d30 generic items

I have a couple of all-purpose tables. One of them is the Amazing Inspirational Animal List (d30 animals...), which I've written about previously.

Another simple little table I always keep at hand is this list of 30 items.

For those "what's in its pocketses" situations. Players search the room/body/shelf/table, whatever, you just need something quick.

1. Alcohol
2. Blade
3. Book
4. Cards/dice
5. Charm/talisman
6. Coins
7. Cosmetics
8. Creepy
9. Documents
10. Drawing
11. Figurine
12. Fire-making device
13. Food
14. Handkerchief
15. Jewelry
16. Knick-knacks
17. Light source
18. Live creature
19. Medication
20. Mirror
21. Musical instrument
22. Pocket lint
23. Poison
24. Recreational herbs
25. Religious item
26. Sweets/treats
27. Time-keeping device
28. Tool
29. Twine/rope
30. Weird

This is a generic list, usable in any setting. However, it's also a cool exercise to try and come up with setting-specific reskins for all these items.

E.g., in a modern urban fantasy game, you would have

Alcohol → Fairy beer*

Card → The business card of a shady detective

Cosmetics → Vampire-attracting lipstick

...and so on.

* As elaborated during a discord convo, that's a regular IPA, but you burp rainbows after drinking it.

The Science Fantasy Frankentable

The Frankentable is an ever-growing multi-purpose random generator. 11,578 lines as of today. I’ve been maintaining and expanding it since 2020-2021, using Inspiration Pad Pro.

It’s gonzo science fantasy, sort of like Carcosa, but with even more stuff added in. I copied some stuff from my favorite PDFs and blogposts. I added tons of names from ancient civilizations. Lists of random adjectives and nouns... And wrote thousands of lines of custom content.

I love it, because it’s finetuned to how my brain works and always inspires gameable ideas... And it’s just fun adding stuff to it. I used to to run solo hexcrawls (session 1, session 2), then a randomized hexcrawl for my friends, use it all the time when I’m creating dungeons (to come up with fresh ideas), generate settlements. I used it to make pre-gens for a recent pick-up game.

Unfortunately, I cannot share it, sorry! It has copyrighted material in it alongside my own stuff. But I can only recommend creating your own Frankentable! Either as a digital tool, or, who knows, maybe as a bunch of index cards?

 

Just a sampling of raw results:

Seeds:

• regular sisterhood going to polluted inn
• android (Mawia, Sovereign of the baggy Pterodactyl-infested standing stone) telling bad news regarding lucky spaceman
• brigand (Mardonius) and archaeologist (ruby warlock Pro-Consul) searching for runaway lover Pharadates (the vigilante)
• cart-pusher (Urshanabi, Chief of the fountain) going to helipad
• motley cult embarking on expedition to mist-covered stone circle

 

Objects:

• stone flower
• stone staff, imbued with the power to poison
• oversized cape
• fake bottle, rumored to hold the power of invincibility
• glowing pharmacon, imbued with the power to overcome fear

Buildings:

• narrow bakery closed
• ancestral cairn is actually a front for something sinister (connected to hierarchic cult)
• bustling bank under attack from monarchist herald
• stucco-covered bakery rumored to hide secret knowledge
• decrepit carpentry rumored to hold treasure

 

Locations:

• (10 hexes west from here) windswept volcano is the hide-out of militaristic brotherhood
• (11 hexes west from here) poisonous Sabertooth-infested castle infested with vermin
• (14 hexes west from here) otherworldly garrison staked out by chimeric food-seller
• (5 hexes north-west from here) bowl-shaped sierra staked out by Giant Snake
• (3 hexes east from here) pleasent barrow hides buried treasure

 

Random table synergy

Yesterday I had some free time but not much brain power, so pulled out my old random table print-outs and just shuffled through them, browsing, rolling dice or dealing cards now and then.

I got to a couple of hex stocking tables by The Welsh Piper.

On the RUINS generator, I rolled

Temple – Flood – Restoration – Fighter – Hybrids

Good stuff. I can imagine the whole situation right away: a pious knight and their human-animal hybrid companions restoring a flooded temple.

I moved on to the next table on my print-out, LAIRS, and got

Deep Horror – Expanding – Weird Things – Partially Submerged

Now this is good random table synergy! Clearly, this is not a separate lair in a different hex. This is the flooded (“partially submerged”) undercroft of the temple, where a bunch of weird creatures nest. Maybe they seeped in somehow with the tainted groundwater which caused the temple’s ruination?

Oracular exercise: Fallen starship in the Sargasso Sea

Benign Brown Beast posted The Minideck, a wonderful 18-card set with all kinds of themes combined on a single card. Let's see how it fares when used as a spark/inspirational tool for gaming content creation!

Here's a quick adventure location, generated based on the following draw of three cards:

Fallen starship in the Sargasso Sea

·       Cigar-shaped shining metal vessel, at 45 degree angle, half of it waterlogged

·       Residual cosmic radiation caused mutations in local flora & fauna:

o   Kelp monsters

o   Fire-vomiting seagulls

o   Sentient krill swarms

o   Seaweed which accelerates healing when applied as bandages + causes weird plant-based mutations

·       Inhabitants: Pike-people from Beyond the Dog-Star

o   Elongated silvery bodies, fluid movements, naga-style, four upper appendages

§  weaponry: anchor-guns and boarding hooks

o   Actually fear saline water

o   They kidnapped 6 people from the planet, who are now in suspended animation in the waterlogged area

o   Want to repair their ship and leave the planet

This took me about 5 minutes. Weird nautical adventuring is GO!

Medieval Cappadocian dungeon design!

Archaeology and real-world architecture is always super inspiring. But one of the problem is that real-world architecture, unlike fantasy dungeons, is often linear and too simple. Not enough weird interconnections to really make dungeon exploration interesting! I posted about this in the early days of this blog.

Well, this Cappadocian rock-cut monastery at Selime Kalesi is a non-linear dream!

Map:

The map is from Cave Monasteries of Byzantine Cappadocia by Lyn Rodley (p. 64).

My favorite detail is the narrow passage between areas 13 and 18. Good design, Cappadocians!

And the detailed room-by-room description is like a keyed dungeon... Albeit without monsters. Some excerpts from the book:

Room 2

At the south side of the east wall of Room 1 a small rectangular opening leads into Room 2, a narrow rectangular room with a bench along west, east and south walls. The room is roughly barrel-vaulted at its north end and has a flat ceiling at the south end, carried above a cornice. West, east and south walls at this end of the room have a decoration of arched blind niches; those on the west and east walls taper off at their north sides. The niche of the south wall contains a large rectangular window, overlooking the valley.

 

Room 8

The porch, like the church, was plastered, but most of the plaster has fallen away. Fragments remain on the east wall, around the church entrance, and on the easternmost edges of north and south walls. Just below the cornice on each side is a painted inscription of seven lines on the north side and three lines on the south. The lines of the inscription appear to be complete and since they occupy the whole width of the plastered area of the porch it is possible that the plaster did not extend right across the porch wall, but was confined to a narrow vertical band the width of the inscription. Unlikely though this may seem, the alternative is to assume that by chance the area of plaster with the inscription has been preserved while the rest is lost. The text, a dodecasyllabic poem, is as follows:

‘Let no one be misled by the desire for wealth for the love of money has destroyed many. For this flesh is earth, clay and...’

The poem appears to refer to the tomb chamber below it, but clearly does not supply any information on the inhabitants of the chamber.

 

Room 12

A secondary opening in the west wall of Room 12 leads into Room 13, described below. The only original opening is the rectangular entrance from Area 10, described above, which opens into the south wall of Room 12. In the southeast corner of the room a chimney has been cut through the ceiling, and the room is much blackened by smoke.

 

Room 18

There are two openings in the south wall of the east gallery: to the west, the entrance to another elbow-shaped passage leading to the east end of the south gallery (18c) and to the east an opening into the long tunnel (b) which links the east wall of Room 18 with Room 13.

 

Room 28

This is a small barrel-vaulted room with cornices, a transverse arch and wall arches, like so many others of the monastery. One lunette is decorated with a relief carving of a horned animal. The location of the stable suggests that the tunnel was once the only entrance to the monastery, and that horses and pack animals had to be left at the foot of the hill and the tunnel entered on foot. The room with the horned animal may conceivably have been a gatehouse of sorts.

Lenormand deck content generation

When you are a DM, everything is a random generator... Oracular/divinatory tools are a great source of inspiration, because they are full of flavor, they tap into archetypes, and so on. I've experimented with a couple of Tarot-based generators. In this post, I'm just going with something rather simple: drawing three cards from a Lenormand deck, and coming up with an encounter, scenario, or situation based on them.

Oh, and a cool thing about the Lenormand deck: it contains 36 cards... so you can roll that with a d66 or put it on a 6x6 matrix if you don't have your deck at hand!

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Heart	House	Letter	Mice	Mountain	Ship
2	Tower	Whip	Cross	Coffin	Child	Bouquet
3	Bear	Clouds	Fox	Dog	Stork	Clover
4	Garden	Snake	Key	Animus	Birds	Fish
5	Anima	Sun	Moon	Scythe	Anchor	Ring
6	Lily	Book	Star	Crossroad	Tree	Rider

Bonus content: Lenormand emoji spark table by Liche's Libram!

Without further ado, six random draws, interpreted:

1. (tower, clover, anchor) - A tower stands in the middle of a clover field. The edifice leans slightly to the east. A large anchor on a chain descends from the topmost window, as if keeping the tower in place.
2. (crossroad, snake, clouds) - A normal crossroads during day, but fog rolls in at night, and a serpent slithers out from the bushes. It grants a wish if it can afterwards switch bodies with a human.
3. (tree, moon, key) - A venerable oak with a keyhole in it. If a silver key is inserted and turned clockwise, the keyhole swallows the key, then expands into a portal. It leads into the Treasure Vault of the Moon Princess.
4. (sun, rider, letter) - Encounter: Messenger of the Sun King, cursing and shouting “clear the road!”, urging the horse to ride faster; but the animal is at its last breath and will soon collapse from sheer exhaustion. The Messenger carries a highly important message.
5. (bouquet, cross, fox) - An old cemetery, moss-covered headstone, overgrown crosses. After the abandonment of the nearby settlement, wild animals reclaimed the land. A fox has dug a deep hole into a mound – and a couple of silver coins shine in the dirt…
6. (fish, moon, house) - A noble estate, the house’s façade reflected in a small pond. The family’s coat-of-arms is a silver crescent on a green field. The eldest son is suffocated by responsibilities; he feels like a fish out of water – but he must take care of his sickly parents.

Random tables for 1970s crime movie RPGs

A couple of d30-based random tables for gritty 1970s crime/cop/vigilante movie RPGs... Generate NPCs, connections between them, Locations, Objects of interest.

Grab all the tables as a double-sided page PDF here.

Or read the tables after the jump-cut:

Footprints #24 and #25: zine highlights!

The journey comes to an end! Previous installments: #1 through #5, #6 through #10, #11 through #15, #16 through #20, #21 through #23.

Make sure to check out the very last adventure in #25, "Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen" by H.D.A. (whose Terrible Sorcery is Without Equal in the West), because it's a great one.

Footprints #24, January 2019

Footprints #24, January 2019

“Centaurs”, by Alan Powers
Continued from #23. Includes tables for Centaur backgrounds and skills.

“Revisiting the Ghost Tower”, by Ken Marin
How to fit C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness into a 4-hour convention game? Ken Marin addresses four key problems and offers his solutions. Reference this article if you face the same task!

New monsters for OSRIC: “Creatures Cthulhic… and Chthonic” by various authors. A cosmic horror/weird fiction bestiary, incl. Gugs, Hounds of Tindalos, Night-Gaunts, Quicksilver ooze, Zoog, a couple of deities; and a couple more abominations from the Chthonic section. A solid selection for dark fantasy and weird fiction games! Some overlap with Realms of Crawling Chaos, but there are differences as well.
And my personal favorite: a random generator of Spawns of Shub-Niggurath by Marco Cavagna! I tried this generator on my blog before.

“Dwarf Backgrounds”, by Alan Powers
There are a lot of solid NPC/PC backgrounds in this issue, plus see the Human/Halfling tables in #23. I’m particularly fond of table IX, Dwarf Secrets! I couldn’t find table X, Traits though ☹

There are two new classes, for 2e, “Western Monk” and “Skald”.

“Ruins of the River Gates”, by Andrew Hamilton
Adventure for levels 3-6. A location-based module, very easy to drop into any campaign. I like the location itself: a “river gate”, two towers standing on opposite banks of the water. There are underground chambers beneath both towers, that eventually connect into a large flooded dungeon. Water levels vary between knee-deep and complete submersion; unfortunately, the water level is not noted uniformly, and not marked on the map, so you have to wade through the text to find this crucial piece of info, or extrapolate from the neighboring areas (e.g. water level is not noted for a key location, the throne room… I guess it’s ~8’, because the adjacent room has 3’, then there is a staircase down?). Lots and lots of small, cramped, claustrophobic chambers, and drowned undead, which is a cool aesthetic.


And thus we arrive to…

FOOTPRINTS #25, June 2021

A giant jubilee issue! 198 pages!!!

“The Beginning of the Brazilian RPG”, by Pedro Panhoca da Silva
A short but interesting account of the early RPG scene in Brazil. I hope such overviews continue in future issues, as I’d like to learn more about RPGs around the world.

“Behind the Fallen God”, by Joseph Mohr
A short adventure for levels 7-10. Based on a nice isometric Dyson map. Delve into the forgotten temple of an ancient Cthulhoid god. The keys are brief, more in the vein of “modern OSR” principles, less in the house style of Footprints (which is based on the high word-count AD&D modules). The monsters are aberration types. Overall, this is a nice short adventure, although I think the map is too linear.

Two useful supplements: “Random Treasure”, by Jeff Wagner - Revised and expanded treasure tables. Unites DMG + UA. “Barbarian”, by Daniel Ottavio - The UA+Dragon #148 Barbarian adapted to OSRIC.

“The Watch Tower of Quasqueton”, by Ken Marin
I like this running theme in Footprints: publishing additional materials for classic adventures. This one is for B1 In Search of the Unknown. The author notes: “The back cover of the original monochrome edition of B1 In Search of the Unknown features a tower, presumably on top of the dungeon’s hill top, not described in the module itself.” So, he maps out a little tower, that provides an extra entrance into the dungeon – sweet!

“Simulated Advancement for NPCs”, by Ken Marin

What are NPC adventurers up to during their “off-screen” time? Answer: they possibly level up, or, possibly die and maybe turn undead or some other mishap befalls them… Some adventurer NPCs simply retire! I think a lot could be added to this foundation: like tables of possible occupations/activities for retired NPC adventurers, or more mishaps… Anyways, a good tool for long-running campaigns.

“Supernatural Diseases”, by Marco Cavagna

A bunch of foul maladies. Yuck.

“Zero is an Apprentice’s Best Friend – Zero Level Spells”, by Delta Demon

A bunch of cantrips. Summon a skunk to spray a random person. Cast “Sleepy” to make a person sleepy…

“Colledician Magic Vol. I. New Vancian Spells… for OD&D games”, by Robert “Bobjester” Weber

Write-ups for titles generated in a Dying Earth spell name randomizer! I approve. “Deour’s Serene Cigarette”, “Meepo’s Memorable Superstition”? “Thoure’s Ghastly Spleen”? O yeah.

“The Tenebristic Orb”, by Malrex

Adventure for levels 4-7. Ooooh I like this setup, this is good fantasy shit. A dungeon inside a magic orb. Light/shadow/darkness themed. Lots of weird and psychedelic images, strange demons, riddles (twisted wizard-created pocket dimensions is the only context where I would use a riddle)… Definitely adding this to my folder!

“Elvish Backgrounds”, by Alan Powers

Rounds out the backgrounds published in #23-24.

“Last Stand”, by Jesse Walker

2e adventure, for levels 2-4. A small 14-room dungeon adventure, pretty modular (easy to drop into any setting or campaign). This means it is also quite generic, there is not much theming going on in the dungeon itself. I do, however, like the final artifact that can be found here: an arcane clockwork recording device, that can also be used by the DM to deliver hooks to further adventures.

“Gilded Dream of the Incandescent Queen”, by H.D.A.

Labyrinth Lord adventure for levels 3-6. Yes. Oh yes. I really like this adventure, and I already have it printed out separately, ready to be run. It’s a big, complex, and flavorful adventure. A double-tetrahedron-shaped floating golden edifice. Psychedelic and weird. Inside, space and time do not follow the laws of nature. The concept of a witch-queen’s failed ascension to the higher planes is interesting. “I wrote this adventure so that it could fit into almost any campaign. It does however rely upon that old stumbling-block, alignment”, discloses the author: yes, at certain points in the adventure character alignment comes into play.

The silver jubilee issue of Footprints, thus, ends on a high note!

Looking forward to #26!

Footprints #25, July 2021

Footprints #21 through #23: zine highlights!

Previous installments: #1 through #5, #6 through #10, #11 through #15, #16 through #20.

The issues are getting longer (although more spaced out in time), so I'll do three in this batch, and the final two separately! Oh, very impressive cover arts beginning around #22.

Footprints #22, February 2015

Footprints #21, May 2014

“Monsters of All Sizes”, by R.N. Bailey

Guidelines for scaling monsters up and down, how their HD and abilities change, pretty useful stuff!

“The Wizard’s Laboratory”, by Marco

An EXTREMELY detailed random table of d100 types of things one can find in a wizard’s lab. With subtables for each entry. *roll roll roll* Spell components for a random spell for 9 castings, explosives, cheese cultures!

“The Conjuror”, by Ian Slater

A magic-user subclass specialized in summoning spells. I’m not a fan of subclass bloat, but I like the new spells! “Svintooth's Mighty Carriage”, for example, “summons a wyvern carrying an iron cage in its talons. Up to eight medium-sized creatures, or the equivalent, may be carried in the iron cage at a time.”

“Lake of Sorrows”, by Steve McFadden

Adventure for levels 1-3. Felt like a lot of text… There is some good imagery, though! A lake in a caldera, shrouded in permanent mist, a banshee trapped underwater… Pine forest, glacier yeti ambush, lake ghouls…

 

Footprints #22, February 2015

“Feelin’ Trapped?”, by Tony Chaplin

Random traps for dungeon stocking! Great material. Traps are divided into 4 levels of danger, and rolled like monsters depending on dungeon level. 66 different traps, with smaller tables for trigger types, etc.

“Treasures & Tables”, by Stuart Marshall

This is “an optional, alternative system for generating random magical items. These tables allow for more variation in the kinds of items found”, looks useful!

“Blacktop Vale”, by Steve McFadden

Adventure for levels 1-2. A lot of dense text (I guess this is McFadden’s style), so it’s hard to get a good overall feeling of this adventure without reading all of it. I read the first page of long backstory, and it says that the wizard’s tower was “recently damaged” and the wizard disappeared, but there is no explanation of this here (although it would be important for the DM to know right off the bat). I think you only learn about the background some 10 pages later, in one of the room descriptions? Not a fan of this. I like the wintery setting.

 

Footprints #23, September 2015

“Centaurs! More than just horsing around”, by Alan Powers

This is a pretty comprehensive look at centaurs as D&D characters. It brings together rules from the 2e Complete Book of Humanoids and the author’s home game.

“No Bones About It”, by Darren Dare

Darren brings another small 2e adventure, for levels 3-4. This is a classic abandoned wizard tower. I think the lack of any visually distinct characteristics is a missed opportunity. There is only one room that has “Intricately carved arches depicting snakes and vines”, that’s good. But the tower is supposed to be just this featureless cylindrical thing in the wilderness. Perhaps useful to drop into a hexcrawl as an adventure location?

“A Digest Alchemical”, by Ryan Coombes

Write-up of the author’s alchemy system. Ryan says, “I prefer that alchemical methods be non-magical in nature, rather than the properties of the compounds produced being the result of mystical or arcane energies”, and he delivers. A big list of about 50 various potions and concoctions, with requirements to brew them, and a paragraph of details for each. Definitely a good supplement if you need a more mundane set of alchemical things!

“Human and Halfling Background Tables”, by Alan Powers

What it says on the tin! Good if you need details for NPCs. There are several tables to roll on, Social class, Sibling rank, Social rank, Skills & professions, many of them with subtables. If you just need a single quick detail, pick that particular table and ignore the rest.

“B11a: Priest’s Errand”, by Leon Baradat

A supplement to use in conjunction with B11: King’s Festival, to bring characters up in levels before B12: Queen’s Harvest. “I created this add-on adventure when my children suffered a total party kill (TPK) at the end of module B11,” discloses the author. I haven’t read or played B11, so cannot comment on this much. I like the opening: the characters arrive and see the tavern besieged by goblins! I think this is a good setup, a clear call to action. The next task at hand can be to pursue the goblins and find where they came from, which is actually the tunnels they dug and reached the Temple of the town. This is a 13-area underground goblin cavern. So, mostly standard stuff, but I like how these staples are put into a wider context.

New monsters: About a dozen new monsters, pretty good ones. One that stood out is the “Decanter Golem”, by John A. Turcotte. I came up with this monster too! Had it in the lair of a decadent satyr. Only I had my “glass servants” be filled with booze. Turcotte’s variant is the offensive type, often filled with acids or poisons.

“Citadel of the Carrion Eaters”, by Andrew Hamilton

For character levels 10-14. Heavy on marauding gnolls (no lairs in the adventure, but the author provides a couple of sources that can be referenced), in the Borderlands. Probably ties in with Hamilton’s gnoll shaman from Footprints #18. The gnolls build a fortress (the titular citadel). There are simple maps for the citadel, which also look instantly reusable if you need a stronghold map. There is a ghoul-infested dungeon underneath. The gnolls and their shaman worship a demon lord, so, good luck, there’s your really high-level component… Overall, this looks like a solid adventure, although not one I’d see myself using as-is.

Footprints #23, September 2015

Footprints #16 through #20: zine highlights!

Previous installments: #1 through #5, #6 through #10, #11 through #15.

As always, check out the zine for yourself over at Dragonsfoot.

Footprints #16, November 2009

Footprints #16, November 2009

The adventure in this issue is by Brian Wells, who wrote the great module in #15. This offering is less intriguing: “Bandit Stronghold”, for levels 2-4, and that’s it.

New Monsters: “Primordimental”, by John Turcotte, is a cool Lovecraftian beastie.

“The Urban: A New Character Class”, by Ryan Coombes

A criminal character class for city campaigns. I don’t particularly care for the class. However, one of the features is an interesting subsystem that can be hacked and used independently of the class. It is the “Web of Contacts”, which works on three levels – Rabble, Toughs, Specials. The example NPCs given at the end of the article are good too. “Contacts” is something that many other non-D&D RPGs do anyway (like Shadowrun), so it’s interesting to see an AD&D implementations of the idea.

 

Footprints #17, March 2011

The adventure in this issue is “The (False) Tomb of Horrors”, by Joseph Pallai. It is, indeed, a false Tomb of Horrors, that can also serve as a ramp-up towards the real thing. Not really my cup of tea.

“Death Dice”, by Leonard Lakofka

A fun Deck of Many Things style magic item. Roll 2d6 in-game and on the table, suffer/enjoy the results.

 

Footprints #18, April 2013

“The Cult of the Devourer”, by Andrew Hamilton

A write-up of the cult of Jubilex, with a handful of slime-based spells. I guess Nickelodeon was a cult of Jubilex?

“The Mired Cathedral”, by C. Wesley Clough

A location-based adventure for character levels 4-6. The setup is simple, and it has a very classic feel, but it’s also pretty well-made. It’s a pity the ogre lair that is mentioned in the adventure wasn’t included. The titular mired cathedral is described in some detail, with attention to various points of egress; definitely a useful piece. I like all the different items of interest that can be used as hooks or that can spark further ventures for the party. There is a book with details on a local noble family’s history (possible blackmail material? Or simply a thing that can be sold to them for profit or patronage?), swamp lotuses grow in the middle, etc.

“Tribal Spellcasters Revisited”, by Andrew Hamilton

Includes a gnoll spellcaster NPC and a couple of new spells. Hyena-themed, of course.

“An Unhealthy Obsession with Equipment”, by Stuart Marshall

A long-ass equipment list for OSRIC. Item, price, weight. Several categories, items in alphabetical order, 8 pages.

 

Footprints #19, July 2013

“Field Notes from Davendowns”, by Tain Wehrcraft ( & Andrew Hamilton)

This is neat, the detailed description of an in-game book written by a ranger, Tain Wehrcraft. Some parts of the book are about herbalism, lore, geography, there are some magic spells sprinkled throughout (incl. a couple new ones, described at the end of the article, like “Transmute Stick to Arrow” or “Bird Call”), info on monsters… A great way to slip rumors or hooks or hints to the players. This is good world building too.

“The Shrieking Hollow”, by C. Wesley Clough

Adventure for levels 1-3. A two-level cave dungeon. It is probably not a bad adventure, but feels overwritten? Lots of text… So it’s hard to pick out the highlights. It comes with a convoluted back story about rivalry between two wizards. I like the new spell included in this adventure!

 

Footprints #20, November 2013

“The Witch”, by Stuart Marshall

This is a very good Witch class for OSRIC! In fact, one of the coolest I’ve seen around. With a bunch of new spells. “The witch is meant to cleave to OSRIC's source literature which contains few clerical archetypes. In campaigns that lack clerics, witches can, to some extent, be substituted. Alternatively, witches can work alongside clerics, since the two classes' abilities do not necessarily overlap.” Definitely a class worth adding to the roster.

“The Secret of the Wood of Dark Boughs”, by R.N. Bailey

Adventure for levels 3-5. Okay, this also has a convoluted backstory (like the module in #19), but I feel it pays off, because it ties into a mystery/investigation plot. I also dig the Scandinavian names and the overall “folk horror” feel. The main hook relies on the party being good of alignment and ready to help out unjustly persecuted people; but the “local lord asks the players to act as arbitrators” can also work. Anyway, the adventure presents the background not just as a text narrative, but also as a timeline, so that’s definitely useful. Because there are a couple of “moving parts” (the players, the fey agents, Brand the thief). A lot of important details are included, like tactics for the fey search party and many NPC writeups. There is a patch of wilderness and two dungeons/lairs. A big and flavorful adventure! Very impressive.

“The Rat’s Meow”, by Darren Dare

A second adventure! This one is for 2e, for levels 3-4. It’s a small side-trek type thing, about a roadside inn overtaken by lycanthropes. It does the job, I guess? I feel that there’s only a certain amount of “the tavern keeper tries to murder the party” adventures you can do with a single group.

Footprints #19, July 2013

Footprints #11 through #15: zine highlights!

More interesting materials from the pages of Footprints! Issue #15 in particular turned out to be a goldmine.

Previous installments: #1 through #5, #6 through #10.

Footprints #12, March 2008

Footprints #11, August 2007

“Lost Shrine of Tharizdun”, by Alphonzo Warden

This is of some interest due to its modular nature. It’s a small chapel to the dark god Tharizdun, hidden behind a secret door, that can be slotted into any existing dungeon. Two magic items, very useful if the party delves into WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun. The little dungeon segment is not particularly outstanding, but I do like the idea of this little connective element.

“New Illusionist Spells”, by Brian Dougherty

Delvorm’s Dancing Deck is an interesting spell, it summons a deck of cards, from which cards with various spell effects can be drawn. And then tossed, Gambit-style, at the target. The deck scales with caster level, so it remains useful for a long time. It’s also a shortcut to memorize a couple spells at the price of one – this might be open to exploitation though… I’d prefer if the deck draws were randomized (as written, the caster chooses from effects available to their level).

 

Footprints #12, March 2008

Slim pickings, other than “Leomund’s Silken Squares”, a set of wacky magic items by Len Lakofka.

 

Footprints #13, August 2008

“Tower of the Elephant”, by Tulsa

An adaptation of the R.E.Howard Conan classic. Pretty close to the text in most parts. An archetyptical tower adventure. The author is probably right when he says that you can run this even if the players are familiar with the story (and most RPG fans are), because the fun is in avoiding the wizard and looking for the alien elephant creature.

“Kzaddich” & “Tsalakian”, two new monsters by John A. Turcotte

Based on a dream vision of the Fiend Folio II! Two Lovecraftian cosmic beings, locked in eternal struggle.

 

Footprints #14, January 2009

“The Necromancer. A Chilling NPC”, by David Mohr

A couple of cool spells, like Cloak of Death (either to hide from undead, or hide your undead minions), Spectral Voice (ventriloquism, speak through undead creatures; although I’d expand this power to include any corpse), Choke (ghastly hands choke target, “apology accepted, captain”, I guess?), Empathic Healing (transfer damage from target to self), False Face (disguise spell, but it can copy both living and dead people --- I think it would be more thematic and necromantic, if it could only copy dead people…), Cannibalize (actually Auto-Cannibalism! Sacrifice ability points for a temporary boost), and more, this is a big article!

“One Hundred Names for Taverns and Inns”, by C. Wesley Clough

What it says on the tin! The names are okay, but short descriptions of the sign-boards are also included, which makes for an interesting detail (“67: The Thirsty Fish (The head of a trout peaking out from an ale tankard)”).

 

Footprints #15, June 2009

“The Haunted Inn of the Little Bear: Revenant’s Revenge”, by Brian Wells

A short low-level adventure, set in an abandoned roadside inn. The inn became the place of a gruesome massacre some years ago. There is a small mystery element (which can be tied into the campaign’s politics), exploration of the two-level inn, and a small dungeon. Around a dozen or so areas. There are a couple of cool descriptions, like shambling skeletons that “walk as if they are becoming accustomed to using limbs that have not been used in quite awhile”. I also like how not all undead in the adventure are instantaneously “enemies”. The module text is pretty bloated though. But overall, this reads like a good adventure, with a Solomon Kane vibe!

“The Shaman NPC Class”, by David Mohr

Detailed write-up. Cleric & Druid spells, plus a couple of new ones. Around 40 (!) different totem animals. Each totem animal provides a unique boon at levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 15. This is a great table, very useful even if you don’t want to include the whole class. These boons can be spell-like abilities, skill bonuses, etc. There is also a very useful list of all these powers, another thing you can grab.

“Random Phantom Generator”, by Michael Martin

Nine tables (mostly d6, one d8) on two pages, to generate flavorful phantoms. Good in general for haunted house situations. This is mostly eerie dressing though, not much interactivity.

“Give Your Cities Some Character”, by Mike Hensley

A quick template for random city generation. The classic six character attributes are applied to the settlement. Strength is military presence, Dexterity is for laws and personal freedom, Constitution is population, Intelligence is arcane/wizardly presence, Wisdom is the religious factor, Charisma is the overall atmosphere and crime levels. A neat feature is that small checks are assigned to the attribute scores. For example, to find if a mundane item is available in the shop, roll 3d6 under the Constitution score. Roll 3d6 against Charisma daily to see if the players are harassed by criminals.

Footprints #15, June 2009

Footprints #6 through #10: zine highlights!

Second batch of my Footprints read-through! First batch here. The zines are available for free here.

I found not that many stuff for myself in #6-8, but then with #9-10 it picks up again! Two very good adventure modules in there.

Footprints #6, April 2006

Footprints #6, December 2005

“The Ebony Tower”, by James M. Ward

A short, simple, whimsical stone- and statue-based tower module. I like how it sticks to the themes. And when I say whimsical, I mean it. There are talking stairs. Talking chalices. Talking statues. I’m not really in need of another wizard tower, but it’s good that this exists… No level range indicated?

 

Footprints #7, April 2006

“Boggarts!”, by John A. Turcotte

A selection of creatures from Slavic folklore.

+ there is a Rusalka later in Footprints #9.

 

Footprints #8, August 2006

“Expanded Secondary Skills”, by Mike Stewart

An updated look at AD&D secondary skills. A good list to use when generating PCs, but also when generating the backgrounds of NPCs! *roll roll roll* A miner, an acrobat, and a city official walk into a bar…

“Crafting Items in 2^nd edition AD&D”, by Cyrus Ayers

Just noting that it’s here, in case I need various takes on crafting systems.

New Spells: “Curse of Yarthos”, by Stuart Marshall, a level 1 spell that makes everybody drunk! “Valdemar’s Voltaic Digits”, by Joel K Bishop, a classic evil warlock “lightning bolts from fingers” spell.

 

Footprints #9, December 2006

“The Emperor’s Lost Army”, by John A. Turcotte

Open-ended sandbox module for levels 5-7. Very atmospheric “lost world” adventure location, a ruined city to explore. A. Merritt + Clark Ashton Smith vibe + the Terracotta Army. Crumbling masonry, alien reliefs, overgrown with vines… It’s eerie and deserted (until night falls). There is a very cool new monster living there, won’t spoil it. The city ruin exploration is mostly left to the DM (could be supplemented with Yoon Suin?), but there are 6 named locations of particular interest. There is a magic fountain, a ruined amphitheater (“voices and movements echo weirdly”), and, of course, one majestic dungeon, the Emperor’s Tomb. There are some Oriental Adventures references here, but overall the adventure is a real “module”, in that it can be slotted into any campaign easily. Extra legwork is required to do the city crawl, but what is included is very inspiring!

“Locks Come to Life – An Addition to any AD&D System”, by David Havard

Eleven levels of locks (from 0 through 10)! Ten named locks per level! From the Goblin Gripper through Eagle Claw and Tenser Series D 5 Pin to the Mitre Jewel… There is a subsystem for “learning locks” (a learned lock type is easier to pick). As written, I probably wouldn’t use this – it’s just a bit TOO MUCH :D But I think this is still a great article, and one can probably boil it down to perhaps 10 locks (one for each level) and use it to create a new house rule for lockpicking?

 

Footprints #10, April 2007

“Beginning Magic-User Spell Table”, by Joel Bishop

A small but quite useful table for determining starting spells.

“Death From Above!”, by Michael Haskell

Adventure (levels 6-9) set on a flying cloud giant fortress! It’s a mini-module, so there is just a small dungeon area and a compact overground, or rather, overcloud keep. Two giants lair here (twin brothers!). The giant-scale weird architecture provides interesting navigational challenges. It is also a VERY combat-heavy adventure, unless the party employs stealth and trickery (there is room for that, though).

I love this description: “Whatever eldritch quarry provided the stone for this flying castle is beyond normal ken. The stone is predominantly black, shot through veins of gold that seem to pulse and shift, sometimes suggesting the forms of animals, men, and monsters beneath the surface of the stone.” And overall there is a psychedelic feel, like “whorls of color” on a floor, etc. There is a hall “floored with cloud”, with shifting vapors. This is prog rock smoke machine action. “Strange forms of ice cling to the walls, as if the shadowy forms of nightmare had been melted and refrozen by the horrid breath of the winter wolves.” Yeah! The giants are “eating massive vegetable croquettes from immense silver platters”.

Footprints #10, April 2007