Corporate Infiltration - 313 Stormers for AD&D

While B/X D&D has been my primary game for a while there is something to say about AD&D with its greater surfeit of tools and customization options when creating things.

Therefore I have imagined my previous 313 Stormer Conversion as if t had arrived on Toril rather than Mystera.

From the SLA Industries rulebook we can determine that "Malice' Stormers have significantly better STR but are a bit deficient in all mental abilities.

Humans Maximums STR 10 DEX 10 DIA 10 CONC 10 CHA 10 COOL 10

Stormer 313 (Malice) Maximums STR 15 DEX 13 DIA 8 CONC 8 CHA 8 COOL 15

Fortunately SLA works with 10s so we can see that 313 Stormers have a maximum of 150% Human Strength, that would be a whopping 27 in D&D terms so we can turn that down.

Min/Max
Str 9/20 Dex 3/19 Con 9/18 Int 3/12 Wis 3/14 Cha 3/12

So a reasonable set of AD&D ability modifiers would be:
Str +4, Con + 2, Dex +2, Int -2, Wis -2, Cha -4

Bioregeneration: Stomers regenerate 1 hp every 4 turns, unless exposed to acid or fire.

However something should represent their high COOL stat, which would be a +2 bonus to saves vs fear.

As well as some penalties.

Though they are Medium Sized, Stormers are effected by the Halfling bonus against large sized opponents.


Class-wise Stomers have no aptitude for magic or theology, they are loyal only to the Corp, so Clerics and MU are out, as are Paladins. However SLA Industries contains Kick-Murder Squads, so Assassins are a possibility. But Stormers are too large to steal stuff so Thieves would be prohibited as well, but having only two classes would be severely limiting.

So that makes Fighters and Assassins the only acceptable classes, as Stormers never command themselves in SLA's hierarchy, they would stop gaining levels before they reached Domain Level.

To summarize:

Stormers are horrific killing machines, created by some alchemic and spiritual means in a mysterious city in the wastes. This city is known only for its brutal decay and production of cheap goods in its slave factories. Stormers can serve as elite Operatives, journeying far beyond the wastes as part of a mission with others, or just to record their travels for a hungry home audience. Stomers is expected to name themselves, as part of its training; usually choosing an adjective which is thought by general consensus to be interesting, otherwise they are known by the three digit number tattooed on their arm. A consequence of this is there are only a thousand Stormers at any one time, with only a hundred chosen for Operative status, due to their superior intellect. Management is unhappy with the current breed as they display less health and intelligence than estimates expected and have marked them as Export-Only, if a superior breed could be grown.

However Stormers are child-like in their curiosity and eagerly obtain hobby skills from those they encounter, in an attempt to differentiate themselves. Stormer are often gluttons, and will eat anything else, if offered food other than their pork rations.

Racial Minimums/Maximums: Str 9/20 Dex 3/19 Con 9/18 Int 3/12 Wis 3/14 Cha 3/12

Racial Modifiers: Str +4, Con + 2, Dex +2, Int -2, Wis -2, Cha -4

Racial Abilities
Bioregeneration: Stomers regenerate 1 hp every 4 turns, unless exposed to acid or fire.

Fearless: Stormers posses a 2 bonus to saves vs fear.

Over sized: Though they are Medium Sized, Stormers are effected by the Halfling bonus against large sized opponents.

Level Limits 

Fighter/8 

Assassin/7

Thief/5

A race which specializes only in fighting and is probably not for players, but as antagonists trying to subvert the players' setting.

A Garden Maze

Thinking about a dungeon, I was struck by the thought that they would work similar to above ground mazes. Hell, Cursed Chateau from LotFP mainly features one surrounding the titular house. You could have the party navigate from the stars, threatening them with wilderness hazards like rain and cold, unlike the standard climate-controlled dungeon with its solid roof.

However three problems present themselves: The party can go up and over, through the hedges or tunnel beneath.

Restricting player movement is key in a dungeon as it allows for the party to not just wander straight to the biggest collection of treasure and to keep them from wandering into an encounter you don't want them to. But hedges are substantially weaker than stone walls.

The solution is entirely up in the air, the players could be barred from above by charms (in that case why not have a roof and set it underground?) or flocks of angry birds. Or could simply be surrounded by fog, but that's not a fair answer.

Going through sounds like a perfect excuse for a monster however; animated topiary, poisonous thorns and killer squirrels might lurk in the hedges, with each having been statted during AD&D's long history. Another alternative is that the hedges are all connected in a sort of continuous state, and so entering could teleport a character to a 10' wall anywhere else in the maze. Once the party figures it out it could make a last-ditch escape attempt if things go bad. And thorns in general could dissuade low-level characters.

Going under, is actually the easiest to deal with. Not only does it take a while to dig, but every turn spent digging, attracts a random wandering monster to the location or the opposite location on the other side of the hedge, if the party are past the half-way point of the dig.

Not even the soft soil dig speed of a dwarf could complete a tunnel before attracting monsters. And if the succeed? We'll good for them, now they have a tunnel between two points and need to start mapping again.

Even so a maze has its limits, once a party get access to fire spells (a torch and oil won't ignite a hedge unless its dry, otherwise it just smokes like a beacon) the maze is so much kindling, but so are dungeons, once the MU gets access to Stone to Mud.

Corporate Infiltration - 313 Stormers

Let's get started with an adaption of a personal favorite of mine, the SLA Industies 313 'Malice' Stormer.


For those who have never heard of SLA Industries, it was one of those over-complicated 90s games, both in mechanics (mainly focused on guns) and in meta-plot (which involved multiple universes and the titular blatantly evil corporation and their even more sick enemies).

However it did bring the 313 Stormer race, 7 feet of regenerating murder, totally orientated for combat and a must for every Op squad.

Using the B/X customization class guidelines, created by Nick Peterson (http://quibish.blogspot.com/2011/12/customized-classes-for-bx.html)

But with some final alterations to limit their over-powered Bioregeneration and to better reflect hang-ups Stormers would suffer in a D&D style universe. Any discrepancies can be chalked up to the limited and variable nature of the raw resources the mysterious city could get its hands on.

Custom value from the Class creation process 5.55

Stormers are horrific killing machines, created by some alchemic and spiritual means in a mysterious city in the wastes. This city is known only for its brutal decay and production of cheap goods in its slave factories. Stormers can serve as elite Operatives, journeying far beyond the wastes as part of a mission with others, or just to record their travels for a hungry home audience. Stomers is expected to name themselves, as part of its training; usually choosing an adjective which is thought by general consensus to be interesting, otherwise they are known by the three digit number tattooed on their arm. A consequence of this is there are only a thousand Stormers at any one time, with only a hundred chosen for Operative status, due to their superior intellect. Management is unhappy with the current breed as they display less health and intelligence than estimates expected and have marked them as Export-Only, if a superior breed could be grown.

However Stormers are child-like in their curiosity and eagerly obtain hobby skills from those they encounter, in an attempt to differentiate themselves. Stormer are often gluttons, and will eat anything else, if offered food other than their pork rations.

They suffer a -2 penalty to reaction rolls due to their hideous skinned-horse face, it is also speculated they are part troll, as they regenerate 1 hp every 4 turns, unless exposed to acid or fire. However the process that is used to create them is a foul twisting of magic and science and so Stormers cannot benefit from any magic. They are so large, it costs twice as much to fit armor for them and the Halfling bonus against large creatures applies.

Saves as Elf

Level 1 ------------- 0
Level 2 -------- 2775
Level 3 -------- 5550
Level 4 ------ 11100
Level 5 -----  22200
Level 6 -----  44400
Level 7 -----  88800
Level 8 ---- 138750

Stormers tie into an idea that has been floating around since I saw Brood of the Sky-Fortress for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and tied it in Dreams of Ruin for Labyrinth Lords as well as The Apocalypse Stone for the very late period of AD&D 2nd Edition. The setting-destroyer or dramatic alter. That a hostile or simply uncaring entity can slip into your generic fantasy setting and begin to grow like a tumor, altering the dynamics while forcing the characters to confront it over a period of time.

The final idea I've settled on is Corporate Infiltration, a tendril of SLA Industries has infected you universe from the shared RPG hobby and is now trying to subvert your setting to grow, peddling narcotics and cheap crap, wile muscling out rival powers and nations. If left unchecked, the Corp will subject the entire world into a techno-magic nightmare of rain and 80s Glasgow. These Stormers will be on their front lines and lent as mercenaries to unwilling dupes.

Starting The Blog

After spending too long lurking on the information superhighway watching others develop their love for Role-Playing games through a shared community, I  decided to throw in the towel and go with the flow, albeit a little late for the era of blogs.

So thank you for taking the time to peruse the limited but growing posts as I explore and develop ideas, campaigns and settings from across the RPG hobby but with a particular focus on D&D and its spin-off movements.