Mork Borg: Drowned Soul

So, here is a class I found in the MorkBorg slushpile, because I was asked to write a few during the project.

I tried my best to tie it in the Madness mechanic I already spoke of, because apparently we decided it was to be our central mechanic. I think one of the reasons the project failed and died is because we couldn't, in the slightest, understand why we had to make that Madness thing and why it had to be central in the adventure.

Literally me thinking about past projects, and the class I'm talking about today.
I have no idea where the image is from.

It is probably the second worst flaw of most stuff I happen to work upon in groups for hobby-related projects. Nobody has clear goal on what they want out of this except "maybe we can monetize this thing" despite having no real idea why people would buy such a thing in the first place.

Fuck, this sounds like I'm really bitter about this. Anyway, here's the class-stuff:

Drowned Souls:

Beneath the Sea, Troubles lie dormant, awaiting the day the sea floor cracks, and saltwater joins the Blue Blood of the Earth. 

Few have seen the Cathedral on the Shores Below the Sea. Fewer have entered it. 

None came back the same.

Each time you spend Omen, you gain a Spell Point.

You can choose to not lose an Omen and get Madness instead.

d6 Omens. Toughness + d6 HP. d4 on the Weapons Table.

Roll stats as normal.

Kinda like this.
"Drown in the Loch" art by John Stanko from Magic: The Gathering.

Start with one of the following Relics of the Ocean Beneath the Seabed:

1. Shamshas the Cursed Catfish (1 hp, he can become the target of any spell cast around you, he’s reborn in your lap every morning)

2. Key to the Sunken Library (once a day, it can reveal a truth about the world or a random single-use scroll)

3. Bible of the Lowered Citadel (as long as you chant the litanies inside, you produce light as a torch; DR6 every 10 minutes of chanting or else you get Madness / d4 damage)

4. Eye of the Blind Navigator (looking through the eye, you can see past any disguise, mundane or magical)

5. Visage of the Merfolk (it takes 10 minutes to put on or off, as long as you wear it you can breathe underwater but cannot communicate verbally at all)

6. Beak of the Tendriled Lord (a kraken beak, d8 damage, when it hits you can expend a spell point to spurt ink and blind your enemy)

Mork Borg: Madness

I found this in a separate slushpile on my drive. It was made along some other stuff for a project that never ended up being completed (as most projects end up).
It was about a fishing village going completely batshit insane, as fishing villages usually do in most game-related narratives.
There were a few other ominous things I might clean up and put here in the next few days.

"The Abyss returns even the boldest gaze."
The Hellion from Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studio.

Madness

Each time you get Madness, you lose an Omen. If you have 0 Omens, you roll a d6 and receive the corresponding Knell.
Every night, you may remove a Knell of your choosing.

Knells:
1) Nightmares and Horrors seep through the night sky into your dreams. You don't recover HP this night.
2) Clear and clean, steel tells a tale where it has never been used. Until next rest, all your violence-related rolls take -2. (This includes damage rolls)
3) Foe of Man, hidden in the Dark, waiting to strike you, enticing caution from your every move. Until next rest, speed is halved.
4) Children of Man, born as Beast, roam this hostile land with hostile thoughts. Until next rest, all reaction rolls take -1.
5) Broken thoughts from broken places, filling up the holes left here, taking space where space is not. Until next rest, you can't cast any Spell.
6) No Sacrament can sanctify your past or your future now. You don't recover Omens this night.

The Waxmaker: Beehive Incarnate

Between the Granite Halls and the Hillplains, a great road stands. Dusty feet of a thousand of Mankind’s finest and lowest alike have walked it, to meet the marvels of the Lord on the Hill and bring back news of such beauty. But sometimes dust gets muddy with water, when the wind blows from the Black Swamps to the north and brings dark clouds; and sometimes dust gets muddy with blood, when the highwaymen dare the Lords’ Cordon from the south and bring hunger and steel.
But neither blood nor water was found near the caravan. Only beeswax, and the footprints of many coming in and few coming out. No blood, no corpses and no signs of a fight, only molten wax and a swarm of bees hovering upon an abandoned wagon…

Unknown from the Internet.

Mud and Blood:

Zulal was born in the ghettos of the Ironmurk, the only city of the Scintillating Bay. He learned the value of life and death at an early age, and was forced into the Wilds almost as soon as he could walk. Nobody thought he could survive. He learned the art of bushcraft and learned to pick his fights. He learned the essence of death, and was touched by the Arcane Winds moved by a Feral Murkdweller in the middle of Nowhere. That’s where he noticed it. The winds didn’t touch him alone, and were not made by the feral. They were all-touching, and the fish-man was but a mere spectator pretending to be the director of the play. The bees showed the way the wind blew. The hive showed to truth. The hive was the truth.

He is always accompanied by The Swarm. The Swarm will always follow him closely. The Swarm cares for him, just like he cared for the Swarm when he gave it life.

The Swarm cares.
Wax Golem by epicprivate.

The Swarm:

The Swarm appears as a small army of melting wax men. This is not what the Swarm really is.
The Swarm is the mind behind the Wax Simulacra. It sees everything the Simulacra see, and care for the Hive as a whole. Every member of the Hive is protected by the Swarm. Outsiders are hated. Those that are hated are killed and fed to the Hive.
The Swarm doesn’t fight. It cares for the Hive and provides food for it. The Simulacra do just that: they jump at the enemy, absorbing it and slowly suffocating and crushing him to death. The suffocations takes 5 turns.
The Simulacra are weak to heat. Being near a strong heat source makes impossible for them to fully engulf a man. Attacking them with weapons has a 50% chance of making the same damage to the engulfed victim. Attacking them with fire sets them on fire, killing the Simulacra in 3 turns but risking setting the engulfed creature on fire afterwards.

He's watching you.
Wax Head from Dark Souls 3.

The Hive:

The Hive is a small house on an hilltop, kissed by sun and the moon, and just big enough for a small hunter to live in it.
Actually, that is just the entrance to the Hive. The real Hive is beneath it: the hill itself has been carved and emptied, and giant pillarcombs keep it in place. The hive is mainly inhabited by bees; other insects can be found but are not welcome. Most of the ceilings and walls are covered in beeswax, while the floors are usually covered in dead insects, rotting honey and loot from those unfortunate enough to have met the Swarm.
There are 3 main floors on the Hive: the wooden house, the Upper Cells, and Worker Bowels.
The wooden house is just that: a wooden house, cabin-sized, on top of an hill. Under a rug, a small trap door and a ladder lead down to the Upper Cells: a small maze of corridor, running around two main rooms: the Chamber of the Queens and the Observatory. Scattered around there are a few other laboratories and cages, of little consequence. The cages are always empty. The Swarm never takes prisoners.
The Observatory is a big circular room, with a large hole in the middle encircled by a wax railing. It overlooks the middle of the Worker Bowels, and is the only actual opening to it. There are no stairs and no rope to get down.
The Worker Bowels are a different deal. There are no stairs leading down. There are no real rooms, only ever changing walls of fresh beeswax. Most of the Swarm rests here. The pillars upon which the Hive is based on rest here. The treasures that Zulal and Rory have accumulated throughout the years rest here. The bones of the unfortunate victims of the Swarm rest here.

The Hive.
Houses on the Hill by Pablo Picasso.

The Road:

If found wandering around, Zulal will approach the party amicably, even if he is clearly a problematic individual. A beggar covered in rags head to toe, talking to insects and air. He will try to stop the party and entertain small talk, offer lunch, ask for help and anything else to keep them in place were they are for some time.
The Swarm will never be far, and will arrive very soon. Zulal never leads by more than half an hour of march away. Upon the arrival of the Swarm, Zulal will declare himself as That Which Was Born of the Wind, and will pretend surrender of body, soul and belongings of everyone else while the Swarm marches over consuming people alive.

A Magician in a Beekeeper’s Hat:

Zulal is a Level 2 Pack Rat, which spent both his Advancement Points on Spells. He is an Hexer, who is Doomed to see the Swarming Souls of the Self each time the Arcane Winds blow the wrong way.

Despite coming from Ironmurk, he is no Murkdweller, but a purebred Troll. He hates those slimy lizard with all of his darkened heart, and if there are any in the party he will immediately irradiate hostility and will make sure to gut him personally like the half-fish he is, after the Swarm has arrived.

He is a magician. His Grimoire is a small collection of wax candles, held together by an iron spiky ball that impales them all; they don’t burn and are not consumed by heat. It contains 3 Spells: Wax Simulacra (turns bees into wax golems), Luciforms (draws flames away from their source and around the caster), and Goliath (turns the caster into a crazed Xenomorphesque monkey).

Like this but with troll tusks.
The Pain from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.

He will always cast Wax Simulacra each day just before preparing his lunch, so he functionally has only one Spell Point each day (unless caught before 11 am). He will avoid direct confrontation and will avoid using his last Spell Point unless really pressed to or unless meeting a Murkdweller.

When his hand is forced, he will cast Luciforms to catch all the flames that could menace his Swarm and then order the assault. He will use the flames to shield himself from any who get too near. If he is caught away from the Swarm, caught in the morning or meets a Murkdweller, he will cast Blackblood and rush towards his enemies holding a Hikkalan Sword (all Hikkalan weapons are decorated with removable boneshards, which remain in the hit target making wound treatment harder)  which he looted from an exotic caravan. He never wants to resort to Goliath, since using it reminds him of the circumstances where he found it, among the crazed Goblins of the Black Swamp, worshipping their cruel Orc-like shaman as a God.

After the fight, if there are any Murkdwellers, he will take out his ritual kukri made from a single metal bone of an Iron Leviathan, and gut them on the spot, making sure to scatter their entrails around as much as possible. He will try to do this while they are still alive, if possible.

Fucking fishman.
Kuo-Toa from the Forgotten Realms.

Magical Engines, Mechanical Arcanas:

Hexer (Occult Profession):
Hexers use Occult Catalysts to control the flow of fate. Creating a Catalyst takes 10 minutes. Catalysts can either be Totems or Dolls. Both can either reduce or increase the Difficulty of any check by 1. Totems work in a 30’ area, affecting everyone (friend or foe); while Dolls only work on a single target. Dolls require a small quantity of blood from the target to work, which can be gathered with an attack (inflicting 1 Affliction). Catalysts always weight like 1 item.

The Swarming Soul of the Self (Doom):
Your body numbs and your vision becomes multi-faceted, as if you were starting to see from a million different eyes. All over your face cracks open, like hornets nest, from which a swarm of insects flies out, holding your soul inside them. You control this swarm for the next 1d20/2 (d10) hours, during which the swarm slowly disperses as you feel your body once again. After the Doom is over, you retake control of your body. While in swarm form, you can’t carry more than a single Item worth of weight, and can’t make complex actions like using a weapon or picking a lock.
Scar: the cracks from which your soul swarmed out remain on your face, and hornets can sometimes be seen fling out of them.

The only good fishman is a gutted one.
Scene from The Simpsons.

Wax Simulacra (Spell):
A single insect is focused on by the caster, imbibing the power of the Swarm in it. The insect bursts, leaving a wax cocoon behind. The cocoon grows into a humanoid shape in the following hour, becoming one of the Swarm. It moves with the will of the Swarm, and is not bound to the caster.
It can be empowered, to have the cocoon grow instantly.

Luciforms(Spell):
The caster chants the song of Fire and raises his hands, causing all flames in a 500’ radius to raise themselves, flying a dance around him. All possible fire sources (including fireplaces, torches, and lanterns) in the radius have their fire removed. Each fire starts circling around the caster, who can at any time snuff one out or throw it towards any enemy. Throwing it requires an Action, any number can snuffed out with a single Action. After 10 minutes, all the remaining fires go out on their own.
It can be Empowered, causing 3 flames to rise from each fire in the area of effect, and allowing the raised flames to last 8 hours.

Goliath(Spell):
The skin of the caster turns dark gray, while his veins blacken and swell as if they contained liquid charcoal. For the next 10 minutes, the Strength score of the caster is 18. Every time he receives any kind of weapon damage, a gush of blackened blood sprays outwards all around him, inflicting equal damage of acidic nature to anyone in a 5’ radius.
It can be Empowered, growing black spines and a dark carapace on the caster. It now counts as having Heavy Armor without any of the maluses associated to it (and splashes acidic blood as if it was naked, even if he doesn’t receive the same damage).

Really, FUCKING FISHMEN
Murloc Raid art by Blizzard.

Dungeons & Dummies: The Professionals (4 Specialist Subclasses + 1 Occult Profession)

Specialists are guys you call when you need to get the job done. Ocean's 11 kind of jobs. They are the masters of the mundane, their abilities make them better at exploiting mundane items and make the best out of difficult situations. While they might no be able to kick like a mule or take hits like a heavyweight champion, they are absolutely vital to any expedition.

The right guys for the wrong job.
Frame from Ocean's 11.

Packrat:
Packrats get maluses every 4 items carried instead of every 3.
Capstone: Packrat get maluses every 5 items carried instead of every 3.

Digression: I expect packrats to be an integral part of every party, since I expect people to try and avoid being over encumbered as much as possible. They are as useful as a pack animal but better since they can do much more and don't run away as easily.

Tinkerer:
Tinkerers can make small devices and traps with a mundane item, in 10 minutes. They can set up to 5 activation conditions. The devices trigger the item used in their construction (such as a sword for attacking). They break after 1 use. Any check is made as if the Tinkerer made it.
Capstone: devices get Durability 0. They get Wear instead of breaking.

Digression: MacGyver + an IRA bomber + me playing with LEGOs. A dream come true. Given enough time and items, I'm pretty sure this guy could make a big mess on its own. Or he could mess up activation condition and get bonked in the head by his own clockwork device. Either way, this is bound to be funny.

Expert:
Experts get an extra Skill Point per level.
Capstone: Experts instantly get 3 extra Skill Points.

Digression: boring but very practical. Classic skill monkey. Neeeext.

Taskmaster:
Taskmasters can help and coordinate people to complete their duties. They can get another person to participate in any Action (using an equal amount of time and actions), getting themselves +1 Skill as long as the assistant has a relevant skill.
Capstone: Taskmaster can manage small teams easily. They can get others to bring their expertise in anyone's task, as long as all three of them (Taskmaster included) commits the same amount of time and actions.

Digression: I think I never wrote explicit Aid Another rules. If I ever do, I should remove the Taskmaster or heavily rework them to focus on that mechanic. However that sounds complex and I want to avoid classes being good at "standard" actions, so I feel that having somebody explicitly able to do this is a better idea overall. 

Occult Profession time!

They're a bit like that, but alive and very dumb.
Poppet image from Wikipedia.

Woodlord:
Woodlords have learned to hear the whispers of the wood, hidden in its veins and bark patterns,  spoken through its inner rings. They have observed and listened to the conversations of the wood long enough to whisper back, convincingly enough to make a little wood mimicry animals.
They can take 10 minutes to whisper to a small piece of wood, like a plank or a stick, infusing energy and life into it. The awakened wood is known as a Poppet. Poppets live for 1 hour, after which they crumble apart in sawdust. They also die if hit with a single Affliction. Poppets have 2 actions, and each can carry 3 items worth of weight. Many Poppets can coordinate to accomplish complex tasks or carry more weight; if the weight ever exceeds 3 item per Poppet they all break down under the item they're trying to carry.

Digression: disposable, single use companion to be used as cheap retinues whenever they're needed. They can run into traps, trigger mechanisms and so on. Remember however that they weight much less than a normal character, and as such can't be 100% trustable when they walk over pressure plates  (which might be easily set to trigger for the weight of a normal human). Basically, Pikmin if you hated Pikmins.

Dungeons & Dummies: Man Takes Up The Sword (4 Martial Subclasses + 1 Occult Profession)

Here are a few Warrior subclasses. They are good at punching, avoiding being punched and punch-related stuff in general. Their abilities tie in combat, and aren't usually too helpful outside of it. And never forget that the threat of violence can be as effective as violence itself.

The following stuff (design rule and format) is the same for the Specialists, so when I take the time to write down a few I won't repeat those.

Subclasses design rules:

1. 2 abilities: one is the basic one earned at lvl 1, the other is a Capstone ability earned at lvl 3.
2. The abilities should be at the very least related, if the Capstone ability isn't a straight upgrade of the basic one. 
3. Abilities should strongly define the playstyle and role of the character. A Stormtrooper should be very different from a Barbarian, despite both being Warriors.

Format for Subclasses:
Name:
Basic ability description .
Capstone: capstone description.

Digression: the usual lovely textblurb of suicidal thoughts and design analysis.

Let's get started, shall we?

Here they are.
Frame from The Warriors.

Brute:
Brutes can sustain an extra Injury. They don't get any malus from their first Injury.
Capstone: Brutes don't get any malus from Injuries.

Digression: big bouncers guys who can take more than an hit. Won't stop until they're bleeding their brains out from their noses. Always handy, especially considering how frail characters are in this ruleset.

Barbarian:
Barbarians can enter a Rage freely. During their Rage, they reduce the Difficulty of their attacks by 1 and increase the Difficulty of any incoming attack by 1. During the Rage, they must get close and attack the nearest creature, friend or foe. Ending the Rage requires an Intelligence Saving Throw. At the end of the Rage, a Barbarian gets a +1 Difficulty to every check and can't Rage for 1 hour.
Capstone: Barbarians don't get tired at the end of the Rage anymore, can control themselves during it and can end it freely.

Digression: a little bit on the complex end of the spectrum for Subclasses. Could probably be worded much more simply. Primal rage, utterly emotive and psychologically frail kind of guy, not exactly a Conan-esque übermensch.

Boxeur:
A Boxeur unarmed attack counts as a normal weapon attack. With an action, he can switch his attacks between a Small and a Standard weapon. Boxeurs can take an Affliction and make any attack against them a failure.
Capstone: switching attack type is free. They can make their unarmed attack work like a Big weapon by taking an Affliction.

Digression: probably a little bit on the weak side, I know. But they can't be disarmed at all, and due to not needing weapons they have a few free extra items in their pockets (also boosted by having a built-in Shield). That should be a good enough boost to justify its existence I hope.  Their main gimmick is being versatile at the cost of health, since that's what boxing is about according to my sensei. 

Deadshot:
Deadshots ignore Armor when using ranged weapons against unaware opponents.
Capstone: Deadshots consider any enemy they attacked in the previous round with ranged weapons unaware.

Digression: lethal sniper assassins. A mix of Agent 47 and Martin Riggs minus the martial arts stuff.

That's too little for a blog post. Here is an Occult Profession to make up for that.

Soulinker:
Soulinkers are men who channel their will into lesser creatures, subjugating them and raising them above others of their kind. They trade the freedom of animals for power and kinship.
A Soulinker can undergo a bonding ritual, which creates a relationship between him and a single, non-sentient creature, making it his Bond. He cannot have more a Bond at a time. The ritual takes 6 hours, during which the creature must be at the very least not actively hostile.
After the ritual is complete, the creature is now Bonded. It gets +1 Fighting and +1 to a chosen Skill. The Bonded Creature actions are chosen by the Soulinker.

Digression: as Oprah would say, "YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION, AND YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION, AND YOU GET AN ANIMAL COMPANION". Since Classes are much more succinct, some things that in other games would be part of a few classes should be separated and independent, especially when they could easily fit many archetypes. That means that it's probably a good spot to fill with an Occult Profession. Just add weird, evil-sounding extra elements and it's ready to use.

Dungeons & Dummies: Breeding Perfection (4 Races + 1 Occult Profession)

Arnold K among others gave me the first insight into what makes a good traditional RPG race. So first and foremost, if you want to understand why I made what I made, you should read that. It’s much better than any essay I could hope to write on the matter.

I'm pretty sure you don't need Dungeons & Dummies to use these races. Feel free to use them anywhere, and let me know if I did an halfway decent job and they're actually interesting.

I've got 3 main rules when designing races:

1. They are not going to give numerical bonuses. Nothing should give numerical bonuses at all actually, make everything an incomparable (not just races).
2. They should have strong synergy with themselves. They should have the power to radically change the playstyle of the whole group. Imagine if nobody ever needed to breathe anymore? Or could fly? Now that's a very different way to tackle challenges.
3. They should be useful as one offs. The party should never force a playstyle on each member just because they don't feel like buying rations anymore. A single member of an exotic race can and should still be a useful addition.

I'm going to standardize a little my format here, since I want this to be a quick-access race dump:

Race name:
Race ability.
Little physical description.
A little lore because I love coming up with that stuff.

Digression: because I love explaining myself and I think it helps me better understand what is going on in my head.

Typical humans doing typical human stuff.
Frame from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Humans:
Fuck humans. Humans are boring.
Humans live in clean cities and pursue the goals of Civilization. Fuck those guys, they have nothing to do with adventuring.
Humans’ mothers are hamsters and their fathers stink of elderberries.

Digression: fuck humans. Be an interesting dude instead of a +1 Skill Points dude.

A typical orc doing a typical Orcish greeting.
Fel Orc by Blizzard Entertainment.

Orcs:
Orcs never need fresh food and are immune to poison and disease; they can eat anything remotely organic and be fed without complications.
Orcs are reddish pig-men, with thick hair on their heads and faces and white fangs always popping from their mouths. They are slightly shorter than a man, and in the middle of their faces a big mole-like nose with 4 nostrils is their most recognizable feature.
Orcish nature is defined by loss and war. That's their link with the Divine. Legends say that the first Orcs were spawned from the blood left behind by the first war. The nomadic clans value loss in battle over everything else. They are a bloodthirsty plague, always scouring the land where they walk. Only young Orcs have name: true warriors lose pieces of their names in battle, until they either die or become War incarnate. Orcish legends have no names, and their songs have no words.

Digression: Orcish culture is one of my favourite things I have ever wrote. It's a giant pastiche of warrior culture tropes, actual philosophical theories and my own psychosis. I will make a post only about it someday. I'd love to see a scenario about Orcish sieges and wars, since their supply lines can't really be broken.

Portrait of a Dwarf.
Image from default tileset of Dwarf Fortress.

Dwarves:
Dwarves don't breathe at all. They can never pass out from lack of air, and are immune to any airborne toxin.
Dwarves are much shorter than a man. They are completely covered in thick hair, both males and females. They have no nose, and their hands have only 4 fingers, much thicker than those of a human. Thick hair grows all over their bodies.
The perfect underground dweller is not someone who can see in the dark, but it's someone who shall never suffer from the sulfuric fumes exhaling from the depths. A dwarf is the perfect underground dweller, building his home in a bioluminescent spot and his city in the Fungal Dome. Dwarves enjoy the cramped spaces of their mines-cities, but enjoy the thrill of the unknown much more. Nothing beats Dwarven pride in reaching new places, both physical and spiritual. Some say they made themselves as they are now from clay, to reach the Stars, but the Gods pranked them by stealing just enough dirt to make Mankind, leaving them short of reaching a stool.

Digression: mostly Tolkenian dwarves here, nothing too new. I just figured that underground, fresh air is not really very available, and so I thought that one of the most important things about an underground race would be the ability to breathe anything  (or no need to breathe at all). If I ever run a full underground campaign, expect a lot of pockets of poisonous gas around being opened by a careless guy with a pickaxe.

A typical Goblin reciting typical Goblin poetry.
Randomly found on the Internet.

Goblins:
Goblins vomit a seed each week. The seed can be planted, and after a week it grows into a level-less Goblin. Morale check to see if it is loyal to its parent.
Goblins are very tall, genderless, very thin and green. Their skin is actually a very compact moss that grows over a bark exoskeleton. They have no bones beside this bark. They have long pointy noses, mouths as big as their oversized heads, and two very small ears that look like broccoli on the top of their heads (really on top, like carrot stalks).
Goblins seem to be the personification of bad ideas: obnoxious,  fast-reproducing and hard to exterminate. Goblins are more akin to plants than to other humanoids. Goblin culture is genetically inherited: they have imperfect fragments of their parent's memories and thoughts; this mostly means they remember how their grandfather's farts smell and where is their home. There is speculation about them being an experiment by the Gods to make soldiers out of plants, but no real evidence of this has ever been found.

Digression: they sound like Yoblins, not gonna lie. However, I actually stole the idea from a friend years ago. Not from Arnold, at least this time. Apart from that, I like Goblins. They are disposable, and you are going to have a steady supply of retainers whenever you have a Goblin in your party. This is probably the only race which doesn't abide to my second design rule, but I don't have the heart to cut them from being a core race in my presentation. Big little green rascals, basically the Monty Pythons' version of a Xenomorph. I've got descriptions of goblin cities and ecology somewhere, they'll be a full blown post like Orcs someday.

A Troll lurking in the shadows, waiting for his prey.
Zul'Jin splash art from Heroes of the Storm by Blizzard Entertainment.

Trolls:
Trolls have incredibly fast healing. They recover 3 Affliction with a good night’s rest and recover a full Injury by resting a full day.
They are tall, muscular and their hue is mostly dark blue or not black; most are taller than 2 meters but all of them are visibly hunchbacked. They have big tusks coming out of their mouths.
Trolls are natural born stalkers, with little need for rest and no need for complex operations to patch themselves up. Their tribes mostly live in swamps and islands. Trolls usually don't enjoy the company of others, but have a predilection for practical jokes that end up with grievous injuries (usually that’s no big deal for a Troll). They are considered the greatest masters of ambushes and hit and run tactics, fueled by their stubbornness and their unnatural resilience that allow them to keep pestering their enemies for days as long as they can get a little respite to lick their wounds.

Digression: Trolls are probably the least useful race as a one-off. A whole party of Trolls has an incredible potential in optimizing time, since as long as they have supplies they can basically never take more than a day off. This will probably be much less true if the whole party isn’t composed exclusively of Trolls; the fewer the Trolls the less their ability will come in play (unless they are systematically the only ones taking Injuries, but that’s not very likely). I haven’t written much on Trolls, except for a few jokes and a few notable individuals, so I don’t think they will get their own cultural post anytime soon (but I still plan to do it). Yes, they are basically Warcraft Trolls. No, I regret nothing.

I feel like adding something here. Have an Occult Profession, they are very nice.

Soulcatcher:
Soulcatchers harness the lingering conntection between the soul and the freshly left corpse not yet tainted by decomposition and time, to gather the powers of those that are not anymore for use by those that are not ready to depart yet.
They can consume a fresh corpse (dead by no more than 30 minutes) and a full hour to create an Occult Fetish. They can also take 10 minutes to keep a corpse fresh for 6 hours. This can be done at will, resetting the 6 hours each time.
Occult Fetishes are eternal prisons to the earthly link between Soul and Body, keeping the soul anchored to this world and allowing to call for it when the need arises. Occult Fetishes can be invoked to harness their powers. Anyone can invoke an Occult Fetish if they know its true nature. Invoking an Occult Fetish can either grant an extra Skill Point for 10 minutes, grant a Spell Point to be used within 10 minutes, or allow communion with the original creature to ask a single question.
Occult Fetishes weight like 1 Item, and have -1 Durability. They get Wear every time they are invoked. They can take many forms, from talisman to totem, but they are almost always made from the perfectly clean bone, leather and flesh of the original corpse.

Digression: these are basically spooky pokemon trainers that deal in death, corpses and eternal suffering. I guess you now know why I don't think my work is suited for children anymore.

A Soulcatcher asking a dead enemy about his favourite colour.
Witch Doctor by Kashuse Nuage.

PSYCHO: A MEAT PUPPET BUILT FOR SLAUGHTER (B/X AND GLOG TOO)

[The following is an excerpt from a conversation between me and the other author:]

SORRY AS A SLICE WOUND, I DONT HAVE ANY GOOD IDEAS FOR THE USUAL OPENING TEXT BLURB.
Shut up idiot. You’re making a fool of us.
NO NO REALLY, WE GOTTA WRITE SOMETHING NICE TO ATTRACT THE LADIES.
I said shut up, you scare the ladies, they don’t like you.
HEY PRETTY LADY, WANT SOME NIPPLE SALAD?
Here we go again.

[Naturally, I was the one preparing the salad.]

SALAD REQUIRES YOU!
Krieg the Psycho by shrarm

IM SORRY I MADE THIS PLEASE DONT HURT ME

That was an horrible introduction. I’ll make up for it next time. In the meanwhile know that I know that everybody knows it’s shit.

I like Borderlands a lot. And I like Krieg a lot. This class was born from my desire to have some Borderlands aesthetic in my games, and to homage that wonderful mess that is Krieg by making something not so common in the OSR world: a reverse barbarian. What I mean by that is a character that, by default, can’t solve problems with his wits and mind and has to actually spend his limited resources to be effective outside of combat or at least outside of very dangerous and immediate situations. I don’t want combat to become the main focus of the game, I just want it to be a real constant risk just by virtue of having a big sociopath in the party. A bit like a family reunion: it’s all fun and games until your drunken uncle pins the dog down.

Not everyone is going to like such a combat-centric class in an OSR game (in fact, I’m not totally convinced it’s a good class but I’m far too tired to keep working on it and it kinda worked at my table) and it’s fine, since it kinda deviates from the usual OSR style thing. However, if you want to be a sociopath not only at your table, but inside your game, here’s the class for you. Your party can thank me later.

A usual party with a psycho.
Borderlands 2 Splash Art by Gearbox.

SEE THE NUMBERS TASTE THE VIOLENCE

Psychos are big balls of flesh, bone and rage who have forgone their sanity, with only a little bit of it left, pushing back from the most secluded places in their skulls. Just like my mother. They still feel loyalty and a need to protect those they care about, but for the most part they're just a collection of screams splashing gore around. Those that accompany themselves with Psychos are usually considered totally insane by others, and often have to prevent their crazy companions from doing very stupid shit like biting the ass of a sleeping rhino or charging straight inside an active volcano because their inner voice was sleeping. Psychos love and care for their companions, like a very special (and very big) child cares for his mother.

HP: as Fighter or whatever is the best option in your game 

Saves: as Fighter

Literally anything else besides special abilities: as Wizard

Loose beast: you are a reverse barbarian, you are always raging and screaming while a faint voice tries to hold you back; you effectively count as having 3 to all mental stats (and +2 up to a maximum of 18 to physical ones) and can’t do anything that requires patience or understanding, unless you are actively channeling your inner voice; you can be a calm and reasonable dude for up to one hour each day (with minimum increments of 10 minutes); you gain an extra 10 minutes every 2 levels. Your inner voice is still not the one doing the talking, so you’re gonna be a chill dude screaming about the beauty of slaughter and fishing with bacon.

Strip the Flesh: or every time you encounter something new you must Save or be compelled to attack the first living thing near your. Also, during combat, you are compelled to attack each round (friend or foe); if you can’t you’ll attack yourself as a free action (no roll to hit, just roll damage). Even if you attack, you’ll still inflict yourself a single HP of damage each turn. You’re a cross between a menstruating girl, a pitbull and a meat grinder: the only thing that can keep you interested is violence.

Salt the Wound: every time you hit and successfully put down something or someone, you recover d8 HP. A bleeding wound is a good reminder that you’re still alive, especially when you’re the one making it on someone else. But you didn’t need to remind that guy so many times.

Pyromaniac: when you’re on fire, all your attacks deal extra fire damage like a torch. You can only take a single point of damage from fire each round. Hitting things on fire makes you so happy that you automatically get an attack bonus equal to that of a Fighter when attacking them. That’s because you love the Firehawk more than you love yourself and you hope she’s keeping tabs on who’s keeping fires stoked.

Badass: when you’re downed, instead of being downed you get back up screaming like the badass you are, but only if you have some calm time left. You’re still at 1 HP, and you can’t go lower. You stay in this state for a round for each 10 minutes of calm time left. When it’s over you instantly lose all your remaining calm time, and recover 1 HP for every 10 minutes increment lost this way. Afterwards, all your physical stats will be reduced by 3 until you can rest. You’re shaking like a freezing puppy, probably rambling about eating a snake that’s eating you, constantly looking around like a paranoid android and so on. Being a badass is hard.

THIS IS NOW ABOUT THE PYRO
Team Fortress 2 comic by Valve.

GOBLINS ATE MY GOBLINS

As a GLOG class, the Psycho would look roughly like this:

A: Loose Beast
B: Strip the Flesh, Salt the Wound
C: Pyromaniac
D: Badass

Switch out “Pyromaniac” and “Badass” as needed, if you want (for example, if someone plans on taking only 3 Templates and then multiclassing), as Pyromaniac is fun but it really is not anything core to the “walking jukebox of profanity and death” experience (in fact, it is just a Borderlands reference).

It might be a little too “combat-centric” for GLOG design philosophy, but I like my design rules how I like my diet: totally disregarded when I feel like it.

He did it because he loves you! Kinda.
Team Fortress 2 comic by Valve.

The Bicephalous Ogre: a B/X Class Built for Two

A cold wind blows on the mountainous north, like that night. Blood stained the Fanged Olympus, while the remnants of the Bonecrusher Clan watched over the marching armies of Man, ready to make their last stand. Soon, the front gate could have not stopped the flood of blood no more. As Death came crawling up the mountain wearing the face of mankind, the Warlock drew blood from the fallen warrior to conjure his vengeance, and smiled as the call his dark arts and the slaughter had made possible was answered. As the mixed blood of battle brothers rose and took new form, flesh of two became body of one, and the newly born Bonecrusher vanguard watched itself in awe, scared of what it did recognize of itself, and terrified of what it didn’t.

Come havoc! Come infinite night!
Cho'Gall by karichristensen

Two Heads are Better than One:

I was always fascinated with the small technicalities that teamwork requires, and how much internal grudges can make everything go haywire in a careful plan. And I was always fascinated by idea of not only sharing the table (and the group) with my friend, but even my characters, and how much that would change our dynamics and gameplay.
This looks a lot like the Oscadian from Goblin Punch, or even some of his paired classes from before, but I swear I had this idea before I read that. It dates back to the Two-Headed Ogre april’s fool in WoW, and I decided to make it happen (oh boy, I’m definitely a big procrastinator) when Cho’Gall was released in Heroes of the Storm. For those of you that don’t play Blizzard games, Cho’Gall is a single character controlled by two players, in a sort of pilot/bombardier configuration. So here it is: a B/X class for two players in a single body! So you won’t have to use two character sheets and get mad trying to solve which one is the right one for the job at hand (so it’s still a single character for all intents and purposes).

Always two, there are:

Ok, I lied. This is not a single class. This is a classmaking lab. I simply cannot make a single class, because I still want the two players to mix’n’match stuff and to somewhat play “their own” character. So, keep in mind that each player chooses his own class, and write the following on the sheet:

Hit Points: take the worst of the two classes. Roll twice and take the better result, then add double the usual bonus from Constitution.

Saves, Movement etc etc: take the best from the two classes.

Any kind of special abilities or class-specific bonus: take all (but see later for usage).

XP: take the worst from the two classes.

An House Divided: Ability Scores are shared between the players (after all, it’s the same character). Each player can choose a single Ability Score to focus on, giving it a +2 Bonus for his own actions only (no score can go past 18 this way).

To Each his Own: Each player controls one arm, which can if the need arises hold a two-handed item comfortably. Each player can do an action independently from the other. Yes, that includes moving in a direction and have your idiot brother then run back immediately. When making any long-running task (eg: a skill check) both players must work at it.

Great Minds: each player only has access to his particular class abilities. So, on a Fighter/Wizard combo, only the Fighter player has the to-hit bonus, and only the Wizard can cast spells.

Name: each player decides the name of the other’s head. The full name of the character is a portmanteau of the two, ordered by flipping a coin (so if an head is called Fuckface and the other Buttcheeks, it could be Fuckcheek or Buttface). Bonus points if they say it in unison whenever they’re called.
That was the worst attempt at humor I made this month. Please don’t hate me.

Everybody knows horses make you faster.
Cho'Gall's Heroes of the Storm model by Blizzard

Brutus Bifrons:

As a little extra, there are some suggestions to make it a race for use in a ruleset which actually separates race and class, especially for 3.x D&D or Pathfinder games (which despite all of their flaws were our entry points in roleplaying games and hold a special place in our hearts).

Sum the HP of the two classes, but apply Constitution only once.
For all intents and purposes, this is a single character. Single sheet, with all that implies, and the following adjustments: take the best Saving Throw bonuses for each Saving Throw; keep class Base Attack Bonus separated and apply the right one depending on who’s attacking; allow any kind of two-handed action to be done with a single hand (since that’s what each player has).
Don’t allow both players to take full actions. My personal suggestion is to have a Move Action and a Reaction (or Immediate Action, or Bonus Action or however they were called) shared between them. So both can take a Standard Action as they please, but only one at a time can take a Full Action each round. This should not break action economy too much and actually have a nice little action management minigame between them.
Naturally keep them on the same Initiative. Remember, the main attractive of this thing is being two guys in a single character, with the ease of control of a single character.
Give them free Teamwork Feats, or otherwise allow them an accelerated Feat progression (after all, they’ll need double the feats to have each class competitive unless one of them is a spellcaster).
Give each of them something like a +2 or even +4 to an Ability Score of their choice, but ONLY as far as class abilities are concerned. So, for example, a Wis 14 Cleric could cast as a Wis 16 or 18 Cleric, but only as far as the actual act of spellcasting is involved, no Ability Check or Saving Throw bonus. Maybe make an exception for martial classes since they don’t use the raw Ability Score that much and give them that sweet To-Hit and Damage bonuses.
Give the player not getting the full action some kind of bonus or other funny thing to do. My personal favourite would be “slap the other player in the face if he took the action without asking politely first”, but it’s really your call.
Give them some way to help each other, or at least some direct way to collaborate. Example: allow them to use Aid Another action on themselves, maybe even a buffed version (so like +4 instead of +2).

Why stop at Ogre? Or stop at two?
Cerberus from Final Fantasy XV