Monster generator spark cards

I made a small 12-card deck monster generator today. Draw two and combine!

The contents as a d12 table:

1.     Ooze	acid, rust, pseudopod, subdividing, natural, lab-grown, medicinal, (a)morphing, mutating
2.     Skeleton	mausoleum, holding shit, bone weapons, femur, teeth, display, pirate, giant, monster, necromancy, skeleton key, grave robbing, tomb
3.     Fungus/Plant	flowers, seeds, pods, tendrils, roots, crawling, stationary, fluorescent, growth, poison, psychoactive
4.     Robot	laser, prosthetic, tracks, lights, hologram, armor, clockwork, steam, replicant, android, mecha, production
5.     Lizard	scales, amphibious, rainbow, reptiloid, swamp gas, thunder, toad, prehistoric, conspiracy, rending claws, running
6.     Ghost	immaterial, haunting, fear, hunger, bound, eerie, screams, want, swamp, chains, murder, fog, treasure
7.     Parasyte	symbiotic, infectious, mind control, autonomous, slow transformation
8.     Octopus	tentacles, floating, sepia, ink cloud, grabbing, reef, alien, weird, unsettling, slimy, suckered, jelly, genius, mastermind
9.     Elemental	air, fire, earth, water, outer planes, transformation, void, harmony, balance, alchemy, philosophy
10. Avian	wing, shriek, egg, flock, claw, migration, dive, beak, nest, sky, plumage, navigation
11. Beast	tail, sentient, cub, mythical, bipedal, fangs, armored, quadraped, uplifted, horns, tribal, magical, camouflage, mutated, hoofs, armed, nocturnal, centaur, cryptid
12. Psychic	mind blast, oracle, clairvoyance, hypnosis, telekinesis, voice, illusion, pyrokinesis, vision

 

Quick examples:

BEAST + ELEMENTAL = a tribe of fire-worshipping pigmen

PSYCHIC + AVIAN = giant bats that navigate using telepathy

OOZE + PARASYTE = jelly that replaces a humanoid’s brain and spinal fluid

FUNGUS/PLANT + OCTOPUS = a tree with lots of grabby roots

GHOST + ROBOT = a malevolent gremlin that possesses machinery

SKELETON + LIZARD = dinosaur on display in museum reanimated

And a drawing by my wife, a PLANT + SKELETON combo which she interpreted as a dried husk of a plant with teeth:

Piles of Downloaded Files... #3: more treasures from the Unsorted folder

I’m reviving my old series, Piles of Downloaded Files, in which I delve into the bottomless Unsorted folder of RPG-related PDFs. See the previous installments under this tag. 

 

Micromaiden Spirit Grid by Evlyn Moreau

It is a two-sided pamphlet dungeon, with Evlyn’s trademark art. One side has the map of the dungeon, which is a complex semi-anthropomorphic computer circuit. Each node gets a title and one or two keywords (for function/condition), e.g. Cyber Maintenance Unit [In Use] [Possessed] or Sensation Module [Patched] [Cyber Fauna].

It is evocative, but definitely a toolbox. I feel you need to get into a specific mindset to be able to fit all this together – but then it can provide a super interesting game world. I’d love it if someone made a computer game with the art from this pamphlet. A top-down dungeon crawler of some sorts.

Link: https://evlyn.itch.io/micromaiden-spirit-grid

 

Salo’s Glory by Glynn Owen Barrass

I used to subscribe to the Stygian Fox Patreon. This was one of their monthly adventures, back in 2020. It’s a Call of Cthulhu 7e scenario… IN SPACE! A megacorp sends an exploratory vessel outside the Solar System. The scenario goes for that sci-fi horror vibe that you get in the Alien franchise, like in the comics. Hell, it has stats for power loader exoskeletons! It also comes with quite good floorplans for the space ships and shuttles – definitely a reusable resource for any sci-fi game.

The adventure is written in the usual CoC style: lots of text, not skimming-friendly. But overall, it feels like a solid offering for CoC/Mothership/Alien RPGs.

Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/309908/salo-s-glory-a-sci-fi-call-of-cthulhu-scenario-set-in-interstellar-space

 

Bonus mystery entry!

“original-colony.pdf” is a single-page file. It’s labeled “Original Drawing of the Ant Colony”. And it has a side-view section map of an ant colony. Pretty good map, I gotta say!

Reverse image search leads to a Something Awful topic I cannot access.

However, next to this file in my folder, I have:

Percent in Lair: Ant, giant by Justine Rogers / Angrymog Games

Turns out, the colony map was made for this project. This is a 10-page-long brainstorm on Giant ant colonies in fantasy adventure games. It contains the aforementioned map. Adventure hooks – why are we delving into an ant colony? And all kinds of Giant ant variants. Weird ecosystems, fungi, psychic ants, gem-encrusted ants… This is actually not bad!

Link: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/150281/percent-in-lair-ant-giant

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

[Secret Jackalope!!] d100 Skeletons for Betty Bacontime

We are doing Secret Jackalope again on the OSR discord server! I already got my gift, and it is a wonderful creepy set of cosmic horror Tarot Major Arcana, check it out.

My prompt was from Betty Bacontime, who runs the Paper Elemental blog. The request was elegant and simple, I quote: "Skeletons. Thank you."

Skeletons? With pleasure!

This skeleton... (d100)

(roll d100 and read below!)

[Monster] Trying out Rook's Kaiju generator: The 100-legged Serpent

All hail random monster generators!

Rook over at the blog Foreign Planets wrote a good one (with a great selection of Japanese prints), let's give it a spin!

Appearance: combination of 1 animal and 1 monster: Centipede + Dragon

Traits: 1 feature, 1 power

Feature: huge horns

Power: special bond with an individual human couldn't quite work it into the concept, so re-rolled and got Napalm Breath

The centipede + dragon combo instantly reminded me of the Chinese carnival dragons, which are carried by many people! The horns fit the theme as well.

The 100-legged Serpent

HD 10

AC as chain

Move as unencumbered human

Attacks: horns (as spears), napalm breath (30' cone dragon breath), constriction

An adult 100-legged serpent reaches the length of around 80'. It moves with eerie speed, its hundred legs shuffling and clicking. It can climb on vertical surfaces and ceilings. Its hoard consists entirely of spherical objects (pearls, gold beads and globes, scrying orbs, eyeballs), with its spherical eggs hidden between them.

Quick humanoid lair generator for wilderness stocking

This is a dead simple generator of wilderness lairs. Good for stocking a big hexcrawl map or for on-the-fly use. This is where your tribe of orcs or gobs or human bandits live.

1. Roll d66 for the Lair location.
2. Roll d66 twice for some extra Details about the inhabitants of the Lair.

Lair location: 

	Type	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Cave	Flooded	Gorge	Grotto	Cave system	Mine	Dungeon
2
3	Camp	No shelter	Lean-to	Tent		Hovel	Military
4	Ruin	Homestead	Tower	Shrine	Manor	Outpost	Settlement
5
6	Structure

For Ruin and Structure, the first die also indicates the overall size of the building (4 – small, 5 – medium, 6 – large).

Details:

	1	2	3	4	5	6
1	Plague	Curse	Haunting	Inner strife	Leaderless	Starving
2	Recently defeated	Low morale	Fleeing	Lost	Traitor in ranks	No offspring
3	Spring	Stream	Pond	Waterfall	Well	Ample food
4	Valuable resource	Workshop	Prisoners	Traps	Mounts or vehicles	Livestock
5	Co-habit with different type	Talented storyteller	Talented healer	Talented magic-user	Leader of different type	Allied with local faction
6	Superior weaponry	Double treasure	Magic item	Cult idol	Sacrificial altar	Ley-line nexus

 

A couple of examples (for the numbers and the monster types, I just used the wilderness encounter generator from OSE):

• [55, 16, 66] In the hills, 115 Kobolds occupy in a medium-sized ruined outpost. They are starving, but won't move on because they live atop a sweet ley-line nexus.
• [11, 13, 26] In the swamps, 25 Trolls live in a flooded cave. At nights, the ghost of a devoured victim haunts them. They do not have children.
• [45 65, 64] In the forest, 150 Brigands squat in a small ruined outpost. They are actually cultists, and have set up a foul idol and a sacrificial altar to their god Stand-and-Deliver.
• [62, 35, 46] In the jungle, 85 Elves live in and around a large tower. They dug a deep well in the basement - the only source of clean, germ-free water in the fetid jungle. They have a herd of herbivorous dinosaurs (a source of meat and eggs).

See more fully worked examples under this tag.