Hit Him Again Earl !

A passing notion for the brawling, hacking, smashing of melee combat: Let fighters keep on rolling if they hit but shift the die used of r the hit die down and come up with a different attack.

Example: Earl DeDuke has a total hit bonus of +5 he's facing A pair of peasants in with shabby protection making them AC 12 (yeah I'm going ascending it makes the math easy). Earl wins the initiative rolling a d20 to hit for a roll of 12  and a total of 17 bashing the first lowly peasant in the jaw with his shield, he swings his blade at the other rascal rollign a d16 for 15 points that;s a total of 20 another sure hit hacking the lout with his trusty sword, but not dropping him so he rolls a d12 getting a 8 , good enough to land a knee to the groin nd giving him the opportunity to crack the oaf in the head with the pommel of his sword with a d8 roll of 7! Earl DeDuke lays low the two foolish peasant!

Two weapon combat variant.... uh, you have two weapons right? It's one of those dice rolls.

So first strike 1d20, second d16, third 1d12, fourth 1d8, and 5th... well, I suppose you could roll a d4 but really yuo have to have a discrete attack. Miss on any of those rolls and you don't get to keep rolling.

Damage for kneeing, headbutts and such  1d6-3, apply STR modifiers to the modifier not the first roll so the damage roll for STR 18 (with a +3 damage mod) is 1-6,  not 4-6. Have it be stun/subdual damage if your game goes that way.

Bashing with shields and pommels of swords should likely be d3.

Higher level fighters typically allowed additional attacks should likely be allowed to ignore a miss and re-roll the next die down just in case and even get to pick the same attack form if desired.

Permanent Wounds Instead of Death

In my current campaign I've been playign with any time a character would be knocked below 0 hp they have to make a save vs death modified by their current HP score.
Make the roll and one's demise is beign preemptively considered, they actually have 0 hp and are simply unconscious.
Miss the roll by 1 to 5 points and lose a randomly determined ability point.
Miss the roll by 6 to 10 points and lose 1d4 ability points from a randomly determined ability point.
Miss by 11 or more points and the character is dead

So far 1 point of STR had been lost, as has one point of Wisdom and 4 points of CON, all among 3 different characters.

The permanent wounds are records on the off chance one discovers magics or artifacts able to cure such mangling.

Getting the stuffing knocked out of a PC is serious business even when bandaging allows a generous hp restoration and death isn't always certain.

No One Wants to Lose Abstract HP

There's a combat option in my MOG campaign that let's a combatant burn HP to inflict more damage... it's been used once that I can recall in several sessions of play. It seems to me abstract or not my group of players just isn't into losing HP, even with my ridiculously generous wound binding rules.

Parrying on MOG

In my MOG campaign we use a parrying rule as opposed to a fixed AC bonus.
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Parrying
High DEX does not constantly improve AC, a combatant may choose to parry/dodge to gain a benefit of high dexterity but in doing so they loose access to their normal attacks in a round.
Missile weapons may be parried at any range if bearing a shield.
You may only dodge range attacks made from long range or dodge any attack if you have partial cover.
DEX
3...... parry +1 to AC
4-6.... parry +2 to AC
7-14...parry +3 to AC
15-17...parry +4 to AC
18-20...parry +5 to AC
21+.... parry +6 to AC
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I opted against including a modifier to parrying based on initiative or weapon speed factors in interest of simplicity. I'm providing an advantage based on player tactics not a one time lucky roll of the dice alone. Each round a player must wonder... is it worth parrying now and losing my next set of normal attacks?

Not a brand new rule, it has it's roots in the first RPG I ever owned, it just needed a little tweaking.

Initiative and Weapon-Speeds

In my MOG campaign I'm using initiative and weapons speeds to differentiate weapons. Bigger heavier hitting weapons have less beneficial Weapon Speed Factors.

The house rules for initiative as it relates to the Weapon Speed Factor
Each round a d12 is rolled bu one of the players and modified by the character sheet at the top of their roster at the moment (fighting alongside clumsy folks is dangerous).
If the initiative score is under the WSF of the weapon in hand for the round wielded by a PC they are -4 to attack with that weapon. If drawing a weapon during a round the entire WSF is applied as a penalty (if worse then -4).

It's fairly simple and so far it has worked pretty well.

ARRGGH !!! No Game Tonight

Tonight a veteran player was supposed to come on by and join the MOG campaign but his daughter got in a car accident and he has to go fetch the damaged car (his daughter is doing fine considering).
Two other regulars had to cancel earlier today and a third thought there would be no game becasue they had to cancel, another couldn't make it because he has no gas money and two of the other players who couldn't make it are usually his alternate ride... and so goes the best laid plans of sorcerers, swordsmen, and a guy who sits in a cubicle.

Further Adventures On Mog

Playing on Mog is going well. We had a PC death recently and yjr players have moved beyond the initial dungeon they have been raiding.

The party had spent several sessions hunting tangling with twisted vampire and it's medusa courtesan, The players have learned  potion of medusa blood and snake hair venom will act to reverse being stoned by a medusa, a life saver for three members of the party. The vampire was a difficult target served by a small cadre of undead and a tribe of boglings but ti was tracked time and again until the party defeated it in combat; alas as the vampire spirit fled it's remains it possessed Beck the Cyclops warrior who was quickly dispatched  by his companions before vamping out entirely.

Having successfully pillaged the vampire's dungeon the pygmies in the party successfully petitioned the party to head into the thorn forest on a quest for materials to mix fresh and more effective poisons. A couple day trip found the party in a wood cutters village allowing them to discover a route to a yellow pygmy village.

The party befriended the yellow pygmies who have proven to be friendly and agreeable hosts. One of the party PCs has found himself with company of yellow pygmy women (he doesn't realize one of them will be his future bride at this point). The party is engaging the pygmies to aid them in tracking down giant forest sloths to make sloth hide armor and gear to allow safe exploration of the thorn forest.

One morning heading out on the hunt a great streak in the sky was seen on the sky and a massive explosion was heard in the distance. The party rushed to the impact site hoping to find fragments of meteor metals, they were surprised by what they found buried in an impact crater: a 100' diameter silver shield.

The shield revealed itself to be a massive unusual vessel. The party discovered two grey deformed pygmies in tight silver garments and bulbous heads dead in a chamber surrounded by benches festooned with unusual colored crystals. Fiddling with the crystals caused a hand symbol to appear on a wall; Slendara smashed one in the head to make sure it was dead for sure to use it's hand to open the door. For some odd reason the grey pygmies were stripped of their garments by the party to discover what sex they were (really...go figure), one was redressed to be dragged around to serve as a key to open the hand-print locks.

Odd metal bands were discovered and one of the PC' pygmies put one on his head, knocking him out. He was picked up and carried along until he was woken by the telepathic screams of a pair of living greys. The party tried to make peace with the greys who summoned an silver armored warrior that fought with paralyzing rays. Two party members and a henchman failed to escape the saucer and were subjected to a vast array of graphic and embarrassing test before being ejected with all their equipment except for the armor and clothing they were wearing while captured.

Giant sloth hunting has proven to be difficult. The hides of the giant tree sloth are very tough but if one surprised it they may strike it in a tender hard to reach location in hopes of inflicting a wound in it's most tender of spots. So far one of the beasts has been slain by the party, one got away.