Dolmenwood: Fairy Blades

I've started work on the next Dolmenwood Adventures module: a scenario for 1st or 2nd level characters revolving around a fairy banquet, dance, and market. Therefore, I'm coming up with information on what one can buy at a fairy market -- a fun project! Here's a little preview: the weapons that are available at one of the stalls.

The Blade Seller

Blades crafted by fairy smiths (known to be magical). By their nature, they carry a +1 enchantment and another glamour (see table)*. There is no way of perceiving a weapon’s glamour before purchase.

d12	Type (cost, damage)	Appearance	Glamour**
1	Knife (100gp, 1d3)	Delicate spiderweb engravings	Inflicts +2 damage to mortals.
2	Dagger (200gp, 1d4)	Fine tree branch lattice inlays of gold	Animals are suspicious of the owner (-2 to reaction rolls).
3	Dagger (200gp, 1d4)	Crackles with blue sparks when touched	When in darkness, glows like the moon.
4	Shortsword (400gp, 1d6)	Glistening with dewdrops	Once drawn, cannot be sheathed unless blooded.
5	Shortsword (400gp, 1d6)	Appears old and battered, but is actually perfectly sharp	3-in-6 chance of the owner not being recognised at a casual glance.
6	Rapier (400gp, 1d6)	Engraved with fine images of unicorns at play	Become obsessed with thoughts or mortality and entropy.
7	Longsword (600gp, 1d8)	Rimed with frost	The owner’s natural scent is replaced with that of blossom or cinders.
8	Longsword (600gp, 1d8)	Inlaid secret runes of fairy silver	+2 to saves vs cold.
9	Scimitar (600gp, 1d8)	Wreathed in moonlight	The owner suffers from sleeping irregularities -- sleeping for exactly 2d6 hours (roll per night). (This may be too little or too much.)
10	Broadsword (600gp, 1d8)	Opalescent	See in moonlight as if it were daylight.
11	Bastard sword (800gp, 1d8/2d4)	Pitch dark metal	Alignment shifts one step toward Chaotic, over the course of a month.
12	Two-handed sword (1,200gp, 1d10)	Perpetually occluded by shadows	The owner develops a taste for the refined and decadent. (One who already has such tastes may tend toward depravity.)

* The proprietor says that “mortals call them magical”, but fairies themselves do not conceive of items such as these as being enchanted.

** True fairies (e.g. elves, grimalkin; not including demi-fey) are unaffected by these glamours.

Dolmenwood: A Night in the Common Room

This little random table popped into my mind upon awakening this morning. It will be featured in a future issue of Wormskin.

What occurs during a night spent in the inn's common room?

1. Embarrassingly erotic dreams
2. Leaky roof
3. Exposure to an intestinal or skin disease (make a CON check)
4. Attempted, drunken cuddling
5. Early risers disappear in the wee hours
6. Boar-like snoring
7. Discover an unusual item left behind by a previous guest
8. Attempted theft (WIS check to notice, thieves or rogues get a +4 bonus)
9. Mouse infestation (1 in 6 chance of one taking up residence in a PC's pack)
10. Awful stench: stale sweat
11. Loud, drunken latecomers
12. Overhear whispered scheming
13. Incessant flatulence
14. Bed collapses during the night
15. Somnambulist wanderings
16. Blanket theft
17. Coughing and sneezing (make a CON check to avoid getting ill)
18. Unsettling sleep-speech
19. Nocturnal search by local militia
20. Bedbugs or lice
21. Loud, raucous singing
22. Furtive sexual union
23. Tickled by ants or spiders
24. Midnight brawl
25. Camaraderie throughout the night
26. Odd nighttime vigil
27. Horse-like snoring
28. Awful stench: urine
29. Rats or cockroaches
30. Flagrant masturbation

DCC: Alchemical Tonic

Having bought the Dungeon Crawl Classics book recently, I've been thinking about running some games. Naturally (naturally!) I would expunge the cleric class from existence. I am renowned for my grudge against clerics of all creeds and am not about to tarnish this reputation now.

Clerics in DCC seem pretty healy. The death toll of the game seems pretty high. Put those two facts together and, without clerical healing, you get a blood bath, I would imagine. So, with maximum mercy, I propose the following substance:

Alchemical Tonic
A class of rejuvenating fluid produced by many alchemists, each having his or her own secret formula. A vial costs 40gp. Imbibing it has the effect of restoring one Hit Die. Other damage effects (like critical hit gruesomeness, diseases, paralysis, whatever) are not affected.

Adventurers with a few lucrative jaunts under their belts will, of course, be able to purchase great stocks of this miracle juice. Ingesting alchemical substances of this kind is, however, not without side-effects -- especially when the compounds of multiple doses mix in a character's intestines. Upon imbibing the first tonic of the day, a player must roll 1d6 and consult the following table. For each subsequent dose consumed, the die type increases by one, up to the mighty d30 of almost-certain alchemical doom. Rolls on the table are inversely modified by Luck (bonuses subtract, penalties add).

0 or less: No side-effect.
1: Tingling. A pleasant sensation in the extremities.
2: Chills. Rising up and down the spine.
3: Flush. Cheeks flush hot red.
4: Rush. A sensation of courage and renewed vigour pervades the character's consciousness for 1 hour. Can lead to foolhardy decision making.
5: Tipsy. Has an effect similar to alcohol.
6: Mind-numbing. 1d3 Intelligence damage.
7: Over-stimulation. Character cannot sleep for 48 hours.
8: Rejection. The tonic is vomited back up. Healing factor reduced by 50%.
9: Hyper-sensitivity. A frothing sensation in the belly. The die type used on this table for subsequent doses is increased by two steps.
10: Faint. Wakes up naturally after 1d6 turns. Slapping has no effect but application of another dose of tonic does the job in 1d6 rounds.
11: Fire breath. A chemical reaction causes a gout of flame to burst from the character's lips. A random character or object within 5' takes 1d8 damage and must make a DC 10 Reflex save to avoid catching on fire (p.96).
12: Addictive. The compound has a habit-forming effect. The character must make a DC 15 Will save or do whatever he can to consume a second dose within the next hour, whether he needs the additional hit points or not.
13: Fearless. The compound inspires courage to the point of recklessness, for 1d6 hours. The character is immune to fear effects during this time but cannot take any course of action out of caution.
14: Where am I? Partial amnesia for 1 hour. The character knows who he is and recognizes companions, but has no memory of how he got into the current situation or what he is doing there.
15: Glow. A strange chemical reaction causes the character's skin to glow some psychedelic hue for 1d6 hours. This makes stealth very difficult.
16: Alchemical taint. The character's lips are permanently stained with a garish colour and his breath takes on an acrid odour.
17: Sensory black out. Blinded or deafened for 1d10 minutes.
18: Vision. An odd collusion of chemical elements triggers a psychedelic episode. The character has an out-of-body visionary flash lasting 1d6 rounds (although the vision may, subjectively, appear to last much longer), followed by a 1d6 hour period of sensory distortion and hallucination.
19: Pain insensitivity. Bodily sensations numbed for 24 hours. Judge tracks character's hit point total and gives no clues as to its status.
20: Intolerance. On subsequent days, the character's first dose of tonic starts with a d8 on the side-effects table.
21: Who am I? Complete amnesia for 24 hours.
22: Tonic-head. Highly addictive elements of the tonic get a grip on the character. Henceforth, he must consume a dose every day or lose a point of Strength.
23: Frazzled. The character's nervous system is damaged by continued abuse. Hit point maximum reduced by one, permanently.
24: Knockout gas. Noxious fumes erupt from the character's digestive system. All within 20' (including the one who drank the tonic) must make a DC 13 Fortitude save or fall unconscious for 1d6 turns.
25: Digestive polymorph. Character's digestive system is permanently altered, such that he can only subsist on an unusual, unnatural diet (gold, rocks, shadows, elf-flesh, etc).
26: Allergic reaction. Roll again. Character's system has become extra sensitive to the effects of tonic. Henceforth, every dose incurs two rolls on this table.
27: Brain damage. Mixed compounds take to the character's brain, causing unconsciousness for 1d6 hours and a permanent 1d12 points of Intelligence damage.
28: Rainbow vomit. Colours, chemical formulations, geometric crystals, and chunks of decimated organs spew from the character's mouth. Dies within 1d6 turns unless some miracle intervenes.
29: Stomach disintegration. Like drinking acid. Instadeath.
30 or more: Alchemical explosion. An unfortunate mixture of esoteric compounds triggers a powerful explosion in the character's gut. Instadeath. All within 10' must make a DC 12 Reflex save or suffer 1d6 damage from the blast.

Underworld Lore: Dungeon Disappearances Table

You know how sometimes you're in the middle of a dungeon delve when the end of a session comes? And you know how sometimes, try as you might, you can't arrange for all the same players to come to the next session?

What's a self-respecting DM to do in that situation? Simply let the other players run the now directionless character, like this guy? (Not recommended.)

Why no! Any self-respecting DM would simply roll on the following table to determine the fate of the playerless PC!

(All effects are temporary, restoring the PC to his normal state upon the errant player's return.)

Character's Temporary Fate
1. Disappears in some freak act of teleportation.
2. Turns to stone. 50% chance real stone, 50% chance fake polystyrene stone.
3. Miniaturized.
4. Turns into a figment – cannot interact with anything, cannot pass through solid objects.
5. Kidnapped by: 1. shadows, 2. demons, 3. imps, 4. rats, 5. angels, 6. a murder of crows, 7. ghosts, 8. reptile-men cultists, 9. ex-girlfriend, 10. chaotic evil gnome vivisectionists, 11. giant subterranean lagomorph, 12. random deity.
6. Absorbed into the ground, wall or ceiling.
7. Falls into a faint and cannot be roused.
8. Character is turned into a frog by pixies. Another character must carry them for the entire session.
9. The character turns out to be a doppleganger. The real character is back at the tavern tied up and naked in the storeroom.
10. The character turns out to be a doppleganger. The real character is held by monsters somewhere in the dungeon!
11. The character was a hallucination of the other others and wasn't with them in the first place.
12. Character and all equipment is transformed into a pink mule, complete with (empty) saddle bags.
13. Turned into a gold coin that has fallen into the treasure when no one was looking.
14. Abducted by scientists, via a time travel/teleportation device and subjected to annoying, tedious and ill-informed questions about "the past," then finally returned to his own time.
15. Kidnapped by Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, who needed a last minute date for a swanky party in Nessus.
16. As 15, but it's an intime soiree and the PC gets to sit at a dinner table with the Big Man himself.
17. PC falls into a rupture in time-space and is immediately deposited at the time and place, most convenient for the DM.
18. PC is abducted by aliens, probed, then returned.
19. The gods decided to put mankind on trial. Guess who got to appear and testify for the whole of humanity.
20. PC is whisked away to a dimension where they are fed midnight tomatoes by beautiful women, lying on a chaise longue.
21. Character transformed into an incredibly lifelike tattoo on one of the other PCs.
22. Character disappears and is replaced by a sheet of paper covered in stats describing their abilities and equipment.
23. The PC becomes morose and depressed, and fades into the background, all but forgotten by his party and everything around them.
24. Dragged into a chasm by skeletal hands which erupt from the walls or floor.
25. Turned into a guard dog with same number of hit points as character in normal state. If spellcaster, can only cast single-finger somatic cantrips using tail.
26. Character disappears and is replaced with life-size parchment cutout illustration of the character.
27. Turned into a turnip and placed in the cook's supply bag.
28. Transmogrified into eight year old boy in short pants dragging stuffed tiger, both of whom refuse to speak with the party.
29. Turned into inanimate statue melded to floor. Any attempt to chip away at statue will result in appropriate damage to character's feet next game session.
30. Turns out the character was never with the group to begin with--it was all a dream.
31. Turns into a hat. Hat may be worn by another party member and provide an appropriate AC bonus equal to one third the character's normal AC (round up).
32. Accidentally frozen in magical ice by Wixard the Wise, absent-minded professor of dungeon physics, who was experimenting with spell sending using a scrying crystal and hit the character by mistake (he thought the area was deserted and was aiming for some nondescript feature of the room).
33. Turns into a deep crimson Blood Shadow and oozes into the nearest shadows...
34. Character spins wildly and disappears into an opening into the floor that just suddenly appeared. Above the where the opening appeared is now a glowing sign that states "Insert 1 Silver Piece to Resume Play."
35. The character is replaced by an indestructable, balloon sculpture of him or herself.
36. Teleported to a far off dungeon to play patty-cake with Dungie...
37. Melts into a puddle of bio-flesh and seeps down the cracks of the dungeon.
38. PC is replaced by a Dark Stalker/Dark Creeper - whichever fits the bill better.
39. The character turns to a fine mist and is sucked into a bottle that was conveniently nearby.
40. Is smote by a lightning bolt out of the blue - all that remains is a scorch mark.
41. Suddenly doused by water, dissolves into a puddle of slime. What a world, what a world!
42. Flies up, up and away (through the ceiling/roof if necessary).
43. Everyone finally notices the goatee - this is actually the evil alternate dimension version of the character, who must be fought or chased off. The real version is drinking back at the pub.
44. Left behind when the party moved on from their camp, still sleeping, exhausted from adventuring so much.
45. Was called away by family or friends to do whatever the player missed to game for - wedding, funeral, a party he thought would be more fun, a date, etc.
46. Sipped from a fountain that made him fall asleep.
47. Accidentally gazed into a full Mirror of Opposition, freeing some scrub who was in the cell he entered. Next time he plays it'll be because a goblin looked in and took his place or something.
48. Imprisoned by a weird cult that (1) did experiments on him, (2) gave him a sweet face tattoo, (3) indoctrinated him, (4) fed and clothed him.
49. Swallowed by a dungeon best and carried around for some time until he was ejected out the other end as inedible.
50. Last thing he heard was that you guys were going back to town. You didn't go back to town? Then why did you tell him you were going back to town? ... Ohh, I get it. You guys found a good Fighter item and you don't want me to have it. I see how it is.
51. A bout of Dungeon Diarrhea came upon him so quickly and powerfully that he was forced to flee to the nearest latrine.
52. He noticed a goblin with a trench coat, "hey buddy, wanna buy a magic ring?" but got jumped by goblins when he split off from the party.
53. Was just strolling along in the back not paying attention, took a wrong turn, found himself alone in the dungeon.
54. Saw something shiny, stopped to pry it out of the wall. By the time he found out it was just a silver piece someone jammed in there everyone else had moved on.
55. Sat down on a big mushroom to take a break and the spores drove him mad, forcing him to do everything he had just done backwards until he got back into the sunlight.
56. Just having a bad day, sick and tired of dungeon rot and hard floors, decided to go back to town and sleep in a real bed for once. Screw you guys! Screw this dungeon!
57: Primadonna isn't getting what he wants, refuses to participate, storms back to town. I'll be in my trailer!
58. Found a baby monster and is struck by sudden maternal instincts, needs to go back to town and buy a crib, paint the second bedroom, etc.
59. Shoes have finally worn all the way through. You didn't know he needs special shoes? This is gonna take a while, if you need me I'll be at the cobbler patiently explaining what he's doing wrong with my order.
60. Back strain! Hauling all those unsecured, heavy loads of gold has finally taken its toll. This is going to take a few days of physical therapy, he's got to file the worker's compensation paperwork, get some ice on it, etc.
61. Oh got I can't take any more rats, squirmy things, crawly things, chittering things, JUST ENOUGH! I can deal with the monsters we kill and they just lay there but you can't squish all the little spiders and worms and they're just EVERYWHERE down here! Need a spa day to wash up and relax, get his gear dry-cleaned, maybe get a face peel.
62. Argument with magic sword causing friction with party members who can't hear the sword's side of the conversation. It's like listening to someone scream into a cell phone. Everyone agrees it's best if he just goes back to town for the day to cool off.
63. Turns out he was actually three halflings in a trench coat. Where is the real Jimmy?
64. Can't stop talking about his 30th level Accountant in Papers & Paychecks. Whole group unanimously votes to send him back to town for the day.
65. Keeps trying to share his lunch with everyone, but it's nothing but olives, tapenade, olive oil, etc. People become suspicious and bonk him over the helmet, revealing that he's been replaced by a clever Olive Slime. The real Jimmy is passed out at the entrance, will wake for the next adventure.
66. Stays in town because he's worried about his paladin horse / familiar / adventure animal / war dog who is real sick and might not pull through (spoiler: it was just really bad gas).
67: Can't focus on adventuring because he's halfway through a novel and he wants to finish it before anybody spoils the ending (spoiler: the vampire is exposed to sunlight and instead of sparkling dies a horrible blood-gargling death).
68: Bored with dungeon, unwilling to continue, call me when you find something good.
69: When you all waded through that flooded tunnel and counted everyone who came out, Jimmy wasn't among the group. And he's not in the tunnel. Guess he went the wrong way.
70: Spending too much time obsessing over having an accurate map. Bunch of blood smudged it in the last fight and now "it's ruined" and he has to go back to town and start over. Rest of the part grabs the map and continue without him.
71. Recently stuck on a philosophizing kick. One moment he's saying "what if we're not actually even here, guys" and the next moment there's nothing left of him but the echoes of his last words. Maybe he'll show up sometime later.
72. Stands frozen in place. Monsters ignore him. He somehow keeps up with the party. Begins moving and talking again like nothing happened when the player returns.
73. Some goblins beguiled the party into selling him. Then the money turned out to be transmuted cave fisher feces! "We'll get those goblins!" you cry as the charm wears off.
74. In the hustle and bustle of all the party members, hirelings, henchmen, cohorts, followers, itinerant townsfolk, and the ever-present menagerie of horses, mules, magical panthers, tamed watch-leopards, war dogs, civet cats, postal owls, pseudo-dragons, and caged canaries - Jimmy has simply been misplaced. His spot in the marching order was mistakenly taken up by that moronic lad from the village and nobody noticed the complete lack of contribution.
75. A sudden collapse sends dirt, rocks and strange yellow crystals crashing through the party. One crystal, bigger than a man, smashes straight into the target and smashes him straight through into the Yellow Hells. He will find his own way back through a mirror in good time, but will need a helping hand to step through the mirror back into the Prime.

76. Gets paranoia about the horses getting stolen. Leaves to protect them from thieves (no matter wether the party has horses or not or how well protected they are).

77. Character is hiding out in the harem of the Ogre King disguised as one of his wives. Has d8+1 days before his or her turn in the kingly bed.
78. Character caught in the web of an she-ettin, has d8+1 days being fed pulped insect guts before procreation followed by being eaten.
79. Character returns with hazy recollection of being 'companion to the Champignon Eternal', a moody albino myconid sorceror-fighter who roams the planes of the multiverse with a vampiric rune shroomfork battling the forces of entropy and truffle pigs. Character's pockets are stuffed with savoury black truffles with 3d6 gp, or add +1 to all rolls for a day after eating.

80. Aethermorph slips; character redirected into gap between tiles.
81. Stumbles, falls on own weapon; hidden by embarrassed patron.
82. He's still there - look! Right there! Why can't anyone see him..?
83. Jumped by member of adventurer self-help group and reformed.
84. Implausibly coloured beverage renders character sheet unusable.
85. The party know, but speak not of it; even to each other.
86. Led party into trap as agreed; slips out for reward or bumped off.
87. Sees an oddly long hair on exposed body part; pulls it, unravels.
88. Cut down accidentally or otherwise by nearest member of party.
89. Cuts down nearest member of party first; assumes new identity.

90. They fell down a pit. It's only 12-15 feet deep, but tapers tighter as it goes down, like a funnel, and they are stuck. If anyone cares to check, you might hear them complaining, grumbling, even yelling in the distance. Going back is an option of course. But that's precisely what this trap is meant to accomplish. If anyone does go back to help retrieve the prodigal party member, there are several other, similar pits arranged all around the central one, each one now activated to capture those who come back for their fallen comrade. The pit-builders lurk overhead, securely ensconced within twisty shafts and niches artfully obscured with hanging lichen, cracked bas reliefs and other bits of carefully cemented debris and bric-a-brac. They'll be coming along to check on their dinner, eventually.
91. They appear to be petrified. Actually the figure resembling the missing person is a clever forgery and the result of a minor reworking of a Passwall spell that has safely tucked them away within the nearest wall, leaving a character-shaped mass of stone in their place. The spell is still experimental, and a bit unstable. It could collapse at any minute, throwing the victim in a randomly determined direction, possibly deeper into the wall, maybe into another open space, or perhaps back where they first went missing.
92. Accidentally stung by a blue-striped Delve Urchin they didn't notice in passing. Now they sleep blissfully unaware of everything, completely unharmed, totally unaware, just sleeping.
93. They are trapped within a wall mural, locked into a 2-dimensional form and unable to escape the painted walls of this demented domain until they find a way through the flat maze.
94. They have been swallowed by a floor mosaic. You could see them down there, if you'd care to take a look. they are still alive, but stuck behind the mosaic. They appear to be slowly sinking. Living matter can push down through the mosaic in an attempt to reach the fallen party member, but anyone resting upon the mosaic directly runs the risk of sinking into it as well. When any living thing is removed from the mosaic, it comes out in fragments. Just like passing through a grater or a mosaic-shaped mesh. Perhaps there's some way to go all the way through the mosaic? Or do you pull them up, heal them, pull some more, heal again, and continue the process for however long it will take--at great personal risk, pain and cost of spells/potions?
95. Precentennial tension: proximity of 100 produces existential shearing.

96. Spontaneous combustion: Character leaves an egg, from wich he will be born anew the next gaming session his player can attend, gear and all.

97. Ate a bad pork rind; took sick to bedroll.
98. Sliced artery whilst trimming beard; off seeking medical help. Party cleric(s) refused to heal because, really, who trims their beard?
99. Stumbled upon flail snail mating ritual and was so absorbed lost track of time.
100. Off churning the buttermilk, if you know what I mean.

Contributions so far from: Garrison James, rorschachhamster, Porky, Dyson Logos, 1d30, Art Braune, Greg Gorgonmilk, Matt Schmeer, Gavin Norman, Tedankhamen, Hamel™, Tim Shorts, James Smith, Raskolnik, Simon Forster. Continued from this old post.

Let's get this up to a round 30... 50... 100... whatever, and it shall be submitted to a future issue of that esteemed orifice of dungeon wisdom, Underworld Lore. I have the gorgon-master's word on it.

Dreamlands: Random Character Backgrounds

Following on from my recent post on B/X character backgrounds, I thought I'd share the one-page PDF I've made for players in my upcoming dreamlands campaign.

One of the concepts of the campaign is that adventurers from virtually any possible world can enter the dreamlands -- thus there is essentially no "campaign setting". The point of this is two-fold:

1. To give players complete free reign over the character they create, with no limitations imposed by the DM's preconceived notions of a campaign world.
2. To encourage an odd mashup of characters. Just for fun.

So, we could have a cleric of St Cuthbert, straight out of Greyhawk, teaming up with a star-faring barbarian and a clockwork dwarf from a steampunk maze-world.

To this end I thought it'd be helpful to produce some random tables for players who like random character generation to roll on. So we have tables for the following:

• Sex
• Sexuality
• Skin colour
• Cultural origin
• Religion

These are, obviously, heavily influenced by Jeff's What Went Wrong.


Here's the PDF.

Recommended for use with JB's B/X Headgear and 100 Reasons tables.

Pick pockets results charts!

I've been doing a spot of musing lately on what  sort of things could result when a PC thief attempts a bit of petty pocket picking on the side in between adventures. This comes up every so often, especially now we have three thieves in the party, and I'm never properly prepared for the event. Unprepared no longer!

I present my lovingly crafted pick pockets results charts! (Players in my campaign, please don't look at the charts, unless you love spoiling fun that is ;)

This is the second draft of these charts. The initial version I came up with included a lot more extreme results -- including being able to pilfer some pretty valuable items, and the accompanying possibility of severe punishment (incarceration or execution!). After some discussion with the players we decided that, while this was realistic, it wasn't much fun. So the final tables have been kind of smoothed out. Items of moderate wealth can be stolen, and moderately bad consequences of failure may occur, but nothing at either extreme.

I hope some other DM out there might also find these charts useful!

What happens to a PC in a dungeon whose player is not present?

A game session is halted in the middle of a dungeon or other weird supernatural locale far from home. When the subsequent session comes around one or more of the players who were there last time are unable to attend. What happens to their PC(s)?

Some initial ideas:

1. Disappear in some freak act of teleportation
2. Turn to stone
3. Miniaturized
4. Turn into a figment – cannot interact with anything, cannot pass through solid objects
5. Kidnapped by shadows, demons, imps, etc
6. Absorbed into the ground
7. Fall into a faint and cannot be roused

(All these effects are, of course, intended to be temporary. When the player returns the character will recover / reappear.)

Please provide further ideas... if we could build it up to d20, d30 or even d100 that'd be awesome!
(The concept is that the missing PCs should not be able to function as normal party members, or to help the PCs of the players who are present. The assumption is that in mythical realms like dungeons, the laws of normal reality are weakened and weirdness holds sway. So, pretty much anything goes.)


Continued...

8. Character is turned into a frog by pixies. Another character must carry them for the entire session.
9. The character turns out to be a doppleganger. The real character is back at the tavern tied up and naked in the storeroom.
10. The character turns out to be a doppleganger. The real character is held by monsters somewhere in the dungeon!
11. The character was a hallucination of the other others and wasn't with them in the first place.
12. Character and all equipment is transformed into a pink mule, complete with (empty) saddle bags.
13. Turned into a gold coin that has fallen into the treasure when no one was looking. 
14. Abducted by scientists, via a time travel/teleportation device and subjected to annoying, tedious and ill-informed questions about "the past," then finally returned to his own time.
15. Kidnapped by Glasya, daughter of Asmodeus, who needed a last minute date for a swanky party in Nessus. 
16. As above, but it's an intime soiree and the PC gets to sit at a dinner table with the Big Man himself.
17. PC falls into a rupture in time-space and is immediately deposited at the time and place, most convenient for the DM.
18. PC is abducted by aliens, probed, then returned. 
19. The gods decided to put mankind on trial. Guess who got to appear and testify for the whole of humanity.
20. PC is whisked away to a dimension where they are fed midnight tomatoes by beautiful women, lying on a chaise longue.
21. Character transformed into an incredibly lifelike tattoo on one of the other PCs.
22. Character disappears and is replaced by a sheet of paper covered in stats describing their abilities and equipment.

The devil is in the details - Many Fey, Some Fey

Some time ago I created (and posted) a set of tables of random racial characteristics for Dwarrow and Ratfolk characters in my campaign. Following last week's PC massacre, there have been some new character being rolled up. Among them are two Fey (not coincidentally, as the party was decimated by ghouls, and Fey are immune to their paralysis!). So this morning I came up with similar tables for Fey (including a few entries from the original Elf "Devil is in the details" article in Fight on!).

Many Fey

1. Have an unusual number of fingers (roll 1d6 + 2, re-rolling if you end up with four!).
2. Have hair which animates or changes colour depending on their mood.
3. Lie as a matter of course.
4. Are 90% resistant to sleep and charm person.
5. Guard their true name with their lives.
6. Have the attention span of a gnat.
7. Feel a great affinity to one type of animal.
8. Love games of chance.
9. Apparently sprang into existence fully formed, having no memory of a childhood or family.
10. Have an irrational hatred of one specific thing (gnomes, horses, moonlight, etc), and fly into a rage when encountering it.
11. Love all forms of art, especially pieces which other races would regard as incomprehensibly convoluted.
12. Find humans and dwarrow endlessly boring.
13. Are terrified of spirits and undead.
14. Refuse to have anything to do with cosmic powers, including acceptance of cleric spells being cast upon them.
15. Only have a 1 in 6 chance of needing to sleep each night.
16. Carry an array of small charms to protect against all manner of things.
17. Have a 30% chance of reflecting sleep or charm person back onto the caster.
18. Are prone to addiction, and start play with a penchant for: 1. alil, 2. fine spirits, 3. yellow powder, 4. exotic pipe-weed.
19. Have silver, gold, or violet hair.
20. Suffer from fits of insanity (10% chance per day, lasting one day, roll on the table in the DMG p.83).
21. Can detect subtle psychic impressions in objects, getting a feeling of the appearance and mood of the last person who touched the object.
22. Actually physically disappear when they sleep, vanishing to a dream dimension.
23. Have an imaginary friend (though of course they claim it is real) with whom they converse.
24. Find water distasteful and will only drink wine or fruit juices.
25. Can generate minor electrical shocks.
26. Have eyes of an unusual colour (violet, pure white, silver, etc).
27. Are able to cast a single 1st level spell once per day, selected from the list of fey sorcerer spells.
28. Have a deep love and respect for the ancient line of fey nobility.
29. Find humour in almost anything, even at totally inappropriate moments.
30. Are deeply superstitious, having a long list of things which are supposed to bring good or bad luck.

Some Fey

1. Have a sadistic bent.
2. Have almost no concept of self-preservation, making them completely reckless.
3. Speak to themselves in a private language which only they understand.
4. Will not die from ageing.
5. Insist on things (people, items, plans, etc) being assigned numerical values.
6. Harbour the desire to mate with a being of another (perhaps unusual) race.
7. Have detailed memories of a past life (possibly as another race).
8. Are incredibly avaricious, but only seek wealth of a very particular kind (emeralds, pearls, platinum, gold rings, etc).
9. Are completely hedonistic and do not care a whit for the future.
10. Prefer to not enter the fey dimension, for reasons of their own.
11. Have a habit of pronouncing personal names backwards, and will not reveal the reason for this.
12. Both fear and desire to know the deep places below the earth.
13. Value logic and rationality over all else.
14. Breed new animals in pursuit of a singular vision.
15. Can detect the influence of cosmic powers, as a cleric. If successful, become terrified, enraged or sick (equal chance).
16. Find books and writing to be delightful curiosities.
17. Have a twin which resulted from a spontaneous division. The two twins' personalities are usually radically at odds.
18. Refuse to use a personal name of any kind.
19. Shower friends with gifts.
20. Will only dress in a specific colour.
21. Study an ancient spiritual text which is written entirely in indecipherable code which generations of fey have failed to crack.
22. Have star-shaped pupils. The number of points on the star is deemed auspicious.
23. Are fascinated by light, and will spend long hours gazing into prisms or beams of sunlight.
24. Are strange and silent.
25. Study a complex system of astrology which can only be applied in retrospect.
26. Are unaffected by all but the most extreme changes in temperature and weather.
27. Trace their ancestry to another world.
28. Are haunted by animals of a certain species, which they believe are spies.
29. Cannot conceal their emotions.
30. Will swiftly die if imprisoned.

A database of old-school monsters?

I've recently been musing on the possibility of creating encounter tables for specific dungeon environments -- in the same way as there are tons of tables for various types of wilderness environments, from swamps to arctic tundra, I thought it'd be very useful to have tables for things like fungoid caverns, volcanic rifts, lost tombs, etc. There's loads of prototypical dungeon environments which could easily have their own table.

I had in mind using these tables as an aid while stocking dungeons, for which I often use the normal dungeon encounter tables. I tend to find these a little limited and generic though, hence the idea of different tables for different types of dungeon.

But: I just had what seems like an even better idea, and one that could be immensely useful for all sorts of things.

An online old-school monster database, with tags.

The tags are the important thing. The fact that monsters are usually only indexed by name is what makes coming up with suitably themed collections of them tricky. I realised this when looking at the extensive monster lists in the AD&D Monster Manual II. There's this huge list of monster names, sorted alphabetically or by hit dice or by wilderness environment. But to use the lists successfully you really need to know what the monsters are like, just from their names. For instance, I came across quite a few stumbling blocks in the list of 1st level dungeon monsters: rothe, vilstrak, vulchling, tween...? A lookup in the fiend folio and I now know what these things are, but it's slow work.

But what if there were a database where you could just search for monsters of 1 to 3 HD with the tags "fungus" or "whimsical"? Such a tool could be used to whip up encounter tables in a jiffy, or to get quick inspiration for encounters of any sort. I think this could be a seriously useful tool, if set up right.

So, a couple of questions:

1. Does anyone know if anything like this already exists? (I've never heard of anything like it, but you never know... I imagine possibly a resource like this may exist for 3.5th or 4th edition.)
2. Any thoughts on what software / system would be good for something like this? A freely available, easy to use, multi-user, wiki-style, online system would be perfect, but something that works as a database as opposed to a page / post based wiki or blog.

I'd imagine including a foundation of monsters from the OSR clone books (LL, AEC, S&W, OSRIC), supplemented with links to any freely available old-school OGL stuff that could be found online. (Possibly also stuff from the AD&D monster books, though that's not freely available.) The idea is that at the beginning it'd simply be a list of all the monsters (their names, hit dice and source -- either a url or a page reference in a book), but that then people could add tags to them, gradually increasing the worth of the database.

Any thoughts?

The devil is in the details – Some Dwarrow, Some Rat-People

Continuing on from the other day's post about "Many Dwarrow, Many Rat-People", here's the remainder of the characteristics of those races. Each PC exhibits one of these.

Some Dwarrow

1. Are completely hairless.
2. Carve hideous statues in honour of the gods of the fathomless darkness of the earth.
3. Are sickened by acts of kindness.
4. Are loyal and courageous to the point of foolhardiness.
5. Find the feel of cloth unpleasant, preferring to always wear metal.
6. Are wider than they are tall.
7. View Law and consistency as the most important virtues, even unto death.
8. Have a twisted sadistic streak, and make excellent torturers.
9. Spend one month of each year in a state of deep slumber.
10. Have more than one father.
11. Have replaced all their teeth with metal replicas.
12. Pity and try to guide other races, who are weak-willed and lacking in purpose.
13. View the giving and receiving of gifts as ultimately debasing.
14. Have the patience of a rock.
15. Become students of history, coveting scriptures and records from ancient times.
16. Have seen awful things in the deeps of the earth, which they are at once terrified of and lust after.
17. Are sterile and unable to reproduce.
18. Apparently do not age.
19. Live by an odd conception of time, often mixing up past and future.
20. Have no imagination.
21. Can detect subtle vibrations in stone, warning them of approaching or recently passed creatures.
22. Are members of a rebellious sect which proposes tenets such as “kindness”, “equality” and “generosity”.
23. Spend their whole lives preparing an elaborate crypt for themselves and their descendants
24. Play a droning, melancholic music on horns and pipes.
25. Secretly plot treason against their kin with the hope of becoming a great ruler.
26. Have one true purpose in their lives, which was determined at birth.
27. Keep their soul in a rock.
28. Feel no kinship with their own people, becoming wanderers looking for a home.
29. Are terrified of magic and those who use it.
30. Will gladly die defending their home and people.

Some Rat-People

1. Have a spiteful malicious streak.
2. Intermittently experience pre-cognitive dreams.
3. Speak in rhyme and riddle.
4. Can grip small items with their tail.
5. Have sinister red eyes.
6. Are incredibly impatient.
7. Can use their sense of smell to follow recent tracks.
8. Suffer from a hunger which is never sated, and risk become obese.
9. Refuse to eat the flesh of domesticated animals.
10. Believe in reincarnation and that all talk of an “afterlife” is a deadly spiritual trap.
11. Will only wear clothing of a specific favoured colour.
12. Memorize elaborate family histories.
13. Dream of sailing to unknown lands.
14. Find sunlight distasteful.
15. Never forget a face.
16. Follow a mysterious spiritual path of renunciation of material wealth.
17. Are captivated by the moon, often spending long hours gazing at it.
18. Feel an irresistible urge to delve into the deeps of the earth.
19. Are experts on gourmet food and fine wines.
20. Become infuriated at the sight of waste and decadence.
21. Find the touch of stone unpleasant, preferring the warmth of earth or wood.
22. Have beautiful silver fur.
23. Can live to be over 200 years old.
24. Are equally at home creeping on all fours as they are standing upright.
25. Have a lust for gems and silver which rivals that of the Dwarrow.
26. Can grip with their feet.
27. Are of the opinion that a cosy home is the highest achievement in life.
28. Experience a waxing and waning between extremes of personality.
29. Are so excitable that they can rarely sit still or sleep.
30. Give personal names to inanimate objects.

The devil is in the details – Many Dwarrow, Many Rat-People

Inspired recently by the "devil is in the details" concept developed by Kesher in Fight On!, I decided to start creating these tables of random racial features for my Old Aalia campaign. First up are two d30 tables which describe some of the most common traits of Dwarrow and Rat-People. The concept is that each newly created character of these races should roll for three of these traits.

Many Dwarrow

1. Have only three fingers.
2. Stretch their ear lobes by hanging pebbles from them.
3. Smoke a sweet smelling pipe-weed which is intoxicating to humans.
4. Find humans physically repulsive.
5. Believe that Dwarrow are the rightful possessors of all metals and stones.
6. Have no sense of taste.
7. View avarice as the highest emotion.
8. Can subsist by eating gravel alone.
9. Have thick, slow-oozing blood.
10. Worship Ogremoch, lord of the dark, cold earth, whom they view as the creator of the world.
11. Are driven mad by the sound of music.
12. Follow an ancient creed of 111 rules known as Bag-Hran.
13. Dream of conquering and ruthlessly enslaving other races.
14. Hate and fear water.
15. Eat enormous quantities of bland food, apparently without pleasure.
16. Carve likenesses of themselves in stone.
17. Do not sleep but just go still for precisely 8 hours.
18. Like to mock other races openly.
19. Become obsessed with hoarding a certain type of item.
20. Have a black tongue.
21. Practice the art of counting, internally maintaining an increasing count through their whole lives.
22. Will only sleep on bare stone.
23. Participate in ritualistic orgies.
24. Believe that one who eats a diet of gold will live forever.
25. Feel a kinship with a specific type of stone, determined by the auspices of their birth.
26. Keep a small book in which they write in code.
27. Are covered in warts and lumps, which they are secretly ashamed of.
28. Never sweat and have completely odourless bodies.
29. Are of the opinion that the human conception of the soul is a laughably childish attempt to mask the grim truth of reality.
30. Have extremely long names, and up to 17 secret names reserved for specific rituals.

Many Rat-People

1. Happily eat food which is well past its prime.
2. Are trained in a craft of spiteful pranks to be applied to the arrogant and vain (often involving needles and irritating poisons).
3. Superstitiously carve little animal figurines from bone and wood.
4. Delight in clockwork.
5. Are expert swimmers.
6. Can speak with rats.
7. Excel at poetry and riddles.
8. Abhor the concept of slavery or service.
9. Try to remain neutral in all disputes.
10. Love to keep pets, which they groom and adorn with ribbons.
11. Brew a fish-wine in odd stills made from guts.
12. Practice a unique craft, something between sculpture and smell-art.
13. Find humans' religious and philosophical opinions endlessly funny.
14. Do not view theft as a crime, seeing it rather as a joke to be played on the stupid.
15. View writing as a pointless arrogance of the “tall races”.
16. Believe that their folk descended from the moon.
17. Awake instinctively at dawn.
18. Adorn their tails with rings and bells.
19. Have no concept of marriage.
20. Love dancing to music played on pipes and flutes.
21. Protect their possessions obsessively and elaborately.
22. Cannot keep a secret.
23. Have an acute sense of smell, and make no differentiation between pleasant and foul.
24. Find humans incredibly attractive.
25. Bury valuable items.
26. Have no understanding of the concept of nobility.
27. Shave spiral patterns from their fur.
28. Have a detailed and on-going alternate life in their dreams, in which they are usually slaves.
29. Practice a wide array of fortune-telling techniques.
30. Believe that it is an honour to bestow equal favour and disfavour upon others.

Looking for a random table

I just remembered an excellent post I saw somewhere ages ago, but which I now can't for the life of me track down. It was a method of fleshing out a campaign world and simultaneously producing nice bits of interesting background for characters. The idea was that for each race you have a set of tables like "most halflings X, Y, Z", "some halflings A, B, C", "rarely halflings J, K, L", and so on. That's the gist of it, I just can't quite remember the details.

If anyone knows where to find it, please do let me know!

Thoughts on wild magic

Though it's not a class I've ever seen used in practice, I've always been smitten with the idea of the wild mage -- a magic-user who lives on the dangerous and unpredictable side of the arcane. The only place I've actually seen a wild mage class presented was in the AD&D 2nd edition Tome of Magic. The class didn't appear in AD&D 1e (as far as I know) and also seems to have never made it into the later versions of the game (again, as far as I know -- please correct me if I'm wrong here).

This lack is something I hope to remedy by including guidelines for wild magic in my work-in-progress book.

My initial thoughts are going along a different track to the ToM wild mage, which presented a d100 table of (fairly extreme) wild surge effects, with a 1 in 20 chance of a wild surge occurring each time the wizard casts a spell. Personally, I'd like a system where wild surges are more common but less extreme. And instead of the fixed table of effects, I'd like to design a system which taps the endless (d∞!) creative potential of the DM & players. So here are the beginnings of my thoughts on how this might work.

The basics

• Any magic-user can choose to be a wild mage. Usually this choice would be made at character creation, and could never be altered, but existing MUs may be allowed to opt to be wild mages if the DM introduces the option in the middle of a campaign.
• Magic-user sub-classes like illusionists can also opt to be wild mages (or wild illusionists, in this case).
• Whenever a wild mage casts a spell, the player must roll 1d6 & 1d12. The d6 determines whether a wild surge occurs, which is indicated by an odd number. If a wild surge does occur, then the d12 indicates what happens.

Table 1, 1d6

1. Wild surge, consult table 2.
2. Spell works as intended.
3. Wild surge, consult table 2.
4. Spell works as intended.
5. Wild surge, consult table 2. Spell remains in memory (can be cast again).
6. Spell works as intended plus stays in memory (can be cast again).

Table 2, 1d12

1. Spell functions as if the caster were 1d4 levels higher than normal.
2. Spell functions as if the caster were 1d4 levels lower than normal. (If effective caster level ends up less than one then the spell has no effect.)
3. Spell has normal effect plus the effect of a randomly chosen spell of the same level.
4. Spell has normal effect plus another randomly chosen memorized spell is activated unwillingly.
5. Spell manifests as intended and a randomly chosen spell of the same level appears in the caster's mind in its place. (The caster is able to cast this spell, even if it is not one that he usually could.)
6. Spell fizzles with no effect.
7. The spell's target or area of effect (where applicable) changes.
8. Randomly chosen spell of same level activates instead.
9. Randomly chosen spell of one level higher activates instead.
10. A randomly chosen spell of level d8 manifests instead of the intended effect.
11. Cast another memorized spell instead. (If the caster has no other spells memorized, then nothing happens and the spell remains in memory.)
12. The caster loses the ability to cast spells for 1d4 rounds or 1d4 turns (whichever the Labyrinth Lord deems appropriate).

So the main creativity of the system comes when the intended effect is replaced by a randomly chosen spell. This would require a lot of quick creative thinking on the part of the DM, which I reckon would be a lot of fun! For example, what happens when a sleep spell surges and is replaced by hold portal?. The intention is that the DM wouldn't have to follow the random spell's description to the letter, but could simply use it as a creative kick-start. In the example of sleep transmuting into hold portal, perhaps there are no doors close by, and the DM could interpret it as locking shut the mouths or eyes of all creatures in range.

As I say, this is all just a beginning, so I'd be very interested to hear anyone's thoughts on what I've described or on wild magic in general.

Wow I won something!

The only thing I recall winning in my life up till now was tickets to go and see a theatrical version of "The Hobbit" in about 1985, which I won (as a kid) by entering a competition to colour in a picture of Smaug!

However I can now add to that esteemed colouring-in accolade... I just checked out the results of the Fight On! random tables contest and discovered that I've won an "Elite Honorable Mention" for my Magical Research Results table, and won PDFs of all back-issues of Fight On! magazine plus their short stories compilation Roll the Bones! I'm super pleased about this, especially as I don't think I've ever read a single issue of Fight On! before (but have of course been very interested in it), so will now have a glorious quantity of new D&D related reading / material! I think I'll get them all printed and bound into one monster book for my reading pleasure (if they'll fit -- I guess it'll come to hundreds of pages!).

Big thanks to everyone who organised and judged the contest -- you have one delighted elitely and honourably mentioned here :)

I can't wait to see the compilation of all the entries -- there are some extremely intriguing sounding names in there!

3 new random tables: Stuff to do between adventures

Note: Players in my game, you'd better not read these tables!

In my Labyrinth Lord game I've wholeheartedly adopted Jeff's party like it's 999 carousing concept. My take on it has been as follows:

• After any session a character can choose to go carousing.
• The PC can spend any amount of gold they want, and gains that much XP in return. (Of course, the usual limit of not being able to gain more than one experience level in one go still applies!)
• They also roll a die (any type). If it comes up odd, then the DM rolls on the carousing results table, which indicates a noteworthy event which occurred during the character's boozing. Some of these are beneficial, some are detrimental, some are funny, and some may lead to adventures.

I've mainly adopted this rule as a means to speed up character advancement a bit. As you can see I've modified it a bit from Jeff's original version, in that there's no randomness involved in the amount of money the PC spends. It just seemed simpler this way, and the carousing results table contains enough entries forcing the PC to spend more than they intended.

In addition to using this system for carousing, I've offered PCs two more ways to turn gold into XP: by making sacrifices to cosmic powers (deities, demi-gods, devils, demons, elemental princes, etc), or by engaging in magical research. (The latter is, obviously, only open to magic-users, and probably requires a laboratory or at least a home base.)

Of course, these activities also needed some interesting tables of random results. I've just finished writing up the last one, so I thought I'd share what I've created. Here they are as PDFs:

• Carousing results
• Results of sacrifices to cosmic powers
• Magical research results
  

The carousing results table is obviously heavily inspired by Jeff's original, but I've altered some entries, and expanded the whole thing up to a d30 table.

The sacrifices table contains entries suggested by kelvingreen, anarchist and Daddy Grognard. Thanks guys!

Hope someone else finds them useful / enjoyable!

Community random table: Sacrifices to cosmic powers

Spoiler warning (at the top this time ;) -- players in my Labyrinth Lord game are advised to not read the table entries.

In my Labyrinth Lord game I've been allowing the use of carousing as a means of gaining additional XP (using a system based on Jeff's party like it's 999). One of the players in particular (and notably the only character who's made it to 2nd level thus far) has been making a lot of use of the carousing option, and it's worked out really well so far.

I've always had in mind that another way for characters to gain extra XP by spending gold is to make sacrifices to various cosmic powers (deities, demi-gods, demons, devils, etc), the idea being that the favour of the power in question aids the character (which equates to XP). But of course, very different events can occur while gambling & boozing to those which can occur while supplicating oneself to a deity -- we need another table! Here's a few ideas to start things rolling, but any community input would be awesome! I'm hoping for a d30 table in the end, with some beneficial and some not so beneficial side-effects. By the way, I'm assuming that most cosmic powers are vain, selfish, and weird, so pretty much anything goes!

1. The cosmic power grants the character an additional blessing -- the one-off ability to cast a 1st level clerical spell.
2. While in the temple, a priest tells the character that he has seen him / her in a dream and that he / she is destined to become a powerful instrument of the cosmic power. (If this ever manifests, and where it may lead, is up to the DM.)
3. The character becomes obsessed with the cosmic power, and will make an equal or greater sacrifice the next time he has sufficient funds.
4. The cosmic power sees fit to transmute the character into a more pleasing form (depends on the power's whim) for the next 1d4 sessions. Save vs polymorph to avoid.
5. The blessing is great -- gain 1d6 hit points during the next session.
6. A quest is placed upon the character.
7. The cosmic power is "not available", or some astral wires have got crossed, and the blessing -- roll again -- is provided by a different power to the one intended; in most cases, this will be an allied or friendly power, but there is a 1 in 6 chance that the recipient will be an opposed or at least mischievous entity. (kelvingreen)
8. For the next week, animals will be terrified of the character. (anarchist)
9. For the next d30 days, all worshippers of the cosmic power will be unable to look the character in the eye. They will not be aware that they are doing this. (kelvingreen)
10. For the next d4 days, the character can see in the dark. If they could do so already, there is no effect. (kelvingreen)
11. For the next d8 days, the character will hear an angelic choir at all times. If the character understands the language of these angels, they will discover that the choir is narrating -- in song -- the character's actions as they take them, in a suitably bombastic manner. No one else will be able to hear this choir, except for a cleric of the cosmic power, if they roll under their level on a d20. (kelvingreen)
12. The character acquires the company of a cat which will follow them everywhere. It will hiss at and urinate on anyone who, in its opinion, is not showing the character due deference and will bestow +1 on all saving throws for the character and anyone conducting themselves in a sufficiently obsequious fashion towards its new-found friend. Should anything 'happen' to the cat, the character will begin to manifest feline behavioural traits (up to the DM to decide) until he/she has made sufficient contritional sacrifices at the temple. (Daddy Grognard)
13. The ground is now not holy enough for the character to be in contact with and he/she will consequently hover about 2" above it at all times. (Daddy Grognard)
14. Women of childbearing age will become driven by a strange desire to bestow gifts of fruit upon the character. (Daddy Grognard)
15. Some time during the next 1d4 sessions, the character receives a visitation from an emissary of the power. If the character is a cleric of the power, the emissary will test him / her in some way. Otherwise the emissary will "suggest" that the character should swear an oath of loyalty (whatever this may imply) to the power.
16. The character awakes the next morning to find a holy symbol of the cosmic power on his or her person.
17. The character acquires the ability to bring back the dead to life merely by being nearby (range is at DM's discretion). This of course means everything that has died, including the meat and fish in the kitchens, the animal skins that nobles wear around their necks, the inhabitants of local graveyards, who might have been enjoying their eternal rest... (and if the DM wants to be particularly annoying, leather boots and armour might start going Mooo....) (Daddy Grognard)

2d30

I am now the proud owner of two d30 dice. Until recently I've always been of the opinion: "well no game I own or have ever played or am ever likely to play uses a d30, so why would I buy one?". Then the other day I came to think about random tables, and how to get the most "bang for your buck", so to speak. How to make a single roll pack in the biggest possible random factor -- and of course, the (or at least one) answer is to use dice with more faces.

For example, rolling 2d10 (d%) gives 10 x 10 = 100 possible results. Rolling 2d20 gives 20 x 20 = 400 possible results. Whereas 2d30 gives 30 x 30 = 900 possible results! Now, I'm not thinking of making tables with 900 individual entries, I'm thinking rather along the lines of combinatorial tables, such as the following 2d6 table of dubious use:

Roll - Adjective - Noun
1 - Grubby - Hat
2 - Mouldy - Radish
3 - Sprightly - Warhorse
4 - Half-hearted - Willow
5 - Lounging - Minstrel
6 - Winnowed - Balustrade

That sort of thing. And those are the kind of tables where it's hardly any more difficult to think up results for 2d30 (60 entires) than it is for 2d10 (20 entries), but the resulting number of combinations is a whole world of different.

There you have it.

Random NPC traits tables

For some time I've been wanting to create some random tables to help with quick & easy generation of NPCs, specifically for potential hirelings which PCs might encounter. My first stab at this was, inspired by the NPC personality tables in the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide, to create a whole array of tables for determining everything about a character's apppearance - ranging from height and build, to hair style and colour, to dress. I had a lot of fun doing this, but after demonstrating the system to my girlfriend it soon became clear that it wasn't really very practical to use. (She asked me how I'd spent my evening, and I told her I'd been making up tables of random facial hair styles - I like making fun of the absurdity of this hobby!) So I gave her a quick demonstration, rolling on each of the tables to see what kind of character came out. After a string of 'average' results, her comment was "that's a pretty boring guy". A point well made! Of course my instinct had been to make kind of 'realistic' tables, mostly based on 3d6 rolls, with the middle values representing the average and the extreme values more unusual characteristics (very tall, very thin, very strong, etc) - using the bell curve as it was intended. But, as my quick demonstration pointed out, what's the sense in rolling on 15 tables if most of the results come out average (which they generally will)?

I then realised that what I actually wanted was a table or two just containing the interesting bits - just the extreme values of the original tables. So here's the results - two d100 tables, one for physical traits, one for personality traits. I've found that a couple of rolls on each table can really quickly generate some pretty evocative springboards for NPC descriptions - exactly what one needs in the situation where three 'fighters' reply to a PC's advert for henchmen. The tables are designed for Savage Worlds, and refer to the Edges and Hindrances of that system, but really they're pretty generic. You can download the PDF here: NPC Traits.

(Note: I didn't mention it in the PDF, but the physical traits table is clearly aimed at male characters - it's full of beards and hairy chests! The intention was that such results would be rerolled for (most) female characters.)

Any comments / thoughts / suggestions are most welcome!

Random dungeon stocking

I experienced the pleasure of the Basic D&D random dungeon room contents table last week, as I was stocking the cellars and tunnels that lie beneath the ruined manor at Ballan, which the PCs have just begun to explore. There are various permutations of this table in various versions of the game, but what I used was: 1 - 2 Empty, 3 - 4 Monster, 5 Trap, 6 Special. It's nice and simple, although I was concerned it'd produce far too many "Specials". And, as expected, it did. Out of maybe 20 rooms, 5 were rolled as Special. But this actually turned out absolutely fine - indeed I had a lot of fun thinking up all these dungeon weirdnesses. I mean, I didn't go overboard - it's only the 1st level of a not-particularly-supernatural dungeon, so we're not talking reverse gravity chambers or talking pools. But I found it a real pleasure to add that many unusual / interesting / slightly magical / mysterious features.

Overall I have to say I loved using the random room contents roll. It made the process of stocking both challenging and exciting, all in all far more engaging than the sometimes daunting situation of sitting there with a keyed map, no idea what's in which room, and an hour to go before the game starts! I'll definitely be thinking about using further random tables in dungeon stocking in the future.

Hirelings & Henchmen

Hirelings and henchmen play a significant role in old-school D&D, and I wanted to encourage their use in my Savage Worlds campaign. I thought this was an especially good idea due to the Savage Worlds system being able to so smoothly handle large numbers of characters in combat. However, unfortunately I couldn't find any details in SWEX or the Fantasy Companion relating to the hiring of allies - not even a rough "cost per day / week". So I worked out my own tables, specific to fantasy settings, with guidelines for the costs of locating and hiring mercenaries and neophyte adventurers to join a party.

The PDF can be downloaded here: Hirelings & Henchmen.

It includes a random table for determining an adventurer's profession (Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric, etc), and stats for them all. All the adventurers' stats are created with 5 points in Attributes, 10 points in Skills, and no Edges except those granted by racial background. So they're a step behind starting PCs, which is appropriate.

At present there are no guidelines or tables for hirelings' background, personality or motivations. The table in SWEX can provide a basic hint at personality, but I'd like to add some tables with small snippets of background, motivations and interesting quirks or features. A simple roll on the Minor Hindrances table could add some flavour as well.

The document is somewhat idiosyncratic to my campaign, with a setting-specific list of deities for Clerics, and the assumption that all Elves have supernatural powers. These things can easily be ignored though.