’s news item (and by extension the threat-avenue should the Actual Value come up Trouble or Boom). Then follow the appropriate section below (Steady Business, or Trouble/ Boom):

Actual Value Table: Roll 2d6.

Trouble. (roll Avenue Table and follow Trouble procedure)
2	50% drain from the company/ party coffers
3	25% drain from the company/ party coffers
4	Company/ party is barely in the black; no profit this cycle
Steady Business. (roll Avenue Table for normal news item)
5	50% Bluebook
6	75% Bluebook
7	100% Bluebook
8	110% Bluebook
9	120% Bluebook
Boom. (roll Avenue table and follow Boon procedure)
10	150% Bluebook
11	200% Bluebook
12	300% Bluebook

News/ Threat-Avenue Table: Roll 1d5.

Following is a table for determining the avenue by which news, trouble, and boons collide with the party each cycle:

1	Internal Threats (Embezzling, Loose lips, Employee Theft)
2	Larger Market Threats (Foreign supply and demand shifts)
3	Local Market Threats (Direct competitors’ business tactics and operations)
4	Security Threats (Vulnerability to outright attacks/ hijacks)
5	*Mysterious Threats or “All Quiet”

*If Mystery is rolled with Steady Business, then that week “no news is good news.” If Mystery is rolled with Trouble or Boom, the avenue is mysterious or supernatural.

Actual Value Results (DM performs one of the following):

Steady Business:

If a Steady Business result is rolled, multiply the total bluebook profits for gang’s businesses by the percentage indicated. These are the real profits for the gang that week. Next roll on the Avenue table for news-item inspiration. It is important to include a news item for most cycles so the presence of news itself does not become a “tell” alerting players they should investigate.

Trouble/ Boom

If Trouble or Boon is rolled, the News Avenue becomes the Threat Avenue for that week’s incident:

1. Determine auto-defense. DM rolls the threat (1d10) versus the chief’s stat (1-10) in this area.

• If the roll is equal or beneath the stat, the threat was neutralized by the company without the characters’ intervention. The tale of this near-disaster is that week’s news item.
  • Roll 1d6+3 on the profit table for the new, trouble-free profit if the disaster was Trouble. Skip to step 3: Special Boom for a successfully navigated Boom result.
• If the roll is above the stat, the event will manifest and take its toll on company profits unless the players intervene. The PCs may, however, receive a clue about its looming presence.

2. Determine News Clue. The event will manifest unmodified at the end of the week unless the characters intervene. Roll 1d10 again against the chief’s relevant stat. Success on this roll means a news item pops up that includes some peripheral “clue” about the threat looming at the week’s end. Failure means the DM treats the news result as if it were 5/ All Quiet and will surprise the players with the bombshell loss at week’s end.
3. Special Boom. If the Actual Value result was a Boom, then the danger was a potential loss resulting from a high-risk situation. If staff or the players mitigate the boom, it yields the listed bonanza amount, but failing to do so means rerolling 1d3+1 (a guaranteed loss) on the Actual Value table.

Future Directions:

 Specific Chief Masterminds, complete with Savvy stats, appear in a rogue’s gallery for hire as would any hireling | The week’s news might result in a lead for headhunting/ poaching opportunities | Regular (but slightly more or less valuable) masterminds might appear for hire and contribute a +1 or -1 modifier to the chief’s stats | Players with the right wheelhouse might decide to devote their downtime to add a modifier to the chief’s weekly rolls.

People are making gaming goodies for Gathox!!!

Gathox has been out for just over two weeks now, and I couldn't be happier! We've already made copper bestseller on drivethrurpg.com and the print version isn't even out yet. People are posting reviews and talking about the setting. And most importantly, which seems to indicate to me that I've made something worth playing and using, is that people are making things for Gathox already. I wanted to take the opportunity to show off a few things that folks have made thus far and brought to my attention.

First up, Karl Stjernberg has posted some things on G+, including a character he rolled up and illustrated:

"Name: Dukk
STR: 11
DEX: 13
CON: 11
INT: 11
WIS: 7
CHA: 12 (Diseased skin)

Mutations: Fur & Scaled skin (+1 AC), Nible Tail (3rd limb), Tentacle Arm, Diseased Skin (-1 CHA)
Psychic Power: Bleeding Heart
Wheelhouses: The Underworld, Slum Acrobat

Armed with: Polearm, Morningstar, 2 x Throwing Hammers
Armor: Shin guards, shoulder pads, elbow and kneepads

I picture it dressed in rags, some kind of hoodie and wrapped in bandages to cover its disease ridden skin."

Karl has also recently posted some very Gathoxan die drop tables - one for random NPCs:

. . . and another for random post-apocalyptic gear:

 These just tickle me shitless - they look great, they're in the spirit of Gathox as Karl sees it, and he's making awesome, usable stuff.

Another individual who has taken off running with Gathox is Dan D. He runs a gaming blog called Throne of Salt. He's a world builder in his own right, and runs a wonderful blog. The most recent thing I've seen is his OSR module map - which is basically a hex map where he's placed a bunch of his favorite OSR modules together on a continent (Gathox is bottom left near Hubris).

You can find an expandable version of the map as well as a more detailed discussion of it here on his blog.

Another person making stuff for Gathox, and quite a bit at that, is Michael Fraker.

One thing Michael made was a set of house rules for Gathox, which are particularly useful if you're adapting it to B/X or other OD&D-like systems with a bit a statistical inflation. For those who don't know, Gathox uses the "All d6's" and single Saving Throw from Swords & Wizardry White Box Edition, so if you like a bit more variation, crunch, and statistical inflation then this document, entitled Apocrypha Gathoxian, has got you covered. He's even compiled the Cleric and Magic User spells into a single master list for Mentalists, and provided sample characters and drop-in gangs.

Oh, and holy shit, Michael added an instant random Gathox Gang Generator to Abulafia! Fuck me running!

If you need some plot hooks, ones that possibly intertwine, to start off your new Gathox campaign, here's some hooks that Michael designed:

"Plot/Adventure Idea:

The Warriors: a very zoomed in point crawl across The Kettle.

Hook 1: The PC gang crashed a party of west side gang conglomerate coming together. The organizer was killed and the PCs got blamed. The PCs must get out of the area and back to the east side where the west side gangs will back off. They don't want to look like they are an army invading. PCs get RP points for the reputation of having killed the organizer and also enemies!

Hook 2: The Great Gang Race is happening. Alleycat gangs are competing for money/sponsorship from a large settled gang (and RP for the PCs). It's a deadly flight across the Kettle and the first gang to reach the 3rd floor in Tanner Tower on the east side wins.

- There is a time element. For Hook 1, each time they delay there is a chance that gang members from their chief nemesis (or the whole gang!) shows up. For Hook 2, each time the party rests or delays, increment how far along their chief competitor is. Also, when delaying, there is a chance another competing gang encounters them.

- Each point is about 10 minutes apart

- Other gangs/organizations do what they can to stop the PC gang either because of the assassination or because its part of the trial by fire for the competing gangs.

- Plot out 3 or 4 "lateral" lines to cross the City from west to east. The lateral lines have 6 points in them and several locations let players connect between the lines.

- Need random chart for what happens when the players go off the grid (could use one given in Mudlings Mansion adventure)."

Here's Michael's possible tie-ins between Gathox and the City of Bastion from Chris Mcdowall's wonderful Into The Odd game and setting.


*"And on the 7th day, Gathox rested."*

"I keep trying to imagine that Bastion from Into the Odd is the same city as Gathox, but for some reason it stopped walking and sat down never to get up again. It didn't stop growing and feeding off of the psyches of its inhabitants though.

d6 Rumors and half-truths on the relationship between Gathox and Bastion:

1. It transported to (the now named) Bastionland ages ago and discovered the Underground. Gathox is able to create or open micro-cosminsions in the Underground and feed off of them. Perhaps it is possible to get to the essence of Gathox through the Underground.

2. Gathox is still alive, but just barely. Somehow it has been trapped or bound to the ground and no longer possesses the material strength to move. Most construction now a days is from conventional imported materials, but the occasional mysteriously generated structure or disappeared burrough is all Gathox. Who will be Gathox's savior?

3. Originally Bastion was actually Gathox's other half cleaved from it at the separation of High from Low at the beginning of the Time of Halves. Gathox's travels were in search of its half. Now they are joined and travelling is not necessay. Who will speak with the Restored Sojourner and learn its oddesy?

4. Gathox is sleeping and dreaming after millenia of walking and travelling. Some of what we think is real may not be. Who can tell what will happen when Gathox wakes from it's slumber (with strange eons and all) and who can rouse it?

5. Bastion is a spawn or spore from Gathox. Gathox moved on centuries ago. Soon, when enough psychic energy has been fed to the spores by the psche-antibodies, they will sprout their own multitudes of legs and Bastion will be ripped apart as the clutch of little Gathi take off or transport away. Who can find the Gothax spore pods and destroy them before this apacolypse, and what would their destruction mean for Bastion?

6. It's actually the other way around: Bastion spawned Gathox. It escaped from the Underground below the city during a team of explorer's expedition and is possessed of the Underground's sentient quirkiness."

I provided my own 6a) subheading, because I just had to join in on the fun:

"6a) Gathox and Bastion can both be controlled like giant mecha. Which is the parent, which is the child? Only a battle to the death will sort this out!!!"

As more people make stuff, I'll continue to post it here and boost the signal. Speaking of which, have you made something for Gathox? Wanna share it with as many folks as possible? I'd be happy to write about your creations here. Just hit me up in the comments or on G+. RADNESS.