More content! Also, mini review of FIE! I SAY!

Random rolling table time! Got a 3, Dungeon setpiece. 

1. Make a spell
2. Make a monster
3. Make a dungeon setpiece
4. Make a wilderness setpiece
5. Make a city setpiece
6. Make a magic item
7. Make a class, race, or race-as-class
8. Make a 4-10 room dungeon
9. Make a trap or dungeon hazard
10. Roll 2d10 and combine

This will be an idea I've had in my head for a while: within the depths of a dungeon home to a corrupted and malicious wizard lies a stone table, roughly 3 and a half feet (a bit over 1 meter) in height and it's length being 4'x6' (can't do that mental conversion to metric). Atop its flat surface lies a miniaturized replication of the dungeon it dwells in. It has been pain-stakingly recreated down to every loose flagstone and mouse hole: doors open, the same traps are present, and there are even clay figures of the dungeon denizens. Within the miniature version of this room stand X clay figures that mimic the appearance, equipment, and health of the party. They repeat the same actions as the party with a 1 Turn delay. Ex: If the party were to set up a camp in this room, the facsimiles would do so in 1 Turn. If the party has encountered the Mad Mage in their lair, they will notice that this set of rooms is missing from the magical diorama. Furthermore, anything that affects the replication from the "real world" will happen without a delay. Ex: if the party spills water into the mini room they're in, water will rain from the ceiling above them. 

A fun thing to throw at your players that could have some very interesting results. Some players may realize they can "scout" ahead to find loot, grab it in their world, and then grab it's double from the diorama before 1 Turn is up to have a duplicate! 

I would also allow the clay minis to be used as an extra life for each player. If they died, their party could pluck their double from the diorama, which would subsequently grow to their intended size once freed from the arcane device. 

If a double and original are near each other, however, both go into a murderous rage and will only stop once unconscious or their double is dead.

Mini Review of FIE! I SAY! 

I came upon this game when it was up for Kickstarter a few months ago and it looked really neat. It's written by Tim Snider, who has used this system more or less for many years so it's not something that was just spun up recently with no testing. It bills itself as a "comedy" game but I can very easily see it being used for a more story focused fantasy game. It's gimmick is that it uses D6 dice pools for rolling but one of those dice HAS to be a FIE! die, and if it rolls a skull/FIE!/bad thing, some complication occurs to the actor. On top of this, it also has the idea that characters don't die, they just get wounded and come back later. This allows for recurring, Saturday morning cartoon style villains and the players have less stress when it comes to making decisions. 

It's worth checking out and is available on drivethrurpg! 

Another random 'OSR Content' creation!

Similar to my latest, substantive post, this one will be dedicated to rolling on a table widespread through our community and writing up some new content for people to use.

That table again is 

1. Make a spell
2. Make a monster
3. Make a dungeon setpiece
4. Make a wilderness setpiece
5. Make a city setpiece
6. Make a magic item
7. Make a class, race, or race-as-class
8. Make a 4-10 room dungeon
9. Make a trap or dungeon hazard
10. Roll 2d10 and combine

I rolled a 9! "Make a trap or dungeon hazard." Fun! I'm going to use an idea I created on the spot while my players were going through The Caves of Chaos using Miasma and Monsters. They were wandering through the hallways that lead to the locked crypt and the Medusa's jail when the "fighter" stepped upon a pressure plate when reaching the bottom of a staircase. The pressure plate was against the western wall of this E<-->W hallway, which was a bit over 60' long. I said that in an alcove on the east side, just slightly visible outside of his light source, stood a statue of a knight holding a lance. The lance appeared to be of an old metal, the statue was vibrating, and he noticed a small track in the floor of the hallway that goes from the statue to the pressure plate. Behind him, his party noticed holes in the rock wall and dark bloodstains.The statue did not seem like it was going to launch at the unlucky adventurer until he left the pressure plate, so the mechanically-minded priestess of Lunaqqua (we're playing in the Hyperborea setting by Jeffrey Talanian) did some inspection of the rails to see if there was a mechanism she could disarm. No obvious mechanisms could be found but at this point, Baron decided it was time to put his Brawn to the test. He shouldered his Roman tower shield with both arms and confidently stepped off the pressure plate to face off against this hallway trap. It promptly rose to life and charged at him! I gave him a chance to roll a Brawn Challenge against the statue, which was given a +3 to its roll. He succeeded the Challenge and I ruled that the rusted lance snapped causing the statue to crash into him. He used his high strength to push the statue back into its alcove and held it fast as his party (avoiding the pressure plate!) carefully made their way down the hallway.

This trap was improvised entirely on the spot and I feel it demonstrates that traps don't have to be extremely complex to be fun for the players to work around. Baron could have easily jumped off of the plate back onto the staircase and the statue would have crashed into the wall without hurting him, but this gave him an opportunity to test his mettle. I gave him an XP bonus for safely bypassing and disarming the trap.

Spring Cleaning

It's been too long since I posted here...

I plan on adding more posts shortly. Been pouring over DCC and its fun modules. Also looking to start a Hyperborea group with the astonishing module, The Anthrophagi of Xambala, hopefully later this month!

Stay tuned.