Another Day, Another Whiteout

Ah yes, it's snowing once again in the Philadephia area, folks. Yay. More exercise for me, this time with nice, wet, heavy snow, they say. Awesome.

Anyway, I am keeping my spirits up by thoughts of, what else, roleplaying! I hope the guys can come over again tomorrow night, despite the white dump that old man Winter is taking on us.

I've found myself becoming more drawn by "different shiny." My Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook has been calling to me from the bookshelf. And I think that I am finally going to heed that call. Not that there's anything wrong with Swords & Wizardry or Lamentations of the Flame Princess (the systems I have been using for my still-young campaign), but I think I've come to the conclusion that I'm more of an AD&D man (and C&C being as close to AD&D as one can get these days using a currently-in-print game system, IMHO). And the limited classes and races-as-classes things that S&W and LotFP have going on is just not cutting it at the moment. Among other issues.

So, before we get any further into the campaign, I'm taking the plunge and making the switch to C&C! I think the recent completion and looming release of the long-awaited Castle Keeper's Guide also has something to do with this desire to switch.

Oh, and in the spirit of this, here's something for you cats:

Torc of Agony (magical/cursed item)

This golden torc was created by a long-dead archmage, who used it to control his slaves. Rumor has it that he created numerous torcs, but this is one of the few that still remain to the present day. The device fits most medium-sized and smaller humanoids (it expands or contracts to fit). When placed around the neck of a victim, it can be activated using a command word. When activated, the torc causes continuous pain that both harms and debilitates the victim (i.e. the torc causes damage and also bestows penalties to hit, armor class, etc. as determined by the gamemaster). The pain stops when the command word is spoken again. Note that the command word only functions for the individual who actually places the torc on a victim.

The torc can only be removed by the one who placed it on the victim. A gamemaster may decide that the torc can also be removed using a spell that removes curses, dispels magic, grants wishes, etc. It is only detectable as a cursed item once it has been placed on a victim, but does show as a magical item if a detect magic spell is used.