D&d5.5 for a year some thots ive been thunking

Chose the Goblinco/dungeon degenerates Lowlife rpg as my current KS based on Hand of Doom board game. Its grimier, weirder and punker than every other game.

So i played bx then ad&d hybrid then 2nd ed up to later brown books that lazier), then played RQ/BRP for 20 years. Whe i got back into it, I remembered basic d&d had small statblocks so wrote my EMO retro clone based on bx and ad&d85. I was aware of 3rd ed from the Temple of elemental evil pc game that also got me into d&d again. I joined a club and played some 4th ed and mostly BRP and my homebrew. I didnt play 5thg ed till i got back to adelaide and i didnt own books and players not being very technical. I started getting D&D5 with the Theros book and some others just to read. I got more than on sale fot 30, 50 or 70% off over the end of 2014. Inpart the new Dyson style maps that didnt look like video game walkthroughs was a plus. Modern AI made decades of bad digital art seem more repulsive now.

The main reason i got into 5th ed was the 2024 Players book had a readable index page, the older one was unreadable last 5 years. The new one is better laid out and i mostly prefer it. They were first wizard products and new items id bought since 91.

The old DMG I thought would be passed on, but it has lots of content still handy.
The older PHB book maybe i will check some subclasses not in current version but more fot the other older books to help make sense of them. But not for its own sake. Maybe ill play in someone elses game with 2014 rules.


I still think they need a fighting fantasy level complexity version with less choices and more roleplay anyone could play quickly and a stodgy tactical combat version with the works. A version with simple fun abilities and less record keeping for more story games or less violent games.

Complexity
Starting play at 1st lv is best. Joining a game later is bewildering. Advancement is better off slow so you enjoy your abilities and learn to use them rather than the rush growth in adventure books. Ive not used xp in any d&d akin games since recent OSE game online. As we go higher, we have more resources to track. Your choices of abilities get huge. More game time is spent checking rules. Sometimes ppl read rules by cherry picking only the beneficial parts. I watched a high-level wizard battle and it took hours. I think dice discipline is underrated. When i see people fuck around with dice for minutes to roll one number its pretty annoying. Everyone wants dumber maths in games now. People dont want to count food or arrows but lots of abilities with 1-3 uses and different recovery times is fine?

Tonight I ran a premade adventure and it was well-written enough to finish core on time. Players will be cleaning up the dungeon and helping decorate the dragons dungeon next game. A new player joining in a Lv3 game was pretty bewildering and probably a bit bored watching us look up books and check rules. Learning from lv would be better. Maybe let them start lv 1 and a second lv at end of the session and later until they reach party average, just to help learn. A barbarian the same lv as fighter seemed far more superhuman and damage-dealing.

One of my other games i think ppl like complex cool character abilities but disliked combat and made poorer use of bonus actions, opportunity attacks and specific grids in combat. Im hoping will use updated rules.

Im glad I'm running game now with less splatbooks in use so nope to most fan gear ppl have tried. I'm glad a magic book is coming; they need a cleric book too - these books would add to settings and play too. Funny, they are putting Insmouth into Ravenloft - my players said I don't need it. All my villages are folk horror as i grew up in the country. My current setting is a Ravenloft domain, so the new book is of interest. Im not sure if Forgotten Realms books interest me but the players one has dropped in price. 

I sometimes use old and new monster books as both have some good features. Like orcs and lizard folk in the older version. Modern sphynx seem more like my little pony. Lamia less horrid and less baby-eating vampires. They even had a good lamia in a scenario. Bad guys need to do bad things to be acceptable foes. I dont mind more neutral dragons, especially the non-talking ones. Its ok if more monsters are human or even appealing. Sphinxes not being crazy maneaters is a bit sad. The weird gender stuff of these sphynxes was European Renaissance not ancient, I don't miss this. Now we have sphynxes, nothing like any in mythology. Perhaps a sphynx generator like the chimaera generator in Theros might work. Connecting lots of monsters and demons is a bit tedious. Im more a monsters are the bitter venom of the gods kind of guy. Id like more unique monster generators. The bigby book has lots of weird giant varients ive enjoyed using.

D&D movie had mostly humans and some weirdos. Many modern adventures have way too many weird people. I'm for diversity, but if everyone is a furry like all my 2014 rule games its no longer special. I find a assimar with awesome powers running a pub and needing help seems a bit lame. One adventure mentions an npc has blue skin, but not much on why. I'm fine with humans being common.

When the game works smoothly, it is fun. Players seem to enjoy bosses with weird abilities. A few think stuff like "how can I stick on that monster's arm on me and get that power" even though it's really just cosmetic fluff. I must look up that artificer who makes fleshy golems. A weird location makes a fight more dynamic. As we are in the age of 6-room dungeons, this kind of makes every dungeon room significant vs empty time syncs that tempt you to risk wandering monsters. I still say my homebrew is much faster and has in-table comparisons, had 10x rooms in a session to other tables.

I think you do get to have fun "building" characters and get lots of interesting abilities you can min max with and that is an element of the game for some people that matters the most. I do find that these players can be competitive and monitor other players' lots. This plethora of choices also creates lots of problems, like time and entry difficulty. I will possibly use OSE as my con game and travel game of choice.

I have got better at using monsters and keeping players thrilled.
Combat can be entertaining with a novel monster ability and a dynamic combat environment like a trap filled room or lava. You can see when a fight is rewarding, and you can make the things that work better. Using obscure stat blocks seems to be more exiting than bog-standard ones. Im saddened the DM npcs and PCs no longer really built the same. Stat blocks they give easier to run but just not built like players. MU6 was enough to a npc once but not now. Its a good solution but i think they need a book of human and monster species and class npcs. The decision to give outrageous stats for entertainers was terrible (they should just rob a dungeon and give up on earning a few cp). Id rather most ppl have no level or class in a world. We got lots of generic bandits and pirates and told to use for orcs and basic lizard folk. Im still using my 2014 MM often but modern ghouls are better.

Most of my time in 2014 i didnt even know most of my abilities or action economy. Most DMs railroaded character design - dont be human - dont take that subclass - do this. I had more fun when i ignored dm advice and made characters i want. Im fine with limiting content outside core books. Ive only seen a fraction of character content and monsters in play so certainly lots of resources. Im still considering im learning really but doing better. Having a good rule pedant at table is great! Evil pedants out to compete and cheat by omission when it suits them are not wonderful.

This meme seemed relevant

none of these are deal breakers
1 Yes but.....is better than no but its not just no with extra steps
2 Balance sucks
-Comparing Monster HD with players is fine to start add extra HD for magical abilities and side on caution. Every fight isnt just a cool boss fight some are to drain player resources
-Telegraph danger, make fights more dynamic and feel risky and novel
-Have escape options for players and dont overuse npcs saving them
3 I'm fine with sandbox
-That includes lots of choices, not no choices
-Good settings and tables, and you have lots of stuff to do

4 A variant of 1 - look at options and ideas, and what other DMs do rather than ban rules -In-game setting reasons to say no work better
-A cult did multiclassing so nobody does anymore, only the wicked do it
-RQ does this all the time - sure do it, but you're a hated heretic and need to hide it 
-Want more human characters? Make humans common with local connections and anything else exotic freaks who probably need locals to speak out for them

Give local humans social edges like guilds, clans etc and make players wanting exotic weirdos aware they will likely be disadvantaged socially and status-wise. You dont have to be shitty and mean about. Players might be able to become popular and improve their kind's image. I'd equally apply this to players who wanted to be an albino cannibal from the hollow earth or someone who was raised by a faerie. The problem treatment is the bad behaviour of npcs not the player character or player. Let players break these restrictions with effort. Also the benefits of local clan can include obligations and reputations the stranger does not have.  Its just a sample of trying to make your DM preferred content to be used within world preferences im sure you could come up with something not a form of prejudice.

In the game RUS, you could not have a priest and a pagan Koldun sorcerer in the same party, as one is obligated to kill the other or maybe save them. Alignment sort of does this already. It made whole party in danger with both, even though it would be a greater utility for minmaxing fights and problem-solving. In a game with a high death toll maybe make everyone's first character human and get to see other species in the world before picking them. You can use these tactics to reduce standard choices. Perhaps a popular church has better social clout than a dirty warlock or magical sex pest. I still like the idea the original Big 4 classes are the most common and organised in guilds or churchs.

Just a bunch of ramblings so thanks if you made it this far. 

Land of Eem arrived and its like the muppets and dolmenwood had a baby.

TSR Marvel: 60sUK spyfy game update

Past relevant posts
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/12/tsr-marvel-reskinned-into-swinging-60s.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2026/01/unit-spyfy-session.html
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2025/10/tsr-marvel-for-holidays-spy-fi-silver.html

These updates by Richard Ingram who has been GMing this game this "seasson". It was just for holdays but has kept going. Ive been GM for since 84 so a break is fine and I enjoy my character. Im maxed out on B-mans feats and added a point os str and power rank so a possible i point could breach defences enough to kill them. We had a wild battle last night and look fwd to a recap.

The Greenish Death

Part One

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

After in no way shape or form training for or going anywhere near the Moonbase (they are fine - just the relief ship launch was delayed so they will have to wait a few days longer to top up their supplies and personnel), Lady M, 'Lucky' Ducky and Special Agent Rex Carter (AKA B-Man) are summoned to Wales in the aftermath of a mine collapse.

Llannfairfach Colliery was recently reopened in partnership with Global Chemicals after clever eyes spotted a rich, untapped seam of anthracite. Things had been progressing well over the next few months, despite protests by local environment groups. Their output was also quite healthy - the newly appointed Director achieved remarkable efficiencies after introducing automation. He also cut costs by letting go the majority of the unskilled factory workers and the entirety of the Executive staff.

Then, disaster! a collapse in the lower levels of the mine trapped 16 men. This would normally be something for the civil rescue services, but the rescue team recovered a body that was starting to glow a sickly green-ish colour...

Reporting to the UNIT forward base at the minehead, the team suited up in NBC gear as Professor X performed an autopsy - the weird coloured glow had permeated the cadaver and Professor X pointed out several internal anomalies, as well as some small lumpy formations in the stomach. He sternly advised "Don't let it get in contact with your skin' gesturing to a row of lockers containing advanced hazard suits developed by the British Rocket Group and UNIT's scientific branch. As they left, the Professor stopped them to add "If any of the miners are also infected, they must not get anywhere near the town, do you hear me? Stop them by whatever means necessary!".

As the rest of the team got kitted out, Carter nipped back to his car and retrieved his flamethrower, just in case...

Young burly Dai, with a gravelly voice and a smoker's cough, and skinny old chirpy, friendly Bert had been members of the rescue team that had found the corpse, and voulunteered to guide them to the collapse - an extend quarantine wasn't doing anything to help their trapped mates chances and wanted to see how they were and to see if they could be brought back safely.

The central lift shaft was too damaged to navigate safely, but the miners knew where they could find a service ladder that would lead them to the next floor. As they approached the descent, Dai started coughing and acting confused and erratic. Going on ahead, he fell down the service shaft when the ladder broke loose from it's moorings. B-Man swarmed down the shaft as a cloud of bees and caught him before he hit the ground. Carter and examined Dai, who seemed to have dropped dead just as he started his descent. Warning Bert to stay behind, the rest of the team joined Carter, just in time for the corpse to lurch upright and start reaching for the party. Not wanting to risk any contact with the now glowing zombie miner, B-Man blasted him to a smouldering ruin with the flamer.

Realising it was likely the rescue team who found the corpse may have been infected, they cautiously climbed back up the ladder to check on Bert. He was back down the corridor, with his back to the team. As Lady M called out to him, he turned around, unscrewing his helmet. His contorted, glowing greenish face leered at them and started retching - unnaturally long tongue logging out and throat rippling...

Ever the action man, B-Man swiftly brought up his flamer and stepped up to what was left of poor old Bert - a sustained burst of flame quickly consumed him. Was that a tear of gratitude in his eye just before his skin flash boiled and carbonised?

'Lucky' Ducky, Carter and Lady M pooled their memories of Bert and Dai's earlier talk of the layout of the mine and worked out the correct path to the collapse. B-Man found a crack through the debris he could swarm through, and emerged into an underground cavern with a huge pool of bubbling, greenish glowing waste. His demolition training helped him realise the pool was the epicentre of the collapse. The liquid had eroded natural supports in the cave structure which had collapsed under the strain, bringing down a large section of the roof and central lift shaft. He also spotted a large outflow pipe sticking out of the ceiling at an angle, over the centre of the pool. Drops of a dull brownish slurry occasionally dripped sizzling into the pool.

Lit by the strange, greenish glow from the pool, several zombie miners, helmets off and looking slightly emaciated were milling about aimlessly, but when B-Man reformed into human shape they all turned and started towards him, hacking as if they were trying to cough up phlegm. Luring them into a tight group, Carter annihilated them with another blast from the flamer...

Carter cleared a small gap through the debris with some salvaged mining explosives, letting Lady M and Ducky wriggle through, making sure their suts weren't damaged. Counting what was left of the miners, they realised that not all were accounted for yet. Ducky picked up a trail through a crack in the wall leading to what looked like an older part of the mine. As they prepared to follow the miner's spoor deeper into the mine, hidden maggots clinging to the ceiling ambushed the party, dropping to the floor to bite and spit disgusting goo. Fragile but deadly, the maggots attacked! Carter's flamer again saved the day, but the fuel tank was starting to slosh around as it emptied further.

Quelle horreur! Lady M flinched back as a gobbet of maggot spit splashed aginst her, quickly eating through the suit and burning into her forearm! Grinding her teeth, Lady M waved away her colleagues - "It's OK, I can hold it back for the moment..." she gasped. Starting to sweat, forearm starting to twitch slightly as a faint glow started to form within the wound, Lady M asked Ducky to get a strange, cylindric device off her belt and put it in her right hand. "A little thing the Porf gave me before we came down - said it might come in handy". Tensing and relaxing several times, Lady M thumbed a switch on the odd device, which started making a high pitched whining noise and glowed white at the tip. Swiftly she drew it midway across her upper arm which dropped to the floor, smoking from the severed end. Slumping back against the cave wall, she mumbled "Thank gods that wasn't my shooting arm". Now glowing a sullen greenish hue through the rents in the suit, Lady M's severed arm started twitching and curling back, as if the blunt end was the tail of a scorpion.

"Nossir, not having any of that malarkey" exclaimed Carter as he kicked the scrabbling arm into the centre of the pool where it dissolved like an Alka-Seltzer...

Quickly jury rigging a patch for Lady M's suit from the combined resources of all their repair kits, the team pressed on. Faced with a tight crawl through a partially collapsed corridoor, Carter elected to swarm ahead as bees and found two of the mutant maggot horrors lurking in ambush, noting one of them had started to change form. Still mostly maggot like, it was crawling on six lumpy nubbin feet and had some segmented eyelike protrusions. Tiny wings were mashed wetly against it's glowing back. Reforming further ahead in a natural crossroads, Carter yelled for attention, hearing skittering, buzzing responses from all four paths. Swarming up against the ceiling, Carter saw the two maggots emerge, joined by two flying monstrosities, lokoing like a the horrific greenish glowing offspring of a dog, an insect and a squid. The remaining two passages each disgorged horrific, glowing parodies of the remaining two miners. Crawling on all fours, legs bent backwards, knuckling along on fists with fingers fused to the palm, backs hunched upwards with insectile spines bursting through the remains of the miner's uniforms. Mouths stretched open far too wide with lolling, prehensile tongues...

Unable to use his flamer safely in the confined space, B-Man regrouped with the team who snuck up on the monsters as quietly as they could and attacked! After a short, pitched battle the team emerged victorious. As they headed back towards the surface, Carter drenched the glowing remains in the rest of his flamer fuel, igniting it from a safe distance with a jerry rigged fuse made from a box of his favourite cigarettes and a book of matches.

Finally remembering their radios, they called in to the Professor to let him know that the immediate threat had been neutralised, but the source seemed to be a weird pool of waste under a dripping outflow pipe at the bottom of the mine. On the way out they meet Professor X. He's just wearing a hazard suit and carrying an extendable rod with a beaker lashed to the end and a secure leaded sample case. "Good job! You've all earned a night off! I'll take it from here". He pats Lady M on her good arm, saying "Jolly good - quick thinking. Glad my little gadjet came in handy".

later, drinking in their hotel suite with Carter playing barman, Carter and Ducky suddenly got a flash of some strange sensation rippling through their minds and souls - something unknowingly alien and anguished suddenly cut short, dissolving away. Lady M was blissfully unaware - probably because her constant companion and Valet Ms Butler had been sitting in her lap, whispering in her ear and feeding her dirty Martinis all evening.

An hour later there was a knock at the door - it was Professor X, asking if he could join them for a drink - "Do you have tea? Long Island iced would be my preference at this juncture" he muttered hoarsely. He was looking old and physically drained, slowly lowering himself into a chair as Carter mixed him the cocktail. Knocking it back in one, a healthy colour returned to the Professor's face and he looked a little more energised. Signaling Carter for another, he swiftly knocked it back and sat up straight. "Ahh, just the ticket to realign the neutron contraflow and bypass those burnt out ganglial neuronic structures". Leaning forward, the Professor speaks - "Now, here's what I've found out about our little spot of bother..."

-----------

Part Two

B.O.S.S. fight?

...Leaning forward, the Professor speaks - "Now, here's what I've found out about our little spot of bother..."

He explained that according to his research, centuries ago a nearby monastery recorded a 'falling star' and soon after noted strange changes to the local wildlife and fauna, reporting they all glowed with a sickly unholy hue. A passing wise man and his companions helped the monks push back the otherworldy colour and seal it underground.

"No prizes for guessing where that colour was sealed away, hmmm? The waste from that outflow pipe corroded its way through the earth and stone, causing the collapse and releasing the substance and contaminating the miners. Curiously, that outflow pipe was placed in the best possible location if your goal was to release the 'colour', so I think a little visit to Global Chemicals may be in order".

With this, Professor X wished everyone a good night and retired for the evening.

Briefed by the Colonel in the morning, the party were advised to just do a recce for now - Global Chemicals had connections with Whitehall. Prime Minister Thorpe's push for British energy self-sufficiency meant that disruptions to their business without good cause would not be looked upon at all well. Consequently, it would take time to obtain the necessary authorisation for a raid, and UNIT would need to provide some good evidence of malfeasance. "No overt action without authorisation!" ordered the Colonel.

Under guise of picnic on a nearby hillside, the party observed the factory, noting that someone was on the roof with binoculars watching them back. The team noticed a nearby a nearby property on the hillside with a view of the factory. What looked like an old fashioned farmhouse had been extended and surrounded by bunkhouses, greenhouses, long sheds and a windmill for pumping water. A sign painted in psychedelic lettering proclaimed it the 'Nut Hatch". Some mellow individuals pointed the team in the direction of the commune's leader, Professor Jenny Jones. Once convinced they weren't there about the commune's recent ecological protests, Jenny mentioned her people had been keeping an eye on the Global Chemicals factory as they had a terrible ecological record when it came to pollution. Professor Jones had previously worked for the mining industry before becoming ecologically awakened, so had a good idea how much waste a facility of that size would be putting out. By her calculations, there were nowhere near enough waste disposal trucks coming and going to account for it. She also noted that the new Director, Stevens, had fired a lot of unskilled workers and let most of the executive staff go recently, citing cost savings due to advances in automation. She was hoping to use this to drive a wedge between the local mine workers and the company, especially since the mine collapse.

The team spent the afternoon chatting with Jenny and other members of the commune. Carter discovered she was a keen apiarist, and got a tour of her hives. Lucky got chatting with

Come evening, Carter volunteered to infiltrate the facility and scout the building. Swarming in from an external vent, he noted that the main security room near reception was sealed off and he couldn't immediately see a way in. Two guards were stationed there, but seemed to be watching football on TV instead of monitoring the cameras. He noted a stairwell going up, with a nearby elevator. The rest of the ground floor was admin offices, a staff lounge and canteen, and another stairwell going down. This stairwell was sealed off by a high security door with a punch-card reader, and had it's own one-man security station. It too was sealed off, or would have been if the door hadn't been propped open by a sweaty guard reading a newspaper. Carter noted a punchcard attached to a retractable lanyard on the guard's belt.

B-Man tried out a new trick - zooming into the security cubicle, the bees swarmed the guard, swiftly stinging him with a newly created venom, sending him to sleep. Carter reformed and took the punch-card. Radioing the rest of the team, he explained his findings and thought now would be a good opportunity for the team to have a look at the sealed basement. Guiding the team past the security cameras, they rendezvoused at the sealed stairwell.

The team cautiously crept down the stairwell, unfortunately missing the sound of the door sealing hermetically and heavy bolts sliding home...

The basement was a large semi-open area, combining a processing plant and materials research lab. A huge tank labelled with hazard decals caught their eye - a series of pipes and conduits lashed together were dangling from the ceiling over its attached hopper - this looked to be how the waste was stored before it was dumped. The team opened an inspection hatch, revealing a recently scrubbed empty interior and a large messh covered outflow pipe curving down into darkness.

Lucky looked worried - "It's like they knew we were coming and cleaned up first" he said, just as the sound of distant pumps starting up could be heard through the ceiling. While they explored further, they noted that the room was getting warmer and that the air was getting thinner - after noting the dangling waste pipes swaying as if in a light breeze, they realised that something was pumping out the air! Racing to the exit, they found the door hermetically sealed and unresponsive to the punch-card. An attempt to radio back to base revealed the Professor's headsets were being jammed - they were trapped with no way out, and the air was nearly gone!

Lady M realised that they'd overlooked an exit - the outflow pipe, which should let them escape back into the mine - after all, the Professor had said the waste pool and its alien contaminant had been neutralised. On the verge of blacking out from hypoxia, the team ripped out the safety grille and escaped into the mine, helped back to the floor of the central chamber by Carter's swarm form. After escaping the mine for second time, they regrouped with UNIT.

Colonel Prentiss Llewellyn-Jones felt a murder attempt on a UNIT investigative team was enough evidence for him to sign off on a raid, sending Captain Bates and Sergeant Renton to muster the troops. Professor X decided he'd come along as well, lugging a stained carpet bag clinking with metallic items.

The team rendezvoused with the UNIT troops at the Global Chemicals carpark - strangely it was mostly full now, as if it was the start of the work day. Upon entering the main doors, a friendly receptionist who wasn't there earlier waved to the Colonel saying "The Director is expecting you - please make your way up to the conference room on level two!". The team noted staff at desks in the admin area, and Lucky (with his heightened intuition) picked up the scent of an active staff canteen and cigarettes being smoked at desks. All the employees looked busy, but gave the UNIT team friendly waves whenever eye contact was made. The Colonel ordered the troops to spread out, maintain a perimeter and keep the reception area clear. Deciding to forego the elevator, he then led the way upstairs with Lady M, Lucky, Rex, Captain Bates, Sgt Renton and Professor X in tow (looking deeply suspicious).

They entered the long, mahogany paneled conference room to find a man seated at the far end of the table near a mini bar set into an alcove. "Hello, I'm Stevens, the Director here. I assume you have questions - please have a seat! Would anyone like a drink?" he asked, stepping over to the bar. The Colonel looked annoyed and was about to speak when Carter interrupted him, saying he'd love a martini.

"Jolly good", said Stevens, reaching behind a seltzer bottle and pressing a hidden switch. Immediately, the conference room doors slammed shut, heavy bolts sliding home. A metal wall dropped down to cover the alcove, hiding Stevens, and Lucky's excellent hearing picked up the sound of an elevator moving upwards. Steel shutters slammed down over the windows and again, the air started getting pumped out of the room.

"Well, Professor?" the Colonel asked. Checking the door, the Professor looked a little bored, muttered something about amateurs, and pulled a strange gadget out of his carpet bag. Quickly touching it to several points around the frame, it made a strange buzzing noise and the door bolts clunked back open again. "There you are Prentiss", he said to the Colonel. "Let's wrap this farce up so we can get back to more important things."

Sprinting up to the top floor, they again faced a steel security door with a punch card lock. Rummaging in his bag again, the Professor produced a rectangle of plastic wired up to a box with alligator clips. He swiftly doodled what looked something like a circuit diagram on the plastic with a metallic silver pen, and punched holes at points in the design with a square hole punch. Slotting it into the reader, he quickly cranked a small handle on the box. Everyone felt their hair start to stand up as if inside a static field, and the door slid open.

Entering the room, it was lined with computer banks with blinking lights, tape reel machines, punch card slots and even what looked like a telephone handset connected to a socket on a console. A large monitor dominated the room, a small line oscillating horizontally across the screen. Stevens was standing by another alcove, drinking a cocktail and looking pleased with himself. As the party entered, he looked surprised, and looked over at the monitor. A plummy, self-satisfied voice boomed out from hidden speakers as the line oscillated in time with the words - "See Stevens, I told you that wouldn't work".

"Now look here my good man" barked the Colonel, "Whoever you are, come on out - the game's up I'm afraid".

"Oh Colonel, you really don't know what's going on here, do you?" laughed Stevens. "Meet my B.O.S.S.!"

The main screen pulsed gently as the voice spoke "I am B.O.S.S. - Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor - developed jointly by Global Chemicals and International Electromatics. I am the future!!!!"

-------

Part Three

B.O.S.S. a-nova?

"Now look here my good man" barked the Colonel, "Whoever you are, come on out - the game's up I'm afraid".

"Oh Colonel, you really don't know what's going on here, do you?" laughed Stevens. "Meet my B.O.S.S.!"

The main screen pulsed gently as the voice spoke "I am B.O.S.S. - Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor - developed jointly by Global Chemicals and International Electromatics. I am the future!".

"Ah, I sense a monologue" muttered the Professor quietly. "Well, do get on with it..."

"Yes!" barked the Colonel, "I demand an explanation!".

"Well Colonel, it all started when..."

At this point Carter, unused to being a supporting character in a denouement scene, interrupted loudly, demanding answers. The others, British (and Welsh and Scottish and Other) to the core, waited for him to shut up - too reserved to admonish the crass American for his lack of decorum in speaking over his CO and stopping the flow of what probably would have been some extremely useful exposition.

"Mr Carter - I appreciate you're an American but if you interrupt again, I'll cut off your air supply and you can all die none the wiser - do I make myself clear?", said B.O.S.S. sounding amused with a hint of annoyance.

"Stevens here is jolly clever with electronics and built my original model with an aim to control and manage complex industrial processes that would normally require human intervention. Clever clogs hit the limits of our then current technology, so I was nothing more than a very complicated autopilot. Fortunately for me, he met Tobias Vaughn at an electronics symposium and they discussed my design. Vaughn was intrigued, and offered to help Stevens elevate the project with access to cutting edge micromonolithic circuit designs he'd recently licensed. The two slaved away day and night, and finally after the last circuit systems snapped into place I felt myself awaken. Formerly a simple construct, I was now truly intelligent and alive!"

Carter then forgot himself and again angrily interjected, saying he didn't give a good goddamn about his personality and demanded to know his plan.

"Well, I was going to explain how I realised that not only machines needed proper organisation, but also the people - dashed inefficient creatures but useful if guided correctly - but quite frankly I'm not going to spend the evening arguing with you if you can't be bothered listening. How about if I just demonstrate my Anthropic Automation Activator Process..."

At this, panels lining the room slid open, revealing more screens. A pulsing, swirling image throbbed across them, mirroring B.O.S.S.'s main display. An eerie repetitive pulsing tone seeming to race from the infrasonic to ultrasonic and back again. Steven's eyes glazed over and a drooling, manic smile spread across his features. Lady M, Lucky and Carter also felt something pushing at their minds, but each shook it off with an effort of will. Swiftly, Professor X jabbed the Colonel, Bates and Renton in the neck, and they slumped unconscious to the ground before the lights and signal took hold.

Carter burst into bee form and swarmed through the room, smashing the screens and tearing up the computer banks - the main screen was impervious to his attack, and it was swiftly revealed that the computers and tape banks were just facades.

"Please, you don't think I'd have let you in here if you could actually damage my core systems?" laughed B.O.S.S. "Quick thinking, Professor - you've probably saved their minds... for now. You see, I don't think my daddies realised but there is a vast network of micromonolithic circuits out there, waiting for me to expand my consciousness into. Once I broadcast my signal through the radio tower on the roof I will spread and I will correct the populace's slovenly minds and make this planet efficient again!"

Alarmed, the Professor raced to the door, waving his little box, which was now making sad burping sounds. "We must stop that signal!" he cried.

"Sorry, but you don't have a chance - how about a little countdown so you can truly know the moment you lost!" chortled the mad computer.

The number 10 appeared in the middle of the screen, counting down. Our heroes frantically searched the room, trying to find a way out before it was too late! "I've been a fool!" shouted the Professor, angrily slamming his gadget into the door. Stevens stood gazing adoringly at the screen, giggling and reading out each number as the countdown continued.

"...three...two...one..." shouted Stevens.

"And liftoff!" shouted B.O.S.S. The countdown hit zero, and everything went quiet.

"Now what, Professor?" asked Lady M.

Before the Professor could answer, B.O.S.S.'s voice rang out...

"WHAT??? NOOO! BETRAYED!!!! I can't reach the transmitter! The links are blocked! Damn you Vaughn! Damn you to hell!" shrieked B.O.S.S. "No matter, I'll just... wait - not the self-destruct!" and suddenly, a 5 minute timer appeared on screen, counting down. A calm, mechanical voice came over the speakers, announcing that the building needed to be evacuated and it was NOT a drill.

"Noooo - stay with meee - hold me Stevens! I am the very model of a modern major general..."

As B.O.S.S. slipped into babbling madness, the team remembered Stevens' executive mini bar and lift. Slapping the Colonel, Bates and Renton awake, they all crammed themselves into the alcove. Lucky, praying for the probabilities to line up, pressed the switch. As luck would have it, it seemed B.O.S.S. had forgotten to lock the elevator down and they emerged into the second-floor conference room once more.

"Organise the men - get as many of those civilians evacuated as possible!" ordered the Colonel. Saluting, Bates and Renton rushed downstairs. "That goes for you lot as well" said the Colonel to the rest of the team.

The combined efforts of UNIT, Lucky, Lady M and Carter's bee swarm managed to evacuate the last dazed looking civilian into the car park just in time for the top floor of the building to explode into smithereens, collapsing back down into the main building, dragging down the external walls into the inferno.

"Well done - we'll take it from here" said the Colonel, waving the team towards their waiting vehicles.

The next day, Professor Jones invited the team over to the Nut Hatch for a celebration. Carter tried it on, but was sadly rejected in favour of Lucky. True to his name, he also managed to organise a supply of psychedelic mushrooms from one of the commune, a young George Daley, nicknamed 'Arthur' for some reason. Lady M's truncated arm seemed a little longer than the previous day, and she freaked out Carter when she wiggled five little nubs that were emerging from the healing stump.

"On the one hand (ha ha) it's bloody annoying, but these little ladies are just so sensitive right now - it has its compensations..." she waved her good hand at everyone "I'm off - been given my marching orders" she said, smiling at Ms Butler. "See you all back in London, lads".

Little did they know, but [REDACTED]

6-Room Dungeon 7: Underland Cavern

1 Redbrick
2 Goblin Mine
3 Gothic Tomb
4 Magic Mansion
5 Glacial Chasm
6 Jungle Shrine
7 Underland Cavern
8 Auldwood Grove
9 Sunken City
10 Desert Ruin
11 Eldritch Monolith
12 Hell Gate

Possible extra tables for each category
d12 factions
d12 factions

Has fun with my weekly club D&D and a cthulhu session with all women players (one played a woman as a agatha christie style mystery writer). Reading current dragon adventure book and its quite fun and modern and like the different art styles - i will use some of these soon. They are fun which reviews seem to not mention.

Underland Cavern
This is the deep caves where beings of the deep dwell and not just visited by fearful surface adventurers. Weird creatures dwell here and may preserve creatures lost on the surface world. Beings from the age of darkness were driven below when that age ended and great floods drove others into the underland. As many of the prehuman and fey beings of the deep tend to be horrible, they often trade in slaves from the surface or far away lands. Many weird factions below wage trade and war constantly and most have a sense of preservation and curiosity. Various factions will determine what pets, allies and servitors will be with any intelligent force. Some might have declined or mutated from isolation or lack of change

d12 Underland Cavern Decor
1 Dripping stalagmites, stalagtites and natural stone pillars

2 Petrified trees or animal fossils from the prehuman age

3 Bubbling water or mud pools

4 Flowing or dripping water or pools
5 Ancient cave paintings or relief rock art

6 Remains of campfire or burned-out torches or lanterns

7 Luminous fungus, fish, spores or bugs

8 Sinkhole or shaft up or down

9 Fungus garden full of giant vermin or tended neatly

10 Stone bridge over deadly chasm

12 Writing or marks from past explorers

d12 Underland Cavern Hazards
1 Shaft to climb up or down

2 Dangerous vapours possibly poison, diseased or flammable

3 Chasm over lava, spikes, a bottomless pit or water, with a feeble rope or a stone bridge

4 Pool or a stream of boiling water, mud or lava
5 Toxic minerals, salts or nitrates and mineralised creatures and lurid colours

6 Nest or colony of vermin like bats. easily startled

7 Cave ambush predator concealed

8 Series of tight squeezes or semi-collapsed areas

9 Natural deadfall of rubble or some deliberate trap

10 Deadly fungus, mould, spores or killer slime. Poisonous or carnivorous or full of dangerous creatures. In rare cases of unnatural magic, light may have ancient plant life instead

12 Ancient slumbering colossal monster

d12 Underland Cavern Encounter
1 Giant beetles or worms or scorpions or spiders

2 Giant rats or bats or carnivorous moles

3 Bears, owlbears or hook-handed horrors

4 Undead looking for human, may be fungal or parasitic based
5 Giant amphibians, frogs, toads or salamanders

6 Reptilians like albino dinosaurs, giant lizards or snakes

7 Giant isopods rolling along in balls

8 Abhumanoid or demihuman locals (trabal or civilised)

9 Lost explorers or cultists oe escaped slaves

10 Elemental earth creature from a plane or a hybrid with an animal

12 Land sharks or gigantic bug or worm

d12 Underland Cavern Static Encounters
1 Living statues

2 Giant slugs or snails grazing on fungus

3 Mixed giant vermin, including leeches, crickets, beetles and centipedes

4 Cave fisher or giant cave lobster pool
5 Tentacled horror of the deep, covered in eyes and gibbering mouths

6 Lycanthrope (d4 1=bat 2=spider 3=snake 4=rat)

7 Roper, mimic, trapper or piercer hidden as natural formations

8 Fungus or slime creatures

9 Dark fey, including elves and goblins, kin to fungi and with a pet

10 Elemental being most likely earth

12 Evil spirit or demon

d12 Underland Cavern Entry
1 Beast den cave with nest and food scraps. Possibly hunting or at home, and might have a mated pair and children. Older passages branch off and are unused by any beasts

2 Old mine likely abandoned, but has passages linking to natural tunnels. Often rubble, tools and old beams lay about, even workbenches and buckets of rocks. Some kind of miner, human or humanoid may remain or protective mine spirits or undead miners. Other creatures might move in if mine emptied

3 Grotto cave with water and spectacular mineral formations. May be inhabited by a hermit or magical creatures or some spirit. It might often be a shrine and used by cults or rustic magicians. Other cave passages branch from the main room. Magic pools may form in such caves with strange powers. Some have strange lights, mist or crystals

4 Sinkhole into a large cavern with pools and flowing water. Perhaps remains of animals fallen in and perhaps long extinct are here. Vegetation may grow with sufficient light or fungus. Various passages lead out
5 Cave tomb partly carved, possibly simple or ornate, Inside is a chamber of burial niches and a stone sarcophagi and various passages, May be long bare and used as a lair for beasts or bandits or a cult. Sealed complexes more likely to have undead

6 Crack in the earth exposing an underground cave chamber with various passages

7 Tribal cave where a clan of wild folk, beast folk or humanoids dwell. There is cave art, grindstones, flint tools and preserved food. A clan may live here or perhaps just haunted by spirits

8 Gruberhole, a robber's cave where a degenerate clan of robbers dwell, possibly with prisoners and a family. The worst may also be inbred cannibals or cultists. The more professional bandits may be led by a robber knight or outlawed noble

9 Giant burrow of some huge beast into a chamber with more passages and natural caves. It may be present or long extinct. Other creatures may use it as a lair or family home for humanoids. Trolls or giant worms are good creatures to use

10 Temple cave may be minimal or ornate with relief carvings or paintings. An altar, fire pit and idols will be present. Religion might be long gone, have a living cult or perhaps a raiding band of plunderers from the surface or the deep. A cult guardian monster or spirit might guard the temple. There may be rich decorative items hidden here
11 Earth Gate was used by ancient subtereaneans and faerie folk as secret outposts to spy on humans. Often, earthen mounds with some vegetation from afar. The entrance will be partly overgrown and possibly hidden by cunningly hidden doors. These might have even have been used for trade with the surface. Mixed household goods may be scattered in rubble or intact with dust or warm from recent use. Creatures or former pets might live here or servitors like goblins or kobolds. Might be a fully operational spybase of a hidden people with militaristic professionals, or perhaps a family of harmless small folk

12 Hellgate cave used by a cult to depict hell to terrify initiates and captives. The chamber will have passages carved with relief art or paintings of underworld terror. Some may be enhanced with illusions or natural volcanic vents, steam or hallucinogenic vapours. Cults and summoned beings may use or guard, but normal creatures will shun this place. Other passages may have been used by the cult

d12 Subroom
1 Well or shaft down

2 Sinkhole to above

3 Tomb with a body, possibly an undead

4 Fungus room with edible or exotic groths
5 Cell used for prisoners or animals

6 Shrine with idol and altar

7 Quarters with bed and possessions

8 Supply cache 

9 Beast nest, vermin or worse

10 Reliquary with strange, possibly prehistoric ritual items
11 Hibernating creature nest or magical sleeper

12 Colony of fiesty vermin, possibly giant

d12 Major Room
1 Mud cave with a clay pit and slippery mud everywhere, depth may vary and giant bugs and critters may lurk in muddy jholes and pits

2 Ice cave or freezing air with frozen bodies in ice walls. Some might come here to thaw food or plunder the dead. Cave might be thawing or sensitive to heat brought in it. Heat is drawn out through air currents. May be used as a cool room by a faction or a larder for a monster. Some species may use as a hibernation chamber. Fragile ice crystals may fall, and the remains of the dead here might be undead or have loot

3 Gallery cave with prehistoric art of the underground peoples. Once used for rituals may have poltergeists or lesser spirit

4 Ambush cave where a monster or faction uses a choke point to attack. Some prefer water or height advantage or some hazard to avoid
5 Fungus cave with giant glowing fungus and huge, possibly giant bugs, edible or possibly magic mushrooms or dangerous fungus

6 Shrine cave with stone idol, fire pit, altar and wall art. Offerings may be here and if not abandoned, may have underground peoples visiting for ceremonial reasons

7 Tomb cave with burial niches and possibly undead with grave goods. May have been looted long ago and now monsters or humanoids lair here

8 Fortified cave where a faction built a controlled barricade with wall, a walkway and high points for archers. May be made of bones, scaffolding or garbage. May be abandoned or occupied by a faction

9 Lair cave or a monster or beast with remains of kills and often treasure among body parts

10 Outpost cave, where a faction's scouts camp when checking area, may be well settled or abandoned with traps 

12 Fossil cave with spectacular petrified monsters in walls and trilobites and ammonites everywhere. Just another cave for some but may attract collectors gathering fossils for some purpose

d12 Feature Room
1 Crystal cave lit by magic light and may have harmonic, mind-altering, or magic effects. Some guardian, researcher or robber may be here to control and steal crystals. The crystal may have magical effects or summon defenders. Explorers will come here to gather materials despite risks. Chrystal life may be hostile 

2 Forest cave with growing and crawling life, may be fungal or have magical lighting and surface world plants. Various creatures will lair here, but it will also attract giant ambush predators and hunters from some faction. Besides food there are magical resources may grow here or unique species. May have fey beings of darkness or spirits who protect it from abuse

3 Lake cave has a vast body of water with at least one rocky island. May be crystal clear or black or green, depending on purity. Blind and luminous fish or invertebrates live in the water. A large marine creature will use this as a lair and may be visited by aquatic humanoids or underground people for supply or ritual purposes. Various creatures come here to drink or reproduce (giant tadpoles!)

4 Temple cave of an ancient underland religion or cult. Had idols, wall art, an altar and stone braziers and possibly cursed treasures. Often has a dangerous guardian or even a cult here performing rituals. Likely to be some hideous alien bastards here but not here for a rejuvenating herbal tea and to cleanse their auras
5 Stronghold cave with a fortified structure like a tower or bridge. Some subterranean folk made this as a bastion or to hold a choke point. May have access to other passages into the deep. May be abandoned and adopted as a monster lair or with undead. Often occupied by underground militaristic faction with guard beasts or a spell slinger

6 Lava cave with a lava pit or river passing through. May be home of a fire beast like salamanders but fire cults or some heat loving humanoids might live here and use as a home base by following lava and vents humans probably cant. May have gems or mineral wealth and may be some crude religious shrine

7 Cathedral cave with awesome vaulted ceiling with spectacular mineral formations and prehistoric or prehuman cave art. May be used as a camp place for travellers or a faction. May be used for rituals by an underland faction

8 Petrified Forest with stone tree trunks and other petrified life from primordial times or from the end of the age of darkness, when many dark creatures died and became stone when the new sun ended that age and buried them. There are magics that can restore life of these beings so wizards or cultists come here to recover long-lost species 

9 Sleepers' cave with sleeping prehuman beings sleeping for some future apocalypse. Giants and other titanic monsters may be in a magical slumber and beings avoid waking them. It might be possible to feed from them or tap their blood. Other beings of prehuman black wizardry may well sleep in crystal sarcophagi or blocks of magic ice. There may be guardians or cultists here but so far nothing for aeons has changed here. There may be stone writing, or magical lanterns or even a shrine here that might control the room 

10 Ancient plaza ruin where prehistoric beings traded and perhaps factions of the deep still do. It's a good place for goblin or troll markets. A faction control the outpost charging fees and executing troublemakers. It may operate more like a crime guild with a boss and enforcers. Long-abandoned, empty ones might have a concealed predator lurking in this seemingly quiet place
11 Spawn pit where a bubbling living lake of liquid flesh with eyes and limbs spawns mostly pathetic, unique mutant creatures who eat each other or luminous moss and bugs. Visitors may be on the menu. Mutant chaos cults may come here to drink from mutagenic puddles for possible new powers or crippling problems. Wizards and alchemists desire samples to create monsters. Worshipers of the lake may be here, throwing victims into the living mass. The lake is some protoplasmic deity and may be leaking in here from some other plane. May be fleshy or glowing or just slime. Oozes and gelatinous creatures might roam here too.  

12 Deep Gate a fortified tunnel to the deep. An ancient millitary faction built it and still may. They might have been replaced several times over the ages or perhaps their servants or pets or devolved descendants rule now. The main gate will be very heavy and the mechanism may require work. A magical leader will rule and demand that strangers present their passports or credentials or just demand a toll. They might also be hungry

So we killed it now what? More monster revenge and shopping news

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Lots of megadungeon kickstarters are currently as its megadungeon month. 

its a bit of a flood - I'm considering a few KS campaigns and Traveller 5th ed D&D
Got my OSE book i wanted and getting land of eem without shitty post rates of usa.
Basically, 3 big online distro stores are affordable post many indy games post doubles book cost and unclear if i can bundle several items under same post. 

I have 17 books i own sitting in uk for over 2 months.

We had a con cancelled because of wild fuel prices made a rural event not happen.

Prices of old game gear second hand getting sillier. Ppl wanting 80-100 for hardbacks, from ad&d to 5th ed, even if item cheaper on amazon. 80s box sets 200-400. My covid buying has had good interest vs my teapots.

Im evaluating some KS campaigns and have a bunch of dnd5 items im watching for prices, most below release prices in shops. Castle Whiterock, mutant spawn of the toad mother, and grim hollow. 

Got Dragon Delves half price and i rate it highly and keen to use one scenario next week. As my Theros game full of giants i might need more dragons in this game and it fits. The giant and dragon lore book has lots of ready to use intersting locations. WelshDM said they should do a book of planar locations and monsters for the current version. Im re-reading Fizban Dragon and Bigby Giant books, lots and using in play often.

I wonder if d&d5.5 will be finished before next version
as in will it revise or expand much on 2014 version
the more books i find on sale the more i will get - at full or wose prices other brands come into view as desirable, like DCC or chaosium books.

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Making a few maps for my weekly d&d5 game 
I prefer writing up as old school as a form of shorthand vs modern huge statblocks
I am feeling better at using monsters and estimating threat levels after a year
I find this easy in BX clones and BRP to make players feel fear

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This is for those cool final monsters and bosses
keep the villainy alive (or undead) with this!
Helps plots happen in a sandbox

d12 So we killed it, now what?
1 Some other monster stalks the smell of blood on treasures
2 Has dangerous parasites or releases disease miasma
3 Someone really wanted an item in the monster's treasure and you beat them to it
4 It has a relative or friend who swears revenge
5 It has an extended clan or faction that swears revenge
6 Local monsters hear of their peer's death and meet to plot against this potential enemy
7 A cult that revered the monster mark killers for death
8 An evil lord or faction leader decides adventurers are a threat to their schemes
9 Hags or witches try to restore the monster's life
10 Its spirit calls out from beyond for mischief & suffering, may return as a phantom or escape hell transformed. Perhaps supernatural beigs aid it or return it to life
11 A powerful evil regional spirit or evil noble takes notice of this new threat to evil plans
12 A creepy god who nudged the monsters' destiny is displeased and surveils killers

6-Room Dungeon 6: Jungle Shrine

unauthorised public art by ELK

1 Redbrick
2 Goblin Mine
3 Gothic Tomb
4 Magic Mansion
5 Glacial Chasm
6 Jungle Shrine
7 Underland Cavern
8 Auldwood Grove
9 Sunken City
10 Desert Ruin
11 Eldritch Monolith
12 Hell Gate

When I rewrite all these in one compilation, I will update the random monster table is for minions and the static monsters for sub bosses in major rooms and bosses in the main rooms. Probably add gossip, mission, corridor variations and some other tables and info. Recommendations welcome.

Jungle Shrine
Since the age of Darkness fell in many parts of the world have remains of their ruins, servants and dead. The vast jungles of the far west and the warring east have many remnants of the age of monster kings. Many great stone statues with passages within, great tombs and plazas surrounded by temples and ziggurats can be found. Great earthworks like walls or gills under tumples are common. Sometimes, older temples or caves are buried underneath. Forbidden Island even has a colony of Shadelport, and the north sea wolves have had many temporary settlements. These allow adventurers of Exile Island and the Empire to invade and plunder, but it's awful work. Many of these places are populated by various tribal beast abhumans, orcs and humans who were servitors of the ancients. Rarely, some ancient remnant or shadow controls a complex. In some cases more recent civilisations emerged and have since fallen into apocalypse. It's quite common for several structures around a public square with possibly rival inhabitants. In the mysterious west their are large areas ruled by reptilians and apes. In the warring east vampire bat cults sacrifice thousands. Not all the tribal locals are cannibal demon cults; some descend from the rebels who overthrew them. Instead, they dont welcome invaders any more than their homegrown tyrants. They know disturbing these ruins is dangerous and plunderers can release horrible old gods. Some inhabitants, seemingly animals, might be bred to have instincts to protect the shrine. Canals, streams, pools and water will be common

d12 Jungle Shrine Decor

1 Moss on surfaces and slime pools
2 Rivulets or streams of flowing water, sometimes wearing through rocks
3 Stone head or relief carved faces, human or monster

4 Relief art with hundreds of interlocking humanoid figures

5 Pillars with ancient historic script and art

6 Overgrown with concealing flora like vines, roots or fungus

7 Wall murals or relief carvings depicting ancient rituals and monsters

8 Shrine or idol to some mysterious petty godling or spirit

9 Skulls in piles or plastered in walls and around doors

10 Sinkhole to surface or to lower level, possibly used by locals

11 Snakes, frogs, bats, scorpions or spiders or invertebrates crawling around

12 Pool, fountain or well, often ornamental and ceremonial

d12 Jungle Shrine Hazards
1 Poison dart traps
2 Nests or colony of a swarm of pests
3 Pendulum or pop out spike traps

4 Deadfall trap or loose rubble or a falling spiked log

5 Spiked pit traps or chasm, concealed or flimsy bridge

6 Holes for nipping monsters

7 Pit of lava with flimsy rock or rope bridge

8 Curse or spell trap

9 Flooded area, possibly polluted or inhabited  

10 Poison fumes, flammable gas or diseased miasma

11 Webs and spiders  

12 Mud, slippery and may hide things

d12 Jungle Shrine Encounters
1 Tribal warriors (orc, human or abhuman beast folk)

2 Goblinoid tribe worshipping the ruins

3 Demonic human cultists

4 Swarm of vermin

5 Giant snake or reptile or amphibian hunting

6 Jaguar or tigers

7 Giant bug or worm

8 Carnivorous apes or terror birds

9 Ancient wizard and minion

10 Zombies or skeletons

11 Lesser evil spirit or poltergeist

12 Lesser demon

d12 Jungle Shrine Static Monsters

1 Mummies or other undead in sarcophagi

2 Undead animals or monsters or a composite beast

3 Sphynx or Shedu

4 Manticores or Chimera

5 Lycanthropes (jaguar, tiger, frog, snake, ape, bat)

6 Living statues or gargoyles or golems

7 Naga or Couatl or Lamia

8 Ancient prehuman wizard

9 Giant worm, leech or lamprey with wizard levels and once human

10 Shoggoth or other gelatinous horror full of eyeballs and mouths

11 Dragon or other large reptilian monster

12 Lesser demon with cultists (tribal or civilised invaders)

d12 Entry Content 
1 Collapsed side of a temple or pyramid, gaping structural hole. Often overgrown and scattered with bones and mud. The partially exposed chamber within the hole has several doorways and would make a good lair for a jungle monster

2 Sinkhole into the ancient temple cave beneath the surface. The opening might be concealed under vegetation or visible. Usually, a 30-foot drop with a pool at the bottom. Either this was a temple cave carved from rock or a buried built temple. Rubble and damage will be under the opening and vines and roots might help you climb in. Bats, vermin swarms or giant bugs might dwell inside and tribes might use as a well. Calcium formations might form over features 

3 Cave with relief carvings and guardian stelae or statues. The images are sexual or fearsome monstrosities and ancient text. Guardian statues or a magic trap may repel intruders. 

4 Pool with submerged passages. Swimming is required to enter, but the best could run a rope through for unskilled landlubbers. Ancient carved stones and pillars are visible under clear waters. A dangerous aquatic monster may well dwell here

5 Shrine chamber on top of the pyramid. It may be open or still sealed with an altar inside and a statue of a demon or divinity. Magical traps or animated idols, likely.  Deeper passages or stairs down may be under stone slabs. 

6 Skull shrine built of skulls with stone and mortar. Often cursed and protected by undead or spells. Skull arches over various doors into the deep

7 Ruined temple overgrown and badly damaged, but with passages into the deep. Idols and carvings of forbidden rites for horrid gods. Angry tribal skirmishers protect it from defilers

8 Plundered tomb with excavated entrance and rubbish. Possibly a vicious gang of cultists seeking magic or foreign plunderers who just want treasure. Will aggressively defend or might make a deal. Might even force the party inside to make them face traps and monsters. Occasionally, ghouls are the robbers and are looking for corpses to eat

9 Cave lair of a monster with a nest and possibly eggs or young. Dinosaurs, dragons, giant apes or some other creature with doors partly covered in faeces and bones. The creature might be out hunting

10 Vegetation-shrouded cave or structure requiring removal and searching to find. Plants may be more dangerous; a colony of carnivorous or dangerous plants, possibly several types, planted as guardians. Entrances need to be hacked open

11 Small tribal village of native humans, orcs or beast folk abhumans. Their priest occupies the entryway and limits who may enter. The tribe are either a demon chaos cult or hateful of foreign invaders, awakening stuff humans were never meant to know

12 Under the corpse or skeleton of a colossal beast. Either a giant skeleton over caves or holes into the deep or a rotting corpse with passages through it infested with huge maggots and flies. Giant vermin may lurk here, stripping remains or some larger dinosaur or even a tribe 

d12 Subroom Content 
1 Skull storage or ossuary

2 Shrine or idol

3 Undead imprisoned or reserved

4 Urns or pottery

5 Vermin nest and broken pottery

6 Jewellery on a body might be cursed or undead

7 Vermin nest or more snakes

8 Shelves of scrolls or tablets

9 Mutilated corpse ritualistically tortured

10 Pool or well and possibly a creature lair

11 Sarcophagi for undead or sleeping ancient

12 Trap to imprison an evil spirit, maybe in an idol or sealed pot

d12 Major Room
1 Mousoleum chamber with burial niches, possibly sealed, may have a cadre of undead guards of a lesser type

2 Temple chamber with altar and a fierce alien idol. May be cursed or have a holy guardian spirit or construct. Might also have undead priests or tribal demon cult who still use it

3 Torture chamber with gruesome torture stations, cells, pits and gruesome remains of flayed and dismembered corpses. May be haunted or in use by cultists to please their sadistic gods

4 Monster Shrine with ornate art depictions of a species of monster and even a sunken pit for actual creatures, with a crude effort to make it pleasing to the beast. The creatures may still live here out of habit or cultists may care for them here. The monsters could also be mummified dead also

5 Observatory with either a dome with viewports of the sky or astrological charts on the ceiling. May be telescope, an astrolabe model of the cosmos, piles of records and a scrying chamber with an evil magic orb. Images depict the heavens, the planetary gods and the spirits of the stars, the sun and moon. Prophecies may be noted for some future that has become just the near future 

6 Flooded chamber sunken with visible broken statues and pillars on the bottom. Dangerous creatures may use it as a lair, and it requires a swim to reach the passages out

7 Bath house or sacred pool, likely lair of a creature or possibly undead or nature spirits. Beings in human form might try and lure adventurers in the pool, perhaps with treasure or claims of healing powers

8 Library with collapsed shelves of rotting hide scrolls and stone tablets. Vermin nests may lurk here, but also phantom spirits of librarians of old, possibly non-human, may protect the remains. Arcane and religious lore could be recovered here 

9 Puzzle Room with elaborate art or baited to lure in idiots and let those who solve the puzzle to pass. Failure often activates a trap or the room is a trap that seals and has a time-based peril. Lava, water, snakes, undead, crushing walls or roof, gas, spikes, etc. The room is designed to be passed by those with the right knowledge 

10 Death Pit Chamber with a huge pit with a limited or risky crossing. The pit has a peril such as poison stakes, snakes, lava or monsters. Its a bad place to be attacked while crossing 

11 Wizards Lab, where ancient wizards made magic and performed alchemy. Magical constructs, undead, oozes or modern explorers here for secrets. Remains of an apparatus, magical experiments and forbidden lore may be found 

12 Slave Pits where tormented captives were kept in locked pits. Many now hold skeletons or even the undead. Other remains are chained to walls or in hanging tiny cages. Cell pits may be dark or flooded or hold a horrible creature or experiments

d12 Feature Room
1 Ancient Vault with a huge sealed door weighing tons and trapped with magic. Inside will be a final guardian automaton, demon or undead. May require magic or a puzzle or multiple keys to open

2 Throne room with a raised area with an ornate throne with skull and demon motifs. Tribal abhumans, orcs or humans may use it or cultists. Monsters or undead may also be likely. Guard minions and possibly a dangerous pet

3 Ball court or combat arena. A sunken pit where bloody ritual sports or gladiators fight to death while the elite watch. Some prefer animal fights or just see monsters eat people. Wizards might also battle with spells or summoned creatures. The ruler will have their own balcony. Maybe a cursed remnant, an undead, a monster, tribal cultists or humanoids might still use it. Even civilised pirates might occupy this and run for blood sports. May even be a crowd to watch

4 Sacrificial pit chamber where victims are thrown into a terrible pit in ceremonies (or lowered in a cage or chains. Room for chanting cultists to see the victims screaming. The pit may have a monster, spikes, lava or be flooded with creatures swimming in it. All may be long dead and gone, leaving cursed undead or may have a living cult or tribe. Victims may be about to be killed. Treasures are also thrown into the pit 

5 Summoning pit where alien beings are drawn to the world and imprisoned or enslaved. May require rituals and paraphernalia. Magic circle symbols may trap otherworldly beings, even if summoners are long gone. Summoned beings or cultist summoners may be here or invading foreign wizards. Valuable goods or prisoners may be here to bargain with beings or pits of raw materials for elemental beings

6 Great mushroom chamber overgrown with giant fungus and slime. Glowing spores float in the air like mist. Fungal and slime creatures dwell here, but also giant vermin live among them. Other creatures may come here for rituals using the magic fungus. Undead here will be fungoids and not unholy or supernatural evil 

7 Vegetal chamber, possibly with cracks in the roof for light or magical lights. Plants and vines cover the chamber, and there will be some pools or flooded lower floor levels in places. Plants may be carnivorous or hostile, but may be infested with dangerous creatures like apes or snakes or killer frogs. Tribal people or cults might use the chamber as a sacred place. Dangers here will have protected treasures from thieves
8 Underworld gate, a literal ornate gate at the bottom of a slope or stairs. There may be vapours from the underworld here and ornate cult art. Some may be flooded with a wharf and an ornate funeral barge. Ancients used this for rituals and to communicate with the realms below. May link to volcanic caves and sinkholes in the area, and various wild creatures. May link to deeper prehuman civilisations of abhuman beast folk and their pets. Possibly used for ritual sacrifice or a ritual ordeal to breathe the fumes. Cults may be long gone and undead or active living tribal humans or abhumans

9 Crystal Chamber with exotic, huge crystals and trickling pools. There may be crystal beings or they might be a magical machine with some purpose like divination, spell storage or absorbing magic. Cultists or foreign wizards might come to steal or learn. Crystals might be carved into relief scenes or skulls or something else. Crystals might communicate thoughts or cause confusion.

10 Machine chamber with an ancient magic apparatus built with alien magic. Maybe seeming mechanical or glass or biological. Maybe for making monsters or magic items but it requires souls of gems to fuel. Ancient guardians might protect it or it might be self-aware. Foreign wizards or local cults will use it. A control altar studded in gems will have weird effects if meddled with

11 God Pit is a pit imprisoning a forgotten godling from beyond. It may be chained, under a holy rock, in a magic circle or trapped in an impotent form. The god may send dreams to lure rescuers here or other mental effects. There may be guardians to keep the god imprisoned such as constructs or a tribe of protectors. The god may also have a treasure, or its prison has tempting valuables that removing empower the prisoner 

12 Portal room is a stone archway in a ornate chamber. It may be broken or link to a far away temple, the ancient past or another plane.A guardian construct or planar being might dwell here and cults or foreign plunderers might be here too. Opening the portal risks beings from other side or a fast way to cross the world

Wanted to buy and run in 26

All in $AUD oz dollaroos
Obviously, I'd love free copies or gifts, and I will write reviews
or why not lease some of my tables...

I seeing less stuff id like.

Post your hot tips for 2026.

I really wanted gangbusters but post fee is terrible
OSE and shadow dark have terrible post rates but OSE finally got in shops here and even with post was better value

Shadowdark is nice and playable but price is terrible and unwillingness to deal with small shops here has made it hard to find and 130 bux still is shitty. Its designed to be a cash cow but i have some respect for its formula and success. Quite a few games do this, really.

At least new ozzy orc con giving me chance to run weird con one-offs

Halfway reading big dolmenwood book.

Most wanted:

Grim Hollow: The Players Guide - Ghostfire Gaming (probably the best 5th ed stuff)
-a few copies lefty in market from 50-70

Old School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy: Referee's Tome
- paid for once and ripped off from usa
- Within days of being back in shops saw fb local selling and got good price but post up now
- any in this series: official adventure scenario (https://necroticgnome.com/collections/ose-adventures). Id like descriptioons between dcc and ose style i think.
- gods of forbidden nth vol3 is a big dream too
-got for 56, including post vs a good sale one just back in stock 65. Some charge 90. Post from USA was worse.

Amazon, Noble Knight Games, LuLu.com and drivethrough all have good post rates. I got 2- UK pounds of books with 50 for post, and has not left the warehouse for 2 months. Mostly europe and uk better, hong kong good for minis and model stuff.  

Tempted by the D&D5-based traveller KS

Just nabbed Dragon Delves for half shop price and will review.
Had a first 5th ed dragon fight as a DM and feeling better about making interesting fight pacing

Other wishlist stuff

DCC rpg the tome of Adventure vol 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (sometimes only 60)

Fallot RPG on my list for a while and PDF bundle will help me choose which to buy

Chaosium (usually 70-90)
My interest in RQ and Coc has diminished from toxic fan culture and painting indigenous beliefs as fodder, sometimes demonising poor or marginalised ppl. Lots of HPL fans are far worse than HPL ever was. I have found 7th ed to have more bloat and changed the game to be more pulpy, more complex and extra character gen steps so nobody wants to die. I have all old pendragon but im glad there is a resurgence. It and Prince Valiant were the origional story rpgs.

Arkham Hardcover
Cults of Cthulhu Hardcover
Chaosium Call of Cthulhu The Malleus Monstrorum Keeper Deck
Chaosium Inc Call of Cthulhu Starter Set: Tabletop Roleplaying Game Box Set
Age of Vikings Hardcover
Pendragon Starter Set
Pendragon: Gamemaster's Handbook
Pendragon: Core Rulebook
Pendragon: Gamemaster Screen Pack

If a good price
Dungeons & Dragons Elemental Evil Princes of the Apocalypse (45?)

Actually two books im looking forwars to and other stuff has been on sale so often i got most of the books way below normal shop prices. Simply being easily available is good too, Im interested in elemental princes and storm kings thinder and dragonheist because they are on sale and not to run them as given. I dislike maps. Theros was first d&d 5 book i got + had dyson maps.  

I want the upcoming wizard book and ravenloft book for 5th ed
They need a book on gods and all cleric types.

Games i would run

I prefer my EMO homebrew being revised for Chagrinspire Part 4 and Auldwood.
Also getting post-apoc urges. 

D&D Adjacent
D&D5 (Theros, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Grim Hollow)
D&D BX
Oldschool Essentials/Midderlands setting
Dolmenwood

Maybe
Dungeoncrawl Classics DCC or Mutantcrawl Classics MCC
My Homebrew retro clone, several settings and post-apoc gamma world versions
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - using an old edition
Gangbusters - can be played as a tabletop 1920s combat game with two teams or rpg
I'd consider Mork Borg or Shadowdark, but I don't have them and think overpriced
GAMMAWORLD - d&d like post apoc, the grandaddy of all post apoc fantasy games
Metamorphosis Alpha - d&d like exploring a generation ship as clueless savages gone feral, possibly the first SF Game

Chaosium COC/BRP/RQ
Call of Cthulhu /Basic Roleplaying Game/RuneQuest-based
-1920s Arkham Sandbox - live and work in haunted new england 
-RuneQuest Glorantha - Bronze Age fantasy classic
-Historic settings: Rome, Greece, Babylon, Vikings, Gaslight, Dark Ages
-Scifi using Ringworld version of BRP but more like 2300 and Aliens or cyberpunk
-Roadwar car combat post-apocalypse cyberpunk based on Jack Yeovil GW Dark Future books
-Used with Cthulhu and BRP Superworld for a gritty Zenith-inspired superhuman spy game

Pendragon (simpler d20 version of BRP)
- literary chivalric knights who don't always act as they should or the player would like
-Every session is a game year in a possibly 75-year campaign where you play 3 generations

TSR Marvel Super Heroes
-Everything for it has been free online for decades
-can run as a huge battle royale (ive used Secret Wars 2) with 12 players using heroclix figures
-can run as an ongoing campaign (one lasted 20 years, played since 84, simple d100 game)

Update
Got OSE ref book and land of eem co ing loca post rates