[DF] A Portal Fantasy within a Dungeon Fantasy: Where's Alice?

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

Oh, given the previous quote from Characters I gave I'm not so keen on sticking too closely to the guidelines for realistic stats. The point is that she have usable primary attributes for a DF campaign, which she has. She's some sort of prodigy child perhaps, but even if she ages her adult stats could possibly cap off at lower numbers than the suggestions provided in the book.

Maybe my math was off? I thought 13 would be roughly ~90% of 15. So adult Alice would have IQ 15 and DX 15... DX 15, sure, but conceptually I'd cap adult Alice's IQ at 13. Young Alice is just a exceptional little girl. She'd have to be to get through Dungeonland in one piece.

Remember that D&D stats were rolled on a 3d6 back when Dungeonland was written meaning there was only a 4.6% chance of having a 15 in any one stat.

Don't get too hung up on attributes as certain talents can provide bonuses,

[Tymathee]

Oh, I'm not particularly attached to keeping her at only the age of seven. If it would make more sense in order to adhere to better faux-realism, she could be ten years old instead. The real life Alice Liddell was ten years old when Lewis Carroll began writing about the fictional Alice. Contrary to persistent belief, the fictional Alice was not based on the real Alice, and only shared their given name in common.

Here it is!

Vorpal Blade

"One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"

A small hilt of a sword made with a strange silver-looking metal with a sky-blue hue to its shine, set with three crimson rubies, one at each end of the guard and one set in the pommel. It weighs about 0.5 lb. The hilt somehow feels “right” in your hand, as if you were intimately familiar with it. May be used with any sword skill at no penalty. By taking a Concentrate maneuver, a solid beam of magical lightning that is two feet long (Reach 1) in length comes forth from the hilt. Another Concentrate maneuver will make the beam disappear. Attacks will do 3d-1 burning damage. Treat metal armors as having only DR 1. Can parry. A target dealt damage must roll HT at -1 per 2 HP lost or be stunned. They may roll against HT each turn after to recover. The wielder of the hilt may see all things that would emit a magical aura within their field of vision, as well as any item or entity invisible to the mundane eye.

It simply does what it does! Remove Enchantment and Suspend Enchantment will work against it, and it will not function in a no-mana area. Major variation from the description of the sword in the module, in that it has a blade made of magical lightning that comes out of the hilt instead of just having a regular blade. Cool! It is also not sentient. So no talking sword that screams bloody murder till you return it to T. Diumm and T. Deeous. That was kind of lame of Gygax, but I get it that it was in the vein of his adversarial GM'ing style. It kind of defeated the purpose of it having the magical abilities though... like, what is the point of giving it those abilities if it is effectively useless because it will viciously protest. Also, I cut the divination magic for finding objects. Seems like a fair trade off for being a faux-light saber.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

Vorpal Blade

"One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"

A small hilt of a sword made with a strange silver-looking metal with a sky-blue hue to its shine, set with three crimson rubies, one at each end of the guard and one set in the pommel. It weighs about 0.5 lb. The hilt somehow feels “right” in your hand, as if you were intimately familiar with it. May be used with any sword skill at no penalty. By taking a Concentrate maneuver, a solid beam of magical lightning that is two feet long (Reach 1) in length comes forth from the hilt. Another Concentrate maneuver will make the beam disappear. Attacks will do 3d-1 burning damage. Treat metal armors as having only DR 1. Can parry. A target dealt damage must roll HT at -1 per 2 HP lost or be stunned. They may roll against HT each turn after to recover. The wielder of the hilt may see all things that would emit a magical aura within their field of vision, as well as any item or entity invisible to the mundane eye.

It simply does what it does! Remove Enchantment and Suspend Enchantment will work against it, and it will not function in a no-mana area. Major variation from the description of the sword in the module, in that it has a blade made of magical lightning that comes out of the hilt instead of just having a regular blade. Cool! It is also not sentient. So no talking sword that screams bloody murder till you return it to T. Diumm and T. Deeous. That was kind of lame of Gygax, but I get it that it was in the vein of his adversarial GM'ing style. It kind of defeated the purpose of it having the magical abilities though... like, what is the point of giving it those abilities if it is effectively useless because it will viciously protest. Also, I cut the divination magic for finding objects. Seems like a fair trade off for being a faux-light saber.

Generic Universal Eggplant did a write up of the spell and the sword:

*Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on cutting weapons, -40%; Advantage, Vorpal Weapon, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [18].

*“Vorpal Weapon” is Cutting Attack 3d (Accessibility, Only on neck hits, -40%; Follow-Up, This weapon, +0%; Magical, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Knockback, -10%) [5] + Higher Purpose (Cut necks with this weapon; Magical, -10%) [5].

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

Vorpal Blade

"One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!"

A small hilt of a sword made with a strange silver-looking metal with a sky-blue hue to its shine, set with three crimson rubies, one at each end of the guard and one set in the pommel. It weighs about 0.5 lb. The hilt somehow feels “right” in your hand, as if you were intimately familiar with it. May be used with any sword skill at no penalty. By taking a Concentrate maneuver, a solid beam of magical lightning that is two feet long (Reach 1) in length comes forth from the hilt. Another Concentrate maneuver will make the beam disappear. Attacks will do 3d-1 burning damage. Treat metal armors as having only DR 1. Can parry. A target dealt damage must roll HT at -1 per 2 HP lost or be stunned. They may roll against HT each turn after to recover. The wielder of the hilt may see all things that would emit a magical aura within their field of vision, as well as any item or entity invisible to the mundane eye.

I like it, it's certainly a different take on the weapon. Are the Detect Magic and See Invisible effects present so long as it's in your possession, so long as you're holding the hilt in your hand, or so long as you're holding the hilt and it's activated?

Originally Posted by maximara

Generic Universal Eggplant did a write up of the spell and the sword:

*Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Accessibility, Only on cutting weapons, -40%; Advantage, Vorpal Weapon, +100%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [18].

*“Vorpal Weapon” is Cutting Attack 3d (Accessibility, Only on neck hits, -40%; Follow-Up, This weapon, +0%; Magical, -10%; No Blunt Trauma, -20%; No Knockback, -10%) [5] + Higher Purpose (Cut necks with this weapon; Magical, -10%) [5].

That's also pretty good. I'd be tempted to add another Limitation that the damage only applies if it would kill the target (that is, roll the bonus damage, and if the target dies, you're fine, but if not the additional damage is retroactively lost), but it's already at -80%.

Note that, as I mentioned before, nothing in the original poem indicates the Vorpal Sword had any special abilities to decapitate the target - the hero slew the Jaberwocky with the weapon, then brought the head back as proof (or as a trophy), but that could have easily been a case of stabbing it through the heart (or eye, or slicing it until it collapsed from blood loss, or cutting its haunch and backing off until the Vorpal Sword's magical venom slew it, or...) then decapitating the corpse.

[Tymathee]

The effects are present so long as you hold the hilt in hand, it doesn't have to be activated. I'm glad it's intuitive that the effects are based on the corresponding GURPS Magic spells... there's a method of applying actual modifiers to alter spells so long as the net value of the modifiers used is +0%, but I didn't want to fiddle with that. Simpler to just say it does what it does, which is fair so long as it is still susceptible to anti-enchantment magic and areas lacking in mana.

Since the poem doesn't have a whole lot of description of the sword, I think it's totally appropriate to take a great deal of creative liberties with any interpretation of it. Star Wars geeks will love it, and love it more when they know that Alice was born on May 4. I like it. "snicker-snack" makes me think of lightning, so that ultimately snow-balled along with the light saber suggestion into what this is, with some nods to what Gygax included in his module too.

[Tymathee]

I added up her points (... because I felt like double-checking) and she was actually 5 over 250! Oops! Well, I lowered Gesture and Scrounging to just IQ/Per level and dropped Hiking to HT-1 level to shave off some unneeded points. Those two skills are just fine at 13, and I figure she's OK with 12 in Hiking. May shuffle around points to fit in other skills perhaps. I was thinking about that Traps (Detect Traps) optional specialty and odds are I'd have encouraged at least one PC to have it, so Alice probably could do without it.

Speaking of hiking, I was considering she might have picked up the Shoes of Fharlanghn... he's not a deity in my setting, but the shoes ought to appear here since it's in the list of magic items for the modules. Alice wasn't exactly packing a proper equipment loadout before she slipped and fell down a hole into Dungeonland, so I imagine she might have serendipitously found (I notice a pattern here...) a pair of these shoes, coincidently fitted for her feet more or less, shortly after having arrived. In short they never wear-out and allow the wearer of the shoes to never tire from walking. There's additional abilities, such as Neutral/Neutral Good Alignment dependent ones (Alignment has no real equivalent in GURPS... perhaps prerequisite Disadvantages suited to Neutral/Neutral Good Alignment?) and more powers if the wearer worships Fharlanghn (... who is not in my setting). I'm inclined to say they simply only have the default abilities and no more than that.

Of course, the PCs will very likely be similarly equipped with magic items with various abilities, so Alice's fortuitous luck with finding items isn't unfair.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Varyon

That's also pretty good. I'd be tempted to add another Limitation that the damage only applies if it would kill the target (that is, roll the bonus damage, and if the target dies, you're fine, but if not the additional damage is retroactively lost), but it's already at -80%.

Some armor divisor enhancement might be appropriate and would balance the 'only if this would kill the victim'-limitation.

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by RedMattis

Some armor divisor enhancement might be appropriate and would balance the 'only if this would kill the victim'-limitation.

Oh, I think I'm quite happy with how I've stat'ed up the Vorpal Blade. Now I'm just really thinking about what kind of equipment Alice might have besides the Vorpal Blade by the time she is at the trial at the palace. I was looking at "Aristocratic Attire" in the DF book for Swashbucklers. Might be stretching too much of that suspension of disbelief if she just happens upon armor! Although I can't imagine such fashion making it through Dungeonland... surely dirtied, stained, and thoroughly tired looking. Perhaps the Dungeonlandians would find this all the more reason to accuse her of having stolen the tarts after the prince as planted them on her. "What a filthy child, she surely stole the tarts!"

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

Oh, I think I'm quite happy with how I've stat'ed up the Vorpal Blade. Now I'm just really thinking about what kind of equipment Alice might have besides the Vorpal Blade by the time she is at the trial at the palace. I was looking at "Aristocratic Attire" in the DF book for Swashbucklers. Might be stretching too much of that suspension of disbelief if she just happens upon armor! Although I can't imagine such fashion making it through Dungeonland... surely dirtied, stained, and thoroughly tired looking. Perhaps the Dungeonlandians would find this all the more reason to accuse her of having stolen the tarts after the prince as planted them on her. "What a filthy child, she surely stole the tarts!"

Magically-resizing armor wouldn't be out of place somewhere that people readily change size based on things they've consumed, so she could have easily found something (particularly if the PC's have also come across some armor with a resizing enchantment during their exploration in the place). Alternatively, depending on how wealthy (and paranoid) her family is, her clothing may well be sufficiently-enchanted to serve as armor (although I'd expect that to have some sort of self-cleaning effect, particularly with it being worn by a child).

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Magically-resizing armor wouldn't be out of place somewhere that people readily change size based on things they've consumed, so she could have easily found something (particularly if the PC's have also come across some armor with a resizing enchantment during their exploration in the place). Alternatively, depending on how wealthy (and paranoid) her family is, her clothing may well be sufficiently-enchanted to serve as armor (although I'd expect that to have some sort of self-cleaning effect, particularly with it being worn by a child).

According to the Dungeonland module, as the PCs (or Alice) float down the hole they'll have had the opportunity to have grabbed miniaturized gear displayed in the walls of the hole as they go down. If they drink from a certain flagon and shrink to go through into the "Tiny Garden", they'll have to leave behind their now oversized equipment but get to take along the once-too-small gear with them. When the PCs grow too large to use the gear, it will all vanish back to their exhibits.

Gygax seems to regularly enjoy stripping PCs naked in his modules (more of that classic funny adversarial GM'ing of his!). Contrary to the module, I'll simply have the PCs (or Alice’s) equipment shrink and grow along with them. It is simply baked into the bizarre metaphysics of Dungeonland. There’s already a certain amount of weirdness with time and space involved in the setting as written anyways so this seems reasonable. It’s also an excuse to keep Alice in her iconic outfit throughout her adventures in Dungeonland. I might just stat-up her outfit with enchantments (one of many likely back at her home, some enchanted with glamours for various occasions. Rich, rich parents!) like you suggested.