PLANET ALGOL

Every adventurer isn't rain man. They look at a heap of coins and say "That looks like 600 GP to me." It's a form of significant figure and with all things being equal, as we assume that adventurers are competent at adventuring matters, all of their estimated coin totals total up to something that's close enough to the actual realistic total that it's not worth slowing down the game to worry about it.

The same way that we don't have things like "Hit Points: blood left: 47543.26 millilitres; compound fracture of left anterior tibia; 2nd degree burn on upper right arm from fingertips to shoulder" and "Sword, long, steel, high carbon, 54 rockwell hardness, blade length: 107.5 cm, entire length: 129.2 cm, single-edged, hollow-grind; sharpness: 63% of maximum; weight: 8.2 kg" on our character sheets for heck's sake.

If say, a theoretical DM, decided that even thousands of coin was unrealistic and would subtract 500 coins and add a d1000 roll to have true scientific realistic treasure hoards, they would find out pretty dang soon that it's a pain in the ass for the DM and the players to deal with that degree of accuracy. Not that I ever learned that lesson the hard way...

The player rolls the 10s die and the DM rolls the 01s die w/o the player knowing the result.

For games where you want the player to have part of the fun of making Thief % checks while still preserving some ambiguity.

What's I'm hoping is that the Sundering is akin to how Britannia was shattered into multiple "shards" for Ultima Online. An official campaign world where there's this explicit caveat along the lines of:

"There are countless parallel worlds of the Realms after the Sundering; no two are exactly the same. The Realms that you adventure in will not necessarily confirm to what official published material and novels state, and due to the Sundering that is exactly what the official status of the Realms are now. Your DMs version of the Realms is what they make of it and it is "official"."

So a DM can run their game in the Realms without worrying about knowing all of the Realms minutiae and needing access to every Realms resource or having to deal with Canon Lawyer players going "Actually in the Realms..."

The same way how in the Wilderlands community you have the Original JG Wilderlands, Necromancer Wilderlands, Majestic Wilderlands, Gabor/Melan's Wilderlands, James Mishler's Wilderlands, Scott Z'a Wilderlands of Darkling Sorcery, etc. and there's not a "Right" or "Wrong" Wilderlands, just a setting for DMs to run fantasy adventures as they see fit.

The Esoteric Assassin

"Some legendary abilities purported to be in the province of ninja training include invisibility, walking on water, and control over the natural elements..."

The Esoteric Assassin’s training in the dark arts allows them to carry out missions of death, for with their spells they can infiltrate and slay with impunity. Esoteric Assassins belong to secret societies hidden in cities or based in remote fortresses in the wilderness.

Requirements: Assassin (or Thug) of 5th level with an Intelligence of 15 or higher and a Dexterity of 16 or higher who has assassinated or challenged to a duel and slain an Esoteric Assassin of higher level for the purpose of joining their society.

Esoteric Assassins progress as an Assassin but gain the benefits of an improved Saving Throw versus Poison and the ability to cast spells. They may progress to a maximum of the 14 level, and must assassinate or challenge to the duel and slay a 14th level Esoteric Assassin to advance to that level.

Level XP Poison Save Spells:1st/2nd/3rd/4th
6 65,000 11 1
7 110,000 10 2
8 190,000 10 3 1
9 335,000 9 3 2
10 550,000 9 3 3 1
11 800,000 5 3 3 2
12 1,325,000 5 3 3 3 1
13 1,875,000 4 3 3 3 2
14 2,125,000 4 3 3 3 3

Spells are prepared and cast the same as a Magic-User, and cannot be cast while the Esoteric Assassin is wearing any armor.

1st Level Spells
Audible Glamer (2)
Change Self (Illusionist, 2e 1)
Detect Poison (UA Druid 1, 2e Cleric 1)
Feather Fall
Fog Cloud (Illusionist 2, 2e 2)
Jump
Sleep
Ventriloquism

2nd Level Spells
Alter Self (2e)
Darkness 15’ Radius
Illusionary Script (Illusionist 3, 2e 3)
Invisibility
Pass Without A Trace (Druid 1, 2e Priest 1)
Spider Climb (1)
Unknowable Alignment (Cleric 1, Reversed)

3rd Level Spells
Misdirection (Illusionist 2, 2e 2)
Non-Detection (Illusionist 3, 2e 3)
Protection From Good 10’ Radius (Reversed)

4th Level Spells
Clairaudience (3)
Clairvoyance (3)
Dimension Door
Improved Invisibility (Illusionist 4, 2e 4)
Poison (reversed Cleric 4)

I've been wrestling with how to handle LOTFP Specialists in my Flailsnails OD&D game. OD&D Thieves have d4 hp, set skill %s, and are limited (varying with interpretation) to Daggers and Swords (AD&D pre-UA limits them to club, dagger, dart, swords (long, short & broad) and slings); leather armor & no shields.

Whereas LOTFP specialists have d6 hp, choose their own skills (which is usually a maxed out snaeak attack and stealth), can use any weapon, are limited to their leather when doing sneaky skills and can use shields.

Basically, as I've seen most LOTFP Specialists played, they are analogous to OD&D Assassins (d6 hp, any weapon, leather & shield).

Now I like OD&D/pre-UA AD&D class-based weapon restrictions. Fighters are the bad-asses using bows, pole arms, two-handed swords, morning stars, and the like. In 3E we reached this point where every PC was carrying reach weapons and crossbows and were all members of the Expendables or something, which is cool, but I think OD&D restricted weapons are cool as well and has it's own more-D&D-ish flavor.

Now I want to be a cool flailsnails DM and let people bring in their PCs and play them as they are used to.

Now I was thinking about 3E "munchkin cheese" and how the LOTFP could be seen as the Flailsnails munchkin cheese Thief when I realized something...

...in LOTFP Specialists are forever 1st level when attacking.

Problem solved.

If you play a Thief in my Flailsnails game you are an OD&D Thief.

If you play a Specialist in my Flailsnails OD&D game you are a LOTFP Specialist that forever attacks as a 1st level character.

Balance achieved!

1- sea foam
2 - semen
3 - sand
4 - plasma
5 - sunlight
6 - hummingbirds
7 - iridescent bubbles
8 - wind
9 - flower petals
10 - honey

d12 - Impertinent Behaviors
1 - Impertinent Strutting
2 - Impertinent Whistling
3 - Impertinent Giggling
4 - Impertinent Prancing
5 - Impertinent Wiggling
6 - Impertinent Winking
7 - Impertinent Grinning
8 - Impertinent Aping
9 - Impertinent Hooting
10 - Impertinent Japing
11 - Impertinent Fawning
12 - Impertinent Airs