2

Table Of ContentsIntroduction........................................................................................................... 4

What Is Roleplaying?...................................................................................................................... 4What Do You Need To Play? .......................................................................................................... 4How Do You Win? .......................................................................................................................... 4

Chapter 1: Overview............................................................................................. 5The History Of Oz .......................................................................................................................... 5Life In Oz........................................................................................................................................ 5

Part I: The Rules Of The Game........................................................................... 7

Chapter 2: Creating Your Character ........................................................... 7Character Traits...................................................................................................................... 7

Size................................................................................................................................ 7Basic Skills.................................................................................................................... 8Skill Traits..................................................................................................................... 8Special Traits................................................................................................................. 8Friends And Oz Points ................................................................................................ 10

Equipment ............................................................................................................................ 10Character Creation Examples .............................................................................................. 10Character Templates ............................................................................................................. 11

Child In Oz .................................................................................................................. 11Crafted Person ............................................................................................................. 11Large Animal ............................................................................................................... 11Noble ........................................................................................................................... 12Scholar ........................................................................................................................ 12Small Animal .............................................................................................................. 12Soldier ......................................................................................................................... 12Wanderer ..................................................................................................................... 13

Chapter 3: Game Rules ............................................................................... 13How To Play The Game ....................................................................................................... 13Rolling Dice ......................................................................................................................... 13Bonuses And Penalties ......................................................................................................... 14Skill Contests ....................................................................................................................... 14Simple Contests ................................................................................................................... 15Extended Tests ..................................................................................................................... 15Oz Points .............................................................................................................................. 15Getting Into Fights ............................................................................................................... 16Who Goes First? .................................................................................................................. 16What To Do .......................................................................................................................... 16Distance And Combat .......................................................................................................... 18Extended Tests In Combat ................................................................................................... 18Getting Better ....................................................................................................................... 18

Chapter 4: The Magic Of Oz ...................................................................... 19Magical Characters .............................................................................................................. 19New Traits ............................................................................................................................ 19

Creating Spells ...................................................................................................................... 20Help/Hinder ........................................................................................................................... 20Apportation ........................................................................................................................... 20Transmutation ....................................................................................................................... 20Transformation ...................................................................................................................... 21Duration ................................................................................................................................ 21Scope .................................................................................................................................... 21Ritual .................................................................................................................................... 21Magic In A Fight ................................................................................................................... 22Magical Items And Powers ................................................................................................... 22

Items And Powers For Starting Characters .................................................................. 22Creating Magical Items In Play ................................................................................... 22Power ........................................................................................................................... 22Lesser Magics ............................................................................................................... 23Scope ............................................................................................................................ 23Ritual ............................................................................................................................ 23Item Limitations ........................................................................................................... 23

Love Magnet ......................................................................................................................... 23Silver Shoes .......................................................................................................................... 23Golden Cap ........................................................................................................................... 23

Chapter 5: For The Narrator ....................................................................... 24Telling The Story .................................................................................................................. 24Playing The Characters ......................................................................................................... 24Using The Rules .................................................................................................................... 24Guiding Character Creation .................................................................................................. 24Choosing Friends .................................................................................................................. 24Modifying Templates ............................................................................................................ 24Balancing The Game, Part 1 ................................................................................................. 25Preparing For Play ................................................................................................................ 25Plotting The Journey ............................................................................................................. 25Preparing For Extended Play ................................................................................................ 26Starting The Game ................................................................................................................ 26Creating The Supporting Cast ............................................................................................... 26Balancing The Game, Part 2 ................................................................................................. 27Creating New Lands ............................................................................................................. 27Running The Game ............................................................................................................... 28Using Descriptions ............................................................................................................... 28Improvising Consistently ..................................................................................................... 29Making Up Rules .................................................................................................................. 29Assessing Bonuses And Penalties ........................................................................................ 29Making Failure Interesting ................................................................................................... 29Running Fights ..................................................................................................................... 30Gaining And Spending Oz Points ......................................................................................... 30Character Growth And Development ................................................................................... 31Having Fun As A Narrator..................................................................................................... 31

Part II: The Land Of Oz ..................................................................................... 32

Chapter 6: The Emerald City ..................................................................... 32Princess Ozma ...................................................................................................................... 32Ozma’s Counselors ............................................................................................................... 32

3

Ozma’s Bodyguard ................................................................................................................ 33Ozma’s Friends ..................................................................................................................... 34Civil Servants ........................................................................................................................ 34Adventuring In The Emerald City ........................................................................................ 35

Chapter 7: The Gillikin Country ................................................................. 35Flathead Mountain ................................................................................................................ 35Loonville ............................................................................................................................... 38Mist Valley ............................................................................................................................ 38Skeezer Lake ......................................................................................................................... 39Winged Monkeys .................................................................................................................. 40Yoop Castle ........................................................................................................................... 41

Chapter 8: The Munchkin Country ............................................................ 42Field Of Poppies ................................................................................................................... 42Invisible Country .................................................................................................................. 43Kalidahs ................................................................................................................................ 43Miss Foolish Owl And Mr. Wise Donkey ............................................................................. 44Mount Munch ........................................................................................................................ 45Royal Athletic College Of Oz ............................................................................................... 46

Chapter 9: The Quadling Country .............................................................. 47Bunbury ................................................................................................................................. 47Bunnybury ............................................................................................................................. 47China Country ....................................................................................................................... 48Cuttenclip Village ................................................................................................................. 48Dark Forest ............................................................................................................................ 49Fighting Trees ....................................................................................................................... 49Flutterbudget Center ............................................................................................................. 50Fuddlecumjig ........................................................................................................................ 50Glinda’s Palace ...................................................................................................................... 51Hammerheads ....................................................................................................................... 51Hopper Country .................................................................................................................... 52Horner Country ..................................................................................................................... 52Jinxland ................................................................................................................................. 53Mr. Yoop ................................................................................................................................ 54Rigmarole Town .................................................................................................................... 55Tottenhots .............................................................................................................................. 55Utensia .................................................................................................................................. 56

Chapter 10: The Winkie Country ............................................................... 57Bear Center ........................................................................................................................... 57Herku ..................................................................................................................................... 57Oogaboo ................................................................................................................................ 58Thi ......................................................................................................................................... 59Tin Castle .............................................................................................................................. 60Truth Pond.............................................................................................................................. 61Yip Country ........................................................................................................................... 61

Part III: Adventures ............................................................................................ 62

Chapter 11: The Jaded City Of Oz ............................................................. 62Overview And Preparation .................................................................................................... 62Running The Adventure ........................................................................................................ 62Scene 1: The Melting Day Parade ......................................................................................... 63Scence 2: Yellow Brick Blues ............................................................................................... 63Scene 3: The Sad Story Of Horbull ...................................................................................... 65Scene 4: The Wicked Witch Hunt Of The West .................................................................... 67Scene 5: Whale Away! ........................................................................................................... 69Scene 6: The Jaded City ........................................................................................................ 70Scene 7: Return To The Emerald City .................................................................................. 72

Map Of Oz ............................................................................................................74

Character Sheets .................................................................................................75

Quick Reference Tables ......................................................................................76

4

IntroductionImagination has brought mankind through the Dark Ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagi-nation has given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine and the automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they became realities. So I believe that dreams—day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain-ma-chinery whizzing—are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization.

—The Lost Princess of Oz

What Is Roleplaying?When we were kids, we all played some kind of pretending games. Maybe we

tied a towel around our necks and pretended to be superheroes. Maybe we gave each

explored our backyards through the eyes of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, imagining new corners of Oz for us to discover.

The Adventures in Oz roleplaying game is an evolution of those games. Each player controls a character to participate in the story. One person serves as the Nar-rator, who directs the story and determines the outcome of the players’ actions. The Narrator will also be called on to play the parts of all of the other characters in the story, whether it’s a friendly Munchkin farmer or the wicked Nome King.

In order to help the Narrator do that, the game has rules. Characters have Basic

thinks a character’s action is risky or exciting, they may call for a dice roll to deter-mine the results.

What Do You Need To Play?Each player should have a sheet of paper with their character’s information writ-

ten down, as well as a pencil or two to add or change things on this sheet as play progresses. Also, there should be enough six-sided dice available that each player has two.

The Narrator will probably have a few more pieces of paper, depending on how much she needs to have written down for the story she prepared. Some Narrators prefer to keep their notes hidden, and might want some books or folders to prop up as a screen.

How Do You Win?A roleplaying game is not competitive, but cooperative. The object of the game

is to tell an exciting Oz story starring the characters that you have created. Although the Narrator is responsible for putting challenges, obstacles and enemies in your path, you are not playing against her.

You can also play another session with the same characters, making new stories to add to their legend.

5

Chapter 1: Overview“I’ll sing a song of Ozland, where wondrous creatures dwell

Where magic is a science and where no one shows surpriseIf some amazing thing takes place before his very eyes.”

— Shaggy Man,The Patchwork Girl of Oz

The History Of Oz

death and aging in the country, and left behind one of her fairies to rule the land. For some time, a series of kings and queens named Oz and Ozma, respectively, reigned over the country. This age ended when four Wicked Witches, one for each compass direction, joined together to conquer Oz. It was Mombi, the Wicked Witch of the North, who captured and enchanted the current king, and later his son and heir Pas-toria. The Wicked Witches remained in charge until two Good Witches conquered the North and South. The one from the south was the famous Glinda, who was more of a sorceress than a witch, but took the title of Good Witch of South for the sake of symmetry. In the Gillikin Country, the Good Witch of the North ruled, but Mombi remained a formidable threat.

It was when the country was in this precarious balance, with two Good Witches and two Wicked ones ruling the four segments individually, that Oscar Zoroaster Diggs arrived in the magical land from the United States in a circus balloon. As he

their royal family. He convinced people that he was a wizard by means of simple tricks, and became known as Oz the Great and Terrible, or the Wizard of Oz. He had the Emerald City built in the green area where the quadrants met, on top of the ruins of Pastoria’s old castle. The Wizard safeguarded his own hold on the throne by bringing Pastoria’s baby daughter Ozma to Mombi, who transformed the young prin-cess into a boy named Tippetarius. The Wizard also confronted the Wicked Witch of the West at one point, only to be driven out of the Winkie Country by the Winged Monkeys. Eventually, fearing the real magical power of the Witches, he came to spend all of his time hiding in the Emerald City. He became a mysterious and re-

occasions when he did.

After the Wizard had been ruling for some time, a tornado brought Dorothy Gale of Kansas and her farmhouse to Oz, the house landing on and killing the Wicked Witch of the East. At the Wizard’s request, Dorothy destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West with a bucket of water. When the Wizard refused to grant her desire

the country in another balloon. Dorothy’s companion, the famous live Scarecrow, served as ruler of the Emerald City for a little while, until the revolt of girls led by General Jinjur. Having been driven out of the city, the Scarecrow went to appeal for Glinda for help. She informed him that Pastoria’s daughter was still alive, and forced Mombi to restore her true form. Ever since then, Ozma has ruled the Land of Oz.

Life In Oz“If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the rest of the world,” declared the Tin Woodman. “Fortu-nately money is not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich, and no poor; for what one wishes the others all try to give him, in order to make him happy, and no one in all Oz cares to have more than he can use.”

—The Road to Oz

The fairy enchantment that allows the people of Oz to live forever has changed very little about life for them, and that’s the way they like it. They appreciate that they are free from the ravages of aging and disease. They take comfort in the fact that tomorrow will be much like today, and that this year strongly resembles all the other years that came before it.

Not everyone is like this, though. Some people become bored with the routine of life and explore the wonders of Oz. Even those who don’t travel still enjoy hear-ing the tales of the wanderers. A tradition of hospitality has evolved so that travelers can generally rely on a warm meal and safe rest for the night anywhere they happen to be. In trade, they offer stories and perhaps a few chores. This has the added ben-

Wise wanderers will ask their host for any stories they have heard from other travelers. That way, they can prepare for any dangers or hazards that might await them. It’s also possible for them to catch word of some new adventure to pursue, or gain a clue to something that they are already seeking.

6

There is no money in the Land of Oz, for there has been no need of it. Mem-bers of a given community tend to help each other without regard for compen-sation. Exchange between communities is limited by the unusual nature of many of the peoples of Oz. For example, the China People (page 48) are well suited to life behind their porcelain wall, but are remarkably delicate compared to those outside of it. Without material wealth to pursue, it’s easy to think that the people of Oz would be lazy and un-ambitious. But that would be ignoring a very important part of human nature: Pride. Any individual Ozite is proud of what he is able to accomplish. A crafts-man or artist takes pride in their work;

a farmer takes pride in their harvest, and so on.

Civic pride is also very important. While each person is fully capable of ruling himself, they often nominate Kings and Queens to be symbols of their communities. Royalty is given the best lifestyle that the community can provide, though this can vary depending on the size and available resources of the community. In Oogaboo, Queen Ann Soforth lives in a castle and has plenty to eat, but she and her sister Sallye end up doing most of the housework. The Tin Woodman, however, is the Emperor of the Winkies and rules fully one quarter of the Land of Oz. He lives in a majestic Tin Castle and his staff keeps his tin body and castle well polished.

The Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the capital of the Land of Oz. The Royal Palace is home

to Princess Ozma and some of the most unusual people in all of Oz. She values all

city is green, using green marble as a building material and gold and emeralds for decorative purposes.

The Gillikin CountryThe Gillikin Country occupies the northern quarter of the Land of Oz. Mombi,

the Wicked Witch of the North, still lives there, though she has been stripped of her magical and political power. A Good Witch wanders the land to help those in need. The color of the Gillikins is purple. The people live in purple homes, wear purple clothes, and have purple potatoes for dinner.

The Munchkin CountryThe eastern quadrant of Oz is known as the Munchkin Country. The Wicked

Witch of the East ruled it until Dorothy’s house crushed her when it landed. It was the original home of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman and Cowardly Lion. Blue is the favored color of the Munchkins and Blue Forests are known to grow there.

The Quadling CountryTo the south lies the Quadling Country. Glinda the Good, also known as the

Good Witch of the South, rules this section of Oz. The Quadling Country is home to some of the strangest communities in Oz. Glinda has been mentioned as creating or helping to create some of these (such as the Cuttenclip Village and Bunnybury), but she may be connected to a number of others. The Quadlings prefer the color red above all others.

The Winkie CountryThe Wicked Witch of the West once ruled the Winkies until Dorothy melted her.

Since then, they have chosen the Tin Woodman to serve as their Emperor. He rules the Winkies from a glorious Tin Castle. The Tin Woodman allows no cruelty of any kind in his realm, no matter how small. The Winkie color is yellow.

7

Part I: The Rules Of The Game

Chapter 2: Creating Your Character“My life has been so short that I really know nothing whatever. I was only made day before yesterday.”

— The Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

In order to make a character using the Adventures in Oz rules, follow these steps.

1) Imagine Your CharacterTake some time to think about the kind of character you wish to play. Are they young or old? Are they human, animal, or maybe something stranger? Are they from America, Oz, or some other fairy country? What sorts of work are they accustomed to doing? Why are they undertaking adventures in Oz?

You don’t have to answer all of these immediately. In fact, part of the fun of the game is watching your character grow and develop through play.

2) Choose A Template

Now that you have an idea of what your character is like, decide what template from the list on pages 11-13 comes closest to what you want. If none of the tem-plates seem right, talk to your Narrator. They might be able to provide a template or a trait to represent what you’re looking for.

3) Customize The TemplateThe time has come to make your character unique. Add 2 points to one of the

template’s Basic Skills, and then add 1 point to two other Basic Skills. Alternately,

you can combine the two 1 point increases into a single 2-point increase to another skill. If your Narrator allows, you may purchase other traits with these points, or take a disadvantageous trait to gain more skill points.

4) Add A Skill SpecialtyDecide on a particular application of one Basic Skill that your character is best

at. This may be “running” for the Athletics skill, or “history” for the Brains skill, or any number of other things.

5) Fill In The Character’s Friends List And Oz Points Everyone that the character has adventures with is a friend. Each player may

also choose 1 friend for their character who they do not adventure with. This will -

cant favor. For every friend on a character’s Friends List, that player gains 1 Oz Point.

Character Traits

Size“MISTER YOOP—HIS CAVE

The Largest Untamed Giant in Captivity.Height, 21 Feet.—(And yet he has but 2 feet.)Weight, 1640 Pounds.—(But he waits all the time.)Age, 400 Years ‘and Up’ (as they say in the Department Store ad-vertisements).Temper, Fierce and Ferocious.—(Except when asleep.)Appetite, Ravenous.—(Prefers Meat People and Orange Marma-lade.)

STRANGERS APPROACHING THIS CAVE DO SO AT THEIR OWN PERIL!

P.S.—Don’t feed the Giant yourself.”

— The Patchwork Girl of Oz

This trait measures how large your character is in relation to other characters. Just like skills, it is rated on a scale of 1 through 5.

8

Size Examples1 Tiny Toto, The China People2 Child-Sized Dorothy, Winged Monkeys3 Man-Sized The Wizard, Scarecrow4 Large Cowardly Lion, Hungry Tiger5 Giant Mr. And Mrs. Yoop

Basic SkillsA character’s basic skills form the basis of what they are capable of in the game.

All templates include every basic skill, although not always at the same level. These skills are rated from 1 through 5, with 1 being the worst rating, and 5 being the best.

Athletics

This is your character’s ability to run, jump and climb.

Awareness

This is your character’s ability to pay attention and notice things.

Brains

This is your character’s ability to learn and remember things.

Sneaking

This is your character’s ability to hide and to move without being seen.

Presence

This is your character’s ability to get along with other people.

Wits

This is your character’s ability to resist fear and keep cool under pressure.

Skill TraitsSo the Woodman took his axe and began to chop down small trees to make a raft…

— The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

These traits represent potential new uses for the Basic Skills. They are available to any player who wishes to purchase them for their character. Each one costs 1 skill

point. The Narrator may allow characters without these traits to attempt their related activities, but at a -2 penalty (for more on bonuses and penalties, see page 14).

Although each trait lists some suggested uses, players and Narrators may come up with others. For example, a Narrator may require a character with the Craftsman trait to roll against their Sneaking skill to create an item with hidden compartments or functions.

Craftsman (1)

This is the ability to make things. Each kind of thing you can make counts as a separate trait. Roll against Athletics for tasks that require strength and fortitude, such

and attention to detail, such as sewing or jewelry making. Rolling against Presence may be required to create an object of particular beauty.

Humbug Magic (1)

This is the ability to perform tricks and illusions to entertain people with. Roll against Presence to give an entertaining performance. Roll against Awareness to see through other people’s tricks. Roll against Sneaking to hide small objects on the character’s body.

Musician (1)

This is the ability to sing and play musical instruments. Roll against Presence to give an entertaining performance or compose a moving piece of music.

Poet (1)

This is the ability to compose poems and songs. Roll against Presence to com-pose or perform an amusing poem. The Brains skill may be used for this as well, but the results will be more technically perfect than entertaining.

Special TraitsThese traits help represent all of the curious characters we discover in the Oz

-acter type. If you wish to purchase one of these traits with your skill points, you must get your Narrator’s permission.

Each trait is given a cost in skill points, which is listed in parentheses after the trait’s name. If the cost has a minus sign next to it, it is a disadvantage and gives that many points back.

9

Crafted (2)

The character is made of something

need to eat, drink, or sleep. Any attempt

this trait requires a special success on the attack roll to succeed. Attempts to injure

page 11 for details), but will always cause Wits damage if they are successful. Example: Scarecrow

Deadly Weapon (2)

The character has a weapon with a sharp edge or blade, which can be used to

cut opponents to pieces. Wild animals may have sharp teeth or claws to serve this purpose. Example: Tin Woodman

Flight (2)

things are possible in the Land of Oz. Example: The Winged Monkeys

Mighty Blow (1)

The character has a powerful attack that knocks foes down. They may make Knockdown attacks at no penalty. Example: The Hammerheads

No Arms (-1)

The character has no arms, either by design or because they use them as a second pair of legs. The character cannot have any Craftsman skill traits at all, and suffers a -2 penalty on rolls that depend on precise manipulation. Example: Cowardly Lion

Weakness (varies)

The character has a vulnerability to a certain material or situation. There are 2 types of weaknesses a character might have.

Incapacitating: When the character is exposed to the source of their weak-ness, they become unable to move. They must be repaired or otherwise corrected before they can move again. This type of weakness grants 1 skill point.

Damaging: The character is injured when exposed to the source of their weakness. Roll on the injury table on page 17 to determine where the char-acter is injured. If the character has the Crafted trait, do not include that

the roll. This type of weakness grants 2 skill points.

There are 3 categories of sources a weakness may have. Each one reduces the type of skill selection a character gets from a weakness, but also makes the weakness less likely to come up.

Common: The character is weak to a fairly common item or substance, such as water. This is the default case and does not affect skill points.

Uncommon: The character is weak to a fairly uncommon item or substance (such as radium) or one that requires effort or preparation to create (such as

Rare: The character is weak to a rare or unusual item or substance (such

(such as a hen’s egg). This costs 2 skill points.

Example: The Fuddles, a race of puzzle people, have the habit of coming apart whenever strangers approach. They are Incapacitated by this (1 skill point), but it is Uncommon (-1 skill point) for strangers to visit their town of Fuddlecumjig, so this

-tures in Oz, strange people and surprises become much more Common, gaining the character 1 skill point.

Player Vs. CharacterIn the rules, the words “player” and “character” are used somewhat inter-

changeably. In general, the word “player” describes the person sitting at the table

executes the actions that the player describes. So a player may say, “My character is going to jump in the river” or even “I’m going to jump in the river”, but it is the imaginary character who jumps in the pretend river and whom we describe as being wet.

10

Friends and Oz Points“Of course,” replied the Scarecrow, brightening at the suggestion. “The Tin Woodman will do anything we ask him, for he’s one of my dearest friends.”

— The Patchwork Girl of Oz

A starting character has everyone they adventure with as a friend. They should also have one other friend who does not adventure with them. Exactly who this friend is can have a large impact on the game, so the Narrator should approve any proposed friend.

number of friends that they have. So if a character has 5 friends on their Friends List when the game begins, they start with 5 Oz Points.

For more information on how to use Oz Points, including how to get more, seepage 15.

EquipmentMost characters in the Oz stories do not carry much with them on adventures.

If they carry anything, it is likely a small basket of food and other supplies or some-thing that they spent skill points on, such as the Tin Woodman’s ax (purchased as a Deadly Weapon) or the Shaggy Man’s Love Magnet (purchased as a magical item). If they discover that they need more than this, they will either improvise something (such as building a raft to cross a river) or ask politely at the nearest homestead.

Character Creation Examples

Dorothy: To create Dorothy, I’m going to start with the “Child in Oz” template. One of Dorothy’s main character traits is her ability to make friends, so I’ll put her 2-skill point allocation into Presence, raising it to 4. She is also quite fearless, able to

rating of 4. The Craftsman: Sewing Skill Trait is something she very likely learned on her farm in Kansas, and she also used it to sew the balloon that the Wizard used to get home in “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” That takes care of the last skill point.

For Dorothy’s specialty, I’m going to put “plain spoken” on her Presence skill. She is at her best when she speaks plainly and simply.

-ventures, she has earned many friends. But one friend does stand out as the driving force behind many of Dorothy’s adventures. Princess Ozma has also provided help whenever Dorothy needed it.

Name: Dorothy Gale Friends List: OzmaSize: 2

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 3Brains: 1 Presence: 4 (plain spoken)Sneaking: 2 Wits: 4Special Abilities: Craftsman: Sewing

Tin Woodman: The Tin Woodman is a much more complicated character to build. The easiest place to start would be the Crafted Person template. This includes the Crafted trait, which represents the fact that his tin body is more resistant to dam-age. Now I’ll need spend 2 skill points on the Deadly Weapon trait to represent his ax and 1 point on the Craftsman: Wood trait to allow him to make many wonderful things out of the trees he chops down.

The Tin Woodman also has a tendency to rust. This should be purchased as a Weakness. Since he cannot move while he is rusted stiff, the Weakness is Incapaci-tating, granting him a bonus skill point. The fact that water causes this condition does not change the cost of the Weakness, since water is Common.

Now that all of his traits are purchased, he only has 2 skill points left. I’ll spend one of them on Presence to raise it from a 1 to a 2. The other one will go towards raising Athletics from 2 to 3. I’ll also place his specialty of “ax” on Athletics. Wheth-

it.

This creates a rather “adventurous” version of the Tin Woodman. If I wanted to

have taken both of the remaining skill points and placed them in Presence, raising it to 3 and given him the Presence specialty of “kind” instead of the “ax” specialty.

Either way, he still needs a friend. He has managed to make several friends over the course of his adventures, but none so useful as the Queen of the Field Mice. He saved her life while a wildcat was hunting her and she proceeded to help him rescue his friends from the Poppy Field and help him and his comrades escape the Emerald City when General Jinjur had captured it.

11

Name: Tin Woodman Friends List: Queen of the Field MiceSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 3 (ax) Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 2Sneaking: 1 Wits: 2

Special Abilities: Crafted, Craftsman: Wood, Deadly Weapon, Weakness: Water (Incapacitating, Common)

Character Templates

Name: Child in Oz Examples: Dorothy, Tip, OjoSize: 2

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 3Brains: 1 Presence: 2Sneaking: 2 Wits: 3Traits: None

Customization Notes: Many heroes of Oz are children. Although they are not particularly brave, they are often determined and eager explorers. They also have a tendency to observe things that

other characters may miss. These characteristics make Awareness and Wits prime candidates for increase. An adventurous youth might raise their Athletics skill or take an Athletics specialty revolving around some game or sport. Children who are helpful around the house might acquire the Craftsman trait.

Name: Crafted Person Examples: Tin Wood-man, ScarecrowSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 1Sneaking: 1 Wits: 2Traits: Crafted

Customization Notes: Many Crafted characters have high Athletics skill ratings or a specialty in an athletic feat since they can ignore many of the limitations of ordinary meat people. Wits is also

more resistant to the dangers that Oz has to offer and is less likely to be frightened by them. Both of these traits make a Crafted person an ideal defender of the other, more vulnerable, people that they adventure with. Think about the origins of your character and decide if they have a Weakness. This can be anything from the Tin Woodman’s tendency to rust to Tik-Tok’s need to keep his clockworks wound up.

Namee: Large Animal Examples: Cowardly Lion, Jim the Cab-HorseSize: 4

Basic SkillsAthletics: 3 Awareness: 3Brains: 1 Presence: 1Sneaking: 2 Wits: 2Traits: No Arms

Customization Notes: This template can rep-resent a wide variety of animal characters. Most animals will have a respectable Athletics score, either to chase down food or to run away from something that wants to eat them. Impressive looking animals will have higher Presence skill ratings,

The Deadly Weapon trait can represent the claws and teeth of a predator, while the Mighty Blow trait can be used for hoofed creatures with a powerful kick.

12

Name: Noble Examples: Queen Ann Soforth, Prince IngaSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 1 Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 3Sneaking: 1 Wits: 3Traits: None

Customization Notes: Nobles are very much about the impression that they make. Consider raising Presence skill or placing your specialty there or both. Wits is also important, as it gives a noble the courage to stick by whatever decision

they make. Although it would seem obvious to us, it’s not obvious to some nobles that they need Brains to help them make wise decisions.

Name: Scholar Examples: Professor Wogglebug, FrogmanSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 3 Presence: 1Sneaking: 2 Wits: 2

Special Abilities: NoneCustomization Notes: Although both of the ex-

amples of this template are very interesting crea-tures, your character does not have to be. Most scholars in the stories are dull people, hence the low Presence. You might decide to place your

specialty in Presence without raising it to represent a boring person who just happens to be good at teaching, or public speaking, or some other social feat.

Namee: Small Animal Examples: Toto, Billina, Field MiceSize: 1

Basic SkillsAthletics: 3 Awareness: 3Brains: 2 Presence: 2Sneaking: 2 Wits: 3Traits: No Arms

Customization Notes: If your character is a larger type of a small animal, such as one of the larger breeds of dog, you may spend 1 skill point to raise the character’s Size to 2. A character that has learned to use their paws as effective hands and enjoy

Name: Soldier Examples: Omby Amby, Private FilesSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 1 Presence: 2Sneaking: 2 Wits: 1

Traits: Deadly Weapon

Customization Notes: There are two kinds of soldiers presented in the Oz stories: the competent

a private will raise it. They both need Awareness to spot danger. The Athletics skill enables the

it to escape from the threat. Presence allows the

display their medals and gold braid.

-cialties such as “running away” for Athletics, “horrible creatures and how to avoid

13

them” for Brains, or the Wits specialty “when everyone else is looking.” Actual

for Awareness, or “well-drilled” for Presence.

Namee: Wanderer Examples: Shaggy Man, Woot the WandererSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 2Sneaking: 2 Wits: 2Traits: None

Customization Notes: The wanderer is a fairly generic template, with no particular strengths or weaknesses. Your choices will be what make the wanderer character unique.

Chapter 3: Game RulesHow To Play The Game

Playing a role-playing game is remarkably easy. The Narrator begins by setting the scene, describing what is going on around the characters. Players then decide how their characters are going to react to the situation. The players then describe the actions that their characters take. The rules come into play when a player describes

Rolling Dice“I haven’t done anything to them,” whined Kaliko, trembling as

“No; but you tried to, an’ that’s just as bad, if not worse,” said Dorothy, who was very indignant. “And now I want you to send for the King and Queen of Pingaree and have them brought here immejitly!”

— Rinkitink In Oz

Dice are used in many games to create inter-esting random results, such as how many spaces to move on a board. This game uses dice as well, but in a different way.

When a player describes an action for their character that they may or may not succeed at, the Narrator will tell the player to “make a skill roll” or “roll against their skill.” This means that the player must roll 2 six-sided dice and compare the individual results to the appropriate skill. If one of the dice comes up equal to or lower than their skill rating, than the action was successful. If both dice come up higher than the character’s skill rating, then the attempt has failed.

Example: Dorothy stands before Kaliko, the Nome King, demanding that he release Prince Inga and his parents, the King and Queen of Pin-garee, whom he has imprisoned. Dorothy’s player

14

makes a Presence roll to impress the Nome King. Her Presence rating is 3 and the dice results are 2 and 5. She has successfully intimidated Kaliko.

If both of the dice indicate successful results, then the player has scored a special success. The Narrator should be creative in describing the results of a special suc-cess. Some rules will also make use of special successes for certain special results.

character attempts an action that falls under their specialty, they may reroll one of the dice that they just rolled. This allows the player a chance to turn a failure into a success, or a success into a special success.

Example: Dorothy has a specialty called “plain spoken;” she says what she means and doesn’t rely on formality. Since the player described Dorothy as speaking very plainly to Kaliko, the Narrator rules that her specialty applies in this situation. Dorothy’s player decides to reroll the die that came up 5. This time, that die comes up 3. The die results are now 2 and 3, both of which are equal to or below Dorothy’s Presence rating. Dorothy has scored a special success! Kaliko sees that Dorothy is willing to back up everything she says, and orders that Prince Inga and his family be released immediately into Dorothy’s custody.

Bonuses And PenaltiesCharacters do not always face ideal sit-

uations. Some situations will be harder or easier than others. When a character attempts something that is easier than normal, they gain a bonus. If a task is harder than normal, they gain a penalty.

A bonus is a number that adds to a skill rating in order to make success more likely. So if a character has a skill rat-

would roll as if their skill rating was 3. A bonus may not raise a skill above 5.

A penalty subtracts from a skill rating. A character with a skill rating of 4 who gains a -2 penalty must roll as if their skill was only 2. This can bring a rating to 0 or below. If this happens, the action cannot be attempted. The character may

-

want.

a character that is notably larger or smaller than you, the difference in sizes makes certain things easier and other things harder. A normal sized person might have a harder time spotting a mouse sneaking around, but could frighten that tiny creature

sizes of the two characters. Then apply that number as a bonus or a penalty depend-ing on whether the size difference makes the task easier or harder.

Example: The Queen of the Field Mice, who is Size 1, is being chased by a wildcat, which is Size 2. Since the Queen is smaller than the wildcat, she can squeeze into places that the wild-

her Athletics roll to run away from the wildcat due to her size.

Example: Even with her bonus, the Queen of the Field Mice is nearly cap-tured by the wildcat! The Tin Woods-man is walking nearby. Since he is Size

3, he must make an Awareness roll with a -2 penalty to see the tiny Queen. Once he realizes what is going on, the Tin Man readies his ax to strike down the wildcat, but suffers a -1 penalty to his Athletics skill since the wildcat is 1 Size smaller than him.

Skill ContestsJim’s big hoofs pounded away at a great rate, and although he did not look very graceful he ran in a way to do credit to his Kentucky breeding. But the Sawhorse was swifter than the wind. Its wooden legs moved so fast that their twinkling could scarcely be seen, and although so much smaller than the cab-horse it covered the ground much faster. Before they had reached the trees the Sawhorse was far ahead, and the wooden animal returned to the starting place as was being lustily cheered by the Ozites before Jim came panting up to the canopy where the Princess and her friends were seated.

— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

15

Sometimes, the situation that requires a die roll involves another character. This can be a chase, a game of hide and seek, or a number of other things. In cases like these, both players roll against the appropriate skill. Both players do not need to roll against the same skill. For a game of hide and seek, for example, one of the players would roll against their character’s Sneaking skill, while the other makes an Aware-ness roll.

If only one of them succeeds at their roll, or only one scores a special success, then that character wins the contest. If both of them fail, then the contest is a tie and they should roll again to determine a clear winner. If both rolls score success or spe-cial success, the winner is the player whose successful die results came up highest.

Example: It’s the big race between the Saw-Horse and Jim the Cab-Horse! The Saw-Horse has an Athletics rating of 4 with a specialty in “running”, while Jim has

The dice rolled for the Cab-Horse come up 2 and 5. Both scored regular successes, but the Saw-Horse’s successful result of 3 is higher than Jim’s successful 2. The Saw-Horse wins the race!

Simple ContestsShould the Narrator decide that they wish to keep the story moving quickly, or

to keep dice-rolling to a minimum, they may decide to use a simpler option for skill contests.

Once all other bonuses and penalties have been assessed, determine the differ-ence between the two character’s skills. If the character who’s player will be rolling dice has a higher skill, then the difference is applied as a bonus. If the opposing character has a higher skill, then it is applied as a penalty. Should the opposing char-

difference between their skill ratings.

Example: This time, the race will be resolved with a simple contest. Only Jim the Cab-Horse’s player will roll dice. The Saw-Horse’s Athletics skill is 4 with

Since this is 2 higher than Jim’s skill, his skill roll suffers a -2 penalty. The Cab-Horse’s effective skill for this roll is only 1. The dice results are 2 and 5. Since neither die was successful, the race goes to the Saw-Horse.

Extended TestsSome tasks do not lend themselves to being reduced to a single die roll. In such

cases, the Narrator should decide how many successful rolls are needed and how much time each attempt takes. Special successes count as 2 successful rolls in an extended test. Failed rolls do not subtract from success, but if a player rolls 3 failures in a row, the character must begin the project again from scratch.

Example: The Wogglebug wishes to compose an ode to Ozma to present to her on her birthday. The Narrator rules that a poem worthy of Ozma’s birthday requires 5 successes, each taking a day of dedicated work.

Extended tests may also be used to allow multiple characters to help with a task or to allow a single character to use multiple skills for the same task.

Example: Dorothy is sewing the silk balloon that will carry her and the Wizard

skill, and a lot of it, so the Athletics skill could apply. The Narrator allows Dorothy’s player to alternate rolling against Brains and Athletics in order to accumulate suc-cessful rolls.

Oz Points“WE may be helpless,” answered Dorothy, smiling at him, “but there are others who can do more than we can. Cheer up, friends. I’m sure Ozma will help us.”

— Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

No Oz character is ever truly alone. They are always making new friends and helping out old ones. Oz Points encourage players to do the same thing.

The most common method of earning Oz Points is by helping friends. When-ever a character does something for someone on their Friends List that they cannot do for themselves, the helpful character earns an Oz Point.

The other way to earn Oz Points is by making new friends. Whenever a char-acter helps someone who’s not on his Friends List and the Narrator approves, that person may be added to the Friends List. Every addition to their Friends List earns a character an Oz Point.

Example: Dorothy and Scarecrow are off to see the Wizard. Not far off of the Yellow Brick Road is a man made entirely of tin, who has become rusted stiff.

16

joins Dorothy and the Scarecrow in their adventure, and is added to the Friends List of both characters. Both the little girl and the straw man earn an Oz Point for adding him to their Friends List.

Example: The Wicked Witch of the West has sent a pack of wolves to devour our heroes! The Tin Woodsman, with his sharp ax and tin plating, bravely volunteers to protect the group from this threat. Since none of the other characters could hope to face an entire pack of wolves and win, our tin friend gains an Oz Point for his bravery.

Oz Points can be spent in a number of ways. The simplest way to spend them is

skill rating for the purpose of one skill roll. The player may spend as many Oz Points on one roll as they like, though they cannot spend more than they have. Oz Points may be spent after the dice have been rolled, but before the Narrator has described the results of the action.

Oz Points may also be spent to call on a friend. The friend does not need to be -

some friends out of a tough spot.

Example: Dorothy and her traveling companions are trapped in a cave! They have reached a dead end, and the way back is full of dangers. Dorothy’s player spends an Oz Point to call on her friend Ozma. Dorothy remembers that Ozma checks on her every day at 4 o’clock. If Dorothy makes a secret sign at this time, Ozma will use her Magic Belt to wish Dorothy to safety in the Emerald City.

Example: Ojo is traveling through Oz with the Shaggy Man. They encounter a giant porcupine with the power to throw his quills. The Shaggy Man is hit! A quill has pierced his leg, and he is in terrible pain. Ojo’s player spends an Oz Point as Ojo reaches into the basket given to him by his friend, Dr. Pipt. He pulls out a small bundle of healing herbs and is able to treat the Shaggy Man’s wound.

Getting Into Fights

meet them as they come.”

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Oz is a land of dangers as well as wonders. Monstrous kalidahs roam the forests. Petty tyrants rule their small kingdoms without regard to their citizens or Ozma’s

their way past a foe.

well.

Who Goes First?

onto the road, or one of the heroes responding to the threat of the Wheelers. Once the

things organized. Establish a turn sequence and then ask the players to act in that sequence. Depending on the play space, this order can be going around the table, alphabetical by name, or in order based on the character’s Athletics or Awareness ratings.

Some threats may appear suddenly, surprising the characters. The characters may also wind up surprising an opponent. In cases like this, the Narrator may require that potentially surprised characters roll against their Awareness skill, possibly in a contest with the opponent’s Sneaking skill, in order to react quickly to the threat. Players who fail the Awareness roll must wait until all of the aware characters have acted before they may be inserted into the turn sequence.

Example:and throw apples at the attacker. The Narrator allows the character to climb the tree before going to the next player. When that player’s turn comes again, the Narrator allows them to either gather a number of apples at once and throw one on their next turn or pick only one and throw it this turn.

What To Do

Painful Strike: This is a basic attack that all characters may attempt. This

requires a roll against Athletics skill to successfully execute. If the defender is able to, they may attempt an Athletics roll of their own to evade the at-tack. Resolve these rolls as a skill contest. If the attacker wins the contest, the defender takes Wits damage. If the attacker scores a special success, then their opponent is stunned and may not act on their next turn as well.

17

Injuring Strike:The character must be wielding a sharp and dangerous weapon to attempt this attack. The attacker then rolls against their Athletics skill with a -2 pen-alty. The Deadly Weapon trait (page 9) eliminates this penalty and ensures that the character always has a weapon when they need one. The recipient of the attack may contest that roll with their Athletics skill in order to avoid

from those listed below, and check the result on the following table:

Modifiers+1 For Every Previous Injury The Defender Has Taken+2 If The Attack Was A Special Success+2 For Every Size Larger Than Defender-2 For Every Size Smaller Then Defender-4 If The Defender Has The Crafted Trait

Injury TableThe injured character loses the body

part indicated by the table. This is not le-thal to the people of Oz, who cannot die, but it is very inconvenient. It is also causes Wits damage.

In the case of a “Total” result, the char-acter is so injured as to be disabled. For those who prefer additional detail, make 3

-termine exactly where the character is in-jured.

Called Shot: -cept a -1 penalty in order to do so. This does not have to be chosen from the

effect on Painful Strikes, but will allow an unarmed character to attack a

may also use this to restrain an opponent’s weapon arm, or to cover a foe’s eyes, ears, or mouth and prevent their use.

Knockdown: This attack can take the form of a football tackle, a judo throw, or a powerful kick. The attacker makes an Athletics roll with a -1 penalty, while the defender may contest this with their own Athletics roll. The Mighty Blow trait negates the penalty on the attack. If successful, this attack knocks the foe down, requiring them to use their next action to stand up. The opponent also suffers Wits damage.

Impress: This action is not a physical attack, but a mental one. The attacker contests their Presence with their opponent’s Wits rating. If this action suc-ceeds, the attacker may make one demand of their opponent. This should be something simple, such as “Surrender!” “Go away!” or “Tell me what I want to know!” Complex demands, such as “Bring me three hairs from a Woozy’s tail, a six-leafed clover, etc.!” may be worth a penalty to the Pres-ence roll. Far-reaching demands, like “Be good from now on!” may be obeyed in the short term, but the Narrator decides whether it will be obeyed in the long term.

Defend:to all Athletics rolls made to avoid an attack. Also, the character may at-tempt to defend other characters that are adjacent to them, but without the bonus.

Grapple: This action involves grabbing the opponent in order to restrain them. The attacker and defender roll against their Athletics skills in a skill contest. If the attack is successful, the defender must apply the attacker’s Size rating as a penalty to all Athletics skill rolls. A special success al-lows the attacker to use one of the special grappling actions listed below immediately. If this maneuver is combined with a Called Shot, the pen-alty is applied to appropriate skills. A grapple to cover someone’s ears or eyes would apply the penalty to Awareness rolls, while covering someone’s mouth would penalize their Presence rolls.

Roll Result0 Or Below No Injury

1 Right Leg2 Left Leg3 Right Arm4 Left Arm5 Torso

6-7 Head8 Or More Total

Wits DamageMany of these actions cause Wits damage. Every time a character takes Wits

damage, they suffer a –1 penalty to their Wits skill. This is cumulative, so taking Wits damage twice will mean that your character’s Wits skill has a –2 penalty, three times gives a –3, and so on.

Once a character has taken Wits damage to equal their Wits skill rating, they

run away or surrender pitifully. While other circumstances may result in Wits penalties, only Wits damage counts for this purpose.

18

A character that has been grappled will remain grappled until their opponent releases them or they manage to escape via a contest of Athletics skills on their turn. The character may also attempt to return the grapple, causing their opponent to suffer penalties.

If a character has successfully grappled another, they may attempt some special actions against their grappled opponent on their next turn:

Pin: This action represents a number of tactics that may be used to make a restrained opponent even more uncomfortable. The attacker rolls against their Athletics skill, while the defender attempts to resist with their Wits rating. If the attack succeeds, the defender takes Wits damage.

Throw: This is identical to the Knockdown attack, but does not suffer a penalty to the attacker’s Athletics roll. This action ends the grapple.

Distance And Combat

fairly close together. Characters should be able to move and attack nearby opponents -

nent that they cannot reach, the Narrator may apply a -1 penalty to the attack roll and require that the attack take an appropriate form, such as a thrown rock or a gunshot. If the opponent is truly distant, the Narrator may rule that they may only be attacked by certain means and with a -2 penalty to the attack.

Extended Tests In Combat

scene. Perhaps one of them is trying to unlock a door while the rest of the group protects him from their foes. The player rolls each turn until they get the required number of successes.

Example: The Tin Woodman and his friends are being chased by kalidahs! They have crossed a chasm that is bridged by a log. The Tin Woodman decides to use his ax to chop the log in two, preventing the kalidahs from following them. The Narrator rules that the kalidahs will be upon them in 2 turns and that it will require 3 successful rolls against the Tin Woodman’s Athletics skill to chop through the log. He’ll need at least one special success to accomplish this.

Getting Better

man could not do very well as a wood-chopper. So I went to a tin-smith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. The leg worked very well, once I was used to it.”

— The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Wits damage is recovered.

Severe injuries, however, do not heal on their own. A character that wishes to have their original limb reattached or regrown must seek out a magician to cast the spell. The more common solution is to approach a craftsman to make a replacement limb for the character. When Nick Chopper’s ax was cursed and started cutting off his limbs, he went to a nearby tinsmith to get them replaced until he was all tin, be-coming the Tin Woodman that we all know and love.

the Crafted trait, they do acquire some resistance to injury. If the injury table result

Otherwise, no damage occurs.

19

Chapter 4: The Magic Of Oz

some one please lend me a handkerchief?”

The Shaggy Man offered him one, and Aunt Em another. He took them both and laid them carefully upon the grass near to the edge of the forest. Then he laid his own handkerchief down, too, and standing a little back from them he waved his left hand toward the handkerchiefs and said:

“Tents of canvas, white as snow, Let me see how fast you grow!”

Then, lo and behold! the handkerchiefs became tiny tents, and as the travelers looked at them the tents grew bigger and bigger until in a few minutes each one was large enough to contain the entire party.

—The Emerald City of Oz

Magical CharactersHow much access a character has to magic is a decision for the Narrator. A char-

acter might own an enchanted item or know a single magical spell. They might also be wizards in their own right, commanding a variety of magical arts. The Narrator might even prefer to keep magic out of the hands of players, allowing it to be used as a plot device when needed.

The Sorcerer template is provided for the convenience of those Narrators who wish to allow magic-using characters.

Name: Sorcerer Examples: Glinda the Good, The Wizard of OzSize: 3

Basic SkillsAthletics: 1 Awareness: 2Brains: 3 Presence: 2Sneaking: 1 Wits: 2

Traits: Magical Toolkit, Sorcery

Customization Notes: Brains is the primary re-quirement for an effective spellcaster. Presence combined with the Poet trait is useful for reduc-ing spellcasting penalties. If desired, the Magic Toolkit trait may be removed at the cost of 1 skill point.

A Yookoohoo is a specialized sorcerer who has mastered transformation magics at the expense of other types of spellcasting. Both of the Yook-oohoos who have appeared in the stories were women, but this may or may not be a require-ment. To create a Yookoohoo, replace the Sor-cery trait with the Yookoohoo Magic trait. They tend to have high Brains skills and perhaps even a “spellcasting” specialty, given the apparent ease with which they cast their spells. Yookoohoos tend to live alone, far away from other people,

but an adventuring Yookoohoo might have a notable Presence skill. Physical ability is not as important, as they can become a cheetah to outrun anything or a mouse to hide from danger.

New TraitsSorcery (2)

The character gains access to the effects of Apportation, Help/Hinder, and Transmutation. Make a roll against Brains to cast spells. Roll against Awareness to identify magical effects.

Yookoohoo Magic (2)

The character gains access to the magic of Transmutation and Transformation. Make a roll against Brains to cast spells of these schools. Roll against Awareness to identify a transformed subject by their Tell.

Magical Toolkit (-1)

The character requires specialized tools to work their magic. They will usually have access to these tools, but they may be separated from them for some reason. This can be as simple as the Silver Wand that Ozma uses, or as grand as the Magic Room in Glinda’s castle.

20

Creating SpellsSpells are composed of four things: Power, Duration, Scope, and Ritual.

The Power of a spell describes its general potency or effectiveness. Each type of magic has it’s own special rules about how to determine a spell’s Power. The Dura-tion of a spell describes how long the spell lasts. A spell’s Scope describes how much

physical effort is required to bring the spell into being.

Effect Power of the spell.

Help/HinderMagic may be used to help or hinder another character’s action. First, decide

-

grants to this activity, the Power of the spell increases by 2.

This kind of spell may be used on objects, which do not have Skills. In this case,

may be made harder to see in this way by penalizing the Awareness skill of those looking for it. A stone may be made easier to lift by providing a bonus to Athletics rolls made to move it.

Help/Hinder effects may not be used to enhance Brains rolls for spell casting or Presence rolls to use magical poetry.

ApportationApportation is the magic of lifting and moving objects. The Power of the spell

is equal to the Athletics skill rating that the caster wishes to emulate. This skill rating will typically not be rolled against unless the action becomes opposed or otherwise complicated. For example, lifting a pen and writing with it does not require a roll, but a person who doesn’t want to be picked up would contest his Athletics rating with the Athletics rating of the spell to escape.

Keep in mind that the Athletics skill represents not only strength, but speed and agility as well. If a task would require a higher Athletics rating due to those factors, the Narrator should raise the required Power of a given spell.

Athletics Skill Rating Sample Tasks1 Lift Light Objects2 Use A Tool Or Wield A Weapon3 Lift A Bulky Object, Win A Race4 Lift A Heavy Object5 Lift A Massive Object

TransmutationTransmutation magic is used

to change one thing into some-thing else. The Power of the effect is based on how different the end result is from the origi-nal object.

it can work on characters with the Crafted trait.

will usually be the most emblematic trait of the original item. If the caster wishes to control exactly which property carries over, add 1 to the spell’s Power.

Example: Mrs. Yoop is having breakfast. She begins by transmuting water into coffee. Both share the property of being liquids, so the transmutation is easy. The property that carries over is that the coffee is watery. Since that’s the way that Mrs.

are round, but the most likely property to be carried over from the pebbles is “rocky.”

sure that the property that crosses over is “good source of iron.”

Transformations are permanent effects. They require no effort on the part of the

If the caster wishes to make the spell reversible, they must specify a set of conditions

to 0.

Power Degree Of Change1 Minor (Water To Coffee)2 Moderate3 Major (Handkerchiefs To Tents)4 Severe

21

Transformation“There!” Reera cried, “now my cottage presents a more comfort-able appearance. I love the toads and lizards and rats, because most people hate them, but I would tire of them if they always re-mained the same. Sometimes I change their forms a dozen times a day.”

—Glinda of Oz

Transformation magic is required to change the shape of a living being, typi-cally into the form of another creature.

The Power of a Transformation spell is determined by a number of factors. For every point of Size change, the Power of the spell increases by 1. Every trait change, positive or negative, adds an additional 1 Power to the spell. Grant-ing a character a specialty of some sort, such as a dog’s keen nose as an Aware-ness specialty or a zebra’s distracting coloration as a Sneaking specialty, adds 1 to the Power of the spell. Directly modifying Basic Skills increases the Power by 2 for every point of increase or decrease.

Transforming a person into an inani-mate object is a Power 5 effect.

Example: In order to transform a per-son into a cat, they must have their Size reduced by 2 and the No Arms trait must be

Just like Transmutation spells, Transformations must retain some element of the original form. This is called a Tell, since it can be used to identify an individual no matter what shape they take. Also, the spellcaster can specify what the Tell is for an additional 1 Power to the spell. Yookoohoos specialize in this magic so they can spot a Tell easily. Other characters can do it, but suffer a -2 penalty to their Awareness rolls to do so.

Also like Transmutations, Transformations are permanent spells and can be made reversible.

DurationThere are two options for the Duration of a spell: Concentration or Task.

Concentration: The spell lasts as long as the sorcerer focuses their atten-tion on the task. Should the spell’s caster do something else requiring sig-

will distract a wizard from their spell. This has Duration 0.

Task: The spell lasts long enough to accomplish a fairly simple goal. A mu-sical instrument can be set to play a single song. A saw can be enchanted to cut down a single tree. The spell can respond to basic changes in the envi-

tree, but if a situation changes rapidly or radically, the sorcerer must Con-centrate in order to direct the spell personally or else the spell will simply

be programmed to follow a pattern of movement, but it cannot respond ef-fectively to the actions of its’ opponent. The Task Duration is Duration 1.

Scope

The Scope of a spell

of people affected by it.

RitualThe more effort a spell requires to cast, the easier that casting becomes.

No Ritual: The spell is cast with little to no visible effort. The sorcerer may

Simple Ritual: The spell is cast with a small amount of effort. A few magic words and maybe an arcane gesture are used. This takes up most of the

Complex Ritual:a lengthy chant or elaborate ceremony. In some cases, the ritual requires

Scope Area Of Effect0 Self1 1 Person/Object2 Small Group (Up To 10)/ A Room3 Moib (Up To 50)/ A Large Area4 City (Up To 200)/ Race

22

twos or properly pronouncing the word “Pyrzqxgl.” Complex rituals have

Poetry: The spell is cast using magical poetry. To determine the Ritual

penalty if the character lacks the Poet trait). If the roll is successful, apply

Power. Alternately, the players may compose poetry themselves. Grant a

if the poem is funny, or -2 if the poem is very funny.

Magic In A FightAlthough wizards do not have access to magic that can directly harm an op-

remarkably useful for aiding allies and penalizing enemies. Apportation magic can be used to wield a weapon or grapple a foe from a safe distance. A clever Transmuta-tion spell can turn the tide of a battle.

Spells with no ritual can be cast at the same time that the caster is doing some-thing else. Simple rituals comprise a character’s action for that turn. Complex ritu-als may take several turns to cast. Even if the action is otherwise simple, casters using complex and poetry rituals lose the ability to defend themselves with their Athletics skill. They may still defend themselves against attacks that are resisted by Wits, such as Impress attacks or the Pin grappling maneuver. Concentrating on a spell to maintain it or direct it also counts as an action in combat.

Magical Items And PowersAmong the many wonderful things in Glinda’s palace is the Great Book of Records. In this book is inscribed everything that takes place in all the world, just the instant it happens; so that by refer-ring to its pages Glinda knows what is taking place far and near, in every country that exists.

— The Scarecrow of Oz

Sometimes a character doesn’t have all of the spellcasting ability implied by all of the rules above. They may have a single magical ability or carry an item of power. In this case, the rules are slightly different. The relevant factors are Power, Scope, Ritual, and Item Limitations.

Items And Powers For Starting CharactersUse the rules below to determine the Effect Power of the desired magic. The

character pays this number in skill points to acquire the item or ability.

Creating Magical Items In PlayAny character with spellcasting ability may create magic items as needed during

the course of play. In this case, once the Effect Power of the item has been deter-mined it represents the number of exotic ingredients that must be gathered to create the item in question. The Narrator may decide what these ingredients are and where they are to be found.

The sorcerer making the item may spend an Oz Point to have one of the ingredi-ents on hand. This allows minor enchantments to be completed easily, while greater magics can still require a quest to get all of the necessary components. The Narrator is free to limit or ban this option on a case-by-case basis.

Power

Scrying: This is the ability to see things happening far away. This is a Power 1 effect.

Divination: Use this magic to do research about things that have already happened. No magic can determine the future. This is Power 2.

Summon/Travel: This is the magic of traveling vast distances quickly. It

this effect is used to summon living creatures, you may give them one com-mand when they arrive that they must obey. This is Power 3.

Animation: This magic will give an object the ability to move, think and speak like a living being. This is Power 4.Wishing: This is the magic of granting wishes. It can also be used to rep-

Power 5 effect.

23

Lesser MagicsIf a player wishes to have a magical item that replicates an effect from the nor-

mal magic system, simply determine the Power of that effect and divide it by 2, rounding down. For example, the Shaggy Man’s Love Magnet is a Help/Hinder ef-

As a normal spell this would be Power 4, but when incorporated into an item it is only Power 2.

ScopeJust as the avail-

able effects are more powerful, so are the areas that they can reach.

RitualThe Ritual modi-

-sents how much effort must be used to activate the item or ability. Only a Complex

to trigger an item reduces its Effect Power by 1. Using either No Ritual or Simple

Item LimitationsThe primary difference between a magical ability and an item is that an item is

often more limited. An item must be carried with the character and may be lost or stolen. Sometimes an item is a potion or powder that must be consumed to be useful. Items may also have other restrictions on their use, like the magic lamp that grants three wishes.

Unlimited Use: The item may be used whenever its owner desires. How-ever, since the item may become lost or stolen, this reduces the Effect Pow-er by 1.

Limited Use: The item has only a few uses or other limitations on its use. Three uses is fairly common in fairy tales, but rolling a six-sided die to determine the number of uses can be fun, too. An item might instead have other limits on its use, like only being able to call upon its power once a day or only at night. This reduces the Effect Power of the magic by 2.

Single Use: The item can be used only once. This might be a magical po-tion or a token representing a favor from a powerful fairy. Once it is used, it either disappears (or is consumed in the case of a potion), or becomes a normal, non-magical item. This reduces the Effect Power by 3.

Love MagnetPower:Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)Ritual: None (0)Item: Unlimited Use (-1)Effect Power: 1

Description:roll attempting to make others believe that they love the person who holds it.

Silver ShoesPower: Travel (3)Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)Ritual: Simple (0)Item: Unlimited Use (-1)Effect Power: 2

Description: The Wicked Witch of the East once owned these magical shoes, but Dorothy picked them up after the Witch was crushed under her house. They have the power to transport the wearer to anyplace in the world in the space of three steps.

Golden CapPower: Summon (3)Scope: Race (2)Ritual: Complex (-1)Item: Limited Use (-2)Effect Power: 2

Description: This ornate and jeweled cap was crafted by Princess Gayelette to command the Winged Monkeys. The Monkeys are summoned using a three-part ritual written inside the cap. Each user may command the Winged Monkeys three times, at which point they may not use it ever again. It must then be passed on to someone else, who may then use it three times.

Scope Area Of Effect0 Self/Person/Object1 Mob (Up To 10 People)/A House2 City (Up To 200 People)/Race3 Quadrant (One Of The Four Countries

That Compose The Land Of Oz)4 Land Of Oz5 The Whole World

24

Chapter 5: For The NarratorThe Narrator’s job can be intimidating, but it’s very rewarding as well. You

will be preparing the story for the other players to participate in, and running them through it. You will also have to be the referee of the game, applying the rules and making rulings.

Telling The StoryThis is one of the Narrator’s primary jobs. One of the unique attributes of a role-

playing game is that the end result is a story with the players’ characters as heroes. It is up to the Narrator to make it a fun story that the players will be telling over and over again.

Playing The CharactersWhile other players only have one character to worry about, the Narrator can

have several. The Narrator plays every character that is not controlled by another player. These can be the friends and allies of the heroes as well as their enemies.

This is also an opportunity to encourage the other players to act in character. By acting out the role of whatever character they are portraying, the Narrator encourages everyone else to do the same.

Using The RulesA roleplaying game is not like a board game, in which the rules regulate what a

player can do at any given time. The rules of a roleplaying game are there to be used when there is a question to be answered or an argument to be resolved.

It is the Narrator’s job to call for skill rolls whenever they aren’t sure if an action would be successful. The Narrator also decides if a skill roll receives any bonuses or penalties depending on the situation.

Guiding Character Creation

to collaborate on their visions for the game. The players will choose templates, skills and abilities for their characters based on what they want their character to do in the game. The Narrator will make rulings and suggestions on the characters based on what sort of adventures and adversaries they are planning to present.

together. This can set up some interesting stories for the characters.

Choosing FriendsEvery starting character gets to add one character of their own choosing to their Friends List. While some players may choose an existing character, such as Dorothy, Princess Ozma, or Johnny Dooit, others may wish to come up with unique characters that they may call on in times of need.

The Friends List is intended as a tool for both players and Narrators. Friends are a resource that the character can call on in times of need through the use of Oz Points. Since helping these friends is a source of Oz Points, this encourag-es the Narrator to devise stories around them.

Example: A player has created a Noble character named Princess Parasol. Her friend is her father, King Bumbershoot. The player can spend an Oz Point to call upon the resources of the kingdom of Umbre-La, or to simply ensure that she is treated like a princess in trying circumstances. The Narrator awards the player Oz Points when she helps her father, either by represent-

clutches of the Cloud Tyrant.

Modifying TemplatesOne thing that a Narrator can do to set the tone of the game is to rule on which

templates are available. They may remove some of the standard templates or add new templates to the mix. For example, in a game in which the main characters are from America, the Narrator might not allow players to choose the Crafted template or either of the magical templates. In another case, a player might request to play a Winged Monkey, so the Narrator will allow them to use the Winged Monkey tem-plate on page 41.

25

If a player wishes a truly unique character, the Narrator may choose to create a custom template by distributing 15 points between the Basic Skills, Size, and any Special Traits required by the type. When creating a custom template, no Basic Skill should be rated higher than 3. This allows players to put their 2-point in the skill

create their character from scratch.

When creating a custom template, the name you give it is as important as any other aspect. A player is as likely to choose a template based on its name or the char-

Balancing The Game, Part 1In order to make sure the game is fun for every player, it should be balanced.

character your players create can contribute to the story in a unique way. Even if two characters are built using the same template, they should have their skill points allocated differently and have completely different specialties. A character’s starting friends are also useful for differentiating them.

If a character doesn’t have something unique to contribute, their player can feel overshadowed by the others. If a player is having a hard time making their character

specialty that no one else is very good at. Encourage the player to think “in charac-

the character sheet.

Preparing For PlayFolklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

familiar with the whole thing. You don’t have to memorize everything. Just be fa-

Make sure you have everything you need before play begins. Ensure that there are enough pencils and paper for people to write down their characters’ abilities and other things. Make sure that there are dice for everyone. Have any adventure notes or props at hand. If you are playing somewhere other than your house, arrive early with everything you need.

Plotting The JourneyThe typical Oz story is a journey. Characters travel the Land of Oz, encounter-

ing all sorts of interesting people and places on the way to their destination. When creating your own journeys, try to think in terms of Goals, Motivations, Obstacles, and Resolutions.

Goal: What are the characters trying to accomplish in your story? What are they trying to get? What are they trying to keep someone else from getting? What are they trying to stop? State this as simply as possible, using no more than a sentence or two. While paragraphs might be tempting, at least some

Also, a simpler goal is easier for players to accomplish. Since this is a game of creativity and imagination, players will often come up with creative solutions to the

Motivation: Why are the players’ characters involved? Why are they pur-suing this goal? Make sure that every character has some reason to be involved in the adventure. Each character’s Friends List is a good starting place, since helping friends is a good way to earn Oz Points. Player moti-vations are important, too. If a player has a favorite Oz book, locations or stories that reference that book can be especially enjoyed.

Obstacle: What sort of challenges and barriers will the characters face

Puzzles to solve? Or people who must be negotiated with in order to pro-

to previously established locations, it is not necessary when creating your own locations to visit.

Resolution: What happens when the characters accomplish their goal? Once the villain is defeated, is he resentful or apologetic? How will they pay for their crimes? Once the princess marries the prince, it is really “hap-pily ever after?” What friends might a character make on this adventure? A lot of this will depend on how the players decide to handle the situation, so

26

take some time to think up several possible outcomes to the scenario. Even then, your players might surprise you.

Once you have established this for the story as a whole, break it down into sec-tions. At each location or obstacle you plan, create a Goal, Motivation, Obstacle, and Resolution. This method is not tied explicitly to physical locations, but can be used in a number of other ways as well. In a story that takes place within one location, like the Emerald City, this method can be used to prepare scenes or encounters with other characters.

Just because the Obstacle category describes much of what happens during the adventure doesn’t mean that everything the characters encounter is trying to stop them. Locations in the Oz stories actually fell into three rough categories: Amuse-ments, Barriers, and Clues.

Amusement: These locations are generally “just for fun.” They do not help or hinder the characters in accomplishing their main goals, but can pro-vide entertaining goals of their own. While you might prefer to keep your story very focused on its main goal, an Amusement location can provide relief (comic and otherwise) if the rest of the scenario feels overly serious or scary.

Barrier: A Barrier location acts to prevent characters from reaching their goal. This can be as simple as a river that the characters must cross before they can proceed, or as complex as stopping a war so they don’t have to

such as a villain setting a trap to delay the pursuing characters, or they could be completely unrelated.

Clue: As the name suggests, a Clue location is a place where characters can advance their goals. This can be a clue to the next location to go to, or it might be the place to get the next ingredient for a magical concoction.

Some locations can be a combination of these things. Most of the locations in the Oz stories had some element of Amusement to them. Once the characters overcome a Barrier, they might reveal a Clue. Feel free to experiment with different combinations for the locations you create in Oz.

Preparing For Extended PlaySome stories are just too big for one play session. With all of the locations and

happen by accident, when players spend more time at one location than you had an-ticipated or they decide to go a different direction than you had expected.

When you expect it to happen, make sure to prepare appropriately. You might want to make each session a “mini-story” that supports some major goal, but has its own beginning, middle, and end. Ending a session on a cliff-hanger, with the characters in some dangerous situation but having to wait until next session to see how it turns out can be fun too.

You may wish to run a continuing se-ries of stories. This can be a number of separate stories featuring the same main characters or a single story with a huge overarching goal.

Starting The Game-

age your players to get into character. This can mean placing the characters in a social scene or some other sort of scene that enables them to display their abilities or personalities.

The other purpose is to kick off the story. This is where the villain’s plot is revealed or the characters discover that they’re not in Kansas anymore. It should provide a goal and a motivation to lead into the rest of the adventure.

Creating The Supporting CastJust then they heard a sound as of footsteps pattering along the path behind them and all three turned to see what was coming. To their astonishment they beheld a small round table running as fast as its four spindle legs could carry it, and to the top was screwed fast a phonograph with a big gold horn.

—The Patchwork Girl of Oz

Over the course of the adventure, the heroes will likely meet many other inhabit-

is their role in your story. Do they provide the heroes with information, supplies, or perhaps some special resource? Are they opponents, trying to prevent the characters

27

from accomplishing their goals? Perhaps they are there to simply make things inter-esting or to demonstrate something particular.

Supporting cast characters will typically have a role in their community, as well. Some may have positions of authority, such as a mayor or king. Others have jobs, like the soldier or baker. A few characters might live away from any other commu-nity and support themselves by farming.

roles without rolling dice. Skill ratings only become important when the character tries to interfere with a player’s character, such as looking for a character that is try-ing to sneak past them. If you were expecting this to happen, then your character should have an Awareness skill rating already picked out. If you weren’t, it’s very

you want the character to be. You can also use the Simple Contest rules on page 15

Balancing The Game, Part 2The second part of game balance is balancing the challenges the characters face.

If things are resolved too easily, players won’t be excited by the challenge. If an ob-

the challenges are comparable to the goals that the characters are trying to achieve. Minor goals should not require overcoming major obstacles and putting minor ob-stacles in front of major goals would cheapen the accomplishment of those goals.

When plotting a mystery or puzzle story, remember that it will often be the play-ers assembling the clues, not necessarily their characters. This is especially impor-tant when dealing with younger players, who may not have the knowledge base to solve something that seems like “child’s play” to you.

Creating New Lands“Beyond this Rolling Prairie,” explained the shepherd, “are the Merry-Go-Round Mountains, set close together and surrounded by deep gulfs so that no one is able to get past them. Beyond the Merry-Go-Round Mountains it is said the Thistle-Eaters and the Herkus live.”

“What are they like?” demanded Dorothy.

“No one knows, for no one has ever passed the Merry-Go-Round Mountains,” was the reply, “but it is said that the Thistle-Eaters hitch dragons to their chariots and that the Herkus are waited upon by giants whom they have conquered and made their slaves.”

—The Lost Princess of Oz

Oz is a very big place, composed of many smaller lands, countries and king-doms. In every story, Baum introduced us to several new wonders. While there are still many potential stories just in the locations that he described, what if you want to do something new? How do you make sure that your creation is up to the standards set by the classic stories?

Step 1: Wouldn’t It Be Neat?-

sarily “cool” or “awesome,” but “neat.” Try to think of fun ways for the characters to interact with your creation. You should come up with at least two or three.

PropsOne thing that can help your story come alive to your players is the use of

props. If the story revolves around an object, like a magical amulet, you can pur-chase or make this item before play begins and show it to the players when their characters receive it. Letters or proclamations can be written out beforehand and given to the players to read during the session. When you’re playing the part of the different supporting cast characters, changing hats or props can help your players differentiate characters. The Wizard wears a top hat, the Tin Woodman has a funnel on his head, and Glinda has a magic wand.

With all of the unusual things that live in the Land of Oz, possibilities for prop use abound. The Fuddles of Fuddlecumjig (page 50) fall into piles of puz-zle pieces when they are surprised. Instead of having players describe reassem-bling a Fuddle or make Brains rolls for their characters, give them a puzzle to put together. Most craft stores sell blank puzzles so you or your players can make your own picture to assemble.

The inhabitants of Bear Center (page 57) are stuffed toy bears. The people of the China Country (page 48) are all porcelain dolls. Utensia (page 56) is in-habited by living kitchen utensils (be careful with this one, as King Kleaver can be sharp!). You might even come up with your own Oz community with people that can be easily represented by something you have around the house.

28

Example: Everything’s better with ninjas! Let’s add ninjas to Oz. What kind of stories can we tell about ninjas? Ninjas are excellent thieves and spies, so our heroes might be looking for something that was stolen by them. Characters can also get

Step 2: Wouldn’t It Be Funny?

Many of the places that Dorothy and her friends visited had puns or jokes worked into them. Utensia’s (page 56) High Priest is a colander because “(h)e’s the holiest thing we have in the kingdom,” and the Captain of the Spoon Brigade longs for “stir-ring times.” The mayor of Bunbury (page 47) is named Cinnamon Bunn, Esquire, and he is actually a cinnamon bun.

from the characters. Players may not do the things that enable the joke, or become

can.

Example: One very easy joke we can do with ninjas is to give silly names to the ninja clans. Japanese food and brand names can work very well. If you are a fan

there.

After doing a little research, I learned that the traditional ninja costume was actually the costume worn by stagehands in kabuki plays. It wasn’t really intended to hide the person, but instead acted a signal for the audience to ignore them. A fun thing we can do is to extend this to ninjas. Rather than being masters of stealth, they rely on the people around them ignoring them because they’re ninjas.

While everyone in the village surrounding the Ninja Temple is trained to ignore the ninjas, visitors to the village will wonder what’s going on. Ninjas in pajamas will be leaping from rooftop to rooftop and having martial arts duels as the villagers go about their normal, everyday lives. If you ask a villager about a ninja, they will claim to see nothing, even if that ninja just stole his pants.

-selves.

Step 3: How Does This Work?Although logic may seem out of place in the Land of Oz, it is actually very im-

portant. Since the Cuttenclips (page 48) are paper dolls, they need a very specialized

environment. A high wall protects them from winds that would blow them over and weather magic makes sure that it never rains over their land. The Flatheads are miss-ing the top parts of their heads where brains would normally go. To remedy this, they carry cans of brains which allow them to think. Thinking things through can lead to all sorts of story possibilities.

Example: Since no one can die in Oz, ninjas are not assassins, nor do they have a million different ways of killing. Their martial arts skills are not to be underesti-mated, though. If ninjas only appear in the supporting cast, their kung fu powers are only limited by what they need for the story. If you want players to have access to ninja characters, it will require a lot more work.

-ing styles in a number of ways. The easiest would be as specialties of the Athletics

of the specialty if they used Crane Style Kung Fu. You could decide that this means kicking attacks, or require the player to call out the name of the attack, which must reference cranes in some way.

Martial artists might be able to purchase the Deadly Weapon trait to represent a powerful technique. You might also want to build some abilities using the magic item rules on page 22 to represent advanced mystical techniques. Also, taking a mentor or school as a friend could allow the player to spend an Oz Point to access powerful kung fu abilities.

Running the GameNow that everyone has characters made and you have a story planned, it’s time

to get playing.

Using DescriptionsSparkling green gems ornamented the fronts of the beautiful hous-es and the towers and turrets were all faced with emeralds. Even the green marble pavement glittered with precious stones, and it was indeed a grand and marvelous sight to one who beheld it for

—The Land of Oz

Your descriptions are your player’s primary source of information about their characters’ actions and adventures. Make sure that you give them everything that you need to know. You can also use descriptions to set the mood.

29

Remember to show, not tell. If a supporting cast character is supposed to be mean and grouchy, don’t just tell your players that. When they talk to this guy, make him sound rude when he replies. Don’t say that a garden is beautiful. Mention the

melodies in the trees.

Improvising ConsistentlyAs play proceeds, you’ll be doing a lot of improvising. Players will ask you

questions that you did not expect. They will describe their characters doing things that you wouldn’t have thought of. Not only that, but the players will remember what you said and hold you to it later.

One thing that can help is planning. How do you anticipate the unexpected? By understanding the basics of the situation. If you know the personality of a member of your supporting cast, you can base their responses to anything on that personality. Understanding the politics behind a war can suggest a number of ways in which a war might be ended.

Be sure to takes notes, as well. Once you’ve made a decision on something, write it down. You never know when your players are going to bring up something that you said several sessions ago and had forgotten about. The important thing is that you are consistent in your rulings.

Making Up RulesThe rules presented in this book provide a very basic structure for your game.

They cover most, but not all, situations that you may wish to present to your players. There will certainly come a time when you will have to make your own rules to cover a certain situation.

For example, what happens when a character falls? It makes sense that it would hurt, right? A short fall would merely rough someone up and could be represented by Wits damage. Longer falls can lead to serious injury resulting in a roll on the Injury Table on page 17. Even longer falls might modify this roll, making Total Injury in-creasingly likely. If you felt it worth the effort, you could even devise a chart so you could look up how far the character fell and determine the likely form of injury.

Assessing Bonuses And Penalties-

-

very large objects or creatures in the course of a story.

Multiple circumstances can impact the same roll for good or ill. Penalties can add together, or be cancelled by bonuses from other sources being applied to the roll.

Making Failure InterestingThe important thing to remember about die rolls is that they give the character

a chance to fail. As much as we want to see the characters succeed, it’s more fun if they face some risk of failure. But what if they don’t succeed? Telling the players “You fail” when they miss a die roll can get boring or even frustrating.

Try to visualize the action so you have a good understanding of what success or failure can mean. If the player makes a Presence roll to distract an enemy, what would happen if they failed? Why wouldn’t it work? Perhaps the character men-tioned the monster’s favorite food and he went hunting for it and found the rest of the party. Or maybe she went the wrong way and wound up leading the monster to her friends. Both of these are much more interesting answers than “You failed to distract him.”

30

Running FightsAs soon as the three Wheelers who were guarding the mound saw them, they began to shout their wild cries and rolled swiftly toward the little group, as if to capture them or bar their way. But when the foremost had approached near enough, Tiktok swung the tin dinner-pail and struck the Wheeler a sharp blow over its head with the queer weapon. Perhaps it did not hurt very much, but it made a great noise, and the Wheeler uttered a howl and tumbled over upon its side. The next minute it scrambled to its wheels and rolled away as fast as it could go, screeching with fear at the same time.

—Ozma of Oz

in video games or other roleplaying games. Rather than trying to make your op-ponent fall down (i.e. run out of hit points), the intent is to make the opponent give

that they are unable to resist Impress attacks.

-ing that an opponent give up, the character may instruct them to do something else, like put away a sword or stand in the way of another character’s attack.

Deadly Weapons and Injuring Strikes carry some very serious consequences and should be used with care by players and Narrator alike. Seeking out replacement or repair for an injured limb should make for an interesting adventure, not a boring

Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a good example of this in the scene with the Black Knight. The Black Knight is eventually completely dismembered, but there is no gore at all and the scene is played for laughs.

chase away people who won’t leave them alone.

Perhaps a player describes an action that sounds like one of the combat maneuvers. Just resolve that action using the combat rules and get on with the game.

Gaining And Spending Oz PointsNotice that the characters belonging to the other players are on every player’s

Friends List. One of the reasons for this is to encourage cooperation. When one player’s character helps another, they should be awarded with Oz Points.

Another issue that might come up is when a Friend requires a large or daunting task. In cases like this, award an Oz Point when the characters accept the task and another when they achieve their ultimate goal.

Example: The Cloud Tyrant has kidnapped King Bum-bershoot! In order to rescue him, Princess Parasol must jour-ney to the Cloud City and make her way to the Rain Palace where the King is being held in the Damp Dungeons. The Narrator awards Princess Parasol’s player an Oz Point for be-ginning the expedition and another when the Princess returns safely with her father.

When a player spends an Oz Point to call on a friend, make sure that they describe which friend they are calling on and what sort of help they are trying to get. Work with the player to make sure that the help they receive is appropriate to the situation as well as the character they are calling on.

After a while, characters can accumulate a number of new friends. Keeping track can get confusing sometimes. There are two main ways to remember friends, the sentence method and the paragraph method. Which method you use can vary from character to character.

give in a single sentence. A friend of this type effectively grants the character a single power that they can access by spending an Oz Point. For example, the Czarover of the Herku (page 57) could give the character a dose of zosozo, allowing them to call upon titanic strength by spending an Oz Point.

To use the paragraph method, write a paragraph (or maybe more) on the friend’s abilities and interests. When the player spends an Oz Point on this friend, use this paragraph as a guide to what they can do and what they are willing to help with.

Sometimes, friends aren’t even worth this much effort. They are such minor characters that they are unlikely to recur or be useful outside their original scenario. In these cases, all you really need is a name and perhaps a title to act as an aid to

31

memory. It may also happen that such a “throwaway” character winds up sticking in the players’ minds and they keep coming back to her for all kinds of reasons beyond what you originally intended. Be ready to expand your notes on any friend at any time.

Remember that Oz Points should not be dependent on die rolls. If a player spends an Oz Point to create a given effect, that effect will happen. No die roll is needed in this case, even if the action would normally require one.

Character Growth And Development“It’s a trick Glinda the Sorceress taught me, and it is much better

Oz,” he answered. “When the good Glinda found I was to live in the Emerald City always, she promised to help me, because she said the Wizard of Oz ought really to be a clever Wizard, and not a humbug. So we have been much together and I am learning so fast that I expect to be able to accomplish some really wonderful things in time.”

—The Emerald City of Oz

As the Oz stories progressed, Dorothy did not gain much in the way of new pow-ers, skills, or treasures. She did, however, gain friends and allies. To represent this in your game, reward your players with friends for their Friends Lists and Oz Points. Although Oz Points are intended for helping and gaining friends, you may wish to give them as a reward for clever or entertaining play.

Consider using beads or coins to represent Oz Points during play. Younger play-ers might need help to keep track of in-game resources. Give Oz Points as soon as they are earned, to help reinforce the connection between the action and its reward. Also, giving a child something to hold makes the reward feel that much more real.

Oz Points may be spent to improve a character’s abilities. Spending 10 Oz Points earns the character a new specialty, though they may never have more than one specialty per Basic Skill. 20 Oz Points buys an increase to a Basic Skill. New traits may be added with the Narrator’s permission and 20 Oz Points per skill point in the trait’s cost.

Having Fun As A NarratorBeing the Narrator involves quite a bit of work and preparation. Keeping all the

supporting cast characters straight in your head can be a challenge. It’s easy to be envious of the other players who only have to keep track of one character and do not have to spend time on the game outside of the play session.

It can be a lot of fun, though. It’s a different kind of fun that the other players don’t get to experience. Seeing the look on their faces when you reveal the big se-crets. Watching the players treat your supporting cast as people, not just plot tokens. Hearing your players tell other people about the stories that you helped them create.

If it’s not fun for you, don’t be afraid to do something about it. Talk with the other players about your feelings. Maybe one of them wants to try being the Narra-tor. Or maybe it’s time to take a break from the game and do something else.

32

Part II: The Land Of Oz

Chapter 6: The Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the center of the Land of Oz both geographically and politically. The Royal Palace lies at the heart of the city. It is from this palace that Ozma rules the whole of Oz. Many of her friends also live in the palace at her invitation. Those that don’t live there typically live nearby, so that she may call on them for advice or compan-ionship should she have need of either.

The palace grounds also house the very dangerous Font of Oblivion. Drinking the water from this fountain will cause a person to forget everything about her previous life. It is said that a cruel king once ruled Oz and the Font was created to make the king forget his old self and his wickedness. The people still didn’t trust the king after this, so he com-manded that all of them drink from the fountain to forget how he used to be.

For many years after that, the Font lay unused, nearly forgotten in one of the many gardens within the palace walls. Until Ozma led an invading army led by the Nomes to the Font of Oblivion and encouraged them to drink from it, forgetting the

The streets of the city are paved with green marble and many of the homes are built of the same material. Emeralds and other gems are on prominent display as decorations in many of the city’s structures.

Many years ago, the Wizard required that everyone in the city wear green glass-es over their eyes at all times. These glasses were locked in place and there was only one key. It was claimed that these glasses were necessary to protect people from the glory and splendor that the Emerald City presented.

In truth, it was only through these glasses that the city looked green at all. The Emerald City was no more or less green than any other city in the world. Exactly why the Wizard did this was never explained. Perhaps the other countries gained their colors by magic spells cast by the Witches who once ruled them and the people expected the Wizard to manage a similar feat.

Princess Ozmahand. Much of her time is invested in making sure that the people of Oz are happy and content. If something comes to her attention, she may investigate further using the Magic Picture in her rooms. With it, she may look upon any point in the world and see events as they happen.

The Princess has strong feelings regarding the practice of magic. She has made it illegal to practice magic in the Land of Oz, making a special exception for Glinda and the Wizard. While this does make it easy to punish those who cast curses and transformations, it also makes helpful magic unlawful. This is because Ozma un-derstands that magic should not be used in all cases, because people appreciate what they have made with hard work more than the things that magic can freely give them.

Since she is a fairy, she carries a Silver Wand that allows her to work magic. She does not often use it, given her opinion on the subject. She does make use of other magical tools, however. Along with her Magic Picture, she also has access to the Magic Belt that Dorothy stole from the Nome King.

Ozma’s CounselorsWhen faced with a seemingly insoluble problem, Ozma turns to her trusted advi-

sors to guide her. Gathered from all corners of Oz and the world, their wisdom and compassion serve her in good stead.

Cap’n Bill Weedles was a sailor for many years before an accident cost him his left leg. His vast knowledge of sea tales made him fast friends with the little girl he nicknamed Trot. After many amazing adventures, both Trot and Cap’n Bill found themselves in Jinxland, a small kingdom in the Quadling Country, where they deposed the wicked King Krewl with the help of the Scarecrow.

Frogman is a rather unusual creature. Swimming in a magical pond in the Yip Country of Oz increased his size and intellect to that of a normal man. He was highly regarded by the Yips and they often sought his advice. His adventures began when he helped Cayke the Cookie Cook recover her Golden Dishpan, which had been sto-len by the evil sorcerer Ugu the Shoemaker and used to kidnap Princess Ozma and steal the most powerful magics in Oz.

33

He used to be very proud of his intelligence, but a bath in the Truth Pond forced him to admit that he was simply vain in that regard.

Jack Pumpkinhead is a wooden man made of sticks and bark wrapped in clothes. As his name suggests, his head is indeed a pumpkin. He has a pumpkin farm in the Winkie Country outside the Emerald City so that he will always have a head ready when his current one spoils.

Jack was made by Ozma and accompanied her on the adventure that put her on the throne of Oz. Sometimes he forgets himself and refers to Ozma as his father.

H.M. Wogglebug, T.E. began his life as an ordinary wogglebug, living in the schoolhouse of the famous Professor Nowitall. He listened to every one of the Pro-fessor’s lectures and became Thoroughly Educated. When the tiny wogglebug was

was so surprising that a panic erupted and the Wogglebug was forced to make his

He has since found employment as Princess Ozma’s tutor and as the president of the Royal Athletic College of Oz.

The Scarecrow -

Wizard left Oz in a hot-air balloon. The second was when Ozma went to broker a peace between the Skeezers and the Flatheads.

Other than that, he sits still very rarely. He is often seen visiting his good friend the Tin Woodman in his Tin Castle or entertaining guests in the lovely mansion that was built for him in the Winkie Country. He has also been known to wander the Land of Oz seeking adventure.

Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, is a crazy-quilt on the inside as well as the outside. Her body is made of a patchwork quilt with patches of every color and stuffed with cotton. Her magic brains are a jumble as well, leaping from idea to idea with aston-ishing swiftness. This gives her an interesting sort of intuition, as she can sometimes go from a problem to its solution without all the steps in between. Scraps is friends

those who say that a romance is brewing between the two crafted folk, but they are unlikely to settle down anytime soon.

Shaggy Man was a cheerful vagabond who accompanied Dorothy to Oz and fell in love with the land. He carries the Love Magnet with him on adventures, but otherwise hangs it over the gates of the Emerald City so that all citizens may share its

his true form by a bath in the Truth Pond. He must now speak honestly to everyone he meets.

Shaggy (as he is called) lives in the Emerald City with his brother, who he res-cued from the Nome King. He is good friends with Betsy Bobbin, who helped to break the curse of ugliness that the Nome King placed on his brother.

Tik-Tokland of Ev. He returned to Oz with Dorothy after she helped rescue the royal family of Ev from the Nome King. He has three clockwork mechanisms in him, using one for action, one for thinking and one for speech, all of which must be wound up for him to function properly.

Tin Woodman rules the Winkie Country as Emperor but maintains close ties with Dorothy and Ozma, whom he helped to the throne of Oz. His kind heart some-times steers him into trouble, but just as often steers him towards friends.

Uncle Henry is Dorothy’s uncle from Kansas. After losing his farmhouse to a cyclone, he was forced to get a loan to build another one. A poor harvest left him without enough money to repay the loan. It was then that Dorothy suggested that they all move to Oz, where they would never have to worry about money ever again. Henry now lives with his wife, Em, on a farm just outside the Emerald City and has earned a reputation as one of the best farmers in Oz.

The Wizard is perhaps the most famous personage in all of Oz. Although he did manage to return to Omaha upon leaving Oz, another balloon accident brought him back into contact with Dorothy and eventually returned him to Oz. He was surprised to learn that the people of the Emerald City loved him even though he had fooled them into thinking he was a Wizard. At Ozma’s invitation, he was allowed to live in the Palace and serve as her Court Magician. He has since become a student of Glinda the Good and learned real magic rather than the humbug tricks he used while he ruled the Emerald City.

Ozma’s BodyguardWhile Ozma has little to fear in her own land, she does have occasional busi-

ness with the countries across the Deadly Desert. Even then, her bodyguard is not intended to protect her, as it exists to impress her hosts. Some might see the princess

underestimated.

Cowardly Lion is the bravest creature in the Land of Oz. He only thinks he’s a coward because he acknowledges the fear he feels when he does something brave.

34

Hungry Tiger is a great tiger with purple stripes. He is always hungry, particu-larly for fat babies. His conscience will not allow him to them, so he eats quite a lot of everything else. In spite of all he eats, he is still quite fearsome when he chooses to be.

Omby Amby was the only private in the Army of Oz until he proved himself a hero against the armies of the Nome King. He is now the Captain General of the Army and Commander of the Royal Bodyguard. He is sometimes called the Soldier with the Green Whiskers because of his beard, which he has been known to shave off. This is probably because people seem to forget his actual name while he has the beard.

Ozma’s FriendsAlthough she is the ruler of the Land of Oz, Ozma is still a young girl in many

ways. She enjoys the company of her friends, and she is lucky to have amassed such a collection of them.

Betsy Bobbin is a curious girl, always asking questions. She is from Oklahoma and only a year older than Dorothy, so the two girls get along rather well.

Billina is a matronly yellow hen. She lives in the Emerald City with her grow-ing brood. Every one of her children bears a locket with the letter D on it. Her daughters are all named Dorothy and the roosters are all named Daniel.

Bungle the Glass Cat is one of the vainest creatures in existence. Her glass body is transparent, allowing her cold ruby heart and whirling pink brains to be seen by all who look at her.

Button Bright’s mother always said that he was “bright as a button.” It goes without saying that it was a very dull button. His real name is quite long, so he can only remember portions of it for a few minutes at a time. He often wanders off be-cause he can’t remember what he was doing or where he was going.

Dorothy Gale was only a farm girl in Kansas, but is now a Princess in Oz. She doesn’t let this go to her head, though. Her eagerness for exploration and her ability to make friends easily have carried her safely through many dangers. She counts many of the most powerful people in Oz among her friends.

Eureka the Pink Kitten is just like you’d expect a kitten to be if she could talk. Most kittens are demanding, but get away with it by being cute. Eureka is able to make her own demands, which is far less endearing.

Hank the Mule is Betsy Bobbin’s loyal companion. He is so dedicated and

Horse to defend her honor. It only ended when Betsy, along with Dorothy and Ozma, told all four of them to knock it off and get along. They have gotten along famously ever since then.

Ojo the Lucky is a young Munchkin boy who feels very strongly about doing the right thing. He often gets in trouble trying to do the right thing even though it is

and later made friends with Dorothy and the Scarecrow.

The Saw-Horse used to be a simple support for the sawing of wood until the magical Powder of Life caused him to live. He is often used to pull Ozma’s Red Wagon and has golden plates to protect the ends of his legs. Even though he is made of wood, he is the only living horse in the Land of Oz. When Jim the Cab-Horse came to visit, he challenged the Saw-Horse to a race and lost.

Toto the dog has accompanied Dorothy on many adventures. Although the mag-ic of Oz has given him the power of speech, he does not speak often. He feels that Dorothy has enough friends to talk to, and sometimes she just needs a dog to run and play with.

Trotfact, almost nobody calls her Mayre. She learned quite a bit of sea lore from Cap’n Bill. She is nearly fearless and always interested in discovering something new.

The Woozy is a curious creature made up of nothing but right angles. His body is a rectangular block and his head is a cube. He only has three hairs that grow on the

impressive only to him.

Civil ServantsMany people are required to make the Emerald City function as it does. These

are just a few of the people who have been mentioned in the stories.

Guardian of the Gatesspectacles and collect them from the people as they left. This law was established by the Wizard, but was struck down by Ozma, leaving him with little to do these days. Most of the time, he watches the city gates and greets everyone who enters.

Tollydiggle is the Jailer of the Emerald City. She is a very kind woman who considers her prisoners to be unfortunate souls, so she treats them all with kindness. There are very few criminals in Oz; so most of her time is spent making sure that her home is always comfortable and ready to receive guests.

35

Jellia Jamb is the chief maid, head of the housekeeping staff and Ozma’s per-sonal assistant at the Royal Palace. She comes from the northern Gillikin Country and enjoys playing tricks on people. Her hair is a lovely shade of green, but it is unclear if this is its natural color or if she dyes it.

Adventuring In The Emerald CityArriving at the Emerald City is a momentous occasion for any Oz adventurer. It

can mark the end of an adventure, but may simply be a turning point in the story. In

didn’t discover the way home until she sought out Glinda in the Quadling Country. In later stories, the Emerald City was a place to celebrate the completion of the ad-venture.

The Emerald City is also a good place to start a story. Ozma’s Magic Picture can give her information on potential trouble spots in the land. The Wizard’s magical experiments require unusual ingredients from all over Oz. A rigorous schedule of socials, parties, and other events bring people from far and wide to celebrate.

Many adventures are possible without even leaving the city. All of the inhabit-ants of the Royal Palace are very interesting characters. Any one could be the source of an adventure. When multiple characters decide to compete, or cooperate, or op-pose one another, several more stories become possible.

Adventure SeedsNomes have been spotted in the Munchkin Country! Ozma must be informed at

once!

The characters have been sent by their communities to present gifts at Ozma’s birthday party. Not only must they face the dangers of Oz, they must also ensure that the gifts arrive intact.

Jellia Jamb has asked the characters to deliver a note to the Tin Woodman at his

Button-Bright has wandered off again! What sort of trouble has he gotten into this time?

The Scarecrow just brought a lovely gift for Scraps, but now Bungle has hidden it! She will not reveal its location until she receives a gift of equal or greater loveli-ness.

Chapter 7: The Gillikin CountryFlathead Mountain

“He took from a pocket a bright tin can having a pretty red label on it which said: Concentrated Brains, Extra Quality.”

—Glinda of Oz

headland at its peak, which is where the Flathead people live. The Flatheads are similar to most people of Oz, with one notable difference. Their heads appear to be cut off just above the eyebrows. Since this is where most people keep their brains, it would be easy to think of the Flatheads as being stupid. And it would be almost right.

However Lurline, the Fairy Queen who enchanted Oz into a fairyland, dis-covered the Flatheads and took pity on them. She and her band of fairies gave all 100 Flatheads a can of brains to car-ry with them that would allow them to think like everyone else. Shortly there-after, a trio of Magical Adepts came and taught the Flatheads how to use the brains they had been given. They taught the arts of mining and metalcraft, allowing the Flatheads to use the metals in their mountain for a variety of purposes. This includes clothing made of metal discs, much like medieval scale mail. It is suggested that this metal clothing is so crafted that it will never wear out. Most buildings are crafted of stone, though there is mention of a bronze prison.

For most of their history, the Flatheads got along quite well with their neighbors, the Skeezers. The three Adepts who ruled the Flatheads built a new home for the Skeezers in the middle of Skeezer Lake. An immense glass dome covered the city, and an enchanted pedestal allows the city to lower itself to the bottom of the lake.

But for Coo-ee-oh, the Skeezer Queen, this magical aid was not enough. She wanted the Adepts’ magic for herself. So she invited the three sorceresses to a sump-tuous banquet. While the Adepts feasted, Queen Coo-ee-oh made off with their magical tomes and implements. To prevent the sorceresses from retaliating, she

36

warned her that if they died, all the magic that she stole would be for naught. Coo-

Without the Adepts to lead them, one of the Flatheads proclaimed himself to be Supreme Dictator (or Su-Dic, for short). When one of the other Flatheads objected to this, the Su-Dic took his can of brains. After an argument with his wife, the Su-Dic took her can of brains as well. The Su-Dic’s wife then proceeded to steal the canned brains of four other people. This expanded intellect allowed both the Su-Dic and his wife to become potent users of magic.

No one else objected to Su-Dic’s rulership for fear of losing their brains. He also appeased his people by making every Flathead citizen a Dictator of some sort. The post of Supreme Dictator is elected every year from among his fellow Dictators. However, the law states that the current Supreme Dictator is the one who counts the votes, allowing him to declare himself the winner of every election.

The Su-Dic had no desire to see the Adepts return. Not only would their return remove him from his position of power, but their destruction would weaken Coo-ee-oh, who had become the enemy of the Flatheads. To this end, Rora, the Su-Dic’s

Queen Coo-ee-oh and transformed into a Golden Pig, the poison spilled uselessly on the ground.

This very nearly led to a war between the Flatheads and the Skeezers. However, on the eve of the invasion Queen Coo-ee-oh was transformed into a Diamond Swan by another batch of magical poison, causing her to lose interest in anything except the beauty of her new form. Skeezer Island was submerged under their lake to pro-tect it from invasion and the soldiers Coo-ee-oh brought with her were stranded on the surface. With their enemy defeated, the Flatheads declared victory and returned to their mountain. The cleverness of Ervic, the leader of the Skeezer soldiers, and the magic of Red Reera the Yookoohoo restored the three Adepts to their original forms. Once the Flatheads saw this, they embraced the Adepts. The Su-Dic was removed from power and deprived of the extra brains that he had stolen.

Glinda the Good then took it upon herself to install the canned brains into the tops of every Flathead’s skull. This caused their heads to become rounded, like

themselves Mountaineers.

Playing A FlatheadSince every Flathead has the same amount of brains allotted to them, their Brains

skill of 3, 4 at most. Only the Su-Dic and his wife, with their multiple cans of brains, had the intellect to comprehend the arcane mysteries of magic. Because of this, there are likely few Crafted People from Flathead Mountain. The amounts of brains needed to assemble the enchantment of animation or create a mechanical man like Tik-Tok were instead being put to use plotting against the Skeezers. Every Flathead was a Dictator of something, so it’s possible that a few of them might put on enough airs to qualify for the Noble template.

A Narrator may choose to require that Flathead characters take a special trait of “Canned Brains.” This is a disadvantage that grants 1 skill point. This represents the fact that a Flathead may lose their can of brains through accident or misadventure and then be unable to think.

No More Flatheads?By the end of the story Glinda of Oz, the Flatheads are no more, with ev-

eryone having their canned brains installed in their heads. But what if you want the Flatheads to appear in a story for your players? Here are a few options to consider:

1) The heroes arrive before the story takes place. Perhaps they are sent to

come looking for indestructible metal clothing and the Su-Dic demands help with one of his plots in exchange.

2) The heroes are part of the story. You may wish to adapt the story into an adventure that your players can participate in. Or the heroes are minor characters in the story, or simply travelers caught up in the events as they are happening.

3) There are other Flatheads. Perhaps some of the Flatheads were proud of their unique nature and declined having their brains put into their heads. Since Ozma and Glinda would never intentionally make someone un-happy, they would let the Flathead keep their canned brains. They may decide to remain among the Mountaineers, or start their own community elsewhere. Also, it is possible that another community of Flatheads al-ready exists somewhere else in Oz. It may be that they are related to the Hammerheads who live in the Quadling Country (page 51).

37

Adventure HooksA can of brains has been discovered in Oz. But if all the Flatheads are Moun-

taineers, whom can this belong to?

One of the Mountaineers has started to use magic. It is discovered that his brains used to belong to the Su-Dic’s wife Rora and retained some of her magical knowl-edge. What sort of trouble can he get into?

Forest Of GuguIn the center of the clearing stood a great shelving rock, having

who was King of the Forest.

—The Magic of Oz

The animals of Oz are very much like its people. The people of Oz gather in cities, and the animals gather in forests. Just as the cities are ruled by kings, queens, and emperors, so are the forests ruled by Beast Kings. Gugu the Leopard is one such king. He has been king of the largest forest in the Gillikin Country for so long that it has taken on his name.

Gugu has lived for so long that he is among the most intelligent and fearsome beasts in the forest. So are his Counselors: Bru the Bear, Loo the Unicorn, and Rango the Gray Ape. It is this fearsome nature that allows them the authority to rule over a forest full of wild beasts, since most beasts will only listen to someone stron-ger and larger than themselves.

Ruggedo, the former Nome King, tried to start a war between the beasts of Gugu Forest and the people of Oz. With the help of Kiki Aru, a Munchkin boy who had mastered a magical Word of Transformation, he changed his form to that of a Li-Mon-Eag, a strange beast with the head of a lion, the body of a monkey, the wings of an eagle, and a donkey’s tail with a gold ball on the end of it, in order to gain the trust of the animals.

He told them that the people of Oz were planning to capture and enslave all of

them to live comfortably as a person, while the Oz people would be transformed into animals and forced to hunt and forage for food.

While the animals were deliberating, the Wizard of Oz arrived with his friends Princess Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger. Although they merely wished a favor from King Gugu, their appearance among the council of war panicked

Kiki Aru. He proceeded to give the visitors from the Emerald City animal forms and gave King Gugu the form of a woman.

On the urging of Ruggedo, Kiki began to transform some of the monkeys of the forest into giant soldiers to form their army of conquest. The Wizard, in the form of a fox, had hidden himself nearby and was able to learn Kiki’s Word of Transformation. He used this Word to transform Kiki and Ruggedo into nuts, neutralizing them.

The Wizard then proceeded to restore every creature and person in the forest to his rightful shape. Gugu was so grateful for this that he granted the Wizard’s request of a dozen monkeys to entertain at Ozma’s birthday party. He also assured Dorothy and the Wizard that they would be as safe and welcome in his forest as they were in the Emerald City.

Kiki Aru and Ruggedo were later restored to their natural forms and brought to Ozma for judgment. She decreed that both of them drink from the Font of Oblivion and be given new lives in the Emerald City.

Playing An AnimalIn order to create an animal character, use the Large Animal or Small Animal

templates. Mythic beasts like unicorns live in the forest, so it’s possible that some creatures might have a magical ability of some sort. Use the rules in Chapter 3: The Magic of Oz to determine the cost of a given ability. Also, it is said that some beasts, as they grow older, also grow larger. With the Narrator’s permission, 1 skill point may be spent to raise a characters Size by 1, making a large animal giant-sized, or a small animal can become child-sized.

Adventure HooksLi-Mon-Eags (real ones this time) have come to Gugu Forest. Given the

trouble that Ruggedo and Kiki Aru caused, the beasts of the forest distrust the new visitors. Can you help the Li-Mon-Eags restore their damaged reputations?

Rango the Gray Ape, king of the monkey tribes, has heard wonderful stories from his subjects who came to visit the Emerald City and has decided to see it for himself. It’s your job to make sure that he enjoys his visit.

38

Loonville“What does the Sign say?” inquired the boy.

“It says that ‘All Strangers are Warned not to Follow this Path to Loonville,’” answered the Scarecrow, who could read very well when his eyes had been freshly painted.

—The Tin Woodman of Oz

communities of Oz are rather insular and isolated, the Loons are even more insular than usual. This likely has something to do with the fact that they can be burst fairly readily with any pointed object. Any intruders are captured as quickly as possible to minimize the potential for damage.

The Loons are ruled by a king named Bal Loon and his advisor Panta Loon. King Bal spends most of the time with his head in the clouds and is therefore tied to his throne by a long string. When his authority is needed, Panta will pull the king

The most severe punishment under Loon law is perforation. The troublemaker is punctured and the air let out of their skin until they promise to behave themselves. When the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer visited their town, they discovered that people who were not Loons responded very differently to being pricked with a thorn.

Playing A LoonLoons represent their tendency to burst with a Weakness: Punctures (Common,

Incapacitating) that grants 1 bonus skill point. Should a Loon decide to go adven-

Some means of patching their holes is recommended. In Loonville, this is typically a string tied tightly around the hole to seal it, but rubber patches that are glued into place may also be used.

Adventure Hooks

Mist ValleyFrom the top of the hill Ozma and Dorothy looked down into the

mist that was as dense as smoke. Nothing in the valley was visible except these rolling waves of mist, but beyond, on the other side, rose a grassy hill that appeared quite beautiful.

—Glinda of Oz

Mist Valley is home to the Mist Maidens, nature fairies with powers over air. The mist that obscures the valley is permanent and persists on even the clearest and brightest day. No one knows who or what lives beneath the thick fog at the bottom of the valley. When Dorothy and Ozma requested safe passage through the valley, the fairies chose to carry them above the mists rather than allow them to travel on the ground.

Mist Maidens And Your CharacterAs true fairies, the Mist Maids are unavailable as playable characters. However,

a player may choose to create a link between the Mist Maidens or other true fairies and their character. The simplest way would be to claim them as friends for the char-

FairiesOz is a fairyland, and therefore all of its people are fairies. This means that

the people of Oz can never get sick, grow old, or die. Even if they are chopped into little pieces all of those pieces will still be alive. This will not be painful, but it will be very inconvenient.

Another kind of fairy, here referred to as a “true” fairy, has a few more abilities. A true fairy is immune to all harm. True fairies command fairy magic, which can only be used to help others and make them happier. They also tend to represent natural phenomena, such as the Mist Maidens or Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daughter. Princess Ozma of Oz is also a true fairy.

Physical transformations typically rob a magician of their power by depriv-ing them of the ability to make complex words or gestures, or by giving them new abilities and traits to explore instead of magic. True fairies can never lose their magic, no matter what form they acquire.

The power available to true fairies makes them inappropriate as playable characters.

39

acter. Also, a player may claim that a certain ability or item that they possess was given to them by fairies in return for a favor.

Since no one knows what lies under the mists of Mist Valley, a truly unique character may claim it as an origin, and few will be able to question it. Except for the Narrator, of course.

Adventure HooksThe Mist Maids had imprisoned a horrible monster in their valley and now it has

escaped! Can you help them capture it before it causes too much destruction?

Skeezer LakeBordered by a green lawn was a great lake fully a mile from shore to shore, the waters of which were exquisitely blue and sparkling, with little wavelets breaking its smooth surface where the breezes touched it. In the center of this lake appeared a lovely island, not of great extent but almost entirely covered by a huge round build-ing with glass walls and a high glass dome which glittered bril-liantly in the sunshine. Between the glass building and the edge of

of highly polished white marble.

—Glinda of Oz

The immense structure in the middle of Skeezer Lake, large enough to hold 101 Skeezers in comfort, is a gift from the three Adepts who ruled over the Flatheads, neighbors and friends to the Skeezers. The magical mechanisms of this island allow it to safely sink to the bottom of the lake while keeping the Skeezers safe and dry beneath the dome. The structure also features a bridge that may be extended to the

be deployed when the city is below the water.

A young woman named Coo-ee-oh, though since no one in Oz ages her true age cannot be determined, originally ruled the Skeezers. Even though she was the queen

exhibited by the Adepts.

So one day, she invited the sorceresses to a great banquet. As the women feast-ed, Coo-ee-oh made off with all of their tools of magic so that she could learn their

to drown in the air. But one of them choked out a warning that if any of them should

be destroyed, Coo-ee-oh would immediately lose all that she had gained and more. Fearing for her newfound power, she rushed them into the surrounding lake.

securing their positions of power and weakening their new enemy, Queen Coo-ee-

magic to transform the Su-Dic’s wife into a Golden Pig and caused the poison to be spilled uselessly on the ground.

This very nearly led to war between the Flatheads and the Skeezers. Princesses Dorothy and Ozma of Oz came from the Emerald City to broker a peace, but were trapped when Coo-ee-oh submerged the island in order to protect it from the Flathead invasion. Princess Dorothy was able to send a magical signal to the sorceress Glinda the Good, who gathered a rescue party.

Meanwhile, Queen Coo-ee-oh took a squad of her troops in a submersible boat to face the Flatheads. The Flatheads came prepared with another batch of poison and threw it directly at the Skeezer Queen. She promptly fell overboard and rose again, transformed into a Diamond Swan. With Coo-ee-oh defeated and the Skeezer Island trapped at the bottom of the lake, the Flatheads declared themselves victorious and retired to their mountain.

The soldiers who had accompanied their queen, realizing that they were trapped on the surface, now begged for the Su-Dic to take them prisoner. The Su-Dic de-clined their request, since maintaining prisoners would simply be a drain on the Flat-heads’ resources.

leader of the Skeezer soldiers. They led him to Reera the Red, a reclusive Yook-oohoo who lived near the lake. Although the Adepts simply wished to learn the secret of her shapechanging magic, Ervic impressed them by tricking Red Reera into changing them back into the young women they once were.

Once restored to their proper forms, the Adepts joined the rescue party on the shore of Skeezer Lake. Taking an idea from Scraps the Patchwork Girl, the Adepts helped Glinda and the Wizard of Oz lower the water level of the lake until the top of

ee-oh’s tools of magic, but could not divine the magic words to make them function. It was Dorothy who suggested using the syllables of Coo-ee-oh’s name to control her enchantments.

Once the Skeezer Island was raised to the surface, the Adepts returned to Flat-head Mountain to resume looking after their former charges. Lady Aurex was in-

40

stalled as the new Queen of the Skeezers and promised to obey and enforce the laws of Oz among the Skeezers.

Playing A SkeezerMost templates are available to Skeezers. The only Skeezer known to practice

magic was Coo-ee-oh, and Queen Aurex has promised Ozma that her ban on magic

Nobles and Soldiers. Having been recently introduced to the rest of the Land of Oz and all of its variety, it’s very possible that some Skeezers will take up the Wanderer template. Former Queen Coo-ee-oh’s magical power might have created a Crafted Person of some sort.

Adventure HooksQueen Aurex has run out of gaulau, the magical mineral that powers the sorcer-

ous mechanisms of the island. She needs your help to get more.

The Wizard needs a diamond feather for his latest magical invention. Can the exceedingly vain Diamond Swan be persuaded to part with one of her lovely feath-ers?

Winged Monkeys

The sky was darkened, and a low rumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of many wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the dark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, each with a pair of im-mense and powerful wings on his shoulders.

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Winged Monkeys have their origins in the Northern Gillikin Country in the domains of Princess Gayelette. Gayelette was not only beautiful, wise and just, but also possessed of great magical power. Because of these virtues, few men could hope to be her equal. When she decided to seek a husband, she found no one worthy of the honor.

Finally, she found Quelala. Quelala had all of the virtues that she was looking for, but he was just a boy at the time. So she whisked him away to her ruby palace, enchanted him to the peak of masculine virtue and wisdom, and waited until such time as he was old enough for her to marry.

The Winged Monkeys at this time were full of mischief, living in the mo-ment and enjoying life to its fullest. When Quelala passed by their forest, the King of the Winged Monkeys de-cided to have fun with him. Dressed in his wedding clothes of velvet and silk, the Monkey King and his friends promptly grabbed him, lifted him up and dropped him in the nearby river.

Although Quelala had the wisdom to know that clothes do not make the man, Princess Gayelette was furious that the Winged Monkeys chose to spoil her wedding day. So she sold half her kingdom for the magical resources to bind the Monkeys to an enchanted Golden Cap. This Golden Cap was given to Quelala as a wedding gift. Al-though he had the power to command them three times with the charm of the Cap, he used it but once. Using the charm to summon them all together, he commanded the Winged Monkeys to stay out of the sight of Princess Gayelette.

This is the only order they had been given until the Wicked Witch of the West

Winkies for her to rule. Her second command was to drive out the Wizard of Oz

was to capture Dorothy and her friends before they could make good on any plan to destroy her.

Upon the destruction of the Wicked Witch, Dorothy became the holder of the

her friends safely back to the Emerald City. When the Wizard of Oz escaped in his balloon without Dorothy, she summoned the Winged Monkeys and ordered them to take her back to Kansas. They were unable to do this, though their summoning did constitute a use of the Golden Cap. Dorothy then used the charm of the Cap to get the monkeys to carry her and her friends past the hill of the Hammerheads directly to the palace of Glinda the Good, ruler of the Quadling Country.

Dorothy gave the Cap to Glinda, who used her three commands to order the

41

Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion brought to the places that they had been given to rule. Then she gave the Golden Cap to the King of the Winged Monkeys, effectively freeing them from its charm.

What mischief they may get up to now is anyone’s guess.

Playing A Winged MonkeyWith your Narrator’s permission, you may use the following template to create

a Winged Monkey character.

Character Type: Winged Monkey Size: 2Basic Skill

Athletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 2Sneaking: 2 Wits: 1Special Abilities: Flight

Customization Notes: Athletics is a very useful skill for Winged Monkeys,

and Sneaking are good investments for a Monkey whose pranks require planning and setup. Presence is good for telling jokes and stories, or playing tricks that involve frightening or deceiving the victim. A crafty Winged Monkey might purchase the

Winged Monkey characters should take their King or the Golden Cap as a friend in order to gain Oz Points from responding to the magical summons.

Adventure HooksSomeone has stolen the Golden Cap from the Winged Monkey King and has

ordered them to do something truly wicked. The King wants you to steal the Cap and return it to him so that he can counteract the wicked command.

Yoop Castle…[T]hey discovered a cup-shaped valley before them in the cen-ter of which stood an enormous castle, built of purple stone. The castle was high and broad and long, but had no turrets and towers. So far as they could see, there was but one small window and one big door on each side of the great building.

—The Tin Woodman of Oz

Mrs. Yoop, wife of the giant Mr. Yoop who is imprisoned in the southern Qua-dling Country, occupies Yoop Castle. She is also a Yookoohoo, capable of changing her form and the forms of anyone else to whatever she chooses. Mrs. Yoop consid-ers most people to be toys to amuse herself with and she becomes irritated when her playthings fail to entertain her. The only person she did not perceive as a toy was Mr. Yoop, whom she considered an annoyance.

The Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow, and Woot the Wanderer discovered this to their chagrin. The Tin Woodman was transformed into a Tin Owl, the Scarecrow became a straw-stuffed Brown Bear, and Woot was changed into a Green Monkey. They also discovered that Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter, had been captured by Mrs. Yoop and transformed into a canary.

Mrs. Yoop, via a Magic Apron, controlled every door and window in the castle. She wore this Apron constantly, even though it didn’t always coordinate with the rest

hid himself in Mrs. Yoop’s bedroom and stole the Magic Apron. This allowed him and his companions to escape and trapped Mrs. Yoop in her castle.

They then appealed to Ozma to remove the Yookoohoo transformations. In the case of Woot the Wanderer, she was not able to remove his transformation without giving it to someone else. It was decided to give the shape of the green monkey to Mrs. Yoop herself.

Although the transformation has removed her Giantess shape and Yookoohoo

to escape her castle and cause trouble.

Playing A GiantGiants are rather rare in the Land of Oz. The most notable population is in

Herku in the Winkie Country (see page 57), but all of those giants are enslaved and resigned to their lot. Mr. And Mrs. Yoop might have had children at some point, but they are never seen.

If a player wishes to play a Giant character, they may choose an appropriate template and spend 2 skill points to increase the Size trait from 3 to 5. They should

impact on the world around them.

Adventure HooksMrs. Yoop has petitioned Ozma to get her old shape back. But Ozma cannot

take the form of the Green Monkey away without giving it to someone else. She has

42

asked you to scour Oz for someone who genuinely wants to be a Green Monkey.

A Green Monkey has asked you to escort her safely to the Truth Pond in the Winkie Country (see page 57). She has promised a great reward once she reaches it. Will she actually do what she has promised? What sort of trouble will she cause once she has bathed in the Truth Pond and regained her original shape and powers?

Chapter 8: The Munchkin CountryField of Poppies

“Aren’t they beautiful?” the girl asked, as she breathed in the spicy

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Not all of the dangers of Oz have sharp claws or weapons. Some of them don’t

together, the smell encourages whoever smells them to lie down and go to sleep. The

make a Wits rolls every minute to stay awake. Each Wits roll suffers a penalty equal

the second one has a -1 penalty, the third has a -2, and so on.

Characters who are aware of the dangers that they face may take precautions.

to all rolls to stay awake among the poppies. More elaborate precautions, such as a breathing mask or a pumped-in air supply, may allow even higher bonuses or even allow a “grace period” during which characters do not have to worry about falling asleep.

The Field Of Poppies And Your CharacterThe Field of Poppies is very unlikely as a point of origin for a character. An

extended stay in the Poppy Field can occur as part of a character’s history. In that case, the player should think of how their character escaped from the Field. This can provide a valuable friend to add to the character’s Friends List.

The Wanderer is a good template to choose for this sort of character. A Noble attempting to regain their former status, or a Scholar whose knowledge is hopelessly out of date, could also make an interesting character concept.

43

Adventure HooksPrincess Ozma has organized an effort to rescue any travelers who have been

itself, but characters of all varieties may help those who have been rescued to get their old lives back or start new ones.

Oz is in danger and only one person can save it! Unfortunately, that person was

before all of Oz is destroyed?

Invisible CountrySuddenly Woot, who was in the lead, looked around and found that all his comrades had mysteriously disappeared. But where could they have gone to? The broad plain was all about him and there were neither trees nor bushes that could hide even a rabbit, nor any hole for one to fall into. Yet there he stood, alone.

—The Tin Woodman of Oz

Everything in the Invisible Country is invisible. Anyone that enters its borders becomes invisible, even to themselves. This effect ends once the traveler has passed

other than sight. The Hyp-po-gy-raf, the only creature known to live in this region, hunts by smell.

-ite food is straw, but he has been known to eat hay by stretching his neck across a deep ditch that lies just to the east of the Invisible Country.

The Invisible Country And Your CharacterSince no one can see what exists in the Invisible Country, there could be any

kind of creatures or beings living there. It’s also possible that living within the invis-ibility effect for so long renders a person permanently invisible.

If a player wishes to have the Hyp-po-gy-raf or one of his family members as their character, the Large Animal template would be a good basis. Consider raising

InvisibilityFor those who wish to create a truly invisible character, here is a magical

ability built with the magic system.

Power: Help/Hinder, -2 Awareness/-2 Athletics (4)Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)Ritual: None (0)Effect Power: 4

This ability renders the character permanently invisible. This creates a -2 penalty for Awareness rolls to discover the character’s location by sight, as well as -2 to Athletics rolls made to attack them once their location has been determined.

Adventure HooksThe Wizard has invented a magical paint that can make invisible things visible

KalidahsThey had just started to cross this queer bridge when a sharp growl made them all look up, and to their horror they saw running toward them two great beasts with bodies like bears and heads like tigers.

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Kalidahs are curious beasts with the bodies of bears, the heads of tigers, and claws like daggers. They are often found wandering the Munchkin Country, but may sometimes be found in the eastern part of Gillikin Country.

These creatures are considered the largest and most dangerous beasts in all of Oz. They regard any being that is not a kalidah with contempt. They think it is inappropriate to become overly familiar with their dinner. Few people have heard kalidahs speak, and fewer still have survived to tell anyone else.

Like everyone else, kalidahs have a king that they must obey. Since kalidahs only respect size and ferocity, this king must truly be a terror. It is said that the kali-dah king commands magic that he can use to aid his people.

44

Creature: Kalidah Size: 4Basic Skills

Athletics: 4 Awareness: 2Brains: 1 Presence (Frighten): 3Sneaking: 2 Wits: 3

Special Abilities: Deadly Weapon, No Arms

Note: This template is not intended as the basis of a playable character. This rep-resents a typical kalidah. Individual kalidahs may have higher or lower skill ratings.

Kalidahs And Your CharacterFor the most part, kalidahs are intended to serve as monsters. A particularly pow-

erful one might work as the villain of a story, but only rarely will they be allies and almost never friends. Anyone who tries to make friends with a kalidah has a unique challenge: How to keep themselves useful in ways that don’t involve being eaten.

Adventure HooksThe characters have discovered a young kalidah injured in the Munchkin forests.

Should they try to nurse him back to health? How will his mother respond to her child being helped by prey? How much does a growing kalidah eat?

What if one of the kalidahs decided he didn’t want to be ferocious? Would he stay with the rest of them, or go out and try to be friends with the Ozites? And how would they react?

Miss Foolish Owl And Mr. Wise DonkeyMr. Wise Donkey is not a native of Oz, but comes from the neighboring land of Mo. He was once an ordinary, stupid donkey until one unusual Friday after-noon. His mindless wanderings had carried him to the schoolhouse just as all the teachers and scholars were leav-ing. In their rush to get to their homes, nobody noticed the donkey that they had locked inside the building.

Eventually, the donkey became hungry, so he began to eat the textbooks. By the time the janitor arrived on Monday morning, every textbook in the school had been eaten. Once the donkey had managed to digest all of that knowl-edge, he became very wise. Many peo-ple from all over Mo came to the Wise Donkey for advice. Even the Magical

Monarch of Mo has been known to seek his counsel.

The Wise Donkey had intended to visit Oz for a short while, but it became an extended stay when Glinda’s magic cut Oz off from the rest of the world. He has set himself up as a Public Advisor with his business partner, Miss Foolish Owl.

Mr. Wise Donkey specializes in wise advice while Miss Foolish Owl offers fool-ish advice in the form of silly nonsense poetry.

Miss Foolish Owl And Mr. Wise Donkey And Your CharacterEither or both of these characters would be useful to have on your character’s

Friends List. Another interesting option would be to portray one of these characters. The Wise Donkey would use the Large Animal Template, while the Foolish Owl would use the Small Animal template. Perhaps the Wise Donkey wishes to increase his knowledge with experience, or simply dispense advice to those who cannot bring themselves to knock on his door.

45

Adventure HooksWise Donkey is jealous of the students at the Royal Athletic College. They

acquire knowledge in sugarcoated pills, not by directly consuming books, as he did. Now he wants some School Pills of his own.

In order to keep his knowledge current, Wise Donkey must eat new books. Will you help get him some?

It has been some time since the Wise Donkey has been able to gather any news from his homeland of Mo, and he is certain that the Magical Monarch of that country has gotten himself into mischief again. Is there any way to cross the desert to be sure?

Mount MunchOn reaching the top of the hill, the plain spread out before them in

seemed much nearer than it had the previous evening. They trudged on at a brisk pace, and by noon the mountain was so close that they could admire its appearance. Its slopes were partly clothed with pretty evergreens, and its foot-hills were tufted with a slender waving bluegrass that had a tassel on the end of every

mountain, a charming house, not of great size but neatly painted

doors and windows.

—The Tin Woodman of Oz

Mount Munch is a mountain on the eastern border of the Munchkin Country. At the top is a wide circular depression, much like a saucer. In this depression live the Hyups, people very like the Munchkins who live below their mountain. Due to the

with people other than themselves. The only Hyup to enter the chronicles of Oz was Kiki Aru, who used a magical Word of Transformation to change himself into a bird in order to explore Oz.

At the base of this mountain live Nimmie Amee and her husband Chopfyt. Nim-mie Amee was engaged to Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, and later to Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier, but they both rusted and were lost before they could be wed. Chopfyt was created by Ku-Klip the tinsmith out of the cast-off meat parts of the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier and one tin arm. Their home is surrounded by an in-

visible Wall of Air, a bit of magic that Nimmie Amee took from her former employer, the Wicked Witch of the East.

Mount Munch And Your CharacterThe main challenge of playing a Hyup character is getting the character off of

Mount Munch. A adept climber might be able to make the descent with the proper equipment. Also, hidden in the home of former Sorcerer Bini Aru are the instruc-tions for pronouncing a magical Word of Transformation, which allows the user to transform into any creature they desire.

Nimmie Amee and Chopfyt prefer to be left alone, so they would make poor friends for a character. However, Chopfyt did do some exploring before he settled down. In a game set in the appropriate time period, Chopfyt would make an inter-esting character for a player to portray. He would likely be built with the Wanderer template. His tin arm does resist injury fairly well, but is not enough to cost any skill points.

The Word of TransformationAlthough the unlicensed practice of magic is illegal in Oz, some characters

might encounter someone with the knowledge to correctly pronounce the Word of Transformation.

Word of TransformationEffect: Transformation (5)Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)Ritual: Complex (-1)Total Power: 4

The ritual to cast this spell is to declare whom the target of the effect is and what shape they will take, followed by the word “pyrzqxgl.” The magic word must be pronounced correctly or the spell will not work. Up to 5 points of changes may be made to the target (See the rules on Transformation Magic on page 21).

46

Adventure HooksNimmie Amee and Chopfyt have had a baby! Santa Claus would very much like

to give the child a Christmas present, but cannot penetrate the Wall of Air that sur-rounds the home. Can you help?

Bini Aru has come down from Mount Munch to discover what has happened to his son, Kiki. Unfortunately, Kiki drank from the Fountain of Oblivion and has forgotten his old life. Can you help reunite this family?

Royal Athletic College Of Oz

several hundred young Ozites were at their classes. In one place they played football, in another baseball. Some played tennis, some golf; some were swimming in a big pool. Upon a river which wound through the grounds several crews in racing boats were rowing with great enthusiasm. Other groups of students played basketball and cricket, while in one place a ring was roped in to permit boxing and wrestling by the energetic youths. All the col-legians seemed busy and there was much laughter and shouting.

—The Emerald City of Oz

Professor H.M. Wogglebug, T.E, administers the Royal Athletic College. The

much of his early life in a schoolhouse listening to the teacher there.

The main thing that separates the Athletic College from other institutions is that its curriculum is swallowed rather than taught. The Wizard of Oz invented sugar-coated School Pills that allow the students to acquire knowledge without the tedium of study. This allows the student body to devote its attention to physical pursuits.

While the students appreciate the exchange of pills for books, it doesn’t mean that pills are the preferred solution for everything. When Professor Wogglebug at-tempted to replace cooked food with the Wizard’s patented Square Meal Tablets, his pupils rewarded him with a prompt dunking in the lake near the school.

Playing A Scholar

A graduate of the Athletic College will likely be built using the Scholar template. Unlike other scholars, Athletics skill will share priority with Brains. Both skills are equally likely to be the basis for the character’s specialty. Since many sports require teamwork, many of these scholars will also have respectable ratings in the Presence skill.

Adventure Hooks

The Wizard of Oz made a mistake with his last batch of School Pills. Now students are reciting limericks instead of epics and spelling with numbers! Can you

47

Chapter 9: The Quadling CountryBunbury

Men, women and children were all made of buns and bread. Some were thin and others fat; some were white, some light brown and some very dark of complexion. A few of the buns, which seemed to form the more important class of the people, were neatly frosted. Some had raisins for eyes and currant buttons on their clothes; others had eyes of cloves and legs of stick cinnamon, and many wore hats and bonnets frosted pink and green.

—The Emerald City of Oz

Although Glinda is not mentioned as a patron of Bunbury, it seems highly likely, given its proximity to Bunnybury and its unusual nature. It is also possible that Bun-bury is a project of the nearby community of Utensia.

Everything in Bunbury is edible. The homes are made of crackers and the streets are paved with bread crusts. The people of the town are pastry products. The Mayor of the town is Mr. Cinnamon Bunn, Esquire, of the very aristocratic Bunn family. Other town notables include Pop Over, Johnny Cake and the Parker H. Rolls.

and its’ citizens have access to a water well and a milk well. Doughleander and doughdera trees grow throughout the town, sprouting a hearty crop of doughnuts every spring.

Playing A BunnThe easiest way to create a Bunn character is to choose a standard template from

pages 11-13 and reduce the Size to 1, freeing up 2 skill points. Their Weakness to water (Common and Damaging) gives them another 2 skill points. The Narrator may also choose to create a template for them that takes these factors into account.

Adventure HooksA diplomatic envoy from Bunbury to the Emerald City has gone missing! Who

ate Colonel Crumb?

The great ovens of Bunbury have gone awry, producing Bunns that are burnt

overdone pastry people?

BunnyburyGlinda the Good created Bunnybury

in an attempt to do a favor to rabbits, which she is rather fond of. All of the rabbits of Bunnybury are albinos, hav-ing white fur and pink eyes.

Given the nervous nature of rabbits, many security features protect the city. For starters, a high marble wall sur-rounds the city. There seems to be no gate, only a small window some way up the wall and a button labeled “No Ad-mittance Except On Business.” Press-ing the button summons the Keeper of the Wicket, a rabbit named Bristle, who sticks his head out of the window to greet any callers.

there at the behest of Glinda or Ozma, the wall opens to allow them into a small foyer. They must consent to be reduced in size before they are allowed to enter the city proper. This process consists of

walking toward a rabbit-sized door at the far side of the foyer.

In the middle of the town square are bronze statues of Glinda and Dorothy. Glin-da is honored for giving rabbits a safe place to live with many luxuries. The statue of Dorothy is newer and celebrates a favor she recently did for the king of Bunnybury.

Every bunny in Bunnybury remembers living in the forest and being invited by Glinda to live in a place of security and happiness. The rabbit they chose to be their king not only had to deal with being civilized, but also had responsibility and luxury forced upon him. The laws laid down by Glinda did not allow him to abdicate, so he spent much of his free time bemoaning his fate.

When Dorothy came to visit and mentioned that she was planning to visit Glinda in the near future, the king was ecstatic. He requested that she speak to Glinda about his situation, asking her to allow him to leave Bunnybury and return to the simple life that he led in the forest. Dorothy said that she would, but reminded him of all the things that he would be leaving behind when he left.

48

Ultimately, the king had to admit that he rather enjoyed the life that the city al-lowed him to lead and told Dorothy not to say anything to Glinda on the matter.

Bunnybury CharactersNatives of Bunnybury are, of course, rabbits using the Small Animal template.

Since these rabbits are civilized and can use their paws as effective hands, so they should buy off the No Hands trait with one of their skill points.

Adventure Hooks-

sure of so much civilization, or is something else afoot?

The time has come for the unveiling ceremony of Dorothy’s statue, and Dorothy, Ozma, and Glinda have been invited. What disaster waits to strike while the most powerful people in Oz are only 1 foot tall?

China Country

and shining and white as the bottom of a big platter. Scattered around were many houses made entirely of china and painted in the brightest colors. These houses were quite small, the biggest of them reaching only as high as Dorothy’s waist. There were also pretty little barns, with china fences around them; and many cows and sheep and horses and pigs and chickens, all made of china, were standing about in groups.

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

In any other country, they would be small porcelain statues with delicately painted faces and clothes. In the China Country, they live. Due to their delicate beauty and fragile natures, they are very vain and cautious. Their role in life is determined by their appearance, with princesses living in porcelain castles and dairymaids milking china cows on ce-ramic farms. While china is easily glued back together, the crack never completely disappears.

Long ago, the China People were pursued for their beauty and forced to stand on mantles, shelves and tables as decorations until they lost their ability to move freely. In order to protect themselves from this dreadful fate, they erected a great wall of china around their community. Now they are able to live quiet, careful lives in peace and comfort.

China Country And Your CharacterIt is said that the people of the China Country only retain the power of life while

they stay in their own country. Whether this refers to the fairyland of Oz or only the china-walled territory is unclear, and no one is willing to risk the danger of testing this theory.

Adventure HooksWar is brewing between the delicate China People and the animals of the nearby

porcelain?

While serving as diplomats in the China Country, the heroes accidentally cause the ruling princess to suffer a chip. Since her beauty is now imperfect, she must pass on her crown to the next prettiest princess. As impartial observers, the heroes are called upon to mediate the succession. They must choose the prettiest princess in the China Country and ensure that she suffers no accidents on her way to the throne.

Cuttenclip VillageJust before the entrance was drawn up a line of tiny soldiers, with uniforms brightly painted and paper guns upon their shoulders. They were exactly alike, from one end of the line to the other, and all were cut out of paper and joined together in the centers of their bodies.

As the visitors entered the enclosure the Wizard let the door swing back into place, and at once the line of soldiers tumbled over, fell

—The Emerald City of Oz

The Cuttenclips are living paper dolls, crafted by a little girl named Miss Cut-tenclip. Glinda the Good provided her with magical “live paper,” which allows the paper dolls to think and move about. They live in a colorful village of cardboard houses and paper trees. The women wear dresses made of tissue paper and the men wear brightly colored costumes of cutout paper.

49

Since paper is such a delicate material, Cuttenclip Village has many protections. Its isolated location prevents too many incautious visitors from making a mess of things. A high wall blocks out the wind so that the tiny dolls do not get blown over. Glinda had used weather magic to make sure that it never rains over the village, which would quickly reduce the Cuttenclips to pulp.

Any visitor to the village is warned not to move quickly and to breathe gently, so as not to stir up a breeze. Any sudden outburst, such as a laugh, a cough or a sneeze is enough to knock down several of the paper people at once. If a person is unable to

Cuttenclips And Your CharacterThe Cuttenclips are little more than a curiosity. Only in the highly specialized

environment created in the Cuttenclip village allows them to function as well as they do. As an adventurer in Oz, a Cuttenclip would very quickly be torn to ribbons.

The sole commodity of interest that exists only within this village is the magical “live paper” that all of the dolls are made out of. Miss Cuttenclip’s skill with paper crafts is impressive, but only of marginal practical use.

Adventure HooksGlinda is away from her palace on important business and a large rainstorm is

heading right for the Cuttenclip village! Can you save the paper people from being dissolved into pulp?

A batch of “live paper” has gone missing on its way from Glinda’s Palace to the Cuttenclip village. Now a new villain is terrorizing the southland with living folded paper cranes! What can be done to stop him?

Dark Forest“It seems gloomy,” said the Scarecrow.

“Not a bit of it,” answered the Lion. “I should like to live here all my life. See how soft the dried leaves are under your feet and how rich and green the moss is that clings to these old trees. Surely no wild beast could wish a pleasanter home.”

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

This forest is ruled over by the Cowardly Lion. He won the title of King of

A giant spider-like monster had terrorized the forest. Several of the bravest beasts attempted to challenge this monster, but had been eaten up instead. When the Cowardly Lion came traveling through with his friends, the animals of the forest pleaded with him to destroy this creature. He waited until the thing was asleep and knocked its head off of its fragile neck.

Although the Lion spends most of his time in the Emerald City, guarding Prin-cess Ozma with his friend the Hungry Tiger, all of the animals in the forest accept him as their king.

Dark Forest CharactersVirtually any kind of animal may make a home in the Dark Forest. Particularly

notable animals might even be able to claim the Cowardly Lion or Hungry Tiger as a friend.

Adventure HooksBefore it died, the giant spider had laid a number of eggs. Now they are begin-

ning to hatch and the Dark Forest is overrun with spiders the size of large dogs. What can be done?

Fighting Trees

with such wide-spreading branches that there was room for the party to pass underneath. So he walked forward to the tree, but

around him, and the next minute he was raised from the ground

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Fighting Trees are just one of many varieties of animated plants that grow in Oz.

attack anyone who passes beneath their branches. They also have the Mighty Blow trait, allowing them to make Knockdown attacks at no penalty, and the Crafted trait, making them much more resistant to damage. Should a character succeed in causing Wits damage to a Fighting Tree, it will surrender instantly, as though it only had Wits of 1.

50

Adventure HooksThe Fighting Trees have uprooted themselves and are marching on the Emerald

City! What can be done to stop them?

One of the Wizard’s recipes call for an unbruised fruit from a Fighting Tree. Characters must either catch the fruit before it hits the ground (or them!) or ask very nicely.

Flutterbudget Center“Look out!” screamed a voice. “Look out, or you’ll run over my child!”

They gazed around and saw a woman standing upon the sidewalk nervously wringing her hands as she gazed at them appealingly.

“Where is your child?” asked the Sawhorse.

“In the house,” said the woman, bursting into tears;

—The Emerald City of Oz

Flutterbudget Center is one of two “defensive settlements” in Oz, the other being Rigmarole Town. Should anyone attempting to invade Oz encounter these settle-ments, they will become frustrated trying to conquer the people there and give up rather quickly.

The Flutterbudgets are worrywarts of the worst kind. They not only worry about all the things that could happen, but also about all the things that can’t. Even the sil-liest, most impossible danger seizes them with panic. They worry about being cut by the kitchen knives while they are in the living room. They worry about heat stroke in the dead of winter.

Flutterbudget Center And Your CharacterFlutterbudgets are terribly afraid of danger. In fact, they’re terribly afraid of

everything, making them quite unable to go on adventures in Oz. A character might have a friend in Flutterbudget Center whom they can call upon when they need to come up with worst-case scenarios.

Adventure HooksOur heroes are tasked with taking a new resident to Flutterbudget Center. They

coming true! What’s going on?

Fuddlecumjig“Why, they’re made in a good many small pieces,” explained the kangaroo; “and whenever any stranger comes near them they have a habit of falling apart and scattering themselves around. That’s when they get so dreadfully mixed, and it’s a hard puzzle to put them together again.”

—The Emerald City of Oz

The people of Fuddlecumjig are known as Fuddles. They have the unusual ability to break apart into hundreds of jigsaw puz-zle pieces. The Fuddles are proud of this ability and scatter themselves whenever they are surprised or encounter something new. The mayor, Lord High Chigglewitz, is rather proud of the fact that he is one of

If Oz has a “tourist trap,” it is Fuddle-cumjig. People come from all over Oz to spend the afternoon assembling the Fud-dles.

Fuddlecumjig CharactersA Fuddle character may use the same

templates as any other character. However, all Fuddles have a Weakness to surprises, a Common occurrence that Incapacitates them and grants them one additional skill point.

51

Adventure Hooks

scattered. And they scattered the rest of the Fuddles very widely, so it could be some time before their crime is even noticed.

Glinda’s PalaceGradually the Thing sank lower and nearer to the ground until at length it came to rest within the beautiful gardens of Glinda, settling upon a velvety green lawn close by a fountain which sent

they fell with a soft, tinkling sound into the carved marble basin placed to receive them.

—The Land of Oz

This palace is the home of Glinda the Good, a Sorceress and ruler of the Qua-dling Country. It is staffed entirely by girls chosen from all over Oz for their beauty

drilled girl soldiers as her bodyguard.

There are enchantments throughout the palace grounds. Some of them are sim-ply decorative while others are quite powerful. One of the most potent items in Glin-da’s collection is the Great Book of Records. This immense book records everything

favored over detail, often requiring further investigation before acting on something written in the book.

Glinda’s Palace CharactersEvery member of Glinda’s staff is female and quite lovely. Whatever template is

used, consider raising the Presence skill and taking the Presence specialty “lovely ap-pearance.” The most likely sort of adventurer to emerge from Glinda’s palace (other than Glinda herself) is one of her highly effective girl soldiers, built using the Soldier template.

If anyone should have Glinda on their Friends List, they will gain access to some of the most powerful magic in Oz.

Adventure HooksThe Great Book of Records has warned of a great crisis brewing. But when the

heroes arrive, they see nothing wrong? Could the book be wrong?

Hammerheads

at the top and supported by a thick neck full of wrinkles. But he had no arms at all, and, seeing this, the Scarecrow did not fear that so helpless a creature could prevent them from climbing the hill. So he said, “I’m sorry not to do as you wish, but we must pass over your hill whether you like it or not,” and he walked boldly forward.

As quick as lightning the man’s head shot forward and his neck

Scarecrow in the middle and sent him tumbling, over and over, down the hill. Almost as quickly as it came the head went back to the body, and the man laughed harshly as he said, “It isn’t as easy as you think!”

—The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Hammerheads live behind a steep hill just south of the China Country. Since they are small and have no arms, it is easy to assume that they are incapable of de-

Glinda The Good?Although Princess Ozma sits on the Throne of Oz, it could be argued that

Glinda is actually the most powerful person in Oz. Her Book of Records informs her of everything that could possibly require her attention. Her magical power allows her to act on these events nearly instantly.

She is also granted tremendous leeway with her abilities. In The Emerald City of Oz, she casts the spell to isolate Oz before she has been formally asked to do so. In Tik-Tok of Oz, Glinda teleports the Army of Oogaboo into a wasteland outside of Oz without telling anyone about it.

If Glinda wished to conquer Oz, she could do so very easily. Imprisoning a fairy princess like Ozma is no challenge to her magical skills. Her Magic Book would warn her of any potential uprisings. Glinda is one of the few licensed sorcerers in Oz, so her magical might is not easily countered.

It’s very easy to create a “dark Glinda” without changing any of the essential details. If Glinda does something, everyone will assume that she must have a good reason for it. If she doesn’t, then the injured party need simply appeal to Princess Ozma. If Glinda will allow them to reach the Emerald City, that is…

52

fending themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. They can send their heads shooting out with impres-

should come near their hill.

Because the Hammerheads are so ef-fective at defending their territory, little is really known about them. What is it that they guard so zealously from all outsiders? Do they fear conquest by the armed peoples of Oz? Or are they striv-ing to keep something in their borders from getting out?

Hammerheads And Your CharacterSince the Hammerheads are so secre-tive, having one as a friend or as a char-acter is very unlikely. Should the Nar-rator decide to allow this, they should decide what the big Hammerhead se-cret is. That will go a long way to ex-plaining why a Hammerhead is willing to extend help to outsiders or going on adventures in Oz.

When designing a template for the Hammerheads, remember that they are Size 2 and have the Mighty Blow and No Arms traits.

Adventure HooksOzma has decided to open up diplomatic relations with the Hammerheads.

How do you negotiate with someone who’s typical response to outsiders is a long-distance head butt?

Hopper CountryThere was something about this man that Toto objected to, and when he slowly rose to his foot they saw what it was. He had but

one leg, set just below the middle of his round, fat body; but it was

the man seemed to stand very well. He had never had but this one leg, which looked something like a pedestal, and when Toto ran up

then another in a very active manner, looking so frightened that Scraps laughed aloud.

—The Patchwork Girl of Oz

The Hoppers live in an immense cavern under the mountains of the Quadling country. They share this cavern with the mischievous Horners, their two territories separated by a tall fence made of marble pickets. Most of the Hoppers’ structures are carved out of marble. The outsides of their homes are quite lovely, but the interior is rather bare and sparse.

The thing that makes the Hoppers unique is that they only have one leg, which supports their body like a pedestal. Their foot is very broad, as it must support all of their weight. They are called Hoppers since they must hop on their one leg in order to move around.

It might be tempting to assume that the Hoppers are slow-witted or lacking in humor. However, it is more likely that they just seem that way, especially in contrast to the excessive punning of their neighbors, the Horners.

Hopper CharactersHopper characters may look odd, but they suffer no restriction on the templates

they may use. A Hopper skilled in carving marble should take the Craftsman: Stone-

to justify the purchase of the Might Blow trait.

Adventure HooksThe Horners have done it again! One of their jokes has offended the Hoppers

and war seems unavoidable this time. Is there anything that can be done?

Horner CountryHere was nothing grimy or faded, indeed. On the contrary, the room was of dazzling brilliance and beauty, for it was lined throughout with an exquisite metal that resembled translucent frosted silver. The surface of this metal was highly ornamented in

53

room. All the furniture was made of the same glorious metal, and Scraps asked what it was.

“That’s radium,” answered the Chief. “We Horners spend all our time digging radium from the mines under this mountain, and we use it to decorate our homes and make them pretty and cosy. It is a medicine, too, and no one can ever be sick who lives near radium.”

—The Patchwork Girl of Oz

The Horners are neighbors of the Hoppers, living in another portion of the cavern separated by a marble picket fence. While the Hoppers mine the cavern for marble, the Horners dig up radium. The Horners do not decorate the exteriors of their homes like the Hoppers, making their village appear drab from the outside. Inside a Horner home, however, it is quite beautiful. Ornate decorations of many types are crafted from the faintly glowing metal.

The Horners themselves are fairly small folk, with three colors of hair on every head as well as a six-inch-long horn growing out of their foreheads. They are not renowned for their sense of humor. That is not to say that they don’t have a sense of humor, but the one that they have is not very good. They make complicated puns that require explanation to be understood by non-Horners. They feel that explaining a joke ruins it, which makes them rather unpopular with their neighbors, the Hop-pers. In fact, the Hoppers once declared war on the Horners over a particularly bad pun. The war was only averted when the Horners were encouraged to apologize and explain their joke.

Horner CharactersHorners are only Size 2, so a Horner character using a typical template

should get 1 extra skill point. The Narrator may also decide to create a Horner tem-plate that takes their small size into account. The horn on a Horner’s forehead is not a Deadly Weapon, but may be if the Horner sharpens it to have a cutting edge. A Horner Soldier might even use this as the Deadly Weapon included in that template.

Adventure HooksA village of Munchkins is suffering from a horrible illness! The cause has been

determined to be a lack of radium. You must secure a shipment of radium from the Horners and see that it arrives safely in Munchkinland.

Jinxland-

fully furnished. The passages were winding and handsomely deco-rated, and after following several of these the soldier led them into an open court that occupied the very center of the huge building. It was surrounded on every side by high turreted walls, and con-

-bles which were matched together in quaint designs. In an open space near the middle of the court they saw a group of courtiers and their ladies, who surrounded a lean man who wore upon his head a jeweled crown. His face was hard and sullen and through

He was dressed in brilliant satins and velvets and was seated in a golden throne-chair.

This personage was King Krewl, and as soon as Cap’n Bill saw him the old sailor knew at once that he was not going to like the King of Jinxland.

—The Scarecrow of Oz

RadiumIn truth, radium is a radioactive metal, making long-term exposure danger-

discovery; a wonder of the modern age, much like electricity and the telephone. It wasn’t until several years after his death that the risks of radiation exposure began to be understood.

What does this mean in your game?

Remember that Oz is a fairyland. No one ever get sick in Oz, so even if radium were as dangerous there as here, it would cause no damage. The Horner chief even proclaims that radium is a defense against illness, and in Oz this might be true. Perhaps the enchantment that made Oz a fairyland relies on radium de-posits throughout the country to ensure the continued health and immortality of the people.

A more realistic or gritty version of Oz might depict radium as the threat that it is, with the Horners getting radiation poisoning and varying types of cancer, while the Hoppers are protected from the radiation by their marble houses.

54

Jinxland is a small, isolated king-dom in the western corner of the Qua-dling Country. Anyone trying to enter

steep mountains and then cross a bot-tomless chasm.

was King Kynd. He ruled his people well and had a lovely daughter named Princess Gloria. One day, quite by accident, King Kynd fell into the bot-tomless chasm that marks the border of his kingdom and is probably falling yet. His Prime Minister, Phearce, was crowned King to replace him.

King Phearce ruled Jinxland for some time until he got into a quarrel with his Prime Minister, a man named Krewl. Krewl tripped him so the he fell in a lake, then piled heavy stones on top of him to prevent the former king from escaping. Although it is nearly impos-sible to kill someone in Oz, Krewl man-aged to do the next best thing.

Now King Krewl reigned over Jinxland. Princess Gloria, who was also Krewl’s niece, still lived in the palace. A wealthy old aristocrat named Googly-Goo offered King Krewl a fortune in gold and jewels if he were to marry the princess. While Krewl was enthusiastically in favor of adding to his royal treasury, Gloria would not consent. She loved Pon the gardener, who was secretly the son of King Phearce.

The king and the nobleman then decided to engage the services of the Wicked Witch Blinkie. Blinkie, so named because she only had one eye, cast a spell on Glo-ria to freeze her heart. While Gloria no longer loved Pon, she also lost the desire to marry anyone at all.

Thanks to the timely intervention of Trot, Cap’n Bill and the Scarecrow, King Krewl was removed from the throne and Gloria took her place as Queen. Her heart was restored and she married Pon, who now sits at her side as her Royal Consort.

Jinxland CharactersThe people of Jinxland are much like the people in any other place in Oz. Al-

though Blinkie is no longer capable of magic, some witches may still exist in the kingdom.

Adventure HooksPrincess Gloria is looking for adventurers to help her rescue her father from the

chasm. Is it truly bottomless? Can King Kynd be saved?

The witches of Jinxland have sworn revenge for what has happened to Blinkie. They are scouring the land for the ingredients needed to restore Blinkie to her full power. Can anything be done to stop them?

Mr. YoopHe suddenly appeared at the front of his cavern, seized the iron bars in his great hairy hands and shook them until they rattled in their sockets. Yoop was so tall that our friends had to tip their heads way back to look into his face, and they noticed he was dressed all in pink velvet, with silver buttons and braid. The Gi-ant’s boots were of pink leather and had tassels on them and his hat was decorated with an enormous pink ostrich feather, carefully curled.

“Yo-ho!” he said in a deep bass voice; “I smell dinner.”

—The Patchwork Girl of Oz

BlinkieBlinkie was the leader of the witches of Jinxland and clearly deserving of

the title Wicked Witch. She earned the name because she only has one eye, a trait she shares with the Wicked Witch of the West. Could she possibly be the same witch, reconstituted and exiled from her former domain? Or could she be the Wicked Witch of the South, whom Glinda defeated in order to rule over the Quadling Country?

By the end of The Scarecrow of Oz, she has lost her magical powers and is merely a foot tall, but that doesn’t mean that her story has to be over.

55

Mr. Yoop is a giant imprisoned in the mountains of Quadling Country. He used to live in the Gillikin Country with his wife in Yoop Castle. But his immense appetite

they were one of his favorite foods. Finally, they gathered together to capture him in a giant cage and sent him far to the south. Although his prison was quite strong, they wanted to be especially sure that he did not return to bother them any more.

His wife escaped capture by using her yookoohoo powers to transform into a mouse. Once the danger had passed, she resumed her original form. She still lives in Yoop Castle to this day.

Mr. Yoop And Your CharacterThe entry on Yoop Castle in the Gillikin Country (page 35) features some dis-

cussion on playing a giant character. Mr. Yoop is a very unlikely friend, as he would likely try to eat anyone who draws near. However, a Crafted character would not be

bribes of orange marmalade (his other favorite food) might be enough to gain the giant’s friendship.

Adventure HooksMr. Yoop has escaped his prison and is eating everything in sight! Can anything

be done to stop him?

Rigmarole Town“Is this Rigmarole Town?”

“Sir,” replied the boy, “if you have traveled very much you will have noticed that every town differs from every other town in one way or another and so by observing the methods of the people and the way they live as well as the style of their dwelling places it

trouble of asking questions whether the town bears the appearance of the one you intended to visit or whether perhaps having taken a different road from the one you should have taken you have made an error in your way and arrived at some point where—”

—The Emerald City of Oz

Rigmarole Town is the second of the two “defensive settlements” in Oz, the other being Flutterbudget Center. Anyone who attempts to invade Rigmarole Town will likely become frustrated, as no one will stop talking long enough to be properly conquered.

Very few Rigmaroles are actually born in Rigmarole Town. The main reason for this is that courtship among the Rigmaroles involves declarations of love several days in length, followed by getting to know each other’s families, a process that can take several months at minimum. Therefore, most of the people are imported from

with.

Rigmarole Town And Your CharacterRigmaroles are generally poor choices for adventurers. They spend so much

time discussing, lecturing and debating that they have time for little else. A Rigma-role friend is largely useful as a distraction, keeping opponents occupied with their long-winded chatter.

Adventure HooksA strange, eerie silence falls over Rigmarole Town. Nobody can talk! It’s as if

the whole town has come down with severe laryngitis. What could have caused this to happen? And how will the Rigmaroles cope?

There’s a theft of Oz-wide importance in Rigmarole and only the natives saw what happened. Good luck getting a useful description of the thief, though.

One of the characters’ friends is being honored at a ceremony in Rigmarole. The opening toast is now entering day three, and in a note hastily scrawled on a napkin, the friend has requested a social rescue mission.

characters to go see that the scholar makes his deadline.

Tottenhots

“Who are you?”

They answered this question all together, in a sort of chanting cho-rus, the words being as follows:

“We’re the jolly Tottenhots; We do not like the day,

But in the night ‘tis our delight To gambol, skip and play.

56

“We hate the sun and from it run, The moon is cool and clear,

So on this spot each Tottenhot Waits for it to appear.

“We’re ev’ry one chock full of fun, And full of mischief, too;

But if you’re gay and with us play We’ll do no harm to you.

—The Patchwork Girl of Oz

The Tottenhots are small people with dark brown or black skin and stiff, bright red hair that stands on end. They wear nothing but a simple loincloth and jewelry on their wrists, their ankles, around their necks, and in their ears. They are nocturnal, spending the day asleep in something similar to a large pot with a lid. Once the sun has set, the lids pop off as the Tottenhot within emerges with a burst of playful energy.

Should anyone be traveling through their domains at night, they will be un-able to escape the antics of the Tot-tenhots. They are Size 2 and typically have an Athletics skill of 3 or 4 and a Wits rating of 1. They are quite capable of running, jumping and playing many kinds of active games. However, they prefer to avoid adversity wherever they

Tottenhots And Your CharacterThe fact that Tottenhots only come out at night and don’t necessarily play well

with others makes them poor choices for play. A Tottenhot friend might be useful with their knowledge of how to get around in the dark and the sheer number of games they might know how to play.

Adventure HooksAfter a night of being tossed around by the Tottenhots, a character is discovered

to be missing something important. What silly demand will they make before they consent to return it?

The Tottenhots are tired of being made fun of and looked down on by their neighbors. There’s a lot more to them than playing! What else might the Tottenhots do all day (or night)? And when they get the idea to go to the Emerald City to demand their civil rights from Ozma...

UtensiaUtensia is a community composed of kitchen tools and utensils. Their ruler,

King Kleaver, used to be quite sharp, but there are concerns that he is starting to lose his edge. He relies on his advisors His Holiness, Priest Colander and Judge Sifter to sift through information to help him reach his decisions. His son, Prince Karver, has shown a remarkable talent for cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

The highly polished soldiers of the Spoon Brigade protect the community. Their

Utensia CharactersThe people of Utensia are only Size 1 and have the Crafted Trait. Making both

changes to a normal template results in no change in the template’s effective point cost. The Deadly Weapon trait may be purchased freely. The Spoon Brigade carries muskets that they claim are equally effective against normal-sized opponents. Also, a character from Utensia may have a Deadly Weapon for a body, such as a knife or a pair of shears.

Utensia is a country of puns and characters should be encouraged to play along. A corkscrew makes an excellent lawyer because it is crooked and accustomed to ap-pearing at the bar (a bar being a legal association as well as a place where alcoholic drinks are served).

Adventure HooksThe Potts have been cooking up a rebellion against King Kleaver for quite some

time. Now the violence threatens to boil over into the rest of the Quadling Country. Someone is going to have to talk the Potts into simmering down.

57

Chapter 10: The Winkie CountryBear Center

Then from behind a tree there stepped a brown, fuzzy bear whose head came about as high as Cayke’s waist—and Cayke was a small woman. The bear was chubby as well as fuzzy; his body was even puffy, while his legs and arms seemed jointed at the knees and elbows and fastened to his body by pins or rivets. His ears were round in shape and stuck out in a comical way, while his round, black eyes were bright and sparkling as beads. Over his shoulder the little brown bear bore a gun with a tin barrel. The barrel had a cork in the end of it, and a string was attached to the cork and to the handle of the gun.

—The Lost Princess of Oz

Bear Center is not a city in the usual sense. It can best be described as a puppet stage or the set of a children’s television show intended to look like a forest. The ground in this circular area is very neatly carpeted with soft green moss. All of the trees that form the perimeter of the clearing are hollow, with circular holes some height up the trunk.

Anyone who decides to search Bear Center for a human puppeteer will be dis-appointed. The plush bears of Bear Center are very much alive. Their most feared punishment is to be sent to America, where they would not be alive and little children would drag them around by their ears. For this reason, the bears are remarkably well behaved.

The King of Bear Center is a large Lavender Bear. He is equipped with a noise-maker that is activated by any pressure on his chest. Since this tends to interfere with his otherwise kingly bearing, it is considered polite to ignore the funny noise when it occurs. Lavender Bear can use his Silver Wand to create illusions of any object or person as they are at that moment. It is similar in effect to Ozma’s Magic Picture, except that the image can potentially be mistaken for the original article.

Another interesting bit of magic can be found in the Little Pink Bear. It does not seem to be alive like the other bears of Bear Center, and only speaks when the crank in its’ side is wound up. Once it is wound up, it will answer any question put to it and that answer is always correct.

Playing A BearSince the bears of Bear Center are all toys, they should have the Crafted trait,

even if they do not use the Crafted Folk Template. The Wanderer, Small Animal, Large Animal and Child in Oz templates may also be used, depending on the char-acter concept. Although there are many toy bear soldiers, their weapons are toys as well. This makes the Soldier template and the Deadly Weapon trait inappropriate choices for these characters.

Although there are no Bear Sorcerers, they are no strangers to magic. The Lav-ender Bear and Little Pink Bear both have a magical ability enchanted into their

Adventure HooksThe Little Pink Bear has been stolen! Who could have taken him?

The Little Pink Bear’s answers make no sense! Is something wrong with him, or could it be that his impossible answers are actually true?

HerkuThe Czarover, the inventor of the miracle tonic zosozo, rules the city of Herku.

Each citizen takes one teaspoonful every year. This affords them immense amounts of strength. They are so strong that they have enslaved giants to do all of the hard work in their city. It does have the side effect of causing the user to appear frail and

Ugu the Shoemaker was born in this city. As his name suggests, he was a shoe-maker by trade until discovering that one of his ancestors was a powerful magician. He found his ancestor’s books of magic and sought to become the most powerful wizard in the world. Unwilling to share his magic with his fellow Herku, he left the city and constructed a Wicker Castle some distance from the city. Although wicker may seem a fragile material, Ugu reinforced it with magic, until even his fellow Herku and their giants could not damage it.

While in this castle, he perfected his magic arts until such time as he was ready to set his plan in motion. Sneaking into the Yip Country, he stole the Golden Dishpan of Cayke the Cookie Cook. Using the magic of the Golden Dishpan, he stole the magical tools and equipment of Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz. In order to prevent anyone from following him, he stole Ozma’s Magic Picture from her rooms. While he was doing this, Princess Ozma woke up. Before she could stop him, he took her with him.

58

Once back at his castle, he transformed her into a Golden Peach and placed her in the Great Orchard outside the Herku city. This is where Button-Bright found her, even though he didn’t recognize the peach as being Princess Ozma.

Dorothy and her friends eventually caught up with Ugu the Shoemaker and de-feated him with the Magic Belt, turning him into a small gray dove. Since the Magic Belt came from the Nome Kingdom fairly recently, none of Ugu’s magic books made any mention of it. And so, he had no plan to steal it or any way to defend against its magic.

As a dove, Ugu has no ability to practice magic as he once did. He has also learned humility from his experience and may yet become a force for good in Oz.

Herku And Your CharacterIf a character chooses, they may have the Czarover of the Herku on their Friends

List. This would allow them to spend an Oz Point to have a small amount of zosozo, temporarily granting them the titanic strength of the Herku.

Adventure HooksUgu the Gray Dove appears to the heroes, asking for help in rescuing a man in

danger. As they are rescuing him, the man tells the adventurers that it was Ugu him-self who lured him into his recent predicament. Has Ugu turned back to wickedness, or is this just a misunderstanding?

Ozma has ordered the giant slaves of the Herku to be freed and has asked you to see that it gets done. Many obstacles lie in your path, from super-strong Herkus to giants unaccustomed to freedom.

Oogaboo“I’m Queen of Oogaboo,” said Ann, proudly. “But,” she added with a sigh, “my kingdom is the smallest and the poorest in all the Land of Oz.”

—Tik-Tok of Oz

The kingdom of Oogaboo lies in the far north of the Winkie Country. It’s origi-nal king, Jol Jemkiph Soforth left Oogaboo several years ago to escape his nagging

kingdom.

All of the men of Oogaboo are named Jo and take their last names from the products of their farms. Jo Cone has an orchard of trees that produce ice cream cones of many varieties. Jo Candy grows all sorts of candy on his farm, from lemon drops to bonbons.

Queen Ann Soforth resented being left behind while her parents explored the Land of Oz. But she knew that beyond the mountains that surrounded Oogaboo, she would simply be a girl, not a Queen. So Ann gathered together the men of her small kingdom and cre-ated an army to conquer the Land of Oz.

In order to induce the men to join her army, she promised them all high ranks. This resulted in an army full of

who had a book tree and read many adventure stories, was eager to be a private sol-

Glinda the Good, the Good Witch of the South, read about this plan in her magic Book of Records and decided to act. She knew that Oz could not be conquered, but she feared that an army would disrupt the general peace and happiness of Oz. So she cast a great spell that transported the advancing army out of Oz.

They arrived in a very desolate area, which Queen Ann quickly claimed for Oogaboo. Private Files proved his heroism by defeating a horrible creature known

were Shaggy Man and his party: Betsy Bobbin, Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daugh-ter, Princess Ozga of the Rose Kingdom, Tik-Tok the Clockwork Man, and Hank the Mule.

Ann ordered her army to conquer the group, but Private Files refused on the grounds that imprisoning and enslaving women was not heroic in the slightest. Pri-vate Files resigned his post and Queen Ann replaced him with Tik-Tok.

After several other adventures, including a trip through the center of the earth and the removal of King Ruggedo from the throne of the Nome Kingdom, Queen

59

Ann and her army decided that the world was too big and dangerous for one person to conquer. Princess Ozma, viewing this scene in her Magic Picture, ordered the Wizard of Oz to cast a spell returning them home.

During their adventures, Princess Ozga developed a liking for Private Files and chose to go with him when he was returned to Oogaboo.

Playing An OogabooMost of the people of Oogaboo are farmers, but the men adapted to the Soldier

template very readily. Without Queen Ann to forge them into a mighty army, an ad-venturer from Oogaboo will likely take on the Wanderer template. A young person eager to escape the tedium of farming might explore Oz at large using the Child in Oz template.

Adventure Hooks

Queen Ann Soforth has gathered her army again. Who does she plan to conquer this time?

Ozga, former Princess of the Rose Kingdom and distant cousin to Ozma herself, has consented to marry Jo Files, former Private of the Army of Oogaboo. A royal wedding in the Emerald City is underway! As long as the happy couple can make it safely to the Emerald City, that is.

ThiBut the wall was soon forgotten, for in front of them were a number of quaint people who stared at them in amazement as if wondering where they had come from. Our friends forgot their good manners for a time and returned the stares with interest, for so remarkable a people had never before been discovered in all the remarkable Land of Oz. Their heads were shaped like diamonds, and their bodies like hearts. All the hair they had was a little bunch at the tip top of their diamond-shaped heads, and their eyes were very large and round, and their noses and mouths very small. Their clothing

-dered in quaint designs with gold or silver threads; but on their feet they wore sandals with no stockings whatever. The expression of their faces was pleasant enough, although they now showed sur-prise at the appearance of strangers so unlike themselves, and our friends thought they seemed quite harmless.

—The Lost Princess of Oz

The city of Thi lies in a very remote part of the Winkie Country. To the east of the city lie the Merry-Go-Round Mountains, which are made of soft rubber and spin very rapidly. Only the most daring travelers will try to bounce themselves off of the mountains to pass through to the other side. To the west of the Thists live the Herku, who are so strong that they have enslaved giants to do all of their work.

Once a traveler has made it through one of these hazards, they must then deal with the Twisting Lands that surround the city. The land itself will twist so that trav-

The next obstacles a traveler will encounter are the thistles that grow around the

turn that someone tries to cross them. A little creativity or forethought should allow the careful wanderers to protect themselves from this effect.

However, there is no gate in the wall to allow passage. Although this wall may look impenetrable, it is actually an illusion with no substance.

The people who live in the city of Thi are called Thists or Thistle-Eaters. This is because they eat the thistles that grow around their city. Their throats and stom-achs are lined with gold, which protects their delicate insides from the thorny plants. Also, the Thists are quite lazy and any other food crop would require farming, while the thistles grow abundantly around their city.

Everything Grows On Trees!Oogaboo is not the only place where interesting things grow on trees. In the

land of Ev, Dorothy discovers trees that bear lunch boxes and dinner pails. In the land of Mo, everything a person could want or need grows on trees.

What does this mean for you as Narrator? It’s just one more opportunity to make the Land of Oz interesting. If your game involves people coming to Oz from America, a tree that bears caramel apples can be just another way to tell them that they’re not in Kansas anymore. It can also serve as another source of stories. For example, two small communities might start a war over who will harvest this year’s spaghetti crop.

60

The only exception to their notable laziness is their manufacture of auto-drag-ons. These are mechanical dragons that they use to pull their chariots and carriages.

vehicle does allow a person to avoid walking.

The High Coco-Lorum rules the city, but the Thists may not realize this. He is very careful to avoid making shows of power in order to maintain the goodwill of his people. Instead, he simply helps settle disputes and interprets the law (which he wrote).

Playing A ThistIn spite of the Thists’ unusual ap-

pearance, there is no reason that they can’t use any of the standard templates. In order to make or repair one of the auto-dragons, a character should take the Craftsman (Auto-dragon) trait. A character with the Craftsman (Mechan-ics) or (Automobile) may work on an auto-dragon, but at a -1 penalty until they have had time to adequately ac-quaint themselves with the machine.

There are some Sorcerers among the Thists to cast their wall of illusion, and whoever invented the auto-dragon was probably a Scholar. Beyond these exceptions, the Thists are rather incurious people. Very few of them call their city anything other than “home” or think of themselves as anything other than “people.”

Adventure HooksAn auto-dragon is running loose in the Winkie Country! Has it been magically

brought to life, or did some lazy mechanic just forget to repair the brakes?

Tin CastleThe Emperor was proud of his new tin castle, and showed his visi-tors through all the rooms. Every bit of the furniture was made of brightly polished tin—the tables, chairs, beds, and all—even the

—The Road to Oz

The road that Nick Chopper followed to become the Emperor of the Winkies is an interesting path indeed. Once a simple woodchopper, he fell in love with a serv-ing girl in the employ of the Wicked Witch of the East. The Witch did not wish to lose her servant and so she enchanted Nick’s ax to cut off his leg. Nick then turned to his friend, a tinsmith named Ku-Klip, who made him a new leg out of tin. The Witch tried to enchant his ax several more times, but every time he lost a limb he had it quickly replaced with tin.

Eventually, Nick’s meat body had been wholly replaced with tin, making him

being strong, beautiful, and immune to age, it was also prone to rust. While chop-ping down a tree in the rain, Nick Chopper became rusted stiff and remained so until Dorothy rescued him.

He joined Dorothy’s quest in the hopes that he would acquire a heart. Without

journey did result in the acquisition of a heart, it also led to a few other things.

With Dorothy’s defeat of the Wicked Witch of the West, the Winkies desired a new ruler, and chose Nick for the job. And so the Tin Woodman moved into the Witch’s castle and was soon crowned Emperor of the Winkies.

However, the old castle was very damp, causing the Tin Woodman’s joints to

task of building his tin castle. Everything in the castle is made of tin. The walls and

tin statues of his friends. Dinner is served on tin dishes and a band playing tin instru-ments entertains guests.

The only item in the castle that is not made of tin is a straw throne that sits next to the Emperor’s tin throne. This throne is for his good friend Scarecrow to sit in during his many and frequent visits.

Tin Castle And Your CharacterOnly one adventuresome character makes his home in the Tin Castle: the Tin

Woodman himself. Many other people live in the castle, but they work very hard to

Thanks to his kind heart, the Tin Woodman is one of the most loyal friends to be found anywhere. He refuses his friends no request large or small, except one that involves harm to any living thing. He cannot stand the thought of harming so much

61

Adventure HooksThe Emperor has been immobilized by some cruel magic, and no amount of oil

will allow his joints to move freely. What can be done?

A horrendous rainstorm has washed over the Winkie Country, rusting the Tin Castle horribly. There’s not enough oil or polish to bring it back to its former glory, so someone must venture out to get some more quickly.

Truth PondNear the western edge of the Winkie Country lies a small pond with a plaque

posted near it. The plaque reads: “Truth Pond - Whoever bathes in this water must always afterward tell the truth.” But there is more to it than that. People who bathe in the Truth Pond not only speak truthfully, but also honestly. After his bath, Shaggy Man confesses to Dorothy that he stole the Love Magnet. Once Frogman had taken a swim, he realized that he was fooling himself by thinking that his unusual nature made him wiser than others.

The Truth Pond has one additional effect. If a person has been subjected to an undesired magical transformation, a dip in the pond will restore their true form.

Truth Pond And Your CharacterThe Truth Pond has no effect on a character’s skills, nor does it give them extra

abilities. Instead, a character that bathes in the Truth Pond adds it to their Friends List. This allows the Narrator to award Oz Points to a character that tells the truth in

For the most part, players should be allowed the choice of whether or not to as-sociate their character with the Truth Pond. Trusting players or those interested in a roleplaying challenge may allow the Narrator to make that choice for them. Other players, however, will be angry with their Narrator for dunking their character in the Truth Pond without their consent.

Adventure HooksA storyteller has been wandering the Winkie Country lately, telling all sorts of

tall tales. He claims to have bathed in the Truth Pond, so that all of his tales are com-pletely true. However, a lot of adventurous Winkie youths have gotten into plenty of

he as truthful as he claims, or will it take a dunking in the Truth Pond for him to come clean?

Yip CountryIn the far southwestern corner of the Winkie Country is a broad tableland that can be reached only by climbing a steep hill, which-ever side one approaches it. On the hillside surrounding this ta-bleland are no paths at all, but there are quantities of bramble bushes with sharp prickers on them, which prevent any of the Oz people who live down below from climbing up to see what is on top. But on top live the Yips, and although the space they occupy is not great in extent, the wee country is all their own. The Yips had never—up to the time this story begins—left their broad table-land to go down into the Land of Oz, nor had the Oz people ever climbed up to the country of the Yips.

—The Lost Princess of Oz

Yip Country is the home of the eccentric Yips. It is separated from the rest of Oz by a steep slope on all sides that is covered with brambles and thorny vines. This has resulted in a community that does things a bit differently. Instead having an orga-nized system of streets and other traits of urban planning, the Yips build their homes in seemingly random locations.

The Yips did not have a king or queen to rule over them. Instead, they turned to the most unique among them when they needed advice. This was the Frogman, a frog who had been transformed by a magical pond into something resembling a person. He was actually rather intelligent, so this was a fairly good system.

This isolated little community enters the chronicles of Oz in a rather interesting manner. Cayke the Cookie Cook’s Golden Dishpan had disappeared, and she was determined to get it back. She claimed that this item gave her the ability to cook good cookies.

Little did Cayke know, but the Golden Dishpan had another ability. With the right magic word, it could expand to allow a person to sit in it. Another magic word would carry the dishpan and its passenger to any location in Oz. A wicked sorcerer named Ugu the Shoemaker knew this and stole the dishpan. He then proceeded to use it to steal magic from the Wizard of Oz and Glinda the Good and kidnap Princess Ozma.

After many adventures, Cayke was eventually reunited with her Golden Dishpan and returned home to the Yip Country. It is not known if she learned how to use its transportation ability or simply resumed cooking good cookies.

62

Playing A YipMost Yips encountered outside of their homeland will likely be Wanderers. They

have no need for Soldiers and do not have much of a tradition of Scholars. There are no known Yip magicians, but the enchanted pool that gave the Frogman his man-like stature might give some kind of magic to the lucky Yip who discovered it.

Adventure HooksWith the Frogman taking up residence in the Emerald City, one of the Yips has

morning do not make one wise. Is there any way to teach the Yips what wisdom re-ally is?

The Yips are trying to build a path connecting them with the rest of Oz, but the bramble bushes grow back almost as fast as they’re cut! Is there anything that can be done?

Part III: Adventures

Chapter 11: The Jaded City Of OzOverview And Preparation

The Jaded City of Oz is an adventure for any number of players. Their charac-ters will march in an Oz-wide parade to celebrate Melting Day, the anniversary of the Wicked Witch of the West’s defeat. Along the way, they will encounter familiar sights like the Yellow Brick Road, the castle of the Wicked Witch of the West, and Munchkinland.

The simplest way to use this adventure is to play it in one session. Before the session, decide how much time you have to devote to each scene in the story (allot-

evenly among the rest). Then, stay on track as best you can so that you make sure to get to the Jaded City and the big ending. If you’re running late, you can skip the scene in Gillikin Country.

If you prefer, you can run this story over multiple sessions. You can either let the players play through it at their own pace or set up each play session to revolve around a particular location. If you’re interested in adapting The Jaded City of Oz into a multi-session story, read the boxes labeled “Bigger and Better” in each scene.

Running The AdventureYou should read the whole adventure and familiarize yourself with it before you

First, there’s an Introduction. This section is for the Narrator, not for the players, but you should summarize the information for them. Since the Introduction involves getting from one scene to the next, you will have to customize it depending on what the players have been doing so far.

Second, there’s a Read Aloud section. You should read or paraphrase this sec-tion to your players. It tells them where they are and what is happening from their characters’ perspective.

Third, there’s a section called What’s Going On Here? This section is for the -

don’t read it to them. Pay special attention to this section when you read through the

63

Fourth is a section called What Can the Players Do About It? This section de-scribes solutions that your players might try. It gives you some ideas about whether those solutions will work and suggests what kind of dice rolls to call for. Remember that these are only guidelines! Good ideas that aren’t listed in this section should still have a chance to work.

and explains how to move onto the next scene once you’re through.

Finally, there’s a section called Supporting Cast that gives you stats and short descriptions of all the important characters in the scene.

Scene 1: The Melting Day ParadeIntroduction

After the players have created or chosen their characters, read the following aloud:

Read Aloud:

Throughout Oz, few days are more joyously celebrated than Melting Day, the anniversary of the day when Dorothy Gale melted the Wicked Witch of the West. This year, Ozma has arranged for a giant parade with representatives from every

then visit each of the four countries, touring villages big and small all along the way. Finally, rejoining the Yellow Brick Road right where it left off, the parade will return

Emerald Palace.

You will have the great honor of walking in the parade. You were given a prize spot near the back of the procession, behind the Fire-Breathing Pigs but still in front of the Stinking Rose Exhibition. It’s approaching noon, and all day long the proces-

group to leave, and you are scheduled to pass through the gates at 12:00 sharp. When -

ing for you. He wobbles up to you and says “Hap-py Melt-ing Day! It is a-bout time for you to set out on the Yell-ow Brick Road!”

Only if the players are playing original characters:

Tik-Tok continues: “Do you all know each oth-er? May-be you’d bet-ter get

What’s Going On Here?All Tik-Tok wants to do is keep the parade on schedule and provide for the needs

of the characters before they leave. The point of this scene is to get the players com-fortable and help them to introduce their characters. Make sure to use Tik-Tok’s

hal-ting vo-cal patt-erns... that will give your players the courage to do voices and play their characters. Once the characters all know each other and have had a chance to ask questions, they can step out onto the Yellow Brick Road and begin the adventure.

Supporting Cast

Name: Tik-Tok Size: 3Basic Skills:

Athletics: 3 Awareness: 2Brains: 2 Presence: 2 (Polite)Sneaking: 1 Wits: 4Traits: Crafted

Scene 2: Yellow Brick BluesIntroduction

As the characters travel down the Yellow Brick Road, they will notice their surroundings turn from green to blue. They have entered Munchkin Country. The journey is an easy one, but eventually the characters will stumble upon the following scene:

Read Aloud:

As you pass by a bright blue Munchkin city in the distance, you enter an orchard of Blue Trees (which are just like Orange Trees, except for the color). The trees are tall and hale, and the fruit is a lovely shade of navy blue. The trees are strangely

Bigger and BetterEven if you’re running The Jaded City of Oz as a multi-part adventure, there’s no reason to spend much time on this scene. The real fun is out on the road.

64

shaped, though; all of the branches point straight up like upstretched arms, hanging the tough fruits far out of reach. From somewhere in the orchard, you hear the fol-lowing exchange:

(Sad Voice) Please, sir! Just one!(Stern, Stuffy Voice) No!(Sad Voice) ... but I love them so! Can’t I please have just a taste?(Stern, Stuffy Voice) No! My answer is categorical! Now shoo!

What’s Going On Here?

The sad voice comes from Henrietta, a yellow creature with blue spots who looks like a cross between a sheep dog and an anteater. The stern voice comes from one of the Blue Trees, which has a sour, wrinkled face made out of bark (all of the trees have faces like this, but they’re only visible when the trees are speaking). Hen-rietta is begging the Blue Tree for fruit. She’ll try to get the players to help her as soon as she sees them.

Henrietta is a Gloofer, and like all other Gloofers, Blues are her favorite food. The Blue Trees have recently decided to beautify their orchard by pulling their Blues up out of reach, though, because they hate the ugly bare spots that they get when the Gloofers eat their fruit. If this keeps up, the Gloofers will have to leave the orchard, even though it’s been their home for as long as they can remember.

What Can The Players Do?

new source of Blues or otherwise keep her happy while preventing her from eating the fruit of the Blue Trees. This would require a Presence roll against Henrietta’s

very nicely.

Alternately, the players might help Henrietta by getting the Blue Trees to give up their fruit. They could trick the trees into lowering their branches, they could climb up and wrestle fruit away from the trees, they could chop a tree down, or they could persuade the Blue Trees to let Henrietta eat freely (maybe by pointing out that if the Gloofers don’t eat the Blues while they’re ripe, they will rot on the branch and look quite ugly indeed). These solutions will require contested rolls against the Tree.

Scaring off or scolding Henrietta will do the job, as will physically attacking her, -

tion. Tricking or scolding her will require Presence rolls against her Wits.

Wrapping UpIf the characters offend the Blue Trees, the trees will get very angry and begin

shaking around and whipping the characters with branches! There’s a whole orchard full of them, so this might be a good time to get moving. Otherwise, the Blue Trees and/or Henrietta will bid the characters farewell, mentioning that they’ve been en-joying the parade so far. Hopefully, this will remind the characters that they have a schedule to keep. If not, perhaps the Stinking Rose Exhibition starts to catch up to them, giving them a painfully pungent reason to get a move on. The parade route continues just a little farther down the Yellow Brick Road, then branches off to the south, toward Quadling Country.

Supporting Cast

Henrietta The GlooferHenrietta is a Gloofer, a yellow creature with

blue polka dots that looks like a cross between a sheep dog and an anteater. Henrietta is just one of many Gloofers who live in this area and love the taste of Blues. The Munchkins living nearby like to ride Gloofers because of the unusual Munch-kin town that they live in; see the box for details. Gloofers have the special ability to climb almost any surface just like a spider. Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t work on wood, so the Gloofers can’t climb the Blue Trees.

If someone gains Henrietta as a friend, then when she is called upon, she’ll arrive with a number of other Gloofers (at least enough for all of the characters to ride on). You can use Henrietta’s stats for all Gloofers.

Size: 4Basic Skills

Athletics: 4 (Sticking to Everything But Wood) Awareness: 3Brains: 2 Presence: 2

Sneaking: 3 Wits: 3Traits: No Arms

65

Blue TreeThese stats are used for all Blue Trees. Blue Trees can move their branches and

such, but they can’t move along the ground, since they’re rooted in place.

Size: 4Basic Skills

Athletics: 4 Awareness: 3Brains: 2 Presence: 3

Sneaking: 1 (Pretending not to be alive) Wits: 3Traits: Crafted, No Arms, Weakness to Fire (Uncommon, Damaging)

Scene 3: The Sad Story Of HorbullIntroduction

Thousands of Munchkin spectators cheer the characters as they follow the pa-rade route south, away from the Yellow Brick Road and toward Quadling Country. The characters pass the dividing line, where the cerulean skies, sparkling rivers and

sprawling bluegrass of Munchkin Country are instantly replaced by crimson clouds and red-clay mountains. The rural road through Quadling Country passes by many strange parade-goers—Hammerheads, Flutterbudgets and even the reclusive Bun-nies of Bunnybury line the road, eagerly cheering the parade. I. Screem Scoop, a reporter from Utensia, is present to scoop his competition on parade coverage; that’s why he came here on a long wok from Utensia (who is seated nearby). Eventually the crowd thins, and you may read the following:

Read Aloud:

The crowd dwindles away to nothing as you travel a rural road in the middle of pleasant, rolling farmland. A sign along the road reads “THIS WAY TO FUDDLE-CUMJIG.” However, the road then veers sharply to the north and becomes quite

sullen-looking man in a pile of puzzle pieces that he seems to have taken out of the road itself. He’s making a lot of very sad sounds that sound like a mixture of tears

exceedingly frail. His head doesn’t seem to quite match him except in size; it is a different skin tone altogether, and has a dim-witted, monkey-like appearance.

What’s Going On Here?

roll will reveal that the road is pointing in the wrong direction; a special success reveals that is has been rebuilt to make a big swooping curve around Fuddlecumjig before getting back on course. If the parade followed this route, it’ll get back on course eventually, but will miss its scheduled visit to Fuddlecumjig.

The sad little man trying to rebuild the road is Horbull. Until a week ago, Hor-bull was two different Fuddles: Hortense, a scrawny but super-intelligent librarian, and Turnbull, a dumb but strong Ozball player who was the hero of Fuddlecumjig. About a week ago some Munchkins passed through, scattering all of the Fuddles. They were in a hurry, and in their haste they accidentally switched Hortense’s head (and thus brains) with Turnbull’s. One of the resulting mismatches, Turntense, seems to have the best of both worlds. He is now both a genius and a sports hero. Poor Horbull got the short end of both sticks; he’s now both dimwitted and weak in body. Turntense got worried that the next time someone walked through town, he’d go to pieces and get reassembled correctly. So, while Horbull was out of town, Turntense rebuilt the road to Fuddlecumjig so that it forms a big detour to prevent any more

to guide the way, so he’s been trying to rebuild it correctly ever since, but he just doesn’t have the brainpower.

Bigger and BetterThis encounter is a great place to add extra details in a multi-session adven-

ture. The Munchkin city in the background is called Gloogum, and there’s a gi-ant hole in its center that goes down for miles and miles. Most of the munchkins live in houses built sideways on the walls of the hole; traveling inside this strange tunnel requires the Munchkins to ride on Gloofers, who can stick to the walls. Naturally, the munchkins of Gloogum don’t want the Gloofers to leave the area just because they can’t get Blues anymore. They would happily help the charac-ters to solve the Blue Tree problem, as long as they can get the Gloofers to stay.

whole parade backed up in front of Gloogum. How can a parade march through a town that’s built vertically? In this case, the characters will need somehow to enlist the Gloofers as mounts for the parade. Helping the Gloofers with their Blue Tree problem would be a great start!

66

Like any Fuddle, Horbull will go to pieces if he’s surprised, as he will be if the characters approach him. Rebuilding Horbull will take a Brains roll. Once he’s put back together, Horbull will explain his situation and ask for the characters’ help in getting home and reclaiming his Good Pieces from Turntense.

What Can The Players Do?The characters may help Horbull directly by cheering him up, pointing him

home, or even rebuilding him in some more agreeable form. A carpenter would be able to reshape Horbull’s body and brains, and any character could use a special suc-

the pieces won’t be easy, though, and might require an Athletics roll). Horbull is easy to trick into happiness, since he’s not very bright.

pieces along with Horbull and reassemble them both correctly. This will require

to Fuddlecumjig; this is an Extended Test that requires 5 successes, and players may

of other ways; asking local animals for help, taking to the air to get a bird’s-eye view, -

ing him scatter. Of course, drawing any attention in Fuddlecumjig will scatter the rest of the town, too. Once Hortense is reconstructed, though, he’ll be smart enough to reconstruct his friends if the characters are behind schedule.

Wrapping UpBoth Hortense and Turnbull will be grateful to be re-

constructed. Neither one is likely to make a very useful friend, but if the characters are interested in striking up a friendship, it’s possible. Alternately, if the characters re-built Horbull in a new shape that he enjoys, he’ll become their friend, and may be a very useful one... depending on how a good a job they did.

If the characters visit Fuddlecumjig, they’ll be thanked for their visit and informed that the Fuddles are looking for-ward to catching the tail end of the parade... at which point a whiff of the Stinking Rose Exhibition will pass by on a breeze, causing everyone to collapse again. In any case, the road leads all the way around Quadling Country, past Uten-sia and the Forest of Fighting Trees, and up to the border of Winkie Country.

Supporting Cast

HorbullHorbull has a scrawny little nerd’s body beneath the low, sloped brow of a dim-

very depressed. He’s got both Hortense’s cowardice and Turnbull’s bad temper, so he can be a little moody.

Size: 3Basic Skills

Athletics: 1 Awareness: 2Brains: 1 Presence: 3 (Intimidation)Sneaking: 2 Wits: 1Traits: Weakness (Incapacitating, Common; falls apart when surprised)

TurntenseTurntense has a big, strapping, beefy body with the blonde, bespectacled head of

a young genius on top. He’s always smiling. He’s never felt better in his life, now that Horbull’s got all of his bad pieces.

Size: 3Basic Skills

Athletics: 5 (Ozball) Awareness: 2 Brains: 5 Presence: 3Sneaking: 2 Wits: 3Traits: Weakness (Incapacitating, Common; falls apart when surprised)

67

Scene 4: The Wicked Witch Hunt Of The WestIntroduction

At the border of Winkie Country, the rusty Quadling landscape suddenly sprouts -

tant plains, straw blows to and fro everywhere, and the yellow of the sun seems to coat every surface like melted butter. Traveling north, the characters are once again surrounded on their journey by cheering crowds of Winkies and the occasional Tot-tenhot. They notice that stern-looking Winkies in mustard yellow uniforms line the road, not cheering, but suspiciously scanning the parade and the crowd. As the char-acters press north, read the following:

Read Aloud:

Long before you reach its gates, you can see it on the horizon: The looming, crooked tower where the Wicked Witch of the West reigned over the Winkies for so long. It is still a twisted, ungainly thing, but it’s been painted with a cheery yellow trim and planted all around with lemon trees. As you get closer, you can see solemn

the watchtowers... and line the parapets. There are an awful lot of Winkies here, you realize, and they don’t look very much happier than they did when the Wicked Witch of the West lived here. When you reach the gates, two Winkie guards rush up to you, buckets of water at the ready. One of them, in a craven and paranoid tone, says,

“Who are ya? Huh? Ya look like witches to me! Go ahead, stick your hands in my bucket, if ya dare... ya dirty witches!”

What’s Going On Here?Ever since the Wicked Witch of the West was defeated, the Winkies who live

in this castle have become very paranoid about witches. They’ve even made some uniforms. They call themselves the Winkie Witch Watch. They’re so suspicious of everyone that they carry around buckets of water and water balloons, and douse people at the slightest sign of witch-like tendencies. The parade route passes through the courtyard of the castle, but it’s slow going, because the guards give everyone a hard time.

The guards will eventually let the characters through (especially if Dorothy, Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion or Scarecrow are in the party and introduce themselves

scrutiny. Any strange behavior will questions, and possibly a water balloon to the face. If something unusual or magical happens, a vigilant Winkie will call “Witch Hunt!” and the whole Witch Watch will come running to douse everybody in the room, including each other.

Eventually (whenever you think that the paranoia joke has played out), a winged

the King of the Winged Monkeys and what he wants, see his description below.) Naturally, the Witch Watch calls an all-castle Witch Hunt and begins dousing ev-eryone in sight. As far as they’re concerned, that winged monkey could only have been summoned by a witch hiding somewhere in the castle, and the Winkies plan to drench her before she can hatch her evil plot.

What Can The Players Do?Just getting through the castle can be tough if the characters are suspicious-look-

ing or act strangely. Characters who know magic or who fear water are especially suspect. The Winkies know the Tin Man, though, so if someone is playing him, they will trust him. No one else is safe from water balloons, not even Dorothy—Witches can disguise themselves, after all! The characters might try to convince individual Winkies of how silly they’re being, but talking to all of the Winkies this way would take a long time.

Once the King of the Winged Monkeys shows up, the characters will probably

is a perfectly reasonable fellow and is much more articulate than the other monkeys.

Bigger and Better

of the story. You could give the parade-watchers along the road a little more attention, though. I. Screem Scoop and his buddy Long Wok could provide a funny encounter, and might make good Friends, since Scoop always has useful information to share and Long Wok can get him to the characters wherever they are.

If you’re planning on spending an entire session in Fuddlecumjig, Turntense should take precautions against being scattered. For example, he might hide in the library, where scowling librarians will shush the characters. The characters

scare him.

68

He will explain that he is seeking refuge and that he wasn’t summoned by any witch. As evidence he’ll present his gold cap. The cap is what the Wicked Witch used to control the monkeys, but now the King himself has it, which means no one can sum-mon the monkeys and force them to do evil anymore. Once the characters know that, they shouldn’t have any trouble ending the Witch Hunt. The Winkies won’t offer refuge to the King unless the characters persuade them to, though. The characters may not trust the King, or they may not even ask what he’s doing at the castle. In that

scared or tricked into leaving, he’ll leave as soon as he sees that he’s not wanted. He doesn’t want to bring his people to a place where they’ll be persecuted.

Wrapping UpHowever the arrival of the King is resolved, the Winkie Witch Watch will be

eager to let the characters leave; the Witch Watch doesn’t care for visitors. If the players are very clever and roll well, they may be able to convince the Winkies that the Witch Watch is a bad idea, but probably not.

If the King of the Winged Monkeys is able to settle his people near the castle thanks to the characters’ help, he will become their Friend and give one of them a single golden thread from the golden cap. He’s promised his people that he’ll never let an outsider Command the Winged Monkeys again, but this thread, when tied

matters are resolved at the castle, the characters can go north along the parade route to Gillikin Country.

Supporting Cast

Winkie Witch WatchmanYou can use these stats for any and all members of the Winkie Witch Watch

who get into the action. They all have a large supply of water balloons on their person at all times, and these are their only weapons. The Witch Watch uniform has “WWW” emblazoned on its front pocket, a confusing detail, since those initials stand for “Wicked Witch of the West” as well as “Winkie Witch Watch.”

Size: 3Basic Skills

Athletics: 3 Awareness: 2Brains: 1 Presence: 4 (Wild Accusations)Sneaking: 3 Wits: 3Traits: None

King Of The Winged MonkeysThe King of the Winged Monkeys has been the leader of his people ever since Glinda gave him the Golden Cap (for more information about the cap, see page 23). However, the winged mon-keys served the witch for so long that no one trusts them anymore! The winged monkeys have been run off from every place that they have tried to settle in. That’s why the King has come back

his people can live in peace. The King is no saint; he’s mischievous and can be pee-vish. He’s basically a good person, though, and he will greatly appreciate any help that the players can offer his people.

Size: 2Basic Skills

Athletics: 3 (Flying) Awareness: 2Brains: 3 Presence: 3Sneaking: 3 Wits: 3Traits: Flight

Bigger And BetterFor a multi-session adventure, make the castle a rest stop along the parade

route. When the characters arrive, some of the other people in the parade are already there, and they all spend the night before heading out in the morning to complete the parade. This is a great chance to throw in your favorite Oz char-acters. A few minutes spent talking with an interesting character would be just right to stretch this encounter a bit. In this case, the Winged Monkey should show up in the morning after the rest of the parade has left and only the characters remain.

If you’re planning on spending the entire session at the Witch’s Castle, use the rest stop idea above, but expand it by inventing minor sub-plots related to your favorite Oz characters—for example, what if the Tin Man gets soaked and rusts over? Or maybe something threatens the parade, like a water balloon soak-

some yellow peppers from the nearby woods.

69

Scene 5: Whale Away!Introduction

Just north of the Winkie Castle, the characters cross the border and enter the stony purple terrain of Gillikin Country. The parade route passes through forest and plain, and through clusters of cheering Flatheads, Skeezers, and animals from the Forest of Gugu. It gradually rises onto a winding mountain path, where you may read the following:

Read Aloud:

It gradually strikes you that you are crossing a very strange mountain range. It is purple, like most everything else in Gillikin country, and the sky around you is a placid shade of periwinkle. High above is dense cloud cover, which is deep gray with only hints of lavender lining. You may have heard that the air is thinner up in the mountains, but that’s evidently not the case here. On this mountain the air feels thick, as though if you jumped up as high as you could, it might take you a few sec-onds to sink back down. What is strangest of all, though, is that you do not hear the song of birds, a constant chorus that has followed you everywhere else in Oz.

(You may wish to pause here in case the players would like to investigate. Un-less they do something that would get them out of the area or alert them to the ap-proaching threat, continue:)

You hear a strange thrashing sound! You notice it just in time to be swamped by

whale, at least twice the usual size, swoop down through the clouds. He soars toward you, mouth wide open, breaking off and swallowing mountaintops as he goes!

What’s Going On Here?This is just what it looks like; a hungry skywhale out to make whalefood of the

characters. The whale is not very intelligent and, like most of us, doesn’t talk to his food. This encounter is an escape scene, pure and simple, a chance for tricky and athletic characters to shine.

What Can The Players Do?-

lem, though, because the whale can always come back for another pass. To get out of this safely, the characters could:

thinner air near the surface);

Incapacitate the whale (by tricking him into running into a mountain or distract-ing him with the illusion of food, for example);

Hide from the whale (with magic or by distracting him momentarily and then hiding while he’s not looking);

Escape the mountains immediately (probably by spending an Oz point to get a quick rescue); or any number of other methods. There’s no set solution to this prob-lem. If the players come up with something clever and roll well, it should work.

Most of these ideas are simple to resolve using the normal rules. Just consult the whale’s stats in the section below.

If the characters do get swallowed, they aren’t damaged, just trapped in the whale. At that point, an Oz point is the easiest way to get out, but other clever plans

up). If some characters are swallowed and some aren’t, have the whale keep at it until he’s swallowed everyone (that way he won’t split up your players too badly, and the ones on the outside can help rescue anyone who’s been swallowed).

Wrapping UpOnce the characters have escaped the whale, they can continue on to Munchkin

to talk, let alone to befriend him, but a character that does so will make a very power-ful friend!

Supporting Cast

Nuknuk The SkywhaleNuknuk is a giant skywhale. He

only ever dips beneath the clouds to eat, and it’s never occurred to him to have conversations with all the tiny creatures who live down on the surface. It requires a successful Presence attack just to get Nuknuk to notice that there’s someone trying to talk to him!

70

Nuknuk isn’t quite like a regular character. He’s very, very big, and he’s much too powerful for a player to control. Still, it’s most convenient to use the rules for characters to simulate him.

Size: 6 (!)Basic Skills

Athletics: 5 (Eating) Awareness: 3Brains: 1 Presence: 1Sneaking: 1 Wits: 3Traits: No Arms, Flight

Special: If Nuknuk swallows someone, he then carries them around until they somehow escape or until he realizes that they’re not food and spits them out.

Scene 6: The Jaded CityIntroduction

After leaving Gillikin Country, the characters re-enter Munchkin Country from the other side and approach the Yellow Brick Road. As they get closer, though, things get strange. They begin to pass by the other members of the parade, starting

-rade has backed up for some reason. No one in the parade knows what’s happening,

out. When the characters reach the front of the parade, they’ll see the city that has stopped it cold:

Read Aloud:

You follow the parade route, weaving through the crowds and the stalled parade itself, until you see a wondrous sight before you. The road leads through towering jade gates into a giant city full of marvels you’ve seen nowhere else in Oz! Vines lining the road to the jade city gleam with ripe grapes of pure gold. The streets of polished silver dance with color as stained-glass clouds pass overhead. The jade towers of the city reach so high that they seem nearly to reach the sun; far up, in the distance, you can see bright-hued birds soaring from tower to tower; occasionally

you see that each bird is about the size of a lion. Sparkling green canals wind through the whole city, weaving gracefully through every wonder and carrying exquisite min-iature ships in expertly choreographed circuits through the city.

leap from beneath the ground. Their bodies are like chains; they wrap themselves around the jade gates, chaining them shut and surrounding them dangerously in

defend the precious wonders of —”

They are cut off by a frumpy, middle-aged woman in a cocked and wrinkled hat. She speaks through the bars of the gate and through half-lidded eyes. “Don’t mind them. <yawn> Jaded City. How can I help you.” [No, she doesn’t pronounce it with a question mark. She speaks like someone working a fast food drive-through.]

What’s Going On Here?The Jaded City is the most wondrous place in Oz...but hardly the most wonder-

ful. There’s so much amazing stuff in the Jaded City that growing up there makes ev-

Bigger And BetterIf you’ve got more than one session, make the escape from the mountains

a more complex matter. Use an Extended Athletics Test to track the characters’ progress through the mountains; each player needs 5 successes to make it through and can roll once per turn. The whale continues to attack each turn. If the whale

In a multi-session version of The Jaded City of Oz, it’s more fun if the whale

and let him follow the characters just about anywhere that they go. In this case, the initial attack by the whale is just one encounter in a larger adventure. The characters either get swallowed or get driven off of the parade route by the attack,

course.

Get On With It!If you’re running The Jaded City of Oz in a single session, you should check

the time before this encounter starts. If you’re running short on time, you can cut

they pass through without any problems. If you’re short on time but don’t want to remove this encounter entirely, only allow the whale to make a single pass. If

more characters fail, give them a turn to escape by their wits. If they don’t, then

And frankly, you don’t taste very good! Watch where you’re going next time!”

71

erything seem boring and trite. The parade route passes right through the Jaded City. Unfortunately, the rear gate is operated with a big crank that the Jaded Citizens can’t be bothered to turn except for something really special. They let the Grand Marshal (the Guardian of the Gates of Oz, temporarily promoted) in to tell them all about the wonders of the parade, but so far, they haven’t been impressed and have refused to let the parade through. The Grand Marshal asked if he might be permitted to turn the crank himself, but that sort of thing would have to be cleared with the Manager, and nobody feels like walking all the way up to his room in one of the towers.

The woman at the gate, whose name is Mona, can explain all of this to the char-acters if they ask. So can the Grand Marshal, though he’ll be a little more agitated as he tells the story. Whether the characters talk to the Grand Marshal or to Mona, they’ll get the same question at the end:

Is there anything you can do to impress the people of the Jaded City so that they’ll open the rear gate?

What Can The Players Do?

The city gates are enchanted to ward off even the most powerful magic. They were a gift from Glinda, meant to keep the city’s treasures from being stolen by the rest of Oz, and they’re so strong that even Glinda herself would have trouble counteracting their magic. While spending an Oz point could solve this encounter, it couldn’t do so by simply turning the crank or instantly changing the minds of ev-eryone in the city. If the characters can’t think of a solution and end up spending an Oz point, it’s up to the Narrator and the players to negotiate some clever way for the chosen Friend to help. In a similar vein, the Grand Marshal won’t deviate from the parade route whatsoever, so he won’t just go around the city. The best way to solve this problem is to go into the Jaded City and do something to impress the towns-people. It will be tough, since they live in the most magical place in Oz! Here are some ideas for awing the jaded citizens:

Brute Force: Maybe they’ve seen the most amazing things in Oz so far, but they haven’t seen everything the characters can do. If one of the characters has (or is) something really, really amazing, then it might be possible to outdo all the wonders the jaded citizens have seen and actually impress them. A roll will always be neces-sary for this method, and it should be pretty tough.

Cleverness: The people of the Jaded City may be impressed by some unusual things. They grew up around magical wonders, so

those don’t impress them. But there’s nothing perfectly mundane in the Jaded City, so that might interest or even scare them. A perfectly unmagical rock from back home in Kansas would be a strange sight—Humbug Magic would be something new, since no one’s ever bothered faking magic in such a magical place—and the children here, instead of thrilling to stories of pirates, adventurers and amazing creatures, might be awed by stories of the mundane,

Trickery: If the players can’t think of something that will really impress the citizens of the Jaded City, they might at least be able to trick them. A con man could introduce a perfectly normal perfor-

pull an Emperor’s-New-Clothes trick. With magic, the citizens could be given amnesia temporarily so that they could enjoy the wonders of their own city all over again. Or maybe by simply tell-ing the people that they can’t have something, the characters can trick them into clamoring for it.

Don’t be too picky! This encounter is meant to be fun, not a chore. Don’t make

Wrapping UpOnce the rear gate of the Jaded City has been opened and the parade can march

through, it’s just a short walk to the Yellow Brick Road; and from there, to the Emer-ald City.

It’s not likely that the characters will pick up new friends in the Jaded City, but as always, it may happen if the characters develop an unexpected relationship with Mona, the Grand Marshal or an improvised supporting character.

72

Supporting Cast

Jaded CitizenThese stats are for every Jaded Citizen, including Mona and the Manager. In

general, the jaded citizens look bored, a little slack-jawed and sloppily-dressed.

Size: 3Basic Skills

Athletics: 2 Awareness: 2Brains: 3 Presence: 3Sneaking: 2 Wits: 4 (Being Unimpressed)Traits: None

Special: The jaded citizens don’t have any special abilities, but they know all about the Jaded City itself, which is full of all kinds of magic. They aren’t Crafts-men, for example, but they can pluck anything they need from a tree at a moment’s notice.

Scene 7: Return To The Emerald CityIntroduction

The citizens of the Emerald City line the Yellow Brick Road to watch the return of the parade. They cheer the characters, along with everyone else, as they pass back through the gates. In-side the city, they see the following:

Read Aloud:

At the center of the Emerald City, surrounding the towering Palace of Ozma, is a grand courtyard within the palace gates. There you see Ozma standing with Oz’s most important dignitaries, from mighty powers like Glinda to honored guests like Doro-thy’s Aunt Em. A giant banner, hunt from the western side of the gate to the east, reads “Happy Melting Day!” The courtyard is lined with all of those who preceded you in the parade; from the Grand Marshal all the way back to

hear only the usual cheers that have fol-lowed you along the whole parade route. But as you enter the gates of the palace, Glinda walks daintily toward you. Everyone throughout the courtyard goes silent, eager to hear what she might say.

“I’ve been following the Melting Day Parade in my Magic Book,” she says. “I saw how you all solved that problem between the Gloofers and the Blue Trees in Munchkinland... I read about your bravery when the winged monkey arrived at the Winkie Castle... and was especially impressed at how you saved the parade when the people of the Jaded City refused to open their gates to you! Every Melting Day, I award the Emerald Necklace to someone who has done good deed in service of Ozma and Oz. This year, I can think of no better recipients than you. I thank you, and all of Oz thanks you.” In a shimmer of magic, Glinda produces Emerald Neck-laces in her hand, one for each of you. She places them around your necks, and the cheers of the Emerald City roar up again in your honor!

Bigger and BetterIf you’re running a multi-session game, you can spend a little more time in

the Jaded City. Instead of letting the characters in by themselves to try to impress the people of the city, you can bring the whole parade into the city and then let the players go nuts! Don’t make the problem or its solution any more complicated; it’s challenging enough as it is. Just let the scene play out in a more leisurely way, giving the characters plenty of time to wander before they get down to work. Add a few more supporting characters to the Jaded City, such as the Man-ager and a couple of other jaded characters of interest; maybe an old man (who thinks everything was better in the old days) and his grandson (who is bored to tears by grandpa’s stories). The only thing these two can agree on is that noth-ing’s any fun nowadays. If you run the encounter this way, make it a rule that only the Manager can authorize turning the crank. Then you can make seeing the

so the characters have to bill themselves as acrobats, singers or comedians to gain an audience!

73

your players.

Wrapping UpThere’s no challenge or antagonist in this scene. It’s just an epilogue. The char-

acters will probably earn Glinda as a Friend. If they have taken a shine to any other Emerald City characters (like Ozma, Tik-Tok or any of the members of the parade), you should consider allowing those characters as Friends, too. It’s always a good idea to give the players friends that they’re interested in, so follow their lead! Once the players have received their rewards, the game is over.

Bigger And BetterEven in a multi-session game, it’s best to keep this scene short. The Jaded

not another obstacle.

If you want to expand the Emerald City into a full encounter (or you need

magical items that grant a single wish for 24 hours, and that must be used before Melting Day is over. Then, use the Emerald City as a playground to explore the consequences of the wishes that the characters make! This idea requires a lot of

and exciting for the players.

QuickReference

Tables

Modifiers+1 For every previous injury the defender has

taken+2 If the attack was a special success+2 For every size larger than defender-2 For every size smaller then defender-4 If the defender has the crafted trait

Injury TableRoll Result

0 or Below No Injury1 Right Leg2 Left Leg3 Right Arm4 Left Arm5 Torso

6-7 Head8 or More Total

Apportation

Athletics Skill Rating Sample Tasks1 Lift Light Objects2 Use A Tool Or Wield A Weapon3 Lift A Bulky Object, Win A Race4 Lift A Heavy Object5 Lift A Massive Object

TransmutationPower Degree Of Change

1 Minor (Water To Coffee)2 Moderate3 Major (Handkerchiefs To Tents)4 Severe

Magic Spell ScopeScope Area Of Effect

0 Self1 1 Person/Object2 Small Group (Up To 10)/ A Room3 Mob (Up To 50)/ A Large Area4 City (Up To 200)/ Race

Magic Item ScopeScope Area Of Effect

0 Self/Person/Object1 Mob (Up To 10 People)/A House2 City (Up To 200 People)/Race3 Quadrant (One Of The Four Countries

That Compose The Land Of Oz)4 Land Of Oz5 The Whole World

Permission granted to photocopy this page for personal use