Dungeon Alphabet

I just got my copy of the Dungeon Alphabet. I've been reading The Society of the Torch, Pole and Rope for a while now. Maybe a year. Its a pretty good blog; this book is better.

I haven't had time to read it through with care yet. I won't have time tonight either, since I have to post in all my PBEM games tonight.

Top level review:

The art ~~~ it is awesome, there is amazing art on almost every page. The Erol Otus on page 5 is friggin cool. I stared at that single page long enough that I wasn't able to read the whole book. I wanted to be there while each line was drawn and be able to see how it came together. Also, the Easley drawing on page 36 - priceless. The Mullen on the inside cover... Crazy... Hats off to Goodman Games and Michael Curtis - they done good.

The substance ~~~ tables.... yummy tables.... full of gem-studded ideas to speckle your dungeons with glittery goodness. I see me using this book with dice and a maniacal grin in the near future. Mr. Curtis came up with some really cool thoughts and put them together in a delicious array. I really enjoy books like this that instead of boring into the gruesome details - take a more blurry approach and give the DM a bunch of nifty ideas laid out with broad strokes.

Overall - dang fine job! I'm looking forward to reading it all this weekend.

Piecemail and the Rule of Nine

Warning, this post adds crunch to your gaming diet. It is meant for players of ODD through 2nd edition.

It all started because I had a player who LOVED piecemail - I'm not sure why, he just loved the idea of having each part of his armor be special. Folks who have played modern computer games have also been able to have steel breastplates with leather legs and arms etc...

So doing a little research I found the rule of nines for burns (here it is from www.emedicinehealth.com):

You can estimate the body surface area on an adult that has been burned by using multiples of 9.

An adult who has been burned, the percent of the body involved can be calculated as follows:

• Head = 9%
• Chest (front) = 9%
• Abdomen (front) = 9%
• Upper/mid/low back and buttocks = 18%
• Each arm = 9%
• Each palm = 1%
• Groin = 1%
• Each leg = 18% total (front = 9%, back = 9%)

As an example, if both legs (18% x 2 = 36%), the groin (1%) and the front chest and abdomen were burned, this would involve 55% of the body.

So what I did is create a table of these percentages in Excel (or you could use any spreadsheet software) and then multiplied the armor class bonus (either for ascending or descending AC systems) by the fraction of coverage.

Here is an example that I popped into numbers (the mac excel analog):

Area Fraction AC Bonus AC Fraction

Head 0.1 2 0.2

Chest, Abdomen, Back, Buttocks 0.36 6 2.16

Right Arm 0.09 2 0.18

Left Arm 0.09 2 0.18

Right Leg 0.18 2 0.36

Left Leg 0.18 2 0.36

Total AC Bonus 3.44

The total AC bonus for this character wearing leather on his whole body(AC Bonus +2), but having a splint mail breastplate giving AC bonus of +6 on his chest would have a total AC bonus of 3 (use typical rounding rules i.e. > 3.5 = 4). If this character found even a steel helmet, or increased his legs to steel plate, it would kick him up to AC bonus 4.

I always liked this, since I have always had access to spreadsheet software. It takes 5 minutes to put into excel, and it keeps the single AC system active but adds in the ability to customize the PC's armor class in infinite ways. This can also be fun if you find a single +2 steel helmet and you can see how that affects the total AC.

*for those of you who want to create the above table - what I did is multiply each fraction by the armor class bonus, and then summed these values to create the total*

ODD and Guns...

I've been thinking about guns and how you could add them to ODD. I haven't seen any rules for this. First off, guns would negate the armor class bonus due to armor (magical rings of defense or dexterity bonuses should still apply).

Secondly, guns have got to do a LOT of damage. I'm thinking a d6 system with re-rolling all sixes over again, and adding it to the total. If you get another 6 keep going. I'm thinking of at least 3 classes of gun:

Light Pistol - 1d6

Pistol - 2d6

Long Arm - 3d6

Range and Accuracy - the GM could have a lot of fun tailoring this to his/her game. I'm thinking back to when guns were so inaccurate that soldiers in combat didn't really aim them, they just pointed them in the general direction and worried about reloading ASAP.

On the other hand, having a long arm with eye sights early in the campaign, and then equipping it with some expensive goblyn or gnome made sighting technology which is totally cumbersome but gives the user a 1/2 mile range with his rifle would be really fun to play out in a campaign. Obviously, the DM would want to impose huge costs on these sighting devices and also make the gun powder an expensive and limited resource - which would only lead to more adventuring.

Anyway, these rules aren't firm in my mind. Has anybody seen better rules?

Gaming ADD

No not advanced dungeons and dragons - attention deficit disorder... many gamers are afflicted.

It is one of these things. Over the years I have had more games that I want to play or DM than I have time.

I really want to play a horror campaign, maybe C O C?

And a space campaign. Maybe a space horror campaign or maybe something like the Serenity movie.

And I've been reading up on Savage Worlds and I think that could be fun. I have also thought of playing a diceless fudge campaign with either a poker deck or a tarot deck as the resolution mechanism.

Oh, and I would really like to get the guys together around the table to play a dungeon crawl game using one of the retro clones (race as class and everything!). And something with robot wizards.

And the list goes on... man, to be independently wealthy and have nothing but time to game...

New Monster: The Hextasaur

Hextasaur

Creature Type: Mutant (insect - reptile hybrid)

Size: Large

No. Enc.: 2d10

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 30 ft

Armor Class: 6 (4 from the front)

HD: 4d8

Attacks: 1 or 2

Damage: Bite 2d4, Tail 1d12

Saves: P

Intelligence: Animal

Treasure: Nil

Special: Feelers, hard to knock prone

Description: Hextasaurs are desert dwelling hybrids with insect and reptilian features. The creature has six legs on the torso, propelling forward the crocodilian like head that is plated with chitinous armor ridges. It can attack with either its bite or by lashing out with its serpentine tail which has sharp edges like blades running down it.

Hextasaurs live in caves where they lay eggs. Their eggs suffer a low birth rate due to feeding by the adult pack combined a complete post-copulation parental detachment. The low birth rate keeps the population typically less than two dozen of a pack. The Hextasaurs have a pair of long feelers that come off the head of the beast and can be used to track scents with the same efficiency as a bloodhound. They will track wounded creatures for hours or even days if the wounds are not bound or healed.

Hextasaurs emit a high pitch shriek when startled or when defending their food source from another predator. When they shriek the plates around their head come up similar to a lion’s mane from their normal position of lying flat along the neck.

Hextasaurs were created for my Greyhawk campaign and were placed in the Bright Lands desert where they are inhabiting a small portion of this sunken city my PC’s are investigating. The PC’s were shaken somewhat by their appearance and did not decide to engage them in combat. My explanation for the generation of these creatures is by mutation of indigenous reptiles by evil magics from an otherworldly visitor lying beneath this sunken city for centuries.

Greyhawk PBEM Update

Things are really starting to get interesting in my Greyhawk campaign. My PC's just crossed the Bright Sands desert to find this sunken city, the trip was hard but due to their druid they were never without water. They had a hard time with a sand flea infestation (they rendered an oil from horse fat to suffocate the fleas finally) and got into a fix with a salt marsh in the middle of the desert that had corrosive salts (caused a little rusting of weapons and burned one character who tried to use the salt to kill the fleas). The ranger and druid found an aloe plant and healed the victim.

They made it to the city to find a triple statue above the city of an old maid, a middle aged woman, and a yound maiden. It is an idol to the god Ishu (an aspect of Istus worshiped ~800 years ago by the inhabitants of the sunken city). They also found some strange insect lizard hybrids, but managed to sneak around them without having to fight them.

They just entered the upper part of the pyramid (which they don't know is a pyramid). They found the tracks of the half orc assassin (which is who they followed into the desert, he is carrying an ancient evil artifact and also killed a friend of the dwarf paladin, but that is a long story). It was here that I read over their character sheets (we post them as txt docs online) - they only have three torches... It will be interesting to see how they handle this without access to the continual light spell (they are only 2nd level). Only the gnome and dwarf have darkvision.

If they don't just give up (considering that they don't have any torches) I have some really strange stuff waiting for them in this dungeon ~~ insert evil DM cackle here.

Narrative Control and Player to Player Power Grabs

In my opinion this is one of the hardest things to get right for a group of people playing PBEM/PbP games. It is all about control. The players all want complete control over their character (no brainer really). The DM controls the reactions of NPC’s and monsters... etc.... This all seems pretty simple - and it is - but in PBEM/PbP you can find yourself into situations where these lines are crossed.

Example A: A PC playing a female character walks into a bar where 4 other player characters are sitting at a table... the Player is playing a “hottie” so he/she types in:

“Ezbania walks past the four men at the table to the bar, slowly and confidently. As she nears the bar she pulls a string out of her hair allowing her restrained tresses to flow down her shoulders. All the men at the table can’t help but look over at her, watching her entrance.”

It was going good, until the player decided to tell the other players (probably on accident) what their reaction to her move would be. In this circumstance the other player characters may not mind. But each character should get to choose how they react to this scene. Maybe the barbarian character would want to say, “My character is staring at her, drooling :)” Maybe the thief would want to say, “Noting most of the men at the table are watching a pretty lady and forgetting about our card game, I’ll take the time to swipe a couple of silver pieces out of the pot and check the barbarian’s hand.”

Again, this circumstance is pretty low key - but I find that players can accidently run rampant over each other - telling each other how their characters are supposed to feel/act.

Example B:

DM controls characters. This one is a little harder to define. The DM is always telling the characters what they see/hear/taste/smell/ touch - the part that matters is how much the DM adds in the way of telling the characters what they feel or how they react. For example, the DM is describing a foggy night on a rainsoaked moor, the moon is full, the howls of the werewolves of Areadorn are following them as they push their horses faster. They may not make it to the Tower of Light before they are overtaken by the were-creatures. The DM could add that the characters “clench their fingers tight to the reins, fear gripping them from behind as they urge the horse faster and faster!”

This type of line is really nice when Tolkien describes Arwen and Frodo fleeing from the ring wraiths. However, I try not to run rampant over the feelings of the PC’s and let them describe how they are responding to the situation. The paladin for example probably feels no fear - if the were-creatures close in - he is planning to take them all on, to give the rest of the party time to get to the tower - even if it means his life! The halfling character may be scared out of his wits. The evil mage of the group might be slightly bored since the flight spell he memorized will let him escape no matter what happens - although he would be inconvenienced by the loss of his party he won’t be shedding any tears.

Example C & D:

While in situations like A&B in all my campaigns I strive to keep the same policy, in the next two examples I think there are different ways the game can be run...

C: The players control the feelings or actions of NPC’s. Typically this could happen when a character says something like this:

Crohan the Barbarian (our PC) is fleeing from some back-alley thieves. Turning a corner he comes to a deadend. The character then types, “ I turn on my heels and whip the scabbard off my blade, lifting it up, point forward to my enemies, staring down the blade I summon the wild rage of my heritage and let loose a war cry as I leap forward to attack. The cowards before me tremble in fear, stumbling before my onslaught”.

Well from that ham-handed explanation - you can see than the player took over on the reactions of these NPC’s. As a DM I try to explain at the beginning of a campaign - how much narrative control the PC’s can have. I usually give it out in doses that are proportional to the “power level” of the PC’s in my game. If I am running a GURPS black ops game where the PC’s are the best of the best - cream of the crop - I give them narrative control over all the “forgettable” NPC’s. As long as they aren’t trying to control the Dr.Evil archnemesis types - they are good coming up with as much flavor in their descriptions. The same kind of thing applies to D&D games where the characters are “heroic” powered. In games where I want the characters to have a more “average guy” power level - then I typically recommend that the players try to leave the reaction text to the DM. This really just means in the case of Cohan the barbarian above, the player would only have had to leave out the Italics part of his post.

In the Monsters and Manual’s blog by Noisms - he was recommending Diceless Play for PBEM/PbP - where the PC’s are automatically assumed to succeed in all that they do except where they but heads with other PC’s. They are given all sorts of narrative control over the NPC’s, and the world.

While I think this type of play can work for free-form cooperative story games - I think it is pretty much counter to the D&D spirit and feel. For this style of game - the tension of the game stems directly from NOT being able to automatically succeed. Each door could be locked or trapped, each NPC and monster is an unknown - your chances of survival are based on your skill of identifying situations where you can’t automatically succeed. It is kind of like playing poker - the skill lies in understanding when there is enough reward to justify the risk. Therefore, the DM must control nearly ALL the actions of the NPC’s and the dungeon. In a heroic style game - the PC’s might be able to gain narrative control over low HD NPC’s and monsters

D: Example D is kind of the “null” example - this is where I have most of my problems in running PBEM/PbP games. This is where a PC will log onto the game - and put up a post without saying or doing anything - thus dragging out the game in the worst way. The reason for this, is that they don’t want to accidently step on the wishes of others or put the party into risk. However, the result can be that nobody does anything. Instead, you get a lot of posts that are the PC’s joking with each other, or describing how their character feels, petting their familiars, arguing about which path to take. In one of the worst examples of this behavior, I think I had some players sitting in front of a cave entrance for almost a month of real time. They couldn’t agree on how to proceed and I didn’t want to railroad them.

Example D is one of the hardest to remedy. It is one of these sinkholes that can trap a group, and it is impossible for one player/DM to bring the group out of it. It has to be confronted as a team. I’m thinking that there may be some kind of corporate philosophy for situations like this since they must come up in the business world frequently. I'm going to think about this more and see what I can do in my games to help with these situations.

Ritual Magic Customization

I have been working more on this ritual magic idea for clerics (see older posts 1 and 2). I’ve been thinking about how by customizing the rituals you could adapt the cleric class to play the role of the druid, paladin, and others... instead of adding on brand new class kits for these roles.

If the cleric worships a nature god (or pantheon of nature spirits/gods) the DM could craft a series of rituals that would replicate traditional druidic abilities:

speak with animals

speak with plants

pass without trace

shapeshift

resist elements/energy (fire, water, cold, electricity)

control weather

accelerate growth

healing

For a cleric worship a good aligned martially bent god(s) the DM could provide abilities that replicate classic paladin abilities:

Healing Touch

cure disease

cure poisons

smite evil

holy shield (bonus to saves vs. evil magic)

holy blade (enchant weapon to smite evil - strike undead that need +1 to hit or better???)

detect ability (maybe come up with a cool name)

I think a neat idea about this ritual magic concept is that you could customize each cleric to match the ethos of the god he worships. And you could provide some variety of rituals so the cleric character can have some build options (or change daily if the rituals are short use or single use).

I’ve got ideas for a couple of additional builds - holy cleric of a good aligned diety, unholy cleric of a diety of madness and destruction, cleric of a demon prince of lies, cleric of a diety of love/lust/beaty

I’m thinking I might compile these clerical builds into a document and posting it up on the blog.

Example - combat vs. skeletons

Round1:

Lo'Stranner pushes Lienen's hands away from the horses, " We need your strength

at the forefront - my arrows are less effective against these creatures!". He

continues to bind the horses down while the barbarian hefts his greatsword and

turns to rush toward the scene unfolding. In the midst of the group Nau Gui

conjures forth a magical shield, his spell rushed and breathy sounding in the

humid night air.

Grarym steps forth and begins to call forth the power of Moradin to turn back

these creatures , however, at the last moment he is overcome by some dark power

and the force that he was channeling slips away from his grasp. As the dwarf

falters the skeletons surround him chopping down with their ancient rusty blades

sparking forth the ringing sound of metal on metal. Grarym quickly recovers and

beats one of the skeletons back with the heft of his axe.

At the side of the dwarf Geodine recites his entangle spell with all the

concentration and speed and lactating??? :) he can muster. Growler and Scruffy

flank the short gnome each standing nearly the same height as he. Geodine is

able to complete his spells only moments before the undead reach him and it

entangles two of the skeletons standing in front of him. As two of the undead

are stepping forward out of the writhing plant matter, unbalanced, Growler and

Scrffy leap forward at them. As a team they jump again and again at the undead,

foiling the slow chopping sword attacks and within a few seconds Scruffy is

gnawing on the leg of one of the skeletons. The skeleton that lost its leg is

now crawling after the dog swing at it ineffectually while the dog runs in front

of the skeleton holding its leg!!!

Two more of the undead slip through the initial line of Geodine and Grarym and

head toward NauGui, although one of the undead is battered back by the magical

shield, the other is able to swing through and slide its thin saber across the

belly of the barbarian wizard cutting a long but shallow wound. Leaping forth,

Leinen brings the thunder of the Lortmill Mountains on the skeleton with the

saber (natural 20!!!). His sword comes cracking down splintering bones from

head to pelvis on the skeleton. It falls to the ground cluttering and clacking

as the magic is released.

As Lo'Stranner completes the binding of the horses, he catches a strange flash

of pink and yellow colors somewhere out there in the dark with his elven eyes.

Then the party members hear a strange flapping noise, followed by a loud screech

from Hooters as if he is in pain, and maybe a small giggle, like out of a female

child. Suddenly, as if echoing from all sides, rhyming sing-songy children

voices cant,

"Lost in the da'ark, lost in the da' ark...

see them da' ance, see them fi' ight,

they should give in, and have some fun,

dancing in the da' ark, dancing with the dead!"

At the end of this outburst the silly giggles repeat echoing from all sides of

the party. You wonder what dark thing is taking on the voices of children and

taunting you as you fight for your lives... several more skeletons step forth

from the mist to the south flanking the party and nearest to Lo'Stranner.

Round 1 Summary:

This is a mixed melee and all party members are within 30 feet of each other.

Grarym is at the point of the party surrounded by four skeletons. HP=16/24

Geodine is right next to him with two skeletons on him, Scruffy, and Growler.

Lo Stranner is without enemies nearby but he can rush in and attack the new

skeletons or any of the skeletons on the group in the same round.

Leinen and NauGui share a final skeleton. Nau Gui HP = 6/8

Two other skeletons are currently entangled firmly.

Geodine Animals Stats:

Hooters,HD 1d4, HP 4, Flight, Claws (1), Beak (1d2)

Growler, HD 1d8, HP 6, Claws (1d2, 1d2), Bite (1d3)

Scruffy, HD 2d6, HP 9, Bite (1d4)

Scruffy and Growlers are not wounded, Hooters may be wounded but you don't know.

[this post was from Oct 31st, it was the last time my PC's have seen combat in my game... I had been watching the evil dead series at the time, which was the inspiration for my strange little poem :) ]

Smart Phone

I'm not usually one for keeping up with the newest technology, but a couple of days ago I got a smart phone (the droid eris). I'm pretty exited to see how it can help me with my PBEM/PbP gaming and also how it will help me organizing my professional life, etc...(boring - but important).

Does anybody know if there is a RPG dice roller application for the Google Driod OS? I could probably log into any webpage - but it would be nice to have an app.

Rolling the Dice

When I first started playing games over the internet I decided to play them over a chat client (mIRC) and we used a dice roller that would allow for rolls to be generated in the screen. You could also program scripts into the client, such that I could pregenerate all of the room descriptions for my map such that if the PC's entered room 12 I would go to lvl1-12 description in the client (using a short cut key like cntrl+shift+0112) and the room description would drop right down into the window. If you wanted to roll some dice you typed /roll 3d6 and you got some results. All my players were able to roll their own dice for saves and attacks and we color coded the text such that descriptive text was one color and command text and bot output was another color. This allowed you to focus on the descriptive text but reference the mechanics as necessary. I also played a couple of fudge campaigns and you could preprogram common tasks like roll 4 fudge dice.

This was a really nice way of playing that came really close to the table top experience. I've been thinking that one of the newer technologies that might also make gaming interesting like this would be the WebEx, Skype, and iChat technologies. I'd like to be able to have the characters chat face to face like they are in the room together, share a screen that shows diagrams of the dungeon etc... and at the same time have a chat window to handle the rolling aspects. If anybody has played in a game like this - I'd be interested to hear about the technology you are using.

Currently however, due to the aspects of playing with some of my gaming group who are in Italy, Scotland, Seattle, Florida, etc... with some gamers leading lives that take them to Asia or Australia, or Morocco at times - it just isn't possible to get everyone onto a chat window at a certain time of day for several hours anymore (at least not without it leading to several divorces). Also, I wanted to be able to play games in a format that allowed others to join in (people recruited via advertising on rpg.net, or pbem.com etc... or from off this blog or people who might stumble into my game somehow). This led me to the PBEM concept and it is something that is working right now. It isn't for everybody (see my posts here and here on the subject of the campaign I am running right now) but it is working for my tastes.

In the two games I am playing in right now (one as DM, one as player) all the rolling aspects of the game are handled by the DM. For my game I can say honestly that I have a set of Gamescience dice and I have rolled every die for every attack/save/contest. I'm not sure what the DM of my other game does. None of my players have had a problem using this approach so far... in fact one of them said he prefers the game this way. He can sit back and think of his move, describe it out well, and then let the DM take care of the mechanics. I am also worried that if I added a dice rolling mechanic/program/robot this could really drag out combat needlessly.

The way I run combat is 1 round at a time. Each player posts what they want to do - details are important. During combat I give each player 2 days to post (or until 75% of the party has posted) then I take control of their players move for the round. Initiative for the players is determined by posting speed (post first = first initiative) and the monsters initiative is determined randomly relative to the PC's. Typically a 7 round combat would take 1-2 weeks to complete and involve ~6-7 posts from each player. Using simple combat rules like C&C, LL, or S&W allows combat to be quick and deadly - there are no feats, no attacks of opportunity, etc.. to worry about. They tell me what they want to try - I roll some dice and then tell them what happens.

I typically format combat posts in the following mode:

Round #

Text Description of what happens (usually 1-3 paragraphs of text).

Description of Battlefield Positioning (who is next to what, etc...)

Summary of Important Rolls (1s and 20s that affected outcomes - fumbles, critical hits, max damage, etc...)

Summary of Player HP

At the end of the combat I update the player HP in my Database (they can view this at any time) and then I also update the treasure database (they can also view this at any time).

In my latest game we haven't had a combat since October. But it is about to get intense since the players are entering a sunken desert city (modeled after The Lost City by Tom Moldvay - but with a more Lovecraftian bent). I don't want to give away too many details in case I let my players know about this blog before they finish this section of the game - but I will definitely be posting info about how things are going if it turns out to be awesome.

Sometimes I wish I could give my players the experience of controlling their destiny with a d20 - but I don't have a nice application that would sit on my Group webpage allow my players to tap on a button and then post a roll into the page somehow. I would want it to operate outside of our typical communication window such that it doesn't clutter our email boxes/posting window. Also, would my players be able to log into the computers at an even more regular frequency to keep up with rolling?

I would have to drastically change the flow/method/format of the game and have players who are all dedicated to posting daily. Right now I have a mix of players - some check in 2-3 time a day and post like crazy and I am carrying a couple of players who like to post twice weekly and are fine with me NPC'ing them through a couple of rounds of combat now and again.

In summary, for PBEM/PbP I think things are going well without the dice roller. The players have to trust the DM to be impartial with his dice.

Ritual Magic Part 2

Here are some early ideas for the way the ritual system might be set up along with some example rituals... Obviously I would have to tinker with the exact numbers for all of this. It would be easiest to adapt to a specific world where the desires of the pantheons are known. If anybody has some input about how this might be done, or knows any other systems that have been created for another game that are like this - let me know. It seems like somebody has probably done something like this before.

# of Ritual Power Slots Active at a Time: 1/level

Rituals of higher power may take up 2 or more slots. Extremely powerful ritual spells may take up 5 or more slots.

Once a ritual power is expended or elapsed and is no longer active a cleric character may immediately arm himself with a new ability if the proper ritual casting demands can be met.

Example Rituals:

Healing Touch: Cost = 1 slot, Duration = 1 week, Ritual = cleric washes hands in a preparation of exotic oils (GM determination) for 1 hour in a copper pot over a candle prepared from bee wax while chanting prayers for healing power from diety (pick appropriate God). Component cost approximately 10 gp. Effect/Power = while active the character can heal 1d6/lvl HP (max of 3d6) three times per day

Healing Hands: as healing touch but Cost = 2, The oils must be suffused with vital herbal spices increasing the component cost to 200gp/use. The Effect is the same but the the caster can heal 1d6/lvl HP (max 6d6) three times per day. Caster must be 5th level to use this effect.

Wracking Curse (non lawful or good alignments): cost = 2 ,Duration = Permanent until fetish destroyed or spell countered, Ritual = the caster of this spell must acquire a piece of the intended victim’s body. A single hair, nail clipping, or eye lash would be enough. They create a doll made of sticks bound with rope and cloth with the piece of the victims body sown into the doll. Once the doll is finished, the arms and legs are broken one at a time. They can be broken quickly or spread out - one broken at a time over years. Effect = the victim feels stabbing ghostly pains emanating from the broken doll limb. For each limb broken temporarily subtract -1DEX, -1CON, -1INT (for humans -4 to each of these stats is the highest level of this curse). Saving throws made that involve these aspects of the character (GM determination depending on gaming system used) should have a -1 / broken limb. The effect can be stopped immediately if the doll is destroyed by tearing it apart or burning it over a fire. Other clerics should be able to develop a counter blessing that will prevent this spell from working (DM determines the required components and costs to work this magic).