This post is designed to help new players to the Hellboy RPG, particularly those coming from standard fantasy-style 5E campaigns wishing to explore the opportunities of a group of BPRD agents investigating the Hellboy-verse. It is based on the now-classic 2011 post by Jeff Reints about D&D campaigns, but I have adapted it with some interpretation, like the similar campaign posts I have done for Iron Kingdoms: Requiem and Twilight: 2000 2.2.
.jpeg)
There are several major additions to the Hellboy RPG already inspired by the Hellboy Boardgame, that are covered by posts on the Mantic Games blog - these are worth reading to get a feel for the major mechanical changes (particularly doom and ingenuity), so I suggest you start with these:
OK, back now? Good.
So let's start with some basic "campaign" and several secondary mechanic differences between 5E and the Hellboy RPG that I feel are important to call out as they create a very different mood and play style to a conventional fantasy setting...
Where can I go to buy standard equipment?
There's not really a standard equipment list to buy from as such... the PC agents have basic personal equipment determined by their role and "Standard Loadout Items" (page 75), but as they work for the BPRD they can requisition special equipment from the group ranging from investigative tools, weapons, and even in some cases borrow the minor magical artifacts referred to as relics.
An outline of this is given on the Mantic Games blog which is worth a read, but here are some additional comments to help appreciate the differences.
For each case file (adventure), the group generates a number of requisition points with which to purchase the following categories of equipment:
- Mobility Aids (pages 76-77)
- Additional Equipment (page 78)
- Non-standard equipment (page 79)
- Specialist Equipment
- Ritual Components (pages 79-80)
- Specialist Technical Kits (pages 80-81)
- Explosives (pages 81-82)
- Ranged Weapons / Specialised Ammo (pages 82-83)
- Relics (pages 86-88)
- Motor Pool and Backup (pages 89-90)
Requisition points begin at a base of 10 and are then modified by: the number of agents (2 each, max 10), the clearance level of the team above the base 1 (max 8), half the average level of the agents (start 3, max 10), the case file threat level and whether the agents are in the "good books" or have been black-listed.
This gives a minimum of 15 points per case file, but the items available are further limited by the requisition level which equates to the threat level of the case file, limiting more dangerous and specialised items to the more complex missions - so for example, an Ancient Blade, a Lucky Charm, or a Hand of Glory are all classified Level 3 and not available to requisition in less dangerous missions with a threat level of 2 or lower.
Some rituals (see below) allow for the creation of limited-duration magical weapons (eg Sword of Durga, page 164) or buff an existing mundane weapon (Ghost Sword, page 159; Weapon Blessing, page 166).
As a corollary, although magical artifacts and other precious items might be recovered during a case file, "treasure" as such is not used as a tracker of success and as agents of the BPRD the PCs have no use for monetary rewards and are presumed to be driven by other goals than to become rich.
Who is the mightiest "wizard" in the land?
If by wizard you mean witch, then Baba Yaga, is probably the most formidable sorcerous practitioner in the whole setting and the ruler of the Mythic Russia dimension, but she is not explicitly detailed mechanically.
Grigori Rasputin (pages 199-200), the original summoner of Hellboy to Earth, is given actual statistics as a powerful ritual caster in the corebook, but the whole approach to "wizards" and magic, in general, is very different from standard 5E, based on rituals from the Expanded Grimoire (pages 147-168).
Importantly there's no real "spell caster" class or equivalent to wizards, sorcerers, or even the potentially thematic appropriate warlock, and although anyone can learn and potentially cast a ritual, for PCs either the field analyst: theoretical practitioner (pages 50-51) and the experimental engineer (pages 43-47) agent backgrounds are the ones that have an affinity with rituals or can emulate ritual like effects respectively.
Although learning, memorising, and initiating a ritual requires an INT-based Occult (Intelligence) check, actually casting is CHA-based making it more akin to 5E sorcery or pact magic than 5E wizardry. Experimental engineers, whether specialists in fringe science or metaphysical calibration use INT / DEX cross-divisional skill checks instead, not dissimilar to a 5E artificer.
Rather than spell slots, practitioners must generate a number of successes equivalent to the ritual level by making repeated CHA-based checks at the relatively slow rate of accumulating one success per round of casting, shifting the "feel" of the magic away from traditional "Vancian" fantasy spell-slinging and more towards the style of the magic seen in perhaps Robert E Howard's Conan series, akin to the sorcery of Thulsa Doom or Thoth-Amon. Powerful sorcerers like Rasputin above may have accumulated a pool of successes to draw on, and/or generate a number of successes per round automatically, bypassing the base mechanic.
Ritual casting also provokes an increased number of doom/ingenuity check rolls equivalent to the character's proficiency bonus per round. Suppose doom or ingenuity is generated and/or spent during ritual casting. In that case, each point can be utilised to add a success, allowing the ritual to be cast faster or accumulating additional successes that can be used for overcasting. If a ritual is primarily powered by spending doom, baleful consequences can occur to the caster and once the character has cast more levels of ritual than their character level, additional doom is generated reflecting adverse consequences of tapping into magical forces.
Overcasting is possible for specific rituals by generating successes beyond those required by the base level by continuing the casting for longer or expending doom or ingenuity, resulting in for example longer duration, wider area of effect, or increased damage proportional to the number of initial successes. Altering rituals (pages 149-150) is also possible, flexing their effects somewhat like a metamagic feat to increase range, the number of targets, damage, and/or knocking targets prone.
Although a lot of the common magical effects from 5E are given equivalents as rituals in the Hellboy RPG, it would be fair to say there is a paucity of "blasting" or direct damage-dealing spells in keeping with the style of magic in the comics, and unfortunately, there are no direct conversion guidelines for existing 5E SRD spells but there are guidelines for creating your own rituals (page 153).
In addition, a small number of the presented rituals can be cast as rites, which can be partially cast and then completed by adding the required number of successes at a later time, whether by the original caster or another. This effectively allows some spells to be cast in a single action (or round) by completing the final success, or perhaps even by triggering an already overcast effect.
The following nine rituals are noted to be rites:
- Avenger (Level 3, page 154)
- Bind (Level 6 + CR of creature, page 155)
- Ghost Sword (Level 5, page 159)
- Scapegoat (Level 6 + the demon's CR, page 162)
- Scry (Level 6, page 163)
- Spirit Trap (Level 6 + creature's CR, page 163)
- Teleport (Level 12, page 169)
- Trap Soul (Level 6, page 169)
- Warding Circle (Level 6, page 172)
Notably, cantrips have no real equivalent, although some rituals, such as Avenger (a rite see above), can grant the ability to produce repeated use damaging effects, but other than Dragon's Breath (Level 2, page 156) which can be continued indefinitely by focussing with a bonus action, these are mostly melee oriented and have a limited duration - they must be cast to activate rather than being able to be invoked at will.
There aren't any rituals able to be cast as reaction like the SRD spell shield, although technically that could be possible to emulate.
There is an equivalent to the find familiar ritual for people that like cats. Or frogs.
Is there a magic guild I can join to learn more spells?
No, not really. Although there are numerous secret societies (pages 178-184) and agencies that may have access to various rituals... at a price of course!
Learning rituals (page 150) requires the tome or artifact that contains the ritual and several hours of study, but memorising a ritual requires an Occult (Intelligence) check to gain advantage on the initial INT and the following CHA checks, although the components are still needed to cast it.
Agents can only memorise a number of rituals equivalent to their INT modifier, making the number of rituals known in practice very limited other than for NPCs - this seems overly restrictive and may be worth modifying depending on how magically enabled you want your agents to be.
What is the deal with religion?
In the Hellboy-verse there is no evidence of God or angels, although there are many "small g" gods or creatures that at least claim to be gods, fallen angels, and faerie lords that have been encountered by the big red guy.
Demons are very present and real, as is Hell itself.
The role of religion, therefore, at least mechanically speaking, is much more limited than in a standard 5E game. There are no "clerics" or priests that wield divine magic as such, although religious characters can certainly access to healing (see below) and other rituals, commencing them through knowledge of their faith using Religion (Intelligence) skill checks rather than the usual Occult (Intelligence) ones.
A BPRD consultant with Religious Organisation as their parent organisation makes a good basis for this character style, but not every character of faith needs this specific role to have a divine theme to their build nor is it a requirement for the Ordained feat.
The Ordained feat (pages 66-67), is essential for a "cleric" or "paladin" style character and provides the following advantages:
- the Exorcise ritual (Level 2, page 158)
- advantage on saving throws against possession
- bonus radiant damage equal to your level against demons
- proficiency in the Religion skill
- blessing water CHA bonus +1 times per return to base
Several other rituals, including the two healing rituals and also the Cleansing ritual listed below, may well be appropriate for a religious-themed character including, but not limited to:
- Banish (Level 5 + the CR of the target creature, page 135)
- Lay to Rest (Level 2, page 161)
- Ward (Level 2, page 165)
- Warding Circle (Level 6 (rite), page 166)
- Weapon Blessing (Level 10, lasts 1 week, page 166)
The warding talisman (Level 1, 8 points; page 88) is one of the most common relics to have a religious origin, but other items may be similarly "holy".
Where can I go to get some magical healing?
There are two rituals that allow healing:
- Restoration (Level 5, page 162)
- Revive (Level 2, page 162)
The former heals all HP and, to a limited degree, ability score damage, whereas the latter starts at only 2d4 HP regained and is more akin to healing word or a ranged version of cure wounds. Both can be overcast, increasing the healing benefit.
These are not necessarily "divine" in origin and the direct equivalent to a paladin's laying on hands ability is the non-divine Pep Talk trait (page 56) of the personnel development role which can restore up to 5x the agent's level in HP per case file.
Importantly, the limited access to magical healing (including the absence of usual 5E healing potions) and its replacement with the multi-use medical kit (page 81) means the agents need to rely more on stealth, strategy, and other mundane means. The field medic specialisation of the field agent role can help offset this to an extent, particularly if enhanced by taking the Patchwork Medicine feat and its indented feats: Field Medicine and Medical Training.
This is underlined by the opportunity costs of non-magical healing by using bounce back action (once per session, 2HD heal), dusting off (max once per hour or generates doom), taking time (like a 5E Short Rest, zeroes ingenuity and generates doom), or returning to base (like a 5E Long Rest), which can either generate doom and/or zero any accumulated ingenuity.
Where can I go to get cures for the following conditions: poison, disease, curse, level drain, lycanthropy, polymorph, alignment change, death, or undeath?
You can recover from poison or disease by recuperating for three days during downtime (page 104), which allows advantage on saving throws to shrug off the effect.
Many curses can be broken by traditional methods, although many can only be lifted by the creature that lay them on a victim. Sometimes they can be lifted invoking the following particular ritual:
- Cleansing (Level 3 + the level of the Curse or Ritual active on the target, page 156)
Some creatures and magical effects can cause ability damage but as noted elsewhere, level drain is no longer a mechanical effect in 5E so irrelevant.
Lycanthropy, polymorph and undeath are most likely to be the result of a curse or a story event and not amenable to a simple magical reversal.
Alignment change is irrelevant as there is no alignment system in the Hellboy RPG.
Death is usually permanent in the Hellboy RPG, although the existence of ghost origin characters such as Johann Strauss and Lobster Johnson are notable exceptions to the rule. There is no equivalent of the resurrection or reincarnation spells from 5E, although if the case file story required a dark ritual (or weird science contraption) may produce an equivalent effect on occasion.
Where can I find an alchemist, sage, or other expert NPC?
Well, you work for the BPRD, so there's probably someone either in the Bureau that you can connect with or you are being sent to contact them as part of a case file.
Some of these roles are filled by actual PC agents with the BPRD Consultant role (pages 37-42) given the more investigative/specialist nature of the Hellboy RPG, whereas some experts can be accessed either before play as resources using requisition points, invoked through the use of particular feats (eg The Archive), or possibly even triggered via spending ingenuity generated during play.
Where can I hire mercenaries?
Again, the agents are part of the BPRD so can request access to backup agents (105-108) rather than mercenaries per se. These backups fulfill the role of sidekicks to an extent but have much more streamlined and fast-paced rules consisting of a limited number of wounds and don't require separate rolls other than a simple death save mechanic if targeted.
Inspired by and drawn from their role in the Hellboy Boardgame, summaries for various backup agents, including Kate Corrigan, are given in Appendix A: Integrations (229-234). This saves having to develop fully-fledged NPCs and helps keep the focus in the case file on the PC agents.
All backup agents have either at least one direct and/or remote boon depending on whether they are in the vicinity of the PC agents or away from the action.
These rules can also be used to run PC agents when the player is unavailable rather than utilising their full stat block as an NPC, with their wounds and various boons being determined by the PC agent level.
This is the first post in this series, the next post will deal with some of the other major campaign elements...
Comments
Post a Comment