The Janissary Deserter (A Class for the Gamma GLOG)

 I actually first wrote this class roughly two months ago, but I have since revised it somewhat and have been meaning to post it for a while. It was the first class I wrote up in my haphazard messy GLOGhack based on Gamma World and similar post-apocalyptic science fantasy games (or other forms of media). Colloquially I'm calling it the Gamma GLOG, but its full name is building on a game I made many years ago: Mutants and Machines of the Baffling Badlands. Technically, this makes this abortive attempting at a rules hack a second edition to that game, even though the rules are essentially nothing alike. Oh also, you should check out my previous posts about Gamma Ohio, since this class (and Gamma GLOG more generally) are set within that world.

CLASS: JANISSARY DESERTER

You are a stranger in a strange land, brought here to fight enemies you've never seen before on the orders of a king you've never seen the face of. You have no lot in this futile battle, so you left. The generals of the Amish King do not take kindly to deserters.

Each template of Janissary Deserter you have gives you +1 to hit +1 to rolls for stealth.

Skills: Animal Husbandry, Lying, and Foreign Customs

Starting Equipment: A polearm of some sort (1d8), a submachine gun (no bullets), a tall silken hat emblazoned with pheasant feathers, an ill-fitting ostentatious uniform, a slip of paper guaranteeing pay (now null and void) (all of the above are stolen). A small thing to remind you of home, fear (the only things that are truly yours).

A Piercing Pressure, Anxious Aura, Hunted

B Run for your Lives

C Faceless Enemy

D Auspicious Incident

Piercing Pressure

All ranged and reach attacks that you make pierce through armor, even if the weapon is not listed as armor-piercing.

Anxious Aura

You are never surprised. The rest of your group may be unable to act due to a surprise round, but you will be able to act. However, because of your intense anxiety, you are always able to be detected by psychics or creatures that can smell fear. You lose anxious aura when you are no longer being hunted.

Hunted

You are being hunted. You know that you are being hunted, but by what you don't yet know. The general you deserted, a bounty hunter he hired, an executioner-droid, just the feeling of guilt weighing down on you?

Run for your Lives

You have advantage on rolls when fleeing during a chase. You are also able to give advantage on rolls when fleeing to a number of other people equal to your number of Janissary templates minus 1.

Faceless Enemy

If you do not know the name of the enemy you are fighting, then any damage you deal in excess of how much it takes to kill them goes to the nearest creature. This continues until you hit an enemy you know the name of.

Auspicious Incident

If you would be killed by a physical attack (this does not apply to psychic attacks or nuclear radiation), you can declare that you slipped out of the way in the nick of time. This is only possible once. The fear from that near-death experience allows you to have a new start. Once the auspicious incident occurs, you may take the A template of another class as if you never had Janissary Deserter's D template.

I have no clue what this is from (if anything), and the fungus stuff has basically nothing to do with this post but I found it when looking for janissary art and thought it was cool

Also here are some SUPER SIMPLE CHASE RULES so that Run for your Lives makes more sense:

When a chase begins (I believe it would be rather obvious when a chase has begun), each individual person/creature involved in the chase (not counting hirelings/pets) roll 1d20+DEX modifier. If the chasers roll higher than the flee-ers (not exactly certain what the term for the would be), then the flee-ers are caught, and may be forced to fight, or be captured or eaten, depending on what sort of creature was doing the chasing. If the flee-ers roll higher, then they get away with little to no complications.

However, if some of the flee-ers fail the roll (roll lower than their pursuers) while some succeed (roll higher), then the ones who succeed can simply choose to abandon the ones who failed, allowing them to get away just fine, or they can try to help them up and get back to running away. This prompts another roll, with no modifier; at that point, whether you're able to get away is up to chance. Also, players who fail a roll can choose to sacrifice a hireling in order to succeed the roll; this lets them escape, but will invariably cause strife with whatever other hirelings the group has. This system assumes creatures that are roughly of normal human speed; creatures that are considerably faster than a person will always win out in a chase with a person on foot, and players who are so overburdened that they cannot run with agility will always be caught.

Summary:

Chase begins

All pursuers and all flee-ers roll 1d20+DEX modifier
Pursuers and flee-ers compare the results of that roll

If pursuers roll higher, they catch the flee-ers; if flee-ers roll higher, they get away

If some flee-ers fail while others succeed, the flee-ers who succeeded the roll choose whether to just keep running away or turn back to try and save their friend(s)

If they choose to turn back and help their friend(s) back up, they roll 1d20 with no modifier

If a player fails a chase roll, they can sacrifice a hireling to succeed it

GLOG Class: Beekeeper

 Something finally clicked with the GLOG for me. I've been reading GLOG posts for basically as long as the GLOG has existed (and in some ways, since before even! Way back in 2015, when I was only 14 years old, I released an incomplete Gamma World inspired ruleset with rules derived from a bunch of posts that would later form the GLOG... Because of this, I'm actually technically listed as the first GLOGhack on the unified GLOG spreadsheet, even though this predated the GLOG itself! But this is all beside the point), but even though I've been exposed to all of it, I just could never really get into it. In many ways, this was because it was all spread out, and when I read the rules written by Arnold K. or Skerples it didn't really feel like I understood the GLOG... But now I'm increasingly into it! Don't worry though, I'm not going to completely succumb to GLOGification, there will still be things written up here for OSE/BX, but really the GLOG isn't too different in its applications! Well, I'll shut up with this preamble now, here is a class that I had an idea for just for fun!

The bee is the wisest and cleverest of all animals and the closest to man in intelligence; its works is truly divine and of the greatest use to mankind. Its social life resembles that of the best regulated cities. In their excursions bees follow a leader and obey instructions. They bring back sticky secretions from flowers and trees and spread them like ointment on their floors and doorways. Some are employed in making honey and some in other tasks. The bee is extremely clean, settling on nothing that is bad-smelling or impure; it is not greedy; it will not approach flesh or blood or fat but only things of sweet flavour. It does not spoil the work of others, but fiercely defends its own work against those who try to spoil it. Aware of its own weakness, it makes the entrance to its home narrow and winding, so that those entering in large numbers to do harm are easily destroyed by the guardian bees.

This animal is pleased by a good tune: when they are scattered, therefore, beekeepers clash cymbals or clap their hands rhythmically to bring them home. This is the only animal that looks for a leader to take care of the whole community: it always honours its king, follows him enthusiastically wherever he goes, supports him when he is exhausted, carries him and keeps him safe when he cannot fly. It particularly hates laziness; bees unite to kill the ones who do no work and use up others’ production. Its mechanical skill and near-logical understanding is shown by the fact that it makes hexagonal cells to store honey.

-The Geoponika compiled by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus

The Beekeeper

Each template of Beekeeper you have gives you +1 hit points.

Skills: Beekeeping, Insect Identification, Starting Fires

Starting Equipment: A thick cloth garb for handling the bees in, a hood and wicker mask, nice warm boots, thick hardy gloves, a flint and tinder fire starter, a long metal spoon (1d4), a beehive (takes up three item slots, must be carried with both hands, placed down if you want to use your hands).

A Personal Hives

B Smoke it All Away

C Defensive Swarm

D One with the Bees

Personal Hives

Your bees take on distinct personalities and aspects based on what you feed them. These effects are apparent in their honey and in their stings (a few example personal hives are provided below). In order to fully utilize the effects, you must carry the hive with you, to harvest its honey at its freshest and allow the bees to sting any dangerous foes. Honey can be eaten as a meal to heal hit points as a normal ration. If the bees are stinging, however, you and anyone who gets within range must wear a beekeeper suit or be forced to make a saving throw to avoid the sting's effect. You can change what you feed a hive, but the change will leave that hive without its unique effects for the two weeks it takes the bees to become acclimated.

Smoke it All Away

By burning sweet-smelling and aromatic woods, flowers, and fungi you are able to produce a smoke which can calm any insect of any size. It does, however, take more smoke to calm ever-larger insects. The smoke must be able to surround at least half the creature; to calm a giant insect of about the size of a human, for instance, you must create a large fire that makes enough billowing smoke to account for their size. Attacking the insect once calmed immediately breaks the calm.

Defensive Swarm

You are able to induce the bees in the hive you are carrying to form a defensive shield-like swarm cloud surrounding you in all directions. The defensive swarm keeps you safe from melee attacks, and deals 1d4 damage plus the hive's sting effect to any attacker who steps within it, but does not keep you safe from ranged attacks, fires, electricity, etc. Billows of flame, lightning strikes, very large melee attacks/boulders, etc. will kill all of the bees in the swarm, ending that hive for good.

One with the Bees

You are able to speak with bees of all sorts, are immune to the effects of insect stings (though scorpion stings still affect you and insect bites still affect you!), and your defensive swarm is able to carrying you through the air as a suitable spell that provides flight, as well as being able to coat your body to defend yourself from melee attacks (reduces damage by 2, hive entirely depleted after four attacks).

Example Personal Hives

Rosewater Hive

Fed with: roses watered with rosewater, cultivated in a geometric garden

Honey: Liquid Longing, any who ingest it must save or be overtaken by intense feelings of morose longing for love that they know they can never have.

Sting: The Rose's Thorn, 1 point of damage per round for 1d4 rounds.

Lavender Hive

Fed with: the finest most fragrant lavendar

Honey: Beautiful Scent, able to transfix any who smell it on a failed save, heals 1d4 hit points when ingested.

Sting: Putrid Purple, turns your skin purple and makes you swell up on a failed save, slowing you down and making you unable to move if you are wearing tight armor.

Carnivorous Hive

Fed with: raw meat

Honey: Fetid Stench, forces any who smell it to recoil in disgust, possibly even to run away. Cannot be eaten as a ration.

Sting: Withering Away, 1d3 damage and -1 STR per hour.