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