"Folk Hero" random advancement table

1d12 random features your folk hero type character can gain when leveling up! Made this for a friend's setting. Inspired by Russian folk-tales.

1. If you wear a simple linen shirt, it counts as chainmail for AC purposes, but remains a non-encumbering item.
2. Your save against Magic with a +2 bonus if you are standing barefoot on ground.
3. People tell stories about your exploits. Commoners and simple folk roll Reaction twice and keep the better result.
4. The longer your hair and beard, the stronger you are! You can gain up to 3 points to Strength over time. However, if you go bald, you lose twice the amount.
5. Slayer of monsters! You gain +2 to hit creatures over HD 6 in melee combat.
6. Wandering hero… You get +1 on all your saves, but if you sleep in one place more than once, you lose this benefit forever.
7. Your Hit die for this level is one higher than your class would provide (d6<d8<d10<d12).
8. Feats of strength! Double your Open Doors/Bend Bars skill.
9. Your fame attracts followers! You gain a henchman, whose Loyalty is rolled on 1d6+6.
10. Brotherhood of heroes: ancient heroes you encounter roll Reaction twice and keep the better result.
11. Human to the core: you gain +2 bonus to resist vampiric charm, hypnosis, and similar effects. You are also always moved to tears by folk music.
12. You learn the location of a fabled magic sword buried underground! To claim the weapon, you must defeat a guardian or pass a test. Roll on the sub-table to see which weapon awaits you:

Magic weapons sub-table (d5):

1. Mech-samosek. The holder of the self-swinging sword always fights as if under the effect of the spell One Man Army.
2. Mech-kladenets. When this sword strikes, sparks fly in all directions, illuminating a 20’ area and revealing invisible creatures for a split second.
3. Luk-samostrel. This bow always has the advantage of targeting (+4 to hit).
4. Aspid-zmey. Once per day, this sword can turn into a giant snake at the command word and fight for the hero (HD 2, AC as leather, Move as unencumbered, 1 attack: 1d3 damage, save against Poison or incapacitated for as many rounds as the damage rolled)
5. Kolchan ognennyj. Arrows stored in this magical quiver become fiery bolts of destruction. They ignore 5 points of armor and do 1d8 damage.

[Magic Item] The Beastly Crown

Here's a quick magic item to celebrate the beginning of another cycle!

The Beastly Crown

A wrought-iron wreath with thorns and claws and fangs. Ordinary animals and their “giant” versions become more amiable to the wearer of the Crown: make Reaction rolls using 3d6, but drop the lowest die. When encountering a new kind of ordinary animal (or its “giant” version), the wearer may roll a Language skill check (for non-LotFP systems – roll a d6, chance of success is [1 + Intelligence bonus]-in-6). 

On a success, the wearer learns the animal’s language, can communicate with it (as per the spell Speak with Animals), and will also retain knowledge of this language as long as the crown is worn. Taking off the crown (even for a split second) erases all the known animal languages. 

If the Language skill check is a failure, the wearer must save against Magic or take on a random feature of the animal's appearance.

[Secret Santicorn!!] All Aboard the Terrible Dogfish!

For this year's Secret Santicorn, Deus on the OSR discord server requested "a pirate ship, stocked with treasure, captained by something supernatural"

Without further ado...

ALL ABOARD THE TERRIBLE DOGFISH!

(click to download as .pdf)

a weird pirate adventure with a supernatural captain and treasure... Have fun! Happy holidays!

It's alive!! The Golem Master's Workshop is converted & played

UPDATE: Jonathan has posted a full-length report and a great analysis (even psychoanalysis!) of the adventure, which you can read here: http://www.fenorc.co.uk/home/into-the-golem-masters-workshop

My adventure The Golem Master's Workshop got some positive feedback... and also the biggest possible compliment for any homebrew material: it saw actual play!!!

Jonathan Rowe of RPGForge converted it to the Forge: Out of Chaos and ran it for his group. He made his conversion available, so if you happen to play this obscure little gem of a game, well, you know where to go!

And this is how their session went (quoting from Jonathan's post on facebook):

(spoilers for The Golem Master's Workshop)

That went well. Two PCs entered the Golem-Master's house, a necromancer and a weasel-folk warrior. They discovered Jakov but failed to identify Boax, got trapped in the cellar with the insane Master, animated the Quantum Golem but it turned on them before breaking out and smashing Boax. The weasel got poisoned on the trapped door but the necromancer used the scroll to stop the Quantum Golem's rampage. He then animated the dead Golem-Master to fake his continued occupancy and moved into the house as his "guest" with Jakov positioned as a secretary in the foyer.

Turns out, weasel-folk is a standard race in Forge.

Thanks, Jonathan!

[Monster] Spawning Spawns with Footprints #24

The January 2019 issue of Footprints (#24), the e-zine of the AD&D community Dragonsfoot, includes a random generator for Spawns of Shub-Niggurath, written by Marco Caravagna. I love creature generators, so let's see how this compares to the Spawns of Shub-Niggurathizer that comes with Carcosa.

The generator takes up 5 pages (21-25) and takes you through a series of tables, as usual. The author warns us that "due to the complexity of the tables, it is recommended that the DM prepare spawn well ahead of time," well, yes, this takes up some time to roll up and interpret. The Spawns generated are TOUGH. 4+ attacks easily, lots of special attacks... There is a nice variety, a wide range of possible stuff...

And even if you don't need a monstrous HD 17 aberration, you can always spice up one of your regular monsters with just a few rolls on select tables.

E.g., you have a simple, boring orc, but with just two rolls on the body features table, your orc now has an exposed skeleton (flesh appears partly melted from bones) and an extra sucker-like mouth (potential extra attack, but at -3 to hit due to inconvenient location, 1-4 damage; blood drain for 1-4 HP per round). Simple boring orc no more! And it smells like... *roll roll roll* Perfume!! uhh... (wonderful smell detected to 100’; 10% chance of pheromones: if save vs. poison fails, victim refuses to harm spawn (but will defend against it))

Anyways, here's a full Spawn:

SPAWN OF SHUB-NIGGURATH

FREQUENCY: Very rare (common near Shub-Niggurath)
NO. APPEARING: 1 (3-36 near Shub-Niggurath)
ARMOR CLASS: 4 [18]
MOVE: 3"
HIT DICE: 17 (!!!)
% IN LAIR: 10%
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 6 (fangs / tusks / sucker / antlers / ovipositor / whip tail)
DAMAGE/ATTACK: Varies
SPECIAL ATTACKS: sucker, web spinneret
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Varies
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Non-, animal, or semi
ALIGNMENT: Chaotic
SIZE: L
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: ?

Locomotion: Flopping, 3"
Integument: Exoskeleton (AC 4 [18 in LotFP])
Limbs: zero
Eyes: 1
 > Black hole!
Mouths: 3
 > Fanged, 1-8
 > Tusked, 2 tusks, 2-8, worth 200 sp each
 > Sucker (e.g. as lamprey or leech), 1-4; blood drain for 1-4 HP per round
Other sensory apparatus: zero
Head features: 4
 > Bald
 > Ornamented: startling when flared; spawn gets 1 extra segment’s worth of attacks if it surprises enemies
 > Crest or comb
 > Antlers, damage 2-8 total
Tails: 3
 > Spiked Ovipositor damage 1-4; lays eggs that kill host in 4-32 turns; cure disease kills larvae
 > Spinneret fling webs 20’ as spell every other round
 > Whip, damage 1-4
Body features: 2
 > Leaves any color
 > Exposed organs, suffers double damage in combat
No scent, secretion, infestation or immunity :(

[Dungeon] 30-minute dungeon: The Golem Master's Workshop

The Golem Master, creator of pricey artificial servants, hasn’t been seen around for some time. His house stands dark and silent. Dare you enter?

The 30-minute dungeon is a great exercise. The format was created by Trystin, and she has recently posted an update, so now the format includes randomized prompts as guidelines. UPD Febr. 2026:  the post can be found here (archival link).

My first attempt went overtime, but in the end turned into a pretty neat ancient Mesopotamia-themed dungeon. This new dungeon I wrote in around 35 minutes, then spent some more time re-drawing the map and formatting the content into a one-page dungeon pdf. Enjoy!

Download as one-page dungeon!

Background: The Golem Master, creator of pricey artificial servants, hasn’t been seen around for some time. His house stands dark and silent. Dare you enter?

1 – Foyer
A ledger with records of the Golem Master’s dealings. The balance is positive. The last transactions are from about 2 weeks ago: “Medium all-around servant, sold to Herr Güntz, for 3000 silver”, “Shipment of raw clay, for new personal project, 500 silver”.

2 – Corridor with mud streaks
Dry mud streaks leading to Area 4, as if something big and dirty was dragged there.
The windows towards the street are boarded up.

3 – Office, overtaken by animated body parts
3d8 animated clay hands (HD 0, AC as unarmored, Move as unencumbered, 1 attack: 1 damage) jump off the shelves, climb forth from under furniture, attack any intruder.
Treasure: 450 silver in the locked desk drawer.

4 – Storage room with injured golem
The mound of clay in the corner is actually a golem – a tall, muscular man, with his legs torn off. His name is Jakov. He tells the story of the Golem Master experimenting with the creation of two “golem brothers”, and how his brother Boax went mad, killed the Master and mutilated him. Boax either left or is hiding somewhere in the house.

5 – Golem showcase and hiding place of Boax
Statues set up on a small podium – the Golem Master’s showcase. Three full-sized clay statues depicting one man and two women. If the players have visited Area 4, they recognize the male statue as being from the same mold as Jakov. Four clay statues of 3’ tall wingless gargoyles.
The statue of the man is Boax, the murderous golem. He will wait until the players go down the spiral stairs and then shut the trapdoor and move the heavy podium over it.
If found, confronted or attacked, Boax defends himself, and also commands the four gargoyles.
Boax, the murderous golem: HD 4, AC as chain, Move as unencumbered, Morale unbreakable, 2 attacks: terracotta punch (1d8 damage)
4 clay gargoyles: HD 2, AC as leather, Move as unencumbered, Morale average, 1 attack: claw (1d4 damage)

6 – Bedroom & Kitchenette
Under the bed, there is a scroll of hold monster.

7 – Dark cellar room with clay pits
Strong smell of wet clay and mud. Creaky floorboards. Trap: When crossing the room, each character has a 1-in-6 chance to fall through the old floorboards and into the deep clay pits. If much noise is made, 1d4 clay abominations from Area 8 rush in to investigate.

8 – Workshop, the hiding place of the Golem Master
The Golem Master wasn’t killed, but hid here, half-mad from his injuries. As his final defense, he created 4 small abominations from whatever lumps of clay he had around.
The door to Area 9 has a “Do not touch my things!” sign.
Golem Master: Magic-User 3, AC as unarmored, unable to move, 1 attack: desperate biting (1d2-1 damage)
4 clay abominations: HD 1, AC as leather, Move as unencumbered, Morale average

9 – Vault with trapped entrance
Trap: poison needle (Save or Die) in the doorknob.
Treasure: 1500 silver in clay jars, masterfully executed figurine molds worth 1000 silver.

10 – Ritual area
A complete golem body lays on a marble slab. A codex and ritual implements are laying nearby – everything is ready to bring this golem to life. The golem is massive. If brought to life, there is a 50-50 chance of it being either an obedient servant or going on a murderous rampage through town.
Quantum Golem: HD 8, AC as chain, Move as unencumbered, Morale unbreakable, 2 attacks: terracotta punch (1d8 damage)

Working notes:

30-minute dungeon, includes:

3 Empty Rooms
3 Combat Encounters
2 Traps
1 NPC
1 Special/Weird Thing

3 Empty rooms:

Something that tells the characters about the dungeon’s history

Something useful to the characters

Something that points the characters to an NPC

Special Room:

Something that can result in great reward or terrible disaster

NPC:

A victim

3 Combat encounters:

Horde of weak opponents

A weak opponent and their guards

A tough opponent and his underlings

Trap:

Something that will kill the characters

Something that will trap the characters

d66 things that happen when you inject your liquified henchmen

Because that's obviously something that happens!

Written as part of the "OSR Weapons Race", which started with this, then escalated and led to this & this. Don't miss the consequences of eating a dead monster either. Who knows what the future holds?

Especially if an unknowable supernatural force turns your hireling into jelly. You scoop it up, fill a syringe, and inject the substance... roll to see

d66 things that happen when you inject your liquified henchmen

11   You sprout an extra arm, but it can only be used to carry a lantern. If you put a weapon in it, it detaches and flees.
12   Now you only answer to the henchman's name. You didn't learn their name before they died a gruesome death in your service? Tough luck, You-Who-Cannot-be-Named!
13   You gain +1 to your Attack Bonus if your weapon is cheap and unremarkable.
14   Sympathy for hirelings! You are unwilling to manipulate henchmen any further.
15   Whenever a town crier shouts out a message, you can decipher its hidden meaning, which is probably something sinister.
16   You learn about the existence of a "Henchpeople & Hirelings Trade Union". They keep a secret list of blackmail material on famed adventurers.

21   From now on, whenever you are explicitly hired to do something, and get paid for it, you gain 5% of the reward/payment/salary as experience points.
22   Whatever force liquefied the henchman is now affecting you. You have 1 week before you turn into a mindless ooze.
23   You drop to 1 Hit dice. All other stats remain unchanged.
24   A small second consciousness appears next to your own. You gain an extra spell slot (of the lowest order), even if you are not a spellcaster.
25   Your spit becomes acidic. Each day, enough acid gathers in your mouth for one spit attack (range 30', 1d6 damage). If you don't use it up (e.g. if you are unconscious for a day!), you take the damage.
26   Special one-time offer: get a 20% discount on your next hireling OR free shipping!

31   You learn a new language, but speak it in a way that's only acceptable among sailors.
32   Rashes & a burning sensation, followed by a loss of 1 HD.
33   From now on, every time you want to do something very dangerous, you must make a Loyalty check to see if you obey yourself.
34   You gain a random annoying quirk or mannerism.
35   Only the Referee knows this: the next henchman hired by this character will be a disloyal backstabbing traitor. Effect to tell the player: you cry green bile.
36   You are immune to whatever caused the liquification of the henchperson in the first place.

41   Logistical genius. You can now carry 150% more stuff.
42   Your body secretes weird fluids. In 4 weeks, you can harvest enough to mold it into a golem servant. This 2 HD ooze golem serves you for 1d6 days, then turns against you.
43   You feel useful! You are having a wonderful time! Save against Poison to avoid addiction to this peculiar type of euphoria.
44   Only the Referee knows this: the next henchman hired by this character will be exceptionally loyal. Effect to tell the player: you cry quicksilver tears.
45   From now on, you are ready to do anything dangerous against your best judgement if another player character gives you a 100 silver.
46   You gain the ability to turn/command oozes, as a Cleric of the same level as you would turn/command undead.

51   Double the maximum amount of hirelings you can have.
52   Beloved by Blobs!: oozes and similar creatures want to hug you.
53   If another player character orders you to do something and you obey, they must share their experience points with you for that session.
54   Dogs now hate you.
55   From now on, people tend to forget you exist.
56   The place of injection becomes swollen. When the swelling goes away, there is a purple tattoo-like portrait of the dead henchman on your skin.

61   You gain some of the mundane knowledge the henchman had: turnip farming, origami, cross stitching, etc.
62   Your appearance completely morphs into that of the liquified hireling. Stats, abilities, personality don't change.
63   People who usually hate adventurers think that you are kind of alright.
64   You can no longer digest normal food, BUT can eat anything acidic and horrifically oozy without risk to your health.
65   The dead hireling haunts you, distracting you in the worst possible moments.
66   You die, but the party can hire you in the next town for 100 silver per character level. You are simply there, waiting for them. Stats remain unchanged, all equipment is lost.

"Melting wax head" by antismiley101
https://www.deviantart.com/antismiley101/art/Melting-Wax-Head-427687789

1d8 things that happen when you smoke a magic scroll

From the dynamic duo that brought you spider mutations and that skeleton interrogator table...

1d8 things that happen when you smoke a magic scroll!!

1. Save against Magic 1d3 times: for each failure, roll on the miscast table!
2. You can see invisible creatures and objects for 1 hour. However, you also hallucinate, so you can never tell when something is real or not.
3. REEFER MADNESS! Record the exact number of experience points you have. From now on, instead of gaining experience points, you lose double the amount you would get (and lose levels accordingly). When you hit 0 xp, you lose your original class and become a Magic-User. Now, whenever you gain experience points, you gain the double amount until you reach the amount you had originally.
   A Magic-User getting this effect remains a Magic-User, just goes back and up again.
4. Sweet Leaf! Your coughs always have a weird echo. You get a +1 bonus on saves against Poison.
5. For the next 4d2 days, you consume twice as many rations, but become immune to spells that affect emotions and cognition.
6. You cough up an object usually conjured by a stage magician! Roll 1d6: 1 white rabbit, 2 ribbon, 50' in length, 3 the Ace of Spades, 4 dove, 5 burning candle, 6 coin (worth 1 sp)
7. Chills, not thrills! You suffer the effect of the slow spell for 1 hour, but get +1 bonus on all saves.
8. The next monster you encounter is actually an NPC from the campaign wearing a rubber mask. You must chase each other through a non-Euclidean hallway with the Beach Boys playing in the background.

[Actual Play] A Foray into the Transformed & Generated Land

My neural network generated hexcrawl is closing completion!! I ran a short play-test today for two players who happened to be available, with random characters. Procedures and mechanics still need work, but overall it was FUN, gonzo, but playable!

The characters were "strangers in a strange land" - people who were randomly transported from their home dimension into the Transformed & Generated land.

The first one up was Little Timmy, Specialist 1 (one-legged urchin from London). I had him roll for the starting hex. He woke up in the middle of a wide grassland. It was snowing, and quite cold. He discovered a musky smelling tunnel leading underground - but decided not to enter it just yet. Instead, he moved to the nearby forest. He couldn't recognize the trees, but was happy to see that they were fruit-bearing - or rather, there were some big fungoid-type growths on them. He harvested a couple. While he was picking the "fruits", a woman dressed in dark robes appeared. She seemed to be looking for someone. She approached Little Timmy, and asked something - but the two of them didn't share a language, so she resorted to pantomime. Little Timmy gathered that the woman was looking for her child (or other short person), but couldn't help her. Then she asked, using signs, whether Little Timmy was planning to eat the "fruits". Timmy nodded, and the woman stepped back and started shaking her head. Another pantomime followed, which could have meant that whoever eats the fruits turns into a monster. So he dropped them. The woman left.

Little Timmy continued exploring the forest, and entered another area, where the ground was covered with a thick mat from the roots of the trees. The air was full of snowflakes, but also tiny fleeces just floating in the air. Forest creatures were moving under the intertwining roots.

Suddenly, another visitor showed up - Sally Mason, Magic-User 1 (sorceress who prefers Floating Disc to walking)! The two of them decided to travel together. They only had a couple of rations on them, so decided to hunt in the eerie forest. They noticed a turkey-like bird, and fired arrows at it - when hit, the bird turned into stone...

Disappointed, the duo moved out of the forest, and towards the wasteland/grassland to the south.

Around sundown, they met two groups of people, who were clearly in the middle of an argument. They were brandishing guns and other weapons. Timmy hid behind a rock, but Sally floated forth and approached them. Luckily, one of them was also a "displaced" person, and could speak Sally Mason's language. He explained that they were arguing about some food that the other group took from them, and they were ready to fight over it. Sally offered her own rations instead to keep the peace. The people accepted the offer, and parted in peace. Three of them stayed behind, and invited Sally and Timmy to their camp, especially that night was rapidly approaching, and a thunderstorm was gathering.

The group camped, and Sally and Timmy learned some things about the lay of the land and about the dangers that are everywhere - monsters along the river, monster along the sea, and insect overlords in the north-east area...

In the morning, the weather got even colder.

Sally and Timmy traveled further, and soon they heard voices and distress calls in the distance. They investigated, and found a man and a woman stuck inside a split tree... The woman spoke a language they all understood, and told about how she and her husband climbed the tree to escape dire wolves, but the tree broke, split, and trapped them... They offered some apples and potions in exchange for help. Sally lit a torch, melted some snow, and used her soap and the water to lubricate the stuck people. This way, they could pull them out, and the tree snapped back together.

The woman told them that she got the potion as payment for work from a witch who lives in a small village in the swamps to the west. However, she couldn't tell what the potions were for. Timmy tried one, and instantly fell asleep! Sally put him on her Floating Disc, and they continued the exploration.

After a half day of travel through the prairie, they noticed a centaur who was busy digging the half-frozen ground. Timmy sneaked closer, and realized that the centaur was digging up corpses!!! The centaur noticed him, and got all defensive - he was digging up the bodies to eat them, and was not about to share this precious food with anybody. Timmy retreated, and the duo waited while the centaur finished and moved on.

Afterwards, they arrived to the seaside.

Sally wanted to create a raft or a boat, but without much success.

Timmy fished in the sea, and caught a strange fish - but got attacked by a huge, neckless and eyeless toad creature!! The monster caught him by surprise, and almost instantly killed him! Timmy retreated and tried to staunch the bleeding, but didn't succeed. The toad monster attack Sally, but Sally proved to be quite the swordfighter and defeated the toad monster. However, it was already too late for poor Timmy, who bled out...

The toad monster's body twitched, and a human crawled out from it - Mathilde the Warrior Princess, Fighter 1 (a barbarian who got turned into a toad monster by an evil witch). She joined Sally, and they decided to go and look for the "insects overlords" of the north-east, because Mathilde had sworn an oath to defeat the "ant people". Sally wanted to travel on her Floating Disc, but her spell misfired (risky casting!). The Disc materialized, but cut off the sorceress's right arm (I was using my lovely miscast result tables)!!!

Anyway, the new duo traveled up to the north-east, and eventually found a cave that was guarded by drooling flying monkeys... When they approached, the monkeys sounded an alarm, and some insect people came out from the cave. They turned out to be almost friendly, and invited Sally and Mathilde for their monthly religious festival. They even assured them, that they won't be in any danger, as this month's sacrifice (a huge lizard creature) was already secured. The feast would take place during the full moon, three days later.

Sally and Mathilde decided to camp nearby for one night, then go and hunt to replenish their stocks.

In the morning, however, they got all the rations they needed, because it started RAINING FROGS!

The duo waited for full moon, and entered the cave of the insect people. They were shown to a huge cavern, where an insect person statue stood on a gold pillar. At least a hundred insects were present. They sacrificed a dinosaur-like creature, and the feast began. Everybody got a small chunk of the lizard meat. Sally and Mathilde also partook in the feast.

When Sally inquired about a way to grow back her arm, the insects told her about a brutal half-goat half-man monster that lives up north and is rumored to have the power to regenerate itself.

In the meantime, they noticed that a young humanoid girl with insect wings was also present. She just observed the feast, didn't take any of the meat. A huge yellow toad was following her around.

Sally asked one of the insect people about the girl. At first, the insect person was not eager to talk about the girl, but after some convincing, she told Sally that the girl is the queen of the insects, a powerful being who can predict the future.


And this was the end of the session.

Two magic items

Arachnid Servants of Hypnos

Four silver spiders in a velvet bag; when the bag is opened, the spiders swarm forth and envelope up to four willing creatures with their webs.
The cocooned creatures fall asleep for 1 hour. Their dreams are sweet and filled with the sounds of the wind playing the web’s strands as a harp. The creatures are completely unaware of their surroundings and cannot be roused by any means. This 1 hour sleep mechanically counts as a full rest in terms of healing, spell memorization, etc. Furthermore, each affected creature regains 1 HD worth of hit points.
After the 1 hour, the webs dissolve, and the four spiders crawl back into the velvet bag.
However, there is a flat 1-in-6 chance for each affected creature to fall into a week-long coma (and possibly gain a spiderific mutation). Delay Poison grants a save vs. poison to counter this effect.

Soap of Absolute Cleanness

This inconspicuous bar of soap removes all curses, diseases and similar ailments if someone washes themselves with it.
However, each time it also scrubs away one of the seven layers of the skin of the user. Repeated use leads to serious consequences as the person’s skin is eroded. This can only be healed by miracle-level restorative magic. The soap is good for 1d8 uses.

Layers of skin left	Effect
6	No effect yet
5	Can no longer wear armor heavier than leather
4	Can no longer wear any armor, -1 on Reaction and Loyalty rolls
3	Double damage from fire, acid, and similar sources
2	Can no longer wear clothes; skin now almost completely transparent; double damage from any kind of attack
1	Uncle Frank from Hellraiser
0	Death